overflowing to this extent that there are such a number of 

 candidates that a calculation makes one gather that the junior 

 candidate will have to wait about fifteen years before he is- 

 admitted to the Society ; — no, perhaps rather less, twelve years 

 before he is admitted to the Society. Well, tliat on the principle 

 of suave mari magiio, the principle of watching the distress of 

 your fellows with great equanimity, should be singularly amusing 

 to the members of this Society, and I ought not to omit one 

 essential feature of our complacency, which is the admirable 

 balance at our bankers on deposit receipt, which gives promise 

 of our being able to afford any rational enterprise, any rational 

 literary enterprise, in which we may wish to engage. Well that 

 is not the only source of complacency which we have to-day» 

 That I think really lies in our publications and the standard to 

 which they adhere. Our standard, as I have frequently said at 

 these meetings, is a high one. I think it has been admirably 

 maintained by the dainty dishes — the dainty historical dishes — 

 which the Society has prepared to set before its members this 

 year. Indeed, one of these is already in our hands. That is 

 the Chartidary of Lindo?'e.s', edited by our valuable fellow. Bishop 

 Dowden. And to one or two of the others I have had the privi- 

 lege of access in their semi-cooked condition, that is to say, in 

 proof. Now, those, I venture to say, will not yield in interest to 

 any that have been presented to you. One is the valuable letter 

 of Mary Queen of Scots to the Duke of Guise, which belonged 

 to our lamented colleague, Mr. Scott, of Halkshill, and which has 

 been presented by his family to the Society. Now, to expatiate 

 on that document would require more leisure and more learning 

 than I possess. But I am quite certain of this, from my partial 

 examination, that it is one of the most precious documents that 

 we have yet been able to present to our members. Then we are 

 going to give you a Miscellany. The Miscellany is so full of 

 excellent stuff that it is extremely invidious to make any selection 

 from its contents. There is a poetical Journey through Scotland, 

 or, at any rate, from Edinburgh to the West, in the year l641, 

 which, though rather Rabelaisian in detail, is of singular interest 

 to any one interested in the condition of Scotland at that time. 

 It has a melancholy interest to an inhabitant of Linlithgowshire 

 like myself, because it shows that the desolation of the Palace of 

 Linlithgow is not so entirely attributable to the soldiers of the 

 Duke of Cumberland as is generally supposed, but that in tlie 



