wife, a most considerate woman, sent to me; so that I was, in a
manner, to all visibility, none the worse of the ploy; but the rest

of the council were perfect oddities within their wigs, and the
sorest thing of all was, that the exploit of burning the wigs had

got wind; so that, when we left the council-room, there was a great
congregation of funny weans and misleart trades' lads assembled

before the tolbooth, shouting, and like as if they were out of the
body with daffing, to see so many of the heads of the town in their

night-caps, and no, maybe, just so solid at the time as could have
been wished. Nor did the matter rest here; for the generality of

the sufferers being in a public way, were obligated to appear the
next day in their shops, and at their callings, with their

nightcaps--for few of them had two wigs like me--by which no small
merriment ensued, and was continued for many a day. It would

hardly, however, be supposed, that in such a matter anything could
have redounded to my advantage; but so it fell out, that by my

wife's prudence in sending me my other wig, it was observed by the
commonality, when we sallied forth to go home, that I had on my wig,

and it was thought I had a very meritorious command of myself, and
was the only man in the town fit for a magistrate; for in everything

I was seen to be most cautious and considerate. I could not,
however, when I saw the turn the affair took to my advantage, but

reflect on what small and visionary grounds the popularity of public
men will sometimes rest.

CHAPTER XXIII--THREE THE DEATH OF MR M'LUCRE
Shortly after the affair recorded in the foregoing chapter, an event

came to pass in the burgh that had been for some time foreseen.
My old friend and adversary, Bailie M'Lucre, being now a man well

stricken in years, was one night, in going home from a gavawlling
with some of the neighbours at Mr Shuttlethrift's, the

manufacturer's, (the bailie, canny man, never liket ony thing of the
sort at his own cost and outlay,) having partaken largely of the

bowl, for the manufacturer was of a blithe humour--the bailie, as I
was saying, in going home, was overtaken by an apoplexy just at the

threshold of his own door, and although it did not kill him
outright, it shoved him, as it were, almost into the very grave; in

so much that he never spoke an articulate word during the several
weeks he was permitted to doze away his latter end; and accordingly

he died, and was buried in a very creditable manner to the
community, in consideration of the long space of time he had been a

public man among us.
But what rendered the event of his death, in my opinion, the more

remarkable, was, that I considered with him the last remnant of the
old practice of managing the concerns of the town came to a period.

For now that he is dead and gone, and also all those whom I found
conjunct with him, when I came into power and office, I may venture

to say, that things in yon former times were not guided so
thoroughly by the hand of a disinterested integrity as in these

latter years. On the contrary, it seemed to be the use and wont of
men in public trusts, to think they were free to indemnify

themselves in a left-handed way for the time and trouble they
bestowed in the same. But the thing was not so far wrong in

principle as in the hugger-muggering way in which it was done, and
which gave to it a guilty colour, that, by the judicious stratagem

of a right system, it would never have had. In sooth to say,
through the whole course of my public life, I met with no greater

difficulties and trials than in cleansing myself from the old
habitudes of office. For I must in verity confess, that I myself

partook, in a degree, at my beginning, of the caterpillar nature;
and it was not until the light of happier days called forth the

wings of my endowment, that I became conscious of being raised into
public life for a better purpose than to prey upon the leaves and

flourishes of the commonwealth. So that, if I have seemed to speak
lightly of those doings that are now denominated corruptions, I hope

it was discerned therein that I did so rather to intimate that such
things were, than to consider them as in themselves commendable.

Indeed, in their notations, I have endeavoured, in a manner, to be
governed by the spirit of the times in which the transactions

happened; for I have lived long enough to remark, that if we judge
of past events by present motives, and do not try to enter into the

spirit of the age when they took place, and to see them with the
eyes with which they were really seen, we shall conceit many things

to be of a bad and wickedcharacter that were not thought so harshly
of by those who witnessed them, nor even by those who, perhaps,

suffered from them. While, therefore, I think it has been of a
great advantage to the public to have survived that method of

administration in which the like of Bailie M'Lucre was engendered, I
would not have it understood that I think the men who held the

public trusts in those days a whit less honest than the men of my
own time. The spirit of their own age was upon them, as that of

ours is upon us, and their ways of working the wherry entered more
or less into all their trafficking, whether for the commonality, or

for their own particular behoof and advantage.
I have been thus large and frank in my reflections anent the death

of the bailie, because, poor man, he had outlived the times for
which he was qualified; and, instead of the merriment and jocularity

that his wily by-hand ways used to cause among his neighbours, the
rising generation began to pick and dab at him, in such a manner,

that, had he been much longer spared, it is to be feared he would
not have been allowed to enjoy his earnings both with ease and

honour. However, he got out of the world with some respect, and the
matters of which I have now to speak, are exalted, both in method

and principle, far above the personal considerations that took
something from the public virtue of his day and generation.

CHAPTER XXIV--THE WINDY YULE
It was in the course of the winter, after the decease of Bailie

M'Lucre, that the great loss of lives took place, which every body
agreed was one of the most calamitous things that had for many a

year befallen the town.
Three or four vessels were coming with cargoes of grain from

Ireland; another from the Baltic with Norawa deals; and a third from
Bristol, where she had been on a charter for some Greenock

merchants.
It happened that, for a time, there had been contrary winds, against

which no vessel could enter the port, and the ships, whereof I have
been speaking, were all lying together at anchor in the bay, waiting

a change of weather. These five vessels were owned among ourselves,
and their crews consisted of fathers and sons belonging to the

place, so that, both by reason of interest and affection, a more
than ordinary concern was felt for them; for the sea was so rough,

that no boat could live in it to go near them, and we had our fears
that the men on board would be very ill off. Nothing, however,

occurred but this natural anxiety, till the Saturday, which was
Yule. In the morning the weather was blasty and sleety, waxing more

and more tempestuous till about mid-day, when the wind checked
suddenly round from the nor-east to the sou-west, and blew a gale as

if the prince of the powers of the air was doing his utmost to work
mischief. The rain blattered, the windows clattered, the shop-

shutters flapped, pigs from the lum-heads came rattling down like
thunder-claps, and the skies were dismal both with cloud and carry.

Yet, for all that, there was in the streets a stir and a busy
visitation between neighbours, and every one went to their high

windows, to look at the five poor barks that were warsling against
the strong arm of the elements of the storm and the ocean.

Still the lift gloomed, and the wind roared, and it was as doleful a
sight as ever was seen in any town afflicted with calamity, to see

the sailors' wives, with their red cloaks about their heads,
followed by their hirpling and disconsolate bairns, going one after

another to the kirkyard, to look at the vessels where their helpless
breadwinners were battling with the tempest. My heart was really