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us begin by a short sketch of the " Modern Athens, " 

 the Queen City of the North, Edinburgh, whose quaint 

 old, and beautiful new, town are familiar to many pre- 

 sent here to-night. It was my good fortune to view 

 the Scotch capital under circumstances which must 

 ever leave in my mind an impression as lasting as it 

 was pleasant. I saw it triumphant, most gaudy, in 

 full holiday attire ; its streets, its squares, its parks and 

 public edifices, decked with much bunting, the gayest 

 of flags, floral designs, triumphal arches, festive wreaths 

 in the broad light of day, whilst by night the pageant's 

 splendor was dazzling with Brush's (1) electric light 

 and myriads of gas lamps : all this in anticipation of 

 the advent of royalty, to grace the great national Mili- 

 tary Eeview. Proudly deployed, with streaming ban- 

 ners, under the walls of Holyrood, the historic palace 

 of the royal Stuarts, stood, as if animated with but 

 one heart, one impulse, 42,000 Scotch Volunteers ;. 

 many regiments in the picturesque mountaineers cos- 

 tume ; a body of men as to physique, martial-bearing, 

 manly beauty, unsurpassed, I dare to say, on any point 

 of the globe. They stood erect, calm, as calm, I would 

 fain believe, as their fathers had stood on another his- 

 toric spot, I had just visited three days previous, at 

 Hougomont, on the vast plain of Brussels ; except that 

 instead of the frenzy of battle lighting up their eye, no 

 other frenzy stirred them, but that of loyalty to that 

 11 illustrious Sovereign and gracious Lady, " to use the- 

 eloquent and recent words of President Arthur at 

 Yorktown, our gentle Queen, who for the first time, I 

 then had a chance of seeing. Among Victoria's 250,- 

 000,000 of subjects, none I felt could exceed in devo- 

 tion the stalwart volunteers of " Auld Scotia, " who 

 from every city every hamlet of the little Scotch world 

 had, as if a pibroch had sounded on the hills, mustered 

 from all directions on the 25th August last. 



(1) Brush's Electric Light, was then, on trial, in Edinburgh. 



