Earl of Buchan presided; and to Jedburgh, where his lordship, a thorough free trader, also presided.
Invitations had come from many places in Scotland which the deputation had not time to visit. In the course of the summer I went to meetings at Haddington, where the provost presided, supported by the greater part of the town council; at Linlithgow, where provost Dawson presided, similarly supported; at Lanark, where Dr. Shirley presided; and at Galashiels, where the Earl of Buchan (son of the celebrated Henry Erskine), who had been chairman at meetings in Kelso, Hawick, and Jedburgh, presided. His lordship had great merit in this zeal, for his income was slender in comparison with his high rank in the Scottish peerage, and was derived almost solely from "corn rents," and consequently would be diminished in proportion to any fall that might take place in the price of grain by the repeal of the Corn Law. At his very beautiful residence at Dryburgh Abbey, I had the opportunity of renewing a sort of old feudal connection with the Erskine family. My great grandfather was a tenant of his lordship's great grandfather. Both were driven into exile in the hot persecution which followed the battle of Bothwel Brig, in 1679. At the Revolution of 1688, Lord Cardross returned from Holland with the Prince of Orange, and resumed the possession of his estate in Linlithgowshire, and Alexander Reid returned from England, where he had sought refuge, to the occupation of his farm. I told the meeting that I was glad to stand on the platform with one whose ancestor had, with mine, contended for the religious liberty of his country, and who now, with me, was contending for its commercial liberty, as his father had, with mine, contended together, at the commencement of the French war, for its political liberty.
On the 23rd, an exceedingly crowded meeting was held at Sunderland, the mayor in the chair, to receive Mr. Cobden and Mr. Moore; on the following day Col. Thompson
