Something- About Aberdeen.

< . umstances . But Aberdeen seems to have obeyed the general law which Schouw , and after him all good geographers , have recognised—that the chief cities of the world have arisen on the banks of the great rivers or on the sea coast . Of its antiquity we have abundant evidence . There are traces of

a Druidical circle at Gilcomston , one of the ancient quarters of the town . Some writers identify the site with that of the Roman fortress Devana ; and a porter brewery of some note close to the river has now , it would appear , inherited that Latin name . But the earliest authentic document which

the antiquaries can discover respecting Aberdeen , is a charter of William the Lion ( A . D . 1170 ) , who conferred on the loyal burgesses by this instrument the right of trading as freely as their ancestors did in the time of his s-ranclfather , King-David I . William , it has been ascertained , built

a palace at the east end of the green ; and had also an exchequer , with a mint for the coinage of money . Alexander II . founded a monastery of black friars here ; and likewise conferred on the inhabitants the right of holding a weekly market . King Robert the Bruce gave it certain ample

possessions for the support of its political dignity ; and King David IL , with the sanction of a Parliament held in Aberdeen , confirmed to the burgesses and community all that they had obtained from his royal predecessors . In process of time the town seems to have been consumed by fire ; then to have suffered from siege and famine :

it was totally destroyed by an English army under Edward III . ; it was the scene of some of Wallace's exploits against the English ; and in the year 1411 the inhabitants turned out ancl routed with great bravery , at Harlaw , a barbarous Celtic pretender named Donald of the Isles . "This

great battle of Harlaw , " Sir Walter Scott tells us , " might be said to determine whether the Gaelic or the Saxon race should predominate in Scotland . " ( See note 1 to chap . xix . of " The Antiquary . " Edition 1848 . ) Aberdeen seems to have suffered great spoliation at the hands of the zealous

reformers in the sixteenth century : for , like all seats of ecclesiastical learning , it had been much indebted to its bishops . In the Covenanting era which followed on the heels of the Reformation , it was tolerably fleeced by both the contending parties . For some time it was in the possession of the rebels when the standard of the Chevalier

" was raised m 1 / 15 . The Duke of Cumberland made it his head quarters for n few weeks , when on his march to the field of Culloden . In short , Aberdeen has suffered in all the vicissitudes which could possibly be incident to a place of strength and importance during the stormy ancl unsettled

periods of Scottish history . The gradual development of the town has been "Satisfactoril y traced by the local topographers . The first dwelling-houses in Aberdeen were probably a few rude huts on the shore , near the spot where Trinity Church , now stands . The ground next

occupied was probably in the neighbourhood of the castle . After the destruction of the town by the English army , in the fourteenth century , a grand improvement and extension took place—in fact , a new town was then built . But with the exception of its few churches and public structures ,

this must have been rude and ' unsubstantial ; for in the year 1545 a stone edifice was considered a mark of great opulence . Even so late as 1741 the houses on the west side of the Broad-gate were constructed of timber . The very best streets , long after thiswere narrowunleveland unpaved

, , , , or , at least , paved with a causeway of round boulders dug from the bed of the neighbouring river ; and the town consisted of houses built so close to each other , and so inconceivably filthy , as to render them obnoxious in the highest degree to disease ancl pestilence .

But towards the close of last century the spirit of improvement had spread northward , and Aberdeen was rebuilt , extended , and adorned , after the fashion in which the Imperial Government of the present era has adorned and remodelled the city of Paris . The Old Town was literally cut to pieces .

A street was opened from Broad-street to the north ; Marischal-street was opened from Castlestreet to the south ; ancl as it constituted the principal thoroughfare to the harbour and quay , it had the honour , above all other streets , of being paved ,

for the first time , with dressed cubes of granite . A loch was then drained , on the north-west , through which George-street was opened , to communicate with a new turnpike to Inverury . Finally , two grand new exits were formed from the middle of the town—to the north by King-street , to the

south-west by Union-street .- To correspond with , these new streets new squares were laid out , new churches were built , new banks , assembly-rooms , a town-hall , and other public buildings ; and then , at the end of twenty-five years or so , came the day of reckoning . The result was that the

corporation of Aberdeen awoke one morning and found themselves bankrupt . We do not find it stated in any of the authorities that we have consulted in what manner they got over their difficulties . They had , it was said , been misled b y the architects ancl engineers ; for example , the estimates

for King-street and Union-street were £ 42 , 000 , the actual cost to the corporation £ 171 , 280 . Undoubtedly they had been to sanguine also with regard to the prospective revenue ; but it is the old story , and we need not dwell upon it further than to adduce the equally old maximthat towns

, , like other communities , must grow up by a slow and gradual process of development , and all attempts to interfere with or unduly stimulate this process , either by municipal or imperial governments , is certain to end in disaster and ruin .

We shall add here that the town council of Aberdeen is composed of nineteen members , including a lord provost and four bailies . The general police is regulated by an act passsd in the