Rev A Brandram
Inverness, 26th Aug. 1845
My Dear Friend,
Being about to leave this place, my farthest point northward, I sit down to give you my narrative from the close of my last letter up to the present date. I left Aberdeen on the 5th instant, and came to Peterhead. The Wesleyan Minister, the Rev. Mr. Baylis, to whom I had previously written received me on alighting from the stage, and took me to his own lodgings. He was, as all the Wesleyans are, friendly to our Institution and served me all he could in furtherance of its objects. We held a meeting that evening, and another on the evening following, at the latter of which a committee was formed to consider of doing something in our favour. The Independent Minister there was likewise favourable, and so was that secession Minister. The Free Church Minister was not unfriendly, and stated that he believed Dr. Candlish's name, as signing the Warning, have not much weight with the Free Church Ministers generally. The Established Church Minister was absent, and the Episcopal Minister above our reach. The herring fishery was in full action to Peterhead, and I was interested in observing that when the nets were full the fishermen drew to shore and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels and cast the bad away.
Frazerburgh was the next place visited, where under bad weather we had a small meeting and made a small collection. Little else was done in direct help of our objects, but something preparatory perhaps for a future occasion, and it may be to a little society.
Next came Banff and here we held no meeting a tall, being hindered by various circumstances. The Established Minister showed every disposition to befriend us, and promises, along with other friends we have in that place, to give his aid in the formation of a little Auxiliary Society. Our expected meeting having proved a failure, he gave me his collection of five shillings, which he intended to drop into the plate, and another gentleman gave me ten shillings under similar circumstances. The Free Church Minister here is not friendly, but the others are all decidedly so, namely, the Established, the Secession, Independent, and the Wesleyan Ministers, and there are good hopes of a society being formed.
Elgin followed in succession. Here the Rev. Mr. McNeil the Independent Minister has long and all along stood our friend, and keeps up a sort of society in his own personal efforts to get little sums for us. He gave me £2 thus collected since his last remittance. The Free Church Minister here, though connected with the Edinburgh Bible Society, is by no means unfriendly to us, and thinks the Warnings were uncalled for and unkindly. But for some good purpose or other it seems you are privileged to have an opponent in every place, and so there was such found here in one of the Secession Ministers. The other Minister however of this connexion is our warm friend, as is nearly invariably the case with the Ministers of this body. The Established Church Minister is entirely for us. In Elgin there subsists our Bible Society in connection with Edinburgh and this society has always been, I may say, a warm partisan of its parent. Nevertheless the "irae" elsewhere existing in certain "animis coelestibus" does not seem to be nursed here. They say in their last report: – "We have no wish that hushed controversy with the friends of the London Bible Society be revived; we rejoice in the real good which that great Institution has done. We have no feeling towards its respected friends, but reverence for their conscientious conviction of duty; but we have not confidence in the purity of some of its agencies; we conscientiously disapprove of some of its alliances, and are fully persuaded that it would be more useful without them." Here you see is friendliness in the midst of non-accordance, and this, I may say, is the more general spirit of the Auxiliaries to the Edinburgh Bible Society in Scotland, so far as I have observed them; and in correspondence therewith. I have on several occasions heard in these quarters disapprobation expressed in regard to the steps recently taken in Edinburgh against us. We had a meeting here and the collection.
Forres lay next in course after Elgin. In this place, strange to say, all and everybody is for us. But despite of this the adversary has come in in another shape. The Rev. Mr. Grant, the Free Church Minister, who always stood our friend, is about to join the Edinburgh Bible Society, because he was invited, along with others, to attend a sermon for the Society in the Parish Church, from which he had been ejected. The Provost is president of the Society in Forres, and we held our meeting in what I may call his Meeting House, namely, the Court House, and made a little collection as usual.
Nairn followed, and here in company with the Independent Minister, I walked some distance out of town to see the Minister of the Established Church, whom we found very friendly, and grieved at seeing nothing done in your cause. He promises to bring the subject before the Presbytery at next meeting. There is a Bible Society here, neither connected with you nor with Edinburgh, but for a long time it has been rather nominal than effective. I did not see either the Free Church or the Secession Minister, though I called on both, but learned that the former was doubtful, and the latter friendly. Here we had, as generally had, a little meeting and a little collection.
In the above statements you have a sketch of my rapid movements from Aberdeen to Inverness. In all the places I met with hospitable treatment for your cause's sake: many were found friendly to us, some ranked with another Bible Institution, but were not unkindly towards us, and scarcely any were opposed.
In Inverness there are three Free Church Ministers, one is very cordially for us, another is entirely opposed, and the third is neutral, and about to study the subject more closely than he has hitherto done. The other Dissenters are all with us, but none of them are more cordial than are all the Ministers of the Established Church, two of whom I had formerly met with in Nova Scotia and Cape Breton. The Rev. Mr. Clark of this church, who has always been on our side, will probably transmit to you soon some £20, from a Bible and General Religious Institution existing in his own parish. Dr. Ross of the same body spoke of you in a very friendly manner, and as having been grieved with former occurrences, as well as later ones. Our Bible Society cause they intend soon to bring before their Presbytery. We had a meeting and a collection in one of the Secession Churches in Inverness. I had arranged to hold this meeting previous to the sitting of the General Assembly of the Free Church there, knowing that there would be no opening during their sessions, and this is what hurried me over previous places. On the occasion of this Assembly I had an opportunity of getting acquainted with several Ministers of the Free Church from various parts of the country, and this knowledge may prove useful in visiting some other places not yet taken in. Tomorrow morning I leave Inverness and proceed without stopping for business till I come to Glasgow.
I remain, My Dear Friend, Yours Very Truly,
James Thomson.