cotland a little before his death, as I have it from a
very valuable young minister of that country, on whose testimony I can
thoroughly depend; and I wish it may excite many to imitation.

'The commanding officer of the king's forces then about Edinburgh,
with the other colonels, and several other gentlemen of rank in their
respective regiments, favoured him with their company at Bankton, and
took dinner with him. He too well foresaw what might happen amid such a
variety of tempers and characters; and fearing lest his conscience might
have been ensnared by a sinful silence, or that, on the other hand, he
might seem to pass the bounds of decency, and infringe upon the laws of
hospitality by animadverting on guests so justly entitled to his regard,
he happily determined on the following method of avoiding each of these
difficulties. As soon as they were come together, he addressed them with
a great deal of respect, and at the same time with a very frank and
determined air, telling them that he had the honour in that district to
be a justice of the peace, and consequently that he was sworn to put the
law in execution, and, among the rest, those against swearing; that he
could not execute them upon others with any confidence, or by any means
approve himself a man of impartiality and integrity to his own heart,
if he suffered them to be broken in his presence by persons of any rank
whatsoever; and that therefore he entreated all the gentlemen who then
honoured him with their company that they would please to be upon their
guard, and that if any oath or curse should escape them, he hoped they
would consider his legal animadversion upon it as a regard to the duties
of his office and the dictates of his conscience, and not as owing to any
want of deference to them.

The commanding officer immediately supported him in this declaration, as
entirely becoming the station in which he was, assuring him that he would
be ready to pay the penalty, if he inadvertently transgressed; and when
Colonel Gardiner on any occasion stepped out of the room, he himself
undertook to be the guardian of the law in his absence; and as one of the
inferior officers offended during this time, he informed the colonel, so
that the fine was exacted and given to the poor,[*] with the universal
approbation of the company. The story spread in the neighbourhood, and
was perhaps applauded highly by many who wanted the courage to "go and do
likewise." But it may