Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 9.djvu/149

Rh duties of a minister, to have his office conjoined with any other pursuit. And now the time and occasion had arrived when he must boldly step forward and speak out. In 1823, the Rev. Dr. Taylor, principal of the university of Glasgow died, and the Rev. Dr. Macfarlan, minister of Drymen, was appointed to succeed to the office. And few were better fitted to occupy that important charge, which he still so worthily adorns. But, hitherto, the principal of the college had also been minister of St. Mungo's, or the High parish of Glasgow, and it seemed a matter of course that Dr. Macfarlan should hold both livings conjointly, to which he was appointed accordingly. It was the gentlest form in which plurality had ever appeared in Scotland, for both charges were in the same city, while the one, it was thought, could not infringe upon the duties of the other. But to Dr. Macgill it appeared far otherwise. By the statutes of the college, the principal was bound to superintend its secular affairs, and teach theology, which was a task sufficient for any one man; and thus the holder would be compelled either to give half-duty to both offices, or reduce one of them to a sinecure. It was upon these arguments that Dr. Macgill opposed the double induction. It was a stern and severe trial that thus devolved upon one who had hitherto been such a lover of peace; and it was harder still, that his opposition must be directed against one who was thenceforth, let the result be what it might, to become his daily colleague as well as official superior. Many in his situation would have contented themselves with a simple non liquet, whispered with bated breath, and thought their vote a sufficient testimony of their principles. Superior, however, to such considerations, and anticipating the great controversy that would be at issue upon the subject, Dr. Macgill, several months before it took place, brought the question before the senate of the university, and finding that his learned brethren would not coincide with him, he had entered, in the college records, his protest against the induction. In the keen debates that afterwards followed upon the subject in the presbytery of Glasgow, the synod of Glasgow and Ayr, and at last the General Assembly, to which it was carried for final adjudication, Dr. Macgill assumed the leadership; and few, even of his most intimate friends, were prepared for that masterly eloquence which he exhibited at the first step of the controversy. In taking his chief ground upon the argument of the responsibility of city ministers, and the immense amount of labour which they had to undergo, especially in such a city as Glasgow, he invoked his brethren of the presbytery in language that was long afterwards felt and remembered. The question, as is well known, was lost by the evangelical party; and the union of the offices of principal of the university of Glasgow, and minister of the church and parish of St. Mungo was confirmed, as well as the continuance of plurality sanctioned. But this was only a last effort. The opposition which Dr. Macgill so boldly and bravely commenced, had aroused the popular feeling so universally upon the subject, as to command the respect of the government; and the Royal Commission, which was afterwards appointed for visiting the universities of Scotland, confirmed the popular expression. Let us trust that the evil thus denounced and banished, will never again find an entrance into our national church.

Besides his hostility to ecclesiastical plurality, Dr. Macgill was decidedly opposed to patronage, and earnest for its abrogation. He did not, however, go the whole length of his brethren in advocating the rights of popular suffrage. On the contrary, he was opposed to merely popular elections, and