198 OUTCRY AGAINST PROTESTANT CHURCH. to strike a less fearsome key-for that ane jarred my heartstrings and my brain-and I was growin sick. North. Down with the Church is the cry. Shepherd. And I'm no surprised that it is-for the Church doesna deserve to staun when sic atrocities are rife beneath its shelter or its shadow, and prosper among the services of its most faithful and devoted Ministers. I never liked the Popish Church;-but then, to be sure, I am a Protestantand, what is worse, a Presbyterian bigot. North. Down with the Protestant Church in Ireland !—that is the cry. Shepherd. Fools. North. Madmen-and worse than Madmen. Knowledge is Power - Knowledge is Pleasure-Knowledge is WealthKnowledge is Virtue-Knowledge is Happiness. Shepherd. Oh! that it were! and Earth in Time might be an image of Heaven in Eternity! North. Hymns and odes-had I the genius-would I sing in praise of Knowledge-for from heaven descended the voice that said, "KNOW THYSELF.' Shepherd. Try. North. No-dumb am I at those divine words—as in presence of a spirit-as in hearing of a spirit's voice. The minds of men were kindled-and lo! the REFORMATION dawned, and in that dawn was disclosed the true aspect of the skies. And scorn we now that light-now that it has climbed high up in heaven, and far and wide spread the blessing of meridian day? Shepherd. Sir? North. Tithes, tithes, tithes-abuses, abuses, abusesare now the watchword and reply. And by whom are they yelled? Not by poor, naked, hungry, ignorant, misinstructed, superstitious savages alone; nor by the fierce and reckless agitators that drive them into convulsions—for then we could understand the folly we deplored, and the wickedness we abhorred-but by men holding the Protestant faith—of which the cardinal belief is-that all good which man can enjoy on earth must be generated by the light of the Christian religion—and that that light is in the Bible as in a Sun. Shepherd. It's an awfu' thing to think o' wide districts, sprinkled wi' touns and villages, and clachans, and thousans o' THE GREY DINNER. 199 single houses, a' crooded wi' human beins, and no ane o' them, for fear o' divine displeasure, suffered to read the Word o' God! North. Dismal. And in that land a war waged against Protestantism by Christian statesmen! The Protestant Church is the cause of all this darkness, all this distraction, all this guilt! Therefore, let its altars be desecrated-its ministers despoiled-its services destroyed-its pride brought low with all its towers-and that meek, humble, and holy faith substituted and restored, which diffused peace and goodwill to men, wide as day, from the Seven Hills on which it sat so long enthroned in simplicity, and as with an angel's voice did "indicate the ways of God to man!" Shepherd. I wush you was Prime Minister. North. -ought to have seen long before they did, that their colleagues were a gang of church-robbers. I have always admired both the men- -but I cannot comprehend how they, eagle-eyed, were stone-blind to what was visible to the very moles. Shepherd. They had unwittingly been hoodwinked-but as for moles bein' blind, you would hear a different story were you to ask the worms. North. Therefore they resigned—and all the church-robbers in the kingdom shouted aloud for joy. Shepherd. What think ye, sir, made Lord Grey resign? Was it a voluntary descent or a forced fa'? North. A little of both. Shepherd. I didna see your name, sir, in the list o' stewards: was you at the Grey Denner?1 North. Sir? Eh? What? 1 On the 15th September 1834 a grand dinner was given to Earl Grey at Edinburgh, in a pavilion erected within the area of the High School. "The dinner," says the Annual Register, "being a cold one, and therefore already laid on the tables, offered an irresistible temptation to the persons admitted; for as soon as they were seated, and long before the appearance of the chairman, there arose an almost universal clatter of knives and forks, and a general demolition of the eatables was vigorously commenced. This proceeding elicited some disapprobation. Hisses arose from different parts of the room; and a gentleman having ascended one of the tables, entreated the company to desist from mastication until the chairman had taken his place. But his appeal was 200 CHARACTER OF THE COMPANY. Shepherd. But tell me though you wasna there—was it a Failure or a Succeed? North. Much folly and falsehood, I am sorry to say, all parties are guilty of, in describing Political Meetings got up by their adversaries; and so far from thinking that we Conservatives are less liable to the charge than the Destructives, be they Whigs or Radicals, I shall not be surprised to see myself taken to task, by the low-flying Tories, for declaring that, in my opinion, the Edinburgh Dinner to Lord Grey was, on the whole, honourable to him and creditable to our Reformers. North. With ten points of scornful admiration, if you please -for I do not believe that a greater mass of ignorance, prejudice, bigotry, stupidity, and vulgarity were ever collected together under one roof. Shepherd. Dinna ye? Tickler (roused). Dishonesty and malignity. North. Two-thirds of the two thousand five hundred males there assembled were of the lowest intellectual grade, and in the meanness of their moral nature, into which not one ennobling sentiment had ever been inspired by education or experience, incapable of comprehending any one of the great principles on which is founded the stability of a Constitution in Church or State. Shepherd. Ye're speakin o' the Radicals. North. No. Of the blind leading the blind-their name is Legion, for they are many-and not a few Radicals are among them but far the greater number are Whigs. Tickler. In Edinburgh there are ten Whigs for one Radical in good society Shepherd. What ca' ye gude society? fruitless, at least to the majority of his auditors: on went the work of demolition; and in fact by the time the chair was taken, and the dinner regularly commenced, the eating was really over. The appearance of the room, when the whole company had taken their places, was very imposing. On the platform, besides the great guest of the festival, were Lord Brougham, Lord Rosebery, the Earl of Errol, Lord Lynedoch, Lord Belhaven, Lord Durham, Sir J. C. Hobhouse, Professor Arago, the Solicitor-General, Sir J. Abercromby, the Marquess of Breadalbane, Lord Stair, &c. &c. Lord Rosebery took the chair in the absence of the Duke of Hamilton, who had excused himself from attending. The Lord Advocate (Jeffrey) was croupier, supported by Lord Dinorben and the Attorney-General." A FEW EXCEPTIONS. 201 North. I presume the society of honest men. Tickler. Right. But, as regards our argument, James, I mean by good society, the society of honest men of the middle ranks for below that I fear most men at present suppose that they are Radicals—and I presume there were not many of that class at the dinner to Lord Grey. Shepherd. They had mair sense than to get up a guinea for a cauld denner and a bottle o' corked port. North. Eight hundred men-I calculate on data not to be denied by any one acquainted with Scotland-were present at that dinner, worthy to welcome to Scotland, and to Edinburgh, any Statesman. Tickler. I agree with you, North. You and I do not lay any great stress on what is called the nobility and gentry present on that occasion-for they, though respectable, were sparse; but without excluding such sprinklings-and acknowledging with pleasure the high character of the Noble Chairman-we declare that the strength of the assemblage lay in those citizens who had either raised themselves from a humble condition to what is rightly called a high—or added lustre to the condition in which they happened to have been born-by their own moral and intellectual worth-or by the endowment of genius. Shepherd. Genius? North. Yes, genius. Henry Cockburn, now a Judge—which I am glad of did not, to be sure, write the Queen's Wake— nor is Sir Thomas Dick Lauder1 the Editor of Blackwood's Magazine-nor did Andrew Skene write Adam Blair- -nor Andrew Rutherfurd the Lights and Shadows of Scottish Lifenor Robert Jamieson the Trials of Margaret Lyndsay-but have they not done far more difficult things-if not as good, or better? And think ye that the same powers that have raised them (the Painter and Poet of the great Morayshire Floods, out of politics, is one of ourselves, James, and though we need not veil our bonnets to him, we wear them in his presence but as equals) to the highest eminence in law, might not, if directed into that pleasanter channel, have won them as high a place in literature? 1 Sir T. Dick Lauder, the author of An Account of the great Morayshire Floods. The other gentlemen here mentioned were eminent Whig members of the Scotch Bar. 202 LORD GREY'S ADMIRERS. Shepherd. No in poetry, sir, no in po Tickler. Poo upon poetry! Fire away, Kit. North. The educated classes in Scotland-and I allow a wide latitude to the term educated—were much divided on the question of reform. All true Conservatives abhorred the bill -many-nay, all moderate Whigs-feared it in much-and the wildest disliked some of its most improvident provisions : it was welcomed in its reckless radicalism but by the Destructives. Shepherd. Truth uttered by Wisdom. Tickler. Therefore not even the eight hundred could have been unanimous in their approbation of the statesmanship of Lord Grey. name North. No, indeed. Not even had they been all the most violent of Whigs; but of the six hundred Whigs worthy the -for I skim away the scum-a half at least had all their lives as you well know, Tickler-deprecated such reform-a quarter of them at least had long abjured its principles-while the remaining fourth-with the exception of such men as Mr Greenshiels, and a few other grave enthusiasts-men of talent and virtue were either worthy old foggies, who took a pride in seeing doctrines triumphant in their age, which they had vainly battled for in a pedantic war of words in their youth; or worthy young foggies, whom-as I do not wish to be personal-I shall not name at a Noctes-following in their train, and fondly imagining themselves all the while to be leaders; or unworthy young foggies-yet still of reputable characterTickler. Yawp for the loaves and fishes. Shepherd. And what say ye o' the respectable Radicals? North. Of the eight hundred, they may have composed about two; and though I do not well know what they would be at, I do know that, if they speak the truth, they now think very little of Lord Grey. Tickler. I think, North, you may, in round numbers, say a thousand. For half-a-dozen from this place and half-a-score from that—and so on in proportion to the size of the clachan -having no political principles at all-but entertaining a certain vague admiration of what are called liberal opinions— and admirers in a small, but not insincere way, of something they choose to call consistency-and having been assured by the wise men of the village, well read in Annual Registers, |