Martha Spreull/Prefatory Note by the Editor

by Henry Johnston

PREFATORY NOTE
BY THE EDITOR.

Y worthy and most estimable friend, the Rev. Dr. Threshie, thinks I should say a word by way of preface in laying this little volume before an intelligent and discerning public. This duty, I feel, would have been much better discharged had he himself undertaken it, forasmuch as he has skill in writing for the press, having earned no small celebrity by the composition of an excellent theological work. He is also the author of numerous religious tracts and Gospel treatises, printed at the expense of that most worthy man, the late lamented Richard Wyper, who sent them to the Highlands and Islands, with the view of gathering the outcast and benighted populations of these desolate regions into the sheepfolds of the Church. He says, however, that this duty lies to my hand. If it be so, I feel it becomes me to approach the task with befitting modesty, for, albeit I have been collegebred, as they say in the Latin tongue, furor scribendi never was a ruling passion with me, having perceived, on thinking the matter over in early life, that law and literature seldom turned out to be profitable companions unless under the force of transcendent genius. But, this much it befits me to say in justification of the position I have assumed. I have been law adviser to the Spreulls, off and on, for the better part of forty years, and I can honestly testify that the writer of these articles is a woman of great rectitude and of a most unblemished character. Her father was an excellent and worthy man, as may be seen from her own narrative, and as I myself can bear testimony. He was a religious man in the sterner sense of that word, and fell, as his daughter tells us, in the great conflict that culminated in the Disruption of the Kirk of Scotland. By trade he was a cordiner, and bore honourable office in the craft; but though he had a fair business, and was an excellent tradesman, his daughter was left but indifferently provided for at his decease. It has often been a matter of observation with me, however, in my professional life, that the best qualities of an individual are not unfrequently provoked into prominence by the stress of circumstances. It was so in the case of the subject of these preliminary observations. How she struggled, and how she surmounted the difficulties of her lot, is best depicted by her own pen, and, consequently, need not detain the reader here. For myself, I blush to think of the exceeding high value she seems to put on my own poor services, professional and otherwise. These personal references, which are in some places very outspoken, I would fain delete from this record, but this she will in nowise hear of. The reader must not, therefore, accuse me of egotism because they remain. There is another thing, also, I would fain have altered, to wit—the spelling of certain words; but she says there is nothing so contradictory as the laws that govern the spelling of words. Letters are the foundation of language, and why should not letters have their proper significance when words have to be spelt or spoken 'i This, observe, is not to be gainsaid. So I let matters stand as they are, though, I admit, it is contrary to college rules.

That she has wide human sympathies will appear from many of her opinions and observations in the volume; and her selection of a bursar after falling heir to her cousin Jen’s estate is a proof of this in the most practical form. The choice of William Warstle was an act that surprised both Dr. Threshie and myself beyond measure. A more uncouth, unmanageable. and camstrarie youth you could hardly find in a week’s journey, yet this was the kind of untutored spirit she selected to take the care and control of. His moral training had been totally neglected. The Ten Commandments were a sealed book to him; but even after the Catechism was opened and explained with much affectionate zeal, his moral vision had contracted such a squint that he failed to observe matters straight, and always looked round the corners of truth, if, peradventure, he might see things different from other folk—the result being that he generally ended in heterodox and perverted conclusions. The bursar, I fear, will be troublesome to us all, but I have observed when a woman sets her affections on an object, however unworthy it may be, it is useless trying to convince her she is wrong. Well, after all that has come and gone in the course of the narrative which follows, perhaps the reader will conclude that this is not the least estimable trait in her character. In going over the proof-sheets of the book, Dr. Threshie tells me that at least I have no reason to complain of this feature in her character, and as the Doctor is a wellconditioned, godly, and far-seeing man, I accept of matters as they stand with resignation and thankfulness.

In conclusion, I would observe that the following chapters contain some admirable moral truths, and are animated by a spirit of self-abnegation worthy of being followed by all who have more means at their disposal than are needed for supplying them with the common necessaries of life.

As editor of this work I have one word more to say. The artist has not only traced the physical lineaments of his subjects with great skill, but he has been most civil and obliging to the authoress and myself in all our negotiations with him. The publishers, as decent a firm of their class as you will find in a twenty-four hours’ journey, have printed the book well, and, in my humble opinion, have given excellent value for the money. To the critic I have nothing to say. That the authoress is a woman should keep him within the bounds of polite and generous criticism. Should he act otherwise—should he, as is too common now-a-days, venture beyond the limits of fair play, presuming on the defenceless character of an unknown lady—then I have simply to remind him that the law has remedies to which, in my friendly as well as my professional capacity, I cannot fail to have recourse.