Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume 06
General
Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume 06
Scottish Borders (Scotland) -- Fiction
Observe, however, my friends (here said the melancholy gentleman), that,
in speaking of the persecutions I underwent on this occasion, I have
merely selected instances--you are by no means to understand that the
cases just mentioned included all the annoyance I met with on the
subject of my vote. Not at all. I have, as already said, merely
instanced these cases. I was assailed by scores of others in the same
way. Indeed, there was not a day, for upwards of three weeks, that I was
not badgered and abused by somebody or other--ay, and that too, in my
own shop. But my shop was now not worth keeping; for Whig, Tory, and
Radical had deserted me, and left me to the full enjoyment of my
reflections on the course I had pursued. In short, I found that, in
endeavouring to offend no one, I had offended everybody; and that, in
place of securing my own peace, I had taken the most effectual way I
possibly could to make myself unhappy.
Well, in the meantime, you see, my friends (continued the melancholy
gentleman), the election came on, and was gained by the Whig candidate.
The streets were on the occasion paraded by the partisans of each of the
parties; and, as is not unusual in such cases, there was a great deal of
mischief done, and of which, as a sufferer, I came in for a very liberal
share. The Whig mob attacked my shop, and demolished everything in it,
to celebrate their triumph, as they said, by plucking a _hen_--in other
words, one who would not support them. The Tory mob, again, attacked my
house, and smashed every one of my windows, alleging that, as I was not
a Tory, I must be a Whig; and, finally, the third estate came in, and
finished what the other two had left undone, because I was not a
Radical.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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