IXTROD. 
MEDICAL DIPLOMA. 
7 
felt by the villagers in all public questions, and they furnished a 
proof that the possession of the means of education did not render 
them an unsafe portion of the population. They felt kindly 
towards each other, and much respected those of the neighbouring 
gentry who, like the late Lord Douglas, placed some confidence 
in their sense of honour. Through the kindness of that nobleman, 
the poorest among us could stroll at pleasure over the ancient 
domains of Bothwell, and other spots hallowed by the venerable 
associations of which our school-books and local traditions made 
us well aware; and few of us could view the dear memorials of 
the past without feeling that these carefully kept monuments were 
our own. The masses of the working people of Scotland have 
read history, and are no revolutionary levellers. They rejoice in 
the memories of Wallace and Bruce and a’ the lave,” who are 
still much revered as the former champions of freedom. And 
while foreigners imaginQ|^hat we want the spirit only to overturn 
capitalists and aristocracy, we are content to respect our laws till 
we can change them, and hate those stupid revolutions which 
might sweep away time-honoured institutions, dear alike to rich 
and poor. 
Having finished the medical curriculum and presented a thesis 
on a subject which required the use of the stethescope for its 
diagnosis, I unwittingly procured for myself an examination 
rather more severe and prolonged than usual among examining 
bodies. The reason was, that between me and the examiners a 
slight difference of opinion existed as to whether tliis instrument 
could do what was asserted. The wiser plan would have been to 
have had no opuiion of my own. However, I was admitted a 
Licentiate of Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons. It was with 
unfeigned delight I became a member of a profession which is 
pre-eminently devoted to practical benevolence, and which with 
unwearied energy pursues from age to age its endeavours to lessen 
human woe. 
But though now qualified for my original plan, the opium war 
thing of fits and starts; for if you do not, temptation and other things will 
get the better of youand Thomas Burke, an old Forty-second Peninsula 
soldier, who has been incessant and never weary in good works for about forty 
years. I was delighted to find him still alive ; men like these are an honour 
to their country and profession. 
