been trying every grip and
wile o' the law to punish me as they threatened; but the laws of England
are a great protection to the people against arbitrary power; and the
letter that I have got to-day frae the nabob, tells me that the
commissioners hae abandoned the plea."

Such was the account and narration that the bailie gave to me of the
particulars o' his journey to London; and when he was done, I could not
but make a moral reflection or two, on the policy of gentlemen putting
themselves on the leet to be members of Parliament; it being a clear and
plain thing, that as they are sent up to London for the benefit of the
people by whom they are chosen, the people should always take care to get
some of that benefit in hand paid down, otherwise they run a great risk
of seeing their representatives neglecting their special interests, and
treating them as entitled to no particular consideration.

CHAPTER VIII--ON THE CHOOSING OF A MINISTER

The next great handling that we had in the council after the general
election, was anent the choice of a minister for the parish. The Rev. Dr
Swapkirk having had an apoplexy, the magistrates were obligated to get Mr
Pittle to be his helper. Whether it was that, by our being used to Mr
Pittle, we had ceased to have a right respect for his parts and talents,
or that in reality he was but a weak brother, I cannot in conscience take
it on me to say; but the certainty is, that when the Doctor departed this
life, there was hardly one of the hearers who thought Mr Pittle would
ever be their placed minister, and it was as far at first from the
unanimous mind of the magistrates, who are the patrons of the parish, as
any thing could well be, for he was a man of no smeddum in discourse. In
verity, as Mrs Pawkie, my wife, said, his sermons in the warm summer
afternoons were just a perfect hushabaa, that no mortal could hearken to
without sleeping. Moreover, he had a sorning way with him, that the
genteeler sort could na abide, for he was for ever going from house to
house about tea-time, to save his ain canister. As for the young ladies,
they could na endure him at all, for he had aye the sough and sound of
love in his mouth, and a round-about ceremonial of joking concerning the
same, that was just a fasherie to them to hear. The commonality,
however, were his greatest adversaries; for he was, notwithstanding the
spareness of his abilities, a prideful creature, taking no interest in