Memoir of the Chisholm

RE-ELECTION. 201
ill-informed or a very shallow reasoner. No
man can more sincerely respect than I do the
rights of conscience, and of a free exercise of
all which even a deluded conscience may en-
force, under the name of religion, so long as
there shall be no violence done to others ; no,
none can more cordially respect and esteem
those conscientious and Christian Dissenters,
who are not mere political sectarians. But
I never can admit that their consciences
are really aggrieved, or they themselves op-
pressed, by the maintenance of a National
Church, whose doctrines are pure and scrip-
tural, and whose exclusiveness is the neces-
sary condition of carrying out the principle of
a national provision for religious worship and
religious instruction. Gentlemen, I have en-
larged the more upon this matter, because I
conceive the principle involved to be one of
the highest value and importance, because I
find it much misconceived and often called in
question 3 ."
The election terminated in the return of
the Chisholm over his former opponent, Grant
of Glenmoriston, by a majority of fifty-four,
3 Inverness Herald, at supra.