? Is that the work to which you will put your precious
franchises--your votes, which have been won for you by so much
struggle in the past? No; I am confident that this city, which has of
its own free will plunged into the very centre of national politics,
will grasp the opportunity now presented; that its command will not be
back, but forward; that its counsel will be not timidity, but courage,
and that it will aim not at dividing, but at rallying the progressive
forces, not at dissipating, but at combining the energies of reform.
That will be the message which you will send in tones which no man can
mistake--so that a keen, strong, northern air shall sweep across our
land to nerve and brace the hearts of men, to encourage the weak, to
fortify the strong, to uplift the generous, to correct the proud.

In time of war, when an action has been joined for a long time, and
the lines are locked in fierce conflict, and stragglers are coming in
and the wounded drifting away, when the reserves begin to waver here
and there, it is on such an occasion that Scottish regiments have so
often won distinction; it is on these occasions that you have seen
some valiant brigade march straight forward into the battle smoke,
into the confusion of the field, right into the heart of the fight.
That is what you have to do at this moment. "Scotland for ever!"

Now I turn my argument to the other side of the field, to the other
quarter, from which we are subject to attack; I turn in my appeal from
Trade Unionists, from the Labour men, who ought in all fairness to
recognise the work this Government is doing and back them in their
sore struggle; I turn to the rich and the powerful, to Unionist and
Conservative elements, who, nevertheless, upon Free Trade, upon
temperance, and upon other questions of moral enlightenment, feel a
considerable sympathy with the Liberal Party; I turn to those who say,
"We like Free Trade and we are Liberals at heart, but this Government
is too Radical: we don't like its Radical measures. Why can't they let
well alone? What do they mean by introducing all these measures, all
these Bills, which," so they say, "disturb credit and trade, and
interfere with the course of business, and cause so many
class-struggles in the country?" I turn to those who complain we are
too Radical in this and in that, and that we are moving too quickly,
and I say to them: "Look at this political situation, not as party
men, but as Britons; lo