The Provost
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John Galt. The Provost
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER I – THE FORECAST
CHAPTER II – A KITHING
CHAPTER III – A DIRGIE
CHAPTER IV – THE GUILDRY
CHAPTER V – THE FIRST CONTESTED ELECTION
CHAPTER VI – THE FAILURE OF BAILIE M’LUCRE
CHAPTER VII – THE BRIBE
CHAPTER VIII – ON THE CHOOSING OF A MINISTER
CHAPTER IX – AN EXECUTION
CHAPTER X – A RIOT
CHAPTER XI – POLICY
CHAPTER XII – THE SPY
CHAPTER XIII – THE MEAL MOB
CHAPTER XIV – THE SECOND PROVOSTRY
CHAPTER XV – ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE STREETS
CHAPTER XVI – ABOUT THE REPAIR OF THE KIRK
CHAPTER XVII – THE LAW PLEA
CHAPTER XVIII – THE SUPPRESSION OF THE FAIRS
CHAPTER XIX – THE VOLUNTEERING
CHAPTER XX – THE CLOTHING
CHAPTER XXI – THE PRESSGANG
CHAPTER XXII – THE WIG DINNER
CHAPTER XXIII – THREE THE DEATH OF MR M’LUCRE
CHAPTER XXIV – THE WINDY YULE
CHAPTER XXV – THE SUBSCRIPTION
CHAPTER XXVI – OF THE PUBLIC LAMPS
CHAPTER XXVII – THE PLAINSTONES
CHAPTER XXVIII – THE SECOND CROP OF VOLUNTEERS
CHAPTER XXIX – CAPTAIN ARMOUR
CHAPTER XXX – THE TRADES’ BALL
CHAPTER XXXI – THE BAILIE’S HEAD
CHAPTER XXXII – THE TOWN DRUMMER
CHAPTER XXXIII – AN ALARM
CHAPTER XXXIV – THE COUNTRY GENTRY
CHAPTER XXXV – TESTS OF SUCCESS
CHAPTER XXXVI – RETRIBUTION
CHAPTER XXXVII – THE DUEL
CHAPTER XXXVIII – AN INTERLOCUTOR
CHAPTER XXXIX – THE NEWSPAPER
CHAPTER XL – THE SCHOOL-HOUSE SCHEME
CHAPTER XLI – BENEFITS OF NEUTRALITY
CHAPTER XLII – THE NEW MEMBER
CHAPTER XLIII – MY THIRD PROVOSTRY
CHAPTER XLIV – THE CHURCH VACANT
CHAPTER XLV – THE STRAMASH IN THE COUNCIL
CHAPTER XLVI – THE NEW COUNCILLORS
CHAPTER XLVII – THE RESIGNATION
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It must be allowed in the world, that a man who has thrice reached the highest station of life in his line, has a good right to set forth the particulars of the discretion and prudence by which he lifted himself so far above the ordinaries of his day and generation; indeed, the generality of mankind may claim this as a duty; for the conduct of public men, as it has been often wisely said, is a species of public property, and their rules and observances have in all ages been considered things of a national concernment. I have therefore well weighed the importance it may be of to posterity, to know by what means I have thrice been made an instrument to represent the supreme power and authority of Majesty in the royal burgh of Gudetown, and how I deported myself in that honour and dignity, so much to the satisfaction of my superiors in the state and commonwealth of the land, to say little of the great respect in which I was held by the townsfolk, and far less of the terror that I was to evil-doers. But not to be over circumstantial, I propose to confine this history of my life to the public portion thereof, on the which account I will take up the beginning at the crisis when I first entered into business, after having served more than a year above my time, with the late Mr Thomas Remnant, than whom there was not a more creditable man in the burgh; and he died in the possession of the functionaries and faculties of town-treasurer, much respected by all acquainted with his orderly and discreet qualities.
Mr Remnant was, in his younger years, when the growth of luxury and prosperity had not come to such a head as it has done since, a tailor that went out to the houses of the adjacent lairds and country gentry, whereby he got an inkling of the policy of the world, that could not have been gathered in any other way by a man of his station and degree of life. In process of time he came to be in a settled way, and when I was bound ’prentice to him, he had three regular journeymen and a cloth shop. It was therefore not so much for learning the tailoring, as to get an insight in the conformity between the traffic of the shop and the board that I was bound to him, being destined by my parents for the profession appertaining to the former, and to conjoin thereto something of the mercery and haberdashery: my uncle, that had been a sutler in the army along with General Wolfe, who made a conquest of Quebec, having left me a legacy of three hundred pounds because I was called after him, the which legacy was a consideration for to set me up in due season in some genteel business.
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“Mr M’Lucre, dinna speer any questions,” was my answer, “but look at that and say nothing;” so I pulled out of my pocket a letter that had been franked to me by the earl. The letter was from James Portoport, his lordship’s butler, who had been a waiter with Mrs Pawkie’s mother, and he was inclosing to me a five-pound note to be given to an auld aunty that was in need. But the dean of guild knew nothing of our correspondence, nor was it required that he should. However, when he saw my lord’s franking, he said, “Are the boroughs, then, really and truly to be contested?”
“Come into the shop, Mr M’Lucre,” said I sedately; “come in, and hear what I have to say.”
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