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diff --git a/29440-h/29440-h.htm b/29440-h/29440-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0ccabc7 --- /dev/null +++ b/29440-h/29440-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,16464 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> +<title> +The Project Gutenberg eBook of Leading Articles on Various Subjects, by Hugh Miller. +</title> + +<style type="text/css"> + p {margin-top: 0.5em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: 0.5em;} + body {margin-left: 11%; margin-right: 10%;} + a {text-decoration: none;} + @media screen { + hr.pb {margin:30px 0; width:100%; border:none;border-top:thin dashed silver;} + .pagenum {display: inline; font-size: x-small; text-align: right; position: absolute; right: 2%; padding: 1px 3px; font-style: normal; font-variant:normal; font-weight:normal; text-decoration: none; background-color: inherit; border:1px solid #eee;} + .pncolor {color: silver;} + } + @media print { + hr.pb {border:none;page-break-after: always;} + .pagenum { display:none; } + } + h3 {font-size:1.2em;} + hr.fn {width:3em; border:none; border-bottom:1px solid black; margin-left:0; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em;} + .trnote {background-color: #EEE; color: inherit; margin: 2em 5% 1em 5%; font-size: 80%; padding: 0.5em 1em 0.5em 1em; border: dotted 1px gray;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .footnote {margin-top:2em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em; border-bottom:dotted 1px gray;} + sup {font-size:90%; line-height:45%; vertical-align:105%; letter-spacing:0.03em;} + ins.trchange {text-decoration: none; border-bottom: thin dotted gray;} + .nowrap {white-space:nowrap;} + .poem {font-size:0.9em; margin-top:1.5em; margin-bottom:1.5em; margin-left:10%;} + h1,h2,h3 {text-align:center; font-weight:normal;} + .fnanchor {font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + .figcenter {margin: 2em auto 2em auto; text-align: center;} + .figtag {height: 1px;} + blockquote {display: block; margin: .75em 10% .75em 5%; font-size:0.9em;} + p.tp {font-size:1em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-align:center;} + .fn_section_h {font-family:sans-serif; font-size:smaller; margin-top:2em} + .caption {font-size:smaller;} + hr.tb {border:none; margin-top: 2em;} + .fnanchor2 {text-decoration: none; font-size:80%; line-height:45%; vertical-align:105%;} + table {text-align:justify;} + .ch_summary {font-size:0.9em; margin:1em 15% 1em 15%; padding: 0.5em 1em 0.5em 1em; border:dotted 1px gray;} + p.h2 {font-size:1.3em; text-align:center; font-weight:normal;} + h1 {font-size:1.5em;} + hr.major {width: 65%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em; border:none; border-bottom:1px solid silver; clear:both;} + span.leadquote {display:inline-block;width:0.5em;} + .smaller {font-size:0.8em} + h2 {font-size:1.3em;} +</style> + +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's Leading Articles on Various Subjects, by Hugh Miller + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Leading Articles on Various Subjects + +Author: Hugh Miller + +Release Date: July 18, 2009 [EBook #29440] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LEADING ARTICLES *** + + + + +Produced by David Clarke, Dan Horwood and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class='figtag'> +<a name='linki_1' id='linki_1'></a> +</div> +<div class='figcenter'> +<img src='images/frontis.jpg' alt='' title='' style='width: 370px; height: 500px;' /><br /> +<p class='caption' style='margin: 0 auto; text-align:center; width: 370px;'> +W. H. M<sup>c</sup>Farlane, <abbr title="Lithographer">Lith<sup>r</sup></abbr> <abbr title="Edinburgh">Edin<sup>r</sup></abbr><br /> +HUGH MILLER<br /> +<i>Fac-simile of a Calotype by D. O. Hill, R. I. A. 1845.<br /> +see <a href="#page_184">page 184</a></i><br /> +</p> +</div> +<hr class='pb' /> +<p style="text-align:center; font-size:0.8em; margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:0em">MURRAY AND GIBB, EDINBURGH,</p> +<p style="text-align:center; font-size:0.8em; margin-top:0em; margin-bottom:2em">PRINTERS TO HER MAJESTY’S STATIONERY OFFICE.</p> +<hr class='pb' /> +<h1><span style="font-variant:small-caps; margin-top:3em">Leading Articles</span></h1> +<h1>ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS.</h1> +<p style="text-align:center; margin-top:4em">BY</p> +<h2 style="margin-bottom:0px">HUGH MILLER,</h2> +<p style="text-align:center; font-size:0.8em; margin-top:0px">AUTHOR OF ‘THE OLD RED SANDSTONE,’ ETC. ETC.</p> +<p style="text-align:center; margin-top:4em"><i>EDITED BY HIS SON-IN-LAW</i>,</p> +<h3>THE REV. JOHN DAVIDSON.</h3> +<p style="text-align:center;margin-bottom:3em; margin-top:3em"><i>FOURTH EDITION.</i></p> +<h3 style="margin-bottom:0px">EDINBURGH:</h3> +<h2 style="margin-bottom:0px; margin-top:0px; letter-spacing:.2em">WILLIAM P. NIMMO.</h2> +<h3 style="margin-top:0px">1872.</h3> +<hr class='pb' /> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_v' name='page_v'></a>v</span></div> +<h2>PREFACE.</h2> +<p>The present volume is issued in compliance with the strong +solicitations of many, to whose desire deference was due. +In selecting the articles, I have been guided mainly by two +considerations,––namely, the necessity for reproducing the +mature opinion of a great mind, upon great subjects; and +for making the selection so varied, as to convey to the +reader some idea of the wonderful versatility of the powers +which could treat subjects so diverse in their nature with +such uniform eloquence and discrimination. I trust that +the chapters on Education will prove to be a valuable contribution +to the speedy settlement of that question at the +present crisis. Those on Sutherlandshire are inserted +because they possess a permanent value, in connection +with the social and economical history of our country. +Some of the articles are of a personal character, and +are introduced, not, certainly, for the purpose of recalling +old animosities, but solely to illustrate the author’s +method of using some of the more formidable figures +of speech; while over against these may be set some on +purely literary subjects, which show the genial tenderness +of his disposition towards those who aspired to serve God +and their generation by giving to the world the fruit of +their imagination, their labour, and their leisure. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_vi' name='page_vi'></a>vi</span></p> +<p>I have not determined the selection without securing the +counsel and approval of men on whose judgment I could +rely. It only remains for me to thank them, and in an +especial way to thank Mr. D. O. Hill for the portrait +which forms the frontispiece. An impersonal reference to +a similar portrait taken at the same time will be found at +page 184, in the article on ‘The Calotype.’</p> +<p style="text-align:right; margin-right:3em"><span style="font-variant:small-caps">John Davidson.</span></p> +<p style="margin-left:2em; font-size:0.8em"><i>London, March 8, 1870.</i></p> +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> +<table border='0' cellpadding='2' cellspacing='0' summary='Contents' style='margin:1em auto;'> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'></td> + <td valign='top' align='right'>PAGE</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>THOUGHTS ON THE EDUCATIONAL QUESTION,</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#INTRODUCTORY_NOTE_TO_THOUGHTS_ON_THE_EDUCATIONAL_QUESTION'>1</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>LORD BROUGHAM,</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#LORD_BROUGHAM'>105</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>THE SCOTT MONUMENT,</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#THE_SCOTT_MONUMENT'>111</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>THE LATE MR. KEMP,</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#THE_LATE_MR_KEMP'>119</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>ANNIE M’DONALD AND THE FIFESHIRE FORESTER,</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#ANNIE_MDONALD_AND_THE_FIFESHIRE_FORESTER'>123</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>A HIGHLAND CLEARING,</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#A_HIGHLAND_CLEARING'>136</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>THE POET MONTGOMERY,</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#THE_POET_MONTGOMERY'>146</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>CRITICISM––INTERNAL EVIDENCE,</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CRITICISMINTERNAL_EVIDENCE'>151</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>THE SANCTITIES OF MATTER,</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#THE_SANCTITIES_OF_MATTER'>161</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>THE LATE REV. ALEXANDER STEWART,</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#THE_LATE_REV_ALEXANDER_STEWART'>170</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>THE CALOTYPE,</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#THE_CALOTYPE'>179</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>THE TENANT’S TRUE QUARREL,</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#THE_TENANTS_TRUE_QUARREL'>190</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>CONCLUSION OF THE WAR IN AFFGHANISTAN,</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CONCLUSION_OF_THE_WAR_IN_AFFGHANISTAN'>199</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>PERIODICALISM,</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#PERIODICALISM'>206</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>‘ANNUS MIRABILIS,’</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#ANNUS_MIRABILIS'>215</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>EFFECTS OF RELIGIOUS DISUNION ON COLONIZATION,</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#EFFECTS_OF_RELIGIOUS_DISUNION_ON_COLONIZATION'>223</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>FINE-BODYISM,</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#FINEBODYISM'>232</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>ORGANSHIP,</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#ORGANSHIP'>240</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>BAILLIE’S LETTERS AND JOURNALS,</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#BAILLIES_LETTERS_AND_JOURNALS'>249</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>FIRST PRINCIPLES,</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#FIRST_PRINCIPLES'>262</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>AN UNSPOKEN SPEECH,</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#AN_UNSPOKEN_SPEECH'>269</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>DISRUPTION PRINCIPLES,</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#DISRUPTION_PRINCIPLES'>280</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CRIMEAN WAR,</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHARACTERISTICS_OF_THE_CRIMEAN_WAR'>293</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>THE POETS OF THE CHURCH,</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#THE_POETS_OF_THE_CHURCH'>302</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>THE ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA,</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#THE_ENCYCLOPDIA_BRITANNICA'>315</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>A VISION OF THE RAILROAD,</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#A_VISION_OF_THE_RAILROAD'>327</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>THE TWO MR. CLARKS,</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#THE_TWO_MR_CLARKS'>337</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>PULPIT DUTIES NOT SECONDARY,</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#PULPIT_DUTIES_NOT_SECONDARY'>358</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>DUGALD STEWART,</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#DUGALD_STEWART'>369</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>OUR TOWN COUNCILS,</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#OUR_TOWN_COUNCILS'>378</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'>SUTHERLAND AS IT WAS AND IS; OR, HOW A COUNTRY MAY BE RUINED,</td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#SUTHERLAND_AS_IT_WAS_AND_IS1_OR_HOW_A_COUNTRY_MAY_BE_RUINED'>388</a></td> +</tr> +</table> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_1' name='page_1'></a>1</span> +<a name='INTRODUCTORY_NOTE_TO_THOUGHTS_ON_THE_EDUCATIONAL_QUESTION' id='INTRODUCTORY_NOTE_TO_THOUGHTS_ON_THE_EDUCATIONAL_QUESTION'></a> +<h2>INTRODUCTORY NOTE<br />TO<br />THOUGHTS ON THE EDUCATIONAL QUESTION.</h2> +</div> +<p>The following chapters on the Educational Question first +appeared as a series of articles in the <i>Witness</i> newspaper. +They present, in consequence, a certain amount of digression, +and occasional re-statement and explanation, which, +had they been published simultaneously, as parts of a whole, +they would not have exhibited. The controversy was vital +and active at every stage of their appearance. Statements +made and principles laid down in the earlier articles had, +from the circumstance that their truth had been questioned +or their soundness challenged, to be re-asserted and maintained +in those which followed; and hence some little +derangement in the management of the question, for which, +however, the interest which must always attach to a real +conflict may be found to compensate. That portion of the +controversy, however, which arose out of one of the articles +of the series, and which some have deemed personal, has +been struck out of the published edition of the pamphlet, +and retained in but an inconsiderable number of copies, +placed in the hands of a few friends. In omitting it where +it has been omitted, the writer has acted on the advice of +a gentleman for whose judgment he entertains the most +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_2' name='page_2'></a>2</span> +thorough respect, and from a desire that the general argument +should not be prejudiced by a matter naturally, but +not necessarily, connected with it. And in retaining it +where it has been retained, he has done so in the full expectation +of a time not very distant, when it will be decided +that he has neither outraged the ordinary courtesies of controversy, +nor taken up a false line of inference or statement; +and when the importance of the subject discussed will be +regarded as quite considerable enough to make any one +earnest, without the necessity of supposing that he had been +previously angry.</p> +<p>It is all-important, that on the general question of +National Education, the Free Church should take up her +position wisely. Majorities in her courts, however overwhelming, +will little avail her, if their findings fail to recommend +themselves to the good sense of her people, or are +palpably unsuited to the emergencies of the time. A +powerful writer of the present age employs, in one of his +illustrations, the bold figure of a ship’s crew, that, with the +difficulties of Cape Horn full before them, content themselves +with instituting aboard their vessel a constitutional +system of voting, and who find delight in contemplating the +unanimity which prevails on matters in general, both above +decks and below. ‘But your ship,’ says Carlyle, ‘cannot +double Cape Horn by its excellent plans of voting: the +ship, to get round Cape Horn, will find a set of conditions +already voted for, and fixed with adamantine rigour, by the +ancient Elemental Powers, who are entirely careless how +you vote. If you can by voting, or without voting, ascertain +these conditions, and valiantly conform to them, you +will get round the Cape: if you cannot, the ruffian Winds +will blow you ever back again; the inexorable Icebergs, +dumb privy councillors from Chaos, will nudge you with +most chaotic admonition; you will be flung half-frozen on +the Patagonian cliffs, or jostled into shivers by your iceberg +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_3' name='page_3'></a>3</span> +councillors, and will never get round Cape Horn at all.’ +Now there is much meaning couched in this quaint figure, +and meaning which the Free Church would do well to +ponder. There are many questions on which she could +perhaps secure a majority, which yet that majority would +utterly fail to carry. On the question of College Extension, +for instance, she might be able to vote, if she but selected +her elders with some little care, that there should be full +staffs of theological professors at Glasgow and Aberdeen. +But what would her votes succeed in achieving? Not, +assuredly, the doubling of the Cape; but the certainty of +shivering her all-important Educational Institute on three +inexorable icebergs. In the first place, her magnificent +metropolitan College, like that huge long boat, famous in +story, which Robinson Crusoe was able to build, but wholly +unable to launch, would change from being what it now is––a +trophy of her liberality and wisdom––into a magnificent +monument of her folly. In the second place, she would +have to break faith with her existing professors, and to +argue, mayhap, when they were becoming thin and seedy, +and getting into debt, that she was not morally bound to +them for their salaries. And, in the third and last place, +she would infallibly secure that, some twenty years hence +at furthest, every theological professor of the Free Church +should be a pluralist, and able to give to his lectures merely +those fag-ends of his time which he could snatch from the +duties of the pulpit and the care of his flock. And such, +in doubling the Cape Horn of the College question, is all +that unanimity of voting could secure to the Church; +unless, indeed, according to Carlyle, she voted in accordance +with the ‘set of conditions already voted for and fixed +by the adamantine powers.’</p> +<p>Nor does the question of Denominational Education, +now that there is a national scheme in the field, furnish a +more, but, on the contrary, a much less, hopeful subject for +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_4' name='page_4'></a>4</span> +mere voting in our church courts, than the question of +College Extension. It is <i>not</i> to be carried by ecclesiastical +majorities. Some of the most important facts in the ‘Ten +Years’ Conflict’ have perhaps still to be recorded; and it is +one of these, that long after the Non-Intrusion party possessed +majorities in the General Assembly, the laity looked +on with exceedingly little interest, much possessed by the +suspicion that the clergy were battling, not on the popular +behalf, but on their own. Even in 1839, after the Auchterarder +case had been decided in the House of Lords, the +apathy seemed little disturbed; and the writer of these +chapters, when engaged in doing his little all to dissipate it, +could address a friend in Edinburgh, to whom he forwarded +the MS. of a pamphlet thrown into the form of a letter to +Lord Brougham, in the following terms:––‘The question +which at present agitates the Church is a vital one; and +unless the people can be roused to take part in it (and they +seem strangely uninformed and wofully indifferent as yet), +the worst cause must inevitably prevail. They may perhaps +listen to one of their own body, who combines the +principles of the old with the opinions of the modern Whig, +and who, though he feels strongly on the question, has no +secular interest involved in it.’ It was about this time that +Dr. George Cook said––and, we have no doubt, said truly––that +he could scarce enter an inn or a stage-coach without +finding respectable men inveighing against the utter folly of +the Non-Intrusionists, and the worse than madness of the +church courts. For the opponents of the party were all +active and awake at the time, and its incipient friends still +indifferent or mistrustful. The history of Church petitions +in Edinburgh during the ten eventful years of the war brings +out this fact very significantly in the statistical form. From +1833, the year of the Veto Act, to 1839, the year of the +Auchterarder decision, petitions to Parliament from Edinburgh +on behalf of the struggling Church were usually +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_5' name='page_5'></a>5</span> +signed by not more than from four to five thousand persons. +In 1839 the number rose to six thousand. The people +began gradually to awaken, and to trust. Speeches in +church courts were found to have comparatively little +influence in creating opinion, or ecclesiastical votes in +securing confidence; and so there were other means of +appealing to the public mind resorted to, mayhap not +wholly without effect: for in 1840 the annual Church petition +from Edinburgh bore attached to it thirteen thousand +signatures; and to that of the following year (1841) the +very extraordinary number of twenty-five thousand was appended. +And, save for the result, general over Scotland, +which we find thus indicated by the Church petitions of +Edinburgh, the Disruption, and especially the origination +of a Free Church, would have been impossible events. +How, we ask, was that result produced? Not, certainly, +by the votes of ecclesiastical courts,––for mere votes +would never have doubled the Cape Horn of the Church +question; but simply through the conviction at length +effectually wrought in the public mind, that our ministers +were struggling and suffering, not for clerical privileges, but +for popular rights,––not for themselves, but for others. +And that conviction once firmly entertained, the movement +waxed formidable; for elsewhere, as in the metropolis, +popular support increased at least fivefold; and the question, +previously narrow of base, and very much restricted to +one order of men, became broad as the Scottish nation, and +deep as the feelings of the Scottish people. But as certainly +as the component strands of a cable that have been twisted +into strength and coherency by one series of workings, +may be untwisted into loose and feeble threads by another, +so certainly may the majorities of our church courts, by +a reversal of the charm which won for them the element +of popular strength, render themselves of small account +in the nation. They became strong by advocating, in the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_6' name='page_6'></a>6</span> +Patronage question, popular rights, in opposition to clerical +interests: they may and will become weak, if in the Educational +one they reverse the process, and advocate clerical +interests in opposition to popular rights.</p> +<p>Their country is perishing for lack of a knowledge which +they cannot supply. Every seven years––the brief term +during which, if a generation fail to be educated, the opportunity +of education for ever passes away––there are from a +hundred and fifty to two hundred thousand of the youth of +Scotland added to the adult community in an untaught, +uninformed condition. Nor need we say in how frightful a +ratio their numbers must increase. The ignorant children +of the present will become the improvident and careless +parents of the future; and how improvident and careless +the corresponding class which already exists among us +always approves itself to be, let our prisons and workhouses +tell. Our country, with all its churches, must inevitably +founder among the nations, like a water-logged vessel in a +tempest, if this state of matters be permitted to continue. +And why permit it to continue? Be it remembered that +it is the <i>national</i> schools––those schools which are the +people’s own, and are yet withheld from them––and not the +schools of the Free Church, which it is the object of the +Educational movement to open up and extend. Nor is it +proposed to open them up on a new principle. It is an +unchallenged fact, that there exists no statutory provision +for the teaching of religion <i>in them</i>. All that is really +wanted is, to transfer them on their present statutory basis +from the few to the many,––from Moderate ministers and +Episcopalian heritors, to a people essentially sound in the +faith––Presbyterian in the proportion of at least <i>six</i> to one, +and Evangelical in the proportion of at least <i>two</i> to one. +And at no distant day this transference must and will take +place, if the ministers of the Free Church do not virtually +join their forces to their brethren of the Establishment in +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_7' name='page_7'></a>7</span> +behalf of an alleged ecclesiastical privilege nowhere sanctioned +in the word of God.<a name='FNanchor_m017_1' id='FNanchor_m017_1'></a><a href='#Footnote_m017_1' class='fnanchor'>[1]</a></p> +<p>There is another important item in this question, over +which, as already determined by inevitable laws, ecclesiastical +votes, however unanimous, can exert no influence or +control. They cannot ordain that inadequately paid schoolmasters +can be other than inferior educators. If the remuneration +be low, it is impossible by any mere force of +majorities to render the teaching high. There is a law +already ‘voted for’ in the case, which majorities can no +more repeal than they can the law of gravitation. And +here we must take the opportunity of stating––for there +has been misrepresentation on the point––what our interest +in the teachers of Scotland and of the Free Church +really is. Certainly not indifferent to their comfort as men, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_8' name='page_8'></a>8</span> +or to the welfare of their profession, as one of the most +important and yet worst remunerated in the community, +we frankly confess that we look to something greatly higher +than either their comfort or the professional welfare in +general. They and their profession are but <i>means</i>; and it +is to the <i>end</i> that we mainly look,––that end being the right +education of the Scottish people, and their consequent +elevation in the scale, moral and intellectual. We would +deal by the teachers of the country in this matter as we +would by the stone-cutters of Edinburgh, were we entrusted +with the erection of some such exquisite piece of masonry +as the Scott Monument, or that fine building recently completed +in St. Andrew Square. Instead of pitching our +scale of remuneration at the rate of labourers’ wages, we +would at once pitch it at the highest rate assigned to the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_9' name='page_9'></a>9</span> +skilled mechanic; and this not in order, primarily at least, +that the masons engaged should be comfortable, but in +order that they should be masters of their profession, and +that their work should be of the completest and most +finished kind. For labourers’ wages would secure the +services of only bungling workmen, and lead to the production +of only inferior masonry. And such is the principle +on which we would befriend our poor schoolmasters,––not +so much for their own sakes, as for the sake of their work. +Further, however, it is surely of importance that, when +engaged in teaching religion, they themselves should be +enabled, in conformity with one of its injunctions, to ‘provide +things honest in the sight of all men.’ Nay, of nothing +are we more certain, than that the Church has only to +exert herself to the extent of the liabilities already incurred +to her teachers, in order to be convinced of the absolute +necessity which exists for a broad national scheme. Any +doubts which she may at present entertain regarding the +question of the <i>necessity</i>, are, in part at least, effects of her +lax views respecting the question of the <i>liability</i>, and of her +consequent belief that <i>anything well divided</i> is sufficient to +discharge it. At the same time, however, it would be +perhaps well that at least our better-paid schoolmasters +should be made to reflect that the circumstances of their +position are very peculiar; and that should they take a +zealous part against what a preponderating majority of the +laity of their Church must of necessity come to regard as +the cause of their country, their opposition, though utterly +uninfluential in the general struggle, may prove thoroughly +effectual in injuring themselves. For virtually in the Free +Church, as in the British Constitution, it is the ‘<i>Commons</i>’ +who grant the supplies.</p> +<p>We subjoin the paper on the Educational Question, +addressed by Dr. Chalmers to the Hon. Mr. Fox Maule, +as it first appeared in the <i>Witness</i>. The reader will see +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_10' name='page_10'></a>10</span> +that there is direct reference made to it in the following +pages, and will find it better suited to repay careful study +and frequent perusal than perhaps any other document on +the subject ever written:––</p> +<blockquote> +<p>‘It were the best state of things, that we had a Parliament +sufficiently theological to discriminate between the +right and the wrong in religion, and to encourage or endow +accordingly. But failing this, it seems to us the next best +thing, that in any public measure for helping on the education +of the people, Government were to abstain from introducing +the element of religion at all into their part of the +scheme; and this not because they held the matter to be +insignificant,––the contrary might be strongly expressed in +the preamble of their Act,––but on the ground that, in the +present divided state of the Christian world, they would +take no cognizance of, just because they would attempt no +control over, the religion of applicants for aid,––leaving +this matter entire to the parties who had to do with the +erection and management of the schools which they had +been called upon to assist. A grant by the State upon this +footing might be regarded as being appropriately and exclusively +the expression of their value for a good secular +education.</p> +<p>‘The confinement for the time being of any Government +measure for schools to this object we hold to be an imputation, +not so much on the present state of our Legislature, +as on the present state of the Christian world, now broken +up into sects and parties innumerable, and seemingly incapable +of any effort for so healing these wretched divisions +as to present the rulers of our country with aught like such +a clear and unequivocal majority in favour of what is good +and true, as might at once determine them to fix upon and +to espouse it.</p> +<p>‘It is this which has encompassed the Government with +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_11' name='page_11'></a>11</span> +difficulties, from which we can see no other method of extrication +than the one which we have ventured to suggest. +And as there seems no reason why, because of these unresolved +differences, a public measure for the health of all––for +the recreation of all––for the economic advancement +of all––should be held in abeyance, there seems as little +reason why, because of these differences, a public measure +for raising the general intelligence of all should be held in +abeyance. Let the men therefore of all Churches and all +denominations alike hail such a measure, whether as carried +into effect by a good education in letters or in any of the +sciences; and, meanwhile, in these very seminaries let that +education in religion which the Legislature abstains from +providing for, be provided for as freely and as amply as they +will by those who have undertaken the charge of them.</p> +<p>‘We should hope, as the result of such a scheme, for a +most wholesome rivalship on the part of many in the great +aim of rearing on the basis of their respective systems a +moral and Christian population, well taught in the principles +and doctrines of the gospel, along with being well taught in +the lessons of ordinary scholarship. Although no attempt +should be made to regulate or to enforce the lessons of +religion in the inner hall of legislation, this will not prevent, +but rather stimulate, to a greater earnestness in the contest +between truth and falsehood––between light and darkness––in +the outer field of society; nor will the result of such +a contest in favour of what is right and good be at all the +more unlikely, that the families of the land have been raised +by the helping hand of the State to a higher platform than +before, whether as respects their health, or their physical +comfort, or their economic condition, or, last of all, their +place in the scale of intelligence and learning.</p> +<p>‘Religion would, under such a system, be the immediate +product, not of legislation, but of the Christian philanthropic +zeal which obtained throughout society at large. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_12' name='page_12'></a>12</span> +But it is well when what legislation does for the fulfilment +of its object tends not to the impediment, but rather, we +apprehend, to the furtherance, of those greater and higher +objects which are in the contemplation of those whose +desires are chiefly set on the immortal wellbeing of man.</p> +<p>‘On the basis of these general views, I have two remarks +to offer regarding the Government scheme of education.</p> +<p>‘1. I should not require a certificate of satisfaction with +the religious progress of the scholars from the managers of +the schools, in order to their receiving the Government +aid. Such a certificate from Unitarians or Catholics implies +the direct sanction or countenance by Government to +their respective creeds, and the responsibility, not of <i>allowing</i>, +but, more than this, of <i>requiring</i>, that these shall be +taught to the children who attend. A bare allowance is +but a general toleration; but a requirement involves in it +all the mischief, and, I would add, the guilt, of an indiscriminate +endowment for truth and error.</p> +<p>‘2. I would suffer parents or natural guardians to select +what parts of the education they wanted for their children. +I would not force arithmetic upon them, if all they wanted +was reading and writing; and as little would I force the +Catechism, or any part of the religious instruction that was +given in the school, if all they wanted was a secular education. +That the managers of the Church of England schools +shall have the power to impose their own Catechism upon +the children of Dissenters, and, still more, to compel their +attendance on church, I regard as among the worst parts +of the scheme.</p> +<p>‘The above observations, it will be seen, meet any questions +which might be put in regard to the applicability of +the scheme to Scotland, or in regard to the use of the +Douay version in Roman Catholic schools.</p> +<p>‘I cannot conclude without expressing my despair of +any great or general good being effected in the way of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_13' name='page_13'></a>13</span> +Christianizing our population, but through the medium of +a Government themselves Christian, and endowing the true +religion, which I hold to be their imperative duty, not +because it is the religion of the many, but because it is +true.</p> +<p>‘The scheme on which I have now ventured to offer +these few observations I should like to be adopted, not +because it is absolutely the best, but only the best in existing +circumstances.</p> +<p>‘The endowment of the Catholic religion by the State I +should deprecate, as being ruinous to the country in all its +interests. Still I do not look for the general Christianity of +the people, but through the medium of the Christianity of +their rulers. This is a lesson taught <i>historically</i> in Scripture, +by what we read there of the influence which the +personal character of the Jewish monarchs had on the moral +and religious state of their subjects; it is taught <i>experimentally</i>, +by the impotence, now fully established, of the +Voluntary principle; and last, and most decisive of all, it +is taught <i>prophetically</i> in the book of Revelation, when +told that then will the kingdoms of the earth (<i>Basileiai</i>, +or governing powers) become the kingdoms of our Lord +Jesus Christ, or the Governments of the earth become +Christian Governments.</p> +<p style="text-align:right; margin-right:4em;" >(Signed) ‘<span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Thomas <ins class="trchange" title="Added extra closing single-quote">Chalmers.’</ins></span></p> +</blockquote> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_14' name='page_14'></a>14</span></div> +<h2 style="padding-top:2em; padding-bottom:1em;">THOUGHTS<br /> +<span style="font-size:0.8em">ON</span><br /> +THE EDUCATIONAL QUESTION.</h2> +<h3>CHAPTER FIRST.</h3> +<p class="ch_summary" >Disputes regarding the meaning embodied by Chalmers in his Educational Document––Narrative +suited to throw some light on the subject––Consideration of the +Document itself––Testimony respecting it of the Hon. Mr. Fox Maule.</p> +<p>One of the most important controversies which has arisen +within the pale of the Romish Church––that between the +Jansenists and Jesuits––was made to hinge for many years +on a case of disputed meaning in the writings of a certain +deceased author. There were five doctrines of a well-defined +character which, the Jesuits said, were to be found +in the works of Cornelius Jansenius, umquhile Bishop of +Ypres, but which, the Jansenists asserted, were not to be +found in anything Jansenius had ever written. And in the +attempt to decide this simple question of fact, as Pascal +calls it, the School of the Sorbonne and the Court of the +Inquisition were completely baffled; and zealous Roman +Catholics heard without conviction the verdict of councils, +and failed to acquiesce in the judgment of even the Pope.</p> +<p>We have been reminded oftener than once of this singular +controversy, by the late discussions which have arisen +in our church courts regarding the meaning embodied by +Chalmers in that posthumous document on the Educational +question, which is destined, we hold, to settle the whole +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_15' name='page_15'></a>15</span> +controversy. At first we regarded it as matter of wonder +that such discussions should have arisen; for we had held +that there was really little room for difference respecting +the meaning of Chalmers,––a man whose nature it was to +deal with broad truths, not with little distinctions; and +who had always the will, and certainly did not lack the +ability, of making himself thoroughly understood. We +have since thought, however, that as there is nothing +which has once occurred that may not occur again, what +happened to the writings of Jansenius might well happen +to one of the writings of Chalmers; and further, that from +certain conversations which we had held with the illustrious +deceased a few months before his death, on the subject of +his paper, and from certain facts in our possession regarding +his views, we had spectacles through which to look at the +document in question, and a key to his meaning, which +most of the disputants wanted. The time has at length +come when these helps to the right understanding of so +great an authority should be no longer withheld from the +public. We shall betray no confidence; and should we be +compelled to speak somewhat more in the first person, +and of ourselves, than may seem quite accordant with good +taste, our readers will, we trust, suffer us to remind them +that we do not commit the fault very often, or very offensively, +and that the present employment of the personal +pronoun, just a little modified by the editorial <i>we</i>, seems +inevitably incident to the special line of statement on which +we propose to enter.</p> +<p>During the greater part of the years 1845 and 1846, the +Editor of the <i>Witness</i> was set aside from his professional +labours by a protracted illness, in part at least an effect of +the perhaps too assiduous prosecution of these labours at +a previous period. He had to cease per force even from +taking a very fixed view of what the Church was doing or +purposing; and when, early in January 1847, he returned, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_16' name='page_16'></a>16</span> +after a long and dreary period of rustication, in improved +health to Edinburgh, he at least possessed the advantage––much +prized by artists and authors in their respective walks––of +being able to look over the length and breadth of his +subject with a <i>fresh</i> eye. And, in doing so, there was one +special circumstance in the survey suited to excite some +alarm. We found that in all the various schemes of the +Free Church, with but one exception, its extensively spread +membership and its more active leaders were thoroughly at +one; but that in that exceptional scheme they were not at +all at one. They were at one in their views respecting +the ecclesiastical character of ministers, elders, and church +courts, and of the absolute necessity which exists that these, +and these only, should possess the spiritual key. Further, +they were wholly at one in recognising the command of our +adorable Saviour to preach the gospel to all nations, as of +perpetual obligation on the Churches. But regarding what +we shall term, without taking an undue liberty with the language, +the pedagogical teaching of religion, they differed +<i>in toto</i>. Practically, and to all intents and purposes, the +schoolmaster, in the eye of the membership of our Church, +and of the other Scottish Churches, was simply a layman, +the proper business of whose profession was the communication +of secular learning. And as in choosing their tailors +and shoemakers the people selected for themselves the craftsmen +who made the best and handsomest shoes and clothes, +so, in selecting a schoolmaster for their children, they were +sure always to select the teacher who was found to turn out +the best scholars.<a name='FNanchor_0001' id='FNanchor_0001'></a><a href='#Footnote_0001' class='fnanchor'>[2]</a> All other things equal, they would have +preferred a serious, devout schoolmaster to one who was +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_17' name='page_17'></a>17</span> +not serious nor devout, just as, <i>cœteris paribus</i>, they would +have preferred a serious shoemaker or tailor to a non-religious +maker of shoes or clothes; but religious character +was not permitted to stand as a compensatory item for professional +skill; nay, men who might be almost content to +put up with a botched coat or a botched pair of shoes for +the sake of the good man who spoiled them, were particularly +careful not to botch, on any account whatever, the +education of their children. In a country in which there +was more importance attached than in perhaps any other in +the world to the religious teaching of the minister, there +was so little importance attached to the religious teaching +of the schoolmaster, that, when weighed against even a +slight modicum of secular qualification, it was found to +have no sensible weight. And with this great practical fact +some of our leading men seemed to be so little acquainted, +that they were going on with the machinery of their educational +scheme, on a scale at least co-extensive with the Free +Church, as if, like that Church––all-potent in her spiritual +character––it had a moving power in the affections of the +people competent to speed it on. And it was the great discrepancy +with regard to this scheme which existed between +the feelings of the people and the anticipations of some of +our leading men, clerical and lay, that excited our alarm. +Unless that discrepancy be removed, we said––unless the +anticipations of the men engaged in the laying down of this +scheme be sobered to the level of the feelings of the lay +membership of our Church, or, <i>vice versa</i>, the feelings of the +lay membership of our Church be raised to the level of the +anticipations of our leaders––bankruptcy will be the infallible +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_18' name='page_18'></a>18</span> +result. From the contributions of our laymen can +the scheme alone derive its support; and if our leaders lay +it down on a large scale, and our laymen contribute on a +small one, alas for its solvency! Such were our views, +and such our inferences, on this occasion; and to Thomas +Chalmers, at once our wisest and our humblest man––patient +to hear, and sagacious to see––we determined on +communicating them.</p> +<p>He had kindly visited the writer, to congratulate him in his +dwelling on his return to comparative health and strength; +and after a long and serious conversation, in which he urged +the importance of maintaining the <i>Witness</i> in honest independency, +uninfluenced by cliques and parties, whether +secular or ecclesiastical, the prospects of the Free Church +educational scheme were briefly discussed. He was evidently +struck by the view which we communicated, and +received it in far other than that parliamentary style which +can politely set aside, with some soothing half-compliment, +the suggestions that run counter to a favourite course of +policy already lined out and determined upon. In the discrepancy +which we pointed out to him he recognised a fact +of the practical kind, which rarely fail to influence the affairs +upon which they bear; and in accordance with his character––for +no man could be more thoroughly convinced +that free discussion never hurts a good cause, and that +second thoughts are always wiser than first ones––he expressed +a wish to see the educational question brought at +once to the columns of the <i>Witness</i>, and probed to its +bottom. We could not, however, see at that time how the +thing was to be introduced in a practical form, and preferred +waiting on for an opportunity, which in the course +of events soon occurred. The Government came forward +with its proposal of educational grants, and the question +was raised––certainly not by the writer of these chapters––whether +or no the Free Church could conscientiously avail +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_19' name='page_19'></a>19</span> +herself of these. It was promptly decided by some few of +our leading men, clerical and lay, that she could not; and +we saw in the decision, unless carried by appeal to our +country ministers and the people, and by them reversed, +the introduction of a further element of certain dissolution +in our educational scheme.</p> +<p>The status of the schoolmaster had been made so exceedingly +ecclesiastical, and his profession so very spiritual, +that the money of that Government of the country whose +right and duty it is to educate its people, was regarded as +too vile and base a thing to be applied to his support. +There were even rumours afloat that our schoolmasters +were on the eve of being <i>ordained</i>. We trust, however, +that the report was a false one, or, at worst, that the men +who employed the word had made a slip in their English, +and for the time at least had forgot its meaning. <i>Ordination</i> +means that special act which gives status and standing +within the ecclesiastical province. It implies the enjoined +use of that spiritual key which is entrusted by Christ to His +Church, that it may be employed just as <i>He</i> directs, and in +no other way. The Presbyterian Church has as much right +to institute prelates as to ordain pedagogues. ‘Remember,’ +said an ancient Scottish worthy, in ‘lifting up his protestation’ +in troublous times, ‘that the Lord has fashioned His +Kirk by the uncounterfeited work of His own new creation; +or, as the prophet speaketh, “hath made us, and not +we ourselves;” and that we must not presume to fashion a +new portraiture of a Kirk, and a <i>new form of divine service, +which God in His word hath not before allowed</i>; seeing that, +were we to extend our authority further than the calling +we have of God doth permit––as, namely, if we should (as +God forbid!) authorize the authority of bishops––we should +bring into the Kirk of God the ordinance of man.’ If +men are to depart from the ‘law and the testimony,’ we +hold that the especial mode of their departure may be very +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_20' name='page_20'></a>20</span> +much a matter of taste, and would, for our own part, prefer +bishops and cardinals to poor dominies of the gospel, somewhat +out at the elbows.<a name='FNanchor_0002' id='FNanchor_0002'></a><a href='#Footnote_0002' class='fnanchor'>[3]</a> The fine linen and the purple, +the cope and the stole, would at least have the effect of +giving that sort of pleasant relief to the widespread sable +of our Assemblies which they possessed of yore, ere they +for ever lost the gay uniform of the Lord High Commissioner, +the gold lace of his dragoon officers, and the glitter +of his pages in silver and scarlet. ‘We are two of the +humblest servants of Mother Church,’ said the Prior and his +companion to Wamba, the jester of Rotherwood. ‘Two of +the humblest servants of Mother Church!’ repeated Wamba; +‘I should rather like to see her seneschals, her chief butlers, +and her other principal domestics.’</p> +<p>We again saw Chalmers, and, in a corner apart from a +social party, of which his kind and genial heart formed the +attractive centre, we found he thoroughly agreed with us in +holding that the time for the discussion of the educational +question had fully come. It was a question, he said, on +which he had not yet fully made up his mind: there was, +however, one point on which he seemed clear––though, at +this distance of time, we cannot definitively say whether +the remark regarding it came spontaneously from himself, +or was suggested by any query of ours––and that was the +right and duty of a Government to <i>instruct</i>, and consequently +of the governed to receive the instruction thus communicated, +if in itself good. We remarked in turn, that +there were various points on which we also had to ‘grope +our way’ (a phrase to which the reader will find him referring +in his note, which we subjoin); but that regarding the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_21' name='page_21'></a>21</span> +inherently secular character of the schoolmaster, and the +right and duty of the Government to employ him in behalf +of its people, we had no doubt whatever. And so, parting +for the time, we commenced that series of articles which, +as they were not wholly without influence in communicating +juster views of the place and status of the schoolmaster +than had formerly obtained in the Free Church, and as +they had some little effect in leading the Church to take +at least one step in averting the otherwise inevitable ruin +which brooded over her educational scheme, the readers of +the <i>Witness</i> may perhaps remember. We were met in controversy +on the question by a man, the honesty of whose +purpose in this, as in every other matter, and the warmth +of whose zeal for the Church which he loved, and for which +he laboured, no one has ever questioned, and no one ever +will. And if, though possessed of solid, though perhaps +not brilliant talent, he failed on this occasion ‘in finding +his hands,’ we are to seek an explanation of his failure +simply in the circumstance that truths of principle––such +as those which establish the right and duty of every Government +to educate its people, or which demonstrate the +schoolmaster to possess a purely secular, not an ecclesiastical +standing––or yet truths of fact, such as that for many +years the national teaching of Scotland has <i>not</i> been religious, +or that the better Scottish people will on no account +or consideration sacrifice the secular education of their children +to the dream of a spiritual pedagogy,––are truths which +can neither be controverted nor set aside. He did on one +occasion, during the course––what he no doubt afterwards regretted––raise +against us the cry of infidelity,––a cry which, +when employed respecting matters on which Christ or His +apostles have not spoken, really means no more than that +he who employs it, if truly a good man, is bilious, or has +a bad stomach, or has lost the thread of his argument or +the equanimity of his temper. Feeling somewhat annoyed, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_22' name='page_22'></a>22</span> +however, we wished to see Chalmers once more; but the +matter had not escaped his quick eye, and his kind heart +suggested the remedy. In the course of the day in which +our views and reasonings were posted as infidel, we received +the following note from Morningside:––</p> +<blockquote> +<p style="margin-right:3em; text-align:right;" > <span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Morningside</span>, <i>March 13, 1847</i>.</p> +<p><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>My dear Sir</span>,––You are getting nobly on on education; +not only groping your way, but making way, and that by a +very sensible step in advance this day.</p> +<p>On my own mind the truth evolves itself very gradually; +and I am yet a far way from the landing-place. Kindest +respects to Mrs. Miller; and with earnest prayer for the +comfort and happiness of both, I ever am, my dear Sir, +yours very truly,</p> +<p style="margin-right:3em; text-align:right;" > <span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Thomas Chalmers.</span></p> +<p style="font-size:0.8em;" > Hugh Miller, Esq.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>In short, Thomas Chalmers, by his sympathy and his +connivance, had become as great an infidel as ourselves; +and we have submitted to our readers the evidence of the +fact, fully certified under his own hand.<a name='FNanchor_0003' id='FNanchor_0003'></a><a href='#Footnote_0003' class='fnanchor'>[4]</a> There is a sort +of perfection in everything; and perfection once reached, +deterioration usually begins. And when, in bandying the +phrases <i>infidel</i> and <i>infidelity</i>––like the feathered missiles +in the game of battledore and shuttlecock––they fell upon +Chalmers, we think there was a droll felicity in the accident, +which constitutes for it an irresistible claim of being +the terminal one in the series. The climax reached its +point of extremest elevation; for even should our infidel-dubbers +do their best or worst now, it is not at all likely +they will find out a second Chalmers to hit.</p> +<p>We concluded our course of educational articles; and +though we afterwards saw the distinguished man to whom +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_23' name='page_23'></a>23</span> +our eye so frequently turned, as, under God, the wise pilot of +the Free Church, and were honoured by a communication +from him, dictated to his secretary, we did not again touch +on the subject of education. We were, however, gratified +to learn, from men much in his confidence and company––we +hope we do not betray trust in referring to the Rev. Mr. +Tasker of the West Port as one of these––that he regarded +our entire course with a feeling of general approval akin +to that to which he had given expression in his note. It +further gratifies us to reflect that our course had the effect +of setting his eminently practical mind a-working on the +whole subject, and led to the production of the inestimably +valuable document, long and carefully pondered, which will +do more to settle the question of national education in Scotland +than all the many volumes which have been written +regarding it. As in a well-known instance in Scottish story, +it is the ‘dead Douglas’ who is to ‘win the field.’</p> +<p>But we lag in our narrative. That melancholy event +took place which cast a shade of sadness over Christendom; +and in a few weeks after, the posthumous document, +kindly communicated to us by the family of the deceased, +appeared in the columns of the <i>Witness</i>. We perused it +with intense interest; and what we saw in the first perusal +was, that Chalmers had gone far beyond us; and in the +second, that, in laying down his first principles, he had +looked at the subject, as was his nature, in a broader and +more general aspect, and had unlocked the difficulty which +it presented in a more practical and statesmanlike manner. +<i>We</i> had, indeed, considered in the abstract the right and +duty of the civil magistrate to educate his people; but our +main object being to ward off otherwise inevitable bankruptcy +from a scheme of our Church, and having to deal +with a sort of vicious Cameronianism, that would not accept +of the magistrate’s money, even though he gave the +Bible and the Shorter Catechism along with it, we had +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_24' name='page_24'></a>24</span> +merely contended that money given in connection with the +Bible and Shorter Catechism is a very excellent thing, and +especially so to men who cannot fulfil their obligations or pay +their debts without it. But Chalmers had looked beyond +the difficulties of a scheme, to the emergencies of a nation.</p> +<p>At the request of many of our readers, we have reprinted +his document in full, as it originally appeared.<a name='FNanchor_0004' id='FNanchor_0004'></a><a href='#Footnote_0004' class='fnanchor'>[5]</a> First, let +it be remarked that, after briefly stating what he deemed +the optimity of the question, he passes on to what he considered +the only mode of settling it practically, in the present +divided state of the Church and country. And in +doing so he lays down, as a preliminary step, the absolute +right and duty of the Government to educate, altogether +independently of the theological differences or divisions +which may obtain among the people or in the Churches. +‘As there seems no reason,’ he says, ‘why, because of these +unresolved differences, a public measure for the health of +all, for the recreation of all, for the economic advancement +of all, should be held in abeyance, there seems as little +reason why, because of these differences, a public measure +for raising the general intelligence of all should be held in +abeyance.’ Such is the principle which he enunciates regarding +the party possessing the right to <i>educate</i>. Let the +reader next mark in what terms he speaks of the party <i>to be</i> +educated, or under whose immediate superintendence the +education is to be conducted. Those who most widely misunderstand +the Doctor’s meaning––from the circumstance, +perhaps, that their views are most essentially at variance +with those which he entertained––seem to hold that this +<i>absolute</i> right on the part of Government is somehow +<i>conditional</i> on the parties to be educated, or to superintend +the education, coming forward to them <i>in the character of +Churches</i>. They deem it necessary to the integrity of his +meaning, that Presbyterians should come forward as Presbyterians, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_25' name='page_25'></a>25</span> +Puseyites as Puseyites, Papists as Papists, and +Socinians as Socinians; in which case, of course, all could +be set right so far as the Free Church conscience was concerned +in the matter, by taking the State’s grant with the +one hand, and holding out an indignant protest against its +extension to the erroneous sects in the other. But that +Chalmers could have contemplated anything so monstrous +as that <i>Scotchmen</i> should think of coming forward simply as +Scotchmen, they cannot believe. He must have regarded +the State’s <i>unconditional</i> right to educate as <i>conditional</i> after +all, and dependent on the form assumed by the party on +which or through which it was to be exercised. Let the +reader examine for himself, and see whether there exists in +the document a single expression suited to favour such a +view. Nothing can be plainer than the words ‘Parliament,’ +‘Government,’ ‘State,’ ‘Legislature,’ employed to designate +the educating party on the one hand; and surely nothing +plainer than the words ‘people,’ ‘<i>men</i> of all Churches and +denominations,’ ‘families of the land,’ and ‘society at large,’ +made use of in designating the party to be educated, or +entrusted with the educational means or machinery, on the +other. There is a well-grounded confidence expressed in +the Christian and philanthropic zeal which obtain throughout +society; but the only bodies ecclesiastical which we +find specially named––if, indeed, one of these can be regarded +as at all ecclesiastical––are the ‘Unitarians and the +Catholics.’ It was with the broad question of national education +in its relation to two great parties placed in happy +opposition, as the ‘inner hall of legislation’ and the ‘outer +field of society,’ that we find Dr. Chalmers mainly dealing. +And yet the document <i>does</i> contain palpable reference to +the Government scheme. There is one clause in which it +urges the propriety of ‘leaving [the matter of religion] to +the parties who had to do with the erection and management +of the schools which [the rulers of the country] had +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_26' name='page_26'></a>26</span> +been called on to assist.’ But the greater includes the less, +and the much that is general in the paper is in no degree +neutralized by the little in it that is particular. The Hon. +Mr. Fox Maule could perhaps throw some additional light +on this matter. It was at his special desire, and in consequence +of a conversation on the subject which he held with +Chalmers, that the document was drawn up. The nature +of the request could not, of course, alter whatever is absolutely +present in what it was the means of producing; but +it would be something to know whether what the statesman +asked was a decision on a special educational scheme, or––what +any statesman might well desire to possess––the judgment +of so wise and great a man on the all-important subject +of national education.</p> +<p>It will be found that the following valuable letters from +Dr. Guthrie and the Hon. Mr. Fox Maule determine the +meaning of Dr. Chalmers on his own authority:––</p> +<blockquote> +<p style="margin-right:3em; text-align:right;" > 2, <span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Lauriston Lane</span>, <i>March 5, 1850</i>.</p> +<p><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>My dear Mr. Miller</span>,––When such conflicting statements +were advanced as to the bearing of Dr. Chalmers’ +celebrated paper on education, although I had no doubt in +my own mind that the view you had taken of that valuable +document was the correct one, and had that view confirmed +by a conversation I had with his son-in-law, Mr. M’Kenzie, +who heard Dr Chalmers discuss the matter in London, and +acted, indeed, as his amanuensis in writing that paper; yet +I thought it were well also to see whether Mr. Maule could +throw any light on the subject. I wrote him with that +object in view; and while we must regret that we are called +to differ from some most eminent and excellent friends on +this important question, it both comforts and confirms us +to find another most important testimony in the letter +which I now send to you, in favour of our opinion, that +Dr. Chalmers, had God spared him to this day, would have +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_27' name='page_27'></a>27</span> +lifted up his mighty voice to advocate the views in which +we are agreed.</p> +<p>Into the fermenting mind of the public it is the duty of +every one to cast in whatever may, by God’s blessing, lead +to a happy termination of this great question; and with +this view I send you the letter which I have had the honour +to receive from Mr. Maule.––Believe me, yours ever,</p> +<p style="margin-right:3em; text-align:right;" > <span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Thomas Guthrie.</span></p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote> +<p style="margin-right:3em; text-align:right;" > <span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Grosvenor Street</span>, <i>March 4, 1850</i>.</p> +<p><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>My dear Dr. Guthrie</span>,––When you wrote me some +time since upon the subject of the communication made to +me by the late Dr. Chalmers upon the all-important question +of education, I could not take upon myself to say +positively (though I had very little doubt in my mind) +whether that document took its origin in a desire expressed +by me to have Dr. Chalmers’ opinion on the general +question of education, or merely upon the scheme laid +down and pursued by the Committee of Privy Council. +My impression has always been, that Dr. Chalmers addressed +himself to the question as a whole; and on looking +over my papers a few days since, I find that impression +quite confirmed by the following sentence, in a note in Dr. +Chalmers’ handwriting, bearing date 21st May 1847:––‘I +hope that by to-morrow night I shall have prepared a few +brief sentences on the <i>subject of education</i>.’</p> +<p>None of us thought how inestimable these brief sentences +were to become, forming, as they do, the last written evidence +of the tone of his great mind on this subject.</p> +<p>Should you address yourself to this question, you are, in +my opinion, fully justified in dealing with the <i>memorandum</i> +as referring to general and national arrangements, and not +to those which are essentially of a temporary and varying +character.––Believe me, with great esteem, yours sincerely,</p> +<p style="margin-right:3em; text-align:right;" > <span style='font-variant:small-caps'>F. Maule.</span></p> +</blockquote> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_28' name='page_28'></a>28</span></div> +<h3 style="margin-top:3em">CHAPTER SECOND.</h3> +<p class="ch_summary" >Right and Duty of the Civil Magistrate to educate the People––Founded on two +distinct Principles, the one economic, the other judicial––Right and Duty of +the Parent––Natural, not Ecclesiastical––Examination of the purely Ecclesiastical +Claim––The real Rights in the case those of the State, the Parent, and the +Ratepayer––The terms Parent and Ratepayer convertible into the one term +Householder.</p> +<p>Wherever mind is employed, thought will be evolved; +and in all questions of a practical character, truth, when +honestly sought, is ultimately found. And so we deem it +a happy circumstance, that there should be more minds +honestly engaged at the present time on the educational +problem than at perhaps any former period. To the +upright light will arise. The question cannot be too profoundly +pondered, nor too carefully discussed; and at the +urgent request of not a few of our better readers, we purpose +examining it anew in a course of occasional articles, +convinced that its crisis has at length come, just as the +crisis of the Church question had in reality come when the +late Dr. M’Crie published his extraordinary pamphlet;<a name='FNanchor_0005' id='FNanchor_0005'></a><a href='#Footnote_0005' class='fnanchor'>[6]</a> +and that it must depend on the part now taken by the Free +Church in this matter, whether some ten years hence she +is to posses any share, even the slightest, in the education +of the country. We ask our readers severely to test all our +statements, whether of principle or of fact, and to suffer +nothing in the least to influence them which is not rational, +or which is not true.</p> +<p>In the first place, then, we hold with Chalmers, that it is +unquestionably the right and duty of the civil magistrate to +educate his people, altogether independently of the religion +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_29' name='page_29'></a>29</span> +which <i>he himself holds</i>, or of the religious differences which +may unhappily obtain among <i>them</i>. Even should there be +as many sects in a country as there are families or individuals, +the right and duty still remain. Religion, in such +circumstances, can palpably form no part of a Government +scheme of tuition; but there is nothing in the element of +religious difference to furnish even a pretext for excluding +those important secular branches which bear reference to +the principles of trade, the qualities of matter, the relations +of numbers, the properties of figured space, the philosophy +of grammar, or the form and body which in various countries +and ages literature and the <i>belles lettres</i> have assumed. +And this right and duty of a Government to instruct, rest, +we hold, on two distinct principles,––the one <i>economic</i>, the +other <i>judicial</i>. Education adds immensely to the <i>economic</i> +value of the subjects of a State. The professional and +mercantile men who in this country live by their own exertions, +and pay the income tax, and all the other direct +taxes, are educated men; whereas its uneducated men do +not pay the direct taxes, and, save in the article of intoxicating +drink, very little of the indirect ones; and a large +proportion of their number, so far from contributing to the +national wealth, are positive burdens on the community. +And on the class of facts to which this important fact +belongs rests the <i>economic</i> right and duty of the civil magistrate +to educate.</p> +<p>His <i>judicial</i> right and duty are founded on the circumstance, +that the laws which he promulgates are <i>written</i> laws, +and that what he writes for the guidance of the people, the +people ought to be enabled to read; seeing that to punish +for the breach of a law, of the existence of which he who +breaks it has been left in ignorance, is not man-law, but +what Jeremy Bentham well designates dog-law, and altogether +unjust. We are, of course, far from supposing that +every British subject who can read is to peruse the vast +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_30' name='page_30'></a>30</span> +library which the British Acts of themselves compose; but +we hold that education forms the only direct means through +which written law, as a regulator of conduct, can be known, +and that, in consequence, in its practical breadth and +average aspect, it is only educated men who know it, and +only uneducated men who are ignorant of it. And hence +the derivation of the magistrate’s <i>judicial</i> right and duty. +But on this part of our subject, with Free Churchmen for +our readers, we need not surely insist. Our Church has +homologated at least the general principle of the civil +magistrate’s right and duty, by becoming the recipient of +his educational grant. If he has no right to give, she can +have no right to receive. If he, instead of performing a +duty, has perpetrated a wrong, she, to all intents and purposes, +being guilty of receipt, is a participator in the crime. +Nay, further, let it be remarked that, as indicated by the +speeches of some of our abler and more influential men, +there seems to exist a decided wish on the part of the Free +Church, that the State, in its educational grants, should +assume a purely secular character, and dispense with the +certificate of religious training which it at present demands,––a +certificate which, though anomalously required of sects +of the most opposite tenets, constitutes notwithstanding, in +this business of grants, the sole recognition of religion on +the part of the Government. Now this, if a fact at all, is +essentially a noticeable and pregnant one, and shows how +much opposite parties are in reality at one on a principle +regarding which they at least <i>seem</i> to dispute.</p> +<p>The right and duty of the civil magistrate thus established, +let us next consider another main element in the question,––the +right and duty of the parent. It is, we assert, imperative +on every parent in Scotland and elsewhere to educate +his children; and on the principle that he is a joint +contributor with the Government to the support of every +national teacher––the Government giving <i>salary</i>, and the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_31' name='page_31'></a>31</span> +parent <i>fees</i>––we assert further, that should the Government +give its salary ‘exclusively as the expression of its value for +a good <i>secular</i> education,’ <i>he</i> may, notwithstanding, demand +that his fees should be received as the representative of <i>his</i> +value for a good <i>religious</i> education. Whether his principles +be those of the Voluntary or of the Establishment-man, +the same schoolmaster who is a secular teacher in +relation to the Government, may be a religious teacher in +relation to him. For unless the State positively <i>forbid</i> its +schoolmaster to communicate religious instruction, he exists +to the parent, in virtue of the fees given and received, in +exactly the circumstances of the teacher of any adventure +school.</p> +<p>Let us further remark, that the rights of the parent in the +matter of education are not <i>ecclesiastical</i>, but <i>natural</i> rights. +The writer of this article is one of the parents of Scotland; +and, simply as such, he claims for himself the right of +choosing his children’s teacher on his own responsibility, +and of determining what his children are to be taught. +The Rev. Dr. Thomas Guthrie is his minister; and <i>he</i> also +is one of the parents of Scotland, and enjoys, as such, a +right identical in all respects with that of his parishioner +and hearer. But it is only an identical and co-equal right. +Should the writer send his boy to a Socialist or Popish +school, to be taught either gross superstition or gross infidelity, +the minister would have a right to interfere, and, if +entreaty and remonstrance failed, to bring him to discipline +for so palpable a breach of his baptismal engagement. If, +on the other hand, it was the minister who had sent his boy +to the Socialist or Popish school, the parishioner would +have a right to interfere, and, were entreaty and remonstrance +disregarded, to bring <i>him</i> to discipline. Minister +and parishioner stand, we repeat, in this matter, on exactly +the same level. Nor have ten, twenty, a hundred, a thousand, +twenty thousand, or a hundred thousand lay parents, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_32' name='page_32'></a>32</span> +or yet ten, twenty, a hundred, or a thousand clerical parents, +whether existing as a congregation or hundreds of congregations +on the one hand, or as a Presbytery, Synod, or +General Assembly on the other, rights in this matter that in +the least differ in their nature from the rights possessed by +the single clergyman, Dr. Guthrie, or by the single layman, +the Editor of the <i>Witness</i>. The sole right which exists in +the case––that of the parent––is a <i>natural</i> right, not an +<i>ecclesiastical</i> one; and the sole modification which it can +receive from the superadded element of Church membership +is simply that modification to which we refer as founded +on the religious duty of both member and minister, in its +relation to ecclesiastical law and the baptismal vow.</p> +<p>Nor, be it observed, does this our recognition, in our +character as a Church member, of ecclesiastical rule and +authority, give our minister any true grounds for urging that +it is our bounden duty, in virtue of our parental engagements, +and from the existence of such general texts as the +often quoted one, ‘Train up a child,’ etc., to send our children +to some school in which religion is expressly taught. +Far less does it give him a right to <i>demand</i> any such thing. +We are Free Church in our principles; and the grand distinctive +principle for which, during the protracted Church +controversy, we never ceased to contend, was simply the +right of choosing our own religious teacher, on the strength +of our own convictions, and on our own exclusive responsibility. +We laughed to scorn the idea that the three items +of Dr. George Cook’s ceaseless iterations––life, literature, +and doctrine––formed the full tale of ministerial qualification: +there was yet a fourth item, infinitely more important +than all the others put together, viz. <i>godliness</i>, or religion +proper, or, in yet other words, the regeneration of the +whole man by the Spirit of God. And on this last item +we held that it was the right and duty of the people who +Chose for themselves, <i>and for their children</i>, a religious +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_33' name='page_33'></a>33</span> +teacher, and of none others, clerical or lay, solemnly to +decide. And while we still hold by this sacred principle +on the one hand, we see clearly, on the other, that the sole +qualifications of our Free Church teachers, as prepared in our +Normal Schools, correspond to but Dr. Cook’s three items; +nay, that instead of exceeding, they fall greatly short of +these. The certificate of character which the young candidates +bring to the institution answers but lamely to the +item ‘<i>life</i>;’ the amount of secular instruction imparted to +them within its walls answers but inadequately to the item +‘<i>literature</i>;’ while the modicum of theological training received, +most certainly not equal to a four years’ course +of theology at a Divinity Hall, answers but indifferently +to the crowning item of the three––‘<i>doctrine</i>.’ That paramount +item, conversion on the part of the teacher to God, +is still unaccounted for; and we contend that, respecting +that item, the parent, and the parent only, has a right to +decide, all difficult and doubtful as the decision may be: +for be it remembered, that there exist no such data on +which to arrive at a judgment in cases of this nature, as +exist in the choosing of a minister. And though we would +deem it eminently right and proper that our child should +read his daily Scripture lesson to some respectable schoolmaster, +a believer in the divine authority of revelation, and +should repeat to him his weekly tale of questions from the +National Catechism, yet to the <i>extempore</i> religious teaching +of no merely respectable schoolmaster would we subject +our child’s heart and conscience. For we hold that the +religious lessons of the unregenerate lack regenerating life; +and that whatever in this all-important department does +not intenerate and soften, rarely fails to harden and to sear. +Religious preachments from a secular heart are the droppings +of a petrifying spring, which convert all that they fall +upon into stone. Further, we hold that a mistake regarding +the character of a schoolmaster authorized to teach +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_34' name='page_34'></a>34</span> +religion <i>extempore</i> might be greatly more serious, and might +involve an immensely deeper responsibility, than a similar +mistake regarding a minister. The minister preaches to +grown men––a large proportion of them members of the +Church––not a few of them office-bearers in its service, +and competent, in consequence, to judge respecting both +the doctrine which he exhibits and the mode of its exhibition; +but it is children, immature of judgment, and extremely +limited in their knowledge, whom the religion-teaching +schoolmaster has to address. Nay, more: in +choosing a minister, we may mistake the character of the +man; but there can be no mistake made regarding the +character of the office, seeing that it is an office appointed +by God Himself; whereas in choosing a religion-teaching +schoolmaster, we may mistake the character of both the +man and the office too. We are responsible in the one +case for only the man; we are responsible in the other for +both the man and the office.</p> +<p>We have yet another objection to any authoritative interference +on the part of ecclesiastical courts with the natural +rights and enjoined duties of the parent in the matter of +education. Even though we fully recognised some conscientious +teacher as himself in possession of the divine +life, we might regard him as very unfitted, from some +natural harshness of temper, or some coldness of heart, or +some infirmity of judgment, for being a missionary of religion +to the children under his care. At one period early +in life we spent many a leisure hour in drawing up a +gossiping little history of our native town, and found, in +tracing out the <i>memorabilia</i> of its parish school, that the +Rev. John Russell, afterwards of Kilmarnock and Stirling, +and somewhat famous in Scottish literature as one of the +clerical antagonists of Burns, had taught in it for twelve +years, and that several of his pupils (now long since departed) +still lived. We sought them out one by one, and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_35' name='page_35'></a>35</span> +succeeded in rescuing several curious passages in his history, +and in finding that, though not one among them +doubted the sincerity of his religion, nor yet his conscientiousness +as a schoolmaster, they all equally regarded him +as a harsh-tempered, irascible man, who succeeded in inspiring +all his pupils with fear, but not one of them with +love. Now, to no such type of schoolmaster, however +strong our conviction of his personal piety, would we +entrust the religious teaching of our child. If necessitated +to place our boy under his pedagogical rule and superintendence, +we would address him thus: Lacking time, and +mayhap ability, ourselves to instruct our son, we entrust +him to you, and this simply on the same division of labour +principle on which we give the making of our shoes to a +shoemaker, and the making of our clothes to a tailor. And +in order that you may not lack the power necessary to the +accomplishment of your task––for we hold that ‘folly is +bound up in the heart of a child’––we make over to you +our authority to admonish and correct. But though we +can put into your hands the parental rod––with an advice, +however, to use it discreetly and with temper––there are +things which we cannot communicate to you. We cannot +make over to you our child’s affection for us, nor yet our +affection for our child: with these joys ‘a stranger intermeddleth +not.’ And as religious teaching without love, +and conducted under the exclusive influence of fear, may +and must be barren––nay, worse than barren––we ask you +to leave this part of our duty as a parent entirely to ourselves. +<i>Our</i> duty it is, and to you we delegate no part of +it; and this, not because we deem it unimportant, but +because we deem it important in the highest degree, +and are solicitous that no unkindly element should mar it +in its effects. Now where, we ask, is the ecclesiastical +office-bearer who, in his official character, or in any character +or capacity whatever, has a right authoritatively to +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_36' name='page_36'></a>36</span> +challenge our rejection, on our own parental responsibility, +of the religious teaching of even a converted schoolmaster, +on purely reasonable grounds such as these? Or where is +the ecclesiastical office-bearer who has an authoritative right +to challenge our yet weightier Free Church objection to the +religious teaching of a schoolmaster whom we cannot avoid +regarding as an unregenerate man, or whom we at least do +not know to be a regenerate one? Or yet further, where +is the ecclesiastical office-bearer who has a right authoritatively +to bear down or set aside our purely Protestant +caveat against a teacher of religion who, in his professional +capacity, has no place or standing in the word of God? +The right and duty of the civil magistrate in all circumstances +to educate his people, and of parents to choose +their children’s teacher, and to determine what they are to +be taught, we are compelled to recognise; and there seems +to be a harmony between the two rights––the parental and +the magisterial, with the <i>salary</i> of the one and the <i>fees</i> of +the other––suited, we think, to unlock many a difficulty; +but the authoritative standing, in this question, of the +ecclesiastic as such, we have hitherto failed to see. The +parent, as a Church member or minister, is amenable to +discipline; but his natural rights in the matter are simply +those of the parent, and his political rights simply those of +the subject and the ratepayer.</p> +<p>And in this educational question certain political rights +<i>are</i> involved. In the present state of things, the parish +schoolmasters of the kingdom are chosen by the parish +ministers and parish heritors: the two elements involved +are the ecclesiastical and the political. But while we see +the parish minister as but the mere idle image of a state +of things passed away for ever, and possessed in his ministerial +capacity of merely a statutory right, which, though it +exists to-day, may be justly swept away to-morrow, we recognise +the heritor as possessed of a real right; and what +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_37' name='page_37'></a>37</span> +we challenge is merely its engrossing extent, not its nature. +We regard it as just in kind, but exorbitant in degree; +and on the simple principle that the money of the State is +the money of the people, and that the people have a right +to determine that it be not misapplied or misdirected, we +would, with certain limitations, extend to the ratepayers as +a body the privileges, in this educational department, now +exclusively exercised by the heritors. In that educational +franchise which we would fain see extended to the Scottish +people, we recognise two great elements, and but two only,––the +natural, or that of the parent; and the political, or +that of the ratepayer. These form the two opposite sides +of the pyramid; and, though diverse in their nature, let +the reader mark how nicely for all practical purposes they +converge into the point, <i>householder</i>. The householders of +Scotland include all the ratepayers of Scotland. The householders +of Scotland include also all the parents of Scotland. +We would therefore fix on the householders of a parish as +the class in whom the right of nominating the parish schoolmaster +should be vested. But on the same principle of +high expediency on which we exclude householders of a +certain standing from exercising the political franchise in +the election of a member of Parliament, would we exclude +certain other householders, of, however, a much lower standing, +from voting in the election of a parish schoolmaster. +We are not prepared to be Chartists in either department,––the +educational or the political; and this simply on the +ground that Chartism in either would be prejudicial to the +general good. On this part of the subject, however, we +shall enter at full length in our next.</p> +<p>Meanwhile we again urge our readers carefully to examine +for themselves all our statements and propositions,––to take +nothing on trust,––to set no store by any man’s <i>ipse dixit</i>, +be he editor or elder, minister or layman. In this question, +as in a thousand others, ‘truth lies at the bottom of the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_38' name='page_38'></a>38</span> +well;’ and if she be not now found and consulted, to the +exclusion of every prejudice, and the disregard of every +petty little interest and sinister motive, it will be ill ten +years hence with the Free Church of Scotland in her +character as an educator. Her safety rests, in the present +crisis, in the just and the true, and in the just and the true +only.</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_39' name='page_39'></a>39</span></div> +<h3 style="margin-top:3em">CHAPTER THIRD.</h3> +<p class="ch_summary" >Parties to whom the Educational Franchise might be safely extended––House Proprietors, +House Tenants of a certain standing, Farmers, Crofters––Scheme of an +Educational Faculty––Effects of the desired Extension––It would restore the +National Schools to the People of the Nation.</p> +<p>It is the right and duty of every Government to educate +its people, whatever the kinds or varieties of religion which +may obtain among them;––it is the right and duty of every +parent to select, on his own responsibility, his children’s +teacher, and to determine what his children are to be +taught;––it is the right and duty of every member of the +commonwealth to see that the commonwealth’s money, +devoted to educational purposes, be not squandered on +incompetent men, and, in virtue of his contributions as a +ratepayer, to possess a voice with the parents of a country +in the selection of its salaried schoolmasters. There exist, +on the one hand, the right and duty of the State; there +exist, on the other, the rights and duties of the parents and +ratepayers; and we find both parents and ratepayers presenting +themselves in the aggregate, and for all practical +purposes in this matter, as a single class, viz. the <i>householders</i> +of the kingdom. But as, in dealing with these in +purely political questions, we exclude a certain portion of +them from the exercise of the <i>political</i> franchise, and that +simply because, as classes, they are uninformed or dangerous, +and might employ power, if they possessed it, to the +public prejudice, so would we exclude a certain proportion +of them, on similar grounds, from the <i>educational</i> franchise. +In selecting, however, the safe classes of householders, we +would employ tests somewhat dissimilar in their character +from those to which the Reform Act extends its exclusive +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_40' name='page_40'></a>40</span> +sanction, and establish a somewhat different order of qualifications +from those which it erects.</p> +<p>In the first place, we would fain extend the educational +franchise to all those householders of Scotland who inhabit +houses of their own, however humble in kind, or however +low the valuation of their rental. We know not a safer or +more solid, or, in the main, more intelligent class, than +those working men of the country who, with the savings of +half a lifetime, build or purchase a dwelling for themselves, +and then sit down rent-free for the rest of their lives, each +‘the monarch of a shed.’ With these men we are intimately +acquainted, for we have lived and laboured among them; +and very rarely have we failed to find the thatched domicile, +of mayhap two little rooms and a closet, with a patch of +garden-ground behind, of which some hard-handed country +mechanic or labourer had, through his own exertions, become +the proud possessor, forming a higher certificate of +character than masters the most conscientious and discerning +could bestow upon their <i>employés</i>, or even Churches +themselves upon their members. Nor is this house-owning +qualification much less valuable when it has been derived +by inheritance––not wrought for; seeing that the man +who retains his little patrimony unsquandered must be at +least a steady, industrious man, the slave of no expensive +or disreputable vice. Let us remark, however, that we +would not attach the educational franchise to property as +such: the proprietor of the house, whether a small house +or a large one, would require to be the <i>bona fide</i> inhabitant +of the dwelling which he occupied, for at least a considerable +portion of every year. The second class to which we +would fain see the educational franchise extended are all +those householders of the kingdom who tenant houses of +five pounds annual rent and upwards, who settle with their +landlords not oftener than twice every twelvemonth, and +who are at least a year entered on possession. By fixing +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_41' name='page_41'></a>41</span> +the qualification thus high, and rejecting the monthly or +weekly rent-payer, the country would get rid of at least +nineteen-twentieths of the dangerous classes,––the agricultural +labourers, who wander about from parish to parish, +some six or eight months in one locality, and some ten or +twelve in another; the ignorant immigrant Irish, who +tenant the poorer hovels of so many of our western coast +parishes; and last, not least, all the migratory population of +our larger towns, who rarely reside half a year in the same +dwelling, and who, though they may in some instances pay +at more than the rate of the yearly five pounds, pay it +weekly, or by the fortnight or month. We regret, however, +that there is a really worthy class which such a qualification +would exclude,––ploughmen, labourers, and country +mechanics, who reside permanently in humble cottages, the +property of the owner of the soil, and who, though their +course through life lies on the bleak edge of poverty, are +God-fearing, worthy men, at least morally qualified to give, +in the election of a teacher, an honest and not unintelligent +voice. And yet, hitherto at least, we have failed to see +any principle which a British statesman would recognise +as legitimate, on which this class could be included in the +educational franchise, and their dangerous neighbours of +the same political status kept out. There is yet a third +very important class whom we would fain see in possession +of the educational franchise,––those householders of Scotland +who till the soil as tenants, whether with or without +leases, or whether the annual rent which they pay amounts +to three or to three thousand pounds. The tillers of the soil +are a fixed class, greatly more permanent, even where there +exists no lease, than the mere tenant householders; and +they include, especially in the Highlands of Scotland, and +the poorer districts of the low country, a large proportion +of the country’s parentage. They are in the main, too, an +eminently safe class, and not less so where the farms are +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_42' name='page_42'></a>42</span> +small and the dwellings upon them mere cottages––to +which, save for the surrounding croft or farm, no franchise +could attach––than where they live in elegant houses, and +are the lessees of hundreds of acres. And such are the +three great classes to which, as composing the solid body +of the Scottish nation––to the exclusion of little more than +the mere rags that hang loosely on its vestments––would +we extend, did we possess the power, the educational +franchise.</p> +<p>In order, however, to render a franchise thus liberally +restricted more safe and salutary still, we would demand +not only certain qualifications on the part of the parents +and ratepayers of the country, without which they could +not be permitted to <i>vote</i>, but also certain other qualifications +on the part of the country’s schoolmasters, without which +they could not be <i>voted for</i>. We would thus impart to the +scheme such a twofold aspect of security as that for which +in a purely ecclesiastical matter we contended, when we +urged that none but Church members should be permitted +to choose their own ministers; and that none but ministers +pronounced duly qualified in life, literature, and doctrine, +by a competent ecclesiastical court, should they be <i>permitted</i> +to choose. There ought to exist a teaching Faculty +as certainly as there exists a medical or legal Faculty, or as +there exists in the Church what is essentially a preacher-licensing +Faculty. The membership of a Church are unfitted +in their aggregate character to judge respecting at +least the literature of the young licentiate whom, in their +own and their children’s behalf, they call to the pastoral +charge;––the people of a district, however shrewd and +solid, are equally unqualified to determine whether the +young practitioner of medicine or of law who settles +among them is competently acquainted with his profession, +and so a fit person to be entrusted with the care of their +health or the protection of their property. And hence the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_43' name='page_43'></a>43</span> +necessity which exists in all these cases for testing, licensing, +diploma-giving courts or boards, composed of men +qualified to decide regarding those special points of ability +or acquirement which the people, as such, cannot try for +themselves. In no case, however, are courts of this nature +more imperatively required than in the case of the schoolmaster. +Neither the amount of literature which he possesses, +nor yet his mastery over the most approved modes +of communicating it, can be tested by the people, who, +as parents and ratepayers, possess the exclusive right to +make choice of him for their parish or district school; and +hence the necessity that what they cannot do for themselves +should be previously done for them by some competent +court or board, and that no teacher who did not possess +a licence or diploma should be eligible to at least an +endowed seminary supported by the public money. With, +of course, the qualifications of the mere adventure-teacher, +whether supported by Churches or individuals, we would +permit no board to interfere. As to the composition of +the board itself, that, we hold, might be determined on +very simple principles. Let the College-bred teachers of +Scotland, associated with its University professors, select +for themselves, out of their own number, a dean or chairman, +and a court or committee, legally qualified by Act of +Parliament stringently to try all teachers who may present +themselves before them, in order to be rendered eligible for +a national school, and to grant them licences or diplomas, +legally representative of professional qualification. Whether +a teacher, on his election by the people, might not be a +second time tried, especially on behalf of the State and +the ratepayers, by a Government inspectorship, and thus a +check on the board be instituted, we are not at present +called on to determine; but on this we are clear, that the +certificate of no Normal School, in behalf of its own pupils, +ought to be received otherwise than as a mere makeweight +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_44' name='page_44'></a>44</span> +in the general item of professional character; seeing that +any such document would be as much a certificate of the +Normal School’s own ability in rearing efficient teachers, +as of the pedagogical skill of the teachers which it reared. +The vitiating element of self-interest would scarce fail to +induce, ultimately at least, a suspicious habit of self-recommendation.</p> +<p>Such, then, in this matter, is our full tale of qualification, +pedagogical and popular, of the educators of the country +on the one hand, and of the educational franchise-holders +of the country on the other. And now we request the +reader to mark one mighty result of the arrangement, which +no other yet set in opposition to it could possibly produce. +There are in Scotland about one thousand one hundred +national schools, supported by national resources; and, of +consequence, though fallen into the hands of a mere sect, +which in some localities does not include a tithe of the +population, they of right belong to the Scottish people. +And these schools of the <i>people</i> that extension of the +educational franchise which we desiderate would not fail +to restore to the <i>people</i>. It would put them once more in +possession of what was their own property <i>de facto</i> at the +Revolution (for at that period, when, with a few inconsiderable +exceptions, they were all of one creed, the ministry of +the Established Church virtually represented them), and of +what has been <i>de jure</i> their property ever since. But by +the ministry of no one Church can the people be represented +now. The long rule of Moderatism,––the consequent +formation of the Secession and Relief Churches,––the +growth of Independency and Episcopacy,––and last, +but not least in the series, the Disruption, and the instantaneous +creation of the Free Church, have put an end to +that state of things for ever. The time has in the course +of Providence fairly come, when the people must be permitted +in this matter to represent themselves; and there is +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_45' name='page_45'></a>45</span> +one thing sure,––the struggle may be protracted, but the +issue is certain. Important, however, as are our parish +schools, and rich in associations so intimately linked to the +intellectual glory of the nation, that, were they but mere +relics of the past, the custodiership of them might well be +most desirable to the Scottish people, they represent but a +small part of the stake involved in the present all-engrossing +movement. It seeks also to provide from the coffers of +the State––on a broad basis of popular representation, and +with the reservation of a right on the part of the people +to supplement whatever instruction the State may not or +cannot supply––that fearful educational destitution of the +nation which is sinking its tens and hundreds of thousands +into abject pauperism and barbarous ignorance, and which +neither Churches nor Societies can of themselves supply. +It is the <i>first</i> hopeful movement of the age; for our own +Free Church educational movement, though perhaps <i>second</i> +in point of importance, only serves irrefragably to demonstrate +its necessity.</p> +<p>It is, we repeat, to the people of Scotland, and not to +any one of the Churches of Scotland, that our scheme of +a widely-based and truly popular franchise would restore +the Scottish schools. Mr. George Combe is, however, +quite in the right in holding that religion is too intimately +associated with the educational question, and too decidedly +a force in the country, to be excluded from the national +seminaries, ‘unless, indeed, Government do something +more than merely <i>omit</i> the religious element.’<a name='FNanchor_0006' id='FNanchor_0006'></a><a href='#Footnote_0006' class='fnanchor'>[7]</a> All is lost, +Mr. Combe justly infers, on the non-religious side of the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_46' name='page_46'></a>46</span> +question, if the introduction of the Bible and Shorter Catechism +be not <i>prohibited</i> by Act of Parliament; for, if not +stringently prohibited, what Parliament merely omits doing, +a Bible and Catechism loving people will to a certainty do; +and the conscience of the phrenologist and his followers will +not fail to be outraged by the spectacle of Bible classes in +the national schools, and of State schoolmasters instilling +into the youthful mind, by means of the Shorter Catechism, +the doctrine of original sin and the work of the Spirit. +Nay, more; as it is not in the power of mere Acts of the +Legislature to eradicate from the hearts of a people those +feelings of partiality, based on deep religious conviction +and the associations of ages, with which it is natural to +regard a co-religionist, more especially in the case of the +teacher to whom one’s children are to read their daily +chapter and repeat their weekly tale of questions, <i>denomination</i> +must and will continue to exert its powerful influence +in the election of national schoolmasters popularly +chosen. And as there are certain extensive districts in +Scotland in which some one Church is the stronger, and +other certain districts in which some other Church is the +stronger, there are whole shires and provinces in which, +if selected on the popular scheme, the national teachers +would be found well-nigh all of one religious denomination. +From John O’Groat’s to Beauly, for instance, they would +be all, or almost all, Free Churchmen; for in that extensive +district almost all the people are Free Church. In the +Scottish Highlands generally, nearly the same result would +be produced, from, of course, the existence of a similar +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_47' name='page_47'></a>47</span> +constituency. In Inverness, and onwards along the sea-coast +to Aberdeen, Montrose, St. Andrews, and the Frith +of Forth, the element of old dissent would be influentially +felt: the great parties among the people would be three––Establishment, +Free Church, and Voluntary; and whichever +two of them united, would succeed in defeating the +third. And such unions, no doubt, frequently <i>would</i> take +place. The Voluntaries and Free Churchmen would often +unite for the carrying of a <i>man</i>; and occasionally, no doubt, +the Free Church and the Establishment, for the carrying of +a <i>principle</i>,––that principle of religious teaching on which, +in the coming struggle, the State Church will be necessitated +to take her stand. To the south of the Frith of +Forth on to Berwick, and along the western coast from +Dumbarton to the Solway, there would be localities parcelled +out into large farms, in which the Establishment +would prevail; and of course, wherever it can reckon up +a majority of the more solid people, it is but right and +proper that the Establishment <i>should</i> prevail; but who can +doubt that even in these districts the national teaching +would be immensely heightened by a scheme which gave +to parents and ratepayers the selection of their teachers, +and restricted their choice to intelligent and qualified men? +Wherever there is liberty, there will be discussion and difference; +and the election of a schoolmaster would not be +managed quite as quietly under the anticipated state of +things, with the whole people of a parish for his constituency, +as in the present, by a minister and factor over a +social glass. But the objection taken by anticipation to +popular heats and contendings in such cases is as old as +the first stirrings of a free spirit among the people, and the +first struggles of despotism to bind them down. We ourselves +have heard it twice urged on the unpopular side,––once +when the rotten burghs were nodding to their fall, +and once when an unrestricted patronage was imperilled by +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_48' name='page_48'></a>48</span> +the encroachments of the Veto. There will, and must be, +difference; and difference too, Scotland being what it is, +in which the religious element will not fail to mingle; but +not the less completely on that account will the scheme +restore the Scottish schools to the Scottish people, as represented +by the majority, and to the membership of the Free +Church, in the <i>de facto</i> statistical sense and proportion in +which the Free Church is national. It will not restore +them to us in the theoretic sense; but then there are at +least three other true original Churches of Scotland, which +in that respect will be greatly worse off than ourselves,––the +true national Cameronian Church, the true national +Episcopalian Church, and a true compact little Church of +the whole nation, that, in the form of one very excellent +minister, labours in the east.</p> +<p>Meanwhile, we would fain say to our country folk and +readers of the north of Scotland: You, of all the Free +Churchmen of the kingdom, have an especial stake in this +matter. Examine for yourselves,––trust to your own good +sense,––exercise as Protestants your right of private judgment,––and +see whether, as Christian men and good +Scotchmen, you may not fairly employ the political influence +given you by God and your country, in possessing +yourselves of the parish schools. There will be deep points +mooted in this controversy, which neither you nor we will +ever be in the least able to understand. You will no doubt +be told of a theocratic theory of the British Government, +perfectly compatible, somehow, with the receipt of educational +<i>grants</i> from which all recognition of the religious +element on the part of the State is, at the express request +of the Church, to be thoroughly discharged, but not at all +compatible with the receipt of an educational <i>endowment</i> +of exactly the same character, from which the same State +recognition of the same religious element is to be discharged +in the same degree. You will, we say, not be able +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_49' name='page_49'></a>49</span> +to understand this. The late Dr. Thomas Chalmers and +the late Rev. Mr. Stewart of Cromarty could not understand +it; we question much whether Dr. William Cunningham +understands it; and we are quite sure that Dr. Guthrie +and Dr. Begg do not. And you, who are poor simple +laymen, will never be able to understand it at all. But you +are all able to understand that the parish schools of your +respective districts, now lying empty and useless, belong of +right to you; and that it would be a very excellent thing +to have that right restored to you, both on your own behalf +and on that of your children.</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_50' name='page_50'></a>50</span></div> +<h3 style="margin-top:3em">CHAPTER FOURTH.</h3> +<p class="ch_summary" >Objections urged by the Free Church Presbytery of Glasgow against the Educational +Movement––Equally suited to bear against the Scheme of Educational Grants––Great +superiority of Territorial over Denominational Endowment––The Scottish +People sound as a whole, but some of the Scottish Sects very unsound––State of +the Free Church Educational Scheme.</p> +<p>‘Whereas attempts are now being made to reform the +parish schools of Scotland, on the principle of altogether +excluding religion from national recognition as an element +in the national system of education, and leaving it solely to +private parties to determine in each locality whether any +or what religious instruction will be introduced into the +parochial schools,––it is humbly overtured to the Venerable +the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland, to +declare that this Church can be no party to any plan of +education based on the negation of religion in the general, +or of the national faith in particular,’ etc.</p> +<p>Such is the gist of that ‘Overture on Education’ which +was carried some three weeks ago by a majority of the Free +Church Presbytery of Glasgow. It has the merit of being +a clear enunciation of meaning; of being also at least as +well fitted to express the views of the Established as of the +Free Church courts in Glasgow and elsewhere, and a great +deal better suited to serve as a cloak to their policy; and, +further, by a very slight adaptation, it could be made to +bear as directly against State <i>grants</i> given for educational +purposes, if dissociated from the religious certificate, as +against State <i>endowments</i> given for the same purpose, when +dissociated from statutory religious requirement. It is the +religious certificate––most anomalously demanded of denominations +diametrically opposed to each other in their +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_51' name='page_51'></a>51</span> +beliefs, and subversive of each other in their teachings––that +constitutes in the affair of educational grants the recognition +of religion on the part of the State. Educational +grants dissociated from the religious certificate are +educational grants dissociated from the State recognition of +religion. The fact that the certificates demanded should +be of so anomalous a character, is simply a reflection of the +all-important fact that the British people are broken up into +antagonistic Churches and hostile denominations, and that +the British Government is representative. And that men +such as those members and office-bearers of our Church +who hold the middle position between that occupied by +Mr. Gibson of Glasgow on the one hand, and Dr. Begg of +Edinburgh on the other, should see no other way of availing +themselves of the educational grants, with a good conscience, +than by getting rid of the religious recognition, +only serves to show that they are quite as sensible as their +opponents in the liberal section of the enormous difficulty +of the case, and can bethink themselves of no better mode +of unlocking it. For it will not be contended, that if in +the matter of grants there is to be no recognition of religion +on the part of the State, the want of it could be more +adequately supplied by sects, as such, denominationally +divided, than by the people of Scotland, as such, territorially +divided; seeing that sects, as such, include Papists, +Puseyites, Socinians, and Seceders,––Muggletonians, Juggletonians, +New Jerusalemites, and United Presbyterians,––Free-thinking +Christians, Free-Willers, and Free Churchmen. +Nor can we see either the wisdom or the advantage +of any scheme of Government inquiry into the educational +destitution of a locality, that, instead of supplying the want +which it found, would merely placard the place by a sort of +feuing ticket––destined, we are afraid, in many instances +to be sadly weather-bleached––which would intimate to the +sects in general, that were any one of them to come forward +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_52' name='page_52'></a>52</span> +and enact the part of school-builder and pedagogue, +the State would undertake for a portion of the expenses. +We suppose the advertisement on the ticket would run +somewhat as follows:––<span style='font-variant:small-caps'>‘Wanted by the Government, A +Church to erect a School. Terms Liberal, and no +Certificate of Religious Teaching demanded. <i>N.B.</i>––Papists, +Puseyites, and Socinians perfectly eligible.’</span><a name='FNanchor_0007' id='FNanchor_0007'></a><a href='#Footnote_0007' class='fnanchor'>[8]</a></p> +<p>Leaving, however, to profounder intellects than our own +the adjustment of the nice principles involved in this matter, +let us advert to what we deem the practical advantages of +a <i>territorial</i> scheme of educational <i>endowments</i> over a <i>denominational</i> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_53' name='page_53'></a>53</span> +scheme of educational <i>grants</i>. At present, all +or any of the <i>sects</i> may come forward as such, whatever +their character or teaching, and, on fulfilling certain conditions, +receive assistance from the Government in the form +of an educational grant; whereas, by the scheme which we +would fain see set in its place, it would be only the more +solid people of <i>districts</i>––let us suppose parishes––that +would be qualified to come forward to choose for themselves +their parochial State-endowed teachers. And at least +one of the advantages of this scheme over the other must be +surely obvious and plain. <i>Denominationally</i>, there is much +unsoundness in Scotland; <i>territorially</i>, there is very little. +There exist, unhappily, differences among our Scottish +Presbyterians; but not the less on that account has Presbyterianism, +in its three great divisions––Voluntary, Establishment, +and Free Church––possessed itself of the land in +all its length and breadth. The only other form of religion +that has a territorial existence in Scotland at all is Popery, +and Popery holds merely a few darkened districts of the +outer Hebrides and of the Highlands. It would fail, out of +the one thousand one hundred parish schools of the country, +to carry half-a-dozen; and no other form of religious error +would succeed in carrying so much as one parish school. +There is no Socinian district in Scotland; old Scotch +Episcopacy has not its single parish; and high Puseyism +has not its half, or quarter, or even tithe of a parish. That +Church of Scotland which Knox founded, with its offshoots +the Secession and Relief bodies, has not laboured in +vain; and through the blessing of God on these labours, +Scotland, as represented by its territorial majorities, is by +far the soundest and most orthodox country in the world. +A wise and patriotic man––at once a good Scot and a +judicious Churchman––would, we think, hesitate long ere +he flung away so solid an advantage, won to us by the +labours, the contendings, the sufferings of reformers, confessors, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_54' name='page_54'></a>54</span> +martyrs, and ministers of the truth, from the days +of Melville and of Henderson, down to those of the +Erskines and of Chalmers. He would at least not fail to +ask himself whether that to which what was so unequivocally +<i>substance</i> was to be sacrificed, was in itself <i>substance</i> +or <i>shadow</i>.</p> +<p>Let us next remark, that the Scottish national schools, +while they thus could not fail to be essentially sound on +the territorial scheme––just because Scotland is itself essentially +sound as a nation––might, and would in very many +instances, be essentially unsound on a denominational one. +There is no form of religious error which may not, in the +present state of things, have, as we have said, its schools +supported in part by a Government grant, and which may +not have its pupil-teachers trained up to disseminate deadly +error at the public expense among the youthhead of the +future. Edinburgh, for instance, has its one Popish street––the +Cowgate; but it has no Popish parish: it has got +very little Popery in George Square and its neighbourhood,––very +little at the Bristo Port,––very little in Broughton +Street; and yet in all these localities, territorially Protestant, +Papists have got their religion-teaching schools, in +which pupil-teachers, paid by the State, are in the course +of being duly qualified for carrying on the work of perversion +and proselytism. St. Patrick’s school, in which, as +our readers were so lately shown, boys may spend four +years without acquiring even the simple accomplishment of +reading, has no fewer than five of these embryo perverters +supported by the Government. Puseyism has, in the same +way, no territorial standing on the northern shores of the +Frith of Forth; and yet at least one Free Church minister, +located in one of the towns which stud that coast, could +tell of a well-equipped Puseyite school in his immediate +neighbourhood, supported in part by the Government grant, +that, by the superiority of the secular education which it +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_55' name='page_55'></a>55</span> +supplies, is drawing away Presbyterian, nay, even Free +Church children, from the other schools of the locality. +On the territorial principle, we repeat, schools such as +these, which rest on the denominational basis alone, could +not possibly receive the support and countenance of the +Legislature. And let the reader remark, that should the +Free Church succeed in getting rid of the anomalous religious +certificate, and yet continue to hold by the denominational +basis, something worse than mere denomination would +scarce fail to step in. The Combeite might then freely +come forward to teach at the public expense, that no other +soul of man has yet been ascertained to exist than the +human brain, and no other superintending Providence than +the blind laws of insensate matter. Nay, even Socialism, +just a little disguised, might begin to build and teach for +the benefit of the young, secure of being backed and assisted +in its work by the civil magistrate. Further, should the +grant scheme be rendered more flexible, <i>i.e.</i> extended to a +lower grade of qualification, and thus the public purse be +applied to the maintenance and perpetuation of a hedge-school +system of education,––or should it be rendered more +liberal, <i>i.e.</i> should the Government be induced to do proportionally +more, and the school-builders be required to do +proportionally less,––superstition and infidelity would, in +the carrying out of their schemes of perversion, have, in +consequence, just all the less to sacrifice and to acquire. +According to the present arrangement, a schoolmaster must +realize, from salary and fees united, the sum of forty-five +annual pounds, and be, besides, furnished with a free +house, ere he can receive from the Government a grant on +its lowest scale, viz. fifteen pounds;<a name='FNanchor_0008' id='FNanchor_0008'></a><a href='#Footnote_0008' class='fnanchor'>[9]</a> and whatever judgment +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_56' name='page_56'></a>56</span> +may be formed of the proportion in which the State +contributes, there can be no question that the general +arrangement is a wise one. Sermonizing dominies could +be had, no doubt, at any price; and there can be as little +doubt that, at any price, would the great bulk of them turn +out to be ‘<i>doons hard bargains</i>;’ but it is wholly impossible +that a country should have respectable and efficient teachers +under from sixty to eighty pounds a year. The thing, we +repeat, is wholly impossible; and the State, in acting, as in +this arrangement, on the conviction, does but its duty to +its people. The some sixty or seventy pounds, however, +would be as certainly realized as under the present arrangement, +were it Government that contributed the forty-five +pounds, and the denomination or society the fifteen and +the free house; and this, of course, would be eminently +liberal. But what would be the effects of so happy a +change? It might in some degree relieve the Free Church +Scheme from financial difficulty; but would it do nothing +more? There are Puseyite ladies in Scotland, high in rank +and influence, and possessed of much wealth and great +zeal, who are already building their schools, in the hope of +unprotestantizing their poor lapsed country, spiritually ruined +by the Reformation. The liberality that might in part +enable the Free Church Education Committee to discharge +its obligations at the rate of twenty shillings per pound, +would be a wonderful godsend to them; seeing that they +would have little else to do, under a scheme so liberal, than +simply to erect schoolhouses on the widespread domains +of their husbands or fathers, and immediately commence +perverting the children of the nation at the national cost. +It would be no less advantageous to the Society of the +Propaganda, and would enable it to spare its own purse, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_57' name='page_57'></a>57</span> +by opening to it that of the people. The Socinian, the +Combeite, the semi-Socialist––none of them very much disposed +to liberality themselves––would all share in that of +the Government; and their zeal, no longer tied down to +inactivity by the dread of pecuniary sacrifice or obligation, +would find wings and come abroad. Surely, with such +consequences in prospect, our Free Church readers would +do well to ponder the nature and demands of the crisis at +which they have now arrived. Our country and our Church +have in reality but one set of interests; and a man cannot +be a bad Scot without being a bad Free Churchman too. +Let them decide in this matter, not under the guidance of +an oblique eye, squinted on little temporary difficulties or +hypothetical denominational advantages, but influenced by +considerations of the permanent welfare of their country, +and of their abiding obligations to their God.</p> +<p>But why, it may be asked of the writer, if you be thus +sensible of the immense superiority of a territorial scheme +of educational endowments over a denominational scheme +of educational grants,––why did you yourself urge, some +three years ago, that the Free Church should avail herself +of these very grants? Our reply is sufficiently simple. +The denominational scheme of grants was the only scheme +before us at the time; these grants were, we saw, in danger +of being rejected by the Free Church on what we deemed +an unsound and perilous principle, which was in itself in no +degree Free Church; and last, not least, we saw further, that +if the Church did not avail herself of these grants, there +awaited on her Educational Scheme––ominously devoid +of that direct divine mandate which all her other schemes +possessed––inevitable and disastrous bankruptcy. But +circumstances have greatly changed. The Free Church is +no longer in any danger from the principle which would +have rejected Government assistance. There is now a +territorial scheme brought full before the view of the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_58' name='page_58'></a>58</span> +country; and, further, the Government grants have wholly +failed to preserve our Educational Scheme from the state +of extreme pecuniary embarrassment which we too surely +anticipated. Salaries of £15 and £20 per annum are +greatly less than adequate for the support and remuneration +of even the lower order of teachers, especially in thinly-peopled +districts of country, where pupils are few and the +fees inconsiderable. But at these low rates it was determined, +in the programme of the Free Church Educational +Scheme, that about three-fourths of the Church’s teachers +should be paid; and there are scores and hundreds among +them who regulated their expenditure on the arrangement. +For at least the last two years, however, the Education +Committee has been paying its £15 salaries at the reduced +rate of £10, and its £20 salaries at the rate of £13, 13s. +4d.; and those embarrassments, of which the reduction +was a consequence, have borne with distressful effect on +the Committee’s <i>employés</i>. However <i>orthodox</i> their creed, +their circumstances have in many instances become <i>Antinomian</i>; +nor, while teaching religion to others, have they +been able in every instance to conform to one of its simplest +demands––‘Owe no man anything.’</p> +<p>There were several important items, let us remark, in +which we over-estimated the amount of assistance which +the Scheme was to receive from the Government; and +this mainly from our looking at the matter in the gross, as +a question of proportion––so much granted for so much +raised––without taking into account certain conditions demanded +by the Minutes of Council on the one hand, and a +certain course of management adopted on the part of our +Education Committee on the other. The grant is given in +proportion to salary of one to two (we at present set aside +the element of fees): a <i>salary</i> of thirty pounds is supplemented +by a <i>grant</i> of fifteen pounds,––a salary of forty +pounds by a grant of twenty,––a salary of fifty by a grant +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_59' name='page_59'></a>59</span> +of twenty-five,––and so on; and we were sanguine enough +to calculate, that an aggregate sum of some ten or twelve +thousand pounds raised by the Church for salaries, would +be supplemented by an aggregation of grants from the +Government to the amount of some five or six thousand +pounds more. The minimum sum regarded as essentially +necessary for carrying on the Free Church Educational +Scheme had been estimated at twenty thousand pounds. +If the Free Church raise but twelve thousand of these, we +said, Government will give her six thousand additional in +the form of grants, and some two thousand additional, or +so, for the training of her pupil-teachers; and the Church +will thus be enabled to realize her minimum estimate. We +did not take the fact into account, that of our Free Church +teachers a preponderating majority should fail successfully +to compete for the Government money; nor yet that the +educational funds should be so broken up into driblet +salaries, attached to schools in which the fees were poor +and the pupils few, that the schoolmaster, even though +possessed of the necessary <i>literary</i> qualification, would in +many cases be some twenty, or even thirty, pounds short of +the necessary <i>money</i> qualification, <i>i.e.</i> the essential forty-five +annual pounds. We did not, we say, take these circumstances +into account,––indeed, it was scarce possible that +we could have done so; and so we immensely over-estimated +the efficacy of the State grant in maintaining the +solvency of our Educational Scheme. We learn from Dr. +Reid’s recent Report to our metropolitan church court, +that of the forty-two Free Church teachers connected with +the Presbytery of Edinburgh, and in receipt of salaries from +the Education Committee, only thirteen have been successful +in obtaining Government certificates of merit. And +even this is a rather high average, compared with that of +the other districts; for we have ascertained, that of the six +hundred and eighty-nine teachers of the Free Church scattered +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_60' name='page_60'></a>60</span> +over the kingdom, not more than a hundred and +twenty-nine have received the Government grant. There +are, however, among the others, teachers who have failed +to attain to it, not from any want of the literary qualification––for +some of them actually possess the parchment +certificate bearing the signature of Lansdowne––but simply +because they are unfortunate enough to lack the pecuniary +one.</p> +<p>That which we so much dreaded has come, we repeat, +upon our Educational Scheme. The subject is a painfully +delicate one, and we have long kept aloof from it; but +truth, and truth only, can now enable the Free Church +and her people to act, in this emergency, as becomes the +character which they bear, and the circumstances in which +they are placed. Let us not fall into the delusion of deeming +the mere array of our Free Church schools and teachers––their +numbers and formidable length of line––any matter +of congratulation; nor forget, in our future calculations, +that if the Free Church now realizes from £10,000 to +£12,000 yearly for educational purposes, she would require +to realize some £5000 or £6000 more in order to qualify +her to meet her existing liabilities, estimated at the very +moderate rates laid down in the programme. The £5000 +or £6000 additional, instead of enabling her to erect a +single additional school, would only enable her to pay in +full her teachers’ salaries. And so it is obviously a delusion +to hold that our Free Church Educational Scheme supplies +in reality two-thirds of our congregations with teachers, +seeing that these teachers are only two-thirds paid. We +are still some £5000 or £6000 short of supplying the two-thirds, +and some £6000 or £7000 more of supplying the +whole. And even were the whole of our own membership +to be supplied, the grand query, How is our country to be +educated,––our parish schools to be restored to usefulness +and the Scotch people,––and Scotland herself to resume +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_61' name='page_61'></a>61</span> +and maintain her old place among the nations?––would +come back upon us as emphatically as now. Judging from +what has been already done, and this after every nerve has +been strained in the Sisyphisian work of rolling up-hill an +ever-returning stone, it seems wholly impossible that we +should ever succeed in educating the young of even our +own congregations; and how, then, save on some great +national scheme, is a sinking nation to be educated?</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_62' name='page_62'></a>62</span></div> +<h3 style="margin-top:3em">CHAPTER FIFTH.</h3> +<p class="ch_summary" >Unskilled Labourers remunerated at a higher rate than many of our Free Church +Teachers––The Teaching must be inferior if the Remuneration be low––Effect +of inferior Teaching on the parties taught––Statutory Security; where are the +parties to contend for it?––Necessity of a Government Inquiry––‘O for an hour +of Knox!’</p> +<p>That higher order of farm-servants which are known technically +in Mid-Lothian as ‘sowers and stackers,’ receive, as +their yearly wages, in the immediate neighbourhood of the +house of the writer, eighteen pounds in money, four bolls +oatmeal, two cart-loads of potatoes, and about from twenty +to thirty shillings worth of milk. The money value of the +whole amounts, at the present time, to something between +twenty-three and twenty-four pounds sterling. We are informed +by a Fifeshire proprietor, that in his part of the +country, a superior farm-servant, neither grieve nor foreman, +receives eight pounds in money, six and a half bolls meal, +three cart-loads of potatoes, and the use of a cow, generally +estimated as worth from ten to twelve pounds annually. +His aggregate wages, therefore, average from about twenty-four +to twenty-six pounds ten shillings a year. And we are +told by another proprietor of the south of Scotland, that +each of the better hinds in his employment costs him every +year about thirty pounds. In fine, to the south of the +Grampians, the emoluments of our more efficient class of +farm-servants range from twenty-three to thirty pounds +yearly. We need not refer to the wages of railway navvies, +nor yet to those of the superior classes of mechanics, such +as printers, masons, jewellers, typefounders, etc. There is +not a printer in the <i>Witness</i> office who would be permitted +by the rules of his profession, to make an arrangement +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_63' name='page_63'></a>63</span> +with his employers, were he to exchange piece-work for +wages, that did not secure to him twenty-five shillings per +week. To expect that a country or Church can possibly +have efficient schoolmasters at a lower rate of emolument +than not only skilled mechanics, but than even unskilled +railway labourers, or the ‘stackers and sowers’ of our large +farms, is so palpably a delusion, that simply to name it is to +expose it. And yet of our Free Church schoolmasters, +especially in thinly-peopled rural districts and the Highlands, +there are scores remunerated at a lower rate than +labourers and farm-servants, and hundreds at a rate at least +as low; and if we except the fortunate hundred and twenty-nine +who receive the Government grant, few indeed of the +others rise to the level of the skilled mechanic. Greatly +more than two-thirds of our teachers were placed originally +on the £15 and £20 scale of salaries: these are now paid +with £10 and £13, 13s. 4d. respectively. There are many +localities in which these pittances are not more than doubled +by the fees, and some localities in which they are even less +than doubled; and so a preponderating majority of the +schoolmasters of the Free Church are miserably poor men: +for what might be a competency to a labourer or hind, must +be utter poverty to them. And not a few of their number +are distressfully embarrassed and in debt.</p> +<p>Now this will never do. The Church may make herself +very sure, that for her £10 or £13 she will receive ultimately +only the worth of £10 or £13. She may get windfalls +of single teachers for a few months or years: superior +young men may occasionally make a brief stay in her +schools, in the course of their progress to something better,––as +Pilgrim rested for a while in the half-way recess hollowed +in the side of the Hill Difficulty; but only very +mediocre men, devoid of energy enough of body or mind +to make good masons or carpenters, will stick fast in them. +We have learned that, in one northern locality, no fewer +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_64' name='page_64'></a>64</span> +than eight Free Church teachers have since Martinmas last +either tendered their resignations, or are on the eve of +doing so. These, it will be found, are superior men, who +rationally aspire to something better than mere ploughman’s +wages; but there will of course be no resignations tendered +by the class who, in even the lowest depths of the Scheme, +have found but their proper level. These, as the more +active spirits fly off, will flow in and fill up their places, till, +wherever the £10 and £13 salaries prevail,––and in what +rural district do they not prevail?––the general pedagogical +acquirements of our teachers will present a surface as flat, +dull, and unprofitable as ditch-water. For what, we again +ask, can be expected for £10 or £13? And let the +reader but mark the effect of such teaching. We have seen +placed side by side, in the same burgh town, an English +school, in which what are deemed the branches suitable for +mechanics and their children, such as reading, writing, and +arithmetic, were energetically taught, and a grammar school +in which a university-bred schoolmaster laboured, with +really not much energy, especially in those lower departments +in which his rival excelled, but who was fitted to +prepare his pupils for college, and not devoid of the classical +enthusiasm. And it struck us as a significant and instructive +fact, that while the good English school, though it +turned out smart readers and clever arithmeticians, failed to +elevate a single man from the lower to the middle or higher +walks of life, the grammar school was successful in elevating +a great many. The principle on which such a difference of +result should have been obtained is so obvious, that it can +scarce be necessary to point it out. The teaching of the +one school was a narrow lane, trim, ’tis true, and well kept, +but which led to only workshops, brick-kilns, and quarries; +whereas that of the other was a broad, partially-neglected +avenue, which opened into the great professional highways, +that lead everywhere. And if the difference was one which +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_65' name='page_65'></a>65</span> +could not be obviated by all the energy of a superior and +well-paid English teacher, how, we ask, is it to be obviated +by our Free Church £10 and £13 teachers? Surely our +Church would do well to ponder whether it can be either +her interest or her duty to urge on any scheme, in opposition +to a national one, which would have all too palpably +the effect of degrading her poorer membership, so far as +they availed themselves of it, into the Gibeonites of the +community––its hewers of wood and drawers of water. +Never will Scotland possess an educational scheme truly +national, and either worthy of her ancient fame or adequate +to the demands and emergencies of an age like the present, +until at least every parish shall possess among its other +teachers its one university-bred schoolmaster, popularly +chosen, and well paid, and suited to assist in transplanting +to the higher places of society those select and vigorous +scions that from time to time spring up from the stock of +the commonalty. The waking dream of running down the +ignorance and misery of a sinking country by an array of +starveling teachers in the train of any one denomination––itself, +mayhap, sufficiently attenuated by the demands of +purely ecclesiastical objects––must be likened to that other +waking dream of the belated German peasant, who sees +from some deep glade of his native forests a spectral hunt +sweep through the clouds,––skeleton stags pursued by +skeleton huntsmen, mounted on skeleton horses, and surrounded +by skeleton beagles; and who hears, as the wild +pageant recedes into the darkness, the hollow tantivy and +the spectral horns echoing loud and wildly through the +angry heavens.</p> +<p>It is of paramount importance that the Free Church +should in the present crisis take up her position wisely. +We have heard of invaders of desperate courage, who, on +landing upon some shore on which they had determined +either to conquer or to perish, set fire to their ships, and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_66' name='page_66'></a>66</span> +thus shut out the possibility of retreat. Now the Free +Church––whether she land herself into an agitation for a +scheme of Government grants rendered more liberal and +flexible than now, and dissociated from the religious certificate, +or whether she plant her foot on a scheme of national +education based on a statutory recognition of the pedagogical +teaching of religion––is certainly in no condition to +burn her ships. Let her not rashly commit herself against +a third scheme, essentially one in principle with that which +the sagacious Chalmers could regard, after long and profound +reflection, as the only one truly eligible in the circumstances +of the country, and which she herself, some two +or three years hence, may be compelled to regard in a +similar light. The educational agitation is not to be settled +in the course of a few brief months; nor yet by the votes +of Presbyteries, Synods, or General Assemblies, whether +they belong to the Free or to the Established Churches. +It rises direct out of the great social question of the time. +Scotland as such forms one of its battle-fields, and Scotchmen +as such are the parties who are to be engaged in +the fight; and the issue, though ultimately secure, will long +seem doubtful. And so the Free Church may have quite +time enough to fight her own battle, or rather her own <i>two</i> +battles in succession, and, when both are over, find that +the great general contest still remains undecided.</p> +<p>For what we must deem by much the better and more +important battle of the <i>two</i>––that for a statutory demand +on the part of the State that the Bible and Shorter Catechism +should be taught in the national schools––we are +afraid the time is past; but most happy would we be to +find ourselves mistaken. The Church of Scotland, as represented +by that majority which is now the Free Church, +might have succeeded in carrying some such measure ten +years ago, when the parish schools were yet in her custody; +just as she might have succeeded seven years earlier in +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_67' name='page_67'></a>67</span> +obviating the dire necessity which led to the Disruption, +by acting upon the advice of the wise and far-seeing M’Crie.<a name='FNanchor_0009' id='FNanchor_0009'></a><a href='#Footnote_0009' class='fnanchor'>[10]</a> +But she was not less prepared at the one date to agitate for +the total abolition of patronage, than at the other to throw +open the parish schools on the basis of a statutory security +for the teaching of religion. In both cases, the golden +opportunity was suffered to pass by; and Old Time presents +to her now but the bald retreating occiput, which her +eager hand may in vain attempt to grasp. Where, we ask, +are we to look for the forces that are to assist us in fighting +this battle of statutory security? Has the Establishment +become more liberal, or more disposed to open the parish +schools, than we ourselves were when we composed the +majority of that very Establishment? Alas! in order to +satisfy ourselves on that head, we have but to look at the +decisions of her various ecclesiastical courts. Or is it the +old Scottish Dissenters that are to change their entire +front, and to make common cause with us, in disregard, +and even in defiance, of their own principles, as they themselves +understand them? Or are we to look to that evangelical +portion of the Episcopacy of England, with whom +<i>Establishment</i> means <i>Church</i>, and the ‘good of the Establishment’ +a synonyme for the ‘good of the Church,’ and +who, to a certainty, will move no hand against the sister +Establishment in Scotland? Or are we to be aided by that +portion of English Independency that has so very strangely +taken its stand equally against educational grants and educational +endowments, on the ground that there is a sort of +religion homœopathically diffused in all education––especially, +we suppose, in Lindley Murray’s readings from the +<i>Spectator</i> and Dr. Blair––and that, as the State must not +provide <i>religious</i> teaching for its people, it cannot, and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_68' name='page_68'></a>68</span> +must not, provide for them teaching of any kind? Scientific +Jews are they, of the straitest sect, who, wiser than their +fathers, have ascertained by the microscope, that all meat, +however nicely washed, continues to retain its molecules of +blood, and that flesh therefore must on no account be +eaten. We cannot, we say, discern, within the wide horizon +of existing realities, the troops with which this battle +is to be fought. They seem to be mere shadows of the +past. But if the Free Church see otherwise, let her by all +means summon them up, and fight it. Regarded simply as +a matter of policy, we are afraid the contest would be at +least imprudent. ‘It were well,’ said a Scotch officer to +Wolfe, when Chatham first called out the Highlanders of +Scotland to fight in the wars of Britain,––‘It were well, +General, that you should know the character of these Highland +troops. Do not attempt manœuvring with them; +Scotch Highlanders don’t understand manœuvre. If you +make a feint of charging, they will throw themselves sword +in hand into the thick of the enemy, and you will in vain +attempt calling them back; or if you make a show of retreating, +they will run away in right earnest, and you will +never see them more. So do not employ them in feints +and stratagems, but keep them for the hard, serious business +of the fight, and you will find them the best troops +in the world.’ Now, nearly the same character applies to +the Free Church. To set her a-fighting as a matter of +policy, would be very bad policy indeed. She would find +out reasons, semi-theological at least, for all her positions, +however hopeless, and would continue fixed in these long +after the battle had been fought and lost, and when she +ought to be engaged in retrieving her disasters on other +ground, and in a fresh and more promising quarrel. But +if the Free Church does enter into this battle, let her in +the meantime not forget, that after it has been fought, +and at least <i>possibly</i> lost, another battle may have still to +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_69' name='page_69'></a>69</span> +be begun; nor let her attempt damaging, by doubtful +theology, the position which a preponderating majority of +her own office-bearers and members may have yet to take +up. For, ultimately at least, the damage would be all her +own. Let her remark further, that should her people set +their hearts pretty strongly on those national seminaries, +which in many parts of the country would become, if +opened up, wholly their own <i>de facto</i>, and which are already +their own <i>de jure</i>, they might not be quite able to feel the +cogency of the argument that, while it left Socinians and +Papists in the enjoyment of at once very liberal and very +flexible Government grants, challenged <i>their</i> right to choose, +on their own responsibility, State-paid teachers for their +children; and which virtually assured them, that if they did +not contribute largely to the educational scheme of their own +Church, she would be wholly unable to maintain it as a +sort of mid-impediment between them and their just rights, +the parish schools. They would be exceedingly apt, too, +to translate any very determined and general preference +manifested by our church courts for the scheme of educational +grants, into some such enunciation as the following:––‘Give +us to ourselves but a moiety of one-third of the +Scottish young, and we will frankly give up the other two-thirds,––the +one-half of them to be destroyed by gross +ignorance, and the other half by deadly error.’<a name='FNanchor_0010' id='FNanchor_0010'></a><a href='#Footnote_0010' class='fnanchor'>[11]</a></p> +<p>There is at least one point on which we think all Free +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_70' name='page_70'></a>70</span> +Churchmen ought to agree. It is necessary that the truth +should be known respecting the educational condition and +resources of Scotland. It will, we understand, be moved +to-day [February 27th], in the Free Church Presbytery of +Edinburgh, as a thing good and desirable, that Government +should ‘institute an inquiry into the educational destitution +confessedly existing in large towns, populous neighbourhoods, +and remote districts, with a view to the marking out +of places where elementary schools are particularly needed,’ +etc. Would it not be more satisfactory to move instead, +the desirableness of a Government Commission of Inquiry, +1<i>st</i>, into the educational condition of all the youth of +Scotland between the years of six and fifteen, on the +scheme of that inquiry recently conducted by a Free Church +Educational Association in the Tron parish of Glasgow; +2<i>d</i>, into the condition, character, and teaching of all the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_71' name='page_71'></a>71</span> +various schools of the country, whether parochial, Free +Church, or adventure schools, with the actual amount of +pupils in attendance at each; and 3<i>d</i>, into the general +standing, acquirements, and <i>emoluments</i> of all the teachers? +Not only would the report of such a Commission be of +much solid value in itself, from the amount of fact which +it would furnish for the direction of educational exertion +on the part of both the people and the State; but it might +also have the effect of preventing good men from taking up, +in the coming contest, untenable and suspicious ground. +It would lay open the true state of our parish schools, +and not only show how utterly useless these institutions +have become, from at least the shores of the Beauly to +those of the Pentland Frith, and throughout the Highlands +generally, but also expose the gross exaggeration of the +estimate furnished by Mr. Macrae, and adopted by Dr. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_72' name='page_72'></a>72</span> +Muir.<a name='FNanchor_0011' id='FNanchor_0011'></a><a href='#Footnote_0011' class='fnanchor'>[12]</a> Further, it would have the effect of preventing any +member of either the Free Church or the Establishment from +resorting to the detestable policy of those Dissenters of +England, who, in order to secure certain petty advantages +to their own miserable sects, set themselves to represent +their poor country––perishing at the time for lack of knowledge––as +comparatively little in need of educational assistance. +But we trust this at least is an enormity, at once +criminal and mean, of which no Scotchman, whatever his +Church, <i>could</i> possibly be guilty; and so we shall not do +our country the injustice of holding that, though it produced +its ‘fause Sir Johns’ in the past, it contains in the +present one such traitor, until we at least see the man. +Further, a State Report of the kind would lay open to us, +in the severe statistical form, the actual emoluments of our +own Free Church teachers. We trust, then, that this +scheme of a searching Government inquiry may be regarded +as a first great step towards the important work of +educating the Scottish people, in which all ought to agree, +however thoroughly at variance in matters of principle or +on points of detail.</p> +<p>It is of mighty importance that men should look at things +as they really are. Let us remember that it is not for the +emergencies of yesterday that we are now called on to provide, +but for the necessities of to-day,––not for Scotland in +the year 1592, nor yet in the year 1700, but for Scotland in +the year 1850. What might be the best possible course in +these bygone ages, may be, and is, wholly an impracticable +course now. <i>Church</i> at both these earlier dates meant not +only an orthodox communion, but also that preponderating +majority of the nation which reckoned up as its own the +great bulk of both the rulers and the ruled, and at once +owned the best and longest swords, and wore the strongest +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_73' name='page_73'></a>73</span> +armour; whereas it now means, <i>legally</i> at least, merely two +Erastianized Establishments, and <i>politically</i>, all the Christian +denominations that possess votes and return members +to Parliament. The prism seizes on a single white ray, and +decomposes it into a definitely proportioned spectrum, +gorgeous with the primary colours. The representative +principle of a Government such as ours takes up, as if by a +reverse process, those diverse hues of the denominational +spectrum that vary the face of society, and compounds +them in the Legislature into a blank. Save for the existence +of the two Establishments––strong on other than +religious grounds––and the peculiar tinge which they cast +on the institutions of the country, the blank would be still +more perfect than it is; and this fact––a direct result of +the strongly marked hues of the denominational spectrum, +operated upon by the representative principle––we can no +more change than we can the optical law. Let there be +but the colour of one religion in the national spectrum, +and the Legislature will wear but one religious colour: let +it consist of half-a-dozen colours, and the Legislature will +be of none. ‘O for an hour of Knox!’ it has been said by +a good and able man, from whom, however, in this question +we greatly differ,––‘O for an hour of Knox to defend +the national religious education which he was raised up to +institute!’ Knox, be it remembered, was wise, prudent, +sagacious, in accordance with the demands of his time. A +Knox of the exact fashion of the sixteenth century, raised +up in the middle of the nineteenth, would be but a slim, +long-bearded effigy of a Knox, grotesquely attired in a +Geneva cloak and cap, and with the straw and hay that +stuffed him sticking out in tufts from his waistband. ‘O for +an hour of Knox!’ The Scottish Church of the present +age has already had its Knox. ‘Elias hath already come.’ +The large-minded, wise-hearted Knox of the nineteenth +century died at Morningside three years ago; and he has +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_74' name='page_74'></a>74</span> +bequeathed, as a precious legacy to the Church, his judgment +on this very question. ‘It were the best state of +things,’ he said, ‘that we had a Parliament sufficiently theological +to discriminate between the right and the wrong in +religion, and to endow accordingly. But failing this, it +seems to us the next best thing, that in any public measure +for helping on the education of the people, Government +were to abstain from introducing the element of religion at +all into their part of the scheme; and this not because they +held the matter to be insignificant,––the contrary might be +strongly expressed in the preamble of their Act,<a name='FNanchor_0012' id='FNanchor_0012'></a><a href='#Footnote_0012' class='fnanchor'>[13]</a>––but on +the ground that, in the present divided state of the Christian +world, they would take no cognizance of, just because +they would attempt no control over, the religion of applicants +for aid,––leaving this matter entire to the parties who +had to do with the erection and management of the schools +which they had been called upon to assist. A grant by the +State on this footing might be regarded as being appropriately +and exclusively the expression of their value for a +good secular education.’</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_75' name='page_75'></a>75</span></div> +<h3 style="margin-top:3em">CHAPTER SIXTH.</h3> +<p class="ch_summary" >Our previous Statement regarding the actual Condition of the Free Church Educational +Scheme absolutely necessary––Voluntary Objections to a National Scheme, +as stated by the Opponents of the Voluntaries; not particularly solid––Examination +of the matter.</p> +<p>Our episode regarding the Free Church Educational Scheme +now fairly completed, let us return to the general question. +The reader may, however, do well to note the inevitable +necessity which existed on our part, that our wholesome, +though mayhap unpalatable, statements respecting it should +have been submitted to the Church and the country. The +grand question which in the course of Providence had at +length arisen was, ‘How is our sinking country to be +educated?’ We had taken our stand, as a Scotchman, in +behalf of the Scottish people; and as the belief seemed +widely to exist that our own Free Church scheme was +adequate, or at least nearly so, to the education of the children +of our own membership, and that our duty as Scotchmen +could be fulfilled, somehow, by concentrating all our +exertions upon <i>it</i>, it had become essentially necessary that +the delusion should be dispelled. And so we have showed, +that while our scheme, in order fully to supply the educational +wants of even our own people, would require to +exist in the proportion of <i>nine</i>, it exists nominally in but the +proportion of <i>six</i>, and in reality in but the proportion of +<i>four</i>,––seeing that the <i>six, i.e</i>. our existing staff of teachers, +amounting to but two-thirds of the number required, are +but two-thirds paid;––in short, that our educational speculation +is exactly in the circumstances of a railway company +who, having engaged to cut a line ninety miles in length, have +succeeded in cutting forty miles of it at their own proper +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_76' name='page_76'></a>76</span> +expense, and then having cut twenty miles more on <i>preference</i> +shares, find their further progress arrested by a lack +of funds. And so it became necessary to show that the +existence and circumstances of our Free Church schools, +instead of furnishing, as had been urged in several of our +presbyteries, any argument <i>against</i> the agitation of the +general question, furnished, on the contrary, the best possible +of all arguments <i>for</i> its agitation; and to show further, +that the policy which brought a denominational scheme, +that did not look beyond ourselves, into a great national +engagement, in the character of a privateer virtually on +the side of the enemy, was a most perilous policy, that +exposed it to damaging broadsides, and telling shot right +between wind and water.</p> +<p>Let us now pass on to the consideration of a matter on +which we but touched before,––the perfect compatibility of +a consistent Voluntaryism with religious teaching in a school +endowed by the State, on the principle of Dr. Chalmers. +The <i>Witness</i> is as little Voluntary now as it ever was. It +seems but fair, however, that a principle should be saddled +with only the consequences that legitimately arise from it; +and that Voluntaryism should not be exposed, in this contest, +to a species of witchcraft, that first caricatures it in +an ill-modelled image, and then sticks the ugly thing over +with pins.</p> +<p>The revenues of the State-endowed schools of this +country––and, we suppose, of every other––are derived +from two distinct sources: from Government, who furnishes +the schoolmaster’s salary, and erects the building in +which he teaches; and from the parents or guardians, who +remunerate him according to certain graduated rates for +the kind of instruction which he communicates to their +children or wards. And the <i>rationale</i> of this State assistance +seems very obvious. It is of importance to the State, +both on economic and judicial grounds, that all its people +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_77' name='page_77'></a>77</span> +should be taught; but, on the adventure-school principle, +it is impossible that they should all be taught, seeing that +adventure schools can thrive in only densely peopled +localities, or where supported by wealthy families, that pay +largely for their children’s education. And so, in order +that education may be brought down to the humblest of +the people, the State supplements, in its own and its +people’s behalf, the schoolmaster’s income, and builds him +a school. Such seems to be the principle of educational +endowments. Now, if the State, in endowing national +schoolmasters, were to signify that it endowed them in +order that, among other things, they should <i>teach religion</i>, we +can well see how a Voluntary who conscientiously holds, as +such, that religion ought not to be State-endowed, might be +unable to avail himself, on his children’s behalf, of the State-enjoined +religious teaching of any such functionaries; just +as we can also see, that if the State <i>forbade</i> its schoolmasters +on any account to teach religion, a conscientious holder of +the Establishment principle might be perhaps equally unable +to avail himself of services so restricted. We can at +least see how each, in turn, might lodge an alternate protest,––the +one against the positive exclusion of religion by +the State, the other against its positive introduction. But +if, according to Chalmers, the State, aware of the difficulty, +tenders its endowment and builds its schools ‘simply as an +expression of its value for a good secular education,’ and +avowedly leaves the religious part of the school training to +be determined by the parties who furnish that moiety of the +schoolmaster’s support derived from fees––<i>i.e.</i> the parents +or guardians––we find in the arrangement ground on which +the Voluntary and the Establishment man can meet and +agree. For the State virtually wills by such a settlement––and +both by what it demands, and by what it does <i>not</i> +demand, but <i>permits</i>––that its salaried functionary should +stand to his employers, the people, simply in the relation of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_78' name='page_78'></a>78</span> +an adventure schoolmaster. The State says virtually to its +teacher in such circumstances: ‘I, as the <i>general</i> guardian +of your pupils, do not pay you for their religious education; +but their <i>particular</i> and special guardians, the parents, are +quite at liberty to make with you on that head whatever +bargain they please. Fully aware of the vast importance of +religious teaching, and yet wholly unable, from the denominational +differences of the time, at once to provide for it in +the national seminaries, and to render these equal to the +wants of the country, I throw the whole responsibility in +this matter on the divided people, whom I cannot unite in +their religion, but whose general education I am not on +that account at liberty to neglect.’ On grounds such as +these, we repeat, Voluntaryism and the Establishment principle +may meet and agree.</p> +<p>There can be little doubt, however, that there are men +on both sides sparingly gifted with common sense: for +never yet was there a great question widely and popularly +agitated, that did not divide not only the wise men, but +also the fools of the community; and we have heard it +urged by some of the representatives of the weaker class, +that a Voluntary could not permit his children to be taught +religion under a roof provided by the State. Really, with +all respect for the cap and bells, this is driving the matter a +little too far. We have been told by a relative, now deceased, +who served on shipboard during the first revolutionary +war, and saw some hard fighting, that at the close of a +hot engagement, in which victory remained with the British, +the captain of the vessel in which he sailed––a devout and +brave man––called his crew together upon the quarter-deck, +and offered up thanks to God in an impressive +prayer. The noble ship in which he sailed was the property +of the State, and he himself a State-paid official; but +was there anything in either circumstance to justify a protest +from even the most rabid Voluntary against the part +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_79' name='page_79'></a>79</span> +which he acted on this interesting occasion, simply as a +Christian hero? Nay, had he sought to employ and pay +out of his private purse in behalf of his crew an evangelical +missionary, as decidedly Voluntary in his views as John +Foster or Robert Hall, would the man have once thought +of objecting to the work because it was to be prosecuted +under the shelter of beams and planks, every one of which +belonged to the Government? Would a pious Voluntary +soldier keep aloof from a prayer-meeting on no other +ground than that it was held in a barrack?––or did the first +Voluntaries of Great Britain, the high-toned Independents +that fought under Cromwell, abstain from their preachings +and their prayers when cooped up by the enemy in a +garrison? Where is the religious Voluntary who would not +exhort in a prison, or offer up an unbought prayer on a +public, State-provided scaffold, for some wretched criminal +shivering on the verge of the grave?</p> +<p>Now the schoolmaster, in the circumstances laid down +by Chalmers, we hold to be in at least as favourable a +position with respect to the State and the State-erected +edifice in which he teaches, as the ship-captain or the non-commissioned +missionary––the devout Voluntary soldier, +or the pious Independents of Cromwell’s Ironsides. He is, +in his secular character, a State-paid official, sheltered by an +erection the property of the State; but the State permits +him to bear in that erection another character, in relation +to another certain employer, whom it recognises as quite as +legitimately in the field as itself, and permits him also––though +it does not enjoin––to perform his duties there as a +Christian man. Though, however, the objection to religious +teaching under the State-erected roof may be suffered to +drop, there may be an objection raised––and there has +been an objection raised––against the teaching of religion +in certain periods of time during the day, for which it is +somehow taken for granted the State pays. Hence the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_80' name='page_80'></a>80</span> +argument for teaching religion in certain other periods of +time not paid for by the State––or in other words, during +separate hours. Now the entire difference here seems to +originate in a vicious begging of the question. It is not +the State that specifies the hours during each day in which +State-endowed and State-erected schools are taught; on the +contrary, varying as these hours do, and must, in various +parts of the town and country––for a thinly-peopled district +demands one set of hours, and a densely-peopled locality +another––they are fixed, as mere matters of mutual arrangement, +to suit the convenience of the teachers and the taught. +It is enough that the State satisfy itself, through its inspectors, +that the secular instruction for which it pays is effectually +imparted to its people: it neither does nor will lay +claim to any one hour of the day as its own, whether before +noon or after it. It will leave to the English Establishment +its canonical hours, sacred to organ music and the Liturgy; +but it will set apart by enactment no pedagogical hours, +sacred to arithmetic or algebra, the construing of verbs, or +the drawing of figures. If separate hours merely mean that +the master is not to have all his classes up at once––here +gabbling Latin or Greek, there discussing the primer or +reciting from Scott’s Collection, yonder repeating the multiplication +table or running over the rules of Lindley Murray––we +at once say religion must have its separate hour, just +as English, the dead tongues, figuring, writing, and the +mathematics, have their separate hours; but if it be meant +that the religious teaching of the school must be restricted +to some hour not paid for by the State, then we reply with +equal readiness that we know of no hour specially paid for +by the State, and so utterly fail to recognise any principle +in the proposed arrangement, or rather in the objection +that would suggest it.</p> +<p>As to the question of a separate fee for religious tuition, +let us consider how it is usually solved in the adventure +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_81' name='page_81'></a>81</span> +schools of the country. The day is, in most cases, opened +by the master with prayer, and then there is a portion of +Scripture read by the pupils. And neither the Scripture +read nor the prayer offered up fall, we are disposed to +think, under the head of religious tuition, but under a +greatly better head––that of religion itself. It is a proper +devotional beginning of the business of the day. The committal +of the Shorter Catechism––which with most children +is altogether an exercise of memory, but which, accomplished +in youth, while the intellect yet sleeps, produces +effects in after years almost always beneficial to the understanding, +and not unfrequently ameliorative of the heart––we +place in a different category. It is not religion, but the +teaching of religion; not food for the present, but store +laid up for the future. With the committal to memory of +the Catechism we class that species of Scripture dissection +now so common in schools, which so often mangles what +it carves.<a name='FNanchor_0013' id='FNanchor_0013'></a><a href='#Footnote_0013' class='fnanchor'>[14]</a> And religion taught in this way is and ought to +be represented in the fee paid to the teacher, and is and +ought to be taught in a class as separate from all the others +as the geography or the grammar class. Such is, we understand, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_82' name='page_82'></a>82</span> +a common arrangement in Scottish adventure schools; +nor does there exist a single good reason for preventing it +from also obtaining in the Scottish national schools. If the +parentage of Scotland, whether Voluntary or Establishment, +were to be vested with the power of determining that it +should be so, and of selecting their schoolmasters, the +schools would open with prayer and the reading of the +Word––not because they were State-endowed, but because, +the State leaving the point entirely open, they were the schools +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_83' name='page_83'></a>83</span> +of a Christian land, to which Christian parents had sent their +children, and for which, on their own proper responsibility, +they had chosen, so far as they could determine the point, +Christian teachers. And for this religious part of the services +of the day we would deem it derogatory to the character +of a schoolmaster to suppose that he <i>could</i> receive any +remuneration from the parents of his pupils, or from any one +else. For the proper devotional services of the school we +would place on exactly the same high disinterested level as the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_84' name='page_84'></a>84</span> +devotional exercises of the family, or as those of the gallant +officer and his crew, who, paid for but the defence of their +country, gave God thanks on the blood-stained quarter-deck, +in their character as Christians, that He had sheltered their +heads in one of their country’s battles, and then cast themselves +in faith upon His further care. We would, we say, +deem it an insult to the profession to speak of a monetary +remuneration for the read word or the prayer offered up. +Nay, if either was rated at but a single penny as its price, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_85' name='page_85'></a>85</span> +or if there was a single penny expected for either, where is +there the man, Voluntary or Free Church, that would deem +it worth the money? The story of the footman, who, upon +being told, on entering on his new place, that he would +have to attend family prayers, expressed a hope that the +duty would be considered in his wages, has become one of +the standard jokes of our jest-books. We would, however, +place the religious teaching of the school on an entirely +different footing from its religious services. We would +assign to <i>it</i> its separate class and its separate time, just as +we would assign a separate class and time to the teaching +of English grammar, or history, or the dead languages. +And whether the remuneration was specified or merely +understood, we would deem it but reasonable that this +branch of teaching, like all the other branches which occupied +the time and tasked the exertions of the teacher, should +be remunerated by a fee: in this department of tuition, as in +the others, we would deem the labourer worthy of his hire. +We need scarce add, however, that we would recognise no +power in the majority of any locality, or in the schoolmaster +whom they had chosen, to render attendance at even +the devotional services of the seminary compulsory on the +children of parents who, on religious or other grounds, willed +that they should not join in the general worship. And, of +course, attendance on the religion-teaching class would be +altogether as much a matter of arrangement between the +parent and the schoolmaster, as attendance on the Latin or +English classes, or on arithmetic, algebra, or the mathematics.</p> +<p>While, however, we can see no proper grounds for difference +between Voluntaries and Free Churchmen, on even +these details of school management, and see, further, that +they never differ regarding the way in which the adventure +schools of the country are conducted, we must remind the +reader that all on which they have really to agree on this +question, as Scotchmen and franchise-holders, is simply +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_86' name='page_86'></a>86</span> +whether their country ought not, in the first place, to possess +an efficient system of national schools, open to all +the Christian denominations; whether, in the second, the +parents ought not to be permitted to exercise, on their +own responsibility, the natural right of determining what +their children should be taught; and whether, in the third, +the householders of a district ought not to be vested in the +power, now possessed by the heritors and parish minister, +of choosing the teacher. Agreement on these heads is +really all that is necessary towards either the preliminary +agitation of the question, or in order to secure its ultimate +success. The minor points would all come to be settled, +not on the legislative platform, but in the parishes, by the +householders. Voluntaryism, wise and foolish, does not +reckon up more than a third of the population of Scotland; +and foolish, <i>i.e.</i> extreme Voluntaries––for the sensible ones +would be all with us––would find themselves, when they +came to record their votes, a very small minority indeed. +And so, though their extreme views may now be represented +as lions in the path, it would be found ultimately +that, like the lions which affrighted Pilgrim in the avenue, +and made the poor man run back, they are lions well +chained up––<i>lions</i>, in short, in a <i>minority</i>, like the agricultural +lion in <i>Punch</i>. Let us remark, further, that if +some of our friends deem the scheme proposed for Scotland +too little religious, it is as certain that the assertors +of the scheme now proposed for England, and advocated +in Parliament by Mr. Fox, very decidedly object to it on +the opposite score. Like the grace said by the Rev. +Reuben Butler, which was censured by the Captain of +Knockdunder as too long, and by douce Davie Deans as +too short, it is condemned for faults so decidedly antagonistic +in their character, that they cannot co-exist together. +One class of persons look exclusively at that lack of a +statutory recognition of religion which the scheme involves, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_87' name='page_87'></a>87</span> +and denounce it as <i>infidel</i>; another, at the religious character +of the people of Scotland, and at the consequent certainty, +also involved in the scheme, that they will render +their schools transcripts of themselves, and so they condemn +it as <i>orthodox</i>. And hence the opposite views entertained +by Mr. Combe of Edinburgh on the one hand, and Mr. +Gibson of Glasgow on the other.<a name='FNanchor_m097_1' id='FNanchor_m097_1'></a><a href='#Footnote_m097_1' class='fnanchor'>[15]</a></p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_88' name='page_88'></a>88</span></div> +<h3 style="margin-top:3em">CHAPTER SEVENTH.</h3> +<p class="ch_summary" >General Outline of an Educational Scheme adequate to the demands of the Age––Remuneration +of Teachers––Mode of their Election––Responsibility––Influence +of the Church in such a Scheme––Apparent Errors of the Church––The Circumstances +of Scotland very different now from what they were in the days of Knox.</p> +<p>Scotland will never have an efficient educational system +at once worthy of her ancient fame, and adequate to the +demands of the age, until in every parish there be at least +one central school, known emphatically as the <i>Parish</i> or +Grammar School, and taught by a superior university-bred +teacher, qualified to instruct his pupils in the higher departments +of learning, and fit them for college. And with this +central institute every parish must also possess its supplementary +English schools, efficient of their kind, though of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_89' name='page_89'></a>89</span> +a lower standing, and sufficiently numerous to receive all +the youthful population of the district which fails to be +accommodated in the other. In these, the child of the +labourer or mechanic––if, possessed of but ordinary powers, +he looked no higher than the profession of his father––could +be taught to read, write, and figure. If, however, +there awakened within him during the process, the stirrings +of those impulses which characterize the superior mind, he +could remove to his proper place––the central school––mayhap, +in country districts, some two or three miles away; +but when the intellectual impulses are genuine, two or three +miles in such cases are easily got over.</p> +<p>We would fix for the teachers, in the first instance, on +no very extravagant rate of remuneration; for it might +prove bad policy in this, as in other departments, to set a +man above his work. The salaries attached at present to +our parish schools vary from a minimum of £25 to a +maximum of about £34. Let us suppose that they varied, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_90' name='page_90'></a>90</span> +instead, from a minimum of £60 to a maximum of £80––not +large sums, certainly, but which, with the fees and a +free house, would render every parochial schoolmaster in +Scotland worth about from £80 to £100 per annum, and +in some cases––dependent, of course, on professional efficiency +and the population of the locality––worth considerably +more. The supplementary English schools we would +place on the average level maintained at present by our +parish schools, by providing the teachers with free houses, +and yearly salaries of a minimum of £30 and a maximum +of £40. And as it is of great importance that men should +not fall asleep at their posts, and as tutors never teach +more efficiently than when straining to keep ahead of their +pupils, we would fain have provision made that, by a permitted +use of occasional substitutes, this lower order of +schoolmasters should be enabled to prepare themselves, by +attendance at college, for competing, as vacancies occurred, +for the higher schools. It would be an arrangement worth +£20 additional salary to every school in Scotland, that the +channels of preferment should be ever kept open to useful +talent and honest diligence, so that the humblest English +teacher in the land might rise, in the course of years, to be +at the head of its highest school; nay, that, like that James +Beattie who taught at one time the parish school of Fordoun, +he might, if native faculty had been given and wisely +improved, become one of the country’s most distinguished +professors. In fixing our permanent castes of schools, +Grammar and English, we would strongly urge that there +should be no permanent castes of teachers fixed––no men +condemned to the humbler walks of the profession if qualified +for the higher. The life-giving sap would thus have +free course, from the earth’s level to the topmost boughs +of our national scheme; and low as an Englishman might +deem our proposed rates of remuneration for university-taught +men, we have no fear that they would prove insufficient, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_91' name='page_91'></a>91</span> +coupled with such a provision, for the right education +of the country.</p> +<p>We are not sure that we quite comprehend the sort of +machinery meant to be included under the term Local or +Parochial Boards. It seems necessary that there should +exist Local <i>Committees</i> of the educational franchise-holders, +chosen by themselves, from among their own number, for +terms either definite or indefinite, and recognised by statute +as vested in certain powers of examination and inquiry. +But though a mere name be but a small matter, we are inclined +to regard the term Board as somewhat too formidable +and stiff. Let us, at least for the present, substitute the +term Committee; and as large committees are apt to degenerate +into little mobs, and, as such, to conduct their +business noisily and ill, let us suppose educational committees +to consist, in at least country districts or the smaller +towns, of some eight or ten individuals, selected by the +householders for their intelligence, integrity, and business +habits, and with a chairman at their head, chosen from +among their number by themselves. A vacancy occurs, let +us suppose, in either the Grammar or one of the English +schools of the place: the committee, through their <ins class="trchange" title="Was 'chair man' over line">chairman</ins>, +put themselves in communication with some of the +Normal schoolmasters of the south, and receive from them +a few names of deserving and qualified teachers, possessed +of diplomas indicating their professional standing, and furnished, +besides, with trustworthy certificates of character. +Or, if the emoluments of the vacant school be considerable, +and some of the neighbouring teachers, placed on a lower +rate of income, have distinguished themselves by their +professional merits, and so rendered themselves known in +the district, let us suppose that they select <i>their</i> names, and +to the number of some two, three, four, or more, submit +them, with the necessary credentials, to their constituents +the householders. And these assemble on some fixed day, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_92' name='page_92'></a>92</span> +and, from the number placed on the list, select their men. +Such, in the business of electing a schoolmaster, would, we +hold, be the proper work of a committee. In all other +seasons, the committee might be recognised as vested in +some of the functions now exercised by the Established +presbyteries, such as that of presiding, in behalf of the +parentage of the locality, at yearly or half-yearly examinations +of the schools, and of watching over the general +morals and official conduct of the teacher. But the power +of trial and dismission, which, of course, would need to +exist somewhere, we would vest in other hands. Let us remark, +in the passing, that much might come to depend ultimately +on the portioning out of the localities into electoral +districts of a proper size, and that it would be perhaps well, +as a general rule, that there should be no subdivisions made +of the old parishes. There are few parishes in Scotland in +which the materials of a good committee might not be +found; but there are perhaps many half, and third, and +quarter parishes in which no such materials exist. Further, +the householders of some country hamlet or degraded town-suburb, +populous enough to require its school, might be yet +very unfit of themselves to choose for it a schoolmaster. +And hence the necessity for maintaining a local breadth of +representation sufficient to do justice to the principle of the +scheme, and to prevent it, if we may so speak, from sinking +in the less solid parts of the kingdom. A parochial breadth +of base would serve as if to plank over the unsounder portions +of the general surface, and give footing to a system of +schools and teachers worthy, as a whole, of the character +and the necessities of a country wise and enlightened in +the main, but that totters on the brink of a bottomless +abyss.</p> +<p>The power of trying, and, if necessary, of dismissing from +his charge, an offending teacher, would, however, as we +have said, require to exist somewhere. Every official, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_93' name='page_93'></a>93</span> +whether of the State or Church, or whether dependent on a +single employer or on a corporation or company, bears +always a twofold character. He is a subject of the realm, +and, as such, amenable to its laws; he has also an official +responsibility, and may be reprimanded or dismissed for +offences against the requirements and duties of his office. +A tradesman or mechanic may go on tippling for years, +wasting his means and neglecting his business, untouched +by any law save that great economic law of Providence +which dooms the waster to ultimate want; but for the excise +officer, or bank accountant, or railway clerk, who pursues a +similar course, there exists a court of official responsibility, +which anticipates the slow operation of the natural law, by +at once divesting the offender of his office. And the State-paid +schoolmaster must have also his official responsibility. +But it would serve neither the ends of justice nor the interests +of a sound policy to erect his immediate employers into a +court competent to try and condemn: their proper place +would be rather that of parties than of judges; and as +parties, we would permit them simply to conduct against +him any case for which they might hold there existed proper +grounds. A schoolmaster chosen by a not large majority, +might find in a few years that his supporters had dwindled +into a positive minority: parents whose boys were careless, +or naturally thick-headed, would of course arrive at the +opinion that it was the teacher who was in fault; nay, a +parent who had fallen into arrears with his fees might come +to entertain the design of discharging the account simply +by discharging the schoolmaster; and thus great injustice +might be done to worthy and efficient men, and one of the +most important classes of the community placed in circumstances +of a shackled dependency, which no right-minded +teacher could submit to occupy. What we would propose, +then, is, that the power of trial, and of dismission if necessary, +should be vested in a central national board, furnished +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_94' name='page_94'></a>94</span> +with one or more salaried functionaries to record its sentences +and do its drudgery, but consisting mainly of unpaid +members of high character and standing,––some of them, +mayhap, members <i>ex officio</i>; the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, +let us suppose––the Principal and some of the Professors of +the Edinburgh University––the Rector, shall we say, of the +High School––the Lord Advocate, and mayhap the Dean +of Faculty. And as it would be of importance that there +should be as little new machinery created as possible, the +evidence, criminatory or exculpatory, on which such a board +would have to decide could be taken before the Sheriff +Courts of the provinces, and then, after being carefully sifted +by the Sheriffs or their Substitutes, forwarded in a documentary +form to Edinburgh. It would scarce be wise to +attempt extemporizing an official code in a newspaper +article; but the laws of such a code might, we think, be +ranged under three heads,––immorality, incompetency, and +breach of trust to the parents. We would urge the dismissal, +as wholly unqualified to stand in the relation of teacher +to the youthhead, of the tippling, licentious, or dishonest +schoolmaster; further, we would urge the dismissal (and in +cases of this kind the corroborative evidence of the Government +inspector might be regarded as indispensable) of an +incompetent teacher who did not serve the purpose of his +appointment; and, in the third and last place, we would +urge that a teacher who made an improper use of his professional +influence over his pupils, and of the opportunities +necessarily afforded him, and who taught them to entertain +beliefs, ecclesiastical or semi-ecclesiastical, which their +parents regarded as erroneous, should be severely reprimanded +for such an offence in the first instance, and dismissed +if he persevered in it. We would confer upon the +board, in cases of this last kind, no power of deciding regarding +the absolute right or wrong of the dogmas taught. +The teacher might be a zealous Voluntary, who assured the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_95' name='page_95'></a>95</span> +children of men such as the writer of these articles that +their fathers, in asserting the Establishment principle, approved +themselves limbs of that mystic Babylon which was +first founded by Constantine; or he might be a conscientious +Establishment-man, who dutifully pressed upon the Voluntary +pupils under his care, that their parents, though they perhaps +did not know it, were atheistical in their views. And we +would permit no board to determine in such cases, whether +Voluntaryism was in any respect or degree tantamount to +atheism, or the Establishment principle to Popery. But +we would ask them to declare, as wise and honest men, that +no schoolmaster, under the pretext of a zeal for truth, should +with impunity break faith with the parents of his pupils, or +prejudice the unformed and ductile minds entrusted to his +care against their hereditary beliefs. Should we, however, +do no violence by such a provision, we have heard it asked, +to the conscientious convictions of the schoolmaster? No, +not in the least. If he was in reality the conscientious man +that he professed to be, he would quit his equivocal position +as a teacher, in which, without being dishonest, he could +not fulfil what he deemed his religious duty, and become a +minister; a character in which he would find Churches +within which he could affirm with impunity that Dr. Chalmers +was, in virtue of his Establishment views, little better than +a Papist, or that Robert Hall, seeing he was a Voluntary, +must have been an unconscious atheist at bottom.</p> +<p>Let us next consider what the influence of the ministers +of our Church would be under a national scheme such as +that which we desiderate, and what the probability that the +national teaching would be religious. The minister, as +such, would possess, nominally at least, but a single vote; +and if he were what an ordained minister may in some +cases be––merely a suit of black clothes surmounted by a +white neckcloth––the vote, <i>nominally</i> one, would be also +<i>really</i> but one; nor ought it, we at once say, to weigh in +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_96' name='page_96'></a>96</span> +such cases an iota more than it counted. Mere black coats +and white neckcloths, though called by congregations, and +licensed and ordained by presbyteries, never yet carried on +the proper business of either Church or school. But if the +minister was no mere suit of clothes, but a Christian man, +ordained and called not merely by congregations and presbyteries, +but by God Himself, his one vote in the case would +outweigh hundreds, simply because it would represent the +votes of hundreds. Let us suppose that, with the national +schools thrown open, a vacancy had occurred in the parish +school of Cromarty during the incumbency of the lamented +Mr. Stewart. The people of the town and parish, possessing +the educational franchise, would meet; their committee +would deliberate; there would be a teacher chosen,––in all +probability, the present excellent Free Church teacher of +the town; and every man would feel that he had exercised +in the election his own judgment on his own proper responsibility. +And yet it would assuredly be the teacher +whom the minister had deemed on the whole most eligible +for the office, that would find himself settled, in virtue of +the transaction, in the parish school. How? Not, certainly, +through any exercise of clerical domination, nor +through any employment of what is still more hateful––clerical +manœuvre––but in virtue of a widespread confidence +reposed by the people in the wisdom and the integrity +of the minister sent them by God Himself to preach to +them the everlasting gospel. In almost all the surrounding +parishes––in Resolis, Rosskeen, Urquhart under the +late Dr. M’Donald, Alness, Kiltearn, Kincardine, Kilmuir, +etc. etc. etc.––in similar cases similar results would follow; +and if there are preachers in that vast northern or north-western +tract––which, with the three northern counties, +includes also almost the entire Highlands––in which such +results would <i>not</i> follow, it would be found that in most +cases the fault lay rather with the ordained suits of black, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_97' name='page_97'></a>97</span> +topped by the white neckcloths, than with the people whom +they failed to influence.</p> +<p>As for the religion or the religious teaching of the schools, +we hold it to be one of the advantages of the proposed +scheme, that it would really stir up both ministers and +people to think seriously of the matter, and to secure for +the country truly religious teaching, so far as it was found +to be at once practicable and good. Previous to the year +1843, when the parish schools lay fully within our power, +there was really nothing done to introduce religious teaching +into <i>them</i>; we had it all secure on written sheepskin, +that their teaching should and might be religious, for we +had them all fast bound to the Establishment; and, as if +that were enough of itself, ministers, backed by heritors and +their factors, went on filling these parish schools with men +who stood the test of the Disruption worse, in the proportion +of at least five to one, than any other class in the +country, and who, if their religious teaching had but taken +effect on the people by bringing them to their own level, +would have rendered that Disruption wholly an impossibility.<a name='FNanchor_0014' id='FNanchor_0014'></a><a href='#Footnote_0014' class='fnanchor'>[16]</a> +And then, when that great event occurred, we +flung ourselves into an opposite extreme,––eulogized our +Educational Scheme as the best and most important of all +the Schemes of our Church, on, we suppose, the principle +so well understood by the old divines, that whereas the +other schemes were of God, and God-enjoined, this scheme +was of ourselves,––introduced, further, the design of ‘<i>inducting</i>’ +our teachers, as if an idle ceremony could be any +substitute for the indispensable commission signed by the +Sovereign, and could make the non-commissioned by Him +at least <i>half</i> ecclesiastics.<a name='FNanchor_0015' id='FNanchor_0015'></a><a href='#Footnote_0015' class='fnanchor'>[17]</a> And then, after <i>teaching</i> our +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_98' name='page_98'></a>98</span> +schoolmasters to <i>teach</i> religion, we sent them abroad in +shoals––some of them, no doubt, converted men, hundreds +of them unconverted, and religious but by certificate––to +make the children of the Free Church as good Christians +as themselves. And by attempting to make them half +ecclesiastics, we have but succeeded in making them half +mendicants, and somewhat more,––a character which assuredly +no efficient schoolmaster ought to bear; for while +his profession holds in Scripture no higher place than the +two <i>secular</i> branches of the learned professions, physic +and the law, he is as certainly worthy of his reward, and of +maintaining an independent position in society, as either +the lawyer or the physician. In schools truly national––with +no sheepskin authority to sleep over on the one hand, +and no idle dream of semi-ecclesiastical ‘induction’ to +beguile on the other––the item of religious teaching, +brought into prominence by both the Free and the Established +Churches in the preliminary struggle, would assert +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_99' name='page_99'></a>99</span> +and receive its due place. Scotland would possess what +it never yet possessed,––not even some twenty years or so +after the death of Knox,––a system of schools worthy, in the +main, of a Christian country. We are told by old Robert +Blair, in his Autobiography, that when first brought under +religious impressions (in the year 1600), ‘he durst never +play on the Lord’s day, though the schoolmaster, after +taking an account of the Catechism, dismissed the children +with that express direction, “Go not to the town, but to +the fields, and play.” I obeyed him,’ adds the worthy +man, ‘in going to the fields, but refused to play with my +companions, as against the commandment of God.’ Now +it is not at all strange that there should have been such a +schoolmaster, in any age of the Presbyterian Church, in +one of the parish schools of our country; but somewhat +strange, mayhap, considering the impression so generally +received regarding the Scottish schools of that period, that +Blair should have given us no reason whatever to regard +the case as an extreme or exceptional one. Certainly, +with such a central board in existence as that which we +desiderate, no such type of schoolmaster would continue to +hold office in a national seminary.</p> +<p>Further, it really seems difficult to determine whether +the difference between the old educational scheme of Knox +and that proposed at the present time by the Free Church, +or the difference between the circumstances of Scotland in +his days and of Scotland in the present day, be in truth the +wider difference of the two. Knox judged it of ‘necessitie +that every several kirk should have one schoolmaster appointed,’––‘such +a one at least as was able to teach grammar +and the Latine tongue;’ ‘that there should be erected +in every notable town,’ a ‘colledge, in which the arts, +logic, and rhethorick, together with the tongues, should +be read by masters, for whom <i>honest</i> stipends should be +appointed;’ and further, ‘that fair provision should be +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_100' name='page_100'></a>100</span> +made for the [support of the] poor [pupils], in especial +those who came from landward,’ and were ‘not able, by +their friends nor by themselves, to be sustained at letters.’ +We know that the notable towns referred to here as of +importance enough to possess colleges were, many of them, +what we would now deem far from notable. Kirkwall, the +Chanonry of Ross, Brechin, St. Andrews, Inverary, Jedburgh, +and Dumfries, are specially named in the list; and +we know further, that what Knox deemed an ‘honest +stipend’ for a schoolmaster, amounted on the average to +about two-thirds the stipend of a minister. Such, in the +sixteenth century, was the wise scheme of the liberal and +scholarly Knox, the friend of Calvin, Beza, and Buchanan. +Are we to recognise its counterpart in the middle of the +nineteenth century, in a scheme at least three-fourths of +whose teachers are paid with yearly salaries of from £10 +to £13, 13s. 4d.––about half ploughman’s wages––and of +whom not a fourth have passed the ordeal of a Government +examination, pitched at the scale of the lowest rate +of attainment? The scheme of the noble Knox! Say +rather a many-ringed film-spinning grub, that has come +creeping out of the old crackling parchment, in which the +sagacious Reformer approved himself as much in advance +of his own age, as many of those who profess to walk most +closely in his steps demonstrate themselves to be in the +rear of theirs.</p> +<p>Let us next mark how entirely the circumstances of the +country have changed since the days of the First Book of +Discipline. With the exception of the clergy, a few lay +proprietors, and a sprinkling of the inhabitants of the +larger towns, Scotland was altogether, in the earlier period, +an uneducated nation. Even for more than a century after, +there were landed gentlemen of the northern counties unable, +as shown by old deeds, to sign their names. If the +Church had not taken upon herself the education of the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_101' name='page_101'></a>101</span> +people in those ages, who else was there to teach them? +Not one. Save for her exertions, the divine command, +‘Search the Scriptures,’ would have remained to at least +nine-tenths of the nation a dead letter. But how entirely +different the circumstances of Scotland in the present time! +The country has its lapsed masses,––men in very much the +circumstances, educationally, of the great bulk of the population +in the age of Knox; and we at once grant that, +unless the Churches of the country deal with these as +Knox dealt with the whole, there is but little chance of +their ever being restored to society or the humanizing +influences of religion, let Government make for them what +provision it may.<a name='FNanchor_0016' id='FNanchor_0016'></a><a href='#Footnote_0016' class='fnanchor'>[18]</a> But such is not the condition of the +membership of at least the evangelical Churches. Such is +palpably not the condition of the membership of the Free +Church, consisting as it does of parents taken solemnly +bound, in their baptismal engagements, to bring up their +children in the ‘nurture and admonition of the Lord,’ and +of the children for whom they have been thus taken +bound. Save in a few exceptional cases, <i>their</i> education +is secure, let the Church exert herself as little as she +may. She is but exhausting herself in vain efforts to do +what would be done better without her. She has all along +contemplated, we are told, merely the education of her +own members; and these form exactly that portion of the +people which––unless, indeed, the solemn engagements +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_102' name='page_102'></a>102</span> +which she has deliberately laid upon them mean as little as +excise affidavits or Bow Street oaths––may be safely left +to a broad national scheme, wisely based on a principle of +parental responsibility.</p> +<p>‘If thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time,’ said +Mordecai to Esther, ‘then shall there enlargement and +deliverance arise to the Jews from another place, but thou +and thy father’s house shall be destroyed.’ Scotland will +have ultimately her Educational Scheme adequate to the +demands of the age; but if the Free Church stand aloof, +and suffer the battle to be fought by others, her part or lot +in it may be a very small matter indeed. What, we ask, +would be her share, especially in the Highlands, in a scheme +that rendered the basis of the educational franchise merely +co-extensive with the basis of the political one? Nay, +what, save perhaps in the northern burghs, would be her +share in such a scheme over Scotland generally? A mere +makeweight at best. But at least the lay membership of +the Free Church will, we are assured, not long stand aloof; +and this great question of national education being in no +degree an ecclesiastical one, nor lying within the jurisdiction +of presbyteries or assemblies, true lovers of their +country and of their species, whether of the Established or +of the Free Churches, will come forward and do their duty +as Scotchmen on the political platform. In neither body +does the attitude assumed by the ecclesiastical element in +this question, so far as has yet been indicated, appear of a +kind which plain, simple-minded laymen will delight to contemplate. +The Established Church courts are taking up +the ground that the teaching in their parish schools has +been all along religious, and at least one great source from +which has sprung the vitalities of the country’s faith. And +who does not know that to be a poor, unsolid fiction,––a +weak and hollow sham? And, on the other hand, some of +our Free Churchmen are asserting that they are not <i>morally</i> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_103' name='page_103'></a>103</span> +bound to their forlorn teachers for the meagre and altogether +inadequate salaries held out to them in prospect, +when they were set down in their humble schools, divorced +from all other means of support, to regulate their very +limited expenditure by the specified incomes. Further, +they virtually tell us that we cannot possibly take our stand +as Scotchmen on this matter, in the only practical position, +without being untrue to our common Christianity, and +enemies to our Church. It has been urged against our +educational articles, that we have failed to take into account +the fall of man: he would surely be an incorrigible +sceptic, we reply, who could look upon statements such as +these, and yet doggedly persist in doubting that man has +fallen. But, alas! it is not a matter on which to congratulate +ourselves, that when the Established Church is coming +forward to arrest the progress of national education with +her strange equivocal caveat, the Free Church––the Church +of the Disruption––should be also coming forward with a +caveat which at least <i>seems</i> scarce less equivocal; and that, +like the twin giants of Guildhall––huge, monstrous, unreal––both +alike should be turning deaf and wooden ears to +the great clock of destiny, as it strikes the hours of doom +to their distracted and sinking country. O for an hour +of the great, the noble-minded Chalmers! Ultimately, +however, the good cause is secure. It is a cause worth +struggling and suffering for. We know a little boy, not +yet much of a reader, who has learned to bring a copy of +Scott’s <i>Tales of a Grandfather</i>, which now opens of itself +at the battle of Bannockburn, to a little girl, his sister, +somewhat more in advance, that she may read to him, for +the hundredth time, of Wallace and the Black Douglas, +and how the good King Robert struck down Sir Henry +Bohun with a single blow, full in the sight of both armies. +And after drinking in the narrative, he tells that, when +grown to be a big man, he too is to be a soldier like +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_104' name='page_104'></a>104</span> +Robert the Bruce, and to ‘fight in the battle of Scotland.’ +And then he asks his father when the battle of Scotland +is to begin! Laymen of the Free Church, the battle of +Scotland has already begun; and ’tis a battle better worth +fighting than any other which has arisen within the political +arena since the times of the Reform Bill. Your country +has still claims upon you: the Disruption may have dissolved +the tie which bound you to party; but that which +binds you to Scotland still remains entire. The parental +right is not dissolved by any traditionary requirements of +the altar; nor can we urge with impunity to our country,––‘It +is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou +mightest be profited by me.’</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_105' name='page_105'></a>105</span> +<a name='LORD_BROUGHAM' id='LORD_BROUGHAM'></a> +<h2>LORD BROUGHAM.</h2> +</div> +<p>The history of Lord Brougham has no exact parallel in +that of British statesmen. Villiers Duke of Buckingham +(the Duke of the times of Charles II.) sunk quite as low, +but not from such an elevation. Of him too it was said, +as of his Lordship, that ‘he left not faction, but of that was +left,’––that every party learned to distrust and stand aloof +from him, and that his great parts had only the effect of +rendering his ultimate degradation the more marked and +the more instructive. Hume tells us that by his ‘wild conduct, +unrestrained either by prudence or principle, he found +means to render himself in the end odious, and even insignificant.’ +But the Duke of Buckingham had been a +mere courtier from the beginning, and no man had ever +trusted or thought well of him.</p> +<p>Bolingbroke bears a nearly similar character. There +was a mighty difference between the influential and able +minister of Queen Anne, recognised by all as decidedly +one of the most accomplished statesmen of his age or +country, and the same individual,––forlorn and an exile, +disliked and suspected by parties the most opposite, and +who agreed in nothing else,––a fugitive from his own +country to avoid the threatened impeachment of the Whigs +for his Jacobitism, and a fugitive from France to avoid +being impeached by the Pretender for his treachery. But +Bolingbroke had never very seriously professed to be the +friend of his country, nor would his country have believed +him if he had. According to the shrewd remark of Fielding, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_106' name='page_106'></a>106</span> +the temporal happiness, the civil liberties and properties +of Europe, had been the game of his earliest youth, and +the eternal and final happiness of all mankind the sport +and entertainment of his advanced age. He would have +fain destroyed the freedom of his countrymen when in +power, and their hope of immortality when in disgrace. +Neither can we find a parallel in the history of that other +Lord Chancellor of England, who has been described by +the poet as ‘the greatest, wisest, meanest of mankind.’ +Two of the epithets would not suit Lord Brougham; and +though he unquestionably bore himself more honourably in +the season of his elevation than his illustrious predecessor, +he has as certainly employed himself to worse purpose in +the time of his disgrace.</p> +<p>Unlike Lords Bolingbroke, Buckingham, or Bacon, Lord +Brougham entered public life a reformer and a patriot. +The subject of his first successful speech in Parliament was +the slave-trade. He denounced not only the abominable +traffic itself,––the men who stole, bought, and kept the +slave; but also the traders and merchants,––‘the cowardly +suborners of piracy and mercenary murder,’ as he termed +them, under whose remote influence the trade had been +carried on; and the sympathies of the people went along +with him. He was on every occasion, too, the powerful +advocate of popular education. Brougham is no discoverer +of great truths; but he has evinced a ‘curious felicity’ in +expressing truths already discovered: he exerted himself in +sending ‘the schoolmaster abroad,’ and announced the fact +in words which became more truly his motto than the motto +found for him in the Herald’s Office. He took part in well-nigh +every question of reform; stood up for economy, the +reduction of taxes, and Queen Caroline; found very vigorous +English in which to express all he ought to have felt regarding +the Holy Alliance and the massacre at Manchester; +and dealt with Cobbett as Cobbett deserved, for doing what +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_107' name='page_107'></a>107</span> +he is now doing himself. There was always a lack of heart +about Brougham, so that men admired without loving him.</p> +<p>There were no spontaneous exhibitions of those noblenesses +of nature which mark the true reformer, and which +compel the respect of even enemies. Luther, Knox, and +Andrew Thomson were all men of rugged strength,––men +of war, and born to contend; but they were also men of +deep and broad sympathies, and of kindly affections: they +could all feel as well as see the right; what is even more +important still, they could all thoroughly forget themselves, +and what the world thought and said of them, in the pursuit +of some great and engrossing object: they could all love, +too, at least as sincerely as they could hate. Brougham, on +the contrary, could only see without feeling the right; but +then he saw clearly. Brougham could not forget himself; +but then he succeeded in identifying himself with much that +was truly excellent. Brougham could not love as thoroughly +as he could hate; but then his indignation generally fell +where it ought. His large intellect seemed based on an +inferior nature––it was a brilliant set in lead; nor were +there indications wanting all along, it has been said, that +he was one of those patriots who have their price. But the +brilliant was a true, not a factitious brilliant, whatever the +value of the setting; and the price, if ever proffered, had not +been sufficiently large. Brougham became Lord Chancellor, +the Reform Bill passed into a law, and slavery was abolished +in the colonies.</p> +<p>The country has not yet forgotten that the Lord Chancellor +of 1832 and the two following years was no wild +Radical. There was no leaven of Chartism in Lord +Brougham, though a very considerable dash of eccentricity; +and really, for a man who had been contending +so many years in the Opposition, and who had attained +to so thorough a command of sarcasm, he learned to enact +the courtier wonderfully well. Neither ‘Tompkins’ nor +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_108' name='page_108'></a>108</span> +‘Jenkins’ had as yet manifested their contempt for the +aristocracy; nor had the ‘man well stricken in years’ +written anonymous letters to insult his sovereign. The +universal suffrage scheme found no advocate in the Lord +Chancellor. He could call on Cobbett in his chariot, to +attempt persuading the stubborn old Saxon to write down +incendiarism and machine-breaking. He breathed no +anticipation of the ‘first cheer of the people on the first +refusal of the soldiery to fire on them.’ As for Reform, +he was very explicit on that head: really so much had +been accomplished already, that a great deal more could +not be expected. Little could be done in the coming +years, he said, just because there had been so much done +in the years that had gone by. The Lord Chancellor was +comparatively a cautious and prudent man in those days––on +the whole, a safe card for monarchy to play with. +Radicalism had learned that Whigs in office are not very +unlike Tories in office; and to Brougham it applied the +remark: nor was he at all indignant that it did so. All +his superabundant energies were expended in Chancery. +We unluckily missed hearing him deliver his famous speech +at Inverness, and that merely by an untoward chance, for +we were in that part of the country at the time; but we +have seen and conversed with scores who did hear him: +we are intimate, too, with the gentleman who gave his +speech on that occasion to the world, and know that a +more faithful or more accomplished reporter than the +editor of the <i>Inverness Courier</i> is not to be found anywhere, +nor yet a man of nicer discrimination, nor of a +finer literary taste. There was no mistake made regarding +his Lordship’s sentiments when he spoke of the Reform +Bill as well-nigh a final measure; nor did his delight in +the simple-minded natives arise when he pledged himself +to recommend them, by the evening mail, to the graces +of good King William, from their wishing the bill to be +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_109' name='page_109'></a>109</span> +anything else than final. Even with its limited franchise, +he deemed it a very excellent bill; and the woolsack, to +which it had elevated him, a very desirable seat. People +did occasionally see that Hazlitt was in the right––that +he was rather a man of speech than of action; that he +was somewhat too imprudent for a leader, somewhat too +petulant for a partisan; and that he wanted in a considerable +degree the principle of co-operation.</p> +<p>But Chatham wanted it quite as much as he; and it was +deemed invidious to measure so accomplished a man, and +so sworn a friend of peace and good order, by the minuter +rules. But Napoleon should have died at Waterloo, +Brougham at Dunrobin.</p> +<p>What is ex-Chancellor Brougham now? What party +trusts to him? What section of the community does he +represent? Frost had his confiding friends and followers, +and Feargus O’Connor led a numerous and formidable body. +Even Sir William Courtenay had his disciples. Where are +Brougham’s disciples? What moral influence does the +advocate of popular education, and the indignant denouncer +of the iniquities of the slave-trade, exert? In +what age or what country was there ever a man so ‘left +by faction?’ The Socialism of England and the Voluntaryism +of Edinburgh entrust him with their petitions, and +Chartism stands on tiptoe when he rises in his place to +advocate universal suffrage; but no one confides in him. +Owen does not, nor the Rev. Mr. Marshall of Kirkintilloch, +nor yet the conspirators of Sheffield or Newport. +Toryism scarcely thanks him for fighting its battles; +Whiggism abhors him. There is no one credulous enough +to believe that his aims rise any higher than himself, or +blind enough not to see that even his selfishness is so ill-regulated +as to defeat its own little object. His lack of +the higher sentiments, the more generous feelings, the +nobler aims, neutralizes even his intellect. He publishes +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_110' name='page_110'></a>110</span> +his speeches, carefully solicitous of his fame, and provokes +comparison in laboured dissertations with the oratory of +Demosthenes and Cicero; he eulogizes the Duke of Wellington, +and demands by inference whether he cannot +praise as classically as even the ancients themselves; but +his heartless though well-modulated eloquence lingers in +first editions, like the effusions of inferior minds; nor is +it of a kind which the ‘world will find after many days.’ +Brougham will be less known sixty years hence than the +player Garrick is at present.</p> +<p>Bolingbroke, when thrown out of all public employment-gagged, +disarmed, shut out from the possibility of a +return to office, suspected alike by the Government and +the Opposition, and thoroughly disliked by the people to +boot––could yet solace himself in his uneasy and unhonoured +retirement by exerting himself to write down +the Ministry.</p> +<p>And his <i>Craftsmen</i> sold even more rapidly than the +<i>Spectator</i> itself.</p> +<p>But the writings of Brougham do not sell; he lacks even +the solace of Bolingbroke. We have said that his history +is without parallel in that of Britain. Napoleon on his +rock was a less melancholy object: the imprisoned warrior +had lost none of his original power––he was no moral +suicide; the millions of France were still devotedly attached +to him, and her armies would still have followed +him to battle. It was no total forfeiture of character on +his own part that had rendered him so utterly powerless +either for good or ill.</p> +<p><i>July 8, 1840.</i></p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_111' name='page_111'></a>111</span> +<a name='THE_SCOTT_MONUMENT' id='THE_SCOTT_MONUMENT'></a> +<h2>THE SCOTT MONUMENT.</h2> +</div> +<p>The foundation-stone of the metropolitan monument in +memory of Sir Walter Scott was laid with masonic honours +on Saturday last. The day was pleasant, and the pageant +imposing. All business seemed suspended for the time; +the shops were shut. The one half of Edinburgh had +poured into the streets, and formed by no means the least +interesting part of the spectacle. Every window and balcony +that overlooked the procession, every house-top +almost, had its crowd of spectators. According to the +poet,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<p style='margin-left:2.0em; margin-right:0.0em; text-align:left'>‘Rank behind rank, close wedged, hung bellying o’er;’<br /></p> +</div> +<p>while the area below, for many hundred yards on either side +the intended site of the monument, presented a continuous +sea of heads. We marked, among the flags exhibited, the +Royal Standard of Scotland, apparently a piece of venerable +antiquity, for the field of gold had degenerated into a field +of drab, and the figure in the centre showed less of leonine +nobleness than of art in that imperfect state in which men +are fain to content themselves with semblances doubtful +and inexpressive, and less than half the result of chance. +The entire pageant was such a one as Sir Walter himself +could perhaps have improved. He would not have fired so +many guns in the hollow, and the grey old castle so near: +he would have found means, too, to prevent the crowd from +so nearly swallowing up the procession. Perhaps no man +had ever a finer eye for pictorial effect than Sir Walter, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_112' name='page_112'></a>112</span> +whether art or nature supplied the scene. It has been well +said that he rendered Abbotsford a romance in stone and +lime, and imparted to the king’s visit to Scotland the interest +and dignity of an epic poem. Still, however, the +pageant was an imposing one, and illustrated happily the +influence of a great and original mind, whose energies had +been employed in enriching the national literature, over an +educated and intellectual people.</p> +<p>It is a bad matter when a country is employed in building +monuments to the memory of men chiefly remarkable +for knocking other men on the head; it is a bad matter, +too, when it builds monuments to the memory of mere +courtiers, of whom not much more can be said than that +when they lived they had places and pensions to bestow, +and that they bestowed them on their friends. We cannot +think so ill, however, of the homage paid to genius.</p> +<p>The Masonic Brethren of the several lodges mustered +in great numbers. It has been stated that more than a +thousand took part in the procession. Coleridge, in his +curious and highly original work, <i>The Friend</i>––a work which, +from its nature, never can become popular, but which, +though it may be forgotten for a time, will infallibly be dug +up and brought into public view in the future as an unique +fossil impression of an extinct order of mind––refers to a +bygone class of mechanics, ‘to whom every trade was an +allegory, and had its guardian saint.’ ‘But the time has +gone by,’ he states, ‘in which the details of every art were +ennobled in the eyes of its professors by being spiritually +improved into symbols and mementoes of all doctrines and +all duties.’ We could hardly think so as we stood watching +the procession, with its curiously fantastic accumulation +of ornament and symbol; it seemed, however, rather the +relic of a former age than the natural growth of the present––a +spectre of the past strangely resuscitated.</p> +<p>The laugh, half in ridicule, half in good nature, with +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_113' name='page_113'></a>113</span> +which the crowd greeted every very gaudily dressed member, +richer in symbol and obsolete finery than his neighbour, +showed that the day had passed in which such things +could produce their originally intended effect. Will the +time ever arrive in which stars and garters will claim as +little respect as broad-skirted doublets of green velvet, surmounted +with three-cornered hats tagged with silver lace? +Much, we suppose, must depend upon the characters of +those who wear them, and the kind of services on which +they will come to be bestowed. An Upper House of mere +diplomatists––skilful only to overreach––imprudent enough +to substitute cunning for wisdom––ignorant enough to deem +the people not merely their inferiors in rank, but in discernment +also––weak enough to believe that laws may be +enacted with no regard to the general good––wrapped up +in themselves, and acquainted with the masses only through +their eavesdroppers and dependants––would bring titles and +orders to a lower level in half an age, than the onward progress +of intellect has brought the quaintnesses of mechanic +symbol and mystery in two full centuries. We but smile at +the one, we would learn to execrate the other. Has the +reader ever seen Quarles’ <i>Emblems</i>, or Flavel’s <i>Husbandry +and Navigation Spiritualized</i>? Both belong to an extinct +species of literature, of which the mechanic mysteries +described by Coleridge, and exhibited in the procession of +Saturday last, strongly remind us. Both alike proceeded +on a process of mind the reverse of the common. Comparison +generally leads from the moral to the physical, from +the abstract to the visible and the tangible; here, on the +contrary, the tangible and the visible––the emblem and the +symbol––were made to lead to the moral and the abstract. +There are beautiful instances, too, of the same school in +the allegories of Bunyan,––the wonders in the house of the +Interpreter, for instance, and the scenes exhibited in the +cave of the ‘man named Contemplation.’ +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_114' name='page_114'></a>114</span></p> +<p>Sir Walter’s monument will have one great merit, regarded +as a piece of art. It will be entirely an original,––such a +piece of architecture as he himself would have delighted to +describe, and the description of which he, and he only, +could have sublimed into poetry. There is a chaste and +noble beauty in the forms of Greek and Roman architecture +which consorts well with the classic literature of those +countries. The compositions of Sir Walter, on the contrary, +resemble what he so much loved to describe––the +rich and fantastic Gothic, at times ludicrously uncouth, at +times exquisitely beautiful. There are not finer passages +in all his writings than some of his architectural descriptions. +How exquisite is his <i>Melrose Abbey</i>,––the external +view in the cold, pale moonshine,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<p style='margin-left:2.0em; margin-right:0.0em; text-align:left'><span class="leadquote">‘</span>When buttress and buttress alternately<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.5em;'>Seemed formed of ebon and ivory;’</span><br /></p> +</div> +<p>internally, when the strange light broke from the wizard’s +tomb! Who, like Sir Walter, could draw a mullioned +window, with its ‘foliaged tracery,’ its ‘freakish knots,’ its +pointed and moulded arch, and its dyed and pictured +panes? We passed, of late, an hour amid the ruins of +Crichton, and scarce knew whether most to admire the fine +old castle itself, so worthy of its poet, or the exquisite picture +of it we found in <i>Marmion</i>.</p> +<p>Sir Walter’s monument would be a monument without +character, if it were other than Gothic. Still, however, we +have our fears for the effect. In portrait-painting there is +the full life-size, and a size much smaller, and both suit +nearly equally well, and appear equally natural; but the +intermediate sizes do not suit. Make the portrait just a +very little less than the natural size, and it seems not the +reduced portrait of a man, but the full-sized portrait of a +dwarf. Now a similar principle seems to obtain in Gothic +architecture. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_115' name='page_115'></a>115</span></p> +<p>The same design which strikes as beautiful in a model––the +piece which, if executed in spar, and with a glass cover +over it, would be regarded as exquisitely tasteful––would +impress, when executed on a large scale, as grand and magnificent +in the first degree. And yet this identical design, +in an intermediate size, would possibly enough be pronounced +a failure. Mediocrity in size is fatal to the Gothic, +if it be a richly ornamented Gothic; nor are we sure that +the noble design of Mr. Kemp is to be executed on a +scale sufficiently extended. We are rather afraid not, but +the result will show. Such a monument a hundred yards +in height would be one of the finest things perhaps in +Europe.</p> +<p>What has Sir Walter done for Scotland, to deserve so gorgeous +a monument? Assuredly not all he might have done; +and yet he has done much––more, in some respects, than +any other merely literary man the country ever produced. +He has interested Europe in the national character, and in +some corresponding degree in the national welfare; and this +of itself is a very important matter indeed. Shakespeare––perhaps +the only writer who, in the delineation of character, +takes precedence of the author of <i>Waverley</i>––seems +to have been less intensely imbued with the love of country. +It is quite possible for a foreigner to luxuriate over his +dramas, as the Germans are said to do, without loving +Englishmen any the better in consequence, or respecting +them any the more. But the European celebrity of the +fictions of Sir Walter must have had the inevitable effect +of raising the character of his country,––its character as a +country of men of large growth, morally and intellectually. +Besides, it is natural to think of foreigners as mere abstractions; +and hence one cause at least of the indifference with +which we regard them,––an indifference which the first slight +misunderstanding converts into hostility. It is something +towards a more general diffusion of goodwill to be enabled +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_116' name='page_116'></a>116</span> +to conceive of them as men with all those sympathies of +human nature, on which the corresponding sympathies lay +hold, warm and vigorous about them. Now, in this aspect +has Sir Walter presented his countrymen to the world. +Wherever his writings are known, a Scotsman can be no +mere abstraction; and in both these respects has the poet +and novelist deserved well of his country.</p> +<p>Within the country itself, too, his great nationality, like +that of Burns, has had a decidedly favourable effect. The +cosmopolism so fashionable among a certain class about the +middle of the last century, was but a mock virtue, and a +very dangerous one. The ‘citizen of the world,’ if he be +not a mere pretender, is a man to be defined by negatives. +It is improper to say he loves all men alike: he is merely +equally indifferent to all. Nothing can be more absurd +than to oppose the love of country to the love of race. +The latter exists but as a wider diffusion of the former. Do +we not know that human nature, in its absolute perfection, +and blent with the absolute and infinite perfection of Deity, +indulged in the love of country? The Saviour, when He +took to Himself a human heart, wept over the city of His +fathers. Now, it is well that this spirit should be fostered, +not in its harsh and exclusive, but in its human and more +charitable form.</p> +<p>Liberty cannot long exist apart from it. The spirit of +war and aggression is yet abroad: there are laws to be +established, rights to be defended, invaders to be repulsed, +tyrants to be deposed. And who but the patriot is equal +to these things? How was the cry of ‘Scotland for ever’ +responded to at Waterloo, when the Scots Greys broke +through a column of the enemy to the rescue of their countrymen, +and the Highlanders levelled their bayonets for the +charge! A people cannot survive without the national spirit, +except as slaves. The man who adds to the vigour of the +feeling at the same time that he lessens its exclusiveness, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_117' name='page_117'></a>117</span> +deserves well of his country; and who can doubt that Sir +Walter has done so?</p> +<p>The sympathies of Sir Walter, despite his high Tory +predilections, were more favourable to the people as such +than those of Shakespeare. If the station be low among +the characters of the dramatist, it is an invariable rule that +the style of thinking and of sentiment is low also.</p> +<p>The humble wool-comber of Stratford-on-Avon, possessed +of a mind more capacious beyond comparison than the +minds of all the nobles and monarchs of the age, introduced +no such man as himself into his dramas––no such +men as Bunyan or Burns,––men low in place, but kingly +in intellect. Not so, however, the aristocratic Sir Walter. +There is scarcely a finer character in all his writings than +the youthful peasant of Glendearg, Halbert Glendinning, +afterwards the noble knight of Avenel, brave and wise, and +alike fitted to lead in the councils of a great monarch, or +to carry his banner in war. His brother Edward is scarcely +a lower character. And when was unsullied integrity in +a humble condition placed in an attitude more suited to +command respect and regard, than in the person of Jeanie +Deans?</p> +<p>A man of a lower nature, wrapt round by the vulgar +prejudices of rank, could not have conceived such a character: +he would have transferred to it a portion of his +own vulgarity, dressed up in a few borrowed peculiarities +of habit and phraseology. Even the character of Jeanie’s +father lies quite as much beyond the ordinary reach. Men +such as Sheridan, Fielding, and Foote, would have represented +him as a hypocrite––a feeble and unnatural mixture +of baseness and cunning. Sir Walter, with all his prejudices +and all his antipathies, not only better knew the +national type, but he had a more comprehensive mind; +and he drew David Deans, therefore, as a man of stern +and inflexible integrity, and as thoroughly sincere in his +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_118' name='page_118'></a>118</span> +religion. Not but that in this department he committed +great and grievous mistakes. The main doctrine of revelation, +with its influence on character––that doctrine of +regeneration which our Saviour promulgated to Nicodemus, +and enforced with the sanctity of an oath––was a doctrine +of which he knew almost nothing. What has the first +place in all the allegories of Bunyan, has no place in the +fictions of Sir Walter. None of his characters exhibit the +change displayed in the life of the ingenious allegorist of +Elston, or of James Gardener, or of John Newton.</p> +<p>He found human nature a <i>terra incognita</i> when it came +under the influence of grace; and in this <i>terra incognita</i>, +the field in which he could only grope, not see, his way, +well-nigh all his mistakes were committed. But had his +native honesty been less, his mistakes would have been +greater.</p> +<p>He finds good even among Christians. What can be +finer than the character of his Covenanter’s widow, standing +out as it does in the most exceptionable of all his works,––the +blind and desolate woman, meek and forgiving in her +utmost distress, who had seen her sons shot before her +eyes, and had then ceased to see more?</p> +<p>Our subject, however, is one which we must be content +not to exhaust.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_119' name='page_119'></a>119</span> +<a name='THE_LATE_MR_KEMP' id='THE_LATE_MR_KEMP'></a> +<h2>THE LATE MR. KEMP.</h2> +</div> +<p>The funeral of this hapless man of genius took place +yesterday, and excited a deep and very general interest, +in which there mingled the natural sorrow for high talent +prematurely extinguished, with the feeling of painful regret, +awakened by a peculiarly melancholy end. It was numerously +attended, and by many distinguished men. The +several streets through which it passed were crowded by +saddened spectators––in some few localities very densely; +and the windows overhead were much thronged. At no +place was the crowd greater, except perhaps immediately +surrounding the burying-ground, than at the fatal opening +beside the Canal Basin, into which the unfortunate man had +turned from the direct road in the darkness of night, and +had found death at its termination. The scene of the +accident is a gloomy and singularly unpleasant spot. A +high wall, perforated by a low, clumsy archway, closes +abruptly what the stranger might deem a thoroughfare. +There is a piece of sluggish, stagnant water on the one +hand, thick and turbid, and somewhat resembling in form +and colour a broad muddy highway, lined by low walls; +not a tuft of vegetation is to be seen on its tame rectilinear +sides: all is slimy and brown, with here and there dank, +muddy recesses, as if for the frog and the rat; while on +the damp flat above, there lie, somewhat in the style of +the grouping in a Dutch painting, the rotting fragments +of canal passage-boats and coal-barges, with here and +there some broken-backed hulk, muddy and green, the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_120' name='page_120'></a>120</span> +timbers peering out through the planking, and all around +heaps of the nameless lumber of a deserted boat-yard. +The low, clumsy archway is wholly occupied by a narrow +branch of the canal,––brown and clay-like as the main +trunk, from which it strikes off at nearly right angles. It +struck us forcibly, in examining the place, that in the +uncertain light of midnight, the flat, dead water must have +resembled an ordinary cart-road, leading through the arched +opening in the direction of the unfortunate architect’s +dwelling; and certainly at this spot, just where he might +be supposed to have stepped upon the seeming road under +the fatal impression, was the body found.</p> +<p>It had been intended, as the funeral letters bore, to +inter the body of Mr. Kemp in the vault under the Scott +Monument,––a structure which, erected to do honour to +the genius of one illustrious Scotsman, will be long recognised +as a proud trophy of the fine taste and vigorous +talent of another. The arrangement was not without precedent; +and had it been possible for Sir Walter to have +anticipated it, we do not think it would have greatly displeased +him. The Egyptian architect inscribed the name +of his kingly master on but the plaster of the pyramid, +while he engraved his own on the enduring granite underneath; +and so the name of the king has been lost, and +only that of the architect has survived. And there are, +no doubt, monuments in our own country which have been +transferred in some sort, and on a somewhat similar principle, +from their original object. There are fine statues +which reflect honour on but the sculptor that chiselled +them, and tombs and cenotaphs inscribed with names so +very obscure, that they give place in effect, if not literally, +like that of the Egyptian king, to the name of the architect +who reared them. Had the Scott Monument been erected, +like the monument of a neighbouring square, to express +a perhaps not very seemly gratitude for the services of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_121' name='page_121'></a>121</span> +some tenth-rate statesman, who procured places for his +friends, and who did not much else, it would have been +perilous to convert it into the tomb of a man of genius +like poor Kemp. It would have been perilous had it been +the monument of some mere <i>litterateur</i>. The <i>litterateur’s</i> +works would have disappeared from the public eye, while +that of the hapless architect would be for ever before it. +And it would be thus the architect, not the <i>litterateur</i>, that +would be permanently remembered. But the monument +of Sir Walter was in no danger; and Sir Walter himself +would have been quite aware of the fact. It would not +have displeased him, that in the remote future, when all +its buttresses had become lichened and grey, and generation +after generation had disappeared from around its base, +the story would be told––like that connected in so many +of our older cathedrals with ‘prentice pillars’ and ‘prentice +aisles’––that the poor architect who had designed its exquisite +arches and rich pinnacles in honour of the Shakespeare +of Scotland, had met an untimely death when +engaged on it, and had found under its floor an appropriate +grave.</p> +<p>The intention, however, was not carried into effect. It +had been intimated in the funeral letters that the burial +procession should quit the humble dwelling of the architect––for +a humble dwelling it is––at half-past one. It +had been arranged, too, that the workmen employed at +the monument, one of the most respectable-looking bodies +of mechanics we ever saw, should carry the corpse to the +grave. They had gathered round the dwelling, a cottage +at Morningside, with a wreath of ivy nodding from the +wall; and the appearance of both it and them naturally +suggested that the poor deceased, originally one of themselves, +though he had risen, after a long struggle, into +celebrity, had not risen into affluence. Death had come +too soon. He had just attained his proper position––just +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_122' name='page_122'></a>122</span> +reached the upper edge of the table-land which his genius +had given him a right to occupy, and on which a competency +might be soon and honourably secured––when a +cruel accident struck him down. The time specified for +the burial passed––first one half-hour, and then another. +The assembled group wondered at the delay. And then +a gentleman from the dwelling-house came to inform them +that some interdict or protest, we know not what––some, +we suppose, perfectly legal document––had inhibited, at +this late hour, the interment of the body in the monument, +and that there was a grave in the course of being prepared +for it in one of the city churchyards.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_123' name='page_123'></a>123</span> +<a name='ANNIE_MDONALD_AND_THE_FIFESHIRE_FORESTER' id='ANNIE_MDONALD_AND_THE_FIFESHIRE_FORESTER'></a> +<h2>ANNIE M’DONALD AND THE FIFESHIRE FORESTER.</h2> +</div> +<p>It was the religion of Scotland that first developed the +intellect of the country. Nor would it be at all difficult to +show how. It is sufficiently easy to conceive the process +through which earnest feeling concentrated on the great +concerns of human destiny leads to earnest thinking, and +how thinking propagates itself in its abstract character as +such, even after the moving power which had first set its +wheels in motion has ceased to operate. The Reformation +was mainly a religious movement, but it was pregnant with +philosophy and the arts. The grand doctrine of justification +by faith, for which Luther and the other reformers contended, +was wonderfully linked, by the God from whom it +emanated, with all the great discoveries of modern science, +and not a few of the proudest triumphs of literature. It +drew along with it in the train of events, as if by a golden +chain, the philosophy of Bacon and Newton, and the poesy +of Milton and Shakespeare. But though the general truth +of the remark has been acknowledged, the connection +which it intimates––a connection clearly referable to the +will of that adorable Being who has made ‘godliness +profitable for all things’––has been too much lost sight of. +Religious belief, transmuted in its reflex influences into +mere intellectual activity, has too often assumed another +nature and name, and forgotten or disowned its origin; +and whatever is suited to remind us of the certainty of the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_124' name='page_124'></a>124</span> +connection, or to illustrate the mode of its operations, +cannot be deemed other than important. From a consideration +of this character, we have been much pleased with a +little work just published, which, taking up a single family +in the humblest rank, shows, without any apparent intention +of the kind on the part of the writer, how the Christianity +of the country has operated on the popular intellect; and +we think we can scarce do better than introduce it to the +acquaintance of our readers. Most of them have perhaps +seen a memoir of one Annie M’Donald, published in Edinburgh +some eight or ten years ago. It is a humble production, +given chiefly, as the title-page intimates, in Annie’s own +words; and Annie ranked among the humblest of our people. +She had never seen a single day in school. When best and +most favourably circumstanced, she was the wife of a farm-servant,––no +very exalted station surely; but still a lowlier +station awaited her, and she passed more than half a century +in widowhood. One of her daughters became the wife +of a poor labourer, her two grandchildren were labourers +also. It is not easy to imagine a humbler lot, without +crossing the line beyond which independence cannot be +achieved; and yet Annie was a noble-hearted matron, one +of the true aristocracy of the country. Her long life was a +protracted warfare––a scene of privation, sorrow, and sore +trial; but she struggled bravely through, ever trusting in +God, dependent on Him, and Him only; and if the dignity +of human nature consist in integrity the most inflexible, +energy the most untiring, strong sound thinking, deep +devotional feeling, and a high-toned yet chastened spirit of +independence, then was there more true dignity to be +found in the humble cottage of Annie M’Donald, than in +half the proud mansions of the country. Many of our +readers must be acquainted, as we have said, with her +character, and some of the outlines of her story. Most of +them are acquainted, too, with the character of another very +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_125' name='page_125'></a>125</span> +remarkable person, John Bethune, the Fifeshire Forester,––a +man whose name, in all probability, they have never +associated with Annie M’Donald. He belongs to quite a +different class of persons. The venerable matron takes +her place among those cultivators of the moral nature who +live in close converse with their God, and on whom are re-stamped, +if we may so speak, the lineaments of the divine +image obliterated at the fall. The poet, too early lost, +ranks, on the other hand, among those hardy cultivators of +the intellectual nature who, among all the difficulties incident +to imperfect education, and a life of hardship and +labour, struggle into notice through the force of an innate +vigour, and impress the stamp of their mind on the literature +of their country. Much of the interest of the newly +published memoir before us arises from the connection +which it establishes between the matron and the poet. It +purports to be ‘A Sketch of the Life of Annie M’Donald, by +her Grandson, the late John Bethune.’ And scarce any one +can peruse it without marking the powerful influence which +the high religious character of the grandmother exerted on +the intellectual character of her descendant. The nobility +of the humble family from which he sprung was derived +evidently from this source. That character, to borrow a +homely but forcible metaphor from Burns, was the sustaining +‘stalk of carle hemp’ which bore it up and kept it from +grovelling on the depressed level of its condition. How +very interesting a subject of thought and inquiry! A little +Highland girl, when tending cattle in the fields nearly a century +ago, was led, through divine grace, to ‘apprehend the +mercy of God in Christ,’ and to close with His free offers of +salvation; and in the third generation we can see the effects +of the transaction, not only in the blameless life and the pure +sentiments of a true though humble poet, but in, also, the +manly vigour of his thinking, and the high degree of culture +which he was enabled to bestow on his intellectual faculties. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_126' name='page_126'></a>126</span></p> +<p>The story of Annie M’Donald is such an one as a poet +of Wordsworth’s cast would delight to tell. She was born +in a remote and thinly inhabited district of the Highlands, +and lost her father, a Highland crofter, while yet an infant. +She was his youngest child, but the other members of the +family were all very young and helpless; and her poor +mother, a woman still in the prime of life, had to wander +with them into the low country, friendless and penniless, in +quest of employment. And employment after a weary pilgrimage +she at length succeeded in procuring from a hospitable +farmer in the parish of Kilmany, in Fifeshire. An +unoccupied hovel furnished her with a home; and here, +with hard labour, she reared her children, till they were +fitted to leave her one by one, and do something for themselves, +chiefly in the way of herding cattle. Annie grew up +to be employed like the rest; and when a little herd-girl in +the fields, ‘she frequently fell into strains of serious meditation,’ +says her biographer, ‘on the works of God, and on +her own standing before Him.’ Let scepticism assert what +it may, such is the nature of man. God has written on +every human heart the great truth of man’s responsibility; +and the simple, ignorant herd-girl could read it there, amid +the solitude of the fields. But the inscription seemed +fraught with terror: she was perplexed by alternate doubts +and fears, and troubled by wildly vivid imaginings during +the day, and by frightful dreams by night. Her mother +had been unable to send her to school, but she got +occasional lessons in the evenings from a fellow-servant; +and through the desultory assistance obtained in this way, +backed by her solitary efforts at self-instruction, she learned +to read. She must have deemed that an important day on +which she found she could at length converse with books; +and the books with which she most loved to discourse were +such as related to the spiritual state. She pored over the +Shorter Catechism, and acquainted herself with her Bible. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_127' name='page_127'></a>127</span> +But for years together, at this period, she suffered much +distress of mind. Her imagination possessed a wild +activity, and the scenes and shapes which it was continually +calling up before her were all of horror and dismay––the +place of the lost, the appalling forms with which +fancy invests the fallen spirits, the terrors of the last day, +and the dread throne of judgment. But a time of peace +and comfort came; and she was enabled to lay hold on +God in faith and hope as <i>her</i> God, through the all-sufficient +blood of the atonement. And this hold she never after +relinquished.</p> +<p>There was no pause in her humble toils. From her +early occupations in the fields, she passed in riper youth +to the labours of the farm-house; and at the age of +twenty-five experienced yet another change, in becoming +the wife of a farm-servant, a quiet man of solid character, +and whose religious views and feelings coincided with +her own. Her humble home was a solitary hut on the +uplands, far from even her nearest neighbours; but it +was her home, and she was happy. With the consent +of her husband, she took her aged mother under +her care, and succeeded in repaying more than the obligations +incurred in infancy; for her instructions, through +the blessing of God, were rendered apparently the means +of the old woman’s conversion. There were sorrows that +came to her even at the happiest, but they were mingled +with comfort. She lost one of her children by small-pox +at a very early age; and yet, very early as the age was, +evidence was not wanting in its death that the Psalmist +spoke with full meaning when he said that God can perfect +praise out of the mouths of babes and sucklings. But +there was a deeper grief awaiting her. After a happy +union of twelve years, her husband was seized in the night +in their lonely shieling by a mortal distemper, at a time +when only herself and her young children were present, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_128' name='page_128'></a>128</span> +and ere assistance could be procured he expired. There +is something extremely touching in the details of this event, +as given by the poet, her grandson. They strongly show +how real an evil poverty is, in even the most favourable +circumstances, when the hour of distress comes. Cowper +ceased to envy the “‘<i>peasant’s nest</i>” when he thought how +its solitude made scant the means of life.’ We would +almost covet the hut of Annie M’Donald as described by +her grandson. ‘It appeared,’ he says, ‘as if separated and +raised above the world by the cultureless and elevated solitude +on which it stood. Around it on every side were grey +rocks, peering out from among tufted grass, heath furze, and +many-coloured mosses; forming what had been, till more +recently––when the whole was converted into a plantation––a +rather extensive sheep-walk. For an extent equal to +more than half the horizon, the eye might stretch away to +the distant mountains, or repose on the intervening valleys; +and from the highest part of the hill, a little to the eastward, +the dark blue of the German Ocean was clearly +visible. It must have been a cheerful spot in the clear +sunny days of summer, when even heaths and moors look +gay––when the deep blue of the hills seems as if softening +its tints to harmonize with the deep blue of the sky––when +the hum of the bee is heard amid the heath, and the lark +high overhead. But it must have been a gloomy and miserable +solitude on that night when the husband of Annie lay +tossing in mortal agony, and no neighbour near to counsel +or assist, her weeping children around her, and with neither +lamp nor candle in the cottage. It was only by the ‘light +of a burning coal taken from the fire, and exchanged for +another as the flame waxed faint, that she was enabled to +watch the progress of the fatal malady, and to tell at what +time death set his unalterable seal on the pallid features +of her husband.’</p> +<p>Long years of incessant labour followed; her children +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_129' name='page_129'></a>129</span> +were young and helpless, and her aged mother still with +her. She removed to another cottage, where she rented an +acre or two of land, that enabled her to keep a cow, and +gave her opportunity, as the place was situated beside a +considerable stream, of earning a small income as a bleacher +of home-made linen. The day, and not unfrequently the +night, was spent in toil; but she was strengthened to +endure, and so her children were bred up in hardy independence. +‘During the weeks of harvest,’ says her biographer, +‘she was engaged as a reaper by the farmer from +whom she rented her little tenement; and when her day’s +work was done, while her fellow-labourers retired to rest, +she employed herself in reaping her own crops, or providing +grass for the cow, and often continued her toil by the +light of the harvest moon till it was almost midnight. After +a number of years thus spent, the expiration of the farmer’s +lease occasioned her removal. Her family were now grown +up; she could afford, in consequence, to have recourse to +means of subsistence which, if more scanty, were less laborious +than those which she had plied so long; and so, removing +to a neighbouring village, she earned a livelihood +for herself and her infirm mother by spinning carpet worsted +at twopence a-day, the common wages for a woman at that +period.’ ‘The cottage which she now occupied,’ we again +quote, ‘happened to be one of a number which the Countess +of Leven charitably kept for the accommodation of +poor people who were unable to pay a rent. She, however, +considered that she had no right to reckon herself among +this class, so long as it should please God to afford her +strength to provide for her own necessities; and therefore +she deemed it unjustifiable to deprive the truly indigent of +what had been intended exclusively for them. Influenced +by these motives, she removed at the next term to an +adjacent hamlet, and here her aged mother died.’ We +need not minutely follow her after-course: it bore but one +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_130' name='page_130'></a>130</span> +complexion to the end. She taught a school for many +years, and was of signal use to not a few of her pupils. +At an earlier period she experienced a desire to be able +to write. There was a friend at a distance whom she +wished to comfort, by suggesting to her those topics of +consolation which she herself had found of such solid use; +and the wish had suggested the idea. And so she did learn +to write. She took up a pen, and tried to imitate the letters +in her Bible; an acquaintance subsequently furnished +her with a copy of the alphabet commonly used in writing; +and such was all the instruction she ever received in an art +to which in after life she devoted a considerable portion of +her time, and in the exercise of which she derived no small +enjoyment. In extreme old age she was rendered unable +by deafness properly to attend to her school, and so, with +her characteristic conscientiousness, she threw it up; but +bodily strength was spared to her in a remarkable degree, +and her last years were not wasted in idleness. ‘Her +spinning-wheel was again eagerly resorted to; even outdoor +labour, when it could be obtained, was sometimes +adopted.’ And the editor of the memoir before us––Alexander +Bethune, the brother and biographer of John––relates +that he recollects seeing her engaged in reaping, on +one occasion, when in her eighty-second year; and that on +the same field her favourite nephew the poet, at that time a +boy of ten, was also essaying the labours of the harvest. In +one of the simple but touching epistles which we owe to her +singularly acquired accomplishment of writing––a letter to +one of her daughters––we find her thus expressing herself:––</p> +<p>‘We finished our harvest last Monday, and here again +I have cause for thankfulness. I would desire to be doubly +thankful to God for enabling my old and withered arms to +use the sickle almost as well as they were wont to do when +I was young, and for the favourable weather and abundant +crop which in His mercy He has bestowed on us. But, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_131' name='page_131'></a>131</span> +my dear child, there is in very deed a more important harvest +before us. Oh! may God, for Christ’s sake, ripen us +by the sunshine of His Spirit for the sickle of death, and +stand by us in that trying hour, that we may be cut down +as a shock of corn which is fully ripe.’</p> +<p>Annie survived twelve years longer; for her life was prolonged +through three full generations. ‘In the intervals of +domestic duty, her book and her pen were her constant +companions.’ ‘The process of committing her thoughts to +paper was rendered tedious, latterly, by the weakness and +tremor of her hand; and her mind not unfrequently outran +her pen, leaving blanks in her composition, which she did +not always detect so as to enable her to fill them up. And +this circumstance sometimes rendered her meaning a little +obscure. But with all these deficiencies, her letters were +generally appreciated by those to whom they were addressed. +Her conversation, too, was much sought after by +serious individuals in all ranks in society; and occasionally +it was pleasing to see the promiscuous visitors who met in +her lowly cottage laying aside for a time the fastidious distinctions +of birth and station, and humbly uniting in the +exercise of Christian love.’ At length she could no longer +leave her bed: ‘her hearing was so much impaired, that +it was with the greatest difficulty she could be made to +understand what was said to her; and those friends who +came to visit her were frequently requested to sit down by +her bedside, where she might see their faces, though she +could no longer enjoy their conversation. After raising +herself to a convenient position, she generally addressed +them upon the importance of preparing for another world +while health and strength remained; and tried to direct +their attention to the merits and sufferings of the Saviour as +the only sure ground of hope upon which sinners could +rest their salvation in the hour of trial.’ As for her own +departure, she ‘had a thousand reasons,’ she said, ‘for +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_132' name='page_132'></a>132</span> +wishing to be gone; but there was one reason which overbalanced +them all––God’s time had not yet arrived.’ But +at length it did arrive. ‘Lay me down,’ she said, for the +irritability of her nervous system had rendered frequent +change of posture necessary, and her friends had just been +indulging her,––‘Lay me down; let me sleep my last sleep +in Jesus.’ And these were her last words. Her grandson +John seems to have cherished, when a mere boy, years +before she died, the design of writing her story; and the +whole tone of his memoir (apparently one of his earlier prose +compositions) shows how thorough was the respect which +he entertained for her memory. She forms the subject, too, +of a copy of verses evidently of later production, and at +least equal to any he ever wrote, in which he affectingly +tells us how, when sadness and disease pressed upon the +springs of life, and he lingered in suspense and disappointment, +the hopes which she had so long cherished––</p> +<div class="poem"> +<p style='margin-left:2.0em; margin-right:0.0em; text-align:left'><span class="leadquote">‘</span>The glorious hopes which flattered not––<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.5em;'>Dawned on him by degrees.’</span><br /></p> +</div> +<p>He found the Saviour whom she had worshipped; and one +of the last subsidiary hopes in which he indulged ere he +bade the world farewell, was that in the place to which he +was going he should meet with his beloved grandmother. +We have occupied so much space with our narrative, brief +as it is, that we cannot follow up our original intention of +showing how, in principle, the intellectual history of Bethune +is an epitome of that of his country; but we must add that +it would be well if, in at least one important respect, the +history of his country resembled his history more. The +thoughtful piety of the grandmother prepared an atmosphere +of high-toned thought, in which the genius of the +grandson was fostered. It constituted, to vary the figure, +the table-land from which he arose; but how many of +a resembling class, and indebted in a similar way, have +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_133' name='page_133'></a>133</span> +directed the influence of their writings to dissipate that +atmosphere––to lower that table-land! We refer the reader +to the interesting little work from which we have drawn +our materials. It is edited by the surviving Bethune, the +brother and biographer of the poet, and both a vigorous +writer and a worthy man. There are several of the passages +which it comprises of his composition; among the +rest, the very striking passage with which the memoir concludes, +and in which he adds a few additional facts illustrative +of his grandmother’s character, and describes her +personal appearance. The description will remind our +readers of one of the more graphic pictures of Wordsworth, +that of the stately dame on whose appearance the poet +remarks quaintly, but significantly,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<p style='margin-left:2.0em; margin-right:0.0em; text-align:left'>‘Old times are living there.’<br /></p> +</div> +<p>‘From the date of her birth,’ says Alexander Bethune, +‘it will be seen that she (Annie M’Donald) was in her +ninety-fourth year at the time of her death. In person she +was spare; and ere toil and approaching age had bent her +frame, she must have been considerably above the middle +size. Even after she was far advanced in life, there was in her +appearance a rigidity of outline and a sinewy firmness which +told of no ordinary powers of endurance. There was much +of true benevolence in the cast of her countenance; while +the depth of her own Christian feelings gave an expression +of calm yet earnest sympathy to her eye, which was particularly +impressive. Limited as were her resources, she +had been a regular contributor to the Bible and Missionary +Societies for a number of years previous to her death. Nor +was she slow to minister to the necessities of others according +to her ability. Notwithstanding the various items thus +disposed of during the latter part of her life, she had saved +a small sum of money, which at her death was left to her +unmarried daughters.’ +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_134' name='page_134'></a>134</span></p> +<p>The touching description of the poet we must also subjoin. +No one can read it without feeling its truth, or +without being convinced that, to be thoroughly true in the +circumstances, was to be intensely poetical. The recollection +of such a relative affectionately retained was of itself +poetry.</p> +<div class="poem" style="margin-left:0em"> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='text-align:center; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'>MY GRANDMOTHER.</p> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> + <br /> +Long years of toil and care,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>And pain and poverty, have passed</span><br /> +Since last I listened to her prayer,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>And looked upon her last;</span><br /> +Yet how she spoke, and how she smiled<br /> +Upon me, when a playful child––<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>The lustre of her eye––</span><br /> +The kind caress––the fond embrace––<br /> +The reverence of her placid face,––<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>All in my memory lie</span><br /> +As fresh as they had only been<br /> +Bestowed and felt, and heard and seen,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Since yesterday went by.</span><br /> + <br /> +Her dress was simply neat––<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Her household tasks so featly done:</span><br /> +Even the old willow-wicker seat<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>On which she sat and spun––</span><br /> +The table where her Bible lay,<br /> +Open from morn till close of day––<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>The standish, and the pen</span><br /> +With which she noted, as they rose,<br /> +Her thoughts upon the joys, the woes,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>The final fate of men,</span><br /> +And sufferings of her Saviour God,––<br /> +Each object in her poor abode<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Is visible as then.</span><br /> + <br /> +Nor are they all forgot,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>The faithful admonitions given,</span><br /> +And glorious hopes which flattered not,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>But led the soul to heaven!</span><br /> +These had been hers, and have been mine<br /> +When all beside had ceased to shine––<br /> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_135' name='page_135'></a>135</span> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>When sadness and disease,</span><br /> +And disappointment and suspense,<br /> +Had driven youth’s fairest fancies hence,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Short’ning its fleeting lease:</span><br /> +’Twas then these hopes, amid the dark<br /> +Just glimmering, like an unquench’d spark,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Dawned on me by degrees.</span><br /> + <br /> +To her they gave a light<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Brighter than sun or star supplied;</span><br /> +And never did they shine more bright<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Than just before she died.</span><br /> +Death’s shadow dimm’d her aged eyes,<br /> +Grey clouds had clothed the evening skies,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>And darkness was abroad;</span><br /> +But still she turned her gaze above,<br /> +As if the eternal light of love<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>On her glazed organs glowed,</span><br /> +Like beacon-fire at closing even,<br /> +Hung out between the earth and heaven,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>To guide her soul to God.</span><br /> + <br /> +And then they brighter grew,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Beaming with everlasting bliss,</span><br /> +As if the eternal world in view<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Had weaned her eyes from this:</span><br /> +And every feature was composed,<br /> +As with a placid smile they closed<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>On those who stood around,</span><br /> +who felt it was a sin to weep<br /> +O’er such a smile and such a sleep––<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>So peaceful, so profound;</span><br /> +And though they wept, their tears expressed<br /> +Joy for her time-worn frame at rest––<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Her soul with mercy crowned.</span></p> +</td></tr></table> +</div> +<p><i>August 10, 1812.</i></p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_136' name='page_136'></a>136</span> +<a name='A_HIGHLAND_CLEARING' id='A_HIGHLAND_CLEARING'></a> +<h2>A HIGHLAND CLEARING.</h2> +</div> +<p>How quickly the years fly! One twelvemonth more, and it +will be a full quarter of a century since we last saw the wild +Highland valley so well described by Mr. Robertson in his +opening paragraphs.<a name='FNanchor_0017' id='FNanchor_0017'></a><a href='#Footnote_0017' class='fnanchor'>[1]</a> And yet the recollection is as fresh +in our memory now as it was twenty years ago. The chill +winter night had fallen on the brown round hills and alder-skirted +river, as we turned from off the road that winds +along the Kyle of the Dornoch Frith into the bleak gorge +of Strathcarron. The shepherd’s cottage, in which we purposed +passing the night, lay high up in the valley, where the +lofty sides––partially covered at that period by the remnants +of an ancient forest––approach so near each other, and rise +so abruptly, that for the whole winter quarter the sun never +falls on the stream below. There were still some ten or +twelve miles of broken road before us. The moon in its +first quarter hung low over the hills, dimly revealing their +rough outline, and throwing its tinge of faint bronze on the +broken clumps of wood in the hollows. A keen frost had +set in; and a thick trail of fog-rime, raised by its influence +in the calm, and which at the height of some eighty or a +hundred feet hung over the river––scarce less defined in +its margin than the river itself, for it winded wherever +the stream winded, and ran straight as an arrow wherever +the stream ran straight––occupied the whole length of the +valley, like an enormous snake lying uncoiled in its den. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_137' name='page_137'></a>137</span> +The numerous turf cottages on either side were invisible +in the darkness, save that ever and anon the brief twinkle +of a light indicated their existence and their places. In a +recess of the stream the torch of some adventurous fisher +now gleamed red on rock and water, now suddenly disappeared, +eclipsed by the overhanging brushwood, or by +some jutting angle of the bank. The distant roar of the +stream mingled sullenly in the calm, with its nearer and +hoarser dash, as it chafed on the ledges below, filling the +air with a wild music, that seemed the appropriate voice of +the impressive scenery from amid which it arose. It was +late ere we reached the shepherd’s cottage––a dark, raftered, +dimly-lighted building of turf and stone. The weather for +several weeks before had been rainy and close, and the +flocks of the inmate had been thinned by the common +scourge of the sheep-farmer at such seasons on marshy and +unwholesome farms. The rafters were laden with skins +besmeared with blood, that dangled overhead to catch the +conservative influences of the smoke; and on a rude plank +table below there rose two tall pyramids of dark-coloured +joints of braxy mutton, heaped up each on a corn riddle. +The shepherd––a Highlander of colossal proportions, but +hard and thin, and worn by the cares and toils of at least +sixty winters––sat moodily beside the fire. The state of his +flocks was not particularly cheering; and he had, besides, +seen a vision of late, he said, that filled his mind with +strange forebodings. He had gone out after nightfall on the +previous evening to a dank hollow on the hill-side, in which +many of his flock had died; the rain had ceased a few +hours before, and a smart frost had set in, that, as on this +second evening, filled the whole valley with a wreath of +silvery vapour, dimly lighted by the thin fragment of a +moon that appeared as if resting at the time on the hill-top. +The wreath stretched out its grey folds beneath him, for he +had climbed half-way up the acclivity, when suddenly what +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_138' name='page_138'></a>138</span> +seemed the figure of a man in heated metal––the figure of +a brazen man brought to a red heat in a furnace––sprang +up out of the darkness; and after stalking over the surface +of the fog for a few seconds––in which, however, it traversed +the greater part of the valley––as suddenly disappeared, +leaving an evanescent trail of flame behind it. There could +be little doubt that the old shepherd had merely seen one +of those shooting lights that in mountain districts, during +unsettled weather, so frequently startle the night traveller, +and that some peculiarity of form in the meteor had been +exaggerated by the obscuring influence of the frost-rime +and the briefness of the survey; but the apparition had +filled his whole mind, as one of strange and frightful portent +from the spiritual world. And often since that night has it +returned to us in recollection, as a vision in singular keeping +with the wild valley which it traversed, and the credulous +melancholy of the solitary shepherd, its only witness,––</p> +<div class="poem"> +<p style='margin-left:2.0em; margin-right:0.0em; text-align:left'><span class="leadquote">‘</span>A meteor of the night of distant years,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.5em;'>That flashed unnoticed, save by wrinkled eld</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.5em;'>Musing at midnight upon prophecies.’</span><br /></p> +</div> +<p>By much the greater part of Strathcarron, in those days, +was in the possession of its ancient inhabitants; and we +learn from the description of Mr. Robertson, that it has +since undergone scarce any change. ‘Strathcarron,’ he +says, ‘is still in the old state.’ Throughout its whole +extent the turf cottages of the aborigines rise dark and +thick as heretofore, from amid their irregular patches of +potatoes and corn. But in an adjacent glen, through +which the Calvie works its headlong way to the Carron, +that terror of the Highlanders, a summons of removal, has +been served within the last few months on a whole community; +and the graphic sketch of Mr. Robertson relates +both the peculiar circumstances in which it has been issued, +and the feelings which it has excited. We find from his +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_139' name='page_139'></a>139</span> +testimony, that the old state of things which is so immediately +on the eve of being broken up in this locality, +lacked not a few of those sources of terror to the proprietary +of the country, that are becoming so very formidable +to them in the newer states. A spectral poor-law sits +by our waysides, wrapped up in death-flannels of the +English cut, and shakes its skinny hand at the mansion-houses +of our landlords,––vision beyond comparison more +direfully portentous than the apparition seen by the lone +shepherd of Strathcarron. But in the Highlands, at least, +it is merely the landlord of the new and improved state of +things––the landlord of widespread clearings and stringent +removal-summonses––that it threatens. The existing poor-law +in Glencalvie is a self-enforcing law, that rises direct +out of the unsophisticated sympathies of the Highland +heart, and costs the proprietary nothing. ‘The constitution +of society in the glen,’ says Mr. Robertson, ‘is remarkably +simple. Four heads of families are bound for the whole rental +of £55, 13s. a year; the number of souls is about ninety. +Sixteen cottages pay rent; three cottages are occupied by old +lone women, who pay no rent, and who have a grace from +the others for the grazing of a few goats or sheep, by which +they live. This self-working poor-law system,’ adds Mr. +Robertson, ‘is supported by the people themselves; the +laird, I am informed, never gives anything to it.’ Now there +must be at least some modicum of good in such a state of +things, however old-fashioned; and we are pretty sure such +of our English neighbours as leave their acres untilled year +after year, to avoid the crushing pressure of the statute-enforced +poor-law that renders them not worth the tilling, +would be somewhat unwilling, were the state made theirs, +to improve it away. Nor does it seem a state––with all its +simplicity, and all its perhaps blameable indifferency to +modern improvement––particularly hostile to the development +of mind or the growth of morals. ‘The people of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_140' name='page_140'></a>140</span> +Amat and Glencalvie themselves supported a teacher for +the education of their children,’ says Mr. Robertson. ‘The +laird,’ he adds, ‘has never lost a farthing of rent. In bad +years, such as 1836 or 1837, the people may have required +the favour of a few weeks’ delay, but they are now not a +single farthing in arrears.’</p> +<p>Mr. Robertson gives us the tragedy of a clearing in its +first act. We had lately the opportunity of witnessing the +closing scene in the after-piece, by which a clearing more +than equally extensive has been followed up, and which +bids fair to find at no distant day many counterparts in the +Highlands of Scotland. Rather more than twenty years +ago, the wild, mountainous island of Rum, the home of +considerably more than five hundred souls, was divested +of all its inhabitants, to make way for one sheep-farmer +and eight thousand sheep. It was soon found, however, +that there are limits beyond which it is inconvenient to +depopulate a country on even the sheep-farm system: the +island had been rendered too thoroughly a desert for the +comfort of the tenant; and on the occasion of a clearing +which took place in a district of Skye, and deprived of their +homes many of the old inhabitants, some ten or twelve +families of the number were invited to Rum, and may now +be found squatting on the shores of the only bay of the +island, on a strip of unprofitable morass. But the whole of +the once peopled interior remains a desert, all the more +lonely in its aspect from the circumstance that the solitary +glens, with their green, plough-furrowed patches, and their +ruined heaps of stone, open upon shores every whit as +solitary as themselves, and that the wide untrodden sea +stretches drearily around. We spent a long summer’s day +amidst its desert recesses, and saw the sun set behind its +wilderness of pyramidal hills. The evening was calm and +clear; the armies of the insect world were sporting by +millions in the light; a brown stream that ran through the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_141' name='page_141'></a>141</span> +valley at our feet yielded an incessant poppling sound from +the myriads of fish that were incessantly leaping in the +pools, beguiled by the quick glancing wings of green and +gold that incessantly fluttered over them; the half-effaced +furrows borrowed a richer hue from the yellow light of sunset; +the broken cottage-walls stood up more boldly prominent +on the hill-side, relieved by the lengthening shadows; +along a distant hill-side there ran what seemed the ruins of +a grey stone fence, erected, says tradition, in a very remote +age to facilitate the hunting of deer: all seemed to bespeak +the place a fitting habitation for man, and in which not only +the necessaries, but not a few also of the luxuries of life, might +be procured; but in the entire prospect not a man nor a +man’s dwelling could the eye command. The landscape was +one without figures. And where, it may be asked, was the +one tenant of the island for whose sake so many others had +been removed? We found his house occupied by a humble +shepherd, who had in charge the wreck of his property,––property +no longer his, but held for the benefit of his +creditors. The great sheep-farmer had gone down under +circumstances of very general bearing, and on whose after +development, when in their latent state, improving landlords +had failed to calculate; the island itself was in the +market, and a report went current at the time that it was +on the eve of being purchased by some wealthy Englishman, +who purposed converting it into a deer-forest. The cycle––which +bids fair to be that of the Highlands generally––had +already revolved in the depopulated island of Rum.</p> +<p>We have said that the sheep-farmer had gone down, in +this instance, under adverse circumstances of very extensive +bearing. In a beautiful transatlantic poem, a North +American Indian is represented as visiting by night the +tombs of his fathers, now surrounded, though reared in the +depths of a forest, by the cultivated farms and luxurious +dwellings of the stranger, and there predicting that the race +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_142' name='page_142'></a>142</span> +by which <i>his</i> had been supplaced should be in turn cast out +of their possessions. His fancy on the subject is a wild +one, though not unfitted for the poet. The streams, he +said, were yielding a lower murmur than of old, and rolling +downwards a decreasing volume; the springs were less +copious in their supplies; the land, shorn of its forests, was +drying up under the no longer softened influence of summer +suns. Yet a few ages more, and it would spread out all +around an arid and barren wilderness, unfitted, like the +deserts of the East, to be a home of man. The fancy, we +repeat, though a poetic, is a wild one; but the grounds +from which we infer that the clearers of the Highlands––the +supplanters of the Highlanders––are themselves to be +cleared and supplanted in turn, is neither wild nor poetic. +The voice which predicts in the case is a voice, not of +shrinking rivulets nor failing springs, but of the ‘Cloth +Hall’ in Leeds, and of the worsted factories of Bradford +and Halifax. Most of our readers must be aware that +the great woollen trade of Britain divides into two main +branches––its woollen cloth manufacture, and its worsted +and stuff manufactures: and in both these the estimation +in which British wool is held has mightily sunk of late +years, never apparently to rise again; for it has sunk, not +through any caprice of fashion, but in the natural progress +of improvement. Mr. Dodd, in his interesting little work +on the <i>Textile Manufactures of Great Britain</i>, refers incidentally +to the fact, in drawing a scene in the Cloth Hall +of Leeds, introduced simply for the purpose of showing at +how slight an expense of time and words business is transacted +in this great mart of trade. ‘All the sellers,’ says Mr. +Dodd, ‘know all the buyers; and each buyer is invited, as +he passes along, to look at some “olives,” or “browns,” or +“pilots,” or “six quarters,” or “eight quarters;” and the +buyer decides in a wonderfully short space of time whether +it will answer his purpose to purchase or not. “Mr. A., just +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_143' name='page_143'></a>143</span> +look at these olives.” “How much?” “Six and eight.” +“Too high.” Mr. A. walks on, and perhaps a neighbouring +clothier draws his attention to a piece, or “end,” of cloth. +“What’s this?” “Five and three.” “Too low.” The +“too high” relates, as may be supposed, to the price per +yard; whereas the “too low” means that the quality of the +cloth is lower than the purchaser requires. Another seller +accosts him with “Will this suit you, Mr. A.?” “<i>Any +English wool?</i>” “<i>Not much; it is nearly all foreign</i>;” a +question and answer which exemplify the disfavour into +which English wool has fallen in the cloth trade. But it is +not the cloth trade alone in which it has fallen into disfavour. +The rapid extension of the worsted manufacture in +this country,’ says the same writer in another portion of his +work, ‘is very remarkable. So long as efforts were made +by English wool-growers to compel the use of the English +wool in cloth-making––efforts which the Legislature for +many years sanctioned by legal enactments––the worsted +fabrics made were chiefly of a coarse and heavy kind, such +as “camlets;” but when the wool trade was allowed to flow +into its natural channels by the removal of restrictions, the +value of all the different kinds of wool became appreciated, +and each one was appropriated to purposes for which it +seemed best fitted. The wool of one kind of English +sheep continued in demand for hosiery and coarse worsted +goods; and the wool of the Cashmere and Angora goats +came to be imported for worsted goods of finer quality.’ +The colonist and the foreign merchant have been brought +into the field, and the home producer labours in vain to +compete with them on what he finds unequal terms.</p> +<p>Hence the difficulties which, in a season of invigorated +commerce and revived trade, continue to bear on the +British wool-grower, and which bid fair <i>to clear</i> him from +the soil which he divested of the original inhabitants. Every +new sheep-rearing farm that springs up in the colonies––whether +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_144' name='page_144'></a>144</span> +in Australia, or New Zealand, or Van Diemen’s +Land, or Southern Africa––sends him its summons of removal +in the form of huge bales of wool, lower in price and better +in quality than he himself can produce. The sheep-breeders +of New Holland and the Cape threaten to avenge the Rosses +of Glencalvie. But to avenge is one thing, and to right +another. The comforts of our poor Highlander have been +deteriorating, and his position lowering, for the last three +ages, and we see no prospect of improvement.</p> +<p>‘For a century,’ says Mr. Robertson, ‘their privileges have +been lessening: they dare not now hunt the deer, or shoot +the grouse or the blackcock; they have no longer the range +of the hills for their cattle and their sheep; they must not +catch a salmon in a stream: in earth, air, and water, the +rights of the laird are greater, and the rights of the people +are smaller, than they were in the days of their forefathers. +Yet, forsooth, there is much talk of philosophers of the +progress of democracy as a progress to equality of conditions +in our day! One of the ministers who accompanied me +had to become bound for law expenses to the amount of +£20, inflicted on the people for taking a log from the +forest for their bridge,––a thing they and their fathers had +always done unchallenged.’</p> +<p>One eloquent passage more, and we have done. It is +thus we find Mr. Robertson, to whose intensely interesting +sketch we again direct the attention of the reader, summing +up the case of the Rosses of Glencalvie:––</p> +<p>‘The father of the laird of Kindeace bought Glencalvie. +It was sold by a Ross two short centuries ago. The swords +of the Rosses of Glencalvie did their part in protecting this +little glen, as well as the broad lands of Pitcalnie, from the +ravages and the clutches of hostile septs. These clansmen +bled and died in the belief that every principle of honour +and morals secured their descendants a right to subsisting +on the soil. The chiefs and their children had the same +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_145' name='page_145'></a>145</span> +charter of the sword. Some Legislatures have made the +right of the people superior to the right of the chief; British +law-makers have made the rights of the chief everything, and +those of their followers nothing. The ideas of the morality +of property are in most men the creatures of their interests +and sympathies. Of this there cannot be a doubt, however: +the chiefs would not have had the land at all, could the +clansmen have foreseen the present state of the Highlands––their +children in mournful groups going into exile––the +faggot of legal myrmidons in the thatch of the feal cabin––the +hearths of their loves and their lives the green sheep-walks +of the stranger.</p> +<p>‘Sad it is, that it is seemingly the will of our constituencies +that our laws shall prefer the few to the many. Most +mournful will it be, should the clansmen of the Highlands +have been cleared away, ejected, exiled, in deference to +a political, a moral, a social, and an economical mistake,––a +suggestion not of philosophy, but of mammon,––a system +in which the demon of sordidness assumed the shape of the +angel of civilisation and of light.’</p> +<p><i>September 4, 1844.</i></p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_146' name='page_146'></a>146</span> +<a name='THE_POET_MONTGOMERY' id='THE_POET_MONTGOMERY'></a> +<h2>THE POET MONTGOMERY.</h2> +</div> +<p>The reader will find in our columns a report, as ample as +our limits have allowed, of the public breakfast given in +Edinburgh on Wednesday last<a name='FNanchor_0018' id='FNanchor_0018'></a><a href='#Footnote_0018' class='fnanchor'>[1]</a> to our distinguished countryman +James Montgomery, and his friend the missionary +Latrobe. We have rarely shared in a more agreeable entertainment, +and have never listened to a more pleasing or +better-toned address than that in which the poet ran over +some of the more striking incidents of his early life. It was +in itself a poem, and a very fine one. An old and venerable +man returning to his native country after an absence of +sixty years––after two whole generations had passed away, +and the grave had closed over almost all his contemporaries––would +be of itself a matter of poetical interest, even were +the aged visitor a person of but the ordinary cast of thought +and depth of feeling. How striking the contrast between +the sunny, dream-like recollections of childhood to such an +individual, and the surrounding realities––between the scenes +and figures on this side the wide gulf of sixty years, and the +scenes and figures on that: yonder, the fair locks of infancy, +its bright, joyous eyes, and its speaking smiles; here, the +grey hairs and careworn wrinkles of rigid old age, tottering +painfully on the extreme verge of life! But if there attaches +thus a poetic interest to the mere circumstances of such a +visit, how much more, in the present instance, from the +character of the visitor,––a man whose thoughts and feelings, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_147' name='page_147'></a>147</span> +tinted by the warm hues of imagination, retain in his old +age all the strength and freshness of early youth!</p> +<p>Hogg, when first introduced to Wilkie, expressed his +gratification at finding him so young a man. We experienced +a similar feeling on first seeing the poet Montgomery. +He can be no young man, who, looking backwards across +two whole generations, can recount from recollection, like +Nestor of old, some of the occurrences of the third. But +there is a green old age, in which the spirits retain their +buoyancy, and the intellect its original vigour; and the +whole appearance of the poet gives evidence that his evening +of life is of this happy and desirable character. His +appearance speaks of antiquity, but not of decay. His +locks have assumed a snowy whiteness, and the lofty and +full-arched coronal region exhibits what a brother poet has +well termed the ‘clear bald polish of the honoured head;’ +but the expression of the countenance is that of middle life. +It is a clear, thin, speaking countenance: the features are +high; the complexion fresh, though not ruddy; and age has +failed to pucker either cheek or forehead with a single +wrinkle. The spectator sees at a glance that all the poet +still survives––that James Montgomery in his sixty-fifth year +is all that he ever was. The forehead, rather compact than +large, swells out on either side towards the region of ideality, +and rises high, in a fine arch, into what, if phrenology +speak true, must be regarded as an amply developed organ +of veneration. The figure is quite as little touched by age +as the face. It is well but not strongly made, and of the +middle size; and yet there is a touch of antiquity about it +too, derived, however, rather from the dress than from any +peculiarity in the person itself. To a plain suit of black +Mr. Montgomery adds the voluminous breast ruffles of the +last age––exactly such things as, in Scotland at least, the +fathers of the present generation wore on their wedding-days. +These are perhaps but small details; but we notice +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_148' name='page_148'></a>148</span> +them just because we have never yet met with any one who +took an interest in a celebrated name, without trying to +picture to himself the appearance of the individual who +bore it.</p> +<p>There are some very pleasing incidents beautifully related +in the address of Mr. Montgomery. It would have +been false taste and delicacy in such a man to have forborne +speaking of himself. His return, after an absence +equal to the term of two full generations, to his native +cottage, is an incident exquisitely poetic. He finds his +father’s humble chapel converted into a workshop, and +strangers sit beside the hearth that had once been his +mother’s. And where were that father and mother? Their +bones moulder in a distant land, where the tombstones cast +no shadow when the fierce sun looks down at noon upon +their graves. ‘Taking their lives in their hands,’ they had +gone abroad to preach Christ to the poor enslaved negro, +for whose soul at that period scarce any one cared save the +United Brethren; and in the midst of their labours of piety +and love, they had fallen victims to the climate. He passed +through the cottage and the workshop, calling up the dream-like +recollections of his earliest scene of existence, and recognising +one by one the once familiar objects within. One +object he failed to recognise. It was a small tablet fixed in +the wall. He went up to it, and found it intimated that +James Montgomery the poet had been born there. Was it +not almost as if one of the poets or philosophers of a former +time had lighted, on revisiting the earth as a disembodied +spirit, on his own monument? Of scarce less interest is his +anecdote of Monboddo. The parents of the poet had gone +abroad, as we have said, and their little boy was left with +the Brethren at Fulneck, a Moravian settlement in the sister +kingdom. He was one of their younger scholars at a time +when Lord Monboddo, still so well known for his great +talents and acquirements, and his scarce less marked eccentricities, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_149' name='page_149'></a>149</span> +visited the settlement, and was shown, among other +things, their little school. His Lordship stood among the +boys, coiling and uncoiling his whip on the floor, and engaged +as if in counting the nail-heads in the boarding. The +little fellows were all exceedingly curious; none of them +had ever seen a real live lord before, and Monboddo was a +very strange-looking lord indeed. He wore a large, stiff, +bushy periwig, surmounted by a huge, odd-looking hat; his +very plain coat was studded with brass buttons of broadest +disk, and his voluminous inexpressibles were of leather. +And there he stood, with his grave, absent face bent downwards, +drawing and redrawing his whip along the floor, as +the Moravian, his guide, pointed out to his notice boy after +boy. ‘And this,’ said the Moravian, coming at length to +young Montgomery, ‘is a countryman of your Lordship’s.’ +His Lordship raised himself up, looked hard at the little +fellow, and then shaking his huge whip over his head, ‘Ah,’ +he exclaimed, ‘I hope his country will have no reason to be +ashamed of him.’ ‘The circumstance,’ said the poet, ‘made +a deep impression on my mind; and I determined––I trust +the resolution was not made in vain––I determined in that +moment that my country should not have reason to be +ashamed of me.’</p> +<p>Scotland has no reason to be ashamed of James Montgomery. +Of all her poets, there is not one of equal power, +whose strain has been so uninterruptedly pure, or whose +objects have been so invariably excellent. The child of +the Christian missionary has been the poet of Christian +missions. The parents laid down their lives in behalf of +the enslaved and perishing negro; the son, in strains the +most vigorous and impassioned, has raised his generous +appeal to public justice in his behalf. Nor has the appeal +been in vain. All his writings bear the stamp of the Christian; +many of them––embodying feelings which all the truly +devout experience, but which only a poet could express––have +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_150' name='page_150'></a>150</span> +been made vehicles for addressing to the Creator the +emotions of many a grateful heart; and, employed chiefly +on themes of immortality, they promise to outlive not only +songs of intellectually a lower order, but of even equal +powers of genius, into whose otherwise noble texture sin +has introduced the elements of death.</p> +<p><i>28th October 1841.</i></p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_151' name='page_151'></a>151</span> +<a name='CRITICISMINTERNAL_EVIDENCE' id='CRITICISMINTERNAL_EVIDENCE'></a> +<h2>CRITICISM––INTERNAL EVIDENCE.</h2> +</div> +<p>The reader must have often remarked, in catalogues of the +writings of great authors––such as Dr. Johnson, and the +Rev. John Cumming, of the Scotch Church, London––that +while some of the pieces are described as <i>acknowledged</i>, the +genuineness of others is determined merely by <i>internal +evidence</i>. We know, for instance, that the Doctor wrote the +<i>English Dictionary</i>, not only because no other man in the +world at the time could have written it, but also because he +affixed his name to the title-page. We know, too, that he +wrote some of the best of Lord Chatham’s earlier speeches, +just because he said so, and pointed out the very garret in +Fleet Street in which they had been written. But it is from +other data we conclude that, during his period of obscurity +and distress, he wrote prefaces for the <i>Gentleman’s Magazine</i>, +for some six or seven years together,––data derived +exclusively from a discriminating criticism; and his claim +to the authorship of <i>Taylor’s Sermons</i> rests solely on the +vigorous character of the thinking displayed in these compositions, +and the marked peculiarities of their style. Now, +in exactly the same way in which we know that Johnson +wrote the speeches and the Dictionary, do we know that the +Rev. John Cumming drew up an introductory essay to the +liturgy of a Church that never knew of a liturgy, and that +he occasionally contributes tales to morocco annuals, wonderful +enough to excite the astonishment of ordinary readers. +To these compositions he affixes his name,––a thing very few +men would have the courage to do; and thus are we assured +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_152' name='page_152'></a>152</span> +of their authorship. But there are other compositions to +which he does not affix his name, and it is from internal +evidence alone that these can be adjudged to him: it is +from internal evidence alone, for instance, that we can conclude +him to be the author of the article on the Scottish +Church question which has appeared in <i>Fraser’s Magazine</i> +for the present month.</p> +<p>May we crave leave to direct the attention of the reader +for a very few minutes to the grounds on which we decide? +It is of importance, as Johnson says of Pope, that no part +of so great a writer should be suffered to be lost, and a +little harmless criticism may have the effect of sharpening +the faculties.</p> +<p>There is a class of Scottish ministers in the present day, +who, though they detest show and coxcombry, have yet a +very decided leaning to the picturesque ceremonies of the +Episcopal Church. They never weary of apologizing to +our southern neighbours for what they term the baldness of +our Presbyterian ritual, or in complaining of it to ourselves. +It was no later than last Sunday that Dr. Muir sorrowed +in his lecture over the ‘stinted arrangement in the Presbyterian +service, that admits of no audible response from the +people;’ and all his genteeler hearers, sympathizing with +the worthy man, felt how pleasant a thing it would be were +the congregation permitted to do for him in the church +what the Rev. Mr. Macfarlane, erst of Stockbridge, does +for him in the presbytery. Corporal Trim began one of +his stories on one occasion, by declaring ‘that there was +once an unfortunate king of Bohemia;’ and when Uncle +Toby, interrupting him with a sigh, exclaimed, ‘Ah, Corporal +Trim, and was he unfortunate?’ ‘Yes, your honour,’ +readily replied Trim; ‘he had a great love of ships and seaports, +and yet, as your honour knows, there was ne’er a +ship nor a seaport in all his dominions.’ Now this semi-Episcopalian +class are unfortunate after the manner of the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_153' name='page_153'></a>153</span> +king of Bohemia. The objects of their desire lie far beyond +the Presbyterian territories. They are restricted to one +pulpit, they are limited to one dress; they have actually to +read and preach from the same footboard; they are prohibited +the glories of white muslin; liturgy have they none. +No audible responses arise from the congregation; the precentor +is silent, save when he sings; their churches are +organless; and though they set themselves painfully to +establish their claim to the succession apostolical, the Hon. +Mr. Percevals of the Church which they love and admire +see no proof in their evidence, and look down upon them +as the mere preaching laymen of a sectarian corporation.</p> +<p>Thrice unfortunate men! What were the unhappinesses +of the king of Bohemia, compared with the sorrows of these +humble but rejected followers of Episcopacy!</p> +<p>Now, among this highly respectable but unhappy class, +the Rev. John Cumming, of the Scotch Church, London, +stands pre-eminent. So grieved was Queen Mary of +England by the loss of Calais, that she alleged the very +name of the place would be found written on her heart after +her death. The words that have the best chance of being +found inscribed on the heart of the Rev. Mr. Cumming are, +bishop, liturgy, apostolical succession, burial service, organ, +and surplice. The ideas attached to these vocables pervade +his whole style, and form from their continual recurrence +a characteristic portion of it. They tumble up and +down in his mind like the pieces of painted glass in a +kaleidoscope, and present themselves in new combinations +at every turn. His last acknowledged composition was a +wonderful tale which appeared in the <i>Protestant Annual</i> for +the present year, and––strange subject for such a writer––it +purported to be a <i>Tale of the Covenant</i>. Honest Peter +Walker had told the same story, that of John Brown of +Priesthill, about a century and a half ago; but there had +been much left for Mr. Cumming to discover in it of which +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_154' name='page_154'></a>154</span> +the poor pedlar does not seem to have had the most distant +conception.</p> +<p>Little did Peter know that John Brown’s favourite minister +‘held the sacred and apostolical succession of the +Scottish priesthood.’ Little would he have thought of +apologizing to the English reader for ‘the antique and +ballad verses’ of our metrical version of the Psalms. Indeed, +so devoid was he of learning, that he could scarce +have valued at a sufficiently high rate the doctrines of +Oxford; and so little gifted with taste, that he would have +probably failed to appreciate the sublimities of Brady and +Tate. Nor could Peter have known that the ‘liturgy of +the heart’ was in the Covenanter’s cottage, and that the +‘litany’ of the spirit breathed from his evening devotions. +But it is all known to the Rev. Mr. Cumming. He knows, +too, that there were sufferings and privations endured by +the persecuted Presbyterians of those days, of which writers +of less ingenuity have no adequate conception; that they +were forced to the wild hill-sides, where they could have no +‘organs,’ and compelled to bury their dead without the +solemnities of the funeral service. Unhappy Covenanters! +It is only now that your descendants are beginning to learn +the extent of your miseries. Would that it had been your +lot to live in the days of the Rev. John Cumming of the +Scottish Church, London!</p> +<p>He would assuredly have procured for you the music-box +of some wandering Italian, and gone away with you to the +wilds to mingle exquisite melody with your devotions, +qualifying with the sweetness of his tones the ‘antique and +ballad’ rudeness of your psalms; nor would he have failed +to furnish you with a liturgy, by means of which you could +have interred your dead in decency. Had such been the +arrangement, no after writer could have remarked, as the +Rev. Mr. Cumming does now, that no ‘pealing organ’ +mingled ‘its harmony of bass, tenor, treble, and soprano’ +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_155' name='page_155'></a>155</span> +when you sung, or have recorded the atrocious fact, that +not only was John Brown of Priesthill shot by Claverhouse, +but actually buried by his friends without the funeral service. +And how striking and affecting an incident would it not +form in the history of the persecution, could it now be told, +that when surprised by the dragoons, the good Mr. Cumming +fled over hill and hollow with the box on his back, turning +the handle as he went, and urging his limbs to their utmost +speed, lest the Episcopalian soldiery should bring him back +and make him a bishop!</p> +<p>It is partly from the more than semi-Episcopalian character +of this gentleman’s opinions, partly from the inimitable +felicities of his style, and partly from one or two peculiar +incidents in his history which lead to a particular tone of +remark, that we infer him to be the writer of the article in +<i>Fraser</i>.</p> +<p>We may be of course mistaken, but the internal evidence +seems wonderfully strong. The Rev. Mr. Cumming, though +emphatically powerful in declamation, has never practised +argument,––a mean and undignified art, which he leaves to +men such as Mr. Cunningham, just as the genteel leave the +art of boxing to the commonalty; and in grappling lately +with a strong-boned Irish Presbyterian, skilful of fence, he +caught, as gentlemen sometimes do, a severe fall, and +began straightway to characterize Irish Presbyterians as a +set of men very inferior indeed. Now the writer in <i>Fraser</i> +has a fling <i>à la Cumming</i> at the Irish Presbyterians. Popular +election has, it seems, done marvellously little for them; +with very few exceptions, their ‘ministry’ is neither ‘erudite, +influential, nor accomplished,’ and their Church ‘exhibits +the symptoms of heart disease.’ Depend on it, some stout +Irish Presbyterian has entailed the shame of defeat on the +writer in <i>Fraser</i>. Mr. Cumming, in his tale, adverts to the +majority of the Scottish Church as ‘radical subverters of +Church and State, who claim the Covenanters as precedents +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_156' name='page_156'></a>156</span> +for a course of conduct from which the dignified Henderson, +the renowned Gillespie, the learned Binning, the laborious +Denham, the heavenly-minded Rutherford, the religious +Wellwood, the zealous Cameron, and the prayerful Peden, +would have revolted in horror.’ The writer of the article +brings out exactly the same sentiment, though not quite so +decidedly, in what Meg Dodds would have termed a grand +style of language. At no time, he asserts, did non-intrusion +exist in the sense now contended for in Scotland; at no +time might not qualified ministers be thrust upon reclaiming +parishes by the presbytery: and as for the vetoists, they are +but wild radicals, who are to be ‘classified by the good sense +of England with those luminaries of the age, Dan O’Connell, +John Frost, and others of that ilk.’ In the article there is +a complaint that our majority are miserably unacquainted +with Scottish ecclesiastical history; and there is special +mention made of Mr. Cunningham as an individual not +only ignorant of facts, but as even incapable of being made +to feel their force. In the <i>Annual</i>, as if Mr. Cumming +wished to exemplify, there is a passage in Scottish ecclesiastical +history, of which we are certain Mr. Cunningham +not only knows nothing, but which we are sure he will prove +too obstinate to credit or comprehend. ‘The celebrated +Mr. Cameron,’ says the minister of the Scottish Church, +London, ‘was left on Drumclog a mangled corpse.’ Fine +thing to be minutely acquainted with ecclesiastical history! +We illiterate non-intrusionists hold, and we are afraid Mr. +Cunningham among the rest, that the celebrated Cameron +was killed, not at the skirmish of Drumclog, but at the +skirmish of Airdmoss, which did not take place until about a +twelvemonth after; but this must result surely from our ignorance. +Has the Rev. Mr. Cumming no intention of settling +our disputes, by giving us a new history of the Church?</p> +<p>That portion of the internal evidence in the article before +us which depends on style and manner, seems very conclusive +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_157' name='page_157'></a>157</span> +indeed. Take some of the avowed sublimities of the +Rev. Mr. Cumming. No man stands more beautifully on +tiptoe when he sets himself to catch a fine thought. In +describing an attached congregation, ‘The hearer’s prayers +rose to heaven,’ he says, ‘and returned in the shape of +broad impenetrable bucklers around the venerable man. +A thousand broadswords leapt in a thousand scabbards, as +if the electric eloquence of the minister found in them conductors +and depositories.’</p> +<p>Poetry such as this is still somewhat rare; but mark the +kindred beauties of the writer in <i>Fraser</i>. Around such men +as Mr. Tait, Dr. M’Leod, and Dr. Muir, ‘must crystallize +the piety and the hopes of the Scottish Church.’ What a +superb figure! Only think of the Rev. Dr. Muir as of a +thread in a piece of sugar candy, and the piety of the +Dean of Faculty and Mr. Penney, joined to that of some +four or five hundred respectable ladies of both sexes besides, +all sticking out around him in cubes, hexagons, and prisms, +like cleft almonds in a bishop-cake. Hardly inferior in the +figurative is the passage which follows: ‘The Doctor (Dr. +Chalmers) rides on at a rickety trot,––Messrs. Cunningham, +Begg, and Candlish by turns whipping up the wornout +Rosenante, and making the rider believe that windmills are +Church principles, and the echoes of their thunder solid +argument. A ditch will come; and when the first effects +of the fall are over, the dumbfounded Professor will awake +to the deception, and smite the minnows of vetoism hip +and thigh.’ The writer of this passage is unquestionably an +ingenious man, but he could surely have made a little more +of the last figure. A dissertation on the hips and thighs of +minnows might be made to reflect new honour on even the +genius of the Rev. Mr. Cumming.</p> +<p>It is mainly, however, from the Episcopalian tone of the +article that we derive our evidence. The writer seems to +hold, with Charles II., that Presbyterianism is no fit religion +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_158' name='page_158'></a>158</span> +for a gentleman. True, the Moderates were genteel men, of +polish and propriety, such as Mr. Jaffray of Dunbar, who +never at synod or presbytery did or said anything that was +not strictly polite; but then the Moderates had but little +of Presbyterianism in their religion, and perhaps, notwithstanding +their ‘quiet, amiable, and courteous demeanour,’ +little of religion itself. It is to quite a different class that +the hope of the writer turns. He states that ‘melancholy +facts and strong arguments against the practical working +of Presbytery is at this moment impressing itself in Scotland +on every unprejudiced spectator;’ that there is a party, +however, ‘with whom the ministerial office is a sacred investiture, +transmitted by succession through pastor to pastor, +and from age to age,––men inducted to their respective +parishes, not because their flocks like or dislike them, but +because the superintending authorities, after the exercise +of solemn, minute, and patient investigation, have determined +that this or that pastor is the fittest and best for this +or that parish;’ that there exist in this noble party ‘the +germs of a possible unity with the southern Church;’ and +that there is doubtless a time coming when the body of our +Establishment, ‘sick of slavery under the name of freedom, +and of sheer Popery under Presbyterian colours, shall send +up three of their best men to London for consecration, and +Episcopacy shall again become the adoption of Scotland.’ +Rarely has the imagination of the poet conjured up a vision +of greater splendour. The minister of the Scotch Church, +London, may die Archbishop of St. Andrews. And such +an archbishop! We are told in the article that ‘the channel +along which ministerial orders are to be transmitted is +the pastors of the Church, whether they meet together in +the presbytery, or are compressed and consolidated in the +bishop.’ But is not this understating the case on the Episcopal +side? What would not Scotland gain if she could +compress and consolidate a simple presbytery, such as that +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_159' name='page_159'></a>159</span> +of Edinburgh––its Chalmers and its Gordon, its Candlish +and its Cunningham, its Guthrie, its Brown, its Bennie, its +Begg––in short, all its numerous members––into one great +Bishop John Cumming, late of the Scotch Church, London! +The man who converts twenty-one shillings into a gold +guinea gains nothing by the process; but the case would +be essentially different here, for not only would there be +a great good accomplished, but also a great evil removed. +As for Dr. Chalmers, it is ‘painfully evident,’ says the writer +of the article, ‘that he regards only three things additional +to a “supernal influence” as requisite to constitute any +one a minister––a knowledge of Christianity, and endowment, +and a parish;’ and as for the rest of the gentlemen +named, they are just preparing to do, in an ‘ecclesiastical +way in Edinburgh, what Robespierre, Marat, and others did +in a corporal way in the Convention of 1793.’</p> +<p>Hogarth quarrelled with Churchill, and drew him as a +bear in canonicals. Had he lived to quarrel with the Rev. +John Cumming, he would in all probability have drawn him +as a puppy in gown and band; and no one who knows +aught of the painter can doubt that he would have strikingly +preserved the likeness. As for ourselves, we merely +indulge in a piece of conjectural criticism. The other parts +of the article are cast very much into the ordinary type of +that side of the controversy to which it belongs: there is +rather more than the usual amount of misrepresentation, +inconsistency, and abuse, with here and there a peculiarity +of statement. Patrons are described as the ‘trustees of +the supreme magistrate, beautifully and devoutly appointed +to submit the presentee to the presbytery.’ Lord Aberdeen’s +bill is eulogized as suited to ‘confer a greater boon +on the laity of Scotland than was ever conferred on them +by the General Assembly.’ The seven clergymen of Strathbogie +are praised for ‘having rendered unto God the things +that are God’s,’ ‘their enemies being judges.’ +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_160' name='page_160'></a>160</span></p> +<p>The minority of the Church contains, it is stated, its best +men, and its most diligent ministers. As for the majority, +they have been possessed by a spirit of ‘deep delusion;’ +their only idea of a ‘clergyman is a preaching machine, +that makes a prodigious vociferation, and pleases the herd.’ +They are destined to become’ contemptible and base;’ their +attitude is an ‘unrighteous attitude;’ they are aiming, ‘like +Popish priests,’ at ‘supremacy’ and a deadly despotism, +through the sides of the people; they are ‘suicidally +divesting themselves of their power as clergymen, by surrendering +to the people essentially Episcopal functions;’ +they are ‘wild men,’ and offenders against the ‘divine +headship;’ and the writer holds, therefore, that if the Establishment +is to be maintained in Scotland, they must be +crushed, and that soon, by the strong arm of the law. +We need make no further remarks on the subject. To +employ one of the writer’s own illustrations, the history of +Robespierre powerfully demonstrates that great vanity, great +weakness, and great cruelty, may all find room together in +one little mind.</p> +<p><i>March 10, 1841.</i></p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_161' name='page_161'></a>161</span> +<a name='THE_SANCTITIES_OF_MATTER' id='THE_SANCTITIES_OF_MATTER'></a> +<h2>THE SANCTITIES OF MATTER.</h2> +</div> +<blockquote> +<p style="text-align:center;" >TO THE EDITOR OF THE WITNESS.</p> +<p><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Sir</span>,––Upon hearing read aloud your remarks<a name='FNanchor_0019' id='FNanchor_0019'></a><a href='#Footnote_0019' class='fnanchor'>[1]</a> in the <i>Witness</i> +of Saturday the 28th ultimo, upon the danger of investing +the mere building in which we meet for public worship with +a character of sanctity, an English gentleman asked, ‘How +does the writer of that article reconcile with his views our +Saviour’s conduct, described by St. John, ii. 14-17, and by +each of the other evangelists?’</p> +<p>Though quite disposed to agree with the purport of your +remarks, and fully aware that the tendency of the opinions +openly promulgated by a large section of the clergy of the +Church of England is to give ‘the Church’ the place which +should be occupied by a living and active faith in our Saviour, +I found it difficult to meet this gentleman’s objections, and +only reminded him that you made a special exception in +the case of the Jewish temple. Brought up from childhood, +as Englishmen are, with almost superstitious reverence for +the buildings ‘consecrated’ and set apart for religious uses, +it is difficult to meet objections founded on such strong +prejudices as were evident in this case.</p> +<p>If any arguments suggest themselves to you, to show that +the passage above referred to cannot be fairly employed in +the defence of the Church of England tenets, in favour of +consecrating churches, and of reverence amounting almost +to the worship of external objects devoted to religious purposes, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_162' name='page_162'></a>162</span> +you will oblige me by stating them.––I remain, Sir, +Your obedient servant,</p> +<p style="margin-right:3em; text-align:right;" ><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>An Absentee.</span></p> +</blockquote> +<p>The passage of Scripture referred to by the ‘English +Gentleman’ here as scarcely reconcilable with the views +promulgated in the <i>Witness</i> of the 28th ult. runs as follows:––‘And +Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and found in the +temple those that sold oxen, and sheep, and doves, and the +changers of money, sitting; and when He had made a scourge +of small cords, He drove them all out of the temple, and +the sheep and the oxen; and poured out the changers’ +money, and overthrew the tables; and said unto them that +sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father’s +house a house of merchandise.’</p> +<p>It will perhaps be remembered by our readers, that in +referring to the Scotch estimate of the sacredness of ecclesiastical +edifices, we employed words to the following effect:––‘We +(the Scotch people) have been taught that the world, +since it began, saw but two truly holy edifices; and that +these, the Tabernacle and the <i>Temple</i>, were as direct revelations +from God as the Scriptures themselves, and were as +certain embodiments of His will, though they spoke in the +obscure language of type and symbol.’ Now the passage +of Scripture here cited is in harmonious accordance with +this view. It was from one of these truly holy edifices that +our Saviour drove the sheep and oxen, and indignantly +expelled the money-changers. Without, however, begging +the whole question at issue––without taking for granted the +very point to be proven, <i>i.e.</i> the intrinsic holiness of Christian +places of worship––the text has no bearing whatever on the +view taken by the ‘English Gentleman.’ If buildings such +as York Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, and St. Paul’s, be +holy in the sense in which the temple was holy, then the +passage as certainly applies to them as it applied, in the +times of our Saviour, to the sacred edifice which was so remarkable +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_163' name='page_163'></a>163</span> +a revelation of Himself. But where is the evidence +of an intrinsic holiness in these buildings? Where is the +proof that the rite of consecration is a rite according to the +mind of God? Where is the probability even that it is other +than a piece of mere will-worship, originated in the dark +ages; or that it confers one whit more sanctity on the edifice +which it professes to render sacred, than the breaking a +bottle of wine on the ship’s stem, when she is starting off +the slips, confers sanctity on the ship? Stands it on any +surer ground than the baptism of bells, the sacrifice of the +mass, or the five spurious sacraments? If it be a New +Testament institution, it must possess New Testament +authority. Where is that authority?</p> +<p>Can it be possible, however, that the shrewd English +really differ from us in our estimate? We think we have +good grounds for holding they do not. On a late occasion +we enjoyed the pleasure of visiting not only York Cathedral, +but Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s, and saw quite enough +to make even the least mistrustful suspect that the professed +Episcopalian belief in the sacredness of ecclesiastical edifices +is but sheer make-belief after all. The ‘English Gentleman’ +refers to the example of our Saviour in thrusting forth the +money-changers from the temple, as a sort of proof that +ecclesiastical edifices are holy; and we show that it merely +proves the temple to have been holy. The passage has, +however, a direct bearing on a somewhat different point: +it constitutes a test by which to try the reality of this +ostensible belief of English Episcopalians in the sacredness +of their churches and cathedrals. If the English, especially +English Churchmen, act with regard to their ecclesiastical +buildings in the way our Saviour acted with regard to the +temple, then it is but fair to hold that their belief in their +sacredness is real. But if, on the contrary, we find them +acting, not as our Saviour acted, but as the money-changers +or the cattle-sellers acted, then is it equally fair to conclude +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_164' name='page_164'></a>164</span> +that their belief in their sacredness is not a real belief, but +a piece of mere pretence. In the north transept of York +Minster there may be seen a table like a tomb of black +Purbec marble, supported by an iron trellis, and bearing +atop the effigy of a wasted corpse wrapped in a winding-sheet. +‘This monument,’ says a little work descriptive of +the edifice, ‘was erected to the memory of John Haxby, +formerly treasurer to the church, who died in 1424; and in +compliance with stipulations in some of the ancient church +deeds and settlements, occasional payments of money are +made on this tomb to the present day.’ Here, at least, is +one money-changing table introduced into the consecrated +area, and this not irregularly or surreptitiously, like the +money-changing tables which of old profaned the temple, +but through the deliberately formed stipulations of ecclesiastical +deeds and settlements. The state of things in St. +Paul’s and Westminster, however, throws the money-table +of York Minster far into the shade. The holinesses of St. +Paul’s we found converted into a twopenny, and those of +Westminster into a sixpenny show. For the small sum of +twopence one may be admitted, at an English provincial +fair, to see the old puppet exhibition of Punch and Judy, +and of Solomon in all his glory; and for the small sum of +twopence were we admitted, in like manner, to see St. +Paul’s, to see choir, communion-table, and grand altar, and +everything else of peculiar sacredness within the edifice. +The holinesses of Westminster cost thrice as much, but were +a good bargain notwithstanding. Would English Churchmen +permit, far less originate and insist in doggedly maintaining, +so palpable a profanation, did they really believe +their cathedrals to be holy? The debased Jewish priesthood +of the times of our Saviour suffered the money-changers to +traffic unchallenged within the temple; but they did not +convert the temple itself into a twopenny show: they did +not make halfpence by exhibiting the table of shew-bread, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_165' name='page_165'></a>165</span> +the altar of incense, and the golden candlestick, nor lift up +corners of the veil at the rate of a penny a peep. It is +worse than nonsense to hold that a belief in the sacredness +of ecclesiastical buildings can co-exist with clerical practices +of the kind we describe: the thing is a too palpable improbability; +the text quoted by the Englishman is conclusive +on the point. Would any man in his senses now hold that +the old Jewish priests really believed their temple to be +holy, had they done, what they had decency enough not +to do––converted it into a raree-show? And are we not +justified in applying to English Churchmen the rule which +would be at once applied to Jewish priests? The Presbyterians +of Scotland do not deem their ecclesiastical edifices +holy, but there are certain natural associations that throw +a degree of solemnity over places in which men assemble to +worship God; and in order that these may not be outraged, +they never convert their churches into twopenny show-boxes. +Practically, at least, the Scotch respect for decency +goes a vast deal further than the English regard for what +they profess, very insincerely it would seem, to hold sacred.</p> +<p>We have said there is quite as little New Testament +authority for consecrating a place of worship as for baptizing +a bell; and if in the wrong, can of course be easily set +right. If the authority exists, it can be no difficult matter +to produce it. We would fain ask the reader to remark the +striking difference which obtains between the Mosaic and +the New Testament dispensations in all that regards the +materialisms of their respective places of worship. We find +in the Pentateuch chapter after chapter occupied with the +mechanism of the tabernacle. The pattern given in the +mount is as minutely described as any portion of the ceremonial +law, and for exactly the same reason: the one as +certainly as the other was ‘a figure of things to come.’ How +exceedingly minute, too, the description of the temple! +How very particular the narrative of its dedication! The +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_166' name='page_166'></a>166</span> +prayer of Solomon, Heaven-inspired for the occasion, forms +an impressive chapter in the sacred record, that addresses +itself to all time. But when the old state of things had +passed away,––when the material was relinquished for the +spiritual, the shadow for the substance, the type for the +antitype,––we hear no more of places of worship to which +an intrinsic holiness attached, or of imposing rites of dedication. +Not in edifices deemed sacred was the gospel promulgated, +so long as the gospel remained pure, but in ‘hired +houses’ and ‘upper rooms,’ or ‘river-sides, where prayer was +wont to be made,’ in chambers on the ‘third loft,’ often in +the streets, often in the market-place, in the fields and by +solitary waysides, on shipboard and by the sea-shore, ‘in +the midst of Mars Hill’ at Athens, and, when persecution +began to darken, amid the deep gloom of the sepulchral +caverns of Rome. The time had evidently come, referred +to by the Saviour, when neither in the temple at Jerusalem, +nor on the mountain deemed sacred by the Samaritans, was +the Father to be worshipped; but all over the world, ‘in +spirit and in truth.’ Until Christianity had become corrupt, +we do not hear even of ornate churches, far less of Christian +altars, of an order of Christian priests, of the will-worship +of consecration, or of the presumed holiness of insensate +matter,––all unauthorized additions of man’s making to a +religion fast sinking at the time under a load of human +inventions,––additions which were in no degree the more +sacred, because filched, amid the darkness of superstition +and error, from the abrogated Mosaic dispensation. The +following is, we believe, the first notice of <i>fine</i> Christian +churches which occurs in history;––we quote from the ecclesiastical +work of Dr. Welsh, and deem the passage a significant +one:––‘From the beginning of the reign of Gallienus +till the nineteenth year of Diocletian,’ says the historian, +‘the external tranquillity of the Church suffered no general +interruption. The Christians, with partial exceptions, were +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_167' name='page_167'></a>167</span> +allowed the free exercise of their religion. Under Diocletian +open profession of the new faith was made even in the imperial +household; nor did it prove a barrier to the highest honours +and employments. In this state of affairs the condition +of the Church seemed in the highest degree prosperous. +Converts were multiplied throughout all the provinces of +the empire; and the ancient churches proving insufficient +for the accommodation of the increasing multitudes of worshippers, +<i>splendid edifices were erected in every city</i>, which were +filled with crowded congregations. But with this outward +appearance of success, the purity of faith and worship became +gradually corrupted; and, still more, the vital spirit of +religion suffered a melancholy decline. Pride and ambition, +emulation and strifes, hypocrisy and formality among +the clergy, and superstitions and factions among the people, +brought reproach on the Christian cause. In these circumstances +the judgments of the Lord were manifested, and the +Church was visited with the severest persecution to which +it ever yet had been subjected.’</p> +<p>There are few more valuable chapters in Locke than the +one in which he traces some of the gravest errors that infest +human life to a false association of ideas. But of all his +illustrations, employed to exhibit in the true light this copious +source of error, there is not one half so striking as that furnished +by the false association which connects the holiness +that can alone attach to the living and the immortal, with +earth, mortar, and stone, pieces of mouldering serge, and +bits of rotten wood. Nearly one half of the errors with +which Popery has darkened and overlaid the religion of the +Cross, have originated in this particular species of false +association. The superstition of pilgrimages, with all its +long catalogue of crime and suffering, inclusive of bloody +wars, protracted for ages,––-</p> +<div class="poem"> +<p style='margin-left:2.0em; margin-right:0.0em; text-align:left'><span style='margin-left: 3.125em;'>‘When men strayed far to seek</span><br /> +In Golgotha Him dead who lives in heaven,’––<br /></p> +</div> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_168' name='page_168'></a>168</span></div> +<p>the idolatry of relics, so strangely revived on the Continent +in our own times,––the allegorical will-worship embodied in +stone and lime, which Puseyism is at present so busy in +introducing into the Church of England, and which renders +every ecclesiastical building a sort of apocryphal temple, +full, like the apocryphal books, of all manner of error and +nonsense,––a thousand other absurdities and heterodoxies +besides,––have all originated in this cause. True, such +association is most natural to man, and, when of a purely +secular character, harmless; nay, there are cases in which +it may be even laudably indulged. ‘When I find Tully +confessing of himself,’ says Johnson, ‘that he could not +forbear at Athens to visit the walks and houses which the +old philosophers had frequented or inhabited, and recollect +the reverence which every nation, civil and barbarous, has +paid to the ground where merit has been buried, I am +afraid to declare against the general voice of mankind, and +am inclined to believe that this regard which we involuntarily +pay to the meanest relique of a man great and illustrious, +is intended as an incitement to labour, and an +encouragement to expect the same renown if it be sought +by the same virtues.’ We find nearly the same sentiment +eloquently expounded in the Doctor’s famous passage on +Iona. But there exists a grand distinction between natural +feelings proper in their own place, and natural feelings +permitted to enter the religious field, and vitiate the integrity +of revelation. It is from the natural alone in such +cases that danger is to be apprehended; seeing that what +is not according to the mental constitution of man, is of +necessity at once unproductive and shortlived. Let due +weight be given to the associative feeling, in its proper +sphere,––let it dispose us to invest with a quiet decency +our places of worship,––let us, at all events, not convert +them into secular counting-rooms or twopenny show-boxes; +but let us also remember that natural association is not +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_169' name='page_169'></a>169</span> +divine truth––that there attaches no holiness to slated roofs +or stone walls––that under the New Testament dispensation +men do not worship in temples, which, like the altar +of old, sanctified the gift, but in mere places of shelter, that +confer no sacredness on their services; and that the ‘hour +has come, and now is, when they that worship the Father +must worship Him in spirit and in truth.’</p> +<p><i>April 15, 1846.</i></p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_170' name='page_170'></a>170</span> +<a name='THE_LATE_REV_ALEXANDER_STEWART' id='THE_LATE_REV_ALEXANDER_STEWART'></a> +<h2>THE LATE REV. ALEXANDER STEWART.</h2> +</div> +<p>Our last conveyed to our readers the mournful intelligence +of the illness and death of the Rev. Alexander Stewart of +Cromarty,––a man less known, perhaps, than any other of +nearly equal calibre, or of a resembling exquisitiveness of +mental faculty, which his country has ever produced, but +whose sudden removal has, we find, created an impression +far beyond the circle of even his occasional hearers, that +the spirit which has passed away was one of the high cast +which nature rarely produces, and that the consequent +blank created in the existing phalanx of intellect is one +which cannot be filled up. Comparatively little as the +deceased was known beyond his own immediate walk of +duty or circle of acquaintanceship, it is yet felt by thousands, +of whom the greater part knew of him merely at +second-hand by the abiding impression which he had left +on the minds of the others, that, according to the poet,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<p style='margin-left:2.0em; margin-right:0.0em; text-align:left'><span class="leadquote">‘</span>A mighty spirit is eclipsed; a power<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.5em;'>Hath passed from day to darkness, to whose hour</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.5em;'>Of light no likeness is bequeathed––no name.’</span><br /></p> +</div> +<p>The subject is one with which we can scarce trust ourselves. +There are no writings to which we can appeal, +for Mr. Stewart has left none, or at least none suited to +convey an adequate impression of his powers; and yet of +nothing are we more thoroughly convinced, than that the +originality and vigour of his thinking, and the singular +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_171' name='page_171'></a>171</span> +vividness and force of his illustrations, added to a command +of the principles of analogical reasoning, which even +a Butler might have envied, entitled him to rank with the +ablest and most extraordinary men of the age. Coleridge +was not more thoroughly original, nor could he impart to +his pictures more vividness of colouring, or more decided +strength of outline. In glancing over our limited stock of +idea, to note how we have come by it, we find that to +two Scotchmen of the present century we stand more +largely indebted than to any of their contemporaries, either +at home or abroad. More of their thinking has got into +our mind than that of any of the others; and their images +and illustrations recur to us more frequently. And one of +these is Thomas Chalmers; the other, Alexander Stewart.</p> +<p>There is an order of intellect decidedly original in its +cast, and of considerable power, to whom notwithstanding +originality is dangerous. Goldsmith, when he first entered +on his literary career, found that all the good things on the +side of truth had already been said; and that <i>his</i> good +things, if he really desired to produce any, would require +all to be said on the side of paradox and error. ‘When I +was a young man,’ he states, in a passage which Johnson +censured him for afterwards expunging, ‘being anxious to +distinguish myself, I was perpetually starting new propositions. +But I soon gave this over, for I found that generally +what was new was false.’ Poor Edward Irving formed a +melancholy illustration of this species of originality. His +stock of striking things on the side of truth was soon expended; +notoriety had meanwhile become as essential to +his comfort as ardent spirits to that of the dram-drinker, +or his pernicious drug to that of the inveterate opium-eater; +and so, to procure the supply of the unwholesome pabulum, +without which he could not continue to exist, he launched +into a perilous ocean of heterodoxy and extravagance, and +made shipwreck of his faith. His originality formed but +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_172' name='page_172'></a>172</span> +the crooked wanderings of a journeyer who had forsaken +the right way, and lost himself in the mazes of a doleful +wilderness. Not such the originality of the higher order of +minds; not such, for instance, the originality of a Newton, +of whom it has been well said by a distinguished French +critic, that ‘what province of thought soever he undertook, +he was sure to change the ideas and opinions received by +the rest of men.’ One of the most striking characteristics of +Mr. Stewart’s originality was the solidity of the truths which +it always evolved. His was not the ability of opening up +new vistas in which all was unfamiliar, simply because the +direction in which they led was one in which men’s thought +had no occasion to travel, and no business to perform. It +was, on the contrary, the greatly higher ability of enlarging, +widening, and lengthening the avenues long before opened +upon important truths, and, in consequence, enabling men +to see new and unwonted objects in old, familiar directions. +That in which he excelled all men we ever knew, was the +analogical faculty––the power of detecting and demonstrating +occult resemblances. He could read off as if by +intuition––not by snatches and fragments, but as a consecutive +whole––that older revelation of type and symbol which +God first gave to man; and when privileged to listen to +him, we have recognised, in the evident integrity of the +reading, and the profound and consistent wisdom of what +the record conveyed, a demonstration of the divinity of its +origin, not less powerful and convincing than that to be +found in any department of the Christian evidences yet +opened up. Compared with even the higher names in this +department, we have felt under his ministry as if, when +admitted to the company of some party of modern <i>savans</i> +employed in deciphering a hieroglyphic-covered obelisk of +the desert, and here successful in discovering the meaning +of an insulated sign, and there of a detached symbol, we +had been suddenly joined by some sage of the olden time, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_173' name='page_173'></a>173</span> +to whom the mysterious inscription was but a piece of +common language written in a familiar alphabet, and who +could read off fluently and as a whole what the others +could but darkly and painfully guess at in detached and +broken parts.</p> +<p>To this singular power of tracing analogies there was +added in Mr. Stewart an ability of originating the most +vivid illustrations. In some instances a single stroke produced +a figure that swept across the subject-matter of his +discourse like the image of a lantern on a wall; in others, +he dwelt upon the picture produced, finishing it with stroke +after stroke, until it filled the whole imagination, and sank +deep into the memory. We remember hearing him preach +on one occasion on the return of the Jews, as a people, to +Him whom they had rejected, and the effect which their +sudden conversion could not fail to have on the unbelieving +and Gentile world. Suddenly his language, from its high +level of eloquent simplicity, became at once that of metaphor: +‘When <i>Joseph</i>,’ he said, ‘shall reveal himself to <i>his +brethren</i>, the <i>whole house of Pharaoh</i> shall <i>hear the weeping</i>.’ +Could there be an allusion of more classical beauty, or +more finely charged with typical truth? And yet such was +one of the common and briefer exercises of the illustrative +faculty in this gifted man. On another occasion we heard +him dwell on that vast profundity characteristic of the +scriptural representations of God, which ever deepens and +broadens the longer and the more thoroughly it is explored, +until at length the student––struck at first by its expansiveness, +but conceiving of it as if it were a mere <i>measured</i> +expansiveness––finds that it partakes of the unlimited infinity +of the divine nature itself. Naturally and simply, as +if growing out of the subject, like a green berry-covered +misletoe on the mossy trunk of a reverend oak, there +sprang up one of his more lengthened illustrations. A +child bred up in the interior of the country has been +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_174' name='page_174'></a>174</span> +brought for the first time to the sea-shore, and carried out +to the middle of one of the noble friths that indent so deeply +our line of coast; and on his return he informs his father, +with all a child’s eagerness, of the wonderful expansiveness +of the <i>ocean</i> which he has seen. He went out, he tells, far +amid the great waves and the rushing tides, till at length the +huge hills seemed diminished into mere hummocks, and the +wide land itself appeared along the waters but as a slim strip +of blue. And then when in mid-sea the sailors heaved the +lead; and it went down, and down, and down, and the long +line slipped swiftly away over the boat-edge coil after coil, till, +ere the plummet rested on the ouse below, all was well-nigh +expended. And was it not the <i>great</i> sea, asks the boy, that +was so vastly broad, and so profoundly deep? Ah! my +child, exclaims the father, you have not yet seen aught of +its greatness,––you have sailed over merely one of its little +arms. Had it been out into the wide ocean that the seamen +had carried you, you would have <i>seen</i> no shore, and +you would have <i>found</i> no bottom. In one rare quality of +the orator, Mr. Stewart stood alone among his contemporaries. +Pope refers, in one of his satires, to a strange +power of creating love and admiration by just ‘touching the +brink of all we hate;’ and Burke, in some of his nobler +passages, happily exemplifies the thing. He intensified the +effect of his burning eloquence by the employment of figures +so homely, nay, almost so repulsive in themselves, that a +man of lower powers who ventured their use would find +them efficient merely in lowering his subject and ruining his +cause. We may refer, in illustration, to Burke’s celebrated +figure of the disembowelled bird, which occurs in his indignant +denial that the character of the revolutionary French +in aught resembled that of the English. ‘We have not,’ he +says, ‘been <i>drawn</i> and <i>trussed</i>, in order that we may be +filled, <i>like stuffed birds in a museum</i>, with <i>chaff and rags</i>, +and <i>paltry blurred shreds of paper</i> about the rights of man.’ +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_175' name='page_175'></a>175</span> +Into this perilous but singularly effective department, closed +against even superior men, Mr. Stewart could enter safely +and at will. We heard him, scarce a twelvemonth since, +deliver a discourse of singular power, on the sin-offering +of the Jewish economy, as minutely particularized by the +divine penman in Leviticus. He described the slaughtered +animal––foul with dust and blood––its throat gashed across––its +entrails laid open––and steaming in its impurity to +the sun, as it awaited the consuming fire, amid the uncleanness +of ashes outside the camp,––a vile and horrid thing, +which no one could see without experiencing emotions of +disgust, nor touch without contracting defilement. The +picture appeared too painfully vivid, its introduction too +little in accordance with the rules of a just taste. It +seemed a thing to be covered up, not exhibited. But the +master in this difficult walk well knew what he was doing. +‘And that,’ he said, as if pointing to the strongly-coloured +picture he had just completed, ‘and that is <span style='font-variant:small-caps'>SIN</span>.’ By one +stroke the intended effect was produced, and the rising +disgust and horror transferred from the revolting material +image to the great moral evil.</p> +<p>We had fondly hoped that for a man so singularly gifted, +and who had but reached the ripe maturity of middle life, +there remained important work yet to do. He seemed +peculiarly fitted, if but placed in a commanding sphere, for +ministering to some of the intellectual wants, and for withstanding +with singular efficiency some of the more perilous +tendencies, of the religious world in the present day. That +Athenian thirst for the new so generally abroad, and which +many have so unhappily satisfied with the unwholesome +and the pernicious, he could satisfy with provision at once +sound and novel. And no man of the age had more +thoroughly studied the prevailing theological errors of the +time in their first insidious approaches, or could more skilfully +indicate the exact point at which they diverge from +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_176' name='page_176'></a>176</span> +the truth. But his work on earth is for ever over; and the +sense of bereavement is deepened by the reflection that, +save in the memory of a few, he has left behind him no +adequate impress of the powers of his understanding or of +the fineness of his genius. It is strange how much the +lack of a single ingredient in a man’s moral constitution––and +that, too, an ingredient in itself of a low and vulgar +cast––may affect one’s whole destiny. It was the grand +defect of this gifted man, that that sentiment of self-esteem, +which seems in many instances so absurd and ridiculous a +thing, and which some, in their little wisdom, would so fain +strike out from among the components of human character, +was almost wholly awanting. As the minister of an attached +provincial congregation, a sense of duty led him to study +much and deeply; and he poured forth <i>viva voce</i> his full-volumed +and many-sparkling tide of eloquent idea as freely +and richly as the nightingale, unconscious of a listener, +pours forth her melody in the shade. But he could not be +made to understand or believe, that what so impressed and +delighted the privileged few who surrounded him was +equally suited to impress and delight the many outside, or +that he was fitted to speak through the press in tones which +would compel the attention not merely of the religious, but +also of the literary world. And so his exquisitely-toned +thinking perished like the music of the bygone years, has +died with himself, or, we should perhaps rather say, has +gone with him to that better land, where all those fruits +of intellect that the human spirits of greatest calibre have +in this world produced, must form but the comparatively +meagre beginnings of infinite, never-ending acquirement.</p> +<p>Mr. Stewart was one of the eminently excellent and loveable, +and his entire character of the most transparent, childlike +simplicity. The great realities of eternity were never +far distant from his thoughts. Endowed with powers of +humour at least equal to his other faculties, and a sense of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_177' name='page_177'></a>177</span> +the ludicrous singularly nice, he has often reminded us in +his genial moments, when indulging most freely, of a happy +child at play in the presence of its father. Never was there +an equal amount of wit more harmlessly indulged, or from +which one could pass more directly or with less distraction +to the contemplation of the matters which pertain to eternity. +And no one could be long in his company without having +his thoughts turned towards that unseen world to which he +has now passed, or without receiving emphatic testimony +regarding that Divine Person who is the wisdom and the +power of God.</p> +<p>We have seen it stated that Mr. Stewart ‘was slow to +join the non-intrusion party, and to acquiesce in the necessity +of the secession.’ On this point we are qualified to +speak. No one enjoyed more of his society during the +first beginnings of the controversy, or was more largely +honoured with his confidence, than the writer of these +remarks; and the one point of difference between Mr. +Stewart and him in their discussions in those days was, +that while the writer was sanguine enough to anticipate a +successful termination to the Church’s struggle, <i>his</i> soberer +anticipations were of a character which the Disruption in +1843 entirely verified. But with the actual result full in +view, he was yet the first man in his parish––we believe, +in his presbytery also––to take his stand, modestly and +unassumingly as became his character, but with a firmness +which never once swerved or wavered. Nay, long ere the +struggle began, founding on data with which we pretend +not to be acquainted, he declared his conviction to not a +few of his parishioners, that of the Establishment, as then +constituted, he was to be the last minister in that parish. +We know nothing, we repeat, of the data on which he +founded; but he himself held that the conclusion was +fairly deducible from those sacred oracles which no man +more profoundly studied or more thoroughly knew. Alas! +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_178' name='page_178'></a>178</span> +what can it betoken our Church, that we should thus see +such men, at once its strength and its ornament, so fast +falling around us, like commanding officers picked down at +the beginning of a battle, and that so few of resembling +character, and none of at least equal power, should be +rising to occupy the places made desolate by their fall!</p> +<p><i>November 13, 1847.</i></p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_179' name='page_179'></a>179</span> +<a name='THE_CALOTYPE' id='THE_CALOTYPE'></a> +<h2>THE CALOTYPE.</h2> +</div> +<p>There are some two or three slight advantages which real +merit has, that fictitious merit has not; among the rest, +an especial advantage, which, we think, should recommend +it to at least the quieter members of society––the advantage +of being unobtrusive and modest. It presses itself much +less on public notice than its vagabond antagonist, and +makes much less noise; it walks, for a time at least, as if +slippered in felt, and leaves the lieges quite at freedom to +take notice of it or no, as they may feel inclined. It is +content, in its infancy, to thrive in silence. It does not +squall in the nursery, to the disturbance of the whole +house, like ‘the major roaring for his porridge.’ What, for +instance, could be quieter or more modest, in its first +stages, than the invention of James Watt? what more +obtrusive or noisy, on the contrary, than the invention of +Mr. Henson? And we have illustrations of the same truth +in our Scottish metropolis at the present moment, that +seem in no degree less striking. Phreno-mesmerism and +the calotype have been introduced to the Edinburgh +public about much the same time; but how very differently +have they fared hitherto! A real invention, which bids +fair to produce some of the greatest revolutions in the fine +arts of which they have ever been the subject, has as yet +attracted comparatively little notice; an invention which +serves but to demonstrate that the present age, with all its +boasted enlightenment, may yet not be very unfitted for the +reception of superstitions the most irrational and gross, is +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_180' name='page_180'></a>180</span> +largely occupying the attention of the community, and filling +column after column in our public prints. We shall venture +to take up the quieter invention of the two as the genuine +one,––as the invention which will occupy most space a +century hence,––and direct the attention of our readers to +some of the more striking phenomena which it illustrates, +and some of the purposes which it may be yet made to +subserve. There are few lovers of art who have looked +on the figures or landscapes of a camera obscura without +forming the wish that, among the hidden secrets of matter, +some means might be discovered for fixing and rendering +them permanent. If nature could be made her own limner, +if by some magic art the reflection could be fixed upon the +mirror, could the picture be other than true? But the wish +must have seemed an idle one,––a wish of nearly the same +cast as those which all remember to have formed at one +happy period of life, in connection with the famous cap +and purse of the fairy tale. Could aught seem less probable +than that the forms of the external world should be +made to convert the pencils of light which they emit into +real <i>bona fide</i> pencils, and commence taking their own +likenesses? Improbable as the thing may have seemed, +however, there were powers in nature of potency enough +to effect it, and the newly discovered art of the photographer +is simply the art of employing these. The figures +and landscapes of the camera obscura can now be fixed +and rendered permanent,––not yet in all their various +shades of colour, but in a style scarce less striking, and +to which the limner, as if by anticipation, has already had +recourse. The connoisseur unacquainted with the results +of the recent discovery, would decide, if shown a set of +photographic impressions, that he had before him the +carefully finished drawings in sepia of some great master. +The stronger lights, as in sketches done in this colour, +present merely the white ground of the paper; a tinge of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_181' name='page_181'></a>181</span> +soft warm brown indicates the lights of lower tone; a +deeper and still deeper tinge succeeds, shading by scarce +perceptible degrees through all the various gradations, +until the darker shades concentrate into an opaque and +dingy umber, that almost rivals black in its intensity. We +have at the present moment before us––and very wonderful +things they certainly are––drawings on which a human +pencil was never employed. They are strangely suggestive +of the capabilities of the art. Here, for instance, is a +scene in George Street,––part of the pavement; and a +line of buildings, from the stately erection at the corner of +Hanover Street, with its proud Corinthian columns and +rich cornice, to Melville’s Monument and the houses +which form the eastern side of St. Andrew Square. St. +Andrew’s Church rises in the middle distance. The drawing +is truth itself; but there are cases in which mere truth +might be no great merit: were the truth restricted here to +the proportions of the architecture, there could be nothing +gained by surveying the transcript, that could not be gained +by surveying the originals. In this little brown drawing, +however, the truth is truth according to the rules of lineal +perspective, unerringly deduced; and from a set of similar +drawings, this art of perspective, so important to the artist––which +has been so variously taught, and in which so +many masters have failed––could be more surely acquired +than by any other means. Of all the many treatises yet +written on the subject, one of the best was produced by +the celebrated Ferguson the astronomer, the sole fruit +derived to the fine arts by his twenty years’ application to +painting. There are, however, some of his rules arbitrary +in their application, and the propriety of which he has not +even attempted to demonstrate. Here, for the first time, +on this square of paper, have we the data on which perspective +may be rendered a certain science. We have +but to apply our compasses and rules in order to discover +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_182' name='page_182'></a>182</span> +the proportions in which, according to their distances, +objects diminish. Mark these columns, for instance. One +line prolonged in the line of their architrave, and another +line prolonged in the line of their bases, bisect one another +in the point of sight fixed in the distant horizon; and in this +one important point we find all the other parallel lines of +the building converging. The fact, though unknown to the +ancients, has been long familiar to the artists of comparatively +modern times,––so familiar, indeed, that it forms one +of the first lessons of the drawing-master. The rule is a fixed +one; but there is another rule equally important, not yet fixed,––that +rule of proportion by which to determine the breadth +which a certain extent of frontage between these converging +lines should occupy. The principle on which the horizontal +lines converge is already known, but the principle on which +the vertical lines cut these at certain determinate distances +is not yet known. It is easy taking the <i>latitudes</i> of the art, +if we may so speak, but its <i>longitudes</i> are still to discover. +At length, however, have we the lines of discovery indicated: +in the architectural drawings of the calotype the perspective +is that of nature itself; and to arrive at just conclusions, we +have but to measure and compare, and ascertain proportions. +One result of the discovery of the calotype will be, +we doubt not, the production of completer treatises on perspective +than have yet been given to the world. Another +very curious result will be, in all probability, a new mode +of design for the purposes of the engraver, especially for all +the illustrations of books. For a large class of works the +labours of the artist bid fair to be restricted to the composition +of <i>tableaux vivants</i>, which it will be the part of the +photographer to fix, and then transfer to the engraver. To +persons of artistical skill at a distance, the suggestion may +appear somewhat wild. Such of our readers, however, as +have seen the joint productions of Mr. Hill and Mr. Adamson +in this department, will, we are convinced, not deem it +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_183' name='page_183'></a>183</span> +wild in the least. Compared with the mediocre prints of +nine-tenths of the illustrated works now issuing from the +press, these productions serve admirably to show how immense +the distance between nature and her less skilful +imitators. There is a truth, breadth, and power about +them which we find in only the highest walks of art, and +not often even in these. We have placed a head of Dr. +Chalmers taken in this way beside one of the most powerful +prints of him yet given to the public, and find from the +contrast that the latter, with all its power, is but a mere +approximation. There is a <i>skinniness</i> about the lips which +is not true to nature; the chin is not brought strongly +enough out; the shade beneath the under lip is too broad +and too flat; the nose droops, and lacks the firm-set appearance +so characteristic of the original; and while the +breadth of the forehead is exaggerated, there is scarce +justice done to its height. We decide at once in favour of +the calotype––it is truth itself; and yet, while the design of +the print––a mere approximation as it is––must have cost +a man of genius much pains and study, the drawing in +brown beside it was but the work of a few seconds: the +eye of an accomplished artist determined the attitude of the +original, and the light reflected from the form and features +accomplished the rest. Were that sketch in brown to be +sent to a skilful engraver, he would render it the groundwork +of by far the most faithful print which the public has +yet seen. And how interesting to have bound up with the +writings of this distinguished divine, not a mere print in +which there might be deviations from the truth, but the +calotype drawing itself! In some future book sale, copies +of the <i>Astronomical Discourses</i> with calotype heads of the +author prefixed, may be found to bear very high prices +indeed. An autograph of Shakespeare has been sold of +late for considerably more than an hundred guineas. +What price would some early edition of his works bear, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_184' name='page_184'></a>184</span> +with his likeness in calotype fronting the title? Corporations +and colleges, nay, courts and governments, would +outbid one another in the purchase. Or what would we +not give to be permitted to look even on a copy of the +<i>Paradise Lost</i> with a calotype portrait of the poet in front––serenely +placid in blindness and adversity, solacing himself, +with upturned though sightless eyes, amid the sublime +visions of the ideal world? How deep the interest which +would attach to a copy of Clarendon’s <i>History of the Civil +War</i>, with calotypes of all the more remarkable personages +who figured in that very remarkable time––Charles, Cromwell, +Laud, Henderson, Hampden, Strafford, Falkland, and +Selden,––and with these the Wallers and Miltons and +Cowleys, their contemporaries and coadjutors! The history +of the Reform Bill could still be illustrated after this +manner; so also could the history of Roman Catholic +Emancipation in Ireland, and the history of our Church +Question in Scotland. Even in this department––the department +of historic illustrations––we anticipate much and +interesting employment for the photographer.</p> +<p>We have two well-marked drawings before us, in which +we recognise the capabilities of the art for producing pictures +of composition. They are <i>tableaux vivants</i> transferred +by the calotype. In the one[Footnote: See <a href="#linki_1">Frontispiece</a>] a bonneted mechanic rests +over his mallet on a tombstone––his one arm bared above +his elbow; the other wrapped up in the well-indicated shirt +folds, and resting on a piece of grotesque sculpture. There +is a powerful sun; the somewhat rigid folds in the dress of +coarse stuff are well marked; one half the face is in deep +shade, the other in strong light; the churchyard wall throws +a broad shadow behind, while in the foreground there is a +gracefully chequered breadth of intermingled dark and light +in the form of a mass of rank grass and foliage. Had an +old thin man of striking figure and features been selected, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_185' name='page_185'></a>185</span> +and some study-worn scholar introduced in front of him, +the result would have been a design ready for the engraver +when employed in illustrating the <i>Old Mortality</i> of Sir +Walter. The other drawing presents a <i>tableau vivant</i> on a +larger scale, and of a much deeper interest. It forms one +of the groups taken under the eye of Mr. Hill, as materials +for the composition of his historic picture. In the centre +Dr. Chalmers sits on the Moderator’s chair, and there are +grouped round him, as on the platform, some eighteen or +twenty of the better known members of the Church, clerical +and lay. Nothing can be more admirable than the truthfulness +and ease of the figures. Wilkie, in his representations +of a crowd, excelled in introducing heads, and hands, +and faces, and parts of faces into the interstices behind,––one +of the greatest difficulties with which the artist can +grapple. Here, however, is the difficulty surmounted––surmounted, +too, as if to bear testimony to the genius of +the departed––in the style of Wilkie. We may add further, +that the great massiveness of the head of Chalmers, compared +with the many fine heads around him, is admirably +brought out in this drawing.</p> +<p>In glancing over these photographic sketches, one cannot +avoid being struck by the silent but impressive eulogium +which nature pronounces, through their agency, on the +works of the more eminent masters. There is much in +seeing nature truthfully, and in registering what are in +reality her prominent markings. Artists of a lower order +are continually falling into mere mannerisms––peculiarities +of style that belong not to nature, but to themselves, just +because, contented with acquirement, they cease seeing +nature. In order to avoid these mannerisms, there is an +eye of fresh observation required––that ability of continuous +attention to surrounding phenomena which only +superior men possess; and doubtless to this eye of fresh +observation, this ability of continuous attention, the masters +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_186' name='page_186'></a>186</span> +owed much of their truth and their power. How very +truthfully and perseveringly some of them saw, is well +illustrated by these photographic drawings. Here, for instance, +is a portrait exactly after the manner of Raeburn. +There is the same broad freedom of touch; no nice miniature +stipplings, as if laid in by the point of a needle––no +sharp-edged strokes: all is solid, massy, broad; more distinct +at a distance than when viewed near at hand. The +arrangement of the lights and shadows seems rather the +result of a happy haste, in which half the effect was produced +by design, half by accident, than of great labour +and care; and yet how exquisitely true the general aspect! +Every stroke tells, and serves, as in the portraits of Raeburn, +to do more than relieve the features: it serves also +to indicate the prevailing mood and predominant power +to the mind. And here is another portrait, quiet, deeply-toned, +gentlemanly,––a transcript apparently of one of the +more characteristic portraits of Sir Thomas Lawrence. +Perhaps, however, of all our British artists, the artist +whose published works most nearly resemble a set of +these drawings is Sir Joshua Reynolds. We have a folio +volume of engravings from his pictures before us; and +when, placing side by side with the prints the sketches +in brown, we remark the striking similarity of style that +prevails between them, we feel more strongly than at perhaps +any former period, that the friend of Johnson and of +Burke must have been a consummate master of his art. +The engraver, however, cannot have done full justice to +the originals. There is a want of depth and prominence +which the near neighbourhood of the photographic drawings +renders very apparent: the shades in the subordinate parts +of the picture are more careless and much less true; nor +have the lights the same vivid and sunshiny effect. There +is one particular kind of resemblance between the two +which strikes as remarkable, because of a kind which could +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_187' name='page_187'></a>187</span> +scarce be anticipated. In the volume of prints there are +three several likenesses of the artist himself, all very admirable +as pieces of art, and all, no doubt, sufficiently like, +but yet all dissimilar in some points from each other. And +this dissimilarity in the degree which it obtains, one might +naturally deem a defect––the result of some slight inaccuracy +in the drawing. Should not portraits of the same individual, +if all perfect likenesses of him, be all perfectly like +one another? No; not at all. A man at one moment +of time, and seen from one particular point of view, may +be very unlike himself when seen at another moment of +time, and from another point of view. We have at present +before us the photographic likenesses of four several individuals––three +likenesses of each––and no two in any +of the four sets are quite alike. They differ in expression, +according to the mood which prevailed in the mind of the +original at the moment in which they were imprinted upon +the paper. In some respects the physiognomy seems different; +and the features appear more or less massy in the +degree in which the lights and shadows were more or less +strong, or in which the particular angle they were taken +in brought them out in higher or lower relief.</p> +<p>We shall venture just one remark more on these very +interesting drawings. The subject is so suggestive of +thought at the present stage, that it would be no easy +matter to exhaust it; and it will, we have no doubt, be +still more suggestive of thought by and by; but we are +encroaching on our limits, and must restrain ourselves, +therefore, to the indication of just one of the trains of +thought which it has served to originate. Many of our +readers must be acquainted with Dr. Thomas Brown’s +theory of attention,––‘a state of mind,’ says the philosopher, +‘which has been understood to imply the exercise of a +peculiar intellectual power, but which, in the case of attention +to objects of sense, appears to be nothing more than +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_188' name='page_188'></a>188</span> +the co-existence of desire with the perception of the object +to which we are said to attend.’ He proceeds to instance +how, in a landscape in which the incurious gaze may <i>see</i> +many objects without <i>looking</i> at or knowing them, a mere +desire to know brings out into distinctness every object +in succession on which the desire fixes. ‘Instantly, or +almost instantly,’ continues the metaphysician, ‘without +our consciousness of any new or peculiar state of mind +intervening in the process, the landscape becomes to our +vision altogether different. Certain parts only––those parts +which we wished to know particularly––are seen by us; +the remaining parts seem almost to have vanished. It is +as if everything before had been but the doubtful colouring +of enchantment, which had disappeared, and left us the +few prominent realities on which we gaze; or rather as +if some instant enchantment, obedient to our wishes, had +dissolved every reality beside, and brought closer to our +sight the few objects which we desired to see.’ Now, in +the transcript of the larger <i>tableau vivant</i> before us––that +which represents Dr. Chalmers seated among his friends +on the Moderator’s chair––we find an exemplification sufficiently +striking of the laws on which this seemingly mysterious +power depends. They are purely structural laws, and +relate not to the mind, but to the eye,––not to the province +of the metaphysician, but to that of the professor of optics. +The lens of the camera obscura transmits the figures to the +prepared paper, on quite the same principle on which in +vision the crystalline lens conveys them to the retina. In +the centre of the field in both cases there is much distinctness, +while all around its circumference the images are +indistinct and dim. We have but to fix the eye on some +object directly in front of us, and then attempt, without +removing it, to ascertain the forms of objects at some distance +on both sides, in order to convince ourselves that the +field of distinct vision is a very limited field indeed. And +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_189' name='page_189'></a>189</span> +in this transcript of the larger <i>tableau vivant</i> we find exactly +the same phenomena. The central figures come all +within the distinct field. Not so, however, the figures on +both sides. They are dim and indistinct; the shades dilute +into the lights, and the outlines are obscure. How striking +a comment on the theory of Brown! We see his mysterious +power resolved in that drawing into a simple matter +of light and shade, arranged in accordance with certain +optical laws. The clear central space in which the figures +are so distinct, corresponds to the central space in the +retina; it is the attention-point of the picture, if we may +so speak. In the eye this attention-point is brought to +bear, through a simple effort of the will, on the object +to be examined; and the rest of the process, so pleasingly, +but at the same time so darkly, described by the philosopher, +is the work of the eye itself.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_190' name='page_190'></a>190</span> +<a name='THE_TENANTS_TRUE_QUARREL' id='THE_TENANTS_TRUE_QUARREL'></a> +<h2>THE TENANT’S TRUE QUARREL.</h2> +</div> +<p>It has been remarked by Sir James Mackintosh, that there +are four great works, in four distinct departments of knowledge, +which have more visibly and extensively influenced +opinion than any other productions of the human intellect. +The first of these is the <i>Treatise on the Law of War and +Peace</i>, by Grotius. It appeared about two centuries ago; +and from that period downwards, international law became +a solid fact, which all civilised countries have recognised, +and which even the French Convention, during the Reign +of Terror, dared, in its madness, to outrage but for a +moment. The second is the <i>Essay on the Human Understanding</i>, +by Locke. It struck down, as with the blow of +a hatchet, the wretched mental philosophy of the dark ages,––that +philosophy which Puseyism, in its work of diffusing +over the present the barbarism and ignorance of the past, +would so fain revive and restore, and which has been ever +engaged, as its proper employment, in imparting plausibility +to error and absurdity, and in furnishing apology for crime. +The third was the <i>Spirit of Laws</i>, by Montesquieu. It +placed legislation on the basis of philosophy; and straightway +law began to spring up among the nations out of a new +soil. The fourth and last great work––<i>An Inquiry into the +Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations</i>, by Adam Smith––was +by far the most influential of them all. ‘It is,’ says Sir +James, ‘perhaps the only book which produced an immediate, +general, and irrevocable change in some of the most +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_191' name='page_191'></a>191</span> +important parts of the legislation of all civilised states. +Touching those matters which may be numbered, and +measured, and weighed, it bore visible and palpable fruit. +In a few years it began to alter laws and treaties, and has +made its way throughout the convulsions of revolution and +conquest to a due ascendant over the minds of men, with +far less than the average obstructions of prejudice and +clamour, which check the channels through which truth +flows into practice.’</p> +<p>And yet, though many of the seeds which this great work +served to scatter sprung up thus rapidly, and produced +luxuriant crops, there were others, not less instinct with the +vital principles, of which the germination has been slow. +The nurseryman expects, in sowing beds of the stone-fruit-bearing +trees, such as the plum or the hawthorn, to see the +plants spring up very irregularly. One seed bursts the +enveloping case, and gets up in three weeks; another +barely achieves the same work in three years. And it has +been thus with the harder-coated germens of the <i>Wealth of +Nations</i>. It is now exactly eighty years since the philosopher +set himself to elaborate the thinking of his great +work in his mother’s house in Kirkcaldy, and exactly +seventy years since he gave it to the world. It appeared +in 1776; and now, for the first time, in 1846, the Queen’s +Speech, carefully concocted by a Conservative Ministry, +embodies as great practical truths its free-trade principles. +The shoot––a true dicotyledon––has fairly got its two +vigorous lobes above the surface: freedom of trade in all +that the farmer rears, and freedom of trade in all that the +manufacturer produces; and there cannot be a shadow of +doubt that it will be by and by a very vigorous tree. No +Protectionist need calculate, from its rate of progress in the +past, on its rate of progress in the future. Nearly three +generations have come and gone since, to vary the figure, +the preparations for laying the train began; but now that +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_192' name='page_192'></a>192</span> +the train is fairly ready and fired, the explosion will not be +a matter of generations at all. Explosions come under an +entirely different law from the law of laying trains. It will +happen with the rising of the free-trade agitation as with +the rising of water against a dam-head stretched across a +river. Days and weeks may pass, especially if droughts +have been protracted and the stream low, during which the +rising of the water proves to be a slow, silent, inefficient +sort of process, of half-inches and eighth-parts; but when +the river gets into flood,––when the vast accumulation +begins to topple over the dam-dyke,––when the dyke itself +begins to swell, and bulge, and crack, and to disgorge, at +its ever-increasing flaws and openings, streams of turbid +water,––let no one presume to affirm that the after-process +is to be slow. In mayhap one minute more, in a few +minutes at most, stones, sticks, turf, the whole dam-dyke, +in short, but a dam-dyke no longer, will be roaring adown +the stream, wrapped up in the womb of an irresistible wave. +Now there have been palpable openings, during the last +few months, in the Protectionist dam-head. We pointed +years since to the rising of the water, and predicted that it +would prevail at last. But the droughts were protracted, +and the river low. Good harvests and brisk trade went +hand in hand together; and the Protectionist dam-head––though +feeble currents and minute waves beat against it, +and the accumulation within rose by half-inches and eighth-parts––stood +sure. But the river is now high in flood––the +waters are toppling over––the yielding masonry has begun +to bulge and crack. The Queen’s Speech, when we consider +it as emanating from a Conservative Ministry, indicates +a tremendous flaw; the speech of Sir Robert Peel +betrays an irreparable bulge; the sudden conversions to +free-trade principles of officials and place-holders show a +general outpouring at opening rents and crannies: depend +on it, Protectionists, your dam-dyke, patch or prop it as +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_193' name='page_193'></a>193</span> +you please, is on the eve of destruction; yet a very little +longer, and it will be hurtling down the stream.</p> +<p>For what purpose, do we say? Simply in the hope of +awakening to a sense of their true interest, ere it be too +late, a class of the Scottish people in which we feel deeply +interested,––we mean the tenant agriculturists of the kingdom. +They have in this all-important crisis a battle to +fight; and if they do not fight and win it, they will be irrevocably +ruined by hundreds and thousands. The great +Protectionist battle––the battle in which they may make +common cause with their landlords if they will, against the +League, and the Free-Trade Whigs, and Sir Robert Peel, +and Adam Smith, and the Queen––is a battle in which to +a certainty they will be beat. They may protract the contest +long enough to get so thoroughly wearied as to be no +longer fit for the other great battle which awaits them; but +they may depend on it as one of the surest things in all the +future, that they will have to record a disastrous issue. +They <i>must</i> be defeated. We would fain ask them––for it +is sad to see men spending their strength to no end––to +look fairly at the aspect things are beginning to wear, and +the ever-extending front which is arraying against them. +We would ask them first to peruse those chapters in Adam +Smith which in reality form the standing-ground of their +opponents,––chapters whose solid basis of economic philosophy +has made anti-corn-law agitation and anti-corn-law +tracts and speeches such formidable things. We would +ask them next to look at the progress of the League, at its +half-million fund, its indomitable energy and ever-growing +influence. We would then ask them to look at the recent +conversions of Whig and Tory to free-trade principles, at +the resignation of Sir Robert Peel, and the proof the +country received in consequence, that in the present extremity +there is no other pilot prepared to take the helm; +at the strangely marked Adam Smith cast of the Queen’s +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_194' name='page_194'></a>194</span> +Speech; and at the telling facts of Sir Robert’s explanatory +statement. We request them to take a cool survey of all +these things, and to cogitate for themselves the issue which +they so clearly foretell. It seems as certain that free-trade +principles are at last to be established in Britain, as that +there is a sun in the sky. Nor does there seem much +wisdom in fighting a battle that is inevitably to be lost. +The battle which it is their true interest to be preparing to +fight, is one in which they must occupy the ground, not of +agriculturists, but simply of tenants: it is a battle with the +landlords, not with the free-traders.</p> +<p>We believe Dr. Chalmers is right in holding that, ultimately +at least, the repeal of the corn-laws will not greatly +affect the condition of our agriculturists. There is, however, +a transition period from which they have a good deal +to dread. The removal of the protective duties on meat +and wool has not had the effect of lowering the prices of +either; but the fear of such an effect did for a time what +the repeal of the duties themselves failed to do, and bore +with disastrous consequences on the sheep and cattle +market. And such a time may, we are afraid, be anticipated +on the abolition of the corn-laws. Nay, it is probable +that, even when the transition state shall be over, there will +be a general lowering of price to the average of that of the +Continent and America,––an average heightened by little +more than the amount of the true protective duties of the +trade,––the expense of carriage from the foreign farm to the +British market. And woe to the poor tenant, tied down by +a long lease to a money-rent rated according to the average +value of grain under the protective duties, if the defalcation +is to fall on him! If he has to pay the landlord according +to a high average, and to be paid by the corn-factor according +to a low one, he is undone. And his real danger in +the coming crisis indicates his proper battle. It is not with +his old protector Sir Robert that he should be preparing +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_195' name='page_195'></a>195</span> +to fight; it is, we repeat, with his old ally the landholder. +Nay, he will find, ultimately at least, that he has +no choice in the matter. With Sir Robert he <i>may</i> fight if +it please him, and fight, as we have shown, to be beaten; +but with the landlord he <i>must</i> fight, whether he first enter +the lists with Sir Robert or no. When his preliminary +struggle shall have terminated unsuccessfully, he shall then +without heart, without organization, without ally, have to +enter on the inevitable struggle,––a struggle for very existence. +We of course refer to landlords as a class: there +are among them not a few individuals with whom the +tenant will have no struggle to maintain,––conscientious +men, at once able and willing to adjust their demands to +the circumstances of the new state of things. But their +character as a class does not stand so high. Many of their +number are in straitened circumstances,––so sorely burdened +with annuities and mortgages, as to be somewhat in +danger of being altogether left, through the coming change, +without an income; and it is not according to the nature +of things that the case of the tenant should be very considerately +dealt with by them. When a hapless crew are +famishing on the open sea, and the fierce cannibal comes +to be developed in the man, it is the weaker who are first +devoured. Now we would ill like to see any portion of +our Scotch tenantry at the mercy of wild, unreasoning +destitution in the proprietor. We would ill like to see him +vested with the power to decide absolutely in his own case, +whether it was his tenant that was to be ruined, or he himself +that was to want an income, knowing well beforehand +to which side the balance would incline. Nor would we +much like to see our tenantry at the mercy of even an +average class of proprietors, by no means in the extreme +circumstances of their poorer brethren, but who, with an +unimpeachable bond in their hands, that enabled them to +say whether it was they themselves or their tenant neighbours +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_196' name='page_196'></a>196</span> +who were to be the poorer in consequence of the +induced change, would be but too apt, in accordance with +the selfish bent of man’s common nature, to make a somewhat +Shylock-like use of it. Stout men who have fallen +into reduced circumstances, and stout paw-sucking bears in +their winter lodgings, become gradually thin by living on +their own fat; and quite right it is that gross men and +corpulent bears <i>should</i> live on their own fat, just because +the fat is their own. But we would not deem it right that +our proprietors should live on their farmers’ fats: on the +contrary, we would hold it quite wrong, and a calamity to +the country; and such, at the present time, is the great +danger to which the tenantry of Scotland are exposed. Justice +imperatively demands, that if some such change is now +to take place in the value of farms, as that which took place +on the regulation of the currency in the value of money, +the ruinous blunder of 1819 should not be repeated. It +demands that their actual rent be not greatly increased +through the retention of the merely nominal one; that the +tenant, in short, be not sacrificed to a term wholly unchanged +in sound, but altogether altered in value. And +such, in reality, is the object for which the farm-holding +agriculturists of Scotland have now to contend. It is the +only quarrel which they can prosecute with a hope of +success.</p> +<p>We referred, in a recent number, when remarking on the +too palpable unpopularity of the Whigs, to questions which, +if animated by a really honest regard for the liberties of the +subject, they might agitate, and grow strong in agitating, +secure of finding a potent ally in the moral sense of the +country. One of these would involve the emancipation of +the tenantry of England, now sunk, through one of the provisions +of the Reform Bill, into a state of vassalage and +political subserviency without precedent since at least the +days of Henry VIII. It has been well remarked by Paley, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_197' name='page_197'></a>197</span> +that the direct consequences of political innovations are +often the least important; and that it is from the silent and +unobserved operation of causes set at work for different purposes, +that the greatest revolutions take their rise. ‘Thus,’ +he says, ‘when Elizabeth and her immediate successor +applied themselves to the encouragement and regulation of +trade by many wise laws, they knew not that, together with +wealth and industry, they were diffusing a consciousness of +strength and independency which could not long endure, +under the forms of a mixed government, the dominion +of arbitrary princes.’ And again: ‘When it was debated +whether the Mutiny Act––the law by which the army is +governed and maintained––should be temporal or perpetual, +little else probably occurred to the advocates of +an annual bill, than the expediency of retaining a control +over the most dangerous prerogative of the Crown––the +direction and command of a standing army; whereas, in +its effect, this single reservation has altered the whole +frame and quality of the British constitution. For since, +in consequence of the military system which prevails in +neighbouring and rival nations, as well as on account of +the internal exigencies of Government, a standing army has +become essential to the safety and administration of the +empire, it enables Parliament, by discontinuing this necessary +provision, so to enforce its resolutions upon any other +subject, as to render the king’s dissent to a law which has +received the approbation of both Houses, too dangerous an +experiment any longer to be advised.’ And thus the illustration +of the principle runs on. We question, however, +whether there be any illustration among them more striking +than that indirect consequence of the Reform Bill on the +tenantry of England to which we refer. The provision +which conferred a vote on the tenant-at-will, abrogated +leases, and made the tiller of the soil a vassal. The farmer +who precariously holds his farm from year to year cannot, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_198' name='page_198'></a>198</span> +of course, be expected to sink so much capital in the soil, +in the hope of a distant and uncertain return, as the lessee +certain of a possession for a specified number of years; +but some capital he must sink in it. It is impossible, +according to the modern system, or indeed any system of +husbandry, that all the capital committed to the earth in +winter and spring should be resumed in the following +summer and autumn. A considerable overplus must inevitably +remain to be gathered up in future seasons; and this +overplus remainder, in the case of the tenant-at-will, is +virtually converted into a deposit, lodged in the hands of +the landlord, to secure the depositor’s political subserviency +and vassalage. Let him but once manifest a will +and a mind of his own, and vote, in accordance with his +convictions, contrary to the will of the landlord, and +straightway the deposit, converted into a penalty, is forfeited +for the offence. It is surely not very great Radicalism +to affirm that a state of things so anomalous ought +not to exist––that the English tenant should be a freeman, +not a serf––and that he ought not to be bound down by a +weighty penalty to have no political voice or conscience +of his own. The simple principle of ‘No lease, no vote,’ +would set all right; and it is a principle which so recommends +itself to the moral sense as just, that an honest +Whiggism would gain, in agitating its recognition and +establishment, at once strength and popularity. But there +are few Scotch tenants in the circumstances of vassalage +so general in England. They are in circumstances in which +they at least <i>may</i> act independently; and the time is fast +coming in which they must either make a wise, unbiassed +use of their freedom, or be hopelessly crushed for ever.</p> +<p><i>January 28, 1846.</i></p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_199' name='page_199'></a>199</span> +<a name='CONCLUSION_OF_THE_WAR_IN_AFFGHANISTAN' id='CONCLUSION_OF_THE_WAR_IN_AFFGHANISTAN'></a> +<h2>CONCLUSION OF THE WAR IN AFFGHANISTAN.</h2> +</div> +<p>We trust we may now look back on by far the most disastrous +passage which occurs in the military history of Great +Britain, as so definitively concluded, that in the future we +shall be unable to trace it as still disadvantageously operative +in its effects. A series of decisive victories has neutralized, +to a considerable extent, the influence of the most +fatal campaign in which a British army was ever engaged. +But this is all. One of our poets, in placing in a strong +light the extreme folly of war, describes ‘most Christian +kings’ with ‘honourable ruffians in their hire,’ wasting the +nations with fire and sword, and then, when fatigued with +murder and sated with blood, ‘setting them down just +where they were before.’ It is quite melancholy enough +that our most sanguine expectations with regard to the +Affghan war should be unable to rise higher by a hair’s-breadth +than the satiric conception of the poet. We can +barely hope, after squandering much treasure, after committing +a great deal of crime, after occasioning and enduring +a vast amount of wretchedness, after a whole country +has been whitened with the bones of its inhabitants, after +a British army has perished miserably,––we can barely hope +that our later successes may have had so far the effect of +effacing the memory of our earliest disasters, that we shall +be enabled to sit down under their cover on the eastern +bank of the Indus, ‘just where we were before.’ And even +this is much in the circumstances. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_200' name='page_200'></a>200</span></p> +<p>We have seen the British in India repeat the same kind +of fatal experiment which cost Napoleon his crown, and +from which Charles XII. dated his downfall; and repeat it, +in the first instance at least, with a result more disastrous +than either the flight from Pultowa or the retreat from +Moscow. And though necessarily an expedition on a +similar scale, it seemed by no means improbable that its +ultimate consequences might bear even more disastrously +on British power in the East, than the results of the several +expeditions into Russia, under Charles and Napoleon, bore +on the respective destinies of Sweden and of France. That +substratum of opinion in the minds of an hundred millions +of Asiatics, on which British authority in India finds its +main foundation, bade fair to be shivered into pieces by the +shock.</p> +<p>There are passages in all our better histories that stand +out in high relief, if we may so speak, from the groundwork +on which they are based. They appeal to the imagination, +they fix themselves in the memory; and after +they have got far enough removed into the past to enable +men to survey them in all their breadth, we find them +caught up and reflected in the fictions of the poet and the +novelist.</p> +<p>But it is wonderful how comparatively slight is the effect +which most of them produce at the time of their occurrence. +It would seem as if the great mass of mankind had +no ability of seeing them in their real character, except +through the medium of some superior mind, skilful enough +to portray them in their true colours and proportions. +Who, acquainted with the history of the plague in London, +for instance, can fail being struck with the horrors of that +awful visitation, as described in the graphic pages of Defoe? +Who, that experienced the visitation of similar horrors which +swept away in our own times one-tenth part of the human +species, could avoid remarking that the reality was less suited +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_201' name='page_201'></a>201</span> +to impress by its actual presence, than the record by its +touching pictures and its affecting appeals? The reality +appealed to but the fears of men through the instinct of self-preservation, +and even this languidly in some cases, leaving +the imagination unimpressed; whereas the wild scenes of +Defoe filled the whole mind, and impressed vividly through +the influence of that sense of the poetical which, in some +degree at least, all minds are capable of entertaining.</p> +<p>On a nearly similar principle, the country has not yet +been able rightly to appreciate the disasters of Affghanistan. +It has been unable to bestow upon them what we shall +venture to term the historic prominence. When one after +one the messengers reach Job, bearing tidings of fatal +disasters, in which all his children and all his domestics +have perished, the ever-recurring ‘and I only am escaped +alone to tell thee,’ strikes upon the ear as one of the signs +of a dispensation supernatural in its character. The narrative +has already prepared us for events removed beyond +the reach of those common laws which regulate ordinary +occurrences. Did we find such a piece of history in any +of our older chronicles, we would at once set it down, on +Macaulay’s principle, as a ballad thrown out of its original +verse into prose, and appropriated by the chronicler, in the +lack of less questionable materials. But finding it in the +Record of eternal truth, we view it differently; for there +the supernatural is not dissociated from the true. How +very striking, to find in the authentic annals of our own +country a somewhat similar incident; to find the ‘I only am +escaped alone to tell thee’ in the history of a well-equipped +British army of the present day! There occurs no similar +incident in all our past history. British armies have capitulated +not without disgrace. In the hapless American +war, Cornwallis surrendered a whole army to Washington, +and Burgoyne another whole army to Gates and Arnold.</p> +<p>The British have had also their disastrous retreats. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_202' name='page_202'></a>202</span></p> +<p>The retreat from Fontenoy was at least precipitate; and +there was much suffered in Sir John Moore’s retreat on +Corunna. But such retreats have not been wholly without +their share of glory, nor have such surrenders been synonymous +with extermination. In the annals of British armies, +the ‘I only have escaped alone to tell thee’ belongs to but +the retreat from Cabul. It is a terrible passage in the history +of our country––terrible in all its circumstances. Some of +its earlier scenes are too revolting for the imagination to +call up.</p> +<p>It is all too humiliating to conceive of it in the character +of an unprincipled conspiracy of the civilised, horribly +avenged by infuriated savages. It is a quite melancholy +enough object of contemplation, in even its latter stages. A +wild scene of rocks and mountains darkened overhead with +tempest, beneath covered deep with snow; a broken and +dispirited force, struggling hopelessly through the scarce +passable defiles,––here thinned by the headlong assaults of +howling fanatics, insensible to fear, incapable of remorse, and +thirsting for blood,––there decoyed to destruction through +the promises of cruel and treacherous chiefs, devoid alike +of the sense of honour and the feeling of pity; with no +capacity or conduct among its leaders; full of the frightful +recollections of past massacres, hopeless of ultimate escape; +struggling, however, instinctively on amid the unceasing +ring of musketry from thicket and crag, exhibiting mile +after mile a body less dense and extended, leaving behind +it a long unbroken trail of its dead; at length wholly +wasting away, like the upward heave of a wave on a sandy +beach, and but one solitary horseman, wounded and faint +with loss of blood, holding on his perilous course, to tell the +fate of all the others. And then, the long after-season of +grief and suspense among anxious and at length despairing +relations at home, around many a cheerless hearth, and in +many a darkened chamber, and the sadly frequent notice in +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_203' name='page_203'></a>203</span> +the obituaries of all our public journals, so significant of +the disaster, and which must have rung so heavy a knell to +so many affectionate hearts, ‘Killed in the Khyber Pass.’ +To find passages of parallel calamity in the history of at +least civilised countries, we have to ascend to the times of +the Roman empire during its period of decline and disaster, +when one warlike emperor, in battle with the Goth,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<p style='margin-left:2.0em; margin-right:0.0em; text-align:left'><span style='margin-left: 3.90625em;'>‘in that Serbonian bog,</span><br /> +Betwixt Damieta and Mount Cassus old,<br /> +With his whole army sank;’<br /></p> +</div> +<p>or when another not less warlike monarch was hopelessly +overthrown by the Persian, and died a miserable slave, +exposed to every indignity which the invention of his ungenerous +and barbarous conqueror could suggest.</p> +<p>Britain in this event has received a terrible lesson, which +we trust her scarce merited and surely most revolting successes +in China will not have the effect of wholly neutralizing. +The Affghan war, regarded as a war of principle, +was eminently unjust; regarded as a war of expediency, it +was eminently imprudent. It seems to have originated +with men of narrow and defective genius, not over largely +gifted with the moral sense. We have had to refer on a +former occasion to the policy adopted by Lord Auckland +respecting the educational grants to Hindustan. An enlightened +predecessor of his Lordship had decided that the +assistance and patronage of the British Government should +be extended to the exclusive promotion of European literature +and science among the natives of India. His Lordship, +in the exercise of a miserable liberalism, reversed the +resolution, and diverted no inconsiderable portion of the +Government patronage to the support of the old Hindustanee +education,––a system puerile in its literature, contemptible +in its science, and false in its religion. Our +readers cannot have forgotten the indignant style of Dr. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_204' name='page_204'></a>204</span> +Duff’s remonstrance. The enlightened and zealous missionary +boldly and indignantly characterized the minute of +his Lordship, through which this revolution was effected, +as ‘remarkable chiefly for its omissions and commissions, +for its concessions and compromises, for its education +without religion, its plans without a Providence, and its +ethics without a God.’ Such was the liberalism of Lord +Auckland; and of at least one of the leading men whose +counsel led to the Affghan expedition, and who perished in +it, the <i>liberalism</i>, it is said, was of a still more marked and +offensive character. What do we infer from the fact?</p> +<p>Not that Providence interfered to avenge upon them the +sin of their policy: there would be presumption in the +inference. But it may not be unsafe to infer, from the +palpable folly of the Affghan expedition, that the <i>liberalism</i> +in which Lord Auckland and some one or two of his friends +indulged is a liberalism which weak and incompetent men +are best fitted to entertain. His scheme of education and +his Affghanistan expedition are specimens of mental production, +if we may so speak, that give evidence of exactly +the same cast and tendency regarding the order and scope +of the genius which originated them. We have been a good +deal struck by the shrewdness of one of Prince Eugene +of Savoy’s remarks, that seems to bear very decidedly on +this case. Two generals of his acquaintance had failed +miserably in the conduct of some expedition that demanded +capacity and skill, and yet both of them were unquestionably +smart, clever men. ‘I always thought it would turn +out so,’ said the Prince. ‘Both these men made open +profession of infidelity; and I formed so low an opinion +of their taste and judgment in consequence, that I made +myself sure they would sooner or later run their heads into +some egregious folly.’</p> +<p>It is satisfactory in every point of view that Britain should +be at peace with China and the Affghans. War is an evil +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_205' name='page_205'></a>205</span> +in all circumstances. It is a great evil even when just; it +is a great evil even when carried on against a people who +know and respect the laws of nations. But it is peculiarly +an evil when palpably not a just war, and when carried on +against a barbarous people. It has been stated in private +letters, though not officially, that a soldier of the 44th was +burned alive by the Ghilzies in sight of the English troops, +and that on the approach of the latter the throat of the tortured +victim was cut to ensure his destruction. And it is the +inference of an Indian newspaper from the fact, that such +wretches are not the devoted patriots that they have been +described by some, and that the war with them cannot, +after all, be very unjust. We are inclined to argue somewhat +differently. We believe the Scotch under Wallace +were not at all devoid of patriotism, though they were +barbarous enough to flay Cressingham, and to burn the +English alive at Ayr. We believe further, that an unjust +war is rendered none the less unjust from the circumstance +of its being waged with a savage and cruel people. The +barbarism of the enemy has but the effect of heightening +its horrors, not of modifying its injustice. It is possible +for one civilised man to fight with another, and yet retain +his proper character as a man notwithstanding. But the +civilised man who fights with a wild beast must assume, +during the combat, the character of the wild beast. He +cannot afford being generous and merciful; his antagonist +understands neither generosity nor mercy. The war is of +necessity a war of extermination. And such is always the +character of a war between wild and civilised men. It +takes its tone, not from the civilisation of the one, but from +the cruel savageism of the other.</p> +<p><i>December 3, 1842.</i></p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_206' name='page_206'></a>206</span> +<a name='PERIODICALISM' id='PERIODICALISM'></a> +<h2>PERIODICALISM.</h2> +</div> +<p>The poet Gray held that in a neglected country churchyard, +appropriated to only the nameless dead, there might +lie, notwithstanding, the remains of undeveloped Miltons, +Hampdens, and Cromwells,––men who, in more favourable +circumstances, would have become famous as poets, or +great as patriots or statesmen; and the stanzas in which he +has embodied the reflection are perhaps the most popular +in the language. One-half the thought is, we doubt not, +just. Save for the madness of Charles, Cromwell would +have died a devout farmer, and Hampden a most respectable +country gentleman, who would have been gratefully +remembered for half an age over half a county, and then +consigned to forgetfulness. But the poets rarely die, however +disadvantageously placed, without giving some sign. +Rob Don, the Sutherlandshire bard, owed much less to +nature than Milton did, and so little to learning that he +could neither read nor write; and yet his better songs promise +to live as long as the Gaelic language. And though +both Burns and Shakespeare had very considerable disadvantages +to struggle against, we know that neither of +them remained ‘mute’ or ‘inglorious,’ or even less extensively +known than Milton himself. It is, we believe, no +easy matter to smother a true poet. The versifiers, placed +in obscure and humble circumstances, who for a time complain +of neglected merit and untoward fate, and then give up +verse-making in despair, are always men who, with all their +querulousness, have at least one cause of complaint more +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_207' name='page_207'></a>207</span> +than they ever seem to be aware of,––a cause of complaint +against the nature that failed to impart to them ‘the divine +vision and faculty.’ There are powers, however, admirably +fitted to tell with effect in the literature of the country, for +they have served to produce the most influential works +which the world ever saw––works such as the <i>Essay</i> of +Locke, the <i>Peace and War</i> of Grotius, and the <i>Spirit of +Laws</i> of Montesquieu––which, with all their apparent +robustness, are greatly less hardy than the poetic faculty, +and which, unless the circumstances favourable to their +development and exercise be present, fail to leave behind +them any adequate record of their existence. It is difficult +to imagine a situation in life in which Burns would not +have written his songs, but very easy to imagine situations +in which Robertson would not have produced his <i>Scotland</i> +or his <i>Charles V.</i>, nor Adam Smith his <i>Wealth of Nations</i>. +We have no faith whatever in ‘mute, inglorious Miltons;’ +but we do hold that there may be obscure country churchyards +in which untaught Humes, guiltless of the <i>Essay on +Miracles</i>, may repose, and undeveloped Bentleys and Warburtons, +whose great aptitude for acquiring or capacity for +retaining knowledge remained throughout life a mere ungratified +thirst.</p> +<p>It has remained for the present age to throw one bar +more in the way of able men of this special class than our +fathers ever dreamed of; and this, curiously enough, just +by giving them an opportunity of writing much, and of +thinking incessantly. It is not, it would seem, by being +born among ploughmen and mechanics, and destined to +live by tilling the soil, or by making shoes or hobnails, that +the ‘genial current of the soil is frozen,’ and superior talents +prevented from accomplishing their proper work: it is by +being connected with some cheap weekly periodical, or +twice or thrice a week newspaper, and compelled to scribble +on almost without pause or intermission for daily bread. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_208' name='page_208'></a>208</span> +We have been led to think of this matter by an interesting +little volume of poems, chiefly lyrical, which has just issued +from the Edinburgh press,––the production of Mr. Thomas +Smibert, a man who has lived for many years by his pen, and +who introduces the volume by a prefatory essay, interesting +from the glimpse which it gives of the literary disadvantages +with which the professionally literary man who writes for +the periodicals has to contend. Periodical literature is, he +remarks, ‘to all intents and purposes a creation of the +nineteenth century, in its principal existing phases, from +Quarterly Reviews to Weekly Penny Magazines. Newspapers,’ +he adds, ‘may justly be accounted the growth of +the same recent era, the few previously published having +been scarcely more than mere Gazettes, recording less +opinions than bare public and business facts.’ The number +of both classes of periodicals is now immensely great; and +‘equally vast, of necessity, is the amount of literary talent +statedly and unremittingly engaged on these journals, while +a large additional amount of similar talent finds in them +occasional and ready outlets for its working.’ ‘When one +or two leading Reviews, Quarterlies, and Monthlies alone +existed, they called for no insignificant individual efforts of +mind on the part of their chief conductors and supporters, +and those parties almost took rank with the authors of single +works of importance. But within the last twenty years +periodical literature has become extensively hebdomadal, +and even diurnal; and, as a necessary consequence, the +essays of those sustaining it in this shape have decreased +in proportionate value, at once from the larger amount of +work demanded, and from the shorter time allowed for its +execution. Such essays may serve the hour fairly, but can +seldom be of high worth ultroneously.’ ‘The extent and +variety of the labours called for at the hands of those +actively engaged on modern cheap periodicals can scarcely +be conceived by the uninitiated public. If their eyes were +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_209' name='page_209'></a>209</span> +opened on the subject, they would certainly wonder less +why it is that the literary talent of the current generation +does not tend to display itself by striking isolated efforts: +they would also more readily understand wherefore parties +in the situation of the present writer may well experience +some unsatisfactory feelings in looking back on the labours +of the past. Though years spent in respectable periodical +writing can by no means be termed misspent, yet such a +career presents in the retrospect but a multitude of disconnected +essays on all conceivable themes, and such as +too often prove their hurried composition by crudeness and +imperfections.’ The consideration of such a state of things +‘may furnish a salutary lesson to the many among the +young at this day, who, possessing some literary taste, +imagine that the engagements of common life alone stand +in the way of its successful development, and that to be +enabled to pursue a life of professional writing in any shape +would secure to them both fame and fortune to the height +of their desires. They here err sadly. No doubt supereminent +talents will sooner or later make themselves felt +under almost any circumstances; but the position described +assuredly offers no peculiar advantages for the furtherance +of that end. Ebenezer Elliot, leaving his forge at eve with +a wearied body, could yet bring to his favourite leisure tasks +a mind less jaded than that of the <i>littérateur</i> by profession.’ +‘The regular periodicalist, too, of the modern class has +usually no more stable interest in his compositions than +has the counting-house clerk in the cash-books which he +keeps. To publishers and conductors fall the lasting fruits. +Let those among the young who feel the ambition to seek +fame and fortune in the walks of literature think well of +these things, and, above all, ponder seriously ere they quit, +with such views, any fixed occupation of another kind.’</p> +<p>There is certainly food for thought here; and that, too, +thought of a kind in which the public has a direct interest. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_210' name='page_210'></a>210</span> +If such be the dissipating effect of <i>writing</i> for newspapers +and the lighter periodicals, it is surely natural to infer that +the exclusive <i>reading</i> of such works must have a dissipating +effect also. It is too obvious that the feverish mediocrity +of overwrought brains becomes infectious among the class +who place themselves in too constant and unbroken connection +with it, and that from the closets of over-toiled +<i>littérateurs</i> an excited superficiality creeps out upon the age. +And hence the necessity to which we have oftener than +once referred, that men should keep themselves in wholesome +connection with the master minds of the past. Mr. +Smibert’s remarks preface, as we have said, a volume of +sweet and tasteful verse; and we find him saying that, ‘most +of all, the operation of Periodicalism has been unfavourably +felt in the domain of poetry.’</p> +<p>‘The position of literature,’ he adds, ‘in the times of the +Wordsworths, Crabbes, and Campbells of the age just gone +by, was more favourable than at present to the devotion of +talent to great undertakings. These men were assuredly +not beset by the same seductive facilities as the <i>littérateurs</i> +of the current generation for expending their powers on +petty objects,––facilities all the more fascinating, as comprising +the pleasures of immediate publicity, and perhaps +even of repute for a day, if not also of some direct remuneration. +These influences of full-grown Periodicalism +extend now to all who can read and write. But it entices +most especially within its vortex those who exhibit an +unusually large share of early literary promise, involves +them in multitudinous and multifarious occupation, and, +in short, divides and subdivides the operations of talent, +until all prominent identity is destroyed, both in works and +workers. To the growth of this modern system, beyond +question, is largely to be referred the comparative disappearance +from among us of great literary individualities; or, to +use other and more accurate words, by that system have +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_211' name='page_211'></a>211</span> +men of capacity been chiefly diverted from the composition +of great individual works, and more particularly great poems.’</p> +<p>We are less sure of the justice of this remark of Mr. +Smibert’s, than of that of many of the others. It is not +easy, we have said, to smother a true poet; and we know +that in the present age very genuine poetry has been +produced in the offices of very busy newspaper editors. +Poor Robert Nicoll never wrote truer poetry than when +he produced his ‘Puir Folk’ and his ‘Saxon Chapel,’ at +a time when he was toiling, as even modern journalist has +rarely toiled, for the columns of the <i>Leeds Times</i>; and James +Montgomery produced his ‘World before the Flood,’ ‘Greenland,’ +and ‘The Pelican Island,’ with many a sweet lyric of +still higher merit, when laboriously editing the <i>Sheffield Iris</i>. +The ‘Salamandrine’ of Mr. Charles Mackay was written +when he was conducting the sub-editorial department of a +daily London paper; nor did he ever write anything superior +to it. And we question whether Mr. Smibert himself, though +he might have produced longer poems, would have written +better ones than some of those contained in the present +volume, even had his life been one of unbroken leisure. It +seems natural to literary men, who fail in realizing their +own conceptions of what they had wished and hoped to perform, +to cast the blame upon their circumstances. Johnson +could speak as feelingly, not much later than the middle +of the last century, of the ‘dreams of a poet doomed at last +to wake a lexicographer,’ as any literary man of the present +time, who, while solicitously desirous to give himself wholly +to the muses, is compelled to labour as a periodicalist for +the wants of the day that is passing over him. But perhaps +the best solace for the dissatisfaction which would thus +wreak itself on mere circumstances, is that which Johnson +himself supplies. ‘To reach below his own aim,’ says the +moralist, ‘is incident to every one whose fancy is active, +and whose views are comprehensive; nor is any man satisfied +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_212' name='page_212'></a>212</span> +with himself because he has done much, but because +he can conceive little.’ But to labour and be forgotten is +the common lot; and why should a literary man be more +disposed to repine because his productions perish after +serving a temporary purpose, than the gardener or farmer, +whose vocation it is to supply the people with their daily +food? If the provisions furnished, whether for mind or +body, be wholesome, and if they serve their purpose, the +producers must learn to be content, even should they +serve the purpose only once, and but for a day. The +danger of over-cropping, and of consequent exhaustion, is, +of course, another and more serious matter; and of this the +mind of the periodicalist is at least as much in danger as +either field or garden when unskilfully wrought. But mere +rest, which in course of time restores the exhausted earth, +is often not equally efficient in restoring the exhausted +mind; nor does mere rest, even were it a specific in the +case, lie within the reach of the periodic writer. It is often +the luxury for which he pants, but which he cannot command. +One of the surest specifics in the case is, the +specific of working just a little more,––of working for the +work’s sake, whether at poem or history, or in the prosecution +of some science, or in some antiquarian pursuit. +There is an exquisite passage in one of the essays of +Washington Irving, in which he compares the great authors––Shakespeare, +for instance––who seem proof against the +mutability of language, to ‘gigantic trees, that we see sometimes +on the banks of a stream, which, by their vast and +deep roots, penetrating through the mere surface, and +laying hold on the very foundations of the earth, preserve +the soil around them from being swept away by the ever-flowing +current, and hold up many a neighbouring plant +to perpetuity.’ And such is the service rendered by some +pervading pursuit of an intellectual character, prosecuted +for its own sake, to the intellect of the journalist. It is +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_213' name='page_213'></a>213</span> +the necessity imposed upon him of taking up subject after +subject in the desultory, disconnected form in which they +chance to arise, and then, after throwing together a few +hastily collected thoughts upon each, of dismissing them +from his mind, that induces first a habit of superficiality, +and finally leaves him exhausted; and the counteractive +course open to him is just to take up some subject on +which the thinking of to-day may assist him in the thinking +of to-morrow, and on which he may be as well informed +and profound as his native capacity permits. All our really +superior newspaper editors have pursued this course––more, +however, we are disposed to think, from the bent of their +nature than from the necessities of their profession; and +the poetical volume of Mr. Smibert shows that he too has +his engrossing pursuit. We recommend his little work to +our readers, as one in which they will find much to interest +and amuse. We have left ourselves little room for quotation; +but the following stanzas, striking, both from their +beauty and from the curious fact which they embody, may +be regarded as no unfair specimen of the whole:––</p> +<div class="poem" style="margin-left:0em"> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='text-align:center; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'>THE VOICE OF WOE.</p> +</td></tr></table> +<p style="text-align:center; font-size:0.8em" >‘The language of passion, and more peculiarly that of grief, + is ever nearly the same.’</p> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +An Indian chief went forth to fight,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>And bravely met the foe:</span><br /> +His eye was keen––his step was light––<br /> +His arm was unsurpassed in might;<br /> +But on him fell the gloom of night––<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>An arrow laid him low.</span><br /> +His widow sang with simple tongue,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>When none could hear or see,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 2.34375em;'><i>Ay, cheray me!</i></span><br /> + <br /> +A Moorish maiden knelt beside<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Her dying lover’s bed:</span><br /> +She bade him stay to bless his bride;<br /> +She called him oft her lord, her pride;<br /> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_214' name='page_214'></a>214</span> +But mortals must their doom abide––<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>The warrior’s spirit fled.</span><br /> +With simple tongue the sad one sung,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>When none could hear or see,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 2.34375em;'><i>Ay, di me!</i></span><br /> + <br /> +An English matron mourned her son,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>The only son she bore:</span><br /> +Afar from her his course was run––<br /> +He perished as the fight was done––<br /> +He perished when the fight was won––<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Upon a foreign shore.</span><br /> +With simple tongue the mother sung,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>When none could hear or see,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.5625em;'><i>Ah, dear me!</i></span><br /> + <br /> +A Highland maiden saw<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>A brother’s body borne</span><br /> +From where, from country, king, and law,<br /> +He went his gallant sword to draw;<br /> +But swept within destruction’s maw,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>From her had he been torn.</span><br /> +She sat and sung with simple tongue,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>When none could hear or see,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.5625em;'><i>Oh, hon-a-ree!</i></span><br /> + <br /> +An infant in untimely hour<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Died in a Lowland cot:</span><br /> +The parents own’d the hand of power<br /> +That bids the storm be still or lour;<br /> +They grieved because the cup was sour,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>And yet they murmured not.</span><br /> +They only sung with simple tongue,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>When none could hear or see,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.5625em;'><i>Ah, wae’s me!</i></span></p> +</td></tr></table> +</div> +<p><i>July 26, 1851.</i></p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_215' name='page_215'></a>215</span> +<a name='ANNUS_MIRABILIS' id='ANNUS_MIRABILIS'></a> +<h2>‘ANNUS MIRABILIS.’</h2> +</div> +<p>We have now reached the close of the most wonderful year +the world ever saw. None of our readers can be unacquainted +with the poem in which Dryden celebrated the +marvels of the year 1666,––certainly an extraordinary +twelvemonth, though the English poet, only partially acquainted +with the events which rendered it so remarkable, +restricts himself, in his long series of vigorous quatrains, to +the description of the two naval battles with the Dutch +which its summer witnessed, and of the great fire of London +which rendered its autumn so remarkable.</p> +<p>He might also have told that it was a year of great fear +and expectation among both Christians and Jews. The +Jews held that their Messiah was to come that year; +and, in answer of the expectation, the impostor Sabbatei +Levi appeared to delude and disappoint the hopes of that +unhappy nation. There was an opinion nearly equally +general in the Roman Catholic world, that it would usher +in the Antichrist of New Testament prophecy; while among +English Protestants it was very extensively believed that it +was to witness the end of the world and the final judgment. +It was remarkable, too, as the year in which oppression +first compelled the Scotch Presbyterians of the reign of +Charles II. to assume the attitude of armed resistance, and +as forming, in the estimate of Burnet and other intelligent +Protestants, the fifth great crisis of the Reformed religion +in Europe. And such were the wonders of the <i>Annus</i> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_216' name='page_216'></a>216</span> +<i>Mirabilis</i> of Dryden: two bloody naval engagements; a +great fire; the appearance of a false Messiah; a widely-spread +fear that the end of the world and the coming of +Antichrist were at hand; the revolt from their allegiance to +the reigning monarch of a sorely oppressed body of Christians, +maddened by persecution; and a perilous crisis in +the general history of Protestantism.</p> +<p>The year now at its close has been beyond comparison +more remarkable. In the earlier twelvemonth, no real +change took place in the existing state of things. Its striking +events resembled merely the phenomena of a mid-winter +storm in Greenland, where, over a frozen ocean, moveless +in the hurricane as a floor of rock or of iron, the hail beats, +and the thick whirling snows descend, and, high above +head, the flashings of aurora borealis lend their many-coloured +hues of mystery to the horrors of the tempest. +Its transactions, picturesque rather than important, wholly +failed to affect the framework of society. That floor of ice +which sealed down the wide ocean of opinion retained all +its mid-winter solidity, and furnished foundations as firm +as before for the old despotic monarchies and the blood-stained +persecuting churches. But how immensely different +the events of the year now at an end! Its tempests have +been, not those of a Greenland winter, but of a Greenland +spring: the depths of society have been stirred to the dark +bottom, where all slimy and monstrous things lie hid, and, +under the irresistible upheavings of the ground-swell, the +ice has broken up; and amid the wide weltering of a +stormy sea, cumbered with the broken ruins of ancient +tyrannies, civil and ecclesiastical, the eye can scarce rest +upon a single spot on which to base a better order of +things. The ‘foundations are removed.’ A time of great +trouble has come suddenly upon the kingdoms of Europe––a +time of ‘famines, and pestilences, and fearful sights, +and great signs from heaven;’ ‘signs in the sun, and in the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_217' name='page_217'></a>217</span> +moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, +with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring.’</p> +<p>The extreme stillness of the calm by which this wide-roaring +tempest has been preceded, forms one of not the +least extraordinary circumstances which impart to it character +and effect. In the <i>Vision of Don Roderick</i>, the fated +monarch is described as pausing for a time amid the deep +silence of a vast hall, pannelled and floored with black +marble, and sentinelled by two gigantic figures of rigid +bronze that stand moveless against the farther wall. The +one, bearing a scythe and sand-glass, is the old giant Time; +the other, armed with an iron mace, is the grim angel of +Destiny. Not a sound or motion escapes them. In that +dim apartment nothing stirs save the sands in the glass, +and the inflexible look of the stern mace-bearing sentinel +marks how they ebb. The last grains are at length moving +downwards––they sink, they disappear; and now, raising +his ponderous mace, he dashes into fragments the marble +wall: a scene of savage warfare gleams livid through the +opening, and the wide vault re-echoes to the hollow tread +of armies, the shrill notes of warlike trumpets, the rude +clash of arms, and the wild shouts of battle. And such, +during the last few years, has been the stillness of the preliminary +pause, and such was the abrupt opening, when the +predestined hour at length arrived, of those clamorous +scenes of revolution and war which impart so remarkable +a character to the year gone by. A twelvemonth has not +yet passed since history seemed to want incident. Time +and Destiny watched as statue-like sentinels in a quiet +hall, walled round by the old rigid conventionalities, and +human sagacity failed to see aught beyond them; the present +so resembled the past, that it seemed over-boldness to +anticipate a different complexion for the future. But, amid +the unbreathing stillness, the appointed hour arrived. The +rigid marble curtain of the old conventionalities was struck +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_218' name='page_218'></a>218</span> +asunder by the iron mace of Destiny; and the silence was +straightway broken by a roar as if of many waters, by the +wrathful shouts of armed millions––the thunderings of +cannon, blent with the rattle of musketry––the wild shrieks +of dismay and suffering––the wailings of sorrow and terror––the +shouts of triumph and exultation––the despairing cry +of sinking dynasties, and the crash of falling thrones. And +with what strange rapidity the visions have since flitted +along the opened chasm!</p> +<p>A royal proclamation forbids in Paris a political banquet; +four short days elapse, and France is proclaimed a Republic, +and Louis Philippe and his Ministers have fled. Britain +at once recognises the Provisional Government; but what +are the great despotisms of the Continent to do? Six days +more pass, and the Canton of Neufchatel declares itself +independent of Prussia. In a few days after, the Duke of +<ins class="trchange" title="Was 'Saxe-Cobourg Gotha'">Saxe-Cobourg-Gotha</ins> grants to his subjects a representative +constitution, freedom of the press, and trial by jury; the +King of Hanover has also to yield, and the King of Bavaria +abdicates. These, however, are comparatively small +matters. But still the flame spreads. There is a successful +insurrection at Vienna, the very stronghold of despotism +in central Europe; and the Prime Minister, Metternich, +the grim personification of the old policy, is compelled to +resign. Then follows an equally successful insurrection at +Berlin; Milan, Vicenza, and Padua are also in open insurrection. +Venice is proclaimed a Republic. Holstein declares +itself independent of Denmark, Hungary of Austria, +Sicily of Naples. Prague and Cracow have also their formidable +outbreaks. Austria and Prussia proclaim new +constitutions. Secondary revolutionary movements in both +Paris and Vienna are put down by the military. There are +bloody battles fought between the Austrians and the Piedmontese +on the one hand, and the Germans and the Danes +on the other; and, in a state of profound peace, the people +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_219' name='page_219'></a>219</span> +of a British port hear from their shores the boom of the +hostile cannon. The Emperor of Austria abdicates his +throne, the Pope flees his dominions, and a nephew of +Napoleon Bonaparte is elected President of France. +Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, the ebullitions of the +revolutionary element serve but to demonstrate its own +weakness. In both England and Scotland, the moral and +physical force of the country––in reality but one––arrays +itself on the side of good order and the established institutions. +A few policemen put down, without the assistance +of the military, the long-threatened rebellion in Ireland; +and the Sovereign Lady of the empire, after journeying +among her subjects, attended by a retinue which only a +few ages ago would have been deemed slender for a +Scotch chieftain or one of the lesser nobility, and without +a single soldier to protect her, and needing no such protection, +spends her few weeks of autumn leisure in a solitary +Highland valley,––a thousand times more secure in +the affections of a devoted and loyal people than any other +European monarch could have been in the midst of an +army of an hundred thousand men. Such are some of +the wonderful events which have set their stamp on the +year now at its close.</p> +<p>We regard the old state of things as gone for ever. The +foundations have broken up on which the ancient despotisms +were founded. It would seem as if ‘the stone cut out +without hands’ had fallen during the past year on the feet +of the great image, and ground down into worthless rubbish +the ‘iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold.’ And +‘the wind,’ though not yet risen to its height, seems fast +rising, which will sweep them all away, ‘like the chaff of +the summer thrashing-floor;’ so that ‘there shall be no place +found for them.’ But while we can entertain no hope for +the old decrepit despotisms, we cannot see in the infidel +liberalism––alike unwise and immoral––by which they are +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_220' name='page_220'></a>220</span> +in the course of being supplanted, other than a disorganizing +element, out of which no settled order of things can +possibly arise. It takes the character, not of a reforming +principle destined to bless, but of an instrument of punishment, +with which vengeance is to be taken for the crimes +and errors of the past; and, so far at least, a time when we +need expect to witness but the struggles of the two principles––the +old and the new––as they act and react against +each other, stronger and weaker by turns, as they disgust +and alienate by their atrocities in their hour of power such +of the more moderate classes as had taken part with them +in their hour of weakness. It is the grand error of our +leading statesmen, that they fail to appreciate the real character +of the crisis, and would fain deal with the consequent +existing difficulties in that petty style of diplomatic +manœuvre with which it was their wont to meet the comparatively +light demands of the past. It would seem as if we +had arrived at a stage in the world’s history in which statesmanship +after this style is to be tolerated no longer. How +instructive, for instance, the mode in which, for the present +at least, an all-governing Providence has terminated the +negotiations of this country with the Pope! Contrary to +the wishes and principles of the sound-hearted portion of +the British people, our leading statesmen open up by statute +their diplomatic relations with the Pope, palpably with the +desire of governing Ireland through the influence of that +utterly corrupt religion which has made that unhappy island +the miserable lazar-house that it is; and, lo! Providence +strikes down the ghostly potentate, and virtually, for the +present, divests him of that ‘property qualification’ in virtue +of which the relation can alone be maintained. But not +less infatuated than our statesmen, and even less excusably +so, are those men––professedly religious and Protestant, +but of narrow views and weak understandings––who can +identify the cause of Christ with the old tottering despotisms +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_221' name='page_221'></a>221</span> +and the soul-destroying policy of princes such as the late +Emperor of Austria, and of ministers such as Metternich. It +would not greatly surprise us to see Protestants of this high +Tory stamp, who have been zealous against Popery all their +lives long, taking part in the ‘lament of the merchants and +mariners’ over the perished Babylon, when they find that +the representatives of the Roman Emperors must fall with +the Roman See. There are two wild beasts, like those which +Daniel saw in vision, contending together in fierce warfare,––the +old Babylonish beast, horrid with the <ins class="trchange" title="Was 'bood'">blood</ins> of saints, +and its cruel executioner––the monster of Atheistic Liberalism; +but Christ has identified His cause with neither. No +reprieve from the prince awaits the condemned culprit; and +with the disreputable and savage executioner he will hold +no intercourse. Destruction, from which there is no escape, +awaits equally on both.</p> +<p>We began with a reference to Dryden’s <i>Year of Wonders:</i> +we conclude with an anecdote regarding that year, connected +with the history of one of the most eminent judges +and best men England ever produced. It needs no application, +showing as it does, with equal simplicity and force, +how and on what principle the terrors of years such as the +‘<i>Annus Mirabilis</i>’ of the seventeenth century, or the ‘<i>Annus +Mirabilis</i>’ of our own, may be encountered with the greatest +safety and the truest dignity. We quote from Bishop Burnet’s +<i>Life of Sir Matthew Hale</i>:––</p> +<p>‘He’ (Sir Matthew), says the Bishop, ‘had a generous +and noble idea of God in his mind; and this he found, above +all other considerations, preserve his quiet. And, indeed, +that was so well established in him, that no accidents, how +sudden soever, were observed to discompose him, of which +an eminent man of that profession gave me this instance:––In +the year 1666 an opinion did run through the nation that +the end of the world would come that year. This, whether +set on by astrologers, or advanced by those who thought it +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_222' name='page_222'></a>222</span> +might have some relation to the number of the beast in the +Revelation, or promoted by men of ill designs to disturb the +public peace, had spread mightily among the people; and +Judge Hale going that year the Western Circuit, it happened +that, as he was on the bench at the assizes, a most terrible +storm fell out very unexpectedly, accompanied with such +flashes of lightning and claps of thunder, that the like will +hardly fall out in an age; upon which a whisper ran through +the crowd, “that now was the world to end, and the day +of judgment to begin.” And at this there followed a general +consternation in the whole assembly, and all men forgot the +business they were met about, and betook themselves to +their prayers. This, added to the horror raised by the storm, +looked very dismal, insomuch that my author––a man of +no ordinary resolution and firmness of mind––confessed it +made a great impression on himself. But he told me “that +he did observe the judge was not a whit affected, and was +going on with the business of the court in his ordinary +manner;” from which he made this conclusion: “that his +thoughts were so well fixed, that he believed, if the world +had been really to end, it would have given him no considerable +disturbance!’”</p> +<p><i>December 30, 1848.</i></p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_223' name='page_223'></a>223</span> +<a name='EFFECTS_OF_RELIGIOUS_DISUNION_ON_COLONIZATION' id='EFFECTS_OF_RELIGIOUS_DISUNION_ON_COLONIZATION'></a> +<h2>EFFECTS OF RELIGIOUS DISUNION ON COLONIZATION.</h2> +</div> +<p>It is well that there should exist amongst the evangelistic +churches at least a desire for union. We do not think they +will ever be welded into one without much heat and many +blows. Popery, with mayhap Infidelity for its assistant, +will have first to blow up the coals and ply the hammer; +but it is at least something that the various pieces of the +broken and shivered Church catholic should be coming into +contact, drawn together as if by some strong attractive influence, +and that there should be so many attempts made +to fit into each other, though with but indifferent success, +the rough-edged inflexible fragments. It is much that the +attractive influence should exist. Among the many inventions +of modern times, a singularly ingenious one has been +brought to bear on the smelting of iron. A powerful magnetic +current is made to pass in one direction through the +furnace, which imparts to each metallic particle a loadstone-like +affinity for all the others; and no sooner has the +heat set them free, than, instead of sinking, as in the old +process, through the molten stony mass to the bottom, +solely in effect of their superior gravity––a tedious, and in +some degree uncertain process––they at once get into +motion in the line of the current, and unite, in less than +half the ordinary time under any other circumstances, into +a homogeneous, coherent mass. May we not indulge the +expectation of similar results from the magnetic current +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_224' name='page_224'></a>224</span> +of attraction, if we may so speak, which has so decidedly +begun to flow through the evangelistic churches? True, so +long as the little bits remain unmolten, however excellent +their quality, they but clash and jangle together, if moved +by the influence at all; but should the furnace come to +be seven times heated, it will scarce fail to give unity of +motion and a prompt coherency to all the genuine metal, +however minute, in its present state, the particles into +which it is separated, or however stubborn the stony matrices +which dissociate these from the other particles, one +in their origin and nature, that lie locked up in the sullen +fragments around.</p> +<p>Never perhaps was there a time when the great disadvantages +of disunion were so pressed in a practical form +on the notice of the churches as at the present. It formed +the complaint of one of our better English writers considerably +more than a century ago, that we had religion +enough to make us hate, but not enough to make us love, +one another. At that time, however, sects, to employ +one of Bacon’s striking phrases, ‘had not so grown to +equality’ as now; and storms in the moral world, as in the +natural ‘at the equinoxia,’ when night and day are equal, +are commonly greatest, adds the philosopher, ‘when things +do grow to equality.’ The unestablished Protestant denominations +formed in the times of Queen Anne a mere +feeble moiety, that could raise no efficient voice against the +established religion; and Popery, newly thrust under feet, +after a formidable struggle, that threatened to overturn the +constitution of the country, had no voice at all. Matters +are very different now: things have grown to an equality; +night and day, as ‘at the equinoxia,’ have become nearly +equal; and society can scarce take one step for the general +benefit, without experiencing, as a thwarting and arresting +influence, the effects of religious difference. Do we regret +that the Government of a country such as ours should be +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_225' name='page_225'></a>225</span> +practically irreligious in its character? Alas! were every +Government functionary in the empire a thoroughly religious +man, Government could not act otherwise than it does in +not a few instances, just in consequence of our religious +differences. Are there millions of the people sinking into +brutality and ignorance, and do our rulers originate a +scheme of education in their behalf?––our religious differences +straightway step in to arrest and cripple the design. +Are there whole districts of country subjected to famine, +and are we roused, both as Britons and as Christians, to +contribute of our substance for their relief?––our religious +differences immediately interfere; and a Church greatly +more identified by membership with the sufferers than any +other, has to fight a hard battle ere she can be permitted +to co-operate in the general cause. Is there a ragged-school +scheme originated in the capital, to rescue the +neglected perishing young among us from out the very +jaws of destruction?––forthwith rival institutions start up, +on the ground of religious differences, to dwarf one another +into inefficiency, like starveling shrubs in a nursery run +wild; and projected exertions in the cause of degraded +and suffering humanity degenerate into an attack on a +benevolent Presbyterian minister, who refuses to accept, +from conscientious motives, of a directorship in a Popish +institution. This is surely a sad state of things,––a state +grown very general, and which threatens to become more +so; and in a due sense of the weakness for all good which +it creates, and of the palpable state of disorganization and +decomposition favourable to the growth of every species +of evil, physical and moral, which it induces, we recognise +at least one of the causes of the general desire for union. +To no one circumstance has Rome owed more of its success +than to the divisions of the Protestant Church; and +great as that success has been in our own country, where, +as ‘at the equinoxia,’ day and night are fast ‘growing to +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_226' name='page_226'></a>226</span> +equality,’ it is but slight compared with what she has experienced +in America and the colonies. It is a serious consideration +in an age like the present, in which the country +looks to emigration for relief from the pressure of a superabundant +population, that religion has suffered more in the +colonies from its sectarian divisions, than from every other +cause put together.</p> +<p>The way in which the mischief comes to be done is +easily conceivable. The Protestant emigrants of the country +quit it always, with regard to their churchmanship, as a mere +undisciplined rabble. The Episcopalian sets sail in the +same vessel, and for the same scene of labour, as the Independent––the +Free Churchman with the Baptist––the +Methodist with the Original Seceder––the Voluntary with +the Establishment-man; and they squat down together on +contiguous lots, amid the solitude of the forest. Were they +all of one communion, there might be scarce any break +created in their old habits of church-going and religious instruction. +The community, considerable as a whole, though +very inconsiderable in its parts when broken up into denominational +septs, would have its minister of religion from +its first settlement, or almost so; and, from the rapid increase +which takes place in all new colonies in congenial countries +and climates, the charge of such a minister would be soon +a very important one, and adequate to the full development +of the energies of a superior man.</p> +<p>But alas for the numerous denominational septs! Years +must elapse, in some instances many years, ere––few and +scattered, and necessarily deprived of every advantage of +the territorial system––they can procure for themselves +religious teachers: they fall gradually, in the interim, out +of religious habits, or there rises among them a generation +in which these were never formed; and when at length a +sept does procure a teacher, generally, from the comparative +fewness of their numbers, the extent of district over +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_227' name='page_227'></a>227</span> +which they are spread, and the lukewarmness induced +among them by their years of deprivation––circumstances +which make the charge of such a people no very desirable +one to a man who can procure aught better, and which +have some effect also in rendering their choice in such +matters not very discriminating––he is frequently of a character +little suited to profit them. They succeed too often +in procuring not missionaries, nor men such as the ministers +of higher standing, that divide the word to the congregations +of the mother country, but the country’s mere +remainder preachers, who, having failed in making their +way into a living at home, seek unwillingly a bit of bread +in the unbroken ground of the colonies. The circumstances +of Popery as a colonizing religion are in all respects +immensely more favourable. For every practical +purpose, it is one and united: it is furnished with an army +of clergy admirably organized, and set peculiarly loose for +movement at the will of the general ecclesiastical body by +their law of celibacy. It possesses in prolific Ireland a +vast propelling heart, if we may so speak, ever working in +sending out the blood of a singularly bigoted Romanism to +every quarter of the world. It has already begun to influence +the elections of the United States; and should the +Papal superstition be destined to live so long, and should +its membership continue to increase at the present ratio, +there will be as many Papists a century hence in the great +valley of the Mississippi, and the tracts adjacent, as are at +present in all Europe. In no field in the present day has +Rome more decidedly the advantage than in that of colonization; +and it is surely a serious consideration that it +should owe its successes in such large measure to the divisions +of Protestantism.</p> +<p>But these divisions exist, and no amount of regret for +the mischief which they occasion will serve to lessen them. +We are not disposed to give up a single tenet which we +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_228' name='page_228'></a>228</span> +hold as Free Churchmen; and our brother Protestants of +the other denominations are, we find, quite as tenacious +of their distinctive holdings as ourselves. And so the evils +consequent on disunion in infant colonies and settlements-evils +which, when once originated, continue to propagate +themselves for ages––must continue, in cases of promiscuous +emigration, to be educed, and Rome to profit by them. +We find a vigorous attempt to grapple with the difficulty, +by rendering emigration not promiscuous, but select, originated +by a branch of the New Zealand Company, which +we deem worthy of notice. It is calculated, from the proportion +which they bear to the entire population of the +country, that from a thousand to fifteen hundred Free +Church people emigrate from Scotland every year. A +number equal to a large congregation quit it yearly for +the colonies; but absorbed among all sorts of people––in +Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, the United +States, Australia, and Southern Africa, etc. etc.––these +never reappear as congregations, but are subjected, in their +scattered, atomic state, to the deteriorating process, religious +and educational, to which we have referred as inevitable +under that economy of promiscuous emigration +unhappily so common in these latter times. In an earlier +age the case was different. The Pilgrim Fathers who first +planted New England were so much at one in their tenets, +that they had no difficulty in making the laws of the colony +a foundation on which to erect the platform both of a +general church and of an educational institute; and till +this day, the character, moral and intellectual, of that part +of the States tells of the wisdom of the arrangement. Now +why, argue the Company, might not a similar result be +produced in the present age, by directing the Free Church +portion of the outward stream of emigration, or at least a +sufficient part of it, into one locality? If the disastrous +effects of division cannot be prevented by reconciling the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_229' name='page_229'></a>229</span> +disagreements of those who already differ, they may be +obviated surely, to a large extent, by bringing into juxtaposition +those who already agree. And on this simple +principle the Company has founded its Free Church colony +of Otago. Of course, regarding the secular advantages of +the colony, we cannot speak. New Zealand has been long +regarded as the Great Britain of the southern hemisphere. +It possesses for a European constitution peculiar advantages +of climate; the neighbourhood of the settlement, for +several hundred miles together, is deserted by the natives; +Government is pledged to the appointment of a Royal +Commissioner to watch over the interests of Her Majesty’s +subjects in connection with the Company, and to afford +them protection; the committee for promoting the settlement +of the colony includes some of the most respected +names in the Free Church; and thus, judged by all the +ordinary tests, it seems to promise at least as well as any +other resembling field of enterprise open at the present +time. But respecting the principles involved in this scheme +of colonization, we can speak more directly from the circumstance +that we find them recognised as just and good +by the General Assembly of our Church. The records of +the Assembly of 1845 bear the following deliverance on +the subject:––‘The General Assembly learn with great +pleasure the prospect of the speedy establishment of the +Scotch colony of New Edinburgh [now Otago] in New +Zealand, consisting of members of the Free Church, and +with every security for the colonists being provided with +the ordinances of religion and the means of education in +connection with this Church. Without expressing any +opinion regarding the secular advantages or prospects of +the proposed undertaking, the General Assembly highly +approve of the principles on which the settlement is proposed +to be conducted, in so far as the religious and +educational interests of the colonists are concerned; and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_230' name='page_230'></a>230</span> +the Assembly desire to countenance and encourage the +association in these respects.’</p> +<p>We have seen the waste of mind which takes place in +the colonies of a very highly civilised country adverted to +in a rather fanciful and rationalistic connection with the +desponding reply of the captive Jews to their spoilers: +‘How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?’ +Ages, sometimes whole centuries, elapse, remarks the +commentator, ere the colonies of even eminently literary +nations come to possess poets and fine writers of their +own. There is first a struggle for bare existence among +the colonists, during which the higher branches of learning +are necessarily neglected; and when a better time at length +comes, the general mind is found to have acquired, during +the struggle, a homely and utilitarian cast, which militates +against the right appreciation, and of course the production, +of what is excellent. And thus the true divinities of +song fail to be sung in a foreign land. There is, we doubt +not, truth in the remark, though somewhat quaintly expressed, +and somewhat doubtfully derived. The necessities +of a colony in its youth, and the peculiar cast of mind +which they serve to induce, are certainly not favourable to +the development of poetic genius. But there is, alas! another +and more scriptural sense in which the ‘Lord’s song’ too +often ceases to be sung in a strange land. We have already +adverted to the process of deterioration, moral and religious, +through which it comes to be silenced; and it is one of the +advantages of the Otago scheme, that it makes provision in, +we believe, the most effectual way possible, in the present +divided state of Protestantism, for preventing a result so +deplorable. Youth is an important season, as certainly in +colonies as in individuals; and we question whether the +characteristic recklessness of Yankeeism in the far west +and south may not be legitimately traced to the neglected +youthhead of the States in which it is most broadly apparent. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_231' name='page_231'></a>231</span> +The deterioration of a single generation left to +run wild may influence for the worse, during whole centuries, +the character of a people; and who can predicate +what these colonies of the southern hemisphere are yet to +become? They may be great nations, influencing for good +or evil the destinies of the species in ages of the world when +Britain shall have sunk into a subordinate power, or shall +have no name save in history. Those records of the past, +from which we learn that states and peoples, as certainly +as families and individuals, are born and die, and have +their times of birth and of burial, may serve to convince +us that the melancholy reflection of one of our later poets +on this subject is by no means a fanciful one:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<p style='margin-left:2.0em; margin-right:0.0em; text-align:left'><span class="leadquote">‘</span>My heart has sighed in secret, when I thought<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.5em;'>That the dark tide of time might one day close,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.5em;'>England, o’er thee, as long since it has closed</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.5em;'>On Egypt and on Tyre,––that ages hence,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.5em;'>From the Pacific’s billowy loneliness,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.5em;'>Whose tract thy daring search revealed, some isle</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.5em;'>Might rise, in green-haired beauty eminent,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.5em;'>And like a goddess glittering from the deep,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.5em;'>Hereafter sway the sceptre of domain</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.5em;'>From pole to pole; and such as now thou art,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.5em;'>Perhaps New Zealand be. For who can say</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.5em;'>What the Omnipotent Eternal One,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.5em;'>That made the world, hath purposed?’</span><br /></p> +</div> +<p><i>June 16, 1847.</i></p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_232' name='page_232'></a>232</span> +<a name='FINEBODYISM' id='FINEBODYISM'></a> +<h2>FINE-BODYISM.</h2> +</div> +<p>Of all the dangers to which the Free Church is at present +exposed, we deem the danger of <i>fine-bodyism</i> at once the +least dreaded and the most imminent. And the evil is in +itself no light one: it marks, better than any of the other +<i>isms</i>––even the heresies themselves––the sinking of a +Church that is never to rise again. Churches have been +affected by dangerous heresies both of the hot and the cold +kinds, and have yet shaken them off and recovered. The +Presbyterians of Ireland, now so sound in their creed, were +extensively affected, little more than half a century ago, by +Arian error and the semi-infidelity of Socinus; and the +Church that in 1843 had become vigorous enough to dare +the Disruption, recorded in the year 1796 its vote against +missions, and framed in the year 1798 its law against +church extension. But we know of no Church that ever +recovered from <i>fine-bodyism</i> when the disease had once +fairly settled into its confirmed and chronic state. In at +least this age and country it exists as the atrophy of a +cureless decline. It were well, however, that we should +say what it is we mean by <i>fine-bodyism</i>; and we find we cannot +do better than quote our definition from the first speech +ever delivered by Chalmers in the General Assembly. ‘It +is quite ridiculous to say,’ remarked this most sagacious of +men, ‘that the worth of the clergy will suffice to keep them +up in the estimation of society. This worth must be combined +with importance. Give both worth and importance +to the same individual, and what are the terms employed +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_233' name='page_233'></a>233</span> +in describing him? “A distinguished member of society, +the ornament of a most respectable profession, the virtuous +companion of the great, and a generous consolation to all +the sickness and poverty around him.” These, Moderator, +appear to me to be the terms peculiarly descriptive of the +appropriate character of a clergyman, and they serve to +mark the place which he ought to occupy; but take away +the importance and leave only the worth, and what do you +make of him? What is the descriptive term applied to him +now? Precisely the term which I often find applied to +many of my brethren, and which galls me to the very bone +every moment I hear it––“<i>a fine body</i>”––a being whom you +may like, but whom I defy you to esteem––a mere object +of endearment––a being whom the great may at times +honour with the condescension of a dinner, but whom they +will never admit as a respectable addition to their society. +Now, all that I demand from the Court of Teinds is to be +raised, and that as speedily as possible, above the imputation +of being “<i>a fine body</i>;” that they would add importance +to my worth, and give splendour and efficacy to those +exertions which have for their object the most exalted interests +of the species.’</p> +<p>The Free Church has for ever closed her connection +with the Court of Teinds; but her danger from <i>fine-bodyism</i> +is in consequence all the greater, not the less. The Sustentation +Fund is her Court of Teinds now; and it is to it +that she has in the first instance to look for protection from +the all-potent but insidious and vastly under-estimated evil +under which no Church ever throve. The outed ministers +are comparatively safe. Unless prudence be altogether +wanting, and the wolf comes to the door, not, as in the +child’s story-book, in the disguise of a soft-voiced girl, but +in that of a gruff sheriff’s officer, they will continue to bear +through life the old status of the Establishment, heightened +by the <i>éclat</i> of the Disruption. But our younger men of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_234' name='page_234'></a>234</span> +subsequent appointment stand on no such platform, nor +will any of their contemporaries or successors step upon it +as a matter of course when the heroes of the conflict have +dropped away, and they come to occupy their vacant places. +Their status will be found to depend on two circumstances, +neither of them derived from the men of a former time––on +their ability to maintain a respectable place among the +middle classes, and on their scholastic acquirements and +general manners. A half-paid, half-taught, half-bred minister +of religion may be a very excellent man; we have seen +such, both in England and our own country, among the +non-Presbyterian Dissenters who laboured to do well, and +were exceedingly in earnest; but no such type of minister +will ever be found influential in Scotland, either in extending +the limits of a Church, or in benefiting the more intelligent +classes of the people. And the two circumstances of +acquirement and remuneration will be found indissolubly +connected. A Church of under-paid ministers, however +fairly it may start, will, in the lapse of a generation, become +a Church of under-taught and under-bred ministers also. +Nor is there any chance that the evil, once begun, will ever +cure itself, for the under-bred and the under-taught will be +sure to continue the under-paid. That animating spirit of a +Church, without which wealth and learning avail but little, +money now, as of old, cannot buy; but the secular will be +ever found to depend on the secular,––the general rate of +secular acquirement on the general rate of secular remuneration; +and unless both be pitched at a level very considerably +above that of the labouring laity, which constitutes the +great bulk of congregations, even the better ministers of a +Church need not expect to escape <i>fine-bodyism</i>. And once +infected with this fatal indisposition, they must be content +to suffer, among other evils, the evil of being permitted to +lay whatever claim to status they may choose, without +challenge or contradiction. ‘Oh yes,’ it will be said, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_235' name='page_235'></a>235</span> +should they assert that their Church is the Church of the +nation, and that it is they themselves, and not the ministers +of the Establishment, who are on the true constitutional +ground,––‘Oh yes, Church of the nation, or, if ye will, +Church of the whole world, or, in short, anything you +please; for you are <i>fine bodies</i>.’ Chalmers exercised all his +sagacity when he demanded of the Court of Teinds ‘to be +raised, and that as speedily as possible, above the imputation +of being a <i>fine body</i>.’ And what Chalmers demanded +of the Court of Teinds, every minister of the Free Church +ought to ask of the Sustentation Fund.</p> +<p>But how is the demand to be effectually made? It is +well known to statesmen, who, when they once get a tax +imposed by Parliament, can employ all the machinery of +the police and the standing army––of fines, confiscations, +and prisons––in exacting it, that yet, notwithstanding, in +the arithmetic of finance two and two do not always make +four. There are certain pre-existing laws to be studied––laws +not of man’s passing, but which arise out of man’s +nature and the true bearings and relations of things; and +unless these be studied and conformed to, the Parliament-imposed +tax, though backed by the constable and the jail, +will realize but little. And if the statesman must study +these laws, well may the Church do so, who has no constables +in her pay, and to whom no jail-keys have been +entrusted. It ought, we think, to be regarded as one +fundamental law, that whatever has been gained by the +seven years’ establishment of the Fund, should not be +lightly perilled by bold and untried innovations. True, +there may, on the one hand, be danger, if let too much +alone, that its growth should be arrested, and of its passing +into a stunted and hide-bound condition, little capable of +increase; but the danger is at least as great, on the other, +that if subjected to fundamental changes, it might lose that +advantage of permanency which whatever is established +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_236' name='page_236'></a>236</span> +possesses in virtue of its being such; and which has its +foundation in habit, and in that vague sense of responsibility +which leads men to give, year after year, what they +had been accustomed to give in the previous years, just +because they had given it. Let it not be forgotten, that +though much still remains to be done in connection with +this Fund, much has been done already––that a voluntary +tax of about eighty thousand pounds per annum, raised +from about one-third, and that by no means the wealthiest +third, of the Scottish people, is really not a small, but a +great one––and that as great, and as worthy of being +desired and equalled, do the other non-endowed Churches +of the country regard it. No tampering, therefore, with its +principle should be attempted: he was an eminently wise +man who first devised and instituted it,––not once in an +age do churches, or even countries, get such men to guide +their affairs,––and it ought by all means to be permitted to +<i>set</i> and consolidate in the mould which he formed for it. +We would apply in this case the language of a philosophic +writer of the last age, when speaking of government in +general:––‘An established order of things,’ he said, ‘has +an infinite advantage, by the very circumstance of its being +established. To tamper, therefore, to try experiments upon +it, upon the credit of supposed fitness and improvement, +can never be the part of a wise man, who will bear a reverence +for what carries the marks of the stability of age; and +though he may attempt some improvements for the public +good, yet will he adjust his innovations as much as possible +to the ancient fabric, and preserve entire the chief pillars +and supports of the institution.’</p> +<p>It ought, we hold, to be regarded as another law of the +Fund, that the means taken to increase it should be means +exclusively fitted to lead the givers to think of their <i>duties</i>, +not of their <i>rights</i>. The Sustentation Fund is not the result +of a tax properly so called, but an accumulation of freewill +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_237' name='page_237'></a>237</span> +offerings rendered to the Church by men who in this +matter are responsible to God only. What the Church +receives on these terms she can divide; but what the +givers do not place at her disposal––what, on the contrary, +they reserve for quite another purpose––she cannot lay +hold of and distribute. It is not hers, but theirs; and the +attempt to appropriate it might be very fatal. Hence the +danger of the question regarding the appropriation for +general purposes of supplements, which was mooted two +years ago, but which was so promptly put down by the +good sense of the Church. It would have led men to +contend for their rights, and, in the struggle, to forget +their duties; and the battle would have been a losing one +for the Fund. We regard it as another law, that the distribution +of the sustentation money entrusted to the Church +should be a distribution, not discretionary, but fixed by +definite enactment. A discretionary licence of distribution, +extended to some central board or committee, even +though under the general review of the Church, could not +be other than imminently dangerous, because opposed in +spirit to the very principle of Presbytery. And if Presbytery +and the Sustentation Fund come into collision in the +Free Church of Scotland, it is not difficult to say which of +the two would go down. It has been shrewdly remarked +by Hume, that in monarchies there is room for discretionary +power––the laws under a great and wise prince +may in some cases be softened, or partially suspended, +and carried into full effect in others; but republics admit +of no such discretionary authority––the laws in them must +in every instance be thoroughly executed, or set aside +altogether. Every act of discretionary authority is treason +against the constitution. And so is it with Presbytery. +Give to a central board or committee the power of sitting +in judgment on the circumstances of ministers of their +body, and of apportioning to one some thirty or forty +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_238' name='page_238'></a>238</span> +pounds additional, and of cutting down another to the +average dividend, and, for a time at least, the Presbyterian +independence is gone. But the reaction point once +reached––and in the Free Church the process would not +be a very tedious one––the discretionary authority would be +swept away in the first instance, and the Sustentation Fund +not a little damaged in the second. It is of paramount +importance, therefore––a law on no account to be neglected +or traversed––that the distribution of the Fund be regulated +by rules so rigid and unbending, and of such general application, +that the manifestation of favour or the exercise of +patronage on the part of the board or committee authorized +to watch over it may be wholly an impossibility.</p> +<p>It is, in the next place, of importance carefully to scan +the sources whence the expected increase of the Fund is +to come. The givers in the Free Church at the present +time seem to lie very much in extremes. A considerable +number, animated by the Disruption spirit, contribute +greatly more to ministerial support, in proportion to their +incomes, than the old Dissenters of the kingdom; but a +still larger number, reposing indolently on the exertions +of these, and in whom the habit has not been cultivated +or formed, give considerably less. It was stated by Mr. +Melvin, in the meeting of the United Presbyterian Synod +held on Wednesday last, that, ‘on an average, the members +of weak congregations in connection with their body contributed +to the support of their minister about 14s. 6d. per +annum, besides about 2s. 6d. for missionary purposes, +while some of them contributed even as high as 25s. to +26s.’ Now, an average rate of contribution liberal as this, +among the members of country congregations in the Free +Church, would at once place the Fund in flourishing circumstances, +and render it, unless its management was very +unwise indeed, sufficient to maintain a ministry high above +the dreaded level of <i>fine-bodyism</i>. Nor do we see why, if +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_239' name='page_239'></a>239</span> +we except the crushed and poverty-stricken people of some +of the poorer Highland districts, Free Church congregations +in the country should not contribute as largely to +church purposes as United Presbyterian congregations in +the same localities. The membership of both belong +generally to the same level of society, and, if equally +willing, are about equally able to contribute. Here, then, +is a field which still remains to be wrought. Something, +too, may be done at the present time, from the circumstance +that the last instalment of the Manse Building Fund is just +in the act of being paid, and those who have been subscribing +for five years to this object, and formed a habit +of periodic giving in relation to it, may be induced to +transfer a portion of what they gave to the permanent +fund, and so continue contributing. Ere, however, they +can be expected to do so, they must be fairly assured that +what they give is to be employed in strengthening and +consolidating the Church, and in raising her ministers above +the level of <i>fine-bodyism</i>, not in adding to her weakness +by adding to her extent. Until a distinct pledge be given +that there shall not be so much as a single new charge +sanctioned until the yearly dividend amounts to at least a +hundred and fifty pounds, we must despair of the Sustentation +Fund. One may hopefully attempt the filling up of a +tun, however vast its contents; but there can be no hope +whatever in attempting the filling of a sieve. And if what +is poured into the Sustentation Fund is to be permitted, +instead of rising in the dividend, to dribble out incontinently +in a feeble extension, it will be all too soon discovered +that what we have to deal with is not the tun, but +the sieve; and the laity, losing all heart, will cease their +exertions, and permit their ministers to sink into poverty +and <i>fine-bodyism</i>.</p> +<p><i>May 15, 1850.</i></p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_240' name='page_240'></a>240</span> +<a name='ORGANSHIP' id='ORGANSHIP'></a> +<h2>ORGANSHIP.</h2> +</div> +<p>Some six or eight months after the Disruption there occurred +an amusing dispute between two Edinburgh newspapers, +each of which aspired to represent the Establishment solely +and exclusively, without coadjutor or rival. The one paper +asserted that it was the <i>vehicle</i> of the Established Church, +the other that it was the Church’s <i>organ</i>; and each, in +asserting its own claim, challenged that of its neighbour. +The organ was sure that the vehicle lacked the true vehicular +character; and the vehicle threw grave doubts on the +organship of the organ. In somewhat less than half a year, +however, the dispute came suddenly to a close: the vehicle––like +a luckless opposition coach, weak in its proprietorship––was +run off the road, and broke down; and the +triumphant organ, seizing eager hold of the name of its +defunct rival as legitimate spoil, hung it up immediately +under its own, as a red warrior of the West seizes hold of +the scalp of a fallen enemy, and suspends it at his middle +by his belt of wampum. The controversy, however, lasted +quite long enough to lead curious minds to inquire how or +on what principle a body so divided as the Established +Church could possibly have either vehicle or organ.</p> +<p>If the organ, it was said, adequately represent Dr. Muir, +it cannot fail very grievously to misrepresent Dr. Bryce; +and if the vehicle be adapted to give public airings to the +thoughts and opinions of the bluff old Moderates, those of +Dr. Leishman and the Forty must travel out into the wind +and the sunlight by an opposition conveyance. One organ +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_241' name='page_241'></a>241</span> +or one vehicle will be no more competent to serve a deliberative +ecclesiastical body, diverse in its components, than +one organ or vehicle will be able to serve a deliberative +political body broken into factions. Single parties, as such––whether +secular or ecclesiastical––may have their single +organ apiece; but it seems as little possible that a Presbyterian +General Assembly should have only one organ representative +of the whole, as that a <i>House of Lords</i> or a <i>House +of Commons</i> should have one organ representative of the +whole. An organ of the Establishment in its present state +of disunion, if at all adequately representative, could not +fail to resemble Montgomery’s strange personification of +war: ‘A deformed genius, with two heads, which, unlike +those of Janus, were placed front to front; innumerable +arms, branching out all around his shoulders, sides, and +chest; and with thighs and legs as multitudinous as his +arms. His twin faces,’ continues the poet, ‘were frightfully +distorted: they glared, they grinned, they spat, they railed, +and hissed, and roared; they gnashed their teeth, and bit, +and butted with their foreheads at each other; his arms, +wielding swords and spears, were fighting pell-mell together; +his legs, in like manner, were indefatigably at variance, +striding contrary ways, and trampling on each other’s toes, +or kicking each other’s shins, as if by mutual consent.’ +Such would be the true representative of an organ that +adequately represented the Establishment.</p> +<p>We are led into this vein on the present occasion by a +recent discussion in high quarters on the organship of the +Free Church,––a Presbyterian body, be it remarked, as +purely deliberative in its courts as the Parliament of the +country, and at least sufficiently affected by the spirit of the +age to include within its pale a considerable diversity of +opinion. It is as impossible, from this cause alone, that +the Free Church should be represented by a single organ, +as that the <i>House of Commons</i> should be represented by a +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_242' name='page_242'></a>242</span> +single organ. The organ, for instance, that represented +on the education question the Rev. Mr. Moody Stuart, +would most miserably misrepresent the party who advocate +the views of the great father of the Free Church––the late +Dr. Chalmers.</p> +<p>The organ that represented the peculiar beliefs held, regarding +the personal advent, by the party to which Mr. +Bonar of Kelso belongs, would greatly misrepresent those +of the party to which Mr. David Brown of Glasgow and +Mr. Fairbairn of Saltoun belong. The organ that advocated +Dr. Cunningham’s and Dr. James Buchanan’s views +of the College question, would be diametrically opposed to +the view of Dr. Brown of Aberdeen and Mr. Gray of Perth. +The organ that contended for an ecclesiastical right to legislate +on the temporalities according to the principle of Mr. +Hay of Whiterig, would provoke the determined opposition +of Mr. Makgill Crichton of Rankeillour. The organ +that took part with the Evangelical and Sabbath Alliances +in the spirit of Dr. Candlish of St. George’s, would have to +defend its position against Mr. King of St. Stephen’s of the +Barony; and the organ that espoused the sentiments held +on tests by Mr. Wood of Elie, would find itself in hostile +antagonism with those entertained on the same subject by +Mr. Gibson of Kingston. And such are only a few of the +questions, and these of an ecclesiastical or semi-ecclesiastical +character, regarding which a diversity of views, +sentiments, and opinions in the Free Church renders it +impossible that it can be adequately represented by any +one organ, even should that organ be of a purely ecclesiastical +character. But a newspaper is <i>not</i> of a purely ecclesiastical +character; and there are subjects on which it may +represent a vast majority of the people of a Church, without +in the least degree representing the Church itself, simply +because they are subjects on which a Church, as such, can +hold no opinions whatever. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_243' name='page_243'></a>243</span></p> +<p>It is, for instance, not for a Church to say in what degree +she trusts the Whigs or suspects the Tories––or whether +her suspicion be great and her trust small––or whether she +deem it more desirable that Edinburgh should be represented +by Mr. Cowan, than mis-represented by Mr. Macaulay. +These, and all cognate matters, are matters on +which the Church, as such, has no voice, and regarding +which she can therefore have no organ; and yet these are +matters with which a newspaper is necessitated to deal. It +would be other than a newspaper if it did not. On these +questions, however, which lie so palpably beyond the ecclesiastical +pale, though the Church can have no organ, zealous +Churchmen may; and there can be no doubt whatever that +they are questions on which zealous Free Churchmen <i>are</i> +very thoroughly divided––so thoroughly, that any single +newspaper could represent, in reference to them, only one +class. The late Mr. John Hamilton, for instance––a good +and honest man, who, in his character as a Free Churchman, +determinedly opposed the return of Mr. Macaulay––was +wholly at issue regarding some of these points with the +Honourable Mr. Fox Maule, who in 1846 mounted the +hustings to say that the ‘gratitude and honour of the Free +Church’ was involved in Mr. Macaulay’s return. And so +the organ that represented the one, could not fail to misrepresent +the other. Now, we are aware that on this, and +on a few other occasions, the <i>Witness</i> must have given very +considerable dissatisfaction in the political department to +certain members of the Free Church. It was not at all +their organ on these occasions; nay, at the very outset of +its career, it had solemnly pledged itself <i>not</i> to be their +organ.</p> +<p>The following passage was written by its present Editor, +ere the first appearance of his paper, and formed a part of +its prospectus:––‘The <i>Witness</i>,’ he said, ‘<i>will not espouse +the cause of any of the political parties which now agitate and</i> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_244' name='page_244'></a>244</span> +<i>divide the country</i>.’ ‘Public measures, however, will be +weighed as they present themselves in an impartial spirit, +with care proportioned to their importance, and with reference +not to the party with which they may chance to +originate, but to the principles which they shall be found +to involve.’ Such was the pledge given by the Editor of +the <i>Witness</i>; and he now challenges his readers to say +whether he has not honestly redeemed it. Man is naturally +a tool-making animal; and when he becomes a politician +by profession, his ingenuity in this special walk of constructiveness +is, we find, always greatly sharpened by the +exigencies of his vocation.</p> +<p>He makes tools of bishops, tools of sacraments, tools of +Confessions of Faith, and tools of Churches and church +livings.</p> +<p>We had just seen, previous to the <i>début</i> of the <i>Witness</i>, +the Church of Scotland converted by Conservatism into a +sort of mining tool, half lever, half pickaxe, which it plied +hard, with an eye to the prostration and ejection of its +political opponents the Whigs, then in office; and not +much pleased to see the Church which we loved and +respected so transmuted and so wielded, we solemnly determined +that, so far at least as our modicum of influence +extended, no tool-making politician, whatever his position, +should again convert it unchallenged into an ignoble party +utensil. With God’s help, we have remained true to our +determination; and so assured are we of being supported +in this matter by the sound-hearted Presbyterian people of +the Free Church, that we have no fear whatever, should +either the assertors among us of the unimpeachable consistency +of the Conservatives, or of the immaculate honesty +of the Whigs, start against us an opposition vehicle to-morrow, +that in less than a twelvemonth we would run it +fairly off the road, and have some little amusement with it +to boot, so long as the contest continued. The <i>Witness</i> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_245' name='page_245'></a>245</span> +is not, and, as we have shown, cannot be, the organ of +the Free Church; but it is something greatly better: it is +the trusted representative––against Whig, Tory, Radical, +and Chartist––against Erastian encroachment and clerical +domination––of the Free Church people. There lies its +strength,––a strength which its political Free Church opponents +are welcome to test when they please.</p> +<p>We must again express our regret that the article on the +Duke of Buccleuch, which has proved the occasion of so +much remark, spoken and written, should have ever appeared +in our columns; and this, not, as the agent of the Duke +asserts, because it has been <i>exposed</i>, but because of the +unhappy unsolidity of its facts, and because of that diversion +of the public attention which it has effected from cases such +as those of Canobie and Wanlockhead, and from such a +death-bed as that of the Rev. Mr. Innes. Our readers are +already in possession of our explanation, and have seen it +fully borne out by the incidental statement of Mr. Parker. +We would crave leave to remind them that the <i>Witness</i> is +now in the ninth year of its existence; and that during that +time the Editor stated many facts, from his own observation, +connected with the refusal of sites, and other matters of a +similar character. He saw congregations worshipping on +bare hill-sides in the Highlands of Sutherland, and on an +oozy sea-beach on the coast of Lochiel; he sailed in the +Free Church yacht the <i>Betsey</i>, and worshipped among the +islanders of Eigg and of Skye. Nor did he shrink from +very minutely describing what he had witnessed on these +occasions, nor yet from denouncing the persecution that had +thrust out some of the best men and best subjects of the +country, to worship unsheltered amid bleak and desert +wastes, or on the bare sea-shore.</p> +<p>And yet, of all the many facts which he thus communicated +on his own authority, because resting on his own observation, +not one of them has ever yet been disproved; nay, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_246' name='page_246'></a>246</span> +scarce one of them has ever yet been so much as challenged.</p> +<p>Of course, in reference to the statements which he has +had to make on the testimony of others, his position was +necessarily different; and a very delicate matter he has +sometimes found it to be, to deal with these statements. A +desire, on the one hand, to expose to the wholesome breathings +of public opinion whatever was really oppressive and +unjust; a fear, on the other, lest he should compromise the +general cause, or injure the character of his paper, by giving +publicity to what either might not be true, or could not be +proven to be true,––have often led him to retain communications +beside him for weeks and months, until some circumstance +occurred that enabled him to determine regarding +their real character and value. And such––with more, however, +than the ordinary misgivings, and with an unfavourable +opinion frankly and decidedly expressed––was the course +which he took with the communicated article on the Duke +of Buccleuch.</p> +<p>That the testing circumstance which <i>did</i> occur in the +course of the long period during which it was thus held <i>in +retentis</i> was not communicated to him, or to any other +official connected with the <i>Witness</i>, he much regrets, but +could not possibly help.</p> +<p>In the discussion on the Sites Bill of Wednesday last, the +Honourable Fox Maule is made to say, that ‘the <i>Witness</i> +contained many articles which had been condemned by the +Church.’</p> +<p>Now this must be surely a misreport, as nothing could +be more grossly incorrect than such a statement. The +voice of the Free Church––that by which she condemns or +approves––can be emitted through but her deliberative +courts, and recorded in but the decisions of her solemn +Assemblies. On the merits or demerits of the <i>Witness</i>, +through these her only legitimate organs, she has not +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_247' name='page_247'></a>247</span> +yet spoken; and Mr. Maule is, we are sure, by far too intelligent +a Churchman to mistake the voice of a mere political +coterie, irritated mayhap by the loss of an election, for the +solemn deliverance of a Church of Christ. With respect to +his reported statement, to the effect that the <i>Witness</i> ‘contained +many articles which had done great harm to the Free +Church,’ the report may, we think, be quite correct. The +<i>Witness</i> contained a good many articles on the special +occasion when the Free Churchmen of Edinburgh conspired––‘ungratefully +and dishonourably,’ as Mr. Maule +must have deemed it––to eject a Whig Minister, and to +place in his seat, as their representative, a shrewd citizen +and honest man.</p> +<p>And these lucubrations accomplished, we daresay, their +modicum of harm. With regard, however, to the articles of +the <i>Witness</i> in general, we think we can confidently appeal +in their behalf to such of our readers as perused them, not +as they were garbled, misquoted, interpolated, and mis-represented +by unscrupulous enemies, but as they were first +given to the public from the pen of the Editor. Among +these readers we reckon men of all classes, from the peer +to the peasant––Conservative landowners, magistrates, merchants, +ministers of the gospel. Dr. Chalmers was a reader +of the <i>Witness</i> from its first commencement to his death; +and he, perusing its editorial articles as they were originally +written––not as they were garbled or interpolated in other +prints––saw in them very little to blame.</p> +<p>Not but that some of our sentences look sufficiently +formidable in extracts when twisted from their original +meaning; and this, just as the Decalogue itself might be +instanced as a code of licentiousness, violence, and immorality, +were it to be exhibited in garbled quotations, +divested of all the <i>nots</i>. In the <i>Edinburgh Advertiser</i> of +yesterday, for instance, we find the following passage:––‘It +[<i>The Witness</i>] has menaced our nobles with the horrors of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_248' name='page_248'></a>248</span> +the French Revolution, when the guillotine plied its nightly +task, and when the “bloody hearts of aristocrats dangled on +button-holes in the streets of Paris.” It has reminded them +of the time when a “grey discrowned head sounded hollow +on the scaffold at Whitehall;” insinuating that, if they persisted +in opposing the claims of the Free Church, a like +fate might overtake the reigning dynasty of our time.’</p> +<p>When, asks the reader, did these most atrocious threats +appear in the <i>Witness</i>?</p> +<p>They never, we reply, appeared in the <i>Witness</i> as threats at +all. The one passage, almost in the language of Chateaubriand, +was employed in an article in which we justified the +sentence pronounced on the atheist Patterson. The other +formed part of a purely historic reference––in an article on +Puseyism, written ere the Free Church had any existence––to +the Canterburianism of the times of Charles I., and the +fate of that unhappy monarch. We thought not of threatening +the aristocracy when quoting the one passage, nor yet +of foreboding evil to the existing dynasty when writing the +other. On exactly the same principle on which these +passages have been instanced to our disadvantage, the +description of the <i>Holoptychius Nobilissimus</i>, which appeared +a few years ago in the <i>Witness</i>, might be paraded as a +personal attack on Sir James Graham; and the remarks on +the construction of the <i>Pterichthys</i>, as a gross libel on the +Duke of Buccleuch. It is, we hold, not a little to the credit +of the <i>Witness</i>, that, in order to blacken its character, +means should be resorted to of a character so disreputable +and dishonest. From truth and fair statement it has all to +hope, and nothing to fear.</p> +<p><i>June 14, 1848.</i></p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_249' name='page_249'></a>249</span> +<a name='BAILLIES_LETTERS_AND_JOURNALS' id='BAILLIES_LETTERS_AND_JOURNALS'></a> +<h2>BAILLIE’S LETTERS AND JOURNALS.</h2> +</div> +<p>This is at once the handsomest and one of the best editions +of the curious and very interesting class of works to which +it belongs, that has yet been given to the public. It is +scarce possible to appreciate too highly the tact, judgment, +and research displayed by the editor; and rarely indeed, +so far as externals are concerned, has the typography of +Scotland appeared to better advantage. It is a book +decked out for the drawing-room in a suit of the newest +pattern,––a tall, modish, well-built book, that has to be +fairly set a-talking ere we discover from its tongue and style +that it is a production not of our own times, but of the +times of Charles and the Commonwealth. The good, +simple minister of Kilwinning would fail to recognise himself +in its fair open pages, that more than rival those of his +old <i>Elzevirs</i>. For his old-fashioned suit of home-spun +grey, we find him sporting here a modern dress-coat of +Saxony broadcloth, and a pair of unexceptionable cashmere +trousers; and it is not until we step forward and address +the worthy man, and he turns upon us his broad, honest +face, that we see the grizzled moustache and peaked beard, +and discover that his fears are still actively engaged regarding +the prelatic leanings of Charles <span style='font-variant:small-caps'>II.</span>, ‘now at Breda;’ +though perchance not quite without hope that the counsel +of the ‘wise and godly youth’ James Sharpe may have the +effect of setting all right again in the royal mind. We +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_250' name='page_250'></a>250</span> +address what we take, from the garb, to be a contemporary, +and find that we have stumbled on one of the seven +sleepers.</p> +<p>We deem it no slight advantage to the reading public of +the present day, that it should have works of this character +made so easy of access. It is only a very few years since +the student of Scottish ecclesiastical history could not +have acquainted himself with the materials on which the +historian can alone build, without passing through a course +of study at least as prolonged as an ordinary college course, +and much more laborious. Let us suppose that he lived +in some of the provinces. He would have, in the first +place, to come and reside in Edinburgh, and get introduced, +at no slight expense of trouble, mayhap, to the +brown, half-defaced manuscripts of our public libraries. +He would require next to study the old hand, with all its +baffling contractions. If he succeeded in mastering the +difficulties of Melville’s <i>Diary</i> after a quarter of a year’s +hard conning, he might well consider himself a lucky man. +Row’s <i>History</i> would occupy him during at least another +quarter; Baillie’s <i>Letters and Journals</i> would prove work +enough for two quarters more. If he succeeded in getting +access to the papers of Woodrow, he would find little less +than a twelvemonth’s hard labour before him; Calderwood’s +large <i>History</i> would furnish employment for at least +half that time; and if curious to peruse it in its best and +fullest form, he would find it necessary to quit Edinburgh +for London, to pore there over the large manuscript copy +stored up in the British Museum. As he proceeded in his +course, he would be continually puzzled by references, +allusions, initials; he would have to consult register offices, +records of baptisms and deaths, session books, old and +scarce works, hardly less difficult to be procured than even +the manuscripts themselves; and if he at length escaped +the fate of the luckless antiquary, who produced the famous +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_251' name='page_251'></a>251</span> +history of the village of Wheatfield, he might deem himself +more than ordinarily fortunate. ‘When I first engaged in +this work,’ said the poor man, ‘I had eyes of my own; but +now I cannot see even with the assistance of art: I have +gone from spectacles of the first sight to spectacles of the +third; the Chevalier Taylor gives my eyes over, and my +optician writes me word he can grind no higher for me.’ +It will soon be no such Herculean task to penetrate to the +foundations of our national ecclesiastical history. From +publications such as those of the Woodrow Club, and of +the <i>Letters and Journals</i>, the student will be able to acquire +in a few weeks what would have otherwise cost him the +painful labour of years. Nor can we point out a more +instructive course of reading. In running over our modern +histories, however able, we almost always find our point of +view fixed down by the historian to the point occupied by +himself. We cannot take up another on our own behalf, +unless we differ from him altogether, nor select for ourselves +the various subjects which we are to survey. We +are in leading-strings for the time: the vigour of our +author’s thinking militates against the exercise of our own; +his philosophy enters our minds in a too perfect form, +and lies inert there, just as the condensed extract of some +nourishing food often fails to nourish at all, because it +gives no employment to the digestive faculty. A survey +of the historian’s materials has often, on the contrary, the +effect of setting the mind free. We see the events of the +times which he describes in their own light, and simply as +events,––we select and arrange for ourselves,––they call +up novel traits of character,––they lead us to draw on our +experience of men,––they confirm principles,––they suggest +reflections.</p> +<p>Some of our readers will perhaps remember that we +noticed at considerable length the two first volumes of this +beautiful edition of Baillie rather more than a twelvemonth +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_252' name='page_252'></a>252</span> +ago. The third and concluding volume has but lately +appeared. It embraces a singularly important period,––extending +from shortly before the rise of the unhappy and +ultimately fatal quarrel between the Resolutioners and +Protesters, till the re-establishment of Episcopacy at the +Restoration, when the curtain closes suddenly over the +poor chronicler, evidently sinking into the grave at the +time, the victim of a broken heart. He sees a stormy +night settling dark over the Church,––Presbytery pulled +down, the bishops set up, persecution already commenced; +and, longing to be released from his troubles, he affectingly +assures his correspondent, in the last of his many letters, +that ‘it was the matter of his daily grief that had brought +his bodily trouble upon him,’ and that it would be ‘a favour +to him to be gone.’ From a very learned, concise, and +well-written Life, the production of the accomplished editor, +which serves as a clue to guide the reader through the +mazes of the correspondence, we learn that he died three +months after.</p> +<p>Where there is so much that is interesting, one finds it +difficult to select. The light in which the infamous Sharpe +is presented in this volume is at least curious. Prelacy, +careful of the reputation of her archbishops, makes a great +deal indeed of the bloody death of the man, but says as +little as possible regarding his life and character. The +sentimental Jacobitism of the present day––an imaginative +principle that feeds on novels, and admires the persecutors +because Claverhouse was brave and had an elegant upper +lip––goes a little further, and speaks of him as the venerable +Archbishop. When the famous picture of his assassination +was exhibiting in Edinburgh, some ten or twelve +years ago, he rose with the class almost to the dignity of +a martyr: there were young ladies that could scarce look +at the piece without using their handkerchiefs; the victim +was old, greyhaired, reverend, an archbishop, and eminently +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_253' name='page_253'></a>253</span> +saintly, as a matter of course, whatever the barbarous +fanatics might say; and all that his figure seemed +to want in order to make it complete, was just a halo of +yellow ochre round the head. In Baillie’s <i>Letters</i> we see him +exhibited, though all unwittingly on the part of the writer, in +his true character, and find that the yellow ochre would be +considerably out of place. Rarely, indeed, does nature, all +lost and fallen as it is, produce so consummate a scoundrel. +Treachery seems to have existed as so uncontrollable an +instinct in the man, that, like the appropriating faculty of +the thief, who amused himself by picking the pocket of the +clergyman who conducted him to the scaffold, it seems to +have been incapable of lying still. He appears never to +have had a friend who did not learn to detest and denounce +him: his Presbyterian friends, whom he deceived and betrayed, +did so in the first instance; his Episcopalian friends, +whom he at least strove to deceive and betray, did so in the +second. We are assured by Burnet, that even Charles, a +monarch certainly not over-nice in the moral sense, declared +James Sharpe to be one of the worst of men. His life was +a continuous lie; and he has left more proofs of the fact in +the form of letters under his own hand, than perhaps any +other bad man that ever lived.</p> +<p>In Baillie he makes his first appearance as the Presbyterian +minister of Crail, and as one of the honest chronicler’s +greatest favourites. The unhappy disputes between the Resolutioners +and Protesters were running high at the time. +Baillie was a Resolutioner, Sharpe a zealous Resolutioner +too; and Baillie, naturally unsuspicious, and biassed in his +behalf by that spirit of party which can darken the judgment +of even the most discerning, seems to have regarded +him as peculiarly the hope of the Church. He was indisputably +one of its most dexterous negotiators; and no man +of the age made a higher profession of religion. Burnet, +who knew him well in his after character as Archbishop of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_254' name='page_254'></a>254</span> +St. Andrews, tells us that never, save on one solitary occasion, +did he hear him make the slightest allusion to religion. +But in his letters to Baillie, almost every paragraph +closes with the aspirations of a well-simulated devotion. +They seem as if strewed over with the fragments of broken +doxologies. The old man was, as we have said, thoroughly +deceived. He assures his continental correspondent, Spang, +that ‘the great instrument of God to cross the evil designs +of the Protesters, was that <i>very worthy, pious, wise, and diligent +young man</i>, Mr. James Sharpe.’ In some of his after +epistles we learn that he remembered him in his prayers, +no doubt very sincerely, as, under God, one of the mainstays +of the Church. What first strikes the reader in the +character of Sharpe, as here exhibited, is his exclusively +diplomatic cast of talent. Baillie himself was a controversialist: he +wrote books to influence opinion, and delivered +argumentative speeches. He was a man of business too: +he drew up remonstrances, petitions, protests, and carried +on the war of his party above-board. All his better friends +and correspondents, such as Douglas and Dickson, were +persons of a resembling cast. But Sharpe’s vocation lay in +dealing with men in closets and window recesses: he could +do nothing until he had procured the private ear of the +individual on whom he wished to act. Is he desirous to +influence the decisions of the Supreme Civil Court in behalf +of his party? He straightway ingratiates himself with +President Broghill, and the court becomes more favourable +in consequence. Is he wishful to propitiate the English +Government? He goes up to London, gets closeted with +its more influential members. It was this peculiar talent +that pointed him out to the Church as so fit a person to +treat with Charles at Breda.</p> +<p>And it is when employed in this mission that we begin +truly to see the man, and to discover the sort of ability on +which the success of his closetings depended. We find +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_255' name='page_255'></a>255</span> +Baillie holding, in his simplicity, that in order to draw the +heart of the King from Episcopacy, nothing more could +be necessary than just fairly to submit to him some sound +controversial work, arranged on the plan of the good man’s +own <i>Ladensium</i>; and urging on Sharpe, that a few able +divines should be employed in getting up a compilation for +the express purpose. Sharpe writes in return, in a style +sufficiently quiet, that His Majesty, in his very first address, +‘has been pleased to ask very graciously about Robert +Baillie,’ a person for whom he has a particular kindness, +and whom, if favours were dealing, he would be sure not to +forget. He adds, further, that however matters might turn +out in England, the Presbyterian Establishment of Scotland +was in no danger of violation; and lest his Scotch friends +should fall into the error of thinking too much about other +men’s business, he gives fervent expression to the hope +‘that the Lord would give them to prize their own mercies, +and know their own duties.’ Even a twelvemonth after, +when on the eve of setting out for London to be created +a bishop, he writes his old friend, that whatever ‘occasion +of jealousies and false surmises his journey might give,’ +of one thing he might be assured, ‘it was not in order +to a change in the Church,’ as he ‘would convince his dear +friend Mr. Baillie, through the Lord’s help, when the Lord +would return him.’ He has an under-plot of treachery +carrying on at the same time, that affects his ‘dear friend’ +personally. In one of his letters to the unsuspecting +chronicler, he assures him that he was ‘doing his best, by +the Lord’s help,’ to get him appointed Principal of the +University of Glasgow. In one of his letters to Lauderdale, +after stating that the office, ‘in the opinion of many,’ +would require a man ‘of more acrimony and weight’ than +‘honest Baillie,’ he urges that the presentation should be +sent him, with a blank space, in which the name of the +presentee might be afterwards inserted. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_256' name='page_256'></a>256</span></p> +<p>Baillie, naturally slow to suspect, does not come fully to +understand the character of the man until a very few months +before his death. He then complains bitterly to his continental +correspondent, amid the ruin of the Church, and from +the gloom of his sick-chamber, that Sharpe was the traitor +who, ‘piece by piece, had so cunningly trepanned them, +that the cause had been suffered to sink without even a +struggle.’ The apostate had gained his object, however, +and become ‘His Grace the Lord Primate.’ There were +great rejoicings. ‘The new bishops were magnificklie received;’ +they were feasted by the Lord Commissioner’s +lady on one night, by the Chancellor on another; and in +especial, ‘the Archbishop had bought a new coach at +London, at the sides whereof two lakqueys in purple did +run.’</p> +<p>The vanity of Sharpe is well brought out on another +occasion by Burnet. The main object of one of his journeys +to London, undertaken a little more than a twelvemonth +after the death of Baillie, was to urge on the King +that, as Primate of Scotland, he should of right take precedence +of the Scottish Lord Chancellor, and to crave His +Majesty’s letter to that effect. In this trait, as in several +others, he seems to have resembled Robespierre. His +cruelty to his old friends the Presbyterians is well illustrated +by the fact that he could make the comparative +leniency of Lauderdale, apostate and persecutor as Lauderdale +was, the subject of an accusation against him to +Charles. But there is no lack of still directer instances in +the biographies of the worthies whom his malice pursued. +His meanness, too, seems to have been equal to his malice +and pride. When Lauderdale on one occasion turned +fiercely upon him, and threatened to impeach him for +<i>leasing-making</i>, he ‘straightway fell a-trembling and weeping,’ +and, to avoid the danger, submitted to appear in the +royal presence; and there, in the coarsest terms, to confess +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_257' name='page_257'></a>257</span> +himself a liar. It is a bishop who tells the story, and it is +only one of a series. Truly the Primate of all Scotland +was fortunate in the death he died. ‘The dismal end of +this unhappy man,’ says Burnet, ‘struck all people with +horror, and softened his enemies into some tenderness; so +that his memory was treated with decency by those who +had very little respect for him during his life.’</p> +<p>In almost every page in this instructive volume the +reader picks up pieces of curious information, or finds +matters suggestive of interesting thought. There start up +ever and anon valuable hints that germinate and bear fruit +in the mind. We would instance, by way of illustration, a +hint which occurs in a letter to Lauderdale, written shortly +after the Restoration, and which, though apparently slight, +leads legitimately into a not unimportant train of thinking. +Scotchmen are much in the habit of referring to the political +maxim that the king can do no wrong, as a fundamental +principle of the constitution, which concerns them as +directly as it does their neighbours the English. Dr. Chalmers +alluded to it no later than last week, in his admirable +speech in the Commission. The old maxim, that the king +could do no wrong, he said, had now, it would seem, descended +from the throne to the level of courts co-ordinate +with the Church. Would it not be a somewhat curious +matter to find that this doctrine is one which has in reality +not entered Scotland at all? It stands in England, a +guardian in front of the throne, transferring every blow +which would otherwise fall on the sovereign himself, to the +sovereign’s ministers: it is ministers, not sovereigns, who +are responsible to the people of England. But it would at +least seem, that with regard to the people of Scotland the +responsibility extends further. At least the English doctrine +was regarded as <i>exclusively</i> an English one in the days +of Baillie, nearly half a century prior to the Union, and +more than a whole century ahead of those times in which +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_258' name='page_258'></a>258</span> +the influence of that event began to have the effect of +mixing up in men’s minds matters peculiar to England +with matters common to Britain. We find Baillie, in his +letter written immediately after the passing of the Act +Recissory, pronouncing the doctrine that the ‘king can do +no fault,’ as in his judgment ‘good and wise,’ but referring +to it at the same time as a doctrine, not of the Scottish +Constitution, but of the ‘State of England.’</p> +<p>The circumstance is of importance chiefly from the light +which it serves to cast on an interesting passage in Scottish +history. The famous declaration of our Scotch Convention +at the Revolution, that James <span style='font-variant:small-caps'>VII.</span> had <i>forfeited</i> the throne, +as contrasted with the singularly inadequate though virtually +corresponding declaration of the English Convention, that +James <span style='font-variant:small-caps'>II.</span> ‘had <i>abdicated</i> the government, and that the +throne was thereby vacant,’ has been often remarked by +the historians. Hume indirectly accounts for the employment +of the stronger word, by prominently stating that the +more zealous among the Scotch Royalists, regarding the +assembly as illegal, had forborne to appear at elections, +and that the antagonist party commanded a preponderating +majority in consequence; whereas in England the Tories +mustered strong, and had to be conciliated by the employment +of softer language. Malcolm Laing, in noticing the +fact, contents himself by simply contrasting the indignation +on the part of the Scotch, which had been aroused by their +recent sufferings, with the quieter temper of the English, +who had been less tried by the pressure of actual persecution, +and who were anxious to impart to Revolution at +least the colour of legitimate succession. And Sir James +Mackintosh, in his <i>Vindiciæ Gallicæ</i>, contents himself with +simply remarking that the ‘absurd debates in the English +Convention were better cut short by the Parliament of +Scotland, when they used the correct and manly expression +that James <span style='font-variant:small-caps'>VII.</span> <i>had forfeited the throne</i>.’ We are of opinion +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_259' name='page_259'></a>259</span> +that the very different styles of the two Conventions may +be accounted for on the ground that, in the one kingdom, +the monarch, according to the genius of the constitution, +was regarded as incapable of committing wrong; whereas, +in the other, he was no less constitutionally regarded as +equally peccable with any of his subjects. A peccable +monarch may <i>forfeit</i> his throne; an impeccable one can +only <i>abdicate</i> it. The argument must of course depend on +the soundness of Baillie’s statement. Was the doctrine +that the king can do no wrong a Scottish doctrine at the +time of the Revolution, or was it not?</p> +<p>It was at least not a Scottish one in the days of +Buchanan,––nor for a century after, as we may learn +very conclusively, not from Buchanan himself, nor his +followers––for the political doctrines of a school of +writers may be much at variance with those of their +country––but from the many Scottish controversialists on +the antagonist side, who entered the lists against both +the master and his disciples. Buchanan maintained, in +his philosophical treatise, <i>De Jure Regni apud Scotos</i>, that +there are conditions by which the King of Scotland is +bound to his people, on the fulfilment of which the allegiance +of the people depends, and that ‘it is lawful to depose, +and even to punish tyrants.’ Knox, with the other worthies +of the first Reformation, held exactly the same doctrine. +The <i>Lex Rex</i> of Rutherford testifies significantly to the fact +that among the worthies of the second Reformation it was +not suffered to become obsolete. It takes a prominent +place in writings of the later Covenanters, such as the +<i>Hind let Loose</i>; and at the Revolution it received the practical +concurrence of the National Convention, and of the +country generally. Now the doctrine, be it remembered, +was an often disputed one. Buchanan’s little work was the +very butt of controversy for considerably more than an +hundred years. It was prohibited by Parliament, denounced +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_260' name='page_260'></a>260</span> +by monarchs, condemned to the flames by universities; +great lawyers wrote treatises against it at home, +and some of the most celebrated scholars of continental +Europe took the field against it abroad. We learn from +Dr. Irving, in his <i>Classical Biography</i>, that it was assailed +among our own countrymen by Blackwood, Winzet, Barclay, +Sir Thomas Craig, Sir John Wemyss, Sir Lewis +Stewart, Sir James Turner, and last, not least, among the +writers who preceded the Revolution, by the meanly +obsequious and bloody Sir George Mackenzie. And how +did these Scotchmen meet with the grand doctrine which +it embodied? The ‘old maxime of the state of England,’ +had it extended to the sister kingdom, would have at once +furnished the materials of reply. If constitutionally the +King of Scotland could do no wrong, then <i>constitutionally</i> +the King of Scotland could not be deposed. But of an +entirely different complexion was the argument of which +the Scottish assailants of Buchanan availed themselves. It +was an argument subversive to the English maxim. Admitting +fully that the king <i>could</i> do wrong, they maintained +merely that, for whatever wrong he did, he was responsible, +not to his subjects, but to God only. Whatever the amount +of wrong he committed, it was the duty of his subjects, they +said, passively to submit to it. On came the Revolution. +In England, in perfect agreement with the doctrine of the +king’s impeccability––in perfect agreement, at least, so far +as words were concerned––it was declared that James had +abdicated the government, and that the throne was thereby +vacant; and certainly it cannot be alleged by even the +severest moralist, that in either abdicating a government or +vacating a throne, there is the slightest shadow of moral +evil involved. In Scotland the decision was different. +The battle fought in the Convention was exactly that which +had been previously fought between Buchanan and his +antagonists. ‘Paterson, Archbishop of Glasgow, and Sir +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_261' name='page_261'></a>261</span> +George Mackenzie, asserted,’ says Malcolm Laing, ‘the +doctrine of divine right, or maintained, with more plausibility, +that every illegal measure of James’s government was +vindicated by the declaration of the late Parliament, that <i>he +was an absolute monarch, entitled to unreserved obedience</i>, <span style='font-variant:small-caps'>AND +ACCOUNTABLE TO NONE</span>; while Sir James Montgomery and +Sir John Dalrymple, who conducted the debate on the +other side, averred that the Parliament was neither competent +to grant, nor the king to acquire, <i>an absolute power, +irreconcilable with the</i> <span style='font-variant:small-caps'>RECIPROCAL OBLIGATIONS DUE TO +THE PEOPLE</span>.’ The doctrines of Buchanan prevailed; and +the estates declared that James <span style='font-variant:small-caps'>VII.</span> having, through ‘<i>the +advice of evil and wicked councillors</i>, invaded the fundamental +constitution of the kingdom, and altered it from a legal +limited monarchy to an arbitrary despotic power,’ he had +thereby <i>forfaulted</i> his right to the crown.’ The terms of +the declaration demonstrate that Baillie was quite in the +right regarding the ‘old maxime, that the king can do no +fault,’ as exclusively a ‘maxime of the State of England.’ +By acting on the advice of ‘evil and wicked councillors,’ it +was declared that a peccable king had forfeited the throne. +The fact that there were councillors in the case did not so +much even as extenuate the offence: it was the advisers of +the King who then, as now, were accountable to the King’s +English subjects for the advice they gave; it was the King +in person who was accountable to his Scottish subjects for +the advice he took. This principle, hitherto little adverted +to, throws, as we have said, much light on the history of the +Revolution in Scotland.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_262' name='page_262'></a>262</span> +<a name='FIRST_PRINCIPLES' id='FIRST_PRINCIPLES'></a> +<h2>FIRST PRINCIPLES.</h2> +</div> +<p>There is a passage in the <i>Life of Sir Matthew Hale</i> which +has struck us as not only interesting in itself, from the breadth +and rectitude of judgment which it discloses, but also from +the very direct bearing of the principle involved in it on +some of the recent interdicts of the Supreme Civil Court. +It serves to throw a kind of historic light, if we may so +speak, on the judicial talent of our country in the present +age as exhibited by the majority of our judges of the Court +of Session––such a light as the ecclesiastical historian of a +century hence will be disposed to survey it in, when coolly +exercising his judgment on the present eventful struggle. +One of not the least prominent nor least remarkable +features of the Rebellion of 1745, says a shrewd chronicler +of this curious portion of our history, was an utter destitution +of military talent among the general officers of the +British army. And the time is in all probability not very +distant, in which the extreme lack of judicial genius betrayed +by our courts of law in their present collision with +the courts ecclesiastical, shall be regarded, in like manner, +as one of the more striking characteristics of the <i>Rebellion</i> +of the present day.</p> +<p>Sir Matthew Hale, as most of our readers must be aware, +was a devoted Royalist. He was rising in eminence as a +barrister at the time the Civil Wars broke out, and during +that troublesome period he was employed as counsel for +almost all the more eminent men of the King’s party who +were impeached by the Parliament. He was counsel for +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_263' name='page_263'></a>263</span> +the Earl of Strafford, for Archbishop Laud, for the Duke of +Hamilton, for the Earl of Holland, and for Lords Capel +and Craven; and in every instance he exhibited courage +the most unshrinking and devoted, and abilities of the +highest order. When threatened in open court on one +occasion by the Attorney-General, he replied that the +threat might be spared: he was pleading in defence of +those laws which the Government had declared it would +maintain and preserve, and no fear of personal consequences +should deter him in such circumstances from doing +his duty to his client. When Charles himself was brought +to his trial, Sir Matthew came voluntarily forward, and +offered to plead for him also; but as the King declined +recognising the competency of his judges, the offer was of +course rejected. We all know how Malesherbes fared for +acting a similar part in France. The counsel of Louis +XVI. closed his honourable career on the scaffold not long +after his unfortunate master: his generous advocacy of +the devoted monarch cost him his life. But Cromwell, +that ‘least flagitious of all usurpers,’ according to even +Clarendon’s estimate, was no Robespierre; and were we +called on to illustrate by a single instance from the history +of each the very opposite characters of the Puritan Republicans +of England and the Atheistical Republican of +France, we would just set off against one another the fate +of Malesherbes and the treatment of Sir Matthew. Cromwell, +unequalled in his ability of weighing the capabilities +of men, had been carefully scanning the course of the +courageous and honest barrister; and, convinced that so +able a lawyer and so good and brave a man could scarce +fail of making an excellent judge, he determined on raising +him to the bench. At this stage, however, a difficulty +interposed, not in the liberal and enlightened policy of +the Protector, who had no objections whatever to a conscientious +Royalist magistrate, but in the scruples of Sir +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_264' name='page_264'></a>264</span> +Matthew, who at first doubted the propriety of taking +office under what he deemed a usurped power.</p> +<p>The process of argument by which he overcame the difficulty, +simple as it may seem, is worthy of all heed. Its +very simplicity may be regarded as demonstrating the +soundness of the understanding that originated and then +acted upon it as a firm first principle, especially when we +take into account the exquisitely nice character of the conscience +which it had to satisfy. It is absolutely necessary +for the wellbeing of society, argued Sir Matthew, that justice +be administered between man and man; and the necessity +exists altogether independently of the great political +events which affect the sources of power, by changing +dynasties or revolutionizing governments. The claim of +the supreme ruler <i>de facto</i> may be a bad one; he may owe +his power to some act of great political injustice––to an +iniquitous war––to an indefensible revolution––to a foul +conspiracy; but the flaw in his title cannot be regarded as +weakening in the least the claim of the people under him +to the administration of justice among them as the ordinance +of God. The <i>right</i> of the honest man to be protected +by the magistrate from the thief––the right of the +peaceable man to be protected by the magistrate from the +assassin––is not a conditional right, dependent on the title +of the ruler: it is as clear and certain during those periods +so common in history, when the supreme power is illegitimately +vested, as during the happier periods of undisputed +legitimacy. And to be a minister of God for the administration +of justice, if the office be attainable without sin, is +as certainly right at all times as the just exercise of the +magistrate’s functions is right at all times. If it be right +that society be protected by the magistrate, it is as unequivocally +right in the magistrate to protect. But it is +wrong to recognise as legitimate the supreme ruler of a +country if his power be palpably usurped. English society, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_265' name='page_265'></a>265</span> +under Cromwell, retains its right to have justice administered, +wholly unaffected by the flaw in Cromwell’s title; +but it would be wrong to recognise his title, contrary to +one’s conviction, as void of any flaw. In short, to use the +simple language of Burnet, Sir Matthew, ‘after mature deliberation, +came to be of opinion, that as it was absolutely +necessary to have justice and property kept up at all times, +it was no sin to take a commission from usurpers, if there +was declaration made of acknowledging their authority.’ +Cromwell had breadth enough to demand no such declaration +from Sir Matthew, and so the latter took his place +on the bench. Nor is it necessary to say how he adorned +it. In agreement with his political views, he declined +taking any part in trials for offences against the State; but +in cases of ordinary felonies, no one could act with more +vigour and decision. During the trial of a Republican +soldier, who had waylaid and murdered a Royalist, the +colonel of the soldier came into court to arrest judgment, +on the plea that his man had done only his duty, for that +the person whom he had killed had been disobeying the +Protector’s orders at the time; and to threaten the judge +with the vengeance of the supreme authority, if he urged +matters to an extremity against him. Sir Matthew listened +coolly to his threats and his reasonings, and then, pronouncing +sentence of death against the felon, agreeably to +the finding of the jury, he ordered him out to instant execution, +lest the course of justice should be interrupted by +any interference on the part of Government. On another +occasion, in which he had to preside in a trial in which the +Protector was deeply concerned, he found that the jury +had been returned, not by the sheriff or his lawful officer, +but by order of the Protector himself. He immediately +dismissed them, and, refusing to go on with the trial, broke +up the court. Cromwell, says Burnet, was highly displeased +with him on this occasion, and on his return from the circuit +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_266' name='page_266'></a>266</span> +in which it had occurred, told him in great anger that +‘he was not fit to be a judge.’ ‘Very true,’ replied Sir +Matthew, whose ideas of the requirements of the office were +of the most exalted character,––‘Very true;’ and so the +matter dropped.</p> +<p>‘It is absolutely necessary,’ argued Sir Matthew, ‘to +have justice kept up at all times,’ whatever flaws may +exist in the title of the men in whom the supreme authority +may chance to be vested. Never yet was there a simpler +proposition; but there is sublimity in its breadth. It involves +the true doctrine of subjection to the magistrate, as +enforced by St. Paul. The New Testament furnishes us +with no disquisitions on political justice: it does not say +whether the title of Domitian to the supreme authority was +a good title or no, or whether he should have been succeeded +by Caligula, and Caligula by Claudius, or no; or +whether or no the fact that Claudius was poisoned by the +mother of Nero, derived to Nero any right to Claudius’s +throne. We hear nothing of these matters. The magistracy +described by St. Paul is the magistracy conceived of +by Sir Matthew Hale ‘as necessary to be kept up at all +times.’ An application of this simple principle to some of +the more marked proceedings of our civil courts during +the last two years will be found an admirable means of +testing their degree of judicial wisdom. ‘It is absolutely +necessary to have justice kept up at all times,’ and this not +less necessary surely within than beyond the pale of the +Church. It is necessary that a minister of the gospel ‘be +blameless’––no drunkard, no swindler, no thief, no grossly +obscene person; nor can any supposed flaw in the constitution +of an ecclesiastical court disannul the necessity. A +man may sit in that court in a judicial capacity whose competency +to take his seat there may not have been determined +by some civil court that challenges for itself an +equivocal and disputed right to decide in the matter. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_267' name='page_267'></a>267</span> +There may exist some supposed, or even some real, flaw +in that supreme ecclesiastical authority of the country, +through the exertion of which the Church is to be protected +from the infection of vice and irreligion; but this +flaw, real or supposed, furnishes no adequate cause why +justice in the Church ‘should not be kept up.’ ‘Justice,’ +said Sir Matthew, ‘must be kept up at all times,’ whatever +the irregularities of title which may occur in the supreme +authority. The great society of the Church has a right to +justice, whether it be decided that the ministers of <i>quoad +sacra</i> parishes have what has been termed a <i>legal</i> right to +sit in ecclesiastical courts or no. The devout and honest +church member has a right to be protected from the blasphemous +profanities of the wretched minister who is a thief +or wretched swindler; the chaste and sober have a right to +be protected from the ministrations of the drunken and the +obscene wretch, whose preaching is but mockery, and his +dispensations of the sacrament sacrilege. The Church has +a right to purge itself of such ministers; and these sacred +rights no supposed, even no real, flaw in the constitution +of its courts ought to be permitted to affect. ‘Justice may +be kept up at all times.’ We have said that the principle +of Sir Matthew Hale serves to throw a kind of historic +light on the judicial talent of our country in the present +age, as represented by the majority of our Lords of Session. +It enables us, in some sort, to anticipate regarding it the +decision of posterity. The list of cases of protection +afforded by the civil court will of itself form a curious +climax in the page of some future historian. Swindling +will come after drunkenness in the series, theft will follow +after swindling, and the miserable catalogue will be summed +up by an offence which we must not name. And it will be +remarked that all these gross crimes were fenced round and +protected in professed ministers of the gospel by the interference +of the civil courts, just because a majority of the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_268' name='page_268'></a>268</span> +judges were men so defective in judicial genius that they +lost sight of the very first principles of their profession, and +held that ‘justice is <i>not</i> to be kept up at all times.’ But +we leave our readers to follow up the subject. Some of the +principles to which we have referred may serve to throw +additional light on the remark of Lord Ivory, when recalling +the interdict in the Southend case. ‘Even were the +objection against the competency of <i>quoad sacra</i> ministers +to be ultimately sustained,’ said his Lordship, ‘I am disposed +to hold that the judicial acts and sentences of the General +Assembly and its Commission, <i>bona fide</i> pronounced in the +interim, should be given effect to notwithstanding.’</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_269' name='page_269'></a>269</span> +<a name='AN_UNSPOKEN_SPEECH' id='AN_UNSPOKEN_SPEECH'></a> +<h2>AN UNSPOKEN SPEECH.</h2> +</div> +<p>We enjoyed the honour on Wednesday last of being present +as a guest at the annual soiree of the Scottish Young Men’s +Society, and derived much pleasure from the general appearance +of the meeting, and the addresses of the members +and their friends. The body of the great Waterloo Room +was crowded on the occasion with a respectable, intellectual-looking +audience, including from about a hundred and fifty to +two hundred members of the Society, all of them young men +banded together for mutual improvement, and most of them +in that important decade of life––by far the most important of +the appointed seven––which intervenes between the fifteenth +and the five-and-twentieth year. The platform was equally +well filled, and the Sheriff of Edinburgh occupied the chair. +We felt a particular interest in the objects of the Society, +and a deep sympathy with its members; for, as we listened +to the various speakers, and our eyes glanced over the intelligent +countenances that thronged the area of the apartment, +we thought of past difficulties encountered in a cause +similar to that which formed the uniting bond of the Society, +and of not a few wrecks which we had witnessed of men +who had set out in life from the humbler levels, with the +determination of pressing their way upwards. And feeling +somewhat after the manner that an old sailor would feel +who saw a crew of young ones setting out to thread their +way through some dangerous strait, the perils of which he +had already encountered, or to sail round some formidable +cape, which, after many an unsuccessful attempt, he had +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_270' name='page_270'></a>270</span> +doubled, we fancied ourselves in the position of one qualified +to give them some little advice regarding the navigation +of the seas on which they were just entering. But, be the +fact of qualification as it may, we found ourselves, after +leaving the room, addressing them, in imagination, in a few +plain words, regarding some of the rocks, and shoals, and +insidious currents, which we knew lay in their course. Men +whose words come slowly and painfully when among their +fellows, can be quite fluent enough when they speak inwards +without breaking silence, and have merely an imaginary +assemblage for their audience; and so our short address +went off glibly, without break or interruption, in the style of +ordinary conversational gossip. There are curious precedents +on record for the printing of unspoken speeches. +Rejecting, however, all the higher ones, we shall be quite +content to take our precedent from the famous speech which +the ‘indigent philosopher’ addresses, in one of Goldsmith’s +<i>Essays</i>, to Mr. Bellowsmender and the Cateaton Club. The +philosopher begins, it will be remembered, by telling his +imaginary audience, that though Nathan Ben Funk, the +rich Jew, might feel a natural interest in the state of the +stocks, it was nothing to them, who had no money; and +concludes by quoting the ‘famous author called Lilly’s +Grammar.’</p> +<p>‘Members of the Scottish Young Men’s Society,’ we +said, ‘it is rather late in life for the individual who now +addresses you to attempt acquiring the art of the public +speaker. Those who have been most in the habit of +noticing the effect of the several mechanical professions +on character and intellect, divide them into two classes––the +<i>sedentary</i> and the <i>laborious</i>; and they remark, that +while in the <i>sedentary</i>, such as the printing, weaving, tailoring, +and shoemaking trades, there are usually a considerable +proportion of fluent speakers, in the <i>laborious</i> trades, on the +other hand, such as those of the mason, ship-carpenter, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_271' name='page_271'></a>271</span> +ploughman, and blacksmith, one generally meets with but +taciturn, slow-speaking men. We need scarce say in which +of these schools we have been trained. You will at once +see––to borrow from one of the best and most ancient of +writers––that we are “not eloquent,” but “a man of slow +speech, and of a slow tongue.” And yet we think we may +venture addressing ourselves, in a few plain words, to an +association of young men united for the purpose of mutual +improvement. We ought and we do sympathize with you +in your object; and we congratulate you on the facilities +which your numbers, and your library, and your residence +in one of the most intellectual cities in the world, cannot +fail to afford you in its pursuit. We ourselves have known +what it is to prosecute in solitude, with but few books, and +encompassed by many difficulties, the search after knowledge; +and we have seen year after year pass by, and the +obstacles in our way remaining apparently as great as at +first. And were we to sum up the condensed result of our +experience in two brief words of advice, it would amount +simply to this, “Never despair.” We are told of Commodore +Anson––a man whose sense and courage ultimately +triumphed over a series of perhaps the most appalling +disasters man ever encountered, and who won for himself, +by his magnanimity, sagacity, and cool resolution, the +applauses of even his enemies, so that Rousseau and +Voltaire eulogized him, the one in history, the other in +romance,––we are told, we say, of this Anson, that when +raised to the British peerage, he was permitted to select his +own motto, and that he chose an eminently characteristic +one––“<i>Nil Desperandum</i>.” By all means let it be your +motto also––not as a thing to be paraded on some heraldic +label, but to be engraved upon your hearts. We wish that, +amid the elegancies of this hall, we could bring up before +you some of the scenes of our past life. They would +form a curious panorama, and might serve to teach that +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_272' name='page_272'></a>272</span> +in no circumstances, however apparently desperate, should +men lose hope. Never forget that it is not necessary, in +order to overcome gigantic difficulties, that one’s strength +should be gigantic. Persevering exertion is much more +than strength. We owe to shovels and wheelbarrows, and +human muscles of the average size and vigour, the great +railway which connects the capitals of the two kingdoms. +And the difficulties which encompass the young man of +humble circumstances and imperfect education, must be +regarded as coming under the same category as difficulties +of the purely physical kind. Interrupted or insulated +efforts, however vigorous, will be found to be but of little +avail. It is to the element of continuity that you must +trust. There is a world of sense in Sir Walter Scott’s favourite +proverb, “<i>Time</i> and I, gentlemen, against any two.” +But though it be unnecessary, in order to secure success, +that one’s efforts in the contest with gigantic difficulties +should be themselves gigantic, it is essentially necessary +that they should employ one’s whole strength. Half efforts +never accomplish anything. “No man ever did anything +well,” says Johnson, “to which he did not apply the whole +bent of his mind.” And unless a man keep his head cool, +and his faculties undissipated, he need not expect that his +efforts can ever be other than half efforts, or other than of +a desultory, fitful, non-productive kind. We do not stand +here in the character of a modern Rechabite. But this we +must say: Let no young man ever beguile himself with the +hope that he is to make a figure in society, or rise in the +world, unless, as the apostle expresses it, he be “temperate +in all things.” Scotland has produced not a few distinguished +men who were unfortunately <i>not</i> temperate; but +it is well known that of one of the greatest of them all––perhaps +one of the most vigorous-minded men our country +ever produced––the intemperate habits were not formed +early. Robert Burns, up till his twenty-sixth year, when +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_273' name='page_273'></a>273</span> +he had mastered all his powers, and produced some of +his finest poems, was an eminently sober man. Climbing +requires not only a steady foot, but a strong head; and +we question whether any one ever climbed the perilous +steep, where, according to Beattie, “Fame’s proud temple +shines afar,” who did not keep his head cool during the +process. So far as our own experience goes, we can truly +state, that though we have known not a few working men, +possessed some of them of strong intellects, and some of +them of fine taste, and even of genius, not one have we +ever known who rose either to eminence or a competency +under early formed habits of intemperance. These indeed +are the difficulties that cannot be surmounted, and the +only ones. Rather more than thirty years ago, the drinking +usages of the country were more numerous than they are +now. In the mechanical profession in which we laboured +they were many: when a foundation was laid, the workmen +were treated to drink; they were treated to drink +when the walls were levelled; they were treated to drink +when the building was finished; they were treated to drink +when an apprentice joined the squad; treated to drink +when his apron was washed; treated to drink when his +“time was out;” and occasionally they learned to treat +one another to drink. At the first house upon which we +were engaged as a slim apprentice boy, the workmen had +a royal founding-pint, and two whole glasses of whisky +came to our share. A full-grown man might not deem a +gill of usquebhae an over-dose, but it was too much for a +boy unaccustomed to strong drink; and when the party +broke up, and we got home to our few books––few, but +good, and which we had learned at even an earlier period +to pore over with delight––we found, as we opened the +page of a favourite author, the letters dancing before our +eyes, and that we could no longer master his sense. The +state was perhaps a not very favourable one for forming a +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_274' name='page_274'></a>274</span> +resolution in, but we believe the effort served to sober us. +We determined in that hour that never more would we +sacrifice our capacity of intellectual enjoyment to a drinking +usage; and during the fifteen years which we spent as +an operative mason, we held, through God’s help, by the +determination. We are not sure whether, save for that determination, +we would have had the honour of a place on +this platform to-night. But there are other kinds of intoxication +than that which it is the nature of strong drink or of +drugs to produce. Bacon speaks of a “natural drunkenness.” +And the hallucinations of this natural drunkenness +must be avoided if you would prosper. Let us specify one +of these. Never let yourselves be beguiled by the idea +that fate has misplaced you in life, and that were you in +some other sphere you would rise. It is true that some +men <i>are</i> greatly misplaced; but to brood over the idea is +not the best way of getting the necessary exchange effected. +It is not the way at all. Often the best policy in the case +is just to forget the misplacement. We remember once +deeming ourselves misplaced, when, in a season of bad +health and consequent despondency, we had to work +among labourers in a quarry. But the feeling soon passed, +and we set ourselves carefully to examine the quarry. +Cowper describes a prisoner of the Bastile beguiling his +weary hours by counting the nail-studs on the door of his +cell, upwards, downwards, and across,––</p> +<div class="poem"> +<p style='margin-left:2.0em; margin-right:0.0em; text-align:left'><span class="leadquote">“</span>Wearing out time in numbering to and fro,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.5em;'>The studs that thick emboss his iron door;</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.5em;'>Then downward and then upwards, then aslant</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.5em;'>And then alternate; with a sickly hope</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.5em;'>By dint of change to give his tasteless task</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.5em;'>Some relish; till, the sum exactly found</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.5em;'>In all directions, he begins again.”</span><br /></p> +</div> +<p>It was idle work; for to reckon up the door-studs never so +often was not the way of opening up the door. But in carefully +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_275' name='page_275'></a>275</span> +examining and recording for our own use the appearances +of the stony bars of our prison, we were greatly more +profitably employed. Nay, we had stumbled on one of the +best possible modes of escaping from our prison. We were +in reality getting hold of its bolts and its stancheons, and +converting them into tools in the work of breaking out. +We remember once passing a whole season in one of the +dreariest districts of the north-western Highlands,––a district +included in that unhappy tract of country, doomed, +we fear, to poverty and suffering, which we find marked +in the rain-map of Europe with a double shade of blackness. +We had hard work, and often soaking rain, during +the day; and at night our damp fuel filled the turf hut in +which we sheltered with suffocating smoke, and afforded +no light by which to read. Nor––even ere the year got +into its wane, and when in the long evenings we <i>had</i> light––had +we any books to read by it, or a single literary or +scientific friend with whom to exchange an idea. We remember +at another time living in an agricultural district +in the low country, in a hovel that was open along the +ridge of the roof from gable to gable, so that as we lay +a-bed we could tell the hours of the night by the stars +that were passing overhead across the chasm. There were +about half-a-dozen farm-servants, victims to the bothie +system, that ate and slept in the same place; and often, +long after midnight, a disreputable poacher used to come +stealthily in, and fling himself down on a lair of straw that +he had prepared for himself in a corner. Now, both the +Highland hut and the Lowland hovel, with their accompaniments +of protracted and uncongenial labour, might be +regarded as dreary prisons; and yet we found them to be +in reality useful schools, very necessary to our education. +And now, when we hear about the state of the Highlands, +and the character of our poor Highlanders, and of the +influence of the bothie system and of the game-laws, we +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_276' name='page_276'></a>276</span> +feel that we know considerably more about such matters +than if our experience had been of a more limited or more +pleasant kind. There are few such prisons in which a +young man of energy and a brave heart can be placed, in +which he will not gain more by taking kindly to his work, +and looking well about him, than by wasting himself in +convulsive endeavours to escape. If he but learn to think +of his prison as a school, there is good hope of his ultimately +getting out of it. Were a butcher’s boy to ask us––you +will not deem the illustration too low, for you will +remember that Henry Kirke White was once a butcher’s +boy––were he to ask us how we thought he could best +escape from his miserable employment, we would at once +say, You have rare opportunities of observation; you may +be a butcher’s boy in body, but in mind you may become +an adept in one of the profoundest of the sciences, that +of comparative anatomy;––think of yourself as not in a +prison, but in a school, and there is no fear but you will +rise. There is another delusion of that “natural drunkenness” +referred to, against which you must also be warned. +Never sacrifice your independence to a phantom. We +have seen young men utterly ruin themselves through the +vain belief that they were too good for their work. They +were mostly lads of a literary turn, who had got a knack +of versifying, and who, in the fond belief that they were +poets and men of genius, and that poets and men of genius +should be above the soil and drudgery of mechanical labour, +gave up the profession by which they had lived, poorly +mayhap, but independently, and got none other to set in +its place. A mistake of this character is always a fatal +one; and we trust all of you will ever remember, that +though a man may think himself above his work, no man +<i>is</i>, or no man ought to think himself, above the high dignity +of being independent. In truth, he is but a sorry, weak +fellow who measures himself by the conventional status of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_277' name='page_277'></a>277</span> +the labour by which he lives. Our great poet formed a +correcter estimate:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<p style='margin-left:2.0em; margin-right:0.0em; text-align:left'><span class="leadquote">“</span>What though on hamely fare we dine,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.5em;'>Wear hodden grey, and a’ that?</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.5em;'>Gie fools their silks, and knaves their wine,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.5em;'>A man’s a man for a’ that.”</span><br /></p> +</div> +<p>There is another advice which we would fain give you, +though it may be regarded as of a somewhat equivocal +kind: Rely upon yourselves. The man who sets his hopes +upon patronage, or the exertions of others in his behalf, is +never so respectable a man, and, save in very occasional +instances, rarely so <i>lucky</i> a man, as he who bends his exertions +to compel fortune in his behalf, by making himself +worthy of her favours. Some of the greatest wrecks we +have seen in life have been those of waiters on patronage; +and the greatest discontents which we have seen in corporations, +churches, and states, have arisen from the exercise +of patronage. Shakespeare tells us, in his exquisite vein, +of a virtue that is twice blessed,––blessed in those who +give, and blessed in those who receive. Patronage is twice +cursed,––cursed in the incompetency which it places where +merit ought to be, and in the incompetency which it creates +among the class who make it their trust. But the curse +which you have mainly to avoid is that which so often falls +on those who waste their time and suffer their energies to +evaporate in weakly and obsequiously waiting upon it. We +therefore say, Rely upon yourselves. But there is One other +on whom you must rely; and implicit reliance on Him, +instead of inducing weakness, infinitely increases strength. +Bacon has well said, that a dog is brave and generous +when he believes himself backed by his master, but timid +and crouching, especially in a strange place, when he is +alone and his master away. And a human master, says +the philosopher, is as a god to the dog. It certainly does +inspire a man with strength to believe that his great Master +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_278' name='page_278'></a>278</span> +is behind him, invigorating him in his struggles, and protecting +him against every danger. We knew in early life +a few smart infidels––smart but shallow; but not one of +them ever found their way into notice; and though we +have not yet lived out our half century, they have in that +space all disappeared. There are various causes which +conspire to write it down as fate, that the humble infidel +should be unsuccessful in life. In the first place, infidelity +is not a mark of good sense, but very much the reverse. +We have been much struck by a passage which occurs in +the autobiography of a great general of the early part of +the last century. In relating the disasters and defeats +experienced in a certain campaign by two subordinate +general officers, chiefly through misconduct, and a lack +of the necessary shrewdness, he adds, “I ever suspected +the judgment of these men since I found that they professed +themselves infidels.” The sagacious general had +inferred that their profession of infidelity augured a lack +of sense; and that, when they got into command, the same +lack of sense which led them to glory in their shame would +be productive, as its necessary results, of misfortune and +disaster. There is a shrewd lesson here to the class who +doubt and cavil simply to show their parts. In the second +place, infidelity, on the principle of Bacon, is a weak, +tottering thing, unbuttressed by that support which gives +to poor human nature half its strength and all its dignity. +But, above all, in the third and last place, the humble +infidel, unballasted by right principle, sets out on the +perilous voyage of life without chart or compass, and, +drifting from off the safe course, gets among rocks and +breakers, and there perishes. But we must not trespass +on your time. With regard to the conduct of your studies, +we simply say, Strive to be catholic in your tastes. Some +of you will have a leaning to science; some to literature. +To the one class we would say, Your literature will be all +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_279' name='page_279'></a>279</span> +the more solid if you can get a vein of true science to run +through it; and to the other, Your science will be all the +more fascinating if you temper and garnish it with literature. +In truth, almost all the greater subjects of man’s contemplation +belong to both fields. Of subjects such as astronomy +and geology, for instance, the poetry is as sublime +as the science is profound. As a pretty general rule, you +will perhaps find literature most engaging in youth, and +science as you grow in years. But faculties for both have +been given you by the great Taskmaster, and it is your +bounden duty that these be exercised aright. And so let +us urge you, in conclusion, in the words of Coleridge:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<p style='margin-left:2.0em; margin-right:0.0em; text-align:left'><span class="leadquote">“</span>Therefore to go and join head, heart, and hand,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.5em;'>Active and firm to fight the bloodless fight</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.5em;'>Of science, freedom, and the truth in Christ.”</span><br /></p> +</div> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_280' name='page_280'></a>280</span> +<a name='DISRUPTION_PRINCIPLES' id='DISRUPTION_PRINCIPLES'></a> +<h2>DISRUPTION PRINCIPLES.</h2> +</div> +<p>One of the many dangers to which the members of a disestablished +Church just escaped from State control and the +turmoil of an exciting struggle are liable, is the danger of +getting just a little wild on minute semi-metaphysical points, +and of either quarrelling regarding them with their neighbours, +or of falling out among themselves. Great controversies, +involving broad principles, have in the history of +the Church not unfrequently broken into small controversies, +involving narrow principles; just as in the history +of the world mighty empires like that of Alexander the +Great have broken up into petty provinces, headed by mere +satraps and captains, when the master-mind that formed +their uniting bond has been removed. Independently of +that stability which the legalized framework of a rightly-constituted +Establishment is almost sure to impart to its +distinctive doctrines, the influence of its temporalities has +in one special direction a sobering and wholesome effect. +Men carefully weigh principles for the assertion of which +they may be called on to sacrifice or to suffer, and are +usually little in danger, in such circumstances, of becoming +martyrs to a mere crotchet. The first beginnings of notions +that, if suffered to grow in the mind, may at length tyrannize +over it, and lead even the moral sense captive, are +often exceedingly minute.</p> +<p>They start up in the form of, mayhap, solitary ideas, +chance-derived from some unexpected association, or picked +up in conversation or reading; the attention gradually +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_281' name='page_281'></a>281</span> +concentrates upon them; auxiliary ideas, in consequence, +spring up around them; they assume a logical form––connect +themselves, on the one hand, with certain revealed +injunctions of wide meaning––lay hold, on the other, on a +previously developed devotional spirit or well-trained conscientiousness; +and, in the end, if the minds in which they +have arisen be influential ones, they alter the aspects and +names of religious bodies, and place in a state of insulation +and schism churches and congregations.</p> +<p>Their rise somewhat resembles that of the waves, as +described by Franklin in his paper on the effects of oil in +inducing a calm, or in preserving one. ‘The first-raised +waves,’ he says, ‘are mere wrinkles; but being continually +acted upon by the wind, they are, though the gale does not +increase in strength, continually increased in magnitude, +rising higher, and extending their bases so as to include +in each wave vast masses, and to act with great momentum. +The wind, however,’ continues the philosopher, ‘blowing +over water covered with oil, cannot <i>catch</i> upon it so as to +raise the first or elementary wrinkles, but slides over it, and +leaves it smooth as it finds it; and being thus prevented +from producing these first elements of waves, it of course +cannot produce the waves themselves.’ In applying the +illustration just a little further, we would remark, that within +a wholesomely-constituted religious Establishment, the influence +of the temporalities acts in preventing the rise of +new notions, like the smoothing oil. If it does not wholly +prevent the formation of the first wrinkles of novel opinion, +it at least prevents their heightening into wavelets or seas. +If the billows rise within so as to disrupt the framework of +the Establishment, and make wreck of its temporalities, it +may be fairly premised that they have risen not from any +impulsion of the light winds of uncertain doctrine, but, as +in the Canton de Vaud and the Church of Scotland, in +obedience to the strong ground-swell of sterling principle. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_282' name='page_282'></a>282</span></p> +<p>Now we deem it a mighty advantage, and one which +should not be wilfully neutralized by any after act of the +body, that the distinctive principles of the Free Church +bear the stamp and pressure of sacrifice. The temporalities +resigned for their sake do not adequately measure their +value; but they at least demonstrate that, in the estimate +of those who resigned them, the principles did of a certainty +possess value up to the amount resigned. The Disruption +forms a guarantee for the stamina of our Church’s peculiar +tenets, and impresses upon them, in relation to the conscience +of the Church, the stamp of reality and genuineness. +And that influence of the temporalities to which we refer, +and under which the controversy grew, had yet another +wholesome influence. It prevented the wrinklings of new, +untried notions from gathering momentum, and rising into +waves. The great billows, influential in producing so +much, were the result of ancient, well-tested realities: they +had rolled downwards, fully formed, as a portion of the +great ground-swell of the Reformation. The Headship of +the adorable Redeemer––the spiritual independence of the +Church––the rights of the Christian people: these were not +crotchets based on foundations of bad metaphysics; they +were vital, all-important principles, worthy of being maintained +and asserted at any cost. It is indeed wonderful +how entirely, immediately previous to the Disruption, the +Church of Scotland assumed all the lineaments of her +former self, as she existed in the days of Knox and his +brethren. Once more, after the lapse of many years, she +stood on broad anti-patronage ground. Once more, after +having been swaddled up for an age in the narrow exclusiveness +of the Act of 1799, that had placed her in a +state of non-communion with the whole Christian world, she +occupied, through its repeal, the truly liberal position with +regard to the other evangelistic churches of her early fathers. +Once more her discipline, awakened from its long slumber, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_283' name='page_283'></a>283</span> +had become efficient, as in her best days, for every purpose +of purity. She had become, on the eve of her disestablishment, +after many an intervening metamorphosis, exactly, in +character and lineament, the Church which had been established +by the State nearly three centuries before. She went +out as she had come in. There was a peculiar sobriety, +too, in all her actings. Her sufferings and sacrifices were +direct consequents of the invasion of her province by the +civil magistrate.</p> +<p>But she did not on that account cease to recognise the +magistrate in his own proper walk as the minister of God.</p> +<p>Her aggrieved members never once forgot that they were +Scotchmen and Britons as certainly as Presbyterians, and +that they had a country as certainly as a Church to which +they owed service, and which it was unequivocally their +duty to defend.</p> +<p>They retreated from the Establishment, and gave up all +its advantages when the post had become so untenable that +these could be no longer retained with honour––or we +should perhaps rather say, retained compatibly with right +principle; but they did not in wholesale desperation give +up other posts which could still be conscientiously maintained.</p> +<p>The educational establishment of the country, for instance, +was not abandoned, though the ecclesiastical one was.</p> +<p>The Principal of the United College of Saint Salvador +and Saint Leonard’s signed the Deed of Demission in his +capacity as an elder of the Church, but in his capacity of +Principal he returned to his College, and in that post +fought what was virtually the battle of his country, and +fought it so bravely and well that he is Principal of the +College still. And the parish schoolmasters who adhered +to the Free Church fought an exactly similar battle, though +unfortunately with a less happy issue; but that issue gives +at least prominence to the fact that they did not resign +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_284' name='page_284'></a>284</span> +their charges, but were thrust from them. The other +functionaries of the Assembly, uninfluenced by any wild +Cameronian notion, held by their various secular offices, +civil and military. Soldiers retained their commissions––magistrates +their seats on the bench––members of Parliament +their representative status. Nor did a single member +of the Protesting Church possessed of the franchise resign, +in consequence of the Disruption, a single political right +or privilege. The entire transaction bore, we repeat, the +stamp of perfect sobriety. It was in all its details the act +of men in their right minds.</p> +<p>Now the principles held by the Church at the Disruption, +and none other, whether Voluntary or Cameronian, are the +principles of the Free Church. A powerful majority in a +Presbyterian body, or in a country possessed of a representative +government, are vested in at least the <i>power</i> of +making whatever laws they will to make, for not only +themselves, but for the minority also. But <i>power</i> is not +<i>right</i>; and we would at once question the <i>right</i> of even a +preponderating majority in a Church such as ours to introduce +new principles into her framework, and to impose +them on the minority. We question, on this principle, the +<i>right</i> of that act of discipline which was exercised in the +present century by a preponderating majority of the Antiburgher +body in Scotland, when they deposed and excommunicated +the late Dr. M’Crie for the ecclesiastical offence +of holding in every particular by the original tenets of the +fathers of the Secession.</p> +<p>The overt act in the case manifested their <i>power</i>, but the +various attempts made to manifest their <i>right</i> we regard as +mere abortions. They had no <i>right</i> to do what they did. +The questions on which the majority differed from their +fathers ought in justice, instead of being made a subject of +legislation, to be left an open question. And we hold, on +a similar principle, that whatever questions of conduct or +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_285' name='page_285'></a>285</span> +polity may arise in the Free Church, which, though new to +it, yet come to be adopted by a majority, should be left +open questions also. Of course, of novelties in doctrine +we do not speak,––we trust that within the Free Church +none such will ever arise; we refer rather to those semi-metaphysical +points of casuistry, and nice questions of +conduct, in which the differences that perplex non-established +Churches are most liable to originate,––matters in +which one man sees after one way, and another man after +another,––and which, until heaped up into importance, +wave-like, as if by the wind, pertain not to the province +of solid demonstrable truth, but to the province of loose +fluctuating opinion. And be it remarked, that non-established +Churches are very apt to be disturbed by such +questions.</p> +<p>They are in circumstances in which the ripple passes into +the wavelet, and the wavelet into the billow. On this head, +as on all others, there is great value in the teachings of +history; and the Free Church might be worse employed +than in occasionally conning the lesson. Each fifty years +of the last century and half has been marked by its own +special questions of the kind among the non-established +Churches of Scotland.</p> +<p>The question of the last fifty years has been that Voluntary +one which virtually led to the striking off the roll of the +Antiburgher Secession Church, those protesting ministers +who formed the nucleus of the Original Secession, and to +the excommunication and deposition of Dr. M’Crie. The +question of the preceding fifty years was that connected +with the burghal oath, which had the effect of splitting into +two antagonist sections the religious body of which the +Burgher Secession formed but one of the fragments,––a +body fast rising at the time into a position of importance, +which the split prevented it from ever fully realizing. The +question of the fifty years with which the period began was +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_286' name='page_286'></a>286</span> +that which fixed the Cameronian body, not merely in a +condition of unsocial seclusion in its relation with all other +churches, but even detached it from its allegiance to the +State, and placed it in circumstances of positive rebellion. +Perhaps the history of this latter body, as embodied in its +older testimony, and the controversial writings of its Fairlys +and Thorburns, is that from the study of which the Free +Church might derive most profit at the present time. We +live in so late an age of the world, that we have little chance +of finding much which is positively new in the writings or +speeches of our casuists. When we detect, in consequence, +some of our ministers or office-bearers sporting principles +that do not distinctively belong to the Church of the +Disruption, we may be pretty sure, if we but search well, +of discovering these principles existing as the distinctive +tenets of some other Church; and the present tendency of +a most small but most respectable minority in our body is +decidedly Cameronian.</p> +<p>The passages of Scripture on which the Cameronians +chiefly dwelt in their testimony and controversial writings, +were those discussed by the Free Presbytery of Edinburgh +on Wednesday last. As condemnatory of what is designated +the great national sin of the Union, for instance, the testimony +adduces, among other texts, Isa. viii. 12, ‘Say ye not, +A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, +A confederacy;’ Hos. vii. 8, 9, ‘Ephraim hath mixed himself +among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned. Strangers +have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not; yea, +grey hairs are here and there upon him, and he knoweth it +not;’ and above all, 2 Cor. vi. 14, 15, ‘Be ye not unequally +yoked together with unbelievers; for what fellowship hath +righteousness with unrighteousness, and what communion +hath light with darkness, and what concord hath Christ +with Belial, or what part hath he that believeth with an +infidel?’ And let the reader mark how logically these +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_287' name='page_287'></a>287</span> +Scriptures are applied. ‘All associations and confederacies +with the enemies of true religion and godliness,’ says the +Testimony, ‘are thus expressly condemned in Scripture, +and represented as dangerous to the true Israel of God. +And if simple confederacies with malignants and enemies +to the cause of Christ are condemned, much more is an +incorporation with them, which is an embodying of two +into one, and therefore a straiter conjunction. And, taking +the definition of malignants given by the declarations of +both kingdoms, joined in arms <i>anno</i> 1643, to be just, which +says, “Such as would not take the Covenant were to be +declared to be public enemies to religion and their country, +and that they are to be censured and punished as professed +adversaries and malignants,” it cannot be refused but +that the prelatic party in England now joined with are +such. Further, by this incorporating union this nation is +obliged to support the <i>idolatrous</i> Church of England.’ And +thus the argument runs on irrefragable in its logic, if we +but grant the premises. But to what, we ask, did it lead, +assisted, of course, by other arguments of a similar character, +in the body with whom it originated? To their withdrawal, +from the times of the Revolution till now, from every +national movement in the cause of Christ and His gospel; +nay, most consistently, we must add––for we have ever +failed to see the sense or logic of acting a public and +political part in our own or our neighbour’s behalf, and +declining on principle to act it in behalf of Christianity or +its institutions––not only have they withdrawn themselves +from all political exertion in behalf of religion, but in +behalf of their country also. A Cameronian holding firm +by his principles of non-incorporation with <i>idolaters</i>, cannot +be a magistrate nor a member of Parliament; he cannot +vote in an election, nor serve in the army.</p> +<p>It is one of the grand evils of questions of casuistry of +this kind, that men, instead of looking at things and estimating +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_288' name='page_288'></a>288</span> +them as they really exist, are contented to play games +at logic––chopping with but the imperfect signs of things––mere +verbal counters, twisted from their original meanings +by the influence of delusive metaphors and false associations.</p> +<p>Let us just see, in reference not to mere words, but to +things, what can be truly meant by the terms ‘apostate or +apostatizing Government,’ as applied to the Government +of Great Britain. The words can have of course no just +application, in a personal bearing, to present members of +Government, as distinguished from the members of previous +Governments, seeing that the functionaries now in office are +just as much, or rather as little religious, as any other +functionaries in office since the times of the Revolution or +before. In a <i>personal</i> sense, England’s last religious government +was that of Cromwell. The term apostate, or apostatizing, +can have only an <i>official</i> meaning. What, then, in +its official meaning, does it in reality express? The government +of the United Kingdom is representative; and it is +one of the great blessings which we enjoy as citizens that it is +so,––one of those blessings for which we may now, as when +we were younger, express ourselves thankful in the words of +honest Isaac Watts, ‘that we were born on British ground.’ +At any rate, this fact of representation <i>is</i> a <i>fact</i>––a <i>thing</i>, +not a mere <i>word</i>. There is another fact in the case equally +solid and certain. This representation of the empire is +based on a population of about twenty-six millions of people; +twelve millions of whom are Episcopalian, eight millions +Roman Catholic, three millions Presbyterian, and three +millions more divided among the various other Protestant +sects of the country. And this also is a <i>fact</i>––a <i>thing</i>, not a +mere <i>word</i>.</p> +<p>In the good providence of God we were born the citizens +of an empire thus representative in its government, and +thus ecclesiastically constituted in its population.</p> +<p>And it would be a further fact consequent on the other +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_289' name='page_289'></a>289</span> +two, that the aggregate character of the Government would +represent the aggregate moral and ecclesiastical character +of the people, were every distinct portion into which the +people are parcelled to exert itself in proportion to its share +of political influence. But from the yet further fact, that +the portions have <i>not</i> always exerted themselves in equal +ratios, and from other causes, political and providential, the +character of the Government has considerably fluctuated––now +representing one portion more in proportion to its +amount than its mere bulk warranted, anon another. Thus, +in the days of the Commonwealth, what are now the six +million Presbyterians and Independents, etc., had a British +Government wholly representative of themselves; while +what are now the twelve million Episcopalians and the +eight million Papists had none.</p> +<p>England at the time produced one of those men, of a +type surpassingly great, that the world fails to see once in +centuries; and, like Brennus of old, he flung his sword into +the lighter scale, and it straightway outweighed the other. +There then ensued a period of twenty-eight years, in which +Government represented only the Episcopalians and Papists: +and then a period of a hundred and forty years more, in +which it represented only the Episcopalians and Presbyterians. +And now––for Popery, growing strong in the interval, +had been using all appliances in its own behalf, and +had not been met in the proper spiritual field––it represents +Episcopacy, Roman Catholicism, and a minute, uninfluential +portion of the Presbyterian and other evangelistic +bodies. But how, it may be asked, has this result taken +place?</p> +<p>How is it only a moiety of these bodies that is represented? +Mainly, we unhesitatingly reply, through the influence +exerted by certain crotchets entertained by the bodies +themselves on their political standing. When Government +at the Revolution, instead of being as formerly representative +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_290' name='page_290'></a>290</span> +of Episcopacy and Popery, became representative of +Episcopacy and Presbytery, Cameronianism broke off, on +the plea that the governing power ought to be representative +of Presbytery only, and that it was apostate because it +was not; and the political influence of the body has been +ever since lost to the Protestant cause. Voluntaryism, on +the other hand, neutralized <i>its</i> influence, by holding that, +though quite at freedom to exert itself in the political walk +in attaining secular objects, religious objects are in that walk +unattainable, or at least not to be attained; and so <i>it</i> also +has been virtually lost to the Protestant cause. And now +a cloud like a man’s hand arises in our own Church, to +threaten a further secession from the ranks of the remaining +class, who strive to stamp upon the Government, through +the operation of the representative principle, at least a +modicum of the evangelistic character. And all this is +taking place in an age in which the battle for the integrity +of the Sabbath as a national institute, and other similar +battles, shall soon have to be decided on political ground. +If ‘apostate’ or ‘apostatizing’ be at all proper words in +reference to the <i>things</i> which we have here described, what, +we ask, save the want either of weight or of exertion on the +part of the <i>represented</i> bodies who complain of it, can be +properly regarded as the <i>cause</i> of that apostasy? A representative +Government, if the represented be Episcopalian, +will itself be officially Episcopalian; if the represented be +Papist, it will itself be officially Papist; if the represented +be Presbyterian, it will itself be officially Presbyterian; if +composed of all three together, the Government will bear +an aggregate average character; but if, on some crotchet, +the Presbyterians withdraw from the political field, while the +others exert themselves in that field to the utmost, it will +be Popish and Episcopalian exclusively. But for a result +so undesirable––a result which, if Presbytery had been +formerly in the ascendant, might of course be called official +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_291' name='page_291'></a>291</span> +apostasy––it would be the Presbyterian constituency that +would be to blame, not the Government.</p> +<p>It will be seen that this view of the real state of <i>things</i> +was that of Knox and Chalmers, and that they acted in due +accordance with it. We are told by the younger M’Crie, +in his admirable <i>Sketches of Scottish Church History</i>, ‘that +Knox and his brethren, perceiving that the whole ecclesiastical +property of the kingdom bade fair to be soon swallowed +up by the rapacity of the nobles, insisted that a considerable +portion of it should be reserved for the support of +the poor, the founding of universities and schools, and the +maintenance of an efficient ministry throughout the country. +At last,’ continues the historian, ‘after great difficulty, the +Privy Council came to the determination that the ecclesiastical +revenues should be divided into three parts,––that +two of them should be given to the ejected prelates +during their lives, which afterwards reverted to the nobility, +and that the third part should be divided between the +Court and the Protestant ministry.’</p> +<p>‘Well,’ exclaimed Knox on hearing of this arrangement, +‘if the end of this order be happy, my judgment fails me. +I see two parts freely given to the devil, and the third must +be divided between God and the devil.’ Strong words +these. Here is a Government, according to Knox’s own +statement of the case, giving five-sixths to the devil, and +but a remaining sixth to God. But does Knox on that +account refuse God’s moiety? Does he set himself to +reason metaphysically regarding <i>his</i> degree of responsibility +for either what the devil got, or what the Government gave +the devil. Not he. He received God’s part, and in +applying it wisely and honestly to God’s service, wished it +more; but as for the rest, like a man of broad strong sense +as he assuredly was, he left the devil and the Privy Council +to divide the responsibility between them. And the large-minded +Chalmers entertained exactly the same views,––views +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_292' name='page_292'></a>292</span> +which, if not in thorough harmony with the idle +fictions which dialecticians employ when they treat of +Governments, at least entirely accord with the real condition +of things. The official character of a representative +Legislature must, as we have shown, resemble that of the +constituency which it represents. In order to alter it permanently +for the better, it is essentially necessary, as a +first step in the process, that the worse parts of the constituencies +on which it rests be so altered.</p> +<p>Now, for altering constituencies for the better, schools +and churches were the machinery of Knox and of Chalmers; +and if the funds for the support of either came honestly to +them, unclogged with conditions unworthy of the object, +they at once received them as given on God’s behalf, however +idolatrously the givers––whether individuals or Governments––might +be employing money drawn from the same +purse in other directions. ‘Ought I,’ said Chalmers in +reference to the Educational question, ‘ought I not to use, +on teetotal principles, the water of the public pump, because +another man mixes it with his toddy?’ It was not +because Popery was established in the colonies, or seemed +in danger of being established in Ireland, that the Free +Church resigned its hold of the temporalities of the Scottish +Establishment. Such endowment, instead of forming an +argument for resignation, would form, on the contrary, an +argument for keeping faster hold, in behalf of Protestantism, +of the fortalice of the Establishment; just as if an invading +army had possessed itself of the Castle of Dumbarton, with +the strongholds of Fort-Augustus and Fort-William, the +argument would be all the stronger for the national forces +defending with renewed determination the Castles of Stirling +and of Edinburgh, and the magnificent defences of +Fort-George.</p> +<p><i>February 9, 1848.</i></p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_293' name='page_293'></a>293</span> +<a name='CHARACTERISTICS_OF_THE_CRIMEAN_WAR' id='CHARACTERISTICS_OF_THE_CRIMEAN_WAR'></a> +<h2>CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CRIMEAN WAR.</h2> +</div> +<p>The war now happily concluded was characterized by +some very remarkable features. It was on the part of +Britain the war of a highly civilised country, in a pre-eminently +mechanical, and, with all its faults, singularly +humane age,––in an age, too, remarkable for the diffusion +of its literature; and hence certain conspicuous traits +which belonged to none of the other wars in which our +country had been previously engaged. Never before did +such completely equipped fleets and armies quit our shores. +The navies with which we covered the Black Sea and the +Baltic were not at all what they would have been had the +war lasted for one other campaign, but they mightily exceeded +anything of the kind that Britain or the world had +ever seen before. The fleets of Copenhagen, Trafalgar, +and the Nile would have cut but a sorry figure beside them, +and there was more of the <i>materiel</i> of war concentrated on +that one siege of Sebastopol than on any half-dozen other +sieges recorded in British history. In all that mechanical +art could accomplish, the late war with Russia was by far +the most considerable in which our country was ever engaged. +It was, in respect of <i>materiel</i>, a war of the world’s +pre-eminently mechanical people in the world’s pre-eminently +mechanical age. With this strong leading +feature, however, there mingled another, equally marked, +in which the element was weakness, not strength. The +men who beat all the world in heading pins are unable +often to do anything else; for usually, in proportion as +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_294' name='page_294'></a>294</span> +mechanical skill becomes intense, does it also become +narrow; and the history of the two campaigns before Sebastopol +brought out very strikingly a certain helplessness +on the part of the British army, part of which at least must +be attributed to this cause. It is surely a remarkable fact, +that in an army never more than seven miles removed from +the base line of its operations, the distress suffered was so +great, that nearly <i>five</i> times the number of men sank under +it that perished in battle. There was no want among them +of pinheading and pinheaded martinets. The errors of +officers such as Lucan and Cardigan are understood to be +all on the side of severity; but in heading their pin, they +wholly exhaust their art; and under their surveillance and +direction a great army became a small one, with the sea +covered by a British fleet only a few miles away. So far as +the statistics of the British portion of this greatest of sieges +have yet been ascertained, rather more than <i>three</i> thousand +men perished in battle by the shot or steel of the enemy, +or afterwards of their wounds, and rather more than <i>fifteen</i> +thousand men of privation and disease. As for the poor +soldiers themselves, they could do but little in even more +favourable circumstances under the pinheading martinets; +and yet at least such of them as were drawn from the more +thoroughly artificial districts of the country must, we suspect, +have fared all the worse in consequence of that subdivision +of labour which has so mightily improved the +mechanical standing of Britain in the aggregate, and so +restricted and lowered the general ability in individuals. +We cannot help thinking that an army of backwoodsmen +of the present day, or of Scotch Highlanders marked by the +prevailing traits of the last century, would have fared better +and suffered less.</p> +<p>Another remarkable feature of the war arose out of the +singularly ready and wonderfully diffused literature of the +day. Like those self-registering machines that keep a strict +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_295' name='page_295'></a>295</span> +account of their own workings, it seemed to be engaged, +as it went on, in writing, stage after stage, its own history. +The acting never got a single day ahead of the writing, +and never a single week ahead of the publishing; and, +in consequence, the whole civilised world became the interested +witnesses of what was going on. The war became a +great game at chess, with a critical public looking over the +shoulders of the players. It was a peculiar feature, too, that +the public <i>should</i> have been so critical. As the literature of +a people becomes old, it weakens in the power of originating, +and strengthens in the power of criticising. Reviews and +critiques become the master efforts of a learned and ingenious +people, whose literature has passed its full blow; +and the criticism extends always, in countries in which the +press is free from the productions of men who write in their +closets, to the actings of men who conduct the political +business of the country, or who direct its fleets and armies. +And with regard to them also it may be safely affirmed, that +the critical ability overshoots and excels the originating +ability. There seems to have been no remarkably good +generalship manifested by Britain in the Crimea: all the +leading generalship appears, on the contrary, to have been +very mediocre generalship indeed. The common men and +subordinate officers did their duty nobly; and there have +been such splendid examples of skilful generalship in fourth +and fifth-rate commands––commands such as that of Sir +Colin Campbell and Sir George Brown––that it has been +not unfrequently asked, whether we had in reality the ‘right +men in the right places,’ and whether there might not, after +all, have been generalship enough in the Crimea had it been +but rightly arranged. But the leading generalship was certainly +<i>not</i> brilliant. The criticism upon it, on the other +hand, has been singularly so. The ages of Marlborough +and Wellington did not produce a tithe of the brilliant +military criticism which has appeared in England in newspapers, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_296' name='page_296'></a>296</span> +magazines, and reviews during the last two years. +And yet it is possible that, had the very cleverest of these +critics been appointed to the chief command, he would +have got on as ill as any of his predecessors. In truth, the +power of originating and the power of criticising are essentially +different powers in the worlds both of thought and of +action. Talent accumulates the materials of criticism from +the experience of the past; and thus, as the world gets +older, the critical ability grows, and becomes at length +formidably complete;––whereas the power of originating, +or, what is the same thing, of acting wisely, and on the +spur of the moment, in new and untried circumstances, is +an incommunicable faculty, which genius, and genius only, +can possess. And genius is as rare now as it ever was. +Any man of talent can be converted, by dint of study and +painstaking, into a good military critic; but a Wellington +or a Napoleon had as certainly to be born what they were, +as a Dante or a Milton.</p> +<p>But by far the most pleasing feature of the war––of at +least the part taken in it by Britain––is to be found in that +humanity, the best evidence of a civilisation truly Christian, +which has characterized it in all its stages. Generous regard +for the safety and respect for the feelings of a brave +enemy, when conquered, have marked our countrymen for +centuries. But we owe it to the peculiar philanthropy of the +time, that, in the midst of much official neglect, our own sick +and wounded soldiers have been cared for after a fashion in +which British soldiers were never cared for before. The ‘lady +nurses,’ with Miss Nightingale at their head, imparted its +most distinctive character to the war. We have now before +us a deeply interesting volume,<a name='FNanchor_0020' id='FNanchor_0020'></a><a href='#Footnote_0020' class='fnanchor'>[1]</a> the production of one of +these devoted females, a native of the north country, or, as +she was introduced by an old French officer to some Zouaves, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_297' name='page_297'></a>297</span> +her fellow-passengers to the East, whom she had wished to +see, a true ‘<i>Montagnarde de Ecossaise</i>.’ The name of the +authoress is not given; but it will, we daresay, be recognised +in the neighbourhood of the ‘capital of the Highlands’ +as that of a delicately nurtured lady, the daughter of +a late distinguished physician, well known to the north of +the Grampians as an able and upright man, who, had he +not so sedulously devoted himself to the profession which +he adorned, might have excelled in almost any department +of science. And in strong sound sense and genial feeling, +we find the daughter worthy of such a father. Some of +our more zealous Protestants professed at one time not a +little alarm lest the lady nurses might be Papists in disguise; +and certainly their ‘regulation dresses,’ all cut after +one fashion, and of one sombre hue, did seem a little nun-like, +and perhaps rather alarming. But the following passage––which, +from the amusing mixture which it exhibits +of strong good sense and half-indignant womanly feeling, +our readers will, we are sure, relish––may serve to show +that some of the ladies who wore the questionable dress, +liked it quite as ill as the most zealous member of the +Reformation Society could have done, and were very excellent +Protestants under its cover. The authoress of the +volume before us is a Presbyterian; and the occasion of +the following remarks was the meeting of the British Consul +at Marseilles, and the necessity that herself and her companions +felt of getting head-dresses for themselves, that +could be looked at ere entertaining him at dinner. ‘Perhaps +it may be thought,’ says our authoress, ‘that all this +solicitude about our caps was unsuitable in persons going +out as what is called “Sisters of Mercy;” but I must once +for all say that, as far as I was concerned, I neither professed +to be a “Sister of Charity,” a “Sister of Mercy,” +nor anything of the kind. I was, as I told a <i>poissarde</i> of +Boulogne, a British woman who had little to do at home, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_298' name='page_298'></a>298</span> +and wished to help our poor soldiers, if I could, abroad. +The reason given to me for the peculiarity and uniformity +of our dress was, that the soldiers might know and respect +their nurses. It seems a sensible reason, and one which +I could not object to, even disliking, as I did, all peculiarity +of attire that seemed to advertise the nurses only as +serving God, or serving Him pre-eminently, and thus conveying +a tacit reproach to the rest of the world; for the +obligation lies on all the same. I did not feel then, nor do +I now, that we were doing anything better or more praiseworthy +than is done in a quiet, unostentatious way at home +every day. On the contrary, to many temperaments, my +own among the number, it is far less difficult to engage in +a new and exciting work like the one we were then entering +on there, than to pursue the uneventful monotony of +daily doing good at home. As for the dress itself, I have +nothing to say against it. Although not perhaps of the +material or texture I should have preferred, still the colour, +grey, was one I generally wore from choice. But I must +confess, that when I found myself restricted to it, without +what seemed a good reason, an intense desire for blue, +green, red, and yellow, with all their combinations, took +possession of me; though, now that I may wear what I +please, I find my former favour for grey has returned in +full force. However, allowing that it was desirable we +should have had some uniform costume, it certainly was +unnecessary that ladies, nurses, and washerwomen should +have been dressed alike, as we were. That was part of the +mistake I have already adverted to, and was productive of +confusion and bad feeling.’</p> +<p>Despite of the uniform dresses, however, the sick and +wounded soldiers soon learned to distinguish between the +paid nurses and the ladies who had left their comfortable +British homes to lavish upon them their gratuitous, priceless +labours. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_299' name='page_299'></a>299</span></p> +<hr class='tb' /> +<p>There is no assumption in this volume. Its authoress +writes as if she had done only her duty, and as if the task +had not been an exceedingly hard or difficult one; but the +simple facts related show how very much was accomplished +and endured. Every chapter justifies the judgment pronounced +by the tall Irish sergeant. This lady nurse is a +‘real fine woman,’––a noble specimen of the class whose +disinterested and self-sacrificing exertions gave to the late +war its most distinctive and brilliant feature. The bravery +of British men had been long established; the superadded +trait is the heroism of British women. In what circumstances +of peril and suffering that heroism was exerted, the +following extract, with which we conclude, may serve to +show. It is the funeral of one of the lady nurses, who +sank under an attack of malignant fever, that the following +striking passage records:––</p> +<p>‘The Protestant burial-ground is a dismal-looking, neglected +spot. It was chosen from an idea that Drusilla’s +friends at home might prefer it to the open hill where the +soldiers lay; but if there had been time for consideration +and inspection, it would have been otherwise arranged: for +the appearance of the place struck a chill to our hearts––it +looked so dark and dreary, with the grass more than a foot +high, and the weeds towering above it; and from its being +close to the bay, and the porous nature of the soil, the +grave which had been dug on the forenoon was almost +filled by water; and on the words, “Forasmuch as it hath +pleased Almighty God,” we heard the coffin splash into the +half-full grave. There was a general regret afterwards that +this burial-ground had been chosen, but poor Drusilla will +not sleep the less soundly; and we all agreed, on leaving +her grave, that whoever of us was next called to die, should +be buried on the hill, in the spot allotted to the poor +soldiers, open and unprotected as it was. Death seemed +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_300' name='page_300'></a>300</span> +very near to us then; we had already lost two orderlies, +and many of the nurses were lying at the gates of death. +Miss A––– had made an almost miraculous escape, and +was not yet out of danger from relapse. The first gap had +been made in our immediate party, and who of us could tell +whether she herself was not to be the next?</p> +<p>‘The evening was fast closing as we returned, some in +caiques, and others walking solemnly and sadly; for, besides +the feelings naturally attending such a scene, we all regretted +poor Drusilla, who, although she had not been long among +us, was so obliging and anxious to be of use. She was a +good-looking young woman, and immediately on her arrival +had become the object of attraction to one of the clerks, +whose attentions, however, she most steadily declined. He +still persisted in showing the most extraordinary attachment +to her, and during her illness was in such a state of excitement +and distress as to be utterly incapacitated for attending +to his duties properly. He used to sit on the stairs +leading to her room, in the hopes of seeing some one who +could tell him how she was, and went perpetually to the +passage outside her room, entreating of the Misses Le +M–––, who generally sat up with her, to let him in to +see her. This they refused till the night of her death, +when she was quite insensible, and past all hope of recovery; +so that his visit could do her no harm. He stayed +a few minutes, and looked his last on her; for in the morning +at seven o’clock she died. I shall never forget his face +when he came to my store-room, in accordance with his +duty, to correct some inaccuracy in the diet-roll. He +seemed utterly bewildered with sorrow; and Miss S–––, +who had also occasion to speak to him, said she never saw +grief so strongly marked in a human face. He insisted on +following her remains to the grave as chief mourner, and +wearied himself with carrying the coffin. No one interfered +with him; for all seemed to think he had acquired +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_301' name='page_301'></a>301</span> +the right, by his unmistakeable affection, to perform these +sad offices; and the lady superintendent, moved by his +sorrow, allowed him to retain a ring of some small value +which the deceased had been accustomed to wear.’</p> +<p><i>June 14, 1856.</i></p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_302' name='page_302'></a>302</span> +<a name='THE_POETS_OF_THE_CHURCH' id='THE_POETS_OF_THE_CHURCH'></a> +<h2>THE POETS OF THE CHURCH.</h2> +</div> +<p>It is not uninteresting to mark the rise and progress of +certain branches of poetry and the <i>belles lettres</i> in their +connection with sects and Churches. They form tests by +which at least the taste and literary standing of these bodies +can be determined; and the degree of success with which +they are cultivated within the same Church, in different ages, +throws at times very striking lights on its condition and +history. One wholly unacquainted with the recorded annals +of the Church of Scotland might safely infer, from its literature +alone, that it fared much more hardly in the seventeenth +century, during which the literature of England rose to its +highest pitch of grandeur, than in the previous sixteenth, +in which its Knoxes, Buchanans, and Andrew Melvilles +flourished; and further, that its eighteenth century was, +on the whole, a quiet and tranquil time, in which even +mediocrity had leisure afforded it to develope itself in its +full proportions. Literature is not the proper business of +Churches; but it is a means, though not an end. And it +will be found that all the better Churches have been as +literary as they could; and that, if at any time the literature +has been defective, it has been rather their circumstances +that were unpropitious, than themselves that were in fault. +Their enemies have delighted to represent the case differently. +Our readers must remember the famous instance +in <i>Old Mortality</i>, so happily exposed by the elder M’Crie, +in which Sir Walter, when he makes his Sergeant Bothwell +a writer of verses, introduces Burley as peculiarly a verse-hater, +and ‘puts into his mouth that condemnation of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_303' name='page_303'></a>303</span> +elegant pursuits which he imputes to the whole party;’ +‘overlooking or suppressing the fact,’ says the Doctor, +‘that there was at that very time in the camp of the Covenanters +a man who, besides his other accomplishments, +was a poet superior to any on the opposite side.’ It is +equally a fact, however, and shows how thoroughly the +mind of even a highly intellectual people may be prostrated +by a long course of tyranny and persecution, that Scotland +had properly no literature after the extinction of its old +classical school in the person of Drummond of Hawthornden, +until the rise of Thomson. The age in England of +Milton and of Cowley, of Otway, of Waller, of Butler, of +Dryden, and of Denham, was in Scotland an age without a +poet vigorous enough to survive in his writings his own +generation. For even the greater part of the popular +version of its Psalms, our Church was indebted to the +English lawyer Rous. Here and there we may find in it +the remains of an earlier and more classical time: its version +of the hundredth Psalm, for instance, with its quaintly-turned +but stately octo-syllabic stanzas, was written nearly +a hundred years earlier than most of the others, by William +Keith, a Scottish contemporary of Beza and Buchanan, and +one of the translators of the Geneva Bible. But we find +little else that is Scotch in it; the Church to which, in the +previous age, the author of the most elegant version of the +Psalms ever given to the world had belonged, had now––notwithstanding +the exertions of its Zachary Boyds––to import +its poetry. In the following century, the Church shared in +the general literature of the time. She missed, and but +barely missed, having one of its greatest poets to herself––the +poet Thomson––who at least carried on his studies so +far with a view to her ministry, as to commence delivering +his probationary discourses. We fear, however, he would +have made but an indolent minister; and that, though his +occasional sermons, judging from the hymn which concludes +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_304' name='page_304'></a>304</span> +the <i>Seasons</i>, might have been singularly fine ones, they +would have been marvellously few, and very often repeated. +The greatest poet that did actually arise within the Church +during the century was Thomson’s contemporary, Robert +Blair,––a man who was not an idle minister, and who, +unlike his cousin Hugh, belonged to the evangelical side. +The author of the <i>Grave</i> was one of the bosom friends of +Colonel Gardiner, and a valued correspondent of Doddridge +and Watts. Curiously enough, though the great merit of +his piece has been acknowledged by critics such as Southey, +it has been regarded as an imitation of the <i>Night Thoughts</i> +of Young. ‘Blair’s <i>Grave</i>,’ says Southey in his <i>Life of +Cowper</i>, ‘is the only poem I can call to mind which has +been composed in imitation of the <i>Night Thoughts</i>;’ and +though Campbell himself steered clear of the error, we find +it introduced in a note, as supplementary to the information +regarding Blair given in his <i>Essay on English Poetry</i> by his +editor, Mr. Cunningham. It is demonstrable, however, +that the Scotchman could not have been the imitator. As +shown by a letter in the Doddridge collection, which bears +date more than a twelvemonth previous to that of the +publication of even the first book of the <i>Night Thoughts</i>, +Blair, after stating that his poem, then in the hands of +Isaac Watts, had been offered without success to two +London publishers, states further, that the greater part of it +had been written previous to the year 1731, ere he had yet +entered the ministry; whereas the first book of Young’s +poem was not published until the year 1744. Poetry such as +that of Blair is never the result of imitation: its verbal happinesses +are at least as great as those of the <i>Night Thoughts</i> +themselves, and its power and earnestness considerably +greater. ‘The eighteenth century,’ says Thomas Campbell, +‘has produced few specimens of blank verse of so powerful +and simple a character as that of the <i>Grave</i>. It is a popular +poem, not merely because it is religious, but because its +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_305' name='page_305'></a>305</span> +language and imagery are free, natural, and picturesque. +The latest editor of the poets has, with singularly bad taste, +noted some of the author’s most nervous and expressive +phrases as vulgarisms, among which he reckons that of +friendship, the “solder of society.” Blair may be a homely, +and even a gloomy poet, in the eye of fastidious criticism; +but there is a masculine and pronounced character even in +his gloom and homeliness, that keeps it most distinctly apart +from either dulness or vulgarity. His style pleases us like +the powerful expression of a countenance without regular +beauty.’ Such is the judgment on Blair––destined, in all +appearance, to be a final one––of a writer who was at once +the most catholic of critics and the most polished of poets. +There succeeded to the author of the <i>Grave</i>, a group of +poets of the Church, of whom the Church has not been +greatly in the habit of boasting. Of Home, by a curious +chance the successor of Blair in his parish, little need be +said. He produced one good play and five enormously bad +ones; and his connection with the Church was very much an +accident, and soon dissolved. Blacklock, too, was as much +a curiosity as a poet; and, save for his blindness, would +scarce have been very celebrated in even his own day. Nor +was Ogilvie, though more favourably regarded by Johnson +than most of his Scottish contemporaries, other than a +mediocre poet. He is the author, however, of a very respectable +paraphrase––the sixty-second––of all his works the one +that promises to live longest; and we find the productions +of several other poets of the Church similarly preserved, +whose other writings have died. And yet the group of +Scottish <i>literati</i> that produced our paraphrases, if looking +simply to literary accomplishment––we do not demand +genius––must be regarded as a very remarkable one, when +we consider that the greater number of the individuals +which composed it were all at one time the ministers of +a single Church, and that one of the smallest. We know +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_306' name='page_306'></a>306</span> +of no Church, either in Britain or elsewhere, that could +now command such a committee as that which sat, at the +bidding of the General Assembly, considerably more than +sixty years ago, to prepare the ‘Translations and Paraphrases.’ +Of the sixty-eight pieces of which the collection +is composed, thirty are the work of Scottish ministers; and +the groundwork of most of the others, furnished in large +part by the previously existing writings of Watts and Doddridge, +has been greatly improved, in at least the composition, +by the emendations of Morrison and Logan. +With all its faults, we know of no other collection equal +to it as a whole. The meretricious stanzas of Brady and +Tate are inanity itself in comparison. True, the later +Blair, though always sensible, was ofttimes quite heavy +enough in the pieces given to him to render––more so +than in his prose; though, even when first introduced to +that, Cowper could exclaim, not a little to the chagrin of +those who regarded it as perfection of writing: ‘Oh, the +sterility of that man’s fancy! if, indeed, he has any such +faculty belonging to him. Dr. Blair has such a brain as +Shakespeare somewhere describes, “dry as the remainder +biscuit after a voyage.’” But the fancy that Blair wanted, +poor Logan had; and the man who too severely criticises +his flowing and elegant paraphrases would do well to beware +of the memories of his children. A poet whose pieces +cannot be forgotten may laugh at the critics. Altogether, +our ‘Translations and Paraphrases’ are highly creditable +to the literary taste and ability of the Church during the +latter half of the last century; and it serves to show how +very much matters changed in this respect in about forty +years, that while in the earlier period the men fitted for +such work were all to be found within the pale of the +Church’s ministry, at a later time, when the late Principal +Baird set himself, with the sanction of the General Assembly, +to devise means for adding to the collection, and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_307' name='page_307'></a>307</span> +for revising our metrical version of the Psalms, he had to +look for assistance almost exclusively to poets outside the +precincts of even its membership.</p> +<p>And yet, even at this later time, the Church had its true +poets––poets who, though, according to Wordsworth, they +‘wanted the accomplishment of verse,’ were of larger calibre +and greater depth than their predecessors. Chalmers had +already produced his <i>Astronomical Discourses</i>, and poor +Edward Irving had begun to electrify his London audiences +with the richly antique imagination and fiery fervour of +his singularly vigorous orations. Stewart of Cromarty, too, +though but comparatively little known, was rising, in his +quiet parish church, into flights of genuine though unmeasured +poetry, of an altitude to which minor poets, in +their nicely rounded stanzas, never attain. Nor is the race +yet extinct. Jeffrey used to remark, that he found more +true feeling in the prose of Jeremy Taylor than in the works +of all the second-class British poets put together; and those +who would now wish to acquaint themselves with the higher +and more spirit-rousing poetry of our Church, would have +to seek it within earshot of the pulpits of Bruce, of Guthrie, +and of James Hamilton. Still, however, it ever affords us +pleasure to find it in the more conventional form of classic +and harmonious verse. A Church that possesses her poets +gives at least earnest in the fact that she is not falling +beneath the literature of her age; and much on this account, +but more, we think, from their great intrinsic merit, +have we been gratified by the perusal of a volume of poems +which has just issued from the press under the name of +one of our younger Free Church ministers, the Rev. James +D. Burns. We are greatly mistaken if Mr. Burns be not +a genuine poet, skilled, as becomes a scholar and a student +of classic lore, in giving to his verse the true artistic form, +but not the less born to inherit the ‘vision and the faculty’ +which cannot be acquired. Most men of great talent have +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_308' name='page_308'></a>308</span> +their poetic age: it is very much restricted, however, to +the first five years of full bodily development, also particularly +then a sterner and more prosaic mood follows. But recollections +of the time survive; and it is mainly through +the medium of these recollections that in the colder periods +the feelings and visions of the poets continue to be appreciated +and felt. It was said of Thomson the poet by +Samuel Johnson, that he could not look at two candles +burning other than poetically. The phrase was employed +in conversation by <i>old</i> Johnson; but it must have been the +experience of <i>young</i> Johnson, derived from a time long +gone by, that suggested it. It is characteristic of the poetic +age, that objects which in later life become commonplace +in the mind, are then surrounded as if by a halo of poetic +feeling. The candles were, no doubt, an extreme illustration; +but there is scarce any object in nature, and there +are very few in art, especially if etherealized by the adjuncts +of antiquity or association, that are not capable of being +thus, as it were, embathed in sentiment. With the true +poet, the ability of investing every object with a poetic +atmosphere remains undiminished throughout life; and we +find it strikingly manifested in the volume before us. In +almost every line in some of the pieces we find a distinct +bit of picture steeped in poetic feeling. The following +piece, peculiarly appropriate to the present time, we adduce +as an illustration of our meaning:––</p> +<div class="poem" style="margin-left:0em"> +<p style='margin-left:0.0em; margin-right:0.0em; text-align:center'>DISCOVERY OF THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE.<br /></p> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +<span class="leadquote">‘</span>Strait of Ill Hope! thy frozen lips at last<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>Unclose, to teach our seamen how to sift</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>A passage where blue icebergs clash and drift,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>And the shore loosely rattles in the blast.</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>We hold the secret thou hast clench’d so fast</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>For ages,––our best blood has earned the gift.––</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>Blood spilt, or hoarded up in patient thrift,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>Through sunless months in ceaseless peril passed.</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_309' name='page_309'></a>309</span> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>But what of daring Franklin? who may know</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>The pangs that wrung that heart so proud and brave,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>In secret wrestling with its deadly woe,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>And no kind voice to reach him o’er the wave?</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>Now he sleeps fast beneath his shroud of snow,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>And the cold pole-star only knows his grave.</span><br /> + <br /> +<span class="leadquote">‘</span>Alone, on some sharp cliff, I see him strain,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>O’er the white waste, his keen, sagacious eye,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>Or scan the signs of the snow-muffled sky,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>In hope of quick deliverance––but in vain;</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>Then, faring to his icy tent again,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>To cheer his mates with a familiar smile,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>And talk of home and kinsfolk to beguile</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>Slow hours which freeze the blood and numb the brain.</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>Long let our hero’s memory be enshrined</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>In all true British hearts! He calmly stood</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>In danger’s foremost rank, nor looked behind.</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>He did his work, not with the fever’d blood</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>Of battle, but with hard-tried fortitude;</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>In peril dauntless, and in death resigned.</span><br /> + <br /> +<span class="leadquote">‘</span>Despond not, Britain! Should this sacred hold<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>Of freedom, still inviolate, be assailed,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>The high, unblenching spirit which prevailed</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>In ancient days, is neither dead nor cold.</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>Men are still in thee of heroic mould––</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>Men whom thy grand old sea-kings would have hailed</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>As worthy peers, invulnerably mailed,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>Because by Duty’s sternest law controlled.</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>Thou yet wilt rise and send abroad thy voice</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>Among the nations battling for the right,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>In the unrusted armour of thy youth;</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>And the oppressed shall hear it and rejoice:</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>For on thy side is the resistless might</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>Of Freedom, Justice, and Eternal Truth!’</span></p> +</td></tr></table> +</div> +<p>This is surely genuine poetry both in form and matter; +as just in its thinking as it is vivid in its imagery and classic +in its language. The vein of strong sense which runs +through all the poetry of Mr. Burns, and imparts to it +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_310' name='page_310'></a>310</span> +solidity and coherency, is, we think, not less admirable +than the poetry itself, and is, we are sure, quite as little +common. Let the reader mark how freely the thoughts +arise in the following very exquisite little piece, written in +Madeira, and suggested by the distant view of the neighbouring +island of Porto Santo, one of the first colonized +by the Portuguese adventurers of the fifteenth century. +Columbus married a daughter of Bartolomeo Perestrillo, +the first governor of the island, and after his marriage +lived in it for some time with his father-in-law. And on +this foundation Mr. Burns founds his poem:––</p> +<div class="poem" style="margin-left:0em"> +<p style='margin-left:0.0em; margin-right:0.0em; text-align:center'>PORTO SANTO, AS SEEN FROM THE NORTH OF MADEIRA.<br /></p> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +<span class="leadquote" style="width:0.390625em">‘</span>Glance northward through the haze, and mark<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>That shadowy island floating dark</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>Amidst the seas serene:</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>It seems some fair enchanted isle,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>Like that which saw Miranda’s smile</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>When Ariel sang unseen.</span><br /> + <br /> +<span class="leadquote" style="width:0.390625em">‘</span>Oh happy, after all their fears,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>Were those old Lusian mariners</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>Who hailed that land the first,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>Upon whose seared and aching eyes,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>With an enrapturing surprise,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>Its bloom of verdure burst.</span><br /> + <br /> +<span class="leadquote" style="width:0.390625em">‘</span>Their anchor in a creek, shell-paven,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>They dropped,––and hence “The Holy </span><ins class="trchange" title="Added closing double-quote">Haven”</ins><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>They named the welcome land:</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>The breezes strained their masts no more,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>And all around the sunny shore</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>Was summer, laughing bland.</span><br /> + <br /> +<span class="leadquote" style="width:0.390625em">‘</span>They wandered on through green arcade<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>Where fruits were hanging in the shades,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>And blossoms clustering fair;</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>Strange gorgeous insects shimmered</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>And from the brakes sweet minstrelsy</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>Entranced the woodland air.</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_311' name='page_311'></a>311</span> + <br /> +<span class="leadquote" style="width:0.390625em">‘</span>Years passed, and to the island came<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>A mariner of unknown name,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>And grave Castilian speech:</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>The spirit of a great emprise</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>Aroused him, and with flashing eyes</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>He paced the pebbled beach.</span><br /> + <br /> +<span class="leadquote" style="width:0.390625em">‘</span>What time the sun was sinking slow,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>And twilight spread a rosy glow</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>Around its single star,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>His eye the western sea’s expanse</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>Would search, creating by its glance</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>Some cloudy land afar.</span><br /> + <br /> +<span class="leadquote" style="width:0.390625em">‘</span>He saw it when translucent even<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>Shed mystic light o’er earth and heaven,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>Dim shadowed on the deep;</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>His fancy tinged each passing cloud</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>With the fine phantom, and he bowed</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>Before it in his sleep.</span><br /> + <br /> +<span class="leadquote" style="width:0.390625em">‘</span>He hears grey-bearded sailors tell<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>How the discoveries befell</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>That glorify their time;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left:0.390625em"> </span><span class="leadquote" style="width:.78125em">“</span>And forth I go, my friends,” he cries,<br /> +<span style="margin-left:0.390625em"> </span><span class="leadquote" style="width:.78125em">“</span>To a severer enterprise<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>Than tasked your glorious prime.</span><br /> + <br /> +<span class="leadquote" style="width:0.390625em">‘</span><span class="leadquote" style="width:0.78125em">“</span>Time was when these green isles that stud<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>The expanse of this familiar flood,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>Lived but in fancy fond.</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>Earth’s limits––think you here they are?</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>Here has the Almighty fixed His bar,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>Forbidding glance beyond?</span><br /> + <br /> +<span class="leadquote" style="width:0.390625em">‘</span><span class="leadquote" style="width:0.78125em">“</span>Each shell is murmuring on the shore,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>And wild sea-voices evermore</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>Are sounding in my ear:</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>I long to meet the eastern gale,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>And with a free and stretching sail</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>Through virgin seas to steer.</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_312' name='page_312'></a>312</span> + <br /> +<span class="leadquote" style="width:0.390625em">‘</span><span class="leadquote" style="width:0.78125em">“</span>Two galleys trim, some comrades stanch,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>And I with hopeful heart would launch</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>Upon this shoreless sea.</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>Till I have searched it through and through.</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>And seen some far land looming blue,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>My heart will not play free.”</span><br /> + <br /> +<span class="leadquote" style="width:0.390625em">‘</span>Forth fared he through the deep to rove:<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>For months with angry winds he strove,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>And passions fiercer still;</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>Until he found the long-sought land,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>And leaped upon the savage strand</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>With an exulting thrill.</span><br /> + <br /> +<span class="leadquote" style="width:0.390625em">‘</span>The tide of life now eddies strong<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>Through that broad wilderness, where long</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>The eagle fearless flew;</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>Where forests waved, fair cities rise,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>And science, art, and enterprise</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>Their restless aim pursue.</span><br /> + <br /> +<span class="leadquote" style="width:0.390625em">‘</span>There dwells a people, at whose birth<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>The shout of Freedom shook the earth,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>Whose frame through all the lands</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>Has travelled, and before whose eyes,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>Bright with their glorious destinies,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>A proud career expands.</span><br /> + <br /> +<span class="leadquote" style="width:0.390625em">‘</span>I see their life by passion wrought<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>To intense endeavour, and my thought</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>Stoops backwards in its reach</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>To him who, in that early time,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>Resolved his enterprise sublime</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>On Porto Santo’s beach.</span><br /> + <br /> +<span class="leadquote" style="width:0.390625em">‘</span>Methinks that solitary soul<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>Held in its ark this radiant roll</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>Of human hopes upfurled,––</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>That there in germ this vigorous life</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>Was sheathed, which now in earnest strife</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>Is working through the world.</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_313' name='page_313'></a>313</span> + <br /> +<span class="leadquote" style="width:0.390625em">‘</span>Still on our way, with careworn face,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>Abstracted eye, and sauntering pace,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>May pass one such as he,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>Whose mind heaves with a secret force,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>That shall be felt along the course</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>Of far Futurity.</span><br /> + <br /> +<span class="leadquote" style="width:0.390625em">‘</span>Call him not fanatic or fool,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>Thou Stoic of the modern school;</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>Columbus-like, his aim</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>Points forward with a true presage,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>And nations of a later age</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>May rise to bless his name.’</span></p> +</td></tr></table> +</div> +<p>There runs throughout Mr. Burns’s volume a rich vein +of scriptural imagery and allusion, and much oriental description––rather +quiet, however, than gorgeous––that bears +in its unexaggerated sobriety the impress of truth. From +a weakness of chest and general delicate health, Mr. Burns +has had to spend not a few of his winters abroad, under +climatal influences of a more genial character than those +of his own country; and hence the truthfulness of his +descriptions of scenes which few of our native poets ever +see, and a corresponding amount of variety in his verse. +But we have exhausted our space, and have given only +very meagre samples of this delightful volume, and a very +inadequate judgment on its merits. But we refer our +readers to the volume itself, as one well fitted to grow upon +their regards; and meanwhile conclude with the following +exquisite landscape,––no bad specimen of that ability of +word-painting which is ever so certain a mark of the true +poet:––</p> +<div class="poem" style="margin-left:0em"> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +<span class="leadquote" style="width:0.390625em">‘</span>Below me spread a wide and lonely beach,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>The ripple washing higher on the sands:</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>A river that has come from far-off lands</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>Is coiled behind in many a shining reach;</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>But now it widens, and its banks are bare––</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_314' name='page_314'></a>314</span> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>It settles as it nears the moaning sea;</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>An inward eddy checks the current free,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>And breathes a briny dampness through the air:</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>Beyond, the waves’ low vapours through the skies</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>Were trailing, like a battle’s broken rear;</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>But smitten by pursuing winds, they rise,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>And the blue slopes of a far coast appear,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.390625em;'>With shadowy peaks on which the sunlight lies,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.171875em;'>Uplifted in aërial distance clear.</span></p> +</td></tr></table> +</div> +<p><i>November 8, 1854.</i></p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_315' name='page_315'></a>315</span> +<a name='THE_ENCYCLOPDIA_BRITANNICA' id='THE_ENCYCLOPDIA_BRITANNICA'></a> +<h2>THE ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA.</h2> +</div> +<p>After the labour of years, the seventh edition of the +<i>Encyclopædia Britannica</i> has been at length completed. +It is in every respect a great work––great even as a commercial +speculation. We have been assured the money +expended on this edition alone would be more than sufficient +to build three such monuments as that now in the +course of erection in Edinburgh to the memory of Sir +Walter Scott. And containing, as it does, all the more +valuable matter of former editions––all that the advancing +tide of knowledge has not obliterated or covered up, and +which at one time must have represented in the commercial +point of view a large amount of capital––it must be obvious +that, great as the cost of the present edition has been, it +bears merely some such relation to the accumulated cost +of the whole, as that borne by the expense of partial renovations +and repairs in a vast edifice to the sum originally +expended on the entire erection.</p> +<p>It is a great work, too, regarded as a trophy of the united +science and literature of Britain. Like a lofty obelisk, +raised to mark the spot where some important expedition +terminated, it stands as it were to indicate the line at which +the march of human knowledge has now arrived. We see +it rising on the extreme verge of the boundary which +separates the clear and the palpable from the indistinct +and the obscure. The explored province of past research, +with all its many party-coloured fields, stretches out from +it in long perspective on the one hand,––luminous, well-defined, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_316' name='page_316'></a>316</span> +rejoicing in the light. The <i>terra incognita</i> of future +discovery lies enveloped in cloud on the other––an untried +region of fogs and darkness.</p> +<p>The history of this publication for the last seventy years––for +so slow has been its growth, that rather more than +seventy years have now elapsed since its first appearance +in the world of letters––would serve curiously to illustrate +the literary and scientific history of Scotland during that +period. The naturalist, by observing the rings of annual +growth in a tree newly cut down, can not only tell what its +exact bulk had been at certain determinate dates in the +past––from its first existence as a tiny sapling of a single +twelvemonth, till the axe had fallen on the huge circumference +of perchance its hundredth ring––but he can also +form from them a shrewd guess of the various characters +of the seasons that have passed over it. Is the ring of +wide development?––it speaks of genial warmth and kindly +showers. Is it narrow and contracted?––it tells of scorching +droughts or of biting cold. Now the succeeding editions +of this great work narrate a somewhat similar story, +in a somewhat similar manner. They speak of the growth +of science and the arts during the various succeeding +periods in which they appeared. The great increase, too, +at certain times, in particular departments of knowledge, +is curiously connected with peculiar circumstances in the +history of our country. In the present edition, for instance, +almost all the geography is new. The age has been peculiarly +an age of exploration––a locomotive age: commerce, +curiosity, the spirit of adventure, the desire of escaping +from the tedium of inactive life,––these, and other motives +besides, have scattered travellers by hundreds, during the +period of our long European peace, over almost every +country of the world. And hence so mighty an increase +of knowledge in this department, that what the last age +knew of the subject has been altogether overgrown. Vast +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_317' name='page_317'></a>317</span> +additions, too, have been made to the province of mechanical +contrivance: the constructive faculties of the +country, stimulated apparently by the demands of commerce +and the influence of competition both at home and +abroad, have performed in well-nigh a single generation +the work of centuries.</p> +<p>Even the <i>Encyclopædia</i> itself, regarded in a literary point +of view, is strikingly illustrative of a change which has +taken place chiefly within the present century in the republic +of letters.</p> +<p>We enjoyed a very ample opportunity of acquainting +ourselves with it in its infancy. More years have passed +away than we at present feel quite inclined to specify, since +our attention was attracted at a very early age to an <i>Encyclopædia</i>, +the first we had ever seen, that formed one work +of a dozen or so stored on the upper shelf of a press to +which we were permitted access. It consisted of three +quarto volumes sprinkled over with what seventy years ago +must have been deemed very respectable copperplates, and +remarkable, chiefly in the arrangement of its contents, for +the inequality of the portions, if we may so speak, into +which the knowledge it contained was broken up. As +might be anticipated from its comparatively small size, +most of the articles were exceedingly meagre. There were +pages after pages in which some eight or ten lines, sometimes +a single line, comprised all that the writers had +deemed it necessary to communicate on the subjects on +which they touched. And yet, set full in the middle of +these brief sentences––these mere skeletons of information––there +were complete and elaborate treatises,––whales +among the minnows. Some of these extended over ten, +twenty, thirty, fifty pages of the work. We remember +there was an old-fashioned but not ill-written treatise on +<i>Chemistry</i> among the number, quite bulky enough of itself +to fill a small volume. There was a sensibly written treatise +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_318' name='page_318'></a>318</span> +on <i>Law</i>, too; a treatise on <i>Anatomy</i> not quite unworthy +of the Edinburgh school; a treatise on <i>Botany</i>, of which at +this distance of time we remember little else than that it +rejected the sexual system of Linnæus, then newly promulgated; +a treatise on <i>Architecture</i>, sufficiently incorrect, as +we afterwards found, in some of its minor details, but which +we still remember with the kindly feeling of the pupil for +his first master; a treatise on <i>Fortification</i>, that at least +taught us how to make model forts in sand; treatises on +<i>Arithmetic</i>, <i>Astronomy</i>, <i>Bookkeeping</i>, <i>Grammar</i>, <i>Language</i>, +<i>Theology</i>, <i>Metaphysics</i>, and a great many other treatises +besides. The least interesting portion of the work was +the portion devoted to Natural History: it named and +numbered species and varieties, instead of describing +instincts and habits, and afforded little else to the reader +than lists of hard words, and lines of uninteresting numerals. +But our appetite for books was keen and but ill supplied at +the time, and so we read all of the work that would read,––some +of it oftener than once. The character of the whole +reminded us somewhat of that style of building common in +some of the older ruins of the north country, in which we +find layers of huge stones surrounded by strips and patches +of a minute pinned work composed of splinters and fragments.</p> +<p>This Dictionary of the three quarto volumes was the +first edition of the <i>Encyclopædia Britannica</i>,––the identical +work in its first beginnings, of which the seventh edition +has been so recently completed. It was published in 1771––in +the days of Goldsmith, and Burke, and Johnson, and +David Hume––several years ere Adam Smith had given +his <i>Wealth of Nations</i> or Robertson his <i>History of America</i> +to the public, and ere the names of Burns or Cowper had +any place in <span style='font-variant:small-caps'>British Literature</span>.</p> +<p>The world has grown greatly in knowledge since that +period, and the <i>Encyclopædia Britannica</i> has done much +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_319' name='page_319'></a>319</span> +more than kept pace with it in its merits of acquirement. +The three volumes have swelled into twenty-one; and each +of the twenty-one contains at least one-third more of matter +than each of the three. The growth and proportions of a +work of genius seem to be very little dependent on the +period of its production. Shakespeare may be regarded as +the founder of the English drama. He wrote at a time +when art was rude, and science comparatively low. All +agree, at least, that the subjects of Queen Victoria know a +very great deal which was not known by the subjects of +Queen Elizabeth. There was no gas burned in front of +the Globe Theatre, nor was the distant roar of a <i>locomotive</i> +ever heard within its dingy recesses; nor did ever adventurous +aeronaut look down from his dizzy elevation of miles +on its tub-like proportions, or its gay flag of motley. And +yet we question whether even Mr. Wakley himself, with all +his advantages, would venture to do more than assert his +equality with the Swan of Avon. Homer, too, wrote in a +very remote period,––so very remote and so very uncertain, +that the critics have begun seriously to doubt whether the +huge figure of the blind old man, as it looms through the +grey obscure of ages, be in reality the figure of one poet, or of +a whole school of poets rolled up into a bundle. But though +men fight much more scientifically now than they did at +Troy, and know much more about the taking and defending +of walled towns, no poet of the present day greatly excels +Homer,––no, not the Scotch schoolmaster even who wrote +Wolfe’s Ode, or the gentleman who sends us abstruse verses +which we unluckily cannot understand, and then scolds us +in perspicuous prose for not giving them a place in our +columns.</p> +<p>Works of genius bear no reference in their bulk and proportions, +if we may so speak, to the period at which they +are produced; but it is far otherwise with works of science +and general information: they grow with the world’s growth; +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_320' name='page_320'></a>320</span> +the tomes from which the father derived his acquaintance +with facts and principles, prove all inadequate to satisfy the +curiosity of the son: almost every season adds its ring to +the ‘tree of knowledge;’ and the measuring line which +girthed and registered its bulk in one age, fails to embrace +it in the succeeding one. And hence one element at least +in the superiority of this edition of the <i>Encyclopædia Britannica</i> +to every other edition, and every other Encyclopædia.</p> +<p>It appears at the period of the world’s greatest experience. +But there are other very important elements, characteristic, +as we have said, of a peculiarity in the literature of +the age, which have tended also to this result. We have +remarked that the first edition appeared in the days of +Hume, Robertson, and Adam Smith. None of these men +wrote for it, however.</p> +<p>In France the first intellects of the country were engaged +on their National Encyclopædia, and mighty was the mischief +which they accomplished through its means; but +works of this character in Britain were left to authors of a +lower standing. Smollett once conducted a critical review; +Gilbert Stuart an Edinburgh magazine; Dr. Johnson drew +up parliamentary debates for two years together; Edmund +Burke toiled at the pages of an Annual Register; and +Goldsmith, early in his career, wrote letters for the newspapers. +But, like the apothecary in Shakespeare, it was +their ‘poverty, not their will, that consented;’ and when +their fortunes brightened, these walks of obscure laboriousness +were left to what were deemed their legitimate +denizens––mere mediocritists and compilers. A similar +feeling seems to have obtained regarding works of an encyclopædiacal +character. The authors of the first edition of +the <i>Encyclopædia Britannica</i> were merely respectable compilers,––we +know not that any of their names would now +sound familiar to the reader, with perhaps the exception of +that of Smellie, an Edinburgh writer of the last century, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_321' name='page_321'></a>321</span> +whose philosophical essays one sometimes meets with on our +bookstalls.</p> +<p>But among the other great changes produced by the +French Revolution, there was a striking and very important +change effected in our periodical literature. The old foundations +of society seemed breaking up, and the true nature +of that basis of opinion on which they had so long rested +came to be everywhere practically understood.</p> +<p>Minds of the larger order found it necessary to address +themselves direct to the people; and the newspaper, the +review, the magazine, the pamphlet, furnished them with +ready vehicles of conveyance. Archimedes, during the +siege of Syracuse, had to quit the sober quiet of his study, +and to mix with the armed defenders of his native city, +amid the wild confusion of sallies and assaults, the rocking +of beleaguered towers, the creaking of engines, and the +hurtling of missiles. It was thus with some of the greatest +minds of the country during the distraction and alarm of +the French Revolution. Coleridge conducted a newspaper; +Sir James Mackintosh wrote for one; Canning contributed +to the <i>Anti-Jacobin</i>; Robert Hall of Leicester became a +reviewer; Southey, Jeffrey, Brougham, Scott, Giffard, all +men in the first rank, appeared in the character of contributors +to the periodicals.</p> +<p>The aspect of this department of literature suddenly +changed, and the influence of that change survives to this +day. Even now, some of our first literary names are known +chiefly in their connection with magazines and reviews. +Men such as Macaulay and Sidney Smith have scarce any +place as authors dissociated from the <i>Edinburgh</i>; and +Lockhart and Wilson are most felt in the world of letters +in their connection with <i>Blackwood</i> and the <i>Quarterly</i>. +And this change affected more than the periodicals. Its +influence extended to works of the encyclopædiacal character. +The two great Encyclopædias of Edinburgh––that +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_322' name='page_322'></a>322</span> +which bears the name of the city, and that whose name we +have placed at the head of this article––came to reckon +among their contributors the first men of the kingdom, +both in science and literature: they benefited as greatly +by the change we describe as the periodicals themselves. +The Revolution, in its reflex influence, seems to have drawn +a line in the British encyclopædiacal field between the +labours of mere compilers and the achievements of original +authorship; and the peculiarity of plan in the <i>Encyclopædia +Britannica</i>, to which we have already referred––that peculiarity +which gives an art or science entire as a treatise, +instead of breaking it down into as many separate articles +as it possesses technical terms––enabled this work to avail +itself to the fullest extent of the improvement. No author, +however great his powers, can be profound in the compass +of a few paragraphs.</p> +<p>Goldsmith could assert that in an essay of a page or two +it is even a merit to be superficial; and few there are who +possess, with Goldsmith, the pure literary ability of being +superficial with good effect.</p> +<p>But it is not enough to say of this work that it is enriched +by contributions from not a few of the ablest writers which +the present century has produced. It should be added, +further, that it contains some of the masterpieces of these +men. No one ever excelled Sir James Mackintosh in philosophical +criticism. It was peculiarly his <i>forte</i>. He was +rather a great judge of metaphysical power than a metaphysician. +And yet it is this admirable critic who decides +that the exquisitely classical dissertation of Dugald Stewart, +written for this <i>Encyclopædia</i>, is the most magnificent of +that philosopher’s works; and remarks, in accounting for +the fact, that the ‘memorable instances of Cicero and +Milton, and still more those of Dryden and Burke, seem +to show that there is some natural tendency in the fire of +genius to burn more brightly, or to blaze more fiercely, in +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_323' name='page_323'></a>323</span> +the evening than in the morning of human life.’ We are +mistaken if Sir James’s own contribution to this work does +not take decidedly a first place among his productions. +The present age has not produced a piece of more exquisitely +polished English, or of more tasteful or more nicely +discriminating criticism.</p> +<p>There is an occult beauty and elegance in some of his +thoughts and expressions, on which it is no small luxury +to repose,––lines of reflection, too, along which one must +feel as well as think one’s way.</p> +<p>What can be finer, for instance, than his remarks on the +poetry of Dr. Thomas Brown, or what more thoroughly +removed from commonplace? He tells us how the philosophic +poet ‘observed man and his wider world with the +eye of a metaphysician;’ that ‘the dark results of such contemplations, +when he reviewed them, often filled his soul +with feelings which, being both grand and melancholy, +were truly poetical;’ that ‘unfortunately, however, few +readers can be touched with fellow-feeling;’ for that ‘he +sings to few, and must be <i>content with sometimes moving a +string in the soul of the lonely visionary, who, in the daydreams +of youth, has felt as well as meditated on the mysteries +of nature</i>.’ The dissertation of Playfair is also pitched on +the highest key to which that elegant writer ever attained. +If we except the unjust and offensive estimate of the powers +of Franklin, a similar judgment may be passed on the preliminary +dissertation of Sir John Leslie. Jeffrey’s famous +theory of beauty is, of all the philosophic pieces of that +accomplished writer, by far the most widely known; and +Sir Walter Scott’s essay on the drama is at least equal to +any of the serious prose compositions of its great author. +There is something peculiarly fascinating in the natural +history of this edition,––a department wholly rewritten, and +furnished chiefly by the singularly pleasing pen of Mr. James +Wilson. It is not yet twenty years since Constable’s supplement +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_324' name='page_324'></a>324</span> +to the last edition appeared; and yet in this province, +so mightily has the tide risen, that well-nigh all the +old lines of classification have been obliterated or covered +up. Vast additions have been also made. At no former +time was there half the amount of actual observation in +this field which exists in it now; and it is well that there +should be so skilful a workman as Mr. Wilson to avail himself +of the accumulating materials. His treatises show how +very just is the estimate of his powers given to the public +in <i>Peter’s Letters</i> considerably more than twenty years ago, +at a time when he was comparatively little known. But we +cannot enumerate a tithe of the masterpieces of the British +Encyclopædia.</p> +<p>Judging from the list of contributors’ names attached to +the index, we must hold that Moderatism in the field of +literature and science is very much at a discount. But +there is no lack of data of very various kinds to force upon +us <i>this</i> conclusion. Among our sound non-intrusionists we +find the names of Lord Jeffrey, Sir David Brewster, Professor +John Fleming, Professor David Welsh, Professor Anderson, +Dr. Irvine, the Rev. Mr. Hetherington, the Rev. Mr. +Omond, Mr. Alexander Dunlop, and Mr. Cowan; whereas +of all the opposite party who record their votes in our +church courts, we have succeeded in finding the name of +but a single individual, Dr. John Lee.</p> +<p>Why has Dr. Bryce thus left the field to the fanatics? had +he nothing to insert on missions? Or could not Mr. Robertson +of Ellon have been great on the article Beza?</p> +<p>Was there no exertion demanded of them to save the +credit of the Earl of Aberdeen’s learned clergy? One of +the main defects of omission in the work (of course we +merely mention the circumstance) is the omission of the +name of one very great non-intrusionist. Ethical and metaphysical +philosophy are represented by Dugald Stewart and +Sir James Mackintosh; mathematical and physical science +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_325' name='page_325'></a>325</span> +by Sir David Brewster, Sir John Leslie, Playfair, and Robinson; +political economy by Ricardo, M’Culloch, and Malthus; +natural history by James Wilson and Dr. Fleming; +Hazlitt and Haydon discourse on painting and the fine +arts; Jeffrey on the beautiful; Sir Walter Scott on chivalry, +the drama, and romance; the classical pen of Dr. Irvine +has illustrated what may be termed the biographical history +of Scotland; physiology finds a meet expounder in Dr. +Roget; geology in Mr. Phillips; medical jurisprudence in +Dr. Traill. But in whom does theology find an illustrator? +Does our country boast in the present age of no very eminent +name in this noble department of knowledge––no +name known all over Scotland, Britain, Europe, Christendom––a +name whom we may associate with that of Dugald +Stewart in ethical, or that of Sir David Brewster in physical +science? In utter ignorance of the facts, we can, as we +have said, but merely refer to the omission as one which +will be assuredly marked in the future, when the din and +dust of our existing controversies shall be laid, and when +all now engaged in them who are tall enough to catch the +eye of posterity, will be seen in their genuine colours and +their true proportions. The article Theology in the <i>Encyclopædia +Britannica</i> is written, not by Dr. Chalmers, but new-modelled +from an old article by the minister of an Independent +congregation in Edinburgh, Mr. Lindsay Alexander––we +doubt not an able and good man, but not supereminently +the <i>one</i> theologian of Scotland.</p> +<p>We mark, besides, a few faults, of <i>commission</i> in the work, +apparently of a sub-editorial character, but which, unlike +the defect just pointed out, the editor of some future edition +will find little difficulty in amending. Works the production +of a single mind, bear generally an individual character; +works the productions of many minds, are marked rather +by the character of the age to which they belong. We find +occasional evidence in the <i>Encyclopædia</i> that it belongs to +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_326' name='page_326'></a>326</span> +the age of Catholic Emancipation,––an age in which the <i>true</i> +in science was deemed a very great matter by men to whom +the <i>true</i> in religion seemed a much less one. One at least +of the minds employed on the minor articles of the work +had palpably a papistical leaning.</p> +<p>A blaze of eulogium, which contrasts ludicrously enough +with the well-toned sobriety of what we may term its staple +style, is made to surround, like the halo in old paintings, +some of the men who were happy enough to be distinguished +assertors of the Romish Church. We would instance, as a +specimen, the biographical sketches of Bossuet and the +Jesuit Bourdaloue, written by the late Dr. James Browne. +These, however, are but comparatively minute flaws in a +work so truly great, and of such immense multiplicity. +They are some of the imperfections of a work to which +imperfection is inevitable, and which, after all such deductions +have been made, must be recognised as by much the +least faulty and most complete of its class which the world +has yet seen.</p> +<p><i>April 30, 1842.</i></p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_327' name='page_327'></a>327</span> +<a name='A_VISION_OF_THE_RAILROAD' id='A_VISION_OF_THE_RAILROAD'></a> +<h2>A VISION OF THE RAILROAD.</h2> +</div> +<div style="margin-left:2em; margin-right:2em;"> +<p style="float:left; width:auto;">[<i>Private.</i>]</p><p style="float:right; width:auto;">–––, <span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Isle of Skye</span>.</p> +</div> +<p style="clear:both" >.... I know not when this may reach you. We are +much shut out from the world at this dead season of the +year, especially in those wilder solitudes of the island that +extend their long slopes of moor to the west. The vast +Atlantic spreads out before us, blackened by tempest, a +solitary waste, unenlivened by a single sail, and fenced off +from the land by an impassable line of breakers. Even +from the elevation where I now write––for my little cottage +stands high on the hill-side––I can hear the measured +boom of the waves, swelling like the roar of distant artillery, +above the melancholy moanings of the wind among the +nearer crags, and the hoarser dash of the stream in the +hollow below. We are in a state of siege: the isle is beleaguered +on its rugged line of western coast, and all communication +within that quarter cut off; while in the opposite +direction the broken and precarious footways that wind +across the hills to our more accessible eastern shores, are +still drifted over in the deeper hollows of the snow of the +last great storm. It was only yester-evening that my cousin +Eachen, with whom I share your newspaper, succeeded in +bringing me the number published early in the present +month, in which you furnish your readers with a report of +the great railway meeting at Glasgow.</p> +<p>My cousin and I live on opposite sides of the island. +We met at our tryst among the hills, not half an hour, +before sunset; and as each had far to walk back, and as a +storm seemed brewing––for the wind had suddenly lowered, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_328' name='page_328'></a>328</span> +and the thick mists came creeping down the hill-sides, all +dank and chill, and laden with frost-rime, that settled crisp +and white on our hair––we deemed it scarce prudent to +indulge in our usual long conversation together.</p> +<p>‘You will find,’ said Eachen, as he handed me the +paper, ‘that things are looking no better. The old Tories +are going on in the old way, bitterer against the gospel than +ever. They will not leave us in all Skye a minister that +has ever been the means of converting a soul; and what +looks as ill, our great Scotch railway, that broke the Sabbath +last year, in the vain hope of making money by it, is to +break it this year at a dead loss. And this for no other +purpose that people can see, than just that an Edinburgh +writer may advertise his business by making smart speeches +about it. Depend on’t, Allister, the country’s <i>fey</i>.’</p> +<p>‘The old way of advertising,’ said I, ‘before it became +necessary that an elder should have at least some show of +religion about him, was to get into the General Assembly, +and make speeches there. If the crisis comes, we shall see +the practice in full blow again. We shall see our anti-Sabbatarian +gentlemen transmuted into voluble Moderate +elders, talking hard for clients without subjecting themselves +to the advertisement duty,––and the railway mayhap +keeping its Sabbaths.’</p> +<p>‘Keeping its Sabbaths,’ replied Eachen; ‘ay, but the +shareholders, perhaps, have little choice in the matter. I +wish you heard our catechist on that. Depend on’t, +Allister, the country’s <i>fey</i>.’</p> +<p>‘Keeping its Sabbaths? Yes,’ said I, catching at his +meaning, ‘if we are to be visited by a permanent commercial +depression––and there are many things less likely +at the present time––the railway <i>may</i> keep its Sabbaths, +and keep them as the land of Judea did of old. It would +be all too easy, in a period of general distress, to touch that +line of necessarily high expenditure below which it would +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_329' name='page_329'></a>329</span> +be ruin for the returns of the undertaking to fall. Let but +the invariably great outlay continue to exceed the income +for any considerable time, and the railway <i>must</i> keep its +Sabbaths.’</p> +<p>‘Just the catechist’s idea,’ rejoined my cousin. ‘He +spoke on the subject at our last meeting. “Eachen,” he +said, “Eachen, the thing lies so much in the ordinary +course of providence, that our blinded Sabbath-breakers, +were it to happen, would recognise only disaster in it, not +judgment. I see at times, with a distinctness that my +father would have called the second sight, that long weary +line of rail, with its Sabbath travellers of pleasure and +business speeding over it, and a crowd of wretched witnesses +raised, all unwittingly and unwillingly on their own +parts, to testify against it, and of coming judgment, at both +its ends. I see that the walks of the one great city into +which it opens are blackened by shoals of unemployed +artisans; and that the lanes and alleys of the other number +by thousands and tens of thousands their pale and hunger-bitten +operatives, that cry for work and food. They testify +all too surely that judgment needs no miracle here. Let +but the evil continue to grow––nay, let but one of our +Scottish capitals, our great mart of commerce and trade +sink into the circumstances of its manufacturing neighbour +Paisley––and the railway <i>must</i> keep its Sabbaths. But alas! +there would be no triumph for party in the case. Great, +ere the evil could befall, would the sufferings of the country +be, and they would be sufferings that would extend to all.” +What think you, Allister, of the catechist’s note?’</p> +<p>‘Almost worth throwing into English,’ I said. ‘But +the fog still thickens, and it will be dark night ere we reach +home.’ And so we parted.</p> +<p>Dark night it was, and the storm had burst out. But it +was pleasant, when I had reached my little cottage, to pile +high the fire on the hearth, and to hear the blast roaring +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_330' name='page_330'></a>330</span> +outside, and shaking the window-boards, as if some rude +hand were striving to unfasten them. I lighted my little +heap of moss fir on the projecting stone that serves the +poor Highlander for at once lamp and candlestick, and +bent me over your fourth page, to scan the Sabbath returns +of a Scottish railroad. But my rugged journey and the +beating of the storm had induced a degree of lassitude; +the wind outside, too, had forced back the smoke, until it +had filled with a drowsy, umbery atmosphere, the whole of +my dingy little apartment: Mr. M’Neill seemed considerably +less smart than usual, and more than ordinarily offensive, +and in the middle of his speech I fell fast asleep. The +scene changed, and I found myself still engaged in my late +journey, coming down over the hill, just as the sun was +setting red and lightless through the haze behind the dark +Atlantic. The dreary prospect on which I had looked so +shortly before was restored in all its features: there was the +blank, leaden-coloured sea, that seemed to mix all around +with the blank, leaden-coloured sky; the moors spread out +around me, brown and barren, and studded with rock and +stone; the fogs, as they crept downwards, were lowering +the overtopping screen of hills behind to one dead level. +Through the landscape, otherwise so dingy and sombre, +there ran one long line of somewhat brighter hue: it was +a long line of breakers tumbling against the coast far as +the eye could reach, and that seemed interposed as a sort +of selvage between the blank, leaden sea, and the deep, +melancholy russet of the land. Through one of those +changes so common in dreams, the continuous line of surf +seemed, as I looked, to alter its character. It winded no +longer round headland and bay, but stretched out through +the centre of the landscape, straight as an extended cord, +and the bright white saddened down to the fainter hue of +decaying vegetation. The entire landscape underwent a +change. Under the gloomy sky of a stormy evening, I +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_331' name='page_331'></a>331</span> +could mark on the one hand the dark blue of the Pentlands, +and on the other the lower slopes of Corstorphine. +Arthur’s Seat rose dim in the distance behind; and in +front, the pastoral valley of Wester Lothian stretched away +mile beyond mile, with its long rectilinear mound running +through the midst,––from where I stood beside one of the +massier viaducts that rose an hundred feet overhead, till +where the huge bulk seemed diminished to a slender thread +on the far edge of the horizon.</p> +<p>It seemed as if years had passed––many years. I had an +indistinct recollection of scenes of terror and of suffering, +of the shouts of maddened multitudes engaged in frightful +warfare, of the cries of famishing women and children, +of streets and lanes flooded with blood, of raging flames +enwrapping whole villages in terrible ruin, of the flashing +of arms and the roaring of artillery; but all was dimness +and confusion. The recollection was that of a dream remembered +in a dream. The solemn text was in my mind, +‘Voices, and thunders, and lightnings, and a great earthquake, +such as was not since men were upon the earth, so +mighty an earthquake and so great;’ and I now felt as if +the convulsion was over, and that its ruins lay scattered +around me. The railway, I said, is keeping its Sabbaths. +All around was solitary, as in the wastes of Skye. The +long rectilinear mound seemed shaggy with gorse and thorn, +that rose against the sides, and intertwisted their prickly +branches atop. The sloe-thorn, and the furze, and the +bramble choked up the rails. The fox rustled in the +brake; and where his track had opened up a way through +the fern, I could see the red and corroded bars stretching +idly across. There was a viaduct beside me: the flawed +and shattered masonry had exchanged its raw hues for a +crust of lichens; one of the taller piers, undermined by +the stream, had drawn two of the arches along with it, +and lay adown the water-course a shapeless mass of ruin, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_332' name='page_332'></a>332</span> +o’ermasted by flags and rushes. A huge ivy, that had +taken root under a neighbouring pier, threw up its long +pendulous shoots over the summit. I ascended to the top. +Half-buried in furze and sloe-thorn, there rested on the rails +what had once been a train of carriages; the engine ahead +lay scattered in fragments, the effect of some disastrous +explosion, and damp, and mould, and rottenness had done +their work on the vehicles behind. Some had already +fallen to pieces, so that their places could be no longer +traced in the thicket that had grown up around them; +others stood comparatively entire, but their bleached and +shrivelled panels rattled to the wind, and the mushroom +and the fungus sprouted from between their joints. The +scene bore all too palpably the marks of violence and +bloodshed. There was an open space in front, where the +shattered fragments of the engine lay scattered; and here +the rails had been torn up by violence, and there stretched +across, breast-high, a rudely piled rampart of stone. A +human skeleton lay atop, whitened by the winds; there +was a broken pike beside it; and, stuck fast in the naked +skull, which had rolled to the bottom of the rampart, the +rusty fragment of a sword. The space behind resembled +the floor of a charnel-house––bindwood and ground-ivy lay +matted over heaps of bones; and on the top of the hugest +heap of all, a skull seemed as if grinning at the sky from +amid the tattered fragments of a cap of liberty. Bones lay +thick around the shattered vehicles; a trail of skeletons +dotted the descending bank, and stretched far into a neighbouring +field; and from amid the green rankness that shot +up around them, I could see soiled and tattered patches of +the British scarlet. A little farther on there was another +wide gap in the rails. I marked beside the ruins of a +neighbouring hovel a huge pile of rusty bars, and there lay +inside the fragment of an uncouth cannon marred in the +casting. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_333' name='page_333'></a>333</span></p> +<p>I wandered on in unhappiness, oppressed by that feeling +of terror and disconsolateness so peculiar to one’s more +frightful dreams. The country seemed everywhere a desert. +The fields were roughened with tufts of furze and broom; +hedgerows had shot up into lines of stunted trees, with +wide gaps interposed; cottage and manor-house had alike +sunk into ruins; here the windows still retained their +shattered frames, and the roof-tree lay rotting amid the +dank vegetation of the floor; yonder the blackness of fire +had left its mark, and there remained but reddened and +mouldering stone. Wild animals and doleful creatures had +everywhere increased. The toad puffed out his freckled +sides on hearths whose fires had been long extinguished, +the fox rustled among its bushes, the masterless dog howled +from the thicket, the hawk screamed shrill and sharp as it +fluttered overhead. I passed what had been once the +policies of a titled proprietor. The trees lay rotting and +blackened among the damp grass––all except one huge +giant of the forest, that, girdled by the axe half a man’s +height from the ground, and scorched by fire, stretched +out its long dead arms towards the sky. In the midst of +this wilderness of desolation lay broken masses, widely +scattered, of what had been once the mansion-house. A +shapeless hollow, half filled with stagnant water, occupied +its immediate site; and the earth was all around +torn up, as if battered with cannon. The building had +too obviously owed its destruction to the irresistible force +of gunpowder.</p> +<p>There was a parish church on the neighbouring eminence, +and it, too, was roofless and a ruin. Alas! I exclaimed, +as I drew aside the rank stalks of nightshade and +hemlock that hedged up the breach in the wall through +which I passed into the interior––alas! have the churches +of Scotland also perished? The inscription of a mutilated +tombstone that lay outside caught my eye, and I paused +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_334' name='page_334'></a>334</span> +for a moment’s space in the gap to peruse it. It was an +old memorial of the times of the Covenant, and the legend +was more than half defaced. I succeeded in deciphering +merely a few half sentences––‘killing-time,’ ‘faithful +martyr,’ ‘bloody Prelates;’ and beneath there was a fragmentary +portion of the solemn text, ‘How long, O Lord, +holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood?’ +I stepped into the interior: the scattered remains of an +altar rested against the eastern gable. There was a crackling +as of broken glass under my feet, and stooping down +I picked up a richly-stained fragment: it bore a portion of +that much-revered sign, the pelican giving her young to eat +of her own flesh and blood––the sign which Puseyism and +Popery equally agree in regarding as adequately expressive +of their doctrine of the real presence, and which our Scottish +Episcopalians have so recently adopted as the characteristic +vignette of their service-book. The toad and the +newt had crept over it, and it had borrowed a new tint of +brilliancy from the slime of the snail. Destruction had +run riot along the walls of this parish church. There were +carvings chipped and mutilated, as if in sport, less apparently +with the intention of defacing, than rendering them +contemptible and grotesque. A huge cross of stone had +been reared over the altar, and both the top and one of the +arms had been struck away, and from the surviving arm +there dangled a noose. The cross had been transformed +into a gibbet. Nor were there darker indications wanting. +In a recess set apart as a cabinet for relics, there were +human bones all too fresh to belong to a remote antiquity; +and in a niche under the gibbet lay the tattered remains of +a surplice dabbled in blood. I stood amid the ruins, and +felt a sense of fear and horror creeping over me: the air +darkened under the scowl of the coming tempest and the +closing night, and the wind shrieked more mournfully amid +the shattered and dismantled walls. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_335' name='page_335'></a>335</span></p> +<p>There came another change over my dream. I found +myself wandering in darkness, I knew not whither, among +bushes and broken ground; there was the roar of a large +stream in my ear, and the savage howl of the storm. I +retain a confused, imperfect recollection of a light streaming +upon broken water––of a hard struggle in a deep ford––and +of at length sharing in the repose and safety of a cottage, +solitary and humble almost as my own. The vision again +strengthened, and I found myself seated beside a fire, and +engaged with a few grave and serious men in singing the +evening psalm, with which they closed for the time their +services of social devotion.</p> +<p>‘The period of trial wears fast away,’ said one of the +number, when all was over––a grey-haired, patriarchal-looking +old man––‘The period of trial is well-nigh over, +the storms of our long winter are past, and we have survived +them all. Patience! a little more patience, and we shall see +the glorious spring-time of the world begin! The vial is at +length exhausted.’</p> +<p>‘How very simple,’ said one of the others, as if giving expression +rather to the reflection that the remark suggested, +than speaking in reply,––‘how exceedingly simple now it +seems to trace to their causes the decline and fall of Britain! +The ignorance and the irreligion of the land have fully +avenged themselves, and have been consumed in turn in +fires of their own kindling. How could even mere men of +the world have missed seeing the great moral evil that lay +at the root of’––</p> +<p>‘Ay,’ said a well-known voice that half mingled with +my dreaming fancies, half recalled me to consciousness; +‘nothing can be plainer, Donald. That lawyer-man is +evidently not making his smart speeches or writing his +clever circulars with an eye to the pecuniary interests of +the railroad. No person can know better than he knows +that the company are running their Sabbath trains at a +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_336' name='page_336'></a>336</span> +sacrifice of some four or five thousand a year. Were there +not a hundred thousand that took the pledge? and can it +be held by any one that knows Scotland, that they aren’t +worth over-head a shilling a year to the railway? No, no; +depend on’t, the man is guiltless of any design of making +the shareholders rich by breaking the Sabbath. He is +merely supporting a desperate case in the eye of the +country, and getting into all the newspapers, that people +may see how clever a fellow he is. He is availing himself +of the principle that makes men in our great towns go +about with placards set up on poles, and with bills printed +large stuck round their hats.’</p> +<p>Two of my nearer neighbours, who had travelled a long +mile through the storm to see whether I had got my newspaper, +had taken their seats beside me when I was engaged +with my dream; and after reading your railway report, they +were now busied in discussing the various speeches and +their authors. My dream is, I am aware, quite unsuited +for your columns, and yet I send it to you. There are +none of its pictured calamities that lie beyond the range of +possibility––nay, there are perhaps few of them that at this +stage may not actually be feared; but if so, it is at least +equally sure that there can be none of them that at this +stage might not be averted.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_337' name='page_337'></a>337</span> +<a name='THE_TWO_MR_CLARKS' id='THE_TWO_MR_CLARKS'></a> +<h2>THE TWO MR. CLARKS.</h2> +</div> +<p>Among the some six or eight and twenty volumes of +pamphlets which have been already produced by our +Church controversy, and which bid fair to compose but a +part of the whole, there is one pamphlet, in the form of a +Sermon, which bears date January 1840, and two other +pamphlets, in the form of Dialogues, which bear date April +1843. The Sermon and the Dialogues discuss exactly the +same topics. They are written in exactly the same style. +They exhibit, in the same set phrases, the same large +amount of somewhat obtrusive sanctimoniousness. They +are equally strong in the same confidence of representing, +on their respective subjects, the true mind of Deity. They +solicit the same circle of readers; they seem to have employed +the same fount of types; they have emanated from +the same publishers. They are liker, in short, than the +twin brothers in Shakespeare’s <i>Comedy of Errors</i>; and the +only material dissimilarity which we have been yet able to +discover is, that whereas the Sermon is a thorough-going +and uncompromising defence of our Evangelical majority +in the Church, the Dialogues form an equally thorough-going +and uncompromising attack upon them. This, however, +compared with the numerous points of verisimilitude, +the reader will, we are sure, deem but a trifle, especially +when he has learned further that they represent the same +mind, and have employed the same pen––that the Sermon +was published by the Rev. Alexander Clark of Inverness in +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_338' name='page_338'></a>338</span> +1840, and the Dialogues by the Rev. Alexander Clark of +Inverness in 1843.</p> +<p>We spent an hour at the close of twilight a few evenings +ago, in running over the Sermon and the Dialogues, and in +comparing them, as we went along, paragraph by paragraph, +and sentence by sentence. We had before us also one of +Mr. Clark’s earlier publications, his <i>Rights of Members of the +Church of Scotland</i>, and a complete collection of his anti-patronage +speeches for a series of years, as recorded in <i>The +Church Patronage Reporter</i>, with his speech ‘anent lay +patronage’ in the General Assembly, when in 1833 he led +the debate on the popular side. The publications, in all, +extended over a period of fourteen years. They exhibited +Mr. Clark, and what Mr. Clark had held, in 1829, in 1831, +in 1832, in 1836, in 1840, and in 1843. We found that we +could dip down upon him, as we went along, like a sailor +taking soundings in the reaches of some inland frith or some +navigable river, and ascertain by year and day the exact +state of his opinions, and whether they were rising or falling +at the time. And our task, if a melancholy, was certainly +no uninteresting one. We succeeded in bringing to the +surface, from out of the oblivion that had closed over them, +many a curious, glittering, useless little thing, somewhat +resembling the decayed shells and phosphoric jellies that +attach themselves to the bottom of the deep-sea lead. Here +we found the tale of a peroration, set as if on joints, that +clattered husky and dry like the rattles of a snake; there an +argument sprouting into green declamation, like a damaged +ear of corn in a wet harvest; yonder a piece of delightful +egotism, set full in sentiment like a miniature of Mr. Clark +in a tinsel frame. What seemed most remarkable, however, +in at least his earlier productions, was their ceaseless glitter +of surface, if we may so speak. We found them literally +sprinkled over with little bits of broken figures, as if the +reverend gentleman had pounded his metaphors and comparisons +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_339' name='page_339'></a>339</span> +in a mortar, and then dusted them over his style. +It is thus, thought we, that our manufacturers of fancy wax +deal by their mica. In his <i>Rights of Members</i>, for instance, +we found in one page that ‘the gross errors of Romanism +had risen <i>in successive tides</i>, until the <i>light of truth suffered a +fearful eclipse</i> during a long period of darkness;’ and we had +scarce sufficiently admired the sublime height of tides that +occasion eclipses, when we were further informed, in the +page immediately following, that the god of this world was +mustering his <i>multifarious hosts for the battle</i>, hoping, <i>amidst +the waves</i> of popular commotion, ‘to <i>blot out the name</i> of God +from the British Constitution.’ Assuredly, thought we, we +have the elements of no commonplace engagement here. +‘Multifarious hosts,’ fairly mustered, and ‘battling’ amid +‘waves’ in ‘commotion’ to ‘blot out a name,’ would be a +sight worth looking at, even though, like the old shepherd +in the <i>Winter’s Tale</i>, their zeal should lack footing amid the +waters. But though detained in the course of our search +by the happinesses of the reverend gentleman, we felt that it +was not with the genius of Mr. Clark that we had specially +to do, but with his consistency.</p> +<p>For eleven of the fourteen years over which our materials +extended, we found the Rev. Mr. Clark one of the most +consistent of men. From his appearance on the platform +at Aberdeen in 1829, when he besought his audience not to +deem it obtrusive in a stranger that he ventured to address +them, and then elicited their loud applauses by soliciting +their prayers for ‘one minister labouring in northern parts,’ +who ‘aspired to no higher distinction on earth than that he +should spend and be spent in the service of his dear Lord +and Master,’ down to 1840, when he published his sermon +on the ‘Present Position of the Church, and the Duty of +its Members,’ and urged, with the solemnity of an oath, that +‘the Church of Scotland was engaged in asserting principles +which the allegiance it owes to Christ would never permit +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_340' name='page_340'></a>340</span> +it to desert,’ Mr. Clark stood forward on every occasion the +uncompromising champion of spiritual independence, and +of the rights of the Christian people. He took his place far +in the van. He was no mere half-and-half non-intrusionist,––no +complaisant eulogist of the Veto,––no timid doubter +that the Church in behalf of her people might possibly +stretch her powers too far, and thus separate her temporalities +from her cures. Nothing could be more absurd, he +asserted, than to imagine such a thing. On parade day, +when she stood resting on her arms in the sunshine, Mr. +Clark was fugleman to his party,––not merely a front man +in the front rank, but a man far in advance of the front +rank. Nay, even after the collision had taken place, Mr. +Clark could urge on his brethren that all that was necessary +to secure them the victory was just to go a little further +ahead, and deprive their refractory licentiates of their +licences. We found that for eleven of the fourteen years, +as we have said, Mr. Clark was uniformly consistent. But +in the twelfth year the conflict became actually dangerous, +and Mr. Clark all at once dropped his consistency. The +great suddenness––the extreme abruptness––of the change, +gave to it the effect of a trick of legerdemain. The conjurer +puts a pigeon into an earthen pipkin, gives the vessel +a shake, and then turns it up, and lo! out leaps the little +incarcerated animal, no longer a pigeon, but a rat. It was +thus with the Rev. Mr. Clark. Adversity, like Vice in the +fable, took upon herself the character of a juggler, and +stepping full into the middle of the Church question, began +to play at cup and ball. Nothing, certainly, could be more +wonderful than the transformations she effected; and the +special transformation effected on the Rev. Mr. Clark surpassed +in the marvellous all the others. She threw the +reverend gentleman into a box, gave him a smart shake, +and then flung him out again, and lo! to the astonishment +of all men, what went in Mr. Clark, came out Mr. Bisset of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_341' name='page_341'></a>341</span> +Bourtie. In order, apparently, that so great a marvel should +not be lost to the world, Mr. Clark has been at no little +trouble in showing himself, both before he went in and +since he came out. His pamphlet of 1840 and his pamphlets +of 1843 represent him in the two states: we see him +going about in them, all over the country, to the extent of +their circulation, like the mendicant piper in his go-cart,––making +open proclamation everywhere, ‘I am the man wot +changed;’ and the only uncomfortable feeling one has in +contemplating them as curiosities, arises solely from the air +of heavy sanctity that pervades equally all their diametrically +opposed doctrines, contradictory assertions, and contending +views, as if Deity could declare equally for truth +and error, just as truth and error chanced to be held by Mr. +Clark. Of so solemn a cast are the reverend gentleman’s +belligerent pamphlets, that they serve to remind one of +antagonist witnesses swearing point blank in one another’s +faces at the Old Bailey.</p> +<p>Such were some of the thoughts which arose in our mind +when spending an hour all alone with the Rev. Mr Clark’s +pamphlets. We bethought us of an Eastern story about a +very wicked prince who ruined the fair fame of his brother, +by assuming his body just as he might his greatcoat, and +then doing a world of mischief under the cover of his name +and appearance. What, thought we, if this, after all, be +but a trick of a similar character? Dr. Bryce has been +long in Eastern parts, and knows doubtless a great deal +about the occult sciences. We would not be much surprised +should it turn out, that having injected himself into +the framework of the Rev. Mr. Clark, he is now making +the poor man appear grossly inconsistent, and both an +Erastian and an Intrusionist, simply by acting through the +insensate carcase. The veritable Mr. Clark may be lying +in deep slumber all this while in the ghost cave of Munlochy, +like one of the seven sleepers of Ephesus, or standing +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_342' name='page_342'></a>342</span> +entranced, under the <ins class="trchange" title="Was 'inflences'">influences</ins> of fairy-land, in some +bosky recess of the haunted Tomnahurich. We must just +glance over these Dialogues again, and see whether we +cannot detect Dr. Bryce in them.</p> +<p>And glance over them we did. There could be no +denying that the Doctor was there, and this in a much +more extreme shape than he ever yet wore in his own +proper person. Dr. Bryce asserts, for instance, in his +speeches and pamphlets, that the liberty for which the +Church has been contending is a liberty incompatible with +her place and standing as an Establishment––and there he +stops; but we found him asserting in Mr. Clark’s Dialogues, +that it is a liberty at once so dangerous and illegal, +that Voluntaries must not be permitted to enjoy it either. +We saw various other points equally striking as we went +along. Our attention, however, was gradually drawn to +another matter. The <i>dramatis personæ</i> to which the reader +is introduced are a minister and two of his parishioners, +the one a Moderate, the other a Convocationist. It is +intended, of course, that the clerical gentleman should +carry the argument all his own way; and we could not help +admiring how, with an eye to this result, the writer had +succeeded in making the parishioners so amazingly superficial +in their information, and so ingeniously obtuse in +their intellects. They had both been called into existence +with the intention of being baffled and beaten, and made, +with a wise adaptation of means to the desired end, consummate +blockheads for the express purpose. ‘A man is a +much nobler animal than a lion,’ said the woodman in the +fable to the shaggy king of the forest; ‘and if you but +come to yonder temple with me, I will show you, in proof +of the fact, the statue of a man lording it over the statue +of a prostrate lion.’ ‘Aha!’ said the shaggy king of the +forest in reply, ‘but was the sculptor a lion? Let us +lions become sculptors, and then we will show you lions +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_343' name='page_343'></a>343</span> +lording it over prostrate men.’ In Mr. Clark’s argumentative +Dialogues, Mr. Clark is the sculptor. It is really +refreshing, however, in these days of cold ingratitude, to see +how the creatures called into existence by his pen draw +round him, and sing <i>Io Pæans</i> in his praise. A brace of +Master Slenders attend the great Justice Shallow, who has +been literally the making of them; and when at his bidding +they engage with him in mimic warfare, they but pelt +him with roses, or sprinkle him over with <i>eau de Cologne</i>. +‘Ah,’ thought we, ‘had we but the true Mr. Clark here +to take a part in this fray––the Mr. Clark who published +the great non-intrusion sermon, and wrote the <i>Rights of +Members</i>, and spoke all the long anti-patronage speeches, +and led the debate in the Assembly anent the rights of the +people, and declared it clear as day that the Church had +power to enact the Veto,––had we but him here, he would +be the man to fight this battle. It would be no such +child’s play to grapple with him. Unaccustomed as we are +to lay wagers, we would stake a hundred pounds to a groat +on the true Mr. Clark!’</p> +<p>The twilight had fallen, the flames rose blue and languid +in the grate, the deep shadows flickered heavily on +the walls and ceiling; there was a drowsy influence in the +hour, and a still drowsier influence in the Dialogues, and +we think––for what followed could have been only a dream––we +think we must have fallen asleep. At all events, the +scene changed without any exertion on our part, and we +found ourselves in a quiet retired spot in the vicinity of +Inverness. The ‘hill of the ship,’ that monarch of Fairy +Tomhans, rose immediately in front, gaily feathered over +with larch and forest trees; and, terminating a long vista +in the background, we saw Mr. Clark’s West Kirk, surmounted +by a vast weathercock of gilded tin. Ever and +anon the bauble turned its huge side to the sun, and the +reflected light went dancing far and wide athwart the landscape. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_344' name='page_344'></a>344</span> +Immediately beneath the weathercock there flared +an immense tablet, surmounted by a leaden Fame, and +bordered by a row of gongs and trumpets, which bore, +in three-feet letters, that, ‘in order to secure so valuable +an addition to the church accommodation of the parish, +the Rev. Mr. Clark had not hesitated, on his own personal +risk, to guarantee the payment of three thousand pounds.’ +Our eyes were at first so dazzled by the blaze of the lackering––for +the characters shone to the sun as if on fire––that +we could see nothing else. As we gazed more attentively, +however, we could perceive that every stone and slate of +the building bore, like the tablet, the name of Mr. Clark. +The endless repetition presented the appearance of a churchyard +inscription viewed through a multiplying glass; but +what most astonished us was that the Gothic heads, carved +by pairs beside the labelled windows, opened wide their +stony lips from time to time, and shouted aloud, in a voice +somewhat resembling that of the domestic duck when she +breaks out into sudden clamour in a hot, dry day, ‘Clark, +Clark, Clark!’ We stood not a little appalled at these +wonders, marvelling what was to come next, when lo! one +of the thickets of the Tomhan beside us opened its interlaced +and twisted branches, and out stepped the likeness +of Mr. Clark, attired like a conjurer, and armed with a rod. +His portly bulk was enwrapped in a voluminous scarf of +changing-coloured silk, that, when it caught the light in +one direction, exhibited the deep scarlet of a cardinal’s +mantle, and presented, when it caught it in another, the +sober tinge of our Presbyterian blue. Like the cloak of +Asmodeus, it was covered over with figures. In one corner +we could see the General Assembly done in miniature, and +Mr. Clark rising among the members like Gulliver in Lilliput, +to move against the deposition of the seven ministers +of Strathbogie. In another the same reverend gentleman, +drawn on the same large scale, was just getting on his legs +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_345' name='page_345'></a>345</span> +at a political dinner, to denounce his old friends and allies +the Evangelicals, as wild destructives, ‘engaged in urging +on the fall of the Establishment, in the desperation of +human pride.’ Here we could see him baptizing the child +of a person who, as he had fallen out of church-going +habits, could get it baptized nowhere else; there examined +in his presbytery for the offence with closed doors; yonder +writing letters to the newspapers on the subject, to say +that, if he <i>had</i> baptized the man’s child, it was all because +the man was, like himself, a good hater of forced settlements. +There were a great many other vignettes besides; +and the last in the series was the scene enacted at the late +Inverness Presbytery, when Mr. Clark rose to congratulate +his old associates, in all the stern severity of consistent +virtue, on the facile and ‘<i>squeezable</i>’ character of their +representative for the Assembly.</p> +<p>The conjurer came out into an open space, drew a circle +around him, and then began to build up on the sward two +little human figures about three feet high, as boys build +up figures of snow at the commencement of a thaw. Harlequin +performs a somewhat similar feat in one of the +pantomimes. He first sets up two carrots on end, to serve +for legs; balances on them the head of a large cabbage, to +serve for a body; sticks on two other carrots, to serve for +arms; places a round turnip between them, to serve for a +head; gives the crazy erection a blow with his lath sword, +and straightway off it stalks, a vegetable man. Mr. Clark +had, in like manner, no sooner built up his figures, than, +with a peculiarly bland air, and in tones of the softest +liquidity, he whispered into the ear of the one, Be you a +Convocationist, and into that of the other, Be you a Moderate; +and then with his charmed rod he tapped them across +the shoulders, and set them a-walking. The creatures +straightway jerked up their little heads to the angle of his +face, bowed like a brace of automaton dancing-masters, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_346' name='page_346'></a>346</span> +and after pacing round his knees for a few seconds, began +Dialogue the first, in just the set terms in which we had +been reading it beside our own fire not half an hour before. +It seemed, for a few seconds, as if the conjurer and his +creations had joined together in a trio, to celebrate the +conjurer’s own praises. ‘Excellent clergyman!’ said the +Convocationist. ‘Incomparable man!’ exclaimed the +Moderate. ‘No minister like our minister!’ said the two +in a breath. ‘Ah, gentlemen,’ said the conjurer, looking +modestly down, ‘even my very enemies never venture to +deny that.’ ‘You, sir,’ said the Convocationist, ‘bring on +no occasion the Church question to the pulpit; you know +better––you have more sense: we have quite as much of +the Church question as is good for us through the week.’ +‘For you, sir,’ chimed in the Moderate, ‘I have long +cherished the most thorough respect; but as for your old +party, I dislike them more than ever.’ ‘I am not mercenary, +gentlemen,’ said the conjurer, laying his hand on +his breast; ‘I am not timid, I am not idle; I am a generous, +diligent, dauntless, attached pastor; I give alms of +all I possess––in especial to the public charities; I make +long prayers,––my very best friends often urge on me that +my vast labours, weekly and daily, are undermining my +strength; I fast often,––I have guaranteed the payment of +three thousand pounds for the West Kirk, and three-fourths +of my stipend have gone this year to the liquidation of self-imposed +liabilities. True, I will be <i>eventually repaid</i>,––that +is, if my people don’t leave me; <i>but I have no other security +beyond my confidence in the goodness of the cause, and the continued +liberality of my countrymen</i>.’ And in this style would +the reverend gentleman have continued down to the bottom +of the fifth page in his first Dialogue, had it not been for +a singularly portentous and terrible interruption.</p> +<p>The haunted Tomnahurich rose, as we have said, immediately +behind us, leafy and green; and not one of its +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_347' name='page_347'></a>347</span> +multitude of boughs trembled in the sunshine. Suddenly, +however, the hill-side began to move. There was a low +deep noise like distant thunder; and straightway the <i>débris</i> +of a landslip came rolling downwards, half obliterating in +its course the circle of the conjurer. Turf, and clay, and +stone lay in a mingled ruin at our feet; and wriggling in +the midst, like a huge blue-bottle in an old cobweb, there +was a reverend gentleman dressed in black. He gathered +himself up, sprung deftly to his feet, and stood fronting the +conjurer. Wonderful to relate, the man in black proved to +be the veritable Mr. Clark of three years ago––Mr. Clark +of 1840––Mr. Clark who published the great non-intrusion +discourse, who wrote the <i>Rights of Members</i>, who spoke +the long anti-patronage speeches, who led the debate in +the Assembly anent the rights of the people, and who +declared it clear as day that the Church had power to +enact the Veto. The conjurer started backwards like a +man who receives a mortal wound: the two little figures +uttered a thin scrannel shriek apiece, and then slunk out of +existence. ‘Avoid ye,’ exclaimed the conjurer, ‘Avoid ye! +<i>Conjuro te, conjuro te!</i>’ He then went on to mutter, as +if by way of exorcism, in low and very rapid tones, ‘I have +no anxiety to refute the charge of inconsistency, which +some have endeavoured to fasten on me, from detached +portions of what I have written or spoken, during several +years, on what may be termed Church politics. In matters +not essential to salvation, increased light or advanced experience +may properly produce change of sentiment in the +most enlightened and conscientious Christian. For a man +to assert that he is subject to no change, is to lay claim to +one of the perfections–––’ <i>Dialogue 1st</i>, p. 6.</p> +<p>‘And so you won’t go out,’ said the true Mr. Clark, interrupting +him.</p> +<p>‘No, sir,’ replied the conjurer. ‘I have maturely considered +the proposed secession from the Established Church, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_348' name='page_348'></a>348</span> +and, without pronouncing any judgment on the motives or +doings of others who may think or act differently, I deeply +feel that in such a measure I could not join without manifest +sin against the light of my conscience.’––<i>Dialogue 1st</i>, p. 4.</p> +<p>‘Ah,’ rejoined the true Mr. Clark, ‘did I not say it would +be so? I knew there would be found a set of recreant +priests, who, for a pitiful morsel of the world’s bread, would +submit to be the instruments of trampling on the blood-bought +rights of the Scottish people, and call themselves a +Church, while departing from their allegiance to Him who is +the source of all true ecclesiastical authority; but never can +these constitute the Church of Scotland!’––<i>Sermon</i>, p. 40.</p> +<p>‘I cannot reconcile it with the views I have long entertained +of my duty to the Church and to the country,’ said +the conjurer, ‘to secede from the National Establishment, +simply because it wants what it wanted when I became one +of its ministers.’––<i>Dialogue 1st</i>, p. 12.</p> +<p>‘Wanted when you became one of its ministers!’ exclaimed +the true Mr. Clark. ‘No, sir. The civil courts +are now compelling obedience in cases in which they have +no jurisdiction, and have levelled with the ground the independent +jurisdiction of the Church,––a Church bearing +in its diadem a host of martyrs, and which never hitherto +submitted to the supremacy of any power, excepting that +of the Son of God.’––<i>Sermon</i>, pp. 59-63.</p> +<p>‘I won’t go out,’ reiterated the conjurer.</p> +<p>‘Well, you have told me what you have long deemed to +be your duty,’ said the true Mr. Clark. ‘I shall repeat to +you, in turn, what I three years ago recorded as mine. “It +is the duty of the Church,” I said, “to maintain its position, +confirmed as it is by solemn statutes and by the faith of +national treaties, until that shall be overthrown by the +deliberate decision of the State itself. Should such a circumstance +really occur, as that the Legislature should insist +that the Church holds its endowments on the express condition +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_349' name='page_349'></a>349</span> +of its rendering to civil authority the subjection +which it can consistently yield to Christ alone, there being +then a plain violation of the terms on which the Church +entered into alliance with the State, that alliance must be +dissolved, as one which can be no longer continued, but by +rendering to men what is due to God.’”––<i>Sermon</i>, p. 28.</p> +<p>‘I deny entirely and <i>in toto</i>,’ said the conjurer, ‘that the +present controversy involves the doctrine of the Headship.’––<i>See +2d Dialogue</i>.</p> +<p>‘Admit,’ said the true Mr. Clark, ‘but the right of secular +courts to review, and thus to confirm or annul, the proceedings +of the Scottish Church in one of the most important +spiritual functions, and the same power may soon +be, under various pretexts, used to control all the inferior +departments of its ecclesiastical procedure. Will any man +say that a society thus acknowledging the supremacy of a +different power from that of Christ is any longer to be regarded +as a branch of the Church whose unity chiefly exists +in adherence to Him as its Head?’––<i>Sermon</i>, p. 45.</p> +<p>‘The claim,’ said the conjurer, ‘is essentially Papal.’––<i>Dialogue +2d</i>, p. 6.</p> +<p>‘No,’ replied the true Mr. Clark, ‘not Papal, but Protestant: +our confessors and martyrs chose to suffer for it +the loss of all their worldly goods, and to incur the pains of +death in its most appalling forms.’––<i>Sermon</i>, p. 45.</p> +<p>‘Papal notwithstanding,’ reiterated the conjurer. ‘But +it is not to be wondered at, that in the earliest stages of +the Reformation, men newly come out of the Church of +Rome should have been led to assert for the office-bearers +of their Church the prerogatives which Romanism claimed +for her own.’––<i>Dialogue 2d</i>, p. 7.</p> +<p>‘What!’ exclaimed the true Mr. Clark, ‘is not the present +contest clearly for the rights of the members of Christ,––rights +manifestly recognised in His word, and involving +His Headship?’––<i>Sermon</i>, p. 37. <i>See also</i> p. 31. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_350' name='page_350'></a>350</span></p> +<p>‘Not at all,’ replied the conjurer. ‘The question is one +of faction, and of faction only. Struggles for the victory of +mere parties have been as injurious to vital godliness in the +Church as the same cause has been to the true prosperity +of the State.’––<i>Dialogue 1st</i>, p. 15.</p> +<p>‘Faction!’ exclaimed the true Mr. Clark; ‘the Church of +Scotland is now engaged in asserting principles which the +allegiance it owes to Christ will never permit it to desert. +And let it be rung in the ears of the people of Scotland, +that the great reason why the asserting of the Church’s +spiritual jurisdiction is so clamorously condemned in certain +quarters, is because it is employed to maintain the rights of +the people.’––<i>Sermon</i>, pp. 37-39.</p> +<p>‘To be above the authority of the law, no Church in this +country can be,’ said the conjurer. ‘The Church courts +would be able, were their principles fully recognised, to +tread under foot the rights of the people as effectually as ever +they resisted those of patrons.’––<i>Dialogue 1st</i>, pp. 14 and 16.</p> +<p>‘Nothing can be more absurd than such insinuations,’ +exclaimed the true Mr. Clark. ‘The Church disclaims every +kind of civil authority, and simply requires that there be +no interference on the part of civil rulers with its spiritual +functions. How that which declines a jurisdiction in civil +matters, can in any sense of the word, or in any conceivable +circumstances, be injurious to civil liberty, it is impossible +to conceive.’––<i>Sermon</i>, p. 32.</p> +<p>‘Alas,’ said the conjurer, ‘if the Church by recent events +has been exhibited in a lower position than Scotsmen ever +saw it placed in before, this has been occasioned by the +unhappy attitude of defiance of the civil tribunals in which +it was unadvisedly placed, and which no body, however +venerable, can be permitted to occupy with impunity in a +well-governed country.’––<i>Dialogue 1st</i>, p. 12.</p> +<p>‘Degradation!’ indignantly exclaimed the true Mr. Clark; +‘did the Church, in consequence of the findings of the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_351' name='page_351'></a>351</span> +civil courts, proceed to act in opposition to what it believes +and has solemnly declared to be founded on the Scripture, +and agreeable thereto, it would exhibit itself to the world +a disgraced and degraded society, utterly fallen from the +faithfulness to religious duty which marked former periods +of its history.’––<i>Sermon</i>, p. 21.</p> +<p>‘Clear it is,’ said the conjurer, ‘that the Church must +not be permitted to retain with impunity her attitude of +defiance to the civil tribunals. Were it otherwise, an +ecclesiastical power might come to be established in this +kingdom, fully able to trample uncontrolled on the most +sacred rights of the nation.’––<i>Dialogue 1st</i>, p. 12.</p> +<p>‘Nothing, I repeat,’ said the true Mr. Clark, ‘can be +more absurd than the insinuation. The liberties of the +Church of Scotland have been often assailed by the civil +authorities of the land, but uniformly by those who were +equally hostile to the civil freedom of the country. Its +rights were, during one dreary period, so effectually overthrown, +that none stood up to assert them but the devoted +band who, in the wildest fastnesses of their country, were +often compelled by the violence of military rule to water +with their blood the moors, where they rendered homage to +the King of Zion; while, in the sunshine of courtly favour, +ecclesiastics moved, who without fear bartered, for their +own sordid gain, the blood-bought liberties of the Church +of God, and showed themselves as willing to subvert the +civil rights of their countrymen as they had been to destroy +their religious privileges.’––<i>Sermon</i>, p. 30.</p> +<p>‘To be above the law,’ reiterated the conjurer, ‘no +Church in this country can be.’––<i>Dialogue 1st</i>, p. 16.</p> +<p>‘There may arise various occasions,’ said the true Mr. +Clark, ‘on which the injunctions of man may interfere with +the injunctions of God; and in every such case a Christian +man must yield obedience to the authority of the highest +Lord.’––<i>Sermon</i>, p. 22. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_352' name='page_352'></a>352</span></p> +<p>‘Sad case that of Strathbogie!’ ejaculated the conjurer.</p> +<p>‘Very sad,’ replied the true Mr. Clark. ‘What is your +version of it?’</p> +<p>‘Listen,’ said the conjurer. ‘What has been termed the +Veto Law was enacted less than ten years ago, and after +lengthened legal proceedings, was declared illegal by the +House of Lords, the highest judicial authority in this kingdom. +For proceedings adopted in conformity to this decision, +seven ministers in the Presbytery of Strathbogie were +first suspended and then deposed from their ministerial +offices, without any other charges laid against them than +that they sought the protection of the civil courts in acting +according to their decision. For refusing to obey a law +which the House of Lords declared to be illegal, no minister +can be lawfully deposed from his office in this country, +unless we are prepared to adopt a principle which would +ultimately subvert the entire authority of the law. The +civil courts, simply on the ground that these ministers had +been deposed for obeying the statutes of the realm, reversed +the sentence, as what was beyond the lawful powers of any +Church in this land, whether Voluntary or Established. +And on the same principle, they interfered to prevent any +from treating them as suspended or deposed.’––<i>Dialogue +1st</i>, p. 10.</p> +<p>‘A most injurious representation of the case,’ said the +true Mr. Clark. ‘Seven ministers, forming the majority of +the Presbytery of Strathbogie, chose to intimate their resolution +to take steps towards the settlement of Mr. Edwards +as minister of Marnoch, in defiance of the opposition of +almost all the parishioners, and in direct contempt of the +instructions given them by the superior church courts. +The civil courts in the meantime merely declared their +opinion of the law, but they issued no injunction whatever, +so as to give the presbytery the pretext of choosing between +obeying the one or the other jurisdiction; and they violated +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_353' name='page_353'></a>353</span> +the express injunction of the supreme church court, without +being able to plead in justification that they had been +compelled by the civil authority to do so. They chose to +act ultroneously in violation of their duty to the Church. +They had solemnly promised to obey the superior church +courts, and had never come under any promise to obey in +spiritual things any other authority. In proposing to take +the usual steps for conferring the spiritual office of a pastor +in the Church of Christ, in defiance of the injunction laid +upon them by the supreme court of the Church of Scotland, +they plainly violated their ordination engagements. And in +actually ordaining Mr. Edwards, the whole procedure was a +solemn mockery of holy things.’––<i>Sermon</i>, p. 26.</p> +<p>‘After all,’ said the conjurer, with a sigh, ‘the agitated +question is but of inferior moment.’––<i>Dialogue 1st</i>, p. 3.</p> +<p>‘Inferior moment!’ exclaimed the true Mr. Clark; ‘no +religious question of the same magnitude and importance +has come before this country since the ever-memorable Revolution +in 1688. The divisions of secular partisanship sink +into utter insignificance when compared with this. Let the +principles once become triumphant for which the Court of +Session is now contending, and the Church of Scotland is +ruined.’––<i>Sermon</i>, pp. 7 and 59.</p> +<p>‘Ruined!’ shouted out the conjurer; ‘it is you who are +ruining the Church, by urging on the disruption. For my +own part, I promised, as all ministers do at their ordination, +never, directly or indirectly, to endeavour her subversion, +or to follow divisive courses, but to maintain her unity and +peace against error and schism, whatsoever trouble or persecution +might arise; and now, in agreement with my solemn +ordination engagements, have I determined to hold by her +to the last.’––<i>Dialogue 1st</i>, p. 9.</p> +<p>‘What mean you by the <i>Church</i>?’ asked the true Mr. +Clark. ‘The Church and the establishment of it are surely +very different things. Men have talked of themselves as +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_354' name='page_354'></a>354</span> +friends of the Church, because they were the friends of its +civil establishment, and loudly declaim against the proceedings +of the majority of its office-bearers now, as fraught +with danger to this object. But what do they mean by the +civil establishment of an Erastian Church! Is it possible +that they mean by it the receiving of certain pecuniary +endowments as a price for rendering a divided allegiance to +the Son of God? If that be their meaning, it is time they +and the country at large should know that the Church of +Scotland was never established on such principles.’––<i>Sermon</i>, +p. 42.</p> +<p>‘It is not true, however,’ said the conjurer, ‘that the +majority of the faithful ministers of Scotland have resolved +to abandon the Establishment, though this may be the case +in some parts of the country.’––<i>Dialogue 1st</i>, p. 16.</p> +<p>‘Not true, sir!’ said the true Mr. Clark; ‘nothing can be +more true. All––all will leave it except a set of recreant +priests, who for a pitiful morsel of this world’s bread will +submit to be the instruments of trampling on the blood-bought +rights of the Scottish people.’––<i>Sermon</i>, p. 42.</p> +<p>‘What has pained me most in all this controversy,’ remarked +the conjurer, ‘has been the insidious manner in +which certain persons have endeavoured to sow disunion––in +some cases too successfully––between ministers and +their hearers.’––<i>Dialogue 1st</i>, p. 3.</p> +<p>‘Sir,’ exclaimed the true Mr. Clark, ‘Sir, every individual +would do well to remember, when summoned to such a +contest as this, the curse denounced against Meroz for +remaining in neutrality when the battle raged in Israel. +This curse was denounced by the angel of the Lord, and +is written for the admonition of all ages, as a demonstration +of the feelings with which God regards the standing aloof, +in a great religious struggle, by whatever motives it may be +sought to be justified.’––<i>Sermon</i>, p. 59.</p> +<p>‘The men who thus sow disunion,’ said the conjurer, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_355' name='page_355'></a>355</span> +‘never venture to deny that they, whose usefulness they +endeavour to destroy, are ministers of the gospel,––urging +on the acceptance of a slumbering world the message of +celestial mercy, which must produce results of weal or woe +destined to be eternally remembered, when the strifes of +words which have agitated the Church on earth are all +forgotten.’––<i>Dialogue 1st</i>, p. 4.</p> +<p>‘Hold, hold, sir,’ said the true Mr. Clark. ‘On the +event of this struggle depends not merely the temporal +interests of our country, but the welfare of many immortal +spirits through the ceaseless ages of future being.’––<i>Sermon</i>, +p. 60.</p> +<p>‘It is so distracting a subject this Church question,’ said +the conjurer, ‘that I make it a point of duty never to bring +it to the pulpit.’––<i>Dialogue 1st</i>, p. 3.</p> +<p>‘In that you and I differ,’ said the true Mr. Clark, ‘just +as we do in other matters. I have written very long sermons +on the subject, ay, and published them too; and in particular +beg leave to recommend to your careful perusal my +sermon on the <i>Present Position</i>, preached in Inverness on +the evening of the 19th January 1840.’</p> +<p>‘I suppose you have heard it said, that I changed my +views from the fear of worldly loss,’ said the conjurer.––<i>Dialogue +1st</i>, p. 4.</p> +<p>‘Heard it said!’ said the true Mr. Clark. ‘You forget +that I have been bottled up on the hill-side yonder for the +last three years.’</p> +<p>‘Sir,’ said the conjurer, with great solemnity, ‘when the +West Church was built, in order to secure this valuable +addition to the church accommodation of the parish, I did +not hesitate to undertake, on my own personal risk, to +guarantee the payment of three thousand pounds. This +obliged me to diminish, to no small extent, my personal +expenditure, as the only way in which the pecuniary burden +could be met, without diminishing my contributions to +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_356' name='page_356'></a>356</span> +the public charities of the town, and to the numerous cases +of private distress brought continually under my notice, in +the various walks of ministerial duty. And though the +original debt is now reduced to half that amount by the +liberal benefactions received from various individuals, still +nearly three-fourths of my stipend this year has been expended +on this object, in terms of my voluntary obligation. +The large sum which I am now in advance, I believe, will be +eventually repaid; but for this I have no security beyond +my confidence in the goodness of the cause, and the continued +liberality of my countrymen. All this respecting the +West Church is known to few, and would not have been +mentioned by me at this time, had it not been for the perseverance +with which some, inaccessible to higher motives +themselves, have endeavoured to persuade my hearers that +mercenary considerations have produced the position I +have felt it my duty to take in the present discussion.’––<i>Dialogue +1st</i>, p. 5.</p> +<p>For a few seconds the true Mr. Clark seemed as if struck +dumb by the intelligence. ‘Ah! fast anchored!’ he at +length ejaculated. ‘Fairly tethered to the Establishment +by a stake of fifteen hundred pounds. Demas, happy man, +had a silver mine to draw him aside––a positive silver +mine. The West Church is merely a negative one. Were +it to get into the hands of the Moderates, it would become +waterlogged to a certainty, and not a single ounce of the +precious metal would ever be fished out of it; whereas you +think there is still some little chance of recovery when you +remain to ply the pump yourself. Most disinterested man!––let +your statement of the case be but fairly printed, and +it will serve you not only as an apology, but as an advertisement +to boot.’</p> +<p>‘Printed!’ said the conjurer; ‘I have already printed it +in English, and Mr. M’Donald the schoolmaster is translating +it into Gaelic.’ +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_357' name='page_357'></a>357</span></p> +<p>But we have far exceeded our limits, and have yet given +scarce a tithe of the controversy. We found ourselves +sitting all alone in front of our own quiet fire long ere it +was half completed; and we recommend such of our +readers as are desirous to see the rest of it in the originals, +to possess themselves of the Rev. Mr. Clark’s <i>Sermon</i>, and +the Rev. Mr. Clark’s <i>Dialogues</i>. They form, when bound +up together, one of the extremest, and at the same time +one of the most tangible, specimens of inconsistency and +self-contradiction that controversy has yet exhibited; and +enable us to anticipate the character and standing of the +evangelic minority in the Erastian Church. ‘If the salt has +lost its savour, wherewithal shall it be salted?’</p> +<p><i>April 12, 1843.</i></p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_358' name='page_358'></a>358</span> +<a name='PULPIT_DUTIES_NOT_SECONDARY' id='PULPIT_DUTIES_NOT_SECONDARY'></a> +<h2>PULPIT DUTIES NOT SECONDARY.</h2> +</div> +<p>There are two antagonist perils to which all evangelical +Churches, whether established or unendowed, are exposed +in an age in which men’s minds are so stirred by the fluctuations +of opinion, that though there may not be much progress, +there is at least much motion. They lie open, on +the one hand, to the danger of getting afloat on the tide of +innovation, and so drifting from the fixed position in which +Churches, as exponents of the mind of Christ, possess an +authoritative voice, into the giddy vortices of some revolving +eddy of speculation, in which they can at best assume +but the character of mere advocates of untried experiment; +or, on the other hand, they are liable to fall into the opposite +mistake of obstinately resisting all change––however excellent +in itself, and however much a consequence of the +onward march of the species––and this not from any direct +regard to those divine laws, of which one jot or tittle +cannot pass away, but simply out of respect to certain +peculiar views and opinions entertained by their ancestors +in ages considerably less wise than the times which have +succeeded them.</p> +<p>An evangelistic Church cannot fall into the one error +without losing its influential voice <i>as</i> a Church. It may +gain present popularity by throwing itself upon what chances +to be the onward movement of the time; but it is a spendthrift +popularity, that never fails in the end to leave it exhausted +and weak. The political ague has always its cold +as certainly as its hot fever fits: action produces reaction; +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_359' name='page_359'></a>359</span> +great exertion induces great fatigue; the desired object, even +when fully gained, is sure always, like all mere sublunary +objects of pursuit, to disappoint expectation; and the Church +that, forgetting where its real power lies, seeks, Antæus-like, +to gather strength in this way from the earth, contracts in +every instance but the soil and weakness inherent in those +earthy and unspiritual things to which it attaches itself. It, +too, comes to have its cold ague fits and its reaction––periods +of exhaustion, disappointment, and decline. And the opposite +error of clinging to the worn-out and the obsolete +produces ultimately the same effect, though it operates in a +different way. A Church that, in behalf of some antiquated +type of thought or action, opposes itself to what is in reality +the onward current of the age, is sure always to fare like +stranded ice-floes, that, in a river flooded by thaw, retain the +exact temperature under which they were formed, when the +temperature all around them has altered. The ice-floes +and the obsolete Church may be alike successful for a time +in keeping up the ancient state of things within their own +lessening limits, but both are eventually absorbed and disappear. +While the more versatile ecclesiastical body, tossed +by the cross currents and eddies of novel and uncertain +change, loses its true course and makes shipwreck, the +rigidly immoveable one, anchored over the worn-out peculiarities +of bygone days, is borne down by the irresistible +rush of the stream, and founders at its moorings.</p> +<p>The Free Church, as a body, is, we trust, not greatly in +danger from either extreme. They are the extremes, however, +which in the present day constitute her true Scylla +and Charybdis; and it were perhaps well that she should +keep the fact steadily before her, by laying them down as +such on their chart. Not from the gross and earthy fires +of political movement in the present day, or from the cold +grey ashes of movement semi-political in some uninspired +age of the past, must that pillar of flame now ascend which +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_360' name='page_360'></a>360</span> +is to marshal her on her pilgrimage through the wilderness, +at once reviving her by its heat and guiding her by its +effulgence. The light borrowed from the one would but +flicker idly before her, a wandering and delusive meteor; +the other would furnish her with but an unlighted torch, +unsuited to cast across her way a single beam of direction +and guidance. Her light must be derived from an antiquity +more remote than that of the uninspired ages, and her heat +from a source more permanent than that of present excitement, +social or political: the one direct from the unerring +record of those times when God walked the earth in the flesh; +the other from that living spirit without whose influence +energy the most untiring can be influential in but the production +of evil, and earnestness the most intense may be +profession, but cannot be revival. Strength must be sought +by her, not in the turmoil of evanescent agitation, nor in the +worn-out modes of an age the fashion of which has perished, +but in the perennial verities of the everlasting gospel. While +so far adapting herself to the times as to present an armed +front to every form of error, she must preach to her people +as if the prisoner of Patmos had but just completed the +record of Revelation.</p> +<p>There is one special error regarding this the most important +portion of her proper work––the preaching of the +word––to which it may be well to advert. It has become +much the fashion of the time––most unthinkingly, surely––to +speak of preaching as not the paramount, but merely one +of the subsidiary duties of a clergyman. ‘He is not a man +of much pulpit preparation,’ it has become customary to +remark of some minister, at least liked if not admired, ‘but +he is diligent in visiting and in looking after his schools; +and preaching is in reality but a small part of a minister’s +duty.’ Or, in the event of a vacancy, the flock looking out +for a pastor are apt enough to say, ‘Our last minister was +an accomplished pulpit man, but what we at present want +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_361' name='page_361'></a>361</span> +is a man sedulous in visiting; for preaching is in reality but +a small part of a minister’s duty.’ Nay, ministers, especially +ministers of but a few twelvemonths’ standing, have themselves +in some cases caught up the remark, as if it embodied +a self-evident truth; and while they dare tell, not without +self-complacency, that their discourses––things written at a +short sitting, if written at all––cost them but little trouble, +they add further, as if by way of apology, that they are, however, +‘much occupied otherwise, and that preaching is in +reality but a small part of a minister’s duty.’ We have some +times felt inclined to assure these latter personages in reply, +that they might a little improve the matter just by making +preaching no part of their duty at all. But where, we ask, +is it taught, either by God in His word or by the Church in +her standards, that preaching is merely one of the minor +duties of the minister, or indeed other than his first and +greatest duty? Not, certainly, in the New Testament, for +there it has invariably the paramount place assigned to it; +as certainly not in our standards, for in them the emphasis +is ‘<i>especially</i>’ laid on the ‘preaching of the word’ as God’s +most ‘effectual means’ of converting sinners. If it be a +truth that preaching is but comparatively a minor part of a +minister’s duty, it is certainly neither a Scripture nor a +Shorter Catechism truth; and, lest it should be not only +not a truth at all, but even not an innocuous <i>untruth</i>, we +think all who hold it would do well to inquire how they +have come by it.</p> +<p>We have our own suspicion regarding its origin. It is +natural for men to exaggerate the importance of whatever +good they patronize, or whatever improvement or enterprise +they advocate or recommend. And perhaps some degree +of exaggeration is indispensable. In order to create the +impulse necessary to overcome the <i>vis inertiæ</i> of society, and +induce in the particular case the required amount of exertion, +the stream of the moving power has––if we may so +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_362' name='page_362'></a>362</span> +speak––to be elevated to the level of hopes raised high +above the point of possible accomplishment. To employ +the language of the mechanist, the necessary <i>fall</i> would be +otherwise awanting, and the machine would fail to move. +If, for instance, all men had estimated the advantages of +free trade according to the sober computations of Chalmers, +the country would have no Anti-Corn-Law League, and no +repeal of the obnoxious statutes. And yet who can now +doubt that the calculations of Chalmers were in reality the +true ones? In like manner, if it had been truly seen that the +‘baths for the working classes’ could have merely extended +to the humbler inhabitants of our cities those advantages +of ablution which the working men of our sea-coasts already +possess, but of which––when turned of forty––not one out of +a hundred among them ever avails himself, we would scarce +have witnessed bath meetings, with Dukes in the chair; nor +would the baths themselves have been erected. But the +natural exaggerative feeling prevailed. Baths for the working +classes were destined somehow to renovate society, it +was thought; and so, though Chartism be now as little content +as ever, baths for the working classes our cities possess. +And, doubtless, exaggeration of a similar kind has tended +to heighten the general estimate of the minor duties of the +clergyman; and were there no invidious comparisons instituted +between the lesser and the paramount duties,––between +what is secondary in its nature magnified into primary importance, +and what is primary in its nature diminished into +a mere secondary, and standing as if the one had been +viewed by the lesser, and the other through the greater lens +of a telescope,––we would have no quarrel whatever with +the absolute exaggeration in the case, regarded simply as a +mere moving force. But we must quarrel with it when we +see it leading to practical error; and so, in direct opposition +to the common remark, that preaching is but a small +part of the minister’s duty, we assert that it is not a small, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_363' name='page_363'></a>363</span> +but a very large, and by far the most important part of it; +and that it is not our standards or the Scriptures that are +in error on this special head, but the numerous class who, +taking up the antagonist view, maintain as a self-evident +proposition what has neither standing in the New Testament, +nor yet guarantee in the experience of the Church.</p> +<p>No apology whatever ought to be sustained for imperfect +pulpit preparation; nay, practically at least, no apology +whatever has or will be sustained for it. It is no unusual +thing to see a church preached empty; there have been cases +of single clergymen, great in their way, who have emptied four +in succession: for people neither ought nor will misspend +their Sabbaths in dozing under sermons to which no effort +of attention, however honestly made, enables them to listen; +and what happens to single congregations may well happen +to a whole ecclesiastical body, should its general style of +preaching fall below the existing average. And certainly +we know nothing more likely to produce such a result than +the false and dangerous opinion, that preaching is comparatively +a small part of a minister’s duty. It is supereminently +dangerous for one to form a mean estimate of one’s work, +unless it be work of a nature very low and menial indeed. +‘No one,’ said Johnson, ‘ever did anything well to which +he did not give the whole bent of his mind.’ It is this +low estimate––this want of a high standard in the mind––that +leads some of our young men to boast of the facility +with which they compose their sermons,––a boast alike +derogatory to the literary taste and knowledge and to the +Christian character of him who makes it. Easy to compose +a sermon!––easy to compose what, when written, cannot be +read; and what, when preached, cannot be listened to. We +believe it; for in cases of this kind the ease is all on the part +of the author. We believe further, we would fain say to the +boaster, that you and such as you could scuttle and sink +the Free Church with amazingly little trouble to yourselves. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_364' name='page_364'></a>364</span> +But is it easy, think you, to mature such thoughts as Butler +matured? And yet these were embodied in sermons. Is it +easy, think you, to convey in language exquisite as that of +Robert Hall, sentiments as refined and imagery as classic +as his? And yet Hall’s noblest compositions were sermons. +Is it easy, think you, to produce a philosophic poem, the +most sublime and expansive of any age or country? And +yet such is the true character of the Astronomical Sermons +of Chalmers. Or is that spirituality which impresses and +sinks into the heart of a people, independently at times of +thought of large calibre or the polish of a fine literary taste, +a thing easily incorporated into the tissue of a lengthened +sermon? Think you, did Maclaurin’s well-known <i>Sermon +on the Cross</i> cost him little trouble? or the not less noble +sermon of Sir Matthew Hale, on <i>Christ and Him crucified</i>? +Look, we beseech you, to your New Testaments, and see +if there be ought slovenly in the style, or loose and pointless +in the thinking, of the model sermons given you there. +The discourse addressed by our Saviour from the mount to +the people was a sermon; as was also the magnificent address +of Paul to the Athenians, where he chose as his text +the inscription on one of their altars, ‘To the unknown +God.’ There may be a practical and most mischievous +heterodoxy embodied in the preacher’s idea of sermons, as +certainly as he may embody a heterodoxy theoretic and +doctrinal in the sermons themselves.</p> +<p>The ordinary course of establishing a Church in any +country, as specially shown by New Testament history and +that of the Reformation, is first and mainly through the +preaching of the word. An earnest, eloquent man––a Peter +in Jerusalem––a Paul at Athens, on Mars Hill––a John +Knox in Edinburgh or St. Andrews––a George Whitfield +in some open field or market-place of Britain or America––or +a Thomas Chalmers in some metropolitan pulpit, Scotch +or English––addresses himself to the people. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_365' name='page_365'></a>365</span></p> +<p>There is a strange power in the words, and they cannot +but listen; and then the words begin to tell. The heart is +affected, the judgment convinced, the will influenced and +directed: ancient beliefs are, as the case may be, modified, +resuscitated, or destroyed; new or revived convictions take +the place of previous convictions, inadequate or erroneous; +and thus churches are planted, and the face of society +changed. We limit ourselves here to what––being strictly +natural in the process––would operate, if skilfully applied, +as directly on the side of error as of truth. It is the first +essential of a book, that it be interesting enough to be read; +and of a preacher, whatever his creed, that he be sufficiently +engaging to be attentively listened to; and without this +preliminary merit, no other merit, however great, is of any +avail whatever. And when a Church possesses it in any +great degree, it is sure to spread and increase. Are there +churches in the Establishment which, though thinned by the +Disruption, have now all their seats let, and are crammed +every Sabbath to the doors? If so, be sure there is popular +talent in the pulpit, and that the clergyman who officiates +there does not find it a very easy matter to compose his +sermons. Nay, dear as the distinctive principles of the Free +Church are to the people of Scotland, with superior pulpit +talent in the Establishment on the one hand, and in the +ranks of the disendowed body, on the other, a goodly supply +of those youthful ministers who boast that they either never +write their sermons, or write them at a short sitting, we +would by no means guarantee to our Church a ten years’ +vigorous existence. These may not be palatable truths, +but we trust they are wholesome ones; and we know that +the time peculiarly requires them. It is, however, not +mainly with the Establishment that the Free Church has to +contend.</p> +<p>We ask the reader whether he has not marked, within the +last few years, the <i>début</i> of another and more formidable +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_366' name='page_366'></a>366</span> +antagonist, with which all Christian Churches may be soon +called on to grapple?</p> +<p>Our newly-instituted athenæums and philosophical associations +form one of the novel features of the time,––institutions +in which at least the second-class men of the age––Emersons, +and Morells, and Combes––with much that is +interesting in science and fascinating in literature, blend +sentiments and opinions at direct variance with the great +doctrinal truths embodied in our standards. The press, not +less formidable now than ever, is an old antagonist; but, +with all its appliances and powers, it lacked the charm of +the living voice. That peculiar charm, however, the new +combatant possesses. The pulpit, met by its own weapons +and in its own field, will have to a certainty to measure its +strength against it; and the standard of pulpit accomplishment +and of theological education, instead of being lowered, +must in consequence be greatly elevated. The Church of +this country, which in the earlier periods of her history, +when Knox was her leader, and Buchanan the moderator of +her General Assembly, stood far in advance of the age in +popular eloquence, solid learning, and elegant accomplishment, +and which, in the person of Chalmers in our own +days, was vested in the more advanced views and the more +profound policy of a full century hence, must not be suffered +to lag behind the age now. Her troops must not be +permitted to fall into confusion, and to use as arms the rude, +unsightly bludgeons of an untaught and undisciplined mob, +when the enemy, glittering in harness, and furnished with +weapons keen of temper and sharp of edge, is bearing down +upon them in compact phalanx.</p> +<p>We know what it is to have sat for many years under +ministers who, possessed of great popular talent and high +powers of original thought, gave much time and labour to +pulpit preparation. We know how great a privilege it is to +have to look forward to the ministrations of the Sabbath,––not +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_367' name='page_367'></a>367</span> +as wearinesses, which, simply as a matter of duty, were +to be endured; but as exquisite feasts, spiritual and intellectual, +which were to be greatly relished and enjoyed. +And when hearing it sometimes regretted, with reference to +at least one remarkable man, that he did not visit his flock +quite so often as was desirable––many of the complainants’ +sole idea of a ministerial visit, meanwhile, being simply +that it was a long exordium of agreeable gossip, with a +short tail-piece of prayer stuck to its hinder end––we have +strongly felt how immensely better it was that the assembled +congregation should enjoy each year fifty-two Sabbaths of +their minister at his best, than that the tone of his pulpit +services should be lowered, in order that each individual +among them might enjoy a yearly half-hour of him apart. +And yet such, very nearly, was the true statement of the +case. We fully recognise the importance, in its own subordinate +place, of ministerial visitation, especially when +conducted––a circumstance, however, which sometimes +lowers its popularity––as it ought to be. But it must not +be assigned that prominent place denied to it by our standards, +and which the word of God utterly fails to sanction.</p> +<p>It is, though an important, still a minor duty; and the +Free Church must not be sacrificed to the ungrounded idea +that it occupies a level as high, or even nearly as high, as +‘the preaching of the word.’ To that peculiar scheme of +visitation advocated by Chalmers as a first process in his +work of excavation, we of course do not refer. In those +special cases to which he so vigorously directed himself, +visitation was an inevitable preliminary, without which the +appliances of the pulpit could not be brought to bear. Philip +had to open the Scriptures <i>tête-à-tête</i> to the Ethiopian eunuch, +for the Ethiopian eunuch never came to church.</p> +<p>But even were his scheme identical with that to which +we particularly refer, we would say to the young preacher +who sheltered under his authority, ‘Well, prepare for the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_368' name='page_368'></a>368</span> +pulpit as Dr. Chalmers did, even when he had the West +Port congregation for his audience, and we shall be quite +content to let you visit as much as you may.’ The composition +of a sermon was never easy work to him. He +devoted to it much time, and the full bent of his powerful +mind; and even when letting himself down to the humblest +of the people, the philosopher of largest capacity might +profitably take his place among the hearers, and listen with +an interest never for one moment suffered to flag.</p> +<p><i>May 3, 1848.</i></p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_369' name='page_369'></a>369</span> +<a name='DUGALD_STEWART' id='DUGALD_STEWART'></a> +<h2>DUGALD STEWART.</h2> +</div> +<p>It is now more than forty years since it was remarked +by Jeffrey, in his <i>Review</i>, that metaphysical science was +decidedly on the decline in Scotland. Dugald Stewart, +though in a delicate state of health at the time, was in the +full vigour of his faculties, and had still eighteen years of +life before him; Thomas Brown had just been appointed +his assistant and successor in the Moral Philosophy Chair +of the University of Edinburgh; and the <i>élite</i> of the Scottish +capital were flocking in crowds to his class-room, captivated +by the eloquence and ingenuity of his singularly vigorous +and original lectures. Even fifteen years subsequent, Dr. +Welsh could state, in the Life of his friend, that the reception +of his work on the <i>Philosophy of the Human Mind</i> had +been ‘favourable to a degree of which, in metaphysical +writings, there was no parallel.’ It has been recorded as a +very remarkable circumstance, that the <i>Essay</i> of Locke––produced +at a period when the mind of Europe first awoke +to general activity in the metaphysical province––passed +through seven editions in the comparatively brief space of +fourteen years. The <i>Lectures</i> of Dr. Brown passed through +exactly seven editions in <i>twelve</i> years, and this at a time +when, according to Jeffrey, that science of mind of which +they treated was in a state of gradual decay. The critic +was, however, in the right. The genius of Brown had imparted +to his brilliant posthumous work an interest which +could scarce be regarded as attaching to the subject of it; +and in a few years after––from about the year 1835 till +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_370' name='page_370'></a>370</span> +after the disruption of the Scottish Church––metaphysical +science had sunk, not in Scotland only, but all over Britain, +to its lowest ebb. A few retired scholars continued to +prosecute their researches in the province of mind; but +scarce any interest attached to their writings, and not a +bookseller could be found hardy enough to publish at his +own risk a metaphysical work. We are old enough to +remember a time, contemporaneous with the latter days of +Brown, when young students, in their course of preparation +for the learned professions, especially for the Church, used +to be ever recurring in conversation to the staple metaphysical +questions,––occasionally, no doubt, much in the +style of Jack Lizard in the <i>Guardian</i>, who comforted his +mother, when the worthy lady was so unlucky as to scald +her hand with the boiling tea-kettle, by assuring her there +was no such thing as heat, but which at least served to +show that this branch of liberal education fully occupied +the mind of the individuals ostensibly engaged in mastering +it; and we remember a subsequent time, when students––some +of them very clever ones––seemed never to have +thought on these questions at all, and remained silent in +conversation when they chanced to be mooted by the men +of an earlier generation. During, however, the last ten +years, mainly through the revival of a taste for metaphysical +inquiry in France and Germany, which has reacted on this +country, abstract questions on the nature and functions of +mind are again acquiring their modicum of space and importance +in Scotland. Our country no longer takes the +place it once did among the nations in this department, +and never again may; but it at least begins to remember it +once was, and to serve itself heir to the works of the older +masters of mind; and we regard it as an evidence of the +reaction to which we refer, that a greatly more complete +edition of the writings of Dugald Stewart than has yet appeared +is at the present time in the course of issuing from +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_371' name='page_371'></a>371</span> +the press of one of our most respected Scotch publishers––the +inheritor of a name paramount in the annals of the +trade––Mr. Thomas Constable.</p> +<p>The writings of Dugald Stewart have been unfortunate in +more than that state of exhaustion and syncope into which +metaphysical science continued to sink during the lapse of +more than half a generation after the death of their author, +and the commencement of which had been remarked by +Jeffrey more than half a generation before. From some +peculiar views––founded, we believe, on an overweening +estimate of their pecuniary value––the son and heir of the +philosopher tabooed their publication; and it is only now +that, in consequence of his death, and of the juster views +entertained on the subject by a sister, also recently deceased, +that they are permitted to reappear. The time, +however, from that awakened interest in metaphysical +speculation which we have remarked, seems highly favourable +for such an undertaking; and we cannot doubt that the +work will find what it deserves––a sure and steady, if not +very rapid sale. Stewart may be regarded as not merely +one of the more distinguished members of the Scottish +school of metaphysics, but as peculiarly its historian and +exponent. The mind of Reid was cast in a more original +mould, but he wanted both the elegance and the eloquence +of Stewart, nor were his powers of illustration equally great. +His language, too, was not only less refined and flowing, +but also less scientifically correct, than that of his distinguished +exponent and successor. We would cite, for +instance, the happy substitution by the latter of the terms +‘laws of human thought and belief,’ for the unfortunate +phrases ‘common sense’ and ‘instinct,’ which raised so +extensive a prejudice against the vigorous protest against +scepticism made in other respects so effectively by Reid; +and he passes oftener from the abstractions of his science +into the regions of life and character in which all must feel +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_372' name='page_372'></a>372</span> +interested, however slight their acquaintance with the +subtleties of metaphysical speculation. The extraordinary +excellence of Professor Stewart’s style has been recognised +by the highest authorities. Robertson was perhaps the best +English writer of his day. The courtly Walpole, on ascertaining +that he spoke Scotch, told him he was heartily glad +of it; for ‘it would be too mortifying,’ he added, ‘for Englishmen +to find that he not only wrote, but also spoke, their +language better than themselves.’ And yet the Edinburgh +Reviewers recognised Stewart as the writer of a more +exquisite style than even Robertson. And Sir James +Mackintosh, no mean judge, characterizes him as the +most perfect, in an artistic point of view, of the philosophical +writers of Britain. ‘Probably no writer ever exceeded +him,’ says Sir James, ‘in that species of eloquence +which springs from sensibility to literary merit and moral +excellence; which neither obscures science by prodigal +ornament, nor disturbs the serenity of patient attention; +but, though it rather calms and soothes the feelings, yet +exalts the genius, and insensibly inspires a reasonable +enthusiasm for whatever is good and fair.’ Now, it is +surely not unimportant that the writings of such a man, +simply in their character as literary models, should be submitted +to an age like the present, especially to its Scotchmen. +It is stated by Hume, in one of his letters to +Robertson, that meeting in Paris with the lady who first +gave to the French a translation of Charles V., he asked +her what she thought of the style of the work, and that +she instantly replied, with great <i>naïveté</i>, ‘Oh, it is such a +style as only a Scotchman could have written.’ Scotland +did certainly stand high in the age of Hume and Mackenzie, +of Robertson and of Adam Smith, for not only the vigour +of its thinking, but also for the purity and excellence of +its style. We fear, however, it can no longer arrogate to +itself praise on this special score. There have been books +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_373' name='page_373'></a>373</span> +produced among us during the last twenty years, which +have failed in making their way into England, mainly in +consequence of the slipshod style in which they were +written. A busy age, much agitated by controversy, is +no doubt unfavourable to the production of compositions +of classic beauty. ‘The rounded period,’ says an ingenious +French writer, ‘opens up the long folds of its floating robe +in a time of stability, authority, and confidence. But when +literature has become a means of action, instead of continuing +to be used for its own sake, we no longer amuse +ourselves with the turning of periods. The period is contemporary +with the peruke––the period is the peruke of +style. The close of the eighteenth century shortened the +one as much as the other. The peruke reaching the middle +of the loins could not be suitable to men in haste to accomplish +a work of destruction. When was J. J. Rousseau +himself given to the turning of periods? Assuredly it was +not in his pamphlets!’ Now the style of Stewart was first +formed, we need scarce remark, during that period of profound +repose which preceded the French Revolution; and +his after-life, spent in quiet and thoughtful retirement, with +the classics of our own and other countries, ancient and +modern, for his companions, and with composition as his +sole employment––though the world around him was fiercely +engaged with politics or with war––had nothing in it to +deteriorate it. He never heard the steam-press groaning, +as the night wore late, for his unfinished lucubrations; nay, +we question if he ever wrote a careless or hurried sentence. +His naturally faultless taste had full space to satisfy itself +with whatever he deemed it necessary to perform; and +hence works of finished beauty, which, as pieces of art, the +younger <i>literati</i> of Scotland would do well to study and +imitate. There may be differences of opinion regarding +the standing of Stewart as a metaphysician, but there are +no differences of opinion regarding his excellence as a writer. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_374' name='page_374'></a>374</span></p> +<p>With regard to metaphysics themselves, we are disposed +to acquiesce in the judgment of Jeffrey, without, however, +acquiescing in much which he has founded upon it. To +<i>observe</i> as a mental philosopher, and to <i>experiment</i> as a +natural one, are very different things; and never will mere +observation in the one field lead to results so splendid or +so practical as experiment on the properties of matter, to +which man owes his extraordinary control over the elements. +To the knowledge acquired by his observations on +the nature or operations of mind, he owes no new power +over that which he surveys: in at least its direct consequences, +his science is barren. It would be difficult, however, +to overestimate its <i>indirect</i> consequences. It seems +impossible that the metaphysical province should long exist +blank and unoccupied in any highly civilised country, especially +in a country of active and acquiring intellects, such +as Scotland. If the philosophy of Locke or of Reid fail +to occupy the field, we find it occupied instead by that +of Comte or of Combe. Owens and Martineaus take the +place of Browns and of Stewarts; and bad metaphysics, of +the most dangerous tendency, are taught, in the lack of +metaphysics wholesome and good. All the more dangerous +parties of the present day have their foundations of principle +on a basis of bad metaphysics. The same remark +applies to well-nigh all the religious heresies; and the less +metaphysical an age is, all the more superficial usually are +the heresies which spring up in it. We question whether +Morrisonianism could have originated in what was emphatically +the metaphysical age of Scotland, in the latter +days of Reid, or the earlier days of Stewart. What became +in our times a heresy in the theological field, would have +spent itself, as the mere crotchet of a few unripened intellects, +in the metaphysical one. It would have found +vent in some debating club or speculative society, and the +Churches would have rested in peace. There are other indirect +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_375' name='page_375'></a>375</span> +benefits derived from metaphysical study. It forms +the best possible gymnastics of mind. All the great metaphysicians, +if not merely acute, but also broad-minded men, +have been great also in the practical departments of thought. +The author of the <i>Essay on the Human Understanding</i> was +the author also of the <i>Treatise on Government</i> and the <i>Letters +on Toleration</i>. Hume, in those <i>Essays on Trade and Politics</i>, +which are free from the stain of infidelity, was one of the +most solid of thinkers; and he who produced the <i>Theory +of Moral Sentiments</i> continues to give law at the present +time, in his <i>Wealth of Nations</i>, to the commerce of the +civilised world. From a subtile but comparatively narrow +class of intellects, though distinguished in the metaphysical +province, mankind has received much less. Berkeley was +one of these, and may be regarded as their type and representative. +Save his metaphysics,––demonstrative of the +non-existence of matter, or demonstrative rather that fire +is not conscious of heat, nor ice of cold, nor yet our enlightened +surface of colour,––he bequeathed little else to +the world than his tar-water; and his tar-water, no longer +recognised as a universal medicine, has had its day, and is +forgotten. Without professing to know aught of German +metaphysicians––for in the times when we used to read +Hume and Reid they were but little known in this country––we +can by no means rate them so high as the men whose +writings they are supplanting. What, we have been accustomed +to ask, are their trophies in the practical? Have +any of them given to the world even tar-water? Where are +their Lockes, Humes, and Adam Smiths? The man who, +according to Johnson, can walk vigorously towards the +east, can walk vigorously toward the west also. How is +it that these German metaphysicians exhibit their vigour +exclusively in walking one way? Where are their works +of a practical character, powerful enough to give law to the +species? Where their treatises like those of Locke on +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_376' name='page_376'></a>376</span> +<i>Toleration</i> or on <i>Government</i>, or their essays like that of +Hume or of Adam Smith on the <i>Balance of Power</i> or the +<i>Wealth of Nations</i>? Are they doing other, to use a very +old illustration, than merely milking rams, leaving their +admirers and followers to hold the pail?</p> +<p>Dugald Stewart, though mayhap less an original in the +domain of abstract thought than some of his predecessors, +belongs emphatically to the practical school. With him +philosophy is simply common sense on that large scale which +renders it one of the least common things in the world. +And never, perhaps, was there a more thoroughly honest +seeker after truth. Burns somewhat whimsically describes +him, in a recently recovered letter given to the world by +Robert Chambers, as ‘that plain, honest, worthy man, the +Professor. I think,’ adds the poet, ‘his character, divided +into ten parts, stands thus: Four parts Socrates, four parts +Nathaniel, and two parts Shakespeare’s Brutus.’ The estimate +of Sir James Mackintosh is equally high; nor will it +weigh less with many of our readers that the elder M’Crie +used to give expression to a judgment quite as favourable. +‘He was fascinated,’ says the son and biographer of the +latter, ‘with the <i>beau ideal</i> of academical eloquence which +adorned the Moral Chair in the person of Dugald Stewart. +Long after he had sat under this admired leader, he would +describe with rapture his early emotions while looking on +the handsomely erect and elastic figure of the Professor––in +every attitude a model for the statuary––listening to expositions, +whether of facts or principles, always clear as the +transparent stream; and charmed by the tones of a voice +which modulated into spoken music every expression of intelligence +and feeling. An esteemed friend of his happening +to say to him some years ago, “I have been hearing Dr. +Brown lecture with all the eloquence of Dugald Stewart,” +“No, sir,” he exclaimed with an air of almost Johnsonian +decision, “you have not, and no man ever will.’” The first +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_377' name='page_377'></a>377</span> +volume of the collected works of Stewart, now given to the +world in a form at once worthy of their author and of the +name of Constable, contains the far-famed <i>Dissertations</i>, and +is edited by Sir William Hamilton. It contains a considerable +amount of original matter, now published from the +author’s manuscripts for the first time. It would be idle +to attempt criticising a work so well established; but the +brief remark of one of the first of metaphysical critics––Sir +James Mackintosh––on what he well terms ‘the magnificent +Dissertations,’ may be found not unacceptable. ‘These Dissertations,’ +says Sir James, ‘are perhaps most profusely +ornamented of any of their author’s compositions,––a peculiarity +which must in part have arisen from a principle of +taste, which regarded decoration as more suitable to the +history of philosophy than to philosophy itself. But the +memorable instances of Cicero, of Milton, and still more +those of Dryden and Burke, seem to show that there is +some natural tendency in the fire of genius to burn more +brightly, or to blaze more fiercely, in the evening than in +the morning of human life. Probably the materials which +long experience supplies to the imagination, the boldness +with which a more established reputation arms the mind, +and the silence of the low but formidable rivals of the +higher principles, may concur in providing this unexpected +and little observed effect.’</p> +<p><i>August 26, 1854.</i></p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_378' name='page_378'></a>378</span> +<a name='OUR_TOWN_COUNCILS' id='OUR_TOWN_COUNCILS'></a> +<h2>OUR TOWN COUNCILS.</h2> +</div> +<p>It is a grand, though doubtless natural, mistake to hold that +the members of the Town Councils of our Scottish cities +and burghs really represent in opinion and feeling their +nominal constituencies the electors, through whose suffrages +they have been placed in office. In very many cases they +do not represent them at all: they form an entirely dissimilar +class,––a class as thoroughly different from the solid +mass of the community, on which they float like froth +and spume on the surface of the great deep, as that other +class from which, because there are unhappily scarce any +other men in the field, we have to select our legislators. +The subject is one of importance. In the Sabbath controversy +now carrying on, it has been invariably taken for +granted by the anti-Sabbatarian press of the country, that +our Town Councils <i>do</i> represent the general constituency; +and there has been much founded on the assumption. We +shall by and by be finding the same assumption employed +against us in the Popery endowment question; and it +would be well, therefore, carefully to examine the grounds +on which it rests, and to ascertain whether there may not +exist some practical mode of testing its unsolidity.</p> +<p>It is not difficult to see how that upper class to which +our legislators of both Houses of Parliament mainly belong, +should differ greatly from the larger and more solid portion +of the middle classes in almost all questions of a religious +character and bearing. Bacon, in his <i>Essay on Kings</i>, has +quaintly, but, we are afraid, all too justly remarked, that +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_379' name='page_379'></a>379</span> +‘of all kind of men, God is the least beholding unto them +[kings]; for He doth most for them, and they do ordinarily +least for Him.’ But the character applies to more than +kings. It affects the whole upper layers of the great +pyramid of society, from its gilded pinnacle down to the +higher confines of its solid middle portion; and to these +upper layers of the erection our legislators, hereditary and +elective, with, of course, a very few exceptions in the Lower +House, all belong. They are drafted from the classes with +which, if we perhaps except the lowest and most degraded +of all, religious questions weigh least. There is, of course, +no class wholly divorced from good; and those exceptions +to which Cowper could refer two generations ago obtain +still:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<p style='margin-left:2.0em; margin-right:0.0em; text-align:left'><span class="leadquote">‘</span>We boast some rich ones whom the gospel sways,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.5em;'>And one who wears a coronet, and prays:</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.5em;'>Like gleanings of an olive tree, they show</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.5em;'>Here and there one upon the topmost bough.’</span><br /></p> +</div> +<p>But in at least the mass, religion has not been influential +among the governing classes in Britain since the days of +the Commonwealth. It has formed one of the great forces +on which they have calculated––a formidable power among +the people, that they have striven, according to the nature +of the emergency, to quiet or awaken, bias or control,––now +for the ends of party, when an antagonist faction had to be +overborne and put down,––now for the general benefit of +the country, when a foreign enemy had to be repelled or an +intestine discord to be suppressed; but it has been peculiarly +a force outside the governing classes––external, not +internal, to them,––a power which it has been their special +work to regulate and direct, not a power which has regulated +and directed them. The last British Government which––God, +according to Bacon, having done much for it––laboured +earnestly to do much for God, was that very remarkable +one which centred in the person of the Lord Protector. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_380' name='page_380'></a>380</span></p> +<p>Hence naturally much that is unsatisfactory to the comparatively +religious middle classes of the country, in the +conduct, with regard to religious questions, of the classes +on whom devolves the work of legislation. There is no +real community of feeling and belief in these matters +between the two. To the extent to which religion is involved +in the legislative enactments of the time, the middle +class is in reality not represented, and the upper class does +not represent. It may not seem equally obvious, however, +how there should be a lack of representation, not only +among our members of Parliament, but also among our +members of Council. They at least surely belong, it may +be said, to the middle classes, by whom and from among +whom they are chosen for their office. Certainly in some +cases they do; in many others, however, they form a class +scarce less peculiar than those upper classes out of which +the legislators of the country come to be drawn, simply +because there is no other class in the field out of which +they can be selected.</p> +<p>The Reform and Municipality Bills wrought a mighty +change in the Town Councils of the kingdom. The old close +burgh system, with all its abuses, ceased for ever, save in its +remains––monumental debts, and everlasting leases of town +lands, granted on easy terms to officials and their friends; and +droll recollections, like those embalmed by Galt in our literature, +of solid municipal feasting, and not so solid municipal +services,––of exclusive cliqueships, misemployed patronages, +modest self-elections,––in short, of a general practice of jobbing, +more palpable than pleasant, and that tended rather to +individual advantage than corporate honour. The old men +retired, and a set of new men were elevated by newly-created +constituencies into their vacated places, to be disinterested +on dilapidated means, and noisy on short commons. The +days of long and heavy feasts had come to a close, and the +days of long and heavy speeches succeeded. No two events +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_381' name='page_381'></a>381</span> +which this world of ours ever saw, led to so vast an amount +of bad speaking as the one Reform Bill that swept away +the rotten burghs, and the other Reform Bill that opened +the close ones. By and by, however, it came to be seen +that the old, privileged, self-elected class were succeeded in +many instances by a class that, though elected by their +neighbours, were yet not quite like their neighbours. Their +neighbours were men who, with their own personal business +to attend to, had neither the time nor the ambition to be +moving motions or speaking speeches in the eye of the +public, and who could not take the trouble to secure elections +by canvassing voters. The men who had the time, +and took the trouble, were generally a class ill-hafted in +society, who had high notions of reforming everything save +themselves, and of keeping right all kinds of businesses +except their own. The old state of things was, notwithstanding +its many faults, a state under which our Scotch +burghers rose into consideration by arts of comparative +solidity. A tradesman or shopkeeper looked well to his +business,––became an important man in the market-place +and a good man in the bank,––increased in weight in the +same proportion that his coffers did so, and grew influential +and oracular on the strength of his pounds sterling per +annum. With altered times, however, there arose a new +order of men,––</p> +<blockquote> +<p style='margin-left:2.0em; margin-right:0.0em; '>‘The wits of Charles found easier ways to fame.’</p> +</blockquote> +<p>It was no longer necessary to spend the greater part of a +lifetime in acquiring money and character: a glib tongue, +a few high professions of public principle, and a few weeks’ +canvassing, were found to serve the turn more than equally +well.</p> +<p>There commenced straightway a new dynasty of dignities +and honours. Councillors got into print in the capacity of +speechmakers, who, save for the revolution effected, would +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_382' name='page_382'></a>382</span> +never have got into print in any other capacity than, mayhap, +that of bankrupts in the Gazette. Eloquent men +walked to church in scarlet, greatly distinguished as provosts +and bailies, who but for the happy change would have crept +unseen all their lives long among the crowd. Members of +Parliament went arm-in-arm, when they visited their constituencies, +with folk altogether unused to such consideration; +and when a burgher’s son sought to be promoted to +the excise, or a seaman to the coast-guard service, it was +through the new men that influence had to be exerted. +And of course the new men had to approve themselves +worthy of their honours, by making large sacrifices for the +public weal. They had in many cases not much to do: the +magistracy of the bygone school, whom they succeeded, +had obligingly relieved posterity of the trouble of having a +too preponderous amount of municipal property to manage +and look after; but if they had not much to do, they had +at least a great deal to say; and as they were ambitious of +saying it, their own individual concerns were not unfrequently +neglected, in order that their constituencies might +be edified and informed. In cases not a few, the natural +consequences ensued. We have in our eye one special +burgh in the north, in which every name in the Town +Council, from that of the provost down to that of the +humblest councillor, had, in the course of some two or +three years, appeared also in the <i>Gazette</i>; and the previous +provost of the place had got desperately involved with the +branch banks of the district, and had ultimately run the +country, to avoid a prosecution for forgery.</p> +<p>Let it not be held that we are including the entire tribe +of modern town functionaries in one sweeping condemnatory +description. We ourselves, in our time (we refer to +the fact with a high but surely natural pride), held office as +a town councillor, under the modern <i>régime</i>, for the space +of three whole years in a parliamentary burgh that contained +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_383' name='page_383'></a>383</span> +no fewer than forty voters. All may learn from history how +it was that Bailie Weezle earned his municipal honours +during the ancient state of things in the famous burgh of +Gudetown. ‘Bailie Weezle,’ says Galt, ‘was a man not +overladen with worldly wisdom, and had been chosen into +the Council principally on account of being easily managed. +Being an idle person living on his money, and of a soft and +quiet nature, he was, for the reason aforesaid, taken by one +consent among us, where he always voted on the provost’s +side; for in controverted questions every one is beholden +to take a part, and the bailie thought it was his duty to side +with the chief magistrate.’ Our own special qualifications +for office were, we must be permitted in justice to ourselves +to state, different from Bailie Weezle’s by a shade.</p> +<p>It was generally held, that if there was nothing to do we +would <i>do</i> nothing, and if nothing to say we would <i>say</i> +nothing; and so thoroughly did we fulfil every expectation +that had been previously formed of us, that for three years +together we said and did nothing in our official capacity +with great <i>éclat</i>, and regularly absented ourselves from every +meeting of Council except the first, to the entire satisfaction +of our constituency. It will not be held, therefore, in the +face of so important a fact, that we include in our description +all the town magistracies under the existing state of things, +and most certainly not all modern town councillors.</p> +<p>Nothing, however, can be more certain, we repeat, than +that they differ from their constituencies as a class, and that +they are chosen to represent them in municipal affairs, just +as another and higher class is chosen to represent them in +the Legislature––merely because there is no other class in the +field. The solid middle-class men of business have, as has +been said, something else to employ them, and cannot spare +their services. They cannot accept of mere notoriety, with +mayhap a modicum of patronate influence attached, as an +adequate price for the time and labour which their own +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_384' name='page_384'></a>384</span> +affairs demand. It is a peculiar class in the municipal as +in the literary field, that ‘weigh solid pudding against empty +praise,’ and come to regard the empty praise as solid enough +to outweigh the pudding. Not but that it is a fine thing to +be in a Town Council, and to see one’s fortnightly speeches +flourishing in the public prints. Where else could some of +our Edinburgh worthies bring themselves so prominently +before the eyes of the country?</p> +<p>Where else, for instance, could Councillor ––– impart +such universal interest to the fact that he taught in a Sabbath +school, and rode out of town every evening to attend to its +duties by a Sunday train,––thus forming an invariable item, +it would seem, in the average of the ninety-two Sabbath +journeyers that travelled by the Edinburgh and Glasgow +Railway, and failed to remunerate the proprietors? Or +where else could Councillor ––– refer with such prodigious +effect to Dr. Chalmers’s bloody-minded scheme of +‘<i>executing</i> the heathen?’ Or where else could Councillor +––– succeed in eliciting so general a belief that he was one +of the poor endangered heathens over which the threatened +<i>execution</i> hung, through his famous oath ‘By Jupiter?’</p> +<p>By the way, is this latter gentleman acquainted with +Smollett’s story of the eccentric Mr. H., and chivalrously +bent, on the same principle, in acknowledging a deity in +distress? ‘Mr. H., some years ago, being in the Campidoglio +at Rome,’ says Smollett, ‘made up to the bust of +Jupiter, and bowing very low, exclaimed, in the Italian +language, “I hope, sir, if ever you get your head above +water again, you will remember that I paid my respects to +you in your adversity.” This sally,’ continues the historian, +‘was reported to the Cardinal Camerlengo, and by him laid +before the Pope Benedict <span style='font-variant:small-caps'>XIV.</span>, who could not help laughing +at the extravagance of the address, and said to the +Cardinal, “Those English heretics think they have a right +to go to the devil in their own way.’” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_385' name='page_385'></a>385</span></p> +<p>Now, standing, as we do, either on the threshold of +serious national controversies of a religious bearing, or +already entered upon them, it would be well to mark and +test the facts which it is our present object specially to +point out. It would be well to take measures for rendering +it an as palpable as it is a solid truth, that the municipal +<i>tail</i> of the country’s representation no more really represents +it in several very important respects than its parliamentary +<i>head</i>. It represents it most inadequately on the Sabbath +question now; it will represent it quite as inadequately in +the Popish endowment question by and by; and if in reality +we do not wish to see the battle going against us on both +issues, there must be effective means employed to demonstrate +the fact. In matters of a religious bearing, the ill-hafted +notoriety-men of our Town Councils much more +nearly resemble the upper indifferent classes, from which +our legislators are drafted, than they do the solid bulk of +the community.</p> +<p>They are decidedly in the movement party, and form a +portion, not of the ballast, but of the superfluous sail, of +the State. Nor should it be difficult to render the fact +evident to all. In one of our northern burghs––Dingwall––a +majority of the Town Council lately memorialized the +Directors of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway in exactly +the same vein as the majority of our Edinburgh Town +Council. So extreme a step seemed rather extraordinary +for Ross-shire; and a gentleman of the burgh, one of the +voters, convinced that the officials were far indeed from +representing their constituency, shrewdly set himself to +demonstrate the real state of the case. First he possessed +himself of an accredited list of the voters; and then, with a +memorial addressed to the Directors, strongly condemnatory +of the conduct of the Council, he called upon every +voter in the burgh who had not taken the opposite side in +the character of a councillor, with the exception of two, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_386' name='page_386'></a>386</span> +whose views he had previously ascertained to be unfavourable. +And what, thinks our reader, was the result? Seven +councillors had voted on the anti-Sabbatarian side; and the +provost, for himself and the Council, had afterwards signed +the memorial. And of the voters outside, four were found +to make common cause with them. Two more did not +make common cause with them, but were not prepared to +condemn them, and so did not sign. There were thus +fourteen in all who were either not opposed to the running +of Sabbath trains, or who were at least not disposed openly +to denounce the parties who had memorialized the Directors, +in the name of the burgh, to the effect that Sabbath +trains should be run. Of the other electors, ten were non-resident, +five more were out of town at the time, three had +fallen out of possession since the roll had been made up, +and one was dead. And all the others, amounting to sixty-nine +in number, at once signed the document condemnatory +of the Council, and were happy to have an opportunity of +doing so. The available votes of the burgh were opposed +to those of their pseudo-representatives in the proportion +of nearly six to one.</p> +<p>In the parliamentary burgh of Cromarty an almost similar +experiment was made. There, however, though the movement +party had composed the majority of the Council only +a few years since, they had been cast out of office, partly +through a strong reaction which had taken place against +them, partly in consequence of a quarrel among themselves. +And so the existing Town Council took the initiative in +memorializing the Directors in favour of the recent resolution +not to run Sunday trains. Of all the voters of the +burgh, only five stood aloof; all the others made common +cause with the Town Council in attaching their names to +their document.</p> +<p>But it is a significant fact, that in the knot of five the +ex-councillors of the movement party were included; and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_387' name='page_387'></a>387</span> +that had <i>they</i> been in the Council still, a majority would to +a certainty have voted in the wake of the Edinburgh Town +Council. There is much instruction in facts such as these; +and they may be turned to great practical account.</p> +<p>Why should not the sentiments of every voter in Scotland +be taken on this same Sabbath question now? or what +is there to prevent us from taking the sentiments of every +voter in Scotland on the Popish endowment question by +and by?</p> +<p>It is a tedious and expensive matter to get up petitions, +to which all and sundry affix their names; but the franchise-holders +of Scotland are comparatively a not very numerous +class; and about the same amount of labour that goes to +a monthly collection for the Sustentation Fund, would be +quite sufficient to place before Government and the country +the full expression of <i>their</i> feelings and opinions on the two +leading questions of the day. But enough for the present––‘a +word to the wise.’</p> +<p><i>January 20, 1847.</i></p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_388' name='page_388'></a>388</span> +<a name='SUTHERLAND_AS_IT_WAS_AND_IS1_OR_HOW_A_COUNTRY_MAY_BE_RUINED' id='SUTHERLAND_AS_IT_WAS_AND_IS1_OR_HOW_A_COUNTRY_MAY_BE_RUINED'></a> +<h2>SUTHERLAND AS IT WAS AND IS;<a name="FNanchor_0022" id="FNanchor_0022"></a><a href="#Footnote_0022" class="fnanchor2">[1]</a></h2> +<h3>OR,<br />HOW A COUNTRY MAY BE RUINED.</h3> +</div> +<h3>CHAPTER I.</h3> +<p>There appeared at Paris, about five years ago, a singularly +ingenious work on political economy, from the pen of the +late M. de Sismondi, a writer of European reputation. The +greater part of the first volume is taken up with discussions +on territorial wealth, and the condition of the cultivators of +the soil; and in this portion of the work there is a prominent +place assigned to a subject which perhaps few Scotch +readers would expect to see introduced through the medium +of a foreign tongue to the people of a great continental +State. We find this philosophic writer, whose works are +known far beyond the limits of his language, devoting an +entire essay to the case of the late Duchess of Sutherland +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_389' name='page_389'></a>389</span> +and her tenants, and forming a judgment on it very unlike +the decision of political economists in our own country, +who have not hesitated to characterize her great and singularly +harsh experiment, whose worst effects we are but +beginning to see, as at once justifiable in itself and happy +in its results. It is curious to observe how deeds done as +if in darkness and a corner, are beginning, after the lapse +of nearly thirty years, to be proclaimed on the house-tops. +The experiment of the late Duchess was not intended to be +made in the eye of Europe. Its details would ill bear the +exposure. When Cobbett simply referred to it only ten +years ago, the noble proprietrix was startled, as if a rather +delicate family secret was on the eve of being divulged; +and yet nothing seems more evident now than that civilised +man all over the world is to be made aware of how the +experiment was accomplished, and what it is ultimately to +produce. It must be obvious, further, that the infatuation +of the present proprietor, in virtually setting aside the +Toleration Act on his property, must have the effect of +spreading the knowledge of it all the more widely, and of +rendering its results much more disastrous than they could +have possibly been of themselves.</p> +<p>In a time of quiet and good order, when law, whether in +the right or the wrong, is all-potent in enforcing its findings, +the argument which the philosophic Frenchman employs in +behalf of the ejected tenantry of Sutherland, is an argument +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_390' name='page_390'></a>390</span> +at which proprietors may afford to smile. In a time of +revolution, however, when lands change their owners, and +old families give place to new ones, it might be found +somewhat formidable,––sufficiently so, at least, to lead a +wise proprietor in an unsettled age rather to conciliate +than oppress and irritate the class who would be able in +such circumstances to urge it with most effect. It is not +easy doing justice in a few sentences to the facts and +reasonings of an elaborate essay; but the line of the argument +runs somewhat thus.</p> +<p>Under the old Celtic tenures––the only tenures, be it +remembered, through which the lords of Sutherland derive +their rights to their lands––the <i>Klaan</i>, or children of the +soil, were the proprietors of the soil: ‘the whole of Sutherland,’ +says Sismondi, belonged to ‘the men of Sutherland.’ +Their chief was their monarch, and a very absolute monarch +he was. ‘He gave the different <i>tacks</i> of land to his officers, +or took them away from them, according as they showed +themselves more or less useful in war. But though he +could thus, in a military sense, reward or punish the clan, +he could not diminish in the least the property of the clan +itself;’––he was a chief, not a proprietor, and had ‘no +more right to expel from their homes the inhabitants of his +county, than a king to expel from his country the inhabitants +of his kingdom.’ ‘Now, the Gaelic tenant,’ continues +the Frenchman, ‘has never been conquered; nor did he +forfeit, on any after occasion, the rights which he originally +possessed;’––in point of right, he is still a co-proprietor +with his captain. To a Scotchman acquainted with the law +of property as it has existed among us, in even the Highlands, +for the last century, and everywhere else for at least +two centuries more, the view may seem extreme; not so, +however, to a native of the Continent, in many parts of +which prescription and custom are found ranged, not on +the side of the chief, but on that of the vassal. ‘Switzerland,’ +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_391' name='page_391'></a>391</span> +says Sismondi, ‘which in so many respects resembles +Scotland––in its lakes––its mountains––its climate––and the +character, manners, and habits of its children––was likewise +at the same period parcelled out among a small number of +lords. If the Counts of Kyburgh, of Lentzburg, of Hapsburg, +and of Gruyeres, had been protected by the English +laws, they would find themselves at the present day precisely +in the condition in which the Earls of Sutherland +were twenty years ago. Some of them would perhaps have +had the same taste for <i>improvements</i>, and several republics +would have been expelled from the Alps, to make room for +flocks of sheep.’ ‘But while the law has given to the Swiss +peasant a guarantee of perpetuity, it is to the Scottish laird +that it has extended this guarantee in the British empire, +leaving the peasant in a precarious situation.’ ‘The clan––recognised +at first by the captain, whom they followed in +war and obeyed for their common advantage, as his friends +and relations, then as his soldiers, then as his vassals, then +as his farmers––he has come finally to regard as hired +labourers, whom he may perchance allow to remain on the +soil of their common country for his own advantage, but +whom he has the power to expel so soon as he no longer +finds it for his interest to keep them.’</p> +<p>Arguments like those of Sismondi, however much their +force may be felt on the Continent, could be formidable at +home, as we have said, in only a time of revolution, when +the very foundations of society would be unfixed, and +opinion set loose, to pull down or reconstruct at pleasure. +But it is surely not uninteresting to mark how, in the course +of events, that very law of England which, in the view +of the Frenchman, has done the Highland peasant so +much less, and the Highland chief so much more than +justice, is bidding fair, in the case of Sutherland at least, to +carry its rude equalizing remedy along with it. Between the +years 1811 and 1820, fifteen thousand inhabitants of this +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_392' name='page_392'></a>392</span> +northern district were ejected from their snug inland farms, +by means for which we would in vain seek a precedent, +except, perchance, in the history of the Irish massacre. +But though the interior of the county was thus <i>improved</i> +into a desert, in which there are many thousands of sheep, +but few human habitations, let it not be supposed by the +reader that its general population, was in any degree lessened. +So far was this from being the case, that the census of 1821 +showed an increase over the census of 1811 of more than +two hundred; and the present population of Sutherland +exceeds, by a thousand, its population before the change. +The county has not been depopulated––its population has +been merely arranged after a new fashion. The late +Duchess found it spread equally over the interior and the +sea-coast, and in very comfortable circumstances;––she left +it compressed into a wretched selvage of poverty and suffering, +that fringes the county on its eastern and western +shores. And the law which enabled her to make such an +arrangement, maugre the ancient rights of the poor Highlander, +is now on the eve of stepping in, in its own clumsy +way, to make her family pay the penalty. The evil of a +poor-law can be no longer averted from Scotland. However +much we may dislike compulsory assessment for the +support of our poor, it can be no longer avoided. Our +aristocracy have been working hard for it during the whole +of the present century, and a little longer; the disruption +of the Scottish Church, as the last in a series of events, all +of which have tended towards it, has rendered it inevitable. +Let the evidence of the present commissioners on the subject +be what it may, it cannot be of a kind suited to show +that if England should have a poor-law, Scotland should +have none. The southern kingdom must and will give us +a poor-law; and then shall the selvage of deep poverty +which fringes the sea-coasts of Sutherland avenge on the +titled proprietor of the county both his mother’s error and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_393' name='page_393'></a>393</span> +his own. If our British laws, unlike those of Switzerland, +failed miserably in <i>her</i> day in protecting the vassal, they +will more than fail, in those of her successor, in protecting +the lord. Our political economists shall have an opportunity +of reducing their arguments regarding the improvements +in Sutherland into a few arithmetical terms, which +the merest tyro will be able to grapple with.</p> +<p>We find a similar case thus strongly stated by Cobbett in +his <i>Northern Tour</i>, and in connection with a well-known +name:––‘Sir James Graham has his estate lying off this +road to the left. He has not been <i>clearing</i> his estate––the +poor-law would not let him do that; but he has been clearing +off the small farms, and making them into large ones, +which he had a right to do, because it is he himself that is +finally to endure the consequences of that: he has a right +to do that; and those who are made indigent in consequence +of his so doing, have a right to demand a maintenance +out of the land, according to the Act of the 43d of +Elizabeth, which gave the people a <span style='font-variant:small-caps'>COMPENSATION</span> for the +loss of the tithes and church lands which had been taken +away by the aristocracy in the reigns of the Tudors. If Sir +James Graham choose to mould his fine and large estate +into immense farms, and to break up numerous happy +families in the middle rank of life, and to expose them all +to the necessity of coming and demanding sustenance from +his estate; if he choose to be surrounded by masses of +persons in this state, he shall not call them <i>paupers</i>, for +that insolent term is not to be found in the compensation-laws +of Elizabeth; if he choose to be surrounded by swarms +of beings of this description, with feelings in their bosoms +towards him such as I need not describe,––if he choose this, +his RIGHT certainly extends thus far; but I tell him that he +has no right to say to any man born in his parishes, “You +shall not be here, and you shall not have a maintenance off +these lands.’” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_394' name='page_394'></a>394</span></p> +<p>There is but poor comfort, however, to know, when one +sees a country ruined, that the perpetrators of the mischief +have not ruined it to their own advantage. We purpose +showing how signal in the case of Sutherland this ruin has +been, and how very extreme the infatuation which continues +to possess its hereditary lord. We are old enough to remember +the county in its original state, when it was at once +the happiest and one of the most exemplary districts in +Scotland, and passed, at two several periods, a considerable +time among its hills; we are not unacquainted with it now, +nor with its melancholy and dejected people, that wear out +life in their comfortless cottages on the sea-shore. The +problem solved in this remote district of the kingdom is not +at all unworthy the attention which it seems but beginning +to draw, but which is already not restricted to one kingdom, +or even one continent.</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_395' name='page_395'></a>395</span></div> +<h3 style="margin-top:3em">CHAPTER II.</h3> +<p>We heard sermon in the open air with a poor Highland +congregation in Sutherlandshire only a few weeks ago; and +the scene was one which we shall not soon forget. The +place of meeting was a green hill-side, near the opening +of a deep, long withdrawing strath, with a river running +through the midst. We stood on the slope where the last +of a line of bold eminences, that form the southern side of +the valley, sinks towards the sea. A tall precipitous mountain, +reverend and hoary, and well fitted to tranquillize the +mind, from the sober solemnity that rests on its massy features, +rose fronting us on the north; a quiet burial-ground +lay at its feet; while, on the opposite side, between us and +the sea, there frowned an ancient stronghold of time-eaten +stone––an impressive memorial of an age of violence and +bloodshed. The last proprietor, says tradition, had to quit +this dwelling by night, with all his family, in consequence of +some unfortunate broil, and take refuge in a small coasting +vessel; a terrible storm arose––the vessel foundered at sea––and +the hapless proprietor and his children were nevermore +heard of. And hence, it is said, the extinction of the race.</p> +<p>The story speaks of an unsettled time; nor is it difficult +to trace, in the long deep valley on the opposite hand, +the memorials of a story not less sad, though much more +modern. On both sides the river the eye rests on a multitude +of scattered patches of green, that seem inlaid in the +brown heath. We trace on these islands of sward the +marks of furrows, and mark here and there, through the +loneliness, the remains of a group of cottages, well-nigh +levelled with the soil, and, haply like those ruins which +eastern conquerors leave in their track, still scathed with +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_396' name='page_396'></a>396</span> +fire. All is solitude within the valley, except where, at wide +intervals, the shieling of a shepherd may be seen; but at +its opening, where the hills range to the coast, the cottages +for miles together lie clustered as in a hamlet. From the +north of Helmsdale to the south of Port Gower, the lower +slopes of the hills are covered by a labyrinth of stone fences, +minute patches of corn, and endless cottages. It would +seem as if for twenty miles the long withdrawing valley had +been swept of its inhabitants, and the accumulated sweepings +left at its mouth, just as we see the sweepings of a +room sometimes left at the door. And such generally is +the present state of Sutherland. The interior is a solitude +occupied by a few sheep-farmers and their hinds; while a +more numerous population than fell to the share of the +entire county, ere the inhabitants were expelled from their +inland holdings, and left to squat upon the coast, occupy +the selvage of discontent and poverty that fringes its shores. +The congregation with which we worshipped on this occasion +was drawn mainly from these cottages, and the neighbouring +village of Helmsdale. It consisted of from six to +eight hundred Highlanders, all devoted adherents of the +Free Church. We have rarely seen a more deeply serious +assemblage; never certainly one that bore an air of such +deep dejection. The people were wonderfully clean and +decent; for it is ill with Highlanders when they neglect +their personal appearance, especially on a Sabbath; but it +was all too evident that the heavy hand of poverty rested +upon them, and that its evils were now deepened by oppression. +It might be a mere trick of association; but when +their plaintive Gaelic singing, so melancholy in its tones at +all times, arose from the bare hill-side, it sounded in our +ears like a deep wail of complaint and sorrow. Poor +people! ‘We were ruined and reduced to beggary before,’ +they say, ‘and now the gospel is taken from us.’</p> +<p>Nine-tenths of the poor people of Sutherland are adherents +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_397' name='page_397'></a>397</span> +of the Free Church––all of them in whose families +the worship of God has been set up––all who entertain a +serious belief in the reality of religion––all who are not the +creatures of the proprietor, and have not stifled their convictions +for a piece of bread––are devotedly attached to the +disestablished ministers, and will endure none other. The +residuary clergy they do not recognise as clergy at all. +The Established churches have become as useless in the +district, as if, like its Druidical circles, they represented +some idolatrous belief, long exploded––the people will not +enter them; and they respectfully petition his Grace to be +permitted to build other churches for themselves. And +fain would his Grace indulge them, he says. In accordance +with the suggestions of an innate desire, willingly would he +permit them to build their own churches and support their +own ministers. But then, has he not loyally engaged to +support the Establishment? To permit a religious and +inoffensive people to build their own places of worship, and +support their own clergy, would be sanctioning a sort of +persecution against the Establishment; and as his Grace +dislikes religious persecution, and has determined always to +oppose whatever tends to it, he has resolved to make use +of his influence, as the most extensive of Scottish proprietors, +in forcing them back to their parish churches. If +they persist in worshipping God agreeably to the dictates +of their conscience, it must be on the unsheltered hill-side––in +winter, amid the frosts and snows of a severe northern +climate––in the milder seasons, exposed to the scorching +sun and the drenching shower. They must not be permitted +the shelter of a roof, for that would be persecuting +the Establishment; and so to the Establishment must the +people be forced back, literally by stress of weather. His +Grace owes a debt to the national institution, and it seems +to irk his conscience until some equivalent be made. He +is not himself a member––he exercises the same sort of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_398' name='page_398'></a>398</span> +liberty which his people would so fain exercise; and to +make amends for daring to belong to another Church himself +(that of England), he has determined, if he can help it, +that the people shall belong to no other. He has resolved, +it would seem, to compound for his own liberty by depriving +them of theirs.</p> +<p>How they are to stand out the winter on this exposed +eastern coast, He alone knows who never shuts His ear to +the cry of the oppressed. One thing is certain, they will +never return to the Establishment. On this Sabbath the +congregation in the parish church did not, as we afterwards +learned, exceed a score; and the <i>quoad sacra</i> chapel of the +district was locked up. Long before the Disruption the +people had well-nigh ceased attending the ministrations of +the parish incumbent. The Sutherland Highlanders are still +a devout people; they like a bald mediocre essay none the +better for its being called a sermon, and read on Sabbath. +The noble Duke, their landlord, has said not a little in his +letters to them about the extreme slightness of the difference +which obtains between the Free and the Established +Churches: it is a difference so exceedingly slight, that his +Grace fails to see it; and he hopes that by and by, when +winter shall have thickened the atmosphere with its frost +rime and its snows, his poor tenantry may prove as unable +to see it as himself. With them, however, the difference is +not mainly a doctrinal one. They believe with the old +Earls of Sutherland, who did much to foster the belief in +this northern county, that there is such a thing as personal +piety,––that of two clergymen holding nominally the same +doctrines, and bound ostensibly by the same standards, one +may be a regenerate man, earnestly bent on the conversion +of others, and ready to lay down his worldly possessions, +and even life itself, for the cause of the gospel; while the +other may be an unregenerate man, so little desirous of the +conversion of others, that he would but decry and detest +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_399' name='page_399'></a>399</span> +them did he find them converted already, and so careless +of the gospel, that did not his living depend on professing +to preach it, he would neither be an advocate for it himself, +nor yet come within earshot of where it was advocated +by others. The Highlanders of Sutherland hold in deep +seriousness a belief of this character. They believe, further, +that the ministers of their own mountain district +belong to these two classes––that the Disruption of the +Scottish Church has thrown the classes apart––that the +residuaries are not men of personal piety––they have seen +no conversions attending their ministry––nor have they +lacked reason to deem them unconverted themselves. +Unlike his Grace the Duke, the people have been intelligent +enough to see two sets of principles ranged in decided +antagonism in the Church question; but still more clearly +have they seen two sets of men. They have identified the +cause of the gospel with that of the-Free Church in their +district; and neither the Duke of Sutherland nor the +Establishment which he is ‘engaged in endeavouring to +maintain,’ will be able to reverse the opinion.</p> +<p>We have said that his Grace’s ancestors, the old earls, +did much to foster this spirit. The history of Sutherland, +as a county, differs from all our other Highland districts. +Its two great families were those of Reay and Sutherland, +both of which, from an early period of the Reformation, +were not only Protestant, but also thoroughly evangelical. +It was the venerable Earl of Sutherland who first subscribed +the National Covenant in the Greyfriars. It was a scion of +the Reay family––a man of great personal piety––who led +the troops of William against Dundee at Killiecrankie. +Their influence was all-powerful in Sutherland, and directed +to the best ends; and we find it stated by Captain Henderson, +in his general view of the agriculture of the country, as +a well-established and surely not uninteresting fact, that +‘the crimes of rapine, murder, and plunder, though not +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_400' name='page_400'></a>400</span> +unusual in the county during the feuds and conflicts of the +clans, were put an end to about the year 1640’––a full +century before our other Highland districts had become +even partially civilised. ‘Pious earls and barons of former +times,’ says a native of the county, in a small work published +in Edinburgh about sixteen years ago, ‘encouraged +and patronized pious ministers, and a high tone of religious +feeling came thus to be diffused throughout the country.’ +Its piety was strongly of the Presbyterian type; and in no +district of the south were the questions which received such +prominence in our late ecclesiastical controversy better +understood by both the people and the patrons, than in +Sutherland a full century ago. We have before us an interesting +document, the invitation of the elders, parishioners, +and heritors of Lairg, to the Rev. Thomas M’Kay, 1748, +to be their minister, in which, ‘hoping that’ he would find +their ‘call, carried on with great sincerity, unanimity, and +order, to be a clear call from the Lord,’ they faithfully +promise to ‘yield him, in their several stations and relations, +all dutiful respect and encouragement.’ William +Earl of Sutherland was patron of the parish, but we find +him on this occasion exercising no patronate powers: at +the head of parishioners and elders he merely adhibits his +name. He merely <i>invites</i> with the others. The state of +morals in the county was remarkably exemplified at a later +period by the regiment of Sutherland Highlanders, embodied +originally in 1793, under the name of the Sutherlandshire +Fencibles, and subsequently in 1800 as the 93d +Regiment. Most other troops are drawn from among the +unsettled and reckless part of the population; not so the +Sutherland Highlanders. On the breaking out of the +revolutionary war, the mother of the present Duke summoned +them from their hills, and five hundred fighting men +marched down to Dunrobin Castle, to make a tender of +their swords to their country, at the command of their +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_401' name='page_401'></a>401</span> +chieftainess. The regiment, therefore, must be regarded +as a fair specimen of the character of the district; and from +the description of General Stewart of Garth, and one or +two sources besides, we may learn what that character was.</p> +<p>‘In the words of a general officer by whom they were +once reviewed,’ says General Stewart, ‘they exhibited a +perfect pattern of military discipline and moral rectitude.’</p> +<p>‘When stationed at the Cape of Good Hope, anxious to +enjoy the advantages of religious instruction agreeably to +the tenets of their national Church, and there being no +religious service in the garrison except the customary one +of reading prayers to the soldiers on parade, the Sutherland +men formed themselves into a congregation, appointed +elders of their own number, engaged and paid a stipend +(collected among themselves) to a clergyman of the Church +of Scotland (who had gone out with an intention of teaching +and preaching to the Caffres), and had divine service +performed agreeably to the ritual of the Established Church.... +In addition to these expenses, the soldiers regularly +remitted money to their relatives in Sutherland. When they +disembarked at Plymouth in August 1814, the inhabitants +were both surprised and gratified. On such occasions it +had been no uncommon thing for soldiers to spend in +taverns and gin-shops the money they had saved. In the +present case the soldiers of Sutherland were seen in book-sellers’ +shops, supplying themselves with Bibles and such +books and tracts as they required. Yet, as at the Cape, +where their religious habits were so free of all fanatical +gloom that they occasionally indulged in social meetings +and dancing, so here, while expending their money on books, +they did not neglect their personal appearance; and the +haberdashers’ shops had also their share of trade, from the +purchase of additional feathers to their bonnets, and such +extra decorations as the correctness of military regulations +allow to be introduced into the uniform. Nor, while thus +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_402' name='page_402'></a>402</span> +mindful of themselves––improving their mind and their +personal appearance––did such of them as had relations in +Sutherland forget their destitute condition, <i>occasioned by the +loss of their lands</i>, and the operation of the <i>improved state of +the country</i>. During the short period that the regiment was +quartered at Plymouth, upwards of £500 were lodged in +one banking house to be remitted to Sutherland, exclusive +of many sums sent through the Post Office and by officers. +Some of the sums exceeded £20 from an individual soldier.’</p> +<p>‘In the case of such men,’ continues the General, ‘disgraceful +punishment was as unnecessary as it would have +been pernicious. Indeed, so remote was the idea of such +a measure in regard to them, that when punishments were +to be inflicted on others, and the troops in camp, garrison, +or quarters assembled to witness the execution, the presence +of the Sutherland Highlanders––either of the fencibles +or of the line––was dispensed with; the effect of terror, +as a check to crime, being in their case uncalled for, “<i>as +examples of that nature were not necessary for such honourable +soldiers</i>.” Such were these men in garrison. How +thoroughly they were guided by honour and loyalty in the +field, was shown at New Orleans. Although many of their +countrymen who had emigrated to America were ready +and anxious to receive them, there was not an instance +of desertion; nor did one of those who were left behind, +wounded or prisoners, forget their allegiance and remain +in that country, at the same time that desertions from the +British army were but too frequent.’</p> +<p>This is testimony which even men of the world will +scarce suspect. We can supplement it by that of the +missionary whom the Sutherlandshire soldiers made choice +of at Cape Town as their minister. We quote from a letter +by the Rev. Mr. Thom, which appeared in the <i>Christian +Herald</i> of October 1814:––</p> +<p>‘When the 93d Sutherland Highlanders left Cape Town +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_403' name='page_403'></a>403</span> +last month,’ writes the reverend gentleman, ‘there were +among them 156 members of the church (including three +elders and three deacons), all of whom, so far as man can +know the heart from the life, were pious persons. The +regiment was certainly a pattern for morality and good +behaviour to every other corps. They read their Bibles; +they observed the Sabbath; they saved their money in +order to do good; 7000 rix-dollars (£1400 currency) the +non-commissioned officers and privates gave for books, +societies, and the support of the gospel––a sum perhaps +unparalleled in any other corps in the world, given in the +short space of seventeen or eighteen months. Their example +had a general good effect on both the colonists and +heathen. How they may act as to religion in other parts +is known to God; but if ever apostolic days were revived in +modern times on earth, I certainly believe some of these to +have been granted to us in Africa.’</p> +<p>One other extract of a similar kind: we quote from a +letter to the Committee of the Edinburgh Gaelic School +Society, Fourth Annual Report:––</p> +<p>‘The regiment (93d) arrived in England, when they +immediately received orders to proceed to North America; +but before they re-embarked, the sum collected for your +Society was made up, and has been remitted to your treasurer, +amounting to seventy-eight pounds sterling.’</p> +<p>We dwell with pleasure on this picture; and shall present +the reader, in our next chapter, with a picture of similar +character, taken from observation, of the homes in which +these soldiers were reared. The reverse is all too stern, +but we must exhibit <i>it</i> also, and show how the influence +which the old Earls of Sutherland employed so well, has been +exerted by their descendants to the ruin of their country. +But we must first give one other extract from General +Stewart. It indicates the track in which the ruin came.</p> +<p>‘Men like these,’ he says, referring to the Sutherland +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_404' name='page_404'></a>404</span> +Highlanders, ‘do credit to the peasantry of the country. +If this conclusion is well founded, the removal of so many +of the people from their ancient seats, where they acquired +those habits and principles, must be considered a public +loss of no common magnitude. It must appear strange, +and somewhat inconsistent, when the same persons who +are loud in their professions of an eager desire to promote +and preserve the religious and moral virtues of the people, +should so frequently take the lead in approving of measures +which, by removing them from where they imbibed principles +which have attracted the notice of Europe, and +placed them in situations where poverty, and the too +frequent attendants, vice and crime, will lay the foundation +of a character which will be a disgrace, as that already +obtained has been an honour, to this country. In the new +stations where so many Highlanders are now placed, and +crowded in such numbers as to preserve the numerical +population, while whole districts are left without inhabitants, +how can they resume their ancient character and +principles, which, according to the reports of those employed +by the proprietors, have been so deplorably broken +down and deteriorated––a deterioration which was entirely +unknown till the recent change in the condition of the +people, and the introduction of that system of placing +families on patches of potato ground, as in Ireland––a +system pregnant with degradation, poverty, and disaffection, +and exhibiting daily a prominent and deplorable +example, which might have forewarned Highland proprietors, +and prevented them from reducing their people +to a similar state? It is only when parents and heads of +families in the Highlands are moral, happy, and contented, +that they can instil sound principles into their children, +who, in their intercourse with the world, may once more +become what the men of Sutherland have already been, +“an honourable example, worthy the imitation of all.’” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_405' name='page_405'></a>405</span></p> +<h3 style="margin-top:3em">CHAPTER III.</h3> +<p>We have exhibited the Sutherland Highlanders to the +reader as they exhibited themselves to their country, when, +as Christian soldiers,––men, like the old chivalrous knight, +‘without fear or reproach,’––they fought its battles and +reflected honour on its name. Interest must attach to the +manner in which men of so high a moral tone were reared; +and a sketch drawn from personal observation of the interior +of Sutherland eight-and-twenty years ago, may be found +to throw very direct light on the subject. To know what +the district once was, and what it is now, is to know with +peculiar emphasis the meaning of the sacred text, ‘One +sinner destroyeth much good.’</p> +<p>The eye of a Triptolemus Yellowlee would have found +exceedingly little to gratify it in the parish of Lairg thirty +years ago. The parish had its bare hills, its wide, dark +moors, its old doddered woods of birch and hazel, its extensive +lake, its headlong river, and its roaring cataract. +Nature had imparted to it much of a wild and savage +beauty; but art had done nothing for it. To reverse the +well-known antithesis in which Goldsmith sums up his +description of Italy,––the only growth that had <i>not</i> dwindled +in it was man. The cottage in which we resided with an +aged relative and his two stalwart sons, might be regarded +as an average specimen of the human dwellings of the district. +It was a low long building of turf, consisting of four +apartments on the ground floor,––the one stuck on to the +end of the other, and threaded together by a passage that +connected the whole. From the nearest hill the cottage +reminded one of a huge black snail crawling up the slope. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_406' name='page_406'></a>406</span> +The largest of the four apartments was occupied by the +master’s six milk cows; the next in size was the ha’, or +sitting-room,––a rude but not uncomfortable apartment, +with the fire on a large flat stone in the middle of the floor. +The apartment adjoining was decently partitioned into +sleeping places; while the fourth and last in the range––more +neatly fitted up than any of the others, with furniture +the workmanship of a bred carpenter, a small bookcase +containing from forty to fifty volumes, and a box-bed of +deal––was known as the stranger’s room. There was a +straggling group of buildings outside, in the same humble +style,––a stable, a barn, a hay-barn, a sheep-pen with a +shed attached, and a milk-house; and stretching around the +whole lay the farm,––a straggling patch of corn land of from +twelve to fifteen acres in extent, that, from its extremely +irregular outline, and the eccentric forms of the parti-coloured +divisions into which it was parcelled, reminded +one of a coloured map. Encircling all was a wide sea of +heath studded with huge stones––the pasturage land of +the farmer for his sheep and cattle––which swept away on +every hand to other islands of corn and other groups of +cottages, identical in appearance with the corn land and +the cottages described.</p> +<p>We remember that, coming from a seaport town, where, +to give to property the average security, the usual means +had to be resorted to, we were first struck by finding that +the door of our relative’s cottage, in this inland parish, was +furnished with neither lock nor bar. Like that of the +hermit in the ballad, it opened with a latch; but, unlike +that of the hermit, it was not because there were no stores +under the humble roof to demand the care of the master. +It was because that, at this comparatively recent period, +the crime of theft was unknown in the district. The philosophic +Biot, when occupied in measuring the time of the +seconds pendulum, resided for several months in one of the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_407' name='page_407'></a>407</span> +smaller Shetland islands; and, fresh from the troubles of +France,––his imagination bearing about, if we may so speak, +the stains of the guillotine,––the state of trustful security in +which he found the simple inhabitants filled him with astonishment. +‘Here,’ he exclaimed, ‘during the twenty-five +years in which Europe has been devouring herself, the door +of the house I inhabit has remained open day and night.’ +The whole interior of Sutherland was, at the time of which +we write, in a similar condition. It did not surprise us +that the old man, a person of deep piety, regularly assembled +his household night and morning for the purpose of family +worship, and led in their devotions: we had seen many +such instances in the low country. But it did somewhat +surprise us to find the practice universal in the parish. In +every family had the worship of God been set up. One +could not pass an inhabited cottage in the evening, from +which the voice of psalms was not to be heard. On Sabbath +morning, the whole population might be seen wending +their way, attired in their best, along the blind half-green +paths in the heath, to the parish church. The minister was +greatly beloved, and all attended his ministrations. We still +remember the intense joy which his visits used to impart to +the household of our relative. This worthy clergyman still +lives, though the infirmities of a stage of life very advanced +have gathered round him; and at the late disruption, +choosing his side, and little heeding, when duty called, that +his strength had been wasted in the labour of forty years, +and that he could now do little more than testify and suffer +in behalf of his principles, he resigned his hold of the temporalities +as minister of Dornoch, and cast in his lot with +his brethren of the Free Church. And his venerable successor +in Lairg, a man equally beloved and exemplary, and +now on the verge of his eightieth year, has acted a similar +part. Had such sacrifices been made in such circumstances +for other than the cause of Christ––had they been made +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_408' name='page_408'></a>408</span> +under some such romantic delusion as misled of old the +followers of the Stuarts––the world would have appreciated +them highly; but there is an element in evangelism which +repels admiration, unless it be an admiration grounded in +faith and love; and the appeal in such cases must lie, +therefore, not to the justice of the world, but to the judgment-seat +of God. We may remind the reader, in passing, +that it was the venerable minister of Lairg who, on +quitting his manse on the Disruption, was received by +his widowed daughter into a cottage held of the Duke +of Sutherland, and that for this grave crime––the crime of +sheltering her aged father––the daughter was threatened +with ejection by one of the Duke’s creatures. Is it not +somewhat necessary that the breath of public opinion +should be let in on this remote country? But we digress.</p> +<p>A peculiar stillness seemed to rest over this Highland +parish on the Sabbath. The family devotions of the morning, +the journey to and from church, and the public services +there, occupied fully two-thirds of the day. But there remained +the evening, and of it the earlier part was spent in +what are known in the north country as fellowship meetings. +One of these was held regularly in the ‘ha’’ of our relative. +From fifteen to twenty people, inclusive of the family, met +for the purposes of social prayer and religious conversation, +and the time passed profitably away, till the closing night +summoned the members of the meeting to their respective +homes and their family duties. We marked an interesting +peculiarity in the devotions of our relative. He was, as we +have said, an old man, and had worshipped in his family +long ere Dr. Stewart’s Gaelic translation of the Scriptures +had been introduced into the county; and as he was supplied +in those days with only the English Bible, while his +domestics understood only Gaelic, he had to acquire the +art, not uncommon in Sutherland at the time, of translating +the English chapter for them, as he read, into their native +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_409' name='page_409'></a>409</span> +tongue; and this he had learned to do with such ready +fluency, that no one could have guessed it to be other than +a Gaelic work from which he was reading. It might have +been supposed, however, that the introduction of Dr. +Stewart’s edition would have rendered this mode of translation +obsolete; but in this and many other families such +was not the case. The old man’s Gaelic was <i>Sutherlandshire +Gaelic</i>. His family understood it better, in consequence, +than any other; and so he continued to translate +from his English Bible, <i>ad aperturam libri</i>, many years after +the Gaelic edition had been spread over the county. The +fact that such a practice should have been common in +Sutherland, says something surely for the intelligence of +the family patriarchs of the district. That thousands of +the people who knew the Scriptures through no other +medium, should have been intimately acquainted with the +saving doctrines and witnesses of their power (and there +can be no question that such was the case), is proof enough, +at least, that it was a practice carried on with a due perception +of the scope and meaning of the sacred volume. +One is too apt to associate intelligence with the external +improvements of a country––with well-enclosed fields and +whitewashed cottages; but the association is altogether a +false one. As shown by the testimony of General Stewart +of Garth, the Sutherland regiment was not only the most +eminently moral, but, as their tastes and habits demonstrated, +one of the most decidedly intellectual under the +British Crown. Our relative’s cottage had, as we have +said, its bookcase, and both his sons were very intelligent +men; but intelligence derived directly from books was not +general in the county; a very considerable portion of the +people understood no other language than Gaelic, and +many of them could not even read; for at this period about +one-tenth of the families of Sutherland were distant five or +more miles from the nearest school. Their characteristic +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_410' name='page_410'></a>410</span> +intelligence was of a kind otherwise derived: it was an +intelligence drawn from these domestic readings of the +Scriptures and from the pulpit; and is referred mainly to +that profound science which even a Newton could recognise +as more important and wonderful than any of the +others, but which many of the shallower intellects of our +own times deem no science at all. It was an intelligence +out of which their morality sprung; it was an intelligence +founded in earnest belief.</p> +<p>But what, asks the reader, was the economic condition––the +condition with regard to circumstances and means of +living––of these Sutherland Highlanders? How did they +fare? The question has been variously answered: much +must depend on the class selected from among them as +specimens of the whole,––much, too, taking for granted the +honesty of the party who replies, on his own condition in +life, and his acquaintance with the circumstances of the +poorer people of Scotland generally. The county had its +less genial localities, in which, for a month or two in the +summer season, when the stock of grain from the previous +year was fast running out, and the crops on the ground not +yet ripened for use, the people experienced a considerable +degree of scarcity,––such scarcity as a mechanic in the +south feels when he has been a fortnight out of employment. +But the Highlander had resources in these seasons +which the mechanic has not. He had his cattle and his +wild pot-herbs, such as the mugwort and the nettle. It has +been adduced by the advocates of the change which has +ruined Sutherland, as a proof of the extreme hardship of +the Highlander’s condition, that at such times he could +have eaten as food a broth made of nettles, mixed up with +a little oatmeal, or have had recourse to the expedient of +bleeding his cattle, and making the blood into a sort of +pudding. And it is quite true that the Sutherlandshire +Highlander was in the habit, at such times, of having +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_411' name='page_411'></a>411</span> +recourse to such food. It is not less true, however, that +the statement is just as little conclusive regarding his condition, +as if it were alleged there must always be famine in +France when the people eat the hind legs of frogs, or in +Italy when they make dishes of snails. We never saw +scarcity in the house of our relative, but we have seen the +nettle broth in it very frequently, and the blood-pudding +oftener than once; for both dishes were especial favourites +with the Highlanders. With regard to the general comfort +of the people in their old condition, there are better tests +than can be drawn from the kind of food they occasionally +ate. The country hears often of dearth in Sutherland now: +every year in which the crop falls a little below average in +other districts, is a year of famine there; but the country +never heard of dearth in Sutherland then. There were +very few among the holders of its small inland farms who +had not saved a little money. Their circumstances were +such, that their moral nature found full room to develope +itself, and in a way the world has rarely witnessed. Never +were there a happier or more contented people, or a people +more strongly attached to the soil; and not one of them +now lives in the altered circumstances on which they were +so rudely precipitated by the landlord, who does not look +back on this period of comfort and enjoyment with sad and +hopeless regret. We have never heard the system which +has depopulated this portion of the country defended, without +recurring to our two several visits to the turf cottage +in Lairg, or without feeling that the defence embodied an +essential falsehood, which time will not fail to render evident +to the apprehensions of all.</p> +<p>We would but fatigue our readers were we to run over half +our recollections of the interior of Sutherland. They are +not all of a serious cast. We have sat in the long autumn +evenings in the cheerful circle round the turf-fire of the ha’, +and have heard many a tradition of old clan feuds pleasingly +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_412' name='page_412'></a>412</span> +told, and many a song of the poet of the county, Old Rob +Donn, gaily sung. In our immediate neighbourhood, by +the side of a small stream––small, but not without its +supply of brown trout, speckled with crimson––there was a +spot of green meadow land, on which the young men of the +neighbourhood used not unfrequently to meet and try their +vigour in throwing the stone. The stone itself had its +history. It was a ball of gneiss, round as a bullet, that had +once surmounted the gable of a small Popish chapel, of +which there now remained only a shapeless heap of stones, +that scarce overtopped the long grass amid which it lay. +A few undressed flags indicated an ancient burying-ground; +and over the ruined heap, and the rude tombstones that +told no story, an ancient time-hallowed tree, coeval with +the perished building, stretched out its giant arms. Even +the sterner occupations of the farm had in their very variety +a strong smack of enjoyment. We found one of the old +man’s sons engaged, during our one visit, in building an +outhouse, after the primitive fashion of the Highlands, and +during our other visit, in constructing a plough. The two +main <i>cupples</i> of the building he made of huge trees, dug out +of a neighbouring morass; they resembled somewhat the +beams of a large sloop reversed. The stones he carried +from the outfield heath on a sledge; the interstices in the +walls he caulked with moss; the roof he covered with sods. +The entire erection was his workmanship, from foundation +to ridge. And such, in brief, was the history of all those +cottages in the interior of Sutherland, which the poor Highlanders +so naturally deemed their own, but from which, +when set on fire and burnt to the ground by the creatures +of the proprietor, they were glad to escape with their lives. +The plough, with the exception of the iron work, was altogether +our relative’s workmanship too. And such was the history +of the rude implements of rural or domestic labour which +were consumed in the burning dwellings. But we anticipate. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_413' name='page_413'></a>413</span></p> +<p>There is little of gaiety or enjoyment among the Highlanders +of Sutherland now. We spent a considerable time +for two several years among their thickly-clustered cottages +on the eastern coast, and saw how they live, and how it +happens that when years of comparative scarcity come on +they starve. Most of them saved, when in the interior, as +we have said, a little money; but the process has been reversed +here: in every instance in which they brought their +savings to the coast-side has the fund been dissipated. Each +cottage has from half an acre to an acre and half of corn +land attached to it––just such patches as the Irish starve +upon. In some places, by dint of sore labour, the soil has +been considerably improved; and all that seems necessary +to render it worth the care of a family, would be just to increase +its area some ten or twelve times. In other cases, +however, increase would be no advantage. We find it +composed of a loose debris of granitic water-rolled pebbles +and ferruginous sand, that seemed destined to perpetual +barrenness. The rents, in every instance, seem moderate; +the money of the tenant flows towards the landlord in a +stream of not half the volume of that in which the money +of the landlord must flow towards the tenant when the poor-laws +shall be extended to Scotland. But no rent, in such +circumstances, can be really moderate. A clergyman, when +asked to say how many of his parishioners, in one of these +coast districts, realized <i>less</i> than sixpence a-day, replied, +that it would be a much easier matter for him to point out +how many of them realized <i>more</i> than sixpence, as this more +fortunate class were exceedingly few. And surely no rent +can be moderate that is paid by a man who realizes less +than sixpence a-day. It is the peculiar evil produced by +the change in Sutherland, that it has consigned the population +of the country to a condition in which no rent <i>can</i> be +moderate––to a condition in which they but barely avoid +famine, when matters are at the best with them, and fall +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_414' name='page_414'></a>414</span> +into it in every instance in which the herring fishing, their +main and most precarious stay, partially fails, or their crops +are just a little more than usually scanty. They are in such +a state, that their very means of living are sources, not of +comfort, but of distress to them. When the fishing and +their crops are comparatively abundant, they live on the +bleak edge of want; while failure in either plunges them +into a state of intense suffering. And well are these Highlanders +aware of the true character of the revolution to +which they have been subjected. Our Poor-Law Commissioners +may find, in this land of growing pauperism, thousands +as poor as the people of Sutherland; but they will +find no class of the population who can so directly contrast +their present destitution with a state of comparative plenty +and enjoyment, or who, in consequence of possessing this +sad ability, are so deeply imbued with a too well-grounded +and natural discontent.</p> +<p>But we have not yet said how this ruinous revolution was +effected in Sutherland,––how the aggravations of the <i>mode</i>, +if we may so speak, still fester in the recollections of the +people,––or how thoroughly that policy of the lord of the +soil, through which he now seems determined to complete +the work of ruin which his predecessor began, harmonizes +with its worst details. We must first relate, however, a +disastrous change which took place, in the providence of +God, in the noble family of Sutherland, and which, though +it dates fully eighty years back, may be regarded as pregnant +with the disasters which afterwards befell the country. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_415' name='page_415'></a>415</span></p> +<h3 style="margin-top:3em">CHAPTER IV.</h3> +<p>Such of our readers as are acquainted with the memoir +of Lady Glenorchy, must remember a deeply melancholy +incident which occurred in the history of this excellent +woman, in connection with the noble family of Sutherland. +Her only sister had been married to William, seventeenth +Earl of Sutherland,––‘the last of the good Earls;’ ‘a nobleman,’ +says the Rev. Dr. Jones, in his Memoir, ‘who to the +finest person united all the dignity and amenity of manners +and character which give lustre to greatness.’ But his sun +was destined soon to go down. Five years after his marriage, +which proved one of the happiest, and was blessed +with two children, the elder of the two, the young Lady +Catherine, a singularly engaging child, was taken from him +by death, in his old hereditary castle of Dunrobin. The +event deeply affected both parents, and preyed on their +health and spirits. It had taken place amid the gloom of +a severe northern winter, and in the solitude of the Highlands; +and, acquiescing in the advice of friends, the Earl +and his lady quitted the family seat, where there was so +much to remind them of their bereavement, and sought +relief in the more cheerful atmosphere of Bath. But they +were not to find it there. Shortly after their arrival, the +Earl was seized by a malignant fever, with which, upheld by +a powerful constitution, he struggled for fifty-four days, and +then expired. ‘For the first twenty-one days and nights of +these,’ says Dr. Jones, ‘Lady Sutherland never left his bedside; +and then at last, overcome with fatigue, anxiety, and +grief, she sank an unavailing victim to an amiable but excessive +attachment, seventeen days before the death of her +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_416' name='page_416'></a>416</span> +lord.’ The period, though not very remote, was one in +which the intelligence of events travelled slowly; and in +this instance the distraction of the family must have served +to retard it beyond the ordinary time. Her Ladyship’s +mother, when hastening from Edinburgh to her assistance, +alighted one day from her carriage at an inn, and, on +seeing two hearses standing by the wayside, inquired of an +attendant whose remains they contained? The remains, +was the reply, of Lord and Lady Sutherland, on their way +for interment to the Royal Chapel of Holyrood House. +And such was the first intimation which the lady received +of the death of her daughter and son-in-law.</p> +<p>The event was pregnant with disaster to Sutherland, +though many years elapsed ere the ruin which it involved +fell on that hapless county. The sole survivor and heir of +the family was a female infant of but a year old. Her +maternal grandmother, an ambitious, intriguing woman of +the world, had the chief share in her general training and +education; and she was brought up in the south of Scotland, +of which her grandmother was a native, far removed +from the influence of those genial sympathies with the +people of her clan, for which the old lords of Sutherland +had been so remarkable, and, what was a sorer evil still, +from the influence of the vitalities of that religion which, +for five generations together, her fathers had illustrated and +adorned. The special mode in which the disaster told first, +was through the patronages of the county, the larger part of +which are vested in the family of Sutherland. Some of the +old Earls had been content, as we have seen, to place +themselves on the level of the Christian men of their parishes, +and thus to unite with them in calling to their churches the +Christian ministers of their choice. They knew,––what regenerate +natures can alone know with the proper emphasis,––that +in Christ Jesus the vassal ranks with his lord, and +they conscientiously acted on the conviction. But matters +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_417' name='page_417'></a>417</span> +were now regulated differently. The presentation supplanted +the call, and ministers came to be placed in the +parishes of Sutherland without the consent and contrary to +the will of the people. Churches, well filled hitherto, were +deserted by their congregations, just because a respectable +woman of the world, making free use of what she deemed +her own, had planted them with men of the world who +were only tolerably respectable; and in houses and barns +the devout men of the district learned to hold numerously-attended +Sabbath meetings for reading the Scriptures, and +mutual exhortation and prayer, as a sort of substitute for +the public services, in which they found they could no +longer join with profit. The spirit awakened by the old +Earls had survived themselves, and ran directly counter to +the policy of their descendant. Strongly attached to the +Establishment, the people, though they thus forsook their +old places of worship, still remained members of the national +Church, and travelled far in the summer season to attend +the better ministers of their own and the neighbouring +counties. We have been assured, too, from men whose +judgment we respect, that, under all their disadvantages, +religion continued peculiarly to flourish among them;––a +deep-toned evangelism prevailed; so that perhaps the visible +Church throughout the world at the time could furnish no +more striking contrast than that which obtained between +the cold, bald, commonplace services of the pulpit in some +of these parishes, and the fervid prayers and exhortations +which give life and interest to these humble meetings of the +people. What a pity it is that differences such as these the +Duke of Sutherland cannot see!</p> +<p>The marriage of the young countess into a noble English +family was fraught with further disaster to the county. +There are many Englishmen quite intelligent enough to +perceive the difference between a smoky cottage of turf and +a whitewashed cottage of stone, whose judgment on their +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_418' name='page_418'></a>418</span> +respective inhabitants would be of but little value. Sutherland, +as a country of <i>men</i>, stood higher at this period than +perhaps any other district in the British empire; but, as our +descriptions in the preceding chapter must have shown,––and +we indulged in them mainly with a view to this part of +our subject,––it by no means stood high as a country of +farms and cottages. The marriage of the Countess brought +a new set of eyes upon it,––eyes accustomed to quite a +different face of things. It seemed a wild, rude country, +where all was wrong, and all had to be set right,––a sort of +Russia on a small scale, that had just got another Peter the +Great to civilise it,––or a sort of barbarous Egypt, with an +energetic Ali Pasha at its head. Even the vast wealth and +great liberality of the Stafford family militated against this +hapless county: it enabled them to treat it as the mere +subject of an interesting experiment, in which gain to themselves +was really no object,––nearly as little so as if they +had resolved on dissecting a dog alive for the benefit of +science. It was a still further disadvantage, that they had +to carry on their experiment by the hands, and to watch its +first effects with the eyes, of others. The agonies of the dog +might have had their softening influence on a dissector who +held the knife himself; but there could be no such influence +exerted over him, did he merely issue orders to his footman +that the dissection should be completed, remaining himself, +meanwhile, out of sight and out of hearing. The plan +of improvement sketched out by his English family was a +plan exceedingly easy of conception. Here is a vast tract +of land, furnished with two distinct sources of wealth. Its +shores may be made the seats of extensive fisheries, and the +whole of its interior parcelled out into productive sheep-farms. +All is waste in its present state: it has no fisheries, +and two-thirds of its internal produce is consumed by the +inhabitants. It had contributed, for the use of the community +and the landlord, its large herds of black cattle; but +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_419' name='page_419'></a>419</span> +the English family saw, and, we believe, saw truly, that for +every one pound of beef which it produced, it could be made +to produce two pounds of mutton, and perhaps a pound of +fish in addition. And it was resolved, therefore, that the +inhabitants of the central districts, who, <i>as they were mere +Celts</i>, could not be transformed, it was held, into store-farmers, +should be marched down to the sea-side, there to +convert themselves into fishermen, on the shortest possible +notice, and that a few farmers of capital, of the industrious +Lowland race, should be invited to occupy the new subdivisions +of the interior.</p> +<p>And, pray, what objections can be urged against so liberal +and large-minded a scheme? The poor inhabitants of the +interior had <i>very</i> serious objections to urge against it. +Their humble dwellings were of their own rearing; it was +they themselves who had broken in their little fields from +the waste; from time immemorial, far beyond the reach of +history, had they possessed their mountain holdings,––they +had defended them so well of old that the soil was still +virgin ground, in which the invader had found only a grave; +and their young men were now in foreign lands, fighting, at +the command of their chieftainess, the battles of their +country, not in the character of hired soldiers, but of men +who regarded these very holdings as their stake in the +quarrel. To them, then, the scheme seemed fraught with +the most flagrant, the most monstrous injustice. Were it +to be suggested by some Chartist convention in a time of +revolution, that Sutherland might be still further improved––that +it was really a piece of great waste to suffer the revenues +of so extensive a district to be squandered by one individual––that +it would be better to appropriate them to the +use of the community in general––that the community in +general might be still further benefited by the removal of +the one said individual from Dunrobin to a road-side, where +he might be profitably employed in breaking stones––and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_420' name='page_420'></a>420</span> +that this new arrangement could not be entered on too +soon––the noble Duke would not be a whit more astonished, +or rendered a whit more indignant, by the scheme, than +were the Highlanders of Sutherland by the scheme of his +predecessor.</p> +<p>The reader must keep in view, therefore, that if atrocities +unexampled in Britain for at least a century were perpetrated +in the <i>clearing</i> of Sutherland, there was a species of +at least passive resistance on the part of the people (for +active resistance there was none), which in some degree +provoked them. Had the Highlanders, on receiving orders, +marched down to the sea-coast, and become fishermen, with +the readiness with which a regiment deploys on review day, +the atrocities would, we doubt not, have been much fewer. +But though the orders were very distinct, the Highlanders +were very unwilling to obey; and the severities formed +merely a part of the means through which the necessary +obedience was ultimately secured. We shall instance a +single case, as illustrative of the process. In the month of +March 1814, a large proportion of the Highlanders of Farr +and Kildonan, two parishes in Sutherland, were summoned +to quit their farms in the following May. In a few days +after, the surrounding heaths on which they pastured their +cattle, and from which at that season the sole supply of +herbage is derived (for in those northern districts the grass +springs late, and the cattle-feeder in the spring months +depends chiefly on the heather), were set on fire and burnt +up. There was that sort of policy in the stroke which men +deem allowable in a state of war. The starving cattle went +roaming over the burnt pastures, and found nothing to eat. +Many of them perished, and the greater part of what remained, +though in miserable condition, the Highlanders +had to sell perforce. Most of the able-bodied men were +engaged in this latter business at a distance from home, +when the dreaded term-day came on. The pasturage had +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_421' name='page_421'></a>421</span> +been destroyed before the legal term, and while, in even the +eye of the law, it was still the property of the poor Highlanders; +but ere disturbing them in their dwellings, term-day +was suffered to pass. The work of demolition then +began. A numerous party of men, with a factor at their +head, entered the district, and commenced pulling down +the houses over the heads of the inhabitants. In an extensive +tract of country not a human dwelling was left standing, +and then, the more effectually to prevent their temporary +re-erection, the destroyers set fire to the wreck. In one day +were the people deprived of home and shelter, and left +exposed to the elements. Many deaths are said to have +ensued from alarm, fatigue, and cold. Pregnant women +were taken with premature labour in the open air. There +were old men who took to the woods and rocks in a state +of partial insanity. An aged bedridden man, named Macbeath, +had his house unroofed over his head, and was left +exposed to wind and rain till death put a period to his +sufferings. Another man lying ill of a fever met with no +tenderer treatment, but in his case the die turned up life. +A bedridden woman, nearly a hundred years of age, had +her house fired over her head, and ere she could be extricated +from the burning wreck, the sheets in which she was +carried were on fire. She survived but for five days after. +In a critique on the work of Sismondi, which appeared a +few months since in the <i>Westminster Review</i>, the writer tells +us, ‘it has even been said that an old man, having refused +to quit his cabin, perished in the flames.’ But such was not +the case. The constituted authorities interfered; a precognition +was taken by the Sheriff-substitute of the county, +and the case tried before the Justiciary Court at Inverness; +but the trial terminated in the acquittal of the pannels. +There was no punishable crime proven to attach to the +agents of the proprietor.</p> +<p>Their acquittal was followed by scenes of a similar +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_422' name='page_422'></a>422</span> +character with the scene described, and of even greater +atrocity. But we must borrow the description of one of +these from the historian of the <i>clearing</i> of Sutherland,––Donald +M’Leod, a native of the county, and himself a +sufferer in the experimental process to which it was subjected:––</p> +<p>‘The work of devastation was begun by setting fire to the +houses of the small tenants in extensive districts––Farr, +Rogart, Golspie, and the whole parish of Kildonan. I was +an eye-witness of the scene. The calamity came on the +people quite unexpectedly. Strong parties for each district, +furnished with faggots and other combustibles, rushed on +the dwellings of the devoted people, and immediately commenced +setting fire to them, proceeding in their work with +the greatest rapidity, till about three hundred houses were +in flames. Little or no time was given for the removal of +persons or property––the consternation and confusion were +extreme––the people striving to remove the sick and helpless +before the fire should reach them––next struggling to +save the most valuable of their effects––the cries of the +women and children––the roaring of the affrighted cattle, +hunted by the dogs of the shepherds amid the smoke and +the fire––altogether composed a scene that completely +baffles description. A dense cloud of smoke enveloped the +whole country by day, and even extended far on the sea. +At night, an awfully grand but terrific scene presented itself––all +the houses in an extensive district in flames at once. +I myself ascended a height about eleven o’clock in the +evening, and counted two hundred and fifty blazing houses, +many of the owners of which were my relations, and all of +whom I personally knew, but whose present condition I +could not tell. The conflagration lasted six days, till the +whole of the dwellings were reduced to ashes or smoking +ruins. During one of these days, a boat lost her way in the +dense smoke as she approached the shore, but at night she +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_423' name='page_423'></a>423</span> +was enabled to reach a landing-place by the light of the +flames.’</p> +<p>But, to employ the language of Southey,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<p style='margin-left:2.0em; margin-right:0.0em; text-align:left'><span class="leadquote">‘</span>Things such as these, we know, must be<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.5em;'>At every famous victory.’</span><br /></p> +</div> +<p>And in this instance the victory of the lord of the soil over +the children of the soil was signal and complete. In little +more than nine years a population of fifteen thousand individuals +were removed from the interior of Sutherland to +its sea-coasts, or had emigrated to America. The inland +districts were converted into deserts, through which the +traveller may take a long day’s journey, amid ruins that +still bear the scathe of fire, and grassy patches betraying, +when the evening sun casts aslant its long deep shadows, +the half-effaced lines of the plough. The writer of the +singularly striking passage we have just quoted, revisited +his native place (Kildonan) in the year 1828, and attended +divine service in the parish church. A numerous and devout +congregation had once worshipped there: the congregation +now consisted of eight shepherds and their <i>dogs</i>. In a neighbouring +district––the barony of Strathnaver, a portion of the +parish of Farr––the church, no longer found necessary, was +razed to the ground. The timber was carried away to be +used in the erection of an inn, and the minister’s house converted +into the dwelling of a fox-hunter. ‘A woman well +known in the parish,’ says M’Leod, ‘happening to traverse +the Strath the year after the burning, was asked, on her return, +What news? “Oh,” said she, “<i>sgeul bronach, sgeul +bronach!</i> sad news, sad news! I have seen the timber of +our kirk covering the inn at Altnaharran; I have seen the +kirkyard, where our friends are mouldering, filled with tarry +sheep, and Mr. Sage’s study-room a kennel for Robert Gun’s +dogs.’” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_424' name='page_424'></a>424</span></p> +<h3 style="margin-top:3em">CHAPTER V.</h3> +<p>Let us follow, for a little, the poor Highlanders of Sutherland +to the sea-coast. It would be easy dwelling on the +terrors of their expulsion, and multiplying facts of horror; +but had there been no permanent deterioration effected in +their condition, these, all harrowing and repulsive as they +were, would have mattered less. Sutherland would have +soon recovered the burning up of a few hundred hamlets, +or the loss of a few bedridden old people, who would have +died as certainly under cover, though perhaps a few months +later, as when exposed to the elements in the open air. +Nay, had it lost a thousand of its best men in the way in +which it lost so many at the storming of New Orleans, the +blank ere now would have been completely filled up. The +calamities of fire or of decimation even, however distressing +in themselves, never yet ruined a country: no calamity +ruins a country that leaves the surviving inhabitants to develope, +in their old circumstances, their old character and +resources.</p> +<p>In one of the eastern eclogues of Collins, where two +shepherds are described as flying for their lives before the +troops of a ruthless invader, we see with how much of the +terrible the imagination of a poet could invest the evils of +war, when aggravated by pitiless barbarity. Fertile as that +imagination was, however, there might be found new circumstances +to heighten the horrors of the scene––circumstances +beyond the reach of invention––in the retreat of the +Sutherland Highlanders from the smoking ruins of their +cottages to their allotments on the coast. We have heard +of one man, named M’Kay, whose family, at the time of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_425' name='page_425'></a>425</span> +the greater conflagration referred to by M’Leod, were all +lying ill of fever, who had to carry two of his sick children +on his back a distance of twenty-five miles. We have heard +of the famished people blackening the shores, like the crew +of some vessel wrecked on an inhospitable coast, that they +might sustain life by the shell-fish and sea-weed laid bare +by the ebb. Many of their allotments, especially on the +western coast, were barren in the extreme––unsheltered by +bush or tree, and exposed to the sweeping sea-winds, and, +in time of tempest, to the blighting spray; and it was found +a matter of the extremest difficulty to keep the few cattle +which they had retained, from wandering, especially in the +night-time, into the better sheltered and more fertile interior. +The poor animals were intelligent enough to read +a practical comment on the nature of the change effected; +and, from the harshness of the shepherds to whom the care +of the interior had been entrusted, they served materially to +add to the distress of their unhappy masters. They were +getting continually impounded; and vexatious fines, in the +form of trespass-money, came thus to be wrung from the +already impoverished Highlanders. Many who had no +money to give were obliged to relieve them by depositing +some of their few portable articles of value, such as bed or +body clothes, or, more distressing still, watches and rings +and pins––the only relics, in not a few instances, of brave +men whose bones were mouldering under the fatal rampart +at New Orleans, or in the arid sands of Egypt––on that +spot of proud recollection, where the invincibles of Napoleon +went down before the Highland bayonet. Their first +efforts as fishermen were what might be expected from a +rural people unaccustomed to the sea. The shores of +Sutherland, for immense tracts together, are iron-bound, +and much exposed––open on the eastern coast to the +waves of the German Ocean, and on the north and west +to the long roll of the Atlantic. There could not be more +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_426' name='page_426'></a>426</span> +perilous seas for the unpractised boatman to take his first +lessons on; but though the casualties were numerous, and +the loss of life great, many of the younger Highlanders +became expert fishermen. The experiment was harsh in +the extreme, but so far, at least, it succeeded. It lies open, +however, to other objections than those which have been +urged against it on the score of its inhumanity.</p> +<p>The reader must be acquainted with Goldsmith’s remarks +on the herring fishery of his days. ‘A few years ago,’ he +says, ‘the herring fishing employed all Grub Street; it was +the topic in every coffee-house, and the burden of every +ballad. We were to drag up oceans of gold from the bottom +of the sea; we were to supply all Europe with herrings upon +our own terms. At present, however, we hear no more of +all this; we have fished up very little gold that I can learn; +nor do we furnish the world with herrings, as was expected.’ +We have, in this brief passage, a history of all the more +sanguine expectations which have been founded on herring +fisheries. There is no branch of industry so calculated to +awaken the hopes of the speculator, or so suited to disappoint +them. So entirely is this the case, that were we desirous +to reduce an industrious people to the lowest stage of +wretchedness compatible with industry, we would remove +them to some barren district, and there throw them on the +resources of this fishery exclusively. The employments of +the herring fisher have all the uncertainty of the ventures of +the gambler. He has first to lay down, if we may so speak, +a considerable stake, for his drift of nets and his boat involve +a very considerable outlay of capital; and if successful, +and if in general the fishery be <i>not</i> successful, the <i>take</i> +of a single week may more than remunerate him. A single +cast of his nets may bring him in thirty guineas and more. +The die turns up in his favour, and he sweeps the board. +And hence those golden dreams of the speculator so happily +described by Goldsmith. But year after year may pass, and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_427' name='page_427'></a>427</span> +the run of luck be against the fisherman. A fishing generally +good at all the stations gluts the market, necessarily +limited in its demands to an average supply, and, from the +bulk and weight of the commodity, not easily extended to +distant parts: and the herring merchant first, and the fisherman +next, find that they have been labouring hard to little +purpose. Again, a fishing under average, from the eccentric +character of the fish, is found almost always to benefit a +few, and to ruin a great many. The average deficiency is +never equally spread over the fishermen; one sweeps the +board––another loses all. Nor are the cases few in which +the accustomed shoal wholly deserts a tract of coast for +years together; and thus the lottery, precarious at all times, +becomes a lottery in which there are only blanks to be +drawn. The wealthy speculator might perhaps watch such +changes, and by supplementing the deficiency of one year +by the abundance of another, give to the whole a character +of average; but alas for the poor labouring man placed +in such circumstances! The yearly disbursements of our +Scottish Fishery Board, in the way of assistance to poverty-struck +fishermen, unable even to repair their boats, testify +all too tangibly that they cannot regulate their long runs of +ill luck by their temporary successes! And if such be the +case among our hereditary fishermen of the north, who derive +more than half their sustenance from the white fishery, how +much more must it affect those fishermen of Sutherland, +who, having no market for their white fish in the depopulated +interior, and no merchants settled among them to +find markets farther away, have to depend exclusively on +their herring fishing! The experiment which precipitated +the population of the country on its barer skirts, as some +diseases precipitate the humours on the extremities, would +have been emphatically a disastrous one, so far at least as the +people were concerned, even did it involve no large amount +of human suffering, and no deterioration of character. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_428' name='page_428'></a>428</span></p> +<p>One of the first writers, of unquestioned respectability, +who acquainted the public with the true character of the +revolution which had been effected in Sutherland, was the +late General Stewart of Garth. He was, we believe, the +first man––and the fact says something for his shrewdness––who +saw a coming poor-law looming through the <i>clearing</i> of +Sutherland. His statements are exceedingly valuable; his +inferences almost always just. The General––a man of +probity and nice honour––had such an ability of estimating +the value of moral excellence in a people, as the originators +of the revolution had of estimating the antagonist merits of +double pounds of mutton and single pounds of beef. He +had seen printed representations on the subject––tissues of +hollow falsehood, that have since been repeated in newspapers +and reviews; and though unacquainted with the +facts at the time, he saw sufficient reason to question their +general correctness, from the circumstance that he found in +them the character of the people, with which no man could +be better acquainted, vilified and traduced. The General +saw one leviathan falsehood running through the whole, and, +on the strength of the old adage, naturally suspected the +company in which he found it. And so, making minute +and faithful inquiry, he published the results at which he +arrived. He refers to the mode of ejectment by the torch. +He next goes on to show how some of the ejected tenants +were allowed small allotments of moor on the coast side, of +from half an acre to two acres in extent, which it was their +task to break into corn land; and how that, because many +patches of green appear in this way, where all was russet +before, the change has been much eulogized as improvement. +We find him remarking further, with considerable +point and shrewdness, that ‘many persons are, however, +inclined to doubt the advantages of improvements which +call for such frequent apologies,’ and that, ‘if the advantage +to the people were so evident, or if more lenient measures +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_429' name='page_429'></a>429</span> +had been pursued, vindication could not have been necessary.’ +The General knew how to pass from the green spots +themselves to the condition of those who tilled them. The +following passage must strike all acquainted with the Highlanders +of Sutherland as a true representation of the circumstances +to which they have been reduced:</p> +<p>‘Ancient respectable tenants who have passed the greater +part of life in the enjoyment of abundance, and in the exercise +of hospitality and charity, possessing stock of ten, twenty, +and thirty breeding cows, with the usual proportion of other +stock, are now pining on one or two acres of bad land, with +one or two starved cows; and for this accommodation a +calculation is made, that they must support their families, +and pay the rent of their lots, not from the produce, but +from the sea, thus drawing a rent which the land cannot +afford. When the herring fishing succeeds, they generally +satisfy the landlord, whatever privations they may suffer; +but when the fishing fails, they fall into arrears. The herring +fishing, always precarious, has for a succession of years +been very defective, and this class of people are reduced to +extreme misery. At first, some of them possessed capital, +from converting their farm-stock into cash, but this has been +long exhausted; and it is truly distressing to view their +general poverty, aggravated by their having once enjoyed +abundance and independence.’</p> +<p>Some of the removals to which we have referred took +place during that group of scarce seasons in which the +year 1816 was so prominent; but the scarcity which these +induced served merely to render the other sufferings of the +people more intense, and was lost sight of in the general +extent of the calamity. Another group of hard seasons +came on,––one of those groups which seem of such certain +and yet of such irregular occurrence in our climate, that +though they have attracted notice from the days of Bacon +downwards, they have hitherto resisted all attempts to include +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_430' name='page_430'></a>430</span> +them in some definite cycle. The summer and +harvest of 1835 were the last of a series of fine summers +and abundant harvests; and for six years after there was +less than the usual heat, and more than the usual rain. +Science, in connection with agriculture, has done much +for us in the low country, and so our humbler population +were saved from the horrors of a dearth of food; but on +the green patches which girdle the shores of Sutherland, +and which have been esteemed such wonderful improvements, +science had done and could do nothing. The +people had been sinking lower and lower during the previous +twenty years, and what would have been great hardship +before had become famine now. One feels at times +that it may be an advantage to have lived among the +humbler people. We have been enabled, in consequence, +to detect many such gross misstatements as those with +which the apologists of the disastrous revolution effected +in Sutherland have attempted to gloss over the ruin of that +country. In other parts of the Highlands, especially in +the Hebrides, the failure of the kelp trade did much to +impoverish the inhabitants; but in the Highlands of Sutherland +the famine was the effect of <i>improvement</i> alone.</p> +<p>The writer of these chapters saw how a late, untoward +year operates on the bleak shores of the north-western +Highlands, when spending a season there a good many +years ago. He found what only a few twelvemonths previous +had been a piece of dark moor, laid out into minute +patches of corn, and bearing a dense population. The +herring fishing had failed for the two seasons before, and +the poor cottars were, in consequence, in arrears with their +rent; but the crops had been tolerable; and though their +stores of meal and potatoes were all exhausted at the time +of our coming among them (the month of June), and though +no part of the growing crop was yet fit for use, the white +fishing was abundant, and a training of hardship had enabled +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_431' name='page_431'></a>431</span> +them to subsist on fish exclusively. Their corn shot in the +genial sunshine, and gave fair promise, and their potatoes +had become far enough advanced to supplement their all +too meagre meals, when, after a terrible thunder-storm, the +fine weather broke up, and for thirteen weeks together there +scarce passed a day without its baffling winds and its heavy +chilling showers. The oats withered without ripening; the +hardy bear might be seen rustling on all the more exposed +slopes, light as the common rye-grass of our hay-fields, +the stalks, in vast proportion, shorn of the ears. It was +only in a very few of the more sheltered places that it +yielded a scanty return of a dark-coloured and shrivelled +grain. And to impart a still deeper shade to the prospects +of the poor Highlanders, the herring fishery failed as signally +as in the previous years. There awaited them all too obviously +a whole half year of inevitable famine, unless Lowland +charity interfered in their behalf. And the recurrence +of this state of things no amount of providence or exertion +on their own part, when placed in such circumstances, can +obviate or prevent. It was a conviction of this character, +based on experience, which led the writer of these remarks +to state, when giving evidence before the present Poor-Law +Commissioners for Scotland, that though opposed to the +principle of legal assessment generally, he could yet see no +other mode of reaching the destitution of the Highlands. +Our humane Scottish law compels the man who sends +another man to prison to support him there, just because +it is held impossible that within the walls of a prison a man +can support himself. Should the principle alter, if, instead +of sending him to a prison, he banishes him to a bleak, +inhospitable coast, where, unless he receives occasional +support from others, he must inevitably perish?</p> +<p>The sufferings of the people of Sutherland during the +first of these years of destitution (1836), we find strikingly +described by M’Leod: +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_432' name='page_432'></a>432</span></p> +<p>‘In this year,’ says the author, ‘the crops all over Britain +were deficient, having bad weather for growing and ripening, +and still worse for gathering in. But in the Highlands they +were an entire failure; and on the untoward spots, occupied +by the Sutherland small tenants, there was literally nothing +fit for human subsistence. And to add to the calamity, the +weather had prevented them from securing the peats, their +only fuel; so that, to their previous state of exhaustion, +cold and hunger were to be superadded. The sufferings +endured by the poor Highlanders in the succeeding winter +truly beggar description. Even the herring fishing had +failed, and consequently their credit in Caithness, which +depended on its success, was at an end. Any little provision +they might be able to procure was of the most +inferior and unwholesome description. It was no uncommon +thing to see people searching among the snow +for the frosted potatoes to eat in order to preserve life. +As the harvest had been disastrous, so the winter was uncommonly +boisterous and severe, and consequently little +could be obtained from the sea to mitigate the calamity. +The distress rose to such a height as to cause a sensation +all over the island; and there arose a general cry for +Government interference, to save the people from death +by famine.’</p> +<p>Public meetings were held, private subscriptions entered +into, large funds collected, the British people responded to +the cry of their suffering fellow-subjects, and relief was +extended to every portion of the Highlands except one. +Alas for poor Sutherland! There, it was said, the charity +of the country was not required, as the noble and wealthy +proprietors had themselves resolved to interfere; and as +this statement was circulated extensively through the public +prints, and sedulously repeated at all public meetings, the +mind of the community was set quite at rest on the matter. +And interfere the proprietors at length did. Late in the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_433' name='page_433'></a>433</span> +spring of 1837, after sufferings the most incredible had +been endured, and disease and death had been among the +wretched people, they received a scanty supply of meal +and seed-corn, for which, though vaunted at the time as +a piece of munificent charity, the greater part of them had +afterwards to pay.</p> +<p>In the next chapter we shall endeavour bringing these +facts to bear on the cause of the Free Church in Sutherland. +We close for the present by adding just one curious +fact more. We have already shown how the bleak moors +of Sutherland have been mightily improved by the revolution +which ruined its people. They bear many green patches +which were brown before. Now it so happened that rather +more than ten years ago, the idea struck the original improvers, +that as green was an improvement on brown, so +far as the moors were concerned, white would be an equally +decided improvement on black, so far as the houses were +concerned. An order was accordingly issued, in the name +of the Duke and Duchess of Sutherland, that all the small +tenants on both sides the public road, where it stretches on +the northern coast from the confines of Reay to the Kyle +of Tongue, a distance of about thirty miles, should straightway +build themselves new houses of stone and mortar, +according to a prescribed plan and specification. Pharaoh’s +famous order could not have bred greater consternation. +But the only alternative given was summed up in the magic +word <i>removal</i>; and the poor Highlanders, dejected, tamed, +broken in spirit as in means, well knew from experience +what the magic word meant. And so, as their prototypes +set themselves to gather stubble for their bricks, the poor +Highlanders began to build. We again quote from +M’Leod:</p> +<p>‘Previous to this, in the year 1829, I and my family had +been forced away, like others, being particularly obnoxious +to those in authority for sometimes showing an inclination +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_434' name='page_434'></a>434</span> +to oppose their tyranny, and therefore we had to be made +examples of to frighten the rest; but in 1833 I made a tour +of the district, when the building was going on, and shall +endeavour to describe a small part of what met my eye on +that occasion. In one locality (and this was a specimen of +the rest) I saw fourteen different squads of masons at work, +with the natives attending them. Old grey-headed men, +worn down by previous hardship and present want, were +to be seen carrying stones, and wheeling them and other +materials on barrows, or conveying them on their backs to +the buildings, and with their tottering limbs and trembling +hands straining to raise them on the walls. The young +men also, after toiling all night at sea endeavouring for +subsistence, were obliged to yield their exhausted frames to +the labours of the day. Even female labour could not be +dispensed with; the strong as well as the weak, the delicate +and sickly, and (shame to their oppressors) even the pregnant, +barefooted and scantily clothed, were obliged to join +in those rugged, unfeminine labours. In one instance I +saw the husband quarrying stones, and the wife and children +dragging them along in an old cart to the building. +Such were the building scenes of that period. The poor +people had often to give the last morsel of food they +possessed to feed the masons, and subsist on shell-fish +themselves. This went on for several years, in the course +of which many hundreds of these houses were erected on +unhospitable spots unfit for a human residence.’</p> +<p>We add another extract from the same writer:</p> +<p>‘It might be thought,’ adds M’Leod, ‘that the design of +forcing the people to build such houses was to provide for +their comfort and accommodation, but there seems to have +been quite a different object,––which, I believe, was the true +motive,––and that was to hide the misery that prevailed. +There had been a great sensation created in the public +mind by the cruelties exercised in these districts; and it +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_435' name='page_435'></a>435</span> +was thought that a number of neat white houses, ranged on +each side of the road, would take the eye of strangers and +visitors, and give a practical contradiction to the rumours +afloat. Hence the poor creatures were forced to resort to +such means, and to endure such hardships and privations +as I have described, to carry the scheme into effect. And +after they had spent their remaining all, and more than +their all, on the erection of these houses, and involved +themselves in debt, for which they have been harassed and +pursued ever since, what are these erections but whitened +tombs! many of them now ten years in existence, and still +without proper doors or windows, destitute of furniture and +of comfort,––the unhappy lairs of a heart-broken, squalid, +fast-degenerating race.’ +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_436' name='page_436'></a>436</span></p> +<h3 style="margin-top:3em">CHAPTER VI.</h3> +<p>We have exhibited to our readers, in the <i>clearing</i> of Sutherland, +a process of ruin so thoroughly disastrous, that it +might be deemed scarce possible to render it more complete. +And yet, with all its apparent completeness, it admitted +of a supplementary process. To employ one of the +striking figures of Scripture, it was possible to grind into +powder what had been previously broken into fragments,––to +degrade the poor inhabitants to a still lower level than +that on which they had been so cruelly precipitated,––though +persons of a not very original cast of mind might +have found it difficult to say how; and the Duke of Sutherland +has been ingenious enough to fall on exactly the one +proper expedient for supplementing their ruin. All in +mere circumstance and situation that could lower and +deteriorate, had been present as ingredients in the first +process; but there still remained for the people, however +reduced to poverty or broken in spirit, all in religion that +consoles and ennobles. Sabbath-days came round with +their humanizing influences; and, under the teachings of +the gospel, the poor and oppressed looked longingly forward +to a future scene of being, in which there is no poverty and +no oppression. They still possessed, amid their misery, +something positively good, of which it was possible to +deprive them; and hence the ability derived to the present +lord of Sutherland, of deepening and rendering more signal +the ruin accomplished by his predecessor.</p> +<p>Napoleon, when on the eve of re-establishing Popery in +France, showed his conviction of the importance of national +religions, by remarking that, did there exist no ready-made +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_437' name='page_437'></a>437</span> +religion to serve his turn, he would be under the necessity +of making one on purpose. And his remark, though perhaps +thrown into this form merely to give it point, and +render it striking, has been instanced as a proof that +he could not have considered the matter very profoundly. +It has been said, and said truly, that religions of stamina +enough to be even politically useful cannot be <i>made</i>: that +it is comparatively easy to gain great battles, and frame +important laws; but that to create belief lay beyond the +power of even a Napoleon. France, instead of crediting +his manufactured religion, would have laughed at both him +and it. The Duke of Sutherland has, however, taken upon +himself a harder task than the one to which Napoleon +could refer, probably in joke. His aim seems to be, not +the comparatively simple one of making a new religion +where no religion existed before, but of making men already +firm in their religious convictions believe that to be a +religion which they believe to be no such thing. His +undertaking involves a <i>discharging</i> as certainly as an <i>injecting</i> +process,––the erasure of an existing belief, as certainly +as the infusion of an antagonistic belief that has no existence. +We have shown how evangelism took root and +grew in Sutherland, as the only form of Christianity which +its people could recognise; how the antagonist principle of +Moderatism they failed to recognise as Christianity at all; +and how, when the latter was obtruded into their pulpits, +they withdrew from the churches in which their fathers had +worshipped, for they could regard them as churches no +longer, and held their prayer and fellowship meetings in +their own homes, or travelled far to attend the ministrations +of clergymen in whose mission they <i>could</i> believe. We +have shown that this state of feeling and belief still pervades +the county. It led to an actual disruption between +its evangelized people and its moderate clergy, long ere the +disruption of last May took place: that important event has +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_438' name='page_438'></a>438</span> +had but the effect of marshalling them into one compact +body under a new name. They are adherents of the Free +Church now, just because they have been adherents to its +principles for the last two centuries. And to shake them +loose from this adherence is the object of his Grace; to +reverse the belief of ages; to render them indifferent to that +which they feel and believe to be religion; and to make +them regard as religion that which they know to be none. +His task is harder by a great deal than that to which +Napoleon barely ventured to advert; and how very coarse +and repulsive his purposed means of accomplishing it!</p> +<p>These harmonize but too well with the mode in which +the interior of Sutherland was cleared, and the improved +cottages of its sea-coasts erected. The plan has its two +items. No sites are to be granted in the district for Free +churches, and no dwelling-houses for Free Church ministers. +The climate is severe; the winters prolonged and stormy; +the roads which connect the chief seats of population with +the neighbouring counties dreary and long. May not ministers +and people be eventually worn out in this way? Such +is the portion of the plan which his Grace and his Grace’s +creatures can afford to present to the light. But there are +supplementary items of a somewhat darker kind. The +poor cottars are, in the great majority of cases, tenants at +will; and there has been much pains taken to inform them, +that to the crime of entertaining and sheltering a protesting +minister, the penalty of ejection from their holdings must +inevitably attach. The laws of Charles have again returned +in this unhappy district; and free and tolerating +Scotland has got, in the nineteenth century, as in the +seventeenth, its intercommuned ministers. We shall not +say that the intimation has emanated from the Duke. It is +the misfortune of such men that there creep around them +creatures whose business it is to anticipate their wishes; +but who, at times, doubtless, instead of anticipating, misinterpret +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_439' name='page_439'></a>439</span> +them; and who, even when not very much mistaken, +impart to whatever they do the impress of their own +low and menial natures, and thus exaggerate in the act the +intention of their masters. We do not say, therefore, that the +intimation has emanated from the Duke; but this we say, +that an exemplary Sutherlandshire minister of the Protesting +Church, who resigned his worldly all for the sake of his +principles, had lately to travel, that he might preach to his +attached people, a long journey of forty-five miles outwards, +and as much in return, and all this without taking +shelter under the cover of a roof, or without partaking of +any other refreshment than that furnished by the slender +store of provisions which he had carried with him from his +new home. Willingly would the poor Highlanders have +received him at any risk; but knowing from experience +what a Sutherlandshire removal means, he preferred enduring +any amount of hardship, rather than that the hospitality +of his people should be made the occasion of their +ruin. We have already adverted to the case of a lady of +Sutherland threatened with ejection from her home because +she had extended the shelter of her roof to one of the +protesting clergy––an aged and venerable man, who had +quitted the neighbouring manse, his home for many years, +because he could no longer enjoy it in consistency with his +principles; and we have shown that that aged and venerable +man was the lady’s own father. What amount of +oppression of a smaller and more petty character may not +be expected in the circumstances, when cases such as +these are found to stand but a very little over the ordinary +level?</p> +<p>The meannesses to which ducal hostility can stoop in this +hapless district impress with a feeling of surprise. In the +parish of Dornoch, for instance, where his Grace is fortunately +not the sole landowner, there has been a site +procured on the most generous terms from Sir George +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_440' name='page_440'></a>440</span> +Gun Munro of Poyntzfield; and this gentleman––believing +himself possessed of a hereditary right to a quarry, which, +though on the Duke’s ground, had been long resorted to +by the proprietors of the district generally––instructed the +builder to take from it the stones which he needed. Here, +however, his Grace interfered. Never had the quarry been +prohibited before; but on this occasion a stringent interdict +arrested its use. If his Grace could not prevent a +hated Free Church from arising in the district, he could at +least add to the <i>expense</i> of its erection. We have even heard +that the portion of the building previously erected had to +be pulled down, and the stones returned.</p> +<p>How are we to account for a hostility so determined, and +that can stoop so low? In two different ways, we are of +opinion, and in both have the people of Scotland a direct +interest. Did his Grace entertain a very intense regard for +Established Presbytery, it is probable that he himself would +be a Presbyterian of the Establishment. But such is not +the case. The Church into which he would so fain force +the people has been long since deserted by himself. The +secret of the course which he pursues can have no connection +therefore with religious motive or belief. It can be +no proselytizing spirit that misleads his Grace. Let us +remark, in the first place,––rather, however, in the way of +embodying a fact than imputing a motive,––that with his +present views, and in his present circumstances, it may not +seem particularly his Grace’s interest to make the county +of Sutherland a happy or desirable home to the people of +Sutherland. It may not seem his Grace’s interest that the +population of the district should increase. The <i>clearing</i> of +the sea-coast may seem as little prejudicial to his Grace’s +welfare now, as the <i>clearing</i> of the interior seemed adverse +to the interests of his predecessor thirty years ago; nay, it +is quite possible that his Grace may be led to regard the +<i>clearing</i> of the coast as the better and more important <i>clearing</i> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_441' name='page_441'></a>441</span> +of the two. Let it not be forgotten that a poor-law +hangs over Scotland; that the shores of Sutherland are +covered with what seems one vast straggling village, inhabited +by an impoverished and ruined people; and that +the coming assessment may yet fall so weighty, that the +extra profits derived to his Grace from his large sheep-farms, +may go but a small way in supporting his extra +paupers. It is not in the least improbable that he may +live to find the revolution effected by his predecessor taking +to itself the form, not of a crime––for that would be +nothing––but of a disastrous and very terrible blunder.</p> +<p>There is another remark which may prove not unworthy +the consideration of the reader. Ever since the completion +of the fatal experiment which ruined Sutherland, the noble +family through which it was originated and carried on have +betrayed the utmost jealousy of having its real results made +public. Volumes of special pleading have been written on +the subject; pamphlets have been published; laboured +articles have been inserted in widely-spread reviews; +statistical accounts have been watched over with the most +careful surveillance. If the misrepresentations of the press +could have altered the matter of fact, famine would not +have been gnawing the vitals of Sutherland in every year +just a little less abundant than its fellows, nor would the +dejected and oppressed people be feeding their discontent, +amid present misery, with the recollections of a happier +past. If a singularly well-conditioned and wholesome district +of country has been converted into one wide ulcer of +wretchedness and wo, it must be confessed that the sore +has been carefully bandaged up from the public eye; that +if there has been little done for its cure, there has at least +been much done for its concealment. Now, be it remembered +that the Free Church threatens to insert a <i>tent</i> +into this wound, and so keep it open. It has been said +that the Gaelic language removes a district more effectually +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_442' name='page_442'></a>442</span> +from the influence of English opinion than an ocean of +three thousand miles, and that the British public know +better what is doing in New York than what is doing in +Lewis and Skye. And hence one cause, at least, of the +thick obscurity that has so long enveloped the miseries +which the poor Highlander has had to endure, and the +oppressions to which he has been subjected. The Free +Church threatens to <i>translate</i> her wrongs into English, and +to give them currency in the general mart of opinion. She +might possibly enough be no silent spectator of conflagrations +such as those which characterized the first general +improvement of Sutherland, nor yet of such Egyptian +schemes of house-building as that which formed part of the +improvements of a later plan. She might be somewhat apt +to betray the real state of the district, and thus render +laborious misrepresentation of little avail. She might effect +a diversion in the cause of the people, and shake the +foundations of the hitherto despotic power which has so +long weighed them down. She might do for Sutherland +what Cobbett promised to do for it, but what Cobbett had +not character enough to accomplish, and what he did not +live even to attempt. A combination of circumstances +have conspired to vest in a Scottish proprietor, in this +northern district, a more despotic power than even the +most absolute monarchs of the Continent possess; and it +is, perhaps, no great wonder that that proprietor should be +jealous of the introduction of an element which threatens, +it may seem, materially to lessen it. And so he struggles +hard to exclude the Free Church, and, though no member +of the Establishment himself, declaims warmly in its behalf. +Certain it is, that from the Establishment, as now constituted, +he can have nothing to fear, and the people +nothing to hope.</p> +<p>After what manner may his Grace the Duke of Sutherland +be most effectually met in this matter, so that the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_443' name='page_443'></a>443</span> +cause of toleration and freedom of conscience may be maintained +in the extensive district which God, in His providence, +has consigned to his stewardship? We shall in +our next chapter attempt giving the question an answer. +Meanwhile, we trust the people of Sutherland will continue, +as hitherto, to stand firm. The strong repugnance which +they feel against being driven into churches which all their +better ministers have left, is not ill founded. No Church +of God ever employs such means of conversion as those +employed by his Grace: they are means which have been +often resorted to for the purpose of making men worse, +never yet for the purpose of making them better. We know +that, with their long-formed church-going habits, the people +must feel their now silent Sabbaths pass heavily; but they +would perhaps do well to remember, amid the tedium and +the gloom, that there were good men who not only anticipated +such a time of trial for this country, but who also +made provision for it. Thomas Scott, when engaged in +writing his Commentary, used to solace himself with the +belief that it might be of use at a period when the public +worship of God would be no longer tolerated in the land. +To the great bulk of the people of Sutherland that time +seems to have already come. They know, however, the +value of the old divines, and have not a few of their more +practical treatises translated into their own expressive +tongue: Alleine’s <i>Alarm</i>, Boston’s <i>Fourfold State</i>, Doddridge’s +<i>Rise and Progress</i>, Baxter’s <i>Call</i>, Guthrie’s <i>Saving +Interest</i>. Let these, and such as these, be their preachers, +when they can procure no other. The more they learn to +relish them, the less will they relish the bald and miserable +services of the Residuary Church. Let them hold their +fellowship and prayer meetings; let them keep up the +worship of God in their families; the cause of religious +freedom in the district is involved in the stand which they +make. Above all, let them possess their souls in patience. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_444' name='page_444'></a>444</span> +We are not unacquainted with the Celtic character, as developed +in the Highlands of Scotland. Highlanders, up +to a certain point, are the most docile, patient, enduring of +men; but that point once passed, endurance ceases, and +the all too gentle lamb starts up an angry lion. The spirit +is stirred that maddens at the sight of the naked weapon, +and that, in its headlong rush upon the enemy, discipline +can neither check nor control. Let our oppressed Highlanders +of Sutherland beware. They have suffered much; +but, so far as man is the agent, their battles can be fought +on only the arena of public opinion, and on that ground +which the political field may be soon found to furnish. +Any explosion of violence on their part would be ruin to +both the Free Church and themselves. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_445' name='page_445'></a>445</span></p> +<h3 style="margin-top:3em">CHAPTER VII.</h3> +<p>How is the battle of religious freedom to be best fought in +behalf of the oppressed people of Sutherland? We shall +attempt throwing out a few simple suggestions on the subject, +which, if in the right track, the reader may find it easy +to follow up and mature.</p> +<p>First, then, let us remember that in this country, in +which opinion is all-potent, and which for at least a century +and a half has been the envy of continental states for the +degree of religious freedom which it enjoys, the policy of +the Duke of Sutherland cannot be known without being +condemned. The current which he opposes has been +scooping out its channel for ages. Every great mind produced +by Britain, from the times of Milton and Locke +down to the times of Mackintosh and of Chalmers, has +been giving it impetus in but one direction; and it is scarce +likely that it will reverse its course now, at the bidding of +a few intolerant and narrow-minded aristocrats. British +opinion has but to be fairly appealed to, in order to declare +strongly in favour of the oppressed Highlanders of Sutherland. +What we would first remark, then, is, that the policy +of his Grace the Duke cannot be too widely exposed. The +press and the platform must be employed. The frank and +generous English must be told, that that law of religious +toleration which did so much at a comparatively early +period to elevate the character of their country in the eye +of the world, and which, in these latter times, men have +been accustomed to regard as somewhat less, after all, than +an adequate embodiment of the rights of conscience, has +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_446' name='page_446'></a>446</span> +been virtually repealed in a populous and very extensive +district of the British empire, through a capricious exercise +of power on the part of a single man. Why, it has been +asked, in a matter which lies between God and conscience, +and between God and the conscience only, should a third +party be permitted to interfere so far as even to say, ‘I +tolerate you? I tolerate your Independency––your Episcopacy––your +Presbyterianism: you are a Baptist, but I +tolerate you?’ There is an insult implied, it has been said, +in the way in which the liberty purports to be granted. It +bestows as a boon what already exists as a right. We +want no despot to tell us that he gives us leave to breathe +the free air of heaven, or that he permits us to worship +God <ins class="trchange" title="Was 'agreebly'">agreeably</ins> to the dictates of our conscience. Such are +the views with which a majority of the British people regard, +in these latter times, the right to tolerate; and regarding +a <i>right</i> <span style='font-variant:small-caps'>NOT</span> to tolerate, they must be more decided still. +The Free Church, then, must lay her complaint before +them. She must tell them, that such is the oppression to +which her people are subjected, that she would be but too +happy to see even the beggarly elements of the question recognised +in their behalf; that she would be but too happy +to hear the despot of a province pronounce the deprecated +‘I tolerate you,’ seeing that his virtual enunciation at present +is, ‘I do NOT tolerate you,’ and seeing that he is +powerful enough, through a misapplication of his rights +and influence as the most extensive of British proprietors, +to give terrible effect to the unjust and illiberal determination. +The Free Church, on this question, must raise her +appeal everywhere to public opinion, and we entertain no +doubt that she will everywhere find it her friend.</p> +<p>But how is its power to be directed? How bring it to +bear upon the Duke of Sutherland? It is an all-potent +lever, but it must be furnished with a fulcrum on which to +rest, and a direction in which to bear. Let us remark, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_447' name='page_447'></a>447</span> +first, that no signal privilege or right was ever yet achieved +for Britain, that was not preceded by some signal wrong. +From the times of Magna Charta down to the times of the +Revolution, we find every triumph of liberty heralded in by +some gross outrage upon it. The history of the British +Constitution is a history of great natural rights established +piecemeal under the immediate promptings of an indignation +elicited by unbearable wrongs. It was not until the +barrier that protected the privileges of the citizen from the +will of the despot gave way at some weak point, that the +parties exposed to the inundation were roused up to re-erect +it on a better principle and a surer foundation. Now, +the Duke of Sutherland (with some of his brother proprietors) +has just succeeded in showing us a signal flaw in our +scheme of religious toleration, and this at an exceedingly +critical time. He has been perpetrating a great and palpable +wrong, which, if rightly represented, must have the +effect of leading men, in exactly the old mode, to arouse +themselves in behalf of the corresponding right. If a +single proprietor can virtually do what the sovereign of +Great Britain would forfeit the crown for barely attempting +to do––if a single nobleman can do what the House of +Lords in its aggregate capacity would peril its very existence +for but proposing to do––then does there exist in the +British Constitution a palpable flaw, which cannot be too +soon remedied. There must be a weak place in the barrier, +if the waters be rushing out; and it cannot be too +soon rebuilt on a surer plan. Here, then, evidently, is the +point on which the generated opinion ought to be brought +to bear. It has as its proper arena the political field. It +is a defect in the British Constitution, strongly exemplified +by the case of Sutherland, that the rights of property may +be so stretched as to overbear the rights of conscience––that +though toleration be the law of the land generally, it +may be so set aside by the country’s proprietary, as not to +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_448' name='page_448'></a>448</span> +be the law in any particular part of it; and to reverse this +state of things––to make provision in the Constitution that +the rights of the proprietor be not so overstretched, and +that a virtual repeal of the toleration laws in any part of +the country be not possible––are palpably the objects to +which the public mind should be directed.</p> +<p>We have said that the Duke of Sutherland has succeeded +in showing us this flaw in the Constitution at a +peculiarly critical time. A gentleman resident in England, +for whose judgment we entertain the highest respect, told +us only a few days since, that the rising, all-absorbing party +of that kingdom, so far at least as the Established Church +and the aristocracy are concerned, still continues to be the +Puseyite party. If Puseyism does not bid fair to possess +a majority of the people of the country, it bids fair at least +to possess a majority of its acres. And we need scarce +remind the reader how peculiarly this may be the case with +Scotland, whose acres, in such large proportions, are under +the control of an incipient Puseyism already. In both +countries, therefore, is it of peculiar importance, in a time +like the present, that the law of toleration should be placed +beyond the control of a hostile or illiberal proprietary––so +placed beyond their control, that they may be as unable +virtually to suspend its operation in any part of the country, +as they already are to suspend its operation in the whole of +the country. We are recommending, be it remembered, no +wild scheme of Chartist aggression on the rights of property––we +would but injure our cause by doing so: our +strength in this question must altogether depend on the +soundness of the appeal which we can carry to the natural +justice of the community. We merely recommend that that +be done in behalf of the already recognised law of toleration, +which Parliament has no hesitation in doing in behalf of +some railway or canal, or water or dock company, when, +for what is deemed a public good, it sets aside the absolute +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_449' name='page_449'></a>449</span> +control of the proprietor over at least a portion of his property, +and consigns it at a fair price to the corporation +engaged in the undertaking. The principle of the scheme +is already recognised by the Constitution, and its legislative +embodiment would be at once easy and safe. Property +would be rendered not less, but more secure, if, in every +instance in which a regularly-organized congregation of any +denomination of Christians to which the law of toleration +itself extended, made application for ground on which to +erect a place of worship, the application would be backed +and made effectual, in virtue of an enacted law, by the +authority of the Constitution. There is no Scotch or English +Dissenter––no true friend of religious liberty in Britain +or Ireland––who would not make common cause with the +Free Church in urging a measure of this character on Parliament, +when fairly convinced, by cases such as that of +Sutherland, how imperatively such a measure is required.</p> +<p>Unavoidably, however, from the nature of things, the +relief which ultimately may be thus secured cannot be other +than distant relief. Much information must first be spread, +and the press and the platform extensively employed. Can +there be nothing done for Sutherland through an already +existing political agency? We are of opinion there can. +Sutherland itself is even more thoroughly a <i>close</i> county +now, than it was ere the Reform Bill had swamped the +paper votes, and swept away the close burghs. His Grace +the Duke has but to nominate his member, and his member +is straightway returned. But all the political power which, +directly or indirectly, his Grace possesses, is not equally +secure. Sutherland is a close county; but the Northern +Burghs are not rotten burghs; on the contrary, they possess +an independent and intelligent constituency; and in scarce +any part of Scotland is the Free Church equally strong. +And his Grace derives no inconsiderable portion of his +political influence from them. The member for Sutherland +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_450' name='page_450'></a>450</span> +is virtually his Grace’s nominee, but the member for the +Northern Burghs is not his Grace’s nominee at all; and yet +certain it is that the gentleman by whom these burghs are +at present represented in Parliament is his Grace’s agent +and adviser in all that pertains to the management of +Sutherland, and has been so for many years. His Grace’s +member for Sutherland sits in Parliament in virtue of being +his Grace’s nominee; but the sort of prime minister through +which his Grace governs his princely domains, sits in Parliament, +not in virtue of being his Grace’s nominee, but in +virtue of his being himself a man of liberal opinions, and +an enemy to all intolerance. He represents them in the +Whig interest, and in his character as a Whig. His Grace +would very soon have one member less in Parliament, did +that member make common cause with his Grace in suppressing +the Free Church in Sutherland. Now, the bruit +shrewdly goeth, that that member does make common cause +with his Grace. The bruit shrewdly goeth, that in this, as +in most other matters, his Grace acts upon that member’s +advice. True, the report may be altogether idle––it may be +utterly without foundation; instead of being true, it may be +exactly the reverse of being true; but most unquestionable +it is, that, whether true or otherwise, it exists, and that +that member’s constituency have a very direct interest in it. +He represents them miserably ill, and must be a very different +sort of Whig from them, if he hold that proprietors +do right in virtually setting aside the Toleration Act. The +report does one of two things,––it either does him great injustice, +or it shows that he has sat too long in Parliament +for the Northern Burghs. It is in the power, then, of the +highly respectable and intelligent Whig constituency of this +district to make such a diversion in favour of the oppressed +people of Sutherland, as can scarce fail to tell upon the +country, and this in thorough consistency with the best and +highest principles of their party. Let them put themselves +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_451' name='page_451'></a>451</span> +in instant communication with their member, and, stating +the character of the report which so generally exists to his +prejudice, request a categorical answer regarding it,––let +them request an avowal of his opinion of the Duke’s policy, +equally articulate with that opinion which the Hon. Mr. +Fox Maule submitted to the public a few weeks ago in the +columns of the <i>Witness</i>,––and then, as the ascertained +circumstances of the case may direct, let them act, and that +publicly, in strict accordance with their principles. Of one +thing they may be assured,––the example will tell.</p> +<p>In order to raise the necessary amount of opinion for +carrying the ulterior object––the enactment of a law––there +are various most justifiable expedients to which the friends +of toleration in the country should find it not difficult to +resort. Petitions addressed to the Lower House in its +legislative capacity, and to the members of the Upper +House as a body of men who have, perhaps, of all others +the most direct stake in the matter––we need scarce say +how––ought, of course, to take a very obvious place on the +list. Much, too, might be done by deputations from the +General Assembly of the Free Church, instructed from time +to time to ascertain, and then publicly to report on, the +state of Sutherland. Each meeting of the Assembly might +be addressed on the subject by some of its ablest men, in +which case their statements and speeches would go forth, +through the medium of the press, to the country at large. +The co-operation and assistance of all bodies of evangelical +Dissenters, both at home and abroad, should be sedulously +sought after, and correct information on the subject circulated +among them extensively. There has been much +sympathy elicited for the Church, during her long struggle, +among good men everywhere. Her cause has been tried, +and judgment given in her favour, in France, Holland, and +America, and in not a few of the colonies. In the case of +Sismondi ‘On the <i>Clearing</i> of Sutherland,’ we see the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_452' name='page_452'></a>452</span> +opinion of a continental philosopher re-echoed back upon +our own country, not without its marked effect; and it +might be well to try whether the effect of foreign opinion +might not be at least equally influential ‘On the Suppression +of the Toleration Laws in Sutherland.’ There is one +great country with which we hold our literature in common, +and which we can address, and by which we can be in turn +addressed, in our native tongue. Unluckily, what ought to +have existed as a bond of union and amity has been made +to subserve a very different purpose; and we cannot conceal +from ourselves the fact, that our own country has been +mainly to blame. The manners, habits, and tastes of the +Americans have been exhibited, by not a few of our popular +writers, in the broadest style of caricature; they have been +described as a nation of unprincipled speculators, devoid +not only of right feeling, but even of common honesty, and +remarkable for but their scoundrelism and conceit. Even +were such descriptions just, which they are not, most +assuredly would they be unwise. It is the American +people, rather than the American government, who make +peace and war; and the first American war with England +will be one of the most formidable in which this country +has yet been engaged. The bowie-knife is no trifling +weapon; and the English writer laughs at a very considerable +expense, if his satires have the effect of whetting it. +At present, however, the war between the two countries is +but a war of libel and pasquinade, and the advantage +hitherto has been on the side of the aggressor. America +has not been happy in her retaliation. We would fain +direct her to aim where her darts, instead of provoking +national hostility, or exciting a bitter spirit among the +entire people of a country, would but subserve the general +cause of liberty and human improvement. It is but idle to +satirize our manners and customs; we think them good. +There is nothing to be gained by casting ridicule on our +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_453' name='page_453'></a>453</span> +peculiar modes of thinking; they are the modes to which +we have been accustomed, and we prefer them to any +others. But there are matters of a different kind, regarding +which the country bears a conscience, and is not quite at +its ease; and there we are vulnerable. We speak often, +we would fain say, of slavery in your country, literati of +America, and justly deem it a great evil. It might do us +good were you to remind us, in turn, that there are extensive +districts in our own, in which virtually there exists no +toleration law for the religion of the people, though that +religion be Protestantism in its purest form. Cast your +eyes upon the county of Sutherland.</p> +<h3 style="margin-top:4em; margin-bottom:4em">THE END.</h3> +<p class="smaller" style="text-align:center">MURRAY AND GIBB, EDINBURGH,<br /> +PRINTERS TO HER MAJESTY’S STATIONERY OFFICE. +</p> +<hr class='pb' /> +<p class="fn_section_h" >Footnotes for all chapters in “Thoughts on the Educational Question”</p> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_m017_1' id='Footnote_m017_1'></a><a href='#FNanchor_m017_1'><span class='label'>[1]</span></a> +<p> +Some of the reasonings of both the Established and Free Church +courts on this matter would be amusing were they not so sad. ‘Feed +my lambs,’ said our Saviour, after His resurrection, to Peter; and again +twice over, ‘Feed my sheep.’ Now, let us suppose some zealous +clergyman setting himself, on the strength of the latter injunction here, +to institute a new order of preachers. As barbers frequently amuse +their employers with gossip, when divesting them of their beards or +trimming their heads, and have opportunities of addressing their fellow-men +which are not possessed by the other mechanical professions, the +zealous clergyman determines on converting them into preachers, and +sets up a Normal School, in order that they may be taught the art of +composing short sermons, which they are to deliver when shaving their +customers, and longer ones, which they are to address to them when +cutting their hair. And in course of time the expounding barbers are +sent abroad to operate on the minds and chins of the community. +‘There is no mention made of any such order of prelectors,’ says a +stubborn layman, ‘in my New Testament;’ ‘Nor yet in mine,’ says +another. ‘Sheer Atheism,––Deism at the very least!’ exclaims the +zealous clergyman. ‘Until Christianity was fairly established in the +world, there was no such thing as shaving at all; the Jews don’t shave +yet: besides, does not every decent Church member shave before going +to church? And as for the authority, how read you the text, “Feed +my sheep!’” ‘Weighty argument that about the shaving,’ say the +laymen; ‘but really the text seems to be stretched just a little too far. +The commission is given to Peter; but it confers on Peter no authority +whatever to commission the barbers. Nay, our grand objection to the +pseudo-successors of Peter is, that they corrupted the Church after this +very manner, by commissioning the non-commissioned, until they +filled the groaning land with cardinals, bishops, and abbots, monks and +nuns,–– +</p> + +<p style="text-align:center"> +“Eremites and friars,<br /> +White, black, and grey, with all their trumpery.’” +</p> + +<p> +Now, be it remembered that we are far from placing the Church-employed +schoolmaster on the level of the parson-employed barber of +our illustration. <i>Rationally</i> considered, they are very different orders +indeed; but so far as <i>direct</i> Scripture is concerned, they stand, we contend, +on exactly the same ground. The laity would do well in this +controversy to arm themselves with the New Testament, and, if their +opponents be very intolerant, to hand them the volume, and request +them to turn up their authority. And, of course, if the intolerance be +very great, the authority must be very direct. Mere arguings on the +subject would but serve to show that it has no actual existence. When +the commission of a captain or lieutenant is legitimately demanded, it +is at once produced; but were one to demand the commission of a +sergeant or boatswain’s mate, the man could at best only reason +about it. +</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0001' id='Footnote_0001'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0001'><span class='label'>[2]</span></a> +<p> +This passage has been referred to in several Free Church presbyteries, +as if the writer had affirmed that the schoolmaster stands on no +higher level than the shoemaker or tailor. We need scarce say, however, +that the passage conveys no such meaning. By affirming that +in matters of chimney-sweeping men choose for themselves the best +chimney-sweeps, and in matters of indisposition or disease the best +physicians, we do not at all level the physician with the chimney-sweep: +we merely intimate that there is a <i>best</i> in both professions, and that men +select that best, as preferable to what is inferior or worse, on every +occasion they can. +</p></div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0002' id='Footnote_0002'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0002'><span class='label'>[3]</span></a> +<p> +We have learned that what was actually intended at this time was, +not to <i>ordain</i>, but only to <i>induct</i> our schoolmasters. And their <i>induction</i> +would have made, we doubt not, what Foigard in the play calls a +‘very pretty sheremony.’ But no mere ceremony, however imposing, +can communicate to a secular profession a spiritual status or character. +</p></div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0003' id='Footnote_0003'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0003'><span class='label'>[4]</span></a> +<p> +A fac-simile of this letter was reproduced in the columns of the +<i>Witness</i>.––<span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Ed.</span> +</p></div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0004' id='Footnote_0004'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0004'><span class='label'>[5]</span></a> +<p> +See Introduction. +</p></div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0005' id='Footnote_0005'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0005'><span class='label'>[6]</span></a> +<p> +<i>What ought the General Assembly to do at the present Crisis?</i> +(1833.) +</p></div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0006' id='Footnote_0006'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0006'><span class='label'>[7]</span></a> +<p> +‘The sixth resolution [of the Educational Manifesto], in which the +opinion of Dr. Chalmers is quoted, that Government [should] abstain +from introducing the element of religion at all into their part of the +scheme, must, as here introduced, be presumed to mean, that in the +Act of the Legislature which shall carry the views of the resolutionists +into practical effect, nothing shall be said about religious instruction; +but that power shall be given to the heads of families to manage the +schools, and prescribe the subjects to be taught, according to their own +convictions of what is sound in religious and useful in secular instruction. +But this would leave the religious rights of the minority completely +unprotected. Government must do something more than <i>omit</i> +the religious element: it must limit the power of the majority to introduce +this element into their schools to the injury of the minority.’––<i>Letter +of Mr. George Combe on the Educational Movement.</i> +</p></div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0007' id='Footnote_0007'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0007'><span class='label'>[8]</span></a> +<p> +The following portion of a motion on the educational question, +announced in the Edinburgh Presbytery of the Free Church on the 6th +of February last, is specially referred to in this paragraph:–– +</p><p> +‘That the successful working of the present Government plan would +be greatly promoted by the following amendments:–– +</p><p> +‘1<i>st</i>, The entire omission in all cases (except, perhaps, the case of +the Established Church) of the certificate regarding religious instruction, +and the recognition of all bodies, whether Churches or private +parties and associations, as equally entitled to receive aid. +</p><p> +‘2<i>d</i>, The adoption of a rule in proportioning Government grants to +local efforts more flexible, and admitting of far more liberal aid in destitute +localities, as compared with those which are in a better condition. +</p><p> +‘3<i>d</i>, The institution, on the part of Government, of an inquiry into +the destitution confessedly existing in large towns, populous neighbourhoods, +and remote districts, with a view of marking out places where +elementary schools are particularly needed; and the holding out of +special encouragement to whatever parties may come forward as willing +to plant such schools. +</p><p> +‘That the preceding suggestions, if adopted, would go far to render +the present Government plan unobjectionable in principle, and also to +fit it in practice for ascertaining the educational wants of the country; +but that a much more liberal expenditure of the public money would +seem to be indispensable, as well as a less stringent application, upon +adequate cause shown, of the rules by which the expenditure is +regulated.’ +</p><p> +In bringing the motion forward in the following meeting of Presbytery, +the clause recommending the ‘entire omission in all cases of the +certificate regarding religious instruction’ was suffered to drop. +</p></div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0008' id='Footnote_0008'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0008'><span class='label'>[9]</span></a> +<p> +Such are the proportions laid down in the official document for +Scotland of the Committee of Her Majesty’s Privy Council on Education. +We understand, however, that the Government inspectors +possess certain modifying powers, through which the Government +grant is occasionally extended to deserving teachers whose salary and +fees united fall considerably short of the specified sum of forty-five +pounds. +</p></div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0009' id='Footnote_0009'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0009'><span class='label'>[10]</span></a> +<p> +To demand of that Parliament which carried the Reform Bill the +repeal of the Patronage Act, instead of enacting, on her own authority, +the Veto Law. +</p></div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0010' id='Footnote_0010'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0010'><span class='label'>[11]</span></a> +<p> +‘I see,’ said Knox, when the Privy Council, in dividing the ecclesiastical +revenues of the kingdom into three parts, determined on giving +two of these to the nobility, and on dividing the remaining part between +the Protestant ministry and the Court,––’ I see two-thirds freely +given to the devil, and the other third divided between God and the +devil: if the end of this order be happy, my judgment fails me!’ Our +church courts, if they declare for the system of denominational grants, +in opposition to the territorial endowments of a scheme truly national, +will be securing virtually a similar division of the people, with but this +difference, that God’s share of the reserved moiety may be a very small +share indeed. And can it possibly be held that the shame and guilt +of such an arrangement can be obviated by the votes of Synods or +Assemblies? or that, with an intelligent laity to judge in the matter, +the ‘end of this order’ can be other than unhappy? The schools of +the Free Church have already, it is said, done much good. We would, +we reply, be without excuse, in taking up our present position––a position +in which we have painfully to differ from so many of the friends +in whose behalf for the last ten years we deemed it at once a privilege +and an honour to contend––did we believe that more than six hundred +Protestant schools <i>could</i> exist in Scotland without doing <i>much</i> good. +Of nothing, however, are we more convinced, than that the good which +they have done has been accomplished by them in their character as +<i>schools</i>, not in their character as <i>denominational</i>. We know a little +regarding this matter; for in our journeyings of many thousand miles +over Scotland, especially in the Highlands and the northern counties, +we have made some use of both our eyes and ears. We have seen, +and sickened to see, hordes of schoolboys of ten and twelve years +bandying as nicknames, with boys whose parents belonged to the +Establishment, the terms of polemic controversy. ‘Moderate’ has +become in juvenile mouths as much a term of hatred and reproach in +extensive districts of our country, as we remember ‘Frenchman’ used +to be during the great revolutionary war. Our children bid fair to +get, in their state of denominational separatism, at least religion enough +heartily to hate their neighbours; and, we are afraid, not much more. +Now, it may be thought that the Editor of the <i>Witness</i>, himself long +engaged in semi-theological warfare, ought to be silent in a matter of +this kind. Be it remembered, we reply, that it was <i>men</i>, not children, +whom the Editor of the <i>Witness</i> made it his business to address; and +that when, in what he deemed a good cause, he appealed to the understandings +of his adult country-folk, he besought them in every instance +to test and examine ere they judged and decided. He did not contemplate +a phase of the controversy in which unthinking children should +come from their schools to contend with other children, in the spirit of +those little ones of Bethel who ‘came forth out of their city’ to mock +and to jeer; or that immature, unreasoning minds should be torn by +the she-bears of uncharitable feeling, at an age when the points really +at issue in the case can be received only as prejudices, and expressed +only by the mere calling of names. And seeing and knowing what he +has seen and knows, he has become sincerely desirous that controversy +should be left to at least the adult population of the country, and that +its children of all the communions should be sent to mingle together in +their games and their tasks, and to form their unselfish attachments, +under a wise system of national tuition, as thoroughly Christian as may +be, but at the same time as little as possible polemical or sectarian. +</p></div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0011' id='Footnote_0011'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0011'><span class='label'>[12]</span></a> +<p> +To the effect that there are a hundred thousand children in attendance +at the parish schools of Scotland. +</p></div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0012' id='Footnote_0012'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0012'><span class='label'>[13]</span></a> +<p> +‘We are aware,’ says a respected antagonist, ‘that Mr. Miller is no +Deist; his argument, nevertheless, rests on a deistical position,––a +charge to which Dr. Chalmers’ letter is not liable to be exposed, in +consequence of its first sentence, and of what it recommends in a +Government preamble.’ If there be such virtue in a preamble, say we, +let us by all means have a preamble––ten preambles if necessary––rather +than a deistic principle. We would fain imitate in this matter +the tolerance of Luther. ‘A complaint comes that such and such a +reformed preacher will not preach without a cassock. “Well,” +answers Luther, “what harm will a cassock do the man? Let him +have a cassock to preach in; let him have three cassocks, if he find +benefit in them.’” +</p></div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0013' id='Footnote_0013'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0013'><span class='label'>[14]</span></a> +<p> +It is not uninstructive to remark how invariably in this matter an +important point has been taken for granted which has not yet been +proven; and how the most serious charges have been preferred against +men’s principles, on the assumption that there exists in the question a +certain divine truth, which may be neither divine nor yet a truth at all. +Wisdom and goodness may be exhibited in both the negative and positive +form––both by avoiding what is wicked and foolish, and by doing +what is good and wise. And while no Christian doubts that the adorable +Head of the Church manifested His character, when on earth, in +both ways, at least no Presbyterian doubts that He manifested it not +only by instituting certain orders in His Church, but also by omitting +to institute in it certain other orders. He instituted, for instance, an +order of preachers of the gospel; He did not institute an order of popes +and cardinals. Neither, however, did He institute an order of ‘religion-teaching’ +schoolmasters; and the question not yet settled, and +of which, without compromising a single article in our standards, +either side may be espoused, is, whether our Saviour manifested His +wisdom in <i>not</i> making use of the schoolmaster, or whether, without +indicating His mind on the subject, He left the schoolmaster to be +legitimately employed in an after-development of the Church. +</p><p> +Indeed, so entirely in this matter is the Free Church at sea, without +chart or compass, that it has still to be determined whether the +religious teaching of her schools be of a tendency to add to or to +diminish the religious feeling of the country. ‘I sometimes regretted +to observe,’ says Dr. Reid, in his Report on the Schools in connection +with the Free Presbytery of Edinburgh, ‘that [their lessons in the Bible +and Shorter Catechism] were taught rather too much in the style of the +ordinary lessons. I do not object to <i>places being taken</i>, or any other +means employed, which a teacher may consider necessary to secure +attention during a Scripture lesson; but divine truth should always be +communicated with solemnity.’ Now, such is the general defect of the +religious teaching of the schoolroom. Nor is it to be obviated, we +fear, by any expression of extra solemnity thrown into the pedagogical +face, or even by the <i>taking of places</i> or the <i>taws</i>. And there seems +reason to dread that lessons of this character can have but the effect of +commonplacing the great truths of religion in the mind, and hardening +the heart against their after application from the pulpit. But some ten +or twelve years will serve to unveil to the Free Church the real nature of +the experiment in which she is now engaged. For our own part, we can +have little doubt, be the matter decided as it may, that experience will +serve ultimately to show how vast the inferiority really is of man’s +‘teachers of religion’ to Christ’s preachers of the gospel. +</p><p> +We shall never forget at least the more prominent particulars of a +conversation on this subject which we were privileged to hold with one +of the most original-minded clergymen (now, alas, no more) our Church +ever produced. He referred, first, to the false association which those +words of world-wide meaning, ‘religious education,’ are almost sure to +induce, when restricted, in a narrow, inadequate sense, to the teaching +of the schoolmaster; and next, to the divine commission of the minister +of the gospel. ‘Perverted as human nature is,’ he remarked, ‘there +are cases in which, by appealing to its sentiments and affections, we +may derive a very nice evidence respecting the divine origin of certain +institutions and injunctions. For instance, the Chinese hold, as one of +their religious beliefs, that parents have a paramount claim to the affections +of their sons and daughters, long after they have been married and +settled in the world; whereas our Saviour teaches that a man should +leave father and mother and cleave to his wife, and the wife leave +father and mother and cleave to her husband. And as, in the case of +the dead and living child, Solomon sought his evidence in the feelings +of the women that came before him, and determined <i>her</i> to be the true +mother in whom he found the true mother’s love and regard, I would +seek my evidence, in this other case, in the affections of human nature; +and ask them whether they declared for the law of the Chinese Baal, +or for that of Him who implanted them in the heart. And how prompt +and satisfactory the reply! The love which of twain makes one flesh +approves itself, in all experience, to be greatly stronger and more engrossing +than that which attaches the child to the parent; and while we +see the unnatural Chinese law making the weaker traverse and overrule +the stronger affection, and thus demonstrating its own falsity, we find +the law of Christ exquisitely concerting with the nature which Christ +gave, and thus establishing its own truth. Now, regarding the commission +of the minister of the gospel,’ he continued, ‘I put a similar +question to the affections, and receive from them a not less satisfactory +reply. The God who gave the commission does inspire a love for him +who truly bears it; ay, a love but even too engrossing at times, and +that, by running to excess, defeats its proper end, by making the servant +eclipse in the congregational mind the Master whose message he bears. +But I do believe that the sentiment, like the order to which it attaches, +is, in its own proper place, of divine appointment. It is a preparation +for the reception in love of the gospel message. God does not will that +His message should be injured by any prejudice against the bearer of +it; and that His will in this matter might be adequately carried out, +was one of the grand objects of our contendings in the Church controversy. +But we are not to calculate on the existence of any such strong +feeling of love between the children of a school and their teacher. If, +founding on the experience of our own early years, we think of the +schoolmaster, not in his present relation to ourselves as a fellow-citizen, +or as a servant of the Church, but simply in his connection with the +immature class on which he operates, we will find him circled round in +their estimation (save in perhaps a very few exceptional cases) with +greatly more of terror than affection. There are no two classes of feelings +in human nature more diverse than the class with which the schoolmaster +and the class with which the minister of the gospel is regarded +by their respective charges; and right well was St. Paul aware of the +fact, when he sought in the terrors of the schoolmaster an illustration of +the terrors of the law. And in this fence of terror we may perhaps find +a reason why Christ never committed to the schoolmaster the gospel +message.’ We are afraid we do but little justice, in this passage, to the +thinking of our deceased friend; for we cannot recall his flowing and +singularly happy language, but we have, we trust, preserved his leading +ideas; and they are, we think, worthy of being carefully pondered. +We may add, that he was a man who had done much in his parish for +education; but that he had at length seen, though without relaxing his +efforts, that the religious teaching of his schools had failed to make the +rising generation under his charge religious, and had been led seriously +to inquire regarding the cause of its failure. +</p></div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_m097_1' id='Footnote_m097_1'></a><a href='#FNanchor_m097_1'><span class='label'>[15]</span></a> +<p> +Mr. Combe, however, may be regarded as an extreme man; and +so the following letter, valuable as illustrating the views of a not very +extreme opponent, though a decided assertor of the non-religious system +of tuition, may be well deemed instructive. The writer, Mr. Samuel +Lucas, was for many years Chairman of that Lancashire Public School +Association which Mr. Fox proposes as the model of his scheme:–– +</p> +<p style="text-align:center; margin-top:1.5em"> +TO THE EDITOR OF THE SCOTSMAN. +</p> +<p> +<span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Sir</span>,––In your paper of the 26th ultimo, I observe among the advertisements +a set of resolutions which have been agreed to and signed by +a number of parties, with the view of a national movement in favour of +an unsectarian system of national education. It is perhaps too early to +say, that though the names of some of the parties are well known and +highly esteemed in this country, yet that the names of many who might +be expected to be foremost in promoting such an object are wanting. +</p><p> +I cannot, however, help thinking, that some of these may have been +prevented from signing the document in question by some considerations +which have occurred to myself on the perusal of it; and as a few +lines of editorial comment indicate that the project has your sanction, +you will perhaps allow me briefly to say why I think the people of +Scotland should give to it the most deliberate consideration before committing +themselves to it. +</p><p> +Agreeing, as I do most fully, with a large proportion of the contents of +the resolutions, I regret that its authors have made an attempt, which it +is impossible can be successful, to unite in the national schoolhouses, and +in the school hours, a sound religious with an unsectarian education. +</p><p> +What is a <i>sound religious education</i>? Will not the professors of every +variety of religious faith answer the question differently? +</p><p> +I think it was Bishop Berkeley who said, Orthodoxy is my doxy; +heterodoxy is another man’s doxy. So it is with a sound religious +education. What is sound to me is hollow and superficial, or perhaps +full of error, to another. +</p><p> +If it be said that the majority of heads of families must decide as to +what is sound and what is unsound, I must protest against such an +injustice. The minority will contribute to the support of the public +schools, and neither directly nor indirectly can they with justice be +deprived of the use of them. +</p><p> +It appears to me that the authors of the resolutions are flying in the +face of their own great authority, in proposing to introduce religious +instruction into the public schools. It is true that Dr. Chalmers proposes +that Government should ‘leave this matter entire to the parties +who had to do with the erection and management of the schools which +they had been called upon to assist;’ but he was not then contemplating +the erection of national schools by the public money, but schools +erected by voluntary subscription, which the Government might be +called on to assist. +</p><p> +His opinion on the right action of Government in the present state of +things is clear. He says: ‘That in any public measure for helping on +the education of the people, Government [should] abstain from introducing +the element of religion at all into their part of the scheme.’ +</p><p> +What, then, should be the course taken by the promoters of public +schools, in accordance with the principles enunciated by Dr Chalmers? +It appears to me to be clearly this: to make no provision whatever for, +or rather directly to exclude, all religious teaching within the walls of +the school, and to leave, in the words of the fifth resolution, ‘the duty +and responsibility of communicating religious instruction’ in the hands +of those ‘to whom they have been committed by God, viz. to their +parents, and, through them, to such teachers as they may choose to +entrust with that duty.’ +</p><p> +This was the course pursued by the Government of Holland in the +early part of the present century; and I suppose no one will venture to +call in question the morality or religion of the people of that country, or +to throw a doubt upon the success of the system. +</p><p> +It is as an ardent friend of National Education, both in Scotland and +England, that I have ventured to make these few observations. I desire +to throw no obstruction in the way of any movement calculated to attain +so desirable an object. It may be that I am mistaken in supposing that +it is intended to convey religious instruction, in the public schools, of a +kind that will be obnoxious to a minority; and if so, the design of the +authors of the resolutions will have no more sincere well-wisher than, +Sir, your obedient servant, +</p> +<p style="margin-right:3em; text-align:right"> +<span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Samuel Lucas</span>. +</p> +<p style="margin-left:2em"> +<span style='font-variant:small-caps'>London</span>, <i>February 4, 1850</i>. +</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0014' id='Footnote_0014'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0014'><span class='label'>[16]</span></a> +<p> +There are about one thousand one hundred parish schoolmasters in +Scotland: of these, not more than eighty (strictly, we believe, seventy-seven) +adhered to the Free Church at the Disruption. +</p></div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0015' id='Footnote_0015'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0015'><span class='label'>[17]</span></a> +<p> +The Church as such ought to employ the schoolmaster, it has been +argued, in virtue of the divine injunction, ‘Search the Scriptures:’ +what God <i>commands</i> men to do, it is her duty to <i>enable</i> men to do. The +argument is excellent, we say, so far as it goes; but of perilous application +in the case in hand. It is the Church’s duty to teach those to +read the Scriptures, who, <i>without her assistance, would not be taught to +read them</i>. But if by teaching Latin, arithmetic, algebra, and the +mathematics to <i>ten</i>, she is incapacitating herself from teaching <i>twenty</i> to +read the Bible; or if, by teaching twenty to read the Bible who would +have learned to read it whether she taught them or no, she is incapacitating +herself from teaching twenty others to read it, who, unless she +teach them, will never learn to read it at all; then, instead of doing her +recognised duty in the matter, she is doing exactly the reverse of her +duty––doing what prevents her from doing her duty. Let the Free +Church but take her stand on this argument, and straightway her +rectors, her masters in academies, and her schoolmasters planted in +towns and populous localities, to teach the higher branches, become +so many bars raised by herself virtually to impede and arrest her, +through the expense incurred in their maintenance, in her proper work +of enabling the previously untaught and ignorant to read the word of +God, in obedience to the divine injunction. +</p></div> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0016' id='Footnote_0016'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0016'><span class='label'>[18]</span></a> +<p> +This statement has been quoted by an antagonist as utterly inconsistent +with our general line of argument; but we think we may +safely leave the reader to determine whether it be really so. Did we +ever argue that any scheme of national education, however perfect, +could possibly supersede the proper <i>missionary</i> labours of the Churches, +whether educational or otherwise? Assuredly not. What we really +assert is, that if the Churches waste their energies on work not missionary, +the work which, if they do it not, cannot be done must of +necessity be neglected; seeing that, according to Bacon, ‘charity will +hardly water the ground where it must first fill a pool.’ +</p></div> +<p class="fn_section_h" >Footnotes for chapter “A Highland Clearing”</p> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0017' id='Footnote_0017'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0017'><span class='label'>[1]</span></a> +<p> +<i>The Rosses of Glencalvie</i>, by John Robertson, Esq. (article in the +Glasgow <i>National</i>, August 1844).––<span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Ed</span>. +</p></div> +<p class="fn_section_h" >Footnotes for chapter “The Poet Montgomery”</p> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0018' id='Footnote_0018'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0018'><span class='label'>[1]</span></a> +<p> +20th October 1841. +</p></div> +<p class="fn_section_h" >Footnotes for chapter “The Sanctities of Matter”</p> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0019' id='Footnote_0019'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0019'><span class='label'>[1]</span></a> +<p> +See <i>First Impressions of England and its People</i>, ch. II.––<span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Ed</span>. +</p></div> +<p class="fn_section_h" >Footnotes for chapter “Characteristics of the Crimean War”</p> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0020' id='Footnote_0020'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0020'><span class='label'>[1]</span></a> +<p> +<i>Ismeer, or Smyrna and its British Hospital in 1855.</i> By a Lady. +London: James Madder, 8, Leadenhall Street. +</p></div> +<p class="fn_section_h" >Footnotes for chapter “Sutherland as it was and is”</p> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0022' id='Footnote_0022'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0022'><span class='label'>[1]</span></a> +<p>‘I will go and inquire upon the spot whether the natives of the +county of <span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Sutherland</span> were driven from the land of their birth by +the Countess of that name, and by her husband the Marquis of Stafford.... +I wish to possess authentic information relative to that “<span style='font-variant:small-caps'>CLEARING</span>” +affair; for though it took place twenty years ago, it may be just +as necessary to inquire into it now. It may be quite proper to inquire +into the means that were used to effect the <span style='font-variant:small-caps'>CLEARING</span>.’––<span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Cobbett.</span> +</p> +<p> +‘It is painful to dwell on this subject’ [the present state of Sutherland]; +‘but as information communicated by men of honour, judgment, +and perfect veracity, descriptive of what they daily witness, affords the +best means of forming a correct judgment, and as these gentlemen, from +their situations in life, have no immediate interest in the determination +of the question, beyond what is dictated by humanity and a love of truth, +their authority may be considered as undoubted.’––<span style='font-variant:small-caps'>General Stewart</span> +of Garth. +</p> +<p> +‘It is by a cruel abuse of legal forms––it is by an unjust usurpation––that +the <i>tacksman</i> and the tenant of Sutherland are considered as having +no right to the land which they have occupied for so many ages.... +A count or earl has no more right to expel from their homes the inhabitants +of his county, than a king to expel from his country the inhabitants +of his kingdom.’––<span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Sismondi.</span> +</p> +</div> +<hr class='pb' /> +<div class="trnote"> +<h3>Transcriber’s Notes</h3> +<p> +Typographical problems have been changed and these are +<ins class="trchange" title="Was 'hgihligthed'">highlighted</ins>. +</p> +<p> +Archaic and variable spelling is preserved. +</p> +<p> +Author’s punctuation style is preserved. +</p> +</div> + +<!-- generated by ppg.rb version: ppg0610b --> +<!-- timestamp: Wed Jun 17 13:29:35 +0800 2009 --> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Leading Articles on Various Subjects, by +Hugh Miller + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LEADING ARTICLES *** + +***** This file should be named 29440-h.htm or 29440-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/4/4/29440/ + +Produced by David Clarke, Dan Horwood and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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