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Kay's Originals Vol. 2

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48 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, QUARTER-MASTER TAYLOR, the portly figure in the fourth division, was one of the famous defenders of Gibraltar. The last and most indescribable of the “All~’~-to use the artist’s own language-is “ a Caricature of a Potentate, commonly called the PRINCE OF THE AIR,” who in former times was supposed to have considerable dealings in Scotland, judging from the innumerable trials for witchcraft with which the records of the Court of Justiciary are disgraced. Why his Satanic Majesty has been thus introduced among the worthies of Edinburgh, the artist has not explained, and we leave the gentle reader to find out, No. CLXXXVIII. REV, DR. THOMAS HARDIE, MIKISTER OF HADDO’S HOLE, AND REGIUS PROFESSOR OF DMNITY AND ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGII. DR. THOMAHS ARDIEw as the son of the Rev. Thomas Hardie, one of the ministers of Culross, in the Presbytery of Dunfermline. Of the early part of his history little is known, but it is believed he studied at the University of Edinburgh. His first presentation was to Ballingry, in Fifeshire (June 16, 1774), where he continued to discharge his clerical duties for several years, and acquired a degree of local popularity, which promised, at no distant period, to call him away to a more enlarged sphere of action. He was of an active disposition, and by no means a passive observer of events. He felt much interested in the divisions which then, as now, existed in the Church ; and while he personally tendered his exertions on that side which he espoused, his pen was not idle. We allude to the pamphlet which he published in 1782, entitled “The Principles of Moderation : addressed to the Clergy of the Popular Interest in the Church of Scotland.” The object of this publication was to review, in a dispassionate manner, the real cause and state of division in the Church ; and he certainly succeeded in calmly, if not successfully, vindicating the conduct of the moderate party, or “ the Martyrs to Law,” as he called them, to which he belonged. The address was written with ability, and displayed considerable acumen and acquaintance with the history, as well as the law of the Church. At that time patronage was the principal cause of dissent, and had led to the secession of a numerous body of the people. This he lamented ; and, while he viewed patronage as an evil to which the Church ought to bow solely and only so long as it remained law, he was desirous of uniting all parties in procuring an amicable change in the
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