Memoirs of Bishops Jolly and Gleig. By the Rev. W.
Walker, M.A. (D. Douglas, Edinburgh.)—We complain so often of the wearisome length of biographies, that it is the merest justice to bestow emphatic praise on a biographical work that is neither wearisome nor long. Mr. Walker has compressed within the limits of a very moderate-sized volume of between three and four hundred pages the story of two lives well worthy of being related ; and this story he has told in quite sufficient detail, leaving an impression on the reader which wants neither vividness nor completeness. Bishop Jolly, of Moray, was a student and a recluse, a man who, had he belonged to the Roman communion, might have received the honour of canonisation. Bishop Gleig, while possessing unusual culture and large attainments, was a man of action and a keen controversialist.. It was well to put the two pictures together. The men were contemporaries, they were both Bishops of the Episcopal Church of Scotland, a communion which did not obtain the boon of toleration (though actual persecution had passed away) till they had reached middle life. Both had characters worth studying, and both, we may say, have been singularly happy in finding a candid and discriminating biographer. Curious inci- dental touches are given of a side of Scottish life of which little is heard. How many Englishmen are there who are aware that as late as the middle of the last century the Scottish Episcopalians had their chapels burnt down, if this could be done without injuring other property ; or failing this, had to pay for their being pulled down ? Of course there were reasons. They were obstinate Jacobites, a faith which they did not abandon till the end of the century ; even then there were not a few who received the name of King George in the prayers with very indecorous manifestations of disapproval. And they had had their day.
Previous page
