Volume 3 > Half-Volume 5

2
this subject Mr. Macadam was examined by a com-
mittee of the House of Commons in 1823. He then
so clearly demonstrated the propriety and advantage
of converting the ruble causeway of the principal
streets of cities into a smooth pavement, like the
country roads he had already constructed, that the
change was adopted in London, Edinburgh, Dublin,
and our principal towns.
An immense quantity of public labour was thus
brought under the superintendence of Mr. Macadam,
by which he might have accumulated profits to an
indefinite amount, while his character as a public
benefactor would have remained untouched. But
superior to every selfish consideration, he confined
his services to superintendence, and nothing more�
for he thought that an engineer should never act as
a contractor, because, where the offices are combined,
the public was too often the loser that one man might
be enriched. It would have been well also if this
conscientious generosity had been reciprocated by
our government towards such an upright, faithful,
and useful servant. But this, we are sorry to add,
was not the case. After having advanced many
thousands of pounds from his own resources to ex-
pedite the works in which he was engaged for the
public benefit, he received in compensation from
government only � 10,000, in two instalments�a
most inadequate return for his services, indepen-
dently of his outlays. He thus might be said to
have been rewarded with less than nothing. The
honour of knighthood, indeed, was offered to him;
but this, on account of his growing infirmities, he
declined in favour of his son, the late Sir James
Macadam, who prosecuted his father's profession,
with the superintendence of the roads around Lon-
don.
During the latter part of his life Mr. Macadam
resided chiefly in the British metropolis, where he
was greatly esteemed by the literary and scientific
society with which he was surrounded, on account of
his conversational powers and varied accomplish-
ments. He finally returned to Scotland, and died
at Moffat, on the 26th of November,  1836, in the
eighty-first year of his age. He was twice married.
By his first wife he had three sons and three daughters,
of whom two sons and two daughters survived. His
second wife was Miss De Lancey, a lady of American
extraction, and sister-in-law of Cooper the novelist,
by whom he had no children.
M'CHEYNE, REV. ROBERT MURRAY. This
young divine, whose brief life and labours produced
such a wide and lasting impression, was born in
Edinburgh, on the 21st of May, 1813. At the age
of eight he entered the high-school of his native city,
where he continued a pupil for six years, during the
course of which he was distinguished among his
class-fellows not only by his proficiency in the usual
studies of the class, but his amiable, enthusiastic
disposition and engaging manners. From the high-
school he passed to the university of Edinburgh, and
there, besides gaining prizes in the several classes,
he distinguished himself by his proficiency in the
study of modern languages and his taste in drawing,
music, and poetry. On finishing the usual course of
a university education, it is probable that his direc-
tion in life would still have remained to be decided,
but for one of those solemnizing events which some-
times at such a crisis has confirmed the current and
directed the course of those who have become emin-
ent in the church. This was the death of his eldest
brother, David, eight or nine years older than him-
self. In the same year (1831) he entered the divinity
hall, which at this time enjoyed Dr. Chalmers, for
its professor in theology, and Dr. Welsh for the
chair of church history. Under such teachers it
would have been difficult for a pupil of even ordinary
capacity to remain inert and unaccomplished; in the
case of Robert M'Cheyne there was an ardour that
not only carried him onward in the studies over which
they presided, but into that life of Christian activity
and practical usefulness which they were so desirous
to combine with the intellectual acquirements of
young students in training for the ministry. Many
of our living clergymen can still remember how both
in Glasgow and Edinburgh Dr. Chalmers converted
the divinity halls into evangelistic seminaries of Sab-
bath-school teachers and religious instructors of the
poor; and with what hearty good-will they them-
selves, while students, enlisted in the good work, and
plunged boldly into those recesses of ignorance and
crime which, but for his exhortations, they would
have never thought of entering; and how they
thereby acquired that knowledge and aptitude for
their future duties, which the mere lectures of the
class-room could never have imparted.
After having finished the usual course appointed
for students in divinity, and exhibited an amount of
talent and acquirements that might have opened for
him an entrance into the fairest fields of literary
ambition, Mr. M 'Cheyne was licensed as a preacher
by the presbytery of Annan, on  the  1st of July, 1835.
The sphere of action to which he turned at the outset
was both humble and laborious, being an assistant-
ship of the joint-parishes of Larbert and Dunipace,
having a population of 6000 souls, most of whom
were colliers and workmen of the Carron Ironworks
�a population sufficiently repulsive in station and
manners, as well as in general moral character. His
situation and his feelings are well described in his
poem on Mungo Park finding a Tuft of Green Grass
in the African Desert�a poem, by the way, which
John Wilson, our prince of critics, has stamped with
his honoured approval:�
" No mighty rock upreared its head
To bless the wanderer with its shade,
In all the weary plain;
No palm-trees with refreshing green
To glad the dazzled eye were seen,
But one wide sandy main.
" Dauntless and daring was the mind
That left all home-born joys behind
These deserts to explore�
To trace the mighty Niger's course,
And find it bubbling from its source
In wilds untrod before.
" And ah! shall we less daring show,
Who nobler ends and motives know
Than ever heroes dream�
Who seek to lead the savage mind
The precious Fountain-head to find,
Whence flows salvation's stream?"
Thus he felt, and in this spirit he laboured during
the ten months of his assistantship, not confining
himself to the duties of the pulpit, careful and
anxious though his preparations in that department
were, but visiting in every house, and endeavouring
to make himself acquainted with the character, spi-
ritual condition, and wants of every individual. A
happy proof of his diligence and discriminating char-
acter in this the most important part of clerical duty,
is contained in a letter which he afterwards wrote to
his successor, recommending to his attention the per-
sons in whom he felt most solicitude. "Take more
heed to the saints," he writes, "than ever I did.
Speak a word in season to S. M. S. H. will drink
in simple truth, but tell him to be humble-minded.
Cause L. H. to learn in silence; speak not of reli-
gion to her, but speak to her case always. Teach
A. M. to look simply at Jesus* J. A. warn and