This is a digital copy of a book that was preserved for generations on library shelves before it was carefully scanned by Google as part of a project
to make the world's books discoverable online.
It has survived long enough for the copyright to expire and the book to enter the public domain. A public domain book is one that was never subject
to copyright or whose legal copyright term has expired. Whether a book is in the public domain may vary country to country. Public domain books
are our gateways to the past, representing a wealth of history, culture and knowledge that's often difficult to discover.
Marks, notations and other maiginalia present in the original volume will appear in this file - a reminder of this book's long journey from the
publisher to a library and finally to you.
Usage guidelines
Google is proud to partner with libraries to digitize public domain materials and make them widely accessible. Public domain books belong to the public and we are merely their custodians. Nevertheless, this work is expensive, so in order to keep providing tliis resource, we liave taken steps to prevent abuse by commercial parties, including placing technical restrictions on automated querying. We also ask that you:
+ Make non-commercial use of the files We designed Google Book Search for use by individuals, and we request that you use these files for personal, non-commercial purposes.
+ Refrain fivm automated querying Do not send automated queries of any sort to Google's system: If you are conducting research on machine translation, optical character recognition or other areas where access to a large amount of text is helpful, please contact us. We encourage the use of public domain materials for these purposes and may be able to help.
+ Maintain attributionTht GoogXt "watermark" you see on each file is essential for in forming people about this project and helping them find additional materials through Google Book Search. Please do not remove it.
+ Keep it legal Whatever your use, remember that you are responsible for ensuring that what you are doing is legal. Do not assume that just because we believe a book is in the public domain for users in the United States, that the work is also in the public domain for users in other countries. Whether a book is still in copyright varies from country to country, and we can't offer guidance on whether any specific use of any specific book is allowed. Please do not assume that a book's appearance in Google Book Search means it can be used in any manner anywhere in the world. Copyright infringement liabili^ can be quite severe.
About Google Book Search
Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web
at|http: //books .google .com/I
/ /'OPf,y£'r/'a<l'i(^_
V
MEMOIRS OF THE LIVES
EOBERT HALDANB OF AIRTHREY,
AND OF HIS BROTHER,
JAMES ALEXANDER HALDANE.
BY ALEXANDER HALDANE, ESQ.,
" Then li ne nun llut hub lift bouie, « Imnili, tbt my ukt, lod tht Oapel'a, bul ht
1^1 irrci'c in hundndrbld no* in tbli tbos, vlth pcnairutlaii uil in the world
1 came Menu) lire." Ma>i i. M. M.—Src JMrm laUuPuNIi in ItWI, ^^ R. Baliane.
mntj hin (Mlovwl ma ill the difi of my life ; ud wllhout tb( ihtdciv of bnutlng, I an idd, I ihill dwril In llw houn oC ibe Lord fn mt."—Siinici from ■LHUt o) J. A. BaUant, Dtambtr 91, 1810.
LOiroOH;
HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND C0„ PATERNOSTER-ROW j
AND W. WHYTB AND CO., BDINBUROH.
1852.
ALRXANDBR MACINTOSH,
PRINTER, GRKAT NEW-IITREBT. LONDON.
PREFACE.
Ok the death of Mr. Hobert Ualdane in December, 1842, a very strong desire was in many quarters expressed for a memob* of his remarkable career. There were, however, several objections to an imme- diate publication. It appeared that if a record of his life were calculated to be generally useful, and not merely designed to attract an ephemeral interest, it would be better, in regard to some of the scenes in which he had been engaged, to await, at least for a few years, the mellowing influence of time. Besides, it would have been impossible to record hia life without blending with it that of his then surviving brother, as they had been uniformly associated together in nearly all of their plans and operations for the diffiision of the Gospel. The death of Mr. J. A. Hatdane, in February, 1851, and the lapse of more than nine years,
IV PREFACE.
have removed the chief of these objections. The desire for a Memoir has been renewed, and it is now committed to the Christian pubUc.
The compiler is not insensible to the dehcacy of his position, as the biographer of relatives so greatly beloved and revered. But if his position has its disadvantages, these are not without compensation. No stranger could so well delineate their character, or, at all events, detail the facts of their lives, as one who from childhood enjoyed their intimacy and confidence ; whilst a close and continuous correspondence for nearly thirty years, in connexion with all their plans, works, and writings, together with the possession of niunerous other letters and documents, extending over a period embracing the whole of their career, must afford more than ordinary means for illustrating their motives, their opinions, and their acts.
It will require no recondite skill in criticism to detect in these Memoirs many imperfections, some of which will be attributed by the candid reader to the circum- stances under which they have been written, at intervals snatched from the continuous engagements of pro- fessional pursuits. Amongst these imperfections will be found two or three unimportant repetitions in the use of documents available for different parts of the nar- rative.
If, however, the work shaU in any measiu'e present the two brothers such as they were in faith and love
PREFACE.
and zeal, it will have answered its design, and may, it is hoped, tend to promote the glory of God by stimulating others to follow their example in so far as they followed Christ.
ERRATA,
Page 17, line 10 from the bottom, for " Strathbran^' road ** Strath- Tay.'*
Pago 87, line 13 from top, for ** described,** read " cherished**
Page 130, line 7 from the bottom, for " glozing q/'affectation," read " glozing
affectation.**
Page 188, in the note, for *< the laie Admiral,** road " Admiral Sir Charles.** Page 208, line 11 from top, for " Mr, James Haldane,'* read " Mrs, James
Haldane.** Page 260, line 4 from top, and note at the bottom of the page, for
" Strathers,** read " Struihers.** Page 873, 18 lines from top, for " flinging a golden sceptre,** read " flinging
OKMiy.*'
Page 449, line 8, delo " the offer of.**
Page 504, line 12 from bottom, for ** uncompromising" read " compromising.
Page 660, line 6 from top, for " 1742,** read " 1745.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER L
P»g« Their Birth — Oleneagles — ^Anecdotes and Early Characteristics . 16
CHAPTER n.
[1780—1794.]
Robert Haldane joins the Monarch — ^Action between the Foudroyant and Pegase— Lord St. Vincent's Prediction — Influence of Dr. Bogue — Loss of the Koyal George — Relief of Gibraltar — Chase of the Leocadia — Sails to Newfoundland — Quits the Navy — Tour of Europe — His Marriage — ^Improvements at Airtbrey — Anecdotes 28
CHAPTER lU.
[1785—1795.]
James Haldane joins the Duke of Montrose — ^East India Ships— Anecdotes — Religious Impressions — Conviviality of the times — Duel— Anecdotes — The Contrast — Appointed to command the Melville Castle — ^Marriage — Sir Ralph Abercromby — ^Detention of the Indian Fleet — Quells the Mutiny on board the Dutton — Begins to study the Bible — Quits the Melville Castle — ^Death of his Father-in-law — Goes to Edinburgh 45
Vm CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IV.
[1794—96.]
P»ge " Grasps at a Shadow, catches the Substance ** — Effects of the French
ReTolution on Robert Haldane — ^Freeholders' Meeting at Stir- ling— Conferences with Ministers near Airthrey— Studies the Evidences of Christianity — Progress of the Change — Conversa- tion with a pious Stonemason 79
CHAPTER V.
[1795—98.]
Robert Haldane plans a Mission to Bengal — Determines to sell Airthrey — His intended Associates, Dr. Bogue, Dr. Innes, and Mr. Ewing— Other Preparations — Benares — ^Visits Dr. Bogue^ — Applies for Consent of the East India Company — Letters to Mr. Secretary Dundas — Errors in the Life of Mr. Wilberforce — Disclaims Politics — Interviews with Members of the Govern- ment — Mr. Wilberforce — Bishop Porteus* Approval — Refusal of the Court of Directors — Further Applications — Meetings at Mr. Newton's — Letter to Mr. Campbell — Final abandonment of the Design 94
CHAPTER VI.
[1796—97.]
Introduction to Mr. Campbell and Mr. Aikman — State of Religion in Scotland at the end of the Eighteenth Century — Mr. J. A. Haldane's Tour with the Rev. Charles Simeon — ^Visit to Rev. A. Stewart, of Moulin — ^Important Results — Accident to Mr. Simeon— Return to Edinburgh— Letter of Mr. Simeon — Death of Colonel Duncan, of Lundie — Mr. J. A. Haldane's first Plans of Usefulness — ^Distribution of Tracts — Sabbath Schools — Lay Preaching at Gilmerton — ^Tour to the West of Scotland — Sixty Sabbath Schools founded — Preaching at Gilmerton — ^Dr. Charles Stuart — ^Miss Aikman's Letter — ^Approval of Mr. Simeon . 122
CONTENTS. IX
CHAPTER VIL
[1797.]
Page Mr. James Haldane*8 first Tour through the North of Scotland and
the Orkneys in 1797— Prajer Meeting at the Bey. Mr. Black's — ^Lay Preaching — Leaves Edinburgh on the 12th July — Letter from Banff— Aberdeen — Magisterial Interference — ^Preaching at Banff— Its Effects — State of Beligion in the Orkneys — Conver- sion of an old Man of ninety-two — ^Preaches to Crowds at Kirkwall — ^Accident to Mr. Aikman—Blessing on Mr. J. Hal- dane's Labours in Caithness — Letter of Mrs. M*Neil» of Elgin — Battle of Camperdown — State of Religion at Inverness — Conclusion 161
CHAPTER Vin.
[1797—98.]
Effects of the Tour of 1797 — Discussions as to Lay Preaching — Letters from Mr. Simeon — Mr. Simeon's second Visit to Scot- land— ^Tour in the West and South of Scotland in 1798 — Meeting with Bev. Rowland Hill — Mr. Haldane induces Mr. Z. Macaulay to bring over a number of African Children from Sierra Leone to be educated 189
CHAPTER IX.
[1798.]
Mr. Haldane sells his paternal estate — Correspondence and challenge of Professor Robison — Mr. Rowland Hill opens the CSrcus — Preaches to immense multitudes on the Calton Hill — Makes several Tours — Returns to England with Mr. Haldane — Corre- spondence with Mr. Macaulay about the African children — Mr. Rowland Hill's Journal 207
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER X.
[1799.]
Page
Mr. Haldane plans a Seminary for the education of Preachers— Plan for erecting places of worship, to be called Tabernacles, in the chief towns in Scotland — ^Mr. Ewing resigns his post as a minister of the Church of Scotland— Formation of the Tabernacle Church — Mr. J. A. Haldane unanimously solicited to become the Pastor — His Ordination — Blessing on the Tabernacle preaching— Open- ing of the Glasgow Circus — Mr. Haldane's classes, or seminaries for preaching 230
CHAPTER XL
[1799.]
Opposition to the new plans — ^Pastoral Admonition — Opposition of Relief Church and of the Anti-Burghers — Deposition of the Rev. George Cowie, of Huntley — Character of Mr. Cowie — His testi- mony to Mr. James Haldane — Second Tour to the North, joined by Mr. Innes and Mr. Aikman — ^Visits the Orkneys and Shet- lands — Preaches at Fulah, the Ultima Thule of the Romans — Returns to Caithness — Inverness — Edinburgh .... 253
CHAPTER Xn.
[1799—1800.]
Mr. Haldane attacked by the "Anti- Jacobin Review'* — Mr. Haldane's " Address on Politics " — Views of the dutj' of Christians as to politics, similar to those of Joseph Milner — Mr. Pitt's threatened measure to put down unlicensed preaching — Preparations for Tour in 1800— Mr. J. Haldane visits Arran and Kintyre with Mr. Campbell — Arrested and sent to the Sheriff, under an escort of Volunteers — Important result of the Tour — Dr. Lindsay Alex- ander's sketch of Mr. J. Haldane's character .... 273
CONTENTS. XI
CHAPTER XUI.
[1799—1801.]
Page
Mr. J. A. Haldane's labours — ^Rev. Andrew Fuller— Mr. R. Haldane's First Sermon — Anecdote of Sermon at Stilton — Opening of the Edinburgh Tabernacle — Mr. Aikman*s Chapel— Labours at Dumfries — Tour in Ireland — Mr. Buchanan — Rev. Thomas Scott — Catherine Haldane — Domestic Character — Captain Gardner — Death of Sir Ralph Abercromby 292
CHAPTER XIV.
[1802—3.]
Mr. James Haldane visits Buxton— Accompanied by a Clergyman — Preaches at Macclesfield, Castleton, Matlock, &c. — ^Revival in Breadalbane — Tour, in 1803, from Edinburgh to the Orkney Islands — Tour to Berwick, Alnwick, Carlisle, Dumfries, and Glasgow — Mr. Fuller's Second Journey— Groundless Rumour — Mr. Haldane's Economy — His Seminaries .... 314
CHAPTER XV.
[1804—5.]
Mr. James Haldane preaches on the Death of Lord Camelford, and on Duelling — Mr. James Haldane visits Buxton and Dublin— Preaches in the Bethesda Chapel — Mr. Walker, Fellow of Trinity College — Mr. James Haldane goes to London— Death of Admiral Lord Duncan — Tour to Breadalbane, Inverness, Caithness, &c. 333
CHAPTER XVI.
[1799—1810.]
Progressive changes the resiilt of circumstances — Mr. Ewing's zeal for Congregationalism, and Weekly Fellowship Meetings — Con- stitution of Churches at Glasgow — ^Discussions about Church order — Apostolic Practice and Baptism — Disruption in the New Connexion in 1808— Its consequences — Controversy with Mr. Ewing — Anecdote of Dr. Stuart and Lord Brqugham — ^Letter from Montauban— Sentiments of the two Brothers on Church Order 352
Xll CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XVIL
[1810—19.]
Page Mr. Haldane purchases AuchiDgray as a Country Residence — His
Improvements — Plans for the Continent— Airdrie — "Evidences
of Christianity*' — Letters of Mr. Hardcastle and Mr. Hill —
" Edinburgh Christian Instructor** — Mr. J. A. Haldane continues
to preach in the villages round Edinburgh — Usefulness at
Portobello— Sir David Milne — Scene at North Berwick — ^Visit
to Harrowgate — The Highlands — Anecdote — Death of his
Mother-in-law — Abercromby Family — Captain Gardner — Death
of Mrs. J. A. Haldane 380
CHAPTER XVIII.
[1816-17.]
Mr. Haldane's Visit to Paris— Geneva — ^Letter to Rev. E. Bickersteth — Glory of Geneva in the Sixteenth Century — ^Its Apostasy — State in 1816 — Mr. Haldane's successful Labours — Testimony of Dr. Pye Smith — Mr. Haldane expounds the Epistle to the Romans to the Theological Students — Letter to Professor Cheneviere — Righteousness of God — Sovereignty of God — Views of Forbear- ance— Mr. Rieu*s Triumphant Death — ^Excitement at Geneva — Dr. Malan's Conversion — His Sermon — Conflict at Geneva — Remarkable Conversion of nearly all of the Theological Students — ^Persecution — Mr. Haldane prepares to quit Geneva — Parting Advice — Arrival of Mr. Henry Drummond — His Zeal — Conver- sion of Dr. Merle D'Aubign6— M. Gaussen's Testimony . 409
CHAPTER XIX.
[1817—1823.]
Mr. Haldane passes through Lyons to Montauban — French Commentary on the Romans — Letter to Mr. Bickersteth — Montauban — ^M. Encontrei Second Mathematician in France — M. Bonnard, Dean of the Faculty — ^Low State of Protestantism in France — ^M. Gachon — Mr. Haldane's Labours — Professor
CONTENTS. Xm
Page Pradel — ^Anecdote of M. De Villele and Lord Stuart de Rothsay
— Continental Society — Henri Pyt — ConTersion of a Pelagian Pastor — Mr. Haldane quits Montauban — M. Bonnard accom- panies him to Paris — Joseph Wolff — Letters of M. Marzials — Testimonies of Dr. Merle D'Aubign6 and M. F. Monod — Returns to Scotland — Continental Society — Visits Ireland — Mr. J. E. Gordon — Account of Peter Heaman, executed for Piracy — Mr. J. A. Haldane's Occupations — ^Testimonies to his Usefulness — His Writings — " Scripture Magazine" — Revelation of God's Righ- teousness— Strictures on Mr. Walker of Dublin — Duel between Sir Alexander Boswell and Mr. Stuart of Duneam — Letter of Rev. Rowland Hill 454
CHAPTER XX.
[1821—26.]
Importance of the Apocrypha Controversy as involving the Canon of Scripture — Origin of the Controversy in 1821 — Failure of Mr. Haldane's endeavour to obtain an amicable adjustment — ^Inter- mingled Apocrypha — Rev. John Owen — Vacillating conduct of the Committee — First Edinburgh Statement — Cambridge Pro- test— Mr. Simeon and Mr. Gorham — Doubts as to the Sacred Canon — Mr. Haldane's first Review — Toulouse and Montauban Bibles — Second Edinburgh Statement — Character of Dr. Andrew Thomson — ^Dr. Thomson personally attacked — Dr. Steinkopff's Pamphlets — ^Mr. Haldane's second Review — Hafi&ier's Preface — M. Bost — Foreign Bible Societies oppose the Preachers of the Gospel — Dr. Gordon's Testimony — Letter of Mr. Haldane . 489
CHAPTER XXI.
[1826— 1833.J
Discussion respecting the Canon and Inspiration of Scripture — ^Dr. Pye Smith's Defence of Dr. Haffiier — Dr. Carson's Reply — Mr. Haldane on Inspiration — Extracts from Dr. Carson— Professor Gauasen's Theopneustia, or " It is written " — ^Progress of right
XIV CONTENTS.
Page views on Inspiration — Progressive Reformation of the Bible
Society — Dismissal of Van Ess — Anglicanus — Mr. Haldane's
Pamphlets — Dr. Thomson's Speech — His Visit to PaulVcray —
Deplores the prevailing laxity of Christian principle^ — ^Friendship
between Dr. Thomson and the two Brothers .... 524
CHAPTER XXII.
[1828—1833.]
Rise of Irvingism — ^Rev. Edward Irving — Mr. J. A. Haldane's Refutation of the Erroneous Doctrines — Discussion with Mr. Drummond — Dr. Thomson's Letters as to the Gift of Tongues — Mr. J. E. Gordon — Death of Dr. Thomson — His Character by Dr. Chalmers and Dr. M*Crie — Dr. Thomson's Farewell Speech — Captain J. E. Gordon — Annual Meeting of the British and Foreign Bible Society, 1831 — Institution and Failure of the Trinitarian Bible Society — Pamphlets of Rev. J. Scott — Mr. J. J. Gumey and others answered by Mr. Haldane — Mr. Wilks accuses Mr. Haldane of being the author of a furious Theological war in Switzerland — Mr. Haldane's Answer — Character of Mr. Haldane's Pamphlets — Progressive purification of the Bible Society — Mr. Bickersteth's Motion — Good effects of the Con- troversy 543
CHAPTER XXIII.
[1824—1833.]
Theological Seminary in Paris — Publication addressed to the Rev. Daniel Wilson — Preparation of his ''Exposition of Romans"— Mr. James Haldane's Engagements — His Letters — Respecting Rev. Ebenezer Brown's Sermon before Lords Brougham and Denman — ^Respecting Dr. Colquhoun and Ministerial Popularity — Respecting Dr. Stuart's Death — Respecting the Row Doctrine of Universal Pardon — Mr. James Haldane's Preaching Tours in 1829-30 — Death of his eldest Son, James — Dr. M'Crie's approval of Mr. James Haldane's Doctrine of Personal Assurance — Mr. Howels' Death— Mr. Aikman's Death, and Rowland Hill's . 561
CONTENTS. XV
CHAPTER XXIV.
[1834—1840.]
Page
Mr. Haldane publishes an Enlarged Edition of his " Evidences " — Anecdote of David Hume's Death-bed — Anecdote of Adam Smith — Publication of "Exposition of Romans** — Dr. Chal- mers' Opinion of the Work — Letters to Dr. John Brown on his Refusal to Pay the Annuity-tax — Letter to Mr. Macaulay on his Speech on the Ballot — Letter to the ** Edinburgh Christian Instructor " — Commences his Last Labour .... 678
CHAPTER XXV.
[1840—42.]
Mr. Haldane's Last Labours in Revising his " Exposition of Romans" — ^Visit to Auchingray — His Sermons — Completes his Revision — Returns to Edinburgh — ^Publishes his " Exposition " — Plan of Circulating the Bible in Selected Portions — Mr. Haldane's Last Illness and Death — Extract from the " Witness ** — Testimony of the Edinburgh Bible Society — Death of Mrs. Haldane 599
CHAPTER XXVI.
[1842—48.]
Mr. J. A. Haldane Opposes Errors respecting the Atonement — Mr. Hinton, Dr. Jenkyn, Dr. Payne, and Dr. Wardlaw— Letter to the "Evangelical Magazine" — ^Labours as an Octogenarian — Letter on the Death of Mr. Cleghom — Visit to London and Buxton — Death of his Eldest Daughter — Letter on Miss Hard- castle's Death — Death of Dr. Abercrombie — Treatise on Chris- tian Union — Publishes ** Exposition of Oalatians" — His Letters 616
XVI CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XXVIL
[1848—1851.]
P«ge
Mr. J. Haldane as an Octogenarian — Sentiments as to Public Fasts — His own Practice — ^La Mancha — Marriage of his Daughter Isabella — Mr. Burdon Sanderson — Letter describing West Jesmond — ^Visit to the Manor House, East Ham — Sermons at Woolwich — Death of Major John Gordon, and of his Mother, Mrs. Haldane Gordon — Visit of the Rev. James Gordon — Jubilee— Illness, 1849— Winterfield— Letter to Colonel Ander- son— Romaine's Letters — " Exposition of Hebrews " — Letter to Lady Stair — ^Personal Reign — Papal Aggression — Close of 1860 — Illness and Death — His Fimeral — Testimonies to his Character and Usefulness — Conclusion 644
MEMOIRS
OF ROBERT HALDANE OP AIRTHRET;
AND OF HIS BROTHER,
JAMES ALEXANDER HALDANE.
THEIR BIBTH AND AKCESTBY—aLENBAGLES— AMECD0TE8— THEIR PARENTS— TEEEB aUARDIANS— EARLT OHARA.C- TBRigilCS.
Robert Haldane was bom on the 28th of Februaryj 1764, in bia father's bouse, on the north side of Queen Ann-street, Cavendisb-square, London. His younger brother, James Alex- ander Haldane, was bom at Dundee, on the 14th of July, 1768, within a fortnight after hia Other's death.
Both on their father's and their mother's aide, they were descended from an ancient Perthshire family, for many centuries possessors of the &ee barony of Gleneagles, a valley in the Ochill bills, opening upon the moor of Tullibardine, and the fertile plains of Stnitheam, towards the distant Grampians, whose towering summits bound the prospect. In old charters, in the idUb of Parliament, and in other public documents, by the caprice of orthography, the &mily name is varionsly written Halden, Haldane, Hadden, or Hauden. There is no doubt that it is of Norse origin. It is still common in Denmark, and from Haldan Hill, near Exeter, to Halden Rig, near Kelso, the Danish chiefs, who were driven beyond the Hnmber 1^ King Alfred, have indented many local and onmutakeable traces fsi
2 GLENEAGLES.
their leader's name^ as recorded by the Saxon chroniclers. There is no doubt that the lands of Halden Rig were called after the Northern warrior. But, passing by the mist-enveloped traditionary legends of a barbarous age, and approaching the light of modem records, when surnames became hereditary, it is on record that, three centuries later, a younger son of the border family of Halden, near Kelso, migrated into Perthshire, and married the heiress of Gleneagles, adopting the armorial bearings of that family, instead of his own, but retaining his surname, as derived from his paternal lands. In Scotland, oral tradition runs into the deep and far recesses of legendary antiquity. Its written documents arc of comparatively modem date. " Nowhere," says a great Scotch legal antiquarian, Mr. lliddell, — "nowhere is ancestry more prized or paraded than with us, and yet in no country are the means of elucidating it 80 scanty." In proof of this, a charter of the lands of Frandie, forming part of the Gleneagles estate, granted in the twelfth century to Roger de Halden, by King William the Lyon, and still in possession of the family, is noticed by Sir James Daliymple, in his Collections (page 392), as amongst the earliest extant.
Rather more than a hundred years later, Aylmer de Haldane, of Gleneagles, in Strathearn, is found amongst the bai*ons, who, in 1296, swore fealty to Edward I. of England; and Nisbet, in his "Critical and Historical Remarks" upon the Ragman Roll, observes that the Haldanes were "even then barons of considerable consequence," adding, "the house of Gleneagles have vouchers for instructing their antiquity beyond most families in Perthshire/^ It would be alike tedious and unprofitable to trace their descent, from that period to the beginning of the last century, through seventeen successive marriages, with the noble or baronial families of Graham, Amott, Mar, Seton, Menteith, Montrose, Lawson, Mar (2), Perth, Glencaim, Hume, March- mont, Tullibardine, Wemyss, Grant, Strathallan, and Erakine of Alva. In fact, there would be nothing very remarkable to arrest attention, for they have left behind them little more than the record of their names, their knighthood, or their offices; and in this, as in most other genealogies, we are reminded of what
SIR JOHN HALDANE. 3
the celebrated Sir Thomas Brown quaintly observes : " There is no antidote against the oblivion of time * * generations pass while some trees standi and old famiUes last not three oaks. * * The greater part of men must be content to be as though they had not been^ to be found in the register of God^ not in the record of men/'
It will be sufficient to state^ that the most eminent of the mediseval Barons of Gleneagles was Sir John Haldane^ who held^ in very troublous times^ several of the highest offices in the kingdom^ and became successively Ambassador of James the Third to the Court of Denmark^ Master of the King's Household, Sheriff Principal of Edinburgh, until, finally, as " Lord Justice-General of Scotland beyond the Forth,^' he attained a dignity next to that of the Lord Chancellor. In 1460 he married Agnes Menteith, of Ruskie, a descendant of the old Earls of Menteith, and one of the two co-heiresses of the half of the lands and honours of her maternal great-grandsire, Duncan, last of the ancient Saxon Earls of Levenax or Lennox, who was beheaded on Stirling Castle, in 1424, with his son-in-law, the late Regent Albany, and his own three sons.
This marriage entailed upon the Gleneagles family long and arduous litigation with Lord Damley, who finally established his claim to the peerage and one-half of the lands, in right of his grandmother, the Duchess of Albany, whose priority in age, as the eldest daughter of the Earl of Lennox, had been disputed by Sir John Haldane.*
In 1482, when the Duke of Gloucester, afterwards Richard the Third, invaded Scotland, Sir John Haldane was appointed, with G^rge Lord Seton, Alexander Ramsay of Dalhousie, ancestor of the Marquis, and Robert Logan of Restalrig, ''joint Captains, Chieftains, Keepers, and Governors of the town of Berwick, and to defend it against the invasion of our old enemies
* See the History of the Partition of the Lennox, by Mark Napier, Esq., a descendant of the celebrated inventor of Logarithms, and as such from the other co-heiress of Menteith, who divided ivith Agnes Haldane the other half of the I^nnox. See also the learned Reply of John Riddelly Esq., the celebrated Scottish legal antiquary.
b2
-1
4 AN£CDOT£S.
of England/' The campaign was speedily decided by the defec- tion of Douglas (Bell the Cat) Earl of Angus^ and the other rebellious Barons^ at the Bridge of Lauder ; and Berwick^ left unprotected, was forced to capitulate to the Plantagenct, never more to be retaken or restored. Sir John died in 1493, and was succeeded by his son, Sir James, who, shortly before his death in 1505, was, at a time of national alarm, nominated by King James IV. to be keeper of the King's Castle of Dunbar. His successor, another Sir John, had scarcely won his gilded spurs when he fell, in early manhood, on the fatal field of Flodden, along with a great part of the chivalry of Scotland, rallying round their rash but gallant monarch.
It was soon after these times of turbulence and war that the translation of the Scriptures into the vulgar tongue was pre- paring, both for Scotland and England, a moral and religious revolution more complete and decisive than any which had yet occurred. It was on the 4th February, 1526, that the first copy of the New Testament, translated and printed abroad in English, arrived in Britain. From that day may be traced the increasing progress of the Protestant Reformation, and in no country did it take a deeper or firmer root than in Scotland. In the vain attempt of Rome to arrest the circulation of the Bible, to stop the preaching and crush the truths of the Gospel, the whole nation was convulsed. In that long and arduous struggle the Haldanes seem to have taken a consistent part, on the side of religious freedom. The name of Gleneagles appears amongst the Lords of the Congregation, and during the reign of James VI. they stood by the Protestant cause, both in its prosperity and adversity. In 1585, when the Earl of Angus and the other banished Lords returned from England, to take advantage of the popular indignation roused by the persecuting acts of the Earl of Arran^ the Laird of Gleneagles is mentioned by Calderwood as prominent in what was called ^' the raid of Stirling.'^ He was a prisoner in the town when it was attacked, but was enabled to join the assailants, and assisted in the armed remonstrance with the King, which brought back the exiled ministers and drove Arran and his abettors into disgrace and banishment. It
ANECDOTES. 6
is mentioned^ that when Sir William Stewart^ Colonel of the Royal Guards and brother of the obnoxious Earl^ was repulsed fix)m the west port of Stirling^ he was so hotly followed, " that Mr. James Haldane, brother-german to the Laird of Gleneagles, overtook him ; and as he was laying hands on him, was shot by the ColoneFs servant, Joshua Henderson/'*
In the following century another Knight of the family was, in 1650, a leader in the Presbyterian army of the congregation opposed to CromweU, and fell in the route at Dunbar. His lady received from one who alleged that he was his messenger his own ring (which is still preserved), with an assurance that he was safe, but detained with other prisoners of rank in the castle of a nobleman near the battle-field. The chiefs said to be his companions in captivity were found as described, but Sir John had never been amongst them, and returned no more.
He was succeeded by Sir John Haldane, the last of the Knights of Gleneagles in the male line. In truth, the country was becoming more civilized and less turbulent, so that war ceased to be the chief occupation of those not compelled to till the soil. The change in the times was also manifested in the family arrangements, by which he transgressed the feudal notions of the exclusive rights of primogeniture, and in order to favour a mother's partiaUty for a younger son, occasioned the separation of a large section of the M enteith or Lanrick estates from those
of Gleneagles.f
His successor, Mungo Haldane, who derived his not very euphonious Christian name from the noble house of Murray, was a Member of the Scottish Parliament ; obtained a charter of his lands from Charles II., reciting his own services to the
* 4 Calderwood, 390.
t This ofishoot of the Gleneagles stock only remained at Lanrick for two generations. Patrick, the first proprietor, died young, having married Miss Dundas of Newliston, who was, through her mother, one of the younger co-heiresses of the original stock of Halden of Haldenrig, in the South. The eldest co-heiress of that family was married to John, first Earl of Stair, who in her right acquired the lands of Newliston. Patrick Haldane left two younger sons, one of whom was a Professor at St. Andrew's, and was burned to death wliilst reading in bed. John, his
6 ANECDOTES.
Crown and those of his progenitors; and is mentioned by Nisbet, in his account of the gorgeous procession of the liord Chancellor the Duke of Rothes^ public funeral in 1681, as bearing the banner of his relative, the Earl of Tullibardine, afterwards Marquis of Athol.
He died in 1685, and was succeeded by his son, John Haldane, who served in the Scottish and British Parliaments for nearly forty years, and occupied a conspicuous place in public affairs, both at the Revolution and at the Union.
From the time of Cromwell the change in the history of Scotland becomes more decided. The Reformation had been the grand crisis of the nation, but, during its glorious progress, there was a long and deadly struggle between the despotic tendencies of the Crown, the turbulence of the old feudal Barons, and the civilizing influences of advancing Christianity. The strong bond of Pro- testantism, with its common dangers and common blessings, had been gradually drawing together the great mass of the Christianity, the intelligence, and the respectability of the EngUsh and Scottish nations, for more than a century before its consummation in the act of Union of 1 707.
At this period, John Haldane, of Gleneagles, sat as one of the four Barons for the county of Perth in the last Scottish Parlia- ment. He had been previously representative for Dumbarton- eldest, took part in the rebellion of 1745, but contrived to escape for- feiture, and returned, after many years of exile, to die at Lanrick, in 1765, at the age of 85. He survived his two sons, but left six daughters, of whom five were married and have numerous descendants. Some of the male heirs of Lanrick are said to be still found in the north of Scotland. James Oswald, Esq., of Auchencruive, is the male representative of the eldest daughter of John Haldane. The Rev. James Haldane Stewart, Vicar of Limpsfield, is descended from the Lanrick family, his grandfather, Stewart of Ardshiel, who commanded the right wing of the rebel army at Culloden, having married a grand-daughter of Patrick. Mr. Stewart of Ardshiel on one occasion fought with and disarmed Kob Hoy. Sir Walter Scott has borrowed the incidents of this adventure in his talc, giving the catastro])he a turn more suited to the dignity of his hero. It is the scene at the clachan of Aberfoyle. The warlike ancestry of the Vicar of Limpsfield strikingly contrasts with the gentleness of his own beautiful Christian character.
ANECDOTES. 7
shire^ and^ in 1688^ a Member of the Convention Parliament. He was also the first Member for the county of Perth in the first British House of Commons^ and one of the Commissioners for settling the equivalents at the Union. He was a man of great energy and ability^ a good speaker^* and much occupied with pubUc affairs. One of his sisters was married to Sir William Murray, of Ochtertyre, and another to Mr. Smythe, of Methven. He was himself twice married, first to Mary, third daughter of David Drummond Lord Maderty, elder brother of the first Viscount Strathallan ; secondly, to Helen, only daughter of Sir Charles Erskine, of Alva, ancestor of the Earls of Rosslyn, and grandson of John, Earl of Mar. He had a numerous family by both marriages. His eldest son, Mimgo Haldane, was successively M.P. for the counties of Perth and Stirling, and died in 1757, at the age of seventy-three, unmarried. He was well remembered by a tenant of the Gleneagles estate, who lived to be more than a hundred years old, and was known to many of the present generation. He used to tell how the Laird put an end to Sunday trading in the neighbourhood, by means not very consonant with the modem voluntary principle. It seems that Sunday trafficking was then prevalent in Scotland, in consequence of the packmen, or itinerant hawkers, bringing their goods for sale to the church-doors on the Lord's-day. As chief magistrate in the neighbourhood, the Baron of Gleneagles
* In *' Wodrow's Correspondence ** we find the following anecdote : — " The Septennial Bill is passed the Commons by a vast plurality. There <* is a story here of Mr. Haldane, of Gleneagles, and one Snell, an *' English gentleman. Mr. Haldane had a very handsome speech in ** favour of the Bill. Mr. Snell said he did not much wonder to hear that ** gentleman and others of his nation speak after that fashion, for their ** nation was sold and enslaved, — they would have their neighbours so ** dealt with ; whereon were great heats. Sir David Dalrymple (of Hailes, '' and grandfather of the celebrated Sir D. Dalrymple, Lord Hailes) said « the gentleman who spoke (Mr. Snell) knew well where he spoke, and " that the House was his sanctuar)'. Others said, more plainly, that he ** durst not speak so without doors. Mr. Snell was brought to the bar, " and to crave pardon, May 1st, 1716.**— From the " Wodrow Corre- spondence,** vol. ii., p. 165.
8 ANECDOTES.
issued an order prohibiting the practice. On the following Sunday he did not happen himself to go to Blackford Church, but, meeting his servants returning, he inquired whether the packmen had obeyed his mandate. Being informed that they had not, the old tenant used to tell, with great emphasis, how *' the Laird clapped his hand on his sword," and declared that, if he lived over another Sabbath, he would make the packmen repent of their perverseness. Accordingly, on the following Simday, he himself went to the church, and, finding the pack- men assembled as usual and spreading out their goods for sale, he drew out his sword and scattered them in an instant. Having pursued them down the hill, as they fled in trepidation before the irate and portly Baron, he returned to the church-gates and tossed their wares into the adjoining lake. This exercise of 3 ''rigour beyond the law," which in those days was not very nicely weighed, had the desired effect, and Sunday trading has never been again attempted near Gleneagles, from that day to the present. Mungo Haldane was succeeded by his next brother, Patrick, an able, active, and bustling politician, who, in his youth, was Professor of History at St. Andrew's; then M.P. for the St. Andrew's Burghs; then Solicitor-General; a Royal Commissioner for selling the forfeited estates; and at one time appointed a Lord of Session.* He survived for ten years his only son, Brigadier-General George Haldane, of the
* This appointment was made in 1721, during his father^s life-time, and gave rise to a curious lawsuit as to the right of the Crown to appoint a Judge or Senator of the College of Justice, " without the concurrence of the College itself.*' The matter was carried by appeal to the House of Lords (See " Robertson's Appeal Cases," 422), and decided in favour of the Crown; but Patrick Haldane's right was not insisted on, and he received another appointment. He was objected to as not being a prac- tising advocate, but the pamphlets which appeared on the occasion, one of them attributed to the celebrated Duncan Forbes, of CuUoden, indicate strong political and personal rancour. Mr. Patrick Haldane is, amongst other things, not only charged with bribery at his elections, but with having induced his younger brother, James Haldane, then under age, the grandfather of the subjects of this memoir, to assist in carrying off and imprisoning hostile voters, on pretended charges of high treason and Jacobitism.
THEIR FATHER. 9
Guards^ who was also Member of Parliament for the Dundee and Forfar Burghs^ and died^ in 1759^ Governor of Jamaica.
Many ancient Scottish families were ruined by the change in their style of living and expenditure^ consequent on being called to attend a Parliament, sitting in London instead of Edinburgh. Patrick Haldane^s electioneering expenses, and those of his son, had not been compensated by their public appointments. When, in the same year, he succeeded his elder brother and siurvived his son, he found himself encumbered with debt and unable to retain his estates with comfort. Under these circum- stances Gleneagles, being unentailed, might have passed, like Lanrick, entirely out of the family, had it not been purchased by a younger brother of the half-blood, who had just returned from India with a large fortune, being the first Scotchman who ever commanded an East India Company^s ship. This Captain Robert Haldane married a daughter of Sir John Oglander, of Nunwells, in the Isle of Wight, and becoming himself M.P. for the Stirling Burghs, is referred to in the Letters of Junius. He died at Airthrey, on the 1st of January, 1768, without leaving any surviving issue, and was buried at Gleneagles, by his own desire, under the shade of four majestic spruce-firs, which he had himself planted in front of the old chapel near the ruins of the castle.
His elder brother was still living at his death, as well as his nephew. Captain James Haldane, the only son of another brother. But Captain Robert having acquired both the estates of Airthrey and Gleneagles by purchase, unfettered by any entail, they were entirely at his own disposal, and he deter- mined to divide them. To Captain James Haldane, who had acquired a fortune of his own, and was averse to a residence on the northern side of the Ochils, he left the estate of Airthrey, with its southern exposure, beautifully sloping down into the Carse of Stirling, charged with a debt of 14,000/. ; whilst the lands of Gleneagles and of Trinity Gask, charged with the remain- der of his debts, were, in the fiirst instance, entailed on the male descendants of his two sisters of the full blood, with remainder ''to my nephew. Captain James Haldane, of the
10 THEIR MOTHER.
Dake of Albany East Indiaman/' It was thus upon condition of merging his own name and arms^ and assuming those of Haldane^ that George Cockbum, only son of Mrs. Margaret Cockbum, of the family of Ormistown, in East Lothian^ succeeded to Oleneagles^ but on his death and the failure of his male issue^ in 1799, it devolved on the celebrated Admiral Viscount Duncan, as being then the eldest surviving son of the entailer's other sister of the full blood, Helen Haldane, wife of Alexander Dimcan, of Lundie, and also the maternal grandmother of the subjects of these Memoirs.
Their father was the only son of Colonel James Haldane, who married Margaret Pye, a lady belonging to a well-connected family then resident in the county of Durham, some of whom held considerable preferment in the Church of England.
Colonel James Haldane, like the rest of his generation, was a man of great stature and physical strength, and served from 1715 to 1741 in that squadron of the Royal Horse now known as the 2d Regiment of Life Guards. He died at sea on the 9th December, 1742, near Jamaica, on the Carthagena expedition, in command of General Guise^s regiment of Infantry.
On the 15th December, 1762, their only son. Captain James Haldane, married his first cousin, Katherine, daughter of Alexander Dimcan, of Lundie, and Helen Haldane, conmionly called Lady Limdie, by the courtesy of Scotland then allowed to the wife of a minor baron. Of this marriage there were three children ; namely — 1, Robert, who succeeded his father in the estate of Airthrey; 2, Helen, bom in 1765, who died in child- hood; and, 3, James Alexander Haldane, his youngest and posthumous son.
FROM THEIR BIRTH TO THE DEATH OF THEIR MOTHER.
[1764—1774.]
The family history of six centuries and more than twenty generations, has been compressed into a very narrow space in the foregoing pages. Such matters have in them more of private curiosity than public interest. The quality or exploits
THEIR FATHERS CHARACTER. 11
of a remote ancestry belong to the passing things of time^ and are but bubbles on its rapid stream^ rolling down into the gulphs of oblivion. But the character^ the instructions^ the example^ and the prayers of Christian parents^ belong to the things that are immortal^ on which God himself has been often pleased to suspend the destinies of children. The means as well as the end are under the control of Him who gives no account of his matters^ but determines all things by the council of his own will. Occasionally He sees fit^ in a wonderful and unexpected manner^ to assert the sovereignty of his electing grace ; yet for the most part it will be founds that He works by instruments, and puts especial honour on the use of his own appointed ordinances. It was the privilege of the two brothers to be enabled; practically to sympathize with the sentiments expressed in the noble lines of Cowper, when he exclaims —
" My boast is not, that I deduce my birth From loins enthroned, or rulers of the earth, But higher far my proud pretensions rise, The son of parents passed into the skies \^
Of their father. Captain James Haldane, his elder son knew but little, and the younger nothing, except from the testimony of others. He is reported to have been a man of much worth, of popular manners, good sense, and ability, who was generally respected and beloved. It is related of him, that at sea he was remarkable for his attention to moral discipline, and particularly for putting down profane swearing in his ship. The late Mr. Scrimgeour, of Tealing, and a son of Mr. Callender, of Craig- forth, who both sailed with him, used to tell how he cured his midshipmen of this profane and, as it has been justly termed^ " profitless vice,^^ by compelling any one who thus transgressed to carry a clog fastened round his ancle, for the remainder of the watch. He was also more particular than was then common at sea, in accustoming the young men to act like gentlemen, and when inculcating the duty of politeness, would jocularly remark, that he had himself spoiled a laced hat in taking it off to two French officers, whom he had brought home as prisoners from India, during Lord Clivers wars. He completed his last voyage at
12 THEIR father's CHARACTER.
the close of 1767, and was on the eve of being elected an East India Director, when an inflammatory sore-throat, said to have been improperly treated, and ending in violent fever, carried him off, after a few days' illness, on the 30th June, 1768. He died whilst on a visit to his father-in-law, at the old house of Lundie ^now Camperdown), near Dundee, where he had arrived a few days before. When asked, shortly before his death, as to his hopes for eternity, his reply, " I have full confidence in Jesus,*' indi- cated the simpUcity as well as the sincerity of his faith. His attached and afflicted widow was not, therefore, left to sorrow as those without hope, but it was a severe shock to her health, and brought on her confinement nearly two months before it was expected. It took place at Dundee, on the 14th of July, just a fortnight after her bereavement, and, combining the name of the husband whom she had lost, with that of her father, who survived, she called her infant son James Alexander.
In order to be near her parents, Mrs. Haldane took up her residence at Dundee, in a house which belonged to the cele- brated George Dempster, so well known as a leading Member of Parliament, and the friend of Mr. Fox, who had named him as one of the Commissioners of his famous India Bill. It was a large, old baronial mansion, now pulled down, pleasantlysituated in a garden sloping down to the Tay. An ancient and well- remembered pear-tree, which still remains, was visited by her yoimger son not many years befoi*e his death.
Mrs. Haldane belonged to a family in which there had been much true religion.* Her father was distinguished as a strenu-
• An ancestor of the Lundie family, William Lundie, of Sea Side, left in his own handwriting a narrative of his remarkable preservation from shipwreck in the North Seas in 1631, after being tossed about for forty days in a small boat. He thus begins : — " My Lord God has put it into ** my heart to leave a record, how that he has been so extraordinarily " merciful to me by sea and land, — how in many dangers, and from many ** perils, he did work my deliverance, and particularly in that miraculous *< one hereafter described ; that my successors may think on it, and, with ** God's assistance, it may be a mean to teach them to be humble and ^ thankful to God for having so protected and presented ine, and made *^ his fatherly love in so many ways known to me.** At the conclusion of
THEIR mother's CHARACTER. 13
bxxB supporter of the Protestant succession^ and^ as Provost of Dundee^ did good service to the Government during the rebellion in 1745. Towards the close of his life he left the fine old family residence at Lundie Castle^ to reside nearer the town^ at Oourdie House^ a name for which his eldest son substituted that of Lundie^ but which was destined to be again changed to Camperdown upon the erection of a new and splendid edifice by his grandson. His second daughter^ Mrs. Haldane^ was herself a decided Christian. '^ She lived/' said her eldest son, " very near to God, and much grace was given to her." When left a widow, it became her chief concern to bring up her children in '' the nurture and admonition of the Lord.*' From their infancy she laboured to instil into their minds a sense of the importance of eternity, particularly impressing upon them the necessity of prayer, and teaching them to commit to memory and understand psalms, portions of the shorter catechism, and of Scripture.
'^ Her instructions,'' says her youngest son, in a memorandum found amongst his papers, " were so far useful, that even when ** she was not present I made a conscience of prayer. What she said concerning sin and punishment also produced a consider- able impression on my mind. I was desirous of avoiding sin, yet frequently conmiitted those sins to which children are particularly exposed. I well knew that this was wrong, and having been told that infants would go to heaven, I regretted '* that I had not died before I had sense to discern what was " wrong."
He proceeds : " My mother died when I was very young, I *' believe under six, yet I am convinced that the early impres- '^ sion made on my mind by her care was never entirely effaced ; ''and to this, as an eminent means in the hand of God, I
the narrative he mentions his first meeting with his grandfather after his escape, and then with his mother, and adds, ** Who was very glad to see ** me, and thanked my Lord God for my preservation, who has been ever *' since very gracious to. me. Blessed be his name, and the praises which ^ I give are due unto him, desiring all those who shall succeed me not to " be unthankful to God for his great mercies.''
it u i€
14 MATERNAL INSTRUCTIONS.
t(
impute any serious thoughts which, in the midst of my foUy, '' would sometimes intrude upon my mind, as well as that still *' small voice of conscience, which afterwards led me to see that "all below was vanity without an interest in that inheritance ** which can never fade away/' He adds : ^^ I mention this
more particularly, because it may lead Christian parents to
sow in hope the seed of Divine truth in the minds of their ''children, and may prevent their considering their efforts ''unavailing even where the things which they have taught " seem to have been uttered in vain. No means of grace is, I " apprehend, more, perhaps none is so much, countenanced of " God as early religious instruction.'^
The instructions of this devoted mother were not weakened or counteracted, as often happens, by apparent inconsistency. Her life was a life of practical godliness and of cheerful trust in the Saviour. Often when she had seen her children in bed, and supposed that they were asleep, she was overheard by them, and particularly by her elder son, on her knees by their bed-side, earnestly praying that the Lord would be pleased to guide them through that world which she felt that she was herself soon to leave; that their lives might be devoted to His service upon earth ; and, finally, that they might be brought to His everlasting kingdom.
She died in 1774, of an attack of illness commencing with a cold which she caught when on a visit at Femtower, near Crieff. Her medical attendant. Dr. Willison, although himself an avowed unbeliever, emphatically declared that such a death-bed was enough to make one in love with death. It was another obser- vation of the same physician, himself the son of the celebrated divine of the same name, and a melancholy example of his own remark, that grace was a very extraordinary moral phenomenon ; that there was no doubt either of its existence or of its influence, or of the fact that it ran in families; but that it resembled certain constitutional diseases which are hereditary, and yet overleap particular generations. He was thus, in effect, bearing an unwilling testimony to the degenerating tendencies of our fallen and corrupt nature, as well as to the unfettered sovereignty
THEIR mother's DEATH. 15
and electiDg lore of God. Shortly before she expired she vaa asked if she would like once more to gee her children, bat she declined, saying that it wonld only agitate her; that she had been enabled implicitly to surrender them into the hands of God, and she would rather leave them there. Her faith was strong, not only for herself, but for them; and that faith was not disappointed.
She was buried in her husband's grave, at Lundie, in the burial-place of the Duncans, next to the vault where the ashes of her brother, the great Admiral, now also repose. The church-yard is situated in a retired and romantic spot on the slope of one ettremity of the Sidlaw range, just below the Hill of Lundie, from whose commanding summit the eye wanders over one of the most extensive and picturesque prospects of varied magnificence and beauty. The Carse of Gowrie on the one side, and Strathmore on the other, with an array of castles, towns, churches, plantationa, lakes, and streams, are bounded to the east by the ocean, to the south by the Lowland hills, and to the north-west by the vrooded mountains of Dunkeld, Athol, and Braemar.
PHOU THEIR mother's DEATH, IN 1774, TO THEIR OOINQ
to' sea. [1774—1783.] When death, which had previously robbed them of the guar- dianship of a iather, now deprived them of the tender soUcitude of their mother, the three children were scarcely old enough fully to appreciate the extent of their loss. The elder brother was ten years old, his younger scarcely six, whilst their only sister was eight. The union of parent and child is a bond, of which it has been finely said, by a celebrated orator, that it strengthens with life, acqnires vigour &om the understanding, and is sealed and rendered perfect in the community of love. Once severed, it is a tie too saoed and holy to be replaced. Bat, in the present bereavement, there were several compensa- tions to be found in the paternal vatchfulnesa, the unremitting
16 THEIR EDUCATION.
affection^ and the superior qualifications of the kind relatives who undertook the guardianship of the youthful orphans.
Their grandmother^ Lady Lundie, had, after her husband's death, resided with her daughter on the banks of the Tay, at Dundee. She had been, in her younger years, famed for her beauty, not only in Scotland, but in the gay circles of Bath, at the period of its greatest renown. From these scenes of pleasurable excitement she had, however, long retired, and at the time of her daughter's death the care of her grandchildren became her chief occupation during the peaceful retirement of her remaining years. Her eldest son, John, a young man of great promise, died early, in China, in the service of the East India Company. Her next son. Colonel Alexander Duncan, married his second cousin. Miss Smythe, of Methven, but had no fiunily, and was now a war-worn veteran, retired from the army, after having earned considerable distinction by his good and gallant service in the rebellion in 1745, in the campaigns on the Continent, and in Canada. His younger brother, Adam, afterwards Viscount Duncan, had also served for more than a quarter of a century in different parts of the world. At this time, and until the breaking out of a new war, he was enjoying the repose of peace, and, with his mother, resided in Mrs. Hal- dane's house and managed all her affairs.
Both of the uncles had seen much of the world, and therefore knew more of the value of a good education than most of the Scottish aristocracy of that period. The learning of the two boys was well attended to. At home they had a superior resident tutor, the Reverend Dr. Fleming, who afterwards became one of the ministers of Edinburgh ; and they were also sent to the grammar-school at Dundee, that they might at the same time mingle with other boys, and profit by the stimulus of competition. Little James was destined for the sea, and it was important to push him forward in his education; but his pro- gress was speedily arrested by a dangerous fever, which long confined him to the house, and of which he nearly died. An anecdote concerning him, which relates to this period, used to be told by his aunt. Lady Dimcan. He was a boy of great
THEIR sister's DEATH. 17
spirit^ and recited poetry with much of sentiment and animation. The Admiral had taught him^ amongst other things^ to i^epeat the celebrated speech of Cassius^ in Addison^s " Cato/^ begin- ning:—
" My voice is still for war ! What ! can a Koman Senate long debate Which of the two to choose, — slavery or death ? "
To enable him to give due effect to this piece of declamation^ which certainly does not altogether accord with the views of the Peace Society^ his uncle was accustomed to place him on a side- table, and, after his task had been accomplished, make him jump down. During the delirium of his fever, whenever the Admiral came to see him he immediately started up, and began, with great emphasis,
ti \£y voice is still for war ! "
In the year 1776 his sister's health, which had never been strong, finally gave way. It was customary in those days, as it now is in Switzerland, to resort to places in the country " for the goat's whey.'' During Mrs. Haldane's lifetime she had for one summer occupied the house of Kinnaird, in Strathbran, near Dunkeld.* Lady Lundie took her grand-daughter for the same reason to the Kallender of Crieff, in Stratheam, where she hired a house, near Ochtertyre, the residence of Sir William Murray, to whom she was doubly related, both as a Haldane and a Dimcan. Whilst residing here they were much at Ochtertyre ; and the two boys found great enjoyment, in riding about on their ponies, or, attended by their tutor, in fishing for perch in the lovely lake of Monivaird, embosomed amidst the hanging woods and romantic hills which embellish those
* Her elder son had here a narrow escape from heing kicked to death. One of the carriage horses was rather violent in the stable, and, knowing this, in a sportive mood he put down a stick from the loft and touched it on the back. The animal was so much excited, that he plunged and kicked till the loose flooring of the loft, being very low, was shaken to pieces, and the youthful author of this piece of mischief was himself knocked about like a ball, and expected every moment to fall down amongst the horses. Providentially he was unhurt.
c
1 8 FERNTOWER.
beautiful pleasure-grounds. The renowned General, Sir George Murray, was then a boy, under five years of age, probably dreaming as little of those fields of blood in which he w as after- wards to be engaged, as did his young cousins of the more peaceful warfare they were to accomplish.
The two boys were much attached to their drooping sister, and it was long remembered how yoimg James, whose warm, affectionate disposition was remarked from his boyhood, never took his ride without dismoimting to gather for her the blue- bells and the cotton-flowers, growing on the wild heaths and moors of Stratheam. A little while before Helenas death, she was taken to Edinburgh by her aunt. Miss Duncan, for medical advice, but it was of no avail. She died on the 11th of July, 1776. The Admiral was with them at the time, and Colonel Duncan was sent for, so that once more, at their early age, the orphan boys stood beside their two uncles at another funeral, when their only and much-loved sister was committed to the dust, in the vault of the Murrays, in the ancient and romantic churchyard of Monivaird, which is now included in the park of Ochtertyre, and, with its little chapel, is exclusively used as the mausoleum of the family.*
There is a story concerning their boyhood which belongs to this period. They were spending a day at Femtower with their imcle and tutor, who were together, when the Admiral, turning towards the window, suddenly started up with an exclamation of mingled alarm and indignation. It happened that his carriage was standing before the door, although the horses had been taken out. Dr. Fleming had been instructing his pupils in the mysteries of the ancient battering-ram and catapulta. There was a steep bank in front, and a garden-wall below, which presented a most inviting object on which to try an experiment. With considerable exertion the two boys had turned the carriage round, and having given to the pole a suitable direction for a point blank charge, were just in the act of launching it down the precipitous declivity, when their uncle descried their danger
* The modem church of Monivaird is now situated at a considerable distance from the old churchyard.
DEATH OF THEIR GRANDMOTHER. 19
and that of his own caiTiage. It was too late to avoid the catastrophe; the chariot rolled down the bank with all the majesty of an engine of war^ acquiring increased velocity at every step^ and did the work of a battering-ram with so much effect^ as to dash through the wall in an instant. Happily a broken pole was the total amount of the actual damage, besides the displacement of some masonry or brickwork.
In the following year they lost their kind grandmother, Lady Lundie, who was rather suddenly taken from them, at an advanced age, in May, 1777. In the same year Lord Duncan married the daughter of the Lord President Dundas, a lady the remem- brance of whose charming vivacity, warm-hearted kindness, and many admirable qualities, the two brothers cherished with the grateful feelings of almost filial affection. Her friendship they enjoyed to the close of her long and happy life in December, 1832, and during many of her later years, it was the privilege, especially of her younger nephew, to minister to her spiritual comfort. After the marriage, it was necessary to make new arrangements, and the house in Dundee having been relin- quished, it was determined that the two boys should go to the High School of Edinburgh. Accordingly, in September, 1777, they were boarded with the Rector of the High School, the celebrated Dr. Adam, the author of the '^ Roman Antiquities,^' and other valuable works. His house was in Charles-street, fronting the entrance into George-square, and overlooking the large mansion with the court in front, afterwards Lord Duncan's, but then occupied by the Lord Advocate, the Right Hon. Henry Dundas, the first Lord Melville. In a letter written many years afterwards, by Mr. James Haldane to his son, he says, '' I " have told you of Lord Melville, how, in winter. Dr. Adam, '' when he called your uncle and myself in the morning, used to '* point to his candle, burning in the room, where he had been " labouring for a couple of hours before we were awake.*' There were along with them at Dr. Adam's several other boarders, also attending the High School, some of whom became publicly known, such as the Earl of Rossmore, General Sir William Erskine, who commanded the cavalry in Spain ; two
c2
20 CONTEMPORARIES.
VanddeurBj one of whom became a titled General^ and the other an Irish Judge ; also the eldest son of Lord Decies^ then Arch- bishop of Tuam^ George Ramsay of Bamton^ &c.
Robert at once joined the fifth or Rector's class in the High School^ James (although more than four years younger) the third class^ then taught by Mr. French^ a pious and estimable man^ with whom he remained till August^ 1779, when he, too, reached the fifth or highest class, according to the Scottish mode of reckoning, where the lowest is the first, instead of being the highest, as in the great Englisli pubUc schools.
There were at the High School several cotemporaries, who afterwards became distinguished in the fields of literature, law, or poUtics. Boys of all ranks, from the sons of the noble to the sons of the tradesman, were there associated. There were also two with whom both the brothers were afterwards to be connected in the reUgious movement in Scotland, but with neither of them had they at the time any personal acquaintance. The one was the well-known Mr, John Campbell, the African Missionary, who used graphically to describe the time when he first saw his future friend and fellow-labourer, James Haldanc, then buoyant with life and frohc, an energetic and high-spirited boy, ever foremost in the race of fun and frolic. The other was Mr. Greville Ewing, the son of a respectable teacher of mathematics in Edinburgh. Mr. Campbell, who was bom in 1766, was in the class of Nicholl, the friend of Bums, and a partaker both of Bums' genius and vices ; Mr. Ewing, although fifteen months older, was in the same class with James Haldane, consisting probably of nearly an hundred boys, placed in order, according to their respective merits. Mr. Ewing, in spite of an intermpted education, afterwards became, chiefly through his own exertions, esteemed for his scholarship, but at that time he only occupied a place about the middle of Mr. French's class. James Haldane was near the head, a position which does not always guarantee the same superiority in after-life, although it is no doubt indicative of natural quickness. In noticing their course of study, it would be unjust to omit the name of their French master, Mr. Cauvin, more usually named Mr. Gavin,
ANECDOTE. 21
who died some years ago^ leaving a large sum of money to foond an hospital at Duddingstone^ where he resided. With him they were favourite pupils^ and after they left the High School were accustomed to go to his residence^ and make very agreeable excursions with him, when nothing but French was spoken.
On the Saturdays, Sundays, and other casual holidays, the two brothers had a happy home at Nellfield, near Edinburgh, where their uncle then resided, imtil the war again summoned him to sea. Their long vacation was spent at Lundie House.
In connexion with their visits to Nellfield, there is a little anecdote which is indicative of the manners of the times, and also used to ftimish some amusement. When James Haldane happened to be walking out to his uncle's, he was overtaken by a young minister on horseback, who asked him where he was going. With great simplicity, the boy replied, " To Nellfield," which sounding very much like Melville, the minister supposed, from the nearness of their age, that the young gentleman was the son of the great dispenser of Scottish patronage, both lay and ecclesiastical, and was going to Melville Castle, near Lass- wade. He was inmiediately invited to mount behind the saddle, according to the fashion of the day, when there were few wheeled vehicles, and was thus very pleasantly conveyed along the road. Arriving at the gate of Nellfield, James informed his conductor that they must now part. The disappointment mani- fested was inexplicable to the imsophisticated mind of a boy, but the story amused his friends, and was probably enjoyed by none more than by that busy statesman, from whom both of the brothers received much kind notice, and who had himself so deeply studied human nature and so well understood the springs dir influence.
In his boyhood it was for several years the desire of Robert Haldane to fit himself for the ministry in the Church of Scot- land, and at Lundie House he used regularly every Sunday to exhibit this inclination by addressing, or, as it might be called, preaching to the domestics in the servants^ hall. This might be considered, perhaps, as rather savouring of boyish sport, but he himself spoke of it far otherwise near the dose of his life, and
22 ROBERT JOINS THE MONARCH.
stated^ that from the time when he was nine years old^ he had more or less of serious convictions as to the things of God. It was also a frequent custom of the two boys, after they had retired to bed, to converse together about the things to which their departed mother had attached so much importance, and this habit was, no doubt, in itself beneficial to both, tending to cherish in their hearts a hidden spark of love to Jesus Christ and the things of heaven. But whatever were his inclinations as to the ministry, it was then deemed quite contrary to ordinary usage in Scotland, that one of his fortune and position should become a minister. He himself was probably easily persuaded on the point, more especially as the exploits of his uncle kindled in his breast a desire to follow him into the navy and share in the glories of the ocean. The result was, that, rather abruptly leaving his studies at the College of Edinburgh early in 1780, he joined the Monarch at Portsmouth.
The departure of his uncle and aunt from the vicinity of Edinburgh, followed by that of his brother, were circumstances of disadvantage as well as discomfort to James. In the memo- randum from which we have already quoted, and which will be again referred to, he marks this period as one from which he began more openly to depart from an outward attention to per- sonal religion.
In 1779-80 and 1780-1 James passed through the Rector's class, remaining there two years. He was reckoned a clever, shrewd boy, observant, and of quick perception, possessing a retentive memory and the capacity of application, although his love of adventurous sport strongly preponderated, whether it was exhibited in his dangerous rambles on the Salisbury Craigs, climbing what was termed the " Cat's nick" in summer, or, during the winter, in skating at Duddingstone or Lochend. Although younger than the generality of the boys of hia stand- ing in the school, his usual place during his last year at the Rector's class was about third, but on the final adjustment of places, the industry of some of those usually below him, and his own indifference on the subject, made him only seventh. When Dr. Adam, before the public examination, went through his
JOURNEY TO GOSPORT. 23
usual plan of asking the upper boys if they were satisfied with their places^ he put the same question to James Haldane^ and being answered in the affirmative^ the Rector very significantly shook his head^ and remarked^ that if he were satisfied^ it was not much to his credit. Two or three years before^ when he was under Mr. French^ Dr. Adam met him in the street returning from school^ and proposed to give him the pleasure of accom- panying him to some show or exhibition. But observing that his clothes had been soiled in the boisterous amusements of the High School yards^ the Rector reproved his Uttle pupil^ and said that he did not himself choose to be seen in such company. Before dismissing the boy^ he asked^ however^ what was his place in his class^ and being told that he was Dux^ or firsts the enthusiasm of the learned Rector was kindled^ and affectionately grasping the hand of his scholar^ he exclaimed^ " I would walk with you although you were clothed in rags 1^'
In 1781-2 he went to the College^ and for tKree sessions continued, under the observation of Dr. Adam, to attend the different professors of Greek, Latin, mathematics, logic, meta- physics, and natural philosophy, in their usual order.
In 1783 Colonel Duncan took him to London, on a visit to (Josport, where the future Admiral resided for five years with his family, during the peace, in command of the Edgar guard- ship. The interest of the journey, which in those days was a formidable affair, with the novelty of a new country and new places, became enhanced by the spectacle of a remarkable meteor which then passed over England. After seeing the wonders of the great metropolis, they proceeded to Gk)sport, where an acquaintance was begun with the great and good Dr. Bogue, which ripened into Christian friendship, (mly terminating with death.
It was the wish of both his uncles that he should enjoy the advantage of seeing as much as possible of their own country before going to sea. Accordingly it was arranged, that in August, 1784, Dr. Adam should take James Haldane, and his schoolfellow, the late George Ramsay, of Bamton, on a tour through the North of England. They travelled on horseback.
24 TOUR THROUGH THE NORTH OF ENGLAND.
and the commencement of their journey was rather auspicious, for, stopping at Haddington, they accidentally made acquaint- ance with a gentleman of the name of Haldane, who, although an entire stranger, was so much pleased with his young name- sake, that he presented him with a very handsome and well- bred horse, in order that he might not be worse mounted than young Ramsay, who had been furnished by his uncle, who was then the Tattersall of Scotland.
They travelled by Berwick, Newcastle, York, and Hull, into Derbyshire, returning by Lancashire and Cumberland to Edin- burgh. They were accompanied on this tour by the Rev. Dr. Macknight, the well-known commentator, whose practical disre- gard of the Lord^s-day made a deep impression on James Haldane. Although Dr. Adam was not an enlightened man in spiritual things, and then attended the very moderate teaching of the minister of St. Cuthbert^s Chapel-of-Ease, yet he had been accustomed to reverence the outward symbols of reUgion. But when they had crossed the border, and arrived in an Episcopalian country. Dr. Macknight persuaded his learned friend that, being now out of the bounds of Presbytery, and under no obligation to countenance Prelatical worship, it would be very absurd to allow their journeying plans to be deranged by the intervention of the Sabbath. This convenient doctrine at first surprised, but at last proved very palatable to the young travellers. For a time. Dr. Adam felt very much ashamed when they entered a town or village when the church-going bells were calling the people to the services of the sanctuary. But these scruples were soon overcome by the doughty commentator, who was thus in effect giving a practical warning against that frigid scheme of rational- istic Arminianism which pervades his writings. There was no writer whom the two brothers in after-life regarded as a more dangerous corruptor of the truths of the Gospel.
On their retui-n to Edinburgh, James Haldane bade farewell to Dr. Adam and the house in Charles-street, where he had now spent nearly seven years of his life. The months during which he remained in Scotland before going to sea in the East India service were spent at Lundie House, and the ColoneFs unre-
EARLY UISTOIIV. 25
mitting kindness was always cherished by him with grateful recollection.
He was now in his seventeenth year^ and before noticing the chief incidents in his life at sea^ it may be natmal to ask^ What now was his spiritual condition^ and what were his prospects as to an eternal existence 7
For a long time after their mother's deaths both the brothers were much solenmized by a sense of the importance of those things which she had so earnestly inculcated. Their sister's death had doubtless for a time tended to deepen the impression. When they came to Edinburgh they used to be remarked^ and even laughed at^ for their reverence for sacred things. Robert Haldane's inclination for the ministry has been already noticed ; and two elderly ladies from Durham^ who then lived in Edin- burgh^ the cousins of their deceased grandmother^ the widow of Colonel Haldane^ often lamented that young James should be destined for so rough a profession as that of a sailor. They did not desire him to be a Presbyterian minister^ but said that it would be much better were he to enter the English Churchy to which they themselves belonged^ in which he might possibly become a Bishop^ and added^ as interfering with this airy castle^ the expression of their regret at the death of their brother, who had in his gift an excellent preferment^ which would have admirably provided for their young relative. But whatever appearances of seriousness continued for some years, they were not enduring, as will be seen from the following extract from the manuscript already quoted : —
'^ Till I was twelve years old I continued to pray, go to church, " and read my Bible or other good books on the Sabbath, but it '' was only from a principle of duty, and was indeed only that " kind of bodily exercise which profiteth little. I had no pleasure " in any religious duty, but conscience retained a certain influ- '' ence, and made me afraid to give them up. I was well pleased ''if any slight illness, or anything occurred which seemed a '' sufficient excuse to myself for staying at home on the Lord^s- day. Indeed, I hardly attended to one word I heard when at cborch, but only made a form of joining in the di£ferent parts
26 RELI0I0U8 IMPRESSIONS.
tc
€€ €{
4(
of the worship. Sometimes, however, I had serious thoughts ; occasionally, on a Sabbath evening, after reading the Scriptures or other books, I felt a kind of flow of the natural passions, and had a good deal of pleasure in prayer. This always puffed me up *' with thoughts that I was very good. But to show how much '^ I considered prayer as a task, if I had bowed my knee in such " a frame as this before supper, I considered it unnecessary to '' pray again when I went to bed. About that time, that text of " Proverbs xxvi. 12, ' Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit,* " &c., struck me a good deal. I had just been thinking that I '^was in the right road to heaven, but that text rather cast a '^ damp upon my hopes, for it seemed to describe my character. '^ I generally used a form of prayer, but when I felt such emo- '* tions as I have described, I prayed in such words as occurred. '^ From about 13 to 16, I became more careless, often spending " the Sabbath evenings in idle conversation with my companions, '^ and I was pleased to And my conscience become less and less '' scrupulous. I also began to swear, because, according to the *' fashion of the times, it seemed to be manly, and except a form of prayer, which I still kept up, every serious idea seemed to have fled. Some things, however, occurred, which led me back to a kind of decency. Some vexation I met with from a " quarrel with some companions, caused me to pray to Grod, and I began again to read my Bible on the Sabbath, and completely gave up swearing for a season. They laughed, and I endured some ridicule for thus spending the Sabbath, but the opposition rather confirmed than altered my determination. I do not mention this as anything praiseworthy ; it certainly proceeded more from pride than any other principle.^' Are we, then, to suppose that the instructions of his sainted mother had not fallen like the good seed into good ground? Had it been scattered by the wayside, or on stony ground, or amongst thorns, and so perished without yielding fruit ? Had her prayers been offered up in vain ? Had the confidence of that faith, which burned so bright in the hour of her departure, been on behalf of her children a vain trust in the promises of the Gospel ? Had she miscalculated the meaning of those declara-
ti
€{ i€ U €< tt it
THEIR mother's PRATERS. 27
tions made on behalf of the offspring of believing^ prayerful^ and persevering parents 7 It will be seen that the blossoms of early piety had indeed nearly disappeared^ — ^that they had proved like the early cloud and the morning dew. But yet the faithful labours of the trustful mother had not been in vain. Her prayers had ascended before the mercy-seat^ '' perfumed with much incense/' and were registered in heaven. The good seed was only buried, not lost ; and by and by, after a long winter, it was destined to spring up in '^ the power of an endless life,'' instinct with blessings for her children and her children's chil- dren, nay, for thousands who were to receive the Gospel from their voice or from their writings.
CHAPTER II.
FBOM ROBERT HALDANE'S ENTERDfO THE NAVY TO HIS MARRIAGE AND SETTLING AT AIRTHREY— THE MONARCH —ACTION BETWEEN THE FOUDROYANT AND PEGASE— LORD ST. VINCENT'S PREDICTION— INFLUENCE OF DR. BOGUE — LOSS OF THE ROYAL GEORGE — RELIEF OP GIBRALTAR— CHASE OF THE LEOCADIA— SAILS TO NEW- FOUNDLAND—QUITS THE NAVY— TOUR OF EUROPE— HIS MARRIAGE— IMPROVEMENTS AT AIRTHREY— ANECDOTES.
[1780—1794.]
The current of this narrative has conducted the reader down to 1785, when, in his seventeenth year, James Haldanc went to sea. It is now time to notice the career of his elder brother, from the period when he rather unexpectedly quitted his studies in Edin- burgh, and in the spring of 1780, being then too in his seventeenth year, entered the Royal Navy.
The revolt of the American Colonies was the first great public event which excited the interest of the two brothers, and even the younger used to mention his boyish recollections of the excitement, produced by the sudden arrival of the declaration of independence, and the prospect of the war with France. It was in 1779 that the establishment at Ncllfield was broken up, and their uncle once more entered on active service. It may easily be supposed with what interest his two youthful and affectionate nephews followed the history of his exploits ; how their ardent spirits exulted in the renown he obtained in Rodncy^s action off Cape St. Vincent, where the Monarch, outsailing all the fleet, bore the brunt of the engagement, disabling two hne-of- battle ships and capturing a third ; how they sympathized with the burning indignation expressed by him, when the Channel fleet was afterwards compelled to retreat before the French, and
THE POUDROYANT. 29
he himself could only " stand looking over the stem gallery of the Monarch^'* sea-sick as well as heart-sick through contending emotions of shame and vexation. It was shortly after this^ that Robert Haldane himself joined the Monarchy and remained in that ship until the spring of 1781^ when it was ordered to the West Indies^ and Lord Duncan's health having previously severely suffered from the climate of the Havannah^ he was persuaded to relinquish a tropical expedition for active service nearer home.
Before he was enabled to commission the Blenheim^ of 90 guns^ in order to prevent loss of time^ he transferred his nephew to the Foudroyant^ of 80 guns^ commanded by his friend and contem- porary. Captain Jervis, the future Earl St. Vincent.
Of the Foudroyant, Mr. Haldane was accustomed, even in old age, to speak with something of youthful enthusiasm. It had been captured from the French, and was the finest ship in the British Navy. It was not only a model of naval architecture, but was gilt to the water's edge ; whilst its height between decks was greater than that of the Britannia of 100 guns, which car- ried the flag of the renowned Admiral Barrington, to whose squadron it belonged. He used to mention that on visiting the Admiral, whose younger brother was the well-known Bishop of Durham, and whose elder brother had been one of his father's guardians, he found himself obliged to stoop between decks of the flag-ship, whilst in the Foudroyant, although standing nearly six feet high, he was able to walk upright.
But a short time after he joined the Foudroyant he was called to take part in the celebrated action with the Feg&se, which was the foundation of all Lord St. Vincent^s great fame. It was a night engagement. A French fleet of six sail-of-the-line were retreating before Admiral Barrington with twelve. The chase began at noon on the 19th of April, and the Foudroyant, out- sailing all the rest, and leaving them as if at anchor, singled out the Pegase at 10 at night, and at 47 minutes past 12, having run at the rate of eleven knots an hour, brought her to close quarters. The respective forces of the two ships were nearly equal; for although the British had six guns more than the enemy, yet the latter had sixty more men, with a greater weight of metalj carrying forty-pounders on the lower decks, and a crew
80 ANECDOTE OF CAPT. BO WEN.
of seven hundred sailors. These particulars Mr. Haldane used to say had been omitted in narratives of the action^ although Admiral Barrington^s despatch mentions^ in general terms^ that the two combatants were in point of force nearly equal. He often referred with pleasure to an instance of his gallant Com- mander^s magnanimity. Just as the ships were about to open their fire, the officer on the forecastle called out that the enemy had '^put her helm up to rake.'' Captain Jervis instantly exclaimed^ " Then put the helm a-starboard/' meaning to deUver his broadside from the starboard guns. At that critical moment one of his midshipmen, — a friend of Mr. Haldane's^ the gallant Bowen, who fell by the side of Nelson at Teneriffe, — saw that an opposite manoeuvre would give to the Foudroyant the advan- tage of the first fire^ and enable her to rake^ instead of being raked. On the moment, this gallant young man, standing by the wheel, called out, " Port, port ; if we put our helm to port, we shall rake her.'' His eagerness admitted of no denial. The helm was brought to port ; the broadside of the Foudroyant was poured into the Feg&se ; and when the smoke cleared off. Captain Jervis, in the enthusiasm of the moment, pulled off his hat on the quarter-deck, and turning to the young officer, exclaimed, — " Thanks^ Bowen : you were right."
The battle lasted three-quarters of an hour, and the skill as well as the zeal which directed the guns under Robert Haldane's charge^ attracted the notice of his observant Commander. At one time, holding a lantern in his hand, he wa^ seen directing the proper elevation of a gun. An old sailor warned him that he was making himself a mark for the enemy ; but he indignantly repelled the admonition^ telling his well-meaning and sensible adviser that, in the discharge of duty, he should disdain to think of personal danger. At one time the ships almost touched each other, and a gunner being asked why he did not withdraw the rammer^ replied that he could not on account of the Frenchman. The gun was discharged with the rammer undrawn.
After the Peg&se was laid on board, and had struck, the ships separated ; and it blew so fresh, and there was so much sea, that it was with great difficulty and the loss of two boats that an officer and eighty men could be sent into the prize and bring off
CAPTURE OF THE PEGaSE. 31
forty prisoners. During the action^ the watchful eye of the hero of St. Vincent had marked the zeal and gallantry of Robert Haldane, and he indicated his approval by appointing him to accompany one of the lieutenants who was going to take posses- sion of the Peg&se^ with orders to bring back its commander^ Le Chevalier Cillart. There was another reason which prompted the selection. He had discovered Robert Haldane^s talents and attainments^ and often employed him as his amanuensis, and he was the only officer on board who understood French. The duty assigned to him was discharged with characteristic courtesy, determination, and zeal. On boarding the Peg&se, he found the decks floated with blood, seven men lying dead at one gun. Having been conducted through this scene of slaughter to the ChevaUer, he explained the nature of his orders, but the French- man protested that it was out of the question to get into an open boat in such a sea and at such an hour. The necessity of the ease was explained, the weakness of the captors in point of numbers as compared with the vanquished. Still the captain demurred, when the lieutenant, who had charge of the prize, by drawing his sword added a very significant argument, which fully compensated for his inability to express himself in French* The Chevalier then submitted, and was conducted safely to the Foudroyant, amidst murmurs which promised to bear in mind this treatment when he returned to France.
After the action Sir John Jervis wrote to Captain Duncan, congratulating him on the determined spirit and ability of his nephew, and predicting that Robert Haldane would one day be an ornament to his country. This prediction was destined to be fulfilled in a manner far difierent from that which the hero of St. Vincent then imagined. His renown was not to be won on the quarter-deck of a British man-of-war, or amidst such scenes of blood as those which had, for the first time, somewhat solemnized the exulting joy of the young warrior. But even then, amidst the satisfaction derived from the applause of the great officer under whom he served, there was one circumstance, the recol- lection of which interested his mind during the very last days of hia mortal career, although sixty long years had elapsed. He
32 INFLUENCE OF DR. BOGUE.
mentioned that^ on that night, on going into action with the Peg&se, when his heart heat high with ardent zeal, he breathed out an earnest prayer to Grod, that he might now be strengthened to discharge his duty as became a British sailor, in defence of his country. It was not that he then made any open profession of religion, or had any settled or abiding principle of godliness in his heart. On the contrary, pride, ambition, the love of distinction, and other forms of worldliness, were all in the ascendant. But, beneath this heap of rubbish, there was still germinating in the hidden recesses of his inmost soul the incor- ruptible seed, implanted by a mother's hand, and watered by a mother's prayers. Invisible to mortal eye it there existed, and, on such an occasion as that of his going for the first time into battle, seemed like a spark of life ready to burst out, and make the gallant youth act not as a reckless unbeliever, but as a Christian hero.
After the return of the Foudroyant to Spithead, and during the period which elapsed before the relief of Gibraltar, he had frequent opportunities of spending much of his time at Gosport, and attending the ministry of the late David Bogue, whose influence on his own mind and that of his brother, both intellectually and spiritually, was greatly blessed. Dr. Bogue was a Scotch Pres- byterian minister, educated for the Established Church, who ultimately settled, in 1778, at Gosport, where he continued imtil his death, in 1825, the pastor of an Independent congregation, but still foremost, throughout the land, in all those great objects of Christian philanthropy, which marked the close of the eighteenth century.
Between 1779 and 1787 Gosport was the head-quarters of Lord Duncan. Till the peace of 1783 he was attached to the Channel Fleet, successively commanding the Monarch of 74, and the Blenheim of 90 guns, and chiefly cruizing between Spithead and Gibraltar. After the peace, he commanded the Edgar guard-ship until he obtained his flag, in 1787. These circumstances are to be numbered amongst the providential links in the history of both the brothers. It was thus, that they were both brought much into contact with Dr. Bogue, to whom
LOSS OF THE ROYAL OEOROE. 33
they became much attached. They attended hia minUtry, and by him they were directed in their course of reading and in their choice of books, both on shore and at sea. Thus is it that the Lord is pleased to work out his designs of mercy and of love, in a way which we cannot comprehend, subordinating all the changes and chances of life to the purposes which he has foreordained, leading his dependent creatures by a way which they know not, until the mystery of God shall be accomplished, and the events which seemed only accidental, shall be seen to have been guided by the unerring hand of Infinite Wisdom.
During the summer of 1782, Admiral Barrington's squadron was placed under the orders of Earl Howe, whose duty it wag to protect our shores and our commerce, menaced, as they were, onthe one hand by the Dutch, and on the other by the French and Spanish fleets. Towards the end of the summer pre- parations were made for a great expedition to reheve Gibraltar. At this period, when the grand fleet lay at Spithead, Mr. Ilal- dane was a witness of the loss of the Royal George, which happened on the 39tb of August, 1782. On the morning of that memorable day, soon after breakiast, he was looking through a telescope, watching, with interest, the operation of heeling over of the ship, when, on a suddeu, it overset, filled, and sunk. There were at least twelve hundred souls on board, including women and children, and, in charge of a boat from the Foudroyant, he was one of the most active in picking up and saving the drowning crew. Of those who went down not more than three hundred were rescued; and at Portsca and the Isle of Wight so many dead bodies were interred, that it is calculated that nine hundred must have perished. On the next Lord's- day. Dr. B<^e preached a sermon, which produced a deep and general impression, from Fsalm zzxvi., "Thy judgments are a great deep."
The slate of public affairs at this juncture may be inferred from the het, that the catastrophe of the Royal George was T^arded as a national calami^, not merely involving the loss of aa admiral and a gallant crew, but diminishing the strength of the grand fleetj then under orders for Gibraltar, and expecting
34 RELIEF OF GIBRALTAR.
to encounter a greatly superior force, belonging to the navies of France and Spain. On the 11th of September following. Lord Howe sailed with thirty-four ships-of-the-line, besides frigates, and a great convoy of one hundred and forty transports, carrying troops, stores, and provisions. The reUef of Gibraltar forms one of the most striking incidents in that memorable siege, in which the united resources of the Bourbons of France and Spain were vainly lavished, for the recovery of that celebrated fortress. It was a great crisis, and it was generally believed that its reconquest would have ruined the influence of Britain to the eastward of the Pillars of Hercules, and given to her rivals the command of the Mediteri-ancan. Lord Howe's fleet was greatly inferior to the enemy. But Mr. Haldane, in after- life, used often to dwell on the remarkable interposition of Providence, by which he beUevcd that the disparity of force was, in some degree, neutrahzed, and the convoy enabled to land their supphes. On the 10th of October a look-out frigate returned to Lord Howe, with the formidable inteUigence that the combined fleets, anchored in Algesiras Bay, consisted of fifty sail-of-the-line, besides frigates. On that night a sudden and violent tempest scattered and disabled the French and Spanish fleet, whilst the British rode secure under the lee of the African mountains. Several of the enemy, including some three-deckers, were driven ashore, others were compelled to run to the eastward, and all were, more or less, damaged ; so that, when Captain Curtis arrived from General Elliott on the 12th, he was enabled to inform the Admiral, that there then remained in the bay only forty sail-of-the-line, and three of 56 guns. But this was not all. On the 13th the enemy put to sea, partly to protect his scattered ships, and partly to intercept the British convoy. He cleared Europa point, and passed the night perfectly becalmed; whilst Lord Howe being to the east- ward of the rock, taking advantage of an easterly wind which sprung up, carried the convoy safe into Gibraltar, amidst the cheers and acclamations of the garrison. In the performance of this manoeuvre the Foudroyant was the leading ship, and bore the chief part in the affair. The gallant Earl's movement was
PROVIDENTIAL OCCURRENCES. 35
no doubt masterly^ but the storm which burst with fury on the combined fleets on the 10th, and the calm which paralyzed them on the 12th, together with the sudden change of the wind, were all contingencies enabling the British to effect the grand object of the expedition. To those who would banish the remembrance of God from their own hearts, and exclude the Almighty fh)m the government of His own creation, such incidents will appear the result of accident, and a reference to an overruling Providence will provoke the smile of ridicule. But to those who delight to trace the finger of God in the smallest as well as the greatest of human affairs, such facts will furnish in after-life, as they did to Mr. Haldane, fresh matter of grateful meditation on the character of Him, who is wonderful in working, who ^^ holds the winds in his fist, and the waters in the hollow of his hands,'' and who does amongst the inhabitants of the earth according to His own good pleasure. '^ Whoso is vnse, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord.''
After the relief of Gibraltar, Lord Howe gave orders to return from the Straits, but so intent on action were the crew of the Victory that they refused to put round the wheel, and their murmurs almost amounted to open mutiny, until the Noble Admiral assured them that they should fight in the open seas. An action did take place, in which the Foudroyant took part, and in which the British loss amounted to 276 in killed and wounded. Sir John Jervis was much dissatisfied, and pacing the quarter-deck in great excitement, with his hat in his hand, continued to exclaim, ''For shame I Lord Howe." But the enemy had ten sail-of-the-line more than the British, with friendly ports in case of a defeat, whilst Lord Howe was not only inferior in forbe, but had no shelter for damaged or disabled ships. Mr. Haldane used also to state, that in passing Lord Howe's orders for closer action from ship to ship, some mistake occurred, which caused them to haul their wind, and so sepa- rated the fleets. In the morning the enemy did not choose to renew the combat.
After this affair the fleet sailed for England, and an incident
D 2
36 CHASE OF THE LEOCADIA.
occurred which again discovered the young sailor's force of character. The Leocadia^ a Spanish sixty-gun ship^ was chased by the fleets and the Foudroyant^ as usual^ far outsailing the rest^ was rapidly coming up with her^ when a signal from Lord Howe induced Sir John Jervis at once to abandon the chase. It was, however, when the Foudroyant was carrying a press of canvas in pursuit, that Robert Haldane was ordered to take his post on the fore-top-gallant mast, and remain on the look-ouf till recalled. The mast sprung, and as there was no order to descend, he expected at every blast to be hurled into the deep. Another midshipman thought himself justified, under the circum- stances, in retiring to a safer position. Not so his companion, who remembered his commander's maxim, ''never to make a difficulty ^^ in carrying out an order. He therefore heroically remained, as did an old seaman, who advised him to lay hold of the lower parts of the ropes, so that, in the event of the antici- pated plunge, there might be a better chance of keeping hold of the mast with their heads uppermost. At this moment there arose a cry of '* A man overboard ! '^ Sir John Jervis instantly gave an order to shorten sail, and then for the first time discovering the perilous situation of those on the look-out, they were commanded to come down. Those who remember the character of Lord St. Vincent will easily imagine the impres- sion produced by the determination with which his orders had been obeyed at all hazards.
On its arrival at Spithead the Foudroyant was paid ofiT, and Sir John Jervis was appointed to commission the Salisbury, of fifty guns, and to hoist his broad pennant as Commodore of a squadron, bound on an expedition, intended to combine a voyage round the world for purposes of discovery, with an attack on the Spanish settlements in South America. Robert Haldane was one of those whom he expressly selected to accompany him, as a young man of whom he entertained high expectations, and whose services he valued both on the deck and in his cabin. Long before this Sir John Jervis had won his regard, and when the fleet sailed for Gibraltar he had declined his imcle^s kind proposal to remove to the Blenheim, justly considering that the
QUITS THE NAVY. 37
comforts of being with a relation were counterbalanced by its necessary disadvantages.
The peace put an end to the South American expedition. The Salisbury went to Newfoundland^ but not under Sir John Jervis, who, for a time, retired into private life. Mr. Haldane made this voyage, but having no longer the promise of imme- diate promotion, returned in the ^olus frigate to Lisbon, and thence rejoined his uncle at Gosport.
All incitement to enterprise being thus withdrawn, he bade adieu to a service to which he was enthusiastically attached to the very last. Even to the end of his career, nearly sixty years after his retirement, it was interesting to observe how easily his youthful predilections seemed to revive when the British navy was the topic of conversation. To everything which concerned its efficiency, as an arm of national defence, or the moral welfare and comforts of sailors, his sympathies were always alive. He was never an egotist, and talked little of his own exploits, even to his nearest relations. But there were occasions when, in the * confidence of friendly intercourse, he might be drawn on to speak of his adventures at sea ; — how he had been on one occa- sion reproved by a lieutenant for taking the wheel from the helmsman, and how Sir John Jervis, ascertaining that it was in order to learn to steer, applauded his zeal, and issued orders that all the midshipmen should take their turn at the wheel ; how he was employed as the amanuensis of his captain ; or how, in his nucleus ship, when pursuing some French men-of-w^ar, the Monarch, outsailing the rest of the fleet, got into the midst of a convoy, but the discipline of the ship was such, that boats were let down on each side without swamping, filled with armed crews to take possession of the prizes, whilst the Monarch never slackened her speed, but, with studding-sails set, bore down on the flying ships of war.
When the subject of manning the navy was in 1840 so prominently brought before the public by Admiral Hawker, writing imder the signature of " A Flag Officer,^' he read and made notes on his pamphlets, and used to say that under- manning was the worst possible economy, and that Lord Duncan always denounced the system. He would also tell how, in hia^
38 INTEREST IN NAVAIi MATTERS.
own time, an economical order had been sent down from the Admiralty, to the eflfect that the line-of-battle ships should carry water-casks on deck to supply other vessels at sea; and how Ijord Duncan had indignantly declared, that whilst he obeyed the order as in duty bound, yet it was his intention to avail himself of his own discretion, as soon as he got to the back of the Isle of Wight, by staving every cask on the deck of the Monarch the moment he descried a strange sail. But there was nothing of this kind on which latterly he talked with greater interest than on the care which Lord Duncan took of the health and comfort of his men, and of his efforts to prevent the necessity of their being subjected to the constant wear and tear of keeping " watch and watch/' One of the chief evils of under- manning consisted, he thought, in the necessity thus imposed on the commander of constantly requiring his men to keep " watch and watch," even when drenched with wet, instead of allowing them alternately the opportunity of eight hours of ' repose. On this subject he spoke with much earnestness not long before his death. It was an indication of his natural bene- volence, and of his continued interest in a body of men amongst whom he had spent his early years.
In fact, his natural bent towards the navy was remarkable; and considering his energy and force of character, his foresight and powers of combination, together with that faculty of inspiring confidence which he eminently possessed, it is no matter of sur- prise that two of the greatest British Admirals under whom he served, should have concurred in the prediction that he would himself rise to reno^ni. His career was to be distinguished, but not in the way which attracts the admiration of the world. The blood-stained laurels of the conquering hero were not to encircle his brow, nor was he to merit and achieve stars, coronets, or ribbons. But as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, he was to fight the good fight of faith, — to wrestle with princi- palities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places, — and finally, finishing his course with joy, to lay hold of the crown of righteousness and the palm of victory, but only to cast them all before the throne of God and the Lamb.
Robert Haldane was only in his twentieth year when the
MAKES THB TOPE OP EOEOPE. 39
peace of 1783 brought his short but active and eventful career in the navy to a close. The real businesB of his useful life did not bcglD for twelve years afterwards, when his brother alao quitted the sea, with a mind impressed with the littleness of time and the magnitude of eternity.
He remained for some months at Gosport, enjoying the advan- tage of Dr. Bogue's society and tuition, and then proceeded to Edinburgh, where, during the ensuing session, he resumed his studies at the Umveiaity. The summer of 1784 he spent partly at Lundie House, and partly in a short tour to Paris and the Netherlands, accompanied by Dr. Bogue, who had also another young man under hia charge. In that eminent minister's private joomal, as published in his Life by Dr. Bennett, he says, " We spent a month in wandering through Prance and Flanders. It was not good for my soul." On his return home, Dr. B(^e adds, " I bless God that my lot is cast in a land of Gospel light, and adore him for the care of his providence over me in this expedition, and desire to live to his glory."
The winter of 1784-5 was again spent in attending the professors at Edinburgh, and in the spring he set out upon what used to be called "the grand tour." Embarking at Harwich, accompanied by a naval officer who had been with him in the Foudroyant, and soon afterwards became Admiral of the Turkish fleet, he passed through the principal cities of Holland and Germany to Vienna, where be remained for some time. Thence, crossing the Tyrolese Alps, he visited Venice and the chief cities in Northern Italy, Rome and Naples, returning home by Florence, Marseilles, Lyons, Switzerland, and Paris. He was naturally an acute and penetrating observer, a great admirer of scenery, particularly of mountains ; and the interest which be took in his travels was always manifest, whether he spoke of the Alps, the Pyrenees, or the Appenninea, or discoursed of the antiquities whi<^ he had examined at Nismes, at Lisbon, at Hercnlaneum, or at Borne.
On the 28th February, 1785, whilst he was abroad, he had attained his majority, and in the month of April in the following year, shortly after his retnm home, he married Katherine Coeh-
40 HIS MARRIAGE.
rane Oswald, then only in her eighteenth year, second daughter of the late George Oswald, Esq., of Scotstown, by his wife, the daughter of Mr. Smythe, of Methven, in Perthshire. Mrs. Haldane was the younger sister of the present Miss Oswald, of Scotstown, as well as of the late Richard Oswald, Esq., of Auchincruive, long M.P. for Ayrshire. The union was destined to prove long and happy. It lasted nearly fifty-seven years, and Mrs. Haldane was singularly adapted to be a true helpmeet in all his future plans, participating in his designs of usefulness^ aiding him by her prudent counsel and sympathy, and never intcq)0sing her own personal wishes or comforts as an obstacle to their accomplishment.
In September, 1786, they settled at his residence at Airthrey, near Stirling, and in the month of April, 1787, their daughter and only child was bom.
For nearly ten years after his marriage, his time was, in a great measure, occupied ^ith country pursuits, partly in improving his estates, and partly in ornamenting his pleasure- grounds, at a time when landscape-gardening was less common in Scotland, than it has become during the last fifty or sixty years. In these, as in other things to which he turned his energies, he was eminently successful, and those most acquainted with the subject were, in after-years, often glad to consult him on the best method of laying out grounds, overcoming natural difficulties, or transplanting trees. At Airthrey there were many fine old trees, chiefly beeches, elms, and limes, but in some places they had been planted at the beginning of the last century with too much formality. This he undertook to remedy, at a period when the practice of transplanting full-grown trees had scarcely been attempted in Scotland. His experiments in this way were generally successful, and at the time attracted so much wonder as to give rise to the absurd report amongst the people, that he was contemplating the removal of the old house to a preferable situation.*
• When the site of the Botanical Gardens of Edinburgh was changed, more than twenty years ago, Dr. Robert Graham, the Professor of Botany,
HIS OCCUPATIONS AT AIRTHREY. 41
The situation of Airthrey, on the last slope of the Ochill range of hills, is singularly picturesque. Water was the one thing wanting to complete its beauty. This want Mr. Haldane determined to remedy. Before he had been settled there six months he commenced the excavation of an artificial lake, covering thirty acres of old pasture land in the park, into which he conducted an abundant supply of water from the hills. He also erected, in 1791, a new house, in a castellated form, which was designed by Adam, father of the late Lord Chief Com- missioner, and the grandfather of Sir Charles and Sir Frederick Adam. Mr. Adam was the architect of the day, but his man- sions do not impress us with a high opinion of his taste or skill. Mr. Haldane also built a stone wall, extending four miles round the park, enlarged the gardens, conducted walks through the woods which cover the overhanging rocks and hills, and erected summer-houses on such elevated and commanding positions, as overlook the most picturesque views of the surrounding scenery. Eastward, the silver Forth, winding through one of the richest agricultural valleys in the world, seeks the far-off German Ocean, lingering in its progress through woods and rocks, villages, towers, and towns, whilst westward its source is hidden amidst the grandeur of the lofty Grampians. Stirling Castle, Craig Forth, the Abbey Craig, and other striking objects, with the ruins of Cambuskenneth, all so rich in historical recol- lections, lend a deeper moral interest to the varied magni- ficence of the scene, more especially when the glow of the setting sun gilds the purple mountains with its changing hues, and diffuses a softer radiance over the varied realms of natural beauty.
Amongst the erections in the woods of Airthrey, there was one which excited considerable interest, and existed for many years after Mr. Haldane left the place, but which has long ago
was indebted to Mr. Haldane, for much useful advice and assistance as to the transfer of a large number of forest trees, of various kinds and con- siderable dimensions, some of them from thirty to forty feet in height, which were removed from the old ground to the new, a distance of two miles or upwards. Dr. Graham was an old friend of Mr. H.
42 HERMITAGE AT AIRTIIREY.
tumbled into ruins. It was an hermitage^ constructed after the model of the woodland retreat to which Goldsmith^s Angehna is led by the " taper's hospitable ray/' and discovers her slighted lover^ who had sought for consolation in a hermit^s life away from the haunts of men. " The wicket opening with a latch/' " the rushy couch/' " the scrip with herbs and fruits supplied/' all the other sylvan articles of furniture described by the poet, were there, whilst on the sides of the adjacent rock, or within the hut itself, the lines of Goldsmith were painted at proper intervals, — the invitation to "the houseless child of want to accept the guiltless feast, and the blessing and repose,'^ concluding at last with the sentimental moral, —
« Then, pilgrim, turn, thy cares forego,— All earlh-bom cares are wrong, — Man wants but little here below. Nor wants that little long."
The erection of this hermitage had nearly cost Mr. Haldane his life, for, standing too near the edge of the rock on which it was placed, giving directions to the workmen, his foot slipped, and but for a post which he was enabled to grasp, would have been precipitated to the bottom. The celebrated Henry Erskine, with his usual ready wit, exclaimed, "It was a post for life!'' But not content with the erection of this ideal hermitage, Mr. Haldane, who in his younger days always delighted in a practical joke, advertised for a real hermit, specifying the conditions, which were to be in accordance with the beau-ideal of Goldsmith's, including the prohibition of animal food. But the restrictions did not prevent the author of the jest from being obhged to deal seriously with applications for the place, and one man, in parti- cular, professed himself ready to comply with all the conditions except one, which was that he should never leave the wood. To the doom of perpetual seclusion the would-be hermit could not make up his mind to submit, and the advertisement was not repeated.
Shortly after the construction of his beautiful lake, Mr. Haldane was again placed in imminent danger. It was winter, and, dui'ing the frost, there was a large party of visitors and
REPUTATION OF HIS ABILITIES. 43
others on the ice, enjoying the amusement of skating and curling. He was himself standing near a chair on which a lady had been seated, when the ice suddenly broke, and he was nearly carried under the surface. With his usual presence of mind he seized on the chair which supported him, and quietly gave directions to send for ropes, as a rash attempt to extricate him might have only involved others in the impending catas- trophe. Providentially there was help at hand, and by laying hold of the ropes brought by a gamekeeper and an old servant, he was happily extricated from his perilous position.
It is said, that before the time of Charles the Second, there was not one inclosed park in Scotland, and this fact may assist us in estimating the amount of improvement which has since been accomplished. By those who remember how many of the principal mansions and parks in Scotland are of modem date, or who consider what must have been their state at the period when Sir Walter Scott describes the old ch&teau of the Baron of Bradwardine, and down to the time of Dr. Johnson^s tour to the Hebrides, it may easily be supposed that Mr. Haldane's doings at Airthrey excited a great deal of interest in the country, and stirred up a disposition both to embellish and improve.
It was, moreover, impossible to be in his society without admiring his great abilities, his originality of thought, his vivacity, and general information. His superiority was never disputed, and he was reckoned a young man of rising character and great promise. The probability of his coming into Parlia- ment for the county was commonly spoken of, not only because of his own merits, but because, in those days of oligarchy in Scotland, his abilities and force of character seemed to be appreciated by the most influential men in the county, and particularly by the late Duke of Montrose, the Lord-Lieutenant, at whose residence both the brothers had been accustomed to visit from their boyhood, and who was himself an occasional guest at Airthrey. His near neighbour, the celebrated Sir Ralph Abercromby, who was always remarkable for his sagacity and quick discernment of character, used often to say, that he
44 SIR RALPH ABERCROMBy's OPINION.
never was in Mr. Haldane^s company without hearing something worth remembering.
In the winter of 1792-3, both Sir Ralph and Mr. Haldane being in Edinburgh, agreed to attend Dr. Hardy^s lectures on Church History, and as Mr. Haldane's house was then in Frederick-street, and Sir Ralph's at the west-end of Queen- street,* the General used every day for many months to call for Mr. Haldane, and walk with him across the bridges to the College, and return together.
It may be easily supposed that these daily meetings were long remembered. It was to enter on a course of foreign service, which continued ^dth httle intermission till his death at Alex- andria, that Sir Ralph Abercromby was called away from the peaceful and instructive lectures, to which both he and his young friend listened with so much interest.
But a new career was also about to open on Mr. Haldane, — a career in which he was not to command the applause of listening senates, or, like his gallant friend, " to close a life of honour by a death of glory,'' but a career in which all his talents^ all his energies, regenerated, renewed, and sanctified, were to be consecrated to the service of God, and the promotion of that kingdom for whose coming we are taught to pray.
• Connected with Sir Ralph Abercromby's house, in Queen-street, there is a recollection which marked the simplicity and benevolence of that great man's character. The Commander-in-chief in Scotland usually had two soldiers as sentinels before his door, but Sir Ralph declared that it was a " custom more honoured in the breach than in the observance," and, considering it to be a useless parade, he would not allow the men to be thus fatigued. The sentry-boxes therefore stood untenanted at his door during all the time he held his command. His boundless popularity as a general was due as much to his consideration for his men in their quarters as to his own conspicuous gallantry in the field.
CHAPTER III.
JAMES HALDANE*S LIFE AT SEA TILL HIS MARRIAGE AND RETIBEMENT— JOINS THE DUKE OP MONTROSE —EAST INDIA SHIPS— ANECDOTES— RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS— CONVIVIALITY OP THE TIMES— CALCUTTA— DUEL— ANEC- DOTES—THE CONTRAST— FOURTH VOYAGE— CAPTAIN OP THE MELVILLE CASTLE— MARRIAGE— SIR RALPH ABER- CROMBY— PROSPECTS— DETENTION OF THE INDIA FLEET —QUELLS THE MUTINY ON BOARD THE DUTTON— BEGINS TO STUDY THE BIBLE— QUITS THE MELVILLE CASTLE- DEATH OP HIS FATHER-IN-LAW— GOES TO EDINBURGH.
[1785—1795.]
Having sketched the history of Robert Haldane down to the year 1794^ it next becomes necessary to trace that of his brother down to the same period.
James Haldane was in his seventeenth year when he entered the service for which he had been destined from his infancy. For three generations the family had possessed the chief interest in one of the East India Company's " regular chartered ships/' the property of which was shared with other connexions or friends of the Gleneagles and Lundie families^ including Mr. Coutts, the banker^ and the Dundases of Amiston. At the time he went as midshipman in the Duke of Montrose, the command of the Melville Castle was held by Captain Philip Dundas, half-brother of the late Viscountess Duncan, and father of the Bight Honourable Robert. Adam Christopher, M.P., lately appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. But an arrangement provided, that as soon as James Haldane attained the age which qualified him for the command. Captain Dundas should retire. Before he sailed, an offer was made to his
46 SAILS IN THE DUKE OP MONTROSE*.
uncles, which, had it been accepted, would, humanly speaking, not only have insured a splendid fortune, but changed the current of his life. Mr. Coutts had been on terms of muck intimacy with his father, to whom it is said that the great banker reckoned himself to have been indebted, at a time when he was a junior in a house in St. Mary Axe, near Leadenhall-street, before he migrated westward to the Strand. Mr. Coutts, there- fore, oflFercd to take him into his bank, with a view to a share in the business, but added that he scarcely liked to recommend the experiment, as there would probably be more of drudgery than would suit a high-spirited young man with such prospects of his own. The tempting proposal was declined, and the circumstance is now only noticed as one of the incidents in a life, in which the guiding hand of an overruling Providence was uniformly con- spicuous. Mr. Coutts always continued to evince the same friendly feeling, and not long before his death told Mr. James Haldane that few things would confer on him more pleasure than to be of use to any of the family of his old friend.
The Duke of Montrose, East Indiaman, was bound on a voyage to Bombay and China. The commander was Captain Gray, a well-known oflBcer, who, many years afterwards, perished near Madagascar in the Blenheim, along with Sir Thomas Troubridge and a crew of six hundred men. The third officer, Mr. Patrick Gardiner, was the son of one of the tenants of Gleneagles, and had gone to sea imder the patronage of the family. He was reckoned a first-rate navigator and practical seaman, so that on every account it was a great advantage for the young midshipman to be under the care of one whose own personal interests were likely to conspire with kind feeling in his favour. This expecta- tion was not disappointed ; and the opportunity of quietly studying in Gardiner's cabin, as well as of receiving his practical instruc- tions, not only contributed to James Haldane's future skill in seamanship, but also to his proficiency in general knowledge.
The voyage was tedious, even in those days, when a great monopoly prevailed, and economy in time was of little conse- quence. The charge for freight in an East Indiaman then ranged as high as forty poimds sterling per ton, and upwards.
EAST INDIA SHIPS. 47
The same freight now ranges as low even as forty shillings. In like manner, the crew of an Indiaman varied from a mini- mum of 126 up to 180 men. That of the Duke of Montrose was 145 ; whilst little more than a third of that number would now be deemed adequate. The armament of the Com- pany's ships used to be on the same scale^ each carrying from twenty-six to thirty-six guns^ and in time of war sometimes suc- cessfully beating off^ or even capturing ships of war. Many of the captains, such as the Elphinstones, Lindsays, Ramsays, and Trenches, were the younger sons of the nobility. Some of them were baronets, most of them were either connected with the landed aristocracy or the great merchants, and all of them fre- quently indulged in expensive habits, which rendered them rather objects of jealousy to the juniors in the Royal Navy, who had not the same means of acquiring fortune. These matters are all so much changed since the alteration of the Company's charter in 1814, and the complete overthrow of the monopoly in 1834, that this notice of a splendid service now extinct may neither be wholly useless nor iminteresting.
In many respects, it might be said that James Haldane's con- duct on board the Montrose was highly exemplary. He resolutely set himself to master the details of his profession ; his attention to his duties attracted the approbation of his superiors ; and his seal and energy were always combined with good sense, intelli- gence, and skill. He had also been furnished with a valuable store of books, consisting of the most useful histories of ancient and modem times, besides a good selection of the poets, drama- tists, and writers on general literature. These books, which filled a large sea-chest, and afterwards occupied a considerable space in his Ubrary, were chosen by the discriminating taste of Dr. Bogue, of (josport, who also took care to add a few well- selected useful religious works, amongst which was Doddridge's ** Rise and Progress." It was often in after-Ufe matter of sur- prise, that a sailor should have been so well-read and well- informed. The fact was, that not only did he go to sea at a later period than usual, but he was always fond of reading, so thatj whilst ploughing the ocean or visiting distant regions, he
48 NARROW ESCAPE.
was also deep in history, biography, voyages, and travels, diver- sifying these pursuits ^ith the best of our poets, not omitting some of the French authors, and the most distinguished writers on Philosophy, Rhetoric, and Metaphysics.
It is on the 12th January, 1785, that the log of the Montrose begins. In one of his letters towards the close of his life, which recals early scenes, he observes that the ship came round to Portsmouth in March, when he spent a short time at Gosport, and sailed on the day after his cousin, the present Earl of Cam- perdown, was there bora.
In the course of this voyage several incidents occurred, calcu- lated to make a deep impression on his mind. On the 2d of June it was blowing very hard, and it became necessary to take in sail. For this purpose James Haldane was ordered to go aloft, with a party of men. Just as he was beginning to mount the rigging, Captain Gray called out to him to stop, and ordered an able seaman to go first. The log notices that, in taking in the main top-sail, '' James Duncan fell from the yard, and was unfortimately drowned.'^ He was struck on the head, and knocked overboard. Young Haldane was immediately behind, and had he been first, would doubtless have found a watery grave. He saw the drowning seaman amidst the billows, and never forgot the anxious look which eagerly sought, but sought in vain, for succour. He used also to mention that this sailor was the only man, in the whole course of his experience at sea, of whom he ever heard or knew anything which indicated the possession of a vital acquaintance with true Christianity. It was the general remark that it would be well if all on board were as fully prepared for death as James Duncan. On the 6th August the ship arrived at Bombay, where it remained more than two months, and he was much on shore with the late Mr. Crawford Bruce, who had come out in the Montrose as a passenger, as well as with the Hon. William Fullarton Elphinstone, then the captain of an Indiaman, but afterwards a director and chairman of the Company.
Exactly a year from the date of their arrival at Bombay, they reached Macao, in China ; and after remaining there four months.
€t it t( (t
(t
it it
MALAYS. 49
the Montrose proceeded homewards, and arrived at Deptford on the 16th June, 1787.
It may here be proper to introduce the continuation of Mr. J. Haldane's interesting manuscript ^ already quoted, intituled, '' Dealings of God with my Soul."
" After going to sea, I went on much in the same way for '^ about a twelvemonth, having no more fear of God than others " aroimd me, excepting that I abstained from taking His name in vain, and that I read my Bible on the Sabbath, and still used a form of prayer. During that voyage, which lasted above two years, I just recollect one occasion on which my prayers deserved the name. A man had been murdered, '' another severely wounded, by some savages on an island '' (North Island, near Bantam), and as I had been the last who " had been with them, before it happened, I considered my preservation as an instance of God's care of me, and with some gratitude I gave him thanks. Indeed, I had cause. For some hours before it happened, attracted by curiosity, I '' went alone into the woods, on purpose to converse with the '' same people who soon afterwards committed the murder. " They had been aU day about us, while getting water for the ship. I came to their fire, but they were not there, or probably I had returned no more. During the same voyage ^' I fell overboard from a boat. As I could not swim, I thought I should have been drowned, but was so hardened, that, although I recollect what passed in my mind while in the water, I never considered the consequences of death. Pro- videntially I had an oar in my hand when I fell from the boat, but remembering that an old sailor had told me that no one need be drowned who could keep hold of an oar, this proved the means of my preservation. Some other things occurred, which might have struck me, but my conscience was becoming seared, as with a hot iron. On my return I never thought of going to church in London, because they '* had not the same form of worship there as in Scotland. This '' shows how easily the mind finds an excuse for a neglect of ^' duty. My conscience, even at that time, would have testified
E
€t €t
it it t€ it €t it it tt €t it
50 RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS.
t<
€€ €€ €€ t( t( €€ €( t€ t€ <€ €t t€ it it
against me^ had I stayed away from public worship in Scot* land, yet the difference of form in England easily silenced its rebuke. I now began more fully to surrender myself to what is called a life of pleasure, yet however incon- sistent, I still had sometimes a form of prayer, but this became gradually less frequent. Indeed, it was wholly given up in the morning, and often at night I fell asleep in the midst of this duty, while pleasing myself with the thought, that such prayers might be of some avail. When I felt any check of conscience, I satisfied myself with thinking, that I was at least as good as any in the ship in which I sailed; that probably no one else even made a form of prayer, and thus that the balance was in my favour, and I thought, Surely God would never cast so many into misery. On my first voyage I was brought under more than common concern, by 'Dod- " dridge's Rise and Progress,' which I read, like some other reli- gious books, as a task. I found I was not right, and resolved to begin to amend, but my resolution was like the morning cloud and early dew. I now quieted my conscience with '' the consideration that I wronged no one, and therefore could " not be very criminal. The Lord laid his hand on me during '' one voyage, and I was supposed by all to be dying. I " thought so myself, but was at that time perfectly hardened, " and sometimes considered how I should talk to those aroimd '^ me, when dying, determined, although I might feel it, I would show no unmanly signs of fear. The Lord however restored me, and preserved me from other dangers in which I had plunged myself by my folly, and all the return I made " was to harden myself in my rebellion.'*
The allusions in the above memorandum to his further depar- tures from God, have particular reference to his future voyages, and to the life of pleasure which he afterwards led both in Calcutta and in London. His second voyage was in the Phoenix, also commanded by Captain Gray, his friend Gardner being chief officer, and himself fifth. During its continuance he spent nearly six months on shore at Calcutta, at a time when the state of society in that great city was such that it would have required
it
it €€
CALCUTTA. 51
the power of the highest principle to have escaped its seductions. 'Hiere were also peculiar circumstances which rendered his posi- tion in this respect more difficult. There was at Calcutta a friend and relation high in the service^ and expending a great income^ who welcomed him with the most affectionate hospitality^ and loaded him with kindness. Mr. John Haldane^ with his younger brother^ the late General Robert Haldane^ were the sons of a deceased relative^ who held an office in the Excise in London^ and had been originally nominated one of the executors of Captain James Haldane's will. Mr. John Haldane Uved in splendour^ having a great establishment in Calcutta^ and another at Garden Reach^ which^ from its luxurious magnificence and the number of lustres with which it was adorned^ used to be jocularly called '^the illustrious house of Haldane.'^ Living with him and introduced to all the gaiety of Calcutta^ James Haldane's life was at this time one constant round of excitement and fashionable dissipation. His society was muoh sought after^ and he derived some Mat from the attentions he received from the Marquis of Comwallis^ at whose residence he was a frequent visitor^ and by whom he was noticed^ as a well-informed^ agree- able^ and superior young man. On his leaving Calcutta^ a most splendid entertainment was given to him by his friends^ which was attended by the principal civil and military officers^ and his return as Captain of the Melville Castle was anticipated as an accession to their social gaiety. The convivial habits of the times were at that period sufficiently bad in England. In the climate of India they were hardly tolerable^ and instead of wondering at the mortality which then prevailed^ it is only marvellous that it was not greater. As an example of the state of society, it is said that a little before the time of which we are speaking, Mr. John Haldane being persuaded that he had amassed a sufficient fortime, had resolved to return home, but the ship in which he had taken his passage having been wrecked at the mouth of the Ganges, he was received with some other passengers into the house of a gentleman in the neigh- bourhood. After supper they sat down to cards and played so high, that, before morning, Mr. John Haldane,being a great
£ 2
52 THIRD VOYAGE.
loser^ determined to return to Calcutta, which he never left, except in the discharge of his public duties, till his death in 1803. After James Haldane's eyes were opened to the folly of that giddy round of pleasure, in which he had been himself involved, he wrote repeatedly and most aflFectionately to his friend, at Calcutta, setting the truth before him, and earnestly intreating him to remember that life was too short even for such follies as the world deems innocent. The celebrated Dr. Carey, in a letter, dated 27th of September, 1804, thus writes: —
" I am favoured with yours of January 4th, of the present year, for which I return you my hearty thanks. I trust that every expression of that regard which is borne to the cause in which I am embarked, has an effect upon my spirit of a salutary nature.
** I am sorr)' to say, that John llaldane, Esq., departed this life about two months before I received yours. I delivered the letter and parcel to Kev. Claudius Buchanan, who undertook to communicate the same to the gentleman who has the disposal of Mr. H. s affairs, who, I understand*, is — Forsyth, Esq*
" Your intention of coming to this country engaged my heart in love to you, though I am now convinced that the Lord has abomided in goodness to you by preventing your taking that step."
Mr. James Haldane made in all foiu* voyages to India and China, and in the fourth, which lasted fifteen months, as second officer in his old ship, the Duke of Montrose. A circumstance occurred in connexion with his third voyage, which, for the time, made an impression on his mind, and led him to think of an overruling Providence. Through the late Sir Robert Preston, a contemporary of his father's, who had himself laid the foundation of his great fortune as an East India captain, he unexpectedly received an appointment as third officer of the Foulis Indiaman. Owing to some inevitable circumstances he was detained in Scotland, and not having been fully informed of the urgency of the case, he found to his surprise and mortifica- tion, on his arrival in London, that the Foulis had sailed, and his place had been filled up. He was immediately nominated third officer of the Hillsborough, under Captain Coxwell ; but the loss of the first appointment was, on several accounts, very mortifying, and occasioned at the time much vexation. He
PROVIDENTIAL ESCAPE. 53
little thought of the guardian ann that was aroimd^ the child of many prayers. The Foulis was never again heard of, and is supposed to have foundered or been burned at sea.
There was another occasion on which he ran some voluntary risk of a di£Ferent kind, in consequence of the shortness of the time which had been allowed for his outfit. The ship was in the Downs, and having stayed in London till what he considered the last safe moment, he posted down to Deal with great rapidity, and arrived in the middle of the night. There was a gale of wind, occasioning great difficulty and no little danger in the way of getting on board, but a high bribe soon tempted the daring boatmen of Deal to take him alongside his ship. It was his object to report himself as present to the Company's officer, specially appointed for that purpose. It was found that he had already sent off his report, notifying Mr. Haldane's absence. The official was called up, and requested to despatch another letter intimating the arrival. By no means in good humour at the imtimely disturbance the man on duty peremp- torily refused, but at last, after some altercation, admitted that it might be proper to make the announcement, if there were any means of doing so. But in those days there were no electric telegraphs, the mail was gone, and the night was most tem- pestuous. The young officer urged that he would himself be responsible for the safe conveyance of the despatch, and in the sequel carried it on shore, and posting up to London delivered it at the India House, and again returned with equal rapidity to the Downs. It may be noted as characteristic of the India service, that it was then unusual for an officer of any East India ship to travel with less than four horses.
When appointed to the Duke of Montrose, in 1792, he was in his twenty-fourth year. A skilful navigator, a good seaman, and as an officer distinguished alike for his firmness and suavity, he was looked up to by his companions as a fortunate young man, of superior talents, attainments, and prospects. The chief officer, Mr. Charles Dundas, was in bad health, and the Captain, although a man of worth and respectability, had not much confidence in himself, so that, in a certain sense, the
54 ESCAPE FROM SHirVVRECK.
command of the ship substantially depended on Mr. J. A. Haldane. In every emergency of difficulty or of danger^ it was to his dauntless resolution and experienced seamanship that all eyes were turned. The Captain himself acknowledged that, when it blew hard at night, or the navigation was difficult, he never slept with comfort unless he knew that James Ilaldane was on deck, and when the voyage terminated he testified his sense of these services by the presentation of a costly collection of charts, as a grateful acknowledgment. On one occa- sion it happened, as appears by the log, that on the 12th of June, 1792, the ship had nearly struck on the rocks in the Mozambique Channel, under circumstances similar to those which, about the same time and in the same seas, occasioned the loss of the Winterton, with a great part of the crew, including its commander. Captain Dundas of Dundas.* The promptitude and decision of James Haldane saved the Mon* trose from a hke catastrophe. It was soon after midnight, or very early in the morning, when a passenger^ walking upon deck, became alarmed at some convei-sation amongst the older seamen, which he overheard. He instantly went to Mr. Haldanc^s cabin, and awakening him from sleep, told him of his fears, and brought him immediately upon deck. The officer of the watch apprehended no danger, but the Captain having been called by Mr. Haldane's order, and the lead heaved, it appeared that, instead of being out of soundings, the depth was only nine fathoms. The Captain was imdecided, when Mr. HaJdane, considering that there was no time for further parley, put a speaking trumpet to his lips, and the cry, "Every soul upon deck this instant,'^ sent alarm through the whole ship, and in a moment brought the men from their hammocks. To put the ship about was the work of a few minutes, and this was scarcely accomplished, before the shout, from the main-top, "Breakers ahead,'^ warned them of the imminence of their danger, and it was discovered that another quarter of an hour^s saihng in the
• An interesting account of the loss of the Winterton was some years ago published by Qeorge Buchan, Esq., of Kelloe, who was one of the passengers, and an attach^ to Sir George Staunton's embassy.
CONVIVIAL HABITS OP THE TIMES. 55
same directioD^ would have probably left the Montrose a wreck on " the Barren islands/'
The Montrose arrived at Deptford on the 19th June^ 1793. The commencement of the war with France had been announced before the ship reached St. Helena^ and from that island a large fleet of Indiamen were in company under convoy. This circumstance occasioned a frequent interchange of hospitaUty between the officers of the different ships^ and in those days of convivial excess the result was anything but favourable to habits of sobriety. Happily James Haldane was never^ even in his early days^ inclined to exceed the boimds of temperance. He was^ on the contrary^ naturally rather abstemious: but, for a young man fcHid of society^ full of life and spirit, it was almost impossible to escape without sometimes being carried away by the stream. In fact, it was considered a reproach to the hospi- tality of any ship which sent a party away sober. When the Duke of Wellington went to India, as Colonel Wesley, the same practices prevailed. But we have lived to see the time when such degrading scenes are deemed low and immoral, when a young man is not inevitably shut up to insobriety, unless he chooses to make himself peculiar, and when religion and virtue are no longer treated only as objects of ridicule.
It was, however, upon one of those occasions that James Haldane, on returning to his own ship, very narrowly escaped faUing down the hatchway, which must have proved certaiii death. He was only slightly injured, and his preservation was almost miraculous, but the circumstance awakened serious thoughts, and made a lasting impression on his mind. To him it was at the time the more mortifying, as the captain, who was himself reckoned rather an austere man, had previously been kindly cautioning him against these convivial meetings, telling him that the inebriety to which they were sure to lead might be well enough for some others, but in one of his superior mind, and with his resources, was altogether unworthy and unpardonable.
It might seem, perhaps, scarcely necessary to allude to such things, except to show the greatness of the change afterwards
5G DUEL.
wrought on his moral character by the grace of God. But, for the same reason, it may be necessary to mention a duel in which he was involved on his voyage from India in the Hills* boraugh. The facts are chiefly derived from the information of his own second and that of two of his brother officers. The ship was crowded with passengers; amongst these there was a cavalry officer, who was returning home, — a notorious shot, a successful duellist, and much of a bully. It after- wards appeared that he had been forced to leave the King's service, in consequence of his quarrelsome temper and aptitude for such brawls. In the course of the voyage he made himself veiy disagreeable, and was rather an object of dread. On one occasion some high words occurred between him and Mr. James Haldane, arising out of a proposal to make the latter a party to a paltry trick, designed to provoke an irritable invalid as he lay in his cot with his door open, and was, in fact, actually dying. Mr. J. Haldane's indignant refusal issued in this captain's taking an opportunity deliberately and publicly to insult him at the mess-table, when, in return for a somewhat contemptuous retort, the aggressor threw a glass of wine in Mr. Haldane's face. He little knew the spirit which he evoked. To rise from his seat and dash at the head of the assailant a heavy ship's tumbler was the work of an instant. Providentially the missile was pitched too high, pulverized against the beam of the cabin^ and descended in a liquid shower upon the offending dragoon. A challenge ensued, and Mr. J. Haldane consulted with a friend as to the ])ropriety of accepting it. That the challenger was under a cloud with his own regiment was certain, although the particulars were unknown, and it was decided that it was optional to accept or decline the cartel. But, as the matter was then doubtful, it was ruled that, in obedience to the code of honour, it was safer to give the captain the benefit of the doubt ; and he was himself the more clear on the point, as the reputation of the challenger as a shot might probably be regarded as having influenced a refusal.
The preliminaries being arranged, it was agreed that they should meet at the Cape of Good Hope ; but the captain of the
DUEL. 57
^^ •
ship suspecting mischief^ refused leave to land. The meeting was accordingly postponed till they arrived at St. Helena, when they all went ashore, unobserved, very early in the morning. The night before James Haldane made his will, wrote a letter of farewell to his brother, in the event of his death, and then went to bed, and slept so soundly that he did not awake till he was called. It happened that, owing to the apprehension of being observed and detained, the duellists had only one case of pistols, which belonged to Mr. Haldane^s second, a naval officer of some distinction, afterwards better known, during the war, as Admiral Donald Campbell, who commanded the Portuguese fleet, and also enjoyed a pension for services rendered to Lord St. Vincent and Lord Nelson. The two antagonists were placed at twelve paces distant, and were to fire together and by signal. Before the pistol was given into Mr. J. Haldane^s hand, his second, in a low tone, repeated what he had before told him, that this was a case in which he must have no scruple about shooting his challenger; that it was not a common duel, but a case of self- preservation, and that one or the other must fall. The signal was given, and, as Mr. J. Haldane raised his pistol, with strange inconsistency he breathed the secret prayer, — ^' Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit ;^^ thus verifying the observation of TertuUian, that in moments of imminent danger men involun- tarily call upon God, acknowledging his presence and his provi- dence, even when they seem practically to forget his existence and trample on his laws. With this prayer in his heart, and, as Admiral Campbell testified, with his eye fixed on his antagonist, without a symptom of trepidation, he calmly drew the trigger^ when his pistol burst, the contents flying upwards and a frag- ment of the ban*el inflicting a wound on his face. The other pistol missed fire, and the challenger immediately intimated, through his second, that he was so well satisfied with the honourable conduct of Mr. Haldane, that he was willing that the afiair should terminate. This message was accepted as sufficient. Bowing to each other, they parted with civility, but, as might be anticipated, without reconciliation. To such matters
t . .J"* Jlfc«*a«
Jlli
am |f iim ^^usairi. li^r lomc Js m ii»
— a
ziKTinfirit^L "uac lutinr 12. '*:i'SE«' tdts 'ai» oikL Mr. liBBa Hal- ttuiK j2inoK3it:L Ti IK c 3irjtn. jl zui jaaiat yaeat at one cf
"r%. ^. r.iiiranif "vift *ini-r mi. ieksiicl «b ker accomt.
«r.& Z7»ac ru^eciea* TnTirtfaner T^wcaieii £. Mr. J. H«Mm» «Ml, "^ Tfti^Tit TM a ^:i2P.^ Str, na I mmd baiv zvsKnicd tkk &i&p^:ft»£.#7.«3Ky M2£ I faa.Te szot ksiSBed ca fanm mjiaria and
At t^i#; (««rfv^ fA vliidi ve vixte, ^ afEun of bonowv^ aa thej uff. uttJ^^uikil, tr#;rfc fif frequent oonimence, and dicMC who chooe Ut liv^ iiwUf th*: tyranny of the world fdt h freqnentlT impoa> Mflilr t/f i!«#»i|i«;« Inrk«d| from his ardent tempeiament and n\iintmi \triHU^H\ iutiinnfif, it is perhaps matter of snrpiiaey oon- fliili riti|/ t.li(r H|iirii of the times^ that such a Toong man was (ml iiHrtirr iltii« involved. It has been said by his eontem- |iiititf MMi lliut tliiH WHN imrtly owing to the fact that his known ililrtMihiMlKHi UMiiilly Hhielded him from provocation, and |iiiillv lliiil Inti imiiirnl (tiii|)OHition being amiable, the q>irit s^\\\\^\ HMiilil not limnk n\\ iuNult was equally averse to offer |mmumi(IImii In lliriiiHrlvi% duelling and personal quarrels ^M'H* «liliMiM»hl Im l»N imhuv, aad, more than once, whoi his i.ti M|H'M4Mo»» H« « *»»*MUhl wuM ivqucntod, he was the means of \\\\M\s^\ Mr*»n»'OmUMU wiUhua blmHUhi'd. In one of these \ „ « U^\\\ \^^ 1^*^ M^U^uli^l Mlwnvuta had requested to be ^\lx\\\\\ »^* i*^'***' *^**^** '*^'*^^'"* *" '*^* '*^"^'*' '^^ refusing to act *' ,^»^.v \^»l^^^ ^^» ^^^ ^*^Um>^»»>»I >^^^ ^^»* enabled to arrange ttc
»-^'", ,A, ,. V v>.- v.^s ^,,^.h«vv*«tum«u«, under
ANECDOTE. 59
the title of a Baronetcy^ which he had assumed^ without legal authority^ on the ground of collateral descent. This colonel had fought more duels than most men^ and was equally expert at his pistol or his rapier. He had frequently woimded^ and^ at leasts in one affair^ killed his antagonist. Sitting in a large party at a dinner-table^ after the ladies had withdrawn^ at the house of his brother-in-law, in the neighbourhood of Stirling, the belligerent colonel engaged in a trifling dispute with an elderly and much respected gentleman, at whose head he finally levelled a decanter. This act of violence had been preceded by a torrent of abuse which moved the indignation of the whole company, although every one, including their host himself, seemed para- lyzed. Scarcely had the decanter sped its way, when, at the same moment, the colonePs own collar was seized by the mus- cular arm of a young man sitting by his side, and he himself and his chair were suddenly projected into the middle of the room. Kising from the ground, his paroxysm of rage now sought another object of attack, but he was so calmly confronted by the steady eye and determined bearing of James Haldane, whose character was well known to him, that he involuntarily and obviously cooled. He contented himself by hastily demanding the meaning of this imcalled-for interference in a quarrel that was not his, and being briefly but emphatically told that it was to prevent violence in his company, the irate duellist once more turned his reproaches on the original object of his ungovernable fury, and with great skill adopting the words of the unwelcome pacificator as a satisfactory explanation, walked out of the room, exclaiming, " As for my friend, Captain Haldane, his object was only to prevent violence/' The gentleman who had been so rudely insulted was himself an old colonel, and at first considered that he was obliged ^'to demand satisfaction,^^ but the two brothers went to his house the next day and succeeded in convincing him that he was absolved by the subsequent rencontre from any such obligation. So far as the aggressor was himself concerned, it seemed as if a spell had been broken; the terror which was connected with his name was dissipated. He shortly afterwards went abroad, and never again returned to reside in Scotland.
60 ANECDOTE,
It will be seen^ in a future part of these M^moirs^ with what power and effect Mr. J. Haldane assailed the practice of duelling. There is no doubt that the attention he then excited^ and the crowds who came to hear him when^ in 1804^ he preached on the death of Lord Camelford^ were partly due to the knowledge of the fact^ that he himself had been a votary of the so-called laws of honour^ and had been seen to brave the wrath of one of the most notorious duelUsts of his time.
A little before the occurrence just related, there was another, which had attracted some notice in the county. It happened that a warrant had been issued for the apprehension of a tenant on the Airthrey estate, who was a very desperate character, and had committed an act of swindUng, accompanied by forgery. When the officers went to apprehend him they were severely beaten, and came to the house of Airthrey in the evening to report the result and sohcit additional aid, as well as the authority of Mr. Haldane^s presence. Both he and his brother accordingly went, taking with them some of the servants. On arriving at the house of the culprit, at the mill near the Bridge of Allan, or the modem village of Airthrey Wells, they found the doors and windows barricaded, and the man, with his dogs and some of his sons and servants, armed with guns and bludgeons, threatening death to any one who dared to break in. The officers were themselves alarmed, but neither of the two gentlemen whose aid they had claimed chose to be thus ignominiously repulsed. WTiilst considering how to proceed, Mr. Haldane, with characteristic generalship, walked round the premises, and suddenly called out to his brother that there was an unguarded window, which had been overlooked by the besieged in their plans of defence. James Haldane, with determination equally characteristic, no sooner heard the announcement than he sprung through the window, which dropped behind him, just as the men and dogs, attracted by the noise, were hurrying to the point of attack. Pausing for a moment to produce his pistols, looking his intended assailants steadily in the face, warning them as to the consequences of assailing him in discharge of his duty, he coolly walked to th^
ANECDOTE OP MR. PITT. CI
front door^ which he unlocked^ and then left the peace officers to remove their prisoner. The culprit was convicted^ and sen- tenced either to transportation or imprisonment.
The change of social habits since the last generation passed away^ is a fit subject of congratulation and thankfulness. In the higher ranks of society the vices of drinking^ swearings and duelling, are now nearly as vulgar as they were once fashion- able. Three centuries ago swearing was so common, that a chaplain, preaching the funeral sermon of a titled lady of the noble house of Berkeley, belonging to the Court of Queen Elizabeth, mentions it as a proof of her virtue, that she was never heard to use a profane oath. Within a much shorter period than sixty years ago it was difficult for any young man who did not affect singularity to escape from the contamination of that convivial intemperance which disgraced the age. It was not every one who could act like Dr. Johnson, who, unable to resist the temptation, at last substituted lemonade for wine, so as to enjoy social intercourse and yet avoid excess. Even Mr. Pitt could enter the House of Commons so much intoxicated, that Mr. Fox, who could well sympathize with the indiscretion, moved an adjournment; and, as connected with these Memoirs, it is rather a curious circumstance that this historical fact occiirred after the great Premier, in company with his friend Mr. Dundas, had been dining at Deptford, on board the Melville Castle, with Captain Philip Dundas, shortly before Captain Haldane assumed the command. It is not wonderful that profane swearing and duelling should be connected with deep potations, and that â–¼ices should have been fashionable in the last generation which would now be reckoned vidgar and discreditable. The pious Colonel Blackadder, in his remarkable diary, which includes the wars of Marlborough, bewails an occasion when he had himself, in his old age, been betrayed into intemperance, and even per- aons having a reputation for religion were known to be not wholly exempt from the habit of infringing on the third com- mandment.
If such topics have been glanced at in connexion with Captain Haldane's early life, it is for the purpose of furnishing a just
02 THE CONTRAST.
representation of the character which he had by nature^ but which was changed by grace. In reading these incidents, who would believe that this is the same person of whom Mr. Simeon not many years afterwards writes: "The Lord has fiavonred you with a meek and spiritual mind?'' The gentleness and benevolence of his character seemed to grow as he advanced in age, even to the last.
His elder brother, a short time before his own death, during a wcll-remcmbeiH;d and most agreeable walk at Auchingray, was relating some of the facts which have been just recorded, and finished his interesting details by saying, " See, then, the power of grace.''
There was a time when few seemed to be more "stout- hearted and far from righteousness," — when the dread of the world was the only fear which seemed to influence his actions, and God was not in all his thoughts. But neither the world, the flesh, nor the devil, were destined long to retain their prey. He was " a chosen vessel," ordained to be himself a monimient of Divine mercy, and an instrument to convey that mercy to others. His whole nature was to undergo renovation. The good seed, still lodged in his breast, was soon to burst forth and produce its glorious fruits. The proud heart which would not bend before his fellows, or before the world itself, was to become broken under a melting sense of the Saviour's love. That lofty spirit which would not quail even at the approach of death, and which could not brook a word or a look that menaced it with insult, was to abandon its stubborn rebellion and become lowly, humble, and contrite before the Lord. His energies, his courage, his determination^ were indeed to remain, but these energies, that courage, that determination, were to be directed into a nobler channel. They were to be consecrated to the service of another and a better Master. They were to be no longer the attributes of a haughty rebel, but a part of the glorious panoply of the Christian hero, the devoted, self-denying, faithful champion of the cross.
HIS MARRIAGE. 63
Mr. James Haldane^s. fourth voyage in the Duke of Mon- trose ended on the 19th June, 1793. In less than a month he attained the age of twenty-five, and having passed the necessary examinations, he was pronounced fully qualified to command an Indiaman. Shortly afterwards he was nominated to the Melville Castle, hound to Madras and Calcutta, and the ship was ordered to he in the Downs at the beginning of the following January. But before the time arrived he had taken another step, which exerted an important influence on his future life.
Soon after he went down to Scotland, he met at Airthrey a young lady, to whom he was married on the 18th of September following. She was the only child of Major Alex- ander Joass, of Culleonard, in the county of Banff, by Eliza- beth Abercromby, second daughter of George Abercromby, of Tulliebody, in the county of Clackmannan. Major Joass, through his grandmother, the daughter of George, the second Lord Banff, was the heir general of the fourth Baron, who died without issue. In early life he had served in the Royals, with his brother-in-law. Colonel Edmonstone, of Newton, but having been disabled for active service by rheu- matic fever, he accepted the appointment of Fort Major and Acting Deputy-Governor of Stirling Castle, which was conferred by his uncle, General James Abercromby, of Glassaugh. This office placed him, with very easy duties, in an agreeable resi- dence, in the centre of his own friends and his wife's, where, for thirty years, although much of an invalid, he made the old palace at Stirling Castle famed for its hospitality. Major Joass, having no male issue, had sold his paternal estate of Culleonard, near Banff, to the Earl of Findlater and Seafield, some years before the great rise which took place in the value of land in Scotland. His only daughter was a general favourite, and such was the charm of her vivacity and the sweetness of her disposition, that it was naturally expected she should make what is called ''a good marriage.^' It is not, therefore, matter of surprise that there should have been some hesitation as to the proposed union of an only child with a younger son, whose prospects were, indeed, excellent, but whose fortune was still to
64 SIR RALPH ABERCROMBY.
come from the ocean and from foreign climes. Difficulties^ however, gave way before strong attachment, aided by the affec- tionate zeal of Mr. Robert Haldane, who was anxious that there should be a new attraction to help on the arrangement by which he hoped to detain his brother at home.
Sir Ralph Abercromby, then on foreign service with the Duke of York in France, also expressed his approval ; and the follow- ing letter, written in the heat of a busy campaign, is at once interesting as coming from so distinguished a General^ and as indicating the good sense of his manly character.
" Lieut. 'General Ralph Abercromby to Major Joass,
" Camp before Dunkirk, August 27, 1793.
"My DEAR Major, — You may easily conceive that, in a matter in which your family is so nearly concerned, an old friend and near relation cannot but be interested. If your daughter likes Mr. Haldane, which is the case, there is no diffi- cidty. They have and will have abundance. He is a young man in a profession which will command fortune ; and allow me to say, it is a better match for real happiness than if ' Miss Joass' had married an idle country gentleman, let his character be what it may. I warmly congratulate you on this event ; and from the good principles of the family into which your daughter goes, I have no doubt of her happiness.
" We are now preparing for the siege of Dunkirk. I hope it will be of shorter duration than that of Valenciennes. That of Bergens will follow, so that we shall have no idleness. I keep my health wonderfully well. Sir Robert Laurie is here with us. He begs his compliments. I am sorry it has not been in my power to pay as much attention to several young gentlemen from our country as I could wish. Young Duff is a fine lad ; so is young Shawfield. My love to you all.
" Ever yours, affectionately,
"Rh. At.'^
Shortly after their marriage. Captain and Mrs. James Haldane repaired to London, where, for some months, they resided in
ANECDOTE. 65
Sackville-street, Piccadilly. Between the bustle of preparing for the voyage and the gaieties of the metropolis, there was not much opportunity for serious thought. Mrs. James Haldane had been well brought up, and had also been accustomed to the excellent ministry of Mr. Simeon's friend. Dr. Walter Buchanan, and more recently to that of Dr. Innes. She was, therefore, a good deal shocked at the disregard of the Lord's-day, and the aban- donment of public worship. It is a striking thought, that her husband was then borrowing the arguments he had learned from Dr. Macknight on his tour with Dr. Adam, as to the difference between neglecting these duties in Scotland and in England, addijig, at the same time, that it was much easier to get to heaven than she imagined. Such arguments are not, it is to be feared, out of date, in the present age, but they were formerly much more common. In illustration of this, Mr. James Haldane used himself to tell of a scene to which he was witness, at the house of a noble Earl in the north of Scotland. It happened that a celebrated and somewhat eccentric Duchess arrived rather unexpectedly on a Sunday. Out of compliment to her Grace and her London habits, she was offered in the evening the amusement of cards. This improper compliance was contrary to the usages of the family ; and her instant and emphatic reply, '' Not on this side of the Tweed, my Lord,'' whilst it rebuked the complaisance of her noble host, almost implied that she felt ashamed of the proposal.
The preparations for the voyage were completed before the end of December, including the arrangements for Mrs. J. Haldane's return and safe convoy to Scotland. Their separation was the only dark spot in the horizon, as all things seemed to smile on a bright future. They had met with kindness from all their family connexions and friends in London, including Mr. Secretary and Lady Jane Dundas. Captain Haldane also visited that distinguished Minister at Walmer Castle, and redbived from him the hearty and unsoUcited assurance of his support and interest. Mr. Hobart, afterwards Earl of Buckinghamshire, was then going out as Governor of Madras, and he informed Mr. Coutts, the banker, that he had been requested by the President
66 PROSPECTS.
of the Board of Control to regard Captain Haldane as one in whom he took a personal interest. The fact of his wife's unele^ Sir Robert Abercromby, having been Governor and Commander-in- chief at Bombay, and being then at the head of the whole Indian army, was another circumstance in his favour, whilst above all, his own reputation was sure to give full effect to all his family and personal influence. As the value of a command greatly depended upon the number and quality of the passengers returning home, it may be easily supposed that few of his contemporaries took leave of the East India House with brighter prospects.
The Melville Castle had been manned with unusual rapidity, the popularity of the captain rendering employment in thai ship an object of competition with seamen. It arrived at Portsmouth on the 31st of December, 1793, and it was expected that the East India fleet, consisting of no less than twenty-five ships, would shortly sail under a strong convoy. But after all was ready, there were various circumstances which combined for their detention. In the first place, the Government then entertained a plan for availing themselves of the Indiamcn to reduce the Mauritius ; and in the next place, there was a continuance of westerly winds for such an unusual period, that the fleet, which should have sailed in January, did not weigh anchor till the month of May. Upon these contingencies was suspended the future history of Captain Haldane's life.
But before relating, chiefly from his own notes, the revolution which took place in his religious state, it may be proper to recount a circumstance which occurred at this time, strongly illustrating the same force of character and dauntless energy which always marked his career. The part he took in quelling the mutiny on board the Dutton has now become "a history little known. '* For many years it was remembered by all con- nected with the great East India fleet, finally amounting to thirty- six ships, which were then collected at Portsmouth. The following account was kindly furnished by the Rev. Christopher Anderson, not long before he rested from his useful labours. His brother was a surgeon on board the Dutton, and kept a journal, in which the facts were noted. There are a few other incidents which were
MUTINY OP THE BUTTON. 07
gleaned from Mr. Ualdanc's own conversation, but they were in full accordance with Dr. Anderson's narrative, and add but slightly to his vivid description of the scene.
At the close of 1793, a large East India fleet was detained, from various causes, in the Downs and at Spithead, from Christmas to April following. A mutinous disposition was detected in three or four men on board the Dutton, Captain Samson, in December; but the captain, with his officers, after consultation, released those men from confinement, on promise of good beha- viour. On the Slst, the Melville Castle and two other East Indiamen anchored at Spithead. The Camatic and many others followed, till they came to be styled ' the grand fleet.' By the 19th March, however, in paying off certain men at Portsmouth from the Dutton, such a spirit was shown as made it necessary for the Captain to apply for assistance to his Majesty's ship the Regulus.* On the evening of the 19th, Lieutenant Lucas, of the Begulus, with his boat's crew, came on board, to demand four of the ringleaders, the same men formerly mentioned, when the greatest part of the crew hastily got up the round shot on deck, threatening that they would sink the first boat that came alongside. The crew emboldened and increasing in fury, the Lieutenant thought it prudent to leave the ship, as did also the Captain, under the impression that their absence might assist in restoring peace and quietness. The crew, however, getting out- rageous, were going to hoist out the boats. The Camatic India- man, hearing the confusion, fired several alarm guns, and armed boats from the other ships were now advancing. By this time the crew of the Dutton, being in a most serious state of mutiny, had begun to arm themselves with shot, iron bars, &c., and made a determined attack on the quarter-deck. The officers, having lost their command, were firing pistol-shots overhead, when one
• The men complained that, owing to their detention, their stores were exhausted, and they demanded an additional advance of pay to purchase tea and other comforts. The crew of the Melville Castle hod received this indulgence, as a boon which it was reasonable to grant It was refused by the captain of the Dutton, and hence the mutiny.
p 2
d
68 CAPTAIN HALDANE QUELLS THE MUTINEERS.
â– caman, getting over the booms, received a wound in the head, of which he died six days after.
It has been said that the mutineers threatened to carry the ship into a French port, but at this moment, far more serious apprehension was felt lest the men should gain access to the ship's gunpowder, and madly end the strife by their own death, and that of all on board. One of the two medical men on board had serious thoughts of throwing himself into the water to escape the risk. It was at this critical moment that Captain Haldane, of the Melville Castle, appeared at the side of the vessel. His approach was the signal for renewed and angry tumults. The shouts of the officers, " Come on board ; come on board,'' were drowned by the cries of the mutineers, " Keep off, or we '11 sink you." The scene was appalling, and to venture into the midst of the angry crew seemed to be an act of daring almost amount- ing to rashness. Ordering his men to veer round by the stem, in a few moments Captain Ilaldane was on the quarter-deck. His first object was to restore to the officers composure and presence of mind. He peremptorily refused to head an immediate attack on the mutineers, but very calmly reasoning with the men, cutlass in hand, telling them that they had no business there, and asking what they hoped to effect in the presence of twenty sail of the line, the quarter-deck was soon cleared. But, obsen'ing that there was still much confusion, and inquiring at the same time from the officers where the chief danger lay, he was down immediately at the very point of alarm. Two of the crew, intoxi- cated with spirits, and more hardy than the rest, were at the door of the powder magazine, threatening with horrid oaths that whether it should prove Heaven or Hell they would blow up the ship. One of them was in the act of wrenching off the iron bars from the doors, whilst the other had a shovel full of live coals, ready to throw in I Captain Haldane, instantly putting a pistol to the breast of the man with the iron bar, told him that if he stirred he was a dead man. Calling at the same time for the irons of the ship, as if disobedience were out of the question, he saw them placed, first on this man and then on the other. The rest of the ringleaders were then secured, when the crew, finding
REFLECTION. 69
that they were overpowered, and receiving the assurance that none should be reinoved that night, became quiet, and the Cap- tain returned to his own ship. Next day, the chief mutineers were put on board the Regulus, King^s ship, and the rest of the crew went to their duty peaceably.
" Had any one,'' said the venerable narrator, " then foretold that this daring captain of the Melville Castle would ere long become a minister of Christ, the pastor of a large Christian Church, and of a larger congregation, and that this surgeon on board the Dutton now bound for India, and well known afterwards as Dr. James Anderson of Edinburgh — ^would, after returning home, one day join that Church, where he remained for years until his dissolution, nothing would have appeared so incredible/'
This was the last of the perils of his life at sea, in which his bold and adventurous spirit seemed' to take pleasure. The time had now come when he was to enter on a holier calling, and to be engaged in occupations of more enduring importance. The change was not, however, sudden, but gradual ; not the result of enthusiastic excitement, but of calm reflection. '^ Marriage," it has been said, '' sobers even the soberest." It operated on his moral feelings with a most beneficial influence. He had been thoroughly disgusted with the bacchanalian joviality of his last voyage from St. Helena ; he also felt the responsibility of his new position, as Commander of a ship with a numerous crew of officers and men, besides passengers and soldiers. He resolved that his influence should be exerted for good, and that he would set an example befitting his station, by having Divine worship on board. To alt this it may be added, that the idea of parting so soon and for so long a time from his young wife, to whom he was tenderly attached, was justly assigned by some of his friends as one cir- cumstance that made him for the time at least more thoughtful and reflective. To borrow from his manuscript memoranda, which still serve us as a guide : —
Some circumstances which took place tended, before I left the sea, to render me more circumspect ; yet was my heart still unchanged. I lived on board ship nearly four mcmths at Portsmouth, and having much spare time and being always
it t<
ti
€€
70 BEGINS TO. READ THE BIBLE.
" fond of reading, I was employed in this way, and began, " more from a conviction of its propriety than any real oonoem " about eternity, to read the Bible and religious books, not only on '* the Sabbath, but a portion of Scripture every day. I also began " to pray to God, although almost entirely about the concerns *^ of a present world. During all this time I did not go on shore '* to public worship above once or twice, though I could have done '' so, and heard the Gospel with the same form of worship (at '' J)r. Itogue's) as in Scotland. At length some impressions '* s(*emed to be made on my mind, that all was not right, and " knowing that the liord's Supper was to be dispensed, I was ^' desirous of being admitted, and went and spoke with Dr. Bogue " on i\\v. subject. He put some books into my hand on the " nature of the ordinance, which I read, and was more regular " in prayer and attending pubUc worship. An idea of quitting ^* the sea at this time was suggested, apparently by accident, and " literally so, except in so far as ordered of God. The thought *^ sunk into my mind, and, although there were many obsta- '^ cles, my inclination rather increased than abated. Being now *^ in the habit of prayer, I asked of God to order matters so that ** it might be brought about, and formed resolutions of amend- " mcnt, in case my i)rayer should be heard. Several circum- " stances occurred which seemed to cut off every hope of my '' being able to get away before the fleet sailed ; yet the Lord '* overruled all to farther the business, and I quitted the ship " about two days before she left England. A concern about my "soul had very little influence in this step; yet I was now " determined to begin 'to make religion a matter of serious consi- " deration. I was sure I was not right. I had never joined at " the liord's Supper, being formerly restrained partly by con- " science, while living in open sin, and partly by want of ''convenient opportunities, and I had been prevented by my engagements in the week of quitting the sea, from joining at Gosport, as I had proposed. However dark my mind still was, I have no doubt but that God began a work of grace on my " soul while living on board the Melville Castle. His voice was '' indeed still and small, but I would not despise the day of small
u
ti
QUITS THE MELVILLE CASTLE. 71
''things^ nor undervalue the least of His gracious dealings '^ towards me. There is no doubt that I had sinned against more " light than many of my companions who have been cut off in *' their iniquities^ and that I might justly have been made a *' monument of His wrath."
The chief obstacles to his leaving the sea^ arose from the opposition of his own uncles^ and from his wife^s relatives. They naturally considered it to be an act of folly to relinquish pros- pects of fortune such as he had before him, and the idea of a young man sitting down as ^' an idle country gentleman" was one which Sir Ralph Abercromby had in his letter particularly singled out as unfavourable for happiness. But the advice of his brother decided the matter. Mr. Haldane had previously laboured earnestly, although without success, to induce him to settle at home, and in the neighbourhood of Airthrey. When^ therefore, he heard that an opportunity had occurred of disposing of the command for the sum of 9000/., being at the rate of 3000/. a voyage, exclusive of the Captain's share in the property of the ship and stores, which amounted in all to GOOO/. addi- tional, Mr. Haldane wrote strongly recommending that this offer should be accepted. His letter decided the matter, and Captain Haldane returned with his wife to Scotland early in the summer of 1794.
During that summer they resided chiefly at Stirling Castle and at Airthrey. On the 6th October, their first child, Eliza- beth, was bom, and in less than a month afterwards the death of Major Joass dissolved their connexion with Stirling Castle, and all its agreeable associations. A letter from Sir Ralph Abercromby on the marriage of his niece has been already given. The following, addressed by him to his sister on the removal of her husband, was written in the midst of the disastrous campaign in Holland, and a few days after his wound in the successful sally on the French at Nimmegen : —
''Elsty November 16/A, 1794.
*' My dear Sister, — From my not writing, I trust you will not accuse me of unkindness. With Mrs. Abercromby alone I correspond, and it sometimes happens that I have not an oppor-
72 TAKES A HOUSE IN EDINBURGH.
tunity. She has regularly iiifonned me of everything that related to your family. I cannot but feel severely a change that has lately taken place in it. I have lost an old and a most worthy friend. It would have given me the greatest satisfiEU^tion had Provideuce so ordered it, that we should have met once more after the end of all these troubles. He is gone to a better world, and is relieved from the pains of this. It is an event which you and all his family foresaw. Still that does not diminish the severity of the stroke. I am told Mr. Haldane is an excellent young man, with a great share of humanity, and that his conduct at this trying time has been most praiseworthy. I hope it will always be so, and that he and his wife will be a comfort and consolation to you. Knowing your sensibility I much fear your health must ha\'e .suffered. You must endeavour to support yourself from such motives as reason and religion will suggest. I have a distant hope that I may see you this winter. I shall probably find you near us all. I beg to be kindly remembered to Mr. and Mrs. Haldane. Believe me to be, my dear Sister,
" Yours, ever most affectionately,
*' Ra. Abercromby/'
On leaving Stirling Castle, Mr. and Mrs. J. A. Haldane at first took a house in George-square, Edinburgh, and were led to attend the ministry of the excellent Dr. Walter Buchanan, who, as already remarked, had formerly been minister of Stirling, and of whom it is said by Mr. Simeon, that he was "a Scotch
minister, whom I think it one of the greatest blessings of my
life ever to have known.'' Tliey were also introduced about the same time to the lleverend David Black, the minister of Lady Yester's Church, who was eminently a man of God and a promoter of all good works. These good men found him an earnest inquirer into the things of God, and were no doubt useful in directing his spiritual studies. But his progress was gradual, as will be seen hereafter.
The history of James Haldane's life has now been conducted to the end of 1795. In the summer of that year he had made a visit of some length to his uncle, on board the Venei-able, when
VISITS THE NORTH SEA FLEET. 73
the North Sea fleet was in the Downs. His frequent reference, more than fifty years afterwards^ to the incidents which then occurred, indicated the pleasurable excitement he enjoyed as a guest under the flag of his distinguished relative. It was about the time when Admiral Comwallis made his celebrated and successful retreat with only five ships, which repulsed and kept at bay twelve French sail of the line with as many frigates. He used to relate how Admiral Duncan, on a visit to Walmer Castle, found Mr. Pitt in deep despondency, considering the capture of Comwallis and his little fleet inevitable ; and how the Premier was reassured, although still half-sceptical, when his gallant visitor scouted his apprehensions and forbade him to think so meanly of five British men-of-war. " What/' said Mr. Pitt, " do you think that, against such odds, they have a chance ?'' ''A chance. Sir ! " exclaimed the veteran chief, " Frenchmen do not yet know how to take a British ship/^ Mr. Pitt was cheered, though incredulous, and invited the Admiral to dine with him a day or two afterwards. On the morning of that day the news of the repulse of the French, and the safe arrival of the intrepid Comwallis, reached the Downs, but, by some mistake, the welcome intelligence had not been forwarded to Mr. Pitt. On going in the afternoon to dinner, the Admiral, on entering the reception-room and shaking hands with Mr. Pitt, exclaimed, " Give you joy. Sir V' Mr. Pitt, oppressed with anxieties, had relapsed into his former despondency, and observed, '^Joyl Admiral — ^what joy ? Nothing is yet known of the fate of Com- wallis.'' An explanation soon put Mr. Pitt in possession of the agreeable tidings, that Frenchmen did not yet know the art of taking British ships, and British seamen did not know when they ought to consider themselves beaten. He declared that the Admiral had taken a load from ofi* his mind, and that he never sat down to dinner with a lighter heart. It was at Walmer Castle that the celebrated Marquis of Wellesley used to meet Lord Duncan, at the time when he describes the Premier's admiration of the joyous and gallant bearing of the hero of Camperdown.
Mr. J. A. Haldane used also to tell how it happened, about
74 ANECDOTE OF LORD ST. VINCENT.
the time of his visit to the Venerable^ that Admiral Duncan had been the means of pressing the services of Sir John Jervis on the notice of the Premier, and overcoming his prejudices against an officer who had joined in characterizing the war as '' imneceasary, impohtic, and lamentable/' On Sir Charles Hotham's recal, the appointment of Commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean was first offered to Lord Duncan. But he was so well satisfied of the importance of the command in the North Seas, that he the more easily allowed other considerations to weigh in his determination to decline the proposed change. He was next consulted by Mr. Pitt, Lord Melville, and Lord Spencer, as to the fittest officer for that post, and he told them that, beyond all doubt, it was Sir John Jervis. It was objected that he had too much mixed himself up with poUtics, and too strongly reprobated the war, to render it expedient to nomi* nate so decided an opponent of the Government. But Lord Duncan still insisted that his friend's qualifications were para* mount to all party considerations, and Mr. Pitt was at length convinced. To this circumstance Lord St. Vincent's career of distinction may pi*obably be traced. This fact is not generally known, and is not mentioned in any of the Lives of Lord St. Vincent ; but it rests on the undoubted evidence of Lord Duncan's nephew, who was with him about the time, and heard all the details of these discussions after the appointment had been confirmed. Lord Duncan was himself so unostentatious, and so little disposed to boast, that even his own early services at the Havannah, Belleislc, St. Vincent, and Gibraltar, would have been comparatively unnoticed, had it not been that Lord Spencer, without a prompter, remembered " Keppell's Captain." His Lordship's choice was rewarded by the undaunted firmness which maintained the blockade of the Dutch fleet during the mutiny of the Nore, and by the splendour of his victory off Cam- perdown, which at once crushed the naval power of repubUcan Holland, and effectually warded off the intended invasion of Ireland.
When Mr. J. A. Haldane returned to Edinburgh, his mind became more and more occupied with reUgious inquiry; and a
PROGRESS OF THE CHANGE. 75
reference to his own recollections will enable us to trace its progress.
''On my return to Scotland^ I continued to inquire about religion more froim a conviction of its importance than any deep conviction of sin. I was^ however^ sensible I had been a great sinner^ but my views of Grod's mercy were such that I was under no great alarm. A Socinian minister with whom I met was of use to me (a Mr. Edwards)^ not from conversation^ but because his opinions brought the great mystery of godliness under my consideration. When I heard of the controversy respecting the person of Christy it did not seem to me of veiy great importance. I had what the world calls charity for both parties, thinking both were Christians. When the matter was discussed I took the side to which I had been accustomed, but I had hardly any opinion on the subject. A conversation I heard between a person who was arguing, if not in favour of Socinianism, at least taking from them any degree of guilt or danger for their opinions, and an eminently pious man, now in glory, struck me much. The latter was not disputing for victory, but maintain- ing that truth which was sweeter to his soul than the honey- comb. Christ was precious to him, and he justly considered that those could not be his friends who degraded his character. I shall never forget the earnestness with which he said, ' If I did not know my Saviour to be God, I should this night lie down in despair; the Scriptures could, in this case, convey no comfort to my mind.^ The expression struck me much, and led me to compare my views of Christ with his. I compared the Scriptures which he and others quoted, and the result was a conviction that Jesus was indeed the Son of the Uving Grod. I took some opportunities of conversing with the person to whom I have alluded, and, being desirous of having my mind satisfied and of submitting to the truth, I soon became more estabUshed in this fundamental and most important of all truths. Conversa- tions I had with two pious ministers* were also very useful to me. They saw I was inquiring, that I was indeed desirous to know the truth, and bore with much self-confidence, which I displayed in
* Probably Dr. Innes and Mr. Shire£
76 PROGRESS OF THE CHANGE.
argument, of which, at that time, I was particularly fond. Fuller's " Comparison of Calvinism and Socinianism" was peculiarly useful to me, not so much from the general argument, which is admirably conducted, as that it brought into my view that text in Job where he expresses self-loathing and abhorrence. I saw that my views of sin must be very inadequate, and I asked of God to teach me all He would have me to know. I shall here remark, that the principal benefit I received from reading other books than the Bible was, that they explained to me more fully those doctrines of which I was before satisfied, for I was too fond of my own opinions to read those books which opposed them. I did, however, consider the Scripture as a certain authority. As soon as I found it against any of my opinions, I readily gave them up. My thoughts began now to be particularly turned to election, a doctrine which, indeed, was foolishness unto me ; it seemed so irrational, that I thought I should never embrace it. A good minister, with whom I frequently conversed on the subject, told me, I should by and by change my opinion. I thought it impossible : and so much attached was I to my own way of thinking, that I could hardly suppose that sensible, good men, did really believe the contrary. I always thought that I had the better in argument on this subject. I was well pleased to enter upon it, and although every conversation left me more established in my own opinion, yet they were afterwards of use. Once in particular that minister read to me the first chapter of the Ephesians, and said, if the doctrine was not clearly estab- lished by that passage, any meaning whatever might be a£Sxed to Scripture. This passage made some impression on my mind. But however erroneous my views were, my whole thoughts were engrossed about religion. Having nothing particular to occupy my attention, I meditated on these things and gave myself wholly to them. I hardly read any but religious books, and it was my chief concern to know the will of God. This, however, afforded food for pride, — I thought my attainments were great, and had much self-righteousness. Although I professed that my hope was fixed in Jesus Christ, yet my doings were not wholly forgotten. I gradually, moreover, got clearer views of
DOCTRINE OP ELECTION. 77
the Gospel ; and, in reading the Acts of the Apostles, xvii. 4 — 8, ' As many as were ordained to eternal life believed/ my whole system, as to free will, was overturned. I saw that being ordained to eternal life was not the consequence of faith, but that the children of God believed because they were thus ordained. This gave a considerable blow to my self-righteousness, and henceforth I read the Scriptures more in a childlike spirit, for hitherto I was often obliged to search for some interpretation of Scripture which would agree with my system. I now saw more of the freeness of the grace of the Gospel and the necessity of being bom again, and was daily looking for satisfactory evidence of this change. My desire was now set upon frames and feelings, instead of building on the sure foundation. I got no comfort in this way. Gradually becoming more dissatisfied with myself, being convinced especially of the sin of unbelief, I wearied myself with looking for some wonderful change to take place, — some inward feeling, by which I might know that I was bom again. The method of resting simply on the promises of God, which are yea and amen in Jesus Christ, was too plain and easy, and like Naaman, the Syrian, instead of bathing in Jordan and being clean, I would have some great work in my mind to substitute in place of Jesus Christ. The Lord gradually opened my eyes; He always dealt with me in the tenderest manner, and kept me from those horrors of mind which, in my ignorance and pride, I had often desired as a proof of my conversion. The dispensations of his providence towards me much favoured the teaching which He has vouchsafed to afford. The con- versations of some of the Lord's people with whom I was acquainted were helpful to my soul ; and, in particular, I may here add, that the knowledge of Scripture which I acquired in early life was very useful to me when my views were directed to the great concerns of eternity. Many things were then brought to my remembrance which I had learned when young, although they seemed wholly to have escaped while I was living in forgetfulness of God. Instead of those deep convictions which are experienced by some with much horror of mind, the Lord has rather shown me the evil of sin in the sufferings of
78 DOCTRINE OF ELECTION.
his dear Son^ and in the manifestation of that love which^ whilst it condemns the past ingratitude^ seals the pardon of the believing sinner. In shorty I now desire to feel, and hope, in some mea- sure, that I do feel, as a sinner who looks for salvation freely by grace; who prefers this method of salvation to every other, because thereby Gk>d is glorified through Jesus Christ, and the pride of human glory stained. I desire daily to see more of my own unworthiness, and that Jesus Christ may be more precious to my soul. I depend on him for sanctification as well as for deliverance from wrath, and am in some measure (would it were more I) convinced of my own weakness and his all-sufficiency. When I have most comfort, then does sin appear most hateful ; and I am in some measure made to rejoice in the hope of being completely delivered from it by seeing, in all his beauty. Him who was dead and is alive, and liveth for evermore. Amen.^'
These were the notes of Mr. J. A. Haldane^s confession of faith on the occasion of his ordination. He held fast the beginning of his confidenci^ stcdfast to the end, and with unswerving consistency maintained the same doctrines down to the very close of life.
CHAPTER IV.
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION— ITS EFFECTS ON ROBERT HAL- DANE — « ORASPS AT A SHADOW, CATCHES THE SUB- STANCE "—FREEHOLDER'S MEETINO AT STIRLING— CON- FERENCES WITH MINISTERS NEAR AIRTHREY— STUDIES THE EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY— PROORESS OF THE CHANGE— CONVERSATION WITH A PIOUS STONE-MASON.
[1794—5.]
The ten years which immediately followed Robert Haldane's abandonment of the naval profession^ after the peace of 1783^ was a period of much activity and interest. But^ like the first twenty years of his early life, it was one of peculiar training for loftier and more enduring objects. For two years he had chiefly devoted himself to a voluntary course of study at Oosport and at Edinburgh. He had next made the tour of Europe, and after his marriage, he turned, with characteristic intensity, to country pursuits, determined to master agriculture, both practi- cally and as a science, in this respect setting an example to his neighbours, and acquiring the reputation of being a better far- mer than many, with whom it had been the business of their lives. His skill in landscape-gardening and in planting was exhibited at Airthrey, as it was afterwards still more conspicuous at Auchingray, where the resources of art were not so much favoured by the beauties of nature.
But the spell by which his mind had been bound to the world and the passing things of time was now to be broken, and the same process of spiritual renewal which, during the winter of 1794, had been at work in the heart of his younger brother, was soon to operate on his own. It is a singular but a remarkable
80 FREKpH REVOLUTION.
fact, which he has himself left on record, that he was aroused from the sleep of spiritual death by the excitement of the French Revolution.
That great moral and political convulsion was not unforeseen. Its approach had been discerned in the demoralization of a pro- fligate Court, a corrupt aristocracy, an infidel priesthood, and an overburdened people. The social disruption of France had been foretold by Lord Chesterfield, and other keen political observers. Yet it came upon Europe like an earthquake, casting down thrones, coronets, and altars, mingling in one heap of ruins the trophies of feudal grandeur and the monuments of sacerdotal tyranny. Like most young men of ardent, generous, and ener- getic minds, Robert Haldanc was roused as from a lethargy by the events passing around him. He saw, or imagined he saw, through the gloom, the prospect of a new and better order of things, when oppression and immorality would cease, and Governments would be regulated by a paramount regard for the welfare of the people. He admitted that good and evil were wildly contending for the mastery, but he was sanguine as to the result, and dropped out of his calculations the corruption of human nature, and the hopelessness of any renovation apart from the influence of a Divine agency. But he was neither discon- tented himself, nor impatient of any real or fancied grievances, and was therefore practically little disposed to disturb the order of society in his own country, or to countenance levelling prin- ciples, either in regard to rank or property. He stood aloof from all political societies, and steadily refused every invitation to countenance, either by his name, his presence, or his purse, the meetings or the plans of the " friends of the people.*' So far as property was concerned, he had everything to lose, and little to hope for, in the event of change. In regard to social rank, he was himself satisfied with his own position, and by no means ambitious of distinction. Whilst he did not envy those above him, as little was he disposed to countenance the encroachments of levellers. He valued ancient descent and old nobility, not as things possessing any intrinsic value in themselves, but as links in the chain which help to secure stability to the State, or, in
FRENCH REVOLUTION. 81
the words of Bui*ke, " protect it against the levity of Courts, and the greater levity of the multitude.*'
His supposed democratic tendencies were afterwards studi* ously exaggerated and misrepresented by those, who wished to cast discredit on his designs for the propagation of Christianity. Beyond, however, all doubt, he was for a time somewhat dazzled with the delusive prospect of a new order of things. It is remarked by Mr. Alison, in speaking of the French Revolu* tion : " The young, the ardent, the philosophical were sanguine in their expectations of its success ; a new era seemed to have dawned upon the world, from the rise of freedom in that great empire; the fetters of slavery and the bonds of superstition appeared to be dropping from the hands of the human race. It was not merely the factious, the restless, and the ambitious who entertained these opinions ; they were shared by many of the best and wisest of men ; and in England it might with truth be said, what an eloquent historian has observed of Europe in general, that the firiends of the French Revolution comprised at that period the most enlightened and generous of the com* munity.''*
But if the bold, the ardent, the enlightened, the generous, and the speculative, who had life before them, looked with pleasurable interest on these revolutionary changes, and '^ hoped even against hope'' in the midst of sanguinary violence, another and still more influential portion of the community regarded these movements with immixed horror. For the most part, those who had passed through life and had property to lose, as well as the timid and the peaceful, trembled lest the political contagion should spread ; whilst the adherents of the Established Churches, both in England and Scotland, and a great majority of the landed aristocracy, were united with the holders of office in deprecating all political discussion.
Society was thus divided, and in no part of the empire did the divisions rise to such a pitch of violence as in Scotland. Had Mr. Haldane been generally met by men of large and
• VoL L, p. 321.
G
82 POLITICAL OPINIONS.
enlightened minds, his ardent wishes for the amelioration of mankind, as expressed in private, would have been more candidly judged, and he would not have been tempted occasionally to defend measures or principles tending to excess. The most eminently pious ministers within a wide circuit round Airthrey eagerly sought his society, and discerned in his impatience of ** all the oppressions done under the sun,^^ and in his repugnance to follow the beaten track, the hope of a blessed change, when, with a ripened understanding and a renewed heart, the same generous impulses would direct his steps into the paths of Christianized philanthropy. They rightly judged that even then he was nearer the kingdom of God than many of the alarmists, who were most shocked at the freedom of his sentiments, and his aversion to a war with France, which, hke his old commander. Lord St. Vincent, he regarded as '' unnecessary, impolitic, and lamentable/^ With secular men of enlarged views, whom he valued and respected, there was indeed no serious collision of sentiment. With Sir Ralph Abercromby, who belonged to Mr. Pitt's party, his intercourse up to the middle of 1793 had been intimate and mutually satisfactory. At a still later period it is evident, from the letter already quoted, that he had not lost the confidence of that great man, when he alluded to 'Hhc good principles of the family '^ into which his niece was about to marry. There are other circumstances from which it is clear that Robert Ilaldane's sanguine hopes of the French Revolution had not interrupted his intercourse even with some of the chief members of the Government. With Mr. Pitt's bosom friend, Mr. Secretary Dundas, he continued to be on very excellent terms, and was a visitor at Dunira when party spirit had begun to run high. Even after his brother's return home, so late as the summer of 1 794, the Duke of Montrose, then Lord-Lieutenant of the county, and an active member of Mr. Pitt's Government, was himself a guest at Airthrey. These facts are scarcely neces- sary to refute the exaggerations afterwards industriously circu- lated, concerning his extreme political opinions, and anything so ridiculous would not now have been referred to, had it not been
ANECDOTE — ARDOCH. 83
for the revival, hereafter to be noticed, of old and forgotten mis- representations in the unsatisfactory Life of Mr. Wilberforce, by his sons.
But Mr. Haldane was fond of argument, and often took a kind of pleasure in startling the prejudices of narrow-minded squires, for whom prospects of social amelioration had no charms. Impatient of any semblance of sympathy with the changes in progress, they were yet eager to engage him in debate, and, conscious of his superiority, they would invite some man of ability or skill, generally a lawyer on circuit, such as Mr. Maconochie, the first Lord Meadowbank, or Mr. Graham, of Meiklewood, to meet him, and act as the champion of their own opinions. It was to one of these occasions that he alluded on his death-bed, in 1842, when reviewing his past history, and extolling that watchful providence which had preserved him during his early life, whilst living at a distance from God. He had been dining at Ardoch, then the residence of a well-known Baronet, some miles to the north-west of Airthrey. According to the custom of the times the gentlemen had sat long after the ladies had left the dinner-table. Mr. Haldane had argued much. It was late, and the night was dark. He had intended to ride across the Sheriff Moor, but Mrs. Haldane, apprehensive of the danger, remained longer than she would otherwise have done, to convey him home in her carriage. He had, however, ordered his horse, and would not be persuaded to go by the circuitous highway road through Dumblane and the Bridge of Allan. Heated with wine, and excited by argument, he mounted and galloped off, crossing the open moor^ and dashing through the broken ground and woods of Pendrich and Airthrey, regardless of the imminent risk to which he was exposed. He reached home more speedily, and in safety, but it may indicate the impression which this recollection made upon the mind of a man not much disposed to talk of dangers, that in the weakness and exhaustion of ebbing life, he mentioned this preservation as one of the leading events in his history, on the review of which he was fiUed with mingled emotions of humble penitence and adoring gratitude. He said, that on this and other occasions, he felt
o 2
84 THE CRISIS.
that he must have perished had he not been held in the grasp of Omnipotence.
It will be at once understood^ from what has been said of his political opinions^ how easy it was, at a time of such party violence, to exaggerate and pervert them, especially after his religious movements had provoked opposition. But his own account of the matter, published in 1800, has completely disposed of what he himself termed the ^' gross misrepresenta- tions of his conduct and views.^^* The narrative is the more interesting, as it, in fact, contains the history of that spiritual change of heart through which he was enabled to discover the only true source of happiness, whether personal, social^ or political.
After stating that there could be no vanity in asserting that he was amongst the foremost of those whose political opinions were, at that period of religious excitement, misrepresented, he proceeds : — " Until the commencement of the French Revolu- tion I had never particularly turned my attention to political discussion. I had read Delolme^s Treatise and Blackstone's ' Commentaries on the Laws of England,^ and was a sincere admirer of the British Constitution. I had also perused with much satisfaction Smithes ' Inquiries into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.' The first books I read upon the subject of government, after the change that took place in France, were Mr. Burke's ' Reflections,' Mackintosh's ' Vindici« Gallicae,' and afterwards several of the pamphlets by Christie, Paine, Barlow, Priestly, and others, which appeared in such great numbers about that time. Although I did not exactly agree with these writers, nor, indeed, with any that I happened to meet with, a scene of melioration and improvement in the affairs of mankind seemed to open itself to my mind, which, I trusted, would speedily take place in the world, such as the imiversal abolition of slavery, of war, and of many other miseries that mankind were exposed to, which appeared to me wholly to result from the false principles upon which the ancient govern- ments have been constructed. I exulted in this prospect from
• "Address on Politics." 1800.
THE CRISIS. 85
motives of benevolence^ and, as far as I know, without any allowed mixture of selfishness. I rejoiced in the experiment that was making in France of the construction of a Government at once from its foimdation upon a regular plan, which Hume, in his Essays, speaks of as an event so much to be desired.
^^ In every company I delighted in discussing this favourite subject, and endeavoured to point out the vast advantages that I thought might be expected as the result. At this time I was in habits of intimacy with some very worthy clergymen, residing at and in the neighbourhood of Stirling. They were acquainted with a principle I did not then admit, and which, although a fundamental part of the creeds of the Established Churches both of England and Scotland, is not generally admitted, — I mean, the total corruption of human nature. Reasoning from their firm persuasion of this truth, they assured me that such effects as I expected, unquestionably so desirable in themselves, could not flow from any change from government, and that the cruelties in France, then beginning to be exercised, were the natural effect of certain circumstances in which the people of that country stood, and would, in a greater or less degree, take place in any country in a similar situation. I widely differed from them, and continued to manifest my own opinions, ascribing all, or most of the enormities of the French, solely to the state of degradation to which I thought their minds had been reduced during the ancient despotic Government.
'^ Numerous political Societies, about the same time, were established in England and Scotland, but of these I expressed my decided disapprobation, and never went near a single one of them. I always thought, that by them the minds of the people were much more likely to be inflamed than informed, and that they were calculated to produce confusion rather than reforma- tion. Besides, as I saw so many well-informed men, who had at first approved of the French Revolution, beginning to set themselves directly against any change in this country, I was persuaded it would ensure the most dreadful consequences were any attempt to that purpose to be made by these Societies or their leaders. The French were making the experiment upon
80 MEETING AT STIRLING.
themselves; fram them I wished to see its effects. I thought that these would he so good as soon to convince other nations^ and make them willing to follow their example^ and I hoped that this might one day take place without either bloodshed or loss of property.
'^ I am sure these wei*e distinctly my sentiments at the time my mind was most filled with poUtical speculations ; as I recol- lect, when the Societies were set on foot, that I wrote a letter to a friend, expressing my strong disapprobation of them, contain- ing also the other opinions I have just mentioned. This letter he showed to several persons at the time, and, for aught I know, it may remain to this day. I there took pains fiilly to declare my sentiments, and kept a copy of it, and of another letter, in which I expi-essed my abhorrence of all secret cabals or open violence against the Government, and these, together with a speech I delivered at Stirling in a Coimty Meeting, which I had accurately written, I should have been inclined to have inserted here, had I not a considerable time ago committed them all to the flames, as treating of a subject which I had renounced for ever.
" Having mentioned that speech, it may be proper to say something concerning it, as it made some noise at the time, and being the only circumstance in my public conduct that could be taken hold of, has been carefully kept in remembrance, much mis-stated, and made a ground