SCOTLAND EXCITED—FEAR OF RIOT—ABBE PAUL M’PHERSON—DEATH OF THE EX-PROVINCIAL OF THE JESUITS—THE VENERABLE ALLAN M’DONALD OR RANALDSON, MUCH ESTEEMED BY BISHOP HAY—HIS DEATH—“THE SINCERE CHRISTIAN” MUCH SOUGHT FOR—AN IRISH EDITION—TRANSLATED INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES—SEVERAL OPINIONS—BISHOP TALBOT’S, THE “PIOUS CHRISTIAN;” EQUALLY DESIRED IN ENGLAND AND IRELAND—DEATH OF BISHOP CHALLONER—HIS WORKS—BISHOP GEDDES IN SCOTLAND—MEETING OF THE BISHOPS—ARRANGEMENT FOR THE CARE OF PRINCIPAL GORDON’S INSANE BROTHER—MR. ALEX. GEDDES INJUDICIOUS—LEAVES THE MISSION— THE HIGH AND RARELY BESTOWED DEGREE OF DR. OF LAWS, (L.L.D.) CONFERRED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN—£200 YEARLY FROM THE CATHOLIC LORD PETRE.

It was feared lest the contagion should spread to Scotland. The riotously disposed there, however, as well as the authorities, had got their lesson. The certainty that all losses must be paid for made the magistrates more circumspect, and caused them to act with determination and vigour. The populace, although excited, refrained from all attempt at violent proceedings.

1780. There were several changes among the clergy this year. One of the most notable was the appointment of the Abbe Paul Macpherson, not unknown to fame, to the mission of Aberdeen, in place of Mr. Oliver, who, from weak health, retired to a country mission. Mr. Johnson, formerly Provincial of the Jesuits in Scotland, died this year. He was a native of Braemar. His real name was Patrick Gordon. His connection with the expedition of Prince Charles had caused change of name. It obliged him also to live for some time in exile. By ability and tact in his management, he conciliated the good will of the secular clergy. He claimed to be a poet, and wrote spiritual and controversial songs, the greater part of which Bishop Hay collected and published. It is remarked, however, that these compositions. do more honour to the orthodoxy than the literary accomplishments of the author. At this time, also, ended at Edinburgh, the career of the venerable Mr. Allan MacDonald, called also Ranaldson. This aged priest was much esteemed by Bishop Hay.

Notwithstanding his many occupations, Bishop Hay found time to prepare a work on Christian doctrine; and by this work, perhaps, he is more generally known than by any of his other writ­ings. It bears this title, “The sincere Christian instructed in the faith of Christ from the written word.” It may be described as a summary of revealed religion in the distinct and emphatic form of question and answer, the whole being illustrated and proved by copious extracts from Scrip­ture. It is written in a conciliatory spirit, controversial, indeed, but defensively rather aggres­sively. In this style it shows the grounds on which are founded the dispute articles of Catholic faith and practice, without attacking the views and ways of other religious parties. The Bishop himself, in the introduction to this work, gives a distinct account of the object he had in view: “The view I have had in this present work, is to assist the most unlearned; and, beginning with the first rudiments of Christianity, to conduct the reader, step by step, through the whole body of the principal truths of revelation, so that the knowledge of one truth may serve as an intro­duction to those which follow. The sacred Scriptures are an inexhaustible fountain of heavenly knowledge, but are commonly less used than they might be, in illustrating and establishing the truths of religion. A text or two, hinted at now and then, seem lost in the multitude of other reflections and reasons which surround them; but when the principal stress, both of the explica­tion and the proof, is laid upon these divine oracles, and a number of them are placed in the proper order for illustrating the point in question, this gives an incredible force to what is proposed—shows that it is God Himself who speaks, and cuts off all occasions for human soph­istry to enter.” The extraordinary merit of the work was at once acknowledged. There came demands for copies from all parts of the kingdom. The English Bishops made many purchases. Archbishop Carpenter desired to have an edition for Dublin, and requested of the author permis­sion to publish it. This edition was soon followed by a second. All this must have been highly gratifying; to the Bishop and he so expressed himself: “Our Irish friends have done great honour to the ‘Sincere Christian.’” The Archbishop of Dublin recommended it to all his clergy as a model of catechetical instruction. In writing to Bishop Geddes, he complained of the getting up. The paper was not to his mind; but he was pleased to think that the printer had promised some­thing better for the second part, “when the great and good Bishop Hay will please to furnish us with it.” There have been many editions of this able work in the United Kingdom, Ireland and America. It has also been translated into foreign languages.

It would be a rare work, indeed, that could escape all criticism. Appended to the “Sincere Chris­tian” was an appendix treating of the possibility of salvation out of the true Church of Christ. Some of the author’s friends remarked that in this treatise he had stated the case more harshly and inexorably than was consistent with the recognized possibility of invincible or insuperable ignorance. It was quite another question as regards the number of those who, from their sincerity and virtuous life, may have the benefit of this ignorance, although not outwardly belonging to the body of the Church. The author’s literature, one would say, was more at fault than his theology. This view is confirmed by the remarks of Bishop Geddes in reply to Bishop Hay, who had asked him to point out anything that seemed to him to require correction or amendment: I do not really remember any particulars to be amended in the ‘Sincere Christian.’ I remember, indeed, to have said to yourself that I did not entirely approve of your calling so much in ques­tion the salvation of every one out of the outward Communion of the Church, as I thought it very probable that some are saved out of it in consequence of the continuation of their invincible ignorance, and of their innocence after they are come to the years of discretion. But, I cannot venture on urging you to change anything on that subject.” Bishop Talbot was even more decided in expressing his opinion. He gave it his entire approval; and when a certain noble lord criticised it unfavourably he frankly told him that he admired it to such a degree as that he should have thought it an honour to be the author of it; and that the outcry against it seemed to him the best proof of its propriety, if not even of its necessity.

In 1783 appeared another instructive work from the pen of the same author, “The devout Chris­tian instructed in the faith of Christ.” Like the former work, it abounds in quotations and illus­trations from the sacred Volume. It may be considered as a continuation, or second part of the “Sincere Christian;” but is more devotional, while not neglecting doctrine. Hence its title, “Devout Christian,” etc. It would be superfluous to discuss the propriety of this title, which the author, no doubt, adopted in order to indicate that it tends more directly than the work which preceded it, to promote the leading of a devout Christian life. It was welcomed at the time of publication in England and Ireland. Bishop Talbot, in particular, showed his appreciation by becoming accountable for any number of copies of the whole work (he considered the “Sincere Christian” and the continuation which followed, as one work) which the author might choose to send him. It is much to be regretted that the style is not equal to the doctrine of the book. This literary blemish has always been a hindrance to the popularity of the “Devout Christian.” It is so, particularly, in this age of literary pretension and refinement.

The Catholics of England sustained, this year, the loss of a highly esteemed and much loved prelate, those of Scotland a zealous and warm friend. On the 10th of January, 1791, the vener­able Bishop Challoner was seized with a stroke of paralysis while at dinner with his chaplains. Two days later a second stroke ended his days in the 90th year of his age and the 41st of his episcopate. He was long distinguished, not only as an able Bishop, but also as a Theological and Historical writer. His “Meditations” still continue to edify the Catholic people; and his history of the martyrs of the worst days of persecution is read with interest. An elegant edition of this admirable work was published lately by Mr. MacVeigh of London and Dumfries.

Bishop Geddes, having spent nearly eleven years in Spain, now bade farewell to the Scotch College of Valladolid and directed his steps towards Scotland. He had obtained at Madrid, from men of influence there, letters of introduction to Lord Hillsborough and Lord George Germain. In passing through Guipuscoa he visited the room in which Saint Ignatius was born, and saw the bed on which that celebrated saint lay when ill of his wound. When he reached London he found there letters from Bishop Hay enclosing introductions to several public men; and among others, to Lord George Germain, a member of the cabinet, and Sir Grey Cooper, secretary to Premier Lord North. Agreeing with Bishop Hay that it was advantageous to cultivate the friendship of men in power, he, in compliance with the Bishop’s desire, sought an audience of these distin­guished men. It was important that these powerful statesmen should be fully aware of the good disposition of the Bishops and of their earnest desire to show themselves on all occasions, good citizens and dutiful subjects.

A meeting of the three Bishops was to be held immediately after the arrival of Bishop Geddes, which was expected about the middle of May. The meeting, at which matters of great impor­tance to the mission were discussed, proved to be of longer duration than usual, being protracted till after the middle of June. The presence of Bishop Geddes was singularly opportune and it had great part in the settlement of a long-pending dispute. A brother of Rev. Mr. Gordon, Principal of the Scotch College at Paris, who had been assistant in the College of Valladolid, and had served, for some time, in the Cabrach mission, unfortunately became insane. There was a diffi­culty as regarded his maintenance; and there was, for a considerable time, a great deal of discus­sion whether the mission or the College in Paris should bear the burden. It was, at last, finally agreed, at a meeting of Bishops Hay and Geddes, together with Mr. Gordon, Principal of the Paris College, that the funds of the mission and another subsidiary fund called “Hacket’s money,” should provide for two-thirds of Mr. Gordon’s board, while the remaining third should be contributed, in equal shares, by the Principal, Bishop Hay and his coadjutor, from their personal incomes. On the Principal was laid the charge of seeing that the patient, his brother, was properly cared for.

A man of rare merit in many respects, but singularly eccentric, became the cause of great trouble in the mission. Mr. Alexander Geddes had succeeded the saintly Mr. Godsman in the mission of Auchenhalrig. All went well for a time. Mr. Geddes was popular as a preacher, and his zeal as a missionary was abundantly shown by the frequency with which he extended his labours to the neighbouring mission of Preshome. As is often the case with men of genius, he was a bad financier. He incurred loss by speculating in house property, and by the building of a part of the chapel at Tynet, adjoining the park of Gordon Castle. He acquired a literary reputation by trans­lating into English verse the select satires of Horace. This effort won for him the applause of the leading scholars of the time, Principal Robertson the historian, Dr. Reid, the eminent philosoph­ical writer, and Dr. Beattie, author of “The Minstrel,” and the able essay on Truth. Mr. Geddes would have done well to refrain from meddling with the general temporal business of the mission. It was injudicious on his part to attack any measures of the administrators of the mission fund which had been sanctioned by the approval of Bishop Hay. This opposition to the Bishop and the administrators was encouraged and participated in by Mr. John Reid of Preshome, and favoured by many of the clergy. It must have been very mortifying to Bishop Hay to find his measures severely censured and even thwarted, although not openly opposed. This was the beginning of the end. Mistrust and disputes followed. These were aggravated by the severe and unbending character of the Bishop, together with the constitutional irritability of Mr. Geddes, and, finally, led to an open rupture. Every untoward circumstance contributed to widen the breach. On a Sunday which Bishop Hay was spending with his friends in the Enzie, Mr. Geddes was so imprudent as, in company with a party of friends, to go in the afternoon to hear the minister of Banff, a Mr. Nichols, preach. The friends with whom he attended were the Earl and Countess of Findlater, who was a Catholic, and a Miss Barbara Stewart, a Catholic lady who resided near Preshome. All the party were Catholics except Lord Findlater, of whose conversion there was some rumour. It had long been the custom to consider a single appearance in the Kirk as an act of conformity; and even those whose friends forced them into the Kirk were held to be Presbyterians. This custom may not, at the time of which there is question, have been so much in vigour as when to conform was to gain all the temporal advantages that exclusively belonged to Protestants. It was still remembered, however, and parties who, of their own free will, made their appearance in any Kirk, at sermon or any other service, were by many consid­ered as having joined the Presbyterians. The clamour that arose among the Catholics on occa­sion of Mr. Geddes and the friends mentioned having gone to hear a Presbyterian sermon affords sufficient proof of the prevailing opinion that, to be once in the Kirk was to be of the Kirk. The talk about this unlucky circumstance met the Bishop wherever he went; and, before leaving the Enzie, he remonstrated in a personal interview with Mr. Geddes, but, without, it would appear, any decided result. The Bishop then wrote to the offender; and by the severity of his expression and the threat of suspension, elicited from him a promise of apology. This promise failed to be fulfilled. The apology, if, indeed, apology it could be called, was rather a vindication of his conduct in the matter. The Bishop now required that he should choose between leaving the mission in a fortnight and suspension. Finally, he was favoured with “Dimissorials,” which qualified him to offer and to give his services under more favourable circumstances. Bishop Hay, in a letter to Mr. Thomson of Edinburgh, says, “it was a real pain to him to write or to say anything against a person of his (Mr. Geddes’) character.”

January 3rd, 1781, Mr. Geddes, when chaplain at Traquair, had made friends, who, he was confident would not now desert him. The chief of these was Lord Linton, now Earl of Traquair, in succession to his aged father. In 1779, he (Mr. Geddes) had gone to London in order to visit his noble friend, Lord Linton. On his way, he passed through Edinburgh soon after the riots, of which he wrote an excellent account, adding many interesting particulars concerning the state of affairs at the time. He met with much attention on the part of the more eminent characters of Edinburgh, Lord Kames, Principal Robertson, Sir John Dalrymple, etc. As soon, however, as the populace discovered that he was a priest, as a matter of prudence he resumed his journey. On reaching London, he was cordially received by his friend, the Earl of Traquair; and the leading Catholic nobility, in consequence, no doubt, of the interest they took, at the time, in the Catholics of Scotland, paid him all honour. His introduction to Lord Petre proved to be more than honour, as he was destined, ere long, to experience. On occasion of the same visit to London, Mr. Geddes was also introduced to Samuel Johnson.

Soon after the affair with Bishop Hay, Mr. Geddes once more repaired to London; and there, through the influence of powerful friends, he succeeded in obtaining a chaplaincy in connection with the Imperial Embassy. In no very long time, however, the anti-Catholic policy of the Emperor, Joseph II., deprived him of this benefice. Honours, meanwhile, did not so easily forsake him. The University of Aberdeen, which is far from distributing indiscriminately academic favours, conferred on Mr. Geddes, in recognition of his genius, the high and rarely bestowed degree of Doctor of Laws. (LL.D.) To make a new translation of the Holy Scriptures is surely a herculean task for any one man. Mr. Geddes, nevertheless, feared not to undertake the gigantic labour. That excellent Catholic nobleman, Lord Petre, sympathizing with the able scholarly man who devoted himself to such laudable studies, settled on Mr. Geddes an annual allowance of £200 during His Lordship’s life, and £100 after his death, in order that he might have more leisure for the important study.