read^ which you can break off with at any moment when you feel 

 the drowsy god overcoming you^ and which leaves a pleasant 

 impression on you when you throw it down by your bedside. 

 Now, I think my friend Cockburn's letters to his gardener answer 

 to this description, and I am not disparaging them when I say 

 that the gardener himself appears to be not wholly worthy of 

 them. I think that we in our generation may appreciate them 

 more than the gardener did. ' Charles/ says Mr. Cockburn, on the 

 Srd of February 1741, 'I had yours of the 23rd. If you would 

 read my letters over it would save me much of writing, as from your 

 not reading of them I am obliged to write the same things over 

 and over, and frequently the last time of writing the same thing 

 comes too late, as I fear what I am now to write will do.' Then 

 he goes on : — ' I have in writing this to show you how your not 

 reading my letters disconcerts me, and to show you how reason- 

 able my request is when I repeat my desire that you '11 read my 

 letters.' Well, if the gardener to whom they were addressed did 

 not read them, the somnolent reader may be excused if he occa- 

 sionally skips as the hour of slumber draws near. They furnish 

 besides to those who are not horticulturists a certain amount of 

 intelligent interest as to their fascinating pursuit. I read under 

 some apprehension from an imprint to a class of social reformers 

 this letter which was written in 1743: — ^ Tell Mrs. Miles that 

 I had a letter from a gentleman w^ho was at the last club (a 

 Farmers' Club) bantering me for there being no good malt drink 

 at Ormistoun. I had no excuse to make, but to acknowledge the 

 obstinate stupidity of our people — who talk of being good 

 countrymen but act against anything which can improve it. 

 We complain of barley being cheap, and yet we won't do any- 

 thing towards adding to the consumption of it. 1 suppose she 

 would be glad of more custom, and yet she won't keep drink 

 w^hich would bring her customers.' That seems to me to refer to 

 almost a prehistoric period. My friend does not confine himself 

 to this. There is a passage somewhat similar, but which reflects 

 on our national character in a way which ought, I think, to add to 

 our national complacency, because the faults Mr. Cockburn finds in 

 the passage I am about to read are no longer charged against the 

 Scottish people. ' This seems a demonstration to me, but I will 

 maintain no argument to which a good answer can be given, though 

 till I get one I shall ascribe our not succeeding in many things, 

 as I think we may, to our inactivity and slow thinking and acting. 



