542 ifcfngs of tfoe 1Rofc, TCffle, anb Gun 



issue. Already the young editor had made his mark and 

 stamped his own individuality indelibly on his journal. 

 But when the reduction in price and the improved 

 methods of distribution placed The Scotsman within the 

 reach of all classes, the circulation rose by leaps and 

 bounds till it attained the then phenomenal figure of 

 60,000 copies per diem. And over this immense clientele 

 Russel exercised the sway of a magician. " What has 

 Sandy Russel got to say this morning ? " " Mon ! hae ye 

 read Russel in to-day's Scotsman ? " were the remarks 

 interchanged every day among Scots all over Scotland. 

 If you saw two douce citizens chuckling together in the 

 streets, if you heard a roar of laughter in a railway- 

 carriage, you might be sure that it was the last racy thing 

 of " Russel o' The Scotsman " that was the subject of 

 the chuckle and the laugh. For nearly thirty years 

 Alexander Russel wielded an influence over political 

 and public affairs in Scotland the like to which no man 

 before or since has ever exercised. He made enemies, 

 of course ; the " unco' guid " could never forgive him for 

 the " blue thread " of irreverence which sometimes ran 

 through his slashing attacks on their strongholds of 

 humbug and cant. They shook their heads in horror, 

 and spoke of him with bated breath as a "godless 

 loon." 



His own religious views were probably those of the 

 first Lord Shaftesbury, as indicated in the following 

 anecdote given by John Toland two hundred years ago, 

 and since plagiarised by Lord Beaconsfield : 



" This puts one in mind of what I was told by a near 

 relation of the old Lord Shaftesbury. The latter 



