Lord Provost was in the chair, and addressed the meeting at some length, after which he read the following notes which had passed between Mr. Duncan Maclaren and Mr. Macaulay, one of the members for the city:
"Dear Sir, " At a meeting of the committee, I was desired to send you the enclosed soirée ticket, and to invite you to be present at the meeting, without reference to the opinions you may hold on the question.
"I was likewise desired to request you to take part in the proceedings, on the condition that your opinions are such as to allow you to speak in support of the object of the meeting—the immediate abolition of all the duties on the importation of corn, and the propriety of raising a fund to aid the League in promoting this object.
I am, &c.,
D. M'LAREN,
Convener of Committee,
"The Right Hon. T. B. Macaulay, M.P., &c. &c."
Dear Sir,
"I have often expressed my opinion on the subject of the Corn Laws, and am not aware that I have anything to add, to retract, or to explain. You will not, therefore, be surprised at my saying that I do not think it right to attend the meeting of the 11th of January.
This curt letter from the representative the Edinburgh Lawyers excited much disapprobation. Mr. W. Gibson Craig, the other member, was more circumlocutory but not more satisfactory, for he held to the whig shibboleth of "a low fixed duty," The speakers were Mr. Cobden, Mr. Hunter (advocate), Mr. Bright, Mr. B. W. Jameson, W.S., Col. Thompson, and Mr. Moore, and the subscriptions amounted to £1,142.
The members of the deputation did not, as the Scotch phrase goes, let the grass grow at their heels. Next day they were at Perth, where in the North United Secession Church an audience of two thousand, including many
