A NATIONAL STIMULANT. 955 
supposed valuable in cases of heaviness and obtuseness of 
intellect. Is it, therefore unreasonable to presume that it 
may have had some share in gaining for our brethren beyond 
the Tweed that shrewdness of national character which has 
become proverbial ? 
“The specimens which came in the reign of James L., 
CURING A HEADACHE. 
southward, did not command much respect or admiration 
from our countrymen; indeed they were the bulls at which 
every satirist hurled his shafts, and blunt must have been 
that one which did not pierce some potent folly of language 
or manner. The town rang with anecdotes of their rags, 
beggary, and quarrels; ballad-singers made merry at their 
expense, and the stage resounde with uncomplimentary 
allusions. Indeed, in one of the most popular plays of that 
period, the king himself was not spared, and the actors (Ben 
Jonson among them) had very nearly lost their ears for their 
boldness. Nor was it at least for a hundred and fifty years 
after this period that the Scotch became noted for that enter- 
prise and talent which now distinguish them. 
“We do not deny that the union may have developed 
