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WESTERN WORTHIES:
_A GALLERY_
of
BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SKETCHES
_of_
WEST OF SCOTLAND CELEBRITIES.
_By J. STEPHEN JEANS_,
EDITOR OF THE "EVENING STAR."
* * * * *
Glasgow:
PUBLISHED AT _THE STAR_ OFFICE, ARGYLE STREET.
MDCCCLXXII.
_PREFACE._
The author does not consider that the following pages require any
apology for their appearance. They are given to the world with a
two-fold object--the first being that of gratifying an increasing and
perfectly legitimate anxiety on the part of the public to know more of
the antecedents--the struggles, and the triumphs--of the men whom they
recognize as leaders; and the other, that of reminding a younger
generation, from a contemplation of the lives of great men, that they
too, may leave behind them
"Footprints on the sands of Time."
The scope of the present work renders it impossible to do full justice
to any one of the men who have been selected; and on this account the
author has made his Sketches more biographical than critical, leaving
the reader to reflect on facts rather than on opinions.
To become food for biographers and worms was the two-fold evil of which
Rachel spoke shortly before her death. So far as the former terror is
concerned, the men who are pourtrayed in these pages have little to
fear. Every care has been taken to secure accuracy of detail, most of
the Sketches having been revised by those whom they more directly
concern; and the author's aim has been to be just without severity, and
truthful without personality. Humanity is so prone to error that the
best men have their failings as well as their virtues; but while it is
not desirable to extenuate the former, the biographer is still less
warranted in setting them down in malice. Hence the writer has
endeavoured to criticise in a kindly and temperate spirit, and to hold
up virtues for imitation rather than errors for avoidance.
When these Sketches originally appeared in the columns of the journal
with which the writer is connected, it was never intended that they
should assume a more permanent form. It was only after witnessing the
great amount of interest which they evoked, that he was induced to yield
to pressing solicitations by trying to convert what was only a
terminable lease into one renewable for ever.
One word more. Since the sketch of Dr. Norman Macleod was in print, that
genial, versatile, and accomplished Divine has gone over to the Great
Majority. On Sunday forenoon, the 16th of June, he died rather suddenly,
although, as he had been ailing for some time previously, his end was
not altogether unexpected. In the public prints of both England and
Scotland, the tributes paid to his worth and ability have more than
justified all that will be found in these pages. From Royalty downwards,
his demise has produced a sadness "that passeth show." _Requiescat in
pace!_
J. S. J.
_Glasgow, June 20, 1872._
_CONTENTS._
PAGE
The Duke of Argyll, 9
The Right Hon. H. A. Bruce, 16
Sheriff H. G. Bell, 23
Mr. Robert Dalglish, M.P., 36
Mr. William Graham, M.P., 42
Mr. George Anderson, M.P., 47
Sir James Campbell, 57
Mr. James Young, 63
Mr. George Burns, 71
Mr. James Baird, 79
Sir William Thomson, 88
Principal Barclay, 95
Professor Rankine, 101
Professor Allen Thomson, 109
Professor John Caird, 117
Rev. Dr. Norman Macleod, 123
Rev. Dr. Robert Buchanan, 134
Mr. Robert Napier, 143
Mr. James Watson, 152
Rev. Dr. William Anderson, 159
Rev. Dr. John Ker, 165
Rev. Dr. Eadie, 172
Mr. Daniel Macnee, R.S.A., 178
Mr. Thomas Corbett, 182
Mr. Edward S. Gordon, M.P., 191
WESTERN WORTHIES.
THE DUKE OF ARGYLL.
For its size and population Scotland has been remarkably prolific in the
rearing of eminent statesmen, soldiers, and _litterateurs_. Viewed with
respect to its relative importance as an item in the map of Europe, it
has likewise a most chequered and eventful history--a history to which,
in various essentials, no counterpart can be found elsewhere. Chiefly,
however, has "the land of mountain and of flood" bulked largely in the
records of the world, from the stern and heroic character and
statesmenlike tendencies of its titled nobility, the lights and shadows
of whose characters, as they are developed in the historic page, go a
long way towards conferring upon Scotland the distinguishing qualities
that have made her famous. As this is not intended to be even a
bird's-eye view of Scottish history, we may have said enough by way of
introducing the reader to one of the most noble and illustrious of the
hereditary peerage of Scotland. Every schoolboy is more or less familiar
with the annals of a race which has been identified through many ages
with the interests--political, social, and commercial--of the West of
Scotland. The Clan Campbell have been stigmatised as haughty,
aggressive, and ambitious. The soft impeachment may be justly merited.
Throughout the most exciting and eventful crises of their country's
history, the Campbells have always borne a distinguished and conspicuous
part, both in the field of battle and in the Councils of State. Unlike
not a few families and clans who can boast of a lineage almost if not
quite as ancient and noble as their own, their name and fame are not "to
hastening ills a prey." The lapse of years has not dimmed the lustre of
their achievements, or caused them to lie upon their oars inactive and
inglorious. The present head of their clan--the Duke of Argyll--has in
his day and generation been as distinguished as any of his more
formidable ancestry. Their prospective head--the Marquis of Lorne--has
passed the Rubicon of Royal etiquette, allied himself with a Princess of
the Blood, and gives promise of a most useful and distinguished career.
The clan can further claim for themselves six members of the British
Peerage, and no less than twenty-two Baronets, nearly every one of whom
has been raised from the ranks for conspicuous merit in one sphere or
another. In almost every relation of life, the clan has had honour and
glory reflected upon it through some of its members; and, in
consideration of its past, present, and future importance, the possessor
of the name of Campbell may feel a justifiable pride in the stock from
which he springs.
George Douglas Campbell, the present head of the Ducal House of Argyll,
unites in himself many of the most estimable qualities that enabled his
ancestors, apart from the mere accident of birth, to achieve greatness.
That he is one of the most exalted of Scotland's aristocracy, a great
territorial magnate, and entitled to take a high place in the Council of
the nation, are facts external and independent of his own intrinsic
merits. But the same remark does not apply to the Duke's rare diplomatic
and literary abilities, to the sageness of his wisdom, to the maturity
end value of his experience, and to the kindly qualities of his heart.
Pope spoke of an ancestor of his Grace as--
"Argyll, the State's whole thunder born to wield.
And shake alike the Senate and the field;"
but if the poet had applied his Muse to describe the living
representative of the noble House he could justly have bestowed upon him
a much greater meed of praise. It is a rare conjunction to find one who
is born great, seek also to achieve greatness; but this His Grace has
done in an eminent degree. The adventitious circumstances of his birth
placed him in a position only a few removes from Royalty itself, but not
content with mere physical greatness, and realising that "the mind's the
standard of the man," he has applied himself diligently to the
acquisition of wisdom, until both in the domain of politics and in the
still more cosmopolitan sphere of _belles lettres_ he has, perhaps, made
himself more conspicuous by his sheer native worth than any other member
of the aristocracy of Scotland. Intimately associated from his earliest
years with the civil and ecclesiastical affairs of his native country,
he has been enabled, in his time, to do the State some service; and when
the "history of Scotland in the nineteenth century" shall come to be
written, the Duke of Argyll will be mentioned with honour and grateful
regard. On these, and many other grounds that might be quoted, we are
prepared to justify the incorporation in the present series of articles
of such a name and of such a life--a name that is as familiar in the
Church Courts as in the Councils of the nation, and a life that has been
singularly pure, useful, and exemplary.
Born April, 30, 1823, his Grace is the second son of the sixth Duke of
Argyll, by his marriage with Joan, daughter of John Glassel, Esq., his
father's second wife. The present Duke is the thirty-second Knight of
Lochow, and the thirtieth Campbell in the direct line of descent. He
showed from an early age the remarkable aptitude for business and the
literary capacity which have since distinguished him in so eminent a
degree, his first work being published before he was 20. While Marquis
of Lorne he took an active part in the great controversy relating to
patronage in the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, which culminated in
the Disruption of 1843. His Grace was one of the first to denounce the
obnoxious system of patronage, and he lent his great influence and high
social position to the party of which Dr. Chalmers was the recognised
head, giving it an importance which it might never otherwise have
acquired. But his Grace did more than aid the Secession by his social
influence; he also rendered yeoman service to that movement by his able
pen. One of his first productions was a _brochure_ "On the Duty and
Necessity of Immediate Legislative Interposition on behalf of the Church
of Scotland as determined by considerations of Constitutional Law." In
this publication the writer gave an historical view of the Church of
Scotland, particularly in reference to its constitutional power in
matters ecclesiastical. In another pamphlet, written in the course of
the same year, and entitled "A Letter to the Rev. Thomas Chalmers, D.D.,
on the present position of Church affairs in Scotland, and the causes
which have led to it," his Grace vindicated the right of the Church to
legislate for itself, condemned the movement then in progress among
certain members of the General Assembly to establish the Free Church by
a secession from the Establishment, and expressed his dissent from Dr.
Chalmers' view that "lay patronage and the integrity of the spiritual
independence of the Church has been proved to be, like oil and water,
immiscible." In an essay entitled "Presbytery Examined," published in
1848, the Duke entered upon a critical and historical review of the
ecclesiastical history of Scotland since the Reformation, which was
favourably criticised at the time, and received from every theological
party in Scotland a good deal of attention. His "Reign of Law," may,
however, be considered his _chef d'oeuvre_ as a literary effort. First
contributed to the pages of _Good Words_, the "Reign of Law" was
re-published in a separate form in 1866, and since then it has enjoyed a
large sale and a high reputation.
As showing his unflagging industry and his love of letters, it is worth
mentioning that he still contributes from time to time to the leading
magazines of the day. As a rule, his articles receive the place of
honour. They may not be so profoundly metaphysical as the contributions
of Professor Maurice, neither are they so appallingly scientific as the
propaganda of Huxley; but they are at least as entertaining, as
instructive, as able as the best literary efforts of our most popular
writers. One of the Duke's most recent contributions, which appeared in
the _Contemporary Review_ for January last, on "Hibernicisms in
Philosophy," shows that to Sidney Smith's stale joke about the
obtuseness of Scotchmen there is at least one illustrious exception. It
is one of the best things of its kind that has ever appeared in a
magazine that can command the greatest literary talent of the day.
The Duke of Argyll's political career has been long and illustrious. He
first took office as Lord Privy Seal under Lord Aberdeen's
administration in 1852. After Lord Palmerston had assumed the reins of
Government he was continued in this place until, in 1855, he exchanged
it for the office of Postmaster-General. In the following year he went
out of office; but in 1867 he was again induced to accept the Lord Privy
Seal, an appointment which he continued to hold until 1859. In 1860 he
was restored to the slightly more lucrative (there is a difference in
salary of L500) but much more responsible and useful appointment of
Postmaster-General. When the present Administration was formed, the Duke
was elected to the office of Secretary of State for India, the
Under-Secretary being Mr. Grant Duff, the member for the Elgin Burghs,
than whom no man alive has a more thorough acquaintance with Indian
affairs.
In 1851 the Duke was elected Chancellor of the University of St.
Andrews, and in 1854 he was elected Rector of Glasgow University. In
September, 1855, His Grace presided over the twenty-fifth meeting of the
British Association for the Advancement of Science, which was held that
year in Glasgow. On that occasion, as well as at other times throughout
his career, His Grace displayed scientific knowledge and antiquarian
research of more than ordinary depth; and his remarks on the subjects
brought under discussion were listened to by the _savants_ with the
utmost deference.
The Duke of Argyll is married to Lady Elizabeth Georgina, second
daughter of George Greville, second Duke of Sutherland, by whom he has
issue five sons and seven daughters. The eldest son, who has recently
allied himself to Royalty, gives promise, as we have already indicated,
of possessing in an eminent degree the talents that have so much
distinguished his ancestors. Both the Marquis of Lorne and his Royal
partner are extremely popular, and the alliance which has been
consummated amid the fervent aspirations of a whole nation, is bound to
raise still higher the influence of the ducal family of Argyll.
Alexander, the second son of the Duke, was born in 1846, and married, in
1869, Miss Jane Sabella Callendar, ward of his father, and daughter of
the late James Henry Callendar, Esq. of Craigpark, Stirlingshire. The
only other married member of the Duke's family is Edith, his first
daughter, who was espoused by Earl Percy, the eldest son and heir of the
Duke of Northumberland.
For the benefit of the curious in such matters we may mention that the
Duke's titles are, by writ 1445, Baron Campbell; 1457, Earl of Argyll;
1570, Baron of Lorne; by Royal charter, 1701, Duke of Argyll; Marquis of
Lorne and Kintyre; Earl of Campbell and Cowal; Viscount of Lochow and
Glenila; Baron Inveraray, Mull, Morven, and Tory, in the Peerage of
Scotland; 19th December, 1766, Baron Sundridge of Croombank; May 4,
1776, Baron Hamilton, in the Peerage of England; Hereditary Master of
the Queen's Household; Keeper of Dunoon, Dunstaffnage, and Carrick
Castles; Heritable Lord-Lieutenant of Argyllshire.
The literature of the Herald's College sets forth that the arms of
Argyle are--Quarterly, 1st and 4th, Girony of eight pieces topaz and
diamond for Campbell; 2d and 3d, pearl, a lymphad, or old-fashioned ship
with one mast, close sails, and oars in action; a diamond with flag and
pennants flying; ruby for the Lordship of Lorne; crest on a wreath, a
boar's head, couped proper, topaz. Supporters, two lions guardant, ruby.
Motto--"Ne Obliviscaris." Behind the arms there are two honourable
badges in saltire, which his Grace's ancestors have borne a long time,
as Great Masters of the King's Household and Justiciaries of Scotland.
The first is a battern topaz, same of thistles, emerald, ensigned with
an imperial crown proper, and thereon the crest of Scotland, which is a
lion sejant guardian ruby, crowned with the like crown he sits on,
having in his dexter paw a sword proper, the pommel and hilt, topaz; and
in the sinister a sceptre of the last. The other badge is a sword, as
that in the lion's paw.
The Duke is proprietor of the greater part of Argyllshire--a county
having an area of 2,432,000 acres, of which only 308,000 are under
cultivation. The greatest breadth of the mainland is about 115 miles;
and from the windings of the numerous bays and creeks, with which the
land is everywhere indented, the county is supposed to have more than
600 miles of sea coast. His chief seats are--Inverary Castle, on the
banks of Lochfyne; Roseneath Castle, Dumbartonshire; Longniddry,
Haddingtonshire; Halnaker, Sussex; and Argyle House, Camden Hill,
London.
THE RIGHT HON. H. A. BRUCE.
The Right Hon. Henry Austin Bruce is a native of Wales. He was born at
Duffryn, Aberdare, Glamorganshire, and is both by birth and training a
thorough Cambrian. His father, who is still living, was for several
years Stipendiary Magistrate at Merthyr, and once contested that borough
unsuccessfully with Sir John Guest. He was originally a Mr. Knight--a
patronymic which, in 1805, he changed to Bruce, and afterwards, in 1837,
to Pryce. The Member for Renfrewshire is, therefore, described as the
second son of John Bruce Pryce, Esq., of Duffryn, St. Nicholas,
Glamorganshire, by Sarah, the second daughter of the Rev. Hugh Austin,
Rector of St. Peter's, in Barbadoes. Paternally, he is a nephew of the
late Lord-Justice Knight Bruce, who was spared to see him attain the
dignity of Privy Councillor, but not long enough to witness his
admission to the rank of a Cabinet Minister. It may be added, for the
purpose of completing these domestic details, that his
great-grandfather, Mr. Bruce of Kennet, was High Sheriff of Glamorgan
more than 150 years ago; and, further, that he himself has been twice
married, his first wife (to whom he was married in 1846, but who died in
1852) being Annabella, the only daughter of Richard Beadon, Esq., of
Clifton, Gloucestershire; and his second wife, to whom he was married in
1854, being Norah, the youngest daughter of the late Lieutenant-General
Sir William Napier, K.C.B., the author of that matchless military
narrative, the "History of the Peninsular War," and distinguished also
as the brother of the heroic conqueror of Scinde. The reader will thus
perceive that the Member for Renfrewshire, who might be supposed from
his patronymic to be a Scotchman, is not even connected closely by
family ties with this part of the Island. His position, however, as the
member for Renfrewshire, and his consequent intimate connection with the
West of Scotland, may excuse his appearance in these pages.
In 1837, when he was only 22 years of age, Mr. Bruce was called to the
bar. He practised at the Chancery bar, and attended the Oxford Circuit
for two years. He withdrew from practice in 1843, but still retained his
name on the rolls of Lincoln's Inn. In 1847, four years after this
withdrawal, he received the appointment of Stipendiary Magistrate at
Merthyr-Tydvil and Aberdare, the office previously held by his father,
and for a period of more than five years he presided at the Police
Courts of those towns. From this office he retired in the December of
1852, when he was elected Member for the Merthyr boroughs, the seat
having become vacant by the death of that Sir John Guest whom his father
had unsuccessfully opposed many years previously. Mr. Bruce has all
along manifested a deep interest in the affairs of his own
neighbourhood. He was Deputy-Chairman of Quarter Sessions in his native
county of Glamorganshire, and he was also Chairman of the Vale of Neath
Railway, Captain of the Glamorganshire Rifle Volunteers, and fourth
Charity Commissioner of England and Wales.
Mr. Bruce retained his seat for Merthyr without interruption for a
period of seventeen years. He had been ten years in the House of Commons
when, in the November of 1862, he was nominated to office by Lord
Palmerston; and it is worthy of remark that he was then appointed
Under-Secretary of the very department over which he now presides--the
post which was conferred the other day by Mr. Gladstone on the young and
promising Member for Stroud. Mr. Winterbotham has not had to serve as
long a political and administrative apprenticeship as his chief; for at
the early age of twenty-seven, and after a Parliamentary career of only
two years, he has leapt into the office which Mr. Bruce did not procure
till he was twenty years older and a Member of ten years' standing.
This significant fact seems to "point a moral." It shows that there is
now-a-days a better chance for the man who is capable for an important
political post, despite his circumstances and antecedents. Mr.
Winterbotham is as staunch a Liberal and as pronounced a Nonconformist
as any of his ancestors; and yet, as we have seen, he is appointed at
twenty-seven by Mr. Gladstone to an office which Lord Palmerston did not
bestow upon Mr. Bruce until the latter was verging on fifty; and it is
not at all improbable that Lord Palmerston, when he made the appointment
in 1862, took credit to himself for stretching a point in favour of a
laborious and deserving man?
Mr. Bruce had been Under-Secretary at the Home Office for about a
year-and-a-half when he was appointed Vice-President of the Committee of
Council on Education. This office he held for more than two years. His
tenure of it came to a close in 1866, when Lord Derby (or rather
Derby-cum-Disraeli) returned to power. It was during these two years, in
which he devoted himself to the subject of education, that he made the
most impressive appearance which any portion of his career has yet
presented either to the House of Commons or to the country. Though a
nominee of Lord Palmerston, and like his patron anything but an advanced
Liberal, he displayed an apparent breadth of view and an earnestness of
purpose in his new sphere of Ministerial labour which were exceedingly
creditable to him. Some of his speeches on education were admirable, and
their tone may be guessed from the fact that they made him a favourite
at the time with such organs of public opinion as Mr. Miall's
_Nonconformist_.
It has been argued that Mr. Bruce had not the elevated motives which
must inspire a thoroughly successful minister of education; that he was
still the police magistrate in his ideas; and that he wished to call in
the schoolmaster to aid in the repression of crime. But it is only fair
to add that he never said a word to show that he did not value education
for itself, and in his own locality he has been a constant patron of
Mechanics' and other educational institutions. Again, it has been said
that his rejection by the house-holders of Merthyr at the general
election, indicated that he had not really succeeded in winning the
confidence of the working classes. But there are other circumstances to
account for this that ought not to be lost sight of. The constituency
was suddenly increased from 1390 to 15,500, two-thirds of whom could
neither read nor write. They chose, with great judgment, Mr. Richard, an
eminent Nonconformist; with less judgment, Mr. Fothergill, an
ironmaster, who had been conspicuous for the manner in which he had
enforced "Truck," and opposed education. A new constituency naturally
chose new members. But nearly 6,000 voted for Mr. Bruce, including, with
very few exceptions, every man of education in the borough. One
circumstance that was prejudicial to Mr. Bruce's interest, was his
refusal to support the Ballot. Up to 1868 he had never voted either for
or against that measure; but during the long contest which preceded the
election of November, 1868, he saw much to recommend the Ballot, and to
weaken his objections to it. Therefore, when he stood for Renfrewshire,
on the death of Captain Spiers, he declared his devotion to the Ballot
unsolicited.
Of the success of Mr. Bruce's administration at the Home Office,
different and conflicting opinions are inevitably entertained. The post
is one of great importance. Its holder stands above every other
Secretary of State. He is the Minister who follows next after the First
Lord of the Treasury. He is virtually the governor of Great Britain. But
really the Home Secretary is not a man to be envied. He has a thousand
things to decide which, decide them how he may, are sure to bring about
his ears a nest of stinging critical hornets. He is responsible for so
many things that his name is sure to be in the papers every day, and the
notices of his words and actions are no less sure to be in the majority
of instances unfavourable. Truly, it is a "fierce light" which beats
upon the Home Secretary. It is a fine thing in its way to be a Cabinet
Minister; but we can imagine some more enviable situations than the one
which is at present occupied by the member for Renfrewshire. No doubt he
gained the seat for that county by virtue of his position at the Home
Office; but the same distinction has also made him one of the
best-abused men of his day. The articles of almost savage ferocity which
have been hurled against Mr. Bruce by the metropolitan newspapers would
make, if brought together, one of the largest books in the world. He is
assailed in books and pamphlets as well as in the newspapers. "Who could
conscientiously envy Mr. Bruce?" asks a pungent critic who has recently
been showering a series of "Sketches" upon the town, which have caused
rather a sensation at Westminster. "Was there ever such an unmitigated
mistake in any Cabinet as that man? He has proved himself weaker even
than Mr. Walpole, and that was difficult." On every hand we hear it
remarked that Mr. Bruce's solitary act of legislation has been the one
relating to the London cabs, and even that is said to be an utter
failure. It is true that, from no fault of the Home Secretary, but from
political exigencies, Home Office Bills, being of a social and
administrative and not of a political character, have been thrust aside.
They have been obliged to give way to such measures as the Irish Church
and Land Bills, Education, Army Organization, and the Ballot. As for the
latter question, Mr. Bruce spontaneously handed it over to Mr. Forster,
believing that it would be better treated by an old advocate than by a
recent convert. In such small space of time as he could command,
however, Mr. Bruce has carried the Habitual Criminals Act, which, in its
proved results, has been the most successful measure for the repression
of crime passed during the last thirty years. He has also successfully
dealt with the difficult subject of Trades' Unions, and he has carried
an important extension of the Factory Acts, besides many minor measures.
As for the Cab Act, about which the _Pall Mall Gazette_ has every now
and again raised a cuckoo cry, it is altogether a municipal one, and
ought not to be in the hands of a Secretary of State. As it was, Mr.
Bruce tried the experiment of "Free Trade." It failed, because the
London cab owners had not the enterprise to introduce better vehicles,
which he could not impose upon them. The Licensing question and the
Contagious Diseases Acts are two of the most important questions with
which Mr. Bruce is now endeavouring to grapple. Upon the construction of
both measures he has manifestly bestowed a great amount of labour.
For a Scotch Member to be also a Cabinet Minister is, at present, a
conjunction of exceeding rarity; and no less exceptional is it to find
the county of Renfrew returning to the House of Commons one who is not a
politician of native growth. For its size it has been remarkably
prolific in statesmen of ability. One of its burghs can point to such
memorable names as Wallace of Kelly, and Murray Dunlop; and the county
itself has, in our day, been represented (amongst others of its own
gentry) by that brilliant scholar and historian, the late Colonel Mure
of Caldwell, who was the lineal descendant of the Mures of Rowallan, one
of the very oldest of our Scottish families, and who was an embodiment
of many of the finest qualities which have characterised the members of
that ancient and honourable house. Nor can we forget that the sad event
which made way for the return of a stranger was the sudden death of
Captain Spiers of Elderslie--one who was just beginning to be
appreciated by the general public, as they saw the gradual development
of qualities which were solid rather than brilliant, and in whom were
united manliness and modesty in a degree which is rarely to be seen, and
which now gives more than a touch of pathos to his memory. There was no
want of local talent to supply the vacancy so unexpectedly and painfully
made by the removal of Captain Spiers, but a combination of curious
circumstances, and chiefly the state of transition which at the moment
characterised the politics of the two most likely candidates, left the
field open for a stranger, while the enthusiasm felt in this part of the
island for the new Prime Minister made it almost a matter of course
that the vacant seat should be conferred, on terms unexampled for
magnanimity and ease, upon that statesman who had been singled out for
the post of Home Secretary by Mr. Gladstone, but who, having been thrown
overboard at the general election by the new constituency of
Merthyr-Tydvil, was still destitute of the essential condition to the
retention of the high honour to which he had been nominated by his
political chief. The manner in which the constituencies of Scotland, and
especially those of our northern shires, responded to Mr. Gladstone at
the supreme moment of his political career, is a fact which cannot be
overlooked by any one who shall hereafter trace the lines of his
biography; and the most striking proof of the trust that was reposed in
him at that critical epoch by the people of Scotland will be found in
the facility with which his Home Secretary procured a seat for one of
her counties. Mr. Bruce's return for Renfrewshire was perhaps the finest
of all compliments paid by a generous and intelligent nation to Mr.
Gladstone. One could wish to see some proof that it was duly appreciated
in a little more attention being given to Scottish business in
Parliament, and also in an increased measure of respect being shown to
those measures of reform in which our agricultural population justly
feel so great an interest. Thus far, it must be confessed, the farmers
of Scotland have met with but a poor return for their fidelity; and we
cannot wonder if we perceive amongst them symptoms of discontent that
may ultimately lead to bitter estrangement.
HENRY GLASSFORD BELL.
Of Henry Glassford Bell, the Sheriff of Lanarkshire, we may say, as
Macaulay said of Johnston, "We are familiar with his personal
appearance, as with the faces that have surrounded us from childhood."
For nearly half-a-century he has been a foremost citizen in Glasgow.
During that long period he has taken an active interest in all that
relates to the welfare of the city. Not in Law alone, but in Music,
Literature, Painting, and the Fine Arts generally, he is regarded as an
authority. In short, he is the intellectual king of the city, although
he differs from a monarch _de jure_ in his accessibility to all ranks
and conditions of men, and in the homage and respect which are
universally and spontaneously paid to his high personal qualities. His
experience is a direct reversal of the ordinary rule, that "a prophet
hath honour save in his own country and in his own house." In tracing
the lines of Sheriff Bell's biography, we are entering upon a fertile
but hitherto unoccupied field. A man of rare gifts, and one of whose
happiest literary productions it may safely be predicated that they will
live in the literature of his country, he has now for upwards of thirty
years relinquished the pursuit of _belles lettres_, thereby sacrificing
the world-wide fame as an author to which, in the early part of his
career, he seemed likely to attain. But if he has failed to achieve a
niche in the Temple of Fame, he has at least secured a permanent place
in the respect of the legal profession, and in the esteem of his
fellow-citizens. If the scope of his mind has been narrowed by the
arduous and incessant labour devolved upon him by his official position,
he has yet been enabled to lead a life of more than ordinary usefulness;
and future generations will probably listen with wonder and admiration,
when they hear of the extraordinary amount of hard and irksome labour
which, when the eight or nine hours' movement was yet in embryo, the
Sheriff of a county embracing a third of the population of Scotland was
able to accomplish.
Born in Glasgow in 1805, Sheriff Bell is descended from an honourable
and honoured family. His father followed the practice of the law, and
educated Henry to the same career. It did not seem, however, as if the
son cared to have his father's mantle falling upon him. After receiving
the rudiments of his education at the High School of Glasgow, he
proceeded to Edinburgh, where he commenced to go through a regular
University curriculum. So far as the Scottish metropolis was concerned,
the first quarter of the present century was the Augustan age of
literature. Sir Walter Scott was in his meridian. De Quincey, under the
influence of the "Circean spells" of opium, was making _Blackwood_ a
power in the land. Sir William Hamilton, the greatest British supporter
of _a priori_ philosophy in this century, had just been appointed to the
Chair of Civil History. Through the columns of the _Edinburgh Review_,
Francis Jeffrey was "propounding heresies of all sorts against the
ruling fancies of the day, whether political, poetical, or social." John
Wilson, "Christopher North," that "monster of erudition," was acting as
the animating soul of his celebrated magazine. Amid such a galaxy of
brilliant constellations, Henry Bell graduated for a literary career,
and he was not esteemed the least of the parhelions that shone around
the fixed stars in that spacious intellectual firmament. By contact and
association with such men, he enjoyed exceptional facilities for
qualifying himself as an author; and having the "root of the matter" in
him, he published, in rapid succession, poems, sketches, and reviews
that were more than sufficient to justify the compliment which the
Ettrick Shepherd years afterwards pronounced upon them, when he said,
"Man, Henry, it was a great pity ye didna stick to literature; 'od,
Sir, ye micht hae done something at literature."
Finding, perhaps, that his tastes were literary rather than legal--that
he had a greater aptitude for _belles lettres_ than jurisprudence--young
Bell, on the 15th November, 1828, undertook the Editorship of the
_Edinburgh Literary Journal_. He was then twenty-three years of age. The
_Journal_ professed to be a "weekly register of criticism and _belles
lettres_." It contained fourteen pages of royal octavo, and its price
was sixpence. The motto of the _Literary Journal_--it was often the
custom in those days to select a motto for periodical publications--was
the following taken from Bruyere:--
"Talent, gout, esprit, bons sens, choses differentes,
Non incompatibles;"
and this was supplemented by the well-known verse of Burns--
"Here's freedom to him that would read,
Here's freedom to him that would write!
There's nane ever feared that the truth should be heard,
But they whom the truth would indite."
On looking over the index to the first volume of the _Literary Journal_,
we find that it contained original contributions in miscellaneous
literature from Thomas Aird, the author of the Odd Volume; R. Carruthers
(editor of the _Inverness Courier_), R. Chambers, Derwent Conway, Dr.
Gillespie, Mrs. S. C. Hall, James Hogg, John Malcolm, Dr. Memes, Rev.
Dr. Morehead, Alexander Negris, Alexander Sutherland, William Tennant,
and William Weir. Of those who contributed original poetry, our readers
will be familiar with the names of the authoress of "Aloyse," Thomas
Atkinson, Alexander Balfour, Sheriff Bell himself (who, by the way, is
the most voluminous writer of all, his poems, in the list before us,
including "The Bachelor's Complaint," "Song to Leila," "Lines about
Love, and such like nonsense," "Edinburgh Revisited," and "To a
Favourite Actress"), Thomas Bryson, Gertrude, Captain Charles Gray, Mrs.
E. Hamilton, Mrs. Hemans, W. M. Hetherington, Alexander Maclagan, John
Malcolm, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Charles Doyne Sillery, Thomas Stoddart,
William Tennant, James Thomson, Alaric A. Watts, and Mrs. Grant of
Laggan. A rare combination of talent! An original contribution from
almost any one on this long list would be esteemed a priceless treasure
by the publishers of the present day. What would Mr. Strahan or Mr.
Macmillan not give to have the command of such a host?
A disposition to linger over the history and varied fortunes of this now
defunct censor, is naturally evolved from the contemplation of the
talent which it was able to command. A well-known author has said that
"whatever withdraws us from the power of the Senses; whatever makes the
past, the distant, or the future predominant over the present, advances
us in the dignity of human beings." So must the quondam editor of the
_Literary Journal_ think when he recalls the reminiscences of those
bygone days--days that were spent in edifying and agreeable association
with men and women whose names are inscribed on the roll of Scotland's
illustrious sons and daughters. He may also take a justifiable pride in
the fact that, by virtue of his position as editor, he was at once the
arbiter and the censor of works which have since, by universal
acclamation, been awarded a permanent place in the literature of
England. That Bell's conduct of the _Journal_ was able, popular, and
successful, we have ample evidence to show. It is proved by the variety
and excellence of the contributions which poured in upon him from the
most gifted writers of the day. In his _Noctes Ambrosianae_, Professor
Wilson has published his attestation of the fact in the following
passage:--
NORTH--Here, James, is one of the best, because most
business-like prospectuses I ever read, of a new weekly
periodical about to be published in Edinburgh in the
middle of November--the _Edinburgh Literary Journal._
From what I know of the editor--a gentleman of talent,
spirit, and perseverance--I foretell the book will
prosper.
SHEPHERD--I shall be glad o' that, for ane gets tired
of that eternal soun'--_Blackwood's
Magazeen_--_Blackwood's Magazeen_--dinnin in ane's
lugs, day and night, a' life long.
Our readers will bear with what may appear to some to some to be
unnecessary digressions, when they reflect upon the influence that the
_Literary Journal_ exercised upon the subject of our sketch while he was
yet a young man "winning his spurs" in the field of literature. It was
through his editorship of the _Literary Journal_ that Mr. Bell formed his
close intimacy with all the distinguished writers of his day; and if
this was not the most useful, it certainly was the most interesting part
of the career of him whom we are proud to acknowledge as the author of
"Mary, Queen of Scots." From this time forward he was the most intimate
friend and companion of Wilson and Hogg. The former came to Edinburgh in
1815, with the view of practising at the Scottish bar, so that Bell had
no opportunities of visiting him at his beautiful residence at Elleray,
on the banks of Lake Windermere, where for years previously he had lived
in Utopian health and happiness, "surrounded by the finest of scenery,
and varying his poem-writing and halcyon peace, with walking excursions
and jovial visits from friends that, like himself, entered with zest
into the hearty enjoyment of life." But, as between Bell and Wilson,
there was a fellow-feeling that made them "wondrous kind," they were
much in each other's society. Both were fond of piscatorial pursuits.
Wilson had early discovered an enthusiasm for angling, which he used to
cultivate on the banks of Lake Windermere. Bell, too, became a disciple
of Isaac Walton, and to indulge their love of sport, and to enjoy each
other's company where, removed from the busy haunts of men, they might
"hear the tumult and be still," they were accustomed to spend whole days
and nights on the banks of Loch Awe, and amid the gloomy and impressive
scenery of Glen Dochart. At other times they would plan walking
excursions. It was no unusual thing for them to walk upwards of thirty
miles at a stretch. They had not then the command of railway facilities,
nor did they want them. Muscular vigour, and a love of intellectual
pursuits were qualities characteristic of both men, and both possessed a
large amount of physical endurance. In physique, too, there was a
considerable _vraisemblance_. Christopher North has been described as a
"Goth of great personal prowess." Haydon says of him that he was like a
fine Sandwich Islander, who had been educated in the Highlands. His
light hair, deep sea blue eye, tall athletic figure, and hearty hand
grasp, his eagerness in debate, his violent passions, great genius, and
irregular habits, rendered him a formidable partisan, a furious enemy,
and an ardent friend. Of Bell, with one or two qualifications, the same
description would hold good. Wilson has immortalised their intimacy and
friendship in his "Noctes," where Bell is made to figure as "Tallboys,"
and where he is only mentioned with respect and affection. In the Six
Foot Club, an institution which had a local habitation and a name in
Edinburgh during the early part of the nineteenth century, and of which
both Wilson and Bell were members, they had further opportunities for
muscular exercise. It was an indispensable condition to membership in
this club that the candidate should be over six feet in height; and it
is surprising how many men who have made their mark in literature,
science, and art had attained that _sine qua non_. Physical and
intellectual greatness were so invariably combined in those days that
the two were thought by many vulgar minds to go hand in hand; but even
in the "Six Feet Club" there were few who presented in all respect a
more _distingue_ appearance than the subject of these remarks.
Another of Bell's most intimate friends during these years was James
Hogg, the "Ettrick Shepherd." Along with Wilson and other friends he
paid several visits to Hogg's native place, where they enjoyed pleasant
ramblings by St Mary's Loch, and in the Vale of Yarrow, to which the
Shepherd's muse has imparted quite a classic interest. There was,
however, a species of vulgarity about Hogg, which marred his otherwise
estimable qualities, and his uncouth Johnsonian habits were probably the
means of erecting a barrier between himself and more cultivated friends.
Lockhart, in his life of Scott, speaks of Hogg as a "a true son of
nature and genius," and this he undoubtedly was. One who had taught
himself to write by copyright the letters of a printed book as he lay
watching his flock on the hill side, and whose vivacious imagination, as
his own brother informs us, disqualified him from study or research, was
not likely while alive to make many close friends in the exclusive and
polished circles which formed the _elite_ of Edinburgh. But by Bell and
a few others, who saw the diamond glittering in the rough casket, Hogg
was duly appreciated. To the _Literary Journal_ he was a constant
contributor both of prose and verse, and he took a warm interest in its
success. When the proposal to erect a monument to the Shepherd in
Ettrick Vale took a practical shape, Sheriff Bell was selected to
inaugurate the structure. This he did on the 28th June, 1860. In fitting
terms, his old friend panegyrised the virtues and the genius of The
Shepherd, describing him "as a true poet--not equal to Burns, because no
national poet was ever equal to Burns, because no national poet was ever
equal to him--but justly entitled to take rank in the second place, and
worthily taking up the harp which he found lying on the grave of that
immortal man."
In the year 1830 Mr. Bell relinquished his connection with the _Literary
Journal_, which was conducted for some time afterwards by Mr. William
Weir. The paper had never been a "good property," even in its palmiest
days, and Mr. Weir, after carrying it on for a few months, allowed it to
stop, and came to Glasgow for the purpose of establishing a newspaper,
pure and simple. Mr. Weir was well known in Glasgow from his long
connection with the _Argus_, which he edited with rare tact and ability
until he was called to occupy a similar position on the _Daily News_ in
London. Meantime Mr. Bell was admitted a member of the Faculty of
Advocates. This was in 1832, so that he was in his twenty-seventh year.
Up till now he had consecrated his whole talents and energies to the
pursuit of literary eminence, his greatest works being his well-known
poem on "Mary, Queen of Scots," and his vindication of the same
unfortunate monarch in a masterly history of her life. These works were
to him a labour of love, for he has always manifested a deep sympathy
with the misfortunes of the unhappy Mary Stuart. It is even said that it
was to his intense devotion to her memory, and his beautiful poem on her
life, that he was indebted for his wife, who claimed some remote
connection with the Queen of Scots, through Donald Dhu, of whom she was
a descendant. Mrs. Bell, we believe, was a daughter of Captain Stuart of
Sheerglass, on the banks of the Garry, opposite Athole, and _en passant_
we may remark that her forefathers took a prominent part in the battle
of Killiecrankie. As an advocate, Sheriff Bell never held a
distinguished position. He was, perhaps, too far advanced in life before
he joined the bar. Be that as it may, he was one of a numerous circle of
_literati_ who lived contemporary with and subsequent to himself, to
whom the bar never brought any laurels; but after all, he made better
progress in the Court of Session than Professor Blackie, whose briefs
were so terribly akin to angels' visits that he has been heard to
declare himself that his practice as an advocate never brought him so
much as L40 a-year. Nor was his success less than that of Professor
Wilson, Professor Ferries, Professor Aytoun, Professor Innes, Sir
William Hamilton, Hilburton, Spalding, and others whom we might mention,
who have stamped the English literature with the sign-manual of their
genius, and whose names will be held in remembrance and honour long
after those of the most distinguished lawyers of the age shall have
passed to the limbo of oblivion. Advocates who also followed the
profession of _litterateurs_, and were addicted to _belles lettres_,
often experienced unfair treatment at the hands of the agents or
writers by whom counsel is usually retained. They were not considered
safe men. And if they were not completely ostracised from legal life,
they were so far tabooed and kept at a distance that their emoluments
from their legal practice could not, if they had depended solely upon
that source of income, have held body and soul together. Besides this,
the Edinburgh bar at that time could boast of a most unusual combination
of legal talent. Some of the ablest lawyers of this or any other age
were at that time practising in the Parliament House. And the eminence
of not a few men was so great as to leave a long way behind others who,
like Sheriff Bell, would now be considered above the average in their
profession. The young advocate of 1872 has not to encounter such
intellectual giants as Patrick Robertson, Jeffrey, Cockburn, Rutherford,
M'Neil, Moncrieff, Hope, and other contemporaries of Bell, who shed the
lustre of their genius upon the law of Scotland, and secured for the
Court of Session a reputation higher, perhaps, than even Westminster
Hall has ever been able to attain.