Matheson Collection > Caraid nan Gaidheal

OF THE AUTHOK. XXX Vll
effect a fair and liberal settlement of the Church
question, the evidence of which — though preserved
chiefly in a large private correspondence — is known
to those who took a part in those discussions and
attempts at preventing a separation.
His public appearances were many, and always
eloquent and impressive, whether in behalf of the
church, and her ample freedom as a church of Christ,
with a constitution established and protected by law,
or in advocating her various schemes of usefulness.
The heaviest and most difficult work imposed upon
him at this time, in connection with the church in
the Highlands, was the filling up of vacant parishes,
in most of which the great majority of the people
naturally left the church with their pastors — who
alone had been their instructors in church politics
as well as in the gospel — pledging themselves in a
way which by not a few has been recognized almost
as binding as an oath, never to return to the old
church, but to oppose it by all the means in their
power. The preachers qualified to instruct in Gaelic
are always comparatively few ; but when even their
ranks were thinned, the difficulty of selection was
immensely increased, and never could be made, on
the whole, satisfactory to patrons or people. The
incessant labour of this time, with its pain and
anxiety, told upon his health and strength more
than any work in which he had ever been engaged.
He published at this time a most effective dia-
members of Parliament now alive, kindly communicated to me a few
years ago, the following anecdote : — " I was sitting beside Sir Robert
on the opposition side of the house, when he turned round to me and
said, ' Your friend Dr. Macleod dines with me to-morrow ; will you
come and meet him ? He is a noble character and is in my opinion
the very beau-ideal of what a clergyman ought to be.' "