_May_ 16 _and_ 17.--I wrote and rode as usual, and had the pleasure of
Miss Ferrier's company in my family hours, which was a great
satisfaction; she has certainly less affectation than any female I have
known that has stood so high--Joanna Baillie hardly excepted. By the
way, she [Mrs. Baillie] has entered on the Socinian controversy, for
which I am very sorry; she has published a number of texts on which she
conceives the controversy to rest, but it escapes her that she can only
quote them through a translation. I am sorry this gifted woman is hardly
doing herself justice, and doing what is not required at her hands. Mr.
Laidlaw of course thinks it the finest thing in the world.[460]

_May_ 18.--Went to Jedburgh to the election, greatly against the wishes
of my daughters. The mob were exceedingly vociferous and brutish, as
they usually are now-a-days. But the Sheriff had two troops of dragoons
at Ancrum Bridge, and all went off quietly. The populace gathered in
formidable numbers--a thousand from Hawick alone; they were sad
blackguards, and the day passed with much clamour and no mischief. Henry
Scott was re-elected--for the last time, I suppose. _Troja fuit._

I left the burgh in the midst of abuse and the gentle hint of "Burke Sir
Walter." Much obliged to the brave lads of Jeddart. Upwards of forty
freeholders voted for Henry Scott, and only fourteen for the puppy that
opposed him. Even of this party he gained far the greater number by the
very awkward coalition with Sir William Scott of Ancrum. I came home at
seven at night.

_May_ 20.--This is the Selkirk election, which I supposed would be as
tumultuous as the Jedburgh one, but the soutars of Selkirk had got a new
light, and saw in the proposed Reform Bill nothing but a mode of
disfranchising their ancient burgh. Although the crowd was great, yet
there was a sufficient body of special constables, hearty in their
useful office, and the election passed as quietly as I ever witnessed
one. I came home before dinner, very quiet. I am afraid there is
something serious in Galashiels; Jeffrey is fairly funked about it, and
has written letters to the authorities of Roxburghshire and Selkirkshire
to caution us against making the precognitions public, which looks ill.
Yet I think he would have made arrests when the soldiers were in the
country. The time at which I settled at Abbotsford, Whitsunday 1811, I
broke up a conspiracy of the weavers. It will look like sympathising