Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 4.djvu/288

30 The letters of Stuart on the subject, have been carefully collected by D'Israeli, and published in his "Calamities of Authors," and when coupled with such traces of the influence of the persecutor as are to be found scattered here and there among the various periodicals of the age, furnish us with the painful picture of a man of intelligence and liberality, made a fiend by literary hate. Stuart commenced his dark work in the "Edinburgh Magazine and Review," established under his auspices in 1773. Dr Henry had preached before the Society (in Scotland) for Promoting Christian Knowledge, a sermon entitled "Revelation the most effectual means of civilizing and reforming mankind," and in pursuance of the custom on such occasions, the sermon was published. The sermon was as similar to all others of its class, as any given piece of mechanism can be to all others intended for similar purposes; but Stuart discovered audacity in the attempt, and unexpected failure in the execution ; it required " the union of philosophy and political skill, of erudition and eloquence, qualities which he was sorry to observe appeared here in no eminent degree." Dr Macqueen published a letter in an anonymous form, defending the sermon, and the hidden literary assassin boldly maintained it to be the work of Dr Henry, an accusation not withdrawn till the respectable author announced himself to the world. Dr Henry was soon after appointed by the magistrates to the situation of morning lecturer to the Tron church. Under the disguise of the communication of a correspondent, who mildly hints that the consequence of the proceeding will be a suit against the magistrates, we find the rounded periods of Stuart denouncing the act in those terms in which indignant virtue traces the mazes of vice and deceit, as u affording a precedent from which the mortifications of the pious, may be impiously prostituted to uses to which they were never intended." In token of high respect, the General Assembly had chosen Dr Henry as their moderator, on his first return as a member of that venerable body; and being thus marked out as a leader in the affairs of the church, he took a considerable share in the proceedings of the ensuing session. Here his enemy keeps an unsleeping eye on his motions. Whilst the speeches of others are unnoticed or reported in their native simplicity, the narrator prepares himself for the handling of a choice morsel when he approaches the historian. "The opinion of one member," he observes, "we shall lay before the reader, on account of its singularity. It is that of Dr Henry, the moderator of last assembly;" and then he proceeds to attract the finger of scorn towards opinions as ordinary as any opinions could well be conceived. The Doctor cannot even absent himself from a meeting without the circumstance being remarked, and a cause assigned which will admit the application of a preconcerted sneer. Dr Robertson was the opponent of Dr Henry in this assembly. The periodical writer was the enemy of both, and his ingenuity has been taxed to bestow ridicule on both parties. Stuart at length slowly approaches the head and front of his victim's offending, and fixes on it with deadly eagerness. After having attacked the other vulnerable points of the author, he rushes ravenously on his history, and attempts its demolition. He finds that the unfortunate author "neither furnishes entertainment nor instruction. Diffuse, vulgar, and ungrammatical, he strips history of all her ornaments. His concessions are evidently contradictory to his conclusions. It is thus perpetually with authors who examine subjects which they cannot comprehend. He has amassed all the refuse and lumber of the times he would record." "The mind of his readers is affected with no agreeable emotions, it is awakened only to disgust