January 1, 1851.—­“Having preached on Sunday last regarding improvement and good resolutions, I would now do the same for myself.  I have made some resolutions in my own mind, chiefly regarding the control and regulation of temper, irritability, forbearance, more composed and calm temperament, order, diligence, dispatch of work, etc.”  On January 6th there is a Ragged School meeting—­“a long and tiresome meeting; the Duke of A——­ speaks well; Guthrie amusing; Fox Maule good; Candlish clever—­very.”

On his birthday in 1853 he writes:  “I have just made two resolves—­first, never to give way to temper, fret, ill-humour, party spirit, or prejudice; second, to work my best in what I may have still to do.”

There is a great deal more of the journal, but one or two additional extracts will show sufficiently the nature of the man, his devotion to his sacred duty, his gentleness, and love of peace.  The High Churchman may think him unduly careless about forms and ceremonies; but, loving him very well, I yet wish to represent the Dean as he really was.  Above all things full of charity, loving religion as he understood the religion of the Gospel, and not much concerned, not really deeply concerned, about the shape and dress in which it presented itself.  He held, however, that the Protestant Episcopal Church, as established in England, as disestablished in Scotland, for he never would separate them, was in all its belongings the most desirable, its service the most decent.

1858 was a sad year for the Dean.  Mrs. Ramsay had been very ill, and sinking in strength and spirit visibly, till, on the 23d July the afflicted husband makes this entry:—­“It pleased God to visit me with the deep and terrible affliction of taking away my friend, companion, and adviser of twenty-nine years.”  It was a heavy blow, and for a time it seemed to paralyse the Dean.  This journal, never regular, becomes from this time quite broken.

Looking back from this point, which to the Dean seemed the end of happiness, he could acknowledge how duty supplied the place of pleasure.  He was grateful also for many mercies.  In one respect he was singularly fortunate.  His Bishop and he, I may say during all the time he served in St. John’s, were cordially of the same way of thinking.  Bishop Terrot was indeed a very different man from himself, but in the relations of Bishop and Dean they were very happy.  The Dean wrote a little memoir of Bishop Terrot, which he published in the Scottish Guardian (May 15, 1872), where he prints the remarkable letter from the Bishop to himself, answering the question why he declined communion with Mr. Drummond, and ending with the sentence—­“These are matters of ecclesiastical police which each local church has a right to manage in its own way, subject to the law of the Catholic Church, i.e. the Bible.”  The Dean then bore testimony that he had always found his Bishop an interesting companion, a kind friend, a faithful and judicious adviser, and he speaks highly, and surely not too highly, of his great intellectual powers, as well as of his moral qualities.  I am myself a very hearty admirer of Bishop Terrot, and I think it not out of place to add something to our knowledge of him, by printing a few letters which concern him and his family.