Blair Collection > Caraid nan Gàidheal

XXXIV BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
reciprocated on their part. Wliile arrangìng
this version of the Psalms he had the benefit of
the assistance of Mr. Thaddeus Connellan, a most
retnarkal)le man, and wliose long and nsefid life
ought to have found a biographer before now in
Ireland. " Taddy," as he was farailiarly called,
lived for months in the manse of Carapsie, not only
as a useful transcriber, but also as a raost agreeable
conipanion, an enthusiastic Irisliman, and one wlio
by his labours had done more than any then alive
for the moral improvement of the Irish-speaking
population, Catholic or Protestant, This edition ol
tlie Irish Psalter was dedicated by permission to
King William IV., and was cordially accepted by
the highest ecclesiastical authorities of the English
and Irish Church.
But I must bring this portion of his life to
a close.
Campsie witnessed the first break in his nuraerous
and liappy family. He lost a dear son at seventeen.
His mother also died suddenl}^, in his house. She
greatly loved him, and was greatly beloved by him.
The impassioned loud cry of distress from the grey-
haired man evidenced the sense he had of the
precious link which connected him with liis birth.
While he was in Campsie the first outbreak of
cholera which occurred in this country made its
appearance in the parish. It is as difficult now as
it was to reflective people then, to coraprehend the
strange feelìngs which it excited araong the more
ignorant of the people, They became the sLives of
what raight be called hysterical dehisions. A spirit
of wild fear and deadly hate seemed to be roused.
They accused the physicians even of poisoning tlie
wells. In one of the villages of the parish where a