SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR'S LIFE. 15 



studied the wants of the nation by contact with the 

 highest personages of the realm, and had conversed 

 with the Highland shepherd on the hills, and heard 

 him tell his artless views of human life ; and many 

 a member of the governing class, or of the " upper 

 ten thousand," would discuss public affairs in perfect 

 equality with the obscure shoemaker, and perhaps 

 gather conviction on some point which he had 

 failed to elicit amid the contentions of party and 

 the perplexities of unconscious prejudice. On one 

 occasion when the Hon. J. E. Elliot was visit- 

 ing his constituency, being Member for Koxburgh- 

 shire, he happened to call in a friendly way upon 

 his friend the shoemaker, who, talking of political 

 affairs, remarked, that he never had enjoyed an 

 opportunity of seeing Lord John Russell ; and that 

 with his recollections of public men it would be a 

 pleasure to him just to shake hands with a politician 

 whose personal integrity men of all shades of opinion 

 respect. No sooner said than done. The worthy 

 member got John Younger crushed into the carriage 

 beside him, and whirled him off to Minto House, 

 where Lord John Eussell happened to be on a visit ; 

 and there and then he left the two to a conversation, 

 such as produced a lively impression of pleasure 

 upon both parties. 



