The Marquis of Hartington has been making political speeches in
Scotland all the week,—very sensible and good ones, on the whole,---which he began by telling the people of Glasgow on Monday that the House of Commons does not foster modesty, and that certainly be could not plead guilty to any false modesty, though he was a little puzzled to know what he had done to deserve the freedom of the City of Glasgow, which had just been pre- sented to him. Probably the truth is that he had done nothing in the world to deserve it, except by not positively declining to avail himself of his magnificent social opportunities, and of the rather haughty common-sense which it has. pleased Provi- dence to grant him. Butthen that is precisely what men—Britons, at least—are most grateful for. They are much more grateful to a man for coldly consenting to fill respectably a great station to which he is born, than even for industriously earning one to which he was not born. There may be merit in the latter achievement, but there is propriety in the former ; and they appreciate propriety even more than merit. The indifference, too, displayed by a great man to the evidences of his influence always goes a great way in enhancing that influence.
