218 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
them to adjourn. It must be regarded as proving how thoroughly the cruel wrongs which
the Scottish Covenanters had suffered at the hands of their persecutors during the reign
of Charles 11. were laid to the charge of the active agents in their execution, that the
statue of that “ Monarch of Misrule ” survived the rabblements of this period, and still
graces the area of the Parliament Close,
The name
that still survives all other memorials of the Scottish hierarchy, recalls the time when
“ the honours ” of the kingdom were laid on the table, and the Lord High Commissioner
occupied the throne as the representative of majesty, while the eloquent Belhaven, the
astute and wary Lockhart, and the nervous Fletcher, pleaded for the ancient privileges
of their country, and denounced the measure that was to close its Legislative Hall for
ever. Many an ardent patriotic heart throbbed amid the dense crowd that daily assembled
in the Parliament Close, to watch the decision of the Scottish Estates on the detested
scheme of Union with England. Again ahd again its fate trembled in the balance,
but, happily for Scotland, English bribes outweighed the mistaken zeal of Scottish
patriotism and Jacobitism united against the measure. On the 25th March 1707, the
Treaty of Union was ratified by the Estates, and on the 22d April following, the
Parliament of Scotland adjourned, never again to assemble. The Lord Chancellor
Seafield, the chief agent in this closing scene of our national legislature, exclaimed on
its accomplishment, with heartless levity, ‘‘ There is an end of an auld sang ; ” but the
people brooded over the act as a national indignity and wrong; and the legitimate line
of their old Scottish kings anew found favour in their eyes, and became the centre of
hope to many who mourned over Scotland as .a degraded province of her old southern
rival.
Since then the ancient hall retains only such associations as belong to men eminent
for learning, or high in reputation among the members of the College of Justice. Duncan
Forbes, Lord Kames, Monboddo, Hume, Erskine, Mackenzie, and indeed nearly all the
men of note in Scottish literature,-if we except her divines,-have formed a part of the
busy throng that gave life and interest to Scotland’s Westminster Hall. Our own generation
has witnessed there Cockburn, Brougham, Horner, Jeffrey, and Scott, sharing in the
grave offices of the Court, or taking a part in the broad humour and wit for which the
members of “ the Faculty ” are so celebrated ; and still the visitor to this learned and
literary lounge cannot fail to be gratified in a high degree, while watching the different
groups who gather in the Hall, and noting the lines of thought or humour, and the
infinite variety of physiognomy, for which the wigged and gowned loiterers of the Law
Courts are peculiarly famed.
Among the more homely associations of the Old Parliament Close, the festivities of
the King’s birthday demand a special notice, as perhaps the most popular among the longcherished
customs of our ancestors, which the present generation has beheld gradually expire.
It was usual on this annual festival to have a public repast in the Parliament Hall, where
tables were laid out at the expense of the city, covered with wine and confeotions, and the
magistrates, judges, and nearly all the chief citizens, assembled for what was styled “ the
drinking of the King’s health.” On the morning of this joyous holiday the statue of King
Charles wa8 gaily decorated with flowers by the L L Add Gallants,” as the e’lhes of Heriot’s
The Old Parliament House witnessed thenceforth more legitimate scenes.
