He consequently proceeded to Scotland, in November, where
such an ovation was given him as has never been accorded to any man in
modern times. During the period of three weeks he addressed meetings
numbering seventy-five thousand people, while a quarter of a million of
people, with every exhibition of good-will and admiration, took part in
some way in the demonstration in his honor. In this canvass of
delivering political speeches he performed an oratorical and
intellectual feat unparalleled in the history of any statesman who had
attained his seventieth year. Mr. Gladstone addressed large concourses
of people. When he reached Edinburgh, "his progress was as the progress
of a nation's guest, or a king returning to his own again."
Midlothian, the scene of Mr. Gladstone's astonishing exertions, was one
of the Conservative strongholds, under the dominent influence of the
Duke of Buccleuch, whose son, Lord Dalkeith, Mr. Gladstone opposed in
contesting for the representation in Parliament. Mr. Gladstone said:
"Being a man of Scotch blood, I am very much attached to Scotland, and
like even the Scottish accent," and he afterwards said, "and Scotland
showed herself equally proud of her son." He spoke at Edinburgh,
November 26th, and on the following day at Dalkeith, in the very heart
of the Duke of Buccleuch's own property to an audience of three thousand
people, mostly agriculturists.
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