Friend to whom he alluded, some time ago, would have found
himself enabled, from the mystery in which certain matters were



INTRODUCTION. 313

involved, to gratify himself and his auditors by allusions which
found a responding chord in their own feelings, and to deal in the
language, the sincere language, of panegyric, without intruding on
the modesty of the great individual to whom he referred. But it
was no longer possible, consistently with the respect to one's
auditors, to use upon this subject terms either of mystification, or
of obscure or indirect allusion. The clouds have been dispelled —
the darkness visible has been cleared away — and the Great Un-
known — the minstrel of our native land — the mighty magician who
has rolled back the current of time, and conjured up before our
living senses the men and the manners of days which have long
passed away, stands revealed to the hearts and the eyes of his
affectionate and admiring countrymen. If he himself were capable
of imagining all that belonged to this mighty subject — were he even
able to give utterance to all that, as a friend, as a man, and as a
Scotsman, he must feel regarding it ; yet knowing, as he well did,
that this illustrious individual w^s not more distinguished for his
towering talents, than for those feelings which rendered such allu-
sions ungrateful to himself, however sparingly introduced, he
would, on that account, still refrain from doing that which would
otherwise be no less pleasing to him than to his audience. But
this, his Lordship hoped, he would be allowed to say, (his auditors
would not pardon him were he to say less,) we owe to him, as
a people, a large and heavy debt of gratitude. He it is who has
opened to foreigners the grand and characteristic beauties of our
country. It is to him that we owe that our gallant ancestors, and
the struggles of our illustrious patriots, — who fought and bled in
order to obtain and secure that independence and that liberty we
now enjoy, — have obtained a fame no longer confined to the
boundaries of a remote and comparatively obscure nation, and
who has called down upon their struggles for glory and freedom
the admiration of foreign countries. 