Before the ladies had time to say a word on the subject, the prudent
young clergyman called immediately on Mr. Micklewham to read the letter
which he had received from the Doctor; and which the worthy dominie did
without delay, in that rich and full voice with which he is accustomed to
teach his scholars elocution by example.
LETTER XXXII
The Rev. Z. Pringle, D.D., to Mr. Micklewham, Schoolmaster and
Session-Clerk, Garnock
LONDON.
Dear Sir--I have been much longer of replying to your letter of the 3rd
of last month, than I ought in civility to have been, but really time, in
this town of London, runs at a fast rate, and the day passes before the
dark's done. What with Mrs. Pringle and her daughter's concernments,
anent the marriage to Captain Sabre, and the trouble I felt myself
obliged to take in the queen's affair, I assure you, Mr. Micklewham, that
it's no to be expressed how I have been occupied for the last four weeks.
But all things must come to a conclusion in this world. Rachel Pringle
is married, and the queen's weary trial is brought to an end--upon the
subject and motion of the same, I offer no opinion, for I made it a point
never to read the evidence, being resolved to stand by THE WORD from the
first, which is clearly and plainly written in the queen's favour, and it
does not do in a case of conscience to stand on trifles; putting,
therefore, out of consideration the fact libelled, and looking both at
the head and the tail of the proceeding, I was of a firm persuasion, that
all the sculduddery of the business might have been well spared from the
eye of the public, which is of itself sufficiently prone to keek and
kook, in every possible way, for a glimpse of a black story; and,
therefore, I thought it my duty to stand up in all places against the
trafficking that was attempted with a divine institution. And I think,
when my people read how their prelatic enemies, the bishops (the heavens
defend the poor Church of Scotland from being subjected to the weight of
their paws), have been visited with a constipation of the understanding
on that point, it must to them be a great satisfaction to know how clear
and collected their minister was on this fundamental of society. For it
has turned out, as I said to Mrs. Pringle, as well as others, it would
do, that a sense of grace and religion would be manifested in some
quarter before all was done, by which the devices for an unsanctified
repudiation or divorce would be set at nought.