But, Moderator, we are not destroyed yet, nor yet, I be

We were never more living, We have resources at our employed because we our

lieve, on the eve of destruction. more intelligent, more powerful. command that we have only not selves have been the very last to admit that our existence is threatened. But if we are driven to bring all our forces into the field we shall do so, and we shall do so, I believe, unanimously, whatever may be our political party, Conservative or Liberal; and if "wreck comes to either political party in the conflict, and this old country is torn by ecclesiastical contention once more, we shall have the satisfaction at least of thinking that the contention was not one of our seeking, that we have done what we could to avoid it, and that if we must fight, whether we lose or win, we have been contending for a good cause, and for principles which are dearer to us than our own comfort or lives. It can matter little in a personal sense-to some of us very little-what the end may be; but the issue, in my mind, is a mighty one for the country; and I hope that our younger Churchmen, as well as older Churchmen like myself, with whom the fight in this as in many other matters is nearly over, may realise this, and bear themselves well for the Church that they love and that they have sworn to defend.

This speech was interrupted from beginning to end with "loud and long-continued" applause. The listeners were well aware that the warm impulse of grateful recognition of the Church's claims which had swept over Scotland, was given, above all others, by the speaker himself; and his heart was so clearly in the cause of which he had constituted himself the champion, and for which he pleaded with all the eloquence of countenance and tone, the flush of earnest purpose, the tremor of emotion habitual to him when speaking of themes so noble and so dear, that every heart was moved by the thrill of sympathy which filled the place. When he set forth the position of the Church as "a witness for the great principle of a Christian State and the maintenance of national religion," adding, with all the brevity and simplicity of great feeling, "We must stand somewhere. We stand here," -the walls rang with the shout of response. No one had defined the position more clearly, no one had stood for it

more boldly. When he resumed his seat, not without a word which quickly following events endued with the most solemn meaning, of the little personal importance which the question might possess to some present, the impression, half lost amid the repeated burst of cheers, ran through all hearts. The speakers who followed took up the thread with an evident sense of inadequacy and inferiority, which was at once natural and impressive. They spoke, as men speak on exciting and interesting subjects, to the best of their ability and with all the power they possessed; but after that swell and strain of impassioned yet sober utterance, the other voices could not but fall a little flat on excited ears. A sort of apology for coming after him, for restating what he had stated so powerfully, was in each new speaker. The audience melted away, something as it does in the House of Commons after the speech of the occasion has been made.

This was the last time that Tulloch was to raise his voice in the court which had so often rung with its utterances. His wise counsel was ended, his opinion delivered, his last word said, though no one guessed it, not even himself. A more fit climax could not have been, nor a moment of more dignified withdrawal from the scenes in which he had been conspicuous so long.

The following letter, written from London in May, again gives his view of the state of affairs in respect to the special question of the day :

To Rev. Dr Phin.

May 14, 1885. November will form a The idea is universal

I have no doubt that the election in turning-point in the fate of the Church. that the extreme Liberal party will urge the question forward in any way they can, and if a decided majority of members of Parliament in favour of Disestablishment are returned, that any Liberal Government (supposing the election to go for the Liberals) will be driven to take up the question. There is still the House of Lords, of course, which might put itself in a strong position by insisting that a people's question, like the Church, should be put

MR GLADSTONE NOT TO BE RELIED ON.

455

directly as a political issue to the constituencies before being disposed of; and if the people of our parishes remained true to the Church, all would go right. But save the people themselves, I don't think any party support would be of use.

D, who has evidently been talking with Mr Gladstone lately on the subject, thinks that no reliance can be placed upon him; that he had plainly the idea that it would not be a difficult matter to disestablish the Scotch Church. I have heard before that he had said that.

456

CHAPTER XIII.

THE END OF THE RECORD.

"I HAVE not been very well, quite overdone by the Assembly work," was the report Tulloch gave of himself to Dr Dickson immediately after the conclusion of that work, in a letter which is full of the depression which follows over-excitement. He had given way to a burst of impatience while making a speech at the "Moderator's dinner," one of the closing ceremonies of the ecclesiastical parliament, "using strong language regarding the obstruction in the west," which meant, according to his friend's explanation, an attack upon the Glasgow University, which had opposed certain proposals of the University Bill then before the House of Commons, and thus obstructed its progress,-a matter which was of vital importance to the poor and overweighted University in the east. "I really was half in banter at the Moderator's dinner," the Principal adds, with something of the abashed tone of a man who feels himself in the wrong; "the speaking was of such a long-winded, lugubrious type, that I thought I would stir the atmosphere a little. All the same, the matter is one of life or death for us here," he continues with deep discouragement.

To Rev. Dr Dickson.

June 8, 1885.

Anything that may come to me now cannot do much good, unless by enabling me to retire to some quiet spot far from the

POLITICAL ASPECT OF THE CHURCH QUESTION.

457

strife of tongues. One is sick of the whole business, as of many things else, and I ask for nothing more than leisure to do some work, yet worth doing, before one goes hence.

The following letter is the only comment I find from himself upon his great, and, as it turned out, his last Assembly speech. It introduces at the same time the political aspect of the question, which he now felt it necessary to take up strongly.

To Professor Baynes.

May 30, 1885.

I roused the Assembly a good deal, I believe, by my speech about the Church question; but of course it is easy to do that to an assembly of Churchmen. I fear stirring days are at hand, and the temporary break-up of the Liberal party in Scotland. I have seen it coming long, so that it does not take me by surprise, and anything is better than the present veiled assaults upon the Church in the name of what I cannot consider Liberalism.

I have been obliged to oppose Leng, and of course the Radicals are raging. If all Church Liberals in the east of Fife do not vote for the Conservative candidate, Mr Gilmour-unless we can get a Church Liberal, which seems unlikely at present-it will not be my fault. We have reached a crisis when nothing will impress men like Leng and our old friend Kinnear but the exhibition of power in our hands if we choose to exert it.

Mr Leng, here alluded to, was a candidate for the Fife burghs, and a supporter of Mr Dick Peddie's bill for the Disestablishment of the Church. A correspondence on this subject, published in the newspapers, had passed between him and Principal Tulloch a short time before. Another letter, some months later, returns to the political question, with special reference to the candidature of Dr Erichsen as representative in Parliament of the Universities of Edinburgh and St Andrews, and the attitude which he ought to assume. The Principal's sympathies were with this gentleman politically, and his advice was that the candidate should give no pledge on the subject, but indeed ignore it altogether," as being a question of party polemics with which he had no concern certainly no concern until the question has been