Search just our sites by using our customised site search engine



Click here to get a Printer Friendly PageSmiley

Click here to learn more about MyHeritage and get free genealogy resources

The Scot in British North America
Chapter VII - General Summary


Still on thy banks so gally green,
May numerous herds and flocks be seen,
And lasses chanting o’er the pail,
And shepherds piping in the dale;
An ancient faith that knows no guile,
As industry embrowned with toil,
And hearts resolved, and hands prepared,
The blessings they enjoy to guard.
-- SMOLLETT.

Hale hearts we hae yet to bleed in its cause;
Bold hearts we hae yet to sound its applause;
How then can it fade, when sic chiels an’ sic cheer,
And sae mony brave spouts of the thistle are here.
Hurrah for the thistle, &c.
-- ALEXANDER MACLAGAN.

Cold though our seasons, and dull though our skies,
There’s a might in our arms and a fire in our eyes;
Dauntless and patient to dare and to do –
Our watchword is "Duty," our maxim is "Through;"
Winter and storm only nerve us the more,
And chill not the heart if they creep through the door;
Strong shall we be,
In our isle of the sea,
The home of the brave and the boast of the free!
Firm as the rocks when the storm flashes forth,
We’ll stand in our courage – the Men of the North!

Sunbeams that ripen the olive and vine,
In the face of the slave and the coward may shine;
Roses may blossom where Freedom decays,
And crime be a growth of the sun’s highest rays.
Scant though the harvest we reap from the soil,
Yet Virtue and Health are the children of Toil,
Proud let us be,
Of our isle of the sea,
The home of the brave and the boast of the free!
Men with true hearts – let our fame echo forth –
Oh, these are the fruit that we grown in the North!
-- CHARLES MACKAY.

In the foregoing chapters an attempt has been made to glance as briefly as the nature and extent of the subject admitted, at those peculiar features, physical as well as historical, which have concurred in moulding the Scottish character. Without some acquaintance with the antecedents of a people, their surroundings and the discipline they have undergone through the ages, it is not only difficult to understand the national bent and idiosyncrasies, but also to calculate the aptitude for colonization they are likely to display when transferred to "fresh scenes and pastures new."

This consideration applies with peculiar force in the case of the Scot; because, in the absence of information touching its past history, people are sure to misunderstand the Scottish nature, and assign to any but its true causes the wonderful successes Scotsmen have achieved wherever they have set foot. National pride is no doubt blind; but national jealousy is not less so; and so it has happened that when men are asked how Scotsmen have come to get on so well in the world, commanding respect and confidence, and securing social positions of trust, power and wealth, the peevish answer is given that they owe it to their craft, their parsimony, their "clannishness," their irrepressible assurance, their narrow pride or what not. People are asked to believe that, in a free country, where all men start on an equal footing, the Scot has thrown some spell upon the rest of the community and elbowed everybody else out of his path by some glamour or witchery hanging about him. That the virtues which have given this little nationality so prominent a place in the social and industrial world, have at times degenerated into something akin to fault and failing, no one can deny. All the noble qualities which have elevated society may be perverted readily from their normal purpose. Thrift may sink into niggardliness; patriotism may become narrow, prejudiced and exclusive; astuteness may grow rank and blossom into cunning; self-respect and self-reliance may beget selfishness and malevolence; and the religious temper itself lose its celestial charity and humi1ity in bigotry and intolerance. But that does not make the good qualities less salutary in their influence on the individual, the nation or the race; and it is quite certain that neither the Scots, nor any other people ever rose to any exalted position among the nations, by a perversion of the virtues but solely by the virtues themselves.

Let it be once understood that the sterling characteristics of the Scottish people have come down to them as an inheritance—the outcome of hardship, penury, conflict, toil and suffering during many centuries—and there is at once a rational explanation of their success at home and abroad. These characteristics, in fact, are so much mental and moral capital stored up in the race by the accumulated efforts of their forbears in times gone by. In the chapters preceding, it was seen that the country itself is for the most part, barren, demanding unflinching industry from man and making but scanty returns. Toil has always been in Scotland the inexorable condition of existence. Hence the development of laborious habits, frugality, thrift, and a hardy, self-reliant nature. The invasions from Ireland, from the Norse Kingdoms, from the South under Saxon and Norman made the possession of wealth and life itself, precarious. The ambition of the Plantagenet Kings of England compelled the Scots to enter upon a bitter and stubborn conflict for their national independence under Wallace and Bruce. They triumphed, gloriously, and emerged from the fiery trial with that pride of nationality and a stern and haughty independence which are begotten of a victory achieved by a people’s own strong arm. The Nemo me impune lacessit, and its terse Scottish rendering "Wha daur meddle wi’ me," are mottoes which speak at once for the Thistle and the gallant race whose chosen emblem it is. The religious troubles, which began at the dawn of the Reformation, the ruthless persecutions which culminated in the brutalities of Lauderdale, Sharp and Claverhouse gave new vigour to the Scottish people and made them a nation in fact, as they had hitherto been in form. The commonalty then sprang at once into vigorous being. The doctrinal and other points of controversy which split the Kirk up into sects, quickened the national intellect, whilst the pain and anguish of the times chastened the hearts and purified the morals of the people. They were made, if not "perfect through suffering," at least elevated, self-respecting, thoughtful and, above all, deeply saturated with an over-mastering sense of responsibility to God for the honest discharge of duty. The moral backbone of the Scottish character was developed and consolidated during the time which elapsed from the return of Mary Stuart to the Revolution. It was then that the foundation of that admirable system of general education was laid, which, in the future, was to distinguish the Scot as a man of reading and practical information. England owes much to the Scottish people; but the discipline of sorrow did not elevate the people of the south, nor could the reflective turn of mind, which has brought forth so much fruit in Scotland, be impregnated into the English common people where the religion, education and adversity which upraised the peasantry of Scotland, exerted little or no influence. Whatever may be thought of the dogmatic value of the Presbyterian standards, it is certain that they deepened the sense of duty, the feeling of manly independence and the impatience of external restraint in matters of faith and practice. The burning bush, which the Kirk adopted as its emblem, was only the thistle transfigured and sanctified, under a feeling of dependence upon the Divine assistance for guidance and protection. Nec tamen consumebatur—"yet the bush was not consumed" (Exod. iii. 2)—adopted as its motto, illustrated at once the security of the faith and the necessity for God’s hand interposed on its behalf. It epitomized, in fact, the solemn conviction of the Psalmist, in the verses so often sung in Scottish worship, at diverse times and vicissitudes of national fortune: —

"Except the Lord do build the house,
The builders lose their pain;
Except the Lord the city keep,
The watchmen watch in vain."

But the influence of the religious upheaval, and the dark days consequent upon it, did not stop there. It not only quickened faith and spirituality, but stimulated and trained the intellect, and aroused in Scotland the philosophic, scientific and inventive spirit for which it is so distinguished. Paradoxical as it may at first sight appear, David Hume was the offspring of the Reformation. The inquiring frame of mind, which, at first, found legitimate scope in theological inquiry, gradually invaded the territory of mental science, and busied itself about the fundamental axioms of ethics and economics. Hume, Hutcheson, Brown, Reid, Stewart, Hamilton, Mill, Bain and others worthy of note, have worked at the ultimate problems of life and the universe, and Adam Smith laid the foundation of economical science. He was at once an economist in his Wealth of Nations, and an intuitional moralist in his Theory of the Moral Sentiments. The Mills, father and son, were both Scottish, the one by birth, the other by inherited cast of mind and early training. The greatest original thinker, and the man who, whether people recognise it or not, has influenced this age more strongly than any other except, perhaps, Coleridge, is a Scot, Thomas Carlyle, the veteran sage, first of Craigenputtoch, and thence-forward of Chelsea. The same thoughtful caste of mind is manifest in the region of pure science. It was Black and Leslie who developed the philosophy of heat and paved the way for James Watt and the steam-engine. Hutton was the first systematic geologist, and his name is coupled with the German Werner’s in the rival Plutonian and Neptunian theories of the earth’s formation. In surgery and anatomy Hunter has never been surpassed, and in pathology and the science of medicine, there are few names to compare with those of Cullen, Brodie, Christison, Simpson, Carpenter, and innumerable others who might be named.

Mr. Buckle wonders how so much that is valuable could have been achieved in a country where the theological spirit was in the ascendant. The obvious response is that it was the theological spirit which stimulated the intellect, and made free inquiry in philosophy and science possible in Scotland. And the most conclusive evidence of that is the insatiable thirst for scientific research which has seized men in lowly station. As it was the theological spirit alone which gave the people political being and the means of culture; so also did it create that keen love of investigation into the works of nature, because they are the works of God. Nothing is more remarkable than the conscientious energy with which Scotsmen, engaged in hard toil to procure their daily bread, have surmounted all obstacles, not to gain wealth or renown, but to satisfy a burning desire for knowledge. Three names occur at the moment of men living in different parts of Scotland—a shoemaker, a weaver and a gardener—all poor and in lowly station. Mr. Smiles has done good service in recording the career of Thomas Edward, "the Scottish naturalist," whose love for the study of zoology began with his school-days, and continues until now. A humble shoemaker of Banffshire, he has added materially to the sum of scientific knowledge, under circumstances, and by self-imposed labours, vigils and dangers almost beyond belief.* In the April and May (1878), issues of Good Words, Mr. Jolly, H. M., Inspector of Schools, sketches the career of John Duncan of Kincardine, "the Alford Weaver and Botanist," and introduces also Charles Black, a gardener, who possesses (for he is still living), "high natural endowments, sterling worth, and great individuality of character." His home is on the shores of the Solway, within sight of the English coast and far from where his scientific friend, the weaver, plodded on, away to the north-east. Black, Mr. Jolly says, is an excellent botanist, a good geologist, with a splendid collection of fossils, a capital ornithologist, knowing all the birds "by plumage, flight, cry and egg, and having an almost perfect collection of British eggs; and a fair numismatist, with a remarkable collection of coins, home and foreign, ancient and modern, for a working man. He is an insatiable reader, especially in natural science and theology; in short, an ardent lover and student of beasts and birds and insects and plants, and not less of mankind."

In the higher walks of life the spirit of philosophical and scientific enquiry, whatever the upshot of it, may invariably be traced in its inception to the strong energy infused into the Scottish mind by the national religion. The forces let loose, during the struggles of the Reformation and the Covenant may be diverted from the old channel; but there can be no mistake about the laboratory in which they were first generated. Whatever men may think of the faith, the works are before them, and those of us who are not in sympathy with the rigid formulas of the one, ought not to refuse admiration for the unspeakable value of the other. In Scotland they have, at all events, until recently, been inseparable; because intellectual revolt from the creed does not emancipate from the vigorous impetus due to that creed. Hume, in his Essays, and Burns in Holy Willie’s Prayer or the Holy Fair, were just as clearly the offspring of the free spirit engendered by the religious struggles in Scotland, as Rutherford, Cameron, the two Erskines, Thomas Chalmers or Edward Irving. It is likely enough that Knox and Melville would have shrugged their shoulders and left the consequences to God, and that "Douce Davie Deans," and "Old Mortality" would have renewed their lament of "a broken Covenant," had they foreseen even so much of the issue as we are able to pass in retrospect; yet though they little expected it, it is now evident enough, that freedom of thought and educated intelligence cannot be bounded by any human device; they must have free course, eventually with the best results. Bishop Burnet, in describing a visit to his native land in 1670, says, "We were indeed amazed to see a poor commonalty so capable to argue on points of government, and on the bounds to be set to the power of princes in matters of religion. Upon all these topics they had texts of Scripture at hand, and were ready with their answers to anything that was said to them. This measure of knowledge was spread even amongst the meanest of them, their cottagers and their servants."** The spirit of enquiry and discussion thus evoked, could not fail to make itself felt in all departments of human thought, so soon as the absorbing questions of the day were apparently set at rest by the Revolution settlement. Logic is a dangerous, two-edged weapon; when once it has been taken up, will never cease to be employed upon something—Theology, Philosophy or some other debatable theme; and the intellectual activity it has aroused, is sure, in the long run, to find a sphere of action in science, invention, exploration, or whatever other beneficent outlet may be open to it.

One of the most remarkable features in the biography of distinguished Scots is the large number of them who rose from the humblest positions in life, to honour and distinction. In most countries the middle class, and especially the learned professions, supply the men from whom the ranks of the illustrious thinkers and workers are recruited; but in Scotland, if not themselves peasants, weavers or mechanics, their fathers have been something of the sort, before them; and they, themselves, brought up in lowly life, have struggled to prosperity and fame out of an atmosphere of poverty. That many noted Scots have descended from great families is, of course, true; but taking the eminent men produced North of the Tweed, there can be no question that a large majority sprang from the ranks of the common people. The absence of large urban populations in early times, the comparatively narrow range of commerce, and the general poverty of the country, no doubt stimulated the poorer classes to enterprising efforts. There was no superincumbent middle class, pressing, with its solid, inert weight, upon them; they were free to rise as high as their energy and ability could elevate them, and thus we find them continually aspiring to eminence in the Church, at the Bar, in medicine, science, arts, and literature. It speaks volumes for the native genius of the Scottish people, that they were able to aim high, make good their footing, step by step, and in the end fulfil measurably their lofty aspirations. It must not be forgotten that the men who made the masses what they were – the Reformers and the Covenanters – whilst they spurred the national intellect, and with it the strong feeling of independence and self-reliance, also, with wondrous prescience, provided for their education. No matter how poor a Scot may have been at the outset, he had at least so much valuable capital to begin life withal, as a sound plain education could bestow upon him; and it is this obvious advantage over his neighbours that has given the stimulus to so many ardent spirits, and lifted them from poverty to fame. In the army, for instance, during the old time, when, in addition to the purchase system, promotion for valour and good conduct was so slow in the British service, the Scot always had the best chance; because he was decently educated, and had a strong sense of honour and duty. Major-General William McBean, who died the other day, full Colonel of the 93rd, in which he entered as a drummer-boy, is only one of the instances of Scottish energy and steady perseverance onward and upward. The schoolmaster was abroad in Scotland before the recruit entered barracks, and the Scot was equipped with the elementary instruction gained at the parish school; the Englishman and Irishman, in nine cases out of ten, were not. The great value of the parochial school-system of Scotland, now that it has been superseded, may be depreciated, perhaps forgotten; its mark will remain, however, upon the people of Scotland, and through them, upon the world, to the latest generations.

The army has been spoken of; and it seems well here to note a few names renowned in story, although the list must, necessarily be imperfect. Considering the relative populations of Scotland and England—the one with its two or three millions, the other, with from twenty to twenty-two—the amount of military genius and personal bravery the United Kingdom owes to the North is amazing.*** There is scarcely a war England has been engaged in during the last and present centuries in which Scottish military skill and soldierly valour have not done more than their share. The names of Sir Ralph Abercromby, General George Elliott, Sir John Moore, Lord Clyde and a legion of others are well known; but, of all the distinguished names perhaps, on the whole, that of Napier shines brightest in the scroll of fame. So distinguished a family has, perhaps, never added equal lustre upon its country. Those more immediately known to us were intensely Scottish, albeit on the maternal side they sprang from that Lady Sarah Lennox, of whom George III was enamoured in his youth. The hero of Scinde, the historian of the Peninsular War, and the gallant, bluff old Charlie, the Admiral, were all of that stock. The latest offshoot is Lord Napier and Ettrick descended of the elder branch, who has won his honours as a diplomatist. Not to abandon the name, whilst it is uppermost, mention may be made here first of John Napier, laird of Merchiston, the inventor of Logarithms, to whom, in Hume’s opinion, "the title of a great man was more justly due than to any other whom his country ever produced." A descendant of his house has filled high office in England and in Ireland, where he was born, and was created a baronet by Mr. Disraeli in 1867—Sir Joseph Napier. Robert Napier, though certainly descended from Adam, can boast no noble genealogy; his father was a blacksmith and the son has made "a new departure" for the illustrious name, for he was the head of the great Clyde firm of ship-builders. He was concerned in the early attempt at trans-atlantic steam navigation on the British Queen and the Sirius. The steam ironclads constructed of late, beginning with the Black Prince, are his latest work.

As our notice of the Napiers has brought us to the sea, the other branch of the service may be noticed. Neither Scotland nor Ireland has contributed so large a proportion of eminent men to the navy as to the army. They have no Drakes, Hawkinses, Frobishers or Raleighs on the roll of their ancestry and the sea-fighting instinct was not a salient feature with them. Nevertheless Sir Charles Douglas, a linguist also, and mechanic, the victor over the French in the West Indies; Lord Keith, the hero of Aboukir Bay, and Viscount Duncan, of Camperdown, are names not unworthy to be placed by that of Nelson. Paul Jones, the Captain Semmes of the American Revolution, was also a Scot. In peaceful exploration to the frozen north there are the two Rosses, Sir Alexander Mackenzie and a large number of others. The number of Scottish travellers generally is extremely large. Africa has been especially their chosen ground. James Bruce, Mungo Park, Hugh Clapperton, Alexander Gordon Lang, David Livingstone and Commander Cameron are the best known; and of the missionaries, pure and simple, Alexander Duff, Robert Moffat and Charles Fraser Mackenzie. In the last century two travellers deserve pre-eminence as pioneers—James Baillie Fraser, who traversed Persia and the Himalayas, and John Bell, who crossed over from the Baltic, through European Russia and Siberia, to China and explored the Caucasus. In India, the Scotsman has played almost as prominent a part as in Africa. It is only necessary to mention Sir David Baird, during Hyder Ali’s time, Elphinstone, Malcolm, Munro, Dalhousie, Minto, and Elgin.

Passing to locomotion and the inventive arts, it may be noted that to James Watt, the world owes the practical application of steam as a motor; to Henry Bell, Britain is indebted for steam navigation; to John Loudon Macadam, for the roads which pass by his name, and to William Murdoch the use of coal gas as an illuminator.+

In natural philosophy, which along with mathematics is a condition precedent of inventive skill, Scotland has been peculiarly rich. Of the many names which will occur to the reader, those of Black, Bryce, Craig, Keith, Leslie, Maclannin, Playfair, Robison, Sinclair, and Simson, will suggest themselves. In other branches of science the names of eminent Scots have grown so numerous during the recent revival, that it is hardly possible to attempt an enumeration. Of the elders, Hutton, Pringle, Smellie, the naturalist; Alexander Wilson, the ornithologist; MacGillivray, also a student of birds; and others have vindicated the claim of Scotland to a place in the Pantheon of science. Some of the great names in medicine have already been mentioned, but they are inexhaustible. Most of them have not merely been practitioners, but discoverers also. There are the Bells, the Hunters, the Gregorys, William Cullen, George Fordyce, Alexander Monro, Erasmus Wilson, Sir John Forbes, Brodie, Christison, Simpson and many others. In the department of Technology, the name of Dr. George Wilson ought not to be passed over as an instance of Scottish tenacity in the pursuit of learning, and the faithful discharge of duty under terrible bodily suffering.++

It was intended to pursue the Scot in the departments of Literature and Art, but want of space compels us to pass them over with a cursory reference. The lives of Robert Burns, Walter Scott, and a host of other great names hardly need additional eulogy. +++ To theirs might be appended a long roll of illustrious singers—Skinner, Cowper, Macneill, Nicoll, Hogg, Tannahill, Cunningham, Rodger, John Wilson, William Thom, Motherwell, Robert Gilfillan, Imlah, Smibert, Lyle, Aytoun, Riddell, Ainslie, Ballantyne, Mackay, Blackie, Latto, McColl, McLachlan and Macdonald. Without attempting a detailed account of these poets, it may be well to note that, in addition to the wealth of song devoted to the North, England and Ireland are indebted to two Scottish bards for their noblest lyrics. James Thomson wrote "Rule Britannia," and Thomas Campbell was the author of "The Exile of Erin," "The Battle of the Baltic," and "Ye Mariners of England."

Into the department of belles lettres generally there is no room to enter, although the temptation is strong to do so. In Art also there is a long roll of worthies. Robert Strange, for example, who came from the Orkneys, was the father of line engraving in Britain, and George Jameson was the Vandyke of the island—"the first eminent painter," says Robert Chambers, "produced to Britain" (born 1585). *+ Of the artists in a higher walk may be taken at random, Robert Aikman, Sir H. Raeburn, Patrick Gibson, Allan Ramsay, the poet’s eldest son, David Wilkie, the Faeds, and the lately deceased President of the Royal Academy, Sir Patrick Grant. Robert Adam, sepultured in Westminister Abbey, was the great Scottish architect, and his works dot the island from his native Edinburgh to the English channel. In the department of engineering, it is only necessary to name John Rennie, of East Lothian, and Thomas Telford, of Eskdale, who was the son of a simple herdsman whose wife was left a widow when the illustrious engineer of the future was but a month old.*++ In other walks of mental activity, Mr. George Heriot, the merchant goldsmith and banker, embalmed in the Fortunes of Nigel;*+++ John Law, of Lauriston, to whom but scant justice has been done; William Paterson, who failed in the Darien scheme, and yet gave the Bank of England an existence, and so produced in embryo our wondrous system of national finance;+* Sir James’ Stewart, the father of political economy; and Adam Smith, of Kirkaldy, the illustrious author of The Wealth of Nations and The Moral Sentiments.+** The name of William Forbes of Pitsligo, the Edinburgh banker, the associate of Johnson, Burke, Reynolds and Goldsmith, is also noteworthy. In later times are the well known economists, John Stuart Mill, McCulloch and Ramsay. In the list of Scottish lawyers and statesmen we have the historic names of Robert Baillie, of Jerviswoode; Andrew Fletcher, of Saltoun; Duncan Forbes of Culloden; Alexander Henderson, and Maitland, of Lethington. After the union, Scotsmen of distinction abound in England. Of the Lord Chancellors were Wedderburn, Lords Lougborough, Brougham, Erskine and Campbell. William Murray, Lord Mansfield, stands almost without a rival at the head of the Common Law bench. At this moment, the Lord Chief Justiceship is filled by Sir Alexander Cockburn, and the Archiepiscopal See of Canterbury by another Scot, Dr. Archibald Tait. Finally, must not be omitted the honoured name of William Ewart Gladstone, the former and prospective premier of England, the scholar, the orator and statesman of whom Scotland has just reason to be proud.+***

There is little room left to name a few of the prominent clergymen not already noted. Of the old period, there were the Roman Catholic prelates, Kennedy of the 15th century, Elphinstone, of Aberdeen, Reed, of Orkney. **+ As scholars also of the Roman communion, were Leslie, Bishop of Ross, Mary Stuart’s champion, John Mair or Major; Dr. Alex. Geddes, and Father Innes. Of the Scottish Episcopal Church may be mentioned Archbishop Adamson, of St. Andrew’s; Patrick Forbes of Aberdeen; Robert Keith of Fife; the sainted Archbishop Leighton, of Glasgow; the historian Archbishop Spottiswoode, and in our time the large-minded Alexander Ewing, Bishop of Argyle and the Isles. His name reminds of a Presbyterian School analogous to that founded by Coleridge and Arnold in England, to which belong such men as John Macleod Campbell, Erskine of Linlather, Norman Macleod and Principal Tulloch. In the various sections of the Presbyterian Church, there are two names, for ever memorable, those of Edward Irving and Thomas Chalmers; one of whom left a moral, the other an example—both masters, each in his own way, of pulpit eloquence, exemplary piety and earnest living.

Having thus indicated the historical elements of the Scottish character, and sketched, in a cursory and imperfect manner its practical results at home, we may proceed to sketch his influence abroad.

* The Life of a Scottish Naturalist: Thomas Edward, Associate of the Linnaean Society. By Samuel Smiles. New York: 1877. See also The Life of Robert Dick, of Thurso, Baker and Geologist, by same author.

** History of his Own Times, Vol. i., page 293.

*** At the beginning of the century the population of the kingdom stood thus: England and Wales, 9,156,171; Scotland, 1,678,452; Ireland, 5,319,807. In 1841 the proportion had changed much to the disadvantage of Scotland, the census enumerating for England, 16,035,198; for Scotland, 2,652,339; for Ireland, 8,222,604. At the last census (1871) the account stood: England 22,704,108; Scotland, 3,358,613; Ireland, 5,402,759. During the several decades of the century Scotland lost ground as regards England especially, until the census of 1857. Roughly the population relatively to the entire United Kingdom, the Islands included, was in 1801 nearly one-ninth; in 1831, less than a tenth; and thence-forward between a ninth and a tenth.

+ He was also the inventor of a locomotive which was improved by others, and perfected by Geo. Stephenson.

++ Dr. Wilson was a brother of our esteemed Toronto professor, Dr. Daniel Wilson, who wrote, we believe, a memoir of him. See also the biography by his sister Jessie, and an admirable and touching tribute in Dr. Brown’s Horae Subsecivae.

+++ See Lockhart’s Scott, and the admirable little volume by Mr. R. H. Hutton, in Morley’s series. For Burns, Carlyle’s inimitable monogram of Critical and Miscellaneous Essays, English Library Edit., Vol ii., p. 5, and Principal Shairp’s essay – one of the series already referred to. For poetic tributes consult the Burns Centenary Poems.

*+ See Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen.

*++ See for both of these, The Lives of the Engineers, by Samuel Smiles, himself a Scot of Haddington. Nothing could show more clearly the strong and earnest volume of Scottish home affection than Telford’s intense love for his widowed parent. "She has been a good mother to me," he quietly wrote with meaning that lies in the words, "and I will try and be a good son to her," and he kept his word with a dutiful fidelity which is exquisitely touching.

*+++ See for a full account of the founder of Heriot’s Hospital, Chambers’ Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen. Vol. iii. p. 44.

+* For Law, see Chambers, Vol. iii. p. 360; and for Paterson, ibid., vol. iv. p. 85.

+** The reader is referred to Sir James Mackintosh’s Dissertation, sec. vi. and to Buckle’s History of Civilization, from which we quote a sentence – "The Wealth of Nations is probably the most important book that has ever been written, whether we consider the amount of original thought it contains, or its practical influence." (Vol. iii p. 311.)

+*** See the right hon. Gentleman’s own account of his origin, in answer, to an address from the Edinburgh corporation; also, two letters in the London Spectator of Dec. 13th and 20th, 1879.

**+ See Lecky’s History, vol. ii. p. 147.


Previous Page | Return to Index Page | Next Page

This comment system requires you to be logged in through either a Disqus account or an account you already have with Google, Twitter, Facebook or Yahoo. In the event you don't have an account with any of these companies then you can create an account with Disqus. All comments are moderated so they won't display until the moderator has approved your comment.