I have already related, at full length, many of the particulars anent the
electing of the first set of volunteers; the which, by being germinated
partly under the old system of public intromission, was done with more
management and slight of art than the second. This, however, I will ever
maintain, was not owing to any greater spirit of corruption; but only and
solely to following the ancient dexterous ways, that had been, in a
manner, engrained with the very nature of every thing pertaining to the
representation of government as it existed, not merely in burgh towns,
but wheresoever the crown and ministers found it expedient to have their
lion's paw.
Matters were brought to a bearing differently, when, in the second
edition of the late war, it was thought necessary to call on the people
to resist the rampageous ambition of Bonaparte, then champing and
trampling for the rich pastures of our national commonwealth.
Accordingly, I kept myself aloof from all handling in the pecuniaries of
the business; but I lent a friendly countenance to every feasible project
that was likely to strengthen the confidence of the king in the loyalty
and bravery of his people. For by this time I had learnt, that there was
a wake-rife common sense abroad among the opinions of men; and that the
secret of the new way of ruling the world was to follow, not to control,
the evident dictates of the popular voice; and I soon had reason to
felicitate myself on this prudent and seasonable discovery. For it won
me great reverence among the forward young men, who started up at the
call of their country; and their demeanour towards me was as tokens and
arles, from the rising generation, of being continued in respect and
authority by them. Some of my colleagues, who are as well not named, by
making themselves over busy, got but small thank for their pains. I was
even preferred to the provost, as the medium of communicating the
sentiments of the volunteering lads to the lord-lieutenant; and their
cause did not suffer in my hands, for his lordship had long been in the
habit of considering me as one of the discreetest men in the burgh; and
although he returned very civil answers to all letters, he wrote to me in
the cordial erudition of an old friend--a thing which the volunteers soon
discerned, and respected me accordingly.
But the soldiering zeal being spontaneous among all ranks, and breaking
forth into ablaze without any pre-ordered method, some of the magistrates
were disconcerted, and wist not what to do. I'll no take it upon me to
say that they were altogether guided by a desire to have a finger in the
pie, either in the shape of the honours of command or the profits of
contract. This, however, is certain, that they either felt or feigned a
great alarm and consternation at seeing such a vast military power in
civil hands, over which they had no natural control; and, as was said,
independent of the crown and parliament. Another thing there could be no
doubt of: in the frame of this fear they remonstrated with the
government, and counselled the ministers to throw a wet blanket on the
ardour of the volunteering, which, it is well known, was very readily
done; for the ministers, on seeing such a pressing forward to join the
banners of the kingdom, had a dread and regard to the old leaven of
Jacobinism, and put a limitation on the number of the armed men that were
to be allowed to rise in every place--a most ill-advised prudence, as was
made manifest by what happened among us, of which I will now rehearse the
particulars, and the part I had in it myself.
As soon as it was understood among the commonality that the French were
determined to subdue and make a conquest of Britain, as they had done of
all the rest of Europe, holding the noses of every continental king and
potentate to the grindstone, there was a prodigious stir and motion in
all the hearts and pulses of Scotland, and no where in a more vehement
degree than in Gudetown. But, for some reason or an other which I could
never dive into the bottom of, there was a slackness or backwardness on
the part of government in sending instructions to the magistrates to step
forward; in so much that the people grew terrified that they would be
conquered, without having even an opportunity to defend, as their fathers
did of old, the hallowed things of their native land; and, under the
sense of this alarm, they knotted themselves together, and actually drew
out proposals and resolutions of service of their own accord; by which
means they kept the power of choosing their officers in their own hands,
and so gave many of the big-wigs of the town a tacit intimation that they
were not likely to have the command.
While things were in this process, the government had come to its senses;
and some steps and measures were taken to organize volunteer corps
throughout the nation. Taking heart from them, other corps were proposed
on the part of the gentry, in which they were themselves to have the
command; and seeing that the numbers were to be limited, they had a wish
and interest to keep back the real volunteer offers, and to get their own
accepted in their stead. A suspicion of this sort getting vent, an
outcry of discontent thereat arose against them; and to the consternation
of the magistrates, the young lads, who had at the first come so briskly
forward, called a meeting of their body, and, requesting the magistrates
to be present, demanded to know what steps had been taken with their
offer of service; and, if transmitted to government, what answer had been
received.
This was a new era in public affairs; and no little amazement and anger
was expressed by some of the town-council, that any set of persons should
dare to question and interfere with the magistrates. But I saw it would
never do to take the bull by the horns in that manner at such a time; so
I commenced with Bailie Sprose, my lord being at the time provost, and
earnestly beseeched him to attend the meeting with me, and to give a mild
answer to any questions that might be put; and this was the more
necessary, as there was some good reason to believe, that, in point of
fact, the offer of service had been kept back.
We accordingly went to the meeting, where Mr Sprose, at my suggestion,
stated, that we had received no answer; and that we could not explain how
the delay had arisen. This, however, did not pacify the volunteers; but
they appointed certain of their own number, a committee, to attend to the
business, and to communicate with the secretary of state direct;
intimating, that the members of the committee were those whom they
intended to elect for their officers. This was a decisive step, and took
the business entirely out of the hands of the magistrates; so, after the
meeting, both Mr Sprose and myself agreed, that no time should be lost in
communicating to the lord-lieutenant what had taken place.
Our letter, and the volunteers' letter, went by the same post; and on
receiving ours, the lord-lieutenant had immediately some conference with
the secretary of state, who, falling into the views of his lordship, in
preferring the offers of the corps proposed by the gentry, sent the
volunteers word in reply, that their services, on the terms they had
proposed, which were of the least possible expense to government, could
not be accepted.
It was hoped that this answer would have ended the matter; but there were
certain propugnacious spirits in the volunteers' committee; and they
urged and persuaded the others to come into resolutions, to the effect
that, having made early offers of service, on terms less objectionable in
every point than those of many offers subsequently made and accepted,
unless their offer was accepted, they would consider themselves as having
the authority of his majesty's government to believe and to represent,
that there was, in truth, no reason to apprehend that the enemy meditated
any invasion and these resolutions they sent off to London forthwith,
before the magistrates had time to hear or to remonstrate against the use
of such novel language from our burgh to his majesty's ministers.
We, however, heard something; and I wrote my lord, to inform him that the
volunteers had renewed their offer, (for so we understood their
representation was;) and he, from what he had heard before from the
secretary of state, not expecting the effect it would have, answered me,
that their offer could not be accepted. But to our astonishment, by the
same post, the volunteers found themselves accepted, and the gentlemen
they recommended for their officers gazetted; the which, as I tell
frankly, was an admonition to me, that the peremptory will of authority
was no longer sufficient for the rule of mankind; and, therefore, I
squared my after conduct more by a deference to public opinion, than by
any laid down maxims and principles of my own; the consequence of which
was, that my influence still continued to grow and gather strength in the
community, and I was enabled to accomplish many things that my
predecessors would have thought it was almost beyond the compass of man
to undertake.