Ah! but thousands of Scotch, and particularly the Charlie o'er the
water people, will say, "We didn't sell Willie Wallace, it was our
forbears who sold Willie Wallace--If Edward Longshanks had asked us
to sell Wullie Wallace, we would soon have shown him that--" Lord
better ye, ye poor trumpery set of creatures, ye would not have
acted a bit better than your forefathers; remember how ye have ever
treated the few amongst ye who, though born in the kennel, have
shown something of the spirit of the wood. Many of ye are still
alive who delivered over men, quite as honest and patriotic as
William Wallace, into the hands of an English minister, to be
chained and transported for merely venturing to speak and write in
the cause of humanity, at the time when Europe was beginning to
fling off the chains imposed by kings and priests. And it is not
so very long since Burns, to whom ye are now building up obelisks
rather higher than he deserves, was permitted by his countrymen to
die in poverty and misery, because he would not join with them in
songs of adulation to kings and the trumpery great. So say not
that ye would have acted with respect to William Wallace one whit
better than your fathers--and you in particular, ye children of
Charlie, whom do ye write nonsense-verses about? A family of
dastard despots, who did their best, during a century and more, to
tread out the few sparks of independent feeling still glowing in
Scotland--but enough has been said about ye.
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