528 HIGHLAND AND AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



him in the cause of education, as pursued by the General 

 Assembly's Committee, it would be silly vanity to deny 

 that he had originated the scheme. But of the merit of the 

 eighty-five schools, or of the eight thousand scholars, very 

 little indeed was due to him. He was satisfied, after 

 travelling seven thousand miles by land and sea, that the 

 heritors were liberal, and the people most grateful. 



The Principal shortly afterwards left the room, and 

 was loudly cheered at his departure, the company standing 

 up at the time. 



Principal Baird communicated to the Society in 1831 

 a description of a hand thrashing machine, which was pub- 

 lished, with a drawing, in the second volume of the second 

 series of the Transactions. 



II. The Rev. James Grant, D.C.L., D.D.— The Rev. 

 James Grant, then first minister of South Leith, was, from 

 his standing in the church and from his high character, 

 unanimously elected Honorary Chaplain at the General 

 Meeting on the 23rd of June 1840, an office he still holds. 

 He was afterwards appointed minister of St Mary's, Edin- 

 burgh, which charge he resigned in 187 1. In 1843 he re- 

 ceived the degree of D.D. from the University of Edin- 

 burgh ; and D.C.L. from Oxford in 1854, in which year he 

 was Moderator of the General Assembly. 



As a record of Dr Grant, we may present here the 

 following speech delivered by him on the occasion of the 

 Edinburgh Show in 1842. The Chairman (the Duke of 

 Richmond) proposed the Church with all the honours. 



The Rev. Mr Grant, in acknowledging, said — I am 

 from a sense of duty devoutly attached to the Church, and 

 I will never shrink on any occasion from a defence of her 

 principles. There is a time and place, as the wisest man 

 said, for every purpose under heaven, and in connection 

 with the Church, the duty of this Society has nothing to 

 do with sect or party — (cheers) — acting exclusively in a 

 patriotic spirit, and from a desire to develop and bring 

 forth the agricultural resources of the country. While you 

 have done well in acknowledging the Church of the land, 

 and thereby expressing your respect for the sacred calling 



