"SCOTLAND AND HER SONS."

Auckland Star, Issue 1729, 2 September 1875, Page 2

"SCOTLAND AND HER SONS."

The Rev. Wm. Tinsley delivered his pro-: mised oration, last evening in the Edwardesstreet Chapel on " Scotland and her Sons.' Colonel Haultain occupied the chair, supported by Rev. W. Harris, of Sheridanstreet. There was a large attendance of' persons, who listened patiently for two hours on Mr Tinsley's masterly oration,; which was eloquent throughout, and, delivered without a single note. Indeed we1 have nothing equal to this oration since the Rev. Charles Clark dealt in the same way with the lives and works of Goldsmith and Dickens. The chairman remarked upon the, fact that both he and the lecturer were Englishmen, still he had no doubt about the lecturer's capabilities of dealing fairly writhe subject he had taken in hand. Mr. Tinsley commenced with the earliest glimpses of Scotland's history, and even to a period i when darkness overshadows the valleys, andfl sketched the old castles and ruins wherelordly guests keot high festival, but whey the bat and owl now revel among moulderi? battlements. T{ie history of the early S% might be read in these ruins, in mouy qj 7 passes, deep morasses, and on the mars^mitwl] flowing streams ; also, in the relics w^___X__j been discovered in various parts: f- gjr*' stone, domestic utensils, figures of g^gf" and mortars of stone. He contrastO^ § skin dresses of the ladies of those times^WW the silken habiliments of to-day. eIT knowledge of the uses of metals, the lecturer said, was due to the people of Tyre and Carthage, who, according to tradition, were m

..'habit of visiting Cornwall for exploring £! resources of that English county. He oceedr-d tosketch the invasion of the Romans tier Julius'Csesar, who had seen the white j "?.«■ 0 f Albion, and resolved to erect the I Tmnerial standard in Britain. He then rtnidly reviewed the struggles and petty Lars of the races, and pointed out the civil.gjjjginfluences which lollowed from a higher vilization. He passed on to a description Cl{ the different peoples, Picts, Scots, and Irish Celts which inhabited Scotland, and hewed that "Mac and Pat were cousins." He then touched the ballad love of Scotland with a notice of "Barry the Blind Minstrel," jj 0 immortalised the doings of Wallace, and noticed in order the superstitions which prevailed and the vagaries of the healing art. He then spoke of their kings and martyrs and patriots down to King Bobert Bruce, and the wars between England and Scotland, and the happy re£l^,s °* **c union of the two countries. The growth of religion, its martyrs, and the Covenanters were not overlooked by the lecturer, who wound up his discourse, with a splendid peroration on the genius of Scotland, concluding with three cheers for Scotland and her sons. A vote of thanks to the lecturer was carried by acclamation.