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IN the course of my long life
I have seen many-Lord Provosts,, When I first went to school I was soon
informed by my neighbour in the class that his father was the Lord Provost,
and he said to me proudly: "Go along to Drummond Place and see the grand
lamps." This was Lord Provost Black, who thought that the convulsions of
nature which gave us our valley of the Nor Loch were an intentional
provision by that dame to provide a suitable place for a railway station.
The evil he did lives after him; let not the good he "interred with his
bones." He and his firm have done much to bring sound healthy works before
the public, and have never condescended to issue press trash, because public
taste deteriorated and the sweet stuff and the tainted toffy of literature
were sought after, rather than the nourishing and wholesome.
Then there was Duncan M'Laren,
a man of powerful intellect and of dogged determination, to him we owe it in
no small degree that our city affairs are now in order, and we can show from
year to year a satisfactory balance-sheet. There is now no temptation to
adopt vulgarising methods to attain prosperity. I speak of Mr. M'Laren with
the greater satisfaction, as I confess that when I was a boy, and he as Lord
Provost was standing for the city, I along with the other boys at the
Academy, instead of playing during our quarter, assembled behind the
railings of the school, and when a cab passed with "The Lord Provost's
Committee" placarded on it, gave vent to an almost "universal hiss," to use
Milton's expression regarding a different place from the Academy. I was
called upon later in life to stand against him at two elections, when I
polled little more than a third of the number of votes that he did; but that
does not alter the feeling I have that he was a useful man in his day and
generation, and above all, in his work for the deliverance of Edinburgh from
the "Slough of Despond ' into which she had fallen, and out of which she
could not have been pulled and cleansed without energy and talent. Me had
brains in abundance, and he used them unsparingly for his city, and although
I was his opponent, he was always courteous and kindly.
During the time of his work
in the municipality all did not see eye to eye with him, and he was the
object of attack both on the platform and in the Press, and sometimes in not
very measured terms. The simile being applied to him of "a snake in the
grass," he sought, and successfully, to vindicate himself from the
aspersion, which certainly went beyond the bounds of reasonable criticism of
a public man. The verdict in his favour led to a very clever touch of
sarcasm, presumably from the pen of Mr. Russel, and it may be quoted as a
specimen of his keen wit. In commenting on the trial, he took the line of
criticising Mr. M'Laren's capacity as a financier, and taking exception to
his calculations, he said, alluding to his skill at figures: "If he is not a
snake, no one can deny at least that he is a remarkable adder."
Perhaps the most typical
specimen of a Chief Magistrate of a great city was Lord Provost Law-son,
whose firm had built up a great business as seed merchants, and who in his
day was one of the most highly respected of our citizens. Rotund, beaming,
the picture of good, kindly humanity, he did the duties of the office in
splendid style, and when a question of precedence arose as between Edinburgh
and Dublin, took his official carriage to London, powder-headed servants and
all, so as to uphold our civic dignity during the struggle.
He was a man of most
unassuming character, and it was never a matter with him of his own dignity
or position, but solely the honour of the city he had been called to
represent.
One rather comical incident
in which he figured may be noticed, On the occasion of the Disraeli Banquet
iť 1868 in the Corn Exchange, he had been appointed to propose a toast,
which, as Mr. Disrael; had made an exceptionally long speech, cained on
late. It was evident that he had prepared his speech, and given it in type
to the reporters, and therefore he felt that it must be delivered. His voice
did not admit of more than a third of the audience hearing a word he said,
and it got somewhat wearisome. At the table where I sat we made a plot, and
starting up when he seemed to reach a period began to cheer lustily, which
brought the whole assemblage to their feet. When the cheering stopped, the
band, which was instructed to play between the toast and the reply, did so,
but at the conclusion of the musical piece Charles Lawson was still seen
waving his arms as before. A second time we adopted the same ruse, and after
we had cheered ,the cavalry trumpeters, as ordered, blew a fanfare for the
next toast, but still the arms were seen in vigorous motion. I low-ever, by
this time he was reaching the end of what was printed, and there was nothing
for it but to cheer a third time; which we did. As one would have expected,
but; a few lines represented his oration :n the Press next day. he most
amusing feature of the whole proceeding was, that those who did not know
Charles Lawson would attribute what he did to vanity, whereas there never
was a man of simpler or more modest character in Edinburgh, or anywhere
else.
It is sad to know that
subsequent events showed that the Lord Provost's firm had got into low
water, and that the canker must have been at his heart before the day when
he gave up his chain of office. Into the cause of the breakdown it Is not
for a stranger to enter, but it is sat'sfactory to know that not one breath
of suspicion ever fell on our esteemed fellow-citizen of any conduct but the
most worthy and upright, leading to the sad catastrophe which overtook him.
Me was a man of advanced years, and probably had not the same grasp and
control of the business which he had when in more vigorous health. I heard
at the time that his sons had taken up speculation which proved disastrous.
He died respected of all who knew him.
Later came Lord Provost
Chambers, whose publishing firm have also for nearly a century held a high
place as providers of good wholesome literature, the Journal in particular
being read all over the world—probably the best publication for family use
that exists, and being of a standard far above the mass of pictorial
monthlies that seem to call for an enlargement of our bookstalls, so crowded
have these become of recent years.
They, like Messrs. Black,
have not condescended to cater for the taste of those to whose desires the
lines apply:
"Till authors hear at once the
general cry,
Tickle and entertain us, or we die."
As is mentioned elsewhere, he
did a great work for the honour of God and the good name of the city in the
restoration of St. Giles' Cathedral.
It is impossible to go over
the whole list of Lord Provosts, all of whom I have known as friends, and I
have preferred to refer to those who are no longer with us, and who made
some special mark. I would leave it to others who may in future publish
their reminiscences to speak of those who belong more closely to the present
time. Of one with whom I was long and pleasantly associated as a
Volunteer—my friend Cranston—I have spoken already in my published
recollections of my fifty years in the Volunteer Force.
One thing I would say
further, however, in regard to our Lord Provosts. It may be taken as a
sequel to the strong literary position of Edinburgh in the first half of the
last century, that our city has honoured itself by having chosen on four
separate occasions, during the period that is being written about, gentlemen
directly connected with literature as publishers—Lord Provosts Black,
Chambers, Boyd, and Clark. |
