Miss Strickland, after comparing the lofty professions of her preface with the bitter partisanship of her narrative. And of wilful self-delusion in other words, of deliberate insincerity --she will unquestionably be guilty, if she refuses to correct this inconsistency.

It will be observed, that we have not referred to Mr. Macaulay's recent publication in the course of this article: and the reason of this is, partly that the plan of it was entirely arranged, and in great part executed, before we had the pleasure of seeing that remarkable production; but chiefly that the limited and comparatively humble nature of our design seemed not to require, and scarcely indeed to admit of our seeking aid in so high a quarter for the object we had in view. That object, as we have intimated at the outset, was to show that Miss Strickland had been signally partial and unjust in her estimate of individual characters, even on the supposition that her professed principles of judgment were right, and her assumptions correct, as to many very questionable facts. Mr. Macaulay has settled many questions, of far higher importance than those with which we have been engaged, against the views and assumptions of this lady and her party by proofs and by arguments that admit, we think, of no refutation. But we thought we had no need of such a champion for the attainment of our immediate object; and have preferred winning our little battle with our own forces -feeling, at the same time, that we had no right to invoke a higher power, where we were able to help ourselves — and where it certainly could not be pretended that there was dignus vindice nodus.

ART. VII. Presbytery Examined. An Essay, Critical and Historical, on the Ecclesiastical History of Scotland since the Reformation. By THE DUKE OF ARGYLL. London: 1848. THIS

HIS work of the Duke of Argyll is creditable alike to his abilities and his taste. It is written with great precision, and occasional elegance, of style; and evinces, for so young an author, considerable facility of expression and command of imagery. The subject also, and the manner of treating it, bespeak an earnest and manly character; one which prefers the solid to the glittering, and is not ashamed of thinking fervidly and deeply, on matters not often attractive to the young and aristocratic. In short, putting his dukedom and his age entirely aside, this little work is one in which much has been per

formed which would do credit to the ripest and maturest years. Whether the noble author has quite attained the standard at which he aims, whether his hand is as yet steady enough, and his eye sufficiently practised, to hold the scales between contending sects, and fierce polemics - is a question on which his greatest admirers are not likely to differ with the public. But even his cathedral and dogmatic air has something honest and natural about it. It is of that kind which is likely to soften, instead of hardening, with years and experience; and we are quite willing to accept it, along with the rarer quality of hearty and unaffected enthusiasm, which gives impulse and energy to his pen.

The truth is, his Grace has here sounded, and with emphasis and force, the key-note of a great question: and he has our thanks, and deserves those of all men who have the good of their country at heart, for directing the eyes of statesmen to a class of subjects which have long been too much neglected. We are glad to find, once more, one of his station and name, not ashamed to know something of the feelings which still sway, and the topics which still interest the great body of his countrymen. Even railways and steamers have done but little to convey to our neighbours south of the Tweed any real knowledge of the sentiments or habits of the people of the North. The returning autumn brings them, like woodcocks in October frost, on their annual migration - to sketch our lakes and mountains, shoot our grouse, perhaps sometimes even wear our philibeg, but gathering no knowledge, and imparting none, of the real character, tastes, or peculiarities of the people. A tale of John Knox, we fear, sounds almost as legendary and obsolete, in English ears, as Chevy Chase,' or a 'Lay of Ancient Rome:' and most of the readers who condescend to care at all for the controversies and turmoil of those days, probably regard them with the same kind of interest as that with which they would peruse the description of the lists and jousts of Ashby a story of exciting but childish and useless strife, to be looked back on, in our days, with a smile of supercilious thankfulness, and recalling only the barbarous pastimes or pursuits of an age happily gone by. But no one will think thus who knows anything of Scotland. Those who have derived their conceptions of Scottish character from the Jacobite or time-serving historians of the last century, must form, as too many have formed, very shallow and erroneous opinions on the real spirit and temper of our Northern population. But all who, like the Duke of Argyll, understand our countrymen, know well that the topics on which he writes are no antiquarian curiosities, nor the vain fancies of a

- as

few distempered zealots, but are vital and operating political facts, which lie deep in the foundations of the social condition of the people, and have, at the present day, the firmest hold and the most profound influence on their life and conduct.

One reason why the English know so little, and care so little, about Scotland is, that so few Scotchmen, of the many that have crossed the Tweed, are found, like his Grace of Argyll, either to know or to care anything about the poorer and more provincial regions they have left. It is, we suppose, an effect almost irresistible of southern air. We do not say that they are actually ashamed of their country; but in English company they would rather hear and speak of anything else and be but too happy if they should be, or flatter themselves they are, mistaken for Englishmen; or that their northern origin be not bewrayed by their features or their speech. These are weaknesses from which even great minds are not always exempt; and, probably, if the British court had been fixed at Holyrood, at the Union, although an Englishman is of a sturdier and less accommodating nature, the force of fashion would have given dignity and elegance to what we now so sensitively conceal; --and who can tell whether our Court beauties might not have despised a Windsor accent, and even a Talbot or a Percy sought kingly favour through a twentieth Scotch cousinship?

This tendency, which it is easy to despise but difficult to resist, has produced consequences far more important than those amusing idiosyncrasies which good-natured friends are not illpleased to observe and laugh at in others. It, and other causes, have led to a real ignorance on the part of our governors, of the people they govern; and what is still more unfortunate, to a real ignorance on the part of many of our countrymen, of the country and people to which they belong. This is the fruit of that Anglomania which the Union naturally enough occasioned. We have borrowed many good things, undoubtedly, of our English brothers, since we became one family;-a good deal of their money, and something of their domestic habits — in both of which respects there was considerable room for improvement at home. The Union also terminated those predatory feuds which used to occupy and consume the flower of our Scottish youth. Our swords were literally beat into ploughshares; and the proverbial impetuosity of the national character has found more profitable vent, in improving the resources of our naturally unproductive soil, and in disposing of its skill and industry in the market of the world, in every quarter of the habitable globe. This, and much more of good the Union undoubtedly gave us. But, with all these advantages, some evils ensued, from the com

1849. Scottish Presbyterianism Unpopular in 18th Century. 465

mencement of our English connexion. The nationality of the higher orders gradually disappeared; and they by degrees lost the characteristics which the great body of the people retained. While our Scottish nobles were learning courtly manners, and exercising English wit, at Whitehall, they forgot that the habits and sentiments which they were so ready to shake off, were still burning with a flame as fierce in the hearts of their countrymen, as when the echoes of St. Giles rang to the voice of Knox fifty years before; nor were their eyes opened, till they were swept away before the convulsions of the Commonwealth. During the last century the same causes continued to operate. Partly from the affectation of English tastes and habits, to which Presbyterianism was repulsive, and partly from the influence of French principles and French philosophy, it became fashionable for Scotchmen of rank to assume an air of disgust for the religion and opinions of their forefathers. Even the clergy began to be ashamed of their cloth to pity the violence and fanaticism of former days, to pride themselves on their greater liberality and knowledge of the world, to preach cold moral essays to colder and not too moral audiences, and with faint praise and pedantic compassion, to profane the graves and memories of the noble hearted and earnest Heroes of the Reformation.

Other causes combined, during the last century, to render the spirit of Scottish Presbyterianism unpopular and distasteful. That century was an age of scepticism, not in religion only, but in all things. An age of unbelief in all truth-and of strong and perverse belief, in the false, affected, and unnatural. False loyalty, false morality, false taste in the lighter, and false principle in the graver pursuits of men, were the characteristics of the time. Emanating from the autocracy of wit, philosophy, and fashion which ruled the European world from Paris, this cold and formal spirit checked all the truer and profounder aspirations of the heart. The fire of genius, the glow of enthusiasm, the earnestness of passion or of zeal, were chilled and quenched by the glittering and hollow mediocrity of the day. No wonder that in such times the rough, but broad, vigorous, and manly spirit of the Scotch reformers was greatly out of fashion.

But the storms with which the century closed, purified the air, and dissipated these unhealthy vapours. Men again began to think and to act for themselves; to free themselves from the fetters of schoolmen or coteries, and to allow nature and thought unrestrained action. The emancipation of men's minds is proclaimed by the fresh vigour of the literature, as well as the liberality of the legislation, of recent years. Nor has social life escaped the beneficial influence. No doubt, we still dispute

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among ourselves, as men always did. We hold our own faith to be true; and extend to our brother such measure only, of charity as our natural temperament, or acquired principles, may suggest. Clashing opinions still produce controversies; and polemical controversies are still pointed with those sharp darts for which they have always been distinguished. But then, we are all in earnest. We speak now, because we believe. We are no longer incapable of being warmed into emotion, or ashamed to display it; nor do we stand on one side, with the indifference of affected philosophy - with the cold sneer of a creed that has no belief in honesty or zeal. Many things in science have been found out to be true, which the sceptics of the Academy prided themselves on deriding. Many so-called vulgar errors have been proved to be strange, but certain, facts. Men, if not now prone to superstition, inquire at least before they disbelieve; and the temper of society is friendly to sober and real search after truth. One result of returning vigour has been, with us, to draw the attention of the public back to those fountains where the social history of the Commons of Scotland takes its rise; and from which has flowed, through much turmoil and disturbance, much discouragement, and occasional defeat and disaster, the broad stream of Scottish prosperity.

It is instructive and interesting to trace in the sister kingdoms, and to compare by contrast, the gradual spread of knowledge and intelligence in each. In England, the tendency of the national character has always been to a watchful and scrupulous defence of individual freedom-impatient of personal control, and jealous of any inroad on personal rights. A certain cool, and sturdy defiance of unjust authority, and a sensitive resistance to encroachment, have at once won for England the bright jewel of her political liberty, and have stamped on the character of her sons that morgue Britannique' for which they are every where distinguished. Religious zeal has generally, with them, been subservient to political objects. They shook off the yoke of Rome, quite as much from the restraints it imposed on their liberty, as from those it laid on their consciences. Strong as was the religious element in the wars of the Commonwealth, it is doubtful whether the nation would, even then, have deserted the monarchy, but for the encroachments of the prerogative on the civil rights of the subject. James himself, had he been content to reign as a constitutional prince, might possibly have succeeded in re-establishing Catholicism, without any alarming or fatal outbreak.

In Scotland the story is different in many remarkable particulars. The character of the people is naturally more im