en remarkably
prolific in statesmen of ability. One of its burghs can point to such
memorable names as Wallace of Kelly, and Murray Dunlop; and the county
itself has, in our day, been represented (amongst others of its own
gentry) by that brilliant scholar and historian, the late Colonel Mure
of Caldwell, who was the lineal descendant of the Mures of Rowallan, one
of the very oldest of our Scottish families, and who was an embodiment
of many of the finest qualities which have characterised the members of
that ancient and honourable house. Nor can we forget that the sad event
which made way for the return of a stranger was the sudden death of
Captain Spiers of Elderslie--one who was just beginning to be
appreciated by the general public, as they saw the gradual development
of qualities which were solid rather than brilliant, and in whom were
united manliness and modesty in a degree which is rarely to be seen, and
which now gives more than a touch of pathos to his memory. There was no
want of local talent to supply the vacancy so unexpectedly and painfully
made by the removal of Captain Spiers, but a combination of curious
circumstances, and chiefly the state of transition which at the moment
characterised the politics of the two most likely candidates, left the
field open for a stranger, while the enthusiasm felt in this part of the
island for the new Prime Minister made it almost a matter of course
that the vacant seat should be conferred, on terms unexampled for
magnanimity and ease, upon that statesman who had been singled out for
the post of Home Secretary by Mr. Gladstone, but who, having been thrown
overboard at the general election by the new constituency of
Merthyr-Tydvil, was still destitute of the essential condition to the
retention of the high honour to which he had been nominated by his
political chief. The manner in which the constituencies of Scotland, and
especially those of our northern shires, responded to Mr. Gladstone at
the supreme moment of his political career, is a fact which cannot be
overlooked by any one who shall hereafter trace the lines of his
biography; and the most striking proof of the trust that was reposed in
him at that critical epoch by the people of Scotland will be found in
the facility with which his Home Secretary procured a seat for one of
her counties. Mr. Bruce's return for Renfrewshire was perhaps the finest
of all compliments paid by a generous and intelligent nation to Mr.
Gl