IRVIKO, WASHINGTON. 



IRVINO, WA8HIKOTOK. 



ottriatod at various church**. Dr. Chalmers having heard him preach 

 a sermon at Edinburgh, afterwards tngaped him as hia ssslttant t 

 Si. John's ebureh, Glangow. In (hut city Mr. Irving acquired go high 

 a reputation that he was invited to supply the vacancy which had 

 occurred in the Caledonian Church, Cross Street, Hatton Harden, 

 London, and early in July 1822 preached his first sermon there. In n 

 Tew weeks be began to attract large congregations ; in three months 

 the applications for seats bad risen from SO to 1500; at length it 

 became necessary to exclude the general public, and to admit only 

 thoee who were provided with ticket*, Statesmen, orators, the noble, 

 the wealthy, the fashionable, occupied the seats of the church, and 

 their carriages thronged the adjoining streets. The preacher was six 

 feet high and very athletic, with good features, but sallow, and with a 

 very obvious squint. A profusion of glossy black hair hung down to 

 bis shoulders. His general aspect was stern and solemn. The com- 

 position of his discourses was rhetorical and declamatory, and his 

 delivery of them, with a strong Scotch accent, was accompanied by 

 violent but expressive gesticulations, his whole appearance and manner 

 being in the highest degree singular and exciting. 



In 1S2S Mr. Irving published a scries of connected discourses, which 

 had been delivered on Sunday evenings, under the title of ' For the 

 Oracles of Qod, Four Orations : For Judgment to Come, an Argument 

 In Nine Parts.' On the 14th of Mnyl824, at the request of the London 

 Missionary Society, he preached a sermon on Missions in the Taber- 

 nacle, Tottenham Court Road. When published about twelve months 

 afterwards it was greatly expanded, and was entitled, 'For Missionaries 

 of the Apostolic School, a Series of Orations, in Four Parts.' The 6rst 

 oration however was the only one published, its doctrines having been 

 received with disapprobation by many persons who supported the 

 missionary cause. In 1827 he published ' The Coming of the Messiah 

 in Glory and Majesty, by Juan Josafat Ben Ezra, a Converted Jew,' 

 translated from the Spanish. In 1828 he published a 'Letter to the 

 King on the Repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts,' a measure which 

 be decidedly opposed. In the same year lie published ' Sermons, 

 Lectures, and Occasional Discourses,' 3 vols. Svo ; and in 1829 ' Church 

 and State responsible to each other, a series of Discourses on Daniel's 

 Vision of the Four Beasts.' 



The church iu Cross Street being much too small for the accom- 

 modation of the congregations that assembled there, Mr. Irving's 

 followers commenced a subscription for the purpose of erecting a 

 larger and more commodious church, and in 1829 a handsome edifice 

 was completed and opened in Regent Square, Gray's Inn Road. 

 Before this time however his peculiarities of manner had become 

 familiar, critical opponents had made their appearance, and Ms popu- 

 larity was on the wane. At a meeting of the presbytery of London, 

 November 20th 1830, he was charged with heresy. The proceedings 

 were prolonged for about eighteen months, during which his religious 

 opinions remained unchanged, and in addition he introduced at his 

 church the extravagancies of the unknown tongues. This supposed 

 supernatural inspiration originated with some females at Glasgow, and 

 was gradually transferred to Mr. Irving's church, at first privately in 

 prayer-meetings held at half-past six in the morning, but afterwards 

 publicly in crowded congregations. Mr. Irving published, in Fraser's 

 Magazine,' 'Facts connected with the recent Manifestations of Spiritual 

 Gift*, 1 At length, the presbytery of London having pronounced sen- 

 tence against him, the trustees of the church in Regent Square came 

 to a unanimous decision, May 8, 1882, that " the Rev. Edward Irving 

 had rendered himself unfit to remain a minister of the Caledonian 

 Church, Regent Square, and ought to be removed therefrom." His 

 ejection took place accordingly, and he then occupied, with such of hi* 

 congregation as still adhered to him, a building in Gray's Inn Koad, 

 whence he afterwards removed to Newman Street, where he occupied 

 the room which had been West's picture-gallery. He was next cited 

 before the presbytery of Annan to answer the charge of heresy. He 

 attended and made his answer, when that presbytery unanimously 

 pronounced a sentence of deposition from the ministry, March 15th, 

 1883. His constitution soon afterwards began to give way under 

 consumption, nnd he died December 8, 1884, at Glasgow, and wns 

 burii-d in the crypt of the cathedral Ho was married at Kirkaldy on 

 the 14th of October 1822, and left a widow and children. 



IIIVIXG, WASHINGTON, was born April 8, 1783, in the city 

 of New York, where his father, a native of Scotland, had settled as a 

 merchant. He re ceived a home education under the superintendence 

 of his elder brothers, who were young men of considerable literary 

 attainments. Fortunately perhaps for his genius, his health being too 

 uncertain to permit of his entering upon commercial pursuits, he 

 upent much of his youth in wandering about the picturesque haunts 

 of Manhattan Island, where, among the old-fashioned inhabitants, he 

 picked np many of the quaint traditions which he subsequently turned 

 to so much advantage, and early familiarity with which no doubt (as 

 was the can with Scott) imparted something of that peculiar colouring 

 which has distinguished his imaginative *ork*. Hia health continuing 

 weak, lie was when about twenty advised to proceed to the south of 

 Europe. On this tour he spent about three yean, visiting Sicily, 

 Napier, and Rome, and then pasting by way of France to England. 



Before hii European trip he had in 1802 contributed some letters, 

 signed ' Jonathan Oldstyle,' to a newspaper, ' The New York Morning 

 Cfcronicle,' conducted by one of bU brothers ; and on his return to 



America he joined with Mr. Kirke Pauldiug, a man of congenial 

 humour, in writing 'Salmagundi,' a series of papers which 1 

 novelty of style and freshness of matter at once obtained great popu- 

 larity. The work, commenced at the beginning of 1807, was, 

 to a difference with the publisher, brought to a sudden t rmiimtiim 

 at the close of that year. After ' Salmagundi ' was ended, Irving con- 

 tinued to write occasionally for the magaxincs and newspapers ; and 

 in 1809 appeared the inimitable 'History of New York, by Di 

 Knickerbocker,' a work which at onco raised its author to the first 

 place among his countrymen for original humour and literary skill. 

 It is said that, like ' Gulliver's Travels,' it at first found many readers 

 who regarded it s a veritable though somewhat extraordinary history; 

 and some among the soberer citizens, as well as many of the descend- 

 ants of the old Dutch settlers, were with difficulty brought to forgive 

 the author for so irreverently handling a grave historical theme ; but 

 by the great body of the New Yorkers the wit was heartily relished, 

 and Irving at once became, as he has ever siuce continued to be, the 

 inot-t popular of native writers. 



Literature however was not as yet thought of by Irving as a pro- 

 fession. After his return from Europe he had entered upon the study 

 of the law in the office of Judge Huffman. But tho desultory habits 

 he had formed while strolling about Manhattan, or travelling through 

 Europe ; the celebrity ho Imd acquired by the Salmagundi papers and 

 occasional magazine articles ; the literary investigations he hud entered 

 upon for his Knickerbocker history ; and not least perhaps the pos- 

 session of ample pecuniary menus, which enabled him to follow at 

 pleasure more immediately ink-resting pursuits, and seemed to render 

 unnecessary any future dependence on professional position, combined 

 to divert his attention from Coke and Blackstone ; and though he was 

 admitted to the bar, lie seems never to have had any serious intention 

 of practising. The mercantile business established by his father was 

 an extensive one, and on the father's death had been continued under 

 the name of Irving, Brothers. The elder brothers now adn 

 Washington to a certain share in the firm, but his connection with 

 the business was apparently little more than nominal On the out- 

 break of the war with England, Irving volunteered his services ; was 

 appointed aide-de-camp to General Tomkius, the governor of New York ; 

 created a colonel, and employed on 'special servict 1 .' He also dutiug 

 this period edited a magazine. Peace put an end at once to hia military 

 and his editorial duties. Colonel Irving laid down his title, and once 

 more merged in the firm of Irving, Brothers. A branch of the 

 establishment was carried on at Liverpool, and Washington Irving was 

 despatched thither to conduct it. But in the train of peace followed 

 commercial disaster, and Irving has himself related how he became for 

 a time its victim. The firm of which he was a partner was brokeu 

 up, and lie turned naturally to his pen, as he says, for solace and 

 support. 



It was under these circumstances that iu ISIS he began his famous 

 ' Sketch-Book.' As he wrote the successive papers in England they 

 were transmitted to New York, and there published. Their rec. 

 in New York was enthusiastic, and they soon came to be heard of in 

 England. The 'Literary Gazette" printed large portions of them 

 " with many encomiums," and Irving heard that it was the intention 

 of a London publisher to collect and reprint them oil He says that 

 he " had been deterred by the severity with which American pro- 

 ductions had been treated by the British press " from himself preparing 

 an English edition ; but this report removed his apprehension 

 he resolved to do so. In the preface to an edition of the ' Sketch- 1 look' 

 published in 1848, he has given an amusing account of the difficulty 

 he found in inducing a publisher to undertake the risk on favourable 

 terms. In his perplexity he applied to Sir Walter Scott, from whu-n 

 he bad some years before experienced a hospitable welcome at Abbots- 

 ford. Scott spoke with warm admiration of the specimens Irving sent 

 him, bnt even he seems to have found it no easy matter to persuade 

 Constable to undertake the publication. But "the hint about a 

 reverse of fortune," says Irving, " hod struck the quick appn-h. n-ion 

 of Scott, and, with that practical and efficient goodwill which belonged 

 to his nature, he had already devised a way of aiding nv." In tact 

 Scott offered him the appointment of editor, with a salary of 6001. a 

 year, of a weekly periodical then about to be started in Edinburgh. 

 Scott however expressed doubts whether, as the journal was to bo a 

 political one, Irving would like the tone it was intended to take ; and 

 Irving in his reply raid that, much as such an avowal of con: 

 bad cheered him, he must decline the offer, not only on political 

 grounds, but because he foil himself unfitted for the work by the very 

 constitution and habits of his mind. " My whole course of life," Irving 

 wrote, " has been desultory, and I am unfitted for any periodically- 

 recurring task, or any stipulated labour of body or mind. I have no 

 command of my talents, such as they are, and have to watch the vary ings 

 of my mind as 1 should those of a weathercock. Practice and training 

 may bring me more into rule, but at present I am as useless for regular 

 service as one of my own country Indians or a Don Cossack. J 

 therefore keep on pretty much as I have begun writing when I can, 

 not when I would. I shall occasionally shift my residence, and write 

 whatever is suggested by objects before me, or whatever rises in my 

 imagination, and hope to write better and more copiously by-ainl-liy." 

 We quote this passage because it seems to us to show how accurately 

 Mr. Irving had already taken the measure of his literary ability and 



