public principle, and a few weeks' canvassing, were found to serve
the turn more than equally well.

There commenced straightway a new dynasty of dignities and honours.
Councillors got into print in the capacity of speechmakers, who, save
for the revolution effected, would never have got into print in any
other capacity than, mayhap, that of bankrupts in the Gazette.
Eloquent men walked to church in scarlet, greatly distinguished as
provosts and bailies, who but for the happy change would have crept
unseen all their lives long among the crowd. Members of Parliament
went arm-in-arm, when they visited their constituencies, with folk
altogether unused to such consideration; and when a burgher's son
sought to be promoted to the excise, or a seaman to the coast-guard
service, it was through the new men that influence had to be exerted.
And of course the new men had to approve themselves worthy of their
honours, by making large sacrifices for the public weal. They had in
many cases not much to do: the magistracy of the bygone school, whom
they succeeded, had obligingly relieved posterity of the trouble of
having a too preponderous amount of municipal property to manage and
look after; but if they had not much to do, they had at least a great
deal to say; and as they were ambitious of saying it, their own
individual concerns were not unfrequently neglected, in order that
their constituencies might be edified and informed. In cases not a
few, the natural consequences ensued. We have in our eye one special
burgh in the north, in which every name in the Town Council, from that
of the provost down to that of the humblest councillor, had, in the
course of some two or three years, appeared also in the _Gazette_; and
the previous provost of the place had got desperately involved with
the branch banks of the district, and had ultimately run the country,
to avoid a prosecution for forgery.

Let it not be held that we are including the entire tribe of modern
town functionaries in one sweeping condemnatory description. We
ourselves, in our time (we refer to the fact with a high but surely
natural pride), held office as a town councillor, under the modern
_regime_, for the space of three whole years in a parliamentary burgh
that contained no fewer than forty voters. All may learn from history
how it was that Bailie Weezle earned his municipal honours during the
ancient state of things in the famous burgh of Gudetown. 'Bailie
Weezle,' s