As I have said, my third provostry was undertaken in a spirit of
sincerity, different in some degree from that of the two former; but
strange and singular as it may seem, I really think I got less credit for
the purity of my intents, than I did even in the first. During the whole
term from the election in the year 1813 to the Michaelmas following, I
verily believe that no one proposal which I made to the council was
construed in a right sense; this was partly owing to the repute I had
acquired for canny management, but chiefly to the perverse views and
misconceptions of that Yankee thorn-in-the-side, Mr Hickery, who never
desisted from setting himself against every thing that sprang from me,
and as often found some show of plausibility to maintain his
argumentations. And yet, for all that, he was a man held in no esteem or
respect in the town; for he had wearied every body out by his everlasting
contradictions. Mr Plan was likewise a source of great tribulation to
me; for he was ever and anon coming forward with some new device, either
for ornament or profit, as he said, to the burgh; and no small portion of
my time, that might have been more advantageously employed, was wasted in
the thriftless consideration of his schemes: all which, with my advanced
years, begat in me a sort of distaste to the bickerings of the council
chamber; so I conferred and communed with myself, anent the possibility
of ruling the town without having recourse to so unwieldy a vehicle as
the wheels within wheels of the factions which the Yankee reformator, and
that projectile Mr Plan, as he was called by Mr Peevie, had inserted
among us.
I will no equivocate that there was, in this notion, an appearance of
taking more on me than the laws allowed; but then my motives were so
clean to my conscience, and I was so sure of satisfying the people by the
methods I intended to pursue, that there could be no moral fault in the
trifle of illegality which, may be, I might have been led on to commit.
However, I was fortunately spared from the experiment, by a sudden change
in the council.--One day Mr Hickery and Mr Plan, who had been for years
colleaguing together for their own ends, happened to differ in opinion,
and the one suspecting that this difference was the fruit of some secret
corruption, they taunted each other, and came to high words, and finally
to an open quarrel, actually shaking their neeves across the table, and,
I'll no venture to deny, maybe exchanging blows.
Such a convulsion in the sober councils of a burgh town was never heard
of. It was a thing not to be endured, and so I saw at the time, and was
resolved to turn it to the public advantage. Accordingly, when the two
angry men had sat back in their seats, bleached in the face with passion,
and panting and out of breath, I rose up in my chair at the head of the
table, and with a judicial solemnity addressed the council, saying, that
what we had witnessed was a disgrace not to be tolerated in a Christian
land; that unless we obtained indemnity for the past, and security for
the future, I would resign; but in doing so I would bring the cause
thereof before the Fifteen at Edinburgh, yea, even to the House of Lords
at London; so I gave the offending parties notice, as well as those who,
from motives of personal friendship, might be disposed to overlook the
insult that had been given to the constituted authority of the king, so
imperfectly represented in my person, as it would seem, by the audacious
conflict and misdemeanour which had just taken place.
This was striking while the iron was hot: every one looked at my
sternness with surprise, and some begged me to be seated, and to consider
the matter calmly.--"Gentlemen," quo' I, "dinna mistake me. I never was
in more composure all my life.--It's indeed no on my own account that I
feel on this occasion. The gross violation of all the decent decorum of
magisterial authority, is not a thing that affects me in my own person;
it's an outrage against the state; the prerogatives of the king's crown
are endamaged; atonement must be made, or punishment must ensue. It's a
thing that by no possibility can be overlooked: it's an offence committed
in open court, and we cannot but take cognizance thereof."
I saw that what I said was operating to an effect, and that the two
troublesome members were confounded. Mr Hickery rose to offer some
apology; but, perceiving I had now got him in a girn, I interposed my
authority, and would not permit him to proceed.
"Mr Hickery," said I, "it's of no use to address yourself to me. I am
very sensible that ye are sorry for your fault; but that will not do. The
law knows no such thing as repentance; and it is the law, not me nor our
worthy friends here, that ye have offended. In short, Mr Hickery, the
matter is such that, in one word, either you and Mr Plan must quit your
seats at this table of your own free-will, or I must quit mine, and mine
I will not give up without letting the public know the shame on your part
that has compelled me."
He sat down and I sat down; and for some time the other councillors
looked at one another in silence and wonder. Seeing, however, that my
gentle hint was not likely to be taken, I said to the town-clerk, who was
sitting at the bottom of the table,
"Sir, it's your duty to make a minute of everything that is done and said
at the sederunts of the council; and as provost, I hereby require of you
to record the particularities of this melancholy crisis."
Mr Keelevine made an endeavour to dissuade me; but I set him down with a
stern voice, striking the table at the same time with all my birr, as I
said, "Sir, you have no voice here. Do you refuse to perform what I
order? At your peril I command the thing to be done."
Never had such austerity been seen in my conduct before. The whole
council sat in astonishment; and Mr Keelevine prepared his pen, and took
a sheet of paper to draw out a notation of the minute, when Mr Peevie
rose, and after coughing three times, and looking first at me and syne at
the two delinquents, said--
"My Lord Provost, I was surprised, and beginning to be confounded, at the
explosion which the two gentlemen have committed. No man can designate
the extent of such an official malversation, demonstrated, as it has been
here, in the presence of us all, who are the lawful custodiers of the
kingly dignity in this his majesty's royal burgh. I will, therefore, not
take it upon me either to apologise or to obliviate their offence; for,
indeed, it is an offence that merits the most condign animadversion, and
the consequences might be legible for ever, were a gentleman, so
conspicable in the town as you are, to evacuate the magistracy on account
of it. But it is my balsamic advice, that rather than promulgate this
matter, the two malcontents should abdicate, and that a precept should be
placarded at this sederunt as if they were not here, but had resigned and
evaded their places, precursive to the meeting."
To this I answered, that no one could suspect me of wishing to push the
matter further, provided the thing could be otherwise settled; and
therefore, if Mr Plan and Mr Hickery would shake hands, and agree never
to notice what had passed to each other, and the other members and
magistrates would consent likewise to bury the business in oblivion, I
would agree to the balsamic advice of Mr Peevie, and even waive my
obligation to bind over the hostile parties to keep the king's peace, so
that the whole affair might neither be known nor placed upon record.
Mr Hickery, I could discern, was rather surprised; but I found that I had
thus got the thief in the wuddy, and he had no choice; so both he and Mr
Plan rose from their seats in a very sheepish manner, and looking at us
as if they had unpleasant ideas in their minds, they departed forth the
council-chamber; and a minute was made by the town-clerk that they,
having resigned their trust as councillors, two other gentlemen at the
next meeting should be chosen into their stead.
Thus did I, in a manner most unexpected, get myself rid and clear of the
two most obdurate oppositionists, and by taking care to choose discreet
persons for their successors, I was enabled to wind the council round my
finger, which was a far more expedient method of governing the community
than what I had at one time meditated, even if I could have brought it to
a bearing. But, in order to understand the full weight and importance of
this, I must describe how the choice and election was made, because, in
order to make my own power and influence the more sicker, it was
necessary that I should not be seen in the business.