30
visiting the universities of Scotland confirmed the
popular expression. Let us trust that the evil thus
denounced and banished will never again find an
entrance into our national church.
Besides his hostility to ecclesiastical plurality, Dr.
Macgill was decidedly opposed to patronage, and
earnest for its abrogation. He did not, however,
go the whole length of his brethren in advocating the
rights of popular suffrage. On the contrary, he was
opposed to merely popular elections, and held that
they had never been the law of the Church of Scot-
land. Still he was of opinion that the existing pat-
ronage was a great evil, that required a total amend-
ment. He declared it to be a hard thing upon the
people of Scotland, that an individual, who might
be deficient in principles, knowledge, and morals,
should dictate to the worthy and respectable the
man whom they should receive as their minister.
And it was harder still, he thought, that this patron
might be of any or of no religious belief, and in
either case opposed to the faith of those over whom
he appointed a minister. But worst of all, this
right, originally intended for the good of the people
in their highest interests, might be bought, like any
marketable commodity, by a person wholly uncon-
nected with the parish, and who had no interest in
its welfare. The church, indeed, had power to judge
and decide on the qualifications of the presentees,
by previously trying them as licentiates, and finding
them competent for the work of the ministry in
general, in life, doctrine, and knowledge. But the
preacher thus approved of might be unqualified for
the particular charge to which he was designated; so
that however orthodox, learned, and pious his man-
ners, his habits, and mode of preaching might be, they
might still be such as to make him unsuitable for the
people over whom he was appointed. For all this a
remedy was necessary; and that which Dr. Macgill
had long contemplated he propounded before the
committee of the House of Commons appointed to
try the question of patronage in Scotland. For this
purpose his first desideratum was, the abolition of the
act of Queen Anne for the restoration of patronage in
our church. This being obtained, he proposed to divide
the representation of the parish between three bodies,
consisting of the heritors, the elders, and the male
communicants, each body to be represented by three
delegates, to whom the nomination of the future
pastor might be intrusted. Let this committee of
nine, after having weighed the case, present to their
constituents the person of their choice, whom they
had approved by a majority of votes; and should
any disputes afterwards arise upon the concurrence
of the people, let the case be settled by the decision
of the church-courts. Such is an abstract of his
plan, by which he hoped the despotism of patronage
on the one hand, and the anarchy of. popular election
on the other, would be equally avoided. But sub-
sequent events showed that this, as well as many
other such plans, was but a "devout imagination."
The agitation against patronage was followed by the
veto-law, and finally by the Disruption. No com-
promise or half measures—nothing short of a total
abrogation of the evil complained of—was found
sufficient to satisfy the remonstrants,
After this the course of Dr. Macgill's life went
onward tranquilly but usefully; and of the events
that occurred till the close, a brief notice may suffice.
In 1824, in consequence of a discovery by Dr.
M'Crie, the able biographer of John Knox, that our
Scottish reformer was educated at the university
of Glasgow, Dr. Macgill conceived that Glasgow
was the proper place in which a monument should
be erected to his memory. The idea was eagerly
caught by several of the spirited citizens, and the
result was that stern column on the height of the Fir
Park, better known as the Glasgow Necropolis,
surmounted by the statue of Knox himself, with the
Bible in one hand, and the other stretched out to-
wards the rapidly-growing city, as if he were in the
act of uttering the old civic motto, "Let Glasgow
flourish by the preaching of the Word." In 1828
Dr. Macgill was unanimously elected to the office of
moderator of the General Assembly—an office which
it was thought he should have occupied at a still
earlier period, but for the predominance of that party
in the church to which his views in doctrine and
discipline were opposed. In 1835 he was made one
of the deans of the chapel-royal, a merely honorary
appointment, having neither emolument nor duties
at that time attached to it. Three years after (1838)
he was busily occupied with the plan of erecting a
house of refuge for juvenile delinquents in Glasgow
—one of his many successful public efforts for the in-
struction of the young and reformation of the vicious.
During 1838 and 1839 he was also employed in pre-
paring two volumes for the press. In 1839, though
now borne down by age and the pressure of domestic
misfortunes, he resolved to encounter the labours of
the winter as he had been wont; and in October he
opened the divinity hall, and went through the
half-year's course without having been absent a single
day. But it was life's last effort. In the end of
July, while returning from Bowling Bay, where he
had been visiting a friend, he was caught in a heavy
shower of rain: a cold and sore throat ensued, that
soon turned into fever, accompanied with delirium,
in which he was generally either in the attitude of
prayer, or employed in addressing an imaginary
audience. It was indeed the ruling passion strong
in death—the predominance of that piety and activity
which had formed his main characteristics through
life. He died on the morning of the 18th of August,
1840, in the seventy-sixth year of his age.
Dr. Macgill was not a voluminous writer; this his
devotedness to his daily public duties prevented, as
well as the fastidious views which he entertained of
authorship, that made him unwilling to commit to
the press anything which he had not deeply studied
and carefully elaborated. Whatever therefore he
has written, he has written well. Besides his Letters
to a Young Clergyman, he published Discourses and
Essays on Subjects of Public Interest, Collection of
Translations, Paraphrases, and Hymns—several of
which were his own composition, Lectures on
Rhetoric and Criticism, and on Subjects Introductory
to the Critical Study of the Scriptures, and a volume
of sermons, dedicated "to his former pupils, now
his brethren, as a remembrancer of past times." But
even when his writings are forgot, his labours in the
Scottish church, rent asunder though it has been
since his death, and the benefits of these labours upon
all parties, will continue to remain a unanimous and
hallowed remembrance.
MACGILLTVEAY, WILLIAM, A.M., LL.D.
This distinguished naturalist, and popular writer in
several departments of natural science, was born in
the island of Harris. Having early acquired a taste
for the studies by which he rose to distinction, and
gone to reside in Edinburgh, he became assistant to
Professor Jameson in natural history and the geo-
logical museum of the university. From this he was
afterwards transferred to the office of conservator of
the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in
Edinburgh. He thus enjoyed in each position very
favourable opportunities of studying the specimens
and preparations that were placed under his charge,