358 Death o/Andbew Liddell, Esq. 



Houseless, which will remain a permanent monument of his indomitable 

 perseverance and practical benevolence. When the institution had 

 commenced its operations in an old granary in St. Enoch's Wynd, he 

 could scarcely obtain as many coadjutors as were required to give the 

 experiment a trial. Nothing daunted, however, he resolved that the 

 plan shoidd succeed ; and bated nought either of heart or hope, when, 

 as he used to tell with glee, one of the public meetings about this 

 period, consisted of himself in the chair, from which he proposed the 

 resolutions, and his clerk or shopman, brought up for the occasion to 

 second them. The success of the experiment, and its manifest benefits 

 to homeless wanderers, arriving friendless in the town, and to poor 

 people suddenly deprived of work and lodgings, and turned out into the 

 streets, became speedily apparent. ]\'Ir. Liddell at length surrounded 

 himself by a numerous and energetic body of fellow-labourers, whom he 

 induced to embark in the building of the extensive and commodious 

 house in North Frederick Street ; and he was mainly instrumental in 

 raising the funds for its erection. The additional feature of an indus- 

 trial department was now added to the institution, for the protection and 

 employment of females ; and from the moral and economical advantages 

 of this part of the system, Mr. Liddell derived peculiar satisfaction. 

 This was his favoui'ite topic at the annual meetings, when he delighted 

 to expatiate upon individual instances which had come to his knowledge, 

 of respectable females having been put in the way of maintaining them- 

 selves in comfort and independence by means of the encouragement 

 aiForded by this department of the institution. 



As a Magistrate he dispensed justice with inflexible impartiality. He 

 set his face sternly against vice in every form. He was literally a terror 

 to evil doers. During his incumbency of ofEce, he employed all his 

 influence in diminishing the temptations to intemperance. In the young 

 brought before him he felt a tender interest ; and we have known him 

 leave the Bench, where he had been investigating into a case of incipient 

 juvenile dehnquency, and proceed in quest of the parents of an erring 

 boy to advise them as to his future conduct. 



His early scientific education and practical knowledge of mechanics 

 disposed him to take a warm and active interest in the Philosophical 

 Society of Glasgow. He was admitted a member in 1819; was re- 

 peatedly elected President ; and for many years held the office of 

 Treasurer greatly to the benefit of the Society. Twenty years ago, when 

 the Society had fallen to a low ebb, he and one or two other members 

 preserved it from becoming extinct ; and not unfrequently the meetings 

 consisted only of himself and another, who, however, duly entered their 

 sederunt in the minutes. It was principally through his influence that 

 the Society was revived, and became, as it still continues, the centre and 



