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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 76

Old System of Municipal Government

Old System of Municipal Government.

Public order was supposed to be preserved by a very few Town's Officers, mostly elderly men, and at night by watchmen, who carried big lanterns and rattles, so that disturbers of the peace could always know how to avoid them. Any one wearing a beard in those days would have been looked upon as a strange animal, and smoking in public was not considered to be respectable. My eldest brother became Provost of Dundee under the present régime, and was much esteemed for his services to the town, to the Infirmary, and to other benevolent Institutions, as well as to the cause of temperance. I believe that I am the oldest on the list of Life Governors of the Dundee Infirmary now living. Like most lads leaving school, I had a strong wish to see something of the world, and, as will be seen afterwards, that desire was amply gratified. Two of my brothers had been successful as commanders of vessels in Indian seas, and I determined to try my fortune in the same lucrative direction—beginning, however, by voyages to the Baltic, the first being in what was called the fall of the year. I was placed as