Letters to William Wilberforce

No. LXI.

Glasgow, 9th February 1818.

MY DEAR SIR, — The concluding paragraph of the Prince Regent’s speech* has given great satisfaction to the friends of

* Recommending to the attention of Parliament the deficiency in the number of places of worship connected with the Established Church, as compared with the increased and increasing population.

religion in this quarter. It, at the same time, by suspending measures till the specific proposal of Government be known, has given a temporary check to their operations for adding new churches to the Establishment in Glasgow. My own apprehension is, that if Government shall offer to carry this into effect by a pecuniary grant merely, it will do but little for us here in proportion to the needs of our population, and at the same time will do as much as will satisfy and set at rest the lukewarm friends of the cause.

What I think would be most desirable in any legal enactments on this subject, would be to afford facilities to the enterprise of individuals who, on their own risk, might combine to build churches in connexion M7ith the Establishment, and thus extend the object of Government, and that without any expense to Government. You know what Mr. Gladstone of Liverpool has done in this way, having added two churches to that town at his own risk. Now, it is my conviction, that a proper encouragement being held out to individuals, much may be done in the same way in the larger towns of Scotland.

For instance, if Government were so far to countenance such speculations, as to vest the individuals who came forward with funds for the erection of churches and the maintenance of their clergy with the right of nomination for a hundred years, after which the patronage might fall either to the Crown or to the Magistrates and Council, I have no doubt that in a very few years indeed we should see at least half a dozen of additional churches in this place, and that without any expense to Government at all. A great collateral advantage that I could anticipate for such an arrangement is this — a purer exercise of patronage. It is a great security for our getting a good evangelical clergyman when the patron is strongly interested in the popularity of his choice; and we cannot be too grateful when we think how wisely and mercifully God can bring about the extension of His kingdom among men even out of the sordid elements of human interest and human passion.

May I submit to you another observation on this point. A church without a local district annexed to it in the shape of a corresponding parish, is not the best arrangement for getting it filled with hearers. Give the preacher a superintendence over a certain range of population, and his week-day attentions amongst them will at length bring them to his Sabbath ministrations. The habit of church-going has got most wo fully into desuetude, and nothing should be overlooked which can help to restore it. I think that I speak what is practically and experimentally true, when I affirm the mighty operation which lies in the mere attaching of a certain portion of town over which the minister has the official right of expatiating through the week to the church where he preaches on the Sabbath.

You may remember my former communications on the subject of the Edinburgh Professorship. I wish that no further application should be made to Government on this subject. I feel as formerly on the suitableness of such an office to my taste; but I know of nothing which more effectually neutralizes a man’s usefulness in this age of party violence and imputations, than the appearance of receiving anything from Government. Even for the sake of the interests of loyalty and good order, I would rather decline any benefit from the patronage of the State, knowing well that the only way in which a man’s testimony can have weight amongst his citizens on the side of loyalty, is that they be thoroughly convinced of its being a disinterested testimony. Permit me to say, that this conviction of mine stands most intimately associated with all that I have observed of the conduct of you and your friends in Parliament.

From a letter I received some time ago from Lady Grey,

I was glad to observe that you approve generally of my views on Pauperism. I have another article on the same subject in the next number of the “Edinburgh Review.”

I cannot conclude without expressing the very warm affection that I entertain for you. It is my earnest prayer that your life and your labours may long be preserved to us. I beg my most respectful compliments to Mrs. Wilberforce. — Believe me, my dear Sir, yours with most cordial esteem, No. LXII.

Glasgow, 28t7i December 1818.

MY DEAR SIR, — I have no one topic connected with business about which to write to you; and indeed I always grieve for any necessity of this kind, thinking, as I do, that there ought to be a general combination on the part of all your friends to let you, as much as possible, alone. There is positively nothing which they ought more to study than to abridge the numerous exactions which are perpetually made upon your attention and your time, and to suffer you that undisturbed repose which it would be desirable that you could be permitted to enjoy.

The chief impulse under which I write is that produced by your last letter — on my review of the various letters I have received during the currency of the year that is departing away from us, and which breathes so kindly and so affectionately towards me, that I cannot but send you the warmest acknowledgments of my gratitude and regard.

I further take the opportunity of stating, in reference to a certain confidential subject on which you did me the honour of addressing me some months ago, that I have introduced the matter into several companies, and in general found that the task of vindication was altogether superfluous. I in particular recollect having started the topic in one of the highest of our circles here, when our then member, Mr. Finlay, was present; and I had the utmost satisfaction in hearing the cordial testimony he bore to the entire consistency and integrity of your Parliamentary conduct. Such is the worthlessness of mere partisanship, that none can stand out with any degree of conspicuousness to the public eye without becoming the subject of vile and calumnious aspersions. But it is a satisfaction to know, that even in this alienated and accursed world there is often so willing a tribute rendered to principle, even in quarters where the natural enmity of the human heart is most apt to be provoked with the exhibition of it.

I beg to offer my affectionate regards to Mrs. Wilberforce. She will perhaps be interested to know that Mrs. Parker is in my immediate neighbourhood, and that I have the felicity of occasional intercourse with her. — Believe me, my dear Sir, yours with the most cordial esteem, No. LXIII.

Glasgoio, 25th June 1822.

MY DEAR SIR, — I promised to write you on a subject, the interest of which for the time has gone by. I have long looked with a most approving eye to the part you take respecting the Catholics of Ireland; and I simply wanted to let you know, that the evangelical party in our Church are fast hastening towards the same enlightened spirit of Christian and liberal policy in regard to them. There arc still a few sturdy old clergymen amongst us who have not yet got the better, and never will, of the sore recollections of their covenanting fore fathers. But with the exception of these, and of some others who take the opposite side of the question from political motives, I do think that the Church of Scotland would like the removal of the existing disabilities. What a piece of kingly munificence would it have been had his Majesty been enabled to carry the deed of emancipation to Ireland along with him.

I have not forgotten the very great exertions you made in behalf of three Canada emigrants about two years ago; and I really think that it ought to be a principle with all your friends to form themselves into a cordon of defence, for the purpose of protecting you from all manner of intrusion. I hope that you received my last, written about a fortnight ago. You honoured me by asking my sentiments on the subject of public affairs, and I ventured a few affirmations on a matter that I am far from being qualified to pronounce on. I see that the public funds are to be held inviolable, and there is assuredly something noble in the principle of it. I cannot, however, get the better of a principle that I have long held on the subject of taxation, and that is, that all taxes fall ultimately on land, the capitalist finding an indemnification for his taxes always in an increase of profit, and the labourer in an increase of wages. I should like to see the whole revenue of the Government raised by a land-tax, equally including stock-holders as the mortgagees or co-proprietors of the soil. The burden would thus appear to fall exclusively upon one class. But in truth they pay all at present directly or indirectly; and were they made to pay all by a direct levy, they would find almost instant indemnification for a measure that would look very formidable at the outset by a fall of price in all the comforts of human life.

We had a visit from Mr. Gray of Sunderland lately, one of the good men of the Church of England. It is truly refreshing to have a visit from such; it always puts me in mind of a saying of Brainerd’s, that he has heard hundreds speak about religion, but not above one or two speak religion. We Scotch speak about it — look at the matter intellectually — come forth with our didactic and metaphysical speculations about the thing; but the evangelical English, as far as I can observe, possess the thing; and possessing it, they have by far the most effective ingredient of good preaching, which is the personal piety of the preacher himself.

It is my prayer that you may long be preserved amongst us. May you taste the comforts of retirement; and may a foretaste of Heaven mingle with them. It is a sad world surely, when one cannot bustle his way through it even in pursuit of what is good, without the danger of being bustled out of all his spirituality. This I feel every day. But Christ did not pray that His disciples should be taken out of the world, but that they should be kept from the evil of it. — “With most affectionate regards to Mrs. Wilberforce, believe me, my dear Sir, yours very truly, THOMAS CHALMERS.

No. LXIV.

Glasgow, 8th July 1823.

MY DEAR SIR, — I feel obliged by your kind inquiries respecting myself. I at one time thought of writing you an explanatory letter on the subject of my departure from Glasgow; but I was assailed with such a torrent of unexpected “abuse because of it on the part of my best friends, that I resolved to wait their attentions ere I should write one word upon the subject. I believe it is now pretty obvious to them all, that a University where young men are reared for the public offices of the Church, is a higher station in the field of Christian usefulness than any one of these offices. I was not unmindful of this consideration when I made my choice; and it was a choice that I embraced more readily, as I had long found that the fatigues of action were encroaching too far on the tastes and habits of a studious life; and more particularly as the pressure of my fatigue was greatly aggravated by the various and to all appearance interminable controversies that had been raised against me.

Meanwhile I am much engrossed with the concluding duties of my present office, and preparation for the duties of my new one; and this engrossment must last till the summer of 1824. I expect ere I leave Glasgow to have perfected my parochial arrangements, and to leave them on such a footing as to make it obvious to all, that it is not I who have resolved the problem of pauperism for St. John’s, but that the human nature of the people has done it for me, and will do it for any other that simply lets the arrangement alone. The difficulty of the problem does not lie with the poor — it lies with the rulers and managers of the poor. The barrier is not in the necessities of the lower orders — it is in the obstinate prejudices of the higher orders; and I lay my account with a far more formidable obstacle to the abolition of this great moral evil in the Parliament of England than in the people of England.

May I be permitted to say, that I have long regretted the very inconsiderate encroachments which even your friends make upon your time and ease. I should rejoice in a calm and tranquil evening of life for you; and my prayer is, that you may have many happy days on earth brightened with the hopes and the foretaste of Heaven in the bosom of your family. I feel the utmost gratitude for all your attentions to myself; and shall ever reflect with a pleasure, not perhaps unmixed with some pride, on the intercourse that I have had with yourself and the other distinguished philanthropists of England.

We expect Mr. Clarkson in Glasgow next month. There has been a Committee formed for promoting the abolition of slavery. — With most respectful compliments to Mrs. and Miss Wilberforce, I am, my dear Sir, yours with great regard, No. LXV.

St. Andrews, 28th October 1825.

MY DEAR SIR, — Mr. Collins shewed me a letter from you, wherein you made a reference to me on the subject of the London University. I was then in Glasgow, and in the midst of many engrossments. I now avail myself of a moment’s leisure for a few slight remarks on the way in which a Christian education may be made to keep pace with the general education which such an institution is so fitted to advance. I have no leisure for any publication on the topic, however short.

There are many difficulties attendant on the introduction of Theology among the other professorships, and most of which have been already adverted to in the deliberations which have taken place on the subject. And I am not sure that you got rid of these difficulties by generalizing the course into a mere series of lectures, on Natural Theology and the Evidences of Christianity. For my own part, I have now long thought that the most powerful of all those evidences is founded on the adaptation of the gospel to the moral wants and condition of our nature — a subject which might be treated in a way that is quite philosophical, and that would harmonize with the tone and habits of speculation which may have been acquired by the students at the other classes; but still a subject which cannot be fully expounded without a reference to the peculiarities of the evangelical system. And if to keep clear of these peculiarities you restricted the professor to certain text-books, as those of Paley and Butler, and others that were specified, this were laying a fetter upon the business of the professorship, which no man of genius or of vigorous and excursive powers could with any comfort submit to.

How would it do instead of making a regular professorship for this subject, to make a lectureship of it, consisting of a course of three months, and in which, if the teacher gave satis faction, he could be invited indefinitely to repeat his course in future years — and whom you get quit of, should he go astray or give offence, by simply ceasing to invite him any more. By such an appendage to the University, you might perhaps secure a theological infusion without the hazards to which a regular professorship of Theology might expose you. You might at all events, by such a device, feel your way to a right and permanent arrangement of this difficult question.

On the whole, I should think it best of all that a separate institution were formed, neither connected with the London University, nor even recognising it, but whose real design was to accommodate the defence and illustration of religion to that higher intellectual state of the public which must be the result of such an institution. You are aware that some of our ablest authorship has proceeded from endowments of this sort, as the Boyle Lectureship, and many others. But I would not give it a preaching, but rather a professorial aspect. The whole expense of it might be limited to the erection of a fabric have ing, at least, one ample hall, where a general course on Natural Theology and the Evidences could be delivered once a year, by a lecturer who might be changed or continued at the pleasure of the directors. He should be remunerated chiefly, if not solely, by the fees of attendance, which ought not to be higher than those in the University. In this way you might neutralize the whole apprehended mischief, and even convert the higher scholarship of the Metropolis into a positive good; for, be assured, that in like manner as a reading Catholic population, though taught in schools whence the Bible has been excluded, is a better subject for a Christianizing process than a non-reading population; so a highly educated public, even though formed in academies whence Christianity is kept out, is still a more hopeful subject for the formation of Christian philanthropists than a rudely ignorant and unlettered public. In every pos sible stage of mental cultivation, Christianity may be exposed to an incidental bane; but she possesses an inherent antidote wherewith to counteract and to prevail over it, so that, in the long run, I anticipate the greatest good from all those leanings of the public and popular mind towards a higher scholarship. Only let them be followed up by Christians with such expedients as might suit the spirit and philosophy of the times, and more especially in London.

I shall be most happy of a further correspondence with you upon this subject. I offer my respectful compliments to Mrs. Wilberforce, and I have the honour to be, my dear Sir, yours with greatest esteem, THOMAS CHALMERS.

No. LXVI.

St. Andreu’S, 22d January 1828.

MY DEAR SIR, — I have been much gratified by the receipt and perusal of your letter, and more especially by your congratulations upon the subject of my recent appointment. I do not commence the duties of my new charge till November next; and, along with the labours of my Professorship here, I fill up the intermediate time with the still higher labours of a very arduous preparation.

I am very glad to observe that this new arrangement has at length reconciled you to my movement from Glasgow; though independently of any such ulterior view, I felt the obligation, in point of Christian usefulness, to accept of my present office — and should have continued so to feel, though I had remained here to the end of my days. I am sensible that in this feeling there are some of my best friends who do not sympathize with me — overlooking, I think, two considerations which had decisive effect with myself. The first is, that a University stands to a single church in the relation that a fountain-head, whence many streams issue, does to one only of these streams. The second is, that Moral Philosophy stands to Christianity in the relation that Law does to Gospel; that the preaching of John the Baptist did to the preaching of the Saviour.

In reply to your kind inquiries regarding my children, I have to inform you that I am the father of six daughters — the eldest fourteen years, and the youngest one month, and of nearly equi-distant ages. I have lost none of my children, and have much reason to be thankful that Mrs. Chalmers (who begs her most respectful compliments to you) though delicate, on the whole, is remarkably well at present.

It is the cordial wish of myself, and, I am sure, the wish and the prayer of all your Christian friends, that you may be spared to spend amongst us a long old age of piety and peace. May you still have many days of rest and of rejoicing on the borders of Heaven; and may that Book, which spoke power fully to myself, and has spoken powerfully to thousands, represent you to future generations, and be the instrument of converting many who are yet unborn.

With my respectful regards to Mrs. and Miss Wilberforce, I have the honour to be, my dear Sir, yours, with greatest esteem, THOMAS CHALMERS.

No. LXVII.

St. Andrews, lltli June 1828.

MY DEAR SIR, — I should have replied sooner to your most welcome communication; but I have been from home, and I did not receive it till yesterday, when it was too late to reply to it by the post.

Mrs. Chalmers and I are both delighted with the prospect of having you for a guest. We remain here till late in October, it being far the best place for the prosecution of those studies which are so indispensable to the arduous office upon which I am so soon to enter

We shall have two rooms at your service, and promise you all the gratification which a most thorough retirement and the most cordial welcome can afford. We both are quite alive to the honour and the enjoyment of such a visit.

It is not necessary to write at present on the subject of a Scottish tour, seeing that the movement should be a circular one, and that your coming to St. Andrews, by Edinburgh, is just taking our side of the circle first. Your return should be by the North of Scotland and the West Coast; but the details of the ulterior journey had far better be discussed in conversation.

We trust that Mrs. Wilberforce and your daughter will accompany you. — I have the honour to be, my dear Sir, yours with greatest esteem and regard, THOMAS CHALMERS

No. LXVIIT.

St. Andrews, 15th July 1828.

MY DEAR SIR, — Mrs. Chalmers and I have been made quite happy by your last. It will give us great pleasure to see your son. We can accommodate him as well as the ladies, who, I think, will enjoy Scotland; and I fondly trust that you will be much the better of the journey. The house we at present occupy is very commodious, and has some pretensions to the name of classical — it not only having in it the study of George Buchanan, but having lodged Dr. Samuel Johnson when he visited St. Andrews.

Our autumns are generally drier than our summers, but there is no such great or regular difference as would lead me to fix on any particular month in the way of preference. On the whole, I would not think it advisable to travel in Scotland after the end of September.

We have the greater and the smaller Highland tour — the former taking you as far north as Inverness, and farther if you choose; the latter a smaller sweep by Perth, Dunkeld, Blair, Killin, Argyleshire. The former would also comprehend Argyleshire. You commence either from St. Andrews, and terminate what is purely Highland in the journey at Glasgow, whence you could make smaller excursions to Stirling and the Trosachs.

Abstracting from all detentions on the score of society, you could make the larger sweep from St. Andrews to Glasgow by moderate journeys in a fortnight, and the smaller sweep in nine or ten days. I make allowance for the remarkable scenes on the journey.

In fixing your itinerancy my only difficulty relates to the larger tour, because there are three great northern roads, and I know not which of these should be surrendered. I am anxious to secure the middle road, as being the more characteristic across the Grampians. But I would be unwilling to sacrifice the eastern, which takes you by Aberdeen, and carries you to some remarkable objects on the coast. I would very much defer to Mr. Charles Grant’s opinion, who, by the way, is extensively acquainted in Inverness-shire. My letters of introduction will be a few to the aristocracy, but chiefly to the more meritorious clergy along the line of your journey, who will be delighted to show you every attention, and whom you will find to be at once intelligent and congenial.

May I request to know your movements when you have fixed them. — With most respectful compliments to Mrs. and Miss Wilberforce, in which Mrs. Chalmers joins, I have the honour to be, my dear Sir, yours with greatest esteem,

THOMAS CHALMERS.
No. LXIX.

St. Andrews, 31st July 1828.

MY DEAR SIR, — Your final determination for this season, on the subject of a Scottish tour, could not fail to disappoint us, though it is impossible not to acquiesce in the reasons of it. The expectation of seeing you had begun to awaken a great competition for the pleasure of your society; and, among others, Lord Leven, who, with his friend Captain Thornton, honoured me lately with a short visit, was confidently looking forward to a visit from you. We shall be exceeding glad of meeting with you anywhere, though the seclusion of St. Andrews would certainly have afforded greater advantages for intercourse than I can hope to have in Edinburgh. But there, too, we should feel it a gratification and an honour to have you under our roof.

I have just returned from Glasgow, where I have been visiting the afflicted family of my friend Mr. Parker, who died suddenly within these twelve days.

I observe the struggle and opposition that you have had to encounter in the erection of your chapel. Such is the identity of the anti-evangelical spirit all over the world, that I recognise the perfect identity of your experience with all that we have had to contend against among ourselves. Our General Assembly, however, is now far better disposed to these erections, and the chapel cause has been making great progress of late in Scotland.

Mrs. Chalmers joins in kindest regards to yourself, and with our united respects to Mrs. and Miss Wilberforce, I have the honour to be, my dear Sir, yours with greatest esteem, No. LXX.

Edinburgh, 24th November 1832.

MY DEAR SIR, — I received your letter of the 3d of October, by the hands of Mrs. “Wellman, only two or three days ago; and it was read, both by myself and Mrs. Chalmers, with great interest and emotion. I receive it as the most unequivocal expression of your friendship which could possibly be given, that you have thus laid open to me the personal and family trials wherewith a mysterious but merciful Providence hath exercised you; and we particularly rejoice in your own distinct and declared experience, that though clouds and darkness are round about Him, and there is much of the inscrutable in His dealings with the children of men, yet is there wisdom in all His ways, and kindness in all His visitations.

We felt deeply the death of your daughter, whom we saw last in June 1830. May we all grow in a well-founded hope of that inheritance above, where sorrow and separation are unknown.

With our united and respectful compliments to Mrs. Wilberforce, I have the honour to be, my dear Sir, yours with greatest esteem and regard, THOMAS CHALMERS.