6pettator
NOVEMBER 5th, 1853
A " National Association for the Vindication of Scottish Rights " has been recently formed; and on Wednesday its adherents appeared before the public at a crowded meeting in the Music Hall of Edinburgh to claim public support.
The resolutions which obtained the assent of the meeting demanded the appointment of a Scotch Secretary of State; complained of dispro- portionately scanty representation for Scotland; of the " injustice inflicted upon Scotland by its exclusion from the advantages of par- ticipating in the public expenditure "; and bound the meeting to support the Association. These topics formed the subject of the speeches. lord Eglington, elaborately disclaiming any intention of subverting the Union, complained that centralization is carried out beyond the limits required by the Treaty of Union; that Scotch affairs are ',laced in English hands; that while England has Windsor, Buckingham Palace, Hampton Court, Kensington, " We have only poor • old Holyrood, With her falling galleries, roofless chapel, wasted park, and garden let td a market-gardener!"--only five pounds Was spent on it last year. Then there is not a harbour of refuge from Wick to Berwick; while England has Dover, Harwich, Jersey, Holyhead. Portsmouth. He com- plained with equal bitterness that no Professorships have been estab- lished; that representation is unequal compared with England; that the quartering of the Scottish arms in the Royal,;§tandard is corrupted; and that Scotland has to submit to the anomalous and irresponsible goverment of a Lord Advocate, to the great neglect of Scotch business: he held that a great officer of state is wanted who should be responsible
for the government of Scotland. -1,
Among the other speakers were the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, Mr. Cochrane, Sir Archibald Alison, Professor -Aytoun, and Sir J. W. Drummond; who each discussed the crying grievances of the Scottish nation.
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