BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF THE LATE REV. DR CHALMERS. 503 



to make or mar human happiness, and he took a very prominent position amongst 

 the Christian economists of the day. Into tlie general question of political econo- 

 my as a theory, whether of population, free trade, balance of trade, capital, taxes 

 or tithes, I do not pretend to enter. On these points Dr Chalmers wrote with 

 much power and acuteness. His views on most points generally coincided with 

 Adam Smith, Malthus, Tooke, and authors of that school. But in one depart- 

 ment of political economy, he took that position which has added lustre to his 

 name, and which exhibits him to the world as the true Christian philanthropist, 

 and the best friend of human nature. Speculations on theory and doctrine in 

 political economy were not sufficient for one who constantly sought to do good 

 to those who most needed the help and guidance of their fellow-Christians. We 

 have to consider Chalmers, then, as a practical economist ; as one who, not sa- 

 tisfied to reason and to speculate in his study upon the best methods of improv- 

 ing the conditions of mankind, went forth into the cottages, the hovels, and 

 crowded habitations of the poor, to improve their temporal, moral, and religious 

 condition. The agencies on which he depended for improving mankind were the 

 school, tlie Bible, the visitor, the pastor. Hence the titles of his works and 

 articles on this subject, indicate what were the objects and pm-poses he had 

 in view : for instance, we have " The Civic and Christian Economy of Great 

 Towns ;" " The Christian and Economic Polity of a Nation ;" " Sabbath Schools ;" 

 " Bearing of Christian Economy upon Pauperism," &c. In his " Civic and Chris- 

 tian Economy of Large Towns," he lays down some of the most valuable and 

 practical principles of useful charity. It is a dreary and heart-sickening prospect 

 which the Christian philanthropist encounters when he enters upon the charity of 

 great cities ; and not only did Dr Chalmers zealously promote amendment in 

 that field of our erring, and destitute, and suffering countrymen, by suggesting 

 sound principles of management, but he threw his whole energy, his persuasive 

 eloquence, and his personal superintendence into the Avork.* 



In 1815 he had been caUed to take the pastoral charge of a parish in 

 Glasgow, a city where he knew there would be abundant opportunities for 

 verifying his opinions and employing his resources. He commenced the pub- 

 lication of Hie Civic and Christian Economy, as a small periodical, and took the 

 lead in directing the attention of the nation to the absolute necessity of ex- 

 tending, in our city population, means of education, of pastoral superintendence, 

 and spiritual instruction, similar to what prevailed through the country parishes 



* It is pleasing to remember how the last mortal days of such a man were engaged with plans 

 of instruction for the benefit of this very class. He had for some time been entirely taken up with 

 a School and Church, in the worst locality of the Old Town of Edinburgh. The man of liigh specu- 

 lation became a teacher of ragged children. The Professor of Theology descended from his chair to 

 impress the first rudiments of Christian truth upon the rude minds of a congregation the most igno- 

 rant and most neglected. 



