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diff --git a/29440.txt b/29440.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d2beb2f --- /dev/null +++ b/29440.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14486 @@ +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: ASCII + +*** 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 + + + + + + + +{Transcriber's Note: + +All square brackets [] are from the original text. Braces {} ("curly +brackets") are supplied by the transcriber. + +A caret character '^' indicates the following letters are superscript +in the original. + +More transcriber's notes are provided at the end of the text.} + + + + +LEADING ARTICLES +ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS. + + + + +{Illustration: W. H. McFarlane, Lith^r Edin^r +HUGH MILLER +_Fac-simile of a Calotype by D. O. Hill, R. I. A. 1845. +see page 184_} + + + + +MURRAY AND GIBB, EDINBURGH, +PRINTERS TO HER MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE. + + + + +LEADING ARTICLES + +ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS. + +BY + +HUGH MILLER, + +AUTHOR OF 'THE OLD RED SANDSTONE,' ETC. ETC. + +_EDITED BY HIS SON-IN-LAW_, + +THE REV. JOHN DAVIDSON. + +_FOURTH EDITION._ + +EDINBURGH: +WILLIAM P. NIMMO. +1872. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +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. + +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.' + +JOHN DAVIDSON. + +_London, March 8, 1870._ + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + + THOUGHTS ON THE EDUCATIONAL QUESTION, 1 + + LORD BROUGHAM, 105 + + THE SCOTT MONUMENT, 111 + + THE LATE MR. KEMP, 119 + + ANNIE M'DONALD AND THE FIFESHIRE FORESTER, 123 + + A HIGHLAND CLEARING, 136 + + THE POET MONTGOMERY, 146 + + CRITICISM--INTERNAL EVIDENCE, 151 + + THE SANCTITIES OF MATTER, 161 + + THE LATE REV. ALEXANDER STEWART, 170 + + THE CALOTYPE, 179 + + THE TENANT'S TRUE QUARREL, 190 + + CONCLUSION OF THE WAR IN AFFGHANISTAN, 199 + + PERIODICALISM, 206 + + 'ANNUS MIRABILIS,' 215 + + EFFECTS OF RELIGIOUS DISUNION ON COLONIZATION, 223 + + FINE-BODYISM, 232 + + ORGANSHIP, 240 + + BAILLIE'S LETTERS AND JOURNALS, 249 + + FIRST PRINCIPLES, 262 + + AN UNSPOKEN SPEECH, 269 + + DISRUPTION PRINCIPLES, 280 + + CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CRIMEAN WAR, 293 + + THE POETS OF THE CHURCH, 302 + + THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA, 315 + + A VISION OF THE RAILROAD, 327 + + THE TWO MR. CLARKS, 337 + + PULPIT DUTIES NOT SECONDARY, 358 + + DUGALD STEWART, 369 + + OUR TOWN COUNCILS, 378 + + SUTHERLAND AS IT WAS AND IS; OR, HOW A COUNTRY MAY BE + RUINED, 388 + + + + +INTRODUCTORY NOTE +TO +THOUGHTS ON THE EDUCATIONAL QUESTION. + + +The following chapters on the Educational Question first appeared as a +series of articles in the _Witness_ 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 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. + +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 +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.' + +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 mere voting in our church courts, than +the question of College Extension. It is _not_ 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 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 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. + +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 _national_ +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 _in them_. 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 _six_ to one, and Evangelical in the proportion of at least +_two_ 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 behalf of an +alleged ecclesiastical privilege nowhere sanctioned in the word of +God.{1} + +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, 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 _means_; and it +is to the _end_ 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 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 _necessity_, are, in part at least, effects of her lax views +respecting the question of the _liability_, and of her consequent +belief that _anything well divided_ 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 '_Commons_' who grant the supplies. + +We subjoin the paper on the Educational Question, addressed by Dr. +Chalmers to the Hon. Mr. Fox Maule, as it first appeared in the +_Witness_. The reader will see 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:-- + + '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. + + '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. + + 'It is this which has encompassed the Government with + 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. + + '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. + + '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. 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. + + 'On the basis of these general views, I have two remarks to + offer regarding the Government scheme of education. + + '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 _allowing_, but, more + than this, of _requiring_, 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. + + '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. + + '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. + + 'I cannot conclude without expressing my despair of any great or + general good being effected in the way of 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. + + '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. + + '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 _historically_ 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 _experimentally_, by the impotence, now + fully established, of the Voluntary principle; and last, and + most decisive of all, it is taught _prophetically_ in the book + of Revelation, when told that then will the kingdoms of the + earth (_Basileiai_, or governing powers) become the kingdoms of + our Lord Jesus Christ, or the Governments of the earth become + Christian Governments. + + (Signed) 'THOMAS CHALMERS.' + +----- + + {1} 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,-- + + "Eremites and friars, + White, black, and grey, with all their trumpery.'" + + 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. _Rationally_ considered, they are + very different orders indeed; but so far as _direct_ 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. + + + + +THOUGHTS +ON +THE EDUCATIONAL QUESTION. + +CHAPTER FIRST. + + + 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. + +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. + +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 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 _we_, +seems inevitably incident to the special line of statement on which we +propose to enter. + +During the greater part of the years 1845 and 1846, the Editor of +the _Witness_ 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, 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 +_fresh_ 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 _in toto_. 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.{2} All other things equal, they +would have preferred a serious, devout schoolmaster to one who was +not serious nor devout, just as, _coeteris paribus_, 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, +_vice versa_, 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 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. + +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 _Witness_ 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 _Witness_, 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 +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. + +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 _ordained_. 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. _Ordination_ 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 _He_ 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 _new form of divine service, which +God in His word hath not before allowed_; 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 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.{3} 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.' + +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 +_instruct_, 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 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 _Witness_ 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 +_not_ 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, 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:-- + + MORNINGSIDE, _March 13, 1847_. + + MY DEAR SIR,--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. + + 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, + + THOMAS CHALMERS. + + Hugh Miller, Esq. + +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.{4} There is a sort of perfection in everything; and perfection +once reached, deterioration usually begins. And when, in bandying the +phrases _infidel_ and _infidelity_--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. + +We concluded our course of educational articles; and though we +afterwards saw the distinguished man to whom 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.' + +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 _Witness_. 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. _We_ 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 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. + +At the request of many of our readers, we have reprinted his document +in full, as it originally appeared.{5} 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 _educate_. +Let the reader next mark in what terms he speaks of the party _to be_ +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 _absolute_ right on the part of Government is somehow +_conditional_ on the parties to be educated, or to superintend the +education, coming forward to them _in the character of Churches_. +They deem it necessary to the integrity of his meaning, that +Presbyterians should come forward as Presbyterians, 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 _Scotchmen_ should think of coming forward simply as Scotchmen, +they cannot believe. He must have regarded the State's _unconditional_ +right to educate as _conditional_ 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,' '_men_ 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 _does_ 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 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. + +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:-- + + 2, LAURISTON LANE, _March 5, 1850_. + + MY DEAR MR. MILLER,--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 lifted + up his mighty voice to advocate the views in which we are + agreed. + + 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, + + THOMAS GUTHRIE. + + GROSVENOR STREET, _March 4, 1850_. + + MY DEAR DR. GUTHRIE,--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 _subject of education_.' + + 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. + + Should you address yourself to this question, you are, in my + opinion, fully justified in dealing with the _memorandum_ 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, + + F. MAULE. + +----- + + {2} 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 _best_ in both professions, and that + men select that best, as preferable to what is inferior or worse, + on every occasion they can. + + {3} We have learned that what was actually intended at this time + was, not to _ordain_, but only to _induct_ our schoolmasters. And + their _induction_ 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. + + {4} A fac-simile of this letter was reproduced in the columns of + the _Witness_.--ED. + + {5} See Introduction. + + + + +CHAPTER SECOND. + + + 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. + +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;{6} 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. + +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 which _he +himself holds_, or of the religious differences which may unhappily +obtain among _them_. 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 +_belles lettres_ have assumed. And this right and duty of a Government +to instruct, rest, we hold, on two distinct principles,--the one +_economic_, the other _judicial_. Education adds immensely to the +_economic_ 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 +_economic_ right and duty of the civil magistrate to educate. + +His _judicial_ right and duty are founded on the circumstance, that +the laws which he promulgates are _written_ 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 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 _judicial_ 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 _seem_ to dispute. + +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 _salary_, and the +parent _fees_--we assert further, that should the Government give its +salary 'exclusively as the expression of its value for a good +_secular_ education,' _he_ may, notwithstanding, demand that his fees +should be received as the representative of _his_ value for a good +_religious_ 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 _forbid_ +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. + +Let us further remark, that the rights of the parent in the matter of +education are not _ecclesiastical_, but _natural_ 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 _he_ 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 _him_ 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, 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 +_Witness_. The sole right which exists in the case--that of the +parent--is a _natural_ right, not an _ecclesiastical_ 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. + +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 _demand_ 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. _godliness_, 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, _and for their children_, a religious +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 +'_life_;' the amount of secular instruction imparted to them within +its walls answers but inadequately to the item '_literature_;' 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--'_doctrine_.' 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 +_extempore_ 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 +religion _extempore_ 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. + +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 _memorabilia_ 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 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. _Our_ 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 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 _salary_ of the one and the +_fees_ 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. + +And in this educational question certain political rights _are_ +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 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, +_householder_. 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. + +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 _ipse dixit_, be he editor or +elder, minister or layman. In this question, as in a thousand others, +'truth lies at the bottom of the 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. + +----- + + {6} _What ought the General Assembly to do at the present + Crisis?_ (1833.) + + + + +CHAPTER THIRD. + + + 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. + +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 _householders_ +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 _political_ 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 _educational_ +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 sanction, and +establish a somewhat different order of qualifications from those +which it erects. + +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 _employes_, 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 _bona fide_ 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 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 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. + +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 _vote_, but +also certain other qualifications on the part of the country's +schoolmasters, without which they could not be _voted for_. 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 _permitted_ 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 +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 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. + +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 +_people_ that extension of the educational franchise which we +desiderate would not fail to restore to the _people_. It would put +them once more in possession of what was their own property _de +facto_ 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 _de jure_ 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 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 _first_ hopeful movement +of the age; for our own Free Church educational movement, though +perhaps _second_ in point of importance, only serves irrefragably +to demonstrate its necessity. + +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 _omit_ the +religious element.'{7} All is lost, Mr. Combe justly infers, on the +non-religious side of the question, if the introduction of the Bible +and Shorter Catechism be not _prohibited_ 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, +_denomination_ 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 +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 _would_ take place. The +Voluntaries and Free Churchmen would often unite for the carrying of +a _man_; and occasionally, no doubt, the Free Church and the +Establishment, for the carrying of a _principle_,--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 _should_ 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 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 _de +facto_ 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. + +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 _grants_ 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 _endowment_ 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 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. + +----- + + {7} '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 _omit_ the religious element: it must limit the power + of the majority to introduce this element into their schools to + the injury of the minority.'--_Letter of Mr. George Combe on the + Educational Movement._ + + + + +CHAPTER FOURTH. + + + 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. + +'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. + +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 _grants_ given for educational purposes, if +dissociated from the religious certificate, as against State +_endowments_ 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 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 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:--'WANTED BY THE GOVERNMENT, A CHURCH TO ERECT A +SCHOOL. TERMS LIBERAL, AND NO CERTIFICATE OF RELIGIOUS TEACHING +DEMANDED. N.B.--PAPISTS, PUSEYITES, AND SOCINIANS PERFECTLY +ELIGIBLE.'{8} + +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 _territorial_ scheme of +educational _endowments_ over a _denominational_ scheme of educational +_grants_. At present, all or any of the _sects_ 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 +_districts_--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. _Denominationally_, there is +much unsoundness in Scotland; _territorially_, 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, 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 _substance_ was to be +sacrificed, was in itself _substance_ or _shadow_. + +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 +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.e._ 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.e._ 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;{9} and whatever judgment 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 '_doons hard bargains_;' 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, 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. + +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 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 +L15 and L20 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 L15 salaries at +the reduced rate of L10, and its L20 salaries at the rate of L13, +13s. 4d.; and those embarrassments, of which the reduction was a +consequence, have borne with distressful effect on the Committee's +_employes_. However _orthodox_ their creed, their circumstances +have in many instances become _Antinomian_; 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.' + +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 _salary_ of thirty +pounds is supplemented by a _grant_ of fifteen pounds,--a salary of +forty pounds by a grant of twenty,--a salary of fifty by a grant 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 +_literary_ qualification, would in many cases be some twenty, or even +thirty, pounds short of the necessary _money_ qualification, _i.e._ +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 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. + +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 L10,000 to L12,000 yearly for educational purposes, +she would require to realize some L5000 or L6000 more in order to +qualify her to meet her existing liabilities, estimated at the +very moderate rates laid down in the programme. The L5000 or L6000 +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 L5000 or L6000 short of supplying the two-thirds, +and some L6000 or L7000 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 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? + +----- + + {8} 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:-- + + 'That the successful working of the present Government plan would + be greatly promoted by the following amendments:-- + + '1_st_, 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. + + '2_d_, 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. + + '3_d_, 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. + + '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.' + + 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. + + {9} 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. + + + + +CHAPTER FIFTH. + + + 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!' + +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 _Witness_ office who would be permitted by the rules of +his profession, to make an arrangement 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 L15 and L20 scale of salaries: these are now +paid with L10 and L13, 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. + +Now this will never do. The Church may make herself very sure, that +for her L10 or L13 she will receive ultimately only the worth of L10 +or L13. 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 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 L10 and L13 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 L10 or +L13? 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 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 L10 and L13 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. + +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 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 _two_ battles in +succession, and, when both are over, find that the great general +contest still remains undecided. + +For what we must deem by much the better and more important battle of +the _two_--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 obviating the dire necessity which led to the Disruption, by +acting upon the advice of the wise and far-seeing M'Crie.{10} 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 +_Establishment_ means _Church_, 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 homoeopathically diffused in all education--especially, we +suppose, in Lindley Murray's readings from the _Spectator_ and Dr. +Blair--and that, as the State must not provide _religious_ teaching +for its people, it cannot, and 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 manoeuvring with them; Scotch Highlanders +don't understand manoeuvre. 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 +_possibly_ lost, another battle may have still to 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 _de +facto_, and which are already their own _de jure_, 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 _their_ 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.'{11} + +There is at least one point on which we think all Free 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_st_, 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_d_, into the condition, +character, and teaching of all the various schools of the country, +whether parochial, Free Church, or adventure schools, with the actual +amount of pupils in attendance at each; and 3_d_, into the general +standing, acquirements, and _emoluments_ 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. Muir.{12} 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, +_could_ 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. + +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. _Church_ 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 armour; whereas it now +means, _legally_ at least, merely two Erastianized Establishments, +and _politically_, 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 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,{13}--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.' + +----- + +{10} 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. + +{11} '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 _could_ exist in + Scotland without doing _much_ 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 _schools_, not in + their character as _denominational_. 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 _Witness_, 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 _men_, not + children, whom the Editor of the _Witness_ 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. + +{12} To the effect that there are a hundred thousand children in + attendance at the parish schools of Scotland. + +{13} '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.'" + + + + +CHAPTER SIXTH. + + + 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. + +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 _it_, 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 _nine_, it exists nominally in +but the proportion of _six_, and in reality in but the proportion of +_four_,--seeing that the _six, i.e_. 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 expense, and then having cut twenty miles more on +_preference_ 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 _against_ +the agitation of the general question, furnished, on the contrary, the +best possible of all arguments _for_ 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. + +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 _Witness_ 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. + +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 +_rationale_ of this State assistance seems very obvious. It is of +importance to the State, both on economic and judicial grounds, that +all its people 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 _teach +religion_, 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 _forbade_ 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.e._ 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 _not_ demand, but _permits_--that its salaried +functionary should stand to his employers, the people, simply in the +relation of an adventure schoolmaster. The State says virtually to +its teacher in such circumstances: 'I, as the _general_ guardian of +your pupils, do not pay you for their religious education; but their +_particular_ 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. + +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 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? + +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 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. + +As to the question of a separate fee for religious tuition, let us +consider how it is usually solved in the adventure 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.{14} 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, 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 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 _could_ 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 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, 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 _it_ 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. + +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 +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.e._ 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--_lions_, in short, in a _minority_, like the agricultural lion in +_Punch_. 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, and +denounce it as _infidel_; 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 _orthodox_. And hence the +opposite views entertained by Mr. Combe of Edinburgh on the one +hand, and Mr. Gibson of Glasgow on the other.{15} + +----- + +{14} 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 _not_ 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. + + 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 _places being taken_, 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 + _taking of places_ or the _taws_. 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. + + 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 _her_ 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. + +{15} 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:-- + + TO THE EDITOR OF THE SCOTSMAN. + + SIR,--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. + + 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. + + 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. + + What is a _sound religious education_? Will not the professors + of every variety of religious faith answer the question + differently? + + 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. + + 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. + + 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. + + 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.' + + 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.' + + 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. + + 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, + + SAMUEL LUCAS. + + LONDON, _February 4, 1850_. + + + + +CHAPTER SEVENTH. + + + 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. + +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 _Parish_ 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 +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. + +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 L25 to a maximum of about L34. Let us suppose that they varied, +instead, from a minimum of L60 to a maximum of L80--not large sums, +certainly, but which, with the fees and a free house, would render +every parochial schoolmaster in Scotland worth about from L80 to L100 +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 L30 and +a maximum of L40. 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 L20 +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, coupled with such a provision, for the +right education of the country. + +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 _Committees_ 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 chairman, 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 _their_ 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, +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. + +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, 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 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 +_ex officio_; 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 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. + +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, _nominally_ one, would be also _really_ +but one; nor ought it, we at once say, to weigh in 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 manoeuvre--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 _not_ follow, it would be +found that in most cases the fault lay rather with the ordained +suits of black, topped by the white neckcloths, than with the +people whom they failed to influence. + +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 +_them_; 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.{16} 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 '_inducting_' 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 _half_ ecclesiastics.{17} And then, +after _teaching_ our schoolmasters to _teach_ 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 _secular_ +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 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. + +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 _honest_ stipends +should be appointed;' and further, 'that fair provision should be +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 L10 to L13, 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. + +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 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.{18} 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, +_their_ 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 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. + +'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 +_morally_ 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 _seems_ 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 _Tales of a Grandfather_, 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 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.' + +----- + +{16} 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. + +{17} The Church as such ought to employ the schoolmaster, it has + been argued, in virtue of the divine injunction, 'Search the + Scriptures:' what God _commands_ men to do, it is her duty to + _enable_ 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, + _without her assistance, would not be taught to read them_. But + if by teaching Latin, arithmetic, algebra, and the mathematics to + _ten_, she is incapacitating herself from teaching _twenty_ 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. + +{18} 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 _missionary_ 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.' + + + + +LORD BROUGHAM. + + +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. + +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, 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. + +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 he is now +doing himself. There was always a lack of heart about Brougham, so +that men admired without loving him. + +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. + +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 '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 _Inverness Courier_ 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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +And his _Craftsmen_ sold even more rapidly than the _Spectator_ +itself. + +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. + +_July 8, 1840._ + + + + +THE SCOTT MONUMENT. + + +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, + + 'Rank behind rank, close wedged, hung bellying o'er;' + +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, 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. + +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. + +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, _The +Friend_--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. + +The laugh, half in ridicule, half in good nature, with 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' _Emblems_, or Flavel's _Husbandry and Navigation +Spiritualized_? 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.' + +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 _Melrose Abbey_,--the external view +in the cold, pale moonshine, + + 'When buttress and buttress alternately + Seemed formed of ebon and ivory;' + +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 _Marmion_. + +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. + +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. + +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 _Waverley_--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 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. + +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. + +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, deserves well of his country; and who can doubt that +Sir Walter has done so? + +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. + +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? + +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 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. + +He found human nature a _terra incognita_ when it came under the +influence of grace; and in this _terra incognita_, 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. + +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? + +Our subject, however, is one which we must be content not to exhaust. + + + + +THE LATE MR. KEMP. + + +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 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. + +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 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 _litterateur_. The _litterateur's_ +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 _litterateur_, 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. + +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 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. + + + + +ANNIE M'DONALD AND THE FIFESHIRE FORESTER. + + +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 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 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. + +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. 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 _her_ God, through the +all-sufficient blood of the atonement. And this hold she never after +relinquished. + +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, 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 "'_peasant's nest_" 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.' + +Long years of incessant labour followed; her children 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 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:-- + +'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, 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.' + +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 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-- + + 'The glorious hopes which flattered not-- + Dawned on him by degrees.' + +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 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, + + 'Old times are living there.' + +'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.' + +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. + + MY GRANDMOTHER. + + Long years of toil and care, + And pain and poverty, have passed + Since last I listened to her prayer, + And looked upon her last; + Yet how she spoke, and how she smiled + Upon me, when a playful child-- + The lustre of her eye-- + The kind caress--the fond embrace-- + The reverence of her placid face,-- + All in my memory lie + As fresh as they had only been + Bestowed and felt, and heard and seen, + Since yesterday went by. + + Her dress was simply neat-- + Her household tasks so featly done: + Even the old willow-wicker seat + On which she sat and spun-- + The table where her Bible lay, + Open from morn till close of day-- + The standish, and the pen + With which she noted, as they rose, + Her thoughts upon the joys, the woes, + The final fate of men, + And sufferings of her Saviour God,-- + Each object in her poor abode + Is visible as then. + + Nor are they all forgot, + The faithful admonitions given, + And glorious hopes which flattered not, + But led the soul to heaven! + These had been hers, and have been mine + When all beside had ceased to shine-- + When sadness and disease, + And disappointment and suspense, + Had driven youth's fairest fancies hence, + Short'ning its fleeting lease: + 'Twas then these hopes, amid the dark + Just glimmering, like an unquench'd spark, + Dawned on me by degrees. + + To her they gave a light + Brighter than sun or star supplied; + And never did they shine more bright + Than just before she died. + Death's shadow dimm'd her aged eyes, + Grey clouds had clothed the evening skies, + And darkness was abroad; + But still she turned her gaze above, + As if the eternal light of love + On her glazed organs glowed, + Like beacon-fire at closing even, + Hung out between the earth and heaven, + To guide her soul to God. + + And then they brighter grew, + Beaming with everlasting bliss, + As if the eternal world in view + Had weaned her eyes from this: + And every feature was composed, + As with a placid smile they closed + On those who stood around, + who felt it was a sin to weep + O'er such a smile and such a sleep-- + So peaceful, so profound; + And though they wept, their tears expressed + Joy for her time-worn frame at rest-- + Her soul with mercy crowned. + +_August 10, 1812._ + + + + +A HIGHLAND CLEARING. + + +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.{1} 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. 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 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,-- + + 'A meteor of the night of distant years, + That flashed unnoticed, save by wrinkled eld + Musing at midnight upon prophecies.' + +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 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 L55, 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 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.' + +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 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. + +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 by +which _his_ 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 _Textile Manufactures of Great Britain_, 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 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.?" "_Any English wool?_" "_Not much; it is nearly all +foreign_;" 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. + +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 _to clear_ him from the soil which he divested of the +original inhabitants. Every new sheep-rearing farm that springs up in +the colonies--whether 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. + +'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 L20, inflicted on the people for taking +a log from the forest for their bridge,--a thing they and their +fathers had always done unchallenged.' + +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:-- + +'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 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. + +'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.' + +_September 4, 1844._ + +----- + + {1} _The Rosses of Glencalvie_, by John Robertson, Esq. (article + in the Glasgow _National_, August 1844).--ED. + + + + +THE POET MONTGOMERY. + + +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{1} 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, tinted by the warm +hues of imagination, retain in his old age all the strength and +freshness of early youth! + +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 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. + +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, 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.' + +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 +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. + +_28th October 1841._ + +----- + + {1} 20th October 1841. + + + + +CRITICISM--INTERNAL EVIDENCE. + + +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 +_acknowledged_, the genuineness of others is determined merely by +_internal evidence_. We know, for instance, that the Doctor wrote the +_English Dictionary_, 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 _Gentleman's +Magazine_, for some six or seven years together,--data derived +exclusively from a discriminating criticism; and his claim to the +authorship of _Taylor's Sermons_ 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 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 _Fraser's Magazine_ for the present month. + +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. + +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 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. + +Thrice unfortunate men! What were the unhappinesses of the king of +Bohemia, compared with the sorrows of these humble but rejected +followers of Episcopacy! + +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 +_Protestant Annual_ for the present year, and--strange subject for +such a writer--it purported to be a _Tale of the Covenant_. 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 the poor pedlar does +not seem to have had the most distant conception. + +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! + +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' 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! + +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 _Fraser_. + +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 _Fraser_ has a fling _a la Cumming_ +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 _Fraser_. 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 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 _Annual_, 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? + +That portion of the internal evidence in the article before us which +depends on style and manner, seems very conclusive 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.' + +Poetry such as this is still somewhat rare; but mark the kindred +beauties of the writer in _Fraser_. 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. + +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 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 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.' + +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.' + +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. + +_March 10, 1841._ + + + + +THE SANCTITIES OF MATTER. + + + TO THE EDITOR OF THE WITNESS. + + SIR,--Upon hearing read aloud your remarks{1} in the _Witness_ + 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?' + + 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. + + 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, you + will oblige me by stating them.--I remain, Sir, Your obedient + servant, + + AN ABSENTEE. + +The passage of Scripture referred to by the 'English Gentleman' here +as scarcely reconcilable with the views promulgated in the _Witness_ +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.' + +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 _Temple_, 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.e._ 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 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? + +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 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, 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. + +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 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 _fine_ 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 +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, _splendid edifices were erected in every city_, 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.' + +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,--- + + 'When men strayed far to seek + In Golgotha Him dead who lives in heaven,'-- + +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 +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.' + +_April 15, 1846._ + +----- + + {1} See _First Impressions of England and its People_, ch. + II.--ED. + + + + +THE LATE REV. ALEXANDER STEWART. + + +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, + + 'A mighty spirit is eclipsed; a power + Hath passed from day to darkness, to whose hour + Of light no likeness is bequeathed--no name.' + +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 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. + +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 _his_ 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 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 +_savans_ 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, 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. + +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 _Joseph_,' he said, 'shall reveal +himself to _his brethren_, the _whole house of Pharaoh_ shall _hear +the weeping_.' 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 +_measured_ 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 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 +_ocean_ 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 _great_ 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 _seen_ no shore, and you would have _found_ 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 _drawn_ and _trussed_, in order that we may be filled, +_like stuffed birds in a museum_, with _chaff and rags_, and _paltry +blurred shreds of paper_ about the rights of man.' 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 SIN.' 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. + +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 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 _viva voce_ 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. + +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 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. + +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, _his_ 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! 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! + +_November 13, 1847._ + + + + +THE CALOTYPE. + + +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 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 _bona fide_ 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 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 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 _latitudes_ of the art, if we +may so speak, but its _longitudes_ 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 _tableaux vivants_, 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 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 _skinniness_ 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 +_Astronomical Discourses_ 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, 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 +_Paradise Lost_ 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 +_History of the Civil War_, 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. + +We have two well-marked drawings before us, in which we recognise +the capabilities of the art for producing pictures of composition. +They are _tableaux vivants_ transferred by the calotype. In the +one[Footnote: See Frontispiece] 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, 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 +_Old Mortality_ of Sir Walter. The other drawing presents a +_tableau vivant_ 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. + +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 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 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. + +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 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 _see_ many objects without _looking_ 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 _tableau vivant_ 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 in this +transcript of the larger _tableau vivant_ 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. + + + + +THE TENANT'S TRUE QUARREL. + + +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 +_Treatise on the Law of War and Peace_, 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 +_Essay on the Human Understanding_, 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 _Spirit of Laws_, 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--_An Inquiry into the Nature and +Causes of the Wealth of Nations_, 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 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.' + +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 _Wealth of Nations_. 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 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 you please, is on the eve of destruction; yet a very +little longer, and it will be hurtling down the stream. + +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 +_must_ 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 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. + +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 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 _may_ fight if +it please him, and fight, as we have shown, to be beaten; but with the +landlord he _must_ 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 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 _should_ 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. + +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, 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, 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 _may_ 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. + +_January 28, 1846._ + + + + +CONCLUSION OF THE WAR IN AFFGHANISTAN. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +The British have had also their disastrous retreats. + +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. + +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 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, + + 'in that Serbonian bog, + Betwixt Damieta and Mount Cassus old, + With his whole army sank;' + +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. + +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. 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 _liberalism_, it is said, was +of a still more marked and offensive character. What do we infer from +the fact? + +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 _liberalism_ 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.' + +It is satisfactory in every point of view that Britain should be +at peace with China and the Affghans. War is an evil 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. + +_December 3, 1842._ + + + + +PERIODICALISM. + + +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 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 _Essay_ of Locke, the _Peace and War_ of +Grotius, and the _Spirit of Laws_ 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 _Scotland_ or his _Charles V._, nor Adam Smith his _Wealth +of Nations_. 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 _Essay on Miracles_, may repose, and +undeveloped Bentleys and Warburtons, whose great aptitude for +acquiring or capacity for retaining knowledge remained throughout life a +mere ungratified thirst. + +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. 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 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 _litterateur_ 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.' + +There is certainly food for thought here; and that, too, thought of a +kind in which the public has a direct interest. If such be the +dissipating effect of _writing_ for newspapers and the lighter +periodicals, it is surely natural to infer that the exclusive +_reading_ 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 +_litterateurs_ 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.' + +'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 _litterateurs_ 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 men of capacity been chiefly diverted from +the composition of great individual works, and more particularly great +poems.' + +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 _Leeds Times_; 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 _Sheffield Iris_. 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 +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 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:-- + + THE VOICE OF WOE. + + 'The language of passion, and more peculiarly that of grief, + is ever nearly the same.' + + An Indian chief went forth to fight, + And bravely met the foe: + His eye was keen--his step was light-- + His arm was unsurpassed in might; + But on him fell the gloom of night-- + An arrow laid him low. + His widow sang with simple tongue, + When none could hear or see, + _Ay, cheray me!_ + + A Moorish maiden knelt beside + Her dying lover's bed: + She bade him stay to bless his bride; + She called him oft her lord, her pride; + But mortals must their doom abide-- + The warrior's spirit fled. + With simple tongue the sad one sung, + When none could hear or see, + _Ay, di me!_ + + An English matron mourned her son, + The only son she bore: + Afar from her his course was run-- + He perished as the fight was done-- + He perished when the fight was won-- + Upon a foreign shore. + With simple tongue the mother sung, + When none could hear or see, + _Ah, dear me!_ + + A Highland maiden saw + A brother's body borne + From where, from country, king, and law, + He went his gallant sword to draw; + But swept within destruction's maw, + From her had he been torn. + She sat and sung with simple tongue, + When none could hear or see, + _Oh, hon-a-ree!_ + + An infant in untimely hour + Died in a Lowland cot: + The parents own'd the hand of power + That bids the storm be still or lour; + They grieved because the cup was sour, + And yet they murmured not. + They only sung with simple tongue, + When none could hear or see, + _Ah, wae's me!_ + +_July 26, 1851._ + + + + +'ANNUS MIRABILIS.' + + +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. + +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 _Annus_ _Mirabilis_ 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. + +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 moon, and in the stars; and on the earth +distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring.' + +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 _Vision +of Don Roderick_, 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 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! + +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 Saxe-Cobourg-Gotha 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 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. + +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 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 manoeuvre 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 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 blood 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. + +We began with a reference to Dryden's _Year of Wonders:_ 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 +'_Annus Mirabilis_' of the seventeenth century, or the '_Annus +Mirabilis_' of our own, may be encountered with the greatest safety +and the truest dignity. We quote from Bishop Burnet's _Life of Sir +Matthew Hale_:-- + +'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 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!'" + +_December 30, 1848._ + + + + +EFFECTS OF RELIGIOUS DISUNION ON COLONIZATION. + + +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 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. + +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 +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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 +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 the +Assembly desire to countenance and encourage the association in these +respects.' + +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. 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: + + 'My heart has sighed in secret, when I thought + That the dark tide of time might one day close, + England, o'er thee, as long since it has closed + On Egypt and on Tyre,--that ages hence, + From the Pacific's billowy loneliness, + Whose tract thy daring search revealed, some isle + Might rise, in green-haired beauty eminent, + And like a goddess glittering from the deep, + Hereafter sway the sceptre of domain + From pole to pole; and such as now thou art, + Perhaps New Zealand be. For who can say + What the Omnipotent Eternal One, + That made the world, hath purposed?' + +_June 16, 1847._ + + + + +FINE-BODYISM. + + +Of all the dangers to which the Free Church is at present exposed, we +deem the danger of _fine-bodyism_ 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 _isms_--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 +_fine-bodyism_ 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 _fine-bodyism_; 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 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--"_a fine body_"--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 "_a fine +body_;" 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.' + +The Free Church has for ever closed her connection with the Court of +Teinds; but her danger from _fine-bodyism_ 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 _eclat_ of the +Disruption. But our younger men of 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 _fine-bodyism_. 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, 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 _fine bodies_.' 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 _fine body_.' +And what Chalmers demanded of the Court of Teinds, every minister of +the Free Church ought to ask of the Sustentation Fund. + +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 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 _set_ 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.' + +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 _duties_, not of their _rights_. The +Sustentation Fund is not the result of a tax properly so called, but +an accumulation of freewill 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 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. + +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 _fine-bodyism_. Nor do we see why, if 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 _fine-bodyism_, 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 _fine-bodyism_. + +_May 15, 1850._ + + + + +ORGANSHIP. + + +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 _vehicle_ +of the Established Church, the other that it was the Church's _organ_; +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. + +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 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 _House of Lords_ or a +_House of Commons_ 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. + +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 _House of Commons_ should be represented by a +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. + +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 _not_ 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. + +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 _are_ 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 _Witness_ 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 _not_ to be their organ. + +The following passage was written by its present Editor, ere the first +appearance of his paper, and formed a part of its prospectus:--'The +_Witness_,' he said, '_will not espouse the cause of any of the +political parties which now agitate and_ _divide the country_.' +'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 _Witness_; +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. + +He makes tools of bishops, tools of sacraments, tools of Confessions +of Faith, and tools of Churches and church livings. + +We had just seen, previous to the _debut_ of the _Witness_, 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 _Witness_ 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. + +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 _exposed_, 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 +_Witness_ 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 _Betsey_, 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. + +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, scarce one of them has ever yet been so +much as challenged. + +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. + +That the testing circumstance which _did_ occur in the course of the +long period during which it was thus held _in retentis_ was not +communicated to him, or to any other official connected with the +_Witness_, he much regrets, but could not possibly help. + +In the discussion on the Sites Bill of Wednesday last, the Honourable +Fox Maule is made to say, that 'the _Witness_ contained many articles +which had been condemned by the Church.' + +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 _Witness_, through these +her only legitimate organs, she has not 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 _Witness_ +'contained many articles which had done great harm to the Free +Church,' the report may, we think, be quite correct. The _Witness_ +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. + +And these lucubrations accomplished, we daresay, their modicum of +harm. With regard, however, to the articles of the _Witness_ 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 _Witness_ 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. + +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 _nots_. In the _Edinburgh Advertiser_ +of yesterday, for instance, we find the following passage:--'It [_The +Witness_] has menaced our nobles with the horrors of 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.' + +When, asks the reader, did these most atrocious threats appear in the +_Witness_? + +They never, we reply, appeared in the _Witness_ 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 _Holoptychius Nobilissimus_, +which appeared a few years ago in the _Witness_, might be paraded as a +personal attack on Sir James Graham; and the remarks on the +construction of the _Pterichthys_, as a gross libel on the Duke of +Buccleuch. It is, we hold, not a little to the credit of the +_Witness_, 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. + +_June 14, 1848._ + + + + +BAILLIE'S LETTERS AND JOURNALS. + + +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 _Elzevirs_. +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 II., '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 address what we take, from the garb, to be a +contemporary, and find that we have stumbled on one of the seven +sleepers. + +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 _Diary_ after a quarter of a year's +hard conning, he might well consider himself a lucky man. Row's +_History_ would occupy him during at least another quarter; +Baillie's _Letters and Journals_ 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 _History_ 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 +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 _Letters and Journals_, 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. + +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 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. + +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 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 _Letters_ 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. + +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 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 _very worthy, pious, wise, and diligent young +man_, 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. + +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 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 +_Ladensium_; 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. + +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.' + +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 +_leasing-making_, 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 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.' + +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 _exclusively_ +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 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.' + +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 VII. had _forfeited_ the throne, as contrasted with the +singularly inadequate though virtually corresponding declaration of +the English Convention, that James II. 'had _abdicated_ 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 _Vindiciae Gallicae_, 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 VII. _had forfeited the +throne_.' We are of opinion 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 _forfeit_ his throne; an +impeccable one can only _abdicate_ 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? + +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, _De Jure Regni apud +Scotos_, 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 _Lex Rex_ 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 +_Hind let Loose_; 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 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 _Classical +Biography_, 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 _constitutionally_ 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 _could_ 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 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 _he was an absolute monarch, entitled to unreserved +obedience_, AND ACCOUNTABLE TO NONE; 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, _an absolute power, irreconcilable with the_ +RECIPROCAL OBLIGATIONS DUE TO THE PEOPLE.' The doctrines of Buchanan +prevailed; and the estates declared that James VII. having, through +'_the advice of evil and wicked councillors_, invaded the fundamental +constitution of the kingdom, and altered it from a legal limited +monarchy to an arbitrary despotic power,' he had thereby _forfaulted_ +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. + + + + +FIRST PRINCIPLES. + + +There is a passage in the _Life of Sir Matthew Hale_ 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 _Rebellion_ of +the present day. + +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 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 Matthew, who at first +doubted the propriety of taking office under what he deemed a usurped +power. + +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 _de facto_ 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 _right_ 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, 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 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. + +'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. 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 _quoad sacra_ parishes have what has +been termed a _legal_ 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 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 _not_ 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 _quoad sacra_ 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, _bona fide_ pronounced in the interim, should be given +effect to notwithstanding.' + + + + +AN UNSPOKEN SPEECH. + + +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 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 _Essays_, 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.' + +'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 +_sedentary_ and the _laborious_; and they remark, that while in the +_sedentary_, such as the printing, weaving, tailoring, and shoemaking +trades, there are usually a considerable proportion of fluent +speakers, in the _laborious_ trades, on the other hand, such as those +of the mason, ship-carpenter, 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--"_Nil Desperandum_." 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 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, "_Time_ 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 _not_ 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 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 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 +_are_ 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,-- + + "Wearing out time in numbering to and fro, + The studs that thick emboss his iron door; + Then downward and then upwards, then aslant + And then alternate; with a sickly hope + By dint of change to give his tasteless task + Some relish; till, the sum exactly found + In all directions, he begins again." + +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 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 _had_ 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 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 _is_, 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 the +labour by which he lives. Our great poet formed a correcter estimate: + + "What though on hamely fare we dine, + Wear hodden grey, and a' that? + Gie fools their silks, and knaves their wine, + A man's a man for a' that." + +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 _lucky_ 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 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 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: + + "Therefore to go and join head, heart, and hand, + Active and firm to fight the bloodless fight + Of science, freedom, and the truth in Christ." + + + + +DISRUPTION PRINCIPLES. + + +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. + +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 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. + +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 _catch_ 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. + +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, 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. + +But she did not on that account cease to recognise the magistrate in +his own proper walk as the minister of God. + +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. + +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. + +The educational establishment of the country, for instance, was not +abandoned, though the ecclesiastical one was. + +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 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. + +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 +_power_ of making whatever laws they will to make, for not only +themselves, but for the minority also. But _power_ is not _right_; and +we would at once question the _right_ 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 _right_ 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. + +The overt act in the case manifested their _power_, but the various +attempts made to manifest their _right_ we regard as mere abortions. +They had no _right_ 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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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 _anno_ 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 _idolatrous_ 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 _idolaters_, cannot be a +magistrate nor a member of Parliament; he cannot vote in an election, +nor serve in the army. + +It is one of the grand evils of questions of casuistry of this kind, +that men, instead of looking at things and estimating 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. + +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 _personal_ +sense, England's last religious government was that of Cromwell. The +term apostate, or apostatizing, can have only an _official_ 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 _is_ +a _fact_--a _thing_, not a mere _word_. 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 +_fact_--a _thing_, not a mere _word_. + +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. + +And it would be a further fact consequent on the other 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 _not_ 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. + +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? + +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 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 _its_ 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 _it_ 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 _things_ which we have here described, what, we ask, +save the want either of weight or of exertion on the part of the +_represented_ bodies who complain of it, can be properly regarded as the +_cause_ 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 +apostasy--it would be the Presbyterian constituency that would be to +blame, not the Government. + +It will be seen that this view of the real state of _things_ 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 _Sketches of +Scottish Church History_, '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.' + +'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 _his_ +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 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. + +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. + +_February 9, 1848._ + + + + +CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CRIMEAN WAR. + + +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 _materiel_ 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 _materiel_, 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 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 _five_ 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 _three_ thousand men perished in +battle by the shot or steel of the enemy, or afterwards of their +wounds, and rather more than _fifteen_ 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. + +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 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 _should_ 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 _not_ 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, +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. + +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,{1} 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, her +fellow-passengers to the East, whom she had wished to see, a true +'_Montagnarde de Ecossaise_.' 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 _poissarde_ of Boulogne, a British woman who +had little to do at home, 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.' + +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. + + * * * * * + +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:-- + +'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 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? + +'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 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.' + +_June 14, 1856._ + +----- + + {1} _Ismeer, or Smyrna and its British Hospital in 1855._ By a + Lady. London: James Madder, 8, Leadenhall Street. + + + + +THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. + + +It is not uninteresting to mark the rise and progress of certain branches +of poetry and the _belles lettres_ 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 _Old Mortality_, 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 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 the _Seasons_, 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 _Grave_ 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 _Night Thoughts_ of Young. 'Blair's _Grave_,' says +Southey in his _Life of Cowper_, 'is the only poem I can call to mind +which has been composed in imitation of the _Night Thoughts_;' 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 +_Essay on English Poetry_ 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 _Night Thoughts_, 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 _Night Thoughts_ 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 _Grave_. It is a popular poem, not merely +because it is religious, but because its 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 _Grave_, 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 _literati_ +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 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 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. + +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 _Astronomical +Discourses_, 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 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 _old_ Johnson; but it must have been the +experience of _young_ 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:-- + + DISCOVERY OF THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. + + 'Strait of Ill Hope! thy frozen lips at last + Unclose, to teach our seamen how to sift + A passage where blue icebergs clash and drift, + And the shore loosely rattles in the blast. + We hold the secret thou hast clench'd so fast + For ages,--our best blood has earned the gift.-- + Blood spilt, or hoarded up in patient thrift, + Through sunless months in ceaseless peril passed. + But what of daring Franklin? who may know + The pangs that wrung that heart so proud and brave, + In secret wrestling with its deadly woe, + And no kind voice to reach him o'er the wave? + Now he sleeps fast beneath his shroud of snow, + And the cold pole-star only knows his grave. + + 'Alone, on some sharp cliff, I see him strain, + O'er the white waste, his keen, sagacious eye, + Or scan the signs of the snow-muffled sky, + In hope of quick deliverance--but in vain; + Then, faring to his icy tent again, + To cheer his mates with a familiar smile, + And talk of home and kinsfolk to beguile + Slow hours which freeze the blood and numb the brain. + Long let our hero's memory be enshrined + In all true British hearts! He calmly stood + In danger's foremost rank, nor looked behind. + He did his work, not with the fever'd blood + Of battle, but with hard-tried fortitude; + In peril dauntless, and in death resigned. + + 'Despond not, Britain! Should this sacred hold + Of freedom, still inviolate, be assailed, + The high, unblenching spirit which prevailed + In ancient days, is neither dead nor cold. + Men are still in thee of heroic mould-- + Men whom thy grand old sea-kings would have hailed + As worthy peers, invulnerably mailed, + Because by Duty's sternest law controlled. + Thou yet wilt rise and send abroad thy voice + Among the nations battling for the right, + In the unrusted armour of thy youth; + And the oppressed shall hear it and rejoice: + For on thy side is the resistless might + Of Freedom, Justice, and Eternal Truth!' + +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 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:-- + + PORTO SANTO, AS SEEN FROM THE NORTH OF MADEIRA. + + 'Glance northward through the haze, and mark + That shadowy island floating dark + Amidst the seas serene: + It seems some fair enchanted isle, + Like that which saw Miranda's smile + When Ariel sang unseen. + + 'Oh happy, after all their fears, + Were those old Lusian mariners + Who hailed that land the first, + Upon whose seared and aching eyes, + With an enrapturing surprise, + Its bloom of verdure burst. + + 'Their anchor in a creek, shell-paven, + They dropped,--and hence "The Holy Haven" + They named the welcome land: + The breezes strained their masts no more, + And all around the sunny shore + Was summer, laughing bland. + + 'They wandered on through green arcade + Where fruits were hanging in the shades, + And blossoms clustering fair; + Strange gorgeous insects shimmered + And from the brakes sweet minstrelsy + Entranced the woodland air. + + 'Years passed, and to the island came + A mariner of unknown name, + And grave Castilian speech: + The spirit of a great emprise + Aroused him, and with flashing eyes + He paced the pebbled beach. + + 'What time the sun was sinking slow, + And twilight spread a rosy glow + Around its single star, + His eye the western sea's expanse + Would search, creating by its glance + Some cloudy land afar. + + 'He saw it when translucent even + Shed mystic light o'er earth and heaven, + Dim shadowed on the deep; + His fancy tinged each passing cloud + With the fine phantom, and he bowed + Before it in his sleep. + + 'He hears grey-bearded sailors tell + How the discoveries befell + That glorify their time; + "And forth I go, my friends," he cries, + "To a severer enterprise + Than tasked your glorious prime. + + '"Time was when these green isles that stud + The expanse of this familiar flood, + Lived but in fancy fond. + Earth's limits--think you here they are? + Here has the Almighty fixed His bar, + Forbidding glance beyond? + + '"Each shell is murmuring on the shore, + And wild sea-voices evermore + Are sounding in my ear: + I long to meet the eastern gale, + And with a free and stretching sail + Through virgin seas to steer. + + '"Two galleys trim, some comrades stanch, + And I with hopeful heart would launch + Upon this shoreless sea. + Till I have searched it through and through. + And seen some far land looming blue, + My heart will not play free." + + 'Forth fared he through the deep to rove: + For months with angry winds he strove, + And passions fiercer still; + Until he found the long-sought land, + And leaped upon the savage strand + With an exulting thrill. + + 'The tide of life now eddies strong + Through that broad wilderness, where long + The eagle fearless flew; + Where forests waved, fair cities rise, + And science, art, and enterprise + Their restless aim pursue. + + 'There dwells a people, at whose birth + The shout of Freedom shook the earth, + Whose frame through all the lands + Has travelled, and before whose eyes, + Bright with their glorious destinies, + A proud career expands. + + 'I see their life by passion wrought + To intense endeavour, and my thought + Stoops backwards in its reach + To him who, in that early time, + Resolved his enterprise sublime + On Porto Santo's beach. + + 'Methinks that solitary soul + Held in its ark this radiant roll + Of human hopes upfurled,-- + That there in germ this vigorous life + Was sheathed, which now in earnest strife + Is working through the world. + + 'Still on our way, with careworn face, + Abstracted eye, and sauntering pace, + May pass one such as he, + Whose mind heaves with a secret force, + That shall be felt along the course + Of far Futurity. + + 'Call him not fanatic or fool, + Thou Stoic of the modern school; + Columbus-like, his aim + Points forward with a true presage, + And nations of a later age + May rise to bless his name.' + +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:-- + + 'Below me spread a wide and lonely beach, + The ripple washing higher on the sands: + A river that has come from far-off lands + Is coiled behind in many a shining reach; + But now it widens, and its banks are bare-- + It settles as it nears the moaning sea; + An inward eddy checks the current free, + And breathes a briny dampness through the air: + Beyond, the waves' low vapours through the skies + Were trailing, like a battle's broken rear; + But smitten by pursuing winds, they rise, + And the blue slopes of a far coast appear, + With shadowy peaks on which the sunlight lies, + Uplifted in aerial distance clear. + +_November 8, 1854._ + + + + +THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA. + + +After the labour of years, the seventh edition of the _Encyclopaedia +Britannica_ 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. + +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, rejoicing in the light. The +_terra incognita_ of future discovery lies enveloped in cloud on the +other--an untried region of fogs and darkness. + +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 +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. + +Even the _Encyclopaedia_ 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. + +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 _Encyclopaedia_, 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 +_Chemistry_ among the number, quite bulky enough of itself to fill a +small volume. There was a sensibly written treatise on _Law_, too; a +treatise on _Anatomy_ not quite unworthy of the Edinburgh school; a +treatise on _Botany_, of which at this distance of time we remember +little else than that it rejected the sexual system of Linnaeus, then +newly promulgated; a treatise on _Architecture_, 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 _Fortification_, that at least taught us +how to make model forts in sand; treatises on _Arithmetic_, +_Astronomy_, _Bookkeeping_, _Grammar_, _Language_, _Theology_, +_Metaphysics_, 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. + +This Dictionary of the three quarto volumes was the first edition of +the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_,--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 _Wealth of Nations_ or Robertson his _History of America_ to +the public, and ere the names of Burns or Cowper had any place in +BRITISH LITERATURE. + +The world has grown greatly in knowledge since that period, and the +_Encyclopaedia Britannica_ has done much 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 _locomotive_ 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. + +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; 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 _Encyclopaedia Britannica_ to every other edition, and every +other Encyclopaedia. + +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. + +In France the first intellects of the country were engaged on their +National Encyclopaedia, 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 +encyclopaediacal character. The authors of the first edition of the +_Encyclopaedia Britannica_ 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, whose philosophical essays one sometimes meets +with on our bookstalls. + +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. + +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 _Anti-Jacobin_; 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. + +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 _Edinburgh_; and +Lockhart and Wilson are most felt in the world of letters in their +connection with _Blackwood_ and the _Quarterly_. And this change +affected more than the periodicals. Its influence extended to works of +the encyclopaediacal character. The two great Encyclopaedias of +Edinburgh--that 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 encyclopaediacal field between the +labours of mere compilers and the achievements of original authorship; +and the peculiarity of plan in the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_, 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. + +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. + +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 +_forte_. 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 _Encyclopaedia_, 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 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. + +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. + +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 _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_.' 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 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 +_Peter's Letters_ 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 Encyclopaedia. + +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 _this_ 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. + +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? + +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 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 _Encyclopaedia Britannica_ 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 _one_ theologian of +Scotland. + +We mark, besides, a few faults, of _commission_ 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 _Encyclopaedia_ that it +belongs to the age of Catholic Emancipation,--an age in which the +_true_ in science was deemed a very great matter by men to whom the +_true_ 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. + +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. + +_April 30, 1842._ + + + + +A VISION OF THE RAILROAD. + + + [_Private._] ----, ISLE OF SKYE. + +.... 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. + +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, 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. + +'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 +_fey_.' + +'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.' + +'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 _fey_.' + +'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 _may_ 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 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 _must_ keep its Sabbaths.' + +'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 +_must_ 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?' + +'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. + +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 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 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. + +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, 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +'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.' + +'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'-- + +'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 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.' + +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. + + + + +THE TWO MR. CLARKS. + + +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 _Comedy of Errors_; 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 1840, and the Dialogues by the Rev. Alexander +Clark of Inverness in 1843. + +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 _Rights of +Members of the Church of Scotland_, and a complete collection of his +anti-patronage speeches for a series of years, as recorded in _The +Church Patronage Reporter_, 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 +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 +_Rights of Members_, for instance, we found in one page that 'the gross +errors of Romanism had risen _in successive tides_, until the _light of +truth suffered a fearful eclipse_ 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 +_multifarious hosts for the battle_, hoping, _amidst the waves_ of +popular commotion, 'to _blot out the name_ 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 _Winter's Tale_, 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. + +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 +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 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. + +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 entranced, under the influences 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. + +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 +_dramatis personae_ 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 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 _Io Paeans_ 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 _eau +de Cologne_. '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 _Rights of Members_, 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!' + +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. 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 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 +_had_ 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 '_squeezable_' character of their +representative for the Assembly. + +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, 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 _eventually repaid_,--that is, if my people don't leave me; _but I +have no other security beyond my confidence in the goodness of the +cause, and the continued liberality of my countrymen_.' 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. + +The haunted Tomnahurich rose, as we have said, immediately behind us, +leafy and green; and not one of its 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 +_debris_ 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 +_Rights of Members_, 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! +_Conjuro te, conjuro te!_' 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----' _Dialogue 1st_, +p. 6. + +'And so you won't go out,' said the true Mr. Clark, interrupting him. + +'No, sir,' replied the conjurer. 'I have maturely considered the +proposed secession from the Established Church, 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.'--_Dialogue 1st_, p. 4. + +'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!'--_Sermon_, p. 40. + +'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.'--_Dialogue 1st_, p. 12. + +'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.'--_Sermon_, pp. 59-63. + +'I won't go out,' reiterated the conjurer. + +'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 +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.'"--_Sermon_, p. 28. + +'I deny entirely and _in toto_,' said the conjurer, 'that the present +controversy involves the doctrine of the Headship.'--_See 2d +Dialogue_. + +'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?'--_Sermon_, p. 45. + +'The claim,' said the conjurer, 'is essentially Papal.'--_Dialogue +2d_, p. 6. + +'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.'--_Sermon_, p. 45. + +'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.'--_Dialogue 2d_, p. 7. + +'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?'--_Sermon_, p. 37. +_See also_ p. 31. + +'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.'--_Dialogue 1st_, p. +15. + +'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.'--_Sermon_, pp. 37-39. + +'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.'--_Dialogue 1st_, pp. 14 and 16. + +'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.'--_Sermon_, p. 32. + +'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.'--_Dialogue 1st_, p. 12. + +'Degradation!' indignantly exclaimed the true Mr. Clark; 'did the +Church, in consequence of the findings of the 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.'--_Sermon_, p. 21. + +'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.'--_Dialogue 1st_, p. 12. + +'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.'--_Sermon_, p. 30. + +'To be above the law,' reiterated the conjurer, 'no Church in this +country can be.'--_Dialogue 1st_, p. 16. + +'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.'--_Sermon_, p. 22. + +'Sad case that of Strathbogie!' ejaculated the conjurer. + +'Very sad,' replied the true Mr. Clark. 'What is your version of it?' + +'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.'--_Dialogue 1st_, p. 10. + +'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 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.'--_Sermon_, p. 26. + +'After all,' said the conjurer, with a sigh, 'the agitated question is +but of inferior moment.'--_Dialogue 1st_, p. 3. + +'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.'--_Sermon_, pp. 7 and 59. + +'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.'--_Dialogue 1st_, p. 9. + +'What mean you by the _Church_?' asked the true Mr. Clark. 'The +Church and the establishment of it are surely very different things. +Men have talked of themselves as 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.'--_Sermon_, p. 42. + +'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.'--_Dialogue 1st_, p. 16. + +'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.'--_Sermon_, p. 42. + +'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.'--_Dialogue 1st_, p. 3. + +'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.'--_Sermon_, p. 59. + +'The men who thus sow disunion,' said the conjurer, '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.'--_Dialogue 1st_, p. 4. + +'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.'--_Sermon_, p. 60. + +'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.'--_Dialogue 1st_, p. 3. + +'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 _Present Position_, preached in +Inverness on the evening of the 19th January 1840.' + +'I suppose you have heard it said, that I changed my views from the +fear of worldly loss,' said the conjurer.--_Dialogue 1st_, p. 4. + +'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.' + +'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 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.'--_Dialogue 1st_, p. 5. + +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.' + +'Printed!' said the conjurer; 'I have already printed it in English, +and Mr. M'Donald the schoolmaster is translating it into Gaelic.' + +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 _Sermon_, and +the Rev. Mr. Clark's _Dialogues_. 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?' + +_April 12, 1843._ + + + + +PULPIT DUTIES NOT SECONDARY. + + +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. + +An evangelistic Church cannot fall into the one error without +losing its influential voice _as_ 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; 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, +Antaeus-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. + +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 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. + +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 +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 '_especially_' 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 _untruth_, we think all who hold it +would do well to inquire how they have come by it. + +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 _vis inertiae_ of +society, and induce in the particular case the required amount of +exertion, the stream of the moving power has--if we may so 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 _fall_ 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, 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. + +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. 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 _Sermon on +the Cross_ cost him little trouble? or the not less noble sermon of +Sir Matthew Hale, on _Christ and Him crucified_? 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. + +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. + +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. + +We ask the reader whether he has not marked, within the last few +years, the _debut_ of another and more formidable antagonist, with +which all Christian Churches may be soon called on to grapple? + +Our newly-instituted athenaeums 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. + +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 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. + +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 +_tete-a-tete_ to the Ethiopian eunuch, for the Ethiopian eunuch never +came to church. + +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 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. + +_May 3, 1848._ + + + + +DUGALD STEWART. + + +It is now more than forty years since it was remarked by Jeffrey, in +his _Review_, 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 _elite_ 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 +_Philosophy of the Human Mind_ 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 _Essay_ 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 +_Lectures_ of Dr. Brown passed through exactly seven editions in +_twelve_ 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 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 _Guardian_, 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 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. + +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 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 _naivete_, '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 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 +_literati_ 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. + +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 _observe_ as a mental philosopher, +and to _experiment_ 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 _indirect_ 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 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 _Essay on the +Human Understanding_ was the author also of the _Treatise on +Government_ and the _Letters on Toleration_. Hume, in those _Essays on +Trade and Politics_, which are free from the stain of infidelity, +was one of the most solid of thinkers; and he who produced the _Theory +of Moral Sentiments_ continues to give law at the present time, in his +_Wealth of Nations_, 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 _Toleration_ or on _Government_, or their essays like that of +Hume or of Adam Smith on the _Balance of Power_ or the _Wealth of +Nations_? Are they doing other, to use a very old illustration, than +merely milking rams, leaving their admirers and followers to hold +the pail? + +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 _beau ideal_ 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 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 +_Dissertations_, 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.' + +_August 26, 1854._ + + + + +OUR TOWN COUNCILS. + + +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 _do_ 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. + +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 _Essay on Kings_, has quaintly, but, we are afraid, all too +justly remarked, that '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: + + 'We boast some rich ones whom the gospel sways, + And one who wears a coronet, and prays: + Like gleanings of an olive tree, they show + Here and there one upon the topmost bough.' + +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. + +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. + +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 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,-- + + 'The wits of Charles found easier ways to fame.' + +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. + +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 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 _Gazette_; 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. + +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 +_regime_, for the space of three whole years in a parliamentary burgh +that contained 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. + +It was generally held, that if there was nothing to do we would _do_ +nothing, and if nothing to say we would _say_ 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 _eclat_, 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. + +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 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? + +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 '_executing_ 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 _execution_ hung, through his famous oath 'By Jupiter?' + +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 XIV., 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.'" + +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 +_tail_ of the country's representation no more really represents it in +several very important respects than its parliamentary _head_. 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. + +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, +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. + +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. + +But it is a significant fact, that in the knot of five the ex-councillors +of the movement party were included; and that had _they_ 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. + +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? + +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 _their_ feelings and opinions on the two +leading questions of the day. But enough for the present--'a word to +the wise.' + +_January 20, 1847._ + + + + +SUTHERLAND AS IT WAS AND IS;{1} + +OR, +HOW A COUNTRY MAY BE RUINED. + +CHAPTER I. + + +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 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. + +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 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. + +Under the old Celtic tenures--the only tenures, be it remembered, +through which the lords of Sutherland derive their rights to their +lands--the _Klaan_, 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 _tacks_ 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,' 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 _improvements_, 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.' + +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 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 _improved_ 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 his own. If our British laws, unlike +those of Switzerland, failed miserably in _her_ 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. + +We find a similar case thus strongly stated by Cobbett in his +_Northern Tour_, 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 +_clearing_ 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 COMPENSATION 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 _paupers_, 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.'" + +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. + +----- + + {1} 'I will go and inquire upon the spot whether the natives of + the county of SUTHERLAND 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 "CLEARING" 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 CLEARING.'--COBBETT. + + '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.'--GENERAL STEWART of Garth. + + 'It is by a cruel abuse of legal forms--it is by an unjust + usurpation--that the _tacksman_ 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.'--SISMONDI. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +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. + +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 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.' + +Nine-tenths of the poor people of Sutherland are adherents 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 +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. + +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 _quoad sacra_ 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 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. + +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 +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 +_invites_ 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 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. + +'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.' + +'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 mindful of +themselves--improving their mind and their personal appearance--did +such of them as had relations in Sutherland forget their destitute +condition, _occasioned by the loss of their lands_, and the operation +of the _improved state of the country_. During the short period that +the regiment was quartered at Plymouth, upwards of L500 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 L20 from an individual soldier.' + +'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, "_as examples of that nature +were not necessary for such honourable soldiers_." 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.' + +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 _Christian +Herald_ of October 1814:-- + +'When the 93d Sutherland Highlanders left Cape Town 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 (L1400 +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.' + +One other extract of a similar kind: we quote from a letter to the +Committee of the Edinburgh Gaelic School Society, Fourth Annual +Report:-- + +'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.' + +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 _it_ 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. + +'Men like these,' he says, referring to the Sutherland 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.'" + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +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.' + +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 _not_ 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. +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. + +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 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 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. + +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 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 _Sutherlandshire +Gaelic_. His family understood it better, in consequence, than any +other; and so he continued to translate from his English Bible, _ad +aperturam libri_, 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 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. + +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 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. + +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 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 _cupples_ 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. + +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 _less_ than +sixpence a-day, replied, that it would be a much easier matter for him +to point out how many of them realized _more_ 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 _can_ be moderate--to a condition in which they but barely avoid +famine, when matters are at the best with them, and fall 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. + +But we have not yet said how this ruinous revolution was effected in +Sutherland,--how the aggravations of the _mode_, 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. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +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 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. + +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 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! + +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 respective inhabitants would be of but little value. +Sutherland, as a country of _men_, 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 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, _as they were mere Celts_, 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. + +And, pray, what objections can be urged against so liberal and +large-minded a scheme? The poor inhabitants of the interior had _very_ +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 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. + +The reader must keep in view, therefore, that if atrocities +unexampled in Britain for at least a century were perpetrated in the +_clearing_ 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 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 _Westminster Review_, 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. + +Their acquittal was followed by scenes of a similar 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 _clearing_ +of Sutherland,--Donald M'Leod, a native of the county, and himself a +sufferer in the experimental process to which it was subjected:-- + +'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 was enabled to reach a landing-place by +the light of the flames.' + +But, to employ the language of Southey, + + 'Things such as these, we know, must be + At every famous victory.' + +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 _dogs_. 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, "_sgeul bronach, sgeul bronach!_ 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.'" + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +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. + +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 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 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. + +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 _not_ successful, the +_take_ 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 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. + +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 _clearing_ 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 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: + +'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.' + +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 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 _improvement_ +alone. + +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 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? + +The sufferings of the people of Sutherland during the first of these +years of destitution (1836), we find strikingly described by M'Leod: + +'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.' + +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 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. + +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 _removal_; 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: + +'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 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.' + +We add another extract from the same writer: + +'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 +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.' + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +We have exhibited to our readers, in the _clearing_ 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. + +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 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 _made_: 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 _discharging_ as certainly as an _injecting_ +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 _could_ 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 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! + +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 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? + +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 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 +_expense_ of its erection. We have even heard that the portion of the +building previously erected had to be pulled down, and the stones +returned. + +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 _clearing_ of the sea-coast may seem as little prejudicial to his +Grace's welfare now, as the _clearing_ 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 _clearing_ of the +coast as the better and more important _clearing_ 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. + +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 _tent_ into this wound, and so keep it open. It has been +said that the Gaelic language removes a district more effectually +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 _translate_ 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. + +After what manner may his Grace the Duke of Sutherland be most +effectually met in this matter, so that the 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 _Alarm_, +Boston's _Fourfold State_, Doddridge's _Rise and Progress_, Baxter's +_Call_, Guthrie's _Saving Interest_. 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. 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. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +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. + +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 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 +agreeably 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 _right_ NOT 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. + +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, 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 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. + +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 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. + +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 _close_ 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 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 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 _Witness_,--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. + +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 _Clearing_ of Sutherland,' +we see the 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 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. + + + + +THE END. + +MURRAY AND GIBB, EDINBURGH, +PRINTERS TO HER MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE. + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + + Typographical problems have been changed and are listed below. + Author's archaic and variable spelling is preserved. + Author's punctuation style is preserved. + Passages in italics indicated by _underscores_. + +Transcriber Changes: + + (Signed) 'THOMAS CHALMERS.'{** ADDED EXTRA CLOSING SINGLE-QUOTE} + + schools of the place: the committee, through their chairman{** Was + 'chair man' over line}, + + Saxe-Cobourg-Gotha{** Was 'Saxe-Cobourg Gotha'} grants to his + subjects a representative + + old Babylonish beast, horrid with the blood{** Was 'bood'} of + saints, + + They dropped,--and hence "The Holy Haven"{** Added closing + double-quote} + + entranced, under the influences{** Was 'inflences'} of fairy-land, + in some + + God agreeably{** Was 'agreebly'} to the dictates of our + conscience. 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