with the demand, he can find no acceptance; and that, though he should comply, acceptance gained through the medium of bribery will lead to no pure or desirable influence on the character of the population. In this unfortunate contest, each will, in all likelihood, believe the other to be a hypocrite; the one incurring this suspicion because of the way in which the legal hardihood of the deacon stands in awkward and unseemly conjunction upon the same individual, with the apparent zeal and sincerity of the elder; and the other incurring this suspicion, because of the way in which a sordid desire after things secular is mingled, in the same exhibition, with a seeming deference to things sacred. It is thus that the pluralist feels himself paralysed into utter helplessness; and never was public functionary more cruelly hampered than by this association of duties, which are altogether so discordant. There is no place for the still small voice of Christian friendship, in such an atmosphere of recrimination, and heart-burning, and mutual jealousy, as now encompasses the ministration of charity in our great towns. To import the English principle of pauperism among the kirksessions of Scotland is like putting new wine into old bottles. It so mangles and lacerates an eldership, as to dissipate all the moral ascendancy they once had over our population. It is ever to be regretted that such a ministration as this should have been inserted between the two parties. No subtle or Satanic adversary of religion could have devised a more skilful barrier against all the usefulness and effect of these lay associates of the clergy and, as the fruit of this melancholy transformation, a class of men, who have contributed so much to build up and sustain our national character, will be as good as swept away from the land. Christian and Economic Polity of a Nation.

IX. SECTION IV. § 3. Distinction between the Natural and Political Difficulties of the Problem of Pauperism.

Now, that a compulsory provision for the poor has been established; and that the great unwieldy corporation of the state must be moved, ere any step can be taken towards the abolition of it; and that the subordinate courts of administration, in every parish, have sunk and settled into the obstinacy of an old practical habit, in all their proceedings-there is a host of political difficulties that must be met and overcome, not ere it can be proved with what certainty the people, when left to themselves, will find their own way to their own comfort and VOL. XXI.

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independence, but ere the measure shall be carried of actually leaving the people to themselves. We think that there is no natural difficulty which stands in the way of the success o such an experiment, if tried; but we feel that there are many political difficulties in the way of putting the experiment to the trial. We hold it a practicable thing, to conduct any parish, either in a city or in the country, to the old economy of a Scottish parish, on the strength of an arrangement which we shall afterwards endeavour to set, in more detailed exposition, before our readers; and that there is no impediment on the parochial field, which is the real theatre of the experiment, in the way of a final and looked for success. The struggle is not with the population, for obtaining the success of the arrangement; but the struggle is with our legislature and our municipalities, for obtaining the arrangement itself. The place

of most formidable resistance is not in the outer, but the inner department of this business; and the occasion of it is, when, in the hall of deliberation, the attempt is made to break up our existing artificial economy, and thus to prevail over the dislike and the prejudices of hacknied functionaries, and to carry that nearly impregnable front, wherewith all novelty is sure to be withstood, by the clerks, and the conveners, and the committeemen, of an old establishment. The battle is not with the natural difficulties of the problem, but with its political difficulties-not with the laws of human nature, as to be found in the parish where the experiment is made, but with the tendencies of human nature, as exhibited on that arena of public discussion and debate where the experiment is proposed. In the work of abolishing legalised charity, the heaviest conflict will not be with the natural poverty of the lower orders, but with that pride of argument, and that tenacity of opinion, and all those political feelings and asperities which obtain among the higher orders. In short, we hold that there is nothing in the condition of the people which opposes a barrier against the abolition of all legal and compulsory pauperism; but that there is a very strong initial barrier in the condition of our laws, and courts, and long established usages. In the practical solution of the question of public charity, the recipients will not be found so difficult of management as the lawgivers and administrators. There is a method by which might be effected, and almost without difficulty, the abolition of public charity among o ir plebeians-but the consent of our patricians must be obtained, ere we are free to put the method into operation: and what we affirm is, that it is a greater achievement to obtain leave and liberty for using the method, than to obtain success for the method itself; or, in other words, that the great impediment to the removal of this sore national dis

temper, lies not among the plebeians, but among the patricians of the commonwealth.-Christian and Economic Polity of a Nation.

X. SECTION IV. § 8.—Letter to the Lord Provost of

Glasgow.

Glasgow, August 3rd, 1819.

My Lord, When I received the intimation of my appointment as minister of St. John's, it gave me sincere pleasure to be informed, at the same time, that a letter written by myself to Mr. Ewing was read to the magistrates and council previous to my election, as it gave me the flattering assurance that the leading objects adverted to in that letter met with the approbation of the honourable body over which your Lordship presides. In that letter I adverted to the wish I had long entertained, and which is publicly enough known by other channels, for a separate and independent management, on the part of my session, of the fund raised by collections at the church door, and with which fund I propose to take the management of all the existing sessional poor within our bounds, and so to meet the new applications for relief, as never to add to the general burden of the city by the ordinary poor of the parish of St. John's. And I here beg it to be distinctly understood, that I do not consider the revenue of the kirk-session to be at all applicable to those extraordinary cases which are produced by any sudden and unlooked-for depression in the state of our manufactures; nor, if ever there shall be a call for pecuniary aid on this particular ground, do I undertake to provide for it out of our ordinary means, but will either meet it by a parochial subscription, or by taking a full share of any such general measure as may be thought expedient under such an emergency. Your Lordship will not fail to observe, that if the new cases of ordinary pauperism accumulate upon us in the rate at which they have done formerly, they would soon overtake our present collections. And yet my confidence in a successful result is not at all founded on the expected magnitude of my future collections, but upon the care and attention with which the distribution of the fund will be conducted; a care and an attention which I despair of ever being able to stimulate effectually till I obtain an arrangement by which my session shall be left to square its own separate expenditure by its own separate and peculiar resources. At the same time, I can also, with such an arrangement, stimulate more effectually than before the liberality of my congregation; and with this twofold advantage, I am hopeful not merely of being able to overtake

the whole pauperism of St. John's, but of leaving a large surplus applicable to other objects connected with the best interests of the population in that district of the city. What I propose to do with the surplus is, to apply it as we are able to the erection and endowment of parochial schools, for the purpose of meeting our people, not with gratuitous education, but with good education on the same terms at which it is had in country parishes. My reason for troubling your Lordship with this intimation is, that I require the sanction of the heritors of the parish ere I can allocate any part of the sum raised by collections in this way. Without this sanction, I shall make no attempt to stimulate the liberality of my congregation beyond what is barely necessary for the expenses of pauperism; with this sanction I shall have the best of all arguments by which to stimulate the liberality of my hearers, and the care of my distributors, and (most important of all) the zealous co-operation even of the poorest among my people, who will easily be persuaded to observe a moderation in their demands, when they find it stands associated with a cause so generally dear to them as the education of their families. There is another object which I shall not press immediately, but which your Lordship will perceive to be as necessary for the protection of the other parishes of Glasgow as of my own, and that is, that the law of residence shall take effect between my parish and the other parishes of the city; I am quite willing that every other parish shall have protection by this law from the ingress of my poor, in return for the protection of my parish from the ingress of theirs. It is practically the simplest of all things to put this into operation from the very outset; but I mention it now chiefly with a view to be enabled to remind your Lordship, when it comes to be applied for afterwards, that it is not because of any unlooked-for embarrassment that I make the application, but in pursuance of a right and necessary object which even now I have in full contemplation. I shall only conclude with assuring your Lordship, that nothing will give me greater pleasure than to transmit from time to time the state of our progress in the parish of St. John's respecting all the objects alluded to in this communication; and that I hold myself subject to the same inspection and control from you, as the heritors of my parish, which the law assigns to the heritors of other parishes. A deed of consent and approbation relative to the various points that have now been submitted through your Lordship to the magistrates and council, will very much oblige,

My Lord, your Lordship's most obliged and obedient servant, THOMAS CHALMERS.

-Evidence before the Commons' Committee.

XI. SECTION IV. § 10.-Directory of procedure for the Deacons of St. John's.

When one applies for admittance, through his deacon, upon our funds, the first thing to be inquired into is, if there be any kind of work that he can yet do, so as either to keep him altogether off, or, as to make a partial allowance serve for his necessities. The second, what his relations and friends are willing to do for them. The third, whether he is a hearer in any dissenting place of worship, and whether its Session will contribute to his relief. And, if, after these previous inquiries, it be found, that further relief is necessary, then there must be a strict ascertainment of his term of residence in Glasgow, and whether he be yet on the funds of the Town Hospital, or is obtaining relief from any other parish.

If, upon all these points being ascertained, the deacon of the proportion where he resides, still conceives him an object for our assistance, he will inquire whether a small temporary aid will meet the occasion, and state this to the first ordinary meeting. But, if instead of this, he conceives him a fit subject for a regular allowance, he will receive the assistance of another deacon to complete and confirm his inquiries, by the next ordinary meeting thereafter, at which time, the applicant, if they still think him a fit object, is brought before us, and received upon the fund at such a rate of allowance as, upon all the circumstances of the case, the meeting of deacons shall judge proper.-Present State and Future Prospects of Pauperism in Glasgow.

XII. SECTION IV. § 12.-Utopianism of Practical Men.

There is a stubborn incredulity, which, however widely it may appear to differ, is, in some respects, very much at one with sanguine Utopianism. It is true, that the same magnificence which captivates the latter, is that which is regarded by the former with derision and distrust. So that while the one is easily lured to a chimerical enterprise, and just because the object of it is great, it is this very greatness which freezes the other into hopeless and impracticable apathy. Yet both agree, in that they take a direct and instantaneous impression from the object itself, and are alike heedless of the immediate means by which it may be accomplished. It is thus, that the splendid visionary is precipitated from his aerial flight, because he over