BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 65
No. XXIX.
ALEXANDER CARLYLE, D.D., INVERESK.
THIS Print gives a very striking likeness of one of the chief leaders of the Court
party in our Church judicatures. From his repeated exertions in favour of the
law of patronage, and frequently styling the popular party “ Fanatics,” Kay
has given him the curious title at the bottom of the Print.
Dr. Carlyle (born January 26, 1722 ; died August 25, 1805) is memorable
as a member-though an inactive one-of the brilliant fraternity of literary men
who attractedattentionin Scotland during the latter half of the eighteenth century.
His father was the minister of Prestonpans. He received his education at the
Universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Leyden. While he attended these
schools of learning, his elegant and manly accomplishments gained him admission
into the most polished circles, at the same time that the superiority of his
understanding and the refinement of his taste introduced him to the particular
notice of men of science and literature. At the breaking out of the insurrection
of 1745, being only twenty-three years of age, he thought proper to enrol1
himself in a body of volunteers, which was raised at Edinburgh to defend the
city. This corps was dissolved on the approach of the Highland army, when
he retired to his father’s house at Prestonpans, where the tide of war soon
followed him. Sir John Cope having pitched his camp in the immediate neighbourhood
of Prestonpans, the Highlanders attacked him early on the morning
of the 21st of September, and soon gained a decisive victory; Carlyle was
awoke by an account that the armies were engaged, when, in order to have a
view of the action, he hurried to the top of the village-steeple, where he arrived
only in time to see the regular soldiers flying in all directions to escape the
broadswords of the Highlanders.
Having gone through the usual exercises prescribed by the Church of Scotland,
he was presented, in 1748, to the living of Inveresk, near Edinburgh,
which he retained for the long period of fifty-seven years. His talents as
P preacher were of the highest order, and contributed much to int.roduce
into the Scottish pulpit an elegance of manner and delicacy of taste, to which
this part of the United Kingdom had been formerly a stranger, but of which
it has since afforded some brilliant examples. In the General Assembly of
the Church of Scotland, Dr. Carlyle acted on the moderate side, and, next
to Dr, Robertson, was one of the most instrumental members of that party in
reducing the government of the Church to the tranquillity which it experienced
almost down to our own time. It was owing chiefly to his active exertions, that
the clergy of the Church of Scotland, in consideration of their moderate incomes,
and of their living in official houses, were exempted from the severe pressure of
.
K
