did not think it necessary to collect more, since the object has been attained under difficulties of time and distance which might have quelled a less enthusiastic admirer.  It is pleasant to notice the general consent with which we agree that no one else was so fitted to recommend the Chalmers memorial as Dean Ramsay.

It was to do honour to my own little book that I ventured, without asking leave, to print the few lines which follow, from the great French writer, the high minister of State, the patron of historical letters for half-a-century in France, the Protestant Guizot.

     M. GUIZOT to the DEAN.

     Paris, ce 7 Fevrier 1870,

     10 Rue Billault.

Sir—­Je m’associerai avec un vrai et serieux plaisir a l’erection d’une statue en l’honneur du Dr. Chalmers.  Il n’y a point de theologien ni de moraliste Chretien a qui je porte une plus haute estime.  Sur quelques unes des grandes questions qu’ il a traitees, je ne partage pas ses opinions; mais j’honore et j’admire l’elevation, la vigueur de sa pense, et la beaute morale de son genie.  Je vous prie, Monsieur, de me compter parmi les hommes qui se feliciteront de pouvoir lui rendre un solennel hommage, et je vous remercie d’avoir pense a moi dans ce dessein.

     Recevez l’assurance de mes sentiments les plus distingues.

     GUIZOT.

     Mr. E.B.  Ramsay, Dean, etc., 23 Ainslie Place, Edinburgh,
     North Britain.

Some of Mr. Gladstone’s letters, already printed, show that they were not the beginning of the correspondence between him and the Dean.  The accident which made them acquainted will be mentioned afterwards (p. lxxxi.)

     Right Hon. W.E.  GLADSTONE to DEAN RAMSAY.

     Hawarden Castle, Chester,

     Jan. 3, 1870.

My dear Dean Ramsay—­I send you my rather shabby contribution of L10 to the Chalmers’ Memorial.  I wish it were more, but I am rather specially pressed at this time; and I think I refused Robert Bruce altogether not long ago.

     I quite understand the feeling of the Scotch aristocracy,
     but I should have thought Lothian would be apart from, as
     well as above it.

But the number of subscriptions is the main thing, and very many they ought to be if Scotland is Scotland still.  He was one of Nature’s nobles.  It is impossible even to dream that a base or unworthy thought ever found harbour for a moment in his mind.

Is it not extraordinary to see this rain of Bishoprics upon my head?  Nor (I think) is it over; the next twelvemonth (wherever I may be at the end of it) will, I think, probably produce three more.

Bishop Temple is a fine fellow, and I hope all will now go well.  For Manchester (this is secret) I hope to have Mr. Fraser of Clifton—­a very notable man, in the first rank of knowledge and experience on the question of education.  Many pressed him for Salisbury.

     I can truly say that every Bishop who has been appointed has
     been chosen simply as the best man to be had.