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
66 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
the house and window tax. With this object in view he spent some time in
London, and was introduced at Court, where the elegance of his manners, and
the dignity of his appearance, are said to have excited both surprise and admiration.
He succeeded in his efforts, though no clause to that effect was introduced
into any Act of Parliament. The ministers were charged annually with
the duty, but the collectors received private instructions that no steps should be
taken to enforce payment.
Public spirit was a conspicuous part of the character of the Doctor. The
love of his country seemed to be the most active principle of his heart, and the
direction in which it was guided at a period which seriously menaced the good
order of society, was productive of incalculable benefit among those over whom
his influence extended. He was so fortunate in his early days as to form an
acquaintance with all those celebrated men whose names have added splendour
to the literary history of the eighteenth century. Smollett, in his “Expedition
of Humphry Clinker,” a work in which fact and fiction are curiously blended,
mentions that he owed to Dr. Carlyle his introduction to the literary circles of
Edinburgh, After mentioning a list of celebrated names, he adds-“ These
acquaintances I owe to the friendship of Dr. Carlyle, who wants nothing but
inclination to figure with the rest upon paper.”
Dr. Carlyle was a particular friend of hlr. Home, the author of Douglas, and
that tragedy, if we are not misinformed, was, previous to its being represented,
submitted to his revision. It is even stated, although there appears no evidence
of the truth of the assertion, that Dr. Carlyle, at a private rehearsal in Mrs.
Ward’s lodgings in the Canongate, acted the part of Old Norval, Dr. Robertson
performing Lord Eandolph-David Hume, Glenalvon, and Dr. Blair ! !
Anna‘-Lady Randolph being enacted by the author. He exerted, as may be
supposed, his utmost efforts to oppose that violent opposition which was raised
against Mr. Home by the puritanical spirit, which, though by that time somewhat
mitigated, was still far from being extinguished in this country ; ’ and
successfully withstood a prosecution before the Church courts for attending the
performance of the tragedy of Douglas.
Dr. Carlyle rendered an essential service to literature, in the recovery of
Collins’ long lost “ Ode on the Superstitions of the Highlands.” The author, on
his death-bed, had mentioned it to Dr. Johnson as the best of his poems, but
it was not in his possession, and no search had been able to discover a copy.
At last, Dr. CarlyIe found it accidentally among his papers, and presented it to
See Edinburgh Evening Post, January 31, 1829.
Upon occasion of the representation of the tragedy, a variety of squibs, both for and against,
issued from the press. In one of them, entitled, “ The First Night’s Audience, an excellent new
ballad, to the tune of ‘ A cobbler there was, ’ ” 4t0, pp. 4, occurs the following stanza, applicable to
Dr. Carlyle :- ‘‘ Hid close in the green-room some clergymen lay,
Good actors themaelves too-ikeir whole Zife a play ;
C-lyle with a cudgel and genius rare,
With aspect aa stern aa a Hessian hussar.
Derry down,” etc.
