CHAPTER VIII
1867-1872
INDIA--THE APEX--THE END
The vision of millions upon millions in the far East worshipping idols had long haunted Macleod’s imagination, and, with his sense of apostleship waxing as the years went on, heathendom became more and more to him a mystery and a horror. The Asiatic was a man: reach his heart, it was the same as ours, and must open to the religion of humanity. To Macleod’s stamp of Christian the whole idea of foreign missions was peculiarly congenial; every enterprise in that field, whatever Church had the credit, he hailed with enthusiasm. In 1858, when Angell James was appealing for a hundred missionaries to go to China, Macleod sent forth, in the _Edinburgh Christian Magazine_, a voice to the British Churches:--
Let us say in justice to our own deep conviction as to the momentous importance of this subject--to the grandeur of the cause which our revered father advocates--to the sense we entertain of the clear and imperative duty of the Church of Scotland at this crisis--that we bid him God-speed with all our hearts; and express our firm faith that these hundred missionaries and many more will soon be in the field, _with some contributed by our own Church_, to take part in this glorious enterprise about to open for the establishment in China, so long enslaved by Satan, of that blessed kingdom which is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
The Church of Scotland had a footing in India, and it was there that his interest was fixed. There be rosy thousand-pounders whose eloquent wails over the dearth of missionaries draw handkerchiefs in the ladies’ gallery, and if the cynic says that the command is not ‘Get others to go’ but ‘Go _ye_,’ it is good exegesis and a palpable hit. But Macleod was busy among the heathen at home, and from 1864, when he was made convener of the India Mission, his mind was possessed with the thought of an embassy to Hindostan. The Sabbath question arose, and, expecting ostracism, he gave up his prospect; indeed, a section of the committee, as he afterwards learned, moved for his resignation. The General Assembly, however, in 1867, upon advices from Calcutta, requested him to visit India. ‘How strange and sudden,’ he wrote, ‘that I, who two years ago was threatened with deposition and made an offscouring by so many, am this year asked by the Assembly to be their representative in India!’ Among his acquaintance far and near, high and humble, the news that Norman Macleod was going to India created a sensation. The Queen wrote: ‘his life is so valuable that it is a great risk.’ He received letters from Stanley, Helps, and Max Müller. The presbytery gave him a dinner, at which the chair was taken by the chief Sabbatarian. Fifty private friends, including ministers of all denominations, entertained him at a feast. He in his turn held a luncheon, in the course of which he perambulated the tables, speaking the befitting word to each of thirty guests. Portraits of himself, his wife, and his mother, painted by Macnee, were presented to him; and four hundred working men gave Mrs. Macleod her husband’s bust in marble. There was a general feeling that he might never return. ‘Come life or death,’ he said of his undertaking, ‘I believe it is God’s will.’ For several weeks he had worked so hard, and gone through so much excitement, that when he started he was utterly worn out; and throughout the tour, from first to last, he was afflicted with a swelling of the limbs.
Fortunate he was in having for his fellow-deputy Dr. Watson, the minister of Dundee, who thought with him on religious matters (though _pawky_ to the point of genius) and was kin to him in spirit. To hear these two in the parts of Highland drovers was, by all accounts, the greatest treat in the world. After a short stay in Paris, where Macleod preached, and got a collection for the expenses of the deputation, on the sixth of November they embarked at Marseilles, having chosen the overland passage. Macleod was charmed with the coast scenery about Toulon; Corsica and Sardinia reminded him of the Western Highlands; but in all the Mediterranean there was no sight that affected him so much as the house of Garibaldi. At Alexandria he learned from his old dragoman, whom he happened to meet, that travellers, ever since the advice given in _Eastward_, were examining the backs of horses and mules before they bought them, so that Meeki, able to cheat no more, had taken to another trade. Thus Macleod had for certain done one good thing in his life. On the voyage down the Red Sea, having once preached for an hour with the thermometer at 90°, he got a warning of what might be in store for him in India. ‘At the close,’ says Dr. Watson, ‘he was almost dead; his face was flushed, his head ached, his brain was confused, and when he retired to his cabin the utmost efforts were required to restore him.’ Old Indians poured jugs of iced water over his head. Yet, referring to the heat, he could write home, ‘I just thaw on, laugh and joke, and feel quite happy.’ One morning he got up at three o’clock, and in ‘a white Damascus camel-hair dressing-gown’ sat on deck, sneering at the Southern Cross. According to his wont he was taken up with his fellow-passengers, among whom were soldiers who had fought in the Mutiny, young officers on their way to Magdala, civilians who had governed provinces and spent years among the remotest tribes, politicians, journalists, and adventurers. Unlike his companion, he had a cabin to himself, and, in the course of the voyage, it was more and more like a pawnbroker’s shop. One day Watson perceived in the chaos a decent silk hat with its sides meeting like a trampled tin pan. ‘Man,’ said Norman, by way of explanation, ‘last night I felt something very pleasant at my feet; I put my feet on it and rested them--I was half asleep. How very kind, I thought, of the steward to put in an extra air cushion! and when I looked in the morning, it was my hat.’ In the bustle of the preparations for landing at Bombay he was heard crying, ‘Steward, did you see my red fez?’ ‘Is it a blue one?’ ‘No!’ roared Norman, ‘it’s a red one. If you see it, bring it, and if any fellow won’t give it up, bring his head along with it.’ So Watson writes to Mrs. Macleod. Macleod, for his part, complaining to Mrs. Watson of her husband’s inextinguishable laughter, declares, ‘But for my constant gravity he would ruin the deputation.’ He was presented with an address, signed by the captain, the officers, and the whole of the passengers, ‘expressing their grateful sense of the peculiar privilege they had enjoyed in his society and his ministrations.’
At the first sight of India, a land so full of romantic and mysterious interest, Macleod as a Briton, and still more as a Christian, was strangely moved. The working plan of the deputies may be stated in a dozen words: Bombay, Madras, Calcutta, with a loop of travel at each. In one city as in another Macleod had much the same round of triumphs and of toils. He conferred with missionaries of different Churches; inspected colleges and schools; and, accompanied by the highest aristocracy, both native and English, delivered sermons and addresses to enormous crowds. The Brahman worship he took pains to study, and made a point of quizzing the most cultured Hindoos. Socially he was treated as if he had been the special commissioner, not of the General Assembly, but of the Crown. Governors, military commanders, and bishops gave dinners and receptions in his honour. He was never well, but the killing fatigue at the centres was relieved by the trips to inland stations. From Bombay the deputies went to Poonah and Colgaum, whence returning they visited the caves of Karli. Sir Alexander Grant--afterwards Principal of Edinburgh University--at whose house Macleod met a select party of educated natives, has left this testimony: ‘He talks to them in a large, conciliatory, manly way, which is a perfect model of missionary style. I had the most charming talks with him, lasting always till 2 A.M., and his mixture of poetry, thought, tenderness, manly sense, and humour was to me perfectly delightful. I had no idea his soul was so great.’ At a bungalow on the road to Colgaum he had what he calls a dangerous encounter with a snake. He had wished to see a real cobra, and Dr. Watson reported that there was one outside basking in the moonshine. So off went Norman with his Lochaber crook. ‘Slowly and cautiously I approached, with uplifted staff and beating heart, the spot where the dragon lay, and saw him, a long grey monster! As the chivalrous St. George flashed upon my mind, I administered a fearful stroke to the brute; but from a sense of duty to my wife and children rushed back to the bungalow in case of any putting forth of venom, which might cause a vacancy in the Barony, and resolved to delay approaching the worm till next morning. Now, whatever the cause was, no one, strange to say, could discover the dead body when morning dawned. A few decayed branches of a tree were alone discovered near his foul den, and these had unquestionably been broken by some mighty stroke; but the cobra was never seen afterwards, dead or alive.... Why my friend laughed so heartily at my adventure I never could comprehend, and have always avoided asking him the question.’ Their route to Madras was by sea to Calicut, and across country by rail from Beypore. In their excursions from Madras they went two hundred miles, as far as to Bangalore. At Calcutta, where they arrived about the middle of January, Macleod, for the first time, received the impression of the imperial power of the British. Thinking of Government House, he says: ‘I have trod the gorgeous halls of almost every regal palace in Europe, from Moscow to Naples, and those of the republican White House at Washington, but with none of these could I associate such a succession of names as those of the men who had governed India.’ He got on terms of friendship with the Governor-General, Lord Lawrence, but a State dinner, given on account of the deputies, he had to forego. His health was giving way, as was inevitable from the high pressure at which he had been working in a burning climate. Nevertheless he went about the business of the embassy. One day, when he had been three weeks in Calcutta, he spoke at a morning meeting; held an examination in the General Assembly’s Institution, and addressed the students in the great hall; was the chief guest at a luncheon; and in the evening, at the most brilliant public dinner ever held in the city, delivered a great speech. That night ‘the bull,’ which had been ‘after him all day,’ caught and tossed him, and there was a sudden end to his work in India. From a kind of noble vanity he had, Macleod could never bear to have the appearance of shirking a task. Next morning, tolerably well with his way of it, he telegraphed home, ‘Off for the Punjaub’; but at a conference of doctors it was decided that ‘it would be attended with danger to his life should he persist in his intention of continuing his tour to Sealkote.’
Before quitting India he took a holiday excursion. He had seen the Red Indians in their encampment, he had been on the summit of the high tower at Moscow, he had sat on the Mount of Olives, he had floated in a raft upon the Danube; and now, behold him threading the lanes of holy Benares, mounted on an elephant! He saw the marble glories of Mohammedan Agra, and examined all the famous scenes of the Mutiny, especially Delhi, where his heart glowed as he remembered Nicholson. From Delhi he returned direct to Calcutta; whence, on board of an old man-of-war, in company with Lady Lawrence and her daughter, he sailed for Egypt. One little incident of the voyage is worth remembrance. He had been very attentive to the sailors, not only preaching in the forecastle on Sundays, but at other times reading to them selections from his sea stories. Now at Aden they had shipped an African boy who had been taken from a slaver, and when Macleod was about to leave the vessel, a deputation of the crew approached him, leading the little negro by the hand. ‘And now, your Reverence,’ said one, ‘I hope you won’t be offended if we name this here nigger boy _Billy Buttons_.’
Cairo and the Pyramids once more; then home by Malta, Sicily, Naples, and Rome.
Notwithstanding many predictions, he had come back, and in apparent vigour; but his health was undermined, India had done for Norman. Though to a certain section of the clergy he was still an object of suspicion, his magnificent services could not be denied, and, besides, in the Indian undertaking--his years and his physique considered--there was a gallantry, a derring-do, that stirred men’s spirits finely. So, on his first rising to speak in the General Assembly, after his return, he received an ovation. His speech, giving the results arrived at by the deputation, lasted for two hours, and, in an intellectual point of view, is perhaps the highest of all his works. There is a thorough grasp of the whole problem of the conversion of the Hindoos, with splendid ability in the presentation. Of the contest against the system of caste he says:
I hesitate not to express the opinion that no such battle has ever before been given to the Church of God to fight since history began, and that no victory, if gained, will be followed by greater consequences. It seems to me as if the spiritual conquest of India was a work reserved for these latter days to accomplish, because requiring all the previous dear-bought experiences of the Church, and all the preliminary education of the world, and that, when accomplished,--as by the help of the living Christ it shall,--it will be a very Armageddon: the last great battle against every form of unbelief, the last fortress of the enemy stormed, the last victory gained as necessary to secure the unimpeded progress and the final triumph of the world’s regeneration.
He shows how the evangelising methods with which we are familiar at home are inapplicable in India. ‘One of the noblest and most devoted of men, Mr. Bowen of Bombay, whom I heard thus preach, and who has done so for a quarter of a century, informed me in his own humble, truthful way,--and his case is not singular except for its patience and earnestness,--that, as far as he knew, he had never made one single convert.’ In insisting on education as the first means all authorities are now at one with him; but his other idea, that in India the various Christian sects should forget their differences, and aim at a native Church, which should be independent of Western creeds, is still a devout imagination.
Is the grand army to remain broken up into separate divisions, each to recruit to its own standard, and to invite the Hindoos to wear our respective uniforms, adopt our respective shibboleths, and learn and repeat our respective war-cries, and even make caste marks of our wounds and scars, which to us are but the sad mementoes of old battles?[7]
He foresaw a time when for idols would be substituted Jesus, the divine yet human brother; for the Puranas the Bible; for caste Christian brotherhood; and for weary rite and empty ceremony the peace of God.
The Moderatorship, which is the presidency of the General Assembly, is the highest office in the Church. The appointment lies with the members, but in practice the retiring dignitary, on the opening day, names his successor, who has in fact been chosen six months before at a secret conclave. Some such arrangement is necessary, as the Moderator has to wear an antique and elaborate scheme of apparel. Supposing the General Assembly were to reject the nominee, picture the situation! There behind the door would be the proud one, giving the last touch to his ruffles, casting a final glance at his buckled shoes, while a gentleman in mere coat and trousers was marching to the Chair! On the whole the college of Moderators has proved an excellent body of electors, and seldom has it done itself more credit than in promoting Norman Macleod. In 1869 he was, to be sure, the chief man in the Church, but the old Moderators were just the persons who would be most shocked by his view of the first day of the week. In offering to so recent a culprit the greatest honour which the Church had to bestow, they showed no little magnanimity, even were the idea of muzzling him not altogether absent. ‘I should like to be at the head of everything,’ Norman had said in his youth, and though too good a man to sacrifice any of his moral being to ambition, undoubtedly he was fond of power. The Moderatorship he at first, both by word and letter, refused, chiefly on the ground of his desire for freedom in the expression of his opinions. But of course it was all right!
During the session of the General Assembly the Moderator has an exciting round of social duties. Every morning he entertains a number of the clergy and their wives to breakfast, and at the dinners and receptions in Holyrood Palace he is the principal figure, next to the representative of the Sovereign. But the great event for the Moderator is the closing address, which he delivers about midnight to a mixed crowd. After that comes the most impressive scene of all, when they stand and sing--
‘Pray that Jerusalem may have Peace and felicity; Let them that love thee and thy peace Have still prosperity.’
Speaking of the creed Macleod was so vague (mindful of the old hands after all) that he might as well have passed the matter off with one of his favourite quotations--
‘I would that my tongue could utter The thoughts that arise in me!’
But of his oration there is one part that, were it only known, would grow in importance the more the cry for disestablishment was heard. The age, he says, is against, and rightly against, monopolies of every kind. To defend a State Church on the ground of treaties is idle; the question is whether it satisfies the nation. Nor does he argue for the preservation of the Establishment on any such ground as the need of a placard on the nation’s door, _Religion recognised within_. Voluntaryism is not only insufficient to meet the spiritual wants of the country, but involves the dependence of the clergy. On the other hand, the Church exists for the people, and has no interests apart from theirs. When it ceases to have the general confidence it loses its right to the endowments, which are held in trust for the common good. A national Church should therefore be comprehensive, and that to the furthest limit compatible with its existence as a Christian institution. Every ecclesiastical question, whether of government, of worship, or even of doctrine (provided only that the essential faith be kept) should be decided with a single eye to the national interest. Were he living now, Macleod would probably advocate the union of the presbyterian Churches at any cost to the Establishment except the loss of the teinds.
He was no sooner released from the General Assembly than he was off to Berlin, where he fixed missionaries for the aborigines of India. Home again, he resumed his peregrinations in the country, with ‘a fire in his bones for a Mission and a Church on the point of perishing.’ Oh it is wonderful, after his so strenuous day, to see the passion and hurry with which, in spite of the burden of the flesh, he struggles onward in the falling of the eve. His religious feelings and aspirations grew more and more absorbing and intense. As his life seemed not for long in this world, he thought the more of the next. Education beyond the grave, progress everlasting, was the favourite conception of his closing years.
In 1871, having an acute attack of gout, he was ordered by Sir William Jenner to take the waters at Ems. Towards the end of the year he owned to himself, for the first time, that he was unequal to his tasks. The least thing exhausted him, he could not sleep. Early in the following spring he went to St. Andrews to address the students. ‘We were all struck,’ wrote his old friend Shairp, then Principal of the University, ‘by his worn and flaccid appearance.... After describing very clearly and calmly the state of the mission and its weakness for want of both fit men and sufficient funds, his last words were--“If by the time next General Assembly arrives neither of these are forthcoming, there is one who wishes he may find a grave!”’ A few weeks later his infirmities had so increased that he was compelled to give up the India Mission. One more effort to rouse the Church he was resolved to make, were it his last. When in the ensuing General Assembly he rose to speak, the House was crowded and as still as death; it was clear to all that the warrior of God would soon enter into rest. His utterance was so rapid as to beat the reporters, but the speech was said to be the finest he ever made. The most striking passage is one rounding off his argument that the Westminster Confession was not for India:--
‘Am I to be silent lest I should be whispered about, or suspected, or called “dangerous,” “broad,” “latitudinarian,” “atheistic”? So long as I have a good conscience towards God, and have His sun to shine on me, and can hear the birds singing, I can walk across the earth with a joyful and free heart. Let them call me “broad.” I desire to be broad as the charity of Almighty God, who maketh His sun to shine on the evil and the good: who hateth no man, and who loveth the poorest Hindoo more than all their committees or all their Churches. But while I long for that breadth of charity I desire to be narrow--narrow as God’s righteousness, which as a sharp sword can separate between eternal right and eternal wrong.’
On his birthday he wrote to Shairp: ‘As I feel time so rapidly passing, I take your hand, dear old friend, with a firmer grip.’ That day, by his express desire, his family were all gathered round him. As husband, father, brother, son, never man was more devoted. After two weeks of restlessness and want of sleep, suddenly the end came. About midday on the sixteenth of June, reclining on the sofa, he uttered a cry. As his wife sprang to his side, he sighed and passed away.
* * * * *
The news that Norman Macleod was dead sent a thrill through the nation. His funeral was the most imposing ever seen in Glasgow. At the services, which were held in the Barony Church and in the Cathedral, ministers of different denominations took part. There were between three and four thousand in the procession, including magistrates, sheriffs, and professors, all in their official robes, and two representatives of royalty. As far as to the outskirts of the city the route was thronged with spectators. An old woman, blinking in the brilliant weather, was overheard saying to herself, _Eh, but Providence has been kind to Norman, gi’en’ him sic a grand day for his funeral_! He was buried beside his father in Campsie. There are monuments: a tablet at Loudoun; a statue near the site of the old Barony Church; and two stained windows at Crathie, the gift of Her Majesty the Queen.
INDEX
A
‘A Man’s a Man for a’ that’, 82, 107
Alexandria, Visit to, 110, 128
Ambleside, 26
America, British North, 53
America, Southern States, 55
Anglo-Catholic Movement, 34
Argyllshire Fencibles, 15
Arnold, Thomas, 61
Aros, 16
Arthur’s Seat, 45
Assembly, General, 34, 35, 36, 37, 40, 42, 84
B
Baronne, La, 23
Barony Church, The, 64, 66, 68
Becket, Thomas à, 106
Benares, 132
_Billy Buttons_, 92, 133
Bonn, 106
Broad Church Movement, 139
Broomielaw, The, 67
Brougham, Lord, 24
Buccleuch, Duke of, 50
Buchanan, Professor--’Logic Bob’, 20
Burns Centenary, 82
Burns, Robert, 20, 32, 83
C
Caird, Principal, 88, 112
Calvinism, Scots Life based on, 9, 29, 45
Campbell, Macleod J., 36, 61
Campbeltown, Norman the First’s Parish, 15, 17, 18
Campsie, Parish of, 19, 46
Cannstadt, 63
Carlyle, Thomas, 23, 51
Carstairs, William, 9
Chalmers, Dr., 21, 48, 62, 63, 66
Chapel Act, 42
Character Sketches, 90
Chartism, 30, 51
Claverhouse, 16
Cockburn, Lord, 24
Coffee-room Reunions, 33
Columba’s, St., Parish of, 24
Confession of Faith, Norman’s, 71
Congregation, Type of Christian, 69
Coolins, 27
Corsica, 127
‘Courage, Brothers’, 100
‘Crack about the Kirk for Kintra Folk’, 39
Cunningham, Principal, 112
Cupar-Fife, 46
D
Dalkeith, 46, 47, 50, 62, 66
Darmstadt, 106
Darvel, 29
Dead Hand, The, 33
Death Penalty for renouncing Islam, 59
Decalogue, The, 121
Deputation, The Indian, 127, 129
Dickens, Charles, 32
Disestablishment, 138
Disruption, The, 38, 43
Divinity Hall, Edinburgh, 21 ----Glasgow, 24
Dresden, 23
Ducal Court, Weimar, 22, 23
Dunvegan Castle, 12 ----Macleod’s Stay at, 14
E
_Earnest Student_, 90
Ecclesiastical Liberality, 83
_Edinburgh Christian Magazine_, 85
Effectual Calling impugned, 116
Elsinore, 108
Emerson, R. W., 61
Erastus, 41
Erskine, J. C., 85
Evangelical Alliance, The, 58, 60, 61
Evangelical Party, The, 36, 37, 60
F
Family Worship in Skye, 12
Fiunary, Manse of, 13 ----Life at, 14
‘Flowers o’ the Forest’, 63
Free Church, 43, 44, 45, 65, 89, 113, 114
Freedom, Macleod’s love of, 118
French Revolution, 36
G
Garibaldi, 128
Geneva Gowns, 9
Geology, Lectures on, 30
Gilfillan, George, 20
Glasgow, High Street, 20 ----University, 20
Goethe, 23
_Good Words_, 85, 87, 88, 90
Grant, Sir Alexander, 130
Grunting and Singing, 69
H
Hamlet, 108
Hastings, Dowager Marchioness of, 32, 33
Headship of Christ, 35, 40
Hebrides, the Men there, 11
Helps, Sir Arthur, on Macleod, 73, 126
Herschell, Mr., of London, 61
High Churchism, 34, 42
Highland Tacksmen, 11
Hildebrand, 41
I
_Index Expurgatorius_, 86
India Mission, The, 52, 83, 126, 129, 139
Irvine Water, 29, 33
Italy, Visit to, 109
J
Jacobites, 34, 35
Jaffa, 110
Jeffrey, Lord 24
Jerusalem, Visit to, 111
Johnson, Dr. Samuel, 11 ----Meeting with Macleod the First, 12
Judaical Spirit in Scotland, 119
K
Kailyard Literature, 90
Kazan, The, 108
Kingsley, Charles, 88
Kintyre, 16
Knox, John, 9, 35
Kremlin, The, 109
L
Land o’ the Leal, 63
Lee, Rev. Dr. Robert, 114, 115, 117
Leith Pier, 45
Liturgy, Scots Church, 116
London Missionary Society, 84
Lord Rector’s Election, 24
Lords, House of, 37
Loudoun, Parish of, 28, 29, 31, 46, 66 ----Work in, 30, 31 ----Castle, 32, 33
Love, Norman in, 23
M
Malta, Visit to, 110
Mammoth, Skeleton of, 109
Maxwell, Duke of Argyll’s Chamberlain, 16
Maybole, 46
Maynooth, 49
Melville, Andrew, 20, 35
Moderates, The, 36, 37, 39, 41
Moderator of the Church, 135, 136
Montreal, 58
Moreby Hall, Yorkshire, 22
Morven, Parish of, 13, 14, 18, 26, 57, 99
Moscow, 109
Moslem sat upon at Jaffa, 110
Mull, Sound of, 13, 57
Müller, Dr. Max, 126
Munich, 23
M’
M’Cheyne’s Life, 90
Macintosh, John, 25, 26, 61 ----Catherine Ann, 64
Macleod, Norman, the First, 12 A Rare Figure, 13 His Precepts, 13 Early Life, 15 Ordained to Campbeltown, 15 Communion Services, 15 His Marriage, 16
Macleod, Dr. Norman, the Hero as Priest, 10 Name Revered with that of Chalmers, 10 His Birth, 16 Early Life 17 Fighting the French, 17 Learns Gaelic, 18 At Campsie, 19 At College, 20 His Studies, 21 Influence of Chalmers, 21 Death of his Brother James, 22 At Weimar, 23 Falls in Love, 23 Throws himself into Politics, 24 Speech at the Peel Banquet, 25 Tutor in his Father’s House, 26 His Licence to Preach, 26 Presented to the Living of Loudoun, 28 His Battles with Free-Thinking Weavers, 30 Lectures on Geology, 30 His Feelings towards Burns, 32 Feelings towards Ornate Ritual in Worship, 34 Non-Intrusion Controversy, 37, 38, 39 Writes a Pamphlet on the Subject, “A Crack aboot the Kirk for Kintra Folk”, 39 His Speech on the Non-Intrusion Question at Newmilns, 41 Action over the _Quoad Sacras_, 42 His Opinion of the Disruption, 43 Settled at Dalkeith, 46 His Feelings for the Church, 49 His Vows for its Revival, 50 Home Mission Work, 50 Incident of the Orphan Boy, 51 The India Mission, 52 Visits America, 53 Incident of the Dying Man, 53 His Sympathetic Nature, 54 Interview with President Polk, 54 British Sympathy with Southern States, 55 Experiences in Canada, 55-58 Union of Protestants, 58 Evangelical Alliance, 58 Interview with Macintosh, 62 Marriage, 64 Minister of Barony Parish, 64 Compared with Chalmers, 67 Early Rising and its Sights, 68 Organising Barony Congregation, 69 Norman’s Confession of Faith, 71 His Preaching, 72 Preaching to the Poor, 73 Sympathy for All, 76 Norman and Temperance, 77 Poor Law Administrator, 79 Plans to Aid Deserving Poor, 80 His Hold on Working Men of Glasgow, 80 Shocking the Pharisees, 81 The Burns Centenary, 82 At the Theatre at Stockholm, 83 The Cause of the Heathen, 84 Editor and Author, 85 _Good Words_ started, 87 Experiences as Editor, 88-90 ----as a Writer of Fiction, 93 Extracts from _The Starling_, 96, 97 Description of the Sound, 97 Norman a Poet, 99 Preaching at Balmoral, 103 Consolation to a Stricken Monarch, 104 Intercourse with Royalty, 106, 107 Visits Russia, 108 Visit to Italy, 109 Alexandria, Malta, and the Pyramids, 110 Sits upon a Moslem at Jaffa, 110 Delight in Palestine and Jerusalem, 111 Dr. Robert Lee’s System of Church Worship, 115, 116 Macleod Supports it, 117 Outcry over Sabbath Desecration, 118 Macleod inveighed against, 121 Shunned by his Brethren, 122 The Confession of Faith Controversy, 123 Macleod and Tulloch, 124 Visits India, 127, 128 His Gaiety on the Voyage, 128, 129 Interest excited by his Visit, 130 His Visit cut short, 132 India had done for Norman, 133 Ovation at the General Assembly, 133 Moderator, 135, 136 Gout seizes him, 138 His Last Great Speech, 139 The End at last, 140 Funeral, 140, 141
Macleod, General, 14 ----Dr. Donald, 109
Macleod, Laird of, 12
Macrimmon, Piping of a, 14
N
National Church, The, 49, 50, 65
Neva, Islands of, 108
Newmilns, 29
Nile, 110
Non-Intrusion Controversy, 34, 35, 37, 39
‘Norman’--the pet name, 81
O
_Old Lieutenant and his Son_, 79, 91, 93, 97
Organisation in Barony Church, 70
Ottawa, The River, 58
P
Paine, Tom, 30
Palestine, Visit to, 110
Paton & Ritchie, 85
Patronage, 35, 39
Peel Club, 26
Peel, Sir Robert, 24
Petersburg, St., Visit to, 108
Pictou, Nova Scotia, 56
Polk, President, Interview with, 54
Poor, The, their Love for Macleod, 74
_Porteous, Rev. Daniel_, 95
Preaching, his Style, 72
Preaching under Difficulties, 128
‘Presbyterian Puseyism’, 45
Preston, Henry, 22
Prince Alfred, 106
Prince Consort, 104
Prince of Wales, 106
Pritchard the Poisoner, 75
Protestants, Union of, 58
Prussian Crown Prince and Princess, 107
Prussian Poland, 61
Puritans, The 45, 83
Puseyism, 34
Pyramids, Visit to, 110
Q
Queen, The, 103, 105, 107, 126, 141
_Quoad Sacra_ Charges and Voting, 2
R
_Record, The_, 89
_Reminiscences of a Highland Parish_, 97
Revolution, The, 35
Rialto, The, 109
Richelieu, 48
Robertson of Ellon, 28
Robespierre, 30
Russia, 61
S
Sabbath Observance, 119, 120, 127
Sacerdotal Temper, 40
Sacramental Scenes, 33, 56
St. John’s Church (Edinburgh), 46
St. Ninian’s, 46
Sandford, Sir Daniel, 20
Sardinia, 127
Scott, Sir Walter, 32
Session, Court of, 37, 38, 40
Shaftesbury, Lord, 75
Shairp, John Campbell, 25, 26, 33, 34, 139, 140
Shakespeare, 32
Siberia, 61
Skye, 12, 26, 45
Slavery, 54, 55
Snake Story, A, 130
‘Snug the Joiner’, 51
Special Constables, 51, 52
Speech, Moderator’s, 137
Stanley, Dean, 72, 88, 126
Stanley, Lord, 24
_Starling, The_, 92, 94
Stewart Boys, 21
Strahan, Alexander, Publisher, 109
Strathbogie Presbytery, 38
Stuart Dynasty, 34
Submerged Ranks, 50, 51
Swordale, 12
T
Tait, Archbishop, 20
_Tam o’ Shanter_, 107
Temperance, Plea for, 77
Thackeray, 93
Theological Tests for University Professors, 84
Therapeutics of Religion, 21
Tolbooth Church (Edinburgh), 46
Tories, 24
Tract No. 90, 34
Tractarian Movement, 33
Transubstantiation, 34
Tübingen, 62
Tulloch, Principal, 43, 88, 112, 122, 123
Trollope, Anthony, 89
Tyrol, 23
U
Universities, 12, 19, 20, 21, 22, 139
V
Vavasour, Lady, 22
Venice, Visit to, 109
Veto Law, 37, 42
Vienna, 23
W
_Walker, Joseph_, 90
Walker, Josiah, 20
‘Wandering Willie’, 63
Watson, Dr., of Dundee, 127
Weavers of Loudoun, 30
‘Wee Davie’, 92
Weimar, 22, 26
West Port and Chalmers, 62
Whigs, 24
Whitman, Walt, 68
Windsor, 106
Winslow, Octavius, 58
Wordsworth, William, 21, 26, 32
Working Men of Glasgow, 80
Y
York Minster, Confirmation at, 33
FAMOUS SCOTS SERIES
_The following Volumes are in preparation:_--
SIR WALTER SCOTT. By Professor SAINTSBURY. GEORGE BUCHANAN. By ROBERT WALLACE, M.P. JEFFREY AND THE EDINBURGH REVIEWERS. By Sir HUGH GILZEAN REID. ADAM SMITH. By HECTOR C. MACPHERSON. KIRKALDY OF GRANGE. By LOUIS BARBE. MUNGO PARK. By T. BANKS MACLACHLAN. ROBERT FERGUSSON. By A. B. GROSART. JAMES THOMSON. By WILLIAM BAYNE. DAVID HUME. By Professor CALDERWOOD. THOMAS REID. By Professor CAMPBELL FRASER.
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS ON THE “FAMOUS SCOTS” SERIES.
Of THOMAS CARLYLE, by H. C. MACPHERSON, the _British Weekly_ says:--
“We congratulate the publishers on the in every way attractive appearance of the first volume of their new series. The typography is everything that could be wished, and the binding is most tasteful.... We heartily congratulate author and publishers on the happy commencement of this admirable enterprise.”
The _Literary World_ says:--
“One of the very best little books on Carlyle yet written, far outweighing in value some more pretentious works with which we are familiar.”
The _Scotsman_ says:--
“As an estimate of the Carlylean philosophy, and of Carlyle’s place in literature and his influence in the domains of morals, politics, and social ethics, the volume reveals not only care and fairness, but insight and a large capacity for original thought and judgment.”
The _Glasgow Daily Record_ says:--
“Is distinctly creditable to the publishers, and worthy of a national series such as they have projected.”
The _Educational News_ says:--
“The book is written in an able, masterly, and painstaking manner.”
Of ALLAN RAMSAY, by OLIPHANT SMEATON, the _Scotsman_ says:--
“It is not a patchwork picture, but one in which the writer, taking genuine interest in his subject, and bestowing conscientious pains on his task, has his materials well in hand, and has used them to produce a portrait that is both lifelike and well balanced.”
The _People’s Friend_ says:--
“Presents a very interesting sketch of the life of the poet, as well as a well-balanced estimate and review of his works.”
The _Edinburgh Dispatch_ says:--
“The author has shown scholarship and much enthusiasm in his task.”
The _Daily Record_ says:--
“The kindly, vain, and pompous little wig-maker lives for us in Mr. Smeaton’s pages.”
The _Glasgow Herald_ says:--
“A careful and intelligent study.”
Of HUGH MILLER, by W. KEITH LEASK, the _Expository Times_ says:--
“It is a right good book and a right true biography.... There is a very fine sense of Hugh Miller’s greatness as a man and a Scotsman; there is also a fine choice of language in making it ours.”
The _Bookseller_ says:--
“Mr. Leask gives the reader a clear impression of the simplicity, and yet the greatness, of his hero, and the broad result of his life’s work is very plainly and carefully set forth. A short appreciation of his scientific labours, from the competent pen of Sir Archibald Geikie, and a useful bibliography of his works, complete a volume which is well worth reading for its own sake, and which forms a worthy instalment in an admirable series.”
The _Daily News_ says:--
“Leaves on us a very vivid impression.”
Of JOHN KNOX, by A. TAYLOR INNES, Mr. Hay Fleming, in the _Bookman_, says:--
“A masterly delineation of those stirring times in Scotland, and of that famous Scot who helped so much to shape them.”
The _Freeman_ says:--
“It is a concise, well written, and admirable narrative of the great Reformer’s life, and in its estimate of his character and work it is calm, dispassionate, and well balanced.... It is a welcome addition to our Knox literature.”
The _Speaker_ says:--
“There is vision in this book, as well as knowledge.”
The _Sunday School Chronicle_ says:--
“Everybody who is acquainted with Mr. Taylor Innes’s exquisite lecture on Samuel Rutherford will feel instinctively that he is just the man to do justice to the great Reformer, who is more to Scotland ‘than any million of unblameable Scotsmen who need no forgiveness.’ His literary skill, his thorough acquaintance with Scottish ecclesiastical life, his religious insight, his chastened enthusiasm, have enabled the author to produce an excellent piece of work.... It is a noble and inspiring theme, and Mr. Taylor Innes has handled it to perfection.”
Of ROBERT BURNS, by GABRIEL SETOUN, the _New Age_ says:--
“It is the best thing on Burns we have yet had, almost as good as Carlyle’s Essay and the pamphlet published by Dr. Nichol of Glasgow.”
The _Methodist Times_ says:--
“We are inclined to regard it as the very best that has yet been produced. There is a proper perspective, and Mr. Setoun does neither praise nor blame too copiously.... A difficult bit of work has been well done, and with fine literary and ethical discrimination.”
_Youth_ says:--
“It is written with knowledge, judgment, and skill.... The author’s estimate of the moral character of Burns is temperate and discriminating; he sees and states his evil qualities, and beside these he places his good ones in their fulness, depth, and splendour. The exposition of the special features marking the genius of the poet is able and penetrating.”
Of THE BALLADISTS, by JOHN GEDDIE, the _Birmingham Daily Gazette_ says:--
“As a popular sketch of an intensely popular theme, Mr. Geddie’s contribution to the ‘Famous Scots Series’ is most excellent.”
The _Publishers’ Circular_ says:--
“It may be predicted that lovers of romantic literature will re-peruse the old ballads with a quickened zest after reading Mr. Geddie’s book. We have not had a more welcome little volume for many a day.”
The _New Age_ says:--
“One of the most delightful and eloquent appreciations of the ballad literature of Scotland that has ever seen the light.”
The _Spectator_ says:--
“The author has certainly made a contribution of remarkable value to the literary history of Scotland. We do not know of a book in which the subject has been treated with deeper sympathy or out of a fuller knowledge.”
Of RICHARD CAMERON, by Professor HERKLESS, The _Freeman_ says:--
“Professor Herkless has made us all his debtors by his thorough-going and unwearied research, by his collecting materials from out-of-the-way quarters, and making much that was previously vague and shadowy clear and distinct.”
The _Christian News_ says:--
“This volume is ably written, is full of interest and instruction, and enables the reader to form a conception of the man who in his day and generation gave his life for Christ’s cause and kingdom.”
The _Dundee Courier_ says:--
“In selecting Professor Herkless to prepare this addition to the ‘Famous Scots Series’ of books, the publishers have made an excellent choice. The vigorous, manly style adopted is exactly suited to the subject, and Richard Cameron is presented to the reader in a manner as interesting as it is impressive.... Professor Herkless has done remarkably well, and the portrait he has so cleverly delineated of one of Scotland’s most cherished heroes is one that will never fade.”
Of SIR JAMES YOUNG SIMPSON, by EVE BLANTYRE SIMPSON, the _Speaker_ says:--
“This little book is full of insight and knowledge, and by many picturesque incidents and pithy sayings it helps us to understand in a vivid and intimate sense the high qualities and golden deeds which rendered Sir James Simpson’s strenuous life impressive and memorable.”
The _Daily Chronicle_ says:--
“It is indeed long since we have read such a charmingly-written biography as this little Life of the most typical and ‘Famous Scot’ that his countrymen have been proud of since the time of Sir Walter.... There is not a dull, irrelevant, or superfluous page in all Miss Simpson’s booklet, and she has performed the biographer’s chief duty--that of selection--with consummate skill and judgment.”
The _Leeds Mercury_ says:--
“The narrative throughout is well balanced, and the biographer has been wisely advised in giving prominence to her father’s great achievement--the introduction of chloroform--and what led to it.”
Of THOMAS CHALMERS, by W. GARDEN BLAIKIE, the _Spectator_ says:--
“The most notable feature of Professor Blaikie’s book--and none could be more commendable--is its perfect balance and proportion. In other words, justice is done equally to the private and to the public life of Chalmers, if possible greater justice than has been done by Mrs. Oliphant.”
The _Scottish Congregationalist_ says:--
“No one can read the admirable and vivid sketch of his life which Dr. Blaikie has written without feeling admiration for the man, and gaining inspiration from his example.”
Of JAMES BOSWELL, by W. KEITH LEASK, the _Spectator_ says:--
“This is one of the best volumes of the excellent ‘Famous Scots Series,’ and one of the fairest and most discriminating biographies of Boswell that have ever appeared.”
The _Dundee Advertiser_ says:--
“It is the admirable manner in which the very complexity of the man is indicated that makes W. Keith Leask’s biography of him one of peculiar merit and interest.... It is not only a life of Boswell, but a picture of his time--vivid, faithful, impressive.”
The _Morning Leader_ says:--
“Mr. W. K. Leask has approached the biographer of Johnson in the only possible way by which a really interesting book could have been arrived at--by way of the open mind.... The defence of Boswell in the concluding chapter of his delightful study is one of the finest and most convincing passages that have recently appeared in the field of British biography.”
Of TOBIAS SMOLLETT, by OLIPHANT SMEATON, the _Dundee Courier_ says:--
“It is impossible to read the pages of this little work without being struck not only by its historical value, but by the fairness of its criticism.”
The _Weekly Scotsman_ says:--
“The book is written in a crisp and lively style.... The picture of the great novelist is complete and lifelike. Not only does Mr. Smeaton give a scholarly sketch and estimate of Smollett’s literary career, he constantly keeps the reader in conscious touch and sympathy with his personality, and produces a portrait of the man as a man which is not likely to be readily forgotten.”
The _Newsagent and Booksellers’ Review_ says:--
“Tobias Smollett was versatile enough to deserve a distinguished place in any gallery of gifted Scots, such as the one to which Mr. Smeaton has contributed this clever and lifelike portrait.”
Of FLETCHER OF SALTOUN, by W. G. T. OMOND, the _Edinburgh Evening News_ says:--
“The writer has given us in brief compass the pith of what is known about an able and patriotic if somewhat dogmatic and impracticable Scotsman who lived in stormy times.... Mr. Omond describes, in a clear, terse, vigorous way, the constitution of the Old Scots Parliament, and the part taken by Fletcher as a public man in the stormy debates that took place prior to the union of the Parliaments in 1707. This part of the book gives an admirable summary of the state of Scottish politics and of the national feeling at an important period.”
The _Leeds Mercury_ says:--
“Unmistakably the most interesting and complete story of the life of Fletcher of Saltoun that has yet appeared. Mr. Omond has had many facilities placed at his disposal, and of these he has made excellent use.”
The _Speaker_ says:--
“Mr. Omond has told the story of Fletcher of Saltoun in this monograph with ability and judgment.”
Of THE BLACKWOOD GROUP, by Sir GEORGE DOUGLAS, the _Scotsman_ says:--
“In brief compass, Sir George Douglas gives us skilfully blended together much pleasantly written biography and just and judicious criticism.”
The _Weekly Citizen_ says:--
“It need not be said that to everyone interested in the literature of the first half of the century, and especially to every Scotsman so interested, ‘The Blackwood Group’ is a phrase abounding in promise. And really Sir George Douglas fulfils the promise he tacitly makes in his title. He is intimately acquainted not only with the books of the different members of the ‘group,’ but also with their environment, social and otherwise. Besides, he writes with sympathy as well as knowledge.”
FOOTNOTES:
[1] See _More Leaves from the Journal of Our Life in the Highlands_.
[2] From _A Peep at Russia_.
[3] From _The Old Lieutenant and his Son_.
[4] Other names have been associated with this anecdote, but Norman for my money.
[5] From _The Old Lieutenant_.
[6] Cf. Tennyson’s line, so much praised by Mr. Swinburne--
‘And stormy crests that smoke against the sky.’
[7] Cf. Professor Max Müller: ‘From what I know of the Hindoos, they seem to me riper for Christianity than any nation that ever accepted the gospel. It does not follow that the Christianity of India will be the Christianity of England; but that the new religion of India will embrace all the essential elements of Christianity I have no doubt, and that is surely something worth fighting for.’ (Letter to Norman Macleod in _Memoir_, vol. ii. p. 257.)
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE:
—Obvious print and punctuation errors were corrected.