The Project Gutenberg EBook of Western Worthies, by J. Stephen Jeans

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Title: Western Worthies
       A Gallery of Biographical and Critical Sketches of West
       of Scotland Celebrities

Author: J. Stephen Jeans

Release Date: October 2, 2006 [EBook #19434]

Language: English

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WESTERN WORTHIES:

_A GALLERY_

of

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SKETCHES

_of_

WEST OF SCOTLAND CELEBRITIES.


_By J. STEPHEN JEANS_,

EDITOR OF THE "EVENING STAR."

       *       *       *       *       *

Glasgow:

PUBLISHED AT _THE STAR_ OFFICE, ARGYLE STREET.

MDCCCLXXII.




_PREFACE._


The author does not consider that the following pages require any
apology for their appearance. They are given to the world with a
two-fold object--the first being that of gratifying an increasing and
perfectly legitimate anxiety on the part of the public to know more of
the antecedents--the struggles, and the triumphs--of the men whom they
recognize as leaders; and the other, that of reminding a younger
generation, from a contemplation of the lives of great men, that they
too, may leave behind them

    "Footprints on the sands of Time."

The scope of the present work renders it impossible to do full justice
to any one of the men who have been selected; and on this account the
author has made his Sketches more biographical than critical, leaving
the reader to reflect on facts rather than on opinions.

To become food for biographers and worms was the two-fold evil of which
Rachel spoke shortly before her death. So far as the former terror is
concerned, the men who are pourtrayed in these pages have little to
fear. Every care has been taken to secure accuracy of detail, most of
the Sketches having been revised by those whom they more directly
concern; and the author's aim has been to be just without severity, and
truthful without personality. Humanity is so prone to error that the
best men have their failings as well as their virtues; but while it is
not desirable to extenuate the former, the biographer is still less
warranted in setting them down in malice. Hence the writer has
endeavoured to criticise in a kindly and temperate spirit, and to hold
up virtues for imitation rather than errors for avoidance.

When these Sketches originally appeared in the columns of the journal
with which the writer is connected, it was never intended that they
should assume a more permanent form. It was only after witnessing the
great amount of interest which they evoked, that he was induced to yield
to pressing solicitations by trying to convert what was only a
terminable lease into one renewable for ever.

One word more. Since the sketch of Dr. Norman Macleod was in print, that
genial, versatile, and accomplished Divine has gone over to the Great
Majority. On Sunday forenoon, the 16th of June, he died rather suddenly,
although, as he had been ailing for some time previously, his end was
not altogether unexpected. In the public prints of both England and
Scotland, the tributes paid to his worth and ability have more than
justified all that will be found in these pages. From Royalty downwards,
his demise has produced a sadness "that passeth show." _Requiescat in
pace!_

J. S. J.
    _Glasgow, June 20, 1872._




_CONTENTS._


                                                           PAGE

The Duke of Argyll,                                           9

The Right Hon. H. A. Bruce,                                  16

Sheriff H. G. Bell,                                          23

Mr. Robert Dalglish, M.P.,                                   36

Mr. William Graham, M.P.,                                    42

Mr. George Anderson, M.P.,                                   47

Sir James Campbell,                                          57

Mr. James Young,                                             63

Mr. George Burns,                                            71

Mr. James Baird,                                             79

Sir William Thomson,                                         88

Principal Barclay,                                           95

Professor Rankine,                                          101

Professor Allen Thomson,                                    109

Professor John Caird,                                       117

Rev. Dr. Norman Macleod,                                    123

Rev. Dr. Robert Buchanan,                                   134

Mr. Robert Napier,                                          143

Mr. James Watson,                                           152

Rev. Dr. William Anderson,                                  159

Rev. Dr. John Ker,                                          165

Rev. Dr. Eadie,                                             172

Mr. Daniel Macnee, R.S.A.,                                  178

Mr. Thomas Corbett,                                         182

Mr. Edward S. Gordon, M.P.,                                 191




WESTERN WORTHIES.




THE DUKE OF ARGYLL.


For its size and population Scotland has been remarkably prolific in the
rearing of eminent statesmen, soldiers, and _litterateurs_. Viewed with
respect to its relative importance as an item in the map of Europe, it
has likewise a most chequered and eventful history--a history to which,
in various essentials, no counterpart can be found elsewhere. Chiefly,
however, has "the land of mountain and of flood" bulked largely in the
records of the world, from the stern and heroic character and
statesmenlike tendencies of its titled nobility, the lights and shadows
of whose characters, as they are developed in the historic page, go a
long way towards conferring upon Scotland the distinguishing qualities
that have made her famous. As this is not intended to be even a
bird's-eye view of Scottish history, we may have said enough by way of
introducing the reader to one of the most noble and illustrious of the
hereditary peerage of Scotland. Every schoolboy is more or less familiar
with the annals of a race which has been identified through many ages
with the interests--political, social, and commercial--of the West of
Scotland. The Clan Campbell have been stigmatised as haughty,
aggressive, and ambitious. The soft impeachment may be justly merited.
Throughout the most exciting and eventful crises of their country's
history, the Campbells have always borne a distinguished and conspicuous
part, both in the field of battle and in the Councils of State. Unlike
not a few families and clans who can boast of a lineage almost if not
quite as ancient and noble as their own, their name and fame are not "to
hastening ills a prey." The lapse of years has not dimmed the lustre of
their achievements, or caused them to lie upon their oars inactive and
inglorious. The present head of their clan--the Duke of Argyll--has in
his day and generation been as distinguished as any of his more
formidable ancestry. Their prospective head--the Marquis of Lorne--has
passed the Rubicon of Royal etiquette, allied himself with a Princess of
the Blood, and gives promise of a most useful and distinguished career.
The clan can further claim for themselves six members of the British
Peerage, and no less than twenty-two Baronets, nearly every one of whom
has been raised from the ranks for conspicuous merit in one sphere or
another. In almost every relation of life, the clan has had honour and
glory reflected upon it through some of its members; and, in
consideration of its past, present, and future importance, the possessor
of the name of Campbell may feel a justifiable pride in the stock from
which he springs.

George Douglas Campbell, the present head of the Ducal House of Argyll,
unites in himself many of the most estimable qualities that enabled his
ancestors, apart from the mere accident of birth, to achieve greatness.
That he is one of the most exalted of Scotland's aristocracy, a great
territorial magnate, and entitled to take a high place in the Council of
the nation, are facts external and independent of his own intrinsic
merits. But the same remark does not apply to the Duke's rare diplomatic
and literary abilities, to the sageness of his wisdom, to the maturity
end value of his experience, and to the kindly qualities of his heart.
Pope spoke of an ancestor of his Grace as--

    "Argyll, the State's whole thunder born to wield.
    And shake alike the Senate and the field;"

but if the poet had applied his Muse to describe the living
representative of the noble House he could justly have bestowed upon him
a much greater meed of praise. It is a rare conjunction to find one who
is born great, seek also to achieve greatness; but this His Grace has
done in an eminent degree. The adventitious circumstances of his birth
placed him in a position only a few removes from Royalty itself, but not
content with mere physical greatness, and realising that "the mind's the
standard of the man," he has applied himself diligently to the
acquisition of wisdom, until both in the domain of politics and in the
still more cosmopolitan sphere of _belles lettres_ he has, perhaps, made
himself more conspicuous by his sheer native worth than any other member
of the aristocracy of Scotland. Intimately associated from his earliest
years with the civil and ecclesiastical affairs of his native country,
he has been enabled, in his time, to do the State some service; and when
the "history of Scotland in the nineteenth century" shall come to be
written, the Duke of Argyll will be mentioned with honour and grateful
regard. On these, and many other grounds that might be quoted, we are
prepared to justify the incorporation in the present series of articles
of such a name and of such a life--a name that is as familiar in the
Church Courts as in the Councils of the nation, and a life that has been
singularly pure, useful, and exemplary.

Born April, 30, 1823, his Grace is the second son of the sixth Duke of
Argyll, by his marriage with Joan, daughter of John Glassel, Esq., his
father's second wife. The present Duke is the thirty-second Knight of
Lochow, and the thirtieth Campbell in the direct line of descent. He
showed from an early age the remarkable aptitude for business and the
literary capacity which have since distinguished him in so eminent a
degree, his first work being published before he was 20. While Marquis
of Lorne he took an active part in the great controversy relating to
patronage in the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, which culminated in
the Disruption of 1843. His Grace was one of the first to denounce the
obnoxious system of patronage, and he lent his great influence and high
social position to the party of which Dr. Chalmers was the recognised
head, giving it an importance which it might never otherwise have
acquired. But his Grace did more than aid the Secession by his social
influence; he also rendered yeoman service to that movement by his able
pen. One of his first productions was a _brochure_ "On the Duty and
Necessity of Immediate Legislative Interposition on behalf of the Church
of Scotland as determined by considerations of Constitutional Law." In
this publication the writer gave an historical view of the Church of
Scotland, particularly in reference to its constitutional power in
matters ecclesiastical. In another pamphlet, written in the course of
the same year, and entitled "A Letter to the Rev. Thomas Chalmers, D.D.,
on the present position of Church affairs in Scotland, and the causes
which have led to it," his Grace vindicated the right of the Church to
legislate for itself, condemned the movement then in progress among
certain members of the General Assembly to establish the Free Church by
a secession from the Establishment, and expressed his dissent from Dr.
Chalmers' view that "lay patronage and the integrity of the spiritual
independence of the Church has been proved to be, like oil and water,
immiscible." In an essay entitled "Presbytery Examined," published in
1848, the Duke entered upon a critical and historical review of the
ecclesiastical history of Scotland since the Reformation, which was
favourably criticised at the time, and received from every theological
party in Scotland a good deal of attention. His "Reign of Law," may,
however, be considered his _chef d'oeuvre_ as a literary effort. First
contributed to the pages of _Good Words_, the "Reign of Law" was
re-published in a separate form in 1866, and since then it has enjoyed a
large sale and a high reputation.

As showing his unflagging industry and his love of letters, it is worth
mentioning that he still contributes from time to time to the leading
magazines of the day. As a rule, his articles receive the place of
honour. They may not be so profoundly metaphysical as the contributions
of Professor Maurice, neither are they so appallingly scientific as the
propaganda of Huxley; but they are at least as entertaining, as
instructive, as able as the best literary efforts of our most popular
writers. One of the Duke's most recent contributions, which appeared in
the _Contemporary Review_ for January last, on "Hibernicisms in
Philosophy," shows that to Sidney Smith's stale joke about the
obtuseness of Scotchmen there is at least one illustrious exception. It
is one of the best things of its kind that has ever appeared in a
magazine that can command the greatest literary talent of the day.

The Duke of Argyll's political career has been long and illustrious. He
first took office as Lord Privy Seal under Lord Aberdeen's
administration in 1852. After Lord Palmerston had assumed the reins of
Government he was continued in this place until, in 1855, he exchanged
it for the office of Postmaster-General. In the following year he went
out of office; but in 1867 he was again induced to accept the Lord Privy
Seal, an appointment which he continued to hold until 1859. In 1860 he
was restored to the slightly more lucrative (there is a difference in
salary of £500) but much more responsible and useful appointment of
Postmaster-General. When the present Administration was formed, the Duke
was elected to the office of Secretary of State for India, the
Under-Secretary being Mr. Grant Duff, the member for the Elgin Burghs,
than whom no man alive has a more thorough acquaintance with Indian
affairs.

In 1851 the Duke was elected Chancellor of the University of St.
Andrews, and in 1854 he was elected Rector of Glasgow University. In
September, 1855, His Grace presided over the twenty-fifth meeting of the
British Association for the Advancement of Science, which was held that
year in Glasgow. On that occasion, as well as at other times throughout
his career, His Grace displayed scientific knowledge and antiquarian
research of more than ordinary depth; and his remarks on the subjects
brought under discussion were listened to by the _savants_ with the
utmost deference.

The Duke of Argyll is married to Lady Elizabeth Georgina, second
daughter of George Greville, second Duke of Sutherland, by whom he has
issue five sons and seven daughters. The eldest son, who has recently
allied himself to Royalty, gives promise, as we have already indicated,
of possessing in an eminent degree the talents that have so much
distinguished his ancestors. Both the Marquis of Lorne and his Royal
partner are extremely popular, and the alliance which has been
consummated amid the fervent aspirations of a whole nation, is bound to
raise still higher the influence of the ducal family of Argyll.
Alexander, the second son of the Duke, was born in 1846, and married, in
1869, Miss Jane Sabella Callendar, ward of his father, and daughter of
the late James Henry Callendar, Esq. of Craigpark, Stirlingshire. The
only other married member of the Duke's family is Edith, his first
daughter, who was espoused by Earl Percy, the eldest son and heir of the
Duke of Northumberland.

For the benefit of the curious in such matters we may mention that the
Duke's titles are, by writ 1445, Baron Campbell; 1457, Earl of Argyll;
1570, Baron of Lorne; by Royal charter, 1701, Duke of Argyll; Marquis of
Lorne and Kintyre; Earl of Campbell and Cowal; Viscount of Lochow and
Glenila; Baron Inveraray, Mull, Morven, and Tory, in the Peerage of
Scotland; 19th December, 1766, Baron Sundridge of Croombank; May 4,
1776, Baron Hamilton, in the Peerage of England; Hereditary Master of
the Queen's Household; Keeper of Dunoon, Dunstaffnage, and Carrick
Castles; Heritable Lord-Lieutenant of Argyllshire.

The literature of the Herald's College sets forth that the arms of
Argyle are--Quarterly, 1st and 4th, Girony of eight pieces topaz and
diamond for Campbell; 2d and 3d, pearl, a lymphad, or old-fashioned ship
with one mast, close sails, and oars in action; a diamond with flag and
pennants flying; ruby for the Lordship of Lorne; crest on a wreath, a
boar's head, couped proper, topaz. Supporters, two lions guardant, ruby.
Motto--"Ne Obliviscaris." Behind the arms there are two honourable
badges in saltire, which his Grace's ancestors have borne a long time,
as Great Masters of the King's Household and Justiciaries of Scotland.
The first is a battern topaz, same of thistles, emerald, ensigned with
an imperial crown proper, and thereon the crest of Scotland, which is a
lion sejant guardian ruby, crowned with the like crown he sits on,
having in his dexter paw a sword proper, the pommel and hilt, topaz; and
in the sinister a sceptre of the last. The other badge is a sword, as
that in the lion's paw.

The Duke is proprietor of the greater part of Argyllshire--a county
having an area of 2,432,000 acres, of which only 308,000 are under
cultivation. The greatest breadth of the mainland is about 115 miles;
and from the windings of the numerous bays and creeks, with which the
land is everywhere indented, the county is supposed to have more than
600 miles of sea coast. His chief seats are--Inverary Castle, on the
banks of Lochfyne; Roseneath Castle, Dumbartonshire; Longniddry,
Haddingtonshire; Halnaker, Sussex; and Argyle House, Camden Hill,
London.




THE RIGHT HON. H. A. BRUCE.


The Right Hon. Henry Austin Bruce is a native of Wales. He was born at
Duffryn, Aberdare, Glamorganshire, and is both by birth and training a
thorough Cambrian. His father, who is still living, was for several
years Stipendiary Magistrate at Merthyr, and once contested that borough
unsuccessfully with Sir John Guest. He was originally a Mr. Knight--a
patronymic which, in 1805, he changed to Bruce, and afterwards, in 1837,
to Pryce. The Member for Renfrewshire is, therefore, described as the
second son of John Bruce Pryce, Esq., of Duffryn, St. Nicholas,
Glamorganshire, by Sarah, the second daughter of the Rev. Hugh Austin,
Rector of St. Peter's, in Barbadoes. Paternally, he is a nephew of the
late Lord-Justice Knight Bruce, who was spared to see him attain the
dignity of Privy Councillor, but not long enough to witness his
admission to the rank of a Cabinet Minister. It may be added, for the
purpose of completing these domestic details, that his
great-grandfather, Mr. Bruce of Kennet, was High Sheriff of Glamorgan
more than 150 years ago; and, further, that he himself has been twice
married, his first wife (to whom he was married in 1846, but who died in
1852) being Annabella, the only daughter of Richard Beadon, Esq., of
Clifton, Gloucestershire; and his second wife, to whom he was married in
1854, being Norah, the youngest daughter of the late Lieutenant-General
Sir William Napier, K.C.B., the author of that matchless military
narrative, the "History of the Peninsular War," and distinguished also
as the brother of the heroic conqueror of Scinde. The reader will thus
perceive that the Member for Renfrewshire, who might be supposed from
his patronymic to be a Scotchman, is not even connected closely by
family ties with this part of the Island. His position, however, as the
member for Renfrewshire, and his consequent intimate connection with the
West of Scotland, may excuse his appearance in these pages.

In 1837, when he was only 22 years of age, Mr. Bruce was called to the
bar. He practised at the Chancery bar, and attended the Oxford Circuit
for two years. He withdrew from practice in 1843, but still retained his
name on the rolls of Lincoln's Inn. In 1847, four years after this
withdrawal, he received the appointment of Stipendiary Magistrate at
Merthyr-Tydvil and Aberdare, the office previously held by his father,
and for a period of more than five years he presided at the Police
Courts of those towns. From this office he retired in the December of
1852, when he was elected Member for the Merthyr boroughs, the seat
having become vacant by the death of that Sir John Guest whom his father
had unsuccessfully opposed many years previously. Mr. Bruce has all
along manifested a deep interest in the affairs of his own
neighbourhood. He was Deputy-Chairman of Quarter Sessions in his native
county of Glamorganshire, and he was also Chairman of the Vale of Neath
Railway, Captain of the Glamorganshire Rifle Volunteers, and fourth
Charity Commissioner of England and Wales.

Mr. Bruce retained his seat for Merthyr without interruption for a
period of seventeen years. He had been ten years in the House of Commons
when, in the November of 1862, he was nominated to office by Lord
Palmerston; and it is worthy of remark that he was then appointed
Under-Secretary of the very department over which he now presides--the
post which was conferred the other day by Mr. Gladstone on the young and
promising Member for Stroud. Mr. Winterbotham has not had to serve as
long a political and administrative apprenticeship as his chief; for at
the early age of twenty-seven, and after a Parliamentary career of only
two years, he has leapt into the office which Mr. Bruce did not procure
till he was twenty years older and a Member of ten years' standing.
This significant fact seems to "point a moral." It shows that there is
now-a-days a better chance for the man who is capable for an important
political post, despite his circumstances and antecedents. Mr.
Winterbotham is as staunch a Liberal and as pronounced a Nonconformist
as any of his ancestors; and yet, as we have seen, he is appointed at
twenty-seven by Mr. Gladstone to an office which Lord Palmerston did not
bestow upon Mr. Bruce until the latter was verging on fifty; and it is
not at all improbable that Lord Palmerston, when he made the appointment
in 1862, took credit to himself for stretching a point in favour of a
laborious and deserving man?

Mr. Bruce had been Under-Secretary at the Home Office for about a
year-and-a-half when he was appointed Vice-President of the Committee of
Council on Education. This office he held for more than two years. His
tenure of it came to a close in 1866, when Lord Derby (or rather
Derby-cum-Disraeli) returned to power. It was during these two years, in
which he devoted himself to the subject of education, that he made the
most impressive appearance which any portion of his career has yet
presented either to the House of Commons or to the country. Though a
nominee of Lord Palmerston, and like his patron anything but an advanced
Liberal, he displayed an apparent breadth of view and an earnestness of
purpose in his new sphere of Ministerial labour which were exceedingly
creditable to him. Some of his speeches on education were admirable, and
their tone may be guessed from the fact that they made him a favourite
at the time with such organs of public opinion as Mr. Miall's
_Nonconformist_.

It has been argued that Mr. Bruce had not the elevated motives which
must inspire a thoroughly successful minister of education; that he was
still the police magistrate in his ideas; and that he wished to call in
the schoolmaster to aid in the repression of crime. But it is only fair
to add that he never said a word to show that he did not value education
for itself, and in his own locality he has been a constant patron of
Mechanics' and other educational institutions. Again, it has been said
that his rejection by the house-holders of Merthyr at the general
election, indicated that he had not really succeeded in winning the
confidence of the working classes. But there are other circumstances to
account for this that ought not to be lost sight of. The constituency
was suddenly increased from 1390 to 15,500, two-thirds of whom could
neither read nor write. They chose, with great judgment, Mr. Richard, an
eminent Nonconformist; with less judgment, Mr. Fothergill, an
ironmaster, who had been conspicuous for the manner in which he had
enforced "Truck," and opposed education. A new constituency naturally
chose new members. But nearly 6,000 voted for Mr. Bruce, including, with
very few exceptions, every man of education in the borough. One
circumstance that was prejudicial to Mr. Bruce's interest, was his
refusal to support the Ballot. Up to 1868 he had never voted either for
or against that measure; but during the long contest which preceded the
election of November, 1868, he saw much to recommend the Ballot, and to
weaken his objections to it. Therefore, when he stood for Renfrewshire,
on the death of Captain Spiers, he declared his devotion to the Ballot
unsolicited.

Of the success of Mr. Bruce's administration at the Home Office,
different and conflicting opinions are inevitably entertained. The post
is one of great importance. Its holder stands above every other
Secretary of State. He is the Minister who follows next after the First
Lord of the Treasury. He is virtually the governor of Great Britain. But
really the Home Secretary is not a man to be envied. He has a thousand
things to decide which, decide them how he may, are sure to bring about
his ears a nest of stinging critical hornets. He is responsible for so
many things that his name is sure to be in the papers every day, and the
notices of his words and actions are no less sure to be in the majority
of instances unfavourable. Truly, it is a "fierce light" which beats
upon the Home Secretary. It is a fine thing in its way to be a Cabinet
Minister; but we can imagine some more enviable situations than the one
which is at present occupied by the member for Renfrewshire. No doubt he
gained the seat for that county by virtue of his position at the Home
Office; but the same distinction has also made him one of the
best-abused men of his day. The articles of almost savage ferocity which
have been hurled against Mr. Bruce by the metropolitan newspapers would
make, if brought together, one of the largest books in the world. He is
assailed in books and pamphlets as well as in the newspapers. "Who could
conscientiously envy Mr. Bruce?" asks a pungent critic who has recently
been showering a series of "Sketches" upon the town, which have caused
rather a sensation at Westminster. "Was there ever such an unmitigated
mistake in any Cabinet as that man? He has proved himself weaker even
than Mr. Walpole, and that was difficult." On every hand we hear it
remarked that Mr. Bruce's solitary act of legislation has been the one
relating to the London cabs, and even that is said to be an utter
failure. It is true that, from no fault of the Home Secretary, but from
political exigencies, Home Office Bills, being of a social and
administrative and not of a political character, have been thrust aside.
They have been obliged to give way to such measures as the Irish Church
and Land Bills, Education, Army Organization, and the Ballot. As for the
latter question, Mr. Bruce spontaneously handed it over to Mr. Forster,
believing that it would be better treated by an old advocate than by a
recent convert. In such small space of time as he could command,
however, Mr. Bruce has carried the Habitual Criminals Act, which, in its
proved results, has been the most successful measure for the repression
of crime passed during the last thirty years. He has also successfully
dealt with the difficult subject of Trades' Unions, and he has carried
an important extension of the Factory Acts, besides many minor measures.
As for the Cab Act, about which the _Pall Mall Gazette_ has every now
and again raised a cuckoo cry, it is altogether a municipal one, and
ought not to be in the hands of a Secretary of State. As it was, Mr.
Bruce tried the experiment of "Free Trade." It failed, because the
London cab owners had not the enterprise to introduce better vehicles,
which he could not impose upon them. The Licensing question and the
Contagious Diseases Acts are two of the most important questions with
which Mr. Bruce is now endeavouring to grapple. Upon the construction of
both measures he has manifestly bestowed a great amount of labour.

For a Scotch Member to be also a Cabinet Minister is, at present, a
conjunction of exceeding rarity; and no less exceptional is it to find
the county of Renfrew returning to the House of Commons one who is not a
politician of native growth. For its size it has been remarkably
prolific in statesmen of ability. One of its burghs can point to such
memorable names as Wallace of Kelly, and Murray Dunlop; and the county
itself has, in our day, been represented (amongst others of its own
gentry) by that brilliant scholar and historian, the late Colonel Mure
of Caldwell, who was the lineal descendant of the Mures of Rowallan, one
of the very oldest of our Scottish families, and who was an embodiment
of many of the finest qualities which have characterised the members of
that ancient and honourable house. Nor can we forget that the sad event
which made way for the return of a stranger was the sudden death of
Captain Spiers of Elderslie--one who was just beginning to be
appreciated by the general public, as they saw the gradual development
of qualities which were solid rather than brilliant, and in whom were
united manliness and modesty in a degree which is rarely to be seen, and
which now gives more than a touch of pathos to his memory. There was no
want of local talent to supply the vacancy so unexpectedly and painfully
made by the removal of Captain Spiers, but a combination of curious
circumstances, and chiefly the state of transition which at the moment
characterised the politics of the two most likely candidates, left the
field open for a stranger, while the enthusiasm felt in this part of the
island for the new Prime Minister made it almost a matter of course
that the vacant seat should be conferred, on terms unexampled for
magnanimity and ease, upon that statesman who had been singled out for
the post of Home Secretary by Mr. Gladstone, but who, having been thrown
overboard at the general election by the new constituency of
Merthyr-Tydvil, was still destitute of the essential condition to the
retention of the high honour to which he had been nominated by his
political chief. The manner in which the constituencies of Scotland, and
especially those of our northern shires, responded to Mr. Gladstone at
the supreme moment of his political career, is a fact which cannot be
overlooked by any one who shall hereafter trace the lines of his
biography; and the most striking proof of the trust that was reposed in
him at that critical epoch by the people of Scotland will be found in
the facility with which his Home Secretary procured a seat for one of
her counties. Mr. Bruce's return for Renfrewshire was perhaps the finest
of all compliments paid by a generous and intelligent nation to Mr.
Gladstone. One could wish to see some proof that it was duly appreciated
in a little more attention being given to Scottish business in
Parliament, and also in an increased measure of respect being shown to
those measures of reform in which our agricultural population justly
feel so great an interest. Thus far, it must be confessed, the farmers
of Scotland have met with but a poor return for their fidelity; and we
cannot wonder if we perceive amongst them symptoms of discontent that
may ultimately lead to bitter estrangement.




HENRY GLASSFORD BELL.


Of Henry Glassford Bell, the Sheriff of Lanarkshire, we may say, as
Macaulay said of Johnston, "We are familiar with his personal
appearance, as with the faces that have surrounded us from childhood."
For nearly half-a-century he has been a foremost citizen in Glasgow.
During that long period he has taken an active interest in all that
relates to the welfare of the city. Not in Law alone, but in Music,
Literature, Painting, and the Fine Arts generally, he is regarded as an
authority. In short, he is the intellectual king of the city, although
he differs from a monarch _de juré_ in his accessibility to all ranks
and conditions of men, and in the homage and respect which are
universally and spontaneously paid to his high personal qualities. His
experience is a direct reversal of the ordinary rule, that "a prophet
hath honour save in his own country and in his own house." In tracing
the lines of Sheriff Bell's biography, we are entering upon a fertile
but hitherto unoccupied field. A man of rare gifts, and one of whose
happiest literary productions it may safely be predicated that they will
live in the literature of his country, he has now for upwards of thirty
years relinquished the pursuit of _belles lettres_, thereby sacrificing
the world-wide fame as an author to which, in the early part of his
career, he seemed likely to attain. But if he has failed to achieve a
niche in the Temple of Fame, he has at least secured a permanent place
in the respect of the legal profession, and in the esteem of his
fellow-citizens. If the scope of his mind has been narrowed by the
arduous and incessant labour devolved upon him by his official position,
he has yet been enabled to lead a life of more than ordinary usefulness;
and future generations will probably listen with wonder and admiration,
when they hear of the extraordinary amount of hard and irksome labour
which, when the eight or nine hours' movement was yet in embryo, the
Sheriff of a county embracing a third of the population of Scotland was
able to accomplish.

Born in Glasgow in 1805, Sheriff Bell is descended from an honourable
and honoured family. His father followed the practice of the law, and
educated Henry to the same career. It did not seem, however, as if the
son cared to have his father's mantle falling upon him. After receiving
the rudiments of his education at the High School of Glasgow, he
proceeded to Edinburgh, where he commenced to go through a regular
University curriculum. So far as the Scottish metropolis was concerned,
the first quarter of the present century was the Augustan age of
literature. Sir Walter Scott was in his meridian. De Quincey, under the
influence of the "Circean spells" of opium, was making _Blackwood_ a
power in the land. Sir William Hamilton, the greatest British supporter
of _à priori_ philosophy in this century, had just been appointed to the
Chair of Civil History. Through the columns of the _Edinburgh Review_,
Francis Jeffrey was "propounding heresies of all sorts against the
ruling fancies of the day, whether political, poetical, or social." John
Wilson, "Christopher North," that "monster of erudition," was acting as
the animating soul of his celebrated magazine. Amid such a galaxy of
brilliant constellations, Henry Bell graduated for a literary career,
and he was not esteemed the least of the parhelions that shone around
the fixed stars in that spacious intellectual firmament. By contact and
association with such men, he enjoyed exceptional facilities for
qualifying himself as an author; and having the "root of the matter" in
him, he published, in rapid succession, poems, sketches, and reviews
that were more than sufficient to justify the compliment which the
Ettrick Shepherd years afterwards pronounced upon them, when he said,
"Man, Henry, it was a great pity ye didna stick to literature; 'od,
Sir, ye micht hae done something at literature."

Finding, perhaps, that his tastes were literary rather than legal--that
he had a greater aptitude for _belles lettres_ than jurisprudence--young
Bell, on the 15th November, 1828, undertook the Editorship of the
_Edinburgh Literary Journal_. He was then twenty-three years of age. The
_Journal_ professed to be a "weekly register of criticism and _belles
lettres_." It contained fourteen pages of royal octavo, and its price
was sixpence. The motto of the _Literary Journal_--it was often the
custom in those days to select a motto for periodical publications--was
the following taken from Bruyere:--

    "Talent, goût, esprit, bons sens, choses differentes,
                                  Non incompatibles;"

and this was supplemented by the well-known verse of Burns--

    "Here's freedom to him that would read,
    Here's freedom to him that would write!
    There's nane ever feared that the truth should be heard,
    But they whom the truth would indite."

On looking over the index to the first volume of the _Literary Journal_,
we find that it contained original contributions in miscellaneous
literature from Thomas Aird, the author of the Odd Volume; R. Carruthers
(editor of the _Inverness Courier_), R. Chambers, Derwent Conway, Dr.
Gillespie, Mrs. S. C. Hall, James Hogg, John Malcolm, Dr. Memes, Rev.
Dr. Morehead, Alexander Negris, Alexander Sutherland, William Tennant,
and William Weir. Of those who contributed original poetry, our readers
will be familiar with the names of the authoress of "Aloyse," Thomas
Atkinson, Alexander Balfour, Sheriff Bell himself (who, by the way, is
the most voluminous writer of all, his poems, in the list before us,
including "The Bachelor's Complaint," "Song to Leila," "Lines about
Love, and such like nonsense," "Edinburgh Revisited," and "To a
Favourite Actress"), Thomas Bryson, Gertrude, Captain Charles Gray, Mrs.
E. Hamilton, Mrs. Hemans, W. M. Hetherington, Alexander Maclagan, John
Malcolm, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Charles Doyne Sillery, Thomas Stoddart,
William Tennant, James Thomson, Alaric A. Watts, and Mrs. Grant of
Laggan. A rare combination of talent! An original contribution from
almost any one on this long list would be esteemed a priceless treasure
by the publishers of the present day. What would Mr. Strahan or Mr.
Macmillan not give to have the command of such a host?

A disposition to linger over the history and varied fortunes of this now
defunct censor, is naturally evolved from the contemplation of the
talent which it was able to command. A well-known author has said that
"whatever withdraws us from the power of the Senses; whatever makes the
past, the distant, or the future predominant over the present, advances
us in the dignity of human beings." So must the quondam editor of the
_Literary Journal_ think when he recalls the reminiscences of those
bygone days--days that were spent in edifying and agreeable association
with men and women whose names are inscribed on the roll of Scotland's
illustrious sons and daughters. He may also take a justifiable pride in
the fact that, by virtue of his position as editor, he was at once the
arbiter and the censor of works which have since, by universal
acclamation, been awarded a permanent place in the literature of
England. That Bell's conduct of the _Journal_ was able, popular, and
successful, we have ample evidence to show. It is proved by the variety
and excellence of the contributions which poured in upon him from the
most gifted writers of the day. In his _Noctes Ambrosianæ_, Professor
Wilson has published his attestation of the fact in the following
passage:--

     NORTH--Here, James, is one of the best, because most
     business-like prospectuses I ever read, of a new weekly
     periodical about to be published in Edinburgh in the
     middle of November--the _Edinburgh Literary Journal._
     From what I know of the editor--a gentleman of talent,
     spirit, and perseverance--I foretell the book will
     prosper.

     SHEPHERD--I shall be glad o' that, for ane gets tired
     of that eternal soun'--_Blackwood's
     Magazeen_--_Blackwood's Magazeen_--dinnin in ane's
     lugs, day and night, a' life long.

Our readers will bear with what may appear to some to some to be
unnecessary digressions, when they reflect upon the influence that the
_Literary Journal_ exercised upon the subject of our sketch while he was
yet a young man "winning his spurs" in the field of literature. It was
through his editorship of the _Literary Journal_ that Mr. Bell formed his
close intimacy with all the distinguished writers of his day; and if
this was not the most useful, it certainly was the most interesting part
of the career of him whom we are proud to acknowledge as the author of
"Mary, Queen of Scots." From this time forward he was the most intimate
friend and companion of Wilson and Hogg. The former came to Edinburgh in
1815, with the view of practising at the Scottish bar, so that Bell had
no opportunities of visiting him at his beautiful residence at Elleray,
on the banks of Lake Windermere, where for years previously he had lived
in Utopian health and happiness, "surrounded by the finest of scenery,
and varying his poem-writing and halcyon peace, with walking excursions
and jovial visits from friends that, like himself, entered with zest
into the hearty enjoyment of life." But, as between Bell and Wilson,
there was a fellow-feeling that made them "wondrous kind," they were
much in each other's society. Both were fond of piscatorial pursuits.
Wilson had early discovered an enthusiasm for angling, which he used to
cultivate on the banks of Lake Windermere. Bell, too, became a disciple
of Isaac Walton, and to indulge their love of sport, and to enjoy each
other's company where, removed from the busy haunts of men, they might
"hear the tumult and be still," they were accustomed to spend whole days
and nights on the banks of Loch Awe, and amid the gloomy and impressive
scenery of Glen Dochart. At other times they would plan walking
excursions. It was no unusual thing for them to walk upwards of thirty
miles at a stretch. They had not then the command of railway facilities,
nor did they want them. Muscular vigour, and a love of intellectual
pursuits were qualities characteristic of both men, and both possessed a
large amount of physical endurance. In physique, too, there was a
considerable _vraisemblance_. Christopher North has been described as a
"Goth of great personal prowess." Haydon says of him that he was like a
fine Sandwich Islander, who had been educated in the Highlands. His
light hair, deep sea blue eye, tall athletic figure, and hearty hand
grasp, his eagerness in debate, his violent passions, great genius, and
irregular habits, rendered him a formidable partisan, a furious enemy,
and an ardent friend. Of Bell, with one or two qualifications, the same
description would hold good. Wilson has immortalised their intimacy and
friendship in his "Noctes," where Bell is made to figure as "Tallboys,"
and where he is only mentioned with respect and affection. In the Six
Foot Club, an institution which had a local habitation and a name in
Edinburgh during the early part of the nineteenth century, and of which
both Wilson and Bell were members, they had further opportunities for
muscular exercise. It was an indispensable condition to membership in
this club that the candidate should be over six feet in height; and it
is surprising how many men who have made their mark in literature,
science, and art had attained that _sine qua non_. Physical and
intellectual greatness were so invariably combined in those days that
the two were thought by many vulgar minds to go hand in hand; but even
in the "Six Feet Club" there were few who presented in all respect a
more _distingué_ appearance than the subject of these remarks.

Another of Bell's most intimate friends during these years was James
Hogg, the "Ettrick Shepherd." Along with Wilson and other friends he
paid several visits to Hogg's native place, where they enjoyed pleasant
ramblings by St Mary's Loch, and in the Vale of Yarrow, to which the
Shepherd's muse has imparted quite a classic interest. There was,
however, a species of vulgarity about Hogg, which marred his otherwise
estimable qualities, and his uncouth Johnsonian habits were probably the
means of erecting a barrier between himself and more cultivated friends.
Lockhart, in his life of Scott, speaks of Hogg as a "a true son of
nature and genius," and this he undoubtedly was. One who had taught
himself to write by copyright the letters of a printed book as he lay
watching his flock on the hill side, and whose vivacious imagination, as
his own brother informs us, disqualified him from study or research, was
not likely while alive to make many close friends in the exclusive and
polished circles which formed the _élite_ of Edinburgh. But by Bell and
a few others, who saw the diamond glittering in the rough casket, Hogg
was duly appreciated. To the _Literary Journal_ he was a constant
contributor both of prose and verse, and he took a warm interest in its
success. When the proposal to erect a monument to the Shepherd in
Ettrick Vale took a practical shape, Sheriff Bell was selected to
inaugurate the structure. This he did on the 28th June, 1860. In fitting
terms, his old friend panegyrised the virtues and the genius of The
Shepherd, describing him "as a true poet--not equal to Burns, because no
national poet was ever equal to Burns, because no national poet was ever
equal to him--but justly entitled to take rank in the second place, and
worthily taking up the harp which he found lying on the grave of that
immortal man."

In the year 1830 Mr. Bell relinquished his connection with the _Literary
Journal_, which was conducted for some time afterwards by Mr. William
Weir. The paper had never been a "good property," even in its palmiest
days, and Mr. Weir, after carrying it on for a few months, allowed it to
stop, and came to Glasgow for the purpose of establishing a newspaper,
pure and simple. Mr. Weir was well known in Glasgow from his long
connection with the _Argus_, which he edited with rare tact and ability
until he was called to occupy a similar position on the _Daily News_ in
London. Meantime Mr. Bell was admitted a member of the Faculty of
Advocates. This was in 1832, so that he was in his twenty-seventh year.

Up till now he had consecrated his whole talents and energies to the
pursuit of literary eminence, his greatest works being his well-known
poem on "Mary, Queen of Scots," and his vindication of the same
unfortunate monarch in a masterly history of her life. These works were
to him a labour of love, for he has always manifested a deep sympathy
with the misfortunes of the unhappy Mary Stuart. It is even said that it
was to his intense devotion to her memory, and his beautiful poem on her
life, that he was indebted for his wife, who claimed some remote
connection with the Queen of Scots, through Donald Dhu, of whom she was
a descendant. Mrs. Bell, we believe, was a daughter of Captain Stuart of
Sheerglass, on the banks of the Garry, opposite Athole, and _en passant_
we may remark that her forefathers took a prominent part in the battle
of Killiecrankie. As an advocate, Sheriff Bell never held a
distinguished position. He was, perhaps, too far advanced in life before
he joined the bar. Be that as it may, he was one of a numerous circle of
_literati_ who lived contemporary with and subsequent to himself, to
whom the bar never brought any laurels; but after all, he made better
progress in the Court of Session than Professor Blackie, whose briefs
were so terribly akin to angels' visits that he has been heard to
declare himself that his practice as an advocate never brought him so
much as £40 a-year. Nor was his success less than that of Professor
Wilson, Professor Ferries, Professor Aytoun, Professor Innes, Sir
William Hamilton, Hilburton, Spalding, and others whom we might mention,
who have stamped the English literature with the sign-manual of their
genius, and whose names will be held in remembrance and honour long
after those of the most distinguished lawyers of the age shall have
passed to the limbo of oblivion. Advocates who also followed the
profession of _litterateurs_, and were addicted to _belles lettres_,
often experienced unfair treatment at the hands of the agents or
writers by whom counsel is usually retained. They were not considered
safe men. And if they were not completely ostracised from legal life,
they were so far tabooed and kept at a distance that their emoluments
from their legal practice could not, if they had depended solely upon
that source of income, have held body and soul together. Besides this,
the Edinburgh bar at that time could boast of a most unusual combination
of legal talent. Some of the ablest lawyers of this or any other age
were at that time practising in the Parliament House. And the eminence
of not a few men was so great as to leave a long way behind others who,
like Sheriff Bell, would now be considered above the average in their
profession. The young advocate of 1872 has not to encounter such
intellectual giants as Patrick Robertson, Jeffrey, Cockburn, Rutherford,
M'Neil, Moncrieff, Hope, and other contemporaries of Bell, who shed the
lustre of their genius upon the law of Scotland, and secured for the
Court of Session a reputation higher, perhaps, than even Westminster
Hall has ever been able to attain.

At this time, and throughout the whole of his literary career, Sheriff
Bell was an uncompromising Tory. He never took any prominent part in
imperial politics, although in the Edinburgh Town Council, of which he
was for some time a member--sitting as the representative of St.
George's Ward--he entered into some fierce debates on the Annuity-tax
with Duncan M'Laren. That obnoxious impost was even then, as it has
subsequently been, a great bone of contention, and proved the _casus
belli_ of many a wordy war. The embryo M.P. was generally, as we are
well informed, more than a match for the young advocate, whom he
overcame with those simple but effectual weapons--facts and figures.

In 1836, Sheriff Bell stood as a candidate for the Logic Chair in
Edinburgh University, his opponents being Mr. Isaac Taylor, author of
the "Natural History of Enthusiasm;" Mr. George Combe, the phrenologist;
and Sir William Hamilton. Previous to that time, Sir William had been
Professor of Civil History in the University, and his candidature for
the Logic Chair, which was strongly supported by Mr. Adam Black and Mr.
Napier, editor of the _Edinburgh Review_, was successful.

While nominally following his practice at the bar, Mr. Bell still
continued to attach himself to literary pursuits. There are some rather
good stories told of his attachment to the Temple of Thespis, of which,
while in Edinburgh, he had always been a regular attender. When a
well-known actor, made his first appearance at the Edinburgh
Theatre-Royal, it is said that Bell wrote a slashing criticism of the
performance, his article concluding with the significant remark:
"_N.B._--Steamers sail from Leith for London twice a week," meaning, of
course, that however well the new actor might satisfy the London
critics, he did not come up to the standard of the Edinburgh drama.
Indeed, Mr. Bell made the drama a special study, and his opinion on any
new play or actor was always asked and listened to with the utmost
deference. He was on very intimate terms with the late Mr. William H.
Murray, manager of the "Royal," and through him furnished a number of
prologues for that theatre in its palmiest days. He also established for
himself a high reputation as a lecturer on the Fine Arts; and his
prelections on music, poetry, sculpture, painting, and the drama were
universally admitted to be of a high order of merit. Until the present
hour, Sheriff Bell continues to manifest a great attachment to the Fine
Arts, and amid the pressure of his official duties, he often finds
leisure to visit the theatres either in Glasgow or in Edinburgh.

In 1839, Mr. Bell was appointed a Sheriff-Substitute of Lanarkshire,
with a salary of £400 per annum. The appointment lay with Sir Archibald
Alison, who is said to have been favourably impressed with his
successor's conduct while acting as junior counsel for the Glasgow
cotton-spinners when they were brought to trial in the spring of 1838
for conspiracy. When Mr. Bell became Sheriff-Substitute, the duties of
the office were very light compared with what they are at the present
time. For a number of years his only colleague was the late Mr. George
Skene, who subsequently became Professor of Law in Glasgow University.
Indeed, the duties of the Sheriffs continued to be comparatively easy up
to 1853, when the passing of the Sheriff Court Act, which compelled
Sheriffs to take all notes of evidence in their own handwriting,
rendered the work much more laborious. Their salaries were raised from
time to time, in proportion to the increased irksomeness and
responsibility of their duties; and it is a fact worth noting, that
whereas Mr. Bell, as Sheriff-Substitute, had only £400, Mr. Dickson, in
the same sphere of labour, has now £1400 per annum.

On the death of Sir Archibald Alison in 1867, Mr. Bell was appointed
Sheriff-Principal. One of his first acts upon his promotion was so
graceful in itself and so creditable to his good taste that we cannot
refrain from referring to it here. To external appearance, Sheriff Bell
has little of the _suaviter in modo_ about him; and while acting as
Sheriff-Substitute, he gave offence to several of the agents practising
in the local courts by what may be called a little gruffness of
demeanour. Coming to hear that his manner had been spoken of as
offensive, Sheriff Bell, on succeeding Sir Archibald Alison, candidly
and broadly referred to the fact in open court. He expressed his regret
if anything defective in his manner had given unintentional offence, and
declared that, so far as it was in his power, the Faculty might rely in
future upon being treated with every courtesy and consideration. Such a
frank and candid avowal could only come from a manly man; and it went a
long way towards restoring Sheriff Bell to the confidence and esteem of
the offended practitioners.

With the exception of this little cloud, Sheriff Bell has uniformly
lived in peace and concord with his professional friends, and he has at
their hands received many little marks of honour and respect. In 1852, a
rumour went out that Sir Archibald Alison was to be elevated to the
Supreme Court. This led the profession in Glasgow to present a memorial
to the Lord-Advocate, praying that in such an event Sheriff Bell might
be made Sir Archibald's successor. Again, about 12 years ago, strong
representations and inducements were held out to him to return to
Edinburgh as consulting counsel in Mercantile Law--a department of
jurisprudence which, if he did not altogether create it, Sheriff Bell
has done much to develop and bring into a practical shape. Although the
offer promised the realisation of a handsome income, it was respectfully
declined. Still farther we may remark, that it was no small honour to
Mr. Bell that he was made Sheriff of Lanarkshire contrary to the usual
custom, which is to appoint to the office some one that has acted for a
longer or shorter period as Advocate-Depute--a place which he, of
course, has never filled.

As a judge, Sheriff Bell displays remarkable discrimination and insight.
He is gifted in a large measure, with the judicial faculty; but for the
same reason that he is a good judge, he would probably fail as a
pleader. At the bar it is customary only to represent and contend for
one side of a case, to the exclusion or destruction of the other; but on
the bench conflicting arguments have to be duly weighed, and the balance
so adjusted between them that truth and justice may ultimately be
evolved. In thus discriminating between irreconcilable issues, and duly
weighing the arguments presented on both sides, Sheriff Bell is
particularly at home; and his decisions are remarkable for standing the
great test of an appeal to the Supreme Court.

Since he came to Glasgow as Sheriff-Substitute, Mr. Bell has taken an
active part in all public movements apart from politics; and in regard
to educational and scientific matters he deserves to rank as a pioneer.
When the Social Science Congress met in Glasgow in 1860, Professor
Pillans and other _savants_ were dining with Sheriff Bell, whose sound
judgment and profound knowledge of nearly every subject brought under
discussion enabled him to take a very intelligent and conspicuous part
in the proceedings. Talking of authors and their works, Professor
Pillans quoted certain lines, respecting which he asked Sheriff Bell
whether he had ever heard them before. The latter confessed that he did
not recollect them. "Why," said the Professor, "you wrote these lines
when you were a pupil in my class." On another occasion, when Thackeray
came to Glasgow to deliver his lectures on the Four Georges, the great
novelist was introduced to the Sheriff of Lanarkshire by the late Mr.
Walter Buchanan, M.P. At that time there was some disagreement between
Thackeray and the directors of the Athenæum as to the terms of his
engagement, and we believe that Thackeray considered himself (whether
with or without just cause) to have been badly used. Referring to Mr.
Bell as the champion of Mary Stuart, Mr. Buchanan jocosely remarked to
Thackeray that he must not repeat in Glasgow the attack he had made in
Edinburgh on Mary Queen of Scots. "Never fear," replied Thackeray, "I
can't afford to do it for the money."

By his wife, whom he has now survived nearly twenty years, Sheriff Bell
had one son and four daughters. Three of his daughters have been
married--one to Professor Nichol, and the other two to members of the
firm of M'Clellan, Son, & Co., accountants, Glasgow. The fourth daughter
is unmarried.




MR. ROBERT DALGLISH.


There are not a few reminiscences associated with the name and history
of Mr. Robert Dalglish, the senior representative of Glasgow, that must
tend to render a record of his life peculiarly interesting to his
constituents. Born at Glasgow in 1808, he is now in his sixty-third
year. His father was emphatically one of the pioneers of Glasgow's
industrial prosperity. Born in humble circumstances, he "burst his
birth's invidious bar," and elevated himself to the proud position of
the first magistrate of that city "whose merchants are princes and whose
traffickers are the honourable of the earth." During his three years
tenure of the civic chair, Mr. Robert Dalglish, sen., approved himself a
very useful and excellent citizen, and his attention to municipal
affairs was most unremitting and diligent, while at the same time he was
laying the foundations of that splendid business to which his son, the
subject of the present sketch, ultimately succeeded. Our Senior Member
was educated at the University of Glasgow, and "when the fulness of the
time had come," he was admitted a partner in the firm of which his
father was then the principal, and which is now well-known by the title
of R. Dalglish, Falconer, & Co. It is, perhaps, the largest
calico-printing firm in Scotland, their works at Campsie employing
upwards of 1000 hands. Since his accession to the business, Mr. Dalglish
has largely extended and improved the original works, so that they are
now vastly superior to what they were at that time. Several substantial
additions, including a large engraving shop, were recently made to meet
the requirements of the firm. It is worthy of note that the father of
Mr. Dalglish occupied as a dwelling-house the building now used as the
offices of the firm in St Vincent Place--the business part of the city
being at that time within a short radius of the Cross. To the son,
however, the lines have fallen in more pleasant places, for his mansion
at Kilmardinny, near Milngavie, is one of the most "highly desirable
residences" (as an auctioneer would phrase it) in the West of Scotland.
The grounds or policies attached to the house extend to 140 acres, and
within recent years Mr. Dalglish has expended a great deal of both money
and taste on his fine property.

Of Mr. Dalglish's political connection with the city there is not much to
be said. Up to the year 1857 he had not taken any active part in either
municipal or political affairs; and when he announced his intention of
coming forward as a candidate for the representation of the city in
April of that year, the Whigs and the Tories alike were taken by
surprise. Glasgow had then only two members. Both of them had been in
Parliament for a number of years, although neither had ever been
distinguished for any brilliant political achievement. Mr. Dalglish was
brought forward by no section or party--at least he disclaimed any
connection with either Whigs or Tories, and as for the Radicals, they
were then out in the cold. He stood, as he himself said, on his own
responsibility, and as a perfectly independent candidate. It is not too
much to affirm that it was his pluck and independence that carried him
through. He had little difficulty in forming a committee, including, for
the most part, gentlemen of considerable local influence, and that _sine
qua non_ having been obtained, the rest was comparatively smooth
sailing. Mr. Hastie, his opponent, was a quiet and easy-going member, who
never did anything, either good, bad, or indifferent, to distinguish
himself in the House of Commons, and who, as one of his _quasi_ friends
declared, had not even the merit of being a regular attender, although
he had represented the city in Parliament for ten continuous years. On
the nomination day, Mr. Dalglish was accompanied to the platform by
Bailie Galbraith, Mr. W. West Watson (City Chamberlain), Mr. David
Dreghorn, Councillor Moir, Mr. Walter Paterson, and other gentlemen, who
still figure in the ranks of our most prominent citizens. His nomination
was proposed by Bailie Galbraith, and seconded by Mr. W. West Watson. Mr.
Dalglish delivered a thoroughly characteristic speech, of which we are
in a position to give the salient points. He said:--"I shall not refer
to my antecedents as has been done by my hon. opponents; but this I will
say, that for the future I am prepared to do everything for the
advancement of the interests of the people. I am anxious to see not the
reform of 1832, which was a mere sham and delusion, but a reform which
will give to every householder a vote, and a vote to every man who pays
a direct tax to the Government. (Great cheering.) I am in favour of
every social and sanitary reform in this city; and if our local
philanthropists--the Hendersons, the Campbells, and the Clarks--will
turn their attention to the centre of the city, where the masses of our
population are congregated, and project some scheme for the opening up
of the closes and winds, and the building of better houses for the
working classes, I shall be ready to support them. (The city improvement
scheme was at that date in the matrix of the future.) I have much
respect for the voluntary system of education, but I feel that it does
not reach all the children of a large city such as Glasgow, and that
therefore a national system of education is required. I would also
support the establishment of schools for the teaching of children,
because I believe that he who teaches should first be taught himself.
(Laughter.) I am against all intervention with other States, but at the
same time I would prevent intervention by others. (Cheers, and a call,
"put on your hat Bob," and laughter.) I will support Lord Palmerston so
long as his policy is conducted with a view to the true interests of the
country--so long as his measures are calculated to promote the interests
of the masses--but I will not support Lord Palmerston if he is disposed
to offer any opposition to a Liberal measure of Reform." The show of
hands was declared by Sheriff Alison to be in favour of Mr. Buchanan
and Mr. Dalglish, and a poll was demanded for Mr. Hastie. The poll took
place next day, when the majority of those who had supported Mr. Merry,
at the election six weeks before, recorded their votes for Mr. Dalglish.
At the close of the poll the votes stood--

Buchanan,    7069
Dalglish,    6764
Hastie,      5044

At every subsequent election Mr. Dalglish has been returned with
acclamation. At one time he announced his intention to retire from
Parliamentary duties, but a numerous and influential deputation from
Glasgow waited upon and induced him to alter his resolution. At the
General Election of 1868, the electors raised a subscription, to which
men of all ranks and all shades of politics contributed, to defray his
election expenses, and so liberal was the response made by his
constituents that he was returned free of personal cost.

Of Mr. Dalglish's merits as our Parliamentary representative it behoves
us to say something, and we can safely premise with the affirmation that
few men have a greater personal influence in the House of Commons. Those
who cannot see a little behind the scenes may wonder at this apparently
rash statement, and ask--What has Mr. Dalglish done to give him a
political influence? When has he ever made any brilliant speeches? What
great measures has he succeeded in passing? Do you ever see his name
even so much as mentioned in Parliamentary debates? To one and all of
these questions the friends and admirers of Mr. Dalglish would almost be
compelled to return a negative answer. To the uninitiated Mr. Dalglish,
so far as any outward and visible manifestations of power and
influence--of senatorial usefulness and ability--is concerned, will
appear to be a mere cipher. But it does not require the meddlesomeness
of a Whalley, or the volubility of a Newdegate, to make a politician.
In politics, as in the minor affairs of life, tact and discrimination
often go for more than fervid bursts of oratory, or highly-concentrated
genius. In the region of politics, too, there are wheels within
wheels--an _imperium in imperio_. The House of Commons bears, in some
respects, a remarkable affinity to a puppet-show. You cannot always see
the magician who pulls the strings, and moves the political machine
obedient to his will. And of no man in the House of Commons is this more
true than of Mr. Dalglish. Unless one is under his magic spell, it is
impossible to understand its mainspring, although it is easy to feel its
effects. Ask the influential citizens of Glasgow to reveal the secret of
Mr. Dalglish's power, and they will mention two qualities, both very good
in their way but neither of them, one would think, sufficient to give
their possessor a transcendent influence in the most august and
intellectual assembly in the world. We would be told, first of his _bon
hommie_, and next of his punctuality and unfailing attention to his
Parliamentary duties. Put the same question to those who see behind the
scenes, however, and they would probably return another and a more
truthful answer by ascribing Mr. Dalglish's popularity to his _good
dinners_. In this respect he is unique. With almost unfailing regularity
he invites his friends and enemies alike to dine twice a week. We mean,
of course, his political enemies, for of personal enemies, Mr. Dalglish
must have very few. At these bi-weekly feasts, men of all shades of
politics, and of all degrees and stations in life, meet together with
the most delicious equality and freedom from restraint. Lord and
commoner, peer and peasant, marquis and merchant, are thrown into
immediate contact, and hob-nob without restriction or ceremony. The
unalloyed joviality and good humour of the host is imparted to the
guests, and while as a dispenser of creature comforts Mr. Dalglish stands
almost alone, he has a suavity of manner that disarms party feeling, and
compels a favour when it is asked for. It is not to be wondered at,
under these circumstances, that our Senior Member is the presiding
genius of the House of Commons' kitchen, or that in the administration
of cigars and wines he is perfectly at home. We all know that

    "A fellow feeling makes us wondrous kind;"

and so long as human infirmities tend in the direction of a good dinner,
so long will Mr. Dalglish, whose unbounded hospitality must have cost him
quite a large fortune, remain the _facile princeps_ of diplomatists.

It would be unfair, however, to imply that Mr. Dalglish owes his
influential position in the House of Commons to this speciality alone.
No member is more regular in his attendance on Parliamentary duties. Mr.
Dalglish is always in his place, and he is ever eager to promote the
interests of his constituents. He has rendered yeoman service to the
municipal affairs of the city, having sat on many committees appointed
to deal with bills promoted by the Corporation. His solicitude to oblige
his constituents is, indeed, only bounded by his ability to serve them,
and the "open sesame" is seldom beyond his control. As a speaker he
never did and never will excel, although he has several times, and
notably on the question of the management of the dockyards, addressed
the House.

In personal appearance, Mr. Dalglish is about the ordinary height. He has
a genial and pleasant countenance, to which a long white beard imparts
somewhat of a patriarchal aspect; and the merry twinkle of his keen,
bright eye affords a capital index to his real character. His whole
demeanour is that of a man in whom confidence may be reposed without
fear of rebuff, and no man in the House could be more readily accessible
to his constituents. Mr. Dalglish is considered to have as good a
technical knowledge of the House of Commons' business as any private
member in it.

Consistently with his Liberal principles, Mr. Dalglish voted for the
disestablishment and disendowment of the Irish Church in 1869. He is in
favour of the withdrawal of all State grants for religious purposes, and
he is also an advocate for the assimilation of the county and borough
franchise.




MR. WILLIAM GRAHAM.


There are politicians and politicians. It is due to the varied opinions
and characters of its members that the House of Commons is such an
eminently representative assembly. It is not wealth alone, neither is it
genius, that affords the "open sesame" to Parliamentary fame. The wheels
of progress would probably move much slower than they do, if all who
entered St. Stephen's were gifted orators. Eloquence is a great
recommendation to a seat in Parliament; but there are other qualities
which, without being so conspicuous, are perhaps much more solid, and in
the long run lead to the accomplishment of a greater amount of really
useful work. Talking and working are essentially different things; and
it is well for Parliament, for the newspapers, and for the nation at
large, that so many excellent legislators are compelled to confess, like
Marc Antony, "I am no orator." The members for Glasgow have never made
themselves famous in the direction of much speaking; their aim has been
to gather much wool with little cry, thus reversing completely the
well-known motto. The interests of a city like Glasgow are purely
commercial and industrial, but they require to be constantly watched
with the utmost vigilance. To guard and conserve them aright requires,
also, a more or less practical and comprehensive knowledge of mercantile
affairs. This Mr. Graham possesses in a marked degree, having been
trained from his youth up in all the ramifications of commerce; and on
this ground alone his claims to represent his native city in Parliament
are not to be despised. But he has another, and, perhaps, still
stronger, hold upon the sympathies and support of the "free and
independent electors" of St. Mungo. He is recognised as the advocate
and representative of the religious and educational interests in
Parliament, and it was upon this basis that he was returned. Mr.
Dalglish has been so long and so closely associated with the commercial
and municipal interests of the city, that it would be impossible to find
one with a stronger hold in that direction. As for Mr. Anderson, he is,
of course, the champion of the working classes, and holds his seat by
their suffrages. But there was still another important party not
directly represented--the party to whom the city is indebted for much of
its social, intellectual, and religious prosperity--and Mr. Graham
stepped in to fill up the breach. Nailing his colours to the mast of the
good ship "Nonconformity," he has all along contended for religious
equality and toleration throughout the whole Empire; and if his
_specialité_ is not that of "darkening counsel with vain words," he has
given his best services since he entered Parliament to the advancement
of the true and permanent interests of his constituents, by unremitting
application to such duties as came within his reach.

Mr. Graham is the eldest son of the late Mr. Wm. Graham, of Burnshields,
by Catherine, daughter of Mr. J. Swanston. He was born in Glasgow in
1817, and after passing some time at a private school, was sent to
Glasgow University, where he finished his education. He is married to
Jane Catherine, daughter of the late Mr. John Lowndes, formerly of
Arthurlie, Renfrewshire. Mr. Graham succeeded to his father's place as
head of the firm of William Graham & Co., merchants. The principal
business in which he is engaged is that of cotton-spinning, the firm
owning the Lancefield Factory, which, if not one of the largest, is at
any rate one of the oldest establishments of its kind in Glasgow, and
carries the memory back to the days when cotton and not iron was the
industrial King of the West. At the Lancefield Factory there are upwards
of 1000 hands employed, principally women, and the annual output of
cotton is nearly equal to that of some of the largest mills in
Manchester. Besides being a cotton-spinner, however, Mr. Graham is also a
wine importer on a very considerable scale, and is largely engaged in
the East India produce trade. Vintages of the choicest quality, and
ports of the heaviest "body," are imported by the firm direct from
Lisbon and Oporto, where they have branch establishments; and so
conspicuous for their excellence are the wines which they import, that
when _paterfamilias_ wants to impress upon his guest that he is enjoying
an unmistakeable treat, he announces that the grateful beverage under
discussion "was imported direct by William Graham & Co." In his father's
days, Mr. Graham represented the house both in India and on the
Continent, and since he became head of the firm, he has devoted himself
with the utmost assiduity to the management and direction of affairs at
home. Thus, unlike either of his colleagues, Mr. Graham takes an active
personal supervision of a large mercantile concern, at the same time
that he earns the credit of being one if the most regular attenders in
the House of Commons. Indeed, he makes it a matter of duty to attend the
House closely, and it is a fair matter of doubt whether there are
half-a-dozen members--not in office--who attend to their Parliamentary
duty with more punctuality and unfailing attention than the three
representatives for Glasgow.

On the retirement from Parliamentary duties, through commercial
misfortunes, of Mr. Buchanan, who had for many years been the senior
member for the city, Mr. Wm. Graham came forward as a candidate. His
address to the electors, dated the 11th May, 1865, contained the
following:--"A native of Glasgow, an alumnus of her University, and
connected with the city by the closest ties of business and of
friendship, I have felt that for the honour and usefulness of such a
position the cares of business may well be, to some extent,
relinquished, and the duties and responsibilities of public life
undertaken; and should I be fortunate enough to secure your suffrages,
my best efforts and most anxious attention shall not be spared
faithfully to represent the views and advocate the interests of this
great community.... I may at least say, in a few words, that from my
earliest recollection I have been strongly attached to Liberal
principles, and that nothing can ever alter my faith in the truth and
wisdom of what are known as Liberal opinions in civil and religious
politics, or diminish my deep interest in the social, civil, and
religious progress of the country." On the following day Mr. Dalglish
took his constituents by surprise by announcing that it was not his
intention to seek re-election. On the 10th June, Mr. John Ramsay issued
an address, in which he enunciated his advocacy of economy and
retrenchment in the public expenditure, recommended a judicious
extension of the franchise, and stated, in reference to the Maynooth
grant, which at that time engaged at a considerable amount of attention,
that he "would oppose any further grants from the national exchequer,
either in favour of the Roman Catholics or any other body." Mr. Ramsay
set forth, in conclusion, that "his business connection with Glasgow for
nearly thirty years past had made him acquainted with local affairs, and
it would be his pleasure, as he should regard it his duty, to give
unremitting attention to every measure fitted to advance the interests
of the city." The candidature of Mr. Graham was from the first looked
upon with a great deal of favour by a large body of the more influential
electors, and his general committee, of which Mr. Archibald Orr Ewing of
Ballikinrain was chairman, and Bailie J. W. Anderson was
deputy-chairman, comprised the names of Mr. Wm. Kidston, Sir James
Lumsden, Mr. Alex. Dennistoun of Golfhill, Mr. Colin R. Dunlop, Mr. Alex.
Crum Ewing, Mr. John Orr Ewing of Tillichewan, Mr. W. J. Davidson of
Ruchill, and Mr. J. C. Wakefield. At the nomination, which took place on
the 12th of July, the show of hands was declared to be in favour of Mr.
Dalglish (who had been induced to stand again) and Mr. Graham--the
latter, indeed, obtaining a larger display than either of the other two
candidates. The poll, which was demanded on behalf of Mr. Ramsay, took
place on the following morning, and from the outset Mr. Graham was a long
way ahead of either of his opponents. At four o'clock the poll stood--

Graham,       8113
Dalglish,     6707
Ramsay,       5837

Thus giving a majority of 2276 for Mr. Graham, and a majority of 878 for
Mr. Dalglish. On entering Parliament at the commencement of the session
of 1866, Mr. Graham had the honour of being selected to second the
Address to her Majesty, which was moved by Lord H. Cavendish. This he
did in a singularly able and practical address, which was listened to
with great attention by the House. The _Daily Telegraph_, in its
Parliamentary summary, referring to this occasion, said:--"Mr. Graham,
the new member for Glasgow, spoke like an _habitué_ of the House of
twenty years' standing. He had caught the very manner of the place,
spoke fluently, almost eloquently, and exhibited both political and
commercial knowledge. It was an undoubted success, and Mr. Gladstone, who
had listened attentively, warmly congratulated him when he sat down."

In reference to Mr. Graham's political tendencies and conduct, we may
remark that although he has mainly been a supporter of the policy of Mr.
Gladstone's Government, he has at the same time, on questions of
principle, held himself entirely independent of any Government or party.
He is more especially associated with that section of the House which
represents the English Nonconformists and the Presbyterians of all three
countries. Next in importance to religious progress and toleration as a
matter of Parliamentary policy, Mr. Graham advocates the reduction of the
national expenditure, holding that the present scale thereof is
excessive beyond any possible justification. Therefore, in every case
where such a reduction appeared in his view to be honestly aimed at, he
has been in the habit of acting with the economists.

Although he has never been a prominent speaker in the House, Mr. Graham
is, in his own way, a very useful member, and he is specially called
into requisition when any matter of an ecclesiastical or educational
kind is under consideration. In many ways he has shown an anxiety to be
useful, and to those of his constituents who make calls upon his time
and services he is always most accessible and ready to oblige. Although
a Liberal, he is not in favour of extensive changes, and he is opposed
to any interference with religious questions, whether by endowments or
State connection, by the Government.

Mr. Graham, we may add, is a magistrate and deputy lieutenant of
Lanarkshire.




MR. GEORGE ANDERSON.


Mr. George Anderson, the junior member for the city of Glasgow, was born
at Liverpool in 1819, and is thus in his 52d year. He is a son of George
Anderson, Esq., of Luscar, Fifeshire, by his marriage with Miss Rachel
Inglis. His father, who had been in early life in the navy, was for some
years managing partner of the firm of Messrs. Dennistown & Co. at Havre
and New Orleans, from which he left to be manager of the one branch of
the old Glasgow Bank (with which the same house was largely connected)
at Kirkcaldy, of which town he was afterwards for many years the
highly-respected Provost.

Mr. Anderson was educated partly at Havre, partly at the High School of
Edinburgh, and subsequently at the University of St Andrews. On coming
to Glasgow in 1841, he entered the concern of Alex. Fletcher & Co.,
flaxspinners, St. Rollox, and was latterly managing partner of that
extensive manufacturing establishment, employing nearly 2000 workpeople;
and through his experience there, during 25 years, he acquired that
knowledge of the grievances and wants of the working classes which has
enabled him to legislate for them since. Mr. Anderson had never taken any
part in Municipal affairs, but he had in other ways always done his fair
share of public work. The Polytechnic Institution, the Fine Art
Exhibitions that preceded the present Institute, the Art Union, the
Philosophical Society, the Lock Hospital--of all of these he had been an
active promoter or director. In connection with the West of Scotland
Angling Club, of which he was a zealous member, he had successfully
introduced the grayling into Scotland--an achievement in
acclimatisation worthy of being remembered. While President of the
Glasgow Skating Club he published a treatise on the art of skating,
which is still the most popular manual on the subject, and has, we
believe, reached a third edition. In 1859, on the starting of the
Volunteer movement, Mr. Anderson took an enthusiastic part, and was among
the original officers of the 4th Lanark, with which corps he has
continued, being still its senior major; while he has repeatedly
advocated, in the House, the claims of the Volunteers to increased
assistance as an economical measure for national defence.

His candidature for the City of Glasgow, in 1868, was promoted by the
local branch of the Reform League, conjointly with the trade delegates,
who held a conference to deliberate on the matter. Previous to that
time, our junior member was well known among the _proletariat_ for his
well-timed efforts to effect the abolition of the arrestment of wages.
In 1852 he started the subject of wages arrestment by a series of
letters in the _Reformer's Gazette_, _Daily Mail_, and _Herald_. The
subject had long been felt to be a sore grievance and rock of offence
among the working classes, and periodical agitations had taken place
without leading to any decided action. From the very first Glasgow took
the initiative in seeking to modify or get rid altogether of a law which
pressed with greater severity on the lower orders than, perhaps, any
other enactment that ever found its way into the Statute Books of
Scotland. The late Neale Thomson, of Camphill, gave great assistance in
that agitation, and a very exhaustive and able pamphlet on the
arrestment of wages was published by Mr. Anderson in 1853, which led to
the appointment of a Royal Commission; but though the report was
entirely favourable to Mr. Anderson's views, nothing came of it, as under
the £10 franchise the small shopkeepers were too strong for them, and
the work which they had been sanguine of completing in 1854 was left for
himself to do alone in 1870. Mr. Anderson wrote frequently on the
currency question. His most recent production (published in 1866) was a
pamphlet entitled "The Reign of Bullionism"--having previously read a
paper on the subject of the Bank Acts to the Social Science Congress at
Manchester--in which he advocated a national issue of note currency, and
the abrogation of the Bank of England charter, and all other banks'
monopoly. His literature was not all, however, of so practical a
character; not long before he had edited, jointly with Mr. J. Finlay, a
volume containing fifty of the best of the poems written on the
centenary of Robert Burns--one of his own, which had been highly
commended at the Crystal Palace competition, being among them. The
volume is, perhaps, the most fitting tribute to the memory of our
national poet that has appeared, and we believe it is now out of print.

In the education question Mr. Anderson had always taken a keen interest.
Besides lectures and papers to the Philosophical Society, the
Educational Institute, and the Social Science Congress he published two
pamphlets pointing out how utterly worthless the half-time education
clauses of the Factory Acts had proved, and urging compulsory education,
or, in default of that, a _quasi_ compulsion in the form of an
educational test, in place of an age test, for youthful labour. He also
came prominently before the public on the occasion of an agitation which
took place in 1867 in reference to the subject of an education bill for
Scotland. It will be remembered that two parties in the city sought to
influence the Government of the day for different ends. One party was
composed of the religious, while the other represented the unsectarian
element, and by both memorials were sent to Parliament urging the claims
of Scotland to a more comprehensive system of national education. Mr.
Anderson, of course, espoused the cause of the unsectarian party, who
went in for compulsory education; and he addressed a meeting in the City
Hall, at which several resolutions approving of an unsectarian as
opposed to a religious scheme of education were passed by a considerable
majority of those present. The Reform Bill of 1868 gave Glasgow a third
member, and Mr. Anderson was fixed upon as the most suitable
representative of the interests of labour. His candidature, which as we
have already indicated, had been invited by the Reform Leaguers and
Trades Delegates of the city, was warmly supported by the working
classes. A three-cornered constituency, the electors of Glasgow could
only vote for two candidates; and as there was a Tory in the field, in
the person of Sir George Campbell, it became a rather nice question as
to how the three Liberal candidates were to be returned. The Liberal
party were equal to the emergency. They agreed to vote for the two
lowest candidates on the list throughout the polling, irrespective
altogether of personal predilections or sympathies in favour of either.
In this way the battle was won in the Liberal interest, and Glasgow
vindicated her claim to be esteemed the most Liberal constituency in the
kingdom. At the close of the poll, the return was as follows:--

Robert Dalglish,           18,287
W. Graham,                 18,062
G. Anderson,               17,803
Sir G. Campbell, Bart.,    10,812

Since he entered Parliament, Mr. Anderson has amply justified the choice
of his constituents. He stands in the front rank of advanced Liberals,
and is in favour of "Reform being carried to its fullest extent, by
three-cornerism being abolished, by dispensing with the payment of
rates, and by adopting the Ballot." Retired altogether from private
business, Mr. Anderson has every facility, apart from his bent and
disposition, for taking an active and intelligent part in public
affairs, and he has approved himself a most industrious and zealous
legislator. No man is closer in his attendance on the House of Commons.
During his first session in Parliament he was present at 128 out of 160
divisions; his second year in Parliament, though he was away ill for a
month, was marked by a scarcely less scrupulous and regular attention to
his duties, for he was present at 171 out of 264 divisions; and in his
third session he was present at 262 out of 270.

Mr. Anderson made his maiden speech in Parliament on the 3rd day of
March, 1869. The occasion was the second reading of Mr. Fawcett's
Election Expenses Bill, which proposed to throw the expenses of
elections on the ratepayers. In the course of his address, which was
listened to with the utmost attention, Mr. Anderson said--"To the great
bulk of those whom he addressed, the payment of £200 or £300 was in all
probability a matter of trifling importance; but undoubtedly the
necessity for incurring even that expense had a great effect in limiting
the field from which constituencies might choose their members; and if
the House were anxious to avoid the charge of desiring to keep
Parliamentary honours and political power in the possession of one
class--namely, the class of very wealthy men--they must legislate in the
direction proposed by the hon. member for Brighton (Mr. Fawcett). It
should be remembered that in limiting the field from which
constituencies might choose their members, the House thereby tended to
limit its own intellectual power."

Again, in Committee of Supply on the army estimates, Mr. Anderson
addressed the House on the 11th March, 1869; and on the 17th June, 1869,
he electrified the "Colonels" of the House by declaring, while speaking
of the great expense of the non-effective services and pensions, that
"he thought the whole system of pay and pensions in the army was rotten
and wrong.... Officers ought to provide for old age out of their
incomes, and even if their pay were proportionately increased, the
service would gain in efficiency if the change made it less
aristocratic, by throwing it open to men without private fortunes, who
must live on their pay." Mr. Anderson has persistently, both in season
and out of season, kept "pegging away" at the bugbear of Army Reform,
and on the 2d August, 1870, he attacked the abuse of sinecure Colonels,
and abuses in the higher branches of the army; such as the Colonelcies
held by the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cambridge, the chief military
secretary, and others. Mr. Cardwell, in his reply, alleged that these
were honorary, but was afterwards obliged to admit that the Prince and
the Duke were each paid for one colonelcy, the former £1350, and the
latter £2200. He moved large reductions in the salaries of the
commander-in-chief and the military secretary, in respect of their
holding incomes from colonelcies, and repeated his motion in 1871.
Although he was defeated in these motions, the result has been the
restriction of the salary of the military secretary by £700 a year, and
a prospective reduction of the commander-in-chief's by £450 at next
vacancy. But it is hardly to be expected that these reductions will
induce Mr. Anderson to desist from further attempts in the same
direction. In 1871 he was selected to second Mr. Trevelyan's motion on
army reform, and in speaking on that occasion he again attacked the
sinecure colonelcies and other abuses in the administration of the army.
He systematically opposes all increase of expenditure, particularly on
the army, and in 1870, on the outbreak of the Franco-German war, when
Government asked a vote of two millions for increased army expenditure,
he was one of a minority of seven who opposed it. In the debate on the
abolition of purchase, Mr. Anderson denounced the injustice of razing
over regulation prices, and thus rewarding men for knowingly breaking
the law. He pointed out that it would lead to officers getting not one,
but two over regulation prices, and he afterwards supported Mr. Ryland's
motion against that payment.

It is, however, to his Wages Arrestment Act and the Citation Amendment
(Scotland) Act that Mr. Anderson stands indebted for his prestige and
popularity as a legislator. The first of these is the bill which he
introduced last session with the object of limiting the arrestment of
wages. In Glasgow, and elsewhere throughout Scotland, the provisions of
the measure were discussed with a good deal of personal feeling--one
party arguing that the security afforded to shopkeepers by the power of
arresting wages enabled them to give credit to working men when they
could not otherwise venture to do so; while another class contended that
extravagance and distress were the results of too easy access to credit.
The general impression, however, appears to be that the bill will be
productive of the most beneficial results both to the small shopkeepers
and to their customers--the two classes most directly interested in its
operation.

In reference to the Citation Amendment (Scotland) Act, which has put an
end to keyhole citations in small debt cases throughout Scotland, we may
remark that Mr. Anderson aimed, in introducing this measure, at the
amelioration of the poorer classes, on whom the keyhole system pressed
with undue severity. Previous to the passing of the new Act the officer
appointed to serve a summons was permitted--if he did not find the
defender at home, or could not obtain access to his house--to place the
summons in the keyhole, after six knocks at the door, or to affix it to
the gate; and whilst many accidents might readily occur to prevent its
reaching the hands of the proper party, it was also not unfrequent for
some one interested to take it away, and thus a decree in absence was
too readily obtained.

In the Trades' Union and Criminal Amendment Bills he attempted several
amendments on behalf of the working man, and was successful in some,
particularly in excluding the jurisdiction of Justices of Peace from
such cases in Scotland, which renders that Act less oppressive in
Scotland than it is in England.

We may briefly indicate, in reference to the rest of Mr. Anderson's
Parliamentary career, that he has voted in favour of Mr. Mundella's
motion against the increase of the Army Estimates. He has supported the
bill for the legalizing of marriage with a deceased wife's sister, and
voted in favour of the Irish Church and Land Bills. On the 9th May,
1871, he voted in favour of Mr. Miall's proposed resolution for the
disestablishment of the Church of England; while as cognate to this
subject, we may add, that he has opposed Mr. M'Laren's Annuity Tax
(Edinburgh) Bill, as well as the Church Rates (Scotland) Bill; though,
in speaking to his constituents in 1871, he claimed to have been the
means of bringing about the settlement of the Annuity Tax question.

During the last two sessions he has repeatedly called the attention of
the Home Secretary to the prevalence and results of betting
advertisements, and urged the need of further legislation. On mercantile
subjects Mr. Anderson is considered somewhat of an authority, and in
1869, when the English Bankruptcy Bill came on, his knowledge of the
Scotch system, which the English commercial members wished to adopt, was
of some use, and enabled him to take a considerable share in the
discussion of the clauses, and to carry a number of amendments, though
failing in some important ones, he has taken an active part also in
amending the Assurance Companies Bill, and in almost every discussion
bearing upon the commercial relations of the country. Speaking against
Mr. Delahunty's Money Law (Ireland) Bill in the session of 1869, he
declared with reference to the proposed abolition of small notes in
Ireland, that "if the House came to the conclusion that small notes
ought to be abolished in Ireland, a proposal to abolish them also in
Scotland would probably follow; and that it was only with the assistance
of her small notes that Scotland had maintained her place in commerce
and manufactures by the side of so enormously wealthy a country as
England." It is worthy of note that Mr. Anderson is a convert to the
abolition of the game laws, which until the session of 1870 he had
wished to see only amended, not repealed. He is also in favour of the
abolition of the laws of entail and hypothec. Mr. Anderson seems to have
a thorough detestation of anything like jobbery. He has several times,
by judicious questions in the House, succeeded in stopping a job--such,
for instance, as the Colonel Shute scandal, and the proposed pension to
the Military Secretary--and though he is a general supporter of Mr.
Gladstone's Government he never hesitates either to vote or to speak
against them when he thinks them wrong; and as no Government can see any
merit in merely supporting them when they are right, he is naturally no
great favourite in high quarters.

Mr. Anderson voted against any grant to Prince Arthur, and explained
that he "thought it unfair that savings by the abolition of old offices
on the civil list should go to the Crown, while the burden of
establishing new princes was to be thrown on the people." He has also
voted in a minority of four in favour of Sir Charles Dilke's motion for
enquiring into the expenditure, under the various classes prescribed by
the Civil List Act, declining to accept the general opinion that the
vote was a Republican vote, merely because Sir C. Dilke moved it, and as
a protest against the Government for refusing the information, and the
Opposition Benches for endeavouring to howl down the motion.

Mr. Anderson's speeches are always short, unadorned, and practical. He
has endeavoured, by moving a resolution, to reduce the inordinate length
of the speeches in the House as the only way of saving time to get
through the yearly increasing work of legislation, and he has proposed
some other resolutions for facilitating the business of the House.




SIR JAMES CAMPBELL.


Glasgow cannot lay claim to a hereditary aristocracy. She has, however,
what is infinitely better for the purposes of commercial, political, and
social progress--an aristocracy of energy, talent, and moral worth.
There are very few of her merchants and manufacturers who have not been
the architects of their own fortune. The pioneers of her industrial
prosperity do not build their aspirations and hopes upon a few broad
acres, or a pedigree stretching backwards to the time of William the
Conqueror. These maybe fine things in their way, and, like an antique
jewel, they may serve very well to wear on special occasions, or to
treasure as an antiquary would do some rare coin or "auld nick-nacket."
But the magnates of Glasgow have a juster and more legitimate cause for
pride; their ambition is of a less ornamental, but far more useful kind.
The Youngs, the Napiers, the Elders, the Campbells, and the Bairds are,
after all, your true and permanent nobility. All that is not the direct
result of merit and industry can only induce vanity and vexation of
spirit. It is no uncommon thing to hear men who have been pitchforked
into an affluent position--whose progenitors may have taken part in the
"forty-five"--to go no further back--look with disdain upon the
pretensions of those who have, within the short span of a single
lifetime, realised a colossal fortune. But Catullus has truly said that
there's "nothing so foolish as the laugh of fools," and many men still
require to be taught that--

    "Honour and fame from no condition rise,"

although the fact is every day patent to the most casual observation.

Sir James Campbell belongs to a family who have secured a right to a
permanent place in the annals of the West of Scotland. In commerce, in
politics, in matters ecclesiastical, they have been alike conspicuous.
Born at the Port of Menteith, in Perthshire, Sir James is one of three
brothers who went forth into the world and distinguished themselves, not
less by their success as merchants, than by the honour and integrity of
all their transactions. The father of the family was a farmer, who
occupied the small farm of Inchanoch, in Menteith--as his ancestors for
three generations before him had done--the produce accruing from which
was scarcely sufficient to provide in an adequate degree for the
maintenance of a numerous family. While his sons were yet young, he
removed with his family to Glasgow, which was even then considered an
inviting field for all who possessed energy, industry, and ability to
work. Here James became connected in partnership with a tailor named
Paterson, the father, we believe, of a well-known tradesman now in
Glasgow. For some years they carried on business together in Brunswick
Street, but fortune frowned upon their efforts, and the firm was
dissolved. Subsequently James entered into partnership with his brother
William, who had been engaged for some years in a small drapery shop in
High Street, and the brothers established themselves in business in the
Saltmarket. Their business was at this time in a very humble way--their
operations being confined for the most part to supplying basket-women
and hawkers with cotton goods, such as handkerchiefs and pinafores. By
dint of unwearied energy and attention to business the brothers were
enabled, in course of time, to extend their ramifications so far as to
build a large warehouse in Candleriggs, which they continued to occupy
for many years, and in which they conducted an extensive wholesale
business as well as retail. The eldest brother, John, who had been for
some years in America, had charge of the retail department of the
concern. There are several features of the business as carried on at
this time that deserve to be noticed. In the first place, they were the
first to set their face against the objectionable system of "prigging,"
which up to that time had prevailed to a greater or less extent in every
description of retail business. Their goods were all ticketed with a
certain figure, the lowest that they could possibly be sold at so as to
leave a fair margin of profit, and from this price nothing would induce
them to make any abatement. Adopting the Horatian maxim, they "kept one
consistent plan from end to end." The result was that goods which in
another establishment would be quoted at 2s 6d or 2s 8d, were sold by
Messrs. Campbell for 1s 6d or 1s 9d, being less than they could generally
be obtained for elsewhere, even after a customer had spent his ingenuity
and breath in half-an-hour's "prigging." The advantages to be obtained
at Messrs. Campbell's establishment soon became known, and although it
required a great effort to induce thrifty housewives to desist from
attempting to cheapen and "prig" down their goods, Messrs. Campbell
ultimately succeeded in putting a stop to the practice, so far at least
as their own establishment was concerned. Since then, their example has
been followed by all the other respectable drapers and warehousemen
throughout the city, so that a child of tender years can now be
entrusted to make a purchase without the slightest risk of being
overcharged or imposed upon. In connection with their warehouse in
Candleriggs, the firm for many years carried on warping mills in the
upper flats, being thus manufacturers as well as merchants. Before
leaving Candleriggs, however, and entering upon their present extensive
premises in Ingram Street, which they opened in 1856, they had abandoned
the manufacturing department of their business, and confined themselves
exclusively to buying and selling. Such were the beginnings of a concern
which, at the present day, is surpassed by none, and equalled by few in
the city of Glasgow, and such were the circumstances under which the two
brothers laid the foundations of a reputation for sterling integrity and
worth, which has given their family a leading place in the West of
Scotland. It may be mentioned that in 1842 they opened an additional
retail warehouse in Buchanan Street, under the firm of Campbell &
Co.--a business afterwards disposed of to Neilson, Shaw, & M'Gregor; and
that the retail business in Candleriggs Street was disposed of to Donald
& Sellar.

With reference to Sir James's public career a great deal might be
written, and yet the gist of it might be comprised in a few sentences.
Both he and his brother William, so well known as Mr. Campbell of
Tillichewan, were for a long time members of the Town Council, and Sir
James occupied for the statutory period of three years--from 1840 to
1843--the position of Lord Provost. It was while Sir James filled the
civic chair that the heir apparent to the Throne was born, and to mark
the occurrence of such an important event, as well as in recognition of
the active part which he took in connection with the festivities and
demonstrations that happened in Glasgow to celebrate the same, he
received from her Majesty the honour of knighthood. In 1837, he had come
forward as a candidate for the representation of the city, conjointly
with Mr. Monteith of Carstairs; but as he stood in the Conservative
interest, and as Glasgow, even at that distance of time, was a Radical
constituency, he was, despite his great local influence, defeated by a
considerable majority. His opponents on this occasion were Lord William
Bentinck, Mr. John Dennistoun, and Mr. Robert Monteith; and after a hard
struggle the election terminated with the following result:--

Lord William Bentinck,     2767
John Dennistoun,           2743
Robert Monteith,           2121
James Campbell,            2090

Again in 1841, while Lord Provost, he was an unsuccessful candidate for
the representation of the city, the poll terminating as follows:--

James Oswald,              2776
John Dennistoun,           2728
James Campbell,            2416
George Mills,               355

In every movement having for its object the promotion of the interests
and well-being of Glasgow, Sir James has taken an active and useful
part. Politically, his support and influence have had an important
bearing upon the fortunes of the Conservative party in the West of
Scotland; and to the Established Church, of which he has all along been
a steadfast and warm adherent, he has contributed unwearied service.

On the 14th January, 1868, Sir James was entertained at a banquet in the
Corporation Galleries in recognition of his private worth and his public
services as a citizen of Glasgow. The banquet was so far official that
the Lord Provost occupied the chair, and he was supported by most of the
leading men of Glasgow. In proposing the health of Sir James, the Lord
Provost (Sir James Lumsden) declared that he had "for many years taken
an active part, and still takes a deep interest in all municipal
affairs;" and added, "he is well known as a warm and attached friend, a
judicious counsellor, ever ready not only to lend his name and open his
purse in the furtherance of all measures leading to the improvement of
his fellow-citizens, but by taking such an active part in their
management as shows his earnestness in accomplishing whatever he takes
in hand." In the course of his speech, the Lord Provost also mentioned
the interesting fact that, entering the Council in 1831, Sir James was
one of the four surviving members of that body who presided over
municipal affairs prior to the passing of the Borough Reform Bill--Mr.
William Smith, Mr. William Brown, and Mr. Thomas Douglas being the other
three.

Lady Campbell is a daughter of the late Mr. Henry Bannerman of
Manchester, founder of the well-known firm of Henry Bannerman & Sons. It
is a coincidence worthy of notice that the progenitors of the Bannerman
family, with whom throughout the greater part of his life Sir James has
been so closely identified, were also Perthshire farmers, occupying a
comparatively humble rank in life.

Of Sir James Campbell's family, the eldest son, Mr. James A. Campbell,
younger of Stracathro (who is married to a daughter of Sir Morton Peto,
the eminent contractor), now administers his father's interest in the
business. His other and younger son, Mr. Henry Campbell, has, since 1868,
represented the Stirling Burghs in Parliament, and now occupies a
responsible post in the Government of his country as Financial Secretary
in the War Office.

In his private capacity, Sir James is genial, accessible, and full of
dry, pawky humour. He is in his proper element when entertaining a
company of his friends, either at his town residence in Bath Street, or
at his more delightful country mansion of Stracathro, near Brechin.
Although upwards of eighty years of age, he is in the full possession of
all his faculties, his sight alone excepted, and even his sense of
vision is sufficiently retained to enable him to find his way in the
most crowded thoroughfares of the city.




MR. JAMES YOUNG OF KELLY.


The whole range of industrial biography does not present a more signally
successful career than that of Mr. James Young; nor can we find, in all
the annals of aspiring genius, a more wonderful example of the ultimate
triumph of mind over matter.

The origin of the inventor of paraffin oil was comparatively obscure. He
was born in the Drygate of Glasgow--a street on which the operations of
the City Improvement Trust have effected a wonderful
transformation--where his father was a working cabinetmaker. After
receiving what little schooling his parents were able to afford, Mr.
Young commenced to assist his father--who had by this time established
himself as his own master in the Calton--and while so employed he took
to the study of Chemistry. For some time he attended the lectures of
Professor Graham, the late Master of the Mint (to whom a monument has
been erected by his illustrious pupil in George Square) at the
Andersonian University, and he showed such aptitude for science, that in
a remarkably short time he became Mr. Graham's class assistant. In this
capacity Mr. Young continued for seven years, and, as his subsequent
career amply showed, he did not fail to improve his opportunities. After
leaving the Andersonian, he followed Mr. Graham to London, when the
latter was appointed to the Professorship of Chemistry in London
University, and he continued to be associated with his old friend and
master until he accepted the position of manager of Muspratt's Chemical
Works at Newton, near Liverpool. Here he continued for four-and-a-half
years, improving, of course, his acquaintance with the practical
bearings of his favourite science, especially in regard to the
manufacture of alkali and bleaching powder, the staple products of
Muspratt's works. Mr. Young afterwards removed to Manchester, where he
undertook a responsible position in Tennant's Chemical Works--a branch
of Tennant's of Glasgow. This would be in the year 1843. While employed
in Manchester he received from Dr. Lyon Playfair, whose acquaintance he
had made while in the Andersonian University, a communication with
reference to the existence of a petroleum spring in Derbyshire. This may
almost be said to have been the turning point in Mr. Young's career. Dr.
Playfair stated that in his brother-in-law's coal mine in Derbyshire
there was a large quantity of petroleum, and he proposed that Mr. Young
should investigate the mine, and judge if anything could be made out of
it. A commission so responsible, and involving the exercise of so much
scientific skill, was just suited to Mr. Young's fancy. He went and
examined the springs, found petroleum dropping from the roof of the mine
over the coal, and the result was that he took a lease of the spring,
and worked the petroleum with the view to making it profitable. We may
here explain that petroleum is of different kinds, although in all its
diverse forms it retains the same qualities. It is an oleagenous
substance, naturally evolved from the earth, and may be found in all
degrees of thickness, from a very light substance found in some parts of
Persia, to a thick viscid substance more indigenous to Britain. Before
taking a lease of the petroleum spring, Mr. Young suggested the
advisability of Tennant's people taking it up, but they said it was too
small a matter for them. Mr. Young, however, in 1848, commenced to work
the spring for himself, producing two different oils--one a thick oil
for lubricating, and the other a thin oil for lamp burning. In course of
time it became evident that the petroleum was almost worked out, and Mr.
Young directed his attention to finding an artificial substitute for the
natural oil. He had previously held the idea that the petroleum might be
produced by the action of heat on the coal and the vapour going up into
the sandstone to be condensed. He made a great many experiments in
retorts, with the view of testing the practicability of this idea, and
the results obtained were very various. He had no fixed data to guide
him, and he sometimes got one thing, sometimes another. At last,
however, success rewarded his labours, and he was entitled to
exclaim--"Eureka!" Out of a cannel that came to be mixed with soda ash
he obtained a quantity of liquid that contained paraffin. In the
beginning of 1850, Mr. Bartholomew, of the City and Suburban Gas Works,
Glasgow, showed Mr. Young some specimens of the Boghead coal, with which
he renewed his experiments, distilling the mineral at a low temperature,
until he evolved a considerable quantity of crude paraffin. Ultimately,
Mr. Young, Mr. Meldrum, and Mr. Binney, to whom the discovery was
imparted at the Edinburgh meeting of the British Association, in 1850,
resolved on erecting works at Bathgate, in the centre of the Torbanehill
coal district, for the manufacture of paraffin. Before setting out on
this venture, however, Mr. Young took care to protect his invention by
securing a patent. In 1851 the Bathgate works, which originally
consisted of only two or three retorts, were set agoing, and from that
time until the present hour their success has been uninterrupted. It is
worth while mentioning that Mr. Young, during the whole course of his
experiments, derived no advice or assistance whatever from the
experience or conclusions of others who had preceded him in the same
phase of chemical science, and that he had never either heard of or seen
Reichenbach's letter to Dumas, upon which the claims of the German
chemist to have been the original discoverer of paraffin were based. It
is now generally admitted that Reichenbach was the real discoverer of
paraffin. He found it as an ingredient in the tar obtained by distilling
beechwood, as far back as 1830. What Reichenbach only dreamed about and
hoped for, however, Mr. Young practically realised; and to our townsman
is due the credit of having been the first to prepare paraffin as a
commercial article from mineral sources.

The exact nature and properties of shale was the subject of a remarkable
trial in the Court of Session soon after Mr. Young began to work the raw
material at Bathgate. The proprietor of the estate of Torbanehill, Mr.
Gillespie, disputed with the lessee, Mr. Russell, of Falkirk, affirming
that the valuable mineral called shale was not _coal_, and that the
working of it was therefore not included in Mr. Russell's lease.
Subsequently, Mr. Young had several lawsuits against parties who had
infringed his patent, one being an action against the Clydesdale
Chemical Company, in which, the jury gave a unanimous verdict for Mr.
Young, the defendants paying large sums as costs and damages. Another
was an action against Mr. E. W. Ferney, of Saltney, near Chester, who
had established works on Mr. Young's principle, and would not be bound
by the decisions pronounced in previous cases. In the spring of 1864,
after a trial which lasted nearly forty days, judgment was again given
in favour of Mr. Young, who claimed £15,000 of professional expenses
alone, in addition to a royalty of 3d. per gallon of oil made in
contravention of his patent rights.

The monopoly carried on by Mr. Young and his partners was broken down in
October, 1864, by the expiry of the patent rights, and the dissolution
of the partnership, and the Bathgate works subsequently passed into the
hands of a limited liability company, by whom they are still owned and
controlled, Mr. Young continuing to hold a large share, and the position
of general manager. The amount paid for the works and plant by the new
company was £450,000, and we believe Mr. Young took shares to the extent
of one-fourth of that amount; Mr. Pender, of Minard, the next largest
shareholder, holding stock to the extent of £70,000 more. The idea of
erecting new works on a larger scale, and with more improved and modern
appliances, in the West Calder district, was meanwhile conceived by Mr.
Young. He selected a site on the estate of Addiewell, a mile west from
the village of West Calder, extending to fully fifty acres of ground.
Here he erected works that are still unrivalled in point of extent, and
of which it may be said that they form an apt commentary on their
projector's energy, intelligence, and enterprise. There being no
accommodation in West Calder for a large body of workpeople, Mr. Young's
first care was to erect suitable dwelling-houses. Very soon a new
village of respectable proportions sprang into being, and the chemical
works were pushed forward with equal celerity. The arrangement of
Addiewell Chemical Works is admirably calculated for their purpose. They
cover nearly a half of the entire site, the buildings as well as the
mechanical appliances being on a gigantic scale. The retort sheds are
upwards of 200 yards in length taken together, and each shed contains a
double row of retorts. Altogether, there are no less than 354 retorts,
capable of distilling more than 3000 tons of shale per week, and
producing 120,000 gallons of crude oil, which yields 50,000 to 60,000
gallons of burning oil, in addition to about 12 tons of refined paraffin
oil and a large quantity of lubricating oil. Each of the condensers
contains several miles of piping. The main pipe, which collects the
vapours from the retorts, is nearly a yard in diameter. One and a
quarter million cubic feet of gas are manufactured at the works every
day. Upwards of 1000 hands are employed. In the shale-pits adjoining,
four hundred miners are regularly at work. The pits are conveniently
near to the Addiewell Works, none of them being more than two miles off.
A network of railway lines communicate with the various shale-pits, and
five locomotives are regularly employed in the transit of minerals. A
school, under Government inspection, is attached to the works, and the
employés are exceptionably well off for house accommodation.

Within the limits of this article we cannot do full justice to the
enormous industry of which Mr. Young is the founder. It is even claimed
for Mr. Young's little factory at Alfreton that it was the parent, not
only of the Scotch mineral oil trade, but also of that of America; for
oil had never been distilled to produce an article of commerce until he
commenced to work his patent there. From such a small beginning has
arisen, within the short space of twenty-three years, one of the most
important and extensive industries in the world. At the present time
there are in Scotland altogether 65 oil-works, at 17 of which crude oil
is manufactured and refined ready for the market. At 38 other works the
crude oil alone is produced, and although most of the crude oil so made
is refined at other works in Scotland, a not inconsiderable quantity is
sent to the Welsh refiners, while some of it is sent to the Continent.
Of the remaining works, 16 refine the crude oil only. There are
altogether 3804 retorts in operation, both vertical and horizontal. It
is a moot point, which is now engaging the attention of those in the
trade, whether vertical or horizontal retorts are the best suited for
the purposes in view. At Mr. Young's works, which are the largest and
most important in Scotland, nothing but vertical retorts are used, it
being considered that they possess an advantage over the horizontal kind
in respect of their continuous feeding, but the latter are likewise very
largely used. Of the 3404 retorts, however, there are seldom more than
3000 at work together. The remainder are usually standing idle, on
account of repairs or some other cause. The average weekly production of
crude oil at the Scotch works is nearly 120,000 gallons, and the number
of men engaged in the trade in its various departments is estimated at
little short of 6500. Assuming, as we may fairly do, that 3000 retorts
are regularly at work, they will yield 21,800,000 gallons of crude oil,
and distil 730,000 tons of shale annually; or, in other words, they will
distil 13,000 to 14,000 tons of shale weekly. From the crude oil thus
distilled there will be produced something like 10,000,000 gallons of
refined burning oil annually, besides crude solid paraffin, and other
products, such as naptha and lubricating oils. It is further calculated
that the average wages paid in connection with this industry will reach
between £400,000 and £500,000 per annum. The districts in which the
manufacture is carried on are situated in Midlothian, Ayrshire,
Lanarkshire, Fifeshire, and Linlithgowshire. The largest works are in
the Midlothian and Linlithgowshire districts, the Fifeshire and Ayrshire
works being comparatively limited in extent, and chiefly confined to the
manufacture of crude oil. Some of the principal works have been
considerably extended of late.

Mr. Young is distinguished for his public munificence and private
philanthropy. Many a young man who has attained a respectable and
influential position is indebted to Mr. Young for his first start in
life. As a ready and effectual means towards promoting a thirst for
knowledge, and an acquaintance with the practical bearings of the
science to which he is himself so much indebted, he founded, about three
years ago, a chair of technical chemistry in the Andersonian University.
Previously the students attending the chemistry classes under the late
Professor Penny had no opportunity of making themselves familiar with
the application of the principles of the science to arts and
manufactures; a knowledge of the principles themselves was all that they
could attain. A man may be the greatest proficient in the knowledge of
the principles of chemical science, and yet be utterly ignorant of how
bleaching powder, chromate of potash, or soda are made. Thus it was with
the Chemical Chair at the Andersonian until Mr. Young, by his munificent
bequest of £10,000 for the foundation of a Chair of Technical Chemistry,
established a connection between the scientific chemist and the
workshop. The first occupant of the chair, Herr Bischof, commenced his
duties during last summer, and the number of students attending his
class has already exceeded all expectations. The foundation of nine
bursaries, each worth £50 per annum, is certainly an inducement to
perseverance which is not every day placed within the reach of poor
students; and considering the multiform phases of chemical science, and
the comparatively limited extent to which they have hitherto been
developed, there is no saying to what results Mr. Young's bequest may
serve to lead.

Although so far advanced in life, Mr. Young continues to labour with as
much zest and enthusiasm as ever in the field of chemistry. It is to him
a labour of love. His mind is of that vigorous and active disposition
that cannot indulge in the repose to which the successful labours of an
arduous life invariably lead. Within the last few months he has given to
the world a new process for the manufacture of soda, which will probably
introduce an important revolution in the manufacture of alkali, and
enable carbonate of soda to be produced at something like one-fourth of
its present cost.

It is a fitting recognition and reward of Mr. Young's great discoveries
and enterprise that he should have amassed one of the largest fortunes
that was ever realized by individual effort within a similarly short
period. Some years ago he acquired the beautiful estate of Kelly, at
Wemyss Bay, which he has greatly improved and adorned. He owns also one
of the most handsome yachts on the Clyde, which has been named the
"Nyanza," in honour of Mr. Young's most intimate friend--Dr.
Livingstone, the African traveller. Dr. Livingstone and Mr. Young were
fellow-students at the Andersonian University, and their friendship has
remained unbroken since that time. It is interesting to note that it was
Dr. Livingstone who laid the foundation-stone of Mr. Young's new works
at West Calder, and it was a brother of Dr. Kirk of Zanzibar who
superintended the Addiewell works for some time after they were built.

Mr. Young has never taken any active part in political or municipal
affairs, but he is identified with various scientific and literary
societies; and for the last four years he has been President of the
Andersonian University. In social life he is kindly, warm-hearted, and
genial; and these qualities shine most conspicuously in his own family
circle, or while he is entertaining a company of his numerous friends.




MR. GEORGE BURNS.


The commercial annals of the West of Scotland are full of interest. They
illustrate a prosperity that is almost without parallel. Macaulay's New
Zealander is not likely to plant his foot on Glasgow Bridge for many
generations to come, or if he does he will witness a scene totally
unlike that for which the historian had prepared him. In all our staple
industries we are advancing with gigantic strides. Shipping and
shipbuilding are especially conspicuous for their steady and rapid
development. As a shipping port Glasgow stands second to none in the
United Kingdom, Liverpool alone excepted. It was not always so. So late
as the beginning of the eighteenth century there were only about a dozen
vessels belonging to the port, their aggregate tonnage amounting to no
more than 1000 tons. More than any other river in the world, the Clyde
has triumphed over natural obstacles and drawbacks. Originally the
estuary of the Clyde was so shallow that no vessel of any size could
come further up than Port-Glasgow. It was considered a great achievement
when, in 1801, craft of 40 tons burden were enabled to touch at the
Broomielaw. A story is told of a daring navigator who, towards the close
of last century, built a vessel of 30 tons burden for the purpose of
exploring "the wee bit burn ca'd the Clyde." As a reward for his
enterprise and daring, he was presented with the freedom of the city on
reaching the harbour of Glasgow. Thanks to the fostering care and
ceaseless exertions of the Clyde Navigation Trustees, vessels of the
largest tonnage can now come up to the Broomielaw; and the port of
Glasgow can lay claim to some of the largest and most magnificent
merchant vessels afloat. A rare conjunction of private and public
enterprise brought about these results. From the time that Henry Bell's
_Comet_ appeared on the scene in 1812, until the present, the Clyde has
occupied a pre-eminent position in the records of the progress of steam
navigation. In 1841 the number of vessels belonging to the port of
Glasgow was 431, with an aggregate of 95,619 tons. At the present time
there are 895 vessels belonging to the port, their total tonnage being
433,016 tons! These figures speak for themselves. They do not indicate a
merely natural evolution. Hard work, skilful and energetic application
of available resources, and well concerted plans, were necessary to
bring about such an era of prosperity; and these conditions of success
were supplied by such men as Mr. George Burns, who has been identified
most closely for more than half-a-century with this branch of commerce.

Belonging to a family which has long occupied an honourable position in
the West of Scotland, Mr. George Burns has reason to be proud of his
ancestors. His grandfather, whose name was originally Burn, inherited a
small property near Stirling, which he