The lord provost, I am told,
has been particularly efficient in all benevolent operations, especially
those for the education of the poorer classes. He is also a zealous
supporter of the temperance cause.

Among the speakers, I was especially interested in Dr. Guthrie, who
seems to be also a particular favorite of the public. He is a tall, thin
man, with a kind of quaintness in his mode of expressing himself, which
sometimes gives an air of drollery to his speaking. He is a minister of
the Free Church, and has more particularly distinguished himself by his
exertions in behalf of the poorer classes.

One passage in his speech I will quote, for I was quite amused with it.
It was in allusion to the retorts which had been made in Mrs. Tyler's
letter to the ladies of England, on the defects in the old country.

"I do not deny," he said, "that there are defects in our country. What I
say of them is this--that they are incidental very much to an old
country like our own. Dr. Simpson knows very well, and so does every
medical man, that when a man gets old he gets very infirm, his blood
vessels get ossified, and so on; but I shall not enter into that part of
the subject. What is true of an old country is true of old men, and old
women, too. I am very much disposed to say of this young nation of
America, that their teasing us with our defects might just get the
answer which a worthy member of the church of Scotland gave to his son,
who was so dissatisfied with the defects in the church, that he was
determined to go over to a younger communion. 'Ah, Sandy, Sandy, man,
when your lum reeks as lang as ours, it will, may be, need sweeping
too.'[J] Now, I do not deny that we need sweeping; every body knows
that I have been singing out about sweeping for the last five years. Let
me tell my good friends in Edinburgh, and in the country, that the
sooner you sweep the better; for the chimney may catch fire, and reduce
your noble fabric to ashes.

"They told us in that letter about the poor needlewomen, that had to
work sixteen hours a day. ''Tis true, and pity 'tis 'tis true.' But does
the law compel them to work sixteen hours a day? I would like to ask the
writer of the letter. Are they bound down to their garrets and cellars
for sixteen hours a day? May they not go where they like, and ask better
wages and better work? Can the slave do that? Do they tell us of our
ragged children? I know something about ragged children. But are our