SOCIAL RELATIONS. 363 



times as the present, when popular opinion is so power- 

 ful and so conscious of its power. What wonder, that 

 the people of a whole country-side should interest them- 

 selves in the fate of such a man as poor Junner, or that 

 they should feel indignant at those who could misrepre- 

 sent his character in the way related ! True, the misre- 

 presentation could not have originated with those who 

 would be hated and reviled for it, were the people to 

 come to hear of it ; the author is probably some mean 

 little thing that has wriggled itself into the ear of one 

 whose notice it would deem a bargain at any price, and 

 which it has purchased at the cheap rate of be- 

 traying a few secrets, and telling a great many false- 

 hoods. But the people would never think of asking who 

 the author was. They never distinguish between those 

 who credit and those who invent, indeed they are at 

 too great a distance to make the distinction ; and thus 

 there are heart-burnings produced and jealousies fostered, 

 which even in the present day destroy the better chari- 

 ties of society, and which must produce still sadder 

 effects in the future. " If," says Lockhart in his Life 

 of Burns, " the boundary-lines of society are observed 

 with increasing strictness among us, if the various 

 orders of men still day by day feel the chord of sympa- 

 thy relaxing, we may well lament over symptoms of a 

 disease in the body politic which, if it goes on, must find 

 sooner or later a fatal ending." There is true philoso- 

 phy in this remark ; and it is not one of the most harm- 

 less consequences of such a state, that the higher orders 

 should have so often to form their opinions of the lower 

 on the data furnished by the eaves-dropper and the tale- 

 bearer. I need not tell you that during the week I 

 passed at Torres I saw much that delighted me, but I 

 have not yet told you what it was that delighted me 



