In testimony of the esteem with which he is regarded as a distinguished Scotsman; and of his varied achievements as soldier, statesman, novelist and historian; and in recognition of the high office of Governor-General of Canada recently bestowed upon him by the Crown.
"It is not for me to try and praise Edinburgh. Great writers of poetry and prose have tried to do it, but none of them has said the last word, for Edinburgh is more than the capital of Scotland. It is Scotland itself in miniature, a microcosm of our land, and its history is a summary of the story of Scotland. In it we shall find all the things most characteristic of our race - poetry, romance, the colour, the gleams and glooms and shadows, their pride, their long memory, their quixotry, and not least their hard, practical good sense.
Scotland's share in the making and winning of Canada is very characteristic, I think, of her race. It is a platitude to say that they are far-wandering, that, like the Jews, they are spread over the earth and wherever they go get their roots down deep and find a permanent habitation. But, unlike the Jews, they have never lost their homeland, a centre of loyalties which are all the stronger because they can so feel devotion to their new dwelling-place. In that, I think, lies their power - that as a race they can get sustenance both from the new world and from the old. So long as Edinburgh stands on her hills the Scots will never lack their Jerusalem."