The Sun.
London, England, 1803-01-11 00:00:00

EDINBURG!), J. 6.

CITY OF EDINBURGH. ELECTION%

ON Tuesday the Ele&ion of a Member to repre-
sent this City in Parliament, took place in the
Council Chamber. At twelve o'clock the meeting
was constituted by a prayer from the Rev. Dr.
BAIRD; Principal of the University, and one of
the Ministers of the City.
The Right Hon. Lord Viscount MELVILLE, our
late res,peetable Representative, paid a visit to the
Council, and addressed them in the following words :
t I
44 Nty,:t.ol.b PROVOST;

" I have been Wonourecl, by the 'receipt of the
Congratulatory Letter which your Lordship has
addresSed to the In your own name, and that of
the Magistrates and Town Council of the City of
Edinburgh. I would have immediately acknow.
!edged, the receipt of it, if I had not thought it
more respectful to wait the earliest opportunity I
could. have of your being assembled together in
Council, when I might be permitted to make my
;personal acknowledgments for the very flattering
terms in which you have been pleased to address
me,. on occasion of His MAJESTY'S late marks of
favour ~to, me,' and to my family. 1 can assure
you, with great truth, that the acquisition -of a
Peerage was never an object in my contemplation,
with the view of gratifying any personal, vanity of
my own, nor could I have any wish to change
the name I have hitherto borne, descended as I am
from a family, which for ages past has been distin.
guished in the estimation of its Country, and in the
course of that time has enjoyed many signal proofs of
the good will and attachment of its fellow subjects.
In my own person, I was at a very early period of my
life seleded by the partiality, of my native Country,
to be be their Representative in Parliament, and
their original choice was ratified by many succes-
sive unanimous eledions. At a more advanced
period of my public progress, I was, as you so oblig.,
ingly observe in your Letter, sixteen years ago,
called upon by the Metropolis of my Native Land, to
undertake the important trust of representing them
in Parliament, and in many successive and unanimous
elections, you have given public testimony, that no
part of my condud had drawn upon me your displea-
sure or disapprobation. Under these circumstances,
and witlila perkt consciousness in my own breast,
that litiWesier unavailing my exertions may at any
time haVe been in the Public Seryice, there had been
no want Of zeal or anxiety on my part to discharge
my duty ; I was fully prepared, without further re.
ward, to spend the remainder of my days in enjoy-
ing the society of my family and my friends ; and by
what I ha ve‘said, you will be, satisfied, that the dis.
tinguished honours I have obtained, are not the result
of any importunate anxiety on my part ; you will not
however 'conceive, that I value them the Jess on that
account. I receive them with the deepest sense of
gratitude to a gracious Sovereign, who has condo.
scended, in this manner, to mark his approbation of
the public condud of his servant. I trust, that my
posterity, to the latest period, will never lose sight
of the grounds on which these honours have been
conferred on me, nor of the sentiments of loyalty
and gratitude-with which they were originally re.
ceived.

" From the,explanation I have given you of my
feelings on this subject, you will anticipate the sa-
tisfaCtion I have to express, on the grounds and
terms of your congratulation. Your Letter justly
describes the sentiments I entertain on the occa.
sion ; and it is no inconsiderable addition to the
satisfadion I have derived, to be enabled to flat:
ter myself, that His Majesty's favour' is seconded
by the approbation of those, whose duty it has been
to watch, and whose province it has been to witness,
the steps of my political progresi. The timesin which
I have aeled have been critical beyond any former ex-
ample. 'They have been marked by circumstances,
for which no past experience had produced a guide,
and I trust, it is just matter of consolation to those
who have been engaged in the.condutt of public con-
cerns,
.for these nitro years years past,' that, by the good
sense and tiithneAtif their Countrymen, they have
been enabled to preserve entire that Constitution,
which has been exposed to such variety of unex.
ampled dangers.
•
" Having mentioned the Constitution under
which we have, the happiness to live, I trust I
shall not be thought to deviate very far from the
objeCt• of my present Address, if I presume to
trouble you with one observation resulting from
the situation in which I am now placed. I will not
trouble you with any of the particulars of the out,
set of my life ; they are too well known to re-
quire any detail from Me. I content myself' with
barely alluding to them. It has .pleased Provi-
dence to bless my Family with success beyond
my most sanguine expectations. While we, there-
fore, continue to resist the pernicious effeCis of
those frantic principles of ideal, equality, incom-
patible with the government of the world,- and
the just order of human society, let us rejoice in
those sUbstaptial blessings, the 'result of real free.
dom, and of equal laws, which open to the fair
ambition of every British &Midi the means of pur-
suing with success those objects of honour, and
those situations of power, the attainment of which
in other countries rests solely upon a paitial partici-
pation of personal favour,. and the enjoyment
.of
which rests upon the precarious tenure of arbitrary
power.- It is impossible to look round to any
quarter, without seeing splendid examples of the
truth of this remark.

" Before I conclude, allow me to offer you my
best thanks for the very kind'reterence in your
Letter to the interests and prosperity of my family,
and for thelftiendly desire you are pleased to ex.
press, irt-fthitaiicring your connexion with me, al.
thoughnillotitieill- tie" is dissolved by which we
have Wind 'Ocars been united. .1 accept your in-
vitation"With'gratitude and cordiality ; and if, upon
any occasion, you conceive that 1 possess either
abilities or experience thlt can be of use to you,,
yoti are justly entitled to demand the 'aid of their
best exertions in your service'. At the same time,
whatever citcumstances of regret I may on other
grounds feel in the separation which has taken
pine between us, I cannot permit myself to enter.
win sentiments of that kind, from any doubts of
my place, as your Representative, being amply sup.