Trial of the Rev. Edward Irving, M.A. : a cento of criticism
= o\r\ a fc/jrij s <TOTY-SOV^ %HAINI1 ^EUNIVERJ/A vvlOSANC <3- ^^ ^ ^VOS'ANC O Oc -*^* T« O » l/Or-l S -, REV. EDWARD IRVING, M.A. CENTO OF CRITICISM. " I pr'ythee take the cork out of thj mouth, that I may drink thy tidings." An You Like It. LONDON : Printed by Shackell an>l Arrowtmith, Johnnnt'^'t'ourt, fleet Street PUBLISHED BY E. BRAIN. 4, BUTC'HER-HAI.L-LANE, NEWGATE-STREET, MDCCCXXlIf. vi PREFACE. Lit. Chron. — And the defence most elo- quent and powerful. Examiner — And the squibbery in the re- porting department light and easy. John Bull — A bit of foolery methinks, but withal, remarkably smart, and well done. Times — Let me add too, as not its least praise ; so free from all malignity. John Bull— Liberal egad ! (aside) Shown up to the life, and yet the first to praise. Mr. Chairman — Well, gentlemen, you seem all to be pretty much agreed in opinion — I presume Mr. Secretary may enter it as the award of the Board Times — That it deserves general circulation. Examiner — And forms a pleasant and use- ful pasquinade for those who are anxious to have all sides of the question. Star — And is the only thing worth reading that has been written on the subject of Mr. Irving. Mr. Chairman — Let judgment be entered up accordingly. • HIGH COURT OF COMMON SENSE. SPECIAL JURY CASE. TRINITY SESSIONS, 1823. The KING, at the Instance of JACOB OLDSTYLE^ Clerk, v. the REV. EDWARD IRVING, M. A. FROM the extraordinary interest which this case excited, the doors of the Court were no sooner opened than it was filled in every part to excess, by an assemblage of persons of the first rank and distinction in the country. On the bench beside the Chief Justice, sat the Lord Chancellor and his brother Lord Stowell, Earl Liverpool, Earl Grey, Marquis of Lansdowne, Lord Erskine, Right Hon. Sir William Grant, Mr. Justice Bayley, Sir James Mackintosh, Mr. Canning, Mr. Peel, Mr. Hus- kisson, Mr. Tierney, Mr. Brougham ; and at the extremities of the bench, but railed off from the others (for in the Court of Common Sense it is not as in other Courts), the Duke of Somerset, Lord Kenyonj Sir Gerard Noel, Sir Harcourt Lees, Mr. Peter Moore, Mr. Parkins, Romeo B v Coates, and Dr. Dinwidclie. Earl Grosvenor was put into a box by himself, and the prayer-book placed out of his reach. The galleries were almost entirely rilled with elegantly dressed ladies, ad- mitted by tickets from the Lady Patronesses at Almack's. All its best blood was there. Among a crowd of persons attending below the bench to give evidence, were most of the active literary characters about town connected with the periodi- cal press ; and for reasons developed in the course of the proceedings, it is necessary that we here enumerate their names, as far as they were known to us. We observed Dr. Stodart and Mr. Barnes side by side ; Mr. Jerdan, Mr. Mudford, Mr. Haz- litt, Mr. Cobbett, Lieut. Col. Torrens, Mr. Soane, Sir Richard Phillips, Pierce Egan, Rev. Ingram Cobbin, Rev. George Redford, Mr. Black, Dr. Dreghorn, Mr. Thomas Campbell, Mr. Byerley, Mr. Gifford, Mr. Haynes, Mr. Wooler, Mr. Coul- ston, Mr. David Booth, Mr. D. W. Harvey, Rev. Mr. Burder, Rev. Mr. Knox, Mr. Theod. Hook, Paul Potter, Dr. Walsh, Mr. Robinson, Mr. Josiah Conder, Mr. William Jones, Mr. Bell, Mr. Wal- lace, Mr. Lamb, Mr. Gale Jones, Mr. R. Hunt, and Mr. Moody (not the Judy.) Mr. Serjeant Bishop appeared for the prosecu- tion, along with whom were Mr. Parsons and Mr. Macvicar. The defendant conducted his" own case, assisted by Mr. Counsellor Phillips. Mr. Irving maintained throughout a very firm and collected demeanour. He seems to be about thirty -five years of age, and nearly six feet high. The general contour of his countenance is intellectual, though somewhat coarse, his complexion very dark, his hair black and bushy, whiskers tremendous. As one of his many critics has observed, " he would undoubt- edly be a very handsome man," only he squints abominably. The list of the special jurors being called over, the following gentlemen answered to their names : — ALDERMAN SIR JAMES SHAW, Bart., ALDERMAN BIRCH, ALDERMAN KEY, JAMES MILL, ]£sq., DR. ALEXANDER CROMBIE, A. STRAHAN, Esq., A. J. VALPY, Esq., HORACE Twiss, Esq. M. P. The defendant having prayed a tales, the jury was completed by the following names from the common jury list. Mr. THOMAS UNDERWOOD, Mr. RICHARD TAYLOR, Mr. HURCOMBE, Mr. T. C. HANSARD. CASE FOR THE PROSECUTION. Mr. Macvicar opened the case to the jury. The present, he said, was a prosecution instituted at the instance of Mr. Jacob Oldstyle, Clerk, against the Rev. Edward Irving, Minister of the Cale- donian Church or Chapel, in Cross Street, Hatton Garden. The indictment was laid on seven dif- ferent counts. First, For being ugly. Second, For being a merry-andrew. Third, for being a common quack. Fourth, For being a common brawler. Fifth, For being a common swearer. Sixth, For being of very common understanding. And, Seventh, For following divisive courses, subversive of the discipline of the order to which he belongs, and contrary to the principles of Christian fellowship and charity. Mr. Serjeant Bishop, said, that he would not detain the court with any long harangue. He saw so many gentlemen of far higher talents than he could pretend to, so many lights of the age, in waiting, who would be called upon to state to the jury what they knew of the case, that it would be presumption in him to pre-occupy their minds with anything he could offer on the subject. He would state merely in vindication of his client, Mr. Jacob Oldstyle, that he had not instituted this prosecution from any feeling of personal re- sentment towards Mr. Irving, nor from any vain hope of gaining a name to himself, by measuring his strength with the great boar of the forest. — He appeared here, not on his own account alone, but in the name and the behalf of the whole gene- ration of the Oldstyles. He did not claim to be the best of the family, and therefore of right their Champion, but being the oldest among them, he had been called upon to stand forward and defend their common interests, from the rude assaults which Mr. Irving, in his ugliness and quackery, and divisive-mindedness, had made upon them. He loved his family, and could not refuse, though 5 bending under a load of years, to make this hum- ble effort, ere he died, to wipe off the stain at- tempted to be fixed on their name and reputation. The Learned Serjeant, said, that he would now proceed to call the witnesses who would prove the different charges, which his learned friend, Mr. Macvicar, had so clearly and explicitly laid before them. [Here some twenty voices from the b&dy of the court cried out Stop ! Stop ! and a portly gentleman with spectacles, pushing forward to the Learned Serjeant, whispered something in his ear.] Mr. Serjeant Bishop. " My Lord, it has been just intimated to me, that it will be an unpleasant circumstance to many gentlemen who are here to give evidence, and may withal be attended with dangerous consequences, if the^ are called by their individual names into the witness box. I need scarcely remind the court of the melancholy fate of Mr. Scott. The gentlemen are all in one way or another connected with different periodical works, and it is their wish, I understand, that each should be called by the name of the work to which he belongs. They have brought Masks with them, which, with the leave of the court, they will put on during examination." Mr. Cobbett. " Not I, my Lord, thank God, I want no mask." Mr. Wookr. " Nor I." Dr. Dreghorn (aside). " Brazen faces need no masks." Chief Justice. " It is a novel application, cer- tainly. At common sense, however, we want no precedents to justify us in doing what seems right and proper. Let it be as the gentlemen please ; each may mask or not, as he likes. It would be a shocking thing were any person to catch harm from his appearance here to-day, in aid of the ends of justice." The Editor of the Times was then called, and examined by Mr. Parsons. You are editor of The Times journal ? — Yes. It is the leading journal of Europe, is it not? — Undoubtedly. How do you take the lead, Sir ? By guarding the candid and enlightened public against extravagant pretensions, wherever and whenever we meet with them. All sorts of pretensions ? No, Sir. I Would beg leave to say, there is a fashion in every thing — in wigs and bon- nets, in poetry and novel writing, and lastly, in actors and preachers. All this is matter of course ; and while things go on in the ordinary way — while wigs do not accumulate their curls into per- riwigs — nor bonnets swell into coal-scuttles — while our popular poets scribble only one poem, and our popular romancers only two novels a year — while our actors are content with one new reading in a play of Shakespeare ; and our preach- ers aim at no praises beyond that of the regular frequenters of fashionable chapels j we, I say tee, Sir, are disposed to let things pass, and allow the " candid and enlightened public" to be pleased in their own way. Do you know any thing of the defendant, Mr. Irving ? Have you allowed him to pass ? Oh dear, no ! The case is quite different with Mr. Irving. His popularity, Sir, absolutely fright- ened us, Sir, " from our propriety." When we learnt that statesmen and quack doctors, old ladies and judges, young ladies and students at law, all flocked with equal eagerness to hear this Caledonian orator : we became curious to know what could be the attractions to collect together such an heterogeneous mass. And so you went to hear him preach ? Not only went to hear him preach, Sir, but read all that he had written. , Did you find out, then, what his attractions are ? After a serious consideration, I must profess, that we were utterly unable to discover. We were, in our own minds — (for we hate, Sir, to think with the minds of other people) — fully convinced that Mr. Irving is a man of very ordinary talents ; that his understanding is weak in its grasp, and limited in its observation ; and that his taste is of the very lowest order of badly-instructed school- boys. You are aware that Mr. Irving was assistant to the celebrated Dr. Chalmers, of Glasgow : did it strike you, that he is of the same school ? Of the same school, Sir ! He is an imitator of the doctor's, indeed ; but no more like the proto- type, than the inflated frog in the fable was like the bull he strove to resemble. For the energy of thought of the original, he gives us nothing but rumbling and distorted common-places ; for the impassioned and expressive diction of his master, we have nothing but antitheses without point, and epithets without distinctness ; while the poor and insignificant idea, wrapt up in a heap of tinsel and clumsy phraseology, looks like " the lady in the lobster," or a mouse under a canopy of state. Give us, pray, a specimen of his quality. " Obey the Scriptures, or you perish. You may despise the honour done you by the Majesty above ; you may spurn the sovereignty of Al- mighty God ; you may revolt from Creation's universal rule, to bow before its creator, and stand in momentary rebellion against its ordi- nances ;" and so forth. " But come at length it will, when revenge shall array herself to go forth, and anguish shall attend her, and from the wheels of their chariot ruin and dismay shall shoot far and wide among the enemies of the king, whose desolation shall not tarry, and whose destruction, as the wings of the whirlwind, shall be swift, hopeless as the conclusion of eternity, and the reversion of doom. Then around the fiery conclave of the wasteful pit the clang of grief shall ring, and the flinty heart, which repelled tender mercy, shall strike its fangs into its proper bosom ;" and so on. All, all shall pass away ! And instead shall come the level lake that burneth, and the solitary dungeon, and the desolate bosom, and the throes and tossings of horror and hope- lessness, and the worm that dieth not, and the fire that is not quenched. 'Tis written, 'tis writ- ten, 'tis sealed of heaven, and a few years shall reveal it all. Be assured, it is even so to happen to the despisers of holy writ : with this in arrear, what boots liberty, pleasure, enjoyment — all within the hour-glass of time, on the round earth's continent, all the sensibilities of life, all the pow- ers of man, all the attractions of woman ! " And this, you think, is the lady in a lobster ? Yes. I would fearlessly ask, Sir, whether a boy at any public school would not have his exercise flung in his face — (a smile from Lord Grosvenor) — if he presented such trash to his master. We absolutely felt ashamed, and began to distrust our own judgment, when we found that we had one idea in common with such a turgid and shallow cleclaimer. Surely, surely (said we to ourselves), it cannot be long before this bubble bursts. And all this you stated to the public ? — Yes. Did you find that your exposure of the defen- dant's pretensions had the effect of putting an end to the public delusion ? Quite the reverse. The crowds which thronged to the Caledonian chapel, instantly doubled. The scene which Cross-street, Hatton-garden, pre- sented on the following Sunday, beggared all de- scription. It was quite a Vanity Fair. Not one half of the assembled multitude could force their way into the sanctum sanctorum. Even we, our- c 10 selves, were shut out among the' vulgar herd. For the entertainment of the excluded, however, there was Mr. Basil Montague, preaching peace and re- signation from a window ; and the once celebrated Romeo Coates acting the part of trumpeter from the steps of the church, extolling Mr. Irving as the prodigy of prodigies, and abusing the Times for declaring that Mr. Irving was not " the god of their idolatry." We laughed heartily at the fool. From what text did Mr. Romeo discourse ? Proverbs vii. 7- '* And behold, among the simple ones, I discovered a young man void of understanding" — (much laughter). Did you on this, make any other attempt to bring back the public to reason ? Yes, we did once more enter our protest in the name of good sense and common sense, against his fustian phraseology, his pigmy ideas, mounted on stilts, and all the other little tricks by which a mean understanding endeavours to acquire the character of depth and dignity of thought. Cross-examined by MR. PHILLIPS. Are you not, Sir, in the practice of inserting articles in your journal as from yourself, when they are, in fact, written by others ? — Yes, when cleverly written. Is not Mr. Cobbett in the habit of supplying you with clever articles occasionally ? Mr. Cobbett ! never, Sir : we should take shame 11 to ourselves if we polluted our pages with any thing from the pen of that arch mountebank and impostor. But on your oath, Sir, did not Mr. Cobbett write those articles on the late Queen, which gained your paper so much of the bubble repu- tation ? A lie — an odious lie, upon my soul a d d lie. (Accompanied with great violence of gesti- culation.) Keep your temper, Sir. Was it not so reported at least ? Yes. The old ruffian gave it out himself, that, he had written them ; but it was all a base and wicked invention of his own. I must nevertheless ask you whether it was not this very same Mr. Cobbett who wrote the criti- cisms which you have repeated here to-day on Mr. Irving ? No, Sir ; no earthly consideration could ever induce us to insert a syllable from the pen of that rascally grave-stealer, on any subject whatever. Mr. Phillips. But Mr. Cobbett, your are per- haps aware, has done you the honour of agreeing with you in opinion as to the present case ? Honour, Sir ! F know nothing about it j I am no reader of his trash. And yet you quote him at times ? Yes, the blustering blockhead will start across our path now and then, when we like to stir him up with our long pole a little, for the diversion of the public. But he is so nauseous a dog, that when we have any thing to quote from him, we never defile our pens with the task, but toss him to the compositors, that they may print from his own detestable pages. Admirable delicacy, indeed ! Now, Sir, let me ask you, who have so freely condemned Mr. Irving as a mari of mean understanding, whether you have not at the same time condemned Sir Walter Scott as a writer of no imagination ? — Yes, I have. And Lord Byron, as destitute of all poetical talent ? — Yes. Enough, Sir, you may go down. going down, Sir. The Editor of the Courier examined by MR. MACVICAR. Mr. Macvicar (handing to the witness a copy of the Courier of Thursday, July 17, 1823). Is that a genuine copy of the Courier newspaper for Thursday, the 17th of. July ?— It is. It contains, I see, an article on the subject of the controversy about Mr. Irving — is that your writing ? — It is. Had you heard Mr. Irving when you wrote it? No ; as there observed we had not lieard the gentleman, and until we could do so without fight- ing our way into his church, we were resolved to remain contented with what we could hear of him. You were enabled, however, to express an opi- nion of his merits ? Yes ; from specimens which appeared in the Morning Chronicle (the only paper we read ex- 13 cept our own) of what he had delivered in the pulpit, we were enabled to say, that he was the last preacher to whom we should choose to listen. What he uttered seemed to be a mere mass 'of gaudy, glittering words, without matter or method. What effect the mode of his delivery could have upon the tinsel of his language, we could not know, but we felt satisfied that if he could not reach the minds of his congregation, his influence on their ears and eyes would soon find its proper level. Were these all your objections ? No. We were given to understand that, he made the pulpit a theatre for coarse attacks upon indi- viduals. Now we hold it to be the business of a clergyman simply to expound the word of God, to enforce the precepts of religion, and to animate his fellow Christians in the pursuit of moral duty. He is not to level his rebukes at persons, for what he may consider as an aberration from strict pro- priety of conduct ; such a practice would convert a sacred place of worship into a hot-bed of angry passions and mutual animosities. Still less ought a preacher to fulminate ex cathedrd petulant cen- sures upon literary effusions. What do you particularly allude to ? We had seen in the papers of the day some foolish, illiberal, and greatly misplaced remarks of his upon the " Vision of Judgment," by our friend Southey, and its ribald parody, by Lord Byron. Do people, we asked, and again ask, go to church to hear trash like this ? Q. You concluded, I observe, with a prophecy ? 14 Yes. I said then, and now I repeat, that by acts like these, and by a fustian Ossianic phraseo- logy, Mr. Irving may for a time draw crowds, but I venture to predict, that unless he betakes him- self to a sounder and purer method of pulpit ora- tory, the new church which there is a talk of build- ing for him will not be wanted half so much as he will want a congregation. Cross-examined by MR. PHILLIPS. Look at that paper, Sir, and tell the Jury what it is. It is a copy of the Courier of Monday, July 7- Older by ten days than the Courier you have just been quoting ? — Yes. You there give an account of Mr. Irving's preaching at Hatton Garden on the day preced- ing, as if you had been present ? — Yes. You say the chapel was crowded to suffocation — that the heat was so intolerable that some stout- hearted men were absolutely fainting, and were obliged to be carried out of the crowd j all which things you of course saw ? — Yes. You describe Mr. Irving's person — his bushy hair — his large whiskers — his unfortunate squint ? Yes. You say his prayers and his reading are very impressive, and that his sermon was a masterpiece of oratory, and full of sound doctrine ? — Yes. And yet ten days after, you say you had not heard the gentleman, and that his sermons are 15 a mere mass of glittering, gaudy words, without matter or method? — Yes. I have nothing more to say to you, Sir. Good God ! that by such witnesses as this my noble- minded client should be borne down and reviled ! Re-examined by MR. MACVICAR. You can perhaps explain how this extraordinary discrepancy arises ? Quite easily, Sir. I have occasion to make fre- quent visits to Paris, and it was during one of these that the prior article, which Mr. Phillips rests so much upon, was written by an assistant, who, as my friend of VEtoile, says, has got un tete foible extremement. (Much laughter.) Why, Sir, it was the same gentleman with the weak head, who sounded the famous retreat of the French behind the Ebro, while at the very moment I was at Paris, receiving instructions from the French ministers to do all I could to make the public believe that the game was all up with the Spaniards. He is constantly committing blunders of this sort. Re-examined by MR. PHILLIPS. On your oath, Sir, did not you find, on your return from Paris, a letter lying from your friend Southey, chiding you for praising to the skies in your journal, a man who had called his Vision of Judgment " a most nauseous and unformed abor- 16 tion j vile, unprincipled, and unmeaning ; a bra- zen-faced piece of political cant?" Mr. Mac vicar submitted, that Mr. Phillips was not at liberty to prove a written document by pa- role evidence. Notice should have been given to produce the letter. Mr. Phillips declined pressing the question. Mr. William Cobbett examined by MR. PARSONS. Have you heard the defendant, Mr. Irving, preach ? I never go after fools, Sir. Perhaps, Mr. Cobbett, you " keep a fool of your own," and then think yourself " wise ?" ( A laugh.) Perhaps not, Mr. Jackanapes. Come now, Cobbett, don't be angry ; you are all on our side, you know ; tell us, then, how you came to know all about this Caledonian prodigy ? Why, I will tell you. — My friend William Hone, since he took to writing about Apocryphas and Mysteries, has become as pious and dreaming a noodle as any lank-haired fanatic in all England. It was only the other day he told me, that in mak- ing his famous defence on the three trials, which every body knows was a stammer and a halt all through, he verily thought he had the gift of tongues given unto him ! The man is sadly gone. He can speak to you about nothing but the Mac- cabees, and Habbakuk, and Mahaleel, and Jero- 17 boam, and Rehoboam, and goes moreover to church as regularly as my Lord Bexley, or that saintly gentleman, Mr. Butterworth. The God of his idolatry at present is Mr. Irving, on whose mi- nistry, as the poor man calls it, he attends every Sabbath, with all his pretty little chubby children ; and it is from him I have heard more than enough about this " Scotch dealer out of brimstone and fire." Chief Justice. Mr. Cobbett, this is harsh lan- guage to use of a minister of the gospel. Mr. Cobbett. I like, my Lord, to call things by their right names ; a cat, as the old adage goes, is but a cat all the world over. Mr. Parsons. What, then, is the opinion, Mr. Cobbett, that you have formed of Mr. Irving and his preaching ? Every body, Sir, must know that ; for every body reads Cobbett j the very children must have got it by heart. Well, but a good thing, you know, can't be repeated too often — once more if you please ? Well, then — " The exhibition now going on at Hatton-garden every Sunday, is far more con- temptible than any thing ever seen in the Catholic church. I have heard, indeed, of the women following the preaching and laughing Capuchins of Rome ! but I never heard of any thing else resembling this Hatton-garden show ; at which, it is said, Mr. Canning and other ministers attend. This preacher has been described to me as having 18 a fine voice, being very eloquent, full of the spirit of grace, six feet two inches high, shoulders of breadth in proportion, long black hair, and a beard like a German scrubbing-brush. The church is advertised in the newspapers, almost in direct terms. Tickets are said to be sold for half-a- guinea. To hear this man bawling about ' tlie level lake of JireJ 6 the 'worm that dieth nof,' and l the flame that is not quenched? to hear this stuff* bawled out in a harsh Scotch accent, people run, and push, and squeeze, and strive, as if they were endeavouring to get from a house on fire. They run to \\isjlre with as much eagerness as they would run from another fire. The Morn- ing Chronicle frequently entertains us with stories about the credulity and gullibility of Roman catholics. That which I have just described is now actually going on in London. The audience consists partly of ministers of state, and ,of mem- bers and peers of parliament. This great brim- stone merchant has the most fashionable part of the metropolis for his auditory. Here we have a specimen of the fruit of that light which the Chro- nicle tells us is in the Protestant mind. Can the Chronicle cite any instance in which Roman catholic folly has surpassed this ?" But you are aware, Mr. Cobbett, how much the protestant mind has fallen from its former " high estate" Have you not read how " our soul is smitten with grief and shame" to remark how in this latter day, in this fag end of the thread of human ex- 19 istence, Revealed Wisdom hath fallen, fallen, fal- len, and along with her fallen the great and noble character of men ? All stuff— stuff— stuff, Sir : the common-place of quacks and impostors. — Mr. Irving tells you that nine-tenths of the people of England /mow nothing at all of the truths of Revelation. There is nothing new, however false, in this. There are two hun- dred and eighty preachers already roaming about the country preaching the same sort of nonsense. They speak of the English people as Heathen ; as " destitute persons," destitute of all knowledge of the Lord ! They call the places neglected vil- lages, and they assert that these people : that is to say, a very large part of the people of England, are without the knowledge of God in this world. This Society has its head-quarters at the " Home Missionary Rooms, 18, Aldermanbury, London ;" and it has four Secretaries, whose names are Cob- bin, Dunn, Moore, and Millar. The very exist- ence of such a society, in a country paying tithes to the amount of six or seven millions a year, is a scandal without parallel. Here is a Church, col- lecting its tithes by the aid of soldiers ; and here is a society, putting into print and publishing that they have under their care, two hundred and seventy-four villages, containing a population of ninety-five thousand, three hundred and forty-four souls, who enjoy no means of evangelical instruction. " What then," say they, (and Mr. Irving but imitates their cant,) " must be the general state of 20 the villages in England" The Christian heart shudders at the thought! — Sir, either this is true, or these are most impudent vagabonds. If it be true, what a pretty Church we have, after our two hundred years of reformation! If it be false, what a pretty state we are in with two hundred and eighty, (for that is the number that they say they have) of bawling ******** of this one description, going about England to introduce the people to a knowledge of God! Augustine, when he landed in Kent with his forty monks, had, I am sure, too much modesty to speak of the English of that day, as- these impudent vagabonds speak of them now ; and that in print too, and as bold as brass. They have no scruple to declare that the agricultural popu- lation of England is in a perfectly heathenish state. But if they did not do this, Mr. Cobbett, what success would they have ? Oh ! to be sure, money is collected by these heathen converters. Money is always included j for their object is to live without work ; and to do this, they must have money. Accordingly, they plead most pressingly for money. They, in various publications, in pamphlets, in sheets, in half sheets, in quarter sheets, and in single leaves, set forth in grand array, the works of grace and sal- vation, that they are performing. But, then, they are in want of money. If they had but money ^ they would soon extirpate ah1 the heathenishness 21 of the poor souls who are now perishing. But without money what can they do ! Cross-examined by MR. PHILLIPS. You know the Times newspaper, Mr. Cobbett ? The b y old Times ? — Oh yes — none better. Do you ever write for it ? I have written all its best articles for a long time past ; I wrote those famous articles about the queen, which raised its circulation from 3,000 to 20,000 in one week. To do it justice, however, I must say, that I don't think the stupid num- sculls who manage it knew they were written by me : if they had, they would rather have been smothered to death (to make use of one of their own favourite similies), under the thousand and one quires they printed daily at that time, than have adopted them. But I have a way of my own, Sir, of managing these things. I can do other people's work for them, and make them say and do what I please, without their knowing or sus- pecting any thing of the matter. Another Brownie o'Brodsbeck, I suppose ? Something of that, i' faith. Well, Brownie, will you tell us one thing more ? Was it not you who wrote that clever article in The Times, about Mr. Irving, beginning " there is a fashion in every thing — in wigs and bonnets," and so forth ? Yes — every word of it. You swear that? Broil me on a gridiron if it was not. Editor of the LITERARY CHRONICLE, examined by MR. PARSONS. Do you know any thing, Sir, of the Rev. De- fendant, what he is, and whence he came? Mr. Irving, Sir, is a young man, a native of Annan in Scotland, who was for some time an assistant preacher to Dr. Chalmers of Glasgow, until both the Doctor and his colleague having calls, left their flocks to seek other shepherds. Dr. Chalmers was called to a professorship in a northern university. Mr. Irving was called, (and what Scotsman ever refused such a call?) from the bleak mountains of Scotland to the more fertile, vineyards of the south, to that land flowing with milk and honey — the British metropolis. Well, Sir, how has he fared since his arrival in this land of milk and honey ? " Some nine moons wrasted," he was seated in the Caledonian chapel in Cross Street, Hatton Garden — a place of worship formerly known by the name of the Gaelic Chapel. Gaelic ! Does Mr. Irving preach in Gaelic ? Oh, no, Sir. It was found out by some honest folks, that the Gaelic language, however sono- rous and mellifluous it may be in the long deep glens of the Highlands, is, in the polished streets of the metropolis, one of the most barbarous and intolerable jargons ever known to the tongue of man.* It was therefore resolved that there * Absolutely what was stated at one of the meetings about Mr. Irving's call to the Caledonian chapel. — REPORTER. 23 should be no more preaching in Gaelic, but that a call should be given to Mr. Irving to come and proclaim the glad tidings of the gospel in Gallovidian English. Or rather, I fancy, Sir, the resolution to call Mr. Irving was made first, and the reason for it came afterwards ? Not unlikely. And what has become of the poor Gaelic folks in London who don't understand English 7 Have they been turned adrift without a pastor, and left to perish for lack of instruction ? Oh, Sir, nobody but porters and the like speak Gaelic only ; and who cares for their perishing ? Give me, says Mr. Irving, your " imaginative men, and political men, and legal men, and medi- cal men." What indeed would the society of saints be worth, if it were made up only of Scotch caddies, Highland porters, Kentish gipseys, West Country bargemen, Welsh miners, and the like ? Mr. Irving preaches then only to people of high degree, such as your poets and statesmen, and lawyers and physicians ? — Yes. But how has he contrived to make these people run after him so ? Why the art is simple enough. Mr. Irving saw that in London preachers are followed not so much for their talents and attainments, as for their apparent zeal and the violence of their denun- ciations ; that the more lustily a minister preaches damnation to his followers, the more eagerly he is followed, and every word he drops caught, as if it were manna from heaven. He saw the higher classes heedless of religion, because their preachers preached nothing but peace, peace : he saw the lower cramming conventicles to the very ceiling, because they heard of nothing there but fire, fire. He reasoned, and reasoned correctly, that as the poor crowded to chapels in proportion as their sins were denounced, the rich would do the same, and that he had only to attack the vices and fol- lies of the fashionable world to become popular : he did so, and has succeeded. Is this then the whole secret of his success ? No ; another secret of his popularity is, that he does not confine himself to attacking the higher classes in the abssract : he singles out individual characters — he thus takes advantage of that weak- ness of human nature, the love of scandal, and is the very " John Bull " of the clergy. Has not curiosity also some share in the matter ? Undoubtedly. His chapel is every Sunday a gallery of beauty and fashion ; and while some of the nobility and gentry are prompted by curiosity to see and hear a preacher become popular by the boldness of his denunciations, no inconsiderable portion of his auditors are collected in the hopes of seeing some Royal Duke or Princess, some Minister of State, the famed Lady A. or the beauteous Miss B. But do you mean to say that Mr. Irving is a man of no talents ? Certainly not, he is a man of considerable ta- lents, but they have been sadly overrated. He is 2.5 read well in books, but has not studied men ; his reasoning is superficial j his judgment indiscreet ; his taste bad ; his conceit overwhelming ; his as- surance most unblushing ; he is, in short, nothing but a sounding brass, a tinkling cymbol ; or, to call things by their right names, a mere scold. You say he is well read in books. Do you mean that it should be inferred, that he shines in bor- rowed plumes ? Not so exactly j I have met with little in his volume of what we call plagiarism. Indeed, the only instance worth remarking is, after all, very excusable. " I wish," says Mr. Irving, " that I had a dwelling place in every bosom." Sweet ecstatic idea ! but borrowed, as you will see, Sir, from the following passage of the Don Juan, of that " woe-begone and self- tormented, wretched man," Lord Byron, as Mr. Irving calls him : — I love the sex and sometimes would reverse The tyrant's wish " that mank'fid only ha One neck, which he with one fell scroke might pierce." My wish is quite as wide, and not so bad, And much more tender, on the whole, than fierce ; It being — (not now, but only while a lad) That womankind had but one rosy mouth, To kiss them all from north to south. (much laughter : fans in requisition in the gallery.) Crass-examined by MR. PHILLIPS. You keep a common establishment, Sir, for giving characters ? E 26 I edit a weekly Review, Sir. Which every body knows is the same thing, Sir. Go down. The EDITOR of the ALBUM examined by Mu. MACVICAR. Were you at the Scottish Church in Hatton Garden, on Sunday, the 6th of July ? — I was. What sort of audience did you find collected? I was surrounded on every side by faces well known upon town in every way. For what purpose did they seem assembled ? They were evidently brought there by some strong and peculiar motive ; but the general buzz and hum of different conversations, plainly proved that the motive was not to pray to God. There was none of that staid and decorous aspect and manner which, in those who cannot be called devout, supply an appearance fitted to the place. The company were evidently come to see a show, and they conversed with one another till the show began. When was that? Just at eleven, a sort of motion and movement through the assemblage, told that Mr. Irving was entering. He had some difficulty in making his way to the pulpit, the stairs of which were covered with gaily dressed ladies. The service com- menced by Mr. Irving reading a hymn, which was immediately afterwards sung by the clerk and the children of the Caledonian school. 27 How were you impressed at first with Mr. Irving' s style of officiating ? I was disappointed. His voice seemed to have little modulation or tunefulness. I was still more displeased with the manner in which he read, it being with extreme pompousness of tone and con- tortion of countenance. Did he improve as he went on ? Far from it. When he delivered the prayer, his eyes were forcibly closed ; his mouth was drawn into an expression so pompous as almost to be farcical ; the enunciation was studied and stilted to the last degree ; the gesture was ungrace- ful throughout, and often vehement, and the matter was a succession of scriptural phrases linked together by language, aiming not very happily at the same style. Mr. Irving, I said to myself, means to make his prayer impressive by this manner : it is a pity he does not know that it is impossible to be impressive and unnatural at the same time. The prayer was concluded by the Lord's prayer, and the way in which he gave this was perfectly sufficient, I thought, to decide his taste and manner. How was that ? It was mouthed, I might almost say, ranted, in the manner in which we are accustomed to hear the mock invocation in the Critic spouted upon the stage — the face was more than usually contorted — the voice was more than usually violent and un- equal— arid the gesture ! Oh ! heavens ! such ges- ture ! During the preceding prayer, Mr. I. had 28 stood chiefly with the arms slightly protruded from the body, and crossed by the right hand clasping the left arm about half way between the wrist and the elbow : but this curious, and some- what awkward posture, was changed when he commenced the Lord's Prayer, into one still more curious, and far more awkward. The arms were placed close by the sides, but raised perpendicu- larly from the elbow, with the hands erect. Now, Sir, if you please, for the sermon — What did you think of that ? I am no divine, Sir, and can say nothing of the matter of doctrine that it involved. You can tell us, however, what you think of him as an orator, if not as a theologian ? I had heard, Sir, a good deal of the peculiarity of diction, which Mr. Irving has adopted after the model of Jeremy Taylor, and the other old writers of our Church. It was, as it had been represented to me, and its effect was also what I had antici- pated it would be. The diction which he employs is not now in use ; and it consequently appears affected, unnatural, and therefore unimpressive. He uses the third person singular of the verb, ac- cording to the old form, — for instance, he says, " it hath"— "it doth'5— "it cometh"— " it goeth"— &c., and he employs a consonant obsoleteness of diction. But of what sort was the substance of his ser- mon ? The discourse, Sir, was one flood of inappropriate and bombastic language j — extravagant without be- 29 ing in thejeast degree poetical ;— furious, without even for a moment being forcible. I could recog- nize no deep thought — no fine images — nothing pathetic — nothing impressive : his style was over- charged with metaphor to the utmost degree ; but his metaphors are nearly always false and broken. During the whole sermon, which lasted an hour and five-and-twenty minutes, there was sca'rcely any image which was perfect, and positively, not one which remained impressed upon the mind by its beauty, terseness, and truth. How did he deliver the sermon ? The manner of delivery, Sir, displeased me as much as the composition. The Lord's Prayer had prepared me for a good deal, but I had no conception that it was possible any thing like the violence of enunciation and gesture which Mr. Irving displayed could have been used in the pul- pit ; or, indeed, anywhere else. Mr. Irving' s solem- nity, is vehemence ; Mr. Irving's passion, is fury ; and he is not guided in these bursts of convulsive fienzy by the matter which he is delivering. He throws himself into all the variations of attitude, which are consistent with every one of them being ungraceful — his hands are clenched — the sweat starts from his brow — his whole frame shakes — and his voice comes forth with a quivering sound from the extremity of his agitation ; and all this, at a passage where manly earnestness was all that was needed, or indeed, admissible. Can you give us an example ? When speaking of the Omnipotence of God, 30 that the whole universe was in His person, as he pronounced the word universe he absolutely waved his arm round and round above his head, in a manner which is usual only when the hand contains a hat, and the mouth is uttering huzza ! huzza ! My friend Cruikshank, who wras with me, was constantly whispering into my ear, " What a subject ! capital ! admirable !" His mischievous pencil was at work the whole time, catching the oddities and contortions of the preacher. Perhaps you could shew the court some of these sketches. Here are some. — [Witness produced several of these sketches done on the back of small address cards. They were handed about the Court, and kept it for several minutes in a general roar of laughter. The editor of the Album has been kind enough to permit us to have them engraved for this report. The preacher is exhibited in five different attitudes : — 1st. The Glance Penetrat- ing. 2d. The Knock it into them. 3. The So- lemn Invocation. 4. Solemn Invocation after another manner. 5. The Crown All.] Have you any thing farther, Sir, to add to your evidence ? I ought to observe that Mr. Irving's obliquity of vision, of which so much is said, is worse than that which is called a squint, and varies according to the direction in which he looks. I came away, upon the whole, lost in wonder, not at the noto- riety which Mr. Irving has gained, for his style is very much ad captandum, but at the report which 31 I had heard (but which I must say I now doubt), that some of our most really eloquent men have spoken of him in high praise. The PRINTER of the LIBERAL examined by MR. PARSONS. Have you, among the contributors to your " Verse and Prose from the South," any " well- wishers to religion and good order?" We have one queer fellow who calls himself so ; but I do not know what to make of him. He is, for all that, constantly in the company of and and. Is he not in the practice of haunting churches and chapels a good deal ? He has been hearing Mr. Irving several times of late : and yet is constantly abusing him. The Caledonian Chapel, he says, resembles a booth at a fair ; and the pulpit, a stage, for a tall, raw- boned, hard-featured, impudent Scotch quack, to twang through the nose indecently, blasphemy and sedition. The things, probably, which take him there so often. Did he give you any instance of Mr. Irving's indecency ? — None. Of his sedition ? — None. Of his blasphemy ? Yes, of something like it, at least. He men- tioned that he had heard Mr. Irving, at one time, describe the God of natural religion as like the great desert — dry, disagreeable, comfortless, deadly — where no one wished to dwell ! No one, 32 he insisted, could venture upon this gross insult to the God of nature (whom he apprehended to be also the God of Christians), without that strong obliquity of mental vision, that can keep natural religion in one eye and revealed religion in the other : look grave on the parent, and fulsome on the daughter. Mr. Irving had at another time, he said, asserted, by an impudent figure of speech, that the God of Mercy was like .Alsatia, 'where the scum of mankind took refuge ! ! But all this does not prove Mr. Irving to be what he called him, " an impudent Scotch quack ?" No 5 but he mentioned another thing which does. 