Edinburgh - Rouen - York, glimpses, impressions, contrasts.

heroic times of Canada, as oft' I have done, I shall to-night ask your attention and beckon yon to follow me, far from our dear Canadian home.We shall indulge in a ramble, short though it be, over a foreign but not unfriendly land, in that haunted, olden world from whence sprang our fathers With your permission we shall dwell for a few moments on the performances, follow the foot-prints, treasure up the experience of those who have preceeded us; if possible, benefit by their wisdom, endeavour to learn from them, let us hope, some not useless lessons.A limited but agreable sojourn abroad, which brought me, on many points, to think still higher of my own country, has also ma(}e more manifest to me than it was hitherto, how many useful hints, how many teachings, the records, the monuments, the sights of other cities can furnish.It is my intention to select for our study to- night three conspicuous cities of Europe, in order to seek for contrasts if any, between them and our own ancient town.In the course of my wanderings in England, France, Scotland, Ire.land, Belgium, Holland, &c, no sites, by their historical souve- nirs, edifices, monuments, and scenery, have attracted me more than Edinburgh, Rouen and York; though of course, I have met with cities more wealthy, more extensive, more populous.In fact, there are striking analogies, as well as unmistakable points of contrast, between these antique towns and the capital of this Province, which also happens to be the most picturesque city of North America.A glance at Edinburgh, Eouen.York, may point out how the hand of man can heighten the advantages, add lustre to the charms which nature has conferred and make of a city, " a thing of beauty and a joy for ever."Possibly, we may find that wealth and population in cities, flow through various, sometimes concealed channels; that true progress does not mean a wanton destruction of the externals of a revered past; that whilst a progressive community is expected to throw open its portals to the fertilising wave of commercial activity, it can bo helped to achieve importance, prosperity, nay fame, by preserv- ing intact, for coming generations, as sacred heirlooms, the mo- numents of its history, the landmarks of its patriotic struggles, the remains, in verity, of its former greatness.Let us begin by a short sketch of the " Modern Athens," the Queen City of the North-Edin burg4-whose quaint old, and beautiful now, town arc familiar to many present here to-night.It was my good fortune to view the Scotch capital under cir- cumstances which must ever leave in my mind an impression as lasting as it was pleasant.I saw it triumphant, most gaudy, in full holiday attire ; its streets, its squares, its parks and public edifices, decked with much bunting, the gayest of flags, floral designs, triumphal arches, festive wreaths in the broad light of day, whilst by night the pageant's splendor was dazzling with Brush's electric light and myriads of gas lamps : all this in an- ticipation of the advent of royalty, to grace the great national Military Eeview.Proudly deployed, with streaming banners, under the walls of Holyroodthe historic palace of the royal Stuarts, -stood, as if animated with but one heart, one impulse, 42,000 Scotch Volunteers ; many regiments in the pic- turesque mountaineers costume, -a body of men as to physique, martial-bearing, manly beauty, unsurpassed, I dare to say, on any point of the globe.They stood erect, calm, as cnlm, I would fain believe, as their fathers had stood on another historical spot, I had just visited three days previous, at Hougomont, on the vast plain of Brussels ; except that instead of the frenzy of battle lighting up their eye, no other frenzy stirred them, but that of loyalty to that " illustrious Sovereign and gracious Lady," to use the eloquent and recent words of President Arthur at York- town, our gentle Queen, who for the first time, I then had a chance of seeing.Among Victoria's 250,000,000 of subjects, none I felt could exceed in devotion the stalwart volunteers of " Auld Scotia," who from every city and hamlet of the little Scotch world had, as if a pibroch had sounded on the hills, mustered from all directions on the 25th August last.Is his loyalty to his sovereign a part of the Scotchman's strength, one of the elements which helps him on, the world over, in life's hard struggle ?It is not only in distant portions of the British Empire we find the Scot to the front in the field of thought or mart of commerce ; our own dominion testifies also to that fact.I hope I may not give oifence even in this period of upheaval, when the tide of popular rights is surging so high, in Haying, en passant, a word in favor of successful loyalty.{Loud applause,) ' ing toward the Tweed, covered with a quaint Chinese paper.In one corner stands a beautiful tortoiseshell cabinet, which is said to have belonged to Queen Mary ; and on the walls are hung

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.