Church and Reform in Scotland : a History from 1797
to 1843. By W. L. Mathieson. (Glasgow: MacLehose. 10s. 6d. net.)—This is the final volume of Mr. Mathieson's very able history of Scotland from the Reformation. Its two main topics are the political emancipation of Scotland from a corrupt feudalism that England had long outgrown, and the development of the Moderate and Evangelical parties in the Presbyterian Church, leading ultimately to the Disruption of 1843. On the political side Mr. Mathieson's account of the rise of Scottish Radicalism and of the labour troubles of the early nineteenth century is lucid and impartial. He helps us to understand the existing political situation in Scotland, among a people of tenacious memories. In theological matters, which occupy the greater part of the volume, Mr. Mathieson is even more judicial than an English writer would contrive to i.e. He regards the founders of the Free Church as rather unreason- able fanatics, and his estimate of the famous Dr. Chalmers is surprisingly frigid and almost contemptuous. Ho expressly acquits Peel and his colleagues on the charge, so commonly levelled against them in Scotland, of hastening the Disruption by their ignorance and indifference.
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