,transcriber's ,note3 ,all square brackets are from the original text4 ,braces 7curly brackets7 are supplied by the transcriber4 ,a caret character '' indicates the following letters are superscript in the original4 ,more transcriber's notes are provided at the end of the text4 ,,leading ,,articles ,,on ,,various ,,subjects4 ,illustration3 ,w4 ,h4 ,mc,farlane1 ,lithr ,edinr ,,hugh ,,miller ,fac-simile of a ,calotype by ,d4 ,o4 ,hill1 ,r4 ,i4 ,a4 #ahde4 see page #ahd ,,murray ,,and ,,gibb1 ,,edinburgh1 ,,printers ,,to ,,her ,,majesty',s ,,stationery ,,office4 ,,leading ,,articles ,,on ,,various ,,subjects4 ,,by ,,hugh ,,miller1 ,,author ,,of ',,the ,,old ,,red ,,sandstone1' ,,etc4 ,,etc4 ,,edited ,,by ,,his ,,son-,,in-,,law1 ,,the ,,rev4 ,,john ,,davidson4 ,,fourth ,,edition4 ,,edinburgh3 ,,william ,p4 ,,nimmo4 #ahgb4 ,,preface4 ,the present volume is issued in compliance with the strong solicitations of many1 to whose desire deference was due4 ,in selecting the articles1 ,i have been guided mainly by two considerations1--namely1 the necessity for reproducing the mature opinion of a great mind1 upon great subjects2 and for making the selection so varied1 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 discrimination4 ,i trust that the chapters on ,education will prove to be a valuable contribution to the speedy settlement of that question at the present crisis4 ,those on ,sutherlandshire are inserted because they possess a permanent value1 in connection with the social and economical history of our country4 ,some of the articles are of a personal character1 and are introduced1 not1 certainly1 for the purpose of recalling old animosities1 but solely to illustrate the author's method of using some of the more formidable figures of speech2 while over against these may be set some on purely literary subjects1 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 imagination1 their labour1 and their leisure4 ,i have not determined the selection without securing the counsel and approval of men on whose judgment ,i could rely4 ,it only remains for me to thank them1 and in an especial way to thank ,mr4 ,d4 ,o4 ,hill for the portrait which forms the frontispiece4 ,an impersonal reference to a similar portrait taken at the same time will be found at page #ahd1 in the article on ',the ,calotype4' ,,john ,,davidson4 ,london1 ,march #h1 #ahgj4 ,,contents ,,page ,,thoughts ,,on ,,the ,,educational ,,question1 #a ,,lord ,,brougham1 #aje ,,the ,,scott ,,monument1 #aaa ,,the ,,late ,,mr4 ,,kemp1 #aai ,,annie ,m',,donald ,,and ,,the ,,fifeshire ,,forester1 #abc ,a ,,highland ,,clearing1 #acf ,,the ,,poet ,,montgomery1 #adf ,,criticism--,,internal ,,evidence1 #aea ,,the ,,sanctities ,,of ,,matter1 #afa ,,the ,,late ,,rev4 ,,alexander ,,stewart1 #agj ,,the ,,calotype1 #agi ,,the ,,tenant',s ,,true ,,quarrel1 #aij ,,conclusion ,,of ,,the ,,war ,,in ,,affghanistan1 #aii ,,periodicalism1 #bjf ',,annus ,,mirabilis1' #bae ,,effects ,,of ,,religious ,,disunion ,,on ,,colonization1 #bbc ,,fine-,,bodyism1 #bcb ,,organship1 #bdj ,,baillie',s ,,letters ,,and ,,journals1 #bdi ,,first ,,principles1 #bfb ,,an ,,unspoken ,,speech1 #bfi ,,disruption ,,principles1 #bhj ,,characteristics ,,of ,,the ,,crimean ,,war1 #bic ,,the ,,poets ,,of ,,the ,,church1 #cjb ,,the ,,encyclop,,dia ,,britannica1 #cae ,a ,,vision ,,of ,,the ,,railroad1 #cbg ,,the ,,two ,,mr4 ,,clarks1 #ccg ,,pulpit ,,duties ,,not ,,secondary1 #ceh ,,dugald ,,stewart1 #cfi ,,our ,,town ,,councils1 #cgh ,,sutherland ,,as ,,it ,,was ,,and ,,is2 ,,or1 ,,how ,a ,,country ,,may ,,be ,,ruined1 #chh ,,introductory ,,note ,,to ,,thoughts ,,on ,,the ,,educational ,,question4 ,the following chapters on the ,educational ,question first appeared as a series of articles in the ,witness newspaper4 ,they present1 in consequence1 a certain amount of digression1 and occasional re-statement and explanation1 which1 had they been published simultaneously1 as parts of a whole1 they would not have exhibited4 ,the controversy was vital and active at every stage of their appearance4 ,statements made and principles laid down in the earlier articles had1 from the circumstance that their truth had been questioned or their soundness challenged1 to be re-asserted and maintained in those which followed2 and hence some little derangement in the management of the question1 for which1 however1 the interest which must always attach to a real conflict may be found to compensate4 ,that portion of the controversy1 however1 which arose out of one of the articles of the series1 and which some have deemed personal1 has been struck out of the published edition of the pamphlet1 and retained in but an inconsiderable number of copies1 placed in the hands of a few friends4 ,in omitting it where it has been omitted1 the writer has acted on the advice of a gentleman for whose judgment he entertains the most thorough respect1 and from a desire that the general argument should not be prejudiced by a matter naturally1 but not necessarily1 connected with it4 ,and in retaining it where it has been retained1 he has done so in the full expectation of a time not very distant1 when it will be decided that he has neither outraged the ordinary courtesies of controversy1 nor taken up a false line of inference or statement2 and when the importance of the subject discussed will be regarded as quite considerable enough to make any one earnest1 without the necessity of supposing that he had been previously angry4 ,it is all-important1 that on the general question of ,national ,education1 the ,free ,church should take up her position wisely4 ,majorities in her courts1 however overwhelming1 will little avail her1 if their findings fail to recommend themselves to the good sense of her people1 or are palpably unsuited to the emergencies of the time4 ,a powerful writer of the present age employs1 in one of his illustrations1 the bold figure of a ship's crew1 that1 with the difficulties of ,cape ,horn full before them1 content themselves with instituting aboard their vessel a constitutional system of voting1 and who find delight in contemplating the unanimity which prevails on matters in general1 both above decks and below4 ',but your ship1' says ,carlyle1 'cannot double ,cape ,horn by its excellent plans of voting3 the ship1 to get round ,cape ,horn1 will find a set of conditions already voted for1 and fixed with adamantine rigour1 by the ancient ,elemental ,powers1 who are entirely careless how you vote4 ,if you can by voting1 or without voting1 ascertain these conditions1 and valiantly conform to them1 you will get round the ,cape3 if you cannot1 the ruffian ,winds will blow you ever back again2 the inexorable ,icebergs1 dumb privy councillors from ,chaos1 will nudge you with most chaotic admonition2 you will be flung half-frozen on the ,patagonian cliffs1 or jostled into shivers by your iceberg councillors1 and will never get round ,cape ,horn at all4' ,now there is much meaning couched in this quaint figure1 and meaning which the ,free ,church would do well to ponder4 ,there are many questions on which she could perhaps secure a majority1 which yet that majority would utterly fail to carry4 ,on the question of ,college ,extension1 for instance1 she might be able to vote1 if she but selected her elders with some little care1 that there should be full staffs of theological professors at ,glasgow and ,aberdeen4 ,but what would her votes succeed in achieving8 ,not1 assuredly1 the doubling of the ,cape2 but the certainty of shivering her all-important ,educational ,institute on three inexorable icebergs4 ,in the first place1 her magnificent metropolitan ,college1 like that huge long boat1 famous in story1 which ,robinson ,crusoe was able to build1 but wholly unable to launch1 would change from being what it now is--a trophy of her liberality and wisdom--into a magnificent monument of her folly4 ,in the second place1 she would have to break faith with her existing professors1 and to argue1 mayhap1 when they were becoming thin and seedy1 and getting into debt1 that she was not morally bound to them for their salaries4 ,and1 in the third and last place1 she would infallibly secure that1 some twenty years hence at furthest1 every theological professor of the ,free ,church should be a pluralist1 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 flock4 ,and such1 in doubling the ,cape ,horn of the ,college question1 is all that unanimity of voting could secure to the ,church2 unless1 indeed1 according to ,carlyle1 she voted in accordance with the 'set of conditions already voted for and fixed by the adamantine powers4' ,nor does the question of ,denominational ,education1 now that there is a national scheme in the field1 furnish a more1 but1 on the contrary1 a much less1 hopeful subject for mere voting in our church courts1 than the question of ,college ,extension4 ,it is not to be carried by ecclesiastical majorities4 ,some of the most important facts in the ',ten ,years' ,conflict' have perhaps still to be recorded2 and it is one of these1 that long after the ,non-,intrusion party possessed majorities in the ,general ,assembly1 the laity looked on with exceedingly little interest1 much possessed by the suspicion that the clergy were battling1 not on the popular behalf1 but on their own4 ,even in #ahci1 after the ,auchterarder case had been decided in the ,house of ,lords1 the apathy seemed little disturbed2 and the writer of these chapters1 when engaged in doing his little all to dissipate it1 could address a friend in ,edinburgh1 to whom he forwarded the ,,ms4 of a pamphlet thrown into the form of a letter to ,lord ,brougham1 in the following terms3--',the question which at present agitates the ,church is a vital one2 and unless the people can be roused to take part in it 7and they seem strangely uninformed and wofully indifferent as yet71 the worst cause must inevitably prevail4 ,they may perhaps listen to one of their own body1 who combines the principles of the old with the opinions of the modern ,whig1 and who1 though he feels strongly on the question1 has no secular interest involved in it4' ,it was about this time that ,dr4 ,george ,cook said--and1 we have no doubt1 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-,intrusionists1 and the worse than madness of the church courts4 ,for the opponents of the party were all active and awake at the time1 and its incipient friends still indifferent or mistrustful4 ,the history of ,church petitions in ,edinburgh during the ten eventful years of the war brings out this fact very significantly in the statistical form4 ,from #ahcc1 the year of the ,veto ,act1 to #ahci1 the year of the ,auchterarder decision1 petitions to ,parliament from ,edinburgh on behalf of the struggling ,church were usually signed by not more than from four to five thousand persons4 ,in #ahci the number rose to six thousand4 ,the people began gradually to awaken1 and to trust4 ,speeches in church courts were found to have comparatively little influence in creating opinion1 or ecclesiastical votes in securing confidence2 and so there were other means of appealing to the public mind resorted to1 mayhap not wholly without effect3 for in #ahdj the annual ,church petition from ,edinburgh bore attached to it thirteen thousand signatures2 and to that of the following year 7#ahda7 the very extraordinary number of twenty-five thousand was appended4 ,and1 save for the result1 general over ,scotland1 which we find thus indicated by the ,church petitions of ,edinburgh1 the ,disruption1 and especially the origination of a ,free ,church1 would have been impossible events4 ,how1 we ask1 was that result produced8 ,not1 certainly1 by the votes of ecclesiastical courts1--for mere votes would never have doubled the ,cape ,horn of the ,church question2 but simply through the conviction at length effectually wrought in the public mind1 that our ministers were struggling and suffering1 not for clerical privileges1 but for popular rights1--not for themselves1 but for others4 ,and that conviction once firmly entertained1 the movement waxed formidable2 for elsewhere1 as in the metropolis1 popular support increased at least fivefold2 and the question1 previously narrow of base1 and very much restricted to one order of men1 became broad as the ,scottish nation1 and deep as the feelings of the ,scottish people4 ,but as certainly as the component strands of a cable that have been twisted into strength and coherency by one series of workings1 may be untwisted into loose and feeble threads by another1 so certainly may the majorities of our church courts1 by a reversal of the charm which won for them the element of popular strength1 render themselves of small account in the nation4 ,they became strong by advocating1 in the ,patronage question1 popular rights1 in opposition to clerical interests3 they may and will become weak1 if in the ,educational one they reverse the process1 and advocate clerical interests in opposition to popular rights4 ,their country is perishing for lack of a knowledge which they cannot supply4 ,every seven years--the brief term during which1 if a generation fail to be educated1 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 untaught1 uninformed condition4 ,nor need we say in how frightful a ratio their numbers must increase4 ,the ignorant children of the present will become the improvident and careless parents of the future2 and how improvident and careless the corresponding class which already exists among us always approves itself to be1 let our prisons and workhouses tell4 ,our country1 with all its churches1 must inevitably founder among the nations1 like a water-logged vessel in a tempest1 if this state of matters be permitted to continue4 ,and why permit it to continue8 ,be it remembered that it is the national schools--those schools which are the people's own1 and are yet withheld from them--and not the schools of the ,free ,church1 which it is the object of the ,educational movement to open up and extend4 ,nor is it proposed to open them up on a new principle4 ,it is an unchallenged fact1 that there exists no statutory provision for the teaching of religion in them4 ,all that is really wanted is1 to transfer them on their present statutory basis from the few to the many1--from ,moderate ministers and ,episcopalian heritors1 to a people essentially sound in the faith--,presbyterian in the proportion of at least six to one1 and ,evangelical in the proportion of at least two to one4 ,and at no distant day this transference must and will take place1 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 ,god4#a ,there is another important item in this question1 over which1 as already determined by inevitable laws1 ecclesiastical votes1 however unanimous1 can exert no influence or control4 ,they cannot ordain that inadequately paid schoolmasters can be other than inferior educators4 ,if the remuneration be low1 it is impossible by any mere force of majorities to render the teaching high4 ,there is a law already 'voted for' in the case1 which majorities can no more repeal than they can the law of gravitation4 ,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 is4 ,certainly not indifferent to their comfort as men1 or to the welfare of their profession1 as one of the most important and yet worst remunerated in the community1 we frankly confess that we look to something greatly higher than either their comfort or the professional welfare in general4 ,they and their profession are but means2 and it is to the end that we mainly look1--that end being the right education of the ,scottish people1 and their consequent elevation in the scale1 moral and intellectual4 ,we would deal by the teachers of the country in this matter as we would by the stone-cutters of ,edinburgh1 were we entrusted with the erection of some such exquisite piece of masonry as the ,scott ,monument1 or that fine building recently completed in ,st4 ,andrew ,square4 ,instead of pitching our scale of remuneration at the rate of labourers' wages1 we would at once pitch it at the highest rate assigned to the skilled mechanic2 and this not in order1 primarily at least1 that the masons engaged should be comfortable1 but in order that they should be masters of their profession1 and that their work should be of the completest and most finished kind4 ,for labourers' wages would secure the services of only bungling workmen1 and lead to the production of only inferior masonry4 ,and such is the principle on which we would befriend our poor schoolmasters1--not so much for their own sakes1 as for the sake of their work4 ,further1 however1 it is surely of importance that1 when engaged in teaching religion1 they themselves should be enabled1 in conformity with one of its injunctions1 to 'provide things honest in the sight of all men4' ,nay1 of nothing are we more certain1 than that the ,church has only to exert herself to the extent of the liabilities already incurred to her teachers1 in order to be convinced of the absolute necessity which exists for a broad national scheme4 ,any doubts which she may at present entertain regarding the question of the necessity1 are1 in part at least1 effects of her lax views respecting the question of the liability1 and of her consequent belief that anything well divided is sufficient to discharge it4 ,at the same time1 however1 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 peculiar2 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 country1 their opposition1 though utterly uninfluential in the general struggle1 may prove thoroughly effectual in injuring themselves4 ,for virtually in the ,free ,church1 as in the ,british ,constitution1 it is the ',commons' who grant the supplies4 ,we subjoin the paper on the ,educational ,question1 addressed by ,dr4 ,chalmers to the ,hon4 ,mr4 ,fox ,maule1 as it first appeared in the ,witness4 ,the reader will see that there is direct reference made to it in the following pages1 and will find it better suited to repay careful study and frequent perusal than perhaps any other document on the subject ever written3-- ',it were the best state of things1 that we had a ,parliament sufficiently theological to discriminate between the right and the wrong in religion1 and to encourage or endow accordingly4 ,but failing this1 it seems to us the next best thing1 that in any public measure for helping on the education of the people1 ,government were to abstain from introducing the element of religion at all into their part of the scheme2 and this not because they held the matter to be insignificant1--the contrary might be strongly expressed in the preamble of their ,act1--but on the ground that1 in the present divided state of the ,christian world1 they would take no cognizance of1 just because they would attempt no control over1 the religion of applicants for aid1--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 assist4 ,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 education4 ',the confinement for the time being of any ,government measure for schools to this object we hold to be an imputation1 not so much on the present state of our ,legislature1 as on the present state of the ,christian world1 now broken up into sects and parties innumerable1 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 true1 as might at once determine them to fix upon and to espouse it4 ',it is this which has encompassed the ,government with difficulties1 from which we can see no other method of extrication than the one which we have ventured to suggest4 ,and as there seems no reason why1 because of these unresolved differences1 a public measure for the health of all--for the recreation of all--for the economic advancement of all--should be held in abeyance1 there seems as little reason why1 because of these differences1 a public measure for raising the general intelligence of all should be held in abeyance4 ,let the men therefore of all ,churches and all denominations alike hail such a measure1 whether as carried into effect by a good education in letters or in any of the sciences2 and1 meanwhile1 in these very seminaries let that education in religion which the ,legislature abstains from providing for1 be provided for as freely and as amply as they will by those who have undertaken the charge of them4 ',we should hope1 as the result of such a scheme1 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 population1 well taught in the principles and doctrines of the gospel1 along with being well taught in the lessons of ordinary scholarship4 ,although no attempt should be made to regulate or to enforce the lessons of religion in the inner hall of legislation1 this will not prevent1 but rather stimulate1 to a greater earnestness in the contest between truth and falsehood--between light and darkness--in the outer field of society2 nor will the result of such a contest in favour of what is right and good be at all the more unlikely1 that the families of the land have been raised by the helping hand of the ,state to a higher platform than before1 whether as respects their health1 or their physical comfort1 or their economic condition1 or1 last of all1 their place in the scale of intelligence and learning4 ',religion would1 under such a system1 be the immediate product1 not of legislation1 but of the ,christian philanthropic zeal which obtained throughout society at large4 ,but it is well when what legislation does for the fulfilment of its object tends not to the impediment1 but rather1 we apprehend1 to the furtherance1 of those greater and higher objects which are in the contemplation of those whose desires are chiefly set on the immortal wellbeing of man4 ',on the basis of these general views1 ,i have two remarks to offer regarding the ,government scheme of education4 '#a4 ,i should not require a certificate of satisfaction with the religious progress of the scholars from the managers of the schools1 in order to their receiving the ,government aid4 ,such a certificate from ,unitarians or ,catholics implies the direct sanction or countenance by ,government to their respective creeds1 and the responsibility1 not of allowing1 but1 more than this1 of requiring1 that these shall be taught to the children who attend4 ,a bare allowance is but a general toleration2 but a requirement involves in it all the mischief1 and1 ,i would add1 the guilt1 of an indiscriminate endowment for truth and error4 '#b4 ,i would suffer parents or natural guardians to select what parts of the education they wanted for their children4 ,i would not force arithmetic upon them1 if all they wanted was reading and writing2 and as little would ,i force the ,catechism1 or any part of the religious instruction that was given in the school1 if all they wanted was a secular education4 ,that the managers of the ,church of ,england schools shall have the power to impose their own ,catechism upon the children of ,dissenters1 and1 still more1 to compel their attendance on church1 ,i regard as among the worst parts of the scheme4 ',the above observations1 it will be seen1 meet any questions which might be put in regard to the applicability of the scheme to ,scotland1 or in regard to the use of the ,douay version in ,roman ,catholic schools4 ',i cannot conclude without expressing my despair of any great or general good being effected in the way of ,christianizing our population1 but through the medium of a ,government themselves ,christian1 and endowing the true religion1 which ,i hold to be their imperative duty1 not because it is the religion of the many1 but because it is true4 ',the scheme on which ,i have now ventured to offer these few observations ,i should like to be adopted1 not because it is absolutely the best1 but only the best in existing circumstances4 ',the endowment of the ,catholic religion by the ,state ,i should deprecate1 as being ruinous to the country in all its interests4 ,still ,i do not look for the general ,christianity of the people1 but through the medium of the ,christianity of their rulers4 ,this is a lesson taught historically in ,scripture1 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 subjects2 it is taught experimentally1 by the impotence1 now fully established1 of the ,voluntary principle2 and last1 and most decisive of all1 it is taught prophetically in the book of ,revelation1 when told that then will the kingdoms of the earth 7,basileiai1 or governing powers7 become the kingdoms of our ,lord ,jesus ,christ1 or the ,governments of the earth become ,christian ,governments4 7,signed7 ',,thomas ,,chalmers4' ----- #a ,some of the reasonings of both the ,established and ,free ,church courts on this matter would be amusing were they not so sad4 ',feed my lambs1' said our ,saviour1 after ,his resurrection1 to ,peter2 and again twice over1 ',feed my sheep4' ,now1 let us suppose some zealous clergyman setting himself1 on the strength of the latter injunction here1 to institute a new order of preachers4 ,as barbers frequently amuse their employers with gossip1 when divesting them of their beards or trimming their heads1 and have opportunities of addressing their fellow-men which are not possessed by the other mechanical professions1 the zealous clergyman determines on converting them into preachers1 and sets up a ,normal ,school1 in order that they may be taught the art of composing short sermons1 which they are to deliver when shaving their customers1 and longer ones1 which they are to address to them when cutting their hair4 ,and in course of time the expounding barbers are sent abroad to operate on the minds and chins of the community4 ',there is no mention made of any such order of prelectors1' says a stubborn layman1 'in my ,new ,testament2' ',nor yet in mine1' says another4 ',sheer ,atheism1--,deism at the very least6' exclaims the zealous clergyman4 ',until ,christianity was fairly established in the world1 there was no such thing as shaving at all2 the ,jews don't shave yet3 besides1 does not every decent ,church member shave before going to church8 ,and as for the authority1 how read you the text1 ,feed my sheep6' ',weighty argument that about the shaving1' say the laymen2 'but really the text seems to be stretched just a little too far4 ,the commission is given to ,peter2 but it confers on ,peter no authority whatever to commission the barbers4 ,nay1 our grand objection to the pseudo-successors of ,peter is1 that they corrupted the ,church after this very manner1 by commissioning the non-commissioned1 until they filled the groaning land with cardinals1 bishops1 and abbots1 monks and nuns1-- ,eremites and friars1 ,white1 black1 and grey1 with all their trumpery4' ,now1 be it remembered that we are far from placing the ,church-employed schoolmaster on the level of the parson-employed barber of our illustration4 ,rationally considered1 they are very different orders indeed2 but so far as direct ,scripture is concerned1 they stand1 we contend1 on exactly the same ground4 ,the laity would do well in this controversy to arm themselves with the ,new ,testament1 and1 if their opponents be very intolerant1 to hand them the volume1 and request them to turn up their authority4 ,and1 of course1 if the intolerance be very great1 the authority must be very direct4 ,mere arguings on the subject would but serve to show that it has no actual existence4 ,when the commission of a captain or lieutenant is legitimately demanded1 it is at once produced2 but were one to demand the commission of a sergeant or boatswain's mate1 the man could at best only reason about it4 ,,thoughts ,,on ,,the ,,educational ,,question4 ,,chapter ,,first4 ,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 ,hon4 ,mr4 ,fox ,maule4 ,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 author4 ,there were five doctrines of a well-defined character which1 the ,jesuits said1 were to be found in the works of ,cornelius ,jansenius1 umquhile ,bishop of ,ypres1 but which1 the ,jansenists asserted1 were not to be found in anything ,jansenius had ever written4 ,and in the attempt to decide this simple question of fact1 as ,pascal calls it1 the ,school of the ,sorbonne and the ,court of the ,inquisition were completely baffled2 and zealous ,roman ,catholics heard without conviction the verdict of councils1 and failed to acquiesce in the judgment of even the ,pope4 ,we have been reminded oftener than once of this singular controversy1 by the late discussions which have arisen in our church courts regarding the meaning embodied by ,chalmers in that posthumous document on the ,educational question1 which is destined1 we hold1 to settle the whole controversy4 ,at first we regarded it as matter of wonder that such discussions should have arisen2 for we had held that there was really little room for difference respecting the meaning of ,chalmers1--a man whose nature it was to deal with broad truths1 not with little distinctions2 and who had always the will1 and certainly did not lack the ability1 of making himself thoroughly understood4 ,we have since thought1 however1 that as there is nothing which has once occurred that may not occur again1 what happened to the writings of ,jansenius might well happen to one of the writings of ,chalmers2 and further1 that from certain conversations which we had held with the illustrious deceased a few months before his death1 on the subject of his paper1 and from certain facts in our possession regarding his views1 we had spectacles through which to look at the document in question1 and a key to his meaning1 which most of the disputants wanted4 ,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 public4 ,we shall betray no confidence2 and should we be compelled to speak somewhat more in the first person1 and of ourselves1 than may seem quite accordant with good taste1 our readers will1 we trust1 suffer us to remind them that we do not commit the fault very often1 or very offensively1 and that the present employment of the personal pronoun1 just a little modified by the editorial we1 seems inevitably incident to the special line of statement on which we propose to enter4 ,during the greater part of the years #ahde and #ahdf1 the ,editor of the ,witness was set aside from his professional labours by a protracted illness1 in part at least an effect of the perhaps too assiduous prosecution of these labours at a previous period4 ,he had to cease per force even from taking a very fixed view of what the ,church was doing or purposing2 and when1 early in ,january #ahdg1 he returned1 after a long and dreary period of rustication1 in improved health to ,edinburgh1 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 eye4 ,and1 in doing so1 there was one special circumstance in the survey suited to excite some alarm4 ,we found that in all the various schemes of the ,free ,church1 with but one exception1 its extensively spread membership and its more active leaders were thoroughly at one2 but that in that exceptional scheme they were not at all at one4 ,they were at one in their views respecting the ecclesiastical character of ministers1 elders1 and church courts1 and of the absolute necessity which exists that these1 and these only1 should possess the spiritual key4 ,further1 they were wholly at one in recognising the command of our adorable ,saviour to preach the gospel to all nations1 as of perpetual obligation on the ,churches4 ,but regarding what we shall term1 without taking an undue liberty with the language1 the pedagogical teaching of religion1 they differed in toto4 ,practically1 and to all intents and purposes1 the schoolmaster1 in the eye of the membership of our ,church1 and of the other ,scottish ,churches1 was simply a layman1 the proper business of whose profession was the communication of secular learning4 ,and as in choosing their tailors and shoemakers the people selected for themselves the craftsmen who made the best and handsomest shoes and clothes1 so1 in selecting a schoolmaster for their children1 they were sure always to select the teacher who was found to turn out the best scholars4#b ,all other things equal1 they would have preferred a serious1 devout schoolmaster to one who was not serious nor devout1 just as1 coeteris paribus1 they would have preferred a serious shoemaker or tailor to a non-religious maker of shoes or clothes2 but religious character was not permitted to stand as a compensatory item for professional skill2 nay1 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 them1 were particularly careful not to botch1 on any account whatever1 the education of their children4 ,in a country in which there was more importance attached than in perhaps any other in the world to the religious teaching of the minister1 there was so little importance attached to the religious teaching of the schoolmaster1 that1 when weighed against even a slight modicum of secular qualification1 it was found to have no sensible weight4 ,and with this great practical fact some of our leading men seemed to be so little acquainted1 that they were going on with the machinery of their educational scheme1 on a scale at least co-extensive with the ,free ,church1 as if1 like that ,church--all-potent in her spiritual character--it had a moving power in the affections of the people competent to speed it on4 ,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 men1 clerical and lay1 that excited our alarm4 ,unless that discrepancy be removed1 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 ,church1 or1 vice versa1 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 result4 ,from the contributions of our laymen can the scheme alone derive its support2 and if our leaders lay it down on a large scale1 and our laymen contribute on a small one1 alas for its solvency6 ,such were our views1 and such our inferences1 on this occasion2 and to ,thomas ,chalmers1 at once our wisest and our humblest man--patient to hear1 and sagacious to see--we determined on communicating them4 ,he had kindly visited the writer1 to congratulate him in his dwelling on his return to comparative health and strength2 and after a long and serious conversation1 in which he urged the importance of maintaining the ,witness in honest independency1 uninfluenced by cliques and parties1 whether secular or ecclesiastical1 the prospects of the ,free ,church educational scheme were briefly discussed4 ,he was evidently struck by the view which we communicated1 and received it in far other than that parliamentary style which can politely set aside1 with some soothing half-compliment1 the suggestions that run counter to a favourite course of policy already lined out and determined upon4 ,in the discrepancy which we pointed out to him he recognised a fact of the practical kind1 which rarely fail to influence the affairs upon which they bear2 and in accordance with his character--for no man could be more thoroughly convinced that free discussion never hurts a good cause1 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 ,witness1 and probed to its bottom4 ,we could not1 however1 see at that time how the thing was to be introduced in a practical form1 and preferred waiting on for an opportunity1 which in the course of events soon occurred4 ,the ,government came forward with its proposal of educational grants1 and the question was raised--certainly not by the writer of these chapters--whether or no the ,free ,church could conscientiously avail herself of these4 ,it was promptly decided by some few of our leading men1 clerical and lay1 that she could not2 and we saw in the decision1 unless carried by appeal to our country ministers and the people1 and by them reversed1 the introduction of a further element of certain dissolution in our educational scheme4 ,the status of the schoolmaster had been made so exceedingly ecclesiastical1 and his profession so very spiritual1 that the money of that ,government of the country whose right and duty it is to educate its people1 was regarded as too vile and base a thing to be applied to his support4 ,there were even rumours afloat that our schoolmasters were on the eve of being ordained4 ,we trust1 however1 that the report was a false one1 or1 at worst1 that the men who employed the word had made a slip in their ,english1 and for the time at least had forgot its meaning4 ,ordination means that special act which gives status and standing within the ecclesiastical province4 ,it implies the enjoined use of that spiritual key which is entrusted by ,christ to ,his ,church1 that it may be employed just as ,he directs1 and in no other way4 ,the ,presbyterian ,church has as much right to institute prelates as to ordain pedagogues4 ',remember1' said an ancient ,scottish worthy1 in 'lifting up his protestation' in troublous times1 'that the ,lord has fashioned ,his ,kirk by the uncounterfeited work of ,his own new creation2 or1 as the prophet speaketh1 hath made us1 and not we ourselves2 and that we must not presume to fashion a new portraiture of a ,kirk1 and a new form of divine service1 which ,god in ,his word hath not before allowed2 seeing that1 were we to extend our authority further than the calling we have of ,god doth permit--as1 namely1 if we should 7as ,god forbid67 authorize the authority of bishops--we should bring into the ,kirk of ,god the ordinance of man4' ,if men are to depart from the 'law and the testimony1' we hold that the especial mode of their departure may be very much a matter of taste1 and would1 for our own part1 prefer bishops and cardinals to poor dominies of the gospel1 somewhat out at the elbows4#c ,the fine linen and the purple1 the cope and the stole1 would at least have the effect of giving that sort of pleasant relief to the widespread sable of our ,assemblies which they possessed of yore1 ere they for ever lost the gay uniform of the ,lord ,high ,commissioner1 the gold lace of his dragoon officers1 and the glitter of his pages in silver and scarlet4 ',we are two of the humblest servants of ,mother ,church1' said the ,prior and his companion to ,wamba1 the jester of ,rotherwood4 ',two of the humblest servants of ,mother ,church6' repeated ,wamba2 ',i should rather like to see her seneschals1 her chief butlers1 and her other principal domestics4' ,we again saw ,chalmers1 and1 in a corner apart from a social party1 of which his kind and genial heart formed the attractive centre1 we found he thoroughly agreed with us in holding that the time for the discussion of the educational question had fully come4 ,it was a question1 he said1 on which he had not yet fully made up his mind3 there was1 however1 one point on which he seemed clear--though1 at this distance of time1 we cannot definitively say whether the remark regarding it came spontaneously from himself1 or was suggested by any query of ours--and that was the right and duty of a ,government to instruct1 and consequently of the governed to receive the instruction thus communicated1 if in itself good4 ,we remarked in turn1 that there were various points on which we also had to 'grope our way' 7a phrase to which the reader will find him referring in his note1 which we subjoin72 but that regarding the inherently secular character of the schoolmaster1 and the right and duty of the ,government to employ him in behalf of its people1 we had no doubt whatever4 ,and so1 parting for the time1 we commenced that series of articles which1 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 ,church1 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 scheme1 the readers of the ,witness may perhaps remember4 ,we were met in controversy on the question by a man1 the honesty of whose purpose in this1 as in every other matter1 and the warmth of whose zeal for the ,church which he loved1 and for which he laboured1 no one has ever questioned1 and no one ever will4 ,and if1 though possessed of solid1 though perhaps not brilliant talent1 he failed on this occasion 'in finding his hands1' 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 people1 or which demonstrate the schoolmaster to possess a purely secular1 not an ecclesiastical standing--or yet truths of fact1 such as that for many years the national teaching of ,scotland has not been religious1 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 pedagogy1--are truths which can neither be controverted nor set aside4 ,he did on one occasion1 during the course--what he no doubt afterwards regretted--raise against us the cry of infidelity1--a cry which1 when employed respecting matters on which ,christ or ,his apostles have not spoken1 really means no more than that he who employs it1 if truly a good man1 is bilious1 or has a bad stomach1 or has lost the thread of his argument or the equanimity of his temper4 ,feeling somewhat annoyed1 however1 we wished to see ,chalmers once more2 but the matter had not escaped his quick eye1 and his kind heart suggested the remedy4 ,in the course of the day in which our views and reasonings were posted as infidel1 we received the following note from ,morningside3-- ,,morningside1 ,march #ac1 #ahdg4 ,,my ,,dear ,,sir1--,you are getting nobly on on education2 not only groping your way1 but making way1 and that by a very sensible step in advance this day4 ,on my own mind the truth evolves itself very gradually2 and ,i am yet a far way from the landing-place4 ,kindest respects to ,mrs4 ,miller2 and with earnest prayer for the comfort and happiness of both1 ,i ever am1 my dear ,sir1 yours very truly1 ,,thomas ,,chalmers4 ,hugh ,miller1 ,esq4 ,in short1 ,thomas ,chalmers1 by his sympathy and his connivance1 had become as great an infidel as ourselves2 and we have submitted to our readers the evidence of the fact1 fully certified under his own hand4#d ,there is a sort of perfection in everything2 and perfection once reached1 deterioration usually begins4 ,and when1 in bandying the phrases infidel and infidelity--like the feathered missiles in the game of battledore and shuttlecock--they fell upon ,chalmers1 we think there was a droll felicity in the accident1 which constitutes for it an irresistible claim of being the terminal one in the series4 ,the climax reached its point of extremest elevation2 for even should our infidel-dubbers do their best or worst now1 it is not at all likely they will find out a second ,chalmers to hit4 ,we concluded our course of educational articles2 and though we afterwards saw the distinguished man to whom our eye so frequently turned1 as1 under ,god1 the wise pilot of the ,free ,church1 and were honoured by a communication from him1 dictated to his secretary1 we did not again touch on the subject of education4 ,we were1 however1 gratified to learn1 from men much in his confidence and company--we hope we do not betray trust in referring to the ,rev4 ,mr4 ,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 note4 ,it further gratifies us to reflect that our course had the effect of setting his eminently practical mind a-working on the whole subject1 and led to the production of the inestimably valuable document1 long and carefully pondered1 which will do more to settle the question of national education in ,scotland than all the many volumes which have been written regarding it4 ,as in a well-known instance in ,scottish story1 it is the 'dead ,douglas' who is to 'win the field4' ,but we lag in our narrative4 ,that melancholy event took place which cast a shade of sadness over ,christendom2 and in a few weeks after1 the posthumous document1 kindly communicated to us by the family of the deceased1 appeared in the columns of the ,witness4 ,we perused it with intense interest2 and what we saw in the first perusal was1 that ,chalmers had gone far beyond us2 and in the second1 that1 in laying down his first principles1 he had looked at the subject1 as was his nature1 in a broader and more general aspect1 and had unlocked the difficulty which it presented in a more practical and statesmanlike manner4 ,we had1 indeed1 considered in the abstract the right and duty of the civil magistrate to educate his people2 but our main object being to ward off otherwise inevitable bankruptcy from a scheme of our ,church1 and having to deal with a sort of vicious ,cameronianism1 that would not accept of the magistrate's money1 even though he gave the ,bible and the ,shorter ,catechism along with it1 we had merely contended that money given in connection with the ,bible and ,shorter ,catechism is a very excellent thing1 and especially so to men who cannot fulfil their obligations or pay their debts without it4 ,but ,chalmers had looked beyond the difficulties of a scheme1 to the emergencies of a nation4 ,at the request of many of our readers1 we have reprinted his document in full1 as it originally appeared4#e ,first1 let it be remarked that1 after briefly stating what he deemed the optimity of the question1 he passes on to what he considered the only mode of settling it practically1 in the present divided state of the ,church and country4 ,and in doing so he lays down1 as a preliminary step1 the absolute right and duty of the ,government to educate1 altogether independently of the theological differences or divisions which may obtain among the people or in the ,churches4 ',as there seems no reason1' he says1 'why1 because of these unresolved differences1 a public measure for the health of all1 for the recreation of all1 for the economic advancement of all1 should be held in abeyance1 there seems as little reason why1 because of these differences1 a public measure for raising the general intelligence of all should be held in abeyance4' ,such is the principle which he enunciates regarding the party possessing the right to educate4 ,let the reader next mark in what terms he speaks of the party to be educated1 or under whose immediate superintendence the education is to be conducted4 ,those who most widely misunderstand the ,doctor's meaning--from the circumstance1 perhaps1 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 educated1 or to superintend the education1 coming forward to them in the character of ,churches4 ,they deem it necessary to the integrity of his meaning1 that ,presbyterians should come forward as ,presbyterians1 ,puseyites as ,puseyites1 ,papists as ,papists1 and ,socinians as ,socinians2 in which case1 of course1 all could be set right so far as the ,free ,church conscience was concerned in the matter1 by taking the ,state's grant with the one hand1 and holding out an indignant protest against its extension to the erroneous sects in the other4 ,but that ,chalmers could have contemplated anything so monstrous as that ,scotchmen should think of coming forward simply as ,scotchmen1 they cannot believe4 ,he must have regarded the ,state's unconditional right to educate as conditional after all1 and dependent on the form assumed by the party on which or through which it was to be exercised4 ,let the reader examine for himself1 and see whether there exists in the document a single expression suited to favour such a view4 ,nothing can be plainer than the words ',parliament1' ',government1' ',state1' ',legislature1' employed to designate the educating party on the one hand2 and surely nothing plainer than the words 'people1' 'men of all ,churches and denominations1' 'families of the land1' and 'society at large1' made use of in designating the party to be educated1 or entrusted with the educational means or machinery1 on the other4 ,there is a well-grounded confidence expressed in the ,christian and philanthropic zeal which obtain throughout society2 but the only bodies ecclesiastical which we find specially named--if1 indeed1 one of these can be regarded as at all ecclesiastical--are the ',unitarians and the ,catholics4' ,it was with the broad question of national education in its relation to two great parties placed in happy opposition1 as the 'inner hall of legislation' and the 'outer field of society1' that we find ,dr4 ,chalmers mainly dealing4 ,and yet the document does contain palpable reference to the ,government scheme4 ,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 assist4' ,but the greater includes the less1 and the much that is general in the paper is in no degree neutralized by the little in it that is particular4 ,the ,hon4 ,mr4 ,fox ,maule could perhaps throw some additional light on this matter4 ,it was at his special desire1 and in consequence of a conversation on the subject which he held with ,chalmers1 that the document was drawn up4 ,the nature of the request could not1 of course1 alter whatever is absolutely present in what it was the means of producing2 but it would be something to know whether what the statesman asked was a decision on a special educational scheme1 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 education4 ,it will be found that the following valuable letters from ,dr4 ,guthrie and the ,hon4 ,mr4 ,fox ,maule determine the meaning of ,dr4 ,chalmers on his own authority3-- #b1 ,,lauriston ,,lane1 ,march #e1 #ahej4 ,,my ,,dear ,,mr4 ,,miller1--,when such conflicting statements were advanced as to the bearing of ,dr4 ,chalmers' celebrated paper on education1 although ,i had no doubt in my own mind that the view you had taken of that valuable document was the correct one1 and had that view confirmed by a conversation ,i had with his son-in-law1 ,mr4 ,m',kenzie1 who heard ,dr ,chalmers discuss the matter in ,london1 and acted1 indeed1 as his amanuensis in writing that paper2 yet ,i thought it were well also to see whether ,mr4 ,maule could throw any light on the subject4 ,i wrote him with that object in view2 and while we must regret that we are called to differ from some most eminent and excellent friends on this important question1 it both comforts and confirms us to find another most important testimony in the letter which ,i now send to you1 in favour of our opinion1 that ,dr4 ,chalmers1 had ,god spared him to this day1 would have lifted up his mighty voice to advocate the views in which we are agreed4 ,into the fermenting mind of the public it is the duty of every one to cast in whatever may1 by ,god's blessing1 lead to a happy termination of this great question2 and with this view ,i send you the letter which ,i have had the honour to receive from ,mr4 ,maule4--,believe me1 yours ever1 ,,thomas ,,guthrie4 ,,grosvenor ,,street1 ,march #d1 #ahej4 ,,my ,,dear ,,dr4 ,,guthrie1--,when you wrote me some time since upon the subject of the communication made to me by the late ,dr4 ,chalmers upon the all-important question of education1 ,i could not take upon myself to say positively 7though ,i had very little doubt in my mind7 whether that document took its origin in a desire expressed by me to have ,dr4 ,chalmers' opinion on the general question of education1 or merely upon the scheme laid down and pursued by the ,committee of ,privy ,council4 ,my impression has always been1 that ,dr4 ,chalmers addressed himself to the question as a whole2 and on looking over my papers a few days since1 ,i find that impression quite confirmed by the following sentence1 in a note in ,dr4 ,chalmers' handwriting1 bearing date #bast ,may #ahdg3--';,i hope that by to-morrow night ,i shall have prepared a few brief sentences on the subject of education4' ,none of us thought how inestimable these brief sentences were to become1 forming1 as they do1 the last written evidence of the tone of his great mind on this subject4 ,should you address yourself to this question1 you are1 in my opinion1 fully justified in dealing with the memorandum as referring to general and national arrangements1 and not to those which are essentially of a temporary and varying character4--,believe me1 with great esteem1 yours sincerely1 ,f4 ,,maule4 ----- #b ,this passage has been referred to in several ,free ,church presbyteries1 as if the writer had affirmed that the schoolmaster stands on no higher level than the shoemaker or tailor4 ,we need scarce say1 however1 that the passage conveys no such meaning4 ,by affirming that in matters of chimney-sweeping men choose for themselves the best chimney-sweeps1 and in matters of indisposition or disease the best physicians1 we do not at all level the physician with the chimney-sweep3 we merely intimate that there is a best in both professions1 and that men select that best1 as preferable to what is inferior or worse1 on every occasion they can4 #c ,we have learned that what was actually intended at this time was1 not to ordain1 but only to induct our schoolmasters4 ,and their induction would have made1 we doubt not1 what ,foigard in the play calls a 'very pretty sheremony4' ,but no mere ceremony1 however imposing1 can communicate to a secular profession a spiritual status or character4 #d ,a fac-simile of this letter was reproduced in the columns of the ,witness4--,,ed4 #e ,see ,introduction4 ,,chapter ,,second4 ,right and ,duty of the ,civil ,magistrate to educate the ,people--,founded on two distinct ,principles1 the one economic1 the other judicial--,right and ,duty of the ,parent--,natural1 not ,ecclesiastical--,examination of the purely ,ecclesiastical ,claim--,the real ,rights in the case those of the ,state1 the ,parent1 and the ,ratepayer--,the terms ,parent and ,ratepayer convertible into the one term ,householder4 ,wherever mind is employed1 thought will be evolved2 and in all questions of a practical character1 truth1 when honestly sought1 is ultimately found4 ,and so we deem it a happy circumstance1 that there should be more minds honestly engaged at the present time on the educational problem than at perhaps any former period4 ,to the upright light will arise4 ,the question cannot be too profoundly pondered1 nor too carefully discussed2 and at the urgent request of not a few of our better readers1 we purpose examining it anew in a course of occasional articles1 convinced that its crisis has at length come1 just as the crisis of the ,church question had in reality come when the late ,dr4 ,m',crie published his extraordinary pamphlet2#f and that it must depend on the part now taken by the ,free ,church in this matter1 whether some ten years hence she is to posses any share1 even the slightest1 in the education of the country4 ,we ask our readers severely to test all our statements1 whether of principle or of fact1 and to suffer nothing in the least to influence them which is not rational1 or which is not true4 ,in the first place1 then1 we hold with ,chalmers1 that it is unquestionably the right and duty of the civil magistrate to educate his people1 altogether independently of the religion which he himself holds1 or of the religious differences which may unhappily obtain among them4 ,even should there be as many sects in a country as there are families or individuals1 the right and duty still remain4 ,religion1 in such circumstances1 can palpably form no part of a ,government scheme of tuition2 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 trade1 the qualities of matter1 the relations of numbers1 the properties of figured space1 the philosophy of grammar1 or the form and body which in various countries and ages literature and the belles lettres have assumed4 ,and this right and duty of a ,government to instruct1 rest1 we hold1 on two distinct principles1--the one economic1 the other judicial4 ,education adds immensely to the economic value of the subjects of a ,state4 ,the professional and mercantile men who in this country live by their own exertions1 and pay the income tax1 and all the other direct taxes1 are educated men2 whereas its uneducated men do not pay the direct taxes1 and1 save in the article of intoxicating drink1 very little of the indirect ones2 and a large proportion of their number1 so far from contributing to the national wealth1 are positive burdens on the community4 ,and on the class of facts to which this important fact belongs rests the economic right and duty of the civil magistrate to educate4 ,his judicial right and duty are founded on the circumstance1 that the laws which he promulgates are written laws1 and that what he writes for the guidance of the people1 the people ought to be enabled to read2 seeing that to punish for the breach of a law1 of the existence of which he who breaks it has been left in ignorance1 is not man-law1 but what ,jeremy ,bentham well designates dog-law1 and altogether unjust4 ,we are1 of course1 far from supposing that every ,british subject who can read is to peruse the vast library which the ,british ,acts of themselves compose2 but we hold that education forms the only direct means through which written law1 as a regulator of conduct1 can be known1 and that1 in consequence1 in its practical breadth and average aspect1 it is only educated men who know it1 and only uneducated men who are ignorant of it4 ,and hence the derivation of the magistrate's judicial right and duty4 ,but on this part of our subject1 with ,free ,churchmen for our readers1 we need not surely insist4 ,our ,church has homologated at least the general principle of the civil magistrate's right and duty1 by becoming the recipient of his educational grant4 ,if he has no right to give1 she can have no right to receive4 ,if he1 instead of performing a duty1 has perpetrated a wrong1 she1 to all intents and purposes1 being guilty of receipt1 is a participator in the crime4 ,nay1 further1 let it be remarked that1 as indicated by the speeches of some of our abler and more influential men1 there seems to exist a decided wish on the part of the ,free ,church1 that the ,state1 in its educational grants1 should assume a purely secular character1 and dispense with the certificate of religious training which it at present demands1--a certificate which1 though anomalously required of sects of the most opposite tenets1 constitutes notwithstanding1 in this business of grants1 the sole recognition of religion on the part of the ,government4 ,now this1 if a fact at all1 is essentially a noticeable and pregnant one1 and shows how much opposite parties are in reality at one on a principle regarding which they at least seem to dispute4 ,the right and duty of the civil magistrate thus established1 let us next consider another main element in the question1--the right and duty of the parent4 ,it is1 we assert1 imperative on every parent in ,scotland and elsewhere to educate his children2 and on the principle that he is a joint contributor with the ,government to the support of every national teacher--the ,government giving salary1 and the parent fees--we assert further1 that should the ,government give its salary 'exclusively as the expression of its value for a good secular education1' he may1 notwithstanding1 demand that his fees should be received as the representative of his value for a good religious education4 ,whether his principles be those of the ,voluntary or of the ,establishment-man1 the same schoolmaster who is a secular teacher in relation to the ,government1 may be a religious teacher in relation to him4 ,for unless the ,state positively forbid its schoolmaster to communicate religious instruction1 he exists to the parent1 in virtue of the fees given and received1 in exactly the circumstances of the teacher of any adventure school4 ,let us further remark1 that the rights of the parent in the matter of education are not ecclesiastical1 but natural rights4 ,the writer of this article is one of the parents of ,scotland2 and1 simply as such1 he claims for himself the right of choosing his children's teacher on his own responsibility1 and of determining what his children are to be taught4 ,the ,rev4 ,dr4 ,thomas ,guthrie is his minister2 and he also is one of the parents of ,scotland1 and enjoys1 as such1 a right identical in all respects with that of his parishioner and hearer4 ,but it is only an identical and co-equal right4 ,should the writer send his boy to a ,socialist or ,popish school1 to be taught either gross superstition or gross infidelity1 the minister would have a right to interfere1 and1 if entreaty and remonstrance failed1 to bring him to discipline for so palpable a breach of his baptismal engagement4 ,if1 on the other hand1 it was the minister who had sent his boy to the ,socialist or ,popish school1 the parishioner would have a right to interfere1 and1 were entreaty and remonstrance disregarded1 to bring him to discipline4 ,minister and parishioner stand1 we repeat1 in this matter1 on exactly the same level4 ,nor have ten1 twenty1 a hundred1 a thousand1 twenty thousand1 or a hundred thousand lay parents1 or yet ten1 twenty1 a hundred1 or a thousand clerical parents1 whether existing as a congregation or hundreds of congregations on the one hand1 or as a ,presbytery1 ,synod1 or ,general ,assembly on the other1 rights in this matter that in the least differ in their nature from the rights possessed by the single clergyman1 ,dr4 ,guthrie1 or by the single layman1 the ,editor of the ,witness4 ,the sole right which exists in the case--that of the parent--is a natural right1 not an ecclesiastical one2 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 minister1 in its relation to ecclesiastical law and the baptismal vow4 ,nor1 be it observed1 does this our recognition1 in our character as a ,church member1 of ecclesiastical rule and authority1 give our minister any true grounds for urging that it is our bounden duty1 in virtue of our parental engagements1 and from the existence of such general texts as the often quoted one1 ',train up a child1' etc41 to send our children to some school in which religion is expressly taught4 ,far less does it give him a right to demand any such thing4 ,we are ,free ,church in our principles2 and the grand distinctive principle for which1 during the protracted ,church controversy1 we never ceased to contend1 was simply the right of choosing our own religious teacher1 on the strength of our own convictions1 and on our own exclusive responsibility4 ,we laughed to scorn the idea that the three items of ,dr4 ,george ,cook's ceaseless iterations--life1 literature1 and doctrine--formed the full tale of ministerial qualification3 there was yet a fourth item1 infinitely more important than all the others put together1 viz4 godliness1 or religion proper1 or1 in yet other words1 the regeneration of the whole man by the ,spirit of ,god4 ,and on this last item we held that it was the right and duty of the people who ,chose for themselves1 and for their children1 a religious teacher1 and of none others1 clerical or lay1 solemnly to decide4 ,and while we still hold by this sacred principle on the one hand1 we see clearly1 on the other1 that the sole qualifications of our ,free ,church teachers1 as prepared in our ,normal ,schools1 correspond to but ,dr4 ,cook's three items2 nay1 that instead of exceeding1 they fall greatly short of these4 ,the certificate of character which the young candidates bring to the institution answers but lamely to the item 'life2' the amount of secular instruction imparted to them within its walls answers but inadequately to the item 'literature2' while the modicum of theological training received1 most certainly not equal to a four years' course of theology at a ,divinity ,hall1 answers but indifferently to the crowning item of the three--'doctrine4' ,that paramount item1 conversion on the part of the teacher to ,god1 is still unaccounted for2 and we contend that1 respecting that item1 the parent1 and the parent only1 has a right to decide1 all difficult and doubtful as the decision may be3 for be it remembered1 that there exist no such data on which to arrive at a judgment in cases of this nature1 as exist in the choosing of a minister4 ,and though we would deem it eminently right and proper that our child should read his daily ,scripture lesson to some respectable schoolmaster1 a believer in the divine authority of revelation1 and should repeat to him his weekly tale of questions from the ,national ,catechism1 yet to the extempore religious teaching of no merely respectable schoolmaster would we subject our child's heart and conscience4 ,for we hold that the religious lessons of the unregenerate lack regenerating life2 and that whatever in this all-important department does not intenerate and soften1 rarely fails to harden and to sear4 ,religious preachments from a secular heart are the droppings of a petrifying spring1 which convert all that they fall upon into stone4 ,further1 we hold that a mistake regarding the character of a schoolmaster authorized to teach religion extempore might be greatly more serious1 and might involve an immensely deeper responsibility1 than a similar mistake regarding a minister4 ,the minister preaches to grown men--a large proportion of them members of the ,church--not a few of them office-bearers in its service1 and competent1 in consequence1 to judge respecting both the doctrine which he exhibits and the mode of its exhibition2 but it is children1 immature of judgment1 and extremely limited in their knowledge1 whom the religion-teaching schoolmaster has to address4 ,nay1 more3 in choosing a minister1 we may mistake the character of the man2 but there can be no mistake made regarding the character of the office1 seeing that it is an office appointed by ,god ,himself2 whereas in choosing a religion-teaching schoolmaster1 we may mistake the character of both the man and the office too4 ,we are responsible in the one case for only the man2 we are responsible in the other for both the man and the office4 ,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 education4 ,even though we fully recognised some conscientious teacher as himself in possession of the divine life1 we might regard him as very unfitted1 from some natural harshness of temper1 or some coldness of heart1 or some infirmity of judgment1 for being a missionary of religion to the children under his care4 ,at one period early in life we spent many a leisure hour in drawing up a gossiping little history of our native town1 and found1 in tracing out the memorabilia of its parish school1 that the ,rev4 ,john ,russell1 afterwards of ,kilmarnock and ,stirling1 and somewhat famous in ,scottish literature as one of the clerical antagonists of ,burns1 had taught in it for twelve years1 and that several of his pupils 7now long since departed7 still lived4 ,we sought them out one by one1 and succeeded in rescuing several curious passages in his history1 and in finding that1 though not one among them doubted the sincerity of his religion1 nor yet his conscientiousness as a schoolmaster1 they all equally regarded him as a harsh-tempered1 irascible man1 who succeeded in inspiring all his pupils with fear1 but not one of them with love4 ,now1 to no such type of schoolmaster1 however strong our conviction of his personal piety1 would we entrust the religious teaching of our child4 ,if necessitated to place our boy under his pedagogical rule and superintendence1 we would address him thus3 ,lacking time1 and mayhap ability1 ourselves to instruct our son1 we entrust him to you1 and this simply on the same division of labour principle on which we give the making of our shoes to a shoemaker1 and the making of our clothes to a tailor4 ,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 correct4 ,but though we can put into your hands the parental rod--with an advice1 however1 to use it discreetly and with temper--there are things which we cannot communicate to you4 ,we cannot make over to you our child's affection for us1 nor yet our affection for our child3 with these joys 'a stranger intermeddleth not4' ,and as religious teaching without love1 and conducted under the exclusive influence of fear1 may and must be barren--nay1 worse than barren--we ask you to leave this part of our duty as a parent entirely to ourselves4 ,our duty it is1 and to you we delegate no part of it2 and this1 not because we deem it unimportant1 but because we deem it important in the highest degree1 and are solicitous that no unkindly element should mar it in its effects4 ,now where1 we ask1 is the ecclesiastical office-bearer who1 in his official character1 or in any character or capacity whatever1 has a right authoritatively to challenge our rejection1 on our own parental responsibility1 of the religious teaching of even a converted schoolmaster1 on purely reasonable grounds such as these8 ,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 man1 or whom we at least do not know to be a regenerate one8 ,or yet further1 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 who1 in his professional capacity1 has no place or standing in the word of ,god8 ,the right and duty of the civil magistrate in all circumstances to educate his people1 and of parents to choose their children's teacher1 and to determine what they are to be taught1 we are compelled to recognise2 and there seems to be a harmony between the two rights--the parental and the magisterial1 with the salary of the one and the fees of the other--suited1 we think1 to unlock many a difficulty2 but the authoritative standing1 in this question1 of the ecclesiastic as such1 we have hitherto failed to see4 ,the parent1 as a ,church member or minister1 is amenable to discipline2 but his natural rights in the matter are simply those of the parent1 and his political rights simply those of the subject and the ratepayer4 ,and in this educational question certain political rights are involved4 ,in the present state of things1 the parish schoolmasters of the kingdom are chosen by the parish ministers and parish heritors3 the two elements involved are the ecclesiastical and the political4 ,but while we see the parish minister as but the mere idle image of a state of things passed away for ever1 and possessed in his ministerial capacity of merely a statutory right1 which1 though it exists to-day1 may be justly swept away to-morrow1 we recognise the heritor as possessed of a real right2 and what we challenge is merely its engrossing extent1 not its nature4 ,we regard it as just in kind1 but exorbitant in degree2 and on the simple principle that the money of the ,state is the money of the people1 and that the people have a right to determine that it be not misapplied or misdirected1 we would1 with certain limitations1 extend to the ratepayers as a body the privileges1 in this educational department1 now exclusively exercised by the heritors4 ,in that educational franchise which we would fain see extended to the ,scottish people1 we recognise two great elements1 and but two only1--the natural1 or that of the parent2 and the political1 or that of the ratepayer4 ,these form the two opposite sides of the pyramid2 and1 though diverse in their nature1 let the reader mark how nicely for all practical purposes they converge into the point1 householder4 ,the householders of ,scotland include all the ratepayers of ,scotland4 ,the householders of ,scotland include also all the parents of ,scotland4 ,we would therefore fix on the householders of a parish as the class in whom the right of nominating the parish schoolmaster should be vested4 ,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 ,parliament1 would we exclude certain other householders1 of1 however1 a much lower standing1 from voting in the election of a parish schoolmaster4 ,we are not prepared to be ,chartists in either department1--the educational or the political2 and this simply on the ground that ,chartism in either would be prejudicial to the general good4 ,on this part of the subject1 however1 we shall enter at full length in our next4 ,meanwhile we again urge our readers carefully to examine for themselves all our statements and propositions1--to take nothing on trust1--to set no store by any man's ipse dixit1 be he editor or elder1 minister or layman4 ,in this question1 as in a thousand others1 'truth lies at the bottom of the well2' and if she be not now found and consulted1 to the exclusion of every prejudice1 and the disregard of every petty little interest and sinister motive1 it will be ill ten years hence with the ,free ,church of ,scotland in her character as an educator4 ,her safety rests1 in the present crisis1 in the just and the true1 and in the just and the true only4 ----- #f ,what ought the ,general ,assembly to do at the present ,crisis8 7#ahcc47 ,,chapter ,,third4 ,parties to whom the ,educational ,franchise might be safely extended--,house ,proprietors1 ,house ,tenants of a certain standing1 ,farmers1 ,crofters--,scheme of an ,educational ,faculty--,effects of the desired ,extension--,it would restore the ,national ,schools to the ,people of the ,nation4 ,it is the right and duty of every ,government to educate its people1 whatever the kinds or varieties of religion which may obtain among them2--it is the right and duty of every parent to select1 on his own responsibility1 his children's teacher1 and to determine what his children are to be taught2--it is the right and duty of every member of the commonwealth to see that the commonwealth's money1 devoted to educational purposes1 be not squandered on incompetent men1 and1 in virtue of his contributions as a ratepayer1 to possess a voice with the parents of a country in the selection of its salaried schoolmasters4 ,there exist1 on the one hand1 the right and duty of the ,state2 there exist1 on the other1 the rights and duties of the parents and ratepayers2 and we find both parents and ratepayers presenting themselves in the aggregate1 and for all practical purposes in this matter1 as a single class1 viz4 the householders of the kingdom4 ,but as1 in dealing with these in purely political questions1 we exclude a certain portion of them from the exercise of the political franchise1 and that simply because1 as classes1 they are uninformed or dangerous1 and might employ power1 if they possessed it1 to the public prejudice1 so would we exclude a certain proportion of them1 on similar grounds1 from the educational franchise4 ,in selecting1 however1 the safe classes of householders1 we would employ tests somewhat dissimilar in their character from those to which the ,reform ,act extends its exclusive sanction1 and establish a somewhat different order of qualifications from those which it erects4 ,in the first place1 we would fain extend the educational franchise to all those householders of ,scotland who inhabit houses of their own1 however humble in kind1 or however low the valuation of their rental4 ,we know not a safer or more solid1 or1 in the main1 more intelligent class1 than those working men of the country who1 with the savings of half a lifetime1 build or purchase a dwelling for themselves1 and then sit down rent-free for the rest of their lives1 each 'the monarch of a shed4' ,with these men we are intimately acquainted1 for we have lived and laboured among them2 and very rarely have we failed to find the thatched domicile1 of mayhap two little rooms and a closet1 with a patch of garden-ground behind1 of which some hard-handed country mechanic or labourer had1 through his own exertions1 become the proud possessor1 forming a higher certificate of character than masters the most conscientious and discerning could bestow upon their employs1 or even ,churches themselves upon their members4 ,nor is this house-owning qualification much less valuable when it has been derived by inheritance--not wrought for2 seeing that the man who retains his little patrimony unsquandered must be at least a steady1 industrious man1 the slave of no expensive or disreputable vice4 ,let us remark1 however1 that we would not attach the educational franchise to property as such3 the proprietor of the house1 whether a small house or a large one1 would require to be the bona fide inhabitant of the dwelling which he occupied1 for at least a considerable portion of every year4 ,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 upwards1 who settle with their landlords not oftener than twice every twelvemonth1 and who are at least a year entered on possession4 ,by fixing the qualification thus high1 and rejecting the monthly or weekly rent-payer1 the country would get rid of at least nineteen-twentieths of the dangerous classes1--the agricultural labourers1 who wander about from parish to parish1 some six or eight months in one locality1 and some ten or twelve in another2 the ignorant immigrant ,irish1 who tenant the poorer hovels of so many of our western coast parishes2 and last1 not least1 all the migratory population of our larger towns1 who rarely reside half a year in the same dwelling1 and who1 though they may in some instances pay at more than the rate of the yearly five pounds1 pay it weekly1 or by the fortnight or month4 ,we regret1 however1 that there is a really worthy class which such a qualification would exclude1--ploughmen1 labourers1 and country mechanics1 who reside permanently in humble cottages1 the property of the owner of the soil1 and who1 though their course through life lies on the bleak edge of poverty1 are ,god-fearing1 worthy men1 at least morally qualified to give1 in the election of a teacher1 an honest and not unintelligent voice4 ,and yet1 hitherto at least1 we have failed to see any principle which a ,british statesman would recognise as legitimate1 on which this class could be included in the educational franchise1 and their dangerous neighbours of the same political status kept out4 ,there is yet a third very important class whom we would fain see in possession of the educational franchise1--those householders of ,scotland who till the soil as tenants1 whether with or without leases1 or whether the annual rent which they pay amounts to three or to three thousand pounds4 ,the tillers of the soil are a fixed class1 greatly more permanent1 even where there exists no lease1 than the mere tenant householders2 and they include1 especially in the ,highlands of ,scotland1 and the poorer districts of the low country1 a large proportion of the country's parentage4 ,they are in the main1 too1 an eminently safe class1 and not less so where the farms are small and the dwellings upon them mere cottages--to which1 save for the surrounding croft or farm1 no franchise could attach--than where they live in elegant houses1 and are the lessees of hundreds of acres4 ,and such are the three great classes to which1 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 extend1 did we possess the power1 the educational franchise4 ,in order1 however1 to render a franchise thus liberally restricted more safe and salutary still1 we would demand not only certain qualifications on the part of the parents and ratepayers of the country1 without which they could not be permitted to vote1 but also certain other qualifications on the part of the country's schoolmasters1 without which they could not be voted for4 ,we would thus impart to the scheme such a twofold aspect of security as that for which in a purely ecclesiastical matter we contended1 when we urged that none but ,church members should be permitted to choose their own ministers2 and that none but ministers pronounced duly qualified in life1 literature1 and doctrine1 by a competent ecclesiastical court1 should they be permitted to choose4 ,there ought to exist a teaching ,faculty as certainly as there exists a medical or legal ,faculty1 or as there exists in the ,church what is essentially a preacher-licensing ,faculty4 ,the membership of a ,church are unfitted in their aggregate character to judge respecting at least the literature of the young licentiate whom1 in their own and their children's behalf1 they call to the pastoral charge2--the people of a district1 however shrewd and solid1 are equally unqualified to determine whether the young practitioner of medicine or of law who settles among them is competently acquainted with his profession1 and so a fit person to be entrusted with the care of their health or the protection of their property4 ,and hence the necessity which exists in all these cases for testing1 licensing1 diploma-giving courts or boards1 composed of men qualified to decide regarding those special points of ability or acquirement which the people1 as such1 cannot try for themselves4 ,in no case1 however1 are courts of this nature more imperatively required than in the case of the schoolmaster4 ,neither the amount of literature which he possesses1 nor yet his mastery over the most approved modes of communicating it1 can be tested by the people1 who1 as parents and ratepayers1 possess the exclusive right to make choice of him for their parish or district school2 and hence the necessity that what they cannot do for themselves should be previously done for them by some competent court or board1 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 money4 ,with1 of course1 the qualifications of the mere adventure-teacher1 whether supported by ,churches or individuals1 we would permit no board to interfere4 ,as to the composition of the board itself1 that1 we hold1 might be determined on very simple principles4 ,let the ,college-bred teachers of ,scotland1 associated with its ,university professors1 select for themselves1 out of their own number1 a dean or chairman1 and a court or committee1 legally qualified by ,act of ,parliament stringently to try all teachers who may present themselves before them1 in order to be rendered eligible for a national school1 and to grant them licences or diplomas1 legally representative of professional qualification4 ,whether a teacher1 on his election by the people1 might not be a second time tried1 especially on behalf of the ,state and the ratepayers1 by a ,government inspectorship1 and thus a check on the board be instituted1 we are not at present called on to determine2 but on this we are clear1 that the certificate of no ,normal ,school1 in behalf of its own pupils1 ought to be received otherwise than as a mere makeweight in the general item of professional character2 seeing that any such document would be as much a certificate of the ,normal ,school's own ability in rearing efficient teachers1 as of the pedagogical skill of the teachers which it reared4 ,the vitiating element of self-interest would scarce fail to induce1 ultimately at least1 a suspicious habit of self-recommendation4 ,such1 then1 in this matter1 is our full tale of qualification1 pedagogical and popular1 of the educators of the country on the one hand1 and of the educational franchise-holders of the country on the other4 ,and now we request the reader to mark one mighty result of the arrangement1 which no other yet set in opposition to it could possibly produce4 ,there are in ,scotland about one thousand one hundred national schools1 supported by national resources2 and1 of consequence1 though fallen into the hands of a mere sect1 which in some localities does not include a tithe of the population1 they of right belong to the ,scottish people4 ,and these schools of the people that extension of the educational franchise which we desiderate would not fail to restore to the people4 ,it would put them once more in possession of what was their own property de facto at the ,revolution 7for at that period1 when1 with a few inconsiderable exceptions1 they were all of one creed1 the ministry of the ,established ,church virtually represented them71 and of what has been de jure their property ever since4 ,but by the ministry of no one ,church can the people be represented now4 ,the long rule of ,moderatism1--the consequent formation of the ,secession and ,relief ,churches1--the growth of ,independency and ,episcopacy1--and last1 but not least in the series1 the ,disruption1 and the instantaneous creation of the ,free ,church1 have put an end to that state of things for ever4 ,the time has in the course of ,providence fairly come1 when the people must be permitted in this matter to represent themselves2 and there is one thing sure1--the struggle may be protracted1 but the issue is certain4 ,important1 however1 as are our parish schools1 and rich in associations so intimately linked to the intellectual glory of the nation1 that1 were they but mere relics of the past1 the custodiership of them might well be most desirable to the ,scottish people1 they represent but a small part of the stake involved in the present all-engrossing movement4 ,it seeks also to provide from the coffers of the ,state--on a broad basis of popular representation1 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 ignorance1 and which neither ,churches nor ,societies can of themselves supply4 ,it is the first hopeful movement of the age2 for our own ,free ,church educational movement1 though perhaps second in point of importance1 only serves irrefragably to demonstrate its necessity4 ,it is1 we repeat1 to the people of ,scotland1 and not to any one of the ,churches of ,scotland1 that our scheme of a widely-based and truly popular franchise would restore the ,scottish schools4 ,mr4 ,george ,combe is1 however1 quite in the right in holding that religion is too intimately associated with the educational question1 and too decidedly a force in the country1 to be excluded from the national seminaries1 'unless1 indeed1 ,government do something more than merely omit the religious element4'#g ,all is lost1 ,mr4 ,combe justly infers1 on the non-religious side of the question1 if the introduction of the ,bible and ,shorter ,catechism be not prohibited by ,act of ,parliament2 for1 if not stringently prohibited1 what ,parliament merely omits doing1 a ,bible and ,catechism loving people will to a certainty do2 and the conscience of the phrenologist and his followers will not fail to be outraged by the spectacle of ,bible classes in the national schools1 and of ,state schoolmasters instilling into the youthful mind1 by means of the ,shorter ,catechism1 the doctrine of original sin and the work of the ,spirit4 ,nay1 more2 as it is not in the power of mere ,acts of the ,legislature to eradicate from the hearts of a people those feelings of partiality1 based on deep religious conviction and the associations of ages1 with which it is natural to regard a co-religionist1 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 questions1 denomination must and will continue to exert its powerful influence in the election of national schoolmasters popularly chosen4 ,and as there are certain extensive districts in ,scotland in which some one ,church is the stronger1 and other certain districts in which some other ,church is the stronger1 there are whole shires and provinces in which1 if selected on the popular scheme1 the national teachers would be found well-nigh all of one religious denomination4 ,from ,john ,o',groat's to ,beauly1 for instance1 they would be all1 or almost all1 ,free ,churchmen2 for in that extensive district almost all the people are ,free ,church4 ,in the ,scottish ,highlands generally1 nearly the same result would be produced1 from1 of course1 the existence of a similar constituency4 ,in ,inverness1 and onwards along the sea-coast to ,aberdeen1 ,montrose1 ,st4 ,andrews1 and the ,frith of ,forth1 the element of old dissent would be influentially felt3 the great parties among the people would be three--,establishment1 ,free ,church1 and ,voluntary2 and whichever two of them united1 would succeed in defeating the third4 ,and such unions1 no doubt1 frequently would take place4 ,the ,voluntaries and ,free ,churchmen would often unite for the carrying of a man2 and occasionally1 no doubt1 the ,free ,church and the ,establishment1 for the carrying of a principle1--that principle of religious teaching on which1 in the coming struggle1 the ,state ,church will be necessitated to take her stand4 ,to the south of the ,frith of ,forth on to ,berwick1 and along the western coast from ,dumbarton to the ,solway1 there would be localities parcelled out into large farms1 in which the ,establishment would prevail2 and of course1 wherever it can reckon up a majority of the more solid people1 it is but right and proper that the ,establishment should prevail2 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 teachers1 and restricted their choice to intelligent and qualified men8 ,wherever there is liberty1 there will be discussion and difference2 and the election of a schoolmaster would not be managed quite as quietly under the anticipated state of things1 with the whole people of a parish for his constituency1 as in the present1 by a minister and factor over a social glass4 ,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 people1 and the first struggles of despotism to bind them down4 ,we ourselves have heard it twice urged on the unpopular side1--once when the rotten burghs were nodding to their fall1 and once when an unrestricted patronage was imperilled by the encroachments of the ,veto4 ,there will1 and must be1 difference2 and difference too1 ,scotland being what it is1 in which the religious element will not fail to mingle2 but not the less completely on that account will the scheme restore the ,scottish schools to the ,scottish people1 as represented by the majority1 and to the membership of the ,free ,church1 in the de facto statistical sense and proportion in which the ,free ,church is national4 ,it will not restore them to us in the theoretic sense2 but then there are at least three other true original ,churches of ,scotland1 which in that respect will be greatly worse off than ourselves1--the true national ,cameronian ,church1 the true national ,episcopalian ,church1 and a true compact little ,church of the whole nation1 that1 in the form of one very excellent minister1 labours in the east4 ,meanwhile1 we would fain say to our country folk and readers of the north of ,scotland3 ,you1 of all the ,free ,churchmen of the kingdom1 have an especial stake in this matter4 ,examine for yourselves1--trust to your own good sense1--exercise as ,protestants your right of private judgment1--and see whether1 as ,christian men and good ,scotchmen1 you may not fairly employ the political influence given you by ,god and your country1 in possessing yourselves of the parish schools4 ,there will be deep points mooted in this controversy1 which neither you nor we will ever be in the least able to understand4 ,you will no doubt be told of a theocratic theory of the ,british ,government1 perfectly compatible1 somehow1 with the receipt of educational grants from which all recognition of the religious element on the part of the ,state is1 at the express request of the ,church1 to be thoroughly discharged1 but not at all compatible with the receipt of an educational endowment of exactly the same character1 from which the same ,state recognition of the same religious element is to be discharged in the same degree4 ,you will1 we say1 not be able to understand this4 ,the late ,dr4 ,thomas ,chalmers and the late ,rev4 ,mr4 ,stewart of ,cromarty could not understand it2 we question much whether ,dr4 ,william ,cunningham understands it2 and we are quite sure that ,dr4 ,guthrie and ,dr4 ,begg do not4 ,and you1 who are poor simple laymen1 will never be able to understand it at all4 ,but you are all able to understand that the parish schools of your respective districts1 now lying empty and useless1 belong of right to you2 and that it would be a very excellent thing to have that right restored to you1 both on your own behalf and on that of your children4 ----- #g ',the sixth resolution of the ,educational ,manifesto1 in which the opinion of ,dr4 ,chalmers is quoted1 that ,government should abstain from introducing the element of religion at all into their part of the scheme1 must1 as here introduced1 be presumed to mean1 that in the ,act of the ,legislature which shall carry the views of the resolutionists into practical effect1 nothing shall be said about religious instruction2 but that power shall be given to the heads of families to manage the schools1 and prescribe the subjects to be taught1 according to their own convictions of what is sound in religious and useful in secular instruction4 ,but this would leave the religious rights of the minority completely unprotected4 ,government must do something more than omit the religious element3 it must limit the power of the majority to introduce this element into their schools to the injury of the minority4'--,letter of ,mr4 ,george ,combe on the ,educational ,movement4 ,,chapter ,,fourth4 ,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 whole1 but some of the ,scottish ,sects very unsound--,state of the ,free ,church ,educational ,scheme4 ',whereas attempts are now being made to reform the parish schools of ,scotland1 on the principle of altogether excluding religion from national recognition as an element in the national system of education1 and leaving it solely to private parties to determine in each locality whether any or what religious instruction will be introduced into the parochial schools1--it is humbly overtured to the ,venerable the ,general ,assembly of the ,free ,church of ,scotland1 to declare that this ,church can be no party to any plan of education based on the negation of religion in the general1 or of the national faith in particular1' etc4 ,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 ,glasgow4 ,it has the merit of being a clear enunciation of meaning2 of being also at least as well fitted to express the views of the ,established as of the ,free ,church courts in ,glasgow and elsewhere1 and a great deal better suited to serve as a cloak to their policy2 and1 further1 by a very slight adaptation1 it could be made to bear as directly against ,state grants given for educational purposes1 if dissociated from the religious certificate1 as against ,state endowments given for the same purpose1 when dissociated from statutory religious requirement4 ,it is the religious certificate--most anomalously demanded of denominations diametrically opposed to each other in their beliefs1 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 ,state4 ,educational grants dissociated from the religious certificate are educational grants dissociated from the ,state recognition of religion4 ,the fact that the certificates demanded should be of so anomalous a character1 is simply a reflection of the all-important fact that the ,british people are broken up into antagonistic ,churches and hostile denominations1 and that the ,british ,government is representative4 ,and that men such as those members and office-bearers of our ,church who hold the middle position between that occupied by ,mr4 ,gibson of ,glasgow on the one hand1 and ,dr4 ,begg of ,edinburgh on the other1 should see no other way of availing themselves of the educational grants1 with a good conscience1 than by getting rid of the religious recognition1 only serves to show that they are quite as sensible as their opponents in the liberal section of the enormous difficulty of the case1 and can bethink themselves of no better mode of unlocking it4 ,for it will not be contended1 that if in the matter of grants there is to be no recognition of religion on the part of the ,state1 the want of it could be more adequately supplied by sects1 as such1 denominationally divided1 than by the people of ,scotland1 as such1 territorially divided2 seeing that sects1 as such1 include ,papists1 ,puseyites1 ,socinians1 and ,seceders1--,muggletonians1 ,juggletonians1 ,new ,jerusalemites1 and ,united ,presbyterians1--,free-thinking ,christians1 ,free-,willers1 and ,free ,churchmen4 ,nor can we see either the wisdom or the advantage of any scheme of ,government inquiry into the educational destitution of a locality1 that1 instead of supplying the want which it found1 would merely placard the place by a sort of feuing ticket--destined1 we are afraid1 in many instances to be sadly weather-bleached--which would intimate to the sects in general1 that were any one of them to come forward and enact the part of school-builder and pedagogue1 the ,state would undertake for a portion of the expenses4 ,we suppose the advertisement on the ticket would run somewhat as follows3--',,wanted ,,by ,,the ,,government1 ,a ,,church ,,to ,,erect ,a ,,school4 ,,terms ,,liberal1 ,,and ,,no ,,certificate ,,of ,,religious ,,teaching ,,demanded4 ,n4,b4--,,papists1 ,,puseyites1 ,,and ,,socinians ,,perfectly ,,eligible4'#h ,leaving1 however1 to profounder intellects than our own the adjustment of the nice principles involved in this matter1 let us advert to what we deem the practical advantages of a territorial scheme of educational endowments over a denominational scheme of educational grants4 ,at present1 all or any of the sects may come forward as such1 whatever their character or teaching1 and1 on fulfilling certain conditions1 receive assistance from the ,government in the form of an educational grant2 whereas1 by the scheme which we would fain see set in its place1 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 teachers4 ,and at least one of the advantages of this scheme over the other must be surely obvious and plain4 ,denominationally1 there is much unsoundness in ,scotland2 territorially1 there is very little4 ,there exist1 unhappily1 differences among our ,scottish ,presbyterians2 but not the less on that account has ,presbyterianism1 in its three great divisions--,voluntary1 ,establishment1 and ,free ,church--possessed itself of the land in all its length and breadth4 ,the only other form of religion that has a territorial existence in ,scotland at all is ,popery1 and ,popery holds merely a few darkened districts of the outer ,hebrides and of the ,highlands4 ,it would fail1 out of the one thousand one hundred parish schools of the country1 to carry half-a-dozen2 and no other form of religious error would succeed in carrying so much as one parish school4 ,there is no ,socinian district in ,scotland2 old ,scotch ,episcopacy has not its single parish2 and high ,puseyism has not its half1 or quarter1 or even tithe of a parish4 ,that ,church of ,scotland which ,knox founded1 with its offshoots the ,secession and ,relief bodies1 has not laboured in vain2 and through the blessing of ,god on these labours1 ,scotland1 as represented by its territorial majorities1 is by far the soundest and most orthodox country in the world4 ,a wise and patriotic man--at once a good ,scot and a judicious ,churchman--would1 we think1 hesitate long ere he flung away so solid an advantage1 won to us by the labours1 the contendings1 the sufferings of reformers1 confessors1 martyrs1 and ministers of the truth1 from the days of ,melville and of ,henderson1 down to those of the ,erskines and of ,chalmers4 ,he would at least not fail to ask himself whether that to which what was so unequivocally substance was to be sacrificed1 was in itself substance or shadow4 ,let us next remark1 that the ,scottish national schools1 while they thus could not fail to be essentially sound on the territorial scheme--just because ,scotland is itself essentially sound as a nation--might1 and would in very many instances1 be essentially unsound on a denominational one4 ,there is no form of religious error which may not1 in the present state of things1 have1 as we have said1 its schools supported in part by a ,government grant1 and which may not have its pupil-teachers trained up to disseminate deadly error at the public expense among the youthhead of the future4 ,edinburgh1 for instance1 has its one ,popish street--the ,cowgate2 but it has no ,popish parish3 it has got very little ,popery in ,george ,square and its neighbourhood1--very little at the ,bristo ,port1--very little in ,broughton ,street2 and yet in all these localities1 territorially ,protestant1 ,papists have got their religion-teaching schools1 in which pupil-teachers1 paid by the ,state1 are in the course of being duly qualified for carrying on the work of perversion and proselytism4 ,st4 ,patrick's school1 in which1 as our readers were so lately shown1 boys may spend four years without acquiring even the simple accomplishment of reading1 has no fewer than five of these embryo perverters supported by the ,government4 ,puseyism has1 in the same way1 no territorial standing on the northern shores of the ,frith of ,forth2 and yet at least one ,free ,church minister1 located in one of the towns which stud that coast1 could tell of a well-equipped ,puseyite school in his immediate neighbourhood1 supported in part by the ,government grant1 that1 by the superiority of the secular education which it supplies1 is drawing away ,presbyterian1 nay1 even ,free ,church children1 from the other schools of the locality4 ,on the territorial principle1 we repeat1 schools such as these1 which rest on the denominational basis alone1 could not possibly receive the support and countenance of the ,legislature4 ,and let the reader remark1 that should the ,free ,church succeed in getting rid of the anomalous religious certificate1 and yet continue to hold by the denominational basis1 something worse than mere denomination would scarce fail to step in4 ,the ,combeite might then freely come forward to teach at the public expense1 that no other soul of man has yet been ascertained to exist than the human brain1 and no other superintending ,providence than the blind laws of insensate matter4 ,nay1 even ,socialism1 just a little disguised1 might begin to build and teach for the benefit of the young1 secure of being backed and assisted in its work by the civil magistrate4 ,further1 should the grant scheme be rendered more flexible1 i4e4 extended to a lower grade of qualification1 and thus the public purse be applied to the maintenance and perpetuation of a hedge-school system of education1--or should it be rendered more liberal1 i4e4 should the ,government be induced to do proportionally more1 and the school-builders be required to do proportionally less1--superstition and infidelity would1 in the carrying out of their schemes of perversion1 have1 in consequence1 just all the less to sacrifice and to acquire4 ,according to the present arrangement1 a schoolmaster must realize1 from salary and fees united1 the sum of forty-five annual pounds1 and be1 besides1 furnished with a free house1 ere he can receive from the ,government a grant on its lowest scale1 viz4 fifteen pounds2#i and whatever judgment may be formed of the proportion in which the ,state contributes1 there can be no question that the general arrangement is a wise one4 ,sermonizing dominies could be had1 no doubt1 at any price2 and there can be as little doubt that1 at any price1 would the great bulk of them turn out to be 'doons hard bargains2' but it is wholly impossible that a country should have respectable and efficient teachers under from sixty to eighty pounds a year4 ,the thing1 we repeat1 is wholly impossible2 and the ,state1 in acting1 as in this arrangement1 on the conviction1 does but its duty to its people4 ,the some sixty or seventy pounds1 however1 would be as certainly realized as under the present arrangement1 were it ,government that contributed the forty-five pounds1 and the denomination or society the fifteen and the free house2 and this1 of course1 would be eminently liberal4 ,but what would be the effects of so happy a change8 ,it might in some degree relieve the ,free ,church ,scheme from financial difficulty2 but would it do nothing more8 ,there are ,puseyite ladies in ,scotland1 high in rank and influence1 and possessed of much wealth and great zeal1 who are already building their schools1 in the hope of unprotestantizing their poor lapsed country1 spiritually ruined by the ,reformation4 ,the liberality that might in part enable the ,free ,church ,education ,committee to discharge its obligations at the rate of twenty shillings per pound1 would be a wonderful godsend to them2 seeing that they would have little else to do1 under a scheme so liberal1 than simply to erect schoolhouses on the widespread domains of their husbands or fathers1 and immediately commence perverting the children of the nation at the national cost4 ,it would be no less advantageous to the ,society of the ,propaganda1 and would enable it to spare its own purse1 by opening to it that of the people4 ,the ,socinian1 the ,combeite1 the semi-,socialist--none of them very much disposed to liberality themselves--would all share in that of the ,government2 and their zeal1 no longer tied down to inactivity by the dread of pecuniary sacrifice or obligation1 would find wings and come abroad4 ,surely1 with such consequences in prospect1 our ,free ,church readers would do well to ponder the nature and demands of the crisis at which they have now arrived4 ,our country and our ,church have in reality but one set of interests2 and a man cannot be a bad ,scot without being a bad ,free ,churchman too4 ,let them decide in this matter1 not under the guidance of an oblique eye1 squinted on little temporary difficulties or hypothetical denominational advantages1 but influenced by considerations of the permanent welfare of their country1 and of their abiding obligations to their ,god4 ,but why1 it may be asked of the writer1 if you be thus sensible of the immense superiority of a territorial scheme of educational endowments over a denominational scheme of educational grants1--why did you yourself urge1 some three years ago1 that the ,free ,church should avail herself of these very grants8 ,our reply is sufficiently simple4 ,the denominational scheme of grants was the only scheme before us at the time2 these grants were1 we saw1 in danger of being rejected by the ,free ,church on what we deemed an unsound and perilous principle1 which was in itself in no degree ,free ,church2 and last1 not least1 we saw further1 that if the ,church did not avail herself of these grants1 there awaited on her ,educational ,scheme--ominously devoid of that direct divine mandate which all her other schemes possessed--inevitable and disastrous bankruptcy4 ,but circumstances have greatly changed4 ,the ,free ,church is no longer in any danger from the principle which would have rejected ,government assistance4 ,there is now a territorial scheme brought full before the view of the country2 and1 further1 the ,government grants have wholly failed to preserve our ,educational ,scheme from the state of extreme pecuniary embarrassment which we too surely anticipated4 ,salaries of #ae and #bj per annum are greatly less than adequate for the support and remuneration of even the lower order of teachers1 especially in thinly-peopled districts of country1 where pupils are few and the fees inconsiderable4 ,but at these low rates it was determined1 in the programme of the ,free ,church ,educational ,scheme1 that about three-fourths of the ,church's teachers should be paid2 and there are scores and hundreds among them who regulated their expenditure on the arrangement4 ,for at least the last two years1 however1 the ,education ,committee has been paying its #ae salaries at the reduced rate of #aj1 and its #bj salaries at the rate of #ac1 #acs4 #d;d42 and those embarrassments1 of which the reduction was a consequence1 have borne with distressful effect on the ,committee's employs4 ,however orthodox their creed1 their circumstances have in many instances become ,antinomian2 nor1 while teaching religion to others1 have they been able in every instance to conform to one of its simplest demands--',owe no man anything4' ,there were several important items1 let us remark1 in which we over-estimated the amount of assistance which the ,scheme was to receive from the ,government2 and this mainly from our looking at the matter in the gross1 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 hand1 and a certain course of management adopted on the part of our ,education ,committee on the other4 ,the grant is given in proportion to salary of one to two 7we at present set aside the element of fees73 a salary of thirty pounds is supplemented by a grant of fifteen pounds1--a salary of forty pounds by a grant of twenty1--a salary of fifty by a grant of twenty-five1--and so on2 and we were sanguine enough to calculate1 that an aggregate sum of some ten or twelve thousand pounds raised by the ,church for salaries1 would be supplemented by an aggregation of grants from the ,government to the amount of some five or six thousand pounds more4 ,the minimum sum regarded as essentially necessary for carrying on the ,free ,church ,educational ,scheme had been estimated at twenty thousand pounds4 ,if the ,free ,church raise but twelve thousand of these1 we said1 ,government will give her six thousand additional in the form of grants1 and some two thousand additional1 or so1 for the training of her pupil-teachers2 and the ,church will thus be enabled to realize her minimum estimate4 ,we did not take the fact into account1 that of our ,free ,church teachers a preponderating majority should fail successfully to compete for the ,government money2 nor yet that the educational funds should be so broken up into driblet salaries1 attached to schools in which the fees were poor and the pupils few1 that the schoolmaster1 even though possessed of the necessary literary qualification1 would in many cases be some twenty1 or even thirty1 pounds short of the necessary money qualification1 i4e4 the essential forty-five annual pounds4 ,we did not1 we say1 take these circumstances into account1--indeed1 it was scarce possible that we could have done so2 and so we immensely over-estimated the efficacy of the ,state grant in maintaining the solvency of our ,educational ,scheme4 ,we learn from ,dr4 ,reid's recent ,report to our metropolitan church court1 that of the forty-two ,free ,church teachers connected with the ,presbytery of ,edinburgh1 and in receipt of salaries from the ,education ,committee1 only thirteen have been successful in obtaining ,government certificates of merit4 ,and even this is a rather high average1 compared with that of the other districts2 for we have ascertained1 that of the six hundred and eighty-nine teachers of the ,free ,church scattered over the kingdom1 not more than a hundred and twenty-nine have received the ,government grant4 ,there are1 however1 among the others1 teachers who have failed to attain to it1 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 one4 ,that which we so much dreaded has come1 we repeat1 upon our ,educational ,scheme4 ,the subject is a painfully delicate one1 and we have long kept aloof from it2 but truth1 and truth only1 can now enable the ,free ,church and her people to act1 in this emergency1 as becomes the character which they bear1 and the circumstances in which they are placed4 ,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 congratulation2 nor forget1 in our future calculations1 that if the ,free ,church now realizes from #aj1jjj to #ab1jjj yearly for educational purposes1 she would require to realize some #ejjj or #fjjj more in order to qualify her to meet her existing liabilities1 estimated at the very moderate rates laid down in the programme4 ,the #ejjj or #fjjj additional1 instead of enabling her to erect a single additional school1 would only enable her to pay in full her teachers' salaries4 ,and so it is obviously a delusion to hold that our ,free ,church ,educational ,scheme supplies in reality two-thirds of our congregations with teachers1 seeing that these teachers are only two-thirds paid4 ,we are still some #ejjj or #fjjj short of supplying the two-thirds1 and some #fjjj or #gjjj more of supplying the whole4 ,and even were the whole of our own membership to be supplied1 the grand query1 ,how is our country to be educated1--our parish schools to be restored to usefulness and the ,scotch people1--and ,scotland herself to resume and maintain her old place among the nations8--would come back upon us as emphatically as now4 ,judging from what has been already done1 and this after every nerve has been strained in the ,sisyphisian work of rolling up-hill an ever-returning stone1 it seems wholly impossible that we should ever succeed in educating the young of even our own congregations2 and how1 then1 save on some great national scheme1 is a sinking nation to be educated8 ----- #h ,the following portion of a motion on the educational question1 announced in the ,edinburgh ,presbytery of the ,free ,church on the #fth of ,february last1 is specially referred to in this paragraph3-- ',that the successful working of the present ,government plan would be greatly promoted by the following amendments3-- '#ast1 ,the entire omission in all cases 7except1 perhaps1 the case of the ,established ,church7 of the certificate regarding religious instruction1 and the recognition of all bodies1 whether ,churches or private parties and associations1 as equally entitled to receive aid4 '#b;d1 ,the adoption of a rule in proportioning ,government grants to local efforts more flexible1 and admitting of far more liberal aid in destitute localities1 as compared with those which are in a better condition4 '#c;d1 ,the institution1 on the part of ,government1 of an inquiry into the destitution confessedly existing in large towns1 populous neighbourhoods1 and remote districts1 with a view of marking out places where elementary schools are particularly needed2 and the holding out of special encouragement to whatever parties may come forward as willing to plant such schools4 ',that the preceding suggestions1 if adopted1 would go far to render the present ,government plan unobjectionable in principle1 and also to fit it in practice for ascertaining the educational wants of the country2 but that a much more liberal expenditure of the public money would seem to be indispensable1 as well as a less stringent application1 upon adequate cause shown1 of the rules by which the expenditure is regulated4' ,in bringing the motion forward in the following meeting of ,presbytery1 the clause recommending the 'entire omission in all cases of the certificate regarding religious instruction' was suffered to drop4 #i ,such are the proportions laid down in the official document for ,scotland of the ,committee of ,her ,majesty's ,privy ,council on ,education4 ,we understand1 however1 that the ,government inspectors possess certain modifying powers1 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 pounds4 ,,chapter ,,fifth4 ,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 ,security2 where are the parties to contend for it8--,necessity of a ,government ,inquiry--',o for an hour of ,knox6' ,that higher order of farm-servants which are known technically in ,mid-,lothian as 'sowers and stackers1' receive1 as their yearly wages1 in the immediate neighbourhood of the house of the writer1 eighteen pounds in money1 four bolls oatmeal1 two cart-loads of potatoes1 and about from twenty to thirty shillings worth of milk4 ,the money value of the whole amounts1 at the present time1 to something between twenty-three and twenty-four pounds sterling4 ,we are informed by a ,fifeshire proprietor1 that in his part of the country1 a superior farm-servant1 neither grieve nor foreman1 receives eight pounds in money1 six and a half bolls meal1 three cart-loads of potatoes1 and the use of a cow1 generally estimated as worth from ten to twelve pounds annually4 ,his aggregate wages1 therefore1 average from about twenty-four to twenty-six pounds ten shillings a year4 ,and we are told by another proprietor of the south of ,scotland1 that each of the better hinds in his employment costs him every year about thirty pounds4 ,in fine1 to the south of the ,grampians1 the emoluments of our more efficient class of farm-servants range from twenty-three to thirty pounds yearly4 ,we need not refer to the wages of railway navvies1 nor yet to those of the superior classes of mechanics1 such as printers1 masons1 jewellers1 typefounders1 etc4 ,there is not a printer in the ,witness office who would be permitted by the rules of his profession1 to make an arrangement with his employers1 were he to exchange piece-work for wages1 that did not secure to him twenty-five shillings per week4 ,to expect that a country or ,church can possibly have efficient schoolmasters at a lower rate of emolument than not only skilled mechanics1 but than even unskilled railway labourers1 or the 'stackers and sowers' of our large farms1 is so palpably a delusion1 that simply to name it is to expose it4 ,and yet of our ,free ,church schoolmasters1 especially in thinly-peopled rural districts and the ,highlands1 there are scores remunerated at a lower rate than labourers and farm-servants1 and hundreds at a rate at least as low2 and if we except the fortunate hundred and twenty-nine who receive the ,government grant1 few indeed of the others rise to the level of the skilled mechanic4 ,greatly more than two-thirds of our teachers were placed originally on the #ae and #bj scale of salaries3 these are now paid with #aj and #ac1 #acs4 #d;d4 respectively4 ,there are many localities in which these pittances are not more than doubled by the fees1 and some localities in which they are even less than doubled2 and so a preponderating majority of the schoolmasters of the ,free ,church are miserably poor men3 for what might be a competency to a labourer or hind1 must be utter poverty to them4 ,and not a few of their number are distressfully embarrassed and in debt4 ,now this will never do4 ,the ,church may make herself very sure1 that for her #aj or #ac she will receive ultimately only the worth of #aj or #ac4 ,she may get windfalls of single teachers for a few months or years3 superior young men may occasionally make a brief stay in her schools1 in the course of their progress to something better1--as ,pilgrim rested for a while in the half-way recess hollowed in the side of the ,hill ,difficulty2 but only very mediocre men1 devoid of energy enough of body or mind to make good masons or carpenters1 will stick fast in them4 ,we have learned that1 in one northern locality1 no fewer than eight ,free ,church teachers have since ,martinmas last either tendered their resignations1 or are on the eve of doing so4 ,these1 it will be found1 are superior men1 who rationally aspire to something better than mere ploughman's wages2 but there will of course be no resignations tendered by the class who1 in even the lowest depths of the ,scheme1 have found but their proper level4 ,these1 as the more active spirits fly off1 will flow in and fill up their places1 till1 wherever the #aj and #ac salaries prevail1--and in what rural district do they not prevail8--the general pedagogical acquirements of our teachers will present a surface as flat1 dull1 and unprofitable as ditch-water4 ,for what1 we again ask1 can be expected for #aj or #ac8 ,and let the reader but mark the effect of such teaching4 ,we have seen placed side by side1 in the same burgh town1 an ,english school1 in which what are deemed the branches suitable for mechanics and their children1 such as reading1 writing1 and arithmetic1 were energetically taught1 and a grammar school in which a university-bred schoolmaster laboured1 with really not much energy1 especially in those lower departments in which his rival excelled1 but who was fitted to prepare his pupils for college1 and not devoid of the classical enthusiasm4 ,and it struck us as a significant and instructive fact1 that while the good ,english school1 though it turned out smart readers and clever arithmeticians1 failed to elevate a single man from the lower to the middle or higher walks of life1 the grammar school was successful in elevating a great many4 ,the principle on which such a difference of result should have been obtained is so obvious1 that it can scarce be necessary to point it out4 ,the teaching of the one school was a narrow lane1 trim1 'tis true1 and well kept1 but which led to only workshops1 brick-kilns1 and quarries2 whereas that of the other was a broad1 partially-neglected avenue1 which opened into the great professional highways1 that lead everywhere4 ,and if the difference was one which could not be obviated by all the energy of a superior and well-paid ,english teacher1 how1 we ask1 is it to be obviated by our ,free ,church #aj and #ac teachers8 ,surely our ,church would do well to ponder whether it can be either her interest or her duty to urge on any scheme1 in opposition to a national one1 which would have all too palpably the effect of degrading her poorer membership1 so far as they availed themselves of it1 into the ,gibeonites of the community--its hewers of wood and drawers of water4 ,never will ,scotland possess an educational scheme truly national1 and either worthy of her ancient fame or adequate to the demands and emergencies of an age like the present1 until at least every parish shall possess among its other teachers its one university-bred schoolmaster1 popularly chosen1 and well paid1 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 commonalty4 ,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--itself1 mayhap1 sufficiently attenuated by the demands of purely ecclesiastical objects--must be likened to that other waking dream of the belated ,german peasant1 who sees from some deep glade of his native forests a spectral hunt sweep through the clouds1--skeleton stags pursued by skeleton huntsmen1 mounted on skeleton horses1 and surrounded by skeleton beagles2 and who hears1 as the wild pageant recedes into the darkness1 the hollow tantivy and the spectral horns echoing loud and wildly through the angry heavens4 ,it is of paramount importance that the ,free ,church should in the present crisis take up her position wisely4 ,we have heard of invaders of desperate courage1 who1 on landing upon some shore on which they had determined either to conquer or to perish1 set fire to their ships1 and thus shut out the possibility of retreat4 ,now the ,free ,church--whether she land herself into an agitation for a scheme of ,government grants rendered more liberal and flexible than now1 and dissociated from the religious certificate1 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 ships4 ,let her not rashly commit herself against a third scheme1 essentially one in principle with that which the sagacious ,chalmers could regard1 after long and profound reflection1 as the only one truly eligible in the circumstances of the country1 and which she herself1 some two or three years hence1 may be compelled to regard in a similar light4 ,the educational agitation is not to be settled in the course of a few brief months2 nor yet by the votes of ,presbyteries1 ,synods1 or ,general ,assemblies1 whether they belong to the ,free or to the ,established ,churches4 ,it rises direct out of the great social question of the time4 ,scotland as such forms one of its battle-fields1 and ,scotchmen as such are the parties who are to be engaged in the fight2 and the issue1 though ultimately secure1 will long seem doubtful4 ,and so the ,free ,church may have quite time enough to fight her own battle1 or rather her own two battles in succession1 and1 when both are over1 find that the great general contest still remains undecided4 ,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 past2 but most happy would we be to find ourselves mistaken4 ,the ,church of ,scotland1 as represented by that majority which is now the ,free ,church1 might have succeeded in carrying some such measure ten years ago1 when the parish schools were yet in her custody2 just as she might have succeeded seven years earlier in obviating the dire necessity which led to the ,disruption1 by acting upon the advice of the wise and far-seeing ,m',crie4#aj ,but she was not less prepared at the one date to agitate for the total abolition of patronage1 than at the other to throw open the parish schools on the basis of a statutory security for the teaching of religion4 ,in both cases1 the golden opportunity was suffered to pass by2 and ,old ,time presents to her now but the bald retreating occiput1 which her eager hand may in vain attempt to grasp4 ,where1 we ask1 are we to look for the forces that are to assist us in fighting this battle of statutory security8 ,has the ,establishment become more liberal1 or more disposed to open the parish schools1 than we ourselves were when we composed the majority of that very ,establishment8 ,alas6 in order to satisfy ourselves on that head1 we have but to look at the decisions of her various ecclesiastical courts4 ,or is it the old ,scottish ,dissenters that are to change their entire front1 and to make common cause with us1 in disregard1 and even in defiance1 of their own principles1 as they themselves understand them8 ,or are we to look to that evangelical portion of the ,episcopacy of ,england1 with whom ,establishment means ,church1 and the 'good of the ,establishment' a synonyme for the 'good of the ,church1' and who1 to a certainty1 will move no hand against the sister ,establishment in ,scotland8 ,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 endowments1 on the ground that there is a sort of religion homoeopathically diffused in all education--especially1 we suppose1 in ,lindley ,murray's readings from the ,spectator and ,dr4 ,blair--and that1 as the ,state must not provide religious teaching for its people1 it cannot1 and must not1 provide for them teaching of any kind8 ,scientific ,jews are they1 of the straitest sect1 who1 wiser than their fathers1 have ascertained by the microscope1 that all meat1 however nicely washed1 continues to retain its molecules of blood1 and that flesh therefore must on no account be eaten4 ,we cannot1 we say1 discern1 within the wide horizon of existing realities1 the troops with which this battle is to be fought4 ,they seem to be mere shadows of the past4 ,but if the ,free ,church see otherwise1 let her by all means summon them up1 and fight it4 ,regarded simply as a matter of policy1 we are afraid the contest would be at least imprudent4 ',it were well1' said a ,scotch officer to ,wolfe1 when ,chatham first called out the ,highlanders of ,scotland to fight in the wars of ,britain1--',it were well1 ,general1 that you should know the character of these ,highland troops4 ,do not attempt manoeuvring with them2 ,scotch ,highlanders don't understand manoeuvre4 ,if you make a feint of charging1 they will throw themselves sword in hand into the thick of the enemy1 and you will in vain attempt calling them back2 or if you make a show of retreating1 they will run away in right earnest1 and you will never see them more4 ,so do not employ them in feints and stratagems1 but keep them for the hard1 serious business of the fight1 and you will find them the best troops in the world4' ,now1 nearly the same character applies to the ,free ,church4 ,to set her a-fighting as a matter of policy1 would be very bad policy indeed4 ,she would find out reasons1 semi-theological at least1 for all her positions1 however hopeless1 and would continue fixed in these long after the battle had been fought and lost1 and when she ought to be engaged in retrieving her disasters on other ground1 and in a fresh and more promising quarrel4 ,but if the ,free ,church does enter into this battle1 let her in the meantime not forget1 that after it has been fought1 and at least possibly lost1 another battle may have still to be begun2 nor let her attempt damaging1 by doubtful theology1 the position which a preponderating majority of her own office-bearers and members may have yet to take up4 ,for1 ultimately at least1 the damage would be all her own4 ,let her remark further1 that should her people set their hearts pretty strongly on those national seminaries1 which in many parts of the country would become1 if opened up1 wholly their own de facto1 and which are already their own de jure1 they might not be quite able to feel the cogency of the argument that1 while it left ,socinians and ,papists in the enjoyment of at once very liberal and very flexible ,government grants1 challenged their right to choose1 on their own responsibility1 ,state-paid teachers for their children2 and which virtually assured them1 that if they did not contribute largely to the educational scheme of their own ,church1 she would be wholly unable to maintain it as a sort of mid-impediment between them and their just rights1 the parish schools4 ,they would be exceedingly apt1 too1 to translate any very determined and general preference manifested by our church courts for the scheme of educational grants1 into some such enunciation as the following3--',give us to ourselves but a moiety of one-third of the ,scottish young1 and we will frankly give up the other two-thirds1--the one-half of them to be destroyed by gross ignorance1 and the other half by deadly error4'#aa ,there is at least one point on which we think all ,free ,churchmen ought to agree4 ,it is necessary that the truth should be known respecting the educational condition and resources of ,scotland4 ,it will1 we understand1 be moved to-day ,february #bgth1 in the ,free ,church ,presbytery of ,edinburgh1 as a thing good and desirable1 that ,government should 'institute an inquiry into the educational destitution confessedly existing in large towns1 populous neighbourhoods1 and remote districts1 with a view to the marking out of places where elementary schools are particularly needed1' etc4 ,would it not be more satisfactory to move instead1 the desirableness of a ,government ,commission of ,inquiry1 #ast1 into the educational condition of all the youth of ,scotland between the years of six and fifteen1 on the scheme of that inquiry recently conducted by a ,free ,church ,educational ,association in the ,tron parish of ,glasgow2 #b;d1 into the condition1 character1 and teaching of all the various schools of the country1 whether parochial1 ,free ,church1 or adventure schools1 with the actual amount of pupils in attendance at each2 and #c;d1 into the general standing1 acquirements1 and emoluments of all the teachers8 ,not only would the report of such a ,commission be of much solid value in itself1 from the amount of fact which it would furnish for the direction of educational exertion on the part of both the people and the ,state2 but it might also have the effect of preventing good men from taking up1 in the coming contest1 untenable and suspicious ground4 ,it would lay open the true state of our parish schools1 and not only show how utterly useless these institutions have become1 from at least the shores of the ,beauly to those of the ,pentland ,frith1 and throughout the ,highlands generally1 but also expose the gross exaggeration of the estimate furnished by ,mr4 ,macrae1 and adopted by ,dr4 ,muir4#ab ,further1 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 ,england1 who1 in order to secure certain petty advantages to their own miserable sects1 set themselves to represent their poor country--perishing at the time for lack of knowledge--as comparatively little in need of educational assistance4 ,but we trust this at least is an enormity1 at once criminal and mean1 of which no ,scotchman1 whatever his ,church1 could possibly be guilty2 and so we shall not do our country the injustice of holding that1 though it produced its 'fause ,sir ,johns' in the past1 it contains in the present one such traitor1 until we at least see the man4 ,further1 a ,state ,report of the kind would lay open to us1 in the severe statistical form1 the actual emoluments of our own ,free ,church teachers4 ,we trust1 then1 that this scheme of a searching ,government inquiry may be regarded as a first great step towards the important work of educating the ,scottish people1 in which all ought to agree1 however thoroughly at variance in matters of principle or on points of detail4 ,it is of mighty importance that men should look at things as they really are4 ,let us remember that it is not for the emergencies of yesterday that we are now called on to provide1 but for the necessities of to-day1--not for ,scotland in the year #aeib1 nor yet in the year #agjj1 but for ,scotland in the year #ahej4 ,what might be the best possible course in these bygone ages1 may be1 and is1 wholly an impracticable course now4 ,church at both these earlier dates meant not only an orthodox communion1 but also that preponderating majority of the nation which reckoned up as its own the great bulk of both the rulers and the ruled1 and at once owned the best and longest swords1 and wore the strongest armour2 whereas it now means1 legally at least1 merely two ,erastianized ,establishments1 and politically1 all the ,christian denominations that possess votes and return members to ,parliament4 ,the prism seizes on a single white ray1 and decomposes it into a definitely proportioned spectrum1 gorgeous with the primary colours4 ,the representative principle of a ,government such as ours takes up1 as if by a reverse process1 those diverse hues of the denominational spectrum that vary the face of society1 and compounds them in the ,legislature into a blank4 ,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 country1 the blank would be still more perfect than it is2 and this fact--a direct result of the strongly marked hues of the denominational spectrum1 operated upon by the representative principle--we can no more change than we can the optical law4 ,let there be but the colour of one religion in the national spectrum1 and the ,legislature will wear but one religious colour3 let it consist of half-a-dozen colours1 and the ,legislature will be of none4 ',o for an hour of ,knox6' it has been said by a good and able man1 from whom1 however1 in this question we greatly differ1--',o for an hour of ,knox to defend the national religious education which he was raised up to institute6' ,knox1 be it remembered1 was wise1 prudent1 sagacious1 in accordance with the demands of his time4 ,a ,knox of the exact fashion of the sixteenth century1 raised up in the middle of the nineteenth1 would be but a slim1 long-bearded effigy of a ,knox1 grotesquely attired in a ,geneva cloak and cap1 and with the straw and hay that stuffed him sticking out in tufts from his waistband4 ',o for an hour of ,knox6' ,the ,scottish ,church of the present age has already had its ,knox4 ',elias hath already come4' ,the large-minded1 wise-hearted ,knox of the nineteenth century died at ,morningside three years ago2 and he has bequeathed1 as a precious legacy to the ,church1 his judgment on this very question4 ',it were the best state of things1' he said1 'that we had a ,parliament sufficiently theological to discriminate between the right and the wrong in religion1 and to endow accordingly4 ,but failing this1 it seems to us the next best thing1 that in any public measure for helping on the education of the people1 ,government were to abstain from introducing the element of religion at all into their part of the scheme2 and this not because they held the matter to be insignificant1--the contrary might be strongly expressed in the preamble of their ,act1#ac--;but on the ground that1 in the present divided state of the ,christian world1 they would take no cognizance of1 just because they would attempt no control over1 the religion of applicants for aid1--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 assist4 ,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 education4' ----- #aj ,to demand of that ,parliament which carried the ,reform ,bill the repeal of the ,patronage ,act1 instead of enacting1 on her own authority1 the ,veto ,law4 #aa ',i see1' said ,knox1 when the ,privy ,council1 in dividing the ecclesiastical revenues of the kingdom into three parts1 determined on giving two of these to the nobility1 and on dividing the remaining part between the ,protestant ministry and the ,court1--' ,i see two-thirds freely given to the devil1 and the other third divided between ,god and the devil3 if the end of this order be happy1 my judgment fails me6' ,our church courts1 if they declare for the system of denominational grants1 in opposition to the territorial endowments of a scheme truly national1 will be securing virtually a similar division of the people1 with but this difference1 that ,god's share of the reserved moiety may be a very small share indeed4 ,and can it possibly be held that the shame and guilt of such an arrangement can be obviated by the votes of ,synods or ,assemblies8 or that1 with an intelligent laity to judge in the matter1 the 'end of this order' can be other than unhappy8 ,the schools of the ,free ,church have already1 it is said1 done much good4 ,we would1 we reply1 be without excuse1 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 good4 ,of nothing1 however1 are we more convinced1 than that the good which they have done has been accomplished by them in their character as schools1 not in their character as denominational4 ,we know a little regarding this matter2 for in our journeyings of many thousand miles over ,scotland1 especially in the ,highlands and the northern counties1 we have made some use of both our eyes and ears4 ,we have seen1 and sickened to see1 hordes of schoolboys of ten and twelve years bandying as nicknames1 with boys whose parents belonged to the ,establishment1 the terms of polemic controversy4 ',moderate' has become in juvenile mouths as much a term of hatred and reproach in extensive districts of our country1 as we remember ',frenchman' used to be during the great revolutionary war4 ,our children bid fair to get1 in their state of denominational separatism1 at least religion enough heartily to hate their neighbours2 and1 we are afraid1 not much more4 ,now1 it may be thought that the ,editor of the ,witness1 himself long engaged in semi-theological warfare1 ought to be silent in a matter of this kind4 ,be it remembered1 we reply1 that it was men1 not children1 whom the ,editor of the ,witness made it his business to address2 and that when1 in what he deemed a good cause1 he appealed to the understandings of his adult country-folk1 he besought them in every instance to test and examine ere they judged and decided4 ,he did not contemplate a phase of the controversy in which unthinking children should come from their schools to contend with other children1 in the spirit of those little ones of ,bethel who 'came forth out of their city' to mock and to jeer2 or that immature1 unreasoning minds should be torn by the she-bears of uncharitable feeling1 at an age when the points really at issue in the case can be received only as prejudices1 and expressed only by the mere calling of names4 ,and seeing and knowing what he has seen and knows1 he has become sincerely desirous that controversy should be left to at least the adult population of the country1 and that its children of all the communions should be sent to mingle together in their games and their tasks1 and to form their unselfish attachments1 under a wise system of national tuition1 as thoroughly ,christian as may be1 but at the same time as little as possible polemical or sectarian4 #ab ,to the effect that there are a hundred thousand children in attendance at the parish schools of ,scotland4 #ac ',we are aware1' says a respected antagonist1 'that ,mr4 ,miller is no ,deist2 his argument1 nevertheless1 rests on a deistical position1--a charge to which ,dr4 ,chalmers' letter is not liable to be exposed1 in consequence of its first sentence1 and of what it recommends in a ,government preamble4' ,if there be such virtue in a preamble1 say we1 let us by all means have a preamble--ten preambles if necessary--rather than a deistic principle4 ,we would fain imitate in this matter the tolerance of ,luther4 ',a complaint comes that such and such a reformed preacher will not preach without a cassock4 ,well1 answers ,luther1 what harm will a cassock do the man8 ,let him have a cassock to preach in2 let him have three cassocks1 if he find benefit in them4' ,,chapter ,,sixth4 ,our previous ,statement regarding the actual ,condition of the ,free ,church ,educational ,scheme absolutely necessary--,voluntary ,objections to a ,national ,scheme1 as stated by the ,opponents of the ,voluntaries2 not particularly solid--,examination of the matter4 ,our episode regarding the ,free ,church ,educational ,scheme now fairly completed1 let us return to the general question4 ,the reader may1 however1 do well to note the inevitable necessity which existed on our part1 that our wholesome1 though mayhap unpalatable1 statements respecting it should have been submitted to the ,church and the country4 ,the grand question which in the course of ,providence had at length arisen was1 ',how is our sinking country to be educated8' ,we had taken our stand1 as a ,scotchman1 in behalf of the ,scottish people2 and as the belief seemed widely to exist that our own ,free ,church scheme was adequate1 or at least nearly so1 to the education of the children of our own membership1 and that our duty as ,scotchmen could be fulfilled1 somehow1 by concentrating all our exertions upon it1 it had become essentially necessary that the delusion should be dispelled4 ,and so we have showed1 that while our scheme1 in order fully to supply the educational wants of even our own people1 would require to exist in the proportion of nine1 it exists nominally in but the proportion of six1 and in reality in but the proportion of four1--seeing that the six1 i4e4 our existing staff of teachers1 amounting to but two-thirds of the number required1 are but two-thirds paid2--in short1 that our educational speculation is exactly in the circumstances of a railway company who1 having engaged to cut a line ninety miles in length1 have succeeded in cutting forty miles of it at their own proper expense1 and then having cut twenty miles more on preference shares1 find their further progress arrested by a lack of funds4 ,and so it became necessary to show that the existence and circumstances of our ,free ,church schools1 instead of furnishing1 as had been urged in several of our presbyteries1 any argument against the agitation of the general question1 furnished1 on the contrary1 the best possible of all arguments for its agitation2 and to show further1 that the policy which brought a denominational scheme1 that did not look beyond ourselves1 into a great national engagement1 in the character of a privateer virtually on the side of the enemy1 was a most perilous policy1 that exposed it to damaging broadsides1 and telling shot right between wind and water4 ,let us now pass on to the consideration of a matter on which we but touched before1--the perfect compatibility of a consistent ,voluntaryism with religious teaching in a school endowed by the ,state1 on the principle of ,dr4 ,chalmers4 ,the ,witness is as little ,voluntary now as it ever was4 ,it seems but fair1 however1 that a principle should be saddled with only the consequences that legitimately arise from it2 and that ,voluntaryism should not be exposed1 in this contest1 to a species of witchcraft1 that first caricatures it in an ill-modelled image1 and then sticks the ugly thing over with pins4 ,the revenues of the ,state-endowed schools of this country--and1 we suppose1 of every other--are derived from two distinct sources3 from ,government1 who furnishes the schoolmaster's salary1 and erects the building in which he teaches2 and from the parents or guardians1 who remunerate him according to certain graduated rates for the kind of instruction which he communicates to their children or wards4 ,and the rationale of this ,state assistance seems very obvious4 ,it is of importance to the ,state1 both on economic and judicial grounds1 that all its people should be taught2 but1 on the adventure-school principle1 it is impossible that they should all be taught1 seeing that adventure schools can thrive in only densely peopled localities1 or where supported by wealthy families1 that pay largely for their children's education4 ,and so1 in order that education may be brought down to the humblest of the people1 the ,state supplements1 in its own and its people's behalf1 the schoolmaster's income1 and builds him a school4 ,such seems to be the principle of educational endowments4 ,now1 if the ,state1 in endowing national schoolmasters1 were to signify that it endowed them in order that1 among other things1 they should teach religion1 we can well see how a ,voluntary who conscientiously holds1 as such1 that religion ought not to be ,state-endowed1 might be unable to avail himself1 on his children's behalf1 of the ,state-enjoined religious teaching of any such functionaries2 just as we can also see1 that if the ,state forbade its schoolmasters on any account to teach religion1 a conscientious holder of the ,establishment principle might be perhaps equally unable to avail himself of services so restricted4 ,we can at least see how each1 in turn1 might lodge an alternate protest1--the one against the positive exclusion of religion by the ,state1 the other against its positive introduction4 ,but if1 according to ,chalmers1 the ,state1 aware of the difficulty1 tenders its endowment and builds its schools 'simply as an expression of its value for a good secular education1' 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--i4e4 the parents or guardians--we find in the arrangement ground on which the ,voluntary and the ,establishment man can meet and agree4 ,for the ,state virtually wills by such a settlement--and both by what it demands1 and by what it does not demand1 but permits--that its salaried functionary should stand to his employers1 the people1 simply in the relation of an adventure schoolmaster4 ,the ,state says virtually to its teacher in such circumstances3 ',i1 as the general guardian of your pupils1 do not pay you for their religious education2 but their particular and special guardians1 the parents1 are quite at liberty to make with you on that head whatever bargain they please4 ,fully aware of the vast importance of religious teaching1 and yet wholly unable1 from the denominational differences of the time1 at once to provide for it in the national seminaries1 and to render these equal to the wants of the country1 ,i throw the whole responsibility in this matter on the divided people1 whom ,i cannot unite in their religion1 but whose general education ,i am not on that account at liberty to neglect4' ,on grounds such as these1 we repeat1 ,voluntaryism and the ,establishment principle may meet and agree4 ,there can be little doubt1 however1 that there are men on both sides sparingly gifted with common sense3 for never yet was there a great question widely and popularly agitated1 that did not divide not only the wise men1 but also the fools of the community2 and we have heard it urged by some of the representatives of the weaker class1 that a ,voluntary could not permit his children to be taught religion under a roof provided by the ,state4 ,really1 with all respect for the cap and bells1 this is driving the matter a little too far4 ,we have been told by a relative1 now deceased1 who served on shipboard during the first revolutionary war1 and saw some hard fighting1 that at the close of a hot engagement1 in which victory remained with the ,british1 the captain of the vessel in which he sailed--a devout and brave man--called his crew together upon the quarter-deck1 and offered up thanks to ,god in an impressive prayer4 ,the noble ship in which he sailed was the property of the ,state1 and he himself a ,state-paid official2 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 occasion1 simply as a ,christian hero8 ,nay1 had he sought to employ and pay out of his private purse in behalf of his crew an evangelical missionary1 as decidedly ,voluntary in his views as ,john ,foster or ,robert ,hall1 would the man have once thought of objecting to the work because it was to be prosecuted under the shelter of beams and planks1 every one of which belonged to the ,government8 ,would a pious ,voluntary soldier keep aloof from a prayer-meeting on no other ground than that it was held in a barrack8--or did the first ,voluntaries of ,great ,britain1 the high-toned ,independents that fought under ,cromwell1 abstain from their preachings and their prayers when cooped up by the enemy in a garrison8 ,where is the religious ,voluntary who would not exhort in a prison1 or offer up an unbought prayer on a public1 ,state-provided scaffold1 for some wretched criminal shivering on the verge of the grave8 ,now the schoolmaster1 in the circumstances laid down by ,chalmers1 we hold to be in at least as favourable a position with respect to the ,state and the ,state-erected edifice in which he teaches1 as the ship-captain or the non-commissioned missionary--the devout ,voluntary soldier1 or the pious ,independents of ,cromwell's ,ironsides4 ,he is1 in his secular character1 a ,state-paid official1 sheltered by an erection the property of the ,state2 but the ,state permits him to bear in that erection another character1 in relation to another certain employer1 whom it recognises as quite as legitimately in the field as itself1 and permits him also--though it does not enjoin--to perform his duties there as a ,christian man4 ,though1 however1 the objection to religious teaching under the ,state-erected roof may be suffered to drop1 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 day1 for which it is somehow taken for granted the ,state pays4 ,hence the argument for teaching religion in certain other periods of time not paid for by the ,state--or in other words1 during separate hours4 ,now the entire difference here seems to originate in a vicious begging of the question4 ,it is not the ,state that specifies the hours during each day in which ,state-endowed and ,state-erected schools are taught2 on the contrary1 varying as these hours do1 and must1 in various parts of the town and country--for a thinly-peopled district demands one set of hours1 and a densely-peopled locality another--they are fixed1 as mere matters of mutual arrangement1 to suit the convenience of the teachers and the taught4 ,it is enough that the ,state satisfy itself1 through its inspectors1 that the secular instruction for which it pays is effectually imparted to its people3 it neither does nor will lay claim to any one hour of the day as its own1 whether before noon or after it4 ,it will leave to the ,english ,establishment its canonical hours1 sacred to organ music and the ,liturgy2 but it will set apart by enactment no pedagogical hours1 sacred to arithmetic or algebra1 the construing of verbs1 or the drawing of figures4 ,if separate hours merely mean that the master is not to have all his classes up at once--here gabbling ,latin or ,greek1 there discussing the primer or reciting from ,scott's ,collection1 yonder repeating the multiplication table or running over the rules of ,lindley ,murray--we at once say religion must have its separate hour1 just as ,english1 the dead tongues1 figuring1 writing1 and the mathematics1 have their separate hours2 but if it be meant that the religious teaching of the school must be restricted to some hour not paid for by the ,state1 then we reply with equal readiness that we know of no hour specially paid for by the ,state1 and so utterly fail to recognise any principle in the proposed arrangement1 or rather in the objection that would suggest it4 ,as to the question of a separate fee for religious tuition1 let us consider how it is usually solved in the adventure schools of the country4 ,the day is1 in most cases1 opened by the master with prayer1 and then there is a portion of ,scripture read by the pupils4 ,and neither the ,scripture read nor the prayer offered up fall1 we are disposed to think1 under the head of religious tuition1 but under a greatly better head--that of religion itself4 ,it is a proper devotional beginning of the business of the day4 ,the committal of the ,shorter ,catechism--which with most children is altogether an exercise of memory1 but which1 accomplished in youth1 while the intellect yet sleeps1 produces effects in after years almost always beneficial to the understanding1 and not unfrequently ameliorative of the heart--we place in a different category4 ,it is not religion1 but the teaching of religion2 not food for the present1 but store laid up for the future4 ,with the committal to memory of the ,catechism we class that species of ,scripture dissection now so common in schools1 which so often mangles what it carves4#ad ,and religion taught in this way is and ought to be represented in the fee paid to the teacher1 and is and ought to be taught in a class as separate from all the others as the geography or the grammar class4 ,such is1 we understand1 a common arrangement in ,scottish adventure schools2 nor does there exist a single good reason for preventing it from also obtaining in the ,scottish national schools4 ,if the parentage of ,scotland1 whether ,voluntary or ,establishment1 were to be vested with the power of determining that it should be so1 and of selecting their schoolmasters1 the schools would open with prayer and the reading of the ,word--not because they were ,state-endowed1 but because1 the ,state leaving the point entirely open1 they were the schools of a ,christian land1 to which ,christian parents had sent their children1 and for which1 on their own proper responsibility1 they had chosen1 so far as they could determine the point1 ,christian teachers4 ,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 pupils1 or from any one else4 ,for the proper devotional services of the school we would place on exactly the same high disinterested level as the devotional exercises of the family1 or as those of the gallant officer and his crew1 who1 paid for but the defence of their country1 gave ,god thanks on the blood-stained quarter-deck1 in their character as ,christians1 that ,he had sheltered their heads in one of their country's battles1 and then cast themselves in faith upon ,his further care4 ,we would1 we say1 deem it an insult to the profession to speak of a monetary remuneration for the read word or the prayer offered up4 ,nay1 if either was rated at but a single penny as its price1 or if there was a single penny expected for either1 where is there the man1 ,voluntary or ,free ,church1 that would deem it worth the money8 ,the story of the footman1 who1 upon being told1 on entering on his new place1 that he would have to attend family prayers1 expressed a hope that the duty would be considered in his wages1 has become one of the standard jokes of our jest-books4 ,we would1 however1 place the religious teaching of the school on an entirely different footing from its religious services4 ,we would assign to it its separate class and its separate time1 just as we would assign a separate class and time to the teaching of ,english grammar1 or history1 or the dead languages4 ,and whether the remuneration was specified or merely understood1 we would deem it but reasonable that this branch of teaching1 like all the other branches which occupied the time and tasked the exertions of the teacher1 should be remunerated by a fee3 in this department of tuition1 as in the others1 we would deem the labourer worthy of his hire4 ,we need scarce add1 however1 that we would recognise no power in the majority of any locality1 or in the schoolmaster whom they had chosen1 to render attendance at even the devotional services of the seminary compulsory on the children of parents who1 on religious or other grounds1 willed that they should not join in the general worship4 ,and1 of course1 attendance on the religion-teaching class would be altogether as much a matter of arrangement between the parent and the schoolmaster1 as attendance on the ,latin or ,english classes1 or on arithmetic1 algebra1 or the mathematics4 ,while1 however1 we can see no proper grounds for difference between ,voluntaries and ,free ,churchmen1 on even these details of school management1 and see1 further1 that they never differ regarding the way in which the adventure schools of the country are conducted1 we must remind the reader that all on which they have really to agree on this question1 as ,scotchmen and franchise-holders1 is simply whether their country ought not1 in the first place1 to possess an efficient system of national schools1 open to all the ,christian denominations2 whether1 in the second1 the parents ought not to be permitted to exercise1 on their own responsibility1 the natural right of determining what their children should be taught2 and whether1 in the third1 the householders of a district ought not to be vested in the power1 now possessed by the heritors and parish minister1 of choosing the teacher4 ,agreement on these heads is really all that is necessary towards either the preliminary agitation of the question1 or in order to secure its ultimate success4 ,the minor points would all come to be settled1 not on the legislative platform1 but in the parishes1 by the householders4 ,voluntaryism1 wise and foolish1 does not reckon up more than a third of the population of ,scotland2 and foolish1 i4e4 extreme ,voluntaries--for the sensible ones would be all with us--would find themselves1 when they came to record their votes1 a very small minority indeed4 ,and so1 though their extreme views may now be represented as lions in the path1 it would be found ultimately that1 like the lions which affrighted ,pilgrim in the avenue1 and made the poor man run back1 they are lions well chained up--lions1 in short1 in a minority1 like the agricultural lion in ,punch4 ,let us remark1 further1 that if some of our friends deem the scheme proposed for ,scotland too little religious1 it is as certain that the assertors of the scheme now proposed for ,england1 and advocated in ,parliament by ,mr4 ,fox1 very decidedly object to it on the opposite score4 ,like the grace said by the ,rev4 ,reuben ,butler1 which was censured by the ,captain of ,knockdunder as too long1 and by douce ,davie ,deans as too short1 it is condemned for faults so decidedly antagonistic in their character1 that they cannot co-exist together4 ,one class of persons look exclusively at that lack of a statutory recognition of religion which the scheme involves1 and denounce it as infidel2 another1 at the religious character of the people of ,scotland1 and at the consequent certainty1 also involved in the scheme1 that they will render their schools transcripts of themselves1 and so they condemn it as orthodox4 ,and hence the opposite views entertained by ,mr4 ,combe of ,edinburgh on the one hand1 and ,mr4 ,gibson of ,glasgow on the other4#ae ----- #ad ,it is not uninstructive to remark how invariably in this matter an important point has been taken for granted which has not yet been proven2 and how the most serious charges have been preferred against men's principles1 on the assumption that there exists in the question a certain divine truth1 which may be neither divine nor yet a truth at all4 ,wisdom and goodness may be exhibited in both the negative and positive form--both by avoiding what is wicked and foolish1 and by doing what is good and wise4 ,and while no ,christian doubts that the adorable ,head of the ,church manifested ,his character1 when on earth1 in both ways1 at least no ,presbyterian doubts that ,he manifested it not only by instituting certain orders in ,his ,church1 but also by omitting to institute in it certain other orders4 ,he instituted1 for instance1 an order of preachers of the gospel2 ,he did not institute an order of popes and cardinals4 ,neither1 however1 did ,he institute an order of 'religion-teaching' schoolmasters2 and the question not yet settled1 and of which1 without compromising a single article in our standards1 either side may be espoused1 is1 whether our ,saviour manifested ,his wisdom in not making use of the schoolmaster1 or whether1 without indicating ,his mind on the subject1 ,he left the schoolmaster to be legitimately employed in an after-development of the ,church4 ,indeed1 so entirely in this matter is the ,free ,church at sea1 without chart or compass1 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 country4 ',i sometimes regretted to observe1' says ,dr4 ,reid1 in his ,report on the ,schools in connection with the ,free ,presbytery of ,edinburgh1 'that their lessons in the ,bible and ,shorter ,catechism were taught rather too much in the style of the ordinary lessons4 ,i do not object to places being taken1 or any other means employed1 which a teacher may consider necessary to secure attention during a ,scripture lesson2 but divine truth should always be communicated with solemnity4' ,now1 such is the general defect of the religious teaching of the schoolroom4 ,nor is it to be obviated1 we fear1 by any expression of extra solemnity thrown into the pedagogical face1 or even by the taking of places or the taws4 ,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 mind1 and hardening the heart against their after application from the pulpit4 ,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 engaged4 ,for our own part1 we can have little doubt1 be the matter decided as it may1 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 gospel4 ,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 7now1 alas1 no more7 our ,church ever produced4 ,he referred1 first1 to the false association which those words of world-wide meaning1 'religious education1' are almost sure to induce1 when restricted1 in a narrow1 inadequate sense1 to the teaching of the schoolmaster2 and next1 to the divine commission of the minister of the gospel4 ',perverted as human nature is1' he remarked1 'there are cases in which1 by appealing to its sentiments and affections1 we may derive a very nice evidence respecting the divine origin of certain institutions and injunctions4 ,for instance1 the ,chinese hold1 as one of their religious beliefs1 that parents have a paramount claim to the affections of their sons and daughters1 long after they have been married and settled in the world2 whereas our ,saviour teaches that a man should leave father and mother and cleave to his wife1 and the wife leave father and mother and cleave to her husband4 ,and as1 in the case of the dead and living child1 ,solomon sought his evidence in the feelings of the women that came before him1 and determined her to be the true mother in whom he found the true mother's love and regard1 ,i would seek my evidence1 in this other case1 in the affections of human nature2 and ask them whether they declared for the law of the ,chinese ,baal1 or for that of ,him who implanted them in the heart4 ,and how prompt and satisfactory the reply6 ,the love which of twain makes one flesh approves itself1 in all experience1 to be greatly stronger and more engrossing than that which attaches the child to the parent2 and while we see the unnatural ,chinese law making the weaker traverse and overrule the stronger affection1 and thus demonstrating its own falsity1 we find the law of ,christ exquisitely concerting with the nature which ,christ gave1 and thus establishing its own truth4 ,now1 regarding the commission of the minister of the gospel1' he continued1 ',i put a similar question to the affections1 and receive from them a not less satisfactory reply4 ,the ,god who gave the commission does inspire a love for him who truly bears it2 ay1 a love but even too engrossing at times1 and that1 by running to excess1 defeats its proper end1 by making the servant eclipse in the congregational mind the ,master whose message he bears4 ,but ,i do believe that the sentiment1 like the order to which it attaches1 is1 in its own proper place1 of divine appointment4 ,it is a preparation for the reception in love of the gospel message4 ,god does not will that ,his message should be injured by any prejudice against the bearer of it2 and that ,his will in this matter might be adequately carried out1 was one of the grand objects of our contendings in the ,church controversy4 ,but we are not to calculate on the existence of any such strong feeling of love between the children of a school and their teacher4 ,if1 founding on the experience of our own early years1 we think of the schoolmaster1 not in his present relation to ourselves as a fellow-citizen1 or as a servant of the ,church1 but simply in his connection with the immature class on which he operates1 we will find him circled round in their estimation 7save in perhaps a very few exceptional cases7 with greatly more of terror than affection4 ,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 charges2 and right well was ,st4 ,paul aware of the fact1 when he sought in the terrors of the schoolmaster an illustration of the terrors of the law4 ,and in this fence of terror we may perhaps find a reason why ,christ never committed to the schoolmaster the gospel message4' ,we are afraid we do but little justice1 in this passage1 to the thinking of our deceased friend2 for we cannot recall his flowing and singularly happy language1 but we have1 we trust1 preserved his leading ideas2 and they are1 we think1 worthy of being carefully pondered4 ,we may add1 that he was a man who had done much in his parish for education2 but that he had at length seen1 though without relaxing his efforts1 that the religious teaching of his schools had failed to make the rising generation under his charge religious1 and had been led seriously to inquire regarding the cause of its failure4 #ae ,mr4 ,combe1 however1 may be regarded as an extreme man2 and so the following letter1 valuable as illustrating the views of a not very extreme opponent1 though a decided assertor of the non-religious system of tuition1 may be well deemed instructive4 ,the writer1 ,mr4 ,samuel ,lucas1 was for many years ,chairman of that ,lancashire ,public ,school ,association which ,mr4 ,fox proposes as the model of his scheme3-- ,,to ,,the ,,editor ,,of ,,the ,,scotsman4 ,,sir1--,in your paper of the #bfth ultimo1 ,i observe among the advertisements a set of resolutions which have been agreed to and signed by a number of parties1 with the view of a national movement in favour of an unsectarian system of national education4 ,it is perhaps too early to say1 that though the names of some of the parties are well known and highly esteemed in this country1 yet that the names of many who might be expected to be foremost in promoting such an object are wanting4 ,i cannot1 however1 help thinking1 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 it2 and as a few lines of editorial comment indicate that the project has your sanction1 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 it4 ,agreeing1 as ,i do most fully1 with a large proportion of the contents of the resolutions1 ,i regret that its authors have made an attempt1 which it is impossible can be successful1 to unite in the national schoolhouses1 and in the school hours1 a sound religious with an unsectarian education4 ,what is a sound religious education8 ,will not the professors of every variety of religious faith answer the question differently8 ,i think it was ,bishop ,berkeley who said1 ,orthodoxy is my doxy2 heterodoxy is another man's doxy4 ,so it is with a sound religious education4 ,what is sound to me is hollow and superficial1 or perhaps full of error1 to another4 ,if it be said that the majority of heads of families must decide as to what is sound and what is unsound1 ,i must protest against such an injustice4 ,the minority will contribute to the support of the public schools1 and neither directly nor indirectly can they with justice be deprived of the use of them4 ,it appears to me that the authors of the resolutions are flying in the face of their own great authority1 in proposing to introduce religious instruction into the public schools4 ,it is true that ,dr4 ,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 assist2' but he was not then contemplating the erection of national schools by the public money1 but schools erected by voluntary subscription1 which the ,government might be called on to assist4 ,his opinion on the right action of ,government in the present state of things is clear4 ,he says3 ',that in any public measure for helping on the education of the people1 ,government should abstain from introducing the element of religion at all into their part of the scheme4' ,what1 then1 should be the course taken by the promoters of public schools1 in accordance with the principles enunciated by ,dr ,chalmers8 ,it appears to me to be clearly this3 to make no provision whatever for1 or rather directly to exclude1 all religious teaching within the walls of the school1 and to leave1 in the words of the fifth resolution1 'the duty and responsibility of communicating religious instruction' in the hands of those 'to whom they have been committed by ,god1 viz4 to their parents1 and1 through them1 to such teachers as they may choose to entrust with that duty4' ,this was the course pursued by the ,government of ,holland in the early part of the present century2 and ,i suppose no one will venture to call in question the morality or religion of the people of that country1 or to throw a doubt upon the success of the system4 ,it is as an ardent friend of ,national ,education1 both in ,scotland and ,england1 that ,i have ventured to make these few observations4 ,i desire to throw no obstruction in the way of any movement calculated to attain so desirable an object4 ,it may be that ,i am mistaken in supposing that it is intended to convey religious instruction1 in the public schools1 of a kind that will be obnoxious to a minority2 and if so1 the design of the authors of the resolutions will have no more sincere well-wisher than1 ,sir1 your obedient servant1 ,,samuel ,,lucas4 ,,london1 ,february #d1 #ahej4 ,,chapter ,,seventh4 ,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 ,knox4 ,scotland will never have an efficient educational system at once worthy of her ancient fame1 and adequate to the demands of the age1 until in every parish there be at least one central school1 known emphatically as the ,parish or ,grammar ,school1 and taught by a superior university-bred teacher1 qualified to instruct his pupils in the higher departments of learning1 and fit them for college4 ,and with this central institute every parish must also possess its supplementary ,english schools1 efficient of their kind1 though of a lower standing1 and sufficiently numerous to receive all the youthful population of the district which fails to be accommodated in the other4 ,in these1 the child of the labourer or mechanic--if1 possessed of but ordinary powers1 he looked no higher than the profession of his father--could be taught to read1 write1 and figure4 ,if1 however1 there awakened within him during the process1 the stirrings of those impulses which characterize the superior mind1 he could remove to his proper place--the central school--mayhap1 in country districts1 some two or three miles away2 but when the intellectual impulses are genuine1 two or three miles in such cases are easily got over4 ,we would fix for the teachers1 in the first instance1 on no very extravagant rate of remuneration2 for it might prove bad policy in this1 as in other departments1 to set a man above his work4 ,the salaries attached at present to our parish schools vary from a minimum of #be to a maximum of about #cd4 ,let us suppose that they varied1 instead1 from a minimum of #fj to a maximum of #hj--not large sums1 certainly1 but which1 with the fees and a free house1 would render every parochial schoolmaster in ,scotland worth about from #hj to #ajj per annum1 and in some cases--dependent1 of course1 on professional efficiency and the population of the locality--worth considerably more4 ,the supplementary ,english schools we would place on the average level maintained at present by our parish schools1 by providing the teachers with free houses1 and yearly salaries of a minimum of #cj and a maximum of #dj4 ,and as it is of great importance that men should not fall asleep at their posts1 and as tutors never teach more efficiently than when straining to keep ahead of their pupils1 we would fain have provision made that1 by a permitted use of occasional substitutes1 this lower order of schoolmasters should be enabled to prepare themselves1 by attendance at college1 for competing1 as vacancies occurred1 for the higher schools4 ,it would be an arrangement worth #bj additional salary to every school in ,scotland1 that the channels of preferment should be ever kept open to useful talent and honest diligence1 so that the humblest ,english teacher in the land might rise1 in the course of years1 to be at the head of its highest school2 nay1 that1 like that ,james ,beattie who taught at one time the parish school of ,fordoun1 he might1 if native faculty had been given and wisely improved1 become one of the country's most distinguished professors4 ,in fixing our permanent castes of schools1 ,grammar and ,english1 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 higher4 ,the life-giving sap would thus have free course1 from the earth's level to the topmost boughs of our national scheme2 and low as an ,englishman might deem our proposed rates of remuneration for university-taught men1 we have no fear that they would prove insufficient1 coupled with such a provision1 for the right education of the country4 ,we are not sure that we quite comprehend the sort of machinery meant to be included under the term ,local or ,parochial ,boards4 ,it seems necessary that there should exist ,local ,committees of the educational franchise-holders1 chosen by themselves1 from among their own number1 for terms either definite or indefinite1 and recognised by statute as vested in certain powers of examination and inquiry4 ,but though a mere name be but a small matter1 we are inclined to regard the term ,board as somewhat too formidable and stiff4 ,let us1 at least for the present1 substitute the term ,committee2 and as large committees are apt to degenerate into little mobs1 and1 as such1 to conduct their business noisily and ill1 let us suppose educational committees to consist1 in at least country districts or the smaller towns1 of some eight or ten individuals1 selected by the householders for their intelligence1 integrity1 and business habits1 and with a chairman at their head1 chosen from among their number by themselves4 ,a vacancy occurs1 let us suppose1 in either the ,grammar or one of the ,english schools of the place3 the committee1 through their chairman1 put themselves in communication with some of the ,normal schoolmasters of the south1 and receive from them a few names of deserving and qualified teachers1 possessed of diplomas indicating their professional standing1 and furnished1 besides1 with trustworthy certificates of character4 ,or1 if the emoluments of the vacant school be considerable1 and some of the neighbouring teachers1 placed on a lower rate of income1 have distinguished themselves by their professional merits1 and so rendered themselves known in the district1 let us suppose that they select their names1 and to the number of some two1 three1 four1 or more1 submit them1 with the necessary credentials1 to their constituents the householders4 ,and these assemble on some fixed day1 and1 from the number placed on the list1 select their men4 ,such1 in the business of electing a schoolmaster1 would1 we hold1 be the proper work of a committee4 ,in all other seasons1 the committee might be recognised as vested in some of the functions now exercised by the ,established presbyteries1 such as that of presiding1 in behalf of the parentage of the locality1 at yearly or half-yearly examinations of the schools1 and of watching over the general morals and official conduct of the teacher4 ,but the power of trial and dismission1 which1 of course1 would need to exist somewhere1 we would vest in other hands4 ,let us remark1 in the passing1 that much might come to depend ultimately on the portioning out of the localities into electoral districts of a proper size1 and that it would be perhaps well1 as a general rule1 that there should be no subdivisions made of the old parishes4 ,there are few parishes in ,scotland in which the materials of a good committee might not be found2 but there are perhaps many half1 and third1 and quarter parishes in which no such materials exist4 ,further1 the householders of some country hamlet or degraded town-suburb1 populous enough to require its school1 might be yet very unfit of themselves to choose for it a schoolmaster4 ,and hence the necessity for maintaining a local breadth of representation sufficient to do justice to the principle of the scheme1 and to prevent it1 if we may so speak1 from sinking in the less solid parts of the kingdom4 ,a parochial breadth of base would serve as if to plank over the unsounder portions of the general surface1 and give footing to a system of schools and teachers worthy1 as a whole1 of the character and the necessities of a country wise and enlightened in the main1 but that totters on the brink of a bottomless abyss4 ,the power of trying1 and1 if necessary1 of dismissing from his charge1 an offending teacher1 would1 however1 as we have said1 require to exist somewhere4 ,every official1 whether of the ,state or ,church1 or whether dependent on a single employer or on a corporation or company1 bears always a twofold character4 ,he is a subject of the realm1 and1 as such1 amenable to its laws2 he has also an official responsibility1 and may be reprimanded or dismissed for offences against the requirements and duties of his office4 ,a tradesman or mechanic may go on tippling for years1 wasting his means and neglecting his business1 untouched by any law save that great economic law of ,providence which dooms the waster to ultimate want2 but for the excise officer1 or bank accountant1 or railway clerk1 who pursues a similar course1 there exists a court of official responsibility1 which anticipates the slow operation of the natural law1 by at once divesting the offender of his office4 ,and the ,state-paid schoolmaster must have also his official responsibility4 ,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 condemn3 their proper place would be rather that of parties than of judges2 and as parties1 we would permit them simply to conduct against him any case for which they might hold there existed proper grounds4 ,a schoolmaster chosen by a not large majority1 might find in a few years that his supporters had dwindled into a positive minority3 parents whose boys were careless1 or naturally thick-headed1 would of course arrive at the opinion that it was the teacher who was in fault2 nay1 a parent who had fallen into arrears with his fees might come to entertain the design of discharging the account simply by discharging the schoolmaster2 and thus great injustice might be done to worthy and efficient men1 and one of the most important classes of the community placed in circumstances of a shackled dependency1 which no right-minded teacher could submit to occupy4 ,what we would propose1 then1 is1 that the power of trial1 and of dismission if necessary1 should be vested in a central national board1 furnished with one or more salaried functionaries to record its sentences and do its drudgery1 but consisting mainly of unpaid members of high character and standing1--some of them1 mayhap1 members ex officio2 the ,lord ,provost of ,edinburgh1 let us suppose--the ,principal and some of the ,professors of the ,edinburgh ,university--the ,rector1 shall we say1 of the ,high ,school--the ,lord ,advocate1 and mayhap the ,dean of ,faculty4 ,and as it would be of importance that there should be as little new machinery created as possible1 the evidence1 criminatory or exculpatory1 on which such a board would have to decide could be taken before the ,sheriff ,courts of the provinces1 and then1 after being carefully sifted by the ,sheriffs or their ,substitutes1 forwarded in a documentary form to ,edinburgh4 ,it would scarce be wise to attempt extemporizing an official code in a newspaper article2 but the laws of such a code might1 we think1 be ranged under three heads1--immorality1 incompetency1 and breach of trust to the parents4 ,we would urge the dismissal1 as wholly unqualified to stand in the relation of teacher to the youthhead1 of the tippling1 licentious1 or dishonest schoolmaster2 further1 we would urge the dismissal 7and in cases of this kind the corroborative evidence of the ,government inspector might be regarded as indispensable7 of an incompetent teacher who did not serve the purpose of his appointment2 and1 in the third and last place1 we would urge that a teacher who made an improper use of his professional influence over his pupils1 and of the opportunities necessarily afforded him1 and who taught them to entertain beliefs1 ecclesiastical or semi-ecclesiastical1 which their parents regarded as erroneous1 should be severely reprimanded for such an offence in the first instance1 and dismissed if he persevered in it4 ,we would confer upon the board1 in cases of this last kind1 no power of deciding regarding the absolute right or wrong of the dogmas taught4 ,the teacher might be a zealous ,voluntary1 who assured the children of men such as the writer of these articles that their fathers1 in asserting the ,establishment principle1 approved themselves limbs of that mystic ,babylon which was first founded by ,constantine2 or he might be a conscientious ,establishment-man1 who dutifully pressed upon the ,voluntary pupils under his care1 that their parents1 though they perhaps did not know it1 were atheistical in their views4 ,and we would permit no board to determine in such cases1 whether ,voluntaryism was in any respect or degree tantamount to atheism1 or the ,establishment principle to ,popery4 ,but we would ask them to declare1 as wise and honest men1 that no schoolmaster1 under the pretext of a zeal for truth1 should with impunity break faith with the parents of his pupils1 or prejudice the unformed and ductile minds entrusted to his care against their hereditary beliefs4 ,should we1 however1 do no violence by such a provision1 we have heard it asked1 to the conscientious convictions of the schoolmaster8 ,no1 not in the least4 ,if he was in reality the conscientious man that he professed to be1 he would quit his equivocal position as a teacher1 in which1 without being dishonest1 he could not fulfil what he deemed his religious duty1 and become a minister2 a character in which he would find ,churches within which he could affirm with impunity that ,dr4 ,chalmers was1 in virtue of his ,establishment views1 little better than a ,papist1 or that ,robert ,hall1 seeing he was a ,voluntary1 must have been an unconscious atheist at bottom4 ,let us next consider what the influence of the ministers of our ,church would be under a national scheme such as that which we desiderate1 and what the probability that the national teaching would be religious4 ,the minister1 as such1 would possess1 nominally at least1 but a single vote2 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 vote1 nominally one1 would be also really but one2 nor ought it1 we at once say1 to weigh in such cases an iota more than it counted4 ,mere black coats and white neckcloths1 though called by congregations1 and licensed and ordained by presbyteries1 never yet carried on the proper business of either ,church or school4 ,but if the minister was no mere suit of clothes1 but a ,christian man1 ordained and called not merely by congregations and presbyteries1 but by ,god ,himself1 his one vote in the case would outweigh hundreds1 simply because it would represent the votes of hundreds4 ,let us suppose that1 with the national schools thrown open1 a vacancy had occurred in the parish school of ,cromarty during the incumbency of the lamented ,mr4 ,stewart4 ,the people of the town and parish1 possessing the educational franchise1 would meet2 their committee would deliberate2 there would be a teacher chosen1--in all probability1 the present excellent ,free ,church teacher of the town2 and every man would feel that he had exercised in the election his own judgment on his own proper responsibility4 ,and yet it would assuredly be the teacher whom the minister had deemed on the whole most eligible for the office1 that would find himself settled1 in virtue of the transaction1 in the parish school4 ,how8 ,not1 certainly1 through any exercise of clerical domination1 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 gospel4 ,in almost all the surrounding parishes--in ,resolis1 ,rosskeen1 ,urquhart under the late ,dr4 ,m',donald1 ,alness1 ,kiltearn1 ,kincardine1 ,kilmuir1 etc4 etc4 etc4--in similar cases similar results would follow2 and if there are preachers in that vast northern or north-western tract--which1 with the three northern counties1 includes also almost the entire ,highlands--in which such results would not follow1 it would be found that in most cases the fault lay rather with the ordained suits of black1 topped by the white neckcloths1 than with the people whom they failed to influence4 ,as for the religion or the religious teaching of the schools1 we hold it to be one of the advantages of the proposed scheme1 that it would really stir up both ministers and people to think seriously of the matter1 and to secure for the country truly religious teaching1 so far as it was found to be at once practicable and good4 ,previous to the year #ahdc1 when the parish schools lay fully within our power1 there was really nothing done to introduce religious teaching into them2 we had it all secure on written sheepskin1 that their teaching should and might be religious1 for we had them all fast bound to the ,establishment2 and1 as if that were enough of itself1 ministers1 backed by heritors and their factors1 went on filling these parish schools with men who stood the test of the ,disruption worse1 in the proportion of at least five to one1 than any other class in the country1 and who1 if their religious teaching had but taken effect on the people by bringing them to their own level1 would have rendered that ,disruption wholly an impossibility4#af ,and then1 when that great event occurred1 we flung ourselves into an opposite extreme1--eulogized our ,educational ,scheme as the best and most important of all the ,schemes of our ,church1 on1 we suppose1 the principle so well understood by the old divines1 that whereas the other schemes were of ,god1 and ,god-enjoined1 this scheme was of ourselves1--introduced1 further1 the design of 'inducting' our teachers1 as if an idle ceremony could be any substitute for the indispensable commission signed by the ,sovereign1 and could make the non-commissioned by ,him at least half ecclesiastics4#ag ,and then1 after teaching our schoolmasters to teach religion1 we sent them abroad in shoals--some of them1 no doubt1 converted men1 hundreds of them unconverted1 and religious but by certificate--to make the children of the ,free ,church as good ,christians as themselves4 ,and by attempting to make them half ecclesiastics1 we have but succeeded in making them half mendicants1 and somewhat more1--a character which assuredly no efficient schoolmaster ought to bear2 for while his profession holds in ,scripture no higher place than the two secular branches of the learned professions1 physic and the law1 he is as certainly worthy of his reward1 and of maintaining an independent position in society1 as either the lawyer or the physician4 ,in schools truly national--with no sheepskin authority to sleep over on the one hand1 and no idle dream of semi-ecclesiastical 'induction' to beguile on the other--the item of religious teaching1 brought into prominence by both the ,free and the ,established ,churches in the preliminary struggle1 would assert and receive its due place4 ,scotland would possess what it never yet possessed1--not even some twenty years or so after the death of ,knox1--a system of schools worthy1 in the main1 of a ,christian country4 ,we are told by old ,robert ,blair1 in his ,autobiography1 that when first brought under religious impressions 7in the year #afjj71 'he durst never play on the ,lord's day1 though the schoolmaster1 after taking an account of the ,catechism1 dismissed the children with that express direction1 ,go not to the town1 but to the fields1 and play4 ,i obeyed him1' adds the worthy man1 'in going to the fields1 but refused to play with my companions1 as against the commandment of ,god4' ,now it is not at all strange that there should have been such a schoolmaster1 in any age of the ,presbyterian ,church1 in one of the parish schools of our country2 but somewhat strange1 mayhap1 considering the impression so generally received regarding the ,scottish schools of that period1 that ,blair should have given us no reason whatever to regard the case as an extreme or exceptional one4 ,certainly1 with such a central board in existence as that which we desiderate1 no such type of schoolmaster would continue to hold office in a national seminary4 ,further1 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 ,church1 or the difference between the circumstances of ,scotland in his days and of ,scotland in the present day1 be in truth the wider difference of the two4 ,knox judged it of 'necessitie that every several kirk should have one schoolmaster appointed1'--'such a one at least as was able to teach grammar and the ,latine tongue2' 'that there should be erected in every notable town1' a 'colledge1 in which the arts1 logic1 and rhethorick1 together with the tongues1 should be read by masters1 for whom honest stipends should be appointed2' and further1 'that fair provision should be made for the support of the poor pupils1 in especial those who came from landward1' and were 'not able1 by their friends nor by themselves1 to be sustained at letters4' ,we know that the notable towns referred to here as of importance enough to possess colleges were1 many of them1 what we would now deem far from notable4 ,kirkwall1 the ,chanonry of ,ross1 ,brechin1 ,st4 ,andrews1 ,inverary1 ,jedburgh1 and ,dumfries1 are specially named in the list2 and we know further1 that what ,knox deemed an 'honest stipend' for a schoolmaster1 amounted on the average to about two-thirds the stipend of a minister4 ,such1 in the sixteenth century1 was the wise scheme of the liberal and scholarly ,knox1 the friend of ,calvin1 ,beza1 and ,buchanan4 ,are we to recognise its counterpart in the middle of the nineteenth century1 in a scheme at least three-fourths of whose teachers are paid with yearly salaries of from #aj to #ac1 #acs4 #d;d4--about half ploughman's wages--and of whom not a fourth have passed the ordeal of a ,government examination1 pitched at the scale of the lowest rate of attainment8 ,the scheme of the noble ,knox6 ,say rather a many-ringed film-spinning grub1 that has come creeping out of the old crackling parchment1 in which the sagacious ,reformer approved himself as much in advance of his own age1 as many of those who profess to walk most closely in his steps demonstrate themselves to be in the rear of theirs4 ,let us next mark how entirely the circumstances of the country have changed since the days of the ,first ,book of ,discipline4 ,with the exception of the clergy1 a few lay proprietors1 and a sprinkling of the inhabitants of the larger towns1 ,scotland was altogether1 in the earlier period1 an uneducated nation4 ,even for more than a century after1 there were landed gentlemen of the northern counties unable1 as shown by old deeds1 to sign their names4 ,if the ,church had not taken upon herself the education of the people in those ages1 who else was there to teach them8 ,not one4 ,save for her exertions1 the divine command1 ',search the ,scriptures1' would have remained to at least nine-tenths of the nation a dead letter4 ,but how entirely different the circumstances of ,scotland in the present time6 ,the country has its lapsed masses1--men in very much the circumstances1 educationally1 of the great bulk of the population in the age of ,knox2 and we at once grant that1 unless the ,churches of the country deal with these as ,knox dealt with the whole1 there is but little chance of their ever being restored to society or the humanizing influences of religion1 let ,government make for them what provision it may4#ah ,but such is not the condition of the membership of at least the evangelical ,churches4 ,such is palpably not the condition of the membership of the ,free ,church1 consisting as it does of parents taken solemnly bound1 in their baptismal engagements1 to bring up their children in the 'nurture and admonition of the ,lord1' and of the children for whom they have been thus taken bound4 ,save in a few exceptional cases1 their education is secure1 let the ,church exert herself as little as she may4 ,she is but exhausting herself in vain efforts to do what would be done better without her4 ,she has all along contemplated1 we are told1 merely the education of her own members2 and these form exactly that portion of the people which--unless1 indeed1 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 scheme1 wisely based on a principle of parental responsibility4 ',if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time1' said ,mordecai to ,esther1 'then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the ,jews from another place1 but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed4' ,scotland will have ultimately her ,educational ,scheme adequate to the demands of the age2 but if the ,free ,church stand aloof1 and suffer the battle to be fought by others1 her part or lot in it may be a very small matter indeed4 ,what1 we ask1 would be her share1 especially in the ,highlands1 in a scheme that rendered the basis of the educational franchise merely co-extensive with the basis of the political one8 ,nay1 what1 save perhaps in the northern burghs1 would be her share in such a scheme over ,scotland generally8 ,a mere makeweight at best4 ,but at least the lay membership of the ,free ,church will1 we are assured1 not long stand aloof2 and this great question of national education being in no degree an ecclesiastical one1 nor lying within the jurisdiction of presbyteries or assemblies1 true lovers of their country and of their species1 whether of the ,established or of the ,free ,churches1 will come forward and do their duty as ,scotchmen on the political platform4 ,in neither body does the attitude assumed by the ecclesiastical element in this question1 so far as has yet been indicated1 appear of a kind which plain1 simple-minded laymen will delight to contemplate4 ,the ,established ,church courts are taking up the ground that the teaching in their parish schools has been all along religious1 and at least one great source from which has sprung the vitalities of the country's faith4 ,and who does not know that to be a poor1 unsolid fiction1--a weak and hollow sham8 ,and1 on the other hand1 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 prospect1 when they were set down in their humble schools1 divorced from all other means of support1 to regulate their very limited expenditure by the specified incomes4 ,further1 they virtually tell us that we cannot possibly take our stand as ,scotchmen on this matter1 in the only practical position1 without being untrue to our common ,christianity1 and enemies to our ,church4 ,it has been urged against our educational articles1 that we have failed to take into account the fall of man3 he would surely be an incorrigible sceptic1 we reply1 who could look upon statements such as these1 and yet doggedly persist in doubting that man has fallen4 ,but1 alas6 it is not a matter on which to congratulate ourselves1 that when the ,established ,church is coming forward to arrest the progress of national education with her strange equivocal caveat1 the ,free ,church--the ,church of the ,disruption--should be also coming forward with a caveat which at least seems scarce less equivocal2 and that1 like the twin giants of ,guildhall--huge1 monstrous1 unreal--both alike should be turning deaf and wooden ears to the great clock of destiny1 as it strikes the hours of doom to their distracted and sinking country4 ,o for an hour of the great1 the noble-minded ,chalmers6 ,ultimately1 however1 the good cause is secure4 ,it is a cause worth struggling and suffering for4 ,we know a little boy1 not yet much of a reader1 who has learned to bring a copy of ,scott's ,tales of a ,grandfather1 which now opens of itself at the battle of ,bannockburn1 to a little girl1 his sister1 somewhat more in advance1 that she may read to him1 for the hundredth time1 of ,wallace and the ,black ,douglas1 and how the good ,king ,robert struck down ,sir ,henry ,bohun with a single blow1 full in the sight of both armies4 ,and after drinking in the narrative1 he tells that1 when grown to be a big man1 he too is to be a soldier like ,robert the ,bruce1 and to 'fight in the battle of ,scotland4' ,and then he asks his father when the battle of ,scotland is to begin6 ,laymen of the ,free ,church1 the battle of ,scotland has already begun2 and 'tis a battle better worth fighting than any other which has arisen within the political arena since the times of the ,reform ,bill4 ,your country has still claims upon you3 the ,disruption may have dissolved the tie which bound you to party2 but that which binds you to ,scotland still remains entire4 ,the parental right is not dissolved by any traditionary requirements of the altar2 nor can we urge with impunity to our country1--',it is ,corban1 that is to say1 a gift1 by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me4' ----- #af ,there are about one thousand one hundred parish schoolmasters in ,scotland3 of these1 not more than eighty 7strictly1 we believe1 seventy-seven7 adhered to the ,free ,church at the ,disruption4 #ag ,the ,church as such ought to employ the schoolmaster1 it has been argued1 in virtue of the divine injunction1 ',search the ,scriptures3' what ,god commands men to do1 it is her duty to enable men to do4 ,the argument is excellent1 we say1 so far as it goes2 but of perilous application in the case in hand4 ,it is the ,church's duty to teach those to read the ,scriptures1 who1 without her assistance1 would not be taught to read them4 ,but if by teaching ,latin1 arithmetic1 algebra1 and the mathematics to ten1 she is incapacitating herself from teaching twenty to read the ,bible2 or if1 by teaching twenty to read the ,bible who would have learned to read it whether she taught them or no1 she is incapacitating herself from teaching twenty others to read it1 who1 unless she teach them1 will never learn to read it at all2 then1 instead of doing her recognised duty in the matter1 she is doing exactly the reverse of her duty--doing what prevents her from doing her duty4 ,let the ,free ,church but take her stand on this argument1 and straightway her rectors1 her masters in academies1 and her schoolmasters planted in towns and populous localities1 to teach the higher branches1 become so many bars raised by herself virtually to impede and arrest her1 through the expense incurred in their maintenance1 in her proper work of enabling the previously untaught and ignorant to read the word of ,god1 in obedience to the divine injunction4 #ah ,this statement has been quoted by an antagonist as utterly inconsistent with our general line of argument2 but we think we may safely leave the reader to determine whether it be really so4 ,did we ever argue that any scheme of national education1 however perfect1 could possibly supersede the proper missionary labours of the ,churches1 whether educational or otherwise8 ,assuredly not4 ,what we really assert is1 that if the ,churches waste their energies on work not missionary1 the work which1 if they do it not1 cannot be done must of necessity be neglected2 seeing that1 according to ,bacon1 'charity will hardly water the ground where it must first fill a pool4' ,,lord ,,brougham4 ,the history of ,lord ,brougham has no exact parallel in that of ,british statesmen4 ,villiers ,duke of ,buckingham 7the ,duke of the times of ,charles ,,ii47 sunk quite as low1 but not from such an elevation4 ,of him too it was said1 as of his ,lordship1 that 'he left not faction1 but of that was left1'--that every party learned to distrust and stand aloof from him1 and that his great parts had only the effect of rendering his ultimate degradation the more marked and the more instructive4 ,hume tells us that by his 'wild conduct1 unrestrained either by prudence or principle1 he found means to render himself in the end odious1 and even insignificant4' ,but the ,duke of ,buckingham had been a mere courtier from the beginning1 and no man had ever trusted or thought well of him4 ,bolingbroke bears a nearly similar character4 ,there was a mighty difference between the influential and able minister of ,queen ,anne1 recognised by all as decidedly one of the most accomplished statesmen of his age or country1 and the same individual1--forlorn and an exile1 disliked and suspected by parties the most opposite1 and who agreed in nothing else1--a fugitive from his own country to avoid the threatened impeachment of the ,whigs for his ,jacobitism1 and a fugitive from ,france to avoid being impeached by the ,pretender for his treachery4 ,but ,bolingbroke had never very seriously professed to be the friend of his country1 nor would his country have believed him if he had4 ,according to the shrewd remark of ,fielding1 the temporal happiness1 the civil liberties and properties of ,europe1 had been the game of his earliest youth1 and the eternal and final happiness of all mankind the sport and entertainment of his advanced age4 ,he would have fain destroyed the freedom of his countrymen when in power1 and their hope of immortality when in disgrace4 ,neither can we find a parallel in the history of that other ,lord ,chancellor of ,england1 who has been described by the poet as 'the greatest1 wisest1 meanest of mankind4' ,two of the epithets would not suit ,lord ,brougham2 and though he unquestionably bore himself more honourably in the season of his elevation than his illustrious predecessor1 he has as certainly employed himself to worse purpose in the time of his disgrace4 ,unlike ,lords ,bolingbroke1 ,buckingham1 or ,bacon1 ,lord ,brougham entered public life a reformer and a patriot4 ,the subject of his first successful speech in ,parliament was the slave-trade4 ,he denounced not only the abominable traffic itself1--the men who stole1 bought1 and kept the slave2 but also the traders and merchants1--'the cowardly suborners of piracy and mercenary murder1' as he termed them1 under whose remote influence the trade had been carried on2 and the sympathies of the people went along with him4 ,he was on every occasion1 too1 the powerful advocate of popular education4 ,brougham is no discoverer of great truths2 but he has evinced a 'curious felicity' in expressing truths already discovered3 he exerted himself in sending 'the schoolmaster abroad1' and announced the fact in words which became more truly his motto than the motto found for him in the ,herald's ,office4 ,he took part in well-nigh every question of reform2 stood up for economy1 the reduction of taxes1 and ,queen ,caroline2 found very vigorous ,english in which to express all he ought to have felt regarding the ,holy ,alliance and the massacre at ,manchester2 and dealt with ,cobbett as ,cobbett deserved1 for doing what he is now doing himself4 ,there was always a lack of heart about ,brougham1 so that men admired without loving him4 ,there were no spontaneous exhibitions of those noblenesses of nature which mark the true reformer1 and which compel the respect of even enemies4 ,luther1 ,knox1 and ,andrew ,thomson were all men of rugged strength1--men of war1 and born to contend2 but they were also men of deep and broad sympathies1 and of kindly affections3 they could all feel as well as see the right2 what is even more important still1 they could all thoroughly forget themselves1 and what the world thought and said of them1 in the pursuit of some great and engrossing object3 they could all love1 too1 at least as sincerely as they could hate4 ,brougham1 on the contrary1 could only see without feeling the right2 but then he saw clearly4 ,brougham could not forget himself2 but then he succeeded in identifying himself with much that was truly excellent4 ,brougham could not love as thoroughly as he could hate2 but then his indignation generally fell where it ought4 ,his large intellect seemed based on an inferior nature--it was a brilliant set in lead2 nor were there indications wanting all along1 it has been said1 that he was one of those patriots who have their price4 ,but the brilliant was a true1 not a factitious brilliant1 whatever the value of the setting2 and the price1 if ever proffered1 had not been sufficiently large4 ,brougham became ,lord ,chancellor1 the ,reform ,bill passed into a law1 and slavery was abolished in the colonies4 ,the country has not yet forgotten that the ,lord ,chancellor of #ahcb and the two following years was no wild ,radical4 ,there was no leaven of ,chartism in ,lord ,brougham1 though a very considerable dash of eccentricity2 and really1 for a man who had been contending so many years in the ,opposition1 and who had attained to so thorough a command of sarcasm1 he learned to enact the courtier wonderfully well4 ,neither ',tompkins' nor ',jenkins' had as yet manifested their contempt for the aristocracy2 nor had the 'man well stricken in years' written anonymous letters to insult his sovereign4 ,the universal suffrage scheme found no advocate in the ,lord ,chancellor4 ,he could call on ,cobbett in his chariot1 to attempt persuading the stubborn old ,saxon to write down incendiarism and machine-breaking4 ,he breathed no anticipation of the 'first cheer of the people on the first refusal of the soldiery to fire on them4' ,as for ,reform1 he was very explicit on that head3 really so much had been accomplished already1 that a great deal more could not be expected4 ,little could be done in the coming years1 he said1 just because there had been so much done in the years that had gone by4 ,the ,lord ,chancellor was comparatively a cautious and prudent man in those days--on the whole1 a safe card for monarchy to play with4 ,radicalism had learned that ,whigs in office are not very unlike ,tories in office2 and to ,brougham it applied the remark3 nor was he at all indignant that it did so4 ,all his superabundant energies were expended in ,chancery4 ,we unluckily missed hearing him deliver his famous speech at ,inverness1 and that merely by an untoward chance1 for we were in that part of the country at the time2 but we have seen and conversed with scores who did hear him3 we are intimate1 too1 with the gentleman who gave his speech on that occasion to the world1 and know that a more faithful or more accomplished reporter than the editor of the ,inverness ,courier is not to be found anywhere1 nor yet a man of nicer discrimination1 nor of a finer literary taste4 ,there was no mistake made regarding his ,lordship's sentiments when he spoke of the ,reform ,bill as well-nigh a final measure2 nor did his delight in the simple-minded natives arise when he pledged himself to recommend them1 by the evening mail1 to the graces of good ,king ,william1 from their wishing the bill to be anything else than final4 ,even with its limited franchise1 he deemed it a very excellent bill2 and the woolsack1 to which it had elevated him1 a very desirable seat4 ,people did occasionally see that ,hazlitt was in the right--that he was rather a man of speech than of action2 that he was somewhat too imprudent for a leader1 somewhat too petulant for a partisan2 and that he wanted in a considerable degree the principle of co-operation4 ,but ,chatham wanted it quite as much as he2 and it was deemed invidious to measure so accomplished a man1 and so sworn a friend of peace and good order1 by the minuter rules4 ,but ,napoleon should have died at ,waterloo1 ,brougham at ,dunrobin4 ,what is ex-,chancellor ,brougham now8 ,what party trusts to him8 ,what section of the community does he represent8 ,frost had his confiding friends and followers1 and ,feargus ,o',connor led a numerous and formidable body4 ,even ,sir ,william ,courtenay had his disciples4 ,where are ,brougham's disciples8 ,what moral influence does the advocate of popular education1 and the indignant denouncer of the iniquities of the slave-trade1 exert8 ,in what age or what country was there ever a man so 'left by faction8' ,the ,socialism of ,england and the ,voluntaryism of ,edinburgh entrust him with their petitions1 and ,chartism stands on tiptoe when he rises in his place to advocate universal suffrage2 but no one confides in him4 ,owen does not1 nor the ,rev4 ,mr4 ,marshall of ,kirkintilloch1 nor yet the conspirators of ,sheffield or ,newport4 ,toryism scarcely thanks him for fighting its battles2 ,whiggism abhors him4 ,there is no one credulous enough to believe that his aims rise any higher than himself1 or blind enough not to see that even his selfishness is so ill-regulated as to defeat its own little object4 ,his lack of the higher sentiments1 the more generous feelings1 the nobler aims1 neutralizes even his intellect4 ,he publishes his speeches1 carefully solicitous of his fame1 and provokes comparison in laboured dissertations with the oratory of ,demosthenes and ,cicero2 he eulogizes the ,duke of ,wellington1 and demands by inference whether he cannot praise as classically as even the ancients themselves2 but his heartless though well-modulated eloquence lingers in first editions1 like the effusions of inferior minds2 nor is it of a kind which the 'world will find after many days4' ,brougham will be less known sixty years hence than the player ,garrick is at present4 ,bolingbroke1 when thrown out of all public employment-gagged1 disarmed1 shut out from the possibility of a return to office1 suspected alike by the ,government and the ,opposition1 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 ,ministry4 ,and his ,craftsmen sold even more rapidly than the ,spectator itself4 ,but the writings of ,brougham do not sell2 he lacks even the solace of ,bolingbroke4 ,we have said that his history is without parallel in that of ,britain4 ,napoleon on his rock was a less melancholy object3 the imprisoned warrior had lost none of his original power--he was no moral suicide2 the millions of ,france were still devotedly attached to him1 and her armies would still have followed him to battle4 ,it was no total forfeiture of character on his own part that had rendered him so utterly powerless either for good or ill4 ,july #h1 #ahdj4 ,,the ,,scott ,,monument4 ,the foundation-stone of the metropolitan monument in memory of ,sir ,walter ,scott was laid with masonic honours on ,saturday last4 ,the day was pleasant1 and the pageant imposing4 ,all business seemed suspended for the time2 the shops were shut4 ,the one half of ,edinburgh had poured into the streets1 and formed by no means the least interesting part of the spectacle4 ,every window and balcony that overlooked the procession1 every house-top almost1 had its crowd of spectators4 ,according to the poet1 ',rank behind rank1 close wedged1 hung bellying o'er2' while the area below1 for many hundred yards on either side the intended site of the monument1 presented a continuous sea of heads4 ,we marked1 among the flags exhibited1 the ,royal ,standard of ,scotland1 apparently a piece of venerable antiquity1 for the field of gold had degenerated into a field of drab1 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 inexpressive1 and less than half the result of chance4 ,the entire pageant was such a one as ,sir ,walter himself could perhaps have improved4 ,he would not have fired so many guns in the hollow1 and the grey old castle so near3 he would have found means1 too1 to prevent the crowd from so nearly swallowing up the procession4 ,perhaps no man had ever a finer eye for pictorial effect than ,sir ,walter1 whether art or nature supplied the scene4 ,it has been well said that he rendered ,abbotsford a romance in stone and lime1 and imparted to the king's visit to ,scotland the interest and dignity of an epic poem4 ,still1 however1 the pageant was an imposing one1 and illustrated happily the influence of a great and original mind1 whose energies had been employed in enriching the national literature1 over an educated and intellectual people4 ,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 head2 it is a bad matter1 too1 when it builds monuments to the memory of mere courtiers1 of whom not much more can be said than that when they lived they had places and pensions to bestow1 and that they bestowed them on their friends4 ,we cannot think so ill1 however1 of the homage paid to genius4 ,the ,masonic ,brethren of the several lodges mustered in great numbers4 ,it has been stated that more than a thousand took part in the procession4 ,coleridge1 in his curious and highly original work1 ,the ,friend--a work which1 from its nature1 never can become popular1 but which1 though it may be forgotten for a time1 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 mechanics1 'to whom every trade was an allegory1 and had its guardian saint4' ',but the time has gone by1' he states1 '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 duties4' ,we could hardly think so as we stood watching the procession1 with its curiously fantastic accumulation of ornament and symbol2 it seemed1 however1 rather the relic of a former age than the natural growth of the present--a spectre of the past strangely resuscitated4 ,the laugh1 half in ridicule1 half in good nature1 with which the crowd greeted every very gaudily dressed member1 richer in symbol and obsolete finery than his neighbour1 showed that the day had passed in which such things could produce their originally intended effect4 ,will the time ever arrive in which stars and garters will claim as little respect as broad-skirted doublets of green velvet1 surmounted with three-cornered hats tagged with silver lace8 ,much1 we suppose1 must depend upon the characters of those who wear them1 and the kind of services on which they will come to be bestowed4 ,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 rank1 but in discernment also--weak enough to believe that laws may be enacted with no regard to the general good--wrapped up in themselves1 and acquainted with the masses only through their eavesdroppers and dependants--would bring titles and orders to a lower level in half an age1 than the onward progress of intellect has brought the quaintnesses of mechanic symbol and mystery in two full centuries4 ,we but smile at the one1 we would learn to execrate the other4 ,has the reader ever seen ,quarles' ,emblems1 or ,flavel's ,husbandry and ,navigation ,spiritualized8 ,both belong to an extinct species of literature1 of which the mechanic mysteries described by ,coleridge1 and exhibited in the procession of ,saturday last1 strongly remind us4 ,both alike proceeded on a process of mind the reverse of the common4 ,comparison generally leads from the moral to the physical1 from the abstract to the visible and the tangible2 here1 on the contrary1 the tangible and the visible--the emblem and the symbol--were made to lead to the moral and the abstract4 ,there are beautiful instances1 too1 of the same school in the allegories of ,bunyan1--the wonders in the house of the ,interpreter1 for instance1 and the scenes exhibited in the cave of the 'man named ,contemplation4' ,sir ,walter's monument will have one great merit1 regarded as a piece of art4 ,it will be entirely an original1--such a piece of architecture as he himself would have delighted to describe1 and the description of which he1 and he only1 could have sublimed into poetry4 ,there is a chaste and noble beauty in the forms of ,greek and ,roman architecture which consorts well with the classic literature of those countries4 ,the compositions of ,sir ,walter1 on the contrary1 resemble what he so much loved to describe--the rich and fantastic ,gothic1 at times ludicrously uncouth1 at times exquisitely beautiful4 ,there are not finer passages in all his writings than some of his architectural descriptions4 ,how exquisite is his ,melrose ,abbey1--the external view in the cold1 pale moonshine1 ',when buttress and buttress alternately ,seemed formed of ebon and ivory2' internally1 when the strange light broke from the wizard's tomb6 ,who1 like ,sir ,walter1 could draw a mullioned window1 with its 'foliaged tracery1' its 'freakish knots1' its pointed and moulded arch1 and its dyed and pictured panes8 ,we passed1 of late1 an hour amid the ruins of ,crichton1 and scarce knew whether most to admire the fine old castle itself1 so worthy of its poet1 or the exquisite picture of it we found in ,marmion4 ,sir ,walter's monument would be a monument without character1 if it were other than ,gothic4 ,still1 however1 we have our fears for the effect4 ,in portrait-painting there is the full life-size1 and a size much smaller1 and both suit nearly equally well1 and appear equally natural2 but the intermediate sizes do not suit4 ,make the portrait just a very little less than the natural size1 and it seems not the reduced portrait of a man1 but the full-sized portrait of a dwarf4 ,now a similar principle seems to obtain in ,gothic architecture4 ,the same design which strikes as beautiful in a model--the piece which1 if executed in spar1 and with a glass cover over it1 would be regarded as exquisitely tasteful--would impress1 when executed on a large scale1 as grand and magnificent in the first degree4 ,and yet this identical design1 in an intermediate size1 would possibly enough be pronounced a failure4 ,mediocrity in size is fatal to the ,gothic1 if it be a richly ornamented ,gothic2 nor are we sure that the noble design of ,mr4 ,kemp is to be executed on a scale sufficiently extended4 ,we are rather afraid not1 but the result will show4 ,such a monument a hundred yards in height would be one of the finest things perhaps in ,europe4 ,what has ,sir ,walter done for ,scotland1 to deserve so gorgeous a monument8 ,assuredly not all he might have done2 and yet he has done much--more1 in some respects1 than any other merely literary man the country ever produced4 ,he has interested ,europe in the national character1 and in some corresponding degree in the national welfare2 and this of itself is a very important matter indeed4 ,shakespeare--perhaps the only writer who1 in the delineation of character1 takes precedence of the author of ,waverley--seems to have been less intensely imbued with the love of country4 ,it is quite possible for a foreigner to luxuriate over his dramas1 as the ,germans are said to do1 without loving ,englishmen any the better in consequence1 or respecting them any the more4 ,but the ,european celebrity of the fictions of ,sir ,walter must have had the inevitable effect of raising the character of his country1--its character as a country of men of large growth1 morally and intellectually4 ,besides1 it is natural to think of foreigners as mere abstractions2 and hence one cause at least of the indifference with which we regard them1--an indifference which the first slight misunderstanding converts into hostility4 ,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 nature1 on which the corresponding sympathies lay hold1 warm and vigorous about them4 ,now1 in this aspect has ,sir ,walter presented his countrymen to the world4 ,wherever his writings are known1 a ,scotsman can be no mere abstraction2 and in both these respects has the poet and novelist deserved well of his country4 ,within the country itself1 too1 his great nationality1 like that of ,burns1 has had a decidedly favourable effect4 ,the cosmopolism so fashionable among a certain class about the middle of the last century1 was but a mock virtue1 and a very dangerous one4 ,the 'citizen of the world1' if he be not a mere pretender1 is a man to be defined by negatives4 ,it is improper to say he loves all men alike3 he is merely equally indifferent to all4 ,nothing can be more absurd than to oppose the love of country to the love of race4 ,the latter exists but as a wider diffusion of the former4 ,do we not know that human nature1 in its absolute perfection1 and blent with the absolute and infinite perfection of ,deity1 indulged in the love of country8 ,the ,saviour1 when ,he took to ,himself a human heart1 wept over the city of ,his fathers4 ,now1 it is well that this spirit should be fostered1 not in its harsh and exclusive1 but in its human and more charitable form4 ,liberty cannot long exist apart from it4 ,the spirit of war and aggression is yet abroad3 there are laws to be established1 rights to be defended1 invaders to be repulsed1 tyrants to be deposed4 ,and who but the patriot is equal to these things8 ,how was the cry of ',scotland for ever' responded to at ,waterloo1 when the ,scots ,greys broke through a column of the enemy to the rescue of their countrymen1 and the ,highlanders levelled their bayonets for the charge6 ,a people cannot survive without the national spirit1 except as slaves4 ,the man who adds to the vigour of the feeling at the same time that he lessens its exclusiveness1 deserves well of his country2 and who can doubt that ,sir ,walter has done so8 ,the sympathies of ,sir ,walter1 despite his high ,tory predilections1 were more favourable to the people as such than those of ,shakespeare4 ,if the station be low among the characters of the dramatist1 it is an invariable rule that the style of thinking and of sentiment is low also4 ,the humble wool-comber of ,stratford-on-,avon1 possessed of a mind more capacious beyond comparison than the minds of all the nobles and monarchs of the age1 introduced no such man as himself into his dramas--no such men as ,bunyan or ,burns1--men low in place1 but kingly in intellect4 ,not so1 however1 the aristocratic ,sir ,walter4 ,there is scarcely a finer character in all his writings than the youthful peasant of ,glendearg1 ,halbert ,glendinning1 afterwards the noble knight of ,avenel1 brave and wise1 and alike fitted to lead in the councils of a great monarch1 or to carry his banner in war4 ,his brother ,edward is scarcely a lower character4 ,and when was unsullied integrity in a humble condition placed in an attitude more suited to command respect and regard1 than in the person of ,jeanie ,deans8 ,a man of a lower nature1 wrapt round by the vulgar prejudices of rank1 could not have conceived such a character3 he would have transferred to it a portion of his own vulgarity1 dressed up in a few borrowed peculiarities of habit and phraseology4 ,even the character of ,jeanie's father lies quite as much beyond the ordinary reach4 ,men such as ,sheridan1 ,fielding1 and ,foote1 would have represented him as a hypocrite--a feeble and unnatural mixture of baseness and cunning4 ,sir ,walter1 with all his prejudices and all his antipathies1 not only better knew the national type1 but he had a more comprehensive mind2 and he drew ,david ,deans1 therefore1 as a man of stern and inflexible integrity1 and as thoroughly sincere in his religion4 ,not but that in this department he committed great and grievous mistakes4 ,the main doctrine of revelation1 with its influence on character--that doctrine of regeneration which our ,saviour promulgated to ,nicodemus1 and enforced with the sanctity of an oath--was a doctrine of which he knew almost nothing4 ,what has the first place in all the allegories of ,bunyan1 has no place in the fictions of ,sir ,walter4 ,none of his characters exhibit the change displayed in the life of the ingenious allegorist of ,elston1 or of ,james ,gardener1 or of ,john ,newton4 ,he found human nature a terra incognita when it came under the influence of grace2 and in this terra incognita1 the field in which he could only grope1 not see1 his way1 well-nigh all his mistakes were committed4 ,but had his native honesty been less1 his mistakes would have been greater4 ,he finds good even among ,christians4 ,what can be finer than the character of his ,covenanter's widow1 standing out as it does in the most exceptionable of all his works1--the blind and desolate woman1 meek and forgiving in her utmost distress1 who had seen her sons shot before her eyes1 and had then ceased to see more8 ,our subject1 however1 is one which we must be content not to exhaust4 ,,the ,,late ,,mr4 ,,kemp4 ,the funeral of this hapless man of genius took place yesterday1 and excited a deep and very general interest1 in which there mingled the natural sorrow for high talent prematurely extinguished1 with the feeling of painful regret1 awakened by a peculiarly melancholy end4 ,it was numerously attended1 and by many distinguished men4 ,the several streets through which it passed were crowded by saddened spectators--in some few localities very densely2 and the windows overhead were much thronged4 ,at no place was the crowd greater1 except perhaps immediately surrounding the burying-ground1 than at the fatal opening beside the ,canal ,basin1 into which the unfortunate man had turned from the direct road in the darkness of night1 and had found death at its termination4 ,the scene of the accident is a gloomy and singularly unpleasant spot4 ,a high wall1 perforated by a low1 clumsy archway1 closes abruptly what the stranger might deem a thoroughfare4 ,there is a piece of sluggish1 stagnant water on the one hand1 thick and turbid1 and somewhat resembling in form and colour a broad muddy highway1 lined by low walls2 not a tuft of vegetation is to be seen on its tame rectilinear sides3 all is slimy and brown1 with here and there dank1 muddy recesses1 as if for the frog and the rat2 while on the damp flat above1 there lie1 somewhat in the style of the grouping in a ,dutch painting1 the rotting fragments of canal passage-boats and coal-barges1 with here and there some broken-backed hulk1 muddy and green1 the timbers peering out through the planking1 and all around heaps of the nameless lumber of a deserted boat-yard4 ,the low1 clumsy archway is wholly occupied by a narrow branch of the canal1--brown and clay-like as the main trunk1 from which it strikes off at nearly right angles4 ,it struck us forcibly1 in examining the place1 that in the uncertain light of midnight1 the flat1 dead water must have resembled an ordinary cart-road1 leading through the arched opening in the direction of the unfortunate architect's dwelling2 and certainly at this spot1 just where he might be supposed to have stepped upon the seeming road under the fatal impression1 was the body found4 ,it had been intended1 as the funeral letters bore1 to inter the body of ,mr4 ,kemp in the vault under the ,scott ,monument1--a structure which1 erected to do honour to the genius of one illustrious ,scotsman1 will be long recognised as a proud trophy of the fine taste and vigorous talent of another4 ,the arrangement was not without precedent2 and had it been possible for ,sir ,walter to have anticipated it1 we do not think it would have greatly displeased him4 ,the ,egyptian architect inscribed the name of his kingly master on but the plaster of the pyramid1 while he engraved his own on the enduring granite underneath2 and so the name of the king has been lost1 and only that of the architect has survived4 ,and there are1 no doubt1 monuments in our own country which have been transferred in some sort1 and on a somewhat similar principle1 from their original object4 ,there are fine statues which reflect honour on but the sculptor that chiselled them1 and tombs and cenotaphs inscribed with names so very obscure1 that they give place in effect1 if not literally1 like that of the ,egyptian king1 to the name of the architect who reared them4 ,had the ,scott ,monument been erected1 like the monument of a neighbouring square1 to express a perhaps not very seemly gratitude for the services of some tenth-rate statesman1 who procured places for his friends1 and who did not much else1 it would have been perilous to convert it into the tomb of a man of genius like poor ,kemp4 ,it would have been perilous had it been the monument of some mere litterateur4 ,the litterateur's works would have disappeared from the public eye1 while that of the hapless architect would be for ever before it4 ,and it would be thus the architect1 not the litterateur1 that would be permanently remembered4 ,but the monument of ,sir ,walter was in no danger2 and ,sir ,walter himself would have been quite aware of the fact4 ,it would not have displeased him1 that in the remote future1 when all its buttresses had become lichened and grey1 and generation after generation had disappeared from around its base1 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 ,scotland1 had met an untimely death when engaged on it1 and had found under its floor an appropriate grave4 ,the intention1 however1 was not carried into effect4 ,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 one4 ,it had been arranged1 too1 that the workmen employed at the monument1 one of the most respectable-looking bodies of mechanics we ever saw1 should carry the corpse to the grave4 ,they had gathered round the dwelling1 a cottage at ,morningside1 with a wreath of ivy nodding from the wall2 and the appearance of both it and them naturally suggested that the poor deceased1 originally one of themselves1 though he had risen1 after a long struggle1 into celebrity1 had not risen into affluence4 ,death had come too soon4 ,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 occupy1 and on which a competency might be soon and honourably secured--when a cruel accident struck him down4 ,the time specified for the burial passed--first one half-hour1 and then another4 ,the assembled group wondered at the delay4 ,and then a gentleman from the dwelling-house came to inform them that some interdict or protest1 we know not what--some1 we suppose1 perfectly legal document--had inhibited1 at this late hour1 the interment of the body in the monument1 and that there was a grave in the course of being prepared for it in one of the city churchyards4 ,,annie ,m',,donald ,,and ,,the ,,fifeshire ,,forester4 ,it was the religion of ,scotland that first developed the intellect of the country4 ,nor would it be at all difficult to show how4 ,it is sufficiently easy to conceive the process through which earnest feeling concentrated on the great concerns of human destiny leads to earnest thinking1 and how thinking propagates itself in its abstract character as such1 even after the moving power which had first set its wheels in motion has ceased to operate4 ,the ,reformation was mainly a religious movement1 but it was pregnant with philosophy and the arts4 ,the grand doctrine of justification by faith1 for which ,luther and the other reformers contended1 was wonderfully linked1 by the ,god from whom it emanated1 with all the great discoveries of modern science1 and not a few of the proudest triumphs of literature4 ,it drew along with it in the train of events1 as if by a golden chain1 the philosophy of ,bacon and ,newton1 and the poesy of ,milton and ,shakespeare4 ,but though the general truth of the remark has been acknowledged1 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 of4 ,religious belief1 transmuted in its reflex influences into mere intellectual activity1 has too often assumed another nature and name1 and forgotten or disowned its origin2 and whatever is suited to remind us of the certainty of the connection1 or to illustrate the mode of its operations1 cannot be deemed other than important4 ,from a consideration of this character1 we have been much pleased with a little work just published1 which1 taking up a single family in the humblest rank1 shows1 without any apparent intention of the kind on the part of the writer1 how the ,christianity of the country has operated on the popular intellect2 and we think we can scarce do better than introduce it to the acquaintance of our readers4 ,most of them have perhaps seen a memoir of one ,annie ,m',donald1 published in ,edinburgh some eight or ten years ago4 ,it is a humble production1 given chiefly1 as the title-page intimates1 in ,annie's own words2 and ,annie ranked among the humblest of our people4 ,she had never seen a single day in school4 ,when best and most favourably circumstanced1 she was the wife of a farm-servant1--no very exalted station surely2 but still a lowlier station awaited her1 and she passed more than half a century in widowhood4 ,one of her daughters became the wife of a poor labourer1 her two grandchildren were labourers also4 ,it is not easy to imagine a humbler lot1 without crossing the line beyond which independence cannot be achieved2 and yet ,annie was a noble-hearted matron1 one of the true aristocracy of the country4 ,her long life was a protracted warfare--a scene of privation1 sorrow1 and sore trial2 but she struggled bravely through1 ever trusting in ,god1 dependent on ,him1 and ,him only2 and if the dignity of human nature consist in integrity the most inflexible1 energy the most untiring1 strong sound thinking1 deep devotional feeling1 and a high-toned yet chastened spirit of independence1 then was there more true dignity to be found in the humble cottage of ,annie ,m',donald1 than in half the proud mansions of the country4 ,many of our readers must be acquainted1 as we have said1 with her character1 and some of the outlines of her story4 ,most of them are acquainted1 too1 with the character of another very remarkable person1 ,john ,bethune1 the ,fifeshire ,forester1--a man whose name1 in all probability1 they have never associated with ,annie ,m',donald4 ,he belongs to quite a different class of persons4 ,the venerable matron takes her place among those cultivators of the moral nature who live in close converse with their ,god1 and on whom are re-stamped1 if we may so speak1 the lineaments of the divine image obliterated at the fall4 ,the poet1 too early lost1 ranks1 on the other hand1 among those hardy cultivators of the intellectual nature who1 among all the difficulties incident to imperfect education1 and a life of hardship and labour1 struggle into notice through the force of an innate vigour1 and impress the stamp of their mind on the literature of their country4 ,much of the interest of the newly published memoir before us arises from the connection which it establishes between the matron and the poet4 ,it purports to be ',a ,sketch of the ,life of ,annie ,m',donald1 by her ,grandson1 the late ,john ,bethune4' ,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 descendant4 ,the nobility of the humble family from which he sprung was derived evidently from this source4 ,that character1 to borrow a homely but forcible metaphor from ,burns1 was the sustaining 'stalk of carle hemp' which bore it up and kept it from grovelling on the depressed level of its condition4 ,how very interesting a subject of thought and inquiry6 ,a little ,highland girl1 when tending cattle in the fields nearly a century ago1 was led1 through divine grace1 to 'apprehend the mercy of ,god in ,christ1' and to close with ,his free offers of salvation2 and in the third generation we can see the effects of the transaction1 not only in the blameless life and the pure sentiments of a true though humble poet1 but in1 also1 the manly vigour of his thinking1 and the high degree of culture which he was enabled to bestow on his intellectual faculties4 ,the story of ,annie ,m',donald is such an one as a poet of ,wordsworth's cast would delight to tell4 ,she was born in a remote and thinly inhabited district of the ,highlands1 and lost her father1 a ,highland crofter1 while yet an infant4 ,she was his youngest child1 but the other members of the family were all very young and helpless2 and her poor mother1 a woman still in the prime of life1 had to wander with them into the low country1 friendless and penniless1 in quest of employment4 ,and employment after a weary pilgrimage she at length succeeded in procuring from a hospitable farmer in the parish of ,kilmany1 in ,fifeshire4 ,an unoccupied hovel furnished her with a home2 and here1 with hard labour1 she reared her children1 till they were fitted to leave her one by one1 and do something for themselves1 chiefly in the way of herding cattle4 ,annie grew up to be employed like the rest2 and when a little herd-girl in the fields1 'she frequently fell into strains of serious meditation1' says her biographer1 'on the works of ,god1 and on her own standing before ,him4' ,let scepticism assert what it may1 such is the nature of man4 ,god has written on every human heart the great truth of man's responsibility2 and the simple1 ignorant herd-girl could read it there1 amid the solitude of the fields4 ,but the inscription seemed fraught with terror3 she was perplexed by alternate doubts and fears1 and troubled by wildly vivid imaginings during the day1 and by frightful dreams by night4 ,her mother had been unable to send her to school1 but she got occasional lessons in the evenings from a fellow-servant2 and through the desultory assistance obtained in this way1 backed by her solitary efforts at self-instruction1 she learned to read4 ,she must have deemed that an important day on which she found she could at length converse with books2 and the books with which she most loved to discourse were such as related to the spiritual state4 ,she pored over the ,shorter ,catechism1 and acquainted herself with her ,bible4 ,but for years together1 at this period1 she suffered much distress of mind4 ,her imagination possessed a wild activity1 and the scenes and shapes which it was continually calling up before her were all of horror and dismay--the place of the lost1 the appalling forms with which fancy invests the fallen spirits1 the terrors of the last day1 and the dread throne of judgment4 ,but a time of peace and comfort came2 and she was enabled to lay hold on ,god in faith and hope as her ,god1 through the all-sufficient blood of the atonement4 ,and this hold she never after relinquished4 ,there was no pause in her humble toils4 ,from her early occupations in the fields1 she passed in riper youth to the labours of the farm-house2 and at the age of twenty-five experienced yet another change1 in becoming the wife of a farm-servant1 a quiet man of solid character1 and whose religious views and feelings coincided with her own4 ,her humble home was a solitary hut on the uplands1 far from even her nearest neighbours2 but it was her home1 and she was happy4 ,with the consent of her husband1 she took her aged mother under her care1 and succeeded in repaying more than the obligations incurred in infancy2 for her instructions1 through the blessing of ,god1 were rendered apparently the means of the old woman's conversion4 ,there were sorrows that came to her even at the happiest1 but they were mingled with comfort4 ,she lost one of her children by small-pox at a very early age2 and yet1 very early as the age was1 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 sucklings4 ,but there was a deeper grief awaiting her4 ,after a happy union of twelve years1 her husband was seized in the night in their lonely shieling by a mortal distemper1 at a time when only herself and her young children were present1 and ere assistance could be procured he expired4 ,there is something extremely touching in the details of this event1 as given by the poet1 her grandson4 ,they strongly show how real an evil poverty is1 in even the most favourable circumstances1 when the hour of distress comes4 ,cowper ceased to envy the 'peasant's nest when he thought how its solitude made scant the means of life4' ,we would almost covet the hut of ,annie ,m',donald as described by her grandson4 ',it appeared1' he says1 'as if separated and raised above the world by the cultureless and elevated solitude on which it stood4 ,around it on every side were grey rocks1 peering out from among tufted grass1 heath furze1 and many-coloured mosses2 forming what had been1 till more recently--when the whole was converted into a plantation--a rather extensive sheep-walk4 ,for an extent equal to more than half the horizon1 the eye might stretch away to the distant mountains1 or repose on the intervening valleys2 and from the highest part of the hill1 a little to the eastward1 the dark blue of the ,german ,ocean was clearly visible4 ,it must have been a cheerful spot in the clear sunny days of summer1 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 heath1 and the lark high overhead4 ,but it must have been a gloomy and miserable solitude on that night when the husband of ,annie lay tossing in mortal agony1 and no neighbour near to counsel or assist1 her weeping children around her1 and with neither lamp nor candle in the cottage4 ,it was only by the 'light of a burning coal taken from the fire1 and exchanged for another as the flame waxed faint1 that she was enabled to watch the progress of the fatal malady1 and to tell at what time death set his unalterable seal on the pallid features of her husband4' ,long years of incessant labour followed2 her children were young and helpless1 and her aged mother still with her4 ,she removed to another cottage1 where she rented an acre or two of land1 that enabled her to keep a cow1 and gave her opportunity1 as the place was situated beside a considerable stream1 of earning a small income as a bleacher of home-made linen4 ,the day1 and not unfrequently the night1 was spent in toil2 but she was strengthened to endure1 and so her children were bred up in hardy independence4 ',during the weeks of harvest1' says her biographer1 'she was engaged as a reaper by the farmer from whom she rented her little tenement2 and when her day's work was done1 while her fellow-labourers retired to rest1 she employed herself in reaping her own crops1 or providing grass for the cow1 and often continued her toil by the light of the harvest moon till it was almost midnight4 ,after a number of years thus spent1 the expiration of the farmer's lease occasioned her removal4 ,her family were now grown up2 she could afford1 in consequence1 to have recourse to means of subsistence which1 if more scanty1 were less laborious than those which she had plied so long2 and so1 removing to a neighbouring village1 she earned a livelihood for herself and her infirm mother by spinning carpet worsted at twopence a-day1 the common wages for a woman at that period4' ',the cottage which she now occupied1' we again quote1 '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 rent4 ,she1 however1 considered that she had no right to reckon herself among this class1 so long as it should please ,god to afford her strength to provide for her own necessities2 and therefore she deemed it unjustifiable to deprive the truly indigent of what had been intended exclusively for them4 ,influenced by these motives1 she removed at the next term to an adjacent hamlet1 and here her aged mother died4' ,we need not minutely follow her after-course3 it bore but one complexion to the end4 ,she taught a school for many years1 and was of signal use to not a few of her pupils4 ,at an earlier period she experienced a desire to be able to write4 ,there was a friend at a distance whom she wished to comfort1 by suggesting to her those topics of consolation which she herself had found of such solid use2 and the wish had suggested the idea4 ,and so she did learn to write4 ,she took up a pen1 and tried to imitate the letters in her ,bible2 an acquaintance subsequently furnished her with a copy of the alphabet commonly used in writing2 and such was all the instruction she ever received in an art to which in after life she devoted a considerable portion of her time1 and in the exercise of which she derived no small enjoyment4 ,in extreme old age she was rendered unable by deafness properly to attend to her school1 and so1 with her characteristic conscientiousness1 she threw it up2 but bodily strength was spared to her in a remarkable degree1 and her last years were not wasted in idleness4 ',her spinning-wheel was again eagerly resorted to2 even outdoor labour1 when it could be obtained1 was sometimes adopted4' ,and the editor of the memoir before us--,alexander ,bethune1 the brother and biographer of ,john--relates that he recollects seeing her engaged in reaping1 on one occasion1 when in her eighty-second year2 and that on the same field her favourite nephew the poet1 at that time a boy of ten1 was also essaying the labours of the harvest4 ,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 herself3-- ',we finished our harvest last ,monday1 and here again ,i have cause for thankfulness4 ,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 young1 and for the favourable weather and abundant crop which in ,his mercy ,he has bestowed on us4 ,but1 my dear child1 there is in very deed a more important harvest before us4 ,oh6 may ,god1 for ,christ's sake1 ripen us by the sunshine of ,his ,spirit for the sickle of death1 and stand by us in that trying hour1 that we may be cut down as a shock of corn which is fully ripe4' ,annie survived twelve years longer2 for her life was prolonged through three full generations4 ',in the intervals of domestic duty1 her book and her pen were her constant companions4' ',the process of committing her thoughts to paper was rendered tedious1 latterly1 by the weakness and tremor of her hand2 and her mind not unfrequently outran her pen1 leaving blanks in her composition1 which she did not always detect so as to enable her to fill them up4 ,and this circumstance sometimes rendered her meaning a little obscure4 ,but with all these deficiencies1 her letters were generally appreciated by those to whom they were addressed4 ,her conversation1 too1 was much sought after by serious individuals in all ranks in society2 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 station1 and humbly uniting in the exercise of ,christian love4' ,at length she could no longer leave her bed3 'her hearing was so much impaired1 that it was with the greatest difficulty she could be made to understand what was said to her2 and those friends who came to visit her were frequently requested to sit down by her bedside1 where she might see their faces1 though she could no longer enjoy their conversation4 ,after raising herself to a convenient position1 she generally addressed them upon the importance of preparing for another world while health and strength remained2 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 trial4' ,as for her own departure1 she 'had a thousand reasons1' she said1 'for wishing to be gone2 but there was one reason which overbalanced them all--,god's time had not yet arrived4' ,but at length it did arrive4 ',lay me down1' she said1 for the irritability of her nervous system had rendered frequent change of posture necessary1 and her friends had just been indulging her1--',lay me down2 let me sleep my last sleep in ,jesus4' ,and these were her last words4 ,her grandson ,john seems to have cherished1 when a mere boy1 years before she died1 the design of writing her story2 and the whole tone of his memoir 7apparently one of his earlier prose compositions7 shows how thorough was the respect which he entertained for her memory4 ,she forms the subject1 too1 of a copy of verses evidently of later production1 and at least equal to any he ever wrote1 in which he affectingly tells us how1 when sadness and disease pressed upon the springs of life1 and he lingered in suspense and disappointment1 the hopes which she had so long cherished-- ',the glorious hopes which flattered not-- ,dawned on him by degrees4' ,he found the ,saviour whom she had worshipped2 and one of the last subsidiary hopes in which he indulged ere he bade the world farewell1 was that in the place to which he was going he should meet with his beloved grandmother4 ,we have occupied so much space with our narrative1 brief as it is1 that we cannot follow up our original intention of showing how1 in principle1 the intellectual history of ,bethune is an epitome of that of his country2 but we must add that it would be well if1 in at least one important respect1 the history of his country resembled his history more4 ,the thoughtful piety of the grandmother prepared an atmosphere of high-toned thought1 in which the genius of the grandson was fostered4 ,it constituted1 to vary the figure1 the table-land from which he arose2 but how many of a resembling class1 and indebted in a similar way1 have directed the influence of their writings to dissipate that atmosphere--to lower that table-land6 ,we refer the reader to the interesting little work from which we have drawn our materials4 ,it is edited by the surviving ,bethune1 the brother and biographer of the poet1 and both a vigorous writer and a worthy man4 ,there are several of the passages which it comprises of his composition2 among the rest1 the very striking passage with which the memoir concludes1 and in which he adds a few additional facts illustrative of his grandmother's character1 and describes her personal appearance4 ,the description will remind our readers of one of the more graphic pictures of ,wordsworth1 that of the stately dame on whose appearance the poet remarks quaintly1 but significantly1 ',old times are living there4' ',from the date of her birth1' says ,alexander ,bethune1 'it will be seen that she 7,annie ,m',donald7 was in her ninety-fourth year at the time of her death4 ,in person she was spare2 and ere toil and approaching age had bent her frame1 she must have been considerably above the middle size4 ,even after she was far advanced in life1 there was in her appearance a rigidity of outline and a sinewy firmness which told of no ordinary powers of endurance4 ,there was much of true benevolence in the cast of her countenance2 while the depth of her own ,christian feelings gave an expression of calm yet earnest sympathy to her eye1 which was particularly impressive4 ,limited as were her resources1 she had been a regular contributor to the ,bible and ,missionary ,societies for a number of years previous to her death4 ,nor was she slow to minister to the necessities of others according to her ability4 ,notwithstanding the various items thus disposed of during the latter part of her life1 she had saved a small sum of money1 which at her death was left to her unmarried daughters4' ,the touching description of the poet we must also subjoin4 ,no one can read it without feeling its truth1 or without being convinced that1 to be thoroughly true in the circumstances1 was to be intensely poetical4 ,the recollection of such a relative affectionately retained was of itself poetry4 ,,my ,,grandmother4 ,long years of toil and care1 ,and pain and poverty1 have passed ,since last ,i listened to her prayer1 ,and looked upon her last2 ,yet how she spoke1 and how she smiled ,upon me1 when a playful child-- ,the lustre of her eye-- ,the kind caress--the fond embrace-- ,the reverence of her placid face1-- ,all in my memory lie ,as fresh as they had only been ,bestowed and felt1 and heard and seen1 ,since yesterday went by4 ,her dress was simply neat-- ,her household tasks so featly done3 ,even the old willow-wicker seat ,on which she sat and spun-- ,the table where her ,bible lay1 ,open from morn till close of day-- ,the standish1 and the pen ,with which she noted1 as they rose1 ,her thoughts upon the joys1 the woes1 ,the final fate of men1 ,and sufferings of her ,saviour ,god1-- ,each object in her poor abode ,is visible as then4 ,nor are they all forgot1 ,the faithful admonitions given1 ,and glorious hopes which flattered not1 ,but led the soul to heaven6 ,these had been hers1 and have been mine ,when all beside had ceased to shine-- ,when sadness and disease1 ,and disappointment and suspense1 ,had driven youth's fairest fancies hence1 ,short'ning its fleeting lease3 ',twas then these hopes1 amid the dark ,just glimmering1 like an unquench'd spark1 ,dawned on me by degrees4 ,to her they gave a light ,brighter than sun or star supplied2 ,and never did they shine more bright ,than just before she died4 ,death's shadow dimm'd her aged eyes1 ,grey clouds had clothed the evening skies1 ,and darkness was abroad2 ,but still she turned her gaze above1 ,as if the eternal light of love ,on her glazed organs glowed1 ,like beacon-fire at closing even1 ,hung out between the earth and heaven1 ,to guide her soul to ,god4 ,and then they brighter grew1 ,beaming with everlasting bliss1 ,as if the eternal world in view ,had weaned her eyes from this3 ,and every feature was composed1 ,as with a placid smile they closed ,on those who stood around1 who felt it was a sin to weep ,o'er such a smile and such a sleep-- ,so peaceful1 so profound2 ,and though they wept1 their tears expressed ,joy for her time-worn frame at rest-- ,her soul with mercy crowned4 ,august #aj1 #ahab4 ,a ,,highland ,,clearing4 ,how quickly the years fly6 ,one twelvemonth more1 and it will be a full quarter of a century since we last saw the wild ,highland valley so well described by ,mr4 ,robertson in his opening paragraphs4#a ,and yet the recollection is as fresh in our memory now as it was twenty years ago4 ,the chill winter night had fallen on the brown round hills and alder-skirted river1 as we turned from off the road that winds along the ,kyle of the ,dornoch ,frith into the bleak gorge of ,strathcarron4 ,the shepherd's cottage1 in which we purposed passing the night1 lay high up in the valley1 where the lofty sides--partially covered at that period by the remnants of an ancient forest--approach so near each other1 and rise so abruptly1 that for the whole winter quarter the sun never falls on the stream below4 ,there were still some ten or twelve miles of broken road before us4 ,the moon in its first quarter hung low over the hills1 dimly revealing their rough outline1 and throwing its tinge of faint bronze on the broken clumps of wood in the hollows4 ,a keen frost had set in2 and a thick trail of fog-rime1 raised by its influence in the calm1 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 itself1 for it winded wherever the stream winded1 and ran straight as an arrow wherever the stream ran straight--occupied the whole length of the valley1 like an enormous snake lying uncoiled in its den4 ,the numerous turf cottages on either side were invisible in the darkness1 save that ever and anon the brief twinkle of a light indicated their existence and their places4 ,in a recess of the stream the torch of some adventurous fisher now gleamed red on rock and water1 now suddenly disappeared1 eclipsed by the overhanging brushwood1 or by some jutting angle of the bank4 ,the distant roar of the stream mingled sullenly in the calm1 with its nearer and hoarser dash1 as it chafed on the ledges below1 filling the air with a wild music1 that seemed the appropriate voice of the impressive scenery from amid which it arose4 ,it was late ere we reached the shepherd's cottage--a dark1 raftered1 dimly-lighted building of turf and stone4 ,the weather for several weeks before had been rainy and close1 and the flocks of the inmate had been thinned by the common scourge of the sheep-farmer at such seasons on marshy and unwholesome farms4 ,the rafters were laden with skins besmeared with blood1 that dangled overhead to catch the conservative influences of the smoke2 and on a rude plank table below there rose two tall pyramids of dark-coloured joints of braxy mutton1 heaped up each on a corn riddle4 ,the shepherd--a ,highlander of colossal proportions1 but hard and thin1 and worn by the cares and toils of at least sixty winters--sat moodily beside the fire4 ,the state of his flocks was not particularly cheering2 and he had1 besides1 seen a vision of late1 he said1 that filled his mind with strange forebodings4 ,he had gone out after nightfall on the previous evening to a dank hollow on the hill-side1 in which many of his flock had died2 the rain had ceased a few hours before1 and a smart frost had set in1 that1 as on this second evening1 filled the whole valley with a wreath of silvery vapour1 dimly lighted by the thin fragment of a moon that appeared as if resting at the time on the hill-top4 ,the wreath stretched out its grey folds beneath him1 for he had climbed half-way up the acclivity1 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 darkness2 and after stalking over the surface of the fog for a few seconds--in which1 however1 it traversed the greater part of the valley--as suddenly disappeared1 leaving an evanescent trail of flame behind it4 ,there could be little doubt that the old shepherd had merely seen one of those shooting lights that in mountain districts1 during unsettled weather1 so frequently startle the night traveller1 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 survey2 but the apparition had filled his whole mind1 as one of strange and frightful portent from the spiritual world4 ,and often since that night has it returned to us in recollection1 as a vision in singular keeping with the wild valley which it traversed1 and the credulous melancholy of the solitary shepherd1 its only witness1-- ',a meteor of the night of distant years1 ,that flashed unnoticed1 save by wrinkled eld ,musing at midnight upon prophecies4' ,by much the greater part of ,strathcarron1 in those days1 was in the possession of its ancient inhabitants2 and we learn from the description of ,mr4 ,robertson1 that it has since undergone scarce any change4 ',strathcarron1' he says1 'is still in the old state4' ,throughout its whole extent the turf cottages of the aborigines rise dark and thick as heretofore1 from amid their irregular patches of potatoes and corn4 ,but in an adjacent glen1 through which the ,calvie works its headlong way to the ,carron1 that terror of the ,highlanders1 a summons of removal1 has been served within the last few months on a whole community2 and the graphic sketch of ,mr4 ,robertson relates both the peculiar circumstances in which it has been issued1 and the feelings which it has excited4 ,we find from his testimony1 that the old state of things which is so immediately on the eve of being broken up in this locality1 lacked not a few of those sources of terror to the proprietary of the country1 that are becoming so very formidable to them in the newer states4 ,a spectral poor-law sits by our waysides1 wrapped up in death-flannels of the ,english cut1 and shakes its skinny hand at the mansion-houses of our landlords1--vision beyond comparison more direfully portentous than the apparition seen by the lone shepherd of ,strathcarron4 ,but in the ,highlands1 at least1 it is merely the landlord of the new and improved state of things--the landlord of widespread clearings and stringent removal-summonses--that it threatens4 ,the existing poor-law in ,glencalvie is a self-enforcing law1 that rises direct out of the unsophisticated sympathies of the ,highland heart1 and costs the proprietary nothing4 ',the constitution of society in the glen1' says ,mr4 ,robertson1 'is remarkably simple4 ,four heads of families are bound for the whole rental of #ee1 #acs4 a year2 the number of souls is about ninety4 ,sixteen cottages pay rent2 three cottages are occupied by old lone women1 who pay no rent1 and who have a grace from the others for the grazing of a few goats or sheep1 by which they live4 ,this self-working poor-law system1' adds ,mr4 ,robertson1 'is supported by the people themselves2 the laird1 ,i am informed1 never gives anything to it4' ,now there must be at least some modicum of good in such a state of things1 however old-fashioned2 and we are pretty sure such of our ,english neighbours as leave their acres untilled year after year1 to avoid the crushing pressure of the statute-enforced poor-law that renders them not worth the tilling1 would be somewhat unwilling1 were the state made theirs1 to improve it away4 ,nor does it seem a state--with all its simplicity1 and all its perhaps blameable indifferency to modern improvement--particularly hostile to the development of mind or the growth of morals4 ',the people of ,amat and ,glencalvie themselves supported a teacher for the education of their children1' says ,mr4 ,robertson4 ',the laird1' he adds1 'has never lost a farthing of rent4 ,in bad years1 such as #ahcf or #ahcg1 the people may have required the favour of a few weeks' delay1 but they are now not a single farthing in arrears4' ,mr4 ,robertson gives us the tragedy of a clearing in its first act4 ,we had lately the opportunity of witnessing the closing scene in the after-piece1 by which a clearing more than equally extensive has been followed up1 and which bids fair to find at no distant day many counterparts in the ,highlands of ,scotland4 ,rather more than twenty years ago1 the wild1 mountainous island of ,rum1 the home of considerably more than five hundred souls1 was divested of all its inhabitants1 to make way for one sheep-farmer and eight thousand sheep4 ,it was soon found1 however1 that there are limits beyond which it is inconvenient to depopulate a country on even the sheep-farm system3 the island had been rendered too thoroughly a desert for the comfort of the tenant2 and on the occasion of a clearing which took place in a district of ,skye1 and deprived of their homes many of the old inhabitants1 some ten or twelve families of the number were invited to ,rum1 and may now be found squatting on the shores of the only bay of the island1 on a strip of unprofitable morass4 ,but the whole of the once peopled interior remains a desert1 all the more lonely in its aspect from the circumstance that the solitary glens1 with their green1 plough-furrowed patches1 and their ruined heaps of stone1 open upon shores every whit as solitary as themselves1 and that the wide untrodden sea stretches drearily around4 ,we spent a long summer's day amidst its desert recesses1 and saw the sun set behind its wilderness of pyramidal hills4 ,the evening was calm and clear2 the armies of the insect world were sporting by millions in the light2 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 pools1 beguiled by the quick glancing wings of green and gold that incessantly fluttered over them2 the half-effaced furrows borrowed a richer hue from the yellow light of sunset2 the broken cottage-walls stood up more boldly prominent on the hill-side1 relieved by the lengthening shadows2 along a distant hill-side there ran what seemed the ruins of a grey stone fence1 erected1 says tradition1 in a very remote age to facilitate the hunting of deer3 all seemed to bespeak the place a fitting habitation for man1 and in which not only the necessaries1 but not a few also of the luxuries of life1 might be procured2 but in the entire prospect not a man nor a man's dwelling could the eye command4 ,the landscape was one without figures4 ,and where1 it may be asked1 was the one tenant of the island for whose sake so many others had been removed8 ,we found his house occupied by a humble shepherd1 who had in charge the wreck of his property1--property no longer his1 but held for the benefit of his creditors4 ,the great sheep-farmer had gone down under circumstances of very general bearing1 and on whose after development1 when in their latent state1 improving landlords had failed to calculate2 the island itself was in the market1 and a report went current at the time that it was on the eve of being purchased by some wealthy ,englishman1 who purposed converting it into a deer-forest4 ,the cycle--which bids fair to be that of the ,highlands generally--had already revolved in the depopulated island of ,rum4 ,we have said that the sheep-farmer had gone down1 in this instance1 under adverse circumstances of very extensive bearing4 ,in a beautiful transatlantic poem1 a ,north ,american ,indian is represented as visiting by night the tombs of his fathers1 now surrounded1 though reared in the depths of a forest1 by the cultivated farms and luxurious dwellings of the stranger1 and there predicting that the race by which his had been supplaced should be in turn cast out of their possessions4 ,his fancy on the subject is a wild one1 though not unfitted for the poet4 ,the streams1 he said1 were yielding a lower murmur than of old1 and rolling downwards a decreasing volume2 the springs were less copious in their supplies2 the land1 shorn of its forests1 was drying up under the no longer softened influence of summer suns4 ,yet a few ages more1 and it would spread out all around an arid and barren wilderness1 unfitted1 like the deserts of the ,east1 to be a home of man4 ,the fancy1 we repeat1 though a poetic1 is a wild one2 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 turn1 is neither wild nor poetic4 ,the voice which predicts in the case is a voice1 not of shrinking rivulets nor failing springs1 but of the ',cloth ,hall' in ,leeds1 and of the worsted factories of ,bradford and ,halifax4 ,most of our readers must be aware that the great woollen trade of ,britain divides into two main branches--its woollen cloth manufacture1 and its worsted and stuff manufactures3 and in both these the estimation in which ,british wool is held has mightily sunk of late years1 never apparently to rise again2 for it has sunk1 not through any caprice of fashion1 but in the natural progress of improvement4 ,mr4 ,dodd1 in his interesting little work on the ,textile ,manufactures of ,great ,britain1 refers incidentally to the fact1 in drawing a scene in the ,cloth ,hall of ,leeds1 introduced simply for the purpose of showing at how slight an expense of time and words business is transacted in this great mart of trade4 ',all the sellers1' says ,mr4 ,dodd1 'know all the buyers2 and each buyer is invited1 as he passes along1 to look at some olives1 or browns1 or pilots1 or six quarters1 or eight quarters2 and the buyer decides in a wonderfully short space of time whether it will answer his purpose to purchase or not4 ,mr4 ,a41 just look at these olives4 ,how much8 ,six and eight4 ,too high4 ,mr4 ,a4 walks on1 and perhaps a neighbouring clothier draws his attention to a piece1 or end1 of cloth4 ,what's this8 ,five and three4 ,too low4 ,the too high relates1 as may be supposed1 to the price per yard2 whereas the too low means that the quality of the cloth is lower than the purchaser requires4 ,another seller accosts him with ,will this suit you1 ,mr4 ,a48 ,any ,english wool8 ,not much2 it is nearly all foreign2 a question and answer which exemplify the disfavour into which ,english wool has fallen in the cloth trade4 ,but it is not the cloth trade alone in which it has fallen into disfavour4 ,the rapid extension of the worsted manufacture in this country1' says the same writer in another portion of his work1 'is very remarkable4 ,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 kind1 such as camlets2 but when the wool trade was allowed to flow into its natural channels by the removal of restrictions1 the value of all the different kinds of wool became appreciated1 and each one was appropriated to purposes for which it seemed best fitted4 ,the wool of one kind of ,english sheep continued in demand for hosiery and coarse worsted goods2 and the wool of the ,cashmere and ,angora goats came to be imported for worsted goods of finer quality4' ,the colonist and the foreign merchant have been brought into the field1 and the home producer labours in vain to compete with them on what he finds unequal terms4 ,hence the difficulties which1 in a season of invigorated commerce and revived trade1 continue to bear on the ,british wool-grower1 and which bid fair to clear him from the soil which he divested of the original inhabitants4 ,every new sheep-rearing farm that springs up in the colonies--whether in ,australia1 or ,new ,zealand1 or ,van ,diemen's ,land1 or ,southern ,africa--sends him its summons of removal in the form of huge bales of wool1 lower in price and better in quality than he himself can produce4 ,the sheep-breeders of ,new ,holland and the ,cape threaten to avenge the ,rosses of ,glencalvie4 ,but to avenge is one thing1 and to right another4 ,the comforts of our poor ,highlander have been deteriorating1 and his position lowering1 for the last three ages1 and we see no prospect of improvement4 ',for a century1' says ,mr4 ,robertson1 'their privileges have been lessening3 they dare not now hunt the deer1 or shoot the grouse or the blackcock2 they have no longer the range of the hills for their cattle and their sheep2 they must not catch a salmon in a stream3 in earth1 air1 and water1 the rights of the laird are greater1 and the rights of the people are smaller1 than they were in the days of their forefathers4 ,yet1 forsooth1 there is much talk of philosophers of the progress of democracy as a progress to equality of conditions in our day6 ,one of the ministers who accompanied me had to become bound for law expenses to the amount of #bj1 inflicted on the people for taking a log from the forest for their bridge1--a thing they and their fathers had always done unchallenged4' ,one eloquent passage more1 and we have done4 ,it is thus we find ,mr4 ,robertson1 to whose intensely interesting sketch we again direct the attention of the reader1 summing up the case of the ,rosses of ,glencalvie3-- ',the father of the laird of ,kindeace bought ,glencalvie4 ,it was sold by a ,ross two short centuries ago4 ,the swords of the ,rosses of ,glencalvie did their part in protecting this little glen1 as well as the broad lands of ,pitcalnie1 from the ravages and the clutches of hostile septs4 ,these clansmen bled and died in the belief that every principle of honour and morals secured their descendants a right to subsisting on the soil4 ,the chiefs and their children had the same charter of the sword4 ,some ,legislatures have made the right of the people superior to the right of the chief2 ,british law-makers have made the rights of the chief everything1 and those of their followers nothing4 ,the ideas of the morality of property are in most men the creatures of their interests and sympathies4 ,of this there cannot be a doubt1 however3 the chiefs would not have had the land at all1 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 stranger4 ',sad it is1 that it is seemingly the will of our constituencies that our laws shall prefer the few to the many4 ,most mournful will it be1 should the clansmen of the ,highlands have been cleared away1 ejected1 exiled1 in deference to a political1 a moral1 a social1 and an economical mistake1--a suggestion not of philosophy1 but of mammon1--a system in which the demon of sordidness assumed the shape of the angel of civilisation and of light4' ,september #d1 #ahdd4 ----- #a ,the ,rosses of ,glencalvie1 by ,john ,robertson1 ,esq4 7article in the ,glasgow ,national1 ,august #ahdd74--;,,ed4 ,,the ,,poet ,,montgomery4 ,the reader will find in our columns a report1 as ample as our limits have allowed1 of the public breakfast given in ,edinburgh on ,wednesday last#a to our distinguished countryman ,james ,montgomery1 and his friend the missionary ,latrobe4 ,we have rarely shared in a more agreeable entertainment1 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 life4 ,it was in itself a poem1 and a very fine one4 ,an old and venerable man returning to his native country after an absence of sixty years--after two whole generations had passed away1 and the grave had closed over almost all his contemporaries--would be of itself a matter of poetical interest1 even were the aged visitor a person of but the ordinary cast of thought and depth of feeling4 ,how striking the contrast between the sunny1 dream-like recollections of childhood to such an individual1 and the surrounding realities--between the scenes and figures on this side the wide gulf of sixty years1 and the scenes and figures on that3 yonder1 the fair locks of infancy1 its bright1 joyous eyes1 and its speaking smiles2 here1 the grey hairs and careworn wrinkles of rigid old age1 tottering painfully on the extreme verge of life6 ,but if there attaches thus a poetic interest to the mere circumstances of such a visit1 how much more1 in the present instance1 from the character of the visitor1--a man whose thoughts and feelings1 tinted by the warm hues of imagination1 retain in his old age all the strength and freshness of early youth6 ,hogg1 when first introduced to ,wilkie1 expressed his gratification at finding him so young a man4 ,we experienced a similar feeling on first seeing the poet ,montgomery4 ,he can be no young man1 who1 looking backwards across two whole generations1 can recount from recollection1 like ,nestor of old1 some of the occurrences of the third4 ,but there is a green old age1 in which the spirits retain their buoyancy1 and the intellect its original vigour2 and the whole appearance of the poet gives evidence that his evening of life is of this happy and desirable character4 ,his appearance speaks of antiquity1 but not of decay4 ,his locks have assumed a snowy whiteness1 and the lofty and full-arched coronal region exhibits what a brother poet has well termed the 'clear bald polish of the honoured head2' but the expression of the countenance is that of middle life4 ,it is a clear1 thin1 speaking countenance3 the features are high2 the complexion fresh1 though not ruddy2 and age has failed to pucker either cheek or forehead with a single wrinkle4 ,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 was4 ,the forehead1 rather compact than large1 swells out on either side towards the region of ideality1 and rises high1 in a fine arch1 into what1 if phrenology speak true1 must be regarded as an amply developed organ of veneration4 ,the figure is quite as little touched by age as the face4 ,it is well but not strongly made1 and of the middle size2 and yet there is a touch of antiquity about it too1 derived1 however1 rather from the dress than from any peculiarity in the person itself4 ,to a plain suit of black ,mr4 ,montgomery adds the voluminous breast ruffles of the last age--exactly such things as1 in ,scotland at least1 the fathers of the present generation wore on their wedding-days4 ,these are perhaps but small details2 but we notice them just because we have never yet met with any one who took an interest in a celebrated name1 without trying to picture to himself the appearance of the individual who bore it4 ,there are some very pleasing incidents beautifully related in the address of ,mr4 ,montgomery4 ,it would have been false taste and delicacy in such a man to have forborne speaking of himself4 ,his return1 after an absence equal to the term of two full generations1 to his native cottage1 is an incident exquisitely poetic4 ,he finds his father's humble chapel converted into a workshop1 and strangers sit beside the hearth that had once been his mother's4 ,and where were that father and mother8 ,their bones moulder in a distant land1 where the tombstones cast no shadow when the fierce sun looks down at noon upon their graves4 ',taking their lives in their hands1' they had gone abroad to preach ,christ to the poor enslaved negro1 for whose soul at that period scarce any one cared save the ,united ,brethren2 and in the midst of their labours of piety and love1 they had fallen victims to the climate4 ,he passed through the cottage and the workshop1 calling up the dream-like recollections of his earliest scene of existence1 and recognising one by one the once familiar objects within4 ,one object he failed to recognise4 ,it was a small tablet fixed in the wall4 ,he went up to it1 and found it intimated that ,james ,montgomery the poet had been born there4 ,was it not almost as if one of the poets or philosophers of a former time had lighted1 on revisiting the earth as a disembodied spirit1 on his own monument8 ,of scarce less interest is his anecdote of ,monboddo4 ,the parents of the poet had gone abroad1 as we have said1 and their little boy was left with the ,brethren at ,fulneck1 a ,moravian settlement in the sister kingdom4 ,he was one of their younger scholars at a time when ,lord ,monboddo1 still so well known for his great talents and acquirements1 and his scarce less marked eccentricities1 visited the settlement1 and was shown1 among other things1 their little school4 ,his ,lordship stood among the boys1 coiling and uncoiling his whip on the floor1 and engaged as if in counting the nail-heads in the boarding4 ,the little fellows were all exceedingly curious2 none of them had ever seen a real live lord before1 and ,monboddo was a very strange-looking lord indeed4 ,he wore a large1 stiff1 bushy periwig1 surmounted by a huge1 odd-looking hat2 his very plain coat was studded with brass buttons of broadest disk1 and his voluminous inexpressibles were of leather4 ,and there he stood1 with his grave1 absent face bent downwards1 drawing and redrawing his whip along the floor1 as the ,moravian1 his guide1 pointed out to his notice boy after boy4 ',and this1' said the ,moravian1 coming at length to young ,montgomery1 'is a countryman of your ,lordship's4' ,his ,lordship raised himself up1 looked hard at the little fellow1 and then shaking his huge whip over his head1 ',ah1' he exclaimed1 ',i hope his country will have no reason to be ashamed of him4' ',the circumstance1' said the poet1 'made a deep impression on my mind2 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 me4' ,scotland has no reason to be ashamed of ,james ,montgomery4 ,of all her poets1 there is not one of equal power1 whose strain has been so uninterruptedly pure1 or whose objects have been so invariably excellent4 ,the child of the ,christian missionary has been the poet of ,christian missions4 ,the parents laid down their lives in behalf of the enslaved and perishing negro2 the son1 in strains the most vigorous and impassioned1 has raised his generous appeal to public justice in his behalf4 ,nor has the appeal been in vain4 ,all his writings bear the stamp of the ,christian2 many of them--embodying feelings which all the truly devout experience1 but which only a poet could express--have been made vehicles for addressing to the ,creator the emotions of many a grateful heart2 and1 employed chiefly on themes of immortality1 they promise to outlive not only songs of intellectually a lower order1 but of even equal powers of genius1 into whose otherwise noble texture sin has introduced the elements of death4 #bhth ,october #ahda4 ----- #a #bjth ,october #ahda4 ,,criticism--,,internal ,,evidence4 ,the reader must have often remarked1 in catalogues of the writings of great authors--such as ,dr4 ,johnson1 and the ,rev4 ,john ,cumming1 of the ,scotch ,church1 ,london--that while some of the pieces are described as acknowledged1 the genuineness of others is determined merely by internal evidence4 ,we know1 for instance1 that the ,doctor wrote the ,english ,dictionary1 not only because no other man in the world at the time could have written it1 but also because he affixed his name to the title-page4 ,we know1 too1 that he wrote some of the best of ,lord ,chatham's earlier speeches1 just because he said so1 and pointed out the very garret in ,fleet ,street in which they had been written4 ,but it is from other data we conclude that1 during his period of obscurity and distress1 he wrote prefaces for the ,gentleman's ,magazine1 for some six or seven years together1--data derived exclusively from a discriminating criticism2 and his claim to the authorship of ,taylor's ,sermons rests solely on the vigorous character of the thinking displayed in these compositions1 and the marked peculiarities of their style4 ,now1 in exactly the same way in which we know that ,johnson wrote the speeches and the ,dictionary1 do we know that the ,rev4 ,john ,cumming drew up an introductory essay to the liturgy of a ,church that never knew of a liturgy1 and that he occasionally contributes tales to morocco annuals1 wonderful enough to excite the astonishment of ordinary readers4 ,to these compositions he affixes his name1--a thing very few men would have the courage to do2 and thus are we assured of their authorship4 ,but there are other compositions to which he does not affix his name1 and it is from internal evidence alone that these can be adjudged to him3 it is from internal evidence alone1 for instance1 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 month4 ,may we crave leave to direct the attention of the reader for a very few minutes to the grounds on which we decide8 ,it is of importance1 as ,johnson says of ,pope1 that no part of so great a writer should be suffered to be lost1 and a little harmless criticism may have the effect of sharpening the faculties4 ,there is a class of ,scottish ministers in the present day1 who1 though they detest show and coxcombry1 have yet a very decided leaning to the picturesque ceremonies of the ,episcopal ,church4 ,they never weary of apologizing to our southern neighbours for what they term the baldness of our ,presbyterian ritual1 or in complaining of it to ourselves4 ,it was no later than last ,sunday that ,dr4 ,muir sorrowed in his lecture over the 'stinted arrangement in the ,presbyterian service1 that admits of no audible response from the people2' and all his genteeler hearers1 sympathizing with the worthy man1 felt how pleasant a thing it would be were the congregation permitted to do for him in the church what the ,rev4 ,mr4 ,macfarlane1 erst of ,stockbridge1 does for him in the presbytery4 ,corporal ,trim began one of his stories on one occasion1 by declaring 'that there was once an unfortunate king of ,bohemia2' and when ,uncle ,toby1 interrupting him with a sigh1 exclaimed1 ',ah1 ,corporal ,trim1 and was he unfortunate8' ',yes1 your honour1' readily replied ,trim2 'he had a great love of ships and seaports1 and yet1 as your honour knows1 there was ne'er a ship nor a seaport in all his dominions4' ,now this semi-,episcopalian class are unfortunate after the manner of the king of ,bohemia4 ,the objects of their desire lie far beyond the ,presbyterian territories4 ,they are restricted to one pulpit1 they are limited to one dress2 they have actually to read and preach from the same footboard2 they are prohibited the glories of white muslin2 liturgy have they none4 ,no audible responses arise from the congregation2 the precentor is silent1 save when he sings2 their churches are organless2 and though they set themselves painfully to establish their claim to the succession apostolical1 the ,hon4 ,mr4 ,percevals of the ,church which they love and admire see no proof in their evidence1 and look down upon them as the mere preaching laymen of a sectarian corporation4 ,thrice unfortunate men6 ,what were the unhappinesses of the king of ,bohemia1 compared with the sorrows of these humble but rejected followers of ,episcopacy6 ,now1 among this highly respectable but unhappy class1 the ,rev4 ,john ,cumming1 of the ,scotch ,church1 ,london1 stands pre-eminent4 ,so grieved was ,queen ,mary of ,england by the loss of ,calais1 that she alleged the very name of the place would be found written on her heart after her death4 ,the words that have the best chance of being found inscribed on the heart of the ,rev4 ,mr4 ,cumming are1 bishop1 liturgy1 apostolical succession1 burial service1 organ1 and surplice4 ,the ideas attached to these vocables pervade his whole style1 and form from their continual recurrence a characteristic portion of it4 ,they tumble up and down in his mind like the pieces of painted glass in a kaleidoscope1 and present themselves in new combinations at every turn4 ,his last acknowledged composition was a wonderful tale which appeared in the ,protestant ,annual for the present year1 and--strange subject for such a writer--it purported to be a ,tale of the ,covenant4 ,honest ,peter ,walker had told the same story1 that of ,john ,brown of ,priesthill1 about a century and a half ago2 but there had been much left for ,mr4 ,cumming to discover in it of which the poor pedlar does not seem to have had the most distant conception4 ,little did ,peter know that ,john ,brown's favourite minister 'held the sacred and apostolical succession of the ,scottish priesthood4' ,little would he have thought of apologizing to the ,english reader for 'the antique and ballad verses' of our metrical version of the ,psalms4 ,indeed1 so devoid was he of learning1 that he could scarce have valued at a sufficiently high rate the doctrines of ,oxford2 and so little gifted with taste1 that he would have probably failed to appreciate the sublimities of ,brady and ,tate4 ,nor could ,peter have known that the 'liturgy of the heart' was in the ,covenanter's cottage1 and that the 'litany' of the spirit breathed from his evening devotions4 ,but it is all known to the ,rev4 ,mr4 ,cumming4 ,he knows1 too1 that there were sufferings and privations endured by the persecuted ,presbyterians of those days1 of which writers of less ingenuity have no adequate conception2 that they were forced to the wild hill-sides1 where they could have no 'organs1' and compelled to bury their dead without the solemnities of the funeral service4 ,unhappy ,covenanters6 ,it is only now that your descendants are beginning to learn the extent of your miseries4 ,would that it had been your lot to live in the days of the ,rev4 ,john ,cumming of the ,scottish ,church1 ,london6 ,he would assuredly have procured for you the music-box of some wandering ,italian1 and gone away with you to the wilds to mingle exquisite melody with your devotions1 qualifying with the sweetness of his tones the 'antique and ballad' rudeness of your psalms2 nor would he have failed to furnish you with a liturgy1 by means of which you could have interred your dead in decency4 ,had such been the arrangement1 no after writer could have remarked1 as the ,rev4 ,mr4 ,cumming does now1 that no 'pealing organ' mingled 'its harmony of bass1 tenor1 treble1 and soprano' when you sung1 or have recorded the atrocious fact1 that not only was ,john ,brown of ,priesthill shot by ,claverhouse1 but actually buried by his friends without the funeral service4 ,and how striking and affecting an incident would it not form in the history of the persecution1 could it now be told1 that when surprised by the dragoons1 the good ,mr4 ,cumming fled over hill and hollow with the box on his back1 turning the handle as he went1 and urging his limbs to their utmost speed1 lest the ,episcopalian soldiery should bring him back and make him a bishop6 ,it is partly from the more than semi-,episcopalian character of this gentleman's opinions1 partly from the inimitable felicities of his style1 and partly from one or two peculiar incidents in his history which lead to a particular tone of remark1 that we infer him to be the writer of the article in ,fraser4 ,we may be of course mistaken1 but the internal evidence seems wonderfully strong4 ,the ,rev4 ,mr4 ,cumming1 though emphatically powerful in declamation1 has never practised argument1--a mean and undignified art1 which he leaves to men such as ,mr4 ,cunningham1 just as the genteel leave the art of boxing to the commonalty2 and in grappling lately with a strong-boned ,irish ,presbyterian1 skilful of fence1 he caught1 as gentlemen sometimes do1 a severe fall1 and began straightway to characterize ,irish ,presbyterians as a set of men very inferior indeed4 ,now the writer in ,fraser has a fling la ,cumming at the ,irish ,presbyterians4 ,popular election has1 it seems1 done marvellously little for them2 with very few exceptions1 their 'ministry' is neither 'erudite1 influential1 nor accomplished1' and their ,church 'exhibits the symptoms of heart disease4' ,depend on it1 some stout ,irish ,presbyterian has entailed the shame of defeat on the writer in ,fraser4 ,mr4 ,cumming1 in his tale1 adverts to the majority of the ,scottish ,church as 'radical subverters of ,church and ,state1 who claim the ,covenanters as precedents for a course of conduct from which the dignified ,henderson1 the renowned ,gillespie1 the learned ,binning1 the laborious ,denham1 the heavenly-minded ,rutherford1 the religious ,wellwood1 the zealous ,cameron1 and the prayerful ,peden1 would have revolted in horror4' ,the writer of the article brings out exactly the same sentiment1 though not quite so decidedly1 in what ,meg ,dodds would have termed a grand style of language4 ,at no time1 he asserts1 did non-intrusion exist in the sense now contended for in ,scotland2 at no time might not qualified ministers be thrust upon reclaiming parishes by the presbytery3 and as for the vetoists1 they are but wild radicals1 who are to be 'classified by the good sense of ,england with those luminaries of the age1 ,dan ,o',connell1 ,john ,frost1 and others of that ilk4' ,in the article there is a complaint that our majority are miserably unacquainted with ,scottish ecclesiastical history2 and there is special mention made of ,mr4 ,cunningham as an individual not only ignorant of facts1 but as even incapable of being made to feel their force4 ,in the ,annual1 as if ,mr4 ,cumming wished to exemplify1 there is a passage in ,scottish ecclesiastical history1 of which we are certain ,mr4 ,cunningham not only knows nothing1 but which we are sure he will prove too obstinate to credit or comprehend4 ',the celebrated ,mr4 ,cameron1' says the minister of the ,scottish ,church1 ,london1 'was left on ,drumclog a mangled corpse4' ,fine thing to be minutely acquainted with ecclesiastical history6 ,we illiterate non-intrusionists hold1 and we are afraid ,mr4 ,cunningham among the rest1 that the celebrated ,cameron was killed1 not at the skirmish of ,drumclog1 but at the skirmish of ,airdmoss1 which did not take place until about a twelvemonth after2 but this must result surely from our ignorance4 ,has the ,rev4 ,mr4 ,cumming no intention of settling our disputes1 by giving us a new history of the ,church8 ,that portion of the internal evidence in the article before us which depends on style and manner1 seems very conclusive indeed4 ,take some of the avowed sublimities of the ,rev4 ,mr4 ,cumming4 ,no man stands more beautifully on tiptoe when he sets himself to catch a fine thought4 ,in describing an attached congregation1 ',the hearer's prayers rose to heaven1' he says1 'and returned in the shape of broad impenetrable bucklers around the venerable man4 ,a thousand broadswords leapt in a thousand scabbards1 as if the electric eloquence of the minister found in them conductors and depositories4' ,poetry such as this is still somewhat rare2 but mark the kindred beauties of the writer in ,fraser4 ,around such men as ,mr4 ,tait1 ,dr4 ,m',leod1 and ,dr4 ,muir1 'must crystallize the piety and the hopes of the ,scottish ,church4' ,what a superb figure6 ,only think of the ,rev4 ,dr4 ,muir as of a thread in a piece of sugar candy1 and the piety of the ,dean of ,faculty and ,mr4 ,penney1 joined to that of some four or five hundred respectable ladies of both sexes besides1 all sticking out around him in cubes1 hexagons1 and prisms1 like cleft almonds in a bishop-cake4 ,hardly inferior in the figurative is the passage which follows3 ',the ,doctor 7,dr4 ,chalmers7 rides on at a rickety trot1--,messrs4 ,cunningham1 ,begg1 and ,candlish by turns whipping up the wornout ,rosenante1 and making the rider believe that windmills are ,church principles1 and the echoes of their thunder solid argument4 ,a ditch will come2 and when the first effects of the fall are over1 the dumbfounded ,professor will awake to the deception1 and smite the minnows of vetoism hip and thigh4' ,the writer of this passage is unquestionably an ingenious man1 but he could surely have made a little more of the last figure4 ,a dissertation on the hips and thighs of minnows might be made to reflect new honour on even the genius of the ,rev4 ,mr4 ,cumming4 ,it is mainly1 however1 from the ,episcopalian tone of the article that we derive our evidence4 ,the writer seems to hold1 with ,charles ,,ii41 that ,presbyterianism is no fit religion for a gentleman4 ,true1 the ,moderates were genteel men1 of polish and propriety1 such as ,mr4 ,jaffray of ,dunbar1 who never at synod or presbytery did or said anything that was not strictly polite2 but then the ,moderates had but little of ,presbyterianism in their religion1 and perhaps1 notwithstanding their 'quiet1 amiable1 and courteous demeanour1' little of religion itself4 ,it is to quite a different class that the hope of the writer turns4 ,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 spectator2' that there is a party1 however1 'with whom the ministerial office is a sacred investiture1 transmitted by succession through pastor to pastor1 and from age to age1--men inducted to their respective parishes1 not because their flocks like or dislike them1 but because the superintending authorities1 after the exercise of solemn1 minute1 and patient investigation1 have determined that this or that pastor is the fittest and best for this or that parish2' that there exist in this noble party 'the germs of a possible unity with the southern ,church2' and that there is doubtless a time coming when the body of our ,establishment1 'sick of slavery under the name of freedom1 and of sheer ,popery under ,presbyterian colours1 shall send up three of their best men to ,london for consecration1 and ,episcopacy shall again become the adoption of ,scotland4' ,rarely has the imagination of the poet conjured up a vision of greater splendour4 ,the minister of the ,scotch ,church1 ,london1 may die ,archbishop of ,st4 ,andrews4 ,and such an archbishop6 ,we are told in the article that 'the channel along which ministerial orders are to be transmitted is the pastors of the ,church1 whether they meet together in the presbytery1 or are compressed and consolidated in the bishop4' ,but is not this understating the case on the ,episcopal side8 ,what would not ,scotland gain if she could compress and consolidate a simple presbytery1 such as that of ,edinburgh--its ,chalmers and its ,gordon1 its ,candlish and its ,cunningham1 its ,guthrie1 its ,brown1 its ,bennie1 its ,begg--in short1 all its numerous members--into one great ,bishop ,john ,cumming1 late of the ,scotch ,church1 ,london6 ,the man who converts twenty-one shillings into a gold guinea gains nothing by the process2 but the case would be essentially different here1 for not only would there be a great good accomplished1 but also a great evil removed4 ,as for ,dr4 ,chalmers1 it is 'painfully evident1' says the writer of the article1 'that he regards only three things additional to a supernal influence as requisite to constitute any one a minister--a knowledge of ,christianity1 and endowment1 and a parish2' and as for the rest of the gentlemen named1 they are just preparing to do1 in an 'ecclesiastical way in ,edinburgh1 what ,robespierre1 ,marat1 and others did in a corporal way in the ,convention of #agic4' ,hogarth quarrelled with ,churchill1 and drew him as a bear in canonicals4 ,had he lived to quarrel with the ,rev4 ,john ,cumming1 he would in all probability have drawn him as a puppy in gown and band2 and no one who knows aught of the painter can doubt that he would have strikingly preserved the likeness4 ,as for ourselves1 we merely indulge in a piece of conjectural criticism4 ,the other parts of the article are cast very much into the ordinary type of that side of the controversy to which it belongs3 there is rather more than the usual amount of misrepresentation1 inconsistency1 and abuse1 with here and there a peculiarity of statement4 ,patrons are described as the 'trustees of the supreme magistrate1 beautifully and devoutly appointed to submit the presentee to the presbytery4' ,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 ,assembly4' ,the seven clergymen of ,strathbogie are praised for 'having rendered unto ,god the things that are ,god's1' 'their enemies being judges4' ,the minority of the ,church contains1 it is stated1 its best men1 and its most diligent ministers4 ,as for the majority1 they have been possessed by a spirit of 'deep delusion2' their only idea of a 'clergyman is a preaching machine1 that makes a prodigious vociferation1 and pleases the herd4' ,they are destined to become' contemptible and base2' their attitude is an 'unrighteous attitude2' they are aiming1 'like ,popish priests1' at 'supremacy' and a deadly despotism1 through the sides of the people2 they are 'suicidally divesting themselves of their power as clergymen1 by surrendering to the people essentially ,episcopal functions2' they are 'wild men1' and offenders against the 'divine headship2' and the writer holds1 therefore1 that if the ,establishment is to be maintained in ,scotland1 they must be crushed1 and that soon1 by the strong arm of the law4 ,we need make no further remarks on the subject4 ,to employ one of the writer's own illustrations1 the history of ,robespierre powerfully demonstrates that great vanity1 great weakness1 and great cruelty1 may all find room together in one little mind4 ,march #aj1 #ahda4 ,,the ,,sanctities ,,of ,,matter4 ,,to ,,the ,,editor ,,of ,,the ,,witness4 ,,sir1--,upon hearing read aloud your remarks#a in the ,witness of ,saturday the #bhth ultimo1 upon the danger of investing the mere building in which we meet for public worship with a character of sanctity1 an ,english gentleman asked1 ',how does the writer of that article reconcile with his views our ,saviour's conduct1 described by ,st4 ,john1 ii4 #ad-ag1 and by each of the other evangelists8' ,though quite disposed to agree with the purport of your remarks1 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 ,saviour1 ,i found it difficult to meet this gentleman's objections1 and only reminded him that you made a special exception in the case of the ,jewish temple4 ,brought up from childhood1 as ,englishmen are1 with almost superstitious reverence for the buildings 'consecrated' and set apart for religious uses1 it is difficult to meet objections founded on such strong prejudices as were evident in this case4 ,if any arguments suggest themselves to you1 to show that the passage above referred to cannot be fairly employed in the defence of the ,church of ,england tenets1 in favour of consecrating churches1 and of reverence amounting almost to the worship of external objects devoted to religious purposes1 you will oblige me by stating them4--,i remain1 ,sir1 ,your obedient servant1 ,,an ,,absentee4 ,the passage of ,scripture referred to by the ',english ,gentleman' here as scarcely reconcilable with the views promulgated in the ,witness of the #bhth ult4 runs as follows3--',and ,jesus went up to ,jerusalem1 and found in the temple those that sold oxen1 and sheep1 and doves1 and the changers of money1 sitting2 and when ,he had made a scourge of small cords1 ,he drove them all out of the temple1 and the sheep and the oxen2 and poured out the changers' money1 and overthrew the tables2 and said unto them that sold doves1 ,take these things hence2 make not my ,father's house a house of merchandise4' ,it will perhaps be remembered by our readers1 that in referring to the ,scotch estimate of the sacredness of ecclesiastical edifices1 we employed words to the following effect3--',we 7the ,scotch people7 have been taught that the world1 since it began1 saw but two truly holy edifices2 and that these1 the ,tabernacle and the ,temple1 were as direct revelations from ,god as the ,scriptures themselves1 and were as certain embodiments of ,his will1 though they spoke in the obscure language of type and symbol4' ,now the passage of ,scripture here cited is in harmonious accordance with this view4 ,it was from one of these truly holy edifices that our ,saviour drove the sheep and oxen1 and indignantly expelled the money-changers4 ,without1 however1 begging the whole question at issue--without taking for granted the very point to be proven1 i4e4 the intrinsic holiness of ,christian places of worship--the text has no bearing whatever on the view taken by the ',english ,gentleman4' ,if buildings such as ,york ,cathedral1 ,westminster ,abbey1 and ,st4 ,paul's1 be holy in the sense in which the temple was holy1 then the passage as certainly applies to them as it applied1 in the times of our ,saviour1 to the sacred edifice which was so remarkable a revelation of ,himself4 ,but where is the evidence of an intrinsic holiness in these buildings8 ,where is the proof that the rite of consecration is a rite according to the mind of ,god8 ,where is the probability even that it is other than a piece of mere will-worship1 originated in the dark ages2 or that it confers one whit more sanctity on the edifice which it professes to render sacred1 than the breaking a bottle of wine on the ship's stem1 when she is starting off the slips1 confers sanctity on the ship8 ,stands it on any surer ground than the baptism of bells1 the sacrifice of the mass1 or the five spurious sacraments8 ,if it be a ,new ,testament institution1 it must possess ,new ,testament authority4 ,where is that authority8 ,can it be possible1 however1 that the shrewd ,english really differ from us in our estimate8 ,we think we have good grounds for holding they do not4 ,on a late occasion we enjoyed the pleasure of visiting not only ,york ,cathedral1 but ,westminster ,abbey and ,st4 ,paul's1 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 all4 ,the ',english ,gentleman' refers to the example of our ,saviour in thrusting forth the money-changers from the temple1 as a sort of proof that ecclesiastical edifices are holy2 and we show that it merely proves the temple to have been holy4 ,the passage has1 however1 a direct bearing on a somewhat different point3 it constitutes a test by which to try the reality of this ostensible belief of ,english ,episcopalians in the sacredness of their churches and cathedrals4 ,if the ,english1 especially ,english ,churchmen1 act with regard to their ecclesiastical buildings in the way our ,saviour acted with regard to the temple1 then it is but fair to hold that their belief in their sacredness is real4 ,but if1 on the contrary1 we find them acting1 not as our ,saviour acted1 but as the money-changers or the cattle-sellers acted1 then is it equally fair to conclude that their belief in their sacredness is not a real belief1 but a piece of mere pretence4 ,in the north transept of ,york ,minster there may be seen a table like a tomb of black ,purbec marble1 supported by an iron trellis1 and bearing atop the effigy of a wasted corpse wrapped in a winding-sheet4 ',this monument1' says a little work descriptive of the edifice1 'was erected to the memory of ,john ,haxby1 formerly treasurer to the church1 who died in #adbd2 and in compliance with stipulations in some of the ancient church deeds and settlements1 occasional payments of money are made on this tomb to the present day4' ,here1 at least1 is one money-changing table introduced into the consecrated area1 and this not irregularly or surreptitiously1 like the money-changing tables which of old profaned the temple1 but through the deliberately formed stipulations of ecclesiastical deeds and settlements4 ,the state of things in ,st4 ,paul's and ,westminster1 however1 throws the money-table of ,york ,minster far into the shade4 ,the holinesses of ,st4 ,paul's we found converted into a twopenny1 and those of ,westminster into a sixpenny show4 ,for the small sum of twopence one may be admitted1 at an ,english provincial fair1 to see the old puppet exhibition of ,punch and ,judy1 and of ,solomon in all his glory2 and for the small sum of twopence were we admitted1 in like manner1 to see ,st4 ,paul's1 to see choir1 communion-table1 and grand altar1 and everything else of peculiar sacredness within the edifice4 ,the holinesses of ,westminster cost thrice as much1 but were a good bargain notwithstanding4 ,would ,english ,churchmen permit1 far less originate and insist in doggedly maintaining1 so palpable a profanation1 did they really believe their cathedrals to be holy8 ,the debased ,jewish priesthood of the times of our ,saviour suffered the money-changers to traffic unchallenged within the temple2 but they did not convert the temple itself into a twopenny show3 they did not make halfpence by exhibiting the table of shew-bread1 the altar of incense1 and the golden candlestick1 nor lift up corners of the veil at the rate of a penny a peep4 ,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 describe3 the thing is a too palpable improbability2 the text quoted by the ,englishman is conclusive on the point4 ,would any man in his senses now hold that the old ,jewish priests really believed their temple to be holy1 had they done1 what they had decency enough not to do--converted it into a raree-show8 ,and are we not justified in applying to ,english ,churchmen the rule which would be at once applied to ,jewish priests8 ,the ,presbyterians of ,scotland do not deem their ecclesiastical edifices holy1 but there are certain natural associations that throw a degree of solemnity over places in which men assemble to worship ,god2 and in order that these may not be outraged1 they never convert their churches into twopenny show-boxes4 ,practically1 at least1 the ,scotch respect for decency goes a vast deal further than the ,english regard for what they profess1 very insincerely it would seem1 to hold sacred4 ,we have said there is quite as little ,new ,testament authority for consecrating a place of worship as for baptizing a bell2 and if in the wrong1 can of course be easily set right4 ,if the authority exists1 it can be no difficult matter to produce it4 ,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 worship4 ,we find in the ,pentateuch chapter after chapter occupied with the mechanism of the tabernacle4 ,the pattern given in the mount is as minutely described as any portion of the ceremonial law1 and for exactly the same reason3 the one as certainly as the other was 'a figure of things to come4' ,how exceedingly minute1 too1 the description of the temple6 ,how very particular the narrative of its dedication6 ,the prayer of ,solomon1 ,heaven-inspired for the occasion1 forms an impressive chapter in the sacred record1 that addresses itself to all time4 ,but when the old state of things had passed away1--when the material was relinquished for the spiritual1 the shadow for the substance1 the type for the antitype1--we hear no more of places of worship to which an intrinsic holiness attached1 or of imposing rites of dedication4 ,not in edifices deemed sacred was the gospel promulgated1 so long as the gospel remained pure1 but in 'hired houses' and 'upper rooms1' or 'river-sides1 where prayer was wont to be made1' in chambers on the 'third loft1' often in the streets1 often in the market-place1 in the fields and by solitary waysides1 on shipboard and by the sea-shore1 'in the midst of ,mars ,hill' at ,athens1 and1 when persecution began to darken1 amid the deep gloom of the sepulchral caverns of ,rome4 ,the time had evidently come1 referred to by the ,saviour1 when neither in the temple at ,jerusalem1 nor on the mountain deemed sacred by the ,samaritans1 was the ,father to be worshipped2 but all over the world1 'in spirit and in truth4' ,until ,christianity had become corrupt1 we do not hear even of ornate churches1 far less of ,christian altars1 of an order of ,christian priests1 of the will-worship of consecration1 or of the presumed holiness of insensate matter1--all unauthorized additions of man's making to a religion fast sinking at the time under a load of human inventions1--additions which were in no degree the more sacred1 because filched1 amid the darkness of superstition and error1 from the abrogated ,mosaic dispensation4 ,the following is1 we believe1 the first notice of fine ,christian churches which occurs in history2--we quote from the ecclesiastical work of ,dr4 ,welsh1 and deem the passage a significant one3--',from the beginning of the reign of ,gallienus till the nineteenth year of ,diocletian1' says the historian1 'the external tranquillity of the ,church suffered no general interruption4 ,the ,christians1 with partial exceptions1 were allowed the free exercise of their religion4 ,under ,diocletian open profession of the new faith was made even in the imperial household2 nor did it prove a barrier to the highest honours and employments4 ,in this state of affairs the condition of the ,church seemed in the highest degree prosperous4 ,converts were multiplied throughout all the provinces of the empire2 and the ancient churches proving insufficient for the accommodation of the increasing multitudes of worshippers1 splendid edifices were erected in every city1 which were filled with crowded congregations4 ,but with this outward appearance of success1 the purity of faith and worship became gradually corrupted2 and1 still more1 the vital spirit of religion suffered a melancholy decline4 ,pride and ambition1 emulation and strifes1 hypocrisy and formality among the clergy1 and superstitions and factions among the people1 brought reproach on the ,christian cause4 ,in these circumstances the judgments of the ,lord were manifested1 and the ,church was visited with the severest persecution to which it ever yet had been subjected4' ,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 ideas4 ,but of all his illustrations1 employed to exhibit in the true light this copious source of error1 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 immortal1 with earth1 mortar1 and stone1 pieces of mouldering serge1 and bits of rotten wood4 ,nearly one half of the errors with which ,popery has darkened and overlaid the religion of the ,cross1 have originated in this particular species of false association4 ,the superstition of pilgrimages1 with all its long catalogue of crime and suffering1 inclusive of bloody wars1 protracted for ages1--- ',when men strayed far to seek ,in ,golgotha ,him dead who lives in heaven1'-- the idolatry of relics1 so strangely revived on the ,continent in our own times1--the allegorical will-worship embodied in stone and lime1 which ,puseyism is at present so busy in introducing into the ,church of ,england1 and which renders every ecclesiastical building a sort of apocryphal temple1 full1 like the apocryphal books1 of all manner of error and nonsense1--a thousand other absurdities and heterodoxies besides1--have all originated in this cause4 ,true1 such association is most natural to man1 and1 when of a purely secular character1 harmless2 nay1 there are cases in which it may be even laudably indulged4 ',when ,i find ,tully confessing of himself1' says ,johnson1 'that he could not forbear at ,athens to visit the walks and houses which the old philosophers had frequented or inhabited1 and recollect the reverence which every nation1 civil and barbarous1 has paid to the ground where merit has been buried1 ,i am afraid to declare against the general voice of mankind1 and am inclined to believe that this regard which we involuntarily pay to the meanest relique of a man great and illustrious1 is intended as an incitement to labour1 and an encouragement to expect the same renown if it be sought by the same virtues4' ,we find nearly the same sentiment eloquently expounded in the ,doctor's famous passage on ,iona4 ,but there exists a grand distinction between natural feelings proper in their own place1 and natural feelings permitted to enter the religious field1 and vitiate the integrity of revelation4 ,it is from the natural alone in such cases that danger is to be apprehended2 seeing that what is not according to the mental constitution of man1 is of necessity at once unproductive and shortlived4 ,let due weight be given to the associative feeling1 in its proper sphere1--let it dispose us to invest with a quiet decency our places of worship1--let us1 at all events1 not convert them into secular counting-rooms or twopenny show-boxes2 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 temples1 which1 like the altar of old1 sanctified the gift1 but in mere places of shelter1 that confer no sacredness on their services2 and that the 'hour has come1 and now is1 when they that worship the ,father must worship ,him in spirit and in truth4' ,april #ae1 #ahdf4 ----- #a ,see ,first ,impressions of ,england and its ,people1 ch4 ,,ii4--,,ed4 ,,the ,,late ,,rev4 ,,alexander ,,stewart4 ,our last conveyed to our readers the mournful intelligence of the illness and death of the ,rev4 ,alexander ,stewart of ,cromarty1--a man less known1 perhaps1 than any other of nearly equal calibre1 or of a resembling exquisitiveness of mental faculty1 which his country has ever produced1 but whose sudden removal has1 we find1 created an impression far beyond the circle of even his occasional hearers1 that the spirit which has passed away was one of the high cast which nature rarely produces1 and that the consequent blank created in the existing phalanx of intellect is one which cannot be filled up4 ,comparatively little as the deceased was known beyond his own immediate walk of duty or circle of acquaintanceship1 it is yet felt by thousands1 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 others1 that1 according to the poet1 ',a mighty spirit is eclipsed2 a power ,hath passed from day to darkness1 to whose hour ,of light no likeness is bequeathed--no name4' ,the subject is one with which we can scarce trust ourselves4 ,there are no writings to which we can appeal1 for ,mr4 ,stewart has left none1 or at least none suited to convey an adequate impression of his powers2 and yet of nothing are we more thoroughly convinced1 than that the originality and vigour of his thinking1 and the singular vividness and force of his illustrations1 added to a command of the principles of analogical reasoning1 which even a ,butler might have envied1 entitled him to rank with the ablest and most extraordinary men of the age4 ,coleridge was not more thoroughly original1 nor could he impart to his pictures more vividness of colouring1 or more decided strength of outline4 ,in glancing over our limited stock of idea1 to note how we have come by it1 we find that to two ,scotchmen of the present century we stand more largely indebted than to any of their contemporaries1 either at home or abroad4 ,more of their thinking has got into our mind than that of any of the others2 and their images and illustrations recur to us more frequently4 ,and one of these is ,thomas ,chalmers2 the other1 ,alexander ,stewart4 ,there is an order of intellect decidedly original in its cast1 and of considerable power1 to whom notwithstanding originality is dangerous4 ,goldsmith1 when he first entered on his literary career1 found that all the good things on the side of truth had already been said2 and that his good things1 if he really desired to produce any1 would require all to be said on the side of paradox and error4 ',when ,i was a young man1' he states1 in a passage which ,johnson censured him for afterwards expunging1 'being anxious to distinguish myself1 ,i was perpetually starting new propositions4 ,but ,i soon gave this over1 for ,i found that generally what was new was false4' ,poor ,edward ,irving formed a melancholy illustration of this species of originality4 ,his stock of striking things on the side of truth was soon expended2 notoriety had meanwhile become as essential to his comfort as ardent spirits to that of the dram-drinker1 or his pernicious drug to that of the inveterate opium-eater2 and so1 to procure the supply of the unwholesome pabulum1 without which he could not continue to exist1 he launched into a perilous ocean of heterodoxy and extravagance1 and made shipwreck of his faith4 ,his originality formed but the crooked wanderings of a journeyer who had forsaken the right way1 and lost himself in the mazes of a doleful wilderness4 ,not such the originality of the higher order of minds2 not such1 for instance1 the originality of a ,newton1 of whom it has been well said by a distinguished ,french critic1 that 'what province of thought soever he undertook1 he was sure to change the ideas and opinions received by the rest of men4' ,one of the most striking characteristics of ,mr4 ,stewart's originality was the solidity of the truths which it always evolved4 ,his was not the ability of opening up new vistas in which all was unfamiliar1 simply because the direction in which they led was one in which men's thought had no occasion to travel1 and no business to perform4 ,it was1 on the contrary1 the greatly higher ability of enlarging1 widening1 and lengthening the avenues long before opened upon important truths1 and1 in consequence1 enabling men to see new and unwonted objects in old1 familiar directions4 ,that in which he excelled all men we ever knew1 was the analogical faculty--the power of detecting and demonstrating occult resemblances4 ,he could read off as if by intuition--not by snatches and fragments1 but as a consecutive whole--that older revelation of type and symbol which ,god first gave to man2 and when privileged to listen to him1 we have recognised1 in the evident integrity of the reading1 and the profound and consistent wisdom of what the record conveyed1 a demonstration of the divinity of its origin1 not less powerful and convincing than that to be found in any department of the ,christian evidences yet opened up4 ,compared with even the higher names in this department1 we have felt under his ministry as if1 when admitted to the company of some party of modern savans employed in deciphering a hieroglyphic-covered obelisk of the desert1 and here successful in discovering the meaning of an insulated sign1 and there of a detached symbol1 we had been suddenly joined by some sage of the olden time1 to whom the mysterious inscription was but a piece of common language written in a familiar alphabet1 and who could read off fluently and as a whole what the others could but darkly and painfully guess at in detached and broken parts4 ,to this singular power of tracing analogies there was added in ,mr4 ,stewart an ability of originating the most vivid illustrations4 ,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 wall2 in others1 he dwelt upon the picture produced1 finishing it with stroke after stroke1 until it filled the whole imagination1 and sank deep into the memory4 ,we remember hearing him preach on one occasion on the return of the ,jews1 as a people1 to ,him whom they had rejected1 and the effect which their sudden conversion could not fail to have on the unbelieving and ,gentile world4 ,suddenly his language1 from its high level of eloquent simplicity1 became at once that of metaphor3 ',when ,joseph1' he said1 'shall reveal himself to his brethren1 the whole house of ,pharaoh shall hear the weeping4' ,could there be an allusion of more classical beauty1 or more finely charged with typical truth8 ,and yet such was one of the common and briefer exercises of the illustrative faculty in this gifted man4 ,on another occasion we heard him dwell on that vast profundity characteristic of the scriptural representations of ,god1 which ever deepens and broadens the longer and the more thoroughly it is explored1 until at length the student--struck at first by its expansiveness1 but conceiving of it as if it were a mere measured expansiveness--finds that it partakes of the unlimited infinity of the divine nature itself4 ,naturally and simply1 as if growing out of the subject1 like a green berry-covered misletoe on the mossy trunk of a reverend oak1 there sprang up one of his more lengthened illustrations4 ,a child bred up in the interior of the country has been brought for the first time to the sea-shore1 and carried out to the middle of one of the noble friths that indent so deeply our line of coast2 and on his return he informs his father1 with all a child's eagerness1 of the wonderful expansiveness of the ocean which he has seen4 ,he went out1 he tells1 far amid the great waves and the rushing tides1 till at length the huge hills seemed diminished into mere hummocks1 and the wide land itself appeared along the waters but as a slim strip of blue4 ,and then when in mid-sea the sailors heaved the lead2 and it went down1 and down1 and down1 and the long line slipped swiftly away over the boat-edge coil after coil1 till1 ere the plummet rested on the ouse below1 all was well-nigh expended4 ,and was it not the great sea1 asks the boy1 that was so vastly broad1 and so profoundly deep8 ,ah6 my child1 exclaims the father1 you have not yet seen aught of its greatness1--you have sailed over merely one of its little arms4 ,had it been out into the wide ocean that the seamen had carried you1 you would have seen no shore1 and you would have found no bottom4 ,in one rare quality of the orator1 ,mr4 ,stewart stood alone among his contemporaries4 ,pope refers1 in one of his satires1 to a strange power of creating love and admiration by just 'touching the brink of all we hate2' and ,burke1 in some of his nobler passages1 happily exemplifies the thing4 ,he intensified the effect of his burning eloquence by the employment of figures so homely1 nay1 almost so repulsive in themselves1 that a man of lower powers who ventured their use would find them efficient merely in lowering his subject and ruining his cause4 ,we may refer1 in illustration1 to ,burke's celebrated figure of the disembowelled bird1 which occurs in his indignant denial that the character of the revolutionary ,french in aught resembled that of the ,english4 ',we have not1' he says1 'been drawn and trussed1 in order that we may be filled1 like stuffed birds in a museum1 with chaff and rags1 and paltry blurred shreds of paper about the rights of man4' ,into this perilous but singularly effective department1 closed against even superior men1 ,mr4 ,stewart could enter safely and at will4 ,we heard him1 scarce a twelvemonth since1 deliver a discourse of singular power1 on the sin-offering of the ,jewish economy1 as minutely particularized by the divine penman in ,leviticus4 ,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 sun1 as it awaited the consuming fire1 amid the uncleanness of ashes outside the camp1--a vile and horrid thing1 which no one could see without experiencing emotions of disgust1 nor touch without contracting defilement4 ,the picture appeared too painfully vivid1 its introduction too little in accordance with the rules of a just taste4 ,it seemed a thing to be covered up1 not exhibited4 ,but the master in this difficult walk well knew what he was doing4 ',and that1' he said1 as if pointing to the strongly-coloured picture he had just completed1 'and that is ,,sin4' ,by one stroke the intended effect was produced1 and the rising disgust and horror transferred from the revolting material image to the great moral evil4 ,we had fondly hoped that for a man so singularly gifted1 and who had but reached the ripe maturity of middle life1 there remained important work yet to do4 ,he seemed peculiarly fitted1 if but placed in a commanding sphere1 for ministering to some of the intellectual wants1 and for withstanding with singular efficiency some of the more perilous tendencies1 of the religious world in the present day4 ,that ,athenian thirst for the new so generally abroad1 and which many have so unhappily satisfied with the unwholesome and the pernicious1 he could satisfy with provision at once sound and novel4 ,and no man of the age had more thoroughly studied the prevailing theological errors of the time in their first insidious approaches1 or could more skilfully indicate the exact point at which they diverge from the truth4 ,but his work on earth is for ever over2 and the sense of bereavement is deepened by the reflection that1 save in the memory of a few1 he has left behind him no adequate impress of the powers of his understanding or of the fineness of his genius4 ,it is strange how much the lack of a single ingredient in a man's moral constitution--and that1 too1 an ingredient in itself of a low and vulgar cast--may affect one's whole destiny4 ,it was the grand defect of this gifted man1 that that sentiment of self-esteem1 which seems in many instances so absurd and ridiculous a thing1 and which some1 in their little wisdom1 would so fain strike out from among the components of human character1 was almost wholly awanting4 ,as the minister of an attached provincial congregation1 a sense of duty led him to study much and deeply2 and he poured forth viva voce his full-volumed and many-sparkling tide of eloquent idea as freely and richly as the nightingale1 unconscious of a listener1 pours forth her melody in the shade4 ,but he could not be made to understand or believe1 that what so impressed and delighted the privileged few who surrounded him was equally suited to impress and delight the many outside1 or that he was fitted to speak through the press in tones which would compel the attention not merely of the religious1 but also of the literary world4 ,and so his exquisitely-toned thinking perished like the music of the bygone years1 has died with himself1 or1 we should perhaps rather say1 has gone with him to that better land1 where all those fruits of intellect that the human spirits of greatest calibre have in this world produced1 must form but the comparatively meagre beginnings of infinite1 never-ending acquirement4 ,mr4 ,stewart was one of the eminently excellent and loveable1 and his entire character of the most transparent1 childlike simplicity4 ,the great realities of eternity were never far distant from his thoughts4 ,endowed with powers of humour at least equal to his other faculties1 and a sense of the ludicrous singularly nice1 he has often reminded us in his genial moments1 when indulging most freely1 of a happy child at play in the presence of its father4 ,never was there an equal amount of wit more harmlessly indulged1 or from which one could pass more directly or with less distraction to the contemplation of the matters which pertain to eternity4 ,and no one could be long in his company without having his thoughts turned towards that unseen world to which he has now passed1 or without receiving emphatic testimony regarding that ,divine ,person who is the wisdom and the power of ,god4 ,we have seen it stated that ,mr4 ,stewart 'was slow to join the non-intrusion party1 and to acquiesce in the necessity of the secession4' ,on this point we are qualified to speak4 ,no one enjoyed more of his society during the first beginnings of the controversy1 or was more largely honoured with his confidence1 than the writer of these remarks2 and the one point of difference between ,mr4 ,stewart and him in their discussions in those days was1 that while the writer was sanguine enough to anticipate a successful termination to the ,church's struggle1 his soberer anticipations were of a character which the ,disruption in #ahdc entirely verified4 ,but with the actual result full in view1 he was yet the first man in his parish--we believe1 in his presbytery also--to take his stand1 modestly and unassumingly as became his character1 but with a firmness which never once swerved or wavered4 ,nay1 long ere the struggle began1 founding on data with which we pretend not to be acquainted1 he declared his conviction to not a few of his parishioners1 that of the ,establishment1 as then constituted1 he was to be the last minister in that parish4 ,we know nothing1 we repeat1 of the data on which he founded2 but he himself held that the conclusion was fairly deducible from those sacred oracles which no man more profoundly studied or more thoroughly knew4 ,alas6 what can it betoken our ,church1 that we should thus see such men1 at once its strength and its ornament1 so fast falling around us1 like commanding officers picked down at the beginning of a battle1 and that so few of resembling character1 and none of at least equal power1 should be rising to occupy the places made desolate by their fall6 ,november #ac1 #ahdg4 ,,the ,,calotype4 ,there are some two or three slight advantages which real merit has1 that fictitious merit has not2 among the rest1 an especial advantage1 which1 we think1 should recommend it to at least the quieter members of society--the advantage of being unobtrusive and modest4 ,it presses itself much less on public notice than its vagabond antagonist1 and makes much less noise2 it walks1 for a time at least1 as if slippered in felt1 and leaves the lieges quite at freedom to take notice of it or no1 as they may feel inclined4 ,it is content1 in its infancy1 to thrive in silence4 ,it does not squall in the nursery1 to the disturbance of the whole house1 like 'the major roaring for his porridge4' ,what1 for instance1 could be quieter or more modest1 in its first stages1 than the invention of ,james ,watt8 what more obtrusive or noisy1 on the contrary1 than the invention of ,mr4 ,henson8 ,and we have illustrations of the same truth in our ,scottish metropolis at the present moment1 that seem in no degree less striking4 ,phreno-mesmerism and the calotype have been introduced to the ,edinburgh public about much the same time2 but how very differently have they fared hitherto6 ,a real invention1 which bids fair to produce some of the greatest revolutions in the fine arts of which they have ever been the subject1 has as yet attracted comparatively little notice2 an invention which serves but to demonstrate that the present age1 with all its boasted enlightenment1 may yet not be very unfitted for the reception of superstitions the most irrational and gross1 is largely occupying the attention of the community1 and filling column after column in our public prints4 ,we shall venture to take up the quieter invention of the two as the genuine one1--as the invention which will occupy most space a century hence1--and direct the attention of our readers to some of the more striking phenomena which it illustrates1 and some of the purposes which it may be yet made to subserve4 ,there are few lovers of art who have looked on the figures or landscapes of a camera obscura without forming the wish that1 among the hidden secrets of matter1 some means might be discovered for fixing and rendering them permanent4 ,if nature could be made her own limner1 if by some magic art the reflection could be fixed upon the mirror1 could the picture be other than true8 ,but the wish must have seemed an idle one1--a wish of nearly the same cast as those which all remember to have formed at one happy period of life1 in connection with the famous cap and purse of the fairy tale4 ,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 pencils1 and commence taking their own likenesses8 ,improbable as the thing may have seemed1 however1 there were powers in nature of potency enough to effect it1 and the newly discovered art of the photographer is simply the art of employing these4 ,the figures and landscapes of the camera obscura can now be fixed and rendered permanent1--not yet in all their various shades of colour1 but in a style scarce less striking1 and to which the limner1 as if by anticipation1 has already had recourse4 ,the connoisseur unacquainted with the results of the recent discovery1 would decide1 if shown a set of photographic impressions1 that he had before him the carefully finished drawings in sepia of some great master4 ,the stronger lights1 as in sketches done in this colour1 present merely the white ground of the paper2 a tinge of soft warm brown indicates the lights of lower tone2 a deeper and still deeper tinge succeeds1 shading by scarce perceptible degrees through all the various gradations1 until the darker shades concentrate into an opaque and dingy umber1 that almost rivals black in its intensity4 ,we have at the present moment before us--and very wonderful things they certainly are--drawings on which a human pencil was never employed4 ,they are strangely suggestive of the capabilities of the art4 ,here1 for instance1 is a scene in ,george ,street1--part of the pavement2 and a line of buildings1 from the stately erection at the corner of ,hanover ,street1 with its proud ,corinthian columns and rich cornice1 to ,melville's ,monument and the houses which form the eastern side of ,st4 ,andrew ,square4 ,st4 ,andrew's ,church rises in the middle distance4 ,the drawing is truth itself2 but there are cases in which mere truth might be no great merit3 were the truth restricted here to the proportions of the architecture1 there could be nothing gained by surveying the transcript1 that could not be gained by surveying the originals4 ,in this little brown drawing1 however1 the truth is truth according to the rules of lineal perspective1 unerringly deduced2 and from a set of similar drawings1 this art of perspective1 so important to the artist--which has been so variously taught1 and in which so many masters have failed--could be more surely acquired than by any other means4 ,of all the many treatises yet written on the subject1 one of the best was produced by the celebrated ,ferguson the astronomer1 the sole fruit derived to the fine arts by his twenty years' application to painting4 ,there are1 however1 some of his rules arbitrary in their application1 and the propriety of which he has not even attempted to demonstrate4 ,here1 for the first time1 on this square of paper1 have we the data on which perspective may be rendered a certain science4 ,we have but to apply our compasses and rules in order to discover the proportions in which1 according to their distances1 objects diminish4 ,mark these columns1 for instance4 ,one line prolonged in the line of their architrave1 and another line prolonged in the line of their bases1 bisect one another in the point of sight fixed in the distant horizon2 and in this one important point we find all the other parallel lines of the building converging4 ,the fact1 though unknown to the ancients1 has been long familiar to the artists of comparatively modern times1--so familiar1 indeed1 that it forms one of the first lessons of the drawing-master4 ,the rule is a fixed one2 but there is another rule equally important1 not yet fixed1--that rule of proportion by which to determine the breadth which a certain extent of frontage between these converging lines should occupy4 ,the principle on which the horizontal lines converge is already known1 but the principle on which the vertical lines cut these at certain determinate distances is not yet known4 ,it is easy taking the latitudes of the art1 if we may so speak1 but its longitudes are still to discover4 ,at length1 however1 have we the lines of discovery indicated3 in the architectural drawings of the calotype the perspective is that of nature itself2 and to arrive at just conclusions1 we have but to measure and compare1 and ascertain proportions4 ,one result of the discovery of the calotype will be1 we doubt not1 the production of completer treatises on perspective than have yet been given to the world4 ,another very curious result will be1 in all probability1 a new mode of design for the purposes of the engraver1 especially for all the illustrations of books4 ,for a large class of works the labours of the artist bid fair to be restricted to the composition of tableaux vivants1 which it will be the part of the photographer to fix1 and then transfer to the engraver4 ,to persons of artistical skill at a distance1 the suggestion may appear somewhat wild4 ,such of our readers1 however1 as have seen the joint productions of ,mr4 ,hill and ,mr4 ,adamson in this department1 will1 we are convinced1 not deem it wild in the least4 ,compared with the mediocre prints of nine-tenths of the illustrated works now issuing from the press1 these productions serve admirably to show how immense the distance between nature and her less skilful imitators4 ,there is a truth1 breadth1 and power about them which we find in only the highest walks of art1 and not often even in these4 ,we have placed a head of ,dr4 ,chalmers taken in this way beside one of the most powerful prints of him yet given to the public1 and find from the contrast that the latter1 with all its power1 is but a mere approximation4 ,there is a skinniness about the lips which is not true to nature2 the chin is not brought strongly enough out2 the shade beneath the under lip is too broad and too flat2 the nose droops1 and lacks the firm-set appearance so characteristic of the original2 and while the breadth of the forehead is exaggerated1 there is scarce justice done to its height4 ,we decide at once in favour of the calotype--it is truth itself2 and yet1 while the design of the print--a mere approximation as it is--must have cost a man of genius much pains and study1 the drawing in brown beside it was but the work of a few seconds3 the eye of an accomplished artist determined the attitude of the original1 and the light reflected from the form and features accomplished the rest4 ,were that sketch in brown to be sent to a skilful engraver1 he would render it the groundwork of by far the most faithful print which the public has yet seen4 ,and how interesting to have bound up with the writings of this distinguished divine1 not a mere print in which there might be deviations from the truth1 but the calotype drawing itself6 ,in some future book sale1 copies of the ,astronomical ,discourses with calotype heads of the author prefixed1 may be found to bear very high prices indeed4 ,an autograph of ,shakespeare has been sold of late for considerably more than an hundred guineas4 ,what price would some early edition of his works bear1 with his likeness in calotype fronting the title8 ,corporations and colleges1 nay1 courts and governments1 would outbid one another in the purchase4 ,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 adversity1 solacing himself1 with upturned though sightless eyes1 amid the sublime visions of the ideal world8 ,how deep the interest which would attach to a copy of ,clarendon's ,history of the ,civil ,war1 with calotypes of all the more remarkable personages who figured in that very remarkable time--,charles1 ,cromwell1 ,laud1 ,henderson1 ,hampden1 ,strafford1 ,falkland1 and ,selden1--and with these the ,wallers and ,miltons and ,cowleys1 their contemporaries and coadjutors6 ,the history of the ,reform ,bill could still be illustrated after this manner2 so also could the history of ,roman ,catholic ,emancipation in ,ireland1 and the history of our ,church ,question in ,scotland4 ,even in this department--the department of historic illustrations--we anticipate much and interesting employment for the photographer4 ,we have two well-marked drawings before us1 in which we recognise the capabilities of the art for producing pictures of composition4 ,they are tableaux vivants transferred by the calotype4 ,in the one,footnote3 ,see ,frontispiece a bonneted mechanic rests over his mallet on a tombstone--his one arm bared above his elbow2 the other wrapped up in the well-indicated shirt folds1 and resting on a piece of grotesque sculpture4 ,there is a powerful sun2 the somewhat rigid folds in the dress of coarse stuff are well marked2 one half the face is in deep shade1 the other in strong light2 the churchyard wall throws a broad shadow behind1 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 foliage4 ,had an old thin man of striking figure and features been selected1 and some study-worn scholar introduced in front of him1 the result would have been a design ready for the engraver when employed in illustrating the ,old ,mortality of ,sir ,walter4 ,the other drawing presents a tableau vivant on a larger scale1 and of a much deeper interest4 ,it forms one of the groups taken under the eye of ,mr4 ,hill1 as materials for the composition of his historic picture4 ,in the centre ,dr4 ,chalmers sits on the ,moderator's chair1 and there are grouped round him1 as on the platform1 some eighteen or twenty of the better known members of the ,church1 clerical and lay4 ,nothing can be more admirable than the truthfulness and ease of the figures4 ,wilkie1 in his representations of a crowd1 excelled in introducing heads1 and hands1 and faces1 and parts of faces into the interstices behind1--one of the greatest difficulties with which the artist can grapple4 ,here1 however1 is the difficulty surmounted--surmounted1 too1 as if to bear testimony to the genius of the departed--in the style of ,wilkie4 ,we may add further1 that the great massiveness of the head of ,chalmers1 compared with the many fine heads around him1 is admirably brought out in this drawing4 ,in glancing over these photographic sketches1 one cannot avoid being struck by the silent but impressive eulogium which nature pronounces1 through their agency1 on the works of the more eminent masters4 ,there is much in seeing nature truthfully1 and in registering what are in reality her prominent markings4 ,artists of a lower order are continually falling into mere mannerisms--peculiarities of style that belong not to nature1 but to themselves1 just because1 contented with acquirement1 they cease seeing nature4 ,in order to avoid these mannerisms1 there is an eye of fresh observation required--that ability of continuous attention to surrounding phenomena which only superior men possess2 and doubtless to this eye of fresh observation1 this ability of continuous attention1 the masters owed much of their truth and their power4 ,how very truthfully and perseveringly some of them saw1 is well illustrated by these photographic drawings4 ,here1 for instance1 is a portrait exactly after the manner of ,raeburn4 ,there is the same broad freedom of touch2 no nice miniature stipplings1 as if laid in by the point of a needle--no sharp-edged strokes3 all is solid1 massy1 broad2 more distinct at a distance than when viewed near at hand4 ,the arrangement of the lights and shadows seems rather the result of a happy haste1 in which half the effect was produced by design1 half by accident1 than of great labour and care2 and yet how exquisitely true the general aspect6 ,every stroke tells1 and serves1 as in the portraits of ,raeburn1 to do more than relieve the features3 it serves also to indicate the prevailing mood and predominant power to the mind4 ,and here is another portrait1 quiet1 deeply-toned1 gentlemanly1--a transcript apparently of one of the more characteristic portraits of ,sir ,thomas ,lawrence4 ,perhaps1 however1 of all our ,british artists1 the artist whose published works most nearly resemble a set of these drawings is ,sir ,joshua ,reynolds4 ,we have a folio volume of engravings from his pictures before us2 and when1 placing side by side with the prints the sketches in brown1 we remark the striking similarity of style that prevails between them1 we feel more strongly than at perhaps any former period1 that the friend of ,johnson and of ,burke must have been a consummate master of his art4 ,the engraver1 however1 cannot have done full justice to the originals4 ,there is a want of depth and prominence which the near neighbourhood of the photographic drawings renders very apparent3 the shades in the subordinate parts of the picture are more careless and much less true2 nor have the lights the same vivid and sunshiny effect4 ,there is one particular kind of resemblance between the two which strikes as remarkable1 because of a kind which could scarce be anticipated4 ,in the volume of prints there are three several likenesses of the artist himself1 all very admirable as pieces of art1 and all1 no doubt1 sufficiently like1 but yet all dissimilar in some points from each other4 ,and this dissimilarity in the degree which it obtains1 one might naturally deem a defect--the result of some slight inaccuracy in the drawing4 ,should not portraits of the same individual1 if all perfect likenesses of him1 be all perfectly like one another8 ,no2 not at all4 ,a man at one moment of time1 and seen from one particular point of view1 may be very unlike himself when seen at another moment of time1 and from another point of view4 ,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 alike4 ,they differ in expression1 according to the mood which prevailed in the mind of the original at the moment in which they were imprinted upon the paper4 ,in some respects the physiognomy seems different2 and the features appear more or less massy in the degree in which the lights and shadows were more or less strong1 or in which the particular angle they were taken in brought them out in higher or lower relief4 ,we shall venture just one remark more on these very interesting drawings4 ,the subject is so suggestive of thought at the present stage1 that it would be no easy matter to exhaust it2 and it will1 we have no doubt1 be still more suggestive of thought by and by2 but we are encroaching on our limits1 and must restrain ourselves1 therefore1 to the indication of just one of the trains of thought which it has served to originate4 ,many of our readers must be acquainted with ,dr4 ,thomas ,brown's theory of attention1--'a state of mind1' says the philosopher1 'which has been understood to imply the exercise of a peculiar intellectual power1 but which1 in the case of attention to objects of sense1 appears to be nothing more than the co-existence of desire with the perception of the object to which we are said to attend4' ,he proceeds to instance how1 in a landscape in which the incurious gaze may see many objects without looking at or knowing them1 a mere desire to know brings out into distinctness every object in succession on which the desire fixes4 ',instantly1 or almost instantly1' continues the metaphysician1 'without our consciousness of any new or peculiar state of mind intervening in the process1 the landscape becomes to our vision altogether different4 ,certain parts only--those parts which we wished to know particularly--are seen by us2 the remaining parts seem almost to have vanished4 ,it is as if everything before had been but the doubtful colouring of enchantment1 which had disappeared1 and left us the few prominent realities on which we gaze2 or rather as if some instant enchantment1 obedient to our wishes1 had dissolved every reality beside1 and brought closer to our sight the few objects which we desired to see4' ,now1 in the transcript of the larger tableau vivant before us--that which represents ,dr4 ,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 depends4 ,they are purely structural laws1 and relate not to the mind1 but to the eye1--not to the province of the metaphysician1 but to that of the professor of optics4 ,the lens of the camera obscura transmits the figures to the prepared paper1 on quite the same principle on which in vision the crystalline lens conveys them to the retina4 ,in the centre of the field in both cases there is much distinctness1 while all around its circumference the images are indistinct and dim4 ,we have but to fix the eye on some object directly in front of us1 and then attempt1 without removing it1 to ascertain the forms of objects at some distance on both sides1 in order to convince ourselves that the field of distinct vision is a very limited field indeed4 ,and in this transcript of the larger tableau vivant we find exactly the same phenomena4 ,the central figures come all within the distinct field4 ,not so1 however1 the figures on both sides4 ,they are dim and indistinct2 the shades dilute into the lights1 and the outlines are obscure4 ,how striking a comment on the theory of ,brown6 ,we see his mysterious power resolved in that drawing into a simple matter of light and shade1 arranged in accordance with certain optical laws4 ,the clear central space in which the figures are so distinct1 corresponds to the central space in the retina2 it is the attention-point of the picture1 if we may so speak4 ,in the eye this attention-point is brought to bear1 through a simple effort of the will1 on the object to be examined2 and the rest of the process1 so pleasingly1 but at the same time so darkly1 described by the philosopher1 is the work of the eye itself4 ,,the ,,tenant',s ,,true ,,quarrel4 ,it has been remarked by ,sir ,james ,mackintosh1 that there are four great works1 in four distinct departments of knowledge1 which have more visibly and extensively influenced opinion than any other productions of the human intellect4 ,the first of these is the ,treatise on the ,law of ,war and ,peace1 by ,grotius4 ,it appeared about two centuries ago2 and from that period downwards1 international law became a solid fact1 which all civilised countries have recognised1 and which even the ,french ,convention1 during the ,reign of ,terror1 dared1 in its madness1 to outrage but for a moment4 ,the second is the ,essay on the ,human ,understanding1 by ,locke4 ,it struck down1 as with the blow of a hatchet1 the wretched mental philosophy of the dark ages1--that philosophy which ,puseyism1 in its work of diffusing over the present the barbarism and ignorance of the past1 would so fain revive and restore1 and which has been ever engaged1 as its proper employment1 in imparting plausibility to error and absurdity1 and in furnishing apology for crime4 ,the third was the ,spirit of ,laws1 by ,montesquieu4 ,it placed legislation on the basis of philosophy2 and straightway law began to spring up among the nations out of a new soil4 ,the fourth and last great work--,an ,inquiry into the ,nature and ,causes of the ,wealth of ,nations1 by ,adam ,smith--was by far the most influential of them all4 ',it is1' says ,sir ,james1 'perhaps the only book which produced an immediate1 general1 and irrevocable change in some of the most important parts of the legislation of all civilised states4 ,touching those matters which may be numbered1 and measured1 and weighed1 it bore visible and palpable fruit4 ,in a few years it began to alter laws and treaties1 and has made its way throughout the convulsions of revolution and conquest to a due ascendant over the minds of men1 with far less than the average obstructions of prejudice and clamour1 which check the channels through which truth flows into practice4' ,and yet1 though many of the seeds which this great work served to scatter sprung up thus rapidly1 and produced luxuriant crops1 there were others1 not less instinct with the vital principles1 of which the germination has been slow4 ,the nurseryman expects1 in sowing beds of the stone-fruit-bearing trees1 such as the plum or the hawthorn1 to see the plants spring up very irregularly4 ,one seed bursts the enveloping case1 and gets up in three weeks2 another barely achieves the same work in three years4 ,and it has been thus with the harder-coated germens of the ,wealth of ,nations4 ,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 ,kirkcaldy1 and exactly seventy years since he gave it to the world4 ,it appeared in #aggf2 and now1 for the first time1 in #ahdf1 the ,queen's ,speech1 carefully concocted by a ,conservative ,ministry1 embodies as great practical truths its free-trade principles4 ,the shoot--a true dicotyledon--has fairly got its two vigorous lobes above the surface3 freedom of trade in all that the farmer rears1 and freedom of trade in all that the manufacturer produces2 and there cannot be a shadow of doubt that it will be by and by a very vigorous tree4 ,no ,protectionist need calculate1 from its rate of progress in the past1 on its rate of progress in the future4 ,nearly three generations have come and gone since1 to vary the figure1 the preparations for laying the train began2 but now that the train is fairly ready and fired1 the explosion will not be a matter of generations at all4 ,explosions come under an entirely different law from the law of laying trains4 ,it will happen with the rising of the free-trade agitation as with the rising of water against a dam-head stretched across a river4 ,days and weeks may pass1 especially if droughts have been protracted and the stream low1 during which the rising of the water proves to be a slow1 silent1 inefficient sort of process1 of half-inches and eighth-parts2 but when the river gets into flood1--when the vast accumulation begins to topple over the dam-dyke1--when the dyke itself begins to swell1 and bulge1 and crack1 and to disgorge1 at its ever-increasing flaws and openings1 streams of turbid water1--let no one presume to affirm that the after-process is to be slow4 ,in mayhap one minute more1 in a few minutes at most1 stones1 sticks1 turf1 the whole dam-dyke1 in short1 but a dam-dyke no longer1 will be roaring adown the stream1 wrapped up in the womb of an irresistible wave4 ,now there have been palpable openings1 during the last few months1 in the ,protectionist dam-head4 ,we pointed years since to the rising of the water1 and predicted that it would prevail at last4 ,but the droughts were protracted1 and the river low4 ,good harvests and brisk trade went hand in hand together2 and the ,protectionist dam-head--though feeble currents and minute waves beat against it1 and the accumulation within rose by half-inches and eighth-parts--stood sure4 ,but the river is now high in flood--the waters are toppling over--the yielding masonry has begun to bulge and crack4 ,the ,queen's ,speech1 when we consider it as emanating from a ,conservative ,ministry1 indicates a tremendous flaw2 the speech of ,sir ,robert ,peel betrays an irreparable bulge2 the sudden conversions to free-trade principles of officials and place-holders show a general outpouring at opening rents and crannies3 depend on it1 ,protectionists1 your dam-dyke1 patch or prop it as you please1 is on the eve of destruction2 yet a very little longer1 and it will be hurtling down the stream4 ,for what purpose1 do we say8 ,simply in the hope of awakening to a sense of their true interest1 ere it be too late1 a class of the ,scottish people in which we feel deeply interested1--we mean the tenant agriculturists of the kingdom4 ,they have in this all-important crisis a battle to fight2 and if they do not fight and win it1 they will be irrevocably ruined by hundreds and thousands4 ,the great ,protectionist battle--the battle in which they may make common cause with their landlords if they will1 against the ,league1 and the ,free-,trade ,whigs1 and ,sir ,robert ,peel1 and ,adam ,smith1 and the ,queen--is a battle in which to a certainty they will be beat4 ,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 them2 but they may depend on it as one of the surest things in all the future1 that they will have to record a disastrous issue4 ,they must be defeated4 ,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 wear1 and the ever-extending front which is arraying against them4 ,we would ask them first to peruse those chapters in ,adam ,smith which in reality form the standing-ground of their opponents1--chapters whose solid basis of economic philosophy has made anti-corn-law agitation and anti-corn-law tracts and speeches such formidable things4 ,we would ask them next to look at the progress of the ,league1 at its half-million fund1 its indomitable energy and ever-growing influence4 ,we would then ask them to look at the recent conversions of ,whig and ,tory to free-trade principles1 at the resignation of ,sir ,robert ,peel1 and the proof the country received in consequence1 that in the present extremity there is no other pilot prepared to take the helm2 at the strangely marked ,adam ,smith cast of the ,queen's ,speech2 and at the telling facts of ,sir ,robert's explanatory statement4 ,we request them to take a cool survey of all these things1 and to cogitate for themselves the issue which they so clearly foretell4 ,it seems as certain that free-trade principles are at last to be established in ,britain1 as that there is a sun in the sky4 ,nor does there seem much wisdom in fighting a battle that is inevitably to be lost4 ,the battle which it is their true interest to be preparing to fight1 is one in which they must occupy the ground1 not of agriculturists1 but simply of tenants3 it is a battle with the landlords1 not with the free-traders4 ,we believe ,dr4 ,chalmers is right in holding that1 ultimately at least1 the repeal of the corn-laws will not greatly affect the condition of our agriculturists4 ,there is1 however1 a transition period from which they have a good deal to dread4 ,the removal of the protective duties on meat and wool has not had the effect of lowering the prices of either2 but the fear of such an effect did for a time what the repeal of the duties themselves failed to do1 and bore with disastrous consequences on the sheep and cattle market4 ,and such a time may1 we are afraid1 be anticipated on the abolition of the corn-laws4 ,nay1 it is probable that1 even when the transition state shall be over1 there will be a general lowering of price to the average of that of the ,continent and ,america1--an average heightened by little more than the amount of the true protective duties of the trade1--the expense of carriage from the foreign farm to the ,british market4 ,and woe to the poor tenant1 tied down by a long lease to a money-rent rated according to the average value of grain under the protective duties1 if the defalcation is to fall on him6 ,if he has to pay the landlord according to a high average1 and to be paid by the corn-factor according to a low one1 he is undone4 ,and his real danger in the coming crisis indicates his proper battle4 ,it is not with his old protector ,sir ,robert that he should be preparing to fight2 it is1 we repeat1 with his old ally the landholder4 ,nay1 he will find1 ultimately at least1 that he has no choice in the matter4 ,with ,sir ,robert he may fight if it please him1 and fight1 as we have shown1 to be beaten2 but with the landlord he must fight1 whether he first enter the lists with ,sir ,robert or no4 ,when his preliminary struggle shall have terminated unsuccessfully1 he shall then without heart1 without organization1 without ally1 have to enter on the inevitable struggle1--a struggle for very existence4 ,we of course refer to landlords as a class3 there are among them not a few individuals with whom the tenant will have no struggle to maintain1--conscientious men1 at once able and willing to adjust their demands to the circumstances of the new state of things4 ,but their character as a class does not stand so high4 ,many of their number are in straitened circumstances1--so sorely burdened with annuities and mortgages1 as to be somewhat in danger of being altogether left1 through the coming change1 without an income2 and it is not according to the nature of things that the case of the tenant should be very considerately dealt with by them4 ,when a hapless crew are famishing on the open sea1 and the fierce cannibal comes to be developed in the man1 it is the weaker who are first devoured4 ,now we would ill like to see any portion of our ,scotch tenantry at the mercy of wild1 unreasoning destitution in the proprietor4 ,we would ill like to see him vested with the power to decide absolutely in his own case1 whether it was his tenant that was to be ruined1 or he himself that was to want an income1 knowing well beforehand to which side the balance would incline4 ,nor would we much like to see our tenantry at the mercy of even an average class of proprietors1 by no means in the extreme circumstances of their poorer brethren1 but who1 with an unimpeachable bond in their hands1 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 change1 would be but too apt1 in accordance with the selfish bent of man's common nature1 to make a somewhat ,shylock-like use of it4 ,stout men who have fallen into reduced circumstances1 and stout paw-sucking bears in their winter lodgings1 become gradually thin by living on their own fat2 and quite right it is that gross men and corpulent bears should live on their own fat1 just because the fat is their own4 ,but we would not deem it right that our proprietors should live on their farmers' fats3 on the contrary1 we would hold it quite wrong1 and a calamity to the country2 and such1 at the present time1 is the great danger to which the tenantry of ,scotland are exposed4 ,justice imperatively demands1 that if some such change is now to take place in the value of farms1 as that which took place on the regulation of the currency in the value of money1 the ruinous blunder of #ahai should not be repeated4 ,it demands that their actual rent be not greatly increased through the retention of the merely nominal one2 that the tenant1 in short1 be not sacrificed to a term wholly unchanged in sound1 but altogether altered in value4 ,and such1 in reality1 is the object for which the farm-holding agriculturists of ,scotland have now to contend4 ,it is the only quarrel which they can prosecute with a hope of success4 ,we referred1 in a recent number1 when remarking on the too palpable unpopularity of the ,whigs1 to questions which1 if animated by a really honest regard for the liberties of the subject1 they might agitate1 and grow strong in agitating1 secure of finding a potent ally in the moral sense of the country4 ,one of these would involve the emancipation of the tenantry of ,england1 now sunk1 through one of the provisions of the ,reform ,bill1 into a state of vassalage and political subserviency without precedent since at least the days of ,henry ,,viii4 ,it has been well remarked by ,paley1 that the direct consequences of political innovations are often the least important2 and that it is from the silent and unobserved operation of causes set at work for different purposes1 that the greatest revolutions take their rise4 ',thus1' he says1 'when ,elizabeth and her immediate successor applied themselves to the encouragement and regulation of trade by many wise laws1 they knew not that1 together with wealth and industry1 they were diffusing a consciousness of strength and independency which could not long endure1 under the forms of a mixed government1 the dominion of arbitrary princes4' ,and again3 ',when it was debated whether the ,mutiny ,act--the law by which the army is governed and maintained--should be temporal or perpetual1 little else probably occurred to the advocates of an annual bill1 than the expediency of retaining a control over the most dangerous prerogative of the ,crown--the direction and command of a standing army2 whereas1 in its effect1 this single reservation has altered the whole frame and quality of the ,british constitution4 ,for since1 in consequence of the military system which prevails in neighbouring and rival nations1 as well as on account of the internal exigencies of ,government1 a standing army has become essential to the safety and administration of the empire1 it enables ,parliament1 by discontinuing this necessary provision1 so to enforce its resolutions upon any other subject1 as to render the king's dissent to a law which has received the approbation of both ,houses1 too dangerous an experiment any longer to be advised4' ,and thus the illustration of the principle runs on4 ,we question1 however1 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 refer4 ,the provision which conferred a vote on the tenant-at-will1 abrogated leases1 and made the tiller of the soil a vassal4 ,the farmer who precariously holds his farm from year to year cannot1 of course1 be expected to sink so much capital in the soil1 in the hope of a distant and uncertain return1 as the lessee certain of a possession for a specified number of years2 but some capital he must sink in it4 ,it is impossible1 according to the modern system1 or indeed any system of husbandry1 that all the capital committed to the earth in winter and spring should be resumed in the following summer and autumn4 ,a considerable overplus must inevitably remain to be gathered up in future seasons2 and this overplus remainder1 in the case of the tenant-at-will1 is virtually converted into a deposit1 lodged in the hands of the landlord1 to secure the depositor's political subserviency and vassalage4 ,let him but once manifest a will and a mind of his own1 and vote1 in accordance with his convictions1 contrary to the will of the landlord1 and straightway the deposit1 converted into a penalty1 is forfeited for the offence4 ,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 freeman1 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 own4 ,the simple principle of ',no lease1 no vote1' would set all right2 and it is a principle which so recommends itself to the moral sense as just1 that an honest ,whiggism would gain1 in agitating its recognition and establishment1 at once strength and popularity4 ,but there are few ,scotch tenants in the circumstances of vassalage so general in ,england4 ,they are in circumstances in which they at least may act independently2 and the time is fast coming in which they must either make a wise1 unbiassed use of their freedom1 or be hopelessly crushed for ever4 ,january #bh1 #ahdf4 ,,conclusion ,,of ,,the ,,war ,,in ,,affghanistan4 ,we trust we may now look back on by far the most disastrous passage which occurs in the military history of ,great ,britain1 as so definitively concluded1 that in the future we shall be unable to trace it as still disadvantageously operative in its effects4 ,a series of decisive victories has neutralized1 to a considerable extent1 the influence of the most fatal campaign in which a ,british army was ever engaged4 ,but this is all4 ,one of our poets1 in placing in a strong light the extreme folly of war1 describes 'most ,christian kings' with 'honourable ruffians in their hire1' wasting the nations with fire and sword1 and then1 when fatigued with murder and sated with blood1 'setting them down just where they were before4' ,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 poet4 ,we can barely hope1 after squandering much treasure1 after committing a great deal of crime1 after occasioning and enduring a vast amount of wretchedness1 after a whole country has been whitened with the bones of its inhabitants1 after a ,british army has perished miserably1--we can barely hope that our later successes may have had so far the effect of effacing the memory of our earliest disasters1 that we shall be enabled to sit down under their cover on the eastern bank of the ,indus1 'just where we were before4' ,and even this is much in the circumstances4 ,we have seen the ,british in ,india repeat the same kind of fatal experiment which cost ,napoleon his crown1 and from which ,charles ,,xii4 dated his downfall2 and repeat it1 in the first instance at least1 with a result more disastrous than either the flight from ,pultowa or the retreat from ,moscow4 ,and though necessarily an expedition on a similar scale1 it seemed by no means improbable that its ultimate consequences might bear even more disastrously on ,british power in the ,east1 than the results of the several expeditions into ,russia1 under ,charles and ,napoleon1 bore on the respective destinies of ,sweden and of ,france4 ,that substratum of opinion in the minds of an hundred millions of ,asiatics1 on which ,british authority in ,india finds its main foundation1 bade fair to be shivered into pieces by the shock4 ,there are passages in all our better histories that stand out in high relief1 if we may so speak1 from the groundwork on which they are based4 ,they appeal to the imagination1 they fix themselves in the memory2 and after they have got far enough removed into the past to enable men to survey them in all their breadth1 we find them caught up and reflected in the fictions of the poet and the novelist4 ,but it is wonderful how comparatively slight is the effect which most of them produce at the time of their occurrence4 ,it would seem as if the great mass of mankind had no ability of seeing them in their real character1 except through the medium of some superior mind1 skilful enough to portray them in their true colours and proportions4 ,who1 acquainted with the history of the plague in ,london1 for instance1 can fail being struck with the horrors of that awful visitation1 as described in the graphic pages of ,defoe8 ,who1 that experienced the visitation of similar horrors which swept away in our own times one-tenth part of the human species1 could avoid remarking that the reality was less suited to impress by its actual presence1 than the record by its touching pictures and its affecting appeals8 ,the reality appealed to but the fears of men through the instinct of self-preservation1 and even this languidly in some cases1 leaving the imagination unimpressed2 whereas the wild scenes of ,defoe filled the whole mind1 and impressed vividly through the influence of that sense of the poetical which1 in some degree at least1 all minds are capable of entertaining4 ,on a nearly similar principle1 the country has not yet been able rightly to appreciate the disasters of ,affghanistan4 ,it has been unable to bestow upon them what we shall venture to term the historic prominence4 ,when one after one the messengers reach ,job1 bearing tidings of fatal disasters1 in which all his children and all his domestics have perished1 the ever-recurring 'and ,i only am escaped alone to tell thee1' strikes upon the ear as one of the signs of a dispensation supernatural in its character4 ,the narrative has already prepared us for events removed beyond the reach of those common laws which regulate ordinary occurrences4 ,did we find such a piece of history in any of our older chronicles1 we would at once set it down1 on ,macaulay's principle1 as a ballad thrown out of its original verse into prose1 and appropriated by the chronicler1 in the lack of less questionable materials4 ,but finding it in the ,record of eternal truth1 we view it differently2 for there the supernatural is not dissociated from the true4 ,how very striking1 to find in the authentic annals of our own country a somewhat similar incident2 to find the ',i only am escaped alone to tell thee' in the history of a well-equipped ,british army of the present day6 ,there occurs no similar incident in all our past history4 ,british armies have capitulated not without disgrace4 ,in the hapless ,american war1 ,cornwallis surrendered a whole army to ,washington1 and ,burgoyne another whole army to ,gates and ,arnold4 ,the ,british have had also their disastrous retreats4 ,the retreat from ,fontenoy was at least precipitate2 and there was much suffered in ,sir ,john ,moore's retreat on ,corunna4 ,but such retreats have not been wholly without their share of glory1 nor have such surrenders been synonymous with extermination4 ,in the annals of ,british armies1 the ',i only have escaped alone to tell thee' belongs to but the retreat from ,cabul4 ,it is a terrible passage in the history of our country--terrible in all its circumstances4 ,some of its earlier scenes are too revolting for the imagination to call up4 ,it is all too humiliating to conceive of it in the character of an unprincipled conspiracy of the civilised1 horribly avenged by infuriated savages4 ,it is a quite melancholy enough object of contemplation1 in even its latter stages4 ,a wild scene of rocks and mountains darkened overhead with tempest1 beneath covered deep with snow2 a broken and dispirited force1 struggling hopelessly through the scarce passable defiles1--here thinned by the headlong assaults of howling fanatics1 insensible to fear1 incapable of remorse1 and thirsting for blood1--there decoyed to destruction through the promises of cruel and treacherous chiefs1 devoid alike of the sense of honour and the feeling of pity2 with no capacity or conduct among its leaders2 full of the frightful recollections of past massacres1 hopeless of ultimate escape2 struggling1 however1 instinctively on amid the unceasing ring of musketry from thicket and crag1 exhibiting mile after mile a body less dense and extended1 leaving behind it a long unbroken trail of its dead2 at length wholly wasting away1 like the upward heave of a wave on a sandy beach1 and but one solitary horseman1 wounded and faint with loss of blood1 holding on his perilous course1 to tell the fate of all the others4 ,and then1 the long after-season of grief and suspense among anxious and at length despairing relations at home1 around many a cheerless hearth1 and in many a darkened chamber1 and the sadly frequent notice in the obituaries of all our public journals1 so significant of the disaster1 and which must have rung so heavy a knell to so many affectionate hearts1 ',killed in the ,khyber ,pass4' ,to find passages of parallel calamity in the history of at least civilised countries1 we have to ascend to the times of the ,roman empire during its period of decline and disaster1 when one warlike emperor1 in battle with the ,goth1 'in that ,serbonian bog1 ,betwixt ,damieta and ,mount ,cassus old1 ,with his whole army sank2' or when another not less warlike monarch was hopelessly overthrown by the ,persian1 and died a miserable slave1 exposed to every indignity which the invention of his ungenerous and barbarous conqueror could suggest4 ,britain in this event has received a terrible lesson1 which we trust her scarce merited and surely most revolting successes in ,china will not have the effect of wholly neutralizing4 ,the ,affghan war1 regarded as a war of principle1 was eminently unjust2 regarded as a war of expediency1 it was eminently imprudent4 ,it seems to have originated with men of narrow and defective genius1 not over largely gifted with the moral sense4 ,we have had to refer on a former occasion to the policy adopted by ,lord ,auckland respecting the educational grants to ,hindustan4 ,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 ,india4 ,his ,lordship1 in the exercise of a miserable liberalism1 reversed the resolution1 and diverted no inconsiderable portion of the ,government patronage to the support of the old ,hindustanee education1--a system puerile in its literature1 contemptible in its science1 and false in its religion4 ,our readers cannot have forgotten the indignant style of ,dr4 ,duff's remonstrance4 ,the enlightened and zealous missionary boldly and indignantly characterized the minute of his ,lordship1 through which this revolution was effected1 as 'remarkable chiefly for its omissions and commissions1 for its concessions and compromises1 for its education without religion1 its plans without a ,providence1 and its ethics without a ,god4' ,such was the liberalism of ,lord ,auckland2 and of at least one of the leading men whose counsel led to the ,affghan expedition1 and who perished in it1 the liberalism1 it is said1 was of a still more marked and offensive character4 ,what do we infer from the fact8 ,not that ,providence interfered to avenge upon them the sin of their policy3 there would be presumption in the inference4 ,but it may not be unsafe to infer1 from the palpable folly of the ,affghan expedition1 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 entertain4 ,his scheme of education and his ,affghanistan expedition are specimens of mental production1 if we may so speak1 that give evidence of exactly the same cast and tendency regarding the order and scope of the genius which originated them4 ,we have been a good deal struck by the shrewdness of one of ,prince ,eugene of ,savoy's remarks1 that seems to bear very decidedly on this case4 ,two generals of his acquaintance had failed miserably in the conduct of some expedition that demanded capacity and skill1 and yet both of them were unquestionably smart1 clever men4 ',i always thought it would turn out so1' said the ,prince4 ',both these men made open profession of infidelity2 and ,i formed so low an opinion of their taste and judgment in consequence1 that ,i made myself sure they would sooner or later run their heads into some egregious folly4' ,it is satisfactory in every point of view that ,britain should be at peace with ,china and the ,affghans4 ,war is an evil in all circumstances4 ,it is a great evil even when just2 it is a great evil even when carried on against a people who know and respect the laws of nations4 ,but it is peculiarly an evil when palpably not a just war1 and when carried on against a barbarous people4 ,it has been stated in private letters1 though not officially1 that a soldier of the #ddth was burned alive by the ,ghilzies in sight of the ,english troops1 and that on the approach of the latter the throat of the tortured victim was cut to ensure his destruction4 ,and it is the inference of an ,indian newspaper from the fact1 that such wretches are not the devoted patriots that they have been described by some1 and that the war with them cannot1 after all1 be very unjust4 ,we are inclined to argue somewhat differently4 ,we believe the ,scotch under ,wallace were not at all devoid of patriotism1 though they were barbarous enough to flay ,cressingham1 and to burn the ,english alive at ,ayr4 ,we believe further1 that an unjust war is rendered none the less unjust from the circumstance of its being waged with a savage and cruel people4 ,the barbarism of the enemy has but the effect of heightening its horrors1 not of modifying its injustice4 ,it is possible for one civilised man to fight with another1 and yet retain his proper character as a man notwithstanding4 ,but the civilised man who fights with a wild beast must assume1 during the combat1 the character of the wild beast4 ,he cannot afford being generous and merciful2 his antagonist understands neither generosity nor mercy4 ,the war is of necessity a war of extermination4 ,and such is always the character of a war between wild and civilised men4 ,it takes its tone1 not from the civilisation of the one1 but from the cruel savageism of the other4 ,december #c1 #ahdb4 ,,periodicalism4 ,the poet ,gray held that in a neglected country churchyard1 appropriated to only the nameless dead1 there might lie1 notwithstanding1 the remains of undeveloped ,miltons1 ,hampdens1 and ,cromwells1--men who1 in more favourable circumstances1 would have become famous as poets1 or great as patriots or statesmen2 and the stanzas in which he has embodied the reflection are perhaps the most popular in the language4 ,one-half the thought is1 we doubt not1 just4 ,save for the madness of ,charles1 ,cromwell would have died a devout farmer1 and ,hampden a most respectable country gentleman1 who would have been gratefully remembered for half an age over half a county1 and then consigned to forgetfulness4 ,but the poets rarely die1 however disadvantageously placed1 without giving some sign4 ,rob ,don1 the ,sutherlandshire bard1 owed much less to nature than ,milton did1 and so little to learning that he could neither read nor write2 and yet his better songs promise to live as long as the ,gaelic language4 ,and though both ,burns and ,shakespeare had very considerable disadvantages to struggle against1 we know that neither of them remained 'mute' or 'inglorious1' or even less extensively known than ,milton himself4 ,it is1 we believe1 no easy matter to smother a true poet4 ,the versifiers1 placed in obscure and humble circumstances1 who for a time complain of neglected merit and untoward fate1 and then give up verse-making in despair1 are always men who1 with all their querulousness1 have at least one cause of complaint more than they ever seem to be aware of1--a cause of complaint against the nature that failed to impart to them 'the divine vision and faculty4' ,there are powers1 however1 admirably fitted to tell with effect in the literature of the country1 for they have served to produce the most influential works which the world ever saw--works such as the ,essay of ,locke1 the ,peace and ,war of ,grotius1 and the ,spirit of ,laws of ,montesquieu--which1 with all their apparent robustness1 are greatly less hardy than the poetic faculty1 and which1 unless the circumstances favourable to their development and exercise be present1 fail to leave behind them any adequate record of their existence4 ,it is difficult to imagine a situation in life in which ,burns would not have written his songs1 but very easy to imagine situations in which ,robertson would not have produced his ,scotland or his ,charles ,v41 nor ,adam ,smith his ,wealth of ,nations4 ,we have no faith whatever in 'mute1 inglorious ,miltons2' but we do hold that there may be obscure country churchyards in which untaught ,humes1 guiltless of the ,essay on ,miracles1 may repose1 and undeveloped ,bentleys and ,warburtons1 whose great aptitude for acquiring or capacity for retaining knowledge remained throughout life a mere ungratified thirst4 ,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 of2 and this1 curiously enough1 just by giving them an opportunity of writing much1 and of thinking incessantly4 ,it is not1 it would seem1 by being born among ploughmen and mechanics1 and destined to live by tilling the soil1 or by making shoes or hobnails1 that the 'genial current of the soil is frozen1' and superior talents prevented from accomplishing their proper work3 it is by being connected with some cheap weekly periodical1 or twice or thrice a week newspaper1 and compelled to scribble on almost without pause or intermission for daily bread4 ,we have been led to think of this matter by an interesting little volume of poems1 chiefly lyrical1 which has just issued from the ,edinburgh press1--the production of ,mr4 ,thomas ,smibert1 a man who has lived for many years by his pen1 and who introduces the volume by a prefatory essay1 interesting from the glimpse which it gives of the literary disadvantages with which the professionally literary man who writes for the periodicals has to contend4 ,periodical literature is1 he remarks1 'to all intents and purposes a creation of the nineteenth century1 in its principal existing phases1 from ,quarterly ,reviews to ,weekly ,penny ,magazines4 ,newspapers1' he adds1 'may justly be accounted the growth of the same recent era1 the few previously published having been scarcely more than mere ,gazettes1 recording less opinions than bare public and business facts4' ,the number of both classes of periodicals is now immensely great2 and 'equally vast1 of necessity1 is the amount of literary talent statedly and unremittingly engaged on these journals1 while a large additional amount of similar talent finds in them occasional and ready outlets for its working4' ',when one or two leading ,reviews1 ,quarterlies1 and ,monthlies alone existed1 they called for no insignificant individual efforts of mind on the part of their chief conductors and supporters1 and those parties almost took rank with the authors of single works of importance4 ,but within the last twenty years periodical literature has become extensively hebdomadal1 and even diurnal2 and1 as a necessary consequence1 the essays of those sustaining it in this shape have decreased in proportionate value1 at once from the larger amount of work demanded1 and from the shorter time allowed for its execution4 ,such essays may serve the hour fairly1 but can seldom be of high worth ultroneously4' ',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 public4 ,if their eyes were opened on the subject1 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 efforts3 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 past4 ,though years spent in respectable periodical writing can by no means be termed misspent1 yet such a career presents in the retrospect but a multitude of disconnected essays on all conceivable themes1 and such as too often prove their hurried composition by crudeness and imperfections4' ,the consideration of such a state of things 'may furnish a salutary lesson to the many among the young at this day1 who1 possessing some literary taste1 imagine that the engagements of common life alone stand in the way of its successful development1 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 desires4 ,they here err sadly4 ,no doubt supereminent talents will sooner or later make themselves felt under almost any circumstances2 but the position described assuredly offers no peculiar advantages for the furtherance of that end4 ,ebenezer ,elliot1 leaving his forge at eve with a wearied body1 could yet bring to his favourite leisure tasks a mind less jaded than that of the littrateur by profession4' ',the regular periodicalist1 too1 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 keeps4 ,to publishers and conductors fall the lasting fruits4 ,let those among the young who feel the ambition to seek fame and fortune in the walks of literature think well of these things1 and1 above all1 ponder seriously ere they quit1 with such views1 any fixed occupation of another kind4' ,there is certainly food for thought here2 and that1 too1 thought of a kind in which the public has a direct interest4 ,if such be the dissipating effect of writing for newspapers and the lighter periodicals1 it is surely natural to infer that the exclusive reading of such works must have a dissipating effect also4 ,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 it1 and that from the closets of over-toiled littrateurs an excited superficiality creeps out upon the age4 ,and hence the necessity to which we have oftener than once referred1 that men should keep themselves in wholesome connection with the master minds of the past4 ,mr4 ,smibert's remarks preface1 as we have said1 a volume of sweet and tasteful verse2 and we find him saying that1 'most of all1 the operation of ,periodicalism has been unfavourably felt in the domain of poetry4' ',the position of literature1' he adds1 'in the times of the ,wordsworths1 ,crabbes1 and ,campbells of the age just gone by1 was more favourable than at present to the devotion of talent to great undertakings4 ,these men were assuredly not beset by the same seductive facilities as the littrateurs of the current generation for expending their powers on petty objects1--facilities all the more fascinating1 as comprising the pleasures of immediate publicity1 and perhaps even of repute for a day1 if not also of some direct remuneration4 ,these influences of full-grown ,periodicalism extend now to all who can read and write4 ,but it entices most especially within its vortex those who exhibit an unusually large share of early literary promise1 involves them in multitudinous and multifarious occupation1 and1 in short1 divides and subdivides the operations of talent1 until all prominent identity is destroyed1 both in works and workers4 ,to the growth of this modern system1 beyond question1 is largely to be referred the comparative disappearance from among us of great literary individualities2 or1 to use other and more accurate words1 by that system have men of capacity been chiefly diverted from the composition of great individual works1 and more particularly great poems4' ,we are less sure of the justice of this remark of ,mr4 ,smibert's1 than of that of many of the others4 ,it is not easy1 we have said1 to smother a true poet2 and we know that in the present age very genuine poetry has been produced in the offices of very busy newspaper editors4 ,poor ,robert ,nicoll never wrote truer poetry than when he produced his ',puir ,folk' and his ',saxon ,chapel1' at a time when he was toiling1 as even modern journalist has rarely toiled1 for the columns of the ,leeds ,times2 and ,james ,montgomery produced his ',world before the ,flood1' ',greenland1' and ',the ,pelican ,island1' with many a sweet lyric of still higher merit1 when laboriously editing the ,sheffield ,iris4 ,the ',salamandrine' of ,mr4 ,charles ,mackay was written when he was conducting the sub-editorial department of a daily ,london paper2 nor did he ever write anything superior to it4 ,and we question whether ,mr4 ,smibert himself1 though he might have produced longer poems1 would have written better ones than some of those contained in the present volume1 even had his life been one of unbroken leisure4 ,it seems natural to literary men1 who fail in realizing their own conceptions of what they had wished and hoped to perform1 to cast the blame upon their circumstances4 ,johnson could speak as feelingly1 not much later than the middle of the last century1 of the 'dreams of a poet doomed at last to wake a lexicographer1' as any literary man of the present time1 who1 while solicitously desirous to give himself wholly to the muses1 is compelled to labour as a periodicalist for the wants of the day that is passing over him4 ,but perhaps the best solace for the dissatisfaction which would thus wreak itself on mere circumstances1 is that which ,johnson himself supplies4 ',to reach below his own aim1' says the moralist1 'is incident to every one whose fancy is active1 and whose views are comprehensive2 nor is any man satisfied with himself because he has done much1 but because he can conceive little4' ,but to labour and be forgotten is the common lot2 and why should a literary man be more disposed to repine because his productions perish after serving a temporary purpose1 than the gardener or farmer1 whose vocation it is to supply the people with their daily food8 ,if the provisions furnished1 whether for mind or body1 be wholesome1 and if they serve their purpose1 the producers must learn to be content1 even should they serve the purpose only once1 and but for a day4 ,the danger of over-cropping1 and of consequent exhaustion1 is1 of course1 another and more serious matter2 and of this the mind of the periodicalist is at least as much in danger as either field or garden when unskilfully wrought4 ,but mere rest1 which in course of time restores the exhausted earth1 is often not equally efficient in restoring the exhausted mind2 nor does mere rest1 even were it a specific in the case1 lie within the reach of the periodic writer4 ,it is often the luxury for which he pants1 but which he cannot command4 ,one of the surest specifics in the case is1 the specific of working just a little more1--of working for the work's sake1 whether at poem or history1 or in the prosecution of some science1 or in some antiquarian pursuit4 ,there is an exquisite passage in one of the essays of ,washington ,irving1 in which he compares the great authors--,shakespeare1 for instance--who seem proof against the mutability of language1 to 'gigantic trees1 that we see sometimes on the banks of a stream1 which1 by their vast and deep roots1 penetrating through the mere surface1 and laying hold on the very foundations of the earth1 preserve the soil around them from being swept away by the ever-flowing current1 and hold up many a neighbouring plant to perpetuity4' ,and such is the service rendered by some pervading pursuit of an intellectual character1 prosecuted for its own sake1 to the intellect of the journalist4 ,it is the necessity imposed upon him of taking up subject after subject in the desultory1 disconnected form in which they chance to arise1 and then1 after throwing together a few hastily collected thoughts upon each1 of dismissing them from his mind1 that induces first a habit of superficiality1 and finally leaves him exhausted2 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-morrow1 and on which he may be as well informed and profound as his native capacity permits4 ,all our really superior newspaper editors have pursued this course--more1 however1 we are disposed to think1 from the bent of their nature than from the necessities of their profession2 and the poetical volume of ,mr4 ,smibert shows that he too has his engrossing pursuit4 ,we recommend his little work to our readers1 as one in which they will find much to interest and amuse4 ,we have left ourselves little room for quotation2 but the following stanzas1 striking1 both from their beauty and from the curious fact which they embody1 may be regarded as no unfair specimen of the whole3-- ,,the ,,voice ,,of ,,woe4 ',the language of passion1 and more peculiarly that of grief1 is ever nearly the same4' ,an ,indian chief went forth to fight1 ,and bravely met the foe3 ,his eye was keen--his step was light-- ,his arm was unsurpassed in might2 ,but on him fell the gloom of night-- ,an arrow laid him low4 ,his widow sang with simple tongue1 ,when none could hear or see1 ,ay1 cheray me6 ,a ,moorish maiden knelt beside ,her dying lover's bed3 ,she bade him stay to bless his bride2 ,she called him oft her lord1 her pride2 ,but mortals must their doom abide-- ,the warrior's spirit fled4 ,with simple tongue the sad one sung1 ,when none could hear or see1 ,ay1 di me6 ,an ,english matron mourned her son1 ,the only son she bore3 ,afar from her his course was run-- ,he perished as the fight was done-- ,he perished when the fight was won-- ,upon a foreign shore4 ,with simple tongue the mother sung1 ,when none could hear or see1 ,ah1 dear me6 ,a ,highland maiden saw ,a brother's body borne ,from where1 from country1 king1 and law1 ,he went his gallant sword to draw2 ,but swept within destruction's maw1 ,from her had he been torn4 ,she sat and sung with simple tongue1 ,when none could hear or see1 ,oh1 hon-a-ree6 ,an infant in untimely hour ,died in a ,lowland cot3 ,the parents own'd the hand of power ,that bids the storm be still or lour2 ,they grieved because the cup was sour1 ,and yet they murmured not4 ,they only sung with simple tongue1 ,when none could hear or see1 ,ah1 wae's me6 ,july #bf1 #ahea4 ',,annus ,,mirabilis4' ,we have now reached the close of the most wonderful year the world ever saw4 ,none of our readers can be unacquainted with the poem in which ,dryden celebrated the marvels of the year #afff1--;certainly an extraordinary twelvemonth1 though the ,english poet1 only partially acquainted with the events which rendered it so remarkable1 restricts himself1 in his long series of vigorous quatrains1 to the description of the two naval battles with the ,dutch which its summer witnessed1 and of the great fire of ,london which rendered its autumn so remarkable4 ,he might also have told that it was a year of great fear and expectation among both ,christians and ,jews4 ,the ,jews held that their ,messiah was to come that year2 and1 in answer of the expectation1 the impostor ,sabbatei ,levi appeared to delude and disappoint the hopes of that unhappy nation4 ,there was an opinion nearly equally general in the ,roman ,catholic world1 that it would usher in the ,antichrist of ,new ,testament prophecy2 while among ,english ,protestants it was very extensively believed that it was to witness the end of the world and the final judgment4 ,it was remarkable1 too1 as the year in which oppression first compelled the ,scotch ,presbyterians of the reign of ,charles ,,ii4 to assume the attitude of armed resistance1 and as forming1 in the estimate of ,burnet and other intelligent ,protestants1 the fifth great crisis of the ,reformed religion in ,europe4 ,and such were the wonders of the ,annus ,mirabilis of ,dryden3 two bloody naval engagements2 a great fire2 the appearance of a false ,messiah2 a widely-spread fear that the end of the world and the coming of ,antichrist were at hand2 the revolt from their allegiance to the reigning monarch of a sorely oppressed body of ,christians1 maddened by persecution2 and a perilous crisis in the general history of ,protestantism4 ,the year now at its close has been beyond comparison more remarkable4 ,in the earlier twelvemonth1 no real change took place in the existing state of things4 ,its striking events resembled merely the phenomena of a mid-winter storm in ,greenland1 where1 over a frozen ocean1 moveless in the hurricane as a floor of rock or of iron1 the hail beats1 and the thick whirling snows descend1 and1 high above head1 the flashings of aurora borealis lend their many-coloured hues of mystery to the horrors of the tempest4 ,its transactions1 picturesque rather than important1 wholly failed to affect the framework of society4 ,that floor of ice which sealed down the wide ocean of opinion retained all its mid-winter solidity1 and furnished foundations as firm as before for the old despotic monarchies and the blood-stained persecuting churches4 ,but how immensely different the events of the year now at an end6 ,its tempests have been1 not those of a ,greenland winter1 but of a ,greenland spring3 the depths of society have been stirred to the dark bottom1 where all slimy and monstrous things lie hid1 and1 under the irresistible upheavings of the ground-swell1 the ice has broken up2 and amid the wide weltering of a stormy sea1 cumbered with the broken ruins of ancient tyrannies1 civil and ecclesiastical1 the eye can scarce rest upon a single spot on which to base a better order of things4 ,the 'foundations are removed4' ,a time of great trouble has come suddenly upon the kingdoms of ,europe--a time of 'famines1 and pestilences1 and fearful sights1 and great signs from heaven2' 'signs in the sun1 and in the moon1 and in the stars2 and on the earth distress of nations1 with perplexity2 the sea and the waves roaring4' ,the extreme stillness of the calm by which this wide-roaring tempest has been preceded1 forms one of not the least extraordinary circumstances which impart to it character and effect4 ,in the ,vision of ,don ,roderick1 the fated monarch is described as pausing for a time amid the deep silence of a vast hall1 pannelled and floored with black marble1 and sentinelled by two gigantic figures of rigid bronze that stand moveless against the farther wall4 ,the one1 bearing a scythe and sand-glass1 is the old giant ,time2 the other1 armed with an iron mace1 is the grim angel of ,destiny4 ,not a sound or motion escapes them4 ,in that dim apartment nothing stirs save the sands in the glass1 and the inflexible look of the stern mace-bearing sentinel marks how they ebb4 ,the last grains are at length moving downwards--they sink1 they disappear2 and now1 raising his ponderous mace1 he dashes into fragments the marble wall3 a scene of savage warfare gleams livid through the opening1 and the wide vault re-echoes to the hollow tread of armies1 the shrill notes of warlike trumpets1 the rude clash of arms1 and the wild shouts of battle4 ,and such1 during the last few years1 has been the stillness of the preliminary pause1 and such was the abrupt opening1 when the predestined hour at length arrived1 of those clamorous scenes of revolution and war which impart so remarkable a character to the year gone by4 ,a twelvemonth has not yet passed since history seemed to want incident4 ,time and ,destiny watched as statue-like sentinels in a quiet hall1 walled round by the old rigid conventionalities1 and human sagacity failed to see aught beyond them2 the present so resembled the past1 that it seemed over-boldness to anticipate a different complexion for the future4 ,but1 amid the unbreathing stillness1 the appointed hour arrived4 ,the rigid marble curtain of the old conventionalities was struck asunder by the iron mace of ,destiny2 and the silence was straightway broken by a roar as if of many waters1 by the wrathful shouts of armed millions--the thunderings of cannon1 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 dynasties1 and the crash of falling thrones4 ,and with what strange rapidity the visions have since flitted along the opened chasm6 ,a royal proclamation forbids in ,paris a political banquet2 four short days elapse1 and ,france is proclaimed a ,republic1 and ,louis ,philippe and his ,ministers have fled4 ,britain at once recognises the ,provisional ,government2 but what are the great despotisms of the ,continent to do8 ,six days more pass1 and the ,canton of ,neufchatel declares itself independent of ,prussia4 ,in a few days after1 the ,duke of ,saxe-,cobourg-,gotha grants to his subjects a representative constitution1 freedom of the press1 and trial by jury2 the ,king of ,hanover has also to yield1 and the ,king of ,bavaria abdicates4 ,these1 however1 are comparatively small matters4 ,but still the flame spreads4 ,there is a successful insurrection at ,vienna1 the very stronghold of despotism in central ,europe2 and the ,prime ,minister1 ,metternich1 the grim personification of the old policy1 is compelled to resign4 ,then follows an equally successful insurrection at ,berlin2 ,milan1 ,vicenza1 and ,padua are also in open insurrection4 ,venice is proclaimed a ,republic4 ,holstein declares itself independent of ,denmark1 ,hungary of ,austria1 ,sicily of ,naples4 ,prague and ,cracow have also their formidable outbreaks4 ,austria and ,prussia proclaim new constitutions4 ,secondary revolutionary movements in both ,paris and ,vienna are put down by the military4 ,there are bloody battles fought between the ,austrians and the ,piedmontese on the one hand1 and the ,germans and the ,danes on the other2 and1 in a state of profound peace1 the people of a ,british port hear from their shores the boom of the hostile cannon4 ,the ,emperor of ,austria abdicates his throne1 the ,pope flees his dominions1 and a nephew of ,napoleon ,bonaparte is elected ,president of ,france4 ,meanwhile1 in the ,united ,kingdom1 the ebullitions of the revolutionary element serve but to demonstrate its own weakness4 ,in both ,england and ,scotland1 the moral and physical force of the country--in reality but one--arrays itself on the side of good order and the established institutions4 ,a few policemen put down1 without the assistance of the military1 the long-threatened rebellion in ,ireland2 and the ,sovereign ,lady of the empire1 after journeying among her subjects1 attended by a retinue which only a few ages ago would have been deemed slender for a ,scotch chieftain or one of the lesser nobility1 and without a single soldier to protect her1 and needing no such protection1 spends her few weeks of autumn leisure in a solitary ,highland valley1--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 men4 ,such are some of the wonderful events which have set their stamp on the year now at its close4 ,we regard the old state of things as gone for ever4 ,the foundations have broken up on which the ancient despotisms were founded4 ,it would seem as if 'the stone cut out without hands' had fallen during the past year on the feet of the great image1 and ground down into worthless rubbish the 'iron1 the clay1 the brass1 the silver1 and the gold4' ,and 'the wind1' though not yet risen to its height1 seems fast rising1 which will sweep them all away1 'like the chaff of the summer thrashing-floor2' so that 'there shall be no place found for them4' ,but while we can entertain no hope for the old decrepit despotisms1 we cannot see in the infidel liberalism--alike unwise and immoral--by which they are in the course of being supplanted1 other than a disorganizing element1 out of which no settled order of things can possibly arise4 ,it takes the character1 not of a reforming principle destined to bless1 but of an instrument of punishment1 with which vengeance is to be taken for the crimes and errors of the past2 and1 so far at least1 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 other1 stronger and weaker by turns1 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 weakness4 ,it is the grand error of our leading statesmen1 that they fail to appreciate the real character of the crisis1 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 past4 ,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 longer4 ,how instructive1 for instance1 the mode in which1 for the present at least1 an all-governing ,providence has terminated the negotiations of this country with the ,pope6 ,contrary to the wishes and principles of the sound-hearted portion of the ,british people1 our leading statesmen open up by statute their diplomatic relations with the ,pope1 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 is2 and1 lo6 ,providence strikes down the ghostly potentate1 and virtually1 for the present1 divests him of that 'property qualification' in virtue of which the relation can alone be maintained4 ,but not less infatuated than our statesmen1 and even less excusably so1 are those men--professedly religious and ,protestant1 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 ,austria1 and of ministers such as ,metternich4 ,it would not greatly surprise us to see ,protestants of this high ,tory stamp1 who have been zealous against ,popery all their lives long1 taking part in the 'lament of the merchants and mariners' over the perished ,babylon1 when they find that the representatives of the ,roman ,emperors must fall with the ,roman ,see4 ,there are two wild beasts1 like those which ,daniel saw in vision1 contending together in fierce warfare1--the old ,babylonish beast1 horrid with the blood of saints1 and its cruel executioner--the monster of ,atheistic ,liberalism2 but ,christ has identified ,his cause with neither4 ,no reprieve from the prince awaits the condemned culprit2 and with the disreputable and savage executioner he will hold no intercourse4 ,destruction1 from which there is no escape1 awaits equally on both4 ,we began with a reference to ,dryden's ,year of ,wonders3 we conclude with an anecdote regarding that year1 connected with the history of one of the most eminent judges and best men ,england ever produced4 ,it needs no application1 showing as it does1 with equal simplicity and force1 how and on what principle the terrors of years such as the ',annus ,mirabilis' of the seventeenth century1 or the ',annus ,mirabilis' of our own1 may be encountered with the greatest safety and the truest dignity4 ,we quote from ,bishop ,burnet's ,life of ,sir ,matthew ,hale3-- ',he' 7,sir ,matthew71 says the ,bishop1 'had a generous and noble idea of ,god in his mind2 and this he found1 above all other considerations1 preserve his quiet4 ,and1 indeed1 that was so well established in him1 that no accidents1 how sudden soever1 were observed to discompose him1 of which an eminent man of that profession gave me this instance3--,in the year #afff an opinion did run through the nation that the end of the world would come that year4 ,this1 whether set on by astrologers1 or advanced by those who thought it might have some relation to the number of the beast in the ,revelation1 or promoted by men of ill designs to disturb the public peace1 had spread mightily among the people2 and ,judge ,hale going that year the ,western ,circuit1 it happened that1 as he was on the bench at the assizes1 a most terrible storm fell out very unexpectedly1 accompanied with such flashes of lightning and claps of thunder1 that the like will hardly fall out in an age2 upon which a whisper ran through the crowd1 that now was the world to end1 and the day of judgment to begin4 ,and at this there followed a general consternation in the whole assembly1 and all men forgot the business they were met about1 and betook themselves to their prayers4 ,this1 added to the horror raised by the storm1 looked very dismal1 insomuch that my author--a man of no ordinary resolution and firmness of mind--confessed it made a great impression on himself4 ,but he told me that he did observe the judge was not a whit affected1 and was going on with the business of the court in his ordinary manner2 from which he made this conclusion3 that his thoughts were so well fixed1 that he believed1 if the world had been really to end1 it would have given him no considerable disturbance6' ,december #cj1 #ahdh4 ,,effects ,,of ,,religious ,,disunion ,,on ,,colonization4 ,it is well that there should exist amongst the evangelistic churches at least a desire for union4 ,we do not think they will ever be welded into one without much heat and many blows4 ,popery1 with mayhap ,infidelity for its assistant1 will have first to blow up the coals and ply the hammer2 but it is at least something that the various pieces of the broken and shivered ,church catholic should be coming into contact1 drawn together as if by some strong attractive influence1 and that there should be so many attempts made to fit into each other1 though with but indifferent success1 the rough-edged inflexible fragments4 ,it is much that the attractive influence should exist4 ,among the many inventions of modern times1 a singularly ingenious one has been brought to bear on the smelting of iron4 ,a powerful magnetic current is made to pass in one direction through the furnace1 which imparts to each metallic particle a loadstone-like affinity for all the others2 and no sooner has the heat set them free1 than1 instead of sinking1 as in the old process1 through the molten stony mass to the bottom1 solely in effect of their superior gravity--a tedious1 and in some degree uncertain process--they at once get into motion in the line of the current1 and unite1 in less than half the ordinary time under any other circumstances1 into a homogeneous1 coherent mass4 ,may we not indulge the expectation of similar results from the magnetic current of attraction1 if we may so speak1 which has so decidedly begun to flow through the evangelistic churches8 ,true1 so long as the little bits remain unmolten1 however excellent their quality1 they but clash and jangle together1 if moved by the influence at all2 but should the furnace come to be seven times heated1 it will scarce fail to give unity of motion and a prompt coherency to all the genuine metal1 however minute1 in its present state1 the particles into which it is separated1 or however stubborn the stony matrices which dissociate these from the other particles1 one in their origin and nature1 that lie locked up in the sullen fragments around4 ,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 present4 ,it formed the complaint of one of our better ,english writers considerably more than a century ago1 that we had religion enough to make us hate1 but not enough to make us love1 one another4 ,at that time1 however1 sects1 to employ one of ,bacon's striking phrases1 'had not so grown to equality' as now2 and storms in the moral world1 as in the natural 'at the equinoxia1' when night and day are equal1 are commonly greatest1 adds the philosopher1 'when things do grow to equality4' ,the unestablished ,protestant denominations formed in the times of ,queen ,anne a mere feeble moiety1 that could raise no efficient voice against the established religion2 and ,popery1 newly thrust under feet1 after a formidable struggle1 that threatened to overturn the constitution of the country1 had no voice at all4 ,matters are very different now3 things have grown to an equality2 night and day1 as 'at the equinoxia1' have become nearly equal2 and society can scarce take one step for the general benefit1 without experiencing1 as a thwarting and arresting influence1 the effects of religious difference4 ,do we regret that the ,government of a country such as ours should be practically irreligious in its character8 ,alas6 were every ,government functionary in the empire a thoroughly religious man1 ,government could not act otherwise than it does in not a few instances1 just in consequence of our religious differences4 ,are there millions of the people sinking into brutality and ignorance1 and do our rulers originate a scheme of education in their behalf8--our religious differences straightway step in to arrest and cripple the design4 ,are there whole districts of country subjected to famine1 and are we roused1 both as ,britons and as ,christians1 to contribute of our substance for their relief8--our religious differences immediately interfere2 and a ,church greatly more identified by membership with the sufferers than any other1 has to fight a hard battle ere she can be permitted to co-operate in the general cause4 ,is there a ragged-school scheme originated in the capital1 to rescue the neglected perishing young among us from out the very jaws of destruction8--forthwith rival institutions start up1 on the ground of religious differences1 to dwarf one another into inefficiency1 like starveling shrubs in a nursery run wild2 and projected exertions in the cause of degraded and suffering humanity degenerate into an attack on a benevolent ,presbyterian minister1 who refuses to accept1 from conscientious motives1 of a directorship in a ,popish institution4 ,this is surely a sad state of things1--a state grown very general1 and which threatens to become more so2 and in a due sense of the weakness for all good which it creates1 and of the palpable state of disorganization and decomposition favourable to the growth of every species of evil1 physical and moral1 which it induces1 we recognise at least one of the causes of the general desire for union4 ,to no one circumstance has ,rome owed more of its success than to the divisions of the ,protestant ,church2 and great as that success has been in our own country1 where1 as 'at the equinoxia1' day and night are fast 'growing to equality1' it is but slight compared with what she has experienced in ,america and the colonies4 ,it is a serious consideration in an age like the present1 in which the country looks to emigration for relief from the pressure of a superabundant population1 that religion has suffered more in the colonies from its sectarian divisions1 than from every other cause put together4 ,the way in which the mischief comes to be done is easily conceivable4 ,the ,protestant emigrants of the country quit it always1 with regard to their churchmanship1 as a mere undisciplined rabble4 ,the ,episcopalian sets sail in the same vessel1 and for the same scene of labour1 as the ,independent--the ,free ,churchman with the ,baptist--the ,methodist with the ,original ,seceder--the ,voluntary with the ,establishment-man2 and they squat down together on contiguous lots1 amid the solitude of the forest4 ,were they all of one communion1 there might be scarce any break created in their old habits of church-going and religious instruction4 ,the community1 considerable as a whole1 though very inconsiderable in its parts when broken up into denominational septs1 would have its minister of religion from its first settlement1 or almost so2 and1 from the rapid increase which takes place in all new colonies in congenial countries and climates1 the charge of such a minister would be soon a very important one1 and adequate to the full development of the energies of a superior man4 ,but alas for the numerous denominational septs6 ,years must elapse1 in some instances many years1 ere--few and scattered1 and necessarily deprived of every advantage of the territorial system--they can procure for themselves religious teachers3 they fall gradually1 in the interim1 out of religious habits1 or there rises among them a generation in which these were never formed2 and when at length a sept does procure a teacher1 generally1 from the comparative fewness of their numbers1 the extent of district over which they are spread1 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 better1 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 them4 ,they succeed too often in procuring not missionaries1 nor men such as the ministers of higher standing1 that divide the word to the congregations of the mother country1 but the country's mere remainder preachers1 who1 having failed in making their way into a living at home1 seek unwillingly a bit of bread in the unbroken ground of the colonies4 ,the circumstances of ,popery as a colonizing religion are in all respects immensely more favourable4 ,for every practical purpose1 it is one and united3 it is furnished with an army of clergy admirably organized1 and set peculiarly loose for movement at the will of the general ecclesiastical body by their law of celibacy4 ,it possesses in prolific ,ireland a vast propelling heart1 if we may so speak1 ever working in sending out the blood of a singularly bigoted ,romanism to every quarter of the world4 ,it has already begun to influence the elections of the ,united ,states2 and should the ,papal superstition be destined to live so long1 and should its membership continue to increase at the present ratio1 there will be as many ,papists a century hence in the great valley of the ,mississippi1 and the tracts adjacent1 as are at present in all ,europe4 ,in no field in the present day has ,rome more decidedly the advantage than in that of colonization2 and it is surely a serious consideration that it should owe its successes in such large measure to the divisions of ,protestantism4 ,but these divisions exist1 and no amount of regret for the mischief which they occasion will serve to lessen them4 ,we are not disposed to give up a single tenet which we hold as ,free ,churchmen2 and our brother ,protestants of the other denominations are1 we find1 quite as tenacious of their distinctive holdings as ourselves4 ,and so the evils consequent on disunion in infant colonies and settlements-evils which1 when once originated1 continue to propagate themselves for ages--must continue1 in cases of promiscuous emigration1 to be educed1 and ,rome to profit by them4 ,we find a vigorous attempt to grapple with the difficulty1 by rendering emigration not promiscuous1 but select1 originated by a branch of the ,new ,zealand ,company1 which we deem worthy of notice4 ,it is calculated1 from the proportion which they bear to the entire population of the country1 that from a thousand to fifteen hundred ,free ,church people emigrate from ,scotland every year4 ,a number equal to a large congregation quit it yearly for the colonies2 but absorbed among all sorts of people--in ,canada1 ,new ,brunswick1 ,nova ,scotia1 the ,united ,states1 ,australia1 and ,southern ,africa1 etc4 etc4--these never reappear as congregations1 but are subjected1 in their scattered1 atomic state1 to the deteriorating process1 religious and educational1 to which we have referred as inevitable under that economy of promiscuous emigration unhappily so common in these latter times4 ,in an earlier age the case was different4 ,the ,pilgrim ,fathers who first planted ,new ,england were so much at one in their tenets1 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 institute2 and till this day1 the character1 moral and intellectual1 of that part of the ,states tells of the wisdom of the arrangement4 ,now why1 argue the ,company1 might not a similar result be produced in the present age1 by directing the ,free ,church portion of the outward stream of emigration1 or at least a sufficient part of it1 into one locality8 ,if the disastrous effects of division cannot be prevented by reconciling the disagreements of those who already differ1 they may be obviated surely1 to a large extent1 by bringing into juxtaposition those who already agree4 ,and on this simple principle the ,company has founded its ,free ,church colony of ,otago4 ,of course1 regarding the secular advantages of the colony1 we cannot speak4 ,new ,zealand has been long regarded as the ,great ,britain of the southern hemisphere4 ,it possesses for a ,european constitution peculiar advantages of climate2 the neighbourhood of the settlement1 for several hundred miles together1 is deserted by the natives2 ,government is pledged to the appointment of a ,royal ,commissioner to watch over the interests of ,her ,majesty's subjects in connection with the ,company1 and to afford them protection2 the committee for promoting the settlement of the colony includes some of the most respected names in the ,free ,church2 and thus1 judged by all the ordinary tests1 it seems to promise at least as well as any other resembling field of enterprise open at the present time4 ,but respecting the principles involved in this scheme of colonization1 we can speak more directly from the circumstance that we find them recognised as just and good by the ,general ,assembly of our ,church4 ,the records of the ,assembly of #ahde bear the following deliverance on the subject3--',the ,general ,assembly learn with great pleasure the prospect of the speedy establishment of the ,scotch colony of ,new ,edinburgh now ,otago in ,new ,zealand1 consisting of members of the ,free ,church1 and with every security for the colonists being provided with the ordinances of religion and the means of education in connection with this ,church4 ,without expressing any opinion regarding the secular advantages or prospects of the proposed undertaking1 the ,general ,assembly highly approve of the principles on which the settlement is proposed to be conducted1 in so far as the religious and educational interests of the colonists are concerned2 and the ,assembly desire to countenance and encourage the association in these respects4' ,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 spoilers3 ',how shall we sing the ,lord's song in a strange land8' ,ages1 sometimes whole centuries1 elapse1 remarks the commentator1 ere the colonies of even eminently literary nations come to possess poets and fine writers of their own4 ,there is first a struggle for bare existence among the colonists1 during which the higher branches of learning are necessarily neglected2 and when a better time at length comes1 the general mind is found to have acquired1 during the struggle1 a homely and utilitarian cast1 which militates against the right appreciation1 and of course the production1 of what is excellent4 ,and thus the true divinities of song fail to be sung in a foreign land4 ,there is1 we doubt not1 truth in the remark1 though somewhat quaintly expressed1 and somewhat doubtfully derived4 ,the necessities of a colony in its youth1 and the peculiar cast of mind which they serve to induce1 are certainly not favourable to the development of poetic genius4 ,but there is1 alas6 another and more scriptural sense in which the ',lord's song' too often ceases to be sung in a strange land4 ,we have already adverted to the process of deterioration1 moral and religious1 through which it comes to be silenced2 and it is one of the advantages of the ,otago scheme1 that it makes provision in1 we believe1 the most effectual way possible1 in the present divided state of ,protestantism1 for preventing a result so deplorable4 ,youth is an important season1 as certainly in colonies as in individuals2 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 apparent4 ,the deterioration of a single generation left to run wild may influence for the worse1 during whole centuries1 the character of a people2 and who can predicate what these colonies of the southern hemisphere are yet to become8 ,they may be great nations1 influencing for good or evil the destinies of the species in ages of the world when ,britain shall have sunk into a subordinate power1 or shall have no name save in history4 ,those records of the past1 from which we learn that states and peoples1 as certainly as families and individuals1 are born and die1 and have their times of birth and of burial1 may serve to convince us that the melancholy reflection of one of our later poets on this subject is by no means a fanciful one3 ',my heart has sighed in secret1 when ,i thought ,that the dark tide of time might one day close1 ,england1 o'er thee1 as long since it has closed ,on ,egypt and on ,tyre1--that ages hence1 ,from the ,pacific's billowy loneliness1 ,whose tract thy daring search revealed1 some isle ,might rise1 in green-haired beauty eminent1 ,and like a goddess glittering from the deep1 ,hereafter sway the sceptre of domain ,from pole to pole2 and such as now thou art1 ,perhaps ,new ,zealand be4 ,for who can say ,what the ,omnipotent ,eternal ,one1 ,that made the world1 hath purposed8' ,june #af1 #ahdg4 ,,fine-,,bodyism4 ,of all the dangers to which the ,free ,church is at present exposed1 we deem the danger of fine-bodyism at once the least dreaded and the most imminent4 ,and the evil is in itself no light one3 it marks1 better than any of the other isms--even the heresies themselves--the sinking of a ,church that is never to rise again4 ,churches have been affected by dangerous heresies both of the hot and the cold kinds1 and have yet shaken them off and recovered4 ,the ,presbyterians of ,ireland1 now so sound in their creed1 were extensively affected1 little more than half a century ago1 by ,arian error and the semi-infidelity of ,socinus2 and the ,church that in #ahdc had become vigorous enough to dare the ,disruption1 recorded in the year #agif its vote against missions1 and framed in the year #agih its law against church extension4 ,but we know of no ,church that ever recovered from fine-bodyism when the disease had once fairly settled into its confirmed and chronic state4 ,in at least this age and country it exists as the atrophy of a cureless decline4 ,it were well1 however1 that we should say what it is we mean by fine-bodyism2 and we find we cannot do better than quote our definition from the first speech ever delivered by ,chalmers in the ,general ,assembly4 ',it is quite ridiculous to say1' remarked this most sagacious of men1 'that the worth of the clergy will suffice to keep them up in the estimation of society4 ,this worth must be combined with importance4 ,give both worth and importance to the same individual1 and what are the terms employed in describing him8 ,a distinguished member of society1 the ornament of a most respectable profession1 the virtuous companion of the great1 and a generous consolation to all the sickness and poverty around him4 ,these1 ,moderator1 appear to me to be the terms peculiarly descriptive of the appropriate character of a clergyman1 and they serve to mark the place which he ought to occupy2 but take away the importance and leave only the worth1 and what do you make of him8 ,what is the descriptive term applied to him now8 ,precisely the term which ,i often find applied to many of my brethren1 and which galls me to the very bone every moment ,i hear it--a fine body--a being whom you may like1 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 dinner1 but whom they will never admit as a respectable addition to their society4 ,now1 all that ,i demand from the ,court of ,teinds is to be raised1 and that as speedily as possible1 above the imputation of being a fine body2 that they would add importance to my worth1 and give splendour and efficacy to those exertions which have for their object the most exalted interests of the species4' ,the ,free ,church has for ever closed her connection with the ,court of ,teinds2 but her danger from fine-bodyism is in consequence all the greater1 not the less4 ,the ,sustentation ,fund is her ,court of ,teinds now2 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 throve4 ,the outed ministers are comparatively safe4 ,unless prudence be altogether wanting1 and the wolf comes to the door1 not1 as in the child's story-book1 in the disguise of a soft-voiced girl1 but in that of a gruff sheriff's officer1 they will continue to bear through life the old status of the ,establishment1 heightened by the clat of the ,disruption4 ,but our younger men of subsequent appointment stand on no such platform1 nor will any of their contemporaries or successors step upon it as a matter of course when the heroes of the conflict have dropped away1 and they come to occupy their vacant places4 ,their status will be found to depend on two circumstances1 neither of them derived from the men of a former time--on their ability to maintain a respectable place among the middle classes1 and on their scholastic acquirements and general manners4 ,a half-paid1 half-taught1 half-bred minister of religion may be a very excellent man2 we have seen such1 both in ,england and our own country1 among the non-,presbyterian ,dissenters who laboured to do well1 and were exceedingly in earnest2 but no such type of minister will ever be found influential in ,scotland1 either in extending the limits of a ,church1 or in benefiting the more intelligent classes of the people4 ,and the two circumstances of acquirement and remuneration will be found indissolubly connected4 ,a ,church of under-paid ministers1 however fairly it may start1 will1 in the lapse of a generation1 become a ,church of under-taught and under-bred ministers also4 ,nor is there any chance that the evil1 once begun1 will ever cure itself1 for the under-bred and the under-taught will be sure to continue the under-paid4 ,that animating spirit of a ,church1 without which wealth and learning avail but little1 money now1 as of old1 cannot buy2 but the secular will be ever found to depend on the secular1--the general rate of secular acquirement on the general rate of secular remuneration2 and unless both be pitched at a level very considerably above that of the labouring laity1 which constitutes the great bulk of congregations1 even the better ministers of a ,church need not expect to escape fine-bodyism4 ,and once infected with this fatal indisposition1 they must be content to suffer1 among other evils1 the evil of being permitted to lay whatever claim to status they may choose1 without challenge or contradiction4 ',oh yes1' it will be said1 should they assert that their ,church is the ,church of the nation1 and that it is they themselves1 and not the ministers of the ,establishment1 who are on the true constitutional ground1--',oh yes1 ,church of the nation1 or1 if ye will1 ,church of the whole world1 or1 in short1 anything you please2 for you are fine bodies4' ,chalmers exercised all his sagacity when he demanded of the ,court of ,teinds 'to be raised1 and that as speedily as possible1 above the imputation of being a fine body4' ,and what ,chalmers demanded of the ,court of ,teinds1 every minister of the ,free ,church ought to ask of the ,sustentation ,fund4 ,but how is the demand to be effectually made8 ,it is well known to statesmen1 who1 when they once get a tax imposed by ,parliament1 can employ all the machinery of the police and the standing army--of fines1 confiscations1 and prisons--in exacting it1 that yet1 notwithstanding1 in the arithmetic of finance two and two do not always make four4 ,there are certain pre-existing laws to be studied--laws not of man's passing1 but which arise out of man's nature and the true bearings and relations of things2 and unless these be studied and conformed to1 the ,parliament-imposed tax1 though backed by the constable and the jail1 will realize but little4 ,and if the statesman must study these laws1 well may the ,church do so1 who has no constables in her pay1 and to whom no jail-keys have been entrusted4 ,it ought1 we think1 to be regarded as one fundamental law1 that whatever has been gained by the seven years' establishment of the ,fund1 should not be lightly perilled by bold and untried innovations4 ,true1 there may1 on the one hand1 be danger1 if let too much alone1 that its growth should be arrested1 and of its passing into a stunted and hide-bound condition1 little capable of increase2 but the danger is at least as great1 on the other1 that if subjected to fundamental changes1 it might lose that advantage of permanency which whatever is established possesses in virtue of its being such2 and which has its foundation in habit1 and in that vague sense of responsibility which leads men to give1 year after year1 what they had been accustomed to give in the previous years1 just because they had given it4 ,let it not be forgotten1 that though much still remains to be done in connection with this ,fund1 much has been done already--that a voluntary tax of about eighty thousand pounds per annum1 raised from about one-third1 and that by no means the wealthiest third1 of the ,scottish people1 is really not a small1 but a great one--and that as great1 and as worthy of being desired and equalled1 do the other non-endowed ,churches of the country regard it4 ,no tampering1 therefore1 with its principle should be attempted3 he was an eminently wise man who first devised and instituted it1--not once in an age do churches1 or even countries1 get such men to guide their affairs1--and it ought by all means to be permitted to set and consolidate in the mould which he formed for it4 ,we would apply in this case the language of a philosophic writer of the last age1 when speaking of government in general3--',an established order of things1' he said1 'has an infinite advantage1 by the very circumstance of its being established4 ,to tamper1 therefore1 to try experiments upon it1 upon the credit of supposed fitness and improvement1 can never be the part of a wise man1 who will bear a reverence for what carries the marks of the stability of age2 and though he may attempt some improvements for the public good1 yet will he adjust his innovations as much as possible to the ancient fabric1 and preserve entire the chief pillars and supports of the institution4' ,it ought1 we hold1 to be regarded as another law of the ,fund1 that the means taken to increase it should be means exclusively fitted to lead the givers to think of their duties1 not of their rights4 ,the ,sustentation ,fund is not the result of a tax properly so called1 but an accumulation of freewill offerings rendered to the ,church by men who in this matter are responsible to ,god only4 ,what the ,church receives on these terms she can divide2 but what the givers do not place at her disposal--what1 on the contrary1 they reserve for quite another purpose--she cannot lay hold of and distribute4 ,it is not hers1 but theirs2 and the attempt to appropriate it might be very fatal4 ,hence the danger of the question regarding the appropriation for general purposes of supplements1 which was mooted two years ago1 but which was so promptly put down by the good sense of the ,church4 ,it would have led men to contend for their rights1 and1 in the struggle1 to forget their duties2 and the battle would have been a losing one for the ,fund4 ,we regard it as another law1 that the distribution of the sustentation money entrusted to the ,church should be a distribution1 not discretionary1 but fixed by definite enactment4 ,a discretionary licence of distribution1 extended to some central board or committee1 even though under the general review of the ,church1 could not be other than imminently dangerous1 because opposed in spirit to the very principle of ,presbytery4 ,and if ,presbytery and the ,sustentation ,fund come into collision in the ,free ,church of ,scotland1 it is not difficult to say which of the two would go down4 ,it has been shrewdly remarked by ,hume1 that in monarchies there is room for discretionary power--the laws under a great and wise prince may in some cases be softened1 or partially suspended1 and carried into full effect in others2 but republics admit of no such discretionary authority--the laws in them must in every instance be thoroughly executed1 or set aside altogether4 ,every act of discretionary authority is treason against the constitution4 ,and so is it with ,presbytery4 ,give to a central board or committee the power of sitting in judgment on the circumstances of ministers of their body1 and of apportioning to one some thirty or forty pounds additional1 and of cutting down another to the average dividend1 and1 for a time at least1 the ,presbyterian independence is gone4 ,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 instance1 and the ,sustentation ,fund not a little damaged in the second4 ,it is of paramount importance1 therefore--a law on no account to be neglected or traversed--that the distribution of the ,fund be regulated by rules so rigid and unbending1 and of such general application1 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 impossibility4 ,it is1 in the next place1 of importance carefully to scan the sources whence the expected increase of the ,fund is to come4 ,the givers in the ,free ,church at the present time seem to lie very much in extremes4 ,a considerable number1 animated by the ,disruption spirit1 contribute greatly more to ministerial support1 in proportion to their incomes1 than the old ,dissenters of the kingdom2 but a still larger number1 reposing indolently on the exertions of these1 and in whom the habit has not been cultivated or formed1 give considerably less4 ,it was stated by ,mr4 ,melvin1 in the meeting of the ,united ,presbyterian ,synod held on ,wednesday last1 that1 'on an average1 the members of weak congregations in connection with their body contributed to the support of their minister about #ads4 #f;d4 per annum1 besides about #bs4 #f;d4 for missionary purposes1 while some of them contributed even as high as #bes4 to #bfs4' ,now1 an average rate of contribution liberal as this1 among the members of country congregations in the ,free ,church1 would at once place the ,fund in flourishing circumstances1 and render it1 unless its management was very unwise indeed1 sufficient to maintain a ministry high above the dreaded level of fine-bodyism4 ,nor do we see why1 if we except the crushed and poverty-stricken people of some of the poorer ,highland districts1 ,free ,church congregations in the country should not contribute as largely to church purposes as ,united ,presbyterian congregations in the same localities4 ,the membership of both belong generally to the same level of society1 and1 if equally willing1 are about equally able to contribute4 ,here1 then1 is a field which still remains to be wrought4 ,something1 too1 may be done at the present time1 from the circumstance that the last instalment of the ,manse ,building ,fund is just in the act of being paid1 and those who have been subscribing for five years to this object1 and formed a habit of periodic giving in relation to it1 may be induced to transfer a portion of what they gave to the permanent fund1 and so continue contributing4 ,ere1 however1 they can be expected to do so1 they must be fairly assured that what they give is to be employed in strengthening and consolidating the ,church1 and in raising her ministers above the level of fine-bodyism1 not in adding to her weakness by adding to her extent4 ,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 pounds1 we must despair of the ,sustentation ,fund4 ,one may hopefully attempt the filling up of a tun1 however vast its contents2 but there can be no hope whatever in attempting the filling of a sieve4 ,and if what is poured into the ,sustentation ,fund is to be permitted1 instead of rising in the dividend1 to dribble out incontinently in a feeble extension1 it will be all too soon discovered that what we have to deal with is not the tun1 but the sieve2 and the laity1 losing all heart1 will cease their exertions1 and permit their ministers to sink into poverty and fine-bodyism4 ,may #ae1 #ahej4 ,,organship4 ,some six or eight months after the ,disruption there occurred an amusing dispute between two ,edinburgh newspapers1 each of which aspired to represent the ,establishment solely and exclusively1 without coadjutor or rival4 ,the one paper asserted that it was the vehicle of the ,established ,church1 the other that it was the ,church's organ2 and each1 in asserting its own claim1 challenged that of its neighbour4 ,the organ was sure that the vehicle lacked the true vehicular character2 and the vehicle threw grave doubts on the organship of the organ4 ,in somewhat less than half a year1 however1 the dispute came suddenly to a close3 the vehicle--like a luckless opposition coach1 weak in its proprietorship--was run off the road1 and broke down2 and the triumphant organ1 seizing eager hold of the name of its defunct rival as legitimate spoil1 hung it up immediately under its own1 as a red warrior of the ,west seizes hold of the scalp of a fallen enemy1 and suspends it at his middle by his belt of wampum4 ,the controversy1 however1 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 organ4 ,if the organ1 it was said1 adequately represent ,dr4 ,muir1 it cannot fail very grievously to misrepresent ,dr4 ,bryce2 and if the vehicle be adapted to give public airings to the thoughts and opinions of the bluff old ,moderates1 those of ,dr4 ,leishman and the ,forty must travel out into the wind and the sunlight by an opposition conveyance4 ,one organ or one vehicle will be no more competent to serve a deliberative ecclesiastical body1 diverse in its components1 than one organ or vehicle will be able to serve a deliberative political body broken into factions4 ,single parties1 as such--whether secular or ecclesiastical--may have their single organ apiece2 but it seems as little possible that a ,presbyterian ,general ,assembly should have only one organ representative of the whole1 as that a ,house of ,lords or a ,house of ,commons should have one organ representative of the whole4 ,an organ of the ,establishment in its present state of disunion1 if at all adequately representative1 could not fail to resemble ,montgomery's strange personification of war3 ',a deformed genius1 with two heads1 which1 unlike those of ,janus1 were placed front to front2 innumerable arms1 branching out all around his shoulders1 sides1 and chest2 and with thighs and legs as multitudinous as his arms4 ,his twin faces1' continues the poet1 'were frightfully distorted3 they glared1 they grinned1 they spat1 they railed1 and hissed1 and roared2 they gnashed their teeth1 and bit1 and butted with their foreheads at each other2 his arms1 wielding swords and spears1 were fighting pell-mell together2 his legs1 in like manner1 were indefatigably at variance1 striding contrary ways1 and trampling on each other's toes1 or kicking each other's shins1 as if by mutual consent4' ,such would be the true representative of an organ that adequately represented the ,establishment4 ,we are led into this vein on the present occasion by a recent discussion in high quarters on the organship of the ,free ,church1--a ,presbyterian body1 be it remarked1 as purely deliberative in its courts as the ,parliament of the country1 and at least sufficiently affected by the spirit of the age to include within its pale a considerable diversity of opinion4 ,it is as impossible1 from this cause alone1 that the ,free ,church should be represented by a single organ1 as that the ,house of ,commons should be represented by a single organ4 ,the organ1 for instance1 that represented on the education question the ,rev4 ,mr4 ,moody ,stuart1 would most miserably misrepresent the party who advocate the views of the great father of the ,free ,church--the late ,dr4 ,chalmers4 ,the organ that represented the peculiar beliefs held1 regarding the personal advent1 by the party to which ,mr4 ,bonar of ,kelso belongs1 would greatly misrepresent those of the party to which ,mr4 ,david ,brown of ,glasgow and ,mr4 ,fairbairn of ,saltoun belong4 ,the organ that advocated ,dr4 ,cunningham's and ,dr4 ,james ,buchanan's views of the ,college question1 would be diametrically opposed to the view of ,dr4 ,brown of ,aberdeen and ,mr4 ,gray of ,perth4 ,the organ that contended for an ecclesiastical right to legislate on the temporalities according to the principle of ,mr4 ,hay of ,whiterig1 would provoke the determined opposition of ,mr4 ,makgill ,crichton of ,rankeillour4 ,the organ that took part with the ,evangelical and ,sabbath ,alliances in the spirit of ,dr4 ,candlish of ,st4 ,george's1 would have to defend its position against ,mr4 ,king of ,st4 ,stephen's of the ,barony2 and the organ that espoused the sentiments held on tests by ,mr4 ,wood of ,elie1 would find itself in hostile antagonism with those entertained on the same subject by ,mr4 ,gibson of ,kingston4 ,and such are only a few of the questions1 and these of an ecclesiastical or semi-ecclesiastical character1 regarding which a diversity of views1 sentiments1 and opinions in the ,free ,church renders it impossible that it can be adequately represented by any one organ1 even should that organ be of a purely ecclesiastical character4 ,but a newspaper is not of a purely ecclesiastical character2 and there are subjects on which it may represent a vast majority of the people of a ,church1 without in the least degree representing the ,church itself1 simply because they are subjects on which a ,church1 as such1 can hold no opinions whatever4 ,it is1 for instance1 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 ,mr4 ,cowan1 than mis-represented by ,mr4 ,macaulay4 ,these1 and all cognate matters1 are matters on which the ,church1 as such1 has no voice1 and regarding which she can therefore have no organ2 and yet these are matters with which a newspaper is necessitated to deal4 ,it would be other than a newspaper if it did not4 ,on these questions1 however1 which lie so palpably beyond the ecclesiastical pale1 though the ,church can have no organ1 zealous ,churchmen may2 and there can be no doubt whatever that they are questions on which zealous ,free ,churchmen are very thoroughly divided--so thoroughly1 that any single newspaper could represent1 in reference to them1 only one class4 ,the late ,mr4 ,john ,hamilton1 for instance--a good and honest man1 who1 in his character as a ,free ,churchman1 determinedly opposed the return of ,mr4 ,macaulay--was wholly at issue regarding some of these points with the ,honourable ,mr4 ,fox ,maule1 who in #ahdf mounted the hustings to say that the 'gratitude and honour of the ,free ,church' was involved in ,mr4 ,macaulay's return4 ,and so the organ that represented the one1 could not fail to misrepresent the other4 ,now1 we are aware that on this1 and on a few other occasions1 the ,witness must have given very considerable dissatisfaction in the political department to certain members of the ,free ,church4 ,it was not at all their organ on these occasions2 nay1 at the very outset of its career1 it had solemnly pledged itself not to be their organ4 ,the following passage was written by its present ,editor1 ere the first appearance of his paper1 and formed a part of its prospectus3--',the ,witness1' he said1 'will not espouse the cause of any of the political parties which now agitate and divide the country4' ',public measures1 however1 will be weighed as they present themselves in an impartial spirit1 with care proportioned to their importance1 and with reference not to the party with which they may chance to originate1 but to the principles which they shall be found to involve4' ,such was the pledge given by the ,editor of the ,witness2 and he now challenges his readers to say whether he has not honestly redeemed it4 ,man is naturally a tool-making animal2 and when he becomes a politician by profession1 his ingenuity in this special walk of constructiveness is1 we find1 always greatly sharpened by the exigencies of his vocation4 ,he makes tools of bishops1 tools of sacraments1 tools of ,confessions of ,faith1 and tools of ,churches and church livings4 ,we had just seen1 previous to the dbut of the ,witness1 the ,church of ,scotland converted by ,conservatism into a sort of mining tool1 half lever1 half pickaxe1 which it plied hard1 with an eye to the prostration and ejection of its political opponents the ,whigs1 then in office2 and not much pleased to see the ,church which we loved and respected so transmuted and so wielded1 we solemnly determined that1 so far at least as our modicum of influence extended1 no tool-making politician1 whatever his position1 should again convert it unchallenged into an ignoble party utensil4 ,with ,god's help1 we have remained true to our determination2 and so assured are we of being supported in this matter by the sound-hearted ,presbyterian people of the ,free ,church1 that we have no fear whatever1 should either the assertors among us of the unimpeachable consistency of the ,conservatives1 or of the immaculate honesty of the ,whigs1 start against us an opposition vehicle to-morrow1 that in less than a twelvemonth we would run it fairly off the road1 and have some little amusement with it to boot1 so long as the contest continued4 ,the ,witness is not1 and1 as we have shown1 cannot be1 the organ of the ,free ,church2 but it is something greatly better3 it is the trusted representative--against ,whig1 ,tory1 ,radical1 and ,chartist--against ,erastian encroachment and clerical domination--of the ,free ,church people4 ,there lies its strength1--a strength which its political ,free ,church opponents are welcome to test when they please4 ,we must again express our regret that the article on the ,duke of ,buccleuch1 which has proved the occasion of so much remark1 spoken and written1 should have ever appeared in our columns2 and this1 not1 as the agent of the ,duke asserts1 because it has been exposed1 but because of the unhappy unsolidity of its facts1 and because of that diversion of the public attention which it has effected from cases such as those of ,canobie and ,wanlockhead1 and from such a death-bed as that of the ,rev4 ,mr4 ,innes4 ,our readers are already in possession of our explanation1 and have seen it fully borne out by the incidental statement of ,mr4 ,parker4 ,we would crave leave to remind them that the ,witness is now in the ninth year of its existence2 and that during that time the ,editor stated many facts1 from his own observation1 connected with the refusal of sites1 and other matters of a similar character4 ,he saw congregations worshipping on bare hill-sides in the ,highlands of ,sutherland1 and on an oozy sea-beach on the coast of ,lochiel2 he sailed in the ,free ,church yacht the ,betsey1 and worshipped among the islanders of ,eigg and of ,skye4 ,nor did he shrink from very minutely describing what he had witnessed on these occasions1 nor yet from denouncing the persecution that had thrust out some of the best men and best subjects of the country1 to worship unsheltered amid bleak and desert wastes1 or on the bare sea-shore4 ,and yet1 of all the many facts which he thus communicated on his own authority1 because resting on his own observation1 not one of them has ever yet been disproved2 nay1 scarce one of them has ever yet been so much as challenged4 ,of course1 in reference to the statements which he has had to make on the testimony of others1 his position was necessarily different2 and a very delicate matter he has sometimes found it to be1 to deal with these statements4 ,a desire1 on the one hand1 to expose to the wholesome breathings of public opinion whatever was really oppressive and unjust2 a fear1 on the other1 lest he should compromise the general cause1 or injure the character of his paper1 by giving publicity to what either might not be true1 or could not be proven to be true1--have often led him to retain communications beside him for weeks and months1 until some circumstance occurred that enabled him to determine regarding their real character and value4 ,and such--with more1 however1 than the ordinary misgivings1 and with an unfavourable opinion frankly and decidedly expressed--was the course which he took with the communicated article on the ,duke of ,buccleuch4 ,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 him1 or to any other official connected with the ,witness1 he much regrets1 but could not possibly help4 ,in the discussion on the ,sites ,bill of ,wednesday last1 the ,honourable ,fox ,maule is made to say1 that 'the ,witness contained many articles which had been condemned by the ,church4' ,now this must be surely a misreport1 as nothing could be more grossly incorrect than such a statement4 ,the voice of the ,free ,church--that by which she condemns or approves--can be emitted through but her deliberative courts1 and recorded in but the decisions of her solemn ,assemblies4 ,on the merits or demerits of the ,witness1 through these her only legitimate organs1 she has not yet spoken2 and ,mr4 ,maule is1 we are sure1 by far too intelligent a ,churchman to mistake the voice of a mere political coterie1 irritated mayhap by the loss of an election1 for the solemn deliverance of a ,church of ,christ4 ,with respect to his reported statement1 to the effect that the ,witness 'contained many articles which had done great harm to the ,free ,church1' the report may1 we think1 be quite correct4 ,the ,witness contained a good many articles on the special occasion when the ,free ,churchmen of ,edinburgh conspired--'ungratefully and dishonourably1' as ,mr4 ,maule must have deemed it--to eject a ,whig ,minister1 and to place in his seat1 as their representative1 a shrewd citizen and honest man4 ,and these lucubrations accomplished1 we daresay1 their modicum of harm4 ,with regard1 however1 to the articles of the ,witness in general1 we think we can confidently appeal in their behalf to such of our readers as perused them1 not as they were garbled1 misquoted1 interpolated1 and mis-represented by unscrupulous enemies1 but as they were first given to the public from the pen of the ,editor4 ,among these readers we reckon men of all classes1 from the peer to the peasant--,conservative landowners1 magistrates1 merchants1 ministers of the gospel4 ,dr4 ,chalmers was a reader of the ,witness from its first commencement to his death2 and he1 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 blame4 ,not but that some of our sentences look sufficiently formidable in extracts when twisted from their original meaning2 and this1 just as the ,decalogue itself might be instanced as a code of licentiousness1 violence1 and immorality1 were it to be exhibited in garbled quotations1 divested of all the nots4 ,in the ,edinburgh ,advertiser of yesterday1 for instance1 we find the following passage3--',it ,the ,witness has menaced our nobles with the horrors of the ,french ,revolution1 when the guillotine plied its nightly task1 and when the bloody hearts of aristocrats dangled on button-holes in the streets of ,paris4 ,it has reminded them of the time when a grey discrowned head sounded hollow on the scaffold at ,whitehall2 insinuating that1 if they persisted in opposing the claims of the ,free ,church1 a like fate might overtake the reigning dynasty of our time4' ,when1 asks the reader1 did these most atrocious threats appear in the ,witness8 ,they never1 we reply1 appeared in the ,witness as threats at all4 ,the one passage1 almost in the language of ,chateaubriand1 was employed in an article in which we justified the sentence pronounced on the atheist ,patterson4 ,the other formed part of a purely historic reference--in an article on ,puseyism1 written ere the ,free ,church had any existence--to the ,canterburianism of the times of ,charles ,i41 and the fate of that unhappy monarch4 ,we thought not of threatening the aristocracy when quoting the one passage1 nor yet of foreboding evil to the existing dynasty when writing the other4 ,on exactly the same principle on which these passages have been instanced to our disadvantage1 the description of the ,holoptychius ,nobilissimus1 which appeared a few years ago in the ,witness1 might be paraded as a personal attack on ,sir ,james ,graham2 and the remarks on the construction of the ,pterichthys1 as a gross libel on the ,duke of ,buccleuch4 ,it is1 we hold1 not a little to the credit of the ,witness1 that1 in order to blacken its character1 means should be resorted to of a character so disreputable and dishonest4 ,from truth and fair statement it has all to hope1 and nothing to fear4 ,june #ad1 #ahdh4 ,,baillie',s ,,letters ,,and ,,journals4 ,this is at once the handsomest and one of the best editions of the curious and very interesting class of works to which it belongs1 that has yet been given to the public4 ,it is scarce possible to appreciate too highly the tact1 judgment1 and research displayed by the editor2 and rarely indeed1 so far as externals are concerned1 has the typography of ,scotland appeared to better advantage4 ,it is a book decked out for the drawing-room in a suit of the newest pattern1--a tall1 modish1 well-built book1 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 times1 but of the times of ,charles and the ,commonwealth4 ,the good1 simple minister of ,kilwinning would fail to recognise himself in its fair open pages1 that more than rival those of his old ,elzevirs4 ,for his old-fashioned suit of home-spun grey1 we find him sporting here a modern dress-coat of ,saxony broadcloth1 and a pair of unexceptionable cashmere trousers2 and it is not until we step forward and address the worthy man1 and he turns upon us his broad1 honest face1 that we see the grizzled moustache and peaked beard1 and discover that his fears are still actively engaged regarding the prelatic leanings of ,charles ,,ii41 'now at ,breda2' 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 mind4 ,we address what we take1 from the garb1 to be a contemporary1 and find that we have stumbled on one of the seven sleepers4 ,we deem it no slight advantage to the reading public of the present day1 that it should have works of this character made so easy of access4 ,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 build1 without passing through a course of study at least as prolonged as an ordinary college course1 and much more laborious4 ,let us suppose that he lived in some of the provinces4 ,he would have1 in the first place1 to come and reside in ,edinburgh1 and get introduced1 at no slight expense of trouble1 mayhap1 to the brown1 half-defaced manuscripts of our public libraries4 ,he would require next to study the old hand1 with all its baffling contractions4 ,if he succeeded in mastering the difficulties of ,melville's ,diary after a quarter of a year's hard conning1 he might well consider himself a lucky man4 ,row's ,history would occupy him during at least another quarter2 ,baillie's ,letters and ,journals would prove work enough for two quarters more4 ,if he succeeded in getting access to the papers of ,woodrow1 he would find little less than a twelvemonth's hard labour before him2 ,calderwood's large ,history would furnish employment for at least half that time2 and if curious to peruse it in its best and fullest form1 he would find it necessary to quit ,edinburgh for ,london1 to pore there over the large manuscript copy stored up in the ,british ,museum4 ,as he proceeded in his course1 he would be continually puzzled by references1 allusions1 initials2 he would have to consult register offices1 records of baptisms and deaths1 session books1 old and scarce works1 hardly less difficult to be procured than even the manuscripts themselves2 and if he at length escaped the fate of the luckless antiquary1 who produced the famous history of the village of ,wheatfield1 he might deem himself more than ordinarily fortunate4 ',when ,i first engaged in this work1' said the poor man1 ',i had eyes of my own2 but now ,i cannot see even with the assistance of art3 ,i have gone from spectacles of the first sight to spectacles of the third2 the ,chevalier ,taylor gives my eyes over1 and my optician writes me word he can grind no higher for me4' ,it will soon be no such ,herculean task to penetrate to the foundations of our national ecclesiastical history4 ,from publications such as those of the ,woodrow ,club1 and of the ,letters and ,journals1 the student will be able to acquire in a few weeks what would have otherwise cost him the painful labour of years4 ,nor can we point out a more instructive course of reading4 ,in running over our modern histories1 however able1 we almost always find our point of view fixed down by the historian to the point occupied by himself4 ,we cannot take up another on our own behalf1 unless we differ from him altogether1 nor select for ourselves the various subjects which we are to survey4 ,we are in leading-strings for the time3 the vigour of our author's thinking militates against the exercise of our own2 his philosophy enters our minds in a too perfect form1 and lies inert there1 just as the condensed extract of some nourishing food often fails to nourish at all1 because it gives no employment to the digestive faculty4 ,a survey of the historian's materials has often1 on the contrary1 the effect of setting the mind free4 ,we see the events of the times which he describes in their own light1 and simply as events1--we select and arrange for ourselves1--they call up novel traits of character1--they lead us to draw on our experience of men1--they confirm principles1--they suggest reflections4 ,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 ago4 ,the third and concluding volume has but lately appeared4 ,it embraces a singularly important period1--extending from shortly before the rise of the unhappy and ultimately fatal quarrel between the ,resolutioners and ,protesters1 till the re-establishment of ,episcopacy at the ,restoration1 when the curtain closes suddenly over the poor chronicler1 evidently sinking into the grave at the time1 the victim of a broken heart4 ,he sees a stormy night settling dark over the ,church1--,presbytery pulled down1 the bishops set up1 persecution already commenced2 and1 longing to be released from his troubles1 he affectingly assures his correspondent1 in the last of his many letters1 that 'it was the matter of his daily grief that had brought his bodily trouble upon him1' and that it would be 'a favour to him to be gone4' ,from a very learned1 concise1 and well-written ,life1 the production of the accomplished editor1 which serves as a clue to guide the reader through the mazes of the correspondence1 we learn that he died three months after4 ,where there is so much that is interesting1 one finds it difficult to select4 ,the light in which the infamous ,sharpe is presented in this volume is at least curious4 ,prelacy1 careful of the reputation of her archbishops1 makes a great deal indeed of the bloody death of the man1 but says as little as possible regarding his life and character4 ,the sentimental ,jacobitism of the present day--an imaginative principle that feeds on novels1 and admires the persecutors because ,claverhouse was brave and had an elegant upper lip--goes a little further1 and speaks of him as the venerable ,archbishop4 ,when the famous picture of his assassination was exhibiting in ,edinburgh1 some ten or twelve years ago1 he rose with the class almost to the dignity of a martyr3 there were young ladies that could scarce look at the piece without using their handkerchiefs2 the victim was old1 greyhaired1 reverend1 an archbishop1 and eminently saintly1 as a matter of course1 whatever the barbarous fanatics might say2 and all that his figure seemed to want in order to make it complete1 was just a halo of yellow ochre round the head4 ,in ,baillie's ,letters we see him exhibited1 though all unwittingly on the part of the writer1 in his true character1 and find that the yellow ochre would be considerably out of place4 ,rarely1 indeed1 does nature1 all lost and fallen as it is1 produce so consummate a scoundrel4 ,treachery seems to have existed as so uncontrollable an instinct in the man1 that1 like the appropriating faculty of the thief1 who amused himself by picking the pocket of the clergyman who conducted him to the scaffold1 it seems to have been incapable of lying still4 ,he appears never to have had a friend who did not learn to detest and denounce him3 his ,presbyterian friends1 whom he deceived and betrayed1 did so in the first instance2 his ,episcopalian friends1 whom he at least strove to deceive and betray1 did so in the second4 ,we are assured by ,burnet1 that even ,charles1 a monarch certainly not over-nice in the moral sense1 declared ,james ,sharpe to be one of the worst of men4 ,his life was a continuous lie2 and he has left more proofs of the fact in the form of letters under his own hand1 than perhaps any other bad man that ever lived4 ,in ,baillie he makes his first appearance as the ,presbyterian minister of ,crail1 and as one of the honest chronicler's greatest favourites4 ,the unhappy disputes between the ,resolutioners and ,protesters were running high at the time4 ,baillie was a ,resolutioner1 ,sharpe a zealous ,resolutioner too2 and ,baillie1 naturally unsuspicious1 and biassed in his behalf by that spirit of party which can darken the judgment of even the most discerning1 seems to have regarded him as peculiarly the hope of the ,church4 ,he was indisputably one of its most dexterous negotiators2 and no man of the age made a higher profession of religion4 ,burnet1 who knew him well in his after character as ,archbishop of ,st4 ,andrews1 tells us that never1 save on one solitary occasion1 did he hear him make the slightest allusion to religion4 ,but in his letters to ,baillie1 almost every paragraph closes with the aspirations of a well-simulated devotion4 ,they seem as if strewed over with the fragments of broken doxologies4 ,the old man was1 as we have said1 thoroughly deceived4 ,he assures his continental correspondent1 ,spang1 that 'the great instrument of ,god to cross the evil designs of the ,protesters1 was that very worthy1 pious1 wise1 and diligent young man1 ,mr4 ,james ,sharpe4' ,in some of his after epistles we learn that he remembered him in his prayers1 no doubt very sincerely1 as1 under ,god1 one of the mainstays of the ,church4 ,what first strikes the reader in the character of ,sharpe1 as here exhibited1 is his exclusively diplomatic cast of talent4 ,baillie himself was a controversialist3 he wrote books to influence opinion1 and delivered argumentative speeches4 ,he was a man of business too3 he drew up remonstrances1 petitions1 protests1 and carried on the war of his party above-board4 ,all his better friends and correspondents1 such as ,douglas and ,dickson1 were persons of a resembling cast4 ,but ,sharpe's vocation lay in dealing with men in closets and window recesses3 he could do nothing until he had procured the private ear of the individual on whom he wished to act4 ,is he desirous to influence the decisions of the ,supreme ,civil ,court in behalf of his party8 ,he straightway ingratiates himself with ,president ,broghill1 and the court becomes more favourable in consequence4 ,is he wishful to propitiate the ,english ,government8 ,he goes up to ,london1 gets closeted with its more influential members4 ,it was this peculiar talent that pointed him out to the ,church as so fit a person to treat with ,charles at ,breda4 ,and it is when employed in this mission that we begin truly to see the man1 and to discover the sort of ability on which the success of his closetings depended4 ,we find ,baillie holding1 in his simplicity1 that in order to draw the heart of the ,king from ,episcopacy1 nothing more could be necessary than just fairly to submit to him some sound controversial work1 arranged on the plan of the good man's own ,ladensium2 and urging on ,sharpe1 that a few able divines should be employed in getting up a compilation for the express purpose4 ,sharpe writes in return1 in a style sufficiently quiet1 that ,his ,majesty1 in his very first address1 'has been pleased to ask very graciously about ,robert ,baillie1' a person for whom he has a particular kindness1 and whom1 if favours were dealing1 he would be sure not to forget4 ,he adds1 further1 that however matters might turn out in ,england1 the ,presbyterian ,establishment of ,scotland was in no danger of violation2 and lest his ,scotch friends should fall into the error of thinking too much about other men's business1 he gives fervent expression to the hope 'that the ,lord would give them to prize their own mercies1 and know their own duties4' ,even a twelvemonth after1 when on the eve of setting out for ,london to be created a bishop1 he writes his old friend1 that whatever 'occasion of jealousies and false surmises his journey might give1' of one thing he might be assured1 'it was not in order to a change in the ,church1' as he 'would convince his dear friend ,mr4 ,baillie1 through the ,lord's help1 when the ,lord would return him4' ,he has an under-plot of treachery carrying on at the same time1 that affects his 'dear friend' personally4 ,in one of his letters to the unsuspecting chronicler1 he assures him that he was 'doing his best1 by the ,lord's help1' to get him appointed ,principal of the ,university of ,glasgow4 ,in one of his letters to ,lauderdale1 after stating that the office1 'in the opinion of many1' would require a man 'of more acrimony and weight' than 'honest ,baillie1' he urges that the presentation should be sent him1 with a blank space1 in which the name of the presentee might be afterwards inserted4 ,baillie1 naturally slow to suspect1 does not come fully to understand the character of the man until a very few months before his death4 ,he then complains bitterly to his continental correspondent1 amid the ruin of the ,church1 and from the gloom of his sick-chamber1 that ,sharpe was the traitor who1 'piece by piece1 had so cunningly trepanned them1 that the cause had been suffered to sink without even a struggle4' ,the apostate had gained his object1 however1 and become ',his ,grace the ,lord ,primate4' ,there were great rejoicings4 ',the new bishops were magnificklie received2' they were feasted by the ,lord ,commissioner's lady on one night1 by the ,chancellor on another2 and in especial1 'the ,archbishop had bought a new coach at ,london1 at the sides whereof two lakqueys in purple did run4' ,the vanity of ,sharpe is well brought out on another occasion by ,burnet4 ,the main object of one of his journeys to ,london1 undertaken a little more than a twelvemonth after the death of ,baillie1 was to urge on the ,king that1 as ,primate of ,scotland1 he should of right take precedence of the ,scottish ,lord ,chancellor1 and to crave ,his ,majesty's letter to that effect4 ,in this trait1 as in several others1 he seems to have resembled ,robespierre4 ,his cruelty to his old friends the ,presbyterians is well illustrated by the fact that he could make the comparative leniency of ,lauderdale1 apostate and persecutor as ,lauderdale was1 the subject of an accusation against him to ,charles4 ,but there is no lack of still directer instances in the biographies of the worthies whom his malice pursued4 ,his meanness1 too1 seems to have been equal to his malice and pride4 ,when ,lauderdale on one occasion turned fiercely upon him1 and threatened to impeach him for leasing-making1 he 'straightway fell a-trembling and weeping1' and1 to avoid the danger1 submitted to appear in the royal presence2 and there1 in the coarsest terms1 to confess himself a liar4 ,it is a bishop who tells the story1 and it is only one of a series4 ,truly the ,primate of all ,scotland was fortunate in the death he died4 ',the dismal end of this unhappy man1' says ,burnet1 'struck all people with horror1 and softened his enemies into some tenderness2 so that his memory was treated with decency by those who had very little respect for him during his life4' ,in almost every page in this instructive volume the reader picks up pieces of curious information1 or finds matters suggestive of interesting thought4 ,there start up ever and anon valuable hints that germinate and bear fruit in the mind4 ,we would instance1 by way of illustration1 a hint which occurs in a letter to ,lauderdale1 written shortly after the ,restoration1 and which1 though apparently slight1 leads legitimately into a not unimportant train of thinking4 ,scotchmen are much in the habit of referring to the political maxim that the king can do no wrong1 as a fundamental principle of the constitution1 which concerns them as directly as it does their neighbours the ,english4 ,dr4 ,chalmers alluded to it no later than last week1 in his admirable speech in the ,commission4 ,the old maxim1 that the king could do no wrong1 he said1 had now1 it would seem1 descended from the throne to the level of courts co-ordinate with the ,church4 ,would it not be a somewhat curious matter to find that this doctrine is one which has in reality not entered ,scotland at all8 ,it stands in ,england1 a guardian in front of the throne1 transferring every blow which would otherwise fall on the sovereign himself1 to the sovereign's ministers3 it is ministers1 not sovereigns1 who are responsible to the people of ,england4 ,but it would at least seem1 that with regard to the people of ,scotland the responsibility extends further4 ,at least the ,english doctrine was regarded as exclusively an ,english one in the days of ,baillie1 nearly half a century prior to the ,union1 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 ,britain4 ,we find ,baillie1 in his letter written immediately after the passing of the ,act ,recissory1 pronouncing the doctrine that the 'king can do no fault1' as in his judgment 'good and wise1' but referring to it at the same time as a doctrine1 not of the ,scottish ,constitution1 but of the ',state of ,england4' ,the circumstance is of importance chiefly from the light which it serves to cast on an interesting passage in ,scottish history4 ,the famous declaration of our ,scotch ,convention at the ,revolution1 that ,james ,,vii4 had forfeited the throne1 as contrasted with the singularly inadequate though virtually corresponding declaration of the ,english ,convention1 that ,james ,,ii4 'had abdicated the government1 and that the throne was thereby vacant1' has been often remarked by the historians4 ,hume indirectly accounts for the employment of the stronger word1 by prominently stating that the more zealous among the ,scotch ,royalists1 regarding the assembly as illegal1 had forborne to appear at elections1 and that the antagonist party commanded a preponderating majority in consequence2 whereas in ,england the ,tories mustered strong1 and had to be conciliated by the employment of softer language4 ,malcolm ,laing1 in noticing the fact1 contents himself by simply contrasting the indignation on the part of the ,scotch1 which had been aroused by their recent sufferings1 with the quieter temper of the ,english1 who had been less tried by the pressure of actual persecution1 and who were anxious to impart to ,revolution at least the colour of legitimate succession4 ,and ,sir ,james ,mackintosh1 in his ,vindici ,gallic1 contents himself with simply remarking that the 'absurd debates in the ,english ,convention were better cut short by the ,parliament of ,scotland1 when they used the correct and manly expression that ,james ,,vii4 had forfeited the throne4' ,we are of opinion that the very different styles of the two ,conventions may be accounted for on the ground that1 in the one kingdom1 the monarch1 according to the genius of the constitution1 was regarded as incapable of committing wrong2 whereas1 in the other1 he was no less constitutionally regarded as equally peccable with any of his subjects4 ,a peccable monarch may forfeit his throne2 an impeccable one can only abdicate it4 ,the argument must of course depend on the soundness of ,baillie's statement4 ,was the doctrine that the king can do no wrong a ,scottish doctrine at the time of the ,revolution1 or was it not8 ,it was at least not a ,scottish one in the days of ,buchanan1--nor for a century after1 as we may learn very conclusively1 not from ,buchanan himself1 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 side1 who entered the lists against both the master and his disciples4 ,buchanan maintained1 in his philosophical treatise1 ,de ,jure ,regni apud ,scotos1 that there are conditions by which the ,king of ,scotland is bound to his people1 on the fulfilment of which the allegiance of the people depends1 and that 'it is lawful to depose1 and even to punish tyrants4' ,knox1 with the other worthies of the first ,reformation1 held exactly the same doctrine4 ,the ,lex ,rex of ,rutherford testifies significantly to the fact that among the worthies of the second ,reformation it was not suffered to become obsolete4 ,it takes a prominent place in writings of the later ,covenanters1 such as the ,hind let ,loose2 and at the ,revolution it received the practical concurrence of the ,national ,convention1 and of the country generally4 ,now the doctrine1 be it remembered1 was an often disputed one4 ,buchanan's little work was the very butt of controversy for considerably more than an hundred years4 ,it was prohibited by ,parliament1 denounced by monarchs1 condemned to the flames by universities2 great lawyers wrote treatises against it at home1 and some of the most celebrated scholars of continental ,europe took the field against it abroad4 ,we learn from ,dr4 ,irving1 in his ,classical ,biography1 that it was assailed among our own countrymen by ,blackwood1 ,winzet1 ,barclay1 ,sir ,thomas ,craig1 ,sir ,john ,wemyss1 ,sir ,lewis ,stewart1 ,sir ,james ,turner1 and last1 not least1 among the writers who preceded the ,revolution1 by the meanly obsequious and bloody ,sir ,george ,mackenzie4 ,and how did these ,scotchmen meet with the grand doctrine which it embodied8 ,the 'old maxime of the state of ,england1' had it extended to the sister kingdom1 would have at once furnished the materials of reply4 ,if constitutionally the ,king of ,scotland could do no wrong1 then constitutionally the ,king of ,scotland could not be deposed4 ,but of an entirely different complexion was the argument of which the ,scottish assailants of ,buchanan availed themselves4 ,it was an argument subversive to the ,english maxim4 ,admitting fully that the king could do wrong1 they maintained merely that1 for whatever wrong he did1 he was responsible1 not to his subjects1 but to ,god only4 ,whatever the amount of wrong he committed1 it was the duty of his subjects1 they said1 passively to submit to it4 ,on came the ,revolution4 ,in ,england1 in perfect agreement with the doctrine of the king's impeccability--in perfect agreement1 at least1 so far as words were concerned--it was declared that ,james had abdicated the government1 and that the throne was thereby vacant2 and certainly it cannot be alleged by even the severest moralist1 that in either abdicating a government or vacating a throne1 there is the slightest shadow of moral evil involved4 ,in ,scotland the decision was different4 ,the battle fought in the ,convention was exactly that which had been previously fought between ,buchanan and his antagonists4 ',paterson1 ,archbishop of ,glasgow1 and ,sir ,george ,mackenzie1 asserted1' says ,malcolm ,laing1 'the doctrine of divine right1 or maintained1 with more plausibility1 that every illegal measure of ,james's government was vindicated by the declaration of the late ,parliament1 that he was an absolute monarch1 entitled to unreserved obedience1 ,,and ,,accountable ,,to ,,none2 while ,sir ,james ,montgomery and ,sir ,john ,dalrymple1 who conducted the debate on the other side1 averred that the ,parliament was neither competent to grant1 nor the king to acquire1 an absolute power1 irreconcilable with the ,,reciprocal ,,obligations ,,due ,,to ,,the ,,people4' ,the doctrines of ,buchanan prevailed2 and the estates declared that ,james ,,vii4 having1 through 'the advice of evil and wicked councillors1 invaded the fundamental constitution of the kingdom1 and altered it from a legal limited monarchy to an arbitrary despotic power1' he had thereby forfaulted his right to the crown4' ,the terms of the declaration demonstrate that ,baillie was quite in the right regarding the 'old maxime1 that the king can do no fault1' as exclusively a 'maxime of the ,state of ,england4' ,by acting on the advice of 'evil and wicked councillors1' it was declared that a peccable king had forfeited the throne4 ,the fact that there were councillors in the case did not so much even as extenuate the offence3 it was the advisers of the ,king who then1 as now1 were accountable to the ,king's ,english subjects for the advice they gave2 it was the ,king in person who was accountable to his ,scottish subjects for the advice he took4 ,this principle1 hitherto little adverted to1 throws1 as we have said1 much light on the history of the ,revolution in ,scotland4 ,,first ,,principles4 ,there is a passage in the ,life of ,sir ,matthew ,hale which has struck us as not only interesting in itself1 from the breadth and rectitude of judgment which it discloses1 but also from the very direct bearing of the principle involved in it on some of the recent interdicts of the ,supreme ,civil ,court4 ,it serves to throw a kind of historic light1 if we may so speak1 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 in1 when coolly exercising his judgment on the present eventful struggle4 ,one of not the least prominent nor least remarkable features of the ,rebellion of #agde1 says a shrewd chronicler of this curious portion of our history1 was an utter destitution of military talent among the general officers of the ,british army4 ,and the time is in all probability not very distant1 in which the extreme lack of judicial genius betrayed by our courts of law in their present collision with the courts ecclesiastical1 shall be regarded1 in like manner1 as one of the more striking characteristics of the ,rebellion of the present day4 ,sir ,matthew ,hale1 as most of our readers must be aware1 was a devoted ,royalist4 ,he was rising in eminence as a barrister at the time the ,civil ,wars broke out1 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 ,parliament4 ,he was counsel for the ,earl of ,strafford1 for ,archbishop ,laud1 for the ,duke of ,hamilton1 for the ,earl of ,holland1 and for ,lords ,capel and ,craven2 and in every instance he exhibited courage the most unshrinking and devoted1 and abilities of the highest order4 ,when threatened in open court on one occasion by the ,attorney-,general1 he replied that the threat might be spared3 he was pleading in defence of those laws which the ,government had declared it would maintain and preserve1 and no fear of personal consequences should deter him in such circumstances from doing his duty to his client4 ,when ,charles himself was brought to his trial1 ,sir ,matthew came voluntarily forward1 and offered to plead for him also2 but as the ,king declined recognising the competency of his judges1 the offer was of course rejected4 ,we all know how ,malesherbes fared for acting a similar part in ,france4 ,the counsel of ,louis ,,xvi4 closed his honourable career on the scaffold not long after his unfortunate master3 his generous advocacy of the devoted monarch cost him his life4 ,but ,cromwell1 that 'least flagitious of all usurpers1' according to even ,clarendon's estimate1 was no ,robespierre2 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 ,france1 we would just set off against one another the fate of ,malesherbes and the treatment of ,sir ,matthew4 ,cromwell1 unequalled in his ability of weighing the capabilities of men1 had been carefully scanning the course of the courageous and honest barrister2 and1 convinced that so able a lawyer and so good and brave a man could scarce fail of making an excellent judge1 he determined on raising him to the bench4 ,at this stage1 however1 a difficulty interposed1 not in the liberal and enlightened policy of the ,protector1 who had no objections whatever to a conscientious ,royalist magistrate1 but in the scruples of ,sir ,matthew1 who at first doubted the propriety of taking office under what he deemed a usurped power4 ,the process of argument by which he overcame the difficulty1 simple as it may seem1 is worthy of all heed4 ,its very simplicity may be regarded as demonstrating the soundness of the understanding that originated and then acted upon it as a firm first principle1 especially when we take into account the exquisitely nice character of the conscience which it had to satisfy4 ,it is absolutely necessary for the wellbeing of society1 argued ,sir ,matthew1 that justice be administered between man and man2 and the necessity exists altogether independently of the great political events which affect the sources of power1 by changing dynasties or revolutionizing governments4 ,the claim of the supreme ruler de facto may be a bad one2 he may owe his power to some act of great political injustice--to an iniquitous war--to an indefensible revolution--to a foul conspiracy2 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 ,god4 ,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 right1 dependent on the title of the ruler3 it is as clear and certain during those periods so common in history1 when the supreme power is illegitimately vested1 as during the happier periods of undisputed legitimacy4 ,and to be a minister of ,god for the administration of justice1 if the office be attainable without sin1 is as certainly right at all times as the just exercise of the magistrate's functions is right at all times4 ,if it be right that society be protected by the magistrate1 it is as unequivocally right in the magistrate to protect4 ,but it is wrong to recognise as legitimate the supreme ruler of a country if his power be palpably usurped4 ,english society1 under ,cromwell1 retains its right to have justice administered1 wholly unaffected by the flaw in ,cromwell's title2 but it would be wrong to recognise his title1 contrary to one's conviction1 as void of any flaw4 ,in short1 to use the simple language of ,burnet1 ,sir ,matthew1 'after mature deliberation1 came to be of opinion1 that as it was absolutely necessary to have justice and property kept up at all times1 it was no sin to take a commission from usurpers1 if there was declaration made of acknowledging their authority4' ,cromwell had breadth enough to demand no such declaration from ,sir ,matthew1 and so the latter took his place on the bench4 ,nor is it necessary to say how he adorned it4 ,in agreement with his political views1 he declined taking any part in trials for offences against the ,state2 but in cases of ordinary felonies1 no one could act with more vigour and decision4 ,during the trial of a ,republican soldier1 who had waylaid and murdered a ,royalist1 the colonel of the soldier came into court to arrest judgment1 on the plea that his man had done only his duty1 for that the person whom he had killed had been disobeying the ,protector's orders at the time2 and to threaten the judge with the vengeance of the supreme authority1 if he urged matters to an extremity against him4 ,sir ,matthew listened coolly to his threats and his reasonings1 and then1 pronouncing sentence of death against the felon1 agreeably to the finding of the jury1 he ordered him out to instant execution1 lest the course of justice should be interrupted by any interference on the part of ,government4 ,on another occasion1 in which he had to preside in a trial in which the ,protector was deeply concerned1 he found that the jury had been returned1 not by the sheriff or his lawful officer1 but by order of the ,protector himself4 ,he immediately dismissed them1 and1 refusing to go on with the trial1 broke up the court4 ,cromwell1 says ,burnet1 was highly displeased with him on this occasion1 and on his return from the circuit in which it had occurred1 told him in great anger that 'he was not fit to be a judge4' ',very true1' replied ,sir ,matthew1 whose ideas of the requirements of the office were of the most exalted character1--',very true2' and so the matter dropped4 ',it is absolutely necessary1' argued ,sir ,matthew1 'to have justice kept up at all times1' whatever flaws may exist in the title of the men in whom the supreme authority may chance to be vested4 ,never yet was there a simpler proposition2 but there is sublimity in its breadth4 ,it involves the true doctrine of subjection to the magistrate1 as enforced by ,st4 ,paul4 ,the ,new ,testament furnishes us with no disquisitions on political justice3 it does not say whether the title of ,domitian to the supreme authority was a good title or no1 or whether he should have been succeeded by ,caligula1 and ,caligula by ,claudius1 or no2 or whether or no the fact that ,claudius was poisoned by the mother of ,nero1 derived to ,nero any right to ,claudius's throne4 ,we hear nothing of these matters4 ,the magistracy described by ,st4 ,paul is the magistracy conceived of by ,sir ,matthew ,hale 'as necessary to be kept up at all times4' ,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 wisdom4 ',it is absolutely necessary to have justice kept up at all times1' and this not less necessary surely within than beyond the pale of the ,church4 ,it is necessary that a minister of the gospel 'be blameless'--no drunkard1 no swindler1 no thief1 no grossly obscene person2 nor can any supposed flaw in the constitution of an ecclesiastical court disannul the necessity4 ,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 matter4 ,there may exist some supposed1 or even some real1 flaw in that supreme ecclesiastical authority of the country1 through the exertion of which the ,church is to be protected from the infection of vice and irreligion2 but this flaw1 real or supposed1 furnishes no adequate cause why justice in the ,church 'should not be kept up4' ',justice1' said ,sir ,matthew1 'must be kept up at all times1' whatever the irregularities of title which may occur in the supreme authority4 ,the great society of the ,church has a right to justice1 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 no4 ,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 swindler2 the chaste and sober have a right to be protected from the ministrations of the drunken and the obscene wretch1 whose preaching is but mockery1 and his dispensations of the sacrament sacrilege4 ,the ,church has a right to purge itself of such ministers2 and these sacred rights no supposed1 even no real1 flaw in the constitution of its courts ought to be permitted to affect4 ',justice may be kept up at all times4' ,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 age1 as represented by the majority of our ,lords of ,session4 ,it enables us1 in some sort1 to anticipate regarding it the decision of posterity4 ,the list of cases of protection afforded by the civil court will of itself form a curious climax in the page of some future historian4 ,swindling will come after drunkenness in the series1 theft will follow after swindling1 and the miserable catalogue will be summed up by an offence which we must not name4 ,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 courts1 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 profession1 and held that 'justice is not to be kept up at all times4' ,but we leave our readers to follow up the subject4 ,some of the principles to which we have referred may serve to throw additional light on the remark of ,lord ,ivory1 when recalling the interdict in the ,southend case4 ',even were the objection against the competency of quoad sacra ministers to be ultimately sustained1' said his ,lordship1 ',i am disposed to hold that the judicial acts and sentences of the ,general ,assembly and its ,commission1 bona fide pronounced in the interim1 should be given effect to notwithstanding4' ,,an ,,unspoken ,,speech4 ,we enjoyed the honour on ,wednesday last of being present as a guest at the annual soiree of the ,scottish ,young ,men's ,society1 and derived much pleasure from the general appearance of the meeting1 and the addresses of the members and their friends4 ,the body of the great ,waterloo ,room was crowded on the occasion with a respectable1 intellectual-looking audience1 including from about a hundred and fifty to two hundred members of the ,society1 all of them young men banded together for mutual improvement1 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 year4 ,the platform was equally well filled1 and the ,sheriff of ,edinburgh occupied the chair4 ,we felt a particular interest in the objects of the ,society1 and a deep sympathy with its members2 for1 as we listened to the various speakers1 and our eyes glanced over the intelligent countenances that thronged the area of the apartment1 we thought of past difficulties encountered in a cause similar to that which formed the uniting bond of the ,society1 and of not a few wrecks which we had witnessed of men who had set out in life from the humbler levels1 with the determination of pressing their way upwards4 ,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 strait1 the perils of which he had already encountered1 or to sail round some formidable cape1 which1 after many an unsuccessful attempt1 he had doubled1 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 entering4 ,but1 be the fact of qualification as it may1 we found ourselves1 after leaving the room1 addressing them1 in imagination1 in a few plain words1 regarding some of the rocks1 and shoals1 and insidious currents1 which we knew lay in their course4 ,men whose words come slowly and painfully when among their fellows1 can be quite fluent enough when they speak inwards without breaking silence1 and have merely an imaginary assemblage for their audience2 and so our short address went off glibly1 without break or interruption1 in the style of ordinary conversational gossip4 ,there are curious precedents on record for the printing of unspoken speeches4 ,rejecting1 however1 all the higher ones1 we shall be quite content to take our precedent from the famous speech which the 'indigent philosopher' addresses1 in one of ,goldsmith's ,essays1 to ,mr4 ,bellowsmender and the ,cateaton ,club4 ,the philosopher begins1 it will be remembered1 by telling his imaginary audience1 that though ,nathan ,ben ,funk1 the rich ,jew1 might feel a natural interest in the state of the stocks1 it was nothing to them1 who had no money2 and concludes by quoting the 'famous author called ,lilly's ,grammar4' ',members of the ,scottish ,young ,men's ,society1' we said1 'it is rather late in life for the individual who now addresses you to attempt acquiring the art of the public speaker4 ,those who have been most in the habit of noticing the effect of the several mechanical professions on character and intellect1 divide them into two classes--the sedentary and the laborious2 and they remark1 that while in the sedentary1 such as the printing1 weaving1 tailoring1 and shoemaking trades1 there are usually a considerable proportion of fluent speakers1 in the laborious trades1 on the other hand1 such as those of the mason1 ship-carpenter1 ploughman1 and blacksmith1 one generally meets with but taciturn1 slow-speaking men4 ,we need scarce say in which of these schools we have been trained4 ,you will at once see--to borrow from one of the best and most ancient of writers--that we are not eloquent1 but a man of slow speech1 and of a slow tongue4 ,and yet we think we may venture addressing ourselves1 in a few plain words1 to an association of young men united for the purpose of mutual improvement4 ,we ought and we do sympathize with you in your object2 and we congratulate you on the facilities which your numbers1 and your library1 and your residence in one of the most intellectual cities in the world1 cannot fail to afford you in its pursuit4 ,we ourselves have known what it is to prosecute in solitude1 with but few books1 and encompassed by many difficulties1 the search after knowledge2 and we have seen year after year pass by1 and the obstacles in our way remaining apparently as great as at first4 ,and were we to sum up the condensed result of our experience in two brief words of advice1 it would amount simply to this1 ,never despair4 ,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 encountered1 and who won for himself1 by his magnanimity1 sagacity1 and cool resolution1 the applauses of even his enemies1 so that ,rousseau and ,voltaire eulogized him1 the one in history1 the other in romance1--we are told1 we say1 of this ,anson1 that when raised to the ,british peerage1 he was permitted to select his own motto1 and that he chose an eminently characteristic one--,nil ,desperandum4 ,by all means let it be your motto also--not as a thing to be paraded on some heraldic label1 but to be engraved upon your hearts4 ,we wish that1 amid the elegancies of this hall1 we could bring up before you some of the scenes of our past life4 ,they would form a curious panorama1 and might serve to teach that in no circumstances1 however apparently desperate1 should men lose hope4 ,never forget that it is not necessary1 in order to overcome gigantic difficulties1 that one's strength should be gigantic4 ,persevering exertion is much more than strength4 ,we owe to shovels and wheelbarrows1 and human muscles of the average size and vigour1 the great railway which connects the capitals of the two kingdoms4 ,and the difficulties which encompass the young man of humble circumstances and imperfect education1 must be regarded as coming under the same category as difficulties of the purely physical kind4 ,interrupted or insulated efforts1 however vigorous1 will be found to be but of little avail4 ,it is to the element of continuity that you must trust4 ,there is a world of sense in ,sir ,walter ,scott's favourite proverb1 ,time and ,i1 gentlemen1 against any two4 ,but though it be unnecessary1 in order to secure success1 that one's efforts in the contest with gigantic difficulties should be themselves gigantic1 it is essentially necessary that they should employ one's whole strength4 ,half efforts never accomplish anything4 ,no man ever did anything well1 says ,johnson1 to which he did not apply the whole bent of his mind4 ,and unless a man keep his head cool1 and his faculties undissipated1 he need not expect that his efforts can ever be other than half efforts1 or other than of a desultory1 fitful1 non-productive kind4 ,we do not stand here in the character of a modern ,rechabite4 ,but this we must say3 ,let no young man ever beguile himself with the hope that he is to make a figure in society1 or rise in the world1 unless1 as the apostle expresses it1 he be temperate in all things4 ,scotland has produced not a few distinguished men who were unfortunately not temperate2 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 early4 ,robert ,burns1 up till his twenty-sixth year1 when he had mastered all his powers1 and produced some of his finest poems1 was an eminently sober man4 ,climbing requires not only a steady foot1 but a strong head2 and we question whether any one ever climbed the perilous steep1 where1 according to ,beattie1 ,fame's proud temple shines afar1 who did not keep his head cool during the process4 ,so far as our own experience goes1 we can truly state1 that though we have known not a few working men1 possessed some of them of strong intellects1 and some of them of fine taste1 and even of genius1 not one have we ever known who rose either to eminence or a competency under early formed habits of intemperance4 ,these indeed are the difficulties that cannot be surmounted1 and the only ones4 ,rather more than thirty years ago1 the drinking usages of the country were more numerous than they are now4 ,in the mechanical profession in which we laboured they were many3 when a foundation was laid1 the workmen were treated to drink2 they were treated to drink when the walls were levelled2 they were treated to drink when the building was finished2 they were treated to drink when an apprentice joined the squad2 treated to drink when his apron was washed2 treated to drink when his time was out2 and occasionally they learned to treat one another to drink4 ,at the first house upon which we were engaged as a slim apprentice boy1 the workmen had a royal founding-pint1 and two whole glasses of whisky came to our share4 ,a full-grown man might not deem a gill of usquebhae an over-dose1 but it was too much for a boy unaccustomed to strong drink2 and when the party broke up1 and we got home to our few books--few1 but good1 and which we had learned at even an earlier period to pore over with delight--we found1 as we opened the page of a favourite author1 the letters dancing before our eyes1 and that we could no longer master his sense4 ,the state was perhaps a not very favourable one for forming a resolution in1 but we believe the effort served to sober us4 ,we determined in that hour that never more would we sacrifice our capacity of intellectual enjoyment to a drinking usage2 and during the fifteen years which we spent as an operative mason1 we held1 through ,god's help1 by the determination4 ,we are not sure whether1 save for that determination1 we would have had the honour of a place on this platform to-night4 ,but there are other kinds of intoxication than that which it is the nature of strong drink or of drugs to produce4 ,bacon speaks of a natural drunkenness4 ,and the hallucinations of this natural drunkenness must be avoided if you would prosper4 ,let us specify one of these4 ,never let yourselves be beguiled by the idea that fate has misplaced you in life1 and that were you in some other sphere you would rise4 ,it is true that some men are greatly misplaced2 but to brood over the idea is not the best way of getting the necessary exchange effected4 ,it is not the way at all4 ,often the best policy in the case is just to forget the misplacement4 ,we remember once deeming ourselves misplaced1 when1 in a season of bad health and consequent despondency1 we had to work among labourers in a quarry4 ,but the feeling soon passed1 and we set ourselves carefully to examine the quarry4 ,cowper describes a prisoner of the ,bastile beguiling his weary hours by counting the nail-studs on the door of his cell1 upwards1 downwards1 and across1-- ,wearing out time in numbering to and fro1 ,the studs that thick emboss his iron door2 ,then downward and then upwards1 then aslant ,and then alternate2 with a sickly hope ,by dint of change to give his tasteless task ,some relish2 till1 the sum exactly found ,in all directions1 he begins again4 ,it was idle work2 for to reckon up the door-studs never so often was not the way of opening up the door4 ,but in carefully examining and recording for our own use the appearances of the stony bars of our prison1 we were greatly more profitably employed4 ,nay1 we had stumbled on one of the best possible modes of escaping from our prison4 ,we were in reality getting hold of its bolts and its stancheons1 and converting them into tools in the work of breaking out4 ,we remember once passing a whole season in one of the dreariest districts of the north-western ,highlands1--a district included in that unhappy tract of country1 doomed1 we fear1 to poverty and suffering1 which we find marked in the rain-map of ,europe with a double shade of blackness4 ,we had hard work1 and often soaking rain1 during the day2 and at night our damp fuel filled the turf hut in which we sheltered with suffocating smoke1 and afforded no light by which to read4 ,nor--even ere the year got into its wane1 and when in the long evenings we had light--had we any books to read by it1 or a single literary or scientific friend with whom to exchange an idea4 ,we remember at another time living in an agricultural district in the low country1 in a hovel that was open along the ridge of the roof from gable to gable1 so that as we lay a-bed we could tell the hours of the night by the stars that were passing overhead across the chasm4 ,there were about half-a-dozen farm-servants1 victims to the bothie system1 that ate and slept in the same place2 and often1 long after midnight1 a disreputable poacher used to come stealthily in1 and fling himself down on a lair of straw that he had prepared for himself in a corner4 ,now1 both the ,highland hut and the ,lowland hovel1 with their accompaniments of protracted and uncongenial labour1 might be regarded as dreary prisons2 and yet we found them to be in reality useful schools1 very necessary to our education4 ,and now1 when we hear about the state of the ,highlands1 and the character of our poor ,highlanders1 and of the influence of the bothie system and of the game-laws1 we feel that we know considerably more about such matters than if our experience had been of a more limited or more pleasant kind4 ,there are few such prisons in which a young man of energy and a brave heart can be placed1 in which he will not gain more by taking kindly to his work1 and looking well about him1 than by wasting himself in convulsive endeavours to escape4 ,if he but learn to think of his prison as a school1 there is good hope of his ultimately getting out of it4 ,were a butcher's boy to ask us--you will not deem the illustration too low1 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 employment1 we would at once say1 ,you have rare opportunities of observation2 you may be a butcher's boy in body1 but in mind you may become an adept in one of the profoundest of the sciences1 that of comparative anatomy2--think of yourself as not in a prison1 but in a school1 and there is no fear but you will rise4 ,there is another delusion of that natural drunkenness referred to1 against which you must also be warned4 ,never sacrifice your independence to a phantom4 ,we have seen young men utterly ruin themselves through the vain belief that they were too good for their work4 ,they were mostly lads of a literary turn1 who had got a knack of versifying1 and who1 in the fond belief that they were poets and men of genius1 and that poets and men of genius should be above the soil and drudgery of mechanical labour1 gave up the profession by which they had lived1 poorly mayhap1 but independently1 and got none other to set in its place4 ,a mistake of this character is always a fatal one2 and we trust all of you will ever remember1 that though a man may think himself above his work1 no man is1 or no man ought to think himself1 above the high dignity of being independent4 ,in truth1 he is but a sorry1 weak fellow who measures himself by the conventional status of the labour by which he lives4 ,our great poet formed a correcter estimate3 ,what though on hamely fare we dine1 ,wear hodden grey1 and a' that8 ,gie fools their silks1 and knaves their wine1 ,a man's a man for a' that4 ,there is another advice which we would fain give you1 though it may be regarded as of a somewhat equivocal kind3 ,rely upon yourselves4 ,the man who sets his hopes upon patronage1 or the exertions of others in his behalf1 is never so respectable a man1 and1 save in very occasional instances1 rarely so lucky a man1 as he who bends his exertions to compel fortune in his behalf1 by making himself worthy of her favours4 ,some of the greatest wrecks we have seen in life have been those of waiters on patronage2 and the greatest discontents which we have seen in corporations1 churches1 and states1 have arisen from the exercise of patronage4 ,shakespeare tells us1 in his exquisite vein1 of a virtue that is twice blessed1--blessed in those who give1 and blessed in those who receive4 ,patronage is twice cursed1--cursed in the incompetency which it places where merit ought to be1 and in the incompetency which it creates among the class who make it their trust4 ,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 it4 ,we therefore say1 ,rely upon yourselves4 ,but there is ,one other on whom you must rely2 and implicit reliance on ,him1 instead of inducing weakness1 infinitely increases strength4 ,bacon has well said1 that a dog is brave and generous when he believes himself backed by his master1 but timid and crouching1 especially in a strange place1 when he is alone and his master away4 ,and a human master1 says the philosopher1 is as a god to the dog4 ,it certainly does inspire a man with strength to believe that his great ,master is behind him1 invigorating him in his struggles1 and protecting him against every danger4 ,we knew in early life a few smart infidels--smart but shallow2 but not one of them ever found their way into notice2 and though we have not yet lived out our half century1 they have in that space all disappeared4 ,there are various causes which conspire to write it down as fate1 that the humble infidel should be unsuccessful in life4 ,in the first place1 infidelity is not a mark of good sense1 but very much the reverse4 ,we have been much struck by a passage which occurs in the autobiography of a great general of the early part of the last century4 ,in relating the disasters and defeats experienced in a certain campaign by two subordinate general officers1 chiefly through misconduct1 and a lack of the necessary shrewdness1 he adds1 ,i ever suspected the judgment of these men since ,i found that they professed themselves infidels4 ,the sagacious general had inferred that their profession of infidelity augured a lack of sense2 and that1 when they got into command1 the same lack of sense which led them to glory in their shame would be productive1 as its necessary results1 of misfortune and disaster4 ,there is a shrewd lesson here to the class who doubt and cavil simply to show their parts4 ,in the second place1 infidelity1 on the principle of ,bacon1 is a weak1 tottering thing1 unbuttressed by that support which gives to poor human nature half its strength and all its dignity4 ,but1 above all1 in the third and last place1 the humble infidel1 unballasted by right principle1 sets out on the perilous voyage of life without chart or compass1 and1 drifting from off the safe course1 gets among rocks and breakers1 and there perishes4 ,but we must not trespass on your time4 ,with regard to the conduct of your studies1 we simply say1 ,strive to be catholic in your tastes4 ,some of you will have a leaning to science2 some to literature4 ,to the one class we would say1 ,your literature will be all the more solid if you can get a vein of true science to run through it2 and to the other1 ,your science will be all the more fascinating if you temper and garnish it with literature4 ,in truth1 almost all the greater subjects of man's contemplation belong to both fields4 ,of subjects such as astronomy and geology1 for instance1 the poetry is as sublime as the science is profound4 ,as a pretty general rule1 you will perhaps find literature most engaging in youth1 and science as you grow in years4 ,but faculties for both have been given you by the great ,taskmaster1 and it is your bounden duty that these be exercised aright4 ,and so let us urge you1 in conclusion1 in the words of ,coleridge3 ,therefore to go and join head1 heart1 and hand1 ,active and firm to fight the bloodless fight ,of science1 freedom1 and the truth in ,christ4 ,,disruption ,,principles4 ,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 liable1 is the danger of getting just a little wild on minute semi-metaphysical points1 and of either quarrelling regarding them with their neighbours1 or of falling out among themselves4 ,great controversies1 involving broad principles1 have in the history of the ,church not unfrequently broken into small controversies1 involving narrow principles2 just as in the history of the world mighty empires like that of ,alexander the ,great have broken up into petty provinces1 headed by mere satraps and captains1 when the master-mind that formed their uniting bond has been removed4 ,independently of that stability which the legalized framework of a rightly-constituted ,establishment is almost sure to impart to its distinctive doctrines1 the influence of its temporalities has in one special direction a sobering and wholesome effect4 ,men carefully weigh principles for the assertion of which they may be called on to sacrifice or to suffer1 and are usually little in danger1 in such circumstances1 of becoming martyrs to a mere crotchet4 ,the first beginnings of notions that1 if suffered to grow in the mind1 may at length tyrannize over it1 and lead even the moral sense captive1 are often exceedingly minute4 ,they start up in the form of1 mayhap1 solitary ideas1 chance-derived from some unexpected association1 or picked up in conversation or reading2 the attention gradually concentrates upon them2 auxiliary ideas1 in consequence1 spring up around them2 they assume a logical form--connect themselves1 on the one hand1 with certain revealed injunctions of wide meaning--lay hold1 on the other1 on a previously developed devotional spirit or well-trained conscientiousness2 and1 in the end1 if the minds in which they have arisen be influential ones1 they alter the aspects and names of religious bodies1 and place in a state of insulation and schism churches and congregations4 ,their rise somewhat resembles that of the waves1 as described by ,franklin in his paper on the effects of oil in inducing a calm1 or in preserving one4 ',the first-raised waves1' he says1 'are mere wrinkles2 but being continually acted upon by the wind1 they are1 though the gale does not increase in strength1 continually increased in magnitude1 rising higher1 and extending their bases so as to include in each wave vast masses1 and to act with great momentum4 ,the wind1 however1' continues the philosopher1 'blowing over water covered with oil1 cannot catch upon it so as to raise the first or elementary wrinkles1 but slides over it1 and leaves it smooth as it finds it2 and being thus prevented from producing these first elements of waves1 it of course cannot produce the waves themselves4' ,in applying the illustration just a little further1 we would remark1 that within a wholesomely-constituted religious ,establishment1 the influence of the temporalities acts in preventing the rise of new notions1 like the smoothing oil4 ,if it does not wholly prevent the formation of the first wrinkles of novel opinion1 it at least prevents their heightening into wavelets or seas4 ,if the billows rise within so as to disrupt the framework of the ,establishment1 and make wreck of its temporalities1 it may be fairly premised that they have risen not from any impulsion of the light winds of uncertain doctrine1 but1 as in the ,canton de ,vaud and the ,church of ,scotland1 in obedience to the strong ground-swell of sterling principle4 ,now we deem it a mighty advantage1 and one which should not be wilfully neutralized by any after act of the body1 that the distinctive principles of the ,free ,church bear the stamp and pressure of sacrifice4 ,the temporalities resigned for their sake do not adequately measure their value2 but they at least demonstrate that1 in the estimate of those who resigned them1 the principles did of a certainty possess value up to the amount resigned4 ,the ,disruption forms a guarantee for the stamina of our ,church's peculiar tenets1 and impresses upon them1 in relation to the conscience of the ,church1 the stamp of reality and genuineness4 ,and that influence of the temporalities to which we refer1 and under which the controversy grew1 had yet another wholesome influence4 ,it prevented the wrinklings of new1 untried notions from gathering momentum1 and rising into waves4 ,the great billows1 influential in producing so much1 were the result of ancient1 well-tested realities3 they had rolled downwards1 fully formed1 as a portion of the great ground-swell of the ,reformation4 ,the ,headship of the adorable ,redeemer--the spiritual independence of the ,church--the rights of the ,christian people3 these were not crotchets based on foundations of bad metaphysics2 they were vital1 all-important principles1 worthy of being maintained and asserted at any cost4 ,it is indeed wonderful how entirely1 immediately previous to the ,disruption1 the ,church of ,scotland assumed all the lineaments of her former self1 as she existed in the days of ,knox and his brethren4 ,once more1 after the lapse of many years1 she stood on broad anti-patronage ground4 ,once more1 after having been swaddled up for an age in the narrow exclusiveness of the ,act of #agii1 that had placed her in a state of non-communion with the whole ,christian world1 she occupied1 through its repeal1 the truly liberal position with regard to the other evangelistic churches of her early fathers4 ,once more her discipline1 awakened from its long slumber1 had become efficient1 as in her best days1 for every purpose of purity4 ,she had become1 on the eve of her disestablishment1 after many an intervening metamorphosis1 exactly1 in character and lineament1 the ,church which had been established by the ,state nearly three centuries before4 ,she went out as she had come in4 ,there was a peculiar sobriety1 too1 in all her actings4 ,her sufferings and sacrifices were direct consequents of the invasion of her province by the civil magistrate4 ,but she did not on that account cease to recognise the magistrate in his own proper walk as the minister of ,god4 ,her aggrieved members never once forgot that they were ,scotchmen and ,britons as certainly as ,presbyterians1 and that they had a country as certainly as a ,church to which they owed service1 and which it was unequivocally their duty to defend4 ,they retreated from the ,establishment1 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 say1 retained compatibly with right principle2 but they did not in wholesale desperation give up other posts which could still be conscientiously maintained4 ,the educational establishment of the country1 for instance1 was not abandoned1 though the ecclesiastical one was4 ,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 ,church1 but in his capacity of ,principal he returned to his ,college1 and in that post fought what was virtually the battle of his country1 and fought it so bravely and well that he is ,principal of the ,college still4 ,and the parish schoolmasters who adhered to the ,free ,church fought an exactly similar battle1 though unfortunately with a less happy issue2 but that issue gives at least prominence to the fact that they did not resign their charges1 but were thrust from them4 ,the other functionaries of the ,assembly1 uninfluenced by any wild ,cameronian notion1 held by their various secular offices1 civil and military4 ,soldiers retained their commissions--magistrates their seats on the bench--members of ,parliament their representative status4 ,nor did a single member of the ,protesting ,church possessed of the franchise resign1 in consequence of the ,disruption1 a single political right or privilege4 ,the entire transaction bore1 we repeat1 the stamp of perfect sobriety4 ,it was in all its details the act of men in their right minds4 ,now the principles held by the ,church at the ,disruption1 and none other1 whether ,voluntary or ,cameronian1 are the principles of the ,free ,church4 ,a powerful majority in a ,presbyterian body1 or in a country possessed of a representative government1 are vested in at least the power of making whatever laws they will to make1 for not only themselves1 but for the minority also4 ,but power is not right2 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 framework1 and to impose them on the minority4 ,we question1 on this principle1 the right of that act of discipline which was exercised in the present century by a preponderating majority of the ,antiburgher body in ,scotland1 when they deposed and excommunicated the late ,dr4 ,m',crie for the ecclesiastical offence of holding in every particular by the original tenets of the fathers of the ,secession4 ,the overt act in the case manifested their power1 but the various attempts made to manifest their right we regard as mere abortions4 ,they had no right to do what they did4 ,the questions on which the majority differed from their fathers ought in justice1 instead of being made a subject of legislation1 to be left an open question4 ,and we hold1 on a similar principle1 that whatever questions of conduct or polity may arise in the ,free ,church1 which1 though new to it1 yet come to be adopted by a majority1 should be left open questions also4 ,of course1 of novelties in doctrine we do not speak1--we trust that within the ,free ,church none such will ever arise2 we refer rather to those semi-metaphysical points of casuistry1 and nice questions of conduct1 in which the differences that perplex non-established ,churches are most liable to originate1--matters in which one man sees after one way1 and another man after another1--and which1 until heaped up into importance1 wave-like1 as if by the wind1 pertain not to the province of solid demonstrable truth1 but to the province of loose fluctuating opinion4 ,and be it remarked1 that non-established ,churches are very apt to be disturbed by such questions4 ,they are in circumstances in which the ripple passes into the wavelet1 and the wavelet into the billow4 ,on this head1 as on all others1 there is great value in the teachings of history2 and the ,free ,church might be worse employed than in occasionally conning the lesson4 ,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 ,scotland4 ,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 ,church1 those protesting ministers who formed the nucleus of the ,original ,secession1 and to the excommunication and deposition of ,dr4 ,m',crie4 ,the question of the preceding fifty years was that connected with the burghal oath1 which had the effect of splitting into two antagonist sections the religious body of which the ,burgher ,secession formed but one of the fragments1--a body fast rising at the time into a position of importance1 which the split prevented it from ever fully realizing4 ,the question of the fifty years with which the period began was that which fixed the ,cameronian body1 not merely in a condition of unsocial seclusion in its relation with all other churches1 but even detached it from its allegiance to the ,state1 and placed it in circumstances of positive rebellion4 ,perhaps the history of this latter body1 as embodied in its older testimony1 and the controversial writings of its ,fairlys and ,thorburns1 is that from the study of which the ,free ,church might derive most profit at the present time4 ,we live in so late an age of the world1 that we have little chance of finding much which is positively new in the writings or speeches of our casuists4 ,when we detect1 in consequence1 some of our ministers or office-bearers sporting principles that do not distinctively belong to the ,church of the ,disruption1 we may be pretty sure1 if we but search well1 of discovering these principles existing as the distinctive tenets of some other ,church2 and the present tendency of a most small but most respectable minority in our body is decidedly ,cameronian4 ,the passages of ,scripture on which the ,cameronians chiefly dwelt in their testimony and controversial writings1 were those discussed by the ,free ,presbytery of ,edinburgh on ,wednesday last4 ,as condemnatory of what is designated the great national sin of the ,union1 for instance1 the testimony adduces1 among other texts1 ,isa4 viii4 #ab1 ',say ye not1 ,a confederacy1 to all them to whom this people shall say1 ,a confederacy2' ,hos4 vii4 #h1 #i1 ',ephraim hath mixed himself among the people2 ,ephraim is a cake not turned4 ,strangers have devoured his strength1 and he knoweth it not2 yea1 grey hairs are here and there upon him1 and he knoweth it not2' and above all1 #b ,cor4 vi4 #ad1 #ae1 ',be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers2 for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness1 and what communion hath light with darkness1 and what concord hath ,christ with ,belial1 or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel8' ,and let the reader mark how logically these ,scriptures are applied4 ',all associations and confederacies with the enemies of true religion and godliness1' says the ,testimony1 'are thus expressly condemned in ,scripture1 and represented as dangerous to the true ,israel of ,god4 ,and if simple confederacies with malignants and enemies to the cause of ,christ are condemned1 much more is an incorporation with them1 which is an embodying of two into one1 and therefore a straiter conjunction4 ,and1 taking the definition of malignants given by the declarations of both kingdoms1 joined in arms anno #afdc1 to be just1 which says1 ,such as would not take the ,covenant were to be declared to be public enemies to religion and their country1 and that they are to be censured and punished as professed adversaries and malignants1 it cannot be refused but that the prelatic party in ,england now joined with are such4 ,further1 by this incorporating union this nation is obliged to support the idolatrous ,church of ,england4' ,and thus the argument runs on irrefragable in its logic1 if we but grant the premises4 ,but to what1 we ask1 did it lead1 assisted1 of course1 by other arguments of a similar character1 in the body with whom it originated8 ,to their withdrawal1 from the times of the ,revolution till now1 from every national movement in the cause of ,christ and ,his gospel2 nay1 most consistently1 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 behalf1 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 religion1 but in behalf of their country also4 ,a ,cameronian holding firm by his principles of non-incorporation with idolaters1 cannot be a magistrate nor a member of ,parliament2 he cannot vote in an election1 nor serve in the army4 ,it is one of the grand evils of questions of casuistry of this kind1 that men1 instead of looking at things and estimating them as they really exist1 are contented to play games at logic--chopping with but the imperfect signs of things--mere verbal counters1 twisted from their original meanings by the influence of delusive metaphors and false associations4 ,let us just see1 in reference not to mere words1 but to things1 what can be truly meant by the terms 'apostate or apostatizing ,government1' as applied to the ,government of ,great ,britain4 ,the words can have of course no just application1 in a personal bearing1 to present members of ,government1 as distinguished from the members of previous ,governments1 seeing that the functionaries now in office are just as much1 or rather as little religious1 as any other functionaries in office since the times of the ,revolution or before4 ,in a personal sense1 ,england's last religious government was that of ,cromwell4 ,the term apostate1 or apostatizing1 can have only an official meaning4 ,what1 then1 in its official meaning1 does it in reality express8 ,the government of the ,united ,kingdom is representative2 and it is one of the great blessings which we enjoy as citizens that it is so1--one of those blessings for which we may now1 as when we were younger1 express ourselves thankful in the words of honest ,isaac ,watts1 'that we were born on ,british ground4' ,at any rate1 this fact of representation is a fact--a thing1 not a mere word4 ,there is another fact in the case equally solid and certain4 ,this representation of the empire is based on a population of about twenty-six millions of people2 twelve millions of whom are ,episcopalian1 eight millions ,roman ,catholic1 three millions ,presbyterian1 and three millions more divided among the various other ,protestant sects of the country4 ,and this also is a fact--a thing1 not a mere word4 ,in the good providence of ,god we were born the citizens of an empire thus representative in its government1 and thus ecclesiastically constituted in its population4 ,and it would be a further fact consequent on the other two1 that the aggregate character of the ,government would represent the aggregate moral and ecclesiastical character of the people1 were every distinct portion into which the people are parcelled to exert itself in proportion to its share of political influence4 ,but from the yet further fact1 that the portions have not always exerted themselves in equal ratios1 and from other causes1 political and providential1 the character of the ,government has considerably fluctuated--now representing one portion more in proportion to its amount than its mere bulk warranted1 anon another4 ,thus1 in the days of the ,commonwealth1 what are now the six million ,presbyterians and ,independents1 etc41 had a ,british ,government wholly representative of themselves2 while what are now the twelve million ,episcopalians and the eight million ,papists had none4 ,england at the time produced one of those men1 of a type surpassingly great1 that the world fails to see once in centuries2 and1 like ,brennus of old1 he flung his sword into the lighter scale1 and it straightway outweighed the other4 ,there then ensued a period of twenty-eight years1 in which ,government represented only the ,episcopalians and ,papists3 and then a period of a hundred and forty years more1 in which it represented only the ,episcopalians and ,presbyterians4 ,and now--for ,popery1 growing strong in the interval1 had been using all appliances in its own behalf1 and had not been met in the proper spiritual field--it represents ,episcopacy1 ,roman ,catholicism1 and a minute1 uninfluential portion of the ,presbyterian and other evangelistic bodies4 ,but how1 it may be asked1 has this result taken place8 ,how is it only a moiety of these bodies that is represented8 ,mainly1 we unhesitatingly reply1 through the influence exerted by certain crotchets entertained by the bodies themselves on their political standing4 ,when ,government at the ,revolution1 instead of being as formerly representative of ,episcopacy and ,popery1 became representative of ,episcopacy and ,presbytery1 ,cameronianism broke off1 on the plea that the governing power ought to be representative of ,presbytery only1 and that it was apostate because it was not2 and the political influence of the body has been ever since lost to the ,protestant cause4 ,voluntaryism1 on the other hand1 neutralized its influence1 by holding that1 though quite at freedom to exert itself in the political walk in attaining secular objects1 religious objects are in that walk unattainable1 or at least not to be attained2 and so it also has been virtually lost to the ,protestant cause4 ,and now a cloud like a man's hand arises in our own ,church1 to threaten a further secession from the ranks of the remaining class1 who strive to stamp upon the ,government1 through the operation of the representative principle1 at least a modicum of the evangelistic character4 ,and all this is taking place in an age in which the battle for the integrity of the ,sabbath as a national institute1 and other similar battles1 shall soon have to be decided on political ground4 ,if 'apostate' or 'apostatizing' be at all proper words in reference to the things which we have here described1 what1 we ask1 save the want either of weight or of exertion on the part of the represented bodies who complain of it1 can be properly regarded as the cause of that apostasy8 ,a representative ,government1 if the represented be ,episcopalian1 will itself be officially ,episcopalian2 if the represented be ,papist1 it will itself be officially ,papist2 if the represented be ,presbyterian1 it will itself be officially ,presbyterian2 if composed of all three together1 the ,government will bear an aggregate average character2 but if1 on some crotchet1 the ,presbyterians withdraw from the political field1 while the others exert themselves in that field to the utmost1 it will be ,popish and ,episcopalian exclusively4 ,but for a result so undesirable--a result which1 if ,presbytery had been formerly in the ascendant1 might of course be called official apostasy--it would be the ,presbyterian constituency that would be to blame1 not the ,government4 ,it will be seen that this view of the real state of things was that of ,knox and ,chalmers1 and that they acted in due accordance with it4 ,we are told by the younger ,m',crie1 in his admirable ,sketches of ,scottish ,church ,history1 'that ,knox and his brethren1 perceiving that the whole ecclesiastical property of the kingdom bade fair to be soon swallowed up by the rapacity of the nobles1 insisted that a considerable portion of it should be reserved for the support of the poor1 the founding of universities and schools1 and the maintenance of an efficient ministry throughout the country4 ,at last1' continues the historian1 'after great difficulty1 the ,privy ,council came to the determination that the ecclesiastical revenues should be divided into three parts1--that two of them should be given to the ejected prelates during their lives1 which afterwards reverted to the nobility1 and that the third part should be divided between the ,court and the ,protestant ministry4' ',well1' exclaimed ,knox on hearing of this arrangement1 'if the end of this order be happy1 my judgment fails me4 ,i see two parts freely given to the devil1 and the third must be divided between ,god and the devil4' ,strong words these4 ,here is a ,government1 according to ,knox's own statement of the case1 giving five-sixths to the devil1 and but a remaining sixth to ,god4 ,but does ,knox on that account refuse ,god's moiety8 ,does he set himself to reason metaphysically regarding his degree of responsibility for either what the devil got1 or what the ,government gave the devil4 ,not he4 ,he received ,god's part1 and in applying it wisely and honestly to ,god's service1 wished it more2 but as for the rest1 like a man of broad strong sense as he assuredly was1 he left the devil and the ,privy ,council to divide the responsibility between them4 ,and the large-minded ,chalmers entertained exactly the same views1--views which1 if not in thorough harmony with the idle fictions which dialecticians employ when they treat of ,governments1 at least entirely accord with the real condition of things4 ,the official character of a representative ,legislature must1 as we have shown1 resemble that of the constituency which it represents4 ,in order to alter it permanently for the better1 it is essentially necessary1 as a first step in the process1 that the worse parts of the constituencies on which it rests be so altered4 ,now1 for altering constituencies for the better1 schools and churches were the machinery of ,knox and of ,chalmers2 and if the funds for the support of either came honestly to them1 unclogged with conditions unworthy of the object1 they at once received them as given on ,god's behalf1 however idolatrously the givers--whether individuals or ,governments--might be employing money drawn from the same purse in other directions4 ',ought ,i1' said ,chalmers in reference to the ,educational question1 'ought ,i not to use1 on teetotal principles1 the water of the public pump1 because another man mixes it with his toddy8' ,it was not because ,popery was established in the colonies1 or seemed in danger of being established in ,ireland1 that the ,free ,church resigned its hold of the temporalities of the ,scottish ,establishment4 ,such endowment1 instead of forming an argument for resignation1 would form1 on the contrary1 an argument for keeping faster hold1 in behalf of ,protestantism1 of the fortalice of the ,establishment2 just as if an invading army had possessed itself of the ,castle of ,dumbarton1 with the strongholds of ,fort-,augustus and ,fort-,william1 the argument would be all the stronger for the national forces defending with renewed determination the ,castles of ,stirling and of ,edinburgh1 and the magnificent defences of ,fort-,george4 ,february #i1 #ahdh4 ,,characteristics ,,of ,,the ,,crimean ,,war4 ,the war now happily concluded was characterized by some very remarkable features4 ,it was on the part of ,britain the war of a highly civilised country1 in a pre-eminently mechanical1 and1 with all its faults1 singularly humane age1--in an age1 too1 remarkable for the diffusion of its literature2 and hence certain conspicuous traits which belonged to none of the other wars in which our country had been previously engaged4 ,never before did such completely equipped fleets and armies quit our shores4 ,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 campaign1 but they mightily exceeded anything of the kind that ,britain or the world had ever seen before4 ,the fleets of ,copenhagen1 ,trafalgar1 and the ,nile would have cut but a sorry figure beside them1 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 history4 ,in all that mechanical art could accomplish1 the late war with ,russia was by far the most considerable in which our country was ever engaged4 ,it was1 in respect of materiel1 a war of the world's pre-eminently mechanical people in the world's pre-eminently mechanical age4 ,with this strong leading feature1 however1 there mingled another1 equally marked1 in which the element was weakness1 not strength4 ,the men who beat all the world in heading pins are unable often to do anything else2 for usually1 in proportion as mechanical skill becomes intense1 does it also become narrow2 and the history of the two campaigns before ,sebastopol brought out very strikingly a certain helplessness on the part of the ,british army1 part of which at least must be attributed to this cause4 ,it is surely a remarkable fact1 that in an army never more than seven miles removed from the base line of its operations1 the distress suffered was so great1 that nearly five times the number of men sank under it that perished in battle4 ,there was no want among them of pinheading and pinheaded martinets4 ,the errors of officers such as ,lucan and ,cardigan are understood to be all on the side of severity2 but in heading their pin1 they wholly exhaust their art2 and under their surveillance and direction a great army became a small one1 with the sea covered by a ,british fleet only a few miles away4 ,so far as the statistics of the ,british portion of this greatest of sieges have yet been ascertained1 rather more than three thousand men perished in battle by the shot or steel of the enemy1 or afterwards of their wounds1 and rather more than fifteen thousand men of privation and disease4 ,as for the poor soldiers themselves1 they could do but little in even more favourable circumstances under the pinheading martinets2 and yet at least such of them as were drawn from the more thoroughly artificial districts of the country must1 we suspect1 have fared all the worse in consequence of that subdivision of labour which has so mightily improved the mechanical standing of ,britain in the aggregate1 and so restricted and lowered the general ability in individuals4 ,we cannot help thinking that an army of backwoodsmen of the present day1 or of ,scotch ,highlanders marked by the prevailing traits of the last century1 would have fared better and suffered less4 ,another remarkable feature of the war arose out of the singularly ready and wonderfully diffused literature of the day4 ,like those self-registering machines that keep a strict account of their own workings1 it seemed to be engaged1 as it went on1 in writing1 stage after stage1 its own history4 ,the acting never got a single day ahead of the writing1 and never a single week ahead of the publishing2 and1 in consequence1 the whole civilised world became the interested witnesses of what was going on4 ,the war became a great game at chess1 with a critical public looking over the shoulders of the players4 ,it was a peculiar feature1 too1 that the public should have been so critical4 ,as the literature of a people becomes old1 it weakens in the power of originating1 and strengthens in the power of criticising4 ,reviews and critiques become the master efforts of a learned and ingenious people1 whose literature has passed its full blow2 and the criticism extends always1 in countries in which the press is free from the productions of men who write in their closets1 to the actings of men who conduct the political business of the country1 or who direct its fleets and armies4 ,and with regard to them also it may be safely affirmed1 that the critical ability overshoots and excels the originating ability4 ,there seems to have been no remarkably good generalship manifested by ,britain in the ,crimea3 all the leading generalship appears1 on the contrary1 to have been very mediocre generalship indeed4 ,the common men and subordinate officers did their duty nobly2 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 asked1 whether we had in reality the 'right men in the right places1' and whether there might not1 after all1 have been generalship enough in the ,crimea had it been but rightly arranged4 ,but the leading generalship was certainly not brilliant4 ,the criticism upon it1 on the other hand1 has been singularly so4 ,the ages of ,marlborough and ,wellington did not produce a tithe of the brilliant military criticism which has appeared in ,england in newspapers1 magazines1 and reviews during the last two years4 ,and yet it is possible that1 had the very cleverest of these critics been appointed to the chief command1 he would have got on as ill as any of his predecessors4 ,in truth1 the power of originating and the power of criticising are essentially different powers in the worlds both of thought and of action4 ,talent accumulates the materials of criticism from the experience of the past2 and thus1 as the world gets older1 the critical ability grows1 and becomes at length formidably complete2--whereas the power of originating1 or1 what is the same thing1 of acting wisely1 and on the spur of the moment1 in new and untried circumstances1 is an incommunicable faculty1 which genius1 and genius only1 can possess4 ,and genius is as rare now as it ever was4 ,any man of talent can be converted1 by dint of study and painstaking1 into a good military critic2 but a ,wellington or a ,napoleon had as certainly to be born what they were1 as a ,dante or a ,milton4 ,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 humanity1 the best evidence of a civilisation truly ,christian1 which has characterized it in all its stages4 ,generous regard for the safety and respect for the feelings of a brave enemy1 when conquered1 have marked our countrymen for centuries4 ,but we owe it to the peculiar philanthropy of the time1 that1 in the midst of much official neglect1 our own sick and wounded soldiers have been cared for after a fashion in which ,british soldiers were never cared for before4 ,the 'lady nurses1' with ,miss ,nightingale at their head1 imparted its most distinctive character to the war4 ,we have now before us a deeply interesting volume1#a the production of one of these devoted females1 a native of the north country1 or1 as she was introduced by an old ,french officer to some ,zouaves1 her fellow-passengers to the ,east1 whom she had wished to see1 a true ',montagnarde de ,ecossaise4' ,the name of the authoress is not given2 but it will1 we daresay1 be recognised in the neighbourhood of the 'capital of the ,highlands' as that of a delicately nurtured lady1 the daughter of a late distinguished physician1 well known to the north of the ,grampians as an able and upright man1 who1 had he not so sedulously devoted himself to the profession which he adorned1 might have excelled in almost any department of science4 ,and in strong sound sense and genial feeling1 we find the daughter worthy of such a father4 ,some of our more zealous ,protestants professed at one time not a little alarm lest the lady nurses might be ,papists in disguise2 and certainly their 'regulation dresses1' all cut after one fashion1 and of one sombre hue1 did seem a little nun-like1 and perhaps rather alarming4 ,but the following passage--which1 from the amusing mixture which it exhibits of strong good sense and half-indignant womanly feeling1 our readers will1 we are sure1 relish--may serve to show that some of the ladies who wore the questionable dress1 liked it quite as ill as the most zealous member of the ,reformation ,society could have done1 and were very excellent ,protestants under its cover4 ,the authoress of the volume before us is a ,presbyterian2 and the occasion of the following remarks was the meeting of the ,british ,consul at ,marseilles1 and the necessity that herself and her companions felt of getting head-dresses for themselves1 that could be looked at ere entertaining him at dinner4 ',perhaps it may be thought1' says our authoress1 'that all this solicitude about our caps was unsuitable in persons going out as what is called ,sisters of ,mercy2 but ,i must once for all say that1 as far as ,i was concerned1 ,i neither professed to be a ,sister of ,charity1 a ,sister of ,mercy1 nor anything of the kind4 ,i was1 as ,i told a poissarde of ,boulogne1 a ,british woman who had little to do at home1 and wished to help our poor soldiers1 if ,i could1 abroad4 ,the reason given to me for the peculiarity and uniformity of our dress was1 that the soldiers might know and respect their nurses4 ,it seems a sensible reason1 and one which ,i could not object to1 even disliking1 as ,i did1 all peculiarity of attire that seemed to advertise the nurses only as serving ,god1 or serving ,him pre-eminently1 and thus conveying a tacit reproach to the rest of the world2 for the obligation lies on all the same4 ,i did not feel then1 nor do ,i now1 that we were doing anything better or more praiseworthy than is done in a quiet1 unostentatious way at home every day4 ,on the contrary1 to many temperaments1 my own among the number1 it is far less difficult to engage in a new and exciting work like the one we were then entering on there1 than to pursue the uneventful monotony of daily doing good at home4 ,as for the dress itself1 ,i have nothing to say against it4 ,although not perhaps of the material or texture ,i should have preferred1 still the colour1 grey1 was one ,i generally wore from choice4 ,but ,i must confess1 that when ,i found myself restricted to it1 without what seemed a good reason1 an intense desire for blue1 green1 red1 and yellow1 with all their combinations1 took possession of me2 though1 now that ,i may wear what ,i please1 ,i find my former favour for grey has returned in full force4 ,however1 allowing that it was desirable we should have had some uniform costume1 it certainly was unnecessary that ladies1 nurses1 and washerwomen should have been dressed alike1 as we were4 ,that was part of the mistake ,i have already adverted to1 and was productive of confusion and bad feeling4' ,despite of the uniform dresses1 however1 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 gratuitous1 priceless labours4 99 99 99 99 99 ,there is no assumption in this volume4 ,its authoress writes as if she had done only her duty1 and as if the task had not been an exceedingly hard or difficult one2 but the simple facts related show how very much was accomplished and endured4 ,every chapter justifies the judgment pronounced by the tall ,irish sergeant4 ,this lady nurse is a 'real fine woman1'--a noble specimen of the class whose disinterested and self-sacrificing exertions gave to the late war its most distinctive and brilliant feature4 ,the bravery of ,british men had been long established2 the superadded trait is the heroism of ,british women4 ,in what circumstances of peril and suffering that heroism was exerted1 the following extract1 with which we conclude1 may serve to show4 ,it is the funeral of one of the lady nurses1 who sank under an attack of malignant fever1 that the following striking passage records3-- ',the ,protestant burial-ground is a dismal-looking1 neglected spot4 ,it was chosen from an idea that ,drusilla's friends at home might prefer it to the open hill where the soldiers lay2 but if there had been time for consideration and inspection1 it would have been otherwise arranged3 for the appearance of the place struck a chill to our hearts--it looked so dark and dreary1 with the grass more than a foot high1 and the weeds towering above it2 and from its being close to the bay1 and the porous nature of the soil1 the grave which had been dug on the forenoon was almost filled by water2 and on the words1 ,forasmuch as it hath pleased ,almighty ,god1 we heard the coffin splash into the half-full grave4 ,there was a general regret afterwards that this burial-ground had been chosen1 but poor ,drusilla will not sleep the less soundly2 and we all agreed1 on leaving her grave1 that whoever of us was next called to die1 should be buried on the hill1 in the spot allotted to the poor soldiers1 open and unprotected as it was4 ,death seemed very near to us then2 we had already lost two orderlies1 and many of the nurses were lying at the gates of death4 ,miss ,a---- had made an almost miraculous escape1 and was not yet out of danger from relapse4 ,the first gap had been made in our immediate party1 and who of us could tell whether she herself was not to be the next8 ',the evening was fast closing as we returned1 some in caiques1 and others walking solemnly and sadly2 for1 besides the feelings naturally attending such a scene1 we all regretted poor ,drusilla1 who1 although she had not been long among us1 was so obliging and anxious to be of use4 ,she was a good-looking young woman1 and immediately on her arrival had become the object of attraction to one of the clerks1 whose attentions1 however1 she most steadily declined4 ,he still persisted in showing the most extraordinary attachment to her1 and during her illness was in such a state of excitement and distress as to be utterly incapacitated for attending to his duties properly4 ,he used to sit on the stairs leading to her room1 in the hopes of seeing some one who could tell him how she was1 and went perpetually to the passage outside her room1 entreating of the ,misses ,le ,m----1 who generally sat up with her1 to let him in to see her4 ,this they refused till the night of her death1 when she was quite insensible1 and past all hope of recovery2 so that his visit could do her no harm4 ,he stayed a few minutes1 and looked his last on her2 for in the morning at seven o'clock she died4 ,i shall never forget his face when he came to my store-room1 in accordance with his duty1 to correct some inaccuracy in the diet-roll4 ,he seemed utterly bewildered with sorrow2 and ,miss ,s----1 who had also occasion to speak to him1 said she never saw grief so strongly marked in a human face4 ,he insisted on following her remains to the grave as chief mourner1 and wearied himself with carrying the coffin4 ,no one interfered with him2 for all seemed to think he had acquired the right1 by his unmistakeable affection1 to perform these sad offices2 and the lady superintendent1 moved by his sorrow1 allowed him to retain a ring of some small value which the deceased had been accustomed to wear4' ,june #ad1 #ahef4 ----- #a ,ismeer1 or ,smyrna and its ,british ,hospital in #ahee4 ,by a ,lady4 ,london3 ,james ,madder1 #h1 ,leadenhall ,street4 ,,the ,,poets ,,of ,,the ,,church4 ,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 ,churches4 ,they form tests by which at least the taste and literary standing of these bodies can be determined2 and the degree of success with which they are cultivated within the same ,church1 in different ages1 throws at times very striking lights on its condition and history4 ,one wholly unacquainted with the recorded annals of the ,church of ,scotland might safely infer1 from its literature alone1 that it fared much more hardly in the seventeenth century1 during which the literature of ,england rose to its highest pitch of grandeur1 than in the previous sixteenth1 in which its ,knoxes1 ,buchanans1 and ,andrew ,melvilles flourished2 and further1 that its eighteenth century was1 on the whole1 a quiet and tranquil time1 in which even mediocrity had leisure afforded it to develope itself in its full proportions4 ,literature is not the proper business of ,churches2 but it is a means1 though not an end4 ,and it will be found that all the better ,churches have been as literary as they could2 and that1 if at any time the literature has been defective1 it has been rather their circumstances that were unpropitious1 than themselves that were in fault4 ,their enemies have delighted to represent the case differently4 ,our readers must remember the famous instance in ,old ,mortality1 so happily exposed by the elder ,m',crie1 in which ,sir ,walter1 when he makes his ,sergeant ,bothwell a writer of verses1 introduces ,burley as peculiarly a verse-hater1 and 'puts into his mouth that condemnation of elegant pursuits which he imputes to the whole party2' 'overlooking or suppressing the fact1' says the ,doctor1 'that there was at that very time in the camp of the ,covenanters a man who1 besides his other accomplishments1 was a poet superior to any on the opposite side4' ,it is equally a fact1 however1 and shows how thoroughly the mind of even a highly intellectual people may be prostrated by a long course of tyranny and persecution1 that ,scotland had properly no literature after the extinction of its old classical school in the person of ,drummond of ,hawthornden1 until the rise of ,thomson4 ,the age in ,england of ,milton and of ,cowley1 of ,otway1 of ,waller1 of ,butler1 of ,dryden1 and of ,denham1 was in ,scotland an age without a poet vigorous enough to survive in his writings his own generation4 ,for even the greater part of the popular version of its ,psalms1 our ,church was indebted to the ,english lawyer ,rous4 ,here and there we may find in it the remains of an earlier and more classical time3 its version of the hundredth ,psalm1 for instance1 with its quaintly-turned but stately octo-syllabic stanzas1 was written nearly a hundred years earlier than most of the others1 by ,william ,keith1 a ,scottish contemporary of ,beza and ,buchanan1 and one of the translators of the ,geneva ,bible4 ,but we find little else that is ,scotch in it2 the ,church to which1 in the previous age1 the author of the most elegant version of the ,psalms ever given to the world had belonged1 had now--notwithstanding the exertions of its ,zachary ,boyds--to import its poetry4 ,in the following century1 the ,church shared in the general literature of the time4 ,she missed1 and but barely missed1 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 ministry1 as to commence delivering his probationary discourses4 ,we fear1 however1 he would have made but an indolent minister2 and that1 though his occasional sermons1 judging from the hymn which concludes the ,seasons1 might have been singularly fine ones1 they would have been marvellously few1 and very often repeated4 ,the greatest poet that did actually arise within the ,church during the century was ,thomson's contemporary1 ,robert ,blair1--a man who was not an idle minister1 and who1 unlike his cousin ,hugh1 belonged to the evangelical side4 ,the author of the ,grave was one of the bosom friends of ,colonel ,gardiner1 and a valued correspondent of ,doddridge and ,watts4 ,curiously enough1 though the great merit of his piece has been acknowledged by critics such as ,southey1 it has been regarded as an imitation of the ,night ,thoughts of ,young4 ',blair's ,grave1' says ,southey in his ,life of ,cowper1 'is the only poem ,i can call to mind which has been composed in imitation of the ,night ,thoughts2' and though ,campbell himself steered clear of the error1 we find it introduced in a note1 as supplementary to the information regarding ,blair given in his ,essay on ,english ,poetry by his editor1 ,mr4 ,cunningham4 ,it is demonstrable1 however1 that the ,scotchman could not have been the imitator4 ,as shown by a letter in the ,doddridge collection1 which bears date more than a twelvemonth previous to that of the publication of even the first book of the ,night ,thoughts1 ,blair1 after stating that his poem1 then in the hands of ,isaac ,watts1 had been offered without success to two ,london publishers1 states further1 that the greater part of it had been written previous to the year #agca1 ere he had yet entered the ministry2 whereas the first book of ,young's poem was not published until the year #agdd4 ,poetry such as that of ,blair is never the result of imitation3 its verbal happinesses are at least as great as those of the ,night ,thoughts themselves1 and its power and earnestness considerably greater4 ',the eighteenth century1' says ,thomas ,campbell1 'has produced few specimens of blank verse of so powerful and simple a character as that of the ,grave4 ,it is a popular poem1 not merely because it is religious1 but because its language and imagery are free1 natural1 and picturesque4 ,the latest editor of the poets has1 with singularly bad taste1 noted some of the author's most nervous and expressive phrases as vulgarisms1 among which he reckons that of friendship1 the solder of society4 ,blair may be a homely1 and even a gloomy poet1 in the eye of fastidious criticism2 but there is a masculine and pronounced character even in his gloom and homeliness1 that keeps it most distinctly apart from either dulness or vulgarity4 ,his style pleases us like the powerful expression of a countenance without regular beauty4' ,such is the judgment on ,blair--destined1 in all appearance1 to be a final one--of a writer who was at once the most catholic of critics and the most polished of poets4 ,there succeeded to the author of the ,grave1 a group of poets of the ,church1 of whom the ,church has not been greatly in the habit of boasting4 ,of ,home1 by a curious chance the successor of ,blair in his parish1 little need be said4 ,he produced one good play and five enormously bad ones2 and his connection with the ,church was very much an accident1 and soon dissolved4 ,blacklock1 too1 was as much a curiosity as a poet2 and1 save for his blindness1 would scarce have been very celebrated in even his own day4 ,nor was ,ogilvie1 though more favourably regarded by ,johnson than most of his ,scottish contemporaries1 other than a mediocre poet4 ,he is the author1 however1 of a very respectable paraphrase--the sixty-second--of all his works the one that promises to live longest2 and we find the productions of several other poets of the ,church similarly preserved1 whose other writings have died4 ,and yet the group of ,scottish literati that produced our paraphrases1 if looking simply to literary accomplishment--we do not demand genius--must be regarded as a very remarkable one1 when we consider that the greater number of the individuals which composed it were all at one time the ministers of a single ,church1 and that one of the smallest4 ,we know of no ,church1 either in ,britain or elsewhere1 that could now command such a committee as that which sat1 at the bidding of the ,general ,assembly1 considerably more than sixty years ago1 to prepare the ',translations and ,paraphrases4' ,of the sixty-eight pieces of which the collection is composed1 thirty are the work of ,scottish ministers2 and the groundwork of most of the others1 furnished in large part by the previously existing writings of ,watts and ,doddridge1 has been greatly improved1 in at least the composition1 by the emendations of ,morrison and ,logan4 ,with all its faults1 we know of no other collection equal to it as a whole4 ,the meretricious stanzas of ,brady and ,tate are inanity itself in comparison4 ,true1 the later ,blair1 though always sensible1 was ofttimes quite heavy enough in the pieces given to him to render--more so than in his prose2 though1 even when first introduced to that1 ,cowper could exclaim1 not a little to the chagrin of those who regarded it as perfection of writing3 ',oh1 the sterility of that man's fancy6 if1 indeed1 he has any such faculty belonging to him4 ,dr4 ,blair has such a brain as ,shakespeare somewhere describes1 dry as the remainder biscuit after a voyage4' ,but the fancy that ,blair wanted1 poor ,logan had2 and the man who too severely criticises his flowing and elegant paraphrases would do well to beware of the memories of his children4 ,a poet whose pieces cannot be forgotten may laugh at the critics4 ,altogether1 our ',translations and ,paraphrases' are highly creditable to the literary taste and ability of the ,church during the latter half of the last century2 and it serves to show how very much matters changed in this respect in about forty years1 that while in the earlier period the men fitted for such work were all to be found within the pale of the ,church's ministry1 at a later time1 when the late ,principal ,baird set himself1 with the sanction of the ,general ,assembly1 to devise means for adding to the collection1 and for revising our metrical version of the ,psalms1 he had to look for assistance almost exclusively to poets outside the precincts of even its membership4 ,and yet1 even at this later time1 the ,church had its true poets--poets who1 though1 according to ,wordsworth1 they 'wanted the accomplishment of verse1' were of larger calibre and greater depth than their predecessors4 ,chalmers had already produced his ,astronomical ,discourses1 and poor ,edward ,irving had begun to electrify his ,london audiences with the richly antique imagination and fiery fervour of his singularly vigorous orations4 ,stewart of ,cromarty1 too1 though but comparatively little known1 was rising1 in his quiet parish church1 into flights of genuine though unmeasured poetry1 of an altitude to which minor poets1 in their nicely rounded stanzas1 never attain4 ,nor is the race yet extinct4 ,jeffrey used to remark1 that he found more true feeling in the prose of ,jeremy ,taylor than in the works of all the second-class ,british poets put together2 and those who would now wish to acquaint themselves with the higher and more spirit-rousing poetry of our ,church1 would have to seek it within earshot of the pulpits of ,bruce1 of ,guthrie1 and of ,james ,hamilton4 ,still1 however1 it ever affords us pleasure to find it in the more conventional form of classic and harmonious verse4 ,a ,church that possesses her poets gives at least earnest in the fact that she is not falling beneath the literature of her age2 and much on this account1 but more1 we think1 from their great intrinsic merit1 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 ministers1 the ,rev4 ,james ,d4 ,burns4 ,we are greatly mistaken if ,mr4 ,burns be not a genuine poet1 skilled1 as becomes a scholar and a student of classic lore1 in giving to his verse the true artistic form1 but not the less born to inherit the 'vision and the faculty' which cannot be acquired4 ,most men of great talent have their poetic age3 it is very much restricted1 however1 to the first five years of full bodily development1 also particularly then a sterner and more prosaic mood follows4 ,but recollections of the time survive2 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 felt4 ,it was said of ,thomson the poet by ,samuel ,johnson1 that he could not look at two candles burning other than poetically4 ,the phrase was employed in conversation by old ,johnson2 but it must have been the experience of young ,johnson1 derived from a time long gone by1 that suggested it4 ,it is characteristic of the poetic age1 that objects which in later life become commonplace in the mind1 are then surrounded as if by a halo of poetic feeling4 ,the candles were1 no doubt1 an extreme illustration2 but there is scarce any object in nature1 and there are very few in art1 especially if etherealized by the adjuncts of antiquity or association1 that are not capable of being thus1 as it were1 embathed in sentiment4 ,with the true poet1 the ability of investing every object with a poetic atmosphere remains undiminished throughout life2 and we find it strikingly manifested in the volume before us4 ,in almost every line in some of the pieces we find a distinct bit of picture steeped in poetic feeling4 ,the following piece1 peculiarly appropriate to the present time1 we adduce as an illustration of our meaning3-- ,,discovery ,,of ,,the ,,north-,,west ,,passage4 ',strait of ,ill ,hope6 thy frozen lips at last ,unclose1 to teach our seamen how to sift ,a passage where blue icebergs clash and drift1 ,and the shore loosely rattles in the blast4 ,we hold the secret thou hast clench'd so fast ,for ages1--our best blood has earned the gift4-- ,blood spilt1 or hoarded up in patient thrift1 ,through sunless months in ceaseless peril passed4 ,but what of daring ,franklin8 who may know ,the pangs that wrung that heart so proud and brave1 ,in secret wrestling with its deadly woe1 ,and no kind voice to reach him o'er the wave8 ,now he sleeps fast beneath his shroud of snow1 ,and the cold pole-star only knows his grave4 ',alone1 on some sharp cliff1 ,i see him strain1 ,o'er the white waste1 his keen1 sagacious eye1 ,or scan the signs of the snow-muffled sky1 ,in hope of quick deliverance--but in vain2 ,then1 faring to his icy tent again1 ,to cheer his mates with a familiar smile1 ,and talk of home and kinsfolk to beguile ,slow hours which freeze the blood and numb the brain4 ,long let our hero's memory be enshrined ,in all true ,british hearts6 ,he calmly stood ,in danger's foremost rank1 nor looked behind4 ,he did his work1 not with the fever'd blood ,of battle1 but with hard-tried fortitude2 ,in peril dauntless1 and in death resigned4 ',despond not1 ,britain6 ,should this sacred hold ,of freedom1 still inviolate1 be assailed1 ,the high1 unblenching spirit which prevailed ,in ancient days1 is neither dead nor cold4 ,men are still in thee of heroic mould-- ,men whom thy grand old sea-kings would have hailed ,as worthy peers1 invulnerably mailed1 ,because by ,duty's sternest law controlled4 ,thou yet wilt rise and send abroad thy voice ,among the nations battling for the right1 ,in the unrusted armour of thy youth2 ,and the oppressed shall hear it and rejoice3 ,for on thy side is the resistless might ,of ,freedom1 ,justice1 and ,eternal ,truth6' ,this is surely genuine poetry both in form and matter2 as just in its thinking as it is vivid in its imagery and classic in its language4 ,the vein of strong sense which runs through all the poetry of ,mr4 ,burns1 and imparts to it solidity and coherency1 is1 we think1 not less admirable than the poetry itself1 and is1 we are sure1 quite as little common4 ,let the reader mark how freely the thoughts arise in the following very exquisite little piece1 written in ,madeira1 and suggested by the distant view of the neighbouring island of ,porto ,santo1 one of the first colonized by the ,portuguese adventurers of the fifteenth century4 ,columbus married a daughter of ,bartolomeo ,perestrillo1 the first governor of the island1 and after his marriage lived in it for some time with his father-in-law4 ,and on this foundation ,mr4 ,burns founds his poem3-- ,,porto ,,santo1 ,,as ,,seen ,,from ,,the ,,north ,,of ,,madeira4 ',glance northward through the haze1 and mark ,that shadowy island floating dark ,amidst the seas serene3 ,it seems some fair enchanted isle1 ,like that which saw ,miranda's smile ,when ,ariel sang unseen4 ',oh happy1 after all their fears1 ,were those old ,lusian mariners ,who hailed that land the first1 ,upon whose seared and aching eyes1 ,with an enrapturing surprise1 ,its bloom of verdure burst4 ',their anchor in a creek1 shell-paven1 ,they dropped1--and hence ,the ,holy ,haven ,they named the welcome land3 ,the breezes strained their masts no more1 ,and all around the sunny shore ,was summer1 laughing bland4 ',they wandered on through green arcade ,where fruits were hanging in the shades1 ,and blossoms clustering fair2 ,strange gorgeous insects shimmered ,and from the brakes sweet minstrelsy ,entranced the woodland air4 ',years passed1 and to the island came ,a mariner of unknown name1 ,and grave ,castilian speech3 ,the spirit of a great emprise ,aroused him1 and with flashing eyes ,he paced the pebbled beach4 ',what time the sun was sinking slow1 ,and twilight spread a rosy glow ,around its single star1 ,his eye the western sea's expanse ,would search1 creating by its glance ,some cloudy land afar4 ',he saw it when translucent even ,shed mystic light o'er earth and heaven1 ,dim shadowed on the deep2 ,his fancy tinged each passing cloud ,with the fine phantom1 and he bowed ,before it in his sleep4 ',he hears grey-bearded sailors tell ,how the discoveries befell ,that glorify their time2 ,and forth ,i go1 my friends1 he cries1 ,to a severer enterprise ,than tasked your glorious prime4 ',time was when these green isles that stud ,the expanse of this familiar flood1 ,lived but in fancy fond4 ,earth's limits--think you here they are8 ,here has the ,almighty fixed ,his bar1 ,forbidding glance beyond8 ',each shell is murmuring on the shore1 ,and wild sea-voices evermore ,are sounding in my ear3 ,i long to meet the eastern gale1 ,and with a free and stretching sail ,through virgin seas to steer4 ',two galleys trim1 some comrades stanch1 ,and ,i with hopeful heart would launch ,upon this shoreless sea4 ,till ,i have searched it through and through4 ,and seen some far land looming blue1 ,my heart will not play free4 ',forth fared he through the deep to rove3 ,for months with angry winds he strove1 ,and passions fiercer still2 ,until he found the long-sought land1 ,and leaped upon the savage strand ,with an exulting thrill4 ',the tide of life now eddies strong ,through that broad wilderness1 where long ,the eagle fearless flew2 ,where forests waved1 fair cities rise1 ,and science1 art1 and enterprise ,their restless aim pursue4 ',there dwells a people1 at whose birth ,the shout of ,freedom shook the earth1 ,whose frame through all the lands ,has travelled1 and before whose eyes1 ,bright with their glorious destinies1 ,a proud career expands4 ',i see their life by passion wrought ,to intense endeavour1 and my thought ,stoops backwards in its reach ,to him who1 in that early time1 ,resolved his enterprise sublime ,on ,porto ,santo's beach4 ',methinks that solitary soul ,held in its ark this radiant roll ,of human hopes upfurled1-- ,that there in germ this vigorous life ,was sheathed1 which now in earnest strife ,is working through the world4 ',still on our way1 with careworn face1 ,abstracted eye1 and sauntering pace1 ,may pass one such as he1 ,whose mind heaves with a secret force1 ,that shall be felt along the course ,of far ,futurity4 ',call him not fanatic or fool1 ,thou ,stoic of the modern school2 ,columbus-like1 his aim ,points forward with a true presage1 ,and nations of a later age ,may rise to bless his name4' ,there runs throughout ,mr4 ,burns's volume a rich vein of scriptural imagery and allusion1 and much oriental description--rather quiet1 however1 than gorgeous--that bears in its unexaggerated sobriety the impress of truth4 ,from a weakness of chest and general delicate health1 ,mr4 ,burns has had to spend not a few of his winters abroad1 under climatal influences of a more genial character than those of his own country2 and hence the truthfulness of his descriptions of scenes which few of our native poets ever see1 and a corresponding amount of variety in his verse4 ,but we have exhausted our space1 and have given only very meagre samples of this delightful volume1 and a very inadequate judgment on its merits4 ,but we refer our readers to the volume itself1 as one well fitted to grow upon their regards2 and meanwhile conclude with the following exquisite landscape1--no bad specimen of that ability of word-painting which is ever so certain a mark of the true poet3-- ',below me spread a wide and lonely beach1 ,the ripple washing higher on the sands3 ,a river that has come from far-off lands ,is coiled behind in many a shining reach2 ,but now it widens1 and its banks are bare-- ,it settles as it nears the moaning sea2 ,an inward eddy checks the current free1 ,and breathes a briny dampness through the air3 ,beyond1 the waves' low vapours through the skies ,were trailing1 like a battle's broken rear2 ,but smitten by pursuing winds1 they rise1 ,and the blue slopes of a far coast appear1 ,with shadowy peaks on which the sunlight lies1 ,uplifted in arial distance clear4 ,november #h1 #ahed4 ,,the ,,encyclop,,dia ,,britannica4 ,after the labour of years1 the seventh edition of the ,encyclopdia ,britannica has been at length completed4 ,it is in every respect a great work--great even as a commercial speculation4 ,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 ,scott4 ,and containing1 as it does1 all the more valuable matter of former editions--all that the advancing tide of knowledge has not obliterated or covered up1 and which at one time must have represented in the commercial point of view a large amount of capital--it must be obvious that1 great as the cost of the present edition has been1 it bears merely some such relation to the accumulated cost of the whole1 as that borne by the expense of partial renovations and repairs in a vast edifice to the sum originally expended on the entire erection4 ,it is a great work1 too1 regarded as a trophy of the united science and literature of ,britain4 ,like a lofty obelisk1 raised to mark the spot where some important expedition terminated1 it stands as it were to indicate the line at which the march of human knowledge has now arrived4 ,we see it rising on the extreme verge of the boundary which separates the clear and the palpable from the indistinct and the obscure4 ,the explored province of past research1 with all its many party-coloured fields1 stretches out from it in long perspective on the one hand1--luminous1 well-defined1 rejoicing in the light4 ,the terra incognita of future discovery lies enveloped in cloud on the other--an untried region of fogs and darkness4 ,the history of this publication for the last seventy years--for so slow has been its growth1 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 period4 ,the naturalist1 by observing the rings of annual growth in a tree newly cut down1 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 twelvemonth1 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 it4 ,is the ring of wide development8--it speaks of genial warmth and kindly showers4 ,is it narrow and contracted8--it tells of scorching droughts or of biting cold4 ,now the succeeding editions of this great work narrate a somewhat similar story1 in a somewhat similar manner4 ,they speak of the growth of science and the arts during the various succeeding periods in which they appeared4 ,the great increase1 too1 at certain times1 in particular departments of knowledge1 is curiously connected with peculiar circumstances in the history of our country4 ,in the present edition1 for instance1 almost all the geography is new4 ,the age has been peculiarly an age of exploration--a locomotive age3 commerce1 curiosity1 the spirit of adventure1 the desire of escaping from the tedium of inactive life1--these1 and other motives besides1 have scattered travellers by hundreds1 during the period of our long ,european peace1 over almost every country of the world4 ,and hence so mighty an increase of knowledge in this department1 that what the last age knew of the subject has been altogether overgrown4 ,vast additions1 too1 have been made to the province of mechanical contrivance3 the constructive faculties of the country1 stimulated apparently by the demands of commerce and the influence of competition both at home and abroad1 have performed in well-nigh a single generation the work of centuries4 ,even the ,encyclopdia itself1 regarded in a literary point of view1 is strikingly illustrative of a change which has taken place chiefly within the present century in the republic of letters4 ,we enjoyed a very ample opportunity of acquainting ourselves with it in its infancy4 ,more years have passed away than we at present feel quite inclined to specify1 since our attention was attracted at a very early age to an ,encyclopdia1 the first we had ever seen1 that formed one work of a dozen or so stored on the upper shelf of a press to which we were permitted access4 ,it consisted of three quarto volumes sprinkled over with what seventy years ago must have been deemed very respectable copperplates1 and remarkable1 chiefly in the arrangement of its contents1 for the inequality of the portions1 if we may so speak1 into which the knowledge it contained was broken up4 ,as might be anticipated from its comparatively small size1 most of the articles were exceedingly meagre4 ,there were pages after pages in which some eight or ten lines1 sometimes a single line1 comprised all that the writers had deemed it necessary to communicate on the subjects on which they touched4 ,and yet1 set full in the middle of these brief sentences--these mere skeletons of information--there were complete and elaborate treatises1--whales among the minnows4 ,some of these extended over ten1 twenty1 thirty1 fifty pages of the work4 ,we remember there was an old-fashioned but not ill-written treatise on ,chemistry among the number1 quite bulky enough of itself to fill a small volume4 ,there was a sensibly written treatise on ,law1 too2 a treatise on ,anatomy not quite unworthy of the ,edinburgh school2 a treatise on ,botany1 of which at this distance of time we remember little else than that it rejected the sexual system of ,linnus1 then newly promulgated2 a treatise on ,architecture1 sufficiently incorrect1 as we afterwards found1 in some of its minor details1 but which we still remember with the kindly feeling of the pupil for his first master2 a treatise on ,fortification1 that at least taught us how to make model forts in sand2 treatises on ,arithmetic1 ,astronomy1 ,bookkeeping1 ,grammar1 ,language1 ,theology1 ,metaphysics1 and a great many other treatises besides4 ,the least interesting portion of the work was the portion devoted to ,natural ,history3 it named and numbered species and varieties1 instead of describing instincts and habits1 and afforded little else to the reader than lists of hard words1 and lines of uninteresting numerals4 ,but our appetite for books was keen and but ill supplied at the time1 and so we read all of the work that would read1--some of it oftener than once4 ,the character of the whole reminded us somewhat of that style of building common in some of the older ruins of the north country1 in which we find layers of huge stones surrounded by strips and patches of a minute pinned work composed of splinters and fragments4 ,this ,dictionary of the three quarto volumes was the first edition of the ,encyclopdia ,britannica1--the identical work in its first beginnings1 of which the seventh edition has been so recently completed4 ,it was published in #agga--;in the days of ,goldsmith1 and ,burke1 and ,johnson1 and ,david ,hume--several years ere ,adam ,smith had given his ,wealth of ,nations or ,robertson his ,history of ,america to the public1 and ere the names of ,burns or ,cowper had any place in ,,british ,,literature4 ,the world has grown greatly in knowledge since that period1 and the ,encyclopdia ,britannica has done much more than kept pace with it in its merits of acquirement4 ,the three volumes have swelled into twenty-one2 and each of the twenty-one contains at least one-third more of matter than each of the three4 ,the growth and proportions of a work of genius seem to be very little dependent on the period of its production4 ,shakespeare may be regarded as the founder of the ,english drama4 ,he wrote at a time when art was rude1 and science comparatively low4 ,all agree1 at least1 that the subjects of ,queen ,victoria know a very great deal which was not known by the subjects of ,queen ,elizabeth4 ,there was no gas burned in front of the ,globe ,theatre1 nor was the distant roar of a locomotive ever heard within its dingy recesses2 nor did ever adventurous aeronaut look down from his dizzy elevation of miles on its tub-like proportions1 or its gay flag of motley4 ,and yet we question whether even ,mr4 ,wakley himself1 with all his advantages1 would venture to do more than assert his equality with the ,swan of ,avon4 ,homer1 too1 wrote in a very remote period1--so very remote and so very uncertain1 that the critics have begun seriously to doubt whether the huge figure of the blind old man1 as it looms through the grey obscure of ages1 be in reality the figure of one poet1 or of a whole school of poets rolled up into a bundle4 ,but though men fight much more scientifically now than they did at ,troy1 and know much more about the taking and defending of walled towns1 no poet of the present day greatly excels ,homer1--no1 not the ,scotch schoolmaster even who wrote ,wolfe's ,ode1 or the gentleman who sends us abstruse verses which we unluckily cannot understand1 and then scolds us in perspicuous prose for not giving them a place in our columns4 ,works of genius bear no reference in their bulk and proportions1 if we may so speak1 to the period at which they are produced2 but it is far otherwise with works of science and general information3 they grow with the world's growth2 the tomes from which the father derived his acquaintance with facts and principles1 prove all inadequate to satisfy the curiosity of the son3 almost every season adds its ring to the 'tree of knowledge2' and the measuring line which girthed and registered its bulk in one age1 fails to embrace it in the succeeding one4 ,and hence one element at least in the superiority of this edition of the ,encyclopdia ,britannica to every other edition1 and every other ,encyclopdia4 ,it appears at the period of the world's greatest experience4 ,but there are other very important elements1 characteristic1 as we have said1 of a peculiarity in the literature of the age1 which have tended also to this result4 ,we have remarked that the first edition appeared in the days of ,hume1 ,robertson1 and ,adam ,smith4 ,none of these men wrote for it1 however4 ,in ,france the first intellects of the country were engaged on their ,national ,encyclopdia1 and mighty was the mischief which they accomplished through its means2 but works of this character in ,britain were left to authors of a lower standing4 ,smollett once conducted a critical review2 ,gilbert ,stuart an ,edinburgh magazine2 ,dr4 ,johnson drew up parliamentary debates for two years together2 ,edmund ,burke toiled at the pages of an ,annual ,register2 and ,goldsmith1 early in his career1 wrote letters for the newspapers4 ,but1 like the apothecary in ,shakespeare1 it was their 'poverty1 not their will1 that consented2' and when their fortunes brightened1 these walks of obscure laboriousness were left to what were deemed their legitimate denizens--mere mediocritists and compilers4 ,a similar feeling seems to have obtained regarding works of an encyclopdiacal character4 ,the authors of the first edition of the ,encyclopdia ,britannica were merely respectable compilers1--we know not that any of their names would now sound familiar to the reader1 with perhaps the exception of that of ,smellie1 an ,edinburgh writer of the last century1 whose philosophical essays one sometimes meets with on our bookstalls4 ,but among the other great changes produced by the ,french ,revolution1 there was a striking and very important change effected in our periodical literature4 ,the old foundations of society seemed breaking up1 and the true nature of that basis of opinion on which they had so long rested came to be everywhere practically understood4 ,minds of the larger order found it necessary to address themselves direct to the people2 and the newspaper1 the review1 the magazine1 the pamphlet1 furnished them with ready vehicles of conveyance4 ,archimedes1 during the siege of ,syracuse1 had to quit the sober quiet of his study1 and to mix with the armed defenders of his native city1 amid the wild confusion of sallies and assaults1 the rocking of beleaguered towers1 the creaking of engines1 and the hurtling of missiles4 ,it was thus with some of the greatest minds of the country during the distraction and alarm of the ,french ,revolution4 ,coleridge conducted a newspaper2 ,sir ,james ,mackintosh wrote for one2 ,canning contributed to the ,anti-,jacobin2 ,robert ,hall of ,leicester became a reviewer2 ,southey1 ,jeffrey1 ,brougham1 ,scott1 ,giffard1 all men in the first rank1 appeared in the character of contributors to the periodicals4 ,the aspect of this department of literature suddenly changed1 and the influence of that change survives to this day4 ,even now1 some of our first literary names are known chiefly in their connection with magazines and reviews4 ,men such as ,macaulay and ,sidney ,smith have scarce any place as authors dissociated from the ,edinburgh2 and ,lockhart and ,wilson are most felt in the world of letters in their connection with ,blackwood and the ,quarterly4 ,and this change affected more than the periodicals4 ,its influence extended to works of the encyclopdiacal character4 ,the two great ,encyclopdias of ,edinburgh--that which bears the name of the city1 and that whose name we have placed at the head of this article--came to reckon among their contributors the first men of the kingdom1 both in science and literature3 they benefited as greatly by the change we describe as the periodicals themselves4 ,the ,revolution1 in its reflex influence1 seems to have drawn a line in the ,british encyclopdiacal field between the labours of mere compilers and the achievements of original authorship2 and the peculiarity of plan in the ,encyclopdia ,britannica1 to which we have already referred--that peculiarity which gives an art or science entire as a treatise1 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 improvement4 ,no author1 however great his powers1 can be profound in the compass of a few paragraphs4 ,goldsmith could assert that in an essay of a page or two it is even a merit to be superficial2 and few there are who possess1 with ,goldsmith1 the pure literary ability of being superficial with good effect4 ,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 produced4 ,it should be added1 further1 that it contains some of the masterpieces of these men4 ,no one ever excelled ,sir ,james ,mackintosh in philosophical criticism4 ,it was peculiarly his forte4 ,he was rather a great judge of metaphysical power than a metaphysician4 ,and yet it is this admirable critic who decides that the exquisitely classical dissertation of ,dugald ,stewart1 written for this ,encyclopdia1 is the most magnificent of that philosopher's works2 and remarks1 in accounting for the fact1 that the 'memorable instances of ,cicero and ,milton1 and still more those of ,dryden and ,burke1 seem to show that there is some natural tendency in the fire of genius to burn more brightly1 or to blaze more fiercely1 in the evening than in the morning of human life4' ,we are mistaken if ,sir ,james's own contribution to this work does not take decidedly a first place among his productions4 ,the present age has not produced a piece of more exquisitely polished ,english1 or of more tasteful or more nicely discriminating criticism4 ,there is an occult beauty and elegance in some of his thoughts and expressions1 on which it is no small luxury to repose1--lines of reflection1 too1 along which one must feel as well as think one's way4 ,what can be finer1 for instance1 than his remarks on the poetry of ,dr4 ,thomas ,brown1 or what more thoroughly removed from commonplace8 ,he tells us how the philosophic poet 'observed man and his wider world with the eye of a metaphysician2' that 'the dark results of such contemplations1 when he reviewed them1 often filled his soul with feelings which1 being both grand and melancholy1 were truly poetical2' that 'unfortunately1 however1 few readers can be touched with fellow-feeling2' for that 'he sings to few1 and must be content with sometimes moving a string in the soul of the lonely visionary1 who1 in the daydreams of youth1 has felt as well as meditated on the mysteries of nature4' ,the dissertation of ,playfair is also pitched on the highest key to which that elegant writer ever attained4 ,if we except the unjust and offensive estimate of the powers of ,franklin1 a similar judgment may be passed on the preliminary dissertation of ,sir ,john ,leslie4 ,jeffrey's famous theory of beauty is1 of all the philosophic pieces of that accomplished writer1 by far the most widely known2 and ,sir ,walter ,scott's essay on the drama is at least equal to any of the serious prose compositions of its great author4 ,there is something peculiarly fascinating in the natural history of this edition1--a department wholly rewritten1 and furnished chiefly by the singularly pleasing pen of ,mr4 ,james ,wilson4 ,it is not yet twenty years since ,constable's supplement to the last edition appeared2 and yet in this province1 so mightily has the tide risen1 that well-nigh all the old lines of classification have been obliterated or covered up4 ,vast additions have been also made4 ,at no former time was there half the amount of actual observation in this field which exists in it now2 and it is well that there should be so skilful a workman as ,mr4 ,wilson to avail himself of the accumulating materials4 ,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 ago1 at a time when he was comparatively little known4 ,but we cannot enumerate a tithe of the masterpieces of the ,british ,encyclopdia4 ,judging from the list of contributors' names attached to the index1 we must hold that ,moderatism in the field of literature and science is very much at a discount4 ,but there is no lack of data of very various kinds to force upon us this conclusion4 ,among our sound non-intrusionists we find the names of ,lord ,jeffrey1 ,sir ,david ,brewster1 ,professor ,john ,fleming1 ,professor ,david ,welsh1 ,professor ,anderson1 ,dr4 ,irvine1 the ,rev4 ,mr4 ,hetherington1 the ,rev4 ,mr4 ,omond1 ,mr4 ,alexander ,dunlop1 and ,mr4 ,cowan2 whereas of all the opposite party who record their votes in our church courts1 we have succeeded in finding the name of but a single individual1 ,dr4 ,john ,lee4 ,why has ,dr4 ,bryce thus left the field to the fanatics8 had he nothing to insert on missions8 ,or could not ,mr4 ,robertson of ,ellon have been great on the article ,beza8 ,was there no exertion demanded of them to save the credit of the ,earl of ,aberdeen's learned clergy8 ,one of the main defects of omission in the work 7of course we merely mention the circumstance7 is the omission of the name of one very great non-intrusionist4 ,ethical and metaphysical philosophy are represented by ,dugald ,stewart and ,sir ,james ,mackintosh2 mathematical and physical science by ,sir ,david ,brewster1 ,sir ,john ,leslie1 ,playfair1 and ,robinson2 political economy by ,ricardo1 ,m',culloch1 and ,malthus2 natural history by ,james ,wilson and ,dr4 ,fleming2 ,hazlitt and ,haydon discourse on painting and the fine arts2 ,jeffrey on the beautiful2 ,sir ,walter ,scott on chivalry1 the drama1 and romance2 the classical pen of ,dr4 ,irvine has illustrated what may be termed the biographical history of ,scotland2 physiology finds a meet expounder in ,dr4 ,roget2 geology in ,mr4 ,phillips2 medical jurisprudence in ,dr4 ,traill4 ,but in whom does theology find an illustrator8 ,does our country boast in the present age of no very eminent name in this noble department of knowledge--no name known all over ,scotland1 ,britain1 ,europe1 ,christendom--a name whom we may associate with that of ,dugald ,stewart in ethical1 or that of ,sir ,david ,brewster in physical science8 ,in utter ignorance of the facts1 we can1 as we have said1 but merely refer to the omission as one which will be assuredly marked in the future1 when the din and dust of our existing controversies shall be laid1 and when all now engaged in them who are tall enough to catch the eye of posterity1 will be seen in their genuine colours and their true proportions4 ,the article ,theology in the ,encyclopdia ,britannica is written1 not by ,dr4 ,chalmers1 but new-modelled from an old article by the minister of an ,independent congregation in ,edinburgh1 ,mr4 ,lindsay ,alexander--we doubt not an able and good man1 but not supereminently the one theologian of ,scotland4 ,we mark1 besides1 a few faults1 of commission in the work1 apparently of a sub-editorial character1 but which1 unlike the defect just pointed out1 the editor of some future edition will find little difficulty in amending4 ,works the production of a single mind1 bear generally an individual character2 works the productions of many minds1 are marked rather by the character of the age to which they belong4 ,we find occasional evidence in the ,encyclopdia that it belongs to the age of ,catholic ,emancipation1--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 one4 ,one at least of the minds employed on the minor articles of the work had palpably a papistical leaning4 ,a blaze of eulogium1 which contrasts ludicrously enough with the well-toned sobriety of what we may term its staple style1 is made to surround1 like the halo in old paintings1 some of the men who were happy enough to be distinguished assertors of the ,romish ,church4 ,we would instance1 as a specimen1 the biographical sketches of ,bossuet and the ,jesuit ,bourdaloue1 written by the late ,dr4 ,james ,browne4 ,these1 however1 are but comparatively minute flaws in a work so truly great1 and of such immense multiplicity4 ,they are some of the imperfections of a work to which imperfection is inevitable1 and which1 after all such deductions have been made1 must be recognised as by much the least faulty and most complete of its class which the world has yet seen4 ,april #cj1 #ahdb4 ,a ,,vision ,,of ,,the ,,railroad4 ,private4 ----1 ,,isle ,,of ,,skye4 4444 ,i know not when this may reach you4 ,we are much shut out from the world at this dead season of the year1 especially in those wilder solitudes of the island that extend their long slopes of moor to the west4 ,the vast ,atlantic spreads out before us1 blackened by tempest1 a solitary waste1 unenlivened by a single sail1 and fenced off from the land by an impassable line of breakers4 ,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 waves1 swelling like the roar of distant artillery1 above the melancholy moanings of the wind among the nearer crags1 and the hoarser dash of the stream in the hollow below4 ,we are in a state of siege3 the isle is beleaguered on its rugged line of western coast1 and all communication within that quarter cut off2 while in the opposite direction the broken and precarious footways that wind across the hills to our more accessible eastern shores1 are still drifted over in the deeper hollows of the snow of the last great storm4 ,it was only yester-evening that my cousin ,eachen1 with whom ,i share your newspaper1 succeeded in bringing me the number published early in the present month1 in which you furnish your readers with a report of the great railway meeting at ,glasgow4 ,my cousin and ,i live on opposite sides of the island4 ,we met at our tryst among the hills1 not half an hour1 before sunset2 and as each had far to walk back1 and as a storm seemed brewing--for the wind had suddenly lowered1 and the thick mists came creeping down the hill-sides1 all dank and chill1 and laden with frost-rime1 that settled crisp and white on our hair--we deemed it scarce prudent to indulge in our usual long conversation together4 ',you will find1' said ,eachen1 as he handed me the paper1 'that things are looking no better4 ,the old ,tories are going on in the old way1 bitterer against the gospel than ever4 ,they will not leave us in all ,skye a minister that has ever been the means of converting a soul2 and what looks as ill1 our great ,scotch railway1 that broke the ,sabbath last year1 in the vain hope of making money by it1 is to break it this year at a dead loss4 ,and this for no other purpose that people can see1 than just that an ,edinburgh writer may advertise his business by making smart speeches about it4 ,depend on't1 ,allister1 the country's fey4' ',the old way of advertising1' said ,i1 'before it became necessary that an elder should have at least some show of religion about him1 was to get into the ,general ,assembly1 and make speeches there4 ,if the crisis comes1 we shall see the practice in full blow again4 ,we shall see our anti-,sabbatarian gentlemen transmuted into voluble ,moderate elders1 talking hard for clients without subjecting themselves to the advertisement duty1--and the railway mayhap keeping its ,sabbaths4' ',keeping its ,sabbaths1' replied ,eachen2 'ay1 but the shareholders1 perhaps1 have little choice in the matter4 ,i wish you heard our catechist on that4 ,depend on't1 ,allister1 the country's fey4' ',keeping its ,sabbaths8 ,yes1' said ,i1 catching at his meaning1 '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 ,sabbaths1 and keep them as the land of ,judea did of old4 ,it would be all too easy1 in a period of general distress1 to touch that line of necessarily high expenditure below which it would be ruin for the returns of the undertaking to fall4 ,let but the invariably great outlay continue to exceed the income for any considerable time1 and the railway must keep its ,sabbaths4' ',just the catechist's idea1' rejoined my cousin4 ',he spoke on the subject at our last meeting4 ,eachen1 he said1 ,eachen1 the thing lies so much in the ordinary course of providence1 that our blinded ,sabbath-breakers1 were it to happen1 would recognise only disaster in it1 not judgment4 ,i see at times1 with a distinctness that my father would have called the second sight1 that long weary line of rail1 with its ,sabbath travellers of pleasure and business speeding over it1 and a crowd of wretched witnesses raised1 all unwittingly and unwillingly on their own parts1 to testify against it1 and of coming judgment1 at both its ends4 ,i see that the walks of the one great city into which it opens are blackened by shoals of unemployed artisans2 and that the lanes and alleys of the other number by thousands and tens of thousands their pale and hunger-bitten operatives1 that cry for work and food4 ,they testify all too surely that judgment needs no miracle here4 ,let but the evil continue to grow--nay1 let but one of our ,scottish capitals1 our great mart of commerce and trade sink into the circumstances of its manufacturing neighbour ,paisley--and the railway must keep its ,sabbaths4 ,but alas6 there would be no triumph for party in the case4 ,great1 ere the evil could befall1 would the sufferings of the country be1 and they would be sufferings that would extend to all4 ,what think you1 ,allister1 of the catechist's note8' ',almost worth throwing into ,english1' ,i said4 ',but the fog still thickens1 and it will be dark night ere we reach home4' ,and so we parted4 ,dark night it was1 and the storm had burst out4 ,but it was pleasant1 when ,i had reached my little cottage1 to pile high the fire on the hearth1 and to hear the blast roaring outside1 and shaking the window-boards1 as if some rude hand were striving to unfasten them4 ,i lighted my little heap of moss fir on the projecting stone that serves the poor ,highlander for at once lamp and candlestick1 and bent me over your fourth page1 to scan the ,sabbath returns of a ,scottish railroad4 ,but my rugged journey and the beating of the storm had induced a degree of lassitude2 the wind outside1 too1 had forced back the smoke1 until it had filled with a drowsy1 umbery atmosphere1 the whole of my dingy little apartment3 ,mr4 ,m',neill seemed considerably less smart than usual1 and more than ordinarily offensive1 and in the middle of his speech ,i fell fast asleep4 ,the scene changed1 and ,i found myself still engaged in my late journey1 coming down over the hill1 just as the sun was setting red and lightless through the haze behind the dark ,atlantic4 ,the dreary prospect on which ,i had looked so shortly before was restored in all its features3 there was the blank1 leaden-coloured sea1 that seemed to mix all around with the blank1 leaden-coloured sky2 the moors spread out around me1 brown and barren1 and studded with rock and stone2 the fogs1 as they crept downwards1 were lowering the overtopping screen of hills behind to one dead level4 ,through the landscape1 otherwise so dingy and sombre1 there ran one long line of somewhat brighter hue3 it was a long line of breakers tumbling against the coast far as the eye could reach1 and that seemed interposed as a sort of selvage between the blank1 leaden sea1 and the deep1 melancholy russet of the land4 ,through one of those changes so common in dreams1 the continuous line of surf seemed1 as ,i looked1 to alter its character4 ,it winded no longer round headland and bay1 but stretched out through the centre of the landscape1 straight as an extended cord1 and the bright white saddened down to the fainter hue of decaying vegetation4 ,the entire landscape underwent a change4 ,under the gloomy sky of a stormy evening1 ,i could mark on the one hand the dark blue of the ,pentlands1 and on the other the lower slopes of ,corstorphine4 ,arthur's ,seat rose dim in the distance behind2 and in front1 the pastoral valley of ,wester ,lothian stretched away mile beyond mile1 with its long rectilinear mound running through the midst1--from where ,i stood beside one of the massier viaducts that rose an hundred feet overhead1 till where the huge bulk seemed diminished to a slender thread on the far edge of the horizon4 ,it seemed as if years had passed--many years4 ,i had an indistinct recollection of scenes of terror and of suffering1 of the shouts of maddened multitudes engaged in frightful warfare1 of the cries of famishing women and children1 of streets and lanes flooded with blood1 of raging flames enwrapping whole villages in terrible ruin1 of the flashing of arms and the roaring of artillery2 but all was dimness and confusion4 ,the recollection was that of a dream remembered in a dream4 ,the solemn text was in my mind1 ',voices1 and thunders1 and lightnings1 and a great earthquake1 such as was not since men were upon the earth1 so mighty an earthquake and so great2' and ,i now felt as if the convulsion was over1 and that its ruins lay scattered around me4 ,the railway1 ,i said1 is keeping its ,sabbaths4 ,all around was solitary1 as in the wastes of ,skye4 ,the long rectilinear mound seemed shaggy with gorse and thorn1 that rose against the sides1 and intertwisted their prickly branches atop4 ,the sloe-thorn1 and the furze1 and the bramble choked up the rails4 ,the fox rustled in the brake2 and where his track had opened up a way through the fern1 ,i could see the red and corroded bars stretching idly across4 ,there was a viaduct beside me3 the flawed and shattered masonry had exchanged its raw hues for a crust of lichens2 one of the taller piers1 undermined by the stream1 had drawn two of the arches along with it1 and lay adown the water-course a shapeless mass of ruin1 o'ermasted by flags and rushes4 ,a huge ivy1 that had taken root under a neighbouring pier1 threw up its long pendulous shoots over the summit4 ,i ascended to the top4 ,half-buried in furze and sloe-thorn1 there rested on the rails what had once been a train of carriages2 the engine ahead lay scattered in fragments1 the effect of some disastrous explosion1 and damp1 and mould1 and rottenness had done their work on the vehicles behind4 ,some had already fallen to pieces1 so that their places could be no longer traced in the thicket that had grown up around them2 others stood comparatively entire1 but their bleached and shrivelled panels rattled to the wind1 and the mushroom and the fungus sprouted from between their joints4 ,the scene bore all too palpably the marks of violence and bloodshed4 ,there was an open space in front1 where the shattered fragments of the engine lay scattered2 and here the rails had been torn up by violence1 and there stretched across1 breast-high1 a rudely piled rampart of stone4 ,a human skeleton lay atop1 whitened by the winds2 there was a broken pike beside it2 and1 stuck fast in the naked skull1 which had rolled to the bottom of the rampart1 the rusty fragment of a sword4 ,the space behind resembled the floor of a charnel-house--bindwood and ground-ivy lay matted over heaps of bones2 and on the top of the hugest heap of all1 a skull seemed as if grinning at the sky from amid the tattered fragments of a cap of liberty4 ,bones lay thick around the shattered vehicles2 a trail of skeletons dotted the descending bank1 and stretched far into a neighbouring field2 and from amid the green rankness that shot up around them1 ,i could see soiled and tattered patches of the ,british scarlet4 ,a little farther on there was another wide gap in the rails4 ,i marked beside the ruins of a neighbouring hovel a huge pile of rusty bars1 and there lay inside the fragment of an uncouth cannon marred in the casting4 ,i wandered on in unhappiness1 oppressed by that feeling of terror and disconsolateness so peculiar to one's more frightful dreams4 ,the country seemed everywhere a desert4 ,the fields were roughened with tufts of furze and broom2 hedgerows had shot up into lines of stunted trees1 with wide gaps interposed2 cottage and manor-house had alike sunk into ruins2 here the windows still retained their shattered frames1 and the roof-tree lay rotting amid the dank vegetation of the floor2 yonder the blackness of fire had left its mark1 and there remained but reddened and mouldering stone4 ,wild animals and doleful creatures had everywhere increased4 ,the toad puffed out his freckled sides on hearths whose fires had been long extinguished1 the fox rustled among its bushes1 the masterless dog howled from the thicket1 the hawk screamed shrill and sharp as it fluttered overhead4 ,i passed what had been once the policies of a titled proprietor4 ,the trees lay rotting and blackened among the damp grass--all except one huge giant of the forest1 that1 girdled by the axe half a man's height from the ground1 and scorched by fire1 stretched out its long dead arms towards the sky4 ,in the midst of this wilderness of desolation lay broken masses1 widely scattered1 of what had been once the mansion-house4 ,a shapeless hollow1 half filled with stagnant water1 occupied its immediate site2 and the earth was all around torn up1 as if battered with cannon4 ,the building had too obviously owed its destruction to the irresistible force of gunpowder4 ,there was a parish church on the neighbouring eminence1 and it1 too1 was roofless and a ruin4 ,alas6 ,i exclaimed1 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--alas6 have the churches of ,scotland also perished8 ,the inscription of a mutilated tombstone that lay outside caught my eye1 and ,i paused for a moment's space in the gap to peruse it4 ,it was an old memorial of the times of the ,covenant1 and the legend was more than half defaced4 ,i succeeded in deciphering merely a few half sentences--'killing-time1' 'faithful martyr1' 'bloody ,prelates2' and beneath there was a fragmentary portion of the solemn text1 ',how long1 ,o ,lord1 holy and true1 dost ,thou not judge and avenge our blood8' ,i stepped into the interior3 the scattered remains of an altar rested against the eastern gable4 ,there was a crackling as of broken glass under my feet1 and stooping down ,i picked up a richly-stained fragment3 it bore a portion of that much-revered sign1 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 presence1 and which our ,scottish ,episcopalians have so recently adopted as the characteristic vignette of their service-book4 ,the toad and the newt had crept over it1 and it had borrowed a new tint of brilliancy from the slime of the snail4 ,destruction had run riot along the walls of this parish church4 ,there were carvings chipped and mutilated1 as if in sport1 less apparently with the intention of defacing1 than rendering them contemptible and grotesque4 ,a huge cross of stone had been reared over the altar1 and both the top and one of the arms had been struck away1 and from the surviving arm there dangled a noose4 ,the cross had been transformed into a gibbet4 ,nor were there darker indications wanting4 ,in a recess set apart as a cabinet for relics1 there were human bones all too fresh to belong to a remote antiquity2 and in a niche under the gibbet lay the tattered remains of a surplice dabbled in blood4 ,i stood amid the ruins1 and felt a sense of fear and horror creeping over me3 the air darkened under the scowl of the coming tempest and the closing night1 and the wind shrieked more mournfully amid the shattered and dismantled walls4 ,there came another change over my dream4 ,i found myself wandering in darkness1 ,i knew not whither1 among bushes and broken ground2 there was the roar of a large stream in my ear1 and the savage howl of the storm4 ,i retain a confused1 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 cottage1 solitary and humble almost as my own4 ,the vision again strengthened1 and ,i found myself seated beside a fire1 and engaged with a few grave and serious men in singing the evening psalm1 with which they closed for the time their services of social devotion4 ',the period of trial wears fast away1' said one of the number1 when all was over--a grey-haired1 patriarchal-looking old man--',the period of trial is well-nigh over1 the storms of our long winter are past1 and we have survived them all4 ,patience6 a little more patience1 and we shall see the glorious spring-time of the world begin6 ,the vial is at length exhausted4' ',how very simple1' said one of the others1 as if giving expression rather to the reflection that the remark suggested1 than speaking in reply1--'how exceedingly simple now it seems to trace to their causes the decline and fall of ,britain6 ,the ignorance and the irreligion of the land have fully avenged themselves1 and have been consumed in turn in fires of their own kindling4 ,how could even mere men of the world have missed seeing the great moral evil that lay at the root of'-- ',ay1' said a well-known voice that half mingled with my dreaming fancies1 half recalled me to consciousness2 'nothing can be plainer1 ,donald4 ,that lawyer-man is evidently not making his smart speeches or writing his clever circulars with an eye to the pecuniary interests of the railroad4 ,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 year4 ,were there not a hundred thousand that took the pledge8 and can it be held by any one that knows ,scotland1 that they aren't worth over-head a shilling a year to the railway8 ,no1 no2 depend on't1 the man is guiltless of any design of making the shareholders rich by breaking the ,sabbath4 ,he is merely supporting a desperate case in the eye of the country1 and getting into all the newspapers1 that people may see how clever a fellow he is4 ,he is availing himself of the principle that makes men in our great towns go about with placards set up on poles1 and with bills printed large stuck round their hats4' ,two of my nearer neighbours1 who had travelled a long mile through the storm to see whether ,i had got my newspaper1 had taken their seats beside me when ,i was engaged with my dream2 and after reading your railway report1 they were now busied in discussing the various speeches and their authors4 ,my dream is1 ,i am aware1 quite unsuited for your columns1 and yet ,i send it to you4 ,there are none of its pictured calamities that lie beyond the range of possibility--nay1 there are perhaps few of them that at this stage may not actually be feared2 but if so1 it is at least equally sure that there can be none of them that at this stage might not be averted4 ,,the ,,two ,,mr4 ,,clarks4 ,among the some six or eight and twenty volumes of pamphlets which have been already produced by our ,church controversy1 and which bid fair to compose but a part of the whole1 there is one pamphlet1 in the form of a ,sermon1 which bears date ,january #ahdj1 and two other pamphlets1 in the form of ,dialogues1 which bear date ,april #ahdc4 ,the ,sermon and the ,dialogues discuss exactly the same topics4 ,they are written in exactly the same style4 ,they exhibit1 in the same set phrases1 the same large amount of somewhat obtrusive sanctimoniousness4 ,they are equally strong in the same confidence of representing1 on their respective subjects1 the true mind of ,deity4 ,they solicit the same circle of readers2 they seem to have employed the same fount of types2 they have emanated from the same publishers4 ,they are liker1 in short1 than the twin brothers in ,shakespeare's ,comedy of ,errors2 and the only material dissimilarity which we have been yet able to discover is1 that whereas the ,sermon is a thorough-going and uncompromising defence of our ,evangelical majority in the ,church1 the ,dialogues form an equally thorough-going and uncompromising attack upon them4 ,this1 however1 compared with the numerous points of verisimilitude1 the reader will1 we are sure1 deem but a trifle1 especially when he has learned further that they represent the same mind1 and have employed the same pen--that the ,sermon was published by the ,rev4 ,alexander ,clark of ,inverness in #ahdj1 and the ,dialogues by the ,rev4 ,alexander ,clark of ,inverness in #ahdc4 ,we spent an hour at the close of twilight a few evenings ago1 in running over the ,sermon and the ,dialogues1 and in comparing them1 as we went along1 paragraph by paragraph1 and sentence by sentence4 ,we had before us also one of ,mr4 ,clark's earlier publications1 his ,rights of ,members of the ,church of ,scotland1 and a complete collection of his anti-patronage speeches for a series of years1 as recorded in ,the ,church ,patronage ,reporter1 with his speech 'anent lay patronage' in the ,general ,assembly1 when in #ahcc he led the debate on the popular side4 ,the publications1 in all1 extended over a period of fourteen years4 ,they exhibited ,mr4 ,clark1 and what ,mr4 ,clark had held1 in #ahbi1 in #ahca1 in #ahcb1 in #ahcf1 in #ahdj1 and in #ahdc4 ,we found that we could dip down upon him1 as we went along1 like a sailor taking soundings in the reaches of some inland frith or some navigable river1 and ascertain by year and day the exact state of his opinions1 and whether they were rising or falling at the time4 ,and our task1 if a melancholy1 was certainly no uninteresting one4 ,we succeeded in bringing to the surface1 from out of the oblivion that had closed over them1 many a curious1 glittering1 useless little thing1 somewhat resembling the decayed shells and phosphoric jellies that attach themselves to the bottom of the deep-sea lead4 ,here we found the tale of a peroration1 set as if on joints1 that clattered husky and dry like the rattles of a snake2 there an argument sprouting into green declamation1 like a damaged ear of corn in a wet harvest2 yonder a piece of delightful egotism1 set full in sentiment like a miniature of ,mr4 ,clark in a tinsel frame4 ,what seemed most remarkable1 however1 in at least his earlier productions1 was their ceaseless glitter of surface1 if we may so speak4 ,we found them literally sprinkled over with little bits of broken figures1 as if the reverend gentleman had pounded his metaphors and comparisons in a mortar1 and then dusted them over his style4 ,it is thus1 thought we1 that our manufacturers of fancy wax deal by their mica4 ,in his ,rights of ,members1 for instance1 we found in one page that 'the gross errors of ,romanism had risen in successive tides1 until the light of truth suffered a fearful eclipse during a long period of darkness2' and we had scarce sufficiently admired the sublime height of tides that occasion eclipses1 when we were further informed1 in the page immediately following1 that the god of this world was mustering his multifarious hosts for the battle1 hoping1 amidst the waves of popular commotion1 'to blot out the name of ,god from the ,british ,constitution4' ,assuredly1 thought we1 we have the elements of no commonplace engagement here4 ',multifarious hosts1' fairly mustered1 and 'battling' amid 'waves' in 'commotion' to 'blot out a name1' would be a sight worth looking at1 even though1 like the old shepherd in the ,winter's ,tale1 their zeal should lack footing amid the waters4 ,but though detained in the course of our search by the happinesses of the reverend gentleman1 we felt that it was not with the genius of ,mr4 ,clark that we had specially to do1 but with his consistency4 ,for eleven of the fourteen years over which our materials extended1 we found the ,rev4 ,mr4 ,clark one of the most consistent of men4 ,from his appearance on the platform at ,aberdeen in #ahbi1 when he besought his audience not to deem it obtrusive in a stranger that he ventured to address them1 and then elicited their loud applauses by soliciting their prayers for 'one minister labouring in northern parts1' who 'aspired to no higher distinction on earth than that he should spend and be spent in the service of his dear ,lord and ,master1' down to #ahdj1 when he published his sermon on the ',present ,position of the ,church1 and the ,duty of its ,members1' and urged1 with the solemnity of an oath1 that 'the ,church of ,scotland was engaged in asserting principles which the allegiance it owes to ,christ would never permit it to desert1' ,mr4 ,clark stood forward on every occasion the uncompromising champion of spiritual independence1 and of the rights of the ,christian people4 ,he took his place far in the van4 ,he was no mere half-and-half non-intrusionist1--no complaisant eulogist of the ,veto1--no timid doubter that the ,church in behalf of her people might possibly stretch her powers too far1 and thus separate her temporalities from her cures4 ,nothing could be more absurd1 he asserted1 than to imagine such a thing4 ,on parade day1 when she stood resting on her arms in the sunshine1 ,mr4 ,clark was fugleman to his party1--not merely a front man in the front rank1 but a man far in advance of the front rank4 ,nay1 even after the collision had taken place1 ,mr4 ,clark could urge on his brethren that all that was necessary to secure them the victory was just to go a little further ahead1 and deprive their refractory licentiates of their licences4 ,we found that for eleven of the fourteen years1 as we have said1 ,mr4 ,clark was uniformly consistent4 ,but in the twelfth year the conflict became actually dangerous1 and ,mr4 ,clark all at once dropped his consistency4 ,the great suddenness--the extreme abruptness--of the change1 gave to it the effect of a trick of legerdemain4 ,the conjurer puts a pigeon into an earthen pipkin1 gives the vessel a shake1 and then turns it up1 and lo6 out leaps the little incarcerated animal1 no longer a pigeon1 but a rat4 ,it was thus with the ,rev4 ,mr4 ,clark4 ,adversity1 like ,vice in the fable1 took upon herself the character of a juggler1 and stepping full into the middle of the ,church question1 began to play at cup and ball4 ,nothing1 certainly1 could be more wonderful than the transformations she effected2 and the special transformation effected on the ,rev4 ,mr4 ,clark surpassed in the marvellous all the others4 ,she threw the reverend gentleman into a box1 gave him a smart shake1 and then flung him out again1 and lo6 to the astonishment of all men1 what went in ,mr4 ,clark1 came out ,mr4 ,bisset of ,bourtie4 ,in order1 apparently1 that so great a marvel should not be lost to the world1 ,mr4 ,clark has been at no little trouble in showing himself1 both before he went in and since he came out4 ,his pamphlet of #ahdj and his pamphlets of #ahdc represent him in the two states3 we see him going about in them1 all over the country1 to the extent of their circulation1 like the mendicant piper in his go-cart1--making open proclamation everywhere1 ',i am the man wot changed2' and the only uncomfortable feeling one has in contemplating them as curiosities1 arises solely from the air of heavy sanctity that pervades equally all their diametrically opposed doctrines1 contradictory assertions1 and contending views1 as if ,deity could declare equally for truth and error1 just as truth and error chanced to be held by ,mr4 ,clark4 ,of so solemn a cast are the reverend gentleman's belligerent pamphlets1 that they serve to remind one of antagonist witnesses swearing point blank in one another's faces at the ,old ,bailey4 ,such were some of the thoughts which arose in our mind when spending an hour all alone with the ,rev4 ,mr ,clark's pamphlets4 ,we bethought us of an ,eastern story about a very wicked prince who ruined the fair fame of his brother1 by assuming his body just as he might his greatcoat1 and then doing a world of mischief under the cover of his name and appearance4 ,what1 thought we1 if this1 after all1 be but a trick of a similar character8 ,dr4 ,bryce has been long in ,eastern parts1 and knows doubtless a great deal about the occult sciences4 ,we would not be much surprised should it turn out1 that having injected himself into the framework of the ,rev4 ,mr4 ,clark1 he is now making the poor man appear grossly inconsistent1 and both an ,erastian and an ,intrusionist1 simply by acting through the insensate carcase4 ,the veritable ,mr4 ,clark may be lying in deep slumber all this while in the ghost cave of ,munlochy1 like one of the seven sleepers of ,ephesus1 or standing entranced1 under the influences of fairy-land1 in some bosky recess of the haunted ,tomnahurich4 ,we must just glance over these ,dialogues again1 and see whether we cannot detect ,dr4 ,bryce in them4 ,and glance over them we did4 ,there could be no denying that the ,doctor was there1 and this in a much more extreme shape than he ever yet wore in his own proper person4 ,dr4 ,bryce asserts1 for instance1 in his speeches and pamphlets1 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 stops2 but we found him asserting in ,mr4 ,clark's ,dialogues1 that it is a liberty at once so dangerous and illegal1 that ,voluntaries must not be permitted to enjoy it either4 ,we saw various other points equally striking as we went along4 ,our attention1 however1 was gradually drawn to another matter4 ,the dramatis person to which the reader is introduced are a minister and two of his parishioners1 the one a ,moderate1 the other a ,convocationist4 ,it is intended1 of course1 that the clerical gentleman should carry the argument all his own way2 and we could not help admiring how1 with an eye to this result1 the writer had succeeded in making the parishioners so amazingly superficial in their information1 and so ingeniously obtuse in their intellects4 ,they had both been called into existence with the intention of being baffled and beaten1 and made1 with a wise adaptation of means to the desired end1 consummate blockheads for the express purpose4 ',a man is a much nobler animal than a lion1' said the woodman in the fable to the shaggy king of the forest2 'and if you but come to yonder temple with me1 ,i will show you1 in proof of the fact1 the statue of a man lording it over the statue of a prostrate lion4' ',aha6' said the shaggy king of the forest in reply1 'but was the sculptor a lion8 ,let us lions become sculptors1 and then we will show you lions lording it over prostrate men4' ,in ,mr4 ,clark's argumentative ,dialogues1 ,mr4 ,clark is the sculptor4 ,it is really refreshing1 however1 in these days of cold ingratitude1 to see how the creatures called into existence by his pen draw round him1 and sing ,io ,pans in his praise4 ,a brace of ,master ,slenders attend the great ,justice ,shallow1 who has been literally the making of them2 and when at his bidding they engage with him in mimic warfare1 they but pelt him with roses1 or sprinkle him over with eau de ,cologne4 ',ah1' thought we1 'had we but the true ,mr4 ,clark here to take a part in this fray--the ,mr4 ,clark who published the great non-intrusion sermon1 and wrote the ,rights of ,members1 and spoke all the long anti-patronage speeches1 and led the debate in the ,assembly anent the rights of the people1 and declared it clear as day that the ,church had power to enact the ,veto1--had we but him here1 he would be the man to fight this battle4 ,it would be no such child's play to grapple with him4 ,unaccustomed as we are to lay wagers1 we would stake a hundred pounds to a groat on the true ,mr4 ,clark6' ,the twilight had fallen1 the flames rose blue and languid in the grate1 the deep shadows flickered heavily on the walls and ceiling2 there was a drowsy influence in the hour1 and a still drowsier influence in the ,dialogues1 and we think--for what followed could have been only a dream--we think we must have fallen asleep4 ,at all events1 the scene changed without any exertion on our part1 and we found ourselves in a quiet retired spot in the vicinity of ,inverness4 ,the 'hill of the ship1' that monarch of ,fairy ,tomhans1 rose immediately in front1 gaily feathered over with larch and forest trees2 and1 terminating a long vista in the background1 we saw ,mr4 ,clark's ,west ,kirk1 surmounted by a vast weathercock of gilded tin4 ,ever and anon the bauble turned its huge side to the sun1 and the reflected light went dancing far and wide athwart the landscape4 ,immediately beneath the weathercock there flared an immense tablet1 surmounted by a leaden ,fame1 and bordered by a row of gongs and trumpets1 which bore1 in three-feet letters1 that1 'in order to secure so valuable an addition to the church accommodation of the parish1 the ,rev4 ,mr4 ,clark had not hesitated1 on his own personal risk1 to guarantee the payment of three thousand pounds4' ,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 else4 ,as we gazed more attentively1 however1 we could perceive that every stone and slate of the building bore1 like the tablet1 the name of ,mr4 ,clark4 ,the endless repetition presented the appearance of a churchyard inscription viewed through a multiplying glass2 but what most astonished us was that the ,gothic heads1 carved by pairs beside the labelled windows1 opened wide their stony lips from time to time1 and shouted aloud1 in a voice somewhat resembling that of the domestic duck when she breaks out into sudden clamour in a hot1 dry day1 ',clark1 ,clark1 ,clark6' ,we stood not a little appalled at these wonders1 marvelling what was to come next1 when lo6 one of the thickets of the ,tomhan beside us opened its interlaced and twisted branches1 and out stepped the likeness of ,mr4 ,clark1 attired like a conjurer1 and armed with a rod4 ,his portly bulk was enwrapped in a voluminous scarf of changing-coloured silk1 that1 when it caught the light in one direction1 exhibited the deep scarlet of a cardinal's mantle1 and presented1 when it caught it in another1 the sober tinge of our ,presbyterian blue4 ,like the cloak of ,asmodeus1 it was covered over with figures4 ,in one corner we could see the ,general ,assembly done in miniature1 and ,mr4 ,clark rising among the members like ,gulliver in ,lilliput1 to move against the deposition of the seven ministers of ,strathbogie4 ,in another the same reverend gentleman1 drawn on the same large scale1 was just getting on his legs at a political dinner1 to denounce his old friends and allies the ,evangelicals1 as wild destructives1 'engaged in urging on the fall of the ,establishment1 in the desperation of human pride4' ,here we could see him baptizing the child of a person who1 as he had fallen out of church-going habits1 could get it baptized nowhere else2 there examined in his presbytery for the offence with closed doors2 yonder writing letters to the newspapers on the subject1 to say that1 if he had baptized the man's child1 it was all because the man was1 like himself1 a good hater of forced settlements4 ,there were a great many other vignettes besides2 and the last in the series was the scene enacted at the late ,inverness ,presbytery1 when ,mr4 ,clark rose to congratulate his old associates1 in all the stern severity of consistent virtue1 on the facile and 'squeezable' character of their representative for the ,assembly4 ,the conjurer came out into an open space1 drew a circle around him1 and then began to build up on the sward two little human figures about three feet high1 as boys build up figures of snow at the commencement of a thaw4 ,harlequin performs a somewhat similar feat in one of the pantomimes4 ,he first sets up two carrots on end1 to serve for legs2 balances on them the head of a large cabbage1 to serve for a body2 sticks on two other carrots1 to serve for arms2 places a round turnip between them1 to serve for a head2 gives the crazy erection a blow with his lath sword1 and straightway off it stalks1 a vegetable man4 ,mr4 ,clark had1 in like manner1 no sooner built up his figures1 than1 with a peculiarly bland air1 and in tones of the softest liquidity1 he whispered into the ear of the one1 ,be you a ,convocationist1 and into that of the other1 ,be you a ,moderate2 and then with his charmed rod he tapped them across the shoulders1 and set them a-walking4 ,the creatures straightway jerked up their little heads to the angle of his face1 bowed like a brace of automaton dancing-masters1 and after pacing round his knees for a few seconds1 began ,dialogue the first1 in just the set terms in which we had been reading it beside our own fire not half an hour before4 ,it seemed1 for a few seconds1 as if the conjurer and his creations had joined together in a trio1 to celebrate the conjurer's own praises4 ',excellent clergyman6' said the ,convocationist4 ',incomparable man6' exclaimed the ,moderate4 ',no minister like our minister6' said the two in a breath4 ',ah1 gentlemen1' said the conjurer1 looking modestly down1 'even my very enemies never venture to deny that4' ',you1 sir1' said the ,convocationist1 'bring on no occasion the ,church question to the pulpit2 you know better--you have more sense3 we have quite as much of the ,church question as is good for us through the week4' ',for you1 sir1' chimed in the ,moderate1 ',i have long cherished the most thorough respect2 but as for your old party1 ,i dislike them more than ever4' ',i am not mercenary1 gentlemen1' said the conjurer1 laying his hand on his breast2 ',i am not timid1 ,i am not idle2 ,i am a generous1 diligent1 dauntless1 attached pastor2 ,i give alms of all ,i possess--in especial to the public charities2 ,i make long prayers1--my very best friends often urge on me that my vast labours1 weekly and daily1 are undermining my strength2 ,i fast often1--,i have guaranteed the payment of three thousand pounds for the ,west ,kirk1 and three-fourths of my stipend have gone this year to the liquidation of self-imposed liabilities4 ,true1 ,i will be eventually repaid1--that is1 if my people don't leave me2 but ,i have no other security beyond my confidence in the goodness of the cause1 and the continued liberality of my countrymen4' ,and in this style would the reverend gentleman have continued down to the bottom of the fifth page in his first ,dialogue1 had it not been for a singularly portentous and terrible interruption4 ,the haunted ,tomnahurich rose1 as we have said1 immediately behind us1 leafy and green2 and not one of its multitude of boughs trembled in the sunshine4 ,suddenly1 however1 the hill-side began to move4 ,there was a low deep noise like distant thunder2 and straightway the dbris of a landslip came rolling downwards1 half obliterating in its course the circle of the conjurer4 ,turf1 and clay1 and stone lay in a mingled ruin at our feet2 and wriggling in the midst1 like a huge blue-bottle in an old cobweb1 there was a reverend gentleman dressed in black4 ,he gathered himself up1 sprung deftly to his feet1 and stood fronting the conjurer4 ,wonderful to relate1 the man in black proved to be the veritable ,mr4 ,clark of three years ago--,mr4 ,clark of #ahdj--,mr4 ,clark who published the great non-intrusion discourse1 who wrote the ,rights of ,members1 who spoke the long anti-patronage speeches1 who led the debate in the ,assembly anent the rights of the people1 and who declared it clear as day that the ,church had power to enact the ,veto4 ,the conjurer started backwards like a man who receives a mortal wound3 the two little figures uttered a thin scrannel shriek apiece1 and then slunk out of existence4 ',avoid ye1' exclaimed the conjurer1 ',avoid ye6 ,conjuro te1 conjuro te6' ,he then went on to mutter1 as if by way of exorcism1 in low and very rapid tones1 ',i have no anxiety to refute the charge of inconsistency1 which some have endeavoured to fasten on me1 from detached portions of what ,i have written or spoken1 during several years1 on what may be termed ,church politics4 ,in matters not essential to salvation1 increased light or advanced experience may properly produce change of sentiment in the most enlightened and conscientious ,christian4 ,for a man to assert that he is subject to no change1 is to lay claim to one of the perfections----' ,dialogue #ast1 p4 #f4 ',and so you won't go out1' said the true ,mr4 ,clark1 interrupting him4 ',no1 sir1' replied the conjurer4 ',i have maturely considered the proposed secession from the ,established ,church1 and1 without pronouncing any judgment on the motives or doings of others who may think or act differently1 ,i deeply feel that in such a measure ,i could not join without manifest sin against the light of my conscience4'--,dialogue #ast1 p4 #d4 ',ah1' rejoined the true ,mr4 ,clark1 'did ,i not say it would be so8 ,i knew there would be found a set of recreant priests1 who1 for a pitiful morsel of the world's bread1 would submit to be the instruments of trampling on the blood-bought rights of the ,scottish people1 and call themselves a ,church1 while departing from their allegiance to ,him who is the source of all true ecclesiastical authority2 but never can these constitute the ,church of ,scotland6'--,sermon1 p4 #dj4 ',i cannot reconcile it with the views ,i have long entertained of my duty to the ,church and to the country1' said the conjurer1 'to secede from the ,national ,establishment1 simply because it wants what it wanted when ,i became one of its ministers4'--,dialogue #ast1 p4 #ab4 ',wanted when you became one of its ministers6' exclaimed the true ,mr4 ,clark4 ',no1 sir4 ,the civil courts are now compelling obedience in cases in which they have no jurisdiction1 and have levelled with the ground the independent jurisdiction of the ,church1--a ,church bearing in its diadem a host of martyrs1 and which never hitherto submitted to the supremacy of any power1 excepting that of the ,son of ,god4'--,sermon1 pp4 #ei-fc4 ',i won't go out1' reiterated the conjurer4 ',well1 you have told me what you have long deemed to be your duty1' said the true ,mr4 ,clark4 ',i shall repeat to you1 in turn1 what ,i three years ago recorded as mine4 ,it is the duty of the ,church1 ,i said1 to maintain its position1 confirmed as it is by solemn statutes and by the faith of national treaties1 until that shall be overthrown by the deliberate decision of the ,state itself4 ,should such a circumstance really occur1 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 alone1 there being then a plain violation of the terms on which the ,church entered into alliance with the ,state1 that alliance must be dissolved1 as one which can be no longer continued1 but by rendering to men what is due to ,god4'--,sermon1 p4 #bh4 ',i deny entirely and in toto1' said the conjurer1 'that the present controversy involves the doctrine of the ,headship4'--,see #b;d ,dialogue4 ',admit1' said the true ,mr4 ,clark1 'but the right of secular courts to review1 and thus to confirm or annul1 the proceedings of the ,scottish ,church in one of the most important spiritual functions1 and the same power may soon be1 under various pretexts1 used to control all the inferior departments of its ecclesiastical procedure4 ,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 ,head8'--,sermon1 p4 #de4 ',the claim1' said the conjurer1 'is essentially ,papal4'--,dialogue #b;d1 p4 #f4 ',no1' replied the true ,mr4 ,clark1 'not ,papal1 but ,protestant3 our confessors and martyrs chose to suffer for it the loss of all their worldly goods1 and to incur the pains of death in its most appalling forms4'--,sermon1 p4 #de4 ',papal notwithstanding1' reiterated the conjurer4 ',but it is not to be wondered at1 that in the earliest stages of the ,reformation1 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 own4'--,dialogue #b;d1 p4 #g4 ',what6' exclaimed the true ,mr4 ,clark1 'is not the present contest clearly for the rights of the members of ,christ1--rights manifestly recognised in ,his word1 and involving ,his ,headship8'--,sermon1 p4 #cg4 ,see also p4 #ca4 ',not at all1' replied the conjurer4 ',the question is one of faction1 and of faction only4 ,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 ,state4'--,dialogue #ast1 p4 #ae4 ',faction6' exclaimed the true ,mr4 ,clark2 'the ,church of ,scotland is now engaged in asserting principles which the allegiance it owes to ,christ will never permit it to desert4 ,and let it be rung in the ears of the people of ,scotland1 that the great reason why the asserting of the ,church's spiritual jurisdiction is so clamorously condemned in certain quarters1 is because it is employed to maintain the rights of the people4'--,sermon1 pp4 #cg-ci4 ',to be above the authority of the law1 no ,church in this country can be1' said the conjurer4 ',the ,church courts would be able1 were their principles fully recognised1 to tread under foot the rights of the people as effectually as ever they resisted those of patrons4'--,dialogue #ast1 pp4 #ad and #af4 ',nothing can be more absurd than such insinuations1' exclaimed the true ,mr4 ,clark4 ',the ,church disclaims every kind of civil authority1 and simply requires that there be no interference on the part of civil rulers with its spiritual functions4 ,how that which declines a jurisdiction in civil matters1 can in any sense of the word1 or in any conceivable circumstances1 be injurious to civil liberty1 it is impossible to conceive4'--,sermon1 p4 #cb4 ',alas1' said the conjurer1 'if the ,church by recent events has been exhibited in a lower position than ,scotsmen ever saw it placed in before1 this has been occasioned by the unhappy attitude of defiance of the civil tribunals in which it was unadvisedly placed1 and which no body1 however venerable1 can be permitted to occupy with impunity in a well-governed country4'--,dialogue #ast1 p4 #ab4 ',degradation6' indignantly exclaimed the true ,mr4 ,clark2 'did the ,church1 in consequence of the findings of the civil courts1 proceed to act in opposition to what it believes and has solemnly declared to be founded on the ,scripture1 and agreeable thereto1 it would exhibit itself to the world a disgraced and degraded society1 utterly fallen from the faithfulness to religious duty which marked former periods of its history4'--,sermon1 p4 #ba4 ',clear it is1' said the conjurer1 'that the ,church must not be permitted to retain with impunity her attitude of defiance to the civil tribunals4 ,were it otherwise1 an ecclesiastical power might come to be established in this kingdom1 fully able to trample uncontrolled on the most sacred rights of the nation4'--,dialogue #ast1 p4 #ab4 ',nothing1 ,i repeat1' said the true ,mr4 ,clark1 'can be more absurd than the insinuation4 ,the liberties of the ,church of ,scotland have been often assailed by the civil authorities of the land1 but uniformly by those who were equally hostile to the civil freedom of the country4 ,its rights were1 during one dreary period1 so effectually overthrown1 that none stood up to assert them but the devoted band who1 in the wildest fastnesses of their country1 were often compelled by the violence of military rule to water with their blood the moors1 where they rendered homage to the ,king of ,zion2 while1 in the sunshine of courtly favour1 ecclesiastics moved1 who without fear bartered1 for their own sordid gain1 the blood-bought liberties of the ,church of ,god1 and showed themselves as willing to subvert the civil rights of their countrymen as they had been to destroy their religious privileges4'--,sermon1 p4 #cj4 ',to be above the law1' reiterated the conjurer1 'no ,church in this country can be4'--,dialogue #ast1 p4 #af4 ',there may arise various occasions1' said the true ,mr4 ,clark1 'on which the injunctions of man may interfere with the injunctions of ,god2 and in every such case a ,christian man must yield obedience to the authority of the highest ,lord4'--,sermon1 p4 #bb4 ',sad case that of ,strathbogie6' ejaculated the conjurer4 ',very sad1' replied the true ,mr4 ,clark4 ',what is your version of it8' ',listen1' said the conjurer4 ',what has been termed the ,veto ,law was enacted less than ten years ago1 and after lengthened legal proceedings1 was declared illegal by the ,house of ,lords1 the highest judicial authority in this kingdom4 ,for proceedings adopted in conformity to this decision1 seven ministers in the ,presbytery of ,strathbogie were first suspended and then deposed from their ministerial offices1 without any other charges laid against them than that they sought the protection of the civil courts in acting according to their decision4 ,for refusing to obey a law which the ,house of ,lords declared to be illegal1 no minister can be lawfully deposed from his office in this country1 unless we are prepared to adopt a principle which would ultimately subvert the entire authority of the law4 ,the civil courts1 simply on the ground that these ministers had been deposed for obeying the statutes of the realm1 reversed the sentence1 as what was beyond the lawful powers of any ,church in this land1 whether ,voluntary or ,established4 ,and on the same principle1 they interfered to prevent any from treating them as suspended or deposed4'--,dialogue #ast1 p4 #aj4 ',a most injurious representation of the case1' said the true ,mr4 ,clark4 ',seven ministers1 forming the majority of the ,presbytery of ,strathbogie1 chose to intimate their resolution to take steps towards the settlement of ,mr4 ,edwards as minister of ,marnoch1 in defiance of the opposition of almost all the parishioners1 and in direct contempt of the instructions given them by the superior church courts4 ,the civil courts in the meantime merely declared their opinion of the law1 but they issued no injunction whatever1 so as to give the presbytery the pretext of choosing between obeying the one or the other jurisdiction2 and they violated the express injunction of the supreme church court1 without being able to plead in justification that they had been compelled by the civil authority to do so4 ,they chose to act ultroneously in violation of their duty to the ,church4 ,they had solemnly promised to obey the superior church courts1 and had never come under any promise to obey in spiritual things any other authority4 ,in proposing to take the usual steps for conferring the spiritual office of a pastor in the ,church of ,christ1 in defiance of the injunction laid upon them by the supreme court of the ,church of ,scotland1 they plainly violated their ordination engagements4 ,and in actually ordaining ,mr4 ,edwards1 the whole procedure was a solemn mockery of holy things4'--,sermon1 p4 #bf4 ',after all1' said the conjurer1 with a sigh1 'the agitated question is but of inferior moment4'--,dialogue #ast1 p4 #c4 ',inferior moment6' exclaimed the true ,mr4 ,clark2 'no religious question of the same magnitude and importance has come before this country since the ever-memorable ,revolution in #afhh4 ,the divisions of secular partisanship sink into utter insignificance when compared with this4 ,let the principles once become triumphant for which the ,court of ,session is now contending1 and the ,church of ,scotland is ruined4'--,sermon1 pp4 #g and #ei4 ',ruined6' shouted out the conjurer2 'it is you who are ruining the ,church1 by urging on the disruption4 ,for my own part1 ,i promised1 as all ministers do at their ordination1 never1 directly or indirectly1 to endeavour her subversion1 or to follow divisive courses1 but to maintain her unity and peace against error and schism1 whatsoever trouble or persecution might arise2 and now1 in agreement with my solemn ordination engagements1 have ,i determined to hold by her to the last4'--,dialogue #ast1 p4 #i4 ',what mean you by the ,church8' asked the true ,mr4 ,clark4 ',the ,church and the establishment of it are surely very different things4 ,men have talked of themselves as friends of the ,church1 because they were the friends of its civil establishment1 and loudly declaim against the proceedings of the majority of its office-bearers now1 as fraught with danger to this object4 ,but what do they mean by the civil establishment of an ,erastian ,church6 ,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 ,god8 ,if that be their meaning1 it is time they and the country at large should know that the ,church of ,scotland was never established on such principles4'--,sermon1 p4 #db4 ',it is not true1 however1' said the conjurer1 'that the majority of the faithful ministers of ,scotland have resolved to abandon the ,establishment1 though this may be the case in some parts of the country4'--,dialogue #ast1 p4 #af4 ',not true1 sir6' said the true ,mr4 ,clark2 'nothing can be more true4 ,all--all will leave it except a set of recreant priests1 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 people4'--,sermon1 p4 #db4 ',what has pained me most in all this controversy1' remarked the conjurer1 'has been the insidious manner in which certain persons have endeavoured to sow disunion--in some cases too successfully--between ministers and their hearers4'--,dialogue #ast1 p4 #c4 ',sir1' exclaimed the true ,mr4 ,clark1 ',sir1 every individual would do well to remember1 when summoned to such a contest as this1 the curse denounced against ,meroz for remaining in neutrality when the battle raged in ,israel4 ,this curse was denounced by the angel of the ,lord1 and is written for the admonition of all ages1 as a demonstration of the feelings with which ,god regards the standing aloof1 in a great religious struggle1 by whatever motives it may be sought to be justified4'--,sermon1 p4 #ei4 ',the men who thus sow disunion1' said the conjurer1 'never venture to deny that they1 whose usefulness they endeavour to destroy1 are ministers of the gospel1--urging on the acceptance of a slumbering world the message of celestial mercy1 which must produce results of weal or woe destined to be eternally remembered1 when the strifes of words which have agitated the ,church on earth are all forgotten4'--,dialogue #ast1 p4 #d4 ',hold1 hold1 sir1' said the true ,mr4 ,clark4 ',on the event of this struggle depends not merely the temporal interests of our country1 but the welfare of many immortal spirits through the ceaseless ages of future being4'--,sermon1 p4 #fj4 ',it is so distracting a subject this ,church question1' said the conjurer1 'that ,i make it a point of duty never to bring it to the pulpit4'--,dialogue #ast1 p4 #c4 ',in that you and ,i differ1' said the true ,mr4 ,clark1 'just as we do in other matters4 ,i have written very long sermons on the subject1 ay1 and published them too2 and in particular beg leave to recommend to your careful perusal my sermon on the ,present ,position1 preached in ,inverness on the evening of the #aith ,january #ahdj4' ',i suppose you have heard it said1 that ,i changed my views from the fear of worldly loss1' said the conjurer4--,dialogue #ast1 p4 #d4 ',heard it said6' said the true ,mr4 ,clark4 ',you forget that ,i have been bottled up on the hill-side yonder for the last three years4' ',sir1' said the conjurer1 with great solemnity1 'when the ,west ,church was built1 in order to secure this valuable addition to the church accommodation of the parish1 ,i did not hesitate to undertake1 on my own personal risk1 to guarantee the payment of three thousand pounds4 ,this obliged me to diminish1 to no small extent1 my personal expenditure1 as the only way in which the pecuniary burden could be met1 without diminishing my contributions to the public charities of the town1 and to the numerous cases of private distress brought continually under my notice1 in the various walks of ministerial duty4 ,and though the original debt is now reduced to half that amount by the liberal benefactions received from various individuals1 still nearly three-fourths of my stipend this year has been expended on this object1 in terms of my voluntary obligation4 ,the large sum which ,i am now in advance1 ,i believe1 will be eventually repaid2 but for this ,i have no security beyond my confidence in the goodness of the cause1 and the continued liberality of my countrymen4 ,all this respecting the ,west ,church is known to few1 and would not have been mentioned by me at this time1 had it not been for the perseverance with which some1 inaccessible to higher motives themselves1 have endeavoured to persuade my hearers that mercenary considerations have produced the position ,i have felt it my duty to take in the present discussion4'--,dialogue #ast1 p4 #e4 ,for a few seconds the true ,mr4 ,clark seemed as if struck dumb by the intelligence4 ',ah6 fast anchored6' he at length ejaculated4 ',fairly tethered to the ,establishment by a stake of fifteen hundred pounds4 ,demas1 happy man1 had a silver mine to draw him aside--a positive silver mine4 ,the ,west ,church is merely a negative one4 ,were it to get into the hands of the ,moderates1 it would become waterlogged to a certainty1 and not a single ounce of the precious metal would ever be fished out of it2 whereas you think there is still some little chance of recovery when you remain to ply the pump yourself4 ,most disinterested man6--let your statement of the case be but fairly printed1 and it will serve you not only as an apology1 but as an advertisement to boot4' ',printed6' said the conjurer2 ',i have already printed it in ,english1 and ,mr4 ,m',donald the schoolmaster is translating it into ,gaelic4' ,but we have far exceeded our limits1 and have yet given scarce a tithe of the controversy4 ,we found ourselves sitting all alone in front of our own quiet fire long ere it was half completed2 and we recommend such of our readers as are desirous to see the rest of it in the originals1 to possess themselves of the ,rev4 ,mr4 ,clark's ,sermon1 and the ,rev4 ,mr4 ,clark's ,dialogues4 ,they form1 when bound up together1 one of the extremest1 and at the same time one of the most tangible1 specimens of inconsistency and self-contradiction that controversy has yet exhibited2 and enable us to anticipate the character and standing of the evangelic minority in the ,erastian ,church4 ',if the salt has lost its savour1 wherewithal shall it be salted8' ,april #ab1 #ahdc4 ,,pulpit ,,duties ,,not ,,secondary4 ,there are two antagonist perils to which all evangelical ,churches1 whether established or unendowed1 are exposed in an age in which men's minds are so stirred by the fluctuations of opinion1 that though there may not be much progress1 there is at least much motion4 ,they lie open1 on the one hand1 to the danger of getting afloat on the tide of innovation1 and so drifting from the fixed position in which ,churches1 as exponents of the mind of ,christ1 possess an authoritative voice1 into the giddy vortices of some revolving eddy of speculation1 in which they can at best assume but the character of mere advocates of untried experiment2 or1 on the other hand1 they are liable to fall into the opposite mistake of obstinately resisting all change--however excellent in itself1 and however much a consequence of the onward march of the species--and this not from any direct regard to those divine laws1 of which one jot or tittle cannot pass away1 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 them4 ,an evangelistic ,church cannot fall into the one error without losing its influential voice as a ,church4 ,it may gain present popularity by throwing itself upon what chances to be the onward movement of the time2 but it is a spendthrift popularity1 that never fails in the end to leave it exhausted and weak4 ,the political ague has always its cold as certainly as its hot fever fits3 action produces reaction2 great exertion induces great fatigue2 the desired object1 even when fully gained1 is sure always1 like all mere sublunary objects of pursuit1 to disappoint expectation2 and the ,church that1 forgetting where its real power lies1 seeks1 ,antus-like1 to gather strength in this way from the earth1 contracts in every instance but the soil and weakness inherent in those earthy and unspiritual things to which it attaches itself4 ,it1 too1 comes to have its cold ague fits and its reaction--periods of exhaustion1 disappointment1 and decline4 ,and the opposite error of clinging to the worn-out and the obsolete produces ultimately the same effect1 though it operates in a different way4 ,a ,church that1 in behalf of some antiquated type of thought or action1 opposes itself to what is in reality the onward current of the age1 is sure always to fare like stranded ice-floes1 that1 in a river flooded by thaw1 retain the exact temperature under which they were formed1 when the temperature all around them has altered4 ,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 limits1 but both are eventually absorbed and disappear4 ,while the more versatile ecclesiastical body1 tossed by the cross currents and eddies of novel and uncertain change1 loses its true course and makes shipwreck1 the rigidly immoveable one1 anchored over the worn-out peculiarities of bygone days1 is borne down by the irresistible rush of the stream1 and founders at its moorings4 ,the ,free ,church1 as a body1 is1 we trust1 not greatly in danger from either extreme4 ,they are the extremes1 however1 which in the present day constitute her true ,scylla and ,charybdis2 and it were perhaps well that she should keep the fact steadily before her1 by laying them down as such on their chart4 ,not from the gross and earthy fires of political movement in the present day1 or from the cold grey ashes of movement semi-political in some uninspired age of the past1 must that pillar of flame now ascend which is to marshal her on her pilgrimage through the wilderness1 at once reviving her by its heat and guiding her by its effulgence4 ,the light borrowed from the one would but flicker idly before her1 a wandering and delusive meteor2 the other would furnish her with but an unlighted torch1 unsuited to cast across her way a single beam of direction and guidance4 ,her light must be derived from an antiquity more remote than that of the uninspired ages1 and her heat from a source more permanent than that of present excitement1 social or political3 the one direct from the unerring record of those times when ,god walked the earth in the flesh2 the other from that living spirit without whose influence energy the most untiring can be influential in but the production of evil1 and earnestness the most intense may be profession1 but cannot be revival4 ,strength must be sought by her1 not in the turmoil of evanescent agitation1 nor in the worn-out modes of an age the fashion of which has perished1 but in the perennial verities of the everlasting gospel4 ,while so far adapting herself to the times as to present an armed front to every form of error1 she must preach to her people as if the prisoner of ,patmos had but just completed the record of ,revelation4 ,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 advert4 ,it has become much the fashion of the time--most unthinkingly1 surely--to speak of preaching as not the paramount1 but merely one of the subsidiary duties of a clergyman4 ',he is not a man of much pulpit preparation1' it has become customary to remark of some minister1 at least liked if not admired1 'but he is diligent in visiting and in looking after his schools2 and preaching is in reality but a small part of a minister's duty4' ,or1 in the event of a vacancy1 the flock looking out for a pastor are apt enough to say1 ',our last minister was an accomplished pulpit man1 but what we at present want is a man sedulous in visiting2 for preaching is in reality but a small part of a minister's duty4' ,nay1 ministers1 especially ministers of but a few twelvemonths' standing1 have themselves in some cases caught up the remark1 as if it embodied a self-evident truth2 and while they dare tell1 not without self-complacency1 that their discourses--things written at a short sitting1 if written at all--cost them but little trouble1 they add further1 as if by way of apology1 that they are1 however1 'much occupied otherwise1 and that preaching is in reality but a small part of a minister's duty4' ,we have some times felt inclined to assure these latter personages in reply1 that they might a little improve the matter just by making preaching no part of their duty at all4 ,but where1 we ask1 is it taught1 either by ,god in ,his word or by the ,church in her standards1 that preaching is merely one of the minor duties of the minister1 or indeed other than his first and greatest duty8 ,not1 certainly1 in the ,new ,testament1 for there it has invariably the paramount place assigned to it2 as certainly not in our standards1 for in them the emphasis is 'especially' laid on the 'preaching of the word' as ,god's most 'effectual means' of converting sinners4 ,if it be a truth that preaching is but comparatively a minor part of a minister's duty1 it is certainly neither a ,scripture nor a ,shorter ,catechism truth2 and1 lest it should be not only not a truth at all1 but even not an innocuous untruth1 we think all who hold it would do well to inquire how they have come by it4 ,we have our own suspicion regarding its origin4 ,it is natural for men to exaggerate the importance of whatever good they patronize1 or whatever improvement or enterprise they advocate or recommend4 ,and perhaps some degree of exaggeration is indispensable4 ,in order to create the impulse necessary to overcome the vis inerti of society1 and induce in the particular case the required amount of exertion1 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 accomplishment4 ,to employ the language of the mechanist1 the necessary fall would be otherwise awanting1 and the machine would fail to move4 ,if1 for instance1 all men had estimated the advantages of free trade according to the sober computations of ,chalmers1 the country would have no ,anti-,corn-,law ,league1 and no repeal of the obnoxious statutes4 ,and yet who can now doubt that the calculations of ,chalmers were in reality the true ones8 ,in like manner1 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 possess1 but of which--when turned of forty--not one out of a hundred among them ever avails himself1 we would scarce have witnessed bath meetings1 with ,dukes in the chair2 nor would the baths themselves have been erected4 ,but the natural exaggerative feeling prevailed4 ,baths for the working classes were destined somehow to renovate society1 it was thought2 and so1 though ,chartism be now as little content as ever1 baths for the working classes our cities possess4 ,and1 doubtless1 exaggeration of a similar kind has tended to heighten the general estimate of the minor duties of the clergyman2 and were there no invidious comparisons instituted between the lesser and the paramount duties1--between what is secondary in its nature magnified into primary importance1 and what is primary in its nature diminished into a mere secondary1 and standing as if the one had been viewed by the lesser1 and the other through the greater lens of a telescope1--we would have no quarrel whatever with the absolute exaggeration in the case1 regarded simply as a mere moving force4 ,but we must quarrel with it when we see it leading to practical error2 and so1 in direct opposition to the common remark1 that preaching is but a small part of the minister's duty1 we assert that it is not a small1 but a very large1 and by far the most important part of it2 and that it is not our standards or the ,scriptures that are in error on this special head1 but the numerous class who1 taking up the antagonist view1 maintain as a self-evident proposition what has neither standing in the ,new ,testament1 nor yet guarantee in the experience of the ,church4 ,no apology whatever ought to be sustained for imperfect pulpit preparation2 nay1 practically at least1 no apology whatever has or will be sustained for it4 ,it is no unusual thing to see a church preached empty2 there have been cases of single clergymen1 great in their way1 who have emptied four in succession3 for people neither ought nor will misspend their ,sabbaths in dozing under sermons to which no effort of attention1 however honestly made1 enables them to listen2 and what happens to single congregations may well happen to a whole ecclesiastical body1 should its general style of preaching fall below the existing average4 ,and certainly we know nothing more likely to produce such a result than the false and dangerous opinion1 that preaching is comparatively a small part of a minister's duty4 ,it is supereminently dangerous for one to form a mean estimate of one's work1 unless it be work of a nature very low and menial indeed4 ',no one1' said ,johnson1 'ever did anything well to which he did not give the whole bent of his mind4' ,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 sermons1--a boast alike derogatory to the literary taste and knowledge and to the ,christian character of him who makes it4 ,easy to compose a sermon6--easy to compose what1 when written1 cannot be read2 and what1 when preached1 cannot be listened to4 ,we believe it2 for in cases of this kind the ease is all on the part of the author4 ,we believe further1 we would fain say to the boaster1 that you and such as you could scuttle and sink the ,free ,church with amazingly little trouble to yourselves4 ,but is it easy1 think you1 to mature such thoughts as ,butler matured8 ,and yet these were embodied in sermons4 ,is it easy1 think you1 to convey in language exquisite as that of ,robert ,hall1 sentiments as refined and imagery as classic as his8 ,and yet ,hall's noblest compositions were sermons4 ,is it easy1 think you1 to produce a philosophic poem1 the most sublime and expansive of any age or country8 ,and yet such is the true character of the ,astronomical ,sermons of ,chalmers4 ,or is that spirituality which impresses and sinks into the heart of a people1 independently at times of thought of large calibre or the polish of a fine literary taste1 a thing easily incorporated into the tissue of a lengthened sermon8 ,think you1 did ,maclaurin's well-known ,sermon on the ,cross cost him little trouble8 or the not less noble sermon of ,sir ,matthew ,hale1 on ,christ and ,him crucified8 ,look1 we beseech you1 to your ,new ,testaments1 and see if there be ought slovenly in the style1 or loose and pointless in the thinking1 of the model sermons given you there4 ,the discourse addressed by our ,saviour from the mount to the people was a sermon2 as was also the magnificent address of ,paul to the ,athenians1 where he chose as his text the inscription on one of their altars1 ',to the unknown ,god4' ,there may be a practical and most mischievous heterodoxy embodied in the preacher's idea of sermons1 as certainly as he may embody a heterodoxy theoretic and doctrinal in the sermons themselves4 ,the ordinary course of establishing a ,church in any country1 as specially shown by ,new ,testament history and that of the ,reformation1 is first and mainly through the preaching of the word4 ,an earnest1 eloquent man--a ,peter in ,jerusalem--a ,paul at ,athens1 on ,mars ,hill--a ,john ,knox in ,edinburgh or ,st4 ,andrews--a ,george ,whitfield in some open field or market-place of ,britain or ,america--or a ,thomas ,chalmers in some metropolitan pulpit1 ,scotch or ,english--addresses himself to the people4 ,there is a strange power in the words1 and they cannot but listen2 and then the words begin to tell4 ,the heart is affected1 the judgment convinced1 the will influenced and directed3 ancient beliefs are1 as the case may be1 modified1 resuscitated1 or destroyed2 new or revived convictions take the place of previous convictions1 inadequate or erroneous2 and thus churches are planted1 and the face of society changed4 ,we limit ourselves here to what--being strictly natural in the process--would operate1 if skilfully applied1 as directly on the side of error as of truth4 ,it is the first essential of a book1 that it be interesting enough to be read2 and of a preacher1 whatever his creed1 that he be sufficiently engaging to be attentively listened to2 and without this preliminary merit1 no other merit1 however great1 is of any avail whatever4 ,and when a ,church possesses it in any great degree1 it is sure to spread and increase4 ,are there churches in the ,establishment which1 though thinned by the ,disruption1 have now all their seats let1 and are crammed every ,sabbath to the doors8 ,if so1 be sure there is popular talent in the pulpit1 and that the clergyman who officiates there does not find it a very easy matter to compose his sermons4 ,nay1 dear as the distinctive principles of the ,free ,church are to the people of ,scotland1 with superior pulpit talent in the ,establishment on the one hand1 and in the ranks of the disendowed body1 on the other1 a goodly supply of those youthful ministers who boast that they either never write their sermons1 or write them at a short sitting1 we would by no means guarantee to our ,church a ten years' vigorous existence4 ,these may not be palatable truths1 but we trust they are wholesome ones2 and we know that the time peculiarly requires them4 ,it is1 however1 not mainly with the ,establishment that the ,free ,church has to contend4 ,we ask the reader whether he has not marked1 within the last few years1 the dbut of another and more formidable antagonist1 with which all ,christian ,churches may be soon called on to grapple8 ,our newly-instituted athenums and philosophical associations form one of the novel features of the time1--institutions in which at least the second-class men of the age--,emersons1 and ,morells1 and ,combes--with much that is interesting in science and fascinating in literature1 blend sentiments and opinions at direct variance with the great doctrinal truths embodied in our standards4 ,the press1 not less formidable now than ever1 is an old antagonist2 but1 with all its appliances and powers1 it lacked the charm of the living voice4 ,that peculiar charm1 however1 the new combatant possesses4 ,the pulpit1 met by its own weapons and in its own field1 will have to a certainty to measure its strength against it2 and the standard of pulpit accomplishment and of theological education1 instead of being lowered1 must in consequence be greatly elevated4 ,the ,church of this country1 which in the earlier periods of her history1 when ,knox was her leader1 and ,buchanan the moderator of her ,general ,assembly1 stood far in advance of the age in popular eloquence1 solid learning1 and elegant accomplishment1 and which1 in the person of ,chalmers in our own days1 was vested in the more advanced views and the more profound policy of a full century hence1 must not be suffered to lag behind the age now4 ,her troops must not be permitted to fall into confusion1 and to use as arms the rude1 unsightly bludgeons of an untaught and undisciplined mob1 when the enemy1 glittering in harness1 and furnished with weapons keen of temper and sharp of edge1 is bearing down upon them in compact phalanx4 ,we know what it is to have sat for many years under ministers who1 possessed of great popular talent and high powers of original thought1 gave much time and labour to pulpit preparation4 ,we know how great a privilege it is to have to look forward to the ministrations of the ,sabbath1--not as wearinesses1 which1 simply as a matter of duty1 were to be endured2 but as exquisite feasts1 spiritual and intellectual1 which were to be greatly relished and enjoyed4 ,and when hearing it sometimes regretted1 with reference to at least one remarkable man1 that he did not visit his flock quite so often as was desirable--many of the complainants' sole idea of a ministerial visit1 meanwhile1 being simply that it was a long exordium of agreeable gossip1 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 best1 than that the tone of his pulpit services should be lowered1 in order that each individual among them might enjoy a yearly half-hour of him apart4 ,and yet such1 very nearly1 was the true statement of the case4 ,we fully recognise the importance1 in its own subordinate place1 of ministerial visitation1 especially when conducted--a circumstance1 however1 which sometimes lowers its popularity--as it ought to be4 ,but it must not be assigned that prominent place denied to it by our standards1 and which the word of ,god utterly fails to sanction4 ,it is1 though an important1 still a minor duty2 and the ,free ,church must not be sacrificed to the ungrounded idea that it occupies a level as high1 or even nearly as high1 as 'the preaching of the word4' ,to that peculiar scheme of visitation advocated by ,chalmers as a first process in his work of excavation1 we of course do not refer4 ,in those special cases to which he so vigorously directed himself1 visitation was an inevitable preliminary1 without which the appliances of the pulpit could not be brought to bear4 ,philip had to open the ,scriptures tte--tte to the ,ethiopian eunuch1 for the ,ethiopian eunuch never came to church4 ,but even were his scheme identical with that to which we particularly refer1 we would say to the young preacher who sheltered under his authority1 ',well1 prepare for the pulpit as ,dr4 ,chalmers did1 even when he had the ,west ,port congregation for his audience1 and we shall be quite content to let you visit as much as you may4' ,the composition of a sermon was never easy work to him4 ,he devoted to it much time1 and the full bent of his powerful mind2 and even when letting himself down to the humblest of the people1 the philosopher of largest capacity might profitably take his place among the hearers1 and listen with an interest never for one moment suffered to flag4 ,may #c1 #ahdh4 ,,dugald ,,stewart4 ,it is now more than forty years since it was remarked by ,jeffrey1 in his ,review1 that metaphysical science was decidedly on the decline in ,scotland4 ,dugald ,stewart1 though in a delicate state of health at the time1 was in the full vigour of his faculties1 and had still eighteen years of life before him2 ,thomas ,brown had just been appointed his assistant and successor in the ,moral ,philosophy ,chair of the ,university of ,edinburgh2 and the lite of the ,scottish capital were flocking in crowds to his class-room1 captivated by the eloquence and ingenuity of his singularly vigorous and original lectures4 ,even fifteen years subsequent1 ,dr4 ,welsh could state1 in the ,life of his friend1 that the reception of his work on the ,philosophy of the ,human ,mind had been 'favourable to a degree of which1 in metaphysical writings1 there was no parallel4' ,it has been recorded as a very remarkable circumstance1 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 years4 ,the ,lectures of ,dr4 ,brown passed through exactly seven editions in twelve years1 and this at a time when1 according to ,jeffrey1 that science of mind of which they treated was in a state of gradual decay4 ,the critic was1 however1 in the right4 ,the genius of ,brown had imparted to his brilliant posthumous work an interest which could scarce be regarded as attaching to the subject of it2 and in a few years after--from about the year #ahce till after the disruption of the ,scottish ,church--metaphysical science had sunk1 not in ,scotland only1 but all over ,britain1 to its lowest ebb4 ,a few retired scholars continued to prosecute their researches in the province of mind2 but scarce any interest attached to their writings1 and not a bookseller could be found hardy enough to publish at his own risk a metaphysical work4 ,we are old enough to remember a time1 contemporaneous with the latter days of ,brown1 when young students1 in their course of preparation for the learned professions1 especially for the ,church1 used to be ever recurring in conversation to the staple metaphysical questions1--occasionally1 no doubt1 much in the style of ,jack ,lizard in the ,guardian1 who comforted his mother1 when the worthy lady was so unlucky as to scald her hand with the boiling tea-kettle1 by assuring her there was no such thing as heat1 but which at least served to show that this branch of liberal education fully occupied the mind of the individuals ostensibly engaged in mastering it2 and we remember a subsequent time1 when students--some of them very clever ones--seemed never to have thought on these questions at all1 and remained silent in conversation when they chanced to be mooted by the men of an earlier generation4 ,during1 however1 the last ten years1 mainly through the revival of a taste for metaphysical inquiry in ,france and ,germany1 which has reacted on this country1 abstract questions on the nature and functions of mind are again acquiring their modicum of space and importance in ,scotland4 ,our country no longer takes the place it once did among the nations in this department1 and never again may2 but it at least begins to remember it once was1 and to serve itself heir to the works of the older masters of mind2 and we regard it as an evidence of the reaction to which we refer1 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--,mr4 ,thomas ,constable4 ,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 author1 and the commencement of which had been remarked by ,jeffrey more than half a generation before4 ,from some peculiar views--founded1 we believe1 on an overweening estimate of their pecuniary value--the son and heir of the philosopher tabooed their publication2 and it is only now that1 in consequence of his death1 and of the juster views entertained on the subject by a sister1 also recently deceased1 that they are permitted to reappear4 ,the time1 however1 from that awakened interest in metaphysical speculation which we have remarked1 seems highly favourable for such an undertaking2 and we cannot doubt that the work will find what it deserves--a sure and steady1 if not very rapid sale4 ,stewart may be regarded as not merely one of the more distinguished members of the ,scottish school of metaphysics1 but as peculiarly its historian and exponent4 ,the mind of ,reid was cast in a more original mould1 but he wanted both the elegance and the eloquence of ,stewart1 nor were his powers of illustration equally great4 ,his language1 too1 was not only less refined and flowing1 but also less scientifically correct1 than that of his distinguished exponent and successor4 ,we would cite1 for instance1 the happy substitution by the latter of the terms 'laws of human thought and belief1' for the unfortunate phrases 'common sense' and 'instinct1' which raised so extensive a prejudice against the vigorous protest against scepticism made in other respects so effectively by ,reid2 and he passes oftener from the abstractions of his science into the regions of life and character in which all must feel interested1 however slight their acquaintance with the subtleties of metaphysical speculation4 ,the extraordinary excellence of ,professor ,stewart's style has been recognised by the highest authorities4 ,robertson was perhaps the best ,english writer of his day4 ,the courtly ,walpole1 on ascertaining that he spoke ,scotch1 told him he was heartily glad of it2 for 'it would be too mortifying1' he added1 'for ,englishmen to find that he not only wrote1 but also spoke1 their language better than themselves4' ,and yet the ,edinburgh ,reviewers recognised ,stewart as the writer of a more exquisite style than even ,robertson4 ,and ,sir ,james ,mackintosh1 no mean judge1 characterizes him as the most perfect1 in an artistic point of view1 of the philosophical writers of ,britain4 ',probably no writer ever exceeded him1' says ,sir ,james1 'in that species of eloquence which springs from sensibility to literary merit and moral excellence2 which neither obscures science by prodigal ornament1 nor disturbs the serenity of patient attention2 but1 though it rather calms and soothes the feelings1 yet exalts the genius1 and insensibly inspires a reasonable enthusiasm for whatever is good and fair4' ,now1 it is surely not unimportant that the writings of such a man1 simply in their character as literary models1 should be submitted to an age like the present1 especially to its ,scotchmen4 ,it is stated by ,hume1 in one of his letters to ,robertson1 that meeting in ,paris with the lady who first gave to the ,french a translation of ,charles ,v41 he asked her what she thought of the style of the work1 and that she instantly replied1 with great navet1 ',oh1 it is such a style as only a ,scotchman could have written4' ,scotland did certainly stand high in the age of ,hume and ,mackenzie1 of ,robertson and of ,adam ,smith1 for not only the vigour of its thinking1 but also for the purity and excellence of its style4 ,we fear1 however1 it can no longer arrogate to itself praise on this special score4 ,there have been books produced among us during the last twenty years1 which have failed in making their way into ,england1 mainly in consequence of the slipshod style in which they were written4 ,a busy age1 much agitated by controversy1 is no doubt unfavourable to the production of compositions of classic beauty4 ',the rounded period1' says an ingenious ,french writer1 'opens up the long folds of its floating robe in a time of stability1 authority1 and confidence4 ,but when literature has become a means of action1 instead of continuing to be used for its own sake1 we no longer amuse ourselves with the turning of periods4 ,the period is contemporary with the peruke--the period is the peruke of style4 ,the close of the eighteenth century shortened the one as much as the other4 ,the peruke reaching the middle of the loins could not be suitable to men in haste to accomplish a work of destruction4 ,when was ,j4 ,j4 ,rousseau himself given to the turning of periods8 ,assuredly it was not in his pamphlets6' ,now the style of ,stewart was first formed1 we need scarce remark1 during that period of profound repose which preceded the ,french ,revolution2 and his after-life1 spent in quiet and thoughtful retirement1 with the classics of our own and other countries1 ancient and modern1 for his companions1 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 it4 ,he never heard the steam-press groaning1 as the night wore late1 for his unfinished lucubrations2 nay1 we question if he ever wrote a careless or hurried sentence4 ,his naturally faultless taste had full space to satisfy itself with whatever he deemed it necessary to perform2 and hence works of finished beauty1 which1 as pieces of art1 the younger literati of ,scotland would do well to study and imitate4 ,there may be differences of opinion regarding the standing of ,stewart as a metaphysician1 but there are no differences of opinion regarding his excellence as a writer4 ,with regard to metaphysics themselves1 we are disposed to acquiesce in the judgment of ,jeffrey1 without1 however1 acquiescing in much which he has founded upon it4 ,to observe as a mental philosopher1 and to experiment as a natural one1 are very different things2 and never will mere observation in the one field lead to results so splendid or so practical as experiment on the properties of matter1 to which man owes his extraordinary control over the elements4 ,to the knowledge acquired by his observations on the nature or operations of mind1 he owes no new power over that which he surveys3 in at least its direct consequences1 his science is barren4 ,it would be difficult1 however1 to overestimate its indirect consequences4 ,it seems impossible that the metaphysical province should long exist blank and unoccupied in any highly civilised country1 especially in a country of active and acquiring intellects1 such as ,scotland4 ,if the philosophy of ,locke or of ,reid fail to occupy the field1 we find it occupied instead by that of ,comte or of ,combe4 ,owens and ,martineaus take the place of ,browns and of ,stewarts2 and bad metaphysics1 of the most dangerous tendency1 are taught1 in the lack of metaphysics wholesome and good4 ,all the more dangerous parties of the present day have their foundations of principle on a basis of bad metaphysics4 ,the same remark applies to well-nigh all the religious heresies2 and the less metaphysical an age is1 all the more superficial usually are the heresies which spring up in it4 ,we question whether ,morrisonianism could have originated in what was emphatically the metaphysical age of ,scotland1 in the latter days of ,reid1 or the earlier days of ,stewart4 ,what became in our times a heresy in the theological field1 would have spent itself1 as the mere crotchet of a few unripened intellects1 in the metaphysical one4 ,it would have found vent in some debating club or speculative society1 and the ,churches would have rested in peace4 ,there are other indirect benefits derived from metaphysical study4 ,it forms the best possible gymnastics of mind4 ,all the great metaphysicians1 if not merely acute1 but also broad-minded men1 have been great also in the practical departments of thought4 ,the author of the ,essay on the ,human ,understanding was the author also of the ,treatise on ,government and the ,letters on ,toleration4 ,hume1 in those ,essays on ,trade and ,politics1 which are free from the stain of infidelity1 was one of the most solid of thinkers2 and he who produced the ,theory of ,moral ,sentiments continues to give law at the present time1 in his ,wealth of ,nations1 to the commerce of the civilised world4 ,from a subtile but comparatively narrow class of intellects1 though distinguished in the metaphysical province1 mankind has received much less4 ,berkeley was one of these1 and may be regarded as their type and representative4 ,save his metaphysics1--demonstrative of the non-existence of matter1 or demonstrative rather that fire is not conscious of heat1 nor ice of cold1 nor yet our enlightened surface of colour1--he bequeathed little else to the world than his tar-water2 and his tar-water1 no longer recognised as a universal medicine1 has had its day1 and is forgotten4 ,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 supplanting4 ,what1 we have been accustomed to ask1 are their trophies in the practical8 ,have any of them given to the world even tar-water8 ,where are their ,lockes1 ,humes1 and ,adam ,smiths8 ,the man who1 according to ,johnson1 can walk vigorously towards the east1 can walk vigorously toward the west also4 ,how is it that these ,german metaphysicians exhibit their vigour exclusively in walking one way8 ,where are their works of a practical character1 powerful enough to give law to the species8 ,where their treatises like those of ,locke on ,toleration or on ,government1 or their essays like that of ,hume or of ,adam ,smith on the ,balance of ,power or the ,wealth of ,nations8 ,are they doing other1 to use a very old illustration1 than merely milking rams1 leaving their admirers and followers to hold the pail8 ,dugald ,stewart1 though mayhap less an original in the domain of abstract thought than some of his predecessors1 belongs emphatically to the practical school4 ,with him philosophy is simply common sense on that large scale which renders it one of the least common things in the world4 ,and never1 perhaps1 was there a more thoroughly honest seeker after truth4 ,burns somewhat whimsically describes him1 in a recently recovered letter given to the world by ,robert ,chambers1 as 'that plain1 honest1 worthy man1 the ,professor4 ,i think1' adds the poet1 'his character1 divided into ten parts1 stands thus3 ,four parts ,socrates1 four parts ,nathaniel1 and two parts ,shakespeare's ,brutus4' ,the estimate of ,sir ,james ,mackintosh is equally high2 nor will it weigh less with many of our readers that the elder ,m',crie used to give expression to a judgment quite as favourable4 ',he was fascinated1' says the son and biographer of the latter1 'with the beau ideal of academical eloquence which adorned the ,moral ,chair in the person of ,dugald ,stewart4 ,long after he had sat under this admired leader1 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 expositions1 whether of facts or principles1 always clear as the transparent stream2 and charmed by the tones of a voice which modulated into spoken music every expression of intelligence and feeling4 ,an esteemed friend of his happening to say to him some years ago1 ,i have been hearing ,dr4 ,brown lecture with all the eloquence of ,dugald ,stewart1 ,no1 sir1 he exclaimed with an air of almost ,johnsonian decision1 you have not1 and no man ever will4' ,the first volume of the collected works of ,stewart1 now given to the world in a form at once worthy of their author and of the name of ,constable1 contains the far-famed ,dissertations1 and is edited by ,sir ,william ,hamilton4 ,it contains a considerable amount of original matter1 now published from the author's manuscripts for the first time4 ,it would be idle to attempt criticising a work so well established2 but the brief remark of one of the first of metaphysical critics--,sir ,james ,mackintosh--on what he well terms 'the magnificent ,dissertations1' may be found not unacceptable4 ',these ,dissertations1' says ,sir ,james1 'are perhaps most profusely ornamented of any of their author's compositions1--a peculiarity which must in part have arisen from a principle of taste1 which regarded decoration as more suitable to the history of philosophy than to philosophy itself4 ,but the memorable instances of ,cicero1 of ,milton1 and still more those of ,dryden and ,burke1 seem to show that there is some natural tendency in the fire of genius to burn more brightly1 or to blaze more fiercely1 in the evening than in the morning of human life4 ,probably the materials which long experience supplies to the imagination1 the boldness with which a more established reputation arms the mind1 and the silence of the low but formidable rivals of the higher principles1 may concur in providing this unexpected and little observed effect4' ,august #bf1 #ahed4 ,,our ,,town ,,councils4 ,it is a grand1 though doubtless natural1 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 electors1 through whose suffrages they have been placed in office4 ,in very many cases they do not represent them at all3 they form an entirely dissimilar class1--a class as thoroughly different from the solid mass of the community1 on which they float like froth and spume on the surface of the great deep1 as that other class from which1 because there are unhappily scarce any other men in the field1 we have to select our legislators4 ,the subject is one of importance4 ,in the ,sabbath controversy now carrying on1 it has been invariably taken for granted by the anti-,sabbatarian press of the country1 that our ,town ,councils do represent the general constituency2 and there has been much founded on the assumption4 ,we shall by and by be finding the same assumption employed against us in the ,popery endowment question2 and it would be well1 therefore1 carefully to examine the grounds on which it rests1 and to ascertain whether there may not exist some practical mode of testing its unsolidity4 ,it is not difficult to see how that upper class to which our legislators of both ,houses of ,parliament mainly belong1 should differ greatly from the larger and more solid portion of the middle classes in almost all questions of a religious character and bearing4 ,bacon1 in his ,essay on ,kings1 has quaintly1 but1 we are afraid1 all too justly remarked1 that 'of all kind of men1 ,god is the least beholding unto them kings2 for ,he doth most for them1 and they do ordinarily least for ,him4' ,but the character applies to more than kings4 ,it affects the whole upper layers of the great pyramid of society1 from its gilded pinnacle down to the higher confines of its solid middle portion2 and to these upper layers of the erection our legislators1 hereditary and elective1 with1 of course1 a very few exceptions in the ,lower ,house1 all belong4 ,they are drafted from the classes with which1 if we perhaps except the lowest and most degraded of all1 religious questions weigh least4 ,there is1 of course1 no class wholly divorced from good2 and those exceptions to which ,cowper could refer two generations ago obtain still3 ',we boast some rich ones whom the gospel sways1 ,and one who wears a coronet1 and prays3 ,like gleanings of an olive tree1 they show ,here and there one upon the topmost bough4' ,but in at least the mass1 religion has not been influential among the governing classes in ,britain since the days of the ,commonwealth4 ,it has formed one of the great forces on which they have calculated--a formidable power among the people1 that they have striven1 according to the nature of the emergency1 to quiet or awaken1 bias or control1--now for the ends of party1 when an antagonist faction had to be overborne and put down1--now for the general benefit of the country1 when a foreign enemy had to be repelled or an intestine discord to be suppressed2 but it has been peculiarly a force outside the governing classes--external1 not internal1 to them1--a power which it has been their special work to regulate and direct1 not a power which has regulated and directed them4 ,the last ,british ,government which--,god1 according to ,bacon1 having done much for it--laboured earnestly to do much for ,god1 was that very remarkable one which centred in the person of the ,lord ,protector4 ,hence naturally much that is unsatisfactory to the comparatively religious middle classes of the country1 in the conduct1 with regard to religious questions1 of the classes on whom devolves the work of legislation4 ,there is no real community of feeling and belief in these matters between the two4 ,to the extent to which religion is involved in the legislative enactments of the time1 the middle class is in reality not represented1 and the upper class does not represent4 ,it may not seem equally obvious1 however1 how there should be a lack of representation1 not only among our members of ,parliament1 but also among our members of ,council4 ,they at least surely belong1 it may be said1 to the middle classes1 by whom and from among whom they are chosen for their office4 ,certainly in some cases they do2 in many others1 however1 they form a class scarce less peculiar than those upper classes out of which the legislators of the country come to be drawn1 simply because there is no other class in the field out of which they can be selected4 ,the ,reform and ,municipality ,bills wrought a mighty change in the ,town ,councils of the kingdom4 ,the old close burgh system1 with all its abuses1 ceased for ever1 save in its remains--monumental debts1 and everlasting leases of town lands1 granted on easy terms to officials and their friends2 and droll recollections1 like those embalmed by ,galt in our literature1 of solid municipal feasting1 and not so solid municipal services1--of exclusive cliqueships1 misemployed patronages1 modest self-elections1--in short1 of a general practice of jobbing1 more palpable than pleasant1 and that tended rather to individual advantage than corporate honour4 ,the old men retired1 and a set of new men were elevated by newly-created constituencies into their vacated places1 to be disinterested on dilapidated means1 and noisy on short commons4 ,the days of long and heavy feasts had come to a close1 and the days of long and heavy speeches succeeded4 ,no two events which this world of ours ever saw1 led to so vast an amount of bad speaking as the one ,reform ,bill that swept away the rotten burghs1 and the other ,reform ,bill that opened the close ones4 ,by and by1 however1 it came to be seen that the old1 privileged1 self-elected class were succeeded in many instances by a class that1 though elected by their neighbours1 were yet not quite like their neighbours4 ,their neighbours were men who1 with their own personal business to attend to1 had neither the time nor the ambition to be moving motions or speaking speeches in the eye of the public1 and who could not take the trouble to secure elections by canvassing voters4 ,the men who had the time1 and took the trouble1 were generally a class ill-hafted in society1 who had high notions of reforming everything save themselves1 and of keeping right all kinds of businesses except their own4 ,the old state of things was1 notwithstanding its many faults1 a state under which our ,scotch burghers rose into consideration by arts of comparative solidity4 ,a tradesman or shopkeeper looked well to his business1--became an important man in the market-place and a good man in the bank1--increased in weight in the same proportion that his coffers did so1 and grew influential and oracular on the strength of his pounds sterling per annum4 ,with altered times1 however1 there arose a new order of men1-- ',the wits of ,charles found easier ways to fame4' ,it was no longer necessary to spend the greater part of a lifetime in acquiring money and character3 a glib tongue1 a few high professions of public principle1 and a few weeks' canvassing1 were found to serve the turn more than equally well4 ,there commenced straightway a new dynasty of dignities and honours4 ,councillors got into print in the capacity of speechmakers1 who1 save for the revolution effected1 would never have got into print in any other capacity than1 mayhap1 that of bankrupts in the ,gazette4 ,eloquent men walked to church in scarlet1 greatly distinguished as provosts and bailies1 who but for the happy change would have crept unseen all their lives long among the crowd4 ,members of ,parliament went arm-in-arm1 when they visited their constituencies1 with folk altogether unused to such consideration2 and when a burgher's son sought to be promoted to the excise1 or a seaman to the coast-guard service1 it was through the new men that influence had to be exerted4 ,and of course the new men had to approve themselves worthy of their honours1 by making large sacrifices for the public weal4 ,they had in many cases not much to do3 the magistracy of the bygone school1 whom they succeeded1 had obligingly relieved posterity of the trouble of having a too preponderous amount of municipal property to manage and look after2 but if they had not much to do1 they had at least a great deal to say2 and as they were ambitious of saying it1 their own individual concerns were not unfrequently neglected1 in order that their constituencies might be edified and informed4 ,in cases not a few1 the natural consequences ensued4 ,we have in our eye one special burgh in the north1 in which every name in the ,town ,council1 from that of the provost down to that of the humblest councillor1 had1 in the course of some two or three years1 appeared also in the ,gazette2 and the previous provost of the place had got desperately involved with the branch banks of the district1 and had ultimately run the country1 to avoid a prosecution for forgery4 ,let it not be held that we are including the entire tribe of modern town functionaries in one sweeping condemnatory description4 ,we ourselves1 in our time 7we refer to the fact with a high but surely natural pride71 held office as a town councillor1 under the modern rgime1 for the space of three whole years in a parliamentary burgh that contained no fewer than forty voters4 ,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 ,gudetown4 ',bailie ,weezle1' says ,galt1 'was a man not overladen with worldly wisdom1 and had been chosen into the ,council principally on account of being easily managed4 ,being an idle person living on his money1 and of a soft and quiet nature1 he was1 for the reason aforesaid1 taken by one consent among us1 where he always voted on the provost's side2 for in controverted questions every one is beholden to take a part1 and the bailie thought it was his duty to side with the chief magistrate4' ,our own special qualifications for office were1 we must be permitted in justice to ourselves to state1 different from ,bailie ,weezle's by a shade4 ,it was generally held1 that if there was nothing to do we would do nothing1 and if nothing to say we would say nothing2 and so thoroughly did we fulfil every expectation that had been previously formed of us1 that for three years together we said and did nothing in our official capacity with great clat1 and regularly absented ourselves from every meeting of ,council except the first1 to the entire satisfaction of our constituency4 ,it will not be held1 therefore1 in the face of so important a fact1 that we include in our description all the town magistracies under the existing state of things1 and most certainly not all modern town councillors4 ,nothing1 however1 can be more certain1 we repeat1 than that they differ from their constituencies as a class1 and that they are chosen to represent them in municipal affairs1 just as another and higher class is chosen to represent them in the ,legislature--merely because there is no other class in the field4 ,the solid middle-class men of business have1 as has been said1 something else to employ them1 and cannot spare their services4 ,they cannot accept of mere notoriety1 with mayhap a modicum of patronate influence attached1 as an adequate price for the time and labour which their own affairs demand4 ,it is a peculiar class in the municipal as in the literary field1 that 'weigh solid pudding against empty praise1' and come to regard the empty praise as solid enough to outweigh the pudding4 ,not but that it is a fine thing to be in a ,town ,council1 and to see one's fortnightly speeches flourishing in the public prints4 ,where else could some of our ,edinburgh worthies bring themselves so prominently before the eyes of the country8 ,where else1 for instance1 could ,councillor ---- impart such universal interest to the fact that he taught in a ,sabbath school1 and rode out of town every evening to attend to its duties by a ,sunday train1--thus forming an invariable item1 it would seem1 in the average of the ninety-two ,sabbath journeyers that travelled by the ,edinburgh and ,glasgow ,railway1 and failed to remunerate the proprietors8 ,or where else could ,councillor ---- refer with such prodigious effect to ,dr4 ,chalmers's bloody-minded scheme of 'executing the heathen8' ,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 hung1 through his famous oath ',by ,jupiter8' ,by the way1 is this latter gentleman acquainted with ,smollett's story of the eccentric ,mr4 ,h41 and chivalrously bent1 on the same principle1 in acknowledging a deity in distress8 ',mr4 ,h41 some years ago1 being in the ,campidoglio at ,rome1' says ,smollett1 'made up to the bust of ,jupiter1 and bowing very low1 exclaimed1 in the ,italian language1 ,i hope1 sir1 if ever you get your head above water again1 you will remember that ,i paid my respects to you in your adversity4 ,this sally1' continues the historian1 'was reported to the ,cardinal ,camerlengo1 and by him laid before the ,pope ,benedict ,,xiv41 who could not help laughing at the extravagance of the address1 and said to the ,cardinal1 ,those ,english heretics think they have a right to go to the devil in their own way4' ,now1 standing1 as we do1 either on the threshold of serious national controversies of a religious bearing1 or already entered upon them1 it would be well to mark and test the facts which it is our present object specially to point out4 ,it would be well to take measures for rendering it an as palpable as it is a solid truth1 that the municipal tail of the country's representation no more really represents it in several very important respects than its parliamentary head4 ,it represents it most inadequately on the ,sabbath question now2 it will represent it quite as inadequately in the ,popish endowment question by and by2 and if in reality we do not wish to see the battle going against us on both issues1 there must be effective means employed to demonstrate the fact4 ,in matters of a religious bearing1 the ill-hafted notoriety-men of our ,town ,councils much more nearly resemble the upper indifferent classes1 from which our legislators are drafted1 than they do the solid bulk of the community4 ,they are decidedly in the movement party1 and form a portion1 not of the ballast1 but of the superfluous sail1 of the ,state4 ,nor should it be difficult to render the fact evident to all4 ,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 ,council4 ,so extreme a step seemed rather extraordinary for ,ross-shire2 and a gentleman of the burgh1 one of the voters1 convinced that the officials were far indeed from representing their constituency1 shrewdly set himself to demonstrate the real state of the case4 ,first he possessed himself of an accredited list of the voters2 and then1 with a memorial addressed to the ,directors1 strongly condemnatory of the conduct of the ,council1 he called upon every voter in the burgh who had not taken the opposite side in the character of a councillor1 with the exception of two1 whose views he had previously ascertained to be unfavourable4 ,and what1 thinks our reader1 was the result8 ,seven councillors had voted on the anti-,sabbatarian side2 and the provost1 for himself and the ,council1 had afterwards signed the memorial4 ,and of the voters outside1 four were found to make common cause with them4 ,two more did not make common cause with them1 but were not prepared to condemn them1 and so did not sign4 ,there were thus fourteen in all who were either not opposed to the running of ,sabbath trains1 or who were at least not disposed openly to denounce the parties who had memorialized the ,directors1 in the name of the burgh1 to the effect that ,sabbath trains should be run4 ,of the other electors1 ten were non-resident1 five more were out of town at the time1 three had fallen out of possession since the roll had been made up1 and one was dead4 ,and all the others1 amounting to sixty-nine in number1 at once signed the document condemnatory of the ,council1 and were happy to have an opportunity of doing so4 ,the available votes of the burgh were opposed to those of their pseudo-representatives in the proportion of nearly six to one4 ,in the parliamentary burgh of ,cromarty an almost similar experiment was made4 ,there1 however1 though the movement party had composed the majority of the ,council only a few years since1 they had been cast out of office1 partly through a strong reaction which had taken place against them1 partly in consequence of a quarrel among themselves4 ,and so the existing ,town ,council took the initiative in memorializing the ,directors in favour of the recent resolution not to run ,sunday trains4 ,of all the voters of the burgh1 only five stood aloof2 all the others made common cause with the ,town ,council in attaching their names to their document4 ,but it is a significant fact1 that in the knot of five the ex-councillors of the movement party were included2 and that had they been in the ,council still1 a majority would to a certainty have voted in the wake of the ,edinburgh ,town ,council4 ,there is much instruction in facts such as these2 and they may be turned to great practical account4 ,why should not the sentiments of every voter in ,scotland be taken on this same ,sabbath question now8 or what is there to prevent us from taking the sentiments of every voter in ,scotland on the ,popish endowment question by and by8 ,it is a tedious and expensive matter to get up petitions1 to which all and sundry affix their names2 but the franchise-holders of ,scotland are comparatively a not very numerous class2 and about the same amount of labour that goes to a monthly collection for the ,sustentation ,fund1 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 day4 ,but enough for the present--'a word to the wise4' ,january #bj1 #ahdg4 ,,sutherland ,,as ,,it ,,was ,,and ,,is2#a ,,or1 ,,how ,a ,,country ,,may ,,be ,,ruined4 ,,chapter ,i4 ,there appeared at ,paris1 about five years ago1 a singularly ingenious work on political economy1 from the pen of the late ,m4 de ,sismondi1 a writer of ,european reputation4 ,the greater part of the first volume is taken up with discussions on territorial wealth1 and the condition of the cultivators of the soil2 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 ,state4 ,we find this philosophic writer1 whose works are known far beyond the limits of his language1 devoting an entire essay to the case of the late ,duchess of ,sutherland and her tenants1 and forming a judgment on it very unlike the decision of political economists in our own country1 who have not hesitated to characterize her great and singularly harsh experiment1 whose worst effects we are but beginning to see1 as at once justifiable in itself and happy in its results4 ,it is curious to observe how deeds done as if in darkness and a corner1 are beginning1 after the lapse of nearly thirty years1 to be proclaimed on the house-tops4 ,the experiment of the late ,duchess was not intended to be made in the eye of ,europe4 ,its details would ill bear the exposure4 ,when ,cobbett simply referred to it only ten years ago1 the noble proprietrix was startled1 as if a rather delicate family secret was on the eve of being divulged2 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 accomplished1 and what it is ultimately to produce4 ,it must be obvious1 further1 that the infatuation of the present proprietor1 in virtually setting aside the ,toleration ,act on his property1 must have the effect of spreading the knowledge of it all the more widely1 and of rendering its results much more disastrous than they could have possibly been of themselves4 ,in a time of quiet and good order1 when law1 whether in the right or the wrong1 is all-potent in enforcing its findings1 the argument which the philosophic ,frenchman employs in behalf of the ejected tenantry of ,sutherland1 is an argument at which proprietors may afford to smile4 ,in a time of revolution1 however1 when lands change their owners1 and old families give place to new ones1 it might be found somewhat formidable1--sufficiently so1 at least1 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 effect4 ,it is not easy doing justice in a few sentences to the facts and reasonings of an elaborate essay2 but the line of the argument runs somewhat thus4 ,under the old ,celtic tenures--the only tenures1 be it remembered1 through which the lords of ,sutherland derive their rights to their lands--the ,klaan1 or children of the soil1 were the proprietors of the soil3 'the whole of ,sutherland1' says ,sismondi1 belonged to 'the men of ,sutherland4' ,their chief was their monarch1 and a very absolute monarch he was4 ',he gave the different tacks of land to his officers1 or took them away from them1 according as they showed themselves more or less useful in war4 ,but though he could thus1 in a military sense1 reward or punish the clan1 he could not diminish in the least the property of the clan itself2'--he was a chief1 not a proprietor1 and had 'no more right to expel from their homes the inhabitants of his county1 than a king to expel from his country the inhabitants of his kingdom4' ',now1 the ,gaelic tenant1' continues the ,frenchman1 'has never been conquered2 nor did he forfeit1 on any after occasion1 the rights which he originally possessed2'--in point of right1 he is still a co-proprietor with his captain4 ,to a ,scotchman acquainted with the law of property as it has existed among us1 in even the ,highlands1 for the last century1 and everywhere else for at least two centuries more1 the view may seem extreme2 not so1 however1 to a native of the ,continent1 in many parts of which prescription and custom are found ranged1 not on the side of the chief1 but on that of the vassal4 ',switzerland1' says ,sismondi1 'which in so many respects resembles ,scotland--in its lakes--its mountains--its climate--and the character1 manners1 and habits of its children--was likewise at the same period parcelled out among a small number of lords4 ,if the ,counts of ,kyburgh1 of ,lentzburg1 of ,hapsburg1 and of ,gruyeres1 had been protected by the ,english laws1 they would find themselves at the present day precisely in the condition in which the ,earls of ,sutherland were twenty years ago4 ,some of them would perhaps have had the same taste for improvements1 and several republics would have been expelled from the ,alps1 to make room for flocks of sheep4' ',but while the law has given to the ,swiss peasant a guarantee of perpetuity1 it is to the ,scottish laird that it has extended this guarantee in the ,british empire1 leaving the peasant in a precarious situation4' ',the clan--recognised at first by the captain1 whom they followed in war and obeyed for their common advantage1 as his friends and relations1 then as his soldiers1 then as his vassals1 then as his farmers--he has come finally to regard as hired labourers1 whom he may perchance allow to remain on the soil of their common country for his own advantage1 but whom he has the power to expel so soon as he no longer finds it for his interest to keep them4' ,arguments like those of ,sismondi1 however much their force may be felt on the ,continent1 could be formidable at home1 as we have said1 in only a time of revolution1 when the very foundations of society would be unfixed1 and opinion set loose1 to pull down or reconstruct at pleasure4 ,but it is surely not uninteresting to mark how1 in the course of events1 that very law of ,england which1 in the view of the ,frenchman1 has done the ,highland peasant so much less1 and the ,highland chief so much more than justice1 is bidding fair1 in the case of ,sutherland at least1 to carry its rude equalizing remedy along with it4 ,between the years #ahaa and #ahbj1 fifteen thousand inhabitants of this northern district were ejected from their snug inland farms1 by means for which we would in vain seek a precedent1 except1 perchance1 in the history of the ,irish massacre4 ,but though the interior of the county was thus improved into a desert1 in which there are many thousands of sheep1 but few human habitations1 let it not be supposed by the reader that its general population1 was in any degree lessened4 ,so far was this from being the case1 that the census of #ahba showed an increase over the census of #ahaa of more than two hundred2 and the present population of ,sutherland exceeds1 by a thousand1 its population before the change4 ,the county has not been depopulated--its population has been merely arranged after a new fashion4 ,the late ,duchess found it spread equally over the interior and the sea-coast1 and in very comfortable circumstances2--she left it compressed into a wretched selvage of poverty and suffering1 that fringes the county on its eastern and western shores4 ,and the law which enabled her to make such an arrangement1 maugre the ancient rights of the poor ,highlander1 is now on the eve of stepping in1 in its own clumsy way1 to make her family pay the penalty4 ,the evil of a poor-law can be no longer averted from ,scotland4 ,however much we may dislike compulsory assessment for the support of our poor1 it can be no longer avoided4 ,our aristocracy have been working hard for it during the whole of the present century1 and a little longer2 the disruption of the ,scottish ,church1 as the last in a series of events1 all of which have tended towards it1 has rendered it inevitable4 ,let the evidence of the present commissioners on the subject be what it may1 it cannot be of a kind suited to show that if ,england should have a poor-law1 ,scotland should have none4 ,the southern kingdom must and will give us a poor-law2 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 own4 ,if our ,british laws1 unlike those of ,switzerland1 failed miserably in her day in protecting the vassal1 they will more than fail1 in those of her successor1 in protecting the lord4 ,our political economists shall have an opportunity of reducing their arguments regarding the improvements in ,sutherland into a few arithmetical terms1 which the merest tyro will be able to grapple with4 ,we find a similar case thus strongly stated by ,cobbett in his ,northern ,tour1 and in connection with a well-known name3--',sir ,james ,graham has his estate lying off this road to the left4 ,he has not been clearing his estate--the poor-law would not let him do that2 but he has been clearing off the small farms1 and making them into large ones1 which he had a right to do1 because it is he himself that is finally to endure the consequences of that3 he has a right to do that2 and those who are made indigent in consequence of his so doing1 have a right to demand a maintenance out of the land1 according to the ,act of the #dc;d of ,elizabeth1 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 ,tudors4 ,if ,sir ,james ,graham choose to mould his fine and large estate into immense farms1 and to break up numerous happy families in the middle rank of life1 and to expose them all to the necessity of coming and demanding sustenance from his estate2 if he choose to be surrounded by masses of persons in this state1 he shall not call them paupers1 for that insolent term is not to be found in the compensation-laws of ,elizabeth2 if he choose to be surrounded by swarms of beings of this description1 with feelings in their bosoms towards him such as ,i need not describe1--if he choose this1 his ,,right certainly extends thus far2 but ,i tell him that he has no right to say to any man born in his parishes1 ,you shall not be here1 and you shall not have a maintenance off these lands4' ,there is but poor comfort1 however1 to know1 when one sees a country ruined1 that the perpetrators of the mischief have not ruined it to their own advantage4 ,we purpose showing how signal in the case of ,sutherland this ruin has been1 and how very extreme the infatuation which continues to possess its hereditary lord4 ,we are old enough to remember the county in its original state1 when it was at once the happiest and one of the most exemplary districts in ,scotland1 and passed1 at two several periods1 a considerable time among its hills2 we are not unacquainted with it now1 nor with its melancholy and dejected people1 that wear out life in their comfortless cottages on the sea-shore4 ,the problem solved in this remote district of the kingdom is not at all unworthy the attention which it seems but beginning to draw1 but which is already not restricted to one kingdom1 or even one continent4 ----- #a ',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 name1 and by her husband the ,marquis of ,stafford4444 ,i wish to possess authentic information relative to that ,,clearing affair2 for though it took place twenty years ago1 it may be just as necessary to inquire into it now4 ,it may be quite proper to inquire into the means that were used to effect the ,,clearing4'--,,cobbett4 ',it is painful to dwell on this subject' the present state of ,sutherland2 'but as information communicated by men of honour1 judgment1 and perfect veracity1 descriptive of what they daily witness1 affords the best means of forming a correct judgment1 and as these gentlemen1 from their situations in life1 have no immediate interest in the determination of the question1 beyond what is dictated by humanity and a love of truth1 their authority may be considered as undoubted4'--,,general ,,stewart of ,garth4 ',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 ages4444 ,a count or earl has no more right to expel from their homes the inhabitants of his county1 than a king to expel from his country the inhabitants of his kingdom4'--,,sismondi4 ,,chapter ,,ii4 ,we heard sermon in the open air with a poor ,highland congregation in ,sutherlandshire only a few weeks ago2 and the scene was one which we shall not soon forget4 ,the place of meeting was a green hill-side1 near the opening of a deep1 long withdrawing strath1 with a river running through the midst4 ,we stood on the slope where the last of a line of bold eminences1 that form the southern side of the valley1 sinks towards the sea4 ,a tall precipitous mountain1 reverend and hoary1 and well fitted to tranquillize the mind1 from the sober solemnity that rests on its massy features1 rose fronting us on the north2 a quiet burial-ground lay at its feet2 while1 on the opposite side1 between us and the sea1 there frowned an ancient stronghold of time-eaten stone--an impressive memorial of an age of violence and bloodshed4 ,the last proprietor1 says tradition1 had to quit this dwelling by night1 with all his family1 in consequence of some unfortunate broil1 and take refuge in a small coasting vessel2 a terrible storm arose--the vessel foundered at sea--and the hapless proprietor and his children were nevermore heard of4 ,and hence1 it is said1 the extinction of the race4 ,the story speaks of an unsettled time2 nor is it difficult to trace1 in the long deep valley on the opposite hand1 the memorials of a story not less sad1 though much more modern4 ,on both sides the river the eye rests on a multitude of scattered patches of green1 that seem inlaid in the brown heath4 ,we trace on these islands of sward the marks of furrows1 and mark here and there1 through the loneliness1 the remains of a group of cottages1 well-nigh levelled with the soil1 and1 haply like those ruins which eastern conquerors leave in their track1 still scathed with fire4 ,all is solitude within the valley1 except where1 at wide intervals1 the shieling of a shepherd may be seen2 but at its opening1 where the hills range to the coast1 the cottages for miles together lie clustered as in a hamlet4 ,from the north of ,helmsdale to the south of ,port ,gower1 the lower slopes of the hills are covered by a labyrinth of stone fences1 minute patches of corn1 and endless cottages4 ,it would seem as if for twenty miles the long withdrawing valley had been swept of its inhabitants1 and the accumulated sweepings left at its mouth1 just as we see the sweepings of a room sometimes left at the door4 ,and such generally is the present state of ,sutherland4 ,the interior is a solitude occupied by a few sheep-farmers and their hinds2 while a more numerous population than fell to the share of the entire county1 ere the inhabitants were expelled from their inland holdings1 and left to squat upon the coast1 occupy the selvage of discontent and poverty that fringes its shores4 ,the congregation with which we worshipped on this occasion was drawn mainly from these cottages1 and the neighbouring village of ,helmsdale4 ,it consisted of from six to eight hundred ,highlanders1 all devoted adherents of the ,free ,church4 ,we have rarely seen a more deeply serious assemblage2 never certainly one that bore an air of such deep dejection4 ,the people were wonderfully clean and decent2 for it is ill with ,highlanders when they neglect their personal appearance1 especially on a ,sabbath2 but it was all too evident that the heavy hand of poverty rested upon them1 and that its evils were now deepened by oppression4 ,it might be a mere trick of association2 but when their plaintive ,gaelic singing1 so melancholy in its tones at all times1 arose from the bare hill-side1 it sounded in our ears like a deep wail of complaint and sorrow4 ,poor people6 ',we were ruined and reduced to beggary before1' they say1 'and now the gospel is taken from us4' ,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 proprietor1 and have not stifled their convictions for a piece of bread--are devotedly attached to the disestablished ministers1 and will endure none other4 ,the residuary clergy they do not recognise as clergy at all4 ,the ,established churches have become as useless in the district1 as if1 like its ,druidical circles1 they represented some idolatrous belief1 long exploded--the people will not enter them2 and they respectfully petition his ,grace to be permitted to build other churches for themselves4 ,and fain would his ,grace indulge them1 he says4 ,in accordance with the suggestions of an innate desire1 willingly would he permit them to build their own churches and support their own ministers4 ,but then1 has he not loyally engaged to support the ,establishment8 ,to permit a religious and inoffensive people to build their own places of worship1 and support their own clergy1 would be sanctioning a sort of persecution against the ,establishment2 and as his ,grace dislikes religious persecution1 and has determined always to oppose whatever tends to it1 he has resolved to make use of his influence1 as the most extensive of ,scottish proprietors1 in forcing them back to their parish churches4 ,if they persist in worshipping ,god agreeably to the dictates of their conscience1 it must be on the unsheltered hill-side--in winter1 amid the frosts and snows of a severe northern climate--in the milder seasons1 exposed to the scorching sun and the drenching shower4 ,they must not be permitted the shelter of a roof1 for that would be persecuting the ,establishment2 and so to the ,establishment must the people be forced back1 literally by stress of weather4 ,his ,grace owes a debt to the national institution1 and it seems to irk his conscience until some equivalent be made4 ,he is not himself a member--he exercises the same sort of liberty which his people would so fain exercise2 and to make amends for daring to belong to another ,church himself 7that of ,england71 he has determined1 if he can help it1 that the people shall belong to no other4 ,he has resolved1 it would seem1 to compound for his own liberty by depriving them of theirs4 ,how they are to stand out the winter on this exposed eastern coast1 ,he alone knows who never shuts ,his ear to the cry of the oppressed4 ,one thing is certain1 they will never return to the ,establishment4 ,on this ,sabbath the congregation in the parish church did not1 as we afterwards learned1 exceed a score2 and the quoad sacra chapel of the district was locked up4 ,long before the ,disruption the people had well-nigh ceased attending the ministrations of the parish incumbent4 ,the ,sutherland ,highlanders are still a devout people2 they like a bald mediocre essay none the better for its being called a sermon1 and read on ,sabbath4 ,the noble ,duke1 their landlord1 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 ,churches3 it is a difference so exceedingly slight1 that his ,grace fails to see it2 and he hopes that by and by1 when winter shall have thickened the atmosphere with its frost rime and its snows1 his poor tenantry may prove as unable to see it as himself4 ,with them1 however1 the difference is not mainly a doctrinal one4 ,they believe with the old ,earls of ,sutherland1 who did much to foster the belief in this northern county1 that there is such a thing as personal piety1--that of two clergymen holding nominally the same doctrines1 and bound ostensibly by the same standards1 one may be a regenerate man1 earnestly bent on the conversion of others1 and ready to lay down his worldly possessions1 and even life itself1 for the cause of the gospel2 while the other may be an unregenerate man1 so little desirous of the conversion of others1 that he would but decry and detest them did he find them converted already1 and so careless of the gospel1 that did not his living depend on professing to preach it1 he would neither be an advocate for it himself1 nor yet come within earshot of where it was advocated by others4 ,the ,highlanders of ,sutherland hold in deep seriousness a belief of this character4 ,they believe1 further1 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 themselves4 ,unlike his ,grace the ,duke1 the people have been intelligent enough to see two sets of principles ranged in decided antagonism in the ,church question2 but still more clearly have they seen two sets of men4 ,they have identified the cause of the gospel with that of the-,free ,church in their district2 and neither the ,duke of ,sutherland nor the ,establishment which he is 'engaged in endeavouring to maintain1' will be able to reverse the opinion4 ,we have said that his ,grace's ancestors1 the old earls1 did much to foster this spirit4 ,the history of ,sutherland1 as a county1 differs from all our other ,highland districts4 ,its two great families were those of ,reay and ,sutherland1 both of which1 from an early period of the ,reformation1 were not only ,protestant1 but also thoroughly evangelical4 ,it was the venerable ,earl of ,sutherland who first subscribed the ,national ,covenant in the ,greyfriars4 ,it was a scion of the ,reay family--a man of great personal piety--who led the troops of ,william against ,dundee at ,killiecrankie4 ,their influence was all-powerful in ,sutherland1 and directed to the best ends2 and we find it stated by ,captain ,henderson1 in his general view of the agriculture of the country1 as a well-established and surely not uninteresting fact1 that 'the crimes of rapine1 murder1 and plunder1 though not unusual in the county during the feuds and conflicts of the clans1 were put an end to about the year #afdj'--;a full century before our other ,highland districts had become even partially civilised4 ',pious earls and barons of former times1' says a native of the county1 in a small work published in ,edinburgh about sixteen years ago1 'encouraged and patronized pious ministers1 and a high tone of religious feeling came thus to be diffused throughout the country4' ,its piety was strongly of the ,presbyterian type2 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 patrons1 than in ,sutherland a full century ago4 ,we have before us an interesting document1 the invitation of the elders1 parishioners1 and heritors of ,lairg1 to the ,rev4 ,thomas ,m',kay1 #agdh1 to be their minister1 in which1 'hoping that' he would find their 'call1 carried on with great sincerity1 unanimity1 and order1 to be a clear call from the ,lord1' they faithfully promise to 'yield him1 in their several stations and relations1 all dutiful respect and encouragement4' ,william ,earl of ,sutherland was patron of the parish1 but we find him on this occasion exercising no patronate powers3 at the head of parishioners and elders he merely adhibits his name4 ,he merely invites with the others4 ,the state of morals in the county was remarkably exemplified at a later period by the regiment of ,sutherland ,highlanders1 embodied originally in #agic1 under the name of the ,sutherlandshire ,fencibles1 and subsequently in #ahjj as the #ic;d ,regiment4 ,most other troops are drawn from among the unsettled and reckless part of the population2 not so the ,sutherland ,highlanders4 ,on the breaking out of the revolutionary war1 the mother of the present ,duke summoned them from their hills1 and five hundred fighting men marched down to ,dunrobin ,castle1 to make a tender of their swords to their country1 at the command of their chieftainess4 ,the regiment1 therefore1 must be regarded as a fair specimen of the character of the district2 and from the description of ,general ,stewart of ,garth1 and one or two sources besides1 we may learn what that character was4 ',in the words of a general officer by whom they were once reviewed1' says ,general ,stewart1 'they exhibited a perfect pattern of military discipline and moral rectitude4' ',when stationed at the ,cape of ,good ,hope1 anxious to enjoy the advantages of religious instruction agreeably to the tenets of their national ,church1 and there being no religious service in the garrison except the customary one of reading prayers to the soldiers on parade1 the ,sutherland men formed themselves into a congregation1 appointed elders of their own number1 engaged and paid a stipend 7collected among themselves7 to a clergyman of the ,church of ,scotland 7who had gone out with an intention of teaching and preaching to the ,caffres71 and had divine service performed agreeably to the ritual of the ,established ,church4444 ,in addition to these expenses1 the soldiers regularly remitted money to their relatives in ,sutherland4 ,when they disembarked at ,plymouth in ,august #ahad1 the inhabitants were both surprised and gratified4 ,on such occasions it had been no uncommon thing for soldiers to spend in taverns and gin-shops the money they had saved4 ,in the present case the soldiers of ,sutherland were seen in book-sellers' shops1 supplying themselves with ,bibles and such books and tracts as they required4 ,yet1 as at the ,cape1 where their religious habits were so free of all fanatical gloom that they occasionally indulged in social meetings and dancing1 so here1 while expending their money on books1 they did not neglect their personal appearance2 and the haberdashers' shops had also their share of trade1 from the purchase of additional feathers to their bonnets1 and such extra decorations as the correctness of military regulations allow to be introduced into the uniform4 ,nor1 while thus mindful of themselves--improving their mind and their personal appearance--did such of them as had relations in ,sutherland forget their destitute condition1 occasioned by the loss of their lands1 and the operation of the improved state of the country4 ,during the short period that the regiment was quartered at ,plymouth1 upwards of #ejj were lodged in one banking house to be remitted to ,sutherland1 exclusive of many sums sent through the ,post ,office and by officers4 ,some of the sums exceeded #bj from an individual soldier4' ',in the case of such men1' continues the ,general1 'disgraceful punishment was as unnecessary as it would have been pernicious4 ,indeed1 so remote was the idea of such a measure in regard to them1 that when punishments were to be inflicted on others1 and the troops in camp1 garrison1 or quarters assembled to witness the execution1 the presence of the ,sutherland ,highlanders--either of the fencibles or of the line--was dispensed with2 the effect of terror1 as a check to crime1 being in their case uncalled for1 as examples of that nature were not necessary for such honourable soldiers4 ,such were these men in garrison4 ,how thoroughly they were guided by honour and loyalty in the field1 was shown at ,new ,orleans4 ,although many of their countrymen who had emigrated to ,america were ready and anxious to receive them1 there was not an instance of desertion2 nor did one of those who were left behind1 wounded or prisoners1 forget their allegiance and remain in that country1 at the same time that desertions from the ,british army were but too frequent4' ,this is testimony which even men of the world will scarce suspect4 ,we can supplement it by that of the missionary whom the ,sutherlandshire soldiers made choice of at ,cape ,town as their minister4 ,we quote from a letter by the ,rev4 ,mr4 ,thom1 which appeared in the ,christian ,herald of ,october #ahad3-- ',when the #ic;d ,sutherland ,highlanders left ,cape ,town last month1' writes the reverend gentleman1 'there were among them #aef members of the church 7including three elders and three deacons71 all of whom1 so far as man can know the heart from the life1 were pious persons4 ,the regiment was certainly a pattern for morality and good behaviour to every other corps4 ,they read their ,bibles2 they observed the ,sabbath2 they saved their money in order to do good2 #gjjj rix-dollars 7#adjj currency7 the non-commissioned officers and privates gave for books1 societies1 and the support of the gospel--a sum perhaps unparalleled in any other corps in the world1 given in the short space of seventeen or eighteen months4 ,their example had a general good effect on both the colonists and heathen4 ,how they may act as to religion in other parts is known to ,god2 but if ever apostolic days were revived in modern times on earth1 ,i certainly believe some of these to have been granted to us in ,africa4' ,one other extract of a similar kind3 we quote from a letter to the ,committee of the ,edinburgh ,gaelic ,school ,society1 ,fourth ,annual ,report3-- ',the regiment 7#ic;d7 arrived in ,england1 when they immediately received orders to proceed to ,north ,america2 but before they re-embarked1 the sum collected for your ,society was made up1 and has been remitted to your treasurer1 amounting to seventy-eight pounds sterling4' ,we dwell with pleasure on this picture2 and shall present the reader1 in our next chapter1 with a picture of similar character1 taken from observation1 of the homes in which these soldiers were reared4 ,the reverse is all too stern1 but we must exhibit it also1 and show how the influence which the old ,earls of ,sutherland employed so well1 has been exerted by their descendants to the ruin of their country4 ,but we must first give one other extract from ,general ,stewart4 ,it indicates the track in which the ruin came4 ',men like these1' he says1 referring to the ,sutherland ,highlanders1 'do credit to the peasantry of the country4 ,if this conclusion is well founded1 the removal of so many of the people from their ancient seats1 where they acquired those habits and principles1 must be considered a public loss of no common magnitude4 ,it must appear strange1 and somewhat inconsistent1 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 people1 should so frequently take the lead in approving of measures which1 by removing them from where they imbibed principles which have attracted the notice of ,europe1 and placed them in situations where poverty1 and the too frequent attendants1 vice and crime1 will lay the foundation of a character which will be a disgrace1 as that already obtained has been an honour1 to this country4 ,in the new stations where so many ,highlanders are now placed1 and crowded in such numbers as to preserve the numerical population1 while whole districts are left without inhabitants1 how can they resume their ancient character and principles1 which1 according to the reports of those employed by the proprietors1 have been so deplorably broken down and deteriorated--a deterioration which was entirely unknown till the recent change in the condition of the people1 and the introduction of that system of placing families on patches of potato ground1 as in ,ireland--a system pregnant with degradation1 poverty1 and disaffection1 and exhibiting daily a prominent and deplorable example1 which might have forewarned ,highland proprietors1 and prevented them from reducing their people to a similar state8 ,it is only when parents and heads of families in the ,highlands are moral1 happy1 and contented1 that they can instil sound principles into their children1 who1 in their intercourse with the world1 may once more become what the men of ,sutherland have already been1 an honourable example1 worthy the imitation of all4' ,,chapter ,,iii4 ,we have exhibited the ,sutherland ,highlanders to the reader as they exhibited themselves to their country1 when1 as ,christian soldiers1--men1 like the old chivalrous knight1 'without fear or reproach1'--they fought its battles and reflected honour on its name4 ,interest must attach to the manner in which men of so high a moral tone were reared2 and a sketch drawn from personal observation of the interior of ,sutherland eight-and-twenty years ago1 may be found to throw very direct light on the subject4 ,to know what the district once was1 and what it is now1 is to know with peculiar emphasis the meaning of the sacred text1 ',one sinner destroyeth much good4' ,the eye of a ,triptolemus ,yellowlee would have found exceedingly little to gratify it in the parish of ,lairg thirty years ago4 ,the parish had its bare hills1 its wide1 dark moors1 its old doddered woods of birch and hazel1 its extensive lake1 its headlong river1 and its roaring cataract4 ,nature had imparted to it much of a wild and savage beauty2 but art had done nothing for it4 ,to reverse the well-known antithesis in which ,goldsmith sums up his description of ,italy1--the only growth that had not dwindled in it was man4 ,the cottage in which we resided with an aged relative and his two stalwart sons1 might be regarded as an average specimen of the human dwellings of the district4 ,it was a low long building of turf1 consisting of four apartments on the ground floor1--the one stuck on to the end of the other1 and threaded together by a passage that connected the whole4 ,from the nearest hill the cottage reminded one of a huge black snail crawling up the slope4 ,the largest of the four apartments was occupied by the master's six milk cows2 the next in size was the ha'1 or sitting-room1--a rude but not uncomfortable apartment1 with the fire on a large flat stone in the middle of the floor4 ,the apartment adjoining was decently partitioned into sleeping places2 while the fourth and last in the range--more neatly fitted up than any of the others1 with furniture the workmanship of a bred carpenter1 a small bookcase containing from forty to fifty volumes1 and a box-bed of deal--was known as the stranger's room4 ,there was a straggling group of buildings outside1 in the same humble style1--a stable1 a barn1 a hay-barn1 a sheep-pen with a shed attached1 and a milk-house2 and stretching around the whole lay the farm1--a straggling patch of corn land of from twelve to fifteen acres in extent1 that1 from its extremely irregular outline1 and the eccentric forms of the parti-coloured divisions into which it was parcelled1 reminded one of a coloured map4 ,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 cottages1 identical in appearance with the corn land and the cottages described4 ,we remember that1 coming from a seaport town1 where1 to give to property the average security1 the usual means had to be resorted to1 we were first struck by finding that the door of our relative's cottage1 in this inland parish1 was furnished with neither lock nor bar4 ,like that of the hermit in the ballad1 it opened with a latch2 but1 unlike that of the hermit1 it was not because there were no stores under the humble roof to demand the care of the master4 ,it was because that1 at this comparatively recent period1 the crime of theft was unknown in the district4 ,the philosophic ,biot1 when occupied in measuring the time of the seconds pendulum1 resided for several months in one of the smaller ,shetland islands2 and1 fresh from the troubles of ,france1--his imagination bearing about1 if we may so speak1 the stains of the guillotine1--the state of trustful security in which he found the simple inhabitants filled him with astonishment4 ',here1' he exclaimed1 'during the twenty-five years in which ,europe has been devouring herself1 the door of the house ,i inhabit has remained open day and night4' ,the whole interior of ,sutherland was1 at the time of which we write1 in a similar condition4 ,it did not surprise us that the old man1 a person of deep piety1 regularly assembled his household night and morning for the purpose of family worship1 and led in their devotions3 we had seen many such instances in the low country4 ,but it did somewhat surprise us to find the practice universal in the parish4 ,in every family had the worship of ,god been set up4 ,one could not pass an inhabited cottage in the evening1 from which the voice of psalms was not to be heard4 ,on ,sabbath morning1 the whole population might be seen wending their way1 attired in their best1 along the blind half-green paths in the heath1 to the parish church4 ,the minister was greatly beloved1 and all attended his ministrations4 ,we still remember the intense joy which his visits used to impart to the household of our relative4 ,this worthy clergyman still lives1 though the infirmities of a stage of life very advanced have gathered round him2 and at the late disruption1 choosing his side1 and little heeding1 when duty called1 that his strength had been wasted in the labour of forty years1 and that he could now do little more than testify and suffer in behalf of his principles1 he resigned his hold of the temporalities as minister of ,dornoch1 and cast in his lot with his brethren of the ,free ,church4 ,and his venerable successor in ,lairg1 a man equally beloved and exemplary1 and now on the verge of his eightieth year1 has acted a similar part4 ,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 highly2 but there is an element in evangelism which repels admiration1 unless it be an admiration grounded in faith and love2 and the appeal in such cases must lie1 therefore1 not to the justice of the world1 but to the judgment-seat of ,god4 ,we may remind the reader1 in passing1 that it was the venerable minister of ,lairg who1 on quitting his manse on the ,disruption1 was received by his widowed daughter into a cottage held of the ,duke of ,sutherland1 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 creatures4 ,is it not somewhat necessary that the breath of public opinion should be let in on this remote country8 ,but we digress4 ,a peculiar stillness seemed to rest over this ,highland parish on the ,sabbath4 ,the family devotions of the morning1 the journey to and from church1 and the public services there1 occupied fully two-thirds of the day4 ,but there remained the evening1 and of it the earlier part was spent in what are known in the north country as fellowship meetings4 ,one of these was held regularly in the 'ha'' of our relative4 ,from fifteen to twenty people1 inclusive of the family1 met for the purposes of social prayer and religious conversation1 and the time passed profitably away1 till the closing night summoned the members of the meeting to their respective homes and their family duties4 ,we marked an interesting peculiarity in the devotions of our relative4 ,he was1 as we have said1 an old man1 and had worshipped in his family long ere ,dr4 ,stewart's ,gaelic translation of the ,scriptures had been introduced into the county2 and as he was supplied in those days with only the ,english ,bible1 while his domestics understood only ,gaelic1 he had to acquire the art1 not uncommon in ,sutherland at the time1 of translating the ,english chapter for them1 as he read1 into their native tongue2 and this he had learned to do with such ready fluency1 that no one could have guessed it to be other than a ,gaelic work from which he was reading4 ,it might have been supposed1 however1 that the introduction of ,dr4 ,stewart's edition would have rendered this mode of translation obsolete2 but in this and many other families such was not the case4 ,the old man's ,gaelic was ,sutherlandshire ,gaelic4 ,his family understood it better1 in consequence1 than any other2 and so he continued to translate from his ,english ,bible1 ad aperturam libri1 many years after the ,gaelic edition had been spread over the county4 ,the fact that such a practice should have been common in ,sutherland1 says something surely for the intelligence of the family patriarchs of the district4 ,that thousands of the people who knew the ,scriptures through no other medium1 should have been intimately acquainted with the saving doctrines and witnesses of their power 7and there can be no question that such was the case71 is proof enough1 at least1 that it was a practice carried on with a due perception of the scope and meaning of the sacred volume4 ,one is too apt to associate intelligence with the external improvements of a country--with well-enclosed fields and whitewashed cottages2 but the association is altogether a false one4 ,as shown by the testimony of ,general ,stewart of ,garth1 the ,sutherland regiment was not only the most eminently moral1 but1 as their tastes and habits demonstrated1 one of the most decidedly intellectual under the ,british ,crown4 ,our relative's cottage had1 as we have said1 its bookcase1 and both his sons were very intelligent men2 but intelligence derived directly from books was not general in the county2 a very considerable portion of the people understood no other language than ,gaelic1 and many of them could not even read2 for at this period about one-tenth of the families of ,sutherland were distant five or more miles from the nearest school4 ,their characteristic intelligence was of a kind otherwise derived3 it was an intelligence drawn from these domestic readings of the ,scriptures and from the pulpit2 and is referred mainly to that profound science which even a ,newton could recognise as more important and wonderful than any of the others1 but which many of the shallower intellects of our own times deem no science at all4 ,it was an intelligence out of which their morality sprung2 it was an intelligence founded in earnest belief4 ,but what1 asks the reader1 was the economic condition--the condition with regard to circumstances and means of living--of these ,sutherland ,highlanders8 ,how did they fare8 ,the question has been variously answered3 much must depend on the class selected from among them as specimens of the whole1--much1 too1 taking for granted the honesty of the party who replies1 on his own condition in life1 and his acquaintance with the circumstances of the poorer people of ,scotland generally4 ,the county had its less genial localities1 in which1 for a month or two in the summer season1 when the stock of grain from the previous year was fast running out1 and the crops on the ground not yet ripened for use1 the people experienced a considerable degree of scarcity1--such scarcity as a mechanic in the south feels when he has been a fortnight out of employment4 ,but the ,highlander had resources in these seasons which the mechanic has not4 ,he had his cattle and his wild pot-herbs1 such as the mugwort and the nettle4 ,it has been adduced by the advocates of the change which has ruined ,sutherland1 as a proof of the extreme hardship of the ,highlander's condition1 that at such times he could have eaten as food a broth made of nettles1 mixed up with a little oatmeal1 or have had recourse to the expedient of bleeding his cattle1 and making the blood into a sort of pudding4 ,and it is quite true that the ,sutherlandshire ,highlander was in the habit1 at such times1 of having recourse to such food4 ,it is not less true1 however1 that the statement is just as little conclusive regarding his condition1 as if it were alleged there must always be famine in ,france when the people eat the hind legs of frogs1 or in ,italy when they make dishes of snails4 ,we never saw scarcity in the house of our relative1 but we have seen the nettle broth in it very frequently1 and the blood-pudding oftener than once2 for both dishes were especial favourites with the ,highlanders4 ,with regard to the general comfort of the people in their old condition1 there are better tests than can be drawn from the kind of food they occasionally ate4 ,the country hears often of dearth in ,sutherland now3 every year in which the crop falls a little below average in other districts1 is a year of famine there2 but the country never heard of dearth in ,sutherland then4 ,there were very few among the holders of its small inland farms who had not saved a little money4 ,their circumstances were such1 that their moral nature found full room to develope itself1 and in a way the world has rarely witnessed4 ,never were there a happier or more contented people1 or a people more strongly attached to the soil2 and not one of them now lives in the altered circumstances on which they were so rudely precipitated by the landlord1 who does not look back on this period of comfort and enjoyment with sad and hopeless regret4 ,we have never heard the system which has depopulated this portion of the country defended1 without recurring to our two several visits to the turf cottage in ,lairg1 or without feeling that the defence embodied an essential falsehood1 which time will not fail to render evident to the apprehensions of all4 ,we would but fatigue our readers were we to run over half our recollections of the interior of ,sutherland4 ,they are not all of a serious cast4 ,we have sat in the long autumn evenings in the cheerful circle round the turf-fire of the ha'1 and have heard many a tradition of old clan feuds pleasingly told1 and many a song of the poet of the county1 ,old ,rob ,donn1 gaily sung4 ,in our immediate neighbourhood1 by the side of a small stream--small1 but not without its supply of brown trout1 speckled with crimson--there was a spot of green meadow land1 on which the young men of the neighbourhood used not unfrequently to meet and try their vigour in throwing the stone4 ,the stone itself had its history4 ,it was a ball of gneiss1 round as a bullet1 that had once surmounted the gable of a small ,popish chapel1 of which there now remained only a shapeless heap of stones1 that scarce overtopped the long grass amid which it lay4 ,a few undressed flags indicated an ancient burying-ground2 and over the ruined heap1 and the rude tombstones that told no story1 an ancient time-hallowed tree1 coeval with the perished building1 stretched out its giant arms4 ,even the sterner occupations of the farm had in their very variety a strong smack of enjoyment4 ,we found one of the old man's sons engaged1 during our one visit1 in building an outhouse1 after the primitive fashion of the ,highlands1 and during our other visit1 in constructing a plough4 ,the two main cupples of the building he made of huge trees1 dug out of a neighbouring morass2 they resembled somewhat the beams of a large sloop reversed4 ,the stones he carried from the outfield heath on a sledge2 the interstices in the walls he caulked with moss2 the roof he covered with sods4 ,the entire erection was his workmanship1 from foundation to ridge4 ,and such1 in brief1 was the history of all those cottages in the interior of ,sutherland1 which the poor ,highlanders so naturally deemed their own1 but from which1 when set on fire and burnt to the ground by the creatures of the proprietor1 they were glad to escape with their lives4 ,the plough1 with the exception of the iron work1 was altogether our relative's workmanship too4 ,and such was the history of the rude implements of rural or domestic labour which were consumed in the burning dwellings4 ,but we anticipate4 ,there is little of gaiety or enjoyment among the ,highlanders of ,sutherland now4 ,we spent a considerable time for two several years among their thickly-clustered cottages on the eastern coast1 and saw how they live1 and how it happens that when years of comparative scarcity come on they starve4 ,most of them saved1 when in the interior1 as we have said1 a little money2 but the process has been reversed here3 in every instance in which they brought their savings to the coast-side has the fund been dissipated4 ,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 upon4 ,in some places1 by dint of sore labour1 the soil has been considerably improved2 and all that seems necessary to render it worth the care of a family1 would be just to increase its area some ten or twelve times4 ,in other cases1 however1 increase would be no advantage4 ,we find it composed of a loose debris of granitic water-rolled pebbles and ferruginous sand1 that seemed destined to perpetual barrenness4 ,the rents1 in every instance1 seem moderate2 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 ,scotland4 ,but no rent1 in such circumstances1 can be really moderate4 ,a clergyman1 when asked to say how many of his parishioners1 in one of these coast districts1 realized less than sixpence a-day1 replied1 that it would be a much easier matter for him to point out how many of them realized more than sixpence1 as this more fortunate class were exceedingly few4 ,and surely no rent can be moderate that is paid by a man who realizes less than sixpence a-day4 ,it is the peculiar evil produced by the change in ,sutherland1 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 famine1 when matters are at the best with them1 and fall into it in every instance in which the herring fishing1 their main and most precarious stay1 partially fails1 or their crops are just a little more than usually scanty4 ,they are in such a state1 that their very means of living are sources1 not of comfort1 but of distress to them4 ,when the fishing and their crops are comparatively abundant1 they live on the bleak edge of want2 while failure in either plunges them into a state of intense suffering4 ,and well are these ,highlanders aware of the true character of the revolution to which they have been subjected4 ,our ,poor-,law ,commissioners may find1 in this land of growing pauperism1 thousands as poor as the people of ,sutherland2 but they will find no class of the population who can so directly contrast their present destitution with a state of comparative plenty and enjoyment1 or who1 in consequence of possessing this sad ability1 are so deeply imbued with a too well-grounded and natural discontent4 ,but we have not yet said how this ruinous revolution was effected in ,sutherland1--how the aggravations of the mode1 if we may so speak1 still fester in the recollections of the people1--or how thoroughly that policy of the lord of the soil1 through which he now seems determined to complete the work of ruin which his predecessor began1 harmonizes with its worst details4 ,we must first relate1 however1 a disastrous change which took place1 in the providence of ,god1 in the noble family of ,sutherland1 and which1 though it dates fully eighty years back1 may be regarded as pregnant with the disasters which afterwards befell the country4 ,,chapter ,,iv4 ,such of our readers as are acquainted with the memoir of ,lady ,glenorchy1 must remember a deeply melancholy incident which occurred in the history of this excellent woman1 in connection with the noble family of ,sutherland4 ,her only sister had been married to ,william1 seventeenth ,earl of ,sutherland1--'the last of the good ,earls2' 'a nobleman1' says the ,rev4 ,dr4 ,jones1 in his ,memoir1 'who to the finest person united all the dignity and amenity of manners and character which give lustre to greatness4' ,but his sun was destined soon to go down4 ,five years after his marriage1 which proved one of the happiest1 and was blessed with two children1 the elder of the two1 the young ,lady ,catherine1 a singularly engaging child1 was taken from him by death1 in his old hereditary castle of ,dunrobin4 ,the event deeply affected both parents1 and preyed on their health and spirits4 ,it had taken place amid the gloom of a severe northern winter1 and in the solitude of the ,highlands2 and1 acquiescing in the advice of friends1 the ,earl and his lady quitted the family seat1 where there was so much to remind them of their bereavement1 and sought relief in the more cheerful atmosphere of ,bath4 ,but they were not to find it there4 ,shortly after their arrival1 the ,earl was seized by a malignant fever1 with which1 upheld by a powerful constitution1 he struggled for fifty-four days1 and then expired4 ',for the first twenty-one days and nights of these1' says ,dr4 ,jones1 ',lady ,sutherland never left his bedside2 and then at last1 overcome with fatigue1 anxiety1 and grief1 she sank an unavailing victim to an amiable but excessive attachment1 seventeen days before the death of her lord4' ,the period1 though not very remote1 was one in which the intelligence of events travelled slowly2 and in this instance the distraction of the family must have served to retard it beyond the ordinary time4 ,her ,ladyship's mother1 when hastening from ,edinburgh to her assistance1 alighted one day from her carriage at an inn1 and1 on seeing two hearses standing by the wayside1 inquired of an attendant whose remains they contained8 ,the remains1 was the reply1 of ,lord and ,lady ,sutherland1 on their way for interment to the ,royal ,chapel of ,holyrood ,house4 ,and such was the first intimation which the lady received of the death of her daughter and son-in-law4 ,the event was pregnant with disaster to ,sutherland1 though many years elapsed ere the ruin which it involved fell on that hapless county4 ,the sole survivor and heir of the family was a female infant of but a year old4 ,her maternal grandmother1 an ambitious1 intriguing woman of the world1 had the chief share in her general training and education2 and she was brought up in the south of ,scotland1 of which her grandmother was a native1 far removed from the influence of those genial sympathies with the people of her clan1 for which the old lords of ,sutherland had been so remarkable1 and1 what was a sorer evil still1 from the influence of the vitalities of that religion which1 for five generations together1 her fathers had illustrated and adorned4 ,the special mode in which the disaster told first1 was through the patronages of the county1 the larger part of which are vested in the family of ,sutherland4 ,some of the old ,earls had been content1 as we have seen1 to place themselves on the level of the ,christian men of their parishes1 and thus to unite with them in calling to their churches the ,christian ministers of their choice4 ,they knew1--what regenerate natures can alone know with the proper emphasis1--that in ,christ ,jesus the vassal ranks with his lord1 and they conscientiously acted on the conviction4 ,but matters were now regulated differently4 ,the presentation supplanted the call1 and ministers came to be placed in the parishes of ,sutherland without the consent and contrary to the will of the people4 ,churches1 well filled hitherto1 were deserted by their congregations1 just because a respectable woman of the world1 making free use of what she deemed her own1 had planted them with men of the world who were only tolerably respectable2 and in houses and barns the devout men of the district learned to hold numerously-attended ,sabbath meetings for reading the ,scriptures1 and mutual exhortation and prayer1 as a sort of substitute for the public services1 in which they found they could no longer join with profit4 ,the spirit awakened by the old ,earls had survived themselves1 and ran directly counter to the policy of their descendant4 ,strongly attached to the ,establishment1 the people1 though they thus forsook their old places of worship1 still remained members of the national ,church1 and travelled far in the summer season to attend the better ministers of their own and the neighbouring counties4 ,we have been assured1 too1 from men whose judgment we respect1 that1 under all their disadvantages1 religion continued peculiarly to flourish among them2--a deep-toned evangelism prevailed2 so that perhaps the visible ,church throughout the world at the time could furnish no more striking contrast than that which obtained between the cold1 bald1 commonplace services of the pulpit in some of these parishes1 and the fervid prayers and exhortations which give life and interest to these humble meetings of the people4 ,what a pity it is that differences such as these the ,duke of ,sutherland cannot see6 ,the marriage of the young countess into a noble ,english family was fraught with further disaster to the county4 ,there are many ,englishmen quite intelligent enough to perceive the difference between a smoky cottage of turf and a whitewashed cottage of stone1 whose judgment on their respective inhabitants would be of but little value4 ,sutherland1 as a country of men1 stood higher at this period than perhaps any other district in the ,british empire2 but1 as our descriptions in the preceding chapter must have shown1--and we indulged in them mainly with a view to this part of our subject1--it by no means stood high as a country of farms and cottages4 ,the marriage of the ,countess brought a new set of eyes upon it1--eyes accustomed to quite a different face of things4 ,it seemed a wild1 rude country1 where all was wrong1 and all had to be set right1--a sort of ,russia on a small scale1 that had just got another ,peter the ,great to civilise it1--or a sort of barbarous ,egypt1 with an energetic ,ali ,pasha at its head4 ,even the vast wealth and great liberality of the ,stafford family militated against this hapless county3 it enabled them to treat it as the mere subject of an interesting experiment1 in which gain to themselves was really no object1--nearly as little so as if they had resolved on dissecting a dog alive for the benefit of science4 ,it was a still further disadvantage1 that they had to carry on their experiment by the hands1 and to watch its first effects with the eyes1 of others4 ,the agonies of the dog might have had their softening influence on a dissector who held the knife himself2 but there could be no such influence exerted over him1 did he merely issue orders to his footman that the dissection should be completed1 remaining himself1 meanwhile1 out of sight and out of hearing4 ,the plan of improvement sketched out by his ,english family was a plan exceedingly easy of conception4 ,here is a vast tract of land1 furnished with two distinct sources of wealth4 ,its shores may be made the seats of extensive fisheries1 and the whole of its interior parcelled out into productive sheep-farms4 ,all is waste in its present state3 it has no fisheries1 and two-thirds of its internal produce is consumed by the inhabitants4 ,it had contributed1 for the use of the community and the landlord1 its large herds of black cattle2 but the ,english family saw1 and1 we believe1 saw truly1 that for every one pound of beef which it produced1 it could be made to produce two pounds of mutton1 and perhaps a pound of fish in addition4 ,and it was resolved1 therefore1 that the inhabitants of the central districts1 who1 as they were mere ,celts1 could not be transformed1 it was held1 into store-farmers1 should be marched down to the sea-side1 there to convert themselves into fishermen1 on the shortest possible notice1 and that a few farmers of capital1 of the industrious ,lowland race1 should be invited to occupy the new subdivisions of the interior4 ,and1 pray1 what objections can be urged against so liberal and large-minded a scheme8 ,the poor inhabitants of the interior had very serious objections to urge against it4 ,their humble dwellings were of their own rearing2 it was they themselves who had broken in their little fields from the waste2 from time immemorial1 far beyond the reach of history1 had they possessed their mountain holdings1--they had defended them so well of old that the soil was still virgin ground1 in which the invader had found only a grave2 and their young men were now in foreign lands1 fighting1 at the command of their chieftainess1 the battles of their country1 not in the character of hired soldiers1 but of men who regarded these very holdings as their stake in the quarrel4 ,to them1 then1 the scheme seemed fraught with the most flagrant1 the most monstrous injustice4 ,were it to be suggested by some ,chartist convention in a time of revolution1 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-side1 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 astonished1 or rendered a whit more indignant1 by the scheme1 than were the ,highlanders of ,sutherland by the scheme of his predecessor4 ,the reader must keep in view1 therefore1 that if atrocities unexampled in ,britain for at least a century were perpetrated in the clearing of ,sutherland1 there was a species of at least passive resistance on the part of the people 7for active resistance there was none71 which in some degree provoked them4 ,had the ,highlanders1 on receiving orders1 marched down to the sea-coast1 and become fishermen1 with the readiness with which a regiment deploys on review day1 the atrocities would1 we doubt not1 have been much fewer4 ,but though the orders were very distinct1 the ,highlanders were very unwilling to obey2 and the severities formed merely a part of the means through which the necessary obedience was ultimately secured4 ,we shall instance a single case1 as illustrative of the process4 ,in the month of ,march #ahad1 a large proportion of the ,highlanders of ,farr and ,kildonan1 two parishes in ,sutherland1 were summoned to quit their farms in the following ,may4 ,in a few days after1 the surrounding heaths on which they pastured their cattle1 and from which at that season the sole supply of herbage is derived 7for in those northern districts the grass springs late1 and the cattle-feeder in the spring months depends chiefly on the heather71 were set on fire and burnt up4 ,there was that sort of policy in the stroke which men deem allowable in a state of war4 ,the starving cattle went roaming over the burnt pastures1 and found nothing to eat4 ,many of them perished1 and the greater part of what remained1 though in miserable condition1 the ,highlanders had to sell perforce4 ,most of the able-bodied men were engaged in this latter business at a distance from home1 when the dreaded term-day came on4 ,the pasturage had been destroyed before the legal term1 and while1 in even the eye of the law1 it was still the property of the poor ,highlanders2 but ere disturbing them in their dwellings1 term-day was suffered to pass4 ,the work of demolition then began4 ,a numerous party of men1 with a factor at their head1 entered the district1 and commenced pulling down the houses over the heads of the inhabitants4 ,in an extensive tract of country not a human dwelling was left standing1 and then1 the more effectually to prevent their temporary re-erection1 the destroyers set fire to the wreck4 ,in one day were the people deprived of home and shelter1 and left exposed to the elements4 ,many deaths are said to have ensued from alarm1 fatigue1 and cold4 ,pregnant women were taken with premature labour in the open air4 ,there were old men who took to the woods and rocks in a state of partial insanity4 ,an aged bedridden man1 named ,macbeath1 had his house unroofed over his head1 and was left exposed to wind and rain till death put a period to his sufferings4 ,another man lying ill of a fever met with no tenderer treatment1 but in his case the die turned up life4 ,a bedridden woman1 nearly a hundred years of age1 had her house fired over her head1 and ere she could be extricated from the burning wreck1 the sheets in which she was carried were on fire4 ,she survived but for five days after4 ,in a critique on the work of ,sismondi1 which appeared a few months since in the ,westminster ,review1 the writer tells us1 'it has even been said that an old man1 having refused to quit his cabin1 perished in the flames4' ,but such was not the case4 ,the constituted authorities interfered2 a precognition was taken by the ,sheriff-substitute of the county1 and the case tried before the ,justiciary ,court at ,inverness2 but the trial terminated in the acquittal of the pannels4 ,there was no punishable crime proven to attach to the agents of the proprietor4 ,their acquittal was followed by scenes of a similar character with the scene described1 and of even greater atrocity4 ,but we must borrow the description of one of these from the historian of the clearing of ,sutherland1--,donald ,m',leod1 a native of the county1 and himself a sufferer in the experimental process to which it was subjected3-- ',the work of devastation was begun by setting fire to the houses of the small tenants in extensive districts--,farr1 ,rogart1 ,golspie1 and the whole parish of ,kildonan4 ,i was an eye-witness of the scene4 ,the calamity came on the people quite unexpectedly4 ,strong parties for each district1 furnished with faggots and other combustibles1 rushed on the dwellings of the devoted people1 and immediately commenced setting fire to them1 proceeding in their work with the greatest rapidity1 till about three hundred houses were in flames4 ,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 cattle1 hunted by the dogs of the shepherds amid the smoke and the fire--altogether composed a scene that completely baffles description4 ,a dense cloud of smoke enveloped the whole country by day1 and even extended far on the sea4 ,at night1 an awfully grand but terrific scene presented itself--all the houses in an extensive district in flames at once4 ,i myself ascended a height about eleven o'clock in the evening1 and counted two hundred and fifty blazing houses1 many of the owners of which were my relations1 and all of whom ,i personally knew1 but whose present condition ,i could not tell4 ,the conflagration lasted six days1 till the whole of the dwellings were reduced to ashes or smoking ruins4 ,during one of these days1 a boat lost her way in the dense smoke as she approached the shore1 but at night she was enabled to reach a landing-place by the light of the flames4' ,but1 to employ the language of ,southey1 ',things such as these1 we know1 must be ,at every famous victory4' ,and in this instance the victory of the lord of the soil over the children of the soil was signal and complete4 ,in little more than nine years a population of fifteen thousand individuals were removed from the interior of ,sutherland to its sea-coasts1 or had emigrated to ,america4 ,the inland districts were converted into deserts1 through which the traveller may take a long day's journey1 amid ruins that still bear the scathe of fire1 and grassy patches betraying1 when the evening sun casts aslant its long deep shadows1 the half-effaced lines of the plough4 ,the writer of the singularly striking passage we have just quoted1 revisited his native place 7,kildonan7 in the year #ahbh1 and attended divine service in the parish church4 ,a numerous and devout congregation had once worshipped there3 the congregation now consisted of eight shepherds and their dogs4 ,in a neighbouring district--the barony of ,strathnaver1 a portion of the parish of ,farr--the church1 no longer found necessary1 was razed to the ground4 ,the timber was carried away to be used in the erection of an inn1 and the minister's house converted into the dwelling of a fox-hunter4 ',a woman well known in the parish1' says ,m',leod1 'happening to traverse the ,strath the year after the burning1 was asked1 on her return1 ,what news8 ,oh1 said she1 sgeul bronach1 sgeul bronach6 sad news1 sad news6 ,i have seen the timber of our kirk covering the inn at ,altnaharran2 ,i have seen the kirkyard1 where our friends are mouldering1 filled with tarry sheep1 and ,mr4 ,sage's study-room a kennel for ,robert ,gun's dogs4' ,,chapter ,v4 ,let us follow1 for a little1 the poor ,highlanders of ,sutherland to the sea-coast4 ,it would be easy dwelling on the terrors of their expulsion1 and multiplying facts of horror2 but had there been no permanent deterioration effected in their condition1 these1 all harrowing and repulsive as they were1 would have mattered less4 ,sutherland would have soon recovered the burning up of a few hundred hamlets1 or the loss of a few bedridden old people1 who would have died as certainly under cover1 though perhaps a few months later1 as when exposed to the elements in the open air4 ,nay1 had it lost a thousand of its best men in the way in which it lost so many at the storming of ,new ,orleans1 the blank ere now would have been completely filled up4 ,the calamities of fire or of decimation even1 however distressing in themselves1 never yet ruined a country3 no calamity ruins a country that leaves the surviving inhabitants to develope1 in their old circumstances1 their old character and resources4 ,in one of the eastern eclogues of ,collins1 where two shepherds are described as flying for their lives before the troops of a ruthless invader1 we see with how much of the terrible the imagination of a poet could invest the evils of war1 when aggravated by pitiless barbarity4 ,fertile as that imagination was1 however1 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 coast4 ,we have heard of one man1 named ,m',kay1 whose family1 at the time of the greater conflagration referred to by ,m',leod1 were all lying ill of fever1 who had to carry two of his sick children on his back a distance of twenty-five miles4 ,we have heard of the famished people blackening the shores1 like the crew of some vessel wrecked on an inhospitable coast1 that they might sustain life by the shell-fish and sea-weed laid bare by the ebb4 ,many of their allotments1 especially on the western coast1 were barren in the extreme--unsheltered by bush or tree1 and exposed to the sweeping sea-winds1 and1 in time of tempest1 to the blighting spray2 and it was found a matter of the extremest difficulty to keep the few cattle which they had retained1 from wandering1 especially in the night-time1 into the better sheltered and more fertile interior4 ,the poor animals were intelligent enough to read a practical comment on the nature of the change effected2 and1 from the harshness of the shepherds to whom the care of the interior had been entrusted1 they served materially to add to the distress of their unhappy masters4 ,they were getting continually impounded2 and vexatious fines1 in the form of trespass-money1 came thus to be wrung from the already impoverished ,highlanders4 ,many who had no money to give were obliged to relieve them by depositing some of their few portable articles of value1 such as bed or body clothes1 or1 more distressing still1 watches and rings and pins--the only relics1 in not a few instances1 of brave men whose bones were mouldering under the fatal rampart at ,new ,orleans1 or in the arid sands of ,egypt--on that spot of proud recollection1 where the invincibles of ,napoleon went down before the ,highland bayonet4 ,their first efforts as fishermen were what might be expected from a rural people unaccustomed to the sea4 ,the shores of ,sutherland1 for immense tracts together1 are iron-bound1 and much exposed--open on the eastern coast to the waves of the ,german ,ocean1 and on the north and west to the long roll of the ,atlantic4 ,there could not be more perilous seas for the unpractised boatman to take his first lessons on2 but though the casualties were numerous1 and the loss of life great1 many of the younger ,highlanders became expert fishermen4 ,the experiment was harsh in the extreme1 but so far1 at least1 it succeeded4 ,it lies open1 however1 to other objections than those which have been urged against it on the score of its inhumanity4 ,the reader must be acquainted with ,goldsmith's remarks on the herring fishery of his days4 ',a few years ago1' he says1 'the herring fishing employed all ,grub ,street2 it was the topic in every coffee-house1 and the burden of every ballad4 ,we were to drag up oceans of gold from the bottom of the sea2 we were to supply all ,europe with herrings upon our own terms4 ,at present1 however1 we hear no more of all this2 we have fished up very little gold that ,i can learn2 nor do we furnish the world with herrings1 as was expected4' ,we have1 in this brief passage1 a history of all the more sanguine expectations which have been founded on herring fisheries4 ,there is no branch of industry so calculated to awaken the hopes of the speculator1 or so suited to disappoint them4 ,so entirely is this the case1 that were we desirous to reduce an industrious people to the lowest stage of wretchedness compatible with industry1 we would remove them to some barren district1 and there throw them on the resources of this fishery exclusively4 ,the employments of the herring fisher have all the uncertainty of the ventures of the gambler4 ,he has first to lay down1 if we may so speak1 a considerable stake1 for his drift of nets and his boat involve a very considerable outlay of capital2 and if successful1 and if in general the fishery be not successful1 the take of a single week may more than remunerate him4 ,a single cast of his nets may bring him in thirty guineas and more4 ,the die turns up in his favour1 and he sweeps the board4 ,and hence those golden dreams of the speculator so happily described by ,goldsmith4 ,but year after year may pass1 and the run of luck be against the fisherman4 ,a fishing generally good at all the stations gluts the market1 necessarily limited in its demands to an average supply1 and1 from the bulk and weight of the commodity1 not easily extended to distant parts3 and the herring merchant first1 and the fisherman next1 find that they have been labouring hard to little purpose4 ,again1 a fishing under average1 from the eccentric character of the fish1 is found almost always to benefit a few1 and to ruin a great many4 ,the average deficiency is never equally spread over the fishermen2 one sweeps the board--another loses all4 ,nor are the cases few in which the accustomed shoal wholly deserts a tract of coast for years together2 and thus the lottery1 precarious at all times1 becomes a lottery in which there are only blanks to be drawn4 ,the wealthy speculator might perhaps watch such changes1 and by supplementing the deficiency of one year by the abundance of another1 give to the whole a character of average2 but alas for the poor labouring man placed in such circumstances6 ,the yearly disbursements of our ,scottish ,fishery ,board1 in the way of assistance to poverty-struck fishermen1 unable even to repair their boats1 testify all too tangibly that they cannot regulate their long runs of ill luck by their temporary successes6 ,and if such be the case among our hereditary fishermen of the north1 who derive more than half their sustenance from the white fishery1 how much more must it affect those fishermen of ,sutherland1 who1 having no market for their white fish in the depopulated interior1 and no merchants settled among them to find markets farther away1 have to depend exclusively on their herring fishing6 ,the experiment which precipitated the population of the country on its barer skirts1 as some diseases precipitate the humours on the extremities1 would have been emphatically a disastrous one1 so far at least as the people were concerned1 even did it involve no large amount of human suffering1 and no deterioration of character4 ,one of the first writers1 of unquestioned respectability1 who acquainted the public with the true character of the revolution which had been effected in ,sutherland1 was the late ,general ,stewart of ,garth4 ,he was1 we believe1 the first man--and the fact says something for his shrewdness--who saw a coming poor-law looming through the clearing of ,sutherland4 ,his statements are exceedingly valuable2 his inferences almost always just4 ,the ,general--a man of probity and nice honour--had such an ability of estimating the value of moral excellence in a people1 as the originators of the revolution had of estimating the antagonist merits of double pounds of mutton and single pounds of beef4 ,he had seen printed representations on the subject--tissues of hollow falsehood1 that have since been repeated in newspapers and reviews2 and though unacquainted with the facts at the time1 he saw sufficient reason to question their general correctness1 from the circumstance that he found in them the character of the people1 with which no man could be better acquainted1 vilified and traduced4 ,the ,general saw one leviathan falsehood running through the whole1 and1 on the strength of the old adage1 naturally suspected the company in which he found it4 ,and so1 making minute and faithful inquiry1 he published the results at which he arrived4 ,he refers to the mode of ejectment by the torch4 ,he next goes on to show how some of the ejected tenants were allowed small allotments of moor on the coast side1 of from half an acre to two acres in extent1 which it was their task to break into corn land2 and how that1 because many patches of green appear in this way1 where all was russet before1 the change has been much eulogized as improvement4 ,we find him remarking further1 with considerable point and shrewdness1 that 'many persons are1 however1 inclined to doubt the advantages of improvements which call for such frequent apologies1' and that1 'if the advantage to the people were so evident1 or if more lenient measures had been pursued1 vindication could not have been necessary4' ,the ,general knew how to pass from the green spots themselves to the condition of those who tilled them4 ,the following passage must strike all acquainted with the ,highlanders of ,sutherland as a true representation of the circumstances to which they have been reduced3 ',ancient respectable tenants who have passed the greater part of life in the enjoyment of abundance1 and in the exercise of hospitality and charity1 possessing stock of ten1 twenty1 and thirty breeding cows1 with the usual proportion of other stock1 are now pining on one or two acres of bad land1 with one or two starved cows2 and for this accommodation a calculation is made1 that they must support their families1 and pay the rent of their lots1 not from the produce1 but from the sea1 thus drawing a rent which the land cannot afford4 ,when the herring fishing succeeds1 they generally satisfy the landlord1 whatever privations they may suffer2 but when the fishing fails1 they fall into arrears4 ,the herring fishing1 always precarious1 has for a succession of years been very defective1 and this class of people are reduced to extreme misery4 ,at first1 some of them possessed capital1 from converting their farm-stock into cash1 but this has been long exhausted2 and it is truly distressing to view their general poverty1 aggravated by their having once enjoyed abundance and independence4' ,some of the removals to which we have referred took place during that group of scarce seasons in which the year #ahaf was so prominent2 but the scarcity which these induced served merely to render the other sufferings of the people more intense1 and was lost sight of in the general extent of the calamity4 ,another group of hard seasons came on1--one of those groups which seem of such certain and yet of such irregular occurrence in our climate1 that though they have attracted notice from the days of ,bacon downwards1 they have hitherto resisted all attempts to include them in some definite cycle4 ,the summer and harvest of #ahce were the last of a series of fine summers and abundant harvests2 and for six years after there was less than the usual heat1 and more than the usual rain4 ,science1 in connection with agriculture1 has done much for us in the low country1 and so our humbler population were saved from the horrors of a dearth of food2 but on the green patches which girdle the shores of ,sutherland1 and which have been esteemed such wonderful improvements1 science had done and could do nothing4 ,the people had been sinking lower and lower during the previous twenty years1 and what would have been great hardship before had become famine now4 ,one feels at times that it may be an advantage to have lived among the humbler people4 ,we have been enabled1 in consequence1 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 country4 ,in other parts of the ,highlands1 especially in the ,hebrides1 the failure of the kelp trade did much to impoverish the inhabitants2 but in the ,highlands of ,sutherland the famine was the effect of improvement alone4 ,the writer of these chapters saw how a late1 untoward year operates on the bleak shores of the north-western ,highlands1 when spending a season there a good many years ago4 ,he found what only a few twelvemonths previous had been a piece of dark moor1 laid out into minute patches of corn1 and bearing a dense population4 ,the herring fishing had failed for the two seasons before1 and the poor cottars were1 in consequence1 in arrears with their rent2 but the crops had been tolerable2 and though their stores of meal and potatoes were all exhausted at the time of our coming among them 7the month of ,june71 and though no part of the growing crop was yet fit for use1 the white fishing was abundant1 and a training of hardship had enabled them to subsist on fish exclusively4 ,their corn shot in the genial sunshine1 and gave fair promise1 and their potatoes had become far enough advanced to supplement their all too meagre meals1 when1 after a terrible thunder-storm1 the fine weather broke up1 and for thirteen weeks together there scarce passed a day without its baffling winds and its heavy chilling showers4 ,the oats withered without ripening2 the hardy bear might be seen rustling on all the more exposed slopes1 light as the common rye-grass of our hay-fields1 the stalks1 in vast proportion1 shorn of the ears4 ,it was only in a very few of the more sheltered places that it yielded a scanty return of a dark-coloured and shrivelled grain4 ,and to impart a still deeper shade to the prospects of the poor ,highlanders1 the herring fishery failed as signally as in the previous years4 ,there awaited them all too obviously a whole half year of inevitable famine1 unless ,lowland charity interfered in their behalf4 ,and the recurrence of this state of things no amount of providence or exertion on their own part1 when placed in such circumstances1 can obviate or prevent4 ,it was a conviction of this character1 based on experience1 which led the writer of these remarks to state1 when giving evidence before the present ,poor-,law ,commissioners for ,scotland1 that though opposed to the principle of legal assessment generally1 he could yet see no other mode of reaching the destitution of the ,highlands4 ,our humane ,scottish law compels the man who sends another man to prison to support him there1 just because it is held impossible that within the walls of a prison a man can support himself4 ,should the principle alter1 if1 instead of sending him to a prison1 he banishes him to a bleak1 inhospitable coast1 where1 unless he receives occasional support from others1 he must inevitably perish8 ,the sufferings of the people of ,sutherland during the first of these years of destitution 7#ahcf71 we find strikingly described by ,m',leod3 ',in this year1' says the author1 'the crops all over ,britain were deficient1 having bad weather for growing and ripening1 and still worse for gathering in4 ,but in the ,highlands they were an entire failure2 and on the untoward spots1 occupied by the ,sutherland small tenants1 there was literally nothing fit for human subsistence4 ,and to add to the calamity1 the weather had prevented them from securing the peats1 their only fuel2 so that1 to their previous state of exhaustion1 cold and hunger were to be superadded4 ,the sufferings endured by the poor ,highlanders in the succeeding winter truly beggar description4 ,even the herring fishing had failed1 and consequently their credit in ,caithness1 which depended on its success1 was at an end4 ,any little provision they might be able to procure was of the most inferior and unwholesome description4 ,it was no uncommon thing to see people searching among the snow for the frosted potatoes to eat in order to preserve life4 ,as the harvest had been disastrous1 so the winter was uncommonly boisterous and severe1 and consequently little could be obtained from the sea to mitigate the calamity4 ,the distress rose to such a height as to cause a sensation all over the island2 and there arose a general cry for ,government interference1 to save the people from death by famine4' ,public meetings were held1 private subscriptions entered into1 large funds collected1 the ,british people responded to the cry of their suffering fellow-subjects1 and relief was extended to every portion of the ,highlands except one4 ,alas for poor ,sutherland6 ,there1 it was said1 the charity of the country was not required1 as the noble and wealthy proprietors had themselves resolved to interfere2 and as this statement was circulated extensively through the public prints1 and sedulously repeated at all public meetings1 the mind of the community was set quite at rest on the matter4 ,and interfere the proprietors at length did4 ,late in the spring of #ahcg1 after sufferings the most incredible had been endured1 and disease and death had been among the wretched people1 they received a scanty supply of meal and seed-corn1 for which1 though vaunted at the time as a piece of munificent charity1 the greater part of them had afterwards to pay4 ,in the next chapter we shall endeavour bringing these facts to bear on the cause of the ,free ,church in ,sutherland4 ,we close for the present by adding just one curious fact more4 ,we have already shown how the bleak moors of ,sutherland have been mightily improved by the revolution which ruined its people4 ,they bear many green patches which were brown before4 ,now it so happened that rather more than ten years ago1 the idea struck the original improvers1 that as green was an improvement on brown1 so far as the moors were concerned1 white would be an equally decided improvement on black1 so far as the houses were concerned4 ,an order was accordingly issued1 in the name of the ,duke and ,duchess of ,sutherland1 that all the small tenants on both sides the public road1 where it stretches on the northern coast from the confines of ,reay to the ,kyle of ,tongue1 a distance of about thirty miles1 should straightway build themselves new houses of stone and mortar1 according to a prescribed plan and specification4 ,pharaoh's famous order could not have bred greater consternation4 ,but the only alternative given was summed up in the magic word removal2 and the poor ,highlanders1 dejected1 tamed1 broken in spirit as in means1 well knew from experience what the magic word meant4 ,and so1 as their prototypes set themselves to gather stubble for their bricks1 the poor ,highlanders began to build4 ,we again quote from ,m',leod3 ',previous to this1 in the year #ahbi1 ,i and my family had been forced away1 like others1 being particularly obnoxious to those in authority for sometimes showing an inclination to oppose their tyranny1 and therefore we had to be made examples of to frighten the rest2 but in #ahcc ,i made a tour of the district1 when the building was going on1 and shall endeavour to describe a small part of what met my eye on that occasion4 ,in one locality 7and this was a specimen of the rest7 ,i saw fourteen different squads of masons at work1 with the natives attending them4 ,old grey-headed men1 worn down by previous hardship and present want1 were to be seen carrying stones1 and wheeling them and other materials on barrows1 or conveying them on their backs to the buildings1 and with their tottering limbs and trembling hands straining to raise them on the walls4 ,the young men also1 after toiling all night at sea endeavouring for subsistence1 were obliged to yield their exhausted frames to the labours of the day4 ,even female labour could not be dispensed with2 the strong as well as the weak1 the delicate and sickly1 and 7shame to their oppressors7 even the pregnant1 barefooted and scantily clothed1 were obliged to join in those rugged1 unfeminine labours4 ,in one instance ,i saw the husband quarrying stones1 and the wife and children dragging them along in an old cart to the building4 ,such were the building scenes of that period4 ,the poor people had often to give the last morsel of food they possessed to feed the masons1 and subsist on shell-fish themselves4 ,this went on for several years1 in the course of which many hundreds of these houses were erected on unhospitable spots unfit for a human residence4' ,we add another extract from the same writer3 ',it might be thought1' adds ,m',leod1 'that the design of forcing the people to build such houses was to provide for their comfort and accommodation1 but there seems to have been quite a different object1--which1 ,i believe1 was the true motive1--and that was to hide the misery that prevailed4 ,there had been a great sensation created in the public mind by the cruelties exercised in these districts2 and it was thought that a number of neat white houses1 ranged on each side of the road1 would take the eye of strangers and visitors1 and give a practical contradiction to the rumours afloat4 ,hence the poor creatures were forced to resort to such means1 and to endure such hardships and privations as ,i have described1 to carry the scheme into effect4 ,and after they had spent their remaining all1 and more than their all1 on the erection of these houses1 and involved themselves in debt1 for which they have been harassed and pursued ever since1 what are these erections but whitened tombs6 many of them now ten years in existence1 and still without proper doors or windows1 destitute of furniture and of comfort1--the unhappy lairs of a heart-broken1 squalid1 fast-degenerating race4' ,,chapter ,,vi4 ,we have exhibited to our readers1 in the clearing of ,sutherland1 a process of ruin so thoroughly disastrous1 that it might be deemed scarce possible to render it more complete4 ,and yet1 with all its apparent completeness1 it admitted of a supplementary process4 ,to employ one of the striking figures of ,scripture1 it was possible to grind into powder what had been previously broken into fragments1--to degrade the poor inhabitants to a still lower level than that on which they had been so cruelly precipitated1--though persons of a not very original cast of mind might have found it difficult to say how2 and the ,duke of ,sutherland has been ingenious enough to fall on exactly the one proper expedient for supplementing their ruin4 ,all in mere circumstance and situation that could lower and deteriorate1 had been present as ingredients in the first process2 but there still remained for the people1 however reduced to poverty or broken in spirit1 all in religion that consoles and ennobles4 ,sabbath-days came round with their humanizing influences2 and1 under the teachings of the gospel1 the poor and oppressed looked longingly forward to a future scene of being1 in which there is no poverty and no oppression4 ,they still possessed1 amid their misery1 something positively good1 of which it was possible to deprive them2 and hence the ability derived to the present lord of ,sutherland1 of deepening and rendering more signal the ruin accomplished by his predecessor4 ,napoleon1 when on the eve of re-establishing ,popery in ,france1 showed his conviction of the importance of national religions1 by remarking that1 did there exist no ready-made religion to serve his turn1 he would be under the necessity of making one on purpose4 ,and his remark1 though perhaps thrown into this form merely to give it point1 and render it striking1 has been instanced as a proof that he could not have considered the matter very profoundly4 ,it has been said1 and said truly1 that religions of stamina enough to be even politically useful cannot be made3 that it is comparatively easy to gain great battles1 and frame important laws2 but that to create belief lay beyond the power of even a ,napoleon4 ,france1 instead of crediting his manufactured religion1 would have laughed at both him and it4 ,the ,duke of ,sutherland has1 however1 taken upon himself a harder task than the one to which ,napoleon could refer1 probably in joke4 ,his aim seems to be1 not the comparatively simple one of making a new religion where no religion existed before1 but of making men already firm in their religious convictions believe that to be a religion which they believe to be no such thing4 ,his undertaking involves a discharging as certainly as an injecting process1--the erasure of an existing belief1 as certainly as the infusion of an antagonistic belief that has no existence4 ,we have shown how evangelism took root and grew in ,sutherland1 as the only form of ,christianity which its people could recognise2 how the antagonist principle of ,moderatism they failed to recognise as ,christianity at all2 and how1 when the latter was obtruded into their pulpits1 they withdrew from the churches in which their fathers had worshipped1 for they could regard them as churches no longer1 and held their prayer and fellowship meetings in their own homes1 or travelled far to attend the ministrations of clergymen in whose mission they could believe4 ,we have shown that this state of feeling and belief still pervades the county4 ,it led to an actual disruption between its evangelized people and its moderate clergy1 long ere the disruption of last ,may took place3 that important event has had but the effect of marshalling them into one compact body under a new name4 ,they are adherents of the ,free ,church now1 just because they have been adherents to its principles for the last two centuries4 ,and to shake them loose from this adherence is the object of his ,grace2 to reverse the belief of ages2 to render them indifferent to that which they feel and believe to be religion2 and to make them regard as religion that which they know to be none4 ,his task is harder by a great deal than that to which ,napoleon barely ventured to advert2 and how very coarse and repulsive his purposed means of accomplishing it6 ,these harmonize but too well with the mode in which the interior of ,sutherland was cleared1 and the improved cottages of its sea-coasts erected4 ,the plan has its two items4 ,no sites are to be granted in the district for ,free churches1 and no dwelling-houses for ,free ,church ministers4 ,the climate is severe2 the winters prolonged and stormy2 the roads which connect the chief seats of population with the neighbouring counties dreary and long4 ,may not ministers and people be eventually worn out in this way8 ,such is the portion of the plan which his ,grace and his ,grace's creatures can afford to present to the light4 ,but there are supplementary items of a somewhat darker kind4 ,the poor cottars are1 in the great majority of cases1 tenants at will2 and there has been much pains taken to inform them1 that to the crime of entertaining and sheltering a protesting minister1 the penalty of ejection from their holdings must inevitably attach4 ,the laws of ,charles have again returned in this unhappy district2 and free and tolerating ,scotland has got1 in the nineteenth century1 as in the seventeenth1 its intercommuned ministers4 ,we shall not say that the intimation has emanated from the ,duke4 ,it is the misfortune of such men that there creep around them creatures whose business it is to anticipate their wishes2 but who1 at times1 doubtless1 instead of anticipating1 misinterpret them2 and who1 even when not very much mistaken1 impart to whatever they do the impress of their own low and menial natures1 and thus exaggerate in the act the intention of their masters4 ,we do not say1 therefore1 that the intimation has emanated from the ,duke2 but this we say1 that an exemplary ,sutherlandshire minister of the ,protesting ,church1 who resigned his worldly all for the sake of his principles1 had lately to travel1 that he might preach to his attached people1 a long journey of forty-five miles outwards1 and as much in return1 and all this without taking shelter under the cover of a roof1 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 home4 ,willingly would the poor ,highlanders have received him at any risk2 but knowing from experience what a ,sutherlandshire removal means1 he preferred enduring any amount of hardship1 rather than that the hospitality of his people should be made the occasion of their ruin4 ,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 man1 who had quitted the neighbouring manse1 his home for many years1 because he could no longer enjoy it in consistency with his principles2 and we have shown that that aged and venerable man was the lady's own father4 ,what amount of oppression of a smaller and more petty character may not be expected in the circumstances1 when cases such as these are found to stand but a very little over the ordinary level8 ,the meannesses to which ducal hostility can stoop in this hapless district impress with a feeling of surprise4 ,in the parish of ,dornoch1 for instance1 where his ,grace is fortunately not the sole landowner1 there has been a site procured on the most generous terms from ,sir ,george ,gun ,munro of ,poyntzfield2 and this gentleman--believing himself possessed of a hereditary right to a quarry1 which1 though on the ,duke's ground1 had been long resorted to by the proprietors of the district generally--instructed the builder to take from it the stones which he needed4 ,here1 however1 his ,grace interfered4 ,never had the quarry been prohibited before2 but on this occasion a stringent interdict arrested its use4 ,if his ,grace could not prevent a hated ,free ,church from arising in the district1 he could at least add to the expense of its erection4 ,we have even heard that the portion of the building previously erected had to be pulled down1 and the stones returned4 ,how are we to account for a hostility so determined1 and that can stoop so low8 ,in two different ways1 we are of opinion1 and in both have the people of ,scotland a direct interest4 ,did his ,grace entertain a very intense regard for ,established ,presbytery1 it is probable that he himself would be a ,presbyterian of the ,establishment4 ,but such is not the case4 ,the ,church into which he would so fain force the people has been long since deserted by himself4 ,the secret of the course which he pursues can have no connection therefore with religious motive or belief4 ,it can be no proselytizing spirit that misleads his ,grace4 ,let us remark1 in the first place1--rather1 however1 in the way of embodying a fact than imputing a motive1--that with his present views1 and in his present circumstances1 it may not seem particularly his ,grace's interest to make the county of ,sutherland a happy or desirable home to the people of ,sutherland4 ,it may not seem his ,grace's interest that the population of the district should increase4 ,the clearing of the sea-coast may seem as little prejudicial to his ,grace's welfare now1 as the clearing of the interior seemed adverse to the interests of his predecessor thirty years ago2 nay1 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 two4 ,let it not be forgotten that a poor-law hangs over ,scotland2 that the shores of ,sutherland are covered with what seems one vast straggling village1 inhabited by an impoverished and ruined people2 and that the coming assessment may yet fall so weighty1 that the extra profits derived to his ,grace from his large sheep-farms1 may go but a small way in supporting his extra paupers4 ,it is not in the least improbable that he may live to find the revolution effected by his predecessor taking to itself the form1 not of a crime--for that would be nothing--but of a disastrous and very terrible blunder4 ,there is another remark which may prove not unworthy the consideration of the reader4 ,ever since the completion of the fatal experiment which ruined ,sutherland1 the noble family through which it was originated and carried on have betrayed the utmost jealousy of having its real results made public4 ,volumes of special pleading have been written on the subject2 pamphlets have been published2 laboured articles have been inserted in widely-spread reviews2 statistical accounts have been watched over with the most careful surveillance4 ,if the misrepresentations of the press could have altered the matter of fact1 famine would not have been gnawing the vitals of ,sutherland in every year just a little less abundant than its fellows1 nor would the dejected and oppressed people be feeding their discontent1 amid present misery1 with the recollections of a happier past4 ,if a singularly well-conditioned and wholesome district of country has been converted into one wide ulcer of wretchedness and wo1 it must be confessed that the sore has been carefully bandaged up from the public eye2 that if there has been little done for its cure1 there has at least been much done for its concealment4 ,now1 be it remembered that the ,free ,church threatens to insert a tent into this wound1 and so keep it open4 ,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 miles1 and that the ,british public know better what is doing in ,new ,york than what is doing in ,lewis and ,skye4 ,and hence one cause1 at least1 of the thick obscurity that has so long enveloped the miseries which the poor ,highlander has had to endure1 and the oppressions to which he has been subjected4 ,the ,free ,church threatens to translate her wrongs into ,english1 and to give them currency in the general mart of opinion4 ,she might possibly enough be no silent spectator of conflagrations such as those which characterized the first general improvement of ,sutherland1 nor yet of such ,egyptian schemes of house-building as that which formed part of the improvements of a later plan4 ,she might be somewhat apt to betray the real state of the district1 and thus render laborious misrepresentation of little avail4 ,she might effect a diversion in the cause of the people1 and shake the foundations of the hitherto despotic power which has so long weighed them down4 ,she might do for ,sutherland what ,cobbett promised to do for it1 but what ,cobbett had not character enough to accomplish1 and what he did not live even to attempt4 ,a combination of circumstances have conspired to vest in a ,scottish proprietor1 in this northern district1 a more despotic power than even the most absolute monarchs of the ,continent possess2 and it is1 perhaps1 no great wonder that that proprietor should be jealous of the introduction of an element which threatens1 it may seem1 materially to lessen it4 ,and so he struggles hard to exclude the ,free ,church1 and1 though no member of the ,establishment himself1 declaims warmly in its behalf4 ,certain it is1 that from the ,establishment1 as now constituted1 he can have nothing to fear1 and the people nothing to hope4 ,after what manner may his ,grace the ,duke of ,sutherland be most effectually met in this matter1 so that the cause of toleration and freedom of conscience may be maintained in the extensive district which ,god1 in ,his providence1 has consigned to his stewardship8 ,we shall in our next chapter attempt giving the question an answer4 ,meanwhile1 we trust the people of ,sutherland will continue1 as hitherto1 to stand firm4 ,the strong repugnance which they feel against being driven into churches which all their better ministers have left1 is not ill founded4 ,no ,church of ,god ever employs such means of conversion as those employed by his ,grace3 they are means which have been often resorted to for the purpose of making men worse1 never yet for the purpose of making them better4 ,we know that1 with their long-formed church-going habits1 the people must feel their now silent ,sabbaths pass heavily2 but they would perhaps do well to remember1 amid the tedium and the gloom1 that there were good men who not only anticipated such a time of trial for this country1 but who also made provision for it4 ,thomas ,scott1 when engaged in writing his ,commentary1 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 land4 ,to the great bulk of the people of ,sutherland that time seems to have already come4 ,they know1 however1 the value of the old divines1 and have not a few of their more practical treatises translated into their own expressive tongue3 ,alleine's ,alarm1 ,boston's ,fourfold ,state1 ,doddridge's ,rise and ,progress1 ,baxter's ,call1 ,guthrie's ,saving ,interest4 ,let these1 and such as these1 be their preachers1 when they can procure no other4 ,the more they learn to relish them1 the less will they relish the bald and miserable services of the ,residuary ,church4 ,let them hold their fellowship and prayer meetings2 let them keep up the worship of ,god in their families2 the cause of religious freedom in the district is involved in the stand which they make4 ,above all1 let them possess their souls in patience4 ,we are not unacquainted with the ,celtic character1 as developed in the ,highlands of ,scotland4 ,highlanders1 up to a certain point1 are the most docile1 patient1 enduring of men2 but that point once passed1 endurance ceases1 and the all too gentle lamb starts up an angry lion4 ,the spirit is stirred that maddens at the sight of the naked weapon1 and that1 in its headlong rush upon the enemy1 discipline can neither check nor control4 ,let our oppressed ,highlanders of ,sutherland beware4 ,they have suffered much2 but1 so far as man is the agent1 their battles can be fought on only the arena of public opinion1 and on that ground which the political field may be soon found to furnish4 ,any explosion of violence on their part would be ruin to both the ,free ,church and themselves4 ,,chapter ,,vii4 ,how is the battle of religious freedom to be best fought in behalf of the oppressed people of ,sutherland8 ,we shall attempt throwing out a few simple suggestions on the subject1 which1 if in the right track1 the reader may find it easy to follow up and mature4 ,first1 then1 let us remember that in this country1 in which opinion is all-potent1 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 enjoys1 the policy of the ,duke of ,sutherland cannot be known without being condemned4 ,the current which he opposes has been scooping out its channel for ages4 ,every great mind produced by ,britain1 from the times of ,milton and ,locke down to the times of ,mackintosh and of ,chalmers1 has been giving it impetus in but one direction2 and it is scarce likely that it will reverse its course now1 at the bidding of a few intolerant and narrow-minded aristocrats4 ,british opinion has but to be fairly appealed to1 in order to declare strongly in favour of the oppressed ,highlanders of ,sutherland4 ,what we would first remark1 then1 is1 that the policy of his ,grace the ,duke cannot be too widely exposed4 ,the press and the platform must be employed4 ,the frank and generous ,english must be told1 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 world1 and which1 in these latter times1 men have been accustomed to regard as somewhat less1 after all1 than an adequate embodiment of the rights of conscience1 has been virtually repealed in a populous and very extensive district of the ,british empire1 through a capricious exercise of power on the part of a single man4 ,why1 it has been asked1 in a matter which lies between ,god and conscience1 and between ,god and the conscience only1 should a third party be permitted to interfere so far as even to say1 ',i tolerate you8 ,i tolerate your ,independency--your ,episcopacy--your ,presbyterianism3 you are a ,baptist1 but ,i tolerate you8' ,there is an insult implied1 it has been said1 in the way in which the liberty purports to be granted4 ,it bestows as a boon what already exists as a right4 ,we want no despot to tell us that he gives us leave to breathe the free air of heaven1 or that he permits us to worship ,god agreeably to the dictates of our conscience4 ,such are the views with which a majority of the ,british people regard1 in these latter times1 the right to tolerate2 and regarding a right ,,not to tolerate1 they must be more decided still4 ,the ,free ,church1 then1 must lay her complaint before them4 ,she must tell them1 that such is the oppression to which her people are subjected1 that she would be but too happy to see even the beggarly elements of the question recognised in their behalf2 that she would be but too happy to hear the despot of a province pronounce the deprecated ',i tolerate you1' seeing that his virtual enunciation at present is1 ',i do ,,not tolerate you1' and seeing that he is powerful enough1 through a misapplication of his rights and influence as the most extensive of ,british proprietors1 to give terrible effect to the unjust and illiberal determination4 ,the ,free ,church1 on this question1 must raise her appeal everywhere to public opinion1 and we entertain no doubt that she will everywhere find it her friend4 ,but how is its power to be directed8 ,how bring it to bear upon the ,duke of ,sutherland8 ,it is an all-potent lever1 but it must be furnished with a fulcrum on which to rest1 and a direction in which to bear4 ,let us remark1 first1 that no signal privilege or right was ever yet achieved for ,britain1 that was not preceded by some signal wrong4 ,from the times of ,magna ,charta down to the times of the ,revolution1 we find every triumph of liberty heralded in by some gross outrage upon it4 ,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 wrongs4 ,it was not until the barrier that protected the privileges of the citizen from the will of the despot gave way at some weak point1 that the parties exposed to the inundation were roused up to re-erect it on a better principle and a surer foundation4 ,now1 the ,duke of ,sutherland 7with some of his brother proprietors7 has just succeeded in showing us a signal flaw in our scheme of religious toleration1 and this at an exceedingly critical time4 ,he has been perpetrating a great and palpable wrong1 which1 if rightly represented1 must have the effect of leading men1 in exactly the old mode1 to arouse themselves in behalf of the corresponding right4 ,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 flaw1 which cannot be too soon remedied4 ,there must be a weak place in the barrier1 if the waters be rushing out2 and it cannot be too soon rebuilt on a surer plan4 ,here1 then1 evidently1 is the point on which the generated opinion ought to be brought to bear4 ,it has as its proper arena the political field4 ,it is a defect in the ,british ,constitution1 strongly exemplified by the case of ,sutherland1 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 generally1 it may be so set aside by the country's proprietary1 as not to be the law in any particular part of it2 and to reverse this state of things--to make provision in the ,constitution that the rights of the proprietor be not so overstretched1 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 directed4 ,we have said that the ,duke of ,sutherland has succeeded in showing us this flaw in the ,constitution at a peculiarly critical time4 ,a gentleman resident in ,england1 for whose judgment we entertain the highest respect1 told us only a few days since1 that the rising1 all-absorbing party of that kingdom1 so far at least as the ,established ,church and the aristocracy are concerned1 still continues to be the ,puseyite party4 ,if ,puseyism does not bid fair to possess a majority of the people of the country1 it bids fair at least to possess a majority of its acres4 ,and we need scarce remind the reader how peculiarly this may be the case with ,scotland1 whose acres1 in such large proportions1 are under the control of an incipient ,puseyism already4 ,in both countries1 therefore1 is it of peculiar importance1 in a time like the present1 that the law of toleration should be placed beyond the control of a hostile or illiberal proprietary--so placed beyond their control1 that they may be as unable virtually to suspend its operation in any part of the country1 as they already are to suspend its operation in the whole of the country4 ,we are recommending1 be it remembered1 no wild scheme of ,chartist aggression on the rights of property--we would but injure our cause by doing so3 our strength in this question must altogether depend on the soundness of the appeal which we can carry to the natural justice of the community4 ,we merely recommend that that be done in behalf of the already recognised law of toleration1 which ,parliament has no hesitation in doing in behalf of some railway or canal1 or water or dock company1 when1 for what is deemed a public good1 it sets aside the absolute control of the proprietor over at least a portion of his property1 and consigns it at a fair price to the corporation engaged in the undertaking4 ,the principle of the scheme is already recognised by the ,constitution1 and its legislative embodiment would be at once easy and safe4 ,property would be rendered not less1 but more secure1 if1 in every instance in which a regularly-organized congregation of any denomination of ,christians to which the law of toleration itself extended1 made application for ground on which to erect a place of worship1 the application would be backed and made effectual1 in virtue of an enacted law1 by the authority of the ,constitution4 ,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 ,parliament1 when fairly convinced1 by cases such as that of ,sutherland1 how imperatively such a measure is required4 ,unavoidably1 however1 from the nature of things1 the relief which ultimately may be thus secured cannot be other than distant relief4 ,much information must first be spread1 and the press and the platform extensively employed4 ,can there be nothing done for ,sutherland through an already existing political agency8 ,we are of opinion there can4 ,sutherland itself is even more thoroughly a close county now1 than it was ere the ,reform ,bill had swamped the paper votes1 and swept away the close burghs4 ,his ,grace the ,duke has but to nominate his member1 and his member is straightway returned4 ,but all the political power which1 directly or indirectly1 his ,grace possesses1 is not equally secure4 ,sutherland is a close county2 but the ,northern ,burghs are not rotten burghs2 on the contrary1 they possess an independent and intelligent constituency2 and in scarce any part of ,scotland is the ,free ,church equally strong4 ,and his ,grace derives no inconsiderable portion of his political influence from them4 ,the member for ,sutherland is virtually his ,grace's nominee1 but the member for the ,northern ,burghs is not his ,grace's nominee at all2 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 ,sutherland1 and has been so for many years4 ,his ,grace's member for ,sutherland sits in ,parliament in virtue of being his ,grace's nominee2 but the sort of prime minister through which his ,grace governs his princely domains1 sits in ,parliament1 not in virtue of being his ,grace's nominee1 but in virtue of his being himself a man of liberal opinions1 and an enemy to all intolerance4 ,he represents them in the ,whig interest1 and in his character as a ,whig4 ,his ,grace would very soon have one member less in ,parliament1 did that member make common cause with his ,grace in suppressing the ,free ,church in ,sutherland4 ,now1 the bruit shrewdly goeth1 that that member does make common cause with his ,grace4 ,the bruit shrewdly goeth1 that in this1 as in most other matters1 his ,grace acts upon that member's advice4 ,true1 the report may be altogether idle--it may be utterly without foundation2 instead of being true1 it may be exactly the reverse of being true2 but most unquestionable it is1 that1 whether true or otherwise1 it exists1 and that that member's constituency have a very direct interest in it4 ,he represents them miserably ill1 and must be a very different sort of ,whig from them1 if he hold that proprietors do right in virtually setting aside the ,toleration ,act4 ,the report does one of two things1--it either does him great injustice1 or it shows that he has sat too long in ,parliament for the ,northern ,burghs4 ,it is in the power1 then1 of the highly respectable and intelligent ,whig constituency of this district to make such a diversion in favour of the oppressed people of ,sutherland1 as can scarce fail to tell upon the country1 and this in thorough consistency with the best and highest principles of their party4 ,let them put themselves in instant communication with their member1 and1 stating the character of the report which so generally exists to his prejudice1 request a categorical answer regarding it1--let them request an avowal of his opinion of the ,duke's policy1 equally articulate with that opinion which the ,hon4 ,mr4 ,fox ,maule submitted to the public a few weeks ago in the columns of the ,witness1--and then1 as the ascertained circumstances of the case may direct1 let them act1 and that publicly1 in strict accordance with their principles4 ,of one thing they may be assured1--the example will tell4 ,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 resort4 ,petitions addressed to the ,lower ,house in its legislative capacity1 and to the members of the ,upper ,house as a body of men who have1 perhaps1 of all others the most direct stake in the matter--we need scarce say how--ought1 of course1 to take a very obvious place on the list4 ,much1 too1 might be done by deputations from the ,general ,assembly of the ,free ,church1 instructed from time to time to ascertain1 and then publicly to report on1 the state of ,sutherland4 ,each meeting of the ,assembly might be addressed on the subject by some of its ablest men1 in which case their statements and speeches would go forth1 through the medium of the press1 to the country at large4 ,the co-operation and assistance of all bodies of evangelical ,dissenters1 both at home and abroad1 should be sedulously sought after1 and correct information on the subject circulated among them extensively4 ,there has been much sympathy elicited for the ,church1 during her long struggle1 among good men everywhere4 ,her cause has been tried1 and judgment given in her favour1 in ,france1 ,holland1 and ,america1 and in not a few of the colonies4 ,in the case of ,sismondi ',on the ,clearing of ,sutherland1' we see the opinion of a continental philosopher re-echoed back upon our own country1 not without its marked effect2 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 ,sutherland4' ,there is one great country with which we hold our literature in common1 and which we can address1 and by which we can be in turn addressed1 in our native tongue4 ,unluckily1 what ought to have existed as a bond of union and amity has been made to subserve a very different purpose2 and we cannot conceal from ourselves the fact1 that our own country has been mainly to blame4 ,the manners1 habits1 and tastes of the ,americans have been exhibited1 by not a few of our popular writers1 in the broadest style of caricature2 they have been described as a nation of unprincipled speculators1 devoid not only of right feeling1 but even of common honesty1 and remarkable for but their scoundrelism and conceit4 ,even were such descriptions just1 which they are not1 most assuredly would they be unwise4 ,it is the ,american people1 rather than the ,american government1 who make peace and war2 and the first ,american war with ,england will be one of the most formidable in which this country has yet been engaged4 ,the bowie-knife is no trifling weapon2 and the ,english writer laughs at a very considerable expense1 if his satires have the effect of whetting it4 ,at present1 however1 the war between the two countries is but a war of libel and pasquinade1 and the advantage hitherto has been on the side of the aggressor4 ,america has not been happy in her retaliation4 ,we would fain direct her to aim where her darts1 instead of provoking national hostility1 or exciting a bitter spirit among the entire people of a country1 would but subserve the general cause of liberty and human improvement4 ,it is but idle to satirize our manners and customs2 we think them good4 ,there is nothing to be gained by casting ridicule on our peculiar modes of thinking2 they are the modes to which we have been accustomed1 and we prefer them to any others4 ,but there are matters of a different kind1 regarding which the country bears a conscience1 and is not quite at its ease2 and there we are vulnerable4 ,we speak often1 we would fain say1 of slavery in your country1 literati of ,america1 and justly deem it a great evil4 ,it might do us good were you to remind us1 in turn1 that there are extensive districts in our own1 in which virtually there exists no toleration law for the religion of the people1 though that religion be ,protestantism in its purest form4 ,cast your eyes upon the county of ,sutherland4 ,,the ,,end4 ,,murray ,,and ,,gibb1 ,,edinburgh1 ,,printers ,,to ,,her ,,majesty',s ,,stationery ,,office4 ,transcriber's ,notes3 ,typographical problems have been changed and are listed below4 ,author's archaic and variable spelling is preserved4 ,author's punctuation style is preserved4 ,passages in italics indicated by underscores4 ,transcriber ,changes3 7,signed7 ',,thomas ,,chalmers4'9999 ,,added ,,extra ,,closing ,,single-,,quote schools of the place3 the committee1 through their chairman9999 ,was 'chair man' over line1 ,saxe-,cobourg-,gotha9999 ,was ',saxe-,cobourg ,gotha' grants to his subjects a representative old ,babylonish beast1 horrid with the blood9999 ,was 'bood' of saints1 ,they dropped1--and hence ,the ,holy ,haven9999 ,added closing double-quote entranced1 under the influences9999 ,was 'inflences' of fairy-land1 in some ,god agreeably9999 ,was 'agreebly' to the dictates of our conscience4 ,such are