A CONSOLING- EXPERIMENT.
. [To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—My pretty, pale cousin, "-Religion," writes you in her pensive. way :—" I have hitherto been receiving support from two sources—first, individual contributions; second, the contri- butions of individuals as represented in Parliament. I am sorry to say that I have been able to obtain only a precarious living." And even that living, so far as it comes from Parlia- ment, some individuals within her own- walls talk of talring. from her. And though they live in the wealthiest age and land which the world ever saw, she adds, "they make no offer to • guarantee my income."
It is very hard. But now look at me. In the year (never mind what year, but within the memory of this genera- tion), I was cast ashore on this Highland parish. I shudder to think how destitute I was. A scrap of tartan, one Lowland shawl, a very hard atone for my pillow,—that was the fortune of the- penniless lass with the long pedigree. The parish church was shut on me in that year. The parish tithes were locked away from me. I had to take to the hill-side, and it had a very freezing wind in 1843. They say, too, that I am by no means the most attractive of the girls that bear our name.
I know people have always made fun of my Scotch freckles and queer temper. Even yet the lairds do not love .me. Their gamekeepers and servants keep away from me. From Parlia- ment I have never since had a farthing. I had to take to the crofters, the peasants, and the poor, and it was they who looked at me and whispered to each other, " Blood is thicker-than • water." On all sides they came running to me, not I to them. My Southern cousin tells you that she prefers to continue the pensioner of Parliamentary constituencies like Northampton rather than " beg " from the Christians of England. But in my greatest distress I was never permitted to beg. From Dr. John Macdonald in the North,. from Dr. Thomas Chalmers in the South, my people learned that to do all they could for me (with the Red Cross in my Presbyterian tartan) was their duty and their highest pride. And they did it, not with English wealth, of course, but often out of their deep poverty. Yet throughout all Scotland they made up one annual purse to divide ; and though I am still poor, as you in the South count poverty, yet I have never had "a precarious living." Yesterday I met the old Free Kirk treasurer of Corrieghollock (his hair is white now, and he has never got quite free of the rheumatism caught that fourth year of worship out in the glen, while the Duke still refused the site), but his faculties are as good as ever ; and I asked him what enr Church's figures were for the last forty years. "Well," he answered, "one year more, one year less ; but on the whole, it has been, in the old Doctor's (Chalmer's) words, like a steady rain.". But if his official figures are at all true, it has been
a heavily increasing rain. Here they are, for each decennial year :—
One year, ending 1850 2306,340 „ 1860
319,818
,, 1870 427,431
)1 „
1880 591,478
And, since 1880, at least one year has gone up above the £600,000, while the total since 1843 has been more than fifteen millions. " Yes, mem," added Donald, as he touched his blue bonnet, and prepared to put up his papers, "and it's not as if all you did was to ensure the yearly dividend' of £160 as a minimum to the poorest of your ministers. How much of your money have we spent on territorial churches in the big towns, and on missions abroad from Nyassa to Bengal P" How much I really do not know ; but, at least, immensely more than when
I was supported by the State. But I believe I am as true to my name in having, since then, spent £400,000 on theological colleges at home, as two millions on the heathen abroad. And now, whatever fears religion may have for matters south of the Tweed, do not let her be alarmed for my support here. Our past has been a poor affair compared to our future, if I am only found worthy to enter into it. When my purse and that of the United Presbyterian Church—older and purer than my own—are poured into one; when the still richer Presbyterian Church, now established, condescends to exert its liberality alongside of ours, then at last that "one strong Protestant Church," which the Queen in her "Diary" anticipates for Scot- land, whether it be formally united or not, will be abundantly independent of salary from any Parliament !
Now, I do not say to " Religion " in England that she should go straight off and do as we have done. That depends on whether the English people are ripe for self-government and self-organi- sation. I speak first in my own interest here. Enough if England fulfils to us the pledge of its present Prime Minister, and leaves us to take our own course unburdened, and work out our national experiment. For England's greater orb may perhaps follow where our lesser has been able to-lead ; and that must be at least possible to wealthy religion,, which has been
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