in the serenity of its receding distance from the lately dazzled eye. Trusting that you will bear with me, while, with the diffidence which the subject demands, and the delicacy, withal, which, in necessary allusion to an august quarter, is seemly, I attempt to show that in this theme there is not "image and sentiment" alone, but "thought," that "there is magic in the web of it," and truths, perhaps unsuspected, of pleasing augury and deep concernment, not only to Scotland, but to the empire at large-not only to the present, but to future generations.

A grand error in state policy was corrected, when his present Majesty conceived the patriotic idea of departing from a system of almost unqualified retirement, and, by visiting the different kingdoms of his dominions, making himself personally known to the remotest of his people. Yet the most clear-sighted of his advisers could not, beforehand, have estimated

the real extent of the moral

power, with which this happy measure was to clothe their Sovereign; and although much was anticipated, infinitely more has practically resulted. There were who thought. the experiment perilous,-there could be none jealous of its anticipated consequences. If there were doubts or hesitations, or even heart-burnings—a fearless, confiding, generous Prince scorned them all, and, leaving mysteries and forms and guards behind, launched boldly for Ireland, landed on her strand, walked at once into the midst of her free-hearted population, and, more than English King ever did before, conquered their hearts.

The fate of nations hanging in the momentous scales, there is nothing granderin the moral world than the generous, the fearless decision, followed up by instant action, and crowned with brilliant success. When that magnificent naval manœuvre, conceived and diagrammed in the closet of

a rarely gifted landsman,* had for subject of its first practical experiment a hostile array of thirty-four line of battle ships; when it was yet to be proved that it should render victory more signal than had ever been known in the contests of the deep-that it should not sacrifice the assailants the gallant Rodney had been more than man, had he been free from anxiety. The tactic was new, it was unauthorised. A fleet-a nation's honour were at stake-his own head was not with him in the calculation. A moment, and but a moment remained,—all the future victories of England by sea and land hung upon it, all the present glory and tranquillity of our beloved country!-all were shadowed forth in ONE WORD, which trembled on the lips of ONE MAN! That word was given, and Europe was saved.

* The late Mr Clerk of Eldin in Mid-Lothian, the first projector of the bold naval manoeuvre of breaking the enemy's line of battle, instead of the former inefficient practice of cannonading in regular lines.

There is analogy more than fanciful between this glorious resolve, and that which has brought our Monarch out from the old alignements and concealments of regal state, to close contact with the hearts of his people; and his victory is not less complete. There was as much antiquity in the distant shrouded mystery with which royalty was brought to bear upon the people's affections, as in that futile battle which long balked “the mariners of England," and gave them a series of half-won victories. It was to miscompute the age and mistake the nation, to advise a retirement amounting to concealment, to the Sovereign; and it is delightful to think, that among the first acts of his present Majesty's reign, that policy has been practically condemned.* There then was in an instant, an end of the popular impression,

* The caution is certainly superfluous, that not a single word now said can be meant to apply to the last ten years of the life of our late venerable King!

that even a British King lives and reigns for himself;comes forth as a mere pageant in state ceremonies, but, at all other times, is to be figured, by his subjects, as splendidly existing somewhere in the interior of certain magnificent palaces; except when perhaps seen for a moment, travelling with great speed from one of those sumptuous dwellings to another; without common feelings, scarcely common nature, with those whom gates and sentinels exclude, and twelve miles an hour and a squadron of light dragoons cast behind. With an enlightened and generous people there is no increase of the awe which majesty inspires, derived from the mystery of its habits. Harams and kiosks suit barbarous despots alone, whose spell is fear, which even an approach to familiarity might dissolve. Our present Sovereign is quite the freehearted Prince, to say with the immortal hero of Agincourt, whose succession to