410 MAN OF SCIENCE. 



were but half as snug ! By the way, how comes it that 

 it is for the Irish the Edinburgh ladies are exerting 

 themselves ? The Irish are, to be sure, human creatures, 

 but they are human creatures of a considerably lower 

 order than the Scotch Highlanders, who are at least 

 suffering as much ; and they have surely not such a 

 claim on the Scotch. They will be better cared for, 

 too. They are buying guns, and will be by-and-by 

 shooting magistrates and clergymen by the score ; and 

 Parliament will in consequence do a great deal for 

 them. But the poor Highlanders will shoot no one, not 

 even a site-refusing laird or a brutal factor, and so they 

 will be left to perish unregarded in their hovels. I see 

 more and more every day of the philosophy of Cobbett's 

 advice to the chopsticks of Kent, " If you wish to have 

 your wrongs redressed, go out and burn ricks ; govern- 

 ment will yield nothing to justice, but a great deal to 

 fear ! " 



< Thurso, 25th August, 1849. 



' I have been greatly more fortunate in my voyage 

 than you were in yours. You, a good sailor, were sick ; 

 and I, a very bad one, had not a qualm. I see, how- 

 ever, that I am not the very worst of sailors. We had 

 several sea-sick ladies on board, and one or two sick 

 gentlemen, with a considerable batch of pale ones. We 

 were at the quay-head of Wick exactly twenty-four 

 hours after leaving that of Gran ton. 



' Miss T was regretting the absurdities of , 



which are, I see, very widely blown. Absurdity sticks to 

 some people by a kind of fate. I saw Dr McCrie imme- 

 diately before leaving Edinburgh ; he had just returned 

 from the South country and had brought with him an 



exceedingly droll account of 's marriage. Tall 



Mr - - dropped as if from the clouds upon the 



