It gives us as much satisfaction as any thing of the kind can pro duce, that, by the whole of his own showing, we were correct-invulnerably correct, in our statements. He has indeed detected us in one mistake, or rather we detected the mistake ourselves, and then rectified it, just to please that fastidious appetite which he has for accuracy where the error is of no earthly consequence. We happened inadvertently to say, that his tirade against the ministry, on account of which the choler of the Lord Advocate was moved, was actually published in the Dumfries Courier. Now, the fact turns out to have been, that Mr. M'Lellan sent it for publication in that newspaper; it was set up in types, but it was prevented from appearing by the interference of the principal editor, who thought it violent and discreditable; and at the same time some copies of it were thrown off for the private gratification of the author -who, all the while, had been flattering himself that his article was really to be published, and who would have published it had not a wiser head than his own come into play. Surely, however, whether the article was actually inserted in the Courier or not, and whether it met the observation of the Lord Advocate by his reading it in the newspaper, or by reading it in a dirty slip that had dropped from a careless pressman's pocket, the sentiments which it contained were the sentiments of Mr. M'Lellan; and these sentiments were such as to awaken no very complacent feelings in the mind of the Crown-Counsel. And this was all that we had any thing to do with. This was the substantial and relevant position that we laid down ; and so far as it affected Mr. M'Lellan on the one hand, or our argument on the other, it could not be, in the least degree, impaired by the circumstance to

VOL. XXI. NO. XII.

which he refers in such a singularly triumphant tone, nor even by a thousand other circumstances equally distinct and distant from the substance of the case. As Mr. M'Lellan seems to build very confidently on this trifle, it may be proper, in two sentences, to set him right, if that be possible, by an analogy drawn from something which we have no doubt is very dear to him.

Mr. McLellan delivered a sermon before his Grace the Commissioner, which gave infinite satisfaction to one person at least, and might be considered as a tolerably fair specimen of the preacher's sentiments and style. It was, we understand, on Sympathy, and not altogether free from obligations to a certain celebrated writer on that subject. But, be that as it may, supposing that it had been published at the request of the moderator, which it was not, and that somebody had been so bold as to write a commendatory critique upon it, and praising it as elegant in its diction, and philosophical in its discussion, and Christian in its spirit, should unluckily have coupled with his eulogium, a passing hint, that the discourse was printed on wire-wove, and bound in morocco; we ask Mr. M'Lellan if he would have permitted us to question the substance of the article because we happened to discover that the oration spoken of in such laudatory terms, was actually printed on coarse foolscap, and bound in coarser calf? Surely not. And no more is the ill-fated paper which Mr. M'Lellan wrote for insertion in the Dumfries Courier to be considered as an unfair representation of his political views and principles, merely because we hap pened to say, that it was published in that paper instead of saying, that it was rejected by the Editor, and that it was printed in a differ ent form. We hope that our friend

5 s

is now satisfied on that point; every other person, we are certain, is most completely so.

Mr. McLellan is very obliging, for he has now given to the public the identical paper (errors except ed) which we referred to; and it corroborates all that we said about its affording a test of his political creed. It just proves, and proves at great length, that we did not at all misrepresent him-that he was not only in opposition to the king's ministers, but that his opposition was more than ordinarily violentthat besides stating the unquestion. ed and unquestionable fact of its having attracted the serious notice of the Lord Advocate, we might have truly stated that his Lordship has taken notice of things of much less alarming import-and that, at all rates, it bears us out most victoriously in our opinion, when we repeat what we mentioned before, that the Rev. Gentleman who could write and publish such a document was not a proper object of patronage to the junto that resisted Dr. Cook's pretensions on the score of disaffection. Let it be observed, that we do not blame Mr. McLellan for being anti-ministerial, any more than we should have blamed him for being ministerial. He may be the one, or he may be the other, and a good sort of man notwithstanding. All that we assert respecting Mr. M'Lellan is, that such was the matter of fact, and then from the fact we draw the inference as before, (we hope he understands us,) that the great men who ele. vated him to be one of the Commissioner's preachers were the most inconsistent of all human beings, and betrayed, by this act, the utter hollowness and hypocrisy of their pretensions.

We have said, that it is very obJiging in Mr. M'Lellan to help for ward and proclaim his own discomfiture, by publishing his manifesto

on what he calls the gagging bills; but we have a lurking suspicion that the publication was prompted by something that people generally denominate vanity, but which he himself will more properly consider as a laudable wish to promote his literary reputation. And as he may probably be expecting from us the usual exercise of our functions as reviewers, we shall humbly endeavour not to disappoint him. Be it known, therefore, as our deliberate opinion, that we cannot say much, if any thing, in favour of the lucubrations which he has thrust upon our notice. The intellectual pow ers exhibited in his performance are of a very low and uncouth description. Its tone is that of a fourth rate London opposition newspaper, more tempered, indeed, by a becoming apprehension of "George, greeting," but just as substantially vulgar and violent. The style is tolerably perspicuous,-as much so, at least, as to convey the impression very clearly, that Mr. M'Lellan is antipode even to the most moderate toryism; but it has no elegance, and, on the contrary, is distinguished by a very nauseous mixture of thumping clownishness and affected genteelity. We certainly had no great fondness at the time for the measures against which this essay was directed; and we do not now recollect them with any feeling of complacency or gratitude. If, however, it had been possible to prevent them from being adopted, the possibility did not at all lie in such essays as the one before us. No good could be derived from argument so pointless and composition so dull. And we have no hesitation in advising our author, as a matter of prudence and propriety on his part, to abstain henceforth both from opposing ministry and supporting moderation by means of types and paper, because these form an element in which neither nature

nor education has fitted him to move with skill, or dignity, or grace.

Since Mr. McLellan brought forward the foresaid article, to show how far wrong we were in ascribing to him violent anti-ministerial sentiments, he should not have failed to give us some of his other productions, by which our error might have been still more decisively exposed. For example, he might have quoted a passage or two from the Address to Queen Caroline, which he moved in the presbytery of Kirkcudbright. He might have told the public, that some such language as the following was found in his hand writing, and laid on the presbytery's table," proceedings" (viz. against the Queen) "which we refrain from characterizing in their hideous deformity, but which, we have no hesitation in saying, originated in the foul malice and detestable avarice of base informers, if not of titled spies; and which, if persisted in, would have sapped the moral foundations of the monarchy."-" They have availed themselves of the right of praying for her Majesty by name, to show their respect for her Majesty, and to preserve their consciences from the reproach of seeming to give the sanction of religion to the insinuations of her guilt," &c. &c. &c. We do not say that these were the precise words employed, but we do affirm, that they contain the meaning, and are nearly the very expressions, which were found in the proposed address. It is not our province, and it is not our intention, to find fault either with the motion that was made, or with the language that was sported on the

occasion alluded to; on these things we give no opinion. We take it for a matter of course that Mr. McLellan, and his brethren who supported him, acted most conscientiously. But we are entitled, surely, to conclude, that the man from whose pen, or from whose lips, such phraseology proceeded, is not misrepresented or calumniated when he is asserted to be one of the very keenest of oppositionists; and that those persons could not be sincere who procured Mr. M' Lellan's appointment to preach before the King's Commissioner to the General Assembly, and, at the same time, resist another gentleman's pretensions to the modera tor's chair on account of his alleged opposition to the King's ministers.

Mr. M Lellan's main defence appears in an advertisement which he sent to various newspapers, and in which he thought proper to deny our allegations, and to support his denial by a scurrilous attack on an individual, who, we dare say, would as soon fight with a coal. heaver as condescend to a dispute with the minister of Kelton. Great must be his zeal in this business, for he sent his advertisement to almost all the newspapers in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dumfries, Ayr, &c. and this implies a readiness to pay as many half-guineas at least*, which, in the present state of agriculture, must have been no small sacrifice; and great must have been his mortification to find, that, with a few exceptions, his advertisement was rejected by the newspaper Editors, notwithstanding the pecuniary temptation with which he accompanied each demand for insertion.

As to the spirit in which the do. cument originated, and which pervades its every sentence, we know very well the general opinion to be, that it is the pure unadulterated spirit of malignity and revenge. With this opinion ours, we confess, does not coincide. For though appearances are undoubtedly in its favour, and though we could not hope for success in any attempt to convince the community that it is wrong, we must be allowed to say, that a person who could so easily forgive his Majesty's ministers for all their pertinacious efforts to oppress and enslave the country, could not possibly harbour a moment's resentment against an inferior adversary-especially against one whom (whether rightly or not is of no consequence) he believes to be a professional brother. At the same time, we should be setting all common sense at nought, if we thought to discover in it any spirit of love or "sympathy." Within its four corners we in vain look for any vestige of kindliness. Nor are we surprised at this; for no man can be well pleased with the exposure of his ultra-whiggism at the very moment that he is caballing with tories, and advancing their worst measures as earnestly as he is courting their best preferments. To an exposure of this kind we were indirectly the means of subjecting our worthy friend of Kelton; and he no doubt felt as much sourness and chagrin as we experienced of pain and regret, at the necessity we were under of adducing him at all in order to make good our charge against the junto. Viewing the matter in this light, and put ting ourselves in his situation, we only marvel that his advertisement has not more of the infusion of gall and wormwood in its composition. Let the meekest Christian in the world be only handled with as much justice and freedom as we

handled Mr. M'Lellan, and though they might yet, for all that, be so foolish as to vent their spleen in an advertisement, we question if they could have expressed themselves so much in character as has this pattern of mild temper and gentlemanly conduct.

We cannot say so much for the correctness of his statement. Some shrewd people are inclined to allow, that our friend is not such a strict adherent to "the thing which is," as he is to the service of his new masters. But we rebel against such an insinuation. We impute the inaccuracies in point of fact, which we discover, to the same blundering propensity which produced the inconsistency of a certain clergyman, with whom it would be good for Mr. M'Lellan to be more intimately acquainted--which clergyman ordained an elder irregularly and unlawfully, and then gave an extract from the minutes of Session, bearing that the said elder had been regularly and lawfully ordained!

But supposing the whole to be quite true, and quite free from erroneous statement, we should like to know, on what principle or process of logic it is that the circumstance which Mr. M'Lellan has raked up, will prove him to have done and been none of those things which we affirmed him to have been and done, or will prove a single position of our description of him to be either false or exaggerated. We have sometimes heard his' reasoning faculties spoken of as being above those of most of his moderate brethren in Galloway; and, of course, we believed it. But really if we believed it now, we should not wonder at a general proposal for having his moderate brethren cognosced. No, no, we are now compelled to place him at the very bottom of the scale; and to hold him more incapable than the veriest scavenger of his ecclesiastical party

of drawing a sound conclusion from the premises he lays down. Mr. M'Lellan, as we have already recorded the event, did deliver a sermon on Sympathy before the Commissioner. "That," says Mr. A. B. " was an excellent discourse. It was philosophical, acute, eloquent, and pathetic. He began with some pertinent remarks". "Hold, hold," replied M. C. D. who listened, as well he might, with some impatience to this ha rangue," hold my friend, that could not be the case-he made no pertinent remarks he was neither philosophical nor acute, elegant nor pathetic, his discourse was not excellent-nay, I flatly deny that he preached at all,-for my good Sir, did you never hear the story of the Bridles?' I will tell you..... And did you never hear the story of the Great Coat?' I will tell you that too..... And did you never hear the story of the 'Fiars' Court?' That also I must tell you..... O Sir, I could go on ad infinitum with such stories: and after all these, can you hope for credit when you affirm, that Mr. M'Lellan preached a sermon on Sympathy, or that his sermon was worth more than a one farthing rush-light?" "Enough, enough, Mr. A. B. 1 am perfectly satisfied I was in the wrong. Mr. McLellan never preached such a sermon as the one I have mentioned. I was guilty of a 'gross mis-statement,' and scurrilous representation,' when I made that averment." So much for Mr. McLellan's logic!

With respect to the manner in which Mr. M'Lellan has, on the whole, acquitted himself as a writ er of advertisements, we must say, that it does not indicate any high powers in that department of literature. If, however, either from his love of fame or his desire to lighten the burdens of the country, he is ambitious to employ his pen in

that way, we have no doubt, that, by strenuous perseverance, he may, by and by, attain no small degree of eminence; there is, perhaps, nothing also in which he could so easily or SO speedily excel. Certainly if we had the least expectation that he would follow our counsel, we would advise him to devote all his energies to the discharge of pastoral duty, and to forego printing and publishing, as in his case, a very hopeless concern. But seeing he has something like a cacoethes scribendi, we conceive no channel to be fitter for the current of his thoughts than the lower parts of a newspaper's advertising columns, which are usually appro priated to the announcing and puffing of quack medicines. And even there some judgment must be exercised in making a proper selection. Whoever it may be in whose employment he engages, there is one comfort-the service of the little Doctors of Quackery is just as honourable, and will probably be as lucrative, as the service of the great Doctors of Moderation. We do not think that our worthy friend has either wit or poetry enough for Turner's blacking-that substance is of too shining a quality for him to operate upon-but sure we are he has prose, sufficiently dull and dreary, for Steer's Opodeldoc, or Cockle's Compound Antibilious Pills for cases of Diseased Liver and Ob« stinate Bilious Affections.

Before concluding, we have just two things to say. two things to say. In the first place, we have to express our obligations to Mr. M'Lellan for the great publicity he has given, in his own district of the church, to our remarks on the Assembly's pro ceedings. The Instructor has no great circulation in Galloway-the junto, we presume, have issued their interdict upon it in that quarter-and therefore we are glad that the minister of Kelton has thought