n8 FAMOUS SCOTS 



Graham knew of them, Peel might as well have left 

 them to a foreigner. It took the death of thousands of 

 Irishmen in the potato famine of 1847 to convince the 

 overfed John Bull of even the barest existence of an 

 Irish Question, and many a man went to his grave 

 before Lord Aberdeen, Peel, Graham, and other official 

 people could learn for themselves the true condition of 

 Scotland. Then it was too late, and their regrets were 

 vain. The bill of Bolingbroke brought in, as Burnet 

 said, to weaken the Scottish Church, had produced its 

 logical effects in widening the gulf between the people 

 and the nobility of Scotland ; education at Eton, 

 Harrow, and the English Universities had done the 

 rest. Carlyle is known to have regarded the action 

 of the Church in 1843 as the greatest thing in his 

 time ; the sole survivor of the Peel ministry, Mr. 

 Gladstone, has expressed the same opinion; while 

 the critical, wiry, and alert little Jeffrey was 'proud 

 of his country.' It bears to-day the mark very strongly 

 of Hugh Miller. Nor need the workman be ashamed 

 of his work from which, therefore, let him not be 

 separated. 



