Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 4.djvu/189

Rh merce and privileges. Lord Cullen was a warm friend to the church of Scotland, a inaintainer of its pristine purity, and of what is more essential than the form, or even the doctrine of any church, the means of preserving its moral influence on the character and habits of the people "He was," says Wodrow, "very useful for the executing of the laws against immorality." The power of the judicature of a nation over its morality, is a subject to which he seems to have long paid much attention. We find him, in the year 1700, publishing a tract entitled, "A brief account of the Rise, Nature, and Progress of the Societies for the Reformation of manners, &c. in England, with a preface exhorting the use of such Societies in Scotland." This pamphlet embodies an account of the institution and regulation of these societies, by the Rev. Josiah Woodward, which the publisher recommends should be imitated in Scotland. The subject is a delicate and difficult one to a person who looks forward to a strict and impartial administration of the law as a judge, a duty which it is dangerous to combine with that of a discretionary censor morum; but, as a private individual, he proposes, as a just and salutary restraint, that such societies should "pretend to no authority or judicatory power, but to consult and endeavour, in subserviency to the magistracy, to promote the execution of the law, by the respective magistrates;" a species of institution often followed by well-meaning men, but which is not without danger. This tract is curious from its having been published for gratis distribution, and as perhaps the earliest practically moral tract which was published for such a purpose in Scotland. The strict religious feeling of the author afterwards displays itself in a pamphlet, called " A short History of the Sabbath, containing some few grounds for its morality, and cases about its observance; with a brief answer to, or anticipation of, several objections against both;" published in 1705. This production aims its attacks at what the author says are improperly termed the innocent recreations of the Sabbath. It has all the qualifications which are necessary to make it be received within the strictest definition of a polemical pamphlet : authorities are gathered together from all quarters of the world; the sacred text is abundantly adduced; and laboured parallels are introduced, in some cases where there is little doubt of the application, in others where it is somewhat difficult to discover it. Controversial tracts are frequently the most interesting productions of any age : they are the ebullition of the feeling of the time. Called out, generally, by the excitement of a critical state of affairs, and unguarded by the thought and reflection bestowed on a lengthened work, they are, next to speeches accurately reported, the best evidence posterity possesses of the character of a public writer. Those which we have already referred to are anonymous; but we have every reason to believe they have been attributed to the proper quarter ; and before we leave the subject, we shall take the liberty of referring to one more tract, which we happened to pick up in the same situation, on a subject which, some years ago, deeply occupied the attention of the public, in a position converse to that in which it was presented to the subject of our memoir. The pamphlet is directed against the restoration of church patronage; and it will be remarked that, from the date of its publication, 1703, it appeared several years previously to the passing of the dreaded measure; it is entitled, "Reasons in defence of the standing Laws about the right of Presentation in Patronages, to be offered against an Act (in case it be) presented, for the alteration thereof: by a member of Parliament" The same spirit of acute legal reasoning on rights and property, and the means by which they are affected, to be found in his arguments on the revolution, here, perhaps with better taste, characterize the author; and they are, at all events, merely the conventional colouring of sound and liberal views maintained with discretion and propriety.