Nov. I, 1897.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
301 
From his youth he was an earnest total 
abstainer from all intoxicating drink. He 
joined the Scottish Temperance League shortly 
after its formation. His name appears in tlie 
first annual ‘Register’ published by the League 
in 1849, where it has stood continuously year 
after year ever since. From 1853 to 1856 he 
was a member of the Kxecutive, and was for 
many yeans, and up to his lamented decease, an 
honorary director of the Institution, He was a 
most liberal subscriber to the funds of the League, 
and in many ways sought to extend its influence. 
Throughout his life Mr. Walker was always busy 
with his pen. When in the company of those who 
tlioroughly understood him, and with whom he 
felt perfectly at home, he was the very life of the 
gathering, full of good stories, and ab'e to sing 
with exquisite pathos our chief Scotch ballads. 
This reference to his singing leads naturally 
to a quotation from the most beautiful of all 
the printed notices published at the time of his 
death. It appeared in the Ceylon Observer of 
.June 15th, 1891, and is greatly valued by the 
family. Between Mr. Walker and the propi ietors 
of the Observer — the late Mr. A. M. Ferguson, 
C.M.G. , together with his able partner and 
successor, Mr. .John Ferguson— there existed 
a sincere and wartn friendship. I quote from 
the ai ticle referred to as follows “ Mr. 
Wbalker’s love of music and song was intense, 
and those who heard his illustrated lecture 
in Colombo on Scottish Poetry, Music, and 
Song, will long cherish the memory of a 
great intellectual treat. His own performances 
as a singer .vere exquisite. Who that heard can 
ever forget his rendering of Lady Nairn’s 
pathetic ballad, ‘ Fm wearin’ awa’, .Jean,’ and 
George Macdonald’s Scotch version of the grand 
parable of the good Samaritan, ‘ W^ha’s ma 
neibor ?’ Who that heard and saw can ever 
forget the expi’ession of voice .and features, and 
the appropriate action of the truly artistic singer ?” 
In his youthful days William Walker must 
have worshipped in the parish church before the 
Disru])tion in 1843 ; and there is more than one 
reference, in articles written by him, to the 
Biidge of Teitli Church, near Doune. But 
at an early period m his life he joined the 
Baptist Church, and for many years attendeil the 
Blackfriars Street Church in Glasgow, where he 
greatly appreciated the thoughtful and devout 
ministry of Dr. K. Glover, then a young man, but 
now (of Bristol) one of the leaders in tlie Baptist 
community. Dwring the later years of his life 
he attended the Hillhead Baptist Church, where 
the Rev. F. R. Robarts still carries on a most 
successful ministry. Though a Baptist by con- 
viction, yet in religion, as in all other (lepart- 
mencs of life, lie chaimed for himself, as he 
allowed to all others, the utmost freedom ; and 
so we find him equally at home among Non- 
conformists of different denominations and 
Evangelical Churchmen.* Not only was Mr. 
* One of many interesting experiences in Mr. Wal- 
ker’s Ife was that which brought him through tem- 
perance work, in contact with an earnest but extremc-ly 
High ritualistic clergyman off (Mty Road, Loudon, who 
begged of him to come and give an addre.ss to his 
people. When the occasion arrived, and Mr. Walker 
watclud the procession passing to the hall and all the 
syml ols ai d forms accompanying 1 he opening service, 
he felt far from comfortable and honestly stated how 
widely apart belief and practice were from ail this, 
and then went on with his address in which he 
introduced one or two pathetic Scottish ballads. After- 
Walker actively engaged in Church work 
at home, but he took ,a great interest in 
missionary work abro.ad. He never visited 
Ceylon without devoting a great deal of time 
to tills work, going right round the Island 
on one occasion, in order that he might see 
what was being done at the ditt'erent mission 
stations along the coast. In 1886 he made 
a special trip to Bombay and the north of 
India to get some knowledge of the missionary 
work carried 011 . there, especi.ally in connection 
with mission schools and colleges. How best 
to work our missions and utilise the conse- 
crated energies of our missionaries must 
always give anxious thought to all who are 
truly interested in the work, Imt anything like 
dogmatic assertion on tliese points must be left 
as the “ prerogative of the passing tourist,” to use 
the delightfully sarcastic phrase of Dr. Copleston, 
the devoted and able Bishop of Colombo. Mr. 
Walker wrote a number of very interesting letters 
to the Ceylon Observer, giving an account of his 
trip to India, and we may contrast his calm 
and judicial remarks with the extravagant utter- 
ances too often made by the “ passing tourist.” 
Thoughtful men cannot but realise that our 
missions in India and China, where the people 
aresteeped in elaborate religious systems older than 
our own, present many a “ great and perplexing pro- 
blem” ; but Mr. Walker felt very stroiiglj- that it 
was most unjust to abu.se the missionary. Let those 
who sneer at the results of their work and the ap- 
parently slow progre.ss that is being made, devise a 
more excellent way, and prove their earnestness by 
paying for the experiment. 
In politics Mr. Waleker was a staunch Liberal 
until April 8bli, 1886, when Mr. Gl.adstone intro- 
duced his Home Rule Bill and broke up the grand 
old Liberal party that included such men as Bright, 
Chamberlain, Lord Harrington, Foster, Goschen, 
and many others. Bright and Foster are no longer 
with us, but tlie others are among the men who are 
toilay making this country’s history, and many old 
Liberals feel it is a pitj"- they had logo to the other 
side to do it. For the whole of his life, Mr. Walker, 
of the House like many oth.ers, almost worshipped 
Gladstoneand when the crisisof 1886arose, he felt as 
if he had lost a personal friend. He had taken 
Ills share in fighting for the different Liberal 
measures of a whole generation, but I do not 
think he even voted after 1886. 
When he did take a holiday his great pastime was 
burn-fishing, of whicli he was enthusiastically fond; 
and then lie was like a boy just let loose from' school. 
His whole soul respondeil to the beauties of nature, 
and he seemed to find and see God everywhere. 
Such is a brief and all too imperfect record of the 
career of one who, beginning life in a Scotch village, 
sought to live to some purpose, and with good effect, 
to make the most of what ever talents he possessed. 
He humbly but earnestly believed that for those 
wlioseektodowliat is right “God shapes the fitness 
of iisall, and gives toevery man his meaning.” Life 
for him was full of meaning, and the meaning of his 
life to those who come after him becomes thericher 
and more heutifiil as the years pass by. It is some- 
tliingtomake the little corner of the world in wliicli 
a man lives the better for his being in it ; and that is 
what Mr. Walker managed to do. 
all was over and the audience gone, the ritualistic 
clergyman came and shook hands beaming all over 
and exclaim out of a full heart to Mr. Walker; “I 
do love you ! ” Wide as the poles asunder, denomina- 
tionally and doctrinally, and yet brothers !— Ed. T.A, 
