The singularity of the case, involving at the same time the liberty if not the life of so many, otherwise peaceable and unoffending individuals, excited in Mr. Hall a strong desire to attend the trial; and conceiving as he did, from all that he saw and heard, that the unfortunate men, all young in years, from about eighteen to thirty, had in this instance been influenced by mistaken views of their own interest, he deeply deplored the apparent eagerness of the special commissioner, by a high-dried construction of the law, to bring them under the terrors of a sanguinary sentence, extinguishing at once all hope of their obtaining better information, or of making any reparation whatever for the injury committed.

In private conversation he dwelt with much feeling on the unjust severity of the criminal code in general, on the necessity of an effectual revision, to render it more accordant with the better feelings and sentiments of the present state of society, and the glaring inexpediency of entrusting to the discretion of a judge the power of life and death, and whether the sentence should be carried into full effect, or undergo a commutation. Thus, he observed, the lives of 'six' human beings depended on 'six' letters (Sus. Col.) which the judge might write on the margin of the calendar to be delivered to the sheriff, as his political prejudices, his inclination, or his subserviency might dictate.

During the few short days that intervened, be

fore the execution of the sentence, the unhappy men were desirous that Mr. Hall should be allowed to visit them. The respect borne him by the local authorities gave him access, and he readily embraced the opportunity. His solicitude for their spiritual and eternal welfare led him to the prison every day, to be locked up alone with them in the dungeon for a considerable time; and even on the Lord's day, in the intervals of public worship, he hastened from the pulpit to visit the souls that were condemned to die. In their gloomy cell he spent many hours in reading, conversation and prayer; his counsels were listened to with much attention, and gratefully acknowledged by the unhappy men. Without expressing any decided opinion of their religious state, as is too frequently and too confidently done in such cases, there was reason to hope that his kind and assiduous attentions were not altogether in vain. On a closer inspection into their spirit and behaviour, Mr. Hall remarked, that he discovered no signs of malignity, nothing that indicated any unusual degree of depravity, and that in his opinion they were the victims of their own ignorance and misdirected policy.

On the sabbath previous to the execution he preached a sermon suited to the occasion, from 2 Cor. vii. 10, on the nature and necessity of true repentance. Mr. Hall seldom allowed these awful inflictions of the law to pass unnoticed, but generally endeavoured to make them available to moral

and religious purposes. While at Cambridge, in the earlier part of his ministry, a remarkable instance of this kind is related. Two men were apprehended for passing forged notes of the bank of England; one of them, in the act of being taken, seized and swallowed a note to prevent detection. Mr. Hall kindly visited them in prison, and afterwards delivered, it is said, a very impressive discourse from the appropriate words in Job xx. 12-16. Though wickedness be sweet in the mouth, though he hide it under his tongue; though he spare it, and forsake it not, but keep it still within his mouth; yet his meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him. He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again: God shall cast them out of his belly. He shall suck the poison of asps, the viper's tongue shall slay him.'

On the day he preached a sermon in reference to the Luddites, a circumstance occurred which disconcerted all his feelings, and unfitted him for his public engagements. Dr. Chalmers, then of Glasgow, was on his way to London, and informed him by letter that he intended on that day to be one of his auditors. Unfortunately the message did not arrive till sabbath morning, within an hour of the commencement of public worship. Mr. Hall had formed so high an estimate of the abilities of his unexpected visitor, that he was actually deterred from entering the pulpit; nobody could persuade him to it, and a member of the church

was obliged to supply his place. Mr. Hall did not recover his tranquility the whole of that day. At the close of the morning service Dr. Chalmers called on him at his own house, not knowing but his absence had been occasioned by ill health. After much hesitation he at length consented to preach in the afternoon, on condition that his reverend friend would deliver an evening lecture. This was agreed to; but from the agitated state of his feelings, Mr. Hall was heard to great disadvantage. This was often the case, on much slighter occasions; the appearance of some distinguished stranger, any thing like prying curiosity, or secular applause, would at any time discompose him; and his loftiest strains of eloquence were seldom heard, but when he emerged from the depths of private devotion to be embosomed among his own people.

In the evening Dr. Chalmers followed up the subject of the afternoon's discourse, with one on the necessity of immediate repentance, which produced a very powerful sensation in the auditory. Mr. Hall heard with rapturous delight, and said afterwards to a friend, "He stops the people's breath sir: they cannot breathe under such a preacher." And certainly, the sermon was one of great merit, though some passages were a little obscured by the Highland pronunciation.

The parties spent the remainder of the evening together at Mr. Hall's. The unnerved preacher now recovered in some degree his elasticity, and

was ready to launch into a wide field of conversation; but nothing of any importance transpired. The visitor who had frightened Mr. Hall from his proprietary now seemed frightened in return; nothing could be elicited, no topic of the smallest interest was brought forward, except that Mr. Hall offered some remarks on various books and authors, to which Dr. Chalmers readily assented, and especially on the absurd attempt of Professor Kidd to reduce the doctrine of the trinity to a metaphysical theory, to be illustrated by the analogies of nature. A cautious reserve was manifest, accompanied perhaps with a silent admiration of the orator who appeared only in dishabille, and had not that day put forth half his strength.

A scots gentleman who accompanied Dr. Chalmers expressed much regret that Mr. Hall had written so little, and offered three hundred pounds for twelve of his sermons in manuscript. This he instantly declined, and said it was quite impossible for him to produce so many that were worth printing. Every accommodation was proposed with regard to time and convenience, and every persuasion used without effect.

One of the company offered to become his amanuensis, if he would dictate a little at his leisure; and suggested how easily it might be accomplished by selecting one of his best discourses every month, and then in twelve months the volume would be ready for revision, without much labour in producing it. He was also reminded that he owed