REV. DR. NORMAN MACLEOD.
Those who believe in the transmission of hereditary qualities and predilections from generation to generation will find a rare practical illustration of their theory in the Rev. Norman Macleod, who is known and recognised as par excellence Her Majesty's Chaplain for Scotland. With as unfailing certainty as if they had been regulated by the laws of primogeniture and entail, this estimable clergyman has inherited the gifts and graces of his esteemed father. Nay more, he has even fallen heir to whatever honours and emoluments of value accrued to the latter during his long and useful career. The two men are in many respects "similar, though not the same." Both have answered to the same name; both have been popular preachers; both have held prominent positions in the Established Church of Scotland; both have prosecuted their ministerial labours in the same city; and both have been honoured with special marks of favour and distinction from their Sovereign. There are other minor points of resemblance upon which we cannot stay to dwell.
Dr. Norman Macleod, the elder, was ordained a minister of the Established Church at Campbeltown in 1807, where his son, the present minister of the Barony, was born. From Campbeltown the father removed to Campsie parish in 1855; and subsequently he was inducted minister of the Glasgow Gaelic Church, afterwards St. Columba's, in 1836. While in Glasgow, he preached once in Gaelic and once in English every Sunday. Like his son, he had broad sympathies, and soared far above the petty barriers of denominational forms and prejudices. He was Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1836, and it was greatly due to his efforts that the Presbyterian Church obtained such a firm hold in the province of Ulster. In the year 1824 he brought the state of education in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland so fully and so eloquently under the notice of the General Assembly that the education scheme of the Established Church was projected to remedy the evils pointed out. Along with Principal Baird, he was appointed on three different occasions to inquire into the existing means of education in the Highlands and Islands, and in many other ways he contributed valuable service in "building up," consolidating, and expanding the distinctive schemes and agencies of the church to which he belonged. His labours were rewarded by the appointment—through the late Sir Robert Peel, with whom he had considerable influence—to the envied position of one of Her Majesty's Chaplains for Scotland, and by his preferment to the Deanery of the Chapel Royal.
But we have only said so much by way of introduction. It is with the son and not with the father that we have to deal. Young Norman, after spending his earlier days amid the rustic environs of his father's manse—the Scotch equivalent for parsonage—at Campsie, entered the University of Glasgow as a divinity student. So far as we have been able to ascertain, he made his first public appearance, while still in his "teens," at a banquet given to Sir Robert Peel on the occasion of the right hon. gentleman's installation as Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow. This event, memorable in the annals of the city, happened on the 6th Jan. 1837. Considered in relation to all its accessories, the banquet was perhaps the most brilliant affair of its kind that ever took place in Glasgow. On making an analysis of the attendance, we find that there were altogether 3300 gentlemen present, including 12 members of the peerage, eight baronets, ten members of Parliament, a host of military men, and all the gentry for many miles round. The total cost of the feast was £2434 13s 8d, and the toasts were thirty-seven in number.
The fact that Dr. Norman Macleod took a very active part in promoting Sir Robert Peel's candidature for the Lord Rectorship, which led to this brilliant gathering, must be our excuse for dwelling upon it at such length. In recognition of his exertions on Sir Robert's behalf, he was selected to respond to the toast of "The students of the University of Glasgow who have done themselves honour by selecting Sir Robert Peel to fill the office of Lord Rector." There was little in his reply worthy of quotation. It was neat, appropriate, and well put, and concluded by expressing the anxious hope that "by the additional means which had been adopted to promote Conservative principles and to unite Conservative students within the University, and especially by the establishment of our 'Peel Club,' the students may continue to heap additional honours upon themselves by returning Conservative Lord Rectors."
After a very promising career as a divinity student, Dr. Norman Macleod was at an early age ordained a minister of the Church of Scotland. His first parish was Loudoun, in Ayrshire, from whence, in 1843, he was translated to Dalkeith. He laboured with much acceptance in the latter charge for a period of eleven years, and in 1851 he succeeded the late Dr. Black as the minister of the Barony Parish of Glasgow—a position which he still continues to fill. It is related of the doctor that, while at Dalkeith, he happened one day to be strolling in the "kirkyard," and met the sexton, a man of venerable years, who took quite a pleasure in pointing out to the new minister the more notable graves in the little God's acre. "This," he said, "is where Mr. So-and-So (the former clergyman of the parish) is buried, and here—pointing to a still unoccupied lair—is whaur ye'll lie, gin ye be spared!" It is worth while mentioning that whereas the population of the Barony Parish in 1755 was only about 5000, it had increased in 1850 to 130,000, and at the present time it is estimated at 200,000, so that Dr. Macleod's parochial duties and responsibilities have been greatly multiplied since he entered upon his present important charge.
Dr. Macleod has taken the most active interest in everything relating to the welfare of the city, while the affairs of his own parish have afforded him a source of unremitting care and anxiety. With every movement projected for the purposes of Church extension or the development of missions in Glasgow he has been closely identified; and at the present time he is at the front of an association promoted some eighteen months ago, with the view of providing additional churches in certain neglected districts of the city. As the result of this association's efforts, several new churches are now in course of erection, one of them having been undertaken at Dr. Macleod's express request. Closely allied to the means of grace are the facilities for the acquisition of education, and of this important adjunct to the work of the ministry Dr. Macleod has never for a moment lost sight. No less than five large schools have been opened in connection with the Barony Church since he entered upon his parochial duties; and several preaching or mission stations, at each of which divine service is conducted every Sunday, have also been opened up, with the most successful results.
The Church of Scotland has not always enjoyed its present exceptional prestige. The time was when Presbyterianism had anything but a sweet smelling savour out of Scotland. It is largely due to the efforts of Dr. Macleod that the merits of Presbyterianism have come to be acknowledged and its principles understood by other denominations. No man has done more than Dr. Macleod to make the Church of Scotland famous and to give her a position in Christendom. His influence both at home and abroad, his abilities as a preacher, and his graces as a writer, have helped to bring the Presbyterian Church before the country, and to induce the respect alike of her friends and rivals.
It is in connection with her missions, more than any other agency of the Church of Scotland, that Dr. Macleod has made himself conspicuous. In these he has, from an early period of his ministerial career, taken a deep and active interest. So far back as the year 1844-45 he was sent out to Canada, along with his uncle and the late Dr. Simpson of Kirknewton, as a deputation from the Church of Scotland to inquire into the progress of the Church in the British Provinces. About four years ago, he was sent to India in company with Dr. Watson, to visit the missions of the Church in that country, and on their return to Scotland, Dr. Macleod published a series of articles, giving the results of his observations, which excited a considerable amount of public attention, and elicited among educationists and others a warm discussion. For some of his statements the rev. gentleman was taken severely to task, it being argued that he could not, during his limited sojourn in India, have acquired a sufficient knowledge of the country and its institutions to enable him to speak with anything like authority on all the subjects to which he referred.