In recognition of his eminent services to the country and in an especial manner of his great and successful efforts in the advancement of the cause of national education
"I am not here to compliment you; I am only saying what every man, woman and child knows throughout the islands of the part Edinburgh has taken in our common history. The beauty of your town, its associations and its traditions, the culture of its inhabitants, how you have led the way in imagination and in science, in poetry and in philosophy, how above all you have stood out valiantly for freedom and for independence - are part of our common history. You helped our common history almost as much by what you did against the men over the Border, by showing those virtues of courage and of sympathy one with another as you have helped us since that blessed union which has enabled us to be completely one country."