The Rev.Z.Pringle, D.D., to Mr.Micklewham, Schoolmaster and Session-Clerk of Garnock--LONDON.
Dear Sir--I have written by the post that will take this to hand, a letter to Banker M-y, at Irvine, concerning some small matters of money that I may stand in need of his opinion anent; and as there is a prospect now of a settlement of the legacy business, I wish you to take a step over to the banker, and he will give you ten pounds, which you will administer to the poor, by putting a twenty-shilling note in the plate on Sunday, as a public testimony from me of thankfulness for the hope that is before us; the other nine pounds you will quietly, and in your own canny way, divide after thefollowing manner, letting none of the partakers thereof know from what other hand than the Lord's the help comes, for, indeed, from whom but HIS does any good befall us!
You will give to auld Mizy Eccles ten shillings.She's a careful creature, and it will go as far with her thrift as twenty will do with Effy Hopkirk; so you will give Effy twenty.Mrs.Binnacle, who lost her husband, the sailor, last winter, is, I am sure, with her two sickly bairns, very ill off; I would therefore like if you will lend her a note, and ye may put half-a-crown in the hand of each of the poor weans for a playock, for she's a proud spirit, and will bear much before she complain.Thomas Dowy has been long unable to do a turn of work, so you may give him a note too.I promised that donsie body, Willy Shachle, the betherel, that when I got my legacy, he should get a guinea, which would be more to him than if the colonel had died at home, and he had had the howking of his grave; you may therefore, in the meantime, give Willy a crown, and be sure to warn him well no to get fou with it, for I'll be very angry if he does.But what in this matter will need all your skill, is the giving of the remaining five pounds to auld Miss Betty Peerie; being a gentlewoman both by blood and education, she's a very slimmer affair to handle in a doing of this kind.But I am persuaded she's in as great necessity as many that seem far poorer, especially since the muslin flowering has gone so down.Her bits of brats are sairly worn, though she keeps out an apparition of gentility.Now, for all this trouble, I will give you an account of what we have been doing since my last.
When we had gotten ourselves made up in order, we went, with Andrew Pringle, my son, to the counting-house, and had a satisfactory vista of the residue; but it will be some time before things can be settled-- indeed, I fear, not for months to come--so that I have been thinking, if the parish was pleased with Mr.Snodgrass, it might be my duty to my people to give up to him my stipend, and let him be appointed not only helper, but successor likewise.It would not be right of me to give the manse, both because he's a young and inexperienced man, and cannot, in the course of nature, have got into the way of visiting the sick-beds of the frail, which is the main part of a pastor's duty, and likewise, because I wish to die, as Ihave lived, among my people.But, when all's settled, I will know better what to do.
When we had got an inkling from Mr.Argent of what the colonel has left,--and I do assure you, that money is not to be got, even in the way of legacy, without anxiety,--Mrs.Pringle and I consulted together, and resolved, that it was our first duty, as a token of our gratitude to the Giver of all Good, to make our first outlay to the poor.So, without saying a word either to Rachel, or to Andrew Pringle, my son, knowing that there was a daily worship in the Church of England, we slipped out of the house by ourselves, and, hiring a hackney conveyance, told the driver thereof to drive us to the high church of St.Paul's.This was out of no respect to the pomp and pride of prelacy, but to Him before whom both pope and presbyter are equal, as they are seen through the merits of Christ Jesus.We had taken a gold guinea in our hand, but there was no broad at the door; and, instead of a venerable elder, lending sanctity to his office by reason of his age, such as we see in the effectual institutions of our own national church--the door was kept by a young man, much more like a writer's whipper-snapper-clerk, than one qualified to fill that station, which good King David would have preferred to dwelling in tents of sin.However, we were not come to spy the nakedness of the land, so we went up the outside stairs, and I asked at him for the plate; "Plate!" says he; "why, it's on the altar!"I should have known this--the custom of old being to lay the offerings on the altar, but I had forgot; such is the force, you see, of habit, that the Church of England is not so well reformed and purged as ours is from the abominations of the leaven of idolatry.We were then stepping forward, when he said to me, as sharply as if I was going to take an advantage, "You must pay here.""Very well, wherever it is customary," said I, in a meek manner, and gave him the guinea.Mrs.Pringle did the same."I cannot give you change," cried he, with as little decorum as if we had been paying at a playhouse."It makes no odds," said I; "keep it all."Whereupon he was so converted by the mammon of iniquity, that he could not be civil enough, he thought--but conducted us in, and showed us the marble monuments, and the French colours that were taken in the war, till the time of worship--nothing could surpass hisdiscretion.
At last the organ began to sound, and we went into the place of worship; but oh, Mr.Micklewham, yon is a thin kirk.There was not a hearer forby Mrs.Pringle and me, saving and excepting the relics of popery that assisted at the service.What was said, I must, however, in verity confess, was not far from the point.But it's still a comfort to see that prelatical usurpations are on the downfall; no wonder that there is no broad at the door to receive the collection for the poor, when no congregation entereth in.You may, therefore, tell Mr.Craig, and it will gladden his heart to hear the tidings, that the great Babylonian madam is now, indeed, but a very little cutty.
