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MEMO-IBS

THE LIFE AND WRITINGS

THOMAS CHALMERS, D.D. LLD.

BY HIS SON-IK-LAW,

THE REV. WILLIAM HANNA, LLD.

VOL. IV.

EDINBURGH: THOMAS CONSTABLE AND CO.
LONDON: HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO.
MDCCCLII.

HUs-C 35*3 I

KDU'RURGH : rRISTED BT THOMAS COKSTAHLK,
PRINTER TO HER MAJESTT.

CONTENTS.

Frontispiece— Engraving prom a Daguerreotype of Mr. Steell's Bust
op Dr. Chalmers.
Vignette op Territorial Church, West Port.
Preface, . •••.... ix
CHAPTER I.
Literary Distinctions conferred upon Dr. Chalmers— Elected a, Fellow of
the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and a Corresponding Member of the
Royal Institute of France — The Degree of Doctor of Laws bestowed by
the University of Oxford — Memorial to Government regarding the En
dowment of the Theological Chair in Edinburgh — Commencement of
the Publication of a Uniform Edition of his Works — The Moderatorship
Controversy, . . . 1-16
CHAPTER II.
Sir George Clerk and Sir James Graham defend the Exclusive Spiritual
Jurisdiction of the Church of Scotland — Support given to the Church
Extension Scheme by the Conservatives — Sir Robert Peel's Testimony
in its Favour — Its Treatment by the Whig Ministry' — First Report of
the Royal Commissioners — Postponement of any Government Action
— Second and Third Reports — Ministerial Measure Proposed and With
drawn — General Politics of this Period — Dr. Chalmers's Letter to Mr.
Campbell of Monzie — His own Defence of his Conduct — The King's
Death—First Levee of Queen Victoria — The General Election — Corre
spondence with Sir Robert Peel — Home Operations on Behalf of Church
Extension — Their Extraordinary Success, .... 17-33
CHAPTER III.
Delivery of a Course of Lectures in London in Defence of Religious Esta
blishments, ....... 34-46

iv CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IV.
Visit to Paris— Tour through some of the Inland Provinces of France, 47-64
CHAPTER V.
The Seventh Decade of Life— Last Efforts on Behalf of Church Extension
—Plan of Mr. William Campbell— The Great Northern Tour— The
Grampians — Loch Eiricht — Inverness — Tarbet House — Skibo Castle —
Teaninich— Cromarty— Fall of Foyers— Cathedral of Elgin — Banff—
The Buller of Buchan — Haddo House — Invercauld— Results of Church
Extension, ... .... 65-87
CHAPTER VI.
First Stage in the Non-Intrusion Controversy — Settlement at Auchter-
arder— Action before the Court of Session — Decision of the Judges —
Appeal to the House of Lords — Resolution of the General Assembly
1838 — Speeches of Lords Brougham and Cottenham — Judgment of the
House of Lords — General Assembly of 1839 — Speech of Dr. Chalmers, 88-115
CHAPTER VII.
First Effort of the Non-Intrusion Committee — Deputation to London — In
terviews with the Leading Politicians — Report to the Assembly's Com
mission — Extracts from Private Journal, . . 116-125
CHAPTER VIII.
The Case of Lethendy — The Dean's Advice — The Presbytery's Procedure
— The Appearance before the Court of Session — The Rebuke — The
Charge of Rebellion brought against the Church — Her Answer to that
Charge — The Constitutional Question in volved in the Collision — Appeal
to the Legislature— Course taken by the Moderates — Pamphlet by the
Dean of Faculty, ...... . 126-139
CHAPTER IX.
The Case of Marnoch — The Refractory Presbytery of Strath bogie — Their
Resolution to Disobey the Orders of the Commission— The Suspension
of the Seven Ministers— The Preaching of the Gospel prohibited in the
District of Strathbogie — The Broken Interdicts, . . . 140-150
CHAPTER X.
Prospect of a Satisfactory Measure from the Whig Government— The
Hope Defeated — The Church turns to the Conservatives— Correspond
ence between Lord Aberdeen, Dr. Chalmers, and the Non-Intrusion
Committee— The Bill—The Misunderstanding— The Charge made by
Lord Aberdeen— The manner in which it was met by Dr. Chalmers, 151-174

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XI.

The Contrast between the English and Scottish Reformations— The First
General Assembly — Its Independence of the State — Conflict between
the Church and State in Scotland —Conduct and Testimony of the
Church— The Act of 1 592— The Revolution Settlement— Dr. Chalmers's
Opinion as to the Two Principles of Non-Intrusion and Spiritual Inde
pendence — Letter to Lord Aberdeen and Speech in the General Assem
bly — Position and Proceedings of the Moderate Party in the Church —
Speech of Sir Robert Peel— Reply by Dr. Chalmers, 1 75-195
CHAPTER XII.
Publication of Dr. Alison's Pamphlet on the Administration of the Poor
Laws in Scotland — Dr. Chalmers's Efforts to Neutralize the Effects of
this Publication — Discussion at the Meeting of the British Scientific
Association held at Glasgow, in September 1840 — Publication of a Vol
ume on " The Sufficiency of the Parochial System without a Poor-rate
for the right Management of the Poor" — Correspondence with Mr.
Thomas Carlyle and Professor Duncan — Lectures to the Mechanics of
Greenock on the Laws and Phenomena of Heat, 196-211
CHAPTER XIII.
Dr. Chalmers's Rejection from the Chair of Theology in Glasgow — Nar
rative of the Settlement at Marnoch — The General Assembly of 1841
— The Deposition of the Seven Suspended Clergymen of Strathbogie
— The Serving of an Indictment on the General Assembly — Dr. Cand-
lish's Nomination to the Chair of Biblical Criticism superseded — Pro
posal by Mr. Smith of Greenock — The Duke of Argyll's Bill — Statement
to the Government by the Moderate Party — Meeting of the Commission
in August — First prospect'of the Disruption — Failure of the Negotia
tions by Sir George Sinclair, . . . . . 21 2-243
CHAPTER XIV.
The Outer and Inner History — Private Journals of 1840-41 — Hor» Bib-
licse Quotidianse — Horse Biblicse Sabbaticse, . .' . 244-266
CHAPTER XV.
Patronage Abolished by the Revolution Settlement — The Act of Security
and Treaty of Union — Patronage Restored by the Act of Queen Anne
— Dr. Chalmers takes part in the Anti-Patronage Movement — Vindica
tion of the step in his Letter to the Duke of Argyll— Narrative of the
Settlement at Culsalmond— The Interdicts of the Court of Session-
Conduct of the Government— The new Party in the Church— Dr. Chal
mers's Letter to the Rev. Mr. Bruce — The General Assembly of 1842
—Motion for the Abolition of Patronage— The Claim of Rights, . 267-299

vi CONTENTS. PAUE
CHAPTER XVI.
Summer Residence at Rosstrevor— The Premier's determination to do
Nothing— The Second Auchterarder Decision— The Convocation, . 300-318
CHAPTER XVII.
Letter to Mr. Lennox — Final Answer of the Government —Letter from
Sir James Graham— The Debate in Parliament— The Claim of Rights
Rejected by the Legislature — The Disruption, . . . 319-343
CHAPTER XVIII.
The Two General Assemblies — Progress of the Free Church — Character
istics of its First General Assembly — Labours and Sufferings of the
Summer of 1843— Dr. Chalmers's Sustentation Tour, . . . 344-304
CHAPTER XIX.
The General Assembly of 1844 — Fruits of the Year's Labours — History
of the Sustentation Fund — Proposed Modification — Its Rejection by the
Free Church, .  365-376
CHAPTER XX.
Christian Union — The Evangelical Alliance, .... 377-390
CHAPTER XXI.
The West Port  . 391-415
CHAPTER XXII.
Suggestions for altering the Curriculum in the Scottish Universities —
The Course of Theological Education — Dr. Chalmers's Professorial
Career — Appointment as Principal in the New College — Institutes of
Theology — The North British Review — The German Philosophy — The
Famine, ......... 416-438
CHAPTER XXin.
Last Visit to Anstruther — Incident at Barnsmuir — Sermon at St. Mary's
Loch — Cavers Revisited — Domestic Habits — Times and Modes of Com
position — Numerical Adjustments — The Toilet — The Breakfast Table
— Mode of Recognising his Students — Conversational Memoranda —
Apostolic Succession — The Monasteries and the Middle Ages  Ameri
can Slavery — The Spiritual Rabbit-Warren — Excess at Table — Even
ing Readings of Gibbon, Shakspeare, and Milton — Catechisms and
Confessions — Scripture Characters — Life at Burntisland — Feeling of
Youthfulness — Heavings of Incipient Civilisation — Janet of the Gallow-
gate and the Astronomical Discourse — Consolatory Letters, . . 439-466

CONTENTS. vii
CHAPTER XXIV.
Family Correspondence, ...... 467-485
CHAPTER XXV.
The Success of the Free Church — Final Verdict of Dr. Chalmers on Volun
taryism — The Government Scheme of Education — Paper drawn up by
Dr. Chalmers — Evidence before the Sites Committee — Visit to London
and Gloucestershire — Return to Edinburgh — His Last Sabbath — His
Death, ........ 486-516

APPENDIX.

Appendix A  Extract from Sedgewick's " Discourse on the Studies of
the University of Cambridge," ..... 519
Appendix B  Extracts from Dr. Chalmers's Correspondence on the
Presbyterial Veto,  519-528
Appendix C  Claim, Declaration, and Protest, anent the Encroach
ments of the Court of Session; and Protest by Commissioners to
General Assembly, ...... 528-551
Appendix D. — Address to the Convocation of November 1842, . . 551-564
Appendix E. — Extracts from " Considerations on the Economics and
Platform of the Free Church of Scotland," .... 564-571
Appendix F  Explanatory Notice by West Port Visitors, . . 571-573
Appendix G  Balance Sheet of Dr. Chalmers's Territorial Church,
West Port, for year ending March 1852, .... 573-574
Appendix H— Account by Rev. Mr. Purves of Visit to Jedburgh, &c, 575-581
Appendix I  Matured Expression of Dr. Chalmers's Sentiments on the
subject of Slavery in America, . . . . • 581-591
Appendix K.— Extracts from Evidence given before the Select Commit
tee on Sites for Churches,  591-607
Appendix L— Account of Funeral,  607-610

PREFACE.
In the preceding volumes it was a studied effort of the
Editor to confine himself to the proper task of the biographer,
as distinguished from that of the critic or the historian. In
the present volume he has been obliged to enter upon a gene
ral narrative of the Disruption ; but, however grateful might
have been the office of rendering a tribute to the memory of
Des. Macfarlan, Welsh, and Brown, and Messrs. Speirs,
Hamilton, J. S. Stewart, and Crichton, he has declined the
task of delineating the character, or recording the services of
the many eminent individuals who, at that period, were Dr.
Chalmers's associates and coadjutors.
In closing his labours he has to offer his most grateful
acknowledgments to Dr. Irving, Professor Duncan, Dr.
Watson, Mr. Bruce, Principal Cunningham, and all those
friends who, by supplying materials or advice, have aided in
a work which, however imperfectly executed, may, it is hoped,
confer some benefit on the Church and on the world.
May 1852.

MEMOIRS

THOMAS CHALMERS, D.D. LLD.

MEMOIRS

THOMAS CHALMERS, D.D. LLD.

CHAPTER I.
LITERARY DISTINCTIONS CONFERRED UPON DR. CHALMERS— ELECTED
A FELLOW OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH, AND A COR
RESPONDING MEMBER OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF FRANCE—
THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF LAWS BESTOWED BY THE UNIVER
SITY OF OXFORD— MEMORIAL TO GOVERNMENT REGARDING THE
ENDOWMENT OF THE THEOLOGICAL CHAIR IN EDINBURGH— COM
MENCEMENT OF THE PUBLICATION OF A UNIFORM EDITION OF
HIS WORES-THE MODERATORSHIP CONTROVERSY.
In January 1834, Dr. Chalmers was elected a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh, and in the following year was
chosen as one of its Vice-Presidents. In January 1834 he was
also elected a Corresponding Member of the Royal Institute of
France, his high sense of which distinction was thus conveyed
to the Secretary of the Academy into which he was admitted : —
" Sir, — I received your much esteemed communication a
good many days ago, and have only been prevented by bad
health from sooner acknowledging the proudest of my literary
honours. VOL. IV. a

2 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1835.
" My engagements may disable me for some time from offer
ing any contribution to the Memoirs of that great Institute,
but I cannot imagine a higher object of ambition to him who
aspires after a name in philosophy than to have his labours
associated with the transactions of so illustrious a body.
" If anything could have added to the satisfaction I feel in
being connected with the Institute of France, it is that more
especial connexion which you have had the goodness to assign
for me with the Academy of the Moral and Political Sciences.
— I have the honour to be, Sir, yours most respectfully,
Thomas Chalmers.''
In the summer of 1835, another high literary distinction was
conferred upon Dr. Chalmers.
Amid the delays connected with Lord John Russell's motion
for the appointment of a Royal Commission, and while not
fully recovered from the effects of his former illness, he wrote
to his affectionate friend, Mr. George Sinclair : — " I now be
gin to be jaded and overborne with London, and, with the
single exception of my attendance at Court on Wednes
day, it will be my wisdom to live as quietly as possible.
I spend the bulk of next week at Walthamstow, and then
leave for Oxford."* This visit to Oxford was a bright in
terlude amid the disappointing negotiations of the metro
polis. He had received the gratifying intelligence that at
the approaching annual commemoration the University of
Oxford intended to confer upon him the degree of Doctor of
Laws. In acknowledging this unexpected honour, Dr. Chal
mers writes, — " I have long had the utmost affection and
reverence for the University of Oxford, but I never once
dreamed of the possibility of in any manner being admitted
within its pale. I truly feel it to be an honourable relation-
* Letter to Mr. Sinclair, now Sir George Sinclair, Bart., dated 18th June 1835.

MT. 55. THE DEGREE OF LL.D. 3
ship, and must confess the same sort of complacency which
one has in some great and splendid connexion into which he
has newly entered. Though but the adopted son of your
venerable mother, I trust she will ever find me one of the
most devoted members of her great family ; a sentiment which
I shall all the more fondly cherish that I believe in the strong
hold which this ancient, this noble, this truly national institute,
has on the affections of the many thousands of her children,
who are the wisest of our countrymen, not only as regards the
cause of learning, but as regards the cause of social order and
rational liberty in these our vexed and agitated times."
In the theatre of the University, and in presence of a bril
liant assemblage, Dr. Chalmers was invested with this distin
guished honour. On presenting him to the Vice-Chancellor
and Proctors, the gentleman who officiated for the Professor of
the Civil Law made the following speech : —
" Insignissime Vice-Cancellarie, vosque egregii Procuratores,
prsesento vobis venerandum et doctissimum virum Thomam
Chalmers, Regise Societatis Socium, Publicum Theologise apud
Edinenses Professorem, benignitate, doctrina, facundia, ut
quem maxime, insignitum ; qui pauperum sortem miseratus
in melius promovere pro virili semper studuit, ' humani nihil a
se alienum putans ;' qui, ecclesiee Scoticse. acerrimus propug-
nator, ecclesise Anglicanse quoque, idque dubiis et formidolosis
temporibus, gravissimus vindex extitit ; ea, qua merito apud
suos auctoritate pollet, semper usus, ad mutuam benevolentiam
ac caritatem fovendam, omni asperitate, omni invidia amota ;
qui, cum visum est opus magnificum, a Comite de Bridgewater
excogitatum pluribus demandare, a viro spectatissimo, quem
coram cernitis, D. Gilbert, Regise Societati prsesidenti delige-
batur, ut dignissimus qui cum celeberimis Oxonii et Canta-
brigias Philosophis consociaretur cum Professoribus nostris J.
Kidd, G. Buckland, eo praeclaruit ingenio, ea scientia, ut is

4 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1835.
potissimum haberetur, cui partes primariae mandarentur, sumnii
Numinis potentiam, sapientiam, bonitatem, providentiam indi-
candi : quo opere, quanta copia, quanto aeumine perfunctus
sit, minime quidem opus est, ut apud hodiemam frequentiam
loquar. Professorem igitur venerandum, doctissimum, prae-
scntans vobis gratulor huic nostras academies, quod, quem diu
miratus est absentem, hunc hodie praesentem quasi gremio
accipiat, admittatque ad gradum doctoris in jure civili honoris
causa." In the reading of this address as mention was made of Dr.
Chalmers's eloquence, of his defence of the English Establish
ment, and of his Bridgewater Treatise, three distinct rounds
of loud and unanimous approbation rose from the assembled
students of the University. The only written notice taken by
himself of a day so memorable in his history, occurs in the
following letter to Lady Stuart of Allanbank : —
" Oxford, 1st July 1835.
" My dear Lady Stuart, — I write from this place, from
which I had fondly hoped that we might have found our way
homewards by land, and spent a day or two with you and Sir
James at Harrogate, but the interminable delays to which we
have been exposed in London necessitate my return thereto,
after which we shall feel the temptation of a quick and less
fatiguing movement to Edinburgh by sea. This is a real dis
appointment to us, believing, as we do, that we should have
had a warm-hearted reception at Harrogate, enjoying, as we
should have done, the kind converse of old friends after weeks
spent among strangers.
" We are here living for a few days with the Professor of
Divinity at Christ Church, Dr. Burton, where we are enter
tained with ' all the elegance of lettered hospitality.' Since
beginning this letter, which I have been forced to internipt, I

-ET. 55. LETTER TO LADY STUART. 5
have been present at the great annual Oxford commemoration,
where I have had the honour of being admitted as an LL.D.
This entitles me to a Doctor's robes, in which I have been in
vested, and of which I tell you, without levity, that I am not
a little proud. The costume consists of a scarlet silk gown and
black silk cap. I shall take a set of it with me into Scotland ;
and meanwhile, during my brief stay in Oxford, I walk about
in a doctor's black gown, with the common University cap.
We all dined to-day in full academic costume, with gown and
bands. The most interesting introduction which I have had
in Oxford is to Keble the poet, author of the ' Christian Year,'
a work of exquisite beauty, and most worthy of your personal,
nay of your daily companionship, if you have not yet admitted
it into your cabinet. Mrs. C. and I lived a few days lately
within sight of Sir James's house in Regent Park. We thought
much of you and of your predilection for all that is tasteful.
The house is greatly to my liking, both in architecture and in
a certain monastic style and situation which belong to it.
Our ladies here join in best regards: they are quite fagged
with their excursions among the halls and colleges of this
wondrous place, this city of cathedrals. — I ever am yours, with
greatest regard, • Thomas Chalmers.
" To Lady Stuart of Allanbank, Harrogate.''
" I retain," says the Earl of Elgin, of whose kind attentions
to him at this time, Dr. Chalmers cherished a lively and most
grateful remembrance, "a very pleasing impression of Dr.
Chalmers's visit to Oxford in 1835. I do not know that I ever
saw him enjoy himself more thoroughly than he seemed to do
on that occasion. With the exception, indeed, of the degree
conferred upon him by the University, Dr. Chalmers's visit to
Oxford was not marked by any very striking incident. What
was chiefly interesting to one who esteemed and admired him,

6 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1835.
was to witness the heartiness with which he entered into the
spirit of the place, and the almost boyish delight which he
seemed to experience, after the toils of his sojourn in London,
in suffering his imagination to expatiate among scenes of
academic grandeur and repose. I well remember his coming
to my apartment at Merton, before eight o'clock one morning,
and telling me of a sequestered court which he had found in a
college, into which he had strayed on his way from Christ
Church, and the earnestness with which he claimed credit for
having thus discovered for himself a spot of surpassing beauty,
which could, he assured me, be known to few. I remember, too,
the serious manner in which, while we were strolling in the
college garden, on the afternoon of the day on which his degree
was conferred on him, he apologized for the extravagance of
which he had been guilty in purchasing the robes of a Doctor
of Civil Law, notwithstanding the precautions I had taken to
relieve him from this necessity, saying, ' You see I could not
bring myself to leave the place, without carrying away with
me some memorial of the academic costume.'
" On the day following his arrival at Oxford, I was requested
to endeavour to ascertain whether it would be agreeable to
him to receive an honorary degree from the University ; and I
had afterwards the satisfaction of being present when it was
conferred on him. Rarely have I witnessed as much enthu
siasm in the Oxford theatre, as was manifested when he pre
sented himself to go through the ceremony of admission. This
was the more gratifying, because it was notorious that on some
by no means immaterial points, his views were not co-incident
with those which obtained at the time with an influential
section of the Oxford University public. Indeed, the only
expression of regret which fell from him in my hearing during
the course of his visit, had reference to the reserve which
characterized, as he thought, the manner of some eminent men

JET. 55. LETTER TO MR. SINCLAIR. 7
connected with a certain theological party, to whom he was
introduced, and which prevented him from touching, in con
versation with them, upon topics of highest import, with the
frank and genial earnestness which was natural to him. This
was, however, only a passing remark. Most assuredly there
was no indication of lack of cordiality in his reception by Con
vocation. Dr. Chalmers was himself deeply affected by the
warmth with which he was greeted; and I think I might
almost venture to say that he looked upon this visit to Oxford
as one of the most pleasing incidents in his career."*
I am not aware of any other Scottish clergyman being either
invested with a Doctor's robes at Oxford, or chosen as a Corre
sponding Member of the French Institute. In Dr. Chalmers
two literary distinctions were thus united, neither of which
had ever previously been bestowed upon a clergyman of the
Scottish Establishment.
While France and England conferred these unsolicited
honours, Dr. Chalmers' was in vain endeavouring to secure an
adequate endowment for the chair which he held in Edinburgh.
In the following letter to Mr. Sinclair, who had taken the
liveliest interest in this object, he details the circumstances
which had induced him to memorialize the Government. " June 18«A, 1835.
" My dear Sir, — In reply to your kind letter of inquiry
respecting the endowments which belong to the Professor of
Theology in Edinburgh, I have to state that the facts of the
case are very shortly as follows : —
" You are aware of the long struggle which took place in
the General Assembly against the practice of uniting profes
sorships with Church-livings. I myself took a part against
* Letter from the Earl of Elgin to Sir John Maxwell, Bart., of Polloc, dated
Quebec, November 7, 1851.

8 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1836.
such pluralities ; and you may recollect how the great argu
ment against the full and final abolition of them was the
unprovided state of the Theological Chairs in the University
of Edinburgh. I confess that one of my inducements for the
acceptance of one of these chairs was to put an end to that
argument. At the time of my entering on the professorship
which I now hold, and which was in November 1828, the
salary of £196 a year formed the sum total of the emoluments
of the office. At that time fees were not exigible from the
students of Divinity
" The first step towards the increase of the emoluments took
place in 1829. It was ordained by the. Town-Council, who are
the patrons of the University, and have absolute power over its
arrangements, that each professional student should pay a fee
of £2, 2s. a year, and each non-professional, a fee of £3, 3s.
It should be remarked, that scarcely ever had it been the
practice for non-professional students to attend the theological
class, and far less to pay for their attendance. Certain it is,
that any revenue from their fees ought not to be counted on
in estimating the sure and regular income of the professor.
In point of fact, my income last year from the professional
students amounted to about ^300, and from the non-profes
sional to a little above i?100 more. But the proper way of
reckoning the future likelihoods of the professional income
from fees alone, would be to restrict the computation to pro
fessional students, I mean those who are destined for the
Church ; and it would be injurious both to myself and to
my successors, if this were rated at any sum above of300
a year. " But more than this. Within these two years a great
disaster has befallen the office : the Town-Council has become
insolvent. The salaries of the professors, in as far as they
are paid by the City Corporation, (and, unfortunately, the

Ml. 36. LETTER TO SIR GEORGE SINCLAIR. 9
whole of mine is so paid,) are suspended. By an adverse
decision of the Court of Session, all hope of redress is put off
for an indefinite period. For these three last terms I have
received no half-yearly salary ; and my strictly professional
income is reduced to ,£300 annually. The additional £100
from non-professional students ought not to be counted in any
general measure for the permanent provision of our University
offices ; and, at all events, this incidental addition to my
emoluments does not save from the ' res angusta domi,' in a
case where the expenditure in my station, with its various
exposures, is such, that I have not yet been able to restrain it
to £800 a year.
" In these circumstances, I do not think that I have at all
erred in accepting of a Chaplaincy, whose emoluments are
only £50 a year, even though its duties are so small that the
obnoxious name of a sinecure is attached to it. There are
greatly too few of such sinecures in Scotland, which, if only
well-bestowed, might have the effect of supplying the great
desideratum of our meagrely endowed Church — certain places
or provisions for men who might be in circumstances of inde
pendence and leisure for theological pursuits, and so for up
holding our professional literature. Thomas Chalmers."
The memorial to Government embraced a similar represen
tation, but it led to no result. The continued suspension of
his salary induced Dr. Chalmers to listen to his publisher's
proposal of issuing in quarterly volumes a cheap and uniform
edition of his works. This publication commenced in January
1836, and soon after the appearance of the second volume of
the series, the following letter was addressed to the Rev. Mr.
Cunningham of Harrow : — " Burntisland, April 20th, 1836.
" My dear Sir, — My object in this communication is to

10 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1836.
request a favour from you. I am now republishing my works
in a uniform edition of small volumes, which will come out
quarterly. I have certainly great reason to be pleased with
the reception which my publications have met in England,
considering the harsh and injurious treatment which I have
suffered from so many of the London periodicals — owing, I
believe, partly to the political hostility of some of the editors ;
partly, I fear, to a personal hostility, as in the case of the  ;
and, lastly, to the strong antipathy felt by others to my views
on pauperism. While I assign these as exciting causes, I
am not insensible to the possibility that a great deal is due to
the intrinsic demerit of the works themselves.
" However this may be, there is one circumstance which I
suspect is working prejudicially against me, and that is the
idea of its being a mere republication, with no original matter
in it at all. Now, it so happens that the great majority of my
five first volumes will be altogether new, and that of the two
first, already published, and which finishes my views on Natu
ral Theology, the Bridgewater Treatise is merely a fragment
of the whole.
" Now my request is, that you will draw the attention of any
of the London reviewers to the new matter of my works. The
'Christian Observer' and ' British Review' have all along been
very fair and friendly ; and I confess myself unwilling that the
large additions which I propose making to all my theological
volumes^ should be altogether unobserved by them.
Thomas Chalmers."
To his necessary preparations for the press, and his daily
labours in the University, another heavy burden was now
added. The Commissioners of Religious Instruction began
their inquiries at Edinburgh, and Dr. Chalmers was deeply
sensible of the difficulty and importance of making an effective

Ml. 56. ECCLESIASTICAL STATISTICS OF EDINBURGH. 11
representation of the religious state of the metropolis. He
resisted a proposal made by the opponents of Church Exten
sion, that a joint survey should be made of the whole city,
conducted by persons appointed by both parties. Conceiving
that such a survey must necessarily be superficial, and that it
would fail to bring out the actual condition as to attendance
on religious ordinances of the lowest and most destitute classes
of the community, he preferred the confinement of his own
inquiries to certain definite localities which could be thorough
ly explored. His agents had completed in this way their
survey of districts, embracing a population of 20,000 souls,
when a digested statement of the results was laid by him
before the Royal Commissioners in February 1836. In a
lengthened examination before the Commissioners, he explained
the manner in which the statistics contained in this document
had been made up, and illustrated the grounds and principles of
the Church Extension Scheme. That scheme was in a" crisis of
its history. The Government having virtually pledged itself to
act upon the returns of its Commissioners, it was of the first
importance to obtain from these Commissioners a favourable
report. It was with the deepest mortification, therefore, that
Dr. Chalmers learned of the evidence given by the Rev. Dr.
Lee, one of the most distinguished ministers of Edinburgh, that
it was in many respects unfriendly to that great cause whose
progress he was watching over with parental jealousy, to touch
or injure which was to touch the very apple of his eye. The
pain inflicted thus, was aggravated by a small but influential
body of ministers and laymen in Edinburgh being resolved to
raise this clergyman to the Moderator's chair of the General
Assembly. To do this at a time when the gravest questions
were pending between the Government and the Church,
appeared to Dr. Chalmers to be a measure fraught with ex
treme peril. The friends of Dr. Lee, however, were as resolute

J 2 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1836.
in urging his claims as Dr. Chalmers was resolute in resisting
them ; and other measures having failed to induce them to
withdraw his name, Dr. Chalmers, in a pamphlet of extraordi
nary power, published early in 1837, made a public exposure
of the grounds upon which he repudiated this appointment. It
may freely be conceded now, that the evil which an unfriendly
or hostile moderator would have it in his power to inflict upon
his favourite scheme, appeared to Dr. Chalmers, as to others, in
an exaggerated form. He may have erred also, in assigning so
much of a political character to the movement which he op
posed. And had his resentment been less strong against those,
of whom he too hastily believed that they were ready to sacri
fice the best interests of the Church at the shrine of political
partizanship, many vehement expressions had been withheld.
Believing, however, that great interests were in danger, unre
strained by mere personal considerations, he vented his indig
nation in the strongest terms he could employ. His pamphlet
was followed in a few weeks by a Statement on the part of
Dr. Lee's supporters, in which he was directly charged with art-
' ful and "perverse twisting of circumstances;" with "having
well learned his lesson from the serpent ;" with "deceptive
concealment;" with a "presumptuous assumption to himself
of the whole charge of the Church Extension Scheme ;" with
" blind and relentless virulence,'' and a " total disregard to
truth." It is difficult to conceive that these charges were
understood by those who made them in their literal and most
offensive sense ; but it is not to be wondered at, that so long
as they remained unexplained and unretracted, they should
have inflicted acute pain, and kindled the keenest indignation.
The first time that Dr. Chalmers attended a meeting of the
Presbytery of Edinburgh, after the appearance of the State
ment, he took occasion to allude to these accusations. " I
will not," he said, " descend to any treatment whatever of the

/ET. 56. MODERATORSHIP CONTROVERSY. 13
hideous charges* I never could make their utter ground
lessness the subject of an argument with others, or strive to
render palpable to them by reasoning, what was already far
more palpable to myself than any reasoning could make it, in
the immediate light of my own consciousness. Certain it is,
that the accusations, if true, should banish me from society ;
and, at all events, must, till retracted, break up all my compan
ionship with their authors. It is quite obvious that as matters
now stand, there can be no intercourse, and no recognition be
tween us ; and that without an entire disavowal, on their part,
of one and all of the moral charges, even the forms of acquaint
anceship cannot be maintained. I ask from them nothing for
the purpose of making me right, and it is for them to deter
mine whether they are to do something for the purpose of
making themselves right. For myself, I am satisfied with the
appearance and the declaration that I now make, and count it
simply enough to shew the Presbytery that, notwithstanding
the foul and ferocious assaults that have been made upon me,
I can still lift an unabashed visage in their presence, and am
delighted to hear the sound of my own voice again in the
midst of Christian and honourable men."
It did little or nothing to heal this deadly breach that,
sympathizing with Dr. Chalmers's alarms, an overwhelming
majority of the General Assembly refused to raise Dr. Lee to
the Moderator's chair. The question as to the appointment
of a moderator was felt to be trivial, as compared with the
personal controversy to which it had given birth. Most anxious
efforts were made to bring this painful controversy to a close,
and five leading members of the Presbytery volunteered their
services as mediators. With Dr. Chalmers there was no diffi-
* Although he attempted no personal defence, he was ably and effectively vindi
cated from the charges which had been brought against him, in two pamphlets
by the Rev. W. Cunningham and the Rev. J. Bruce, of whose friendly intervention
he always retained the liveliest and most grateful remembrance.

14 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1836.
culty. He had never meant to question the integrity or asperse
the honour of Dr. Lee or any of his supporters ; and if any
passage in his pamphlet was capable of being interpreted so as
to imply such charges, he was ready to affirm that such was not
his own understanding of them, and that had he thought them
capable of being so understood he would have expressed him
self differently. Had any public interest required, no difficulty
would have been experienced in vindicating the position to
wards his opponents which Dr. Chalmers was forced to occupy ;
nay, I believe that the moral greatness of his character never
gave more striking manifestations of itself than in some pas
sages of this very conflict. But I will not enter farther into the
history of this most distressing affair. The conflict touched no
vital question ; it is now, happily, almost forgotten. The breach,
wide as at the time it was, a few years sufficed to heal. It
was the quarrel of Christian men, devoted to the same objects,
though at this time pursuing them by different paths ; and the
strength of their common Christianity shewed itself in this,
that at last every moral charge which had been made was
retracted, and they came to look upon one another with mutual
confidence and regard.
While the moderatorship controversy was at its height, an
aged clergyman, as venerable for piety as for years, in writing
to Dr. Chalmers had referred to the adverse spiritual influences
of such strife. " January 9th,lSSS.
" I have often felt," said Dr. Chalmers in reply, " that the
bustle of too active and varied a sphere of exertion is adverse
to the growth of one's personal and spiritual Christianity. In
my own case this hostile influence, I fear, has been of late much
aggravated by the injustice which I have received at the hands
of old acquaintances, and what is still more trying, by the dis
appointment I have met with at the hands of old friends, who,

MT. 56. LETTER TO DR. MUIRHEAD. 15
in their extreme love of peace, have reversed the apostolical
order of first pure and then peaceable, and who, by their
eagerness for peace and neglect of principle, have left me to
complain of calumnies still unretracted — of grievances still
unredressed. " But these are matters which I trust that God in His good
time will enable me to forget ; they are things which are
beneath, and the best way of escape from them is to set my
thoughts on the things which are above. In the hand of the
heavenly Witness every cause of verity is safe, and I entreat
your prayers for the perfecting within me of that work of
patience and charity which if left undone may leave me in
the state of him who walketh in darkness and knoweth not
whither he goeth. Thomas Chalmers,
" Rev. Dr. Muirhead."
More than two years after this letter was written, the follow
ing entries occur in Dr. Chalmers's journal : —
" March 26th, 1840. — Dr.  this day proposed a recon
ciliation. 0 my God, I draw upon Thee for wisdom and
charity : the preparations of the mouth, the answer of the
heart are Thine. May a sense of my gross and awful delin
quencies against Thy holy law be ever present with me ; and
0 let me acquit myself in this and every similar affair so as
that with unfaltering heart I may be enabled to say, ' Forgive
my trespasses, even as I forgive those who have trespassed
against me.'
" March 30th. — Had a meeting with  . Clear my way,
0 God, through the difficulties which lie in that quarter.
" April 1st. — The prayer of two days ago has been answered.
Visited in the morning by the suggestion that as this was the
last day of our session I should have another interview with
 , which has turned out promising, and leads to the hope

16 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1836.
that I may yet die in peace with all mankind. Previous to
the conversation I committed both the guidance and result
of it to God."
His prayers were answered — his hope fulfilled — " the hand
of the heavenly Witness" was laid with healing power upon the
last and the worst breach which this unhappy controversy had
created. Ere long the graver perils of the Church invited to
another and nobler conflict, in which the pleasing spectacle
was presented of those, whom this lesser strife had separated,
standing side by side among the front-rank defenders of the
Church's purity and independence, co-operating with entire
cordiality and unbroken confidence.

JET. 56. THE KILMARNOCK BAILIE S PETITION.

CHAPTER II.

SIR GEORGE CLERK AND SIR JAMES GRAHAM DEFEND THE EX
CLUSIVE SPIRITUAL JURISDICTION OF THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND
—SUPPORT GIVEN TO THE CHURCH EXTENSION SCHEME BY THE
CONSERVATIVES— SIR ROBERT PEEL'S TESTIMONY IN ITS FAVOUR
— ITS TREATMENT BY THE WHIG MINISTRY— FIRST REPORT OF
THE ROYAL COMMISSIONERS— POSTPONEMENT OF ANY GOVERN
MENT ACTION — SECOND AND THIRD REPORTS — MINISTERIAL
MEASURE PROPOSED AND WITHDRAWN— GENERAL POLITICS OF
THIS PERIOD — DR. CHALMERS'S LETTER TO MR. CAMPBELL OF
MONZLE— HIS OWN DEFENCE OF HIS CONDUCT— THE KING'S DEATH
—FIRST LEVEE OF QUEEN VICTORIA— THE GENERAL ELECTION-
CORRESPONDENCE WITH SIR ROBERT PEEL— HOME OPERATIONS
ON BEHALF OF CHURCH EXTENSION _ THEIR EXTRAORDINARY
SUCCESS. In July 1836 a petition was presented to the House of
Commons containing grave accusations against the superior
authorities of the Church of Scotland. The petitioner, a Kil
marnock bailie, had been deprived of his office as an Elder of the
Church, in consequence of having presided at a meeting called
for the purpose of petitioning the Legislature against the union
of Church and State. Having appealed in vain to the General
Assemblies of 1834 and 1835, by whom the sentence of the
inferior Courts had been confirmed, he now applied to the
House of Commons to protect his character from the injuries
to which such proceedings had exposed it. No sooner had the
case of the petitioner been stated than Sir George Clerk
rose and said, that " he felt it his duty to take an objection
VOL. IV. n

18 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1836.
in limine to the reception of this petition. He would call upon
the House to refuse to receive the petition, on the ground that
the Church of Scotland did not admit of the interference of
any civil authority in matters relating to the internal discipline
of that Church : that right was sanctioned by the Claim of
Rights presented by Scotland to King William III. at the Revo
lution ; it was sanctioned and established by the convention
Parliament then held in Scotland, and it was guaranteed to
the Church of Scotland by the Act of Union. He was ready
to admit — the Church of Scotland was ready to admit — that
in all civil matters connected with that Church the Legislature
had a right to interfere. The Church of Scotland did not refuse
to render unto Caesar the things that were Caesar's, but it would
not allow of an interference with its spiritual and ecclesiastical
rights, ratified as they had been in the manner he had stated,
and which constituted the independence of the Church Govern
ment of Scotland." Sir James Graham warmly seconded
these views. " What the people of Scotland had conquered
with their arms had been recognised and guaranteed to them
by repeated acts of Parliament, and the Act of Union had
recognised the independence of their Church as complete and
entire. The Church of Scotland acknowledged the right of no
authority to interfere with their ecclesiastical Government.
They recognised not the Sovereign of these realms as the head
of their Church, and he (Sir James Graham) would always
contend for the privileges which that Church had guaranteed to
it by the Union." *
The Parliamentary leaders of the Conservative party were,
without exception, as zealous supporters of the extension of the
Church of Scotland as these two right honourable baronets were
upon this occasion zealous defenders of her jurisdiction. The
introduction of the topic into the King's Speech was not the
* Hansard, vol. xxxv. pp. 575, 581.

MT. 56. THE BANQUET AT GLASGOW. 19
only evidence which Dr. Chalmers had of the friendly inten
tions of the short-lived ministry of Sir Robert Peel in the
spring of 1835. And afterwards, whenever any Parliamentary
effort was made to force the subject upon the attention of the
Government, and persuade them to endow, Sir Robert Peel and
Sir William Rae in the House of Commons, and Lords Aber
deen and Haddington in the House of Lords, were the foremost
and the heartiest in urging the claims of the Church Exten
sion Scheme. At the banquet given to Sir Robert Peel in
Glasgow, after his election as Lord Rector of the University,
the great Conservative chieftain seized the opportunity of ad
dressing that remarkable assembly* in these terms : — " When
I have joined in the public worship of your Church, think you
that I have adverted to distinctions in point of form ? — think
you that I have troubled myself with questions of Church dis
cipline or of Church government ? No, but with a wish as
hearty and cordial as you can entertain have I deprecated the
arrival of that day, if ever it should come, when men in autho
rity or in legislation should be ashamed or unwilling to support
the National Church of Scotland — to extend its ministration
— to advance its banners into the desolate and unclaimed
wastes of religious indifference or profligacy. Gentlemen, you
respond to that sentiment, do you not ? (Long and continued
cheering.) Come, then, and let us improve this occasion, not
to the mere purposes of festivity ; let us improve it to public
advantage, and let us see whether we can join heart and hand
in resolutions to support that sentiment. (Great applause.)"f
In striking contrast with all the expressions and acts of the
Conservatives was the treatment which the Church Extension
cause met with at the hands of the Whig ministry. That
ministry, favourably disposed as its chief members were at the
* Upwards of 3400 gentlemen sat down at the table.
t See "Scottish Guardian" of 17th January 1837.

20 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1836.
first to listen to Dr. Chalmers's moderate demands, opened
its ear too readily to the representations of the Scottish Dis
senters. When reminded by Dr. Chalmers, in 1835, of the
encouragement which, in the preceding year, he had given to
the first demand for an endowment, Lord Melbourne said,
" With respect to the general and very guarded expressions
which were used by myself respecting the proposed grant to the
Scottish Church, in the year 1834, I can only say that they
were employed in utter ignorance of the real state of things.
You yourself admit that you were not prepared to expect oppo
sition from any large body of your countrymen ; and I, who
had never heard anything but that the Church of Scotland
was the most exemplary and the most satisfactory to the people
of any Church in the world, could still less anticipate the burst
of dissatisfaction and condemnation which broke forth so sud
denly and unexpectedly. Not four days had elapsed from the
time of the employment of the expressions to whic% you allude
before I felt the ground to tremble under me."*
This trembling mood was still upon the Premier when, in
July 1835, his ministry proposed to issue a Commission of In
quiry ; and Dr. Chalmers and his coadjutors were excusable in
cherishing some alarm lest, under that Commission, the enter
tainment of their question should be indefinitely postponed.
Lord John Russell did everything, indeed, to quiet their
apprehensions. At their suggestion he had a clause inserted in
the Commission, that the Commissioners " were to report from
time to time, in order that such remedies may be applied to
any existing evils as Parliament may think fit ;" and in
moving the appointment of the Commission in the House of
Commons, his lordship said, " It may be urged as an objection
that the Commission might extend its labours to an incon
venient length, but that will be obviated by arranging that they
* Extracted from letter to Dr. Chalmers, dated 11th September 1835.

JET 56. THE COMMISSIONERS' FIRST REPORT. 21
shall report from time to time, that their reports shall be laid
before Parliament, and that as soon as Parliament and the
Government shall have considered them, and ascertained that
a remedy is required, and settled the nature of that remedy,
they shall proceed at once to remedy them." While cordially
concurring, however, in the proposal of interim reports, Lord
John Russell had no strong conviction of their necessity. " I
trust," he said, in his letter of instruction to the Commissioners,
and we quote the expression to shew how sincerely desirous
his lordship was to avoid all needless delay, " I trust that
in the course of six months the greater part of your task
will be accomplished." It was no fault of the Commissioners
that this anticipation was falsified, and that instead of com
pleting their whole task within six months, it was a year and
a half before their First Report, confined exclusively to Edin
burgh, was laid upon the table of the House of Commons.
Though conducted with the most laudable diligence, and, one
single instance excepted,* with exemplary impartiality, the
inquiry was so difficult and operose as necessarily to be tedious.
At last, however, on the 7th February 1837, their First Report
was presented to the House. This Report bore that, embracing
all the sittings in Established and Dissenting churches, there
was church accommodation provided in Edinburgh for about
48ith per cent, of the whole population — that in the Established
churches there were upwards of 9000, and in the Dissenting
upwards of 11,000 sittings unlet. As to the actual attendance
upon religious ordinances, " it would appear," say the Com
missioners, " as was indeed universally admitted in the evi
dence, that there is a large number of persons capable of
attending who habitually absent themselves from public wor
ship. This number cannot be less than from 40,000 to 50,000,
* The permission given to Dissenters to withhold all evidence as to debts and
other encumbrances on their places of worship.

22 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1836.
according to the age at which children may be supposed cap
able of attending church." " It appears to us as the result of
the whole evidence, that from whatever cause it proceeds,
whether connected with their extent or nature, the oppor
tunities of public religious worship, and the means of religious
instruction and pastoral superintendence at present existing
and in operation, are not adequate to the removal of the evil
complained of."
Upon the presentation of this Report it was hoped that some
Government action would ensue. The broad and alarming fact
that nearly one-third of the whole population of the Scottish
metropolis were living in the entire neglect of religious ordi
nances, afforded, it was imagined, a sufficient warrant for such
action. When questioned, however, in Parliament, the heads of
the Government replied, that they thought it " better to wait
until they had the other Reports before them, before any further
steps were taken on the subject." * At the close of the year, the
Second and Third Reports of the Commissioners were issued, and
all reason for any further delay was removed. The Second Re
port, referring to the city and suburbs of Glasgow, stated that,
in all the churches, there were sittings provided for only 39^
per cent, of the population ; while, as to Church attendance,
the result is stated to be, " that a very large number of per
sons, upwards of 66,000, exclusive of children under ten years
of age, are not in the habit of attending public worship." The
materials for decision being now all before them, the determi
nation of the Government was looked for with profound anxiety.
It was at last announced that the ministry would be prepared
to bring in a bill, the leading provisions of which were : — 1 st,
That the bishops' teinds should be applied in providing for the
religious destitution existing in certain Highland and other
* Speech of Lord John Russell, on a motion brought forward by Sir William
Rae, 5th May 1837 — Hansard, vol. xxxviii. p. 617.

Ml. 56. DR. MUIR AND LORD MELBOURNE. 23
rural parishes, having no unexhausted teinds ; 2d, That an
alteration should be made in the Act 1707, respecting the
division of parishes in Scotland, so as to afford increased
facilities for the application of the unexhausted teinds in the
hands of private proprietors, to relieve the destitution of such
parishes as had unexhausted teinds belonging to them ; 3d,
That nothing should be done for the large towns — that no
grant should be made from any source to provide additional
means of religious instruction for them. Such was the mea
sure which, after four years of negotiation and expectation,
was offered to the acceptance of the Church Extensionists of
Scotland. Its first provision, if carried out, would have yielded
but a limited revenue ; its second, the most competent autho
rities in Scotland declared it would be illegal to execute ; and
its third was a distinct negative upon that demand, which, of
all others, Dr. Chalmers looked upon as the clearest and most
clamant. The measure met so little favour, that it was speedily
withdrawn, and all hope of aid from the Whig ministry was
abandoned.* In that ministry there were many devoted friends
of the Church of Scotland. Of Lord John Russell in par
ticular, we can have no doubt that had he been at perfect
* A deputation from the Church Extension Committee, appointed to confer with
the Government as to any measure which might be proposed, found on arrival in
London, that on this, as on a former occasion, they had been anticipated — that the
Government measure had been announced. Placed thus in a critical position, they
were anxious that Dr. Chalmers, who had not accompanied them, should join them in
London ; but a private intimation, conveyed to one of their number, informed them,
that, affecting to regard him as their political enemy, the Government would rather
avoid meeting Dr. Chalmers. Dr. Muir was at the head of the deputation at their
final interview with Lord Melbourne. At the close of the meeting it was repre
sented, in the most solemn terms, to his lordship, that in what the Government
proposed to do they were abandoning the principle of an Establishment so far as
great cities were concerned, and that they would inflict a cruel and deep wound
on the Church of Scotland. " That, gentlemen," said the Premier, in the easiest
tone of good-natured nonchalance, " that is your inference. You may not be the
better for our plan, but — hang it — you cannot surely be worse." And so ended
the colloquy.

24 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1836.
liberty to act upon his own personal convictions, the aid which
that Church asked would readily have been granted. But the
Government of which he was a member, wanted both unity
and strength. It wanted unity, for among its members there
were some whose opinions as to Church Establishments, and
whose dispositions toward the evangelical party in Scotland,
were altogether different from those of the Home Secre
tary. It wanted strength, for, slender comparatively as was
their political influence, the voluntaries of Scotland might at
this time have turned the scale. The majority of 300, which
the Whig ministry possessed in 1831, had in 1837 dwindled
down to 26. With a majority so reduced, and which every
year was diminishing, it was evident that the days of the Whig
Government were numbered. Amid the struggle which pre
ceded its dissolution, the Church of Scotland was drawn into
the strife. In the treatment given to her, a weapon was fur
nished to the Conservatives too effective to lie unused ; and,
however desirous Dr. Chalmers and other ecclesiastical leaders
might be to avoid everything which could give a political
aspect to any of their ecclesiastical movements, it was not pos
sible for them, either as citizens or as Churchmen, to stand
neutral between two parties — one of which declared itself to be
so friendly, the other of which proved itself to be so indifferent,
to the Church's most reasonable demands. In the general
politics of the period, Dr. Chalmers took no public part. There
was one question, however, and that perhaps the leading one
of the day, in which his interest was too lively not to find
some vent. Having been asked by Mr. Campbell of Monzie to
communicate to him in writing his opinion upon this topic, he
did it in the following letter : — " Burntisland, July 22d, 1836.
" Dear Sir, — On the subject of our recent conversation, I
would beg leave to add that I have always regarded the appro-

iBT. 56. LETTER TO MR. CAMPBELL OF MONZIE. 25
priation of any part of the revenues of the Irish Church to
other than strictly ecclesiastical objects, as a very gross viola
tion of the principle of a religious establishment. And I
farther think, that the actual appropriation carried in the
House of Commons, militates in the strongest manner against
all the principles of Protestantism. I have ever reprobated the
grant to Maynooth College ; and (a fortiori) I must deplore,
should it ever be the adopted policy of our Government, the
alienation, in however small a proportion, of the endowments
of the Protestant hierarchy of Ireland, to the support of any
Popish seminary whatever ; and more especially to the support
of schools which will only admit the Scriptures in a changed
or mutilated form into their course of education. The ques
tion, my dear Sir, is altogether a vital one, insomuch that if
any, whether in or out of Parliament, shall support the appro
priation clause, I doubt whether they have a sincere, and most
certainly they have not an enlightened attachment to the in
terests of the Protestant faith. — Ever believe me, my dear Sir,
yours most truly, Thomas Chalmers.
"Alexander Campbell, Esq., of Monzie."
" P.S. — If the Government shall carry into effect their pro
posed act of violence against the Episcopal Protestant Estab
lishment of Ireland, I should certainly feel that the Presby
terian Establishment of Scotland is not safe in their hands."
This letter was avowedly asked and^used to serve an
electioneering purpose. Mr. Campbell's opponent had pre
viously, with a like object, made a like request of Dr. Chalmers,
whose only part in the matter was that when asked for his
opinion he frankly stated it. It so happened, however, that
the letter above quoted told against the liberal interest in the
canvass, and a violent outcry was raised against the writer for
VOL. IV, c

26 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1836.
improper and unclerical interference in political affairs.* It
was one of the few instances in which Dr. Chalmers offered
any public defence of his conduct. From a communication
addressed by him to the " Edinburgh Courant," we extract a
single paragraph. " Burntisland, 23d August 1836.
" It is interesting to observe the sort of family likeness which
obtains among the numerous disciples of the mock patriotism
of our day, who all profess to worship at the shrine of liberty,
yet with whom it is a mortal offence that one should dare to
have an opinion of his own, if it thwart any object of theirs,
and an offence still more unpardonable that he should dare to
give it utterance. The ' London Courier' has been pleased to
denominate the part I have taken as an extraordinary inter
ference with the politics of Argyleshire ; and it is not many
weeks ago since a vacant professorship, that had been pre
viously much canvassed for, was disposed of by the magistrates
and council of Edinburgh. In common with others I happened
to be consulted on the occasion, and wrote one or two letters to
my own special acquaintances ; I was called on to write several
more, either in compliance with the .wishes, or in return to the
communications which I received from various members of
that honourable body. On the day of election, when my
opinion happened to be quoted at the city board, the effu
sion of a Councillor R., as reported in the public prints,
was, that ' we have had enough of Dr. Chalmers's interfer
ence.' I would haw been spared this piece of coarse imper
tinence had I chosen to be so ungentlemanly or uncivil to
Bailie Macfarlan and others, as to take no notice of their com-
* " We pronounce such conduct of the reverend doctor to be outrageously dis
graceful"— Caledonian Mercury, August 15. " Any thing more characteristic
of an officious, vain, self-conceited, factious, meddling spirit, has rarely appeared
in the annals of party contests."— Scotsman, August 17.

MS. 56. FIRST LEVEE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 27
munications. Nevertheless I shall continue to act as heretofore ;
and neither the insolence of an unmannerly town-councillor,
nor the ferocity and falsehood of all the liberal newspapers,
shall deter me from the privilege and the duty of a freeborn
citizen, which, in its very humblest form, is to speak when
he is spoken to, and write when he is written to.
Thomas Chalmers."
The Argyleshire canvass gave token of the extent to which
ecclesiastical questions were affecting the politics of the period,
and would tell upon the results of a general election. That
event, to which both parties looked forward so earnestly, was
now at hand. The king died on the 20th June 1837, and the
country was plunged into the turmoil of a great political strife.
Before alluding, however, to these elections, let us offer to our
readers a glimpse of our present beloved Sovereign in the first
days of her elevation to the throne. Soon after her accession
Dr. Chalmers accompanied to London two deputations, one
from the University of Edinburgh, the other from the Church of
Scotland. For his Journal letters, with all their minute details
of a fortnight's residence in the metropolis, we cannot now find
place. One extract, however, we cannot forbear presenting.
" London, July 19th, 1837. — I ordered my glass coach to
come to me at half-past eleven, in which I was to take up the
other heads of the deputation. It came not till twelve, and
subjected me for half an hour to a misery with which I have
long been familiar ; went in it, first, to the last but one house
in Craven Street, Strand, where C  told me B  lodged,
but when I got there no such name was ever heard of, so I
just put it down to the misfortune of having been born in such
a world of non-accurates, or such a world of non-punctuals, as
we have been destined to occupy ; thence I went to 5, Maddox
Street, where I took up Sir George Ballingall, quite a kindred

28 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1836.
spirit in the glorious virtue of punctuality ; thence to the
Thatched-House Tavern, near the gate of St. James's Palace,
where our deputation assembled, and about fifty cast up,
chiefly medical graduates of our college ; thence in a bare
headed procession to St. James's, I at the head of the rank and
file, and a very respectable and numerously jointed tail of at
tendants behind me; a most picturesque range of particoloured
soldiers, beef-eaters, and attendants of various sorts along the
lobbies and staircase which lead to the levee-rooms of the
palace ; got first to the outer of these rooms, which soon filled
almost to suffocation. Instead of a promenade which I used
to have, this being the first of all Queen Victoria's levees, was
crowded beyond all example. We had sad squeezing to get
into the second room, and thence to the third, or chamber of
presence ; got my first view of the Queen on entering the
third or last room; a most interesting girlish sensibility to
the realities of her situation, with sufficient self-command,
but withal simple, timid, tremulous, and agitated, that ren
dered her to me far more interesting, and awoke a more
feeling and fervent loyalty in my heart than could have been
done by any other exhibition. Having kissed her hand and
passed, and forgetting to give her my University address,
wrapped up in a roll, I was proceeding along with it in my
hand, when I was checked by one of the lords in waiting,
and instantly put it into the hands of Her Majesty.
" I forgot to mention that in the outermost room (where we
stood in a squeeze and half suffocated for nearly an hour) there
was one head, just two heads away from me, that of J 
H  . Whether he recognised me or not I will not say, but
I was resolved in his case not to speak until I was spoken to,
and as that did not take place we maintained our reciprocal
silence, though our noses were often not half a foot from each
other. When I looked at his hard utilitarian face, which,

MS. 56. LETTER TO SIR ROBERT PEEL. 29
by the way, was the general aspect and physiognomy of the
people around me, I felt the atmosphere most uncongenial to all
that is chivalrous or sentimental in loyalty. Nor do I believe
that half a dozen there were moved as I was at the sight of
our truly interesting Queen, incapable as they seemed to me of
all sympathy with Burke, when he appealed to the days of the
grand monarque, and spoke of the thousand swords that
would have leaped from their scabbards in defence of the Queen
of France."
The autumn of 1837 was occupied with the elections, and
when the results were known Dr. Chalmers took the liberty of
writing to Sir Robert Peel, whose advent to power seemed not
far off. " Edinburgh, December 1st, 1837.
" Dear Sir Robert, — I must not press on your much
occupied time ; and indeed I have only one sentence to write,
on the subject of Church Extension.
" We have lost our great friend in the present Parliament —
Sir George Clerk. But we have gained two, Mr. Colquhoun
and Lord Ramsay — the former thoroughly conversant with the
question, both in its principle and minutest details, the latter
full of attachment to the cause and zeal in its favour, and
who will soon, I trust, become as intelligent about it as Mr.
Colquhoun, who in everything connected with the ecclesias
tical or educational state of Scotland has as sound and en
lightened views as any one I know, whether in or out of
Parliament. " I cannot close this brief note without expressing the deep
interest I have felt in your personal happiness and wellbeing
from the time I had the privilege of spending two days with
you at Carstairs,* and how much this sentiment was enhanced
* The seat of Henry Monteith, Esq., where Sir Robert Peel staid a few days
on his way to be installed as Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow.

30 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1836.
by the newspaper reports of your health. May you experience
through life the guardianship of a kind Providence ; and, above
all, may you plentifully share the richer and higher blessings
of Divine grace, so as to pass unhurt amid all the troubles and
temptations to which all on the high arena of public life are
exposed, where the maxims of an irreligious world come so
frequently, often so fatally, into collision with the principles of
the Gospel of Jesus Christ. — I have the honour to be, dear Sir
Robert, yours, with the most grateful and devoted regard,
Thomas Chalmers.
" The Right Honourable
Sir Robert Peel, Baronet, M.P."
" Drayton Manor, Fazelet, December 21st, 1837.
" My dear Dr. Chalmers, — I arrived here last night from
London, and I avail myself of the first moment of comparative
repose to thank you sincerely for the note which you wrote to
me some time since. It should not have remained so long unac
knowledged had it not been for the incessant occupation of my
time — frequently thirteen or fourteen continuous hours in the
House of Commons.
" I share sincerely in your satisfaction at the return to
Parliament of Mr. Colquhoun, and am confident that he will
be of the greatest service to the interests of the Church of
Scotland and to the great cause of pure religious instruction.
" I have had two or three interviews with him during the
present meeting.
" The kind and flattering manner in which you express
yourself towards me, and the assurances of personal esteem
which your note conveys, are truly gratifying to me.
" I had learned to honour and respect you long before I had
the opportunity of making your acquaintance, and I can truly
say that I should "be raised higher in my own esteem could I

MS. 56. HOME OPERATIONS. 31
think myself really entitled to the friendship and warm attach
ment of so good a man.
" The constant occupations of men in public life, the vehe
ment excitement of party contentions, and the feelings and
passions to which they give rise, have indeed too great a ten
dency to withdraw their minds from the contemplation of
matters of much deeper obligation and much more lasting
interest. They have not, however, deadened in my mind those
solemn feelings which are naturally awakened by your affecting
remembrance of me in your prayers, and recommendation of
me to the guardianship and the mercy of a kind Providence. —
Believe me, my dear Sir, most faithfully yours,
« The Rev. Dr. Chalmers." R°BEET PeEL
Through all the political discouragements of the years 1835,
36, 37, the great home objects of the Church Extension Scheme
were prosecuted with unflagging devotion ; with the influential
clergy and laity of Scotland a most voluminous correspond
ence was carried on, and the press gave forth many a circular.
To the earlier agency a new instrument was added. Dr.
Chalmers had been much struck by the effect of a tour made
by Dr. Duff in 1835, through the towns and parishes of Scot
land, which had awakened the Church and country to much
greater missionary zeal, and had drawn forth an enlarged
liberality. From this as well as from the effects of political
meetings held widely over the country, he became convinced
that for many purposes the platform was more effective than
the press — that the living voice had a power which the dead
letter never can exert. This power he resolved to employ on
behalf of his favourite scheme ; and having in 1836 obtained
the General Assembly's sanction, a Sub-committee on Church
Extension was formed for the express purpose of organizing
a system of meetings to be held extensively 'over the country,

32 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1836.
at which well-instructed deputies were to appear and plead
this cause in the most popular and effective manner. The
issue was most encouraging. As the ear of the Government
seemed to close, the ear of the country seemed to open ; and,
under the strong conviction that it was by the country that
the Government was finally to be carried, the success in Scot
land appeared to Dr. Chalmers more than a counterbalance to
the repulses of the metropolis. That success was truly won
derful. In May 1838, as the fruit of four years' labour, Dr.
Chalmers announced to the General Assembly, that nearly two
hundred churches had been added to the Establishment, for
the erection of which upwards of two hundred thousand pounds
had been contributed. Well might the prosecutor of this
great enterprise say, as he announced these results, " What
other single scheme of Christian benevolence in this country
ever commanded so- noble an income as £50,000 per annum !
Had the operations of the Committee not harmonized with the
sentiments of the country, they never could have commanded
an amount and continuance of pecuniary support altogether
without a precedent in the history of Christian beneficence in
this part of the British Empire. Nor is there any premonitory
symptom yet of declining fervour in this cause among the
people of Scotland. The work is still far from its termination.
It has only so to speak begun. The cases of most helpless and
affecting destitution still remain to be overtaken. There are
wastes of poverty, irreligion, and crime, which have still to be
redeemed, and which nothing but the aggressive operation of a
territorial establishment, wisely, and strenuously, and perse-
veringly conducted, is adequate to subdue; and until every
such moral wilderness is explored and reclaimed, and the
whole country presents the aspect of a field which the Lord
hath blessed, and is causing to bring forth the fruits of right
eousness, the Committee may not rest from their labours, nor

/ET. 56. THE ERA OF CHURCH EXTENSION. 33
the people from their hearty and zealous co-operation. At the
glorious era of the Church's Reformation, it was the unwearied
support of the people which, under God, finally brought her
efforts to a triumphant issue ; in this era of her Extension —
an era as broadly marked, and as emphatically presented to the
notice of the ecclesiastical historian, as any which the Church
is wont to consider as instances of signal revival and divine
interposition — the support of the people will not be wanting ;
but by their devoted exertions, and willing sacrifices, and
ardent prayers, they will yet testify how much they love the
house where their fathers worshipped — how much they rever
ence their Saviour's command, that the very poorest of their
brethren shall have the gospel preached to them."

34 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1838.

CHAPTER III.
DELIVERY OF A COURSE OF LECTURES IN LONDON IN DEFENCE OF
RELIGIOUS ESTABLISHMENTS.
" The Church as it now stands, no human power can save."
So wrote Dr. Arnold in 1832 ; and it was under the abiding
conviction that the English Establishment was in extreme
danger that he issued, in the following year, a pamphlet, of
which, in writing to a friend, he says, " I am sorry that you
do not like the pamphlet. I will not answer for its practi
cability : when the patient is at the last gasp the dose may
come too late, but still it is his only chance ; he may die of the
doctor ; he must die of the disease." For some years after the
passing of the Reform Bill, a general and not groundless alarm
prevailed as to the fate of the Euglish Establishment. That
^Bill had put a new power into the hands of the Dissenters.
That this power would be used against the Church was evident ;
how far it might prevail was as yet unknown. It was novel
and ominous that, in the frequent Parliamentary discussions of
ecclesiastical questions, the ground and principle of all religious
establishments, boldly challenged on the one hand, was fre
quently misstated, or but feebly defended, on the other. Under
a pressure — the exact force had not yet been measured — the
Government itself seemed ready to give way. " Viscount
Melbourne," says Sydney Smith, " declared himself quite
satisfied with the Church as it was, but if the public had any
desire to alter it, they might do as they pleased." And if the

MS. 58. THE CHURCH IN DANGER. 35
House of Commons represented the public mind, the desire to
alter was strong and urgent. " The real question," said the
Duke of Wellington in 1838, " which now divides the country,
and which truly divides the House of Commons, is Church or
no Church. People talk of the war in Spain and the Canada
question, but all that is of little moment. The real question
is Church or no Church ; and the majority of the House of
Commons — a small majority it is true, but still a majority —
are practically against it." The Duke may have to some
extent misinterpreted the aim and intention of this majority,
but its acts, under the guidance of the Government, were
sufficiently alarming. Commissions of Inquiry into the state
both of the English and Irish Establishments were issued ;
and beginning with the weakest institute, not only was the
number of its bishops reduced, but it was proposed to abridge
the Irish Church to such extent as to leave a large surplus
revenue, which revenue was to be appropriated to other than
ecclesiastical objects.
It was this appropriation clause appended to the Irish
Tithe Bill which roused the friends of the Episcopal Establish
ments to a vigorous defence. But the methods of defence
were various. One party, composed almost exclusively of
clergymen and collegians, boldly met the prevailing current
by denying the right and authority of the Crown to meddle
in any way either with the interior discipline or the external
framework of the Church. That Church (and they spoke
of the Episcopacy of England) had claims upon the country's
reverence separate from and far higher than any which her
mere civil institution conferred. Her ministry carrying in
its hands a power derived from the apostles — her sacraments
administered by those upon whom exclusively the gifts needful
for the holy office had been bestowed by the Holy Ghost — she
opened up the only channel of grace — she offered the only

SG MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1838.
secure spiritual asylum. It was as such that she had been of
old acknowledged and honoured by the State — it was as such
that she expected the State's countenance to be continued.
Another party, composed principally of laymen, were disposed
to occupy a lower line of defence. Devotedly attached to the
Church of England, ready to do battle in her favour, and to
guard her against all violence from without, they were yet not
insensible to certain defects in that Church — defects partly in
her constitution, owing to the peculiar circumstances in which
that constitution was formed — partly in her administration,
owing to those corrupt influences to which every Church lies
exposed. These defects, limiting her powers and opportunities
of usefulness, it should be their first effort to remove, so that
while lifting above her the shield of protection, they might leave
her less exposed to the hostile shaft. Among other means
directed to this end a small society was instituted in London,
entitled the Christian Influence Society. Early in 1837, its
enlightened and zealous secretary, A. Gordon, Esq., wrote to Dr.
Chalmers, requesting him to open a course of lectures, which it
was proposed to institute in the metropolis, the audience to he
limited, and as select and influential as could be secured, and the
lectures to be published immediately after their delivery. In
the controversy about Establishments, which had so long and
so greatly agitated Scotland, Dr. Chalmers had hitherto taken
part .only when that controversy connected itself with the
Church Extension movement. A very favourable opportunity
was now offered him of unfolding in a didactic rather than in a
controversial form the true theory of a religious establishment,
and demonstrating its peculiar efficacy as the only instrument
capable of diffusing universally over a whole country the lessons
of Christianity. Nor was it without its influence that by these
lectures being delivered in London the public mind of England
might to some extent be inoculated and impressed with his

^T. 58. THE DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE. 37
peculiar views. He consented, therefore, to undertake the
task to which Mr. Gordon had invited him, but he postponed
the execution of it till the spring of 1838. Upon their pre
paration he bestowed unusual pains — pains amply rewarded
by the manner of their public reception. The first of these
lectures was delivered in the Hanover Square Rooms, on
Wednesday the 25th April. It was literally a picked audience,
as none were admitted but those to whom tickets had been
sent by the Society, and seldom on any similar topic has a
minister of religion been privileged to address a similar as
sembly. One of the royal family honoured the occasion by
his presence. " I was waiting," says Dr. Chalmers, " with
others in a committee-room, when the Duke of Cambridge
entered and inquired for me. I was accordingly introduced,
and exchanged a few sentences with him. He has very much
the manner and appearance of his father, George III., who
used to say of him that he was the only son of his who had
not cost him a sigh. I had been told that he was a very great
fidget, and that he would not sit still for a moment during the
lecture ; but it was strikingly the reverse. He and his equery,
Colonel Jones, who were accommodated with a sofa directly
before me, were among the most attentive, and to all appear
ance intelligent listeners, of the very high audience, all of whom
seemed to sympathize with me to the uttermost." Speaking
of this opening lecture the leading journal of the day said, " If
the interior of the structure correspond in any degree with
the simple and massive grandeur of the porch, these lectures
will doubtless challenge the admiration of after ages, scarcely
more as an imperishable monument of the doctor's genius than
as an invaluable contribution to the permanent literature, and,
above all, to the higher interests of the country. From the
first word that escaped the lips of the lecturer till the conclud
ing sentence, which died away amid the acclamations of the

38 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1838
audience, the vivid interest was sustained with a deep and
unflagging intensity." At the second lecture, the seats reserved
for peers and members of Parliament were at an early hour
crowded to overflow, and so difficult was it to pack the room
aright, that for more than a quarter of an hour after the time
fixed for opening, the lecturer could not proceed. The third
lecture witnessed a still denser crowd, composed of a still higher
grade, and manifesting a still higher enthusiasm. At the
fourth and fifth lectures an American clergyman was present,
who tells us, " the hour at which the lecture was to commence
was two o'clock. I thought it necessary to be beforehand in
order to secure a seat. When I arrived I found the hall so
perfectly crammed that at first it seemed impossible to gain
admission, but by dint of perseverance I pushed my way
onward through the dense crowd till I had reached nearly the
centre of the hall. Though the crowd was so great, it was very
obvious that the assembly was made up principally of persons
in the higher walks of life. Dukes, marquises, earls, viscounts,
barons, baronets, bishops, and members of Parliament, were to
be seen in every direction. After some considerable delay and
impatient waiting, the great charmer made his entrance, and
was welcomed with clappings and shouts of applause, that grew
more and more intense till the noise became almost deafening."*
The concluding lecture was graced by the presence of nine
prelates of the Church of England. The tide that had been
rising and swelling each succeeding day now burst all bounds.
Carried away by the impassioned utterance of the speaker,
long ere the close of some of his finest passages was reached,
the voice of the lecturer was drowned in the applause, the
audience rising from their seats, waving their hats above
their heads, and breaking out into tumultuous approbation.
* " Glimpses of the Old World," by the late Rev. J. A. Clark, D.D Vol ii np
96, 97. London, 1847.

MS. 58. RAPID PUBLICATION OF THE LECTURES. 39
Nor was the interest confined to the lecture-room. " Nothing,"
says Dr. Begg,* " could exceed the enthusiasm which pre
vailed in London. The great city seemed stirred to its very
depths. The Doctor sat when delivering his lectures behind a
small table ; the hall in front being densely crowded with one
of the most brilliant audiences that ever assembled in Britain.
It was supposed that at least five hundred of those present
were Peers and members of the House of Commons. Sir James
Graham was a very constant attender. The sitting attitude
of Dr. Chalmers seemed at first irreconcilable with much
energy or effect. But such an anticipation was at once dis
pelled by the enthusiasm of the speaker, responded to, if pos
sible, by the still more intense enthusiasm of the audience ;
and, occasionally, the effect was even greatly increased, by the
eloquent man springing unconsciously to his feet, and deliver
ing with overwhelming power the more magnificent passages,
a movement which, on one occasion at least, was imitated by
the entire audience, when the words ' the king cannot — the
king dare not,' were uttered in accents of prophetic vehemence,
that must still ring in the ears of all who heard them, and
were responded to by a whirlwind of enthusiasm, which was
probably never exceeded in the history of eloquence. Some of
us sat on the platform beside the Doctor, and near us were the
reporters. One seemed to leave the room every five minutes
with what he had written, so that by the time the lecture was
finished, it was nearly all in print. On the day of the first
lecture, which commenced at two o'clock, and terminated about
half-past three, some of us went round by the city, and when
we reached our dinner table at five o'clock, we were able to
present to Dr. Chalmers a newspaper, I think the ' Sun' or
* Dr. Begg, along with other members of the Church Extension Committee,
accompanied Dr. Chalmers, and availing themselves of so favourable an oppor
tunity, succeeded in obtaining about £5000 in the metropolis.

40 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 183S.
' Globe,' containing a full report of his lecture. Nothing was
more striking, however, amidst all this excitement, than the
childlike humility of the great man himself. All the flattery
seemed to produce no effect whatever on him ; his mind was
entirely absorbed in his great object ; and the same kind, play
ful, and truly Christian spirit, that so endeared him to us all,
was everywhere apparent in his conduct. I had the honour
afterwards to be introduced to the Duke of Cambridge. He
immediately introduced the subject of Dr. Chalmers. ' What
does he teach?' said His Royal Highness rapidly. I inti
mated that he taught theology. ' Monstrous clever man,'
said the Duke, ' he could teach anything.' I had heard Dr.
Chalmers on many great occasions, but probably his London
lectures afforded the most remarkable illustrations of his extra*
ordinary power, and must be ranked amongst the most signal
triumphs of oratory in any age."
No time was lost in presenting these lectures in an au
thentic form before the public. They passed speedily through
several editions, eight thousand copies having been circulated
within a year, and they are now to be found in the seventeenth
volume of his works. Throughout them one prevalent and
predominant idea is to be traced. It was presented, indeed,
in the very title by which they were originally announced as
being " upon the- Establishment and Extension of National
Churches as affording the only adequate machinery for the
moral and Christian instruction of a people." Dr. Chalmers
regards as the chief distinction, the proudest glory of an Estab
lished Church, that by it, and it only, the whole mass of the
community, down to the meanest and most worthless, could be
reached and thoroughly pervaded. Though he was far from
insensible to such secondary advantages as the higher status,
greater learning, and superior influence of its clergy, the
freedom given by a firm position and fixed creed from the

/ET. 58. PROTESTANTISM AND POPERY. 41
wayward impulses of a changing belief, the great moral and
political benefit rendered to the State, by raising the tone of
principle and feeling, and tempering the passions of the popu
lace — not one nor all of these lent any charm to an Establish
ment in his eye, as compared with its possession of a power by
which, if rightly used, the pure and holy truths of Christianity
might be carried into every hamlet, and brought to bear upon
every conscience and every heart. In conducting his vindication
of Establishments, every other feature seems lost in this. It is
upon the superior efficacy of the territorial arrangement that
he dwells ; that arrangement peculiar to an Establishment, by
which a certain definite district of town or country — every part
of which he was required to cultivate, every house in which it
was his duty to enter — was assigned to each clergyman. Let
these districts be but small enough ; let the whole country be
broken up into manageable sections, and let workmen full of
zeal in the service of the Saviour be planted in each of them ;
this was the likeliest^-this to his eye was the only method by
which the multitudes, already suffered to wander into ignor
ance and irreligion, could be reclaimed, and the universal
Christianity of the country be upheld. For this, however, two
things were required : — first, that the State should select and
employ some one Church for the' accomplishment of this work ;
and, secondly, that it should adequately endow this Church,
and progressively extend it. In fixing upon the Church whose
instrumentality was to be employed, there was one broad and
clear ground of choice. No difficulty could be felt in rejecting
the Papacy, in choosing some one form at least of Protestantism.
" He could not imagine," said Dr. Chalmers, " a more testing
evidence of an incompetent and vulgarized parliament, than
that it should not be qualified to decide the question between
the merits of Protestantism and Popery — or which of the two
systems, not in respect of policy, but in respect of absolute
truth and of sacred obligation, is the most worthy of being
VOL. IV. D

42 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1838.
upholden as the national faith of these realms. This is neither
a minute, nor is it a manifold controversy, but one great and
simple question, on which, too, there shine the broadest lights,
both of moral and historical evidence : and that is, whether
the Scriptures, as being of Divine authority, be the only rule of
faith and practice in religion ; or whether, co-ordinate therewith,
the decisions of any councils or governors in the Church, after
the days of the apostles, should be admitted to an equal or supe
rior lordship over the consciences of men ? In this nation, of
all others, there is none, with the ordinary schooling of a
gentleman, who could not thoroughly inform himself, and by
the reading of a few weeks, on this great question, so as to
decide between the authority of the Bible and the authority
of Rome's Apostate Church ; between the miracles of the
gospel, performed in the face of the then civilized world, and
the mummeries of the Papal superstition, transmitted to us in
barbarous legends — those products of the cells and the con
vents which overspread Europe through the dark and dreary
millennium of the middle ages. We need only a parliament of
England's best principled and best educated men. But should
we not be so fortunate ; should the disaster ever befall us, of
vulgar and upstart politicians to be lords of the ascendant ;
should an infidel or demi-infidel government wield for a season
the destinies of this mighty empire, and be willing, at the
shrine of their own wretched partisanship, to make sacrifice of
those great and hallowed institutions, which were consecrated
by our ancestors to the maintenance of religious truth and
religious liberty ; should, in particular, the monstrous proposi
tion ever be entertained, not to tolerate (for that is quite as it
should be) but to endow Popery — not perhaps to abolish, but
at least to abridge the legal funds for the support of Protes
tantism, and at all events to uphold an antiscriptural, and
with this aggravation, that it should be at the expense and
with the diminution of a scriptural faith— let us hope that

MS. 58. PRETENSIONS OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 43
there is still enough, not of fiery zeal, but of calm, resolute,
and withal enlightened principle in the land to resent the
outrage— enough of energy and reaction, in the revolted sense
of this great country, to meet and overbear it."
In speaking of the circumstances which determine a govern
ment to choose one rather than another Protestant denomina
tion, Dr. Chalmers made light of all differences in the mere
forms and order of worship and of government. Compared
with the inestimable benefit of setting up an apparatus by
which a cheap and universal Christian education might be
communicated to every household, these should be as dust in
the balance. To gain an end so noble, he would have had all
the evangelical dissenters of England to sink, as he himself
would have been ready to do, all their objections to Epis
copacy ; and to gain the same great end, the Church of
England should open her bosom wide enough to take them in.
" When once the Church of England shall have come down
from all that is transcendental or mysterious in her preten
sions ; and, quitting the plea of her exclusive apostolical deri
vation, shall rest more upon that wherein the real greatness of
her strength lies — the purity of her doctrines — her deeds of
high prowess and championship in the battles of the faith —
the noble contributions which have been rendered by her
scholars and her sons to that Christian literature, which is at
once the glory and the defence of Protestantism — the ready-
made apparatus of her churches and parishes — the unbroken
hold which, as an establishment, she still retains on the mass
of society — and her unforfeited possessory right to be reckoned
and deferred to as an Establishment still — when these, the
true elements of her legitimacy and her power, come to be
better understood, in that proportion will she be recognised
as the great standard and rallying-post, for all those who would
unite their efforts and their sacrifices in that mighty cause,
the object of which is to send throughout our families, in

44 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1838.
more plentiful supply, those waters of life which can alone
avail for the healing of the nation."
On the morning of the day on which he was to touch on the
nature of the connexion between Church and State, a friend
asked him whether he did not feel that he was coming on de
licate ground in the presence of the dignitaries and members
of a Church which acknowledged the Sovereign as its head.
" No," he replied ; " it is the most important point of the
whole discussion ; it is the basis and strength of my whole
argument : without it I could not have opened my mouth on
the subject ; and if there be any one of these lectures on which
my mind is clearer and more made up than another, it is on
the one I am going to deliver to-day." In the course of that
lecture, while engaged in removing the objection that the con
nexion between Church and State necessarily implied a vi
tiating or secularizing of Christianity, Dr. Chalmers quoted
a conversation which he had had with an American clergy
man, who said to him, " If all you mean by an Establishment
is an organized provision for a clergy, we should rejoice in it.
The thing we deprecate is the authority of the civil magistrate
in matters of religion." " Now this," said Dr. Chalmers,
" this organized provision is truly all that we contend for.
It is just, in other words, a legal provision for the support of
a Christian ministry ; an arrangement which might truly be
gone into, and which actually is gone into, without the slight
est infringement on the spiritual prerogatives of the Church,
or the ecclesiastical independence of her clergymen. In re
spect of this ecclesiastical independence, I am not aware of any
serious practical obstacle to the exercise of it in England ; and
at all events, we know of nothing more perfect in this respect
than the constitution of the Church of Scotland. There is, to
each of its members, an independent voice from within ; and
from without, there is no power or authority whatever in mat
ters ecclesiastical. They who feel dislike to an Establishment do

MS.5S. INDEPENDENCE OF THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. 45
so, in general, because of their recoil from all contact and com
munication with the State. We have no other communication
with the State than that of being maintained by it, after which
we are left to regulate the proceedings of our great Home
Mission, with all the purity, and the piety, and the independ
ence of any missionary board. We are exposed to nothing
from without which can violate the sanctity of the apostolical
character, if ourselves do not violate it. And neither are we
exposed to aught which can trench on the authority of the
apostolical office, if we ourselves make no surrender of it. In
things ecclesiastical we decide all. Some of these things may
be done wrong, but still they are our majorities which do it.
They are not, they cannot, be forced upon us from without.
We own no head of the Church but the Lord Jesus Christ.
Whatever is done ecclesiastically, is done by our ministers as
acting in His name, and in perfect submission to His authority.
Implicated as the Church and State are imagined to be, they
are not so implicated as that, without the concurrence of the
ecclesiastical courts, a full and final effect can be given to any
proceeding by which the good of Christianity, and the religion
of our people may be affected. There is not a clerical appoint
ment which can take place in any one of our parishes till we
have sustained it. Even the law of patronage, right or wrong,
is in force, not by the power of the State, but by the permis
sion of the Church, and with all its fancied omnipotence, has no
other basis than that of our majorities to rest upon. It should
never be forgotten that, in things ecclesiastical, the highest
power of our Church is amenable to no higher power on earth
for its decisions. It can exclude ; it can deprive ; it can de
pose, at pleasure. External force might make an obnoxious
individual the holder of a benefice ; but there is no external
force in these realms that could make him a minister of the
Church of Scotland. There is not one thing which the State
can do to our independent and indestructible Church but strip

46 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1838.
her of her temporalities. Nee tamen. consumebatur, she would
remain a Church notwithstanding — as strong as ever in the
props of her own moral and inherent greatness ; and, though
shrivelled in all her dimensions by the moral injury inflicted
on many thousands of families, she would be at least as strong
as ever in the reverence of her country's population. She was
as much a Church in her days of suffering as in her days of out
ward security and triumph ; when a wandering outcast, with
nought but the mountain breezes to play around her, and
nought but the caves of the earth to shelter her, as now, when
admitted to the bowers of an Establishment. The magistrate
might withdraw his protection, and she cease to be an Estab
lishment any longer ; but in all the high matters of sacred and
spiritual jurisdiction, she would be the same as before. With
or without an Establishment, she, in these, is the unfettered
mistress of her doings. The king by himself, or by his repre
sentative, might be the spectator of our proceedings ; but what
Lord Chatham said of the poor man's house, is true in all its
parts of the Church to which I have the hojiour to belong —
1 In England every man's house is his castle : not that it is
surrounded with walls and battlements ; it may be a straw-
built shed ; every wind of heaven may whistle round it ;
every element of heaven, may enter it ; but the king cannot —
the king dare not.' "
The spiritual independence of the Scottish Church thus
eloquently described was now on the eve of violation, and when
that violation drove Dr. Chalmers from its pale, many who on
the delivery of this passage had been the loudest in their ap
plause were the readiest in accusing him of inconsistency, while
he was only abiding by that great principle which he had
always held,* and so frequently and fervently advocated.
* The passage quoted above was taken from a sermon preached in Edinburgh
in May 1829, some years before any public discussion of the question as to the
Church's spiritual independence  See Dr. Chalmers's Works, vol. xi. p. 439.

/ET. 58. VISIT TO PARIS.

CHAPTER IV.
VISIT TO PARIS— TOUR THROUGH SOME OF THE INLAND PROVINCES
OF FRANCE.
From the time of his appointment as one of its corresponding
members, Dr. Chalmers had cherished the intention of reading
a paper before the Royal Institute of France. In execution
of this design, he left England for Paris, early in June 1838,
accompanied by Mrs. Chalmers and two of his daughters. Lady
Elgin, Sir John and Lady Hay, Lady Shaw Stewart, and Mr.
Erskine, all of whom were there, vied with each other in afford
ing him every opportunity for thoroughly exploring Paris ;
and to the same kind friends he was indebted for more than
one interesting glimpse into the interior of French society.
From the journal kept upon this occasion a few extracts are
presented. " June 10th. — Much impressed with the beauty and lightness
of Paris, up and down the Seine. Delighted with the Tui-
leries garden ; its sculpture, its shaded walks, its groups of
pedestrians. But how much more still and leisurely every
thing moves here than in London. All in Paris is within a
manageable compass ; and I was not prepared for its being so
much less busy, and populous, and extensive, than our own
metropolis. It is more a city of loungers ; and life moves on
at a more rational pace. Its buildings are more impressive.
" June 11th. — Hurried away with Mr. Erskine to wait on
Guizot. Found him at home. He speaks English tolerably.

48 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1838.
' Struck with the smallness of his establishment ; certainly not
superior to the average of the W.S.'s in Edinburgh. Literary
aspect of the rooms. Mentioned my Christian and Civic
Economy. Told him how much his opinions on education
were valued in England. He said that the connexion between
the moral and the economical was a subject altogether new
and unknown in France. He readily acquiesced in the dis
tinction between a charity for indigence, and one for disease ;
and said -there was a growing aversion in his country to the
admission of the principle that the poor had a right to sub
sistence. Took cordial leave of him. In the lower story was
introduced to his mother, Madame Guizot, who told me that
she had read my works ; a very kind and, I am told, Avorthy
person, with a most maternal and benign manner. Hence
with Mr. Cowan to M. Mignet, near the Foreign Office, where
he has an employment. Sitting at papers ; young and of an
open countenance ; remarkably good-looking. No English,
but very polite and cordial. Relieved by knowing that there
was no immediate hurry for my article.* The Due de Broglie
joined us ; and he also very polite. Felt a little embarrass
ment with my total want of French, and their want of English.
Mr. Cowan of great use. The Due de Broglie called afterwards
at my hotel, and left his card.
" June 1 2th. — Slowness, unpunctuality, and withal irrational
dearness of French tradesmen and dealers. But Paris better
than London, in not being a place of extreme and high-pressure
work in all the departments of industry. More favourable to
intellect, to man in his loftier capacities, to all the better and
higher purposes of our nature. * * * Professor Stapfer, nephew
* The article read by Dr. Chalmers on this occasion before the Institute was on
the " Distinction, both in principle and effect, between a Legal Charity for the
Relief of Indigence and a Legal Charity for the Relief of Disease." It will be
found in his Works, vol. xxi. pp. 369-408.

MS. 58. ANECDOTE OF LA PLACE. 49
of the author, told me on the authority of Baron Maurice,
that La Place was restless and inquiring on his last illness ;
that he sought for books, and had first Burnet's ' Evidences
on Christianity'* read to him; that he rejected his view on
miracles ; that my ' Evidences' were then read, with which
he declared himself more satisfied, and more especially that
it did not theorize on miracles, but treated them on the footing
of historical. This the Professor had from Baron Maurice,
of Geneva himself, between whom and La Place the whole
transaction took place.f I am, therefore, to send my first
new volume on the ' Evidences' to Stapfer, that he might
shew the chapters on Hume and La Place to the Baron, and
others of the like mathematical taste and understanding.
Drew much to Grandpierre, President of the Missionary
Society. " Wednesday, June 13th. — Went to the Louvre. Had to
shew our passports. Gorgeous and large pictures in the ante
room. Struck with the picture of one of Bonaparte's battles in
his re*reat from Moscow. The expression of Napoleon very
striking — as if solemnized by the greatness of the coming
disaster, yet with an air of full intelligence, and serenity, and
majesty, and a deep mournful expression withal. The long
gallery of the Louvre superb ; impressed at once with the
superiority of its pictures. Very much interested in the
Flemish pictures, of which there were some very admirable
ones by David Teniers. I am fond of Rembrandt's portraits ;
and was much pleased in recognising the characteristics of
Rubens, Poussin, and Claude Lorrain. I also remarked that
in most of the Italian schools, with the exception of the Vene
tian, there was a total want of shading off; yet the separate
* I suppose that the reference here is to a small treatise of Bishop Burnet,
entitled " A Rational Method for Proving the Truth of the Christian Religion."
London, 1693. t See Appendix A.
VOL. IV. E

50 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1838.
figures, though not harmonized with the background, very
striking in themselves. The statuary of painting perhaps ex
presses the style of the Roman and other such schools. There
is a quadrangle recently attached to the east end of the gal
lery, filled with the models of towns, ships, and machinery ;
the towns very instructive. But the most interesting part of
this department is the Spanish pictures, in all of which the
strong emotions are most powerfully expressed. There is quite
a stamp o'f national peculiarity in these works. The walls
which contain them seem all alive with the passions and
thoughts of living men. The freshness and force of the colour
ing quite remarkable, considering the age of the pictures.
Sir John and Lady Hay kindly gave us their carriage to take
us to and from an evening party at Lady Elgin's, invited on
my account, and consisting of some of the most eminent people
in Paris. Due de Broglie kind but retired. He arranged for
me an introduction to the Chamber of Peers. M. Guizot, in
tellectual and talented. He arranged also for the Chamber of
Deputies. Had some talk with him. I told him how limited
the public were -who would entertain the topics of the moral
and the economique in conjunction. He fully congenialized
with my own view, that, nevertheless, the solution of all the
great problems lay in the reciprocal influence of these two
elements. In speaking of the moral, I identified it with the
Christian influence, in which I apprehend that he fully concurs.
Guizot talked much with a Catholic lady who could not speak
English, but who purposes to translate my ' Natural Theology,'
and she was very cordial to myself. Felt this cordiality, in
deed, to be quite general ; and I did enjoy the party very much.
M. Mignet also there, of whom Lady Elgin thought highly.
" Thursday, June 14th. — The commonalty all well dressed;
and whatever the real profligacy may be, they have all the
aspect, expression, and manner of a most n\oral, orderly, and

MS. 58. THE INSTITUTE. 51
withal kind and companionable people. On our return entered
a most singular cafe, leading to a garden, in the midst of
which there was a sort of templar erection, making altogether
a little Vauxhall, with innumerable parties, placed on benches,
or ranged about tables, in the Parisian style of conviviality.
We had fireworks and music, to those passages of which that
were most responded to by the auditors, I was wholly insen
sible. There were at least a thousand people outside, who had
the benefit of the exhibition gratis, those inside giving ten-
pence each. I was much impressed by the decorum of the
crowd ; their respectable dress, and perfect modesty both of
look and manner. I have never in a single instance seen the
offensive or indecent obtruded on our notice in this city.
" Friday, June 15th. — We were carried down to the Cham
ber of Deputies. Struck with the poorness of the equipages
which carried the Deputies to and from their Chamber. Those
who did come in a vehicle at all, came in a one-horse cab,
paying their francs ; and a row of these, about half-a-dozen,
seemed to compose the travelling equipage of the members,
where the horses, with draff-pocks appended to their mouths,
out of which they were eating, formed a sorry contrast with
the splendidly harnessed carriages of our English senators.
"Saturday, June 16th. — Walked over to the Institute at
twelve, and attended a sitting of the Academy of Moral and
Political Science. M. Mignet introduced me. Taken into the
centre of the oval green table, around which the members are
placed. Mignet spoke a good deal on the business matters,
and seemed to do it sensibly and impressively. The room is a
large oblong. The table annular, and is an ellipse of great
eccentricity ; the president's platform is at the extremity
of the conjugate axis. The members sit round the exterior
circumference of the table, and the strangers on two rows of
forms along the walls.

52 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1838.
"Sunday, June 11th. — An old lady told me what was very
interesting, that her particular friend Jean Baptiste Say,
received a copy of my ' Political Economy' through Mr. James
Maeonochie ; that he read it with the greatest interest ; that
even in his last illness, he expressed himself delighted with
having received it. I could not understand, however, whether
he acquiesced in its doctrines.
"Monday, June l%th. — Mr. Wilks told us frightful things
of what he termed the insolence of the French against God,
in the matter of the cholera. They introduced it into their
theatres : ridiculed and defied it : boasted that French science
would prevail against it : remained stout while it only visited
other countries, or even the poor in their own ; till at length
it came upon all at the rate of 1 500 in a day, when there was
a universal terror.
" Tuesday, June 19th. — Mr. Charles Mate gave some curious
traits of the French character, particularly on the glorious
days ; that it was more a thing of fun than of any deep feel
ing — a universal laughing about it while it was going on — peo
ple taking a fight before dinner, going to their Restaurateurs,
and taking another fight after it. * * * With Mr. Campbell
in a fiacre to dinner at Mr. Jamieson's, banker in the Rue de
Londres. A fine specimen both of the mansion and dinner of
one of the higher citizens of Paris. A respectable and elegant,
but not very spacious house, toute cb la Francaise in the
whole air and aspect of its furniture ; with a most luxurious
dinner, served round as in a table-d'hote, in a succession of
tit-bits, perhaps to the extent of from twelve to twenty
varieties. The most memorable person was Mr. Francois
Delessart, a member of the Chamber of Deputies, a Parisian
merchant, and very intelligent ; a strong Conservative ; but,
like Mr. Jamieson, and many other merchants, apprehends
no harm from the sub-division of property. .Speaks of the

^T. 58. THE SERMON IN PARIS. 53
checks to it; that it is greatly overrated; that family ar
rangements often prevent it. He promises me books which
will throw great light on the subject. He spoke as if greatly
moved by my sermon on Sunday, which he heard ; and which
seems, from various accounts, to have made a great sensation.*
* " Je ne me rappelle ni l'annee, ni le mois, ni le dimanche, oh j'eus le privi
lege de voir le Dr. Chalmers occuper ma chaire dans la chapelle Taitbout : mais ce
que je n'ai pas oublie, ni n'oublierai de ma vie, c'est que je l'y ai vu et entendu
prScher. Les impressions qu'il fit sur moi, aussi-bien que la foule de ceux qui
^taient accourus pour l'entendre, sont de celles qui ne s'effacent jamais. C'6tait
a l'epoque oil" il vint a Paris pour gtre, je crois, recu Membre de l'lnstitut de
France. Ma chapelle alors etait situee dans la rue dont elle a pris et conserve le
nom. C'^tait une salle de concerts, ayant forme de theatre, avec trois rangs de
loges ou galleries, et pouvant contenir de 700 a 800 personnes. Le Docteur y
precha deux dimanches de suite, a deux heures apres midi. Mes devoirs pas-
toraux m'empecherent d'assister a sa seconde predication, mais j'^tais present a
la premiere, et je puis facilement vous en retracer les circonstances. Quoique
ordinairement bien remplie, la chapelle n'avait jamais fete si pleine. Elle etait
a la lettre encombree, et cette foule compacte se composait en grande partie de
personnes etrangeres a notre culte. D y avait bien peu des Membres de l'lnstitut
et des differents corps savants de Paris qui ne s'y trouvassent pas, tous attires
par le grand interet que leur inspiraient le savoir et la reputation du Docteur.
Les places devinrent si rares qu'ayant cru devoir, par convenance, ceder les deux
ou trois chaises que j'occupai tour & tour, je fus reduit a n'avoir pour siege que
l'une des trois marches de l'escalier de ma chaire ; et c'est dela, que je pus a la
fois voir la physionomie de l'assemblee, apprecier la profonde attention qu'elle
pretait au Docteur, 1'^couter moi-me*me, et suivre tous ses mouvements. 11 n'y eut
rien dans son debut qui me frappat d'abord. Je dirai meme que son attitude, son
regard vague, et le ton monotone de sa voix durant I'acte de la priere qui preceda
son sermon, furent loin de me la reveler pour ce qu'il etait. 'Mais bientot le pre-
dicateur se montra, et je ne tardai pas, comme tout l'auditoire, a 6tre saisi d'ad-
miration, et de plus en plus domine par la puissance de son langage et de son
action oratoire. II prit son texte dans la Ire de St. Jean iv. 8. — ' God is love.'
Son discours etait ecrit. Pendant quelque temps il eut devant lui son manuscrit
qu'il tenait deploy^ de la main gauche, et dont il suivait ehaque ligne avec
l'index de la main droite. Mais cette lecture, qu'il savait rendre aussi attrayante
qu'inrpressive, fut souvent interrompue, pour ce'der la place a l'indication ou a
l'exposition improvisee de nouveaux points de vue du sujet, n6n trace's dans le
discours eorit ; et le langage que son emotion fournissait alors au Docteur ener-
gique, nuance", clair et harmonieux, vraiment celui de 1'eloquence. II me semble
encore le voir avec son manuscrit plie" en rouleau dans sa main, le corps penche"
en avant, un peu en dehors de la chaire, et prenant a partie tous ses auditeurs,
leur adresser les appels les plus directs, et les plus propres a les atteindre dans les
profondenrs de la conscience. Ses paroles surgissant evidemment de ses convic-

54 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1838.
" Thursday, June 21st. — Through a. street, the eastern out
going of Rue de St. Dominique, the poorest, though not
the poorest looking, in Paris, where the cholera was most
fatal. The people not half so squalid looking, nor the houses
either, as tlie poorest in London.
" Friday, June 22d — Was arrested by the information
that the English Ambassador had called at eight, and was to
call again at ten. Amazed and put out of sorts by this. He
of course did *not appear ; and I breakfasted at home, and
waited till eleven. Consulted Mr. Erskine about it. He
approved of my going forth directly, calling at the Ambas
sador's, and leaving an apologetic line, should he call again.
Proceeded with him to the Ambassador's. Luckily missed
him, and unluckily left my card. On returning met a Dr.
Wright, who cleared up the mystery of the provoking and
ludicrous mistake. He had called at eight ; given his desig
nation to the porter of ' Ministre de l'Eglise,' understood by
him as ' le Ministre Anglais ; ' and left me in a state of uncer
tainty whether to laugh or to cry at the absurdity' of the
whole transaction.
"Sunday, June 24th. — Madame Pelet breakfasted with us
at ten. Had much conversation with this pious and intelli
gent lady, on Christian and economical subjects. Her kind
ness unbounded ; and she affords the far likeliest inlet for me
to the knowledge of all that interests me in France. She is
the daughter and only child of the deceased ambassador Otto.
tions et des bouillonnements de son cceur, en etaient l'expression fidele, et avaient
quelque chose de la rapidity et de la force du torrent se precipitant de la montagne,
et entrainnnt tout sur son passage. L'action du Docteur ne me parut pas moins
remarquable que son langage. Tout son Stre me sembla concourir a sa predication.
Quoique cefut pour la premiere fois que j'entendisse precher en Anglais, et quoi
que je ne connusse alors votre langue que grammaticalement et dans les livres,
je pus assez bien suivre le discours ; et j'appris qu'il en avait 6t6 de meme d'un
grand nombre d'autres auditeurs tout aussi peu avancfis que moi dans 1'Anglais." 
Letter from the lien. J. J. Audebez, dated Faris, 12th November 1851.

MS.5S. LAW OF PRIMOGENITURE. 55
" Wednesday, June 2 7th— A French company to dinner
at Madame Pelef's. The Count very interesting — her father-
in-law. The Baron, her husband, very silent, but intelligent
too : is a member of the Chamber of Peers. Our talk,
through the medium of Madame Pelet, was chiefly of primo
geniture and the state of property in France. I had given
her my ' Political Economy ;' and we had talk of it too.* They
* From the chapter on the Law of Primogeniture in his work on Political Eco
nomy, we quote the following passage, a very favourite one of its huthor :  " France,
under her present system, and in spite of the convulsive efforts made by her in
seasons of great public excitement, has entered, we believe, on a sure process of
decay ; and, without a more comfortable peasantry than before, will she sink in
the long run, beneath the pre-eminence once held by her among the nations.
We feel quite assured, of every land of law and liberty, that with an order of men
possessing large and independent affluence, there is better security for the general
comfort and virtue of the whole.-than when society presents an aspeet of almost
unalleviated plebeianism. For the best construction of a social edifice, in every
large country like ours, we would have'a king upon the throne — not rising like a
giant among the pigmies, or as an unsupported May-pole in the midst of a level
population; but borne up by a splendid aristocracy, and a gradation of ranks
shelving downwards to the basement of society. We doubt if the other monarchy
could stand ; or if France with its citizen king, amid a mighty and ever- increasing
swarm of smaller and smaller agrarians, can maintain its present economy for a
single generation. We think of our own political fabric, that it not only affords" a
vastly greater number of noble and graceful spectacles, in the minarets and the
blazing pinnacles which crowd its elevation — but that, abstracting from the degra
dation which has been caused by its accursed law of pauperism, it would have
had a more elevated basement in its well-conditioned peasantry, than any other
country or kingdom of the civilized world. It is not for the sake of its ornaments
and its chivalry alone — it is not for the sake of these chiefly, that we want the high
rank and fortune of our aristocracy to be upholden. It is because we think there.
is a soul in chivalry, which, though nursed in the bosom of affluence, does not
cloister there, but passes abroad from mind to mind, and lights up a certain glow
of inspiration throughout the mass of a community. Let it only be. a land of in
telligence and freedom — and we think that, where there are nobles, the common
people are not so ignoble; and that, while the property of the rich, though scat
tered, as by the law of France, into innumerable fragments, would not add by a
single iota to the average comfort of our plebeian families ; yet the presence of the
rich infuses a spirit that, by dignifying their characters, enables them through
the medium of their own habits and exertions, to dignify their condition also. It
is thus, we hold, that there are materials in Britain, for the composition, alto
gether, of a finer, and higher, and happier society, than there are in America; and
that, without one taint of the pusillanimous in the spirit of our people, there

56 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1838.
do not think so ill of their own system, and make a stout
defence against my ideas of it. The feeling is, that the com
mercial have compensated for the decay of the landed for
tunes. The abolition of primogeniture brings a much greater
quantity of land into the market, and so yields all the
greater revenue, from the seven per cent, on each transfer.
They deny that the sub-division has prevented in any instance
the levying of the tax. The Count said it was no hardship
on the family, that there should be a tax on such sales, as
the buyer paid it. He also said that there was no rural
aristocracy spending much in the country under the old
regime, as they went to their chateaux only to economize, and
spent almost all in Paris. This does not affect the question of
the higher luxuries consumed in these days.
" Thursday, June 28th. — On leaving St. Denis for Mont
morency, the scenery on our left is very rich and wooded.
The landscape grows in beauty as we advance. An immense
extent of vineyards. The vale of Montmorency one of the
richest in France, with its culture both of corn and vines ;
and variegated by single trees and even clumps. We went off
on three donkeys to an elevation, from whence the prospects
are truly superb, as also from the inn, and along the road.
Far the best landscape I have seen in France. On returning
to the inn, visited the Jean Jacques Rousseau hermitage,
where he lived and composed his works. The house much
enlarged now ; but was shown his identical apartments, the
might be a deference to rank, and withal a truer greatness of soul and sentiment,
than republicanism, with all its coarse and boastful independence, can ever realize.
We would therefore, on the whole, leave the existing framework of our own com
munity undisturbed ; and, instead of letting down the peerage of our realms to
the external condition of our peasantry, we should rather go forth among the
peasantry, and do all that lies within the compass of education, both to elevate
their standard of comfort, and to pour such a moral lustre over them, as might
equalize them, either to peers or to princes, in all the loftiest attributes of
humanity."

/ST. 58. EXCURSION INTO NORMANDY. 57
garden, arbour, stone on which he sat at the foot of a water
fall and composed his Heloi'se, as well as the bust of Rous
seau himself, with an inscription beneath it, beside many other
votive testimonies scrawled by admiring visitors."
It was with the most eager delight that Dr. Chalmers em
braced a proposal by Mr. Erskine, that they should make a
short tour together through some of the inland provinces.
Having accepted an invitation to pass a day or two at the
chateau of the Duke de Broglie, their first excursion was into
Normandy. " Friday, June 29th. — Left Paris with Mr. Erskine in a
caleche, at half-past nine. Our last stage, from Pacy to
Evreux. Here one of the finest of our first-rate cathedrals.
Its double towers had a mixture of Gothic and Grecian ; but
in all other respects perfect. The best and greatest amount
of painted glass, in three distinct ranges of numerous windows,
I have ever seen. No longer wonder that Paris with its cen
tralization should have such an ascendant over France, with its
congeries of landed properties under a constant process of dimi
nution. But it is a miserable state of things, when a single
banker in the capital (La Fitte) can change a dynasty, by
feeding for a few days the hordes of a metropolis. How many
bankers would suffice to effect a revolution in England? Total
journey this day, twenty-five and a half leagues.
"Saturday, June 30th. — Our next stage to Broglie. De
lighted with the approach. More of English looking grounds,
after leaving the village on the banks of the Charente, than I
had before met with in this country ; and certainly the best
private chateau I have seen. To me the form is singular. It
consists mainly of two rectangles inclined to each other, of
immense length. The public rooms lightly and elegantly fur
nished ; and the whole establishment, as far as I have seen,
both within and without doors, complete and well-ordered.

58 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1838.
All out when we arrived, save Madame de Stael, the Baron's
widow, now on a visit here. In a little while the Duke
came in ; afterwards the Duchess, whose presence, manner,
and talk, at once dissipated every feeling of strangeness.
Our conversation was chiefly on pauperism, wherein the Duke
mediately participated. Had many questions put to me ; and
from the interest felt by them in it, gave her my printed evi
dence on Irish Poor-laws. Much conversation in the drawing-
room. The Duke made a very able defence of the French law
of succession. His argument is, that if there be no increase of
population there will be no diminution of properties, and that,
besides, there is a latitude of allowing one-third to the eldest
over and above his share of the remainder ; and the circum
stance that in some parts of the country they do now avail
themselves of this latitude, explains, in part at least, the
larger estates to be met with here and there. He says that
the sense of property, and the wish not to fritter it down,
must act with strong preventive influences on the matrimonial
arrangements of the people. He also says, that the greater
part of the minutely subdivided land on the Seine was before not
cultivated at all. Drew much to Madame de Stael ; — delicate,
pensive, highly interesting, the daughter of Madame Vernot,
and grand-daughter of Professor Pictet, as well as sister-in-law
to Diodati ; a younger brother now in England, to whom, of ¦
course, I must shew great attention.
" Sunday, July 1st. — Found the morning worship party in
the library at eleven. The Duke read a chapter of the French
Bible, the tenth of John, at a table ; the Duchess, opposite to
him, read sermon, one of Audebez's. We then all knelt, and
she uttered a French prayer ; could not follow it, but her fre
quent ' 0 Seigneur,' in a most devotional tone, went to my
heart. Whether the prayer was extemporaneous or learned
by heart, I know not, At three, a small party. Conversed

MS. 58. DOMESTIC WORSHIP AT BROGLIE. 59
ill the Duchess's own apartment, when I read a chapter and
expounded. My topic was appropriation, from the tenth
chapter of the Romans. It gave rise to a brief conversa
tion, chiefly on the part of Mademoiselle Ponnarrie, who must
in part have understood me. She is the same I met in Lady
Elgin's, and who was spoken of to me as likely to translate
my ' Natural Theology.' Madame de Stael said I had given her
much comfort. All here are Catholics but the Duchess and
Madame de Stael. Was shewn Diodati's translation of my St.
John's Sermons. Family worship in the evening, consisting
of a chapter and the Lord's Prayer, at which we knelt, the
Duchess officiating ; about seven domestics present in the
morning, and fifteen in the evening.
" Monday, July 2d. — Mr. Erskine and I, in going out, were
arrested by the Duchess, who sent us to the Duke, with whom
'we had a most interesting conversation. He says that at Lisle
there is a first-rate agriculture in large farms, from small pro
perties pieced together ; that in the Canton of Berne, one part,
under the law of primogeniture, has large properties, splendid
houses, admirable agriculture, but a population supported by
a poor-rate ; another part, under the law of equal division, has
a worse agriculture, and a better-conditioned population, without
a pauper among them. Madame de Broglie told us that almost
all the landed gentry were Carlists, and that the soreness of
feeling was such as that there was no intercourse between the
opposite partisans. The clergy also much opposed to the pre
sent Government, though gradually coming round, which — such
still is the remaining strength of the ecclesiastical influence —
is of great consequence to Louis Philippe. • I had a most in
teresting converse with the Duke, through Mr. Erskine, in his
library, after dinner. I learn from him that the improvement of
an estate does not expose it to a greater land-tax than before —
that if the wrhole tax is changed in amount the proportion paid

60 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1838.
by each estate to the whole is invariable — that at present the
whole sum raised by the land-tax is a hundred and forty mil
lions a year — that there are some properties in France whose
rental is a million of francs, or £40,000 yearly — that three
whom he knows in the Chamber of Peers have this income'
from land ; three more have £20,000, and forty or sixty
members have £10,000 yearly from land, or thereabouts.
He admits that the Chamber of Deputies has not so much
wealth in it as formerly, and that because the most opulent
are against the present Government, and have not taken the
oaths to Louis Philippe. He farther informed us, that he knew
of seven or eight properties in the department of the Eure which
have a population of 350,000, that yield to their owners from
£3000 to £4000 a year, a proportion twelve times less, I
believe, than obtains in Scotland.
" There are three pictures in the school of Broglie ; one of
Jesus Christ, another of Louis Philippe, and a third of the
Duke, and under them are written respectively, 'Vive Jesus
Christ !' 'Vive leRoi!' 'Vive le Due de Broglie!' * * * They
took leave of me with much kindness ; and I even have the fond
ness to think, with some feeling. I myself felt much ; and I
pray for God's best blessing on the heads of all whom I met in
that abode of elegant and lettered hospitality."
Leaving Broglie, they proceeded to Alencon. " The variety
and amount of sweet and engaging landscape as we pass along
quite baffling. A church to the right, another to the left,
another onward, projected on the sky. The succession of love
liness prodigious. I now understand the beauty of Normandy."
At Lemans, the -cathedral attracted his attention, and the
most minute description is given of it. " On the whole, a first-
rate cathedral, and the most memorable of them all." Having
reached the Loire at Tours, they ascended by the right bank
of the river, crossing it to visit the two celebrated chateaux of

MS. 58. ORLEANS AND FONTAINBLEAU. 61
Amboise and Chenonceaux, both rich in historic recollections.
Long ere they reached Orleans, the two towers of its massive
cathedral were visible. " The approach to Orleans, marked by
many good houses, and the egress from it in like manner, but
with a greater amount of foliage, and verdure, and vineries,
which abound in the neighbourhood ; but within two or three
miles, there is a sudden change into a corn country, more
available than any I have seen for the supply of towns — great
breadth of homogeneous cultivation." From Orleans, they
took the road to Pithiviers and Malesherbes ; — " then came to
the characteristic features of Fontainbleau scenery ; rocks
tumbled about in profusion, which seem to have been rolled,
fixed now in the earth, and rising into distinct hillocks, which,
mingled with the trees, gives a Trosach character to the ap
proach, were it not for the amplitude of the flat circular basin
through which we pass. Got a blow on my head here, which
I desire to record as a narrow escape and merciful providence.
Had my position been half-an-inch different, it might have
fractured my skull. May God cause this preservation to make
me resolute on the side of holiness." From room to room of
the celebrated palace he wandered, exhausting every epithet
of wonder and admiration ; pausing on the steps whence
Napoleon took his last leave of Fontainbleau, and gazing with
interest on " the small light round table on which he signed
the abdication of his Crown." The variety and gorgeousness
of the apartments were so bewildering that at last he has
to say, " Lost altogether my estimate of the geometry of
the palace."
On returning to Paris, and looking back to this inland tour,
he describes it as " a most interesting journey, by which my
opinion of the actual state of property in France, and also
my views of its eventual, have been made more favourable.
Much, however, must be left to time and experience. Have

62 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1838.
been greatly enlightened by the conversation of the Duke de
Broglie." Not many months after his return to Edinburgh a letter from
Mr. Erskine informed Dr. Chalmers of the heavy domestic
bereavement with which the Duke had been visited.
" Edinburgh, October 9th, 1838.
" My dear Sir, — What a sad event this death of the poor
Duchess de Broglie ! I have ventured to write the Duke on the
melancholy bereavement wherewith he has been visited ; and
indeed nothing but the sense of its presumptuousness restrained
me from sending a letter of acknowledgment to Broglie for
all the kindness by which I felt myself so much honoured
during our sojourn there— far the most brilliant passage of my
excursion to France, but now sadly overcast by an event so
unlooked for and solemnizing to us all.
" You mention in your letter that our dear departed friend
was to have written me. I have received no letter from her ;
but let me hope that our next communion will be in heaven.
" I shall address this letter to Geneva, where I presume you
are, and where it is probable that you will be in communication
with Madame de Stael. Let her know how deeply I feel this
heavy stroke ; and it would to me be a communication from
yourself of greatest interest, if you could inform me of any
particulars, not only respecting the death, but respecting the
surviving relatives — the Duke, Madame de Hassonville, dear
little Paul, Madame de Stael, and indeed any of the people
whom we met on that splendid occasion, the retrospect of
which is now so overclouded by the extinction from earth of
the central and presiding lustre that so brightened the days
of our abode at Broglie. — I am, my dear Sir, yours most affec
tionately, Thomas Chalmers.
" Thomas Erskine, Esq."

ZET.5S. LETTER TO THE DUKE DE BROGLIE. CO
The letter here alluded to was as follows : —
" Edinburgh, October 8th, 1838.
" My dear and much honoured Duke, — It is with great
hesitation that I venture to intrude on the sacredness of your
grief, but pray to be indulged, if, for the relief of my own
feelings, I lay before your Grace the expression of my deepest
sympathy and sorrow on the heavy bereavement wherewith
a merciful Providence has been pleased to visit you. The
event is indeed a most solemnizing one to us all : Heaven grant
that it may not prove overwhelming to you ; but even in this
the day of your severest trial, when the nearest and dearest of
all earthly relationships is broken asunder, may your spirit
be sanctified and sustained by the comforts of religion, by the
well-grounded prospect of that blissful immortality where all
suffering and separation are unknown.
" And there is one precious alleviation when we think of
her who lived in the virtues and died in the triumphs of the
faith. We know the solidity of that foundation on which her
hopes were laid, and withdrawing our affections from a world,
the best loved objects of which are so speedily withdrawn from
us, let us henceforth be ' followers of them, who through faith
and patience are now inheriting the promises.'
" In the Duchess de Broglie I have lost the most exalted
and impressive of all the acquaintances I had made for many
years. " Her kindness during the few days I lived under your
hospitable roof will never, never be effaced from my grateful
recollection. Her conversation, and, above all, her prayers,
poured forth in the domestic circle, and which at the time of
their utterance fell upon my ears like the music of Paradise,
have left a fragrance behind them, and the memory of them
is sweet. " Let me send up my earnest prayers for the present con-

64 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS'. 1838.
solation and for the future and permanent wellbeing of your
desolated family. I intreat that you will convey the assurances
of my condolence and regard to the Baroness de Hassonville
and to the Baroness do Stael. My heart bleeds for ' Paul,'
your dear little boy ; nor, as it is the prerogative of sensibility
to be unceremonious and unguarded, will I disguise the love
and veneration for yourself which the whole of our recent
intercourse has awakened in my bosom. 0 may we ' so number
our days, and so apply our hearts unto wisdom/ that we and
our families may at length sit down together amid the glories
of our Redeemer's kingdom. — Ever believe me, my dear Duke,
yours with the profoundest sense of attachment and esteem,
Thomas Chalmers.
" Monsieur Monsieur le Due de Broglie."

MS: 59. THE SEVENTH DECADE. 65

CHAPTER V.
THE SEVENTH DECADE OF LIFE— LAST EFFORTS ON BEHALF OF
CHURCH EXTENSION— PLAN OF MR. WILLIAM CAMPBELL— THE
GREAT NORTHERN TOUR— THE GRAMPIANS— LOCH EIRICHT— IN
VERNESS— TARBET HOUSE -SKIBO CASTLE— TEANINICH— CROMARTY
—FALL OF FOYERS— CATHEDRAL OF ELGIN— BANFF— THE BULLER
OF BUCHAN— HADDO HOUSE— INVERCAULD— RESULTS OF CHURCH
EXTENSION. " It is a favourite speculation of mine,'- says Dr. Chalmers,
" that if spared to sixty, we then enter on the seventh decade
of human life ; and that this, if possible, should be turned into
the Sabbath of our earthly pilgrimage, and spent sabbatical ly,
as if on the shore of an eternal world, or in the outer courts,
as it were, of the temple that is above — the tabernacle in
' heaven. What enamours me all the more of this idea, is the
retrospect of my mother's widowhood. I long, if God should
spare me, for such an old age as she enjoyed, spent as if at the
gate of heaven, and with such a fund of inward peace and hope
as made her nine years' widowhood a perfect feast and fore
taste of the blessedness that awaits the righteous." His own
seventh decade — the wished for- Sabbath of his earthly pilgrim
age — was to commence on the 17th March 1840, and to the
General Assembly of that year he had long looked forward as
to the time when he should withdraw from public life. Before
doing so, he desired to make one effort more, his greatest and
his last, on behalf of his favourite scheme. " And now," says
he, writing to Mrs. Chalmers, soon after his return from France,
VOL. IV. r

66 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1839.
" as to my plan for the future, which is shortly as follows : — I
long for retirement from public business, but not being able to
relinquish it at present, my purpose is to earn a right to
retire by the dedication of this summer and the next to Church
Extension in the country, after which it is my earnest wish
and firm intention to devolve the work on others." This plan
was announced on the 15th August, and the 18th witnessed
the commencement of its execution. On that day he began a
tour through the south-western districts of Scotland, in the
course of which ten Presbyteries, embracing 170 clergymen,
were visited ; and addresses on Church Extension were delivered
in Stranraer, Wigton, Greenock, Dunoon, Kilmarnock, Ayr, Pais
ley, Dumbarton, Hamilton, Lanark, and Biggar. It was a new
sphere of effort which Dr. Chalmers had now entered. He was
unpractised in extemporary speaking ; and yet, without a con
siderable admixture of this form, he found that he could not
adapt himself to the varied and promiscuous audiences which
he addressed. He had never taken part in any platform dis
cussion, yet in such public meetings as he now undertook
to address, hostile collisions might occur. But he would do
all, and dare all, for a cause that was so dear. Speaking of
one of his addresses, about which he had been somewhat ap
prehensive beforehand, he says : — " There were a good many
Voluntaries and common people there ; and knowing this to be
a Radical place, I made a special effort to get at the popular
heart and understanding, and so availed myself of certain
homely statements, which were possibly too much for senti
mental G — , and superfine A — , but which I had occasionally
repeated before in a series of addresses, by which our cause
had been borne in safety, even in triumph, through the worst
and most disaffected regions in Scotland. It is true that it
were better if we lived in times when a calm and sustained
argumentation from the press would have carried the influen-

•ST. 59. PLAN OF MR. CAMPBELL. C7
tial mind of the community. But as it is, one must accommo
date his doings to the circumstances of the age;." Having laid
his hand upon a new instrument, a new object of effort was now
presented to him. The Assembly's Committee over which he
presided, had too limited a sum at its command to allow of its
doing more than contribute seven shillings and sixpence per sit
ting, or about one-fourth part of the cost of each new erection. By
much the larger portion of the outlay was contributed by those
living in the district where the church was raised. The new
churches were built, therefore, only where a large amount of local
sensibility to the spiritual destitution existed ; and along with
this, a large amount of willingness and ability to relieve it. Those
neighbourhoods came to be helped first which were the most
willing and able to help themselves. But a new class of cases
came before the Committee for consideration — cases of deeper
and more distressing destitution — where little or nothing could
be expected from local efforts ; and where, if churches were to
be built at all, the whole outlay must be borne by the Com
mittee itself, or at least where its rule of distribution would
require to be reversed. These were the cases which, above all
others, Dr. Chalmers desired to reach, offering, as they did, the
opportunity for such purely missionary operations among the
poorest and most wretched sections of the community. But
though the want was so great and urgent, where lay the means
of relief? The remedy was suggested by a lay member of the
Church, one who has ever been as prompt in doing as in
devising, and whose name takes high and honourable place in
the annals of Christian liberality. Mr. William Campbell of
Glasgow, suggested that a new fund should be created, espe
cially intended to meet cases of extreme destitution ; and that
this fund should consist of contributions of £1 or upwards, for
each of the next hundred churches that should be built. If
one thousand such subscribers could be obtained in Scotland,

68 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1839.
then one thousand pounds, a sum adequate to defray the whole
cost of the edifice, would be available for each of the new
buildings. Mr. Campbell himself offered £.25 for each such
church, coming thus under personal obligation for £2500. Dr.
Chalmers hailed the proposal with delight, and resolved to
devote the whole summer of 1839 to an effort to carry it into
execution. The brief interval between the close of the College session
and the meeting of the General Assembly, was filled up by
visits to Dundee, Perth, Stirling, and Dunfermline. The
General Assembly was scarcely dissolved when he resumed
his tour, addressing influential audiences at Brechin, Mon
trose, Arbroath, and making his way to Aberdeen, where a
peculiarly brilliant reception was given to him.* His progress
was interrupted by a summons which called him instantly
to London ; but the busy and anxious negotiations, in which
he there for a time took part, directed though they were to a
new and most embarrassing subject, did not divert him from
his summer project, for again, and after only a few days of
rest in Edinburgh on his return from the metropolis, we find
him setting out on what he called his great northern tour.
That tour is chronicled with unparalleled minuteness of detail
as to place, and person, and incident. From the journal-
letters in which this chronicle survives, we could fill two hun
dred pages of this volume ; and perhaps when it has acquired
the character of the antique, the Wodrow Society of some
future generation may take pleasure in presenting it to the
public. Even now, as they are almost the last of the kind
that remain, and as they carry us to a hitherto untrodden
region, we are tempted to offer to the reader the following
extracts from these letters :-~
* For an admirable account of this visit to Aberdeen, written, I believe, by D.
Masson, Esq., see Lowe's Magazine, vol. v. p. 29.

ZET.59. THE GARRY AND TUMMEL. 69
Inverness, August loth, 1839. — My very dear Helen, —
Kept inside two stages farther, at Blair Athol. Missed the
full view of a deal of beauty in consequence ; and as it was
now fairing, the outsiders had fairly the advantage of us.
Meanwhile, we below were very restless, shooting out our heads
from side to side, like chickens stretching their necks out of
a crib ; and were particularly excited by the time we got to
Killiecrankie — the wooded and precipitous pass of which is a
noble display of Trosach sceneiy, the river Garry forcing its
way through the rocks at the bottom of the ravine. Was
particularly struck with the cottage ornee, occupied by Mrs.
Hay of Seggieden, with the beautiful new church she has
raised, and which supplies a graceful moral association to
the landscape. At Blair Inn, sixteen miles from Dunkeld, I
gave Dr. Nichol my place, and took his outside, behind the
driver. We had passed Moulin upon the Tummel, Dr. Duff's
native parish, by which I was interested. And being now in
the very heart of the Highlands, I had all my eyes about me,
right and left ; and accordingly heard with the greatest in
terest that the Tilt, which we crossed, and which runs into
the Garry, then into the Tummel, came from a region far out
of sight, and down Glen-Tilt. Then prosecuting the drive up
this Garry, we got at length to its source, named Loch Garry.
By this time we had passed Dalnacardoch, which was the next
stage from Blair. The mountains here devoid of character and
marked individuality — long shelving ridges, and which pre
sented a different aspect from that of a magnificent elevated
barrier, which I had all along conceived the Grampians to be.
However, it is good to have one's notions corrected ; and I con
fess myself to be nearly as much on edge after novelties for
the purpose of geographical truth, as for the purpose of a
spectacle ; and I even was very glad to take these Grampian
swells, which I had formerly imaged to be so many noble

70 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1833.
Alpine elevations, just as I found them. Between Dalnacar-
doch and Dalwhinnie, the next stage, there is what I would
like you to understand as the water-shed — that is, the place in
the road where the water on this side ran south past your
brother-in-law's, by Dundee, and to the mouth of the Tay;
and where the water on the other side ran north into the
Spey, and emptied itself into the ocean, more than a hundred
miles away from the other water, that fell one mile farther
south. At this place — the water-shed — the summit of the
country, its backbone, if it may be so called, the ridge from
which the river falls on opposite sides, like the opposite sides
of the roof of a house — this line, I say, separates the two
counties of Perth and Inverness. Near this place had the
view of a small part of the end of Loch Eiricht ; and I do
not know if I can make myself understood or sympathized
with, but just imagine of this said loch, that I am told of its
being fifteen miles long, stretching through wild and solitary
valleys the whole of this length, skirted on both sides with
mountains unknown to observation, and of which fancy is left
to conceive their grouping and their forms ; and I ask if this
be not an object fitted to excite the feelings, when one tries to
figure how it is that the mysterious interior of this long-with
drawing solitude is fitted and filled up. And on the subject
of this said boundary between these two shires, I have only
farther to remark, that on the left of our road there lies a hill
on this side, called the ' Sow of Atholl,' and on the other side,
a hill called the ' Boar of Badenoch ; ' Atholl being the Perth
shire district which we left, and Badenoch the Inverness-shire
district which we entered. I really felt grateful to the driver
for this piece of information, by which he introduced me to an
acquaintance with the Sow and the Boar. Got to Dalwhinnie
after five, where we swallowed a rapid dinner. This the farthest
place from the sea in Scotland ; and about the highest house

MS. 59. INVERNESS. 71
in it. Again mounted outside for two stages farther ; that is,
to Pitmain or Kingussie and Aviemore. Much pleased with
an opening prospect to Laggan and the hills of Corryarrick,
which guided me onward in thought to Fort- Augustus. I at
one time thought of making a detour that way to Inverness ;
but felt that it would not be safe. Seven miles from Dal
whinnie, we descend to a scenery of Trosach character, down
the Truim, which runs into the Spey, one of the longest rivers
in Scotland, and along which we went downward, through a
country gradually improving in cultivation and fertility. On
looking back was presented with a glorious medley of crags
and mountain tops. Interested by Kingussie, where lives an
admirable clergyman, Mr. Shepherd, known to me by corre
spondence, but not personally. On my way to Aviemore, the
twilight became fainter, and I could scarcely descry the hills
in the distance ; but was exceedingly delighted by Cairn
gorm and Ben Macdhui, the highest hill in Scotland, being
pointed out to me in the South — thus connecting the geo
graphy of the Spey with that of the Dee. Got inside at
Aviemore, thirty miles from Inverness.
" Friday, 16th. — The town handsome and respectable. The
environs superb ; and I wonder that I had never met with any
celebration of what appears to me to be scenery of a very high
order. " Saturday, 11th. — Took boat at Invergordon Ferry. Honest
Carment had been looking out for us a long time. The ferry is
two miles across ; and he came in a boat from the Invergordon
side, and met us half way. We identified him at some distance,
standing up, with his portly figure, and his ample plaid spread
out like a main-sail when lie extended his arms. Delighted
with my drive along the north bank of the Bay of Cromarty.
At the- opening of the bay are two elevated ridges, which
approach each other, and form its two opposite points, called

72 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1839.
the ' Sutors of Cromarty.' Went about six miles through a
cultivated country, and landed at Tarbet House, the mansion
of Mr. Hay Mackenzie of Cromarty. Mrs. Hay Mackenzie,
the daughter of Sir James Gibson-Craig, a very agreeable
person — exceedingly like her father in the face. Lord and
Lady Hardwicke are guests here — he a naval officer, and
most intelligent person, who succeeded to his uncle, the family
name being Yorke — she, the sister of Lady Normanby, but
of decided Conservative principles, as her husband and all are
here. She exceedingly gracious and pleasant ; a fine speci
men of the English lady, and one of the most marvellous
singers I ever heard.
"Monday, 19th. — Prepared for my Tain address, which I
delivered to a full audience of upwards of a thousand — a mar
vellous day meeting in so small a place ; and the dinner party
of eighty still more marvellous. Was received with true
Highland affection by Mrs. Mackintosh, the widow of old Dr.
Angus Mackintosh, former minister of this place, and a person
of great and distinguished worth. Much pleased with the
antique and simple air of the town of Tain.
" Tuesday, 20th. — Rode up the south coast of Dornoch Firth;
truly delightful. Across the firth could see Skibo Castle, the
chief mansion of Mr. Dempster; and, what to me was very
interesting, saw on the opposite bank the church of Criech
where Mrs. Parker's father Mr. Rainy was minister, and the
manse where Mrs. Parker was born. Saw also with great
interest before us on the far west, the distant hill of Ben More
Assynt, the highest in Sutherland, and which brought me into
contact with the north-west of Scotland. After crossing at
Bonar Bridge, we were in Sutherlandshire ; and now I may say
that I have been in every Scotch county in the island of Great
Britain except Caithness, and every English county except Corn
wall. Mr. Dempster's shooting lodge is two miles farther up

MS. 59. TEANINICH. 73
than Bonar Bridge. Took the most interesting walk I have yet
had, in respect both of scenery and of geographical observation,
Mr. and Mrs. Dempster along with me, on a hill behind their
house. I cannot express the satisfaction I felt in having my
eye brought into converse writh objects so near to the north
west corner of the island, and themselves composing the main
features of a region before unknown."
" Teaninich, August 22d, 183.9. — Went two or three miles
along the south side of Dornoch Frith, where we struck off to
the right, away from the road which leads to Tain, and across
an elevated region that separates the Dornoch and Cromarty
Friths. Passed through a series of mountain solitudes. At
length descended, and at fourteen miles from Balblair reached
the Slethenburn Inn, where General Munro's carriage was
waiting. The name of his place is Teaninich. He himself is
a fine old veteran of sixty ; has been much in the East Indies,
and seems to have brought home with him from Madras a
portion of the Christian spirit which is prevalent among certain
of the society there. His lady in this respect kindred with
himself. After tea two boys of the family came to us in splendid
Highland dresses, the General's sons, of eleven and thirteen, of
whom I pray that, under the tuition of their mother, who com
bines the Christian with the feminine, they may escape the
pollution of an evil world. She is Irish, and the daughter of a
clergyman. Went to bed about eleven, with the feeling after
all that, however pleasant this life of variety, and though much
among Christian people in the prosecution of a Christian
object, home and regularity and moderate exertion supply a
far better condition for the health of the soul and its growth
in holiness. " Friday, 23d. — I gave my address at Cromarty, after having
been ushered in with an admirable prayer by Mr. Stewart, who
is really a person of admirable sense and talent too. When I
VOL. IV. G

74 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 183».
began the people greatly interested, and the minister I saw
smiling and smerkling, in his own characteristic way, at the
more ludicrous passages. I had no idea of this being so pri
mitive and sequestered a place.
" Wednesday, 28th.— A rather large and fatiguing party; and
some of them had the tone and manner of commonplace reli
gious society. One lady asked me if I was proud or if I was
humble, in the idea, I have no doubt, that the admiration of
her, and such as she, must prove a sore trial to my vanity.
My reply was, that I was somewhat short in the temper, under
the fatigues and annoyances to which I was occasionally ex
posed in my public labours.
" Inverness, Thursday. 29th. — The public meeting took place
this day ; a full church.
" Friday, 30th. — A public breakfast of a hundred and
twenty. The result of our operations amounts to the as
tonishing sum of £2000, a sum which, if carried out pro
portionally to Inverness, would realize £400,000 in the whole
of Scotland. Inverness stands now at the head of the Sup
plementary Fund. The Provost, on our breaking up, told
me that nothing could exceed the impression which had been
made in favour of our cause.
" On driving along the north bank of Loch Ness the most
striking feature is the steep and lofty bank on our right
hand, shooting up into crags and precipices, and exhibiting
all that is noble in rock scenery. Our road often cut out
from the cliff, and protected by a parapet, to keep us from
falling into the lake beneath. Reached the mouth of Glen
Urquhart, through which the Endrick runs from the north,
and discharges its waters into Loch Ness. Most beautiful
landscape, and well denominated the Tempe of Scotland, en
riched by wood, and diversified by slopes and swells in every
variety. Landed at the House of Foyers, possessed by Mr.

MS. 59. THE FALL OF FOYERS. 75
Frazer, an old gentleman of eighty, and proprietor of the
estate in which the fall is. Under the guidance of Mr.
Frazer, a preacher, I first crossed the river, walked up its east
side, saw the falls from two successive points, a higher and a
lower. In the last position the spray fell upon us as in a
dense shower of rain. There was about the average quantity
of water ; and it is far the most magnificent thing of the kind
I had ever witnessed. Not so lofty as the falls that mamma
and I saw in South Wales, but of far greater weight and
momentum ; a good hearty thud, and in perfect contrast to the
mutehkin fall that descended at one time on mamma's head.
If she wanted enough of it she would have had it here to. her
heart's content. The lower point of view is on the extremity
of a projecting ridge, where there is a most impressive view of
the rocks on both sides, comprising, I imagine, Coleridge's ante
chamber to the fall, though this is not perfectly clear, for the
banks are precipitous to nearly the mouth of the river, which
sinks so much as to afford a suite of ante-chambers. And, be
sides, on ascending further, to the upper fall, of much less con
sequence than the first, we, above all, came to a beautiful
amphitheatre of level fields, skirted all round by rocky eleva
tions, and giving rise to a beauteous little panorama, which,
if Coleridge came to Foyers from Fort-Augustus, he behoved
to pass through first, and which might, therefore, for aught
I know, be his ante-chamber.
" Saturday, 31st. — Proceeded along the south bank of Loch
Ness. Struck off for a mile along the pass of Inverfarigag.
Such a scene of desolate and savage grandeur as I never before
witnessed ; rocks on rocks in glorious confusion, and where one
might fancy himself not in the midst of a world, but in the
midst of a chaos. Saw an opening which led to the beautiful
amphitheatre above the Falls. Coleridge must not have seen
this marvellous scene, else he would not have singled out the

76 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1839.
ante-chamber of the Falls of Foyers as one of the five good
things in Scotland, for Inverfarigag, for wild and primeval
majesty, is far beyond it. On this road Mr. Frazer pointed
out the birth-place of Sir James Mackintosh, at Aldowrie,
which Mrs. Rich lately visited, and wept over with great
emotion. A noble object Fort-George, being the most com
plete fortification in Scotland. Had an interesting view of the
opposite plains on the Moray Frith, formerly visited by me
along the shores of the Black Island. Landed in the chap
lain's. Drove into Nairn, which we reached at five. Dined
with the Presbyteiy and a few of the principal citizens. Ran
down to the shore, for a view of the town and harbour. Met,
scrambling along the boats, the celebrated James Mitchell, of
whom Dugald Stewart has written a memoir. He is deaf,
dumb, and blind, and the state of his mind, with such few
remaining inlets, is quite a study for the philosopher. I shook
hands and hurrahed to him with great delight, when I learned
it was he, to the surprise of my companions. Addressed a
full meeting at Nairn on Saturday evening.
" Monday, September 2d, 1839. — Mr. Banbury drove me to
Forres. The country brightens and beautifies even beyond the
scenery at Auldearn; and little do we Southrons expect in this
far north region a succession of landscapes so bland, and soft,
and fertile, as much so as we meet in very many of the counties
in the central or southern parts of England. At length crossed
the Findhorn by a new suspension bridge, and have seen few
scenes so beautiful as the approach to Forres, with its two
graceful spires, and the fine knolls that adorn its southern
environ. I addressed a full church, and siested, as usual, and
dined in a party of seventy. The speeches admirable, more
especially those of Mr. Buchanan and Mr. Bruce of Kennet, who
was really eloquent. It must not be disguised that the landed
men of Morayshire, taken as a whole, are passionately and

MS 59. ELGIN 77
inveterately opposed to us. Visited the site of the castle
where Duncan is said to have been murdered by Macbeth,
and which is the undoubted scene of other noted events in
history. This country is the theatre of Shakespeare's Macbeth ;
and there are several places which claim a special property in
his celebrated witches. The environs of Elgin of a very superior
cast, finely diversified, and acquiring a character of enhanced
importance from the number of its architectural elevations.
Went between ten and eleven to the ruins of the cathedral,
accompanied by Mr. Walker and others. The finest remains of
antiquity in Scotland, St. Andrews nothing to them; — they are
not so large certainly, but a far greater and more picturesque
variety Excavated lately, and exhibiting such a floor as our
own ; but far more numerous fragments of wall, and more than
ten times the amount of rich workmanship, with a large outline
of both transepts, numerous windows, parts of interior arches,
whole arcades, a chapel and fine chapter-house, supported on a
single central column, and quite entire, all composing a greatly
fuller skeleton of what it was than we have at St. Andrews.
Some remains of pilasters of particularly rich workmanship.
The east window exhibits a double row of old English arches. On
the west side there are two towers, one of which we ascended
by a stair of a hundred and thirty steps, where we had a com
mand of the town and country. On descending, I surrounded
the cathedral, and enjoyed exceedingly the various oblique and
direct views which we had of its external parts. The Fall of
Foyers and Cathedral of Elgin are the two best things I have
seen in this journey. Went to the noble, new, and very hand
some, but withal greatly too large church, holding not less than
eighteen hundred people, yet" full notwithstanding. Never felt
myself at greater ease and liberty, and am told that I never
was in greater force. To understand the scene which followed,
you must know that Elgin Presbytery is leavened with modera-

78 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1839.
tion, there being none but Mr. Topp and Mr. Gentle who go
with us in the Non-intrusion question ; and perhaps none but
them that go cordially into the object of church extension.
With these premises in your mind, understand you that we had
a public dinner, in a very handsome public hall ; that we num
bered upwards of fifty ; that the party was highly respectable ;
that Admiral Duff, a truly good man, and one of our hundred
pounders, was in the chair ; that on his left hand was Rear-
Admiral M'Kay, brother to Lord Reay ; that at the foot of the
table was the county sheriff, and a goodly number both of
clergy and of respectable citizens. Yet, with all these mate
rials for a cordial meeting, there was not one response of
enthusiastic feeling to a single sentiment that was uttered;
that my first speech, a very fair one, fell still-born from my lips ;
that in my second, when I attempted, with great and graphic
power, to pourtray the beauties of their country and their
town, a few faint echoes of applause were all which I could
elicit; that Mr. Buchanan, powerful and felicitous as he always
is, and particularly was on this occasion, spoke with an utterance
which only played buff upon them ; that when Messrs. Lewis,
Noble, and Cochran took up the tale, it told no more on the
audience than it would have done upon a clay-dyke ; — all
symptomatic of the apathetic region and atmosphere which had
been created here under the tender reign of moderation. But
most decisive of all, and before the toasts had nearly run out,
at least ono half of the whole party at the lower end, by a
simultaneous movement, made off from the table, and left the
eminentes of the upper half to themselves, to the evident
confusion and distress of our chairman, and the no less obvious
indignation of Mr. Buchanan. For myself, I was greatly more
amused than annoyed, and philosophized on the suddenness of
the transition from one Presbytery to another, as also on the
great power of clergymen who could inoculate others so with

/ET. 59. BANFF. 79
their own prevalent feeling as to make it the prevalent feeling
of their neighbourhood also. Have, nevertheless, got £300
subscribed for at Elgin ; and so I went to bed about eleven.
" Tuesday, September 1 0th. — Got to Banff. It is quite a gem
of a town. Altogether it is a very perfect and beautiful com
position ; and there is a reigning gentility, or what the English
would call tidiness, which pervades everything — the harbour,
the walks, the streets, the houses, and, above all, the charming
burial-place, full of the most tasteful monuments, inclosed with
lofty walls, decorated with ivy, and presenting in its fragments
of old architecture — the remains of a former church — a very
antique and imposing appearance. The present church has
been altogether removed from it ; and embowered among its
ivied tombstones, I Could spend whole forenoons with delight
in a retirement so full of solemn and affecting interest. To me
it is a far more tasteful cemetery than the ' Pere la Chaise' of
Paris. A full church, and an address of two hours. Then a
siesta ; then a public dinner of about fifty.
" Thursday, September 12th. — Addressed upwards of a
thousand people at Peterhead.
" Friday, September 1 3th. — Left the coast somewhat on our
left, though we had occasional glimpses of very beautiful rock.
Soon recovered it at the far-famed Buller of Buchan. Fell in
with fishermen, who said that it was quite a day for the boat.
My heart leaped for joy at the achievement of getting inside
of the Buller — so. rare, that even Mr. Philip, the parish minister,
had never been there, and Mr. Robertson, of the neighbouring
parish, only once. So we scooted down the brae, launched the
boat, manned it with four hands, and committed ourselves
to the waves, which were moderate enough to admit of the
enterprise, for it is only safe in calm weather. The rock
scenery, irrespective of the Buller, is superb, bulging out into
buttresses, or retiring into creeks, and altogether comprising

80 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1839.
the most variegated and rugged outline I had seen anywhere.
Turned south to the Buller, where we were presented with a
lofty arch, having a fine massive bending alcove, and leading
to a hollow cylinder with the sky overhead, and a lofty wall
of precipice all round. The waves rise higher in the archway,
which is narrow, insomuch that our gallant crew had to ply
their boat-hooks on both sides to keep us off the rocks : but
got at length into the bottom of the churn, which churns nobly
in a storm, and causes a manufacture of yeast, that flies in
light frothy balls up to the top of the caldron, and is carried
off through the country. It was calm enough, however, now
to admit of our leisurely contemplation of the magnificent
alcove into which we had gotten ; and after glorying in our
exploit for some minutes, we rowed and boat-hooked our way
back again. Skirted farther south, among the projections and
insular rocks between us and Slaines Castle, which we saw at
the distance of a mile or so. Went round the noble rock of Dun-
bigh, covered with sea-fowl, some of which were seen, adding
to the interest of the whole spectacle by their picturesque
forms. Here we explored a beautiful recess, and looked into
a dark viewless cave of unknown depth. Rowed back to our
old landing-place, recognising the Buller as we passed. We
also saw Buchan-Ness lighthouse to the north, and were told
of Longhaven between us and it as a great curiosity, but which
it was too rough to visit. Our landing-place is in the bottom
of a fine rocky bay, which of itself was worth the visiting and
recording. On ascending the brae, went to the top of the
Buller, and looked down to the place where we had been rol
ling half-an-hour before. With the exception of its land side,
there is a narrow rim all round it, broadest at the place which
surmounts the archway, but contracting into three or four feet
at other places, and wearing away at one part into the most
ticklish step of all. This broad rim is perpendicular on both

MS. 59. THE BULLER OF BUCHAN. 81
sides, yet so often circumambulated, even by ladies, as to be
trodden into a foot-path. I had the greatest desire to finish
my conquest of the Buller, by following in the footsteps of these
heroines ; but thought of prosaic mamma, and made a virtue
of moderation. Mr. Robertson says, that if I had offered to do
it, he would have laid violent hands upon me. It is, in truth,
very seldom done ; though the last Duke of Gordon but one,
after having dined at Slaines Castle, is said to have rode
round it on horseback — a truly after-dinner achievement.
Rode on to Slaines Castle, about two miles off. Lord Errol,
its proprietor, had previously asked me to dine there yester
day ; but as this could not be, I offered instead to call on him
this day. He and the Countess received us most cordially.
She, by the way, was a Miss Fitzclarence, and is daughter to
the late William IV. She bears a great resemblance to the
Royal family, and is withal a pious person, which appeared
indeed in her conversation. Lord and Lady Errol shewed
us the rooms of their castle, going along with us ; and
nothing could exceed the blandness and perfect nature of the
whole style of their attentions to us. It is a most singular
place, altogether renewed within these few years on the site of
the preceding castle, a mere fragment of which remains. It
consists of only two stories — one sunk, and the other com
prising all the accommodation of the members of the family —
spread out, therefore, over a great space, and shooting upwards
into a number of cones and pinnacles. It is built close upon
the edge of the sea-rock, insomuch that at one place flush with
the precipice there is no walking round it. The look-out is to
me most interesting. The rocks not high ; but having more the
character of skellies projecting into the sea, forming a number
both of creeks and promontories, and deriving an exquisite
beauty, first, from the outline of separation between the land
and water, and secondly, from the vivid contrast of the rock

82 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1S39.
with grass of bright verdure — it being the grass of rich and
ornamental cultivation. Dr. Johnson was here in the time of
the old castle, and said, that if you want to enjoy the sublimity
of danger without its exposure you should sleep at Slaines in
a storm. The roar of the waters is very noble, though the in
mates from custom had ceased to be sensible of it ; and it was
quite in keeping with the scene, and with all its accompani
ments, that there occurred, while we were sitting in the library,
which overhangs the beach, a very brilliant flash of lightning,
followed by a loud peal of thunder. It is a fine old library,
with a great proportion of theology, and some of the best
editions of the Fathers. Another drive of eight miles to
Haddo House, Lord Aberdeen's, whither I and Mr. Robertson
went by invitation. Went up the river Ythan which runs by
Ellon, a small village, though the seat of a Presbytery, and
got on through a prosaic yet cultivated country to his Lord
ship's, by seven, p.m. His Lordship tells me that the Dean of
Faculty, who at one time threatened me with a rod-in-pickle,
is now in the press with a pamphlet on Church-matters. His
Lordship and I, as well as Mr. Robertson, have had much talk
about matters ; . and though not at one, I can perceive that his
Lordship is very desirous of an adjustment, and will be of
great use, I doubt not, in bringing it about.
" Saturday, September 14th, 1839. — Walked in the grounds
with Captain Gordon, who laughs at a Veto without reasons,
and is hostile to the Church in her present position. This is a
noble place. The house not ornamental, but spacious, and
with two large wings, the grandeur of the whole lying chiefly
in its magnitude. A noble straight avenue, descending from a
flight of stairs, and marked by ornamental gateways at inter
vals, stretching forward with an amplitude which is quite
baronial ; and at its foot having a beautiful lake on the left
hand. On the other side of the house there is a beautiful

/ET 59. HADDO HOUSE. 83
wooded undulation, which contrasts well with the flowery level
at the head of the avenue. Up the Ythan his Lordship has
another place, called the Gight, still more lovely than the one
I am describing, but which, though only at the distance of four
miles, we could not visit. Took leave of the family at eleven,
not without an enhanced respect for Lord Aberdeen, whose
conversations, and whole conduct, have given me a deeper sense
than ever both of his talents and worth. He has had sad
work lately with the perverseness of the people of his own
parish threatening to veto a most admirable presentee. At
one of the meetings he had with them he himself opened with
prayer, to the great delight of all the good in this quarter.
Left Ballater between three and four. The beauty of the
afternoon, and the glorious beauty of the landscapes, at length
tempted us outside ; and certainly the combined grandeur and
richness far outstripped all that we have yet met with. Along
the banks of the Dee, for twenty miles above Ballater, there is
one continued enamel either of cultivation or woodland, while,
on both sides, the hills rise in all varieties of form, presenting
a glorious assemblage of crags and mountain-tops. On leaving
Ballater we were at once in the midst of fine scenery, but
much enhanced after passing the bridge of Ginn, and from
that to Mirven a fine specimen of the old Highland clachan.
Then on the opposite side are the house and classic ' birks of
Abergeldie,' succeeded by the kirk of Crathie on this side, and
then again on the opposite side the house of Balmoral. Here
the scenery is superlative. But the crowning glory of the whole
is Lochnagar, surmounting all the hills that are around it, and
now made immortal by the stanzas of Lord Byron on this noble
mountain. " Wednesday, September 18th, 1839. — At breakfast there
came a polite invitation from Mrs. Farquharson of Invercauld,
to stay with her while in this country. Set up our carriage

84 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1839.
again at eleven. Down the river by the road of yesterday.
Left the carriage for some minutes to visit the Castle of
Braemar, built about a century ago to overawe the rebels, and
still the property of Government. Entered all its rooms, and
looked out at every turret window. Ascended by a ladder to
its roof; an interesting but limited panorama all round us,
land-locked by hills, and presenting a horizon marked with
their lofty outlines. Dismissed our own carriage, and got with
Mr., and Mr. Farquharson, junior, into their own double one.
Descended from this most satisfactory round and penetration
into the inner shrines and recesses of Highland scenery to the
house, whence we emerged on foot upon the beautiful grounds.
Dined at six. A most delightful party of delightful people ;
and what charmed me exceedingly was, that the moment we
sat down to dinner the bagpipes struck out in the lobby, and
serenaded us during the whole feast — a most interesting but
now very rare relic of centuries long gone by. I never felt
more the spirit-stirring genius of the Highlands and the old
feudal times, than here ; and finished a day which formed the
brightest passage in my journey, by going to bed about eleven."
The biographer of Knox informs us that, in the summer of
1559, at a critical period in the history of the Church's Refor
mation, he " undertook a tour of preaching through the kingdom.
The wide field which was before him, the interesting situation
in which he was placed, the dangers by which he was sur
rounded, and the hopes which he cherished, increased the ar
dour of his zeal, and stimulated him to extraordinary exertions
both of body and mind. Within less than two months he
travelled over the greater part of Scotland. * * * The atten
tion of the nation was aroused, their eyes were opened to the
errors by which they had been deluded, and they panted for a
continued and more copious supply of the word of life."

MS. 59. REPORT ON CHURCH EXTENSION. 85
It was at a like critical period in the history of the Church's
Extension that Dr. Chalmers undertook his tour through Scot
land. His pre-announced and confident expectation was, that
within a year he should raise £100,000, and add a hundred
churches more to those already built ; and up till the meet
ing of the General Assembly in May everything promised fair
for the fulfilment of this hope. At that Assembly it was an
nounced that more than one-fourth of the sum contemplated
had already been subscribed ; and as the fortnight during
which Dr. Chalmers had made his circuit from Dundee to
Dunfermline had yielded £6000, it seemed reasonable enough
to calculate that the succeeding summer months would witness
the completion of the design. But the event disappointed the
expectation. " Better announce at once," said Dr. Chalmers,
in presenting himself before the General Assembly of 1840,
" that the last has proved a most extraordinary year in the
history of Church Extension — in certain respects, a year of
great disaster to the cause, yet in others opening up the hope,
nay, even realizing the tokens of its coming enlargement.
The present controversial state of the Church has operated
most adversely, in particular, on that fund, the nature and
objects of which were fully explained to the venerable Assem
bly in the report of last year, and now well known by its
designation of the Supplementary Fund, which, but for our
unhappy divisions, might by this time have reached, as we
calculated from the actual success in a comparatively small
part of Scotland, our confident anticipation twelve months ago
of £100,000, but which, because of these divisions, scarcely,
if at all, exceeds the sum of £40,000." It was discouraging
that so much effort should have borne so little fruit ; but the
disappointment was borne with the greater equanimity on
account of that contemplated retirement to which, at the end
of his report, Dr. Chalmers thus alluded : — " The convener of

86 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. JSW.
your committee, who has prepared the above report, craves
permission to close it with one brief paragraph which is per
sonal to himself. He finds that the labours and requisite
attentions of an office which for six years he has so inade
quately filled, have now become a great deal too much for
him ; and for the sake of other labours and other preparations
more in keeping with the arduous work of a theological pro
fessorship, as well as with the powers, and, he may add, the
prospects and the duties of advanced life, he begs that he may
now be suffered to withdraw. While he rejoices in the ex
perimental confirmation which the history of these few years
has afforded him of the resources and the capabilities of the
Voluntary system, to which, as hitherto unfostered by the pa
ternal care of Government, the scheme of Church Extension is
indebted for all its progress, it still remains his unshaken con
viction of that system notwithstanding, that it should only be
resorted to as a supplement, and never but in times when the
powers of infidelity and intolerance are linked together in hos
tile combination against the sacred prerogatives of the Church
should it once be thought of as a substitute for a national
establishment of Christianity. In days of darkness and dis
quietude it may open a temporary resource, whether for a
virtuous secession or an ejected Church to fall back upon ; but
a far more glorious consummation is, when the State puts
forth its hand to sustain but not to subjugate the Church, and
the two, bent on moral conquests alone, walk together as fel
low-helpers towards the achievement of that great pacific
triumph — the Christian education of the people. He to whom
you assigned so high and honourable an office as the prosecu
tion of this object, and who now addresses you in the capacity
of its holder for the last time, will not let go the confident
hope, that under the smile of an approving Heaven, and with
a blessing from on high, glorious things are yet in reserve for

MS. 60. PROGRESS OF CHURCH EXTENSION. »1
the parishes of Scotland ; and though his hand, now waxing
feeble, must desist from the performances of other days, sooner
will that hand forget its cunning, than he can forget or cease
to feel for the Church of his fathers."
At the earnest entreaty of the Assembly, Dr. Chalmers con
tinued at the head of the Extension Committee for another
year, nor did he retire from the great field of labour till two
hundred and twenty churches — more than one-fifth of its
whole complement — had been added to the churches of the
Establishment. The following table exhibits the progress of
Church Extension during the period of his convenership : —
In 1835 there were reported 62 Churches and £65,626 1 llf

1836

do.

do.

26

do.

32,359 12

5?

1837

do.

do.

67

do.

59,311 6

0

1838

do.

do.

32

do.

41,183 1

4J

1839

do.

do.

14

do.

52,959 14

9|

1840

do.

do.

15

do.

36,055 8

04

1841

do.
Grand total,

do.

6 do.
222 Churches am

18,252 6

6

1 £305,747 11

24

88 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1838.

CHAPTER VI.
FIRST STAGE IN THE NON-INTRUSION CONTROVERSY— SETTLEMENT
AT AUCHTERARDER— ACTION BEFORE THE COURT OF SESSION-
DECISION OF THE JUDGES— APPEAL TO THE HOUSE OF LORDS-
RESOLUTION OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1838— SPEECHES OF
LORDS BROUGHAM AND COTTENHAM— JUDGMENT OF THE HOUSE
OF LORDS-GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF 1839-SPEECH OF DR. CHALMERS.
Five years had now elapsed since the evangelical interest
became ascendant in the Church of Scotland, and the long lost
power at last recovered, every department of Church affairs
bore witness to the zeal and energy with which that power
was exercised. A prosperous commencement was made in the
reformation of the eldership.* Candidates for the holy ministry
were subjected to stricter examination, and the course of their
collegiate education was enlarged. A salutary discipline was
exercised over the ministers of the Church, and many worthless
clergymen, over whose delinquencies a shield of protection
would in other days have been thrown, were brought to trial
and deposed. That spiritual oversight of parishes by Pres
byteries, of Presbyteries by Synods, and of Synods by the
General Assembly, which the constitution of the Church re
quired, was fostered into increased effectiveness. The English
and Irish orthodox Presbyterian Churches were admitted to
that ministerial communion with the Church of Scotland from

* This spiritual office had frequently been conferred with no other object than
to entitle its holder to a seat in the General Assembly, so that many who had
never discharged any of its duties became members of the Supreme Ecclesiastical
Court. This abuse was now corrected.

MS. 68. EFFECTS OF EVANGELICAL ASCENDANCY. 89
which they had been excluded,* while one entire branch of
Seceders from the Establishment was received within its pale.
Under the able guidance of Dr. Inglis and Dr. Baird, con
siderable efforts had been already made in furthering Foreign
Missions and Home Education. To both these enterprises a
new stimulus was now given. In 1796 the General Assembly
had somewhat contemptuously refused to entertain the question
of missions to the heathen. " As for these Missionary So
cieties," said one eminent individual, who has since risen to
the highest position on the Scottish bench, and who lived to
deliver judgment against the Church in the Auchterarder case,
" I do aver, that since it is to be apprehended that these funds
may in time, nay, certainly will, be turned against the Con
stitution, so it is the bounden duty of this House to give the
overtures recommending them our most serious disapprobation,
and our immediate most decisive opposition."-)- In 1835,
fresh from his field of labour in the East, the Church's own
first and most honoured missionary, Dr. Duff, presented him
self before the Assembly, and to his fervent pleadings on
behalf of missions, the whole House gave back one unbroken
response of direct and grateful acquiescence. Hitherto it had
been only on educational destitution existing in the Highlands
and Islands of Scotland that the General Assembly had fixed
its attention. But now its more wakeful eye was fastened on
the like but more fatal destitution existing in the large towns
and more populous districts of the Lowlands ; and under the
counsels of Dr. Welsh, and the vigorous agency of Mr. "David
Stow of Glasgow, the best basis was laid for an improved and
extended national education in the institution of Normal
* By an Act of Assembly passed in 1799, the ministers of every other Church
in the world were absolutely excluded even from an occasional occupation of the
pulpits of the Establishment.
f See " The two parties in the Church of Scotland exhibited as Missionary and
Anti-Missionary, by Hugh Miller."— Edinburgh, 1841 — P. 33.
*
VOL. IV. H

90 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1838.
Schools. In 1836, widening still further the embrace of her
sympathies and efforts, a scheme was organized, and an annual
collection in all the churches was ordered, for the promotion
of Christianity in the British colonies, where so many of our
expatriated countrymen, through want of the means of grace,
had fallen into spiritual forgetfulness. The year 1838 was
distinguished by the appointment of a Commission of Inquiry
into the state of the Jews, in execution of which Dr. Keith
and Dr. Black, Mr. M'Cheyne and Mr. Bonar, journeyed over
Europe to Palestine, — furnishing that Report upon which a
new Scheme for the Conversion of the Jews was added to those
formerly existing, and which received from the Christian public
a general and cordial support. Altogether, in evidence of the
rekindled zeal and redoubled energy with which all her public
Christian enterprises were prosecuted, we can point to the
Church's collective annual revenue for these objects in the
year 1839, as being fourteen times greater than it had been in
1834. Speaking of this brief but brilliant period, Dr. Chalmers
says, — " We abolished the union of offices, — we are planting
schools, — we are multiplying chapels, — we are sending forth
missionaries to distant parts of the world, — we have purified
and invigorated the discipline, — we are extending the Church,
and rallying our population around its venerable standard, —^
we are bringing the sectaries again within its pale, — and last,
though not least, we have reformed the patronage ; and our
licentiates, instead of a tutorship in the families of the great
as their stepping-stone to preferment, now betake themselves
to a parochial assistantship or to a preaching station, with its
correspondent home-walk of Christian usefulness among the
families of- the surrounding poor, as the likeliest passage to a
higher place in their profession, even as it is the best pre
paration for the duties of their high calling. And not only
is there the visible glow of this great and wholesome reform

MS. 58. AUCHTERARDER CASE. 91
abroad over the country, or in the outer department of the
Church, but in the business of its courts and judicatories, in
the General Assembly itself, there is the same great and ob
vious reformation ; so that, instead of the ecclesiastico-political
arena which it once was, more at least than half its time is
taken up with the beseeming cares of a great moral institute,
devising for the Christian good and the best interests of men
both at home and abroad." It was no common calamity which
put an abrupt and fatal close to a career so promising, and our
countrymen, to the latest generation, will be found inquiring
what were the mighty interests in defence of which operations
so fruitful of good were all arrested, and the men who were
so vigorously prosecuting them driven beyond the pale of the
Establishment. We have now to enter upon the painful his
tory of those proceedings which terminated in this disastrous
issue. A few months after the passing of the Veto Law by the
Assembly of 1834, a presentation was issued by the Earl of
Kinnoul to the vacant parish of Auehterarder in Perthshire.
Mr. Young, the presentee, was not in orders, holding only a
license from his Presbytery, which permitted him to preach as
a candidate for the holy office. After he had preached on two
successive Sabbaths in the pulpit of the vacant church, a day
was appointed for moderating in a call, — that is, for inviting
the people to express their concurrence in his settlement.
In a parish containing three thousand souls, only two of
its inhabitants came forward upon that day to sign the call ;
and when, in obedience to the recent Act of Assembly, an
opportunity was afforded to those male heads of families
whose names were on the attested communion roll, of ten
dering their dissent, out of the three hundred entitled to
use this privilege two hundred and eighty-seven, or more
than five-sixths of the whole members, gave in their names

92 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1838.
as dissentients, and all expressed their readiness to make the
solemn declaration, that they were actuated by no factious
or malicious motives, but solely by a conscientious regard
to the spiritual interests of themselves and the congregation.
To afford them time for reconsideration, and an opportunity,
if they chose to avail themselves of it, to withdraw their
names, the Presbytery adjourned for a fortnight ; but at the
adjourned meeting, without one exception, they all adhered to
their dissent. Before any final judgment was given, in conse
quence of objections taken to some parts of the Presbytery's
proceedings, the case went by appeal before the Synod of
Perth and Stirling, and afterwards before the General As
sembly of 1835. Having repelled the objections which had
been taken to the actings of the inferior Court, the Assembly
remitted the case to the Presbytery, with instructions "to
proceed in the matter in terms of the Interim Act of last
Assembly." Acting under these instructions, the Presbytery,
on the 7th July 1835, rejected Mr. Young, " so far as regarded
that particular presentation." Against this rejection the pre
sentee entered an appeal to the Synod, which he afterwards
abandoned ; and it was with mingled curiosity and alarm that
the Church learned, that in conjunction with the patron he had
raised an action against the Presbytery before the Supreme Civil
Court, the Court of Session. As the action was originally laid,
the Court was asked to review the proceedings of the Presbytery
solely with the view of determining the destination of the bene
fice, and declaring that the just and legal right to the stipend
still lay with the rejected presentee. The case, however, had
not been in Court more than a few weeks when an ominous
change was made upon the whole character of the action.
This change, technically denominated " an amendment of the
libel," was effected by the introduction of new clauses, in which
the Court was asked to find and declare that the rejection of Mr.

MS 58. JUDGMENT OF THE COURT OF SESSION. 93
Young, expressly on the ground of a veto by the parishioners,
was illegal, being contrary to statute, and that the Presbytery
was still under statutory obligation to take Mr. Young upon
trial, and if found qualified to ordain him as minister of the
parish. The case, the novelty and importance of which began
now to be universally appreciated, was ordered to be heard
before all the judges. The pleadings began on the 21st No
vember, and closed on the 12th of the succeeding month. On
the 27th February 1838, and on six subsequent days, the
judges delivered their opinions, deciding, by a majority of
eight to five, in favour of the pursuers and against the Church.
The majority was composed of the Lord President (Hope,)
Lord Gillies, the Lord Justice-Clerk (Boyle,) Lord Meadow-
bank, Lord Mackenzie, Lord Medwyn, Lord Corehouse, and
Lord Cuninghame. The minority consisted of Lord Fullerton,
Lord Moncreiff, Lord Glenlee, Lord Jeffrey, and Lord Cock-
burn. The judgment of the Court, delivered on the 8th March,
did not cover the whole of the conclusions craved by the pur
suers ; but after repelling the objections which had been taken
to the jurisdiction of the Court and the competency of the
action, restricted itself to finding, that in rejecting Mr. Young
" on the sole ground that a majority of male heads of families,
communicants in the said parish, have dissented, without any
reason assigned, from his admission as minister, the Presbytery
have acted illegally and in violation of their duty, and contrary
to the provisions of certain statutes libelled on."
Throughout all the lengthened arguments delivered at the
Bar and from the Bench the two leading questions which were
carefully distinguished from each other, and subjected to sepa
rate discussion, were, — 1. The legality of the Veto Law, — whether
the Church, under statute or otherwise, was legally competent
to enact such a law, and whether, in enacting it, she had
violated any statute of the realm ; and, 2. The competence of

94 MEMOIRS OF D.R. CHALMERS. 1838.
the Court of Session to interfere, in case it should find the
Veto Law to be illegal, for any other purpose, and to any other
effect, than simply to regulate the destination of the benefice.
The pleadings at the Bar, as well as the opinions delivered from
the Bench, left a certain amount of obscurity resting upon both
these leading topics. It sometimes seemed as if the alleged
illegality of the Veto Law lay exclusively in the conclusive
force bestowed upon an arbitrary dissent of a majority, and in
the Church having thereby transferred to the people a privilege
which, though possessed by herself, she was not at liberty to
alienate ; so that if taking Mr. Young upon trial, and looking
upon his non-acceptability as a disqualification, she were on
that ground by her own authority and upon her own judg
ment to reject him, she would be guilty of no breach of any
statute. In the arguments, again, by which the competency
of the Court of Session to adjudicate upon this case was sus
tained, it was difficult to know whether it was affirmed or not,
that over all such actings of Church Courts as directly or
indirectly carried civil consequences, the Court of Session
claimed the same authority which it possessed and exercised
over all the inferior civil tribunals of the kingdom, or whether
any separate standing and exclusive jurisdiction was allowed to
the ecclesiastical judicatories. The Court of Session had con
sidered itself competent to declare that a Presbytery which,
acting under the explicit directions of the supreme ecclesias
tical tribunal, had done nothing but carry out a law of the
Assembly, had done an illegal act. But was it prepared to do
here what, in every like case of a purely civil character, it was
its right and duty to do — to order the Presbytery to proceed as it
directed ; and holding the Veto Law as a nullity, simply because
it, the Court of Session, held it so, to take the necessary steps
towards the presentee's ordination : and in case of the Presby
tery's disobedience, was it prepared by the ordinary compul-

MS. 58. RESOLUTION AS TO SPIRITUAL INDEPENDENCE. 95
sitors of law — by fine or imprisonment — to enforce obedience
to its edict ? In itself the sentence pronounced by the Court
was equivocal. Declaring what the Presbytery had done to be
illegal, it stopped short of declaring or prescribing what the
Presbytery should do. That sentence might have been given
though all that the Court meant to interfere with was the ap
propriation of the stipend. One thing alone was clearly and
conclusively determined by it, that should the Church persist
in rejecting Mr. Young, she incurred thereby the forfeiture of
the benefice. It was to prevent, if possible, this forfeiture
that, at its meeting in May 1838, the General Assembly in
structed its law officer to appeal the case to the House of
Lords. That there might be no misunderstanding, however,
of the position relative to the Civil Courts assumed by the
Church, the same Assembly passed a very memorable resolu
tion. The Church's separate and exclusive spiritual jurisdic
tion, though not yet actually invaded, was most seriously
menaced. Opinions had been uttered both at the Bar and
from the Bench which went to strip her of all those liberties
and privileges, which, given her by her Great Head, she
believed had been amply guaranteed to her by statute, and
which, except in the darkest periods of her persecution, she had
freely exercised and enjoyed. The blow had not yet been
struck which should lay her prostrate beneath the secular
power, but the arm was lifted, and there seemed no want of
will to strike. Calmly, solemnly, resolutely, in front of the
impending danger she took up her ground — ground from which
she never swerved. By a majority of 183 to 142 the General
Assembly of 1838 resolved —
" That the General Assembly of this Church, while they
unqualifiedly acknowledge the exclusive jurisdiction of the
Civil Courts in ¦ regard to the civil rights and emoluments
secured by law to the Church and the ministers thereof, and

96 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1838.
will ever give and inculcate implicit obedience to their deci
sions thereanent, do resolve, that as it is declared in the Con
fession of Faith of this National Established Church, that the
Lord Jesus Christ is King and Head of the Church, and hath
therein appointed a government in the hands of Church officers
distinct from the civil magistrate, and that in all matters
touching the doctrine, government, and discipline of the
Church, her judicatories possess an exclusive jurisdiction,
founded on the Word of God, which ' power ecclesiastical (in
the words of the Second Book of Discipline) flows from God,
and the Mediator, Jesus Christ, and is spiritual, not having a
temporal head on earth but only Christ, the only spiritual
King and Governor of his Kirk ;' and they do further resolve,
that this spiritual jurisdiction and supremacy and sole head
ship of the Lord Jesus Christ, on which it depends, they will
assert, and at all hazards defend, by the help and blessing of
that great God who, in the days of old, enabled their fathers,
amid manifold persecutions, to maintain a testimony even to
the death, for Christ's kingdom and crown : And, finally, that
they will firmly enforce obedience to the same upon all office
bearers and members of this Church, by the execution of her
laws in the exercise of the ecclesiastical authority wherewith
they are invested."
Nearly a year elapsed ere the-Auchterarder case was heard
before the House of Lords. Lords Brougham and Cottenham
having delivered their opinions on the 2d and 3d May 1839,
and their opinions substantially agreeing, the sentence of that
Court was passed dismissing the appeal and confirming the
deliverance of the Court of Session. For one thing, at least,
the Church of Scotland had to thank these noble Lords:
their speeches cleared away all the ambiguity which had
rested upon the discussion of the Court below. It was by a
simple and very short line of argument that they each arrived

MS. 58. LORDS BROUGHAM AND TOTTENHAM. 97
at their interpretation of the Law of Patronage. By the con
cluding clause of the Act of Queen Anne restoring patronages,
the Act 1592 had been revived, and became the governing
statute upon this subject. That statute ordains " that all
presentations to benefices be directed to the particular Presby
teries, with full power to give collation thereupon, and to put
order to all matters and causes ecclesiastical within their
bounds, according to the discipline of the Kirk ; provided the
foresaid Presbyteries be bound and astricted to receive and
admit whatsoever qualified minister presented by His Majesty
or lay patrons." According to the interpretation put upon
this statute by Lords Brougham and Cottenham, the sole pro
vince of the Church in the matter of collation, beyond which
she cannot travel without subjecting herself to civil coercion,
is to judge of the personal qualifications of the presentee, and
in so judging she must strictly limit herself to an inquiry into
his life, literature, and manners. " With respect to qualifica
tion," said Lord Brougham, " I am somewhat surprised to find
in the very able and learned arguments from the Bench below,
an attempt made to shew that qualification is of such exten
sive meaning, that within its scope may be brought the whole
of the matter at present in dispute — namely, the acceptable-
ness and reception of the party presented by the congregation
as finding favour in their sight. * * * I am going to shew
your Lordships that no such meaning can possibly, by the law
of Scotland, be given to the word ' qualified.' It is a tech
nical word in this question : it is not the word ' qualified'
used in its general sense, as you talk of a man's qualities — of
his capacity — of his abilities — of his merits, which are all
general phrases, and none of them technically defined. The
word ' qualified' is as much a known word of the law, and has
as much a technical sense imposed upon it by the statutes —
by the law authorities — by the opinions of commentators — by
VOL. IV. i

98 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1839.
the dicta of judges, as the word ' qualification' has when used
to express the right to kill game, or when used to express a
right to vote in the election of a member of Parliament. * * *
It means a qualification in literature, life, and morals, to be
judged of by the Presbytery; and no one talks of interfering
with that right of so judging by them."* The Lord Chan
cellor was equally explicit : " But if it be clear, as it certainly
is, that the qualifications referred to in the statutes are per
sonal qualifications — ' literature, life, and manners' — there can
be no ground for contending that the dissent of the majority
of the heads of families is a disqualification within the mean
ing of the statutes. * * * The absolute right of patron
age, subject only to the rejection of the presentee by the
adjudication of the Presbytery for want of qualification, which
is secured by the statute, is inconsistent with the exercise of
any volition by the inhabitants, however expressed."-)- Such an
interpretation confined the jurisdiction of the Church to the
one single topic of judging of the presentee's life, literature,
and manners, and deprived the congregation or general body
of communicants of all standing, weight, and influence in the
settlement of ministers. It was an interpretation altogether
new — new to every party of Churchmen in Scotland, and in
consistent with the whole current of hitherto unchallenged
laws and actings of the Church. When a patron happened to
present a clergyman already ordained, upon whose personal
qualifications the Church had already passed approving judg
ment, in such a case, and according to this interpretation, no
ground or liberty of rejecting him remained. Lord Brougham
referring expressly to such a case, declared that nothing so
wild had ever been urged as the supposition that the Church
could claim or exercise such a right ; and yet up to this time,
neither among the lawyers nor the ecclesiastics of Scotland had
* Robertson's Report, pp. 14, 15, 17. f Robertson's Report, pp. 52, 53.

MS. 59. NOVELTY OF THE INTERPRETATION. 99
there ever been a doubt as to the Church's possession of this
right — her whole proceeding in the instance of the translation
of ordained clergymen from one parish to another was based
upon its existence — in innumerable cases had it been exercised,
ordained presentees having been rejected, and yet never once,
whether in court civil or ecclesiastical, had this power of rej ection
been challenged. In 181 7 Dr. Hill, the leader of the Moderate
party, introduced and carried a measure in the General Assem
bly, by which the union of a professorship in a college and the
ministerial charge of a country parish was prohibited. By this
new version, however, of the Law of Patronage, such a mea
sure was ultra vires of the Assembly, and any professor re
jected upon the ground of this prohibition had only to bring
his case before the Civil Court to have his right to admission
confirmed and enforced. So universal was the conviction that
the Church's prerogative extended beyond a mere adjudication
upon life, literature, and morals, that when, in 1833, Dr.
Chalmers first introduced the Veto Law, Dr. Cook's motion,
which on that occasion was carried, declared it competent for
the heads of families to give in objections, of whatever nature,
against the presentee, and for the Presbytery, if they thought
such objections to be well grounded, to reject him. In the
discussion which then took place, Dr. Cook strenuously affirm
ed " that the Church regarded qualification as including much
more than learning, moral character, and sound doctrine — as
extending, in fact, to the fitness of the presentees, in all
respects, for the particular situation to which they were
appointed." Had the interpretation now put upon the Law of Patronage
been known in the preceding century, to what an amount of
ecclesiastical litigation about calls would it have put an imme
diate and final termination. For many years in the earlier
part of that centuiy, and so long as that party still predomi-

100 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1839.
nated which was resolved to" carry out the principle, which the
Church had so often declared to be a fundamental one, that no
pastor should be intruded into any congregation contrary to
the will of the people, cases continually occurred in which pre
sentees were rejected on no other ground whatever than the
insufficiency of the call — their want of acceptability to the
people ; but there never was a case of any such rejected pre
sentee having recourse to the Court of Session, because neither
in the Parliament House nor in the Assembly had this new view
been broached, of the unfettered right of the patron. When the
Moderate party, under the able guidance of Lord Brougham's
distinguished relative, Principal Robertson, began that course
of policy, which, after many a painful conflict, finally reduced
the call to a mere dead form, the struggle was restricted
entirely to the Church Courts, which it certainly would not
have been had it ever been imagined that so summary a
method of settlement was available, as that supplied by the
decision of the House of Lords.
The mere novelty, however, of this interpretation of a single
law, was not nearly so alarming as were those general views as
to the constitution of the Church, and the nature and conse
quences of her connexion with the State, upon which that in
terpretation obviously and ostensibly was based. The Church's
power in this single case had been limited to such narrow
boundaries, because no statute could be found which distinctly
and specifically bestowed upon her any other or wider range of
action. It was in vain that the Church's advocates spoke of
powers and privileges — of a constitution and polity possessed
by her, not in virtue of any donation by the State, but in
virtue of her divine institution by Christ. It was in vain that
they pointed to the many express statutory recognitions and
ratifications of her government and discipline, as flowing to
her from her great Spiritual Head. It was in vain that turning

/ET. 58. LIMITATION OF THE CHURCH'S JURISDICTION. 101
to that very Act of 1592, by help of which the right of
the patron was to be carried triumphantly over all those
defences against the intrusion of unacceptable ministers which
the Church had erected, they quoted the clause which gave
the Church full power to put order to all matters and causes
ecclesiastical, according to the discipline of the Kirk. It was
in vain that they quoted another portion of this same statute,
in which, referring to and repealing a previous Act which had
asserted the Royal supremacy over all persons and causes eccle
siastical, it was declared that it " should no ways be prejudicial,
nor derogate anything from the privilege that God has given to
the spiritual office-bearers in the Kirk, concerning heads of
religion, matters of heresy, excommunication, collation or depri
vation of ministers, or any such like censures specially grounded
and having warrant of the Word." The statute had spoken
only of judging of the presentee's qualifications, and beyond
that the Church must not proceed. If in her judicial capacity
she had frequently prevented the settlement of ministers,
against whose " life, literature, and manners," nothing could
be alleged ; if in her legislative capacity she had passed many
laws, imposing other restrictions upon Patronage than the
single one now allowed, her judgments were illegal, her laws
were impotent. Instead of her own old conception that she
had all freedom, except that which statute specifically denied,
the new conception was that she had no freedom except that
which statute specifically granted. Adopting this conception,
" one-half, and more than one -half, of the privileges of the
Church would be disallowed ; and she would be rendered more
bare of honour and prerogative, than even any ordinary cor
poration, whose privileges may be asserted and ascertained by
an appeal to the general practice of the constitution." *
* See the admirable speech of the Solicitor-General (Rutherfurd,) in Robertson's
RepoH, vol. i. p. 356.

102 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1839.
In their sentence, the Court of Session had refrained from
laying any order upon the Presbytery, and the House of Lords
did nothing more than simply affirm that sentence. In the
forwardness of his zeal, however, Lord Brougham volunteered
to instruct the Court of Session as to their future course.
" And then," said his Lordship, " may come this question,
' What is the Court of Session to do upon the petitory part of
the summons, supposing that shall be insisted upon ?' Enough
it is for me to-day to observe that this is not now before us.
But suppose it were, I should have no fear in dealing with it.
I should at once make an order upon the Presbytery to admit
if duly qualified, and to disregard the dissent of the congrega
tion ;" " and if they did not admit, they broke the laws, they
acted illegally, and were liable to the consequences, civil and
other, of disobeying the positive and clear order of a statute."
* * * " Still it is affirmed that the Presbytery may persist in
refusing. My Lords, it is indecent to suppose any such case.
You might as well suppose that Doctors Commons would
refuse to attend to a prohibition from the Court of King's
Bench ; you might as well suppose that the Court of Session,
when you remit a cause with orders to alter the judgment,
would refuse to alter it." Never once during all that period
when litigations about conflicting presentations, and the settle
ment of ministers thereupon, had been so numerous, had the
Court of Session ventured upon such an act as that which they
were now so heartily counselled to perform. They had been
once asked to do a kindred deed, but they had refused to inter
fere ; " because that was interfering with the power of ordina
tion, or the internal policy of the Church, with which the
Lords thought that they had nothing to do."* Should the
Presbytery persist in refusing to settle Mr. Young, one clause
* Report in the case of Dunse, by Lord Monboddo, quoted by Mr. Bell— Robert
son's Report, vol. i. p. 117.

Ml. SO. ADVICE GIVEN BY DR. CHALMERS. 103
of the very act upon which so much was grounded, might have
suggested to Lord Brougham another alternative than the
one which he had suggested : — " Providing always, in case the
Presbytery refuses to admit any qualified minister presented to
them by the patron, it shall be lawful to the patron to retain
the whole fruits of the said benefice in his own hands." If
Presbyteries were under statutory obligation to admit quali
fied presentees, and by the ordinary compulsitors of the law
could be forced to fulfil such obligation, how came such a
clause as this into that very Act, by which, as it was alleged,
that very obligation was imposed ? That clause, indeed, stands
upon the statute-book as a perpetual protest against that series
of encroachments upon the spiritual prerogatives of the Church
upon which the Court of Session was now hastening to embark,
and a perpetual vindication of that position which, as the sequel
will indicate, the Church felt herself compelled to occupy.
The speeches of Lords Brougham and Cottenham were
delivered early in May 1 839, and had great influence in deter
mining the proceedings of the General Assembly, which com
menced its sittings on the 16th of that month. They effected
a very important change in that course of policy which Dr.
Chalmers had been prepared to advise. He was in no way
particularly wedded to the Veto Law. Regarding it only
as one mode of gaining a certain end — the hindering of bad
and the promoting of good appointments — he was ready to
make any change in the mode, if only the same end could
be realized. The decision of the Court of Session had made
it clear that whenever a rejection under the Veto Law took
place, a forfeiture of the temporalities of the living would
ensue. But up to the time when the Lord Chancellor and
Lord Brougham had delivered their opinions, he had been con
vinced that if relinquishing the form of procedure established by
the Veto Law, and falling back upon her own intrinsic powers,

104 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1839.
the Church were to sit in judgment upon each case of settle
ment as it occurred, she would be able to prevent all improper
intrusion of parties upon reclaiming congregations. He had
been prepared, therefore, to advise that the Assembly should
repeal the Veto Law ; and, with a general declaration of a
resolution to maintain the principle of Non-Intrusion, should
commit the whole matter in the first instance to the Presby
teries of the Church. These speeches of the two Chancellors
taught him that a veto by the Presbytery would now be held
to be as illegal as a veto by the congregation ; and that to re
peal the Veto Law would bring them no nearer to the effecting
of such a harmony between the law of the State as interpreted
by -the highest legal functionaries of the realm, and the law
and practices of the Church for the prevention of intrusion,
as should hinder the dissevering of the benefice from the cure
of souls. Assuming that the Church were to stand firm in
her purpose, to take no part in the ordination of men whom
she conscientiously believed to be unfit for that particular
charge to which they had been presented, it was obvious that
the desired harmony could be attained only through the inter
vention of the Legislature. A direct and immediate applica
tion to the Legislature seemed, therefore, the fittest, if not the
only course for the Church to pursue. For six years past Dr.
Chalmers had not been a member of the General Assembly, and
with the exception of reading his Annual Report on Church
Extension, he had taken little part in the general management
of Church affairs. But a truly momentous crisis had now
arrived, before which his strong purpose of retirement gave
way, and every energy of his nature was devoted to the guid
ance of the Church through the troubled and perilous passage.
He entered the conflict with an anxious but unembarrassed
spirit. Mere party ties had but little hold on him. With
many of the opinions held, and many of the sentiments uttered

MS. 59. THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF 1839. 105
by some of the most prominent evangelical leaders, he had no
sympathy. He did not participate in the conviction that the
right to choose their own ministers belonged by divine dona
tion to the people. He disliked when the contest on which the
Church had now fairly entered was represented as a contest
for the rights of the Christian people ; nor could he approve
of the phraseology, rife now in some quarters, according to
which the privileges of communicants, in the matter of the
appointment of their religious instructors, was spoken of as
part of the liberty wherewith Christ had made His people free.
Believing in the existence of no divine right, wedded to no
abstract theory, his position was, that the Church should be
left free to carry out her own conscientious convictions — should
be left unbribed and unfettered to do what she thought best
for the Christian good of the people ; and, as his own convic
tions most cordially went along with -what the Church had
declared to be a fundamental principle of her policy, he was
prepared at any hazard to take any necessary step, at once for
the preservation of the Church's general freedom, and the pro
tection of the Church's humblest congregations. The General
Assembly, upon whose deliberations and decisions so much was
now depending, met at Edinburgh on the 16th May 1839.
Scarcely had the necessary preliminaries been concluded, when
Dr. Cook, the leader of the Moderate party, rose to say that
there was one question of such pre-eminent importance, that
he wished the day for its discussion to be fixed without delay ;
intimating, at the same time, his intention to submit a resolu
tion regarding it to the House. On the following Monday,
three motions were read and tabled ; one by Dr. Cook, one by
Dr. Chalmers, and one by Dr. Muir. The discussion was fixed
to be on Wednesday, and for several hours before the Assembly
convened upon that day, the House was crowded in every corner.
The days were past when the Edinburgh public suffered an

106 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1839.
Assembly to go by with little other notice than that which
the military cortege of the Commissioner excited. Interests
were now at stake, in which Scotland's remotest extremities
were concerned ; and the great heart of the body ecclesiastic
beat fuller and stronger as each returning Assembly came
round. Participating in those deep and solemn feelings, which
had gathered many a group of the faithful over the land
around the Throne of Grace, the General Assembly, before
the debate began, called upon the venerable minister of
Kilsyth to engage in prayer. Dr. Cook opened the discus
sion. His motion was to the effect that the Assembly
should hold the Veto Law as abrogated, and proceed as if it
never had passed. Dr. Chalmers's motion consisted of three
parts : — The first embraced an acknowledgment of, and acqui
escence in, the loss of the temporalities of the living of Auch-
terarder ; the second contained the expression of a resolution
that the principle of Non-Intrusion was not to be abandoned ;
and the third proposed the appointment of a committee to
confer with the Government, in order to prevent any further
collision between the civil and ecclesiastical authorities. The
magnificent oration in which Dr. Chalmers supported this
motion occupied three hours in its delivery ; and so great and
exhausting was the effort, that he had to retire from the Court
immediately, nor was he able to return to give his vote at
the close of the debate. The discussion had commenced at
twelve o'clock on Wednesday the 22d ; and at two o'clock
on the morning of the following day, when it was announced,
as the result of the vote, that Dr. Chalmers's motion was
carried by a majority of 49, the irrepressible cheer that
burst from the galleries, told in what direction, and how
strongly the popular current was running. It will not be
deemed an overloading of these pages, to present anew, and
thus preserve, a few passages from Dr. Chalmers's speech.

*T. 59. DR. CHALMERS 8 SPEECH. 107
Having disclaimed all connexion with any section of the
Assembly, having explained the personal position which he
occupied, and touched on a few preliminary topics — " But we
now pass on," said he, " to vindicate another part of the
motion, by which it is implied that, meanwhile, and previous
to the settlement of the question between the Legislature and
ourselves, the Veto Law shall continue the unrepealed law of
the Church. Is there not rebellion here, it may be asked —
and that too against an authority to which hitherto we have
been professing the homage of so much loyalty and respect ?
By the sentence of the Civil Courts this law is pronounced to be
illegal ; and if we persist in keeping by it, we incur of course
the forfeiture of certain temporalities. But how can we, it is
said, how can we, after such a sentence, persist in yielding
obedience to it as a law of the Church, without incurring the
further charge of disobedience to the law of the land ?
" To answer these questions L must fall back on what I con
ceive to be the true theory of the connexion between Church
and State.
" When this alliance then was first entered on, the first
movement was made by the State. The overture came from
them, on what motive, whether of piety or patriotism, or any
other cause, it matters not — if it was such an overture as could
be righteously, in which case it might be most rejoicingly,
consented to by the Church, who might bless God in orisons of
the devoutest gratitude, in that, by aid of the civil magistrate,
a way had been opened up for the lessons of the Gospel, for
the words and the message of everlasting life to all the popu
lation. The boon on the one side was a maintenance for the
Church's labourers, who might be distributed over the length
and breadth of the land, and act each as the herald of salvation
on his own assigned portion of the territory. The return on
the other side was an immense blessing to the State — that best

108 "MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1839.
security, not for the temporal and eternal happiness of indivi
duals only, but for the moral and political and the economic well-
being of every community — a universal Christian education.
" Such then is the precise footing on which the Church
enters into that alliance with the State, by which it becomes
what is termed a National Church, or an Established Church,
or a Religious National Establishment. It may have subsisted
for many ages as a Christian Church, with all its tenets and its
usages, not as prescribed by human authority, but as founded
either on the word of God or on their own independent views
of Christian expediency — meaning by this their own views of
what is best for the good of unperishable souls. None of these
things were given up to the State at the time when the Church
entered into an alliance with it ; but one and all of them re
mained as intact and inviolable after this alliance as before it.
She did not make over her liberties to the State, at the time
when she entered into fellowship with it, in this new character
of a National Establishment — she only made over her services.
That was the return, the only return she could make, if along
with the new she was to retain her old character as a Christian
Church ; and I will say an adequate, nay, an overpassing re
turn, for the maintenance of her clergymen. Her office hence
forward was to dispense the lessons of Christianity to the people
of that sovereign who gave subsistence to her labourers ; but
still it was no other than the Christianity of the Old and New
Testament. Her subsistence came from the State ; but her
formularies and her doctrine, and her discipline, and the me
thods of her ecclesiastical polity, and her articles of faith, and
her methods of worship and of government, were all her own.
" It would serve, I think, greatly to clear this argument, did
we make careful discrimination between the Church of Scot
land viewed as a National Establishment, and the Church of
Scotland viewed as a Church of Christ. There are certain

¦et. 59. dr. Chalmers's speech. 109
obligations incumbent upon her quasi a Christian Church, and
there are certain privileges which belong to her quasi an Esta
blishment. Now, I hold it to be quite an axiom, a first and
elementary truth, that we are never, in any instance, to depart
from the obligations which lie upon us as a Christian Church,
for the sake either of obtaining or perpetuating the privileges
which belong to us as an Established Church. But though, on
the one hand, we cannot either rescind or refrain from enacting
what we hold to be vital — ere we make a voluntary withdraw-
ment of ourselves from the State, we should make every at
tempt to obtain its concurrence, and that in order to avert the
calamity of a disruption betwixt us ; and this too in the face
of every ungenerous misinterpretation, to which our desire of
preserving the connexion between the parties with all its
advantage's is liable. There may be nothing of the sycophan-
tish, nothing of the sordid, in the most strenuous attempts
which principle will suffer us to make, to maintain unbroken the
alliance between Church and State. On the contrary, it may
be the high aim of Christian patriotism, prosecuted in the
spirit and with the apostolic zeal of a devoted missionary, intent
on the spiritual wellbeing of the country's population, and there
fore desirous of enlisting the energies of the civil government,
in the holy enterprise of bringing the lessons of the Gospel with
in the reach and hearing of all the families of the land. Every
method should be tried to preserve, or if we have unfortunately
lost it, to recover the favour and confidence of our rulers. But
meanwhile, till we make this out, we have nothing for it but to
administer our own affairs in conformity with, and under the
guidance and authority of our own statute-book. Now, it was by
the deliberate voice and judgment of the Church that this law,
so obnoxious in other quarters, found its way there ; and though
it never should be consented to by the State it must continue
to be our regulator till rescinded by the same power to which

110 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1839.
it owes its enactment, and on no other considerations I trust
than those of principle and of the public weal. Whether a law
is to be established or repealed by us, let me never see the day
when we shall be constrained to either the one or the other by a
force ab extra, or by any principle whatever distinct from our own
spontaneous views of what is best for the interests of Christ's
spiritual kingdom. The only moving principle which we should
acknowledge is the ' majus bonum ecclesice ;' and that not in
any sordid or secular meaning of the term, but in the sacred, the
celestial, the high, and wholly disinterested sense of the * majus
bonum populi' — the greater good of their unperishable souls.
In other words, we should decide this and every other question
on considerations purely religious and ecclesiastical alone.
" But let me now, instead of looking forward into conse
quences, give some idea to the Assembly of the extent of that
degradation and helplessness, which, if we do submit to this
decision of the House of Lords, have been actually and already
inflicted upon us — a degradation to which the Church of
England, professing the King to be their head, never would
submit ; and to which the Church of Scotland, professing the
Lord Jesus Christ, to be their head, never can. You know that
by the practice of our Church the induction and the ordination
go together. We regard both as spiritual acts ; but by the
practice of the Church of England, the two are separated in
point of time from each other, and as they look only upon the
ordination as spiritual, this lays them open to such civil man
dates and civil interdicts, as we have never been accustomed
to receive in the questions which arise on the subject of induc
tion into parishes. But ask any English ecclesiastic, whether
the Bishop would receive an order from any civil court what
ever on the matter of ordination ; and the instant, the universal
reply is, that he would not. In other words, we should be de
graded far beneath the level of the sister Church if we remain in

MS. 59. DR. CHALMERS S SPEECH. Ill
connexion with the State, and submit to this new ordinance, or
if you will, to this new interpretation of their old ordinances.
I hold in my hands a book entitled a History of the Romish
and English Hierarchies, by James Abbott, A.B. of Queen's
College, Cambridge. He was refused ordination by the Bishop
of Norwich, and afterwards by the Archbishop of Canterbury,
to whom he carried his case by appeal. Upon this he addressed
a letter to the King as head of the Church, dated Bracondale
House, Norwich, November 27, 1830. Of this letter, in which
he details the circumstances of his case, the following is the
concluding paragraph : — ' I, therefore, earnestly invoke your
Majesty, as head of the Church, and father of your people,
graciously to consider my prayer, to remove this hindrance to
my obtaining Episcopal ordination ; in order that your Ma
jesty's royal prerogative may secure to me the privileges and
rights of a denizen and of a British graduate.' The following
is Lord Melbourne's reply, written by his secretary : —
" ' Whitehall, 29th December, 1830.
" ' Sir, — I am directed by Lord Melbourne to acknowledge
the receipt of your letter of the 27th instant, and to inform
you that his lordship cannot advise the King to give any com
mand for controlling the judgment of a bishop on the subject
of ordination to holy orders. — I am, Sir, your obedient humble
Servant, S. M. Phillips.
'James Abbott, Esq.,
Bracondale House, Norwich.'
" To what position then are we brought if we give in to the
opposite motion, and proceed in consequence to the ordination
of Mr. Young ? To such a position as the bishops of England,
with all the Erastianism which has been charged, and to a
great degree I think falsely charged, upon that Establishment,
never, never would consent to occupy. Many of them would
go to the prison and the death rather than submit to such an

112 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1839.
invasion on the functions of the sacred office. We read of an
old imprisonment of Bishops, which led to the greatest and
most glorious political emancipation that ever took place in the
history of England. Let us not be mistaken. Should the
emancipation of our Church require it, there is the same
strength of high and holy determination in this our land.
There are materials here too for upholding the contest between
principle and power ; and enough of the blood and spirit of the
olden time for sustaining that holy warfare, where, as in former
days, the inflictions of the one party were met with a patience
and determination invincible in the sufferings of the other."
Having quoted also from a speech of the Bishop of Exeter,
in which that prelate had declared it to be his intention
not to obey a certain law, though it should receive the sanc
tion of the Legislature, Dr. Chalmers concluded with some
remarks on the principle of the Veto Law.
" I am fully prepared for all the wanton ridicule which has
been cast on a popular antipathy without reasons, or such rea
sons as can be stated before a bench of judges for them to
judge upon. The Dean of Faculty, in his pleading before the
Lords of Session, makes repeated and contemptuous allusions
to this mystic and incomprehensible something, too shadowy
for expression, too ethereal to be bodied forth in language,
and on which we would reject the presentee — grounding our
rejection on a veto, itself without grounds, or at least such
grounds as are capable of being set forth and made intelligible
to the minds of other men. Now, if there be one thing of
which we are more confident than another, it is that here we
have all philosophy upon our side, and all that is sound in the
experience of human nature. Not in Christianity alone, but
in a thousand other subjects of human thought, there may be
antipathies and approvals, resting on a most solid and legiti
mate foundation— not properly, therefore, without reasons, but
reasons deeply felt, yet incapable of being adequately com-

MS. 59. DR. CHALMERS'S SPEECH. 113
municated. And if there be one topic more than another on
which this phenomenon of the human spirit should be most
frequently realized, it is the topic of Christianity — a religion
the manifestation of whose truth is unto the conscience ; and
the response or assenting testimony to which, as an object of
instant discernment, might issue from the deep recesses of
their moral nature on the part of men with whom it is a felt
reality — able therefore to articulate their belief, yet not able
to articulate the reasons of it. There is much, and that the
weightiest part by far of the internal evidence for Christianity,
that rests on the adaptations which obtain between its objec
tive truths and the felt necessities or desires of our subjective
nature — adaptations powerfully and intimately felt by many a
possessor of that nature, who is yet unable to propound them
in language, far less to state or vindicate them at the bar of
judgment. And if ever the prerogatives of the human con
science were at one time more cruelly trampled on than at
another, it has been within the last century, and at the bar of
this House — when the collective mind of a congregation, who
both knew and loved the truth as it is in Jesus, has been con
temptuously set at nought ; and the best, the holiest feelings
of our Scottish patriarchs, by lordly oppressors . sitting in state
and judgment over them, were barbarously scorned. In that
age of violent settlements, these simple, these unlettered men
of a rustic congregation, could say no more, yet said most truly
of the intruded minister, that he did not preach the Gos'pel,
and that in the doctrine he gave there was no food for the
nourishment of their souls. I cannot image a more painful
spectacle than such men as these, the worthies of the olden
time, at once the pride and the preserving salt of our Scottish
commonwealth, placed under the treatment and rough hand
ling of an able, jeering, ungodly advocate ; while coarse and
contemptuous clergymen, booted and spurred for riding Com
mittees, were looking on and enjoying the scene ; and a loud
VOL. IV. k

lit MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1839.
laugh from the seats of these assembled scorners completed
the triumph over the religious sensibilities of men, who could
but reclaim with their hearts and not with their voices. This
was the policy of Dr. Robertson, recently lauded in high places
— a policy which has dissevered our population from our
Church, and shed most withering influence over the religion
of the families of Scotland. Re-enact this policy if you will,
and you place your Kirk as a National Establishment on the
brink of its sure annihilation. Have a care, ye professing
friends of order and loyalty, have a care lest, by a departure
from the line of resolute and unswerving principle, you strip
the Church of all moral weight in the eyes of the community.
Think of the deadly enemies by whom we are encompassed ;
and have a care lest, by one hair-breadth of deviation from
the path of integrity and honour, you cause the hearts of these
Philistines to rejoice.
" This discernment of the Gospel, this just perception of
truth on the part of a home-bred peasantry, though unable
to assign the principles or reasons, is not more marvellous than
is their just perception of beauty, though unable to assign the
philosophy of taste. Hear the most philosophical of all our
poets, Akenside, who, in his ' Pleasures of Imagination,' bids us
" ' Ask the swain who journeys homeward from a summer day's
Long labour, why, forgetful of his toils
And due repose, he loiters to behold
The sunshine gleaming as through amber clouds
O'er all the western sky. Full soon, I ween,
His rude expression and untutor'd air,
Beyond the power of language, will unfold
The form of beauty smiling at his heart,
How lovely, how commanding !' — ' Heaven,
In every breast hath sown these early seeds
Of love and admiration.'
" In the one case our peasant feels, and correctly feels, an
admiration, which, unskilled in metaphysics, he cannot vindi
cate ; in the other he knows the truth, though, unskilled in
logic, he can neither state nor defend the reasons of it.

-ET.59. DR. CHALMERS 8 SPEECH. 115
" ' It has been frequently remarked,' says Dugald Stewart,
' that the justest and most efficient understandings are often
possessed by men who are incapable of stating to others, or
even to themselves, the grounds on which they proceed in
forming their decisions.' — ' An anecdote which I heard many
years ago, of a late very eminent judge, (Lord Mansfield,) has
often recurred to my memory, while reflecting on these appa
rent inconsistencies of intellectual character. A friend of his
who possessed excellent natural talents, but who had been
prevented, by his professional duties as a naval officer, from
bestowing on them all the cultivation of which they were sus
ceptible, having been recently appointed to the government of
Jamaica, happened to express some doubts of hi3 competency
to preside in the Court of Chancery. Lord Mansfield assured
him that he would find the difficulty not so great as he appre
hended. " Trust," he said, " to your own good sense in form
ing your opinions ; but beware of attempting to state the
grounds of your judgments. The judgment will probably be
right ; the argument will infallibly be wrong." ' *
" I would take the verdict of a congregation just as I take
the verdict of a jury, without reasons. Their judgment is
what I want, not the grounds of their judgment. Give me
the aggregate will ; and tell me only that it is founded on the
aggregate conscience of a people who love their bibles, and to
whom the preaching of the cross is precious ; and to the ex
pression of that will, to the voice of the collective mind of that
people, not as sitting in judgment on the minor insignificancies
of mode and circumstance and things of external observation,
but as sitting in judgment on the great subject-matter of the
truth as it is in Jesus — to such a voice, coming in the spirit,
and with the desires of moral earnestness from such a people,
I for one would yield the profoundest reverence."
* Stewart's Elements, vol. ii., 8vo, pp. 103, 106.

116 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1839.

CHAPTER VII.
FIRST EFFORT OF THE NON-INTRUSION COMMITTEE— DEPUTATION
TO LONDON— INTERVIEWS WITH THE. LEADING POLITICIANS-
REPORT TO THE ASSEMBLY'S COMMISSION—EXTRACTS FROM PRI
VATE JOURNAL.
The first effort of the important Committee appointed under
Dr. Chalmers's resolution, was to obtain from the Legislature
a confirmation as to civil consequences of the Veto Law.
There was much to recommend that law as the basis of their
earliest negotiations. It embodied the mildest form in which
conclusive effect could be given to the will of the people.
During five years, and out of one hundred and fifty settle
ments which had taken place under it, in ten instances only
had the power which it conferred been exercised. Some of its
greatest ecclesiastical enemies had expressed their surprise
and satisfaction at the quiet manner pf its operation, nor had
any opposition been elicited from the patrons of Scotland.
There was one special reason, besides, for counting upon the
prompt aid of the Government now in power. It was with the
express concurrence and sanction of that Government that
the Veto Law had originally been passed ; * and if, in carrying
* One of the earliest expressions of Government countenance to the Veto Law,
is contained in the following letter of Lord Jeffrey, then Lord Advocate : —
" House oe Lokds, 13th May 1833.
" My dear Dr. Chalmers,— Your obliging letter of the 9th has just been
brought to me here. I wrote very fully to the Solicitor on Thursday last, on the
important subject to which you refer; and directed him to communicate that
letter, or the substance of it, to you. If this has been done, you will find a satis-

MS. 59. LETTER TO DR. GORDON. 117
out a measure to which it virtually had been a party, the
Church had become involved in the most painful perplexity, it
was natural to expect that the generous hand of the Govern
ment would instantly be extended to extricate her.
In obedience to Lord Melbourne's advice, and as the best
way of opening their negotiations, the Committee resolved to
send a large and influential deputation to London. As there
was a strong desire that Dr. Chalmers, as convener of the Com
mittee, should head this deputation, and as he was now absent
on his northern Church Extension tour, Dr. Gordon was com
missioned to write to him to that effect. He received the
following reply : — " Stonehaven, June 22d, 1839.
" My dear Sir, — The effects that may arise from the measure
of a deputation to London are so very uncertain, that I could
not have incurred the responsibility of advising it ; but now
that it is resolved upon, I, for the very same reason, could as
little incur the responsibility either of resisting or of refusing
to sanction it. After Lord Melbourne's reply, it was very
natural for the Committee to feel themselves as if shut up to
the necessity of adopting the resolution which they have come
to ; and as I have incurred no absolute engagements beyond
Aberdeen, I shall, if God will, so soon as I am quit of these,
take the first lawful opportunity by steam of making my way
to the metropolis.
" And now, my dear Sir, let me express my earnest hope
factory answer to the question you now propose ; and if it has not, I believe I
cannot be much mistaken in saying, that I have the strongest conviction that the
Government must be much gratified by the Assembly's adopting such a resolu
tion as you mention, and that I entertain little doubt that they would be
anxious to give effect to it, by any legislative measure which might be thought
necessary for that purpose — though I must guard myself against the risk of being
supposed officially authorized to announce such a resolution, or formally to pledge
them to such a proceeding.— Believe me always, very faithfully yours, F. Jeffrey.''

118 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. • 1839.
and entreaty, that you will join us. I do honestly think it of the
greatest practical importance that you should ; and as it other
wise would not be in keeping with the noble appearance which
you made the other day before the Lords in Edinburgh, (a far
more formidable looking set than any Lords in London,) and for
which the Church of Scotland owes you a debt of gratitude.
" It is right, however, that the Committee should know that
on the occasion of the last deputation to Government from the
Church, Lord Melbourne expressed a hope or wish that ' that
d — d fellow Chalmers was not amongst them.' I have not
the vanity to think that his Lordship cared whether the person
was present or absent. It was the embarrassing proposition
with which he was charged, and which he was prepared to
urge in every possible, if right, way, that probably annoyed
him. But should he still manifest the same antipathy, this
will not restrain me from doing all the good I can in other
quarters. It is the chance of this which enters very strongly
into the determining force that leads me to join the deputation.
I am very strongly of opinion, that as this is in no shape a
political question, we should with the full knowledge of the
one party, hold explicit and full communication with the
other party in the State— all should be above boards with
both. Nor should we consent to the introduction of any ques
tion into Parliament, without a previous reasonable assurance
of its passing favourably through both Houses.
" Allow me to "say that both you and Mr. Candlish ought to
preach when in London. — I am, &e. Thomas Chalmers."
On the 4th and 5th of July, Dr. Chalmers was tossing on the
German Ocean on his way to London.* For reading upon the
* The roll of the sea was so heavy as to prevent most of the passengers from
attempting one " useful operation," which, notwithstanding, he resolutely carried
through. " I have a hereditary intrepidity," he writes, in detailing this, " in the
matter of shaving. My father had no fear in putting himself into the hands of a

&T.59. LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 119
passage he had supplied himself with some of the recent pam
phlets on the Church question, to two of which he thus alludes :
" Hugh Miller's Letter to Lord Brougham is a very noble com
position. * * * Finished Gray's pamphlet, which I pronounce
to be an admirable composition, and written with very great
force both of argument and expression." His time in London
was chiefly occupied by formal interviews with the leading
political men of both parties in the State.
" Saturday, July 6th. — I called on Lord Aberdeen. A long
conversation with him : friendly and intellectual, but not thor
oughly satisfied, and refused to pledge himself. I was a little
damped. He rose in my estimation, though I can see how
strong the barrier is in the way of a thorough understanding.
* * * I prevailed with Dr. Gordon, very much against his
will, to be the spokesman with Lord John Russell to-day, even
as he was with Lord Melbourne yesterday — a measure of great
public policy as well as personal prudence on my part. This
would not and did not prevent me from striking in when I
chose, and I did not want the trouble of conning over a formal
conversation on the matter. * * * Thirteen of us moved
to the Home Office at half-past four o'clock. Lord Belhaven
said, that it was better that as Dr. Gordon was the speaker at
Lord Melbourne's, he should be the speaker here too. Afraid
somewhat, I think, of my effusions ; but they will not be able
to restrain them. Let me enumerate the thirteen, whom I
counted and looked over as we sat in the ante-chamber : —
Lord Belhaven, Dr. Chalmers, Dr. Gordon, Dr. Dewar, Dr.
Makellar, Mr. Candlish, the Procurator, Mr. Alexander, Cap
tain Trotter, Mr. Bruce, Mr. Hog, Mr. Dunlop, Mr. Shaw
drunken barber, John Bruce, the great Anstruther operator in my beardless days.
He sometimes came staggering into my father's back-shop with his razor in his
hand ; yet my.father shrunk not, but submitted himself to him, for he had uni
formly found, that the moment John got him by the nose, he steadied himself
thereby, and got through the whole process in perfect safety, and without a scar."

120 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1839.
Stewart. In a minute or two we were called. Dr. Gordon
opened the matter very well ; and I and the Procurator
struck in ; — but such a feckless and fushionless entertainment
of the matter on the part of his Lordship I never witnessed in
my life. It was ' N, nihil, naething,' as we used to say to the
tee-totum. I could not but laugh when we came out, and
looked at the blank faces of all and sundry. * * * The
Conservatives are all on the qui vive about the matter, but I
can perceive that they are sadly blind and prejudiced.
" Monday, 8th. — Breakfasted altogether at 32, Craven Street.
Arranged our business. We offer interviews to the influentials,
and so many of them are accepted. The acceptors are parcel'
led out among four sub-committees of three each. Sir Robert
Peel fell to my share for this day. I have two very agreeable
colleagues, Mr. Hog and Mr. Bruce ; but I proclaimed a liberty
to any others to accompany me, and so there went forth with
us, beside the two above mentioned, the Procurator, Mr. Alex
ander, and Mr. Trotter. With Sir Robert there came in to us
Sir William Rae, and afterwards Sir James Graham. I opened
the case, and spoke altogether about twenty minutes or more.
I was nobly supported by our friend Mr. Bruce ; and, on the
whole, it has been our first comfortable interview since I came
to London. There will be nothing done this session, but that
makes not our visit here useless or insignificant. Sir Robert
very bland, and Sir James Graham quite joyous and cordial.
Sir William Rae friendly to our object, I have no doubt. The
Conservatives don't promise so much, but I have more confi
dence in their doing all they engage for. * * * Went
back to 32, where so many of us rendezvoused for the dinner
of this day. We set forth in two carriages, and were conducted
thereby to the Duke of Somerset's in Park Lane. Fox Maule
was there, and other Lords and M.P.'s whom I do Hot remem
ber. But the main person was Lord Melbourne, whose whole

MS. 59. 'LORD MELBOURNE. 121
deportment was very remarkable. He shook hands with Dr.
Gordon, whom he had seen on Friday, and perhaps one or two
more of the deputation, but brushed past me. * * * After
these cuts, I of course was thrown back on my independence,
and asserted it more firmly and calmly than I had ever done
before. * * * The first seeming approximation which
Lord Melbourne made to me was to look at me while talking
as if he was directing that talk to me ; but without some more
individual and distinct act of recognition, I was determined to
keep aloof, and so escaped the Premier without exchanging
words with him.
" Tuesday, 9th. — Sallied forth to the Duke of Sutherland,
whose natural but polished simplicity delighted us all. He is
not unhopeful, though naturally ignorant of the merits of the
question. Had the great kindness to conduct us through
some of his rooms and best pictures. A very splendid man
sion : the rooms vie with those of Versailles and Fontainbleau.
* * * Threaded my way to Sir James Graham's. Met with
a most frank and friendly reception. Mr. Colquhoun came in,
and we fell to on our Church question. Sir James's views
have given me more comfort than any I have met in coming
to London. I am particularly delighted with the effect which
my conversation in Sir Robert Peel's, where he was, had on
him, and still more with the effect of my printed speech,
which has converted him from his strong principle of a veto
with reasons, whereas he now acquiesces in a dissent without
reasons. See the last pages of the latest of my works, and
more especially my quotation from Akenside, which has im
pressed Sir James rerj powerfully. Came away greatly re
lieved and comforted ; for Sir Robert's extreme caution and
coldness operate as a damper on a man's spirits, whereas Sir
James is a fine, hearty, honest, outspeaking Englishman, of
great good feeling and practical sense withal.
VOL. IV. l

122 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1839.
"Monday, 15th.— I sent a few of our deputation to join
Lord Belhaven at our last and final interview with the Pre
mier. It was not politic for me to go— me who am in dis
grace at Court — me who am the hapless object of the chief of
the Cabinet's frowns — me who must retire in chagrin from
public life, and spend in obscurity and pining neglect the re
mainder of my days ; yet tliough outwardly scowled upon,
inwardly elated with the honour of such a distinction, — for
quoth the poet, ' A courtier's curses are exalted praise.' "
At a meeting of the General Assembly's Commission held
on the 14th August, Dr. Chalmers gave in a Report of the
Deputation's proceedings in London : —
" After frequent opportunities to converse with the leading
men of both parties, they can confidently state, as the result
of the whole, that they are more hopeful than ever of matters
being brought to a speedy and successful termination.
" First, we can state our having received the assurance of
the Government, that they were fully impressed with the im
portance of the subject, and would give it their most serious
consideration, and that they would give instructions to the
Lord Advocate to prepare, along with the Procurator, a measure
to be submitted to the Cabinet.
" And for those who might desiderate something more de
finite, and as they perhaps feel, more substantial than this, we
have the satisfaction of announcing, if not yet a specific mea
sure by the Legislature, at least a specific and most important
concession to the views of the Church on the part of the
Government. They have authorized us to state, that in the
disposal of those livings which are at the nomination of the
Crown, its patronage will most certainly be exercised in accord
ance with the existing law of the Church, a resolution which
applies to nearly one-third of the parishes of Scotland. But

MS. 59. REPORT TO THE COMMISSION. 123
we reckon on a good deal more than this. We deem ourselves
to have good grounds for believing, of the great majority of our
patrons, that they will not be outdone by the Government,
either in a kind and liberal consideration for the difficulties, or
in a deferential respect for the laws of the Church of Scotland.
" It will not be expected of us, in the yet unfinished and
necessarily immature state of our proceedings, that we can be
more particular. Suffice it to say, in one word, that after much
intercourse, both with the highest functionaries of the State
and many of the highest standing and name in public affairs,
it is our firm persuasion, that, if we but prosecute and sustain
our part rightly here, there exists no insuperable obstacle there
to the happy settlement of this question. We have every pros
pect of obtaining a large and liberal consent on the part of the
patrons, and we cannot doubt that there will be a full ex
pression of sentiment on the part of the community — that the
people will make known their wishes to the Legislature, and
that, for the liberties of a Church dear to Scotland, a, call will
be lifted up from its towns and parishes which our rulers will
not fail to listen to. With such helps and encouragements on
our side, let but the adherents of this cause remain firm and
united in principle among themselves, and with the favour of
an approving God, any further contest will be given up as un
availing ; when, let us fondly hope, all the feelings of party,
whether of triumph on one side, because of victoiy, or of humi
liation on the other side, because of defeat, shall be merged
and forgotten in the desires of a common patriotism, to the
reassurance of all who are the friends of our Establishment, to
the utter confusion of those enemies who watch for our halting
and would rejoice in our overthrow."
Betwixt the time of his return from London and the meeting
of Commission an interval of a few days occurred, during
which Dr. Chalmers resumed his private Journal, which had

124 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 183a
now for a long period been suspended, and which was not
resumed till the spring of the succeeding year.
" July 30th. — A sad interval of great action and variety,
with some melancholy defections, and no distinct spiritual pro
gress. Attempting this night in Edinburgh an hour of religi
ous exercise. Awoke this morning in heaviness, against which
I am sure there is no right remedy but a confident hold on
Christ and his righteousness as my righteousness. Farther,
sure that this confidence cannot hold along with the cherishing
of sin. 0 Lord, I pray for thy grace and strength being per
fected in my weakness. Give me to experience, like Augustine,
the light and liberty consequent on the abandonment of every
wrong affection. There is a great conflict before me. 0 my
God, in thee may I have strength and victory. My repeated
failures have arisen from drawing upon myself as if the power
were in me, instead of drawing upon Christ for the power that
is out of me.
" July 31st. — Let me, in prospect of an encounter with temp
tation this day, hold myself forewarned and be forearmed
against a humiliating defeat. But conscious of my own infir
mity I hereby implore the grace and strength of Christ. May
His power rest upon me ; and I lift this not as a general prayer,
but as a prayer for this specific thing. 0 that in this way I
could succeed in making a real business of my sanctification.
How delightful it were to hold communion with God in the
midst even of a festive party, a communion with Him in the
exercise of duty, if not of express and formal devotion.
" August 2d. — Let me renew my efforts on the occasion that
lies this day before me. I have been in heaviness from various
causes — the want of public sympathy with our Church ques
tion — perhaps the amount of time not filled up by interesting
occupation — the sense of manifold infirmities — a feeling to a
certain extent of wounded vanity from the way in which I was

*T. 59. PRIVATE JOURNAL. 125
met by argument in a recent committee, all of which causes
can only be counteracted by a transference of thought and
affection to the objects of that boundless and elevated pano
rama which faith places before and around the soul. Then
would there be trust in God — a quiet assurance that He would
bring good out of evil — a busy engagement of the heart with
His service — peace of conscience in the fellowship of Christ —
the absorption of self and of all selfishness in the glory of our
Father in heaven and the good of men.
" Sunday, August 4th. — This my marriage-day, which event
took place twenty-seven years ago. What a life of ungodliness
and transgression, and carelessness and neglect, both of personal
and family religion, have I led ! 0 how little have I acted on
the feeling of my responsibility for the souls of my children !
0 my God, let me set up now the new principle in my heart
and the new order in my family. But let me begin at the
beginning. Let me accept of Christ. Give me, 0 Lord, full
assurance of heart in the blood of the everlasting covenant.
In this blood would I wash out my sins ; and, 0 my God, give
me henceforth the clean heart and the right spirit, the love of
Thyself shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Ghost. I would
now go forth with my bands loosed, and pray that my future
life may be a perpetual thank-offering to Him who died for me
and who rose again. Hear these, my aspirations, 0 God, and
fulfil them speedily.
" August 5th. — Felt more than ever the anteriority of con
fidence in Christ to the keeping of His commandments — the
priority of simple trust in the act of closing with him, of faith
in my acceptance with God as a preliminary to cheerful and
fruitful obedience. Let me cherish this all the day long ; and
let me watch the effect of it, now praying in the name of Christ
that it may succeed. I would pray unto watching, and watch
unto prayer."

126 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1839.

CHAPTER VIII.
THE CASE OF LETHENDY— THE DEAN'S ADVICE— THE PRESBYTERY'S
PROCEDURE— THE APPEARANCE BEFORE THE COURT OF SESSION—
THE REBUKE_THE CHARGE OF REBELLION BROUGHT AGAINST THE
CHURCH— HER ANSWER TO THAT CHARGE— THE CONSTITUTIONAL
QUESTION INVOLVED IN THE COLLISION— APPEAL TO THE LEGIS
LATURE—COURSE TAKEN BY THE MODERATES— PAMPHLET BY THE
DEAN OF FACULTY.
In a letter given in the preceding chapter allusion is made
to an appearance of Dr. Gordon before the Lords in Edin
burgh. The occasion of that appearance was one which threw
a still fuller light upon the course which, fortified by the de
cision of the two Chancellors, the Civil Court was prepared to
prosecute. In 1835, the Crown, as patron of the parish, nomi
nated an assistant and successor to the aged and infirm minister
of Lethendy. Mr. Clark, the nominee of the Crown, was vetoed
by the people, and on that ground rejected by the Presbytery of
Dunkeld.* An appeal having been made to the General Assem
bly of 1836, and that Court having confirmed the sentence of
the Presbytery, Mr. Clark appeared to have acquiesced in the
decision. In November 1837, however, under the same prompt
ing which instigated the rejected presentee of Auchterarder, he
raised an action against the Presbytery in the Court of Ses
sion, — the patron, however, being no party in this case. Not
long afterwards the aged incumbent died. Proceeding upon
* After the Disruption Mr. Clark was deprived of his license, having been found
guilty of drunkenness.

MS. BB. CASK OF LV.THENDY. 127
the validity of the Veto, and lending thus the whole weight
of its sanction to the procedure of the Church, the Crown,
regarding the parish as vacant, issued a new presentation.
When the Presbytery were on the eve of ordaining the pre
sentee, Mr. Kessen, an interdict from the Court of Session was
served upon them, prohibiting the ordination. Sisting proce
dure, they reported the matter to the General Assembly, and
craved advice. The case came before the Commission of Assem
bly in May 1838, by whom, with only two dissentient voices, the
following deliverance was pronounced: — " Find that admission
to the pastoral office is entirely an ecclesiastical act, subject
to the exclusive jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts, and
ordain the Presbytery to proceed without delay to the induc
tion of Mr. Kessen, upon the call in his favour, according to
the niles of the Church." The Jast clause of this deliverance
was framed with the special purpose of indicating that the
Church declined altogether meddling with the civil question of
the comparative validity of the two competing presentations,
a question -which it belonged to the Civil Court to decide. The
interdict which had previously been obtained prohibited the
Presbytery from proceeding upon the presentation to Mr. Kessen.
As that interdict might be found too narrow to cover the sen
tence of the Commission, which had directed the Presbytery
to proceed alone upon the call, a new and ampler one was
granted, prohibiting the settlement, whether upon the ground
of the call or on any other ground whatever. On this second
interdict being served upon them, the Presbytery, which acted
throughout with mingled caution and firmness, referred the
matter to the Commission which met in August. The motion
that the Presbytery should be directed to proceed immediately,
notwithstanding the interdict, was seconded by the Rev. Hamil
ton Buchanan of Strathblane, a minister strongly attached to
the Moderate party in the Church. The Rev. Dr. Brunton of

128 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1839.
Edinburgh, a clergyman of similar sentiments, " regretted that
the necessity of deciding this case had been thrust upon them,
but still he felt that the necessity existed. They had instructed
the Presbytery to do a purely spiritual act, to ordain Mr. Kes
sen as minister of the parish, and for this they were interdicted.
It might happen that the temporalities of the parish would not
go to the minister in this case, but he thought that was ex
ceedingly unlikely. He for one would never consent to delay,
nor would he consent to go into a civil court to plead this cause.
He knew his own province, and in that province he would stand
or fall." The motion to proceed was carried by a majority of
fifty-two to six ; and in that small minority only one solitary
clergyman was found, so general was the conviction that the
Court of Session had overstepped its boundaries and made
unlawful inroad on the Church. When, on the day named by the
Commission, the Presbytery of Dunkeld assembled, the agent
of Mr. Clark sought and obtained leave to read an opinion from
an eminent lawyer in Edinburgh. It came from the Dean of
Faculty, the leading counsel and chief adviser in all the legal
measures taken against the Church. It was sufficiently start
ling, and had the ministers who sat to listen to it been men of
infirm principle or yielding purpose, it might well have shaken
their determination, for it hung over them the weightiest terrors
of the law. " The members of the Presbytery," said the Dean,
" will most infallibly be committed to prison, and most justly."
It had been said, that in acting as he had done Mr. Clark had
been guilty of contempt of the Church, and some had even
spoken of depriving him of his license, so as to take from him
the ground that gave him his legal standing. The Dean at
once placed the rights of Mr. Clark upon what seemed to him a
broader and surer basis. " The deliverance of the Assembly
attempts illegally to trample on Mr. Clark's rights as a British
subject ; for any man in this country who adheres- to its doc-

MS. 59. APPEARANCE BEFORE THE COURT OF SESSION. 129
trines is entitled to be a member of the Established Ohurch*
The rights of Mr. Clark as a probationer, in this respect, are
as sacred as those of a layman. He was legally entitled to his
license, and he holds it as a British subject." Perhaps it was
their clear conception of the length to which such a doc
trine would go in exposing the whole discipline, as well as the
whole government, of the Church to secular dictation and con
trol, which helped to fortify this Presbytery against all the
arguments and threats by which they were assailed. Un
moved by these, they ordained Mr. Kessen to be minister of
Lethendy. They had now to face a more trying ordeal. The
act of ordination had no sooner been consummated than a
complaint was lodged against them for a breach of interdict,
and they were summoned to appear at the bar of the Court in
Edinburgh, on the 14th June 1839. In itself it was a formid
able enough matter to be dragged from their quiet country
charges and to be pilloried for public observation in an uncon-

* " According to the Dean's ideal of the relationship between the Church and
the State, the Church would not have the command of its own discipline. On this
question, too, he would subordinate the ecclesiastical to the civil power. He tells us
of the right of Church membership, which is neither more nor less than a right of
admission to the sacraments, and which right he gives us to understand may be
prosecuted by any of the citizens at a court of law ; so that, if armed with this
authority, he could force his way to the communion-table, even though, by the
judgment of the Church, and all its consistories, he should thereby profane the
ordinance, and bring damage and condemnation upon his own soul. Ere he can
forfeit the privilege there must be a corpus delicti — some specific delinquency, palp
able enough for cognizance and condemnation by a bench of secular judges, at
whose mandate the prostrate Church must receive into her inmost sanctuary men,
who, in her own judgment, though living without any gross or definable immora
lity, are yet living without God in the world. If this be State religion the sooner
it is banished from our land the better for the good of the Church and for the
moral wellbeing, as well as the peace of the commonwealth. If such be indeed the
necessary consequences of an ecclesiastical establishment, in the name of all that
is sacred, let our establishments perish ; but let it never be forgotten that the
authors of this their fearful degradation, that they, and they alone, are responsible
for their overthrow." — Remarks, &c, occasioned by the Publication of a Letter from
the Dean of Faculty. By Thomas Chalmers, D.D. P. 27.

130 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. MB.
genial court, and before an unsympathizing bar. But it Was
as criminals guilty of a contempt of constituted authorities — it
was for punishment as such that they were to appear. The
Dean had pledged his word that they would be imprisoned,
and there were not wanting other tokens that his prophecy
might be verified. A very deep sympathy on their behalf was
excited, and one or two of the leading clergymen of Edinburgh
resolved to accompany them to the bar. The day arrived. When
the twelve Judges took their places on the Bench they had a
court-room before them crowded densely to the door. The Pres
bytery was summoned to appear. They entered, accompanied
by a few friends. The crowd through which they passed had
already closed, when once more it opened, and with meek but
dignified demeanour, Dr. Gordon stepped forward to place him
self at their side. There was something singularly appropriate in
the act. No minister of equal talent had been more unobtrusive,
or shewn a stronger aversion to popular agitation, or anything
like public display. But now that clergymen who had mingled
in the strife of parties as little as himself were called to suffer
for conscience' sake, he felt compelled, in the most public
manner, to countenance and support them.
" Gentlemen," said the Lord President, after their names
had been read over, and the citation read, " I have to ask yon,
one and all, whether, by yourselves or counsel, you have any
thing to say, and what you have to say, in explanation or
vindication of your conduct ?"
" As my name," said the Rev. Mr. Stirling of Cargill, " is
the first on the list, and as I happen to be the senior minis
ter present, I have been intrusted by my brethren with the
statement which they wish to make to the Court." The fol
lowing statement was then read by him : — " My Lords, — We
appear in obedience to the citation of your Lordships, inas
much as we hold it to be the duty of all subjects to render

MS. 59. THE CHARGE OF REBELLION. 131
their personal compearance when cited by the Civil Courts ;
and being deeply impressed with the obligation of giving all
honour and reverence to the judges of the land, we disclaim
any intention of disrespect to the Court in what we have done.
But in ordaining to the office of the holy ministry, and in ad
mitting to the pastoral charge, to which, in our proceedings
complained of, we strictly limited ourselves, we acted in obe
dience to the superior Church judicatories to which, in matters
spiritual, we are' subordinate, and to which, at ordination, we
vowed obedience." Mr. Kessen having read a similar state
ment, the Judges retired for consultation, and the Court
adjourned. By a narrow majority the clergymen escaped
imprisonment, and were subjected only to the solemn censure
of the Court. In pronouncing the censure, the Lord President
took occasion to say, — " I am directed by the Court to signify
that it was not without considerable difficulty their Lordships
brought themselves to adopt this lenient measure ; but they
desired me to state, that if you or any other Presbytery of
the Church were ever brought before them again under similar
circumstances, you and they will be dealt with in a very differ
ent manner. The ordinary punishment for disobedience to
the law by a breach of interdict is imprisonment ; and I am
directed to say, that if a case like the present should occur
again, that punishment will be resorted to."
Why did the Court of Session not proceed one step further,
and annul the ordination ? and why did not the Moderate
party in the Church openly condemn the breach of interdict,
and afterwards declare that they held the ordination void ?
Because neither the one party nor the other was prepared
for a step which yet, as we shall presently see, was ere long
deliberately taken by both.
The charge with which the country now was ringing was
that the Church was in open rebellion against the law of the

132 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1839.
land. It might have been so ; yet condemned before the bar
of man, she might have stood acquitted before the bar of
God. There have been human laws, the keeping of which
was tantamount to a breaking of the divine. But the charge,
as made against the Cliurch. of Scotland at this time, involved
the assumption that the authority which she resisted was a
legal one. She denied that the Constitution had clothed the
Court of Session with any such power as it had attempted to
put forth. The State, by Act of Parliament, had created
three secular Courts in Scotland, each supreme in its own
sphere, and none of them permitted to exercise any jurisdic
tion over the other. The administration of justice was com
mitted to the Court of Session in all civil, to the Court of
Justiciary in all criminal, to the Court of Exchequer in all
fiscal causes. The decisions of these Courts might not only be
different, but they might be, and sometimes have been, directly
opposite to each other ; and when such a collision between
Courts of co-ordinate jurisdiction occurs, the Constitution
knows no remedy : it holds the decision of each separate
Court to be right, and it allows it to carry out that decision
by its own proper and peculiar methods. It has committed to
none of these Courts a sovereign authority over all the others,
nor does it permit the exercise of any such control. And the
same State which created these Courts supreme in all secular,
had recognised and ratified the authority of the Church as
supreme in all ecclesiastical causes. From the latter to the
former there lay no appeal, and by the former over the latter
no supreme jurisdiction could constitutionally be exercised.
Interpreting the Law of Patronage for her own especial pur
pose, the Church had declined ordaining either Mr. Young or
Mr. Clark. Interpreting the same law for its peculiar purpose,
the Court of Session had decided that in doing so the Church
had violated the statute. Let its proper civil effect follow

MS. 59. THE CONSTITUTIONAL QUESTION. 133
the one decision, and its proper ecclesiastical effect the other ;
but let not this collision be otherwise characterized than would
a like collision between any two of the Courts already named,
nor let an attempt be made to end it which the Constitu
tion in every parallel case repudiated. If in thinking and
acting as she did the Church misunderstood her position, it
was for another party, but not for the Court of Session, to cor
rect the error. The State, in raising her to the condition of an
Establishment, had attached certain conditions to her enjoy
ment of the civil immunities of that position. These condi
tions had been embodied in certain statutes, the interpretation
and execution of which, as to all civil effects, was entrusted to
the Court of Session, and as to all spiritual effects, to the
Church. If they understood the conditions differently, neither
was bound to accept the interpretation of the other. The
Church was at liberty to act upon her own understanding of the
terms on which she held her endowments ; but if that under
standing happened to be so different from the one entertained
by the Civil Courts that their decisions came into collision, if
was for the State to step in, and by new legislation to adjust the
difference. The right of the State to define, or alter, or re
model, and that for the guidance of both parties, was admitted ;
but the right of the Civil Courts to do so for the guidance of
both parties was denied. It was evident, at least, that until
the competent authority had declared that she had mistaken
her position and privileges, the Church could not fairly be
charged with the flagrant crime of rebellion.
It was to that alone competent authority that she had now
carried her appeal, and she might perhaps have been suffered
to prosecute that appeal without any further obstructions hav
ing been thrown in her way. That an interval clear from all
new internal difficulties might be secured, though she had not
repealed, she had suspended for a year the operation of the Veto

134 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1839.
Law. It would have been a generous and a dignified course in
the opponents of the Church, if, during that year, at least, they
had suspended all hostile operations. She had approached
the Legislature ; she was about to deal with the British Parlia
ment — a body but little acquainted with her history or peculiar
constitution. The task was sufficiently delicate and difficult
in itself ; her own children might have suffered her to make
the attempt without throwing new embarrassments in her way.
But neither the Moderate party nor their legal and political
advisers had magnanimity enough to refuse to take 'advantage
of the difficulties in which the Church was involved. They
acted, we believe, upon a sincere conviction that they. were
doing what was best for their Church and country ; but the
course taken by them at this time was neither an enlightened
nor a very generous one, and had the actual result been known
to them, we doubt whether they would have helped so vigo
rously to realize it. ' ••*•
The favourable Report given in by Dr. Chalmers to the
Commission in August got a most unfavourable reception from
one quarter of the House. Contrary to his recent practice,
which had been to absent himself from the meetings of Com
mission, Dr. Cook was present on this occasion ; and no sooner
had Dr. Chalmers sat down than he rose to declare that the
announcement just made, that the Government of the country
intended to exercise their patronage in conformity with the
Veto Law, appeared to him to be nothing short of a violation
of the law on the part of the Crown. In the leading case
which came before the Court he put forth all his strength of
argument to prove that the Veto Law was now defunct, — the
decision of the Civil Courts had blotted it out of the statute-
book of the Church. The casting of such an imputation
on the Crown, and the continuance of a vigorous opposi
tion in the Church Courts, though calculated to increase the

MS. 59. THE DEAN S PAMPHLET. 135
existing embarrassments, may have appeared to the Mode
rate party necessary for the vindication at once of their
principles and their consistency. We can offer no such excuse
for the next step taken by the Dean of Faculty. If not,
as generally believed, the prompter, he had been the vigorous
promoter of all the litigation by which the Church had been
harassed. The struggle had now been carried to a different
arena, where his interference was less called for, and, perhaps,
not so appropriate. He had power, however, even in that
quarter to hinder the Church's getting what she asked ; and
with the laborious diligence which distinguished all his doings,
he exerted that power in the production of an enormous pam
phlet, given to the public soon after the close of the Commis
sion. " There is one peculiarity," said Dr. Chalmers, " in this
pamphlet of the Dean's, which makes it far more difficult to
deal with than any to which my attention has been called or
challenged on the lists of controversy. And this peculiarity
lies, not so much in the multifariousness of its topics, as in
the utter mal-arrangement of them. Truly it is not with
literary or with intellectual as it is with military tactics, when
the very disorder of a hostile force makes it all the easier prey
to the victors who are bearing down upon it. It is different
in. the warfare of argument, where the ill-marshalled para
graphs of some lengthened and laborious ratiocination, instead
of offering a facility to the assailant, leave the author well-
nigh unassailable ; almost safe and beyond the reach of attack,
because entrenched as it were in the mazes of his own confu
sion. There is one line of English poetry, which I happen to
recollect, the first half of which, taken alone, is descriptive of
this pamphlet, ' A mighty maze,' but when taken along with
the second half, ceases altogether to be descriptive of it, ' A
mighty maze, but not without a plan.' The study of the
universe is not so formidable as is the study of this enormous

136 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1839.
miscellany — this mare magnum,, and interminable medley of
contents, moles indigesta — having, if not the vastness, at least
all the confusion and disorder of a chaos, ' A mighty maze,
but quite without a plan.' "
Confused as to its topics, this pamphlet exhibits a singular
unity of design ; the object, never for a moment lost sight of,
being to exhibit the sayings and doings of the dominant party
in the Church in such a light as to create the greatest possible
amount of opposition and antipathy. The long dark winding
passages, which few might have patience to tread throughout,
are yet so constructed, that enter or make his exit where he
may, the same hideous phantom is obtruded on the reader's
eye, and made to haunt his fancy. The errors as to fact, the
inconsistencies of argument, are manifold ; but whether it be
popular fickleness or clerical ambition that is denounced—
whether the Veto Law is condemned as assumption by the
Church of an unlawful power, or as a transference by the
Church to the people, of a power which she never should have
parted with — whether the recent movement is represented as
an organized design to abolish Patronage, and put the election
of their ministers wholly into the hands of the people, or as a
cloaked attempt to establish a spiritual despotism, dangerous
alike to the civil and religious liberties of Scotland, the one un
varying impression attempted to be stamped upon the reader's
mind is, that a spirit of priestly fanaticism, reckless of change,
and panting for domination, had got hold of the Church of
Scotland, and was threatening a thousand nameless evils to the
land. What Dr. Chalmers felt as the unkindest act of all, was
the deliberate and sustained endeavour made by the Dean to
arouse against that Church the hostility of Englishmen. By
members of the English Church and Senate the question would
come finally to be settled ; and to awaken their prejudice was -
an effectual mode of preventing a settlement favourable to the

-BT. 59. THE DEAN'S ALTERNATIVE. 137
Scottish Church. Every strong or bitter sentence, therefore,
that had recently been uttered against the English Episcopate
by any of the evangelical leaders, was quoted and commented
upon, whilst the alarm was loudly sounded that if they got
what they demanded, the patronage and peculiar policy of the
English Establishment would be no longer safe.
Having done what he could to prevent such a parliamen
tary adjustment as would be satisfactory to the Church, " The
Dean," says Dr. Chalmers, " proposes for us an alternative,
either to give in to him, or go out of the Church ; the first
time, perhaps, that a majority, and a large one too, had the
doors opened, and the way out shewn to them, by the cham
pion and representative of that minority whom they them
selves had vanquished. Our reply to this civil hint is, that
upon this subject we stand alike opposed to those on our
own side who have threatened a secession, and unmoved by
the kind suggestion of the Dean of Faculty. There may a
conjuncture arise, when the sin of not coming out from among
them might outweigh the sin of schism ; but till that happens,
let the virtuous remonstrance, and the reclaiming testimony of
our brethren, be heard within the walls and precincts of our
Establishment, rather than from beyond them, so long as con
science can allow — let them not quit their places at the call
of their taunting adversaries, nor leave the beloved Church of
our fathers a useless residuum, and a mere caput mortuum
in their hands. A forcible ejectment from our places would
put an end to all the difficulties of conscience ; and the sin
of schism would then be no longer ours. But, meanwhile,
we refuse to be bowed down stairs, or walked off from the
Church of our fathers by the Dean of Faculty. We shall
as little understand his hints as he seems to understand
our arguments ; or, to avoid putting it in this form, he will
at least forgive us if we shut our ears against his propo-
VOL. IV, II

138 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1839.
sitions, as long as he is going to shut his eyes against our
pamphlets."* As Dr. Chalmers commenced writing his reply before he had
finished reading the Dean's pamphlet, it was not till he had
advanced a considerable way in its composition that he fell in
with those passages in which an open attack was made upon
the integrity of that Report, which, as the head of the deputa
tion to London, he had recently given in to the Commission.
" I cannot say," says Dr. Chalmers, in dealing with this un
worthy accusation, " how much I have been shocked and
mortified by this painful discovery. The cause is still the same,
but the combatant now stands in a new character before me.
" This casts another light on certain anterior passages of
the pamphlet, in which light if I had seen them at the time,
I should have modified, or rather repressed altogether, certain
anterior passages of my own. What I innocently conceived,
and indeed called an historical imagination, or a hypothetical
basis on which to rear his adverse reasonings, I can now well
understand to be a real and settled conviction in the breast of
one who virtually tells the world, of the Assembly deputation
to London, that, in framing their Report to the Commission,
he does not believe that they have acted in good faith." * * *
The whole of this unhappy passage is wound up by the fol
lowing sentence : — " / suspect that Lord Melbourne has been
very ill used in the whole of this affair."
" I am not conversant in those methods or laws which regu
late the intercourse of statesmen ; nor have I often in the
course of my life had access to the elevated platform on which
they move. I know not, therefore, what it portends to the
Church of Scotland, when I behold the Premier of England
approached from the opposite quarter of the political horizon,
* The Dean had announced that he would read nothing that was written against
him.

MS. 59. THE DEAN AND LORD MELBOURNE. 139
in the language first of adulation, and then of condolence,
because the untainted chivalry of their higher region has been
desecrated and broken in upon, by an inroad of Jesuitism and
low cunning from beneath. I cannot divine either the character
or the effects of this strange approximation and act of obeis
ance on the part of the inflexible Tory, to the head of our pre
sent Liberal administration. Meanwhile, as a spectacle it is
very curious to behold ; and the last and most exquisite touch
is given to it by the hand of the Dean of Faculty, when he
finishes off by the expression of his deepest sympathy and con
cern for the sorely injured Lord Melbourne.
" Let me hope for his own sake, that the Dean of Faculty
will yet make avowal of his regret for these unguarded and
most unseemly paragraphs."*
* Remarks, dec, occasioned by the Publication of a Letter from the Dean of Fa
culty. By Thomas Chalmers, D.D.,dcc. Glasgow,1839. Pp. 5,10, 11,78,80,81,93.

140 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1810.

CHAPTER IX.

THE CASE OFMARNOCH— THE REFRACTORY PRESBYTERY OF STRATH-
BOGIE— THEIR RESOLUTION TO DISOBEY THE ORDERS OF THE COM-
MISSION-THE SUSPENSION OF THE SEVEN MINISTERS-THE PREACH
ING OF THE GOSPEL PROHIBITED IN THE DISTRICT OF STRATHBOGIE
—THE BROKEN INTERDICTS.

In June 1837, Mr. Edwards was presented to the church
and parish of Marnoch. Having acted previously, for a period
of three years, as assistant to the former incumbent, he was
well known to the parishioners, and so unacceptable were his
ministrations, that at their urgent and almost unanimous
desire, their aged pastor had dispensed with his services. In
a parish whose population was about 2800 souls, his call was
signed by one solitary communicant, the keeper of the inn at
which the Presbytery were wont to dine. Out of 300 heads
of families whose names were on the Communion-roll, 261
tendered their dissent. Acting under special direction of the
General Assembly 1838, the Presbytery of Strathbogie reject
ed Mr. Edwards ; and on this rejection being intimated to
the patrons, the Trustees of the Earl of Fife presented another
individual to the charge. Upon the issuing of this second pre
sentation, Mr. Edwards applied for and obtained an interdict
from the Court of Session, prohibiting the Presbytery from
proceeding with the settlement. After due consideration of
this document, and with the declared principles and recent
practice of the Church before them, the Presbytery resolved

MS. 60. THE CASE OF MARNOCH. 141
" That the Court of Session having authority in matters re
lating to the induction of ministers, and having interdicted all
proceedings on the part of the Presbytery in this case, and it
being the duty of the Presbytery to submit to their authority
regularly interponed, the Presbytery do delay all procedure
until the matters in dispute be legally determined." This
judgment was brought under review of the General Assembly
of 1839. The circumstances being precisely similar to those
which had occurred at Lethendy, the Presbytery might have
been enjoined to take the same course which had been pre
scribed to the Presbytery of Dunkeld. Instead of this they
were simply instructed to suspend all further proceedings in
the matter till the following General Assembly. Avoiding all
immediate and direct collision between the Presbytery and
Court of Session, this decision was one which even those who
disapproved most vehemently of the recent actings of the
Church could have no difficulty in obeying ; and it was framed
so as to lay the least possible pressure upon the majority of a
Presbytery well known to be so affected. While the Church
was dealing thus tenderly with her own children, under the
first indications of a refractory and rebellious spirit, Mr.
Edwards was pressing on the action which he had raised
against the Presbytery in the Court of Session ; and in June
1839, he obtained a judgment in his favour, by which it was
declared that, notwithstanding the veto put by the people on
his appointment, the Presbytery were still bound to take him
upon trial with a view to ordination. As this judgment was
purely a declaratory one, unaccompanied by any such order as
Lord Brougham had suggested as the proper means of enforc
ing obedience, the Presbytery with perfect safety, and without
violating their own convictions, might have delayed, at least
till the compulsitors of law had been applied. Their new-born
allegiance, however, to the Court of Session was too ardent to

142 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1840.
admit of delay ; and no sooner was its sentence notified, than,
with needless haste, and with a violence and irregularity of
movement which found no defender, even among thejeaders of
the Moderate party, by a majority of seven to three, they re
solved to bid open defiance to their ecclesiastical superiors,
and to proceed forthwith to settle Mr. Edwards as minister at
Marnoch. It was in these circumstances that the case came
before the Commission of Assembly on the 11th December
1839. In vain were the seven refractory clergymen asked to
reconsider their extraordinary resolution ; in vain were they
assured that if they would only sist procedure, and in the
meantime do nothing, all judgment upon their contumacy
would be waived, and the Commission would be content simply
to remit the matter to the General Assembly in May. They
would make no concession. They would neither express any
regret for the past, nor give any promise as to the future. Its
authority thus openly defied, its laws and decisions thus
daringly trampled on, what was the Church to do ? In the
way of prevention, rather than of punishment — to take from
them for a season that power which they had openly declared
it to be their purpose to employ in a manner so flagrantly
unlawful — it was resolved that they should be suspended from
exercising the functions of the holy ministry. In a speech of
extraordinary ability, Dr. Candlish moved this resolution. It
was warmly supported by Dr. Chalmers : — " I did expect," he
said, " that we would have been followed in our forbearance by
the other side ; that there would have been a cessation of
hostilities. Everything, however, is doing to thwart us —
everything is doing to annoy us — everything is doing to pre
vent us from bringing these negotiations with the Legislature
to a happy issue. But our immediate business is not with
any partisanship out of doors, but with the part which our own
brethren, the ministers and elders of the Church of Scotland,

MS. 60. SPEECH AT THE COMMISSION. 143
take in this question. Let us remember that it is not the
Veto Law we are now considering, but a thing greatly more
radical,, and. vital, and elementary, and of far more permanent
and pervading importance to the Church, than any single law
on its Statute-book. The Veto is a bagatelle, and but dust in
the balance, when compared with the proper independence
of our Church in things ecclesiastical, and to which, in the
case before us, there is superadded another object charged
with essential principle, and where neglect or irresolution on
our part would be followed by consequences the most ruinous
— the proper subordination of our inferior to our superior
courts. These are the momentous considerations which now
engage us ; on which Vetoists and anti-Vetoists ought to feel
a common interest, and to make a common cause. They did
so in one of the Commissions of 1838, when parties dropped
their differences on this specific question, and took all but a
unanimous view of the interdict by the Court of Session in the
matter of Lethendy. In the name of all principle and all
patriotism, I would implore them to do so still, and to remem
ber that what they are now called upon to do, is not to defend
or to rescind the Veto law, but to protect our beloved Church
from anarchy within, and that tyranny which now menaces and
lowers upon us from without. Heaven forbid that in the heat
and frenzy of our divisions on another, and altogether distinct
topic, we should go headlong on this ; or that in the wild de
lirium of our controversies, the principles alike dear to both
parties should at the moment be forgotten, and the Church of
Scotland should fall by the hands of her own children."
At the largest meeting of Commission ever known to have
assembled, and by a majority of a hundred and twenty-one to
fourteen, the motion for suspension was carried. By this sen
tence the refractory majority were prohibited from discharg
ing any duties of their office ; and the minority, as constituting

144: MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1840.
now the Presbytery of Strathbogie, were directed to take all
proper means for supplying their parishes with ministerial
services. At the same time, and in the hope thjjt a final
and irreparable breach might still be avoided, a committee
was appointed to open a friendly correspondence with the
suspended ministers. As a deputation from this Committee,
Dr. Gordon, Dr. Makellar, and Mr. Bruce, proceeded to Aber
deen, where they had invited the Strathbogie ministers to
meet with them. On arrival, however, they were met only
by a legal agent, who put into their hands a paper signed by
the seven clergymen, in which they declined the interview.
Already, indeed, had proof too palpable been afforded that all
hope of reconciliation was gone. On the day after that on
which the sentence of suspension was passed, and while the
Commission was still sitting, a notarial protest, at the in
stance of these ministers, was served upon that Court ; and a
few days thereafter, as if no judgment against them was in
force, they assembled as if in Presbytery, and proceeded to
take Mr. Edwards upon trial. The protection sought for and
relied upon was that of the Civil Court, to which they presented
an application, in which they called upon the Court to suspend
the sentence of the Commission — to prevent its intimation and
execution — to prohibit the minority from acting as a Pres
bytery, and to interdict all clergymen of the Church from
preaching or discharging any of the functions of the ministry
in any of their parishes. The demand was so broad and starts
ling that even the Court of Session for the moment drew back.
" In this case," said the Lord President, " the Court are pre
pared to grant the interdict, but not to the full extent prayed
for. The complainers prayed the Court to interdict and pro
hibit the parties complained of from preaching in the respective
parishes of the complainers. Now, the Court could not prevent
any man preaching in these parishes. Any one might preach

MS. 60. THE STRATHBOGIE INTERDICTS. 145
in the open air for instance. The Court had jurisdiction only
over the parish churches, the church-yard, the school-room,
and the bell." Taking in the meantime this limited view of
its jurisdiction, the Court interdicted the minority of the Pres
bytery, and all others, from using, in executing the sentence of
the Commission, any of the places and buildings specified by
the Lord President. Acknowledging, as it so fully did, the
Court's right of entire control over all its temporalities, the
Church yielded immediate compliance with this interdict. The
clergymen appointed to intimate the judgment of the Com
mission either preached in the open air or under such shelter
as some neighbouring shed or barn could furnish. Then and
afterwards an opportunity was opened for the effective preach
ing of the Gospel over a wide district of country. Some of
the ablest ministers of the Church were deputed by the Com
mission to officiate in the parishes of the suspended clergy
men. In Marnoch, and the seven parishes in its neigh
bourhood, their warm and zealous ministry gathered around
them crowds of attentive and devout hearers. " I have no
words," wrote one of these clergymen,* " to describe the scenes
of yesterday at Marnoch. Never in my life has it been my
privilege to witness such intensity of feeling as in that con
gregation. Men and women were bathed in tears ; numbers
rose to their feet, and stood in breathless attention, and at the
close of the service all seemed unwilling to retire." In propor
tion, however, to the interest excited among the people must
have been the annoyance to the suspended clergymen. Un
satisfied with the exclusive possession of their church, church
yards, and school- houses, they renewed their application to the
Court of Session, which, on the 14th February, by a decision
which outran all its predecessors, granted to its full extent the
prayer of their primary petition. In doing so, that Court not
* The Rev. Mr. Buchan of Hamilton.
VOL. IV. N

146 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1840.
only suspended a spiritual censure passed by the proper eccle
siastical authorities, being guilty thus of a direct interference
with the spiritual discipline of the Church, but by drawing a
fence round a whole district of the country, and by prohibiting
any member of the Establishment from preaching or adminis
tering the sacraments within its bounds, it at once deprived
such of the people as remained true to the Church of all
freedom to worship God according to their conscience, and it
assumed the right of dictating to the Church where, and
where only, by whom and to whom, the ordinances of the
Gospel were to be administered. It was an open invasion of
the most sacred territory of the Church, and it met with a
resistance at once prompt and decisive.
The Church instantly made known her resolution, and fol
lowed it out with unfaltering footstep. At a public meeting
held in Edinburgh on Monday the 24th February, Dr. Chalmers
said — " We come not here to sound the trumpet of defiance, or
make boastful proclamation of whom we disobey. We come
here as to an assembly of fellow-Christians, and would lift in
your hearing the solemn proclamation of whom we do obey.
We stand before you as sons and servants of the Church which
Providence hath set up in these realms for the Christian good
of the families of Scotland.. We profess subjection to her
authority when acting under the perpetual obligation of the
precept, ' Go and preach the Gospel to every creature under
Heaven,' she, within the limits of her own domain, passes
her spiritual and sacred ordinances for the religious govern
ment of our Scottish parishes — for the moral and religious
wellbeing of our Scottish families. This is our principle, and
this the form in which we would propound it. But let there
be no mistake. Should any earthly power — should the Court
of Session, vested with legitimate authority in the things
of Caesar, stretch forth her hand to intromit or intermeddle

-ET. 60. SPEECH AT THE COMMISSION. 147
with these undoubted things of God, then, if the character of
an act is to receive its designation, not from the obstacle over
which it has to pass, but from the urgent principle which im
pels to the performance of it, then let our act be named by that
which is its actuating motive — obedience to the Head of the
Church, rather than by that which is not its actuating motive
— disobedience to the Court of Session. Still, whatever impu
tation be cast on our principles, let no ambiguity rest upon
our conduct. If the Church command, and the Court counter
mand, a spiritual service from any of our office-bearers, then it
is the duty of all the ministers and all the members of the
Church of Scotland, to do precisely as they should have done
though no interdict had come across their path."
The Commission of Assembly met on the 4th March, and its
tone, was no less firm and decided. " There are two questions,"
said Dr. Chalmers, in addressing it, " wherewith, in our pre
sent position, we are now implicated ; and what I fear is, that
neither the .Church nor the country, in the gregarious move
ment of parties and of masses, will make the right discrimina
tion between them. There is one of these questions which I
would call the determinate one, by which I mean that it ad
mits of but one solution, or one way of disposing of it : I mean
the question of our spiritual independence. There are not two
ways of resolving this question. It is a question on which all
compromise is impossible — we have no choice ; but must do
by it what the Apostle Paul did by the doctrine of justification
through faith, who felt that by yielding to the slightest en
croachment, he would be making a surrender of the whole
principle. And therefore he tells us of its adversaries, how
ever slight or imperceptible their inroad was, 'to whom we
give place by subjection, no, not for an hour/ In like man
ner, when invasion is offered by whatever party, and to
however insignificant a degree, on the spiritual power of the

148 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1840.
Church's government in things which are spiritual, we take up
his language and say, ' to whom we give place by subjection,
no, not for an hour.' It is not a question of degree — it is a
question of principle ; and when called to recede by a single
inch from that line of demarcation between the ecclesiastical
and the civil, on which we have planted our footsteps, we have
only one reply — that we cannot, we dare not. We trust that
this will both explain and vindicate the position we have
maintained from the first outset of the present misunderstand
ing. We saw the mischief at its commencement : we saw it in
what may be termed its seminal principle, and, as it were,
through its rudimental or embryo wrapping, from the first de
liverance of the Civil Courts on the case of Auchterarder.
The public did not comprehend, and at the time did not sym
pathize with us. The celebrated interdict against preaching
has at length opened their eyes : it has been a great astonish
ment to them, but it was no astonishment to us. We then
saw in the germ what they now see in the development or full
blown expansion of the evil. The Court of Session have all
along been most consistent with themselves. We were not at
all surprised by their last inroad on the hallowed ground of the
Church ; nor should we be in the least surprised though,
assuming a farther mastery over the gospel's most sacred ordi
nances, they were to give forth their prohibitions and their
mandates on the matter of sacraments, as they have already
done on the matter of sermons, and compel at their bidding
the prostrate Church to administer Baptism and the Lord's
Supper to all or any whom they shall judge in a civil action to
have made good their right to it. I trust, therefore, that my
Lord Tweeddale will recall the threat which, at an Intrusion
meeting in East-Lothian, he cast out the other day against us
ecclesiastics. He seems to intimate that before we can obtain
any redress of our grievances from the Legislature, we must

MS. 60. THE BROKEN INTERDICTS. 149
retrace the way that we have gone, and make our submission
to the Court of Session. Why, this would be lording it over
us with a vengeance ! It would be making us swallow the
whole principle ; and the Church of Scotland, bereft of all mo
ral weight, might henceforth be cast a useless and degraded
thing into the bottom of the sea. I am glad, through the me
dium of this respected nobleman, the representative of a nume
rous and influential class, to take the opportunity of saying
one word against a misconception, I fear too common, both
among Peers and among Parliament-men. It is right, and
may serve to simplify the question, that they should distinctly
know the grounds upon which we stand. Be it known, then,
unto all men, that we shall not retract one single footstep, —
we shall make no submission to the Court of Session, — and
that, not because of the disgrace, but because of the gross and
grievous dereliction of principle, that we should thereby incur.
They may force the ejection of us from our places : they shall
never, never force us to the surrender of our principles ; and
if that honourable Court shall again so far mistake their func
tions as to repeat or renew the inroads they have already made,
we trust they will ever meet with the same reception they
have already gotten — to whom we shall give place by subjec
tion, no, not for an hour — no, not by an hair-breadth."
Interdicts without number were served upon those clergy
men who had received appointments to preach in the banned
district, but they dealt with them as the apostles dealt with a
like interdict of the Sanhedrim of Jerusalem. That they
might take their share in all the risk, and give their brethren
all the sanction of their example, Dr. Chalmers, Dr. Makellar,
Dr. Gordon, and others of like standing in the Church, in the
face of interdicts served personally upon each of them, went and
preached in the district of Strathbogie. Why was the threat
so gravely made that the next breach of interdict would cer-

150 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1840.
tainly be followed up by imprisonment not now carried out?
Whatever was the reason for it, that threat remained unexe
cuted, and broken and dishonoured interdicts lay scattered
over the country without a single effort made to vindicate an
authority so often and so conspicuously disregarded. Had the
law been legally and righteously administered, it could not,
and ought not to have borne such an indignity. That it was
borne without redress, the ordinary foundations of law and
justice remaining meanwhile untouched and unshaken, is a
very signal evidence that in the general judgment of the
country the Court of Session had been guilty of a rash and
unconstitutional act. It was a state of things, however, too
anomalous to be suffered to continue. The call for legislative
intervention was loud and urgent, and it might have been
hoped that an enlightened and vigorous Government would
have found some speedy and effective cure.

MS. dO. PETITIONS TO PARLIAMENT. 151

CHAPTER X.
PROSPECT OF A SATISFACTORY MEASURE FROM THE WHIG GOVERN
MENT- THE HOPE DEFEATED— THE CHURCH TURNS TO THE CON
SERVATIVES—CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN LORD ABERDEEN, DR.
CHALMERS, AND THE NON-INTRUSION COMMITTEE— THE BILL— THE
MISUNDERSTANDING— THE CHARGE MADE BY LORD ABERDEEN—
THE MANNER IN WHICH IT WAS MET BY DR. CHALMERS.
Parliament had once more assembled, and in petitions more
numerously signed than any which had been presented since
the days of the Reform Bill, the Scottish people asked for a
measure to relieve and to protect their Church. To promote
this object a deputation from the Assembly's Committee pro
ceeded to London early in February 1840, and, instructed to dis
connect their object in every possible way from party politics,
they placed themselves in immediate communication with all
the leading statesmen, whether Whig or Tory. It was upon
the Government, however, that the first obligation to move
in the matter rested, and the hopes which at the close of the
preceding session it had permitted the Church to cherish it
seemed at first ready to realize. " I lose no time," said one
of the deputation in writing to Dr. Chalmers,* " in making
you aware that we have now every cause to believe that the
Government are undoubtedly at work upon a measure, and
one likely to be satisfactory to the Church." The day was
named on which the final, and as it was believed the favour
able, answer of the Government would be communicated to
* The Rev. Dr. Robert Buchanan, in letter dated 17th March 1840.

152 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1840.
the deputation. That day, however, brought with it a dark
ening of the prospect. " From all that we can learn," says
Dr. Buchanan, " Government were prepared two days ago to
have announced to us a measure substantially the same with
the Veto. Meanwhile, it would appear, some adverse influence
— dissenting, it is believed — has crossed their path, and we
have been placed in this position — left either to ask our answer
to-day, as we had been promised, with the certainty of getting
it, but getting an answer that would tell us nothing, or to con
sent not to ask till Thursday, with an assurance that we shall
undoubtedly have it fully and finally on that day."* The
Thursday came, but still the Government was unresolved. At
last, however, their determination was announced : — "We have
just had an interview with Lord John Russell. His answer is,
that they cannot consent to bring in a measure. He said he
thought they could have prepared a measure which, in their
own view of the matter, might have served the purpose, but
that there was so much disagreement and difference of opinion
everywhere on the subject, they thought there was no chance
of carrying through a measure, and therefore that they would
not meddle with it — at least till there was a greater agreement
on the subject. So this is the end of all our dealings with a
Government which has kept us waiting eight months to tell us
they will do nothing. But let us not despair — our cause is
righteous ; and though great men may frown, let us trust that
the Church's Head will smile. Meanwhile we must persevere
in the use of means with more energy than ever. Never let it
be said the Church of Scotland blenched before the opposition
of men in power. It is when difficulties increase we must be
come more firm."f Deserted by the Whigs, the Church turned
now to the Conservatives, upon whom, indeed, from the begin-
* From letter dated 23d March 1840.
t From letter dated 30th March 1840.

MS 60. CORRESPONDENCE. 153
ning her chief hopes had been built. So early as the month
of January, Lord Aberdeen, Sir George Clerk, and Sir William
Rae had an interview at Edinburgli with the Non-Intrusion
Committee, which led to a lengthened correspondence between
Lord Aberdeen, Dr. Chalmers, and the Committee, from which
the following excerpts are presented : —
" Argyle House, January 22d, 1840.
" My dear Sir, — In a letter which I addressed, the day before
yesterday, to the secretaries of the Non-Intrusion Committee,
in answer to a communication received from them, I took occa
sion to repeat the suggestion which I had the honour of making
to the Committee at their meeting on the 10th instant, as a
substitute for the Veto. It appeared to me that this suggestion,
if adopted, would give full effect to the principle of Non-Intru
sion, which, according to any rational interpretation of the
term, I am anxious to uphold. Although my letter will pro
bably be laid before you, I transcribe here the substance of the
suggestion referred to ; and which, at the time it was made,
appeared to meet with a decidedly favourable reception from
the Committee.
" That the Presbytery shall be bound to take a qualified
presentee on trials ; and in the course of the proceedings pre
vious to ordination, the objections of the parishioners, if any,
shall be received and duly weighed by the Presbytery. Such
objections, in every case, to be accompanied with reasons as
signed ; but the Presbytery to be at liberty to consider the
whole circumstances of the case before them, and to form their
judgment without reference to the actual number of persons
dissenting, or their proportion to the whole amount of com
municants and heads of families in the parish. The decision
of the Presbytery, with respect to the fitness of any individual
for the charge to which he is presented, to be founded on such
full and mature consideration, and to be pronounced on their

154 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1840.
own responsibility, and according to the dictates of their hearts
and consciences ; all proceedings before the Presbytery to be
liable to review in the Superior Church Courts. — Aberdeen.
" Rev. Dr. Chalmers." " Eiiinbukgh. January 27th, 1840.
" My Lord, — What I should have liked best was a full
recognition by the Legislature of the Church's competency to
deal, whether legislatively or judicially, with every question
which related to the ordination and admission of ministers,
reserving the patron's initiative, and at the same time protect
ing us from all interference by the Court of Session in the
subsequent steps taken by the Church, after that the presen
tation was laid before us. This your Lordship will recollect to
have been the substance of the propositions sent to you at
Haddo House before you left home.
" When we met at Dalmahoy, your Lordship stated as your
objection to the above proposal, that it did not preclude the
General Assembly from maintaining the Veto Law.
" I next morning endeavoured to modify the proposition,
and confined the recognition by the State to the Church's com
petency to deal judicially with the questions at issue, think
ing that thereby the matter would be brought into conformity
with your Lordship's views. I gave your Lordship that modified
view, along -with a copy of the Bill which had been previously
given to the Lord Advocate.
" When we met with the Committee in Edinburgh, the
impression I had from the conversation was, that we were all
substantially at one, both as to the accompaniment of their
dissent with reasons by the people, and as to the full power of
the Presbytery to sit in judgment on the whole case. I had the
feeling at the time, that as this seemed to be the common un
derstanding of both parties in the conference, it was unneces
sary in some of our members to specify the particular case of

MS. 60. CORRESPONDENCE. 155
a Presbytery not being satisfied with the reasons produced,
and yet sustaining the dissent when satisfied of its proceeding
from a real and honestly expressed dislike on the part of the
people — thinking, as I did, that the fulness of the judicial
power entrusted to the Presbytery, comprehended this and
every other case that could possibly occur or be imagined. But
even this specification did not appear to me to disturb our
unanimity, as your Lordship, I thought, did not object to a
dissent being sustained even in such an instance, provided
that it was done by the Presbytery on its own responsibility.
" On further reflection, I am satisfied that the gentlemen
who brought forward the instance of a dissent being sustained,
irrespective of the reasons, did right. First, because it was
fair and honest that you should understand the full extent of
the judicial power which we desire for the Church. Second,
because, though the reasons as expressed by the people might
none of them be of a very presentable or pleadable character,
there might after all be a well-founded dislike on their part,
that might prove a most effectual moral barrier in the way
of a minister's Christian usefulness among them. And third,
because, unless the measure be of that full and comprehensive
nature which may provide for every possible or conceivable
instance, and so as to make the presbyterial veto quite abso
lute, we shall not be placed quite securely beyond the reach of
interference, and so of a collision with the Court of Session.
" In reference to the finality of the presbyterial veto, which
is altogether an expression of my own, it is but doing justice
to my long-cherished opinions when I say, that so far from
conflicting with the popular Veto, I believe that in far the
greater number of instances it will never be more righteously
or usefully exercised than when giving effect to it. Grant me
a simple and sincere, however illiterate, congregation, and
there could not be offered a weightier element for my decision

156 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. .1840.
than the real unwillingness of such a people for a particular
minister — if satisfied that it is on religious grounds, though
grounds which can neither be distinctly stated nor far less
logically defended by them.
" I confess that were the Veto Act still to subsist, I should
have liked to see a modification of it, at least to the effect of
our being able to set aside the popular dissent on its being
proved to have been a dissent not from religious motives. In
the free exercise of our proposed judicial power, we shall be able
to take cognizance of this element, and to decide upon it. If
there be at all a difference betwixt us, it is whether we are to
have a perfect and unexcepted freedom. Sir George Clerk,
both in word and in writing, seems to concede this, and I
flatter myself that your Lordship does not differ from him.
The instance given is perhaps the best possible for testing the
whole extent of our freedom. We are willing that reasons
should always accompany dissent, and that these reasons should
be dealt with and canvassed to the uttermost ; but we are not
willing that we should be bound to admit the presentee, if the
people do not make good their reasons. On the contrary, we
hold ourselves free, though not obliged, to exclude a presentee
because of the strength of the popular dislike, tliough not sub
stantiated by express reasons — a case which may occur, though
not once in a hundred, I believe not once in a thousand times.
The Act of 1690 requires that reasons shall accompany the
dissent, and to this we object not ; and it empowers the Pres
bytery to judge, not on the reasons alone, but on the whole
' affair.' With this, I think, (though your Lordship will now
observe I am writing my individual opinion,) we will and ought
to be satisfied. If your Lordship were alike satisfied, I do not
see but we are thoroughly at one.
"We do not say that we desire the Church to be bound
in every instance, as by a Veto law, to reject the presentee

MS. 60. CORRESPONDENCE. 157
in respect of a dissent irrespective of the grounds ; but that
the Church will not abandon the power of so rejecting him,
if it seem to her right. Short of this we shall be exposed
to the same shameful treatment of our people which disgraced
the ecclesiastical proceedings of last century, with the fresh
danger now of the Court of Session finding its way, through
some opening or other, to the proper business of a Church
not secured in the full exercise of her judicial and administra
tive powers, in eveiy case that conies before us.
Thomas Chalmers."
" P.S. — I beg to copy the following sentence of a letter
received from Sir George Clerk, which meets with my full
concurrence ; and I really do not see what the remaining
obstacle is to a general agreement, if it also meet the views of
your Loi'dship : —
" ' The leading features of the plan which was suggested
were these, that full opportunity should be given to the people
to express their dissent ; that thoy should assign, for the infor
mation and the consideration of the Presbytery, the grounds of
their objections to the presentee ; and that then the Presby
tery, subject to the review of the superior Church Courts alone,
should have full and unfettered power to decide judicially on
the fitness or unfitness of the presentee for the particular
parish, as their conscience and a sense of duty might direct,
on the consideration of all the circumstances of the case, they
being free either to admit or reject the presentee, without
being bound either by the numerical amount of the objectors,
or the precise nature of the reasons of dissent assigned.' "
" Abgvle House, February 6th, 1840.
" Mr dear Sir, — I cannot help thanking you for your last
letter ; with the sentiments expressed in which I almost en
tirely concur. I am also happy to perceive that you did not

158 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1840.
misapprehend the import of my former communication. This
the Committee veiy unaccountably did ; but the matter is now
explained, and I am not aware of any material difference
existing in the objects proposed by the Committee, and those
which I should be prepared to support. Aberdeen.
" Rev. Dr. Chalmers."
The following letters supply the necessary information as to
what that misapprehension was to which his Lordship here
alludes. " Edinburgh, January 28th, 1840.
" My Lord, — It appears to the Committee that the result of
your Lordship's proposition would be, to leave to the Church
Courts simply to determine on the character of the reasons
adduced for objecting to a presentee — preventing them from
giving effect, even in a judicial determination, to their views of
the inexpediency of a settlement in respect of the opposition
of the people, apart from their opinion of the character of the
reasons alleged for such opposition — nay, excluding, as an ele
ment in that determination, the circumstance of whether the
objection be entertained by a few individuals, or the great body
of the congregation. The Committee regret the more to find
that such are your Lordship's views, as when at the conference
Sir George Clerk expressed his acquiescence in the proposition,
that the Church Courts should have the power of judicially
giving effect to the objections of the people, whatever opinion
they might form of their reasons for objecting, the Committee
were not aware that your Lordship had stated any dissent
from Sir George's opinions.
" Although the Committee were inclined, which they are
not, they have not the power even to entertain such a pro
position, involving as it does the abandonment of that very
principle which the Assembly, by whom they were appointed,

-ET. 6). CORRESPONDENCE. 159
resolved could not be abandoned. The special object with
which they have been charged is, to endeavour to have it
secured that the Church Courts may, without severing the
benefice from the cure, give effect, where they see cause, to the
opposition of the people, independent 0/ their opinion of the
reasons on which that opposition may be founded. The proposal
that the power of the Church in this matter should be exer
cised judicially in each case, and free from the imperative
obligation of an unbending statutory rule ; and that the
reasons of disapproval should be stated, in order to admit
of the Church Courts dealing with regard to them, was one
that the Committee might have considered, (whatever judgment
they might ultimately have formed upon it,) without violating
the terms of their appointment ; but any proposition implying
that the Church should not have power to reject, simply in
respect of the circumstance that the congregation continued
to oppose the settlement, they cannot listen to for a moment.
Robt. S. Candlish, ) „ . „
, ,_ y Secretaries.
A. Dunlop, )
" Argtle House, February 1st, 1840.
" Gentlemen, — It is very agreeable to me to be able to
assure you that you have entirely misapprehended the import
of my letter.
" I should hope, on a reference to my letter, that it will be
found sufficiently clear and explicit, and that there is no ex
pression which can fairly be understood to limit or fetter the
discretion of the Presbytery in the ordination and admission
of ministers. But after all, as it is intended to place them in
a state of freedom, and to liberate them from the obligations
of the Veto Law, the Presbytery, like other men, must be
governed by rational considerations.
" In order to prevent farther misapprehension, I will explain

160 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1840.
by an imaginary case, in what manner I understand the pro
posal, and the mode of its operation. It is agreed that, in all
cases, the people objecting to a presentee, shall assign the
reasons of their dissent, be they what they may. Now, let
us suppose that any number of persons should object to a pre
sentee because he had red hair. This would, no doubt, be a
very bad reason ; but if they persevered in their hatred of red
hair, and the Presbytery found it consistent with their sense
of duty, and the dictates of their own consciences, they might
give effect to the objection by rejecting the presentee. But
then the reason of dissent on the part of the people, as well as
the rejectipn by the Presbytery, would be recorded; and if
the superior Church Courts should confirm the decision, the
matter would there terminate. It is to this publicity, and to
the common sense and justice of mankind, that I look for a
security against arbitrary and capricious proceedings in any
quarter. Aberdeen."
" Edinburgh, February 4th, 1840.
" My Lord, — The Committee are gratified to find that they
have so entirely misapprehended your Lordship's sentiments,
and they trust that they do not misunderstand them now, in
supposing you to agree that the Church Courts should have
the power to reject a presentee in consideration of the con
tinued opposition of the people, although they should think
the reasons assigned for that opposition as frivolous as that in
the case supposed by your Lordship, viz., his hair being red.
Your Lordship's proposition thus explained, will receive from
the Committee an attentive and favourable consideration. A. Dunlop."
Matters rested thus when the Government relinquished the
attempt to introduce a Bill into Parliament. Lord Aberdeen

-ET. 60. CORRESPONDENCE. 161
took up the task. Acting upon his own individual respon
sibility, he declined entering into any communication with
the Non-Intrusion Committee. He announced, however, his
purpose to Dr. Chalmers : — " Argyle House, April 4th, 1840.
" My dear Sir, — You will have seen from the public papers
that I have undertaken to introduce a Bill into Parliament for
the purpose of attempting. to heal the present distractions of
the Church.
" My chief object in writing to you at present is to explain
to you, that the principle of my measure will be founded on
the recognition of the judicial powers of the Church Courts in
the matters in question, — very much in accordance with your
own views of that which, though not the most desirable, might
be regarded as the most practicable solution of the existing
difficulties. Aberdeen."
Upon the 5th May, Lord Aberdeen introduced his measure
to the House of Lords, after retiring from which he wrote thus
to Dr. Chalmers : —
" My dear Sir, — I cannot retire to rest this night without
informing you that I have presented a Bill to the House of
Lords, having for its object the termination of those unhappy
differences by which the Church of Scotland is distracted.
" I deceive myself, if the report which you may receive from
Mr. Buchanan and Mr. Hamilton will not shew that, in all my
communications with these gentlemen, I have evinced a sin
cere desire to meet their views to the utmost of my power ;
although, unfortunately, I may not in every instance have
been able to adopt their suggestions. After all, however, I am
well aware that the success of this measure will mainly de
pend on the reception with which it may meet from yourself.
I believe that the peace of the Church is at this moment in
vol, iv. o

162 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1840.
your hands ; for although, from the accident of birth and so
cial position, I have had the means of proposing this measure
to the Legislature, it will depend on you whether it is to receive
life and efficacy.
" I pray that you may be led by the spirit of wisdom ; and
that your great talents may be directed to the restoration of
peace and order, and to the happy union of all the real friends
of the Church. ' Semper honos, nomenque tuum, laudesque manebunt !'
Aberdeen."
The Bill introduced by Lord Aberdeen allowed the parish
ioners to state objections of all kinds to the presentee ; but it
obliged them, at the same time, to state the grounds and rea
sons of their objections. It allowed the Presbytery to take all
these objections into consideration, but it permitted them to
give effect to them only when personal to the presentee, when
legally substantiated, and when sufficient, in their judgment,
to warrant his rejection. It altogether excluded a dissent
without reasons. It disallowed unacceptableness to the people
as a disqualification. It refused to the Presbytery the power
of giving effect in any instance to the popular opposition simply
as such, no matter how general or how strong that opposition
might be. That which the Veto Law had said should be done in
every instance, it said should be done in none. It left the
judgment of the House of Lords in the Auchterarder case un
touched ; and it offered no protection whatever against such
aggressions on the part of the Court of Session as it had
recently committed. Even within the limited domain con
ceded to the Church, the Court of Session would be the final
judges whether the objections on which a Presbytery re
jected were such as the Bill allowed, and whether they had
been sufficiently substantiated. The Presbytery might have the

MS. 60. LORD ABERDEEN'S BILL. 163
strongest possible conviction that, acting within the provisions
of the Bill, they were bound to reject ; yet if the Court of Ses
sion thought otherwise, they would be bound to ordain, and if
they refused, all the ordinary consequences of disobedience to
the common law of the country would follow. It was nomi
nally as a remedy for an existing evil that this Bill was intro
duced, yet it left that evil just where it found it. New legis
lation was asked for and required ; yet it professed to be
merely a declaratory enactment, and did not propose to effect
any alteration in the Law of Patronage, as interpreted by the
two Chancellors. The reader will not wonder, therefore, that
after the most careful and candid perusal of it, Dr. Chalmers
should have written thus to Lord Aberdeen : —
" Edinburgh, May 12th, 1840.
" My Lord, — I have now examined the Bill ; and it is with
inexpressible grief and concern that I am forced to confess
myself dissatisfied. Such is my intense desire for adjustment
and peace, that all my tendencies were on the side of putting
the most favourable construction on every clause, and of labour
ing to harmonize with all my might its various provisions With
that independence which belongs to a Christian Church, and
which we did not renounce in the act of becoming a National
Church. I little thought, my Lord, after my incessant attempts
all last year to bring down others to the point at which I con
ceived your Lordship willing for a settlement, I should have
met with a fresh obstacle in finding that your Lordship had
taken up a position so much lower than I was counting on.
I find myself in a situation precisely analogous to that I was
unexpectedly brought into this time twelvemonth, when I had
resolved to move the transference of the case of Auchterarder
from the popular to the presbyterial veto, and was driven from
that position by the speeches of Lords Cottenham andBrougham,
which awakened the apprehension that even this presbyterial

164 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1840.
veto would not be sustained in the Civil Courtg. Your Bill,
my Lord, turns this apprehension into a certainty; and so
conflicts with a principle which I have zealously advocated,
both in speeches and writing, for four-and-twenty. years — that
the power of the Presbytery was co-ordinate with that of the
patron, insomuch that it lay within the competency of the
Church to put an arrest upon any presentation for any cause
which might seem unto her good. Thomas Chalmers."
His Lordship was not prepared for such a reception of his
measure by Dr. Chalmers, and a painful misunderstanding
ensued : — " Argyle House, May 14th, 1840.
" My dear Sir, — I am persuaded that you are under a mis
apprehension in supposing that the Bill limits or restricts what
you call the ' liberum arbitrium' of the Presbytery in the
matter of collation. * * * Aberdeen."
" Burntisland, May 18th, 1840.
" My Lord, — Your Lordship seems to think that the Bill,
as it stands, does not limit or restrain the liberum arbitrium
of the Presbytery* Now, it appears to me, that it does so in one
most important particular. The Presbytery are restricted by it
from giving effect to the conscientious dissent of the people,
on the ground of the simple fact of that dissent, and irrespec
tive of reasons. Even supposing that this were the alone
restriction laid by your Bill on the liberum arbitrium, I hope
to convince your Lordship of the insuperable barrier which it
raises up in the way of its acceptance by the Church. * * *
Thomas Chalmers."
* " 1 state it absolutely as a fact, which Lord Aberdeen will confirm, that if
there was any object which both he himself and his acute and anxious legal ad
viser were determined, at all hazards, effectually to secure by means of the Bill,
it was just the entire and utter exclusion of the ' liberum arbitrium' of Presbyteries
in the sense in which it was understood by the Church." — Remonstrance, dec, by
John Hamilton, Esq. Edinburgh, 1841. P. 64.

MS. 60. THE MISUNDERSTANDING. 165
•' Argyle House, May 18th, 1840.
" My dear Sir, — Having had occasion to see the report of
the recent proceedings of the Synod of Lothian and Tweeddale,
and to mark, the language of the men by whom it is directed,
I am induced again to address you. It is not possible for me
to believe that you can have any community with these per
sons ; and I address you because I wish to bring distinctly
before you the state and prospects of the Church of Scotland,
so far as the Legislature is concerned, as well as respectfully
to represent to you the awful responsibility under which you
are about to be placed.
" I have now only to pray that, by an effort of moral courage,
you may save the Establishment from the dangers by which
it is threatened. But whatever may be the course you may
think it right ultimately to adopt, the convictions of my con
science assure me that I have performed my own part in the
work, feebly, perhaps, and imperfectly, but honestly, and with
a single view to this great end. Aberdeen."
" Edinbi roh, May 20th, 1840.
" My Lord, — I feel the responsibility of my situation, and
have long made up my mind to the principle, that any thing
short of an unfettered spiritual power in the Church would be
fatal to its national establishment.
" It will be some satisfaction to recollect, that in this prin
ciple I had the entire concurrence of Sir James Graham, Sir
George Clerk, Sir William Rae ; and I certainly did flatter
myself that I at one time had the concurrence of your Lord
ship in this view.
" I can assure your Lordship that the moral courage neces
sary at the present crisis is to defend our Church from the
invasions which, for a hundred and fifty years, had never been
attempted either by our Courts or in Parliament.
Thomas Chalmers."

166 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1840.
" Argyle House, May 21st, 1840.
" My dear Sir, — Let me recall to your recollection what is
the state in which I find the Church. The House of Lords, in
affirming the judgment of the Court of Session, has declared
that a Presbytery, by rejecting a presentee, on the sole ground
that a majority of the male heads of families have dissented
without any reason assigned, from his admission as minister,
act illegally, in violation of their duty, and contrary to the
provisions of the statute.
" Now, this restriction is not imposed by my Bill, but by the
existing law of the land. I apprehend that no Presbytery will
be permitted in future to reject a presentee on such grounds ;
and it certainly was never my purpose to enable them to
do so. Aberdeen."
" Argyle House, May 23d, 1840.
"My dear Sir, — I think it necessary to address a few words
to you in answer to your note of the 20th, received last night.
" You say that it will be some satisfaction to you to recollect
that, in the principle of your proposed amendment, enabling
the Church to give effect to the mere dissent of the people, you
had the entire concurrence of Sir James Graham, Sir George
Clerk, and Sir William Rae. Now, from recent personal com
munication with all three, I can venture with certainty to as
sure you that you are mistaken in this persuasion. I will go
further, and express my doubt of there being a single member
of the House of Commons who would give the proposition his
support. There may be some who would grant the right of an
absolute veto to the people ; but I greatly doubt if any would
be disposed to recognise in the Church that power which your
amendment would confer.
" In the House of Lords I could name but one member from
whom such support might be expected. — Aberdeen."

MS 60. THE COMMITTEE S REPORT. 167
" Edinburgh, May 23d, 1 840.
" My Lord, — There must be a profound misunderstanding
somewhere. In terms as explicit as human language can
make it, I have the assent of the three members named to my
own principle of the Presbyterial Veto.* I hope to see Sir
George Clerk on the subject ; and can only now express my
regret that your Lordship's last letters do not warrant the
hopes which I had founded on all our previous correspondence.
Thomas Chalmers."
On the 27th May the Report of the Non-Intrusion Com
mittee was laid before the General Assembly by its convener,
Dr. Chalmers. After detailing the different measures which
had been presented by it for approval to the leading politicians,
it proceeded to allude thus to the Bill of Lord Aberdeen : —
" With reference to the Bill which has recently been introduced
to the House of Lords, your Committee are in no way respon
sible for its provisions. The noble framer of it had ceased to
honour them with his correspondence for some weeks previous
to its introduction into Parliament ; and coming greatly short
even of that measure in favour of which they had been led to
anticipate the full consent of all the influential members of both
Houses with whom he is associated, the appearance of the Bill
could not fail to be met by them with feelings both of dis
appointment and surprise." After reading this Report, and
referring to the private correspondence with which he had
individually been honoured by Lord Aberdeen after he had
ceased to correspond with the Committee, Dr. Chalmers said,
* " Lord Aberdeen's Bill, unquestionably, does not give the ' liberum arbitrium,'
in this sense of it, to the Presbyteries of the Church ; although I may state that
one and all of the leading Conservative Members of Parliament, with whom I had
the honour to confer at the period of the Bill being introduced, were of opinion
that it ought to have given that power." — Remonstrance, die, by John Hamilton,
Esq., p. 63. — For important additional evidence on this point, see Appendix B.

168 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1840.
" I have to state, with deep concern, that up till three weeks
ago I was led to believe that Lord Aberdeen's Bill would be of
such a nature," (that is, would confer an unfettered liberum
arbitrium.) " I was led to expect it, and I think I have right
and reason to be disappointed." The debate upon the Bill
involved a very thorough discussion of its provisions, and in a
division of the House, by a majority of 221 to 134, the Assem
bly resolved, that in its existing form they could not acquiesce
in it, and that it was the duty of the Church to use every
method to prevent its obtaining the sanction of the Legisla
ture. A few days after this debate, in an anonymous commu
nication to the Advertiser newspaper, the Dean of Faculty
accused Dr. Chalmers and the Committee of having made
an altogether unfounded charge against Lord Aberdeen, and
denied most peremptorily that his Lordship had ever given
them reason to expect a measure different from that which he
had proposed. As the whole of the correspondence had been
communicated to the Dean, and as he pointedly, and by date,
referred to certain private letters, both from Dr. Chalmers and
from Lord Aberdeen, which, as he affirmed, corroborated his
assertions, this communication carried with it an air both
of authority and weight. Dr. Chalmers immediately replied to
it, and after stating some of the grounds on which his expecta
tions had been grounded, and which justified his expression
of surprise and regret, he added, " The misunderstanding is so
very subtle and profound that I am not able to explain it,
yet I will not let go my confidence that it is but a misunder
standing, and nothing more. Lord Aberdeen, though he occu
pies to the full as high a place in the aristocracy of mind as in
the aristocracy of rank — a noble of nature as well as birth —
might not comprehend what to him was a matter so extra-
professional as the application • which might be made of his
proposed Act in our Courts of Law. * * * In these circum-

MS. 60. THE CHARGE AGAINST THE COMMITTEE. 169
stances there is surely room enough for the explanation of all
errors, on the principle that understandings are in the wrong,
without the wretched resource of casting an imputation on the
honour or integrity of any one. This I am determined shall
with me be the solution of last resort, and I have not yet
nearly come to it, least of all with Lord Aberdeen, whose views
I am at present not able to comprehend, yet with undiminished
reverence for the virtues of that patriotic and high-minded
nobleman." .While Dr. Chalmers was penning these sentences in Edin
burgh, Lord Aberdeen was addressing the House of Lords on
the motion for the second reading of his Bill. In doing so he
referred to the Report which, as Convener of the Non-Intrusion
Committee, Dr. Chalmers had laid before the Assembly, and
having quoted from it a statement made by Lord John Russell,
but which Lord Aberdeen erroneously attributed to Lord
Melbourne, the following interlocutor occurred : —
. The Earl of Aberdeen. — " I am sure that there is no good
ground for the statement of the noble Viscount, that any
measure of the Government relative to the subject would be
objected to by your Lordships. This is not treating your
Lordships in a manner becoming the noble Viscount."
Viscount Melbourne. — " I do not remember it. Does the
Report mention me ?"
The Earl of Aberdeen. — " No, the term is the Government ;
but my noble friend must excuse me if I look to him as the
Government. At all events, I am certain that the Report
refers to the noble Viscount."
Viscount Melbourne. — " I did not say anything of the kind."
The Earl of Aberdeen.—" I will fairly tell the noble Vis
count, that I do not believe the statement contained in the
Report. In the Report of the communications which the Com
mittee have had with me they have been so unscrupulous in
vol. IV. P

170 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1840.
their statements that it is probable they have not dealt more
honestly with the noble Viscount."
Viscount Melbourne. — " I do not mean to say that, however."
The report of this extraordinary conversation had no sooner
reached Edinburgh than, in the name, and as the former
chairman of the Committee, the Rev. Dr. Gordon addressed
a letter to Lord Aberdeen, requesting to know whether he
had made such an impeachment of their integrity, and
if so, upon what ground. The correctness of the report was
not challenged by his Lordship, and in vindication of his
charge he referred to that very correspondence which con
tained the passages already presented to our readers, and
which so fully warranted that statement, the honesty as well
as the accuracy of which was called in question. Dr. Chalmers
tliough still a member had now relinquished the Convener-
ship of the Committee. In alluding to this, Lord Aberdeen
spoke of Dr. Chalmers " as a reverend gentleman, a great
leader in the Assembly, who having brought the Church into
a state of jeopardy and peril, had left it to find its way out of
the difficulty as well as it could." A few weeks afterwards, a
pamphlet by Dr. Chalmers appeared, bearing the following
characteristic title, "What ought the Church and the People of
Scotland to do now ? being a Pamphlet on the Principles of the
Church Question, with an Appendix on the Politics and Person
alities of the Church Question." In the Appendix the following
passages occur : — " For ourselves, such is the strength of our
natural veneration for rank, (a sentiment that may be either
of a chivalrous or a pusillanimous character,) that we are most
unwilling to relinquish the favourable opinion which we have
been led to entertain of any person who may chance to inherit
its honours ; and would rather wait the most decisive evidence
of ours being a misplaced and extravagant partiality, ere we
could agree conclusively to let it go. But over and above this

-ET. 00. REPLY BY DR. CHALMERS. 171
instinctive, or, as it may be termed by many, this blind affec
tion, there are certain principles on what we hold to be best
for the stability and good order of the commonwealth, which
strongly prepossess our inclinations towards the aristocracy of
the land. We look in fact on the great families of Britain as
the supports or buttresses of our national edifice ; and, just as
we love in architecture the graceful minarets, by which, not
these ornaments but these lateral strengths of the build
ing, are surmounted — so do we confess an affection for the
crowns and coronets which sit on the brows of our nobility.
But greater, if not in the order of taste greater, far greater in
the order of worth and solid importance than the supports of
our edifice, is the foundation of our edifice ; and on this prin
ciple a still mightier interest than even the character of our
grandees, is the character of our general population. The
most essential element of a nation's health and safety is that
we shall be sound at bottom ; but this is an element which
nothing tends more fearfully to endanger, than that the Chris
tian instructors of a land, the officials charged with that highest
of all education the education of principle — that they should
be brought down, whether by their own deservings or the in
justice of others, in popular estimation. ' Ye are the salt of
the earth, but if the salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall
the earth be salted V It is as a blow struck at the corner-stone
when the moral integrity of clergymen is assailed ; and when
not. in any secret or obscure whispering place, but on the very
house-top of the nation, we behold, and without a single
expression of remonstrance or regret from the assembled peer
age of the empire, one nobleman sending forth his wrathful
fulmination against the honesty and truth of ministers of
religion, and another laughing it off in his own characteristic
way with a good-natured jeer as a thing of nought — we cannot
but lament the accident, by which a question of so grave a

172 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1840.
nature and of such portentous consequences to society as the
character of its most sacred functionaries, should have come
even for a moment under the treatment of such hands.
" I trust that I may now bid my final adieu to the field of
authorship upon this question. Let me never at least be
allured to it in the vain hope, that I shall be able to silence
the voice of personal injustice, which I henceforth leave to
expend itself upon me, either in the form of unhandsome dis
closures or injurious criminations by adversaries, for whatever
purpose may seem unto them good. It is not long since I
have been made aware of a hostile misinterpretation on the part
of Lord Aberdeen, which but a few weeks ago I should have
deemed impossible to have come from such a quarter. He is
reported to have said in the House of Peers, that after having
led the Church into her present difficulties, I now leave her to
find as best she may her own way out of them. He greatly over
rates my influence. The Church came into her present difficul
ties not by my advice, but in opposition to it — and that advice,
given as far back as 1833, I have now reiterated, as the like
liest method by which, if let alone from without, she might
still be extricated with safety and honour. There are neces
sities which compel my retirement from all that is distracting
or laborious in the public business of the Church, -which I will
not now explain ; and, in virtue of these, it is more than a
twelvemonth since I entered upon measures that might prepare
for my resignation by the time of last Assembly, of all the
tasks and managements that had been devolved upon me.
But, in truth, apart from these necessities which have long
decided me to the step of a general retirement, his Lordship
might have guessed at another reason for the separation of
myself from the Non-Intrusion Committee, beside the one
which he is said to have proclaimed in that high assembly,
where no counter explanation could possibly be given. I cannot

MS. 60. THE WHIGS AND THE CONSERVATIVES. 173
better express the true reason, than in the following words of
a late speech to the General Assembly, when I told them
that I could no longer be a member of the Committee, whose
Report I had just read to them : — ' The truth is, that in this
harassing warfare I am able to hold out no longer. Irrespec
tive of this, I should have tendered my resignation of every
office I hold from the Assembly, which involves the incessant
labour of the last six years. For more than a twelvemonth I
had made up my mind to do this in the Assembly of 1840, and
during that twelvemonth, the resolution has been strengthened
every day, by the infinity of calls and conflicts and tracasseries
innumerable, to which my twofold situation of Convener of
Church Extension and Convener for Non-Intrusion has ex
posed me ; and, to crown and consummate all, there have not
only been the fatigues, but, within these few weeks, the sore
bitter crushing disappointment — the blasting of all my fondest
hopes for the good and peace of our Church, in my correspond
ence with public and parliamentary men.'"
" But his Lordship mistakes, if he thinks that there is no
other field on which we can be of service to the Church, save
that one which he accuses me of having deserted in cowardice
— when he and his Conservative friends, to whom I looked as
our last and only dependence in London, may be more truly
said to have driven me from it in despair. The weary struggle
of six years that we had with his political opponents for the
extension of our Church, we at length gave up in utter hope
lessness of any good from them. And we are like to pass
through the same experience, with another party in another
cause. The fruitless higgling of the last six months, — and in
which shorter, all the distastes and discouragements and annoy
ances of the longer period have been fully concentrated, — we
now fling from us as we would a broken reed on which we
unwarily had leaned. Lord Aberdeen may stigmatize as a

174 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1S40.
desertion that relinquishment which has been forced upon us
by our discovery and consequent distrust of those with whom
it had been our habit to deal ; but he will find that both their
insinuating flattery and their disappointed violence are alike
impotent of effect, for leading us either to betray the cause of
the Church of Scotland into the hands of her once professing
friends, or to surrender that cause into the hands of her now
declared enemies.
" After all, I now feel that I owe an act of justice to the
Whigs. I understand justice in the same sense as equity,
(wquitas ;) and I am now bound to say, that if on the question
of Church Endowments I have been grievously disappointed by
the one party — on the question of Church Independence I have
been as grievously disappointed by the other. Of course I
speak on the basis of a very limited induction ; but, as far as
the findings of my own personal observation are concerned, I
should say of the former, that they seem to have no great
value for a Church Establishment at all — and of the latter,
that their great value for a Church Establishment seems to be
more for it as an engine of State than as an instrument of
Christian usefulness. The difference lies in having no prin
ciple, or in having a principle that is wrong. In either way
they are equally useless, and may prove equally hurtful to the
Church ; and though the acknowledgment I now make to the
Whigs be a somewhat ludicrous one, if viewed in the character
of a peace-offering, I am nevertheless bound to declare, that,
for aught like Church purposes, I have found the Conservatives
to be just as bad as themselves.
" It is for the Church now to renounce all dependence upon
men ; and, persevering in. the high walk of duty on which she
has entered, to prosecute. : her own objects on her own prin
ciples — leaving each party in the State to act as they may."

MS. 60. THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH REFORMATIONS. 176

CHAPTER XI.
THE CONTRAST BETWEEN THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH REFORMA
TIONS—THE FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY— ITS INDEPENDENCE OF
THE STATE— CONFLICT BETWEEN THE CHURCH AND STATE IN SCOT
LAND—CONDUCT AND TESTIMONY OF THE CHURCH— THE ACT OF
1592— THE REVOLUTION SETTLEMENT— DR. CHALMERS'S OPINION
AS TO THE TWO PRINCIPLES OF NON-INTRUSION AND SPIRITUAL
INDEPENDENCE— LETTER TO LORD ABERDEEN AND SPEECH IN THE
GENERAL ASSEMBLY— POSITION AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE MODE
RATE PARTY IN THE CHURCH— SPEECH OF SIR ROBERT PEEL-
REPLY BY DR. CHALMERS.
" The child is father of the man." — -With Churches as with
individuals this holds true ; and it stands conspicuously verified
in the histories of the two Reformed Churches of England and
Scotland. The English Church was created by a fiat of the
monarch. The reformed doctrine had but little prevalence
and power among the people when Henry VIII., by an act of
royal authority, abolished the Papal jurisdiction, and substi
tuted his own in its stead. From that period till the present
time, the reigning monarch has been the Head of the English
Church ; a dogma which finds one of its embodiments in the
fact, that in all matters, even as to doctrine and discipline,
there lies an appeal from the Ecclesiastical to the Civil Courts.
It was exactly the reverse in Scotland. It is now nearly three
hundred years since the first General Assembly convened in
Edinburgh. It met by no summons, it received no express
sanction from the State. The spread of the Holy Scriptures
and the preaching of that Gospel which they contain, had
so leavened the general community, that in 1560, by the

176 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1840.
Estates of Parliament, and against the Sovereign's will, the
Papal jurisdiction was abrogated. But no other was substi
tuted in its stead. At their own instance, and having the
Word of God as their alone guide and warrant, a few clergy
men and laymen* assembled and organized the Protestant
Church of Scotland. They framed a creed, drew up a code of
discipline, and resolved that, as the highest court of the Church
exercising supreme legislative and judicial authority, they
should meet in General Assembly twice each year. There
were not wanting those who at first challenged the lawfulness
of these Assemblies. At one of their earliest meetings, Mait-
land of Lethington, the Queen's Secretary, ventured to express
a doubt upon this point. " Take from us," said Knox in
answer, " the liberty of Assemblies, and take from us the
evangel, for without Assemblies how shall good order and
unity of doctrine be kept?" Seven years elapsed; fifteen
General Assemblies were held ; kirk-sessions were instituted ;
Provincial Synods erected ; ministers appointed, suspended,
deposed ; in a word, all the highest functions of ecclesiastical
authority were exercised without any authority from, or any
recognition by the State, -f- It did finally interfere, not to
create, however, but to ratify ; and by Act of the Scottish
Parliament 1567, "the ministers of the blessed evangel of
Jesus Christ, whom God of his mercy has raised up among us,
and the people of the realm that profess Christ, and do partake
of the holy sacraments," were declared to be " the true and
holy Kirk of Jesus Christ within this realm." One fourth
only of the livings were at this time in the gift of lay
patrons, the remainder being held by ecclesiastics. The
* The first General Assembly consisted of forty members, of whom six only
were clergymen.
f The progress made during these seven years was extraordinary. In 1560
there Were only twelve ministers of the reformed faith in Scotland : in 1567 there
were 250 ministers, 467 readers, and 150 exhorters.

MS. 60. ERSKINE OF DUN AND THE REGENT MAR. 177
Church unwillingly* consented that these lay patrons should
retain the right of nomination ; but in the statute ordain
ing this, it was specially provided that " the examination and
admission of ministers be only in the power of the Kirk,"
and that in case the Church should " refuse to receive and
admit the person presented by the patron, it shall be lawful
to the patron to appeal to the superintendent and ministers
of that province where the benefice lies, and desire the person
presented to be admitted, which if they refuse, to appeal to
the General Assembly of the whole realm, by whom the case
being decided, shall take end, as they decern and declare."
One third of the ancient revenue of the Church was set
apart as a fund out of which stipends were to be paid to
the reformed clergymen, the remaining two-thirds being ap
propriated by the Crown and the nobles. The Roman Ca
tholic prelates, however, were permitted to retain for life,
two-thirds of the rents of their bishopricks. At the death
of the Archbishop of St. Andrews in 1571, the Earl of Morton
found a clergyman willing to take the office, while allowing
the Earl to retain for his own use the greater portion of
the income. Knox was at this time residing in St. Andrews,
unable through the infirmity of declining years to attend the
General Assembly. He wrote, however, to his brethren, " Un
faithful and traitors to the flock shall ye be before the Lord
Jesus, if that with your consent, directly or indirectly, ye suffer
unworthy men to be thrust into the ministry of the Kirk, under
what pretence that ever it be. Remember the Judge before
whom ye must make account, and resist that tyranny as ye
would avoid hell fire." The Assembly responded to the sen
timents of the firm and inflexible reformer. A remonstrance
* In the First Book of Discipline, the provisions of which were in force from
1560 till 1567, it is laid down " that it appertaineth to the people and to ev"ery
several congregation to elect their own minister."

178 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1840.
was written in their name by Erskine of Dun, and forwarded
to the Regent Mar. " There is," says that remonstrance, " a
spiritual jurisdiction and power which God has given unto his
Kirk, and to them that bear office therein ; and there is a
temporal jurisdiction and power given of God to kings and
civil magistrates. Both the powers are of God, and most
agreeing to the fortifying one of the other, if they be rightly
used. But when the corruption of man enters in, confounding
the offices, usurping to himself what he pleases, nothing re
garding the good order appointed of God, then confusion fol
lows in all estates. The Kirk of God should fortify all lawful
powers and authority that pertains to the civil magistrate,
because it is the ordinance of God. But if he pass the bounds
of his . office, and enter within the sanctuary of the Lord,
meddling with such things as appertain to the ministers of
God's Kirk, then the servants of God should withstand his
unjust enterprise, for so are they commanded of God."
Ten years after this the fidelity of the Church was still
more severely tried. The Archbishop of Glasgow died in 1581,
and some clergyman was needed by the Duke of Lennox to
hold the office, under bargain that the lion's share of the
revenue should go to the nobleman. The name and office of
diocesan bishop had by this time been abolished by the
Church, yet Robert Montgomery, minister of Stirling, accepted
the nomination. His Presbytery prohibited him from doing
so, but as he persisted, they reported the case to the Synod of
Lothian. The civil authorities interfered, interdicted the
Synod from proceeding, and summoned them before the Privy
Council. Their representatives appeared, and in their name
respectfully declined the judgment of such a Court as incom
petent in such a matter. Montgomery was now summoned to
appear at the bar of the General Assembly, indicted to meet
at St. Andrews in April 1582. His case had just been called

/ET. 60. THE STRUGGLE BETWIXT THE CHURCH AND STATE. 179
when a messenger-at-arms entered the House, and, in the King
and Council's name, charged them under " the pains of rebel
lion" to desist. Resolving that it was their duty to proceed,
they ratified the sentence of the Presbytery, suspending Mont
gomery from the office of the ministry, and found that he had
made himself liable by his conduct to the still weightier sen
tence of deposition and excommunication. Alarmed for the
moment, the recreant minister appeared before them, confessed
his error and promised submission. His submission was so far
accepted, that the sentence was delayed ; but the Presbytery
of Edinburgh was instructed and authorized, in case of a viola
tion of his engagement, to proceed instantly to pass it. The
sense of immediate terror had no sooner passed away than he
revived his claims, and in face of all the threatenings of the
Court the final sentence was promptly pronounced against
him. The ministers of the metropolitan Presbytery were
summoned to appear immediately before the Privy Council ;
one of their number was banished from the capital, and their
sentence was declared null and void. The emergency was
urgent ; a special meeting of the General Assembly was called,
and a remonstrance forwarded to the King, in which the fol
lowing passage occurs : —
" Your Majesty, by advice of some counsellors, is taught to
take upon your Grace that spiritual power and authority which
properly belongeth to Christ, as only King and Head of the Kirk.
The ministry and execution thereof is only given to such as bear
office in the ecclesiastical government of the same ; so that in
your Grace's person, some men press to erect a new popedom,
as though your Majesty could not be full king and head of this
commonwealth, unless, as well the spiritual as the temporal
sword be put in your hand — unless Christ be bereft of His
authority, and the two jurisdictions confounded which God has
divided, which directly tends to the wreck of all true religion."

180 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1840.
Montgomery and the Court gave way. The struggle be
tween the Church and the State lasted some years longer,
till the celebrated statute of 1592 was passed, by which
were abrogated " all acts, laws, and statutes made at any time
before the day and date hereof against the liberty of the
true Kirk, jurisdiction and discipline thereof, as the same is
used and exercised within this realm." This statute was
accepted and regarded at the time as ratifying that claim to
an exclusive spiritual jurisdiction for which the Church had
contended during the thirty preceding years — a statute like
that of 1567, still in force, but which, in 1839, was strangely
quoted and founded on as destructive of such a claim.
Our space does not permit us to complete this historic
sketch. The first thirty years, however, are a type of all that
followed. The right to a free and uncontrolled self-government
— the liberty to order all her doings according to her own con
science and in obedience to the will of Christ, the Church of
Scotland still resolutely asserted and maintained. For a brief
season or two she ingloriously succumbed and suffered the
invader's inroads.* But from these temporary disgraces she

* In one of these periods of defection a few faithful ministers had convened in
Assembly at Aberdeen. In the King's name, and on pain of rebellion, they were
charged to dissolve. They offered to do so provided his Majesty's Commissioner
would name a day and place for the next meeting. On this being refused they
continued in Assembly, for which act sixteen were committed to prison, and six
were indicted on the charge of high-treason. One of the six, John Welsh, the son-
in-law of Knox, was condemned ; and writing from his prison in the Castle of
Blackness, he says, " Who am I, that He should first have called me, and then
constituted me a minister of the glad tidings of the Gospel of salvation these-years
past, and now, last of all, to be a sufferer for his cause and kingdom ! Now, let it
be so that I have fought my fight, and run my race, henceforth there is laid up for
me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous God, will give, not to
me only, but to all that love his appearing, and choose to witness that Jesus Christ
is the King of saints, and that his Church is a free kingdom, yea, as free as any
kingdom under heaven, not only to convocate, hold, and keep her meetings, con
ventions, and assemblies, but also to judge all her affairs, in all her meetings and
conventions, amongst her members and subjects. These two points  1. That

MS. 60. THE REVOLUTION SETTLEMENT. 181
nobly redeemed herself. Under the tyranny of the Stuarts*
four hundred of her clergymen voluntarily resigned their
livings rather than acknowledge the royal authority as supremo
within the house of God. And true to the same principles,
their scattered flocks were driven into exile, shot down in
Christ is the Head of the Church ; 2. That she is free in her government from all
other jurisdiction except His ; — these two points, I say, are the special cause of our
imprisonment, being now convicted as traitors for maintaining them."
* The first clergyman who suffered under the Stuarts was Mr. James Guthrie,
and the last Mr. James Renwick. One of the leading counts in Mr. Guthrie's
indictment was, that he declined the King's judgment as incompetent in matters
of doctrine. In his defences, and for the purpose of shewing how warrantable such
a declaration was, Mr. Guthrie says, " The Word of God doth clearly hold forth
that Jesus Christ hath a visible kingdom which He exercises in or over His visible
Church, which is wholly distinct from the civil powers and governments of the
world, and not depending upon nor subordinate unto these governments in the ad
ministrations thereof, which are spiritual, and are to be regulated not by the laws
of men, but by His own laws, set down in His Word. * * * As for divine reason,
the defender doth only say, that if the function of the magistrate be distinct from
the ministerial function in all the causes thereof, then must needs the jurisdictions
and exercises thereof be also distinct and not depending one upon another. The
confounding of these, and the clashings and encroachments of the civil and eccle
siastical powers, have been the cause of much trouble and confusion in the world,
and the preserving of them distinct, and giving to God the things that are God's,
and to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, is the best foundation of order, union,
and peace, both in Church and State."
Mr. Guthrie's defences were overruled, and he died upon the scaffold at Edin
burgh, on the 1st June 1661. " I bless the Lord," said he, in his last speech, " that
as I die not as a fool, so also that I die not for evil doing. The matters for which I
am condemned are matters belonging to my calling and function as a minister of
the Gospel, such as the discovery and reproving of sin, the pressing and the holding
fast of the oath of God in the covenant, and preserving and carrying on the work of
religion and reformation according thereto, and denying to acknowledge the civil ma
gistrate as the proper competent immediate judge in causes ecclesiastical." — Wodrow,
vol. i. pp. 184, 185, 193.
At his execution, on the 13th February 1688, Mr. James Renwick said, upon the
scaffold, " I die a Presbyterian Protestant. I adjoin my testimony to all those
truths which have been sealed by blood on scaffolds, fields, and seas, for the cause
of Christ. . I leave my testimony against Popery, Prelacy, Erastianism, against
all profanity, and every thing contrary to sound doctrine, particularly against all
usurpations and encroachments made upon Christ's rights, the Prince of the kings
of the earth, who alone must bear the glory of ruling his own kingdom — the Church,
and particularly against the absolute power assumed by this usurper, that belongs
to no mortal." — Wodrow, vol. iv. pp. 453, 454.

182 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1840.
the wild morass, or executed on the scaffold, till thousands
perished. The glorious Revolution came at last. By one of
William's earliest Acts it is declared that " the first Act of the
second Parliament of King Charles the Second, entituled, ' Act
asserting his Majesty's supremacy over all persons and in all
causes ecclesiastical,' is inconsistent with the Church Govern
ment now desired, and ought to be abrogated. Therefore their
Majesties, with advice and consent of the Estates of Parlia
ment, do hereby abrogate, rescind, and annul the said Act,
and declare the same, in the whole heads, articles, and clauses
thereof, to be of no force or effect in all time coming." There
after the Act 1 592 was revived, renewed, and confirmed, by
which " the sole and only power and jurisdiction within the
Church" was declared to stand in the Church, and in her
courts, as separate from and not subject to the supreme civil
power. At the same time the Westminster Confession of Faith
was ratified and engrossed verbatim in the statute. In the
30th chapter of that Confession it is announced as a funda
mental principle, " That the Lord Jesus, as King and Head of
his Church, hath therein appointed a government in the hand
of Church-officers distinct from the civil magistrate."
It is in the light of her bygone history — in the light of
her own authoritative documents — in the light of the author
ship of the most eminent of her ministers — in the light of the
doings and sufferings of her faithful members — that those sta
tutes can alone be properly read and understood which ratify
the Church's liberty, and assert over her the supreme and only
Headship of Christ. It should not surprise us, therefore, that
lawyers of the highest eminence — men versant in all the
canons by which the terms of ordinary statute law are inter
preted — should have failed in interpreting these statutes
aright. Their true interpretation is to be discovered in the
fact, that from the beginning of her history, and at no small

MS. 60. NON-INTRUSION AND SPIRITUAL INDEPENDENCE. 183
cost of strife and suffering afterwards, the Church of Scotland
held fast by the principle that the Church is a divine institute,
deriving her existence, powers, and privileges directly from
Christ, having the rule of her procedure in His Word, for
the faithful following of which rule, and the preservation
of her allegiance to her great Head, she must be free from
all foreign control. She owed it to the peculiarity of her
birth — she owed it to the circumstances of her earlier years,
that she only, of all the Churches of the Reformation, was
called upon to search thoroughly into the principles upon which
a pure connexion between the Church and the State can alone
be established ; and among all the children of the Reformation
this was her distinction and her glory, that, walking hand in
hand with the secular authorities, she had kept herself, in
principle at least if not always in practice, pure and clean.
It was no false alarm which visited the heart of Dr.
Chalmers when at the Bar and from the Bench he heard the
Church of Scotland pronounced to be a creature of the State,
and the civil supremacy over her actings so unhesitatingly and
unlimitedly affirmed. That alarm was heightened when, for
the discharge of a purely spiritual act, a Presbytery was
summoned to the bar of the Civil Court and rebuked ; and it
received a full confirmation when the preaching of the Word
and the administering of sacraments was prohibited in a whole
district of the land. At an early stage of the conflict the para
mount importance of the question as to the Church's spiritual
jurisdiction revealed itself to his eye. It was when exercised in
defence of the privileges of the people, that this jurisdiction
had been in the first instance assailed, and the two topics of
Non-Intrusion and spiritual independence had come thus to be
implicated together. He was most anxious to distinguish and
keep them separate, that its proper place and its own right
relative importance might be assigned to each. In principle

184 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1840.
he was opposed to all violent settlements as hurtful to the
efficacy of the Christian ministry, and prejudicial to the in
terests of true religion. In no circumstances, and under no
force of compulsion would he ever have taken part or given
any sanction to such an ordination as that of Mr. Edwards in
the parish of Marnoch ; but he was fully aware, notwithstand
ing, that the ideas prevalent in Scotland as to the nature of
the pastoral relationship, and as to the conditions under which
the Church should establish it, were to some extent peculiar to
his country, and that what might be ruinous to the interests
of religion there, might not have the same effect elsewhere, and
that the obligations, therefore, resting upon the Church of
Scotland might not rest equally upon all other churches in all
other circumstances. It was different with the other principle
brought now into jeopardy. In his estimate it was a broad,
a general, a universal truth, free from all accidents of place
and time — a truth for all ages, and all countries, and all
churches — that however placed towards, and however indebted
to the civil power, the Church of Christ, while giving her ser
vices, should never part with her liberties — while receiving
State support, should never submit to State control, save in
the disposal of the State's emoluments. It was the depth
of this conviction which, when Lord Aberdeen, in a letter
dated January 1840, referred to the " contempt and dis
obedience of the law" of which the Church, as he ima
gined, had been guilty, led Dr. Chalmers in reply to say— * '
" I am quite sensible that the principles of our controversy
are grievously misunderstood. The truth is, they have lain
dormant for a century and a half, because they have never,
during the whole of that period, been called forth by any dis
turbing force into exercise or manifestation ; and so, excepting
by ecclesiastics, they have been well-nigh forgotten. They are
not, however, on that account less deeply seated in our own

MS. 60. DEBATE ON LORD ABERDEEN S BILL. 185
convictions, or less palpably, as we think, deponed to in the
Word of God. They were once familiar even to the lay mind
of almost the whole of Scotland, and we are sensible of a daily
increasing number, now that public attention is turned to the
question, who are beginning to perceive the sacredness of the
principle that there are certain matters on which a Christian
Church should be left untouched to its own power of internal
regulation. If there be one assertion which I feel myself war
ranted to make with greater confidence than another, it is,
that we have not rebelled, and that we have kept religiously
within the limits of that ground on which the civil power
ought to make no invasion. It is my profound feeling that
the violence and illegality charged upon us are all chargeable
upon the Court of Session, and that we have acquitted our
selves with the most exemplary moderation in the whole of
this affair. In strict ecclesiastical propriety, the Strathbogie
ministers, instead of being suspended, should have been de
posed, and I fear will be deposed by next Assembly in conse
quence of their disobedience, if not anticipated by a final set
tlement of the question." It was the same profound conviction
which led him, in opening the debate on Lord Aberdeen's Bill
in the General Assembly, to speak as follows : —
" Now, Sir, looking on this part of our case, keeping a sted-
fast eye on the question of our spiritual independence, and
putting out of view for a moment the question of Non-Intru
sion altogether, there are many, I trust very many, who think
variously on the law of patronage and its modifications, and
yet would harmonize and enter into one conjunct and firm
phalanx for the vindication of our Church's outraged privileges ;
and if ever there was a crisis in our history — ever a period of
those manifold and sore controversies, among which from in
fancy our Church has been cradled, when courage and consis
tency have been more called for, it is the day on which we
VOL. IV. Q

186 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1840.
have now fallen— when the poison of false and hollow principle
is undermining our strength from within, and thousands of our
deadliest enemies from without are on the tiptoe of high ex
pectancy for a coming overthrow. Sir, it is a leading principle
of our Presbyterian constitution, that there is a distinct govern
ment in the Church, which the State of course must approve
ere it confers upon us its own temporalities ; or, in other words,
that we have as uncontrolled a management of our own proper
affairs as if we received not one farthing out of the national
treasury ; that when in the act of becoming an establishment,
we, in the brief and emphatic deliverance of my friend Mr.
Gray, ' gave them our services but not our liberties,' getting
at their hands a maintenance for our clergy, and engaging in
return for the Christian education of the people ; a conjunction,
we think, fruitful of innumerable blessings both to the Church
and to society, but in which the value given is many hundred
fold greater than the value received. Still, if the State be not
satisfied with the bargain, they can at any time give us up. If,
over and above our services in things spiritual they must also
have our submission in things spiritual, in these we have another
Master, to whom, and to whom alone, we are responsible ; and
we utterly repudiate, as we should an accursed thing, the
sacrilegious bribe that would tempt us from an allegiance to
Him ; for that in these things He has the sole and undivided
mastery is a principle which lies at the very foundation of the
Church of Scotland ; and on her giving up this, as by the loos
ening of a corner or a key-stone, the whole fabric will tumble
into ruins. The establishment of this, as the principle of our
Church, is the peculiar glory of Scotland, the fruit of a hard-
won victory, after the struggles and the persecutions of more
than a hundred years. A principle which has cost us so much
we are not now willing to let go ; and if the State .will insist
on our surrender of it, or the forfeiture of our endowments, we

JET. 60. DR. CHALMERS S SPEECH. 187
are willing to try the experiment, and to brave the same cost
over again. It is a principle, Sir, that we have not forgotten,
though it has been renounced by a few declarationists among
ourselves, and though it has faded away from the recollections
and the feelings of general society, like an old charter which
might slumber in its repositories for generations, while its
articles remain unbroken, but which the rude hand of violence
will recall from its oblivion, and, quickening it anew into
vigour and vitality, will bring back, as if by resurrection, on
the face and to the observation of the world. It is even
so with the grand, the fundamental principle of our Church —
its own inherent liberty in things ecclesiastical — familiar as
household words, Bishop Burnet tells us, even to the humblest
of our peasantry, but which, suffered to lie quiet for a century
and a half, because let alone, had ceased at one time to be
spoken of, and so fallen away from the memory, even from the
understandings, of men. From 1688 to 1838 — from the time
of the Revolution settlement to the time when the Court of Ses
sion gave forth its interdict against the Presbytery of Dunkeld
in the case of Lethendy — no civil power ever attempted to
interfere with the steps of our ecclesiastical procedure, or to
meddle with our Establishment in aught but the temporalities
which belong to her. It was the disturbance given then which
has aroused the Church, and will at length arouse the nation,
from its dormancy. It threw us back on the first elements of
a question, which, from the days of our great-grandfathers, had
been settled and set by. When conjured up again, it sounded
like an antique paradox on many an ear ; but minds are gradu
ally opening to the truth and sacredness of our great principle,
and we doubt not that the very agitations of this controversial
period have flashed it more vividly and convincingly on the
understandings of men than heretofore. Our ark is now in
the midst of conflicting billows, but so that its flag is all the

188 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1840.
more unfurled by the storm which has raised them ; and the
inscription there, now spread forth and expanded in thp gale,
is making the motto of our Establishment patent to all eyes,
that ' the Lord Jesus Christ is the only Head of the Church of
Scotland.' Sir, we have nailed this colour to the mast, and
will keep by it in all its fortunes, whether of tempest or of sun
shine, through which the winds of heaven may carry it. The
Lord Jesus Christ is the only Head of the Church of Scotland ;
that is the watchword of the party with whom I act ; and is
there none on the other side of the House to reiterate the cry ?
Yes, many, very many, perhaps all. And does not this justify
the distinction of treatment that we are now making between
the two questions of spiritual independence and of the Veto
Law ? And the only other distinction I would press in the
opposite quarter, from which we have now heard a response so
cheering, is that which obtains between a declaratory and an
effective proposition. You nobly join us in the declaratory ;
will you join us in the effective ? I have the proud confidence
that a goodly number of. you will ; and furthermore, that you
will assert by deeds as well as words, the great principle on
which we stand. We may break into a thousand differences
on the Veto Law ; of the sacred liberties of our Church there
will be no surrender."
There were strong grounds for this appeal to the Moderate
party in the Church. Between them and their evangelical
brethren there were many differences on questions of ecclesias
tical policy, but as yet there had been no difference as to the
Church's spiritual independence. It might be difficult to con
vince politicians — doubly difficult to convince those who, born
and educated in England, had imbibed the Anglican ideas as to
the relationship between Church and State ; but could there
be any difficulty in convincing Scottish clergymen, acquainted
with the past struggles and victories of their Church, that

MS. 60. POSITION OF THE MODERATES. 189
resistance to the recent interferences of the Court of Session
was constitutional and valid ? When the Lethendy interdict
was issued it was condemned by an almost unanimous Com
mission. When the last Strathbogie interdict was issued, the
Presbytery of Edinburgh, without a dissentient voice, disap
proved of it. The Moderates disliked the introduction of the
popular element into the Church, conceiving that it served to vi
tiate its character. Leaving the majority, however, to fight their
own battle of Non-Intrusion — a battle in which they could give
no help — it would have been consistent with all their former
principles and practice, it would have been a wise and gene
rous policy for them to pursue, had they joined in the conflict
for the protection of the Church's spiritual liberties. With a
minority sanctioning the procedure of the Civil Courts, and
with the hope held out that the majority would finally break
down, the British Parliament might feel free to take its own
course. But if the Church had presented an unbroken front
of resistance, her liberties had been saved. Even after the
Moderate party had come to think that the Civil Courts were
in the right, and the Church was in the wrong, there was one
weighty consideration by which their procedure might have
been affected. Let the liberty now asserted as belonging by
birthright to the Church be conceded to her, their position
remained unchanged ; let it be refused, and the evangelical
majority must either renounce their principles or withdraw
from the Establishment. The Moderates would have deserved
well of their Church and country if they had withheld their
hand from helping to precipitate such a crisis. It had been
a deed of highest patriotism, if, to avert it, they had sacri
ficed the immediate hope of regaining a lost ascendency.
But they decided otherwise.
The course which they had resolved to follow was suffi
ciently indicated when the case of the Strathbogie ministers

190 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1840.
came before the General Assembly of this year. The first step
taken by the Assembly, in dealing with these clergymen, was
to appoint a Committee to hold a private conference with
them. This Committee, while reporting in the strongest terms
as to the kindly and Christian spirit which their brethren had
manifested in the course of this conference, had yet the pain
ful duty to announce that they would neither confess to past
error, nor give assurance of future submission to the Church's
Judicatories. The Assembly, in consequence of this, resolved
that the sentence of suspension should be continued ; that
these clergymen should be cited to appear personally before the
Commission in August ; that, if they continued contumacious,
they should then be served with a libel, with a view to deposi
tion ; but that the Commission should proceed no farther than to
make the case ready for the decision of next General Assembly.
The final sentence was deferred thus for a year, in the course of
which it was hoped that some event might occur which would
remove the necessity of {>assing it. In opposition to the motion
which became the judgment of the Church, Dr. Cook, followed
by all his party, moved, that as the Commission had exceeded
its powers, its sentence of suspension and all proceedings con
nected therewith, should be held null and void. When the com
petency of the Commission was affirmed, he then moved again,
that as these clergymen had done nothing that was censurable,
the sentence should be removed, and they be at once restored
to the full exercise of their ministry. It was not, however,
till their reasons of dissent from the final judgment of the
Court was laid upon the table, that it was known how far the
Moderate party were now prepared to go. These reasons not
only affirmed that the conduct of the seven ministers, in taking
their orders from the civil, rather than from the ecclesiastical
court, was " conformable to the clearest principles of reason,
and the express injunctions of Scripture," but that, in the

-ET. 60. THE MODERATE ASSOCIATION. 191
judgment of the dissentients, the sentence passed upon them
was " unconstitutional, illegal, and invalid." Let but one step
more be taken ; let the dissentients act upon the opinion thus
expressed, by holding ministerial communion with these clergy
men, and the Church would have been forced to deal with
them all as she had dealt with the seven. The bold measure
of forcing this alternative at once upon the Church appears
to have been contemplated. " If no steps are taken," said
Lord Aberdeen, on the 16th June, in moving the second reading
of his Bill, " for the settlement of this question before the
month of August, a great and lamentable schism will take place
in the Church, for a large body of ministers will then announce
their intention not to obey the orders of the Assembly." A
few days after this information was given to the House of
Lords, a private circular, signed by Dr. Cook and others, was
sent among their friends, inviting them to form an associa
tion, based upon the reasons of dissent already alluded to, and
requesting that a general meeting, for the purpose of maturing
the plans of this association, should be held in Edinburgh on
the morning of the 1 2th August, the very day on which the
Commission was to meet. They were emboldened to take
strong steps, by the strong support of that great party into
whose hands it was now evident that the ruling power of the
State was speedily to pass. More than three-fourths of the
evangelical clergymen of the Establishment were at this time
Conservatives — the Conservatism of many of them due to the
unfriendly, or, as they thought, hostile policy of the Whigs in
relation to the ecclesiastical establishments of the empire, and to
the strong assurances which they were in every way encouraged
to cherish, that from their political opponents they would ex
perience a steady and generous friendship. If Dr. Chalmers
was not thrown into any close connexion with the leaders
of that party, his intercourse with them, such as it was, was
fiftcd certainly to generate the hope that the evangelical

192 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1840.
interest, which he represented, would experience no hostile
treatment at their hands. But, from the time that Lord
Aberdeen's Bill was rejected, the political friendship of the
Conservatives was withdrawn from his party in the Church.
Lord Aberdeen, to whom the conduct of the Scotch Church
question in Parliament was committed by his political asso
ciates, appears at first to have recoiled into irritation and
antipathy. Even after the verdict of the General Assembly
had been delivered, he carried the second reading of his
Bill by a large majority in the House of Lords ; and when
presenting a petition from the Strathbogie ministers a few days
afterwards, he took occasion to tell the House, that " the fact
was that the General Assembly was governed by a few ambi
tious lawyers, and he had no doubt if the measure to which he
alluded (his own Bill) were allowed to pass, that the great body
of the clergy would acquiesce in its provisions" — that is, that
they would act otherwise than they had voted. And when, on the
10th July, he finally withdrew his Bill, he was at pains to say,
that it was not because of the objections taken to it by the
General Assembly, but because of the opposition of the Govern
ment, that he had not pressed it further. He expressed, at the
same time, in the strongest terms his sympathy with the seven
ministers of Strathbogie, whose case he stated at some length
to the House — their conduct in obeying the Court of Session
he highly applauded — and so severe was his censure of those
who had violated the interdicts forbidding them to preach, that
he went even the length of saying, that " there were some of
the intruders that he should not object to see imprisoned." Sir
Robert Peel, if not so severe, was scarcely less explicit. On the
27th July, on a vote for defraying the expense of building a new
hall for the General Assembly, he took the opportunity of giving
the first public expression of his judgment. It was calm and
dignified, but authoritative and dictatorial. " He regretted that
the Church of Scotland had placed itself in opposition to the

MS. 60. SPEECH OF SIR ROBERT PEEL. 193
State," and " had not felt the pre-eminent obligation of setting
an example to all the subjects of Her Majesty in Scotland of
paying implicit deference to the law." " He was exceedingly
sorry that the Bill introduced into the House of Lords was not
to receive the sanction of the Legislature. If it had come to
that House of Parliament it should have had his cordial sup
port. He could conceive that bills might pass the House
introducing more of the principle of popular election into the
choice of ministers — he could conceive that to be possible ;
but he was quite certain that no bill containing terms more
favourable to ecclesiastical authority would ever pass. The
spiritual authority now claimed by the Church of Scotland he
believed to be unjust and illegal, and he would not for the
purpose of conciliation give his support to it. He wished to
say nothing that could at all prejudice a conciliatory settle
ment of this question ; but the best evidence he could offer to
the Church of Scotland of his regard and respect was to take
this opportunity of inculcating upon its authorities a giving up
of their personal feelings and a strict obedience to the law."
This counsel was repeated in various forms, and the echo of it
was still ringing in his ears, when Dr. Chalmers joined his
brethren at the August meeting of Commission. The rumours
of an insubordination about to break out into some wide
display had drawn together such a number both of mem
bers and auditors that they had to adjourn from the Assembly
Hall to the Tron Church, and to that crowded audience Dr.
Chalmers addressed these words : —
" We must stand out against this series of aggressions thus
rising in magnitude one above the other, else the most sacred
of the Church's territories, the very innermost recesses of her
sanctuary, will lie open to invasion and be trodden under foot.
I know the obloquy which will be heaped upon us ; I have
heard the odious names which are given to this resistance, and
am prepared for them. If not an impartial public, a.t least an
VOL. IV. R

194 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 180.
impartial posterity will judge aright between us and our adver
saries, and tell whether it is we who have been the rebels, or
they who have been the persecutors. And here I may say
one word in reference to those who express the hope, and I
observe that Sir Robert Peel is among the number, that we
shall give up our personal feelings and submit. What these
personal feelings are he has not specified, whether irritation or
a false sense of honour — the pride of men who have committed
themselves and gone too far to retract without shame and de
gradation. Never was an appeal made so utterly wide of the
object to sensibilities which have no existence, or if they have,
it is in so slight a degree that they are overshadowed by prin
ciples of such depth and height, and length and breadth, as to
engross and occupy the whole man. These principles, whether
comprehended or not by our adversaries, are the only moving
forces that tell or have told on the proceedings of the General
Assembly. The free jurisdiction of the Church in things spi
ritual — the Headship of Christ — the authority of His Bible as
the great statute-book, not to be lorded over by any power on
earth — a deference to our own standards in all that is ecclesi
astical — and what is more, a submission unexcepted and entire
to the civil law in all that is civil ; — these are our principles —
these, and not personal feelings, are what you ask us to give
up, by giving in to those adversaries who have put forth an
unhallowed hand upon them. And is there no room for a
similar appeal being made to them ? Have they no personal
feelings in this matter — no feeling of ignominy in the antici
pation of defeat — no feeling of triumph in the anticipation of
victory — no mortification of disappointed vanity should their
own battle-cry, ' that what firmness has done before it will do
again,' * be rolled back by a resolute and unyielding Church on
the head of her haughty persecutors ?"
This sentence, falling with overpowering effect upon the
* The phrase used by the Dean of Faculty in his pamphlet.

JET. 60. DR. CHALMERS S REPLY TO SIR ROBERT PEEL. 195
audience, had scarce been uttered when a member of the
Court abruptly and impetuously called Dr. Chalmers to order.
What the rock is to the rolling billow which breaks on it, this
interruption was to that swelling tide of popular emotion
which, rising high above it, burst into a tumultuous expression
of approbation. For a few minutes the voice of no speaker
could be heard. With recovered breath and reanimated enthu
siasm Dr. Chalmers continued his appeal.
" Is there no inward chagrin among Parliamentary friends
who now mourn over their own abortive attempts at legisla
tion ; and, let me add, is there no sense of offended dignity
among the functionaries of the law should it be found that
law — no impossible thing, surely — has for once in 150 years
gone beyond its sphere ? Which of these two rival elements,
we ask, in all conscience and equity, ought to give way ?
whether the feelings of men who, free from all hazard, lose
nothing, in whatever way the contest is terminated, or the
principles of men who risk their all for these principles, and
who, though many of them now in the winter of life, will,
rather than abandon them, brave the prospect of being driven
from their comfortable homes, and cast with their helpless and
houseless families on the wide world? I ask, is it well for Sir
Robert, from his elevated station and seat of silken security,
to deal forth such a lesson to the Church and the people of
Scotland ; and while he spares the patrician, the lordly feel
ings of all in rank or in office who have leagued to bear us
down, to make no allowance for the consciences of men who,
though humble in condition yet high in sentiment, are, like
their fathers before them, prepared to renounce all for the
integrity of that Church which is at once the glory and the
bulwark of our nation ?"

196 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 184).

CHAPTER XII.
PUBLICATION OF DR. ALISON'S PAMPHLET ON THE ADMINISTRATION
OF THE POOR LAWS IN SCOTLAND— DR. CHALMERS'S EFFORTS TO
NEUTRALIZE THE EFFECTS OF THIS PUBLICATION— DISCUSSION AT
THE MEETING OF THE BRITISH SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION HELD AT
GLASGOW, IN SEPTEMBER 1840— PUBLICATION OF A VOLUME ON
" THE SUFFICIENCY OF THE PAROCHIAL SYSTEM WITHOUT A POOR-
RATE FOR THE RIGHT MANAGEMENT OF THE POOR"— CORRESPON
DENCE WITH MR. THOMAS CARLYLE AND PROFESSOR DUNCAN-
LECTURES TO THE MECHANICS OF GREENOCK ON THE LAWS AND
PHENOMENA OF HEAT.
Dr. Chalmers's attention was now for a time diverted from
this harassing warfare of the Church to a subject which, at an
earlier period, had engrossed his thoughts.
That great change in the administration of the Scottish Poor-
La ws which took place in 1844, sprung from the publication in
1840 of a pamphlet by Dr. Alison. It may be doubted whether
any similar production was ever followed by like speedy, exten
sive, and permanent effects. It owed much of its power to the
simple, manly, earnest, and devoted philanthropy of its author.
By accurate and well-digested statistical details, he fixed in
the public memory the fact that Glasgow and Edinburgh ex
hibited a higher rate of mortality than any of the great towns
in England or on the Continent. The fearful ravages of fever
and other epidemics he attributed to the squalor and poverty
prevalent in those wretched abodes whose inmates were hur
ried in hundreds to a premature grave. The extreme desti
tution suffered in so many instances to exist, without any

MS 61. PAMPHLET BY DR. ALISON. 197
attempt to relieve it, was faithfully delineated, while, in a
tone the most fitted to make it felt, the startling announce
ment was made, that the " higher ranks in Scotland do much
less for the relief of poverty, and of sufferings resulting from it,
than those of any other country in Europe which is really
well regulated." As the only effective remedy for all the evils
which he had so patiently investigated, and so impressively
exposed, Dr. Alison proposed that assessments for the poor
should be levied uniformly and universally over the country ;
that the amount raised in this way should be increased from
£150,000 to about ,£800,000 annually; and that a portion of
these funds should be applied to the relief of indigence arising
from want of employment. A general and generous, though,
in Dr. Chalmers's judgment, a hasty and thoughtless response,
was given to Dr. Alison's appeal. A demand was made for an
investigation, to be conducted by public authority, with a view
to demonstrate the failure of the existing system, and the
necessity for the proposed alterations. A vigorous association
was formed for the purpose of carrying out these views, and
in a few years they were embodied in an act of the Legis
lature. In 1834, the English Commissioners, upon whose
Report the Poor-Law Amendment Bill was founded, had eulo
gized the "admirable practice" of the Scottish system, and
had pointed to Scotland as " that part of the United Kingdom
where the local management and maintenance of the poor has
been best conducted :" in 1 840, Scotchmen became enamoured
of the "admirable practice" which prevailed across the Border,
and allowed themselves to be convinced that their country
was that part of the United Kingdom in which the manage
ment of the poor was worst conducted. Dr. Chalmers had
laboured long and earnestly to give a directly opposite tend
ency to the current of public opinion, not without considerable
success ; and it was not to be expected that he should witness

198 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841.
such a sudden revulsion of the public sentiment without an
attempt to check it. The meeting of the " British Associa
tion" at Glasgow, in September 1840, afforded him an oppor
tunity of bringing forward his own views and proposals in
opposition to those of Dr. Alison. It was an open stage, on
which they might fairly meet and subject their differences
to amicable discussion. No lack of public interest was ma
nifested. When the day arrived on which the topic was to
be discussed, the room in which the Statistical section of
the Association ordinarily assembled was found too small,
and an adjournment took place to an adjoining church. No
thing new, however, was added to what had already been
brought before the public ; and the discussion terminated
without any effective check being put upon the Edinburgh
movement. Unsatisfied with the result, Dr. Chalmers resolved
to make a final effort to set forth the sufficiency of the
parochial system without a poor-rate for the right management
of the poor. This was done, in the first instance, in a series of
occasional lectures, delivered to the students of Theology,
during the session 1 840-41 ; and which soon after their delivery
were embodied in a publication, forming the twenty-first
volume of his works. Desirous to render this volume a com
plete and compendious exposition of the parochial system as
the only effective remedy for pauperism, he brought together
in the Appendix all those extracts from his former writings
which bore most effectively on the subject. Dr. Chalmers sent
a copy of this work to upwards of a hundred " public and
parliamentary men," accompanying each copy with a letter
from himself. From the large bundle of these letters and
their answers we select a single specimen.
" Burntisland, September 29th, 1841.
" My dear Sir, — My immediate object in writing to you is
to announce the liberty I have taken in sending you a copy

MS. 61. LETTER FROM THOMAS CARLYLE. 199
of the work I have published the other day on Pauperism. I
had read your ' Chartism ' with the greatest interest, and have
endeavoured, however feebly, to express my sense of its merits.
My chief anxiety is for the insertion of a permissive clause
in the new Poor-Law Bill which might empower parishes to
commence the retracing process to the better order of things
without being fettered by the general provisions of the Bill.
Could I obtain the concurrence of yourself and other literary
and influential men of London in this view, it might go far in
securing the object which I have had at heart, and for which
I have now laboured more than a quarter of a century. — I
am, yours most truly, Thomas Chalmers.
" To Thomas Carlyle, Esq."
" 5, Cheyne Row, Chelsea, London, October 11th, 1841.
" My dear Sir, — The book you have honoured me by send
ing, and the letter along with it, arrived here two days ago.
Allow me to return many kind thanks for this attention. I
am glad and proud to be remembered by one who is always
memorable to me, and memorable to all the world, whether
they have seen or have not seen him.
" A wholesome, grateful air of hope, brotherly kindness,
cheerful sagacity, salutes me from this book as I eagerly glance
over it : to read it with care, as I purpose shortly to do, will
be no task for me, but a pleasure. One is sure beforehand of
finding much, very much, that one must at once and zealously
assent to ; and slower assent, doubt, examination — nay, ulti
mate dissent itself, (turning only on the application and de
tails,) can but render a beautiful deeper basis of agreement
more visible. It seems to me a great truth this fundamental
principle of yours, which I trace as the origin of all those
hopes, endeavours, and convictions in regard to Pauperism,
that human things cannot stand on selfishness, mechanical

200 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841.
utilities, economics, and law-courts ; that if there be not a re
ligious element in the relations of men, such relations are mi
serable and doomed to ruin. A poor-law can be no lasting
remedy ; the poor and the rich, when once the naked parts of
their condition come into collision, cannot long live together
upon a poor-law ! Solely as a sad transitionary palliative
against still fiercer miseries and insupportabilities can it pre
tend to recommend itself, till something better be vouchsafed
us, with true healing under its wings !
" Alas ! the poor of this country seem to me, in these years,
to be fast becoming the miserablest of all sorts of men. Black
slaves in South Carolina, I do believe, deserve pity enough ;
but the Black is at least not stranded, cast ashore, from the
stream of human interests, and left to perish there : he is con
nected with human interests, belongs to those above him, if
only as a slave. Blacks too, I suppose, are cased in a benefi
cent wrappage of stupidity and insensibility : one pallid Pais
ley weaver, with the sight of his famishing children round him,
with the memory of his decent independent father before him,
has probably more wretchedness in his single heart than a
hundred Blacks. Did you observe the late trial at Stockport,
in Cheshire, of a human father and human mother, for poison
ing three of their children, to gain successively some £3, 8s.
from a Burial Society for each of them ! A barrister of my
acquaintance, who goes that circuit, informs me positively that
the official people durst not go farther into this business ; that
this case was by no means a solitary one there ; that, on the
whole, they thought it good to close up the matter swiftly again
from the light of day, and investigate it no deeper. ' The
hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children !'
Such a state of matters cannot subsist under the firmament of
Heaven : such a state of matters will remedy itself as God lives —
remedy itself, if not by mild means, then by fierce and fiercest !

MS. 61. LETTER FROM THOMAS CARLYLE. 201
" That you, with your generous hopeful heart, believe there
may still exist in our actual Churches enough of divine fire to
awaken the supine rich and the degraded poor, and act victo
riously against such a mass of pressing and ever-accumulating
evils — alas ! what worse could be said of this by the bitterest
opponent of it, than that it is a noble hoping against hope, a
noble strenuous determination to gather from the dry deci
duous tree what the green alone could yield ? Surely, for
those that have still such a faith, I will vote that they should
have all possible room to try it in. With a Chalmers in every
British parish much might be possible ! But, alas ! what as
surance is there that in any one British parish there will ever
be another ?
" But enough of this. Go as it may, your labours in this
matter are not lost — no jot of them is lost. Nay, in one shape
or another, as I believe, the thing that you advocate must
verily realize itself in this earth — across what famines, poor-
laws, convulsions, and embroiled strugglings, is not known to
man. My prayer is, that a voice so humane, so true and wise,
may long be heard in this debate, and attentively laid to heart
on all sides.
" With many kind wishes for you and yours, with lasting
esteem and regard, I remain, my dear Sir, yours most sin
cerely, Thomas Carlyle."
Neither, however, did the publication of Dr. Chalmers's
volume avail to arrest the recent Scottish movement. Public
sympathy had been fairly roused, and when once roused it is
impatient of inaction. Two remedies were presented to it —
the moral and the pecuniary. The one, slow in operation,
and relying upon influences the efficacy of which men are
not ready to appreciate ; the other offering an immediate,
and, as it was affirmed, a satisfactoiy issue. The one was

202 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841.
seized on which gave the quickest promise of success. With
out entering upon any estimate of their comparative merits,
we may refer simply to the fact, that at this period (1840)
there were 643 non-assessed, and 236 assessed parishes in Scot
land; the non-assessed containing a population of 1,178,280,
the assessed a population of 1,137,646 ; the annual expen
diture being, in the non-assessed, £48,769, 5s. 4d., in the
assessed, £91,736, 16s.; the number of paupers relative to
the whole population being almost exactly the same in the
two classes of parishes. Had the destitution of which Dr.
Alison complained been due to the insufficient allowances
afforded under the Scottish Poor-Law, the smaller the allow
ance the greater should have been the destitution. But it
was precisely the reverse. Upon the same number of paupers
twice as much was expended in the assessed as in the non-
assessed parishes, and yet the destitution in the former was
incalculably greater. It was, in fact, from the assessed
parishes that almost all Dr. Alison's instances were drawn.
Should not the fair conclusion from these facts be, that
the size of the parish had more to do with the destitution
than the amount of the assessment ? In two hundred assessed,
there were as many people as in 600 unassessed ; and even
that general average gave no correct idea of the overgrowth
of population in the parishes where the deepest destitution
was found. Had the Scottish ecclesiastical apparatus been but
sufficiently extended, by opening up a thousand channels for
the benevolence of the rich flowing in upon the necessities
of the poor, it would have done as much at least as larger
assessments have yet done, while rendering a service at the
same time in the way of prevention which the rival system
pretends not to furnish. Dr. Chalmers asked only £10,000
a year, and offered in return the gratuitous services of 200
clergymen and 1200 laymen to aid in the management of the

XT. 61. LETTER TO MR. DUNCAN. 203
poor. Had £50,000 been given he could have doubled the
agency which the whole Establishment supplied. Every large
and every over-populous parish could have been broken down
into small districts, and putting aside all the higher blessings
conveyed by the ministrations of the Gospel of peace to the
rude and godless masses, there would have been less destitu
tion than novv exists, (for destitution to some extent, the des
titution springing from reckless extravagance and vice, will
exist under any system ;) and yet Scotland pays now to sup
port her paupers upwards of £500,000 per annum.
Professor Duncan of St. Andrews, to whom Dr. Chalmers
had sent a copy of his volume on the Parochial Economy, sug
gested the objection that the system pursued in Glasgow had
not been imitated elsewhere, and invited him to write a brief
explanation on this point. With that playful freedom used
always in addressing Mr. Duncan, Dr. Chalmers writes : —
" Edinburgh, October 21th, 1841.
" My dear Sir, — I am much disappointed with your letter. I
write not in jest, but in sad and solemn earnest. You grounded
an objection to my system on the fact of its not being followed
by others, which is to say, that after being satisfied with the
scheme, when brought to the standard of reason and experi
ence, as you profess in the present instance to have done, you
will then refer to another standard — that is, the opinion of men
blind and prejudiced ; or, in other words, after it has made full
proof of its own absolute soundness, it must be rejected because
it happens to be surrounded by a number of dunderheads. * * *
" I have met with nothing that has made me so heartless and
despairing since I read ' Alison on Population.' If he, a literary
man, on the spot, with the thing before his eyes, and you, a
literary man at a distance, with the thing set in true descrip
tion before you, can still shut your eyes, not to the reasons but
to the facts of the case — pray, where is my encouragement to

204 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841.
writing any more about it, or for composing that address which
you, with such glaring incongruity, recommend to me ? I
will write no more, and have had enough of vexation and an
noyance in this weary struggle of a quarter of a century to
make me cease from men, and betake myself to some of those
purer and higher regions of thought where the provocations of
all further controversy with hasty and superficial thinkers will
not reach me.* I have no heart to speak and write the same
things a thousand and one times. 0 that is wearisome, weari
some, wearisome ! I am, my dear Sir, your dejected and dis
consolate friend, Thomas Chalmers."
While at Glasgow during the meeting of the British Asso
ciation in September 1 840, Dr. Chalmers had the privilege of
being present and taking a prominent part at a dinner given
by the friends of the Church to the Marquess of Breadalbane,
* " Sabbath, December 12th, 1841.— The passage respecting Babel should not be
without an humble and wholesome effect upon my spirit. I have been set on the
erection of my Babel — on the establishment of at least two great objects, which,
however right in themselves, become the mere idols of a fond and proud imagina
tion, in as far as they are not prosecuted with a feeling of dependence upon God
and a supreme desire after His glory. These two objects are the deliverance of
our empire from pauperism and the establishment of an adequate machinery for
the Christian and general instruction of our whole population. I am sure that
in the advancement of these I have not taken God enough along with me, and
trusted more to my own arguments and combinations among my fellows than to
prayers. There has been no confounding of tongues to prevent a common under
standing, so indispensable to that co-operation without which there can be no
success, but without this miracle my views have been marvellously impeded by
a diversity of opinions, as great as if it had been brought on by a diversity of
language. The barriers in the way of access to other men's minds have been as
obstinate and unyielding as if I had spoken to them in foreign speech ; and though
I cannot resign my convictions, I must now, — and surely it is good to be so taught,
— I must now, under the experimental sense of my own helplessness, acknowledge,
with all humility, yet with hope in the efficacy of a blessing from on high still in
reserve for the day of God's own appointed time, that except ' the Lord build the
house the builders build in vain.' In Thine own good time, Almighty Father, rege
nerate this earth, and gather its people into one happy harmonious family."— &e
Dr. Chalmers's Horos Sabbaticos, vol. ii. pp. 17, 18.

MS 61. LECTURES AT GREENOCK. 205
the only Scottish Peer true from first to last, in sunshine and
in storm, within and without the Establishment, to the prin
ciples of the Scottish Church. There was another engagement
of old date which Dr. Chalmers took the opportunity of his
stay in the west of Scotland to liquidate. The reader may
remember, that when on his Church Extension tour in the
autumn of 1838, he had visited Greenock. He was asked at
that time by the president and managers of the Mechanics'
Institute to deliver a lecture on education. He was so grati
fied by the request that he wrote the following reply : —
" Godrock, September 8, 1838.
" Dear Sir, — It is with very great regret that I feel myself
compelled by circumstances to decline for the present the re
quest by which you have honoured me. You do me no more
than justice when you count on the interest which I feel in
everything connected with the improvement and comfort of
our working-classes ; and had it not been for the weight and
variety of engagements, which will occupy me, I fear, for many
months to come, I should have instantly betaken myself to the
preparation, and that with a view to the delivery of such a
lecture as you have done me the honour to propose.
" I am the more gratified by your application for a public
address on the subject of education, that I flatter myself you
have made it in the knowledge, or at least with a pretty confi
dent belief of my principles on this subject. The truth is,
that I look upon no system of education as available for the
wellbeing either of individuals or of society at large which is
not based upon religion, and I deprecate the attempts which
are now making to dissever the Christianity from the scholar
ship of our people ; so that while I rejoice in observing that
the moral improvement of those who attend it is one great
object of your Institution, I do so consistently with my firm

200 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841.
persuasion that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the most efficient
and powerful of all moralizers.
" On the other hand, let this principle be conceded to me,
and let our primary or parish schools be protected and placed
beyond the reach of the infidel or semi-infidel spirit of the
times, and nothing would delight me more than the multipli
cation and prosperity of well-conducted Mechanics' Institutes
all over the land. I have no sympathy whatever with those
who would grudge our workmen and our common people the
very highest scientific acquisitions which their taste, or their
time, or their inclinations would lead them to realize ; for
next to the salvation of their souls, I certainly say that the
object of my fondest aspirations is the moral and intellectual,
and, as a sure consequence of this, the economical advance
ment of the working-classes, the one object which of all others
in the wide range of political speculation, is the one which
should be dearest to the heart of every philanthropist and
every true patriot.
" Such being my views, you will understand the cordial in
terest I feel in the subject of your communication. I dare not
undertake any additional extra work during the present, or
even the whole of next summer ; but if beyond these periods I
am spared, and in circumstances for entering on such a walk
of exertion, I hereby promise that I shall make a commence
ment with one, and should they allow me, I would, if able,
like it better with two, three, or more lectures to the mechanics
of Greenock.
" With my earnest prayers to the Giver of all blessings for
the best and highest interests both of themselves and of their
families, I entreat you to believe me, dear Sir, yours most re
spectfully and sincerely, Thomas Chalmers."
The promise made in this letter was never forgotten, and on

MT. 61. LECTURES AT GREENOCK. 207
resolving to attend the British Association, he resolved at the
same time to fulfil it. In preparation for this, after the bustle
of the General Assembly of 1840 was over, and he had re
turned to Burntisland, he reverted to the studies of his youth,
supplied himself with a small chemical apparatus, and to his
own family and a few friends gave an evening series of familiar
lectures on chemistry. Unsatisfied, however, with his own
capabilities to do full justice to the subject, he asked Dr. An
derson, Professor of Natural Philosophy in St. Andrews, to
accompany him to Greenock. An unfortunate circumstance
referred to in the following letter had nearly disarranged all
when on the eve of execution : — " Glasgow, 113, N. Montrose Stbeet,
Sept. 22, 1840.
" Dear Sir, — You are aware of the invitation given me two
years ago by the mechanics of Greenock, and of the promise
made by myself that I should deliver in their hearing a lecture
on education.
" I have never lost sight of this engagement. I have corre
sponded on the subject with your predecessor in office ; and my
communications latterly have been more frequent as the time
drevv near for carrying the engagement into effect. It was at
length settled that I should give my lecture on the evening of
Monday the 28th, and that it should be followed up by a brief
lectureship for some subsequent nights on the laws and pheno
mena of heat, as affording a specimen of one branch of edu
cation, at least — the education of science. For the better
execution of this additional and extended part of the scheme,
I have procured the invaluable assistance of my friend Dr.
Anderson, Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University
of St. Andrews, who is now in Glasgow, and has brought with
him an apparatus, part of it obtained from England, for the
purpose of elucidating some of the most recent discoveries.

208 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841.
In short, all was in a state of forwardness for the execution of
our purposes, and we fixed on Saturday last for an interview
with two of your own number, that we might arrange the
details. " Meanwhile, on the Friday preceding — that is, on the 1 8th
of this month, or four days ago — we were informed for the
first time of another arrangement by a hand-bill from Green
ock, which announces the opening of your Mechanics' Institu
tion on Monday the 21st, under the auspices of the three
following gentlemen, who are to address the meeting on sub
jects connected with the diffusion of knowledge and the im
provement of mankind, viz., James Simpson, Esq., advocate,
George Combe, Esq., and the Rev. Patrick Brewster ; and all
this previous only by a few days to my own lectureship, and
which you have now been looking forward to for two years, on
the subject of education.
" I will not enter on the consideration here of the principles
of any of these gentlemen, though I have been told by others
of a discrepancy so wide and palpable between their views and
my own, that the proposal of such an opening for your Institu
tion, when looked to in all its circumstances, might be re
garded by some in no other light than as a personal and
practical insult to myself. I will not entertain this feeling.
Your own explanations of Saturday have led me to dismiss
any idea of this kind from my thoughts. I will say further,
that no provocation could ever have made me insensible to the
obligation of my own promise. I feel it due to myself, pro
vided the explanations I now give are previously acquiesced in
by the mechanics, and laid before the public of your town, to
do all I have undertaken to do ; and still more do I feel it due
to the sacred cause of a Christian and Bible education not to
retire from the arena of its proposed advocacy, even though
the most inveterate opponents of this cause, unknown to my-

MS. 61. LECTURES AT GREENOCK. 209
self, and long subsequent to the task having been put into
my hands, should have been invited to enter the field before
me. " It has now become indispensable that I and the mechanics,
as well as the general community of Greenock, should under
stand each other. The object of my appearance among you
will be to protest against any system which would dissociate
religion from scholarship, and to offer in my preliminary lec
ture the proofs and considerations on which I hold that, froni
the first dawnings of a conscience and understanding in
children, they ought to be plied under the roof of their parents
with the lessons of the Old and New Testament, and ought to
be presented with the same lessons not only at church upon
the Sundays, but in scriptural schools throughout the week.
And though in the subsequent lectures to be given conjointly
by Dr. Anderson and myself the time will be chiefly taken up
with the demonstrations and experiments of natural science,
this will not exclude my special office, which shall be not only
to point out the theology that might be educed from the
glories of the Divine workmanship, but if possible to neutralize
the mischief that flows from but a little learning, which, when
unaccompanied with certain principles and considerations that
I shall endeavour to urge upon my hearers, is indeed a danger
ous thing. I hold that this maxim of the poet admits of being
disarmed, so as that even a little learning, instead of a danger
ous, shall become a profitable thing, at once accordant with
the modesty of true science, and with the spirit of the Gospel
of Jesus Christ. It shall be my assiduous endeavour, if I come
amongst you, to impress on the minds of those who shall
honour me with their attendance the little proportion which
all that is or can be known bears to all that in our present
state must remain for ever unknown, so as if possible to con
vince you that with every footstep of growing knowledge there
VOL. IV. s;

210 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841.
ought to bo a growing humility — that best guarantee both for
a sound philosophy and a sound faith.
" May I beg that you will lay this communication before the
members of your Committee previous to its appearance in the
Greenock newspaper of Friday, after which, if no fresh obstacle
be interposed, I shall find my way quite open to the place of
delivery for my first lecture on the evening of Monday, when
I hope to have a pacific and cordial meeting with you all. — I
have the honour to be, Dear Sir, yours very truly,
Thomas Chalmers.
" Mr. Alex. Muir.''
A satisfactory explanation was offered, and Dr. Chalmers
regarded the publication of his letter in one of the Greenock
newspapers as sufficiently exonerating him from giving any
sanction to the educational views held by his predeces
sors. Dr. Chalmers and Dr. Anderson lectured on alternate
evenings ; Dr. Chalmers's first lecture on the Education of
Principle being delivered on Monday the 28th September ;
his second and third on the Laws and Phenomena of Heat on
the Wednesday and Friday following. It was an occupation
altogether to Dr. Chalmers's heart, and on his return to Edin
burgh he wrote to the Rev. Dr. Macfarlan, requesting him to
supply some memorials of this visit. " It would complete," he
adds, " the record which I wish to preserve of a brief but very
interesting passage of my journey through the world." He spent
the Christmas holidays of the following winter with the writer
of these pages in the parish of Skirling in Peebles-shire. In the
village schoolroom, to the inhabitants of a remote hamlet, and
with the help of a much humbler apparatus, the lectures on heat
were repeated ; nor have I ever seen him kindle into a truer
enthusiasm than when, to that plain but intelligent audience,
he illustrated the truth, that the wider man's knowledge be-

jKT. 61. LIGHT AND DARKNESS. 211
comes, the deeper should be his humility ; for the more he
knows the more he sees of what remains still unknown. Tak
ing the board on which the village children learnt their lessons
in arithmetic, he drew upon it a circle. " Let that circle," he
said, " represent the extent or compass of a man's knowledge
— the region of light which he has conquered and made his
own out of the surrounding kingdom of darkness. Each point
in this circumference represents a question about that which
is beyond and without, to which the man finds that he can
give no answer. Enlarge the circle, and you multiply the
number of such points. The more, therefore, the man enlarges
his circle of light, he sees but the more of the darkness that
lies all around : the wider the diameter of light, the larger the
circumference of darkness."

212 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841.

CHAPTER XIII.
DR. CHALMERS'S REJECTION FROM THE CHAIR OF THEOLOGY IN
GLASGOW— NARRATIVE OF THE SETTLEMENT AT MARNOCH— THE
GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF 1841 — THE DEPOSITION OF THE SEVEN
SUSPENDED CLERGYMEN OF STRATHBOGIE— THE SERVING OF AN
INDICTMENT ON THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY— DR. CANDLISH'S NOMI
NATION TO THE CHAIR OF BIBLICAL CRITICISM SUPERSEDED—
PROPOSAL BY MR. SMITH OF GREENOCK— THE DUKE OF ARGYLL'S
BILL—STATEMENT TO THE GOVERNMENT BY THE MODERATE PARTY
—MEETING OF THE COMMISSION IN AUGUST- FIRST PROSPECT OF
THE DISRUPTION— FAILURE OF THE NEGOTIATIONS BY SIR GEORGE
SINCLAIR. In August 1840, the Chair of Theology in the University of
Glasgow became vacant. Although Dr. Chalmers would not
present himself as a candidate, it was understood that if
elected he would accept this Chair. The choice lay with the
Senatus, and it was imagined that they would seize eagerly
upon this opportunity of benefiting and adorning their Uni
versity. A rival, however, appeared upon the field ; a rival
between whom and Dr. Chalmers it was not- pretended that
any comparison as to literary or professional qualifications
could be instituted. He had, however, this claim upon the
suffrages of the electors, — that while Dr. Chalmers had identified
himself with the evangelical movement, his opponent had been
a consistent supporter of the Moderate party in the Church.
As the day* named for the election approached, a large share
of public attention was fixed upon the result. The Times,
* 20th October 1840.

MS. 61. SIR JAMES GRAHAM AND THE GLASGOW ELECTION. 213
and other leading London journals, warned the electors in no
measured terms of the disgrace which they would incur, if,
upon any such ground, the pre-eminent claims of Dr. Chalmers
were set aside. Nevertheless, the electors rejected him ; the
same University which had refused the Chair of Logic to Ed
mund Burke, refusing that of Theology to Dr. Chalmers. There
was one voter upon this occasion whose movements particularly
attracted the public eye. Sir James Graham was at this time
Lord Rector of the University ; and in the eloquent eulogies of
his inaugural address, to the illustrious names of Bacon, Newton,
Locke, and Herschell, he had added that of Dr. Chalmers, as
worthy of the high association. His office gave him a vote in
the election, and he undertook a journey to Glasgow for the
purpose of opposing Dr. Chalmers's appointment. In ordinary
circumstances this had been less noticeable, as indeed there
would have been little likelihood of its having occurred. As
things stood, however, coupled with the recent appearances of
Lord Aberdeen and Sir Robert Peel in the two Houses of
Parliament, it was a clear index of the extent to which the
Moderate party in the Church might count upon Conservative
support. Their knowledge of this may have encouraged the seven
suspended ministers of Strathbogie to take their final step.
Disregarding the citation of the General Assembly, and meeting
each fresh judgment of the ecclesiastical tribunal by a nulli
fying edict obtained from the Civil Court, they had proceeded
to take Mr. Edwards upon trial, and had found him qualified.
They hesitated, however, as to the act of ordination. They
had acted hitherto upon the decision of the Court that they
were bound to disregard the dissent of the people, but as yet
there had been no express order to ordain. Mr. Edwards
supplied them with the authority under which they expressed
their willingness to act, by instituting an action, in which he

214 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841.
craved the Court of Session to issue an order to that effect.
The question of the competency of the Civil Court to interfere
directly with spiritual acts, was here stript of all attendant
or accessoiy considerations. It might review the proceed
ings of a Presbytery, and pass judgment upon their' legality ;
it might declare, as it had done, that the rejection of a
presentee, on the sole ground of the people's opposition, was
contrary to statute. All this, however, might be done for no
other purpose than to determine the destination of the bene
fice, and yet the Court might not have felt itself entitled to do
what was now asked — give an authoritative direction to ordain.
No doubt, however, was felt, no hesitation manifested by the
majority of the Judges. Seven clergymen, suspended by the
Church — reponed by these Judges, declared by the one autho
rity to be incapable of performing any official act — recog
nised by the other authority as the one and only Presbytery
of Strathbogie, were " decerned and ordained to receive and
admit" Mr. Edwards as minister of Marnoch. This order
having been received, these ministers proceeded with all due
despatch to execute it. The announcement of their resolution
to do so, fastened the public eye upon the scene of their opera
tions. The populous parish of Marnoch forms part of Banff- .
shire, lying in a secluded situation along the banks of the
Deveron. Its quiet and orderly inhabitants lived far from the
great centres of political and religious agitation. Awake,
however, to their own and their families' spiritual interests,
they had taken the liveliest concern in those proceedings now
about to be brought to so strange a close. Having done much
and perilled much for their protection, the Church waited in
intense anxiety to see how, in a position so new and so pecu
liar, this people would comport themselves. Thursday, the
21st January 1841, was the day fixed for this extraordinary
ordination. A heavy snow-gale had passed over the country,

MS. 61. THE SETTLEMENT AT MARNOCH. 215
choking up the public roads, and covering the earth to the
depth of two feet and upwards. Stormy, however, as Wednes
day had been, and few more stormy days had been experienced
for many years — deep as the snow lay on the face of the earth,
and gathered as it was in large and almost impassable wreaths
on every high-way and by-way in Banff and Aberdeenshire,
early on Thursday morning little bands of men from all the
neighbouring parishes, moving on in lines, the stoutest in ad
vance breaking up a path for his companions who followed
him, were seen Wending their way to the church of Marnoch.
In two or three carriages drawn by four horses each, the
clerical actors and their law-agents were conveyed to the same
spot. A singular assemblage was gathered there to greet
their approach. Upon the trampled and slushy ground around
the kirk, two thousand men were standing. The church doors
were opened, and the church was instantly and densely filled —
thick groups gathering about doors and windows who could not
obtain admittance. The lower part of the building was reserved
for the parishioners, and the galleries for strangers. The court
having been opened by prayer, the following dialogue occurred.
Mr. Murray, one of the elders of the parish. — " I wish to
ask you by whose authority you have met here 1"
The Rev. Mr. Thomson of Keith, the Moderator of the Pres
bytery. — " By the authority of the National Church, and in
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ."
Mr. Murray. — " Have you any proof to shew that you came
here by the authority of the National Church V
Mr. Thomson. — " The meeting must be first constituted by
the Clerk reading the minutes, and we shall then answer your
question." All the necessary documents having been read, the Modera
tor remarked that they had one party at the bar, and asked if
there were any other individuals who wished to appear as

216 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841.
parties in the case. The question called up Mr. Murray, and
the interrupted dialogue was resumed, the law-agents of the
respective parties taking now a part in.it.
Mr. Murray. — " Came you here by the authority of the
General Assembly? I ask you that before answering your
question." Mr. Thomson. — " We will give any information to parties at
the bar, but not to any other. Do you intend to sist yourself
as a party at the bar ? "
Mr. Murray. — " No, Sir ; but, at any rate, I should first re
quire to know by what authority you came here."
Mr. Peterkin of Edinburgh. — " It is utterly impossible that
any person can be heard who does not appear as a party at the
bar, and is entered on the minutes a party there."
Mr. Duncan. — " As agent for the elders, heads of families,
and communicants of the parish of Marnoch, and particularly
for Mr. Murray, I put again the question, which has been as
yet refused an answer. We cannot appear as parties at your
bar, till we are convinced of your authority."
Mr. Thomson. — " Although we do not admit the right of
any party to question us on our authority for meeting here,
yet I have no objection to say that we are here as the -Pres
bytery of Strathbogie, a part of the National Church, assembled
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ."
Mr. Duncan. — " Do you appear here by the authority of the
General Assembly, or against its authority ?"
Mr. Thomson. — " We are sent here as the Presbytery of
Strathbogie, and under the protection of the law of the land."
Mr. Duncan. — " Do you give me no reply to my question ?"
Mr. Thomson. — " No, no."
As the authority of the Presbytery was not recognised by
the people, the only alternative left to Mr. Duncan was, as
their agent, and in their name, to read two protests, the one

MS. 61. SETTLEMENT AT MARNOCH. 217
signed by all the elders, and the other by four hundred and
fifty communicants. In the first of these, the protesters,
addressing themselves to- the ministers, said, " It is with ex
treme pain and disappointment that your personal position as
suspended ministers of the Church of Scotland precludes us
from appearing before you to lodge objections against the
settlement of Mr. Edwards, which have been prepared and are
ready to be substantiated before any competent Church Court.
These objections we solemnly declare to be such, affecting as
they do the qualifications, life, and doctrine of Mr. Edwards,
as, in our opinion, to cause his deposition even if he were an
ordained minister, and to preclude him from admission in his
character of a licentiate claiming ordination as presentee to our
parish. * * * We earnestly beg you to consider the above,
and avoid the desecration of the ordinance of ordination ; but
if you shall venture to disregard this representation, we do
solemnly, and as in the presence of the great Head of the
Church, the Lord Jesus Christ, repudiate and disown the pre
tended ordination of Mr. Edwards as minister of Marnoch.
We deliberately declare, that if such proceedings could have
any effect they must involve the most heinous guilt and fearful
responsibility in reference to the dishonour done to religion
and the cruel injury to the spiritual interests of a united Chris
tian congregation."
" Having read the protest," we quote now the words of an
eye-witness, " Mr. Duncan said, ' As agent for the elders, male
heads of families, and communicants of Marnoch, I have now
only to say, that they take no further part in these unconsti
tutional proceedings. They wait a better time and another
court. They can have no further business here, and they will,
I believe, all accompany me from the church, and leave you to
force a minister on a parish against the people's will, but with
scarcely one of the parishioners to witness the deed.' The
VOL. IV. T

218 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841.
people of Marnoch immediately arose from their seats in the
body of the church : old men, with heads white as the snow
that lay deep on their native hills, the middle aged, and the
young who were but rising into life. Gathering up their Bibles
and Psalm-books, which in country churches often remain
there for half a century, they left the church once free to them
and theirs, but now given up to the spoiler. They went out,
many in tears and all in grief. No word of disrespect or
reproach escaped their lips. They went away in the strong
conviction that their cause was with the most Powerful, and that
with Him rested the redress of all their wrongs. Even those
who sat in the pew — the only pew representing Intrusionism,
were moved — they were awed. ' Will they all leave V we heard
some of them whispering. Yes, they all left, never to return."*
When they left the church, the people of Marnoch assembled
in a snowy hollow, at the foot of the hill on which the church
was built, and having listened to a short address from Mr.
Duncan, in which he strongly urged that every thing should
be done with order, unity, and peace, they separated", and, with
a rare exercise of self-denial, retired to their different homes.
The place left vacant by them in the church was immediately
filled by a rush of strangers from without, and a disgraceful
scene of riotous disorder ensued, which it required the presence
of a magistrate to check. When peace had been restored the
act of ordination was completed. It was an ordination alto
gether unparalleled in the history of the Church, performed
by a Presbytery of suspended clergymen, on a Call by a single
communicant, against the desire of the Patron, in face of the
strenuous opposition of a united Christian congregation, in
opposition to the express injunction of the General Assembly,
* Extracted from the " Aberdeen Banner," and from the able pen of its editor,
Mr. Troup, whose admirable account of the Marnoch Intrusion was circulated
widely over the country, and made a very deep impression.

MS. 61. MEETING AT EDINBURGH. 219
at the sole bidding, and under the sole authority, of the Court
of Session.
The conduct of the people, so decorous on the day of this
ordination, was equally judicious and becoming afterwards. To
provide for the existing emergency they resolved to erect a
place of worship for themselves in a village three miles from
the parish church, and where, whatever might be the issue, a
church would be required. Many meetings were held over
Scotland to express sympathy with them in their painful posi
tion, and to aid them in the erection of this church. It was
matter of sincere regret to Dr. Chalmers that his state of
health prevented his being present at the meeting which was
held for this purpose in Edinburgh. In his letter of apology
to the chairman, and contemplating the necessary effect of this
ordination at Marnoch, he could not refrain from saying, " May
Heaven at length open the eyes of those infatuated men who
are now doing so much to hasten on a crisis which they will
be the first to deplore, and we most certainly shall do nothing
to prevent if at the expense of that adherence which we owe
to our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, for whose supremacy in
the Church we are willing to suffer all, casting the burden of
our whole cares upon Him, and confident that out of these
tribulations, He, in His own good time, will usher in the peace
and the purity of better days." The same cause which de
tained Dr. Chalmers from this meeting prevented his coming
forward publicly on behalf of the Church till the meeting of
the General Assembly in May 1841, and but for the Strathbogie
case he would not even have ventured to take any part in its
proceedings. He restricted himself, however, to two appear
ances. The extreme difficulty which had been experienced in
effecting any legal harmony between the claims of the patrons
and the privileges of the people had gradually reconciled him
to a public movement for the total abolition of lay patronage

220 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841.
in the Church ; and in the debate, which took place on Tues
day the 25th May, he gave expression to his somewhat altered
sentiments on this subject. He retired from the Assembly as
soon as he had spoken, reserving his strength for Thursday
the 27th, the day on which the case of the suspended ministers
was to come before the Court. These clergymen occupied that
day in St. Andrew's church a position very, different from that
which they had occupied in the church of Marnoch. The
churches were equally crowded, but below, in place of the
inhabitants of a quiet rural parish, the whole area was occu
pied by ministers and elders of the Church, while eager rows
of students and citizens of the metropolis were seen piled up
in the galleries, packing the space up to the very walls.
Instead of calling others to their own bar, the suspended
clergymen now stood at the bar of the General Assembly. It
was a most distressing office which the Assembly had to dis
charge, and a sense of the momentous issues which hung sus
pended upon the execution of it inspired an unwonted solemnity.
Dr. Chalmers was well aware that the act about to be performed
would meet with the loudest condemnation from mere secular
politicians, from all who could find no room in the common
wealth, no room even in the Church, for the supremacy of any
other law than that which the civil tribunals of the country
were instituted to interpret and enforce. He desired, therefore,
not only to take his full share of the responsibility, but to
place himself here in the front of the battle ; and solemn prayer
having been offered up for guidance from on high, he moved
that the Assembly should, in the first instance, find that these
clergymen had committed offences involving deposition. " We
are told," he said, " by the friends of these gentlemen, that in all
they have done they have been actuated by a sense of duty,
or by the impulse of a conscience stirring within them, and
which they found to be irresistible. We will not deny this,

MS. 61. SPEECH IN THE ASSEMBLY. 221
and we have no interest in denying it ; but I would ask, when
we deposed Mr. Irving the other year for an alleged heresy,
did we make our decision turn upon his conscience ? or did we
take evidence on the consciences of Mr. Maclean and Mr. Dow,
when we took his license from the one, and his parochial
charge from the other ? or were we arrested by the conscience
or the conscientiousness of that holy and excellent person, Mr.
Campbell of Row, when we ejected him from his status as a
minister of the Church of Scotland ? Sir, I know not what
the inward principle of the ministers of Strathbogie may have
been, nor will I attempt any conjecture on this subject ; but I
do know, that when forbidden by their ecclesiastical superiors
to proceed any further with Mr. Edwards, they took him upon
trials ; and when suspended from the functions of the sacred
ministry by a Commission of the General Assembly, they con
tinued to preach and to dispense the Sacraments, — that they
called in the aid of the civil power to back them in the exclu
sion from their respective parishes of clergymen appointed by
the only competent Court to fulfil the office which they were no
longer competent to discharge ; and lastly, as if to crown and
consummate this whole disobedience, — as if to place the top-
stone on the Babel of their proud and rebellious defiance, I
know that, to the scandal and astonishment of all Scotland, and
with a daring which I believe themselves would have shrunk
from at the outset of their headlong career, they put forth
their unlicensed hands on the dread work of ordination ; and
as if in solemn mockery of the Church's most venerable forms,
asked of the unhappy man who knelt before them if he pro
mised ' to submit himself humbly and willingly, in the spirit of
meekness, unto the admonitions of the brethren of the Presby
tery, and to be subject to them and all other Presbyteries and
superior judicatories of this Church ;' and got back from him
an affirmative response, along with the declaration that ' zeal

222 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841.
for the honour of God, love to Jesus Christ, and desire of sav
ing souls, were his great motives and chief inducements to
enter into the functions of the holy ministry, and not worldly
designs and interests.'* Sir, I repeat I am not able to go into
the depth and the mysteries of men's consciences ; but this I
am able to perceive, that if in heresy this plea were sustained,
the Church would be left without a creed ; and that if in con
tumacy this plea were sustained, the Church would be left
without a government, both doctrine and discipline would be
given to the winds, and our National Church were bereft of all
her virtue to uphold the Christianity of the nation, when thus
helpless and degraded, she wras alike unable to correct the errors,
however deadly, or to control the waywardness, however perni
cious and perverse, of her own children.
" The Church of Scotland can never give way, and will
sooner give up her existence as a national establishment, than
give up her power as a self-acting and self-regulating body, to
do what in her judgment is best for the honour of the Re
deemer and the interest of His kingdom upon earth. We can
see no other alternative. If these men do not humble them
selves, their deposition is inevitable. The Church of Scotland
cannot tolerate, and what is more, it could not survive the
scandal of quietly putting up with a delinquency so enormous
as that into which these brethren have fallen. If the vindica
tion of her outraged authority is indeed to be the precursor of
her dissolution as a National Church — if, in the recent lan
guage of an offended nobleman within these walls — if this is
to be the last knell of the Presbyterian establishment in Scot
land, only let the Legislature say so : and then let it be seen
whether or not the Church of our fathers be prepared to abjure
her connexion with the State, rather than, bereft of all her re-
* From the questions put preparatory to ordination, the answers to which con
stitute the ordination vows.

MS. 61. THE DEPOSITION OF THE STRATHBOGIE MINISTERS. 223
spect, and so of all her usefulness, she will submit to be vilified
into a thing of nought."
Dr. Cook moved, in opposition, that all proceedings insti
tuted against these clergymen should be set aside as incompe
tent, and that they should be declared to be in the same
situation in all respects as if no such proceedings had ever
taken place. The debate, which commenced early in the fore
noon, was, after a brief adjournment, resumed in the evening,
and lasted for nearly twelve hours. At its close, Dr. Chal
mers's motion was carried by a majority of 97, in a house of
347 members. Immediately after the vote was taken, one of
the suspended clergymen, on the part of himself and his bre
thren, read a statement to the House, in which they said —
" We acknowledge that we owe all duty, and we are ready to
yield all obedience, to the Church in all things lawful ; but we
cannot consent to violate the rights of others, or to assist in
violating the law, or to abandon the duty which we owe to the
State, merely because a majority of office-bearers in the Church
have arbitrarily resolved to require it. * * * We are here
then to justify ourselves in the acts that are set forth in the
libel." * * * Having read a lengthened justification of
their conduct, they retired from the House. It was now long
past midnight, and nothing remained but that the solemn act
of deposition should be performed. The Rev. Dr. Macfarlan of
Greenock rose and said — " In the absence of my respected
friend Dr. Chalmers" — it was known that Dr. Chalmers had
retired immediately after he had spoken in the forenoon, and
it was not imagined that at so late an hour he would be in the
House. He had returned, however, and was sitting at this
time in a remote part of the Church, unnoticed by those who
were around the Moderator's chair. At the mention of his
name numerous intimations were made of his presence, and
Dr. Macfarlan immediately gave way. Advancing to the table

224 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841.
amid the profound silence of the vast assemblage, Dr. Chalmers
said — " I am sorry to find, from the resolute and unyielding
appearance of the gentlemen at the bar, that there is now no
alternative but to submit the following motion : — That the
General Assembly, in respect of each of the said offences of
which the said parties have respectively been found guilty as
aforesaid, as each by itself involving deposition, do depose the
said Messrs. John Cruickshank, William Cowie, William Allar-
dyce, William Masson, James Walker, James Thomson, and
James Alexander Cruickshank, from the office of the holy mi
nistry." The motion passed without a vote ; but before the
sentence of deposition was pronounced, Dr. Cook read a protest
in which, for himself and for as many as would join with him,
it was declared — " We regard it as binding upon every mem
ber of a Church as established by law to be subject to the civil
power in all matters declared by the supreme civil authorities
of the country to affect temporal rights, and that for conscience'
sake ; and firmly convinced as we are that the said ministers
have acted in conformity to this obligation, and that they have
done nothing which is not sanctioned both by ecclesiastical
and civil law, we cannot, without violating what we owe to the
Church and State, cease to regard these men as still ministers,
just as if the proceedings against them had never been insti
tuted." Such a rush was made to sign this paper, that for a
time the order of the House was broken, and its proceedings
stopped. When quiet was restored, the Moderator, Dr. Gordon,
called on the Rev. Dr. Brown of Glasgow to engage in prayer,
after which he pronounced from the chair the solemn sentence
of deposition. It was about three o'clock in the morning
when the Assembly adjourned, the House remaining crowded
to the last moment.
On assembling the following day, it was felt that the decla
ration which had been laid on the table the night -before, and

MS. 61. THE INTERDICT SERVED UPON THE ASSEMBLY. 225
which so many of the Moderate party had exhibited such
eagerness to sign, was such, that if carried out in action, an
immediate and total breach between the two parties was in
evitable. Without pressing the matter as far as the character
of the document appeared to demand, Mr. Dunlop moved that
the Assembly should simply refuse to receive it. Dr. Cook
intimated that he and his friends " had no desire to push
the matter farther at present ; they had no desire to take
steps at present to follow out their opinions, and therefore he
would not oppose the motion of his learned friend, that the
protest be not received." The impending danger thus seemed
to be postponed. On the evening, however, of the following
day a new alarm was sounded, and the House was thrown into
a state of extreme excitement. While a debate on the elder
ship was quietly proceeding, the Moderator interrupted the
speaker to inform the Assembly that he had just received an
intimation that a messenger-at-arms was waiting at the door
to serve upon the Assembly an interdict against their proceed
ing to carry the sentence of deposition into effect. For a few
minutes the deep silence of amazement and uncertainty pre
vailed. It was suggested by Mr. Dunlop that as Her Majesty's
Commissioner was not present, a deputation should proceed
forthwith to his Grace to inform him of the circumstance.
Till the result of this movement was known, the debate was
recommenced. It had not been long resumed when the Commis
sioner arrived, and having received formal intimation through
the Moderator of what had occurred, he said — " I am at all
times happy to be present with you. It is my duty ; and in
the exercise of that duty I trust I shall not be found wanting,
whether it be to uphold the rights of the Assembly or to sup
port and maintain the prerogative of the Crown, from what
ever quarter they may be assailed." The messenger-at-arms
had in the meantime left the interdict with the Assembly's

226 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841.
officer at the door and withdrawn. The document was laid
upon the table, and the House adjourned. On Monday a series
of resolutions, carefully reciting all the circumstances as they
occurred, and declaring the attempt thus made to be a flagrant
breach of the privileges of the National Church, were passed,
and ordered to be transmitted to Her Majesty the Queen in
Council ; and without further notice of the interference, the
business of the Assembly was resumed.
The Parliamentary session of 1841 had opened on the 26th
January, and on the 28th, in answer to a question by Lord
Haddington, the Premier intimated that it was not the inten
tion of the Government to bring in any measure for altering
the Law of Patronage in Scotland ; that in the meantime the
authority of the existing law should be enforced, and effectual
means taken for protecting those who were determined to obey
it. Lord Melbourne did not specify what particular methods
of enforcement or protection were to be employed. A some
what singular illustration, however, of the equivocal conduct
of the Government was ere long supplied. Having resolved to
institute a new Chair of Biblical Criticism in the University
of Edinburgh, they had selected the Rev. Dr. Candlish as an
individual pre-eminently qualified to fill it. No sooner did
their intention become known, than Lord Aberdeen brought
the matter before the House of Lords, vehemently condemning
such an appointment, on the ground that Dr. Candlish had
recently broken an interdict of the Court of Session by preach
ing in Strathbogie. The Government yielded, and at the last
moment the appointment was quashed, Lord Normanby re
marking, " that, in consequence of many recommendations in
his favour. Her Majesty's Government had been disposed to give
Dr. Candlish the appointment, but the moment they heard that
he had placed himself in opposition to the law, they at once
put an end to all further proceedings upon the subject." It

MS. 61. DR. CANDLISH AND CHAIR OF BIBLICAL CRITICISM. 227
was notorious that Dr. Candlish had acted under the sanction
of the Assembly, and had done nothing more than had been
done by almost all the leading ministers of the Evangelical
party. If he and they were guilty of such acts as disqualified
them for being the objects of Government patronage — if
they had actually placed themselves in opposition to the law,
some other and more stringent procedure against them was
imperatively demanded ; but so long as the constitutional
question, whether their acts were acts of rebellion or not, re
mained unsettled, and so long as the Government itself declined
legislatively to determine that question, it seemed unfair to single
out an individual, and to inflict upon him such a penalty. It
gave the Church, however, distinctly to understand that while
neither of the two great political parties in the State were
disposed to interfere for her extrication, they both agreed in
regarding it as imperative upon her to give such obedience to
the law, as the Court of Session was requiring at her hands.
There was neither the candour to concede her claims, nor
the boldness to repudiate them. Had the law officers of the
Crown received instructions to proceed in ordinary course to
vindicate the authority of the law ; had complaints against
any or all of those clergymen who had preached in Strathbogie
been lodged in Court, and the common compulsitors of law —
fine or imprisonment — been put into operation ; had the
Church even authoritatively been told by the Government,
that she must either retrace her steps, undo what she had
done, and submit to all the adverse sentences of the Court of
Session, or be visited with all the common penalties which
an infraction of law incurred, she would have known better
what to do. As it was, her position was so painful that
it occurred to some ministers in Greenock and its vicinity,
that instead of waiting till interminable litigation from with
out, and a wider anarchy from within, rendered it impossible

228 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841.
for her to carry on her government, she should go forward to
the Legislature, and insist either that her spiritual independ
ence should be recognised and secured, or that the connexion
between her and the State should be dissolved. This proposal
was communicated by the Rev. Mr. Smith of Greenock, to a
few of the leading friends of the Church in Edinburgh. It
seemed more premature to others than it did to Dr. Chalmers,
who replied as follows : — "Edinbdrgh, March 24th, 1841.
" My dear Sir, — I am quite in love with your proposition,
insomuch that if sure of an instant majority in its favour, I
would have it tabled instantly. My fear is that many of our
truest friends, while they might admire the step as ultimately
the very best for our Church, yet would view it still as a
measure in reserve, or that the time for its being carried into
effect had not just yet arrived. You must agree with myself
in thinking, that, if because of the influence of such a feeling
we were left in a minority should it be proposed now, it were
better that we waited a little longer the progress of events —
the leadings and indications of Providence, ere we come to the
final resolution which you and your friends now overture ; and
which I most cordially feel with yourselves to be by far the
most graceful and dignified method on our part of terminating
the contest.
" Meanwhile every effort should be made, not only to ascer
tain the sentiments of the clergy on this proposal, but to re
commend it, as being in fact the best acquittal which the
Church could make of the part which belongs to her — so soon
as circumstances shall at length announce the fit and suitable
period for such a crisis. I fear it were still premature to con
fer with Presbyteries on the subject ; and more especially as
they would have greatly too little time for making up their
minds previous to the election of their this year's representa-

MS. 61. APPEAL TO THE MODERATE PARTY. 229
tives ; but when the Assembly meets, one could better ascertain
the dispositions and views of the brethren. Were a decided
majority prepared for such a step, I should rejoice in the
immediate adoption of it ; and, at all events, I hope a declara
tion will be so framed, as shall commit us to the very measure
which you have suggested, by the next Assembly thereafter,
should no redress by that time be had from the Legislature,
for our now increasing and aggravated wrongs.
" I shall be most happy to hear farther from you on • this
important matter. You point at a noble outgoing, which I
hope, if matters come to the worst, we shall be enabled to
realize. — I ever am, my dear Sir, yours most cordially,
Thomas Chalmers.
" The Rev. James Smith."
Another gleam of light was hovering on the dark horizon.
A few days before this letter was written, the Duke of Argyll
had given notice in the House of Lords of his intention to
bring in a Bill for the settlement of the Scotch Church ques
tion. The Duke's measure was introduced on the 5th May.
It differed from the Veto Law only by extending the right
of dissent to all male communicants, instead of restricting it
to the male heads of families, and by making specific provision
for the veto being set aside, whenever it could be proved to
have sprung from factious motives or causeless prejudices. At
its first reading, it met with strenuous opposition from Lords
Aberdeen, Haddington, and Dunfermline. Its farther con
sideration was postponed till after the meeting of the General
Assembly. The discussion of its merits within that venerable
Court was signalized by the remarkable effect of an appeal
made by Dr. Candlish to the Moderate party. So sincere,
so affectionate, so solemn, and so forcible was that appeal,
that for a moment it seemed as if Dr. Cook and his friends

230 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841.
would withdraw their opposition to a measure, under which it
was admitted that they could act without any violence done to
conscience ; and had it gone up to Parliament with the seal
upon it of an unopposed approval on the part of the Church,
this might have gone far to recommend its adoption to the
Legislature. The hope was but momentary. While recipro
cating the brotherly spirit in which they had been addressed,
the Moderate party could not see it to be consistent with the
duty which they owed to the Church and country to with
hold their opposition. Nevertheless by a majority of more
than two to one — the largest majority which had occurred in
the course of these divisions, the House declared its approval
of the measure. So marked an expression of the Church's
feeling must have had some weight at the second reading of
the Bill. But before the time for that second reading arrived,
Sir Robert Peel had obtained his majority on the vote of want
of confidence in the ministry. Parliament was immediately
dissolved. The elections sealed the fate of the Melbourne
Administration, and on the 30th August, Sir Robert Peel was
at the head of the strongest Government the country had
known for years. Meanwhile in Scotland, untoward move
ments on the part of the Church's adversaries were hurrying
things onward to the fatal catastrophe. A deputation from
the minority in the General Assembly, which had opposed the
deposition of the Strathbogie ministers, had gone to London
early in June, and laid before the Government an elaborate
statement on behalf of the deposed clergymen, and the mino
rity by whom they were supported. This statement was signed
by Principal Macfarlan, Dr. Hill, Dr. Bryce, Mr. Grant of
Leith, and Mr. Robertson of Ellon. It contained the following
ominous declarations : — " The minority and those that adhere to
them, cannot in conscience submit to this decision — [the act
of deposition] — they cannot, in conscience, whatever may be

iET. 61. STATEMENT BY THE MODERATE FARTY. 231
the consequences, fail to act in opposition to it." * * * "If
Government will only intimate its resolute purpose of uphold
ing the present law, until the final findings of this law in re
gard to the cases which have actually arisen shall have been
ascertained and complied with, the temporary excitement that
now prevails on the subject will soon in great measure pass
away. It is, they are fully persuaded, because sufficient care
has not been taken to guard against the cherishing of delu
sive and unconstitutional expectations, that matters have
reached in Scotland the fearful crisis to which they have now
attained."* * *" If the responsible advisers of the Crown shall
be prepared to instruct their law-officers to maintain in the
Civil Courts the cause of the ministers of Strathbogie, and of
others who may be placed in similar circumstances, and to pro
secute for breach of interdict, &c, those who may, in opposi
tion to interdicts granted by the competent Courts, invade
the rights of such parties, the minority of the last General
Assembly, and the large body of office-bearers of the Church
of Scotland who hold views in common with that minority,
will have much reason to be satisfied." * * * " If her Majesty's
Government shall be of opinion that less stringent measures
may be effectual for the accomplishment of the object in view,
they are not only willing but most anxious that such measures
should have in the first instance a fair trial." Worse than
the open declaration that they would voluntarily act in opposi
tion to a decision of their Church, and worse even than the
expression of satisfaction at the prosecution and punishment
of the most eminent ministers of the Establishment, was the
assurance given here to the Government, that nothing but a
slight exercise of coercion was needed to remove that tempo
rary agitation which false hopes had stirred. The majority
had solemnly declared that the law as now interpreted was
one which they could not conscientiously obey. The minority

232 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841.
came forward to affirm that this was not so ; and that if force
were but firmly applied the consciences of their brethren
would give way. It was that incredulity as to the religious
integrity of the evangelical ministers ; it was this false witness
ing to Government by those who, being clergymen themselves,
were supposed to be best able to take the true gauge and
measure of the clerical conscience, which lay at the root of the
Disruption. Before the meeting of the Commission on the 11th August,
one part of the London statement had been made good. Mr.
Grant, Mr. Robertson, and others, had held ministerial com
munion with the deposed clergymen, and assisted them in the
celebration of the Lord's Supper. This act of gratuitous in
subordination was reported to the Commission, which, pro
secuting its clear but painful course of duty, instructed the
Presbyteries to which the offending ministers belonged, to take
such steps as were necessary for vindicating the authority of
the Church, and proposed that a " solemn remonstrance and
warning" should be prepared and addressed to them. When
the resolution to this effect was carried, Dr. Cook gave in
reasons of dissent, the second of which was as follows: —
" Because the resolution now sanctioned, puts an end to all
hope of devising any measure by which the members of the
Church might be united, and imposes upon us, and upon all
who agree with us in the opinion which we have repeatedly
expressed as to our present distressing condition, to take such
steps as may appear most effectual for ascertaining from com
petent authority, whether we who now dissent, and they who
concur with us, or they who continue to set at nought the law
of the land, and the decisions of the Civil Courts in what we
esteem a matter of civil right, are to be held by the Legisla
ture of the country as constituting the Established Church,
and as entitled to the privileges and endowments conferred by

MS. 61. SPEECH AT THE COMMISSION. 233
Statute upon the ministers of that Church." Instead of the
question coming before the Legislature as one between the
Church and the Civil Courts, Dr. Cook desired to present it as
one between two parties in the Church who could not longer
remain united, one or other of which must be repudiated by
the Legislature. If actually entertained in that form by the
Administration of Sir Robert Peel, there could be no doubt of
the decision being in favour of that party to which Dr. Cook
was attached. The prospect of so speedy a settlement de
manded the most prompt and vigorous measures ; and a special
meeting of the Commission was summoned to meet on the
25th August. Dr. Chalmers, who had not been at the pre
vious meeting, resolved to be present upon this occasion, that
he might sound the key-note of preparation for that event
which he now believed to be almost, if not altogether inevitable.
" As to the war of argument," he said, " that is now over ;
seeing the time has come when the strife of words must give
place to the strife of opposing deeds and opposing purposes.
In this, the ministers of the other side have set us the ex
ample. They have begun with deeds which we must disallow ;
and they now tell us that they mean to call on the Legislature
for their declaration, which of the two parties is henceforth to
be the Established Church of Scotland. It is but justice both
to the public and to the Government, that they should know
how it is that we stand affected by such an intimation. There
has I fear been a strange incredulity all along, in regard to the
strength of our principles, or at what hazard, and to what
extent of sacrifice, we have resolved to maintain them. The
necessity is now laid upon us, that we should make a distinct
and articulate reply to this question, and my fondest prayer,
even as for the salvation both of the country and of the
Church, is for the response of an unshrinking and undimi
nished majority that the principles on which they have
VOL. IV. u

234 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841.
hitherto acted they are resolved to abide by, whatever be
the hazard, and whatever be the sacrifice. * * * It is our
solemn duty to do all we can for the averting of such a cata
strophe, (the breaking up of the Establishment,) and heaven
forbid that it should be hastened on by any indiscretion, still
less by any disrespect, or any deed of violence on our part.
* * * I will proceed no further, and for this single reason, lest
the language of determination should be interpreted into the
language of defiance. Most assuredly I have no desire that
the breach should be any further widened ; and yet it is of the
utmost importance — of the utmost practical importance for the
right settlement of this question — that the state of matters
should be plainly understood, for nothing can exceed the miscon
ception, cherished especially by the higher classes, both in this
country and in London. Be it known unto all men then, that
we have no wish for a disruption, but neither stand we in the
overwhelming dread of it. We have no ambition, as has
pleasantly been said of us, for martyrdoms of any sort, but
neither will we shrink from the hour or the day of trial. In
short, let it be distinctly known, both over the country at
large, and more especially in the camp of our adversaries, that,
whatever the misgivings might be in other quarters, among
us there are no falterings, no fears. Should what has been
termed the crisis arrive, we know of a clear, and an honourable,
and withal a Christian outgoing ; confident in the smile of an
approving heaven from above, and that confidence not abated
when we look around on the goodly spectacle of our friends
and fellow-Christians — the best and worthiest of Scotland's
sons — in readiness to hail and to harbour the men who are
willing to give up all for the sake of conscience and of Chris
tian liberty. The God whom they serve will not leave them
without help or without a home."
To be prepared for the worst, the Commission appointed a

St. 61. MEETING IN ST. CUTHBERT'S CHURCH. 235
large Committee, with instructions to bring " the principles
and privileges of the Church, as well as the dangers that may
threaten us, before the Government, the Legislature, and the
country at large, by deputations, public statements, meetings,
and such other means as may appear expedient." The first
public meeting held in fulfilment of this resolution took place
in the Church of St. Cuthbert's, Edinburgh, on the evening of
the day on which the Commission met. That church exhi
bited on this occasion an extraordinary spectacle. Fourteen
hundred ministers and elders were crowded together- in the
lower part of the building, while from the double tiers of
galleries as many spectators as could force their way into the
edifice were gazing down upon the scene. The Rev. Dr.
Gordon occupied the chair, and a resolution to adhere at
all hazards to the principles upon which the Church had
taken her stand was unanimously adopted by the vast assem
blage. The alternative of separation from the Establish
ment, to which so many ministers might speedily be forced,
was steadily contemplated, and the first hint thrown out
of that peculiar method of sustaining them in their new
positions which Dr. Chalmers had already designed. He was
the first to give up all hope of a satisfactory Parliamentary
adjustment ; he was the first also to busy himself both with
the design and the execution of the practical measures required
by the approaching Disruption. This meeting in Edinburgh
was followed up by similar meetings all over the country, in
which a spirit of equal energy and resolution was manifested.
This general attitude of determination and preparedness had its
temporary effect. The threatened appeal to the Legislature was
not persisted in, and the Government made a friendly instead
of a hostile movement towards the Church. Taking the earliest
opportunity of addressing the new Administration, Commis
sioners, appointed by the Church, had waited on Sir Robert

236 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841.
Peel, and presented a Memorial* to the Government. Almost
immediately thereafter a proposal was made by Sir George
Sinclair to the Non-Intrusion Committee for effecting a final
adjustment of the question, by adding a clause which he had
drawn up to the Bill of Lord Aberdeen. Understanding that
this clause recognised the right of the Church Courts to give
effect to the objections of the people, if found to be insuperable,
in every case in which they considered it to be their duty
to do so, the Committee, while carefully guarding themselves
against a positive approval of such a settlement, stated that it
was one to which they could conscientiously submit. The
negotiation originated by Sir George Sinclair had an official
character bestowed upon it, when Mr. Bruce of Kennet, on the
suggestion of Sir James Graham, formally submitted the fol
lowing queries to the Committee : — " In the event of a pro
posal coming from Her Majesty's Government, based on the
clause transmitted by Sir George Sinclair, and sent by the
* Another and counter Memorial was presented to the Government by the Com
mittee of the Moderate party, in which the following statements occur : — " To the
principle of Non-Intrusion, holding that term to be synonymous with a right of
arbitrary dissent or rejection by congregations or Presbyteries, the Memorialists
entertain the strongest objections, in whatever form or by whatever means it may
be proposed to bring that principle into practical operation. * * * But, much
as the Memorialists deprecate the adoption of this ' Non-Intrusion' principle, in
any form or to any effect, they must add the expression of their humble but very
decided opinion, that of all the modes yet proposed for giving effect to the principle
the most impolitic and the most mischievous is that which concedes to the Church
the exercise of what is called liberum arbitrium — a discretionary and irresponsible
power to determine, not judicially, nor according to any ascertained rule, but arbi
trarily in every case, as to the amount and character of the popular feeling existing
against a presentee, and the weight that is to be given to it. Such a measure
appears to the Memorialists to be dangerous alike to civil and religious liberty. * *
The ' spiritual independence' which has been claimed on the part of the Church is
essentially inconsistent with the first principles of social order. * * New cases
were daily arising ; and no man could tell how soon it might become his own per
sonal duty to choose between the obedience which he had vowed to law and con
stituted authority and submission to a new, fanciful, anomalous principle, which tht
Church has chosen to dignify with the name of ' Spiritual Independence.' " — See Me
morial by the Constitutional Committee, pp. 5, 25, 40, 41.

MS. 61. THE DEAN OF FACULTY AND DR. CANDLISH. 237
Dean of Faculty to Lord Aberdeen, will the Non-Intrusion
Committee appointed by the Assembly (though they should
prefer another mode) accept it as a final settlement of the
Non-Intrusion question?" Retaining their first idea, of the
meaning and effect of the clause, the Committee gave the
same answer to Mr. Bruce which they had given to Sir George
Sinclair. It was understood that unless the proposed settle
ment was carried through in the session of Parliament then
sitting, both parties would be relieved from their obligations—
the Government from any obligation to propose, the Committee
from any obligation to accept. The shortness of that session
precluded any Government action in the matter, and before
the Parliament assembled again in November a correspondence
between the Dean of Faculty and Dr. Candlish had disclosed
a most serious disagreement as to the real significance of Sir
George's clause. According to the Dean's interpretation, which
mature reflection convinced the Committee was the true one,
the Church Courts would have no liberty in any case to give
effect to the dissent of the congregation simply as such. Neither
Lord Aberdeen nor the Dean of Faculty looked upon the clause
as effecting any change in this respect upon the Bill as it stood
originally. It was its denial of such liberty that led to its rejec
tion in its earlier, and the same denial led to its rejection in its
amended form. A lengthened explanation of the misunder
standing which had thus occurred was addressed by the Com
mittee to Sir James Graham, who, in his reply, stated, " I have
no hesitation in. stating, that had it been explained at the time
that the words suggested by Sir George Sinclair were intended
to bear the construction placed upon them in your letter, the
proposed measure would, on that ground, also have been con
sidered equally inadmissible." Upon the negotiation which
this letter closed we cannot now look back without admiring
the generous and devoted zeal of Sir George Sinclair, who gave

238 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841.
his days and nights to bring it to a successful issue ; and
whatever blindness the Committee may in the first instance
have displayed, (and it was a blindness in which they had good
reason to believe that both the Dean himself and Lord Aber
deen participated,)* it almost atones for that error, that we can
now point to it as a proof how anxious the Church was to
obtain a settlement, and how willing she would have been to
accede to any arrangement under which, in any form, the
principle of Non-Intrusion could have been preserved. Dr.
Chalmers took no part in these negotiations which led to so un
happy an issue. The following extracts from letters addressed
during this period to Sir George Sinclair, of whose unwearied
and disinterested services he entertained the warmest admira
tion, will indicate not only how hopeless he was of any satisfac
tory result arising out of them, but how engaged his thoughts
were with ulterior prospects already opening to his view.
" Bukntisland, August 16tA, 1841.
" Dear Sir George, — What you propose is substantially an
acquiescence in Lord Aberdeen's Bill.
" Be assured that it was in perfect good faith I told his
Lordship, more than twelve months ago, that we could not
conscientiously minister in a Church placed under the fetters
and provisions of such a legislation as he had prepared for us.
Nothing has occurred since to alter this feeling, but every
* " I remember Sir George Sinclair reporting to us Mr. Hope's admission that
the Bill, as amended, would enable Church Courts ' to enforce the Veto in any par
ticular instance if they chose ;' although 1 am inclined to believe, from what will
afterwards be stated, that this admission must have been made in a very limited
and qualified acceptation of that phrase, or that Sir George had misapprehended
Mr. Hope. It appears that Mr. Hope's representation was successful in persuading
Lord Aberdeen to change his mind. His Lordship consented to the introduction
of Sir George Sinclair's clause, of which he had previously said that it would
' make the appeal of the Veto Law illusory.' " — Narrative relating to certain recent
Negotiations, dec, by Dr. Candlish, pp. 9, 10.

St. 61. CORRESPONDENCE WITH SIR GEORGE SINCLAIR. 239
thing to strengthen and confirm it. Not the outrage at Mar
noch — not the harassing interference of the Civil Courts, and
not, most certainly, the hostile declarations of public and
parliamentary men, backed though they now are by a majority,
which seems to have given fresh confidence to our adversaries,
and emboldened them to brandish over our heads the menace
and terror of our approaching overthrow. This last experi
ment will be as fruitless as any of the former ones. On this
question we are now unchanged, and I hope unchangeable.
We stand on the ground of principle ; nor can I image a
greater infatuation than the incredulity of those who will not
believe that from that ground we shall never recede, whatever
be the damages or the deprivations which they might purpose
to lay upon us.
" I can well understand that the Church of Scotland is
dear to many whose views are opposite to our own in the
present controversy. It might well be dear to them, as the
only palladium of true Conservatism in the land, and the only
antagonist force to the Chartism and the Socialism and the
lawless spirit of insubordination, against which, when once
they have come to a head, all the Parliamentary majorities,
which now give so delusive a confidence to the upper classes of
society, will prove but a feeble and unavailing defence in the
hour of trial. The Church is dear to us for these reasons also,
but infinitely dearer as an instrument of Christian good to the
people, and still more as the instrument put into our hands
with directions how to use it, by the great Author and Finisher
of our faith. By these directions we mean to abide ; nor will
we consent to be the ministers of a Church subject to any
power on earth which shall intermeddle with the functions of
that distinct ecclesiastical government which is placed by Him
who is the head of all authority and power in the hands of
distinct office-bearers.

240 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841.
" I conclude with an earnest wish that your friends might
have their eyes opened at length to the true wisdom of this
question. I can see no other way of its pacific settlement than
by passing the Duke of Argyll's Bill, and leaving us to deal
with our own refractory ministers according to the usages
which, since the last Revolution in this country, have" never
been invaded. Never, I will venture to say, was a fairer pros
pect of usefulness overcast than that which lay before the
Church of Scotland at the time that the civil authorities so
cruelly and unconstitutionally interfered with her — I ever am,
dear Sir George, yours most respectfully and truly,
Thomas Chalmers."
" Burntisland, September 27th, 1841.
" My dear Sir George, — You know that I have retired
from all further public or practical management of the ques
tion. The truth is, that I reserve myself for one emergency.
Should there be a disruption of the Church I shall feel it my
duty to help forward the operations of a great home mission,
which I have no doubt could take full possession of the
country in a very few months. And looking to the Christian
interests of Scotland, I believe that more good could be done
by such an instrumentality than by an Established Church
exposed to such interferences as those of the Court of Session
for the last few years. It is not only of their intromissions
with the appointment of ministers that I complain. Their
decisions respecting the collections of the new churches and the
quoad sacra parishes are both most intolerable fetters on the
energies of a Church acting with a view to the spread of Chris
tian education among all classes of the people. I do not give
up my views on the mighty good of a religious Establishment,
but it is a good more than neutralized should the Establish
ment be so hampered and restricted as many would wish it

MS. 61. CORRESPONDENCE WITH SIR GEORGE SINCLAIR. 241
to be, who have really never studied the question of what the
best method is for spreading abroad that education of principle
which will prove the only counteractive not to irreligion only,
but to vice and anarchy and socialism, and the whole tribe of
those moral and political disorders which are now in busy fer
mentation all over the land.
" Heaven grant that the eyes of Sir Robert may be opened
to see that there is a country as well as a House of Commons.
— I am, dear Sir George, yours most gratefully, and with great
regard, Thomas Chalmers.
" Sir George Sinclair, Baronet." " Edinburgh, November 20th, 1841.
" My dear Sir George, — Suffer me to express my fears that
you are deceived in supposing it to be the purpose of those
who have adopted your formula to give us an unshackled libe
rum arbitrium. They lay a most .important exception on the
liberum arbitrium, nay, the very exception that runs the most
counter of any to an oft-repeated and great constitutional
principle of the Church of Scotland.
" You seem not aware that I am not a member of the Non-
Intrusion Committee. It is indispensable to my preservation
that I should retire from all public business ; nor do I mean
to mix with it, unless on the event of a disruption, which,
should an entire liberum arbitrium be denied to us, it is my
firm conviction will and ought to take place. I have been
studying a good deal the economy of our Non-Erastian Church
when severed from the State and its endowments — an event
which I would do much to avert — but which, if inevitable, we
ought to be prepared for. I do not participate in your fears of
an extinction even for our most remote parishes. And the
noble resolution of the town ministers, to share equally with
their country brethren, from a common fund raised for the
general behoof of the ejected ministers, has greatly brightened
VOL. IV. x

242 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841.
my anticipations of a great and glorious result, should the
Government cast us off. There are thousands in the middle
ranks who will let down their establishments rather than that
our Church should go to wreck from the want of endowments ;
and an extensive organization for the small weekly offerings
of our people, which I should feel it my duty to promote to the
uttermost, will, I fondly hope, enable us not only to maintain
the services of all our ejected ministers, but over and above
to extend and multiply our exertions, so as to meet the neces
sities of all our families. — I have the honour to be, dear Sir
George, yours most respectfully, Thomas Chalmers."
" Edinburgh, December 4th, 1841,
" My dear Sir George. — * * * I conclude with noticing
as briefly as possible your remarks on my consistency : — 1.
You speak of my former avowed preference for a National
Establishment, reminding me of what you call my own theory.
Now, in my London Lectures, in my Church Extension Ad
dresses, in all my controversies with the Voluntaries, in my
numerous writings for twenty years back, the spiritual inde
pendence of the Church has been ever brought prominently
forward as an indispensable part of that theory, and I have
uniformly stated, that the least violation of that independence
in return for a State Endowment was enough to convert a
Church Establishment into a moral nuisance. It is a little too
much, that after the Conservatives had accepted with thank
fulness my defence of National Establishments they should
now propose to take away from me the benefit of their main
vindication ; or think that an advocacy given to a National
Church, solely for the sake of its religious and moral benefits
to the population, should still be continued, after they shall
have converted it from an engine of Christian usefulness into
a mere congeries of offices, by which to uphold the influence

MS. 61. CORRESPONDENCE WITH SIR GEORGE SINCLAIR. 243
of patrons and subserve the politics or the views of a worthless
partisanship. " But (2.) you tell me of my views on the impotency of
Voluntaryism. May I beg your perusal of my Third London
Lecture on the Distinction between Voluntaryism ab intra
and Voluntaryism ab extra. There is a perfect identity of
principle between the latter and a National Establishment. I
shall ever regret the necessity of a separation from the State.
But if driven to it by principle, it is a sacrifice which must
and ought to be made. I say so, not in the spirit of menace,
or for the purpose of terrifying bull-headed Toryism out of any
of its inveteracies, but simply to let you know that I for one
shall feel it my duty to draw both on the middle and lower
ranks, indefinitely, in order to repair, and I confidently hope
to overpass, the mischief, which I fear that our enemies, in the
obstinacy of their miserable blindness, are preparing for our
land. — Ever believe me, my dear Sir George, yours with great
esteem and regard, Thomas Chalmers."

244 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1840.

CHAPTER XIV.
THE OUTER AND INNER HISTORY— PRIVATE JOURNALS OF 1840-41—
HOR^I BIBLIC^E QUOTIDIAJ5L3E_HORiE BIBLICjE SABBATIC^E.
The events in which Dr. Chalmers mingled, and which he
helped so much to mould, were far from engrossing his
thoughts. The part he took in them was in fact the product
of those deeper convictions which rested upon the unseen and
enduring objects of faith. Behind the outer history of his life
there lay that inner spiritual history which made the other what
it was. His correspondence, his speeches, his published writ
ings, and his public acts, which furnish such ample materials
for unfolding the one history, are absolutely barren as to the
other. We know of no other individual of the same force and
breadth of Christian character, who, in all his converse, public
and private, with his fellow-men, spoke so little of himself or
afforded such slender means of information as to his own
spiritual condition and progress, and yet it would be difficult
to name another of whose deeper religious experience we have
so full and so trustworthy a record. We owe this to the open
ness and perfect truthfulness of his private Journal. The strict
reserve which he observed in his communications with others
he entirely laid aside when communing with his own heart, the
fulness of the one disclosure more than atoning for the stinted-
ness of the other. The very breaks and gaps, the compressed
or the expanded condition of his private Journal, when studied
in connexion with his external occupations during different

MS. 60. JOURNAL. 245
periods, are themselves instructive. Judged of in this way, the
year 1840 formed a marked epoch in his spiritual life, as ex
hibiting the commencement of that softening, refining, elevating
process which, ripening to perfection, threw such a pure and
mellow light of piety around his closing years — a light whose
chastened lustre was perceived and felt even by those who saw
not into the place of its birth. We date the beginning of this
process from the close of Dr. Chalmers's correspondence with
Lord Aberdeen, from the time when his hope failed him of any
peaceful settlement of the Church conflict. Being constrained
to face painful and unexpected emergencies, he threw himself
for guidance and support upon the great principles of the
Christian faith. It was thus that the darker the prospect
„ became, the singler became his eye — the greater the danger,
the stronger his faith — the weaker his trust in men, the firmer
his reliance upon God. We should not, perhaps, be pardoned
by general readers did we interrupt our narrative by exhibiting
in full the evidence of this striking fact, but we would violate
our own convictions did we not present a few extracts from the
Journals of 1840 and 1841.
" March llth, 1840. — Entered the seventh decade of my life.
I have looked long at this birth-day as a great moral and
spiritual epoch. My God, enable me by prayer and perform
ance to make it good. Quite sure that the acceptance of Christ,
with a full reliance on Him and the confident appropriation of
His righteousness, is the transition step to a life of happy and
prosperous obedience. 0 my God, give me to hold this fast,
and to realize by it a present salvation — the light and liberty
and enlargement of one of thine own children. 0 that my
heart were a fountain of gracious things, which might flow out
with gracious influence on the hearts of my acquaintances,
and more particularly of the members of my family.

246 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1840.
" March 28th. — Sadly exercised with adverse tidings from
London anent the Church ; and all that is heavenly takes
flight by giving way to other themes.
" April 1st. — To-day there is the opening of a great hope in
Church matters. I long for my own deliverance from the tur^
moils of public life. I feel somewhat the advantage which a
sally of my own has given to a hostile multitude against me,
and yet I am supported in a way that is marvellous under
every visitation. 0 do Thou, the very God of peace, sanctify
me wholly, and enable me to cut off the right hand or pluck
out the right eye. Deliver me from the wo of those by whom
offences come ; save me from the sin that doth most easily
beset me, and, above all, from the guilt of hurting the souls of
others. Keep my heart in the love of thyself, and enable me
to keep it with all diligence. Enable me to bid away all
thoughts of evil and vanity, and to keep myself holy in soul
and spirit and body, which are the Lord's. — Amen, and amen.
" April 2d. — An utter prostration of spirit from the speech
of Lord Aberdeen.
" April 3d. — Recovered my spirits, but not my spirituality.
" April 4th. — Came over to Burntisland. — 0 my God, let a
quiet withdrawment from Edinburgh recall to this earthly soul
its departed godliness.
" April 13th. — Useless expenditure of thought and feeling
in anticipations not afterwards realized. Events are God's.
Relieved by Lord Aberdeen taking an independent and irre
sponsible charge.
" April 15th. — 0 for quiet! Great need of repose. Gleams,
too, of right and religious feeling. Think. of my creatureship,
but not habitually, not closely enough. What a revolution
would it be if I had just an adequate and practical sense of
the God who made me ! The very sense of being made by
another, how it should annihilate the sovereignty of self — how

MS. 60. JOURNAL. 247
it should subordinate and keep in check the waywardness of
one's own will. What hast thou, 0 man, that thou didst not
receive ?
"April 16th. — A glorious day, and had great enjoyment on
the coast with my children. 0 that I could associate God
with all that is visible and created. Began a sermon on
Rom. x. 6-9. Should begin every new thing with prayer.
"April llth. — Growing distaste for the burdens of public
business. Pray for wisdom amid the manifold difficulties of
my position. Visit me, 0 God, with light and love from thy
sanctuary. " April 18th. — More of study than usual; but I am not
making the strenuous and decided efforts to be spiritual
which I wished and anticipated, and I neglect certain means
of spirituality, such as the avoidance of certain thoughts that
stir up affections opposite to the love of the Father. Might
make a vast deal more, too, of my solitary walks ; and to
remove a great practical barrier in the way of religious con
templation, let me assume my personal interest in the pro
mises of the Gospel, and hold fast my confidence therein. I
feel sure that I would recur all the more hopefully, and there
fore all the more fondly and frequently, to the great things of
faith, if I but knew the things which are freely given to us of
God. It is the imagination of an impracticable gulf betwixt
us which keeps me at a distance from Him — a distance that
would be overcome if I could but habitually and believingly
look at the open highway of communication along which there
is perfect liberty of access for the guiltiest of us all. Called
at Rose- End Castle ; and how little is the sense of the immor
tality of others present with me when in converse with the
partakers of my own imperishable nature.
"Sunday, 19th. — Much weighted with public difficulties.
A great infusion of religious thought and feeling, too.

248 MEMOTRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1840.
" April 20th. — Began my first waking minutes with a confi
dent hold on Christ as my Saviour. A day of great quietness.
"April 21st. — Let the laying hold of Christ as my propitia
tion be the unvarying initial act of every morning. Very
quiet all this day ; yet not in a particularly religious frame. I
fancy a swimming in my head, and am certain that my execution
is greatly short of my conception and my aim in the composi
tion of the sermon now on hand. This occasions a perpetual
strain. Let me devolve this and all other things on God.
Enable me to render the doctrine of a free salvation clearly and
impressively. But, 0 how true that the faith of others is given
not through the wisdom of words, but by the power of God.
" April 24th. — Much exercised by the conflicting Church
politics around me, and feel the earthliness of these engross
ments. 0 that I exercised myself more unto godliness,, and
could maintain a godly frame all the day long.
" April 29th. — A general want of godliness, and a weight
upon my spirit in the prospect of approaching controversies.
I pray for light and direction from on high. Assembly pre
parations. " April 30th. — Occasional heaviness ; yet well upon the
whole. A most enjoyable day, and delighted myself with two
solitary rounds. Have the feelings and aspirations of piety,
but must be more confident and cheerful in Christ — rejoice in
the Lord alway.
" May 1st. — What a sad general want of realization as to the
things of faith and eternity. Can luxuriate among the beau
ties of creation. 0 Creator of all, manifest thy glory to my
dark and dormant faculties, possess me with a sense of thyself,
forgive the waywardness of my thoughts and inclinations, and
give me to feel the controlling influence of thy presence and
will all the day long.
" Sunday, May 3d. — Delighted with ' Treffry on the Sonship

MS. 60. JOURNAL. 249
of Christ.' Luxuriate here in Sabbath quiet. 0 my God,
purify, refine, and exalt me more and more. Hear imper
fectly in church, and my attention wanders among the enr
grossing topics of the present time. I most earnestly pray for
a wisdom and a spirit adapted to the exigencies of the present
time. " May 4th. — Much weighted with Church matters, and the
report from London of Lord Aberdeen's vacillations.
" May 6th. — Sadly agitated about Church matters, and
things looking very doubtful. But saddest of all is the distress
and decay of religious feeling, and the want of a system of
practical self-discipline. — 0 my God, enable me to wait upon
thee without distraction ; and I pray for wisdom to clear my
way through the difficulties by which I am encompassed. My
retrospects of the day that is past are exceedingly dim ; and
the work of self-examination therefore, in that proportion, un
satisfactory. Search me and try me, 0 God.
"May 8th. — Carried by news from London, reports from
Edinburgh, &c. Teach me the lesson, 0 Heavenly Father, to
be still and know that thou art God. Things are thickening.
" Sunday, June 1th. — My eternity is at stake, and the great
adversary is plying me with a fresh and formidable tempta
tion. Another approaching controversy, too, which may re
quire all wisdom. 0 for holiness and charity. Take pity on
me, 0 God, a miserable offender.
"June 8th. — Sadly engrossed with the Dean of Faculty's
charge against me.* There are, besides, fiery darts from the
adversary. My God, uphold me !
" June 1 6th. — A dreary interval, throughout which the in
fluences of God's Word have been choked and overborne by the
thorns of care and controversy. Let me now resume the moral
and'spiritual culture which has been so wofully interrupted.
* See ante, p. 168.

250 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1S40.
"Sunday, June 21st. — Have not yet recovered the shock of
Lord Aberdeen's foul attack on me in the House of Lords.
May I live henceforth in the perpetual sunshine of God's
reconciled countenance. May I experience the sanctifying
power of such a habit. Save me, save me, 0 God, from the
untoward imaginations which disquiet and inflame me, warring
against my soul, and engrossing my thoughts, to the utter ex
clusion of the things which make for holiness and peace.
" June 24th. — 0 my God, direct me now to thyself. Trans
fer my thoughts to the things that are above. Give me wis
dom among the trials and difficulties which surround me.
Hide me under the covert of thy wings, and let the menaces
which overhang the country and the Church pass away from
them both.
" Sunday, July 5th. — A letter yesternight from Dr. Gordon,
enclosing one from Lord Aberdeen, wdiich will require a strenu
ous exercise both of wisdom and charity.* My God, guide and
govern all my movements. It is high time now to be seeking
the pearl of great price, and for this let there be an intent
looking unto Jesus — a strong and simple faith in Him — the
love that cleaves to Him — the friendship for Him that will do
whatsoever He commandeth. I pray for the fruits of the Spirit
— for the mortification of the flesh, and altogether for the es
tablishment of my understanding in the doctrine of salvation,
and of my feet in the way of new obedience. Give me, 0 Lord,
to be spiritually-minded, and then shall I have life and peace.
May I know what it is to exercise myself unto godliness. Is
it not wrong to countenance by the slightest semblance of an
approximation the Sabbath liberties that are taken in this
neighbourhood ? May I hope from this time forward to have
materials for a more full and regular spiritual history than I
have kept hitherto. * See ante, p. 170.

MS. 60. JOURNAL. 251
" June 6th. — Began the day with a distinct act of confi
dence ; but should renew it through the day, and see, on the
constant repetition and habit of it, whether a blessing will
not follow, so as that Christ may see in me of the travail of
His soul.
"July 1th. — Began again with an act of confidence; but
why not a perennial confidence in the Saviour ? And every
human creature I meet with supplies an object and occasion
for the second law. Give me, 0 Lord, as fruits of thy Spirit,
love and long-suffering.
" July 8th. — I have recurred more frequently to the actings
of faith in Christ, and I can have no doubt of this being the
habit that is to bring me right. Let me realize Him as a
person who knows my thoughts, and from whom I may ask for
all that is needful to a life of godliness. 0 give me to expe
rience the blessed effect of thus abiding in Him. Give me
tokens for good. Make me sensible of real answers to actual
requests, as the evidences of an interchange between myself
on earth and my Saviour in Heaven.
" July 9th. — Going on leisurely, I think feebly, with, I hope,
my last controversial pamphlet on the Church question. Have
much to learn, and desire to grow in the practical and experi
mental knowledge of Christ.
"July 10th. — 0 my God, elevate and inspire me. Give me
to feel the operation of the first law in my heart, raising my
affections to thyself, and of the second law diffusing the re
gards of kindness on all around me. What a selfish and un
godly creature I naturally am. Refine and exalt my aims and
my purposes, 0 God, and let me realize the experience of a
practical Christianity.
"July 11th. — Why at any time the heaviness of ennui?
Should God be a weariness or a wilderness to His own crea
tures ?

252 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1S40.
" July 13th. — Luxuriated over the beauties of the land
scape. "July 15th. — Hurt by a report in the 'Witness' of Lord
Aberdeen's saying in the House, that after having brought the
Church into jeopardy, I had left them to find their way out of
it as they could. Recovered from this. Desire to roll over all
upon God.
" Sunday, 26th. — Give me, 0 Lord, the power of application
to spiritual subjects. Give me a firm and tangible hold of
spiritual things. Let me know what it is to realize experi
mental religion. 0 may it be my daily task, my hourly exer
cise, my perennial enjoyment.
"Sunday, August 30th. — My engrossments now are with
Pauperism and the British Association. I have had miserably
little experience of prayer being the aliment of the divine life,
but I think . that now and previously I have experienced its
efficacy in shielding me from temptation. Thou knowest,
0 God, how frail I am. 0 give me the eivlyvwcns as well as
the jvaxrt,'; — that knowledge of the Father and the Son which
amounts to fellowship with both.
" October 1 9th. — A dreary interval ; British Association ;
Greenock lectureship. My God, strengthen, stablish, settle me.
Let me resume my journal.
" November 9th. — Yesterday being Sabbath, I employed in
part, as usual, in the perusal of difficult theology, when I was
visited by a sense of the injunction — ' Thou shalt not do any
work.' On that day let me rest, and let it be a day not of
study, but of sentiment, and of sentiment allied with repose,
such as resting in God, having peace and joy in believing,
waiting on God, rejoicing in hope, patient under injuries or in
any sort of tribulation. — 0 grant that by a right use of the
weekly Sabbath my old age maybe mellowed into the Sabbath
of my life ; and let me experience that in the quietness and

MS. 60. JOURNAL. 253
confidence of the seventh day there is a recruiting of strength
for the duties and the exercises of the other six.
"Sunday, November 15th. — My Sabbatical meditations to
day have achieved for me an exemption from evil thoughts.
I desire to watch as well as pray. Assist me, 0 God, in the
work of holding communion with thyself. Save me from my
Deserting sins. Set me on a real work of preparation. I feel
the advantage of a holv rest — the good and wisdom of the
Sabbath hour. I pray for the faith of immortality. Felt to
day the advantage of a simple faith in the simple statements
of God's Word.
" Sunday, 22d. — Suffered myself to be annoyed by the per
versities to which I am exposed on the subject of Pauperism.
Let me rise to the more serene and elevated panorama of
religion. — 0 my God, let me be clothed with humility and
experience the consequent grace which thou hast promised to
bestow. "Sunday, January 10th, 1841. — Give me a constant sense
of danger, and along with this of entire diffidence in myself,
and so of perpetual dependence on Thee. Lead me to the Rock
that is higher than I. I would renounce the devil, the world,
and the flesh ; and to make this good, I would live a life of
faith in thine own Son. 0 may His power rest upon me ; and
agreeably to what I heard this day, may I look on all my sins
as proceeding from myself, while nought but the grace which
dispenses all good and perfect gifts cometh down from the
sanctuary that is above. Let me not say, then, that I am
tempted of God, when the enticement is felt of my own hurt
ful and foolish lusts. Let me make escape from this by fleeing
from myself, and fleeing for refuge not merely to the hope,
but to the strength and life which are laid up for me with
Christ in God. I pray for the crucifixion of the flesh — for the
mortification of the body through the spirit— for the death of

254 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841.
the old man — for the peace and grace of a spiritual resurrec
tion. 0 for the spirit of glory and of God, that with the new
born energies of the divine, I might be enabled to trample
those vile affections of my own worthless nature into dust.
" Sunday, llth. — Have practised total abstinence since the
beginning of the year. My God, may I experience the life of
thee in my soul.
" January 20th. — 0 my God, give me the language and
lofty spirit of him who realizes eternity, and has enthroned
thyself in his heart.
" January 26th. — The Church question drawing to a crisis ;
and I desire to cast all on God, with simple faith in his mes
sage of reconciliation. — Give wisdom and grace, 0 Heavenly
Father, and cause good to come out of these thickening events
to our beloved land.
" Sunday, 31st. — Sir George Sinclair called ; and the strong
probability is, that I may yet be implicated more than I like
with the Church question.
" Sunday, February 1th. — Annoyed with the utter inertness
and want of agency for the Marnoch subscription.
" February 9th. — Gloomy accounts from London ; and I pray
God to strengthen and uphold the mind of our Church.
"Sunday, 14th. — On Thursday met Mr. Wood, and sug
gested a clerical prayer meeting on the affairs of the Church.
" Sunday, March 14th. — The affairs of the Church thicken
ing ; and I sadly exercised by the urgencies that I should
again mingle in the fray, to the hazard of my health and
serious injury of my literary undertakings. I pray for the
Church, 0 God. Make clear the path of duty.
" Sunday, May 16th. — Was heavy when I awoke this morn
ing ; but did experience relief and elevation by the effort of a
simple faith. Have adopted a new system of Sunday readings,
confining myself to a prayerful reading of Scripture. Last

MS. 61. JOURNAL. 255
Sunday began with John i., and to-day John ii. Have had
two pleasant, and, let me hope, two spiritual Sabbaths, to
some degree, in consequence. Was much delighted by my or
dinary Bible passage this morning in 1 Sam. ii. — Hannah's
prayer, ' For by strength shall no man prevail/ Still very
deficient in my attention as a hearer at Church, though to-day
better than usual. Feel now that to be spiritually-minded is
life and peace — at least of this very certain, that I shall have
no peace without it ; and let me hope tha.t this experience
will shut me more up to a life of religion. Find that sermons
from the pulpit or chapters in the Bible which would fail to
interest me were I only bestowing a cursory attention upon
them, become interesting when I make an effort to realize the
objects of which they treat. Familiarize me, 0 God, more and
more with the things of faith and eternity.
" May 1 1th. — Cannot but remark how I gravitate to ungod
liness. Why are my thoughts, when alone and not studying,
so little occupied with God ? And 0 that in company I could
appear more for His glory. Assist me to do this in my family,
and let me watch my opportunities for doing Christian good.
0 that I could realize this blessed sequence — ' I have believed,
therefore have I spoken.' Let me carry about with me a dis
tinct confidence in forgiveness through the blood of Christ ;
and with earnest desire of shewing forth His praise and learn
ing His doctrine, let me try how this confidence will work in
me. The fruits of righteousness so produced will arise from
the sense of my own nothingness, and have Christ alone as
their origin.
" May 19th. — Let me guard my spirit from the impatience
of petty annoyances ; and ever remember, in the language of
the Port Royal Memoirs, that religion consists not in the doing
of extraordinary things, but in the doing of common things
extraordinarily well.

256 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1811.
" May 20th. — A day of peace ; but a wide interval must be
filled up ere I can record a day of positive religion. Why do I
not go forth both as a forgiven and vested creature — forgiven
all my trespasses, vested with the righteousness of Christ ?
It is only by living up to our privileges that we can live up to
the full measure of Christian perfection. There is one tempta
tion that I pray for grace to overcome. I am most sensitively
alive to the disgust of certain peculiarities in the manners of
people for whom I have no taste, and with whom I feel no
congenial sympathy. My God, I would press forward to the
triumph of charity in such a case as this. Enable me to hon
our all men, to bear them all the regard which I owe to
immortals, to please not myself, but to take up my cross, and
make a daily and hourly sacrifice of all my antipathies for
, their sake. 0 for the long-suffering of the gospel and the en
durance of all things. Solemnized by the thought that this is
the first day of the Assembly, and pray for God's special guid
ance and favour to the Church of Scotland. And I further
more pray for direction and the spirit of wisdom to myself, 0
God. " Sunday, 23d. — Had my Sabbath Bible exercise, and mean
to persevere in it. The chapter of the day was John iii. My
chief thought was on the efficacy of faith as apart from concep
tion, and faith too in the naked word, either with or without a
lively manifestation of the archetype : our safety and spiritual
health hanging on the first ; our sensible comfort mainly de
pending, I should imagine, on the second. Let me here re
cord my prayer to God for sustenance and succour and
guidance through the fatigues and difficulties of the coming
week, (General Assembly ;) and 0 that he would lead me
back to this retreat in safety, and enable me to write of His
gracious answer to the voice of my supplications. Hide me in
thy pavilion, 0 God, from the strife of tongues. Give me the

MS. 61. JOURNAL. 257
preparation of the heart and answer of the mouth. Cause my
way to please thee, that enemies might be at peace. And, 0
defend the Church, and bring her out of all her perils into a
haven of security and quietness. Let me be without careful
ness, rolling the whole burden of my anxieties upon God.
" Sunday, 30th. — On Monday crossed to Edinburgh. Spoke
in the Assembly on Patronage on Tuesday ; away from the
Assembly all Wednesday. Spoke in the Assembly, and moved
the deposition of the Strathbogie ministers. Mrs. Chalmers
came over, and found me at my siesta in the Royal Hotel.
She went off to Castlebank after tea, and I returned to bed,
where I was raised about twelve for the vote, but was shut out.
Present, however, at the deposition, and disquieted by a pro
test of the Moderates, which was, however, withdrawn next day.
Have had abundant evidences of my native carnality and frailty
during last week. — My God, if it be thy blessed will, let me
spend the remainder of my days in quiet study and retirement,
with every aim terminating in thee and thy glory, and so in
the furtherance, as thou mayest enable me, of the Christian
good of all within my sphere, and more especially in the effec
tual preparation of myself and my family for heaven. I have
to record God's gracious answer to the prayer of last Sabbath.
He has mercifully granted me another Eben-ezer ; and at the
same time convinced me, through the medium of my conscious
ness and of its experimental findings, that I am no longer fit for
the fatigues and the turmoils of public life. Yet I would commit
this thought of my heart, and for its establishment, to God,
trusting in Him, and leaning not to my own understanding.
And 0 if it be His blessed will, may I spend my remaining
days in the retirement which I love ; and let it be a retire
ment of peace and piety, and withal of profit to the souls of
men. "May 31st. — Rode to Colinswell. There learned of the
VOL. IV. Y

258 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841.
interdict on the Assembly, indicating a new stage of the
Church's troubles.
" June 1 st. — Comforted by the Assembly's resolutions on
the interdict.
" Sunday; June 6th. — This a strenuous Sabbath of Bible
reading, mixed with prayer — a day of faith rather than mani
festation, that is to say, of resolute confidence in the tangi
bilities, which is surely better than to walk in sparks of our
own kindling. Let me keep by God's Word and by the doing
of His Divine will. The chapter of this day was John v.,
which I read in connexion with a very great amount of parallel
Scripture. The leading sentiment is the security of being
in the hands of Christ, viewed as supreme in judgment and
power, yet the Saviour. The first chapter of Acts, in my
ordinary reading, suggested some pregnant thoughts. The
Apostles were told that they should not depart from Jeru
salem till they were endowed with power from on high ; and
neither should we depart from the Bible, but give earnest
heed thereto till the day dawn and the day-star arise in our
hearts. " June 1th. — Arrested by a sense of my ungodliness while
riding. Prayed for living water, that I might thirst no more ;
and certainly realized a sense of my obligation to do nothing
and enjoy nothing apart from Christ, which adhered to me,
and made me feel how, by an influence ab extra, such enlarge
ments and enhancements of spiritual manifestation might
come upon me as I have never yet experienced. Let me
pray and watch for the Holy Ghost ; and meanwhile, in the
absence of vivid conception, let me maintain a resolute belief
in God's Word, and yield myself to the felt obligation of every
plain and practical duty. (John xiv. 21.)
" June 12th. — Had a luminous visitation at the shore. Why
do I not walk at all times in the light and liberty of the

MS. 61. JOURNAL. 259
Gospel ? — I pray, 0 God, for a fruitful Sabbath on the morrow ;
a quiet; and let me hope a profitable Sabbath. The chapter
was the sixth of John ; and the most powerful of its topics was
the atonement, set forth in terms of the flesh and blood of
Christ, the bread that came down from heaven. The transition
from death to life, on the appropriation of the sacrifice, is the
great turning point of a sinner's salvation. . My God, bring me
thereto, and let the great Propitiation of the Cross be the very
food and aliment of my soul.
" June 18th. — Fatal information from Mr. Dunlop anent Sir
Robert Peel. The Church prospect dark ; but let us hope in
God. " June 19th. — Had gleams of the Gospel freeness ; sure
that on no other footing I can prosper or be right. My family
in feeble health, and the prospects of the Church very dark.
Bear me up, 0 God, under the weight of every visitation. Be
Thyself my portion. To attain the maximum of a right phy
sical state I would perhaps require to be a shade more tem
perate. I mean by its maximum right state that in which the
physical gives the least impediment to the spiritual, and is
most consistent with, if not subservient to, the duties and
exercises and enjoyments of the life of faith.
" June 21st. — Very quiet day. Surely I might live in greater
spirituality did I cherish always the sense of God as a recon
ciling and reconciled Father. Let me have faith and feeling
up to the offered privileges of the Gospel. God has been
pleased to make this a day of peace, and rather of bright anti
cipation in regard to the Church, even tliough its connexion
with the State should be dissolved. But recurring to the topic
of a large confidence and belief in the promises of the Gospel;
let me act on the injunction, Open thy mouth wide and I will
fill it !
" June 23d. — L have got into an embarrassment here, as the

260 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841.
prudence of my building a house will be affected by the uncer
tainty of the Church prospect. We are taught to make our
requests unto God in every thing. Help and guide me, 0
Lord, in this matter also.
" June 29th. — Have begun my fourth volume on the Ro
mans. — 0 my God, enable me to take my own lesson and
lay hold of the righteousness of Christ as my righteousness.
" Sunday, July 4th. — A pleasurable day. My chapter was
John ix. ; but it was my ordinary reading, in Romans i., that
furnished the leading thought of this Sabbath, — ' Christ the
power and wisdom of God unto salvation.' Never am I in a
better frame than when dwelling in simple faith on Christ's
offered righteousness, and making it the object of my accepta
tion. — 0 Lord, I pray for more and more of the clearness and
enlargement of this view ; and grant me the Spirit of adoption.
0 that I could attain the experience of Him who says, ' I have
believed, therefore have I spoken.' Let my light in particular
shine before my family.
" July 5th. — In peace ; but I should like to be more assured
of its being a religious peace — peace in believing, the peace of
those who love God's law.
" July 8th. — A growing taste for the simplicity of the faith
and conviction of its efficacy.
" July 9th. — My first chemical lecture at Craigholm. My
God, may the joy of Thee be my strength. A glorious day ;
but oh that there were more of faith and heaven in my soul.
" July 10th, — Mrs. C. tells me of a complaint under which
poor J. labours that might well make me serious. Am I not
too light-hearted and too luxurious, and altogether too self-
indulgent? Certain it is that in and of myself I am alto
gether vile and worthless, and would need in dependence on
grace alone to have more of watchfulness unto prayer, more
of self-denial, and a far more tender sense of the evil of un-

MS. 61. JOURNAL. 261
godliness, than habitually and practically belong to me. — My
God, give me wisdom and principle, and the life of faith, in
reference to our visitors from England.
" July 11th. — Felt the importance of the first verses in John
x., as evincing, 1. that ministers might be appointed for con
gregations ab extra; but, 2. that there is such a sympathy
between a minister called and qualified by the Spirit, and all
real Christians, as to afford a criterion by which the Tightness
of the appointment might be tested. Other parts of this chapter
very precious. — Give me, 0 Lord, with all freedom to go out
and in, and find pasture for my soul.
" July 13th. — A most unsavouiy letter from  , of which
I could only relieve myself by replying to it. Feel a most
degrading subjection to circumstances. 0 for that love of God
which nothing can disquiet or offend.
" July 14th. — Wrote Lord Galloway. Medically better, and
morally in less discomfort, but have to complain of my extreme
sensibility to the opinions of men. Why do I not look upon
God ? Make me what Thou wouldst have me. Let me be still
and know that Thou art God.
" July 15th. — Mean to build at Morningside ; but let me not
forget the end of the world and the coming of Christ — the
catastrophe that comes as a thief in the night. Among the
other mercies of this day I have to record a most agreeable
letter from Dr. Gordon.
"Julyllth. — Find it essential to a religious frame that there
should be more of devotional thinking and prayer. The Church
crisis looks nearer.
" July 18th. — At home all day ; seeking after a simple faith.
The more simple and child-like the better. Gleams of comfort
under its occasional visitations. Heavenly Father ! establish
me therein more and more ; so shall my bands be loosed, and
I will serve Thee henceforth in the spirit of adoption.

262 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1S41.
" July 23d. — Have great need of the life of faith. I have
sad infirmities of temper. My God, help me to overcome all
the obstructions which lie in the way of my perfect observance
of the second law. How miserably deficient in the grace of
endurance. Help me, 0 God !
" July 29th. — Not satisfied with my composition on the
Romans, and fear that I strain too much after effect. Guide
and invigorate me, 0 Lord, in the prosecution of this work ;
but keep me above all ste'dfast in the faith of Christ, and let
it dwell habitually within me.
" A ugust 1 st, Sunday. — My chapter was John xiii., and I
certainly had great satisfaction in my Sabbath exercise there
upon. What a blessed and high achievement to realize the
charity of the Gospel as described in 1 Cor. xiii., which was in
my ordinary reading to-day. — 0 God, let this be my distinct
aim, that so the same mind may be in me that was in Christ
Jesus. "August 5th.— Much, very much, to change ere I am as I
ought to be in the element of religion.
" August 1th. — The Church matters seem fast hastening to
a crisis, and a disruption seems inevitable. I pray for counsel
and fortitude, and all the proper virtues of such an emergency
from on high.
" August 8th. — My chapter to-day John xiv. I find it easier,
and surely it is safer, to take up my topics of meditation from
the Bible rather than to fetch them up by a gratuitous effort,
or wait for them in reveries of my own. My God ! bless and
establish every good impression which the successive topics of
that passage made upon me at the time. Let me but delight
in thy law, 0 God, and count it my great business to be occu
pied therewith, and then nothing shall offend me.
" August 12th.— Heard to-day of the Commission. Guide
and fortify, 0 Lord, thy Church in the approaching crisis.

MS. 61. JOURNAL. 263
" August 13th. — The times are hastening to a crisis. We
must all be preparing for great changes. My God, give grace
and guidance for the emergency that now hangs over us.
" August 15th. — The chapter of this day was John xv. — very
precious. 0 let me abide in Christ, and in Him have nourish
ment and strength. Quicken me, 0 Lord, and let me so keep
Thy words as to have the love of the Father and the Son. The
Church question begins to engross me.
" August 18th. — My Saviour, why art Thou so little in my
thoughts? Revive and regenerate me, 0 God ! Brief pre
paration for the Commission.
" August 19th. — How humbled I ought to feel at my ex
ceeding distance from the test of loving God, that great is my
peace, and that nothing shall offend me.
"August 21th. — Opened the Commission in the High Church,
but adjourned to St. Luke's with Dr. Makellar. Went off to
Cramond with Mr. M., where we met for prayer, and dined
and spent the night. A number of the brethren, — Dr. Gordon,
Messrs. Cunningham, Candlish, Buchanan, and Home.
" September 5th. — Had nearer approach to God in Christ
than usual, but have still much to aspire after. Much de
lighted with the first chapter of Colossians. The peculiar
Sabbath chapter was John xviii. — 0 my God, let the mind of
Mrs. C. be established, strengthened, and settled in the faith.
May the eternity which is so fast approaching be full in our
eye ; and let us walk together as heirs of the grace of life.
" September 9th. — Strike off these fetters of false orthodoxy
which stand-in the way of my new obedience; and while I
retain entire dependence on Christ's righteousness and grace,
let me, at the same time, have the comfort of knowing that
my labour, my own personal labour, is not in vain in the Lord.
" September 14th. — Let me keep by the work of self-dis
cipline amid all defects and discouragements.

264 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841.
"September 21th. — Began this day my Institutes of Theology.
I pray for God's blessing upon the work, and that faith and
His glory may be the single aim of my heart. I have great
comfort in quiet and leisurely and thorough study.
" October 1st. — My last lecture on chemistry. Some failures
and breakages, but altogether a splendid and satisfactory con
clusion. " October 2d. — Let me do all I can for others ; but remem
ber that whatever I do beyond the point of doing it cheerfully
is not an acceptable sacrifice to God.
" October 3d. — Began my regular Biblical devotions this
day, — I trust with good to my soul. The result so far has been
a feeling of comfort and satisfaction. Prosper this enterprise,
Almighty Father ! and bless it to my eternal welfare."
The Biblical compositions referred to in the last extracts,
commenced at this period, were continued by Dr. Chalmers
with unbroken regularity till the day of his decease. Go
where he might, however he might be employed, each week
day had its few verses read, thought over, written upon, giving
what he denominated his " Horse Biblicse Quotidianse ;"* each
Sabbath-day had its two chapters, one in the Old, the other
in the New Testament, with the two trains of meditative devo
tion recorded to which they respectively gave birth — forming
what he denominated his " Horaa Biblicse Sabbatica3."-f- In
preparing the " Horse Quotidianse," he had beside him for use
and reference the Concordance, Kitto's Pictorial Bible, Poole's
Synopsis, Henry's Commentary, and Robinson's Researches in
Palestine. These constituted what he called his " Biblical
Library." " There," said he to a friend, pointing to the vo
lumes as they lay upon the table of his library, " there are the
books I use — all that is biblical is there. I have to do with
* See Posthumous Works, vols, i., ii., iii. -j- Ibid., vols, iv., v.

MS. 61. H0RJ3 BIBLICSE QUOTIDIANS. 265
nothing besides in my biblical study." It would have defeated
his primary object had he used the many other helps which
were at hand, had he been led away by their employment into
any lengthened critical, historical, or doctrinal investigations.
These daily writings were not intended to be vehicles of learned
research. They were not intended to constitute an elaborate
exposition. He had no intention of drawing up for the use of
others a regular commentary on the Holy Scriptures. He
used the pen for his own private benefit alone. His great
desire was to take off from the sacred page as quick, fresh,
vivid, and complete an impression as he could, and in using
his pen to aid in this, his object was far more to secure a
faithful transcript of that impression than either to examine
or describe the mould that made it. His own description of
the " Horse Biblicse Quotidianse" was, that they consisted of his
first and readiest thoughts, clothed in the first and readiest
words which occurred to him. They are not the less valuable
on this account. " We want," says Lord Bacon, " short,
sound, and judicious notes upon Scripture, without running
into commonplaces, pursuing controversies, or reducing those
notes to artificial method, but leaving them quite loose and
native. For, certainly, as those wines which flow from the
first treading of the grape are sweeter and better than those
forced out by the press, which gives them the roughness of the
husk and the stone, so are those doctrines best and sweetest
which flow from a gentle crush of the Scriptures, and are not
wrung into controversies and commonplaces."* The wise
hand was needed as well as the gentle crush, and in the
" Horse Quotidianse," the fruit of both, we have the want com
plained of by Bacon supplied.
The " Horse Sabbaticse" differ both in form and substance from
the " Horse Quotidianse." Written amid the quiet of the day of
* See Douglas Jerrold's Weekly Newspaper, Nov. 27, 1847.
VOL. IV. Z

266 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841.
rest, they rise to a high region, and they breathe a holier air.
Contemplative and devotional throughout, they pass generally
into direct addresses to the Deity. Such references are con
tinually occurring to passing incidents, that they might fitly
be described, if the expression were allowable, as the Sabbath
diary of the last six years of Dr. Chalmers's life. His impres
sions as to the events are given here in a manner so free and
unrestrained as to impart to them a peculiar interest. But
the chief value of the " Sabbaticse," and that which makes us
rank them as among the most precious of all Dr. Chalmers's
writings, lies in the spirit of rational and scriptural, yet lofty
and ethereal devotion which they breathe. The innermost
movements of his spirit are here spread out to us as he himself
spread them out before that eye which seeth in secret : we see
him as he bowed in simple, sincere, profound humility when
alone in the presence of God — we hear him as in tones often
so low and deep, yet often also so heavenly and sublime, he
poured his confessions and desires and aspirations into the ear
of the Holy One.

*T. 61. THE REVOLUTION SETTLEMENT. 267

CHAPTER XY.
PATRONAGE ABOLISHED BY THE REVOLUTION SETTLEMENT— THE
ACT OF SECURITY AND TREATY OF UNION— PATRONAGE RESTORED
BY THE ACT OF QUEEN ANNE— DR. CHALMERS TAKES PART IN
THE ANTI-PATRONAGE MOVEMENT— VINDICATION OF THE STEP
IN HIS LETTER TO THE DUKE OF ARGYLL— NARRATIVE OF THE
SETTLEMENT AT CULSALMOND— THE INTERDICTS OF THE COURT
OF SESSION— CONDUCT OF THE GOVERNMENT— THE NEW PARTY
IN THE CHURCH— DR. CHALMERS'S LETTER TO THE REV. MR.
BRUCE— THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF 1842 — MOTION FOR THE
ABOLITION OF PATRONAGE—THE CLAIM OF RIGHTS.
By the Revolution Settlement in 1699, the Royal supremacy
in spiritual affairs and lay patronage in the Church of Scotland
were abolished. When, a few years afterwards, a motion for
the union of the two kingdoms was brought forward, the people
and Parliament of Scotland were so alive to the perils to which
their Church would be exposed under the predominating in
fluence of Anglican institutions, and so determined that " the
worship, discipline, and government of their Church should be
effectually and unalterably secured," that not only did they
forbid their Commissioners to treat " of or concerning any
alteration" in their Church, but they passed an Act, entitled
" The Act of Security," by which they did " for ever confirm
the 5th Act of the 1st Parliament of King William and Queen
Mary, entituled, ' Act Ratifying the Confession of Faith and
Settling Presbyterian Church Government,' and the whole other
Acts of Parliament relating thereto ;" and did " establish and
confirm the said Protestant and Presbyterian Church govern-

268 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841.
ment to continue without any alteration to the people of this
land in all succeeding generations." It was also especially en
acted, that this Act " should be held and observed in all time
coming as a fundamental and essential condition of any treaty or
union to be concluded betwixt the two kingdoms, without any
alteration thereof, or derogation thereto, in any sort for ever."
This Act was accepted and ratified by the English Parliament,
and embodied entire in the Treaty of Union. In violation
of these manifold and most sacred securities, when Boling-
broke was plotting the overthrow of the other Protestant
institutions of the empire, and was secretly preparing the way
for the return of the Stuarts to the throne, he introduced an
Act for the restoration of Patronage in Scotland, and hurried
it with indecent haste through Parliament. The Church had
barely time to let her voice of remonstrance against such a
flagrant breach of the Treaty of Union, be heard in the House
of Lords. It was heard, however, only to be disregarded ; and
by the 10th of Queen Anne, passed on the 22d May, 1711,
Patronage was once more established. So strong was the
general conviction of the impolicy and unrighteousness of this
act that for many years it was not acted on in Scotland, the
patrons not claiming the right which it bestowed, or the
Church, without challenge, disallowing it. It came gradually,
however, into operation, and at last, under the reign of Mode-
ratism, was universally acted upon. The course of events once
more directed to it the attention of the Church. It obviously
lay at the root of all the evils by which the Church was
visited ; and the failure of recent negotiations led an increasing
number to demand its abolition as the best and surest method
of deliverance. At an important meeting of the Presbytery of
Edinburgh, held on the 26th January 1842, the Rev. Dr.
Gordon moved a series of resolutions, affirming " the propriety
of seeking the abolition of the Law of Patronage, as, especially

MS. 61. ABOLITION OF PATRONAGE. 269
in the construction now attempted to be put upon it, involving
a violation of the constitution of the Church and kingdom
secured at the Revolution, and unalterably ratified by the Act
of Security and Treaty of Union."
In seconding this motion Dr. Chalmers said, — " When the
Church and the patrons harmonize, and are alike bent on the
Christian good of the people, the matter proceeds rightly and
prosperously. The times have been when they harmonized
for evil, and the people were sacrificed ; but the times are now
when the Church is on the side of the people, and very many
of the Patrons are against them. I see nothing that can
extricate the difficulty but that the people be called in and
restored to the place which they held in the first ages of the
Christian Church, and in the best and most flourishing periods
of the Church of Scotland. If the two can be made to stand
together — if Patronage and the rights of the popular con
science can in any way be amalgamated — the object of the
motion were fulfilled, without the last resort, which, on the
failure of all previous expedients, is thus opened up to us. But
I confess I have my doubts, nay more, I have my fears — nay
more, after the weary experience of so many years I begin to
despair of a reconciliation between these jarring elements, which,
after all our attempts to conjoin them, like water and oil, are
found to be immiscible. There is one comfort in the midst of
all these discomfitures, that if one or other of these adverse
elements is to be sacrificed I feel no perplexity on the question
which of the two ought to give way. Between absolute and
unmitigated Patronage on the one hand, and popular election
on the other, I do not hesitate a moment to say which is the
likelier constitution of the two for a laborious, a faithful, and
a well appointed ministry in the Church of Scotland. With a
Church prepared on the one hand to fix and to regulate and to
raise indefinitely if she so choose the learning and the qualifi-

270 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841.
cations of the eligible — and on the other, by her high demands
both for character and knowledge at the admission of communi
cants to the table of the Lord, to raise indefinitely the character
of her electors, I confess that, with the blessing of God, I should
look, under the working of a system like this, for the triumphant
progress of a so renewed and regenerated Church among the
people of these lands. And should the interloper, Patronage,
come in betwixt, and ask for her function and her place of
occupancy in the midst of us — should this corrupter in other
days of the purity of our Church, this disturber, and never
more than now, of the peace of our Israel, lift her unabashed
visage, and with all her sins upon her forehead, tell us of her
claims, and ask how she is to be disposed of, let her be made
to know that we have no demand whatever for her services,
and that the power which refuses to be regulated ought forth
with to be destroyed.
" I conclude with expressing it as my earnest prayer that
these controversies might soon pass away ; and still more that,
however terminated, the Church may be found from first to
last to have acquitted herself with perfect honour, and so as
to come forth with unimpaired moral weight in the eyes of the
country. Circumstances have brought her into contact and
busy converse with the politicians of this world. It is her part
to maintain the most perfect simplicity and godly sincerity in
all her transactions with them ; and I sit down with the most
perfect confidence that if her ways please God He will make
even her deadliest enemies to be at peace with her."
At the opening of the Non-Intrusion controversy Dr. Chal
mers had not only kept himself aloof from the Anti-patronage
movement, but had strenuously resisted it, as throwing an
obstacle between the Church and the politicians in the pending
negotiations. The part now taken by him and others in foster
ing a movement which they had previously condemned marks

MS: 61. LETTER TO THE DUKE OF ARGYLL. 271
a new stage in the progress of the controversy, and receives its
justification from the altered position of affairs. It lay open,
however, to grave charges, which were unscrupulously adduced.
It was represented as stamping dishonesty on all the previous
procedure of the Church, as if she had been cherishing a design
which she had carefully concealed. She now, it was alleged,
dropped the mask, and revealed the democratic spirit by which
her whole conduct had been animated. Nor were enemies the
only parties who condemned this movement. By some of the
best friends of the Church it was regarded as a needless shift
ing of her ground, unjustifiable in itself and unworthy of the
Church's dignity. Among many remonstrances against its
impolicy, there was one which, coming from the Duke of
Argyll, who had already proved his attachment to the Church,
and was waiting only for the favourable moment for pressing
his measure on the Legislature, was entitled to the weightiest
regard. Dr. Chalmers replied to it as follows : —
" EnrNBURGH, February 9th, 1842.
" My Lord Duke, — I understand that the enemies of our
cause represent the motion carried the other day in the Pres
bytery of Edinburgh as an onward movement on the part of
the majority in the Church, which they had all along contem
plated, but kept secret till now, thereby laying themselves
open to the charge of a double and disingenuous policy, as if,
while negotiating for a small, they were all the while intent on
a larger measure, which they meant, when a fitting opportu
nity came round, to speed onward by one step after another
in a career of indefinite and unknown changes.
" I will not speak of those negotiations wherewith I myself
have not had personally to do, though I believe them capable
of entire vindication. But your Grace will permit me to say,
that in all my correspondence, and on every occasion when I
have taken part in the deliberations of the Church Courts, I

272 MEMOIRS OF DR.. CHALMERS. 1842.
have studied the most perfect simplicity and openness in all
my avowals, and have never shrunk from the most frank and
explicit and unreserved declaration of my views.
" Two years ago, when I corresponded with Lord Aberdeen,
my immediate object was to obtain the liberum arbitrium;
but I never ceased to express my desire for a much larger
concession than this to the wishes of the people, and assured
him on various occasions that the more nearly he approached
to a popular constitution, the more -surely would he provide
both for the prosperity of the Church and the peace of the
country. " But on this very principle I infinitely preferred your
Grace's Bill to the measure I attempted to press on Lord
Aberdeen ; and surely was quite at liberty to become its advo
cate when that measure was denied to me. I accordingly did
advocate it most strenuously at the last General Assembly,
not as absolutely the best, but as the best that we had any
likelihood of getting. My opinion as to the optim.um maxi
mum, however, remained unchanged, and having nothing to
disguise, I proclaimed it openly, which was, that the best con
stitution for a Church I deemed to be that where the minis
ters were paid by the State and chosen by the people.
" This brings me down to the present time. The liberum
arbitrium was refused to us by Lord Aberdeen, and we took to
your Grace's Bill. The liberum arbitrium has been again re
fused to us by Sir James Graham, and your Grace has repre
sented the carrying of your Bill as all but hopeless. What
then remains for us to do? We now feel as if.it were a vain
endeavour to enlist the understanding of the English Parlia
ment on the side of any of our ecclesiastical peculiarities. It
was perhaps wrong to expect that they should judge aright on
the merits of a Presbyterian Church law ; but we may have a
better chance of finding access to the Parliamentary mind of

MS. 61. LETTER TO THE DUKE OF ARGYLL. 273
England if we speak to them of the merits -and character of
one of their own acts, and appeal to their sense of justice on
the flagrant iniquity done to Scotland, when by a breach of the
Articles of Union, that Act of Queen Anne was passed which
has brought evils on our Church, that, after the failure of our
repeated trials, we may well conclude, should your Grace not
succeed in carrying your Bill, to be wholly irremediable. No
thing more natural, nothing more justifiable, than that, after
these defeats and disappointments we should try to get rid of
an act which is the real source of all our difficulties, so as to
be thrown back on the state we held between 1690 and 1711,
one of the most flourishing periods in the history of our
Church. And it is not we who spontaneously, and of our own
wantonness, are making changes from one proposal to another:
we are compelled to it by those on the other side who reject
our first proposals, and force us to take refuge in succeeding
ones. It is by a confusion of ideas that people say of us, No
thing will content them ; if they get one reform, they will be
after another presently. Truly all our apparent changes pro
ceed from this, that, instead of getting anything, we are re
fused everything ; and we have been shut up to our present
position, not by any wayward fluctuations of our own, but by
the unyielding obstinacy of those who are opposed to us.
" It may very naturally be asked, Why, if you thought it
better to have a large than a small measure, why did you seek
the small, and not lift at once your demand for the large, and
which you profess to regard, too, as intrinsically preferable to
the other. We have perhaps done wrong in this ; but we
wanted to obtain redress in the most practicable and pacific
way, and with the least possible amount of change or innova
tion. We were willing to be put into a state that was at all
tolerable in the most cautious, and, if I may so term it, in the
most conservative way possible ; and all we have got in return

274 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1842.
is the misinterpretation of our proceedings, as if with the insa
tiable spirit of anarchs and revolutionists we had entered on a
desperate course of "transitions from one stage to another, till
we had precipitated the Church into some gulf, the nature of
which I do not well understand, but which I have no doubt is
sufficiently frightful in the scared imaginations of our adver
saries. " It is exceedingly to be regretted, that, in this heated war
fare of party, so much injustice should be going ; but I have
all confidence in your Grace's calm and enlightened patriotism,
and am sure that you will bear with me, if, in the few remain
ing lines, I attempt to lay before you what I hold for any
practical object is most material to be known.
" Is*, The Church may acquiesce in, she never will approve
of a mere liberum arbitrium ; and it will have little or no
effect in laying an arrest on the Anti-patronage movement.
" 2d, The Church, in my opinion, would accept of your Grace's
Bill, and that not as a step to ulterior changes, but for the
purpose of working it honestly and faithfully, with the view to
an efficient ministration of the Gospel in Scotland. Many of
us, and myself in particular, do not think that it comes up to
the beau ideal of a best possible constitution for the appoint
ment of clergymen. But we shall be content to wait for this
being realized by a gradual and pacific mareh of improvement,
and have no sympathy with those who talk of instalments, and
would keep the Church and the country in a state of incessant
turmoil and agitation.
" But, 3d, and most important of all, the Church, I fondly
hope and pray, will never consent to be cast down by any
power on earth beneath the liberum arbitrium. If the right
of the patron, on the one hand, is to carry it over the judg
ment of the ecclesiastical courts that it is not for the Christian
good of the families in a parish that his presentee, unaccept-

MS. 62. SETTLEMENT AT CULSALMOND. 275
able to them, shall be admitted their minister; the Church,
on the other hand, never will submit to the mandate of any
court under the sun calling on them to ordain and admit that
man. On this head I trust that our majority will present an
unbroken phalanx of resistance to the violence that would
offer such an invasion upon our liberties ; and should the fur
ther violence be perpetrated of driving us, because of this,
from our own rightful patrimony, we shall in hundreds, I
trust, quit the endowments of a Church thus Erastianized, and,
under God, cast the support of our righteous cause on the
people of Scotland. Thomas Chalmers.
" To His Grace The Duke of Argyll."
Meanwhile, in the race of ecclesiastical insubordination the
Presbytery of Strathbogie had found a vigorous rival in its next
neighbour, the Presbytery of Garioch. The Rev. Mr. Middleton,
who had acted for some years as assistant to the minister of Cul-
salmond, obtained at last a presentation to that parish. The
Presbytery of Garioch met on the 28th October 1841 to mode
rate in the Call. A majority of the communicants on the roll
dissented from the appointment. According to the recent
regulations of the Church, the Presbytery was not bound to
give immediate effect to that dissent by rejecting the presentee,
but was required only to stay procedure and report to the next
General Assembly. The Presbytery resolved, however, to pro
ceed immediately to the ordination. A minority of the Court
appealed to the superior judicatories, but this appeal was set
aside. The people then came forward with special objections
to the presentee, but the Presbytery refused to consider them.
The parishioners and the minority in the Presbytery pro
tested separately against this resolution, and appealed to the
Synod. There is a standing order of the Church that no Pres
bytery shall ordain in face of an appeal. Trampling upon this

276 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1842,
order, and setting all the common forms of procedure at de
fiance, the Presbytery resolved to meet again at Culsalmond
on the 11th November, for the purpose of completing the set
tlement. It was another bleak, wintry, snowy day, such as
that which occurred about a year before in- the neighbouring
parish of Marnoch, and another such crowd assembled. But
the same wise counsels did not prevail, nor was the same spirit
manifested by the people. The rapid and imperious move
ment of the Presbytery had created the feeling that they were
stealing a march upon the people, and trying to do the deed
before legal check of any kind could be imposed. Rashly and
most unwisely the people took the check into their own hands.
When the doors were opened, a motley crowd, principally com
posed- of strangers from a distance, rushed in, and took such
complete possession of the building, that it was with extreme
difficulty, and by the help only of the officers of justice, that
the Presbytery could find their way into the Church. It was
to no purpose that they found an entrance ; for no sooner was
the attempt made to commence the proper business of the
Court than loud discordant clamours, rising from all quarters,
drowned their voices, and effectually prevented all further
progress. They waited for an hour or more — again and again
making the effort to proceed, but making it in vain. They re
tired at last to the manse, and there, in a private room, and
within locked doors, this unhappy ordination was consummated.
The parishioners complained to the Commission of the arbi
trary and irregular conduct of the Presbytery, and that Court,
which met on the 1 7th November, cited the parties complained
of to appear before the ensuing General Assembly, and in the
meantime, until the protests and appeals which had been made
were judicially disposed of, prohibited Mr. Middleton from offici
ating in the parish of Culsalmond, and instructed the minority
of the Presbytery of Garioch to provide for the administration

MS. 62. THE CULSALMOND INTERDICT. 277
of sacred ordinances in that parish. The sentence of the Com
mission was purely and exclusively spiritual : it touched no
civil right — it carried with it no civil consequence. It had
grounds to rest on disconnected with any question about the
legality of the Veto Law. Mr. Middleton, however, and the
majority of the Presbytery, applied to the Court of Session to
suspend it, and to prohibit its intimation and execution.
Lord Ivory, to whom, as Lord Ordinary, their petition was
in the first instance directed, refused to grant its prayer,
on the grounds " that there was no question now before the
Court as to the legality of the Veto Law ; that the civil
rights, whether of the patron or presentee, would stand
perfectly unscathed, notwithstanding all that had yet been
done by the Commission ; and that the only question here
was, shall this Court interfere with the proceedings of a proper
Church Court, when that Court, acting within its own pro
vince, is dealing with a proper ecclesiastical cause, and this,
too, while that cause is still actually depending before them ?"
The case went before the First Division of the Court, and the
majority of the Judges reversed the decision of the Lord Ordi
nary. On the 10th March 1842 the Suspension and Interdict
were granted as craved. In delivering his opinion, the Lord
President declared that it was quite sufficient to bring this
matter within the jurisdiction of the Court — " that a gross
stigma had been fixed on Mr. Middleton's sacred character as
a minister of the gospel," by his being forbidden for a time to
officiate ; and that the majority of the Presbytery had been
" degraded from their status and functions as established mi
nisters, and their general usefulness and respectability affected"
by their being overlooked, and the minority appointed to
supply all the ministerial services which the parish of Culsal
mond required. At the beginning of this controversy, it was
alleged in defence of the Court of Session, that it had inter-

278 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1S42.
fered only when such civil rights as are properly the subjects
of civil action were immediately involved. As broader and
deeper invasions of the Church's territory were made, the de
fence was widened by its being affirmed that the Civil Court
was warranted to interfere in all cases where civil rights were
directly or indirectly affected. But now the Court of Session,
speaking through its President, had given it broadly to be
understood, that if any one conceived that by the sentence of
an ecclesiastical court, any injury had been done to his reputa
tion, or respectability, or usefulness, that was in itself enough
to justify the Court in reviewing, and if it saw reason, in re
versing the sentence of which he complained. No act of dis
cipline could the Church perform ; no spiritual censure or
sentence of condemnation could she pronounce, which, upon
this ground, did not lie open to revisal or reversal by the
Court of Session. By assuming this prerogative, that Court
constituted itself as the court of last appeal in all such cases ;
and the Church lay stripped of any supreme or exclusive
jurisdiction. A broad and patent way to the Court of Session had
been opened, and where Presbyteries had gone before them,
individual ministers could find no difficulty of approach. The
minister of Stranraer had been accused of various acts of fraud,
and his Presbytery were proceeding in his trial, when he
applied to the Civil Court " to suspend the whole proceedings of
the Presbytery;" and "further to prohibit, interdict, and dis
charge the said Presbytery from taking cognizance of the
pretended libel." The minister of Cambusnethan had been
found guilty of four separate acts of theft, and the Presbytery
were about to depose him, when he raised an action of reduc
tion in the Court of Session, and obtained an interdict against
their proceeding. Mr. Clark, the presentee to Lethendy, who
was living in the manse of which he had taken possession, was

MS. 62. CONDUCT OF THE GOVERNMENT. 279
accused of repeated acts of drunkenness, and the Presbytery of
Dunkeld had entered upon the investigation of these charges,
with a view to deprive him of his license. But he too had
recourse to the great Protector, and an interdict against the
Presbytery had been issued.
While actions and interdicts were multiplying — each new
encumbrance thrown before the Church making it more difficult
for her to proceed — the Government refused to interfere. At
the commencement of the parliamentary session of 1842, Sir
Robert Peel informed the House that he had no legislative
measure in contemplation. Two months afterwards, the Home
Secretary, Sir James Graham, repeated the announcement,
adding to it the declaration that the Government was resolved
" to stand by the law of the land as laid down by the civil tri
bunals of the country." The member for Argyleshire, Mr. Camp
bell of Monzie, moved the appointment of a select committee
of inquiry ; but his motion was negatived by a large majority,
the Government lending all its weight to oppose his motion.
Early in May, the determination to do nothing, but to leave
the Church to continue the conflict as she best could, appeared
suddenly to have been relinquished. This was due to a most
untoward event which now occurred, an event fraught with
incalculable evil. When the negotiations springing out of
Sir George Sinclair's proposal terminated, there was a deep and
very general conviction that all hope of any adjustment, based
upon Lord Aberdeen's measure, was worse than nugatory.
There were one or two members, however, of the Non-Intrusion
Committee who thought otherwise, and by whom an active
clerical canvas was commenced, with the view of forming a new
party, drawn from the evangelical ranks. Dr. Simpson of Kirk-
newton, and Dr. Leishman of Govan, were the leaders of this dis
astrous movement. At the meeting of the Synod of Glasgow and
Ayr, which took place in April, the latter of these two clergymen

280 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1842.
declared, that already, within the bounds of that synod, there
were forty prepared to accept of that settlement which the
Committee had repudiated. This party had not confined their
operations to Scotland ; if they had, their movement had been
comparatively harmless! They had opened private negotiations
with men in power, the bitter fruits of which immediately
appeared. Mr. Campbell of Monzie had undertaken to intro
duce the Duke of Argyle's Bill into the House of Commons,
and the 4th May was the day fixed for its second reading.
At the last' hour — no time for consultation given — the honour
able member was informed that the Government had it in con
templation to introduce a measure themselves, which they
believed would be satisfactory, and he was requested to with
draw his Bill. He consented to do so, cherishing the natural
belief that with the knowledge so abundantly possessed by
the Government of what alone would satisfy, its measure
would at least be one in which the Church could acquiesce.
But when Sir James Graham informed the House that it was
in consequence of recent communications from Scotland that
the Government had been induced to interfere, and still more,
when he presented to the House a general outline of the
measure, it was apparent that nothing beyond Lord Aberdeen's
Bill, with the added clause, was contemplated; and that the hope
of success entertained by the Government originated in the
belief that the evangelical party was at last breaking up, and
that so many would join " the forty" as to make it both safe
and desirable for Government to interfere. So soon as this
appeared, Mr. Maule, Mr. Rutherfurd, Mr. Patrick M. Stewart,
and other tried parliamentary friends of the cause, resisted the
proposal of postponement, and urged most strenuously that
the debate should go on. They pressed the matter to a divi
sion, and were left in a minority of 43 to 131.
The. General Assembly was now at hand, and Government

JET. 62. LETTER TO MR. BRUCE. 281
waited to note its proceedings, as an index for guiding its own
course. It was destined to be the last Assembly of the United
Church of Scotland. Beset and beleaguered on every side, the
evangelical majority held fast its ground, and shewed still an
unbroken front. But the difficulties which it had to encoun
ter had now greatly increased — the legal entanglements had
become at once more numerous and more embarrassing — the
open anarchy which had broken out was rapidly spreading —
and now, last of all, and worst of all, there were dark rumours
of internal disunion and defection. In the judgment of the
wisest and best of its leaders, the period had arrived for a final
declaration of principles and purpose, to be followed by some
decisive course of action. The approaching meeting of the
General Assembly would supply the fit occasion for making
this Declaration ; but for some weeks previously, it was matter
of grave and anxious consultation in what form it should be
couched, and to what special objects it should be directed.
Dr. Chalmers, who was not in Edinburgh at this time, em
bodied his own views in the following letter to the Rev. Mr.
Bruce : — " April 10th, 1842.
" My dear Sir, — In the present state of our Church contro
versy, the first and nearest concern is the integrity of our
jurisdiction. " After the treatment we have received both from Govern
ment and Parliament, as well as the Court below, the time
seems now to be fully come when we should put forth a Claim
of Rights, with a statement of what we hold to be our duty,
along with our determination to adhere to it.
" I hold it a great advantage, that in the preparation of
such a document, we can set ourselves forth in the light of a
suffering and aggrieved party — not as claimants, but as com
plainers ; that is, not as seeking for ourselves any new powers,-
vol. rv. 2 a

282 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1842.
but as protesting against an invasion made upon our old liber
ties, and which have been ours in undisturbed possession for
many generations. One great benefit of such an attitude is,
that whereas to meet the allegation of seeking power for our
selves, we felt compelled to say, in reply and vindication, that
it was but the power of giving effect to the dissents of the
people — we do not need thus to mix up one question with
another, but may confine ourselves simply to a demand for
justice against the aggressions of the Civil Courts on the part
which belongs to the Church, and to the Church exclusively,
in the collation of the ministerial office.
" I have all along been impressed with the deadly mischief
that has arisen from the complication of our question — between
the Church's power to regulate in this matter, and the pro
priety of our specific regulation. In every conference or
negotiation with our civil rulers, I would keep exclusively by
the former of these topics ; and unless forced upon us by them,
would keep out the other, as an irrelevancy, that was not only
unnecessary but uncalled for ; but more than this, because it
operated as a hurtful distraction, and served to obscure and
mystify a question which, if looked to with singleness of eye,
might by this time have been so lighted up, as to have made
its whole subject-matter transparent to all. When we asked
the Parliament to establish and endow Presbyterianism, we
did not ask them to become Presbyterians. When we ask
them to protect our spiritual independence from the invasion
of the courts below, so as that we shall be suffered to give
effect to our own principle of Non-Intrusion, I would ask no
recognition of this principle from them, or that they should
become Non-Intrusionists.
" I should therefore rejoiee, if, in preparing a Claim of
Rights, it could be so managed, that Non-Intrusion were
not once mentioned in it. There might be a necessity for

MS. 62. LETTER TO MR. BRUCE. 283
adverting to it in the historical part of the Memorial, but
there is both a high principle and a high policy in its not
being named — save in the general as a principle held by us
to be essential to Presbytery, and which the Church, therefore,
is resolved never to abandon.
" To satisfy you that this is no crotchet, let me state the
grounds on which my view rests, in what appears to me the
following grave and substantial considerations : —
" 1st, To set the Parliamentary mind agoing on two points
instead of one, is to foreclose all hope of its ever attaining a
clear view of our question. One idea at a time is enough
for any corporate body to discuss or to decide upon ; and the
agitation of two in that assembly of several hundreds, will
give rise to a labyrinth of confusion that must turn out to be
quite inextricable. Lord Lome's pamphlet owes all its clear
ness and power to his having kept by the single topic of the
Church's rightful jurisdiction ; and what is the alone subject of
his letter to the Peers, should be the alone subject of our
manifesto, both to Peers and Commoners.
" 2d, It is the proper topic addressed to the proper quarter.
It is not for Parliament to take up the ecclesiastical merits of
the principle of Non-Intrusion ; nor would I ask from them
any opinion on a question which is ours not theirs. It is an
internal question wherewith we alone have to do. The other
is a boundary question — the only proper one between the
two parties — the line of demarcation between the civil and the
ecclesiastical. I would not ask their approval to ordain a
certain amount of education in Hebrew; but should an in
ferior court resist this our ordination, I would ask their pro
tection from the molestation thus given to us. As little would
I ask their approval ere I ordained a certain amount of accept-
ableness as essential to the pastoral relation. But I ask pro
tection from the Court that steps beyond its own domain, and

284 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1842.
has made invasion upon ours, for the purpose of compelling us
to form the pastoral relation on other terms than we ourselves
have determined.
" 3d, I feel it a sort of injustice to the cause of our spiritual
independence — or which is tantamount to this, to the sacred
cause of the headship of Christ, to be condescending on the
specific question of Non-Intrusion — when so high a matter is
at issue as the great generic and comprehensive privilege
which is inherent with every true church of deciding this and
all other purely ecclesiastical questions for themselves. To
speak of the enactment, when the thing in jeopardy is the en
acting power, is bringing this power into greater jeopardy still.
It is almost like the submission of the enactment to the
tribunal of civil authority. On this ground I would never ask
from the legislature a recognition of the principle of Non-
Intrusion. It is a far greater thing which is at stake — the
right of giving effect to this and every other principle of a
purely spiritual nature which seemeth to us a sound one. We
do not ask the bestowal of even this right at their hands. We
only ask their recognition of it as a right which both originally
and constitutionally belongs to us : or rather we stand before
them as an aggrieved party, (which, as I have already said,
were an immense advantage,)- and ask their protection from
an invasion on that sacred prerogative, which both in the
nature of things and by law belongs to us. This is our high
ground, and we should keep by it.
" 4th, There is still another ground on which I should like
our struggle with the civil power to be for the genus rather
than for the species. It is not merely that if the one were
secured the other would follow ; but that the one, as being
altogether of a more catholic and comprehensive character,
commands for itself a larger sympathy and respect, not in
England only, but throughout the whole of reformed Christen-

MS. 62. LETTER TO MR. BRUCE. 285
dom. It is that great Erastian controversy, in which all states
and all churches have a common interest. The other question
has more, certainly, of a local character. It is a Scottish
peculiarity, which not even our near friends and neigh
bours, the Methodists of England, can altogether go along
with ; and I do confess that I have often felt when Non-Intru
sion was spoken of out of Scotland, that it was the inopportune
presentation of such a topic as gave a certain cast of provincial
littleness to a cause which might be so stated as to create a
responsive and deep felt interest in every land where national
establishments of Christianity were known.
" 5th, I have not exhausted these considerations, and could
state other and distinct ones ; but in addition to these, which
might be called the proprieties of the case in itself, let me give
my own impression of what might be termed the policy of the
question — though I by no means hinge our determination as
to the right method of treating it on a matter so, uncertain as
the likelihoods of success. But I do feel it to be a grievous
deviation from all sound tact and management, to be unneces
sarily arousing the antipathies of the English Parliament, by
dunning into their ears our ecclesiastical topic of Non-Intru
sion, when we have other such congenial and intelligible topics
on which to address them, as co-ordinate jurisdiction, Articles
of Union, the faith of national treaties, the contents and
enactments of their own statute-book, the relations and other
generalities which pertain to the connexion between Church
and State. What makes me all the less able to comprehend
this constant and inveterate tendency to the specific rather
than to the general question, and that both in and out of
season, is, that after all the general is our vital question, and
the particular constitution of our Patronage is not so. It seems
to me a further aggravation of this impolicy — as serving to
make the breach between the Church and the State all the

286 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1842.
more hopeless — that our vital is not their vital question ; and
therefore did we but confine ourselves to the former, we may
carry it our own way — whereas, if we insist on the latter,
which, is not our vital question, but may be theirs, it might
lead to a misunderstanding quite irreparable. There are
many, I believe, in the Senate-house who would sooner see
the Establishment destroyed than give a vote, which in their
own name should expressly recognise the principle of Non-
Intrusion ; and who yet rather than venture on the sacrifice of
a great national institute, would consent that the power of the
patron, and of the civil courts, should cease from the moment
that the presentee should be handed over to the Church Courts.
Let us keep, therefore, on the right track of negotiation ; and
we may not only all the more effectually secure the attention
of the Legislature to our cause, but may get infinitely better
terms by it. In any protest, or remonstrance, or claim of
rights, that we intend for the ears of the Legislature, let us
address them as statesmen, by speaking of the constitutional
standing and relations between the two bodies ; and not as
theologians or ecclesiastics by speaking of Non-Intrusion.
" But it may be said, is not this casting Non-Intrusion over
board? No, it is only providing each topic with its right
theatre, and so taking the best method for bringing each to a
right issue. England, and more especially its Parliament, is
the arena on which the battle for the Church's jurisdiction is
to be fought. Scotland, and more especially its General
Assembly, is the arena on which to plead and carry the cause
of Non-Intrusion. But indeed it is most true that in one
sense I am ready to cast Non-Intrusion overboard ; and that to
make room for it in its best form, which is the abolition of
Patronage. Still it is in Scotland where this cause has, in the
first instance, to be launched and set afloat ; and that both in
the General Assembly, where the ancient protest against it

MS. 62. LETTER TO MR. BRUCE. 287
ought to be renewed, and throughout the country at large,
whence petitions might be made to ascend from one end of
the land to the other. It is not until backed by these that
the question should come within the walls of Parliament.
When the General Assembly, the supreme governing power of
the Church, makes appearance there, it should be in defence
of her own invaded privileges — her own violated jurisdiction.
When the abolition of Patronage is the question, then let the
whole Church make appearance — the governors with their pro
test, but that in conjunction with the governed, that is, the
people with their complaints and remonstrances from every
part of the Scottish territory.
" I am sickened to despair with the argument that we must
foist in Non-Intrusion upon every occasion, and before what
ever party, lest we should lose our hold of the people of
Scotland. Have we no access to the people but via London ?
They are at our own door ; and might not we in daily and
immediate converse with them, make it as clear as day that it
is for their cause-the Church is now perilling all which belongs
to her in the world ? Within the limits of our own territory, let
us take our full swing of Non- Intrusion and Anti-patronage,
and above all let the people be made to see, that, in defence
of their Christian liberties, the ministers are putting to hazard
if not their lives at least their livelihoods. They may perhaps
not see this effectually, till these livelihoods shall have been
actually wrested from us. This may be or not. But certain
it is, that between a resolved clergy and a confiding, attached
people, we have the materials for a body of strength, which
with the blessing of God will turn out to be irresistible. And
therefore it is that I am so desirous of an engagement, entered
into by as many hundreds as will have vigour of principle,
and, let me add, the truly wise as well as magnanimous
policy of putting down their names to it— that, rather than

288 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1842,
give up the final jurisdiction of the Church in things ecclesi
astical, they are willing, if the hand of power shall offer to
inflict such a violence, to be stripped of all the rights and
advantages which belong to them as the ministers of a National
and Established Church.
" It is thus that we might fix ourselves on our best vantage
ground for a bold and righteous administration of our present
affairs ; more especially, in the exercise of discipline against
all offenders, all delicacy and hesitation of every sort ought to
be given to the winds. Nothing will serve but an open, coura
geous, and rectilineal policy. Whatever be the persons, or
whatever the Presbyteries who have defied the authority of the
Supreme Court, they should, if not immediately deposed, be
immediately proceeded against in the way that if they will
not return to obedience must infallibly issue in the wholesale
deposition of them all. On this matter there must be no
shrinkings, nor do I know aught of more imperious obligation,
both in respect of wisdom and principle, than that the Church,
in dealing with the refractory and the Erastian members of
her own body, should proceed against them with a firm and
unfaltering hand. I know they are boasting of their numbers,
and triumphantly ask if we can depose sixty. What a noble
reply should we be prepared to make, if we can say yes, or
you must drive off six hundred. Let the Government take
their choice. Let all who have a patriotic regard for the
country's peace and welfare, set the alternative before them.
Let every man who values the blessings of an efficient Church
decide the question for himself — Whether it were better that
so many tens or twenties of our disorderly members shall have
an arrest laid upon them, and that by an appliance of the
right censures and penalties, even to expulsion from the Estab
lishment if called for ; or, that as many hundreds shall be
ejected from their present holdings, and, thrust beyond the

MS. 62. LETTER FROM DR. GORDON. 289
pale of the Establishment, shall, on the fields of Non-con
formity to which they are driven, join themselves with all
that is good and wholesome among the Dissenters, and, on the
strength of their numerous congregations and followers amongst
an approving people, take possession of the land ? Heaven
grant, first, that the clear and full exhibition of this as the
inevitable result of their infatuation, be made before the
enemies of our Church ; and second, that seeing the infatuation
of their ruinous policy they may be led to abandon it. — I ever
am, my dear Sir, yours most cordially, Thomas Chalmers."
This letter was circulated among the leading friends of the
Church in Edinburgh, and in returning it to Mr. Bruce, Dr.
Gordon wrote as follows : —
" 42, St. Cutiibert Street, Thursday Evening.
" My dear Sir, — I have read with great delight the letter
which I now return, and since reading it I have hurriedly run
over the proof of our Claim and Declaration. I am sure Dr.
Chalmers will be delighted with the latter. It is purely a
jurisdiction claim. If 500 would sign it we are safe — I mean
humanly speaking. God may be pleased to save us by a
smaller number, lest we should boast and say, ' By my hand I
have done it.'
" If I might venture a remark on the Doctor's letter, I would
say, that his sharp language on the prominence given to the
Non-Intrusion principle is more applicable to the Government
than to the Church. The only ground on which the former
ever condescended to look at our case, was the notion that
they could despoil us of our jurisdiction by seeming to give
us large powers on that one point ; and I fear they will con
tinue to attempt ensnaring us in the same miserable and petti
fogging way. They will meet our higher and larger claim with
the old cry, the Supreme Court has interpreted against jou all
vol. iv. 2 B

290 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1842.
the statutes on which you found. This, therefore, must be
the meaning of the statutes, and consequently the real terms
of the connexion between Church and State for the last 130
years, and we see no reason to alter these terms. I am con
vinced that this is the point to which they will bring us.
Well ; be it so. Let us follow the course so plainly and power
fully laid out for us by our venerable and beloved father. If
it come to this, I trust that his setting sun will exhibit him to
Christendom in a brighter blaze than in all his other works —
leading his brethren in one of the noblest testimonies that
have ever been borne to the glorious headship of our adorable
Redeemer. — Ever, my dear Sir, most affectionately yours, .
" The Rev. John Bruco." ROBERT GORDON.
The framing of that most important document, in which the
Church was to embody a final statement of her principles and
her claims, her wrongs and her resolution, was entrusted to Mr.
Dunlop, who, in transmitting a proof of it to Dr. Chalmers,
says : — " Edinburgh, May 4th, 1842.
"Mr dear Sir, — I now send you a proof of our proposed
manifesto, which I have- endeavoured to draw up as much as
possible in accordance with the views set forth in your letter
to Mr. Bruce.
" I agree with you in the propriety of putting the great
question as to our jurisdiction in the forefront of the battle —
or, indeed, making it the battle ; although my experience
leads me to an opposite conclusion from you, as to the resist
ance to be given it. So far as I have been able to judge of the
sentiments and feelings of statesmen, I think their hostility to
the Church's independence is far more intense and inveterate
than their hostility to the people having a voice, and most of
them would willingly barter the latter for the former — i.e.,

MS. 62. LETTER FROM MR. DUNLOP. 291
acknowledge it if we would give up the other. This at my
last interview I was satisfied was the predominant feeling on
the part of Sir Robert Peel, who, you will remember, in allud
ing to Lord Aberdeen's Bill, on a discussion upon the Assembly
Hall grant, said, that we might get more power to the people,
but we would never again get so much to the Church. Still,
though my views as to this are directly opposed to yours, they
lead me to the same conclusion. I would put this matter the
more forward, because I am convinced that about it the real
fight will be ; and make that part of our fortifications the
stronger, because there the most violent attacks will be made. —
Believe me to be, yours very faithfully, A. Dunlop.
" Rev. Dr. Chalmers."
The General Assembly was summoned to convene on Thurs
day the 19th May,* and on the forenoon of that day the
* " Our Assembly begins to sit to-morrow fortnight. The appointment of the
Marquess of Bute to be our Commissioner is variously interpreted. That the obj ect
of this arrangement is a special one there can be no doubt, as in usual times the
office is conferred on a poor nobleman, whereas Lord Bute is possessed of great
influence and great wealth ; and withal had earned the gratitude of our Church
by his munificence in the cause of Church Extension. Some are apprehensive that
the object is to conciliate so many as might convert the minority into a majority
on the side of Lord Aberdeen's Bill, with some plausible modification. Let me
hope, on the other hand, that our majority will remain firm and unbroken; and
should such be the result of their experiment, let me further hope that the Govern
ment will be wise enough to conclude that ours is a position from which we are not
to be driven, and that they will desist from their attempts to force or to carry it.
" The Conservatives have used us very ill ; but I have reason to believe are now
somewhat staggered at the resolute and unbending front of the majority in the
Church. They flattered themselves that we would give in rather than lose our
endowments; and they find it a more difficult problem than they had first counted
on, now that they are opening to the conviction of such a disruption in the event of
their persevering in their present policy, as will lead to the separation from the
National Church of so many hundreds of her best clergy, as could, on the strength
of their respectability and influence, carry the great bulk of the population along
with them, and resolving themselves into a Home Mission, would take possession
of the land.
" We are now beginning to organize the country into defensive associations ; if

292 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1S42.
Marquess of Bute, as Lord High Commissioner, held his first
levee in the Throne Room of the Palace of Holyrood, in
which his Grace had taken up his residence. Never before
did so numerous or so brilliant a circle gather round Her
Majesty's representative. The levee over, a long array of
splendid carriages, flanked by 'cavalry on either side, wheeled.
out of the Palace Court. The ring of martial music filled the
ear, and the flash of glittering sabres struck the eye of the
assembled multitude, as the gorgeous cavalcade swept round
the base of the Calton-Hill on its way to the ancient church
of St. Giles. After sermon by Dr. Gordon, the Assembly
adjourned to St. Andrew's Church. The Court having been
constituted, proceeded to make up the Roll of members.
From the Presbytery of Strathbogie there was a double return,
the deposed ministers having elected and deputed their own
representatives to the Assembly. When it was moved by
Mr. Dunlop that their return should be altogether disregarded,
the motion was warmly opposed by Dr. Cook, who strenuously
asserted that the Assembly should not hold these seven ministers
as having been deposed. Dr. Chalmers scarcely ever took part
in the minor business of the Assembly, but this startling pro
position excited him for once to do so. " Moderator," he said,
" this is the first time in my life that I ever heard it asserted,
that the dissent of a minority superseded the sentence of a
court passed by an overwhelming majority. The proposition
is in substance, that those deposed by the General Assembly of
1841, shall, nevertheless, be allowed to sit as members in the
General Assembly of 1842. Why, Sir, the proposition is so
very monstrous, and so fully comes in conflict — so palpably and
immediately comes in conflict — with a first principle, that I
necessary to relinquish our present incomes, which of course would be left in pos
session of a Church then Erastianized, we may from their contributions obtain such
support as might be raised for the Non-Erastian Church of Scotland."— Letter
Jrom Dr. Chalmers to J. Lennox, Esq. of New York, dated 4lh May 1842.

jF.T. 62. SPEECH IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 293
cannot hold it to be a case for argument at all. But that such
a proposition should be made, that such a proposition should
ever be thought of, is a very instructive fact. It discovers to
what a fearful extent of anarchy and disorder the enemy within
— whether by the instigation and encouragement of the enemy
without, I cannot say — are resolved to plunge the Church of
Scotland ; how they are resolved to strip her of the last vestige of
that authority which belongs to every distinct body, governed by
distinct office-bearers. Never, Sir, would I say, has the charac
ter of the outrage inflicted upon the Church come out in such
bold relief as at the present moment, when we have just met
under the countenance of Her Majesty ; when we have been
ushered to our places with the form and circumstance of a
great national Institute ; and when we are now holding our
deliberations in the presence and hearing of Royalty, repre
sented by one of the most respected of our noblemen. We are
now congregated in this our first meeting of the present
Assembly, by the authority and appointment of the last meet
ing of the last General Assembly. And, Sir, in these circum
stances, what is the first thing we are called upon to do?
Why, to pluck from our archives the most solemn deed of that
most solemn convocation, and to trample it down under our
feet as a thing of insignificance or a thing of nought. It is
under the authority of last General Assembly that we now
hold our places, and are now met as a deliberative body ; and
I must say that if there is anything more than another which
could unsettle all men's notions of order and authority, it
would be the success of the present proposition. It would
truly be an egregious travesty, it would make a farce of the
proceedings of our General Assembly, a complete laughing
stock of our Church, were there left her no authority to en
force obedience from her own sons. It would present a strange
contrast between the impotence of our doings, and the pagean-

294 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1842.
try of our forms — between the absolute nothingness of the
Assembly, and the mighty notes of preparation — the impos
ing cavalcade which accompanied us — the pealing of the
clarionets with which we were conducted into the House on the
present occasion. I must say, there is not a heart that beats
with more gratification, or feels more elevation, than my own,
at the countenance given to our venerable Church at present
by the high and honourable of the land ; but ours will be the
fault, if, untrue to ourselves, if untrue to our privileges, we
shall allow our Church to become a sounding brass and a tink
ling cymbal, — a hissing and an astonishment to all passers by."
Mr. Dunlop's motion was carried by a majority which gave
an earnest, good and sure, of the resolute spirit by which all
the actings of this Assembly were characterized. On the first
day of its meeting, the representatives from the only recog
nised Presbytery of Strathbogie, informed the House that
interdicts from the Court of Session had been served upon
them, prohibiting them from taking their seats as mem
bers of the Assembly. The Supreme Court vindicated her
authority against this violation of her privileges, by entering
the names of the interdicted members on the roll, and identify
ing herself with their act in sitting and voting as members of
the Assembly, in such a way that the blow aimed at them was
made to fall upon the Church collectively. The other inter
dicts of the Civil Court, by which the discipline of the Church
was interfered with, were treated with the same silent and
dignified disregard. The ministers of Cambusnethan and
Stranraer were deposed from the sacred office. Mr. Clark was
deprived of his license. The settlement of Mr. Middleton as
minister of Culsalmond was rescinded, and those ministers who
held communion with the deposed clergymen of Strathbogie,
were suspended from the exercise of their judicial functions
as members of Church Courts, till the March Commission of

MS.QZ. EFFECTS OF THE CONTROVERSY. 295
the following year. While the Assembly acquitted itself in
this determined manner of its severer duties, it had other and
more gracious offices to discharge. A most encouraging re
port was given in by Mr. Dunlop, of the progress made during
the past year in all the varied fields of Christian and philan
thropic enterprise. The recent strife and contention, it might
have been imagined would have quenched or absorbed the
Church's Christian zeal. But it was signally the reverse. The
gross revenue of the Church's schemes for ten months in 1841,
exceeded by ^8000 that for the whole of the preceding year ;
and looking back to the time when the evangelical interest
became predominant, not only had three additional schemes of
Christian usefulness been added to the two then existing, but
the whole sum raised for religious purposes in 1842, was six
times greater than that raised in 1834, each intervening year
witnessing a growing increase. ' Coupling this general result
with manifold local indications ; with the greater prevalence
of prayer meetings over the country ; with the remarkable
awakenings at Kilsyth, Blairgowrie, and Dundee, we become
convinced that these years of turbulence and strife had drawn,
or driven, the Church nearer to the heavenly fountain of light
and strength — had deepened her faith — had. purified and in
tensified her devotion. The two great discussions of the
Assembly, and the only ones in which Dr. Chalmers took a
part, were those relative to Patronage, and to the Church's
Claim of Right. On Monday the 23d May, Dr. Cunningham
moved a resolution to the effect that, as both in itself a grievance
and as the main cause of the difficulties in which the Church
had been involved, Patronage ought to be abolished. This
motion, which was supported by Dr. Chalmers, was carried by
a majority of 216 to 147. For more than half a century after
the restoration of Patronage by the Act 1712, the General
Assembly had annually renewed her protest against this

296 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1842.
grievance, and had given it as an instruction to the Commis
sion to take all suitable opportunities for effecting its removal ;
and now once more, after the lapse of another half century,
and on the last opportunity given for doing so, the ancient
testimony against the yoke of Patronage was renewed.
On Tuesday the 24th, Dr. Chalmers moved the adoption of
the " Claim of Rights." This remarkable document is inserted
in the Appendix to this volume,* as being the clearest and most
consecutive, the most condensed and most comprehensive
statement of the great principles which the Church asserted —
of the Scriptural, constitutional, and legal grounds on which
these principles rested — of the violence done to them by the
Civil Court — of the wrongs which the Church had conse
quently sustained, and the claim for protection which she put
forth. It closed with the solemn declaration that, subject to
such civil coercion as was now attempted, the Church would
not and could not carry on its government ; and that at the
hazard of losing all the secular benefits conferred by the State,
and all the public benefits of an establishment, it would resist
that coercion, and maintain to the last the inalienable liberties
of a Church of Christ. In moving its adoption, Dr. Chalmers
said : — " Moderator, I am glad that the putting forth of a
Claim of Rights should be moved for in the General Assembly.
I liked the proposal from the time I first heard of it, and
more than ever are we now shut up to the necessity of such a
measure. The Court of Session persists in, nay, is fast multi
plying her encroachments. But the crowning necessity for a
full and general representation of our case before the country
at large, is, that we have been refused a hearing by Parlia
ment. The disposition in high places, is to leave the Church
altogether in the hands of the Court of Session, to proceed
against her ad libitum, or to any extent that may seem unto
* See Appendix C.

.'ET. G2. THE CLAIM OF RIGHTS. 297
them good, and this is called leaving the law to take its course.
They would abandon one Court to the entire mercy and dis
cretion of another ; and this they term being satisfied with the
law as it stands. The question whether each Court might not
have its own proper and certain limits prescribed by the Con
stitution, or whether these limits might not possibly, yea, have
not actually been transgressed — this is a question which they
have not looked at, and will not listen to. Thus given up, thus
abandoned, it seems our last expedient to make the solemn
appeal which we now meditate to the intelligence, and the
conscience, and the good faith of all men ; or, rather than our
last expedient, Moderator, it is our second last : for, to the
very last we shall keep hold of those privileges which essen
tially belong to every Christian Church, and not resign them
to the Erastianism which is now making head against us. To
the very last, we shall assert a Government in the Church,
distinct from that of the civil magistrate, and placed in the
hands of distinct office-bearers, and shall continue to adminis
ter that government accordingly. To the very last shall we
withstand the powers of this world, should they offer to in
tromit with, or attempt to overbear us in those things sacred
and spiritual, which belong exclusively to the kingdom that is
not of this world ; and at the expense of every suffering, and
of every trial, are we resolved to stand or fall with these in
herent — or, as our rulers would find them, would they but
examine their own Statute-book, these constitutional liberties
of the Church of Scotland. * * *
" We are not dealing in threats, but in remonstrances. We
are not making an experiment on English courage ; that we
know would be in vain. We are making an appeal to English
justice ; and that we hope will not be in vain. We are letting
the Capital of the empire know a case of gross, and grievous,
and multiplied oppression, which is now going on in one of

298 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1S42.
the provinces — an oppression which, if not remedied, will have
the effect of trampling down the Church of Scotland into utter
insignificance ; will despoil her of all moral weight, or better
greatly than this, though itself a great and sore calamity, will
dissever her from the State altogether, and that, too, at a time
when her services are most needed to reclaim a sadly degene
rated community, and let me add, were never more promising,
or, at any former period of our history, more likely to be effec
tual for the moral regeneration of our land. It has been asked,
why not quit the Establishment, or why continue to eat the
bread of the State while unfaithful to her service, or refusing
obedience to the authority, from which alone ours as a National
Church derives all the temporalities which belong to her?
There is some little mistake here, nay, a twofold mistake ; for,
in the first place, to dispute the mandate of a Court that is
co-ordinate with ourselves, when they have exceeded their own
territory, and made invasion upon ours — that we should not
call disobedience to the State. Nor are we willing to receive
our doom as an Establishment at the hand of any inferior
judge or magistrate, seeing that by the understanding of our
adversaries themselves, it is upon the supreme magistrate that
we hold both for the origin of our National Church, and for
her continuance. But secondly, though we therefore wait the
decision of the State, ere we quit our connexion with it, that
decision will not be given against us, but by an act of the
greatest national injustice. Sir, we are not eating the bread
of the State. When the State took us into connexion with
itself, which it did at the time of the Union, it found us eating
our own bread, and they solemnly pledged themselves to the
guarantees or the. conditions on which we should be permitted
to eat their bread in all time coming. Since at the hands of
the Court of Session we may be said to be now suffering one
half of a very great iniquity, we are not going to homologate

MS. 62. THE CLAIM OF RIGHTS. 299
this iniquity by doing the other half of it ourselves, by a
voluntary resignation of the temporalities which we have done
nothing rightfully to forfeit, although there be enough of
strength in the Civil power to force them out of our hands. If
the Government be satisfied with the conduct of their own ser
vants, let them consummate the deed which themselves approve
of, and let the act of our deprivation appear in its true character,
not as the spontaneous doing of so many simpletons among
ourselves, but as a great national act of injustice, a flagrant
breach of all national honour and good faith."
Dr. Chalmers's motion was carried by a majority of 241 to
110. The Lord High Commissioner was requested to transmit
the document upon which this approving seal of the Church
had been set, to Her Majesty, as the head of the State. — Her
principles thus faithfully declared, her final purpose thus
solemnly announced— the Church committed her ways to God,
and waited the evolutions of His will.

300 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1842.

CHAPTER XVI.
SUMMER RESIDENCE AT ROSSTREVOR— THE PREMIER'S DETERMINA
TION TO DO NOTHING— THE SECOND AUCHTERARDER DECISION-
THE CONVOCATION.
The months of July and August 1842, were spent by Dr.
Chalmers in the north of Ireland. He was accompanied upon
this occasion by his family, and fixed his head-quarters at
Rosstrevor, a lovely village lying a few miles from Newry.
The exquisite scenery of the Bay of Carlingford was new to
him, and he felt its charm with a fresh and peculiar relish.
He had not been prepared to find here so refined and Christian
a society, and he responded all the more readily and gratefully
to the many kind attentions which were lavished on him. His
leisure hours were devoted to the completion of his Lectures
on the Epistle to the Romans ; but the " manifold calls, and
invitations, and urgencies, wherewith he was continually beset,"
left him but little time for study. " I make my escape from
this," he writes to Mrs. Morton,* " in a few days, leaving my
family for a week or two. Whatever the lionizers may imagine,
there is great discomfort often brought upon the lion, who has
nothing for it but just to run off, in the hope that both his
lioness and her cubs may be permitted the enjoyment of some
comparative repose. And yet the kindness of the people
here is truly of a most genuine and heartfelt description.
* In letter dated Rosstrevor, July 30, 1842.

jKT. 62. RESIDENCE AT ROSSTREVOR. 301
What inspires me with this conviction is, that there is so much
of real Christianity among them. Lady Lifford, a very excel
lent and devoted person, comes here occasionally for summer
quarters. She is not here at present ; but she has been a
leaven for good in the neighbourhood, and the savour of her
example seems to have told on the vicinity. I have not met
with a greater number of families within the same compass in
any mere country place, more ready to entertain, and that with
obviously congenial feeling, the best and highest of all topics."
Writing again to one. of his daughters, after his return to
Edinburgh, he says : — " All hearts here warm at the recollec
tion of Rosstrevor, both place and people ; and it was only the
other day that Mrs. Chalmers came forth spontaneously with the
utterance of our having had indeed a very happy summer, in
which sentiment we all most feelingly concurred. The truth
is, I must confess that it forms the sunniest recollection of my
life."* There was but one shadow that rested on it — the pur
suing anxiety as to the state and prospects of the Church.
Sitting on a quiet summer evening in his lodgings at Ross
trevor, and ruminating on a proposal which had been made to
him, that the Church of Scotland should ask to be heard at
the bar of the House of Commons, and that he should under
take the statement and defence of her claims, we find him
writing thus : — " Prepare me, 0 God, for the whole of Thy
blessed will. If a period of darkness and disaster is indeed be
fore me, may I know how to acquit myself in the midst of Thy
coming visitation. If our Church is indeed to fall as an estab
lishment, let her not be forsaken by the light of Thy counten
ance ; and may the fruit of all her troubles be righteousness
and peace. Thou knowest, 0 God, if in the further evolutions
of the history of our Church, we shall be called before councils
and governors of this world. And oh, my God, if ever called
* Letter to Miss Chalmers, dated Edinburgh, September 12, 1842.

302 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1842.
to examination and exposure before rulers and spectators, may
I not give way to anxieties, against which our Saviour hath both
warned and encouraged us, when He bids us not be careful
what we should say, for that the Holy Spirit will teach us how
to speak as we ought. Let me cherish more confidence than I
have hitherto done in the promise of the Holy Spirit, for the
ready and right suggestion of what ought to be said in the
hour of controversy or examination." *
On the 1 1 th June, when Mr. Campbell of Monzie was pre
pared to move the second reading of his Bill, an unforeseen
and insuperable obstacle was thrown in his way. It was dis
covered that as many livings in the Scotch Church were in
the gift of Her Majesty, no Bill which proposed to make any
alteration in the existing law of Patronage could be introduced
without the express consent of the Crown. Mr. Maule urged the
Premier to exercise the privilege, which it was understood that
he possessed, of setting this obstruction aside, but he refused,
and the Bill had accordingly to be withdrawn. A few days
afterwards, Sir Robert Peel informed the House " that after a
full consideration of the subject, Her Majesty's Government
had abandoned all hope of settling the question in a satis
factory manner, or of effecting any good by introducing a
measure relative to it." The General Assembly had stood
firm — the evangelical majorities were as large as ever — the
hope held out by Dr. Leishman and " the forty" had failed —
and as they could not count upon the Church's acquiescence,
the measure which a few months before had been announced
as likely to be so satisfactory, was finally abandoned. Without
interference on the part of Government, the conflict with the
Civil Courts must take its own course — a course which ere
long resulted in a most disastrous issue. Lord Kinnoul and
Mr. Young had raised a second action against the Presbytery of
* See Horos Sabbaticos, vol. i. pp. 70, 73, 74.

JET. 62. THE SECOND AUCHTERARDER DECISION. 303
Auchterarder, to recover damages, laid at £ 16,000, by way of
compensation for the injury sustained by patron and presentee
in consequence of Mr. Young's rejection. The Court of Session
found this action relevant, and on the 9th August 1842, the
House of Lords, sitting as a Court of Appeal, confirmed this
judgment, and declared that damages were recoverable by the
pursuers. The former decision of the Supreme Civil Court in
the Auchterarder case had gone no further than to declare
that in setting the presentee aside on the ground of the
popular dissent, the Presbytery had acted illegally. Believing
that the only legitimate effect of this decision would be to
bring into operation the remedy specially provided by Statute
for such a case, namely, the withholding the fruits of the
benefice, the Church had relinquished all claim to them. By
this second decision, however, of the House of Lords, it was
distinctly declared that the obligat ion to " receive and admit,"
which still lay upon the Presbytery, was a civil obligation, the
violation of which was to be regarded and punished as a civil
offence, as a crime committed against the common law of the
country. The four English Judges, Lord Lyndhurst, Lord
Cottenham, Lord Brougham, and Lord Campbell, were quite
unanimous. It is true that in the opinions which they de
livered, not one of them ever alluded to one of the Statutes
referred to by the Church of Scotland as ratifying her exclu
sive spiritual jurisdiction, and shielding it from invasion. They
regarded the case as exhibiting no peculiarity, presenting no
difficulty, and finding its perfect parallel in that of any
common civil corporation violating one of the statutes upon
which it was founded. In such an instance, if any individual
could plead that by the act of the corporation, his patrimonial
interests had been injured, an action for damages was a fair
and legal mode of obtaining redress. It was the same, in
the judgment of these noble Lords, with the Church of Scot-

304 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1812.
land. By putting the Church in such a category, and by sub
jecting her to such legal treatment, her title to any peculiar
exclusive spiritual authority and jurisdiction was ignored, was
absolutely and entirely repudiated. It had been clear enough
from the whole current of their recent judgments, that the
Court of Session conceived itself to be entitled to review, and
if it saw reason, to reverse any proceedings of the ecclesiastical
Courts, by which a civil injury of any kind had been inflict
ed. Now, however, and for the first time, the determination
of the Supreme Civil Court was given forth, that the judg
ments of the Court of Session imposed on the Church an
obligation to obedience, which she could not disregard without
subjecting herself to civil pains and penalties. This amounted
not simply to a change, but to the entire overthrow and
reversal of the constitution of the Scottish Establishment, so
far as that constitution had guaranteed to the Church a sphere
of action within which no secular power could control or coerce.
The first Auchterarder decision put a new interpretation on
the Law of Patronage, from the injurious results of which the
Church might have been protected by a change effected by
the Legislature in that single law. This second decision gave
a new interpretation of the nature and conditions of that
relationship in which the Church stood to the Civil Courts,
and through them to the State itself, whose organs these
Courts were. These conditions were such that the Church
could not fulfil them consistently with her principles. A mere
Non-Intrusion measure would no longer meet the difficulties
of her position. Yet in that position, without some relief, it
seemed impossible for her any longer to remain. The tidings
of that decision which brought the conflict to its crisis
reached Dr. Chalmers while still in Ireland, and writing to his
son-in-law, Mr. Mackenzie, a few days after he had heard of it,
he says: —

J5T.62. LETTER TO MR. MACKENZIE. 205
" Belfast, August 22d, 1842.
" My dear Sir, — I have been thinking much in a general
way of what the Church of Scotland should now do. I have
no idea of an instant resignation, and should exceedingly
regTet if, under any feeling of this sort, we should be exposed
to a piece-meal falling away of our friends from the Church
one by one. We must not go out in driblets, but in a compact
and entire body ; and one step clearly, in my view of it, re
mains to be done ere this great conjunct movement should
take place.
" To go out now, would be receiving our doom as an Estab
lishment from the Civil Court, or at the bidding of a mere
fellow and co-ordinate with ourselves — for the House of Lords,
in its judicial capacity, is nothing more. When we do go out,
it must be at the bidding of that party in virtue of whose
ordination it was that we became an Establishment, or from
whose hands we receive our endowments ; or rather, under
whose protection it is that our right as a Church to these
endowments is secured from all violation. In other words, we
should not quit the Establishment till we have obtained from
Parliament a deliverance, whether by an adverse proposition,
or a refusal to entertain our cause.
" It is thus that I apprehend the final step should not be
taken till next Session of Parliament ; but meanwhile, a mani
festo, setting forth both our principles and our determination,
should be put forth as soon as may be, and subscribed by all
our friends in the Church, both as an exoneration of their con
sciences, and as an intimation to all concerned of what that
really is which we mean to stand or fall by.
" There are subordinate matters of detail, respecting -which
I would need to be in Scotland ere I could make up my mind.
The size of my new house will be of one service. We shall all
nestle there together till some openings cast up for us under
vol. iv. 2 c

306 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1842.
the new system. Let not Eliza be dismayed ; but let us cast
our confidence and care on that God who careth for us. — I am,
my dear Sir, yours very truly, Thomas Chalmers.
" The Rev. John Mackenzie."
While repudiating the idea of immediate and individual
resignation, Dr. Chalmers contemplated the speedy withdrawal
of the evangelical clergymen from the Establishment as inevit
able, and waited only his return to Edinburgh to unite with
others in taking instant measures to meet this emergency. As
unity of counsel and action were so desirable, some special
opportunity required to be created for bringing together all
who held the principles for which the Church had been con
tending, in such circumstances that after a free and full, un
restrained and confidential consultation, they might resolve
upon the steps which it became them immediately to take.
Dr. Chalmers returned to Edinburgh in the beginning of Sep
tember, and on the 19th of that month, he wrote again to Mr.
Mackenzie. " Edinburgh, September 19th, 1842.
" My dear Sir, — I think the present state of things eminently
fitted to spiritualize our clergymen,' by causing them to sit
loose to all earthly dependence. I think I can perceive this
effect on some of the brethren ; and am informed that it tells
sensibly on the pulpit ministrations of many. May He who
can bring good out of evil, in His own good however myste
rious way, convert our present troubles into the means of a
signal revival of Christianity in the towns and parishes of
Scotland. " Mr. Hanna suggested to me a general convocation of all
the right-minded clergy on the subject ; a suggestion which I
am pushing amongst the brethren here, and with greater
acceptance than I at first anticipated. I wish it to come in

jET.62. THE CONVOCATION. 307
the shape at first of a requisition from some twelve or twenty
of the most venerable of the senior clergy in all parts of Scot
land, so as to divest it altogether of the aspect of Edinburgh
leadership, and give it the appearance, as well as the reality,
of a great, and general, and withal spontaneous remonstrance
from the collective mind and conscience of the Church, against
the Erastian invasion made by the recent decision of the
House of Peers on the rights and liberties of the Church of
Scotland. " Tell Eliza to keep her mind staid upon God. If there is a
break up in time I mean to call my house ' The Refuge.' — I
am, my dear Sir, yours very truly, Thomas Chalmers.
" Rev. John Mackenzie."
Agreeably to the intention expressed in this letter, Dr.
Chalmers addressed a private letter to a number of the most
aged and influential ministers of the Church, inviting them to
append their names to the general circular by which the Con
vocation was to be convened. " It is thought by many," said
he, in this private communication, " that the critical and extra
ordinary position in which the Church is placed by the late
decision of the House of Lords in the case of Auchterarder,
should be met by extraordinary means ; and of these the best
and the likeliest were a General Convocation in Edinburgh,
before the next meeting of Parliament, of all the ministers in
the Church who are friendly to the great principles for which
she is contending.
" It is true that in the General Assembly, and other ecclesi
astical courts, wre may be said to have regular and constituted
channels for the expression and conveyance of our views. But
our increasing majorities, and the slight influence of these on
a Government who have been hitherto adverse to our claims,
or stood aloof from the consideration of them, give abundant

308 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1S4Z.
evidence that these ordinary methods have been tried and
found ineffectual. The truth is, that every effort has been
made to foster the delusion in the minds of our rulers, that
the late proceedings of the Assembly are due to the factitious
influence of a few leaders, which, when once broken up, will
leave the Church in a condition to be moulded into a willing
conformity with the reigning and Erastian policy of the times.
There is nothing more fitted to dissipate this imagination than
a spontaneous and free expression, the result of a conference,
held for days together, by clergymen assembled in a great and
general body from all parts of Scotland ; and giving forth such
a solemn and deliberate representation of their sentiments
and views, as might convince all men that the determination
to stand or fall with the spiritual independence of our Church
is both so strong and so general as not to be overcome but by
a violent oppression of conscience, which, if attempted on the
part of the civil authorities, will lead to the degradation and
eventual overthrow of the best and greatest of our national
institutes." The response to this communication was that of a cordial
and almost unanimous consent ; and by a general circular
signed by thirty-two of the most venerable clergymen, the
whole body of the evangelical ministers all over Scotland were
invited to meet in Convocation at Edinburgh on the 1 7th
November. In prospect of a meeting with whose proceedings
such momentous issues were bound up, a proposal for united
prayer was drawn up by the Rev. Mr. M'Cheyne of Dundee,
and disseminated widely over the country. The petitions
which Dr. Chalmers individually addressed to the Throne of
Grace tell us with what profound anxiety he looked forward
to this great occasion. — " Do Thou guide, 0 Lord, the delibera
tions and measures of that Convocation of ministers now on
the eve of assembling ; and save me, in particular, from all

MS. 62. , THE CONVOCATION. 309
that is rash and unwarrantable, when engaged with the coun
sels or propositions that come before it. Let me not, 0 God,
be an instrument in any way of disappointing or misleading
my brethren. Let me not, in this crisis of our Church's his
tory, urge a sacrifice upon others which I would not most cheer
fully share with them. I pray for a right and discerning
spirit in this matter, 0 God. Let me struggle against my own
diffidence of my own extemporaneous powers. Appear, 0 God,
in the midst of us for the protection of Thy Church, and the
vindication of Thine own glory."*
The Convocation was opened in St. George's Church on the
forenoon of Thursday the 17th November, by devotional ser
vices conducted by the Rev. Dr. Macdonald of Ferintosh, and
a discourse by Dr. Chalmers. The text for this sermon was
most • felicitously chosen: — "Unto the upright there ariseth
light in the darkness." " The great lesson of this text," said
Dr. Chalmers in opening his discourse, " is the connexion
which obtains between integrity of purpose and clearness of
discernment, insomuch that a duteous conformity to what is
right, is generally followed up by a ready and luminous dis
cernment of what is true. It tells us that if we have but
grace to do as we ought, we shall be made to see as we ought ;
or, in other words, that if right morally, we are in the highway
of becoming right intellectually." After an illustration of this
general truth, he closed by this special and appropriate appli
cation of it to the circumstances under which his brethren
were then assembled : —
" And now, my venerable fathers and brethren of the Es
tablished Church of Scotland, I will not speak of it as a cer
tainty that if you persevere in the high walk of uprightness
on which you have entered, the secularities of that Establish
ment will be wrested from your hands. It would not be ven-
* Horce Sabbaticce, vol. i. pp. 92, 93 ; vol. ii. pp. 87, 89.

310 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. , 1842.
turing far, however, to speak of it as a probability and a
hazard, and surely, at the very least, not to speak of it as a
possibility were downright affectation. In this, its lowest and
least appalling form, you have been in the habit of regarding
it for years, and even when a crisis was obviously drawing
nearer, and the symptoms of some great and approaching
overthrow looked more menacing than before, let the majo
rities of our Church attest whether they have been the calcu
lations of worldly prudence or the high behests of principle
which had the ascendant over you. And still I rejoice to
believe that whatever be the shades or diversities of sentiments
upon lesser questions, the tie of that great and common prin
ciple which hitherto has bound us together remains unbroken,
— that I speak in the hearing of men firmly resolved as ever
to lose all and to suffer all rather than surrender the birth
right of those prerogatives which we inherit from our fathers,
or compromise the sacred liberty wherewith Christ has made
us free, — of men whose paramount question is, what is duty ?
that best stepping-stone to the solution of the other question,
what is wisdom ? For it is when in this spirit of uprightness,
this blessed frame of simplicity and godly sincerity, that light
is made to arise, and wisdom is justified of her children.
" This is not the place for attempting any specific delinea
tion of the path which wisdom prescribes in our present event
ful circumstances ; nor will I utter one word that might
indicate my opinion or even my leanings on the question of
what, specifically and practically, the Church at present ought
to do. But surely this is the place for urging both on myself
and others the moral preparation which all experience demon
strates to have an enlightening effect upon the understanding,
and all Scripture affirms to be of sovereign efficacy in bringing
down the spirit of wisdom from above. This has been the
object of your prayers, and it is the identical object, however

„.. „„. TJHJB CONVOCATION. 311
feeble in execution, of our preaching. The great lesson of our
text is, that if we purpose aright we shall be made to see
aright, and that the integrity of our will shall be followed up
by light in the understanding. God will not abandon to dark
ness those who cast their care and their confidence upon Him
self, and who can say with the Apostle, He is my helper, and
I will not fear what man can do unto me. The man who can
lift this honest and unfaltering prayer — ' Search me, 0 God,
and know my heart ; try me and know my thoughts, and see
if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way
everlasting ;' — the man who can say this fearlessly has nothing
else to fear. God will establish the just ; for it is said, the
righteous God trieth the hearts and reins. Commit, then, thy
works to the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established. In
all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.
It is He who, by the light of His Holy Spirit, makes good the
connexion between singleness of purpose and wisdom of con
duct, and thus I understand the text, that He maketh wise
the simple and giveth understanding to the simple. Ye men
of God, who make the Bible the directory of your hearts and
consciences, you will not long be left in uncertainty. He will
make your way clear and open before you. He shall bring
forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the
noon-day." The Convocation assembled for business at seven o'clock in
the evening in a small, chapel* in an obscure part of the old
town. About 450 ministers were present — a larger number
than had ever met in council in Scotland, many of them from
the remotest parts of the country. Dr. Chalmers was invited
to take the chair. In doing so, he briefly stated that the Con
vocation was met not for debate, but for deliberation. Its
great object was to ascertain the mind and purpose of the
* Roxburgh Church.

312 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMiito. ,„«.
Church in the present perilous emergency, and he noticed this
at the outset to encourage all to come forward with their sen
timents. To secure this object, the public were carefully
excluded from this and all the other after conferences. The
proposal that two eminent lawyers, elders of the Church,
whose advice, it was imagined, might occasionally be ser
viceable, should be admitted, was met with an immediate
and general negative. It was arranged that the ordinary
formalities of debate should be dispensed with — that the
discussion of each topic should be conducted as much as
possible in a colloquial form — that after the more aged and
eminent ministers had stated their opinions, the members
should be invited, Synod by Synod, to express their views ;
and that no conclusion should be come to, no practical mea
sure resolved upon, till as full an expression and interchange
of opinion as possible had been elicited. It was arranged,
also, that three times, at least, each day, the Convocation
should engage in devotional exercises, accompanied by read
ing of the Scriptures and praise, and that through all the
ordinary business prayer should be interspersed. After some
preliminary consultation, the attention of the Convocation was
concentrated upon the two following topics : — 1st, The exact
bearing and effect of the late decisions of the Civil Courts, and
especially of the recent Auchterarder judgment, involving a
consideration of wdiat would be required in order to effect any
right adjustment of the questions now at issue between the
Church and the civil authorities ; 2d, The duty and prospects
of the Church in the event of no adequate remedy being pro
vided. The Convocation was occupied with the first of these
topics on Friday and Saturday. Considerable diversity of
opinion was at first expressed, and strong apprehensions were
entertained that no common ground for united action could be
discovered. Some members of the Convocation, acting under

MS. 62. THE CONVOCATION. 313
the impression that none but the best remedy for the existing
evil should be presented or entertained, were for putting the
abolition of patronage on the foreground of any application
which should be made to the Government or the Legislature.
Gradually, however, it became apparent that to press this
would be to frustrate the very object of the Convocation.
" I have long felt," said Dr. Chalmers, when speaking on the
forenoon of Saturday, " that our proper business is to express
not what we hold to be most desirable, but what we hold to
be indispensable. We are not to go to Parliament in the
attitude, of petitioners ; for then we might break up into
innumerable shades of diversity of opinion. Let us rather
ascertain and enunciate the one principle upon which we can
all unite — let us fix the point beneath which it is impossible
for the Church to act ; and let us put it so that we shall be
able to say to our rulers — ' Your destruction of the Establish
ment shall arise not from our asking anything which we have
not by right already, but from your refusal to continue to us
that which by right we already have.' Do those who would
have us petition against patronage hold what they seek to be
so essential that the refusal of it would oblige them to go out
of the Church ? If they do, then I say, that what I seek is
Such, that in the event of its refusal, I should hold it a dis
grace to remain in. Will they, then, enfeeble the effort of our
representation by declining to co-operate with us ? or would
these men actually remain in the Establishment if our propo
sition be not granted ? Perhaps they might ; for there is a
great difference between extremeness of principle and strength
of principle. But which is best ? — that we fix a point and sur
render all for it, though it be not the highest we could wish ;
or that we plant our demand at the highest point, but do not
make all depend on its being refused. The Church is a vessel
upon the billows on the very point of being submerged : is it
vol. iv. 2d

314 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1842.
time to speak of what will most improve the trim of the vessel,
and not rather of what will keep us afloat and bring us to a
safe haven ? We would adjourn the consideration of the first
question altogether till we are safely in the harbour."
In the course of the discussion a series of resolutions was
drawn up by Dr. Candlish, in which, after reciting and character
izing some of the late decisions, it was declared — " That as the
principle involved in these decisions, and particularly in the
recent Auchterarder judgment, is that of the supremacy of the
Civil Courts over those of the Established Church in the exer
cise of their spiritual functions, so the members of the Convo
cation declare that no measure can in conscience be submitted
to which does not effectually protect the Church against the
exercise of such jurisdiction of the Civil Courts in time to
come, and, in particular, fully prevent all future encroachments
of the nature specified in the preceding resolutions." There
was a right restriction here of the decision to the one indis
pensable element, without which no measure of relief could be
accepted. Dr. Patrick Macfarlan, Dr. Cunningham, Dr. Cand
lish, and Dr. Chalmers all concurred in recommending that
this restriction should be carefully observed ; and such was
the happy effect of two days' full and unfettered interchange
of thought, that when at last the roll of members was called
over in order to ascertain how many acquiesced in Dr. Cand-
lish's resolutions, it was found that there were only seven
who refused to concur.* " This morning," says Mr. Bonar,
writing on the afternoon of Saturday, " Dr. Chalmers's coming
in and delivering his address, which he did with great fervour
and kindliness, tended more, perhaps, than anything to deter
mine the result. His speech seemed to produce such an effect
that from that moment the other motions which had been
* This series of resolutions, passed on Saturday the 19th November, was con
curred in by 427 ministers.

MS. 62. THE CONVOCATION. 315
brought forward were obviously sunk or sinking out of sight,
so that their movers at last withdrew them. The harmony
was indeed wonderful, after all that we had feared. ' The
King's heart is in the hand of the Lord.' " *
A good and sure groundwork having been laid, the Convo
cation proceeded to consider what would be their duty in the
event of no adequate measure of relief being granted. One
obvious alternative was, that the evangelical clergymen should
withdraw from a Church whose government they could not
conscientiously conduct without violating the State-imposed
conditions on which they held their livings. For more than a
year Dr. Chalmers had been contemplating this alternative as
the one which they should ultimately be driven to adopt, and
had been maturing a plan for providing such a support for all
the outgoing ministers, that, carrying their principles, their
Confession of Faith, and their ecclesiastical organization entire
and unviolated along with them, with no loss but the loss of
their temporalities, and with whatever gain of influence their
tried fidelity might win for them, they might abide in honour
and usefulness, seen and recognised as the true Church of
their fathers. He asked and received permission from the
Convocation to lay this plan, with all its details, before the
Convocation at its meeting on the evening of Monday the 21st.
The lengthened and most important address which he deli
vered on this occasion is now printed for the first time, and
will be found in the Appendix to this volume. -f- It contains no
bare unfinished outline, as from the time and circumstances
in which it was presented any one might have been prepared
to anticipate, but a complete and detailed account of that
system of financial operation, which was adopted afterwards
* Notes of the Proceedings of the Convocation, taken at the time in short-hand
each day by the Rev. Andrew A. Bonar of Collace.
t See Appendix D.

316 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1842.
without a single alteration in any of its provisions, and carried
out with such pre-eminent success by the Free Church. We
search in vain for a parallel to this in the history of any other
Christian or corporate society ; for where can another instance
be produced in which, so long before the crisis occurred for which
it was incumbent to provide, a scheme of operations so com
prehensive and complicated was laid down, not one of whose
arrangements it was afterwards found necessary to set aside ?
It presents us with a very signal illustration of the foresight, the
fertility of device, and the practical sagacity by which Dr. Chal
mers's intellect was distinguished. But however judicious that
scheme now looks, when viewed in the light of its accomplish
ment, it remains to be told that not ten out of the four hundred
ministers to whom it originally was broached had much, if any,
faith in its success, nor was there one, perhaps, whose decision
upon the great question of duty then before them it served in
any appreciable degree to sway. It was listened to with
general incredulity, and the prospects held out by it were
regarded as the visionary anticipations of a too sanguine ima
gination. Putting such a future as it depicted out of its
thoughts, the Convocation returned to a discussion which
hinged mainly upon the point whether, standing upon her
constitutional rights, the Church should continue the conflict,
though the supreme power in the State should refuse to in
terfere ; or whether, if redress were refused, she should not
retire from a conflict which she could not prosecute without loss
of character and injury to the general interests of religion.
Here, as before, the differences of opinion, brought fully out in
the freedom of confidential intercourse, revealed the substan
tial agreement which prevailed. A second series of resolutions
had been proposed by Dr. Macfarlan, concluding with the
solemn declaration that as it was the duty, so, " in dependence
on the grace of God, it was the determination of the brethren

MS. 62. THE CONVOCATION. 317
now assembled, if no measure such as they have declared to
be indispensable be granted, to tender the resignation of their
civil advantages, which they can no longer hold in consistency
with the free and full exercise of their spiritual functions, and
to cast themselves on such provision as God in His providence
may afford ; maintaining still uncompromised the principle of
a right scriptural connexion between the Church and the
State, and solemnly entering their protest against the judg
ments of which they complain, as in their decided opinion
altogether contrary to what has ever hitherto been understood
to be the law and constitution of this country." On Tuesday
night, after prayer by Dr. M'Donald, the roll was called, and
270 voted that these resolutions should be adopted.* It was
felt by all to be a vote not lightly to be given, and for a day
or two many held back their names.
On Wednesday forenoon Dr. Chalmers asked how many
names were now appended to the resolutions of the preceding
evening. When told that already there were above 300, he
broke forth with the exclamation — " Then we are more than
Gideon's army — a most hopeful omen." As he proceeded to
picture forth all the oppositions which this little army might
encounter — all the victories it might win, the inward fire
kindled into a perfect ecstasy of excitement. He stepped
forth into the centre of the group, his whole frame quivering
with emotion, and looking round upon that band of faithful
men, upon whose constancy in the hour of trial he felt now
that he could count, he exclaimed — " For throwing up our
livings — for casting ourselves with such unequal odds into so
great a conflict, men may call us enthusiasts ; but enthusiasm
is a noble virtue, rarely to be found in calm and unruffled
times of prosperity : it flourishes in adversity — it kindles in
the hour of danger. Persecution but serves to quicken the
* This second series of Resolutions was finally concurred in by 333 ministers.

318 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1842.
energy of its purposes. It swells in proud integrity, and,
great in the purity of its cause, it can scatter defiance amid a
host of enemies." It was the spirit of chivalry baptized with
the fire from Heaven.
The two sets of resolutions which had been adopted having
been embodied in a Memorial addressed to Sir Robert Peel and
the other members of Her Majesty's Government, the Convo
cation broke up on Thursday the 24th November. Its sittings
lasted for six days — days never to pass from the memory of
those privileged to be present ; for wdien shall they be able to
forget the solemn, subdued, and anxious feeling which at first
prevailed — the fears which once and again arose that discord
and disunion might ensue — the manner, often so strange and
impressive, in which these fears were dissipated — the grace
and wisdom given to those who chiefly guided the deliberations
— the brotherly and confiding tone which, broken a little at the
beginning, deepened at the close into one of pure and perfect
harmony — the noble sentiments of heroic faith and devoted-
ness, sometimes so simply, sometimes so eloquently expressed
— the spirit of prayer which, breathing from the lips of Mr.
M'Cheyne or Dr. M'Donald, conveyed a profounder sense of
the Divine presence than we ever felt before or sinGe in the
most hallowed of our Christian assemblies.

MS. 63. LETTER TO MR. LENNOX. 319

CHAPTER XVII.
LETTER TO MR. LENNOX— FINAL ANSWER OF THE GOVERNMENT-
LETTER FROM SIR JAMES GRAHAM— THE DEBATE IN PARLIAMENT
—THE CLAIM OF RIGHTS REJECTED BY THE LEGISLATURE— THE
DISRUPTION. Writing to Mr. Lennox of New York, on the 31st Decem
ber 1842, Dr. Chalmers says, — " You may perhaps have, by
this time, heard of the proceedings of our Convocation in
November last. Between four and five hundred of our best
ministers have subscribed a Memorial to Government, by which
they commit themselves to the relinquishment of the Church's
temporalities, if they are not permitted to hold them but on
the condition of being subjected to the Civil Courts in things
spiritual, on the footing of the decision by the House of Lords
in the case of Auchterarder. And, if the Parliament grant us
no redress, I have no doubt that the decision of our Convocation
in November will be the decision of our General Assembly in
May. It lies therefore with our statesmen whether there shall
not be an utter disruption of our Church in a few months.
None of us are at all sanguine of a favourable measure at their
hands, and we are therefore laying our account with the con
nexion being dissolved early in summer. The eyes of the
country are opening to this fact as to a coming certainty, and
I feel great confidence that, with the blessing of God, we shall
be able to resolve ourselves into a great Home Mission, and
take possession of the land. I do hope that henceforth our
friends the Voluntaries will think more generously of us than

320 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1843.
they have done heretofore. Not that we renounce the principle
of a National Establishment of Christianity, for we think it
quite possible to harmonize this with the principle of spiritual
independence. It will be the fault of our rulers if the two are
not harmonized ; and I do hope we shall get a little more credit
at the hands of our adversaries when they find us giving up all
the endowments of a National Church so soon as it is deter
mined that we shall not be permitted to hold them but at the
expense of our Christian liberties. Should this take place, it
will be of first rate importance that we, the ejected ministers,
and they, the evangelical dissenters, should act with a common
and cordial understanding together, as there is now a most
formidable enemy, rising every day into greater strength, in
the Puseyism of England, and which threatens to bring back
upon our fair island the intolerance and all the superstitions of
Rome." Having done what she could to clear away all ambiguity
from her principles and position, the Church waited the final
answer of the Government, which was conveyed in a letter
from Sir James Graham, dated Whitehall, January 4, 1843.
The Church felt that she had good reason to complain of this
communication. When her integrity as one of the most valu
able institutions of the country, and the status and livelihood
of so many of her clergymen and their families were at stake,
she had reason to expect that in rejecting a claim upon which
so much was perilled, that claim would be correctly stated,
and that the pleas urged in support of it would be fairly and
broadly met. The Government was not ignorant that the
abolition of patronage had never been put by the Church on
the same footing with the protection of her spiritual jurisdic
tion. The very last document put into their hands — the
Memorial from the Convocation — had told them what the one
vital point was upon which the Church hinged her continued

MS. 63. LETTER FROM SIR JAMES GRAHAM. 821
alliance with the State. Overlooking this Memorial alto
gether, and taking advantage of the fact that the General
Assembly of 1842 had transmitted two addresses to the Crown
— the one praying for the abolition of patronage, and the other
that her spiritual independence should be secured, Sir James
mixed the two together, giving one answer to both, to the
inevitable and injurious confounding of topics which the
Church had been at so much pains to keep distinct. It gave
him no inconsiderable advantage to deal conjunctly with the
two demands, and it helped to win a larger amount of popular
concurrence with their refusal ; but the Church had the im
pression that such a piece of dexterous policy was scarcely
suited either to her sacred character or to the anxious circum
stances in which so many of her ministers were placed. She
felt still more aggrieved by the gross mis-statement of her
Claim of Rights of which Sir James was guilty when he repre
sented her as demanding that all her " proceedings, whether
legislative or judicial, should be beyond the cognizance of the
courts of law," — that these courts " should have no power to
determine whether matters brought before them were within
the scope of their authority, if, in the opinion of the Church,
these matters involved any spiritual consideration," — and that
" neither sentences of courts nor decrees of the House of Lords
should be effectual if they interfered with the rights and pri
vileges of the Church, of which interference and of which
spiritual considerations the Church itself was to be the exclu
sive judge." This was to identify the Claim of Rights with the
arrogant pretensions of the Church of Rome, and that in face
of the notorious fact, that her peculiar connexion with the
State had from the beginning been described and vindicated
by the Scottish Establishment as lying midway between the
two extremes — the extreme of Popery, which asserts the en
tire supremacy of the Church over the State, and claims for

322 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 184:+
the former a total exemption from all species of civil control ;
and the extreme of Erastianism, which asserts the entire
supremacy of the State over the Church, and denies to the
latter any peculiar sphere of action free from the reach of
secular authority and control. The painful feeling excited by
this misrepresentation was aggravated when it was noticed
that instead of dealing with the statutory and constitutional
pleas advanced by the Church in support of her claims, these
were summarily disposed of by the general allegation that
to yield to them would "lead directly to despotic power;"
the adverse judgment of the Government being based not
upon a consideration of what rights the Church already
possessed, but of what rights they conceived it safe for her
to enjoy.
In vindication of the course followed by the Civil Courts,
Sir James Graham traced all those encroachments which had
been complained of to a previous aggression made by the
Church on the vested rights of patrons. More than one in
stance has been already given in which the Court of Session
assumed and attempted to exercise authority over the Church
when no civil right was directly or indirectly affected. Had
any doubt, however, upon this point remained, it must have
been removed by a judgment of that Court delivered a few
days after Sir James's letter reached Edinburgh. It has been
already mentioned that one effect of the reforming measures
adopted by the evangelical majority, was the return into, the
bosom of the Church of a body of dissenters bearing the name
of the Associate Synod. The clergymen of this Synod were
admitted as members of the respective Presbyteries within
whose bounds their charges were situated, and these Presby
teries were proceeding to attach a territorial district to their
churches. The Presbytery of Irvine had in this way received
the Rev. Mr. Clelland, minister at Stewarton, into their court.

MS. 63, THE STEWARTON CASE. 323
and were engaged in allocating to him a special district for
the purposes of pastoral superintendence and spiritual discip
line, when an interdict was served upon them prohibiting them
from receiving Mr. Clelland as a member of Presbytery, and
from establishing an additional pastoral charge in the parish.
The Church for a hundred years and more had been admitting
additional ministers into her courts, and creating new parishes
quoad spiritualia, and the validity of her acts had been recog
nised by decisions of the Civil Court. Her title was now for
the first time challenged, upon the ground that, as a State-
created institution, she could have no authority and exercise
no privilege which had not been expressly granted to her by
statute. This case was so novel and important that it was
brought before all the judges of the Court of Session. Their
decision, delivered on the 20th January 1843, was to the effect,
that the Church had acted illegally in receiving such ministers
as Mr. Clelland, and in placing any part of an original parish
under their spiritual care. This judgment was one of wide
compass, applying as it did not only to the members of the
Associate Synod, but to all the unendowed clergymen recently
admitted into the Church. Its effect, if submitted to, would
have been to extinguish about two hundred pastoral charges,
and to annihilate as many kirk-sessions, by whose vigorous
agency a considerable inroad had been already made upon
the ignorance and irreligion of many of the most overgrown
parishes. It is one of the simplest and most harmless privi
leges which any society can enjoy, that of adding to the num
ber of its office-bearers, and of originating methods by which
their labours on behalf of the great objects of the institution may
be most effectively prosecuted. This privilege was now denied
to the Scottish Establishment. Taken in conjunction with a
previous decision of the Court of Session, that all the Sabbath
collections at the doors of the new churches belonged to the

324 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1S43.
heritors for the behoof of the poor, this judgment of that Court
overturned the whole work of Church Extension as an attempt
to break down the unmanageable masses which had accumu
lated in so many parishes, and threw them back upon the
exclusive pastoral superintendence of a single clergyman. In
other circumstances, the Church might have attempted, by
appeal to the House of Lords, to obtain a reversal of a sen
tence so fatal to her progress, so pregnant with injury to the
highest interests of the country. As it was, she received it as
a last token of the hopelessness of any recognition of her
spiritual independence by the Court of Session, and she en
grossed it as the last specimen of the injustice which had been
done her in that petition which, at a meeting of Commission
held on the 31st January, it was resolved should be presented
to the British Legislature. In the letter of the Home Secre
tary a direct and emphatic negative had been put upon her
Claims by the executive Government. If the voice of the
Legislature re-echoed and confirmed that negative, she had
declared that this would be regarded as a conclusive determi
nation by the supreme power in the State that she held her
temporalities on the condition of implicit submission to the
decisions of the Civil Courts. As that condition was one
which she could not conscientiously fulfil, she had announced
it to be her purpose to relinquish the pecuniary advantages
conferred by the State, and on the broad ground of British
toleration throw herself upon the support of the country. Mr.
Fox Maule brought the important petition under the notice of
the House of Commons on 7th March — founding upon it a
motion that the House should resolve itself into a commit
tee to take into consideration the grievances of which the
Church of Scotland complained. Mr. Maule, Mr. Campbell of
Monzie, Sir George Grey, Mr. Rutherfurd, and Mr. P. M.
Stewart stated the case for the Church so temperately, so

ES. 63. THE DEBATE IN PARLIAMENT. 325
judiciously, and so comprehensively, as left the Church no
thing either to desire or to regret. Sir James Graham reit
erated the sentiments embodied in his letter, and closed his
speech by saying, that the sooner the House extinguished the
expectation of the Church the better, " because he was satis
fied that any such expectation never could be realized in any
country in which law or equity or order or common sense pre
vailed." Lord John Russell, with many expressions of regret
at a calamity which he feared was impending, could not with
hold his consent from the opinions as to the Church's jurisdiction
laid down bySir James Graham. " My right honourable friend,"
said his Lordship, " the member for Leith, has said that the
Church did not claim supreme power save over what was
spiritual, and that she allowed of the civil authority in other
matters, but I cannot conceive the connexion between Church
and State carried on under such conditions." Sir Robert Peel
took a broader view than any of the preceding speakers of the
nature of the Church's demands, and of the results which would
flow from conceding them. " The right honourable gentleman
opposite says, that these Courts — the Civil and Ecclesiastical —
have a co-ordinate jurisdiction. Now, I think that it has been
veiy clearly shewn, that would amount to something very like
a separation of Church and State. It is in fact impossible
that the two Courts can co-exist. Why, take the case of the
Roman Catholic religion or the Dissenters. The latter are,
no doubt, quite entitled, as a Voluntary Church, to decide
with reference to their own affairs ; but if a Church chooses
to participate in the advantages appertaining to an Establish
ment, that Church, whether it be the Church of England, the
Church of Rome, or the Church of Scotland, that Church
must conform itself to the law. It would be an anomaly — it
would be an absurdity, that a Church should possess the privi
lege, and enjoy the advantages of connexion with the State,

326 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1843.
and, nevertheless, claim exemption from the obligations which
wherever there is an authority must of necessity exist ; and
this House and the country never could lay it down, that if a
dispute should arise in respect of the statute law of the land,
such dispute should be referred to a tribunal not subject to an
appeal to the House of Lords. * * * I consider that a
great principle is involved in this matter. If peace could be
secured — if the rights of the subject could be maintained con
sistently with the demands of the Church, then, indeed, such
is my opinion of the pressing evils of this protracted disputa
tion, that I should almost be induced to make any concession
in order to obtain tranquillity. But my belief is, that such
claims, were you to concede them, would be unlimited in their
extent. They could not be limited to the Church of Scotland.
A principle, then,' is involved, and if the principle be conceded
by the House of Commons, why, the House of Commons must
be prepared to carry it out. * * * My belief is, that there
is abroad, both in this country, in Scotland, and in other
countries, after a long series of religious contentions and
neglect of the duties of religion, a spirit founded upon just
views in connexion with the subject. But I hope, that in effect
ing this object, an attempt will not be made to establish a
spiritual or ecclesiastical supremacy above the other tribunals
of the country, and that in conjunction with increased attention
to the duties of religion the laws of the country will be main
tained. If the House of Commons is prepared to depart from
those principles on which the Reformation was founded, and
which principles are essential to the maintenance of the civil
and religious liberties of the country, nothing but evil would
result, the greatest evil of which would be the establishment
of religious domination, which would alike endanger the religion
of the country and the civil rights of man."
The debate, which was conducted throughout in a temper

MS. 63. THE DEBATE IN PARLIAMENT. 327
and spirit befitting the importance of the subject, closed after
the second evening's discussion, when seventy-six voted for Mr
Maule's motion and two hundred and forty-one against it. But
while so large a majority of the whole House rejected the
motion, the Scotch members, in the proportion of more than
two to one, voted in its favour. The voice of Scotland, as ex
pressed by her representatives, was overborne. A purely Scot
tish question, which touched to the quick the constitution of
the Scottish Kirk, was decided by members of the Anglican
Church, and upon principles applicable alike to all religious
establishments. The idea of two co-ordinate authorities — the
secular and the spiritual — " did appear" to Sir James Graham
" unjust and unreasonable."* Lord John Russell could not
conceive of its practical realization. Sir Robert Peel declared
it to be anomalous, absurd, impossible. But it did not occur
to any of these eminent politicians that the very kind of union
which they repudiated had at a very early period been de
scribed by the Scottish Church, and that in terms almost
identical with those employed in the Claim of Rights, as tho
only kind of union with the State into which the Church felt
itself at liberty to enter — had been sanctioned by Scottish
Parliaments, and had peacefully and prosperously been carried
on for more than two hundred years. Even if the abstract
and theoretical ground upon which this species of connexion
between Church and State was disallowed, had been valid,
the Scottish Establishment might reasonably enough have
complained that the question was not restricted as it ought
to have been, to an inquiry, historical and statutory, into
her original and actual constitution. That constitution should
not have been violated even although its leading peculiarity
— its refusal of the civil supremacy in spiritual affairs —
was discordant with Anglican ideas. It seemed hard that a
* See ante, p. 18.

328 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1S43.
principle so dear to Scotland, and to which, through so many
periods of persecution, that country had remained so faithful,
should be sacrificed to a general theory formed by English poli
ticians as to what the alliance between the Church and State
ought to be. But the sense of injustice was quickened into
wonder as the Church listened to the broad and sweeping
terms in which that principle was characterized. The two
great Tory leaders concurred in denouncing it as one, the con
cession of which would be dangerous alike to the civil and
religious liberties of the country. It seemed strange to a
Church which had done so much for freedom to have its most
distinctive feature thus characterized. It had not appeared in
such a light to the men. to whom Scotland owed its deliverance
from the grinding yoke of Popish bondage, nor to those by
whom the tyranny of the Stuarts was so heroically resisted,
and who upheld the cause of civil and religious liberty in these
lands when no others were bold enough to take the field. Nor
was it very easy to make out, when the matter was looked at
in its abstract shape, what danger to civil liberty could arise
from giving to a Church, when brought into connexion with
the State, the same freedom which every Church out of that
connexion enjoyed — how a liberty which it was admitted could
be safely exercised without the pale of the Establishment, at
once became so pernicious if exercised within that pale.
The State might not choo.se to bestow its gifts without
exacting an equivalent. It might not be willing to enter
into alliance with any Church which would not barter away
a part at least of its spiritual liberties in return for the
temporal advantages bestowed. Statesmen, in dread of that
religious fervour so apt to appear to them under the odious
aspect of fanaticism, might regard it as a needful and salutary
arrangement, that the religious community raised by favour of
the State to the position of greatest eminence and influence,

BT. (13. PRELIMINARY PREPARATIONS. 329
should constantly, and as to all its proceedings, be kept under
State control. But the wisest and best friends of religious
establishments could not but regard it as a fatal injury inflicted
on that cause, when it was so broadly and authoritatively
affirmed that no union between Church and State could legally
exist, or safely be endured, save that which implied implicit
subjection on the one side, and authoritative control on the
other. The decision of the Legislature, however, was so far satis
factory that it was free from all ambiguity. It put a distinct
and conclusive negative upon the claims of the Church. It
closed the perplexing negotiations of five fruitless years, —
turning away from which the Church set herself to a busy
preparation for the new condition which awaited her. The
clergymen who had signed the resolutions of the Convocation
lost no time in explaining to their congregations the important
step which had been taken, and in inviting their adherence.
Acting under the direction of a Committee appointed by the
Convocation, the ablest of their number were deputed to itine
rate over the country, holding meetings in every parish to which
they could find access, announcing to the people their principles
and final purposes, and obtaining a large and hopeful amount
of popular concurrence. All this, however, did not satisfy Dr.
Chalmers, whose grand device for meeting the coming crisis
was the organization of local associations, upon the plan and
for the purposes indicated in his' address to the Convocation.
Unable to persuade others to unite with him, he instituted of
his own accord, immediately after the Convocation broke up, an
association of this kind in the parish of Morningside, where he
resided. Districts were laid down, collectors were appointed,
donations for erecting the churches, and tennly subscriptions for
the support of the ministers of the Free Church were obtained,
six months before that Church had a substantive existence in the
VOL. IV. 2 E

330 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1843.
country. The letter from Sir James Graham opened the eyes
of many to the necessity of more instant and practical measures
of preparation, and at last the Committee, appointed by the
Convocation, united itself with another Committee, instituted
at an influential meeting, of the eldership, held at Edinburgh,
on the 1st Februaiy. This most effective body, organized under
the title of the Provisional Committee, held its first meeting on
the following day, and to its labours the Free Church mainly
owes that state of orderly preparation and absence of all
division and confusion by which the days of the Disruption
were so signally characterized. The Provisional Committee
divided itself into three sections, the Financial, the Architec
tural, and the Statistical. Dr. Chalmers took his position at
the head of the first of these sections. The task for which he
had been so long reserving himself was now put into his hands ;
and with an energy scarcely paralleled in the busiest periods
of his past history he set himself to its execution. A circular,
inviting subscriptions and donations, was instantly drawn up
by him, and sent in thousands over Scotland, bearing the
mottoes, " Surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my
house, nor go up into my .bed : I will not give sleep to mine
eyes, nor slumber to mine eyelids, until I find out a place for
the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob." — " The
God of heaven He will prosper us ; therefore we his servants
will arise and build." The acts which followed were in good
correspondence with these mottoes. As preliminary to those
local and detailed operations, to which he attached such pri
mary importance, Dr. Chalmers addressed a large and influen
tial meeting, held at Edinburgh on the evening of the 16th
February. " This meeting," he said, " is not for argument,
but for action. I think that the reasoners upon this question
have done their work. The time for argument is now over,
and the time for action >Jias come on. We have entered upon

MS. 63. THE ERA OF DEEDS. 331
a new era, the era of deeds, which has followed the era of
speeches, and arguments, and memorials, and manifestoes. * *
Some people are extremely fond of deliberative meetings. They
have a greater taste and are more qualified for the field of
deliberation than the field of action, in which former field they
act as penmen, as spokesmen, as framers and movers of resolu
tions, and have withal a marvellous faculty of threading their
way through a cumbrous and elaborate mechanism of commit
tees and sub-committees, so interwoven with each other that the
whole becomes a very complicated affair. And then they go on
consulting and deliberating, and treading upon each other, and
no one going forward ; and all the while there are thousands of
hearts burning with desire to support the Free Presbyterian
Church of Scotland if they only knew what they had to do.
That method of saying much and doing little is not suited to
the exigencies of this period. About ten days ago we began
what might have been begun and broken loose upon ten weeks
ago, and the result has been a meeting — a meeting of names,
at least, if not of persons. Yes, and there have been resolu
tions too, and with all my antipathy to resolutions, the resolu
tions I hold in my hand are vastly to my taste. They are
resolutions carried into effect without either a seconder, or a
meeting, or any vote at all upon the subject. The first resolu
tion is by a lady, and her resolution is, that she shall transmit
for the support of the Free Presbyterian Church the sum of
one thousand pounds sterling. The next resolution is by a
person who calls himself a Dissenter, and his resolution is to
give i?500. * * * This brief circular was only sent forth a few
days ago, and the amount of subscription, though we have yet
merely broken ground, is ^18,550. It has come in upon us
like a set rain at the rate of iPlOOO a day." Having warned
his audience against the delusive influence of these large sub
scriptions, all of which would be absorbed at once in the work

332 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1813.
of erecting their Church, Dr. Chalmers proceeded to point out
the paramount importance of those smaller, more numerous,
but periodically sustained contributions, on which the support
of a Christian ministry was to depend. Having described the
apparatus by help of which he hoped not only to see a main
tenance provided for all the outgoing clergymen, but the bless
ings of Christian instruction extended over the land, — " When
we come to that," he said, " and I think it may be soon, I
should feel myself in my old element, — as at my old work of
Church Extension in Scotland. For Church Extension I
knocked at the door of a Whig ministry, and they refused to
endow. I then knocked at the door of a Tory ministry : they
perhaps would have endowed, but they offered to enslave. I
now therefore turn aside from both, and knock at the door of
the general population. * * * To make Ireland what he
wanted it to be, O'Connell gave forth his watchword — ' Agi
tate, agitate, agitate ;' and the consequence was, that Ireland
for a few years was lord of the ascendant. To make England
what he wanted it to be, and to shake the empire loose from
the power of that agitation, Sir Robert Peel gave forth an
other watchword — ' Register, register, register ;' and the conse
quence is, that Toryism, with all its high church inveteracy,
and all its old antipathies to evangelical religion, is now seated
in absolute supremacy over the land. Scotland seeks no ascen
dency, and she neither hopes for, nor is ambitious of power.
She seeks the Christian freedom of her Church and the Chris
tian good of her people, and to make out this, let her watch
word be — ' Organize, organize, organize/ We know that
without prayer no human effort, no human wisdom can be of
any avail ; and we confess our main dependence to be on the
prayers of the Christian people of the land. But we also
know that prayer does not supersede either effort or wisdom.
Therefore I repeat — ' Organize, organize, organize ;' and with-

MS. 63. PROGRESS OF THE PREPARATIONS. 333
out the objects of the demagogue on the one hand, or of the
statesman on the other, let us not cease our endeavours till,
by the blessing of God, the country in which we live becomes
a sacred land of light and liberty — a portion of that greatest
and best of empires, the empire of truth and righteousness."
Having addressed a meeting in Glasgow held for a like object,
Dr. Chalmers devoted himself to the forming and fostering
into vigorous operation of Local Associations all over the
country. Every hour that he could spare from the duties of
the Theological Class was now consecrated to this work —
every day he was to be found presiding at the meeting of
Committee, and directing and stimulating his willing fellow-
labourers. The fruits of all this toil shall presently be laid before the
reader. Meanwhile let us preserve one interesting notice of
its progress. Writing to Mr. Lennox, on the 19th April
1843, Dr. Chalmers says: — " Our crisis is rapidly approach
ing. We are making every effort for the erection and susten
tation of a Free Church, in the event of our disruption from
the State, which will take place we expect in four weeks. I
am glad to say that the great bulk and body of the common
people, with a goodly proportion of the middle classes, are
upon our side, though it bodes ill for the country that the
higher classes are almost universally against us. Notwith
standing this, however, we are forming associations for weekly
payments in rapid progression all over the country, and I am
glad to say, that by this day's post they amount to four hund
red and five. We expect that by the meeting of our General
Assembly, the country will be half organized, and are looking
for a great additional impulse from the Disruption, when it
actually takes place. I am hopeful that ere the summer is
ended, we may number about a thousand associations, or as
many as there are parishes in Scotland, so that unless there

334 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1843.
be an attempt to crush us by persecution, I have no fear of our
getting on. But the Lord reigneth, and He alone knoweth
the end from the beginning. Let us look to His providence
and grace, without which there can be no security from with
out, nor vital prosperity within. Thomas Chalmers."
The faith in one another, and the fervid activity in prospect
of the Disruption, displayed by Dr. Chalmers and his associates,
found a singular contrast in the apathy of the Government,
and the infatuated incredulity of the public generally. When
the difficulties in which the Moderate party should be placed,
on the event of so many of their brethren being forced
out of the Church, had been alluded to in the Presbytery of
Edinburgh : — " It has been tauntingly asked," said the Rev.
Dr. Grant, " how, even if we were successful, we could carry
on the Church ? I should like to know, before answering the
question, how many of our opponents are to leave us?" Dr.
Grant was more excusable in speaking so, as the Convocation
had not then met, nor had he the resolution of that memorable
assembly before him. But we find the Rev. Dr. Cumming of
London, after the Convocation, and with the full knowledge
that the honour and good faith of more than four hundred
Scottish clergymen were solemnly pledged to retire from the
Establishment, publicly affirming — " If Government is firm, I
venture from pretty accurate information, to assert that less
than one hundred will cover the whole secession. * * * The
few manses and pulpits likely to be vacated, will be filled
up with good and holy ministers. * * * The missionary
schemes of the Church will not be overthrown ; they will
prosper more than they do now, by being released from
party domination, and incessant quarrels and squabblings.
* * * But I am not satisfied that any will secede."* When a
* " Present State of the Church of Scotland." London, 1843 ; pp. 10-16.

MS. 63. PUBLIC INCREDULITY. 335
Presbyterian clergyman, himself a Scotchman, and claiming to
be so well informed, made such public announcements as
these, we are the less surprised at the incredulity of public and
political men. It is now generally believed, that the testi
mony of some such informants as Dr. Cumming had satisfied
the Government that it would be only a few of the leaders,
who had committed themselves too deeply to draw back, who
would secede ; and that resting in this conviction, the Govern
ment suffered matters to proceed, and did nothing to avert the
catastrophe. In Scotland itself, with the busy notes of pre
paration ringing in their ears, there were multitudes, compris
ing almost the entire mass of the aristocracy, who could not
to the very last be persuaded that more than twenty or thirty
at the utmost would throw up their livings. It became a
favourite subject of betting at their clubs ; but even among
those most friendly, few would peril anything upon the hazard
that even so many as half of those who had pledged their
word would keep it. And the capital, with all its means and
opportunities of observation, was as incredulous as the country.
" Mark my words," wrote one of the best informed and most
sagacious citizens of Edinburgh, a day or two before the Dis
ruption, " Mark my words — not forty of them will go out."
The day of trial at last arrived. For some days previously
an unprecedented influx of strangers into Edinburgh fore
shadowed the approach-of some exciting event. Thursday, the
18th May, the day named for the meeting of the General
Assembly, rose upon the city with a dull and heavy dawn. So
early in the morning as between four and five o'clock, the
doors of the Church in which the Assembly was to convene*
opened to admit those who hastened to take up the most
favourable positions, in which they were content to remain for
* St. Andrew's Church, which had on this, as on a former occasion, been fitted
up as the Assembly Hall.

336 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1843.
nine weary hours. As the day wore on, it became evident
that the ordinary business of the city had to a great extent
been suspended, yet the crowds that gathered in the streets
wore no gay or holiday appearance. As groups of acquaint
ances met and commingled, their conversation was obviously of
a grave and earnest cast. Towards mid-day, the throne-room
at Holyrood, in which the Marquess of Bute, as Lord High
Commissioner, held his first levee, was filled with a numerous
assemblage of noblemen, clergymen, military and naval officers,
the city magistrates, and country gentlemen from all quarters of
Scotland. A portrait of King William III. hung upon the wall of
the room, opposite to the spot on which Her Majesty's Represen
tative was standing. The throng of the levee was at its height,
when, loosened somehow from its holdings, this portrait fell
heavily upon the floor ; and as it fell a voice was heard exclaim
ing, " There goes the Revolution Settlement." When the levee
closed the customary procession formed itself. In his state-car
riage, accompanied by a splendid cortege, and escorted by a troop
of cavalry, the Commissioner proceeded to the High Church.
The service was conducted by the Rev. Dr. Welsh, the Mode
rator of the preceding Assembly, whose discourse was made all
the more impressive by the frequent allusions to the event by
which it was so instantly to be followed. Elsewhere, within
the Assembly Hall, as hour after hour passed by, the strained
feeling of the multitude, by whom every inch of sitting and
standing ground had for so long a time been occupied, was
beginning occasionally to relax. At last, however, the rapid
entrance of a large body of ministers into the space railed off
below for members, told that the service at St. Giles was over.
Every symptom of languor at once gave way, and expectation
was at its utmost stretch. Dr. Welsh, the Moderator, entered
and took the chair. Soon afterwards, His Grace the Lord High
Commissioner was announced, and the whole assemblage rose

MS. 63. THE DAY OF THE DISRUPTION. 337
and received him standing. Solemn prayer was then offered up.
The members having resumed their seats, Dr. Welsh rose. By
the eager pressure forward — the hush ! hush ! that burst from
so many lips — the anxiety to hear threatened to defeat itself.
The disturbance lasted but a moment. " Fathers and breth
ren," said Dr. Welsh, and now every syllable fell upon the ear
amid the breathless stillness which prevailed, " according to
the usual form of procedure, this is the time for making up
the roll. But, in consequence of certain proceedings affecting
our rights and privileges, proceedings which have been sanc
tioned by Her Majesty's Government, and by the Legislature
of the country ; and more especially, in respect that there has
been an infringement on the liberties of our Constitution, so
that we could not now constitute this Court without a violation
of the terms of the union between Church and State in this
land, as now authoritatively declared, I must protest against
our proceeding further. The reasons that have led me to come
to this conclusion, are fully set forth in the document which I
hold in my hand, and which, with permission of the House, I
will now proceed to read." In this document, after the wrongs
of the Church had been succinctly recited, the parties who signed
it proceed at its close to say, — " We protest, that in the circum
stances in which we are placed, it is and shall be lawful for
us, and such other Commissioners chosen to the Assembly
appointed to have been this day holden as may concur with us,
to withdraw to a separate place of meeting, for the purpose of
taking steps, along with all who adhere to us, maintaining with
us the Confession of Faith and Standards of the Church of
Scotland, for separating in an orderly way from the Establish
ment, and thereupon adopting such measures as may be com
petent to us, in humble dependence on God's grace, and the
aid of the Holy Spirit for the advancement of his glory, the
extension of the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour, and the
VOL. IV. 2 F

338 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1843.
administration of the affairs of Christ's house, according to his
holy word : and we now withdraw accordingly, humbly and so
lemnly acknowledging the hand of the Lord in the things which
have come upon us, because of our manifold sins, and the sins
of the Church and nation ; but, at the same time, with assured
conviction that we are not responsible for any consequences
that may follow from this our enforced separation from an
Establishment which we loved and prized, through interference
with conscience, the dishonour done to Christ's crown, and the
rejection of His sole and supreme authority as King in his
Church." Having finished the reading of this Protest, Dr.
Welsh laid it upon the table, turned and bowed respectfully to
the Commissioner, left the chair and proceeded along the aisle
to the door of the Church. Dr. Chalmers had been standing
immediately on his left. He looked vacant and abstracted
while the Protest was being read ; but Dr. Welsh's movement
awakened him from the reverie. Seizing eagerly upon his hat,
he hurried after him with all the air of one impatient to be gone.
Mr. Campbell of Monzie, Dr. Gordon, Dr. Macdonald, Dr. Mac
farlan, followed him. The effect upon the audience was over
whelming. At first a cheer burst from the galleries, but it was
almost instantly and spontaneously restrained. It was felt by all
to be an expression of feeling unsuited to the occasion ; it was
checked in many cases by an emotion too deep for any other
utterance than the fall of sad and silent tears. The whole
audience was now standing gazing in stillness upon the scene.
Man after man, row after row, moved on along the aisle, till
the benches on the left lately so crowded showed scarce an
occupant. More than 400 ministers, and a still larger number
of elders, had withdrawn.
A vast multitude of people stood congregated in George's
Street, crowding in upon the church-doors. When the deed
was done within, the intimation of it passed like lightning

MS. 63. THE DAY OF THE DISRUPTION. 339
through the mass without, and when the forms of their most
venerated clergymen were seen emerging from the Church, a
loud and irrepressible cheer burst from their lips, and echoed
through the now half empty Assembly Hall. There was no
design on the part of the clergymen to form into a procession,
but they were forced to it by the narrowness of the lane
opened for their egress through the heart of the crowd.
Falling into line, and walking three abreast, they formed into
a column which extended for a quarter of a mile and more.
As they moved along to the new Hall prepared for their recep
tion, very different feelings prevailed among the numberless
spectators who lined the streets, and thronged each window
and door, and balcony, on either side. Some gazed in stupid
wonder ; the majority looked on in silent admiration. A few
were seen to smile, as if in mockery ; while here and there, as
the child or wife of some outgoing minister caught sight of a
husband's or a father's form accomplishing an act which was to
leave his family homeless and unprovided, warm tear-drops
formed, which, as if half ashamed of them, the hand of faith
was in haste to wipe away. There were Judges of the Court
of Session there, who had placed themselves where they could
be unseen observers of what took place, who must have felt
perplexed, it may be saddened, when they saw realized before
their eyes the fruits of their decisions. Elsewhere in the
city, Lord Jeffrey was sitting reading in his quiet room, when
one burst in upon him saying, " Well, what do you think
of it ? — more than four hundred of them are actually out."
The book was flung aside, and springing to his feet, Lord
Jeffrey exclaimed, " I'm proud of my country ; there is not
another country upon earth where such a deed could have
been done."
The large hall at Canonmills prepared for the new Assembly,
and fitted up so as to receive 3000 auditors, had been filled in

340 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1843.
the part allotted to the public from an early hour in the
morning. When the procession from St. Andrew's Church
arrived, and the space marked off for ministers and elders was
fully occupied, Dr. Welsh opened the proceedings with prayer,
after which he rose and said : — (we quote now from a contem
porary account) — " Reverend fathers and brethren, I presume
our first duty in the circumstances in which we are placed, un
questionably is to constitute ourselves by the choice of a
Moderator ; and I feel assured that the eyes of every individual
in this Assembly — the eyes of the whole Church and country —
the eyes of all Christendom are directed to one individual,
whom to name is to pronounce his panegyric. In the exhausted
state in which my duties have left me, it is scarce in my
power to say more, but indeed I feel that more would be super
fluous. The extent of his labours in connexion with our pre
sent position would justly entitle Dr. Chalmers — (the mention
of Dr. Chalmers's name here, was received with extraordinary
enthusiasm, the whole of the vast audience rising, cheering for
some minutes with the utmost enthusiasm, and the house
presenting a perfect forest of hats and handkerchiefs) — would
justly entitle that great man to hold the first place in this our
meeting. But surely it is a good omen, or I should say a token
for good from the Great Disposer of all events, and the alone
Head of the Church, that I can propose, to hold this office, an
individual, who, by the efforts of his genius and his virtues, is
destined to hold so conspicuous a place in the eyes of all pos
terity. But this I feel is taking but a low view of the subject.
His genius has been devoted to the service of his Heavenly
Master, and his is the high honour promised to those, who,
having laboured successfully in their Master's cause, and
turned many to righteousness, are to ' shine as the stars for
ever and ever.' " In taking the chair, Dr. Chalmers proposed
that the proceedings should be commenced by another act of

MS. 63. THE DISRUPTION. 341
prayer and praise. The psalm selected to be sung commenced
with the verse — " 0 send thy light forth and thy truth ;
Let them be guides to me,
And bring me to thine holy hill,
Ev'n where thy dwellings be."
As the vast multitude stood up to sing these words, and as the
swell of 3000 voices rose up in melody to heaven, a sudden burst
of sunlight filled the building, and there were some who thought
of Dr. Chalmers's text, but six months before — " Unto theupright
there ariseth light in the darkness." The Assembly being con
stituted proceeded to business ; and on the following Tuesday the
act of the Disruption day was formally and legally completed by
the subscription of the " Act of Separation and Deed of Demis
sion," by which 470 ministers did " separate from and abandon
the present subsisting ecclesiastical Establishment in Scotland,
and renounce all rights and emoluments pertaining to them in
virtue thereof." A revenue of more than one hundred thousand
pounds a year was thus voluntarily relinquished for the keeping
of a good conscience and on behalf of the liberties of the Church.
Five years had passed since the first decision on the Auchterar
der Case, and the fruit of the conflict which then commenced
was this rending in twain of the Scottish Establishment. When
that conflict began there were none on any side who contem
plated the possibility of such an issue, and perhaps none who,
had it been pre-announced to them, would not willingly have
laboured to prevent it. It was an event not only beyond all
human foresight, but done without human concert, in great
measure against human will. Step by step the Church was
involuntarily led on from the lower and less essential to the
larger and vital question upon which her very existence as an
establishment came finally to be staked. Guided by a way
that she knew not, her path was hedged up on the right
hand and on the left till no opening but one seemed left for

342 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1843.
preserving her principles and keeping her honour pure and
clean. It lightened amazingly the sacrifice which so many of
her ministers were called at last to make, that not a shadow
of uncertainty hung over the closing act, and that amid all the
bitterness of regret felt by them in separating from an Esta
blishment which they had so loved and venerated, there
mingled no feeling of hesitation as to the propriety of their
final step. It was an act forced on them by the moral neces
sities of their position, from the weighty responsibilities of
which they felt as if providentially relieved. Those statesmen
who constrained them to this alternative might with more
show of reason have denied the spiritual independence which
they craved to a Church which shuts out the laity from all
part and influence in her affairs, and holds high notions of
the priestly office and the spiritual powers which accompany
it ; but can they be forgiven for denying this liberty, and that
on the ground of an alarm about clerical domination, to a
Church which opened every court to an equal, in some in
stances to a predominating lay influence, and which utterly
repudiated the whole doctrine of priestly authority and power ?
Can the British Government be forgiven for breaking up the
venerable fabric of the Scotch Church upon a plea so ground
less, and for putting so mournful a close to that career of
Christian usefulness upon which that Church had so vigorously
and so hopefully embarked ? That an Establishment manned
principally by such devoted ministers as were now driven
beyond its pale, and guided in its advancing movements by
such men as Dr. Chalmers and his associates, would have
proved an instrument of greater power for penetrating and
evangelizing the masses than any which we now see existing,
we cannot doubt ; and as the picture of what might have been
rises before our eye — the picture of the Church of Scotland,
aided by the countenance and liberality of the aristocracy —

iET. 63. THE DISRUPTION. 343
strong in the growing attachment of the great bulk of the
middle classes — numbering among her adherents more than
two-thirds of the whole population of the land — advancing
year by year in numbers and in strength — reclaiming larger
and larger portions of the waste places of the wilderness, and
turning them into the garden of the Lord — we sigh in heart
felt sorrow over an event which has put the fulfilment of such
a prospect for ever out of sight. We cannot doubt that for a
calamityso great, Divine Providence has some compensating
benefits in store, which as yet we do not see ; and with a
hopeful faith we look for it, that in some great and bene
ficent issue, as unlike to any which our sagacity or foresight
can now foreshadow as was the Disruption of 1 843 to the anti
cipations of 1834, when the future shall have unfolded and
illustrated them, the purposes of that wise and gracious
Providence which watches over the Church of Christ will
receive their ample vindication.

344 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1S43.

CHAPTER XVIII.
THE TWO GENERAL ASSEMBLIES— PROGRESS OF THE FREE CHURCH
—CHARACTERISTICS OF ITS FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY— LABOURS
AND SUFFERINGS OF THE SUMMER OF 1843— DR. CHALMERS'S SUS
TENTATION TOUR.
The Church was rent asunder, and, for the first time in
Scottish History, two General Assemblies convened together
at Edinburgh. What had divided them ? It was no difference
as to any of the peculiar doctrines of Christianity ; for the
Creed and Confession of both were identical. It was no dif
ference as to Church order or government ; for the form of
worship and methods of rule and discipline were in each
instance the same. Nor did the division spring from any
peculiarity of Presbyterianism ; for had the Established
Church of Scotland been Episcopalian or Independent, the
same kind of separation might have taken place. The Dis
ruption sprang solely and directly from the terms and con
ditions of connexion imposed by the State upon the Church.
The State demanded an unlimited submission to certain sen
tences of the Civil Courts, upon the broad and general ground
that such submission formed an essential element in the bond
of union between it and the Church. The evangelical clergy
men looked upon this demand as repugnant to the whole spirit
and contrary to the very letter of the ancient constitution of
their Church, — as one with which it would be both unlawful
and inexpedient to comply ; and, conscientiously unable to

MS. 63. THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE ESTABLISHMENT. 345
render the required submission, they withdrew from the Estab
lishment. But what they could not do — what they rather
chose to resign their livings than be guilty of — was done
without scruple or difficulty by those whom they left behind.
The Assembly of the Establishment at once decided that the
seven clergymen of Strathbogie were in full possession of all the
privileges of their order, and without any reversal by the
Ecclesiastical Court of the sentence which had been so solemnly
pronounced, those whom the Assembly of 1841 had deposed,
the Assembly of 1843 treated as if no judgment against them
had ever passed. The Veto Law, — the proceedings of previous
Assemblies relative to the settlements at Marnoch, Culsal
mond, and Lethendy, — the Acts of 1833, 1834, and 1839, by
which the ministers of the Associate Synod and of the Parlia
mentary and Extension Churches had been admitted, were all
subjected to the same simple and summary treatment. It was
not thought necessary to go through the form of repealing or
rescinding them ; but ipso facto, and because simply of the
edict of the Civil Courts, they were counted as null and void,
and ordered to be erased from the records. Mr. Clark had his
license restored to him, and the settlements of Mr. Edwards at
Marnoch and of Mr. Middleton at Culsalmond, were recognised
and confirmed. In acts like these, so hurtful to the Church's
honour, and so prejudicial to the spiritual interests of the
people, the evangelical clergymen could take no part ; and
having struggled in vain within the Establishment to be re
leased from the obligation to perform them — an obligation un
righteously, as they conceived, and unconstitutionally imposed
— they retired, to prosecute under all the disadvantages of a
disestablished state, the labours of a Christian Church.
Their position, as they assembled for the first time in the
plain but spacious building prepared in haste for their reception,
was without a parallel. Four hundred and seventy clergymen

3J-6 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1843.
left without incomes for themselves, or homes for their fami
lies, or churches for their flocks, — meeting in a condition
of complete ecclesiastical organization, undertaking all the
duties of a most arduous ministry at home, as well as the
support of extensive operations abroad, — and doing this as
quietly and resolutely as if no shock or dislocation had occurred
— no difficulties or uncertainties lay before them. The feeling
which at first and most strongly prevailed in that singular
assembly, was one of intense relief and satisfaction. So confi
dently and vividly was this feeling anticipated by Dr. Chal
mers, that, in penning beforehand his introductory address,
he inserted the following sentences : —
" Reverend fathers and brethren, it is well that you should
have been strengthened by your Master in Heaven to make the
surrender you have done, of every thing that is dear to nature ;
casting aside all your earthly dependence rather than offend
conscience, or incur the guilt of sinful compliance by thwarting
your own sense of duty, and running counter to the Bible, our
Great Church Directory and Statute Book. It is well that you
have made, for the present, a clean escape from this condemna
tion — and that in the issue of the contest between a sacrifice of
principle and a sacrifice of your worldly possessions, you have
resolved upon the latter ; and while to the eye of sense you are
without a provision and a home, embarked upon a wide ocean
of uncertainty, save that great and generous certainty wdiich is
apprehended by the eye of faith — that God reigneth, and that
He will not forsake the families of the faithful. We read in the
Scriptures, and I believe it will be often found true in the his
tory and experience of God's people, that there is a certain
light, and joyfulness, and elevation of spirit, consequent upon
a moral achievement such as this. There is a certain felt
triumph, like that of victory after a conflict, attending upon a
practical vindication which conscience has made of her own

MS. 63. DR. CHALMERS'S INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 347
supremacy, when she has been plied by many and strong temp
tations to degrade or to dethrone her. Apart from Christianity
altogether, there has been realized a joyfulness of heart, a proud
swelling of conscious integrity, when a conquest has been
effected by the higher over the inferior powers of our nature ;
and so among Christians too there is a legitimate glorying, as
when the disciples of old gloried in the midst of their tribula
tions, and when the spirit of glory and of God rested on them,
they were made partakers of the Divine nature, and escaped
the corruption that is in the world ; or as when the Apostle
Paul rejoiced in the testimony of his conscience.* But let us
not forget in the midst of this rejoicing the deep humility that
pervaded their songs of exultation : the trembling which these
holy men mixed with their mirth — trembling arising from a
sense of their own weakness ; and then courage inspired by the
thought of that aid and strength which was to be obtained out
of His fulness, who formed all their boasting and all their de
fence. Never in the history of our Church were such feelings
and such acknowledgments "more called for than now ; and in
the transition we are making, it becomes us to reflect on such
sentiments as these : " not I, but the grace of God in me ;"
and " let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall."
In closing the address from which these sentences are ex
tracted, and after referring to the danger, not unlikely to arise
under the new condition of things upon which the Free Church
was acting, of exchanging one kind of subjection or dependence
for another, Dr. Chalmers added, —
* " You would have been struck with the contrast presented by our outgoing
clergy, between their anxious and wo-begone aspect before they had taken their
decision, and their perfect relief and light-heartedness after it. Never was there a
happier Assembly, with a happier collection of faces, than in our Free Church —
with consciences disburdened, and casting themselves without care, and with all
the confidence of children, on the providence of that God who never forsakes the
families of the faithful." — Letter from Dr. Chalmers to his Sister, Mrs. Morton, dated
16(A Jane 1843.

348 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1843.
" To be more plain, let me be more particular. The Volun
taries mistake us, if they conceive us to be Voluntaries. We
hold by the duty of Government to give of their resources and
their means for the maintenance of a gospel ministry in the
land ; and we pray that their eyes may be opened, so that they
may learn how to acquit themselves as the protectors of the
Church, and not as its corrupters or its tyrants. We pray that
the sin of Uzziah, into which they have fallen, may be forgiven
them, and that those days of light and blessedness may speedily
arrive, when ' kings shall be the nursing-fathers, and queens
the nursing-mothers ' of our Zion. In a word, we hold that
every part and every function of a commonwealth should be
leavened with Christianity, and that every functionary, from
the highest to the lowest, should, in their respective spheres,
do all that in them lies to countenance and uphold it. That is
to say, though we quit the Establishment, we go out on the
Establishment principle ; we quit a vitiated Establishment, but
would rejoice in returning to a pure one. To express it other
wise — we are the advocates for, a national recognition and
national support of religion — and we are not Voluntaries.
"Again, if we thus openly proclaim our differences with men
who, under the guise of principle — and of this principle we
question not the honesty — refuse in the affairs of the Church
to have any participation with the Government, still more
resolutely do we disclaim all fellowship with men who, under
the guise of direct and declared opposition, lift a menacing
front against ' the powers that be ;' or, disdaining government,
and impatient of restraint, manifest a spirit of contention and
defiance. * * * If on the flag of your truly free and consti
tutional Church you are willing to inscribe that you are no
Voluntaries, then still more there will be an utter absence of
sympathy on your part with the demagogue and agitator
of the day — so that in golden characters may be seen and

j;T.63. THE SUSTENTATION FUND. 349
read of all men this other inscription, that you are no an
archists." His duties as Moderator interfered with Dr. Chalmers's taking
any large share in the public business of the Assembly. As
Convener, however, of the Financial Committee, he gave in the
report relative to the Sustentation Fund. Had no such central
fund for upholding the ministries of all the outgoing clergymen
in their former spheres of labour been devised, had each minister
been thrown upon the support of such of his parishioners as
adhered to him, in more than two hundred instances that sup
port had been so utterly insufficient that their positions must
have been abandoned, and the Free Church narrowed by more
than a third part in her original dimensions. It was, more
over, the existence of such a fund which alone enabled the Free
Church to make and keep her promise of supplying with
Christian ordinances all who should adhere to her communion ;
and looking to the large increase in her ministry and member
ship which consequently occurred, we may confidently affirm
that for more than one half of her existing numerical strength
the Free Church stands indebted to that single device of Dr.
Chalmers. His report as to the progress made in its establish
ment was in the highest degree encouraging. Six hundred
and eighty-seven associations had been organized. Two hun
dred and thirty-nine of them were in full operation, and had
already transmitted to the general treasury upwards of £ 1 7,000.
The average yielded by each of these associations was £13 per
annum, — a sum much lower than what might confidently be
calculated on when the impulse of the Disruption began to
operate ; but, even as it then stood, if the same rate of liber
ality were extended over all the existing associations, and
sustained throughout the year, there was the promise of an
annual revenue of ,£74,080. " Had the goodly result," said Dr.
Chalmers, in giving in this Report, " which I have to-day pre-

350 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1843.
sented to you, been a few months ago spoken of as either possible
or probable, the anticipation would have been regarded, as in fact
my expressed conviction at that time generally was regarded, as
a vision of Utopia. We know not what the feelings of such are
when, instead of presenting the matter to the eyes of their
understanding, we now place it before the eye of their senses.
Sure we are, it was far easier practically to do the thing, than
to convince the people that the thing was practicable. The
difficulty lay not in the doing of the work when begun, but
wholly in getting it begun — not in the execution of the process
after its commencement, but in overcoming the incredulity
which stood as a barrier in the way of its commencement. * *
I doubt not, there are a good many here who heard me predict
such a result as that which I have to-day laid before you ; and
I trust you will forgive me for stating, though I am not a pro
fessor of physiognomy, that when I chanced to lift my eyes off
the paper to the countenances of those who were before me, I
observed in them a good-natured leer of incredulity, mixed up,
no doubt, with a benignant complacency, which they cast on
the statements and high-coloured representations of a very
sanguine Utopian. In order to overcome this incredulity in
my own little sphere, and in a parish where eight-ninths of the
aristocracy of the soil are against us, I did begin a little Asso
ciation — I mean the parish of Morningside. But we remained
for six whole weeks in a state of single blessedness — we had
not a single companion, but stood as a spectacle to be gazed at
with a sort of gaping wonder, till we actually felt our situation
painful, felt as if we stood on a pillory ; but now that we have
been followed by no less than 687 Associations, our singularity,
we begin to feel, sits rather gracefully upon us. At the hazard
of being regarded as a Utopian this second time, and at this
new stage of our advance, I will make as confident an avowal
now as I made then, that if we only make a proper use of the

MS. 63. THE BUILDING FUND. 351
summer that is before us, in stirring up, I do not say the people
of Scotland, but that portion of them who are the friends of- our
Protesting Church, — if we do what we might, and what we
ought, we will not only be able to repair the whole Disruption,
but will get landed in the great and glorious work of Church
Extension. For you will recollect, that though the application
of the first portion of the funds goes towards, I will not
say the support of the ejected ministers, but towards the
upholding of the continuance of their services ; yet after that
is secured, and after the maximum has been attained, the over
and above sums contributed will go, not to the augmentation
of ministerial income, but to the augmentation of ministerial
services — not to the increase of the salaries of the ministers,
but to the increase of their numbers ; and we shall not stop
short, I trust, in our great and glorious enterprise, till, in the
language you have already heard, ' the light of the gospel be
carried to every cottage-door within the limits of the Scottish
territory' This will open a boundless field for the liberality of
our Christian brethren — a bright and beautiful ulterior, to which
every eye should be directed, that each may have in full view
the great and glorious achievement of a Church commensurate
with the land in which we dwell, and every heart be elevated
by the magnificent aim to cover with the requisite number of
churches, and, with God's blessing on the means, Christianity
to educate, and, in return for our performance and prayers, to
Christianize the whole of Scotland."
The Report relative to the Building Fund, also given in by
Dr. Chalmers, was not less encouraging. In one week, by
means of the local associations, £16,578 had been collected in
smaller sums, which, added to the more munificent donations
made during the few months preceding the Disruption, pre
sented no less a sum than £104,776 already available for the
erection of churches. And the day of the Disruption sprang a

352 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1843.
new mine of charity in the hearts of thousands. Their minis
ters having led the way, and given to the world a clear and
convincing testimony to the reality and power of religious
principle, in the pecuniary sacrifices which they made, many a
noble-hearted layman was in haste to follow and to rival their
example. First among those Christian and generous men who
have furnished a new standard of individual liberality, stood
Mr. William Campbell of Glasgow, whose benefactions to the
Church of Scotland during the progress of her extension had
already amounted to about £15,000, beginning a new career of
still wider liberality, by a donation of £2000 to the Building
Fund of the Free Church. The Marchioness of Breadalbane,
Mr. Ewing of Levenside, Mr. Nisbet of London, and Mr. Brown
Douglas of Edinburgh, were mentioned also by Dr. Chalmers as
the donors of sums equally munificent ; and we regret only that
the delicacy of a genuine humility forbids our naming one, the
overflowings of whose altogether princely generosity crossed the
Atlantic, and of which Dr. Chalmers felt himself to be honoured
in being chosen as the channel. These were the offerings of
the rich, but greater and more precious in the eyes of Him who
still sits over against the Church's Treasury, were the offerings —
approaching far more to the character of pecuniary sacrifices —
made at this time by thousands in the humblest walks of life.
" The liberalities," said Dr. Chalmers, " which have been poured
forth on our great enterprise even by the humblest of our arti
sans and labourers, and the grateful responses which these have
called back again — the words of kindness and of encouragement
which have been sent from all places of the land to bear us up
on the field of conflict, and our thankful sense of the friendship
which prompted them — the amalgamating power of a common
object and a common feeling, to cement and knit together the
hearts of men — the very emulation to love and to good works
which has given birth to so many associations, each striving to

MS. 63. GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE FREE CHURCH. 353
outrun the other in their generous contributions for the support
of what is deemed by all to be a noble cause — even the work
ing of these associations, in which the rich and the poor are
often made to change places, the former visiting the houses of
the latter, and receiving the offerings of Christian benevolence at
their hands — the multiplied occasions of intercourse thus opened
up between those parties in the commonwealth which before
stood at the greatest distance, and were wont to look with the
indifference, if not the coldness, of aliens to each other— these
are so many sweetening and exalting influences, which serve to
foster the sympathy of a felt brotherhood among thousands and
tens of thousands of our countrymen, and will mightily tend, we
are persuaded, to elevate and humanize the society of Scotland."
Two things especially characterized the first General Assem
bly of the Free Church, — the marvellous popular enthusiasm
which it kindled without, and the equally marvellous and un
broken harmony which prevailed within. The sittings were
continued from Thursday the 18th till Tuesday the 30th May,
and yet from the beginning to the close of each daily sitting,
the Hall at Canonmills saw a compact crowd of 3000 audi
tors listening with intense attention to every part of the pro
ceedings, and breaking out, whenever the occasion permitted,
or at all encouraged it, into extraordinary demonstrations of
sympathy and approval. During the two Sabbaths which in
tervened, religious service was conducted in the Hall of the
Assembly. It is to give no conception of the scenes which
there occurred to say, that the mass of human beings, forced by
the outward pressure into the building, was so compact that,
unable to penetrate, the preacher had to be carried over their
heads. Such multitudes assembled that five separate congre
gations were formed without the walls, and though the rain
began to fall, remained hanging upon the lips of the speakers.
During the course of the Assembly many plans had to be ma-
V0L. IV. 2 G

354 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1843.
tured and resolutions taken, which, had matters been thrown
loosely in a crude and undigested form before the House, might
have created difference or discord. It was with a clear fore
sight of this danger that Dr. Chalmers was so urgent in carrying
the work of preparation beforehand to the utmost possible
extent. There was no measure submitted to the Assembly
which had not been the subject of frequent and anxious de
liberations with one or other of the committees in Edinburgh ;
and, even after the Assembly met, no measure of any importance
was brought forward for public discussion or approval till after
much private consultation regarding it. In these private con
ferences every one who had any counsel to tender was invited
to bring it forward, and each seemed ready to yield his own
judgment to the collective wisdom of his associates. A reign
ing spirit of brotherly love and of mutual confidence guided all
their deliberations, and such a rare and unbroken harmony of
judgment was effected that not once had a vote to be taken, nor
with any one of this Assembly's decisions was dissatisfaction
afterwards expressed. The excitements of debate were ex
changed for the excitements of an ardent, hopeful zeal — quick
to devise and ready to execute. No sound of strife was heard,
no shadow of jealousy appeared — all were of one heart and
of one mind, stimulating and strengthening each other for the
great work to which they stood committed.
That work was sufficiently arduous. First, the pains of
separation from old homes and old churches and old friends,
had to be suffered, and then the toils of an overburdened minis
try had to be undergone, and the front of a most determined
opposition to be faced. They knew nothing of the Disruption
as a time of trial and of sacrifice who knew it only in our great
towns, where amid much to do and to suffer there was much
also to animate and encourage. It was in the country manse
— it was in the sequestered rural parish that the burden of

MS. 63. THE LEAVING OF THE MANSE. 355
this sore calamity was most severely felt. " Just conceive,"
said Dr. Chalmers, in the Assembly, entering most feelingly
into their coming trials, " these clergymen returning to their
homes, finding their houses in process of being dismantled and
their parishioners saddened by the prospect of an approaching
separation. We stay here in our hilarity in the presence of
each other, but these gentlemen go to what were once their
welcome and comfortable homes, and what is the spectacle that
meets them on their return ? I cannot venture on the descrip
tion. Going, they and their families, they know not whither
— resigning all those places to which they are attached by so
many fond and intense local affections — their garden-walks
where they freely enjoyed the hours of their relaxation —
the peaceful study where the man of learning enjoyed many
a raptured hour of converse with his books, or which the man
of piety converted into a sanctuary, and held intercourse there
with his God, — all these to be resigned and given up." One
venerable minister had to send his wife and children away to a
distance of seventy miles — not a house or hut nearer being open
for their accommodation — and he had himself to take a room
in the only inn which the district supplied. Another was
asked by his widowed daughter to share a cottage, within his
parish, in which she lived, but the noble proprietor interfered.
She was warned that if she harboured her own parent in her
house she would forfeit her right to her dwelling, as it was not
desired that any house on this estate should be a "lodging-place
for dissenters." A third, driven from one of the loveliest homes,
compelled to study in a wretched garret, and to sleep often with
nothing between him and the open heavens but the cold slate,
covered with hoar-frost — his very breath frozen upon the bed
clothes — sunk into the grave. From the manse of Tongue the
patriarchal clergyman and his son, who was his assistant and suc
cessor, separating themselves from their families, retired to a very

858 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1843.
humble abode. The exposure and privation were too much for
them ; they both caught fever, and both died. " I shall never
forget, to my dying day," said Dr. Guthrie,* " the scene which I
witnessed at the manse of Tongue, or rather — I forget myself —
in a mean, at least humble cottage to which that father and son
had retired, — parting with their family rather than part with
their flock. I was never so unmanned by any sight I ever saw —
if I may call it being unmanned, for I am not ashamed of being
affected by such a sight. I shall not venture to describe what I
saw. Ishallonly say, in the words of Scripture, 'they were lovely
and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not
divided.' I rise to bear my humble testimony to the worth of
these men, — I should rather say, the worth of these martyrs
for those great principles for which we abandoned our earthly
all. They lay on their dying beds in peace. Never shall I
forget the sight of that venerable old man — a man who would
have adorned any Church — who would have adorned any so
ciety, — never shall I forget seeing him in his mean cottage —
nature exhausted — buried in the sleep which he had not tasted
during the livelong night, his venerable locks streaming over
the chair where he was sitting asleep. I went up to him and
intended to awaken him, but I thought it cruelty to do so. I
passed by him again and again in the room, and still he slept
on ; and after seeing his son lying, in an adjoining closet,
on a fever bed, — a son that had never closed his eyes all the
night long either, for his father's groans were like daggers to
his heart, I left the house ; and the last words I heard that
son say on the earth were, 'Mr. Guthrie, this is hard enough ;
but I thank God I don't lie here a renegade. My father's con
science and mine are at peace.' Yes, they are both at peace
now. They have both gone to the place where ' the wicked
cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest.'" Such are
* In a speech before the General Assembly at Inverness in August 1845.

¦KT. 63. THE SUMMER OF 1843. 357
single leaves of a record, which, if ever the history of the first
plantation of the Free Church be fully written, will be a book
of many and strangely-coloured pages.
But toil came as well as trouble. To meet the wants of the
adhering population upwards of 600 congregations had to be
regularly supplied with all the means of grace, and as many
churches had to be erected. Never in the history of the Chris
tian Church were so many sermons delivered, so many prayer
meetings held, so many addresses delivered, by the same num
ber of clergymen, within the same period of time, as by the
outgoing ministers during the twelve months which elapsed from
the day of the Disruption till the General Assembly of 1844 ;
and never over the same surface of country, or within so short
a time, were so many churches built. In towns the kindness
of their dissenting brethren afforded many facilities for minis
ters meeting with their people on the Sabbath days. In the
country it was different. Here and there the hand of tyranny
was stretched out, and from the church and church-yard — from
the bare hillside and from the public highways, on all of which
they sought to assemble and to worship God — ministers and
people were driven, till they took their station within high-
water mark on the lone sea-beach, their feet upon the damp
and tangled sea-weed — the roll of those breakers whose spray
the breeze drove over them keeping time to their solemn
psalmody. It was a summer in which there was scarcely a
rainy or inclement Sabbath, and very generally in the rural dis
tricts, even where no opposition of any kind was encountered,
there was preaching in the open air. When this was imprac
ticable or inexpedient, strange shifts and expedients were
frequently employed. At Morningside, Dr. Chalmers opened his
own dwelling-house, and converted it into a church ; and per
haps he never occupied a more picturesque position than when,
planted midway up the staircase, he preached to a disjointed

358 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1843.
congregation scattered into different rooms, all of whom could
hear, but not half of whom could see the clergyman. In ad
dition to the increased amount of purely pastoral labour which
devolved upon them, the leading ministers of the Free Church
had large draughts made upon their time and strength for
public services. The lively interest which the Disruption had
created in other countries, suggested the idea of despatching
numerous deputations to explain the principles and to plead
the cause of the Free Church. Familiar as the Presbyterians
of Ulster were with the great principles involved in the con
troversy, and looking with the strong attachment of children
to the parent Church in Scotland, they needed less either to
be informed or to be stimulated, and, as became them, they
were the foremost, both by word and deed, in expressions of
attachment. In England, the deputations from the North were
received everywhere with extraordinary demonstrations of affec
tion and goodwill. Public meetings were held in the metropolis
and most of the principal towns. In Manchester, thirty-five
pulpits were opened upon one Sunday, that sermons might be
preached and collections taken. In Birmingham, fifteen pulpits
were placed, in like manner, upon the same Sabbath, at the
disposal of the friends of the Free Church. London was not so
well organized, but it exhibited a no less generous spirit. Over
all wide England, fervent and substantial expressions of desire
were given to aid the men who, after making so great a personal
sacrifice, were attempting the task of building up a national
institute in a year. The event which had occurred in Scotland
had power also to stir profoundly and extensively the sympa
thies of the American churches, and a deputation, headed by
Dr. Cunningham, crossed the Atlantic. In one or other of
these public services Dr. Chalmers was again and again soli
cited to engage. It was pressed upon him in particular and in
the strongest terms, that he should deliver a few lectures in

MS. 63. THE SUSTENTATION TOUR. 359
London, explanatory of the principles involved in the Disrup
tion ; but he steadily resisted all the urgency by which he was
beset. He had the profoundest conviction that all which Ire
land, England, or America would or could do for her, was utterly
insignificant as compared with what Scotland could and ought
to do for herself.* Those bursts of generous feeling, which it
was so pleasant to witness or excite, would in a year or two
subside, and the contributions begotten by them would die
away in like manner. To meet all the temporary necessities of
her position, it was proper and needful that the Free Church
should avail herself of them to the uttermost. They served,
besides, a higher and more enduring object — that of binding
together the churches in the bonds of a brotherly unity, and
upon that ground especially were they to be cherished. But
ere very long the Church would be thrown back upon her own
internal resources, — the foreign springs would fail, and it would
be upon the home fountain that all would finally depend. It
was to the striking out of that fountain, to the rendering it as
deep and productive as possible, that Dr. Chalmers's whole and
undivided strength was given. When told with rapture of this
and that other donation from this and that other remote dis
trict of England or America, he playfully would say, " The eyes
of a fool are in the ends of the earth." In August and Septem
ber he made a Sustentation tour, taking in Perth, Dunkeld,

* "Edinburgh, Nov. 6, 1843  My dear Sir, — Your suggestions are admirable,
and will be handed to the proper quarters. Yet, however valuable our labours
in England, a tenfold greater good would accrue to the Free Church were each
man but to cultivate his own district, and make the most of it. Do tell Mr.
Mackinlay that I would have more value for a vigorous and well-conducted system
in his locality, and for the imitation of it in the other localities of our own land,
than for all that either England or Ireland can do in our favour. I was delighted
with my visit to you, nor have I spent more congenial or happier hours for a long
time, than within the limits of your domain, and the Necropolis together. — Ever
believe me, my dear Sir, yours most cordially, Thomas Chalsiers.
" Hugh Tennant, Esq."

3,50 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS.

1843.

Aberdeen, Arbroath, Dundee, and St. Andrews. What he
sought for in each place he visited was, a meeting with ten, or
twenty, or thirty of those who would undertake the actual work
of making the regular rounds through the families of their dis
tricts, that he might impress them with the magnitude of their
office, and animate them to punctuality and zeal in the dis
charge of its duties. In one or two instances he had large
audiences to address. At Aberdeen 1400 office-bearers of the
Church assembled to receive his counsels. But he eschewed the
larger assembly, and courted the small and confidential con
ference.* There were three visits in the course of this tour which he
especially relished — the three days spent with Captain Burnett
of Monboddo, the week with Mr. Thomson of Banchory, and the
day at the manse of Carnoustie. In his Journal letters,
under the date of Monday the 4th September, he says, —
" Captain and Mrs. Burnett had the great kindness to accom-
* "I assure you," said he to the General Assembly convened in Glasgow, " that
if I can get twenty gentlemen persuaded to do what I recommend, I should consi
der it an ample reward for all the fatigue endured by the Assembly. The truth
is, I have infinitely greater taste for meetings which are followed by common
sense practical workings, than I have for meetings which are not so followed up.
I cannot express the futility of these general meetings, which are tenfold less use
ful to the community, and tenfold more exhausting to the strength, than those pri
vate confidential meetings which are attended by none but those who are willing to
give their time and their substance to the labour. I cannot express the distaste
I feel for the meetings which are not so followed up. I care nothing for the bold
oratory, for the bursts of enthusiasm, for the electric flashes of the speeches, fol
lowed by the thunder-claps of applause from the thousands of assembled hearers,
for the flights of eloquence in the orators, and the peals of admiration from the
auditors — for all this, if its energy is to be expended like the winter torrent, will
leave few men the readier to put forth their hand to the required work. All this
may be very splendid ; but it is nothing, or worse than nothing, reminding us of
the oratorio, where the sacred music has awakened a thrilling ecstasy in the minds
of multitudes who have none of the habits or characteristics of piety ; or of the
theatrical acclamations with which virtuous speeches or sentiments are hailed by
hundreds who have no patience for its toil, no relish for its homely services. I
want not the excitement of emotion, but the sturdiuess and endurance of good
working principles."

MS. 63. THE SERMON AT BANCHORY. 361
pany me on my departure as far as Stonehaven, on my way to
Banchory. I took leave with much feeling of the whole family,
children and all. I have been treated with the greatest cor
diality, and I owe nothing to the Captain but the utmost
gratitude and respect. What a difference it would make in
Scotland, if. we had one such as he within every ten miles of
each other." On Sabbath the 10th of September, it was
arranged that Dr. Chalmers should preach at Banchory, a short
distance from Aberdeen. The Free Church congregation was
then worshipping in a tent, which was enlarged for the occasion,
so that it might accommodate from 1600 to 2000 persons.
Two hours before the time for the commencement of the
service, a message was sent to Mr. Thomson that the tent was
already crowded. On going to see the state of matters, he
found it not only crammed to suffocation, but as many as
sembled round it as would have filled it two or three times
over, while crowds were hastening to the spot along the various
roads, on foot and in vehicles of every description. It was
obvious that there was no resource but to ask Dr. Chalmers to
preach in the open air. He had retired to the library, and
requested to be left alone for an hour, but it was absolutely
necessary to intrude upon him. " I went to him," says Mr.
Thomson, " and said to him, ' We find that the tent will not
nearly hold all the people who have assembled ; would you
dislike preaching in the open air?' He looked up, and with
the most perfect simplicity, exclaimed, ' What has brought, all
the people here?'" He at once agreed, however, to the request;
and various places being proposed and shewn to him, he
promptly selected the principal door-way of the house, where
a temporary pulpit of tables, covered with a large green cloth,
was immediately erected. The situation was favourable ; a
level lawn of some extent stretching out before him, bounded
on each side by a sloping bank covered with shrubbery and
VOL. IV. 2 h

302 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1843.
wood. The narrative of the preaching must be given in Dr.
Chalmers's own words : —
" I had expressed my preference for a rural Sabbath. But
little thought I, that, notwithstanding the day and the hour,
and even the rain of this day, there were to assemble six or
seven thousand, some say ten thousand people. And so the
pulpit had to be carried half-a-mile from the Free Church tent
to the front-door of Banchory House, where I could preach
under cover, with a lobby full of grandees behind me, and
such a multitude before me, as presented what the opium-
eater calls an ocean of human faces. The people occupied all
the gravel before the house, and all the grassy lawn, wet as it
was, to the trees, whose foliage gave back the sound, so that
the echo came back upon our ears, and prolonged each line so
as to compel a pause from the precentor in a way that was
somewhat ludicrous. Nevertheless, I was completely heard ;
and having Mr. Archibald, a probationer, to conduct all but
the sermon, I got over the whole with marvellously little
fatigue. The open air in front, and freedom from all heat and
stifling, made it far easier for me than if I had been in the
tent." Dr. Chalmers's text upon this occasion was his favourite one
from Isaiah xxvii. 4, 5. " The breathless interest," says Mr.
Thomson, " with which the people listened was very striking ;
and the blessed fruits of that discourse will all be known only
at the great day." _
It was the domestic quiet and Christian converse of the
manse of Carnoustie which endeared it to him. Speaking to
Mrs. Dymock of the pleasure of Christian friendship, he said, —
" But we are wayward ; where we love much we often love
wrong. We must take care of fixing our hearts on earth. Yet
we have a warrant in the Bible for loving much : — ' Love one
another with a pure heart fervently' It may be fervently, if

;ET.63. TREATISES ON FAITH. 863
it he first with a pure heart. * * * You do not know how
much I need your prayers. This is one of the pleasures of
Christian affection. Christians may and should think most of
one another, in their holiest and happiest moments. Remem
ber me in your holiest moments — your moments of prayer."*
Some time afterwards, he said, " Remember you have promised
to pray for me," adding, " every time you pray, for I am a
poor wretched sinner." Upon another occasion he said, " I hope
you find no difficulty in appropriating Christ. If I were to
come as an accredited agent to you from the upper sanctuary,
with a letter of invitation to you, with your name and address
on it, you would not doubt your warrant to accept it. Well,
here is the Bible, your invitation to come to Christ. It does
not bear your name and address, but it says ' Whosoever' — that
takes you in ; it says ' all' — that takes you in ; it says ' if any'
— that takes you in. What can be surer or freer than that ?
I have been reading some treatises on the appropriation of
Christ, and I like them, especially Ebenezer Erskine on the
Assurance of Faith." -J- Having been engaged in this way for
* From Notes taken at the time by Mrs. Dymock.
t "I enjoyed also my readings of the little book which I have as my companion
at present, a collection of little works on the assurance of faith. Its doctrine is
fery precious — the warrant for appropriation in the message or good news of
salvation. I feel confident that nothing else will do, but that this will ; that
Christ's offer to me in particular, if only trusted, will be realized ; and more es
pecially that his offer of strength, if so trusted, will avail for the mastery over
every temptation, and for the achievement of all holy and acceptable obedience."
—From Letter to Mrs. Chalmers, dated Monboddo, September 2d, 1843.
The volume referred to in this extract became a great favourite of Dr. Chalmers,
and was frequently and earnestly recommended to his students. It is entitled—
" Saving Faith as laid down in the Word of God : being a series of works by the
following authors: — John Anderson, D.D , United States; Rev. Ebenezer Erskine
of Stirling; and Rev. William Cudworth of Norwich." Edinburgh, John John
stone, 1843. In reference to one of those treatises, Dr. Chalmers wrote as follows
to Mr. Lennox: — " I have been reading with great interest lately the work of an
American divine, whose name I had never before heard of— Dr. Anderson. T be
lieve that the little treatise to which I refer was published about fifty years back ;
and I have since seen and perused another work of his, entitled ' Precious Truth,'

364 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1843,
some time, he said — " This is the kind of conversation I like."
It was not often that he indulged in it. He had too great
humbleness of mind — too great natural secretiveness, and too
great recoil from some of the too frequent characteristics of
religious conversation, often to embark in it. But when it
came, simply and unaffectedly, the keenness of his relish for it
shewed the depth and the tenderness of his piety. Engrossed
though he was with the public and outward business of the
Church, such conversations as those of Carnoustie Manse
indicated how naturally and how fondly his spirits reverted to
and reposed upon the most spiritual truths of Christianity.
" I regret exceedingly," he wrote to Mrs. Chalmers in the
course of this tour, " that this bustling, various, engrossing
work should so encroach on the higher occupations of good
reading and good thinking ; I do hope to make my escape
from it ; and yet I cannot but feel that I have a call to my
present doings. My heart is drawn towards the sacrificing
ministers. I do hope that a system of adequate provision will
be set up, and kept up not only for supporting but extending
the Free Church. Meanwhile, let us cast more of our care
and confidence upon God. To him I would commit all our
interests, both for time and for eternity."*
in reply to Mr. Bellamy, the well-known American theologian. The ti'le of the
treatise is, ' The Scripture Doctrine of the Appropriation which is in the Nature of
Saving Faith.' I hold it to be a first-rate composition, and well fitted to dispel
the obscuration which your Bellamy, and even Jonathan Edwards himself, do
sometimes (I apprehend) cast on the freeness of the Gospel."
* From Letter, dated Monboddo, August 30th, 1843.

MS.Gt. GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF 1844. 366

CHAPTER XIX.
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF 1844— FRUITS OF THE YEAR'S LABOURS
-HISTORY OF THE SUSTENTATION FUND— PROPOSED MODIFICA
TION—ITS REJECTION BY THE FREE CHURCH.
Dr. Chalmers returned from his Sustentation tour in the
North to attend a meeting of the General Assembly held at
Glasgow in October, which he opened by a sermon on the
"Outward business of the House of God," from the text,
Nehemiah xi. 16. The object of this meeting was, to re
vive in the west of Scotland that impulse which the presence
of the outgoing ministers had created in Edinburgh. Interim
reports of the various operations of the Church were read,
all bright with promise, but covering too brief a period to
give accurate augury of the future. Reanimated by their
intercourse, the ministers returned to prosecute their labours
amid greater outward difficulties, but with undiminished ar
dour, during the succeeding winter. The results, as announced
at the meeting of the General Assembly in May 1844, were in
the highest degree encouraging.
Without exception, all the Missionaries in foreign stations
had declared their adhesion to the Free Church. This testi
mony was doubly valuable, as coming from men who had been
quiet spectators of the conflict, the purity and devotedness of
whose character was above all suspicion, and who must have
had many fears as to the probabilities of an infant Church,
struggling for life at home, being able to continue their services
abroad. Their fears were disappointed ; for, notwithstanding

366 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1844;
all that she otherwise had to do, the Free Church, in the first
year of her existence, raised no less than £32,000 for her various
schemes of Christian philanthropy — a sum greater by £12,000
than had been raised by the whole Church in the year 1842.
It had been looked upon as a marvel that in the course of seven
years previous to the Disruption, two hundred churches should
have been built, in connexion with a Church the whole number of
whose ministers numbered about a thousand. But that marvel
was lost in this — that by a Church, whose ministers numbered
at the commencement only 470, nearly 500 churches were built
in a single year. And yet the work of church-building was
far from finished ; for, contrary to all anticipations, the people
had forsaken the Establishment in a much higher ratio, as to
numbers, than the ministers ; and it would have required
more than 700 churches to accommodate the congregations
who were ready to attach themselves to the Free Church. To
meet the spiritual wants of more than 200 unprovided con
gregations, the Church had only 130 licentiates at command,
some of whom, it might be presumed, were unlikely to be
elected as ministers. Of these, so many as 114 were ordained
in the course of a year, which saw the original Church of the
Disruption making an addition of about one-fourth to the
number of her ministers.
Setting aside the generous aid rendered by strangers, up
wards of £300,000 had been contributed by a community, which
at this period could not embrace so much as one-third of the
population of Scotland. That particular branch of the gene
ral revenue which was devoted to the maintenance and exten
sion of the ministry appeared also to be in a prosperous
condition. Adopting the suggestions embodied in a pamphlet
by Dr. Chalmers, printed and privately circulated in 1843,*
* For some extracts from this pamphlet, entitled " Considerations on the
Economics and Platform of the Free Church of Scotland," see Appendix E.

SIT.64. THE SUSTENTATION FUND. 367
two sources of ministerial income had been opened. The
produce of all the local associations constituted a general
fund,- out of which each minister received an equal dividend ;
while from the collections at the church doors, each congrega
tion was permitted and encouraged to supplement the salary
of its clergyman. With the Central Sustentation Fund, estab
lished by the Free Church, the name of Dr. Chalmers is
imperishably connected. It stands and will long abide as the
best monument of his genius in ecclesiastical finance. Com
pared with the system under which each separate congrega
tion sustains its own ministry, it presented many and peculiar
recommendations. By drawing from the abundance of the
rich a fixed supply for the necessities of the poor, it preserved
a Christian ministry in many districts where otherwise it must
have expired. By binding the strong and the weak together,
it created a new species of unity in the Church, and breathed
throughout it a fresh and healthful spirit of brotherhood. By
erecting orderly channels through which the overflowing libe
rality of the wealthier congregations was spread equally within
the whole area of the Church, it established a security against
the fitful and capricious distributions of individual benevolence.
By inviting every member of the Church to unite, not simply
in supporting that clergyman whose services he personally
enjoyed, but in sustaining and extending a gospel ministry
throughout the land, wherever it was needed, it gave a new, if
not a purer motive to his liberality, supplying it " with a wider
aim, and a nobler arena." The actual income, it is true, which
in the first year of its existence it supplied, was comparatively
small and insufficient. The whole sum yielded by the Associa
tions throughout that year amounted to £68,700, which,
divided equally among 600 clergymen, afforded to each a salary
of £100. Many, however, of the Associations had but recently
been organized — many had been in full working order, under

368 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 184-1.
the eye of an ordained clergyman, during a portion only of the
past year ; and when the large and exhausting efforts expended
upon church-building were over, it was confidently and gene
rally expected that the Sustentation Fund would be largely
replenished. To some extent Dr. Chalmers participated in this
expectation. He rejoiced that one of the primary objects of
the Fund — the maintenance of the Church of the Disruption in
all its original magnitude, had been more than realized. But
he had been watching with eager and anxious eye the working
of the system during the past twelvemonth ; he had subjected
the returns which specified each item of congregational income
and the object to which it was appropriated, to a most search
ing scrutiny, and the result was, that beneath a 'flourishing
outward aspect he detected symptoms of weakness and decay,
presages of a contracted rather than of an expanding Church.
Dividing all the congregations of the Free Church into two
classes — those which gave into the Fund more than they
got out of it, and those which got more than they gave, it
excited his liveliest apprehensions to discover that more than
three-fourths of the whole belonged to the latter, while by so
small a number as fifteen of the former, one-fifth of the whole
Fund was furnished. Confining his attention again to the
aid-receiving congregations, the sluggishness of some and the
selfishness of others, pained and alarmed him. More than 150
congregations gave less than £20, and more than 350 less than
£50 to the Fund, and yet some of them reckoned their com
municants by hundreds. He would not admit the plea of
poverty, when urged in excuse of such neglect of duty. " I am
only sorry," he said in the General Assembly of 1844, "when
some of the Highland brethren were telling us of the inability
of the people in some districts to give anything, that I did not
put the question, whether the practice of snuffing was at all
prevalent among them ? Why, I believe that I could make out

ms. 64. dr. Chalmers's disappointment. 309
by the Excise returns, that in the island of Islay alone, some
£6000 a year is spent on tobacco. The power of littles is
wonderful. I began with pennies ; I now come down to pinches,
and say that if we got but a tenth of the snuff used by High
landers — every tenth pinch — it would enable us to support
our whole ecclesiastical system in the Highlands. It is as
tonishing, the power of infinitesimals. The mass of the planet
Jupiter is made up of infinitesimals ; and surely, after that,
it is in the power of infinitesimals to make up a stipend for
the minister of Ballachulish ! " But the playful changed into
the indignant when he turned to contemplate those congrega
tions which, while receiving from the Fund more than they
contributed to it, afforded palpable evidence of their ability to
be aid-giving, rather than aid-getting, by what they raised for
their own home uses. He wondered whether the congrega-
. tional conscience was at all awake, when they could permit
themselves to extract from a Fund, designed for the weak
and helpless, twice as much as they forwarded to it, and yet
give to their own minister a supplement twice or thrice, or
eight or ten times greater than their contribution to the Fund.
He foresaw and he deplored the fatal influence which such
apathy and ignoble selfishness must necessarily in the long-
run exert, in deadening the generosity of the wealthier
and aid-giving congregations, who could not fail to be dis
heartened by perceiving that though, year after year, they
renewed their efforts to enlarge the Fund and raise the equal
dividend, these efforts were fruitless. And still more distres
sing to Dr. Chalmers than the depression of the general minis
terial income which he anticipated, was the fatal check to
Church extension which these aid-receiving congregations
interposed. " It is, no doubt, desirable," he writes, " that we
should increase both the number and liberality of the aid-
giving congregations, but it is of far more vital importance to

370 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1844.
our cause that we should lessen the number, and diminish the
enormous absorptions of the aid-receiving congregations. They
form a wall of interception in the way of extending the Church
to places and people more destitute than themselves ; or, per
haps they were better compared to an annular belt of sand,
which drinks in all the waters that issue from the central
reservoir, making it impossible to reach or fertilize the regions
beyond it. We should infinitely less value all the additional
hundreds and thousands that might be raised from the
wealthier congregations, than we should an average elevation
of £50 in the contributions that come to us from the lower
half of the scale. This were like the opening of a gate that
would set us at liberty, and make us free to expatiate, so
that we might find our way both- to the most wretched popu
lation in towns, and to the poorest and remotest extremities of
Scotland."* Dr. Chalmers's chief desire for the Free Church
was, that she should prove instrumental for accomplishing this
design ; and his fondest anticipation as to the Sustentation
Fund had been, that it would afford her an additional facility
for doing so. As things stood this could not be. With more
than a hundred congregations of adherents craving to be
supplied with a regular ministry, and ready to absorb all that
the General Fund could furnish, that Fund was smitten with
impotence as an instrument of Church extension. Dr. Chal
mers, to a large extent, attributed this to the fixed and
universal equality of the dividend. When the rule was absolute
that, let a congregation give what it liked, its minister should
receive the same salary from the Fund, no stimulus was applied
to its generosity — no check imposed upon its selfishness. This
rule, he conceived, should be relinquished, and some other
adopted in its stead, constructed upon the principle that the
"gettings out" should bear some equitable proportion to the
* Earnest Appeal, p. 14.

MS. 64. PROPOSED MODIFICATION. 371
" givings in." In deliberating upon what substitute he should
propose, there were two qualities or characteristics which he
regarded as essential. It should be simple, unencumbered
with minute or complicated details ; and it should be self-
acting, self-regulating, needing not the constant interference
or agency of any central authority. Under a conviction,
matured and strong, that a change in the method of distribu
tion was imperatively required, and with these qualities or
characteristics before his eye, he proposed to the General
Assembly of 1844, that the equal dividend should be abo
lished; that no Congregation should be put upon the Fund
till its annual contributions should amount to £50 ; and that
each Congregation should receive from the Fund one-half
more than it transmitted, till the ministerial income should
amount to £150. The proposition came abruptly upon an
Assembly, unprepared, amid the glow of early triumphs, to
be told of impending disaster. The existence of so great a
peril, and the necessity for so great and immediate a change
were not perceived, and the remedy suggested was as little
relished as the need for its application was felt. It was
strenuously and almost unanimously rejected. All that Dr.
Chalmers could obtain, was the consent of the Assembly
that a trial of his method should be made in future, with such
new charges as were added to the Church ; and that a com
mittee should be instructed to watch over all embryo congre
gations, and stimulate their associations into such activity
that they might prove less burdensome than heretofore, when
sanctioned as ministerial charges. In the spring of 1845, he
printed and circulated a pamphlet, " On the Economics of the
Free Church of Scotland," the preface of which commenced as
follows : — " In announcing my determination now to retire
from the public business of the Free Church, I feel confident
that it will not be ascribed to any decay of affection for. its

372 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
cause. It is not a matter of choice, but of physical necessity.
I have neither the vigour nor the alertness of former days ;
and the strength no longer remains with me, either for the
debates of the Assembly, or for the details of committees and
their correspondence.
" At the last Assembly, during the first days of which
I enjoyed a health that I never expect to regain, I did a
very rash thing. I moved the appointment of an extension
committee, and accepted of its convenership. I fondly ima
gined the possibility of weathering one twelvemonth more of
such active service as had long been familiar to me, and
deemed the object I had in view of such special importance as
to justify the attempt. A few weeks convinced me of my
error; and, since the month of August, my connexion with
our financial affairs has been little better than nominal. I
can still describe, however, what I cannot execute ; and the
process which I hoped to set agoing will be laid before the
reader in the following pages. Its accomplishment by me is
now wholly out of the question ; and, if judged worthy by the
Church of being carried into effect, should be devolved on
younger and abler men."
As the General Assembly of 1845, whose transactions this
pamphlet was mainly intended to influence, made no approxi
mation whatever towards the adoption of its views,* Dr.
* How deeply Dr. Chalmers felt this appears from the following letter to the
Rev. Mr. Tweedie :— " Morningside, 29th November, 1845.
" My dear Sir, — I have been greatly saddened ever since I heard from you of
the set in, on the part of the ministers, for an equal dividend, — believing as I do
that it will ruin the economics of the Church, and reduce what I fondly hoped
could have been worked up into a great national institute within the narrow di
mensions of a limited ecclesiastical corporation. It is in sorrow and not in anger
that I write, — the latter emotion being the excitable one in the heat of an argu
ment yet hopeful with an opposing adversary. Such a feeling, however, is com
pletely overborne when hope expires and is succeeded by the apathy of despair.
My expectation now of what has been long the object of my existence — a universal

MS. 65. THE EARNEST APPEAL. 373
Chalmers had it reprinted and published in the spring of
the following year, under the new title of an " Earnest Appeal
to the Free Church on the subject of its Economics."* A second
preface prefixed to the pamphlet, opened thus : — " The body
of this little work was printed, but can scarcely be said to
have been published, last year. As it contains the most
matured views of its author, the fruit of much thought and of
some experience, he is unwilling that it should be altogether
lost. He therefore presents it anew to the Church, in a form
which leaves the main pamphlet untouched, but with this peculi
arity in its structure, that each topic which required any further
enlargement, or to be represented over again with still greater
earnestness and urgency than before, has a distinct place
assigned for it in a little section with its own distinct title,
which sections are made to compose an Appendix to the work.
It is to this Appendix that I would invite the special attention
of the reader, as containing a series of final deliverances on the
matters which are there successively taken up. This is the
last representation which I mean to offer upon the subject ;
and, such being the case, it is most natural that I should feel
the importance, nay, the paramount duty, of stating not only
Christian education — is transferred from the Free Church of Scotland to such a
union of the really good and wise of all evangelical denominations as is now con
templated by many.
" I can pay no more earnest and prolonged attention to this melancholy subject
till spring, when I propose to come forth with my last words in the form of a
final protest. I shall endeavour to take refuge from the disappointment in my
professorial studies and the enjoyment of my private friendships. Among these
last, I have the greatest value for confidential intercourse with yourself, and I do
hope that our meetings will be frequent. Let me see you soon, and the sooner the
better. Thomas Chalmebs.
"To the Rev. W. K. Tweedie."
* An edition of this pamphlet was published in America by the Board of Publi
cation of the Presbyterian Church, and through the liberality of a friend a cony
of it was sent to each minister of that Church.

374 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
the truth, but the whole truth, however unpalatable, if but
salutary or needful and desirable to be made known."
From a pamphlet ushered in by such weighty sentences, we
offer an extract or two bearing upon its main topic — the con
dition of the Sustentation Fund.
" It is obvious that if we are to give the same yearly allow
ance to every new minister, however little we shall receive from
his congregational association, we cannot hold out long upon
such a system, unless by such successive reductions of the
dividend as must sooner or later involve the whole Church in
one common overthrow. This is an argument, and a strong
one ; but we confess that it is not ours. Our argument against
the continuance of an equal dividend is, that it would put an
end to Church Extension. On the principle that the minister's
work is of far higher consideration than the minister's stipend,
we have ever regarded an addition to the number of our zeal
ous and hard-working ministers as of paramountry higher
value than an addition to their livelihood.
" The great and essential reform needed upon our financial
system is some provision, call it either a stimulus or a check,
by the operation of which our aid-receiving associations shall
be either made to contribute more, or receive less, from that
great central fund, which, if but relieved from the present in
ordinate pressure, could be made so greatly more available for
our Church's prosperity and enlargement. * * * It were well
if the Sustenation Committee had authority to proclaim such a
rule of distribution, as that if associations will give little —
whether because they give much for supplements, or from any
other cause — they will receive proportionably little. The enact
ment of ' one and a half ' answers this purpose, though there
might be other and perhaps better ways of it. It were the re
moval, for instance, of a mighty incubus upon our operations, if

jKT. 65. RECENT CHANGES OF OPINION. 375
it could be made law — that in no instance we should give more
than £50 to any minister, over and above what we received from
his association ; — to which it might be added, that the connexion
of an association with the Sustentation Committee should only
commence when its own contribution came to £50 a year.
Without some check of this sort, I predict, with all confidence,
but in great heaviness of heart, that sooner or later we must
lay our account with a most fearful overthrow ; or at least, that
a sore paralysis will be inflicted on the support and enlarge
ment of the Church, which might otherwise, in respect of both
these interests, be made to advance most prosperously."
The warning given here was unheeded. The brief ex
periment of the " one and a half" method was abandoned
by the General Assembly of 1847, and matters returned
to the position in which they stood in 1844. Recently,
however, the opinion of the Church has been undergoing a
rapid change. The gross amount of the fund has been steadily
progressing, till from £68,700 it has mounted to the sum of
£91,949, or within a few hundred pounds of what Dr. Chalmers
predicted at the Convocation, yet the equal dividend has not
increased. Considerable additions have been made to their
returns by the more generous congregations, yet the end
aimed at, of increasing the annual dividend, is as far out of
sight as ever. The charges which, between 1844 and 1847,
were dealt with as Dr. Chalmers desired, have been put upon
the footing of the equal dividend, and the result has been a
declension almost, per saltum, of their annual contributions
to the extent of about £3000. Facts like these have at last
sufficed to work a very general conviction that a change of
some kind is imperiously required ; and, as these pages pass
through the press, the Church is in the midst of a contro
versy relative to a new method of distribution which has been

376 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 3845.
proposed. It would form but another illustration of the sin
gular foresight of Dr. Chalmers should the discussion upon
which the Church has thus embarked terminate in the adop
tion, either of the plan which he recommended, or of one to
which the same two features of a simple and self-regulating
character are attached. It has taken nearly eight years to
convince the Church of the existence and fatal nature of the
disease ; it may take less to satisfy her of the suitableness and
efficacy of the remedy.

MS. 65. ANDREW FULLER. 377

CHAPTER XX.
CHRISTIAN UNION— THE EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE.
During the collegiate session of 1831-1832, in commenting
upon that section of Dr. Hill's Lectures on Divinity which re
lates to Church Government, Dr. Chalmers addressed his
students in the following words : — "It has been exceedingly
well said by the judicious Andrew Fuller, that the points on
which the disciples of the Saviour agree greatly outnumber,
and in respect of importance, very greatly outweigh, the points
on which they differ, — that for many ages the attention and
the zeal of Christians have been vastly too much expended
on the points on which they differ, but that now it is to be
hoped the sentiments which they hold in common will be far
more the objects of their steadfast and harmonious regard.
" Without disputing the superior expediency of one kind of
government to another, I do think that, considering the mani
fold ties of common sentiment and principle between us and
the evangelical sectaries of Christendom, it were better that
we drew more closely together, and that the movement, at all
events, instead of being one of wider distance and separation,
were in the way of kindlier and more intimate converse than
we have hitherto held."*
The spirit of these remarks was fully participated by that
* See Prtlections on Butler's Analogy, Paley, Hill, Src, Posthumous Works, vol.
ix. p. 425.
VOL. IV. 2 I

378 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
party in the Church with which Dr. Chalmers acted. The
great controversy in which they became involved did nothing
to deaden it. It was in the very thick of that conflict that
they abolished the statute which, by restricting its ministerial
communion, had isolated the Church of Scotland from all the
other Churches of the Reformation ; and it was when the
shadow of the Disruption was hanging over them, that, in the
General Assembly of 1842, they moved and carried the ap
pointment of a committee for the cultivation of friendly rela
tions with all evangelical Churches at home and abroad. An
active correspondence with some of these Churches had in fact
already commenced, originated by their sympathy with that
struggle of which Scotland had become the theatre, — a sym
pathy of whose width and depth an impressive token was af
forded by the presence in the General Assemblies of 1841 and
1842 of distinguished members of one or other of the Churches
of the Continent. Amid its multifarious engagements' the
expansive zeal of the first General Assembly of the Free Church
found time for prosecuting the work so auspiciously begun.
Measures were adopted for uniting with other branches of the
Presbyterian family in celebrating the Bicentenary of the
Westminster Assembly of Divines. This great commemora
tive meeting assembled in Edinburgh on the 13th July 1843.
Its object was comparatively a confined one, but nothing nar
row or sectarian marked its proceedings, in which Dr. Chalmers
took so conspicuous and influential a part as to be hailed by
one of the succeeding speakers as the great Apostle of Union.
He was prepared to go farther here than many could follow.
" For myself," he said, " I can see no obstacle in the way of
our being fellow-workers, and that to a great extent, for the
objects of our common Christianity. And I rejoice to observe
the growing prevalence and popularity of this sentiment, — a
sentiment which, I can perceive, has formed itself into a sort

MS. 65. BICENTENARY OF THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY. 379
of watchword, brief and memorable, and having in it a certain
cadence or alliteration, which recommends it all the more to
the ear of the public, and is fitted to give it a larger currency
and reception throughout the Churches of our land ; I advert
to the well known and oft-repeated aphorism of ' co-operation
without incorporation.' I am aware that by many this goodly
and well-sounding aphorism has been fathered upon myself,
and yet it is not just the motto that I would inscribe upon an
escutcheon wherewith to signalize my family. I have no quar
rel with the co-operation, and whenever aught which is good is
expedited thereby, the more of it the better ; but I except to
the negative, as being by far too absolute, that is laid by this
maxim on the incorporation. The truth is, that wherever in
corporation can be effected with advantage and without violence
to the consciences of the parties, it is in itself a most desirable
object ; and therefore without saying, roundly and universally,
'co-operation without incorporation,' I would, though at the
hazard of marring somewhat the euphony of the saying, and of
laying an arrest on its way towards the rank and celebrity of a
proverb, — I would substitute for these words, 'co-operation now,
and this with the view, as soon as may be, to incorporation
afterwards/ "
One fruitful source of past divisions — one signal obstacle
to future incorporation — lay in discordant beliefs as to the
form of church government which had been divinely pre
scribed. But no obstruction of this kind lay before Dr.
Chalmers. He did not believe that any peculiar form of
ecclesiastical government had been authoritatively enjoined, so
that its adoption was matter of imperative and universal obli
gation.* Let there be an essential unity of faith, and he would
* " The controversies about Church Government have been exposed to much il
logical treatment from the want of a right discrimination between the lawful and
the obligatory. The distinction which I now make is different from that of Paul

380 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
have merged his own Presbyterianism, much as he valued it,
either in Episcopacy on the one hand, or in Independency on
the other, had it appeared that the great object of a visible
unity in the Church of Christ could thereby have been attained.
In existing circumstances this was impossible. There appeared
even to be wise and important purposes subserved by those
between the lawful and the expedient. I use another word than expedient at pre
sent ; and I beg you will attend to the import of the difference between that which
is lawful and that which is obligatory. Many things are lawful for me to do which
I am under no obligation of doing ; for, though lawful to do them, it may be
equally lawful for me to refrain from doing them. The lawfulness of doing a par
ticular thing does not necessarily imply the unlawfulness of not doing it ; as, for
example, it may be lawful to celebrate the Sacrament of the Supper in a sitting
posture, yet not unlawful to celebrate it in a kneeling posture ; whereas, if, instead
of lawful, it were obligatory to celebrate it in a sitting posture, then it would be
unlawful to celebrate it kneeling. In other words, though you prove the lawful
ness of a given practice, you do not on that account prove the unlawfulness of a
different or an opposite practice ; but, once make out that a practice is obligatory,
then all other practices diverse from it, or opposite to it, are held in the face of the
obligation, and therefore positively unlawful.
" Now, even though the Independents should be able to allege, which I am very
far from conceding to them, that their mode of church government had the warrant
of scriptural example, this might establish no more than the lawfulness of that
constitution, but not, most certainly, the exclusive obligation of it. There might
be the warrant of a scriptural example, and so far this may be called scriptural
authority for Independency ; but I would not hold such an authority as this as
establishing the divine right of Independency. For when we speak of the divine
right of any particular form of church government, I imagine that by this is meant,
its being obligatory that we should adopt that form, and that only ; or, in other
words, by the adoption of it we do right, and by the adoption of any other we do
wrong. * * *
" I must confess that the testimony of Epiphanius is highly accordant with my
own views on the question of church government, which seems historically to have
been changed and adapted according to the purposes of what may be termed
Christian expediency ; and instead of being decisively settled in Scripture, left
very much to the discretion of Christian men. In as far as we are at liberty to
judge from his account of the matter, there seems to have been no regular Epis
copacy at first, and that men, instead of starting with it from the days of the Apos
tles, at length found their way to its more full and formal establishment through
centuries afterwards. * * *
" You will not fail to perceive from what a dimly conjectural region it is that
the authorities on all sides of the question respecting church government are
gathered ; insomuch that I cannot enter with any very keen or decided earnestness
into the controversy at all." — Posthumous Works, vol. ix. pp. 420-424.

JET. 65. ADDRESSES FROM VARIOUS CHURCHES. 381
strong national, or denominational attachments, by which dif
ferent sections of a common Protestantism were characterized.
Every approximation, however, which the different Churches
could make to one another, everything that tended to cement
their brotherly attachment and to bind them in the bonds of a
closer fellowship, Dr. Chalmers delighted to countenance and
carry forward. In the General Assembly held at Glasgow in
the autumn of 1843, it fell to him to give an account of the
various communications expressive of approval and congratula
tion which had been sent to him as Moderator of the preceding
Assembly. " I confess to you," he said, " that I was much in
terested by the arrival, by one post after another, of these
addresses and resolutions from various Churches, of whose very
existence I was not aware till I received their letters. And I
think that every man whose heart is in the right place, will be
delighted with such movements. They are movements quite
in my own favourite direction — because one and all of them
are movements of convergency ; or in other words, movements
which point, in the first instance, to union, and as soon as pos
sible and prudent, I trust their landing place will be incorpora
tion. There is among them one very pleasant address, signed
by — I have not had time to count the names, — but I believe
some of the youngsters of my family tried a more wholesale
method of arriving at a probable estimate of the amount of
support thus given to the Free Church ; instead of numbering,
they measured it, and found it about seventeen yards long."
Having enumerated about twenty different Churches, at home
and abroad, from which communications of this kind had eman
ated, " I have felt," he added, " exceedingly delighted with
these communications. I must say that I consider it as in
finitely more characteristic of the religion which we profess
— the religion of peace and charity — that instead of each
denomination sitting aloft and apart upon its own hill, and

382 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
frowning upon each other from their respective orbits, that they
should hold kindly and mutual converse, and see each other
eye to eye, while they will discern, to their mutual astonish
ment, if not how thoroughly, at least how substantially, they
are at one. And I just conclude with observing that now is
the time to rally about the common standard all that is pure
and vital in Protestantism ; for now it is that we shall have
to make head against a new form and revival of Antichrist,
whether in the form of Popery — naked Popery — or Popery in
disguise, even that Antichrist which threatens to shake a most
withering mildew over the whole of Christendom."
" There is that scattereth yet increaseth ;" so there is that
divideth, yet it tendeth to unity. So was it with the Disrup
tion. Blamed by many as a schismatic act, a great prompter
to and promoter of division — no public incident of our times
has done more to bring together into one the scattered Churches
of the Reformation. For a time, and that the very time when
it was most needed, the Free Church formed a centre of union
whence the best and happiest influences were spread abroad.
Its Assemblies of 1844 and 1845, prosecuted that work of union
which preceding Assemblies had commenced. Within two
years, and around the moderator's chair of these Assemblies,
more Christian ministers, of a greater variety of profession, and
from greater distances on the surface of this earth, met for Chris
tian fellowship, than have ever congregated in modern times
at the councils of any of our existing churches. And if it
cheered the Free Church amid her labours and trials to receive
expressions of sympathy, she was not backward in returning
them. The Report of the Committee " appointed for corre
sponding with Foreign Churches, and aiding them in their
evangelical operations," given in to the Assembly of 1845,
informed the House, that for continental objects of religious
usefulness alone, there had been put into the hands of the

MS. 65. THE HISTORIAN OF THE REFORMATION. 383
Committee during the preceding year, a sum three or four
times exceeding the largest contribution ever sent from Scot
land for the same objects. It was upon a most memorable
occasion (that of May 28th) that this Report was read. Dr.
Merle d' Aubigne of Geneva, Mr. Frederic Monod of Paris, and
Mr. Kuntze of Berlin, were present. Dr. Chalmers had re
solved to absent himself from the meetings of this Assembly,
but the temptation to introduce these distinguished foreigners
was too great for him to resist. When he entered the vast
crowd which the singularity of the occasion had congregated,
the whole House rose to welcome him, and saluted him with a
tumult of generous applause.*
" The high and honourable office," said Dr. Chalmers, " has
been assigned to me of announcing the presence in this Assem
bly of certain evangelical and much esteemed ministers from
various places on the Continent. At the present juncture of
affairs, I cannot but regard the appearance of such men
amongst us as providential. If ever there was a time when
the friends of a scriptural faith and a free gospel should draw
closer together, surely it is now, when the spiritual tyranny of
former days is raising its head again, and threatens to resume
its ancient lordship over the consciences of men. It is possible
that, for the maintenance of our liberty, we may again be
called upon for the same sacrifices, for the same struggles of
principle with power, for the same heartfelt devotion to a noble
cause, for the same lofty and intrepid doings on the side of
Christian principle, which were first put forth in Germany,
under the championship of one whom I need not name, because
for three centuries he has been known and revered over all
Christendom as the Hero of the Reformation. And, Sir, I am
* " The audience rose, shouted, clapped their hands, and waved hats and hand
kerchiefs." For a full description of this scene, see " Germany, England, and
Scotland," by J. II. Merle d'Aubigne, p. 117.

384 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
delighted to think — it makes me feel as if I were now at the
most interesting moment of my existence, when I can point to
one of those strangers whom, in this great Assembly, I need as
little to name — who is universally known as the Historian of
the Reformation." Dr. Chalmers proceeded then to speak
of the works of Dr. Merle, and of the many interesting ties-
which bound together Geneva and Scotland. But the personal
and the national was soon lost in a wider topic, — " I hail,"
said he, " the footsteps of those friends from the Continent,
because I know that one, and I believe that all of them, may
be regarded as the apostles of Christian union ; and I do hope
that their presence among us, and their conversation with the
ministers of various denominations, will have the effect of ex
pediting that sacred cause in this country I trust you will
not charge me with over-liberality if I say, as I do from my
conscience, that among the great majority of evangelical
dissenters in this country, I am not aware of any topics of
difference which I do not regard as so many men of straw, and
I shall be exceedingly delighted if these gentlemen get the
heads of the various denominations to meet together, and con
sent to make a bonfire of them."
In the Bicentenary commemoration there had lain concealed
the germ of the Evangelical Alliance. Catching the enlarged
and unsectarian spirit which then had been displayed, John
Henderson, Esq. of Park, a name dear now to every lover of
the truth, proposed to eight distinguished clergymen of various
churches to frame together a volume on Christian union. Dr.
Chalmers furnished the Introductory Essay to this volume,
closing his brief sketch of " How such a union may begin,
and to what it may eventually lead," by quoting a passage
from the Moravian poet Gambold, which we have heard him
more frequently repeat than perhaps any other passage in
English poetry, —

MS. 05. PROPER OBJECTS OF THE EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE. 385
" I'm apt to think, the man
That could surround the sum of things, and spy
The heart of God and secrets of his empire,
Would speak but love. With him the bright result
Would change the hue of intermediate scenes,
And make one thing of all theology."
It was from the Rev. Dr. King, one of Dr. Chalmers's coadjutors
in the preparation of this volume, that the first proposal of a
general conference emanated. With this proposal Dr. Chalmers
cordially concurred, and his name was placed first in the list
of requisitionists. The conference met at Liverpool on the 1 st
October 1 845, and led to the organization in the summer of
1846 of the " Evangelical Alliance." Unable to take part
personally in the deliberations of the " Alliance," Dr. Chalmers's
contribution in furtherance of its object was given in the
form of a pamphlet. The main drift of this publication
was to dissuade the Alliance from doctrinal discussions, and
invite it to instant united action as the best expedient for
promoting perfect harmony of sentiment, and even of belief.
" It will not do," he said, " for the thing to evaporate, as
many other magnificent enterprises have done, in the mere
phantasmagoria of committeeship and sub-committeeship, with
an imposing list of officials, and large periodical assemblages,
where first-rate speakers make their eloquent demonstrations,
but are sadly at fault for the materials of real business, or
how to assign an operative process by which they might
advance towards the completion of the object on which they
have met."
Dr. Chalmers was at no loss himself in prescribing the spe
cial objects to which he conceived that the members of the
Alliance should immediately direct their energies. "We feel all
confidence," he said, " in recommending that they should stand
forth in the character, first of a great Anti-Popish Association ;
and secondly, of a great Home Mission ; believing as we do
VOL. IV. 2 K

380 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
that to walk together in the field of Christian philanthropy is
a likely preparation for thinking together on the questions of
Christian faith." As serving to mark more distinctively what
he conceived should be the primary object of the institution,
he proposed that it should be called the Protestant rather than
the Evangelical Alliance. After describing the benefit which
might arise from this change of name in the way of warding
off the perplexities which might arise from any attempt to
define the evangelical doctrine, so as to obtain for the defini
tion a universal concurrence, —
" There is another argument," he added, " in favour of our
proposed title. Its single watchword not only describes very
clearly the qualifications of the proposed membership ; but it
intimates with equal clearness what the precise work is, in
which, when brought together and formed into an association,
they are expected to engage. It is an alliance in defence of
Protestantism. Were there no danger to be warded off, there
might be no reason in pleading for such an association as we
now advocate, or for its title either. But who can deny the
existence of a most imminent and daily increasing danger?
Who can be ignorant of the busy aggressive proselytism and
undermining policy that are now in active operation, under
the conduct of agents and emissaries from the Church of
Rome ? Who can be blind to the evidences now springing up
in various lands, that the old priest-craft of the Middle Ages
is lifting its head again, and shedding baleful influence over
Churches that were wont to boast of theirs being the foremost
place, and theirs the first-rate services in the cause of the
glorious Reformation ? Wnether the Antichrist that is now re
appearing be in the ancient and unmitigated form of Popery, or
in the no less dangerous though milder form of Puseyism, surely
there is most urgent call for vigilance and alarm ; and, should it
be made the first and most ostensible object of the Alliance to

MS. 65. THE EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE. 387
repel the inroads of this threatening mischief, we are confident,
if such an undertaking were to give forth its certain sound,
that thousands and tens of thousands would hasten to its sum
mons, in the sacred cause of religious freedom, and scriptural
Christianity, and the rights of private judgment. It will be
miserable indeed, if the hostile demonstrations from without
do not lead us to look outwardly ; or if we shall waste our
energies on the yet premature attempt to settle the account
between the various modifications and distinctions of Pro
testantism, when the common enemy is at the door, and if
not met with a systematic and combined resistance, might
bury Protestantism, throughout all its varieties, in one com
mon ruin.
" We tell of a distinct thing to be done, and a distinct
thing to correspond about, when we state how desirable it is
to ascertain the statistics of Popery all over the world, and
more especially the statistics of Puseyism and High Churchism
— these great feeders of Popery in our own island ; and fur
thermore, when we state as most fitting objects for delibera
tion, what the best methods are by which to arrest the pro
gress of this threatening mischief, not only at home, but in
America and the British Colonies, and the Continent of
Europe, and eveiy other place where Jesuitism is plying her
wiles, and practising with deadly success her manifold delu
sions. And reverting to our own affairs, as well as making an
advance from deliberations to doings, what more patent than
the various methods by which our literary and ecclesiastical
and influential men might arouse the Protestant community of
Great Britain ; and put our constituencies on the alert ; and
raise funds for the multiplication of scriptural schools ; and
outrival our adversaries, who at this moment are labouring
with all their might to obtain possession of the masses by their
unwearied attentions in the houses of the common people, and

388 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
doing whatever in them lies to influence and gain over our
heretofore sadly neglected population."*
In this enumeration of things needing to be done, Dr. Chal
mers put last of all what he had so long considered to be
the greatest and most urgent of all — the evangelisation of
the neglected masses. For more than thirty years this had
been the ruling passion of his life. That life, though none
imagined so at this period, was drawing near its close ; and a3
if knowing that its time was short, this ruling passion rose
into redoubled strength, and broke forth into most beauti
ful manifestation. His first expectation was that the Free
Church in her organized capacity, and by help of her Sustenta
tion Fund, might press forward her Christian services into
the polluted recesses of city life, and help to heal the spread
ing leprosy. That expectation failing, he lifted at the close
of his "Earnest Appeal to the Free Church" this imploring
entreaty to other evangelical denominations : — " We would
earnestly wish the concurrence, the practical concurrence of
all other evangelical communions in this great work. We are
all the more desirous of this, when we think on the mighty,
nay, the yearly increasing spaces of wild and outlandish
territory which are still unoccupied. Are there not myriads
of immortal, yet perishing because neglected, spirits in Edin
burgh and Glasgow, and other large towns of Scotland, as well
as in hundreds of outfields throughout the country at large,
which would require the united efforts of all the wise and good
in our land for many years to come ? Why put off for another
hour, we do not say the fulfilment, but at all events the com
mencement of this glorious enterprise — for in truth this,
though forming the greatest moral problem of our day, has
scarcely been entered on ? In our city wastes, in our manu
facturing villages, in many, very many of our remote and rural
* The reader will recollect that these paragraphs were written in 1846.

MS. 65. APPEAL TO EVANGELICAL COMMUNIONS. 889
liamlets — in all these put together, are there thousands of
families who live in guilt and die in darkness, and have never
up to this moment been the objects of aught like an adequate
effort for their Christian education. Should not all who love
the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, form themselves into
agencies, and select their respective fields of operation ? And
though each of these bodies will labour far more effectively
when labouring apart from each other, or when not overlaid by
the weight of that very usual, but, at the same time, very use
less apparatus — we mean the incubus of a complex and cum
brous committeeship — yet this need not hinder a busy converse
and comparison of their several methods on the part of these
distinct bands of philanthropists, the individual members of
which might often meet together in social party, and there
provoke each other to love, and more especially to this great
and good work. And another mighty benefit might be ex
pected from such a co-operation as this. A common object of
Christian charity, zealously prosecuted by all, will lead to a
more general community of thought and feeling betwixt them.
It would speed the cause of Christian union at an infinitely
more rapid pace than ever will be effected by Synods and
Assemblies labouring in conjunct deliberation to new-model
their formularies, and settle their articles of agreement. Let
us be one in well-doing ; and this, wherever there is real sin
cerity and right good earnest, will prove the high-road to being
one in sentiment. A oneness in conduct will often lead to an
essential oneness of creed — for the reflex influence of the former
upon the latter is far greater than perhaps logicians and con
troversialists in theology are willing to allow. And so may we
speed onward the accomplishment of our blessed Saviour's
prayer — even that palpable unity among Christians, which He
has announced as an indispensable stepping-stone to the world's
regeneration."

300 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
When he wrote these sentences, he was not without the
hope that the Evangelical Alliance when fully constituted,
though not itself undertaking the great task, would become
its public patron, by proclaiming its necessity, and stimulating
the Church and Christian societies of Britain to its vigorous
prosecution. It was mainly, in fact, with a view to this that
his pamphlet on the Evangelical Alliance was published. Here
also, to a large extent, his hope was frustrated ; but the un
dying flame burned on, and made for itself a fitting vent.

MS. 65. THE WEST PORT. 391

CHAPTER XXI.
THE WEST PORT.
The Report of the Royal Commissioners on Religious Instruc
tion established and proclaimed the fact, that one-third part of
the entire population of Edinburgh had no fixed connexion
with any Christian church. A statement, however, couched in
such general terms could give no adequate conception of the
religious condition of the lower classes of the community —
more than three-fourths of whom (and in many sections the
proportion was much higher) had forsaken the ordinances and
renounced all visible profession of Christianity. Nor was
Edinburgh at all singular in this respect.* In all the large
towns of the empire, the vast bulk of the working population
had been suffered to sink into a profound abyss of ignorance
and irreligion. Ever since his own personal observations at
Glasgow had convinced Dr. Chalmers that this was the nearest,
the greatest, the most growing, and the most alarming of all
our national evils, it had been the unwearied effort of his life
to stimulate into vigorous operation that peculiar instrument
ality which was alone able, as he believed, to cope with this
* London is much worse : — " It is by no means an uncommon occurrence for
whole streets to be found without a single individual who attends public worship,
or recognises the claims of God. Of the working classes, and especially of the
working men of the metropolis, there is only the merest fraction who are to be
seen within its churches or its chapels, a proportion so small as perfectly to appal
the Christian heart with the consideration." — London City Mission Magazine,
Jan. 1852, pp. 6-9.

392 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
gigantic evil — effectually to reduce, and" finally to remove it.
It was to this end that his own ministerial labours in Glasgow
were so steadily and strenuously directed, but the extraordinary
general popularity by which that ministry was attended, to a
great extent frustrated his attempts. He took up and carried on
the Church Extension scheme as an effort on a wider scale to
compass the same object ; but just when that great enterprise
had touched the borders of those wide moral wildernesses which
were waiting to be reclaimed, he saw it arrested in its course.
He was convinced that a Church in which unmitigated Patron
age prevailed, and over which a direct spiritual control was
exercised by the State, could never be an effective instrument
in Scotland for evangelizing the masses, and this conviction
quickened the zeal with which he entered upon the Non-Intru
sion controversy. He longed, however, for the close of that
controversy, in order that, rid of its embarrassment, the Church
might devote herself to this most urgent and important work ;
and when the Disruption came, he cherished for a brief season
the expectation that, by force of its powerful impulse, the Free
Church would be impelled onward to its accomplishment ; but
busied with the supply of so large an adhering population, that
Church was unable to make any great or systematic effort in
this direction. For a time he turned his hopes towards the
Evangelical Alliance, and besought its countenance for his
favourite method of territorial cultivation, but that counte
nance was withheld. Baffled thus in his endeavours to ob
tain the support of public bodies, with a conviction unshaken
and zeal unquenched, Dr. Chalmers resolved to engage single-
handed in this great enterprise — to select one of the worst
districts of Edinburgh, and, by the help of such zealous
associates as he could gather around him, to institute an ex
periment of so testing a kind that, if successful, it might
compel belief and invite imitation. "I have determined," he

MS. 65. THE WEST PORT. 393
says, writing to Mr. Lennox on the 26th July 1844, "to assume
a poor district of 2000 people, and superintend it myself, though
it be a work greatly too much for my declining strength and
means. Yet such do I hold to be the efficiency of the method,
with the Divine blessing, that, perhaps, as the concluding act
of my public life, I shall make the effort to exemplify what as
yet I have only expounded."
Recurring again to the same topic in a letter dated the 9 th
August, — " Indulge me," he says, " if I feel encouraged to state
the grievous spiritual destitution of the thousands and tens of
thousands in all our large towns who are utter strangers to all
the habitual decencies of a Christian land. I could not in my
own individual strength, even though aided by the means and
energies of all my acquaintances, ever think of coping with this
enormous evil, en masse, or in all its magnitude and entireness.
I feel very confident as to the likeliest steps by which, piece
meal and successively, the whole even of this great and grow
ing evil might be overtaken. But the most which I can
personally undertake to do is, to work off one model or normal
specimen of the process, by which a single locality might be
reclaimed from this vast and desolate wilderness ; and after the
confirmation of my views by a made out experience of this
sort, pressing it on the imitation of all other philanthropists of
all other localities. * * * Such is the value and importance
which I attach to this enterprise, that, now I have done all I
can for the economics of the Free Church at large, I mean to
give up all general business, and, with God's help, will devote
my remaining strength to the special object which I have now
explained." As preparatory to the execution of his purpose, Dr. Chal
mers delivered four public lectures in the months of June;
and July directed mainly to the illustration of the superior
efficacy of local schools and local churches, so related to the

394 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
limited districts in which they are planted as to bear with spe
cial and concentrated effect upon the surrounding families ; and
with as great freshness of -thought and feeling as if the topic were
wholly new to him, the attractive and the aggressive systems
were compared and contrasted. The time was, in one respect,
favourable for a re-hearing of the subject. He could present
now his favourite territorial scheme, dissociated from all
those public questions with the discussion of which it had
been formerly mixed up, and upon the ground of its own naked
and inherent merits, he could urge its claims equally upon
Churchmen and Dissenters. It was true that in each locality
in which that scheme was tried, he desired to see a church
erected, which must be connected with some Christian com
munion. It was equally true that in that particular locality
which he might himself select, the church so raised would come
naturally to be connected with the Free Church ; but, with
some hope of his motives being understood and appreciated
among his former opponents — the Voluntaries — he could indig
nantly repudiate all sectarian aims, and in the fervour of intense
excitement could exclaim, — "Who cares about the Free Church,
compared with the Christian good of the people of Scotland ?
Who cares about any Church, but as an instrument of Christian
good ? for be assured, that the moral and religious wellbeing
of the population is of infinitely higher importance than the
advancement of any sect."*
The locality selected by Dr. Chalmers as the scene of his
projected enterprise was the West Port ; a part of Edinburgh
to which a few years previously an infamous notoriety had been
attached by those secret murders, the discovery of which sent
a thrill of horror through the land. By an accurate survey, it
was found that the main street and its adjoining wynds con-
* This passage was uttered with great vehemence of expression, at a public
meeting held in Edinburgh on 27th December 1845.

MS. 85. THE WEST PORT. 395
tained411 families, of which 45 were attached to some Christian
communion ; 70 were Roman Catholics ; and 296 had no con
nexion with any Church whatever. Out of a gross population
of 2000, three-fourths of the whole, or about 1500 of the in
habitants were living — within sound of many a Sabbath-bell,
and with abundance of contiguous church accommodation,
— lost to all the habits and all the decencies of the Chris
tian life. In these families the number of children capable
of attending school was only 411, and of these 290 were grow
ing up altogether untaught. The physical and moral condition
of this community was deplorable : one-fourth were paupers
on the poor-roll, and one-fourth were street-beggars, thieves,
or prostitutes. When Mr. Tasker, the minister of the West
Port, made his first visits to some of the filthiest closes, it was
no uncommon thing for him to find from twenty to thirty men,
women, and children, huddled together in one putrid dwelling,
lying indiscriminately on the floor, waiting the return of the
bearer of some well-concocted begging-letter, or the coming on
of that darkness under which they might sally out, to earn
by fair means or by foul, the purchase-money of renewed de
bauchery Upon one occasion he entered a tenement with
from twelve to twenty apartments, where every human being,
man and woman, were so drunk they could not hear their own
squalid infants crying in vain to them for food. He purchased
some bread for the children, and entering a few minutes
afterwards a neighbouring dram-shop, he found a half-drunk
mother driving a bargain for more whisky with the very bread
which her famishing children should have been eating. He
went once to a funeral, and found the assembled company
all so drunk around the corpse, that he had to go and beg
some sober neighbours to come and carry the coffin to the grave.
These were extreme cases, indicative, however, of a deep and
general moral corruption. It was a somewhat formidable enter-

80S MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
prise — to many it would have seemed altogether hopeless —
to come into close quarters with such a population. Aided,
however, by that band of zealous associates which his public
lectures, and the many private interviews by which they were
followed up had gathered around him, Dr. Chalmers went
hopefully forward. The plan of operations laid down by him
was sufficiently simple, but it needed zeal and regularity
and devoted perseverance to carry it into execution. The
West Port was divided into twenty districts, containing each
about twenty families. Over each of these districts a visitor
was appointed, whose duty it was to visit, once each week,
all the families committed to his care ; by all such attention
and services as he could offer to win their goodwill — by read
ing the Scriptures, by distributing tracts, by entering into
conversation, and by engaging in prayer, — to promote, as fit
openings were given him, their spiritual welfare. A printed
slip, drawn up by Dr. Chalmers, was to be left in every house
by each visitor, explaining the objects of his present and
future calls.* As the demand for education precedes that for
spiritual instruction, it was proposed that the first step taken
should be the opening of a school somewhere within the West
Port, and the visitors were advised to direct much of their
attention, in the first instance, to the young, and to per
suade parents to send their children to the school which
would be opened for them ere long in some convenient place.
In the execution of this plan there were two points to which
Dr. Chalmers attached particular importance. To protect
the purity of the enterprise, he was most anxious that his
agents should not become almoners, and should dispense as
little money as possible among the poor. Dilating upon this
subject in one of his lectures, he recounted his own experi
ence at Glasgow, — " I may state to you, that in the outset
* See Appendix F.

MS 155.

THE WEST PORT. 397

of my settlement in Glasgow, I was placed in the Tron Church
parish, with a population of 10,000 souls, which afterwards
increased. I was anxious to become acquainted with the
habits of a city population, and the parish I got was quite to
my mind. I was anxious to become acquainted with the inner
springs of that department of society, and I therefore resolved
to go personally round among the people. My first entry was
upon a close, reaching from the Salt Market to the celebrated
Molendinar Burn ; and to be sure, in that close there were to
be found wretchedness and misery of every kind. I was struck
with the great apparent interest and cordiality of my reception,
so very unlike to what I had anticipated. There was even a
competition for me, each one wanting me into their own house.
I could not understand it. But I soon discovered that I was
thought to possess great influence in the city charities — I
found that was the subject they constantly broached when
ever they got me into their houses. What I judged and
apprehended as the consequence of this was, that it would
neutralize the influence which I wanted to have as a Christian
minister. I saw that this would vitiate my influence among
them. I felt that it would never do if I were to go among
them first as a dispenser of temporal good things, and then as
urging upon.thetn the things which make for their everlasting-
peace. I felt the want of compatibility between the two ob
jects, and, rather than defeat my primary object, I determined
to cut my connexion with the city charities, and to let it be
understood that I would not attend any more of the meetings
of this hospital, or that charity, or Millar's Mortification — I am
sure it produced great mortification^ to me — I fairly cut my
connexion with them all ; I let the people understand that I
dealt only in one article, and that, if they valued the advan
tages of Christian instruction, they were welcome to any ap
proximation which I could make to them. Now, the thing

898 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
that delighted me was, that after this declaration was made to
them, the people were disabused of the imagination that I had
an inexhaustible treasury to dispose of, and that it was in my
power to scatter plenty through their habitations, but that if
they would insist upon asking me, I could tell them that any
thing I might do for them must be at my own expense, and I
was not very rich. The effect of this frankness between me
and the people was, that, if there was any difference, they re
ceived me more cordially than ever. * * * I had an elder
who was a person of great benevolence, but not so judicious
and discriminating in this instance as I would have liked ; for
when I instituted the Sabbath-school system, it was reported
to me that he was devising, and had gone a considerable length
in forming — and the scheme looked feasible enough — a local
Sabbath-school clothing society for the parish of St. John's.
Sir, said I to him, your society will blast our Sabbath-school
enterprise ; I wish to have 1200 scholars, do you mean to clothe
all these ? No, said he, only the most necessitous. Well, said I,
but all the rest will wait their turn to be clothed, and we shall
get no more than a fraction. My object is, that they should
come with the clothes they have on, so do not embarrass us
with your society. I accordingly got the society knocked on
the head. You may go forth with perfect safety, having this
inscription on the forefront of your enterprise — 'Education
for all ;' but what would be the effect if you were to go forth
with this inscription — ' Money or meat for all ?' If you go forth
with that inscription it will require very little effort on the part
of the people, by a trifle more of dissipation or of indolence, to
qualify themselves for relief in that way."
He was equally strenuous in resisting the proposal that in
the school about to be opened, the children should be educated
gratuitously. "I don't think," he said, "that you will achieve
any permanent good for the population unless you enlist them as

MS. 65. THE WEST PORT. 399
fellow-workers in, or at least as fellow-contributors to the cause.
I think that a great and radical error in the management of
our population has just proceeded from the idea that they are
utterly helpless and unable to do anything for themselves. I
believe that if you proceed rightly, it will be found that they
are able to do a great deal for themselves. I know that there
is a difference of opinion on this point ; but I stand up most
inflexibly on the subject of school-fees, and think those persons
ought to pay for the education of their children. I want to
train up the families in the sentiment that education is worth
its price, and to win them to the paying of that price. I am
unfriendly to gratuitous education ; nor do I wish that any of
our agents, or the people themselves, shall, in the imagination
of our indefinite resources, look for any relaxation of this sys
tem. The lesson which I am constantly giving out is, that we
shall not be able to do aught which is permanently effectual
for the people'3 good, unless they will lend a hand and do some
thing for themselves."
Dr. Chalmers held his first regular meeting with his agents
in Portsburgh Hall, an old court-house within the bounds of
the West Port, on Saturday evening, the 27th July 1844.
Having made in the interval their weekly round among these
families, the visitors were to assemble here every Saturday
evening to give in their reports, and to converse together
about the most effectual methods of carrying on the enterprise
upon which they had now fairly embarked. Dr. Chalmers was
prevented by illness from presiding at their meetings for a few
weeks in August and September, but so intense was the inter
est which he took in them, that he addressed the following
notes to the chairman : —
" Morningside, 31st August 1844. — It grieves me to say,
that I at present labour under such prostration of strength as
to be unfit for the business of meetings. My physicians have

400 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
laid me under an interdict against all committee work. I
have pled hard with them on behalf of the meetings of the
West Port, and I am happy to say, that so soon as the inter
dict is removed, the first use I will make of my freedom will
be to revisit the West Port, and take all the share I can in the
management of its important affairs, deeming this to be of far
greater importance than that I should continue my connexion
with any of the public committees of the Church. These I
mean to give up ; but our present attempt to reclaim the
population of the West Port is what I never can abandon till
forced to it by absolute necessity.
" For the present, I would only request that full minutes
should be taken of your meetings, and that I should be favoured
with the sight of them. I fear that for some little time my
only converse with you may be by such a weekly letter as
the present. But I trust that, by the blessing of God, I may
soon appear amongst you ; and I cannot adequately express
how much I long for the opportunity of addressing the house
holders of the West Port, either in your Court-Hall, or in some
larger place, for the accommodation of a general meeting.
Thomas Chalmers.
" My best regards to all who are assembled."
" Morningside, 6th September 1844. — I return the minutes,
which I have read with the deepest interest and satisfaction.
" There is one providential object which might be gained by
my present retirement. I feel quite certain that success is to
be attained in no other way than by the blessing of God on
the assiduous prosecution of that task which you have severally
had the goodness to undertake. Be assured that our doings
will be regarded as far more imitable if, instead of being stimu
lated by the personal influence of any one individual, they are
quietly and perseveringly performed by each man doing his

MS. 65. THE WEST PORT. 401
duty. I have often said, that great results are to be looked
for, not from a gigantic exertion on the part of one, but from
the accumulation and practicable efforts on the part of many. I
hope that by the time the winter sets in, we shall have all our
districts provided with agents, and all our agents in regular
operation. Thomas Chalmers."
" Morningside, 20th September IS 44. — There is no statement
made by any of you which has yielded me greater hope and
satisfaction than the progressive liking which you feel for the
families of your respective districts. There cannot be a better
security, or more solid guarantee than this, for the perpetuity of
our operations. Let me, therefore, once more entreat your per
severance in the great and good work, that with the blessing of
God, in answer to our united prayers, a great and signal benefit
may be rendered to the population among whom you labour.
With my most cordial regards to all members of your meeting,
I ever am, &c. Thomas Chalmers."
A school-room was at last obtained. It lay at the end of the
very close down which Burke and his associate decoyed their
unconscious victims. Fronting the den in which those horrid
murders were committed, stood an old deserted tannery, whose
upper storeloft, approached from without by a flight of projecting
wooden stairs, was selected as affording the best accommodation
which the neighbourhood could supply. Low-roofed and roughly
floored, its raw unplastered walls pierced at irregular intervals
with windows of unshapely form, it had little either of the scho
lastic or the ecclesiastical in its aspect ; but never was the true
work of school and church done better than in that old tannery-
loft of the West Port. Dr. Chalmers invited all the inhabitants
of the neighbourhood to meet him there on Wednesday the 6th
November. By this time the frequent calls of the visitors had
vol. iv. 2 l

402 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
awakened a general curiosity, and the invitation was accepted,
the loft presenting a larger assembly of what he called 'genuine
West-Porters' than had met together for many years. Acting
upon the saying of Talleyrand, which he so often quoted, " That
there is nothing formidable in meeting with the very lowest of
the people, if you only treat them frankly," Dr. Chalmers told
them all that he and his friends meant to do for them, and all
that he expected that they would do for themselves. He told
them, in homely but vigorous terms, that a school was to be
opened for their children, and that one of the best teachers in
the country had been obtained for it ; but that they must pay
twopence a week for each child's education ; that the article
they were to be supplied with was worth a great deal more than
that, and that they were quite able, and he was sure would be
quite willing to pay that much for it. The audience were quite
delighted with the address, and quite persuaded that they both
should and could do all that was required. Dr. Chalmers was
singularly fortunate in his selection of his first teacher, Mr.
Sinclair, to whom, soon after his nomination, he addressed the
following letter : —
" Morningside, 30th October 1844. — I expect to tell you in
a day or two when the school may be opened ; but, meanwhile,
it is of prime importance that you should clearly understand
our object.
" It is not to fill that school any how, but to fill it from the
families of the West Port ; a process which will be more or less
gradual, but in which, if we fail, we shall conceive our peculiar
object to be lost — even though the school should, on being
opened for children from all quarters, be filled to an overflow.
" I have all confidence in your energy and ability as a
teacher, and like exceedingly the special attention which you
mean to bestow on those clever boys that you would employ as
monitors. But I should particularly like that your preference

MS. 65. THE WEST PORT. 403
should be for West Port boys, rather than for those who might
be afterwards brought in from beyond the locality. Be assured
that you will meet with a full average of talent among the
ragged children of this outlandish population. Our great ob
ject in fact is, to reclaim them from their present outlandish-
ness, and raise them to a higher platform. We may have a
good deal to encounter in the way of slovenliness and untoward
habits at the outset : but the achievement will be all the more
honourable if you succeed ; and be assured that it will be at
length productive of a far mightier effect on the interest of
plebeian education than if, lying open to children from all dis
tances, you were filled to the very door with a higher style of
scholars for better classes in society.
" Let us only have patience and toleration for all the dis
agreeables of our outset, whether as regards the school or the
scholars. Let us recollect the coarse materials that we have in
the first instance to deal with, gradually to be improved, how
ever, by the refining and humanizing process which they will
be made to undergo.
"Do come then, my dear sir, with a heart alive to the im
portance, and resolved, as far as in you lies, on the success of
this great enterprise, and so earn the title to one of the highest
achievements which can possibly be contemplated, either by
the enlightened patriot or by the Christian philanthropist. — I
am, &c. Thomas Chalmers."
The school was opened with sixty-four day scholars, and
fifty-seven evening scholars, on the 11th November 1844 ; and
in the course of a single year, no fewer than 250 were in
attendance, and those chiefly from the Wes't Port. The edu
cational part of the process having been fairly set agoing, the
higher and more difficult operation was commenced, of bringing
the adult population under regular spiritual instruction. On

404 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
the forenoon of Sabbath the 22d December, Dr. Chalmers
opened the tan-loft for public worship. We were present on
the evening of that day, when the city missionary officiated,
and when we looked round and saw that the whole fruit of the
advices, and requests, and entreaties which for many previous
weeks had been brought to bear upon all the families by the
visitors, was the presence of about a dozen adults, and those
mostly old women, we confess to strong misgivings as to the
result. But the services were regularly continued thrice each
Sabbath, and the private agencies were renewed. In April
1845, Dr. Chalmers was so peculiarly fortunate as to secure
the services of the Rev. Mr. Tasker — the attendance grew
under his ministry, and at the close of the year the nucleus of
a good congregation began already to appear. The . scheme,
however, was obviously working at disadvantage so long as an
apartment so difficult of access, and so rudely fitted up, formed
at once the schoolroom and the church. Ground, therefore,
was purchased, and all other needful steps were taken for the
erection within the West Port of a church and schoolroom.
Meanwhile, under the zealous ministry of Mr. Tasker, who in
due time was regularly ordained, and with the aid of those
ladies and gentlemen who, with the utmost devotedness, gave
themselves to the work, all those different operations were
carried on which the reader will find so well described in the
" Territorial Visitor's Manual " of Mr. Tasker. A library, and
a savings'-bank, and a washing-house, and a female industrial
school, were all established, and all succeeded. Dr. Chalmers
preached frequently in the loft ; addressed several meetings of
the inhabitants to explain to them the different parts of the
scheme, as they successively were instituted ; presided at
many of the agents' meetings, and was, in fact, the central
spring which set the whole machinery in motion. There may
have been other works of his hands, upon which a larger

2ET. 65. THE WEST PORT. 405
amount of labour was bestowed, but there was none over
which so many prayers were offered. It lets us into his secret
feelings, and tells us of the depth of that peculiar interest
with which he watched the progress of this undertaking,
when we find him in his study at Morningside, on Sabbath
morn or Sabbath even, penning such prayers as these : — " It is
yet but the day of small things with us ; and I in all likeli
hood shall be taken off, ere that much greater progress is made
in the advancement of the blessed gospel throughout our land.
But give me the foretaste and the confident foresight of this
great Christian and moral triumph ere I die. Let me at least,
if it be Thy blessed will, see — though it should be only in one
or in a small number of specimens — a people living in some
district of aliens, as the West Port, reclaimed at least into
willing and obedient hearers, afterwards in Thine own good
time to become the doers of Thy word. Give me, 0 Lord, a
token for the larger accomplishment of this good ere I die." —
" Moving fearlessly onward, may I at length obtain such posses
sion of the West Port, as that the gospel of Jesus Christ shall
have the moral ascendency over a goodly number of its fami
lies. And let me not forget the conquests of Thine all-subdu
ing grace, and the preservations of Thy faithful servants in the
history of the missions of other days. And oh, in this as well
as in other work, let it be my care to follow the Lord fully ;
neither let me go up thither unless Thy presence and favour
go along with me. Thou surely hast not forbidden this enter
prise ; and therefore will we ever pray that Thou mayest pros
per and extend it. We would give Thee no rest, 0 Lord, till
Thou hast opened the window of heaven and caused righteous
ness to run down that street like a mighty river." — " 0 pour
forth the spirit of generosity on my coadjutors and their friends
in the work of cultivating the West Port of Edinburgh ; and
let such a memorial of Christian philanthropy be set up in

4'OC MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
that place as to be a praise and an example both in the city of
our habitation and in the other cities of our land." — " Reveal to
me, 0 God, the right tactics, the right way and method of
proceeding in the management of the affairs of the West Port.
0 that I were enabled to pull down the strongholds of sin and
of Satan which are there ; and 0 save me, save me from the
difficulties to which I am exposed should hollowness of heart
or principle be found to obtain with any of the agency. 0 how
incompetent I feel myself to be for acting the part of a cautious
and wise general in the midst of them. Be my help and my ad
viser, 0 God, and tell me by Thy word and Spirit what I ought
to do." — " 0 my God, give me the power of ordering matters
aright in the West Port ; let all be peace and harmony, and no
confusion there ; direct all my footsteps in that undertaking ;
and may I more and more be made to abound in such sugges
tions as Thy Spirit will prompt and approve of. Let me keep
all the impulses of my own spirit under the subjection of a
presiding and circumspect wisdom. And more especially, 0
God, let me understand Thy will in regard to the right place
and performances of a female agency. May their work be
abundantly blessed and countenanced from on high, and have
a happy effect on the families. Let me beware of mine being
too much of a restraining authority ; and let me seek that all
things be done for edification, and all things be done decently
and in order." — " Bestow on me in larger measure and propor
tion that grace which Thou didst so plentifully bestow on the
churches of Macedonia. Let it spread abroad more and more
among the sadly deficient congregations of our Free Church :
Do Thou begin it even now among the families of the West
Port. Make them willing in the day of Thy power, that
abounding in all that is good, they may abound in this grace
also. It is still but a day of small things. 0 do Thou brighten
it onward even unto the latter day glory. Cause the poorest

MS. 65. THE WEST PORT. 407
to take part in the fellowship of Christian charity ; and may
the substantial equality be maintained among all the classes,
by the rich casting in their larger gifts, and each man giving
in proportion to his ability." — " 0 my God, give me to set my
delight here on the excellent ones of the earth, that I may be
prepared for the perfect enjoyment of their and my presence
before Jesus Christ at His coming ; and draw close the affec
tion and the affinity between Mr. Tasker and the families of
the West Port. Do thou plentifully endow him with the
graces and gifts of the Apostle Paul. May he have many souls
for his hire ; and bestow Thy guidance on him and on all the
other associates in the good work of attempting to reclaim an
outcast population to the light and obedience of the gospel.
0 may the attempt be a successful one ; and may he, in par
ticular, have many for a crown of joy and of rejoicing in the
great day of account." — " And I pray not for myself alone, but
for him who labours in holy things among the families of the
West Port. Prosper, 0 Lord, his meditations upon thy word.
Let me ever rejoice in the endowments which Thou hast been
pleased to bestow upon him. Do Thou guide and encourage
him, 0 Lord. May he be enabled to wait upon Thee without
distraction ; and let him so minister, that not only his own
profiting, but the profiting of those under his charge, may
appear unto all. 0 may he not- only be himself saved, but
may he be the instrument of salvation to many; and may
both he and I be carried in safety and at length with triumph
to that prosperous consummation for which we are jointly
labouring."* These impressive petitions were all offered up while yet the
West Port enterprise was in its infancy — an infancy shadowed
by many doubts and fears. It was while one of those shadows
* Horse Sabbaticse, vol. i. pp. 238, 255, 302, 319 ; and vol. ii. pp. 229, 238,
241, 303.

408 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
hung over it that Dr. Chalmers addressed the following letter
to Mr. Tasker : —
" Fairley, by Largs, June 12th, 1845. — My chief anxiety is
that neither you nor any of our coadjutors shall lose heart be
cause of a less rapid' progress than some of them may perhaps
have anticipated. We are not worthy of having entered on the
experiment, if not capable of persevering with it under the
discouragement it may be of many alternations, and for a time,
if God so please to exercise our faith and patience, of reverses.
Such a spirit is peculiarly called for in a work of which it may
be pre-eminently said, that except the Lord build the house,
they labour in vain that build it. * * *
" While dependent on the Divine contribution for success, I
must say that I feel the importance too of no ingredient in the
human contribution being wanting. On this ground I deside
rate that all justice should be done to our undertaking, and that
as an experiment it should be made as complete as possible,
otherwise the instruction given by it will be imperfect ; whereas
even from its failure we shall learn a great deal more from a
full than from a partial operation. I therefore desiderate, and
that as soon as may be, a church not only within the locality,
but, agreeably to your own view, as much in the view of the
families as possible. I look on the present steady attendance,
say of 80 or 1 00, in the present disadvantageous circumstances,
as a sufficient nucleus, under God, for a future congregation.
And what should reconcile us all to this step is, that even though
the worst should come to the worst, though the local preference
should not give us a full local congregation for years together,
we can, after giving it a local constitution, that is, securing the
offer of all vacant sittings in the first instance to the people of
the West Port — we can, at each seat-letting, hold out the room
not disposed of to the public at large ; so that, after having
done all for a local, we have still the same resource that is had

MS. 65. THE WEST PORT. 409
in all other churches for supplementing the deficiency from our
first aim, by means of a general congregation. The sooner the
operation is expedited the better for me, who am getting on in
life ; and I desire, whatever may be the result, to take the in
struction of it with all the calmness both of a philosopher and
a Christian, viewing it in one light as the lesson of experience,
and in another, as the lesson which God pleases to give me,
whether to humble or to gratify me before I die. — Ever believe
me, my dear sir, yours most cordially, Thomas Chalmers."
The prospect of a speedy and remarkable triumph brightened
before Dr. Chalmers as the year 1846 progressed. Visible suc
cess cheered on the various agents, and their efforts were mul
tiplied as the fair and pleasant fruits of them ripened under
their eye. The liberality of many Christian friends supplied
Dr. Chalmers with funds sufficient not only to build a church
and school-room, but to purchase and fit up a tenement of
houses as model-houses for working-men, in which, at a low
rent, additional means of cleanliness and comfort were en
joyed. It was in a tone, therefore, of rising confidence that,
while the church was building, he issued his last circular. — "We
have long thought," he said, " that the failure of every former
attempt to reclaim the masses of our population is due to the
insufficiency of the means which have been brought to bear
upon them ; and while deeply sensible that means alone will
prove of no effect without the blessing from on high on the de
votedness and the conscientious labours of those into whose
hands they are entrusted, yet we hold it irrational to look for
any great or sensible result with so slender an apparatus as that
of Sabbath-schools, and prayer meetings, and rare occasional
visits from house to house, under the conduct, it may be, of a
few missionaries for the whole of a large town — each sinking
under the weight of the many thousands who have been com-
VOL. IV. 2 M

410 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845-
mitted to his care ; and dispirited by the want of any such
visible fruit as might serve to satisfy both himself and his em
ployers that his efforts are not wholly dissipated or lost, to all
observation at least, in that mighty aggregate of human beings
wherewith he has to deal.
" It is under this conviction that we have long advocated
the concentration of commensurate efforts and means on a
small enough territory. What cannot be done in bulk, and all
at once, let us try in separate portions — each within the com
pass of such an agency as would form a sufficient eldership
and set of office-bearers for an ordinary congregation. We are
aware of the ridicule that has been poured in other depart
ments, whether of politics or philanthropy, on the process of
what has been termed a bit and bit reform. But let us ascer
tain whether this bit and bit process be not, after all, the only
one that is suited to the real mediocrity of the human powers.
" The very essence of our scheme lies in the thorough opera
tion of what we have called the territorial principle. We limit
our attention to a single district or locality, itself split into
sub-districts, having each a Christian agent attached to it ; so
that not a home or family which might not be frequently and
habitually visited by one having the charge of not more, if
possible, than twenty households. By this busy internal mis
sionary process, a vast amount of direct good might be done,
even were there nothing more than a kindly influential con
verse, all, of course, on the side of morality and religion and a
better economics, than now prevails throughout the population.
But one of the main benefits of such a system as this is, that it
might be made to act so powerfully as a recruiting process both
for church and schools, as at length to terminate in a paro
chial economy of a power and character so pervading that each
child shall receive a wholesome education, and at the sound of
their own Sabbath-bell nearly each house may be seen to pour

MS 65. THE WEST PORT. 411
forth its family of worshippers. We are sensible that even
though this were to take effect, it would yield nothing more
than but a reclaimed portion of the whole territory. But if
the hundreds of Christian philanthropists in Edinburgh and
Glasgow, and the thousands in London, were in little separate
bands to select their respective localities and do the same thing,
a single decade of years might not pass away without our
being landed in the blessed result of a better and happier
generation." On Friday the 19th February 1847, the West Port Church was
opened for public worship by Dr. Chalmers, and on the 25th April
he presided at the first sacrament administered within its walls.
On the following Monday, he said to Mr. Tasker — " I have got
now the desire of my heart, — the church is finished, the schools
are flourishing, our ecclesiastical machinery is about complete,
and all in good working order. God has indeed heard my prayer,
and I could now lay down my head in peace and die." On
Tuesday the 27th, he wrote thus to Mr. Lennox : — " I wish to
communicate what to me is the most joyful event of my life.
I have been intent for thirty years on the completion of a
territorial experiment, and I have now to bless God for the
consummation of it. Our church was opened on the 19th of
February, and in one month my anxieties respecting an attend
ance have been set at rest. Five-sixths of the sittings have
been let ; but the best part of it is, that three-fourths of these
are from the West Port, a locality which, two years ago, had
not one in ten church-goers from the whole population. I
presided myself, on Sabbath last, over its first sacrament.
There were 132 communicants, and 100 of them from the
West Port."
Scarcely more than two years had elapsed, yet how great
was the transformation. When the work began, the number
attending all places of worship did not exceed one-eighth of

412 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
the whole population of the West Port. In the new church
300 sittings were taken as soon as it was opened ; and of the
100 communicants from the district who sat down at the first
communion, there were so many as eighty (some far advanced
in life) who had never communicated in their lives before, or
so long ago that they had wholly forgotten the nature and
objects of the ordinance. When the work began, of those
capable of education three-fourths were not at school ; already
the ratio had been reversed, and three-fourths were in regular
attendance. Many of these children were of the poorest class,
yet school-fees, amounting in the aggregate to upwards of £70
per annum, had been cheerfully and gratefully paid by their
parents. The change was beginning to show itself even in the
outward appearance of the district — in the increased cleanli
ness and tidiness of the children* — in quieter Saturday nights,
and more orderly Sabbaths. Many moral and physical agencies
* " We have upwards of a hundred girls at this school, and I have no recollection
of anything so sudden, so much^er saltum, as the transition in the aspect of these
girls, from the time of their first raggedness, as they were found running about
the streets in that destitute locality, to the personal cleanliness and respectability
which they now exhibit. Their appearance, indeed, is altogether delightful  The
boys, I may state, have not made so large an advance as the girls in point of ap
pearance; but altogether the schools present a most attractive and delightful
spectacle. I have been told that a number of the plebeian schools in our city have
been abandoned by female visitors, in virtue of want of personal cleanliness. By
the use of baths, this want is counteracted. The truth is, that there is nothing like
going thoroughly to work ; we even take cognizance of the hair-cutting, as far as
the boys are concerned. We have made a bargain, — I don't know that it is a very
cheap one, — but we got a hair-dresser to clip the boys' heads at eighteenpence a
dozen, which is at the rate of three-halfpence a head. I can just say this much,
that I am sure that the ruder and rawer the material is, out of which finished
goods are worked, the greater is the triumph of the manufacturing art ; and in
this point of view, I would consider it a most attractive and inviting circumstance,
when we recollect that these poor people have all the capacities of human spirits,—
that they have talents, — that they have imperishable souls, — that they are on a full
level of equality with ourselves in all that is essential to man, — and that we have
nothing to do but to go and do them justice, and to give up the shameful neglect
which we have indulged towards the lower classes for half a century, I would say
for almost a whole century ; and it is not to be told to what height of advancement,
morally, intellectually, and economically, they are capable of being raised."

JIT. 65. THE WEST PORT. 413
still existed which wrought powerfully against the attempted
reformation. More than twenty dram-shops in that single
district hung out their invitation to debauchery, while fetid
nests of filth and vice lay festering in many a close. There
was something to be done here which the public authorities
alone could do, and which Dr. Chalmers urged them in vain to
undertake. — " I would again implore the aid of the authorities
for the removal of all those moral, and the aid of the Sanitary
Board for the removal of all those physical nuisances and dis
comforts which are found to exist within the limits of a
territory so full of misery and vice at present, yet so full of
promise for the future. Could I gain this help from our men
in power, and this co-operation from the Board of Health,
then, with the virtue which lies in education, and, above all,
the hallowing influences of the gospel of Jesus Christ, I should
look, though in humble dependence on the indispensable grace
from on high, for such a result as, at least in its first begin
nings, I could interpret into the streaks and dawnings of a
better day, — when, after the struggles and discomfitures of
thirty years, I might depart in peace, and leave the further
prosecution of our enterprise with comfort and calmness in
the hands of another generation."
It was but the dawning which he was permitted to behold.
A few weeks after that first communion in the West Port,
he was removed to the communion of the heavens, and the
work was left in other hands. There were some who thought
that his removal would be fatal to its success ; and that
it was only by such impulses as he could give, that such
an enterprise could be sustained. But five years have past
since he was at its head ; and, under the admirable manage
ment of Mr. Tasker, each year has witnessed an advancing
progress. In its educational department the work is complete.
In the different schools, male and female, day and evening,

414 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
between 400 and 500 children are in attendance; nor is it
known that there is a single child of a family resident within the
West Port who is not at school. Of what other like district in
this country could the same be said, and by what other instru
mentality could it have been accomplished ? The most commo
dious schoolroom might have been built, and the ablest teacher
salaried, and the education offered gratis to all the families,
and yet hundreds of these children have remained untaught.
It was the district visiting, and the zeal especially of those
ladies by whom a special oversight of the children's regular
attendance at school was undertaken, by which this great
achievement has mainly been accomplished. The ecclesiastical
department presents us with a no less gratifying result. The
habit of church attendance has become as general and regular
within the West Port as it is in the best conditioned districts
of Edinburgh. The church is filled to overflowing, and, while
these pages are passing through the press, the people of the
West Port, who among themselves contributed no less than
£100 to the building of their church at first, are contri
buting, at an equal rate of liberality, for the erection of a
gallery. It was Dr. Chalmers's conviction that in the worst
localities the means existed, and could be evoked, by which
an effective gospel ministry, if once created, could afterwards
be sustained ; and the history of the West Port confirms that
conviction. The ecclesiastical machinery is now complete, and
were it separated from the rest it could be maintained in all its
present efficiency by the freewill offerings of the people them
selves. During the last year, besides meeting all the expenses
necessary for the due support of Christian ordinances, amount
ing to nearly £250, the West Port congregation has contributed
£70 to missionary and educational objects.* Nor has the cost
been great at which all this has been effected. A site has been
* For the last Annual Balance-Sheet, see Appendix G.

MS. 65. THE WEST PORT. 415
purchased, a church, seated for 520, has been erected, com
modious schoolrooms have been built and furnished, a large
adjoining tenement has been bought and fitted up, the minis
ter's and the schoolmaster's and the schoolmistress's salaries
have been paid, and all incidental expenses discharged, during
seven years and a half, for less than £5500.
At the same cost, among the same class, within the same
limits, and during the same time, there never have been accom
plished in this or any other land anything like the same edu
cational and spiritual results. It stands the only instance in
which the depths of city ignorance and vice have been sounded
to the very bottom ; nor can the possibility of cleansing
the foul basement story of our social edifice be doubted any
longer. How the spirit of the departed would have rejoiced
had he lived to witness what the West Port now presents ;
and how gladly would he have hailed every token that the
lessons given forth thereby were not likely to be lost !* We
have dwelt the longer upon it because we know how willingly
he would have seen every other thought of his heart and
every other work of his hands perish from the remembrance of
his fellows, if only the guiding light were followed which this
example furnished as to the best method of raising the sunk
millions of our fellow-countrymen to a higher level of character
and comfort on earth, and preparing them for " glory, honour,
and immortality" hereafter.
* It is with the greatest pleasure that we have noticed two recent articles in the
Christian Journal of the United Presbyterian Church, containing an account of the
operations in the West Port, and strongly recommending the territorial principle
upon which they have been conducted.

416 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.

CHAPTER XXII.
SUGGESTIONS FOR ALTERING THE CURRICULUM IN THE SCOTTISH
UNIVERSITIES— THE COURSE OF THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION— DR.
CHALMERS'S PROFESSORIAL CAREER— APPOINTMENT AS PRINCIPAL
IN THE NEW COLLEGE— INSTITUTES OF THEOLOGY— THE NORTH
BRITISH REVIEW— THE GERMAN PHILOSOPHY— THE FAMINE.
Dr. Chalmers's attention had been early directed to the
course of education pursued in the Scottish Universities, to
the defects attached to it, and the improvements of which it
was capable. In the year 1828, during his examination before
the Commissioners appointed to visit the Universities of Scot
land, he suggested that the first Latin and Greek classes, in
which the elements of those languages were taught, should be
abolished, as suited rather for a school than for a college ; and
that, by the establishment of gymnasia* and a strict entrance
* " Edinburgh, April 22d, 1846  Dear Sir, — I have now read your Pamphlet,
and with high approbation of its general views. I like in particular your strong
recommendation of gymnasia. Such is my conception of their usefulness that T
think they might do even more than prepare for the literary and philosophical
classes of our Universities. I think they might prepare for an immediate entry on
all the studies of the learned professions, whether theological, or legal, or medi
cal. But at this rate would they not supersede our Universities altogether ? I
think they ought not ; and that to these Universities there would remain the high
function of elevating the hterature and science of our land, purely for their own
sakes, and apart from their subserviency to any merely professional object.
What a glorious country it would make, if, for the expense of some £10,000 or
£20,000 a year more, we could thus get our Universities placed in those higher
regions of philosophy and taste, where they might contribute to the indefinite
elevation of our national authorship in every department, whether of letters or
of science ! These hasty sentences represent my views very imperfectly, but should

fflT.65. THE UNIVERSITY CURRICULUM. 417
examination, the standard of qualification for commencing a
University education should be elevated. He also suggested
that an important change should be made in the order of the
Undergraduate course. According to the existing arrangement,
Logic and Moral Philosophy occupy the second and third
sessions in a four years' curriculum ; Mathematics and Natural
Philosophy occupying the third and fourth. Upon the prin
ciple that the mental and moral sciences required a maturer
intelligence, he proposed that this order should be reversed,
and that the Moral Philosophy of the Undergraduate course
should be brought thus into juxta-position with the Natural
Theology of the Divinity curriculum. Without altering the
place already given to Natural Philosophy, the Royal Com
missioners, in their Report of 1830, recommended that Moral
Philosophy should be taught during the fourth year of the
student's attendance at College. But this, with all the other
valuable recommendations of that Report, has lain for years
unheeded, so as to make one wonder why such Commissions
were appointed.
Although not a member at this time of the Theological
Faculty, Dr. Chalmers was examined also as to the course of
Theological study. In St. Andrews, as in all the other Scottish
Colleges, the Theological Faculty consisted of three Professors, —
one of Divinity, one of Hebrew and the Oriental Languages, and
one of Church History .• The course lasted for four years, attend
ance, however, being only imperative during three sessions.
There fell thus into the hands of the Divinity Professor, to
be treated in a four years' course of lectures, the whole range
of Natural Theology, the Christian Evidences, and Systematic
we ever have the opportunity of meeting, I should like to talk more at large with
you upon the subject. Meanwhile, I rejoice in your having advocated a high sys
tem of preliminary scholarship that might well enable us all to take up higher
positions in our respective territories  I am, dear Sir, yours respectfully,
Tiiomas Chalmers.
" Professor Blackie, Aberdeen."

418 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
and Pastoral Theology. Independently of the undue amount
of labour thrown thus upon a single Professor, it was obvious
that, entering as they did at different parts of the course, it
was only the students of one Session in every four who began
the course with the Professor and followed it consecutively to
its close. And the few students who might have enjoyed it
were deprived even of this benefit, by the prevalent habit of
attending only during three sessions, and interposing the session
of absence at different points in. the curriculum. In a scheme
of Theological Education which he drew up and presented to
the Commissioners, Dr. Chalmers suggested that if not five, as
he would have desired, there should be at least four Professors
in the Theological Faculty ; and that there should be two Pro
fessors of Divinity, the junior to teach two classes each day, and
the senior to do the same; so that, enter when he might, the
student should be carried regularly forward, and the subjects
be presented in a consecutive order. . Upon this subject the
Commissioners satisfied themselves with advising that a new
Professorship of Biblical Criticism should be instituted at the
different Universities — an advice which waits till some Govern
ment shall be patriotic enough to execute it. Upon his own ap
pointment to the Chair of Theology in Edinburgh, Dr. Chalmers
was fully exposed to the disadvantages which the existing ar
rangements entailed upon the Professor, nor were all the efforts
which he made to extricate himself* sufficient to yield anything
* In answer to an inquiry made by a member of one of the English Universities,
Dr. Chalmers gave the following account of the manner in which his classes were
conducted : —
" The Professor of Theology, Dr. Chalmers, teaches two classes, a junior and
senior. The junior class commences on Tuesday the 12th of November, and its
hour of meeting is two o'clock. This class is attended by all the professional
students, or students of divinity, at the beginning of their course ; and the follow
ing account of its topics of lectureship will serve to shew why, of the two classes,
it is the most adapted to the demand and convenience of those gentlemen who, not
of the ecclesiastical profession, wish to become acquainted with the grounds or
evidences of the Christian faith.

MS. 65. THEOLOGICAL CLASSES. 419
like content. Could he have satisfied himself with drawing up
a four years' course of lectures, to be repeated again and again
"The general object of this class is to demonstrate the evidences of natural and
revealed religion, which is done in a series of lectures delivered from the Chair on
the three first days of every week. The lectures on Natural Theology take up
nearly half the Session, and are succeeded by lectures on the historical and in
ternal evidences for the truth of Christianity ; and the course is concluded by
lectures on the inspiration of Scripture, with a general view of Scripture Criticism
and Systematic Theology.
" It will be seen that the main design of this class is to establish the credentials
of revelation, or to unfold the grounds on which the Bible ought to be regarded as
the genuine record of a genuine communication from heaven to earth. It is for
this special reason that an attendance on this class is recommended to the general
or extra-professional students, while it is only imperative on those who are destined
for the clerical profession. By opening this part of theological education to all
sorts of students, we approximate to the academic system of England, in which
sacred is blended, to a certain extent, with general literature.
" Two days of the week are occupied with lectures, both written and extempo
raneous, an the various topics of a text-book, which gives the Professor an op
portunity for entering with greater minuteness and familiarity into the details of
the Christian argument ; it is in this part of the course that the students are most
subjected to examination. It is the practice to examine all the professional stu
dents, and only those of the general students who express a wish for it. The
text-book for the ensuing Session is Butler's ' Analogy.'
" The senior class of Theology commences on Tuesday the 1 2th of November at
eleven o'clock ; it receives the appellation of Senior from the circumstance of its
being attended by those professional students who have advanced beyond the first
year of their attendance on the Divinity Hall, as the attendance of regular students
generally lasts four years. The course of lectures in the senior class, in accom
modation to this practice, is completed in three years ; comprising, therefore', the
instructions which are proper to the divinity students of the second, third, and
fourth year's standing. This class is attended by a large proportion of general
students, notwithstanding the inconvenience to them of their receiving by one
year's attendance only a fraction of its course ; and notwithstanding a still greater
inconvenience, that for two sessions out of the three, instead of beginning with the
commencement of this senior lectureship, they have to begin with the ulterior parts
ofit. "The object of the senior class, as distinguished from that of the junior, is to ex
pound not the credentials, but the contents of the Christian message ; or, if the
business of the junior is to establish the truth in opposition to all infidelity, the
business of the senior is to establish the truth in opposition to all heresy ; its main
topic is the subject-matter of the Christian Theology, and it should conclude with a
series of lectures on the duties of the ministry and of the pastoral cure."
The reader is referred to the ninth volume of the ' Posthumous Works ' for in
formation as to the text-books used in the Theological Classes, and the manner
in which they were employed.

420 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
as the four years' curriculum came round, he might have earned
for himself the same ease and comfort with which the duties
of his Chair had been discharged by ordinary and inferior
men. But he could not confine himself within such limits.
Upon some of the great topics in Natural Theology and the
Christian Evidences, he had original and valuable contri
butions to offer, which, after first offering them to his stu
dents in a course of lectures, he lost no time in presenting
to the public. His early professorial career at Edinburgh
resembled that of those German professors who pass so fre
quently through the press the lectures of the preceding year,
entailing thus upon themselves a new burden of composi
tion for the future. Subjects, besides, were constantly occur
ring to Dr. Chalmers of a character somewhat extraneous to
the proper topics of his course, upon which a brief set of
lectures were drawn up and delivered to his students. The
result of the whole, while impairing the orderly treatment of
the common heads of .Divinity, was eminently favourable to
that freshness and force of impulse which it was his great
distinction as a teacher to communicate. He who studies
attentively the first four volumes of the one, and the last three
volumes of the other series of his Works, will not readily
believe that even in respect of the amount and variety of
information communicated to them, the students of Dr. Chal
mers fared worse than others ; but it was not here that his power
and glory lay, as the greatest teacher of Theology our country
has ever seen. Others have amassed larger stores of learning,
and conveyed them to their students in more comprehensive and
compendious forms. But who ever lit up the evidences and
truths of Christianity with a light so attractive ; and who ever
filled the youthful breasts of those who were afterwards to oc
cupy the pulpits of the land, with the fire of so generous and so
devoted an enthusiasm ! His professorial career had lasted

MS. 65. PROFESSORIAL CAREER. 421
for twenty years when the Disruption occurred. Even at that
time he could travel, he said, from one end of Scotland to the
other, and spend each night in the manse of one of his former
pupils ; and if the growing majorities in the General Assembly
by which that event was preceded were analyzed, it would
appear that nine-tenths at least of those who had listened to
his fervid prelections in the University, counted it an honour
to stand by the side of their venerated instructor when the
hour of trial came. Immediately after the Disruption, Dr.
Chalmers resigned his Chair at the University, and accepted
the appointment of Principal and Primarius Professor of
Divinity in whatever collegiate institution the Free Church
might be able to erect. Strongly convinced that with the
slender attractions which its unendowed and under-paid offices
held out, the future ministry of the Free Church could alone
maintain its position in the country by the superior scholar
ship and deeper piety of its ministers, he gave an increased
measure both of time and care to the duties of his professor
ship ; and after the experience of three sessions he had this
hopeful testimony to bear : — " The convener of your Com
mittee has the satisfaction of bearing witness, and this after
the experience of eighteen winters as a Professor of The
ology, and five more as the occupier of a previous chair, that
his class of last session stands the highest in his estimation
of all which have preceded it, if not in its superior number
of eminent and distinguished students who stand above the
level of their fellows, in what is far better — a more elevated
table-land of general proficiency and good scholarship. But it
is of greatly surpassing moment that we should have to report
an obvious increase, from year to year, in their sense of things
sacred, and devotedness of heart and spirit to the great objects
of the Christian ministry." In the hope of contributing to
this increase, during his last collegiate sessions Dr. Chalmers

422 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
was in the habit of inviting his students to private interviews,
devoted wholly to conversation relative to their own spiritual
condition and to prayer.
In the General Assembly of 1844, the Moderator, Dr. Grey of
Edinburgh, was singularly felicitous in returning the thanks
of the Church to Dr. Chalmers, for the valuable services which
he had rendered to it. " We are all aware," he said, in closing
his address, " of the important and directly spiritual duties
which you fulfil in training up the future teachers of Israel,
and in your manifold labours as a minister of Christ ; but even
in the department of finance we feel that your services are
invaluable, as clearly and directly subservient to the mainten
ance and extension of true religion in the land. Sir, we duly
appreciate the self-denying, generous zeal, which makes you
willing, at the present stage of your valuable and fruitful life,
to continue to labour in the service of a Church which, if dear
to you, holds you also most dear to her. — granted her by a
gracious Providence as her ornament and guide. In the
review of our noble controversy, the words of Milton, in a
sonnet addressed to Sir Henry Vane the younger, occur to me
as so applicable, that I trust you, Sir, and the Assembly, will
excuse me if I conclude with them. After mentioning other
high qualities and attainments, he adds —
' Both spiritual power, and civil, what each means,
What severs each, thou hast learned, which few have done, —
The bounds of either sword to thee we owe.
Therefore on thy firm hand religion leans
In peace, and reckons thee her eldest son.' "
" I can only ascribe," said Dr. Chalmers in reply, " these
high eulogiums to my having long held a principle which I
should like to see carried into effect throughout the whole of
the Church's business, — I mean the principle of division of
employment. I should like to see that principle made per-

MS. 65. TRIBUTE TO DR. WELSH'S MEMORY. 423
V
manently applicable to the management of our whole ecclesias
tical affairs. So sacred is my respect for this principle, and, I
trust, also my observance of it, that all the time and strength
which I have been able to spare, have been given to the labour
of but one department of the Church's service ; and I trust,
from experience, and am in some measure confident, that the
little, or rather no part I have taken in other, and perhaps
more important duties of the Church, has been of more avail
than if I had meddled with them all. I knew that these
were in other hands, and I wished to allow them to get the
full benefit of the same principle. Even although I was at the
head of the academical department of the Free Church, I have
not attended a single meeting of the Educational Committee.
This may seem odd, and incongruous with my situation, as at
the head of our Theological Faculty ; but it is because I would
infinitely rather be satisfied with doing a single task well —
with being an efficient doer in one thing, than being a dabbler
universal in everything."
For some time after the Disruption, the general superintend
ence of the collegiate and educational departments of the Free
Church devolved upon Dr. Welsh, and Dr. Chalmers took little
share in their management — his class duties, and the oversight
of the Sustentation Associations, engrossing his attention.
An event, however, soon afterwards occurred which modified
his conduct in this respect. In the spring of 1845, the Free
Church lost one of her brightest ornaments. " I dare not,"
said Dr. Chalmers, in alluding to the event, " incur the hazard
of exciting the pathos and profound regrets of this assembly
by saying all I might on the bereavement which a mysterious
though >ll-wise Providence has been pleased to inflict upon us
by the death of Dr. Welsh. This institute, of which he was so
distinguished a member, will ever associate with his memory a
sense of grateful obligation for high services. The College

424 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
fabric now on the eve of its commencement, and to which, I
might add, our choice and rapidly increasing, and even already
our well-stored library, might be regarded as all his own.
And beyond the circle of our Free Church, there must be
the general feeling of a heavy loss, in that he was arrested on
a most promising career of authorship, when engaged in sup
plying what might well be termed a great desideratum in
British literature, a good Church History. His first volume,
all that was published before his death, will ever abide a
standing monument to the erudition, and classic taste, and
scholarlike accomplishments of its author. Would to God that
the lesson of mortality given forth by so near and affecting an
example of it — that lesson which of all others is the oftenest
repeated, yet the soonest and the oftenest forgotten — were to
tell with all the force and feeling which it ought on the hearts
of survivors, more especially on those survivors who, years
before him in the journey of life, are now pressing hard on the
confines of both worlds, on the twilight of their earthly exist
ence, and on the dawn of their eternity."
It was a large debt under which Dr. Welsh laid the Free
Church by providing the funds for the erection of a new College
in Edinburgh. In the midst of great pecuniary sacrifices re
quired for other and more pressing necessities, it was one of
the noblest offerings which Christian generosity presented,
when at his solicitation twenty individuals came forward and
gave each £1000 to effect this object. At the close of the
Assembly of 1846, the foundation-stone of the edifice was laid
by Dr. Chalmers. At a public breakfast which preceded the
ceremony, he quoted and applied to himself the lines of
Byron, — "lam not what I have been,
And my visions flit less palpably before me ;"
but there was no sign either of faded sentiment or decaying

Ml. 65. THE PLATFORM OF HUMBLE LIFE. 425
power, when, after the triple stroke with the mallet upon the
stone, he addressed those who had collected at the spot, among
whom were a considei-able number of operatives. Having
referred first to the great objects of a theological education, " It
delights me," he said, "to observe that so many of the working
classes in our city now stand within the reach of my voice.
Within the walls now to be raised by their hands there may or
there may not in time be delivered the lessons of general science.
But from the very outset, we hope, there will be the lessons of
that higher wisdom which is often hid from the wise and the pru
dent, and revealed unto babes. We leave to others the passions
and politics of this world ; and nothing will ever be taught, I
trust, in any of our halls, which shall have the remotest ten
dency to disturb the existing order of things, or to confound
the ranks and distinctions which at present obtain in society.
But there is one equality between man and man which will
strenuously be taught, — the essential equality of human souls ;
and that in the high count and reckoning of eternity, the soul
of the poorest of nature's children, the raggedest boy that runs
along the pavement, is of like estimation in the eyes of heaven
with that of the greatest and the noblest of our land. The
youth who frequent our classes will with all earnestness and
emphasis be told, that the Christian minister is a man of no
rank, because a man of all ranks ; and that although he should
have an education which might qualify him for holding con
verse with princes and peers, it is his peculiar glory to be a
frequent visitant of the poor man's humble cottage, and to
pray by the poor man's dying bed. Heaven grant that the
platform of humble life may be raised immeasurably higher
than at present, and through the whole extent of it, — that the
mighty host who swarm upon its surface, brought under the
elevating power of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and so rescued
from grovelling ignorance and loathsome dissipation, may rise
vol. iv, 2 N

426 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
to a full equality with ourselves in all that is characteristic of
humanity, and take place along with us, side by side, on the
footing of kindred and companionable men. Let kings retain
their sceptres, and nobles their coronets, — what we want is a
more elevated ground-floor for our general population, and
this without derangement to the upper stories of the social
and political edifice, — where may our beloved Queen, God
bless her, long retain upon its summit the place of grace
fulness and glory which she now occupies. The beauteous
structure behind us, and which bears her name, will not injure,
but illustrate our humbler fabric, — not humbler, we think,
in respect of its tasteful and becoming architecture, but as
rising from a lowlier platform, — whence let us close the cere
monial of the day by the acclamations of honest and deep-
felt loyalty, with thanks to heaven for the many preservations
which a merciful Providence has awarded to our good Queen
Victoria." In consequence of Dr. Welsh's most lamented death, Dr.
Chalmers accepted the convenership of the College Committee,
which he was the readier to do, as, owing to recent circum
stances, he stood relieved, to a great extent, of the charge of the
Sustentation -Fund. When the new collegiate arrangements
following upon the Disruption were completed, Dr. Chalmers
had the satisfaction of seeing the scheme for theological
education (first broached by him in 1828) adopted by the Free
Church, and an additional Professor of Divinity appointed.*
The preliminary branches being committed to his colleague, Dr.
Chalmers's undivided labour was bestowed upon systematic
theology. It had for many years been the highest object of
* With a staff of five Theological Professors the Free Church College provides
now the most comprehensive and complete course of theological education sup
plied by any British Institution. — For full information on this subject the reader is
referred to the Inaugural Address of the Rev. Dr. Cunningham, delivered at the
opening of the New College.

MS. 65. INSTITUTES OF THEOLOGY. 427
his literary and professorial ambition to leave behind him a
complete body of Divinity, containing the fruits of his matur-
est reflections, both on the credentials and contents of the
Christian Revelation. Had his Lectures on Natural Theology
and the Evidences not been already given to the public, they
would have been subjected to the same process of condensation
througftWhkh his other lectures were made to pass, and his
"Institutes of Theology," when given to the world, would have
presented a more uniform and homogeneous aspect than they
now wear. As for many years he had, however, to go over the
same ground with his students which the first four volumes of
his works embraced, he adopted the plan of employing these
volumes, as text-books, accompanying his examinations with
that summary and review of their contents which form Book II.
and Book III. of his "Institutes of Theology." With the obvious
disadvantage of subjecting the reader of this last work to a re
iteration of familiar topics, those two books of the "Institutes"
exhibit a compactness of diction, which amply proves that he
could when he pleased transfer the brevity and force of
his spoken into his written language, and what will be of no
ordinary importance to any one who undertakes the hitherto
unattempted task of estimating the direct and original contri
butions which Dr. Chalmers had made to theological science,
they give us-his own estimate of what he conceived to be most
valuable in his earlier writings. It is, however, to that por
tion of the " Institutes" which treats of the subject-matter of
Christianity that we would especially solicit attention. Upon
no part of his published writings was so large a share of their -¦
author's care and thought bestowed. There are to be found
here his latest and ripest thoughts upon some of the profoundest
questions with which the human intellect has engaged ; if not
set forth in the gorgeous amplifications in which he loved pre
viously to indulge, yet in the simpler, purer, weightier diction

428 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
which became one who was leaving his last intellectual legacy
to the world.
The " Institutes of Theology " and the " Daily Scripture
Readings" were commenced about the same time, and were
carried on simultaneously, a portion of each being written daily,
and the transition being frequently instantaneous from the one
composition to the other. Engaged with the one, he brought
to the Divine oracles a mind singularly free of theological pre
judice ; he sat as a little child at the feet of Divine wisdom,
and received into a meek and loving heart, according to its plain
and natural meaning, each utterance she gave forth. Engaged
with the other, he brought to the sacred oracles a mind full-
fraught with the true spirit of the Inductive Philosophy, and,
collecting the varied testimonies of the Divine record as they
lay scattered over the sacred page, he combined them into one
complete and harmonious system. The two engagements were
most unlike. Very rarely has the same simplicity in the one,
and the same science in the other, been exhibited ; but where
shall we find another instance in which the two, brought into such
daily and close proximity, went on so harmoniously together?
The many prayers, however, which Dr. Chalmers offered that
he might be preserved from the fetters of an artificial orthodoxy,*
may be taken as an evidence that even in his instance it was
not without an effort that simplicity sat embosomed in system,
while system did nothing to hurt simplicity.
* " Let me not be the slave of human authority, but clear my way through all
creeds and confessions to thine own original Revelation. * * * Deliver me,
0 God, from the narrowing influences of human lessons, and more especially of
human systems of theology. Teach me directly out of the fulness and freeness
of thine own Word, and hasten the time when, unfettered by sectarian intolerance,
and unawed by the authority of man, the Bible shall make its rightful impression
upon all, because the simple and obedient readers thereof, they call no man
master but Christ only. * * * Oh, that we were fully unfettered from all which
has the effect of distorting and deranging the Christianity of the Bible in the arti
ficial systems of human orthodoxy." — Horw Sabbatica?, vol. i. pp. 69, 350, 373.

MS. 65. THE NORTH BRITISH REVIEW. 429
Besides the composition of his " Institutes of Theology," the
only other literary occupation of Dr. Chalmers's later years was
an occasional contribution to the "North British Review."
This publication, which, under its present accomplished Editor,
ranks with the best conducted and most influential of our lite
rary journals, was established in 1844 by Dr. Welsh, Mr. Edward
F. Maitland, and a few friends in Edinburgh, to whom it appeared
that there was both room and need for a Review of the highest
class, the organ of no party, political or ecclesiastical, and
which, instead of ignoring or affecting to disown Christianity,
was imbued with its spirit. What the " Englishman's Regis
ter," of Dr. Arnold, was meant to do for the great mass of the
population, the " North British Review" was intended to
accomplish in the highest branches of literature and for the
highest class of readers. " I never wanted," says Dr. Arnold,
" articles on religious subjects half so much as articles on
common subjects, written with a decidedly Christian tone," —
language which the founders of the " North British Review"
would have been forward to adopt. Its pure and independent,
its Christian yet unsectarian aim recommended it to Dr.
Chalmers, who entered warmly into the project of its establish
ment, and contributed several articles to it while under the
editorship of Dr. Welsh and Mr. Maitland.* Upon the retire
ment of the latter, the writer of these Memoirs was invited to
be his successor, an office which he was encouraged to under
take by the large promises of counsel and aid held out by Dr.
Chalmers.. For the brief period that remained, those promises
* The following were the Articles which he contributed : —
No. [. Art. 1. On the Corn Laws.
No. III. Art. 1. On the Political Economy of the Bible.
No. IV. Art. 7. On the Poor Laws of Scotland.,
No. VI. Art. 3. On Savings Banks.
No. XI. Art. 4. On Sterling's Philosophy of Trade.
No. XII. Art. 1. On Morell's History of Philosophy.
No. XIII. Art. 9. On the Political Economy of a Famine.

430 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
were energetically fulfilled. Mr. Maitland had already put into
Dr. Chalmers's hands Morell's History of " Modern Philosophy,"
and invited him to review it. This work gratified a curiosity
which had hitherto been unsatisfied. He had been sensible of a
tide of speculation setting in from Germany, which threatened to
displace all our ancient faiths, both in theology and in science ;
he had marked the increasing influence which it was exerting,
and had become somewhat alarmed as to the result. As it stood
before him, clothed in the dark mantle of a new and obscure
phraseology, he had not as yet been able to form any distinct
conception of the prima philosophia of the German metaphysi
cians, and he was glad and grateful when an intelligent expo
sitor enabled him to do so. He resolved forthwith to institute
a comparison between it and the Philosophy of Reid, and to
test its powder, whether for good or evil, upon the established
theology of Scotland. It was a subject altogether new to him,
which threw him back upon the studies of earlier days ; but
so eagerly did he embark upon it, that in the introductory ad
dress which he delivered as Principal of the New College, in
November 1846, he announced it to be his intention to deliver
a short course of lectures to his students upon the German
Philosophy. These lectures were embodied afterwards in an
article which appeared in the 12th Number of the "North
British Review." Dr. Chalmers's knowledge of the subject was
too slender, and taken up too much at second-hand, for us to
expect from him any minute or profound analysis of the Con
tinental speculations ; but as there were few better fitted to
take a general survey of any wide-spread intellectual field, and
to mark off the broad boundaries of truth and error, it was most
interesting, at this period of his life, to watch the almost boyish
zest with which the new region opened to his contemplation
was traversed, — most Instructive to mark the first impressions
he received, and the conclusions to which he was conducted. " I

JET. 65. GERMAN PHILOSOPHY. 431
have a great respect," he used to say in his private conversa
tions at this time, " for the preference they show in Germany
to mental over material products. A book bears a much greater
proportional value to a bale of silk there than among us. It
shows a high people, — the value they have for pure thought.
But there is a great want of solidity about their philosophy.
They overstep the limits that separate the known from the un
known in a most unphilosophical way. I've no reverence for
profound reasoning, the grounds of which cannot be made patent
to other minds. Their fine airy speculations may shew a cer
tain mental power in the mind that originates them, but they
have not the weight of a straw to direct me on my path — great
acumen — great grandeur of conception — but where is the appeal
to undoubted fundamental truth and historical fact ? It is ridi
culous to oppose a fine wire-drawn argument to a historic fact.
I just say to all their arguments and their counter-arguments,
that I can't undertake to arbitrate between conflicting maggots.*
Truth, no doubt, lies at the bottom of a well ; but which should
get most credit, the man that leaves it there, or the man that
brings it to the surface?" Such was the way, sometimes playful,
sometimes profoundly serious, in which he used to speak in pri-
* " Full of the subj ects of the Germans and their philosophy, it was natural that,
during breakfast that morning, he should lead the conversation in that direction.
On this particular occasion, however, it happened that his hostility to what he con
sidered a vicious tendency in all characteristic German speculation, predominated
over the respect which he acknowledged for the powerful intellectual manifestation
visible in this species of labour. As he spoke, he became excited, even angry.
There was much false reverence, he thought, for many things, simply because they
were foreign, and this was seen in the present rage for German philosophy. It
was the greatest madness imaginable. 'Germany! a country where system after
system was springing up, none of them lasting a day ; every man, as it were, hold
ing up his cheeks, crying, " Look at me, too !" I tell you I'll look at none of you ;
—your Skillers (Schillers), and your Skagels (Schlegels), and your  .' There
he was interrupted by the merry laughter of all at his half-conscious mispronun
ciation of the two German names that had the misfortune to occur to him in his
moment of wrath, and, well aware of the cause, he broke down into a laugh at him
self."— Pictures of Dr. Chalmers in Lowe's Magazine.

432 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
vate to his family and friends. The terms were more measured,
the tone more solemn, in which he addressed his students. " I
should esteem it one of the highest services which our Institute
could render to society, and among the proudest of its literary
honours, did there issue from these walls in those days of con
flict which are coming, when many of ourselves shall be reposing
in the dust, profoundly asleep to all the noises of the living
world above us, some master minds that could measure strength
with every system of philosophy on the continent, and by the
weight of a more powerful and ponderous demonstration than
was wielded by any, could rebuke and overbear all the infidelity
that was to be found in them. * * *
" I feel it incumbent on me to enter on a computation of
the distances and bearings between this transcendentalism,
on the one hand, and the theology of the Bible upon the
other. This I apprehend to be all the more necessary, that I
do recollect of some who, chiefly in the University, and before
our Disruption, were a good deal carried, as if by a sort of
fashionable infection, which might have been seen in the
phraseology of their discourses, and I will add, however mor
tifying to one's own self-love, and all the more mortifying that
they were really superior and aspiring young men, who gave
forth the symptom which I am now to describe in their obvious
inattention to the lessons of the Chair, as if they had only been
plain Scottish boluses, having vastly too much in them of the
home-bred and the commonplace to be at all suited for those
higher appetencies which nothing else can satisfy but the more
exquisite and rechercM articles of a foreign preparation, just as
if we had been serving up milk for babes, instead of strong
meat for men of a full-grown understanding, or speaking from
the outer court to those who had. already been initiated in the
mysteries of the inner temple. What I want to make out is,
that the unintelligible does not always imply the solid, or even

MI. 65. PROFESSOR THOLUCK. 433
the profound ; and, far more momentous than this, that the
simple verities of the Christian faith rest on a foundation deep
enough and strong enough to uphold them against the more
recent, or, I should rather say, the ever-shifting philosophy
that now sets in upon us from abroad.
" Many of you know my value for the intelligible, and my
conviction of the magnitude of that service which lies in trans
muting what is profound, and only understood by a few, into
what is plain, and so that it may be understood by many. We
know well the penalty that awaits the successful executor of
such an aim, that, had he abstained, he would have been still
ranked among the profound thinkers of the day ; but, because
he has not only made the endeavour, but fulfilled it, he sinks
down to the level of a very plain and ordinary personage.
Nevertheless, I will rejoice in it as the best achievement of
philosophy, when it has made its products patent to every eye,
and accessible to the world at large."
It fell singularly in with the current of Dr. Chalmers's
thoughts, that, when engaged in the study of the German
philosophy, Professor Tholuck, of Halle, visited Edinburgh.
He took an early opportunity of spending an evening with
him, at the house of the friend with whom he resided.* " Dr.
Chalmers," says this friend, " seated himself on a low chair
close to the learned German, and listened with an air of
genuine docility to all he said, throwing in a stray charac
teristic observation now and then, always, however, in the way
of encouragement, never in the way of contradiction. Dr.
Tholuck had published some verses of a religious character,
which had given umbrage to some sect or other. He shewed
the lines to Dr. Chalmers, who, admiring them, observed that
he had often been taken to task himself for a similar latitudin-
arianism ; ' for, my dear Sir,' he added, ' some people have a
* Dr. Rutherfurd Russell.
VOL. IV. 2 0

434 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
very fine nose for heresy' While Dr. Chalmers was sitting in
this posture, drinking in all that was said to him, Tholuck
turned to his host, and said, in German, that he had never
seen so beautiful an old man. The words coming out so sud
denly in an unknown tongue, instantly changed the whole
expression of Dr. Chalmers's face from that of happy acquies
cence, to one of puzzled amazement, which was in the highest
degree comic, and this effect was not lessened by his eager
putting of the question, 'What is it, Sir, that he says?' — a
question impossible to answer, and yet not easy to evade.
The result of this interview was an amount of mutual confi
dence and esteem, as deep and sincere as it was sudden. Dr.
Tholuck took an early opportunity of returning the visit, and
spent some hours with Dr. Chalmers, urging upon him in the
most direct and homely way, the necessity of directing his
mind to the study of the German Theology, for, as it was from
that quarter the bane had come which was poisoning the
simple faith, so it was there alone that the antidote could be
found. The day before Tholuck's departure, Dr. Chalmers
called upon him and found him at his mid-day repast. He
sat with him only for a few minutes, and said little, but looked
at him constantly with an expression of earnest interest and
affection. He rose to take leave ; and, instead of taking him
by the hand, he threw his arms round his neck and kissed
him, while ' God bless you, my dear friend,' broke with appar
ent difficulty from his overcharged heart. After he was gone,
it was noticed that a tear had gathered in the eye of him who
had received the apostolic benediction and seal of brotherhood
from one he loved and venerated so much. His only observation
was a half-muttered, half-spoken, eben ein Kuss — even a kiss."
The article upon Morell's History was to have been followed
by a series of papers on Kant, Fichte, and Cousin, for -which
Dr. Chalmers had collected some materials, when another sub-

MS. 65. THE FAMINE. 435
ject arrested his sympathies and occupied his pen. The almost
total failure of the potato crop in 1846 left 300,000 of the
population in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, and
many millions in Ireland, to face the coming year with food
in hand sufficient to sustain them only for a few weeks. The
extent of the failure of the crop was no sooner announced
than the awfulness of the impending catastrophe filled Dr.
Chalmers with alarm and anxiety. He foresaw that nothing
but an act of prompt and unparalleled generosity could ward
off the fearful calamity of hundreds and thousands in a Chris
tian land miserably perishing from want of food. To wait till
the cry of actual hunger was heard, and the sight of the
dying kindled sympathy, was to ring the death-knell over
multitudes to whom the relief would come too late. Fastening
his first thoughts upon the Highlands, he not only hastened to
gather up all the information conveyed through public chan
nels, but by private circulars of his own, widely distributed, he
obtained the most minute and trustworthy accounts of the
state of the suffering population. As a great proportion of
them were members of the Free Church, it became that Church
to step prominently forward in this emergency, and to do what
she could to save them from the horrors of famine. Nor did
she fail in her duty at this time ; being the first public body
that moved, organizing an effective Committee of Relief, and
ordering a public collection to be made in all her churches on Sab
bath the 6th December. Animated by a generous philanthropy,
Dr. Chalmers addressed the following letter to Dr. Mackay of
Dunoon, who was leading this movement of the Church : —
" Ebinbdrgh, 28th November, 1846.
" My dear Sie, — I quite agree with you in thinking that the
public have a most inadequate view of the efforts necessary to
keep our suffering population alive ; and I earnestly hope that
the collection, on Sabbath the 6th of December, will be some-

436 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
what proportional to the magnitude of the call, though I am
quite aware that it will not reach, by a tenth part, the magni
tude of the necessity. Still let us do our part, and it may
stimulate others to like efforts, and not, I hope, supersede
them. I trust that your anxieties as to the amount of the
collection will prove unfounded. It should very greatly exceed
the average collections for any of our schemes ; and most
heartily do I wish that the people were brought up to a high
pitch of liberality, by a juster view than I fear is generally
entertained, both of the immense number of destitute families,
and the extreme urgency of their wants.
" Ever since the failure of the potato crop became quite
notorious, I have felt as if the country at large were under a
delusion in underrating, as I fear they do, the fearfulness of a
visitation, which, if not provided against, will land us in a
great national tragedy. If people would only have recourse to
the plainest arithmetic, and think of the hundreds of thousands
of families, both in the Highlands and in Ireland, who are posi
tively without the materials of subsistence for a week, and
further think, that for six months at least, we can look for
nothing from the soil, this might well convince them how far
the public imagination falls short of the reality of the case.
" But it is not by means of the feeble and unimpressive
generalities which I now pen, that sympathy will be awakened,
and therefore I would value more the plain and literal details
of suffering from people on the spot, than I would any elaborate
statement or demonstrations which could be put forth on the
subject. — I ever am, my dear Sir, yours very truly,
'¦ The Rev. Dr. Mackay, Dunoon." Thomas ChALMEES.
This call was nobly responded to. The collection was the
largest, I believe, ever made by any Church in Scotland for
any object ; the Committee of Relief being put into posses^

MS. 65. STATE AND PROSPECTS OF IRELAND. 437
sion of no less a sum than £15,000. This denominational
effort was soon merged into those larger measures of relief
which Scotland so promptly and successfully adopted, so that
while thousands died in Ireland — whole households perishing
together, and many lying unburied till the dogs came and
devoured their bodies — it was not known that in Scotland a
single individual died solely and directly from want of food.
It required, however, incessant vigilance, and no small amount
of generosity, to be sustained all through the winter. In
addition to the public tide of charity flowing in upon the
Highlands, innumerable lesser streams were kept constantly
flowing. Very large sums were committed to Dr. Chalmers for
private distribution. There was scarcely, indeed, a daily post
which did not bring him some donation ; and he never watched
for letters more eagerly, and he never read any with greater
delight. He had many methods' of communicating directly or
indirectly with the Highlands, and of dispensing the money
entrusted thus to his care. To one lady alone, the late Mrs.
Mackay, we are aware of his having committed more than
£500. Nor was Ireland forgotten. Her greater sorrows
claimed a large share of his sympathy; and, through Miss
Pringle of Edinburgh, and Dr. Edgar of Belfast, he had plea
sure in conveying his own and other gifts of charity. The
extraordinary spectacle of upwards of 300,000 men employed
on the relief works — of upwards of three millions of people fed
daily by the hand of public charity, and yet many perishing
notwithstanding — afforded matter of most interesting specu
lation. When the spring months came, there was a fear that
large breadths of the country would be left uncultivated. The
crofters had neither seed-corn of their own, nor money to buy
it ; and even after it was furnished to them, they knew little or
nothing of the new modes of agriculture which it would be
necessary for them to adopt. The state of a country thrown

438 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
suddenly into circumstances so new, appeared to Dr. Chal
mers so worthy of investigation that he resolved to devote
himself to the task. Having presented his general views in a
paper entitled, " The Political Economy of a Famine,"* he
proposed to prosecute a minute and searching inquiry into the
past condition and future prospects both of the Highlands
and of Ireland, with a view to determine what were the likeliest
means of permanently improving the economic .condition of
their inhabitants. It is ever to be regretted that he did not
live to execute a work for which much preparation had been
made, and many materials collected. We can but indicate,
that from the. singular history of the Relief Works in Ireland
lie meant to draw a fresh illustration of the evils by which all
public charity is accompanied, and of the inseparable con
nexion which obtains between the moral and economic well-
being of a community. He meant to test the various expe
dients for promoting the future prosperity of Ireland, by
applying to them the general axioms, that it was out of her
own soil, and by the industry of her own inhabitants, that she
must be taught to draw her support, and that the best and
most effective aid which could be given her, was that which
promised the soonest to set her free from all foreign help.
And had he lived to see what since his departure has been
attempted, I can have little doubt, that while rejoicing over
the progress of female industrial schools in various parts of
Ireland, his eye would have rested with particular complacency
upon such operations as those prosecuted at Ballinglen,-)- where
the young are trained to that kind of industry for which there
is a permanent demand, and have instilled into them the
lessons of truth and righteousness.
* See North British Review, No. XHX, Art. IX.
f For a recent admirable proposal by Dr. Duff relative to the extension of tins
establishment, see No. 14 of " Voice from Ireland."

MS. 65. VISIT TO ANSTRUTHER. 439

CHAPTER XXIII.
LAST VISIT TO ANSTRUTHER— INCIDENT AT BARNSMUIR— SERMON
AT ST. MARY'S LOCH— CAVERS REVISITED— DOMESTIC HABITS-
TIMES AND MODES OF COMPOSITION— NUMERICAL ADJUSTMENTS—
THE TOILET— THE BREAKFAST TABLE— MODE OF RECOGNISING HIS
STUDENTS— CONVERSATIONAL MEMORANDA— APOSTOLIC SUCCES
SION—THE MONASTERIES AND THE MIDDLE AGES— AMERICAN
SLAVERY— THE SPIRITUAL RABBIT-WARREN— EXCESS AT TABLE-
EVENING READINGS OF GIBBON, SHAKSPEARE, AND MILTON— CATE
CHISMS AND CONFESSIONS— SCRIPTURE CHARACTERS— LIFE AT
BURNTISLAND— FEELING OF YOUTHFULNESS— HEAVINGS OF INCI
PIENT CIVILISATION— JANET OF THE GALLOWGATE AND THE
ASTRONOMICAL DISCOURSE— CONSOLATORY LETTERS.
In the spring of 1845, Dr. Chalmers visited his native village.
It almost looked as if he came to take farewell, and as if that
peculiarity of old age which sends it back to the days of child
hood for its last earthly reminiscences had for a time and
prematurely taken hold of him. His special object seemed to
be to revive the recollections of his boyhood — gathering
Johnny-Groats by the sea-beach of the Billowness, and lilacs
from an ancient hedge, taking both away to be laid up in his
repositories at Edinburgh.* Not a place or person familiar to
him in earlier years was left unvisited. On his way to the
churchyard, he went up the very road along which he had gone
of old to the parish school. Slipping into a poor looking
dwelling by the way, he said to his companion, Dr. Williamson,
" I would just like to see the place where Lizzy Geen's water-
16 After his death, a drawer of his desk was found filled with relics of many
kinds, among which was a piece of lilac, labelled "Lilac from my father's garden."

440 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
bucket used to stand," — the said water-bucket having been a
favourite haunt of the overheated ball-players, and Lizzy a
great favourite for the free access she allowed to it. He called
on two contemporaries of his boyhood, one of whom he had not
seen for forty -five, the other for fifty-two years, and took the
most boyish delight in recognising how the " mould of an
tiquity had gathered upon their features," and in recounting
stories of his schoolboy days. " James," said he to the oldest
of the two, a tailor, now upwards of eighty, who in those days
had astonished the children, and himself among the number,
with displays of superior knowledge, " you were the first
man that ever gave me something like a correct notion of the
form of the earth. I knew that it was round, but I thought
always that it was round like a shilling till you told me that
it was round like a marble." " Well, John," said he to the
other, whose face, like his own, had suffered severely from
small-pox in his childhood, " you and I have had one advantage
over folk with finer faces, — theirs have been aye getting the
waur, but ours have been aye getting the better o' the wear!"
"The dining-room of his grandfather's house had a fireplace
fitted up behind with Dutch tiles adorned with various quaint
devices, upon which he had used to feast his eyes in boyish
wonder and delight. These he now sought out most diligently,
but was grieved to find them all so blackened and begrimed
by the smoke of half a century, that not one of his old wind:
mills or burgomasters was visible. To one apartment he felt
a peculiar tie, as having been appropriated exclusively to his
use in his college days when the love of solitary study was at
times a passion.* But the most interesting visit of all was to
* A visitor of old Mr. Chalmers once noticed him coming out of this room with
a singular smile upon his face. When asked what had amused him, he said, " It's
Thomas there ; I went in upon him and disturbed him in his studies, and what do
you think he exclaimed ? ' It's too bad that I can't get even a room, — I just wish
that I had a world to myself to study in !' "

MS. 65. SCENE AT BARNSMUIR. 441
Barnsmuir, a place a few miles from Anstruther on the way to
Crail. In his schoolboy days it had been occupied by Captain
R  , whose eldest daughter rode in daily on a little pony
to the school at Anstruther. Dr. Chalmers was then a boy of
from twelve to fourteen years of age, but he was not too youiig
for an attachment of a singularly tenacious hold. Miss R 
was married (I believe while he was yet at college) to Mr.
F  , and his opportunities of seeing her in after life were
few, but that early impression never faded from his heart.
At the time of this visit to Anstruther' in 1845, she had been
dead for many years, but, at Dr. Chalmers's particular request,
her younger sister met him at Barnsmuir. Having made the
most affectionate inquiries about Mrs. F  and her family,
he inquired particularly about her death, receiving with deep
emotion the intelligence that she had died in the full Christian
hope, and that some of his own letters to her sister had served
to soothe and comfort her latest hours. " Mrs. W  ," said he
eagerly, " is there a portrait of your sister anywhere in this
house ?" She took him to a room and pointed to a profile
which hung upon the wall. He planted himself before it —
gazed on it with intense earnestness — took down the picture,
took out his card, and, by two wafers, fixed it firmly on the
back of the portrait, exactly opposite to the face. Having
replaced the likeness, he stood before it and burst into a
flood of tears, accompanied by the warmest expressions of
attachment. After leaving the house, he sauntered in silence
round the garden, buried in old recollections, heaving a sigh
occasionally, and muttering to himself — "more than forty
years ago !" It is not often that a boyish feeling survives
so long, and still less frequent that after such a life of variety
and occupation as his had been, it should break out so freshly
aud strongly ; nor would we have ventured to record the
incident, did it not appear to us to prove that Dr. Chalmers

442 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
was as much distinguished for the tenderness and tenacity of
his attachments as for the brilliancy of his intellectual gifts.
On Sabbath the 12th April, 1846, he preached in the small
but beautifully situated Free Church, built upon the edge of
St. Mary's Loch. Mr. Parker, who had been the chief agent
in the erection of the church, went with him as his guide and
companion, and he was accompanied besides by two of his
daughters. " I like," said he, as they wended their way
through the bare and treeless but purely green and beautifully
moulded hills of Peebles-shire, — " I like these quiet hills, these
sober uplands. Hills, all bare like these, are what I call the
statuary of landscape." The valley of the classic Yarrow was
entered, and its intense stillness and loneliness powerfully ex
cited him. He stopped his carriage, and calling out to Mr.
Parker, who was on the box of another carriage in which his
two daughters were seated, — " Tell them," he exclaimed, " to
look at the solitudes that are about them." That night at
Sundhope, where he was most hospitably entertained, he called
his daughters into his own room, and read to them Wordsworth's
exquisite description of Yarrow, repeating with great emphasis
of delight the lines —
" Meek loveliness is round thee spread,
A softness still and holy ;
The grace of forest charms decayed,
And pastoral melancholy."
The Sabbath sustained well the fitful character of a change
ful April day. It rose hopefully, bright all over with the lustre
of recent rain. The lake lay glass-like under the wave-like
clouds which flitted gently over it. At the hour for worship,
and as Dr. Chalmers was seen approaching, for the first time
since the chime of the monks was silenced, the sound of the
Sabbath-bell came floating over its waters. Dr. Chalmers
preached from his favourite text, Isaiah xxvii. 4, 5. There was
unruffled beauty without and perfect stillness within till the

MS. 65. DISTANT VIEW OF CAVERS. 443
service was over ; but as the worshippers began to disperse,
a storm-blast swept the loch, and a perfect waterspout of rain
poured down upon them, forcing the plaided shepherds and
their families to cower for shelter behind knoll or dyke. The
next morning, Dr. Chalmers had great pleasure' in breakfasting
with John Cowan, a venerable shepherd — the patriarch of Yar
row — and spent the day in visiting Henderland and the "Grey
Mare's Tail," listening to the ballads which his daughters re
peated, and gazing with ecstasy upon the waterfall which,
swollen with the heavy rain, filled the rocky chasm from side
to side, and sent out its foam like clouds of snow-drift into the
air. Yarrow and St. Mary's were the only new localities which
Dr. Chalmers visited during his last summers, yet even here his
thoughts were wandering over the hills of Ettrick to another
neighbourhood. His daughters had climbed a hill near Sund
hope, and he was waiting to receive them on their descent.
" And did you," he said with impatient eagerness, after listen
ing for a moment or two to their description, — " did you see
Cavers ?" and then turning to the shepherd who had been their
guide — " Can you see the hills about Cavers from that eleva
tion ?" An affirmative reply having been given to the question,
he looked up wistfully to the hill-top, lamenting that his
strength did not permit of his ascending it, and uttering some
ejaculations about the scene of his early ministry Three
months afterwards he went to Cavers, — seeking out all old
acquaintances, surveying the little room in Hawick where so
many of his first sermons were written and his mathematical
preparations bad been prosecuted, and entering with the ut
most interest into all the domestic history of the family in
whose house he' had then lodged. At Jedburgh he passed a
few days with Mr. Elliot, the grandson of the clergyman to
whom he had been assistant, and we have to refer our readers
to the Appendix for a most striking and instructive record of

444 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
what occupied and interested him at the place.* The last visit
of the last summer was to Glasgow, and down the Clyde. At
Tilliechewan and at Strathleven he sauntered through the
wooded parks, catching glimpses of Lochlomond through
breaks of the foliage,! luxuriating amid the kindnesses of those
* See Appendix H.
t He had a peculiar epithet for such kind of views. I remember once walking
with him in company with a refined English Baronet, when he suddenly caught
sight of a fine mountain view, seen through a gap in a neighbouring hedge. Stop
ping suddenly, he exclaimed, — "Ha! very fine; its very fine, Sir, — an ulterior
through an opening," — (or, as he pronounced it,) " through an oppening." Bis
English companion stood embarrassed ; politely inquired what it was that was so
fine ; had the same words repeated — and looked as bewildered as before. Another
instance of perplexity, produced by the singularity of his phraseology, occurs to
me. While staying at Rosstrevor, a pic-nic party proceeded across the bay to
visit the ruins of Carlingford Castle. The day was fine, the company numerous,
the scenery enchanting, and Dr. Chalmers was in the highest spirits. We dined on
a green knoll near the ruins, and as dinner proceeded, some old crones from a
neighbouring village were seen hanging around us, in the hope of sharing the
spoil. When Dr. Chalmers was told that the inhabitants of the village spoke the
Irish language, he declared that it would be quite an acquisition to him to hear a
new set of vocables uttered by a native. To gratify his curiosity; one of the mont
picturesque of the old villagers was selected, and a sixpence was given to her to
come forward and speak a sentence or two of Irish. By this time we were all upon
our feet, andhad formed a circle, in the centre of which stood Or. Chalmers ; front
ing him, the old and greedy-looking crone, and beside her the village doctor, who
was to act as an interpreter. " Well, sir, tell her now to say something in her
own tongue." A sentence, accordingly, was spoken, and, turning eagerly to the
interpreter, Dr. Chalmers said,—" What was it that she said ?" " Why, Doctor,
she says that she wants another sixpence." The revolt was instantaneous, from
curiosity to intense disgust and indignation. Addressing himself instantly to the
woman, he said, " It is too bad ; you must really learn to set limits to your un
bridled appetency." An interpreter was evidently as much needed as before.
When Dr. Chalmers had done with her  leaving her, however, quite untouched
by his rebuke — a good lady of the company stepped forward to inquire of her,
whether it really could be true that she worshipped the Virgin. She appeared
to be much provoked, and the village doctor, who had no relish for such kind of
conversation, cut the colloquy short, and sent the woman away. The lady, fearing
that she had really hurt the woman's feelings, followed her to a retired place, and
telling her that she had no intention whatever to give her pain, in proof of her
good-will put a shilling into her hand. The woman looked for a moment at the
shilling, then at the donor, and, with a toss of hand and head, she said, in tones
of the greatest glee, " Och ! and what does your ladyship think that I care about
the Virgin ?"

MS. 65. HABITS OF COMPOSITION. 445
whose personal friendship to himself he could not but associate
with their boundless liberality to his Church. In returning to
Edinburgh, he staid a day or two with Mr. Bain at Morriston
near Glasgow, and preached in the open air at Cambuslang to
a vast multitude, assembled within some natural amphitheatre
where Whitefield had once preached. These farewell summer
visits paid, he returned into the bosom of his family.
It may gratify a natural curiosity should we follow Dr.
Chalmers through the different engagements of a day at Morn
ingside, and furnish some details of his personal habits and
mode of domestic life. Whatever variety the day exhibited, it
had one fixed essential feature. The motto " nulla dies sine
linea" never met with a more rigorous fulfilment. The period
allotted to what he called " severe composition" had never (if
we except his first winter at St. Andrews) exceeded two or
three hours at a time, and in ordinary circumstances there was
seldom more than one sitting daily at such work. The tension
of the mind during the effort was extreme, but it was never so
long continued as to induce fatigue or exhaustion. During the
last six or seven years of his life, his daily modicum of original
composition was completed before breakfast, written in short
hand, and all done in bed. The preparatory ruminating or ex
cogitating process was slow, but it was complete. He often gave
it as the reason why he did not and could not take part in the
ordinary debates of the General Assembly, that he had not the
faculty which some men seemed to him to possess, of thinking
extempore ; nor could he be so sure of any judgment as to have
comfort in bringing it before the public till he had leisurely
weighed and measured it. He was vehement often in his mode
of expression ; but no hasty judgment was ever penned or pub
licly spoken by him. " I have often fancied," he once said to me,
" that in one respect I resemble Rousseau, who says of himself
that his processes of thought were slow but ardent," — a curious

446 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 18-46.
and rare combination. In proportion, however, to the slowness
with which his conclusions were reached, was the firmness with
which they were rivetted. He has been charged with incon
sistencies, but (putting aside the alteration in his religious senti
ments) I am not aware of any one opinion formally expressed
or published by him, which he ever changed or retracted. This
slow and deliberate habit of thinking gave him a great advan
tage when the act of composition came to be performed. He
never had the double task to do, at once of thinking what he
should say, and how he should say it. The one was over before
the other commenced. He never began to write till, in its sub
jects, and the order and proportions of its parts, the map or out
line of the future composition was laid down ; and this was done
so distinctly, and, as it were, authoritatively, that it was seldom
violated. When engaged, therefore, in writing, his whole un
divided strength was given to the best and most powerful
expression of pre-established ideas. So far before him did he.
see, and so methodically did he proceed, that he could calculate,
for weeks and months beforehand, the rate of his progress, and
the day when each separate composition would be finished.
The same taste for numerical arrangement was exhibited in
the most insignificant actions and habits of his life. It re
gulated every part of his toilet, — down even to the daily strop
ping of his razor. Beginning with his minimum, which was
two strokes, he added one stroke more each day successively,
till he got up to a number fixed on as his maximum, on reach
ing which, he reversed the process, diminishing the number of
his strokes by one each day, till the lowest point was touched ;
and so, by what he would have called a series of oscillations
between his maximum and his minimum, this matter of the
stropping undeviatingly progressed. It would be tedious, per
haps trifling, to tell how a like order was punctually observed
in other parts of his toilet. He did almost everything by num-

2ET.65. MODE OF MEASURING DISTANCES. 447
bers. His staff was put down to the ground regularly at each
fourth foot-fall ; and the number of its descents gave him a
pretty accurate measure of the space over which he walked.
Habit had rendered the counting of these descents an easy,
indeed almost a mechanical operation ; so that, though meeting
friends, and sustaining an animated conversation, it still went
on. This mode of measuring distances was variously applied.
When he lived at No. 1, Inverleith Row, a complication of
streets lay between him and the University, and he imposed
upon himself the problem of discovering a new route each day,
and keeping a register of their relative lengths. Next to the
pleasure of being introduced to an altogether new locality, was
that of thoroughly exploring one already known. "I like,"
he said to one of his favourite students, " to find out new spots
in places I am familiar with. The other day I had some time
to spare, so I tried if I could extemporize a new route between
Comely Bank and Inverleith Row. I sauntered, rather dubious
I must confess, up a sort of cart-lane, and, before I was aware,
I got involved in the accessories of a farm-house, where I was
set upon by a mastiff, and so obliged to turn back." When, in
the spring of 1843, he removed to a dwelling-house which he
had built for himself at Morningside, as the distance was too
great for him to walk from College, he generally drove to
the outskirts of the town. Whilst walking from Wright's
Houses, the point at which he was set down, to his house at
Churchhill, he, one winter, kept an accurate reckoning of the
number of persons he met upon the road each day,— curious to
know whether a fixed average would be observed, or whether it
would vary as the days shortened or lengthened. Many more
like instances might be quoted, but we must return to our
details of his daily life.
" I find," he says, " that successful exertion is a powerful
means of exhilaration, which discharges itself in good humour

448 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
upon others." His own morning compositions seldom failed in
this effect, as he came forth from them beaming and buoyant,
with a step springing as that of childhood, and a spirit over
flowing with benignity. If his grandson, or any of the younger
members of his family were alone in the breakfast-room, a broad
and hearty " Hurro ! hurro !" ringing through the hall, an
nounced his coming, and carried to them his morning greeting.
As his invariable mode of dealing with introductions was to
invite the introduced to breakfast, very interesting groups often
gathered round his breakfast table. In the general conversa
tion of promiscuous society, Dr. Chalmers did not excel. There
are minor acts of governing, such as those needed for the
management of a House of Commons, or the conduct of a
General Assembly, in which he was utterly defective ; and
there are minor graces of conversation required for its easy
guidance through varied and fluctuating channels, which his
absorption wyith his own topics, and the massive abruptness of
bis movements, made it difficult, perhaps impossible, for him to
practise. But at his breakfast table, with half a dozen stran
gers or foreigners around him, his conversation was in the
highest degree rich and attractive. Opportunities naturally
occurred, or were willingly made, for him to "expatiate" upon
some passing public topic, or upon some of his own favourite
themes, and he was never seen nor heard to greater advantage.
His power of pithy expression, (remarkably exhibited in his
occasional employment of vernacular Scotch.) and of pictorial
narrative, his concentrated and intense moral earnestness,
his sense of humour, his boundless benignity, the pure,
transparent, and guileless simplicity of his character, —
received many of their happiest illustrations at such times.
He had one morning in the week reserved especially for his
students. On meeting with them in his own house, he was
often at a loss to recognise them by name, and the mode he

MS. 65. MODE OF RECOGNISING HIS STUDENTS. 449
took to extricate himself from the difficulty was rather sin
gular. He had a card with the names on it of all the stu
dents whom he had that morning invited to breakfast. When
all had assembled and were seated, holding the card below the
level of the table, as he thought out of sight, he glanced fur
tively down at it to catch the first name on the list. Then,
lifting his eyes and looking eagerly and rapidly around, he
would say, — " Tea or coffee, Mr. Johnson ?" hoping by this in
nocent artifice to identify the person so addressed, and to save
him the pain of being apparently unknown or forgotten. The
device was too transparent to be unnoticed ; but which of his
students did not love him all the more for the kindliness which
dictated it ! The recognition once got over, no after difficulty
remained. The student was asked generally from what part
of the country he came, and it must have been some very re
mote and inaccessible region which found Dr. Chalmers unpre
pared to enter immediately into conversation upon its topo
graphy. It was his first and favourite subject, and he revived
in this way, during the winter, the knowledge gathered in his
summer travels. When he met with one of kindred taste, or
capable of informing him, he would talk for half an hour about
a single locality, and with all the zest of a regular tourist.
There was one desire which upon such occasions he seldom
failed to express : — " I should like exceedingly," he would say,
" that we had a series of maps of our Scottish horizons ; it
would be most interesting to recognise the appearances which
the different elevations of the country presented as seen upon
the horizon from different centres. It should have been one of
the Government instructions to those engaged in the national
survey to furnish us with such a set of maps."
With visitors from England, the conversation at the break
fast table turned frequently upon the state of the English
Establishment, of which Dr. Chalmers had been an ardent
VOL. IV. 2 p

450 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
admirer, but whose cause he felt less confidence in advocating
after the inroad of Puseyism, and the absence or the impo
tence of all attempts to check it. " In speaking of apostolic
succession," says one of his English visitors,* " he told us of a
summary which Campbell of Aberdeen had made of the diffi
culties of that question which had always appeared to him
most excellent. Campbell conducts his inquiry relative to
apostolic succession by putting three questions, — Where is it ?
how is it ? and what is it ? — and, after a learned disquisition,
concludes in some such terms as these: — 'We find therefore
that it is a something nobody knows where, contrived and
produced nobody knows how, and leading to consequences no
body knows what.'-f- Allusion having been made to the Middle
Ages, and to the piety of many of the monks, ' I had no idea,'
he said, ' that so much of the history of that period was pre
served till I read Hallam. As to the personal character of the
monks, I could not dogmatize upon that question. It is aston
ishing the confidence of some of your orthodox folk in their
judgments upon others, and that too under our system of pro
gressive development. I just say, we have not the materials
for settling such a question. We would need to penetrate the
counsels of God, and the secrets of another bosom, before we
could pronounce through how much distorting error a man may
* Lady Richardson.
f Connected with the sacraments, Dr. Chalmers often told a favourite story
about a Highland baptism. A clergyman went to administer the rite in the house
of one of his hearers, near which there ran a small burn or river, which, when he
reached it, was so deep and swollen with recent rains that he could not get across.
In these circumstances he told the father to bring his child down to the burn-side.
Furnished with a wooden scoop the clergyman stood on the one side, and the father,
holding his child as far out in his arms as he could, stood upon the other. The
service proceeded, and when the time came for sprinkling the babe, the minister
dipping the scoop into the water flung its contents across, aiming at the baby's
face. He failed more than once, calling out to the father after each new trial,
" Weel, has't gotten ony yet ?" Dr. Chalmers wondered what the great sticklers
for form and ceremony in the sacraments would think of a baptism by a burn-
side, performed with a wooden scoop.

MS. 65. AMERICAN SLAVERY. 451
grope his way to a blissful immortality ; and I would say,
therefore, that as in the rude ages the monasteries were con
servatories of learning, so, for aught I know, they were conser
vatories in thousands of instances of genuine piety, — debased no
doubt by a superincumbent superstition.' "
Dr. Chalmers was much gratified by the reception given to his
Works in America, and had great pleasure in making the personal
acquaintance of Dr. Elton, Dr. Sprague, Dr. Smyth, Dr. Cox, Dr.
Beecher, and other eminent American clergymen. In the sum
mer and autumn of 1845, many transatlantic visitors were his
guests at Morningside. The recent controversy about the pro
priety of the Free Church receiving pecuniary aid from Churches
which admitted slaveholders to the Communion, had directed
Dr. Chalmers's attention to the general question of slavery in
America, and the measures of the immediate abolitionists.* His
conversations with Americans at this time were frequently
directed to this subject. " I observe," he said, " that the abo
litionists have tried to extort from your Board of Missions a
declaration in favour of emancipation. It is really too bad
that they should try to implicate in that way their one un
doubted good thing with all the other good things that are.
going on inthe world. I do hope that this obtrusive spirit of
theirs will have an effectual check put upon it. It impedes,
besides, the veiy object which their own hearts are set upon,
and which there are other hearts as zealous, but only some
what wiser, which are as much set upon as theirs. I admire
exceedingly the deliverance of the Board of Missions and the
report of the American General Assembly — both done, I do
think, with admirable tact and wisdom. They have greatly
elevated my estimate both of the wisdom and force of principle
which pervade the ecclesiastical mind and philanthropic public
of America."
* For the matured expression of his sentiments on this subject, see Appendix I.

452 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
While the West Port enterprise was going on, more than one
breakfast party was composed exclusively of agents in that
undertaking. At one of them he was told of an objection
which had been started by a minister, that if many churches
like that of the West Port were erected, each of them would
abstract some hearers from one or other of the existing Edin
burgh ministers. It created a storm of indignation. " And
for the sake," said he, " of the paltry few that would drop from
this and that man's congregation, am I to let the masses live
in dirt and die in darkness ? Horrible ! to make a rabbit-warren
of human souls ! Can that man believe what he preaches who
would stand by and see hundreds sink into an unprovided
eternity, rather than run the risk of Mr. John this, [spoken
with an ironical drawl,] or Mr. James that, being lost to. his
congregation ? There is a vast deal of spurious faith, and I
see more and more the meaning of Christ's question — ' When
the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith upon the earth ?'
But [the indignation gradually giving place to despondency] I
have little hope of the impracticable understandings of the
general public. People talk of the enlightened public ; I just
look upon the public as a big baby. Eh, man, [turning now
archly to Tommy,] if a' the gowks in the world were brought
together, they wad fill a great muckle house."
Before or after breakfast, Dr. Chalmers would go round the
garden lying immediately behind his house, in the progress of
which he took great pleasure. " Well, dearie daughtts," he
would say, after finishing a round, " it's a noble instrument a
garden ; I've just counted all the things in flower (in May)
round all the walks, and they are 320. There is one which
occurs with a nauseous uniformity, but with that exception
they are all most beautiful." He was always the first to bring
in the first snow-drop of the season, of which flower he was
passionately fond.

MS 65. HIS ABSTEMIOUSNESS. 453
The interval between breakfast and dinner was devoted to
the " Biblical Readings," and to extending the short hand of the
" Institutes." He dined latterly at one o'clock, and as he had
to be at his class at two, the meal was necessarily a hurried
one. He was indifferent about food, and remarkably abstemi
ous. But there was no habit of life about which he was so
scrupulous. His private journals are filled with constant la
ments over his own incautiousness and excess at table ; so much
so, that were these journals ever to fall into the hands of one
ignorant of Dr. Chalmers's habits, he might draw from them a
conclusion exactly opposite to the truth. One night at supper
at Merchiston Castle, a water biscuit, as thin almost as a wafer,
but of large circumference, was put upon the plate before him.
As he got into an animated conversation, he continued break
ing down this biscuit into small parts, and eating them. When
he discovered that the biscuit was consumed, he expressed him
self surprised and shocked ; and although that was all that he
partook of upon this occasion, there was an entry that night in his
journal, — "exceeded to-night at supper." The truth was, that
whenever he felt his capacity for any intellectual effort or any
spiritual exercise impaired after eating, he attributed it to an
excess, which it was his duty to curb. By a single extract from
his journal, let us convey an impression of the light in which
this part of self-government was regarded.
" Incapable of study, and in great physical discomfort. How
shameful ; and let me here record my humbling sense of
it, that this was in great part due to excess at table, which has
made me bilious, and alive to all sorts of plague and provoca
tion. I gave way to this vile indulgence at Mr. P  's, and
have not been careful in the least for weeks past. Enable me,
0 God, to make a stand now, to enter on a new habit, and
strive with all might for the mastery over this degrading appe
tite. But work in me by the might of thy Spirit, 0 God ; not

454 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
me, but the grace of God that is in me. Let me slay this
enemy. Let me keep the body under subjection. Let me em
bark with all strength of purpose on this holy warfare. Hence
forward may I be circumspect, awake — awake both to duties and
consequences, with a constant sense in me of God, and the pre
dominating influence of His will, and that consciously, and with
the distinct feeling of its obligation over my will, else how can
I be said to be living otherwise than without God in the world.
My God, let me enter now on a set career of self-government ;
and having the prospect of several convivial engagements be
fore me, let me have the comfort of recording a victory over the
lusts which war against the soul. Let me bethink myself of
what I might yet do with my mind, and what I have yet to
recover of a spirituality faded and well-nigh extinct, because
overlaid by the sensualities of the flesh. The contest is for
heaven, which I shall never reach unless the spirit so lust
against the flesh as to prevail over it. Let me, therefore, carry
the principle of godliness abroad over the whole platform of my
life, and downward to the minutest actions of it, that whether
I eat or drink, or whatsoever I do, it might be to the glory of
God ; and 0 save me from those sad effusions of temper which
arc so opposed to the second law, to the charity of the Gospel,
and that long-suffering which is one of the Spirit's most precious
fruits." Dr. Chalmers's evenings were given to general reading, and
to the society of his family and friends. He kept steadily by
one book at a time, and however small a portion of it might be
overtaken each evening, the perusal was regularly prosecuted
to a close. And here too, as well as in his summer visits, he
sought out the friends of his youth. Within the last two or
three years of his life, he completed an entire perusal of Gibbon,
Shakspeare, and Milton. " I don't wonder now," he said, " at
Milton's own preference for ' Paradise Regained ' over ' Para-

MS. 65. SHAKSPEARE. 455
dise Lost.' " The single passage of Shakspeare which he most
frequently recited, was that one in Henry IV., which commences
" I saw young Harry — with his beaver on,
His cuisses on his thighs, gallantly armed," &c;
and the single play in which he took most pleasure was Mid
summer Night's Dream, among the fairy pictures of which he
delighted to revel. " I look," he would say, after laying down
the book, " I look on Shakspeare as an intellectual miracle ;
I would put him before Milton from his exhaustless variety.
One of his students once told him of the enthusiasm of the Ger
mans about Shakspeare, and related the anecdote of Goethe's
comparison between Tieck, Shakspeare, and himself, in which,
with a singular mixture both of pride and humility, he said,
"That relation which Tieck holds to me, I hold to Shakspeare. I
regard Shakspeare as a being of a superior nature." "Well, sir,
do you know," said Dr. Chalmers, after hearing the anecdote, "I
like that very much. I dare say Shakspeare was the greatest
man that ever lived, — greater perhaps even than Sir Isaac
Newton." In February 1845, two years after the Disruption,
we find the following entry in Dr. Chalmers's journal : " A few
days ago finished the complete perusal of Shakspeare. Began
' Paradise Lost,' and am reading with great interest, ' Ed
wards on the end of God in Creation.' Let me henceforth
betake myself to serious reading."
In his domestic intercourse with his daughters, there was
much playful familiarity. Finding one of them sitting alone in
a room, he said to her, — " Well, my dear little howlet —
Hail, mildly pleasing solitude,
Companion of the wise and good ;
but I'm no for us growing perfectly uncognizant of one another,
sitting in corners like sae mony cats." After some of his great

456 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1S45.
public appearances, when he came home exhausted, his daugh
ters would gather round him as he lay at ease in his arm-chair.
One would play Scotch music, another shampoo his feet, (a very
frequent, and to him always a very agreeable operation,) a third
would talk nonsense, and set him into fits of laughter. At such
times, in a mock heroic way, he would repeat Scott's lines, — ¦
" 0 woman, in our hours of ease," &c. A spirit of chivalry ran
through all his intercourse with his daughters : they not only
ministered to his comfort in the hours of relaxation, he made
them companions, as it were, of his public life, and sought their
intellectual sympathy with his even highest exercises of thought.
Busied with his pamphlet on the Evangelical Alliance, in which he
was dealing with the proper plan and use of Confessions of Faith,
" I look," said he to one of his daughters, " on Catechisms and
Confessions as mere landmarks against heresy. If there had
been no heresy, they wouldn't have been wanted. It's putting
them out of their place to look on them as magazines of truth.
There's some of your stour orthodox folk just over ready to
stretch the Bible to square with their catechism : all very well,
all very needful as a landmark, but [kindling up] what I say is,
do not let that wretched, 'mutilated thing be thrown between me
and the Bible." " Bacon," said his daughter, " compares the
Bible to the well-spring, and says, he were a huge fool that would
not drink but from a tank." " Ha ! ha ! where does Bacon say
that ? it's nasty in the tank too, whiles !" The conversation
turned upon Mr. Carlyle, for whom he cherished great regard
and admiration. " It is a most interesting phenomenon to
me, Carlyle's state of mind. The lad looking with a most
graphic and intelligent eye on the peculiarities of Calvinism,
having a sort of regard too for them, and yet" * * *
" It is a curious faculty that I have" — we quote now from
another of his conversations — " of magnifying things. Now
I find no difficulty in looking at this [a little tuft of tree-

JET. 65. SCRIPTURE CHARACTERS. 457
moss which he held in his hand] as if I were an animalcule
living there within it, and these little fibres a great pine
forest with fine green mounds in it. * * * What an
infinite variety of systems may the planetary world embrace !
For aught I know, our own system may be diversified with
worlds no bigger than that table-head. There would be scope
enough for exquisite panoramas — the master existence no larger
than a bee or butterfly. Who knows in the inexhaustible pro •
fusion of nature what may be ?"
Reposing in his easy-chair, and recalling the subjects of his
"Bible Readings," he would say, " I am fond of the Old Testa
ment ; what a stately procession of Scripture characters ! I
have just twelve that I call my magnates ; what a pinnacle
that speech of our Saviour's lifts Abraham to — ' he rejoiced to
see my day,' piercing the futurity of 2000 years. — I like Isaac,
there was such a mildness about him : it is very picturesque his
going forth to meditate in the evening tide. — Jacob's early life
is most distasteful to me. The truth is, he was just too much
o' a sneck-drawer : he was the sneck-drawer, and Esau was
the snool about the pottage. But how impressive his interview
with Pharaoh and his closing scene ! — There was great chivalry
no doubt in David pouring out the water before the Lord — the
chivalry of the Middle Ages, in the antique Jewish way of it.
I cannot say I altogether sympathize in it ; I wad e'en ha'e
ta'en a willy-waucht o' the water. — I like everything that
marks the identity of human nature. I am sure that judgment
of Solomon's would make a great stir among the women ;
tongues wad no be idle at Jerusalem."
" About the beginning of 1.834," we quote now from a manu
script of the Rev. Mr. Couper of Burntisland, " Dr. Chalmers
became the proprietor of a house in this locality, and here, for
seven or eight years following, nearly one-half of his time was
spent. His liking for the locality was very strong. It was not
VOL. iv. 2 Q

458 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
so bustling then as it is now ; but on this account was all the
more congenial to his tastes and habits. ' Some people,' he re
marked, ' say that this is a dull place ; but what, they call dull,
I call delicious.' His mode of life while here was tolerably
uniform and exceedingly simple. The earlier portion of the
day he generally devoted to study and correspondence, reserv
ing the afternoon and evening for the society of his family and
friends, and for the exercise of walking, in which he took great
delight. He had many visitors, not a few of them from other
countries ; and he scarcely ever failed, when time and weather
permitted, to conduct them to his favourite points of view,
where he expatiated with wonderful enthusiasm on the varied
beauty of the surrounding scenery. It was scarcely possible to
take even one short walk with him without perceiving that his
capacity of enjoyment was singularly large. He could find
beauty everywhere ; at least he could single out from the most
ordinary scene, some feature or other on which his mind could
dwell with interest and pleasure. All the points from which
the scenery of this locality could be viewed to most advantage,
he knew most thoroughly ; and, however interesting the con
versation in which he might be engaged, it was sure to be in
terrupted when any one of these points was reached. He would
pause for a moment — his eye would wander over the landscape,
and, with a smile mantling over his countenance, he would give
a brief but expressive utterance to his feelings of joy and ad
miration. The unselfishness of his delight in Nature was very
noticeable. He seemed to have a positive affection for the
scenes and objects from which he drew so much pure enjoy
ment — it was as if his heart went, out to them. On a calm and
bright summer day, I happened to be with him in one of his
favourite haunts, the small promontory called Lammerlaws,
which forms the eastern portion of the peninsula on which this
town is situated — the tide was full, the water rippled gently

MS. 65. FEELING OF YOUTHFULNESS. 459
between the low ledges of rock, and laved the roots of the grass
and wild flowers that skirted every little nook. 'I have a great
affection for these nooks,' was the characteristic remark that
fell from Dr. Chalmers ; and in the tone in which it was uttered
there was a warmth, and withal a certain indescribable pathos,
which conveyed at once the impression that he spoke from the
fulness of his heart.
" His youthful freshness of feeling imparted a singular charm
to his manners and conversation. Even when verging on old
age, he was very strikingly characterized by the simplicity of
vivacious and unsuspecting boyhood. Of this peculiarity he
was himself quite conscious, and I have heard him more than
once allude to it. Having equipped himself one evening to go
to Edinburgh, he appeared to have outgrown his ordinary di
mensions — the pockets of his great-coat being well stuffed, I
think with books and pamphlets. This occasioned some merri
ment, in which he heartily joined. Placing his hands on his sides,
he went on to say, ' I have now somewhat of the solidity and
gravity, and somewhat also of the breadth of middle age ; but
I can scarcely shake off the feeling of boyhood. I remember,
Mr. Couper, when I was a student at St. Andrews, with what
profound veneration I regarded the Professors ; when I came
to be a Professor there myself, I used to wonder if these gilpies
could have the same feeling towards me.' I may give another
instance equally characteristic. A steep wooded bank over
hanging the sea, commences about a mile and a half to the west
of Burntisland, and terminates near the village of Aberdour.
Here Dr. Chalmers delighted to ramble, and great was his satis
faction when he had one or two friends along with him to ex
plore the Hews — for such is the name of the locality. One
day, on reaching the west end of the Hews, we found the gate
locked, and, as we intended to proceed to Aberdour, we had to
scale the wall. Dr. Chalmers declined the offer of assistance,

460 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
feeling assured that he was quite competent to the task him
self. He soon succeeded in planting himself on the top of the
wall, but felt it expedient to rest for a little before attempting
to come down. Perched on this rustic eminence, he felt as if
carried back into the scenes of his boyhood, and, looking
blandly down upon the companions of his walk, gave vent to
his feelings in a veiy curious and racy strain of observation :
the purport of it was that he felt it very difficult to realize his
progress in life, and that there was often a great contrast be
tween his feelings and his years. 'When I meet,' he said, 'a
respectable matron, who is- perhaps a dozen years younger than
myself, I feel quite disposed to look up to her with the same
sort of veneration that I felt when I was a boy'
" While engaged in conversation, Dr. Chalmers would occa
sionally fall into a reverie, which, by those not acquainted
with him, was felt to be embarrassing. The reverie, when not
broken in upon by others, was generally terminated by the
abrupt utterance of some important sentiment which he had
been revolving in his mind. Thus, he one day remarked, after
we had walked for a while in silence, ' What a blessed thing
it is, Sir, that it is confidence that is required of us.' At
another time, a pretty long pause was broken by his saying
with much emphasis, ' I know no point of orthodoxy that is
not susceptible of a practical treatment. Take an extreme
case — the doctrine that man can do nothing of himself; I
would just say, Pray all the harder.' I may record another of
the sayings which fell from him in this abrupt but impressive
manner ; it is one which young ministers especially would do
well to ponder. ' It is of great importance to keep up a high
tone of pulpit preparation ; the efficacy of your private minis
trations will depend very much upon it.'
" He often became extremely animated — sometimes even
vehement — though conversing with only a single individual.

.ET.65. STORE OF ANECDOTES. 461
This was especially the case when his mind was occupied with
any great question in which he had been led to take a pro
minent part. He might begin calmly, but as he spoke, ' the
fire burned,' and a torrent of glowing eloquence soon came
rushing from his lips. I have heard him at a fireside, in the
recess of a window, and even while sitting up in bed, break
forth in a style of stormy grandeur sufficient to electrify a
whole assembly. A scene which took place in my own study
is worthy of being recorded. He called one day with Isaac
Taylor, whom he greatly loved for his virtues, and admired for
his genius. It was at a time when the Church Extension
cause had materially suffered from what Dr. Chalmers regarded
as the unscrupulous conduct of men in power ; and on this
subject he broke forth, not, as he himself would have expressed
it, with the vehemence of passion, but with the vehemence of
sentiment. His face kindled up, his eye flashed, the tone of
his voice became impetuous, and his whole bearing afforded
unmistakable indications of the strength of the emotions that
were at work within. When he began, he was seated about
two yards off from Mr. Taylor, but with almost every sentence
that he uttered he gave his chair a hitch nearer, until the
knees of the two were in very close proximity, and Mr. Taylor
had to draw himself up and lean back on the wall in order to
save his head from the uplifted arm of ' the old man eloquent.'
In a few minutes the thunder cloud passed away, and his
bland and genial nature beamed forth again with the sunny
serenity that usually characterized it.
" He had a wonderful store of anecdotes of which he could
avail himself with a happy promptitude, for the illustration of
any subject that turned up in conversation, and on such occa
sions his keen sense of the ludicrous was often evinced with
irresistible effect. One evening as we were walking together
silently, after I had come to this parish, he was much gratified

402 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1S45.
with the respectful demeanour of the people whom we met,
and in particular with the fact (afterwards described by him
self in broad Scotch) that ' an auld wife hirsled aff a dyke to
mak her courtesy' Towards the end of our walk, a person
having passed without making any sign of recognition, Dr.
Chalmers observed, ' I perceive your people don't all recognise
you yet. This brings to my mind a story connected with
Buckhaven, which, you know, is a peculiar sort of place. It
was long, and is yet, to some extent, behind other places in
point of civilisation ; but some few of the inhabitants got a
little in advance of the rest. The minister of the parish went
one day to solemnize a marriage ; he made the bridegroom, of
course, promise to be a faithful, loving, and indulgent husband
— at least, he put the question to that effect, but could not get
him to alter his stiff erect posture. Again and again he
repeated the form, but the man remained silent and stiff as
ever. A neighbour was present who knew more about the
forms and footsteps of the thing, and was considered to have
advanced a little more in civilisation than the rest. Enraged
at the clownishness of the bridegroom, he stepped forward,
gave him a vigorous knock on the back, and said to him
with corresponding energy, " Ye brute, can ye no boo to the
minister!"' Dr. Chalmers's commentary on this scene was
brief but emphatic — ' The heavings of incipient civilisation,
you know.'
" Interesting.snatches of his personal history were sometimes
brought out in the most natural and incidental manner, as
parallels to what had been mentioned in the course of conver
sation. I happened to tell him the following incident which I
had heard of not long before. At the close of a communion
season in the north, the men of the parish, being assembled
with the ministers who had assisted on the occasion, expressed
their satisfaction with the services that had been rendered,

JET. 65. SENSE OF SOLITUDE. 403
and each particular minister received his modicum of applause,
with the exception of one, of whose performances not one word
was said. He was foolish enough to ask, ' And have you not
a good word to say of me?' In order to soothe his feelings,
one of the men, who had much of the milk of human kindness,
and who was resolved to go as far as truth and honesty would
permit, but no farther, said to him with much simplicity, ' Sir,
you had fine psalms.' Dr. Chalmers, who was greatly amused
with the story, observed that something parallel had occurred
in his own experience. While preaching one of the Astro
nomical Discourses, he noticed among the audience a plain,
honest, godly woman who lived in a close off the Gallowgate,
and with whom he was well acquainted. She was one of a
little company who attended a simple religious service which
he sometimes conducted in the neighbourhood. The Doctor
felt an irresistible desire to know what Janet thought of the
sermon, as he was quite sure that it was above her reach, and
he knew that he would not require to ask her opinion, for,
being a frank, outspoken person, she would not fail to give it
of her own accord. A day or two after, he threw himself in
her way, when he soon got what he was in quest of. ' Weel,
Sir, I was hearing ye in the Laigh Kirk the ither day ; I
canna say that I liket ye sae weel as in our bit placey here —
I canna say that I understood ye a'thegither— but, eh Sir,
there was something unco suitable and satisfyin' in the psalms.'
Dr. Chalmers was evidently delighted with the thought that
her spiritual instinct had fastened on what could really profit
her ; and that, though she had derived no advantage ' from his
sermon, she had not been sent empty away."
With all his social cheerfulness and beaming joy, there
were tokens not a few of an internal conflict — glimpses
of an inward desolation which told unmistakably that, like
David, he felt himself to be a stranger upon this earth. " I

464 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
would not live alway," was a sentence often uttered. " What
a wilderness the world is to the heart with all it has to in
spire happiness ! I have a great and growing sense of deso
lation.* What a marvellous solitude every man bears about
with him ; and then that other and mysterious seclusion — the
intercepting veil between us and the Deity. You would think
[speaking in a hesitating tone] that He would delight to mani
fest Himself to His creatures. No doubt the obstacle must be
in the subjective, — the clearer the reflecting medium, the
brighter the manifestations. That is strikingly put in Matthew,
' the pure in heart, they shall see God.' * * * I look
on it as a strong proof of our alienation from God how short a
time we can sustain a direct contemplation of Him ; — what a
mighty transformation when the veil of outer things shall be
withdrawn, and we stand naked and alone before Him with
whom we have to do !"
Into the peace and rest of the Sabbath Dr. Chalmers entered
with a peculiar joy. Besides his usual evening interviews with
his children in his study, there was one duty of a peculiar kind
thrown always upon the afternoon of this day. He never re
ceived the notification of a death without writing to some
member of the afflicted family, and these letters of sympathy
were always written on the Sabbath evenings. " I take it very-
kind," he wrote to the Rev. Mr. Chalmers of Dunfermline,
"that you have sent me the notice of an event so interesting,
though painfully interesting to your family. I know not a
more touching expression of confidence from one human being
to another, than when the sorrow which oppresses his heart is
communicated to his fellow, and this in the expectation that
* " I am conversant more with principles than with persons. I begin to sus
pect that the intensity of my own pursuits has isolated me from living men, and
that there is a want of that amalgamation about me which cements the com
panionships and closer brotherhoods that obtain in society." — Horos Sabbaticw,
vol. i. p. 59.

MS. 65. LETTER TO MRS. JOHNSTON. 400
he will sympathize with and share it. This is the only ex
planation I can give of a feeling which I have long experienced,
that whenever I receive the intimation of a death, I am by
that very act domesticated with the house of mourning whence
it comes, invited in short to partake along with its inmates in
the griefs and emotions of our common humanity.
" Give my best regards to Mrs. Chalmers ; and with earnest
prayer that these visitations may lead us all to prepare for the
eternal and the abiding home of the blessed — I ever am, my
dear Sir, yours very truly, Thomas Chalmers."
On receiving the intimation of the death of J. J. Gurney,
Esq., he wrote thus to Mrs. Johnston :*
Edinburgh, January 17th, 1847.
" My deae Mrs. Johnston, — This is a very sad and truly
solemnizing event. Your letter gave me the first intelligence
of it, and I afterwards on the same day read his obituary in
the Universe Newspaper. The sensation created by his death
must be very deep and very general. For myself, I feel it to
be a very great personal bereavement — standing as he did
among the best and highest of my Christian friends both in
respect of intelligence and worth. Ever since 1833, when I
spent some days at Earlham, I have had the privilege of en
joying his friendship. Very pleasant was he at all times to me,
and the remembrance of him is sweet.
"But what precious alleviations are attendant on the loss of
him though near and dear to us, — translated from a world of
sin and sorrow, and now among the glorified spirits of the just
made perfect. I associate with Mr. Gurney almost all the
great and good men in England whom I had the happiness of
knowing, — your dear and venerable father, Mr. Wilberforce, Mr.
Clarkson, and Mr. Foster, who still survives, and whose ac-
* Daughter of Sir T. F. Buxton.

400 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
quaintanee I made in Dorsetshire : add to these Mrs. Fry. But
it is only now that I learned, and from you, of Mr. Hoare's
death, who along with Mrs. Hoare (one of the finest specimens
of feminine Christianity I ever met) suffered so much from the
death of their eldest son. What a lesson does the disappear
ance of all this society convey ; what a call to ¦ labour for the
meat which endureth, and to disengage our affections from a
world that passeth so speedily away !
" I take it exceedingly kind that you should have thought of
me on this melancholy occasion. It was very good in you thus
to single me out for a letter on a subject which went so near
to my heart ; and I felt it exceedingly genial when you told
me of your dear son, and adverted to his Daptism. It gives
me a certain sense of the affinity of relationship to you and
yours. It is my earnest prayer that he may pass through the
world uninfected by its profligacy and vices, and that after a
manhood of usefulness and honour, he may be admitted to the
glories of an everlasting inheritance. Meanwhile, as friends
drop away from us, let us draw nearer together — more resolved
to befriend and support each other throughout the remainder
of this short and uncertain pilgrimage. — Ever believe me, my
clear Mrs. Johnston, yours very affectionately and truly,
Thomas Chalmers."

BT.6S. FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE. 467

CHAPTER XXIV.
FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE.
On the 17th March 1845, Dr. Chalmers made the following
entry in his Journal : — " My birth-day ; I have got over the half
of my seventh decade, being now sixty-five, and have entered
on what I call the Sabbath afternoon. My God, may it have a
more Sabbatical character than my Sabbath forenoon has had.
I would henceforth live wholly unto thee." The outward Sab
bath quiet was not given to him, but there came an increasing
gentleness and spirituality which gave few more affecting exhi
bitions of its depth and tenderness than in the peculiar anxiety
which he now manifested for the spiritual welfare of his children.
Every reader of his biblical compositions must have been struck
with the frequency to which the topic is there reverted to, and
tlie fervour with which so many petitions are presented. His
letters of this period present the same characteristics. To his
eldest daughter, who, in 1836, had been united in marriage to
the writer of these Memoirs, he, in 1 841 , addressed the follow
ing letter : — " Burntisland, June 1st, 1841.
" My dear .Anne, — This is an important change that has
taken place in my state and circumstances, now that I am dis
engaged from all the public business of the Church. It is true
that the time heretofore devoted to this department I could
find ample occupation for in the work of literary preparation
both for the press and for my Chair ; and I shall feel it my

468 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1S45.
duty to do a great deal more, if spared, in each of these walks
than I have been able to do hitherto. Yet important as these
are, I have the urgent sense of its being a still prior and pre
ferable duty to do all which in me lies, not for my own personal
Christianity alone, but for that of my immediate relatives and
friends. For these last thirty years, there has been always a
strong under-current of earnest and anxious feeling in this
direction, but sadly impeded and overborne among the fa
tigues and distractions and manifold calls on my attention and
time to which my various official duties exposed me. These
have all been removed, and that which was but an under
current before, I desire, throughout the remainder of my days,
to have full and free vent in every possible thing which I can
either devise or do for the religious wellbeing whether of my
self or of my family. And I do hope that the consideration of
the few years (it may be much shorter) which I have to live in
this world may incline one and all of them to second my earn
est wishes for the good of their imperishable spirits — for the
high end, in comparison with which all other objects sink into
insignificance, their preferment to that state of blessedness, in
which it will be our everlasting employment to glorify God,
and to enjoy him for ever.
" I have not forgotten the impression made upon me by a
short visit, of some years back, from Dr. Hanna,* and whence
I could gather how intimately religion was blended and identi
fied with his moral being — forming part and parcel, as it were,
of the element in which he breathed. I am quite sure that
when such is the pervading tone of all the inmates in any
household, it forms the high road to a well-conditioned and
happy family. It is a condition which ' I long, and with the
grace of God will labour, to realize ; for Heaven forbid that
the purposed Sabbath of my life, which should have commenced
* The Rev. Dr. Hanna of Belfast.

MS. 65. FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE. 460
sooner, and which I trust will only be terminated by death —
Heaven forbid that it should be limited in its effects to the
selfish object of my own enjoyment, or my own preparation for
the happiness of an immortal state. My longing desire is, that
others also, and especially those who are nearest and dearest to
me, should receive an impulse in the same direction, and be
fellow-travellers along with me to a blissful eternity. — I ever am,
my dear Anne, yours very affectionately and truly,
Thomas Chalmers."
As one step towards the accomplishment of this longing
desire, he commenced a series of monthly letters, a copy of
which was to be addressed to each of his daughters. The public
demands upon his time, however, became so urgent, that these
letters were not continued, and we have only the following
specimen to offer : — " Burntisland, July 24th, 1841.
" My dear Anne, — It is true that the Spirit is the alone effec
tual agent in the work of conversion, and without His agency
nothing can be done to any good purpose. But this doctrine,
so far from superseding diligence in the use of means, may
supply the alone consideration which can justify that dili
gence and make it rational. Suppose it were true that in no
possible way we could be made savingly to understand the
Bible, — then all inducement to the reading of it would be there
by done away. But, instead of this, let us suppose that there
was one way, and that was the enlightening of the Spirit given
to our prayers, — this would instantly give a meaning and a
motive to the exercise of dealing with our Bibles ; and the
perusal of the sacred volume, accompanied with supplication
for light upon it from on high, would instantly become a hope
ful and a reasonable employment. And, accordingly, if I were
asked to specify the likeliest prescription for the wellbeing and

470 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
prosperity of the soul, I should say it was a prayerful reading
of the Bible.
" That we do stand in need of this supernal aid, we might
well be convinced of from daily experience, for without it how
often might we read again and again its most familiar and best
known passages, and yet remain blind all the while to the
veriest simplicities of God's word. I was much struck with this
when reading the evidence of Mr. Purves of Jedburgh the other
day on the subject of revivals. * * * What impressed me in
it was, how seldom, after all, faith in God's sayings, which is
surely a very obvious, simple, and intelligible idea — how seldom
it is realized by any of us. People think they believe in them,
because they so far acquiesce as not to gainsay them ; and yet
with this acquiescence, an acquiescence so resolute and strong,
that you would be shocked to utter aught in contradiction to
them, there may yet be no faith. For let there be but belief in
the gospel, and where lies the hinderance to peace, joy, confi
dence in the good-will of a reconciled Father even at this mo
ment ? Why postpone all this ? Why not rely on the good
tidings of great joy, and be glad accordingly ? How long shall
we put off trusting in God for that redemption which is through
the blood of Jesus, even the forgiveness of sin ? It may startle
you to be told, that this last question is tantamount to the fol
lowing: — How long shall we persist in holding God to be a liar ?
He himself distinctly reduces it to this alternative. He tells
us of the record that He has given of His Son, even that He
has given us eternal life, and that this life is in His Son ; and
He complains of being made a liar by all who won't believe
this, (John v. 10, 11.) This one might think is bringing salva
tion very near to us. It is telling us to take and live, to trust
and be satisfied. On this footing, and it is the true one, there
should be an instant translation from death to life, from dark
ness to the marvellous light of the Gospel. Let us not think

^T. 65. FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE. 471
that the way of being washed from our sins is anything more
complex or circuitous than this, else we fall into the error of
Naaman the Syrian, when told to wash him from his leprosy in
the waters of Jordan. We are washed from our sins through
the blood of Christ, (Rev. i. 5.) But this is through faith in
His blood, (Rom. iii. 25.) Let us so believe, and so shall it be
done unto us. These are plain sayings, — yet how few think of
a salvation so nigh, and so placed by God within our reach,
even that God who offers and entreats, and beseeches and com
mands, nay, threatens it upon our acceptance. What need of
prayer then that the scales might fall from our eyes, which
hinder us from seeing this great salvation, and from beholding
the wondrous things contained in the book of God's law.
Read and pray then ; ask till you receive, seek till you find,
knock till the door be opened to you, and, to hasten the wished
for consummation, chide yourself out of your unbelief by
the consideration that it is dishonouring to God's truth. For
the opposite of this, read Rom. iv. 19-23, and learn from this
passage how thoroughly God's glory and your comfort are at
one. May you obtain precious faith. May Christ be found in
you. — I am, my dear Anne, yours very truly, Thomas Chalmers."
Although a systematic correspondence was relinquished,
there was no diminution, but the reverse, in the solicitude felt
for his children's religious welfare. This was touchingly educed
by the death of a beloved infant in my own family
" Dtjnkeld, April 30th, 1842.
" My very dear Anne, — This is a sad privation ; and I
cannot adequately express how much we all feel for you. I
have often marvelled at the forbearance of God, in that though
for nearly thirty years a family man, death should for all that
time have made no inroad upon my own household ; and little

472 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
did I expect that the first of these visitations was to be on the
persons of my grandchildren — you being the nearest and the
principal sufferer. May He sustain, and above all, may He
sanctify you under it ; and superadding the influences of His
grace to the affecting demonstrations of His providence, may
this heavy trial, not joyous but grievous, yield unto you abun
dantly the peaceable fruits of righteousness.
" Perhaps a very few lines from your own hand could inform
us how you all are, and in particular Tommy, who is the object
of great anxiety to us all, and for whose recovery and estab
lishment of health I daily pray.
" The present, if I may so express it; is a great occasion,
and may, in the hands of the Divine Spirit, become a great era
in your spiritual history. For myself, I have no doubt that
your babe is in heaven — where those smiles which gladdened
you here may again open upon you. The pitying Saviour who
loved children, loves and welcomes all who approach Him : — to
Him would I commit you. Cast yourself on Him, and He will
give you a place and a mansion in His unsuffering kingdom.
" I offer you these considerations, for there are none other
but such as these which can be of any real or abiding efficacy.
As Wilberforce says, the faith of immortality gives to every
mind which cherishes it a certain firmness of texture. Lay
hold, then, of eternal life, by laying hold of Christ as your pro
pitiation. And may the fruit of this bitter dispensation be
the work of faith in you with power.
" ' Whom God loveth he chasteneth.' I remember being
much struck many years ago with an Exposition of John xv. 2,
by Dr. Campbell of Edinburgh. Our Saviour there says of the
great spiritual husbandman, that every branch which beareth
fruit he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. He
pruneth it ; he cuts off some of its lateral or smaller branches,
that the vegetable juice may not run to luxuriance in a wrong

MS.m. FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE. 473
direction, but may so pervade the whole as will contribute
most to the nourishment and vigour of the tree. And in like
manner do our affections move sideways or downwardly to the
objects which are on earth and around us ; and God, in the
exercise of a wise and skilful husbandry, is often pleased to
sever or cut off these objects, that our affections may take an
upward and a heavenward direction to himself. May such be
your blessed experience ; and the medicine, though severe, will
prove salutary, and the instrument of health to your soul.
" Give my best and most affectionate regards to Mamma and
Mr. Hanna ; and tell dear Tommy how much I love him, and
pray for his being good.
" May God, the giver of all grace, fix and perpetuate every
good impression which the events of his providence are fitted to
awaken. — I am, my very dear Anne, yours most affectionately,
Thomas Chalmers."
In 1 839, Dr. Chalmers's second daughter was married to the
Rev. John Mackenzie, at that time minister of the parish of
Dunkeld in Perthshire. Immediately after the marriage he
proceeded on his Church Extension tour in the north of Scot
land, from which he writes to Mrs. Mackenzie, —
" Inverness, August 28th, 1839.
" My dearest Eliza, — * * * But let me stop all further
description of my travels, and conclude this letter with the ex
pression of my earnest wishes for your highest wellbeing. I
have often felt it as one great- evil of too public a life, that it
dissevered one from his family ; and when I think how highly
favoured I have been in that, though twenty-seven years a
family-man, I have never yet been exposed in my household to
the visitation of death, I deeply feel that such a lengthened op
portunity should have been consecrated more to the culture and
preparation of those immortal spirits over whom I am appointed
VOL. IV. 2 R

474 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
to watch. Let me hope that you will not in your new circum
stances neglect this greatest of all concerns ; and while I am
far from wishing that you should overtask yourself with the
duties either of the house or of the parish, I cannot but rejoice
that you are so much in the way of all that stands most con
nected with the things of faith and of eternity. With the aim
fixed on a better world, not only is the happiness of the future
but that of the present life most effectually provided for ; and
the power of him who has chosen God in Christ for his portion
is in itself a fulfilment of the saying, that godliness hath the
promise of the life which now is as well as of that which is to
come. — I am, my dearest Eliza, yours very affectionately,
Thomas Chalmers."
Burntisland, September 28th, 1841.
"My dearest Eliza, — There is doubtless much of the reserve
that obtains in conversation on religious subjects to be ascribed
to our state of spiritual inanition. It is out of the fulness or
abundance of the heart that the mouth speaketh ; and, there
fore, it is necessary that the reformation of this matter be
rightly gone about — that we begin at the beginning. It is
with this as with every other department of practical Chris
tianity. Whatever good fruit we are aiming after, we must
make the tree good that the fruit may be good. It is well that
our sense of want and helplessness should thus throw us back
on the deep and fundamental articles of our faith, and that we
should thus be made to see in every attempt at being right,
another experimental proof of the doctrine of regeneration, or
of the necessity that, to be as we ought, we must be born again
and become new creatures.
" I feel that this is being very general; but not more so than
that most pregnant of all verses, ' God will give His spirit to them
who ask it.' Let us cry, therefore, as we can ; and it is as you

J5T. 65. FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE. 475
say, to prayer we must add watchfulness — watchfulness for the
Spirit as well as prayer for Him. And this gives me to feel the
special importance of the last clause of Eph. vi. 1 8 — ' watching
thereunto with all perseverance.'
" Still it is furthermore of mighty importance to learn what
are our specific wants, that we may state them specifically be
fore God, and that we may afterwards watch as specifically for
the supply thereof. Believest thou that I am able to do this ?
was the question put by our Saviour to the man who asked a
cure, and according to his particular faith, so was it done unto
him. Whatever the impediment or infirmity may be, let us
ascertain it, and pray for its removal. This will give rise to
that process of discipline and cultivation in which what is called
experimental religion mainly lies. I have had several talks
with the children here, and am not discouraged by the results
of these. — I am, my dearest Eliza, yours very affectionately, .
Thomas Chalmers."
From the letters to his eldest unmarried daughter, who pos
sessed much of his own genius, we select the following : —
•' Edinburgh, November 17th, 1838.
" My dearest Grace, — I received your valued letter ; and,
in return, I have to say, that the first essential to a pleasant
and productive employment of your time is, the regular and
systematic distribution of it. This does not supersede the
relaxations of society, domestic concerns, light reading, and
exercise out of doors. The truth is, that the zest of the last
is greatly heightened by the previous tension and fatigue which
you may have incurred throughout those parts of the day which
are given to the more serious pursuits of instruction and self-
improvement. Regulate your hours then ; for it were quite
vain to offer any advice to those who will not relinquish the
habit of living at random, and living as they list.

476 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
" With this as my great preliminary advice, I would further
recommend — 1. That the first time of your day should be de
voted to religious meditation and prayer, both of which would
be mightily helped by a little serious practical reading. Of
course, I suppose a regular progress through the Bible ; but,
over and above this, a pious practical commentary, though only
of a single verse each morning, might tell impressively on the
heart. I give as samples, 'Bridges on the 1 19th Psalm,' 'Home
on the Psalms,' Doddridge's ' Family Expositor,' Scott's and
Henry's ! Bibles.' The same in the evening as well as morning.
" 2. One or two hours of solid reading, — such as the Evidences
of Christianity, — its doctrines expanded so as to suit a gene
ral reader ; as ' Symington on the Atonement ;' ' Owen on the
Work of the Holy Spirit ;' 'Owen on the Person of Christ,' &c.
Intellectual literature, — as Reid's, Stewart's, and even Brown's
'.Works;' Foster's ' Essays ;' ' Chalmers on Endowments and
Establishments,' &c. &c.
" 3. All proper female work, — as the management of cow-
heels in the kitchen, and stocking-heels in the drawing-room ;
the making of puddings in the one place, and of pin-cushions
in the other ; the orderly arrangement of all your articles in
drawers, and on mantelpieces, and table-heads ; the proper
keeping of accounts, with as much letter-writing as is incum
bent upon you.
" 4. After standing acquitted of these, I give you great
license as to all proper and innocent recreations ; and I ask
you to make trial for a week of the regularity I now prescribe,
and see whether there is not a charm in it which might well
convince us of the immense resources both for improvement and
enjoyment that have been placed within our reach by a kind
Providence. " N.B. — I would rank biography and even history as light
reading, along with imaginative literature, such as poetry and

MS. 65. FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE. 477
a few good and right novels. I will allow you, however, to
make Cowper's ' Poems ' and ' Paradise Lost ' tell for solid read
ing. Tell me what you think of Thomson's ' Seasons.'
"And now my last advice to you is, self-denial, or the habit
of giving up your own will first to the will of God ; and then,
in things lawful, even in things indifferent, to the will of
others also. I promise you the greatest enjoyment from the
success of such a discipline ; and remember what I have often
felt to be a most precious connexion between two things in
Christianity, — the connexion between obedience and spiritual
discernment, in virtue of which I should look as the fruit of the
sacrifice that I now recommend for a clearer view of the Gospel
and its method of salvation. — Yours most truly,
Thomas Chalmers."
" Edinburgh, January 20th, 1842.
" My very dear Grace, — I am exceedingly struck, on the
comparison of your state with mine, at the variety of human
states and experiences. I have no difficulty in filling up every
hour with business, and business, too, which stands related to
duty and good objects, and be interested all the while in the
performance. But I do feel a great difficulty in upholding con
verse with God, directly and devotionally ; or, in the imme
diate exercise of spiritual contemplation for any length of
time. Now your case seems to be the reverse of this. I have
heard you complain that you could not feel an interest in the
routine of outward duties, while, at the same time, for hours
together you could engage in prayer and meditation. For my
self, I feel the utmost desirousness after such a habit and
capacity as this — conscious as I am how very greatly I am
deficient therein ; and when reading such lives as those of
Brainerd and Doddridge, have often stood amazed, I could al
most say envious, of their power to sustain a real and spiritual

478 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
intercourse with heaven for large portions of a whole day.
At the same time, it is worthy of remark that even Brainerd
testified to the great importance of a right and systematic
distribution of time, and filling up each section of it with
its own proper work, even for a healthful religious state of
the soul.
" Both are best ; and of the cultivation of both we have the
best and highest examples. What a man both of performance
and prayers was the Apostle Paul ; but, greatest of all, can
aught be more instructive than the mingled life of our Saviour,
of whom it is so often recorded that, after a day spent in the
works and labours of love, he retired from the world, and spent
whole nights in prayer to His Father, the doing of whose will
was meat and drink to Him. Let us grow more and more in
a conformity to His blessed image. — My dearest Grace, yours
very truly, Thomas Chalmers."
" Gourooe. House, near Greenock, July 24th, 1845.
" My very dear Grace, — I have not forgotten your birth
day ; and it is my fond belief, that both you and I are alive to
the solemn thoughts which the recurrence of every such occa
sion ought to awaken. There is, in truth, a great practical
delusion in the prevalent system of human life. We look at
things as if by an inverted vision — investing time with all the
worth and magnitude of eternity ; wdiile eternity, as if by the
optical law of distance, shrinks into the littleness and insigni
ficance of time. This is not as it should be ; and to protect
ourselves from the enchantment of such a treacherous and
delusive imagination, let us ever keep by the side of Him who
alone has the words and the gift of life everlasting. All would
be well did we but attain the habit of the Apostle, in living
a life of faith on the Son of God. — Ever believe me, my very
dear Grace, yours very affectionately, Thomas Chalmers."

fflT.65. FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE. 479
Dr. Chalmers's correspondence with his grandson, my eldest
child, began early, and was frequently sustained, as the reader
of the following letters will find, in circumstances not a little
peculiar : — " Burntisland, June 22d, 1841.
" My dear Tommy, — This is the longest day in all the year,
and it is also the day of the year in which you were born.
This day you are four years old, and we have not forgotten it.
" As you growT in years, you should grow in knowledge and
understanding ; but what is still better than this, you should
grow in goodness, and pray every day that God would give
you His Holy Spirit to make you good. * * *
" Give all our kind regards to papa and mamma, and in re
ply to this letter you may say a letter to me back again, which
mamma will write. — I am, my very dear Tom, your affectionate
grandfather. Thomas Chalmers."
"Burntisland, July 22d, 1841.
" My Dear Tommy, — I am very sorry to hear that you have
got sore eyes again, and are obliged to sit, poor fellow, in a dark
room. But they tell me you are happy ; and I think it quite
a possible thing to be happy even when not well and in the
dark. There is one way of being happy, and that is the best
way of it, which is to think rightly, and think much of God.
He is all goodness ; He made you and He loves you, and,
though you do not see Him, He is not far from you, but sees
everything you do, and hears everything you say. We shall see
Him when we get to heaven ; and there is no sorrow, no wick
edness there. You can at all times pray to Him ; and one
thing you should often pray for is, that He would make you
good, and so fit you for His company and His friendship for
evermore. * * * I am, my very dear boy, your most
affectionate grandfather, Thomas Chalmers."

480 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
" Eoinburgh, December 30th, 1841.
" My dear little Tommy, — Why do you like your hobby
horse better than grandpapa ?* You tell me because it is big
ger than him ; but so are the haystack and the hill that you
see from the window, and any house in the village, — these are
all bigger than grandpapa, and will you tell me that you don't
like grandpapa so well as you do a house, or a hill, or a hay
stack ! And besides, the hobby-horse cannot write letters to
you like grandpapa, neither can he buy toys for you and send
them from Edinburgh to Skirling ; neither can he show you
pictures, or do for you any of those things which you best like.
Therefore give up this foolish argument about bigness, and learn
to like things for a better reason than the mere size of them.
" And what grandpapa would rejoice to hear that you liked
best, was that you loved God with all your heart and soul. It
is He who made all things, and gives us all things that we en
joy. He is the author of all our happiness here, and if we
please Him, He will make us eternally happy with Himself in
heaven. Give Samuel a kiss from me, and offer my kind love
to your mamma. — I am, my dear little boy, your affectionate
grandpapa, Thomas Chalmers."
" January 11th, 1841.
" My dear little boy, — I have two things to say to you : —
First, you must now learn to speak less like a baby, — not
grandpa, but grandpapa ; not gate, but great ; not lickle, but
little. Recollect you are no longer a babe, but a boy, and you
must leave off your baby words for Samuel Robert, and speak
yourself like a man. But secondly, however fond you are of
toys — and I like to see you happy in an innocent way, remem-
* " Dear little Tommy said that he liked his hobby-horse better than me ; but
retracted this afterwards, and said that he only liked it as well now." — Dr. Chal
mers's Journal, of date 17th December 1841.

,ET. 65. FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE. 481
ber that you must prepare for the business of life ; and one of
the first things you must learn is to read. The greatest use of
reading is to know the words of the Bible ; its words are of
far higher worth than its pictures. The God whom it is your
duty to please and obey wrote all these words by the hands of
His servants ; and all good people learn, by reading this book,
the way to heaven : and you should learn now how to begin,
and what you must do to inherit eternal life there. Jesus
Christ likes young children, and you should think of Him, and
pray to God for His sake to make you good and willing to do
all His will. Thomas Chalmers."
" Burntisland, July 8th, 1844.
" My dear Tommy, — I have just seen a sight which if you
had been present would, I dare say, have frightened you. I
went down the pier to see Dr. Cunningham off in the steam
boat, which had just come from the other side. A gig-horse,
with all its harness on, was taken out of the boat and landed
on the pier ; but it refused to go any farther, and when the
men tried to pull it by its bridle forward, it went backwards
till its hind feet got beyond the edge of the pier, and down it
fell with a tremendous plunge into the deep water. We all ran
to the edge of the pier to see what had become of it. I knew
that horses could swim, but then I was afraid lest the weight of
the harness should have sunk it ; and to be sure it was very
near sinking, for with holding up its head as high as it could, ii
scarcely kept its ears and nostrils for breathing above the water ;
and, poor stupid thing, instead of swimming to the shore, it
swam out to the sea, — upon which some men ran into a little
boat and rowed with all their might, and, by means of a long
boat-hook, got hold of its bridle and towed it after them to the
end of the pier, — upon which it got, with some difficulty, on its
four legs, and was led, all dripping, up to its stable. * * *
vol. iv. 2 s

482 MEMOIRS OP DR. CHALMERS. 1845.
"Be a good boy, — fear God and "keep His commandments,
for this is the whole duty of man. — I am, my dear Tom, your
affectionate grandfather, Thomas Chalmers."
" Churchhill Dining-Room,* March 17th, 1845.
" My very dear Tommy, — This is my birth-day, and I beg
to send you my best wishes — hoping that if God please, you
will have a longer life than grandpapa. Our Father in heaven
is the giver and preserver of the lives of every one of us. * * *
" Be a good boy, and do not forget to thank God in your
prayers for all His goodness to you. — I am, my dear Tommy,
your affectionate grandpapa, Thomas Chalmers.
" To Master Thomas Chalmers Hanna, Back Drawing- Room. "
" Dining-Room, March 18th, 1845.
" My dearest Tommy, — When I arrived in Edinburgh yes
terday I first went to the library, and got out a very amus
ing book for you — Gulliver's Travels. * * * It is not a
true history, but just a story, or stories, made for the reader's
entertainment. Gulliver first travels to the country of the
Lilliputians, where the men and women are not bigger than
grandpapa's fore-finger, and the babies not bigger than your lit
tle toe, and where they drive about in coaches not near so large
as a tea-pot. He then travels to a country inhabited by giants,
to whom Gulliver is as little a creature as the Lilliputians were
to him ; why, they can take him up with one hand and swing
him back and fore upon one of their fingers. Then he travels to
a floating island called Laputa ; but I am not sure that you will
care so much for this part of the story. And then he travels
* As scarlet fever was in the family at Morningside, it was thought advisable to
separate it into two sections, one of which occupied the upper or drawing-room
story of the house, and the other the dining-room story. For some days, no inter
course was permitted. It was while matters were in this condition that the two
following letters were written.

MS. 65. FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE. 483
to a country where instead of the men commanding the horses,
the horses command the men. I don't like this part so well as
I do his travels among the Lilliputians.
" Be a good boy, and remember how much you owe to Him
who has made you so much better. — I ever am, my dear Tom,
your affectionate grandpapa, Thomas Chalmers.
" To Master Thomas Chalmers Hanna, Back Drawitig-Room."
" Fairlie, by Laros, June 22d, 1845.
" My very dear Tommy, — Though this be Sabbath, I write
you a few sentences because this is your birth-day ; and I wish
to take the opportunity of pressing upon you the consideration
of the shortness of life, and nearness of your latter end. You
are now eight years old ; and I want you to reflect seriously
on this, that every year by which you get older, brings you a
year nearer to death than you were before. It is therefore my
earnest prayer, that as you grow in years and in stature, you
may grow in grace and in the knowledge of your Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ ; and I would earnestly warn you to
remember your Creator in the days of your youth, lest the
evil days come, when you shall say I have no pleasure in them.
I shall now leave this letter open till to-morrow, when I mean
to write some more to you. " Monday morning.
" You are now eight years old, and I am more than eight
times older than you — for eight times eight make sixty-four,
and I am sixty-five ; but I can assure you, that though you
should live to be as old as I am, it is your highest interest, as
well as solemn duty, to begin your preparation for eternity
now, to make no delay in keeping the commandments, and ob
serving the whole will of God for the salvation of man.
" Give my kind regards to papa and mamma. I should
like if I could come soon to Skirling. Perhaps I will in

484 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1846.
autumn. — I am, my very dear Tommy, your most affectionate
grandfather, Thomas Chalmers.
" Chubchuill, June22d, 1846.
" My dear Nine-older, — I write you because this is your
birth-day, and because it is my earnest wish and prayer, that
by every year you become older you may become so much
better and wiser. And let me tell you, that the beginning of
wisdom is to fear God and keep His commandments. There is
only one book in the world which is able to make you wise
unto salvation, and far the greatest use for learning is, that it
enables you to read the Bible. Read it with a good and
honest heart, and pray that God would open your understand
ing to understand it ; and by His blessing you will attain to
that knowledge of Himself, and of His Son, which is life ever
lasting. " I am more than seven times older than you, and yet when
I look back on my past life, and I remember when I was so
young as three, I feel that time is very short. But eternity is
long, and will never end ; and be assured that to provide for
it is the best and highest of all wisdom.
" I wish you had been at Craigholm with us, where I lately
spent three weeks. The railroad cuts the green into two parts
not far from our house. But we can go from the one part to
the other under an arch, and I should like to stand in that
arch with you at the time when the steam-engine and all the
carriages are passing and rattling over our heads. — Believe me,
my dear Tommy, your very affectionate grandpapa, Thomas Chalmers.
" P.S. — I have got so many new books that I have completely
filled G e. There are only two and a half shelves now to fill
in G, and when these are filled I must put away any more

MS 66. FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE. 485
books I get into the empty shelves of the closet. Next time
you come we must overhaul the old books and pamphlets that
are in the garret.* — T. C.
" Another very curious thing I have to tell you of — a bird's
nest in one of our strawberry tufts, near the corner where your
old garden was. I looked several times both to the eggs and
afterwards to the birds. I was much afraid lest our black cat
should find them out and eat them : however it did not, and
the birds had leave to grow, till their wings have been formed
for flight, and now they are off. But the nest is still there ;
and I hope to shew- it to you when you come next. I never
saw a bird's nest in a bunch of strawberry leaves all my days
before." * Dr. Chalmers imagined that the earliest faculty developed in his grandson was
the love of order, to cultivate which he had set times appointed when they arranged
together the works of the library. On the Sabbath evenings he always had Tom
my alone with him in his study. Beginning the conversation with the " reddings
up," or some topic equally remote, Dr. Chalmers found his way at last to speak
to him about religion. They then knelt down together, when he prayed that
he himself might be a true child of God, and his little grandson a lamb of the
Saviour's flock ; that his health might be improved ; that his eyes (weak at the
time) might not trouble him in after life ; that whatever happened with his bodily
vision, the eyes of his understanding might be opened to the knowledge of Jesus
Christ ; that he might be made in God's hand an instrument for good ; and that
when they both died and rose again, they might stand side by side on the right
hand of the everlasting throne.

486 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1847.

CHAPTER XXY.
THE SUCCESS OF THE FREE CHURCH— FINAL VERDICT OF DR. CHAL
MERS ON VOLUNTARYISM— THE GOVERNMENT SCHEME OF EDUCA
TION—PAPER DRAWN UP BY DR. CHALMERS— EVIDENCE BEFORE
THE SITES COMMITTEE— VISIT TO LONDON AND GLOUCESTERSHIRE
—RETURN TO EDINBURGH— HIS LAST SABBATH— HIS DEATH.
The erection of the Free Church was hailed by the Volun
taries as a triumphant evidence that state endowments are not
needed for the support or extension of Christianity. And there
were not a few of their former adversaries who, surprised and
impressed by the generosity which the Disruption elicited, were
disposed to modify their former conceptions as to the limited
power and range of the Voluntary principle. Although Dr.
Chalmers did not partake in their surprise, he threw his mind
open to any new convictions which the history of the Free
Church might originate or confirm. He was not prepared at
the instant to cast his old convictions away, but he was ready
to admit whatever light this new experience might supply. At
the Bicentenary Meeting held at Edinburgh in July 1843, he
said, " I confess a keener scientific interest in this question than
ever, now that Voluntaryism, brought to the test of experience,
is fully put upon its trial ; I for one will make it my strenuous
endeavour to do it all justice, by drawing on its resources and
capabilities to the uttermost. The most direct way surely of
giving it a trial is just to try how much it will yield after that
a full and fair appliance has been brought to bear upon it. It
is but justice to add, that we are now in the very thick of the

MS. 67. PROGRESS OF THE FREE CHURCH. 487
experiment. We call upon Voluntaryism to open all its foun-
tainheads, even though it should land us in the predicament of
the well-digger, who succeeded so amply in his attempts to ob
tain water, that he made a narrow escape from drowning in the
abundance of those rushing streams which he himself had
evoked from their hiding-places. Now, though my own theory
should incur by it the semblance, nay, even if so be, the reality
of a defeat or confutation, I for one should most heartily rejoice
if Voluntaryism, playing upon us in every direction, shall make
such demonstrations of its exuberance and its power as well-nigh
to submerge myself and utterly to overwhelm my argument."
Dr. Chalmers only lived to see this trial of Voluntaryism to
the close of its fourth year. And looking at the aspect which
the Free Church presented in May 1847, the Voluntaries might
confidently enough have asserted that the verdict of experience
was in their favour ; for here was a Christian community not
of the wealthiest classes, upon which 470 clergymen had sud
denly been thrown, and which had not only accepted and ful
filled the obligation to sustain them, but in four years had added
250 more to the regular ministry which it upheld. At a cost
of upwards of ^450,000, it had erected churches for all its con
gregations, and in addition to this had subscribed £ 100,000 to
build manses for all its ministers. It had instituted a College
with nine Professorships, to each of which a salary of from
i?300 to iJ400 per annum was attached. It had 340 students
under education for the holy office, among whom bursaries and
scholarships to the amount of =£700 had been distributed in a
single year. By a single effort it had raised =£50,000 for the
building of 500 school-houses, and it had already connected with
it about 600 schools, in which nearly as many children were
instructed in the ordinary branches of education as were in at
tendance at all the endowed parochial schools of Scotland. For
the teaching and training of schoolmasters it had two extensive

488 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1847.
normal establishments in Glasgow and Edinburgh. At home
110 licentiates and 116 catechists were engaged in the spiritual
instruction of the people, while abroad it had agents labouring
in every quarter of the habitable globe. At Pesth, at Jassy,
at Berlin, at Constantinople, seventeen missionaries and assist
ants were endeavouring to promote the conversion of the Jews.
At Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, Puna, and Nagpur, it supported
fifteen European clergymen ordained as missionaries, nine con
verted natives engaged in the work of the Christian ministry,
and a large band of teachers and assistants, both native and
European, from whom 4000 Indian children were receiving a
complete Christian education. In Nova Scotia, the Canadas,
the West Indies, the Cape, Australia, Madeira, Malta, Leghorn,
and Gibraltar, there were ministers supported in whole or in
part by the bounty of the Free Church, while £1000 per annum
had been entrusted to the Evangelical Societies of France and
of Geneva, to aid in circulating the Gospel over the Continent
of Europe. In 1847, the Free Church raised for educational
and missionary objects three times as much as the united Church
of Scotland did in 1843. It had continued for four years to
yield the princely revenue of £300,000, and in that short
period had contributed about a million and a half to the Chris
tian cause.* The annals of Voluntaryism present no instance of
like success : yet bringing it to the test which he constantly em
ployed, and which he believed to be the only true and legitimate
one, Dr. Chalmers's final verdict was unfavourable. "I can
afford," said he, " to say no more than that my hopes of an ex
tended Christianity from the efforts of Voluntaryism alone have
* Assuming the number of families in her connexion to be 400,000, and their
average income to be £50 per annum, the revenue of the Free Church, at the time
of her greatest pecuniary efforts, did not exceed three per cent, upon the income
of her members. Applied elsewhere, this method of calculation indicates how
small a portion of its wealth the Christian world dedicates to the cause of Chris
tianity.

MS. 67. VERDICT UPON VOLUNTARYISM. 489
•not been brightened by my experience since the Disruption.
This is no reason why we should seek an alliance with the State
by a compromise of the Church's spiritual independence ; and
still less with a Government which, on the question of endow
ments, disclaims all cognizance of the merits of that religion
on which it confers support, and makes no distinction between
the true and the false, between the scriptural and the unscrip-
tural. Still, it may be a heavy misfortune — it may prove a
great moral calamity — when a Government does fall into what,
speaking in the terms of my own opinion, I hold to be the
dereliction of a great and incumbent duty. And ere I am
satisfied that Voluntaryism will repair the mischief, I must first
see the evidences of its success in making head against the
fearfully increased heathenism, and increasing still, that ac
cumulates at so fast a rate throughout the great bulk and body
of the common people. We had better not say too much on
the pretensions or the powers of Voluntaryism, till we have
made some progress in reclaiming the wastes of ignorance and
irreligion and profligacy which so overspread our land ; or till
we see whether the congregational selfishness which so pre
dominates everywhere, can be prevailed on to make larger
sacrifices for the Christian good of our general population.
Should their degeneracy increase to the demolition, at length,
of the present frame-work of society, and this in spite of all
that the most zealous Voluntaryism can do to withstand it, it
will form a most striking experimental demonstration of the
vast importance of Christian Governments for the Christian
good of the world. The lights of experience and prophecy will
be found to harmonize, when, after what may be called the
horrors of the middle passage, the desolating flood of anarchy
and misrule that is coming on the earth — the millennium will
at length emerge from it ; but then, in conjunction therewith,
the kingdoms of the world shall become the kingdoms of our

490 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1847.
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ ; or, in other words, the Govern
ments of the world shall all be Christianized.
" It seems very clear that internal Voluntaryism will not, of
itself, do all, and, with all the vaunted prosperity of the Free
Church, we do not find that external Voluntaryism will either
make up the deficiencies of the former, or, still less, of itself, do
all either. * * * We rejoice, therefore, in the testimony
of the Free Church for the principle of a National Establish
ment, and most sincerely do we hope that she will never fall
away from it. Little do those of her enemies, who, at the same
time, are the friends of loyalty and order — (for, besides these,
we can rank many of the turbulent and disaffected in society
as among the deadliest of her enemies) — little do they know
that the Free Church is at this moment lifting a far more in
fluential testimony on the side of ecclesiastical endowments
than can possibly be given in any other quarter of society.
Hers is a wholly disinterested testimony in their favour, for
she reaps no advantage from them ; but, sorely aggrieved
though she has been by our rulers, she will neither underrate
the importance of their friendship, nor yet the solemn obliga
tion which lies upon them to care for the religion of the people,
and to provide within their sphere for this best and highest
interest of the commonwealth."*
In the spring of 1847, the Free Church was agitated by a
discussion relative to the Government scheme of education.
By their Minutes of August and December 1846, the Commit
tee of Council on Education offered grants to all schools indis
criminately which should submit to the conditions — that they
should be visited regularly by a Government Inspector ; that the
Holy Scriptures should be daily read ; and that such religious in
struction as the managers approved of should be communicated.
A difference of opinion arose as to whether the Free Church
* " Earnest Appeal," pp. 52, 53.

MS. 67. THE EDUCATION QUESTION. 491
should permit any of the schools in connexion with her own
Education Scheme to accept of grants tendered upon such terms,
and considerable difficulty was experienced as to the judgment
which the Church should express upon the general character
of the Government measure. Viewing the question as an
ecclesiastic, and for the purpose mainly of deciding what part
the Free Church should take, and what attitude she .should
assume, Dr. Chalmers transmitted the following expression of
his opinion to Dr. Cunningham : —
" Morningside, Edinburgh, 3d April, 1847.
" My dear Sir, — I promised to write you on the Education
question, for I am quite willing on every occasion to state my
opinions, though I may no longer fight for them, and must,
therefore, be excused from being present at the Presbytery.
But really I am at a loss what to say. I wait for more data
than we are yet in possession of. I would infinitely rather
that, in hoc statu, the Presbytery would not take up the ques
tion at all. I deprecate every precipitate and premature com
mittal of ourselves, and would prize it as a signal honour for
the Free Church, if, when it did come forward, it was with a
well-weighed and unexceptional deliverance upon this great
question. " 1. I feel no hesitation as to the wrongness of an indiscri
minate endowment, if it carry in it the expression of an equal
countenance by the Legislature to all forms of religion. I
believe that there are modifications upon their scheme by
which this might be done away, so as to give no other character
to the movement on the part of the State, than a desire for
the elevation of the people in general intelligence and scholar
ship — an object which we should no more resist, than the
object of public health, or economic improvement, or any other
amelioration that can be devised for the temporal wellbeing
of the masses in our land.

492 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1847.
" 2. Again, I would not object to a most strenuous recom
mendation of every exertion being made in each of our Free
Church localities for the support of our own schools. None
would more sincerely rejoice than I should, if, by the liberal
contributions given to our educational scheme, the popular
endowment were to supersede the necessity for a State endow
ment altogether. To avoid the hazard, or even the semblance
of any mischief, and I am hopeful that it is but a semblance,
yet, to avoid even this, I should look upon it as a higher posi
tion, if we could draw all our means for a sound education to
our families from the liberality of our Christian friends, rather
than from the public treasury.
" 3. I am inclined to hold that the Free Church fully acquits
herself of all that she owes on the score of principle by her
honest and fearless testimony under the first head, and her
earnest recommendations under the second. Should the recom
mendation, however, not take full effect, and should Govern
ment at the same time abstain from all control over our
methods, and although they inspected as much as they had a
mind to, I would be far from laying an authoritative interdict
on the managers in any of our localities against their availing
themselves of Government aid. I would therefore leave the
determination of this question in each particular case to the
consciences of those who have to do with it.
" 4. And let it ever be recollected that if we should come to
any deliverance at all, it must be a very peculiar one, and very
different from that of our dissenting Voluntaries. It is my
earnest prayer that the Free Church may be rightly guided in
this matter. — Ever believe me, my dear Sir, yours very truly,
- Rev. Dr. Cunningham." THOMAS CHALMERS.
During the last few months of his life the subject of national
education was much upon Dr. Chalmers's mind. Convinced

MS. 67. GOVERNMENT SCHEME OF EDUCATION. 493
that the Free Church, or any other Church, was as unlikely by
its voluntary efforts to supply the educational, as it was to
supply the spritual wants of the country, that what would have
been the best system for the Government to adopt was no
longer practicable, and anxious that public aid in some large
and effective way should be extended, he had pondered the pro
blem as to the course which, under existing circumstances, the
Government should pursue. His views, the fruit of much pre
vious consideration, were stated by him in conversation to
Mr. Fox Maule, and other members of Her Majesty's Govern
ment, whom he met in London in May. Mr. Maule having
requested that he would embody them in writing, he took
advantage of a day's leisure while living with his sister, Mrs.
Morton, in Gloucestershire, on his way home, to comply with this
request. The following paper prepared under these circum
stances, and with this object, was written about a week before
his death, and comes to us sealed with the impressive charac
teristic of being the last formal expression of his judgment on
any great public question.
" It were the best state of things that we had a Parliament
sufficiently theological to discriminate between the right and
the wrong in religion, and to encourage or endow accordingly.
But failing this, it seems to us the next best thing, that in any
public measure for helping on the education of the people,
Government were to abstain from introducing the element of
religion at all into their part of the scheme, and this not be
cause they held the matter to be insignificant — the contrary
might be strongly expressed in the preamble of their act ; but
on the ground that, in the present divided state of the Chris
tian world, they would take no cognizance of, just because they
would attempt no control over, the religion of applicants for
aid — leaving this matter entire to the parties who had to do
with the erection and management of the schools which they

494 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1847.
had been called upon to assist. A grant by the State upon
this footing might be regarded as being appropriately and ex
clusively the expression of their value for a good secular edu
cation. " The confinement for the time being of any Government
measure for schools to this object we hold to be an imputation,
not so much on the present state of our Legislature, as on the
present state of the Christian world, now broken up into sects
and parties innumerable, and seemingly incapable of any effort
for so healing these wretched divisions as to present the rulers
of our country with aught like such a clear and unequivocal
majority in favour of what is good and true, as might at once
determine them to fix upon and to espouse it.
"It is this which has encompassed the Government with
difficulties, from which we can see no other method of extrica
tion than the one which we have ventured to suggest. And as
there seems no reason why, because of these unresolved differ
ences, a public measure for the health of all — for the recreation
of all — for the economic advancement of all — should be held in
abeyance, there seems as little reason why, because of these
differences, a public measure for raising the general intelligence
of all should be held in abeyance. Let the men, therefore, of
all churches and all denominations alike hail such a measure,
whether as carried into effect by a good education in letters or
in any of the sciences ; and, meanwhile, in these very semi
naries, let that education in religion which the Legislature ab
stains from providing for, be provided for as freely and amply
as they will by those who have undertaken the charge of them.
" We should hope, as the result of such a scheme, for a most
wholesome rivalship on the part of many in the great aim of
rearing on the basis of their respective systems a moral and
Christian population, well taught in the principles and doctrines
of the gospel, along with being well taught in the lessons of

JET. 67. GOVERNMENT SCHEME OF EDUCATION. 495
ordinary scholarship. Although no attempt should be made to
regulate or to enforce the lessons of religion in the inner hall
of legislation, this will not prevent, but rather stimulate to a
greater earnestness in the contest between truth and falsehood
— between light and darkness — in the outer field of society ;
nor will the result of such a contest in favour of what is right
and good be at all the more unlikely, that the families of the
land have been raised by the helping hand of the State to a
higher platform than before, whether as respects their health,
or their physical comfort, or their economic condition, or, last
of all, their place in the scale of intelligence and learning.
" Religion would, under such a system, be the immediate
product, not of legislation, but of the Christian and philanthro
pic zeal which obtained throughout society at large. But it is
well when what legislation does for the fulfilment of its object
tends not to the impediment, but rather, we apprehend, to the
furtherance of those greater and higher objects which are in
the contemplation of those whose desires are chiefly set on the
immortal wellbeing of man.
" On the basis of these general views I have two remarks to
offer regarding the Government Scheme of Education.
" 1. I should not require a certificate of satisfaction with the
religious progress of the scholars from the managers of the
schools, in order to their receiving the Government aid. Such
a certificate from Unitarians or Catholics implies the direct
sanction or countenance by Government to their respective
creeds, and the responsibility, not of allowing, but more than
this, of requiring, that these shall be taught to the children who
attend. A bare allowance is but a general toleration ; but a
requirement involves in it all the mischief, and, I would add,
the guilt, of an indiscriminate endowment for truth and error.
" 2. I would suffer parents or natural guardians to select what
parts of the education they wanted for their children. I would

496 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1847.
not force arithmetic upon them, if all they wanted was writing
and reading ; and as little would I force the Catechism, or any
part of the religious instruction that was given in the school, if
all they wanted was a secular education. That the managers
in the Church of England schools shall have the power to im
pose their Catechism upon the children of Dissenters, and still
more, to compel their attendance on church, I regard as among
the worst parts of the scheme.
" The above observations, it will be seen, meet any questions
which might be put in regard to the applicability of the scheme
to Scotland, or in regard to the use of the Douay version in
Roman Catholic schools.
" I cannot conclude without expressing my despair of any
great or general good being effected in the way of Christianizing
our population, but through the medium of a Government them
selves Christian, and endowing the true religion, which I hold
to be their imperative duty, not because it is the religion of the
many, but because it is true.
" The scheme on which I have now ventured to offer these
few observations I should like to be adopted, not because it is
absolutely the best, but only the best in existing circumstances.
" The endowment of the Catholic religion by the State I
should deprecate, as being ruinous to the country in all its in
terests. Still, I do not look for the general Christianity of the
people but through the medium of the Christianity of their
rulers. This is a lesson taught historically in Scripture by
what we read there of the influence which the personal char
acter of the Jewish monarchs had on the moral and religious
state of their subjects — it is taught experimentally by the im
potence, now fully established, of the Voluntary principle—
and last, and most decisive of all, it is taught prophetically in
the Book of Revelation, when told that then will the kingdoms
of the earth (j3aatXelai, or governing powers) become the king-

MS. 67. REFUSAL OF SITES. 497
doms of our Lord Jesus Christ ; or the governments of the
earth become Christian governments. — Thomas Chalmers."
There was one other expression of Dr. Chalmers's opinion
delivered so publicly and so close upon his death, that a pecu
liar weight attaches to it. At the Disruption a large body of
the landed aristocracy of Scotland had refused upon any terms
to grant sites on which churches or manses might be built.
Such stable fabrics would give permanence to a movement
which they intensely disliked, and might prevent that re
union with the Establishment which, when the flush of the
first excitement was over, they hoped to see accomplished.
When these anticipations were falsified, and it became evident
that the Free Church was to rank among the permanent
institutions of the country, many of these hostile proprietors
gave way, but a goodly number still stood out. Having
waited patiently, but in vain, for two years, in the hope that
this spirit of intolerance would spontaneously subside, and
having exhausted all means of private influence and remon
strance, the General Assembly of 1845 petitioned Parlia
ment and the Legislature, stating the grievance, and praying
for legislative redress. The Government having shewn no
disposition to move in the matter, Mr. Maule, in June 1846,
introduced a bill into the House of Commons, the object of
which was to oblige the proprietors to* concede. The leading
members of the House concurred in condemning the conduct
complained of, but as its conclusion was thought to be too
stringent, and the hope was cherished that their own good
sense and good feeling would induce the proprietors to yield
without the necessity of legislative interference, the Bill was
thrown out. No symptoms of concession appearing, Mr.
Bouverie, in March 1847, moved and carried the appointment
of a Committee of the House " to inquire whether, and in what
VOL. IV. 2 T

498 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1847.
parts of Scotland, and under what circumstances, large numbers
of Her Majesty's subjects have been deprived of the means of
religious worship by the refusal of certain proprietors to grant
them sites for the erection of churches." It soon became
evident that the examination of witnesses before the Committee
was to take a wide and important range, and that an attempt
was to be made by representing the grounds of the Disruption
as so untenable, and .the opposition offered to the Establishment
so violent, as to palliate if not excuse even the strong step
of refusing sites for churches. In these circumstances, it was
deemed desirable that Dr. Chalmers should appear as a witness
before the Committee. He had lately retired very much from
public life, and was in a situation to take a wider and
calmer survey of the principles and position of the Free
Church, than was possible at the period of the Disruption,
or easy even now for those still mixed up with her affairs.
His withdrawal from the public business of the Church had
even created in some quarters the impression, that disap
pointed in his first expectations, the strength of Dr. Chalmers's
attachment to the Free Church had been of late somewhat
shaken, so that no small amount of curiosity was awakened
as to what kind of evidence he would give. On Sabbath the
2d of May, he assisted at the Communion in the Free Church
of Ratho, and preached the evening sermon, his last in Scot
land. On the Thursday following, accompanied by his son-in-
law, Mr. Mackenzie, he set out for London, where he arrived on
the evening of Friday the 7th, when he found that his examina
tion was not to take place till the following Wednesday. Oh
the intervening Sabbath he officiated in Mary-le-bone Presby
terian Church. From his own journal-letters we offer the
following extracts : —
" Sunday, May 9th. — Preached with greater comfort than
I had ever done before in London. The church was thin when

MS. 67. JOURNAL. 499
we first entered it, but became full, with a good many in
the passages, before I began. Preached less than an hour ;
made an early retreat from the vestry to Mr. Carmichael's
house close by. Was afterwards told that Lord John Rus
sell, Lady Carlisle, Lord Morpeth's mother, and Lord Morpeth
himself, had come to the vestry to shake hands with me,
but I had gone. * * * Delighted with a call after dinner
from Dr. Bunting, with whom I and Mr. Mackenzie were left
alone for an hour at least. Most exquisite interview with one
of the best and wisest of men. Mr. M. and I both love him to
the uttermost.
"Monday, 10th. — Went a second time to the Athenaeum. On
my way met a gentleman coming out of it, who looked hard at
me, and continued looking after we passed ; and when I parted
from Mr. Hamilton came back to me. It was Dr. Whewell,
Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. As we stood and talked
at the door, there came to it two members, to whom he in
troduced me — the Bishop of Gloucester, and Mr. Lyell the
geologist. Dr. Whewell and I sat together at our little table
in the Athenaeum, where we talked and took our respective
soda waters. The treasurer and secretary are both most
attentive to me, and I have a good mind to propose the North
British Review for being taken in, which I fear it is not yet ;
at least I have not met it, though I have gone through a
great number of their papers and periodicals. Went back to
my lodgings, where I siesta'd — thence at five to the National
Gallery, where we spent half-an-hour among the pictures of
the great masters : Wilkie is conspicuous by a statue of him
at the entrance and a large portrait up-stairs,* The pictures are
* Wilkie told Dr. Chalmers that he once met in the Strand a group, consisting
of a man and two children, and that his eye was arrested by an object which con
vinced him that they were the whole family, — it was the great door-key which one
of them was carrying. Dr. Chalmers observed that Wilkie had availed himself of

500 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1847.
few and select, but of first-rate value, and I should like to re
visit them ; — the Gallery is but a step from our lodgings.
Thence took a cab for Mr. Maule's, where we dined ; — a small
eightsome party, reminding me of Lord Lansdowne's select
parties round a small circular table. Besides Mr. and Mrs.
Maule, Miss Abercrombie, a nephew, and ourselves, there were but
two more — Mr. Rutherfurd, Lord Advocate, and last, though not
least, Lord Morpeth. We had a deal of easy familiar talk about
the Government Scheme of Education, Health of Towns, (Lord
Morpeth's department,) Territorial System, &o, &c. After
coffee I had a sofa talk with Lord Morpeth on the subject of
West Port improvements, nuisances, public health, &c, &c. I
like him very much, — intelligent, philanthropic, with all the
grace and culture of high aristocracy without its hauteur ; he
took a most friendly adieu of me when he and the other Parlia-
menters went off to attend the House of Commons : we sat
half-an-hour after them with the ladies. Ordered a cab a little
after nine ; off to Warwick Street, and flung myself into bed
at ten.
" Tuesday, 1 lth. — Crossed at Westminster Bridge, where I saw
for the first time the magnificent Houses of Parliament, and
was powerfully impressed by them. Landed at Mrs. Chalmers's*
before three, — a feeling and affectionate reception. I proposed
to pray with her, to which she readily assented ; she was
much affected ; — altogether it was a serious interview, and my
brother's faithful and vivid picture has haunted me ever since.
* * * After my siesta went off to the Athenseum, where I
had my reviews and newspapers. I am now in the library with
other quiet philosophic looking savans at our respective tables,
and am writing you on Athenseum paper with Athenseum ink,
this circumstance in his picture of the Rent Day — substituting, however, a widow
for a widower.
* The widow of his brother James.

MS. 67. EXAMINATION BEFORE THE COMMITTEE. 501
and by an Athenseum metallic pen. In the large room where
I had my solitary tea, there were twenty or thirty at their
separate dinners. * * * The impression of my brother's
picture still adheres to me ; it is an affecting memento, and
may well loosen our attachments to time. May we be wise for
eternity ! "
" Wednesday, 12th. — Here I am, in anxious expectancy * *
At length the call came, and I took leave of my gossips in the
lobby, for my inquisitors in the Committee-room. Sir James
was there, and when I entered rose from his seat, came down
to the floor, and shook hands with me, with smiles and bland-
nesses of expression, that made him as unlike a worricow as
possible. Mr. Bouverie was in the chair ; but Mr. Maule con
ducted the examination, which he did ably and satisfactorily
Sir James rose in the middle of it and went out, and I thought
he was really to keep his promise. But he did not, for he re
turned ; and had a number of documents along with him, — my
printed speeches, concluding Moderator's Address to the Free
Church Assembly, the very Montrose paper where was my letter
anent Gladstone, &c. &c. Thus armed, he fell upon me for an
hour or so, to the great surprise of Mr. Maule, who told me
afterwards that he had said in public he should not put one
question, — he could not, in the face of old friendly recollections,
&c. &c. My only regret is, that his questioning process of an
hour, was the last hour, when, a good deal exhausted, I was
scarcely able either mentally to frame, or orally to articulate a
reply. However, I kept my ground ; and I saw many a friendly
smile elicited by my replies. There was an awkwardness that
occurred when he asked me about the women's voting, and I
said, I ever looked upon that as a most paltry question, on which
he reddened, supposing that I meant the question as coming
from him, instead of the question or topic in itself. However,
he was mild and gentlemanly throughout, and shed many a be-

502 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1847.
nignant smile from the tribunal where he sat, on the panel at
the bar. On one occasion when he asked me about the wisdom
of legislating on some one point or other — some very ambigu
ous matter, and on which he thought to press me hard — I said
that I did not feel it was for me to instruct legislators in their
duties. There was a general smile, and he got off by the re
ply, that from me he should ever be happy to receive instruction
upon all subjects. However, in his hands, the examination did
at length degenerate into twaddle, and the best answer from
me would have been that it was twaddle. But as I could not
just say this, and behoved to give him some sort of answer, I
was obliged ' to answer a fool according to his folly,' — so that
as you have heard of trash upon trash, you may perhaps yet
read of twaddle upon twaddle ! We kept our ground, however,
and I was at perfect ease throughout. His main topics were,
female voting, the possibility of a re-union wdth the Establish
ment, my London lectures — on which he told me that he heard
with great satisfaction my advocacy of the Erastian Church of
England — my former intimacy with the Duke of Buccleuch,
my views of patronage, spiritual independence, &c, &o* I told
him that I did not advocate the Church of England ; that I
felt more hopeful of it then than now, when like to be overrun
by Puseyism ; that even then I denounced its figment of an
Apostolical succession, and, without directly attacking its Eras
tianism, spoke of our own independence, and in terms which
provoked the jealousy of English churchmen, &c, &c. He also
spoke of intercommunion with the Establishment, and tried to
embarrass me on points of previous examination under Mr.
Maule ; and so we concluded in a state of great exhaustion,
yet with an erect demeanour and visage unabashed. Lord
Morpeth and Mr. Maule took me to the House of Lords —
the finest room I ever saw, and by which we now outpeer both
* For some of the most important parts of the Evidence, see Appendix K.

Ml. 67. SIR ALEXANDER CARMICHAEL. 503
Versailles and Fontainebleau. There is a profusion of gilding
which would have too gaudy an effect were not this counter
acted by the massiveness and magnificence of the whole. The
general effect both out and in disarms all criticism . anent the
details. Mr. Carmichael was by this time with us, and he ac
companied me to the Treasury, where I called on Mr. Trevelyan
to thank him for his blue books, — a most interesting person,
with all the thoughtfulness and exhaustion of an overworked
student pictured in his countenance. He told me that he had
read my article with the deepest interest, but offered only
one criticism — that I had underrated the difficulties of the
Government. He spoke with the highest admiration of the
Highlanders, for that not a sheep had disappeared from
the hills, not a baker's shop had been broken into — in total
contrast with Ireland. I left him with much cordial re
gard : he and Lord Morpeth are the most interesting people
I have met in London. Walked thence through the Park
to the Athenseum, at the gate of which I parted with Mr.
Carmichael, well prepared for my dinner at five. Being a tee
totaller, I determined to repair my exhaustion with good meat
instead of drink ; and so, on inspecting the bill of fare, ordered
a dinner as analogous as I could make it to kale and beef ; so
for the kale I had a plateful of mock -turtle soup, and calf 's-
foot for the beef. After this, siesta'd — and where ? — still in the
Athenseum, on one of the sofas of their quiet library, while
the silent readers to the number of four or five were lounging
upon their sofas or arm-chairs in other parts of the capacious
and handsome room. Arose refreshed between six and seven ;
expatiated among the newspapers ; got home before nine. * *
" Sir James tried to heckle me, but I hope unsuccessfully, on
what I had alleged as the unanimous view of Scotchmen in re
gard to the distinction between civil and ecclesiastical : that
and the intercommunion questions I could have managed bet-

504 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1847.
ter had I been fresh. * * * Thus much in bed — it being
now eight. I must start for Mr. Carmichael's, where we break
fast.— May the very God of peace sanctify us wholly.
" Thursday, 13th. — Started at eight, got into a cab and
drove to Mr. Carmichael's,* where Lady Kinloch, his sister,
was. Mr. and Mrs. Davies there — he the son of Hart Davies,
and connected with the Harfords of Blaize Castle, where we
lived ; also Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Kinnaird ; Rev. Mr. Burgess,
now settled at Chelsea ; Rev. Mr. Russel, a very fine man, who
called me out to explain my proceedings at the West Port to
an audience of by this time about twenty, for they came drop
ping in after breakfast. A cab to Mr. Morell's ; a most interest
ing man — a palid, reflective countenance, and very conversable
on his own subjects. He accompanied me to Portland Place,
when I took leave of him at the door of Lady Radstock,
who received us in the kindest manner possible. Lord Rad
stock was engaged out of doors, and we saw not him ; but
there were two grown-up daughters, very frank and intelli
gent, and among all the three a fine enthusiasm which we both
liked exceedingly. Lunched, and took a most affectionate part
ing of each other. Nothing, indeed, could exceed the social
pleasure of these calls. * * *
"Friday, 14th. — A. most splendid party breakfast in our
lodgings — Isaac Taylor, Mr. Morell, Rev. James Hamilton, Mr.
Baptist Noel, his son Wriothesly Noel, now a grown-up lad, and
George Weakner. A deal of talk : the main subject was Mr.
Irving. Mr. Taylor, whom I had not seen for ten years, looks a
great deal more than ten years older. The most interesting
appearance and manner of a man were those of Mr. Morell —
modest and quiet, and very intelligent; but Taylor the person of
* The late Sir Alexander Gibson Carmichael, Bart, of Skirling, who, dying too
soon for his country and his friends, gave so many affecting evidences on his death
bed of the triumphs of Christian faith.

iET. 67. MR. CARLYLE. 505
greatest vigour. Mr. Hamilton's recent tracts are truly beautiful,
particularly the ' Vine ' from John xv. They left after ten,
Taylor and Morell going off together. * * * We took a cab
to Carlyle's at Chelsea. Nothing could be warmer than Mrs.
Carlyle's reception of me, (formerly Miss Welsh, who visited us
at Ardincaple Inn.) She is remarkably juvenile looking still.
He came to us in a minute or two. I had lost all recollection of
him, though he told me of three interviews, and having breakfast
ed with me at Glasgow. A strong-featured man, and of strong
sense. We were most cordial and coalescing, and he very com
plimentary and pleasant ; but his talk was not at all Carlylish,
much rather the plain and manly conversation of good ordinary
common sense, with a deal of hearty laughing on both sides.
The points on which I was most interested were his approval
of my territorial system, and his eulogy on direct thinking, to
the utter disparagement of those subjective philosophers who
are constantly thinking upon thinking. We stopped more than
an hour with him. * * * Mr. Carlyle professed his willing
ness to write for the ' North British,' I think Morell would do
the same."
Attracted by his desire to spend a day with the Misses Fryer,
Dr. Chalmers went down to Brighton on Saturday the 15th ;
preached for the Rev. Mr. Ross on Sabbath, and returned to
town on the following morning. His last day in London was
spent with Mrs. Cardwell, the daughter of one* whom he used
often to speak of as the most perfect earthly pattern he had
ever seen of every feminine and Christian grace. Eager to get
on to Gloucestershire, yet anxious to catch a glimpse of Oxford
by the way, he accompanied Dr. Buckland on Tuesday forenoon
from London to that University, revelled for two or three hours
amid its Colleges and Halls, returned in time to catch the train
for Bristol, and was welcomed at night by his sister Mrs. Morton
* Mrs. Parker of Fairlie.
VOL. IV. 2 U

506 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1847.
at Whitfield, near Wooton-under-Edge. Talking first of what
he had last seen, he was instant and profuse in his expressions
of regret at the depressed condition of science and general lite
rature at Oxford. He had attended a lecture on geology by
Dr. Buckland, and though both subject and lecture were so at
tractive, there were not more than half-a-dozen students in
attendance. — The week which followed was one of pure and
unmingled gratification. Wednesday was devoted to a drive
through the Bottoms of Gloucestershire, presenting such a suc
cession of rich and varied landscapes, that with all their acade
mic enthusiasm, both Dr. Chalmers and Mr. Mackenzie declared
.that the glories of Oxford were eclipsed. The record of Satur
day must be given in Dr. Chalmers's own words : —
"Saturday, 15th. — Rode to Bristol on the more elevated of
the two roads^ and had a glorious view on our right of the Vale
of the Severn, and the opposite Monmouthshire. Landed, on
our entry into Bristol, at Mr. Norton's, my nephew-in-law. Like
him and his two boys, of three years and fourteen months respec
tively. Mrs. Norton most cordial. Set out between eleven and
twelve. Called first on Mrs. Robert Hall, who received us
with great feeling and friendship. She has two daughters
married, and one unmarried ; but not at home. Was greatly
interested by the various pictures and busts of Mr. Hall in the
room where we sat. 2. By the Vale of Clifton, the Rev. Thomas
Grinfield, whose reception of us was quite enthusiastic. The
son whom we knew is a medical practitioner in Jersey. His
wife and daughter and another son were alike cordial. The
lad of 1822 is now transformed, into a sexagenarian, and I
should certainly not have known him. He could not make
enough of me ; and instead of leaving him at the end of our
call, took him along with us. He first took me to a Mrs. Dal-
rymple, (Scotch and Free Church,) and we had a genial greeting,
then to Mr. Marshall, whom I intended to call on at any rate.

MS. 67. THE BAPTISM AT BRISTOL. 507
He gave us a most friendly reception. In conjunction with
Messrs. Marshall and Grinfield, we went to the cliff, and the
whole party enjoyed therefrom the view of the Avon, and of
the country at large. We then got into our fly, and took leave
of Mr. Marshall ; but Mr. Grinfield, notwithstanding our limited
time, gave secret orders to drive back by his house, whither he
himself walked quickly, and met us with a gift of Mr. Foster's
'Lectures,' just published, (second series,) inscribed to me
as a memorial of my visit. Left him with great affection
on both sides. Thence back to the Norton's, where there was
tea, to which a good many had been invited ; last, though
not least, Mr. Ellis, author of the ' Polynesian Researches,'
still fit for society and duty, though a good deal debilitated by
two paralytic attacks which he had some years ago : most in
teresting talk with him on Otaheite. It was he who both
baptized and married Queen Pomare. His daughter lived some
time with the Nortons ; and his present wife, the second, is an
esteemed authoress, as of ' Prevention better than Cure,' &c.
I liked the party very much as a whole ; and our tea was fol
lowed up by the baptism of the younger children, which was laid
upon me with the full consent and approbation of Mr. Haines,
their clergyman ; it was a very awkward affair, — one vivacious
boy of fourteen months was kicking and sprawling and laughing
during the whole of my address ; and then to complete the thing,
the bairn instead of being held out to me horizontally was
held out perpendicularly ; so that I could not apply the water
to the face of it but by touching its brow with my wet hand
ful, and letting as much as I could trickle down. The child
(Alexander Robert) thought I was playing with it, and got up
with a great guffaw of a laugh as the water flowed down its
cheeks. I learned afterwards that the Independent ministers,
like the Episcopalian, take the child in the one arm and bap
tize with the other — a thing which I could not have managed,

508 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1847.
and more especially with a boy so active and athletic as he was.
This explained, however, the perpendicularity of the presenta
tion by the father. Left at half-past six. We made a detour
of three miles to see Foster's daughters now at Overn with
their aunt Mrs. Cox. This Mr. M. and I regard as the highest
thing of the day. There was only one Miss Foster at home ;
but both she and Mrs. Cox were as friendly as possible ; nothing
could be more gratifying than their reception ; and we had a
deal of genial talk about Mr. Foster. His books and pictures
are kept entire at Overn. On taking leave, Miss Foster pre
sented me with the Lectures, which, as coming from her, I
could not refuse, though now in possession of a duplicate. We
left towards eight, and had a rapid journey home through a
lower road to the west of the former, reaching Whitfield at
about half-past nine."
On Sunday Dr. Chalmers preached his last sermon in the
Independent Chapel of the Rev. Mr. Dove, — his text being
Isaiah xxvii. 4, 5. In the course of this visit he met with
many Independent ministers, and had much conversation with
them relative to the Evangelical Alliance, the Education
Question, and Voluntaryism. On the last mentioned topic
he was frequent and emphatic in his declarations that he
was quite satisfied, from the working of it in the Free Church,
that Voluntaryism was not calculated to do what it professed.
While ready freely and fully to state his views, he showed
himself averse to anything like controversy. Looking back
upon a day which had been particularly full of pleasure
to him, he said, " there was just one flaw upon that day's
enjoyment, I was too dogmatical on the Evangelical Alli
ance." " 0 uncle," said his niece, " I am sure they would
not think so." " It's no matter what they thought," he said ;
" I feel so myself, and have a feeling akin to self-reproach on
the subject." Great as were the many outward attractions

MS. 67. DARLINGTON. 609
of this visit, its chief pleasure lay in the quiet domestic inter
course with Mrs. Morton and her family. There was such
gentleness, playfulness, lovingness, running through the whole
of his deportment. " It was most delightful," says his niece, " to
watch his countenance. I never saw anything like the smiles
that gleamed one after another over it. He looked so happy,
so innocent, so childlike, that one could scarcely fancy him the
person before whom men of greatest intellect felt conscious in
feriority." Each day he read and prayed with Mrs. Morton in
her own room. Taking her daughter aside on the last day he
was at Whitfield, he took down the Bible, opened it, and said,
" Come, and look here." He then followed with his finger
every word, as he read the tenth verse of the fiftieth chapter
of Isaiah ; " Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that
obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness,
and hath no light ? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and
stay upon his God." " Now I am sure that you have the fear
of the Lord before you — thus obeying His voice. It would be
very delightful to see Jesus as He is at the right hand of God ;
but all do not enjoy this — it is not given to all ; but all may
obey His voice — you obey that voice by honouring your father
and mother — by attending to your household duties ; and if at
any time you be in darkness, see, here is what you have to do.
You know that the name of a person is very little compared
with his presence, and yet the Lord bids you take His name
and lean upon it, and stay yourself upon it, and that will be
enough for you." It was in such simple strains as this, that
his last Christian counsels were given to the members of a
family which had always been very dear to him ; and when he
was gone from them, the words and tones of his last prayer
still echoed through that dwelling, as they remembered how
earnestly he had asked that " one and all of them might be
shielded under the ample canopy of the Redeemer's righteous-

510 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1847.
ness ; that every hour that struck, every day that dawned,
every night that darkened around them, might find them
meeter for death, and for the eternity that follows it ; and that
when their earthly course was finished, they might meet and
spend together a never-ending Sabbath in the bright abodes
of purity and peace."
On the evening of Tuesday the 25th, Dr. Chalmers and Mr.
Mackenzie were received at Darlington by Mr. and Mrs. Back
house.* " A most delicious abode, both for enjoyment and
repose. Altogether, Mr. Mackenzie and I are exceedingly
delighted with this combination of Christianity and high
culture." Here, too, many memories of departed days and
departed friends were called up and fondly dwelt upon. He
listened with great emotion to Mrs. Backhouse's account of the
heavenly state of mind in which her father had lived for some
time before his death, and how particularly they had remarked
this on the occasion of his last visit to them at Darlington.
It was not many days till Mrs. Backhouse wrote of himself the
very same thing she had told him of her father. " I cannot,"
she says, " convey to you the impression he left on me of a
loving spirit ripe for those joys, for the realization of which he
was longing; while his most kind and affectionate manner
to myself endeared him more than I can say. His leave-
taking was most affectionate, saying, ' I love you all with the
affection of a Father.' " Penning the last sentences he ever
addressed to Mrs. Chalmers, to whom the whole of his journal
letters were upon this occasion exclusively directed, Dr. Chal
mers wrote, — " This is my last sheet. To-morrow (Friday)
evening I expect to see you, by the favour of Him whose right
hand preserves continually, and for whose grace on us all I
ever pray. — I ever am, my dearest Grace, yours most affection
ately. Thomas Chalmers."
* A daughter of J. J. Gurney, Esq.

JET. 67. HIS LAST SABBATH. 511
On Friday night he arrived at Edinburgh, bearing no pecu
liar marks of fatigue or exhaustion. At breakfast the next
morning his conversation was as lively and vigorous as ever.
He inquired of the Rev. Mr. Gemmel of Fairlie, who was stay
ing in his house, what business had been before the General
Assembly on the preceding evening. When told that it was an
overture relative to the renewal of an old testimony by the
Church, he was not satisfied as to the testimony required to be
given — he hoped that they would let the matter alone — he ex
pressed himself unfavourable to anything like a renewal of the
National Covenants, and that he preferred the making the
Church's testimony known rather by what it did than what it
declared. The forenoon of Saturday was occupied in preparing
a report which he was to read before the General Assembly on
the following Monday, part of which he now completed, leaving
the remainder to be executed on Monday morning before he rose.
On Sabbath morning he did not rise to breakfast. " He sent a
message to me," says Mr. Gemmel, " after breakfast to go and
see him in his bed-room. On entering the room, I found him
in bed, reclining on his back, propped up with pillows, his head
being very considerably elevated, which I believe was his usual
way of resting in bed. His bland and benevolent countenance
beamed upon me as I came up to his side, and he grasped me
warmly by the hand. ' I am sorry that you are unwell, to-day,
Doctor/ — ' I do not by any means feel unwell : I only require
a little rest.' He spoke with the greatest clearness and vigour ;
and I could not think that anything was wrong, but what might
arise from the lassitude produced by his late journey and exer
tions in the South. ' I am rejoiced,' said he, ' that the As
sembly have agreed to avail themselves of the grant for national
education ; and I trust that a sound Scriptural education will
pervade the whole length and breadth of the land. Your resolu
tions are, I think, to that effect ? ' I replied, ' Yes ; but one of

512 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1847.
our resolutions characterizes the national scheme as unsound
and latitudinarian. I fear that the scheme is latitudinarian ;
but I am not quite so clear as to the use of the word unsound.
Doddridge, for example, is latitudinarian ; but I should be very
unwilling to call him unsound. And Baxter is still more lati
tudinarian ; but I should be very unwilling, in the full sense of
the word, to call him unsound. There are what are called Bax-
terian errors, I am aware, and one of these is in relation to the
extent of the sacrifice of Christ ; Baxter, I think, holding that
Christ died for all men.' Dr. Chalmers answered, ' Yes : Baxter
holds that Christ died for all men ; but I cannot say that I am
quite at one with what some of our friends have written on the
subject of the atonement. I do not, for example, entirely agree
with what Mr. Haldane says on that subject. I think that
the word world, as applied in Scripture to the sacrifice of
Christ, has been unnecessarily restricted ; the common way of
explaining it is, that it simply includes Gentiles as well as
Jews. I do not like that explanation ; and I think that there
is one text that puts that interpretation entirely aside. The
text to which I allude is, that "God commandeth all men, every
where to repent." ' Here the Doctor spoke of the connexion
between the election of God, the sacrifice of Christ, and the
freeness of the offer of the Gospel. He spoke with great elo
quence, and I felt as if he were in the pulpit, as some of his
finest bursts rolled from his lips. ' In the offer of the gospel,'
said he, ' we must make no limitation whatever. I compare
the world to a multitude of iron filings in a vessel, and the
gospel to a magnet. The minister of the gospel must bring the
magnet into contact with them all : the secret agency of God
is to produce the attraction.' — ' But,' said I, ' a common ob
jection of the sinner, when awakened to a sense of his state, is,
" Perhaps I am not elected ; and, therefore, I need not try." '
' That,' said he, ' is cutting before the point. I am a predes-

jET. 67. HIS LAST LETTER. 513
tinarian : my theology is that of Jonathan Edwards.' ' You
are a Necessitarian,' said I. ' Yes,' was the reply, ' a Necessi
tarian ; but I would always wish to be borne in mind a saying
of Bishop Butler — viz., " That we have not so much to inquire
what God does, or should do to us, as what are the duties which
we owe to Him." Human beings,' continued Dr. Chalmers,
'have the most strange way of keeping their accounts : they
have one way of keeping their accounts with the world, and
another way of keeping their accounts with Heaven. In rela
tion to the world, you will find men often open, and- generous,
and unsuspicious ; but then they keep their accounts with
Heaven in the most suspicious and niggardly manner, — in a
manner with which I can have no sympathy, — continually
striving against, and fighting with, the goodness and sincerity
of God, and will not take God at His word.' "
In the course of the forenoon, the Rev. Dr. Cunningham
called, and went with Dr. Chalmers to the afternoon service in
his usual place of worship — the Free Church at Morningside.
In accompanying Dr. Cunningham a short distance on his
way back to Newington. Dr. Chalmers expressed his great
satisfaction at the opportunity he had in London of giving his
evidence before the Sites Committee, dwelling with particular
complacency on the representation he had given of the position
in which the Free Church stood towards the Establishment.
Returning by Bruntsfield Links, he made his last call, on Mrs.
Coutts, one of the oldest and most beloved of his Fifeshire
friends. After tea he retired to his siesta, and wrote the fol
lowing letter to his sister,* Mrs. Morton : —
" Edinburgh, May 30th, 1847.
" My dearest Jane, — We reached this in safety on Friday
night, and found Mrs. Chalmers much stronger and better,
* This letter was found next morning upon his table, along with the writing
materials, which, as usual, lay within his reach.

514 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1847.
while your Lucy is quite well. What abundant reasons of
thankfulness to the great Preserver ! May He be the sanctifier
of us all.
" I never expected at one time to see you again in the flesh ;
but now I will form no definite prospect of any futurity on
this side of the grave. I am exceedingly happy that we have
met, and have derived from my visit fresh accessions of kindly
feeling and good will for one and all of you ; for Mr. Morton,
and Anne, and Mrs. Norton : and I like Mr. Norton, and do
hope and pray that you may be blest more and more in all
your relations and connexions.
" Give my kindest regards to Mrs. Maclellan, and with
earnest prayers for the mercy and grace of a reconciled Father
in heaven on one and all of us, — I ever am, my dearest Jane,
yours very truly and affectionately, Thomas Chalmers.
" Mrs. Morton."
He went out, after writing this note, into the garden behind
his house ; sauntering round which he was overheard by one
of his family, in low but very earnest tones, saying, " 0 Father,
my Heavenly Father !" On returning to the drawing-room, he
threw himself into his usual reclining posture. His conversa
tion at first was joyous and playful ; a shadow passed over him
as some disquieting thought arose — but a light spread over his
face as he said, that disquietudes lay light upon a man who
could fix his heart on heaven. " I'm fond," he said, " of the
Sabbath. ' Hail sacred Sabbath morn ! ' Do you like Grahame's
Sabbath, Mr. Gemmel? Dr. Johnson was very wrong in
saying that there can be no true poetry that is religious."
" At supper," says Mr. Gemmel, " I sat near him, at his right
hand. ' Are you much acquainted with the Puritan Divines,
Mr. Gemmel?' said he. I answered that I was, in some mea
sure. 'Which do you chiefly admire?' ' I think very much of

MS. 67. HIS DEATH. 515
Howe/ was my reply. ' And so do I,' said he ; 'he is my
favourite author. I think that he is the first of the Puritan
divines. I cannot say that I take much to his image of a
living temple ; but I have been lately reading his " Delighting
in God," and I admire it much.'
" After supper, addressing me, ' You gave us worship,' said
he, ' in the morning ; I am sorry to ask you again to give
worship in the evening.' ' Not at all,' said I, ' I will be happy
to do so.' ' Well,' said he, ' you will give worship to-night ;
and I expect to give worship to-morrow morning.' Before
worship commenced, and just as the servants were preparing to
come up stairs, he asked me whether I had read the Sermons
of Mr. Purves of Jedburgh. I answered that I had not.
' They are very excellent sermons,' said he ; ' and there is one,
in which he rids the marches between the election of God on
the one hand, and the freeness of the Gospel on the other,
which is admirable.' "
During the whole of the evening, as if he had kept his bright
est smiles and fondest utterances to the last, and for his own,
he was peculiarly bland and benignant. " I had seen him fre
quently," says Mr. Gemmel, " at Fairlie, and in his most happy
moods, but I never saw him happier. Christian benevolence
beamed from his countenance, sparkled in his eye, and played
upon his lips." Immediately after prayers he withdrew, and
bidding his family remember that they must be early to
morrow, he waved his hand, saying, " A general good-night."
Next morning, before eight o'clock, Professor MacDougall, who
lived in the house adjoining, sent to inquire about a packet
of papers which he had expected to receive at an earlier hour.
The housekeeper, who had been long in the family, knocked at
the door of Dr. Chalmers's room, but received no answer. Con
cluding that he was asleep, and unwilling to disturb him, she
waited till another party called with a second message ; she

516 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1847.
then entered the room — it was in darkness ; she spoke, but
there was no response. At last she threw open the window-
shutters, and drew aside the curtains of the bed. • He sat there,
half erect, his head reclining gently on the pillow ; the expres
sion of his countenance that of fixed and majestic repose. She
took his hand — she touched his. brow ; he had been dead for
hours : very shortly after that parting salute to his family he had
entered the eternal world. It must have been wholly without
pain or conflict. The expression of the face undisturbed by a
single trace of suffering, the position of the body so easy that
the least struggle would have disturbed it, the very posture
of arms and hands and fingers known to his family as that
into which they fell naturally in the moments of entire repose,
— conspired to shew, that, saved all strife with the last enemy,
his spirit had passed to its place of blessedness and glory in
the heavens. " Servant of God, well done !
Rest from thy loved employ ;
The battle o'er, the victory won,
Enter thy Master's joy.
" The cry at midnight came,
He started up to hear ;
A mortal arrow pierced his frame, —
He fell, but felt no fear.
" His spirit with a bound
Left its encumbering clay ;
His tent at sunrise on the ground
A darken'd ruin lay."

See Appendix L.

APPENDIX.

APPENDIX.

APPENDIX A.— P. 49.
Extract from Sed'gewick's " Discourse on the Studies of the Umiver-
sity of Cambridge." — Appendix, Note E.
" When on this question I may allude to a conversation I once held with
the illustrious philosopher La Place. It was in his sick-chamber, which I
believe he never left, and not many days before his death. Among other
subjects, he inquired into the nature of our endowments and our course of
academic study, which I explained to him at full length. He then dwelt
earnestly on the religious character of our endowments, and added, as
nearly as I can translate his words, ' I think this right ; and on this point I
should deprecate any great organic.changes in your system : for I have lived
long enough to know, what I did not at one time believe, that no society
can be upheld in happiness and honour without the sentiments of religion.'
The dying philosopher may, while using these words, have had nothing in
his mind beyond the principles of worldly wisdom and the bearing of reli
gious sentiments on the order and wellbeing of the State. On this point 1
venture not to inquire ; but the words record a great practical truth ; and
having fallen so impressively from his lips are surely worth recording."

APPENDIX B.— P. 167.
As the misunderstanding between Lord Aberdeen and Dr. Chalmers
hinged so much upon this point, I subjoin the following from Dr. Chalmers's
correspondence at this period : —

520 APPENDIX.
Extracts from Letters of the Rev. Robert Buchanan, Glasgow,
" London, February 26<A, 1840. — I have had a long and interesting con
versation with Lord Aberdeen. I think I have put an end to all misunder
standing between him and the Committee. I read to him a sentence of a
letter of Mr. Dunlop received this morning, in which he expressed himself as
afraid his Lordship was insisting on the Presbytery sustaining the reason
ableness of the dissent, in every case in which they chose to give effect to
it. He does not mean this at all. Even though the Presbytery should
think the dissent unreasonable, abstractly considered, still, if they were of
opinion that, in the circumstances of the case, it was not for edification
the settlement should go on, they should have full liberty, for that reason,
of their own, to reject the presentee.
" London, March 10th, 1840. — Lord Aberdeen thinks there is now not the
least chance of the Government proposing to legalize the Veto ; and hopes,
in consequence, that their measure, if they do propose one, may be of a
character which he and his friends will be able to support. He told
me that Lord Melbourne, and one or two other members of the Govern
ment, had been more than once consulting confidentially with him on the
subject, though he did not seem to be sure what they might ultimately
resolve to do. Seeing that he is in communication with Government, I
thought it as well to hint at a specific measure, and reverted to the scheme
described in my letter of the 26th. He appeared still quite favourable to
it, and if the Government propose such a measure, I am quite confident he
and his friends will support it.
"'Glasgow, April 1st, 1840. — After I wrote you from London on Monday
afternoon, I went to the House of Lords to hear Lord Aberdeen put his
question to Lord Melbourne. The newspapers will have informed you of
what passed on that occasion, as well as at the same time between Sir R.
Peel and Lord John Russell in the House of Commons. While there I
saw Mr. Colquhoun, who told me he had just been talking with Mr. Banner-
man, M.P. for Aberdeen, who spoke in this way of the intentions of Govern
ment : — ' That they were very far from abandoning the intention to
legislate ; on the contrary, that they would have their proposed measure
printed, — in this way afford an opportunity to the Church, country, &c,
to give their opinions on it, — and that after the Assembly they would
bring it into Parliament!'
" In short, they wish to keep up the appearance of still intending to deal
with the question, and to act favourably towards the Church,
" Now it is neither our duty nor our interest to quarrel with the Govern-

APPENDIX. 521
ment, but we must not suffer ourselves to be humbugged. The Committee
can, of course, accept nothing as intended by Government, but vikat they
stated to the deputation — and that was, that they would not venture to legis
late, at least at present. Now, as the Committee esteem it to be necessary
to have legislation at least begun before the Assembly, we are shut up to
the course alluded to in my letter of Monday, of immediately negotiating
with Lord Aberdeen. Now the Scylla and Charybdis of the case are these :
— If Government had proposed the popular veto, Lord Aberdeen and his
friends would oppose ; if the latter propose the Presbyterial veto, Govern
ment would oppose. In such circumstances, neither measure could be
carried. Now Lord Aberdeen is quite alive to this ; and to avoid this
danger, as well as for the sake of many other advantages the plan possesses,
he is very favourably inclined towards the positive form of the call. He
did not of course say he would pledge himself to support such a measure
until he had more maturely considered it, and ascertained the opinions of
some friends whose concurrence would be indispensable. But I am strongly
persuaded that if the Committee strongly and unanimously urge it, and
speak with confidence of its being certain to be satisfactory to the Church
and country at large, he would undertake it. He will not introduce any
measure, unless he has it in his power to say it would give satisfaction to
the Church. The positive call would not be opposed by Government, and
would therefore, if introduced by the Conservatives, be sure to carry.
Moreover, it would not be so offensive to the minority of the Church, as
not being the measure they are pledged to oppose. It gets rid of many
difficulties. The Act of Parliament authorizing it need be not more than
a couple of sentences. In short, for many more reasons than I have time
at this moment to state, I am deeply persuaded that the whole energies of
the Committee should be bent towards the inducing of Lord Aberdeen to
take up this measure. The chief difficulty will be getting him to agree
that the concurrence of a majority should be necessary. Now the Church
can and ought to agree to its being a majority of those communicants
assembled in congregation at the moderation of the call ; and Lord Aber
deen admitted that practically this would not be a greater portion of the
parish, than he would think it ' wise and just' to require the concurrence
of. But as it would theoretically look more, the patrons may boggle at it.
Still, from the way he spoke, I do not think he despairs of getting their
acquiescence. In short, nothing could be more satisfactory than his whole
tone and language upon the subject.
" London, 1, Lancaster Place, Strand, 2,7th April, 1840. — I put my views
thus to Lord Aberdeen : — That there were two grounds on which we (meaning
VOL. IV. 2 X

522 APPENDIX.
the Non-Intrusionists in the coming Assembly) might oppose a bill ; one, the
ground of conscience — the other, the ground of expediency. That if his
Lordship's Bill should be found to involve the former ground of objection,
we must resist it at all hazards ; that if it involved only the latter ground of
objection, we would no doubt state that objection, and point out what we
might think more desirable, but that we would submit to act under it, rather
than peril the existence of the Establishment. And that his Lordship
might understand what was meant by the ' ground of conscience,' I ex
plained that any measure which did not leave the Church Courts free and
unfettered to say when the pastoral tie should be bound and when not —
when they would go on with a settlement, and when they would refuse —
that any measure which did not do this, would be held as interfering with
the conscience of the Church Court, and would therefore be repudiated at
whatever cost. He said, in answer, ' I mean to give you all that power.'
Rob. Buchanan."
Extracts from Letters of Sir William Rae to Dr. Chalmers and
Mr. Thomson.
" London, February 5th, ] 840. — It gave me much satisfaction to learn
from a letter from Mr. Dunlop, as Secretary to the Assembly's Committee,
that the suggestion which I had made for restoring to a certain extent the
provisions of the Act 1690, had been viewed by the Committee as fitted
to form a basis for a satisfactory arrangement. I need hardly say, that I
never contemplated hampering the Presbytery in any way whatever, in
dealing with the reasons assigned by the parishioners, or disposing of the
whole affair. I should hold them responsible for their actings solely at
the bar of the superior Church Judicatories, and at that of public opinion. _
" London, March 25th, 1840. — The Government seems greatly puzzled
what to do with your Kirk question. After the Cabinet had deliberated
on Saturday, instead of stating the result upon Monday, they resolved to
hold a meeting of their friends in our House upon Tuesday to consider the
matter. This took place, and such was the difference of opinion, that they
were obliged to adjourn the meeting to another day. I should not wonder
if it was to end in their declaring that they meant to do nothing. The
course which the Dissenters have taken, and along with these the Radical
party in our House, joined to the little real influence which the more
violent Church party are proved to possess by the result of the Perth elec
tion, will doubtless bear on their decision. You hint at my trying my
hand upon the subject, but that is out of the question. I am willing to
go as far as Mr. Drummond has moved, thereby putting it in the power of

APPENDIX. 623
the Presbytery to give effect to the objections of the people, however absurd
or unexplainable these may be ; the Presbytery acting under the control of
public opinion, and that of the superior Church Courts alone. This I
believe would satisfy Dr. Chalmers, and most reasonable men. But what
security could we have that an enactment of that nature, brought in by an
individual member, would be submitted to by the whole Church, either
now or hereafter. Wm. Rae."
Extracts from Letters of J. C. Colquhoun, Esq.
"Putney Heath, February 24th, 1840. — You will learn from Mr. Dunlop
the particulars of his mission — the little success he has met with from this
Government. I hope he will report to you that there is no indisposition
on the part of Lord Aberdeen to meet the views of the Church, at least to
a large extent. I indulge the hope that he may even go yet further in
favour of popular right ; the Presbyterial right of rejection, Lord Aberdeen
admits to its fullest extent.
" Putney Heath, April 20th, 1840. — The two essential points which I
am most anxious to see clearly embodied in Lord Aberdeen's Bill, are the
liberum arbitrium of the Presbytery on the dissent of the people — the
other, the clear severance between the civil and ecclesiastical jurisdictions ;
so that where the one ends, supreme in its own territory, the other shall
begin, and its decisions be unreviewed by any Civil Court in the land. I
take this to be indispensable.
"Putney Heath, May IQth, 1840. — I saw Lord Aberdeen yesterday, but
was unable to bring him to any satisfactory conclusion. I was glad, how
ever, to find that Mr. Home Drummond and Sir James Graham quite concur
with me in the propriety of the Presbyterial discretion being free, always
understanding by that, that there is to be no such rule as that laid down
in the Veto Act, by which the Presbytery are to accept the dissent of the
people as a conclusion, barring the further inquiry of the Church Courts.
J. C. Colquhoun."
Extract from Letter of Sir George Clerk.
" London, February 7th, 1840. — I herewith send you a copy of the
' Morning Post,' which contains the most accurate report of the observa
tions of Lord Aberdeen on the present position of the Church of Scotland,
and also of Lord Melbourne's reply to the question whether the Govern
ment were prepared to introduce any measure on the subject. There is
one slight inaccuracy in the report of what Lord Aberdeen said with re
spect to the judgment of the House of Lords in the Auchterarder case.

524 APPENDIX.
He said, ' that he did not acquiesce in all the declarations of opinion ,
expressed in delivering that judgment, though he entirely concurred in
the justice of the decision itself.' It is now clear, from Lord Melbourne's
reply, that the Government have not made up their minds as to the course
to be taken. Unless, therefore, your Committee, acting on the part of the
General Assembly, prepare a legislative measure yourselves, I doubt whether
any thing can be done towards a settlement of this important question, as
amidst the pressure of business while Parliament is sitting, I fear there is
little probability that the Government will find time for its due conside
ration. " No Member of Parliament, unconnected with the Government, could
bring forward any measure with the smallest hopes of success, unless he
were assured either of the cordial support of the Church in Scotland, or of
the Government here.
" The recent communications which have been made by direction of
your Committee, by your Secretaries, to Lord Aberdeen, Sir William Rae,
and myself, would lead me to hope that the points of difference between
us are now so much narrowed that little difficulty would be found to exist
in framing a measure that might be very generally approved of.
" Lord Aberdeen, I believe, has already explained to you that he con
curs in every point with me, and adopts the plan I took the liberty of stating
in my letter to you of the 2 1st of January, and which I rejoice to learn is
considered satisfactory to your Committee. That has been restated by Sir
William Rae in a more concise form, who has shewn that a combination of
the provisions of the Act 1690 with the Act of Anne would be all that is
required. I think that an Act to explain the meaning of the words of the
Act of Anne, ' that the Presbytery is to receive and admit in the same manner
as the persons presented before the making of this Act ought to have been
admitted,' to be according to the mode of procedure prescribed in the Act
1690, would, without almost anything further, remove all the present diffi
culties of the Church.
" I hope the Procurator may be authorized by your Committee to draw
up the heads of a bill on this basis as the only chance of any settlement of
the question, before the next meeting of Assembly. George Clerk."
Extracts from Letters of John Hamilton, Esq., Advocate.
" London, April IZth, 1840. — To-day I have had a long conversation with
Sir James Graham, who stated his views very explicitly. They come up,
in the fullest manner, to the Committee's minimum measure — an entire
exclusion of the Civil Courts and an absolute relinquishment of the patron's

APPENDIX. 525
and presentee's rights to the arbitrium of the Church Courts. At present
he is no way inclined to go further.
" London, April 15th, 1840. — I had another long conversation with Lord
Aberdeen this morning. Had we to deal with Lord Aberdeen alone we
should not have much difficulty in obtaining a popular measure, but from
what he says it is apparent that the obstacles lie with others, and that they
are such as his Lordship conceives to be absolutely insuperable ; at the
same time, I understand that his measure will be a full and honest one,
according to its own nature, one which will studiously avoid all interference
with the independence of the Church, and will expressly enact an entire
exclusion of the Civil Court. Such a measure will form a prodigious step
in advance for the Church ; and our friends in the Committee who are the
most anxious to go further should weigh well the hazard to which we may
expose all by attempting now to drive matters to extremities. His Lord
ship stated, that from his personal communications with members of the
Government he was persuaded that the Government would not oppose his
measure, provided it met with a fair and candid reception on the part of
the Church ; and the object which he will keep steadily in view in framing
his measure will be to make it, in all points, as acceptable to the Church as
the general nature of the measure will possibly admit.
" London, April 20th, 1840. — I have had another long conversation with
Lord Aberdeen to-day, and must confess to you that his views on some
points do not seem to me so satisfactory as I could wish. At the same
time, it is not easy to come precisely to a point with him until his views
are actually embodied in the shape of a Bill, or are at least expressed in
such explicit terms as he deliberately states will be satisfactory to him.
Until I came to London I always understood his Lordship was prepared to
allow to the Church Courts a liberum arbitrium to decide upon the case of
every presentee, according to the whole circumstances, as they might pre
sent themselves, but he rather seems disposed to limit the Church Courts to
a simple power of judging upon the 'merits of the objections stated by the
people. Is this last your understanding of his Lordship's intention 1 and
does it occur to you that a measure upon such a principle would be accept
able to the Church, or ought to he so ]
" London, April 24th, 1840. — I was led to express myself doubtfully in
my last respecting the character of the measure contemplated by Lord
Aberdeen, in consequence of the manifestly inconsistent way in which he
expressed himself when I came fairly to converse with him over the whole
subject. In treating of the matter, in one view of it, his expressions were
all that we could wish, but, in coming round to another view, of it, he ex-

526 APPENDIX.
pressed his fixed purpose and object to be something in which we should
have found it impossible to acquiesce. His notions, in fact, were totally
incompatible one with another. He had some sense of this himself, but
said that his intention was, if possible, to realize them both in the measure
he was to produce. How this was to be effected I could not, for my life,
conceive ; and I am happy to find that, in his conversation yesterday with
Mr. Buchanan, his Lordship stated that he had found it practically impos
sible to reconcile two conflicting objects, and that he had in consequence
given up all idea of carrying into effect that which is opposed to our views,
and is to confine himself to that which is likely to afford us satisfaction.
Still, however, I am a little anxious until I see the way in which his Lord
ship expresses himself in his Bill. From all I have heard from his Lord
ship, I doubt extremely if he is yet prepared to subscribe to the view so
distinctly stated in the extract you give me from Sir George Clerk's letter.
I suspect his Lordship contemplates placing the power of the Presbytery
on a somewhat different footing from what Sir George there does. At the
same time, I hope that, practically, his Lordship's way of putting it will
come to the same result, so that we need not make any insuperable objec
tions to it. My last conversation with his Lordship, and Mr. Buchanan's
yesterday, ended exactly in the same point, viz., that we could say nothing
further on the matter until we saw the Bill. This, Mr. Buchanan has in
formed you, we are to do on Monday, if nothing unforeseen occurs ; and then
we shall know definitively where we stand. I feel considerable confidence
that the result will be favourable, as Lord Aberdeen's intentions are per
fectly fair, and his desire to bring matters to a satisfactory issue is most
sincere. " London, May 6th, 1840. — I have just had a long conversation with Sir
George Clerk, the result of which was that he expressed his clear opinion
that the Bill ought to be altered in the way that we recommended ; and he
is in consequence gone to Lord Aberdeen in the hopes of getting his Lord
ship to agree to one alteration being now introduced before the Bill is printed
for the House. I have marked the alteration in pencil on the inclosed copy ;
and you will see it to be in the most essential part of the Bill ; and if it is
once introduced, a few other slight verbal alterations here and there will
make the Bill quite to our satisfaction, and these there will be no difficulty
in getting afterwards attended to.
" London, May 7th, 1840. — I regret to say that Sir George Clerk found
Lord Aberdeen quite firm not to admit at present any alterations of the
nature to which I referred in my last.
" London, May 7th, 1840. — The Bill, as it stands, will appear to you,

APPENDIX. 527
as it is, in fact, decidedly defective, inasmuch as it does not directly and
unequivocally confer upon the Church Courts a full power to dispose of each
case as it occurs, according to its circumstances, and according to the dis
cretion and conscientious convictions which the Church Courts may have
in regard to it. This defect in the Bill is designed and intentional on the
part of Lord Aberdeen. I stated to you formerly, in general terms, that
his Lordship appeared to me (before the Bill was actually framed) to have
two objects in view, which appeared to me to be absolutely incompatible.
These objects were, on the one hand, to confer on the Church Courts a full
and unfettered discretion — a liberum arbitrium — in the discharge of their
duty in every individual case ; and, on the other hand, to confer this power
in such a way as would make it impossible for the Church Courts to give
effect to the dissents of a majority, however great, of the congregation, unless
the grounds of that dissent were valid and sufficient in the judgment of the
Church Courts. I mentioned to you further, that at the first meeting Mr.
Buchanan had with his Lordship, his Lordship stated that he had found,
on full consideration, that the latter object was incompatible with the
former, and that he had therefore given up all idea of attaining it by his
Bill, which he intended should entrust a full and unconditional discretion
with the Presbytery. Subsequent to this conversation, however, his Lord
ship had reverted to his original idea, and accordingly, the Bill, as originally
submitted by him to us, actually contained a, clause expressly- discharging
and prohibiting the Church Courts from giving effect to the dissents of the
people where they (the Church Courts) did not find the reasons supporting
the dissents to be solid and sufficient. This clause, and various other expres
sions throughout the Bill — -all tending to limit the powers of the Church to
a judgment upon the reasonableness of the people's dissents — his Lordship
struck out, at our suggestion ; but still he refused to make the requisite
alterations on what we considered to be the most essential parts, and what
his Lordship also distinctly recognised as the most essential, and stated
that it was just because they were the most essential that he declined to
alter them. His Lordship, for the present, seems to be very firm in that
determination ; and after conferring with Mr. Buchanan you will be able
to judge how far it is right to try still to influence him, and what means
are the most likely to have that effect.
" I am satisfied that not only Sir George Clerk, but Mr. Home Drum-
mond, Sir James Graham, Sir William Rae, &c, are perfectly ready and
willing that the Bill should be put into the most satisfactory shape which
its nature admits of; and the objectionable matter which still remains
in it is to be ascribed to nothing but an unfortunate bias in Lord Aber-

528 APPENDIX.
deeu's mind. It so happens, however, that the Bill is Lord Aberdeen's
Bill, and it is hardly, if at all possible, to get it altered, except by moving
his Lordship himself, which Sir George Clerk at least has failed to do as
entirely as Mr. Buchanan and myself have done.
" London, May 14th, 1840. — I had a conversation to-day, for nearly two
hours, with Sir George Clerk, who intends (first, privately) to urge Lord
Aberdeen to come frankly into our views, and failing that, the purpose is,
as I mentioned, to hold a meeting of Scotch Conservative members, with a
view of bringing their joint influence to bear on his Lordship. What the
result may be I know not. In the meantime matters are kept in suspense
by my not hearing from you as to your proceedings on Monday, or with
the remonstrance or representation which I was informed you were likely
to forward to Lord Aberdeen and the Conservative Members here. I found
Sir George Clerk much less indisposed than I expected to admit a clause
into the Bill restricting the interference of the Civil Courts to a withdrawal
of the temporalities. J. Hamilton.''

APPENDIX C— P. 296.
CLAIM, DECLARATION, AND PROTEST, ANENT THE ENCROACHMENTS OF THE
COURT OF SESSION. GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1842.  ACT XIX.
" Edinburgh, 30th May, 1842. Sess. 17.
" The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, taking into consi
deration the solemn circumstances in which, in the inscrutable providence
of God, this Church is now placed ; and that, notwithstanding the securi
ties for the government thereof by General Assemblies, Synods, Presbyteries,
and Kirk-Sessions, and for the liberties, government, jurisdiction, discipline,
rights, and privileges of the same, provided by the statutes of the realm,
by the constitution of this country, as unalterably settled by the Treaty of
Union, and by the oath, ' inviolably to maintain and preserve' the same,
required to be taken by each Sovereign at accession, as a condition preced
ent to the exercise of the royal authority ; — which securities might well
seem, and had long been thought, to place the said liberties, government,
jurisdiction, discipline, rights, and privileges, of this Church, beyond the
reach of danger or invasion ; — these have been of late assailed by the very
Court to which the Church was authorized to look for assistance and pro
tection, to an extent that threatens their entire subversion, with all the
grievous calamities to this Church and nation which would inevitably flow

APPENDIX. 529
therefrom ; — did and hereby do solemnly, and in reliance on the grace and
power of the Most High, resolve and agree on the following Claim, Decla
ration, and Protest : That is to say : —
" Whereas it is an essential doctrine of this Church, and a fundamental
principle in its constitution, as set forth in the Confession of Faith thereof,
in accordance with the Word and law of the most holy God, that ' there is
no other Head of the Church but the Lord Jesus Christ,' (ch. xxv. sec. 6) ;
and that, while ' God, the supreme Lord and King of all the world, hath
ordained civil magistrates to be under him over the people, for his own
glory, and the public good, and to this end hath armed them with the
power of the sword,' (ch. xxiii. sec. 1) ; and while ' it is the duty of the
people to pray for magistrates, to honour their persons, to pay them tribute
and other dues, to obey their lawful commands, and to be subject to their
authority for conscience' sake,' ' from which ecclesiastical persons are not
exempted,' (ch. xxiii. sec. 4) ; and while the magistrate hath authority, and
it is his duty, in the exercise of that power which alone is committed to
him, namely, ' the power of the sword,' or civil rule, as distinct from the
' power of the keys,' or spiritual authority, expressly denied to him, to take
order for the preservation of purity, peace, and unity in the Church, yet
' the Lord Jesus, as King and Head of his Church, hath therein appointed
a government in the hand of Church officers distinct from the civil magis
trate,' (ch. xxx. sec. 1) ; which government is ministerial, not lordly, and to
be exercised in consonance with the laws of Christ, and with the liberties
of his people :
" And whereas, according to the said Confession, and to the other Stand
ards of the Church, and agreeably to the Word of God, this government of
the Church, thus appointed by the Lord Jesus, in the hand of Church
officers, distinct from the civil magistrate or supreme power of the State,
and flowing directly from the Head of the Church to the office-bearers
thereof, to the exclusion of the civil magistrate, comprehends, as the objects
of it, the preaching of the Word, administration of the Sacraments, correc
tion of manners, the admission of the office-bearers of the Church to their
offices, their suspension and deprivation therefrom, the infliction and re
moval of Church censures, and, generally, the whole ' power of the keys,'
which, by the said Confession, is declared, in conformity with Scripture, to
have been ' committed' (ch. xxx. sec. 2) to Church officers, and which, as
well as the preaching of the Word and the administration of the Sacra
ments, it is likewise thereby declared, that ' the civil magistrate may not
assume to himself,' (ch. xxiii. sec. 3) :
" And whereas, this jurisdiction and government, since it regards only
vol. iv. 2 y

530 APPENDIX.
spiritual condition, rights, and privileges, doth not interfere with the juris
diction of secular tribunals, whose determinations as to all temporalities
conferred by the State upon the Church, and as to all civil consequences
attached by law to the decisions of Church Courts in matters spiritual, this
Church hath ever admitted, and doth admit, to be exclusive and ultimate,
as she hath ever given and inculcated implicit obedience thereto :
"And whereas the above mentioned essential doctrine and fundamental
principle in the constitution of the Church, and the government and exclu
sive jurisdiction flowing therefrom, founded on God's Word, and set forth
in the Confession of Faith and other standards of this Church, have been,
by diverse and repeated Acts of Parliament, recognised, ratified, and con
firmed ; inasmuch as, —
" First, The said Confession itself, containing the doctrine and principles
above set forth, was ' ratified and established, and voted and approven as
the public and avowed Confession of this Church,' by the fifth Act of the
second session of the first Parliament of King William and Queen Mary,
entituled, ' Act ratifying the Confession of Faith, and Settling Presbyterian
Church Government,' (1690, c. 5); to which Act the said Confession is an
nexed, and with it incorporated in the statute law of this kingdom.
" Second, By an Act passed in the first Parliament of King James VI.,
entituled, ' Of admission of ministers : of laic patronages,' (1567, c. 7), it is
enacted and declared, ' That the examination and admission of ministers
within this realm be only in the power of the Kirk, now openly and publicly
professed within the same ;' and, while the ' presentation of laic patronages'
was thereby ' reserved to the just and ancient patrons,' it was provided,
that, if the presentee of a patron should be refused to be admitted by the
inferior ecclesiastical authorities, it should be lawful for the patron ' to ap
peal to the General Assembly of the whole realm, by whom the cause being
decided, shall take end as they decern and declare.'
" Third, By an Act passed in the same first Parliament, and renewed in
the sixth Parliament of the said King James VI., entituled, ' Anent the
jurisdiction of the Kirk,' (1567, c. 12, fol. edit), the said Kirk is declared
to have jurisdiction 'in the preaching of the true Word of Jesus Christ,
correction of manners, and administration of the holy sacraments,' (1579,
u. 69) ; and it is further declared, ' that there be no other jurisdiction eccle
siastical acknowledged within this realm, other than that which is and shall
be within the same. Kirk, or that flows therefrom, concerning the premises;'
which Act, and that last before mentioned, were ratified and approven by
another Act passed in the year 1581, entituled, ' Ratification of the liberty
of the true Kirk of God and religion, with confirmation of the laws and

APPENDIX. 531
Acts made to that effect of before,' (1581, c. 99) ; which other Act, and all
the separate Acts therein recited, were again revived, ratified, and confirmed,
by an Act of the twelfth Parliament of the said King James VI., entituled,
'Ratification of the liberty of the true Kirk,' &c, (1592, c. 1 16); which said
Act (having been repealed in 1662) was revived, renewed, and confirmed by
the before mentioned statute of King William and Queen Mary, (1690, c. 5.)
" Fourth, The said Act of the twelfth Parliament of King James VI. ra
tified and approved the General Assemblies, Provincial Synods, Presby
teries, and Kirk Sessions 'appointed by the Kirk,' (1592, c. 116), and ' the
whole jurisdiction and discipline of the same Kirk ;' cassed and annulled
' all and whatsoever acts, laws, and statutes, made at any time before the
day and date thereof, against the liberty of the true Kirk, jurisdiction and
discipline thereof, as the same is used and exercised within this realm ;'
appointed presentations to benefices to be directed to Presbyteries, ' with
full power to give collation thereupon, and to put order to all matters and
causes ecclesiastical within their bounds, according to the discipline of the
Kirk, providing the foresaid Presbyteries be bound and astricted to receive
and admit whatsoever qualified minister, presented by his Majesty or laic
patrons,' (the effect of which proviso and of the reservation in the Act of
the first Parliament of King James VI., above mentioned, (1567, c. 7), is
hereinafter more fully adverted to) ; and farther declared that the jurisdic
tion of the Sovereign and his Courts, as set forth in a, previous Act (1.584,
c. 129), to extend over all persons his subjects, and 'in all matters,' should
' noways be prejudicial nor derogate any thing to the privilege that God
lias given to the spiritual office-bearers of the Kirk, concerning heads of re
ligion,' matters of heresy, excommunication, collation, or deprivation of min
isters, or any such like essential censures, grounded and having warrant of
the Word of God ;' by which enactment, declaration, and acknowledgment,
the State recognised and established as a fundamental principle of the con
stitution of the kingdom, that the jurisdiction of the Church in these mat
ters was ' given by God' to the office-bearers thereof, and was exclusive,
and free from coercion by any tribunals holding power or authority from
the State or supreme civil magistrate.
"Fifth, The Parliament holden by King Charles II. (1662, c. 1), imme
diately on his restoration to the throne, while it repealed the above recited
Act of the twelfth Parliament of King James, and other relative Acts,
(1592, c. 116), at the same time acknowledged the supreme and exclusive
nature of the jurisdiction thereby recognised to be in the Church, describ
ing the said Acts, as Acts ' by which the sole and only power and jurisdic
tion within this Church doth stand in the Church, and in the general, pro-

532 APPENDIX.
vincial, and presbyterial assemblies and kirk-sessions,' and as Acts ' which
may be interpreted to have given any Church power, jurisdiction, or gov
ernment to the office-bearers of the Church, their respective meetings, other
than that which acknowledgeth a dependence upon, and subordination to,
the sovereign power of the King, as supreme.'
" Sixth, The aforesaid Act of King William and Queen Mary, (1690, c. 5),
on the narrative that their Majesties and the estates of Parliament con
ceived ' it to be their bounden duty, after the great deliverance that God
hath lately wrought for this Church and kingdom, in the first place, to settle
and secure therein the true Protestant religion, according to the truth
of God's Word, as it hath of a long time been professed within this land ;
as also, the government of Christ's Church within this nation, agreeable to
the Word of God, and most conducive to true piety and godliness, and the
establishing of peace and tranquillity within this realm,' — besides ratifying
and establishing as aforesaid the Confession of Faith, did also ' establish,
ratify, and confirm the Presbyterian Church government and discipline ;
that is to say, the government of the Church by Kirk-Sessions, Presbyteries,
Provincial Synods, and General Assemblies, ratified and established by the
116 Act of James VI., Parliament 12, anno 1592, entituled, " Ratification
of the liberty of the true Kirk," &c. (1592, c. 116), and thereafter received
by the general consent of this nation, to be the only government of Christ's
Church within this kingdom;' and revived and confirmed the said Act of
King James VI.
" And whereas, not only was the exclusive and ultimate jurisdiction of
the Church Courts, in the government of the Church, and especially in the
particular matters, spiritual and ecclesiastical, above mentioned, recognised,
ratified, and confirmed — thus necessarily implying the denial of power on
the part of any secular tribunal, holding its authority from the Sovereign,
to review the sentence of the Church Courts in regard to such matters, or
coerce them in the exercise of such jurisdiction ; — but all such power, and
all claim on the part of the Sovereign, to be considered supreme governor
over the subjects of this kingdom of Scotland in causes ecclesiastical and
spiritual, as he is in causes civil and temporal, was, after a long-continued
struggle, finally and expressly repudiated and cast out of the constitution of
Scotland, as inconsistent with the Presbyterian Church government established
at the Revolution, and thereafter unalterably secured by the Treaty of
Union with England ; by the constitution of which latter kingdom, differ
ing in this respect from that of Scotland, the Sovereign is recognised to be
supreme governor, ' as viell in all spiritual and ecclesiastical things and
causes as temporal :' Thus : —

APPENDIX. 633
" First, The General Assembly having, in the year 1582, proceeded to
inflict the censures of the Church upon Robert Montgomery, minister of
Stirling, for seeking to force himself, under a presentation from the King,
into the archbishopric of Glasgow, contrary to an act of the General Assem
bly discharging the office of Prelatic bishop in the Church, and for appeal
ing to the secular tribunals against the infliction of Church censures by the
Church Courts, and seeking to have these suspended and interdicted — and
having deposed and excommunicated him, notwithstanding of an interdict
pronounced by the Privy Council of Scotland, the then supreme secular
court of the kingdom — and having at the same time declared it to be part
of the subsisting discipline of the Church, that any ministers thereof who
' should seek any way by the civil power to exempt and withdraw them
selves from the jurisdiction of the Kirk, or procure, obtain, or use any letters
or charges, &c, to impair, hurt, or stay the said jurisdiction, discipline, &c,
or to make any appellation from the General Assembly to stop the disci
pline or order of the ecclesiastical policy or jurisdiction granted by God's
Word to the office-bearers within the said Kirk,' were liable to the highest
censures of the Church ; although their sentence of excommunicatioD was
declared by one of the Acts of Parliament of the year 1584, commonly
called the 'Black Acts,' to be void, yet ultimately the King and Privy
Council abandoned their interference. Montgomery submitted to the
Church Courts, and the statute of the twelfth Parliament of King James
VI., already mentioned, (1592, c. 116), cassed and annulled 'all and whatso
ever acts, laws, and statutes made at any time before the day and date
thereof, against the liberty of the true Kirk, jurisdiction and discipline
thereof, as the same is used and exercised within this realm ;' since which
enactment, no similar interference with the discipline and censures of the
Church was ever attempted till the year 1841.
"Second, It having been declared by another of the 'Black Acts' afore
said, (1584, c. 129), entituled, ' An Act confirming the King's Majesty's
royal power over all the estates and subjects within this realm,' that ' his
highness, his heirs and successors, by themselves and their councils, are, and
in time to come shall be, judges competent to all persons his Highness' sub
jects, of whatsoever estate, degree, function, or condition that ever they be
of, spiritual or temporal, in all matters wherein they or any of them shall
be apprehended, summoned, or charged to answer to such things as shall
be inquired of them by our sovereign Lord and his council,' it was, by the
said before mentioned Act of the twelfth Parliament of King James VI.
(1592, c. 116), declared that the said Act last above mentioned ' shall
noways be prejudicial, nor derogate anything to the privilege that God has

534 APPENDIX.
given to the spiritual office-bearers of the Kirk, concerning heads of reli
gion, matters of heresy, excommunication, collation or deprivation of minis
ters, or any such like essential censures, specially grounded and having
warrant of the Word of God.'
" Third, It having been enacted, on the establishment of Prelacy in 1612,
(1612, c. 1), that every minister, at his admission, should swear obedience
to the sovereign as ' the only lawful supreme governor of this realm, as well
in matters spiritual and ecclesiastical as in things temporal,' the enactment
to this effect was repealed on the restoration of Presbyterian Church gov
ernment, (1640, c. 7).
" Fourth, A like acknowledgment, that the Sovereign was ' the only su
preme governor of this kingdom over all persons and in all causes] (1661,
c. 11), having been, on the second establishment of Prelacy consequent on
the restoration of King Charles IL, required as part of the ordinary oath of
allegiance, and having been also inserted into the 'Test Oath,' (1681, c. 6),
so tyrannically attempted to be forced on the subjects of this realm during
the reigns of Charles II. and James II., and the same doctrine of the King's
supremacy in all causes, spiritual and ecclesiastical, as well as temporal and
civil, having farther been separately and specially declared by the first Act
of the second Parliament of the said King Charles IL, (1669, c. I ), entituled,
' Act asserting his Majesty's supremacy over all persons and in all causes
ecclesiastical,' whereby it was ' enacted, asserted, and declared, that his
Majesty hath the supreme authority and supremacy overall persons, and in
all causes ecclesiastical, within this kingdom,' (Estates, 1689, c. 18), — the
Estates of this kingdom, at the era of the Revolution, did set forth, as the
second article of the ' Grievances,' of which they demanded redress under
their ' Claim of Right,' ' That the first Act of Parliament 1669 is inconsist
ent with the establishment of Church government now desired, and ought
to be abrogated.'
" Fifth, in compliance with this claim, an Act was immediately thereafter
passed, (1690, c. 1), of which the tenor follows : — ' Our Sovereign Lord and
Lady the King and Queen's Majesties, taking into their consideration that,
by the second article of the Grievances presented to their Majesties by the
Estates of this kingdom, it is declared, that the first Act of the second Par
liament of King Charles the Second, entituled, " Act asserting his Majesty's
supremacy over all persons and in all causes ecclesiastical," is inconsistent
with the establishment of the Church government now desired, and ought
to be abrogated: Therefore their majesties, with advice and consent of the
estates of Parliament, do hereby abrogate, rescind, and annul the foresaid
Act, and declare the same, in the whole heads, articles, and clauses thereof,

APPENDIX. 535
to be of no force or effect in all time coming.' In accordance also therewith,
the oath of allegiance above mentioned, requiring an acknowledgment of
the King's sovereignty ' in all causes,' (1689, c. 2), was done away, and that
substituted which is now in use, simply requiring a promise to be 'faithful,
and bear true allegiance' to the Sovereign ; and all preceding laws and Acts
of Parliament were rescinded, 'in so far as they impose any other oaths of
allegiance and supremacy, declarations and tests, excepting the oath de
fodeli.' By the which enactments, any claim on the part of the Sovereigns
of Scotland to be supreme rulers in spiritual and ecclesiastical, as well as in
temporal and civil causes, or to possess any power, by themselves or their
judges holding commission from them, to exercise jurisdiction in matters or
causes spiritual and ecclesiastical, was repudiated and excluded from the
constitution, as inconsistent with the Presbyterian Church government then
established, and secured under the statutes then and subsequently passed.
' to continue, without any alteration, to the people of this land, in all suc
ceeding generations,' (1706, c. 6.)
" And whereas, diverse civil rights and privileges were, by various sta
tutes of the Parliament of Scotland, prior to the Union with England,
secured to this Church, and certain civil consequences attached to the sen
tences of the Courts thereof, which were farther directed to be aided and
made effectual by all magistrates, judges, and officers of the law ; and in
particular : —
" It was, by an Act of the twelfth Parliament of King James VI. (1592.
c. 117), enacted, ' That all and whatsoever sentences of deprivation, either
pronounced already, or that happens to be pronounced hereafter by the
Presbytery, Synodal or General Assemblies, against any parson or vicar
within their jurisdiction, provided since his Highness' coronation, is, and
shall be repute in all judgments, a just cause to seclude the person before
provided, and then deprived, from all profits, commodities, rents, and duties
of the said parsonage and vicarage, or benefice of cure ; and that either by
way of action, exception, or reply ; and that the said sentence of deprivation
shall be a sufficient cause to make the said benefice to vaike thereby :'
" As also, by the fifth Act of the first Parliament of King William and
Queen Mary, (1690, c. 5), it was enacted, ' that whatsoever minister, beiDg
convened before the said general meeting, and representatives of the Pres
byterian ministers or elders, or the visitors to be appointed by them, shall
either prove contumacious for not appearing, or be found guilty, and shall
be therefore censured, whether by suspension or deposition, they shall, ipso
facto, be suspended from or deprived of their stipends and benefices :'
"As also, by an Act passed in the fourth session of the first Parliament

536 APPENDIX.
of King William and Queen Mary, (1693, c. 22), entituled an ' Act for set
tling the peace and quiet of the Church,' it was provided, that no minister
should be admitted, unless he owned the Presbyterian Church government,
as settled by the last recited Act, ' to be the only government of this Church ;'
1 and that he will submit thereto, and concur therewith, and never endea
vour, directly or indirectly, the prejudice or subversion thereof ;' and it was
statute or ordained, ' that the lords of their Majesties' Privy Council, and all
other magistrates, judges, and officers of justice, give all due assistance for
making the sentences and censures of the Church, and judicatories thereof,
to be obeyed, or otherwise effectual as accords :'
" As also, by an Act passed in the fifth session of the foresaid Parliament,
(1695, c. 22), entituled an 'Act against intruding into churches without a
legal call and admission thereto,' on the narrative, ' that ministers and
preachers, their intruding themselves into vacant churches, possessing of
manses and benefices, and exercising any part of the ministerial function in
parishes, without a legal call and admission to the said churches, is an high
contempt of the law, and of a dangerous consequence, tending to perpetual
schism ;' such intrusion, without an orderly call from the heritors and elders
— the right of presentation by patrons being at this time abolished — and
'legal admission from the Presbytery,' was prohibited under certain penal
ties ; and the lords of the Privy Council were recommended to remove all
who had so intruded, and ' to take some effectual course for stopping and
hindering those ministers who are, or shall be hereafter deposed by the judi
catories of the present Established Church, from preaching or exeicising
any act of their ministerial function, which' (the said statute declares)
' they cannot do after they are deposed, without a high contempt of the au
thority of the Church, and of the laws of the kingdom establishing the
same.' " And whereas, at the Union between the two kingdoms, the Parliament
of Scotland, being determined that the ' true Protestant religion,' as then
professed, ' with the worship, discipline, and government of this Church,
should be effectually and unalterably secured,' did, in their Act appointing
commissioners to treat with commissioners from the Parliament of England,
(1705, c. 4), as to an union of the kingdoms, provide 'That the said com
missioners shall not treat of or concerning any alteration of the worship,
discipline, and government of the Church of this kingdom, as now by law
established ;' and did, by another Act, commonly called the Act of Security,
(1706, c. 6), and entituled, 'Act for securing the Protestant religion and
Presbyterian Church government,' ' establish and confirm the said true Pro
testant religion, and the worship, discipline, and government of this Church,

APPENDIX. 537
to continue without any alteration to the people of this land in all succeed
ing generations ;' and did ' for ever confirm the fifth Act of the first Parlia
ment of King William and Queen Mary,' (1690, c. 5), entituled, ' Act ratify
ing the Confession of Faith, and settling Presbyterian Church government,
and the whole other A cts of Parliament relating thereto f and did ' expressly
provide and declare, That the foresaid true Protestant religion, contained in
the above-mentioned Confession of Faith, with the form and purity of worship
presently in use within this Church, and its Presbyterian Church govern
ment and discipline, — that is to say, the government of the Church by Kirk-
Sessions, Presbyteries, Provincial Synods, and Geueral Assemblies, all esta
blished by the foresaid Acts of Parliament, pursuant to the Claim of Right,
shall remain and continue unalterable ; and that the said Presbyterian
government shall be the only government of the Church within the kingdom
of Scotland :' And farther, ' for the greater security of the same,' did, inter
alia, enact, ' That, after the decease of her present Majesty, the sovereign
succeeding to her in the royal government of the kingdom of Great Britain,
shall, in all time coming, at his or her accession to the crown, swear and
subscribe, That they shall iuviolably maintain and preserve the foresaid
settlement of the true Protestant religion, with the government, worship,
discipline, rights, and privileges of this Church, as above established by the
laws of this kingdom, in prosecution of the Claim of Right ;' which said Act
of Security, ' with the establishment therein contained,' it was specially
thereby enacted, ' should be held and observed in all time coming as a fun
damental and essential condition of any treaty or union to be concluded be
twixt the two kingdoms, without any alteration thereof, or derogation thereto,
in any sort, for ever :'' It being farther thereby provided, that ' the said
Act and settlement therein contained shall be insert and repeated in any
Act of Parliament that shall pass, for agreeing and concluding the foresaid
treaty of union betwixt the two kingdoms ; and that the same shall be
therein expressly declared to be a fundamental and essential condition of
the said treaty of union in all time coming.' In terms of which enactment,
this Act of Security was inserted in the Treaty of Union between the two
kingdoms, as a fundamental condition thereof, and was also inserted in the
Act (1706, c. 7) of the Parliament of Scotland ratifying and approving of
the said Treaty, and likewise in the corresponding Act of the Parliament of
England, entituled, ' An Act (5 Anne, c. 8) for a Union of the two King
doms of England and Scotland :'
" And whereas, at the date of the said Treaty of Union, the right of
patrons to present to churches stood abolished by statute, after the follow
ing manner,— viz., By the Act of King William and Queen Mary, (1690, c.

538 APPENDIX.
5), herein before mentioned, the Act of James VI. (1592, c. 116), also herein
before mentioned, then standing totally repealed, was only revived, subject
to the express exception of ' that part of it relating to patronages,' which
consequently remained repealed and unrestored, and ' which,' the Act 1690,
c. 5, farther bore, ' is hereafter to be taken into consideration.' The part of
the said Act thus left repealed and unrevived, was the provision, that Pres
byteries ' be bound and astricted to receive whatsoever qualified minister
presented by his Majesty or laic patrons,' — a provision which, while it sub
sisted, was held to leave the Church free to proceed in the collation of min
isters, ' according to the discipline of the Kirk ;' and non-compliance with
which implied only a forfeiture of the fruits of the particular benefice, which
it did by virtue of the immediately succeeding statute 1592, c. 117, whereby
it was enacted, that, ' in case the Presbytery refuses to admit any qualified
minister presented to them by the patron, it shall be lawful to the patron
to retain the whole fruits of the benefice in his own hands.' This subject
having accordingly been thereafter taken into consideration in the same
session of Parliament, was definitively settled by an Act, (1690, c. 23), en
tituled, ' Act concerning Patronages,' whereby the right of presentation by
patrons was ' annulled and made void,' and a right was vested in the heri
tors and elders of the respective parishes ' to name and propose the person
to the whole congregation, to be approven or disapproven by them,' the dis
approves giving in their reasons ' to the effect the affair may be cognosced
upon by the Presbytery of the bounds, at whose judgment, and by whose
determination,' (as is declared by the said Act), ' the calling and entry of a
particular minister is to be ordered and concluded :'
" And whereas the said Act last mentioned formed part of the settlement
of the Presbyterian Church government effected at the Revolution, and was
one of the ' Acts relating thereto,' and to the statute 1690, c. 5, specially
confirmed and secured by the Act of Security and Treaty of Union ; yet,
notwithstanding thereof, and of the said Treaty, the Parliament of Great
Britain, by an Act passed in the 10th of Queen Anne, (10 Anne, c. 12), re
pealed the said Act, ' in so far as relates to the presentation of ministers by
heritors and others therein mentioned,' and restored to patrons the right of
presentation, and enacted that Presbyteries should be ' obliged to receive
and admit in the same manner, such qualified person or persons, minister
or ministers, as shall be presented by the respective patrons, as the persons
or ministers presented before the making of this Act ought to have been
admitted :'
" And whereas, while this Church protested against the passing of the
above mentioned Act of Queen Anne, as ' contrary to the constitution of the

APPENDIX. 530
Church, so well secured by the late Treaty of Union, and solemnly ratified
by Acts of Parliament in both kingdoms,' and for more than seventy years
thereafter uninterruptedly sought for its repeal, she at the same time main
tained, and practically exercised, without question or challenge from any
quarter, the jurisdiction of her Courts to determine ultimately and exclu
sively, under what circumstances they would admit candidates into the office
of the holy ministry, or constitute the pastoral relationship between minister
and people, and, generally, ' to order and conclude the entry of particular
ministers :'
" And whereas, in particular, this Church required, as necessary to the
admission of a minister to the charge of souls, that he should have received
a call from the people over whom he was to be appointed, and did not au
thorize or permit any one so to be admitted till such call had been sustained
by the Church Courts, and did, before and subsequent to the passing of the
said Act of Queen Anne, declare it to be a fundamental principle of the
Church, as set forth in her authorized standards, and particularly in the
Second Book of Discipline, (ch. iii. sec. 5), repeated by Act of Assembly in
1638, that no pastor be intruded upon any congregation contrary to the
will of the people :
"And whereas, in especial, this fundamental principle was, by the 14th
Act of the General Assembly 1736, (c. 14), re-declared, and directed to be
attended to in the settlement of vacant parishes, but having been, after some
time, disregarded in the administration of the Church, it was once more re-
declared by the General Assembly 1834, (c. 9), who established certain
specific provisions and regulations for carrying it into effect in time to
come: " And whereas, by a judgment pronounced by the House of Lords, in
1839,* it was, for the first time, declared to be illegal to refuse to take on
trial, and to reject the presentee of a patron, (although a layman, and merely
a candidate for admission to the office of the ministry), in consideration of
this fundamental principle of the Church, and in respect of the dissent of
the congregation ; to the authority of which judgment, so far as disposing
of civil interests, this Church implicitly bowed, by at once abandoning all
claim to the jus devolutum, — to the benefice, for any pastor to be settled by
her, — and to all other civil right or privilege which might otherwise have
been competent to the Church or her Courts ; and anxiously desirous, at the
same time, of avoiding collision with the Civil Courts, she so far suspended
the operation of the above mentioned Act of Assembly, as to direct all cases,
in which dissents should be lodged by a majority of the congregation, to be
* Auchterarder CaBe, 1839.

540 APPENDIX.
reported to the General Assembly, in the hope that a way might be opened
up to her for reconciling with the civil rights declared by the House of
Lords, adherence to the above mentioned fundamental principle, which she
could not violate or abandon, by admitting to the holy office of the minis
try a party not having, in her conscientious judgment, a legitimate call
thereto, or by intruding a pastor on a reclaiming congregation contrary to
their will ; and farther, addressed herself to the Government and the Legis
lature for such an alteration of the law, (as for the first time now interpre
ted), touching the temporalities belonging to the Church, (which alone she
held the decision of the House of Lords to be capable of affecting or regu
lating), as might prevent a separation between the cure of souls and the
benefice thereto attached :
"And whereas, although during the century which elapsed after the
passing of the said Act of Queen Anne, Presbyteries repeatedly rejected the
presentees of patrons on grounds undoubtedly ultra vires of the Presby
teries, as having reference to the title of the patron or the validity of com
peting presentations, and which were held by the Court of Session to be con
trary to law, and admitted others to the pastoral office in the parishes pre
sented to, who had no presentation or legal title to the benefice, the said
Court, even in such cases, never attempted or pretended to direct or coerce
the Church Courts, in the exercise of their functions in regard to the colla
tion of ministers, or other matters acknowledged by the State to have been
conferred on the Church, not by the State, but by God himself. On the con
trary, they limited their decrees to the regulation and disposal of the tem
poralities which were derived from the State, and which, as the proper sub
jects of 'actions civil,' were within the province assigned to the Court of
Session, by the Constitution refusing to interfere with the peculiar functions
and exclusive jurisdiction of the Courts of the Church. Thus, —
" In the case of Auchtermuchty,* where the Presbytery had wrongfully
admitted another than the patron's presentee, the Court found, ' That the
right to a stipend is a civil right ; and therefore that the Court have power
to cognosce and determine upon the legality of the admission of ministers
in hunc effectum, whether the person admitted shall have right to the stipend
or not ; and simply decided, that the patron was entitled to retain the
stipend in his own hands.
" So also, the same course was followed in the cases of Culross, Lanark,
and Forbes ;t in reference to one of which, (that of Lanark), the Govern-
• Moncrieff v. Maxton, Feb. IS, 1735.
t Cochrane v. Stoddart, June 26, 1751. Dick u. Carmichael, March 2, 17W. Fortes v. M'WiUiam,
February 1762.

APPENDIX. 541
ment of the country, on behalf of the Crown, in which the patronage was
vested, recognised the retention of stipend by the patron, as the only com
petent remedy for a wrongful refusal to admit his presentee ; the Secretary
of State having, in a letter to the Lord Advocate of Scotland, (January 17,
1752), signified the pleasure of his Majesty, ' directing and ordering his
lordship to do everything necessary and competent by law, for asserting and
taking benefit in the present case of the said right and privilege of patrons
by the law of Scotland to retain the fruits of the benefice in their own hands
till their presentee be admitted.'
" So farther, in the before mentioned case of Culross,* the Court refused,
as incompetent,' a bill of advocation presented to them by the patron, for
the purpose of staying the admission by the Presbytery of another than his
presentee. " So likewise, in the case of Dunse,t the Court would not interfere in
regard to a conclusion to prohibit the Presbytery ' to moderate in a call at
large, or settle any other man,' because ' that was interfering with the
power of ordination, or internal policy of the Church, with which the Lords
thought they had nothing to do.'
" And so, in the same manner, in the case of Unst,J where the party con
cluded to have the Presbytery ordained to proceed to the presentee's settle
ment, as well as to have the validity of the presentation and the right to
the stipend declared, the Court limited their decree to the civil matters of
the presentation and stipend :
" And whereas, pending the efforts of the Church to accomplish the
desired alteration of the law, the Court of Session, — a tribunal instituted
by special Act of Parliament for the specific and limited purpose of ' doing
and administration of justice in all civil actions] (1537, c. 36,) with judges
appointed simply ' to sit and decide upon all actions civil] (1532, c. 1,) —
not confining themselves to the determination of ' civil actions,' — to the
withholding of civil consequences from sentences of the Church Courts,
which, in their judgment, were not warranted by the statutes recognising
the jurisdiction of these Courts, — to the enforcing of the provision of the
Act 1592, c. 117, for retention of the fruits of the benefice in case of wrong
ful refusal to admit a presentee, or the giving of other civil redress for any
civil injury held by them to have been wrongfully sustained in con
sequence thereof, — have, in numerous and repeated instances, stepped
beyond the province allotted to them by the Constitution, and within
which alone their decisions can be held to declare the law, or to have
* Cochrane, November 19, 1748. t Hay v. Presbytery of Dunse, February 26, 1749.
5 Lord Dundas v. Presbytery of Shetland, May 15, 1795.

542 APPENDIX.
the force of law, deciding not only ' actions civil,' but ' causes spiritual
and ecclesiastical,' — and that, too, even where these had no connexion
with the exercise of the right of patronage, — and have invaded the
jurisdiction, and encroached upon the spiritual privileges of the Courts of
this Church, in violation of the constitution of the country — in defiance of
the statutes above mentioned, and in contempt of the laws of this kingdom :
as for instance —
" By interdicting Presbyteries of the Church from admitting to a pastoral
charge,* when about to be done irrespective of the civil benefice attached
thereto, or even where there was no benefice — no right of patronage — no
stipend — no manse or glebe, and no place of worship, or any patrimonial
right, connected therewith.t
" By issuing a decree,! requiring and ordaining a Church Court to take
on trial and admit to the office of the holy ministry, in a particular charge,
a probationer or unordained candidate for the ministry, and to intrude him
also on the congregation, contrary to the will of the people ; — both in this,
and in the cases first mentioned, invading the Church's exclusive jurisdic
tion in the admission of ministers, the preaching of the Word, and ad
ministration of Sacraments — recognised by statute to have been ' given by
God ' directly to the Church, and to be beyond the limits of the secular
jurisdiction. " By prohibiting the communicants § of the Church from intimating their
dissent from a call proposed to be given to a candidate for the ministry to
become their pastor.
" By granting interdict against the establishment of additional ministers
to meet the wants of an increasing population, [| as uninterruptedly prac
tised from the Reformation to this day : against constituting a new kirk-
session in a parish, to exercise discipline ; and against innovating on its
existing state, ' as regards pastoral superintendence, its kirk-session, and
jurisdiction and discipline thereto belonging.'
" By interdicting the preaching of the gospel, and administration of or
dinances, IT throughout a whole district, by any minister of the Church un
der authority of the Church Courts ; thus assuming to themselves the
regulation of the ' preaching of the Word' and ' administration of the Sacra
ments,' and at the same time invading the privilege, common to all the
subjects of the realm, of having freedom to worship God according to their
consciences, and under the guidance of the ministers of the communion to
which they belong.
* 1st Lethendy Case, t Stewarton Case. t Marnoch Case.
§ Daviot Case. U Stewarton Case. ^J Strathbogie Cases.

APPENDIX. 543
" By holding the members of inferior Church judicatories liable in dam
ages* for refusing to break their ordination vows and oaths, (sworn by them,
in compliance with the requirements of the statutes of the realm, and, in
particular, of the Act of Security embodied in the Treaty of Union); by
disobeying and setting at defiance the sentences, in matters spiritual and
ecclesiastical, of their superior Church judicatories, to which, by the consti
tution of the Church and country, they are, in such matters, subordinate and
subject, and which, by their said vows and oaths, they stand pledged to obey.
" By interdicting the execution of the sentence of a Church judicatory,
prohibiting a minister from preaching or administering ordinances within
a particular parish,t pending the discussion of a cause in the Church
Courts as to the validity of his settlement therein.
" By interdicting the General Assembly and inferior Church judicatories
from inflicting Church censures ; as in one case, where interdict was granted
against the pronouncing of sentence of deposition upon a minister found
guilty of theft, by a judgment acquiesced in by himself ;J in another, where
a Presbytery was interdicted from proceeding in the trial of a minister ac
cused of fraud and swindling ;§ and in a third, where a Presbytery was
interdicted from proceeding with a libel against a licentiate for drunken
ness, obscenity, and profane swearing.||
" By suspending Church censures, T inflicted by the Church judicatories
in the exercise of discipline, (which, by special statute, all 'judges and
officers of justice' are ordered ' to give due assistance' for making ' to be
obeyed, or otherwise effectual,') and so reponing ministers suspended from
their office, to the power of preaching and administering ordinances ; thus
assuming to themselves the ' power of the keys.'
" By interdicting the execution of a sentence of deposition from the office
of the holy ministry, pronounced by the General Assembly of the Church ;**
thereby also usurping the ' power of the keys,' and supporting deposed min
isters in the exercise of ministerial functions ; which is declared by special
statute to be a ' high contempt of the authority of the Church, and of the
laws of the kingdom establishing the same.'
"By assuming to judge of the right of individuals elected members of
the General Assembly to sit therein,ft and interdicting them from taking
their seats ; thus interfering with the constitution of the Supreme Court of
the Church, and violating her freedom in the holding of General Assemblies,
secured to her by statute.
* 2d Auchterarder Case t Culsalmond Case. J Cambusnethan Case.
§ Stranraer Case. || 4th Lethendy Case. ^ !st and 2d Strathbogie Cases.
** 3d Strathbogie Case. +t 5th Strathbogie Case.

544 APPENDIX.
" By, in the greater number of instances above referred to, requiring the
inferior judicatories of the Church to disobey the sentences, in matters
spiritual and ecclesiastical, of the superior judicatories, to which, by the
constitution in Church and State, they are subordinate and subject, and
which, in compliance with the provisions of the statutes of the realm, their
members have solemnly sworn to obey ; — thus subverting 'the government
of the Church by Kirk-sessions, Presbyteries, Provincial Synods, and Gene
ral Assemblies,' settled by statute and the Treaty of Union, as ' the only
government of the Church within the kingdom of Scotland.'
" By all which acts, the said Court of Session, apparently not adverting
to the oath taken by the Sovereign, from whom they hold their commissions,
have exercised powers not conferred upon them by the Constitution, but by
it excluded from the province of any secular tribunal, — have invaded the
jurisdiction of the Courts of the Church, — have subverted its government,
— have illegally attempted to coerce Church Courts in the exercise of their
purely spiritual functions, — have usurped the ' power of the keys,' — have
wrongfully acclaimed, as the subjects of their civil jurisdiction, to be regu
lated by their decrees, ordination of laymen to the office of the holy minis
try, admission to the cure of souls, Church censures, the preaching of the
Word, and the administration of the Sacraments, — and have employed the
means intrusted to them for enforcing submission to their lawful authority,
in compelling submission to that which they have usurped, — in opposition
to the doctrines of God's Word set forth in the Confession of Faith, as rati
fied by statute, — in violation of the Constitution, — in breach of the Treaty
of Union, and in disregard of divers express enactments of the Legislature :
"And whereas farther encroachments are threatened on the government
and discipline of the Church as by law established,* in actions now depend
ing before the said Court, in which it is sought to have sentences of depo
sition from the office of the holy ministry reduced and set aside,t and
minorities of inferior judicatories authorized to take on trial and admit to
the office of the holy ministry, in disregard of, and in opposition to, the
authority of the judicatories of which they are members, and of the superior
judicatories to which they are subordinate and subject :
" And whereas the government and discipline of Christ's Church cannot
be carried on according to his laws and the constitution of his Church,
subject to the exercise, by any secular tribunal, of such powers as have
been assumed by the said Court of Session :
" And whereas this Church, highly valuing, as she has ever done, her
connexion, on the terms contained in the statutes herein before recited,
* 4th Strathbogie Case. t 3d Auchterarder Case. 3d Lethendy Case.

APPENDIX. 545
with the State, and her possession of the temporal benefits thereby secured
to her for the advantage of the people, must, nevertheless, even at the risk
and hazard of the loss of that connexion and of these public benefits —
deeply as she would deplore and deprecate such a result for herself and the
nation — persevere in maintaining her liberties as a Church of Christ, and
in carrying on the government thereof on her own constitutional principles,
and must refuse to intrude ministers on her congregations, to obey the un
lawful coercion attempted to be enforced against her in the exercise of her
spiritual functions and jurisdiction, or to consent that her people be de
prived of their rightful liberties :
" Therefore, the General Assembly, while, as above set forth, they
fully recognise the absolute jurisdiction of the Civil Courts in relation to
all matters whatsoever of a civil nature, and especially in relation to all the
temporalities conferred by the State upon the Church, and the civil conse
quences attached by law to the decisions, in matters spiritual, of the Church
Courts, — do, in name and on behalf of this Church, and of the nation and
people of Scotland, and under the sanction of the several statutes, and the
Treaty of Union herein before recited, claim, as of right, That she shall
freely possess and enjoy her liberties, government, discipline, rights, and
privileges, according to law, especially for the defence of the spiritual liber
ties of her people, and that she shall be protected therein from the foresaid
unconstitutional and illegal encroachments of -the said Court of Session,
and her people secured in their Christian and constitutional rights and
liberties. "And they declare, that they cannot, in accordance with the Word of
God, the authorized and ratified standards of this Church, and the dictates
of their consciences, intrude ministers on reclaiming congregations, or carry
on the government of Christ's Church, subject to the coercion attempted by
the Court of Session as above set forth ; and that, at the risk and hazard
of suffering the loss of the secular benefits conferred by the State, and the
public advantages of an Establishment, they must, as by God's grace they
will, refuse so to do : for, highly as they estimate these, they cannot put
them in competition with the inalienable liberties of a Church of Christ,
which, alike by their duty and allegiance to their Head and King, and by
their ordination vows," they are bound to maintain, ' notwithstanding of
whatsoever trouble or persecution may arise.'
" And they protest, that all and whatsoever Acts of the Parliament of
Great Britain, passed without the consent of this Church and nation, in
alteration of or derogation to the aforesaid government, discipline, right,
and privileges of this Church, (which were not allowed to be treated of by
VOL. IV. 2 Z

646 APPENDIX.
the Commissioners for settling the terms of the union between the two
kingdoms, but were secured by antecedent stipulation, provided to be in
serted, and inserted in the Treaty of Union, as an unalterable and funda
mental condition thereof, and so reserved from the cognizance and power
of the federal Legislature created by the said Treaty), as also, all and what
soever sentences of Courts in contravention of the same government, disci
pline, right, and privileges, are, and shall be, in themselves void and null,
and of no legal force or effect ; and that, while they will accord full sub
mission to all such acts and sentences, in so far — though in so far only — as
these may regard civil rights and privileges, whatever may be their opinion
of the justice or legality of the same, their said submission shall not be
deemed an acquiescence therein, but that it shall be free to the members
of this Church, or their successors, at any time hereafter, when there shall
be a prospect of obtaining justice, to claim the restitution of all such civil
rights and privileges, and temporal benefits and endowments, as for the
present they may be compelled to yield up, in order to preserve to their
office-bearers the free exercise of their spiritual government and discipline,
and to their people the liberties, of which respectively it has been attempted,
so contrary to law and justice, to deprive them.
"And, finally, the General Assembly call the Christian people of this
kingdom, and all the Churches of the Reformation throughout the world,
who hold the great doctrin»of the sole Headship of the Lord Jesus over his
Church, to witness, that it is for their adherence to that doctrine, as set
forth in their Confession of Faith, and ratified by the laws of this kingdom,
and for the maintenance by them of the jurisdiction of the office-bearers,
and the freedom and privileges of the members of the Church from that
doctrine flowing, that this Church is subjected to hardship, and that the
rights so sacredly pledged and secured to her are put in peril ; and they
especially invite all the office-bearers and members of this Church, who are
willing to suffer for their allegiance to their adorable King and Head, to
stand by the Church, and by each other, in defence of the doctrine afore
said, and of the liberties and privileges, whether of office-bearers or people,
which rest upon it ; and to unite in supplication to Almighty God, that He
would be pleased to turn the hearts of the rulers of this kingdom, to keep
unbroken the faith pledged to this Church, in former days, by statutes and
solemn treaty, and the obligations, come under to God Himself, to preserve
and maintain the government and discipline of this Church in accordance
with His Word ; or otherwise, that He would give strength to this Church
— office-bearers and people — to endure resignedly the loss of the temporal
benefits of an Establishment, and the personal sufferings and sacrifices

APPENDIX. 547
to which they may be called, and would also inspire them with zeal
and energy to promote the advancement of His Son's kingdom, in whatever
condition it may be His will to place them ; and that, in His own good
time, He would restore to them these benefits, the fruits of the struggles
and sufferings of their fathers in times past in the same cause ; and, there
after, give them grace to employ them more effectually than hitherto they
have done for the manifestation of His glory."
Protest by thosf, Commissioners to the General Assembly appointed
to meet on 18th May 1843, by whom this Assembly was constituted.
" At Edinburgh, and unUiin a large Hall at Canonmillx,
thel8tk day of May 1843 years. Sess.l.
" The Commissioners to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland,
appointed to have been holden this day, having met in St. Andrew's Church,
the Ministers and Elders, Commissioners thereto, whose names are appended
to the Protest then and there made, and hereinafter inserted, having with
drawn from that place, and having convened in a large Hall at Canonmills,
in presence of a great concourse of Ministers, Elders, and People, and hav
ing duly constituted themselves in the name of the Head of the Church,
and appointed the Rev. Dr. Chalmers to be their Moderator, the Protest
above-mentioned was produced and read, and thereafter ordered to be re
corded as follows : —
" We, the undersigned Ministers and Elders, chosen as Commissioners to
the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, indicted to meet this day,
but precluded from holding the said Assembly by reason of the circum
stances hereinafter set forth, in consequence of which a Free Assembly of
the Church of Scotland, in accordance with the laws and constitution of the
said Church, cannot at this time be holden —
"Considering that the Legislature, by their rejection of the Claim of
Right adopted by the last General Assembly of the said Church, and their
refusal to give redress and protection against the jurisdiction assumed, and
the coercion of late repeatedly attempted to be exercised over the Courts of
the Church in matters spiritual by the Civil Courts, have recognised and
fixed the conditions of the Church Establishment, as henceforward to sub
sist in Scotland, to be such as these have been pronounced and declared by
the said Civil Courts in their several recent decisions, in regard to matters
spiritual and ecclesiastical, whereby it has been held, inter alia, —
"1st, That the Courts of the Church by law established, and members
thereof, are liable to be coerced by. the Civil Courts in the exercise of their
spiritual functions ; and in particular in the admission to the office of the

548 APPENDIX.
holy ministry, and the constitution of the pastoral relation, and that they
are subject to be compelled to intrude ministers on reclaiming congregations
in opposition to the fundamental principles of the Church, and their views
of the Word of God, and to the liberties of Christ's people.
" 2d, That the said Civil Courts have power to interfere with and interdict
the preaching of the gospel and administration of ordinances as authorized
and enjoined by the Church Courts of the Establishment.
" 3d, That the said Civil Courts have power to suspend spiritual censures
pronounced by the Church Courts of the Establishment against ministers
and probationers of the Church, and to interdict their execution as to
spiritual effects, functions, and privileges.
" 4th, That the said Civil Courts have power to reduce and set aside the
sentences of the Church Courts of the Establishment, deposing ministers
from the office of the holy ministry, and depriving probationers of their
license to preach the Gospel, with reference to the spiritual status, functions,
and privileges of such ministers and probationers — restoring them to the
spiritual office and status of which the Church Courts had deprived them.
" 5th, That the said Civil Courts have power to determine on the right to
sit as members of the supreme and other judicatories of the Church by law
established, and to issue interdicts against sitting and voting therein, irre
spective of the judgment and determination of the said judicatories.
" 6th, That the said Civil Courts have power to supersede the majority of
a Church Court of the Establishment, in regard to the exercise of its spiritual
functions as a Church Court, and to authorize the minority to exercise the
said functions, in opposition to the Court itself, and to the superior judica
tories of the Establishment.
" 7th, That the said Civil Courts have power to stay processes of discipline
pending before Courts of the Church by law established, and to interdict
such Courts from proceeding therein.
" 8th, That no pastor of a congregation can be admitted into the Church
Courts of the Establishment, and allowed to rule, as well as to teach, agree
ably to the institution of the office by the Head of the Church, nor to sit in
any of the judicatories of the Church, inferior or supreme — and that no ad
ditional provision can be made for the exercise of spiritual discipline among
the members of the Church, though not affecting any patrimonial interests,
and no alteration introduced in the state of pastoral superintendence and
spiritual discipline in any parish, without the sanction of a Civil Court.
" All which jurisdiction and power on the part of the said Civil Courts
severally above specified, whatever proceeding may have given occasion to
its exercise, is, in our opinion, in itself, inconsistent with Christian liberty,

APPENDIX. 549
and with the authority which the Head of the Church hath conferred on
the Church alone.
" And farther considering, that a General Assembly, composed, in accord
ance with the laws and fundamental principles of the Church, in part of
commissioners themselves admitted without the sanction of the Civil Court,
or chosen by Presbyteries composed in part of members not having that
sanction, cannot be constituted as an Assembly of the Establishment with
out disregarding the law and the legal conditions of the same as now fixed
and declared ;
" And farther considering, that such commissioners as aforesaid would, as
members of an Assembly of the Establishment, be liable to be interdicted
from exercising their functions, and to be subjected to civil coercion at the
instance of any individual having interest who might apply to the Civil
Courts for that purpose ;
" And considering farther, that civil coercion has already been in divers
instances applied for and used, whereby certain commissioners returned to
the Assembly this day appointed to have been holden, have been interdicted
from claiming their seats, and from sitting and voting therein ; and certain
Presbyteries have been, by interdicts directed against their members, pre
vented from freely choosing commissioners to the said Assembly, whereby
the freedom of such Assembly, and the liberty of election thereto, has been
forcibly obstructed and taken away ;
" And farther considering, that, in these circumstances, a free Assembly of
the Church of Scotland, by law established, cannot at this time be holden,
and that an Assembly, in accordance with the fundamental principles of
the Church, cannot be constituted in connexion with the State without vio
lating the conditions which must now, since the rejection by the Legislature
of the Church's Claim of Right, be held to be the conditions of the Esta
blishment ;
" And considering that, while heretofore, as members of Church judica
tories ratified by law and recognised by the constitution of the kingdom, we
held ourselves entitled and bound to exercise and maintain the jurisdiction
vested in these judicatories with the sanction of the constitution, notwith
standing the decrees as to matters spiritual and ecclesiastical of the Civil
Courts, because we could not see that the State had required submission
thereto as a condition of the Establishment, but, on the contrary, were satis
fied that the State, by the acts of the Parliament of Scotland, for ever and
unalterably secured to this nation by the Treaty of Union, had repudiated
any power in the Civil Courts to pronounce such decrees, we are now con
strained to acknowledge it to be the mind and will of the State, as recently

550 APPENDIX.
declared, that such submission should and does form a condition of the
Establishment, and of the possession of the benefits thereof ; and that as we
cannot, without committing what we believe to be sin — in opposition to
God's law — in disregard of the honour and authority of Christ's crown, and
in violation of our own solemn vows, comply with this condition, we cannot
in conscience continue connected with it, and retain the benefits of an Esta
blishment to which such condition is attached.
" We, therefore, the Ministers and Elders foresaid, on this, the first
occasion since the rejection by the' Legislature of the Church's Claim of
Right, when the commissioners chosen from throughout the bounds of the
Church to the General Assembly appoiuted to have been this day holden,
are convened together, do protest, that the conditions foresaid, while we
deem them contrary to and subversive of the settlement of church govern
ment effected at the Revolution, and solemnly guaranteed by the Act of
Security and Treaty of Union, are also at variance with God's Word, in op
position to the doctrines and fundamental principles of the Church of Scot
land,' inconsistent with the freedom essential to the right constitution of a
Church of Christ, and incompatible with the government which He, as the
Head of his Church, hath therein appointed distinct from the civil magis
trate. " And we further protest, that any Assembly constituted in submission
to the conditions now declared to be law, and under the civil coercion which
has been brought to bear on the election of commissioners to the Assembly
this day appointed to have been holden, and on the commissioners chosen
thereto, is not and shall not be deemed a lawful and free Assembly of the
Church of Scotland, according to the original and fundamental principles
thereof ; and that the Claim, Declaration, and Protest, of the General As
sembly which convened at Edinburgh in May 1842, as the act of a free and
lawful Assembly of the said Church, shall be holden as setting forth the
true constitution of the said Church, and that the said Claim, along with
the laws of the Church now subsisting, shall in nowise be affected by what
soever acts and proceedings of any Assembly constituted under the condi
tions now declared to be the law, and in submission to the coercion now
imposed on the Establishment.
" And, finally, while firmly asserting the right and duty of the civil ma
gistrate to maintain and support an establishment of religion in accordance
with God's Word, and reserving to ourselves and our successors to strive by
all lawful means, as opportunity shall in God's good providence be offered,
to secure the performance of this duty agreeably to the Scriptures, and in
implement of the statutes of the kingdom of Scotland, and the obligations

APPENDIX. 561
of the Treaty of Union as understood by us and our ancestors, but acknow
ledging that we do not hold ourselves at liberty to retain the benefits of the
Establishment, while we cannot comply with the conditions now to be
deemed thereto attached — we protest, that in the circumstances in which
we are placed, it is and shall be lawful for us, and such other commissioners
chosen to the Assembly appointed to have been this day holden, as may
concur with us, to withdraw to a separate place of meeting, for the purpose
of taking steps for ourselves and all who adhere to us — maintaining with us
the Confession of Faith and Standards of the Church of Scotland, as hereto
fore understood — for separating in an orderly way from the Establishment ;
and thereupon adopting such measures as may be competent to us, in
humble dependence on God's grace and the aid of the Holy Spirit, for the
advancement of His glory, the extension of the gospel of our Lord and
Saviour, and the administration of the affairs of Christ's house, according to
His Holy Word ; and we do now, for the purpose foresaid, withdraw ac
cordingly, humbly and solemnly acknowledging the hand of the Lord in the
things which have come upon us, because of our manifold sins, and the siDS
of this Church and nation ; but, at the same time, with an assured convic
tion, that we are not responsible for any consequences that may follow from
this our enforced separation from an Establishment which we loved and
prized — through interference with conscience, the dishonour done to Christ's
crown, and the rejection of his sole and supreme authority as King in His
Church."

APPENDIX D.— P. 315.
Address to the Convocation of November 1842.
" The question whether we should not persevere in such measures as
might eventually break up the connexion between the Church and State
hinges on distinct merits and considerations of its own, and I am not very
clear that the view which' I shall now submit will furnish any positive
element for the decision of it. It might be wrong to precipitate the entire
destruction of an endowed Church in these lands, even though we could
demonstrate the securities which would be still within our reach for the
amply sufficient maintenance of a Voluntary Church in its place ; and it
might be right to hazard, nay, even to help on, with our eyes open to the
consequences, the demolition of our present Establishment, although with
the certainty of extreme destitution to all our families. I will not enter

652 APPENDIX.
on the question of which would be the right and which the wrong decision
in this matter. I have no doubt that events on the one hand, and the
resolved unalterable principles of the great body among our clergy on the
other, will, by God's grace, insure a determination worthy of men who are
in readiness to do all, or to suffer all, which conscience might require of
them. But still it is practically of the greatest importance to relieve that
determination, whatever it might be, of all those adverse or disturbing
influences which are fitted to shake the constancy of men and frighten
them from their propriety. It is even our duty to lessen, as far as may be
consistent with truth, the force of those temptations, or remove them alto
gether, which might cause men to falter in their onward course, and to
swerve from the path of Christian integrity and honour. On this ground
I am thankful for the permission to state in the hearing of my brethren:
my own anticipations on that subject, or how it is that I think the matter
really stands. Most assuredly I do not want to hasten your decision be
yond what, on its own proper grounds, you might deem to be right and
necessary. But, on the other hand, I should like to see removed out of the
way aught which might hinder or even cause a hurtful delay in our adop
tion of what ought to be the final decision of the Church on the matters
which are now pending ; or, in one brief sentence, I should like to demon
strate the grounds on which, should the worst come to the worst, I look for
the stability of our present Church of Scotland in these lands, even should
the fostering care of the State be withdrawn from her, and should she be
severed from all her present endowments and civil immunities by the hand
of violence.
" The arithmetic on which, under God, I found the confidence I feel is soon
told. It is not because I count on a multitude of great things. These may
be either more frequent or more numerous than I shall attempt to specify,
but I do count on a multitude of small things. It is not on the strength of
large sums that I proceed ; it is on the strength and accumulation of littles.
I am not looking for much that is remarkable in the way either of noble
efforts or noble sacrifices ; nor yet is it on the impulse of strong but momen
tary feeling that I at all reckon. It is on the assiduities of habit and prin
ciple, such as a very common and everyday exertion in each district of our
land might secure if begun, and such as the general influence of custom
alone might suffice to perpetuate. Such is the character, the plain unima
ginative character of the premises with which I am now dealing, and the
conclusion I draw from them. What I call my minimum result, because the
very least to which I aspire, is a hundred thousand pounds in the year. And
the way in which I calculate so as to come to this result is, that more than

APPENDIX. 653
this will be yielded by a penny a week, not from each individual, but a
penny a week from each family of our Scottish population.
" Could I only get your attention directed to the figures and statistics of
this process I should not despair of winning the firm faith and confidence
of your award. And when I speak of figures, they are not the figures of
rhetoric, let me assure you, which I at all mean. They are the figures of
arithmetic, and of an arithmetic where the postulates and the data might,
by a little exertion, be made alike sure. My only postulates are a demand
for a penny a week on the average from each household throughout the
country at large, and a demand for half an hour's time every Monday from
each agent or visitor who will undertake for the collection of it, and my only
data are that, while abundantly sensible that there are thousands of families
in Scotland who will not only withhold, but passionately refuse, any contri
bution to our cause, and influence others to do the like, still there are as many
thousands who will replace their lack of service, and count it no great hero
ism though they should convert their penny into twopence a week, nay,
should feel it no great stretch of generosity though, instead of a penny
a week from the whole family there should be that amount of offering from
each member of it. I will now stop short at that part of my demonstration,
although I might go upward a great deal higher, and tell of the thousands
I know who will give their sixpences a week, of the hundreds who will give
their guineas or half guineas a quarter, of the tens, yea, of the fifties, who
will tithe themselves to the extent of from five to twenty pounds a year.
But I will desist, and that long before I have parted company with the
realities of the question, lest there be any who now hear me who might think
that I am taking an aerial flight towards the fairy land of romance. Let
me only, without giving names, tell of four specimens which have cast up
within these few days ; first, a thriving manufacturer, who is to stake .£150
a year on the moment that we are severed from endowments ; then a gentle
man of monied fortune, who undertakes, on that event, to furnish the main
tenance of three clergymen and their families ; then a widow, who, from the
proceeds of her dowry, and her own little fortune, dedicates £200 to the
cause ; and lastly, of a master tradesman who will let down his establishment
to that of a journeyman or common mechanic rather than that the Church,
if abandoned by the State, should not be upheld at at least the present
extent of her efficiency and her means. But I will expatiate no further on
this walk — a walk, though it be not of speculation, but of real security,
because I do not want to divert either the attention or the efforts of our
friends from what I hold to be the solid groundwork on which the expecta
tions I have now ventured to announce will be most surely, and most
VOL. IV. 3 A

554 APPENDIX.
permanently realized, which is to enlist on our side the humble offerings
of the great bulk and body of our common people, small as mites in
dividually, but of vast amount in the aggregate, because the mites of a
million. It is mainly for the sake of pointing out the way in which
deficiencies will be covered, and so as to uphold the average, that I have
adverted at all to that higher liberality which will flow in upon the treasury
of our Church from the more affluent in society. Still our chief security lies
not with any special class, but with the public at large ; primarily, no doubt,
and above all, at the first with the religious public, who, down to the poorest
among them, will unite their offerings with their prayers in behalf of those
who suffer for conscience' sake. It is by their help that we shall be enabled
to penetrate and pervade the great mass and interior of our commonwealth,
and to perfect the regulation which brings us in contact with the wealth of
all down to its humblest degrees, and with the good-will of all, never more
precious than when it glows in the breast of an artisan or a peasant for the
Church of his fathers, to add inconceivably both to the means and the
moral strength of that Church, even should it cease to be an Establishment
— made an outcast by our rulers and disregarded by the official aristocracy
of our land.
" Thus much for the arithmetic of the question as grounded on a com
putation of the means or requisite monies for the maintenance of our Church,
on the event, should that ever happen, of its being cast by the State into a
condition of orphanhood or abandonment. That the means do exist, not I
mean in the coffers of the wealthy, whence it could only be elicited in large
sums from the few, but in that state of general dissemination whence it could
be called forth by small weekly payments from the many ; in other words,
that such means do exist, not somewhere alone, but everywhere, could be
made patent to the consciences of men anywhere, and by no mode more
effectually than by a simple assertion of the sufficiency to that amount in
the hearing of the population themselves, collected for the purpose of listen
ing to an exposition of the Church's sufferings, and of the great expedient
by which it was proposed still to uphold its ministrations and services
throughout the parishes of our land. I feel thoroughly persuaded that, let
the experiment be tried in the midst of an assemblage, made up of any con
tiguous thousand or two thousand people, called together from the house
holds of any locality in Scotland — I feel most thoroughly persuaded that, in
every nineteen cases out of twenty, the people at large would have a perfect
feeling of their own competency for the part which they would be expected
to take in- it. What we stand most in doubt of is the very thing which they
would feel the least doubt or difficulty about. The very part in the whole

APPENDIX. 555
demonstration about which we, in all likelihood, should feel the greatest
mistrust, being the very part respecting which the greatest confidence and
security would be felt by the people themselves. The truth is, the very
question whether, on an average, a penny a week might be looked for from
each household of any neighbourhood in which a general meeting of the
inhabitants might be held would provoke a smile from the multitude that
any one should stand in doubt or make a question of it at all, and this after
making every allowance for particular instances of distress and destitution.
We are aware that men in their hurried and wholesale contemplation of
things are apt to be carried away by generalities, and under an overwhelm
ing sense of an extreme and universal helplessness among the common
people, think that nothing is to be had from them. The only way of dis
lodging and dissipating that impression is by going piecemeal to work,
and making the actual trial in one parish or vicinity after another. For
ourselves we are at no loss to understand how it is that the people of Ireland,
whose distresses are rung perpetually in our ears, should support, not in
comfort alone, but often in affluence, the great body of the Catholic priest
hood ; nor were we in the least surprised when, in conversation with one of
my clerical friends in the Isle of Skye, and told by him of one of its parishes
that the people there could do nothing, could give no assistance whatever,
and must be altogether helped from without for keeping up the Gospel
ministry amongst them, when I asked whether absolutely nothing could be
looked for, though even at the rate of a penny a week from each household,
he at once admitted, that if I came down to such a nothing, such a baga
telle as this, it could be easily afforded. Now, it is just by a putting to
gether of such bagatelles that I arrive at my conclusions, and I therefore
repeat, that as far as the means are concerned, we could obtain, — and it is
the very least and lowest computation we should think of making, — we could
obtain after the loss of all our endowments, the sum of ,£100,000 in the year
for the support of a Christian ministry in Scotland, without sensible en
croachment on the comfort of any, without so much as the feeling of a
sacrifice. " On these considerations we feel quite satisfied that there is no defect of
means, and no barrier to the fulfilment of our hopes as we have now stated
them in the poverty of the people. But there is another ground on which
I do admit my anxieties as well as my hopes, and will frankly confess,
along with the confidence I feel that there is no defect of means, my appre
hension at the same time that there may be a defect of agency. Not that
I look upon this defect as at all insuperable, for though I do feel anxious
about it, it is not that anxiety which leads in the least to despair, it is only

556 APPENDIX. .
the anxiety which would lead me to vigilance and exertion. I have no fear
about the means in that all is clear and satisfactory as respects what may
be called the arithmetic of the question. I have my fears as to the agency,
and therefore I regard as an object of the utmost consideration what may
be called the human nature of the question. The premises on which I
calculate are to be found, but then the premises must be sought after ; and
while I repeat that I have no distrust as to the sufficiency, or even the
willingness of those whose province it is to give the offerings, I do have
misgivings if certain provisions are not made and certain precautions
are not taken as to the doings of those whose province it is to gather the
offerings. The whole gist and difficulty of the problem lies in this, to secure
for every little district on which we enter an aggressive movement of half
an hour a-week on the part of those who take the office of collectors ; for if
we gain this the problem will be resolved, and the scheme, instead of a fancy
will become a living fulfilment, passing from the ideal into the real, and
the produce which might appear well-nigh marvellous to those who have
neither the genius to devise nor the patience to do, having just as little, in
fact, with all their contempt for the visionary, and all their pretensions to
the practical, just as little of true arithmetic as they have of sanguine
imagination. " We have no fear as to the forming of the agency at first ; our only
fears, or rather the only thing which will require being guarded against,
is the falling away of that agency afterwards. What is done at first is
done of impulse, nor can we imagine how a more powerful or a more general
impulse will be given, and so as to extend far beyond the religious public
of Scotland, than by a movement, if it shall be made, of hundreds of our
most honoured clergymen, who, in obedience to the high behests of a great
and a sacred principle, resolve to cast themselves on the care of Providence,
and on such an instrumentality as Providence might be pleased to raise for
the maintenance of a Free Church and an incorrupt Gospel in these lands,
We have no fear that there will be a very fresh and vigorous impulse at the
first, but a thing of mere impulse is destined to subside, and care must be
taken that what is a thing of impulse at the first shall be so sustained and
so operated upon as to become a thing of habit afterwards. It may have
been impulse at the first, which, in the days of John Knox, brought for
ward thousands of deacons at a call, whose province it was to attend on the
collections at the church-doors ; but it was habit afterwards which secured
their continued attendance, and, let me add, which secured a regular and
continued offering from the bulk of our common people. And by impulse
still do we look for an instant resuscitation of this important order in

APPENDIX. 657
the Church, on the instant that the urgent necessities of the Church shall
require it ; and when impulse has once set into operation a weekly round
among the families of each allotted district, habit will keep it agoing.
The regular periodic meeting of the court of deacons, in which each will
be required to give an account of his proceedings, and deposit his proceeds
in the common stock, will at length make of it an operation as sure as
mechanism. The omnipotence of habit will tell alike on both parties in
this transaction, both on the collectors and contributors, both on the deacon
himself and on the inhabitants of the district for which he is responsible.
The process would be immensely facilitated, if, going back to older times
than the days of John Knox, we availed- ourselves of the subsidiary order
of deaconesses, whereof we read in the primitive Church, and whether we
look for a greater enthusiasm at the outset, or for patient untiring duteous
attention and assiduity afterwards, for devotedness of purpose and prin
ciple, followed up by diligent and ever-doing performance, it will be found
in greatest readiness and perfection among the members of a female agency,
who, still as in the purely apostolic times of Paul, are ready to give them
selves up like Phoebe of old as servants of the Church, or like Priscilla, to
be our helpers in Christ Jesus, or like Mary, to bestow much labour on us,
or like Tryphena and Tryphosa, who laboured in the Lord, or Persis, who
laboured much in the Lord. The Wesleyans, who raise their £200,000
a year on a mere congregational system, should be greatly outdone by the
members of a Church, who, with or without endowments from the State, will
never, I trust, let down the parochial system, who will still continue to
hold by parishes as well as congregations, who will not relinquish this their
present vantage ground, and so identify our doings over the whole length
and breadth of the country with the localities and families of Scotland.
" Let it not be imagined, however, that I undervalue the good of a strong
though momentary impulse, nor do I think the season of its brief operation
should be suffered to pass away without having to the utmost improved by
it. I have no doubt that the great and high-minded sacrifices at the
shrine of duty on the part of the Church's ministers will be followed up by
a like great and high-minded enthusiasm on the part of the Church's
friends, in that should a movement once be resolved on of cutting our
connexion with the State because we can no longer maintain it but at the
expense of our most sacred liberties, it is a movement which should be
followed up without a moment's delay by simultaneous meetings in all the
important towns and parishes of Scotland, and that then not periodical
subscriptions, but the instant donations, should be called for, ready to be
poured forth from the many thousand open hearts and open hands which

558 APPENDIX.
will then be enlisted on the side of our Church's independence. Whatever
the produce of this great and general contribution might be on that day,
even to half a million, I would not touch one farthing of it either for the
maintenance of clergymen or for any current and periodical expenses
whatever, which should be wholly defrayed by current and periodical offer
ings. There is a grand expediency involved in this, a transgression of
which might prove of infinite damage to the infant economy of our affairs.
There will be ample room for the beneficial allotment of this large and
wholesale munificence both in the erection of fabrics and the compensation
of those sufferers whom the so-called law of the land shall have amerced in
fines or damages. The danger of alienating any part of this sum received
on the first and great excitement to the maintenance of the ejected minis
ters is, that it perils the less showy, but in the end far more productive
operation of those weekly gatherings which come in little by little to our
treasury, and on which alone the salaries ought to be devolved, and what
is of capital importance, to be devolved wholly. It were premature to
explain this more fully or particularly at present. Let me only say, that
to seize on the money raised by the impulse of a great and rare occasion
for those expenses which are ever recurring at given periods, instead of
laying them, and laying them altogether, on those ever-recurring subscrip
tions which, though individually small, will be to us yet by their summa
tion a large collective amount of weekly incomings for the quarterly or
yearly outgoings of the society. Such a proceeding, I say, were as griev
ously impolitic as to place our calculations for the agriculture of the
country on the brawling winter torrents which perform their brief and
noisy course in channels that soon run out, and are only known to have
existed by the dry and deserted beds they have left behind them, instead
of placing their calculations and their hopes on those tiny but innumerable
drops which fall in universal and fertilizing showers on the thirsty ground
that is beneath them.
" I have now said all I can afford on the organization of the country
necessary to the raising of money for the requisite supplies, and I will
state in as few words as possible what I have to suggest regarding the dis
tribution and disposal of it.
" First, then, the money raised in any given locality ought not to be re
served for the expenses of that locality. All the means raised throughout
all the localities should be remitted to a large central fund, whence a distri
bution of it should be made of the requisite sums or salaries for the ministers
of all our parishes. The benefits of such an arrangement are manifold and
inestimable. It becomes an operation of infinitely greater delicacy and

APPENDIX. 559
good taste when the offerings called for in any given neighbourhood are
not for the direct and personal behoof of their own clergyman. He could
do nothing to extend or stimulate such a process ; but his deacons and
even himself might, without the violation of decorum, bestow upon it their
full countenance and activity when seen in its true character as part of a
general scheme for the high patriotic object of supporting a ministry of
the Gospel throughout the whole of Scotland.
" Secondly, and what gives a still more disinterested character to the
scheme, is the noble resolution announced at the memorable meeting held
in the West Kirk in the month of August 1841, wherein the town minis
ters — the ministers of the most opulent parishes, and whence the largest
contributions will be made to the general fund — agree to share alike with
the ministers of the poorest parishes in Scotland. This law of equal divi
sion among the clergy will give rise to the operation of pure and high
principle both in the rich and the poorer parishes. The liberality of the
former will be stimulated not by the near and narrow consideration of a
support for their own minister, but by the great and soul- expanding consi
deration that they are helping out a provision for the Gospel in the most
destitute localities of the land ; and the efforts and sacrifices of the latter
will be stimulated by the honourable ambition of raising their contributions
as near to the dividend as possible — nay, in this noble work of provoking
each other to love and to good works, of raising it to a point which might
enable them to say, ' We give as much as we receive ;' or, adopting the
language of Paul, ' Our own hands have ministered in full to our neces
sities.' But whether this be attainable or not, it is well that the ministers
of our most remote and destitute localities should know that they have not
the capability of their own parishes alone, but the capability of the whole
religious public in Scotland, to count upon — yea, more, and it were one of
the most precious fruits of this arrangement, that the very oldest of our
ministers — those venerable fathers who have borne the burden and heat of
the day, perhaps unable to labour, yet unwilling and ashamed to remain in
fellowship with a spurious and degraded Church that shall have then
bowed the knee to an Erastian domination, it were indeed a heartfelt sa
tisfaction to assure all such that they will not be forsaken by their brethren
at large, but that, admitted to a just place of honour in the then free and
unfettered Church of Scotland, they to the day of their death will be made
to participate equally and alike with them in the joint offerings of her
children. " But, thirdly, you will observe that on this system of the equal division,

560 APPENDIX.
right and beautiful as it is, yet did our financial operations stop here and
proceed no farther, then the clergy in different parts of our Establishment,
with nominally the same means, would yet fare very unequally. On the
supposition that the yearly produce of a hundred thousand pounds were
realized — and we repeat that most certainly this is the lowest minimum
we should ever think of — and on the further supposition that five hundred
of our body, on her submission to an Erastian rule over the Church, were
severed from its endowments, this, yielding as it would £200 a year to
each, might almost make out a full compensation for the loss in many of
our least and worst provided parishes ; while in our large towns, and even
in the best and richest districts of the country, it would work a sudden
and severe reduction in the income of the minister. It is for this reason
that our financial system ought not to stop at the lowest point to which I
have yet carried my explanation of it. There is one step more, and as far
as the support of our existent clergy is concerned, the whole would be
completed. After that the organization has been set up in each parish for
behoof of the general fund — or, in other words, after that an association
has been formed and put into regular working order for the raising and
the remitting of its quarterly or yearly proceeds to what may be called the
great national treasury of the Church, there can be no objection — nay, it
were most desirable that a distinct supplementary effort should be made in
each parish for the express purpose of eking out and extending the allow
ance of its own minister. A weekly collection at the church door opens up
a ready channel for carrying this into effect ; but in whatever way the
thing is done, and let each congregation take its own way of it, here is a
method by which the inequality of the equal dividend might most effec
tually be repaired. The same dividend would come to each all over the
land ; and from that part of his stipend which he received at the hands of
external Voluntaryism — a principle this, which, so far from conflicting,
coincides and is in perfect harmony with the principle of a National Esta
blishment — the supplementary contributions again would be very unequal
which each would receive at the hands of internal Voluntaryism — a prin
ciple not identical with the former, yet not superseded either by it or even
by the principle of a National Establishment — not in England, where both
fees and gratuities are superadded to the regularly ordained provision —
and not in the Old Testament Church, where, in addition to the tithes and
levies, scope was allowed for the free-will offerings of the people. These
offerings will vary exceedingly in the various parts of our land ; but it is
satisfactory to think that they will be largest in those towns where they

APPENDIX. 561
will be most needed, and smallest in those places where the dividend comes
the nearest to the stipend that has been relinquished — a beautiful adap
tation, which might perhaps cause the income of certain ministers to be
better ; and it is to be hoped, that of all the others not worse than before.
" But, fourthly, and lastly, and most importantly of all, Though we can
never consent to regard the whole sum of £100,000, which we have made
the basis or base line of our calculation — though we can never consent to
regard it in any other light than as a minimum capable of large and inde
finite augmentation, yet nevertheless there ought for each dividend or
share which each minister receives of the fund to be an understood maxi
mum, a fixed quantity, whether it be £200 a year or something else, not to
be increased with the increase of the contributions — that is, not to be
made larger out of the central treasury, however much larger it might be
made by the supplementary and separate efforts of each congregation. In
other words, although the income of the national treasury should become
larger — and we think it capable of being made very much larger than the
minimum which we have supposed and set out with — we would not on this
account have the general allowance for each minister from the central
fund, after it has reached the given amount, we would not go beyond
that amount by having it made larger. It is true that there would then
be a greater revenue, and so there would, and ought to be, a, greater ex
penditure ; but this additional expenditure should not go to increase the
stipends of ministers — it should go to the increase of the number of them.
This will open a boundless field for the liberality of our Christian brethren
— a bright and beautiful ulterior to which every eye should be directed,
that each may have in full view the great and glorious achievement of a
Church commensurate with the land in which we dwell, and every heart
be elevated by the magnificent aim to cover with the requisite number
of churches, and with God's blessing on the means, Christianity to educate,
and in return for our performances and prayers to Christianize the whole
of Scotland.
" There is a very great and high expediency in this arrangement ; and
it is made up of the three following parts : — First, the provision of our
existing ministers would not be neglected, because it would form the prior
and preferable object to be met and provided for in the first instance, and
which would be made all the more secure that it was bound up with so
noble a fulfilment as that in which it was made to issue, and have its final
outgoing. " Secondly, it would place our whole enterprise before the eye of the

562 APPENDIX.
public in its true character. What proves the character of any under
taking is its terminus ad quem. Now the terminus ad quem of ours is not
a provision for the ejected ministers ; it is, in the first instance, the benefit
of their Christian services, and then the multiplication of these services over
the whole face of our territory. I could plead and hold up my face un
abashed for such a design in any company, and before any assemblage.
It would and will be stigmatized by our enemies as a beggarly expedition
for a beggarly purpose. It will be no such thing. It will be a high career
of religious philanthropy ; an enlarged and liberated scheme of Church
extension, carried forward by pure, and great, and heart-stirring appeals,
in behalf of a great object of Christian patriotism.
" Thirdly, such an aim and a direction will not only have the effect of
keeping our object altogether pure. It will have the undoubted effect of
making the contributions high. We shall soon overshoot our proposed
minimum, and look back upon it as the paltry beginning of our great
national undertaking. The liberalities of the Christian public will be kept
at a loftier pitch, when you thus supply them with a loftier aim and a
larger arena. Thousands will give tenfold more than the weekly pence
which we set out with at the commencement of our demonstration ; and
yet, after all they have given, and experienced how little they have fore
gone of any substantial comfort, or of so much as one enjoyment that is
worth the caring for, will they see reason for the exclamation of Hannah
More, ' 0 how cheap is charity ; 0 how expensive is vanity.'
" Behold, then, our capabilities for a great and high work of Christian
philanthropy ; and Scotland, our own beloved Scotland, will be the first to
realize it — I mean first in the order of importance, and not in the order of
time, for I have no idea that, let the transition come when it may, any of
our present enterprises will need for a moment to be suspended. When
we carry the Church, we carry all the Church's schemes along with us.
If faithfully doing God's work, God will cause our cup to overflow, and
pour down such a blessing as that there shall be no room to receive it.
But confining ourselves to the operations of a great home mission into
which we should then be resolved, not only might we keep possession of
all the ground at present occupied by our right-minded ministers, but pro
ceed to take possession, first, of all that heathen territory which we have not
yet been able to overtake ; and, second, of all the Erastian territory which for
the present we might be forced to leave behind us. It were indeed a great
and a glorious Church extension, with the indispensable satellite of a com
mensurate School extension keeping onwardly by its side, or following

APPENDIX. 563
closely in its train. Be assured there would be no drawing in of our
Christian philanthropy. There would be an immeasurable expansion or
going out of it ; and that on hundreds of places not yet entered or visited
by any of its operations — on the lanes and plebeian streets of our large towns,
on the desolate untrodden outfield of our more unwieldy parishes. There
a numerous band of youthful, zealous, and devoted agents in the form both
of students and preachers, ready even now to go forth as pioneers of this
moral wilderness, and in whose hands there might be an instant and
visible display of the Christian good which the Church, shaken loose from
its present entanglements and fetters, is able to accomplish. It would
give rise to a strong reciprocal emulation between the givers and the doers of
this noble enterprise, who would act and react most beneficially and power
fully into each other's hands. It were like the law of action and reaction
in the mental world, when thus a prosperous interchange takes place be
tween the services and the liberalities of the Church's friends ; the services
awakening and calling forth the liberalities — the liberalities sustaining and
extending the services.
" It is not to speed, and far less to overbear your determinations that we
have endeavoured to set this argument before you, but to remove, if pos
sible, disturbing forces in the way either of clearly perceiving, or of right
eously judging where it is that the path of duty and of rectitude lies. It
is to demonstrate, in as far as it can be made intelligible to the eye of
sense, what ought never to be lost sight of by the eye of faith — that the
Church, even though driven from her present holdings, might yet be sus
tained on as firm and high a vantage ground of Christian usefulness as
before, when, broken loose from her present entanglements, she goes forth
at the call and the openings of Providence, cheered by the smiles of an
approving Heaven, and rejoicing in the inspiration of liberty. You will
now, perhaps, be better able to compare the two sides of your prospect,
and say whether it were better to prolong this weary and harassing
struggle with the enemies without our Establishment, and the rebels with
in, or, by shaking yourself free, make clean escape from the tracasseries
which compass and impede you in every direction. But let me not forget
that this is not immediately, though it may afterwards come to be even
tually the question. The thing for present decision, is not whether now
the Church shall cut connexion with the State, but what now shall be our
language to them who have the power and authority of the State in their
hands ; and I confidently ask, on the premises which I have tried, however
imperfectly, to lay down, whether this ought to be a language of irresolu-

564 APPENDIX.
tion and timidity — of men in perplexity because their hearts are failing
them for fear, or ready in the least to recede or to compromise, because of
the approaching ruin that is now, in the scared imaginations perhaps of
a few, opening to engulf and swallow up the majority of ministers in
Scotland ? My prayer is for an unfaltering progression in a steady, recti
lineal course, and that you may never be tempted to subordinate the king
dom which is not of this world to the government of this world's powers."

APPENDIX E.— P. 366.
" In the summer of 1841, I drew up the following scheme for the Econo
mics of our Church, should it be severed from its endowments, and submit
ted it to the view and judgment of several of my friends : —
" Scheme for the Economics of a Free Church.
" 1st, That Associations should be formed in all parts of the country for
receiving both donations and termly payments in support of the Church.
" 2c?, That the produce of these Associations should be remitted to Edin
burgh, and there formed into a General Fund, under the management of a
Central or Metropolitan Board.
" 3d, That this Fund should furthermore be upheld by direct offerings,
either single or periodical, on the part of those who may not be in the way
of remitting their contributions through the medium of a local Association.
"4th, That the General Fund shall be separated into two parts — a
Building and a Sustentation Fund — the former made up of the donations,
and the latter of the termly payments, unless otherwise specified by the
contributors, who of course are at perfect liberty to assign either of these
objects. "5th, That from the Sustentation Fund a certain equal dividend should
be awarded to each minister of the Church, not exceeding the sum of 
yearly. " 6th, That whatever surplus remained after the allocation of their yearly
dividend to the ministers of the Church, should be devoted to the objects
of Church and School Extension.
" *lth, That it shall be competent for each congregation to increase the
allowance received by the ministers from the General Fund, by separate
and supplementary efforts of their own.
" 8th, That the ancient order of Deacons shall be revived in each con-

APPENDIX. 585
gregation, whose special office, as formerly, shall be to take such charge as
might be committed to them of those funds which are raised, whether for
the relief of the poor or the sustentation of the ministry.
" This scheme, of course, but presents the features of a very general out
line, subject to such modifications as might be approved of — various of
which modifications will fall to be discussed in the following pages. There
is in it, however, what we hold to be the essence of every such scheme as is
fitted, not only to support the Church up to its present magnitude, but so
to extend it as that it shall become commensurate to the full supply of re
ligious instruction for the whole of Scotland.
" At the great public meeting held at St. Cuthbert's Church in August
1841, there was a general exposition given by Dr. Candlish of a scheme
bearing a close resemblance in all its essential elements to the one which I
have now presented to the reader. Whether it was that he had seen this
scheme, and had approved of it, or that it was suggested originally and
independently to his own mind, it is most satisfactory to find that it met
the support of one whose opinion is so fitted to influence the counsels of
the Church.
" I did anticipate, therefore, that it would have obtained a greater
amount of credit and coalescence, when I unfolded it at some length at the
meeting of the Convocation in the November of 1842. I was disappointed
in this expectation ; and could well perceive that what to my own view
was manifest as day, having all the lights both of arithmetic and experience
to rest upon it, was held by many, if not by most of those whom I addressed,
as but the dream of a fond and ardent imagination. I felt that the success
of our Church Extension (where the result was at least tenfold of what the
Church at large had ever deemed to be possible) might have protected me
from the mortification of so great an incredulity. But such was not my
good fortune ; and certain it is, that my attempted demonstrations fell at
the time still-born on the ears, if not of unwilling, at least of unimpressed
and unconvinced auditors."
The reader interested in the condition and prospects of the Sustenta
tion Fund, is requested after perusing the chapter in the Memoir, to read
the following extracts from Dr. Chalmers's "Earnest Appeal:" —
On Scales of Distribution.
" These can be variously constructed. The rate of one and a half more,
would give rise to a scale, No. 1, of the three here subjoined. The other
two have been actually proposed.

566

APPENDIX.

(10

(2-)

(3.)

Contribution.

Stipend.

Contribution.

Stipend.

Contribution.

Stipend.

£50

£75

£60

£120

£50

£120

60

90

70

130

60

120

70

105

80

140

70

136

80

120

90

150

80

144

90

135

110

165

90

152

100

150

130

180

100

158

155

190

110

164

The increase of the

180

200

120

170

2d column stops here.

200

205

130

176

The first rises upward

220

210

140

180

through the aid-receiv

150

184

ing to the contributions

Both columns continue

160

188

of the aid-giving congre

to increase.

180

193

gations.

200220
198
208
Both columns increase.
" It will be observed that by the second and third scales, no congrega
tion becomes an aid-giver till its contribution has risen above £200. All
at or below £200 are aid-receivers. Let it be observed that at present we
have only sixty-seven congregations who give up to or above £200 ; and
that if there be no increase in the number of them, over and above providing
the stipends of their own ministers, they would have to make up the defi
ciency of towards six hundred aid-receiving congregations.
" We hold that the main purpose of scales would be served by the simple
regulation, that no congregation should be connected with our General
Fund till it remitted £50 a year — after which, let us imagine a scale ter
minating where No. I. does ; but that, instead of its rate of one and a half,
each should receive £50 more than its contribution till the stipend came to
£150, and there should be no farther increase upon it. This would give
rise to the following scale :— For £50, get back £100 ; for £60, £110 ;
for £70, £120 ; for £80, £130 ; for £90, £145 ; for £100, £150. After
the selfish principle had carried up so many congregations to the contribu
tion of £100, it is to be hoped that so many more would not stop there ;
but that the generous principle would then begin to operate, and we should
have contributions of £110, £120, and £150 — lessening their burden upon
us from £50 to £40, £30, &c, till they became self-supporting at £150.
Then, and at this point would there commence our aid-giving congrega
tions ; and it will give some idea of the capabilities of our Church, if to
avoid complexity we shall keep out of view the intermediate congregations ;
APPENDIX. 567
and, suppose that all the aid-receiving congregations cost £50 each to the
General Fund. Let us then conceive our Church to consist of 750 congre
gations, and that one-third of them only, or 250, are aid-giving, while two-
thirds, or 500, are aid-receiving. This would imply a deficiency on the
part of the latter to the extent of £25,000, to be made up by the former,
whose contributions would therefore require to average £250 each — that
is, £150 reserved each for its own minister, and £100 over and above for
the deficient congregations. The sum total from the 250 aid-giving con
gregations would amount to £62,500. The sum total from the aid-receiving
congregations, on the supposition that they averaged £100 each, would be
£50,000. Or, in other words, from a net revenue of £112,500, we could
afford to give £1 50 a year to each of 750 ministers. This might be realized
next year, could we only get rid of the enormous deficiencies of those who now
give us less than £50 a year. Why, to get up these alone to this £150, we
should require to expend more than the whole £25,000 of surplus put into
our hands by the aid-giving congregations, — whereas, with this surplus,
and on the simple adoption of the regulation that none should be admit
ted into connexion with us till they give £50, — we could, with the same
£25,000 of surplus, insure a dividend of £150 a year throughout nearly all,
or with a very few straggling exceptions, a whole Church of 750 ministers.
" And let it not be said that by ridding ourselves of this incubus, we
doom to extinction so many of our poorer congregations. The truth is,
that almost, if not altogether, they, every one of them, under the stimulus
of getting as they gave, would remit the £50. Or if some few did not,
there is not one of them, if found by the Home Mission Committee to be
meritorious cases, which would not receive what would make up £100 from
their funds — a sum as great as they ever can receive under the system of
an equal dividend — a system, therefore, which, though continued for their
sakes, would yield no practical good to them, and at the heavy expense of
keeping down the general dividend to its present level ; or, if the extension
of our Church is to be prosecuted, of sinking it still lower.
" When I think of the perfect ease wherewith both dividends might be
increased, and the Church rapidly extended, I am all the more conscious
that these various schemes of distribution should be discussed with the
most perfect temper and forbearance ; and, also, that enough of time should
be taken for the maturing of them. It were grievous, indeed, if, when
within demonstrable reach of so blessed a consummation, we should fall
short of it by falling out among ourselves. Let us not give our enemies
this triumph.
" There is nothing which has more shaken our confidence in the disposi-

568 APPENDIX.
tion of the Free Church to become an extending Church, or at least in its
perception of the right measures for carrying this into effect, than a late
resolution on the part of a numerous meeting of its ministers and elders,
that the equal dividend should be kept up in those charges whose ministers
came out at the Disruption, even after the outgone minister had been re
moved by death or by translation, and been succeeded by one who had made
no sacrifice. If there be any soundness in the principle that congregations
should be encouraged to make an effort for themselves by getting in pro
portion as they give — then there is so little sense or reason in exempting
from the operation of this rule, and that for ever, all those geographical
portions of the Free Church territory whose ministers happened to come
out at the Disruption, that the resolution they should be so exempted looks
very like a blow at the rule or principle itself. And then, should the blow
take effect, it will involve the restoration of a universal equal dividend,
both present and prospective. Our reason for deprecating such a measure
as ruinous, is not that it will hang with depressing effect in all time coming
upon the dividend, though this must be one of its sure results, but that it
will prove a death-blow to our Church's extension, and thus incapacitate
her for taking a share in the honourable work of making aught like a large
or successful inroad on that outfield population who occupy the wide and
fearfully increasing domain of the country's practical heathenism. It will
land us in a most anomalous system, at variance with all the attempts
which have been made of late years for adding to the number of ministers,
or churches, or schools in the land. The regium donum proceeds on the
rule of getting as they give — the sum awarded to the minister from the
Treasury bearing a proportion to the sum raised for him by the congrega
tion. The present allowance from the State for the erection of schools is
regulated by the amount of private subscriptions for the same object. The
Church Extension of the old General Assembly, under which 200 churches
sprang into being in four or five years, advanced with such rapid strides, not
by granting to all equally from the Central Fund, at which rate we should
not have had a tenth part of these additional churches — but by a certain
regulated centage, which left the remainder, or rather main bulk of the
expense, to be provided for by local efforts. Let not our Church be aban
doned to the recklessness of men who, under the power of one engrossing
idea, or misled by some specious plausibility that carries in it the semblance,
and but the semblance, of the reasonable and the right, would shut out the
light of all these experiences, and rush headlong into a policy that would
soon bring us to a dead stand. The equal dividend, carried out and per
sisted in, will not only operate, which it has already done, to a fearful ex-

APPENDIX. 569
tent, as a sedative on the efforts of the aid-receiving, but as a sedative too,
and that right soon, on the liberalities of the aid-giving congregations.
The spectacle of nearly one-half of our Churches receiving each £120 from
the Central Treasury, and contributing less than £50, and this palpably
due, not to the necessities of the case, but to the downright apathy or in
dolence of Deacons and Collectors — such a spectacle cannot long be per
petuated, but will soon fall to pieces under the weight and the exhaustion
of its own natural decay.
" We have heard it objected to the method of getting as they give, that
instances may occur of the remittance from the Association being made, not
of a sum raised, but of a sum borrowed, and this to cause the larger pro
portional return from the Central Fund in Edinburgh. And it is argued,
from the possible or even the actual occurrence of such a flagrant iniquity,
in one or two instances, that the system, though otherwise and in general
of most wholesome operation, should be therefore done away. It were well
if these reasoners would only bethink themselves of wherein it is that the
necessity or the wisdom of legislation lies — not most certainly in the sacri
fice of a universal good, and this for the prevention of such a rare and
disgraceful enormity, that the very exposure of it would prove its own
severest punishment, and therefore its own most effectual check and cor
rective ; but for the prevention of a sore and universal evil, and this through
the operation of a natural lethargy, which stirs up no vivid indignation
whatever, because there are so many who share in it, and keep it in counte
nance. When a congregation, who might easily do three times more, give
less than £50 to the General Fund, and yet without remorse would take
out £120 for the maintenance of their minister, there is readiness enough,
we admit, to call out shameful ; but the shame of it is not really felt, or at
least not so felt as to be of practical operation, as the very existence of 318
such congregations in the Free Church most abundantly testifies. The law
of getting as they give supplies the very stimulus that is obviously awant-
ing ; and which, if not supplied, will perpetuate such a drag upon the
Church as shall both restrain, or rather wholly arrest its progress, and keep
down the general circumstances of the whole body.
"We would not have dwelt so long on the subject of this note, but for
our apprehension of its being the very subject on which the Free Church is
likeliest to go wrong. And should the apprehension be verified, then must
we abandon our fondly cherished hope of its ever attaining to the magni
tude of a national institute, or of its ever reaching farther than by a very
little way among our yet unprovided families. The loss of importance to
it is comparatively a bagatelle ; but it is no bagatelle that we should adopt
VOL. IV. 3 B

570 APPENDIX.
a system which limits and disables us as a Home Mission, and so confines
that gospel within a narrower territory, the blessed calls and overtures of
which might, under another economy, be brought to every poor man's hovel,
to every cottage door. * # *
" Before quitting the subject of this article, let me state as minutely as
I can the respective influences for good and for evil, — first, of the system
under which each locality receives as it gives ; and secondly, of the system
under which there is placed full before the view of each locality from the
outset, the share that will fall to it, when once admitted among the or
dained charges, of a prospective universal equal dividend.
" 1st, Let the locality in question be some plebeian district of a large
town, or some recent manufacturing village, chiefly made up of utter aliens
from the gospel — there, with the exception of school-fees, little or nothing
can be expected, at the outset, from the co-operation of their own payments.
The necessary advances will have to be made, in the first instance, by a
voluntaryism ab extra, though it need not be long ere that the voluntaryism
ab intra is brought into action. This, indeed, may begin so soon as a Sab
bath service is instituted, with the customary offerings at the door ; but
the great and decisive epoch of its operations is, when, after a sufficient
nucleus has been obtained for the future regular congregation, a District
Association is set up for weekly contributions, and these placed in the
custody and for the purposes specified in the body of our pamphlet. The
Association has only to be well worked, and it will do wonders. The whole
some habit of lending a helping hand themselves to the good work will
take root among the families. Themselves will be astonished to find how
much they can do for the payment first, it may be, of their own catechist,
then of their own probationer, nay, towards the erection of their own church,
— last of all, for the support of their own minister ; and they ought to be
provided with one so soon as they can raise two-thirds of £100 a year.
But they need not stop there. So great is our faith in the capabilities and
willingness of our people under such a process as we are now describing,
that it were no marvel to us though they should raise the whole £100
themselves, so as to obtain for their minister, at our present rate of one and
a half more, £150 a year, and yield him a good supplement to the bargain.
With what delight would our aid-giving Associations push forward their
liberalities, if sure that, for every £50 additional to their present annual
contribution, they gained a distinct parochial economy among our former
out-field population. Church extension would proceed with rapid strides
from one territory to another, under such a procedure as this, till all the
spiritual destitution of our land were at length overtaken.

APPENDIX. 571
''¦2d, But try the Other way of it, and as yet we have been doing little
better with our out-field operations. Let the people among whom we work
be confirmed in their sordidness and lethargy by the imagination that all is
to be done for them, and that little or nothing is expected from themselves.
Let the rudimental education, under which they are made to pass, be one
of selfishness, instead of considerate regard for the necessities of Church
that has to provide for other places and other people beside their own.
Above all, let the prospect of an equal dividend be held out to vitiate both
the parties concerned — lulling the people into apathy, and, perhaps, taint
ing, by a most unworthy motive, the heart of him whose predominant im
pulse to his work, as an ecclesiastical labourer, should be an affection for
human souls. Last of all, let it be found, when the measure of its full
admission as a regular charge comes to be agitated, that it cannot be done
but at the expense of nearly its whole up-keeping to the, General Fund of
the Church ; and then we may well imagine, with the indisposition of aid-
givers to do all if aid-receivers are to do nothing, with what slowness
Church extension will proceed, or rather, with what certainty it will soon
be brought to a dead stand. A process so impure in its earlier stage, and
landing in such a burdensome result, neither will nor should go prosperously
forward. And yet, such is the mistiness and confusion of ideas upon this sub
ject, that people will ask, How can extension go on without the encourage
ment of an equal dividend 1 With the encouragement of the one and a half
more we can make way ; but with the equal dividend we shall never make
way, at least throughout the dense and, as yet, unexplored masses of our
increasing towns and newly-sprung-up villages. A wedge is employed for
penetration ; but it makes all the difference in the world, though not greater
than the difference between the two methods which we are now comparing,
whether we shall present the fine or the blunt edge of it."

APPENDIX F.— P. 396.
" The person who hands in this slip of paper wants to explain by it the
purpose of his future calls on this family, and on a few of their next-door
neighbours. " His main reason, and what he chiefly seeks after, is the good of their
never-dying souls. He deeply feels the obligation which lies upon those
who have been most favoured by the light and opportunities of the Gospel
to do all that in them lies, that these precious blessings may be extended to
the less fortunate and less favoured of their brethren. It is his clear and

572 APPENDIX.
strong conviction that the various classes of people in this city — the rich
and the poor — -the educated and the uneducated — they who live at ease,
and they who live in the midst of difficulties, or on the earnings of hard and
honest labour — have hitherto kept at far too great a distance from each
other, and that there ought to be a vast deal more of intercourse and of
mutual kindness betwixt them. It is on this account that he wants to be
come the acquaintance, and, if they will allow him, to be a frequent visitor
of the households in that little district, on which he means to bestow such
attentions and such services as he is able to afford ; and should there be
any opening to real usefulness in the midst of them, so that he may be the
instrument of good, and more especially of moral and spiritual good to any
of the inmates, he will bless God and rejoice.
" What he and those who go along with him in this undertaking are most
intent upon, is the sound, and thorough, and withal Christian education of
your families. This of all other objects is that which their hearts are most
set upon. Next to the salvation of their own souls, they would like parents
to have the comfort, the great and unspeakable comfort, of thriving, and
well brought up, and well conditioned children ; and so convinced are they
of the vast importance that you should be regularly served with good lessons
on the Sabbath, and they, your sons and daughters, should be regularly
served with good daily lessons through the week, that they have resolved
to keep by this neighbourhood, and never to let go their hold of it, till they
see a church raised in the midst of it for the special behoof of its families —
and schools, where a right and requisite learning is to be had for the whole,
if they choose it, of the young and rising generation.
" We are aware that some of you are already served both with Sabbath and
week-day instructions. We have no wish to intrude on these, or to offer
them any disturbance. We do not want to draw such away, either from
the ministers who declare to them the words of eternal life, or from the
teachers who supply them with a sound and good scholarship. Our main
object is the Christian and educational good, not of those who do not require
the accommodation that we offer, but of the general population, and, we
should say, of the working classes at large in this part of Edinburgh. Our
object is in no shape an exclusive or a sectarian one. But we have great
confidence in the power of Christian truth when brought closely and effec
tually home to the consciences of men ; and our main design is therewith
to elevate the moral, and the intellectual, and above all, the spiritual condi
tion of the very humblest in the scale of society. In the prosecution of this
work, we confidently look for encouragement and good- will even from those
in this locality who do not stand in need of any services at our hand, yet

APPENDIX.

573

who, for the sake of their own neighbourhood and their own neighbours, will
bid us God speed, nay, perhaps, will help us forward on this errand of charity.
We shall, therefore, cherish the hope of co-operation and aid from the resi-
denters of this place in the walk on which we now enter — an aid the nature
and design of which we shall afterwards have occasion to explain to them.
Meanwhile, it is our prayer that God may shower down His grace on your
households and families. May He prosper the ministrations of the Gospel
to your eternal wellbeing. May the promises of the life that now is, as well
as of the life that is to come, be abundantly realized upon you. ' The Lord
bless you and keep you : the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be
gracious unto you : the Lord lift His countenance upon you and give you
peace.' "

APPENDIX G.— P. 414.
Income of Dr. Chalmers's Territorial Church, West Port, for the Year
ending March 1852.
1. On hand,
2. Minister's Sustentation,
3. Schoolmaster's do.
4. Ordinary Church-door Collections,
5. Seat Offerings,
6. Extraordinary Collections — Church Schemes,
7. Do. do. Library, Local Manse Fund, Royal
Infirmary, Irish Mission, Sabbath Schools, and Juvenile Mis
sionary Association, ..... Ordinary Income for the year,
8. Subscriptions for Erecting a Front Gallery, .
Total Income,

£23 2

8

107 4

7

6 7

1

85 15

7

41 4

6

24 11

10

6 16

8i

£295 3
101 17

0i 0

£397 0

04

Expenditure for the Year ending March 1852,
1. By Balance paid over to General Treasurer,
2. Minister's Stipend,
3. Psalmody,
4. Officer, and Cleaning,
5. Gas, Coals, &e.,
6. Feu, Water-duty, and Fire Insurance,
7. Printing and Advertisements,
8. Church and School Repairs, .
9. Library and Incidental Expenses,
10. Presbytery, Synod, and Assembly Expenses,

*» • *

£23 2 84

25 0 0

10 0 0
10 11 4
12 16 4
8 11 8
7 7 9
6 10 11
6 19 84
s,
2 12 6
Carry forward,
£112 12 11
574

APPENDIX.

Brought forward,
11. Monthly Statements, .....
12. Royal Infirmary, .....
13. Teachers, Treat to Scholars, Examination Expenses, £22
Loss on Books during last four years, paid to Mr.
Foulis, . . . . .17

14. Sustentation Fund, as per vouchers,
15. Schoolmaster's Fund,
16. Schemes,
17. Other extra Schemes,
18. On hand for Gallery, .

£112 12 11
2 14 0
15 0

2 114

3 9

39
107

6
4
6 7
24 11
6 16
101 17

Deduct Income,
Balance against Treasurer,
Income for Two preceding Years.
March 1851. March 1852. Increase.
1. Minister's Sustentation Fund, £107 16 0 £107 4 7 £0 0 0
2. Schoolmaster's do. 5 13 9 6 7 1 0 13 4
3. Ordin. Church-door Collections, 80 13 34 85 15 74 5 2 4
4. Seat Offerings, . . .40 43 41 46103
5. Extra Collections, Schemes, . 19 10 10 24 11 10 5 1 0

£402 15 10
397 0 04
£5 15 94

Decrease.
£0 11 5
0 0
0 0
0 0
0 0

Increase on five above items,

£11 16 11
0 11 5
£11 5 6

Total Income for 1851, ... . £279 7 14
1852, . ... 295 3 04
Total increase on last year, £15 15 11
To which fall to be added Subscriptions for Gallery.

APPENDIX H.— P. 444.

" Allars, Jedburoh, January 1850.
" My dear Sir, — I have not forgotten my promise made to you so long
ago, to recall my impressions of the visit of Dr. Chalmers to this place in
the summer of 1846. But several attempts to fulfil it have convinced me
how difficult, or rather impossible it is, at this distance of time to do any
thing more than put you in possession of some prominent particulars
characteristic of his state of mind at that period.

APPENDIX. 575
" It would be quite needless, nay presumptuous, in me to say any thing
of his intellectual being, as it displayed itself among us, or of the general
features of his character. Even were I capable of entering on such a de
partment, it would be unnecessary, as before you reach that portion of his
history, the grand characteristics of both his mind and heart must have
been fully developed. I may only say in general, before passing to a point,
which the circumstances in which he was placed while with us were pecu
liarly adapted to exhibit, that being the first time on which I had the
opportunity of close and intimate intercourse with him. What struck me
most in his deportment, was the patriarchal simplicity and parental benig
nity of character which every thing he did and said so beautifully displayed.
You are aware he was the guest of the daughter of one of his oldest and
most venerated friends, before whose portrait, I may mention in passing,
he detained me one day when the rest of the party had gone into the
drawing-room, and in language and with symptoms of emotions I can never
forget, spoke of the ' inexpressible veneration' he entertained for the
memory of that woman. Surrounded by the family of such a person —
surrounded also by several of his old students, now ministers in the neigh
bourhood whom I asked to meet him, the features of his character which
I have just mentioned came out in high relief. The genial and kindly
interest he took in every one — the delicate attentions he paid to all, even
to the youngest child around him — the happy-heartedness he so obviously
felt in the prosperity of the young ministers, as he drew them out to state
the circumstances in which they were placed, and the modesty and kindli
ness with which he dropped a word of advice or of encouragement to them,
formed altogether one of the loveliest moral pictures I ever beheld.
"But to pass from the general features of character, what to me was espe
cially worthy of note was the spiritual light in which he presented himself.
At one of our private preliminary meetings, before the famous Assembly
1846, at which he presided, I had heard him lament, that somehow or other,
the circumstances in which he had been placed had always kept him in ' the
outer Court of the Temple,' and that the inner and more spiritual sphere, he
had rather looked forward to, as a land of Beulah in the distance, than ac
tually attained to and enjoyed. Whether this was the confession of mere
humility alone, I have no means of knowing. But I will say, that of all
the individuals, whether ministers or private Christians, who have been
here since there was a little quickening by the Spirit of God among this
people, Dr. Chalmers shewed by far the deepest interest in the spiritual
history and state of the people. It formed the staple of our discourse dur
ing the two happy days we spent together. He asked me to recount to

576 APPENDIX.
him all the prominent cases of conversion which had come under my notice,
and never seemed weary in listening to such details as I could give him.
Often and often would he break in on the little narratives with expressions
of the highest delight, saying it had been his life-long wish to breathe in a
spiritual atmosphere, and that it was a kind of heaven upon earth to do so.
Even before we left the pulpit on the Sabbath when he preached for me,
he remarked what a delight he had felt in preaching to and worshipping
with a people who had so much of the simple solemn spirit of Christianity
in their aspect ; it was so different from the pressure and bustle and stare
he had been so much accustomed to, and which was often so alien from
true worship. I don't know how many persons he pointed out with whose
countenances he had been arrested, and with whose history he begged to
be made acquainted. With one of these persons he seemed to be especially
taken, whose eye had never been removed from him for a single moment,
and who remained rivetted to her seat till every other member of the con
gregation had left the place. When informed that she was a kind of poor
Joseph, whose mind was weak upon all points but that of religion, his in
terest in her was still more deepened. And after I told him how, when
the news of the Disruption reached the place, she had gone into a neigh
bour's house, and with a face beaming with delight, had said, ' Have you
heard the good news 1 man is to have no more rule in Christ's house ! we
are to have no other master now but Himself!' he dwelt on it at the time,
and afterwards in our subsequent intercourse often reverted to it as one of
the happiest sayings elicited by our controversy, adding, it was one of the
many proofs that, while the prominent points of our controversy could by
no act be made to penetrate the higher intellects in the land, they seemed
to be instinctively and intuitively seized by those, who, though simple, were
taught by the Spirit of God.
" It was by his own request that, after we had seen the few antiquarian
curiosities in the place, we spent the rest of the day following in visiting
as many of the people a3 possible who had lately, to all appearance, under
gone a saving change of character. It was unfortunately at the season
when their employments took them from home to the surrounding country ;
and, as I was not to intimate our purpose, but to take them in their usual
guise and occupations, it was somewhat difficult to accomplish our object.
You can easily imagine also, that knowing by report, and from hearing him
on the preceding day, who the illustrious visitor was, the people in general
were more disposed to listen than to speak. And what still farther in
creased the difficulty of letting him see their every-day and spiritual being,
was the circumstance, that on its being known that he was in any house

APPENDIX. 577
neighbours of a religious character at least dropped in, whose presence
somewhat damped the freedom of communication on Christian experi
mental subjects. Notwithstanding all these obstacles, however, we saw a
considerable number of recent converts to more or less advantage ; and I
may especially note one house with the group that assembled, in which
he seemed especially taken, as I knew the people themselves were struck
by the singular outpouring in prayer with which of his own accord he closed
the interview. The plan was, I was quietly and incidentally to draw the
people into conversation, which might shew the inner being without their
being aware of the purpose, while he was simply to listen. It happened
fortunately in the case referred to, that I got next a woman whose impres
sions of divine things were but recent ; whose impressions also, both of
sorrow and joy had been so deep, that she had found it nearly impossible
to confine either to her own breast, and who was by this time labouring
under that disease which a short while afterwards transmitted her spirit to
glory, and which even then may have given her such a presentiment of her
approaching end as to make her more free and communicative than others
would have been. She accordingly, with great modesty and interest, in
her own homely way, recounted, in answer to the questions my knowledge
of her previous history enabled me to put to her, the leading points of her
change — her, awakening to a sense of her lost condition, and the method in
which God had brought her to a state of peace and joy in believing. Never
shall I forget the scene which presented itself, when, near the close of this
narrative, I turned round my eye to see its effect on our venerable father.
The whole scene was such as a painter would have liked to perpetuate.
There were two beds running along one side of the apartment, on the edge
of which so many as ten or a dozen of persons had, since the interview
began, ranged themselves, including one of our humble elders, and several
individuals, who, during the two or three previous years had been turned
from darkness to light. The countenances of several of these, as they were
lighted up with Christian sympathy — one more especially, whose foreign
and gipsy-like features, and fine black eyes, swimming all the time in tears,
greatly arrested Dr. Chalmers, as he afterwards told me. But he himself
was the most interesting object of all. The figure he presented was not a
little grotesque, but profoundly affecting. He had seated himself in a cor
ner of the apartment, facing the above and along side, but rather behind
the woman and me. The person in whose house we were had been baking
bread before we entered, and the table, at the end of which he had placed
himself, was covered with meal. Not observing this, he had placed one
elbow in the midst of it, and drawing out a drawer in an old wardrobe on
VOL. IV. 3 C

578 APPENDIX.
the other side, on which to rest his other elbow, there he was sitting in this
posture, with a hand behind either ear, to catch what was passing, and with
a countenance so inexpressibly bland and benignant, on which the interest,
sympathy, and delight of the good man's heart had cast quite a heavenly
radiance, as I shall never forget while I live. He put several questions
himself to the elder above referred to, as to the former and present state
of things, which, having-been long in the place, he was able to answer, and
did answer in a way which evidently deepened the interest already depicted
on Dr. Chalmers's countenance. He then, as I have mentioned, of his own
accord, engaged in prayer with and for the little band around him, like a
father, or some of the ancient patriarchs, commending them to the care and
keeping of God Almighty. It was a wonderful outpouring, full of an
unction, compared with which even his eloquence was but tame. Indeed,
the whole scene was one of uncommon interest. I felt at the time, that if
circumstances had kept him in the outer Court most of his life, all the man's
likings, his deepest affections, his whole heart were within the veil. He
said to me as we stepped out into the street, and he pressed my arm in his,
that is one of the most interesting groups I ever beheld. And I must
say, that though I have seen him in many positions of deepest interest —
in the pulpit — the professor's chair — the chair of the first Free Assembly
— and better than all, among his ragged children in the West Port, — I
don't know but, now that the ripened spirit is removed to a more congenial
world than this, my memory dwells with fonder delight on the picture of
the venerable man in this humble cottage, than anywhere else it has ever
been my lot to see him. There was more of character, and of the highest
style of character, Christian benevolence, spirituality, heavenliness, dis
played in that humble dwelling, than anywhere else I had ever seen
him. " We spent no inconsiderable part of the day in thus visiting the people,
and I could not but wonder at his physical strength, for long after I was
not a little jaded with speaking and the sultriness of the atmosphere com
bined, he seemed fresh and interested in our work even as when we began it.
At dinner the conversation turned chiefly on Foster, whose ' Memoirs ' had
then been recently published. He expressed, in the strongest manner, his
regret at the letter in these 'Memoirs ' against the eternity of future pun
ishments — dwelling chiefly on the loss of practical power to all the argu
ments in favour of godliness which would result from any doubt being cast
on the tremendous motive to serious thought and holy action — an eternity
of wo. He told us, and with the greatest glee, his controversy with Foster,
on one of his visits to England, as to the value of Parliamentary Reform as

APPENDIX. 579
an element of national improvement. Foster was extravagant in his ex
pectations, and Chalmers, as usual, had dwelt on the moral element, — the
educational and religious culture of the people as the only lever to raise the
masses. Shortly afterwards an account of the Bristol riots appeared in the
papers, on reading which, Chalmers, as if still in conversation with his friend,
had said to himself — ' There ! tak ye that, my friend, as a swatch of your
political millennium !' When, after dinner, we went out to stroll about a
very pretty quiet orchard which surrounds my house, and with which he
was greatly charmed, an incident occurred which has always seemed to me
one of the strongest proofs of the strength of the spiritual element in his
character. He drew me aside from the rest of the party, and after expres
sing, for I dare say the twentieth time, the happiness of heart which the
state of affairs with us had given him, he begged me to give him an account
of my plan of operations in the parish since the beginning of my incum
bency. The request was rather a perplexing one to me, and I remember
well the nervous trepidation which I felt when attempting to comply with
it. You are well aware of the stress which he laid on household visitations
as a means of ministerial usefulness. He usually counted it a sine qua non
in the ministry of reconciliation. I had on three successive occasions, acting
chiefly on the instructions I had received from his lips, attempted a visita
tion of this whole parish, and was as often providentially hindered. This
circumstance had arrested my attention, and led me to reconsider the pro
priety and wisdom of this line of proceeding in the circumstances in which
I was placed, with but a limited measure of physical strength at my dis
posal, in a parish at once populous and extending over a very wide district
of country, and, above all, succeeding to a long course of ministry, which
left me, in the highest sense of the word, no flock. It occurred to me in
these circumstances, that my first and most important work was not pas
toral, but evangelistic ; and as I found that, from the perfect novelty of the
thing, the people, both in town and country, were disposed to come out to
sermons on the evening of week-days, I from that time forward devoted the
bulk of my. strength and time to do what our Lord is said to have done, —
' He went throughout every city and village preaching and shewing the
glad tidings of the kingdom of God.' Generally two, often three, sometimes
four evenings of every week were spent in this way, and with the greatest
success as to drawing out the people, — many coming three or four miles of
a summer's evening to the school-houses or barns in which the meetings
were held. Of course, with such an amount of service, and in such a parish,
I could undertake no other but the sick visiting, which, indeed, was labour
enough of itself in a district where the eldership had been long obsolete,

580 APPENDIX.
and the minister was the single man on whose shoulders all kinds of labour
were laid. On principle, then, and with no small fear and trembling, I
adopted this course and prosecuted it, which was a wide divergence from
the usual canonical method, but which seemed to be, in all the circum
stances, the wisest and most scriptural, till, as the result of it, a real spiritual
flock should be formed, among whom pastoral visits would be apposite and
profitable. All this I made a frank confession of to Dr. Chalmers, as frank
as my timidity would allow me to do. And never shall I forget the way in
which he received the half-apologetical statement. ' You know,' he said,
in substance, ' the stress, the great stress I lay on household visitings. In
usual circumstances, the shortest way to a man's heart is to go into his
house. Still, however, this is but a means to an end. The end is lodging
the Gospel in the hearts of sinners, and thus bringing them to Christ. If
this be gained, it matters not how. It has been gained to so great an extent
with you, that you seem to have a divine sanction to the wisdom of the
means. In the circumstances, you did entirely right — with the result fore
seen, I would have broken through all old customs and done the same. The
result is everything — the salvation of souls !' I felt at the time, and have
often thought since, that considering the amazing tenacity with which he
held his favourite points, that the warmth and cordiality with which he
uttered these sentiments formed one of the strongest testimonies to the
power of the spiritual principle which, often hidden from superficial obser
vers by the very apparatus it was ever setting and keeping in motion, reigned
dominant in his soul. No man in our day, or perhaps in any day since
Luther, has more fully and purely imbibed the spirit and essence of primi
tive Christianity. Separating it from all mere accessories, and means of
spreading, and modes of expressing it, the soul of Christianity, which is
love, seemed again embodied in his large and congenial nature.
" A similar incident occurred on the evening of this day. He had begged
me to convene a meeting in our vestry or vestibule of as many members of
the surrounding Deacons' Courts and Collectors as could attend, that he
might address them on his favourite scheme — the Sustentation Fund. He
was most rigid in excluding all others but the above classes, and no persua
sions could induce him to make it anything but a quiet private meeting.
Yet when it was opened, and he had spoken but a few prefatory sentences
on financial matters, he turned round to me, and with that delicacy which
so characterized him, asked if he might address them on another and more
spiritual topic. He then told them that he had no heart to pursue his
favourite theme at present ; expressed the hearty gladness which he had
felt in the spiritual atmosphere he had been breathing during the day, and

APPENDIX. 581
in all he had seen and heard ; after which he broke out into a most animated
exhortation on spiritual matters, pressing all who were really Christians to
throw in their separate mites to such a blessed and holy cause as seemed to
be in progress among them. I need not tell you, who know with what
ardour he had thrown his whole soul into the great Financial Scheme of
our Church, what an act of almost involuntary homage his nature here again
paid to the superiority of the spiritual element, and how plainly the inci
dent brings out the fact, that behind the immense machinery which all his
life long he was either constructing or working, there sat enthroned in his
inner being a high and holy principle of life, which, often itself unseen, gave
form and action to every thing.
" Before bringing my rambling reminiscences to a close, let me mention
a little circumstance which proves with what energy, even at this late day,
the good man was prosecuting the divine life. He was going out one
morning for a drive, and vastly happy his benignant nature was at the
thought of being driven by a young student whom he expected ere long to
be under his own care — the son of his host. A large portly octavo volume
peered out from his wide-mouthed great-coat pocket. He noticed me smiling
at this somewhat odd-like vade-mecum for a summer morning drive through
a beautiful country, and good-naturedly extracting the old musty volume
from his pocket, asked me if I knew the book. It happened to be a volume
of Bishop Patrick's Commentary. Ex pede Herculem.
" I am sorry these are all the reminiscences I can now give you of a visit
which left a most happy and hallowed impression not only on myself and
those privileged to be in nearest contact with him, but, I may say, on the
whole place — the benignity and goodness of the man eclipsing even his
greatness, and leaving such an odour behind as made one feel ' 'twas even as
if an angel shook his wings.'
" With every wish and prayer for the successful accomplishment of your
truly great work, a fitting memorial of such a man, believe me ever, my
dear sir, very truly yours, John Purves."
APPENDIX I.— P. 451.
At the request of the Rev. Dr. Smyth of Charleston, Dr. Chalmers
addressed to him the following letter : — " Edinburgh, 25th September 1844.
" My dear Sir, — I do not need to assure you how little I sympathize
with those who — because slavery happens to prevail in the Southern States
of America — would unchristianize that whole region ; and who even carry

582 APPENDIX.
their extravagance so far as to affirm that, so long as it subsists, no fellow
ship or interchange of good offices should take place with its churches, or
its ministers.
" As a friend to the universal virtue and liberty of mankind, I rejoice in
the prospect of those days when slavery shall be banished from the face of
the earth ; but most assuredly the wholesale style of excommunication,
contended for by some, is not the way to hasten forward this blissful con
summation. " Few things would afford me greater satisfaction than to hear of a com
mencement in your country of that process by which the labour of freemen
might be substituted for that of slaves. As I mentioned to you, I was
exceedingly struck, so far back as twenty-five years ago, by the description
of such a process in Humboldt's Travels through Spanish South America.
This was long anterior to the abolition of slavery in the British Colonies ;
and such was the confidence I then felt in its efficacy, that I ventured to
draw out a sketch of the Spanish plan, which, if adopted at the time, might
have ensured a far safer and even earlier emancipation than took place
afterwards. You will find my account of it in the twelfth volume of my
works, from page 395 and onwards.
" I have not been able to engage in any sort of public business since I
had the pleasure of meeting with you, but I observe that in our Assembly's
Commission, a few weeks back, the subject of American slavery was enter
tained. I do hope that the Resolutions which they have adopted will prove
satisfactory. " I feel it a great acquisition that I have made your acquaintance. We
owe you much, and I trust the ministers of the Free Church of Scotland
will ever entertain a grateful sense of your able and disinterested services. —
Do believe me, my dear sir, yours most respectfully and truly,
Thomas Chalmers."
The publication of this letter led to a demand upon Dr. Chalmers by the
Anti-Slavery Society of Edinburgh of a disclaimer or explanation of the
sentiments which it expressed ; — in consequence of which he published the
following letter in the " Witness" Newspaper : —
" Morningside, 12th May, 1845.
" My dear Sir, — You will recollect that, some months ago, there were
communications held with you on the subject of American slavery, and that
in these there was the challenge or crimination, of myself, as having given
forth a most inadequate deliverance on the evils of the system. At that
time I looked forward to the opportunity of sharing in the discussion which

APPENDIX. 583
this question will probably give rise to at the next meeting of our General
Assembly. But as that expectation will not now be realized, I have to
crave your permission for coming forward with a very brief and general
exposition of my views, in the columns of your newspaper.
" 1. Slavery, like war, is a great evil ; and there is no philanthropist,
who bears an enlightened regard either to the virtue or happiness of our
species, but must desire the final abolition of them from the face of the
earth, and must also feel it his duty to support the best and likeliest
measures for speeding onward so blissful a consummation. Yet, destructive
and demoralizing as both are, and inimical as Christianity is to all violence,
and to all vice, it follows not that there may not be a Christian soldier,
and neither does it follow that there may not be a Christian slave-holder.
Let the moral atmosphere of both be as unfriendly as they may to the
growth either of religion or of humanity, still it holds experimentally true,
that within the limits of the deleterious influence, and not of course by the
influence, but in spite of it, the most exalted specimens of piety and worth
are to be found. The Colonel Gardiner of Scotland, and the Mr. Mac-
donagh of America, are not the singular, and we should hope, not the rare
instances of either kind ; and they demonstrate, that vitiating as each of
these systems is, and prolific of the most frightful and revolting atrocities
that have ever disfigured the sad history of our race, yet that neither is
incompatible with the personal Christianity of those who have actually and
personally to do with them. This is perfectly consistent with the fact, that
all the tendencies of the Christian religion are opposed to war, and opposed
to slavery, insomuch that the days of universal Christianity will be days of
universal peace, and days of universal and equal liberty for all men.
" 2. Distinction ought to be made between the character of a system, and
the character of the persons whom circumstances have implicated there
with ; nor would it always be just, if all the recoil, and all the horror, /
wherewith the former is contemplated, were visited in the form of condem
nation, or of moral indignancy, upon the latter. Slavery we hold to be a
system chargeable with atrocities and evils, often the most hideous and
the most appalling, which have either afflicted or deformed our species.
Yet we must not therefore say of every man who has been born within
the confines of a territory accursed by its presence, — who has grown up
and become familiar with its sickening spectacles, — who not only by habit
has been inured to such transactions, and such sights, as would sicken the
heart of a stranger, that for the first time had entered upon a region of
slavery, but who by inheritance is himself the owner of slaves, — we are not
to say of him, that unless, by an act of violence on all those possessory and

584 APPENDIX.
proprietary feelings which exist in such strength within every bosom, he
make the resolute sacrifice of these, and, renouncing his property in slaves,
renounce the all which belongs to him, — we are not to say that, unless this
surrender is made, he therefore is not a Christian, and should be treated as
an outcast from all the distinctions or the privileges of a Christian society.
The truth is, that, according to all the laws and the likelihoods of human
nature, the very men who are now looking at the object ab extra, and in
the character, it may be, of zealous Abolitionists, would, if placed from
infancy in the condition, and exposed through life to all the besetting in
fluences which operate on the mind of the slave-holder, have been those
very slave-holders themselves, — the whole system of whose social economy
they do well in denouncing, and in labouring to extirpate from the face of
the earth ; — yet, would they often sin, notwithstanding, both against truth
and charity, if, by a sweeping and universal charge, they were to denounce
all who partake of this system, nay, live upon the profits of it, as individu
ally void of humanity and honour, or void of Christian principle. There
are various methods, — various lines of procedure and policy, on which
philanthropists and patriots might enter, and join their forces for the aboli
tion of slavery. The most unjustifiable — and, let me add, the most unwise
and least effectual of these, were to pronounce a wholesale anathema, by
which to unchristianize, or to pass a general sentence of excommunication
on slave-holders.
" 3. We deny not the vitiating tendency of Blavery on the hearts and the
characters of all who are engaged in it ; and let us concede, that in virtue
of these, a greater number, — if an inventory could be taken of them, — of
inhuman and licentious, of barbarous and brutalized men, are to be found
in the middle and upper classes of society, throughout the slave-holding
States of America, than throughout those other States which have so nobly
rid themselves of this enormous evil. Now, what effect ought this admis
sion to have upon the question ? Not that slave-holding shall simply, and
per se, infer exclusion from the ordinances of the gospel, but that, as many
of the vices which slave-holding tends to generate and to multiply infer
this exclusion, there will, and because of these vices, be a more frequent
call for ecclesiastical discipline in the slave-holding congregations. The
Apostle tells us not to keep company, — not to hold Christian fellowship, if
' any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idola-
tor, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner.' Should any such, then,
present himself for admission to the table of the Lord, there is a clear
scriptural warrant for his debarment from this, and all the other privileges of
Church membership ; not, however, on the ground of his being a slave-holder,

APPENDIX. 585
but on the ground of one or other of those vices which exist, it is to be
feared, in greatest force and frequency, wherever there exist the habits
and the temptations of slave-holding. The magnitude of the temptation '
can never be held an alleviation of the crime, so as to exempt the slave
holder, who has fallen into it, from the proper and the prescribed disci
pline, else there is an end of all Christian morality. Far less can the
magnitude of the temptation to laxity of discipline, or to pass over the
delinquencies of a wealthy and influential slave-holder, exempt any Chris
tian Church from the duty of an impartial, and pure, and righteous govern
ment over all its members, — else not only may that Church present a
hideous mass of corruption, but every other Church in Christendom, which
connives at it, contracts thereby a blemish and a deformity, which must
and which ought to injure its otherwise fair reputation. Let every man,
be he a slave-holder or not, be cast out from the brotherhood of the Chris
tian ordinances, who falls into any of the vices which are here enumerated ;
and let the brotherhood of every Church be disowned which is found to
tolerate these vices in its members, be they high or low. Nay, should it be
found in any instance that the wealthy oppressor meets with an indulgence
which is not shown to the humbler delinquents of the congregation, — let
the church be all the more indignantly denounced as unworthy of fellow
ship or recognition, and its brotherhood be disowned by the other Churches
of Christ. When we have got thus far into the argument, we come within
sight of a clear principle, — a comfort which we did not enjoy so long as the
demand was made upon us for the excommunication of all slave-holders, or
for the wholesale excommunication of all Churches that were found to have
the names of slave-holders on the roll of their communicants. Our under
standing of Christianity is, that it deals not with civil or political institu
tions, but that it deals with persons and with ecclesiastical institutions, and
that the object of these last is to operate directly and proximately with the
most wholesome effect on the consciences and the character of persons. In\
conformity with this view, a purely and rightly administered Church will
exclude from the ordinances, not any man as a slave-holder, but every man,
whether slave-holder or not, as licentious, as intemperate, as dishonest, j
Should any single American Church be found to have acted otherwise, let
it, while the imputation rests upon it, and it remains unreformed, be treated
as an outcast from all other Churches. Nay, should the corrupt proceeding
be carried up by appeal to an American Presbytery, and be sanctioned or
tolerated there, let all countenance and communion with such a Presbytery
be suspended. Last of all, let the Supreme Court,— the General Assembly
of the American Presbyterian Church,— be convicted of having passed a

586 APPENDIX.
corrupt sentence, which carries in it the principle, and brings along with it
the practice, of a toleration for undoubted moral delinquencies — and then
the only correspondence, we trust, which the Free Church of Scotland would
consent to hold with the Presbyterian body of America, would be that of
grave and solemn remonstrance because of the dishonour done by them to
our common Lord.
" 4. We hope that our Free Church will never deviate to the right or the
left from the path of undoubted principle. But we hope, on the other
hand, that she will not be frightened from her propriety, or forced by
clamour of any sort, to outrun her own convictions, so as to adopt, at the
bidding of other parties, a new and factitious principle of administration,
for which she can see no authority in Scripture, and of which she can gather
no traces in the history or practice of the Churches in Apostolic times.
" 5. Would the Abolitionists, then, have their eye on such cases, and
hold them forth in authentic exhibition to the*world, so that the Churches
of distant lands may be made to know what the laxity of discipline is which
obtains throughout the Churches and Church Courts of America. Let them
verify the instances, and tell us of them in detail, — what the particular
Churches are where men are recognised as members, and live in the un
disturbed possession of church privileges, notwithstanding their concubi
nage, or their cruelty, or the gross violence and villany of any sort, which
might not only be charged upon, but have been actually made good against
them ; and then we shall know, and in the light of clearest scriptural prin
ciple, how to guide our proceedings, both with the Churches which sanction
such enormities by their forbearance, and with Church Courts which, by
their corrupt judicial sentences, may be well said to frame these iniquities
by a law. This were a far more likely process whereby to augment the
moral force of that opposition to slavery, which, as one of its most deter
mined and implacable enemies, we hope is growing and gathering every
day, — not by forcing upon us a new principle, and requiring at our hands
an altogether nev> practice, unknown to the Churches of other days, — even
that slave-holding is in itself that sort of ecclesiastical felony which must
be visited by a sentence of exile for shorter or longer periods from the
ecclesiastical community. There are other felonies of which we have never
doubted, — vices which ought, by the precedents of all ages, to be thus dealt
and proceeded with ; and if these vices do follow in the train of slave-
holding with greater frequency than in the train of any other occupation,
let this, by the exercise of a virtuous Church discipline, be made palpable
to all, and another powerful blow will thus be inflicted on the system, —
another telling argument be added to the successive strokes of that cata-

APPENDIX. 587
pulta which is at length to bring down this monster evil, with all its horrors
and teeming abominations. It is thus that the title of a pamphlet, which
I lately saw, might be reversed ; and the American Churches, instead of
the props, as they are represented, of American slavery, might be the
pioneers to undermine its foundations, and bring it to its final overthrow,
— not by aggression from without, but by the force of sentiment and prin
ciples from within, — a force which, to the immortal honour of the Free
States of America, has already told spontaneously, yet with full effect, on
more than half the provinces of the Union. But I must repeat my con
viction, that slavery will not be at all shaken, — it will be strengthened and
stand its ground, — if assailed through the medium of that most questionable
and ambiguous principle which the Abolitionists are now labouring to force
upon our acceptance, even that slave-holding is, in itself, a ground of ex
clusion from the Christian sacraments, — instead of being assailed through
the medium of such other and obvious principles as come home to the
hearts and the consciences of all men.
" 6. There is one reformation about which, for ourselves, we feel no diffi
culty, and that is, how to proceed against slave-holding ministers, or
ministers who hold slaves, not as the masters of a household, who must
have them for domestic servants, but as masters who combine this worldly
with their sacred or professional occupation. In our own Churches we- \
should lay an interdict on our ministers here against their holding any
secular trade or employment, lest it should secularize them ; and a fortiori,
we would lay an interdict on ministers there from holding slaves for profit,
lest it should brutalize them. We must be forgiven the harshness of this
expression. We do not say that this is the invariable effect of slave-hold
ing in America, and therefore it is that we resist the proposed excommuni
cation of all slave-holders. But we say, that if not the universal effect, it
is at least the tendency of the system ; and we hold it the bounden duty
of every Church to restrain its ministers from all which might put to
hazard either their characters or reputations, and so to keep all vitiating
tendencies and temptations away from them.
" 7. But, again, not only is there a wrong principle involved in the
demand which these Abolitionists now make on the Free Church of Scotland :
it is in itself a wrong procedure for hastening forward that object, for the
accomplishment of which we are alike desirous with themselves ; or, in other
words, it is not only wrong in principle, but hurtful in effect. Should we
concede to their demands, then, speaking in the terms of our opinion, we
incur the discredit (and in proportion to that discredit we damage our
usefulness as a Church) of having given in — and at the bidding of another

588 APPENDIX.
party-: — to a factitious and new principle, which not only wants, but which
contravenes, the authority of Scripture and of Apostolic example, and,
indeed, has only been heard of in Christendom within these few years, as if
gotten up for an occasion, instead of being drawn from the repositories of
that truth which is immutable and eternal, — even the principle that no
slave-holder should be admitted to a participation in the Christian sacra
ments. We think, therefore, that it is a demand which ought not, and of
which it is our expectation and our wish that it will not be complied with ;
— a refusal this, however, which, though right and necessary on other
grounds, may be conceived of on the ground of our indifference to the
evils of slavery ; and thus most unwarrantably and unwisely will these
Abolitionists have conjured up what the enemies of their righteous cause
might construe into a testimony on the side of slavery, — when, in fact, we
are all most intent on the extinction of it, as one of the greatest moral
nuisances that ever 'infested the face of our earth. To illustrate our
meaning still further, let me suppose that my distinguished friend, than
whom none within the circle of my acquaintance is more devoted to the
cause of Christ, or more strenuous in his opposition to slavery, and all its
abominations, John Joseph Gurney — let me put the case of his being re
quired to denounce slavery right and left, along the whole path of that
apostolic journey which he made some years ago in America, when he
visited and travelled through it for the main object of declaring the
blessed gospel of salvation to all, whether bond or free, — let me imagine
that, in the prosecution of this high erraDd, some zealous and obtrusive
Abolitionist had crossed him in his way,* and required of him to mix up
on all occasions with the message of reconciliation to God, the avowals of
his detestation for slavery, and of his opinion that none who were engaged
in it could either possess the character, or be entitled to the privileges, of
Christians. We appeal to the common sense of all men, whether this be
the way by which either the missionary cause on the one hand, or the
philanthropic cause on the other hand, would have best been expedited.
The truth is, that had the two been implicated and bound together, in the
way that some did require of him, it would have proved most injurious to
both. And, therefore, did Mr. Gurney act with far greater wisdom than at
least certain of his advisers would have had him to do, when he kept clear
of the one topic, and so awakened no prejudices or heart-burnings against
• Though within these few days I hare had reason to know that the Abolitionists acted to Mr.
Gurney on this occasion with greater wisdom and forbearance than they are now doing by the Free
Church of Scotland, I have certainly seen an American pamphlet, full of the most outrageous
abuse, against this nobie-hearted Christian and philanthropist, because be did not come up to the full
extent of the requirements and speculations of its author, in his dealings with slavery.

APPENDIX. 589
the gospel of Christ, at the time that he was employed in the enforcement
of the other topic. And yet he acquitted himself rightly of, and did full
justice to both. For after he had accomplished his purely evangelical
tour, and before leaving America, he held a conference which, I believe,
lasted for days together, with members of Congress, and many of the most
influential men in America, and then gave his public testimony on the evils
of the system of slavery, — in a style worthy, we have no doubt, of the
cause, and worthy of his own connexion with those illustrious names, — the
Frys, and the Gurneys, and the Buxtons, and the Clarksons, and the Wil-
berforces, — who for two generations have held unsparing and uncompro
mising warfare with this system of foul iniquity and horror.
" 8. But whatever the merit or demerit of their proceedings with Mr.
Gurney, there is at least one undoubted specimen of that injudicious med
dling with parties engaged in another good work beside their own, which
was fitted only to embarrass the operations, and impede the success, both
of their own righteous cause, and of that with which they were pleased to
interfere. We have before us the Thirty-fifth Report of the American
Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, where, among other articles,
there is one designated, ' Memorials on Slavery.' I would recommend the
insertion in full, both of the memorials and of the deliverances thereupon
as far as they are given, in your Witness newspaper, as holding out what
we deem a most instructive example for all other Christian bodies, and in
particular for the Assembly of our Free Church. We can only state here,
that in the preamble to one of these memorials, American slavery is
denounced as a system of oppression most unjust and grievous, and the
requirement founded on this sentence of condemnation — (a sentence in
which I believe that both the American Board of Missions and the Free
Church of Scotland most cordially acquiesce,) — is, that the Board would
instruct ' all their missionaries and agents under its patronage to bear a
decided testimony, wherever and in whatever form it exists, and, most
especially, to declare in the name of the Board, that American slavery is a
sin against God, and that its existence in a Christian land is nowise charge
able to the Christian religion which they are commissioned to preach, but is
grossly at variance with all its holy doctrines and precepts.' Besides the
memorials, the Board take notice of three petitions which have been addressed
to them. In the first and second of these, they ' are requested and urged to
take measures to prevent receiving into their treasury, any monies contributed
in one way or another by slave-holders, or any of the avails of slave labour.'
In the third petition, they are desired to pass resolutions, declaring that
' American slavery is a sin against God and man, and ought to be imme-

590 APPENDIX.
diately abolished,' &c. We admire the practical wisdom of the Board in
the deliverance which they have come to, and in which they state ' that
the Board was established and incorporated for the express purpose of pro
pagating the gospel in heathen lands, by supporting missionaries, and
diffusing the knowledge of the Scriptures — that the Board had confined
themselves to this one great object ; — and that a regard to our sacred
trust requires us to pursue the object with undivided zeal, and not to turn
aside from it, or mix any other concerns with it. And we still think, that
the Lord of Missions, and the Saviour of the world, will approve of this
deliberate purpose of ours, and this course of action, and would frown upon
us if we should depart from it. And we have the comfort to believe also
that this is the only purpose and course of action which will give per
manent satisfaction to the Christian community who are enlisted in the
cause of missions, — being fully persuaded that any essential departure
from this plan of operations would tend to defeat the great end we are
pursuing, — the conversion of the heathen.' ' As to the monies contributed
by slave-holders, it is still our opinion, that considering the character of
the Board and the nature of its objects, it may fairly be presumed, that
the funds contributed to our treasury are obtained in a proper manner,
and contributed from right motives ; and it is very manifest that we can
not properly examine into the motives of those who sustain our operations,
and that the attempt to do this would be marked with absurdity, and
would plunge us in difficulties from which we could not possibly be extri
cated.' ' It will not, we trust, be overlooked, that in reply to previous
petitions, the Board has repeatedly and very frankly declared, that they
can sustain no relation to slavery which implies approbation of the system,
and, as a Board, can have no connexion or sympathy with it, — plainly inti
mating that we consider it one of the obvious evils which exist in the com
munity, but the removal of which, though we regard it as an object of
fervent desire and prayer, does not fall within our province as a Missionary
Board. We know not how any man who maturely considers the subject
can desire more than this.'
" 9. We regard the example here set before us as eminently fitted to
have a wholesome influence on the spirit and counsels of our pending
General Assembly. We are convinced that the Supreme Ecclesiastical
Court of our Free Church will, with one mind and spirit, join in the fervent
desire and prayer of the American Board for the removal of American
slavery ; and we are hopeful that they will come to the same conclusion,
that this is an object which does not practically or executively come with
in their province as a Church in a distant land. It is not by thus assail-

APPENDIX. 591
ing either Church Courts or Missionary Boards, that these Abolitionists can
ever expect to advance their own cause. They have addressed themselves
to the wrong parties ; and we can now understand how it is, that by a
wayward and misguided tactics, they have greatly injured and kept back
the object which thousands and thousands more, both in America and else
where, have as much and as honestly at heart as they have. It does not
seem to us the right way of going to work, that they should labour as they
have done to affix a universal stigma on American slave-holders. But
through the medium of the public mind, both in their own and other
countries, they should bring a direct influence to bear on the American
legislators. For this purpose let them make full exposure, — but within the
limits of truth, — of the evils and atrocities of a system which requires only
to be known that it may be execrated by all the wise and the good of our
civilized world. For the accomplishment of this result there is no need of
exaggeration. The application of a whip to human beings as a stimulus to
labour, the cruel separation of relatives, — nay, apart from these special
enormities, the mere traffic in men, who are flesh of our own flesh, and
bone of our own bone, — above all, the denial of Christian, or of any education,
to the whole of a degraded race, who share alike with ourselves in their
mental capabilities, and the immortality of their duration — these are
topics which cannot fail to enlist a daily increasing number of Christians
and philanthropists, in opposition to a system so full of abominations and
horrors. Nor can we despair of the effect that such a reaction, vigorously
kept up and never deviated from, must have, and that speedily, on the
American Government ; for let us not forget, that this country, through
out many of her provinces, took the precedency of all others, even of
Britain herself, in putting down slavery by law. — I am, my dear Sir, yours
very truly, Thomas Chalmers.''

APPENDIX K.— P. 502.
" Mr. F. Maule. — It has been stated, with reference to yourself, that you
used an expression towards the Establishment, that you denominated it as
' a moral nuisance V — My impression of there having been a great deal of
exaggeration, is very much founded upon the manner in which that ex
pression of mine has been exaggerated. So far back as the year 1839, when
there was a discussion in the General Assembly, I remember very well, that
in putting the alternative, between our submitting to the decisions of the

592 APPENDIX.
civil court, or resisting them, I said that if we submitted to those decisions,
our Church would become a moral nuisance, and deserve to be swept off
from the face of the country ; I said that at a time when there was no idea
of a disruption in our heads — it was when I was endeavouring with all my
might to prevent a disruption that that expression was made use of by me
in 1839.
" It has been also stated in this Committee, that the points upon which the
Free Church differ from the Established Church are mere points of techni
cality, and that they have no real substance in them ; will you state what
you consider to be the distinctive principle between the Free Church and
the Established Church ? — The distinctive principle some call ' spiritual
independence.' I think that there is a difference of nomenclature between
the English and Scotch, and that our cause i3 a good deal misunderstood in
virtue of that. I would say that the final jurisdiction of ecclesiastical
courts in things sacred is the great principle upon which we have gone
out, that that final jurisdiction has been violated, and that it is not a
capricious or unheard of novelty ; it has been held in Scotland for more
than two centuries. It was the great question between the Jameses and
the Charleses on the one hand, and the Scottish people on the other, who
called it the Headship of Christ — the term given to the principle when
looked to in a religious light. But when looked to constitutionally, it is
termed the final jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts, or Church courts,
in things sacred, as distinct from things civil. Now, it is sometimes ex
pressed in this way by a Scotchman. He speaks of it as the supremacy of
the Church over all things ecclesiastical, which is very apt to mislead the
understanding of Englishmen, because I presume that any question con
nected with the ministerial office, and which related to the ' civilia' of that
office, would in England be called an ecclesiastical cause, and is decided by
the civil courts. Now, there is a distinction in the very constitution of
our courts, to every understanding, which makes this matter clear with us,
There are ecclesiastical courts that are constituted of the Kirk-session,
the Presbytery, the Synod, and General Assembly ; and there are civil
courts. We call matters decided by those courts ecclesiastical matters,
because our habit has been all along to refer things sacred to the ecclesi
astical courts, and which never passed from the ecclesiastical courts to the
civil courts. Those are things sacred ; but our calling them things ecclesi
astical is very apt to mislead English people, under the idea that we claim
the supremacy over the ' civilia' as well as the ' sacra' of the ministerial
office. Now, there is nothing more distinct in a Scotch mind than the
proper function of the ecclesiastical court, which is to take up things sacred,

APPENDIX. 593
and the proper function of the civil court, which is to take up things secu
lar connected with the ministerial office, such as glebe, stipend, church or
place of worship, and the manse or parsonage house, and other matters of
the same kind, which might be very easily enumerated.
" Is the Committee to understand that the jurisdiction of the Church in
thing sacred, and the jurisdiction of the State in things secular, has been
the principle maintained by the Church of Scotland since the time of the
Reformation 1 — Yes ; since the time of what has been sometimes called
' The First Reformation.' I think in the course of five minutes I could
state what the leading points are, and which will give, I think, a satisfac
tory answer to the question, and will account for the unanimity, till lately,
of the Scottish understanding upon the subject of things sacred belonging
exclusively to the ecclesiastical courts, and things civil belonging exclu
sively to the civil courts. If you refer to the Act of ] 567, chapter 7, it is
there stated, ' That the examination and admission of ministers within this
realm be only in the power of the Kirk.' And if the Presbytery refuses to
admit the person presented by the patron, it shall be lawful for the patron
to appeal to the superintendant of the ministers in that province where the
benefice lies. That now corresponds to the Synod, the next highest court
in gradation of our ecclesiastical courts. Then he applies to the Synod,
and desires ' that the person presented be admitted ; and if they refuse, he
appeals to the General Assembly of this haill realm ;' (and here are the
decisive words) — ' By whom the cause being decided, shall take end as they
decern and declare.' There is no such thing spoken of as an appeal from
the General Assembly to the Court of Session upon anything connected
with the examination and induction of ministers. Then the Act of 1592
is. confirmatory of this. It is entitled, ' Ratification of the Liberty of the
True Kirk ;' it abrogates other Acts, because there was a perpetual contest
between our James VI. and the General Assembly, and a number of adverse
Acts were passed during the interval from 1567 to 1592. However, this
Act of 1592, c. 117, abrogates all those Acts, and confirms the Act of 1567,
and it says, ' In case the Presbytery refuses to admit any qualified minister
presented to them by the patron, it shall be lawful for the patron to retain
the whole fruits of the benefice in his own hands.' That we are perfectly
reconciled to, for it is a civil matter. Then going rapidly downwards about
a century, the Act of 1690, at the time of the Revolution Settlement, an
nuls all adverse Acts which were passed under Charles IL, aDd restores the
Act of 1592. And again, coming to Queen Anne's Act upon the restoration
of patronage, which transfers the initiative in the appointment of ministers
from the heritors and Kirk-sessions to the respective patrons, there is a
VOL. IV. 3 D

594 APPENDIX.
clause in that Act upon which we conceive that we still have the final
jurisdiction in things sacred. It says, ' That the Presbytery shall be bound
to receive and admit in the same manner persons thus presented, as before
the making of this Act they ought to have admitted.' So that even under
the Act of Queen Anne — though undoubtedly the change was a very com
plete one which was introduced by the decision of the courts in the case of
Auchterarder, as confirmed by the upper courts, against which we could
get no redress in Parliament — even under the Act of Queen Anne the
doctrine was, that for the admission of a minister there must be the con
currence of two ingredients — -one of these was a valid presentation, and
another was the concurrence of the ecclesiastical courts to the appointment
of the presentee. He appears before us, we put him on trial, and sit in
judgment upon the question, ' Is it for the Christian good of the parish that
this man should be appointed its minister ?' The concurrence of the
ecclesiastical court was in all cases required before effect could be given
to the presentation. Therefore we felt that a very great and most per
nicious novelty was grafted upon our former ecclesiastical system, by this
decision in the case of Auchterarder ; and it may be observed, that during
the last century we sometimes made a mistake as to the validity of pre
sentations ; some ministers were inducted and remained upon a wrong
presentation. And I think it is quite interesting to observe the direction
which the matter then took, for it shows so completely the distinct provinces
of the two sets of courts. When we did make a mistake, the patron re
tained the stipend : the person whom we had inducted lost all the benefit
of the temporalities, but he still continued the minister of the parish ; we
had ordained him as such, and he officiated as minister there, minus the
temporalities. That has happened in about half a dozen instances ; and it
shows practically how the thing operated. There was one very remark
able case in Dunse, where the patron not only sued for his own right, but
in virtue of that right he wanted the Court of Session to restrain the Pres
bytery from settling any other man in the parish. The case is reported by
Lord Monboddo ; and, as taken from his report, his words are, ' The Lords
would not meddle with that request, because that was interfering with the
power of ordination, with which the Lords thought they had nothing to do.'
So that there was all respect paid to the appropriate function of the ecclesi
astical court, as to the settlement and ordination of ministers. I think, in
the mass of controversial authorship which has been issued upon this sub
ject, we are apt to lose sight of the few essential sentences which might
decide this whole question. There is nothing that appears to me to be
more conclusive than a brief passage, which I can read in two minutes, from

APPENDIX. 595
Lord Karnes's Law Tracts. The truth is, that all legal authorities, either
past or present, are in favour of the view on which the Free Church has
proceeded. Lord Karnes, in article 9, in his Law Tracts, says, ' Ecclesias
tical courts, besides their censorial powers with relation to manners and
religious tenets, have an important jurisdiction in providing parishes with
proper ministers and pastors ; and they exercise this jurisdiction, by nam
ing for the minister of a vacant church that person duly qualified who is
presented by the patron. Their sentence, however, is ultimate, even where
their proceedings are illegal.' (That is, illegal according to civil law.) ' The
person authorized by their sentence, even in opposition to the presentee, is
de facto minister of the parish, and as such is entitled to perform every
ministerial function ;' but then he has no claim to the stipend. ' It would
be a great defect,' his Lordship proceeds to say, ' in the constitution of a
government, that ecclesiastical courts should have an arbitrary power in
providing parishes with ministers. To prevent such arbitrary power, the
check provided by law is, that a minister settled illegally, shall not be en
titled to the stipend. This happily reconciles two things generally opposite.
The check is extremely mild, and yet is fully effectual to prevent the
abuse.' 'Nor is it inconsistent that two courts should give contrary judg
ments to different effects. This produces not a conflict of jurisdictions, for
both judgments may stand and be effectual.' ' But I see not that there can
be in Britain a direct conflict betwixt two courts, both trying the same
cause to the same effect.' ' But in this island, matters of jurisdiction are
better ordered than to afford place for such an absurdity. An indirect
conflict may indeed happen, where two courts handling occasionally the
same point, in different causes, are of different opinions upon that point.
Such contrariety of opinion ought, as far as possible, to be avoided for the
sake of expediency, as tending to lessen the authority of one of the courts,
and perhaps of both. But as such contrary opinions are the foundation of
judgments calculated for different ends and purposes, these judgments when
put to execution, can never interfere.'
" Do you think that the Church of Scotland, as at present established by
law, have recognised on the part of the State a jurisdiction in matters
spiritual and sacred, and against which the people of Scotland have strongly
contended in times past ? — Yes, I think they have completely obliterated
that line of demarcation which we always thought divided the civil from
the ecclesiastical courts.
" In so crossing that line of demarcation, they have adopted the princi
ples which are generally known in Scotland by the name of Erastian
principles 1 — Yes.

596 APPENDIX.
" You use the term ' Erastian' as applied to the principles of the Estab
lished Church ; do you use that term in the sense of personal reproach and
insult, or do you use it in a general sense, speaking upon a question of re
ligious controversy ? — I use it as characterizing the policy or principle upon
which they act, but certainly not with anything like a personal application
to individuals.
" And I presume that you consider that the principle of the spiritual in
dependence of the Church is a principle which it is essential to maintain,
in order to make the Church as useful as possible among the community
where she exists ? — I have not the slightest doubt of that ; and I think
that, both on the ground of principle and on the ground of expediency, we
should keep up the power of devising and doing as we think best for the
Christian good of the people : first, because we have a directory in the
Bible which we are bound to follow ; and second, because unless we do so,
the Church would become quite helpless in its endeavour to extend itself
and to reclaim the masses of our degenerate population. I can give an
instance of this. An English bishop, who has a Welsh diocese, once told
me that a presentee was offered him by a patron who could not speak a
word of Welsh, and the bishop said there was no help for it, and that he was
obliged to admit the presentee. Now, that is a species of helplessness in
which we never could acquiesce. An instance similar to this happened in
Scotland in 1825, when I was myself a member of the Assembly. The Crown
issued a presentation to a man who could not speak Gaelic, for the parish of
Little Dunkeld, where the people can speak English generally, but they can
not speak it well enough to profit so much from an English as from a Gaelic
sermon. The case came up for our decision, and we, acting upon our un
doubted prerogative to decide whether this was the man who should be
appointed to that parish, took evidence upon the matter, and by a very
small majority in so large a body as the General Assembly, rejected the
presentee. The Crown never once thought of appealing to the Court of
Session, or of doing anything else but simply acquiescing in the decision of
the supreme ecclesiastical court — that court in which the thing has always,
until of late years, ' taken end ;' and, accordingly, they withdrew their
presentee, and gave us one who could preach in Gaelic. If we, the ecclesi
astical courts, are to be bereft of the power of judging upon a subject so
exclusively professional, so much ours, and so little within the province of
a civil court, namely, upon the question, What is best for the Christian in
terests of the population 1 1 cannot imagine any system that is more cal
culated to bring the population under an influence under which they must
very rapidly degenerate.

APPENDIX. 597
" Are the opinions which you have just expressed those of the great body
of the Free Church in Scotland V — I should think so ; and indeed I have no
doubt they are the universal opinions.
" If that be so, is there any prospect of a reunion taking place between the
Free Church and the Established Church ? — I am afraid not, in the way of
a reunion. I think that a restoration is possible, but not in the way of a
reunion between the two bodies ; that is, between the Free Church and the
Established Church.
" You say that a restoration is possible 1 — Yes, but if I were to state the
process, it would appear, I fear, so extravagant, that I have not the slightest
hope of its being at present brought about. We must, of course, provide
for the perfect integrity of our own ecclesiastical principles, and I do not
see how that can be done, except by the Legislature adopting the Free
Church as the Establishment, and then leaving us to deal with the ministers
of the Established Church as so many ecclesiastical delinquents, who have
forsaken their original principles. I dare say that we should be very mild
and indulgent in dealing with them, so far as was consistent with our prin
ciples. I state this in answer to your question ; but, at the same time, I
have not the slightest hope that it is a measure which will soon be carried
out ; though we would certainly treat those ministers in a way that would
be attended with less severity upon them personally than our sufferings
have amounted to. If there was such a resolution of the Legislature come
to, I would venture to say that there should be no such thing as an instant
deprivation of the emoluments of office of any individual, but they should
be left to die out ; and when a parish was vacant, it should be filled up by
a licentiate of the Free Church ; and in that way there would be a sub
stitution of a Church with its original principles for a Church with its
altered principles. That of itself, however, would not, I think, satisfy the
Free Church now. When a negotiation formerly went on between the
parties, as between Lord Aberdeen and myself, we attempted then to nego
tiate for the minimum on which it was possible to remain in the Established
Church, that minimum being what we called a liberum arbitrium, leaving
everything to remain as regards the initiative and patronage as before ;
and the Church having the full power of sitting in judgment upon the
question and deciding it, ' Is it a right thing that this presentee shall be
appointed to this parish ; is this presentee a fit person for this parish ?' so
that we could either lay an arrest upon the presentation or sustain it, and
proceed upon it. But now that we have left the Established Church, I do
not think that the same terms that would have kept us in the Church would
bring us back again ; for my own part, I would say that if ever there should

598 APPENDIX.
be a negotiation opened again, it should be a negotiation, as regards the
Free Church, not for the minimum, but for the optimism. We could have
made a sacrifice then upon some points, in order to prevent a disruption ;
but now that a disruption has occurred, we would make a strong attempt
to get the best possible system that we could before we would adopt it ;
and I am very glad that I can quote upon the subject of the optimism, if
not in the very words, at least the substance, of a sentence which I wrote in
one of my letters to Lord Aberdeen, that I conceived the best ecclesiastical
system that could be established for Scotland, was a Church where the
ministers were paid by the State, and chosen by the people ; so that I do
not think that even if patronage were modified to the degree which would
have kept us in, if patronage were to remain in any degree, they would bring
us back again.
" Mr. W. Patten. — Did I understand you to say, that now the Free
Church would not consent to any right on the part of the patron to presen
tation 1 — I do not think that the Free Church would consent to become the
Establishment, except on the condition of the abolition of patronage.
" Mr. F. Maule. — I believe we may generally say, that during all your
life you have been a strong friend of the maintenance of the institutions of
this country. In your opinion do you look upon the Free Church as safe
and salutary with respect to the political and established institutions of this
country, or do you consider that any danger may be apprehended in refer
ence to those institutions from the Free Church being allowed, by granting
sites and other legitimate indulgences, to follow the course which the con
sciences of the people feel to be the right one ? — I think that all the doc
trines and all the doings of the Free Church are on the side of social order
and the wellbeing of society ; and I cannot imagine that the existence of
the Free Church can have anything like a hostile influence upon the esta
blished institutions of the country. And I may observe, that is not exclu
sively ours, for I believe it belongs to the English Methodists as well as to
us, and also to the older Dissenting denominations in Scotland. We of -the
Free Church are not Voluntaries, and I confess to you that I should look
with a sigh to the demolition of the framework either of the Scotch or of
the English Establishment. Grant an establishment upon right principles,
and if well worked, it is the most efficient of all machinery for pervading
the people with religion ; and it marks the exceeding strength of our prin
ciple, that we have dissented from the Establishment in Scotland, not quasi
an Establishment, but from such an Establishment — a vitiating flaw having
been inserted into it, which we think fatal to its character, and fatal also to
the efficacy of its ministrations ; so that I believe there is not a body in

APPENDIX. 599
Christendom who gives such a strong testimony in favour of the principle
of an Establishment as the Free Church of Scotland. Here we are incurring
the utmost dislike from the Voluntaries on the one hand, and from the
actual friends of the Establishment on the' other, and yet we will not let go
the principle that it is the duty of the Government to provide for the
religious education of the people ; and it is thus, too, that best effect is given
to the territorial principle by which to reclaim the masses. I do not know
any system better than the territorial system, if well worked, provided it be
based upon the proper principle, and the ministers of the Establishment
have the same freedom which we enjoyed in the Church of Scotland in its
original state.
" Sir J. Graham. — On principle, you are a great friend to the Establish
ment in connexion with the State 1 — I am.
" I think I had the pleasure of attending a course of lectures that was
given by you at the Hanover Square Rooms, in defence of the English
Church Establishment, at a time when you thought it was assailed ? — It
was not in defence of the English Church Establishment, it was in defence
of Establishments generally.
" But I believe you stood forward, in those lectures, in defence of the
English Church Establishment ?— There is a great difference between two
Churches, one of which is moving upwards, and upon the advance to a better
position than it now occupies, and the other of which is falling down or de
clining, from a higher point than the English Establishment ever occupied ;
I should therefore feel more hope for the English Establishment than I do
for our present Scotch Establishment. There is all the difference that we
have in morals and religion, between a backslider and an aspiring penitent,
who is just shaking off his old profligate habits. I will not speak so con
fidently now of the English Establishment as I did then ; but I spoke of
Establishments in the abstract ; I did not come to any reckoning with the
English Establishment in regard to its deficiencies, and I should say that I
could not, with the same confidence, advocate the cause of the English
Establishment now as I did then, because of what I hear with regard to the
inroads of Puseyism ini the Church of England, which I consider to be a very
great corruption.
" In what year was it that I had the pleasure of attending your lectures ?
— It was in the year 1838.
" The Queen is the head of the Church of England, and lay patronage
exists in the Church of England to a very great extent ; and still, notwith
standing those imperfections in your Presbyterian eye, you strongly advo
cated, at that time, the maintenance of the Church of England such as it

600 APPENDIX,
was ? — I advocated the Church of England as a good machine, but which
required to be mended ; and indeed I ventured to say so, and suggested that
they should rid themselves of the figment of apostolical succession — which
was the expression that I used. There is another passage in those lectures
(I am glad that they are printed, because they can be appealed to) regard
ing the distinction between the Church of England and the Church of Scot
land, with reference to spiritual independence. As against the Voluntaries,
I advocated an Establishment in the abstract, as a piece of effectual
mechanism which the Voluntaries could never replace if the Establishment
were abolished. Had my subject led me to take cognizance of the defects
of the Church of England, which it did not lead me to do, it would have been
different : but indeed I should have felt it a little obtrusive, a little pre
sumptuous, for me to come to England for the purpose of lecturing the
people here on the defects of their own Establishment ; I came to lecture on
the Establishment principle as opposed to Voluntaryism ; but I do not know
any stronger passages in these lectures than those in which I denounced the
notion of apostolical succession, and also the dependence of the Church upon
the State in things sacred.
" I cannot forget what falls from you ; I think I recollect that in those
lectures you advocated even the maintenance of what some have called ec
clesiastical sinecures, upon the ground that dignitaries or learned persons
were thereby enabled to apply themselves to learning, and to come out as
powerful champions in defence of the Establishment of which they were
members 1 — To such a degree am I in favour of ecclesiastical sinecures, that
I should be glad to have them in our Church. At that time it struck me
that there was a vulgarizing process going on, by the alienation of cathedral
property, and I endeavoured to point out what I thought a better direction
for this property, and that was, turning each cathedral institute into a theo
logical seminary or college. I am very friendly to what may be called ec
clesiastical sinecures, not that I mean that they should be sinecures, but
that there should be a certain number of persons of learning maintained at
leisure, and endowed for the purpose of contributing to theological literature.
" Notwithstanding the headship of the sovereign and'lay patronage exist
ing to a great extent in the Church of England, and ecclesiastical sinecures
existing in the Church of England, you stood forward to defend it against
the Voluntary system ? — I am in favour of the Church of England as against
the Voluntary system. I should have felt the weakness of my ground if I
had attempted to defend the Church of England in itself ; and I should
have been leaving unnecessarily the safe ground of argument in favour of
the Establishment principle, and the undoubted duty of Government to con-

APPENDIX. 601
cern themselves with the religious education of the people, and also the
great efficiency of the mechanism of an Establishment, for the Voluntary
principle does not overtake the masses. Upon those grounds I did advocate
the Church of England as an Establishment, but I certainly did not stand
there as an advocate for the corruptions of the Church of England.
" Your objection to the Church of Scotland is, that it is so Erastian an
Establishment, that, with all your objections to Voluntaryism, you think on
the whole it has been a duty to secede from it ? — Yes, I think so.
" Apart from the question of payment there remains the more important
point of the minister being chosen by the people ; what is that choice to
which you refer 1 — I know that in England a system of popular election
may appear to be a very monstrous one, under the idea that we conceive the
people to be the seat-holders, so that any man that can afford to pay for a
seat is one of the people to vote, and to exercise what may be called ' the
spiritual franchise.' What I mean by the people is the body of communi
cants, which communicants are admitted to the table of the sacrament
upon a strict examination of their religious knowledge and of their religi
ous character ; and I should think that the election by people of that class
is in very safe hands.
" But still, though you would allow the initiative to the people, you
would never part with a power of veto on the choice, to be exercised by the
ecclesiastical court, and without appeal, except to other ecclesiastical autho
rities ? — I would say that it were a great defect in a Church if the popular
power were the only power concerned in the appointment of the minister ;
and that it adds very much to the perfection of the Church to have a body
of men competent to sit in judgment upon the literature and the other
qualifications of the minister, to concur with the people in their appointment.
" When you say ' the choice of the people,' are you of opinion that all
communicants have an equal right to a voice ? — The practice is for all male
communicants to vote.
" Why should female communicants be excluded ? — I have always looked
upon this as a very paltry and distasteful question ; and I think that it is
revolting to the collective mind of the Free Church. Of course you cannot,
amongst 600 ministers, say that some strange proposition may not be ad
vanced by this or that individual ; but I do look upon it as a question which
generally they would not entertain.
" Is there anything in the process which you think would be inconsistent
with female modesty and propriety, and would prevent females taking a
part in it ? — I do not think that there is anything in the process which
would be inconsistent with female modesty and propriety.
VOL. IV. - 3 E

602 APPENDIX.
" Is there any coming forward in the presence of the congregation to
sign the call, or anything else which would be disagreeable to females 1 —
When I was a minister in Glasgow I remember being present at taking the
concurrence or call of the people, but I really cannot say at present how
the matter proceeds.
" Will you be kind enough to explain a point which is difficult to my
apprehension ; you contend that the call of the people is a Christian prin
ciple, and that the nomination of the patron is anti-Christian and Erastian ;
will you explain what you consider to be the Christian character of the
one, and the anti-Christian character of the other ? — I do not think that
the terms ' Christian' and ' anti-Christian,' should be applied to this ques
tion. I think that the term ' Erastianism' has no relation to this point. I
would say that it is anti-Christian if you infringe upon the spiritual inde
pendence of the Church, for it is a Christian principle that the spiritual
independence of the Church should be maintained. But with regard to the
nomination by an individual patron on the one hand, as compared with
popular election on the other, I would scarcely view it in the same religious
light. I think that there is great scriptural authority for popular election,
and I would say great authority in the history of the Church during the
three first centuries ; but the thing that operates most strongly with me is
the respect I have for the collective mind and views of a well-trained con
gregation. I think that the people collectively are better qualified to
choose a right minister than an individual patron is.
" It would touch the relative qualification of the congregation on the
one hand, and of the lay patron on the other ; but in principle, why is the
one Christian, or pre-eminently Christian and right, and the other, I will
not term it anti-Christian, but in your opinion, pre-eminently wrong 1 — I
think that theological authorities are in favour of popular election, looking
to the examples that we have in the New Testament of popular election on
the part of the Christian Church : and for three, if not four centuries, and
indeed continued down to the fifth or sixth century, there are vestiges of
popular election, which would seem to shew that that was the original
system of the Church.
" Did I rightly understand you to say that the only mode of merging the
unhappy differences now existing would be an inversion of past policy ;
that patronage must be abolished, and that if that matter were conceded,
the Free Church would be as mild as they could be towards the members
of the Establishment consistently with their principles 1 — Yes ; that is the
substance of the answer I gave to the question.
" And that your mode of reconciling the Free Church to the State would

APPENDIX. 603
be, not to fill up the vacancies as they occurred in the livings of various
parishes in Scotland with members of the Establishment, but that licen
tiates of the Free Church should be appointed to fill up the vacancies 1 —
Surely that would be the way of it. But this answer was drawn out from
me by the question that was put, and I gave my explanation of the right
restorative process under the complete impression that it would be looked
upon by the generality of the public as being at present completely chi
merical and hopeless. I do not expect it soon. In order to give an adequate
impression of the difficulty that stands in the way of re-union, I stated the
only process by which I think, consistently with our principles, the Church
of Scotland could be restored to its original state ; and I am afraid that, in
the actual state of opinion amongst; various classes, such an adjustment is
not to be looked for.
" The refusal to give sites is the exception, not the rule ; and a very rare
exception, is it not ? — Yes ; but I would say, that in the worst times of
persecution, the cruelties that were inflicted were the exception, and not
the rule ; that is to say, there was no such thing, at least very seldom, as
the extermination of a whole people. There were a great many martyr
doms — still those martyrdoms generally constituted the exception, not the
rule ; and the refusal of sites, though it constitutes the exception, may be
come the rule. It implies the power, on the part of the landed proprietors,
to refuse sites, and it may become general ; I think it is very likely to be
so. I have every indulgence to make for the state of feeling which has
existed during the last few years ; I believe that the upper classes very
honestly thought very ill of us. They looked upon us as so many radicals
and revolutionaries ; and I have heard some of the higher classes, for whom
I have the greatest respect, associate with the Disruption the idea of a
coming revolution. I have myself heard them speak so ; but I believe that
the experience of our being a far more harmless generation than they had
any conception of previously, has gone a considerable way to mitigate that
feeling ; and I trust that the mitigation will go on.
" Is not the opinion which you have just expressed confirmed by the pro
gressive diminution of refusals, year by year, up to the present time ? — I
am very glad of that diminution, certainly ; but I think it is a great blot upon
the system of the country, if even a single exception should be tolerated.
" But with respect to legislation, legislation does not proceed upon cases
of exception, but upon flagrant cases of wide-spread abuse. Is not that so ?
— Yes ; but legislation may be very properly resorted to, for the purpose of
extinguishing a power that might be abused, and that might spread ; not
confined to the Free Church, but extending also to other denominations.

604 APPENDIX.
" Does not legislation generally proceed with a view to the correction of
growing abuses, not dealing with diminishing abuses small in amount 1 — I
do not feel myself very competent to instruct legislators in their duty.
Were I a legislator myself, I should certainly feel as if it were a great
deficiency in the statute-book not to provide against such a flagrant abuse
of the rights of property.
" You have very much deprecated, in your letter, which you have quoted
to-day, the use of violent language. You have said, that it is not for the
members of the Free Church ' to lift the tongue of abuse against the char
acters, whether of individuals or of bodies of men ;' and you have said, that
you are of opinion that they are not called upon ' to sit in judgment upon
others.' In the heat of this unhappy controversy, do you think that that
rule has been observed 1 — I should say that never, I dare say, was a great
change effected in a country with less violence on the part of those who
suffered by the change ; and, speaking generally, I think that there has
been, upon the whole, a very noble exemplification on the part of the Free
Church, and of its friends, of the charity which endureth all things. I
think that there has been great exaggeration upon the subject of our vio
lent language.
" In that very letter of which you read an extract, you give an explana
tion of the sentiments to which you gave utterance in the General Assembly,
in 1839, four years before the Disruption, and which you admit you have
repeated since ; and though you explain it, was not the expression one that
was certainly susceptible of misapprehension : ' That an Erastian Estab
lishment should be swept off from the face of the country V — When I first
gave utterance to that expression there was no such idea in our own heads as
a Disruption. We certainly had no other object in contemplation than that
we should remain in the Establishment. If the 470 who have signalized
themselves so much by their opposition to the encroachments of the civil
courts, when the thing began to look upon them in good earnest, had turned
round upon their own principles, when they saw that their emoluments
were threatened — I say that a Church with 470 recusants in it, who had so
glaringly trampled upon their professions for years back — such a Church
would have scandalized the whole community ; it would have been a nui
sance. I do not think ' a nuisance' would be too strong an expression. In
like manner, had we done what it was alleged we would do ; had we re
turned to the Church, the expression of ' nuisance' would have been alike
applicable. I do not say that it is equally applicable now. I am not very
fond of substituting one name for another ; I do not like to give names
unless there is a call for it. I do not consider that it is an appropriate

APPENDIX. 605
designation now, that of ' nuisance.' A nuisance implies a certain power and
virulence of positive mischief, which I do not think the Established Church
of Scotland possesses. I think that the Established Church of Scotland has
become, comparatively speaking, effete and impotent, either as to good or
evil ; and I would rather denominate it a nullity than a nuisance. I do so
without any desire to stigmatize the Church ; but I do it under the impulse
of a deep conviction, that if this vitiating flaw be suffered to adhere to the
Established Church of Scotland, it never will be an efficient Church in our
country. " Do you agree to this definition of schism, that is ' an uncharitable
distance, division, or alienation of affection among those who are called
Christians, and agree in the fundamentals of religion, occasioned by their
different apprehensions about little things V — I think that the schism is
chargeable upon those who are in the wrong ; in the case of our Scottish '
Church, a stable thing, a thing that has been in existence in Scotland since
the days of the first Reformation — this Church being independent of the
State in spiritual matters, I think the guilt of the schism was incurred by
those who deviated from that standard. I do not think that a deviation
from a State Church quasi a State Church incurs the guilt of schism ; a
deviation from a Church of certain principles infers the guilt of schism, not
a deviation from a Church quasi a State Church.
" The definition I have just read to you is Matthew Henry's definition of
schism. Upon reflection, is it sound, in your opinion, or unsound 1 — I think
it is a very fair definition, when it says, ' An uncharitable distance, oc
casioned by their different apprehensions about little things.' Ours is not
a little thing ; and neither, I hope, are we uncharitable.
" You would call the question of the supremacy of the ecclesiastical courts
in ecclesiastical matters a fundamental of religion, and not a little thing as
compared with the great truths of Christianity ? — I would call it not a
little thing.
" Although the authorized version of the Scriptures is received in common
by the Free Church and the Established Church, although the Catechism is
common, although the Confession of Faith is common, yet this disputed
question about the supremacy of ecclesiastical courts in ecclesiastical mat.
ters would be held by you to be fundamental, and not a little thing 1 — I
hold it to be a very material thing. I think that the character of the
Church and its ministers is very materially affected by the difference be
tween those two systems.
" Mr. F. Maule. — Is not it a principle for which, during the reign of
Charles the Second, 18,000 of our countrymen, great and small, gentle and

606 APPENDIX.
simple, laid down their lives 1 — Yes : that is understood to be the com
putation of the number who laid down their lives for the maintenance of
the very principle which, in fact, has occasioned the Disruption.
" Sir J. Graham. — For what did they lay down their lives 1 — They laid
down their lives for what they called the headship of Christ, in denial of
the doctrine that the king was the head of the Church.
" The following question was put to Mr. Graham Speirs : — ' Do you or
do you not know that a great number of the Free Church hold the opinion,
that no communion or connexion is to be maintained between the Free
Church and the Established Church V To which his answer was as fol
lows : — ' No, certainly, I am not aware of that ; on the contrary, I know
that a great number of the leading members of the Free Church of Scot
land, and Dr. Candlish among others, are members of what is called the
Evangelical Alliance, which comprehends members of the Establishment
as well as others, who are united for a common object.' In your opinion,
does the being joint members of the Evangelical Alliance at all admit even
the Christianity of the Established Church of Scotland 1 — I think that the
Christianity of the Established Church is one thing, looking at its system
and looking at its policy, and that the Christianity of the ministers or
members of the Church is altogether a different thing. I would say that
the Church as a Church is very corrupt and very deficient, and if I had not
thought so I might have been a member of the Establishment still ;- but
that does not imply that all its ministers or members are unchristian, any
more than it implies that all Roman Catholics are unchristian. I will not
question the Christianity of -Pascal or the Christianity of Archbishop
Fenelon ; although, as a system, I certainly dissent altogether from the
Roman Catholic Church. And in like manner I would make a distinction
between the- character of the Scottish Established Church as a Church, and
the character of its individual ministers and members.
" I need hardly ask you whether the heat and anger of this controversy
have not given you great pain 1 — I have not seen much of that heat and
anger. I must say that the prevalent impression which my converse with
my brethren has left upon me is, that there has been a marvellous degree
of charity and forbearance. I will not justify hard sayings ; those hard
sayings were all very natural, as far as I understand, but not justifiable.
Charity has not had its perfect work ; there have been violent sayings, but
I am quite sure that there is a most exaggerated impression about this.
" If this matter in dispute were yielded, and sites were generally granted,
if this violence of language were abated, and the cause of anger removed
with regard to sites, would you still have the hope of seeing religious peace

APPENDIX. 607
re-established in Scotland before you die ? — I think that if things were put
upon the footing I have stated, I might cherish the hope of religious peace.
I do not think it is impossible by any means ; but I must think, that look
ing at the present state of sentiment among various classes, Legislators on
the one hand, and Churchmen on the other, it is very unlikely that the
process which I have referred to will be immediately entered upon."

APPENDIX L.— P. 516.
When the sudden and solemn event was announced to it, the General
Assembly of the Free Church unanimously resolved to adjourn all business ;
but to remain convened till, as an Assembly, it had the melancholy satis
faction of rendering the last office of friendship to the departed. The
funeral took place on Friday, the 4th June, and we extract from the Wit
ness the following account of it : —
" The General Assembly of the Free Church met in Free St. Andrew's
Church at twelve o'clock, together with the members of deputations to the
Assembly from the Presbyterian Churches of England and Ireland, and also
the ministers from foreign parts attending the Assembly ; the Moderator,
Dr. Keith, and Dr. Clason, conducted the devotional exercises. The ministers
and elders not members of Assembly, and deacons, assembled in Free St.
George's Church at the same hour ; the devotional exorcises here were
conducted by Dr. Henry Grey and Dr. Buchanan of Glasgow. The pro
bationers and students met in the hall of the New College, also at twelve,
where ' Dr. Cunningham conducted the devotions. A little before one, a
large body of citizens, desirous of testifying respect to the memory of the
deceased, by joining in the procession, assembled on the south side of
Charlotte Square ; as did also the Magistrates and Town-Council of the
city, in St. George's Church, in the same square. At one o'clock, the
General Assembly left Free St. Andrew's Church, the Moderator and Office
bearers in front, in gowns and bands, preceded by the two officers of
Assembly, dressed in deep mourning, with hanging crapes, and white rods
in their hands, and walking four abreast, proceeded to the Lothian Road,
where they halted at about a hundred yards in advance of Free St. George's
Church. The members of Assembly were followed by the Professors in the
New College, in their gowns and bands. The ministers and elders, not
members of Assembly, now left Free St. George's Church, walking four
abreast, preceded by four beadles, two and two, dressed in deep mourning,
and with black rods in their hands, and took their place in the procession

608 APPENDIX.
immediately behind the Professors. Next came the ministers of other
denominations. These were followed by the probationers and students,
walking also four abreast, and preceded by two officers, dressed in the
manner last described. Next in the procession came the Rector and
Masters of the High School in their gowns, and preceded by the
Janitor in his official costume ; and following in their rear were the
Rector, Teachers, and Students of the Edinburgh Normal School, with
other Free Church teachers in Edinburgh and neighbourhood. Form
ing the rear of the procession came the large body of citizens, who
had assembled in Charlotte Square, walking four abreast. Thus formed,
the procession moved along the Lothian Road, headed by the Magistrates
and Town-Council in their robes, — the pavement being occupied with
solemnized spectators, and every window being crowded with faces. At
the Main Point, the Committee and congregation of the Territorial Church,
West Port, were drawn up\ and, as the procession passed, they fell into
the rear. The procession moved on by the Links to Churchhill ; and
having arrived within fifty yards of the gate leading to the house of the
deceased, it halted. Here the members of the Presbytery of Edinburgh,
and the Professors, fell out of their places, and repaired to the house,
where the private friends of the deceased were already assembled, and
where devotional exercises were conducted by the Rev. Mr. Addis, minister
of Morningside Free Church. At Morningside the procession was joined
by the office-bearers and congregation of Morningside Free Church, and by
the pupils of Merchiston Academy. After an interval of about half an
hour, the hearse containing the body of the lamented dead, drawn by four
horses, attended by grooms, was led up to the procession, which now
began to move slowly off towards the place of interment in the New
Cemetery at Grange.
" Dust to dust ; the grave now holds all that was mortal of Thomas
Chalmers. Never before did we witness such a funeral ; nay, never before,
in at least the memory of man, did Scotland witness such a funeral.
Greatness of the mere extrinsic type can always command a showy
pageant ; but mere extrinsic greatness never yet succeeded in purchasing
the tears of a people ; and the spectacle of yesterday — in which the trap
pings of grief, worn not as idle signs, but as the representatives of a real
sorrow, were borne by well-nigh half the population of the metropolis, and
blackened the public ways for furlong after furlong, and mile after mile —
was such as Scotland has rarely witnessed, and which mere rank or wealth,
when at the highest or the fullest, were never yet able to buy. It was a

APPENDIX. 609
solemn tribute, spontaneously paid to departed goodness and greatness by
the public mind.
" The day was one of those gloomy days, not unfrequent in early summer,
which steeps the landscape in a sombre neutral tint of grey — a sort of
diluted gloom — and volumes of mist, unvariegated, blank, and diffuse of
outline, flew low athwart the hills or lay folded on the distant horizon. A
chill breeze from the east murmured drearily through the trees that line
the cemetery on the south and west, and rustled amid the low ornamental
shrubs that vary and adorn its surface. We felt as if the garish sunshine
would have associated ill with the occasion. A continuous range of burial
vaults, elevated some twenty feet over the level, with a screen of Gothic
architecture in front, fenced by a parapet, and laid out into a broad road
way atop, runs along the cemetery from side to side, and was covered at
an early hour by many thousand spectators, mostly well-dressed females.
All the neighbouring roads, with the various streets through which the
procession passed, from Morningside on to Lauriston, and from Lauriston
to the burying ground, — a distance, by this circuitous route, of consider
ably more than two miles, — were lined thick with people. We are con
fident we rather under-estimate than exaggerate their numbers, when we
state that the spectators of the funeral must have rather exceeded than
fallen short of a hundred thousand persons. As the procession approached,
the shops on both sides, with scarce any exceptions, were shut up, and
business suspended. There was no part of the street or road through
which it passed sufficiently open, or nearly so, to give a view of the whole.
The spectator merely saw file after file pass by in what seemed endless
succession. In the cemetery, which is of great extent, the whole was at
once seen for the first time, and the appearance was that of an army. The
figures dwindled in the distance, in receding towards the open grave along
the long winding walk, as in those magnificent pictures of Martin, in
which even the littleness of men is made to enhance the greatness of their
works and the array of their aggregated numbers. And still the open gate
way continued to give ingress to the dingy, living tide, that seemed to flow
unceasingly inwards, like some perennial stream that disembogues its
waters into a lake. The party-coloured thousands on the eminence above,
all in silence, and many of them in tears — the far-stretching lines of the
mourners below, — the effect, amid the general black, of the scarlet cloaks
of the magistracy, — for the Magistrates of Edinburgh, with much good
taste and feeling, had come in their robes of office, and attended by its
officials and insignia, to manifest their spontaneous respect for the memory
of the greatest of their countrymen, — the slow, measured tramp, that,

610 APPENDIX.
with the rustle of the breeze, formed the only sounds audible in so vast an
assemblage, — all conspired to compose a scene solemn and impressive in
the highest degree, and of which the recollection will long survive in the
memory of the spectators. There was a moral sublimity in the spectacle.
It spoke more emphatically than by words, of the dignity of intrinsic
excellence, and of the height to which a true man may attain. It was
the dust of a Presbyterian minister which the coffin contained ; and yet
they were burying him amid the tears of a nation, and with more than
kingly honours."

END OF VOLUME FOURTH.

EDINBURGH : T. CONSTABLE, PRINTER TO BER MAJESTY,

3501