Note 7 — Chapter XIV
Reading edition
Well known as Gilfillan's song is among ourselves, it is much less so to the south of the Border, and I present it to my English readers, as a worthy representative, in these latter days, of those ludicrous songs of our country in the olden time which are so admirably suited to show, notwithstanding the gibe of Goldsmith,
"That a Scot may have humour, I almost said wit."
THE TAX-GATHERER. Oh! do you ken Peter, the taxman an' writer? Ye're well aff wha ken naething 'bout him ava; They ca' him Inspector, or Poor's Rate Collector— My faith! he's weel kent in Leith, Peter M'Craw! He ca's and he comes again—haws, and he hums again— He's only ae hand, but it's as good as twa; He pu's't out and raxes, an' draws in the taxes, An' pouches the siller—shame! Peter M'Craw! He'll be at your door by daylight on a Monday, On Tyesday ye're favoured again wi' a ca'; E'en a slee look he gied me at kirk the last Sunday, Whilk meant—"Mind the preachin' an' Peter M'Craw." He glowrs at my auld door as if he had made it; He keeks through the keyhole when I am awa'; He'll syne read the auld stane, that tells a' wha read it, To "Blisse God for a' giftes,"[A]—but Peter M'Craw! His sma' papers neatly are 'ranged a' completely, That yours, for a wonder, 's the first on the raw! There's nae jinkin' Peter, nae antelope's fleeter; Nae cuttin' acquaintance wi' Peter M'Craw! 'Twas just Friday e'enin', Auld Reekie I'd been in, I'd gatten a shillin'—I maybe gat twa; I thought to be happy wi' friends ower a drappie, When wha suld come papin—but Peter M'Craw? There's houp o' a ship though she's sair pressed wi' dangere, An' roun' her frail timmers the angry winds blaw; I've aften gat kindness unlocked for frae strangers, But wha need houp kindness frae Peter M'Craw? I've kent a man pardoned when just at the gallows— I've kent a chiel honest whase trade was the law! I've kent fortune's smile even fa' on gude fallows; But I ne'er kent exception wi' Peter M'Craw! Our toun, yince sae cheerie, is dowie an' eerie; Our shippies hae left us, our trade is awa'; There's nae fair maids strayin', nae wee bairnies playin; Ye've muckle to answer for, Peter M'Craw! But what gude o' greevin' as lang's we are leevin'? My banes I'll soon lay within yon kirk-yard wa'; There nae care shall press me, nae taxes distress me, For there I'll be free frae thee—Peter M'Craw!
[A] A devout legend, common in the seventeenth century above the entrance of houses.
[8] The act for manumitting our Scotch colliers was passed in the year 1775, forty-nine years prior to the date of my acquaintance with the class at Niddry. But though it was only such colliers of the village as were in their fiftieth year when I knew them (with, of course, all the older ones), who had been born slaves, even its men of thirty had actually, though not nominally, come into the world in a state of bondage, in consequence of certain penalties attached to the emancipating act, of which the poor ignorant workers under ground were both too improvident and too little ingenious to keep clear. They were set free, however, by a second act passed in 1799. The language of both these acts, regarded as British ones of the latter half of the last century, and as bearing reference to British subjects living within the limits of the island, strikes with startling effect. "Whereas," says the preamble of the older act—that of 1775—"by the statute law of Scotland, as explained by the judges of the courts of law there, many colliers, and coal-bearers, and salters, are in a state of slavery or bondage, bound to the collieries or salt-works where they work for life, transferable with the collieries and salt-works; and whereas the emancipating," &c. &c. A passage in the preamble of the act of 1799 is scarce less striking: it declares that, notwithstanding the former act, "many colliers and coal-bearers still continue in a state of bondage" in Scotland. The history of our Scotch colliers will be found a curious and instructive one. Their slavery seems not to have been derived from the ancient tunes of general serfship, but to have originated in comparatively modern acts of the Scottish Parliament, and in decisions of the Court of Session—in acts of a Parliament in which the poor ignorant subterranean men of the country were, of course, wholly unrepresented, and in decisions of a Court in which no agent of theirs ever made appearance in their behalf.