hich they could only give the
reluctant answer, that admission for strangers was impossible. The
students who elect Mr. Carlyle received tickets, if they applied
within the specified time, and the members of the University
council, or graduates, obtained the residue according to priority of
application. Ladies' tickets to the number of one hundred and fifty
were issued, each professor obtaining four, and the remaining thirty
being placed at the disposal of Sir David Brewster, the Principal. And
the one hundred and fifty lucky ladies were conspicuous in the front
of the gallery to-day, having been admitted before the doors for
students and other males were open.

"The hour appointed for letting them in was kept precisely--it was
half-past one P.M., but an hour before it, despite occasional
showers of rain, a crowd had begun to gather at the front door of
the music-hall, and at the opening of the door it had gathered to
proportions sufficient to half fill the building, its capacity under
severe crushing being about two thousand.

"When the door was opened, they rushed in as crowds of young men
only can and dare rush, and up the double stairs they streamed like
a torrent; which torrent, however, policemen and check-gates soon
moderated. I chanced to fall into a lucky current of the crowd, and
got in amongst the first two or three hundred, and got forward to the
fourth seat from the platform, as good a place for seeing and hearing
as any.

"The proceedings of the day were fixed to commence at two P.M., and
the half-hour of waiting was filled up by the students in throwing
occasional volleys of peas, whistling _en masse_ various lively tunes,
and in clambering, like small escalading parties, on to and over the
platform to take advantage of the seats in the organ gallery behind.
For Edinburgh students, however, let me say that these proceedings
were singularly decorous. They did indulge in a little fun when
nothing else was doing, but they did not come for that alone. Any
student who wanted fun could have sold his ticket at a handsome
profit, for which better fun could be had elsewhere. I heard among the
crowd that some students had got so high a price as a guinea each for
their tickets, and I heard of others who had been offered no less
but had refused it. And I must say further, that they listened to Mr.
Carlyle's address with as much attention and reverence as they could
have bestowed on a prophet--only I daresay most