Tweet
For the latest news from Scotland see our ScotNews feed at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/
Electric Scotland News
In my opinion what Scotland needs is more Tory MP's in Scotland. That provides a real opportunity for more Scots to be in the UK cabinet and committee's which would do far more for Scotland than SNP whining in Westminster.
I mean just look at how things are working in Scotland with the SNP dominant. On the whole the opposition is achieving very little. So the SNP claiming they need more MP's so they can keep Westminster to account is ludicrous. With a large Tory majority in Westminster the SNP can achieve absolutely nothing so if we can get some Tory MP's in Westminster then hopefully some will be more fully engaged and keep Scotland to the fore.
Does this not sound a more sensible way to work for Scotland? I mean what do you think more SNP MP's will actually achieve for Scotland? What have they achieved for Scotland since the last election?
It was encouraging in my view that the most under privileged council in Glasgow was won by a Tory councilor. Clearly Labour and Lib Dems and now the SNP have failed this council and its people and so it's good that the Tory party are now going to get the opportunity to try and help.
I might add that my video on "SNP failing Scotland" I posted on YouTube has now achieved 1,106 views so the best viewing figures I've achieved so far.
Scottish Innovation Party (SIP)
A new video I've posted up on YouTube to try and get some feedback and participation. I had hoped some of our site visitors would get involved but nothing so far.
You can watch this at: http://www.electricscotland.org/show...on-Party-(SIP)
Scottish News from this weeks newspapers
Note that this is a selection and more can be read in our ScotNews feed on our index page where we list news from the past 1-2 weeks. I am partly doing this to build an archive of modern news from and about Scotland as all the newsletters are archived and also indexed on Google and other search engines. I might also add that in newspapers such as the Guardian, Scotsman, Courier, etc. you will find many comments which can be just as interesting as the news story itself and of course you can also add your own comments if you wish.
Breaking up is NOT hard to do
by Jill Stephenson
Read more at:
http://www.thinkscotland.org/thinkpo...ead_full=13148
Who won, who's celebrating?
What to conclude? The SNP have clearly won the local elections in Scotland. They have more seats and more councils where they are the largest party than any of their rivals.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-...itics-39818167
It's Scotland vs Sturgeon and Scotland is winning
IT WAS THE LOOK on the faces of the SNP activists this morning which told the story.
Read more at:
http://www.thinkscotland.org/todays-...ead_full=13149
Dundee: Scotland’s first Orchard City
Fancy pimping your lunch with fresh herbs and salad leaves from an orchard rooted in the heart of Dundee?
Read more at:
https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/life...-orchard-city/
Report warns machines will take over jobs
Nearly half of Scottish jobs could be carried out by machines in just over 10 years' time, a new report has warned.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-39830113
The 20-year-old Conservative from Shettleston
When you stand as a Conservative candidate in the east end of Glasgow, you never expect to win, says 20-year-old Thomas Kerr.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-...itics-39830851
Was Europe ever worth it?
New research argues that the Single Market didn't help Britain grow
Read more at:
https://capx.co/was-europe-ever-worth-it/
Why Scotland matters to billionaire Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw
Ms Mazumdar-Shaw's name appeared on the rich list with her husband John Shaw, a Glaswegian who helps run her biotech empire as vice-chairman of the business.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-39817207
Figures show drop in Scottish pupil literacy rates
The Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy found that less than half of Scotland's 13 and 14-year-olds are now performing well in writing.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-...itics-39856284
The return of Tribal Scotland
By Ronniw SMith in the Scottish Review
Read more at:
http://www.scottishreview.net/RonnieSmith245a.html
How is the SNP handling its own power?
By Gery Hassan in the Scottish Review
Read more at:
http://www.scottishreview.net/GerryHassan245a.html
North Sea oil revenue turns negative for the first time
The latest quarterly national accounts reveal the amount received in tax receipts fell to minus £338 million over the 12-month period.\
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/news/politic...time-1-4442193
Fife car lost to history for over 100 years rebuilt by local apprentices
The team from Babcock International, in Rosyth, has painstakingly replicated Dunfermline’s three-wheeler Tod Car.
Read more at:
https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news...l-apprentices/
Why Norwegians now want a referendum on quitting the EEA
When Norway signed the European Economic Area Agreement, we were told by both the EU and our then Labour government that Norwegian sovereignty would be respected
Read more at:
http://brexitcentral.com/norwegians-...economic-area/
Canadian fund with $6bn war chest picks London for EU hub
The Public Sector Pension Investment Board picked London as its European hub and plans to spend as much as 4.6 billion pounds ($6 billion) in the region in the next five years
Read more at:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...don-for-eu-hub
Electric Canadian
Chronicles of Canada
Added Volume 30: The Day of Sir Wilfred Laurier
I might add that I've found text copies of these volumes so have added a link to them on the page. I also found a page where you can get audio copies so have placed a link to these as well.
You can read this at: http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...cles/index.htm
The Women's Canadian Historical Society
Added Transactions 26 Impressions of the West in the early Seventies from the Diary of the Assistant Surgeon of the B.N.A. Boundary Survey, Dr. T. Millman. Colborne Lodge by Sara Mickle and also The Owner of Colborne Lodge.
You can read this at: http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...historical.htm
Currie, Sir Arthur William
Although the Great War had surely made Sir Arthur Currie, it was largely responsible as well for putting him into an early grave. But his reputation lives on. He is regarded in most history books as one of the finest generals of either side in the war. His ascension to the position of corps commander in June 1917 is often conflated with the emerging sense of a national identity from the battlefield victories on the Western Front.
Read more about him at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/make...hurWilliam.htm
Conrad Black
I've always had a lot of time for Conrad Black and so as he writes from Canada on a number of issues of interest from around the world I'm intending to include links to his writings for you to view. This week we have
Premier Wall and Senator Beyak provide a rare opportunity to laud our public figures
http://www.conradmblack.com/1289/pre...provide-a-rare
Trump's Quiet Victories
http://www.conradmblack.com/1292/trump-quiet-victories
Electric Scotland
The Forfar Directory and Year Book
A most interesting publication with lots of wee stories and articles. I have now added the 1904 edition which you can read at:http://www.electricscotland.com/history/forfar/direct/
The Forth Bridge
THIS famous bridge, without dispute one of the wonders of the world, was constructed by Sir William Arrol from designs by Sir John Fowler and Sir Benjamin Baker. Its whole length is one and a fifth of a mile, and it the highest bridge in the world, being four hundred and fifty feet from the base to the highest point. In the course of its construction fifty thousand tons of steel were used, including thirty-two miles of bent plates for the tubes, the whole being welded together by eight million rivets. As the bridge has a metal surface of twenty-five acres, it took 250 tons of paint and 35,oco gallons of oil to paint the work. An allowance of one inch per 100 feet has been made for contraction and for changes of temperature. The bridge can stand a wind pressure of 56 lb. per square foot, or between seven and eight thousand tons of lateral pressure on the cantilevers. Seven years — that is to say, from 1883 till 1890 — were occupied in its construction, and the total cost, including £800,000 for connecting lines, was £3,500,000. The expense was borne by four railway companies — the Great Northern, the North Eastern, the Midland, and the North British, the last named alone working the line.
What a Little Plant Once Did
A LITTLE plant was once given to a sick girl belonging to a poor family. In trying to take care of it the family made changes in their way of living. First, they cleaned the window that more light might come to its leaves; then, when not too cold, they would open the window, that fresh air might help the plant to grow. Next, the clean window made the rest of the room look so untidy that they used to wash the floor and walls, and arrange the furniture more neatly. This led the father of the family to mend a broken chair or two, which kept him at home several evenings. After the work was done he stayed home instead of spending his leisure at the tavern, and the money thus saved went to buy comforts for them all. And then, as the home grew attractive, the whole family loved it better than ever before, and grew healthier and happier with their flower. Thus the little plant brought a real as well as a physical blessing.
General McClellan
By General Peter S. Michie (1901)
Throughout the four bloody years of battle, McClellan served his country well.
You can read about him at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ilwar/cw31.htm
The Australian Imperial Force in France
By C. E. W. Bean (1929). Got 4 volumes covering 1916, 1917 and 1918 plus Letters from France at
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...usimpforce.htm
The Indian and Colonial Forces of Her Majesty's Army
Added a link to this book to our Scots in India page just above the video on the Gurka bagpipes.
You can read this old book at: http://www.electricscotland.com/history/india/index.htm
Role of Indian Army in the First World War
By Lt. Col. Dr. Shyam Narain Saxena. A link to this book is under the previous book at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/india/index.htm
New Zealand and the war
by William Swainson (1862). An interesting book which I've added to our New Zealand page. It's about the Maori war.
You can read this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/history/nz/index.htm
New Zealand at the Front
Written and Illustrated in France by Men of the New Zealand Division and you can read this at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/nz/index.htm
Autobiography of a Chinese Girl
A genuine autobiography by Hsieh Ping-Ying and Translated into English with an Introduction by Tsui Chi with a Preface by Gordon Bottomley (1944) (pdf)
Read this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...na/an-army.pdf
Scottish Innovation Party (SIP)
I have added a section for Business in the Commonwealth to this page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/inde...mmonwealth.htm
Clan Leslie International
Got in a copy of their May 2017 newsletter which you can read at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...eint/index.htm
I might add this is a special Canadian edition as they had their AGM at Guelph and were the featured clan at the Fergus Highland Games.
The Story
I came across this story while having a read at the book "The One Great Society: A Book of Recollections" By Frederick Lynch. D. D. and thought it would be a good story to share. We have copies of several of his books on the site for you to read.
Ian MacLaren (John Watson)
MY acquaintance with John Watson, of Liverpool, began as, I suppose, did that of thousands of other Americans, with the appearance of “Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush.” Always fond of everything relating to Scotland, having been reared on Walter Scott, Hugh Miller and Thomas Edwards, and having read the biographies of Thomas Chalmers and Norman Macleod, I seized upon the writings of Barrie, Crockett and Ian Maclaren as they appeared, and read each at one sitting. I can live, over again the days, the places, the impressions, everything connected with my first reading on Sunday afternoons, of “The Window in Thrums,” “The Little Minister,” “The Sticket Minister,” and “Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush.”
I never saw Ian Maclaren until he came to Yale University to deliver the Lyman Beecher Lectures on Preaching before the Divinity School. The method of his coming was interesting. Probably not a dozen people in America had ever heard of Dr. Watson before his stories took the world by storm. After Ian Maclaren was known in every household as a story writer people began to ask: “Who is this Ian Maclaren?” They then learned that he was the Rev. John Watson, pastor of the Sefton Avenue Presbyterian Church, Liverpool, and incidentally that he was a good deal of a preacher. Those who had English connections heard that he was an exceptionally gifted preacher.
It has been customary in connection with the Lyman Beecher Lectures to secure eminent British clergymen, as well as American, and in this way such men as Doctors Dale, Fairbairn, Brown, Stalker, Horton, Forsyth, Henson and Horne have been brought to America. One of the members of the Divinity School Faculty happening to be in Europe—if I remember rightly it was Professor George B. Stevens—he took occasion to visit Dr. Watson’s church. He was so greatly/ impressed that he called upon him, and sounded him upon the possibility of his giving the Lyman Beecher Lectures. The outcome was that in 1896 he came to New Haven for a month and gave his eight lectures which were afterwards published under the title, “The Cure of Souls.”
The lectures proved a great success. The only trouble was that everybody in New Haven—all the good souls who were no more interested in the technique of preaching than in the art of etching— turned out to see, if not to hear this famous story-writ er, “Ian Maclaren,” who had written “A Doctor of the Old School.” (Most of them did not even know to what church he belonged and had never heard of him as a preacher.) As a result Marquand Chapel could not hold even the early arrivals. The crowd would have filled it fifty times over. The lectures were scheduled for three o’clock. By 2:15 not a student could edge his way to the door. The lecture was hurriedly transferred to College Hall, and the entire course was given there, to an audience that crowded the floor and the galleries.
As it happened these delightful lectures proved just as interesting to the general public as they proved valuable to the students of divinity. It should be remembered that these lectures on preaching are given every year—eight of them. They have been going on for a great many years and it is no easy matter to give a course of eight lectures on preaching without repeating a good many things that have been said by previous speakers. It has been only the outstanding eminence of the lecturers that has saved the course. Most of them have been men of such striking personality that even old things have become new in passing through the alembic of their experience. To judge from Dr. Watson’s lectures it might have been supposed that no one had ever before lectured on preaching. They were as fresh and new as though they were the first words ever spoken on this great theme.
The audiences fell in love with the man at the start. He was the image of repose, and yet the warmth of his personality was manifested in the first sentence he uttered. His voice was resonant, and a very remarkable organ to interpret the thought and feeling of the speaker. The lectures were a unique blending of idealism and the humblest details of the preacher’s work, even to the arrangements of the heading of the sermon. It was apparent to everybody before he had spoken ten minutes that the lectures were to be largely autobiographical, although the personal pronoun never appeared in them. Now and then bits of pathos occurred that moistened the eyes—but there was never an approach to maukish sentiment—never any of that “practising the brine act,” to quote the college boys when referring to certain preachers who occasionally visited the college chapel. Best of all, there was the most delightful play of humour running through all the lectures. It was like sunlight playing upon the deep. It was never obtrusive and yet it was always present. It was in the man’s eyes and voice. It was enhanced by the immobility of the face. It was spontaneous as sudden bursts of light. On the large lecture platform many members of the University faculty were sitting. It so happened that five or six of the very oldest were sitting just at the lecturer’s left. They became especial targets of his wit, and once or twice his sly hits at them brought a roar from the audience. He himself never smiled.
The lectures were exceedingly helpful to students. They were permeated with a fund of homely common sense. No part of a minister’s life or work was left untouched. The minister’s health, his personal religious life, his study, his pastoral work, his work with young people, his own relation to God, all received as much attention as the writing of sermons, the delivery of the message, the contents of the great message the preacher had to give. There was only one moment in the whole course when the placid waters were even temporarily ruffled. The English and Scotch clergy smoke much more than do the American clergy, especially the New England clergy. It is a very common experience to meet clergymen in England with pipes in their mouths. Dr. Watson was probably not aware of the prejudice which exists in New England against a minister smoking. So, very innocently, in the course of one of his lectures, when he was talking about the minister getting close to men, he happened to say something to the effect that often peculiarly intimate closeness came when the minister and some man of his congregation were smoking their pipes together, and that a good pipe was not a bad thing in establishing confidences. It brought down a storm upon his head. In the New Haven papers several letters appeared the next day roundly scoring a minister of the Gospel for “advising young ministers to smoke’’ (he hardly did that, but it went the round of the country in those terms). The lectures are on the whole among the most valuable ever delivered at Yale, and they are worthy the careful study of every clergyman. And as for interesting reading—well, few books surpass “The Cure of Souls.” I often reread it for its charm, its exquisite diction, its flights of fancy, and its real humour.
The lectures were strewn with parenthetical remarks. Here are three or four which brought more than smiles and which are indicative of those running through the whole course:
“A sermon ought to be a monograph and not an encyclopaedia, an agency for pushing one article, and not a general store where one can purchase anything from a button to a coffin.”
Speaking of the personal element in preaching, and of the use of illustration, he remarked in parenthesis: ‘1 Travel must be used very skillfully and sparingly, because the Righi and the Bay of Naples are not unknown to a congregation. On the whole, it may also be better for the average man, for the sake of his people, not to go to the Holy Land, unless he has great self-control. His personal experiences will make even the Mount of Olives a terror, and his interpolated explanation, from .what I have heard, will desecrate the noblest passages in the Gospels. Some congregations who in the kindness of their hearts sent their ministers to the Holy Land would now cheerfully pay twice the cost to obliterate the journey from the memory of the good man, and to rescue, say the fifteenth of St. Luke, from illustrative anecdotes.”
“A course of sermons on the metaphysics of faith, followed by another on the philosophy of prayer, will go far to make infidels of a congregation. One wants his drinking-water taken through a filter-bed, but greatly objects to gravel in his glass.
“It is, however, possible to be exasperatingly healthy, and one can understand a much tried woman being driven away from a minister whose radiant, unlined face showed that he had never known pain, and who had married a rich wife, and taken refuge in a church whose ministers had a liver and preached rampant Calvinism. . . . Invalid ministers have a certain use and do gather sympathetic congregations—becoming a kind of infirmary chaplains. But their ecclesiastical and theological views must be taken with great caution.’’
I heard all of the eight lectures and I also heard him preach in the college chapel and speak to the students at the Y. M. C. A. meetings in Dwight Hall. He was very effective in these talks to young men. But during his month’s residence I had occasion to meet him in some charming New Haven homes and here I got further insight into the man’s character and learned much of his early life. There were three or four homes in New Haven that seemed peculiarly attractive to him and he would often drop in for an evening, and was frequently the guest at dinners there. To sit before an open fire with him was a rare experience. In these homes to which I refer, there would often be a group of three or four men whose names were known among educated people in all Europe and America. The conversation was such as one would expect. Often Dr. Watson would sit silent for fifteen or twenty minutes listening to these men. Then, by some sudden turn, he would take up the talk and for several minutes we would hear some of the raciest comments on life. But when the story-telling was at its height then he shone above all others. Some one would ask him a question about Scottish country life and off he would go. Or some one would ask him if the characters in “The Bonnie Brier Bush” were based on actual men and women (they were, by the way) and he would give the most delightful pictures of
Scottish country life as he knew it as a young minister. No one could surpass him as a storyteller and I have seen staid, aged scholars laugh until tears rolled down their cheeks. I met one of New Haven’s dignified scholars on the street one morning and asked him how he was, and he said: ‘ ‘ I have a stitch in my back; I went out to dinner with Ian Maclaren last night.” It was not only the stories—it was the way he told them. I was assistant to Dr. Munger at the time of Dr. Watson’s visit to New Haven and that is how I happened to see so much of him. I doubt if I shall ever hear such story-telling again. But once or twice I saw him in very melancholy mood. These moods came over him and nothing could move him out of them except solitude or preaching. He had much of the Celtic temperament, as is very apparent to those who know his writings. It appears in his novel, "Kate Carnegie,” almost more than in his short stories. The appearance of this novel, "Kate Carnegie,” was a source of both pleasure and disappointment to him. The critics handled it somewhat severely because it lacked that dramatic element necessary to a great work of fiction. But to choice souls it was a delight. The sketch of Rabbi Sanderson is one of the best pieces of writing Ian Maclaren ever did. The Rabbi lives—just as Dr. McClure lives. To me "Kate Carnegie” is a book of great charm, and I read it frequently. Dr. Watson’s delight in it came from the appreciation of it by many whom he greatly admired.
I remember his telling one evening about the hundreds upon hundreds of letters he had received from people who had read “A Doctor of the Old School.’’ These letters had come from every country in the world—many of them from Australia, South Africa, Canada and America. Some came from places he had never supposed contained men who could read English. Many of the letters were from physicians and some of them were very beautiful. These letters were a great comfort to him and he read and reread them many times. But other experiences befell him from the publication of “The Bonnie Brier Bush.” The heresy hunters got after him. When this fact did not annoy him, it amused him, and it was very funny to hear him tell the story of it. What started the charge of heresy was the emphasis, in the stories of Scottish life, on the unlimited love of God, but more particularly the confusion of what some call “natural goodness” with religion. He would amusingly refer to the fact that he “did not know whether he was being blamed for making God love His children too much, or making man love his neighbour too much.” The heresy trial passed over. It is not the first time that charges of heresy have been brought against Scotchmen because of their novels. There are some of my readers who can probably remember back far enough to recall the storm of accusation that fell upon the head of George MacDonald when “Bobert Falconer” was published. Many Scptch and English pulpits were closed to him for years.
With the popularity of Dr. Watson’s stories a curiosity to see some of his sermons began to be felt in Great Britain and America. As a result “The Mind of the Master” was published. Its reception greatly pleased him. It is a group of unusual sermons—for they were originally used as sermons, although appearing as essays in the book. Another volume, “The Potters' Wheel,” a series of papers for those in affliction, is very tender and very full of original thought, too. Dr. Watson had deep insight into the workings of the human soul, and being a man of great heart his ministry to the suffering was very effective, and this little volume is the fruit of many years' real “Cure of Souls.” It will be remembered that he was in this country on a lecture tour when he passed away. He enjoyed these lecture tours, but got rather tired of repeating lectures over and over and rather tired of travel.
Let me close this sketch with a picture of one evening in New Haven. A dinner party of a few choice spirits had been arranged for Ian Maclaren, among those present being Professor George P. Fisher and Dr. T. T. Munger, of both of whom he was very fond. I was privileged to drop in after dinner and sit in an inconspicuous corner—a sort of learner—and listen. And how I listened and how I laughed! Ian Maclaren—for it was he rather than the Rev. John Watson who was to the front that evening—was in a boyish mood and for an hour he told Scotch stories. He never enjoyed himself anywhere else in America as much as during that first month when he was in residence at Yale University. The many students of Professor Fisher will be interested in this quotation from a letter which Ian Maclaren wrote upon his second visit to America in 1899:
"On Saturday we left for New Haven, the seat of the University of Yale. Professor Fisher, our former host at Yale, was standing on the platform when we arrived, and gave us the kindest of receptions. He is a typical don, so scholarly, so witty, so gentle, and it is a privilege to live in his house, where one breathes humanity in the old Latin sense, and is brought into contact at every turn of the conversation with the wisdom both of the present and of the past. Beneath his roof one meets all kinds of scholars, and every one seems at his best, so that one has the benefit of a University in the form of social intercourse. Yale reminds one of an English university, because its buildings are scattered here and there, and some of them are now nearly two hundred years old, and because the scholars at Yale have the old-fashioned love of accurate and delicate culture, and are altogether cleansed from showiness and Philistinism. Upon Sunday morning we went to the University Chapel, where I preached before the president and professors, and where I preached, which is a different thing, to fifteen hundred students of the universities. One looked upon a mass of humanity in the bright and intelligent faces, and was inspired with the thought of the possibilities in those lads who would be the clergymen and lawyers and statesmen and great merchants of the United States. If they are interested the 'boys’ have no hesitation in letting the preacher know, and have endless ways of conveying their weariness. For my subject I took ‘Jesus’ Eulogy on John the Baptist' and made a plea for selflessness as the condition of good work and high character. In the evening I spoke to about five hundred students in the beautiful hall of the University Christian Association. This time I took for my subject ‘Faith and Works' and afterwards met a number of men who were exceedingly kind, and, as is characteristic of American university men, very gracious and courteous. During my stay with Dean Fisher I had the opportunity of conversation with several distinguished Biblical scholars whose names and whose books are known on both sides of the Atlantic, and to a general practitioner like myself this intercourse with experts was most instructive and stimulating."
You can read some of his books at: http://www.electricscotland.com/History/doctor/
And that's it for this week and I hope you all have a good weekend.
Alastair
http://www.electricscotland.com/
Electric Scotland News
In my opinion what Scotland needs is more Tory MP's in Scotland. That provides a real opportunity for more Scots to be in the UK cabinet and committee's which would do far more for Scotland than SNP whining in Westminster.
I mean just look at how things are working in Scotland with the SNP dominant. On the whole the opposition is achieving very little. So the SNP claiming they need more MP's so they can keep Westminster to account is ludicrous. With a large Tory majority in Westminster the SNP can achieve absolutely nothing so if we can get some Tory MP's in Westminster then hopefully some will be more fully engaged and keep Scotland to the fore.
Does this not sound a more sensible way to work for Scotland? I mean what do you think more SNP MP's will actually achieve for Scotland? What have they achieved for Scotland since the last election?
It was encouraging in my view that the most under privileged council in Glasgow was won by a Tory councilor. Clearly Labour and Lib Dems and now the SNP have failed this council and its people and so it's good that the Tory party are now going to get the opportunity to try and help.
I might add that my video on "SNP failing Scotland" I posted on YouTube has now achieved 1,106 views so the best viewing figures I've achieved so far.
Scottish Innovation Party (SIP)
A new video I've posted up on YouTube to try and get some feedback and participation. I had hoped some of our site visitors would get involved but nothing so far.
You can watch this at: http://www.electricscotland.org/show...on-Party-(SIP)
Scottish News from this weeks newspapers
Note that this is a selection and more can be read in our ScotNews feed on our index page where we list news from the past 1-2 weeks. I am partly doing this to build an archive of modern news from and about Scotland as all the newsletters are archived and also indexed on Google and other search engines. I might also add that in newspapers such as the Guardian, Scotsman, Courier, etc. you will find many comments which can be just as interesting as the news story itself and of course you can also add your own comments if you wish.
Breaking up is NOT hard to do
by Jill Stephenson
Read more at:
http://www.thinkscotland.org/thinkpo...ead_full=13148
Who won, who's celebrating?
What to conclude? The SNP have clearly won the local elections in Scotland. They have more seats and more councils where they are the largest party than any of their rivals.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-...itics-39818167
It's Scotland vs Sturgeon and Scotland is winning
IT WAS THE LOOK on the faces of the SNP activists this morning which told the story.
Read more at:
http://www.thinkscotland.org/todays-...ead_full=13149
Dundee: Scotland’s first Orchard City
Fancy pimping your lunch with fresh herbs and salad leaves from an orchard rooted in the heart of Dundee?
Read more at:
https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/life...-orchard-city/
Report warns machines will take over jobs
Nearly half of Scottish jobs could be carried out by machines in just over 10 years' time, a new report has warned.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-39830113
The 20-year-old Conservative from Shettleston
When you stand as a Conservative candidate in the east end of Glasgow, you never expect to win, says 20-year-old Thomas Kerr.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-...itics-39830851
Was Europe ever worth it?
New research argues that the Single Market didn't help Britain grow
Read more at:
https://capx.co/was-europe-ever-worth-it/
Why Scotland matters to billionaire Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw
Ms Mazumdar-Shaw's name appeared on the rich list with her husband John Shaw, a Glaswegian who helps run her biotech empire as vice-chairman of the business.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-39817207
Figures show drop in Scottish pupil literacy rates
The Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy found that less than half of Scotland's 13 and 14-year-olds are now performing well in writing.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-...itics-39856284
The return of Tribal Scotland
By Ronniw SMith in the Scottish Review
Read more at:
http://www.scottishreview.net/RonnieSmith245a.html
How is the SNP handling its own power?
By Gery Hassan in the Scottish Review
Read more at:
http://www.scottishreview.net/GerryHassan245a.html
North Sea oil revenue turns negative for the first time
The latest quarterly national accounts reveal the amount received in tax receipts fell to minus £338 million over the 12-month period.\
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/news/politic...time-1-4442193
Fife car lost to history for over 100 years rebuilt by local apprentices
The team from Babcock International, in Rosyth, has painstakingly replicated Dunfermline’s three-wheeler Tod Car.
Read more at:
https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news...l-apprentices/
Why Norwegians now want a referendum on quitting the EEA
When Norway signed the European Economic Area Agreement, we were told by both the EU and our then Labour government that Norwegian sovereignty would be respected
Read more at:
http://brexitcentral.com/norwegians-...economic-area/
Canadian fund with $6bn war chest picks London for EU hub
The Public Sector Pension Investment Board picked London as its European hub and plans to spend as much as 4.6 billion pounds ($6 billion) in the region in the next five years
Read more at:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...don-for-eu-hub
Electric Canadian
Chronicles of Canada
Added Volume 30: The Day of Sir Wilfred Laurier
I might add that I've found text copies of these volumes so have added a link to them on the page. I also found a page where you can get audio copies so have placed a link to these as well.
You can read this at: http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...cles/index.htm
The Women's Canadian Historical Society
Added Transactions 26 Impressions of the West in the early Seventies from the Diary of the Assistant Surgeon of the B.N.A. Boundary Survey, Dr. T. Millman. Colborne Lodge by Sara Mickle and also The Owner of Colborne Lodge.
You can read this at: http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...historical.htm
Currie, Sir Arthur William
Although the Great War had surely made Sir Arthur Currie, it was largely responsible as well for putting him into an early grave. But his reputation lives on. He is regarded in most history books as one of the finest generals of either side in the war. His ascension to the position of corps commander in June 1917 is often conflated with the emerging sense of a national identity from the battlefield victories on the Western Front.
Read more about him at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/make...hurWilliam.htm
Conrad Black
I've always had a lot of time for Conrad Black and so as he writes from Canada on a number of issues of interest from around the world I'm intending to include links to his writings for you to view. This week we have
Premier Wall and Senator Beyak provide a rare opportunity to laud our public figures
http://www.conradmblack.com/1289/pre...provide-a-rare
Trump's Quiet Victories
http://www.conradmblack.com/1292/trump-quiet-victories
Electric Scotland
The Forfar Directory and Year Book
A most interesting publication with lots of wee stories and articles. I have now added the 1904 edition which you can read at:http://www.electricscotland.com/history/forfar/direct/
The Forth Bridge
THIS famous bridge, without dispute one of the wonders of the world, was constructed by Sir William Arrol from designs by Sir John Fowler and Sir Benjamin Baker. Its whole length is one and a fifth of a mile, and it the highest bridge in the world, being four hundred and fifty feet from the base to the highest point. In the course of its construction fifty thousand tons of steel were used, including thirty-two miles of bent plates for the tubes, the whole being welded together by eight million rivets. As the bridge has a metal surface of twenty-five acres, it took 250 tons of paint and 35,oco gallons of oil to paint the work. An allowance of one inch per 100 feet has been made for contraction and for changes of temperature. The bridge can stand a wind pressure of 56 lb. per square foot, or between seven and eight thousand tons of lateral pressure on the cantilevers. Seven years — that is to say, from 1883 till 1890 — were occupied in its construction, and the total cost, including £800,000 for connecting lines, was £3,500,000. The expense was borne by four railway companies — the Great Northern, the North Eastern, the Midland, and the North British, the last named alone working the line.
What a Little Plant Once Did
A LITTLE plant was once given to a sick girl belonging to a poor family. In trying to take care of it the family made changes in their way of living. First, they cleaned the window that more light might come to its leaves; then, when not too cold, they would open the window, that fresh air might help the plant to grow. Next, the clean window made the rest of the room look so untidy that they used to wash the floor and walls, and arrange the furniture more neatly. This led the father of the family to mend a broken chair or two, which kept him at home several evenings. After the work was done he stayed home instead of spending his leisure at the tavern, and the money thus saved went to buy comforts for them all. And then, as the home grew attractive, the whole family loved it better than ever before, and grew healthier and happier with their flower. Thus the little plant brought a real as well as a physical blessing.
General McClellan
By General Peter S. Michie (1901)
Throughout the four bloody years of battle, McClellan served his country well.
You can read about him at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ilwar/cw31.htm
The Australian Imperial Force in France
By C. E. W. Bean (1929). Got 4 volumes covering 1916, 1917 and 1918 plus Letters from France at
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...usimpforce.htm
The Indian and Colonial Forces of Her Majesty's Army
Added a link to this book to our Scots in India page just above the video on the Gurka bagpipes.
You can read this old book at: http://www.electricscotland.com/history/india/index.htm
Role of Indian Army in the First World War
By Lt. Col. Dr. Shyam Narain Saxena. A link to this book is under the previous book at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/india/index.htm
New Zealand and the war
by William Swainson (1862). An interesting book which I've added to our New Zealand page. It's about the Maori war.
You can read this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/history/nz/index.htm
New Zealand at the Front
Written and Illustrated in France by Men of the New Zealand Division and you can read this at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/nz/index.htm
Autobiography of a Chinese Girl
A genuine autobiography by Hsieh Ping-Ying and Translated into English with an Introduction by Tsui Chi with a Preface by Gordon Bottomley (1944) (pdf)
Read this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...na/an-army.pdf
Scottish Innovation Party (SIP)
I have added a section for Business in the Commonwealth to this page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/inde...mmonwealth.htm
Clan Leslie International
Got in a copy of their May 2017 newsletter which you can read at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...eint/index.htm
I might add this is a special Canadian edition as they had their AGM at Guelph and were the featured clan at the Fergus Highland Games.
The Story
I came across this story while having a read at the book "The One Great Society: A Book of Recollections" By Frederick Lynch. D. D. and thought it would be a good story to share. We have copies of several of his books on the site for you to read.
Ian MacLaren (John Watson)
MY acquaintance with John Watson, of Liverpool, began as, I suppose, did that of thousands of other Americans, with the appearance of “Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush.” Always fond of everything relating to Scotland, having been reared on Walter Scott, Hugh Miller and Thomas Edwards, and having read the biographies of Thomas Chalmers and Norman Macleod, I seized upon the writings of Barrie, Crockett and Ian Maclaren as they appeared, and read each at one sitting. I can live, over again the days, the places, the impressions, everything connected with my first reading on Sunday afternoons, of “The Window in Thrums,” “The Little Minister,” “The Sticket Minister,” and “Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush.”
I never saw Ian Maclaren until he came to Yale University to deliver the Lyman Beecher Lectures on Preaching before the Divinity School. The method of his coming was interesting. Probably not a dozen people in America had ever heard of Dr. Watson before his stories took the world by storm. After Ian Maclaren was known in every household as a story writer people began to ask: “Who is this Ian Maclaren?” They then learned that he was the Rev. John Watson, pastor of the Sefton Avenue Presbyterian Church, Liverpool, and incidentally that he was a good deal of a preacher. Those who had English connections heard that he was an exceptionally gifted preacher.
It has been customary in connection with the Lyman Beecher Lectures to secure eminent British clergymen, as well as American, and in this way such men as Doctors Dale, Fairbairn, Brown, Stalker, Horton, Forsyth, Henson and Horne have been brought to America. One of the members of the Divinity School Faculty happening to be in Europe—if I remember rightly it was Professor George B. Stevens—he took occasion to visit Dr. Watson’s church. He was so greatly/ impressed that he called upon him, and sounded him upon the possibility of his giving the Lyman Beecher Lectures. The outcome was that in 1896 he came to New Haven for a month and gave his eight lectures which were afterwards published under the title, “The Cure of Souls.”
The lectures proved a great success. The only trouble was that everybody in New Haven—all the good souls who were no more interested in the technique of preaching than in the art of etching— turned out to see, if not to hear this famous story-writ er, “Ian Maclaren,” who had written “A Doctor of the Old School.” (Most of them did not even know to what church he belonged and had never heard of him as a preacher.) As a result Marquand Chapel could not hold even the early arrivals. The crowd would have filled it fifty times over. The lectures were scheduled for three o’clock. By 2:15 not a student could edge his way to the door. The lecture was hurriedly transferred to College Hall, and the entire course was given there, to an audience that crowded the floor and the galleries.
As it happened these delightful lectures proved just as interesting to the general public as they proved valuable to the students of divinity. It should be remembered that these lectures on preaching are given every year—eight of them. They have been going on for a great many years and it is no easy matter to give a course of eight lectures on preaching without repeating a good many things that have been said by previous speakers. It has been only the outstanding eminence of the lecturers that has saved the course. Most of them have been men of such striking personality that even old things have become new in passing through the alembic of their experience. To judge from Dr. Watson’s lectures it might have been supposed that no one had ever before lectured on preaching. They were as fresh and new as though they were the first words ever spoken on this great theme.
The audiences fell in love with the man at the start. He was the image of repose, and yet the warmth of his personality was manifested in the first sentence he uttered. His voice was resonant, and a very remarkable organ to interpret the thought and feeling of the speaker. The lectures were a unique blending of idealism and the humblest details of the preacher’s work, even to the arrangements of the heading of the sermon. It was apparent to everybody before he had spoken ten minutes that the lectures were to be largely autobiographical, although the personal pronoun never appeared in them. Now and then bits of pathos occurred that moistened the eyes—but there was never an approach to maukish sentiment—never any of that “practising the brine act,” to quote the college boys when referring to certain preachers who occasionally visited the college chapel. Best of all, there was the most delightful play of humour running through all the lectures. It was like sunlight playing upon the deep. It was never obtrusive and yet it was always present. It was in the man’s eyes and voice. It was enhanced by the immobility of the face. It was spontaneous as sudden bursts of light. On the large lecture platform many members of the University faculty were sitting. It so happened that five or six of the very oldest were sitting just at the lecturer’s left. They became especial targets of his wit, and once or twice his sly hits at them brought a roar from the audience. He himself never smiled.
The lectures were exceedingly helpful to students. They were permeated with a fund of homely common sense. No part of a minister’s life or work was left untouched. The minister’s health, his personal religious life, his study, his pastoral work, his work with young people, his own relation to God, all received as much attention as the writing of sermons, the delivery of the message, the contents of the great message the preacher had to give. There was only one moment in the whole course when the placid waters were even temporarily ruffled. The English and Scotch clergy smoke much more than do the American clergy, especially the New England clergy. It is a very common experience to meet clergymen in England with pipes in their mouths. Dr. Watson was probably not aware of the prejudice which exists in New England against a minister smoking. So, very innocently, in the course of one of his lectures, when he was talking about the minister getting close to men, he happened to say something to the effect that often peculiarly intimate closeness came when the minister and some man of his congregation were smoking their pipes together, and that a good pipe was not a bad thing in establishing confidences. It brought down a storm upon his head. In the New Haven papers several letters appeared the next day roundly scoring a minister of the Gospel for “advising young ministers to smoke’’ (he hardly did that, but it went the round of the country in those terms). The lectures are on the whole among the most valuable ever delivered at Yale, and they are worthy the careful study of every clergyman. And as for interesting reading—well, few books surpass “The Cure of Souls.” I often reread it for its charm, its exquisite diction, its flights of fancy, and its real humour.
The lectures were strewn with parenthetical remarks. Here are three or four which brought more than smiles and which are indicative of those running through the whole course:
“A sermon ought to be a monograph and not an encyclopaedia, an agency for pushing one article, and not a general store where one can purchase anything from a button to a coffin.”
Speaking of the personal element in preaching, and of the use of illustration, he remarked in parenthesis: ‘1 Travel must be used very skillfully and sparingly, because the Righi and the Bay of Naples are not unknown to a congregation. On the whole, it may also be better for the average man, for the sake of his people, not to go to the Holy Land, unless he has great self-control. His personal experiences will make even the Mount of Olives a terror, and his interpolated explanation, from .what I have heard, will desecrate the noblest passages in the Gospels. Some congregations who in the kindness of their hearts sent their ministers to the Holy Land would now cheerfully pay twice the cost to obliterate the journey from the memory of the good man, and to rescue, say the fifteenth of St. Luke, from illustrative anecdotes.”
“A course of sermons on the metaphysics of faith, followed by another on the philosophy of prayer, will go far to make infidels of a congregation. One wants his drinking-water taken through a filter-bed, but greatly objects to gravel in his glass.
“It is, however, possible to be exasperatingly healthy, and one can understand a much tried woman being driven away from a minister whose radiant, unlined face showed that he had never known pain, and who had married a rich wife, and taken refuge in a church whose ministers had a liver and preached rampant Calvinism. . . . Invalid ministers have a certain use and do gather sympathetic congregations—becoming a kind of infirmary chaplains. But their ecclesiastical and theological views must be taken with great caution.’’
I heard all of the eight lectures and I also heard him preach in the college chapel and speak to the students at the Y. M. C. A. meetings in Dwight Hall. He was very effective in these talks to young men. But during his month’s residence I had occasion to meet him in some charming New Haven homes and here I got further insight into the man’s character and learned much of his early life. There were three or four homes in New Haven that seemed peculiarly attractive to him and he would often drop in for an evening, and was frequently the guest at dinners there. To sit before an open fire with him was a rare experience. In these homes to which I refer, there would often be a group of three or four men whose names were known among educated people in all Europe and America. The conversation was such as one would expect. Often Dr. Watson would sit silent for fifteen or twenty minutes listening to these men. Then, by some sudden turn, he would take up the talk and for several minutes we would hear some of the raciest comments on life. But when the story-telling was at its height then he shone above all others. Some one would ask him a question about Scottish country life and off he would go. Or some one would ask him if the characters in “The Bonnie Brier Bush” were based on actual men and women (they were, by the way) and he would give the most delightful pictures of
Scottish country life as he knew it as a young minister. No one could surpass him as a storyteller and I have seen staid, aged scholars laugh until tears rolled down their cheeks. I met one of New Haven’s dignified scholars on the street one morning and asked him how he was, and he said: ‘ ‘ I have a stitch in my back; I went out to dinner with Ian Maclaren last night.” It was not only the stories—it was the way he told them. I was assistant to Dr. Munger at the time of Dr. Watson’s visit to New Haven and that is how I happened to see so much of him. I doubt if I shall ever hear such story-telling again. But once or twice I saw him in very melancholy mood. These moods came over him and nothing could move him out of them except solitude or preaching. He had much of the Celtic temperament, as is very apparent to those who know his writings. It appears in his novel, "Kate Carnegie,” almost more than in his short stories. The appearance of this novel, "Kate Carnegie,” was a source of both pleasure and disappointment to him. The critics handled it somewhat severely because it lacked that dramatic element necessary to a great work of fiction. But to choice souls it was a delight. The sketch of Rabbi Sanderson is one of the best pieces of writing Ian Maclaren ever did. The Rabbi lives—just as Dr. McClure lives. To me "Kate Carnegie” is a book of great charm, and I read it frequently. Dr. Watson’s delight in it came from the appreciation of it by many whom he greatly admired.
I remember his telling one evening about the hundreds upon hundreds of letters he had received from people who had read “A Doctor of the Old School.’’ These letters had come from every country in the world—many of them from Australia, South Africa, Canada and America. Some came from places he had never supposed contained men who could read English. Many of the letters were from physicians and some of them were very beautiful. These letters were a great comfort to him and he read and reread them many times. But other experiences befell him from the publication of “The Bonnie Brier Bush.” The heresy hunters got after him. When this fact did not annoy him, it amused him, and it was very funny to hear him tell the story of it. What started the charge of heresy was the emphasis, in the stories of Scottish life, on the unlimited love of God, but more particularly the confusion of what some call “natural goodness” with religion. He would amusingly refer to the fact that he “did not know whether he was being blamed for making God love His children too much, or making man love his neighbour too much.” The heresy trial passed over. It is not the first time that charges of heresy have been brought against Scotchmen because of their novels. There are some of my readers who can probably remember back far enough to recall the storm of accusation that fell upon the head of George MacDonald when “Bobert Falconer” was published. Many Scptch and English pulpits were closed to him for years.
With the popularity of Dr. Watson’s stories a curiosity to see some of his sermons began to be felt in Great Britain and America. As a result “The Mind of the Master” was published. Its reception greatly pleased him. It is a group of unusual sermons—for they were originally used as sermons, although appearing as essays in the book. Another volume, “The Potters' Wheel,” a series of papers for those in affliction, is very tender and very full of original thought, too. Dr. Watson had deep insight into the workings of the human soul, and being a man of great heart his ministry to the suffering was very effective, and this little volume is the fruit of many years' real “Cure of Souls.” It will be remembered that he was in this country on a lecture tour when he passed away. He enjoyed these lecture tours, but got rather tired of repeating lectures over and over and rather tired of travel.
Let me close this sketch with a picture of one evening in New Haven. A dinner party of a few choice spirits had been arranged for Ian Maclaren, among those present being Professor George P. Fisher and Dr. T. T. Munger, of both of whom he was very fond. I was privileged to drop in after dinner and sit in an inconspicuous corner—a sort of learner—and listen. And how I listened and how I laughed! Ian Maclaren—for it was he rather than the Rev. John Watson who was to the front that evening—was in a boyish mood and for an hour he told Scotch stories. He never enjoyed himself anywhere else in America as much as during that first month when he was in residence at Yale University. The many students of Professor Fisher will be interested in this quotation from a letter which Ian Maclaren wrote upon his second visit to America in 1899:
"On Saturday we left for New Haven, the seat of the University of Yale. Professor Fisher, our former host at Yale, was standing on the platform when we arrived, and gave us the kindest of receptions. He is a typical don, so scholarly, so witty, so gentle, and it is a privilege to live in his house, where one breathes humanity in the old Latin sense, and is brought into contact at every turn of the conversation with the wisdom both of the present and of the past. Beneath his roof one meets all kinds of scholars, and every one seems at his best, so that one has the benefit of a University in the form of social intercourse. Yale reminds one of an English university, because its buildings are scattered here and there, and some of them are now nearly two hundred years old, and because the scholars at Yale have the old-fashioned love of accurate and delicate culture, and are altogether cleansed from showiness and Philistinism. Upon Sunday morning we went to the University Chapel, where I preached before the president and professors, and where I preached, which is a different thing, to fifteen hundred students of the universities. One looked upon a mass of humanity in the bright and intelligent faces, and was inspired with the thought of the possibilities in those lads who would be the clergymen and lawyers and statesmen and great merchants of the United States. If they are interested the 'boys’ have no hesitation in letting the preacher know, and have endless ways of conveying their weariness. For my subject I took ‘Jesus’ Eulogy on John the Baptist' and made a plea for selflessness as the condition of good work and high character. In the evening I spoke to about five hundred students in the beautiful hall of the University Christian Association. This time I took for my subject ‘Faith and Works' and afterwards met a number of men who were exceedingly kind, and, as is characteristic of American university men, very gracious and courteous. During my stay with Dean Fisher I had the opportunity of conversation with several distinguished Biblical scholars whose names and whose books are known on both sides of the Atlantic, and to a general practitioner like myself this intercourse with experts was most instructive and stimulating."
You can read some of his books at: http://www.electricscotland.com/History/doctor/
And that's it for this week and I hope you all have a good weekend.
Alastair