impassioned History
of England, was minister of Tiree and Coll, when his stipend was taken
from him at the instance of the Laird of Ardchattan. The slight
inconvenience of having nothing to live upon did not seem to incline the
old minister in the least degree to resign his charge and to seek a
flock who could feed their shepherd. He stayed valiantly on, doing his
duty faithfully by his humble people. But after some time had elapsed,
"his health being much impaired, and there being no church or
meeting-house, he was exposed to the violence of the weather at all
seasons; and having no manse or glebe, and no fund for communion
elements, and having no mortification for schools or other pious
purposes in either of the islands, and the air being unwholesome,"--he
was finally compelled to leave, much to his own regret and that of his
poor little flock.

The reasons enumerated certainly seem sufficient to us in these later
days for a change of parishes; and indeed some modern ministers have
been known to change upon provocations less than these. There was fine
stuff in the old Scotch ministers of that day, and it is pleasant to
hear that this one found a new charge to which he ministered for half a
century. There were many other ministers in the Macaulay family during
several generations; but Zachary Macaulay, the father of the historian,
seemed born with a taste for business, and was accordingly sent out to
Jamaica to learn mercantile affairs, when quite young. Here he saw much
of negro slavery, and became so much impressed with its horrors, and so
filled with sympathy for the black race, that he resolved to devote
himself to their interests. He accordingly resigned his position in
Jamaica and returned to Scotland, where until his death he labored in
the unpopular and misunderstood ranks of the abolitionists. A colony was
projected in Sierra Leone for freed slaves, and young Macaulay was
appointed a member of the council, and sailed for Africa to take
practical part in the work for the negro. Soon after his arrival there
he succeeded to the position of Governor, and for some time worked
heroically in that capacity. But in the very midst of the Reign of
Terror in France, a French fleet bore down upon the little colony and
almost wiped it out of existence. Zachary Macaulay stayed for a year
after the attack, heroically trying to rehabilitate the little colony,
and partially succeeded in doing so, when, his health failing, he
r