m every one of its
members, active and strenuous exertions. I have, therefore, obeyed your
call; and I now present myself before you for the purpose of offering
to you, not, what I am sure you would reject with disdain, flattery,
degrading alike to a candidate, and to a constituent body; but such
reasonable, candid, and manly explanations as become the mouth of a free
man ambitious of the confidence of a free people.

It is hardly necessary for me to say that I stand here unconnected with
this great community. It would be mere affectation not to acknowledge
that with respect to local questions I have much to learn; but I hope
that you will find in me no sluggish or inattentive learner. From an
early age I have felt a strong interest in Edinburgh, although attached
to Edinburgh by no other ties than those which are common to me with
multitudes; that tie which attaches every man of Scottish blood to the
ancient and renowned capital of our race; that tie which attaches every
student of history to the spot ennobled by so many great and memorable
events; that tie which attaches every traveller of taste to the most
beautiful of British cities; and that tie which attaches every lover
of literature to a place which, since it has ceased to be the seat of
empire, has derived from poetry, philosophy, and eloquence a far higher
distinction than empire can bestow. If to those ties it shall now be
your pleasure to add a tie still closer and more peculiar, I can only
assure you that it shall be the study of my life so to conduct myself
in these our troubled times that you may have no reason to be ashamed of
your choice.

Those gentlemen who invited me to appear as a candidate before you were
doubtless acquainted with the part which I took in public affairs during
the three first Parliaments of the late King. Circumstances have since
that time undergone great alteration; but no alteration has taken place
in my principles. I do not mean to say that thought, discussion, and the
new phenomena produced by the operation of a new representative system,
have not led me to modify some of my views on questions of detail; but,
with respect to the fundamental principles of government, my opinions
are still what they were when, in 1831 and 1832, I took part, according
to the measure of my abilities, in that great pacific victory which
purified the representative system of England, and which first gave a
real representative system to Scotland. Eve