Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 8.djvu/191

Rh offices, as that with which the Articles of Union insuring the independence of the Scottish Kirk were thus treated, would have sufficed to dispossess no small portion of the English nobility, and dry up hundreds of title deeds into blank parchment. But on this occasion the dint of the argument fell not upon knights and nobles, whom it would have been dangerous to disturb, but upon Scottish presbyters, of whom sufferance had been the distinctive badge since the day that James VI. entered England. The aggressors and the aggrieved were equally aware that the days of Drumclog and Bothwell Bridge had passed away with the buff-coats and partisans of the seventeenth century, and therefore, while the one party assailed, the other were prepared to defend themselves, according to peaceful modern usage. The war of argument and remonstrance had ended, and the overpowered but not vanquished Church must rally and intrench itself according to the plan laid down at the beginning of the campaign. It was now, therefore, that Dr. Chalmers was doubly busy. When he announced his financial plan at the convocation, by which the retiring Church was to be supported in all its former integrity, his brethren had demurred about the possibility of its accomplishment, and now held back from the attempt. That plan was the organization of local associations, by which not only every district, but every family should be accessible, so that his vision, as they were ready to deem it, of ₤100,000 per annum for the support of the ministry alone, might be accumulated in shillings and pence. It was the trunk of the elephant handling every leaf, twig, and branch of the tree which it was commissioned to uproot. Finding himself, in the first instance, unable to convince by argument, he had recourse to example, and for this purpose he immediately instituted an association of his own in the parish of Morningside, the place of his residence. His example was followed by others; and at last a provisional committee was formed, having for its object the whole plan which he had originally proposed. It consisted of three sections, the financial, the architectural, and the statistical, of which the first was properly intrusted to himself, and the result of this threefold action by infinitesimal application quickly justified his theory. Local associations over the whole extent of Scotland were formed by the hundred, and contributions of money accumulated by the thousand, so that, let the disruption occur as it might, the most despondent hearts were cheered and prepared for the emergency.

The important period at length arrived that was to set the seal upon all this preparation and promise. The interval that had occurred was that awful pause of hope and fear, with which friend and enemy await a deed of such moment, that they cannot believe in its reality until it is accomplished. Would then a disruption occur in very truth, and the Church of Scotland be rent asunder? Or would Government interpose at the last hour and moment to avert so fatal a necessity ? Or might it not be, that when it came to the trial, the hearts of the men who had spoken so bravely would fail them, so that they would be ready to embrace any terms of accommodation, or even surrender at discretion? But the days of martyrdom—the chivalry of the Church—it was asserted had gone for ever; and therefore there were thousands who proclaimed their conviction to the very last that not a hundred would go out—not forty—perhaps not even one. On Thursday, the 18th of May, 1843, the General Assembly was to be opened, and the question laid to rest, while every district and nook of Scotland had poured its representatives into Edinburgh to look on and judge. Nor was that day commenced without a startling omen. The ministers of the