Chapter III: Conclusion: Index (3)

I beg also to thank you for the flattering and acceptable
_testimonial_ you have bestowed on myself.--Your most
respectful and grateful friend,

CLEMENTINA STIRLING GRAHAM.

Rev. Dr. HANNA to DEAN RAMSAY.

16 Magdala Crescent, 11th January 1872.

Dear Dean Ramsay--I have been touched exceedingly by your
kindness in sending me a copy of the twentieth edition of the
_Reminiscences_.

It was a happy thought of Mr. Douglas to present it to the
public in such a handsome form--the one in which it will take
its place in every good library in the country.

I am especially delighted with the last twenty pages of this
edition. Very few had such a right to speak about the strange
commotion created by the act of the two English Bishops, and
the manner in which they tried to lay the storm, and still
fewer could have done it with such effect.

One fruit of your work is sure to abide. As long as Scotland
lasts, _your_ name will "be associated with gentle and happy
_Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Character_."

Mrs. Hanna joins me in affectionate regard.--With highest
respect and esteem, I ever am, yours very truly,

WM. HANNA.

DEAN RAMSAY to Rev. Dr. L. ALEXANDER.

23 Ainslie Place, Edinburgh.

January 29, 1872.

My clear Dr. Alexander--Since I had the pleasure of your most
agreeable visit, and its accompanying conversation, I have
been very unwell and hardly left the house. You mentioned the
reference made by Dean Stanley (?) to the story of the
semi-idiot boy and his receiving the communion with such
heart-felt reality. I forgot to mention that, summer before
last, two American gentlemen were announced, who talked very
pleasantly before I found who they were--one a Baptist
minister at Boston, and the other a professor in a college. I
did not know why they had called at all until the minister
_let on_ that he did not like to be in Edinburgh without
waiting upon the author of _Reminiscences_, as the book had
much interested him in Scottish life, language and character,
before he had been a visitor on the Scottish shores. "But
chiefly," he added, "I wished to tell you that the day before
I sailed I preached in a large store to above two thousand
people; that from your book I had to them brought forward the
anecdote of the simpleton lad's deep feeling in seeing the
'_pretty man_' in the communion, and of his being found dead
next morning." To which he added, in strong American tones,
"I pledge _myself_ to you, sir, there was not a dry eye in
the whole assembly."

It is a feature of modern times how anecdotes, sayings,
expressions, etc., pass amongst the human race. I have
received from Sir Thomas Biddulph an expression of the
Queen's pleasure at finding pure _Scottish_ anecdotes have
been so popular in England. How fond she is of
Scotland!--With much esteem, I am very truly yours,

E.B. RAMSAY.

The Dean was an enthusiastic admirer of Dr. Chalmers, and on the evening of March 4, 1849, he read a memoir of the life and labours of Chalmers at a meeting of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. That memoir, although it had been to a great extent anticipated by Rev. Dr. Hanna's fine and copious memoir of his father-in-law, was printed in the Society Transactions, and afterwards went through several editions when issued in a separate volume.

LORD MEDWTN to DEAN RAMSAY.

Ainslie Place, Thursday morning

My dear Mr. Ramsay--I beg to thank you most truly for your
very acceptable gift so kindly sent to me yesterday evening.
I had heard with the greatest satisfaction of the admirable
sketch you had read to the Royal Society of the public
character of the latest of our Scottish worthies--a very
remarkable man in many respects; one whose name must ever
stand in the foremost rank of Christian philanthropists; all
whose great and various talents and acquirements being
devoted with untiring energy to the one great object--the
temporal and eternal benefit of mankind. What I also greatly
admired about him was that all the great adulation he met
with never affected his simple-mindedness; his humility was
remarkable. There was the same absence of conceit or
assumption of any kind which also greatly distinguished his
great cotemporary, our friend Walter Scott; in truth, both
were too far elevated above other men to seek any
adventitious distinction. I wish our country could show more
men like Chalmers to hold up to imitation, or if too exalted
to be imitated, yet still to be proud of; and that they were
fortunate enough to have admirers such as you, capable of
recording their worth in an _éloge_, such as the public has
the satisfaction of receiving at your hands. Again I beg to
thank you for your kind remembrance of me on the present
occasion.--Believe me, my dear Sir, yours very truly,

J.H. FORBES.

Dr. CANDLISH to DEAN RAMSAY.

4 S. Charlotte Street, Tuesday, 6th March.

My dear Sir--I cannot deny myself the pleasure of expressing
to you the deep interest and delight with which I listened to
your discourse last night, so worthy, in every view, of the
subject, the occasion, and the audience. And while I thank
you most sincerely for so cordial and genial a tribute to the
memory of the greatest of modern Scotsmen, I venture to
express my hope that we may be favoured with an earlier and
wider publication of it than the Transactions of the Royal
Society will afford.--Pray excuse this intrusion, and believe
me, yours very truly,

ROB. S. CANDLISH.

Dean Ramsay.

I will indulge myself only with one phrase from the Dean's
memoir of Dr. Chalmers:--"Chalmers's greatest delight was to
contrive plans and schemes for raising degraded human nature
in the scale of moral living. The favourite object of his
contemplation was human nature attaining the highest
perfection of which it is capable, and especially as that
perfection was manifested in saintly individuals, in
characters of great acquirements, adorned with the graces of
Christian piety. His greatest sorrow was to contemplate
masses of mankind hopelessly bound to vice and misery by
chains of passion, ignorance, and prejudice. As no one more
firmly believed in the power of Christianity to regenerate a
fallen race, as faith and experience both conspired to assure
him that the only effectual deliverance for the sinful and
degraded was to be wrought by Christian education, and by the
active agency of Christian instruction penetrating into the
haunts of vice and the abodes of misery, these acquisitions
he strove to secure for all his beloved countrymen; for these
he laboured, and for these he was willing to spend and to
be spent."

That high yet just character not only shows Dean Ramsay's
appreciation of Chalmers, but seems to show that he had
already set him up as the model which he himself was to
follow. At any rate, he attempted to stir up the public mind
to give some worthy testimonial to the greatest of modern
Scotsmen. A few letters connected with this subject I have
put together. I did not think it necessary to collect more,
since the object has been attained under difficulties of time
and distance which might have quelled a less enthusiastic
admirer. It is pleasant to notice the general consent with
which we agree that no one else was so fitted to recommend
the Chalmers memorial as Dean Ramsay.

It was to do honour to my own little book that I ventured,
without asking leave, to print the few lines which follow,
from the great French writer, the high minister of State, the
patron of historical letters for half-a-century in France,
the Protestant Guizot.

M. GUIZOT to the DEAN.

Paris, ce 7 Février 1870,

10 Rue Billault.

Sir--Je m'associerai avec un vrai et sérieux plaisir à
l'érection d'une statue en l'honneur du Dr. Chalmers. Il n'y
a point de théologien ni de moraliste Chrétien à qui je porte
une plus haute estime. Sur quelques unes des grandes
questions qu' il a traitées, je ne partage pas ses opinions;
mais j'honore et j'admire l'élévation, la vigueur de sa
pensé, et la beauté morale de son génie. Je vous prie,
Monsieur, de me compter parmi les hommes qui se féliciteront
de pouvoir lui rendre un solennel hommage, et je vous
remercie d'avoir pensé à moi dans ce dessein.

Reçevez l'assurance de mes sentiments les plus distingués.

GUIZOT.

Mr. E.B. Ramsay, Dean, etc., 23 Ainslie Place, Edinburgh,
North Britain.

Some of Mr. Gladstone's letters, already printed, show that they were not the beginning of the correspondence between him and the Dean. The accident which made them acquainted will be mentioned afterwards (p. lxxxi.)

Right Hon. W.E. GLADSTONE to DEAN RAMSAY.

Hawarden Castle, Chester,

Jan. 3, 1870.

My dear Dean Ramsay--I send you my rather shabby contribution
of £10 to the Chalmers' Memorial. I wish it were more, but I
am rather specially pressed at this time; and I think I
refused Robert Bruce altogether not long ago.

I quite understand the feeling of the Scotch aristocracy,
but I should have thought Lothian would be apart from, as
well as above it.

But the number of subscriptions is the main thing, and very
many they ought to be if Scotland is Scotland still. He was
one of Nature's nobles. It is impossible even to dream that a
base or unworthy thought ever found harbour for a moment
in his mind.

Is it not extraordinary to see this rain of Bishoprics upon
_my_ head? Nor (I think) is it over; the next twelvemonth
(wherever I may be at the end of it) will, I think, probably
produce three more.

Bishop Temple is a fine fellow, and I hope all will now go
well. For Manchester (this is secret) I hope to have Mr.
Fraser of Clifton--a very notable man, in the first rank of
knowledge and experience on the question of education. Many
pressed him for Salisbury.

I can truly say that every Bishop who has been appointed has
been chosen simply as the best man to be had.

Ah! when will you spend that month here, which I shall never
cease to long for?--Ever affectionately yours,

W.E. GLADSTONE.

Rev. Dr. CANDLISH to DEAN RAMSAY.

52 Melville Street, 7th Dec. 1870.

Dear Dean Ramsay--I should have acknowledged yours of the 1st
sooner. I cannot say that I regret the conclusion to which
you have come, though. I would have done my best to help on
the larger movement.... I very willingly acquiesce in the
wisdom of your resolution to accept the position, for it is
one which you may well accept with satisfaction and
thankfulness. You have accomplished what I doubt if any other
man could have even ventured to propose, at so late a period
after Dr. Chalmers' death. It will be a historical fact, made
palpable to succeeding ages, that you have wiped off a
discredit from Scotland's church and nation, by securing a
suitable memorial of one of her most distinguished sons, in
the most conspicuous position the Metropolis could assign to
it. It will be for us of the Free Church to recognise in our
archives the high compliment paid to our illustrious leader
and chief in the great movement of the Disruption by one of
other ecclesiastical convictions and leanings. But we must
always do that under the feeling that it is not in that
character that you know Chalmers; but in the far broader
aspect in which you have so happily celebrated him as a
Christian philanthropist, a patriot, and a divine.

I conclude with earnest congratulations on the complete
success, as I regard it, of your generous proposal; and I am
yours very truly,

ROB. S. CANDLISH.

Rev. Dr. DUFF to DEAN RAMSAY.

The Grange, 29th June.

Very Rev. and dear Sir--Many thanks for your kind note with
its enclosures.

From my sad experience in such matters, I am not at all
surprised at the meagre number of replies to your
printed circular.

When I first learnt from the newspaper of the meeting held in
your house, and of Dr. Guthrie's proposal, I had a strong
impression that the latter was on far too extensive a
scale--but remained silent, being only anxious, in a quiet
way, to do what I could in promoting the general design.

Having had much to do during the last forty years with the
raising of funds for all manner of objects, in different
lands, I have come to know something of men's tempers and
dispositions in such cases, and under peculiar circumstances
and conditions. I therefore never expected the £20,000 scheme
to succeed; unless, indeed, it were headed by a dozen or so
at £1000, or at least £500 each--a liberality not to be
expected for such an object at this time of day.

Your present plan, therefore, I think a wise one--viz., to
constitute yourselves into "a statue committee," for the
successful carrying out of your own original and very
practicable design,--handing over any surplus funds which may
remain to any other committee or body willing to prosecute
the larger professorship or lectureship scheme.--I remain,
very Rev. and dear Sir, yours very sincerely,

ALEXANDER DUFF.

I am indebted for the following letters to the Rev. Dr. Lindsay Alexander. If I wrote only for Scotsmen, it would be unnecessary to speak of Dr. Alexander as holding a place which he seems to me, ignorant as I am of Church disputes, to owe to his own high personal merit, and the independence which makes him free to think and to write as scarcely any clergyman fettered with the supposed claims of sect or denomination feels himself at liberty to do. As our Dean got older we find him drawing more kindly to those whose Christianity was shown in other guise than in sectarian precision with some spice of persecution.

23 Ainslie Place, Feb. 28, 1866.

I have found, as others have, the "Biblical Commentary" a
very useful companion in sermon-writing. It gives you the
Scripture parallel passages bodily, and saves the trouble of
turning backwards and forwards to find the marginal
references and to examine their relevancy. The work is
published by Bagster, and he generally, I believe, gets his
work pretty well done, and, so far as I can judge, it is
judiciously selected, generally at least.

Now, dear Dr. Alexander, if you would accept of the copy of
this work which I have sent, and accept it from me, and if it
should prove a useful companion in your homiletical labours,
I should feel much gratified. Perhaps it may be a remembrance
amongst your books, when years have passed away, of one in
his grave who had a sincere regard for you, and who now signs
himself, yours very faithfully,

E.B. RAMSAY.

23 Ainslie Place, Jan. 11, 1866.

My dear Dr. Alexander--You will not suppose me to be an
advocate for the donkeyism of vestment ritual. But I wish you
not to have unfavourable impressions as regard _our_ concern
with such matters. We have a canon declaratory on vestments,
asserting the ordinary surplice, gown, hood, and stole. It is
stupidly worded, but the meaning is obvious. I was vexed from
your experience to hear of such foolish proceedings at Bridge
of Allan, contrary to canon and to common sense.... The
_green_ part of the dress which caused your wonder, naturally
enough, is not a freak of new vestments, but is a foolish way
which the Glenalmond students have adopted of wearing the
_hood_, which our Bishops (not without diversity of opinion)
had granted for those who had been educated at our College.
It is a hood lined with _green_ (Scottish thistle colour),
and they have a way of wearing it in a manner which brings
the coloured part in front. Pray, pray, don't think of
answering this; it is merely to correct an unfavourable
impression in one whose favourable opinion I much desiderate.
I cannot tell you the pleasure I had in your visit on
Tuesday.--With sincere regard, yours always, E.B. RAMSAY.

23 Ainslie Place, June 8, 1866.

Dear Dr. Alexander--I forgot to mention a circumstance
connected with my story of to-day. I have had a communicant
thereanent with Dr. Robert Lee. The good Dr., although fond
of introducing Episcopalian practices, which cause great
indignation amongst some of his brethren, does not wish it to
be understood that he has the least tendency to become an
Episcopalian himself. In short, he hinted to me himself that
were such an idea to become prevalent it would materially
weaken his influence with many followers. "It is to improve
my own church, not to join yours," were his words, or to that
effect. In carrying out this idea he has a hit in his
"Reformation of the Church of Scotland" against
Episcopalians, and in the first edition he brings up Dean
Ramsay and the unfortunate statement he had made, as a
melancholy proof how hopeless were even the most specious of
the Scottish Episcopal Church on the subject of toleration. I
told him that so far as that statement went it proved
nothing, that it had been wrung from me in an unguarded
moment, and that I had for fourteen years borne unequivocal
testimony to views which were opposite to that statement. He
received the explanation most kindly, and offered to do
anything I wished, but we both at length agreed that the best
plan would be simply to omit it in the second edition, which
was preparing and has since come out. It was omitted.

I am, dear Dr. Alexander, with true regard, ever yours most
sincerely, E.B. RAMSAY.

23 Ainslie Place, August 26, 1867.

Dear Dr. Alexander--I have lately returned to Edinburgh,
having paid a visit to my own country on Deeside. On Saturday
I drove down to Musselburgh, and had an express object in
calling upon you to ask how you were. But I found I had been
wrong directed to Pinkie Burn, and that to accomplish my
visit, I must have made a _détour_ which would have detained
me too long. I had an engagement waiting me, and I found my
strength pretty well exhausted. I wish, however, to notify my
_intention_ of a visit. I have had a very severe illness
since we met, and have not regained my former position, and
do not think I ever shall. I was very, very close upon the
gate we must all pass, and I believe a few hours longer of
the fever's continuance would have closed the scene. I don't
think I dread to meet death. I have so largely experienced
the goodness of God through (now) a long life, and I feel so
deeply, and I trust so humbly, the power of his grace and
mercy in Christ, that, I can calmly contemplate the approach
of the last hour. But I confess I do shrink from encountering
an undefined period of bodily and mental imbecility; of being
helpless, useless, a burden. I have been so distressed to see
all this come upon our bishop, Dr. Terrot; the once clear,
acute, _sharp_, and ready man. Oh, it is to my mind the most
terrible affliction of our poor nature. I have known lately
an unusual number of such cases before me, and I hope I am
not unreasonably apprehensive as to what may come. I hope
your family all are well, and that you are fully up to your
work in all its forms.--I am, believe me, with much regard,
very sincerely yours, E.B. RAMSAY.

Without date.

My dear Dr. Alexander--I feel deeply obliged by your kind
gift to Bishop Whipple. His simple heart will be gratified
much. I am so vexed at having mislaid two letters from him. I
should have liked you to see and to know the bishop by seeing
and reading them. They are _models_ of simple, loving,
Christian feeling. He went to Minnesota as to a new rough
state just added to the United States. He took five
clergymen. He has now above thirty and a college (for which
he asked the books). He is beloved by all, and loves all. The
Red Indians worship him. He is so considerate of them. They
suffer from bad teeth, and on some occasions he has drawn 150
teeth before a prayer-meeting in the woods, from Indians who
were suffering pain....

I will take care Bishop Whipple shall know of your goodness.
I am so vexed I can't find his letters.

23 Ainslie Place, Edinburgh,

November 26, 1871.

Dear Dr. Alexander--You will be sorry to hear that my
brother, Sir William, is _very_ ill. This morning we had
given up all idea of his rallying, but since that he has
shown symptoms of a more favourable character. His state is
still a very precarious one, and I fear much we must make up
our minds to lose him. God's will be done! We are sure he is
prepared for his change. He has long been a sincere believer
in the great work and offices of the Lord Jesus, and he has
followed up his profession of belief by liberal and judicious
expenditure on benevolent objects.

I have heard of your being in London at the Revision, and you
may probably be there now. But when you return to Edinburgh,
the Admiral would be most glad to see you when able to call
in Ainslie Place. Sir William is three years younger than I,
but he has had a more trying life. His death (should such be
God's will) must be a great blank for me. But for me it
cannot be a long one.--Hoping you are well, I am, with much
regard, most sincerely yours, E.B. RAMSAY.

Very soon after the date of this letter Admiral William Ramsay died, who had lived with his brother the Dean in the most affectionate friendship for many years. Their duties and interests were identical. William Ramsay was known as the promoter of every scheme of benevolence in Edinburgh.

Right Hon. W.E. GLADSTONE to DEAN RAMSAY.

Hawarden, December 7, 1871.

My dear Dean Ramsay--It is with much grief that we have seen
the announcement of the heavy loss you have sustained in the
death of your brother. It was a beautiful union, which is now
for the time dissolved. One has been taken, and the other
left. The stronger frame has been broken, the weaker one
still abides the buffetings of the sea of life. And I feel a
very strong conviction, even at this sad moment, and with
your advancing age, that the balance of your mind and
character will remain unshaken through your habitual and
entire acceptance of the will of God. I write then only to
express my sincere regard for the dead, strong sympathy with
the living. Such as it is, and knowing it to be pure, I offer
it; would it were more worthy, and would that I, let me
rather say--for my wife enters into all these feelings--that
we were able in any way at this especial time to minister to
your comfort.

I fear the stroke must have come rather suddenly, but no
dispensation could, I think, in the sense really dangerous,
be sudden to you.

Accept, my dear Dean, our affectionate wishes, and be assured
we enter into the many prayers which will ascend on your
behalf. Your devoted niece will sorely feel this, but it will
be to her a new incentive in the performance of those loving
duties to which she has so willingly devoted her heart and
mind.--Believe me always your affectionate friend, W.E.
GLADSTONE.

Rev. D.T.K. DRUMMOND to DEAN RAMSAY.

Montpelier, Thursday.

My dear Friend--I did not like to intrude on you in the very
freshness of your home sorrow. But you know how much I loved
and respected your brother, and how truly and heartily I
sympathise with you. There were few in Edinburgh so much
beloved as Sir William, and it will be long indeed ere the
memory of his goodness shall pass away. Such men in the
quiet, private, and unassuming walk, are often much more
missed and more extensively lamented than men who have been
more in the eye of the public, and during their life have had
much of public observation and favour. It is trying for us
who are far on in the pilgrimage to see one and another of
our brothers and sisters pass away before us. I have seen
_ten_ go before me, and am the only one left; and yet it
seems as if the old feeling of their leaving us is being
exchanged for the brighter and happier consciousness that
they are coming to meet us, or at least that the gathering
band are BEFORE us, and looking our way, expecting the time
when we too shall pass through the veil, leaning on the arm
of the Beloved. I earnestly pray, my dear friend, for the
Master's loving help and comfort to you from henceforth
even for ever.

I cannot close this without, in a sentence, expressing my
very great delight in reading your words regarding brotherly
intercommunion among members of Churches who hold the same
Truth, love the same Lord, and are bound to the same "better
land." I do rejoice with all my heart that you have given
utterance to the sentiments so carefully and admirably
expressed by you. I go heart and soul with you in the large
and liberal and Christ-like spirit of the views you propound;
and feel with you that all such brotherly esteem and hearty
and candid co-operation only makes me love my own church
better, because such love is unmixed with the exclusiveness
which sees nothing good save in the Communion to which we
ourselves belong.

Thank you most heartily for what you have written.--Ever very
affectionately yours, D.T.K. DRUMMOND.

When the Ramsays were under the necessity of selling most of their property in the Mearns, the purchaser of Fasque was Mr. Gladstone, not yet a baronet; and, what does not always happen, the families of the buyer and the seller continued good friends, and Sir John, the great merchant, by his advice and perhaps other help, assisted some of the young Ramsays, who had still to push their way to fortune. I believe William, afterwards Admiral, was guided by him in the investment and management of a little money, which prospered, notwithstanding his innumerable bounties to the poor. The Dean also was obliged to Sir John Gladstone, but only for kindness and hospitalities.

On the Ramsays going to London in the summer of 1845, the journal records what nice rooms they had, and how happy they were at Mr. Gladstone's, where they saw a good deal of their host--"a man who at eighty-one possesses the bodily and mental vigour of the prime of life." The Dean was struck with the old man's abilities. "Mr. Gladstone would have been successful in any undertaking or any pursuits--a man fitted to grapple with the highest subjects."

From that period much intercourse took place between the Premier and our Dean. There are mutual visits between Hawarden and Edinburgh, and I find a good deal of correspondence between them; at least I find the letters on one side. The Dean preserved Mr. Gladstone's letters, but the counterparts are probably not preserved. One-sided as they are, the little packet in my hand, of letters from the great Statesman to the rural clergyman is not without interest. The correspondence has been friendly, frank and confidential, the writers often differing in immaterial things, but showing the same liberality in "Church and State;" so that we are not surprised to find, when the time came, that of the friends, the churchman approved of Irish disestablishment as heartily as the layman who was its author.

Right Hon. W.E. GLADSTONE to DEAN RAMSAY.

10 Downing Street, Whitehall, Jan. 20, 1869.

My dear Dean Ramsay--I need not tell you I am no fit judge of
your brother's claims, but I shall send your letter
privately to the First Lord, who, I am sure, will give it an
impartial and friendly consideration.

Pray remember me to the Admiral, and be assured it will give
me sincere pleasure if your wish on his behalf can be
gratified.

I write from Hawarden, but almost _en route_ for London, and
the arduous work before us.

My mind is cheerful, and even sanguine about it.

I wish I had some chance or hope of seeing you, and I remain
affectionately yours, W.E. GLADSTONE.

The Bishop of Salisbury has been for days at the point of death. He is decidedly better, but cannot recover. Let him have a place in your prayers.

Windsor Castle, June 24, 1871.

My dear Dean Ramsay--The attraction of the Scott Centenary to
Edinburgh is strong, and your affectionate invitation makes
it stronger still. I do not despair of being free, and if
free, I mean to use my freedom, so as to profit by both. At
the same time the delays and obstructions to business have
been so formidable that I must not as yet presume to forecast
the time when I may be able to escape from London, and
therefore I fear I must draw upon your indulgence to allow me
some delay. The session may last far into August, but the
stars may be more propitious.

We are all grumbling at an unusually cold year, and the
progress of vegetation seems to be suspended, but I trust no
serious harm is yet done; as Louis Napoleon said, _tout peut
se retablir_.

It would indeed be delightful could I negotiate for a right
to bring you back with me on coming southwards.

So glad to hear a good account of your health and appearance
from our Lord Advocate; a clever chiel, is he not?--Ever
affectionately yours, W.E. GLADSTONE.

My wife sends her kind love.

10 Downing Street, Whitehall, July 25, 1871.

My dear Friend--From day to day my hopes of attending the
Scott Centenary have been declining, and I regret much to say
that they are now virtually dead. The extraordinary
obstructions which have been offered to public business
during the present session have now, as you will see, brought
us to such a pass that some suggest an adjournment from
August to some period in the autumn, to enable us to get
through what we have in hand. Whether we do this, or whether
we finish off at once, it is now, I fear, practically certain
that there is no chance of my being free to leave town at the
time of the Centenary.

We paid Tennyson a visit from last Saturday to Tuesday. He is
a sincere and ardent admirer of Scott, and heartily wishes
well to anything which is likely to keep him before the minds
of the on-coming generation.

His Sussex abode is beautiful, 600 feet above the sea, with a
splendid view. He seems to be very happy in his family.

With regard to the Emperor of Brazil, I think any application
made to him would come best from those officially connected
with the celebration. At any rate, I fear it would be
obtrusive on my part to mix in it, as I have no special
relation with him, though he has made a most pleasing
impression on me.

I now expect to go to Balmoral in the middle of September,
and should much wish to know whether I might visit you on my
way north or south.--Always affectionately yours, W.E.
GLADSTONE.

10 Downing Street, Whitehall, August 8, 1871.

My dear Dean Ramsay--Do what you like with the inclosed. It
is written at the last moment, and because you asked for it,
by a man who was nine hours in the House yesterday, and has
to be there nine to-day, besides a fair share of a day's work
outside it to boot.

I hope you received a subscription from Royal Bounty which I
sent for Archibald's family. I can give five pounds myself
also.--Ever your affectionate friend,

W.E. GLADSTONE.

11 Carlton House Terrace, S.W., August 8, 1871.

My dear Dean Ramsay---I wish I could convey to you adequately
the regret with which I find myself cut off from any
possibility of joining in the tribute to be paid to-morrow to
the memory of the first among the sons of Scotland. He was
the idol of my boyhood, and though I well know that my
admiration is worth little, it has never varied.

In his case the feeling is towards the man as much as towards
his works. Did we not possess a line from his pen, his life
would stand as a true epic.

I will not say I think him as strong in his modern politics
as in some other points, but I find my general estimate of
the great and heroic whole affected only in the slightest
degree by this point of qualified misgiving.

If he is out of fashion with some parts of some classes, it
is their misfortune, not his. He is above fluctuations of
time, for his place is in the Band of the Immortals.

The end of my letter shall be better worth your having than
the beginning. A fortnight ago I visited Tennyson, and found
him possessed with all the sentiments about Scott which your
celebration is meant to foster.--I remain in haste,
affectionately yours. W.E. GLADSTONE.

Hawarden Castle, Chester, January 12, 1872.

My dear Dean Ramsay--I was at once obliged, gratified, and
comforted by your letter. This has been a great storm, but it
has not rooted you up, and He whom you live to serve,
evidently has yet more service for you to do. Those remaining
in the world cannot be wife or brother to you, but how many
there are who would if they could, and who will be all
they can!

The testimonies you send me are full of touching interest.

My wife has received to-day the beautiful present of the new
edition of your book. She will enjoy it immensely. I hope to
send you, when I get to London, a little work called the
"Mirror of Monks." Let not the title alarm you. It is in the
manner of à Kempis, and is original, as well as excellent and
lofty. I have had much Scotch reading. The "Life of Dr. Lee;"
Macdonald's "Love, Law, and Theology;" last, not least, Lady
Nairne. I am equally struck with her life, and her singularly
beautiful songs, and this though she was Tory and Puritan; I
am opposed to both. Her character brings into view a problem
common to all times, but also I suppose special to this. I
take it that if there is a religious body upon earth that
fully and absolutely deserves the character of schismatical,
it is your Drummond secession. Yet not only is this noble and
holy woman in it, but even my own narrow experience has
supplied me with other types of singular excellence and
elevation within its pale; and the considerations hereby
suggested are of immensely wide application.

I trust that your Walker Cathedral will be thoroughly good,
and that your Bishop's book is prospering.

You will be glad to hear that the solemn thanksgiving at St.
Paul's may be regarded as decided on, to my great
satisfaction.

If you will let me have particulars of any case such as you
describe, I will most readily see what can be done; and now
farewell, my dear friend.--Always affectionately yours, W.E.
GLADSTONE.

If not quite so popular as some of the Dean's other correspondents, he whose letter I bring forward here stood as high as any man in the estimation of the better and most thinking classes of Scotsmen.

Thomas Erskine of Linlathen, though no clergyman, had his mind more constantly full of divine thoughts than most priests; though no technical scholar perhaps, he kept up his Greek to read Plato, and did not think that his enjoyment of the works of high reach in classical times unfitted him for Bible studies, which were the chief object of his existence.

* * * * *
THOMAS ERSKINE to DEAN RAMSAY.

127 George Street, 19th Oct. 1869.

Dear Dean--I return you many thanks for that kind letter.
Neither you nor I can now be far from death--that commonest
of all events, and yet the most unknown. The majority of
those with whom you and I have been acquainted, have passed
through it, but their experience does not help us except by
calling us to prepare for it. _One_ man indeed--the Head and
Lord of men--has risen from the dead, thereby declaring death
overcome, and inviting us all to share in his victory. And
yet we feel that the victory over death cannot deliver us
from fear, unless there be also a victory over that which
makes death terrible--a victory over him that hath the power
of death, that is the devil, or prince and principle of sin.
And our Lord has achieved this also, for he put away sin _by
the sacrifice of himself_; but this sacrifice can only really
profit us when it is reproduced in us--when we, as branches
of the true Vine, live by the sap of the root, which sap is
_filial trust_, the only principle which can sacrifice
_self_, because the only principle which can enable us to
commit ourselves _unreservedly_ into the hands of God for
guidance and for disposal. We are thus _put right_ by _trust,
justified_ or _put right_ by faith in the loving fatherly
righteous purpose of God towards us.

Dear George Dundas's death has taken from me my chief social
support in Edinburgh. I was fourteen years his senior, but I
had known and loved him from his childhood. Our mothers were
sisters, and thus we had the same family ties and traditions.
I think of him now in connection with that verse, "to those
who by patient continuance in well-doing," etc.

And now farewell. Let us seek to live by the faith of the Son
of God--his filial trust I suppose, which I so much
need.--Ever truly and gratefully yours,

T. ERSKINE.

* * * * *

The three following letters hardly help on the story of the Dean's life, but I could not pass them when they came into my hands.

The writer is Adam Sedgwick, the well-known Cambridge Professor and Philosopher. In another capacity he was still better known. He was tutor and vice-master of Trinity, and in his time an outside stranger of any education, even a half-educated Scot, dropping into Cambridge society, found a reception to be remembered. Take for choice one of their peculiar festivals--Trinity Sunday comes to my mind--the stranger partook of the splendid feast in that princely hall of Trinity, where the massive college plate was arrayed and the old college customs of welcome used, not from affectation, but kindly reverence. When the dinner was over, the large party of Doctors and Fellows, with hundreds of the noble youth of England, all in surplice, moved to the chapel, all joining with reverence in the august service of the church, and later, they and their guests, or as many as could be held, crossed to the Combination Room, where Sedgwick filled the chair, and led the conversation, not to glorify himself, not to display his own powers, which were great, but to let his guests know among whom they were placed--philosophers, first men of science, first scholars, leaders in all kinds of learning, meeting in a noble equality, proud to meet under his presidency--_that_ I take to be the highest triumph of civilised hospitality. At the time of these letters the philosopher is old, but vigorous in mind, and even gay at the age of eighty-eight.

The death of Bishop Terrot called forth the following letter from the venerable Professor:--

* * * * *

PROFESSOR SEDGWICK to the Rev. Mr. MALCOLM.

Trinity College, Cambridge, May 1, 1872.

Dear Mr. Malcolm--I had been previously informed of the death
of my dear old friend, the Bishop of Edinburgh, but I am very
grateful to you for thinking so kindly of me, and for
communicating particulars about which I was not acquainted
previously. Accept my expressions of true-hearted sympathy,
and pray impart them to the surviving members of dear Bishop
Terrot's family. He was an old, an honoured and beloved
friend; God laid upon his old age an unusual load of the
labours and sorrows of humanity, but they are over now, and
he has reached his haven of shelter from external sorrow and
his true and enduring home of joy and peace, in the presence
of his Maker and Redeemer. I am very infirm, and am affected
by an internal malady, which, through the past winter, has
confined me to my college rooms, but I have to thank my Maker
for thousands of little comforts to mind and body, by which
I am hourly surrounded, and for His long-suffering in
extending my probation till I have entered on my 88th year.
My eyes are dim-sighted and irritable, so that I generally
dictate my letters; now, however, I am using my own pen to
express my thanks to you, in this time of your sorrow for the
loss of one so nearly and dearly connected with your clerical
life. My memory is not much shaken, except in recalling names
not very familiar to me, and I think (with the painful
exception I have alluded to) that my constitutional health is
sound. When my friends call upon me, my deafness generally
compels me to use an ear-trumpet, and I yesterday took it to
our college walks, to try if I could catch the notes of the
singing birds, which were piping all round me. But, alas! I
could not hear the notes of the singing birds, though I did
catch the harsher and louder notes of the rooks, which have
their nests in some college grounds.

May the remaining years of your life be cheered and animated
by good abiding Christian hope.--I remain very faithfully
yours, ADAM SEDGWICK.

* * * * *

PROFESSOR SEDGWICK to DEAN RAMSAY.

Trinity College, Cambridge,

29th May 1872.

My dear Dean--I this morning received your kind presentation
copy of your Reminiscences, which I shall highly value for
its own sake, and as your gift. I read little now because my
eyes are both dim-sighted and very irritable; but your book
will just suit me, as it is not a continuous tale, but a
succession of tales, each of which is perfect in itself, and
I hope to read it bit by bit without worrying my enfeebled
powers of sight.

I meant to have thanked you in an autograph, but there has
been a sudden change in the atmosphere, which is dark, heavy
and wet, and when there is a defect of light I am almost
constrained to dictate my letters to my _factotum_.

I am delighted, too, with the single sheet containing verses
addressed to yourself. The first copy by Bishop Wordsworth
appears to me quite admirable from the beauty and simplicity
of his Latin; and the other copies are good in their way.

I dare say you have seen the short verses he wrote on the
death of his first wife. They are of Roman brevity and of
exquisite tenderness.

One of the very pleasant days of my life was spent in a visit
to the small country living of Mr. Dawes of Downing,
afterwards Dean of Hereford. Your late brother was one of the
happy party. We returned together to Cambridge at a rattling
pace, and I am not sure that I ever saw his face afterwards,
for very soon he had a bilious attack which induced him to
seek health in his native country, and, alas! he sought it in
vain, for he sickened and died, to the deep sorrow of all his
friends.--I remain, my dear Dean, very truly and
gratefully yours,

A. SEDGWICK.

* * * * *

PROFESSOR SEDGWICK to Rev. Mr. MALCOLM.

Trinity College, Cambridge,

January 18, 1873.

My dear Mr. Malcolm--The infirmity of my sight compels me to
dictate this letter to one who often writes for me. Such a
bright day as this, and while the sun is shining, I could see
the traces of my pen upon a sheet of paper; but the act of
writing greatly fatigues me, and I dictate nearly all
my letters.

I very much value your melancholy memorial of my late dear
and honoured friend, the late Bishop Terrot. Though the photo
represents our late friend the bishop with his features
shrouded in the cold fixity of death, yet it does bring back
the original to the memory of those who knew him well, and I
am greatly obliged to you for this memorial of one who has
gone from our sight for ever, so far as this world is
concerned. It was very kind of you to remember the photo.

I did not know Bishop Cotterell intimately, but I have met
him many times, and I think you very happy in obtaining the
services of a man of such experience, talent, and zeal, in
the good cause of Christian truth.

I am now a very feeble, infirm, old man, toiling in the last
quarter of my 88th year. I ought to be thankful that my mind,
though feeble, remains entire: my memory is often defective,
but I have been enabled, though with great labour to myself,
and with many interruptions, to dictate a preface to a
catalogue published by the university of the older fossils of
our collection. They have kindly printed and given to me some
extra copies of my preface, one of which I will forward to
you by the book-post.

I know it can have no interest to you, excepting, perhaps, a
few paragraphs in the conclusion of only two or three
pages.--I remain, my dear Mr. Malcolm, very faithfully and
gratefully yours, A. SEDGWICK.

I have printed already more than one letter from the Rev. D.T.K. Drummond, from admiration of their intrinsic merit, and because I wish here to collect proofs that no diversity of Church rites or Church policy could separate our Dean from brethren whom he regarded perhaps as erroneous, but recognised as teaching and leading by the same principles of freedom, which he himself revered and followed.

Rev. D.T.K. DRUMMOND to DEAN RAMSAY.

Montpelier, Saturday.

My dear Friend--Very many thanks for your most touching note,
and for the extract from your book you so kindly sent me. The
more I look into it the more I like it, and thank God for
the testimony you so unequivocally and fearlessly hear to the
_unity_ of the True Church of Christ of any age, however much
the great army he made up of various sections, of diverse
uniforms, and with special duties to perform.....

Again thanking you very warmly, and earnestly praying for all
the precious consolations of the Great Head of the Church to
be largely vouchsafed to you, believe me to be always most
affectionately yours,

D. T. K. DRUMMOND.

* * * * *

The subject of the following letter cannot be overlooked by a biographer of Dean Ramsay:--

Rev. Dr. CANDLISH to DEAN RAMSAY.

52 Melville Street, 18th March 1872.

My dear Dean Ramsay--I have just read with most profound
thankfulness and admiration your noble Christian letter in
this day's _Scotsman_. I cannot deny myself the gratification
of expressing my feelings to you in this feeble
acknowledgment. You have done a signal service to the cause
of our Blessed Lord and common Master. I am too infirm to
write more fully all that is in my heart. You will pardon all
defects, and believe me, yours very truly,

ROB. S. CANDLISH.

The letter referred to by the distinguished divine arose out of what is known in the Scottish Episcopal Church as the _cause celèbre_ of the Bishop of Glasgow against the Bishop of Argyll.

The Rev. Dr. Caird, of the University of Glasgow, having invited the Bishop of Argyll to preach to a mixed Episcopalian and Presbyterian congregation, using his Church's liturgy, from the University pulpit of Glasgow, the Bishop of Glasgow interposed to prevent it.

The interference of the Bishop of Glasgow with his brother prelate of Argyll called forth a letter from Dean Ramsay, which appeared in the _Scottish Guardian_ on 15th March 1872, and in the _Scotsman_ three days later. In it the Dean in fact asserts a religious sympathy towards those who differ from him, comprehensive enough to include all his Protestant countrymen.

"In an address to the Bishop of Glasgow, signed by sixty-two clergymen, it is stated that the service contemplated in the chapel of the University of Glasgow would be a 'lax proceeding, and fraught with great injury to the highest interests of the Church,' Accordingly the Bishop of Glasgow prohibited the service, to guard the Church from complicity in a measure which he considered subversive of her position in this country.' In other words," says Dean Ramsay, "we are called upon to believe that, as members of the Scottish Episcopal Church, it is our bounden duty to withhold every appearance of any religious sympathy with our Presbyterian fellow-countrymen and fellow-Christians. I now solemnly declare for myself that, had I come to the conclusion that such was the teaching of our Church, and such the views to which I was bound--viz. that her object was thus to sever man from man, and to maintain that the service proposed at Glasgow was really 'fraught with great injury to the highest interests of my Church,' because it would promote union and peace--the sun should not again set till I had given up all official connection with a Church of which the foundations and the principles would be so different from the landmarks and leading manifestations of our holy faith itself. Were the principles and conduct laid down in this address and in the answer to it fairly carried out, I cannot see any other result than the members of our Church considering the whole of Scotland which is external to our communion as a land of infidels, with whom we can have no spiritual connection, and whom, indeed, we could hardly recognise as a Christian people."

The Dean's letter is chiefly remarkable as showing that age had not frozen his charity. It called forth many letters like that of Dr. Candlish, and one from the little Somersetshire society which he loved so well.

JOHN SHEPPARD, Esq., Frome, to DEAN RAMSAY.

The Cottage, Frome, 21st March 1872.

Very dear and reverend Sir--I have to thank you for the
_Scottish Guardian_ which you have kindly sent me. I regret
the divisions which appear to have arisen in your church.
Whatever comes from your pen has special interest for me; and
I am glad to see it (as it always has been) pleading the
cause of Christian charity. It appears to me that the welfare
of your church would have been promoted by acceding to the
invitation,

I think I have mentioned to you that we had lately a visit
from good Archdeacon Sandford, which we much enjoyed. We
learn with sorrow that since attendance at the Convocation
and a stay at Lambeth Palace, he has been suffering great
weakness and exhaustion, and been confined to his bed for a
month. He is now slowly recovering; but we fear his
exertions have been beyond his strength, and that his life
must be very precarious.

I hope your health is not more seriously impaired; but we
must be looking more and more, dear sir, towards the home
which pain and strife cannot enter.

My beloved Susan is very zealous as the animals' friend, and
birds of many sorts welcome and solicit her as their
patroness. She desires to be most kindly remembered to you,
with, my dear Dean, your attached old friend,

JOHN SHEPPARD.

_P.S._--Susan instructs me to say for her that, "since
reading your letter to the _Guardian_, she loves you more
than ever, if possible." My words are cool in comparison with
hers; and this is a curious message for an ancient husband
to convey.

She thinks we have not thanked you for the Bishop's Latin
verses and the translations of them. If we have not, it is
not because our "_reminiscences_" of you are faint or few.

I wish to preserve a note of a dear old friend of my own, whose talents, perhaps I might say whose genius, was only shrouded by his modesty. I know that the Dean felt how gratifying it was to find among his congregation men of such accomplishment, such scholarship, as George Moir and George Dundas, and it is something to show that they responded very heartily to that feeling.

GEORGE MOIR to DEAN RAMSAY.

Monday morning, 14 Charlotte Square.

My dear Dean--My condition renders it frequently impossible
to attend church, from the difficulty I have in remaining for
any length of time. But I have been able to be present the
last two Sundays, and I cannot refrain from saying with how
much pleasure I listened yesterday to your discourse on
charity. It was not unworthy of the beautiful passage which
formed its ground-work; clear, consecutive, eloquent, and
with a moral application of which I wish we may all avail
ourselves.

Long may you continue to advise and instruct those who are
_to come after me_.

I was delighted to see you looking so well, and to notice the
look of vigour with which the discourse was delivered.
Believe me ever most truly yours, GEO. MOIR.

In 1866 the Dean had delivered two lectures upon "Preachers and Preaching," but which were afterwards published in a volume called _Pulpit Table-Talk_. That is the subject of the following letter from a great master of the art:--

Dr. GUTHRIE to DEAN RAMSAY.