text:  To whom I would ask but to the peasantry of Scotland does our poet so beautifully appeal as having bled with Wallace? To whom but to our peasantry did our national hero look--and never look in vain--for support in his gallant effort to restore the fallen fortunes of his country at the period when our doughty knights and nobles--happily but for a season--had been reduced by the intrigues or intimidation of our powerful enemy to crouch submissive beneath the throne of his usurpation