cable. I opened the door, and saw, to my profound astonishment, the Rev. Dr. Heugh, of Glasgow, whose acquaintance I had been so happy as to make a few weeks before, and whom, with reason, I had learned to esteem and love. What had brought him there? How knew he that I had arrived, that I was in that house and that apartment? What could he want of me so early? Why so earnest and thundering? Really, I was almost afraid to inquire, lest some bad news from home, or portent horrible of another kind was now to transpire. To my wonder and dismay, he answered, There is a great public breakfast at Waterloo Hall this morning, on the subject of Dissent and Establishments. All our friends are there, and waiting for you. They are quite rejoiced that they may be availed of your testimony-expect a speech on the occasion-can't take No for an answer; so I have come for you, my dear friend, and can not return without you. Much as I loved Dr. Heugh and appreciated his amicable assault, I felt as if it could not be endured-it was so inconvenient, so incongruous to all my plans. I was fasting, needed the razor, had to make an entire toilet, lacked time, had all my hours pre-engaged, and besides, felt the fatigues of miscellaneous travel and irregularity. But, said he, Go at it. I have ordered your breakfast sent you; in about twenty minutes I shall return for you. So be lively, my dear friend, and meet the exigence, as I know you can. I surrendered, like Washington at Fort Necessity, and in half an hour entered the hall with my brotherly guide. What a breakfast! Three hundred dissenting clergymen, with about fifty distinguished laymen, men of renown in Athens, writers to the Signet, learned in the law, honored in the reviews, versant in all literature, eminent and worthy in the Church; and of all denominations-Presbyterians, Baptists, Congregationalists, Methodists, Episcopalians, and the representatives of almost all others that were opposed to the Scottish Establishment. They were all seated at three or four 48 PUBLIC BREAKFAST. tables, parallel, and extending the whole length of the spacious area, except one at the further end, running across, at the centre of which sat their chairman, the venerable Dr. Peddie, supported by a host of vice-chairmen, as I apprehended them, on his right and on his left. As we entered, the whole company rose, and commenced a clapping welcome, loud, long, and in full concert. I knew it was not to me personal, but the cause to which, in their own way, they would commit me. So borne along, I was introduced to the chairman, who thus addressed me, as I breathed their stimulating atmosphere, heard their noise, and stood not perfectly tranquil, in the midst of them, the object of their concentrated expectation. We welcome you, dear sir, to our company on this occasion. I occupy this chair, because my brethren here would put me in it, and not because I am fit for the service, or worthy of the honor. I can not make a speech, but you can, and we all desire to hear one from you. We are endeavoring to do for Scotland what has been done long ago for happier America; to divorce the Church and the State, rendering to Casar the things that are Cæsar's, and to God the things that are God's. On this point, we are all in a ferment now in Edinburgh. Some think that you Americans are all going to hell, for want of an establishment; we think rather you are all going in the opposite direction, through grace, because you are not cursed with it. But we want facts, and you can give them to us. America is, just now, a great topic with us; and hence we were so glad when it was announced that you were here, and could give us your testimony, as well as your information, to the truth. We therefore despatched our beloved friend, Dr. Heugh, for you, and rejoice that his mission has been so successful. Permit me, then, dear sir, to welcome you here, and to ask you freely to say to us whatever you can or will, for we are a free meeting. I rejoined in brief, told them facts, remarked on my relations as a stranger, and refused to make a partisan cause with them or others; much as I coincided with them in sentiment, much as I loved my own country, and wished devoutly well to theirs. A foreigner abroad ought always to refrain from intermeddling with political affairs, especially in the country he visits, and where he is generously welcomed and entertained. A busy-body in other men's matters is classed in the Scriptures with an evildoer, a thief, and even with a murderer. And though it is an evil, which, as Americans, we are quite habituated to endure from others, some foreigners who visit us having the manners most offensively and remorselessly to enact it; yet, as two wrongs will not make a right, we ought to be better bred, if others are not, than to copy so bad an example. The vice of pragmaticalness, against communities or individuals, is ever associated with arrogance and sordid principles. Hence I stood on my own convictions of propriety, and refused to go a campaign against the advocates of ecclesiastical establishments, or to fight the battles of another hemisphere, even with those whose principles I approved and preferred. But a personal remorse influenced me. They were covering the name of Chalmers with inundations of abuse. He was the only peg, they said, that kept the deleterious and ruinating system from lapsing to its own destruction. Indeed, after attending that meeting of furious Reformers, and sympathizing with their fury not at all, I felt almost bereft of a good conscience, and as disqualified to face fraternally that distinguished person, and others of his sympathy, who deserved my affectionate regard. One curious fact amused me—the Episcopalians there are all terrible dissenters! The establishment north of the Tweed is Presbyterian alone. Consequently, the prelatists, with their meeting-houses and their chapels, are there at a discount; as are all their mitres, crosiers, and vestments, among the Knoxian and Presbyterian Churches. Hence, in their dissenting agitations, they herd with all the others; they debate C 50 CHURCHMEN IN SCOTLAND. and vote, and vociferate with them, use and appropriate their arguments, endorse and adopt their principles, and make common cause, if not catholic display, with them, as brethren in adversity. One of them, a loud-spoken clerk at that meeting, in converse with me after its adjournment, denounced the principle and the policy of establishments, with singular virulence against the character and agency of Chalmers. I remonstrated-You are opposed, my friend, only because you are north of the Tweed. At the South, you would, I suspect, become a Conservative. You are aware that in London Chalmers is honored and quoted by ministers, peers, royal dukes, princes of the blood, and all the pyramid of clergy. How then can you speak at this rate against establishments, simply because you live in North Britain? He rejoined No such thing! I hate the whole affair, here and every where. On that point, I go the entire figure with you, and am quite an American. On the anticipated evening, as I left the mansion of a friend, late in the afternoon, for that of Chalmers, I had the satisfaction to see it begin to rain, arriving through the drops at his door. The rain increased, and became at once our protection, and an assurance of privacy in the projected interview. It was truly memorable, as well as useful and delightful. The hours flew over it on golden pinions; and at a late hour, if not rather an early one, I returned contented in the rain to the hotel. Our topics have been already indicated. Chalmers threw himself on the sofa, supine and at ease; and exemplifying the kind good-nature that his manners inspired in others, cozy and confiding, he began the conversation about America. Our country, at that time, was more a riddle and a wonder than it is now, in all the British islands. It was before the steamnavigation had been either established or generally considered practicable. Of course, we were not then such near neighbors as now. The Atlantic was then the mighty and insu STEAM POWERS AND PROSPECTS. 51 perable barrier to all neighborly intercourse; almost realizing the prudent day-dream of Horace-which we may view as the gnomon of all the geographic wisdom of the Augustan Age; marking the prodigious advances of science and civilization in eighteen centuries—that the ocean was ordained by Heaven on purpose to curb the presumption of mankind, and keep the opposite shores of continents separated and dissociable. Nequidquam Deus abscidit Prudens oceano dissociabili Non tangenda rates transiliunt vada. We no longer think it impious to sail any where, or even to circumnavigate the globe; we know, as they did not, that the world is a globe; we bridge the ocean with sociable steam; we give news to the world, and make the lightnings bear our messages through and over it; we shall soon talk with the antipodes as our neighbors, and the very ocean shall imbosom and protect the metallic conductors of our communicated thought; and not curses, but blessings, shall be interchanged and propagated through all the related and pacificated habitations of mankind. The ignorance of our country, which has often astonished and amused our countrymen traveling in England, yet remains, in many places, like a huge iceberg floating toward the equator, with only some of its rough coating melted and flowing in the solar rays; an iceberg still, though destined to dissolve in warmer latitudes, as it approaches their clear and balmy atmosphere. Some of the remarks of Chalmers were singular in this relation, but very corrigible and kind, and, as entertaining and curious, I give them here. If any of his countrymen were prejudiced, or contracted, or invidious toward us, none of these sordid attributes belong to him. He was a noble of the realm of God; and magnanimity belonged at once to his capacity, to his discipline, to his habits, to his |