When, as is related in the foregoing chapter, I had nourished my
knowledge of the council into maturity, I began to cast about for the
means of exercising the same towards a satisfactory issue. But in this I
found a great difficulty, arising from the policy and conduct of Mr
Andrew M'Lucre, who had a sort of infeftment, as may be said, of the
office of dean of guild, having for many years been allowed to intromit
and manage the same; by which, as was insinuated by his adversaries, no
little grist came to his mill. For it had happened from a very ancient
date, as far back, I have heard, as the time of Queen Anne, when the
union of the kingdoms was brought to a bearing, that the dean of guild
among us, for some reason or another, had the upper hand in the setting
and granting of tacks of the town lands, in the doing of which it was
jealoused that the predecessors of Mr M'Lucre, no to say an ill word of
him, honest man, got their loofs creeshed with something that might be
called agrassum, or rather, a gratis gift. It therefore seemed to me
that there was a necessity for some reformation in the office, and I
foresaw that the same would never be accomplished, unless I could get Mr
M'Lucre wised out of it, and myself appointed his successor. But in this
lay the obstacle; for every thing anent the office was, as it were, in
his custody, and it was well known that he had an interest in keeping by
that which, in vulgar parlance, is called nine points of the law.
However, both for the public good and a convenience to myself, I was
resolved to get a finger in the dean of guild's fat pie, especially as I
foresaw that, in the course of three or four years, some of the best
tacks would run out, and it would be a great thing to the magistrate that
might have the disposal of the new ones. Therefore, without seeming to
have any foresight concerning the lands that were coming on to be out of
lease, I set myself to constrain Mr M'Lucre to give up the guildry, as it
were, of his own free-will; and what helped me well to this, was a rumour
that came down from London, that there was to be a dissolution of the
parliament.
The same day that this news reached the town, I was standing at my shop-
door, between dinner and tea-time. It was a fine sunny summer afternoon.
Standing under the blessed influence of the time by myself at my shop-
door, who should I see passing along the crown of the causey, but Mr
M'Lucre himself and with a countenance knotted with care, little in
unison with the sultry indolence of that sunny day.
"Whar awa sae fast, dean o' guild?" quo' I to him; and he stopped his
wide stepping, for he was a long spare man, and looting in his gait.
"I'm just," said he, "taking a step to the provost's, to learn the
particulars of thir great news--for, as we are to hae the casting vote in
the next election, there's no saying the good it may bring to us all gin
we manage it wi' discretion."
I reflected the while of a minute before I made any reply, and then I
said--
"It would hae nae doubt of the matter, Mr M'Lucre, could it be brought
about to get you chosen for the delegate; but I fear, as ye are only dean
of guild this year, that's no to be accomplished; and really, without the
like of you, our borough, in the contest, may be driven to the wall."
"Contest!" cried the dean of guild, with great eagerness; "wha told you
that we are to be contested?"
Nobody had told me, nor at the moment was I sensible of the force of what
I said; but, seeing the effect it had on Mr M'Lucre, I replied,--
"It does not, perhaps, just now do for me to be more particular, and I
hope what I have said to you will gang no further; but it's a great pity
that ye're no even a bailie this year, far less the provost, otherwise I
would have great confidence."
"Then," said the dean of guild, "you have reason to believe that there is
to be a dissolution, and that we are to be contested?"
"Mr M'Lucre, dinna speer any questions," was my answer, "but look at that
and say nothing;" so I pulled out of my pocket a letter that had been
franked to me by the earl. The letter was from James Portoport, his
lordship's butler, who had been a waiter with Mrs Pawkie's mother, and he
was inclosing to me a five-pound note to be given to an auld aunty that
was in need. But the dean of guild knew nothing of our correspondence,
nor was it required that he should. However, when he saw my lord's
franking, he said, "Are the boroughs, then, really and truly to be
contested?"
"Come into the shop, Mr M'Lucre," said I sedately; "come in, and hear
what I have to say."
And he came in, and I shut and barred the half-door, in order that we
might not be suddenly interrupted.
"You are a man of experience, Mr M'Lucre," said I, "and have a knowledge
of the world, that a young man, like me, would be a fool to pretend to.
But I have shown you enough to convince you that I would not be worthy of
a trust, were I to answer any improper questions. Ye maun, therefore,
gie me some small credit for a little discretion in this matter, while I
put a question to yourself. 'Is there no a possibility of getting you
made the provost at Michaelmas, or, at the very least, a bailie, to the
end that ye might be chosen delegate, it being an unusual thing for
anybody under the degree of a bailie to be chosen thereto?'"
"I have been so long in the guildry," was his thoughtful reply, "that I
fear it canna be very well managed without me."
"Mr M'Lucre," said I, and I took him cordially by the hand, "a thought
has just entered my head. Couldna we manage this matter between us? It's
true I'm but a novice in public affairs, and with the mystery of the
guildry quite unacquaint--if, however, you could be persuaded to allow
yourself to be made a bailie, I would, subject to your directions,
undertake the office of dean of guild, and all this might be so concerted
between us, that nobody would ken the nature of our paction--for, to be
plain with you, it's no to be hoped that such a young counsellor as
myself can reasonably expect to be raised, so soon as next Michaelmas, to
the magistracy, and there is not another in the council that I would like
to see chosen delegate at the election but yourself."
Mr M'Lucre swithered a little at this, fearing to part with the bird he
had in hand; but, in the end, he said, that he thought what was proposed
no out of the way, and that he would have no objection to be a bailie for
the next year, on condition that I would, in the following, let him again
be dean of guild, even though he should be called a Michaelmas mare, for
it did not so well suit him to be a bailie as to be dean of guild, in
which capacity he had been long used.
I guessed in this that he had a vista in view of the tacks and leases
that were belyve to fall in, and I said--
"Nothing can be more reasonable, Mr M'Lucre; for the office of dean of
guild must be a very fashious one, to folks like me, no skilled in its
particularities; and I'm sure I'll be right glad and willing to give it
up, when we hae got our present turn served.--But to keep a' things quiet
between us, let us no appear till after the election overly thick;
indeed, for a season, we maun fight, as it were, under different
colours."
Thus was the seed sown of a great reformation in the burgh, the sprouting
whereof I purpose to describe in due season.