D.

the proprietor, many landlords soon evinced a desire to have similar establishments on their own estates. The capabilities of the steam-engine for impelling cotton machinery were not yet known; spinning. mills, therefore, could only be erected profitably where there were powerful waterfalls. Many of the landed proprietors in Scotland availed themselves of Mr. Dale's practical knowledge and advice as to establishing mills on properties where such facilities existed. He was instrumental in this way in the erection, amongst others, of the extensive mills at Catrine, on the banks of the river Ayr, and at Spinningdale, on the firth of Dornoch, in Šutherlandshire. In several of the new works he had a pecuniary interest as co-partner. Besides the spinning of cotton yarn at New Lanark, Mr. Dale was largely concerned in the manufacture of cotton-cloth in Glasgow. In connection with Mr. George M'Intosh, and Monsieur Papillon, a Frenchman, he established, in 1783, the first works in Scotland for the dyeing of cotton turkeyred. He was a partner in an inkle-factory; also in the Blantyre cotton-mills, and at a later period of his life held a large share in the Stanley cotton-mills. He continued, meanwhile, his original business of importing Flanders yarn; and, in addition to all these sources of income, when the Royal Bank of Scotland established a branch of its business in Glasgow in 1783, he was appointed its sole agent, an office which he held till within a few years of his death, when, upon its business becoming much extended, an additional agent was named to act jointly with him. The individual who, some thirty or forty years before, was a little herd-boy at Stewar ton was now sole proprietor of, or connected as a managing partner with, several of the most extensive mercantile, manufacturing, and banking concerns of the country, the proper conducting of any one of which would have absorbed the entire powers of most other men. Not so, however, with the subject of our memoir; for we find him successfully conducting, with strict commercial integrity, all the important

DALE, DAVID. This eminent philanthropist was born in Stewarton, Ayrshire, on the 6th of January, 1739. His ancestors are said to have been farmers in that district for several hundred years; but his father, Mr. William Dale,1 was a grocer and general dealer in the town. David received the education which was usually given at that period in the small towns of Scotland. His first employment was the herding of cattle. He was afterwards apprenticed in Paisley to the weaving business, at this time the most lucrative trade in the country; but it appears that he disliked the sedentary occupation, and on one occasion left his employment abruptly. He afterwards, however, wrought at the weaving trade in Hamilton and the neighbourhood of Cambuslang. He subsequently removed to Glasgow, and became clerk to a silk-mercer. With the assistance of friends he commenced business on his own account in the linen yarn trade, which he carried on for many years, importing large quantities of French yarns from Flanders, which brought him large profits, and laid the foundation of his fortune. Mr. Dale had been about twenty years in business in Glasgow when Sir Richard Arkwright's patent inventions for the improvement of cotton-spinning were introduced into England. Sir Richard visited Glasgow in 1783, and was entertained by the bankers, merchants, and manufacturers at a public dinner, and next day started with Mr. Dale for the purpose of inspecting the waterfalls on the Clyde, with a view to erect works adapted to his improvements. A site was fixed on, and the buildings of the New Lanark cotton-mills were immediately commenced. Arrangements were at the same time made betwixt Sir Richard and Mr. Dale for the use of the patent of the former. Mechanics were sent to England to be instructed in the nature of the machinery and the process of the manufactures; but, in the meanwhile, Arkwright's patent having been challenged, and the courts of law having decided against its validity, Mr. Dale was thus relieved of all claim for patent right, and the connection betwixt him and Arkwright was conse-enterprises in which he was embarked, together with quently dissolved, the business being now entirely his own. Considerable opposition to the erection of these works was offered by the landed proprietors in the neighbourhood, from an unfounded apprehension that the privacy of their demesnes would be invaded by the introduction of a multitude of work-people into that rural district; and, more especially, that fresh burdens would be entailed upon them for the support of the poor. Their forebodings, however, were not realized when the mills were put in operation. The works gave employment to great numbers of peaceable and industrious operatives, who, instead of burdening the land, contributed to enhance its value by consuming its produce. Finding, likewise, that the mills were yielding large returns to

1 Mr. William Dale was twice married; by his first marriage he had two sons, David and Hugh; and by his second, one son, the late James Dale, Esq., whose son is now an eminent merchant in Glasgow.

2 Mr. Dale's shop was then in the High Street, five doors north of the corner at the Cross. He paid £5 of rent, but thinking this an extravagant rent, he sub-let the one half of it to a watchmaker for fifty shillings. But in 1783, when he was appointed agent for the Royal Bank of Scotland, the watchmaker's part was turned into the bank office, where the business of that establishment was conducted till about 1790, when it was removed to large premises, south-east corner of St. Andrew's Square.

others not included in this enumeration; besides devoting time and money to various benevolent schemes, and discharging the onerous duties of a magistrate of the city of Glasgow, to which he was elected, first in 1791, and again in 1794: moreover, every Lord's-day, and sometimes on other days, preaching the gospel to a Congregational church, of which he was one of the elders.1 Mr. Dale was eminently qualified to sustain the numerous and varied offices which he had thus undertaken; every duty being attended to in its own place and at the proper time, he was never overburdened with work, nor did he ever appear to be in a hurry.

The first erected, and at that time the only mill at New Lanark, was accidentally burned to the ground a few weeks after it had begun to produce spun

yarn, for which there was a great demand. When | ful on the whole, and had acquired a large fortune. intelligence of this event reached Glasgow, many In 1799, being then in his sixty-first year, and nearly thought that a stop would be put to all further opera- his fortieth in business, he resolved on freeing himtions in that quarter. Mr. Dale heard the intelli- self of at least a portion of his commercial responsigence with calmness, formed his resolutions, pro- bilities. The mills at Lanark had been uniformly ceeded to the ground to inspect the ruins, and in- prosperous, yielding returns larger perhaps than any stantly issued orders to re-erect the premises which other of his concerns; yet, possibly from his being had been consumed. The new mill was speedily sole proprietor, and in circumstances to relinquish reconstructed, and the manufacture proceeded with them without delay, he at once disposed of these exfresh energy. tensive and valuable works. Mr. Robert Owen, then a young man residing in Lancashire, was in Glasgow on a visit, and being previously known to Mr. Dale as having, by his talent and persevering industry, raised himself from humble circumstances to be manager of an extensive spinning-mill at Chorlton, he consulted with him as to the propriety of selling the works. The information thus obtained by Mr. Owen convinced him of the profitable nature of the trade, and led him to form a company of English capitalists, who purchased the property at £66,000, and carried on the business for several years, under the firm of the Chorlton Spinning Company, of which Mr. Owen was appointed manager. This situation he held from 1799 to 1827, but not all the time in the same partnership. During the twenty-eight years the mills were under Mr. Owen's management, they cleared of nett profit about £360,000, after having laid aside a sum nearly equal to five per cent. on the paid-up capital. Mr. Owen, some time after his settlement at New Lanark, married Mr. Dale's eldest daughter, with whom he received a large portion.

Although comfortable dwellings were erected at the village of New Lanark for the workers, and good wages and constant employment insured, great difficulty was felt in getting the spinning-mill filled with operatives. There was, indeed, no want of unemployed work-people; for the change of commercial relations caused by the first American war, then raging, very much limited the labour demand, and many, especially from the Highland districts, were in consequence emigrating. It arose from prejudice on the part of the people, more particularly in the Lowlands, against all factory labour. Parents would neither work themselves nor allow their children to enter the mills. In this dilemma Mr. Dale offered employment to a number of Highland families who were emigrating from the Hebrides to America, but had been driven by stress of weather into Greenock, and most of them availed themselves of the opening for securing a comfortable livelihood in their native land. The Celts appearing to have less repugnance to factory labour than their countrymen in the south, agents were sent to the Highlands, who engaged many other families to become workers at New Lanark; but as the mills were at last increased to four, there was still a deficient supply of labour, especially in the department best served by youths, and recourse was had to the poor-houses of Glasgow and Edinburgh, from which orphan and other pauper children were obtained, and whose moral and religious education was combined with their industrial training. From these sources were the workers in the mill and the villagers of New Lanark chiefly drawn, forming a population which at all periods of its history, has commended itself for decent and orderly behaviour.

After Mr. Dale had been in business several years, but before he had engaged in any of the large concerns now described, he, in September, 1777, married Miss Ann Caroline Campbell, daughter of John Campbell, Esq., W.S., Edinburgh. It is not known whether this lady brought him any fortune, but there is reason to suppose that her father's connection with the Royal Bank of Scotland, as a director, led to Mr. Dale's appointment as agent of that establishment in Glasgow, and thus increased his commercial credit and command of capital. Miss Campbell, who had been brought up in the same religious connection with her husband, was also of one heart and mind with him in all his schemes of benevolence. She was the mother of seven children, whom she trained up in the fear of the Lord. Mrs. Dale died in January, 1791. Mr. Dale did not again marry. It was, of course, not to be expected that all the undertakings in which Mr. Dale was embarked should prove equally successful. One at least was a total failure. It was generally understood that he lost about £20,000 in sinking a coal-pit in the lands of Barrowfield, the coal never having been reached, owing to the soil being a running quicksand, which could not be overcome, although the shaft was laid with iron cylinders. Messrs. Robert Tennant and David Tod were his copartners in this unfortunate project; but they together held a comparatively small share. Mr. Dale was, however, eminently success

The above-named company continued to work with profit the Lanark mills from 1799 to 1813, when the property again changed ownership. During the copartnery, most of the English partners sold their interest to Glasgow merchants, who consequently held the largest share at the close of the contract. It appears that by this time (1814) the partners and the manager had each resolved to get rid of the other; and both parties were bent on retaining, if possible, possession of the mills. Mr. Owen had now begun to promulgate some of his peculiar theories; and, for the purpose of carrying them into practice, had constructed the spacious and substantial building at New Lanark, without, it is said, receiving the formal consent of the partners, some of whom disapproved of his schemes. It was resolved to dispose of the property by public roup; and Mr. Owen meanwhile succeeded in forming a new company, which, when the day of sale arrived, became the purchasers, after considerable competition, at the cost of £112,000. When security was required for this large sum, the names of William Allen, Joseph Fox, Robert Owen, Jeremy Bentham, John Walker, and Michael Gibbs, Esquires, were handed in as the partners of the New Lanark Cotton-mill Company.

The education of the common people was at this period occupying much attention. Joseph Lancaster had introduced his method of instructing large numbers at little expense. His Quaker brethren warmly espoused the cause, which speedily excited universal interest, from the highest to the humblest. Mr. Owen entered heartily into the movement, which he advocated on the platform in Glasgow, and towards which he contributed 1000 to the Glasgow subscription alone out of his private funds. His zeal in the cause no doubt recommended him to the benevolent individuals who became his partners; and it is also to be observed, that he had not yet avowed the infidel principles which were destined to give him such unenviable notoriety in future years. The new copartnery laid down, as the basis of its

union, an article rarely to be found in commercial | landed property and dwelling-house on the banks contracts, namely, "That all profits made in the of Clyde, about four miles east of Glasgow. He concern beyond five per cent. per annum on the was in his sixty-first year when his connection with capital invested, shall be laid aside for the religious, the Lanark mills ceased. Having acquired a handeducational, and moral improvement of the workers, some competency, he resolved on winding up his and of the community at large." And, as appears other business affairs; but the nature of his contracts from the Memoir of William Allen, provision was and copartneries rendered it impossible to free his made "for the religious education of all the children estate from responsibility till some years after his of the labourers employed in the works, and that | death. But whilst gradually withdrawing from nothing should be introduced tending to disparage other business engagements, he most unaccountably, the Christian religion, or undervalue the authority through the influence of Mr. Owen, became a partof the Holy Scriptures; that no books should be in- ner in the Stanley Cotton Mill Company-a connectroduced into the library until they had first been tion which caused him much uneasiness during the approved of at a general meeting of the partners; latter years of his life, and is said to have involved that schools should be established on the best models him in a loss of £60,000. of the British, or other approved systems, to which the partners might agree; but no religious instruction, or lessons on religion, should be used, except the Scriptures, according to the authorized version, or extracts therefrom, without note or comment; and that the children should not be employed in the mills belonging to the partnership until they were of such an age as not to be prejudicial to their health." The pious and benevolent founder of the establishment had, in like manner, provided schools and schoolmasters for the education of the workers and their children, and had maintained these throughout the successive changes in the copartnery.

Mr. Owen, being thus vested with great powers and ample means for the most enlarged benevolence, started, under the auspices of the newly-formed company, on an extensive educational plan, embracing, in addition to the ordinary school instruction, the higher branches of science. He gave lessons in military tactics, and caused the workmen to march in order to and from school and workshop in rank and file to the sound of drum and fife-a sort of training rather alien to the anti-warlike predilections of his Quaker copartners. He attempted also to introduce Socialist principles, and became himself a prominent leader of that party, which had hitherto been scarcely heard of in the country. He contributed largely in money for the purchase of an estate in the neighbouring parish of Motherwell, and to erect on it a huge building distinguished by the name of New Harmony. In this institution, which soon went to pieces, society was to be reconstituted on Socialist principles, with a community of goods. The partners of Owen were grieved at his folly, and the public shared in their disappointment and regret. He nevertheless pursued his own course, and the consequence was the retirement from the company of those members who had joined it from philanthropic motives, and the abandonment of their admirably-conceived plan of raising up an intelligent, right-principled, and well-conditioned factory popu lution at New Lanark. Mr. Owen continued in connection with the mills till 1827; but during the greater part of his latter years he was occupied in propagating his visionary schemes of infidelity in England and America, in which he spent a princely fortune derived from the profits of the business. Mr. Owen of late years resided chiefly in London, and his children in the United States of America. Mrs. Owen did not adopt the infidel principles of her husband; on the contrary, soon after she had ascertained the nature of his sentiment, she openly avowed her faith in the Lord Jesus, connected herself with the church of which her father had been an elder, and adorned her Christian profession till her death in 1832.

As a retreat from the bustle of a city life, about the year 1800, when his advancing years required repose, Mr. Dale purchased Rosebank-a small

Having seceded from the Established church, and joined the Independent communion, Mr. Dale, in 1769, undertook among them the office of minister, in which he continued until his death, thirty-seven years afterwards. When we turn from the survey of Mr. Dale's multifarious duties as the pastor of a pretty numerous church, to his active charities as a philanthropist, we are left to wonder how he could find time and strength to go through with the many duties he took in hand. We find him at an early period regularly visiting Bridewell, for the purpose of preaching the gospel to the convicts; and his example in this respect was long followed by his colleagues in the church. He every year made excursions to distant parts of the country, visiting and comforting the churches with which he stood connected.

Although Mr. Dale shunned the ostentatious display of benevolence, yet his liberality could not always be hid. The present generation have at times had to pay very high prices for the necessaries of life, yet no dread of famine, or even partial scarcity, at least in Scotland, has been entertained for at least half a century. Not so, however, during Mr. Dale's time; for at that period the poor had occasionally to pay ransom prices for food, and even at these prices it sometimes could not be obtained. In the dearth of 1782, 1791-93, and in 1799, Mr. Dale imported, at his own risk, large quantities of food from Ireland, America, and the continent of Europe. To effect this, he chartered ships for the special purpose. The food thus brought in he retailed to the poor at prime cost, thereby in great measure averting the threatened famine, and preventing a still greater advance in prices.

In addition to the benefits, spiritual and temporal, conferred on his countrymen at home, he engaged with the same ardour in most of the schemes then in operation for extending a knowledge of the gospel of peace in foreign countries, especially those which had for their object the translation and circulation of the Word of God. The proposal to translate the Scriptures into the various languages of our eastern empire, as projected and accomplished by the Baptist Missionary Society, had his hearty support from the outset. Mr. Andrew Fuller, of Kettering, who travelled for the purpose of collecting funds for this object, was kindly received by Mr. Dale, and from him received large contributions for the cause. In Mr. Fuller's sermon on covetousness, preached some time after Mr. Dale's death, and printed in the fourth volume of his works, when enjoining on his hearers who have, to give of their abundance, and to do so liberally, he says, "The poor people of Glasgow used to say of a late great and good man of that city -'David Dale gives his money by sho'elsful, but God Almighty sho'els it back again.""

After the sale of the Lanark mills, till his death six years thereafter, Mr. Dale in great measure retired

DALGARNO, GEORGE,' an almost forgotten, but most meritorious and original writer, was born in Old Aberdeen about the year 1626. He appears to have studied at Marischal College, New Aberdeen, but for what length of time, or with what objects, is wholly unknown. In 1657 he went to Oxford, where, according to Anthony Wood, he taught a private grammar-school with good success for about thirty years. He died of a fever on the 28th of August, 1687, and was buried, says the same author, "in the north body of the church of St. Mary Magdalen.' Such is the scanty biography that has been preserved of a man who lived in friendship with the most eminent philosophers of his day, and who, besides other original speculations, had the singular merit of anticipating, more than a hundred and thirty years ago, some of the most profound conclusions of the present age respecting the education of the deaf and dumb. His work upon this subject is entitled Didaswas printed in a very small volume at Oxford in 1680. He states the design of it to be to bring the way of teaching a deaf man to read and write, as near as possible to that of teaching young ones to speak and understand their mother tongue. "In prosecution of this general idea," says an eminent philosopher of the present day, who has, on more than one occasion, done his endeavour to rescue the name of Dalgarno from oblivion, "he has treated in one short chapter of a deaf man's dictionary; and, in another, of a grammar for deaf persons; both of them containing a variety of precious hints, from which useful practical lights might be derived by all who have any concern in the tuition of children during the first stage of their education” (Mr. Dugald Stewart's Account of a Boy Born Blind and Deaf). Twenty years before the publication of his Didascalocophus, Dalgarno had given to the world a very ingenious piece, entitled Ars Signorum, from which, says Mr. Stewart, it appears indisputable that he was the precursor of Bishop Wilkins in his speculations respecting "a real character and a philosophical language." Leibnitz has on various occasions alluded to the Ars Signorum in commendatory terms. collected works of Dalgarno were republished in one volume, 4to, by the Maitland Club, in 1834.

from business pursuits. During this time he gave an hour or two daily to attendance at the bank, and the winding up of his own private concerns occupied an equal share of his attention; but at no period of his life were his public and private acts of benevolence, or his duties in the pastoral office, more attended to than at this time. For some months before February, 1806, it was seen that his health and strength were failing. About the 1st of March of that year he was confined to bed, and died in peace on the 17th day of the same month, in the sixty-eighth year of his age, in his house, Charlotte Street, Glasgow. In his last illness he frequently expressed his confidence as resting on the fulness, freeness, and simplicity of the gospel truth which he had for so long a period preached to others. His remains were interred in St. David's Church burying-ground. No sculptured marble marks the place where all that is mortal of this good man reposes. The spot is indicated by a hewn stone built into the east boundary-calocophus, or the Deaf and Dumb Man's Tutor, and wall, inclosed by an iron railing, about midway betwixt the south and north corner of the ground, having on it the following plain inscription:-"The burying-ground of David Dale, merchant, Glasgow, 1780.' The establishment of the branch of the Royal Bank in Glasgow in 1783 proved to be of great service in promoting the trade of the city, especially in the manufacture of cotton goods, which made rapid progress from that date. Mr. Dale's management of the bank business was never objected to; he was discriminating and liberal in granting loans to the industrious prudent trader, while he had the firmness to resist the advances of the mere speculator. An anecdote has been preserved illustrative of his feelings and humanity towards an unfortunate individual who had committed forgery. A young man presented a draft for discount, which Mr. Dale considered to be a forged document; he sent for the young man, and in private informed him of his suspicions; the fact was acknowledged. Mr. Dale then pointed out to him the risk he put his life in by such an act, destroyed the bill, that no proof of his guilt should remain, and finding that he had been led to it by pecuniary difficulties, gave him some money, and dismissed him with a suitable admonition. In regard to his usefulness as a preacher of the gospel, the late Dr. Wardlaw used to say of Mr. Dale, that he was a most scriptural and instructive teacher of a Christian church. He had not acquired in early life a knowledge of the languages in which the Scriptures were originally written, but this lack was amply sup plied by application in after-life. He could read with understanding the Hebrew and Greek; the Old and New Testaments were frequently, perhaps daily, studied by him in these languages. His public discourses were sententious. For several years before his death his pulpit services were listened to by many who came on purpose to hear his preaching.

Various estimates of the fortune which Mr. Dale had realized were made about the period of his death; the probability is, that one and all were far wide of the truth. A vast amount of his effects consisted in mill buildings and machinery, which are of a very fluctuating value. A considerable part too was locked up in business concerns in operation, of which he was copartner, some of which were not closed for many years; and some of these proved to be very unprofitable. The exact, or even estimated amount, was never made known to the public; but it must, at the period referred to, have been very considerable. From the losses sustained in winding up, however, it is generally understood that a large portion was swept away, and that but a comparatively small part came ultimately to his family.

The

DALHOUSIE, JAMES ANDREW BROWN-RAMSAY, first MARQUIS OF. This eminent statesman was born at Dalhousie Castle, county of Edinburgh, on the 22d of April, 1812. In point of antiquity, the family of Ramsay was conspicuous so early as the reign of David I., when Sir Alexander Ramsay, the knight of Dalwolsie, having signalized himself in the liberation of his country from England, was appointed warden of the middle marches of Scotland, and sheriff of Teviotdale. The envy of his great rival, Sir William Douglas, at this last appointment, and his attack upon the knight of Dalwolsie, while holding open court, and consigning him to a dungeon, where he died of hunger, is one of those terrible tales of ancient Scottish revenge with which our national history is only too abundant. Another distinguished member of the family was Sir John Ramsay, who saved the life of James VI., by stabbing the Earl of Gowrie, when the latter rushed into the king's apartment with a drawn sword, and at the head of his armed attendants, during the confused affray of what is called the Gowrie conspiracy. For this deed he was ennobled by the titles of Lord Barns and Vis

1 I am indebted for this article to the Supplement to the Sixth Edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica; the only source from which I am aware that the information contained in it could have been derived.