Western Worthies | Page 7

native growth. For its size it has been remarkably prolific
in statesmen of ability. One of its burghs can point to such memorable
names as Wallace of Kelly, and Murray Dunlop; and the county itself
has, in our day, been represented (amongst others of its own gentry) by
that brilliant scholar and historian, the late Colonel Mure of Caldwell,
who was the lineal descendant of the Mures of Rowallan, one of the
very oldest of our Scottish families, and who was an embodiment of
many of the finest qualities which have characterised the members of
that ancient and honourable house. Nor can we forget that the sad event
which made way for the return of a stranger was the sudden death of
Captain Spiers of Elderslie--one who was just beginning to be
appreciated by the general public, as they saw the gradual development
of qualities which were solid rather than brilliant, and in whom were
united manliness and modesty in a degree which is rarely to be seen,
and which now gives more than a touch of pathos to his memory. There

was no want of local talent to supply the vacancy so unexpectedly and
painfully made by the removal of Captain Spiers, but a combination of
curious circumstances, and chiefly the state of transition which at the
moment characterised the politics of the two most likely candidates,
left the field open for a stranger, while the enthusiasm felt in this part
of the island for the new Prime Minister made it almost a matter of
course that the vacant seat should be conferred, on terms unexampled
for magnanimity and ease, upon that statesman who had been singled
out for the post of Home Secretary by Mr. Gladstone, but who, having
been thrown overboard at the general election by the new constituency
of Merthyr-Tydvil, was still destitute of the essential condition to the
retention of the high honour to which he had been nominated by his
political chief. The manner in which the constituencies of Scotland, and
especially those of our northern shires, responded to Mr. Gladstone at
the supreme moment of his political career, is a fact which cannot be
overlooked by any one who shall hereafter trace the lines of his
biography; and the most striking proof of the trust that was reposed in
him at that critical epoch by the people of Scotland will be found in the
facility with which his Home Secretary procured a seat for one of her
counties. Mr. Bruce's return for Renfrewshire was perhaps the finest of
all compliments paid by a generous and intelligent nation to Mr.
Gladstone. One could wish to see some proof that it was duly
appreciated in a little more attention being given to Scottish business in
Parliament, and also in an increased measure of respect being shown to
those measures of reform in which our agricultural population justly
feel so great an interest. Thus far, it must be confessed, the farmers of
Scotland have met with but a poor return for their fidelity; and we
cannot wonder if we perceive amongst them symptoms of discontent
that may ultimately lead to bitter estrangement.

HENRY GLASSFORD BELL.
Of Henry Glassford Bell, the Sheriff of Lanarkshire, we may say, as
Macaulay said of Johnston, "We are familiar with his personal
appearance, as with the faces that have surrounded us from childhood."
For nearly half-a-century he has been a foremost citizen in Glasgow.

During that long period he has taken an active interest in all that relates
to the welfare of the city. Not in Law alone, but in Music, Literature,
Painting, and the Fine Arts generally, he is regarded as an authority. In
short, he is the intellectual king of the city, although he differs from a
monarch de juré in his accessibility to all ranks and conditions of men,
and in the homage and respect which are universally and spontaneously
paid to his high personal qualities. His experience is a direct reversal of
the ordinary rule, that "a prophet hath honour save in his own country
and in his own house." In tracing the lines of Sheriff Bell's biography,
we are entering upon a fertile but hitherto unoccupied field. A man of
rare gifts, and one of whose happiest literary productions it may safely
be predicated that they will live in the literature of his country, he has
now for upwards of thirty years relinquished the pursuit of belles lettres,
thereby sacrificing the world-wide fame as an author to which, in the
early part of his career, he seemed likely to attain. But if he has failed
to achieve a niche in the Temple of Fame, he has at least secured a
permanent place in the respect of the legal profession, and in the esteem
of his fellow-citizens. If