In testimony of the respect and esteem of the Magistrates and Council and the Community for his personal character. and in recognition of his long career as a Statesman and distinguished Scotsman, his eminent public service, and his high position as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
"We are living in days when heart-searchings, sometimes carried to morbid lengths, are rather fashionable. In the South we hear of a Celtic invasion and in the North the cry is raised that Scotland is being anglicised. In every sort of union there must be some give and take; but, so far as I can see, Scotland is Scotland still, and the Scot, so far from being de-scotticised, still loves his country, has in him the old, stubborn, ever-turbulent spirit and is still devoted to things of the mind. He has met with success - he is often gibed at and mocked on that account - but success has not effaced his ancient characteristics or vulgarised or debased the type. If his speech is nearer to English than it once was, he can still read Robert Burns and on occasion recite him intelligibly. Here in Edinburgh, where one would expect, if anywhere, to detect signs of national decay or backsliding, you will find a centre of learning and cultivation, a home of the arts, great lawyers, doctors, teachers, and a spacious and dignified common life, not unworthy of the high traditions and associations of this ancient capital.
We owe much to the wisdom and foresight of the bygone custodians of the city, and we thank them for their planning of this new town. And this heritage which the custodians of what is known among us as "the common good" have handed down, you, the municipality, will guard with jealousy as nothing less than a national trust. Depend upon it, that in maintaining and adorning and equipping this, our national capital, you are helping to promote the development of our own literature, our own art, our own industries, and our own national life, and you are doing what can be done to check and neutralise the natural, but in many ways mischievous, tendency to absorption and eclipse by the greater Imperial metropolis on the Thames."