The Queens Visit. 127 



overcharge. Although triumphant, Mr. Robertson 

 felt that it was no little grievance that he should have 

 had to defend himself single-handed against the six 

 official gentlemen. 



So many eminent persons regard the income-tax 

 as a masterpiece of our civilization, elastic as it is to 

 meet the expenses of every diplomatic blunder, that 

 it can only be the part of human frailty to feel dis- 

 content at so great a blessing. In point of fact, it was. 

 not with the tax that Mr. Robertson had any fault to 

 find. The resistance he offered was to what he con- 

 sidered a petty oppression on the part of some of 

 those engaged in levying it. That he was a very 

 loyal citizen may be inferred from the following 

 remarks, taken from a letter which he wrote in 

 August, 1849, on the occasion of the Queen's visit to 

 Glasgow : 



" We had great pleasure to-day," he says, " in seeing 

 the Queen, and had an excellent view of her on the 

 bell of the brae, High Street, as she passed on her 

 way in an open carriage to the cathedral ; and the 

 ladies had time to sum up a thousand little things 

 that they had omitted to notice regarding her dress, 

 Prince Albert, and the children by the time she 

 returned to see the college. It was a great treat to 

 us to see her. The pleasure far exceeded our modest 

 anticipations. We were taken by surprise. Instead of 

 seeing, as we expected, a formal, dazzling automaton, 

 we were charmed, bewildered, swamped in joy, at 

 seeing a plain, sweet, graceful, young Queen, greeting 

 her people in the most homely and parental manner." 



This period of Mr. Robertson's career may be fitly 



