TON

mapootra was unknown, even by name, among | formist Churches at that time, presented the rivers of India. The languages and dialects of the Eastern world were as little known as the physical aspect and phenomena of the countries. No Sir WILLIAM JONES had arisen to set the example of Oriental scholarship as a polite accomplishment; the Sanscrit had as yet attracted no attention from western philologists; the Holy Scriptures had been translated into few vernacular dialects, except those of Western Europe; no CAREY OF MORRISON, no MARTYN or JUDSON, had girded themselves to the task of mastering those languages which had hitherto defied, like an impenetrable rampart, all attempts to gain access to the mind of India and China. A hundred years ago, there were neither Protestant Missionary Societies nor Protestant Missions, save only those which had been formed for the propagation of the Gospel in the American Colonies, the Danish missions in Southern India, and the Moravian missions in Greenland and South Africa. In fact, the obstacles to success in almost every part of the world, arising from the ascendancy and intolerance of the Papal, Mohammedan, and Pagan powers, added to the deficiency of our knowledge and the poverty of our resources, would have proved little short of insur

mountable.

little to relieve the dreariness of the picture. At the beginning of the century, according to NEAL, there were 1,354 Churches of the Three Denominations in England: of these, the majority were Presbyterian. Sixty years afterward, they were computed at 1,509. Meantime, the Arianism of WHISTox and EMLYN had begun to infect the pulpits and academies of the Presbyterian body, and a death-like formalism had spread over the community. Dr. DODDRIDGE died in 1750; and in the following year, Dr. JOHN TAYLOR openly broached the Socinian tenets in his "Scripture Doctrine of the Atonement." The want of an earnest, Evangelical ministry among the orthodox Dissenters, is the subject of lamentation and complaint in the publications of the day. It would not be easy to fix upon a period since the Reformation, when the religious life of the country was reduced to a lower ebb than about the middle of the last century. Deism-the Deism of HUME-was extending itself among the learned and professional classes, and practical infidelity was everywhere prevalent among the lower orders. Yet, we sometimes hear the present age spoken of as peculiarly an age of abounding infidelity!" Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these; for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this."

A hundred years ago, the moral aspect of society was as dark and discouraging, both at home and abroad, as the political pros- But we must hasten to conclude this retpect was gloomy. The state of courtly and rospect with a few miscellaneous references. clerical morals is betrayed in the too ac- In February and March, 1750, two slight curate portraitures of manners in the con- shocks of an earthquake were felt in London; temporary writings of FIELDING, SMOLLETT, and the apprehensions which they excited, and RICHARDSON. The prevalence of popu- were further increased by the prediction of a lar ignorance and irreligion of the grossest fanatic, a soldier, that another shock would kind, is shown by the reception given to the speedily ensue, which would lay all London early labors of WESLEY and WHITFIELD. In and Westminster in ruins. Great numbers fled the eloquent language of ROBERT HALL, to the fields in consternation, and could hardly the creed established by law had no sort be persuaded to return, when the time fixed of influence in forming the sentiments of the for the accomplishment of the prediction was people; the pulpit had completely vanquish-past. At that time, the total population of the ed the desk; piety and puritanism were con- metropolitan parishes within the Bills of Morfounded in one common reproach; an almost tality was but 674,356. The population of pagan darkness in the concerns of salvation England and Wales was under six millions and prevailed; and the English people became a half. That of all Lancashire was under the most irreligious upon earth. Such was 300,000. In 1750, the National debt was the state of things when WHITFIELD and WES- but seventy millions. Yet, it may be quesLEY made their appearance." The first tioned, whether the burden of taxation did Methodist society was formed in 1739. not press as heavily then as now, and wheTwenty-eight years afterward, the number ther the vast increase of the Debt has not been of preachers in England, (according to the compensated by the prodigious augmentation Minutes of Conference) was only 76; and of of the wealth and resources of the country. Members, 22,642. In 1750, therefore, the What would have been thought, a hundred Methodists must have formed a very incon-years ago, of sinking a capital of hundreds of siderable body. The state of the Noncon- millions in the construction of Railways?

CATALANI.

From Tait's Magazine.

LIFE OF THE LATE DR. CHALMERS.

MANY years must have passed since the death of any man in Scotland excited that sad sensation caused by the demise of Dr. Chalmers, and many years must pass again before death can produce a similar result by a single stroke; for we have no man with a character yet earned or formed, so high in general estimation as that his removal would be felt in the same extent to be a national calamity. The circumstances attendant on the death of Dr. Chalmers were well calculated to increase its effect. The body with whom he was immediately associated had passed toward the close of its annual assembly, when death came to him noiselessly, and without a warning. He literally fell asleep; for, left at night in health, he was found at morn in death. No premonitory symptoms of bodily or mental weakness had prepared his friends for the loss that they were to sustain. His pallid features bore no vestige of a struggle with the last enemy; and death, in this instance, was very like "translation." All men were saddened by this change; for even those who were uninfluenced by religious considerations, felt still that a man great in science, wielding an immense influence by the weight of personal character alone, of undoubted benevolence and pure motives, had passed away, and left a place that would not be soon occupied. It was curious and instructive to mark the haste with which death smoothed down feuds, and healed animosities, amongst various religious bodies. Few men had ever mingled more than Dr. Chalmers in polemical and semi-political discussions. His opposition to any cause had been long deemed a serious hindrance to its success. No party felt themselves safe before his marked disapproval, and many whom he opposed were irritated under his arguments. At some period of his lang and active career, he had been led into opposition, nearly to all the various denominations, except that with which he was at his death connected. Yet the general benevolence of his character had always soon effaced these breaches; and even his rebukes breathed a spirit of love and truth. The posthu

mous publication of several works, and especially of his short commentaries, has increased the esteem in which he was long regarded in religious circles. We mention these circumstances as calculated to increase the responsibility of his biographer.

It was some time since announced that his lite would be written by his son-in-law, Dr. Hanna, and he has several qualifications of a special kind for this work. He was in terms of the most perfect intimacy with Dr. Chalmers, and he has the most complete access, not merely to all his papers, but to those of his opinions on public questions, that, though unwritten, must live in the recollection of the members of his family. Dr. Hanna is a native of Belfast; and although he was, previous to the disruption, a parochial minister in the Scotch Established Church, yet his freedom from early prejudices and feelings may, on many topics connected with Scotland, which will necessarily come under his notice in the second and subsequent volumes, enable him to adhere closely to the part of a fair and candid historian. Dr. Chalmers' life is intimately woven into the history of all national movements, from the day when he aided to form a small Bible Society at Kilmany, to his last evidence on the site question, before a committee of the House of Commons. His biographer must have been, from his earliest years, acquainted with Scotch ecclesiastical movements; the son of a minister who was long justly considered the leader of the evangelical party amongst the Irish Presbyterians, and who retains, in treme old age, no small influence amongst that body; Dr. Hanna must have grown up familiar with ecclesiastical proceedings and questions of interest in Scotch affairs, yet in a manner not so likely to warp the judgment as might be fairly expected, and must be cautiously watched, in one who has lived amongst the actors in party movements from infancy, and gradually imbibed strong opinions regarding them, even before his reason can have made an intelligent decision on their merits. Dr. Hanna is a particularly unobtrusive man, but his literary abilities will

enable him to use fully and well the rich ma-
terials in his power.
As editor of the North
British Review, to which Dr. Chalmers regu-
larly contributed, he had the best means of
ascertaining his relative's impressions regard-
ing the current of events toward the close
of his life; and the last volume of the work
is likely to be the most interesting.

Church of Scotland; and was, probably, gratified by their adherence to the Free Church at the period of the disruption. Six years ago, Dr. Chalmers visited Ireland, we believe, for the last time, and resided for a considerable period at the beautiful village of Rostrevor. He had previously experienced weakness, arising, not improbably, from the excitement of the period. His residence at Rostrevor, and the air of the Mourne Mountains, had contributed to restore his strength. We met him one day, when on his way homeward, in a curious position for an invalid: the top of one of the range of high mountains that environ Belfast on the north-west, and seem to have been cast up between it and Lough Neagh. The summit of the Cave hill commands a sweep of great extent on every side; and, on a summer afternoon, when the sun's rays sparkle on the distant waters of Lough Neagh, Lough Strangford, and the Channel, yields one of the most superb views in our islands. The busy town beneath, with its fine river, covered with ships of many flags, and every form, gradually widening into Belfast Lough, and the latter losing itself between the Copeland and the Maiden Islands in the Channel, with the Scottish hills in Galloway, for a background. to the east; or the same river, winding its course up the fertile valley to Lisburn, now lost for a long distance, to be again revealed between corn-fields or through trees in a narrow line of silvery brightness, and its densely peopled banks, away from the ocean to its source, studded with little towns and numerous villas, catching the eye amid its many cottages, sometimes clustered round a tall chimney, or gathered together at the corner of bleaching fields, that seem, even in July, to have a covering of snow; or over the Castlereagh hills, on the south-east to Lough Strangford, with its many islands chequering its wide expanse of water, surrounded by many pleasant villages, so hidden and out of the way of the world as scarcely to be known; or the sharp and distant summits of the Mourne Mountains, raised by their Maker like a barrier between the dark South and the black North; or the corner of the wide Lough Neagh and the

It may be considered a curious chain of events that has given the narration of this life-that of Scotland's greatest son, in the first part of our century-to an Irish gentleman. It seems to accord completely with one of those objects that we know to have been very near to Dr. Chalmers' heart in his lifetime, the strengthening of the link that once, more obviously even than now, bound Ulster to Scotland, and Scotland to her earliest and greatest colony. Historians allege that the Scots were originally a colony from Ireland, who settled in the western division of Scotland; and that before their name was given to this country, it had belonged to Ireland. No doubt exists respecting the original connection, although its nature may not now be altogether intelligible. The intercourse between countries separated at one point by a channel of twenty, and at another point of ten miles, must have always been considerable, and we meet its consequences in many pages of Scotch and Irish history. Still is shown, on the borders of Ulster, the spot where the rash but chivalric Edward Bruce fell, in his attempt to drive the English out of Ireland. When, at a long posterior period, James the First of England determined to colonize part of Ulster, from England and Scotland, a large body of the undertakers, and their tenants and retainers, came from Scotland; and their descendants now occupy a great part of the north-eastern counties, forming the majority of the population. At subsequent periods, when persecution reddened its sword and erected its gallows in the West of Scotland, men fled in g numbers, with the love of truth and freedom as their heritage, from the western counties to Ulster. To these circumstances, and the probability that the tenets of the Culdees were never entirely forgotten and obliterated in the North of Ireland, may be ascribed the formation of the Irish Presby-Ban River, carrying away its waters to the terian Church, which has its centre in Antrim, Down, and Derry; and the general prevalence of Protestantism in Ulster. Dr. Chalmers was intimately conversant with the history of that body, and sincerely desirous for their prosperity. He found them closely associated with the doctrinal history of the

VOL. XIX. NO. III

north, and the Derry Mountains closing up the scene to the west; or the vast expanse of bleak country, broken apparently here and there by streaks of green and yellow, seeming like crevices, only because we cannot look into the wide, and sometimes fertile, but always densely peopled vales of Antrim, and

26

Slieve Doough to the north-east, rising | the claims of the Roman Catholics, he uncone-shaped like a sugar-loaf, lonely and doubtedly alienated for a time the affection alone in its pride any one of all the pros- and esteem of many of his former admirers. pects from the Cave Hill, when the sky is He could not, therefore, be charged with enblue, and the summer day nearly done, is tertaining an unjust preference for the Presworth the stiff journey upward twice re- byterian Church, in believing it likely to bepeated; and all of them together form a come a powerful instrumentality for the scene that, as a whole, cannot often be ex- emancipation of Ireland from many evils not celled, and in which there are points that less injurious than political restrictions. He scarcely can be rivaled. Dr. Chalmers loved had supported Roman Catholic emancipaeminently the works of God. Few men have tion; he had assisted the Episcopal Church ever enjoyed them more. A scene like that in various difficulties; he had attended in was to him a rich festival. His mind ac- St. Andrew's at an Independent Church, quired more than its wonted exuberance while an ordained minister of the Establishamidst the beautiful or the sublime in the ment; he lived in terms of intimacy with the works of Creation. leaders of the English Wesleyan Methodists, and acting on just principles to those with whom he could not maintain religious communion, he was also a man of the most catholic spirit; yet he loved not less on that account the broad features of Protestant faith, or the distinctive lines of his own communion. Many rugged points in Irish history catch the eye, but to those who read it well, there is a soft and sombre sadness over the story, that deeply interests the feelings, and leaves the reader anxious that peace at last and prosperity would not be only visitors and wayfarers in the land. Dr. Chalmers possessed this kind of interest in Ireland, and one rising still higher, from other and nobler sources; and seeking its permanent improvement next, probably, to that of Scotland; he expressed his conviction that Scotland and England would not long be prosperous while Ireland was depressed.

Very few disciples of Christianity ever grasped more completely the idea, My Father hath made them all." But looking over this wide scene in the best part of Ireland, he could not fail to remember the misery and sufferings that occupied a large part in the history, and the moral aspect, of a land singularly rich in natural resources, and lamentably poor in their application. No shadow of the coming famine, fever, and sorrows of 1845, and the subsequent years, then darkened the island; yet in many districts, plenty and want, heartlessness and suffering, dwelt together. He was no sectarian in the narrow and objectionable meaning of the title, but he held warmly his own tenets, because he could not yield a cold and frigid assent to any principle of faith; and, remembering his own country, and the changes accomplished there in a single century, ascribing them in a great degree to the religious principles that prevail in Scotland, he believed that the same creed might form similar minds to work out the same results in Ireland. No Irishman, of whatever creed, could love the man less that the warm wishes of his heart were concentrated in one of those expressive and fervent ejaculatory prayers, containing in ten words the force and strength of a hundred, with which his journals and Sabbath readings have rendered the public familiar.

Dr. Chalmers, it may be remembered, sufered reproach in advocating the Roman Catholic Emancipation Bill. He prized the friendships he had formed in society, but while valuing them warmly, they were never permitted to sway his mind from the path that seemed to him the way of duty. The Disruption of the Scottish Church was not the only or the first example where he set aside the claims of faiendship for the paramount demands of principle. In advocating

These remarks have, however, diverged from the general subject, and arose merely from the preparation of Dr. Chalmers' life being committed to a gentleman so closely connected with Ireland as Dr. Hanna-who has accomplished that part of his great task, now before the public, in a manner calculated to afford the best idea that can be obtained of the subject. We want not merely a naked narrative of events, chained together in chronological order; but the history of a great mind. If that want is supplied from the man's thoughts, written as time passed away, with its changes; and illustrated with the light which a skillful biographer can throw over them-we have obtained the most desirable result. This first volume is prepared with that object steadily in view. Dr. Chalmers still speaks in a great number of its pages. The biographer keeps himself entirely unseen. We know that he moves the panorama which is to pass before us; that he searches out, puts in order, and joins the