I have had occasion to observe in the course of my experience, that there
is not a greater mollifier of the temper and nature of man than a
constant flowing in of success and prosperity. From the time that I had
been dean of guild, I was sensible of a considerable increase of my
worldly means and substance; and although Bailie M'Lucre played me a
soople trick at the election, by the inordinate sale and roup of his
potatoe-rig, the which tried me, as I do confess, and nettled me with
disappointment; yet things, in other respects, went so well with me that,
about the eighty-eight, I began to put forth my hand again into public
affairs, endowed both with more vigour and activity than it was in the
first period of my magisterial functions. Indeed, it may be here proper
for me to narrate, that my retiring into the background during the last
two or three years, was a thing, as I have said, done on mature
deliberation; partly, in order that the weight of my talents might be
rightly estimated; and partly, that men might, of their own reflections,
come to a proper understanding concerning them. I did not secede from
the council. Could I have done that with propriety, I would assuredly
not have scrupled to make the sacrifice; but I knew well that, if I was
to resign, it would not be easy afterwards to get myself again chosen in.
In a word, I was persuaded that I had, at times, carried things a little
too highly, and that I had the adversary of a rebellious feeling in the
minds and hearts of the corporation against me. However, what I did,
answered the end and purpose I had in view; folk began to wonder and
think with themselves, what for Mr Pawkie had ceased to bestir himself in
public affairs; and the magistrates and council having, on two or three
occasions, done very unsatisfactory things, it was said by one, and
echoed by another, till the whole town was persuaded of the fact, that,
had I lent my shoulder to the wheel, things would not have been as they
were. But the matter which did the most service to me at this time, was
a rank piece of idolatry towards my lord, on the part of Bailie M'Lucre,
who had again got himself most sickerly installed in the guildry. Sundry
tacks came to an end in this year of eighty-eight; and among others, the
Niggerbrae park, which, lying at a commodious distance from the town,
might have been relet with a rise and advantage. But what did the dean
of guild do? He, in some secret and clandestine manner, gave a hint to
my lord's factor to make an offer for the park on a two nineteen years'
lease, at the rent then going--the which was done in my lord's name, his
lordship being then provost. The Niggerbrae was accordingly let to him,
at the same rent which the town received for it in the sixty-nine.
Nothing could be more manifest than that there was some jookerie cookerie
in this affair; but in what manner it was done, or how the dean of
guild's benefit was to ensue, no one could tell, and few were able to
conjecture; for my lord was sorely straitened for money, and had nothing
to spare out of hand. However, towards the end of the year, a light
broke in upon us.
Gabriel M'Lucre, the dean of guild's fifth son, a fine spirited laddie,
somehow got suddenly a cadetcy to go to India; and there were
uncharitably-minded persons, who said, that this was the payment for the
Niggerbrae job to my lord. The outcry, in consequence, both against the
dean of guild, and especially against the magistrates and council for
consenting thereto, was so extraordinary, and I was so openly upbraided
for being so long lukewarm, that I was, in a manner, forced again forward
to take a prominent part; but I took good care to let it be well known,
that, in resuming my public faculties, I was resolved to take my own way,
and to introduce a new method and reformation into all our concerns.
Accordingly, at the Michaelmas following, that is, in the eighty-nine, I
was a second time chosen to the provostry, with an understanding, that I
was to be upheld in the office and dignity for two years; and that sundry
improvements, which I thought the town was susceptible of, both in the
causey of the streets and the reparation of the kirk, should be set about
under my direction; but the way in which I handled the same, and brought
them to a satisfactory completeness and perfection, will supply abundant
matter for two chapters.