Land Grants
There was one other expression of
Dr. Chalmers' opinion delivered so publicly and so close upon his death, that a
peculiar 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 reunion 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
remonstrance, the General Assembly of 1845 petitioned Parliament and the
Legislature, stating the grievance, and praying for legislative redress. The
Government having shown 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 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 disappointed in
his first expectations, the strength of Dr. Chalrners'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 2nd of
May, he assisted at the Communion in the Free Church of Ratho, and preached the
evening sermon, his last in Scotland. 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 examination was not to take
place till the following Wednesday. On the intervening Sabbath he officiated in
Marylebone Presbyterian Church. From his own journal-letters we offer the
following extracts
"Sunday, May 9.-Preached with greater
comfort than I had ever done before in London. The church was thin when 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 Russell, 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, lOth.-Went a
second time to the Atheneum. 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 see 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 introduced me-the Bishop of Gloucester, and Mr. Lyell the
geologist. Dr. Whewell and I sat together at our little table in the Atheneum,
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-ed, 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 few and select, but of first-rate value, and I should like to revisit 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.
Rutherford, 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, &c. &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
Parliamenters 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, llth.-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 Atheneum, 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 Atheneum
paper with Atheneum ink, and by an Atheneum 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, l2th.-Here I sit, 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
blandnesses of expression, that made him as unlike a worricow as possible. Mr.
Bouverie was in the chair; but Mr. Maule conducted 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
returned; 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 benignant 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 ambiguous 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 reply, 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 with the Establishment, 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. &c. 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 Erastianism, spoke of our own
independence, and in terms which provoked the jealousy of English churchmen,
&c. &c. He also spoke of intercommnnion 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 Versailles and
Fontainebleau. There is a profusion of gilding which would have too gaudy an
effect were not this counteracted 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 accompanied 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 ezhaustion 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 regard: he and Lord Morpeth are the most
interesting people I have met in London. Walked thence through the Park to the
Atheneum, at the gate of which I parted with Mr. Carmichael, well prepared for
my dinner at five. Being a teetotaller, 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-ed - and where?- still in the Atheneum, 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. -
* WiIkie told Dr. Chalmers that be once met in the Strand a group, consisting of a man and two children, and that his eye was arrested by an object which convinced 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 this circumstance in his picture of the Rent Day - substituting, however, a widow for a widower. Back to journal?
* The widow of his brother James.
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