BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF THE LATE REV. DR CHALMERS. 903 
to make or mar human happiness, and he took a very prominent position amongst 
the Christian economists of the day. Into the general question of political econo- 
my as a theory, whether of population, free trade, balance of trade, capital, taxes 
or tithes, Ido not pretend to enter. On these points Dr CuHaLMers wrote with 
much power and acuteness. His views on most points generally coincided with 
Apam Smit, Matrnuus, Tooxs, and authors of that school. But in one depart- 
ment of political economy, he took that position which has added lustre to his 
name, and which exhibits him to the world as the true Christian philanthropist, 
and the best friend of human nature. Speculations on theory and doctrine in 
political economy were not sufficient for one who constantly sought to do good 
to those who most needed the help and guidance of their fellow-Christians. We 
have to consider CHALMERS, then, as a practical economist; as one who, not sa- 
tisfied to reason and to speculate in his study upon the best methods of improv- 
ing the conditions of mankind, went forth into the cottages, the hovels, and 
crowded habitations of the poor, to improve their temporal, moral, and religious 
condition. The agencies on which he depended for improving mankind were the 
school, the Bible, the visitor, the pastor. Hence the titles of his works and 
articles on this subject, indicate what were the objects and purposes he had 
in view: for instance, we have “ The Civic and Christian Economy of Great 
Towns ;” “The Christian and Eccnomic Polity of a Nation ;” ‘* Sabbath Schools ;”’ 
“‘ Bearing of Christian Economy upon Pauperism,” &e. In his “ Civic and Chris- 
tian Economy of Large Towns,” he lays down some of the most valuable and 
practical principles of useful charity. It is a dreary and heart-sickening prospect 
which the Christian philanthropist encounters when he enters upon the charity of 
great cities; and not only did Dr Cuaumers zealously promote amendment in 
that field of our erring, and destitute, and suffering countrymen, by suggesting 
sound principles of management, but he threw his whole energy, his persuasive 
eloquence, and his personal superintendence into the work.* 
In 1815 he had been called to take the pastoral charge of a parish in 
Glasgow, a city where he knew there would be abundant opportunities for 
verifying his opinions and employing his resources. He commenced the pub- 
lication of The Civic and Christian Economy, as a small periodical, and took the 
lead in directing the attention of the nation to the absolute necessity of ex- 
tending, in our city population, means of education, of pastoral superintendence, 
and spiritual instruction, similar to what prevailed through the country parishes 
* It is pleasing to remember how the last mortal days of such a man were engaged with plans 
of instruction for the benefit of this very class. He had for some time been entirely taken up with 
a School and Church, in the worst locality of the Old Town of Edinburgh. The man of high specu- 
lation became a teacher of ragged children. The Professor of Theology descended from his chair to 
impress the first rudiments of Christian truth upon the rude minds of a congregation the most igno- 
rant and most neglected. 
