Volume 3 > Half-Volume 6

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been occupation sufficient for one mind�will not
only explain his solicitude about freedom from inter-
ruption, but apologize for his bluntness when his
privacy was invaded. So early, however, was his
work commenced in the morning, so effectual his
method of saving time, and so much thereby accom-
plished in a single day, that he could find leisure to
write Popery and Puseyism Illustrated, which was
published in 1851. The work consists of four essays,
in which the unscriptural claims of the Papists and
Puseyites are exposed and refuted, and the superi-
ority of genuine Protestantism vindicated. In 1853
Dr. Campbell published a little work, entitled Coun-
sels on the Choice of Pastors. In 1856 he published
six letters on the moral and spiritual condition of the
metropolis, pointing out their diseased condition,
and suggesting the best means of cure.
Great as were the merits and wide the popularity
of the British Banner, it was unfortunate that Dr.
Campbell should have undertaken its management.
Highly talented though he was, it was not the kind
of work in which he was best fitted to excel, and
the cause of this is so well explained in Campbell's
obituary, written in the English Independent of
March 28th, 1867, that we cannot refrain from quot-
ing its statement. "The truth is, that the mind of
Dr. Campbell was not well adapted for the work
which, in the newspaper line, he had undertaken.
It embraced a large variety of subjects, some of
which he had but little studied. It required more
various and more special information than he had
collected. It exacted a readiness which he never
possessed, and for which no amount of mere labour
could suffice as a substitute. It involved an art
only to be acquired by much practice, of which he
had none. Above all, it called for a power of divid-
ing attention among a dozen subjects at once;
whereas the power in which he excelled, both by
nature and by habit, was that of concentrating atten-
tion exclusively upon one. It is therefore no dis-
paragement of Dr. Campbell's just reputation to say
that he never proved equal to himself as editor of a
newspaper. That he worked hard and rendered
useful service in the two journals which he origi-
nated, is not denied even by those who sometimes
thought his efforts misdirected, and were compelled
to take exception to the methods which he used;
but to his warmest admirers, no less than to obser-
vers who watched him with a critical reserve, it
cannot but have been apparent that nearly every
effort which gave a character of energy, not to speak
of success, to the labours of Dr. Campbell as a
newspaper editor, consisted in a series of epistolatory
compositions addressed to real or imaginary corres-
pondents, and strictly limited to one subject or class
of subjects." It was not, however, owing to this
deficiency that his connection with the Banner was
dissolved, but his uncompromising earnestness for
what he conceived to be the cause of truth, and the
unsparing manner in which he advanced its claims,
be its obstacles or opponents what they might.
This involved him in controversies which he did
not always conduct in the best of tempers, and the
Banner which he carried so boldly into these affrays
was apt to sustain damages which its proprietors did
not care to hazard. After some bickering with them
on this account, his editorship of the newspaper
terminated at the dose of 1856, and the Banner
itself became extinct.
But although the Doctor thus threw down the
British Banner, it was only to take up the British
Standard'in its stead�a newspaper as like the former
in character and spirit as the one name was like the
other, but free from the incumbrance of managers or
proprietors; and he triumphed in the thought that by
the absence of such restrictions he would be able to
express his sentiments without check or limit. Very
soon after it was established an important occasion
presented itself, and he rushed into the field of con-
troversy. In a republication of Home's Introduction
to the Critical Study of the Scriptures, Dr. Davidson,
one of the professors of Lancashire Independent
College, had produced an additional volume which
was considered as having a tendency to unsettle the
faith of inquirers regarding the authenticity and in-
spiration of parts of the Old Testament. Shocked
that a teacher of the future teachers of religion, and
one belonging to his own particular church, should
have been guilty of so extreme an inconsistency, Dr.
Campbell proclaimed his opposition. His desire
was to keep the colleges untainted by heresy; and
the letters which he published on the occasion were
thought to have had a large influence in producing
that important result.
On the death of his old friend, the Rev. J. A.
James of Birmingham, Dr. Campbell published the
work entitled "A Review of his History, Character,
Eloquence, and Literary Labours, with Dissertations
on the Pulpit and the Press, Academic Preaching,
College Reform," &c. &c.
The solicitude of Dr. Campbell for the welfare of
British Protestantism, and his alarm at the progress
of Popery in our island, was manifested by the pub-
lication of his work, The Conquest of England: in a
series of Letters to the Prince Consort. Desirous also
that its influence might extend in head-quarters, he
sent a copy of these Letters to the Earl of aShaftes-
bury, to each member of the Episcopal bench, and
to many of the leading clergymen of all denomina-
tions.
In 1862, in consequence of the opening up of
China to British commerce, and partly to British
rule, Dr. Campbell, who had made the Christian
development of that vast empire an important sub-
ject of his studies, now wrote a series of articles in
the British Standard on the conversion of China,
which he represented as being, in connection with
India, the great field of enterprise for modern mis-
sions. The letters also reappeared in the British
Ensign, and produced such an impression that it
was proposed to publish 100,000 extra copies of the
Ensign for general circulation. The proposal was
acceptable, and the paper was subscribed for by
individuals not for a few copies but a thousand. This
success excited the ire or envy of the Saturday Review,
and in a bitter article upon the subject they character-
ized Dr. Campbell's zeal in behalf of missions to
China as a device "to make a losing paper go."
They also asserted that the subscription lists were
not authenticated, that the subscribers themselves
were mere myths, that the letters from correspon-
dents all bore the mark of one hand, and that the
whole plan was a deception contrived for purposes
of gain. These were serious moral charges, for
which Dr. Campbell demanded a public recantation
and apology; and when these were refused he brought
an action against the printer of the Review, and the
case was tried in the Court of Queen's Bench in
April, 1863. The result of the trial was that a ver-
dict was found in favour of Dr. Campbell, and the
opposite party sentenced to a fine of �50.
In 1865 the Doctor published his work on "Popery,
Ancient and Modern;�its  Spirit, Principles, Char-
acter, Objects, Prospects, Checks, and Extirpation;
with Warnings and Counsels to the People of Eng-
land." This work he intended to be the last he
should ever write, and he considered it as a bequest
to his countrymen. It was characterized not only