least of threefold amount, in consequence of the rapid growth of the population,
and the increase of poverty, ignorance, and crime, with which it was accompanied. But to these he addressed himself in a right apostolic spirit, and with
an effectiveness of which Glasgow still reaps the fruits. Soon after his arrival in
Glasgow, the well-known period called "the dearth" occurred, and Mr. Macgill
became an active advocate for the establishment of soup-kitchens, and other means for the relief of the poor. The comforts and cure of the sick, and the
coercion and reformation of the criminal, were continual objects of his pastoral
solicitude, and therefore he became a careful superintendent of the wants of
prisons and the infirmary. In him, too, the Lunatic Asylum of Glasgow,
which has been so efficient an institution for the relief of the worst of all
maladies, found not only its best friend, but also its chief originator, in consequence of the impulse which he gave towards the erection of that noble structure. One defect also under which Glasgow laboured, until it had grown into
an evil of the first magnitude, called forth his active exertions. This was the
deficiency of church accommodation, which, although common to Scotland at
large, from the increase of the population, was particularly felt in Glasgow,
where the ratio of increase had been unprecedented, and was still continuing to
go onward with a constantly growing magnitude, while the number of the
city churches remained stationary. Nothing could more effectually encourage
dissent than such a state of things; and accordingly, the great mercantile city
of the west, once so famous for its hearty attachment to the Kirk which the
Reformation had established within its walls, was now becoming the great emporium of Scottish sectarianism. Nor was this the worst; for even the numerous
chapels that were erected by the different sects were still inadequate either for
the growth of the population, or for the poverty of the masses, who were unable
to contribute their prescribed share for the maintenance of the self-supporting
principle. All this struck the observant eye of Dr. Macgill, who tried every
method, both with the church-court and town-council, to have the evil removed,
by the erection of new churches, as well as the way prepared for their full efficiency, by the extension and improvement of the civic parochial education. For
the present, however, he laboured in vain; for the city dignitaries of the day were more intent upon the great wars of the continent, and the movements in
the peninsula, than those evils around them that required no far-seeing sagacity
to detect; and thus "the righteousness that exalteth a nation" was left to a future hearing. But his appeals were not ineffectual, although, for the
present, they seemed to be scattered to the winds, or buried in the earth; for
after many years the harvest shot up, and before he closed his eyes he had the
satisfaction of seeing the principle of church extension reduced to vigorous
action, in that very city where his former appeals on the subject had been unheeded.
While Dr. Macgill was thus actively employed upon the important subject of civic economy as developed in prisons, schools, and churches, he was far from being remiss in those studies with which the more sacred duties of the ministerial office are connected. Seldom, indeed, in any man, was a life of contemplation more harmoniously blended with a life of action; and, therefore, amidst a career of practical hard-working usefulness, which he continued until he was stretched upon a death-bed, he was an inquiring and improving student, who felt that he had still something to learn. Such was the disposition with which he commenced his ministry in Glasgow. He knew the quantity of out-
