my brain, when he left it, was drunk, and my head swimming with the moral draughts I had been drinking in "

"Very good, indeed-but do you know any thing of the operation of his Civic Economy schemes ?"

"Look, Sir-do ye see the Hunterian Museum, down there, in the College grounds, wi' its stane dome? Weel, a wee bit to the south-east o' that ye see St. John's steeple--the magistrates o' Glasgow built that kirk, and made a new parish for him out of the Calton, and the districts roun about, that he might hae room and verge anengh for trying his cantrips on the puir folk. And a quiet word in your ear he was not a favourite with the lower class for these same ceovic economy schemes, only wherever he cam into personal contact he removed the impression by his hurable and hamely way o' speaking, and they thought him a hair-brained sort o' fallow, that though he had his gude stipend, wudna let them alane.” "But I would like to know how far his principles were carried into effect, and in what they differed from the old plan.”

"Oh, dinna tak my word for gospel in the matter, for I ken little about it. I believe the sillar collected at the parish kirk doors on Sabbath-days, is thrown into one fund, and divided among them, for the support of the puir; and there is also an assessment levied upon every body that has a certain income, which increases proportionally, according to the assessors' discretionary estimate of the value of the incomes of our coal, salt herring, sugar and cotton lords, for the support of the town's hospital; and in this way the parish that gathers much has naething over, and the parish that gathers little has nae lack. But the Doctor, to show that he could soar at the sun, and dive in the mud, and yet still see farther than his neighbours, got up his plan, and wud hae every parish to support its ain pnir, from its ain collections, and by enforcing the law of residence, as he called it, localize the numerous puir o' a large town. I think he was trying to unite the nature o' a dissenting body, that maintains its ain puir members, with the nature o' a parish, that is bound to support the pair o' the land. But between the twa stools he fell to the ground. Nae ither parish wud adopt his plan, but ane, (and that but to a partial extent)-some through stiffness, because they wudna leave an auld plan for a new, some through laziness, and some through jealousy. It was a' weel eneugh for St. John's, as lang as he was there, to gather the crowds and draw the sillar-but when he left the place, he indeed left a burden upon the southers of the elders that they were hardly able to bear-and I believe, that after strøggling for years to uphaud the new system, they'll just gang back to the auld way o' doing business."

****It is well for you that education and acquaintance with the Bible is so common in Scotland-if I were to judge from the reading of the elaborate and splendid sermons of Chalmers, I should think the lower orders could not understand him. I have heard it said, that when he was in Belfast, the working classes did not attend."

"I daresay that's true to a certain extent. But a vera great majority 'o' the working class in Glasgow, at least the younger portion o' them, could understand and relish him. The late worthy Dr. Balfour, who was minister for thirty years o' the outer kirk down below us, said to him (he was after coming down frae the pulpit on a Thursday forenoon, when he had preached the first of his astronomical sermons) says he, Ah, Tam, Tem, ye hadna a word for the red duffles and black cloaks!' meaning, yeken, the auld women. And Dr. Chalmers says back to him, Weel, Rab, we'll preach to them anither time.' The same Dr. Balfour met with a farmer

'What's about this

body that says to him, in the course o' conversation. great gun, Dr. Chalmers? They tell me that he's sending you quite into the shade.' 'Oh, ay,' says the Doctor, every dog has its day, and avery person may lose as well as win his turn for being popular! But tell me,' says the farmer body, what is it to be popular? what's the difference between a popular man and a poplar tree, for I dinna ken?' Noo, Dr. Balfour, though a godly and a clever man, liked a crack and a joke as weel as the lave o' us, and says he to the farmer body, 'Oh, a poplar tree wants u in it, and that's the difference.'"

"We have always heard in Ireland that Dr. Chalmers was a liberal in his politics, and was in bad odour with the northern exclusionists after a certain sermon he preached in Belfast."

"Oh, ay-there was a gude, stiff, stour minister, named Dr. Love" "I know-him that Lovedale in Caffraria is called after ?"

"The vera same. Dr. Chalmers introduced the priest Scott to him, one day on the street. Dr. Love looked at him from head to foot, and then turning to Dr. Chalmers said, 'Get thee behind me, Satan,' and walked away!"

"Who is your most celebrated preacher now, since Dr. Chalmers has left this Scottish Corinth to reside in its Athens? I have heard a great deal of the Independent divine, Dr. Wardlaw, the renowned antagonist of Socinianism."

"Dr. Wardlaw is a man among a thousand. But there's an unco distinction between Dr. Chalmers and him. Dr. Chalmers is like an American river, which, though its shores be rough and rugged, rolls on in its ain magnificence-and you in listening to him may be compared to an Indian in his canoe, marvelling whare the mighty flood comes from, until you are caught in the current, and go whirling in amazement down the rapids-but Dr. Wardlaw is like a stilly lake, surrounded wi' enchanting scenery, whare every thing is in perfect keeping, and lovely symmetry-and whan his musical voice comes upon your ear like the tinkling o' a silver bell, its like the breathings o' a lute heard in such a scene on a summer's eve, melting the soul into a heavenly delectableness!"

"Is Dr. Wardlaw a great favourite with his own people?"

"Oh, an idol, a perfect idol! have ye a pocket telescope about ye? ye needna mind—I was gaun to show you his chapel, but then ye may think that it requires a telescope to see the dissenters in this city. But do ye see Georges' kirk with its tall steeple? weel, whan that kirk was building, the builders carried awa' the rubbish, and laid it down in an auld quarry, which they covered over. Weel, in that vera quarry was Dr. Wardlaw's chapel built, and great trouble it gave the builders to get a right foundation. Dr. Wardlaw was holding forth in a company o' clericals about it, when one o' them said, 'Ye see, Doctor, how difficult it is to found Independancy! Oh, yes,' replied the Doctor, but we just cleared away the rubbish of the Establishment, and founded it on a rock?"

"But if ye just saw the worthy Doctor gaun up the pulpit stairs! Ye see the pulpit stairs are lang winding anes, in the view o' the hale congregation-and when he is ready to come out, the beneril body (that's what ye call a sexton) makes his appearance, a perfect verisimilitude o' the Doctor himsel, and he trips up the pulpit stairs with the Bible balanced on his finger and his thumb, sae easy and graceful that ye admire the body→→then out comes the Doctor, and he ascends sae meekly and venerable, and classic-like, that I have mony a time thought he was the father o' the Graces. He reads his sermons, like Dr. Chalmers, but there is nae 2 Q

VOL. XI.

ither resemblance. Oh, Dr. Wardlaw has every word in the right place, and every accent on the right word, and brings out his reasonings sac clearly and powerfully, that, in my mind, if his sweet voice was stronger he wud be a finished model o' elegant style and beautiful enunciation." "Has the Doctor a large congregation ?"

"Not a very large congregation, for though Glasgow be the head quar ters of Independancy in Scotland, they are few in number, compared with the other dissenters. Indeed, the Independants have only sprung up in our country within these last thirty years, and the Doctor and gude auld Greville Ewing may be said to be the nursing father and mother o' them. Greville himsel is a learned body, and got the title of D.D. or LL.D. or something or other, but he'll not allow himsel to be called Doctor or Reverend, but just plain mister, preacher o' the Gospel. But doctor is a vera

gude handle to a body's name, and Doctor Wardlaw kens that, though be wears it, he says, out o' compliment to the university that gave him it. The Seceders are a large and numerous class, and Dr. Wardlaw was a Seceder in his youth. At the head o' them stands Dr. Dick, (it was his daughter that the daft minister o' London made a fule of,) and Dr. Mitchell, but their most popular preacher is wee Hugh Heugh, though he is just a plain reverend. Hugh is a clever body, and fires away with such energetic pop, pop, pop, that he is quite a favourite with the matter-of-fact folk, that prefer cutting to the point at once, instead o' following Chalmers in his eagle flight, or seeking for scriptural pearls in Wardlaw's diving-bell." "Are there any symptoms in Glasgow of that fanatical spirit which has been manifested in other places?"

The young man immediately knitted his heavy hrows, and assumed a dark and frowning aspect, while he pettishly replied, "The Scotch have too much common sense, I assure you, to be imposed on by fanaticism."

Afraid that the garrulous flow of information would be suddenly checked, I soothingly replied, "My good Sir, the general character of the Scotch is superior to the charge of fanaticism, and if every one in their respective stations manifested the same improvement of their opportunities as you do, I could hardly credit the charge at all.”

This personal compliment not only smoothed the brows, but raised a slight flush on the sallow check, and he good-naturedly said, "Indeed, Sir, I must grant that a few enthusiasts have appeared amang us, but I am not acquainted with any of them."

"But a person of your observation might have picked up a little information on the subject which might be interesting to a stranger."

"That's true. But still I ken little about the new religious will-o'-the wisps. There was an auld body called Neil Douglas, who was once a minister in the kirk o' Scotland, that turned a Universalist, and he was the chaplain o' all the pot drinking, half-intelligent, political religionists o' the working classes, and used to preach regular seditious sermons. One of his flock, an auld daft weaver o' the name of Donald or Davie Ross, set up a preaching and prophesying shop of his ain, and I was really surprised to see the number that attended him. I heard him with my own ears declare that though he was a puir emaciated mechanic, he was set up by the Lord to raise his voice like a trumpet (and he shouted tremendously,) against the abominations of the land-that in two years the whore Jezebel, (the kirk of Scotland) would be burned with fire; that the only way to escape the general destruction coming upon the human race, was to " come over to us!' He made a convert of a red-haired, raw-boned young weaver, who became his assistant chaplain, and these two carried

on a number of tricks during the period previous to the set time for the commencement of the great destruction, and when it arrived, after a Sabbath day spent in mummery and folly, they suddenly disappeared, and were heard of no more. But," continued the young man, evidently trying to escape from an unpleasant subject," you have been taking nae notice of our grand Royal Infirmary, with its glass dome, placed alang side of this venerable pile, as if to show that religion and mercy are identified together, and that modern architecture can compete with the auld. Look, Sir, look are your eyes gude?-do ye see that big, ungainly, rolling man ?to be sure he is just a dwarf from this height this will be his day o' visiting the Infirmary-do ye see him, Sir?"

"I do what is he ?"

"Oh, Sir, that's the PROTESTANT! Eh, but he gave the kingdom o' Antichrist a sair shake, and noo he gangs by nae other name than the Protestant.' Ye ken him, I suppose?"

"I have heard a good deal of his writings, but should feel obliged by a little information respecting him.".

"Oh, I'm quite weel acquainted with him-no to say that I'm making a brag o't, either, for ye see, to tell the real truth, I only used to be sent bits o' messages till him. But have ye seen the kirk o' the Papists doun yonner, fronting the Clyde? In my puir taste, it's as grand a specimen o' the modern Gothic as ye'll see in the island, wi' St. Andrew hauding his auld fashioned face up in the front, as if he had belanged to the Babylonish witch! Set them up, indeed! I suppose they were tired waiting on St. Mungo giving them back their ain, as they hae the impudence to call this auld biggin, and then, out o' spite, they built that costly affair, as if to mak a fule o' us, and our Presbyterian barn order o' architecture. And what do ye think a priest said to a famous ruling elder, that telled him his kirk was the mother o' harlots? Why,' says the impudent fallow, that never kenned what it was to hae his fireside lightened up with the smiles o' a bonnie wife, says he, we don't deny the title, for many a modest ma tron has had to suffer the grievous and afflicting trial of her daughters turning harlots, and the Protestant Churches are the wandering and deluded daughters of holy mother church! But Willie M'Gavin proved her to be such a limmer, that if she had a spark of shame, wud have turned her black in the face. Oh, Willie is a clever fallow."

"What were the circumstances which originated the publication of the Protestant ?"

"Ye see, Willie M'Gavin and Captain Gordon, (who is as gude a gun. ner, I daresay, as ever bombarded the rotten hulk o' Rome,) started the idea of the Roman Catholic Schools, and of course the idea was mightily approved of. It cam about that an Oratorio was to be sung in the Roman kirk for the benefit o' these schools, and it was just a fit place to sing the doctrines o' our common faith to profane Italian skirlets. Weel, a paragraph appears in the papers, stating that the respectable company assembled paid alike respect to the subject and the place. Think o' that, under the very nose o' our motto to our coat o' arms, Glasgow shall flourish by the preaching of the word.' But Willie writes a letter to the newspaper man, and lets him ken that the stanes and wood of the Roman kirk was nae mair holy than its neighbours the Bottle-wark or the Town's hospital, So that began a controversy that wasna settled in a day, or without a trifle o' sillar."

A short silence now ensued, for my young friend seemed willing to give his obliging tongue a little repose, and I was engaged in surveying the

Vale of Clyde, the Cathkin Braes, the Campsie hills, Paisley, with its smoke-emitting furnaces, mimicking the darkness of the coal metropolitan, Ben Lomond in the distance, and even the mountains of Arran, the tops of which were visible. A shrill screetch broke upon my ear, and disturbed my reverie. It came from within, and as we cocked our ears to listen, we distinctly heard the words, "Are ye gaun to be a' day up there!" My friend seemed to feel a little annoyed; but we descended in silence, and after a ramble round the churchyard, a walk about the wooded eminence on the summit of which the statue of John Knox is planted, and a partial inspection of the Royal Infirmary, we parted, but not until I made the young man (with whom I had contracted such a gossiping familiarity,) promise to call on me before I left the city. c. o...

(To be continued.)

REVIEW.

The Divine Authority and Perpetual Obligation of the Lord's Day, in Seven Sermons. By Daniel Wilson, A. M. 1831.

We know not any subject of controversy more important, in a practical point of view, than the one, which has been recently revived as a matter of discussion-the authority and sanctity of the Lord's Day. Whether we consider it as a claim, by a perpetual ordinance, upon the part of HIM who is the Lord of the Sabbath, or as a permanent and never ceasing intimation to man of his duty and his privileges that he is possessed of higher interests than those of time, that he must place his happiness in communion with God; whether we regard it as conducive in the individual to the formation of habits of devotion and spiritual feeling, or in the community to the enforcement of order, decorum, and propriety, in all these and unnumbered other points of view, the consideration of the observance of the Sabbath is of prime importance. We can indeed scarcely say, that we regret the revival of the controversy connected with this topic, as we think that great good is produced by a frequent revision of the arguments upon such a subject, and an exhibition of the weight and magnitude of the observance; but we do sincerely regret, that the impugners of this solemn duty and privilege should be found, not merely among the eccentric separatists from all communions, but enthroned in the dignities and supported by the influence of the Established Church. Whether the profane learning which our clergy receive, we may venture to say, in larger proportion than the ministers of dissenting bodies, or the independence they enjoy of the opinions of their flocks, or the laxity of discipline in the Establishment, whether any or all of them be the exciting cause we know not; but certain it is, that of many of the errors, and many of the eccentricities of the present day, received and fostered by some of the Established Church, our dissenting brethren are guiltless, and that among them the errors propagated by Mr. Irving's school, various as they are, have been but coldly received. But we rejoice to say, that a spirit of firmness to meet and to confute these errors, has also been found in the Establishment, and that the ill-advised speculations on the Sabbath, whether proceeding from the erratic wanderings of the voluntary seceder, or the master of St. Albans,