Macleod, the elder, was ordained a minister of the
Established Church at Campbeltown in 1807, where his son, the present
minister of the Barony, was born. From Campbeltown the father removed to
Campsie parish in 1855; and subsequently he was inducted minister of the
Glasgow Gaelic Church, afterwards St. Columba's, in 1836. While in
Glasgow, he preached once in Gaelic and once in English every Sunday.
Like his son, he had broad sympathies, and soared far above the petty
barriers of denominational forms and prejudices. He was Moderator of the
General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1836, and it was greatly
due to his efforts that the Presbyterian Church obtained such a firm
hold in the province of Ulster. In the year 1824 he brought the state of
education in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland so fully and so
eloquently under the notice of the General Assembly that the education
scheme of the Established Church was projected to remedy the evils
pointed out. Along with Principal Baird, he was appointed on three
different occasions to inquire into the existing means of education in
the Highlands and Islands, and in many other ways he contributed
valuable service in "building up," consolidating, and expanding the
distinctive schemes and agencies of the church to which he belonged. His
labours were rewarded by the appointment--through the late Sir Robert
Peel, with whom he had considerable influence--to the envied position of
one of Her Majesty's Chaplains for Scotland, and by his preferment to
the Deanery of the Chapel Royal.

But we have only said so much by way of introduction. It is with the son
and not with the father that we have to deal. Young Norman, after
spending his earlier days amid the rustic environs of his father's
manse--the Scotch equivalent for parsonage--at Campsie, entered the
University of Glasgow as a divinity student. So far as we have been able
to ascertain, he made his first public appearance, while still in his
"teens," at a banquet given to Sir Robert Peel on the occasion of the
right hon. gentleman's installation as Lord Rector of the University of
Glasgow. This event, memorable in the annals of the city, happened on
the 6th Jan. 1837. Considered in relation to all its accessories, the
banquet was perhaps the most brilliant affair of its kind that ever took
place in Glasgow. On making an analysis of the attendance, we find that
there were altogether 3300 gentlemen present, including 12 memb