ANONYMOUS VOICES.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " seecrrseee."1
SIR,—In the Spectator of October 12th there is an article on "Anonymous Voices," in which the following occurs :—" Vox popu/i, vox Dei ? It may be so, on the whole ; but we would exclude such a shout as that Jedburgh one of Burke Sir Walter !'—perhaps the meanest cry ever raised as a good grey head went past." Let us examine the position. The occasion on which it was said to have occurred was on the visit of Sir Walter Scott to Jedburgh on May 18th, 1831, at the time of the agitation for the Reform Bill. Lockhart in his Life says : " The scene within [the hall] was much what has been described under the date of March 21st, except that though he attempted to speak from the bench not a word was audible, such was the frenzy." So much for Lockhart : what about other authorities P An eyewitness thus writes in 1894: " I was both an eye and an ear witness in the town hall. I remember as if yesterday listening to Sir Walter Scott's last public speech He sat on the left of the chair, and also on the left of the platform, being the youngest baronet. He appeared to be feeble and shaky, but spoke in a clear and distinct utterance. The meeting through- out listened with the greatest reverence during the whole of his address. His closing sentence certainly roused some indignation, but then remember the times." Again, Lockhart says, referring to the town : " In fact it was almost wholly in the hands of a disciplined rabble, chiefly weavers from Hawick." Again, let us draw upon the testimony of an independent party : " As for the statement that the thousand men from Hawick were blackguards, the statement is a calumny; had they been so, they were sufficiently numerous to have wrecked the town ; even Sir Walter bears testimony that they did no mischief. When evening came they set out on their long march home in as orderly a manner as when they entered the town." He further says nothing was heard at the time of stone-throwing, and the cry df " Burke Sir Walter!" had been the outburst of one or two foolish individuals. Through the courtesy of the proprietor, I am enabled to quote from .the Kelso Mail (the Conservative organ) of date May 19th, 1831: "Numerous parties of constables lined the streets, but an occasional cheer er a hiss against an obnoxious individual was all that passed, and there was no occasion for the exertion of the civic power." The partisans of the two parties dined later in the same inn, "without the slightest interruption from the populace, the town remaining as quiet for several hours as if the election had not occupied the mind of the public through the day." Surely sufficient has been said to show that there was no organised attempt to insult Sir Walter, who had many friends in the town, and was respected there as in the whole Border
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