In testimony of the admiration of his ability as a statesman, and of the manner in which he has discharged the functional pertaining to the high offices of Viceroy of India, Governor General of Canada, and British Ambassador to various courts in Europe.
"To be a citizen of Edinburgh, a city whose beauty is unrivalled amongst the capitals of Europe, the home and the birthplace of so, many famous men, whose every stone is redolent with the martial deeds of your ancestors, and with the music of a hundred romantic ballads, is in itself an honour of which anyone might be proud.
Like the sea-shell which, however far removed from its native element, still re-echoes the murmur of the ocean, so all my life long I have been conscious of an instinctive love and veneration for Scotland and everything Scottish - for its Doric dialect, for its patriotic songs, for the magnificent episodes embodied in its national annals, and, above all, for that masculine fibre, so susceptible, however, of every tender emotion, of its noble and valiant people. Furthermore, I acknowledge with gratitude that it is to your great novelist that I am indebted for the birth within my breast of those sentiments of chivalry and honour which are the best safeguards of youth and afford such a stable standard of conduct for our maturer years."