THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
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 THE HONOURABLE 
 
 JAMES BALFOUR, M.L.C.

 
 THE HONOURABLE 
 
 JAMES BALFOUR 
 
 M.L.C. 
 
 A MEMOIR 
 
 BY 
 
 THE REV. ANDREW HARPER, M.A. D.D. 
 
 PRINCIPAL OF ST. ANDREWS COLLEGE 
 
 WITHIN THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF SYDNEY 
 
 WITH PORTRAITS 
 
 CRITCHLEY PARKER PTY. LTD. 
 
 AUSTRALIA 
 1918
 
 ~^o 
 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Chap. Page. 
 
 I. Nature and Nurture ...... i 
 
 II. Early Life 20 
 
 III. Voyage to, and First Days in Australia 32 
 
 IV. The First Ten Years 44 
 
 V. Voyage to Britain and America ... 63 
 
 VT. Marriage and Later Years in Geelong . 80 
 
 VII. Melbourne — First Years .... 86 
 
 \^III. Political Life — Legislative Assembly . 93 
 
 IX. Travels m 
 
 X. Scotland and the Return Voyage . . 129 
 
 XL 1870-1880 143 
 
 XII. Business and Political Life .... 156 
 
 XIII. Political Life — Contd. (Education) . 172 
 
 XIV. Press Activities 216 
 
 XV. Ecclesiastical Life 225 
 
 XVI. Bible Class Work 241 
 
 XVII. Religious Life 255 
 
 XVIII. Balfour's Later Years 276 
 
 XIX. Balfour's Death 304 
 
 Appendix — 
 
 Letters of Sympathy 325 
 
 Memorials 333 
 
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 Wholly set up and printed in Australia
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 It has not been my purpose to write a full life of the 
 Hon. James Balfour. To do so would have involved 
 researches, for which 1 have neither the time nor the 
 energy, into the whole political, social, and religious 
 life in the State of Victoria during more than 60 years. 
 
 The task 1 have set myself is much less ambitious. 1 
 knew him intimately for 48 years, and, during that long 
 period of entirely unbroken friendship, I received an 
 ever deepening impression of his unique and whole- 
 hearted fidelity to the highest religious and moral con- 
 victions. 
 
 With an ease and certainty which I have witnessed 
 in no other man whom I have known so well, his life 
 seemed to rise to the level of his ideals. To himself, no 
 doubt, that which was in his life looked poor and low 
 compared with that w^hich ought to have been ; but to 
 others it appeared that to every command of conscience 
 illuminated by Christ he rendered instant, soldierly 
 obedience. What he thought he ought to do he did in 
 a measure that was quite extraordinary. Consequently, 
 there was a harmony, a sincerity, a strength in his char- 
 acter which made it potent for impulse toward good, 
 wherever he came. 
 
 What I have attempted to do is to convey to others 
 the impression I have received of his success in living 
 as a Christian man should, amid the full tides of secular 
 activity. In the main, I have trusted to my own recol- 
 lections and to his letters, whether kindly placed at my 
 disposal by Mrs. Balfour or addressed to myself; and 
 the important political and social movements in which
 
 he was concerned have not been touched upon at length, 
 save in two cases. These are the Darling Grant con- 
 troversy, and the struggle to restore Scriptural Instruc- 
 tion to the State Schools of Victoria. In both, I was 
 most intimately acquainted with his attitude, and I have 
 consequently chosen them as specimens of Balfour's 
 political activity. 
 
 The first was purely political ; the second was partly 
 political, but mainly moral and religious ; and from 
 them it is possible to form a clear conception of the 
 motive forces of his singularly disinterested political 
 career. In the main, therefore, except the parts regarding 
 the history of the Balfours of Pilrig, for which I am in- 
 debted to Miss Barbara Balfour-Melville's most in- 
 teresting account of her ancestry, the Memoir is a per- 
 sonal impression. That fact will account for one of its 
 more manifest defects. It does not keep proportion in 
 that which it relates. Some parts of the life have been 
 dealt with much more fully than others. That is simply 
 because circumstances brought the writer into more inti- 
 mate connection with Balfour at those times than at 
 others, and consequently the stream of impression ran 
 more copiously. But, as the personal impression is 
 what I desire to convey, and is moreover that which is 
 most worth conveying, the advantages of this method 
 must be set against its defects. 
 
 If that be done, unless I have altogether failed in 
 my purpose, it will be seen that the profit of the choice 
 made lies altogether with the reader. 
 
 A. HARPER. 
 Sydney.
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 NATURE AND NURTURE. 
 
 it mav seem necessary to some that more justification 
 than is always forthcoming should be offered for adding 
 to the already considerable number of the biographies of 
 Australian public men. After all, it may be said, they 
 moved in a very small and provincial sphere. Their 
 work and words, however potent in their day, were very 
 limited in their effect. They in no way influenced the 
 larsre results of time which will determine the future of 
 our Empire or of the race. At best theirs must always 
 be a somewhat sectional and cloistered fame. Yet, 
 though there may be some truth in all that, a truth 
 which it would be mere provincialism to ignore, there 
 is much to be said on the other side. These men were 
 founders of what will one day be one of the great States 
 of the world, and a number of them would have been 
 great anywhere. Much of the welfare of humanity, too, 
 may depend upon the institutions, the temper, the out- 
 look of Australia, when she becomes a great power in the 
 South Pacific; and even very ordinary men — men who 
 in older and fully formed communities would have been 
 merely units in the mass of good citizens — have had to 
 do and have done here the work which only prophets 
 and kings could do elsewhere. Consequently, their 
 doings and their aspirations will gain importance with 
 the years. As the State they helped to found and shape 
 develops on lines to which they have given direction, so 
 their significance will grow ; and it will become increas- 
 ingly important that the history of their acts and motives 
 B
 
 2 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 should be known. In this fact there would seem to be 
 sufficient justification for a considerable number of Aus- 
 tralian biographies, and among these there need be no 
 doubt that a biographical sketch of the late Hon. James 
 Balfour should find a place. He arrived in Victoria in 
 1852, just when the gold discoveries had attracted a huge 
 new population to that State, and his life as a politician 
 began in the year when constitutional government was 
 first established there. His Australian life, therefore, 
 covered practically the whole history of Victoria as it now 
 is. From his first arrival to his death 61 years afterwards 
 he was active in every sphere of labour which politics, the 
 Church, philanthropy, and general citizenship opened up 
 to him, and in all his activities he set one end before him 
 — to awaken and give aspiration to the "soul of the 
 people." That is a sufficiently unique aim for a public 
 man at any time, and in any place, to set before him, and 
 it was sufficient to put a special stamp upon all his 
 work. It is to be wished, therefore, that a full life, 
 embracing, as that would need to do, the political, social, 
 and ecclesiastical history of Victoria from 1851-1913, 
 could have been published. But that, if it is ever done, 
 must be the work of some younger hand than mine. 
 What I can do is to give a biographical sketch from the 
 point of view of a younger contemporary, with the know- 
 ledge of a contemporary, having in view especially the 
 many people of all classes who came under the gracious 
 influence of his singularly unselfish character, and 
 whose lives have, in some degree, been shaped by the 
 "touch of his vanished hand." 
 
 It is the current doctrine now that the two decisive 
 things in the formation of character and personality 
 are heredity and environment. In regard to both, 
 James Balfour, like some others who came to lay the 
 foundations of Australian greatness, was favoured be- 
 yond the average. In point of heredity, he came on
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 3 
 
 his father's side of an old and respected Scottish family, 
 which has come in our time to be known throughout 
 the world, by the fact that Robert Louis Stevenson's 
 mother was a member of it, and that he, one of the 
 greatest writers of his time, introduced into one of his 
 romances, "Kidnapped," an imaginary David Balfour 
 of this family, who visits the i8th century head of it, 
 at Pilrig House, the later seat of the name. But, 
 though the genius of Stevenson has made the Balfours 
 of Pilrig known, they had a quite striking history and 
 a distinctive character of their own, which marked them 
 out even among the quiet families of gentlefolk that 
 are the glory of Scotland as they are of England. Since 
 they emerged into clear history they have been mer- 
 chants, lawyers, clergymen, soldiers, in their successive 
 generations; always honourable gentlemen of high char- 
 acter, men who feared God and honoured the king, so 
 far as this latter was possible (which it was not always), 
 and who served the highest interests of their country as 
 they saw it in seeking the prosperity and godliness of 
 the common people. 
 
 In the more obscure records of earlier times their 
 ancestors are traced back to an Alexander Balfour of 
 Inchyre, who was Cellararius (i.e., the official in charge 
 of the cellar) to King James IV. of Scotland, and held 
 lands in Fife, as well as this office in the Royal House- 
 hold, 20 years before the battle of Flodden. His grand- 
 son, James, became a minister of the Reformed Church, 
 and was a lifelong friend and supporter of his cousin, 
 Andrew Melville, the great Scottish churchman upon 
 whom Knox's mantle had fallen. After adequate ex- 
 perience in country parishes, he came to Edinburgh 
 to be one of the ministers of St. Giles (1589), and took 
 an active part in the great battle then being waged 
 between the Church and James VI., the "wisest fool 
 in Christendom," in his attempt to force Episcopacy on
 
 4 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 Scotland, in the course of the conflict, he had to flee 
 more than once from the wrath of the king, and he was 
 one of the eight ministers summoned to London in 1600, 
 nominally to discuss the ecclesiastical situation, but, as 
 soon appeared, to be bullied and browbeaten, to see if 
 their opposition could not be broken. One of the 
 favourite methods of punishment threatened when the 
 king became exasperated was to order that they should 
 be separated and be sent, each, to live with an English 
 Bishop. This they absolutely declined to do, declar- 
 ing that they would rather submit to imprisonment or 
 banishment than do it. The Bishops, on their part, 
 were equally unwilling, and the King's ingenious device 
 for making both parties uncomfortable was frustrated. 
 Later Andrew Melville was carried off to the Tower. 
 The other seven were sent home to Scotland, but were 
 forbidden to return to their congregations, and in their 
 various places of sequestration, they had this for their 
 consolation, as the historian of the Balfour family says, 
 "that in London they— alone in their opinions — had 
 stood for the rights pledged to the Church of Scotland, 
 and they did not quail, nor surrender anything for fear 
 of men." 
 
 After James Balfour's death in 1613, the family estate 
 of Inchyre fell to his younger son, Andrew (1587-1624), 
 also a minister. His son again, James (1619-1688), was 
 an advocate of repute, who lived a quiet and prosperous 
 life in most turbulent times, and he was succeeded by 
 another James (1652-17 13), who turned aside from the 
 hitherto prevailingly clerical character of the family, 
 and became a merchant. In this career he had much 
 success, until he became a Governor of the Darien Com- 
 pany and embarked much of his fortune in it. It may 
 be doubted whether the project for a Scottish rival to the 
 English East India Company would, under the most 
 favourable circumstances, have succeeded. Scotland was
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 5 
 
 too poor, and too little trained to the management of 
 great mercantile affairs. But in any case it never had 
 a chance in face of the fierce and unscrupulous opposi- 
 tion of the English Government, incited by English 
 capitalists, who trembled for their gains, and tried then 
 to destroy Scottish commercial enterprise as they a 
 little later destroyed Irish trade, and thereby mainly 
 brought to England its Irish heritage of woe. When 
 the Darien Company failed, disaster spread through- 
 out Scotland, and among those who were broken in 
 heart, if not wholly in pocket, by the great disaster was 
 James Balfour. Though come of a conspicuously long- 
 lived race, he died two years after the bubble of this 
 ill-fated enterprise burst, at the comparatively early age 
 of 50 or 55, leaving his affairs in such a doubtful state 
 that his son, yet another James (1681-1737) was in doubt 
 whether to accept the responsibility for his father's debts, 
 which would lie upon him if he served himself heir to the 
 estate. Encouraged by his mother, he took up the 
 burden and carried it with success. Among his father's 
 more solid ventures were glass works and soap works 
 in Leith, and these remained to him after the Darien 
 wrecks had been cleared away. There was also a ship- 
 building yard ; and he, removing to a house in Leith 
 attached to the soapwork, devoted himself to his father's 
 business with success. 
 
 Up to this time, the Balfour family had not yet become 
 Lairds of Pilrig. It was this son of the Darien Chair- 
 man who bought the house and lands ever since con- 
 nected with the name. He evidently prospered in his 
 various ventures, but it was an unlooked-for piece of 
 good fortune which enabled him to take the step. In 
 1707 the English Government, anxious to prepare the 
 way for the union of England and Scotland, promised 
 to pay a considerable sum ^ to the shareholders in the 
 Darien Company. James Balfour received his share of
 
 6 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 this, and in 1718 he bought from the Lord Rosebery 
 of that time the property of Pilrig, which then lay in 
 the country between Edinburgh and Leith, bounded 
 on the north by the water of Leith, and on the south 
 by Leith Walk. The family, when it came into 
 possession, consisted of the parents and eight children 
 (six boys and two girls), and in Pilrig House nine others 
 were born, so that the first Pilrig household included the 
 more than patriarchal number of 17 children. 
 
 Of all James Balfour's "forbears" this, the first Laird 
 of Pilrig, is the nearest to him in calling, appearance 
 and outlook upon life. In early life in 1698, when he 
 was seventeen years old, he experienced what would now 
 be called conversion to God, and a pathetic little record 
 of it has come down to our day in the Pilrig Charter 
 Chest. It runs : "I gave myself up to the Lord, and 
 did engage to be His upon Sabbath ye 7th day of Sep- 
 tember, 1698 years : and so do write this down that 
 it may remember me of it, so that I may walk answerable 
 to my engagements, serving the Lord and trusting in 
 His name ; that it may be an answer to Satan the tempter, 
 when tempting me to draw back from God the Lord my 
 Lord's way, that I am not my own, but bought with 
 a price, and also an answer to the world and the lusts 
 of the flesh, those carnal pleasures, and it may be a 
 witness against me, if I make not answerable to my 
 engagements. This I subscribe with my hand, Ja. 
 Balfour." So the tone of his life was set, just as that 
 of his descendant was, when he wrote in his Bible more 
 than 200 years later : "I yield myself in an act of fresh 
 consecration to God — in His strength — this loth May, 
 1910. James Balfour," and again : "Renewed for ser- 
 vice loth February, 1913. J.B." 
 
 Like his, too, his life throughout was consistent with 
 this resolve. He was always a man who 'took God 
 into account in what he did. He has left a memorandum
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 7 
 
 containing an outline of the religious instruction, 
 primarily in the Bible, and secondarily in the Shorter 
 Catechism, which he set a-foot in his own household, 
 and which he commended to his children and his ser- 
 vants. But for the old world spelling the following 
 passage might have also been spoken in these Southern 
 lands, then in unpeopled savagery, by his descendant, 
 the eloquent and impassioned advocate of Bible reading 
 in State Schools. He says: "You live in a land of 
 light where the Gospel is preached and the glade tidings 
 of salvation are published, wher the scriptures of the 
 old and new testament, which are the word of God, 
 are translated into our own language. Wherfor it is 
 your indespencable duty to learn thes scriptures, to be 
 frequent in reading and meditating on the same, that 
 you may know how to behave yourselves in this world, 
 so as you may have the well grounded hopes of being 
 happy in the world to come." Again, "You need not 
 want time to read the scriptures, learn your Catechism, 
 and to seek God in prayer .... I would have you take 
 some time eveiy morning and evening for this purpose, 
 and particularly I recommend it to you, to rise as early 
 on the Lord's Day as you do on other days of the week, 
 and apply yourself seriously to thes duties." To his 
 son James, too, who had shown special aptitude in 
 philosophv, and was destined for the Legal profession, 
 when he was leaving Pilrig for Leyden University, he 
 wrote a letter of advice which reveals him as a man 
 whose first and great anxiety for his children was that 
 they should "walk in the truth." 
 
 Apparently the desire of his heart was given to him, 
 for when the Leyden student succeeded him as Laird 
 of Pilrig (David Balfour's Laird) he and his family 
 remained throughout the brilliant but sceptical and super- 
 ficial 1 8th century, which his long life almost completely 
 covered, steadfast to their father's faith both in politics
 
 8 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 and religion. In the one domain, they were all strong 
 Whigs, or Liberals, as we should say now ; and in the 
 other, they were faithful and God-fearing members of 
 the Church of Scotland, men over whom the Scottish 
 "enlightenment," represented by David Hume and his 
 friends, had apparently no power. Indeed, the second 
 Laird himself wrote a reply to Hume's Principles of 
 Morals, which the great sceptic thought worth defend- 
 mg himself against, and he was the successful candidate 
 against Hume for the Chair of Moral Philosophy in 
 Edinburgh LIniversity. Of course, nobody now, and few 
 even then, thought Balfour the equal of Hume in 
 intellectual power; but he represented the steady tradi- 
 tional religion and ethics of the Scottish people; and, 
 seeing that very few ethical students since his time have 
 found Hume's system of ethics adequate, it may well 
 havt been that the University was none the worse of 
 having lost the services of the great awakener of Europe 
 from its "dogmatic sleep" in philosophy. 
 
 That the family was not wanting in courage of the 
 highest sort, was shown, not so much by the fact that 
 there was in the connection more than one soldier who 
 distinguished himself, as by the death of Lewis Balfour, 
 uncle of the Rev. Lewis Balfour, Stevenson's grand- 
 father, and the son of the second Laird of Pilrig. He 
 was intended for the army, but was debarred, probably 
 by colour blindness. He then became a sailor, and on 
 his retirement from active life he lived in his brother's 
 house. In 1807 he went to bathe in Allan Water, with 
 the nephew of his host and another lad, neither of whom 
 could swim. Diving into a deep pool, he took cramp, 
 and when his companions wished to attempt his rescue 
 he resolutely forbade them, and calmly sank to his death. 
 That is a memory which any family might be proud to 
 cherish. 
 
 Throughout the i8th century the Balfour family grew
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. g 
 
 and multiplied, and by intermarriages became connected 
 with many families of good birth, and many of their 
 blood and connections made names for themselves as sol- 
 diers, professors, lawyers, and merchants; but for our 
 purpose further dealing with them is unnecessary. With 
 the last quarter of the century we come upon the immedi- 
 ate ancestors of James Balfour. The third Laird, John 
 Balfour, had three sons, James (1774-1860), a Writer to 
 the Signet, who succeeded him in Pilrig; John (1776- 
 1859), ^ merchant; and Lewis (1777-1860), Minister of 
 Colinton, the grandfather of Robert Louis Stevenson. 
 The second of these was the father of the Australian 
 James Balfour. He was a merchant, as some of the 
 Balfours had always been, and as his father was, and for 
 many years he was prosperous. He lived in Pilrig 
 Street, the main street of the new suburb which was 
 beginning to encroach on Pilrig House lands, and there 
 was much coming and going between the two households, 
 so that the connection with the ancestral home was always 
 vividly felt by all the family in Pilrig Street. 
 
 John Balfour, though quick in speech and active in 
 gait, was a quiet, undemonstrative man. He took the 
 more earnest side in the great religious conflicts of his 
 time, but never expressed himself in any expansive 
 religious emotion ; but by uprightness in business, by 
 earnest attention to the ordinances of religion, by kindli- 
 ness and courtesy he claimed for himself a place among 
 the many devout but silent servants of God who are 
 by no means the worst kind and who are specially 
 plentiful in Scotland. In a funeral sermon preached 
 by Dr. Blaikie, it was said that up to the end of his 
 long life he was always, morning and afternoon, at his 
 place in Church. He was twice married, his first wife 
 being Helen Buchanan, daughter of Thomas Buchanan 
 of Ardoch. Of this marriage three sons were born : John, 
 who went to America and took up land there; Dr.
 
 10 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 Thomas Graham Balfour; and Buchanan, who prospered 
 as a merchant in London for many years, but, like his 
 father, fell upon evil days in his old age. 
 
 Dr. Graham Balfour had a very distinguished career 
 as an Army surgeon. He entered the army in 1836, 
 and was immediately gazetted to the staff, in order that 
 he might undertake the statistical work of the Army 
 Medical Department. For four years he toiled with 
 singular acuteness at this, at first, uncongenial employ- 
 ment; then in 1840 he was gazetted assistant surgeon to 
 the Grenadier Guards. Later he was again given 
 statistical work, and continued in it for the remainder 
 of his military career. In 1855, when Sir John McNeill 
 and Colonel Tulloch reported the total breakdown of our 
 commissariat, transport, and hospital system in the 
 Crimea, and came into conflict with the Horse Guards 
 in consequence. Dr. Balfour stood valiantly by them, 
 and was appointed Secretary to the Commission which, 
 in 1858, revolutionised the Army Medical Department 
 and supported Florence Nightingale in her great work 
 of framing hospital nurses. He was elected Fellow of 
 the Royal Society in 1859, and Fellow of the Royal 
 College of Physicians in London in i860, and in 1887 he 
 was appointed Hon. Physician to the Queen. Ifi 1873 
 he became Surgeon-General and was placed in charge 
 of the great Military Hospital at Netley. He died in 
 1891, and left one son, Graham Balfour of the English 
 Education Department, the author of the life of Robert 
 Louis Stevenson. The present writer had the pleasure 
 of meeting Dr. Balfour in 1869-70, and still remembers 
 the courteous kindness of the handsome and stately, 
 and then famous, man. 
 
 In 1825, nine years after the death of his first wife, 
 John Balfour married Roberta Gordon, daughter of 
 Captain Robert Gordon, of Invercarron, the Hon. James 
 Balfour's mother. To her own children, when they
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. ii 
 
 came, there was added to their Balfour inheritance a 
 different strain of blood, which brought with it a new 
 Celtic gaiety and vivacity of temper, and a heritage of 
 memories quite equal, if not superior, to those which 
 came to them from the Balfour side. For 'Roberta 
 Gordon's ancestry can be traced on her mother's side 
 to the famous family of Munro of Foulis, which goes 
 back authentically to Hugh Munro of Foulis, who died in 
 iioi. At Bannockburn, in 13 14, the then head of the 
 family fell; his son was killed at Halidon Hill in 1331 ; 
 while the 14th Munro of Foulis died at the battle of 
 Pinkie in 1547. ^^ is from him that both Barbara 
 Gordon, mother of the late Principal Rainy, and her 
 sister, Roberta Gordon, the mother of the Australian 
 James Balfour, were descended. As has been said, "In 
 every one of their generations the Munros of Foulis 
 have been intermarried with many of the best families 
 of nobility and gentry in the North of Scotland. More- 
 over they were brave in war, for in the 17th century 
 there were three Generals, eight Colonels, five Lieu- 
 tenant-Colonels, eleven Majors, and about thirty Cap- 
 tains, all Munros of this family. Further, they were 
 known for their high standard of religion and morals. 
 One of them, Sir Robert Munro, 27th Baron of Foulis, 
 was noted for the countenance he gave to divine worship 
 both in public and his family, and for the regard which 
 he always expressed for the word of God and His 
 ministers. Sincere in his friendship, and full of com- 
 passion even to the meanest of those about him, he 
 was remarkable above most men for his activity in the 
 discharge of any office of friendship where he had pro- 
 fessed it, and for his great exactness in the performance 
 of his promises. He, like the first Laird of Pilrig, 
 seems to have lived again in these respects in his 
 Australian descendant. 
 
 When Roberta Gordon undertook the task of mother-
 
 12 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 ing John Balfour's three elder sons, whom we have just 
 mentioned, it seemed as if she would need all her 
 ancestral bravery; for then, as now, there were not 
 wanting those who suggested to the motherless boys 
 that a stepmother must necessarily be a tyrant. There- 
 upon they held a council as to what course they should 
 pursue, and on Graham's motion they decided that 
 they would give her one fair chance, and try first upon 
 her "the effect of kindness." If that failed, sterner 
 courses would be adopted. But, as the author of the 
 monograph on the Baltours of Pilrig says, "When the 
 best, and truest, and most motherly of women arrived 
 and took the reins of the household, the little lads found 
 that no severe methods on their part were required, and 
 long as Roberta Gordon lived, and that was to a good 
 old age, she found her stepsons as loving and loyal as 
 if they had been children of her own. She had five 
 children of her own : Robert (born in 1826), who became 
 a Minister of the United Free Church of Scotland, and 
 Moderator in 1904; Hugh, an Army Surgeon, who died 
 young, invalided from India; James, who later came to 
 Australia ; Jane, who married her cousin, Dr. George 
 Rainy; and Helen, who died unmarried in 1906, after a 
 long period of invalid life. 
 
 This was James Balfour's ancestry, and he manifestly 
 had in his veins some of the best blood of Scotland; but 
 he never made any parade of the fact. I have no doubt 
 he valued it, as who would not ? But even his more 
 intimate friends, those who knew him for nearly half a 
 century, will probably learn these facts for the first 
 time from these pages. What he chiefly loved to recall 
 in regard to his forbears was any instance he knew of 
 their steadfast adherence to piety and godliness in times 
 of persecution or of moral and religious indifference. 
 Further, he was aware, as all his countrymen should be, 
 that, among the masses of Scottish people especially,
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 13 
 
 there were many peasant and middle class families, of 
 whom no record has been kept because of their obscurity, 
 in which the same tradition of strenuous godliness and 
 piety and courage had been upheld for generations in 
 less favourable circumstances. lie, therefore, valued 
 every man for what he was, and seemed to have less 
 difficulty in finding common ground with true man- 
 hood in any rank of life than almost any one whom I 
 have known. It is not, therefore, because of any sup- 
 posed superiority that his ancestry has been dwelt upon. 
 It is mainly to show, in a case where proof can be had, 
 how excellent the material is of which our Australian 
 people ha5 been built. Each of these waves of true and 
 strenuous life left their impression. Each of them washed 
 up some treasure which enriched the succeeding time. 
 So when we remember them we learn how deeply-rooted 
 out best life is in the best life of the old world. 
 
 So much for heredity : now we must turn to the 
 environment, the time and circumstances in which James 
 Balfour was born and brought up. These were specially 
 favourable to the development of character. In 1830, 
 when he was born, the latest and greatest of all Scottish 
 ecclesiastical revolutions was gathering to a head. In 
 most lands in modern times ecclesiastical revolutions do 
 not, as a rule, draw into themselves the thought and 
 passions of a whole people ; but in Scotland, where the 
 Church has been more thoroughly a spokesman for the 
 nation than elsewhere ; where political liberty has found 
 in the Church its most courageous and outspoken 
 defenders, ecclesiastical revolutions can still stir "the 
 most passionate people in Europe," as the Scotch have 
 been called, to the deepest depths of their nature; and 
 they were then so stirred. The question that had roused 
 them was the old one of the rights of the Church as 
 against the State. From the time of the Reformation 
 the Presbvterian Church had been the State Church
 
 14 JAMES BALFOUR, 
 
 of Scotland, and in its earlier days had had to fight 
 hard for sufficient freedom from State interference to 
 enable it to develop as a religious organisation, taking 
 its direction in spiritual things only from the Holy 
 Scriptures and its own interpretation of the will of God 
 as found therein. 
 
 In the days of James VI. of (Scotland and I. of 
 England, many churchmen had endured persecution 
 rather than receive their Church polity from the King, 
 and their stubborn loyalty to the spiritual rights of the 
 Church had gained for it in Scotland an independence 
 which was unparalleled elsewhere, and which it highly 
 valued and never willingly let go. This was confirmed 
 to it by its latest charter, the Revolution Settlement 
 after the coming of William of Orange. But in the 
 i8th century (the rationalistic century par excellence) 
 religion fell, in Scotland, as elsewhere, on evil days. 
 Many of the rights of the Church, consequently, fell 
 into abeyance, and gradually the appointment of 
 Ministers came into the hands of the heritors, the 
 Presbyterian landed proprietors of the district. In 171 2 
 an Act of Parliament restored Patronage, as this secular 
 nomination by heritors, when members of the Presby- 
 terian Church, was called ; but the body of the Church 
 still insisted that there should be a call by the elders 
 and the consent of the people, and for some 15 years 
 the Assembly did not dare to disregard the popular 
 feeling. But then it did, and, when Presbyteries refused 
 to ordain without the call of the Elders and the consent 
 of the people, it superseded the Presbyteries by special 
 committees sent out from the Capital with authority to 
 ordain. Still later, in 1731, the Assembly took from 
 the Presbyteries the power when appointments devolved 
 upon them, of entrusting congregations with the right 
 of election, and it conferred that right upon heritors, if 
 Protestant (not as formerly, if Presbyterian) so that
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 15 
 
 laymen not even members of the Church might appoint 
 ministers. 
 
 All through the 18th century things took this down- 
 ward course, and, so long as the so-called Moderate 
 Party ruled, all active opposition was stifled by objectors 
 being driven into secession ; but in the later decade of 
 that century the traditional evangelicalism of the Church, 
 aided in some degree by the preaching of Whitetield 
 and Wesley in Scotland, and still more by the general 
 revival of religion in England which Methodism brouglit 
 about, reasserted itself and gathered strength, so that 
 it could no longer be trampled under foot. Gradually 
 the Moderate yoke was broken, and when the Assembly 
 tried in the 19th century to override the Presbyteries 
 and to ordain men by special Committees, calling in the 
 aid of the soldiery when resisted, the Evangelicals 
 obtained a majority and refused to perform spiritual 
 functions such as ordination at the bidding of the 
 secular power, though they freely admitted that the 
 secular endowments of any parish where the Patron's 
 nominee was rejected by the Church was at the State's 
 disposal. Thereupon an appeal was made in a variety 
 of actions to the Civil Courts of Scotland, but they 
 decided that the Church, being established by law, must 
 ordain at the Patron's demand if the presentee had 
 fulfilled the statutory and external conditions of appoint- 
 ment, however much the people objected, or however 
 little power he had to instruct in religion. After ten 
 years' strenuous conflict, in which the finest minds of 
 the country took part on one side or the other, the Law 
 Courts were sustained by the Government of the country. 
 Thereupon five hundred ministers, the evangelical 
 majority of the Assembly, resigned their churches, 
 manses, and stipends, and formed a Church of Scotland, 
 free from this tyranny of the State. James Balfour was 
 present with his mother at that great historic scene.
 
 i6 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 and he always twitted his brother, who preferred to play 
 cricket on the decisive day, so that the great memory 
 belonged to him, the mere man of business of the future, 
 instead of to the future minister and moderator. 
 
 Nearly 60 years later he described the impression it 
 all made upon him, in a speech delivered in 1900 at the 
 General Assembly of the Free Church. In Scotland, 
 union with the United Presbyterian Church was near, 
 and with that in view he spoke as follows: — "While 
 rejoicing in union, 'and looking forward with much 
 delight to your proposed step, 1 would recall with grati- 
 tude the days of my boyhood in this beautiful city of 
 Edinburgh, my own romantic town, a city I have never 
 seen approached in picturesqueness in any part of the 
 world. I was present in St. Andrews' Church with my 
 mother on that memorable i8th day of May, 1843. I 
 saw the heroic band arise in obedience to conscience and 
 lelinquish all — not merely their churches and manses 
 and stipends — but what was to many of them even more 
 hard to part with, their connection with a great national 
 Church, in which they had been reared, around which 
 their affections had clung and which they held dear to 
 them as the Holy City was to the Jews of old. They 
 voluntarily gave up all this, their status as ministers 
 of the Church established by law, they gave up prospects 
 for their sons and daughters; nay, more : they went out 
 not knowing whither they went, for it seemed a very 
 enthusiastic dream to suppose that they would all be 
 provided for in Scotland. Many of them thought of 
 the Continent where their fathers had found refuge and 
 sphere in days of persecution, others of America; but 
 that all should remain here was not credible. Yes, and 
 amid the cheering crowd that followed the 400 and odd 
 ministers from St. Andrew's Church to Tanfield Hall, 
 I remember the faces of wives and daughters of the 
 Manse, with tears streaming from their eyes, when they
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 17 
 
 thought of all the trials and difficulties that awaited them. 
 But do you think they grudged the steps their fathers 
 and husbands were taking ? No ; assuredly no. Their 
 faith overcame their fears, and they were ready to 
 encourage with words of cheer and hope those who were 
 forsaking all. It is a day never to be forgotten. 
 It proved to the world that there was faith in the earth. 
 It was the greatest act of self-sacrifice and heroism that 
 this century has heard of, and I praise God that I was 
 brought up amid these scenes. Of course, there were 
 feelings stirred and things said and acts done which 
 we all regret now. in what movement is all right and 
 true ? But withal, those were days of power and quicken- 
 ing. God's spirit moved over the whole land. Evan- 
 gelical religion was immensely strengthened, the 
 generosity of people not wealthy was marvellously 
 shown, and this Church has become the heir to great 
 deeds. Why do I refer to this ? We have among us a 
 new generation, different difficulties, fresh paths. Union, 
 not disruption, is what we are providentially called to : 
 but let us thank God that there were men in the past 
 prepared at all hazards to do their duty, leaders like 
 Chalmers, and Cunningham, Candlish and Guthrie, but 
 also the rank and file not less devoted, not less heroic. 
 Whatever, then, this Church may be called to, and all 
 the more that she is going to unite with another Church 
 having her own great traditions, let the men of this 
 generation show themselves worthy of the great history 
 of their Church, by self-sacrifice and by devotion to 
 Him Who is their Head, their King and their 
 Redeemer." 
 
 This magnificent testimony to the power of con- 
 scientious conviction and the reality of religious faith 
 had a tremendous effect upon the people. The sufferings 
 of the ministers and their families touched their hearts;
 
 i8 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 while the preceding discussions as to the necessity of 
 spiritual quaUlications in ministers, and the true nature 
 of the Church, had made clear to the people what 
 spiritual religion meant. The result was that not only 
 did they provide money with the most astonishing 
 liberality for the building of churches in almost every 
 parish, and the establishment of colleges, but they 
 entered, as even the people of Scotland had seldom done, 
 into the true spirit of Christianity. A vivid flame of 
 pious emotion swept over the country, transforming 
 family life in multitudes of households, and in some 
 cases transfiguring it. So intense was it that some devout 
 Christians even feared it. The father of Clerk Maxwell, 
 the great scientist, a worthy and pious elder of the 
 Presbyterian Church at this time, placed his brilliant 
 son under the care of Dean Ramsay, and had him 
 brought up as an Episcopalian lest the fire should touch 
 him. Such precautions against too excessive zeal in 
 religion usually destroy vivid faith ; but in this case, 
 possibly owing to the rise in the general tone of religion 
 which the evangelical zeal brought with it, Clerk Maxwell 
 became, and remained, a convinced evangelical Chris- 
 tian of the Anglican type. Where no hindrances were 
 placed in the way, there arose a corporate and family 
 piety so sincere, so self-denying, so eager to do the 
 will of God in all things that those who were swept into 
 the new movement received a special impress, a signa- 
 ture of thoroughness in their religion, which dis- 
 tinguished them for life. They had about them always 
 a special air of having lived when great deeds were 
 done; and, more than either of the succeeding genera- 
 tions, that generation seems to have found it easy "to 
 seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness." 
 It was in 1843 that the great crisis came, and it was in 
 the fifties that the great influx of immigrants came to 
 Australia and Nev/ Zealand. No greater gift came to
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 19 
 
 these new Southern lands than those ministers and lay- 
 men of the Scottish Church, who, dominated by the 
 new spirit, then cast in their lot with us. They were 
 not numerous enough to leaven the whole lump, but 
 they formed a conspicuous health-giving element wher- 
 ever they came, and they helped the men of like spirit 
 who came from other Christian communions to rescue 
 the Australian settlements from that exclusive devotion 
 to material interests which is the most dangerous of all 
 the temptations to which new countries are exposed. 
 
 Besides his endowment from heredity, therefore, James 
 Balfour received high endowments from the environ- 
 ment of his early life. His father and mother and the 
 majority of his kin, on both sides, though by no means 
 all (the good people are never all on one side in such 
 cases) were convinced and enthusiastic supporters of the 
 evangelical movement ; and Pilrig Free Church was one 
 of the earliest and best equipped of the new Free Churches 
 which sprang into existence all over the country. Dr. 
 Blaikie, so well known in later years for his sympathy 
 with the working classes, his genial editorship of several 
 magazines, and his unwavering attachment to evangelical 
 doctrine, was the first minister ; and he gathered about 
 him as a Session a number of young professional and 
 mercantile men who were mere embodiments of the new 
 spirit. It was by such influences that James Balfour's 
 character was shaped, and under these he became and 
 remained to the end of his life a thorough, joyous, un- 
 wearied servant of Christ, for he "needs must love the 
 Highest," since he had seen it.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 EARLY LIFE. 
 
 When James Balfour was born into the family in 
 20 Pilrig Street, there were, as has already been said, 
 three half-brothers and two brothers. The former have 
 been spoken of in the previous chapter; but they were 
 so much older than he that they were already leaving 
 home to begin their independent life when he was still 
 a child; consequently, they did not form any vital part 
 of his surroundings as he grew up. Robert and Hugh 
 were his elder contemporaries, and Jane and Helen, the 
 sisters, were slightly younger. Robert was his lifelong 
 friend ; but their lives were spent on different sides of the 
 world, and they came little in contact in later days. 
 In childhood there was the usual admiration for an elder 
 brother; but Hugh, his immediate senior, exercised a 
 kind of fascination upon James. He seems to have been 
 a robust and lively boy, who was more ready to indulge 
 in dangerous or troublesome escapades than either 
 Robert or James, The latter, being somewhat fragile 
 as a child, seems to have shared his sisters' 
 tastes and games for a considerable period, and Hugh's 
 more adventurous disposition made him a kind of wonder 
 and a hero to his more timid younger brother. All his 
 life he loved to tell stories of Hugh's doings. Finally, 
 the latter became an army doctor and went out to India. 
 There he fell ill seriously, and in a year or two returned 
 home to die, while still in the first flush of his youth. 
 His death occurred after James himself had left home, 
 but the pathos of his return to the loving care of his 
 mother and the full and happy confidence in God in 
 
 20
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 21 
 
 which he died was often the subject of James's conversa- 
 tion, even after Hugh had been 40 years in his grave. 
 
 But the great influence of his early years was that of 
 his mother. 1 liave already quoted what Miss Barbara 
 Balfour-AIelville said of her character. vShe calls Mrs. 
 Balfour "the best and truest and most motherly of 
 women !" After her death another friend, the Rev. Wm. 
 Taylor, said of her: "She was simply unique. Never 
 did I know one who even approached her in that unfail- 
 ing kindness and desire and self-sacriticing effort to 
 promote the comfort and the well-being of all with whom 
 she was brought into contact. Yet this was conjoined 
 with a strength, and firmness of Christian principle that 
 distinguished her from some who are merely kind, and 
 nothing more." Consequently, her children were born 
 and cradled in loving kindness — not in good-natured 
 kindness, a very different and much lower thing. The 
 strenuous and aspirant piety of the time pervaded the 
 household ; but any elements of rigidity or harshness 
 there might have been mingled with it were rendered 
 innocuous by the calm charitable outlook of the wise, 
 quiet mother, whose influence, though never obtrusive 
 or dictatorial, was assuredly dominant throughout her 
 long life. 
 
 What she was to her son James was told by him in 
 the speech delivered in 1900 to the General Assembly 
 of the Free Church of Scotland, to which I have already 
 referred. He said: "I claim some right to say a word 
 in connection with the scheme for the Highlands and 
 Islands. I have a large share of Highland blood myself. 
 My mother — and what I am indebted to her for no 
 tongue, however eloquent, can tell — was a true High- 
 lander, born in Sutherlandshire, Gaelic her native tongue, 
 a descendant of the Munros and the Gordons. She was 
 herself a true type of the best Highlander — hospitable, 
 sympathetic, warm-hearted, gentle, generous, enthusi-
 
 22 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 astic, overflowing with kindness. One of her step-sons 
 said of her (and you know a step-mother is not always 
 much beloved), 'If ever there was an angel on earth, 
 it was my mother.' If anyone should love the High- 
 lands, I should." Even in old age, when not her 
 children but her grandchildren were .fromping about 
 her, it was good to feel that atmosphere of kindness, and 
 to see her put aside petulance and passion with her slow, 
 wise smile. To the later generations she seemed the 
 very embodiment of all that was Christian and to have 
 no small measure of that healing power which issues 
 only from lives that are hid with Christ in God. 
 
 In James' earlier years his father was very prosperous, 
 and there was much coming and going of young people, 
 and no stint of innocent gaiety. The boys went to 
 school at the Edinburgh Academy, the then new school 
 of which their father was one of the projectors and 
 shareholders, and which has for nearly a century now 
 been the most formidable rival of the famous Edinburgh 
 High School. Two of his class-fellows, at least, James 
 Clerk Maxwell and Lewis Campbell, rose to fame, one 
 as a physicist of rare power, the other as a Greek 
 scholar and professor. He himself, partly owing to a 
 somewhat delicate constitution, reached no more than 
 the average standard. His two elder brothers had gone 
 to the University of Edinburgh, the one to prepare for 
 the Theological Faculty, and the other for Medicine. 
 He, too, attended lectures for a time ; but his persistent 
 delicacy barred his way here, too, and finally it was 
 decided that he should adopt the mercantile career, in 
 which so many of his family had been engaged. 
 
 Balfour's first mercantile position was in the office 
 of the City of Glasgow Assurance Company, of which 
 his cousin, Robert Balfour, of the Pilrig family, an 
 accountant, was manager in Edinburgh. This appoint- 
 ment had two great advantages : it brought him mercan-
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 23 
 
 tile training of a liigh class, and it brought him also more 
 decisively under the influence of his cousin, 12 years 
 his senior, who was one of the young Free Church 
 Elders in whose life and character the new impulse 
 and the lofty aspiration of the time found expression. 
 His special gift was the power of dealing with young 
 men just entering upon life. He sought them out, 
 invited them to his house, and helped them, where that 
 was possible, to cast in their lot decisively with the 
 Christian cause, attracting them by a wise brotherly 
 kindness which avoided all appearance of compulsion. 
 Under this influence whatever was wanting to James 
 Balfour's decision in the highest things was supplied, 
 and he devoted himself then with a strength of purpose 
 which never wavered throughout his long life to the 
 same gracious ministry among young men by which 
 he had benefited. Many young Australians heard in 
 later years of Robert Balfour, of his power over young 
 men, and of the grief that came into many lives on 
 that tragic day in 1869, when he and his eldest son 
 were buried together in one grave. In the end of 1848, 
 wider mercantile experience became advisable, and James 
 Balfour left Edinburgh, with all its rich family associa- 
 tions, for London, and entered the office of his half- 
 brother, Buchanan, then largely engaged in shipping 
 and marine insurance, the firm being agents for the 
 General Screw Steam Shipping Company. 
 
 To most young men who have not sapped the founda- 
 tions of faith and morals by the petty immorality of 
 country and provincial towns, this change from home, 
 with all its protections and sanctities, to the appalling 
 loneliness of a large city is a distressing and dangerous 
 time. In lodgings, they meet with young men of a type 
 they have never before imagined, men whose pride it 
 is to profess intimate acquaintance with all the evil 
 mysteries of a great community. " About them they see
 
 24 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 masses of people, greater than their native places con- 
 tained, absolutely ignorant of religion and disdaining 
 everything that savours even remotely of godliness. Un- 
 prepared to plunge into all this, they hold back from 
 their fellows and fall into melancholy isolation, unless 
 they are religious enough to seek out a Church and 
 enter into its fellowship and open the door of their hearts 
 more widely than ever before to the great Companion 
 who has been waiting from their birth for the favourable 
 moment to enter in. In time, the melancholy isolation 
 becomes intolerable, and the poor harried soul listens to 
 the jovial voices it has hitherto shrunk from, and plunges 
 into doubtful company, and becomes, in the end, one 
 of the great godless army the members of which at first 
 dismayed it. But, brought up as James Balfour had 
 been, and fortified by the decisive influence of his cousin, 
 he never seems to have staggered or even wavered in his 
 strange new circumstances. It is true that he was 
 singularly favoured in being able at first to live with 
 his two elder brothers, Buchanan and Graham, and 
 he always had their homes open to him. But he went 
 straight from the vivid Christian life of Pilrig Free 
 Church to the vivid life of Regent Square Presbyterian 
 Church, London, and he does not appear to have felt 
 London as a temptation at all. Yet he felt it. In a 
 diary which he wrote during his voyage to Australia, 
 he shows that he did, and that he found the true remedy. 
 He says : "A friend was what I most desiderated when 
 I first arrived in London. Real friends I afterwards 
 got there. However, in that very beautiful lecture (IL) 
 of Dr. Hamilton in "The Mount of Olives," called 
 "A Present Saviour" (which I re-perused the Sabbath 
 before last), he shows that the Christian need never feel 
 lonely, whether he be in Patmos, like John, or in Bed- 
 ford jail, like John Bunyan, or on the sea, like Paul. 
 'Lo, I am alway with you.' And another thing that
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 25 
 
 takes the sting from the feeling of loneHness is that in 
 communion with God you can feel very near your own 
 friends. What Halley found delight in I can also 
 sometimes feel comfort in, viz. : Presenting petitions for 
 friends, for those I love, to the prayer-hearing God." 
 
 Supported in this way, his sojourn in London seemed 
 to him a boundless opportunity for work, both secular 
 and ecclesiastical, and he threw himself into both with 
 the keenest zest. Regent Square Presbyterian Church 
 had been built by those whom the zeal and eloquence of 
 Edward Irving, the early friend of Thomas Carlyle, and 
 the father of Professor Irving, of Melbourne University, 
 had gathered about him ; and it was one of the finest 
 of the less ancient of London's ecclesiastical buildings. 
 Here Irving had ministered till he gave himself up to 
 the influence of those who were supposed to "speak 
 with tongues" in the Apostolic manner, under the in- 
 fluence of the Holy Spirit. Arraigned by the Presbytery, 
 he had adhered to what they considered his errors. He 
 was consequently deposed from the Ministry of the Pres- 
 byterian Church. He then went on to become at least 
 the nominal founder of the Catholic Apostolic Church, 
 and the minority of the congregation were left to face 
 the heavy debt on their magnificent church, and to find 
 a successor who would carry on their proper work at 
 Regent Square as a Presbyterian congregation. Irving's 
 first successor was Mr. McMorland; but after four years 
 the church was again left vacant, and then the Rev. 
 James Hamilton was called. He was a thoughtful, 
 genial, many-sided man, who united in himself some of 
 the best qualities of the various schools of thought then 
 existing in the Church of vScotland. He was, moreover, 
 singularly friendly and conciliatory in his disposition. 
 He had not the sheer intellectual power of Irving, but 
 neither had he his shattering aberrations, and he had a 
 warm evangelical gospel to preach. Under his care, the
 
 26 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 congregation slowly gathered strength. In 1849, when 
 James Balfour came to London, Regent Square was a 
 power, and it had become the spiritual and social home 
 of many young Scotsmen engaged in business in the 
 city. A pastor so thorough and watchful as Dr. Blaikie 
 was, we may be sure, would not permit any of his young 
 men to go to London without providing an introduction 
 to a Presbyterian minister. Consequently, though there 
 is no record of it, we may assume that James Balfour 
 was duly provided with an introduction and warm recom- 
 mendation to Dr. Hamilton. In any case, he entered 
 into the most friendly relation with his minister, and 
 received from him impulse and impression which never 
 left him. Many and many a time, in the far-off Aus- 
 tralian bush, on the many walking tours he took with 
 young men in after years, he would tell of his love and 
 admiration for Dr. Hamilton ; and he always had by him 
 some of his books to give to those who needed to be 
 attracted to the religious life. 
 
 Another introduction that he then received had a 
 decisive effect upon his future career. His uncle. Pro- 
 fessor Harry Rainy, of Glasgow University (the father of 
 the Rev. Principal Rainy) gave him a letter to Mr. Hugh 
 M. Matheson, a member of the great firm of Matheson 
 and Co. As it happened, Mr. Matheson became an 
 Elder in Regent Square Church a few months after 
 James Balfour came to London, and was brought a 
 good deal into contact with him in the work of the 
 Church. He thus came to know him well, and, when 
 an opportunity occurred later, he showed what a high 
 'opinion he had formed of him. But, besides being 
 powerful to help him, Mr. Matheson, by his strenuous 
 and self-denying Christian living, set him an example 
 of how a man might serve Christ in a mercantile career ; 
 and he enriched the younger man's life by a warm 
 friendship which never wavered until his death.
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 27 
 
 But the first thing James Balfour had come to London 
 to do was to learn business. He was in his elder brother's 
 office, and he might have presumed upon his relation- 
 ship, so as to make it an excuse for slacker work than 
 would be tolerated in others ; but such presumption never 
 even tempted him, and there are various indications 
 that he worked hard and successfully during the three 
 and a half years he was in London. In one letter, a 
 proposal of his father's to take him into the business in 
 Leith is mentioned, though he was only 20. But for 
 various reasons, mainly that the commercial changes of 
 the times were unfavourable to Leith as a centre for a 
 business, that did not seem to him wise. 
 
 Another project did attract him. He heard from his 
 cousin Robert, in whose office he had been in 
 Edinburgh, that the City of Glasgow Insurance Com- 
 pany purposed establishing a branch office in London, 
 and he advised him to apply for the position of agent, 
 promising to support his application. Mr. Matheson, 
 too, took the warmest interest in the matter, and wrote 
 to one of the Directors on Balfour's behalf, when he 
 sent in his application. In a letter to his mother, he 
 says: "I thought it would be a very nice thing indeed, 
 for, although at first the remuneration would be small, 
 it would increase ; and the employment is a nice one, 
 without any speculation or risk on my part." After 
 narrating what he had done, and what had been done 
 by others on his behalf, he adds very characteristically, 
 "I hope I may succeed; and, if it is for God's glory, 
 I may feel sure of it. If not, then I am better without it. 
 That is, at any rate, the way I ought to feel, and I 
 ought to seek more and more to acquiesce in His will 
 who doeth all things well." Here we have the beginning 
 of that entire confidence in the providence of God in 
 the individual life which became so marked a feature in 
 his later religious life. There is also here that honesty
 
 28 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 in dealing with himself which made his character so 
 attractive. Evidently he felt in himself something of a 
 young man's tendency to resist the frustration of his 
 hopes even by Providence, and so when he might be 
 thought to be claiming that he had fully made God's 
 will his, he scrupulously indicates that that was what he 
 was reaching out towards, but had not yet attained. 
 
 But he did not get the appointment. Either another 
 was chosen, or it was not settled when the Australian 
 opportunity occurred. In January, 1852, he writes: "I 
 don't know when I shall hear about the agency, but it 
 may be some time yet." In any case, that business 
 men of the calibre of Robert Balfour and Hugh Mathe- 
 son thought him fit for such a position, notwithstanding 
 his youth, is a proof that he had profited beyond most 
 in the preparation for his worldly calling, and that his 
 character was such as to inspire confidence in his energy. 
 Meantime, he had made friends chiefly among those 
 young men in Regent Square who were interested, like 
 him, in the work which the congregation was prosecuting 
 with much energy in Somers Town, a much neglected 
 part of the huge city. He was also an energetic and 
 much valued member of the Regent Square Young 
 Men's Society, in which he gained that power of eloquent 
 and incisive public speaking which distinguished him 
 later. 
 
 One who has survived all his companions of that time, 
 Mr. J. M. Grant, gives, in a letter written to Miss 
 Balfour after her father's death, a welcome glimpse of 
 his life in those days : "We (J. T. Maclagan, James 
 Balfour, J. R. Smith, and I) very frequently had tea on 
 Sunday afternoons in each other's lodgings, and it was 
 then your father's orthodoxy and religiousness were 
 very noticeable. We were all as different in character 
 as we well could be ; now, I often wonder how we kept 
 together so well. But very few and very small things
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 29 
 
 keep young men together, and going to the same church, 
 teaching in the same Sunday School, and being all 
 strangers in London and exiles from our native land, 
 these common interests were quite sufficient to hold us 
 together for some years. Somehow, after we got our 
 Sunday school duties over, a buoyancy of feeling seized 
 us, and when taking our tea together there was some 
 forgetfulness of the solemnity of the day, and probably 
 there were more frivolous remarks made on that day than 
 on any other; but it was always your father who 
 brought us back to what we theoretically believed to be 
 the orthodox state of mind, and we generally accepted his 
 fatherly admonition pleasantly, because of the kindly 
 twinkle in his eyes, which always meant you know I 
 am right, but not because! am 'holier than thou,' for 
 he would be the first to acknowledge that he was the 
 greatest sinner of us all." 
 
 He was in fact, then as always, very human. He 
 had pleasure in intercourse with his fellows : he was 
 interested like others in the smaller things of life. 
 He gives in one letter to his sister Helen a minute 
 account of the rooms he shared with Mr. Maclagan, of 
 his chairs and tables, his photographs and books, and 
 winds up with the climax "We have an easy chair and 
 a sofa ! What think you of our luxurious habits?" He 
 seems to have enjoyed social life too, for in that same 
 letter he mentions dining twice with friends. In all 
 things he was a "natural person," as Vasari says of the 
 father of the great painter, Giotto. He differed from 
 the average young man of his day only in his extra- 
 ordinarily complete and apparently easy conquest over 
 the temptations which beset young men in great cities. 
 He was so steadfast in doing his duty to his employers 
 in business hours, and in his leisure time so eager to 
 do good wherever his hand could find it to do, that 
 to do ill never seems to have occurred to him, and
 
 30 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 when the time came for him to leave London there is 
 evidence that he left lives the poorer by his absence. 
 His friend Maclagan, a day or two after he had sailed 
 to Australia, wrote to his mother telling her of his 
 departure. In that letter he says, "Had you seen the 
 marks of love and affection that have been bestowed upon 
 him here, and heard the universal regret at his depar- 
 ture expressed by all who know him, I was going to say 
 you might be proud of him, but I will say that you 
 may well be thankful for him. Many of the young men 
 have left our society, and several teachers have gone 
 from Somers Town, but 1 never saw the same attention 
 paid to any, and I never heard so many and so fervent 
 prayers offered up for any as for James. We made 
 him a corresponding member of the Society, an honour 
 conferred on very few who leave us. At the supper 
 given him, a paper expressive of our great regard for 
 him was drawn up and signed by all present, and that 
 meeting was closed with earnest supplications for his 
 welfare. As for myself, I can sincerely say I know no 
 one from whose society I have received greater benefit, 
 and I trust I shall ever remember with gratitude the 
 two months we lived together, for they were to me two 
 months of great pleasure, and I trust great profit." 
 
 With his London life we may close the chapter of 
 his earlier years. When he sailed for Australia he was 
 just over 22 years of age, and he brought to our shores 
 a rapidly developing character, an absolutely unstained 
 youth, and a faith in the guiding providence of God, not 
 only in the great crises of the world, but in the individual 
 life, that never left him. In Edinburgh he had had, I 
 imagine, the reputation of being a blameless but some- 
 what unenterprising, if not feeble, boy ; and to those 
 observers of his early life who did not know him later, 
 it always remained a subject of half incredulous aston- 
 ishment that he should have attained such a position as
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 31 
 
 he had in Australia. Few, I fancy, of his London friends 
 felt that; for the keen strength of mind and body which 
 distinguished him throughout his long life had begun to 
 tell its tale.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 VOYAGE TO AND FIRST DAYS IN AUSTRALIA 
 
 As has been already indicated, it was on Mr. Mathe- 
 son's recommendation and appointment that Balfour 
 came to Australia. Among the first settlers in Victoria 
 were the Henty family, the sons of Mr. Thomas Henty, 
 a considerable landed proprietor and sheep breeder in 
 Sussex. One of his younger sons, Edward, was the 
 first settler in Victoria, he having established himself, 
 in 1834, ^t Portland. His eldest son, James, had been 
 his assistant in farming the property, but later joined the 
 family banking firm of Henty and Co. Then he came 
 to Australia. After much exploration in Western Aus- 
 tralia, involving considerable hardship and ad- 
 ventures with the natives, Mr. James Henty gave 
 up the idea of taking up land, and settled in 
 Launceston as a merchant about 1834. B'Jt in 1851 he 
 removed his business to Melbourne, and entered into 
 negotiations with a Mr. Hart, for the purpose of found- 
 ing a new firm to be called Hart, Henty and Co. Mr. 
 Hart then went to London and approached the firm of 
 Matheson and Co. with the suggestion that the proposed 
 firm should act as their agents and correspondents. This 
 the firm was willing to allow on certain conditions, one 
 of them being that a clerk should be sent out by them to 
 represent their interests, that he should receive the salary 
 of >o200 a year, and that in three years he should become 
 a partner in the firm. With all the young business men 
 of London to choose from (for at that time the wonders 
 of the gold discovery made almost anyone willing to go 
 
 32
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 33 
 
 to the new El Dorado), Mr. Matheson chose James Bal- 
 four, and offered him the appointment. Nothing had 
 come of the insurance agency proposal, and he gladly 
 accepted the offer and sailed on the 7th August, 1852, in 
 the auxiliary screw steamer "Formosa," Mr. Hart being 
 present to see him off. 
 
 In those days steamers which relied exclusively on 
 steam, the steamships of to-day, were unknown ; and the 
 "Formosa" was really a sailing ship with full sailing 
 gear, but possessing a screw which could be shipped and 
 unshipped at will. Her steam power was intended to be 
 used only w^hen calms or contrary winds made sailing on 
 her course impossible. She sailed from Southampton, 
 and called at Teneriffe, St. Helena, and Capetown in 
 the course of her voyage; but notwithstanding these 
 delays, that at Capetown being nearly a week, the 
 "Formosa" arrived in Melbourne in 70 days. In one of 
 his letters of that time, Balfour gives an account of the 
 dietary for each day, which shows that as to quantity 
 and variety of food there was little to complain of. As 
 to liquors, the provision seems to have been so lavish 
 that it makes our more scrupulous habits in regard to 
 intoxicants seem those of another age. He says: "Re- 
 garding out dietary on board, at breakfast we have tea, 
 coffee, rolls, toast, bread, ham, tongue, chicken, curry, 
 chops, eggs, etc., etc., varying a little of course. That 
 is at 9 a.m. At 12, wine, bread, butter and cheese are 
 put on the table. At 4, we have dinner, consisting of 
 such as the following : — Soup, roast beef, or roast 
 mutton, pork, fowls, tongue or ham, ducks, stewed beef, 
 or Irish stew, sheepshead, chops, mutton pies, etc. etc. 
 (but I cannot remember all, and it varies much), vege- 
 tables, wine, tarts of greengage, currant or cherry 
 (preserved), jam tarts, plum puddings, and cheese, bread 
 and butter, ale or porter, raisins and almonds, nuts, .figs, 
 prunes, and, after touching anywhere, fresh fruit, as 
 C
 
 34 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 well as fresh vegetables and provisions. After dinner, 
 wine, port, sherry, claret; and, on Thursdays and Sun- 
 days, champagne. At 7, tea and coffee. At 9, wine 
 and spirits, hot water, nutmeg and lemon are put on 
 the table." Yet, notwithstanding the fact that all this 
 liquor was paid for in the passage money, there is no 
 mention in the diary of excessive drinking as a feature 
 of the voyage. But though the provision for the physical 
 needs of the passengers was thus ample, he was not 
 comfortable. He found his surroundings uncongenial. 
 He did not smoke or gamble ; and he had studious tastes 
 which he tried in vain to gratify. 
 
 In a letter written on ist September, 1852, 400 miles 
 from St. Helena, he says: — "It is a strange thing to 
 think that I am actually on my way to Australia — on 
 my way without remedy. But I have every reason to be 
 thankful when I consider all the circumstances and all the 
 way by which I have been led. I have enjoyed good 
 health on board, and, on the whole, have been very 
 comfortable, but I don't like a voyage. There is some- 
 thing awfully unsettled. You cannot read very much — 
 there is such interruption for meals and various other 
 things. You cannot have intercourse with friends you 
 love, and therein lies one of the very worst parts of the 
 journey. There may be a few who are real Christians — 
 but they may not do for companions, and the majority 
 are not at all those with whom you can take counsel, 
 .... especially on Sabbath, when I most feel myself 
 cut off from you and all the ordinances you enjoy. I 
 can pray for the outpouring of the Spirit on you all. 
 I can remember where you are at the moment, and ask 
 for power to accompany the message you are hearing ; 
 or I can seek for my Somers Town scholars grace to 
 attend to the message of the Gospel." 
 
 Again, in a letter dated 14th September, from Cape- 
 town, he says : — "I don't like the conversation of several
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 35 
 
 of the passengers. . . . There is not much piety amongst 
 us — and we are deprived of outward ordinances. There 
 is the more need for your prayers for me. However, I 
 am not bothered by the passengers as I might be, and 
 there are a few who are disciples of Jesus. But it makes 
 one long to settle down again to be in the situation I 
 am in. We have now got the longest and worst part of 
 the passage over however. I hope God will raise up for 
 me companions in Australia and friends who will fear 
 Him, and be helpers of my faith and joy." How entirely 
 this longing was to be satisfied we shall presently see, 
 but he had to endure for the present the frothy talk 
 of a German unbeliever of the most pronounced type 
 and some crude scepticism among the officers. This 
 called out his testimony for the belief that was in him 
 only more definitely, and gave him opportunity for 
 that discipline of the tongue which in later life made 
 it for him a second nature to speak ill of no man. On 
 one occasion, apropos of a discussion between the captain 
 and the passengers, he remarks : "The captain was not 
 courteous at all. In speaking to others I was not guarded. 
 The Lord set a watch on my lips, and make me like 
 Christ in temper and disposition." But he found an 
 outlet for his suppressed hunger to help his fellow-men 
 by giving lessons to a boy, the son of one of the pas- 
 sengers on board. 
 
 Shortly after the ship left the Cape a very serious 
 mutiny, or, rather, perhaps, boycott, took place. 
 Anxious as he was to keep himself unspotted from the 
 world, there was no lack of manhood in James Bal- 
 four; and when, in his letters and his diary, he tells 
 the story of what happened, he regards the whole thing 
 as an almost welcome change from the prosperous 
 monotony of the first part of the voyage, which had been 
 disturbed only by the ship striking a rock in Table 
 Bay, but without dangerous harm. As throwing light
 
 36 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 upon a side of Balfour's character which was not always 
 taken into account by those who knew him, it may be 
 permissible to give in full his narrative of what occurred. 
 "On one Sabbath morning, soon after we left Cape 
 Town, the men of the watch on duty refused to fasten 
 the stays of the mainmast. The captain accordingly 
 ordered them to be put in irons, and the second watch 
 called out; but the latter refused to work until their 
 comrades were released. Accordingly, they were ironed 
 too, and all sent down to a part of the Lower Saloon 
 partitioned off with canvas to receive them. At this 
 time, therefore, we had only the boatswain, carpenter, 
 one of the quartermasters and the man at the wheel 
 (who were regular seamen) that were not in irons. In ad- 
 dition to them, we had the ship's officers, the boys, and 
 the firemen who would have put to their hands if 
 necessary. It was a very fine day with a light breeze, 
 and we were not steaming but going only by our sails. 
 The only reason for the men acting in this way was 
 that they intended going to the 'diggings' as soon as 
 they got here, and wished to work as little as possible. 
 They had, as well as the firemen, grumbled a good deal 
 all the way, but waited till they were past the Cape (when 
 they could not be put ashore anywhere) to break into 
 open mutiny. If the firemen had done so too, which 
 they were threatening, the captain said he would be 
 obliged to shoot one man, and hang him up at the 
 yard-arm for an example. The captain immediately 
 formed a volunteer corps among the passengers. Six 
 agreed to form a guard over the men night and day — 
 two at -a time — relieving each other every four hours. 
 Almost all the other gentlemen (first and second class) 
 came out as seamen ; and I was put down first in the 
 first watch (what do you think of that?). Three watches 
 were formed, consisting of 14 men in each, and to 
 show you how we did, I will tell you my hours, viz. :
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 37 
 
 The ist watch on Sabbath night, 8 to 12 p.m. Monday 
 morning, 8 to 12 noon, and 6 to 8 (Dog Watch) in the 
 evening. Tuesday morning, 4 to 8 a.m., and Tuesday 
 night (Dog Watch again), 4 to 6. That evening the 
 men gave in. They had been closely guarded, and not 
 allowed to have anything but bread and water (hard 
 ship's biscuit was the bread), weighed and measured 
 out to them at 8 in the morning and 4 in the afternoon. 
 To their astonishment, the ship went on as well as ever. 
 We did not put on steam again till Monday morning, 
 when the wind had died away, and on Tuesday morning 
 agam we lay to and disconnected the screw, and sailed 
 again, the wind having become strong. This last was on 
 my watch on Tuesday at 4 a.m. It was the busiest we had 
 — other times there was nothing to do. First of all, just 
 as we had turned out on deck, in consequence of the 
 boy at the wheel not steering properly, the main sail 
 suddenly flapped, the wind filled the other side of it, 
 and the rope connecting the main and the mizzen masts 
 gave such a jerk as to bring down in an instant our 
 mizzen topmast. However, it did no damage, being 
 caught by the rigging behind it — or else someone would 
 likely have been killed when it swung down. After 
 this broken mast was taken down we took in sail and 
 lay to till the screw was disconnected. Then we set 
 sail again and set to with the pump and hose and 
 brushes and scrubbed the decks, as had not been done 
 since the men were imprisoned. Afterwards, in the 
 daytime, we coaled (i.e., got coals up from the hold and 
 shot them into the bunkers) ; but this was not in my 
 watch, although I afterwards assisted at the same work. 
 "I often, after this, steered the steamer, but not with- 
 out some one being near at hand looking on in case 
 of need. The reason we disconnected our screw was 
 that we could not take coal enough to steam all the way 
 from the Cape, and had to trust to the winds that usually
 
 38 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 blow in this direction. In consequence, we took 29 
 days from the Cape, about half of the time going without 
 steam. As the screw did not, in our case, unship, but 
 only disconnect, it dragged and kept us back about a 
 knot an hour. Well, the men on Tuesday said they 
 would work again if the captain would let them off. 
 He said he was determined to make an example of the 
 two ringleaders, and accordingly kept two in irons 
 (allowing them now, however, rice and a little meat 
 daily), while the others returned to work. 
 
 "The latter worked much better now than ever they 
 did ; and some of the volunteer seamen, being released 
 from their work, joined the guard, which now numbered 
 15, and had each man (for we watched singly now) two 
 hours of duty every 30 hours. This part I did not like 
 nearly so well as pulling at ropes, hoisting sail, etc., 
 etc., but I did my duty till we arrived here, i.e., Port 
 Phillip." 
 
 In a later letter he tells the sequel of the mutiny : — 
 "The two men we brought in the 'Formosa,' with two 
 of the firemen, have got three months here." 'T sup- 
 pose," he adds, "then they'll be off to the diggings." 
 Not improbably it had been for this they had worked all 
 along. Three months for mutiny might seem to them 
 a cheap price to pay for an absolute discharge from their 
 ship, which no one could challenge. 
 
 In his first letter home from Australia, James Balfour 
 wrote that he had arrived safely at what he, not without 
 reason, called "this extraordinary place." Melbourne 
 was then in the midst of the excitement produced by the 
 first rush of those attracted by the discovery of gold, 
 and all ordinary conditions of life had been upset by 
 the sudden influx of such multitudes. 
 
 In 1850, only 15 years from the foundation of the 
 colony, the population was 76,000. Suddenly into this 
 comparatively small community immigrants in thous-
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 39 
 
 ands began to pour, and everything had to be adjusted 
 to the new circumstances. In the city's seventeenth 
 year, that in which Balfour arrived, the news of the 
 gold discoveries had reached Europe, and instantly ships 
 of what afterwards became a formidable fleet set sail 
 filled with the adventurous manhood of all countries. 
 The population of Melbourne was doubled, then trebled, 
 then quadrupled. 
 
 The result of this "rush" as it was well named, has 
 been described so often that it is not necessary that they 
 should be dealt with here in any detail ; but a little 
 space may be given to Balfour's own description of 
 what he saw, which he gave in a lecture he delivered 
 to the Regent Square Young Men's Association after 
 his first return to England in 1857. After mentioning, 
 as a personal experience, the excitement produced by 
 the reports of the discovery of gold in Australia in 1851 
 he continues : — "A tide of emigration commenced to 
 flow towards Port Phillip, which swelled from week to 
 week. Ships arrived from all parts of the world 
 freighted with goldseekers. All unprepared as the 
 Colony was to receive so sudden an accession to the 
 population, the scenes which daily took place were 
 marvellous in the extreme. I remember the blank looks 
 of some of my fellow passengers when the pilot who 
 boarded us at the Heads began to describe the position 
 of affairs. 'Lodgings!' he said, in answer to enquiries, 
 'You may be thankful if you can get bed under cover 
 at all. Every corner of the hotels is occupied, and 
 people are willing to pay 2S. 6d. a night for the table. 
 Bread is 4s. a loaf; cabbages 2s. 6d. a head. Eggs can 
 scarcely be had at is. each. Water is 6s. a load, with 
 such items as these he struck us all aghast. On land- 
 ing the first sight we beheld was an encampment on the 
 beach" (at Sandridge, now Port Melbourne), "and, as we 
 pursued our way, we passed tent after tent, the temporary
 
 40 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 residences of the newly-landed, probably awaiting the 
 delivery of their baggage, before starting tor the 
 diggings. So continuously was their place taken by 
 others, however, that the Government levied a rental 
 for occupation of Crown Land, and 'Canvas Town' 
 threatened to become a permanent suburb of Melbourne. 
 Here and there these tents afforded lodgings for still later 
 arrivals, and there was one old ship moored near the 
 Sandridge pier, which, deserted by all hands and unable 
 (like most of the vessels in port) to obtain a crew, was 
 itself turned into a lodging-house, and, notwithstanding 
 the desire of the immigrants to be once more on terra 
 firma, it was generally well filled. Many slept each 
 night on the Melbourne wharf ; and an old boiler then 
 served as a bedroom for two or three. 
 
 "Society was completely disorganised. So scarce did 
 labour become that the Governor was at one time left 
 with only one boy for servant, and had to groom his own 
 horse. Clerks, shopmen, laboure.rs, servants started for 
 the diggings. Money amongst these classes became 
 plentiful, and was usually squandered as quickly as it 
 had been acquired. Public houses were crowded, the 
 most lamentable specimens of drunkenness were to be 
 met with at every corner. . . Men who, from their educa- 
 tion, ought to have acted differently, have told me that 
 no sooner had a quantity of gold been obtained, say 
 about ;^50o or ^600, than they would come to town, 
 and not rest satisfied till it was all expended on a 'spree,' 
 after which they would return, to try their luck at the 
 diggings again. Extravagance was as lavish, if not so 
 baneful, in dresses for the damsels whom they chose as 
 partners in their lot. These were generally domestic 
 servants, and the courtships of those days were some- 
 what unique. The digger arrives in town, disposes of 
 his bag of gold dust to some merchant at the current 
 rates of the day, and, unwilling to return to his quarters
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 41 
 
 at the mines a solitary individual, passes up Collins 
 Street till he meets with Betty washing the steps at her 
 master's door. Without further introduction, he pre- 
 sents her with a nugget of gold, and makes his proposals. 
 A few days more, and they are seen driving through 
 the streets dressed in the most expensive articles they 
 can obtain, for which they have been made to pay 
 probably twice the exorbitant price current at the time. 
 They are off to the Church ; and in a day or two more 
 you may meet the lady seated on the top of a bullock 
 dray loaded with provisions, on her way to Fryer's 
 Creek or Bendigo, her personal baggage consisting of 
 an old case or cask, in which is packed a silk dress, an 
 extravagant bonnet, and a few bottles of champagne to 
 fill it up. 
 
 "In these days servants would wait at table wearing 
 gold chains, and a ring on nearly every finger. I have 
 even known the case of one who asked permission to 
 put a horse she had received as a present in the family 
 stable ! The mixture of classes was curious. Men with 
 University degrees might be found in company with 
 those who could not write their name. A youth who 
 had taken to driving a dray on the wharf was known 
 to leave early one afternoon that he might dress to dine 
 with the Governor. A gentleman of my acquaintance 
 who held a diploma from the Royal College of Physicians 
 was employed in digging for gold, ay, and in splitting 
 wood and driving a dray. And what do you suppose 
 was the light reading he chose to regale himself on after 
 he had retired for the evening to his rest ? Reid on the 
 Mind and Smith's Wealth of Nations. At the first start 
 for the diggings, the Churches in the towns were 
 emptied and schools were broken up. Literary Societies 
 and Young Men's Associations were dissolved, offices 
 and warehouses were deserted, building operations were 
 suspended, and improvements were indefinitely post-
 
 42 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 poned. Then came the stream of immigration from 
 all quarters, and the few churches were crowded again, 
 for the bulk of the newcomers were decent people, the 
 flower of the old world population. Each Sabbath hun- 
 dreds were unable to gain admission. Clerks were plenti- 
 ful and the normal conditions were to some extent re- 
 established ; but a bad element had been added to the 
 population as well as a good one. Escaped convicts were 
 attracted to Victoria, and the police force was too small 
 efficiently to cope with the influx. Crime was conse- 
 quently rampant, and men were attacked and robbed in 
 broad daylight on the high roads a few miles from Mel- 
 bourne, and few nights passed without cases of 'sticking 
 up,' as they were called, occurring. It was consequently 
 common to carry firearms, and at the diggings and in 
 the outskirts of the towns each day about sunset, the 
 shots fired from every tent and hut indicated that the 
 inmate was cleaning his gun or his revolver for a re-load 
 ere he retired to rest." 
 
 Into the midst of this seething tumultuous life Balfour 
 came, still young, after the most quiet and regular of 
 lives ; and it is remarkable with what unassuming courage 
 he faced these utterly unlooked-for surroundings. He 
 saw much evil, but he neither "sold his heart to idle 
 means," nor drew back into ascetic pharisaism. For 
 that he had, in the first place, an eye for the humorous 
 aspect of some of the evil he deplored, as is shown by 
 the story he tells in his lecture of a drunken digger 
 presenting a bottle of champagne, at .a guinea a bottle, 
 to everyone he could lay hold of, and, when there were 
 no more men to be enticed, solemnly pouring a bottle 
 of the precious liquid over the sun-dried telegraph post, 
 as it seemed to need moisture. In the second place, then, 
 as always, the moment he saw evil he set to work to 
 remedy it without reproaching the evil doer. What 
 seems to have struck him in his strange surroundings
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 43 
 
 was not "What a deplorably wicked state of things is 
 here !" but, rather, "What a call to service of God, and 
 what an opportunity for the service of man has come to 
 me!" As in London, so in Melbourne, he made what 
 most found to be irresistible temptation into an oppor- 
 tunity, and was busy in his cheerful, hopeful way for 
 the benefit of others before he had been more than a week 
 or two in the new land. As an instance, it may be 
 mentioned that, though he had landed only on the i6th 
 October, 1852, he was, on the 25th November, elected 
 to the Committee of the British and Foreign Bible 
 Society.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE FIRST TEN YEARS. 
 
 We have seen that, among the uncongenial surround- 
 ings of his voyage, Balfour had hoped that God would 
 raise up for him companions in Australia, and friends 
 who would be helpers of his faith. In Mr. James Henty, 
 head of the firm to which he was commissioned, and in 
 his wife and family, his hopes were fully realised, though 
 his first Saturday's experience must have made them 
 pale somewhat. When he landed on the beach at Sand- 
 ridge (now Port Melbourne), there was no one to meet 
 him, and so he made his way to Mr. Henty's store in 
 Little Collins Street, only to find it closed. In his first 
 letter to his mother (dated 21st October), he says : — 
 "The distance from the beach to town is about two miles. 
 On Saturday they close here at 2 p.m. (a great comfort), 
 so I found the store closed, but was told by the store- 
 keeper where Mr. Henty lived (at Richmond, about two 
 miles from town), and walked out there, leaving my 
 bag to come out by the dray. The road is through a 
 sort of green park with a good many trees, and when 
 we get to Richmond, which is a village a good deal 
 scattered, we have a very nice view. Away in the dis- 
 tance are low hills, and in front of them again a good 
 deal of wood, and still nearer, and almost all round 
 you, the Yarra Yarra River winds." 
 
 When he arrived he found that Mr. Henty had not 
 been advised of his coming, owing to the speed of the 
 "Formosa," which had, contrary to expectation, out- 
 sailed the "Sydney," which carried the mails and should 
 have been in first. This explained his being left to find 
 his way by himself. But worse was to come. He had 
 
 44
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 45 
 
 been sent out to the firm of Hart, Henty and Co. as 
 Matheson and Co.'s representative. He learned from 
 Mr. Henty that there was no such firm, that, owing to 
 difficuhies which had arisen, he had decided to start in 
 business for himself as James Henty and Co., and that 
 he had proposed to Matheson and Co. to act as their 
 agents if they pleased, and in that case he would carry 
 out the arrangement as to the clerk sent out by them ; 
 but no answer had yet been received, and he did not 
 know what the situation would be. He acted, however, 
 with the promptest kindness. Balfour writes just after 
 this cold douche of disappointment fell upon him : — 
 "No man could have been kinder than he has been; no 
 family more considerate and friendly. I am living with 
 him until I can get lodgings, which are very scarce, and 
 he tells me not to put myself about; that he has this 
 spare room for me until I can get a place. His wife is 
 also full of hospitality and kindness; in fact, except at 
 home, I really never was so much at home. Mr. Henty 
 has also arranged the business matter thus, which I am 
 sure you will say is very good of him. He said he 
 wanted at once to put my mind at rest on the matter, for 
 he would not have liked that a son of his should have 
 been placed in similar circumstances in a strange place. 
 Until we hear from Mr. Matheson, if he will make an 
 arrangement with him (Mr. Henty) as he would have 
 done with the firm of Hart, Henty and Co., I am to go 
 on in the office at the stipulated salary of ;^200 a year. 
 If Matheson and Co. agree to the proposition, I am to be 
 exactly in the same position as Mr. Hart agreed with 
 me before, «nd Mr. Henty will carry out the agreement 
 entirely. If Matheson and Co. do not make an arrange- 
 ment of the kind, some other arrangement will, doubt- 
 less, be made about me, but I have little doubt of 
 Matheson and Co. falling in with Mr. Henty's terms 
 and my remaining as was first stipulated."
 
 46 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 This thougjitful kindness on Mr. Henty's part pro- 
 foundly impressed Balfour, and from that moment, they 
 were friends.. He found in Mrs. Henty also, as well as 
 in their sons and daughters, the eldest of whom was a 
 young man of about his own age, an entirely congenial 
 family circle. They shared and strengthened his Chris- 
 tian faith, and he found in them all that he had hoped 
 for in his lonely moments on board ship. Thus his first 
 years in the new land were amply provided for, and he 
 entered upon his Australian life with high courage, and 
 under the most favourable auspices. His letters of that 
 time show that he was afraid his family at home might 
 think his circumstances were less favourable than they 
 really were, and he assured his mother: — "Notwith- 
 standing all this" (viz., his account of the strange condi- 
 tions which he found in Melbourne), "which to you must 
 appear strange, I am as comfortable and contented and 
 happy as I can be." 
 
 For a little more than two years his lot was cast in 
 Melbourne. For a month or two he was hospitably 
 entertained by Mrs. Henty; after that he was fortunate 
 in finding suitable lodgings in the South, or City, end of 
 Fitzroy Street, in Collingwood then, now in Fitzroy, in 
 the house of a Mrs. Ross, the widow of a Free Church 
 Missionary. She lived next door, and provided for the 
 service of a second house in which her son and Balfour 
 lodged. "You don't know," he says, "how difficult it 
 is to get good lodgings when you won't be put four or 
 five in a room to sleep." Later, his relative, Balfour- 
 Stewart, in after years LL.D., F.R.S., and famous for 
 his scientific work, especially in connection with 
 spectrum-analysis, who was then in a commercial house 
 in Melbourne, shared his lodging. In about six months 
 they joined a Mr. Thomson, lately come from Edin- 
 burgh, in taking a cottage in Richmond, and set up as 
 householders.
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 47 
 
 Their devices to make their house suitable are detailed 
 by Balfour in his letters home, and are somewhat amus- 
 ing. He says: — "This cottage is of wood, the most 
 common material here for cottages. It has a pretty good 
 yard behind and a little plot in front. It is very nicely 
 papered inside, and has what is a great comfort here 
 (because a rarity), a passage, i.e., you don't enter direct 
 into any room when you enter by the front door. It had 
 a very good-sized sitting room, one bedroom, and a 
 kitchen. Well, in order to make more room we have 
 put up a partition across the sitting room, cutting off 
 a small strip (including half a window), which is Mr. 
 Stewart's bedroom. You would be astonished, I think, 
 to see how nice the partition, in which I had a great hand, 
 looks. It is just a slight wooden frame covered with 
 canvas and papered with oak papering. Then, in the 
 bedroom, Mr. Thomson and I are to sleep — and it is a 
 very good size for two (i.e., for the colony), at home it 
 would do very well for one. Then the kitchen serves also 
 as a bedroom for the servant." For this modest dwelling 
 they paid at the rate of £182 per annum ! 
 
 Here Balfour lived till he was sent by the firm to 
 Geelong to establish a branch there in the beginning of 
 1855. There he remained for the next eight years. On 
 the whole, the bachelor establishment was a success, but 
 more, probably, than the bachelors were aware, its 
 success was due to the motherly care and interest of Mrs. 
 Henty, who, with her daughters, took a constant over- 
 sight of their household affairs when they were absent. 
 
 When Mr. Matheson's letters arrived in due time, it 
 was found that he had accepted Mr. Henty's proposal, 
 and Balfour's position was thus regularised exactly as it 
 had at first been outlined. Meantime, a most favourable 
 opinion had been formed of him. Writing to Mr. Mathe- 
 son, in July of 1854, about eighteen months after his 
 arrival, Mr. Henty said : "You are doubtless aware that
 
 48 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 a close intimacy exists with Balfour, than whom a more 
 excellent young man does not live in Melbourne. I 
 entertain the highest opinion of him, and this is shared 
 by my sons generally as well as by Mrs. Henty and all 
 the members of my family. He is gradually becoming a 
 man of business, and I do not doubt that after the expiry 
 of our present agreement he will be quite fitted to take 
 a permanent interest in the business, which, it is under- 
 stood as a matter of course, will be offered to him." 
 
 He was now regularly and busily employed in Messrs. 
 Henty's office, but that was by no means the limit of his 
 activity. As soon as he landed he connected himself 
 with the John Knox Presbyterian Church, Swanston 
 Street, which was in communion with the great disruption 
 Church of Scotland to which he had belonged at home. 
 It had been built by the majority of the Scots Church 
 congregation, Collins Street, when they, with their 
 minister, the Rev. James Forbes, left that building, 
 which belonged to the Established Church of Scotland, 
 they being in entire sympathy with the Free Church of 
 Scotland, formed in 1843. Mr. Forbes had ministered 
 at John Knox Church for about three years, and had 
 gathered about him the elite of the Scottish Presbyterians 
 of Melbourne; but at the early age of 38 he died, three 
 months before James Balfour's arrival in October, 1852. 
 He had been succeeded in September by the Rev. Wil- 
 liam Miller, a good and earnest man of evangelical 
 sympathies, but far less gifted intellectually than his 
 predecessor. 
 
 To him Balfour went for advice and help in obtain- 
 ing lodgings, and he threw himself at once into the work 
 of the Church, and, though soon Dr. Cairns was, by his 
 superior preaching, attracting a large congregation in 
 the city, with characteristic loyalty, Balfour clung to his 
 first church connection. He was living at that time in 
 Richmond, yet he walked at first twice a day on Sundays
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 49 
 
 to John Knox Church ; but finding that, with the Sunday 
 School work which he took up along with Mr. Henty's 
 eldest son in Richmond, too exhausting, he worshipped 
 in the evenings in the Anglican Church there. From a 
 letter written by Mr. Matheson to Mrs. Brown, an aunt 
 of Balfour's, we get in a few words a striking outline 
 of his activities in those first months of his Australian 
 life. 
 
 "I have often wished to tell you what nice accounts I 
 get of and from James Balfour. In business matters 
 his interests will be well cared for; his employer is 
 greatly pleased with him in every respect, and confirms 
 to me his former promise to take him into partnership 
 at the expiry of the three years' engagement which I 
 made on his behalf. ... In church matters, James has 
 been very active and very useful. By the establishment 
 of a Young Men's Society on the model of ours at 
 Regent Square, and now of a reading and newsroom for 
 the numerous young men of the place, he has done them 
 an invaluable service. The success of these efforts has 
 been signc.1. Nor have the poor been neglected. He 
 has established several Sabbath and Day Schools ; and 
 I cannot think without much thankfulness of having 
 been the means of sending him there." 
 
 But this represented only one side of his comprehensive 
 activity. From the moment he landed, he noticed and 
 lamented the paucity of both religious and moral 
 teachers, and saw with a strangely keen and foreseeing 
 eye the need of newspapers which would inculcate higher 
 aims than the political press of that, or later times, has 
 found it convenient to impress upon the people. From 
 the first day of his Australian life to the last, he kept 
 these two objects in view, and we shall see how much 
 he did to further them. To remedy the first of these 
 evils, the want of spiritual and moral teachers, he wrote 
 strongrly to his friends, asking them to move the Churches
 
 50 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 to send help, and even advised the Rev. Robert Gordon 
 Balfour, M.A., his elder brother, to come out to Mel- 
 bourne. This he did in the second week of his residence 
 in Melbourne; and, though his brother was settled as 
 Free Church minister at Kilbride, after a successful 
 college course, and neither then nor afterwards came to 
 Australia, the appeal had effect in other directions. Bal- 
 four's was probably one of the voices which, after the 
 gold discoveries, impressed upon the home Churches 
 the necessity of continuing the supply of ministers. In 
 May, 1852, the Assembly of the Free Church of Scot- 
 land had ordered a collection to be made over all con- 
 gregations to defray the expense of sending out ten or 
 twelve ministers under the leadership of Dr. Mackay 
 of Dunoon and Dr. Cairns of Cupar-Fife. Ten younger 
 men went with them, of whom the most notable by far 
 was the Rev. William Henderson, afterwards of Ballarat, 
 the possessor of perhaps the finest intellect the Presby- 
 terian Church of Australia has ever been served by. Dr. 
 Cairns, Mr. Henderson, Mr. A. Simpson and Mr. A. 
 Adam arrived in Melbourne on the loth September, 1853, 
 eleven months after Balfour's arrival. 
 
 Neither then, nor at any later time, did Balfour let 
 his external activities, many as these were, lack a sound 
 and wholesome root in an earnest devotional life. He 
 was quite conscious of the secularising power of the busy 
 world about him, which sought with passion for material 
 wealth. "Life here," he says, "is not, I can assure you, 
 conducive to spirituality of mind. . . We" (i.e., people 
 in Melbourne) "have not the advantage of retirement, few 
 having a bedroom to themselves, and we are not favoured 
 either with the religious literature or the Sabbath sermons 
 we could have at home. Do we not then all the more 
 need your prayers?" The habit of prayer which he 
 brought from his home became to him a refuge and a 
 defence ; and amid all the whirl of life in these early
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 51 
 
 days, he did not forget the "practice of the presence of 
 God." On the 30th July, 1853, the anniversary of his 
 final departure from his father's house, he writes: — 
 "Before this day is done, I wish to commence a letter 
 to you. It commemorates the day I left you all in 
 Edinburgh last year on my way to Australia. It was a 
 Friday evening. I arrived in London next day, and on 
 the Sabbath, August ist, was permitted to sit at the 
 Lord's Table, and was refreshed by the Lord's grace. 
 How mercifully have I been watched over and guided 
 since then. Though I have often forgotten and forsaken 
 God, He has neither forgotten nor forsaken me. How 
 wonderfully have all circumstances been over-ruled and 
 ordered in mercy for me. From past experience I may 
 be able to join in David's language : 'Goodness and 
 mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I 
 will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.' What was 
 said to Israel may be applied to me : 'The Lord thy God 
 hath blessed thee in all the works of thy hand : he 
 knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness : 
 thou hast lacked nothing.' — Deut. 11 : 7)." 
 
 One of the text books he used for his great purpose 
 was Rutherford's letters, "How beautiful they are," he 
 says, "how full of the love of Christ ! How little nowa- 
 days, do we meditate on it in comparison with Ruther- 
 ford ! " His beloved brother, Hugh, was at this time 
 dangerously ill in India — as it proved, he was dying. 
 He was the only one of the family who had seemed to 
 stand aloof from the vivid religious life which had 
 manifested its power in shaping their lives, and much 
 earnest and believing prayer was made for his bodily 
 and spiritual health. Balfour was for many months 
 filled with the keenest anxiety ; at times he was so afraid 
 of evil tidings that he could not write. Hugh was 
 invalided home, and wrote to James from the Cape, 
 evidently giving no good account of his health, and
 
 52 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 James writes : — "Now it is my turn to have to wait in 
 suspense and almost in fear. Let us seek to learn the 
 Psalmists's consolation : 'What time my heart is over- 
 whelmed and in perplexity I will seek unto the Rock 
 that is higher than I.' " 
 
 After his arrival, Hugh lingered on for some months, 
 and then died in January, 1854, but not before all the 
 mists of doubt had been scattered, and he had found 
 peace in believing. Under such circumstances, his death 
 had no sting in it for one who believed so unreservedly in 
 the providence of God, as Balfour did. He writes thus 
 to his mother in reference to Hugh's death : — "May we 
 always see the Lord's hand in what befalls us, and 
 learn to extract the sweet from all that is bitter. How 
 our prayers should be mightily increased and our faith 
 strengthened to see God answering us and filling our 
 cup so full of blessing. Have you not prayed that all 
 your children might be made heirs, and have you not 
 felt that you were willing that God should do anything 
 with their bodies, and anything with yourself if all might 
 at last enjoy eternal glory ? And how abundantly have 
 your prayers been answered." 
 
 Towards the end of 1854 Messrs. Henty began to 
 think of establishing a branch of their business in Gee- 
 long, which was then almost threatening to become a 
 rival of Melbourne as a business centre. Finally, they 
 decided to do so ; and Balfour was sent, in January, 
 1855 (with Mr. Henty's second son), to establish and 
 manage it. At that time Geelong was the most con- 
 venient seaport for Ballarat ; and it was the natural 
 metropolis of the Western District, then, and still, per- 
 haps, the finest sheep and agricultural land in the colony. 
 Consequently, both in wool and wheat, and also in gold, 
 it had a large trade. Geelong, therefore, became Bal- 
 four's place of residence for the next eight years, i.e., 
 till 1863. He was now in his 25th year, and had gained
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 53 
 
 greatly in experience and self-reliance during his two 
 busy years in Melbourne. Moreover, he had now a 
 much freer hand than he could have in Melbourne, and, 
 young as he was, he soon took his place among the 
 leading mercantile men in Geelong. Among many there 
 is an evil supersition that it is only by sharing in evil 
 doing that" a man can know the world so as to succeed 
 in it. "Knowledge of the world" generally means much 
 experience of the evil of the world from inside. When 
 Balfour entered upon his more independent career, in 
 1855, I gather from many testimonies that he had so kept 
 himself "unspotted from the world" that in this sense 
 he was abnormally ignorant of it. He had, doubtless, 
 seen much evil. In those wild days in Australia who 
 could fail to see it? But he had had no share in it, 
 save to deplore it and to pity and help those who lived 
 under its sway. Yet he was a lover of all innocent 
 mirth, gay in temper, generous in action, and kindly in 
 all his intercourse with others; but he was also, as Mr. 
 Henty had prophesied he would be, a man of business, 
 as capable as any. Consequently, in January, 1856, he 
 was made partner in the firm ; and during the years he 
 resided in Geelong, he was a director of the London 
 Chartered Bank, a trustee of the Savings Bank, etc., and 
 was once chairman of the Chamber of Commerce. He 
 was also appointed a Territorial Magistrate. 
 
 It may be said, of course, that his success was due to 
 the warm and powerful friends he had in the mercantile 
 world, and without them "knowledge of the world" in 
 the questionable sense would have been necessary. But 
 that objection overlooks the fact that these powerful 
 friends, being practical men, would not have put a man 
 without the necessary intelligence in such positions as 
 he occupied, nor would they have had such confidence 
 in him, had not his character been spotless. They did 
 not esteem his want of "knowledge of the world," in
 
 54 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 the evil sense as a minus quantity, and few who knew 
 Balfour at any stage of his career would say that they 
 were wrong. In any case, the Geelong branch of James 
 Henty and Co. prospered under his care, and they 
 soon built fine substantial stores, which became a vigor- 
 ous centre of business till the extension of railways 
 made the Melbourne centre so efficient that branches 
 within Victoria became unnecessary. But though he 
 was living in the midst of political excitement (the Bal- 
 larat riots which terminated in the lamentable blood-shed 
 of the Eureka Stockade occurred in December, 1854, and 
 a new political Constitution, giving Victoria two elected 
 houses of Parliament and responsible Ministries, came 
 into force in the last weeks of 1855, and the elections 
 took place in 1856), he does not seem to have been deeply 
 interested in politics. 
 
 From a lecture he delivered to the Regent Square 
 Young Men's Association in 1859, it is manifest that he 
 knew and sympathised with the grievances of the miners 
 and approved of the settlement which removed them, 
 substituting for a license fee of 30s. per month a miner's 
 right issued annually for 20s. (carrying with it the right 
 to a vote), and an export duty of 2S. 6d. per ounce on 
 gold. He also was interested personally in the elections 
 of 1856, inasmuch as Mr. Henty was a successful candi- 
 date for the Upper House constituency in which Geelong 
 was included ; but beyond that he does not seem to have 
 given much time to that side of public life, to which 
 later he gave so much of his time and thought. His 
 statement of the main points of the new Constitution, 
 which he gives in the lecture I have mentioned, shows, 
 however, that he had made himself thoroughly acquainted 
 with the new machinery of government. 
 
 On the other hand, in regard to all social questions, 
 especially such as tended to uplift or degrade character 
 (e.g., education, the Sunday question, and the restriction
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 55 
 
 of the liquor traffic), his interest was intense. As his 
 financial position, after January, 1856, when he became 
 a partner in his firm, was greatly improved, he was able 
 to keep a horse, and by means of it his sphere of activity 
 was very greatly widened. Sometimes he took services 
 in Presbyterian Churches in outlying places, sometimes 
 as remote from Geelong as 15 miles, riding in and out 
 on the same day. At other times he visited goldfields for 
 business purposes, e.g., Ballarat and Steiglitz, and made 
 himself thoroughly acquainted, so far as a layman in 
 such matters could, with the various kinds of gold 
 mining. He also travelled a good deal in the country, 
 and experienced the boundless hospitality of the squatters 
 (i.e., the pastoral lessees of Crown Lands). In this way 
 he acquired a very good working understanding of the 
 conditions of the primary Australian industries, while 
 he incidentally became an admirable horseman, to whom 
 a 50-mile ride was merely a pleasant excursion. 
 
 In the course of these comings and goings, Balfour, 
 with his courteous and sympathetic nature, got into 
 friendly relations with people of all classes, and heard 
 much of the state of things in Victoria in the days before 
 gold was discovered. The memories of those earlier 
 days were still fresh, and he heard stories of the cruel 
 treatment of the aborigines by the more violent of the 
 settlers which have since been too well authenticated. 
 It was characteristic of him that these stirred his com- 
 passion for them and roused his indignation against 
 those of his countrymen, who, first of all, calumniated 
 these simple people as the lowest of mankind, and then 
 shot and even poisoned them, as if they had been noxi- 
 ous beasts. In his lecture, Balfour shows that he had 
 given earnest and sympathetic attention to them, and he 
 warmly defends them from the charge of absolute want 
 of intelligence. He points out their good qualities, their 
 skill in tracking, their dexterity in use of their weapons,
 
 56 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 especially of the boomerang, and he tells of several in- 
 stances in which Australian natives, when kindly and 
 wisely dealt with, had exhibited quite average ability, 
 and (what specially interested him) had sincerely accepted 
 Christianity. With regard to the outrages perpetrated 
 upon them by "lewd fellows of the baser sort," he says : 
 "1 can scarcely trust myself to speak in sufficiently 
 measured terms of the wholesale butchery, often, still 
 worse, of the wholesale poisoning of the aborigines in 
 some districts by blood-thirsty and non-scrupulous men." 
 And when he comes to speak of the decay of the race, 
 from drink and diseases imported by white men, he can 
 find no language adequate save the denunciations by the 
 Hebrew prophets of the selfish and murderous tyrants 
 of the ancient world. 
 
 For the Chinese, too, he had sympathy, and in the 
 too often senseless and aimless outcry against them he 
 took no part. Indeed, on many occasions in his later 
 life, he stood up for them, when that meant sharing the 
 obloquy poured out upon them ; and, though he was 
 always quite sympathetic in the effort to keep Australia 
 "white," tyranny and injustice to aliens after they had 
 been admitted always stirred him to resistance. He 
 naturally, too, from these days onward, supported and 
 advocated missions to these two races, for he held it 
 to be the duty of the Christian Churches to use the oppor- 
 tunity of their presence among us for the spreading of 
 Christianity. 
 
 From his arrival in Geelong, Balfour had been con- 
 nected with the Rev. John Tait's Church, and was 
 ordained a deacon there on 20th April, 1856. Though 
 the diaconate is the most secular of the various offices 
 of the Presbyterian Church, Balfour entered upon this, 
 his first ordination (for Laymen are ordained to this 
 office) with a solemn feeling that he was answering a call 
 of God. In his letter home he says, "I trust I may
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 57 
 
 take this office from right motives, being called to it by 
 God in His providence, and desirous of serving Him and 
 promoting in some measure His glory." His love for 
 Christian work among young men had long been a 
 passion, and it may be assumed that he had taken it up 
 from the time he joined Mr. Tait's Church. For, though 
 in his cheerful and fiery energy he had thrown himself 
 into every sphere of secular work, having even joined 
 the volunteer force which was formed during the Crimean 
 War, and having risen soon to the rank of a lieutenant ; 
 we may be sure that he was not slack in his service as a 
 soldier of Jesus Christ. But it is not till a letter of 
 March, 1857, that we find mention of that Bible Class 
 work, which ... he kept up with such singular devotion 
 and success till his last days. He says : "I have now a 
 class of fine boys in my house on Sabbath evening. We 
 go over the history of the Jews from the time of Christ's 
 coming on earth, and then we read a part of the Pilgrim's 
 Progress." 
 
 Out of this there grew one of the most beneficent and 
 persistent influences that any single man in our Church 
 has been able to exercise. How he gained recruits is 
 shown by what Dr. Fitchett, so well known for his press 
 work m the service of Christian ideas, and for his brilliant 
 literary power, has told from his own history: — "More 
 than 50 years ago, I — then, it is to be feared, a careless 
 and lawless boy — was sitting with a cluster of other lads 
 on the Geelong beach on a Sunday evening after Church 
 hours, when two gentlemen came up to the noisy group. 
 One was Mr. Balfour; his warm-hearted friendliness and 
 frank and kindly speech won the hearts of the lads. He 
 took them up to his residence on the cliff, and began a 
 series of Sunday evening studies with them that lasted 
 long, and left deep results. To gather up a Sunday 
 evening class from wandering lads on the beach — that
 
 58 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 is a fine and characteristic example of Mr. Balfour's 
 evangelical zeal." 
 
 At this time too Balfour entered with the greatest 
 interest into the negotiations for Union, which were 
 going on between the three Presbyterian Churches then 
 existing in Australia. The causes for this triplicity of 
 organisation in Churches which held, not similar, but 
 the same theological standards, which followed the same 
 order in worship, and which taught the same Catechism 
 to their children, had no root and little application, in a 
 land where it had been resolved that no State Church 
 should exist. For the Presbyterian Church in Britain 
 differed mainly as to whether the State should endow 
 religion. The Church of Scotland had always held that 
 to be the State's duty, and had since 1843 allowed a 
 large invasion of its spiritual liberty to preserve the con- 
 nection. The United Presbyterians who had been driven 
 out of the Church of Scotland in the i8th century by 
 tyrannous action, had come to the conclusion that any 
 connection between Church and State was wrong. Lastly, 
 the Free Church of Scotland, which had been formed in 
 1843, when the Law Courts of that country had altered 
 the terms of the connection which had formerly existed; 
 declared for the absolute autonomy of the Church in 
 spiritual things, but held that the State ought to endow 
 the Church on these terms, without expecting that any 
 modern State would do so. In the "fifties" of last cen- 
 tury, therefore, there was obviously in Scotland ample 
 reasons for the division of Presbyterianism. Here, there 
 was obviously none ; and though at the very beginning 
 of the history of the goldfields these differences in the 
 old world had this advantage, that three efforts to keep 
 in touch religiously with emigrant Presbyterianism were 
 made instead of only one, when they were transferred to 
 Australia their effect was mainly evil. To this day their 
 bad results are visible in all the capitals of the States,
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 59 
 
 and in other of the older towns, embodied in stone and 
 ]ime. Often three Presbyterian Churches are to be found 
 planted down in the very centre of the city, while in the 
 suburbs, where the great portion of the people live, 
 Presbyterianism was for many years not represented at 
 all. Moreover, as Presbyterians were then only a frag- 
 ment of the population, "Union was," as one of the 
 leaders of the time, Dr. MacKay, declared, "an indis- 
 pensable requisite in this country. Broken into small 
 sections, they exerted very little influence, but united 
 together, they would be able to carry the message of 
 the Gospel to every corner of the land." He also "hoped 
 that the union of the Presbyterian Churches in Victoria 
 was but the prelude to union in all the colonies of Aus- 
 tralia." 
 
 As we shall see, Balfour, who was deeply interested 
 in these first steps, lived to share in crowning the edifice 
 built by charity and commonsense in those years, by the 
 union of the Presbyterianism of the Commonwealth into 
 one strong Church, spreading its influence ever more 
 strongly from the pearl fisheries of Broome and Thurs- 
 day Island in the North, to the most southerly districts 
 of Tasmania. A movement so manifestly founded in 
 charity, so calculated to add to the efficiency of his 
 Church for spreading the "glorious good news of the 
 Blessed God," so clamantly demanded in the highest 
 interests of the mass of the Scottish and Irish Presby- 
 terian emigrants, could not fail to enlist Balfour's most 
 active sympathy. From the first, therefore, he was in 
 favour of it. Indeed, there was never any attractiveness 
 for him in the programme of continued separation ; but 
 he was then, as always, the most loyal of friends, and 
 to anyone who had benefitted him spiritually his grati- 
 tude was without limit. Now, most unfortunately, the 
 Rev. W. Miller, who had been his first minister when 
 he arrived, and for whom he had the most sincere
 
 6o JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 regard as one of his earliest friends in Melbourne, joined 
 a small number of Free Church ministers, who repudiated 
 Union. They were influenced mainly by the Rev. A. 
 Paul, a man of a most able but acrid mind. Step by step 
 they were led into such an exaggeration of Free Church 
 principles, that when they expounded their views to the 
 Scottish Free Church Assembly in 1861, that body failed 
 to recognise them as theirs. Indeed, Principal Cunning- 
 ham, the greatest exponent of Free Church principles 
 then living, said: "Instead of recognising them as Free 
 Churchmen, I repudiate them as unworthy of the name." 
 Cunningham's biographer says: "This speech finished 
 the debate. It also finished the question both in Scot- 
 land and in the Colonies." But before that end came 
 the dissentient Free Church elders and ministers were 
 declared to be no longer ministers or members of the 
 Free Church in Victoria. The Synod which passed that 
 resolution met in Geelong in 1857, ^"^ Balfour, though 
 only a deacon, was chosen, with another, by the Geelong 
 Free Church to present a memorial praying the Synod 
 to go forward with the Union. Memorials to the same 
 effect were presented from a number of other congrega- 
 tions and next day Mr. Miller and his friends who would 
 not accept the decision of the majority were cut off from 
 the Church. Balfour was present and approved. 
 
 He says in a letter of this time : — "By the papers sent 
 this mail you will see I have been obliged to oppose 
 Mr. Miller, once my minister, who, though a good man, 
 is, I fear, wrong in his present attitude in regard to 
 our own Synod. He and three other Ministers were 
 expelled from the Church for resisting its authority. It 
 is most miserable that our Church is always broken and 
 disrupted. I fear we are at a very low ebb indeed out 
 here. We need great help. We expect Ministers from 
 the Free Church, but we must look more to the Lord of
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 6i 
 
 the harvest." To those who knew Balfour the depth of 
 his attachment to the cause of Union is more eloquently- 
 expressed by his inability to find a word of sympathy 
 for Mr. Miller, than it would be by a thousand speeches. 
 The rare note of depression, too, is a characteristic ex- 
 pression of his grief that one he had loved and respected 
 had forfeited at least his respect. 
 
 Later, he gives a more detailed account of his impres- 
 sion, which as a contemporary record of the view held by 
 the majority of the Free Church in Victoria may be 
 worthy of insertion here. "In our own Church there 
 is a miserable division. Union had been resolved on 
 between the two Churches, the Free and Established, and 
 a basis had been drawn up and settled containing Free 
 Church principles fully" (i.e;, with regard to the ab- 
 solute autonomy of the hurch in spiritual things). 
 "After all had been settled a few of our Ministers and 
 people began to oppose and resist the Union, although 
 they had repeatedly and solemnly agreed to it, and 
 indeed been the chief promoters of it. I am sorry to say 
 Mr. Miller was one of these. He is almost the only one 
 I much regret losing from ourselves. Well, this party 
 became very violent and threatened to disrupt the 
 Church. They were then told that they must not act in 
 this way, but either be satisfied with dissenting from 
 the decisions of the Synod or peaceably leave us. These 
 courses they refused to take, and were in consequence 
 expelled from the Free Church ; but their office as 
 Ministers was not taken from them. They have 
 shr^wn their folly by continuing to call themselves the 
 Free Church of Victoria, holding their own Synod and 
 appointing their own Moderator, so that, according to 
 this, there are two Free Presbyterian Churches here. It
 
 62 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 is most distressing. If the Free Church" (of Scotland) 
 "had done her duty and sent us men for Ministers in 
 abundance, we might never have been brought into this. 
 . . . There is in our Church a strong desire to get some 
 new method of finding labourers for the Australian 
 field."
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 VOYAGE TO BRITAIN AND AMERICA. 
 
 In the end of 1856, he begins to discuss with his 
 sisters, with his usual vivid behef in the Providence of 
 God, the possibility of his going "home," as a voyage to 
 Britain was always called in those days. He says: "I 
 should very much like to see you all and again identify 
 myself with Scotland. In all these things, however, our 
 duty and our wisdom is to wait upon God, casting our 
 care upon Him who careth for us and asking Him to 
 make our way plain before us." In May, 1857, he was 
 still uncertain, but in June he announces, "I am therefore 
 proposing, if all go well, to leave for England in about a 
 month. My intention is to go overland, and as it is quite 
 possible that I may stay at Ceylon or some other ports 
 for a short time (a couple of weeks or so) on business, I 
 may not be home so soon as the next (i.e. the July) mail, 
 though I propose to leave by it." Accordingly he 
 sailed on the 22nd of July, 1857, in the "Columbian," a 
 mail steamer (2,300 tons burthen and 500 horse power) 
 somewhat smaller than the average Australian coasting 
 steamer now. The stopping places were fewer in those 
 days than now, as the ship went straight to Albany, 
 where the convict wharf labourers refused to be con- 
 taminated by working with the Lascar crew of the 
 steamer ! The next stage was to Point de Galle, Ceylon. 
 After that Aden, Suez, Malta and Marseilles were the 
 only other stopping places ; but the passengers had to 
 travel overland by coaches from Suez to Cairo, whence 
 they went by rail to Alexandria, and from this one day's 
 travel over the desert they got some insight into desert 
 
 63
 
 64 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 life which their successors, who go through the Canal, 
 entirely miss. 
 
 This is his account of the journey : — "I was fortunate 
 in obtaining a seat in the first van which started across 
 the desert soon after we landed on Monday morning. 
 These vans held each six persons and are driven by 
 Nubians. They have each two mules and two horses, 
 changed at frequent intervals at what are called 'stations.' 
 To a few of these, refreshment rooms are attached, at 
 which the traveller receives his meals. One thing struck 
 me as remarkable : the horses and mules are not tied in 
 their stables as ours are by the head, but by one of their 
 fore feet, for which a rope is always kept. For some time 
 our driver allowed the others to get before him, contrary 
 to his instructions, till one of our companions, better 
 acquainted with the Egyptian mode of life, enforced his 
 words with a stroke from his cane. We had no more 
 to complain of the sand from the wheels of the other 
 vans, the salutary fear of the rod, which seems as neces- 
 sary in the East now as in Solomon's day, keeping our 
 party ahead, always ahead. The desert is a heap of sand 
 and stones with rocks and hills — nothing that could be 
 called vegetation. We saw one tree at the half-way 
 'station.' The heat was intense, as we travelled all day 
 and most of the next night, arriving at Cairo at 3 o'clock 
 in the morning of Tuesday. We passed innumerable 
 caravans, parties of Bedouin, and pilgrims for Mecca, 
 camels bearing all manner of burdens — silks, spices, pas- 
 senger-luggage. Everywhere we saw the bones of camels 
 whitening in the sun, and in many cases these animals 
 were lying, dying or dead, the vulture already at his 
 horrid feast." The journey is more comfortable now, 
 but, just on that account, less Eastern and less instruc- 
 tive. 
 
 The number of passengers was small, compared with 
 the huge companies now carried, only about 40; but
 
 Early protraits of Mr. and Mrs. Balfour, 1857.
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 65 
 
 there would appear to have been an even more extraor- 
 dinary mixture of nations and characters than we find 
 now both in passengers and crew. To Balfour the mere 
 voyage was, as always, somewhat tiresome, and the too 
 general disregard of religious observances was painful ; 
 but this was his first introduction to the East, with all 
 its gorgeous squalor; and the many strange peoples and 
 customs he came in contact with stirred his active and 
 sensitive mind, and widened his horizon. In this respect 
 this journey was of lasting importance to him. Most 
 Scotchmen who have had a religious training are well 
 prepared for a first visit to the East by an exhaustive 
 knowledge of the Scriptures, besides that familiarity with 
 the Arabian Nights, which most young people naturally 
 acquire. At every turn the memory of scenes from either 
 or both make the strangeness curiously familiar. Balfour 
 evidently felt that ; but, in his deeply religious mind, the 
 Scriptural reference outweighed everything else. For 
 example at Galle, he says, "We met a Mahometan 
 funeral, and, as the mourners chanted their dirge, and 
 the bodv, stretched on a bier, was borne out, I was forc- 
 ibly reminded of that city whence there was 'a dead man 
 carried out who was the only son of his mother, and she 
 was a widow.' " At Aden, again, when he landed on a 
 Sunday morning to attend service, when he "met droves 
 of camels (of a small size) bringing in loads of firewood, 
 fish, and grass for the use of the inhabitants, the tail of 
 the preceding camel tied to the following one," his 
 thought was, "There was no Nehemiah here to testify 
 against them in the day wherein they brought fish and all 
 manner of ware, and sold on the Sabbath day." 
 
 When he came in sight of the Peninsula of Sinai, this 
 constant Scriptural reference deepened into awe. On a 
 Sunday morning, he says, "We entered the straits of the 
 Gulf of Suez, and to our right were the barren rugged 
 headlands which form the extreme point of the range of
 
 66 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 Sinai. That holy mount itself we could not see, even with 
 the aid of telescopes, for a thick fog, which is very preva- 
 lent there, obscured it. Still, there was something awful 
 in being so near that spot where God thundered forth the 
 Law. And now, as we sailed up the coast, we saw the 
 dreary rocky desert the Israelites had to journey through, 
 and we could scarcely wonder at their murmurings, but 
 that God had already done such great things for them 
 and still manifested His presence by the pillar of cloud 
 by day and of fire by night. We now re-perused the 
 narrative given in Exodus and were able pretty nearly to 
 determine when we were opposite those memorable spots 
 where first the clear water flowed from the flinty rock and 
 where man did eat angel's food." To his religious imag- 
 ination the 3000 years or more which had elapsed, and 
 were to many a veil which blurred the outlines, and made 
 the great story unreal, were "as a mist that rolls away," 
 and he lived and moved for the time in those tremendous 
 days when God entered so decisively into the history of 
 His people and of mankind. In later days he more than 
 once passed that way, but his first impressions always 
 remained the keenest. The memory of that Sunday was, 
 I imagine, never surpassed till, in much later life, with 
 his sons and daughter about him, he visited the Holy 
 Land and stood by the well at Nazareth, and looked on 
 the rock-hewn tomb at Jerusalem. 
 
 At Cairo Balfour had only 24 hours, but he, with his 
 untiring energy, made the most of them. In the morn- 
 ing he rode through the town, then visited the citadel and 
 enjoyed the incomparable view over the city. The after- 
 noon he gave to a journey to the Pyramids, which, owing 
 to the inundation and the primitive travelling arrange- 
 ments of those days meant a ride of 20 miles out, 20 miles 
 back, and a tedious ferrying of the far-spread river. But, 
 good horseman as he was, he regarded that as a trifle 
 compared with the ascent of the great Pyramid when he
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 67 
 
 reached it. On his way back he visited old Cairo, and 
 reached his hotel before sunset. This, in the heat of an 
 Egyptian summer, could have been accomplished only by 
 a man of an astonishing vitality. He left Egypt on 
 Saturday, 12th September, and was in London on the 
 morning of the following Saturday, the 19th, having been 
 58 days on the way from Australia. 
 
 He had now been an exile for a little over 5 years, and 
 it was to him like cold water in a thirsty land to be once 
 more among his "ain fowk," and to see again the familiar 
 sights of home. But as he himself said in the lecture 
 from which we have been making extracts : "It would be 
 difficult, and it is needless to describe, the rush of feeling 
 which overpoiwers a man on his return to his native land 
 after a long absence. Something of the exiled Israelites' 
 spirit fills his mind; and, ere he is aware, his lips are 
 uttering those sublime words : 
 
 'Thy saints take pleasure in her stones : 
 Her very dust to them is dear.' 
 
 And then come the greetings of friends and the renewal 
 of long-cherished affections; but, with the reviving 
 memory of bygone days, how much there is to chasten 
 our joys in this ever-shifting world." 
 
 He had gone at once to Edinburgh, and had found his 
 father half blinded by cataract, and his business, owing 
 partly to this and partly to other causes, in no very 
 satisfactory state. Moreover, his eldest half-brother. 
 John Balfour, who was in America, was not succeeding 
 as a farmer; and Buchanan Balfour, in London, was not 
 so prosperous as he had been. There was consequently 
 a good deal of anxiety in the family to be faced by so 
 loyal a son and brother as he was; and he did what he 
 could to mitigate it, especially at the end of his stay. 
 There was, too, much grave anxiety in all minds in con- 
 nection with public affairs. 1857 was the year of the 
 Indian Mutiny. At Galle Balfour had heard of its begin-
 
 68 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 ning, and at Aden he found the Commandant had dis- 
 armed the Indian troops, lest they should prove disloyal. 
 Further, Dr. MacKay and Mr. Tait had come home as a 
 deputation from the Presbyterian Church of Victoria 
 to the Free Church of Scotland. On every hand, in his 
 private affairs, and in public, he found much harass- 
 ment, but he bore the varied burden well, for, though 
 still young, he had learned by experience to avoid the 
 folly of trying to do so alone. No one I have known 
 more entirely overcame the temptation of trying to be his 
 own providence, or that of others. God was to him most 
 emphatically a living God; and, "His tender mercies 
 being over all His works," he left the burden of the 
 future both for himself and those dear to him with Him 
 to whom it belonged. So, even in this anxious year, he 
 went about the business he had to do in London for his 
 firm with a quiet heart, giving every moment he could 
 spare to his family, either at the old home in Edinburgh 
 or at the homes of his brothers, and renewing with un- 
 bounded delight his old friendships with Mr. Hugh 
 Matheson and Dr. Hamilton, and with those of his 
 younger intimates who were still in London, instead 
 of being scattered to the ends of the earth, as many were. 
 In this way he renewed the springs of life, and prepared 
 himself for the longer exile to which he was looking for- 
 ward. 
 
 His lecture on the Overland Journey shows how good 
 an Australian he was after only five years' experience of 
 life under the Southern Cross. "Happily for ourselves," 
 he says, "we have not the making of our destiny. If 
 spared, my future probably lies in Victoria. Thither 
 again my eye is turned where I have already lived nearly 
 one-fourth of the period of its history as a British settle- 
 ment. A heavy responsibility devolves on every colonist 
 to devote his energies to, and exercise all the influence 
 he may acquire for, the benefit of the infant state, that the
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 69 
 
 glory which belongs to her as a portion of the British 
 Empire may descend untarnished to future generations, 
 and that, avoiding the errors of the parent country, which 
 have become in some degree time-hallowed, her virtues 
 may be emulated, and a social fabric be reared destined 
 to last when empires and dominions founded on a less 
 secure basis of liberty are crumbling to ruin or tottering 
 to their fall. To quote once more from a writer already 
 referred to : Surely 'there is more glory in laying these 
 rough foundations of a mighty state, though no trumpet 
 resound on your victory, though no laurels shall shadow 
 your tomb, than in forcing the onward progress of your 
 race over burning cities and hecatombs of men.' " 
 
 But he had two special opportunities during this year 
 of extending his knowledge of the world and of the varied 
 life of men. He, along with his brother, the Rev. Robert 
 Gordon Balfour, at this time Free Church Minister of 
 Kilbride, made a journey to America; and he visited the 
 Continent of Europe for the first time in the company of 
 his sisters Jane and Helen. Of the latter journey he has 
 left little record, but the party went to Switzerland, and, 
 amid the beauties of the Lake of Lucerne, that loveliest of 
 all European lakes, met Dr. Blaikie (as yet only Mr. 
 Blaikie), the much-loved minister of Pilrig Free Church, 
 under whom he had "sat" as boy and youth. They re- 
 turned by Frankfort, thence down the Rhine, and home 
 via Brussels, bearing with them gains of many kinds. No 
 one who has once lived even for a little space under the al- 
 most painfully overwhelming impression of the moun- 
 tains of Switzerland, can fail to recognise in that one of 
 the great experiences of his life. To it Balfour added an 
 indelible memory of the mediaeval towns and castles of 
 Europe, which to a man just come from, and about to re- 
 turn to spend his life in, a land so painfully without 
 historic associations as Australia is was worth more than 
 gold. It gave a framework for the historic use of his
 
 70 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 imagination ; and his life was enriched by the power he 
 henceforth had of recalHng the great scenes he had 
 visited. 
 
 But his visit to America was considerably longer, and 
 had more powerful immediate interest for him, since it 
 touched him on his most sensitive point, his desire for 
 the victory of justice and the welfare of men. In 1858 
 public opinion in the two divisions of the United States 
 was evidently (as we now know), though unconsciously, 
 drifting towards civil war. The political sky was every- 
 where darkened by storm-clouds caused by the existence 
 of slavery. Even the churches and religious societies 
 were torn by dissension of which this was the cause. 
 When Balfour landed, the state of things was electric, 
 and he set himself to the task of trying to understand the 
 drift of the various currents of public life. On his return 
 to Australia he prepared and delivered at various places 
 a lecture on his American experiences, which has some- 
 thing of that insight which makes Arthur Young's 
 travels in France before the Revolution the text-book of 
 all who wish to see how inevitable that ruin had become. 
 For a man so young and one biassed so habitually to the 
 side of humanity and religion, his balance of judgment is 
 most remarkable. He made every enquiry, heard opinions 
 of all kinds without being shaken at all in his belief that 
 slavery was an unspeakable evil ; but his charity for indi- 
 viduals never fails. He makes allowance for birth and 
 upbringing; he sees and sympathises with the terrible 
 position of those who hate slavery, but are so entangled 
 in the barbed wire of cunningly-devised pro-slavery laws, 
 that they cannot free themselves from the accursed thing. 
 He gives, too, the arguments of the "moderate" man for 
 letting the evil alone, but he makes the reader feel the 
 speeding of all currents towards the fall. Nowhere have 
 I seen so entire but so unconscious a vindication of the 
 policy of a white Australia as in this lecture of more than
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 71 
 
 half a century ago. That was not at all in Balfour's 
 thoughts, but the widespread moral, political, and social 
 evils which the existence of a coloured race (to whom the 
 franchise cannot be given, and from whom it cannot 
 ultimately be kept) alongside a white governing race 
 inevitably brings with it are so luminously displayed 
 that he that runs may read the warning. 
 
 The voyage was not long, and the company of his 
 brother kept him from feeling so isolated as he usually 
 felt on board ship ; and he seems to have enjoyed it. But, 
 as usual, his desire for the observance of the Sabbath, 
 and his respect for the ordinances of religion, brought 
 himself and his brother into collision with the Captain 
 of the ship. He would not permit the services that were 
 desired, and Robert Balfour relieved his feelings in a way 
 which must have been unexpected. Instead of complain- 
 ing and denouncing, he, to James's great delight, wrote 
 a parody of a popular serio-comic coster song of the day 
 known as "Villikins and his Dinah," in which the Cap- 
 tain figured as the hero. It was as follows : — 
 
 CAPTAIN JUDKINS AND THE PERSIA. 
 
 'Twas of an old Capting, rather blunt in his way. 
 Who had as fine a ship as you'll see any day; 
 He'd made many a trip across the hocean before, 
 And for haught that I know, he'll make as many more. 
 Singing tooralilooral i looral li day, etc. 
 
 One Sunday this Capting was a-vollicking around 
 When under his feet he perceived a strange sound. 
 'Twas the passengers he guessed, all singing of an 'ymn 
 And he trembled with anger in every limb. 
 Singing tooralilooral, etc.
 
 72 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 So he bolted down stairs, and he popped in his head, 
 What do you mean by this singing, he said? 
 I'm sure you've been told it again and again ; 
 We only allow one service at ten. 
 
 Singing tooralilooral i looral li day, etc. 
 
 And what is the use of this roaring and screamin' ? 
 Some three of four parsons and a set of old women I 
 You know very well it's against the ship's rules. 
 I tell you what it is, you're a parcel of fools. 
 Singing tooralilooral, etc. 
 
 Then out spake Miss Ives (a brave lady was she) : 
 *'0 Capting, there's no one to blame here but me: 
 'Twas I that invited these gentlemen and ladies to come 
 
 down. 
 Never dreaming to meet such a terrible frown." 
 Singing tooralilooral, etc. 
 
 "It's all very well," the old Capting he said, 
 "But the rules of the service, they must be obeyed; 
 But when you've scratched out these orders of mine 
 You may pray and sing on to the very end of time." 
 Singing tooralilooral, etc. 
 
 Moral of this 'ere tale : — 
 Now all you who travel by the ships of Cunard, 
 Perhaps you may think that the rule's rather hard. 
 But remember altho' the ship is going down in the seas. 
 You mustn't by no means go down on your knees. 
 Singing tooralilooral, etc. 
 
 Obviously there were here no traditional sour Puritans, 
 for these men made wit and laughter their weapons ; but 
 they were Puritans all the same in their indomitable reli- 
 gious feeling and their love of liberty.
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 73 
 
 Balfour's first landing was at New York, and in his 
 lecture he gives a quite vivid picture of the impression 
 made by that first sight of the great capital of the 
 Western world. It was small then compared with what 
 it is now, not much larger than Sydney, and the expense 
 of living in good hotels was then most moderate — from 
 10/- to 12/- per day. Evidently in New York the simple 
 life was much more possible in 1858 than it is now. Bal- 
 four's first impression of the Americans was their warm- 
 hearted and abounding hospitality. His second was their 
 difference from his own people. Their peculiarities were 
 not altogether pleasing to him, but his judgment was 
 conspicuously fair. / 
 
 After observing that one had no right to judge the life 
 of a people by what one saw in its hotels, he said in his 
 lecture, *'It must be admitted that hitherto our British 
 travellers appear to have remarked all the extravagances 
 which they met with in their journeys in the United 
 States, that they might return home to write them down 
 as the general features of the 'great people' composing 
 these States. My visit was an agreeable surprise. I 
 found everything that was generous and frank in the 
 American people. I found the educated classes gener- 
 ally, while never slow to enumerate all that they thought 
 superior in their country, still ready to admit the excel- 
 lences of our own nation, and to pray for the continuance 
 of friendly intercourse. I found them a pushing, thriv- 
 ing, enterprising people, and, unlike the British, I 
 found them ready always to confess their Christianity 
 and let their light shine. Moreover, they have the grace 
 of hospitality very largely developed. Indeed, I never 
 have been fortunate enough to find so much of this 
 hospitable kindly feeling in any other part of the world. 
 Wherever we called with introductions, even though in 
 the midst of business, our friends were ready then to go, 
 or to appoint a time, when they might take us to see the
 
 74 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 lions of the place. There was no mere cold request 
 to dine with them, and then the quiet satisfaction that 
 they had done their duty ; but a putting themselves out 
 of the way to escort us to places, well known to them- 
 selves, but likely to interest the stranger. Moreover, on 
 leaving the city, they supplied introductions to others in 
 every place to be passed through." So the same frank 
 hospitality would begin again. All this enabled him 
 to see the material progress of the country, and its most 
 striking natural features ; but he was more decisively 
 interested in the moral and spiritual outlook of the 
 descendants and successors of the Pilgrim Fathers, 
 for whom he had then and later had in even a greater 
 degree the warmest sympathy. To inquire into this he 
 and his brother trusted most to themselves, and in 
 pursuit of knowledge in this field they attended con- 
 ferences, meetings, and churches, of every sort. 
 
 As in Britain, the chief religious Societies hold their 
 annual meetings in May, and these were actually in 
 progress when they reached New York. They attended 
 the Congregational Union, the Women's Rights Con- 
 vention, the Abolition Society, and on xone Sunday 
 heard Dr. Alexander, a Presbyterian, Dr. Tyng, an 
 Episcopalian, and Dr. Henry Ward Beecher, an Inde- 
 pendent. At Philadelphia there was a Revival of Re- 
 ligion which attracted them by its fervour and sanity. 
 At Washington they visited a Methodist Episcopal 
 coloured church where the preacher was a white man ; 
 and in Richmond, where slavery entirely absorbed their 
 attention, they had a long and intimate conversation with 
 a leading Presbyterian Minister, and made minute en- 
 quiries in the flour mills and tobacco factories with which 
 Balfour's firm had dealings, as to the terms on which 
 they hired slave labour from the slaveowners and the 
 condition of these slaves as workmen. They also attended 
 a slave auction, which in cold commercial brutality
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 75 
 
 surpassed anything that could be seen in the slave 
 markets of Egypt; and Balfour's lecture contains slave 
 advertisements which even to-day, when all this iniquity 
 is abolished, must simply nauseate every citizen of a 
 free and democratic country. What Balfour found, 
 however, was that opinion in the Slave States had been, 
 for a decade or two, becoming solidified and hardened. 
 Dissent from or criticism of their "domestic institution" 
 was followed at once by commercial and social ruin, and 
 in some cases was punished by death, in the sense that 
 any opponent of slavery was liable to be attacked by 
 those of the baser sort, and unless white witnesses 
 clearly identified his assailants, no attempt was made to 
 inflict punishment. But, even for the rare cases where 
 such witnesses could be obtained, punishment did not 
 necessarily follow, for few juries would convict the 
 assailant of an Abolitionist. 
 
 In fact the supporters of slavery were then in that 
 state of feverish exaltation which in Scottish opinion 
 distinguishes the man who is "fey," i.e., gay with the 
 arrogance which drifts him unconsciously to ruin when 
 he is thinking only of triumph. The effect upon Balfour 
 of what he saw and heard is expressed in his reflections 
 upon the auction-room and the state of the law which it 
 revealed. After describing the crowd, he says: "I cer- 
 tainly felt myself very much out of my element in that 
 strange group of men, and I think they eyed me with 
 suspicion and annoyance. I believe they must have seen 
 the irrepressible feelings of disgust and indignation as 
 one set of slaves after another was put on the block for 
 sale. At least, I felt as if my cheeks must burn with 
 shame for humanity. I can scarce describe the scene, and 
 perhaps you need not be told of it. Mrs. Stowe has 
 familiarised us all with its horrors." 
 
 After further description he says, "But enough; it is 
 a revolting spectacle, and it calls up revolting thoughts.
 
 76 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 These are human creatures, with bodies and souls to be 
 saved or lost. And yet they are to pass into the entire 
 possession of their guilty fellow men to be at their un- 
 questioned bidding and under their absolute control. The 
 law says : 'The power of the master must be absolute 
 to render the submission of the slave perfect.' This was 
 the sentiment uttered by a judge in North Carolina at the 
 trial of a master for cruel and unreasonable punishment, 
 not resulting in death. The master was, of course, 
 acquitted. In cases resulting in death, when proved by 
 white witnesses, there is imprisonment. For dismember- 
 ment (as cutting out the tongue) in some States the 
 penalty is a fine of ;^ioo. Do men carry out these dread- 
 ful laws ? Ask yourselves. Consider the utterly irrespon- 
 sible power they possess ! Consider the strength of 
 anger, passion, lust, and their growth in circumstances 
 such as these ! Consider, too, the temptation of profit 
 to a needy man. 'The slave and its issue are the pro- 
 perty of the master.' It is said 'there is not an old plan- 
 tation in which grand-children of the owner are not 
 whipped in the fields by his overseer.' " 
 
 Later, a visit was paid to the Falls of Niagara, which 
 made an overwhelming impression upon Balfour. In 
 his sitting-room he always had hung a fine photograph 
 of the Falls, and he was never slow to tell of the almost 
 stupefying effect of the power embodied in that huge 
 mass of swiftly-running water, as it slid over the brink 
 and crashed into the depth below. He was far removed 
 from the stolidity of another Australian who lived for 
 six months within sound of the mighty fall, and left 
 America, to come to Australia, without having ever seen 
 it. 
 
 From Niagara they went to visit their eldest half- 
 brother, John, who was farming in America, near 
 Chicago, and James formed the project which he after- 
 wards carried out of taking his eldest nephew, John,
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 77 
 
 with him to Australia. He had him sent over to England 
 at his expense in the end of August, provided for the 
 continuance of his education in Edinburgh till he left, 
 and then took him overland to Australia. There he sent 
 him to the Scotch College, found him a situation in a 
 bank, and took him to live with him. After a short 
 experience of Australian life, however, he went back to 
 America. 
 
 The return journey from America was safely accom- 
 plished some time in July. The main part of July and 
 the first week of August were taken up by Balfour's visit 
 to the Continent with his sisters, which has been already 
 referred to. His stay was now drawing to a close. On 
 the 29th September, 1858, he wrote to his mother from 
 London that he had taken passages for himself and his 
 nephew in a steamer leaving Southampton on the 12th 
 November. He confessed to a feeling of regret that 
 his visit was so nearly at an end, but, as always, he re- 
 fused to be despondent, though he and all his family 
 were in great anxiety about his father's health. The 
 latter had undergone an operation for cataract, which had 
 been quite successful, though his general health seemed 
 to suffer ; but Balfour's complete and most admirable trust 
 in the providence of God enabled him to throw off his 
 burden of care, to trust and not be afraid. 
 
 On Friday, 12th November, 1858, he began, for the 
 second time, his long voyage to Australia, misnamed 
 "overland," starting from Southampton in the steam- 
 ship "Niagara." He left the "Niagara" at Alexandria, 
 and, owing to the non-arrival of the steamer which was 
 to take the passengers from Suez, he had a stay of more 
 than a week in Cairo, which he no doubt enjoyed. Then 
 it was made known that the steamer "Victoria," from 
 Australia to Ceylon, had sprung a leak, and all but 
 foundered before they could get her into port. The 
 passengers and mails had to be put on board the
 
 78 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 "Oneida," a very fine steamer newly overhauled; and 
 all promised well, but, as she was nearing Aden, "the 
 whole three fans of the screw gave way." Balfour's 
 account of what followed contains such a picture of his 
 businesslike promptitude of action and of his method of 
 finding rest for himself in the midst of small worries and 
 anxieties, that it must be quoted as it stands. He says 
 in a letter dated 13th December: "Of course her" (the 
 "Oneida's") "machinery was of no use, and she had to 
 sail to Aden. The passengers and mails were again 
 transferred into the Calcutta boat, the 'Bengal,' and she 
 brought them on to Suez. The 'Oneida' was to ship 
 a new screw at Aden (she had a spare one on deck) if 
 they could get water enough to heave her down by the 
 head and thus cock up her stern. She expects to be 
 ready when the 'Bengal' returns. The mails for Aus- 
 tralia were, of course, to be put in the 'Bengal' to go to 
 the 'Oneida' at Aden. But what was to be done with 
 us, the Australian passengers ? We were told we must 
 remain three weeks more at Cairo till the next Australian 
 mail went, as the 'Bengal' had 160 passengers of her 
 own for Calcutta, and was quite full. We numbered 
 some 60. In these circumstances I (having ascertained a 
 few days before what I would be charged) telegraphed 
 to Suez offering to pay my passage to Calcutta if I could 
 be taken on. Then I went upstairs, packed my things, 
 and arranged with Johnnie to leave him in charge of 
 Dr. Mackay and another passenger. I then paid my bill 
 and was ready. At lunch another telegram came from 
 Suez saying that the Calcutta passengers must leave 
 by train at 3 {i.e., in less than 2 hours). You may 
 imagine my bustle. I sought to commend Johnnie and 
 myself to Our Father, and hurried to the station to get 
 my luggage. An answer came to me telling me to come 
 on to Suez, and that they hoped to find room in some 
 officer's cabin. Just before leaving, Dr. Mackav
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 79 
 
 determined also to go on to Suez and try to get on to 
 Aden from there, so as not to be detained a month. 
 We got into a carriage with only one other, and so were 
 able to read a chapter together. But you may well believe 
 I had never spent such a Sabbath." So he was "kept 
 peaceful in the midst of strife." Curiously enough, the 
 day of his journey was the first day the railway from 
 Cairo to Suez was open, so that he assisted at the open- 
 ing of the new arrangements, which put an end to the 
 old picturesque but uncomfortable drive over the desert. 
 Next day his nephew joined him, he having come on 
 from Cairo with an adventurous company who risked 
 all to avoid a three weeks' delay.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 MARRIAGE AND LATER YEARS IN GEELONG. 
 
 On Christmas Day, 1858, he writes from Point de 
 Gaile. He sailed thence on the Christmas afternoon, 
 and arrived safely in Melbourne in the middle of January. 
 After a short stay in Melbourne he took up his work 
 in Geelong again, and now began to look forward to the 
 great event of his life, his marriage with Miss Frances 
 Charlotte Henty, the eldest daughter of the senior partner 
 of his firm. From the earliest days after his arrival he 
 had been received with kindness in Mr. Henty's house, 
 and had become very intimate with all the sons and 
 daughters. Gradually a warmer feeling grew up between 
 him and Miss Henty, and in 1855 just before Balfour 
 went to Geelong he and she were engaged to be married. 
 Before he went home he had bought a house which he 
 called Pilrig, after the old home of his family, and while 
 he was absent Mr. Henty had bought for him an adjoin- 
 ing property to round it off. He describes his property 
 as consisting of about six acres of land, with a house 
 mostly of stone, and a wooden cottage. ' 'The situation, ' ' 
 he says, "is beautiful, as there is a very fine view of the 
 Barrabool Hills, the River Barwon, the Connewarre 
 Lakes, part of Corio Bay, and even Bass Strait, so 
 that with a glass I can see what size of ships are going 
 out or coming in to the Port Phillip Heads. The garden, 
 too, is very pretty, and has a number of very pretty 
 young trees, especially wattles (an acacia with beautiful 
 yellow flowers)." Being the healthy human being that 
 he was, Balfour took the warmest interest in preparing, 
 both within and without, the home for his bride; and 
 
 80
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 8i 
 
 when it was finished it must have been as pretty a home 
 as any bride ever entered. 
 
 They were married by the Rev. W. Wood at Christ 
 Church, Hawthorn, on the 19th April, 1859, and the 
 household that was then set up was, through all the years 
 which Mr. and Mrs. Balfour were to spend together, the 
 model of what a Christian home should be. Miss Henty 
 had the same earnest faith as Balfour had ; they both 
 came from homes in which the highest things of the mind 
 and spirit were deliberately preferred and sought after ; 
 and they entered upon their new life in the very bloom 
 of their youth, unspoiled at least, if not absolutely un- 
 touched, by the evil of the world. None of the things 
 which make marriage so often a tragedy was present 
 here, and the promise of the beginning was not belied 
 in the after years. Ever since I became acquainted with 
 the high and penetrating utterance of Robert Louis 
 Stevenson concerning marriage, I have felt that his 
 cousin's union was entered into and lived out in the very 
 spirit of humility and courage which he desired. His 
 words are : "No considerate man can approach marriage 
 without deep concern. I, he will think, who have made 
 hitherto so poor a business of my own life, am now about 
 to embrace the responsibility of another's. Henceforth, 
 there shall be two to suffer from my faults — and that other 
 is the one whom I most desire to shield from suffering. 
 In view of our impotence and folly, it seems an act of 
 presumption to involve another's destiny with ours. As 
 if I were not already too feelingly alive to my misdeeds, 
 I must choose out the one person whom I most desire 
 to please to be the daily witness of my failures. I must 
 give a part of all my dishonours to the one person who 
 can feel more keenly than myself. In all our daring 
 magnanimous human way of life, I find nothing more 
 bold than this. To go into battle is a small thing in 
 comparison. It is the last act of committal. After that
 
 82 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 there is no way left, not even suicide, but to be a good 
 man. She will help you, let us pray. And yet she is 
 in the same case. It is with a courage no less irrational 
 than yours, that she also ventures on this new experi- 
 ment of life. Two who have failed severally now join 
 their fortunes with a wavering hope. But it is from the 
 boldness of the enterprise that hope springs. To take 
 home to your hearth that living witness whose blame 
 will most affect you, to eat, to sleep, to live with your 
 most admiring, and thence most exacting judge, is not 
 this to domesticate the living God?" 
 
 In even a higher sense, Balfour and his wife did this, 
 and they made their household to be to those who were 
 privileged to have an entry to it, a place of rest, and 
 yet of incitement to higher living. For their mutual 
 love was rooted in a perfectly sincere and simple love of 
 God, which shone out in every act, and in every arrange- 
 ment of their household. And their joy in living showed 
 that godliness is profitable even for joy, and that the 
 old scoff that religion takes the happiness out of life is 
 false beyond all ordinary falsity. 
 
 After marriage, his life fell back into its ordinary 
 routine, but with even more energy than before. The 
 business was expanding and demanded increased atten- 
 tion. His position in the commercial community of 
 Geelong brought him several important offices in com- 
 mercial and benevolent associations; his military duties 
 were also now more exacting, he having been promoted 
 to a lieutenant in the Artillery ; and he took up a new 
 and graver responsibility in connection with church 
 work by becoming an Elder in Mr. Tait's congregation 
 early in this year (1859). Mrs. Balfour had been brought 
 up in the Church of England, but her family had always 
 adhered to the more liberal section of that Church, which 
 admitted the validity of Presbyterian orders, and she 
 had no difficulty in frankly adopting her husband's
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. S3 
 
 church. From the first she was a most loyal Presby- 
 terian. In a letter to his mother, Balfour writes : "Fanny 
 likes Mr. Tait's preaching very much, and we are gener- 
 ally able to go twice each Sabbath, though the Church 
 is about two miles distant, and the road is not very good. 
 By and bye we shan't be so far away, as there is now 
 about ;^i700 subscribed for a new church, which will 
 be built much nearer. Plans are already called for. This 
 year, too, the Union of the various Presbyterian Synods 
 into one Church took place." In this, Balfour was most 
 deeply interested; but, in a letter dated March 15th, after 
 telling of some violent proceedings of a minority in St. 
 Andrew's Church, Carlton, who took forcible possession 
 of it and compelled Mr. Fraser, the then minister, to 
 preach in the open air for one Sunday, he says: "I 
 don't take any part in these matters now, as I am down 
 here" {i.e., in Geelong) ; "but really it is difficult to keep 
 quiet when the others are behaving in this way. Every- 
 thing appears to have been done to get them back on 
 the basis of the Assembly deliverance, but unsuccess- 
 fully." 
 
 At this time, the Rev. A. J. Campbell arrived in Gee- 
 long from Melrose, in Scotland, and with him Balfour 
 soon entered upon a life-long friendship. Balfour's 
 Sunday class of boys has been already mentioned. During 
 his eighteen months' absence, it had been in abeyance, 
 but he now renewed the effort. The Rev. A. J. Camp- 
 bell's eldest son, Mr. James Maitland Campbell, has the 
 most vivid recollections of the restarting of the class, of 
 which he was a member. It was no longer possible for it 
 to meet in Mr. Balfour's house, so an unoccupied shed 
 had to be cleared of rubbish (which included a dead 
 goat) and thoroughly cleaned by the class, under the 
 leader's directions, before the more regular business could 
 be entered upon. As always, success attended this effort 
 to win young men ; but it will be more convenient to deal
 
 84 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 later with his object and methods when his work as 
 leader of Bible Classes had become known throughout 
 the Church. The cheerful gaiety with which he entered 
 into all innocent, youthful mirth, while enforcing the 
 duties of the higher life with all becoming earnestness, 
 was, however, one of his main secrets. How entirely 
 uncalculated and natural this trait in his character was 
 may be seen from the following extract from a letter of 
 14th July, 1859: "At a Soiree at Duneed Presbyterian 
 School lately, at which Mr. Tait presided, I gave an 
 account of America, and finished by reciting (not sing- 
 ing), to the great amusement of the people, the new 
 version of 'Villikins and His Dinah,' viz., 'Judkins and 
 the Persia.' What would Mrs. B. say to that?" 
 
 In the end of this year his father died. Ever since 
 he had undergone an operation for cataract, his health 
 had been unsatisfactory, and now, at a good old age, 
 83, he was finally called away. It was a great consola- 
 tion to Balfour that he had seen his father before the 
 end came, and, as always, he turned to God in gratitude 
 for the way in which he had shaped their lives. In a 
 letter of consolation to his mother, he says: "I do feel 
 that God could not have laid this stroke on us — heavy 
 though it be — with a more gentle or loving hand. What 
 a comfort to me that I was so lately with you all, and 
 that I saw my dear Father's graces ripening for a better 
 world. . . What infinite satisfaction in the blessed assur- 
 ance that my father fell asleep in Jesus. There is the 
 great comfort. Other things, his short sufferings, his 
 calm clear mind, all are very delightful ; but the chief 
 joy is this, that he now reigns with Christ, that he has 
 eternal life, and that if we be followers of Jesus, we all 
 shall meet again in perfect blessedness. What could we 
 desire more?" As his father's business had greatly 
 fallen off in his later years, his mother's financial posi- 
 tion caused him great anxiety; and he offered to pro-
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 85 
 
 vide her and his sisters with a home in Geelong. That, 
 however, proved not to be necessary ; but, on every 
 occasion when opportunity offered, he made most liberal 
 contributions to the needs of the Edinburgh household. 
 That duty he fulfilled with joy. 
 
 In 1861 his happy married life was crowned by the 
 birth of a son who inherited from his maternal grandfather 
 and father, the name of James, and from his long-dead, 
 but never forgotten uncle, that of Hugh; but his advent 
 brought anxiety too. Early in 1862 he fell desperately 
 ill. There was then prevailing an epidemic of dysentery 
 which was peculiarly fatal to children. For a time very 
 little hope of the child's recovery was entertained. His 
 grandparents came from Melbourne, bringing their 
 medical man with them to consult with the doctor who 
 had been treating him. Soon after, he began to recover, 
 and, after a visit to Melbourne with his mother, he 
 returned in fair health, but had to learn anew how to 
 walk, an art he had lost completely. For some years he 
 was delicate, but he lived to be the stalwart and capable, 
 and, above all, respected manager of Round Hill. Many 
 times afterwards such crises recurred in their large 
 family, and were met with the same unshrinking faith 
 and hope as letters of the time show that the young 
 mother and father exercised at this anxious time. Soon 
 after this a daughter was born to them ; and with the 
 new year of 1863 their life in Geelong came to an end.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 MELBOURNE— FIRST YEARS. 
 
 When Balfour removed to Melbourne, he, for a time, 
 lived in Richmond, near to his father-in-law, Mr. Henty, 
 and connected himself with Dr. Cairns' congregation in 
 Chalmers' Church, Eastern Hill, to which he was wont 
 to drive with his family. Early in 1864 he became an 
 elder of that congregation, and, though he soon thereafter 
 removed to St. Kilda, a more distant suburb, he still 
 continued his attendance there. His business energy 
 was now devoted to the work of the central office of the 
 firm, and he took up his volunteer work with fresh 
 energy. He became Captain in the St. Kilda Battery 
 of Artillery, and had as his superior officer Mr. (later 
 Sir) James McCulloch, with whom he formed a lasting 
 friendship. As always, he did his military work with 
 all his might, and became a very efficient officer. At 
 this time Mr. McCulloch was a leading politician in the 
 State, and about six months after Balfour came to Mel- 
 bourne, he formed a Ministry, certainly up to that time 
 the longest-lived and probably, also, the ablest that Aus- 
 tralia had seen. Association with McCulloch increased 
 and gave practical direction to Balfour's interest in 
 politics ; and, though he was not a Member of either 
 House of Parliament, he was drawn more and more into 
 the whirl of the political struggles in the exciting years 
 that were to follow. But, as it was in the interval between 
 his coming to Melbourne and his entrance on political 
 life in 1866 that I first came to know him intimately and 
 to feel his influence, I shall postpone consideration of 
 his political work, and deal with the impulse he gave to 
 
 86
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 87 
 
 me and many others when he had time to become known 
 in his new surroundings. 
 
 I first was introduced to liim by Mr. James Maitland 
 Campbell, a fellow student at Melbourne University. 
 He was the son of the Rev. A. J. Campbell, of Geelong, 
 and had been one of Mr. Balfour's class; and some time 
 after Balfour had become a Member of the Session in 
 Chalmers' Church, Campbell and other young men 
 beyond the Bible-class age, whom he had known in 
 Geelong, found themselves working together in a Pres- 
 byterian Debating Society, which was at that time doing 
 good work in preparing men for public life as speakers. 
 Such a group naturally attracted Balfour's attention, and 
 in 1865 Campbell introduced me to him. 1 was then in 
 the Government Shorthand Writer's Department, but 
 had been incited by my superior in the office, Mr. George 
 Bell, to devote my leisure time to study for the Degree 
 of B.A. in the University of Melbourne. I had matricu- 
 lated in 1864, and was now in my first year, as Campbell 
 also was. Balfour highly approved of my enterprise, 
 and manifested the warmest interest in my work ; showing 
 me the most extraordinary kindness, as Mrs. Balfour 
 also did. 
 
 At that time he was 35 years of age, tall and slim in 
 figure, as he always remained, with thick dark beard 
 and moustache. His manner to us younger men was 
 most attractive, absolutely simple, full of camaraderie 
 and genuine goodwill. His walk and general move- 
 ments were very quick and active, and, grave as were 
 the subjects he loved best to dwell upon, his face never 
 failed to respond to any gleam of youthful mirth. His 
 ringing laugh too was a thing to remember. Anyone 
 less like the Puritan of the Press or the Stage it would 
 be impossible to find. Yet he believed, as the Puritans 
 did, in ordering life by the highest imaginable standards 
 of righteousness and purity. But he obviously felt no
 
 88 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 rancour against those who scorned and repudiated those 
 ideals. His warm humanity kept him in touch with all 
 sorts and conditions of men ; and, though he never failed, 
 sooner or later, to hoist his own flag, he never, so far 
 as I saw, roused permanent resentment in those who 
 might have felt rebuked by the standard he set up. 
 When he came among the young men of Chalmers' 
 Church, he joined in our Saturday football, and went 
 with us to the gymnasium. He introduced us too to his 
 family life with a freedom which no other man in his 
 position known to us ever thought of. The result was 
 that he made it impossible for us not to see that the 
 Christian life — for none of us could doubt that his life 
 ^ was that — was for him not a restraint, but a joy. Most 
 of us had had the inestimable advantage of Christian 
 nurture, and we were well enough disposed, but we were 
 "hanging in the wind" somewhat, not certain of our 
 course. Under these circumstances it was of inestimable 
 value for us that we met, just then, such a man as Bal- 
 four. 
 
 He was transparently sincere. In every act and at 
 every moment he tried to do God's will. Yet withal he 
 was so generous in his sympathies, so kind in his acts, 
 so ready to enjoy, that we felt Christianity to be the 
 most humane system of belief and thought that we had 
 come in contact with. Having known him, we could 
 afford to smile at the caricatures of Christianity as a 
 sour and censorious superstition, which are current 
 among those who call themselves men of the world. 
 Moreover, he soon made himself the centre of our world. 
 He was most sympathetic to any discoveries we made of 
 new poets, such as young men are always making. He 
 entered with heart and soul into all our discoveries of 
 mighty words spoken by the great writers of our country. 
 But without thrusting the Bible upon us, he kept it 
 always in our view both as a standard in literature and
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 89 
 
 as the Word of God which was Hving and powerful to 
 touch men's lives "to their finest issues." Then, when 
 the time was ripe, when we began to make him the con- 
 fidant of our doubts and our counsellor in difficulties, in 
 earnest talks when he was walking home with one of us, 
 or on quiet Sunday evenings in the verandah of his 
 house, he pressed home, with infinite delicacy and 
 scrupulous respect for our personalities, the need of a 
 definite relation to Jesus Christ. At each Communion 
 season, which at that time in the Presbyterian Church 
 was once in three months, he had natural opportunities, 
 quite unforced so far as he was concerned, for bringing 
 the duty of decision before us, with the result that almost 
 all, if not all, "Balfour's boys," as some merchants of 
 his standing who could not understand his devotion to 
 them, derisively called them, received from him the deci- 
 sive impulse which gave them a faith and hope which 
 have been the guiding-star of their lives. That debt is 
 the greatest which one man can owe to another ; and they 
 felt that, under God, "he had set their feet upon a rock 
 and established their goings." If men "live by admira- 
 tion, hope and love," he gave them life, for all these 
 were deeply interwoven with their friendship for him. 
 
 Bwt it was not only young men who found religion 
 made attractive by him. One fine man of maturer years, 
 a good deal older than Balfour, with whom both he and 
 we younger men were much in contact in these days, 
 declared more than once that knowing Balfour had 
 enabled him to believe in God and Christ when amid 
 many trials he was about to let faith slip. But it was 
 young men he specially attracted, for he was continually 
 on the alert to help and benefit them. In these years, 
 it was his practice to take with him some youth, either a 
 clerk in the firm's office or some other friend, on any 
 trip he took into the country. One example occurs to 
 me among many. The firm had purchased a large
 
 90 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 quantity of land for grazing purposes, and he was cast- 
 ing somewhat longing looks towards a country life. He 
 had to visit this land, which was in the Ararat region, 
 near the Grampians. In describing the somewhat hazard- 
 ous journey, he adds quietly at the end, "One of our 
 clerks was my companion, and I have left him for a 
 week or so on the station." On a later occasion he asked 
 my youngest brother John to accompany him on a visit 
 to Round Hill, Mr. Henty's station in the Riverina 
 country of New South Wales. Now the journey can 
 be done in a few hours by train, but then it was a 
 formidable affair, first to Echuca, then up the river to 
 Albury in a steamer. They left Echuca on Thursday 
 afternoon, arrived at Wahgunyah on Saturday evening, 
 spent the Sunday there to Balfour's great satisfaction, 
 for above most things he loved what he called a "quiet 
 Sunday." All Monday they were moving up the river, 
 and were at Albury in the evening. Tuesday they spent 
 in and around Albury, and then they drove the 35 miles 
 between Albury and Round Hill on Wednesday in a 
 hired buggy, taking 9 hours for the transit. They were 
 thus 6 days on a journey which can now be done in as 
 many hours, and were ready to enjoy the rest. 
 
 In a letter from Round Hill to me he gives an account 
 of their doings which shows how young he was in 
 spirit and how thoroughly he sympathised with ;the 
 gaiety of young men. "We have been enjoying our- 
 selves as much as possible. The weather has been fine, 
 and we have been initiated into the mysteries of squatting 
 within the last few days. John has even tried his hand 
 at sheep-shearing during the last few days, for which 
 he had to pay his footing, and when I tell you that there 
 is going at present, drafting, washing, shearing, class- 
 ing, wool-pressing, mustering, branding, loading drays, 
 marking bales, mending dams ; and, as we had last night 
 dancing and singing to the music of a German band
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 91 
 
 which passed this way, you will see that we are nearly 
 as lively as in Melbourne. We occupy ourselves walk- 
 ing, riding, sleeping, resting, eating, drinking, bathing 
 in the creek, reading about Red Indians and grinning 
 panthers, and in sundry other matters such as turning 
 over an extempore gymnastic bar and tearing our 
 trousers, and in sky-larking at 5 in the morning. The 
 country is looking beautiful, and, though there are more 
 than 40,000 sheep on the run, there seems to be no end 
 of grass. We are both getting as jolly as sand-boys, as 
 fat as Dan Lambert, and dark as aborigines, so don't 
 expect to know us when we come back." 
 
 I had written to him about the illuminations which 
 were to celebrate the landing of the Duke of Edinburgh 
 in Melbourne. In the exuberance of his spirits he says : 
 "Of course keep the illumination back till we arrive. 
 We think of leaving this about Monday next, and should 
 get down before the end of next week. When the 'Juke' 
 hears this, he will, of course, delay his landing." But 
 the same letter ends as always, on the religious side. 
 "We had a quiet Sunday — we held a service in the Wool- 
 shed, and one in the evening in the house." 
 
 On a later occasion a year or two afterwards, Balfour 
 invited my brother to go with him again to Round Hill, 
 and while they were there the latter was attacked by 
 diphtheria in its most serious form. In those days the 
 modern treatment had not been discovered, and the 
 disease, which was terribly fatal, was dreaded, because 
 of its infectious character and its virulence. When it 
 was known that my brother was suffering from this 
 disease, not one of the servants would go near him, and 
 the whole of the nursing fell upon Balfour. Though 
 his was by far the most valuable life in the place, to his 
 family, to his firm, and to the country, he 
 gave no thought to that, but devoted himself 
 in an agony of apprehension for my brother's
 
 92 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 life, to attending upon iiim, night and day. 
 He sent off at once for a doctor from Albury, 35 miles 
 away, and set himself to fight the disease by work and 
 prayer. When the doctor came, the case looked almost 
 desperate and he advised Balfour to send for my mother. 
 She travelled by coach to Albury, a most exhausting 
 journey, and there a buggy was waiting to take her to 
 Round Hill. When she arrived she took most of the 
 nursing off his hands, so that he might rest; but the 
 crisis was already over. Balfour's watchfulness and 
 care had won the patient back from death. He wrote to 
 me of what had happened, but said no word, of course, 
 of the risks he had run and the toil he had endured. 
 It was only when my mother and brother returned that 
 I heard of what he had done, and how he had earned 
 our lasting gratitude. Thus he won the regard of the 
 whole group whom he had gathered round him. To 
 business men he was the high-placed reputable merchant ; 
 to Churchmen he was the grave and eloquent public 
 man ; but to us he was the revered adviser, the trusted 
 friend and confidant, and the always kind and gracious 
 comrade. Nay, he was more, he was the epistle of 
 Christ known and read of us all.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 POLITICAL LIFE— LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY. 
 
 But I must now turn to his entrance upon political 
 life. His quiet but active years in Geelong had prepared 
 him for political life as few were prepared. He had made 
 himself acquainted with the great staple industries of the 
 country, wool-growing and mining, by coming into 
 actual touch with them. His mercantile experiences had 
 compelled him to consider deeply the economic action of 
 the many changes which were being proposed. Further 
 he had lived through the early tumultuous times, and had 
 watched the immense influx to the gold-fields and then 
 the nearly equal reflux, which made a new land policy 
 and a reconsideration of tariff questions absolutely neces- 
 sary if open revolt was to be warded off. He had, 
 moreover, brought back from his travels a mind which 
 had noted the signs of disruption and civil war which 
 preceded the great American rebellion. Further, partly 
 by lecturing on his travels and by his religious teaching 
 work, he had developed his writing and speaking powers, 
 till they had reached a degree of effectiveness which I 
 have rarely seen surpassed in Australia. It was, there- 
 fore, inevitable that he should drift into politics, and that 
 too on the side which promised to establish the pros- 
 perity of the mass of the population. Balfour first stood 
 for Parliament in January, 1866, when the first 
 McCulloch Ministry appealed to the country on its 
 policy regarding mainly the Land Laws and Protection. 
 The constituency he stood for was a country one, the 
 Eastern section of the county of Bourke. He, with the 
 other supporter of the McCulloch Government, Mr. 
 
 93
 
 94 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 McGaw, was returned by a large majority, after a stiff 
 contest. During Balfour's canvass of the constituency 
 I often accompanied him to his meetings, and heard 
 many of his speeches. I had heard him speak well at 
 church and other meetings, and I expected he would 
 make a favourable impression by his addresses ; but the 
 effect far surpassed anything I had anticipated. His 
 speeches grew in pungency and power as his canvass 
 went on, till they became ideal political speeches, terse 
 and clear, instinct with conviction, lighted up by flashes 
 of genuine humour, and striking home by their eloquence 
 whenever that was in place. It was not surprising, 
 therefore, that, as soon as he was in the House, he was 
 selected to speak for the Ministry both in moving the 
 Address in reply to the Governor's speech and on later 
 occasions. 
 
 Though his political career in the Legislative 
 Assembly began at an exciting time, and he was soon 
 the centre of the storm, I should not enlarge upon it 
 were it not that Balfour's advocacy of the Darling 
 Grant, and his vigour in attacking the Legis- 
 lative Council, have been misinterpreted even by his 
 friends, and that they throw light upon his character. 
 The greatest constitutional struggle in the history of 
 Victoria was then at its height and he stood strongly, 
 as a man of his antecedents could not fail to do, on the 
 Liberal side. To understand this we must endeavour to 
 make clear what the essential questions at issue were. 
 The contemporary documents are not enlightening, for 
 there was high excitement on both sides, and on both 
 sides many things were said and done that obscured the 
 real issues for the disputants, and which tend to obscure 
 them for those who read of them now. Unfortunately, 
 also, the main histories written since are so obstinately 
 one-sided that they are useful only so far as they 
 chronicle facts, for their persistent blackening of the
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 95 
 
 conduct and motives of the other side shows that the 
 writers had no insight into the purposes of their 
 opponents. But in our calmer time it should be possible 
 to do justice to both sides in a conflict which had its 
 origin in circumstances beyond the control of any man, 
 or set of men. 
 
 Briefly, the issues were three; free access to the lands 
 for agriculturists ; protection for native industries ; and, 
 as a corollary to these, the rights of the Legislative 
 Council and the Legislative Assembly respectively 
 under the new Constitution. 
 
 In the first place, the land question is to be considered. 
 The cardinal fact in respect to that was that up till 1846 
 the pastoral tenants of the Crown had no tenure. They 
 held the land only by annual license; and it could be put 
 up for sale at the end of any year. At first this caused 
 no difficulty ; but, when the population increased and the 
 demand for land for agricultural purposes arose, the 
 pastoralists began to demand some tenure. At the 
 instance of Governor Gipps, who had returned to 
 England in that year. Earl Grey passed a Waste Lands 
 Act for Australia which gave a 14 years' tenure to the 
 squatters. Under that Act, Orders in Council were issued 
 for New South Wales, which then included Victoria, 
 and so, as Jose says in his History of Australasia, "the 
 squatters' troubles were appeased by an Imperial Act, 
 which allowed them to lease their runs for a fixed period 
 with the right to buy what they wanted at j£i per acre be- 
 fore any one else" ; for this was the meaning of the pre- 
 emptive right the Orders in Council conferred. From 
 that moment the struggle between the agriculturist and 
 the pastoralist began to grow bitter, and movements 
 were made by the squatters to turn their leases into 
 freehold. They lost no time in pushing their advantage, 
 and in 1849 obtained a new Order in Council which made 
 pastoral leases transferable, a step which Rusden says
 
 96 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 "rendered it more difficult than before to withstand the 
 efforts made in the Colony and England, to convert the 
 temporary pastoral license into the equivalent of any 
 assignable freehold." 
 
 When things were in this sufficiently unsatisfactory 
 state, the slow natural development of the community, 
 which might have given time for the gradual and peace- 
 ful settlement of the difficult questions which were loom- 
 ing upon the horizon, was interrupted by the discovery 
 of gold (1851). That flooded the land suddenly with 
 multitudes of emigrants, men of all trades and of none, 
 who swarmed into the country to dig for gold. At 
 first no capital and no machinery were needed. Power 
 to dig, a pick, a pan, and a "cradle" were all that was 
 necessary, and every man who went to the goldfields 
 might hope to make a sudden fortune. In the first few 
 years many did ; but, when the alluvial gold, that washed 
 down from the gold-bearing rocks by the rivers, was 
 exhausted, the whole character of the gold-digging was 
 changed. The gold-bearing reefs had then to be at- 
 tacked, and to do that machinery, capital, and scientific 
 skill were absolutely necessary. In a few years, there- 
 fore, the business fell into the hands of companies, and 
 the individual gold-digger had to accept the position of 
 a labourer. Many refused to take that position ; in 
 any case the number of labourers required was much 
 smaller than the number of men on the goldfields. 
 Consequently, the outflow of the people to the goldfields 
 was checked, and a reflux into the towns took place. 
 Thereupon a natural and perfectly reasonable demand 
 arose that land should be opened up freely and at once 
 for agriculture in order that the immensely increased 
 population might be fed and employed. 
 
 Had there been a century of time at the disposal of 
 the governing powers, doubtless the British genius for 
 compromise in political matters would gradually and
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 97 
 
 quietly have worked out some tolerable solution. But 
 there was no time at all. The people were there, needing 
 to be fed, and demanding immediate employment, and 
 their demands had to be met, otherwise evil would most 
 certainly befall the colony. But vested interests stood 
 in the way. We have seen (how the claims of the 
 pastoral tenants of the Crown had grown from a yearly 
 license to something like a freehold ; and, when the 
 imperious demand for land for agriculture arose, as a 
 body the pastoral tenants of the Crown resisted it, claim- 
 ing pre-emptive rights. Now there can be no question 
 that as a mere question of law, the Orders in Council 
 had given them ground to stand on. Perhaps they had 
 a legal right to block the access of the people to the land ; 
 and the extreme men among them, those who had either 
 not heard or did not believe that summum jus might 
 sometimes be summa injuria, pressed their claims. How 
 far they had pressed them even before the discovery 
 of gold may be learned from a case reported by Mr. 
 Rusden (Vol. II., p. 521), in which the sale of suburban 
 lands well adapted for agriculture was blocked near 
 Kyneton by squatters, who had occupied the land before 
 the Orders in Council, claiming the right to buy these 
 lands at jC^ per acre, though the pre-emptive right they 
 asserted was given only by these Orders. To this claim 
 the Government yielded. Consequently, as the Govern- 
 ment would not press the letter of the law against the 
 squatters and the squatters pressed it against the Govern- 
 ment, they won. Two years later it was said that the 
 squatters' claims would, if yielded to, hand over 60 
 millions of acres to less than 800 persons. Such demands 
 forced upon this small new community the world-wade, 
 age-long conflict between the pastoralist and the agri- 
 culturist which had led to the situation which the Gracchi, 
 in ancient Rome, had had to face ; and here, as there, 
 it led to revolution. In the conflict which ensued it was
 
 98 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 curious not only to see all the old questions revived, but 
 to be able almost to recognise the ancient champions of 
 the two sides, as living once more in their successors. 
 When full representative Government was granted to 
 the Australian Colonies, therefore, one of the first things 
 that had to be done was to find some reasonable settle- 
 ment of the land question and to get the agricultural 
 lands occupied by agriculturists. 
 
 When responsible Government was given to Victoria 
 and the lands and all that was in them were given to 
 that Government, many were sanguine enough to believe 
 that now all would be well. Balfour was one of these, 
 for in a lecture already referred to, which he delivered 
 in Regent Square in 1859, after describing the above 
 state of things, he says: "Happily, much of this evil 
 has been removed. We have now liberty to deal with 
 the land question for ourselves. The outrageous claims 
 of the squatters have been withdrawn, and all the more 
 intelligent of them now admit that, whenever the land 
 is required for agricultural purposes, they must at once 
 give way, compensation being claimed only for actual 
 improvements. Lands are now freely sold by Govern- 
 ment at auction at a minimum upset price of ;£i per 
 acre. The Orders in Council are obsolete, and a new 
 age is inaugurated. Much still requires to be done, 
 doubtless, both to give the small farmer easy access to 
 suitable land, and to grant some fixed tenure to the 
 squatter for the occupation of his run, and this will 
 afford work for our Legislators." That expectation was 
 not fulfilled, and Balfour was to learn by personal 
 experience the difficulty of settling the claims of con- 
 tending classes, and how revolution had to be faced in 
 attempting it. 
 
 With regard to the encouragement of manufactures, 
 the opposing vested interests would never have arisen had 
 the manufacturers of Great Britain and the Melbourne
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 99 
 
 merchants acted fairly by the nascent industries of Vic- 
 toria. The present writer is, and has always been, a 
 Free Trader, but, unless the Free Traders are also Fair 
 Traders, experience has taught him that the establish- 
 ment of manufacturing industries in a new and small 
 community is impossible. The first Protectionists in 
 Victoria were reproved in despatches from Britain for 
 trying to establish industries which would not naturally 
 flourish, and which could supply their needs only by 
 making the protected community pay more than was 
 necessary for the goods manufactured. But that was 
 not the way in which colonial protection arose. The 
 first attempts at Australian manufacturing were made in 
 precisely those things the production of which was 
 natural. Our great staples then were tallow and wool, 
 and the first native industries attempted were candles 
 and woollen cloth. We had the raw material here, and it 
 was thought the cost of the double voyage, that of the 
 raw material to Britain, and that of the finished article to 
 Australia, would enable us to sell our goods at a price 
 to make manufacture profitable. That was actually the 
 case; and, had there been more foresight and fairness in 
 the minds of the British manufacturers and merchants, 
 Australia might never have been a Protected country. 
 But the only thing the English makers and the Aus- 
 tralian importers of candles and woollens saw was, that 
 if these infant industries were successful they would lose 
 the Australian market in these things. Therefore, 
 immediately they heard of the attempts, they shipped 
 candles and woollens to Australia, and sold them below 
 cost price till the new manufactories were ruined, and 
 then, having quashed competition, they raised the price 
 of their goods so as to recoup themselves for their losses, 
 and to increase their ordinary profit. More than once 
 this was done; and the result was that the British manu- 
 facturers who did this for their own immediate profit
 
 loo JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 soon saw, not only themselves, but all British merchants 
 shut out from Australia by a tariff wall which has grown 
 only higher with the years. Most unwillingly, therefore, 
 but inevitably. Free Traders like Sir James McCulloch 
 and Mr. Higinbotham were driven to propose first 
 bounties and then duties, and to entangle their country 
 in the meshes of a commercial system the escape from 
 which when once entered upon has yet to be found. 
 
 But, besides these formidable vested interests, the 
 legitimate demands of the population in those days were 
 hampered, if not entirely blocked, by the form of Con- 
 stitution which had been adopted. The intention had 
 been to introduce a bi-cameral system after the British 
 model, the two Houses having respectively the powers 
 of the House of Commons and the House of Lords. 
 That was comparatively easy where the Upper House 
 in the Colonial Parliament was nominated by the Govern- 
 ment. All that was necessary to secure harmony when 
 difficulties arose was that there should be power given 
 to add members who were in sympathy with the majority 
 in the Lower House. But in Victoria the Legislative 
 Council was elective and indissoluble ; that is to say, a 
 certain number retired at intervals, but the whole Upper 
 House could not at any one time be sent to the electors, as 
 the Lower House could be. In practical working, this 
 gave the Upper House power to send members of the 
 other House to their constituents, while the Lower House 
 could not retaliate. Moreover, the property qualification 
 for both electors and members of the Council was very 
 high : for the former ;^'ioo per annum, and for the 
 latter the possession of ;^5ooo. The result was that the 
 Upper House represented a mere minority of the popula- 
 tion 
 
 To give such a House the powers of the House of 
 Lords, without the check which the power to create peers 
 provided, was to court disaster ; for, as Professor Morris,
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. loi 
 
 in his "Memoir of George Higinbotham," says, "A 
 contest between the two Houses, if the Assembly was 
 supported by the constituencies, meant a conflict between 
 the will of the people and the will of the moneyed class." 
 In other words the representatives of the squatters and 
 the commercial classes, those interested in refusing access 
 to the lands and protection to native industries, were by 
 the Constitution posted in an intrenched camp across 
 the paths of national progress. From such an impasse, 
 the only issue was by some kind of revolution. As if 
 that were not enough, there was added this other com- 
 plication, that the three parties to the Constitutional 
 Government of the Colonies — the Imperial Government, 
 their representative the Governor, and the Colonial 
 Cabinets, were all new to their work and did not at 
 first see clearly the necessary limits of their interference 
 with each other. In such circumstances, it was certain 
 beforehand that the British Ministers would meddle too 
 much and that the Colonial Ministers would be beyond 
 measure sensitive as to their independent powers. Further 
 it was obvious that the Governor, occupying the anomal- 
 ous position of having to act the part of a constitutional 
 sovereign to his Colonial Ministries, and that also of 
 a public servant under the control of the British Minister 
 for Colonial affairs, was bound to fail, sooner or later, 
 to meet the demands made upon him. 
 
 It was not strange, therefore, that difficulties arose in 
 Victoria, and it is easy to see, and to say, that both 
 parties to the strife had justification for their attitude. 
 As in so many other historical situations it may be said 
 that both were right and the strife was only the keener 
 and more tragical for that. But if we ask with which 
 side the welfare of the people was bound up, and that 
 surely is the ultimate question, there can now be no 
 doubt, I think, that the Liberal Party, as it was then 
 called, was in the right. The land had to be opened to
 
 102 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 agriculture, and that, too, at once; and this was done. 
 Native industry had to have a chance to raise its head ; 
 therefore some form of protection had to be given, and 
 was given. Lastly the conditions under which represen- 
 tative government could be given to subordinate States 
 under the rule of a higher Representative Government 
 had to be worked out, and the limits of Imperial inter- 
 ference reduced to a workable point ; and these things 
 also were gradually done with a minimum of revolution. 
 For the details, Morris's "Memoir of George Higin- 
 botham" may be consulted; for, though it is a life of the 
 protagonist on one side, its statement of the main facts 
 seems to me to be entirely reliable. 
 
 But, though all ended well for the Colony, in the 
 process the Governor, Sir Charles Darling, was ruined, 
 though to the unbiassed judge of his actions and 
 despatches, it must, I think, appear that he acted rightly, 
 on the whole, in extraordinarily difficult circumstances. 
 But political feeling was exacerbated to a most extra- 
 ordinary degree, and when the minority had been 
 defeated again and again in their own State, they called 
 upon the home Government to give them victory over 
 the great majority of their fellow-countrymen. They had 
 more influence in this direction than they should have 
 had; because, for one thing, the British Ministers for 
 Colonial affairs were such ardent Free Traders that they 
 seemed to wish the Governor to become active in hinder- 
 ing the introduction of Protection. As the Governor 
 could not, and would not, do this, and had not in other 
 matters acted as the British Minister, without experience 
 of the facts, thought he should have acted, some extreme 
 expressions in a despatch written in reply to a complaint 
 made against him by 22 ex-Ministers for the Crown were 
 made the excuse for his recall, with no prospect of further 
 employment. It was said that, after what he had said 
 about these gentlemen, he could not work with them
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 103 
 
 politically. That this was not the real reason, is shown 
 by the fact that he was at the moment when he was being 
 recalled actually working with some of them. However, 
 he was recalled. 
 
 It was obvious that the Ministry whose advice he had 
 as a constitutional Governor followed in the actions 
 censured, and the people of the Colony whom that 
 Ministry represented, could not let him be ruined without 
 compensation. Of this, Balfour, who had approved of 
 the Governor's action throughout, was convinced, and 
 he gladly undertook to bring the matter forward. He 
 accordingly moved (May ist, 1866) : "That a Select 
 Committee be appointed to prepare an address to His 
 Excellency Sir Charles Darling ; and to consider and 
 report on the steps this House should take with reference 
 to his being relieved from his position as Officer adminis- 
 tering Her Majesty's Government in this Colony." This 
 was carried by 49 votes to 15 after a three days' debate. 
 Balfour's speech on the occasion, the second he made in 
 Parliament, was calm and absolutely free from person- 
 alities. Even the "Argus" (Wednesday, May 2nd, 
 i866) said : "No exception could be taken to the manner 
 in which the Hon. Member for East Bourke, Mr. Bal- 
 four, introduced his motion yesterday evening. To do 
 the Hon. Member justice, there was not only an entire 
 absence of asperity in his manner, but even in his most 
 emphatic utterances an evident concern not to wound the 
 feelings of those politically opposed to him. It is also 
 due to Mr. Balfour to say that in this his first formal 
 motion in the Assembly, he displayed an amount of 
 logical ability and eloquence which give favourable 
 promise for the future. We could wish that he had 
 chosen a more worthy theme for his first conspicuous 
 essay ; for, while willing to concede that he was animated 
 by a creditable regard for the Governor, in the unfor- 
 tunate position in which he was placed, we cannot
 
 104 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 compliment the Hon. Member on his political sagacity 
 or even his candour. Mr. Balfour had carefully culled 
 passages from Sir Charles Darling's despatches in which 
 His Excellency disavows any participation in the action 
 of his Ministers in reference to the 'tack,' and even 
 expresses regret that the Assembly should have 
 sanctioned such a course. But it was not in Mr. Balfour's 
 power to show that His Excellency had ever remonstrated 
 with his advisers as to the course they intended to take 
 in this particular, as we conceive he was bound to do." 
 Nevertheless, it was a most convincing defence of Sir 
 Charles Darling on every one of the points for which 
 he had been censured by Mr. Cardwell, who then had 
 charge of Colonial affairs in Britain. It also demon- 
 strated how crude and impossible were the theories held 
 there, at that time, as to the duty of a British Governor 
 in a Colony possessing constitutional government. For 
 a new member it was a most creditable effort, and made 
 an impression even upon a House which was accustomed 
 to the penetrating and powerful eloquence of Mr. Higin- 
 botham, one of the few really great orators Australia 
 has possessed. Later, he presented the copy of an 
 Address to Sir Charles Darling prepared by this Com- 
 mittee which, in few and well-chosen words, set forth 
 the unprecedented difficulties by which he had been beset, 
 his steadfast adherence to the principles of constitutional 
 government in determining to rule by the advice of his 
 responsible Ministers, and thanked him for saving the 
 Colony from anarchy. On moving this, Balfour made 
 no speech, nor did any of the supporters of the Address ; 
 but it was carried by 45 to 19. Finally, on the 8th May, 
 1866, he brought up the second part of the Committee's 
 report, which was "That, in consideration of the services 
 which His Excellency Sir Charles Darling has rendered 
 in the administration of the Government of Victoria, 
 from which he has been recalled for political reasons only,
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 105 
 
 and seeing that his removal will entail upon his family 
 very heavy pecuniary loss, they have agreed to recom- 
 mend that a grant of ;^20,ooo be made to Lady Darling 
 for her separate use." He informed the House that, 
 since the Report had been prepared, the Governor had 
 intimated that Lady Darling would be precluded from 
 accepting any grant until the Governor should have first 
 ascertained whether Her Majesty might be pleased to 
 signify any commands thereon. He, therefore, moved 
 that an address be presented to the Queen humbly 
 praying Her Majesty "to sanction the acceptance of the 
 proposed grant to Lady Darling." Later, the British 
 Government decided that the grant could not be accepted 
 so long as Sir Charles remained in the Government 
 Service. Thereupon, he resigned and the vote was 
 carried in the Lower House, and placed in the Appro- 
 priation Bill, as it clearly might be. The Upper House 
 rejected the Appropriation Bill, the Ministry resigned; 
 no successors to them could be found, and a prorogation 
 of Parliament took place in order that the Appropriation 
 Bill with the grant might be sent up again. Again it 
 was rejected, and a dissolution of Parliament followed 
 on December 30th, 1867. 
 
 The General Election took place in February, 1868, 
 and the Ministry was returned with a following of 60 
 instead of 58 in a House of 78 members. A more 
 emphatic endorsement by the country of the Ministerial 
 conduct could hardly be conceived. Balfour had gone 
 before his old constituency, and had been returned with 
 an increased majority. Like others of those who had 
 been prominent on the Ministerial side, he had been 
 fiercely attacked, and in the most subtle manner at the 
 disposal of the Opposition press. They built a fanciful 
 character of him, as a sour, self-righteous, tyrannical 
 Puritan, an enemy of joy who wished to force his own 
 gloomy religion upon all and sundry, and they estimated ,
 
 io6 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 and criticised all he did from that point of view till those 
 who did not know him actually thought him to be this. 
 The present writer assisted him in this election, and 
 had the pleasure of seeing this ''idol" of the newspaper 
 "cave" dissipated by his bright and cheery presence and 
 the brilliant and incisive speeches he delivered till the 
 canvass became almost a triumphal progress. On one 
 occasion in a bush inn, where a meeting had been held, 
 a countryman asked: "Is that the Balfour that the 
 Melbourne papers are always abusing?" The reply 
 was: "Yes." Again the question was eagerly put: 
 "But are you really sure?" "Yes, it is he undoubtedly.' 
 Then, as his face lighted up, the voter said, "He isn't a 
 bit like what they say. I'll vote for him." That must 
 have been a very frequent experience for him in those 
 days and afterwards. Some might not approve of the 
 course he took at various times in public life ; but all 
 who really came into contact with him felt the attractive- 
 ness of his personality ; and his transparent sincerity and 
 unselfishness removed all doubt as to his good faith or 
 his toleration. After that experience, they might think 
 him mistaken, but never gloomy or tyrannical or in- 
 sincere. 
 
 But the decisive victory of the Ministry brought no 
 settlement of the political difficulties. The Home 
 Government intervened and in such a manner as to show 
 how serious was the danger to constitutional Govern- 
 ment — against which the Lower House was fighting. 
 The incident as recorded in Morris's "Memoir" is very 
 clearly and succinctly stated, and, as Rusden sub- 
 stantiates the facts, I shall quote from Morris: "Mean- 
 while the master of the Colonies, the man whose province 
 it was to instruct governors and tell them how to rule, 
 had been changed. His Grace the Duke of Buckingham 
 and Chandos had succeeded to Lord Carnarvon. The 
 difficulty of attempting to govern a Colony by despatches
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 107 
 
 that took about two months to come, and started at 
 intervals of a month, written by some one at a distance 
 from the scene of action, who could hardly be fully 
 informed, could not be better illustrated than in the 
 two despatches, penned, or it would be more correct to 
 say, signed by His Grace on the ist January, and on 
 the ist February, 1868. The former said: "You ought 
 not again to recommend the vote to the acceptance of 
 the Legislature. . . except on a clear understanding that 
 it will be brought before the Legislative Council in a 
 manner which will enable them to exercise their dis- 
 cretion respecting it without the necessity of throwing 
 the Colony into confusion. If I refrain from giving you 
 a positive instruction to this effect, it is only because 
 I am unwilling to bind you irrevocably to a specific 
 course of conduct under circumstances which may have 
 materially changed before this despatch reaches you." 
 The latter said : "The proposed grant, whatever opinion 
 may be formed of its policy or propriety, is not so clear 
 and unmistakable a violation of the existing rule as to 
 call for the extreme measure of forbidding the Governor 
 to be party under the advice of his responsible Ministers 
 to those formal acts which are necessary to bring the 
 grant under the consideration of Parliament." The 
 second despatch went on to suggest that the Legislative 
 Council should no longer continue to oppose itself to the 
 ascertained wishes of the community. When we reflect 
 that if the first of these despatches had come last and the 
 last first, the Darling grant might have been passed, 
 and that, since they came in the reverse order, the 
 Ministry had to resign, we see that this state of things 
 could not possibly continue. But, though the Govern- 
 ment had sixty votes out of a possible seventy-eight 
 behind it, it was powerless. Naturally, a crisis which 
 lasted many months ensued, for the end of such mis- 
 chievous interference had to be fought for ; but, if the
 
 io8 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 Government was powerless, so were the Governor and 
 the Opposition. A minority of i8 out of 78 could not 
 form a Ministry, and for two months the Lower House 
 met only to adjourn. 
 
 Eventually a new Ministry was formed under Sir 
 Charles Sladen. Just when it was preparing to face 
 the question of the Darling Grant, it was announced 
 that Sir Charles Darling had re-entered the Colonial 
 Service. Thereupon, he received certain lapsed emolu- 
 ments from the Victorian Government, and a pension of 
 ;^iooo a year from the Colonial Office, dating from 24th 
 October, 1866; and when he died four years later, a Bill 
 was passed in Victoria through both Houses, conferring 
 a pension of ;^iooo a year on Lady Darling, together with 
 a sum of ^5000 for the education of her children. This 
 unanimity at last was partly due to kindly feeling, but 
 there was in it also an acknowledgment that the 
 Governor had been placed in an impossible position, and 
 had suffered for the sms of others more than for his own. 
 Ten years later the justification of those who pressed 
 the Darling grant was published in Todd's Parliamen- 
 tary Government in the Colonies (Ed. 1880, p. 121 ; See 
 Morris, p. 140), where a summary of some despatches 
 of Governor Manners Sutton, who had been specially 
 chosen for his knowledge of English Parliamentary prac- 
 tice, is given thus : "The Governor could not but confess 
 that, without undervaluing the status of the Legislative 
 Council, they were in their persistent opposition to this 
 grant asserting a claim which the House of Lords under 
 similar circumstances would not have preferred." Un- 
 fortunately, since then the House of Lords has preferred 
 it, by rejecting a budget; and the result has been the 
 threat of a drastic reform of the House of Lords, which 
 war alone has prevented the English people from carry- 
 ing out. 
 
 The only other great political question in which Balfour
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 109 
 
 took keen interest while in the Assembly was that of 
 Education. He had been appointed a Member of the 
 Board of Education soon after his removal from Geelong 
 to Melbourne. But, though he had loyally worked under 
 the old system, he was fully convinced that national 
 education was superior to denominational; and, when, in 
 1866, Mr. Higinbotham brought in a Bill for Nationalis- 
 ing Education, he followed every step of its progress 
 with the warmest sympathy and interest, though, owing 
 to his absence in New Zealand when the Bill was brought 
 in, he did not speak on it in the House. The main 
 principles of the Bill are briefly stated in Morris, p. 146 : 
 (i) Enactment of a law making instruction of children 
 compulsory upon parents. 
 
 (2) Appointment of a Minister of Public Education. 
 
 (3) Establishment of Public Schools from which 
 
 sectarian teaching shall be excluded by express 
 legislative enactment, and in which religious 
 teaching shall be in like manner sanctioned and 
 encouraged. 
 
 (4) Local Committees to have control of teachers under 
 
 minister. 
 
 (5) Establishment of a training school for teachers. 
 
 (6) Annual exhibitions at grammar schools to be given 
 
 to pupils of public schools. 
 Most of these provisions have now been generally 
 adopted, but two of them, Nos. 3 and 4, perhaps the most 
 important of all, here appear for the last time in any 
 responsible statesman's programme, and they appeared 
 only to be rejected. The rock upon which the Bill split 
 was the third provision, for which Balfour was always, 
 from then until his death, enthusiastically eager. It 
 added greatly to his regard for Mr. Higinbotham to find 
 him advocating, with his lofty eloquence, the claims of 
 religion in education. But the Bill was doomed from 
 the first. The Roman Catholic Church was, of course,
 
 no JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 against the proposal to establish schools not under its 
 own control ; and the Anglican Church also cast its vote 
 against it at the last moment, when there was no time to 
 organise in its support. That sealed its fate ; and that 
 one act of Bishop Perry (for it was largely his act) 
 probably did more to retard moral and spiritual progress 
 in Victoria than any act done by the professed opponents 
 of both during his long and in other respects beneficent 
 Episcopate. Nothing in his public life grieved Balfour 
 more than this. He foresaw, as Higinbotham did, that 
 such an offer on the part of the State would not be re- 
 newed, and he traced the origin of the Secular Bill 
 which was introduced in 1870, and enacted in the end 
 of 1872, directly to this "great refusal." Later, public 
 men imitated the embittered Higinbotham in attributing 
 the rejection of this great measure to the hostility of the 
 ' religious bodies (for this purpose always called "sects"). 
 But the truth is that the Roman Catholics and the 
 Anglicans were the only "sects" who rejected the Bill; 
 while the Presbyterian, Congregational, Baptist, and 
 Methodist Churches were all warmly in favour of it; 
 and, with their help, Mr. Higinbotham, if he had not 
 "prematurely despaired," might in a later session have 
 carried the most statesmanlike and most effective Educa- 
 tion Bill Victoria has ever known.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 TRAVELS. 
 
 In the midst of the turmoil of his first Session in Pak- 
 liament, an accident happened to Balfour which was 
 definitely to end his political career in the Lower House. 
 While playing football with the young men who were 
 his friends one of his eyes was somewhat severely injured. 
 At first it seemed a trifle, but the inflammation set up 
 by the blow would not yield to treatment, and he was 
 peremptorily ordered to rest his sight in the early months 
 of 1867. He made his first effort in this direction by 
 taking a trip to New Zealand. At that time I had over- 
 worked, in my efforts to pass my second year at the 
 University, and was in a somewhat precarious state of 
 health after I had accomplished my task. Balfour urged 
 me to come with him, as he put it, to act as his reader 
 and amanuensis, but really because he saw how fagged 
 I was. Possibly, too, he saw that a larger experience 
 of the world than any that had yet fallen to my lot 
 would be valuable to me. Whether he foresaw that or 
 not, it was so ; and I look back upon the six weeks of that 
 journey as an educational influence of the first import- 
 ance. We left Melbourne on the afternoon of Monday, 
 15th April, 1867, and, after a prosperous voyage, we 
 reached the Bluff, the harbour of Invercargill, at dawn 
 on Saturday. 
 
 It was a lovely windless morning and the steamer was 
 moving swiftly up the calm harbour when suddenly there 
 was a long harsh rasping sound. The vessel stopped 
 almost at once, and the masts went forward with the 
 action of a bullock whip when it is being cracked, and 
 there we were hard and fast upon a reef hitherto un- 
 
 111
 
 112 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 charted. Of course there was great and instant alarm 
 among the passengers ; but the only person who disgraced 
 himself was a man who had made himself offensive by 
 his rude and boisterous infidel talk. He, in contrast to 
 the female passengers who were quietly courageous, was 
 panic-stricken, and went down upon his knees to weep 
 and seek the aid in this time of stress of the God he had 
 been blaspheming. Happily, Captain Darke, the com- 
 mander of the ship, was a capable and courageous sailor. 
 Facing all risks, he backed the ship off the reef, and, 
 though she immediately sprang a leak of formidable 
 proportions, he got her safely up to the wharf before 
 serious harm had been done. The passengers all 
 landed, of course, and some decided to trust the ship 
 no more, but to go by land from Invercargill to Dunedin. 
 We did not make up our minds, but went to Invercargill, 
 spent the day there, and finally decided to return to the 
 steamer. When we arrived we found that most energetic 
 means had been taken to deal with the leak. It had been 
 ascertained that a sharp tooth of rock had pierced the 
 hull and torn it just as a piece of cloth is torn by a thorn. 
 Into the gap timber and cement had been forced, and 
 outside a thick sail had been passed round the hull, and 
 the Captain assured us that he could take us safely to 
 Dunedin. W^ith his usual courage, Balfour decided for 
 this, and we left the Bluff in the evening, watching 
 anxiously to see whether the stoppage of the leak had 
 been successful. All night the pumps were kept hard 
 at work, pouring out clean sea-water into the sea, for a 
 good deal was still coming in ; but, as all the timorous 
 passengers were gone, though we had some anxiety, 
 there were no more scenes, and on Sunday we arrived 
 safely at Dunedin. There our connection with the 
 "Rangitoto" ceased, as she had to go on next day, while 
 we were to spend at least a week in the city. We heard, 
 however, that she reached Lyttelton, the port of Christ-
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 113 
 
 church, and sank at her moorings, alongside the wharf, 
 so that anxiety had not been altogether unwarranted. 
 
 As the object of the tour was, for both of those con- 
 cerned, recuperation and rest, though there was much 
 to interest a keen Liberal politician like Balfour in the 
 state of public affairs in New Zealand, he gave no more 
 than passing attention to the crisis which Mr. Cardwell 
 was producing in that Colony, very much on the lines 
 of the crisis he had caused in Victoria, Sir George Grey, 
 the ablest and most farsighted Governor New Zealand 
 ever had, being the victim, in place of Sir Charles Darl- 
 ing. We visited the chief towns, Dunedin, Christ- 
 church, Wellington and Auckland, moving on every few 
 days and living generally in the clubs of the chief cities. 
 As Balfour had many friends in the various cities, and 
 had also powerful introductions, we were exceedingly 
 well received everywhere, and saw all that was worth 
 seeing. At that time the curious system of provincial 
 Governments (ten of them) established by Grey's Con- 
 stitution Act 1852, under a bi-cameral central Govern- 
 ment and a Governor, was still in existence, and gave 
 visitors a conception of what England under the 
 Heptarchy may have been like. Superintendents were 
 everywhere, and members of the legislation were "thick 
 as autumn leaves in Vallombrosa," though there was 
 not much to show for all the expenditure. But the 
 system perpetuated in a pleasing way the original 
 peculiarities of the various settlements. 
 
 In Otago, we found a section of the Free Church of 
 Scotland established in peace and prosperity 12,000 miles 
 from home, and it was no common pleasure to us to 
 hear the Doric of our native land in all its pristine purity 
 from the lips of children. Coming as we did from 
 Australia, where Presbyterians were and still are a 
 comparatively small minority of the population, we 
 welcomed also an ecclesiastical state of things which
 
 114 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 showed all the great Churches to be Presbyterian and our 
 form of worship and education established in a new land 
 almost as beautiful as the Scotland we loved with all the 
 passion of exiles (voluntary exiles, it is true, but still 
 exiles). In Christchurch, again, at that time, the stamp 
 of its Anglican origin was as decisively upon it. As we 
 noticed with no small amusement, there were remin- 
 iscences of Church architecture in almost every building, 
 gables everywhere from Church to cattle shed. One of 
 the most vivid memories I carried away with me was 
 the quiet and somewhat secluded white stone Parliament 
 Chamber on the banks of the River Avon, which flows 
 by in a broad and constant stream, though its source is 
 not more than five miles away. At first visitors are 
 puzzled by this sudden outbreak of a full grown river 
 on a plain so level that, to get an extensive view, you 
 have to build a height for yourself ; but, when they 
 remember the far-off peaks of the lofty West Coast 
 mountains, with their continually melting snows, and the 
 gravelly nature of the great Christchurch plain, the 
 secret is revealed. The water pours down from the hills 
 through the gravel underground and comes to the surface 
 again just before it plunges into the sea. It seemed to us 
 to be an extraordinarily fit symbol for these two Colonies 
 which reproduced so exactly the characteristics of their 
 origin far away from the sources of their best life. 
 
 From Christchurch we went to Wellington, where we 
 spent a busy week and came in contact with many strange 
 specimens of humanity. For some reason unknown to 
 us, the city was full of strangers from Britain and 
 elsewhere, and at the Club we had talks with or listened 
 to the conversation of all sorts and conditions of men, 
 with surprisingly little profit of any kind ; though one 
 of the loudest talkers was an elderly or even old man with 
 fair hair falling down over his coat collar, whom I have 
 since identified with a prominent New South Wales
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 115 
 
 politician. When we left Wellington, we crossed the 
 straits to Ficton and thence to Nelson, where we had our 
 first sight of snow-clad mountains, which I find noted in 
 a letter of the time as "a magnificent sight." But indeed 
 the beauty of the scenery everywhere in New Zealand 
 is most remarkable. Of the towns, only Christchurch 
 can be said to be commonplace in its site. 
 
 After leaving Nelson, we passed back again to the 
 Northern island, to call at Taranaki. In the morning 
 at dawn we came in sight of Mount Egmont, that lovely 
 cone of 8,300 feet, which rises clear from the sea-shore 
 in, to me, unexampled splendour. We saw it then in the 
 light of dawn, entirely free from mist from base to 
 summit ; and on our return we saw it again similarly 
 free, in the evening light, and carried away a memory 
 of perfect mountain beauty of which Balfour often talked 
 to me in later years. At Taranaki, a small town to the 
 north of Mt. Egmont, we landed in a surf boat, and found 
 it in a very melancholy condition. At that time the last 
 Maori war was just grumbling to its conclusion, and 
 Taranaki was now safe, though the whole of the Lake 
 Country was still in the hands of the Maori king, so 
 that it was closed to all Britons. But the war had been 
 specially fierce and prolonged in the neighbourhood, 
 and, as we said at the moment, we found more of the 
 • inhabitants in the cemetery than in the city. Still we 
 found a Presbyterian Minister holding his flag aloft in 
 these disastrous circumstances with courage and cheer- 
 fulness, and joined gladly in the Service at his church. 
 In the afternoon we took on board 300 soldiers of the 50th 
 Regiment, with a number of women and children who 
 were going to Auckland to embark for Britain, so that 
 we assisted unawares at the close of an era in Colonial 
 history. British troops were then withdrawn from the 
 Southern vSeas and any warlike operations that it re- 
 mained to undertake were carried on by colonial troops.
 
 ii6 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 No one then could have guessed that within 50 years New 
 Zealand and Australia would be sending out 300,000 of 
 their choicest manhood to fight, and, we hope, to 
 triumph, along with the Motherland, in the greatest 
 war in history. 
 
 At Auckland we remained for five or six days in the 
 midst of the turmoil of an embarking army, as armies 
 went in these days, and there we met the two strongest 
 and most remarkable men we had come across in our jour- 
 ney. They were two friends, Sir Donald MacLean, and 
 the Rev. David Bruce, the leading Presbyterian minister 
 of his day in New Zealand, who spent his last years in 
 New South Wales. Sir Donald had been Superinten- 
 dent of Hawke's Bay province, the chief town of which 
 was Napier. There he had distinguished himself by his 
 wisdom, and had acquired an unrivalled knowledge and 
 influence with the Maoris. At this time, the critical 
 moment when the natives of New Zealand were being 
 dealt with according to sound knowledge instead of with 
 ignorant prejudice ; when the Native Land Court had 
 just begun its beneficent career, leading to the settle- 
 ment of all land disputes ; and when the Maori schools 
 were being endowed, and "the tribes were allowed to 
 elect four of their chiefs to represent them in the Colonial 
 Parliament," vSir Donald was the very eye and ear of 
 the Government. On the other hand, Mr. Bruce, though 
 he had no official position, was said by all we met to be 
 the wisest and most capable adviser of the Government 
 through his friend. However that may be, both men 
 impressed us as men of quiet power of tlie statesman- 
 like kind ; and, if Mr. Bruce did not help to rule New 
 Zealand then, we learned afterwards, when he was older, 
 and engaged in work which was entirely ecclesiastical, 
 that he had all the qualities which would have enabled 
 him to do so. 
 
 We returned to Wellington as we came, and from
 
 JAMES BALFOIR. 117 
 
 Wellington crossed over to Sydney, where we were most 
 hospitably entertained by Mr. and Mrs. Edward Fair- 
 fax, Mrs. Fairfax being a relation of Balfour's. But 
 before we sought them out, indeed on the very day we 
 arrived in Sydney, we had the one disagreement we ever 
 had in a friendship of nearly 50 years. We had been 
 packing and unpacking, sight-seeing and travelling every 
 day for six weeks, and our nerves must have been some- 
 what frayed, for we fell into extreme displeasure with 
 each other as to whether we should have oyster soup for 
 lunch or not ! Often and often in after years we have 
 laughed over our one quarrel ; but the only result it left 
 with us was that ever since we have wondered at the 
 temerity of those who spend their honeymoon in travel- 
 ling, seeing that in the comparative dispassionateness 
 of friendship six weeks of constant movement produced 
 this lamentable result. At the end of May we were back 
 in Melbourne. 
 
 Balfour then resumed his attendance in Parliament and 
 his place in business ; but his eyes had not greatly 
 benefited by the New Zealand holiday, and, notwith- 
 standing the strained condition of politics which before 
 the end of the year brought about the second deadlock, 
 he left town for the firm's station, Round Hill. As I 
 have already referred to that visit, I need not say any- 
 thing more concerning it. Later in the year he paid a 
 visit to Tasmania, but returned before the dissolution of 
 Parliament. At the General Election in February, 1868, 
 he was triumphantly returned for the third time. He 
 continued to take an active interest in the phases of the 
 struggle between the Houses of Parliament, as before on 
 the side of the Assembly, till the formation of the short- 
 lived Sladen Ministry in May of that year. Then he 
 resigned his seat, and sailed for Europe with his wife 
 and family in June. The fact was that, notwithstanding 
 all precautions, his eyes were becoming steadily worse.
 
 ii8 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 and the excitement of political life made real rest im- 
 possible. In January he complains in a letter to me of 
 political affairs "taking up even more than should be ol 
 my business time." How exciting "political affairs" 
 were may be gathered from a few words in the same 
 letter: "I enclose a report of two speeches last night 
 {i.e., 6th January, 1868). Such a meeting ! about 5000 
 on our side to 200 or 300 against, and some of these 
 (about 20 or 30) Sandridge lumpers, brought up drunk !" 
 Amidst all toils and turmoils, he always had time for 
 his friends. Just at that moment I was in great per- 
 plexity as to my future. I had passed for B.A. in the 
 Melbourne University in F"ebruary, 1868, and was urged 
 to choose some profession. I thought of Medicine; but 
 Balfour's wish was that I should aim at the Ministry 
 of the Presbyterian Church. Yet he did what he could 
 in getting information as to the mxcdical course, for I 
 find enclosed in a letter from Sydney, which he was 
 visiting on business, a full statement as to graduation in 
 Medicine in the University of Edinburgh, which he had 
 obtained from Dr. Blackwell. After considerable hesita- 
 tion, I decided for the Church, and for that decision, 
 which has brought with it the happiness of a lifetime, I 
 owe Balfour more than any one beside. There was, how- 
 ever, at that time no really adequate training in Theology 
 to be had in Australia, and my decision carried with 
 it the need to go to Edinburgh ; so I decided to go with 
 Balfour and his family in the Aberdeen clipper "Wave 
 of Life," a sailing ship of less than 900 tons burthen. 
 With his usual kindness, he, knowing that I had no 
 money to spare, asked me to be his reader during the 
 voyage, and to teach the elder children. This I gladly 
 undertook to do, and the arrangement brought with it 
 one great benefit. In order that I might have a place 
 where lessons could be given, it was arranged that I 
 should have a cabin to myself. As the ship was to go
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 119 
 
 round Cape Horn in winter, though there was a stove 
 in the cabin which was to be kept constantly burning, 
 Balfour had had the forethought to provide all his family 
 with moccasins of rabbit skin with the fur on, and I had 
 followed his example, a precaution which turned greatly 
 to our profit. He also tried to minimise the risk of sea- 
 sickness for Mrs. Balfour by having for the cabins he 
 occupied swinging berths, which could be fastened to 
 the wall if that were desired, but which when loose re- 
 mained always level. That novelty also worked out to 
 the profit of Mrs. Balfour and the children, though when 
 the berths were freely swinging in a storm, a passage 
 across the cabin "craved wary walking" indeed. 
 
 The voyage was, owing to contrary winds before we 
 reached Cape Horn, and contrary winds when we came 
 near the channel, a very long one, 104 days; but it was 
 in every other respect successful. Balfour had now five 
 children, three sons and two daughters, the youngest 
 son being only four months old ; and before entering on 
 such a voyage by sailing-ship in those days, much pre- 
 paration had to be made, and a great deal of forethought 
 exercised, as not even berths were supplied. The reason 
 for going by Cape Horn was that the prevailing winds 
 at that season of the year are favourable for vessels going 
 from Australia ; but unfortunately for us, on this occa- 
 sion, all the winds came from the opposite direction. 
 We did not get to Cape Horn till the 42nd day, and, as 
 I read in a letter written on board, "During all that time 
 we had only six days' really fair wind. Instead of a 
 series of southerly and south-westerly winds, we had a 
 constant succession of gales from the East and the North- 
 East, right in our teeth, and one, which lasted for six 
 days, blew us as far South as 60 degrees, though we were 
 'hove to,' or nearly so for three of those days. From 
 cold and wet a good many of the stock died, and so 
 much coal was used in the saloon fire that it ran short
 
 120 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 for the condenser. We had, however, considerable com- 
 pensation for our long voyage in this region, in the fact 
 that we had not been nearly so cold as we expected to 
 be, and as we should have been had the wind been from 
 the South." The passengers on board were nine adults 
 and fifteen children, and none of them save oiir party had 
 made any special provision against the cold. Conse- 
 quently they were always gathered round the stove, the 
 children especially, and soon came to suffer frightfully 
 from chilblains. We in our rabbit skin moccasins never 
 needed to go near the fire and so escaped this incon- 
 venience. But the constant head winds were tiresome, 
 and the slow progress we made was so vexatious that we 
 always warned our friends afterwards to avoid a voyage 
 by Cape Horn in winter. 
 
 The only thing memorably pleasurable was the sight 
 of the icebergs. They were first seen in l.at. 59 degrees 
 on the 30th June, when we had been at sea for four weeks. 
 In one day 17 were seen, some of them very large. We 
 also passed three quite close, within 500 or 600 yards^ 
 and sailed along some which were three miles long. 
 The colour of the ice where the sun shone through it was 
 perfectly lovely, and one evening when the ship sailed 
 into the broken fragments of a berg which had broken 
 up, the beauty of the sea was wonderful. A light wind 
 was moving over the water, just keeping the pieces of 
 ice in motion, so that each one was marked out by a 
 rim of phosphorescence on all its sides. To the pas- 
 sengers, who were not aware of the danger of sailing a 
 ship under such circumstances, the beauty of it was 
 indescribable ; but for the captain and officers of the 
 ship I imagine it was a time of almost heart-breaking 
 anxiety, lest the ship should run upon one of these 
 fragments large enough to damage her. On several 
 occasions we saw land, first Tasmania, then the Auckland 
 Islands, and Tierra del Fuego. At the last-named place*
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 121 
 
 ■which is a wild mass of tumbled fragments of hills, 
 scattered about as by the fury of some enraged giant, 
 on a Sunday evening we saw a perfectly unforgettable 
 sunset. The whole country was sheeted with snow, and 
 out of the snow every here and there volcanic fires were 
 bursting. This was the foreground, and far inland a 
 sharply serrated row of lofty snow-covered mountains 
 formed the background and behind that the sun was 
 going down in unutterable splendour. We were almost 
 overwhelmed by the wild majesty of the spectacle; but 
 one at least of our passengers was cool enough. He 
 posed as a man of specially artistic taste, but when his 
 attention was called to the glorious sunset he stopped 
 in his wild-beast tramp up and down the deck, glanced 
 for a moment, and then resumed his tramp, saying, 
 "Yes, very pretty!" and never looked again! 
 
 After rounding the Cape, the weather became more 
 favourable and the ship ran about 1,100 miles in one 
 week. But it was evident that the voyage was going 
 to be a long one, and provisions were running short. 
 So the captain decided to try for Rio de Janeiro, the 
 famous harbour of Brazil. Unfortunately, however, the 
 weather became thick, and for four days before the 
 latitude of Rio was reached the captain did not get a 
 sight of the sun, and consequently did not feel justified 
 in going into a port which he had never been in before, 
 on his dead reckoning. He consequently resolved to 
 run for Pernambuco, goo miles to the North of Rio, but 
 still in Brazil. The town, which is called San Antonio, 
 is only 5 degrees down from the Equator, and has the 
 dilapidated appearance of all tropical towns. The houses 
 are white-washed, but they are disfigured by black 
 weather stains which give them a neglected, almost 
 ruinous look, and, though a river winds twice or thrice 
 through the city, giving occasion for many bridges, it 
 was hard to see any justification for the name the
 
 122 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 Brazilians give it, "the Venice of Brazil." There were 
 then from 30,000 to 40,000 inhabitants, a mixed multi- 
 tude of Europeans, Indians, Negroes and Brazilians, the 
 latter being descendants of the Portuguese conquerors. 
 Here the ship laid in sufficient stores, and much fruit 
 was bought both by the ship and the passengers. 
 
 When the time came for leaving, we very narrowly 
 escaped destruction. On our arrival, the captain did 
 all he could to get a pilot to show him where to anchor 
 in the dangerous open roadstead. But no one paid any 
 attention to his signals, and he had to take the ship to 
 the anchorage himself. He probably anchored too near 
 the shoal which bounds the anchorage on the North, 
 for, when he decided to leave on the evening of the 
 second day, because the wind, being South, was as 
 favourable for us as possible, he got into difficulties of a 
 formidable kind. He was only a mile from the bank, 
 and the problem he had to solve was to get the vessel 
 to move away from the bank as soon as the anchor was 
 off the ground. All the sails were made ready; but, 
 when the ship was drawn close up to the anchor, pitching, 
 caused by a considerable swell that was moving in, 
 jerked the ship about, and just when she was under 
 weigh, the sails got wrong, and a stronger jerk than 
 usual broke the compressor which keeps the cable from 
 running out when the anchor is hanging to it, so that 
 the men at the capstan dared not leave it, otherwise we 
 should have been anchored again still nearer the shoal. 
 As all hands were needed at the capstan, there was no 
 one to work the ship, and she began to drift towards 
 the bank at the rate of two knots. This gave us barely 
 half an hour, so the captain called out to us passengers 
 to run forward and help him to get the jib up, which 
 we did, while Mrs. Balfour most courageously took the 
 wheel, and then the ship began to go a little ahead. 
 In about a quarter of an hour, when we could have
 
 JAMES BALFOVR. 12;, 
 
 thrown a stone on to the bank, the ship began to move 
 more rapidly, and soon we were fairly off and out of 
 danger. As may be imagined, after that breathless 
 20 minutes we were thankful to leave Pernambuco, 
 though our visit, accidental as it was, gave Balfour the 
 opportunity of landing on the only one of the continents 
 he had not visited before. The ship was soon quite safe, 
 but there was great difficulty in getting the anchor on 
 board as there was a considerable sea. The man who 
 went down over the side to fasten a block to it was 
 dipped so deep into the water as the bow went down that 
 he was almost drowned, and the first and second mates 
 who had hold of him were not much better. He was a 
 big, brawny, reckless Scotsman named James Elliot, 
 with whom we had become acquainted by our visits to 
 the forecastle. The mate afterwards told us that he 
 asked Elliot to go over, because he did not think another 
 man on the ship would have faced the danger of it. 
 
 After leaving Brazil there were three weeks of pleasant 
 and prosperous voyaging till the ship reached the Azores, 
 where troubles began again, not from contrary winds, but 
 from calms, which lasted a week. Then came head 
 winds; and, after trying to beat up channel against the 
 wind for two days, the captain made for Plymouth, where 
 we all disembarked after a voyage of 104 days (three 
 months and a half). 
 
 Now it is proverbial that on a long sea-voyage it is 
 not the best side of their nature that passengers exhibit. 
 They are idle, they are closely packed together, and they 
 cannot well get away from each other; and the result 
 is that whatever pettiness is in their nature comes un- 
 blushingly to the surface; especially on a voyage pro- 
 tracted so long beyond what was expected as ours was. 
 Consequently, what might have been expected happened. 
 Before we had been six weeks at sea, Balfour's party 
 were the only people who were on speaking terms with
 
 124 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 everybody. The others, though some of them had been 
 intimate friends before, would not even pass salt at 
 dinner to those near them. One reason for this was that 
 some of them had brought not a single book. When 
 this was discovered, Balfour lent magazines, papers and 
 books so far as he could, and thereby relieved the tension 
 somewhat ; but even the more reasonable became peevish 
 and critical as the days went on, and, when we were so 
 obstinately withstood by head winds at the mouth of 
 the channel, they prowled up and down the deck in 
 sulky silence, exactly like the captive wild creatures 
 I saw later in the Zoological Gardens in London. Only 
 Balfour remained consistently cheerful and serene. He 
 never complained, he never lapsed from courtesy, and 
 he was always quietly helpful, whenever an opportunity 
 offered. In fact, he stood revealed to all as a man who 
 had no pettiness in him. From the first, too, he had 
 taken the warmest interest in the officers and crew. Every 
 Sunday he held a service for the seamen in the fore« 
 castle, and went among them at other times, talking with 
 them, joking with them, dealing with them as with 
 interesting acquaintances and latterly as friends. Further 
 he tried to help them to pass worthily some of their idle 
 hours, and he dragged me into this. Several times a 
 week we went into the forecastle and talked with the men. 
 Then I read aloud from some book which we thought 
 might be interesting ; the men sang fine songs with 
 choruses; and occasionally Balfour, who was not allowed 
 to read, sang a song of his native land, and all was 
 healthy human fellowship, without a trace of subservience 
 on their part, or of condescension upon his. Not for 
 the first time, I saw and marvelled at his power to meet 
 men on the ground of our common humanity, or rather, 
 as he undoubtedly would have preferred to say, on the 
 ground of our common sonship to the Heavenly Father. 
 But I was surprised and cheered by the response which
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 125 
 
 he called out in them. They were just an average crew 
 of merchant seamen, such as might be found at that 
 time in any well found and well manned merchant ship 
 They were not free from the faults which their hard and 
 wandering life produced ; but during these evenings they 
 rose to his touch, and seemed to find pleasure in exhibit- 
 ing only what was best in them. Their songs were 
 always virile, often warlike, but they never had even a 
 hint of the debasing element which public entertainers 
 think the average sailor delights in, and our respect for 
 these fine fellows grew with each opportunity of meet- 
 ing them. 
 
 In a letter written on the voyage, I find the following : 
 "During the week we go forward one or two evenings, 
 and I read aloud something ; and then we have some 
 songs from the men, some of which have very good 
 choruses. I have read to the men two of Macaulay's 
 Lays, 'Horatius' and 'Virginia,' Tennyson's 'l^ncxh 
 Arden' and 'Enid,' part of the account of the Battle 
 of the Alma from Kinglake's 'Crimea,' and several ex- 
 tracts from 'Pickwick,' all of which have been very well 
 received. 'Enoch Arden,' I think, went quite to their 
 hearts. One of them told me afterwards that they would 
 like a yarn like that again." On another evening, I find 
 it recorded that Balfour sang, "Tak' Your Auld Cloak 
 Aboot Ye," and one of the men, an old Scotchman, re- 
 peated "The Burial of Sir John Moore" and "Young 
 Lochinvar." Only once was there any appearance of 
 the feeling that they were having too much religion. 
 I had lent one of the men a novel, "My Brother's 
 Keeper," without having read it myself. He returned 
 it with the remark that it was very religious, and he 
 supposed I had given it him on purpose. Probably 
 he regarded me with more suspicion than any of them 
 felt towards Balfour, as it was known that I was going 
 to study for the Church. It was he, fortunately, who
 
 126 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 generally took the service on the Sunday evening. I 
 reHeved him only twice, 1 think, when I thought he was 
 injuring his general health and retarding the recovery of 
 his eyes by the thought and study he gave to his ad- 
 dresses. They were short, practical, sincere and admir- 
 ably suited to his audience. That they and he were 
 welcomed was shown by the fact that one evening, after 
 leaving Pernambuco, we found that the men had put 
 up boards covered with canvas behind their chests on 
 which we sat, that we might have a comfortable seat. 
 The officers again were so well disposed that when the 
 weather permitted they attended to the sails themselves, 
 so as not to disturb the men. Now all this harmony and 
 brotherhood was due to Balfour primarily. 
 
 Long afterwards, in reading the life of General Gor- 
 don, I came on the explanation of his healthful influence. 
 Gordon says : "If you want to enjoy your religion make 
 it thorough." He had always made his religion thorough ; 
 and so he enjoyed it, and made others enjoy it. To 
 very many their religion is a burden which they have to 
 carry, and the weight of which depresses them. His 
 religion was a support and a delight, so that the more 
 entirely he brought it into exercise, the more cheerful 
 he became. Consequently, he did not approach those 
 he wished to benefit with the air of a just man made 
 perfect coming to judge and censure. Nor did he, on the 
 other hand, withdraw from the company of those whose 
 lives were irregular as Pharisees ancient and modern 
 have done. He more than any man I have known inti- 
 mately felt the brotherhood of man. "Nothing human 
 was alien" to him, and when he saw men turning away 
 from the life of their better selves and taking the way 
 "which runneth unto death," he could not but tell them 
 of his great discovery of the better way. He knew by 
 experience that a life of faith in God and trust in Christ 
 had made him more than a conqueror in the battles of
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 127 
 
 his own life, and he longed inexpressibly to put all his 
 friends in the same position. His goodwill to these men 
 in the "Wave of Life" was so conspicuous as the motive 
 of all his dealings with them that they gave way to his 
 friendliness, and were, before the end of the voya^j^e at 
 least, his devoted and admiring friends. Many of them 
 were so loyal that no sacrifice for him and his would 
 have been too great for them. 
 
 Nor was the benefit of this intercourse all on one side. 
 We learned to know what high qualities, actual and 
 potential, these hard-living, and much-tempted men 
 possessed, and in the course of our conversations we 
 got a glimpse of some evil conditions which it was in our 
 power to remedy, for this ship's crew at least ; and this 
 we did. It was clear, from what both the captain and the 
 sailors said, that one of the main reasons why deep-sea 
 sailors, w-hen they entered port, fell so regularly into 
 the hands of those who traded in vice, was that the 
 ship's accounts were not made up till the captain had 
 leisure. The men could not be paid off till that was done, 
 and consequently when they landed they had no money, 
 had to borrow from any who would lend, and before their 
 pay was procurable were already committed to those 
 whose trade it was to debauch them. At Balfour's instiga- 
 tion, therefore, as his defective eyesight prevented him 
 doing it himself, I worked for the last few days with the 
 captain's accounts, and when we left the ship they were 
 in such a state that the men were paid off, and went to 
 their homes, for the most part without a previous drink- 
 ing bout, as we learned later. A number of them were 
 kept note of by Balfour for years afterwards, and the 
 officers were in the habit of visiting him when they came 
 to Melbourne in later years. 
 
 One lamentable fall, however, there was. The bold 
 seaman who went over the side to bring in the anchor at 
 Pernambuco, the strongest and bravest man we had in
 
 128 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 physical peril, was unable to stand. Balfour had, at 
 his request, given him charge of a small Brazilian 
 monkey which had been the delight of the children and 
 the pet of the ship during the last part of the voyage. 
 It went with him to London, and there he fell into the 
 usual temptation, and in a drunken fury he killed the 
 monkey. When he came to himself, he was unable to 
 meet Balfour, and immediately shipped for a long voyage 
 to China. We never heard what became of him, but 1 
 know that he was followed in his wanderings by many 
 prayers of the sort which assuredly have power. Often 
 since I have speculated, whether an end would not be 
 made of the separation of the mass of the people from 
 the Church, if all Christian people would make their 
 religion "thorough," as Gordon and Balfour did, and 
 the curse of strong drink could be taken out of the way. 
 Certainly on the "Wave of Life," for that voyage, where 
 both these conditions were present, a nearer approach to 
 right relations between men of various education, of 
 different faiths, and of all classes was made than I have 
 ever seen elsewhere.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 SCOTLAND AND THE RETURN VOYAGE. 
 
 From London, where he had been met by Mr. Hugh 
 Matheson, he went on, after one day's stay, to Moffat, 
 a very beautiful place of Annandale, the country of the 
 Mosstroopers, and the home of the old Scottish ballads, 
 where all his people were at this time spending their 
 vacation. He insisted that I should come there on my 
 way North, and to that kindness I owe it that my first 
 day in Scotland after my return from Australia was one 
 of the memorable days of my life. I found him im- 
 measurably happy, in the society of his mother, his 
 brother and his wife, his two sisters, and Dr. George 
 Rainy (his cousin and brother-in-law). The latter was 
 a skilful oculist, who examined Balfour's eyes, and 
 relieved all our anxieties by saying that there was no 
 danger of permanent injury to his sight, and that he 
 thought rest would cure him. He advised, however, that 
 he should see the best oculist in London. Next day 
 we went for an excursion to St. Mary's Loch, into country 
 which is made dear to all lovers of Scottish literature 
 by its being the scene of many of the South Country 
 Ballads, of most of Hogg's poems, and of some of Sir 
 Walter vScott's novels. To such exiles as Balfour and 
 myself, returned from a land which, however glorious, 
 has no traditions or memories, it was like a bath in cool 
 clear water after a scorching day to be in the land of 
 the Brownies (a variety of fairies), of the Johnstones (a 
 border clan, whose crest was a spur with wings, and 
 whose motto was "Wha daur meddle wi' me"), and of 
 the Covenanters, who had given their lives for Christ's 
 
 F 129
 
 I30 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 crown and Covenant (men of whom the world was not 
 worthy). We felt repatriated here at once, as we could 
 hardly have hoped to be so soon elsewhere. 
 
 After this delightful experience I went on to Edin- 
 burgh, where my studies were to be carried on. Bal- 
 four and his family followed soon after and settled down 
 for the winter in a pleasant old-fashioned house in George 
 Square, very near his mother's. Notwithstanding that 
 quiet and rest were declared to be necessary, if his eyes 
 were to recover, he threw himself into all kinds of 
 activities. He had been burdened with a commission to 
 find a successor for the Rev. Dr. Cairns of Chalmers' 
 Church, Melbourne, and to this matter he devoted a 
 great deal of time and trouble. He searched out suitable 
 men, dragged me oflf to hear them, and where they 
 seemed suitable he made the proposition to them, and, 
 as, in several cases, time for consideration was asked 
 before it was declined, he was kept busy with this matter 
 all the time he was in Britain. After a number of dis- 
 appointments, he succeeded, and had the satisfaction of 
 having as his Minister in Chalmers' Church, the Rev. 
 A. Cameron, D.D., whom he finally induced to come to 
 Melbourne. 
 
 He also arranged for a young man to come to him as 
 reader and secretary, in order that he might carry on 
 his studies in Mommsen's "History of Rome" (which 
 we had been reading on the voyage) and other books of 
 similar calibre. In a letter of the 5th October, 1868, he 
 says : "I also have an idea of attending Professor Rainy 's 
 or Professor Blaikie's lectures, and would like a pro- 
 gramme of the hours of the University and New College 
 Lectures. As my eye must be considered, I don't think 
 I shall attend more than two courses, perhaps only one." 
 He also took every opportunity of hearing famous poli- 
 ticians, orators, and preachers. Shortly after he arrived, 
 John Bright came to Edinburgh, to be presented with
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 131 
 
 the freedom of the city, in the Music Hall. Balfour 
 and I went to hear him. We thought his voice and 
 delivery not unlike Higinbotham's, but there \vas very 
 little attempt at rhetorical adornment, and his one gesture 
 was to bring the finger tips of his two hands together 
 in front of his chest. But, if we were inclined to be dis- 
 appointed, that feeling disappeared when we remembered 
 that though he had enunciated views with which, when 
 he stated them, we disagreed, we came away entirely of 
 his mind. After all, that is the greatest test of an orator. 
 We also went to hear George MacDonald lecture upon 
 Wordsworth, and were charmed by what he had to say ; 
 but we were much surprised at the ungainly manner in 
 which the lecture was delivered and at the strength of 
 the lecturer's Aberdeen accent. We also heard two noted 
 evangelists, Brownlow North and Richard Weaver, and 
 were quite delighted with them for the directness and 
 power with which they preached the Gospel. 
 
 Besides engagements such as these, there were renewal 
 of intercourse with the members of his family, and the 
 revival of old friendships and a certain measure of partici- 
 pation in the social functions of the city, which seemed to 
 me to be one of the most hospitable places in the world. 
 Altogether he had not much idle time on his hands, and 
 his visits to London, sometimes on business, and some- 
 times for consultation with an eye specialist, and one 
 memorable journey to London with his whole household, 
 absorbed all of it. On this last occasion Mr. and Mrs. 
 Balfour took the children to the Zoological Gardens, the 
 Crystal Palace, which was then in its first glory, and to 
 the Waxworks, all of which left an indelible impression 
 upon their minds. On Sunday, they went, of course, to 
 hear Mr. Spurgeon, whom Balfour had so often made 
 our preacher in the far-off Australian Bush. On his 
 return to Edinburgh he spoke in the Free Church As- 
 sembly on "Victoria, Its Needs a:nd Its Claims," upon
 
 132 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 the home Churches for supplies of young and capable 
 ministers. As always, he was heard with much satis- 
 faction. Later he went for a tour in the Highlands with 
 his brother and sister, upon which followed a visit to 
 Perthshire. 
 
 All of this was a continual joy to him ; but, though 
 he knew it not, death in tragic shape was shadowing 
 him and his. On June the 19th he wrote me a sad letter 
 to Berlin telling me of the death of Dr. George Rainy, 
 his cousin and brother-in-law. He had caught the infec- 
 tion of typhus fever from one of his patients, and after 
 about 10 days' illness he died, in the fullness of his 
 powers, leaving his young wife a widow with two now 
 fatherless boys. Again on the i6th August he wrote to 
 me that his cousin Robert Balfour of the Pilrig Family 
 had died of scarlet fever on the same day with his eldest 
 son. That disease had been in the College at St. An- 
 drew's University in which the son had been a resident, 
 but he showed no trace of the disease when he left on 
 vacation. "He went with the rest of the family to 
 Moffat and two or three days after his arrival he was 
 attacked. At first it appeared a mild case, but eventu- 
 ally it proved to be of a most malignant type. His 
 father and mother were greatly worn out with nursing 
 him ; and on Thursday last his father took ill himself. 
 With him the disease made rapid strides and on Satur- 
 day afternoon he was no more. His son followed him in 
 a few hours. As you may believe, his family and 
 friends are all plunged in the deepest distress. The 
 head of the house and the first-born cut down in a 
 moment. The blows have been so sudden and so severe 
 that we are all stunned. . . Many a year ago the two 
 Miss Balfours of Pilrig, Robert's sisters, were together 
 laid in one grave on the same day ; and now Robert and 
 his son are to be together carried to the tomb to-morrow. 
 Very mysterious are God's dealings. Robert looked,
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 133 
 
 perhaps the strongest man who attended George Rainy's 
 funeral two months ago, and his son was a fine fellow at 
 the very outset of life. I know of no layman who has 
 been so active in the work of Christ as my cousin Robert. 
 Many a young man will feel that he has lost a friend; 
 and, if I had been able at any time to speak to others 
 earnestly about their salvation, I have been prompted by 
 the example of him who acted thus towards me, when 
 I was still at a very early age. May we all learn the 
 lesson to work while it is day, to be ready for the coming 
 of the Son of Man, to live in the light of eternity. God 
 has been speaking to us very plainly. It will be a sad 
 thing if we neglect to hear His voice. Miss Blaikie from 
 Natal (Mrs. Robert Balfour's sister) went out to help her 
 sister and has taken the fever, but she very nobly refused 
 to endanger others by staying in the house, and has gone 
 to the Infirmary, where she has got a separate room for 
 herself. Upon enquiry to-day, we find she is doing well. 
 We hope it may spread no farther, but no one can yet 
 tell. This year has many things about it to make it 
 sad." 
 
 It is hard to believe that such a complicated catastrophe 
 as this was possible only 45 years ago. To-day the 
 moment the fever appeared it would have to be notified, 
 the patient would be removed to a hospital, and the 
 father and mother would not be allowed to exhaust them- 
 selves in nursing the patient, who would be attended by 
 trained and skilful nurses, exercising every precaution 
 against contagion, and the family would be freed from 
 any fear of the disease spreading; but Florence Nightin- 
 gale's work was only beginning to bear fruit in 1869, 
 and the health laws were not to reach their present whole- 
 some stringency for many years to come. 
 
 The letter containing this sad news was written just 
 three days after Balfour's return from a surprise visit 
 which he paid to me in Germany, during which he
 
 134 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 travelled through the Luther country with me and a 
 fellow student, William Grey Elmslie, later Professor 
 of Hebrew in the Theological Hall of the English Pres- 
 byterian Church in London. The cause of his coming 
 was this. He had been taking the advice of the best 
 oculist in London in regard to his injured eye during the 
 year, and it had been slowly improving ; but the time was 
 now approaching for his return to Australia, and he had 
 intended to have a searching examination made by Dr. 
 George Rainy. Before that purpose could be carried out, 
 the latter died; and meantime Mr. Henty had been in- 
 formed in Melbourne that Dr. von Graefe of Berlin was 
 the best oculist on the Continent of Europe, and he wrote 
 suggesting that Balfour should see him. As I was then 
 studying in Berlin, Balfour wrote "Can you find out for 
 me whether Professor Graefe is at present at Berlin ? 
 He is the celebrated oculist of the Continent, and I may 
 take a run over to see him. If I do, I fear I will only see 
 you for a day or so; but even that would be precious." 
 He was then expecting that the "Wave of Life," in 
 which he was to return to Melbourne, would sail on 30th 
 July. She was, however, delayed for more than a month, 
 and he came to Berlin about the 3rd of August. Un- 
 fortunately, for him, von Graefe, who was consumptive, 
 remained at Paderborn in Westphalia, where there is a 
 bath (like our city of Bath) for patients who have phthisis. 
 As that is very little out of the way from Berlin to Lon- 
 don, Balfour decided to go there in search of him, but 
 at the same time to take the opportunity of making a 
 tour through the Luther country; and, with his usual, 
 generosity, he asked me to go with him, to interpret, and 
 paid all my expenses, as well as those of Elmslie, who 
 came as far as Wittenberg ; but, before leaving Berlin, 
 he spent three days in seeing that city, and visited Pots- 
 dam and Charlottenburg, where he saw the beautiful 
 Mausoleum of Queen Louise and her husband, who ruled
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 135 
 
 Prussia in the evil days when Napoleon did to that coun- 
 try what Germany is now doing to the world. 
 
 The nearest of the places made famous by Luther was 
 Wittenberg. Thence we went to Eisleben, Luther's 
 birthplace, via Halle, a famous University town, then to 
 Erfurt, and, last and best of all, to Eisenach and the 
 beautiful fortress of the Wartburg, where Luther trans- 
 lated the Scriptures into his mother tongue. Balfour 
 took the very warmest interest in every detail of what we 
 saw which concerned Luther and Melancthon. We 
 visited in Wittenberg, with pious care, every one of the 
 rooms and churches and colleges where the great religious 
 transformation of the i6th century had been wrought out 
 and propagated by the instruction of the 2000 students 
 who came from all parts of Europe to drink of the new 
 stream of living water, and we stood together under the 
 oak planted where Luther burned the Pope's Bull which 
 ex-communicated him ; and, realising the time and place 
 at which he did this defiant act, by which he finally broke 
 away from Rome, we were lost in wonder at his daring. 
 But, interesting as Wittenberg was, our interest rose 
 with each stage of the journey. Eisleben was full of 
 memories less known to tourists than Wittenberg; and it 
 may be permitted to extract a passage concerning them 
 from a letter written at the time. 
 
 "In a room of the first floor of the house where Luther 
 was born there were a good many relics. The thing 
 that first attracted attention was a big wooden figure of 
 a swan, which had been presented to him by a certain 
 Countess of those days, to be used as a reading desk. 
 Huss, whose name means 'goose' in Bohemian, had 
 said that the goose was going to be roasted ; but that 
 after 100 years a swan would come who would escape 
 that fate. Just 100 years afterwards Luther was born, 
 and so he was called the Swan. This is the story told 
 us by the keeper of the house. There were also here
 
 136 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 the two cases which had held the seals of the Bull that 
 Luther burned, and one of the indulgencies which Tetzel 
 sold. We saw, too, several letters in Luther's handwrit- 
 ing. We were then taken down stairs and shown the 
 room where he was born, and the corner where his cradle 
 stood. We next went to the house where he died. He 
 came to Eisleben to reconcile the Counts of Mansfeld, 
 two brothers who had been friends of his and who had 
 quarrelled. The house is near the Market Place, and is 
 rather finer and handsomer than the house he was born 
 in. We saw the room in which he held his conference 
 with the Counts, and his sleeping apartment. But he 
 did not die in this last room, but had got up and was 
 lying on the sofa in the public room when the end came. 
 We then went into the Church opposite, where he 
 preached four sermons inculcating the duty of being re- 
 conciled. The pulpit still remains, and Balfour and I 
 mounted it together, he characteristically remarking that 
 this reconciliation was a good ending to a life that had 
 been full of strife. It certainly was good to see the place 
 where, and to hear the story told how, Luther died in 
 the endeavour to spread peace and goodwill among men." 
 Erfurt, where Luther had been a monk and had re- 
 discovered the Bible, was our next aim. Approaching 
 it, the country becomes more picturesque and interesting, 
 not like the flat in which Berlin and Wittenberg lie. 
 The Monastery, which is now an Orphan Asylum, was 
 easily found ; and we saw Luther's cell. It is by no means 
 what one usually thinks of under that name. It is a 
 very pleasant, comfortable room. On the walls some 
 texts are painted, w^hich he had formerly written on the 
 wall, presumably in his delight at reading the Bible for 
 the first time. Before we left, Balfour insisted on hear- 
 ing the orphans sing and left money to buy cakes for 
 them, for he was like "the young lady of Needham who, 
 when she saw children, would feed 'em." Erfurt is on
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 137 
 
 the border of the ancient Thuringian forest, and the 
 Wartburg is about 40 minutes' walk from the town. The 
 view of the castle from below is magnificent, the richly 
 wooded hill on the top of which the castles lies, rising 
 quite clear of the surrounding heights and makes a 
 charming prospect. We spent a great deal of time here, 
 seeing the castle throughout ; but the most interesting 
 places to us were Luther's room, and the chapel where he 
 often preached. In the room are still shown the chair and 
 table which he used, the armour which he wore when dis- 
 guised as a knight, his bed, the stove, but especially the 
 hole in the wall which his inkstand made when he threw 
 it at the devil who had been worrying him. Unfortun- 
 ately, however, the original hole has quite disappeared, 
 thanks to depredations of tourists, and one sees only 
 the hole that they have made. The view from the window 
 is most glorious, away over the rich and fertile plains 
 and wooded heights; and, when the setting sun coloured 
 all with its own golden hues, one can imagine how 
 Luther's heart must have swelled with gratitude and 
 praise to that God Who had made the world so beautiful. 
 W'ith his poetical nature, and the great thoughts that 
 were burning his soul, this retirement in the Wartburg 
 must have had incalculable influence on his character. 
 
 From Eisenach we went to Cassel, where next year the 
 Emperor Napoleon IIL was to be interned, and came 
 by the slowest train I ever travelled in to a small town 
 called Warburg. It took about three hours to come nine 
 miles. We went at once to the best inn, and when the 
 door of the dining-room was opened we saw nothing 
 but an opaque and almost solid wall of tobacco smoke. 
 When we broke through this, we found that the officers 
 of the regiment quartered in the town dined here, and 
 had reached the smoking stage. It was not pleasant to 
 dine in such an atmosphere, but there was no other course 
 open to us. We remained over Sunday in this place, and
 
 138 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 went on to Paderborn next day, and there found Dr. 
 von Graefe. To our great content his report of Balfour's 
 eye was very favourable. He said he need have no fears 
 about it; that it needed no active treatment. He must 
 merely take strengthening medicines, and use spectacles 
 of a peculiar kind which I was to get for him in Berlin. 
 With these, he was to read a little, perhaps three times 
 a day for a short time, and then, every month, take a 
 week's rest, and not for the present to read at all at night. 
 Von Graefe also said that he might safely return to Mel- 
 bourne and to business. This removed the anxiety under 
 which he had been living, and he left for London via 
 Cologne and Brussels, and arrived in Edinburgh just in 
 time to be present at the funeral of his cousin Robert and 
 his son on the 17th August, 1869. 
 
 Immediately that sad rite was over he had to prepare 
 for his return voyage, and he sailed from Gravesend in 
 the "Wave of Life" on Tuesday, 7th September, under 
 the care of a pilot whose name, when I heard it later, 
 made me murmur, "absit omen," for it was Captain 
 Death ! In a measure, his too suggestive name was justi- 
 fied, for in a letter which I received from Balfour dated 
 from Spithead 14th September, seven days after they left 
 Gravesend, he says, "We had a terrific storm on Satur- 
 day night, worse than any last voyage. We lost six 
 sails in the night, eight I think since we sailed, and one 
 of the lifeboats was smashed to pieces, and many of the 
 things on deck were carried away. We were in imminent 
 danger at one time, but He who controls all sent a 
 change of wind, and we were soon off the shore. The 
 gale has now much abated. It was a cyclone on Satur- 
 day night and a gale all yesterday; but the men (and a 
 splendid crew they are) behaved capitally and are now 
 in need of rest, and we have put in for shelter and to 
 get time to get sails bent, etc." All this was done, but 
 the wind was still adverse; and it was only on Wednes-
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 139 
 
 day, the 22nd, that the ship could leave. On Monday 
 Balfour telegraphed for me; and I got down to Spithead 
 on Tuesday afternoon, and when the ship sailed, I went 
 with them for three days. In the evening before the ship 
 sailed Balfour and I, with Mr. Caldwell a Presbyterian 
 minister, and Dr. McMillan, the ship's doctor, went 
 forward to the forecastle, as we did on the voyage home, 
 and had a reading and singing evening in which I had 
 to do the bulk of the reading, as I would not be there 
 to do it again. On Friday morning I finally said good- 
 bye and was landed at Brixham from a fishing-boat. 
 
 As a revelation of Balfour's own religious life 
 and of the sympathy and kindness with which 
 he dealt with religious difficulties which hardly 
 troubled him, partly because his was a soul 
 naturally Christian, and partly because he was too 
 old to be affected by the influences which were becoming 
 dominant in Scottish Universities and Colleges and 
 which were driving all students of that time to recon- 
 struct, painfully and tentatively, much of their theology, 
 I may perhaps quote a letter which he wrote to me from 
 the ship. He knew of the ferment which was vexing my 
 mind, and he was inexpressibly anxious that my goings 
 might be established. He writes, "Mr. Stephens, the first 
 mate, wishes you had come up to London" (this was writ- 
 ten on the Saturday; I came on the Tuesday following). 
 "He says I'll not easily get another friend like you. I 
 know it too well. But we have both one Friend better than 
 any other. Keep near Him. It is not only your safety ; 
 it is your happiness. It is, I think, when one is not 
 so fully realising His fulness and loving-kindness, but 
 rather feeling how backsliding he has been himself, that 
 gloom and doubt come. Of course, it is so far right, 
 because it is not intended that we should stay away and 
 be happy ; but, while it is a good sign that it makes us 
 unhappy, or at least discontented with our state when
 
 140 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 thus living, it is still better to go straight to Him and 
 get His full forgiveness, and rejoice again in fellowship 
 with Him. Real prayer to Him, constant desire to 
 please Him and do His will and the will of the Father : 
 this is what we ought to seek. In other words, we ought 
 to seek to live Christ's life over again, to realise that it 
 is our lifework to be doing God's will and glorifying Him, 
 and for this purpose we should be continually drawing 
 from Him grace for grace. Wouldn't that be delight- 
 ful ? And this involves doing something for others. I 
 think we are seldom in a happy frame unless we are truly 
 trying to benefit others, even the ungrateful and dis- 
 obedient. You will not be troubled with questions as to 
 the truth of religion and your own security in that case. 
 As to the first, you know it is true. Your conscience 
 bears witness to the fact that Christ lived and died as 
 He is recorded to have done in the Gospels (with which 
 all history agrees) ; and, if that be true, all is true. As 
 to the second, you never were promised a special revela- 
 tion as to your own peculiar interest in Christ ; but you 
 are promised the witness of the Spirit with your spirit, 
 but only when keeping close to Jesus, not when we get 
 careless or taken up with the world. And this witness 
 must be encouraged, not grieved ; and it is not given to 
 every believer with equal fulness; but, as you advance, 
 and as you keep looking to Jesus, you will have a quiet, 
 calm sense of your being His because He loved you. 
 Don't give way to unbelief — this will grieve the Spirit — 
 but accept His teaching and rest wholly on the work of 
 God's dear Son for you. I have need to be taught of 
 you in many things ; but, if I make a mistake in thus 
 writing to you, I know you won't put it down to a wrong 
 motive, but will kindly give me credit for wishing you 
 well, as I do. . . . We don't know what is before us, or 
 when the end will be. But we know whither we are 
 going, for we seek a better country. May we all reach
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 141 
 
 it in peace ! Pilgrims and strangers here, may we reach 
 in due time 'Jerusalem the Golden,' which we used to 
 sing about, you remember — *a city that hath foundations 
 whose builder and maker is God.' " In that extract we 
 have, as it were, a "section" right down through his own 
 faith, and we see how "delight" was what he expected 
 and received from it. Moreover he found calm in it, 
 and as he says he was never in a happy frame of mind 
 unless he was "truly trying to benefit others." 
 
 It was the 24th September when I saw the "Wave of 
 Life" "sailing out into the west" bearing "my friends 
 into the under world," and after a long passage they 
 arrived in Melbourne late at night (11 o'clock) on the 
 17th December, 1869 ; but, late as it was, two of his circle 
 of young men, William Harper and James Campbell, 
 came on board as soon as the anchor was down, an 
 evidence of friendship which he greatly valued. Next 
 day he was warmly welcomed by a number of his most 
 intimate friends, so that he felt he was really coming 
 home, at this "world's far end," as Browning calls it. 
 On the Tuesday following his arrival a meeting of the 
 congregation of Chalmers' Church was held to welcome 
 him, and to hear his report concerning the search he 
 had made for a minister to succeed Dr. Cairns, who, 
 after nearly 20 years of splendid service, wished to 
 retire. He had succeeded; and, rightly, the congrega- 
 tion felt itself to be extremely indebted to him, and an 
 illuminated and framed address and a handsome marble 
 clock, with an inscription recording his services, were 
 presented to him. 
 
 Writing to me of the events accompanying his arrival, 
 he says : "It was very absurd; and I fear you and others 
 had greatly exaggerated my efforts and trouble when at 
 home ; but I need not say it was gratifying to be so 
 kindly and generously dealt with." The truth was that 
 the kindness and generosity were all on his side, and
 
 142 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 that no one could have exaggerated his efforts and 
 trouble. In the same letter he says: "I had a deputa- 
 tion from Collingwood wanting me to stand in room of 
 
 E , who is likely to be put out at next general election. 
 
 I have declined, as I shall decline any other applications 
 for the present." The fact was, that the injured eye 
 still continued to give him trouble. Any overwork 
 caused a relapse, and finally he had to give up all hope 
 of returning to political life in the Lower House. The 
 duties of a Member of the more powerful and more 
 popular House were so exacting, that he gradually came 
 to see that the career he had so well begun, and which 
 he had hoped to carry on, as a member of the Assembly 
 must be given up. So for four years he kept clear of 
 all legislative duties; and, when he resumed them in 1874 
 it was as a Member of the Upper House, in which he 
 sat continuously from that year till his death in 1913.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 1870-80. 
 
 On his return to Australia at this time, Balfour's letters 
 regarding the condition of Victoria politically, ecclesias- 
 tically, and in moral and religious matters assume a 
 despondent tone which was a very rare thing in his 
 correspondence. Partly this was due, no doubt, to recent 
 experiences of his own. In Scotland he had been in the 
 midst of a political and Church life which flowed in 
 deeper channels and which had wider issues than were 
 possible in Victoria; and he had felt the impact of the 
 great spiritual forces which were at work in his native 
 land. He must have felt on his return that the stream 
 of life was narrower and shallower than it was in the 
 mother country. But he had special reasons connected 
 with recent facts of Victorian history for his despondency. 
 The strong McCulloch Ministry which had ruled Victoria 
 from July, 1863, to September 20th, 1869, with one feeble 
 interruption of two months, had given place to a weak 
 Ministry of some revolted supporters who were kept in 
 power by the votes of the Opposition, and the evils usual 
 in such a case were strongly apparent. But things worse 
 than the usual accompaniments of weak government 
 appeared. For the first time in the political history of 
 Victoria, which has been singularly free from corruption, 
 the bane of democratic politics elsewhere, two members, 
 one of whom had been a Minister, were proved guilty 
 of having accepted bribes, and were expelled from the 
 House in 1869, but were immediately re-elected by their 
 constituents. In the Church, too, there had been two or 
 three cases of grave moral lapse on the part of ministers 
 
 143
 
 144 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 of various denominations, which had shaken pubhc con- 
 fidence in those who made a special profession of rehgion. 
 Then too the newspapers were full of accounts of crimes 
 of the worst sort — offences against women and children, 
 suicides, and murders. Lastly, there was the depres- 
 sion produced by the heavy bereavements he had suf- 
 fered, and by a new one which came upon him just as he 
 arrived, the tragic death of his New Zealand cousin. 
 
 In a letter dated ist January, 1870, he says : "One has 
 a better chance of looking back on the past and project- 
 ing the future in circumstances like those I have been 
 surrounded by during the last few months. And it is 
 necessary that one should take time to think, though, in 
 a busy colony and in a struggling age, it is not always 
 easy. Many things I resolved to do in the future if 
 God enable me, and many things of the past appeared, 
 I trust, in truer proportions than at the time the events 
 took place. It is, therefore, to me rather a more strik- 
 ing time than many other New Years have been, coming 
 as it does just at the threshold of my new colonial life. 
 Would that my future years may be all spent better 
 than my past. I should like to do more as an Elder 
 of the Church, and more in a systematic way in my 
 own business. I think I am specially called to these two 
 occupations now that I am in a measure laid aside from 
 more public work. Last year has been a very solemn one 
 in the history of our family, and it closes with a new 
 bereavement to the Colinton branch specially — but it 
 affects all of us too. You will learn from the New Zea- 
 land news, that my cousin James, whom we saw in Wel- 
 lington in 1867, was drowned in sad circumstances. He 
 was on his way to spend Christmas with his family, when 
 he heard of the death of his friend, Mr. Paterson of 
 Dunedin, by the upsetting of a coach in one of the 
 rivers; and he returned to attend his funeral. He was 
 trying to reach the steamer at Timaru, when the boat
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 145 
 
 was upset by a heavy sea. He was one of those drowned. 
 A line was thrown to him, but he was exhausted. Be- 
 sides, he was somewhat deaf, and perhaps did not hear 
 the directions as to what he was to do." 
 
 Under the pressure of these various causes, he writes 
 again on the 21st April, 1870, "I confess to you with 
 grief that the Colony is not in a good state, socially, 
 morally, or religiously. To me it appears that religion 
 is at a low ebb. We have, God be thanked, many most 
 excellent Christians; but the bulk of the people take no 
 interest in true religion. Our Sundays are getting very 
 like the German ones, but that we are not so poor, and 
 therefore most shopkeepers, instead of working amuse 
 themselves. Our ministers are not taking much part 
 in public matters. Our public-houses are positive dis- 
 graces to any community, men like Dr. are in their 
 
 glory making money and debauching morals, and our 
 press exercises on the whole no good moral influence. I 
 don't want to depress you, but only to show you what 
 need we have for good men, of power and influence here. 
 Perhaps I should rather say what need we have of a spirit 
 of true prayer amongst the people of God, and the power 
 of the Holy Spirit." 
 
 He then goes on to warn me regarding the possible 
 dangers of my sojourn at Berlin University, but in no 
 unenlightened or grudging spirit, and ends by a discus- 
 sion of the German Sunday, on which we had often talked 
 before. "I have thought," he says, "a good deal about 
 'that subject, and of one thing I am sure, it is a happier 
 Sabbath when pretty closely confined to religious duties, 
 privileges, conversation and reading, than w^hen spent, 
 even onlv in part, in social but not religious conversation. 
 The more I think of your argument, that, because people 
 find it impossible perfectly to keep the Sabbath, it is, 
 therefore, not intended to be kept as some declare, the 
 more I am sure the argument is wrong. T find I do not
 
 146 JAMES BALFOUR, 
 
 keep one of the whole ten commandments perfectly, but 
 'do daily break them in thought, word, or deed' ; but they 
 are binding on me, and I must not give up trying, or 
 quietly consent to allow myself wilfully to violate any 
 of them. . . . But, whether right or wrong in these 
 questions, let us ever try to get light and act on it. I 
 am sure you will seek to act according to your know- 
 ledge." He himself certainly did; for he did not "sell 
 his heart to idle moans," but, in the face of the evil, set 
 himself resolutely in all ways open to him, to combat it. 
 He took up his Bible-class work in Chalmers' Church 
 again, and projected a Sunday service for the boys of the 
 Young Traders' Association, an enterprise undertaken 
 mainly by the young men he had gathered about him 
 which had for its object the education and improvement 
 of the boys and older lads who sold newspapers, etc., in 
 the streets. The promoters paid a teacher for his ser- 
 vices, and themselves took turns to assist him. For a 
 number of years this effort was continued, and much 
 good resulted. The members of the Association felt they 
 were more than repaid when they saw some of their 
 evening pupils leaning in the afternoon against a wall 
 covered with bills, tracing out with their fingers the 
 letters they had learned the day before. He also took the 
 warmest interest in the establishment of the Young 
 Men's Christian Association in Melbourne in 187 1, and 
 remained ever a staunch supporter of that most excellent 
 Institution, and was later Vice-President and President. 
 He also gave his warmest support to a new Bill to regu- 
 late and restrain the liquor traffic ; and, when the newly 
 arrived Victorian warship "Cerberus" was opened for in- 
 spection on vSundays, he threw himself with all his power 
 into the movement of remonstrance against it. 
 
 By his clear and trenchant speeches he did all he could 
 to impress his fellow citizens, especially working men, 
 with the value of the day of rest for the moral and
 
 JAMES BALFOUR, 147 
 
 spiritual welfare of the community, and thereby drevr 
 upon himself the fire of the newspaper writers, who were 
 really at the bottom of the whole agitation. He was 
 jeered at as "Mr. James Balfour, who may be looked 
 upon as constituting a separate Estate of the Realm in 
 himself" ; and, in another vein, he is represented as being 
 so insignificant as to be beneath notice. The same paper 
 which had admitted both his ability and his courtesy when 
 moving the Darling Grant speaks thus of him, because 
 he had asserted, along with Bishop Perry, that petitions 
 signed in public-houses and in the streets were less re- 
 liable than those signed in churches : "It is the position 
 and character of a man which lend force to the insinua- 
 tions he may utter, and consequently we deprecate the 
 remarks which the Right Rev. Prelate" (Bishop Perry) 
 "thought himself called upon to make, and we would ask 
 him to justify his statements or withdraw them. On 
 the other hand, when we find Mr. James Balfour follow- 
 ing with some nonsense to the same effect, we are not 
 sufficiently interested in what he says, to make us either 
 condemn his impertinence or laugh at his folly." From 
 these utterances we may safely conclude that Balfour had 
 spoken for his view with more than his usual convincing 
 incisiveness, otherwise he might have been passed over 
 with the silence which only the "Right Reverend Pre- 
 late" and he escaped. 
 
 In a letter dated 9th October, 1871, he says, "We have, 
 however, formed a Sabbath Observance Society, and 
 must now do what we can to diffuse sound views on the 
 subject. Mr. Cameron is a good man and a sound to 
 have with us; and the Bishop is always ready to help in 
 every good work. We also lately founded a Colportage 
 Association. It has not yet commenced operations, but 
 it will soon. A Sunday School Union is also just started 
 and I lately told you of the Young Men's Christian 
 Association ; so you see there is some life out here." Of
 
 148 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 all these efforts Balfour was a large part ; but he never- 
 theless found time, busy as he was, to renew, just as he 
 had done in Edinburgh, his University life, by accom- 
 panying two of his "young men," John Harper and 
 Joseph Davies) to Professor Hearn's Lectures on Con- 
 stitutional History. He enjoyed them much, as he could 
 not fail to do, for Professor Hearn, the possessor of prob- 
 ably the most powerful and original mind the University 
 of Melbourne has ever had in its service, was then in his 
 prime; but he thought Dr. Rainy's lectures in Edin- 
 burgh superior. He also resumed his habit of spending 
 the Easter and other vacations in walking excursions with 
 his friends, J. M. Davies, later President of the Legisla- 
 tive Council, and his brothers George and Joseph, J. M. 
 Campbell, myself, my brother John, and others. The 
 parties varied, but John Harper never failed, and Mr. 
 Techow, the Government Instructor in Gymnastics, who 
 had been an officer in the Prussian Army, but had had 
 to flee for participating in the Revolution of 1848, and 
 who reminded all who knew him of one of the most 
 charming figures in German literature. Major von Tell- 
 heim, in Lessing's "Minna von Barnhelm," was fre- 
 quently of the company. I remember also the Rev. W. 
 Henderson, of Ballarat, that most genial and learned of 
 Presbyterian ministers, the Rev. Geo. Tait, so long a 
 leader in the Presbyterian Church, Professor Kernot^ who 
 always went forth with such an array of instruments (baro- 
 meter, thermometer, pedometer, and so on) about his per- 
 son that he looked as if clad in armour, Mr. Charles 
 Topp, the Hon. R. Ramsay, and others. There remain 
 most joyous records of some of these excursions, which 
 made those concerned familiar with the beauty spots of 
 Fernshaw and the Yarra track, Mt. Buffalo and Mt. 
 Feathertop, and indeed of all the picturesque parts of 
 Victoria as only walking through them could do. No 
 one who took part in them will ever forget them.
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 149 
 
 One of the earliest of these was a walking excursion 
 round Port Phillip. A party of live, including Balfour 
 and the present writer, left Melbourne on Thursday even- 
 ing of Easter Week, and went by rail to Geelong, and 
 from Geelong to Oueenscliff by coach, arriving at 11.30 
 p.m. Early next morning we crossed over to the other 
 side of Port Phillip Heads. Our first night was to be 
 passed at Cape Schanck, and we started from Point 
 Nepean about 10.30 a.m. The distance by road was not 
 excessive, about 30 miles, and we thought we could do 
 it easily within the day. So we set out in the highest 
 spirits : a more jovial party was never seen. Everything 
 went well for the first part of the day ; but we found we 
 had taken too few provisions, and we came upon a sandy 
 tract about 10 miles long. The day was hot, and we had 
 neither water nor food, and the whole party became 
 very much exhausted. Indeed had it not been for a 
 flask of fine old brandy which one of the party had taken 
 the precaution to bring with him, it is doubtful whether 
 we could have reached the lighthouse that day, where we 
 hoped to get food and lodging. Some of us who were 
 younger fell utterly exhausted at one point, but Balfour 
 plodded steadily on, with a cheery word for everyone, 
 and we finally arrived at 8.30 p.m. We found, to our 
 dismay, that the lighthouse, where visitors generally 
 stayed, was full, and that they had very little food to 
 give away. They had, however, quantities of milk which 
 we drank with a zest that was indescribable. It seemed, 
 too, that we should have to sleep in the open, but a 
 surveyor who was encamped nearby offered to give up 
 one of his tents; but there was in it only one bed. We 
 most gratefully accepted the offer, and by lying across 
 the bed with our feet against the wall, the whole party 
 managed to sleep, a fact which speaks much for the 
 depth of our fatigue. 
 
 Next day we walked along the splendid cliffs of Cape
 
 I50 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 Schanck past the Pulpit Rock, and then turned towards 
 Dromana, a village on the other side of the bay from 
 Queenscliff. The walk this day was only 17 miles over 
 the same undulating country as before, but we had an 
 accompaniment of song and story and chaff and laughter 
 which made the toil of our march seem nothing. On 
 Saturday evening we slept at a good inn in Dromana. 
 How Sunday was spent a letter of Balfour's tells us. He 
 says, "On Sunday we had a service for ourselves on the 
 beach, reading one of Spurgeon's sermons. In the after- 
 noon we went to the top of 'Arthur's Seat' (the moun- 
 tain behind Dromana), and there had another quiet ser- 
 vice, with another of Spurgeon's sermons. In the even- 
 ing we remained in the hotel, and had a sermon on 
 Capel Molyneux." It does not need to be said that Bal- 
 four provided the literature, but we all took our turn 
 at reading, and it was his influence which made all that 
 was done right and fitting. To many it will seem in- 
 credible, but it is true, that the glory of the sea and sky 
 and the beauty of the Australian "bush" seemed 
 wondrously enhanced by our keeping our thoughts turned 
 so much to the Maker and Ruler of it all. "On Mon- 
 day we walked thirteen miles over Mount Martha, en- 
 joying a fine view from the top, and then through beauti- 
 ful glens, we came to Schnapper Point (now Morning- 
 ton) where we had dinner and returned by steamer to 
 Melbourne, arriving at night, after a most delightful ex- 
 cursion." 
 
 In later years, when Balfour was the oldest and most 
 dignified member of the party (being a member of the 
 Legislative Council), he never seemed to remember that, 
 and was young as the youngest there. His laugh was 
 always the readiest, and no voice was so gay as his 
 when we ventured upon song. On one occasion we set 
 up our tent in the neighbourhood of Bright, mainly to 
 test whether we had everything we should need when we
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 151 
 
 left civilisation behind us. This annoyed the inhabit- 
 ants, who regarded our camp as an insult to their town, 
 as if nothing but food from Melbourne was good enough 
 for us; or, as a local paper expressed it, we seemed to 
 have come to "the sage conclusion that the wild inhabit- 
 ants of the Upper Ovens were entirely dependent on 
 kangaroo or 'possum meat for their ordinary susten- 
 ance, relieved on the 7th day with a parrot pie to dis- 
 tinguish Sunday from the other days of the week." When 
 they heard the limitless mirth, the joke and story and 
 song round the camp fire, they formed the darkest sur- 
 mises as to our character. We were not the nomadic 
 merchants they were accustomed to, for we had no goods ; 
 we were not travelling with stock, for we had neither 
 sheep nor cattle ; we might be a company of strolling 
 players, but, if so, why did we not come into the town ? 
 The only choice left was obvious, and that was that 
 we were bushrangers, attempting to pass from one part 
 of the country to another and to deceive by harmless 
 hilarity ! 
 
 Often too the provincial press made these wandermg 
 bands subjects of comment. For example, the Omeo 
 correspondent of the Bairnsdale "Courier" wrote : 
 "Many people think Omeo must be a dull, sleepy kind 
 of place, hidden in some deep gorge of the Australian 
 Alps, and certainly the business men of the township 
 would be none the worse for a little waking up. How- 
 ever, we can boast of one citizen who sleeps with one 
 eye open, and that is our local printer Mr. S , com- 
 monly known as 'Old Curiosity.' It appears that some 
 roving theatrical celebrities were daily expected at our 
 township, and yesterday some dusty-looking footmen, 
 accompanied by their pack horse, well piled with bag- 
 gage, were seen approaching. Our worthy printer, not to 
 lose a chance, rushed out, and, accosting the leader of 
 the party, offered to print his play-bills cheap. Alas, on
 
 152 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 further inquiry, the gentleman addressed turned out to 
 be the Honorable Mr. Balfour, M.L.C., who, with some 
 friends, was taking a pedestrian tour through the dis- 
 trict, and stood more in need of a refresher than of a plac- 
 ard in large type. But I hope the Hon. Member for the 
 Southern Province will return to Melbourne duly im- 
 pressed with the conviction that there is at least one smart 
 business man in far distant Omeo." 
 
 In the now far-off days of the earlier and middle 
 seventies the Australian bush, especially in the North- 
 West part of Victoria, had not yet been tamed to a 
 tourist's paradise, and walking parties were not so com- 
 mon as they have since become, as they involved some- 
 thing like hardship at times; but the reward was great, 
 for we saw the Australian forest and mountain country 
 at its best, and carried away indelible impressions of the 
 natural beauty of our land, which still lighten up our 
 town-dwellers' life. 
 
 Balfour gives in a letter to me dated 22nd April, 1872, 
 a very short, matter-of-fact account of one of these excur- 
 sions, which by its drab colour stands out in contrast 
 with the startling narratives of some of the inhabitants 
 of those remote regions who accompanied the party as 
 guides. One, for instance, confided to the local Editor a 
 blood-curdling tale of how they lost themselves in the 
 bush, had to camp beside a stream, on the banks of 
 which were leeches in every bush, "hungry and blood- 
 thirsty, fixing on face or hands or any other part of the 
 person exposed, with a tenacity which required a strong 
 pull to dislodge them," how in the morning they aban- 
 doned their packhorse and marched along the bed of the 
 stream, their guide leading "with his pants dangling 
 over his shoulders, his shirt woefully reduced in longi- 
 tude by coming in contact with the briars that overhung 
 the creek and all making FalstafT's ragged regiment seem 
 respectable when they reached their destination." Bal-
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 153 
 
 four says: "I went along with John Davies, John 
 Harper, and Techow for a walking excursion, and we 
 enjoyed ourselves amazingly. We took the coach to 
 Healesville (you will remember our Christmas night 
 there), arriving at 12.30 on Thursday night. Next day 
 we walked to Fernshaw, 7 miles, to dinner — and to 
 Fisher's Creek, 7 more, a beautiful road over hills and 
 past fern-tree gullies and rivulets, and with some fine 
 views. There are also fine mountain streams, the Watts 
 and the Acheron. On Saturday morning we went to 
 Marysville, 9 miles, to breakfast, and afterwards to 
 the Falls, some 8 miles there and back. We saw more 
 of them (viz., 5 falls) this year than we did last, and 
 they are well worth a visit. We rested on the Sabbath, 
 according to the commandment, and on Monday walked 
 back to Healesville for tea. Next day we went to Lily- 
 dale, about 13 miles, but had a lift from a decent fellow 
 in a spring cart, and came on in the coach that afternoon, 
 arriving on Easter Tuesday, at 4. The weather was very 
 fine all the way. Techow says he never enjoyed a trip 
 so much since he was a German student. We made the 
 rocks and trees re-echo our choruses and songs, and John 
 Harper (or Jonathan as we christened him to distinguish 
 him from J. M. Davies) was as playful as a kitten," 
 Thus did the "sour Puritan" of the anti-Sunday press 
 spend his emptier days ! And, best of all, we learned 
 how good, hearty, and wholesome, human kindness and 
 good-fellowship might be. Of these Balfour was the 
 very embodiment, with his ready smile, his quick bright 
 ways, and his never-failing sympathy. And the deeper 
 note that was never absent where he was, seemed only 
 to harmonise and round off and make entirely satisfying 
 those days of refreshment. The Sundays especially were 
 true days of rest, and no one who shared in their quieter 
 joy can forget days when under the shade of mighty 
 forest trees, or on the top of some ridge or range tower-
 
 154 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 ing 5,000 feet or more above the sea, at Balfour's in- 
 stance a sermon was read, and a hymn sung, and the talk 
 turned naturally to the wonder of "the glorious good 
 news of the blessed God." These days were good days, 
 "bound each to each by natural piety." 
 
 Meantime, though the trouble in his eyes was slowly 
 bettering itself, and ultimately disappeared altogether, 
 his medical advisers refused to countenance a renewed 
 entrance upon the duties of a Member of the Legisla- 
 tive Assembly; but, when, at the end of 1873, he was 
 asked to become a candidate for the Upper House, the 
 Legislative Council, they consented. He carried on his 
 canvass with his wonted energy, and was triumphantly 
 returned for the Southern Province; and from that time 
 onward to the end of his life he always held his seat, 
 generally being returned unopposed; and I venture to 
 think that no more valuable, disinterested, or capable 
 member sat in either House during those years. He 
 was now 44 years of age, in the very fulness of his 
 strength, and with a mind enriched by work and travel 
 and reading and thought and a "heart fixed" to sing 
 and give praise to God by a religious experience of un- 
 usual continuity and vividness. The main outlines of his 
 character must, unless I have failed in my purpose, be 
 clear. Thus equipped, he gave himself for 40 years 
 with the ardour and devotion of youth, to the higher 
 interests of the community as he saw them ; never deviat- 
 ing from the course marked out for him by the love of 
 God and man which burned in him. Like other men, 
 he felt the sting of ridicule, but it never turned him 
 aside ; attack only made him review his conduct ; and, 
 when he found it right, he went on his strenuous way "in 
 scorn of consequence." Yet I do not remember, in all the 
 48 years, during which I had intimate knowledge of his 
 career, that he ever returned railing for railing. In one 
 particular instance when the conduct of an opponent had
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 155 
 
 been particularly exasperating and unprincipled, while 
 others were pouring out wrath and invective, Balfour's 
 most scathing remark was that he was "an enigma." In 
 the end those who knew him well, however much they 
 might be opposed to those causes for which he stood, 
 learned to respect him. They might think his views of 
 life and religion narrow, but they never found his 
 sympathies to fail ; and, when he died, men of all creeds 
 and parties, political colleagues and opponents alike, bore 
 ungrudging testimony to his kind heart, his upright 
 ways, his genial temper, and his absolute fidelity to 
 duty. An adequate history of these years would be a 
 history of Victoria in all its various sides. In a personal 
 sketch like this, it would be impossible to deal adequately 
 with that. I shall, therefore, abandoning the chrono- 
 logical order, confine myself to a general estimate during 
 this long period of his activities as a business man and 
 a politician, as a churchman, and more especially as a 
 religious and philanthropic leader.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 BUSINESS AND POLITICAL LIFE. 
 
 As a business man, a partner of one of the oldest firms 
 of Melbourne, and one which had always stood above 
 reproach, Balfour occupied from Lhe first, there, the same 
 position as he had won for himself in his earlier business 
 years in Geelong. He was, in fact, one of the leading 
 figures in mercantile circles of the city, and shared with 
 his partners the reputation of a good name and honour 
 beyond question. In details, his business attitude will 
 be best made clear by a statement which Mr. J. M. 
 Macfarlane, for long Balfour's confidential assistant and 
 now for a number of years a member of the firm of Jas. 
 Balfour & Co., has favoured me with. He says : — 
 
 "Having had the privilege for a period of about 27 
 years of almost daily association with Mr. Balfour, ] 
 can speak from experience as to the type of man he was. 
 The Melbourne 'Journal of Commerce' wrote of him 
 after his death : 'Mr. Balfour was in his business relations 
 a fine type of the traditional British merchant, whose 
 word was his bond, observing the Golden Rule in all his 
 relations with his fellow-men.' That sums up his busi- 
 ness character, and never has truer word been written 
 of any man. Once he had given his word regarding any 
 transaction it was as binding on him as if the contract 
 had been signed, sealed, and delivered. Many men may 
 be scrupulously honest, but withal hard and uncom- 
 prom-ising in their business dealings, extracting the utter- 
 most farthing. This was not his method. Mr. Balfour 
 was like a good sportsman, he loved fair play. He 
 was not one to drive a hard bargain. If a buyer, he 
 
 156
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 157 
 
 liked to give a fair price. If a seller, it always pleased 
 him to know that the purchaser had done well out of the 
 transaction. He did not seek for the last penny. If it 
 were a question of conceding something for a settle- 
 ment, it was generally he who made the concession, un- 
 less a principle was involved, in which case he could be as 
 adamant. In regard to this fidelity to principle I can 
 say of him that during a daily business association of 
 over a quarter of a century I cannot recollect a single 
 transaction, or even a solitary incident, of which he need 
 have felt ashamed. 
 
 "Mr. Balfour's relations with his employees were just 
 what might have been expected of such a man. He was 
 their employer; but he was more than that; he was their 
 friend in the best sense of the word. A strict disciplin- 
 arian, at all times he was intolerant of anything under- 
 hand, or in any degree deceitful. I recollect, when I 
 entered the ofitice as a very young lad, being advised by 
 one who had been there for some time never to make 
 excuses if I had forgotten or neglected any duties that 
 came under the purview of Mr. Balfour. It was good 
 advice. To make a manly confession of faults and ex- 
 press regret was the best excuse, and was sure to be met 
 much more than half-way by Mr. Balfour. His kindness 
 and consideration for his employees never failed ; and, 
 in many instances, even after employees had left his 
 service he followed their careers with sympathetic interest. 
 There are many young, middle-aged, and even old men 
 in this country now who look upon the years spent in 
 Mr. Balfour's employ as amongst the happiest of their 
 experience, and who have never forgotten the lessons 
 learned from the example of one who was unfailingly 
 kind, generous, and just to them." 
 
 That he was efficient as a business man goes without 
 saying: his acuteness of mind, his rapidity of decision, 
 and his orderly and methodical habits secured that ; and
 
 158 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 up till 187S he retained his enviable position in the firm 
 of James Henty & Co. In that year, for private reasons, 
 he retired from the firm, and, after a visit to Europe and 
 America with his eld^est son James, who was now of 
 sufficient age to travel with him, he established the firm 
 of James Balfour & Co. About the same time he 
 acquired the full ownership of the property of Round 
 Hill (in the Riverina district of New South Wales), and 
 his interests became largely pastoral and agricultural. 
 In one of his earlier years at Geelong Balfour had had a 
 passing thought that a pastoral life might be desirable ; 
 now it was realised, and, under his control, the "station " 
 (as such properties, held partly as freehold and partly 
 on grazing licence, are called) prospered greatly, and 
 gradually a large part of it became freehold. His son 
 James had taken to pastoral life ; and, after he had spent 
 several years on the property, he was appointed manager, 
 and was subsequently received as partner. For many 
 years he has been regarded as a leading man in the 
 district. Later, another son, William, was admitted a 
 partner, and the firm was re-constituted as James Balfour 
 & Sons. Close attention was given to the breeding of 
 high-class Merino sheep. The Round Hill flocks became 
 famous throughout the country, and the wool usually 
 fetched in the market the highest prices obtained for 
 Merino wool from that district. Balfour had unbounded 
 faith in the Round Hill land, and spent large sums of 
 money improving the property by clearing, fencing, water 
 conservation, etc. It was discovered that the country 
 was eminently suited for wheat growing, and this in- 
 dustry was extensively carried out in later years, with 
 the result that the district is now looked upon as one of 
 the best wheat areas in Australia. Balfour's enterprise 
 and foresight were rewarded by the steadily increasing 
 productivity of the property. How fortunate for him this
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 159 
 
 was he was to learn in the great financial storm of 1891- 
 1893. 
 
 For many men a prosperous mercantile career allied 
 to extensive pastoral and agricultural interests would have 
 seemed sufficient; but for his extraordinary energy it was 
 but one element among others in the serious work of his 
 life. For several years he was on the Council of the 
 Melbourne Chamber of Commerce. He rose to be Vice- 
 President of that body and in the year 1885 was elected 
 President. In 1900 he was one of the delegates to the 
 Congress of the Chambers of Commerce of the Empire 
 held in London that year. He was also associated as 
 Director with some of the leading financial and indus- 
 trial mstitutions in the city. 
 
 When the great financial crisis of 1891-3, already re- 
 ferred to, occurred, several of the institutions with which 
 Balfour was connected as a Director were among the large 
 number affected, and his own Melbourne firm, which 
 had earlier been converted into a company under the style 
 of Balfour, Elliott, & Co., Ltd., had been drawn into the 
 storm. In addition, many other institutions in which he 
 had investments were brought to the verge of ruin. Un- 
 fortunately he had been for nearly a year just prior to 
 the collapse absent in Europe, and he did not see, as he 
 might have done, had he been on the spot, the peril of 
 the situation which was gradually developing. But it 
 would be difficult now to find anyone who did. It is not 
 my purpose here to deal with the causes of the collapse 
 or to lay blame upon the shoulders of anyone. The 
 consequences to thousands of people were disastrous ; and, 
 amongst others, Balfour suffered greatly. Investments 
 which were looked upon as "gilt-edged" turned into 
 liabilities; and indeed it may be said that, had not the 
 bulk of his fortune been invested in pastoral lands, he 
 would probably have been ruined in the general com- 
 mercial collapse. He found himself, no longer a young
 
 i6o JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 man, saddled with liabilities which it would take him 
 years under favourable circumstances to liquidate. The 
 position would have appalled many younger men. The 
 situation was depressing in the extreme. Ordinary busi- 
 ness was disorganised, a spirit of uncertainty reigned 
 everywhere, commercial enterprise of every kind was 
 restricted, and, worst of all, from Balfour's point of 
 view, extremely low prices ruled for Australia's staple 
 products, and prevented his getting anything like a 
 reasonable return from his pastoral property. 
 
 With indomitable courage, he set himself to the task 
 of meeting his liabilities — and not only his own liabilities, 
 but those of others — and of repairing his broken fortunes. 
 Characteristically, he started by pruning his own per- 
 sonal comforts and those of his family. He gave up his 
 beautiful residence in Toorak, and retired to a less pre- 
 tentious dwelling. Anything that he or his family could 
 do without they scrupulously denied themselves. But he 
 did not become engrossed with his own troubles. He 
 grieved for others who had sustained losses like himself, 
 and he did what he could to help them. Instances could 
 be multiplied of assistance rendered, even in the dark 
 days following the collapse, to persons whose fortunes 
 had been wrecked in the storm. He re-established his 
 old business of James Balfour & Company, although 
 there was no inducement at that time to embark upon 
 any fresh enterprise, in order that his employees might 
 not be forced to swell the ranks of the unemployed. But, 
 while he grieved, as such a man naturally would, at the 
 losses others had incurred, he never grumbled at the 
 hampering claims which burdened him for years after, 
 and set himself to learn the lessons which these trying 
 and harassing times were fitted, and, as he believed, 
 were meant, to teach him. 
 
 Amid all the storm he never lost the poise and balance 
 of his spirit. He saw hopeful enterprises which he and
 
 Portrait, 1896.
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. i6i 
 
 others had started for the good of the community 
 languish and die for lack of the financial support which 
 they were no longer in a position to give. He felt the 
 grief of a generous spirit when he had to say no to 
 appeals for charitable purposes to which it was no longer 
 in his power to respond. But he accepted all that had 
 befallen him as according to the wnll of God, and did 
 "not bate a jot of heart or hope, but steered right 
 onward." 
 
 With regard to his political life, from 1874, the year in 
 which he entered the Legislative Council, till his death 
 in 1913, Balfour was continuously a Member of that 
 body, having secured the confidence of his constituents 
 in a remarkable degree. He was always a Liberal in 
 politics : that is, he was not one of those whose outlook 
 was bounded by the rights of property and the more or 
 less w-ell founded claims of the rich, the landlords, 
 bankers, and merchants. Though he belonged to that 
 class himself, he did not, like Tennyson's Northern 
 farmer, hear his horse's feet beating out continually onlv 
 "proputty, proputty, proputty." Goldsmith's far-seeing 
 Liberalism as expressed in the lines : 
 
 *' 111 fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, 
 Where wealth accumulates and men decay," 
 
 would more nearly coincide with his ideas. That char- 
 acter, not wealth, was the ultimate strength of a nation 
 or an individual, was his constant conviction, and he 
 considered that politics, as he conceived politics, were 
 sound only when the goal aimed at was the moral and 
 spiritual elevation of the whole people, and the securing 
 of a fair field for every man and woman to lead a life 
 worthy of those "for whom Christ died." 
 
 In Victoria, as he saw it, wealth had accumulated; but 
 the quality of the men and women seemed to him to be in 
 G
 
 i62 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 danger of decay ; and he took it to be the first duty of a 
 man in pubHc Ufe to watch over the moral and spiritual 
 interests of the people and to combat every proposal 
 which threatened to undermine any of the foundations 
 of the Christian civilisation which we had received from 
 our F'athers. In making this his special business, he did 
 not pose as being better than others. Such a pretension 
 never entered his thoughts. But he saw that there were 
 many capable politicians ready to make the material wel- 
 fare of tiie community their special object, and he was 
 content in thai regard to give them his support when 
 it was necessary. But, if that was their calling, he felt 
 that it was his to devote himself to the higher but less 
 palpable interests of the community in which he lived; 
 and, if in any Bill or Regulation which came before 
 Parliament he detected elements which made for laxity 
 in public or private life, he opposed it with uncompromis- 
 ing energy. 
 
 The standard by which he judged was the Christian 
 standard in its larger outlines. He had learned his 
 Christianity in Scotland and in the period of the great 
 revolt of a spiritual Church against an unspiritual and 
 unsympathetic, not to say, tyrannical State ; but the 
 native geniality of his temper and his warm sense of 
 human brotherhood shielded him from any provinciality 
 or narrowness there might have been in a type of Chris- 
 tianity which had been shaped in conflicts which the 
 separation of Church and State in these new lands had 
 made almost impossible. Doubtless, too, had there been 
 a number of Members as alert as he was to answer to 
 the call of morality and religion when these were about 
 to suffer loss, he might have given himself less exclusively 
 to the guarding of these high interests than he actually 
 did. In that case, legislation for the material welfare 
 of the State might have borne the impress of his mind 
 more largely than it does. For he valued the prosperity
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. i6i 
 
 which wise legislation in the material sphere most cer- 
 tainly brings with it. But, since there were few who felt 
 as keenly as he did the danger of decay in the ideals 
 cherished by the people, he gave himself wholly and 
 imcompromisingly to the uplifting of these. They were to 
 him what his flag is to a loyal soldier, and, if he had 
 (more or less) to give his political life for this loyalty, he 
 did it gladly. He did not shut his eyes to the fact that 
 he was doing this. He recognised with a certain humor- 
 ous twinkle when he spoke of it that in most Ministries 
 he would be an incongruous element. 
 
 He would under all circumstances put what were to 
 him first things first. Upon that course he was in- 
 corrigibly set. The average politician, on the other 
 hand, being mainly a man of this world (the world of 
 compromises and temporisings and dexterities), was shy 
 of taking for a colleague one who would so constantly 
 be difficult in regard to things which had no votes 
 behind them, things, moreover, which were to him so 
 impalpable that, "seeing them, he could not see." Such 
 a one was, according to the Scottish sceptics, saying 
 things "far awa' and lang syne and aiblins no true," 
 whereas increases of wheat and wool and gold and 
 all kinds of wealth were palpable things which could 
 interest any man. Consequently, though, as a speaker, 
 Balfour had no superior in the House, and though in 
 general capacity not many were his equals, yet in all 
 the changing formations and re-formations of Cabinets 
 during 40 years, though offered office in several Cabinets, 
 he was only twice in a Ministry, in 1890 in the GilHes- 
 Deakin Coalition, and in 1899 in the McLean Ministry, 
 on each occasion, characteristically, without office or 
 salary. He never thought of making recognition of his 
 claims to office a condition of giving support to a Govern- 
 ment whose policy he approved, and in all circumstances 
 he could be relied on to vote for whatsoever things were
 
 i64 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 true and for everything he thought desirable for the 
 higher Hfe of the people. On the other hand, there was 
 his above-mentioned unwillingness to be pliable in regard 
 to such things, even when a compromise might save a 
 Ministry ; so nothing was lost by leaving him out, and 
 something might be gained at a pinch by not having him 
 in ; hence his experiences of official life were rare and 
 short. But that never troubled him. 
 
 His mercantile position made him financially indepen- 
 dent of politics, and he valued the freedom of action 
 which this circumstance gave him so much that he always 
 consistently opposed payment of Members. He saw 
 how difficult it would be for men who, in entering upon 
 a political career, necessarily became unfitted for the 
 callings by which they had formerly lived, to oppose 
 Ministers who might bring upon them the risk and ex- 
 pense of a new election, and who might endanger their 
 means of living by discountenancing their candidature. 
 He did not, I think, give sufficient weight to the fact 
 that a democratic constitution could not be made workable 
 without payment of Members, for in a community like 
 ours the men who could afford to do political work with- 
 out compensation were so few and so prevailingly of 
 one class that the true representation of working-class 
 interests would have been impossible without it. In 
 any case he valued highly the independence of his own 
 position, and so constantly made use of it that he was 
 not so amenable to party discipline as party leaders 
 wished. 
 
 Thus by a variety o'i circumstances in which, as I have 
 said, a pharisaic claim to be better than others had 
 absolutely no part Balfour, besides being an efficient re- 
 presentative of his Province, became the special represen- 
 tative of all causes which were inspired by religious and 
 moral ideas. Moreover, as a certain prominent member 
 of the British Parliament came to be called the Member
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 165 
 
 for India, because of his jealous regard for the rights of 
 the native people, Balfour became the Member for native 
 and alien coloured races like the Aborigines, the Chinese, 
 and the South Sea Islanders. Whenever they were in 
 danger of suffering oppression or were actually suffer- 
 ing it, they could always reckon on him to bring their 
 case before the Legislature, and always, where they made 
 it clear that they were unjustly treated, he at once became 
 their impassioned advocate. Periodically, under the in- 
 fluence of race hatred and economic jealousy, outbursts 
 of clamour against coloured aliens arose ; and those who 
 are, with unconscious irony, called "responsible" poli- 
 ticians were too apt to become the irresponsible agents 
 of popular whim. At such moments, Balfour never hesi- 
 tated to stand up for the oppressed. Of course, he was 
 often defeated when he moved in their interest ; and when 
 he stood for religion and morals he was equally exposed 
 to failure. But he often succeeded too, and he always 
 compelled men to see what they were doing ; and, if they 
 did ill, they had to do it with their eyes open. Obviously 
 such functions, so unflinchingly discharged as they were 
 by Balfour, do not tend to make a man popular; but his 
 obvious sincerity, his abstinence from censoriousness, 
 and his genial humanity disarmed his opponents in the 
 Legislature. In his later years especially, when he was 
 the universally respected Father of the House, Balfour 
 became fully known to his fellow citizens, and he received 
 the respect that was his due; for it was found that he 
 was a man of the widest humanity and he made friends 
 in all quarters. No one was more popular with Conser- 
 vatives and Liberals, with Protestants and Catholics, 
 with labour members and men of the landholding class 
 than he. When he died, men of all these various views 
 spoke of him with affection. He had come to be known 
 as a peacemaker, as a harmoniser of conflicting views, 
 as a man of "wonderfully kindly disposition," as one
 
 i66 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 who, as one of his colleagues said, "would go out of his 
 way to smooth over or soften a dispute in order to bring 
 about a compromise between contending parties, pro- 
 viding that compromise did not affect any of the 
 principles which he held." 
 
 But, though his work and that which made him notable 
 as a Member of Parliament, was of this kind, he did 
 yeoman service in ordinary legislation. I have before 
 me a list carefully compiled from "Hansard" of the 
 matters in which he moved and spoke during his Parlia- 
 mentary career, and it is amazing to see at how many 
 points in ordinary life he had special experience which 
 made his suggestions of value. He had beeu a Banker, 
 and was interested as only an expert can be in banking 
 questions. He was a merchant, and on all trading and 
 financial questions had skilled and disinterested advice to 
 give. I have looked through many volumes of "Han- 
 sard," and have found him not infrequently advocating 
 measures which affected his immediate interests adversely, 
 but very few instances in which even enmity could 
 imagine that he was merely seeking his own. He was 
 too a squatter (or rather, a landholder), and knew more 
 accurately than most what the unexpected and undesir- 
 able effects of some of the well-intentioned but often 
 extraordinarily blind land legislation would produce; but 
 far from opposing just taxation of land, he supported 
 it. Further, he was very rarely absent from his place 
 in Parliament; and he must have done a great deal of 
 study (of Bills, etc., presented to the Upper House) 
 during the time the House was sitting ; for it is difficult 
 to see how he could have got sufficient time in his busy 
 days for such work. That it was done at some time is 
 clear from the adequate knowledge he always seemed to 
 have of the measures he discussed, whether he was in 
 favour of them, or opposed to them. These habits, he 
 never permitted to lapse; and thus, even in the narrow
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 167 
 
 Parliamentary sense, he became a pre-eminently useful 
 Member. 
 
 In another respect, too, this list of his motions and 
 speeches is unexpectedly instructive. Because of his 
 strenuous objection to any curtailment of the Sunday 
 rest and his resistance to popular vices such as gambling 
 and drinking, many regarded him as a person who never 
 allowed his preconceived opinions to be modified by rea- 
 son or experience. But I find in reading "Hansard" 
 under guidance of this list that in those very subjects on 
 which he was expected to be most extreme he was most 
 careful to control his decisions by reason and experience. 
 In regard to vivisection, for instance, a matter in refer- 
 ence to which extremes are so difficult to avoid, he was 
 eminently sane; for when a Bill was before the Council 
 in which vivisection was dealt with he supported the 
 Hon. Dr. Hearn's amendment, saying, "The new clauses 
 on the subject of vivisection are also a great improvement 
 on those in the Bill ; and, as vivisection is now recognised 
 as a necessary part of medical study, I think they go as 
 far as can reasonably be expected in the direction of pro- 
 tecting animals from undue suffering. I am particularly 
 pleased to see that provision is made for the destruction 
 while still insensible of any animal which in the course 
 of an operation has been seriously injured." Similarly, 
 while he, personally, in the latter half of his life abstained 
 altogether from the use of alcohol, he never regarded the 
 use of it as sinful. His abstinence was due to the con- 
 viction that with our habits, the use of alcohol was fraught 
 with danger, and he would have liked much to see total 
 prohibition enforced for a generation, in order that final 
 legislation should be framed by those who had escaped 
 the contamination of the drinking habit. Always, at 
 the point where strenuousness ended and fanaticism 
 began, he seems to me to have held back from the latter. 
 
 In general outline his career in the Legislative Council
 
 i68 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 had these characteristics; but there is one special point 
 on which it has always seemed to many that Balfour's 
 political career needed explanation and defence, or cen- 
 sure. Those opposed to him in the Darling Grant contro- 
 versy, in which he had, as it were, led the charge against 
 the position held by the Legislative Council, when they 
 found him, as they soon did, defending the Legislative 
 Council for rejecting the Appropriation Bill because it 
 contained a grant for payment of members, and 
 denouncing as scandalous the action of the Berry Govern- 
 ment in dismissing civil servants in a body in order to 
 concuss the Council, pointed the finger of scorn at him. 
 Virtually, they said, it is evident that Balfour considers 
 the House he happens to be in, justified in any action 
 it may think fit to take, so that it is not with him a matter 
 of principle at all, but rather of abounding self-conceit, 
 he being, in his own eyes, "an estate of the realm by 
 himself." But in so doing his opponents forgot the 
 fundamental fact in the situation. As I have said in 
 discussing his action as to the Darling Grant, the justifi- 
 cation for what was then done was that the Upper House 
 deliberately refused to be influenced by the declaration of 
 the popular will. They forced a dissolution upon the 
 Lower House; and then, when the decision was over- 
 whelmingly against them, they sought to appeal to the 
 British Ministry for help against the Ministry chosen by 
 the Colonial Parliament. The only possible answer to 
 revolutionary action like that was a counter-revolution. 
 As Balfour once said in a public speech, quoting Momm- 
 sen's "History of Rome" : "The man who sets one power 
 in the State to combat another may be a revolutionary, 
 but he may be at the same time a sagacious and praise- 
 worthy statesman." McCulloch and Higinbotham had 
 revolution thrust upon them; and, being "sagacious and 
 praiseworthy statesmen," they made it as small as it 
 could be made if it were to be effectual, by paying the
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. i6g 
 
 public creditors with money borrowed from a Bank, and 
 confessing judgment when the Bank sued the Govern- 
 ment for the money lent. In taking that course they 
 deliberately refused to act on the suggestion of their 
 extremer supporters, who said "By acting thus you are 
 weakening the pressure upon the Council. You should 
 leave the public service unpaid, let police and soldiers 
 disband, let the whole public service of the country be 
 disorganised : then they will be compelled to yield." 
 
 In the matter of the conflict as to Payment of Members 
 the case was entirely different. There was here no 
 revolution on the part of the Upper House calling for a 
 counter-revolution. Payment of Members had been 
 passed for one short period, then for another short period, 
 by the parties pecuniarily interested in the vote, and the 
 electors had not been consulted. When it was proposed 
 to make the payment permanent. Members of the Upper 
 House, of whom Balfour was one, said : "If the people 
 approve of it we shall pass it at once, but nothing short 
 of the declared will of the people will induce us to do." 
 The solution of the difficulty was thereby brought at once 
 within the power of the Constitution ; and that should 
 have been invoked. With a little patience, the whole 
 difficulty would have disappeared ; but the Berry 
 Ministry refused to go before the country on the debated 
 issue, as the McCulloch Ministry had done, and then 
 proceeded to take the violent revolutionary course which 
 McCulloch and Higinbotham had refused to take. Surely 
 no intelligent follower of McCulloch in the former case 
 would fail to be absolutely opposed to Berry's action, all 
 the more strenuously that it was a caricature and mis- 
 application of the principles upon which the former 
 had acted. This, in brief, is Balfour's explanation and 
 defence of his action on these two different occasions 
 as he made it in the Council Chamber; and it must, 1 
 think, seem adequate to any unbiassed mind. The
 
 I70 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 principles on which he acted in the Darling Grant case, 
 whether right or wrong, made it necessary that he 
 should defend the Legislative Council against Berry's 
 attack ; and, when the latter carried on his warfare by a 
 cruel and malevolent dismissal of the more highly paid 
 Civil Servants, and when, restoring some, he left out 
 those who were connected socially or otherwise with the 
 wealthier classes, Balfour's sense of justice was outraged. 
 Besides opposing such action in Parliament, he de- 
 nounced the proceedings of the day (branded then and 
 since with the name of "Black Wednesday") in a large 
 meeting of his constituents at Brighton. He thus helped 
 to form that healthier public opinion which has left 
 Berry's action on this occasion without a defender. All 
 political parties look back on it now with shame, and 
 regard it as a blot on the honour of the State. 
 
 So far from being inconsistent, and fickle, and founded 
 merely on personal motives, Balfour's conduct in his 
 new sphere was not only in a line with his former action, 
 but it was statesmanlike. It was clear to him that one 
 cause of the conflicts between the two Houses was the 
 defective constitution of the House to which he now 
 belonged. The property qualification for Members and 
 electors was so high that the Council represented a class 
 far too small and too homogeneous to permit of a wise 
 use of the power of restraint upon hasty action by the 
 Lower House which it was intended to have. The result 
 had been that, first, the Council had sought to bring 
 in the Home Government to support it against the mass 
 of the electors, and then the Assembly, led by Mr. 
 Berry, when the violence and injustice of "Black Wed- 
 nesday" had failed, made practically the same appeal. 
 Obviously if self-government was not to become a farce, 
 that could not be the way out of the difficulties. Conse- 
 quently, when the Hon. T. T. a'Beckett in July, 1874, 
 some weeks after Balfour entered the House, moved for
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 171 
 
 a Committee to consider how the Legislative Council 
 might be reformed, Balfour warmly supported him and 
 was appointed a member of the Committee, which 
 proceeded to "draft a scheme of reform by the reduction 
 of the qualification of both electors and members, and 
 by shortening the period for which Members were to 
 hold their seats from ten years to six." They thus laid 
 their fingers upon the radical defects of things as they 
 were and tried to secure a House which should represent 
 a larger and above all a more varied constituency and 
 should be more immediately under the control of the 
 electors. They were not at the moment successful ; but, 
 when, some seven years later, a Bill for the Amendment 
 of the Constitution came up from the Legislative As- 
 sembly, and was eventually accepted by both Houses, 
 it contained nearly all the provisions which the Council's 
 Committee of 1874 had proposed.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 POLITICAL LIFE (Continued) : EDUCATION. 
 
 In the preceding chapter, I have endeavoured to give 
 an impression of Balfour's Legislative activities on the 
 whole ; but there was one subject in which he was so 
 conspicuously a leader, that it deserves more detailed and 
 separate notice. This was Education, both religious and 
 secular; and to that subject this chapter will be devoted. 
 Being of Scottish birth, he could not fail to have much 
 interest in education. All his life he was engaged in 
 giving religious instruction ; and one of his first enter- 
 prises after he landed in Victoria was to found a school 
 in which at first religious and then secular education was 
 given. At that time the teaching of the people was 
 almost entirely in the hands of the Churches. The 
 Church was always the first teaching institution set up 
 in the early settlements ; and, as soon as the church was 
 built, the school followed. Sometimes, indeed, the 
 school building was erected first and was used on Sun- 
 days for worship as well as for Sunday school till money 
 could be found for the church proper. The teachers of 
 these denominational schools were always selected by 
 the authorities of the denomination to which the school 
 building belonged, and were generally most respectable 
 men in entire sympathy with their church, though their 
 training as teachers might have left something to be 
 desired. 
 
 The schools were maintained partly by school fees and 
 partly by a Government subsidy. The education was, of 
 course, the ordinary primary education, of which reading, 
 writing, and arithmetic then formed the staple, and was 
 
 172
 
 JAMES BALFOIR. 173 
 
 always supposed to include religious instruction. But, 
 as the Rev. A. J. Campbell says In his "Fifty years of 
 Presbyterianism," in the Presbyterian Schools the teach- 
 ing was Biblical, and in no degree sectarian, and was 
 given by the Schoolmaster, not by the Minister. This 
 was the ancient Scottish way of dealing with the matter, 
 and was founded on two truths which have been too 
 much lost sight of in modern days, firstly, that a pro- 
 fessional schoolmaster must necessarily be more skilled 
 in giving school instruction in any subject than the 
 Minister, who is very rarely an expert in that business ; 
 and, secondly, that nothing a person from outside can 
 do in a school, however respected or even venerable he 
 may be, can affect the moral tone of the school with 
 the same certainty and in the same degree as the efforts 
 of the schoolmaster, and it is the tone of the school that 
 matters most after all. By an unfortunate misunder- 
 standing between Mr. Higinbotham's Commission (ap- 
 pointed in 1867) and some of the witnesses, that gentle- 
 man got it fixed in his mind that the Ministers of all 
 denominations had neglected their duty, and that re- 
 ligious instruction was not given in the denominational 
 schools, because it was stated in evidence that they did 
 not give it, and this has been currently believed ever 
 since. But, so far as Presbyterian schools were con- 
 cerned, that was certainly not the case. What Presby- 
 terians wanted was given by the schoolmasters, and the 
 ministers were left fi'ee for their proper work. The 
 catechising of the children, which is quite a different 
 thing, was part of their proper work ; and they carried 
 that on through the Sunday Schools and otherwise. 
 
 But, however mistaken this impression is, there can 
 be no doubt that in other respects the denominational 
 school system had proved a failure. The first step to- 
 wards improving it was the establishment of a Board of 
 National Education, which established undenominational
 
 174 JAMES BALFOUR. • 
 
 schools in places where the denominational schools were 
 unequal to the work of instructing all the children, or 
 where the parents were not satisfied with the education 
 offered by them. Of this Board Mr. Balfour was made 
 a member soon after he came to Melbourne from Gee- 
 long. He held the olTice for three years from 1865 to 
 1868, and gained complete insight into the educational 
 needs of the country, and into the merits and defects of 
 the systems by which those needs were being met. This 
 experience left him as convinced as Mr. Higinbotham, 
 that a truly national system of education could alone meet 
 the demands of the situation, but he avoided the errors 
 and extremes of opinion into which the latter fell. How- 
 ever, he always had the warmest admiration for the 
 work which Higinbotham's Commission accomplished, 
 and thoroughly approved of the generous and far-seeing 
 Bill which that statesman introduced but abandoned all 
 too prematurely in the circumstances narrated in a previ- 
 ous chapter. Had that Bill been accepted, the sound 
 principle that the great ideals of Christianity, as they 
 are stated in Scripture, should be made the foundation 
 of moral instruction and of school discipline, in a nation 
 in which the religion of the people was Christianity, 
 would have been built into the educational system of the 
 State; but Mr. Higinbotham, partly from annoyance 
 and partly from premature despair, let the Bill drop, 
 warning the Churches as he did so that they would never 
 again be ofifered so religious a measure. 
 
 Balf(jur was immeasurably grieved at the catastrophe ; 
 but, as he was absent in New Zealand at the time, 
 seeking rest for his injured eye, he could do nothing. 
 Had he known the course Bishop Perry was about to 
 take, though he had no place in Parliament at the time, 
 he would certainly not have been away from Melbourne 
 at a crisis so serious. Had he been present to protest, 
 he would have had the Presbyterian Church wholly with
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 175 
 
 him; for in 1867 the General Assembly gave every sup- 
 port it could give to the principles laid down by Higin- 
 botham, and "approved generally of the Bill introduced 
 at the instance of the Royal Commission on Education." 
 Its other declarations are so reasonable and liberal that 
 they may perhaps be summarised here. The Assembly 
 approved of the exclusion of sectarian religious instruc- 
 tion from the schools; of the appointment of Local 
 Boards, on which the ratepayers and the parents should 
 be represented, which should appoint the teachers and 
 have the general management of the schools ; of the 
 establishment of a Training Institution for Teachers; 
 of the local Boards having the power to define the kind 
 and amount of religious instruction, provided it was not 
 of a sectarian or controversial character, and, where they 
 neglected it, of the parents having the power to demand 
 it. Fmally, it was opposed to a separate grant to any 
 denomination, because that would perpetuate the sec- 
 tarian element and would establish the denomination so 
 favoured as pro tanio the National Church. Had the 
 Protestant churches firmly stood together on grounds like 
 this, a solution acceptable to all could then have been 
 reached ; and the State would have been spared the 
 disgrace of denying to the children of the country 
 acquaintance with the great master-piece of English 
 prose, and the only poetry and philosophy our people 
 will ever receive ; but they did not, and there has 
 followed nearly fifty years of mutilated education, of 
 painfully defective moral instruction, and of continual 
 conflict and discontent. It may be confidently predicted 
 that if this continue without remedy, all the Churches 
 will one day have to combine against such a system ; and 
 then the moment for the success of the Roman Catholic 
 demands will have come. 
 
 The Education question was next approached by the 
 Francis Ministry (June 1872-July 1874). In that Cabinet
 
 176 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 Mr. Wilberforce Stephen was the Minister of Education, 
 and he must bear a large part of the responsibiHty for 
 the regrettable character of the Education Laws of 
 Victoria from 1873 (when the new system was started) 
 until now. Apart from educational theory, there were 
 two extraneous circumstances that largely determined 
 the attitude of the majority of the people in this matter 
 at the time. The first was anger at the attitude of the 
 Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches to Higin- 
 botham's Bill. Their apparently irreconcilable attitude 
 caused men to say, "Since they will not be reasonable, 
 we shall not regard their wishes at all." The second 
 was that there was then a strong reaction against Roman 
 Catholic dominance in politics. Under O'Shanassy and 
 Duffy the Roman Catholics had had several leases of 
 power; and they were accused of favouring their co- 
 religionists unduly in their distribution of patronage 
 and in all church questions. Indeed some of their 
 politicians did not seem to rise above the view the present 
 writer heard an Irish policeman announcing about this 
 time, "Sure, an' what would be the use of a statesman il 
 he wouldn't give his friends a place?" "To dish the 
 Roman Catholics," was then a generally unexpressed 
 but deeply felt desire in political circles. That largely 
 determined the character of the new Act and the support 
 it received. It was thought, and said with more or less 
 purposeful obscurity, that it would be good to compel 
 all Roman Catholic children to attend the State Schools 
 along with the children of their fellow-citizens, so that 
 they should not be so much under priestly domination. 
 To make this project have a semblance of justice, and 
 to keep the Priest out of the schools, it was declared 
 that the instruction was to be purely secular, and that 
 only after school hours should it be permitted to give 
 religious instruction in the school buildings. Further, 
 the teachers were forbidden to take public part in any
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 177 
 
 religious services in their own scliools, and the schools 
 could be used even after school hours only with thi- 
 consent vi the local Board of Advice. Even when the 
 Boards consented, the Minister could overrule them 
 when he thought fit. 
 
 Of course, a scheme like this provoked the most 
 strenuous opposition, and it failed in its object, as all 
 attempts to use the powers of the State against a creed 
 deserve 10 fail. The Roman Catholic children have not 
 been brought into the State schools. There are certainly 
 not a larger proportion of Roman Catholic children 
 there now than there were before this Act was passed ; 
 and the anti-State School feeling of their Church has 
 been greatly jintensified. A Catholic vSchool system 
 has grown up into effectiveness, the children under it 
 are taught whatever their Clergy please to teach them, 
 and the Government cannot enquire or supervise in any 
 way, lest they should be compelled to certify that the 
 secular education given in them is sound and so 
 strengthen the claim for payment for that. The priest, 
 therefore, is for half the Roman Catholic children in the 
 State not only in the School, but is the school, and the 
 seclusion of these children from their Protestant con- 
 temporaries is complete. No one of the avowed or 
 unavowed anti-Roman Catholic purposes has been 
 attained ; and the education of the Protestant children 
 has been deplorably mutilated, as I have said. 
 
 It was under these circumstances that Balfour re- 
 entered political life, but unfortunately he did not sit 
 in the Upper House till the Act making Education 
 secular and compulsory had become the Law of the 
 land, in 1872. It came into force in 1873, and he took 
 bis seat only in 1874. It might be supposed that this 
 near synchronism between the passing of the Act he so 
 consistently opposed and his appearance in Parliament 
 was more than a coincidence ; but it was not so ; for no
 
 178 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 one, not even its authors, foresaw the course which the 
 principles they had proclaimed were tq compel or commit 
 them to take. It is to be desired that 
 journalists and legislators in every English- 
 speaking country where a purely secular primary 
 school system is put forward as a sound, peaceful and 
 desirable solution of the educational problem, should read 
 the debates of the Victorian Parliament by which the Act 
 of 1873 was passed, and then study the gradual repudia- 
 tion of every mitigating promise and interpretation, 
 till what I have called "terrorist secularism" reigned un- 
 checked in a manner which very few politicians even can 
 look back upon without shame, and which has not been 
 paralleled save in France at its worst moments. When 
 it was stated that the instruction was to be purely 
 "secular," and it was asked, would that preclude religion 
 altogether, one of the Ministers replied in substance, 
 "Look at the reading books. They are those of the 
 Irish Board, and have in them much reference to Scrip- 
 ture ; and they teach Christianity in its essential prin- 
 ciples. These books are to remain. That fact shows in 
 what sense the system is to be 'secular'." But unfor- 
 tunately the opponents of pure secularism did not succeed 
 in having a definition of "secular" in this sense inserted 
 in the Bill ; and bye and bye it was maintained by the 
 Department that the word bound them to the exclusion 
 of all religious references either in teaching or in school 
 books. But for some six years these reading books, 
 and with their teachings on Scripture history and their 
 Scriptural references, remained as a protest against the 
 growing secularisation. That began with Mr. Stephen's 
 refusal to interpret, "after School hours" (the words 
 by which the time when external teachers of religion 
 might come in to give religious instruction was defined), 
 as equivalent to "outside of School hours." Many 
 teachers were ready to arrange that either before, or in
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 179 
 
 the intervals of, or after, the four secular hours pre- 
 scribed by Parliament, time should be given for religious 
 instruction ; but this was forbidden, though that was the 
 sense in which opponents of secularism had been allowed 
 to interpret it when the Bill was before Parliament. 
 Then it was insisted that before religious instruction 
 could begin, the school should be dismissed and the door 
 locked. Further, teachers were nut encouraoed to remain 
 to help to keep order, even when they were willing ; and 
 where the Board of Advice chose to demand payment 
 for the use of the school rooms it was permitted to d(j 
 so. In short, every obstacle that hostile ingenuity could 
 devise was put in the way of the religious teacher ; while, 
 at the same time, the clergy of all denominations were 
 attacked because they did not give religious instruction 
 in every school. It was pointed out again and again 
 that even if the clergy of all denominations were to give 
 all their time to the work, it would be impossible under 
 any conditions that they should do it, and that under 
 the conditions so needlessly imposed it was outrage- 
 ously impossible. 
 
 But it was all in vain : the Education Department 
 went on, under various Ministers, to make its adminis- 
 tration first secular, then bitterly secular, then even 
 childishly secular. This last stage was reached when 
 in reply to a very strong demand that at least the 
 Lord's Prayer should be hung up in the school rooms, 
 the Minister of the day bluntly said, "The difficulties 
 are insuperable. Which Lord's Prayer are we to 
 choose?" The next step was taken at the instance of a 
 newly-established Jewish newspaper which had to make 
 its way in the world. In a sudden access of zeal, it 
 pointed out with indignation that under a purely secular 
 system of education and in the reading books, a quota- 
 tion from the New Testament occurred which stated that 
 Moses "counted the reproach of Christ greater riches
 
 i8o JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 than the treasures of Egypt." Thereupon it was 
 determined that the Irish reading book must give place 
 to others, and the principle was tacitly laid down, that 
 the school books should contain nothing that anyone 
 objected to on religious grounds. This created alarm, 
 and when Balfour moved in the matter he was informed 
 that no agitation was necessary, as the Department in- 
 tended to introduce Nelson's reading books, the books 
 used in Scotland. That was done; and then, to the 
 amazement of everyone, it was found that the officers 
 of the Department had gone through the books before- 
 hand removing every statement, nay even every noun 
 and adjective that implied Chrisitian belief. Poems were 
 mutilated ; e.g., a verse was removed from Longfellow's 
 "Wreck of the 'Hesperus.' " Prose passages were 
 altered ; as, in the story of a lost child, where the original 
 said, "The Christian Mother prayed," "Christian" was 
 changed into "frantic." It was this de-Christianised 
 edition of Nelson's Readers which had been forced upon 
 the schools, without the consent of Parliament, or even 
 of the Cabinet. 
 
 Later, when clamour against such action forced the 
 Government of the day to do something, they appointed 
 Mr. Pearson as a Commission to enquire into the whole 
 Educational system. He, as was expected, blessed it 
 altogether, and, as for the books, he reported, manifestly 
 with peculiar pride, that they now contained no religious 
 reference which could offend, except perhaps a refer- 
 ence to "the flood" "which might be objectionable to our 
 Chinese fellow-subjects." He had forgotten that God 
 was mentioned a few times; but probably he was right 
 in looking upon these lapses as too slight to do harm. 
 Long before this, it had been felt bv those teachers who 
 were local preachers, or Sunday School teachers in con- 
 nection with their various Churches, that such activities 
 were looked at askance bv the authorities; and finally
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. i8i 
 
 a Minister informed a deputation of teachers that con- 
 tinuance in them would interfere with their promotion. 
 Further, the rule that teachers were not to give religious 
 instruction in their own school building even when the 
 local committee permitted religious services or Sunday 
 School to be held in it, was pressed to this point, that 
 a teacher was w^arned because he, being the only per- 
 son musically capable, started the hymn tunes at a 
 service; and, when he repeated his offence, he was fined 
 
 It can easily be conceived that this furious secularisa- 
 tion of the educational administration did not go on 
 without serious opposition to it being shown. At every 
 new step the most earnest protest was made. But the 
 newspapers were steadily and at times virulently 
 secularist ; the Roman Catholics (against whom the Act 
 had in the first instance been aimed) soon saw that their 
 only hope of breaking it down was to prevent any 
 modification of its secularism, till the bad results should 
 bring the Protestant Churches to buy them off by a 
 separate grant. They, therefore, cast their votes in 
 favour of the Act at every election; while all those in 
 the various churches who could not believe that religious 
 instruction other than the doctrinal teaching of creeds 
 and catechisms was of any value, swelled the ranks of 
 the Act's supporters. Because these could not have 
 the whole loaf, they refused the bread that was offered. 
 This gave a factitious appearance of strength to the 
 secularist movement ; and for a time the Act was made a 
 kind of fetish. If, like the great Goddess Diana which 
 was worshipped at Ephesus, it had fallen down from 
 heaven, it could not have been more sacred. To hint at 
 criticism of it was sufficient to provoke a tumult, with 
 no judicious town clerk to bring the multitude to reason 
 again. "Great is the secular Education Act" repeated
 
 i82 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 incessantly, not for two hours, but for years, was the 
 one and suflicient reply to any objections. 
 
 From the first, of course, the non-Episcopal Churches, 
 especially the Presbyterians who had carried with them 
 to Australia knowledge of the benefit which a reasonable 
 system of Biblical teaching in primary schools brought 
 to a country, and of the ease with which it could be 
 incorporated in a National system of Education, fought 
 as one man for every inch of the ground ; and Balfour, 
 who was their natural leader among laymen, soon became 
 so absorbed in the struggle that it became practically his 
 life work. But others were not idle. A Bible in State 
 Schools' League was formed in Melbourne, of which 
 the Bishop, Dr. Moorhouse, became chairman, branches 
 were organised throughout the country, and a great 
 debate, carried on in Parliament, in the Press and in 
 public meetings, began. Every new departure from the 
 promises made when the Act was passed was resisted : 
 every inconsistency was exposed; and whenever any new 
 secularistic extravagance occurred, Balfour was ready 
 with his incisive and earnest eloquence to call the atten- 
 tion of Parliament to what had been done, and to put 
 the authors of it on their defence. In this way he did 
 splendid service to the cause of public morality and re- 
 ligion. But he also became one of the moving spirits in 
 the Bible in State Schools' League to which he gave 
 most ungrudgingly of his money, of his time in Com- 
 mittee and at its public meetings, and of his quite re- 
 markable speaking power. He made it one of his main 
 interests for the rest of his life. The greater part of 
 his work in this great cause was naturally outside Par- 
 liament, for the main need was to expound to the people 
 what the Churches wanted. But on several critical oc- 
 casions he made speeches in the Legislative Council of 
 such power that they sensibly altered public opinion. The 
 most important of these was delivered on September
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 183 
 
 17th and October 8th, 1889. By that time the secular- 
 istic corruption of the Act had become pronounced ; and 
 on the occasion of the introduction to the Legislative 
 Council of a Bill to amend the Education Act in some 
 smaller details, such as to reduce the age for leaving 
 school, and to raise the number of days on which children 
 must attend, Balfour indicated that he would make a 
 motion to legalise unsectarian religious instruction, and 
 justified that course by a speech which a strenuous op- 
 ponent characterised in these words : "I must say that 
 Mr. Balfour has dealt with the question in a most 
 able manner — in fact I never heard him speak so well." 
 It is worth while to give an extract from this speech, 
 which began by pointing out that his connection with 
 and interest in the education of the people was of old 
 date : — 
 
 "I approve of the Act of 1872, but I say there has 
 been great weakness in its administration. The chief 
 thing about which I have to complain is the definition 
 given to the word 'secular.' When the Bill which after- 
 wards became the Act of 1872 was before Parliament, 
 the question of the definition to be given to the word 
 'secular' was raised and fully discussed. An attempt 
 was made to introduce a definition similar to that con- 
 tained in the New South Wales Act, to the effect that 
 'secular' instruction should include religious teaching 
 of an unsectarian character. But that attempt was not 
 successful, principally because the Minister in charge 
 of the Bill contended that it was not necessary to insert 
 such a definition in the Bill, inasmuch as the ordinary 
 lesson books of the Irish National Board — not the Irish 
 National Scripture lesson books — were then in use in 
 the State Schools. The Minister pointed to these books, 
 and said that they were full of religious instruction of 
 an unsectarian character to a larger extent than even the 
 present editions. If the Minister had not made that
 
 i84 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 statement, much ol the trouble that has since taken 
 place would have been avoided. The consequence was 
 that provision was simply made for four hours' secular 
 instruction in the State Schools each day, but there was 
 nothing in the Act to prevent other than secular instruc- 
 tion being given outside of School hours. 
 
 "The Act, if it had been interpreted as was intended 
 by Parliament, would have given us what we wanted, 
 and all that we are now asking for. But what hap- 
 pened ? The lesson books of the Irish National Board 
 were used for many years after the Act came into opera- 
 tion : they were used for 4, 5, or 6 years at least — it may 
 have been longer, but I wish to be within the mark. 
 The books were, however, gradually altered, and this is 
 one reason why I say that we should not leave every- 
 thmg to the Minister of Public Instruction. I do not 
 suppose that the then Minister of Public Instruction had 
 any intention of excluding religious instruction : but 
 the officers of the Education Department were at the time 
 introducing lessons on Australian subjects into the 
 books, and as they did so, they dropped the lessons 
 relating to religion. This went on for a while, and at 
 last a greater revolution took place. Suddenly the books 
 were dispensed with altogether, and Nelson's ;Royal 
 Readers introduced. These books were very good in 
 their way, for they were drawn up for use in the schools 
 of England and Scotland where religious lessons were 
 given regularly. But they did not contain as much re- 
 ligious instruction as the lesson books of the Irish 
 National Board. The present Minister of Public In- 
 struction has said that these latter books contained only 
 a little Old Testament History; but that statement is 
 incorrect. They contained not only distinct dogmatic, 
 but historical teaching of the sacred story, leading up 
 to New Testament times, and lessons about Christ and 
 Christianity. These books were abandoned for Nel-
 
 JAMES BALFOVR. 185 
 
 son's Royal Readers. One would have thoughi that 
 was a very considerable jump to make without any 
 appeal to Parliament, without even any advice or in- 
 struction from Parliament; but a still more extracjrdinary 
 step was taken subsequently. I allude to the excision 
 from the books of all references to Christ and Chris- 
 tianity. Wherever the words "Christ" and "Chris- 
 tianity" appeared they were altered to something else; 
 and a number of very beautiful passages relating to 
 Christ and Christianity were struck out altogether. I 
 have the authority of the then Premier, Sir James Mc- 
 Culloch, for saying that the proposed change was never 
 brought under the notice of the Cabinet, and that the 
 Cabinet knew nothing about it till after it was effected. 
 The change was a very serious one, and completely 
 altered the character of the instruction provided, and 
 intended by Parliament to be provided, in the State 
 Schools. If Honorable Members will refer to 'Hansard' 
 they will find that, when the Bill, now the Act, of 
 1872, was under discussion in the Assembly, Mr. Ed- 
 ward Langton advocated it on the ground that the 
 lesson books of the Irish National Board were in use 
 in the State Schools and that there would be no inter- 
 ference with the religious instruction then given. In a 
 few years the great changes to which I have referred 
 were made ; and now we are told that, if we allow 
 religious instruction of any kind to be given in the 
 State Schools, we shall be introducing denomi nation- 
 alism. That is in fact the counter-cry to the cry — for 
 it now undoubtedly is a cry — for Bible reading and 
 religious instruction. The answer is, to ask what was 
 the condition of affairs when there was a National 
 system of education in the Colony (before the Act of 
 1872). The very extracts from Scripture for the intro- 
 duction of which we are now asking were read daily 
 in the National Schools, and denominational leaching
 
 i86 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 could be given outside the school hours. The teachers 
 themselves had to give religious lessons unless the 
 parents objected ; and several religious books were kept 
 in stock, including a book of sacred poetry, and a book 
 on the Christian Evidences. 
 
 "This is what Sir James Palmer, who was the Chair- 
 man of the National Board of Education, said in evidence 
 he gave before the Royal Commission of 1867, in reply 
 to the question 'Would you never allow the teacher to 
 impart religious instruction?' 'Yes, and in many cases, 
 it is so. We have no rule whatever lo prevent it. We 
 permit it. Under the National Board, for instance, to 
 which I was first attached, religion was constantly taught 
 by the master. We had a series of sacred reading 
 lessons and sacred poetry among our books!' Was 
 that denominationalism ? I am now speaking of the 
 National system. In a circular letter from the National 
 Education Office dated the 20th November, 1854, ^he 
 following statement was made : 'That the local patrons 
 of each school be informed that religious instruction 
 in the school or class rooms, but not during the hours 
 of secular instruction, may be imparted by the teacher 
 in conformity with the regulations of the Commissioners, 
 if the local patrons, in writing, consent to such arrange- 
 ment.' Under the National School system, the char- 
 acter of the teachers was very closely scrutinised, and 
 there were maxims or statements hung on the walls of 
 the schools relating to the duty of instructing the 
 scholars in the Christian religion. But that was not 
 denominationalism : it was Christianity. The Minister 
 of Public Instruction made a great deal of certain ex- 
 tracts he read from the evidence given before Mr. Higin- 
 botham's Commission, to the effect that very little 
 religious instruction was given in the common schools. 
 The Common vSchools Act provided that secular instruc- 
 tion should be given for four hours each day, and
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 187 
 
 during those hours reUgious instruction was not given ; 
 but otherwise each local Board could introduce what- 
 ever religious instruction it thought proper. There was 
 a good deal of misunderstanding about some ot the 
 answers given to questions before Mr. Higinbotham's 
 commission. vSome of the witnesses thought religious 
 instruction meant denominationalism, and these answers 
 had reference to denominationalism. As a matter of 
 fact a good deal of religious instruction was given in 
 the common schools. 
 
 "One very important witness was Mr. G. Wilson 
 Brown, formerly Inspector-General and recently Secre- 
 tary of the Education Department, and I will read some 
 extracts from his evidence : — 'Do you believe, generally 
 speaking, that there is religious instruction ?' — 'Not what 
 I should call religious instruction, certainly not. At 
 the most, the religious instruction is confined to reading 
 a chapter from the Bible in Protestant schools, or a 
 short prayer before commencing work.' We call that 
 religion, our opponents, denominationalism. Mr. Cuth- 
 bert asks will we have that? I shall be very glad to 
 have it. If you will give us that, it will stop the dis- 
 cussion. The evidence continued: 'Not both?' — 
 'Occasionally both.' — 'Is there any examination in the 
 chapter ?' — 'There is sometimes : I know of two or three 
 instances; but not as a rule.' — 'Do you believe that in 
 most Protestant schools these forms of reading a chapter 
 and saying a prayer are used?' — 'In the majority of 
 schools connected with denominations.' — 'You wlould 
 scarcely consider that religious instruction?' — 'No.' — 
 'Why would you not regard the reading of a chapter as 
 instruction?' — 'There is no teaching or explanation.' — 
 'But you have found explanations of the chapter in some 
 instances?' — 'In a few, but very few: it is quite the 
 exception.' — 'In the Protestant denominational schools 
 have you known of any sectarian instruction (as dis-
 
 i88 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 tinguished from religious instruction), such as catechism, 
 bemg imparted?' — 'No, I do not ever remember seeing 
 the Catechism taught in a Protestant school, or any other 
 sectarian form used.' If the religion taught in the 
 schools then was given now, it would satisfy the com- 
 munity and settle the question. 
 
 "Mr. Brown's evidence proceeds : 'So there is no fear 
 of sectarianism being taught in these schools?' — 'No, I 
 see nothing of the kind.' — 'Then the question of re- 
 ligion does not come up ?' — 'Not at all. I keep clear 
 of it.' — 'What is your own opinion? Would you ap- 
 prove of a system of national education exclusively 
 secular?' — 'I think it is the very thing that is wanted. 
 I believe it is the only system that would work here.' 
 — 'Exclude religion?' — 'Not excluding religion; but the 
 local Committee should make the arrangements as to 
 what it should be. As far as the Central Board is con- 
 cerned, there should be nothing but secular education 
 recognised.' — 'If an Act of Parliament should prohibit 
 expressly religious instruction in connection with the 
 schools, would you consider that a desirable system?' 
 — 'Certainly not. I would leave the power of making 
 arrangements for religious instruction to the local Com- 
 mittees.' — 'Do you think the present Act works well 
 in that respect?' — 'No; I do not think it does. It is 
 possible under the Act to get up denominational schools, 
 and in scattered localities when one such school is 
 established no other can be.' — 'Until the juvenile popu- 
 lation rise to 200 children ?' — 'Yes ; that is practically 
 impossible in an agricultural district.' — 'When you say 
 you would not adopt a system excluding religious in- 
 struction, do you mean that you would disapprove of 
 a system that admitted sectarian instruction ? You 
 approve of religious instruction, providing it is arranged 
 for by local committees : would you approve of a system 
 bv which the local committees should be allowed to
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 189 
 
 give sectarian religious instruction?' — '1 would have 
 the local committees composed of persons so selected as 
 not to leave an absolute majority belonging to any one 
 denomination ; and they should make any regulations 
 they pleased as to religious instruction.' — 'Would you 
 provide for the minority by allowing them to retire 
 during the religious instruction if they object to the 
 religious instruction agreed on by the Committee?' — 
 'Certainly, they need not attend it.' 
 
 "That is exactly what we are claiming now. It is 
 what every petition asks for, that local committees 
 should have power to direct Scripture extracts to be 
 taught by the teacher outside the four hours of secular 
 instruction, with a conscience clause under which any 
 child might be withdrawn, and with provision made 
 that, if any teacher sent in a statement that he con- 
 scientiously objected to give this instruction, he should 
 not be compelled to do so. We would find teachers to 
 take the places of the few who would object. In most 
 schools there are more teachers than one, and all would 
 not be likely to object; but, if they did, there would be 
 no difficulty in finding volunteers to come in and give 
 the instruction desired. I think I have conclusively 
 shown that it is nationalism not denominationalism, to 
 give religious instruction under such a system. Mr. 
 Higinbotham, in the report of the Commission, said, 
 'The evidence is almost unanimously to the effect that 
 parents generally desire that their children should receive 
 an unsectarian religious, and not a merely secular, 
 education in the piiblic school; and to this desire on the 
 part of the parents, and their consequent preference for 
 the supposed advantages of the denominational system, 
 some of the witnesses refer the prolonged vitality of that 
 system. We beg to submit that the instinctive feelings 
 of parents and the theoretic views of the majority of the 
 witnesses upon this subject are in favour of the course
 
 190 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 which the interests of education, no less than the dictates 
 of sound pohcy, prescribe. The drawing out in the 
 mind of a child of a sense of its relation to God, and of 
 the duties which flow from that relation— the inculcation 
 by the words, as well 'as by the example, of the teacher 
 of a reverent and truthful tone of thought, feeling, and 
 expression — and the enforcement by gentle, yet constant, 
 pressure of cheerful obedience and habits of discipline 
 are, we think, wholly distinct from the process of im- 
 parting mere intellectual knowledge on the one hand, 
 and from instruction in dogmatic or sectarian theories 
 on the other, while at the same time we believe them 
 to be essential, and indeed by far the most important 
 elements in the education of a child and the formation 
 of its character. Teaching of this kind, together with 
 such religious exercises — for example, a prayer, or a 
 hymn, or the reading of some version of the Scriptures 
 —as may be calculated to give it aid and effect, should 
 be encouraged and submitted in the public schools 
 instead of being forbidden.' 
 
 "That was the view in 1867 of a very distinguished 
 and great-minded statesman. The report was drawn up 
 by Mr. Higinbotham, and presented in the name of the 
 whole Commission to Parliament. Mr. Higinbotham 
 was responsible for drawing it up and the Commission 
 for accepting it. I heard a whisper that Mr. Higin- 
 botham afterwards changed his views, but such was not 
 the case. I know the whole history of the matter. The 
 facts are these : — The Bill which accompanied the report 
 — an excellent Bill, providing for this very kind of 
 instruction — was introduced in the Legislative As- 
 sembly, but got no support from the people who ought 
 to have supported it. Bishop Perry took the strong 
 denominational view. In fact he wanted payment by 
 results, as did also our late respected friend, Dr. Hearn. 
 Thev refused assistance to the Bill, and the weight of
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 191 
 
 the Church of England was such that the measure fell 
 flat, and Mr. Higinbotham, in indignation, withdrew it, 
 telling them that they would never get such a measure 
 again. If that Bill had been passed, it would have 
 saved many an hour's trouble, and what, I believe, will 
 be a serious result to the Colony from the present ultra- 
 secular system. In consequence of the way the Bill 
 was received, Mr. Higinbotham said he was done with 
 the matter, and he has never gone in for helping us 
 since, 'because,' he said, 'you would not have it when 
 I offered it.' Since then another Commission, of which 
 Mr. (formerly Judge) Rogers and Colonel Templeton 
 were successively Chairmen, has sat on the education 
 question. Mr. Rogers had to go to Tasmania, and 
 Colonel Templeton, who was the nominee of Mr. Ser- 
 vice's Government, was appointed acting-chairman. Mr. 
 Rogers drew up a report, which was agreed to by a cer- 
 tain section of the Commission. This section went in 
 for what we are now asking, and also for an amendment 
 of the Act with regard to the Roman Catholics, giving 
 them the relief they desired. With regard to the point 
 I am now discussing, what Mr. Rogers and the portion 
 of the Commission who went with him said was as fol- 
 lows : — 'To effect this amendment, (that is, as previously 
 stated in the Report, the introduction of undenomin- 
 ational religious instruction of a Christian character in 
 the State Schools in a manner which would supply the 
 defect complained of by the Protestant denominations, 
 and could neither lessen the time at present devoted to 
 secular instruction nor interfere with the conscience of 
 those parents who did not wish their children to attend 
 the Scripture lessons), which the evidence has satisfied 
 me is desired, it would be necessary to repeal Section 12 
 of the present Act, and to enact in its place a section 
 similar to that in the New South Wales Act — an amend- 
 ment which would admit of teaching, as part of the
 
 192 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 school curriculum, the broad principles of the Christian 
 religion, apart from isectarian distinctions. Scripture 
 readings and lessons based upon this principle should 
 then form part of the school curriculum, the first half- 
 hour before the time tixed for commencement of the 
 secular lessons being devoted to that purpose, the State 
 School teacher giving the prescribed instruction, except in 
 those cases in which the teacher had stated in writing 
 that he had conscientious objections to doing so.' Thus 
 Mr. Rogers and the party with him, while they wanted 
 more relief for the Roman Catholics, advocated what we 
 desire for the Protestants. 
 
 "Colonel Templeton drew up another Report, which 
 was agreed to by the rest of the Commission, and these 
 were the views put forward in that report : — 'We, there- 
 fore, recommend that the hours fo*., secular instruction 
 be not interfered with, viz., two hours in the forenoon 
 and two hours in the afternoon, and that provision be 
 made in the school curriculum for religious instruction 
 of a non-sectarian character either before or after the 
 time set apart for secular instruction, with a conscience 
 clause for the protection of both teachers and children. 
 The text-book to be used might be the books of Scrip- 
 ture lessons issued by the National Board of Education 
 of Ireland. We further recommend that, during the 
 time set apart for religious instruction of a non-sectarian 
 character, the children of such parents as desire it may 
 receive religious instruction separately from some teacher 
 approved by such parents, and that such instruction 
 may include the teaching of the tenets of any sect.' So 
 that Colonel Templeton and his friends recommended 
 exactly what we ask for. 
 
 "I may also refer to the views expressed by the 
 conferences of the Boards of Advice. It seems to be 
 often overlooked that we have such Boards. The 
 Boards of Advice have far too little power. A great
 
 Golden Wedding, 1909.
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 193 
 
 deal of the evil of the present system arises from the 
 fact that we have not c^ivi-n the local authorities suffi- 
 cient control of the schools, which would have saved 
 much trouble and expense. The resolutions passed by 
 the conferences of these boards at different times show 
 what steady progress they have been making in their 
 demands. In 1879 all they asked for was this: — 'That 
 provision should be made in the Department's pro- 
 gramme of instruction to teach morals and manners 
 by enforcing habits of personal cleanliness, neatness in 
 dress, and obedience to parents, and by telling simple 
 stories to illustrate the virtues of honesty, truthfulness, 
 and kindness.' In 1883 they went a little further and 
 recommended that 'Boards of Advice should be allowed 
 to grant the use of school buildings for religious in- 
 struction before as well as after school hours' — it is 
 singular they have not that power now — and that 'where 
 teachers are willing to give religious instruction out of 
 school hours they should be permitted to do so.' But in 
 1886 they had advanced so far as to pass the following 
 resolution : — 'That, in consequence of the ignorance 
 manifested by many of the children in State schools 
 of the most elementary religious truths, it is desirable 
 that the Irish National Scripture lesson books be taught 
 with the ordinary school work ; any scholar whose 
 parents have a conscientious objection to such teachings 
 to be allowed to leave the room during the lesson.' They 
 also resolved 'That the expurgation from the reading 
 books by a former Minister of Education, without the 
 consent of Parliament, of all passages referring to the 
 person and work of Christ was a serious mistake, which 
 should be rectified at the earliest possible moment.' So 
 it will be seen that the evidence has been accumulating in 
 favour of what we desire now. 
 
 "In consequence, I suppose, of one of the recom- 
 mendations of the Boards of Advice, a book was intro- 
 H
 
 194 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 duced into the State Schools of which we have heard 
 a great deal, although I suppose few honourable mem- 
 bers have seen it. I refer to the book entitled 'Notes 
 of Lessons on Moral Subjects' by Frederick W. Hack- 
 wood, of which I some time ago purchased a copy, 
 in order to judge of its nature. A more miserable book 
 for a teacher I never saw in my life. It is founded on 
 the utilitarian principle that you are to be good because 
 it is wise to be good, that you are to be honest because 
 honesty is the best policy, that you are to obey your 
 parents because they care for you, feed you, and clothe 
 you. The book has the redeeming feature, I admit, 
 that at the end it recommends teachers in using it to 
 enforce and illustrate the precepts given by suitable 
 references to Holy Scripture. This recommendation, 
 however, would never suit our Education Department, 
 and so a circular went out that this portion of the book 
 was to be considered as expunged. The book is a 
 wretched production, about the driest book I ever read 
 on such subjects ; and I cannot see how such a miserable 
 system of teaching could be of any possible good to a 
 child. Several of the Inspectors have spoken in con- 
 demnation of the book; and I will read an extract from 
 a report by one of them, Mr. Laing. He says : 'The 
 teaching of morals in our schools cannot be said to be 
 a success. In answer to the question, "Why should we 
 be honest?" the reply generally is "Because it is the 
 best policy"; and this is but a sample of the utilitarian 
 answers one gets to similar questions on other lessons. 
 Perhaps the teachers think they would be treading on 
 forbidden ground if they were to inculcate honesty 
 because it is right. Any attempt to teach morality on 
 purely utilitarian grounds and apart from a sanction 
 must result in failure. There is but a short step between 
 being honest by faith in the maxim that it is the best 
 policy, and being honest only in those circumstances in
 
 JAMES BALFOl R. 195 
 
 which it is plainly seen to be the best policy.' I could 
 quote similar opinions from several other inspectors if 
 necessary. . . . 
 
 "Having given this accumulation of proof within our 
 own Colony, I will now turn to New South Wales and 
 see whether denominationalism has been produced by 
 the adoption there of the system which is advocated by 
 the petitions which have been represented to the House. 
 In the New South Wales Education Act there is a section 
 defining what secular instruction is to include, and per- 
 mitting it to include general religious instruction not 
 denominational or sectarian. Not only so; but in New 
 South Wales the Scripture lessons are amongst the 
 books supplied to teachers ; and it is the business of the 
 teachers to teach these lessons every week as part of the 
 programme, and the children are examined in them by 
 the inspectors. That has not resulted in denominational- 
 ism in New South Wales, nor has there been any outcry 
 on the subject. The Minister of Public Instruction 
 stated in his speech in the Assembly that he knew noth- 
 ing about the Irish National Scripture lesson books 
 being used without trouble in New South Wales; but 
 as a matter of fact ne had sent Mr. Brodribb to report 
 on the New South Wales system, and that gentleman, 
 while refraining from giving any opinion on the re- 
 ligious question, because he was not instructed to do so, 
 reported that he found that there was regular religious 
 instruction of a non-sectarian character given by the 
 teachers of the New South Wales public schools. He 
 said nothing about trouble or denominationalism having 
 grown up in consequence, and I think that should have 
 been suffi^cient for Dr. Pearson. Subsequently in a 
 speech at the opening of a State School, Dr. Pearson 
 said they had such a good plan of giving religious in- 
 struction in New South Wales that, if we could only 
 adopt it in Victoria, all our troubles would be over and
 
 196 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 we need not cry for the Bible, He described how 
 volunteers from the clergy, especially of the Church of 
 England, attended the schools and gave instruction 
 outside of school hours, and thus the whole trouble was 
 got over. But, after announcing this great discovery, 
 Dr. Pearson soon found he had been speaking 'without 
 the book'. He sent a letter to the Education Department 
 of New South Wales, asking certain questions, and the 
 answers he received were the exact opposite of the 
 statement he had made. He was informed that the 
 religious instruction by agents was not given outside 
 but inside school hours. In New South Wales not only 
 are the Scriptures used by the teachers; but also, under 
 the law, any authorised instructor from any church or 
 denomination can, by arrangement with the Board, 
 obtain any hour of the day, fixed by him and the board, 
 for religious instruction ; so that, instead of waiting 
 until the school is dismissed, when the children are 
 worn out and tired, the instructor can have the first, 
 second, third, or fourth hour, according to arrangement. 
 In Sydney and other large tov/ns in New South Wales 
 instructors can overtake four or five schools in one day 
 under this system. This can never be done in Victoria, 
 if we are to keep within the four corners of the Act. 
 In England, America, and many other places there is 
 this system ; and no denominationalism is created. And 
 that is not for lack of denominations. There are many 
 denominations in England; and in England, even in 
 Birmingham, that chosen seat of secularism, they have 
 come back to the Bible in schools. I may state at once 
 that the amendment which I intend to propose in com- 
 mittee will be something to this effect, that the Irish 
 National Scripture lesson books be used in the State 
 Schools by the teachers outside of the four hours of 
 secular instruction, but within the school curriculum, at 
 the wish of the local board, and with a conscience clause
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 197 
 
 for teachers and scholars. Let us leave it to the local 
 Board whether to have it or not. That is only carrying 
 out the principle of local self-government for the colony. 
 
 "If any 'say that no evil results follow from the 
 present system, I reply we have not yet reaped what 
 we are sowing. We have to wait a little while. We had 
 the past system for a long period and are reaping its 
 good. We have not lived long enough to see the in- 
 evitable result of bringing up children on the utilitarian 
 principles of Hackwood, and denying them the know- 
 ledge of the Bible. It is just to prevent the children of 
 the country from growing up heathens that I want to 
 give local Boards power to have these Scripture lessons 
 read in the schools. Local government does for every- 
 thing else. Local authorities manage everything local 
 except the schools. I think it was a great mistake to 
 take away power from the local Boards. I would 
 always wish to have a central power, but great latitude 
 should be left to the local Boards with regard to what 
 is to be taught — subject of course to a proper curricu- 
 lum — and the choice of a teacher, provided he be certifi- 
 cated. . . . Under the central authority the references to 
 the name of God grow fewer and fewer. The report of 
 the Royal Commission on Education, of which Mr. C. 
 J. Ham was a member, complained of the excision from 
 the Royal Readers of certain extracts of a religious 
 tendency; and I find that since then no less than eight 
 other extracts of a similar character have been left out. 
 This shows that a constant change is going on in these 
 books — a change which is carried out without the least 
 reference to Parliament. Surely discretion in this direc- 
 tion should not be left wholly to the Education Depart- 
 ment. 
 
 "There has been a controversy of late as to a unifor- 
 mity of school books, and I am quite in accord with the 
 view taken by the 'Argus.' I do not approve of the
 
 igS JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 school books being all of one uniform pattern. In the old 
 national school days several sorts of books were kept 
 in stock. The Irish readers were the ones chiefly used; 
 but there were others. Under the existing system we 
 have not only a single set of books, but that set is 
 continually being more and more expurgated by the 
 Education Department; and now Dr. Pearson wants to 
 go further, to have one reader for the whole of Australia. 
 That, however, is not at all likely to be carried. In the 
 first place, there is too much jealousy among the colonies 
 to permit of anything of the kind. The other colonies 
 would not trust Victoria to compile the books, and we 
 would not trust the other colonies to compile them. I 
 would say that there ought to be something like local 
 option in the matter, a certain amount of freedom. 
 
 "It will be said by some that the school is not the 
 place in which to teach the children of the country 
 religion, that it should be taught either at home or by 
 the churches. Well, I am quite prepared to admit that 
 we should not relieve either the parents or the churches 
 from the duty of seeing that our youths are brought up 
 religiously. Still, there are a great number of children 
 who would not get even secular instruction but for the 
 State compelling them to come into the schools (a plan 
 I entirely agree with) ; and, with children so situated, 
 what chance is there of the parents who will not look 
 after the secular instruction of their offspring caring for 
 their religious instruction ? Can such parents be ex- 
 pected to teach them about God, or about "the conscience 
 which tells them what is right and what is wrong ? 
 While I do not expect the State to take upon itself the 
 duty of the churches, and to give dogmatic religious 
 instruction, I do expect it to impart instruction bearing 
 upon character and conduct. No education can be com- 
 plete without that. Therefore, I say that the great rule 
 of conduct should form part of the regular round of
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 199 
 
 school training. I do not ask the State to become a 
 religious instructor, but I ask it to lay down the basis 
 of moral training, which can be done entirely apart from 
 anything in the shape of denominational school teach- 
 ing. The Churches also ought to work in the same 
 direction ; but the voluntary system has not been found 
 to answer satisfactorily while confined to teaching in the 
 schools after school hours, when the children are wearied 
 and want to go out to play. Indeed, so far voluntary 
 religious teaching has proved more or less a failure. 
 At all events, the teachers do not get at the children 
 they principally want to get at. In largely populated 
 towns, of course, a certain number of children can be 
 reached; but, after all, their numbers are few and there 
 is great difficulty in keeping up the attendance. It 
 would be a very different thing if the instruction I 
 alluded to was given in the morning instead of in the 
 afternoon, when every child who likes can be away. Of 
 course, I do not mean that permission to give such 
 teaching would satisfy the demands of those I represent. 
 I am now simply drawing attention to the difference 
 between voluntary teaching and regular teaching. The 
 fact is that there are a great many difficulties in con- 
 nexion with voluntary religious teaching in the afternoon 
 which would not be felt if the thing could be done in the 
 morning. For example, a voluntary teacher cannot give 
 his time after any fixed fashion in the afternoon. If 
 he is of the mercantile classes, his afternoon engage- 
 ments are much more pressing than those of the early 
 forenoon ; while if he is a clergyman he has calls upon 
 him in the latter part of the day — funerals, visits to 
 members of his congregation, and so on — which he 
 cannot put on one side. So much for the towns; the 
 obstacles in the country districts are greater. A friend 
 of mine who is a volunteer religious teacher in a large 
 country district has to travel 20 miles in order to reach
 
 200 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 a school which he visits once a week. If he were to 
 attend every school in his district once a week, his whole 
 time would be taken up. That is no uncommon case in 
 the more sparsely populated parts of the Colony. Upon 
 the whole, you cannot carry out the volunteer system in 
 the inland districts with any regularity. 
 
 "Here I must pay a compliment to Mr. Service, who, 
 when he was in office, did what he could to help the 
 voluntary system. For instance, he allowed the regular 
 teachers to remain, if they chose, to keep order. He did 
 not go so far as we wished him to do ; he would not let 
 us have morning teaching ; but the assistance he afforded 
 was of great advantage. The system adopted now of 
 making the teacher afraid to speak about anything per- 
 taining to a child's religious nature or his obligations 
 to God, is really banishing from the schools every trace 
 of the religious atmosphere, which I, for one, think it 
 most important to maintain. We want in schools what 
 we want in every department of life, the feeling that God 
 is present, that in our ordinary occupations we owe a 
 duty to One above us, who has placed us on the earth 
 to do His will. But under the existing system we 
 banish from the schools every sense of the presence of 
 God or the power of Christianity." 
 
 Here the Hon. J. Service said "You should explain 
 whether you want Christian dogma or only morality 
 taught, because the two things are utterly distinct." 
 
 Mr. Balfour replied: "We want the Scripture ex- 
 tracts taught because they contain the facts of divine 
 history. We would then leave it entirely to the child 
 to accept what he liked — what Christ on earth was, 
 what is man's duty to God, and the rest. We would be 
 satisfied to teach the Bible so as to let it tell its own tale 
 — to teach it without any questions at all if you would 
 rather there were no questions. For my part, however, 
 I would rather there were questions. I believe that on
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 201 
 
 this point I speak for the National Scripture Education 
 League. We would be content if the facts contained in 
 the Bible were allowed to produce their own effect." 
 The Hon. J, Service again interjected, "That would be 
 teaching dogma." Mr. Balfour proceeded : "Perhaps 
 some parts of the Bible set forth dogma, but we have no 
 desire to teach dogma in that way. For example, does 
 Mr. Service believe that the Sermon on the Mount 
 teaches dogma ? We do not wish to have argument or 
 discussion in the schools as to infant or adult baptism, 
 or even, if you choose, as to the divinity of Christ. I 
 repeat that we want the Scripture extracts because we 
 desire that the Bible should be left simply to tell its own 
 tale. We do not wish to see the influences the Scriptures 
 are capable of exerting entirely banished from our State 
 Schools. Why should our school children be denied 
 a knowledge of Scripture history — a knowledge of the 
 oldest historical record in the world ? I may mention 
 that such knowledge is imparted even in China. The 
 teaching in the University of Pekin now includes teach- 
 ing the Bible. On what good ground can we deny to our 
 rising generation the instruction necessary to enable them 
 to understand a very large proportion of our ordinary 
 every-day literature? I guarantee that many of Mr. 
 Service's speeches would be found to be unintelligible to 
 a great number of our State-school children simply 
 because he is so fond of introducing — I admire him for 
 it — Biblical quotations and illustrations. To many of 
 them he might as well be talking Greek or Hebrew. 
 Would you also deprive them of any power of appreciat- 
 ing a very great deal of our painting and sculpture ? 
 Besides, in taking the Bible away from State-school 
 children, you take away from them the best story 
 book in the world. You also take away from them their 
 best chance of understanding the rule of Providence 
 over all His creatures, because teaching on that head
 
 202 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 runs through the Bible from beginning to end. What 
 can be the great good of teaching the alphabet and the 
 multiplication table if at the same time you leave the 
 scholar ignorant of thfe great spiritual government of 
 the Universe ? As long as he has no sense of love of 
 God, life must be to him a perfect enigma, and he can 
 have no real idea of what goodness is. Then without the 
 Bible the child is without the best model of life, for, 
 whether you do or do not believe that Christianity is 
 divine, the mere reading of the life of Christ, from His 
 childhood to His maturity, supplies a moral ideal which 
 is to be found nowhere else. Nothing can influence a 
 child towards morality so much as the knowledge of the 
 perfect life which he can get from the life of Christ. 
 
 "In Dr. Joseph Cook's lecture on 'Shall the common 
 schools teach common morals ?' I find the following 
 passage : 'In Christ, the highest ethical reality known to 
 established and inconvertible history, there is the highest 
 self-revelation of God. That revelation, so far as Christ 
 is man, is a part of natural morals. Any system of 
 instruction which shuts its eyes to that fact shuts its eyes 
 to reality. A book on architecture 'that should not 
 mention the Parthenon, or one on painting which should 
 say nothing of the Sistine Chapel, would be no more 
 defective than is any book on purely natural morals 
 without any definite account of the highest historical 
 reality in morals — the character of Christ as a man and 
 the ethics of the Gospels. Natural morals, if taught 
 thoroughly, teach, of course, the highest attained moral 
 ideals. The character of Christ, as exhibiting the 
 highest ideal of morals actually attained among men, is 
 the supreme illustration, and contains the organising 
 principles of every scheme of natural morals that can 
 be called thorough or scientific. No adequate picture 
 of that character exists except in the New Testament. 
 Natural morals, therefore, cannot be thoroughly taught
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 203 
 
 when the Bible is excluded from the schools, and hence 
 the State, in exercise of its right of self-preservation, 
 has authority to require that the Bible shall not be 
 excluded.' By depriving a child of the Bible you take 
 from him the best motive of conduct, the restraints of an 
 enlightened conscience and the foundation of faith and 
 hope, while you leave him in ignorance of the only 
 thing that can lead him truly to God." 
 
 At a later dale (8th October, 1889) in the same Session 
 Balfour moved his amendment, which was as follows : — 
 
 "If any local Board of Advice shall so determine, the 
 Scripture lesson books of the Irish National School 
 Board shall be taught in the State Schools represented 
 by such Board of Advice as a part of the school cur- 
 riculum, either before or after the four hours specially 
 devoted to secular instruction ; provided that no teacher 
 who shall state in writing to the Board that he has 
 conscientious objections to teach such lessons shall 
 be required to teach them, and that no child whose 
 parents or guardians shall object, shall be required 
 to attend such teaching." 
 
 In an able speech he re-emphasised what he had 
 previously stated and supplemented it. He showed that 
 his proposal involved no return to the Denominational 
 system, for the instruction which he proposed should be 
 given by the teachers was in no way to be dogmatic ; it 
 was not to include the teaching of any particular branch 
 of the Christian church. The clause had nothing in view 
 beyond a general teaching of the facts of Scripture 
 history, which he looked upon as truly national, because 
 the large majority of the people in the colony professed 
 themselves to be Christians; because Christianity was 
 recognised in the Statute book; because the Bible was 
 sworn upon in the Law Courts; and because the State 
 was bound to teach morals as part of education, and only
 
 204 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 the Christian moraHty was known to or recognised by 
 the people. In reply to the objection that the adoption 
 of any system of religious instruction would lead 
 logically to the establishment of a State Church, Re said 
 that he was as much against a State Church as anyone ; 
 but to demand moral teaching based broadly on the 
 religion the people believed could have no such logical 
 I result. Moreover, general moral instruction could not 
 be given to the whole people otherwise, as those who 
 raised this objection proposed should be done. He asked 
 how had the teaching of religion outside the school 
 hours answered hitherto, with regard to the children 
 who, being most neglected, it was most desirable to 
 reach? It had worked extremely ill. They were pre- 
 cisely the children who did not attend, and so they 
 received no religious instruction save the fragment left 
 in the school books. From that they knew in a vague 
 manner that there was God; but even the passages 
 teaching that were being gradually removed without 
 the knowledge of Parliament. He had found, on looking 
 over the books, that within the last few years no less 
 than 8 additional passages had been struck out. He 
 would not say that they were struck out in order to be 
 got rid of, but he had no doubt that it was thought that 
 in order to introduce teaching on Australian fauna and 
 flora and so on, these lessons could be most easily dis- 
 pensed with. Lastly, there was this reply, that in the 
 vast majority of the States in the American Union the 
 Bible was adopted as a school book, and that in the 
 United States there was no State Church, nor would 
 there ever be one. 
 
 Mr. Balfour then proceeded to point out that the 
 carrying out of his plan would not increase the Catholic 
 opposition ; neither would it strengthen the Roman 
 Catholic claim to a separate grant, for in New South 
 Wales this teaching was given, and the claim for a
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 205 
 
 separate grant was no nearer attaining its object than it 
 was in Victoria, "As a matter of fact," he said, "my 
 behef is that the bulk of the Roman CathoHcs here would 
 prefer to see the State Schools with a basis of Christian 
 teaching, for the sake of the children's morals, than that 
 the instruction should be purely secular." Therefore, 
 he contended that the Bible-teaching in the schools, with 
 a conscience clause, would do no injustice whatever to the 
 Catholics, nor be felt by them as an injustice. The 
 evidence of Dean Slattery before the Education Com- 
 mission contained exactly that statement. He would not 
 assert, however, that all Catholics were prepared to 
 speak in the same way as Dean Slattery had done. Still 
 there could be no doubt that a large proportion of them 
 believed that State Schools with religious instruction 
 would be better for the community generally than State 
 Schools without that instruction. 
 
 Having dealt with the arguments urged against the 
 proposed clause Mr. Balfour next referred to the positive 
 side, the need there was for religious education in the 
 schools. To prove that, he made the following quotation 
 from the report of the Inspector-General of the Penal 
 Department for 1884: — "Among the various causes at 
 work which may be regarded as specially promotive 
 of prison population may be mentioned the neglect nf 
 careful private instruction. Education without that 
 kind of instruction is too often a dangerous possession ; 
 and, unless the responsibility of the individual to his 
 Maker be made at least as evident as are his responsi- 
 bilities to man, he will almost certainly be made to suffer 
 the penalties of the criminal laws of the country; and an 
 examination of prisoners in regard to their mere educa- 
 tional attainments will show that their learning has gen- 
 erally served to increase the character of their crimes. It 
 has been the instrument by which they have more exten- 
 sively imposed upon the public and increased their 
 offences."
 
 2o6 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 Mr. Balfour confirmed this by stating that the Revd. 
 Mr. McLaren, the Presbyterian Minister of Coburg and 
 chaplain to the gaol, found "that there were imprisoned 
 there a vast number of young persons whose knowledge 
 of reHgion was of the most imperfect sort. They had 
 literally no acquaintance whatever with sacred subjects ; 
 and, m consequence, it was found necessary, in order to 
 enter upon the work of moral reform, to begin at the 
 very beginning." He also quoted a Victorian magistrate 
 who had told him but the other day that his son, who 
 travelled in the North-Eastern district, recently came 
 across a young man who had been educated in a State 
 School, but who, when asked who Jesus Christ was, 
 could only reply that he believed that he lived in England 
 about 300 years ago. Further, every week the news- 
 papers gave most lamentable instances of ignorance on 
 the part of young people of the nature of an oath. What 
 could there be to guide the life and conduct of a youth 
 who had no better instruction than that derivable from 
 the wretched utilitarian teaching of the lesson books in 
 use in the Victorian schools ? What could result from 
 such a system of education but a veneer which contact 
 with life would soon rub off? 
 
 He then quoted the opinion of Matthew Arnold, him- 
 self an Inspector of Schools, whose opinions on educa- 
 tional matters were deserving of the highest respect. 
 His words were : — "The same is to be said on behalf of 
 giving to religious instruction a substantive place in the 
 work-plan of elementary schools. Chor3s of power are 
 touched by the instruction which no other art of the 
 instruction in a popular school reaches ; and chords 
 several and various, not .the religious chorld only." 
 Again Arnold said "Let Managers make the main out- 
 lines of Bible history and the getting bv heart of selection 
 of the finest psalms, the most interesting passages from 
 the historical and prophetical books of the Old Testa-
 
 JAMES BALFOVR. 207 
 
 ment, and the chief parables, discourses, and exhorta- 
 tions of the New, a part of the regular school work, to 
 be submitted to inspection and to be seen in its strength 
 and weakness like any other. This could raise no 
 jealousies ; or, if it still raise some, let a sacrifice be 
 made of them for the sake of the end in view. Some 
 will say that what we propose is but a small use to put 
 the Bible to ; yet it is that on which all higher use of the 
 Bible is to be built ; and its adoption is the only chance 
 for saving the one elevating and inspiring element in 
 the scanty instruction of our primary schools from being 
 sacrificed to a politico-religious difficulty." 
 
 Balfour then quoted from the Reports of Inspectors of 
 Schools in Victoria to show that the moral instruction 
 then given in the schools, and the only moral instruction 
 permitted by the Act as interpreted, was lamentably in- 
 effective. Mr. Philip of Sandhurst reported that the 
 moral lessons were carelessly given, because there was 
 "a general disinclination to enter upon the systematic 
 teaching of morals at all." He said, "The subject 
 borders closely on religion, and indeed can scarcely be 
 separated from it. The teachers see, and rightly see, 
 that all moral rules acquire their ultimate authority 
 from God, and to make this teaching effective they must 
 refer to His name. This many of them are unwilling to 
 do, as possibly it may be looked upon as a breach of 
 their instructions. ... It is not enough merely to 
 correct offences as they occur; the teacher is expected, 
 by his thorough and systematic instruction in morals, to 
 prevent as much as possible the occurrence of breaches 
 of the moral rules. This is not being done at present, 
 and, in the absence of all religious instruction in the 
 schools, is a very serious matter indeed. From what I 
 have seen I should say it is very much to be feared that 
 the children are growing up, so far as their instruction 
 in schools goes, not only without knowledge of religion,
 
 2o8 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 but without being properly instructed in those common 
 moral rules that hold society together." 
 
 Balfour also quoted Inspector Robertson, who wrote, 
 "The outcome of the moral instruction, so far as I can 
 estimate it, will be somewhat vague ideas of a generally 
 amiable character, and a worship of material or social 
 success"; and Inspector Laing, who said, "A good 
 deal has been said about still further expurgating our 
 reading books to meet the views of our Chinese fellow 
 colonists, but the teaching of morals has already gone 
 further in ihe direction of utilitarianism than would 
 please even them. They recognise a supreme being 
 whose will is law in these matters; but in teaching 
 morals according to Hackwood there is no such recog- 
 nition, so that in this particular we have overshot even 
 the extreme mark aimed at, and the situation is really a 
 grave one"; and lastly Inspector Carmichael, who said 
 "the education department lays itself open by favouring 
 Hackwood's book to the imputation of taking a side in 
 opposition to the most thoughtful moralists, who main- 
 tain that the moral qualities of human actions are un- 
 alterable, and that no power or any combination of 
 circumstances, can make a wrong action right." 
 
 He concluded his speech by urging that the local 
 Boards of Advice chosen practically by the parents of 
 the children, should be allowed to determine whether 
 Scripture lessons should be given or not. Let public 
 opinion grow, and let public opinion rule. If it grew 
 against Bible teaching in the State Schools there would 
 be no Bible teaching there; if it grew in favour of Scrip- 
 ture lessons being taught, then there would be Bible 
 teaching. He felt sure there would be no difficulty 
 in getting teachers to give such lessons, for the State 
 school teachers in New South Wales found no difficulty 
 in imparting it. If, unfortunately, there were any who 
 objected, voluntary teaching could be secured to fill the
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 209 
 
 vacancy. All the objections raised were theoretical. In 
 New South Wales all difficulty had vanished, and in 
 practice all difficulty would vanish here. "Looking at 
 the question calmly and dispassionately," he concluded, 
 "Honourable Members must agree that where the local 
 Board of Advice approve of Scripture lessons, where the 
 teacher is willing to teach these Scripture lessons, and 
 parents desire their children to be so instructed, the 
 advantages of the system I now propose will far out- 
 weigh all the disadvantages which can reasonably be 
 urged against it." 
 
 Gradually, as the conflict proceeded, it began to be 
 manifest that the Secularist party were bankrupt in argu- 
 ment. Their position was riddled with inconsistencies 
 which they could not explain away. They had pro- 
 claimed the principle that there must be nothing in the 
 books or in the instruction which could hurt any religious 
 or irreligious susceptibilities. They had solemnly 
 searched the books through a Commissioner, and he 
 had certified that there was nothing in them save one 
 reference which might be objectionable to the Chinese. 
 Yet they did not remove the name of God from the 
 books as they had removed the name of Christ, though 
 all secularists of the pure blood must and do object to 
 it. Then, when the Roman Catholics and others branded 
 the system as godless and irreligious, thev indignantly 
 denied that it was. The "thin Theism" which lurked 
 
 in the use of the name "God," implying as it does the 
 existence of a personal ruler of the Universe (personal, 
 at least, though probably superpersonal also), and in 
 the adjectives derived from it, was sent forth and 
 triumphantly waved before the accusers, and they were 
 censured as wicked calumniators who lied, and knew 
 they lied. But when it was replied : "Then you do 
 teach religion in the secular schools after all ? Is the 
 
 religion taught the religion of the people?" to that
 
 :2io JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 all they could say was that the religion was the religion 
 of the Unitarians, certainly the smallest sect claiming 
 to be Christian, and of the Jews, a still smaller fragment 
 of the population. That again raised a still more 
 awkward question ; if a religion was to be taught, why 
 should it not be the religion believed in by 90 per 
 cent, of the people ? The feeble answer was that all 
 Christians believed this thin Theism; this was the point 
 in which they -M C(;ncurred. This was feeble, because 
 war had been c^. lared upon the name of Christ; so that 
 what we had in the State Schools was that variety of 
 religion which the Department or Parliament had chosen 
 for the religion of the State, though both had declared 
 with passion that it was not their business to deal 
 with religion, and that it was impossible they could 
 favour any form of it above others. Nevertheless they 
 had done it and were proud they had done it. 
 
 Lastly there was the question of moral teaching in 
 the schools. Having terrorised the believers in God, 
 and reduced them to silence as to the only basis of 
 morals they knew, they found that any morality left 
 was the morality of the stick ; good was what the school- 
 master rewarded, and evil was what he punished. The 
 utter inadequacy of this was exposed, and so they put 
 ^'Hackwood's system of morals" into the hands of the 
 teachers as a guide. This book tried to make its moral 
 teaching suitable to all kinds of schools by keeping 
 on as low a utilitarian level as possible. But Hackwood, 
 presumably feeling his own defects, put a note at the 
 beginning recommending teachers to use Biblical sanc- 
 tions and examples. But that would have gone beyond 
 the "thin Theism" of the mention of God. Teachers 
 therefore, were warned not to do this ; and so they were 
 again required to make bricks without straw, even Hack- 
 wood's straw being too full-bodied for the susceptibilities 
 of the Department. This left them nothing to fall back
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 211 
 
 upon but thai morals were best taught by example, and 
 the example of the teachers was declared to be the hope 
 of the sysiem. But then it was said by opponents, What 
 is to be the standard of teachers and pupils alike ? Is 
 there to be none? Then we may have the most con- 
 tradictory morals exemplitied in the different school dis- 
 tricts, police morality of the stick here, utilitarianism 
 there, and, most difficult of all, in many cases morality 
 founded on the examp4e of Christ in another place. The 
 two first moralities might be suffered to inculcate the 
 principles upon which they rested ; but the last must 
 not, for the name of Christ was forbidden. Here again 
 the State was found guilty of favouring the moral beliefs 
 of even a smaller minority than in the case of religion. 
 And all this was done in face of the dicta of Matthew 
 Arnold, a most experienced School Inspector, who knew 
 au fond the British and Continental school systems, who 
 declared it to be vain to give "moral instruction that 
 would stick " to the children of any nation save on the 
 basis of the religion of the people, and who regarded 
 the Bible as an indispensable school book for English- 
 speaking children, as giving them the standard of their 
 own tongue and the only poetry and philosophy they 
 could be induced to look at. 
 
 In fact, such a load of inconsistencies burdened the 
 crude secular position into which the Department and 
 Parliament had drifted that courage began to ebb away 
 on the secular side ; and gradually, in practice, a way 
 was found back to a reasonable assimilation of the system 
 to the actual wants of the people. The name of Christ, 
 which had been removed under a Presbyterian Minister 
 of Education, was restored to the books on the motion 
 of Sir Bryan O'Loghlen, a Roman Catholic. The 
 secularist zeal of the Department, which had made too 
 manifest attachment to a Christian Church a ground 
 for refusing promotion, was finally restrained. The
 
 212 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 commands of God in Scripture, though theoretically 
 contraband in the schools, were made the sanction of 
 morality without rebuke, wherever teachers chose to 
 make them so. All the inquisitorial censuring of trifles 
 ceased; until at last in a meeting of Head-Masters held 
 under the auspices of the Department, many of them 
 openly said that they could not do without references to 
 Scripture, and declared unrebuked that they had used 
 them and intended to go on using them. Thus the 
 teachers were set free. 
 
 Further, in the School Paper which superseded the 
 School Books, now and again, though sometimes with 
 Roman Catholic protest, Psalms and portions of Scrip- 
 ture were published, so that access to the Bible is now 
 not altogether denied to the children of Victorian schools. 
 Moreover, the Bible in State Schools' League, by taking 
 votes of the parents in cities, towns, and country dis- 
 tricts, showed that they were overwhelmingly in favour 
 of the League's programme. Again and again this was 
 done, and always with the same result. It was thus 
 made clear that what the League had always maintained 
 was true, that, if the parents and teachers were allowed 
 to settle the question, they would dispose of it in a week 
 on the broad common-sense lines which the League had 
 i traced. The difficulty was, in fact, purely political, and 
 I the key to all the disturbance is and has always been, 
 except at the very first, the Roman Catholic vote. At 
 every election a sufficient proportion of that vote to make 
 it an object of anxiety to most candidates and give it 
 far more than its legitimate power turns to one side or 
 another at the bidding of the priesthood. Politicians 
 know, that, however much public feeling may favour 
 the League's programme, and however manifest it is that 
 in several most important respects the children in the 
 State Schools are being robbed of their birthright by 
 the present system, there is no body of votes on the
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 2ir, 
 
 other side which is as vigilant and as constantly set 
 upon upholding the National system and making it 
 acceptable to religious Protestants as the Catholic vote 
 is against it. The result has been that, though on more 
 than one occasion a majority of members have assented 
 to the League's programme at a General Election, and 
 though the people are as a vy^hole in favour of it, the 
 effort to get the Act altered has not as yet succeeded. So 
 far, the anti-secularists have had to be content with the 
 illogical compromise, that, while the system is declared 
 to be secular in the anti-religious sense, the anti-religious 
 administration has been given up. The Act is adminis- 
 tered so that most of what the Bible League fought for is 
 granted, but on sufferance. It is according to the De- 
 partment's interpretation contraband, and may "softly 
 and silently vanish away" again with any relaxation 
 of vigilance on the part of the League or some change 
 of the official will. That cannot be called a satisfac- 
 tory state of affairs, nor can it be permanent. But there 
 are indications that the League will one day have the 
 victory. Western Australia and Queensland have ac- 
 cepted Biblical instruction, and in New Zealand a very 
 strong, nearly successful effort was made to carry it 
 at last election. 
 
 The signs are that Victoria may be the last State in 
 Australasia to cling to the evil tradition of the past in 
 this matter. But nevertheless the struggle there has 
 not been in vain. Apart from the fact that in Victoria 
 itself frantic secularism has been driven out, the dis- 
 cussion of the question there has leavened the public 
 mind of all the States with sounder principles. The 
 impotence for good of a system of education which 
 refuses the help of the religion of the people has been 
 demonstrated as it has rarely been elsewhere. It has 
 ended in Victoria in a system which professes one thing 
 and does another; which claims to be impartial only
 
 214 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 because it satisfies no one. Its sole merit seems to be 
 that politicians can always say to a Roman Catholic 
 complaining about wrongs, "Just look : we are thwart- 
 ing the others just as much as we are thwarting you" ; 
 and to a Protestant who asserts his right to Biblical 
 instruction for his children, "you ought to be content, 
 for look how dissatisfied the Roman Catholics are"; 
 and so on, all round the circle. That cannot be per- 
 manent, and, though Balfour has not lived to see the 
 complete triumph of the cause for which he laboured so 
 long and so strenuously, though he rests from his 
 labours, his work survives. It seems certain that, 
 largely owing to him and a few others, the National 
 System of Education will cease to be a reflex of the 
 feeling and needs of a mere handful of the population 
 and the plaything of politicians. If it do not, then the 
 day will come when denominationalism will again 
 triumph, to the loss and dispeace of the community. 
 
 The thought of Balfour and those who worked with 
 him was fundamentally sane and true. It was that 
 doctrinaire principles, in the settlement of a purely 
 practical problem {i.e., a problem varying in its essen- 
 tial elements with place and time and circumstances), 
 were entirely out of place. A national system should 
 be national. It should vary with the nation; and the 
 moral and intellectual atmosphere of the schools should 
 be that of the nation. It should not be an artificial 
 product from which all the life-giving ingredients, all 
 that shapes the soul of the people, have been carefully 
 expelled by officials born blind or artificially blinded. 
 That being so, if the national system had to be a rigidly 
 centralised system, the only way to make it cohere with 
 that fundamental principle was to adopt the League's 
 proposals, and relieve dissentients from oppression by 
 a vigorously worked conscience clause. If, on the other 
 hand, we were to have a decentralised system in which
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 215 
 
 the people in each Idcahty were to manage their own 
 schools, and fix within the limits set by the general 
 interest, the religious instruction, a system by which 
 their continued and eager interest in the schools might 
 be secured, then the Ontario system, which was abso- 
 lutely just to everybody, was the thing most to be 
 approved. On that basis all Balfour's educational ac- 
 tivity for forty years was founded. It was indefatigable, 
 and it was absolutely disinterested ; and it was guided 
 moreover by an insight into the special needs of the 
 time and of the community which few possessed. When 
 the day comes for an ideal, a lasting, settlement, he 
 and his co-workers may be forgotten ; but they will 
 surely be among that great company of unremembered 
 benefactors from whom almost everything that makei 
 life livable for mankind has been received.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 PRESS ACTIVITIES. 
 
 It was in connection with his educational campaign 
 also that Balfour fully developed his wide-reaching 
 activity in connection with journalism. As has been 
 already pointed out, there were certain objects which 
 Balfour set before him from the first days of his Aus- 
 tralian experience to his last, which he sought at every 
 opportunity during his long career. One of these was 
 the establishment of newspapers which would do justice 
 to religion. He saw how potent newspapers were in 
 ordinary life, and he believed they might be largely 
 instrumental in bringing about that evangelisation of 
 the people for which he always longed and laboured. 
 He may have been influenced in this by what he knew 
 of the ideas of Dr. Hamilton, the London minister whom 
 he specially revered. The latter had been made Editor 
 of the "Presbyterian Messenger" in London, having 
 taken it over in circumstances which have been only 
 too commonly repeated in the history of denominational 
 journals in Australia. He says in a letter of the time : 
 "Our 'Presbyterian Messenger' is not paying, and is not 
 thriving, and I have been called in as sick-nurse. I 
 hope to cure it by light diet and gentle exercise"; and 
 he did. This may have impressed Balfour with the 
 necessity of action of this kind and may have given 
 him the necessary hope of success; but there was a 
 journalistic tendency of an even earlier date. In his 
 boyhood there had been a magazine, the "Pilrig Watch 
 Tower," largely written and managed by his sisters, in 
 which he had taken the warmest interest. Consequently, 
 
 216
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 217 
 
 when wiihin four months of his landing in Melbourne, 
 he started the project of a monthly journal, both these 
 influences were present, bearing fruit. In memory of 
 the home experience he proposed to call the magazine the 
 "Victoria Watch Tower." It was to be a religious 
 paper, and he boldly asked a number of his Edinburgh 
 friends to write for it, pleading that it was for the good 
 of the community, and that he did not expect it to 
 3''ield one farthing of profit. But this venture did not 
 come to anything; at least under that name. 
 
 Six months later, on the 30th July, 1853, he writes : 
 "The first number of the 'Banner' is to be out to-morrow, 
 a paper got up by the Presbyterians here." Probably it 
 had been found that the young men concerned had not 
 enough of capital to make their enterprise successful, 
 and the "Banner" was the result of an effort made on a 
 wider basis than w^as at first proposed, and one more 
 under the supervision of the Church. . But on the loth 
 October the paper was handed over to the publishers, 
 to whom the original proprietors lent ^^1500, retaining 
 some control. Balfour, young as he was, was put on 
 the supervising committee, Dr. Cairns being his col- 
 league. Owing, however, to his removal to Geelong, 
 he ceased to have any connection with the venture; nor 
 during his stay in Geelong does he appear to have had 
 an interest in any similar undertaking. But his sense 
 of the need the Church had of representation in the press 
 of the country remained with him always, and shortly 
 after Dr. Cameron (who had been a most successful 
 editor for many years) came to Chalmers' Church in 
 Melbourne to succeed Dr. Cairns, Balfour got some 
 friends to join with him in establishing "The Southern 
 Cross," in 1874, with Dr. Cameron as editor. At that 
 time the secular press had begun to grow heady and 
 high-minded, and was tending to treat the Christian 
 Church in all its branches with a very high-sniflfing con-
 
 2i8 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 tempt. I'his was partly due to the general tendencies 
 of the time; for 1874 was the year of Tyndall's Belfast 
 address, in which he had declared that in matter he 
 found "the promise and the potency of all forms of 
 life." Partly, too, it was due to the fact that in Mel- 
 bourne journalism there was no opposition ; all the exist- 
 ing papers were at one in finding it difficult not to 
 speak slightingly of revealed religion. The situation 
 was substantially the same at a later date, and has been 
 thus described by Dr. Fitchett t "In the early eighties, 
 Melbourne had three morning and two evening papers, 
 and their general attitude to religion and to religious 
 movements was very unsatisfactory. The attitude of 
 one journal at least was distinctly hostile. It practic- 
 ally acted on the theory that religion was a thing to be 
 sneered at. By the other journals it was too often 
 treated as a spent force, a thing it was safe to neglect. 
 Religious meetings were either mis-reported or not re- 
 ported at all. Religious movements were denied any 
 adequate publicity." 
 
 Under these circumstances, the appearance of the 
 "Southern Cross" as a weekly religious paper gave the 
 Church an organ for the propagation of sounder views, 
 and, with Dr. Cameron's able editorship, it brought 
 about a wholesomer tone of criticism in regard to church 
 affairs, even in the secular press. It went forth like a 
 David to challenge the press Goliaths of those days with 
 a sling and a stone, and I may be permitted to mention 
 the fact that, as sub-editor, I spent some exhilarating 
 years in helping to supply the stones. As has been 
 said above, Balfour was the first who moved in the 
 matter ; but he received the co-operation of a number 
 of his friends, Messrs. Andrew and Robert Scott, Mr. 
 Robert Harper, and Mr. J. M. Davies. They, with 
 him, supplied the necessary capital, without looking for 
 or receiving any return, and from the beginning till now
 
 JAMES BALFOVR. 219 
 
 all profits have been used to improve the paper. So 
 long as Dr. Cameron was Editor, all went well. Then 
 there were times of vicissitude under Editors who were 
 not able to command the public attention ; but, from the 
 time Dr. Fitchett, the most competent of editors, took 
 the reins, there has been no check to the advance of 
 the paper in credit and influence. It has now been over 40 
 years in existence, and both in appearance and in quality 
 it occupies a iirst place among the religious weeklies of 
 Australia. It is not connected officially wiih any Church, 
 but it loyally serves them all ; and its columns are always 
 open to every religious cause. Balfour always took the 
 warmest interest in the paper's welfare, and was ready 
 with advice and support whenever difificulties arose. Its 
 success delighted him, for it embodied one of his earliest 
 ideas of what the cause of Christianity needed in Aus- 
 tralia, and its broad-minded willingness to serve all 
 evangelical branches of the Church reflected his own 
 tolerant attitude to all "who loved the Lord Jesus Christ 
 in sincerity." 
 
 Encouraged by this partial but still considerable 
 success, and stirred by some utterances and advices of 
 Dr. Joseph Cook, the famous Boston lecturer, who 
 visited Melbourne in 1880, Balfour turned his attention 
 to the more formidable task of establishing a daily 
 secular journal which would be sympathetic to Christian 
 interests. The evil days of militant secularism in 
 popular education, which have been described in the 
 last chapter, had now come. No newspaper would sup- 
 port the demands of those who were protesting against 
 it, and the agnostic popular science of the day had a 
 base for aggressive warfare in every newspaper office in 
 Melbourne. It was, therefore, felt that a new effort 
 was necessary and that was begun by the purchase of the 
 "Daily Telegraph," one of the morning papers. Dr. 
 Fitchett, who was himself magna pars in the enterprise,
 
 220 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 has favoured me with the following statement in regard 
 to it : — "The fight against the stupid and exaggerated 
 secularism of the State School system was being waged 
 gallantly, and Mr. Balfour was in a sense one of the 
 master spirits of that warfare, tireless in energy, gener- 
 ous in gifts; but plainly it was necessary to secure some 
 adequate representation in the press of Melbourne. Mr. 
 Balfour, accordingly, gathered around him a cluster of 
 men of kindred spirit and a company was formed for the 
 purchase of the 'Daily Telegraph' and the 'Weekly 
 Times' it published. The company consisted of Mr. 
 Balfour, Mr. T. K. Scott, Mr. James Richmond, Mr. 
 T. J. Finlay, Sir M. H. Davies, Mr. John Moodie, and 
 Mr. James McKinley. Each member of the group was 
 to contribute /^5,ooo, making a total capital of ;^35,ooo. 
 The two journals were purchased early in 1883, and the 
 great enterprise was launched. In the 'Southern Cross' 
 of that time it was stated that the aim of the new venture 
 would be to represent not the doubts of the noisy min- 
 ority, but the serious faith of the vast majority, so that it 
 might enter Christian households without bringing an 
 anti-Christian atmosphere with it. The 'Daily Telegraph' 
 was to be a journal reporting all the occurrences of the 
 day, treating all interests with consideration and jus- 
 tice ; but it was specially to be the servant of Christian 
 principles. It reported races, but suppressed all 
 gambling records ; it reported sports of all kinds, the 
 theatres, etc., as part of the events of the day. Like any 
 other secular journal, it made itself the reflex of all the 
 events and interests in the secular life of the community ; 
 but it hit hard at every form of vice. It gave an 
 adequate space to religious forces and events. It kept 
 vigilant guard against all encroachments on Sunday, 
 both as a day of rest and a day of worship, and to show 
 its sincerity there was no Sunday work done in its 
 own printing-rooms. It proved that Monday morning's
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 221 
 
 paper could be produced without breaking the Sabbath. 
 No pains were spared, no cost grudged to make the 
 paper effective. It was badly handicapped by the fact 
 that it stood outside the cable ring which suppHed the 
 other daily journals, and it had to organise and sustain 
 a cable service of its own. It secured the exclusive 
 use of Renter's cables, and, in addition, appointed a 
 special representative in London to organise another 
 set of cable messages. Its first representative in this 
 post was the present Sir Edward T. Cook, at that time 
 associated with Mr. Stead in the 'Pall Mall Gazette.' He 
 became distinguished afterwards as a great authority on 
 Ruskin, and is, at present, co-director of the Press 
 Bureau charged with censor duties in London. 
 
 "For the first time in the journalism of Melbourne re- 
 ligious interests had sympathetic and adequate treat- 
 ment and Christian truth had a tireless and vigilant 
 defender in the press. The other Melbourne journals 
 were affected in various ways by the energy and the new 
 policy of the 'Daily Telegraph.' One of the rival 
 dailies lowered its price, the other doubled its size. But 
 it affected them in other ways too. They, in their turn, 
 began to give religious movements a larger space in 
 their columns, and to treat religious questions generally 
 with respect. The persistency and vigour with which 
 the 'Daily Telegraph' fought against the bitter secular- 
 ism of the State-School system had an educational effect 
 on the public mind. It did not perhaps create a new 
 conscience on the subject, but it pricked into wakefulness 
 the conscience which, on this subject, had grown torpid. 
 As a result politicians found it necessary to reconsider 
 their votes. 
 
 "But, if it is admitted that the 'Daily Telegraph' was 
 a moral success, was it a financial failure? It is true 
 it no longer exists. The tempest of financial disaster 
 which swept over half Australia in i8qi-2 beat with
 
 222 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 special violence on Melbourne : banks were closed ; 
 great business institutions were wrecked ; the wave of ruin 
 ran fast and far through the streets of the great city, and 
 the 'Daily Telegraph' was submerged by it. On May 8, 
 1892, the properties of the 'Daily Telegraph' Company, 
 including the 'Daily Telegraph' itself and the 'Weeklj 
 Times,' were sold to the City Newspaper Company, 
 framed on the lines of the 'Daily Telegraph' Company, 
 and with the same objective. The new Company pur- 
 chased one of the two evening papers, the 'Herald,' 
 amalgamated with the other, and for a time the 'Herald' 
 took the place of the 'Daily Telegraph,' having with it 
 the 'Weekly Times.' Later, and, for reasons needless 
 to state here, the personnel of the new Company was 
 entirely changed, and, with the change of personnel, 
 came a change in the spirit and objective of the news- 
 papers .... named. But the 'Herald' and the 
 'Weekly Times' are to-day perhaps the most profitable 
 journalistic combination in Australia. 
 
 "When Mr. Balfour and the gentlemen with him 
 purchased the 'Daily Telegraph,' he persuaded me to 
 become the consulting editor of the journal, — the literary 
 representative, that is, of the directors in the editor's 
 room, and the link betwixt the directors and the news- 
 paper. I thus watched the whole enterprise from its start 
 to its close, was present at the Directors' meetings, and 
 knew as nobody else could know the spirit in which an 
 adventure so noble was begun and carried out. Nothing 
 could be finer, nothing more absolutely free from any 
 selfish aim, loftier in public spirit, or in more perfect 
 loyalty to Christian principles than the conduct of the 
 whole business from first to last. Mr. Balfour was, of 
 course, the master spirit of the group. No one else had a 
 vision so keen for the interests of religion or a zeal so 
 tireless in its service. He was a sort of embodied con- 
 science to all of us. He brought fine business gifts into
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 223 
 
 the scheme; but, for him, the purchase of the 'Daily 
 Telegraph' was not a business adventure : it was a task 
 planned, undertaken, and carried out to advance the 
 Kingdom of Christ amongst men. No purer or more 
 unselfish bit of business was ever done in the city." 
 
 Thus, after notable work for nine years, the one 
 attempt iMelbourne has known to establish and keep 
 alive a daily newspaper which should take up a more 
 advanced position than the general body of the public, 
 in regard to moral and religious questions, came to an 
 end. It failed; but in all probability it would have 
 succeeded but for the financial crash which overwhelmed 
 so many promising ventures of those years. While it 
 lasted, public opinion received more wholesome nutri- 
 ment and direction than it has had before or since, and 
 there was sufficient response to justify the hope that, if 
 the enterprise could have been carried on for another 
 decade, it might have succeeded. A section of the 
 Melbourne public exhibited unexpected readiness to 
 w^elcome the best efforts of the new journal ; and, had 
 that taste grown with sufficient rapidity to give the 
 "Daily Telegraph" a clientele of its own shaping before 
 the flood came and swept all away, the venture would 
 not have been made in vain. As it was, this gallant 
 effort helped all good causes for the nine years it lasted, 
 and no doubt did good by the emulation it excited in 
 other quarters. But it did not succeed in solving one 
 of the most difficult problems of our public life, how to 
 make a daily new^spaper successful without "stooping 
 to conquer," without ceasing to lead and educate public 
 opinion in any strong way, and becoming more or less 
 decorously the echo of the opinions, the prejudices, the 
 desires of those who buy it. The question is still un- 
 answered, whether a daily newspaper can live a vigorous 
 life if it insists upon leading, not following the public. 
 We know that some weekly papers, like the London
 
 224 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 "Spectator," have done so successfully. The Cadburys 
 have been endeavouring to make the experiment a suc- 
 cess in London with daily papers; but in one part of 
 their venture at least they have incurred not unjustifiable 
 reproach by compliances which they excuse as unavoid- 
 able. Balfour and his friends did not yield to that 
 temptation; but they failed.
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL LIFE. 
 
 As it has been said above of Balfour's practical life 
 that to deal with it adequately would involve writing the 
 history of Victoria, so it may be said that to give any- 
 thing like a full account of his ecclesiastical life one 
 would have to write the history of the Presbyterian 
 Church in Victoria for sixty years, from 1852, when he 
 landed in Melbourne, till his death in 1913; for he had, 
 as an Elder of the Presbyterian Church, a recognised 
 ecclesiastical status, and responsible ecclesiastical 
 duties which he was the last man in the world 
 to neglect. He was that somewhat unique thing, 
 an ordained layman. For the benefit of any readers who 
 may not be Presbyterians, it may be advisable to state 
 what Presbyterian Elders are. From the Reformation 
 onwards, they along with the Minister formed the Ses- 
 sion, the governing council elected by the communicants 
 which guided and ruled the parish in Church matters. 
 Further, they were the representatives of the congrega- 
 tion in the higher Courts of the Church. The Minister 
 and one Elder, chosen from the Session by their own 
 vote, sat in the Presbytery and in the Assembly, the 
 Minister having his seat in the Presbytery ex officio, the 
 Elders having theirs in rotation, or as each one was 
 chosen. Both the Minister and the Elder were ordained ; 
 both were of the same order of ruling elders ; but the 
 Minister alone was a teaching and ruling elder, the 
 public services of the congregation being entirelv in his 
 hands. In the Church Courts there was absolute equality 
 in power. Every member. Elder or Minister, had a vote 
 and the right to speak in the settlement of all questions 
 I ■2'2rj
 
 226 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 whether doctrinal, administrative, or legislative. In a 
 country where the population were uneducated this sys- 
 tem might have worked badly, but, where the people 
 were as well educated as the Scotch, whether in Scotland 
 or in Ireland, have been, it worked admirably. In these 
 councils of the parish, men of all ranks, from country 
 gentlemen to the ploughmen, from shop-keepers to men 
 of the highest rank in the various professions, were proud 
 to take their place and to bring their various powers to 
 the service of the Church ; and, meeting thus on the 
 common ground of the religious life, the various classes 
 learned to respect each other. Shepherds and plough- 
 
 1^ men often led their social superiors where deep religious 
 experience was the need of the hour; and the people 
 trusted the Church they had equal rights in governing, 
 as few churches have been trusted. 
 
 As a whole, therefore, Presbyterian Elders have been 
 singularly unlike the Elder of fiction or the stage. Even 
 Scott, who had himself attained that good degree, makes 
 use of the Elder sometimes, under the pressure of the exi- 
 gencies of his art, when he has need of a hypocritical 
 law-breaker of the petty trading type. That was because 
 Elders were so generally above suspicion and so much 
 respected that to get into their ranks was an unimpeach- 
 able certificate of character, and a perfect scoundrel 
 would naturally seek that cover. For their purposes, the 
 ordinary elder faithfully performing his duties rarely 
 came within the scope of the novelist and the playwright ; 
 and, when a religious man following his quiet path of 
 beneficence, moral and spiritual stimulus, and comfort 
 in sorrow, has to appear in their work, it is the Minister 
 they naturally choose. To those beyond the Presby- 
 terian pale, therefore, the Elder has often come to have 
 a very unlovely reputation. He is either an unloving 
 dogmatist or a sanctimonious fraud; but, as a matter of 
 i fact, the Elders of the Presbyterian Church have been a
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 227 
 
 large part of the slrength and glory of Scotland, and f 
 have made the Church more intimately helpful to the 
 people, even in their struggles for political freedom, than 
 any corresponding body has been able to do elsewhere. 
 The "complete Elder" was in the first place a member of 
 the Session, the Minister's wisest and most sympathetic 
 colleague in the religious duties of his office, a man of 
 prayer and experience in the spiritual Kfe, whose life was 
 in all respects exemplary. Then, being a layman, en- 
 gaged, and for the most part successfully engaged, in 
 the world's affairs, he was the counsellor of the Minister 
 in all matters in which the life of the congregation 
 touched upon secular affairs and where knowledge of 
 ordinary men in their ordinary circumstances was re- 
 quired. Further, he was required to be so warmly 
 interested in the spiritual welfare of the flock, especially 
 the younger portion of it, that where he had any aptitude 
 for such work, he was expected to lead in the Prayer 
 meeting, to give help as a lay preacher, to bear some 
 part in the teaching of the young, and to relieve the 
 Minister of some at least of the visitation of the people. 
 Then, as the representative of the Congregation in the 
 higher Courts, it was demanded of him that he should 
 give regular attendance there, and that by his voice and 
 vote he should take an active part in shaping the doc- 
 trine, carrying out the discipline, and formulating the 
 laws of the Church. But it was only the few who could 
 attain to such perfection as this ; and those who had not 
 all these gifts were valued for their capacity, whatever it 
 was, and were given the work they were fitted to do. 
 Thus room was made for variety of gifts and no man 
 was excluded from the Eldership who could help in the 
 discharge of any of these functions, provided he had 
 the fundamental spiritual qualification. This was, of 
 course, the ideal, and it doubtless often happened that 
 in times and places of lukewarm indifference in religion
 
 228 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 the reality was a much less worthy thing. Yet very 
 often, perhaps most often, the actual was nearer the ideal 
 in this order of men than I have known it elsewhere, 
 and in the Free Church, from 1843 till the time Balfour 
 left his native land, religious fervour and sincere service 
 in this office were at highwater mark. Several of his 
 cousins and other intimates were, though young men, 
 Elders of the Kirk, and his cousin, Mr. Robert Balfour, 
 the man who most influenced him in his young manhood, 
 was an Elder of the finest type. Consequently when he 
 himself accepted the office in 1859 in the Revd. Mr. 
 Tail's congregation, he had an unusually high view of 
 the duties he was to undertake, and of the solemn re- 
 sponsibility which they would lay upon him ; but he 
 accepted them as from God, and looked to Him for the 
 power to fill the office worthily ; and there can be no 
 doubt that he succeeded in doing so. If in later years the 
 Presbyterian Church of Victoria had been asked to de- 
 clare by popular vote who among its Elders had come 
 nearest being the "Complete Elder," there can hardly 
 be a doubt that Balfour would have been chosen. 
 
 He laboured with extraordinary success in every one 
 of the directions in which an elder was expected to 
 function, and he worked as one who was, in all, carrying 
 out with delight the will and purposes of a Master whom 
 he loved. He was a most assiduous frequenter of the 
 prayer-meeting, and was ever ready to take part in the 
 devotions or to preside. As a lay preacher, from his 
 earliest connection with the Church at Geelong it was 
 his habit to take services in country places which would 
 otherwise have been neglected, and he taught most 
 zealously in Sabbath Schools. In every congregation 
 with which he was connected he was, too, the friend and 
 trusted adviser of the Minister; and, busy as he was, he 
 never failed to visit the people of his district. In this 
 important part of an Elder's work he was unusually
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 229 
 
 methodical. He kept a register of all the communicants 
 in his district, not only of the heads of families, but of 
 every one in the household ; noted when they left the 
 parish or were transferred to another Elder's district, 
 and also those less satisfactory cases where they had 
 joined other denominations, or had ceased to attend 
 Church at all, as sometimes, though rarely, happened. 
 In this way he kept in touch with all those committed to 
 his charge, and could give the Minister necessary infor- 
 mation as to any of the members about whom he might 
 desire information. 
 
 In the Church Courts, in their legislative, administra- 
 tive, and disciplinary work, he was always a tower of 
 strength. Even before he was an Elder, merely a deacon, 
 he had taken an active part in the movement for the 
 union of the Presbyterian Churches in Victoria, though 
 his doing so caused him to act against a man, the Revd. 
 Wm. Miller, who had been his friend, a thing which he 
 never did, except under compulsion of conscience, for 
 his loyalty to friendship once formed was most rare 
 and remarkable. 
 
 But the first important enterprise he, as an Elder, 
 undertook for the benefit of the Church in general was 
 a motion in the Assembly of 1862 that a Committee 
 should be appointed to take into consideration the whole 
 subject of a Theological Hall for the Presbyterian 
 Church of Victoria. This was carried, and he was ap- 
 pointed Convener, and for four years, till 1866, he bore 
 the chief part in the efforts which were made to establish 
 a fully-iequipped Theological Hall. In 1862 he gave in 
 his first Report, which recommended that in the then 
 circumstances of the Church one Professor of Theology 
 should be appointed, that certain Ministers of the Church 
 should be associated with him, that ;^6,ooo be raised, 
 and that the Professor should be appointed so soon as 
 that sum was collected ; but in his next Report, which
 
 230 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 was given in November, 1864, it had become clear to him 
 that a much larger amount than ^6,000 would need to be 
 obtained if a really satisfactory beginning was to be 
 made. He, therefore, recommended that ;^25,ooo should 
 be aimed at, and that the colony should be divided into 
 districts and thoroughly canvassed. This was approved ; 
 and the work began ; but, in the meantime, the Revd. 
 Dr. J. Oswald Dykes had arrived in Melbourne, seeking 
 health. He had a great reputation as a Preacher in 
 Edinburgh, where he held the foremost place, though it 
 is a city of great preachers; and the assertion may be 
 made without much fear of contradiction that Melbourne 
 has never heard any other preacher who, for devotional 
 power, beauty of diction, and richness of thought, at 
 all equalled him. He was present at the Assembly of 
 1865, sf'd was received as a deputation; and, after the 
 Theological Hall Report had been read, the following 
 deliverance was adopted: — "The Assembly, believing 
 that the time has now come for the commencement of the 
 Hall, and looking up to God for His approval and bles- 
 sing, hereby declare the same to be now established, and 
 appoint the Revd. Dr. Cairns to be the Principal thereof, 
 but without salary. And, inasmuch as they are not in a 
 position to appoint permanent Professors, they instruct 
 the Committee to confer with the Revd. J. O. Dykes, with 
 a view to his taking charge of the theological students 
 during the coming year, and conducting their studies in 
 such measure as his health may permit. The Assembly 
 authorise the Committee to make arrangements for rais- 
 ing the sum of ;^6oo to meet the expenses of the tem- 
 porary appointment." 
 
 Mr. Dykes complied with the Assembly's wish ; and, 
 along with Dr. Cairns and the Revd. P. Brown of 
 Hawthorn, he taught the students during the Session. 
 But the project which these new arrangements interrupted 
 was not dropped. The Revd. A.J. Campbell and others
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 231 
 
 carried on a vigorous campaign for the endowment of 
 permanent chairs which Balfour had initiated; and to 
 this effort Mr. Dykes gave a great impetus by his power- 
 ful and eloquent appeals. Just about this time, however, 
 Balfour's eye was injured and one of the directions in 
 which his activity was crippled by that unfortunate acci- 
 dent was this. He was constrained to resign his Con- 
 venership at the 1866 Assembly. But the seed he had 
 planted took root and flourished, and his work, taken up 
 by others, was crowned with such success that two per- 
 manent Professors were appointed in 1883 at a salary 
 of ^800 per annum with residence, and several scholar- 
 ships for theological students were also founded. He 
 was never again Convener of the Theological Hall Com- 
 mittee, but he was regularly a member of it, and gave 
 at all times his enthusiastic energy, his provident fore- 
 sight, and his money to the development of the Hall. 
 He regarded an educated ministry as the first and all- 
 important necessity for the growth and success of the 
 Presbyterian Church. 
 
 For him, of course, the first qualification of a candidate 
 for the Ministry was the actual call of God in the heart. 
 Without that, everything else was, in his view, of no 
 avail. But, when God gave to the Church men who 
 aspired to "the noblest office upon earth" he thought 
 the Church's first duty was to give them the education 
 and training in their own land which would fit them to 
 be worthy ambassadors for Christ. It was fitting, there- 
 fore, that the first important task he undertook in the 
 General Assembly should be the foundation of a Theo- 
 logical Hall of the type approved in other Presbyterian 
 Churches of Europe and America, and Balfour had 
 unfeigned satisfaction that the work he had initiated in 
 1862, and which was finished 21 years later, gave the 
 Presbyterian Church of Victoria the finest instrument for 
 theological training in Australia. No other Church has
 
 232 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 even yet begun to rival it, save the Presbyterian Church 
 of New South Wales, which has for 8 years past had, 
 like Victoria, three Professors of Theology freed from 
 congregational work, to give themselves wholly to the 
 academic training of students. 
 
 As was to be expected, Balfour was an ardent sup- 
 porter of Home and Foreign Missions, and gave his 
 unwavering support to all projects brought before the 
 Church Courts for the preaching of the Gospel to poor 
 and rich, at home and abroad. He was never troubled 
 with any of the hesitations and doubts which paralyse 
 so many anaemic Christians. The Church had received 
 its marching orders from its great Head to preach the 
 Gospel to the whole creation ; for him, as for all robust 
 and whole-hearted foUowers'of Christ, that alone would 
 have been sufficient to raise him above the sophistry of 
 those who say there should be no heathen missions till 
 t all the people in Christian countries have been effectively 
 evangelised. Before that command too, that hoary 
 fallacy, which is repeated with such inexplicable zest 
 wherever half-hearted Christians meet, that the Chinese 
 and Hindus have very good religions of their own, and 
 that it is simply an impertinence to disturb and insult 
 them by offering them ours, stood revealed to him in all 
 its quaint futility. But, besides the command, he had 
 his own experience of the value of the Gospel to urge 
 him on. The good news of God was to him "like cold 
 water to a thirsty soul." It gave him life and joy and 
 power, made a man of him, and a happy man : how then 
 could he keep such news to himself? He found that, 
 by believing it, the highest powers of his nature in 
 every direction were called out, the deepest aspirations 
 of his soul were satisfied, and so deep a peace was 
 wrought into his life that nothing the world could give 
 or take away could shatter it. To tell a man with such 
 experience that it was an impertinence to offer this pearl
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 233 
 
 of great price to those who did not possess it was to 
 "speak as a fool." He could not forget, if these others 
 could, that Christianity was not made in England, that 
 it was an Eastern religion, which had saved and built 
 up the Western peoples by their having been made the 
 victims of this supposed "impertinence"; and he felt 
 sure that all that the religion of Christ had done for 
 Britain and more also would assuredly be done by it for 
 the Hindus and Chinese and other Eastern races if 
 they could be brought to accept it. Moreover, Balfour 
 believed that they all would accept it ultimately. It was 
 fitted to be, and was meant to be, the universal religion ; 
 and that it was not so by this time was the result of the 
 unfaithful sluggishness of the Church more than of any 
 other cause. God "would have all men to be saved and 
 come to a knowledge of the truth" {i.e., of this truth); 
 and he enjoyed his religion so much that he could but 
 offer it eagerly to all whom he came in contact with or 
 could reach. To adapt Matthew Arnold's verses on 
 Goethe : 
 
 " He took the suffering human race; 
 He read each wound and weakness clear; 
 He said "thou ailest here and here, 
 In Christ is truth, take refuge there"; 
 not "in Art" as Goethe said. He had found the Gospel 
 of the Grace of God to be the remedy for each and all 
 of men's wounds and weaknesses, and he would have 
 felt shame of himself if he had not made his discovery 
 known ; just as the discoverer of a specific against a 
 disease bringing pain and death to every house in a 
 great city would be ashamed to keep it to himself. 
 Every man to whom the Gospel of Christ is a reality of 
 great price, because he has tested its value must want 
 to give it away to others. Only those who accept it 
 languidly and doubtfully on the testimony of other 
 men, those to whom it is neither an inspiration nor a
 
 234 ]AMES BALFOUR. 
 
 joy, can believe that heathenism is "good enough" for 
 any human soul. 
 
 These things being so, Balfour was naturally always 
 amongst the first to welcome any attempt to spiritualise 
 the life of those about him ; and the Presbyterian Church 
 owes much to his zeal for the evangelisation of the 
 masses of the people. Foreign missions were in safe 
 hands; so he was content with giving the work hearty 
 support. But Home missions, not in the Church Ex- 
 tension sense, but in the way of bringing in the careless 
 multitudes of our cities, specially appealed to him. As 
 his letters show, he followed eagerly the course of the 
 great Moody revivals in the United States and in Britain, 
 and hoped that one day a great movement of that kind 
 would sweep over Australia also, and leave all the 
 Churches immeasurably enriched. On one of his visits 
 to Scotland, he insisted upon my coming with him to 
 call upon Moody, to ask him to come over to help us in 
 Australia. Moody heard what he had to say, and was 
 evidently kindled by the call, but finally shook his head 
 and said it was not possible. His engagements were 
 too pressing at home, and he was so wretchedly 
 ill at sea that he did not feel justified in exposing his 
 health to the risks of so protracted a voyage. 
 
 That was a great disappointment; but men, however 
 great and divinely used they might be, were in Balfour's 
 eyes merely the instruments of the ever-present Holy 
 Spirit. Therefore, the failure of this or any other pro- 
 ject he might form never left him disabled. He only 
 turned with renewed hope and insistence to the true 
 source of all power and all inspiration, using diligently 
 the men and means he found to his hand. He was 
 always a prominent member of the Committees of the 
 Church which took oversight of evangelising work ; and 
 when an interdenominational Evangelistic Committee 
 was formed he was one of its founders and most liberal
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 235 
 
 supporters. When men of unusual power in spreading 
 the Gospel among the people, such as the Australian 
 John McNeil, his Scottish namesake, and Dr. Chapman, 
 could be got, he seemed to put aside all other business 
 and gave himself to the furtherance of their Missions 
 with his eagerest zeal. He was ready to do anything to 
 open up and smooth their way fOr them. He was not 
 blind to the weaknesses of the Evangelists, and often saw 
 defects in their methods, which he endeavoured to cor- 
 rect. But no one could deny that they had successes, 
 sometimes great and sometimes not so great ; and his 
 joy in these was so unbounded that to the end of his 
 life he threw open his heart, his house, and his purse 
 to every man who gave himself to the preaching of the 
 Gospel to the masses of the people and looked and 
 laboured for the conversion of the sinful. When there 
 were no men of special power to be had, he and the 
 Committee he influenced kept up the campaign with such 
 earnest workers as were available, and their ceaseless 
 endeavours broke up in many quarters the crust of icy 
 indifference to religion, which, much more than philoso- 
 phical or rationalistic unbelief, is the Australian "enemy 
 of the Cross of Christ." He may have been disappointed 
 that there never was any universal movement here so deep 
 and so permanent as some of the revivals in the United 
 Kingdom (in Ireland and Scotland especially) have 
 been ; but he knew that, by the efforts put forth by him 
 and his co-workers, "many had been turned from dark- 
 ness into light" ; and with that he was more than content. 
 In his capacity as member of the supreme legislative 
 and disciplinary body of his Church, Balfour was too 
 thoroughly grounded in Presbyterian principles to be 
 lightly moved to novelty. He stood firm in the evan- 
 gelical doctrine of his youth, and held the faith as to the 
 powers and independence of the Church which Chalmers 
 held. Consequently, when first the Law Courts in
 
 236 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 Queensland and finally the Supreme Court of Appeal in 
 Australia decided that no ecclesiastical body of any kind 
 had original jurisdiction, that they must be dealt with 
 simply as cricket, or other, clubs are, Balfour was one 
 of the most convinced of the asserters of the Church's 
 right to original jurisdiction, and of its power to remove 
 from his office any Minister or other Office-bearer of the 
 Presbyterian Church who appealed to the secular Courts 
 against a decision of the General Assembly. The Courts 
 refuse to admit this, and will, if they persist in their 
 present attitude, find themselves committed on some 
 occasion to attempt to compel some Church to restore 
 man to spiritual office for which in the judgment of the 
 Church he is unfit. When they do that, they will be 
 asserting the superiority of their spiritual insight to 
 that of those who confessedly are alone fitted and author- 
 ised to deal with spiritual things ; and, after a more or 
 less prolonged attempt at tyranny, they will inevitably 
 have to accept defeat; for neither here nor elsewhere, 
 we may confidently affirm, has the secular power 
 triumphed finally over the spiritual where spiritual rights 
 are concerned. It cannot in the nature of things succeed 
 in such an enterprise ; and, in connexion with this case, 
 those who, like Balfour, had actually been spectators of 
 the dramatic scene which in Scotland brought to an end 
 a ten years' conflict on this very question, were able to 
 give most valuable advice to the Presbyterian Church in 
 the utterly unexpected situation in which the decision of 
 the Courts had put it, and all other Churches. Accord- 
 ing to that, no decision of any ecclesiastical Court can 
 claim to be final. It must always be open to reversal if 
 the secular Courts think fit to interfere; but, if the 
 ecclesiastical courts decide according to the rules laid 
 down by the Church, and accepted by its Ministers and 
 office-bearers, the secular courts will, they say, not inter- 
 fere. The Presbyterian Church has acted on this hint
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 237 
 
 and has made it a rule that appeal against the decision 
 of the General Assembly may be punished by expulsion ; 
 and for the present it feels secure. But the situation is 
 a most unsatisfactory one, and would have been probably 
 much worse had there not been in the Assembly men 
 like Balfour who had full and intimate knowledge of the 
 positions taken up by the Church in the only country 
 where in modern times the relations of the Church to the 
 State have been clarified by a conflict in which all the 
 issues have been thoroughly set forth. 
 
 In matters of discipline, the Church has had only 
 one great case which turned on doctrinal belief, the case 
 of the Revd. Charles Strong. It would serve no good 
 purpose to go into the details of the case, but the gist of 
 it was whether a Minister of the Church could remain 
 in it, when he refused to affirm when asked by the As- 
 sembly to do so, the doctrines of the deity of Christ, and 
 the reality of His resurrection. In the long debate which 
 preceded the decision that he could not remain Balfour 
 took an active part. He saw in the position taken up by 
 Mr. Strong the beginning of that dry rot of Unitarianism 
 which is the spiritual disease to which the Christian 
 faith in Presbyterian Churches has been most exposed. 
 Other Churches tend to decay in other ways. This is our 
 way ; and he felt it to be of vital moment to the very 
 life of the Church that, while there was no desire to make 
 a Minister an offender for a word or to insist upon unifor- 
 mity of view in matters less than vital, there was a point 
 at which divergence from the common faith not only 
 justified, but imperatively demanded exclusion from the 
 Ministry. Balfour was clear that the hesitation as to 
 the central doctrines named, the absence of a joyful 
 affirmation of them, was incompatible with loyalty to 
 the fundamental principles of Christianity as understood 
 by the Presbyterian Church, and so he supported the 
 motion by which Mr. Strong was declared to be no
 
 238 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 longer a Minister of the Presbyterian Churcii of Victoria. 
 There really was no other way, if the whole Churc'j was 
 not to make itself responsible for errors which it not only 
 did not share but regarded as fatal to the right under- 
 standing of the Gospel, and the decision, instead of 
 being narrow and obscurantist, as was said, was extraor- 
 dinarily "liberal." It amounted to a declaration that, if 
 the Church was assured of sincere attachment to the 
 supernatural in Christianity and in the person of Christ, 
 it would vex no man in regard to anything less vital. 
 
 Mr. Strong had been challenged for his teaching on 
 the atonement, and there was a tendency in some quarters 
 to insist upon adhesion to some particular view in that 
 great matter. The Assembly put all that aside. It said, 
 "Assure us that you adhere ex animo to the belief in 
 Christ as God manifest in the flesh, and we shall insist 
 on no lesser things." Virtually it said, "This is a time 
 of transition and reshaping : all living and growing 
 minds are to some extent changing their landmarks in 
 theology : even the fundamentally loyal are doing that. 
 The real dividing-line between a living Christianity and 
 a dead or dying one has belief in a supernatural Christ 
 for its axis. Dominated by that, to-day, all other things 
 will reshape themselves rightly; without that, there can 
 be no permanent hold upon the Christian position at all. 
 If that be not true and believed in, then Christianity 
 will certainly pass away." To the Unitarian Church this 
 must seem illiberal ; but every other variety of the Chris- 
 tian faith affirms this; and we venture to say that no 
 other Church in modern days has officially sanctioned a 
 theology so wide and so charitable. In this Balfour hear- 
 tily concurred, though he himself was formed and his 
 faith was fixed before the transition period began. His 
 use of Scripture was always that of one who had grown 
 up in the pre-critical days, and his creed was the Creed 
 of 1843 in its full sweep. The floods of enquiry had not
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 239 
 
 touched him much ; but he saw the new influences at work 
 all round him in friends whose loyalty to Christ he did 
 not question. He was aware therefore of the new situa- 
 tion, though it did not influence himself; and, with a 
 wise toleration, he accepted the fact that younger men 
 were being caught in currents unfelt by him, out of 
 which they must be left to find their own way to the 
 shore, not only without molestations but with most help- 
 ful and encouraging trust. 
 
 Similarly, in regard to cases of discipline, where moral 
 lapse was in question, Balfour did not belie the character 
 for human kindliness and charity which he so con- 
 spicuously exhibited in all other relations with his fellow 
 men. But service in the Church was to him so 
 high a calling that laxity in the common moralities in 
 a minister or elder seemed a thing which could not be 
 too carefully guarded against. It depressed and dis- 
 tressed him. He was found, therefore, always on the 
 side of those who strove to remove reproach to the cause 
 of Christ when it arose. He felt that for every man 
 there should be a place of repentance, but that the 
 pulpit or the elder's seat was not generally that place; 
 and while full of compassion for the individual, he 
 endeavoured never to let that interfere with the higher 
 charity which he owed to the Church. That must not 
 suffer loss ; but, when the honour of the Church as the 
 representative of Christ in the world had been secured, 
 he was pitiful and courteous and immeasurably helpful 
 to those who had caused the reproach. Of course, he 
 was not infallible. He made mistakes, like the rest of 
 us; but that his purpose and motive in his ecclesiastical 
 activity were what has been said no one who knew him 
 and took note of his action can, I think, fail to see. 
 
 In all Assembly work he was a tower of strength to 
 the Presbyterians. His business ability and habits, his 
 acquaintance with Parliamentary work, his clearness of
 
 240 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 mind, and his courage and power of vigorous and 
 eloquent and persuasive speech, made him for many 
 years the most conspicuous elder in the Church. The 
 Church could always trust him to represent it worthily 
 in all places and as to all questions; and it could feel 
 sure that however unpopular for the moment its views 
 might be, he would be sure to set them forth in such a 
 way as to command respect.
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 HIS BIBLE CLASS. 
 
 But conspicuous as Balfour's services in Church 
 Courts were, the department of Elder's work in which 
 he especially surpassed all others was the Bible Class. 
 For nearly 60 years, from his early days in Geelong until 
 his death, he carried on Bible Classes for youths and 
 young men in connexion with the various congregations 
 to which he belonged, in such a way as to make them 
 not only successful, but a delight to both himself and 
 those who attended them. For a man as variously busy 
 as we have seen Balfour to be at every period of his 
 life this seems an almost incredible achievement. If 
 he had only had his business to attend to, and had 
 given his leisure time to Bible Class work alone, it 
 would have been notable enough that he should have 
 been able to keep up the freshness of his teaching to the 
 age of 83. But, when we know that he was during 
 all his life a strenuous man of business, an active member 
 of Parliament, a leading man in all efforts to raise the 
 level of life for his fellow citizens, and that from early 
 morning often till after midnight he was incessantly 
 busy, the only feeling of an ordinary man must be 
 blank amazement that it should have been possible. His 
 own experience as a young man of the value of such 
 teaching and his extraordinary interest in and love for 
 the society of young men were no doubt his starting 
 points. He felt called to this work earlier and more 
 continuously than to any other ; and, whenever or wher- 
 ever he set up his class, youths gathered about him, 
 10, 20, 40, sometimes up to 60, and were held by his 
 earnestness, his knowledge of the Bible, his power of 
 
 241
 
 242 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 illustrating the truths he wished to impress upon them 
 from his reading, his travels, and his wide experience, 
 his manifest interest in them, and his kindness of heart. 
 He had, all his life, a most enviable power of making 
 those whom he came in contact with in such classes his 
 friends, and so the attendance rarely showed any down- 
 ward tendency. To those who knew the heart-breaking 
 fluctuations of ordinary Bible Classes, their enthusiastic 
 commencements, their short prosperities, and then the 
 setting-in of languor and their permanent or temporary 
 close, the steady flow of life in Balfour's classes always 
 seemed a wonder. In them, new starts were never neces- 
 sary, so long as he was able to carry them on himself ; 
 and few came to them who did not feel that "virtue" 
 had come to them, that strength for higher living was 
 always theirs afterwards to a greater extent than they 
 had had it before. Very many were carried safely over 
 that dangerous gap in life which lies between the period 
 when boys are content to obey and the time when they 
 have experience to guide them and have made choice in 
 life, that time when the youth claims all the indepen- 
 dence of self-directing manhood, though he has not yet 
 lived through the boy's tricks and whims and inexperi- 
 ence. Balfour led them on step by step, making it his 
 object to persuade and induce them to take Christ as 
 the guide and ruler of their lives until their feet were 
 "set upon a rock, and their goings established" ; and he 
 succeeded with many. Others fell away into careless 
 living and sometimes wrecked their lives; but even these 
 confessed that the best in them had been strengthened by 
 Balfour's influence. Still others did not, so far as their 
 teacher knew, definitely decide for the Christian life; but 
 they always afterwards had upon their horizon the great 
 figure of the risen Christ who had died for them and 
 for all men, and could not be altogether as those who had
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 243 
 
 never had that vision ; for Balfour saw so clearly himself 
 that he could make others see. 
 
 At a moderate estimate, on an average ten must have 
 gone out from his classes each year for nearly 60 
 years. That gives 600 young lives "touched" in some 
 degree at least "to finer issues." Many of them were 
 won finally and definitely in their youth to the service 
 of God and man in Christ ; the rest went away with seed 
 in their hearts which some time at least brought forth 
 fruit in later days. And this river of beneficent in- 
 fluence, which bore so many lives to their desired haven, 
 had, so far as I know or have been able to ascertain, 
 no minus quantity to be deducted. I have never heard 
 of any who went from that class disgusted with religion 
 or hardened against it or wearied with it. Whether 
 they accepted it or not, they all had the impression that 
 it was a worthy and winsome thing; and they know 
 it was practicable, for they had seen it practised. 
 
 If any ask what the secret of his great and unusual 
 success was, it will not be easy to discover it, still less 
 to set it forth. But, as it is a question which ought to 
 be answered if possible, I shall make the attempt. Of 
 course, the first cause of success was that the interest 
 in the teaching never permanently flagged. The main 
 reason of that was that Balfour's own interest in the 
 work and ways of God was overwhelming. He was 
 never weary of thinking about the wonder of the love 
 of God ; and the long history of how He trained man- 
 kind in knowledge of Himself, fascinated him. This 
 was in his mind at his down-sitting and his up-rising, 
 when he was walking by the way or sitting in his house. 
 It was a subject of quite endless interest to himself; 
 therefore he could make it interesting to others. He 
 had the first requisite for good teaching in its highest 
 power, for he felt in the very depth of his heart that 
 the Gospel of Christ was the greatest thing in the world.
 
 244 JAMES BALFOVR. 
 
 In the next place, he owed his success to his genial 
 human friendliness. As far as he had time and oppor- 
 tunity he liked to live with his class. They were never 
 to him merely people to be taught. He was deeply 
 interested in them, in their prospects in life, in their 
 pleasures, in their difficulties; and, when they came to 
 him for advice and direction, they never found him in- 
 different. He gave up many of his Saturday afternoons 
 to their sports, their football and cricket matches, and 
 rejoiced in their victories, and sympathised with them 
 so unfeignedly in their defeats that his presence heartened 
 them in no common degree. Then he made excursions 
 with them on holidays, camped out with them, even in 
 his old age ; and was always the youngest of the party, 
 wherever he might be. He was like an elder brother to 
 them, in whom the "elder" was obscured to the vanish- 
 ing point, and the "brother" shone out in every word 
 and action. 
 
 Some teachers of Bible Classes, ministers and others, 
 may say that this was obviously the cause of his success, 
 and that he was able to make friends of his class because 
 of his having his time at his command, and because he, 
 being a comparatively rich man, had a home where he 
 could entertain them, so that his success can be no help 
 to others who have not these advantages ; but, as I think 
 has been shown, no man had less time at his command. 
 Harassed as ministers are by constant calls, by demands 
 suddenly sprung upon them, there are very few who 
 have so little leisure as he had. As to his home, it was 
 no doubt a great advantage to him that he could enter- 
 tain his class, and all he had he willingly placed at their 
 service ; but it was not what he had or what he gave that 
 won the hearts of his class. It was his real liking for 
 them and the interest he felt and showed in them as 
 human beings that won them ; and any teacher of a Bible 
 Class can and ought to be able to follow him there.
 
 JAMES BALFOVR. 245 
 
 The lesson of Balfour's success seems to be that a 
 teacher or preacher can never adequately lay hold of the 
 young unless he has a real love for them, not as pupils 
 or hearers, not as he hopes to make them, but as the 
 human beings that they are. Balfour had this in a very 
 high degree, partly as a gift of nature, but more, I 
 think, as a gift of grace. Christ taught that the law 
 of God was summed up in the two great commandments, 
 to love God with all the heart and our neighbour as 
 ourselves. Many of his followers seem to lean more to 
 one side than the other. Some feel that, if they love 
 God, the love of the neighbour may be left to take care 
 of itself ; others again seem to think that love of the 
 neighbour is the supreme thing, and that the love of 
 God needs no special attention. In both cases the result 
 is a one-sided and defective Christianity. Balfour kept 
 the two great commandments in healthy equilibrium to a 
 degree which is rare. I think he loved his young neigh- 
 bours not primarily with a view to their good, nor in 
 the way of beneficence only, but had an unfeigned de- 
 light in them for their own sake; and they responded, 
 as human beings always do, to the "touch of nature" 
 which "makes the whole world kin." 
 
 A third great element in his success was the thorough- 
 ness of his preparation. Neither here nor elsewhere did 
 he attempt to serve God with that which cost him 
 nothing. He has left behind him many specimens of the 
 notes he made for his class, in his clear firm writing, 
 which never became the tremulous writing of an old man, 
 and they show that he thought no trouble too great that 
 enabled him to get at the heart of the religious meaning 
 of the passage of Scripture he had to expound. Having 
 got that, he used his reading, his travels, his knowledge 
 of men and contemporary events to illustrate and bring 
 it home in an interesting way to his hearers. Many of 
 these outlines must have cost as much thought and
 
 24.6 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 prayer as the best sermons cost a minister; and they 
 cover a very wide field. Evidently he knew the need 
 for securing variety of subject in religious teaching. The 
 teaching of science or the imparting of new knowledge 
 of any kind is comparatively easy. There is novelty and 
 variety enough in the new things which break upon the 
 view; but, in teaching religion, the taught, if they have 
 had any Christian nurture at all, know all the facts of the 
 Gospel as well as the teacher, and they have the experi 
 ence of their own life to illuminate them. Consequently, 
 the sources of interest which the secular teacher has 
 continuously at his command are largely wanting, especi- 
 ally after the Sunday School stage is passed. The great 
 English orator, John Bright, said that, for this very 
 reason, he thought preaching incomparably more diffi- 
 cult than speaking on politics. In the former, the task 
 was to give interest and power to things perfectly well 
 known and grown trite by repetition : in the latter, new 
 facts were arising every day, new material interests were 
 always becoming involved, and the public mind was 
 eager to hear what those who knew more of the secrets 
 of government than they did could tell them. The 
 religious teacher who seeks to influence young men must, 
 therefore, seek in his own earnestness, in his own joy 
 in religion, and in variety of point of view the power 
 to move and win his audiences. 
 
 Balfour probably had no theory about the matter; 
 but, if he had not, he by instinct, or by watching when 
 interest began to fail, was guided into the right path. 
 In his last years his custom was to begin the class 
 with singing two hymns from Mr. Alexander's Book, 
 as a rule carefully chosen to turn the devotional feeling 
 of the class in the direction of the main religious point 
 of the lesson at the very' beginning. Then a text learned 
 from the passage to be dealt with was repeated, and the 
 whole passage was read. Thereupon, one of the class
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 247 
 
 who had undertaken lo open the discussion did so; 
 and lastly Balfour dealt with, the subject. In this way, 
 a certain amount of co-operation on the part of the 
 class was secured, and a measure of variety, even when 
 a definite course of lessons was followed. Further, he 
 endeavoured to secure variety in the courses also. For 
 one period he would take the Acts of the Apostles to 
 show how Christianity became a world religion, using 
 modern books, such as Ramsay's "vSt. Paul the 
 Traveller," in discussing St. Paul's journeys. For 
 another, he read and discussed "Pilgrim's Progress," 
 enriching it by references to his own experience and 
 the results of his reading. Then he would turn to the 
 Parables. As if that was not variety enough, every now 
 and then he would bring in the biography of some 
 eminent benefactor of the race, like Florence Nightin- 
 gale, or some preacher of unusual power such as Moody, 
 the Evangelist, or a Scripture biography like that to be 
 gathered from Philemon. Besides its own intrinsic in- 
 terest, the life of the first-named gave him the oppor- 
 tunity of telling about that great and beneficent work 
 of the German Pastor, Fliedner, in the Kaiserswerth 
 Deaconess Institution in which Florence Nightingale 
 was trained and from which there has gone out since 
 1836 a continuous stream of trained women workers into 
 Germany, England, Turkey, Egypt, Greece and the 
 United States. The second led him on to a subject 
 he specially loved, the history of revivals in Scotland 
 from those in Kilsyth (1838-9), and in Dundee (1839-41), 
 the work of W. C. Burns and McCheyne; then the great 
 American Revival of 1857-8, and that in Ireland in 
 1859, and on to the labours of those evangelists who 
 had worked in Australia, Somerville, Varley, McNeill, 
 the Australian McNeil, Torrey and Alexander, Chapman 
 and Alexander. In dealing with Onesimus he had an 
 opportunity of discussing slavery, Jewish, Roman, Eng-
 
 248 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 lish, and American, bringing in vividly what he himself 
 saw of the hateful thing on his first visit to America, 
 just before the great Civil War, of which it really was 
 the prime cause, broke over the land. Again, he intro- 
 duced a discussion on Industry and Idleness, with a 
 reference to 2nd Thess. 3 : 7-18, and in connexion with 
 it brought up the social questions now agitating society 
 — the inequalities in our social life, the faults and the 
 remedies. Then he proceeded to tell of the advances made 
 towards a better social state during his own life. He 
 took "early closing" as a first example, and tells of 
 the state of things in his own boyhood, and how the 
 Church took action to improve it. He then passed on 
 to Christ's teaching on the stewardship of wealth, on the 
 Golden Rule, and the emphasis which Christ laid upon 
 the special perils of the rich. Then, having considered 
 whether Christians were ever communists, and having 
 decided in the negative, he discussed what co-operation 
 and profit-sharing were doing towards bringing in a 
 better state of things, and what laws could do. He 
 ended by insisting that no improvements in the material 
 condition of men in the mass could be finally remedial. 
 Men as individuals must first find the right centre for 
 their lives, and enter upon the "narrow way that leadeth 
 unto life," before they could even use any improved 
 social conditions which might be their right, so that they 
 could add permanently to human happiness. 
 
 It must not be supposed, however, that even in such 
 cases as have been described the religious element ever 
 was driven into the background. Inevitably and 
 naturally, as in the last-mentioned lesson, Balfour's mind 
 always turned to God, however wide the sweep might 
 be which he took over the works of men. There is a 
 constant and powerful emergence of Christian experi- 
 ence in every one of these notes. The whole drama of 
 the Christian life was known to him, and the personal
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 249 
 
 note was always present. His motto might have been 
 taken from i John 1:1, "That which we have seen with 
 our eyes, that which we beheld and our hands have 
 handled concerning the Word of Life, declare we unto 
 you." He was one of those who saw spiritual powers 
 behind all thai was earthly, and who by prayer could 
 make others see. He never failed, therefore, to make a 
 personal appeal to his class, to act according to what 
 they saw. He pressed upon them always, though with 
 wisdom and with respect for their personality, the need 
 of repentance, of conversion, of acceptance of Christ. 
 That was the first thing ; then came the absolute 
 necessity of devotion to the service of our fellow men 
 and of God. This insistence is specially noticeable in 
 the lessons of the last year of his life. He had no 
 special premonition of death ; but he was eighty-three 
 years of age, and he knew the time given him upon earth 
 could not be much prolonged, and he grew urgent. 
 The Chapman-Alexander Mission had come and gone; 
 a number had been moved, and had taken the decisive 
 step of accepting Christ. But many seemed strangely 
 indifferent; and on the nth May, 1913, three months 
 before his death, when the subject was the parable of 
 the barren fig-tree, he pressed the message home with 
 great power. He showed that the first reference was to 
 the Jews as a people. Then he applied it to ourselves 
 as a nation, pointing out what exceptional gifts had 
 been given us by God. We had an open Bible, we had 
 unequalled civil liberty, we had a great history behind 
 us, we knew God from what our fathers had told us, 
 we had a living Church, and we still had the Sabbath 
 rest. The tree of our national life was thus planted in 
 a vineyard. God must come to us seeking fruit. But 
 what fruit? Not merely worldly virtues. These cer- 
 tainly, but more even than these : love to God, love to 
 man. Not for reward, but because we love Him who
 
 250 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 first loved us. Then he turned to the class individually 
 with the swift and searching question : "Have you trusted 
 Him ? Have you surrendered yourself to Him ? Have 
 you accepted for yourself the record God has given us? 
 Then happy are you. 'Whosoever cometh to me, I will 
 in no wise cast out.' This is the first fruit, and when it 
 is there you will bring forth more fruit. And the 
 husbandman will prune you by pain and sorrow and 
 disappointment that you may bring forth more fruit to 
 the glory of God ; for 'herein is my Father glorified that 
 ye bear much fruit,' But, if there is no fruit, if you 
 have refused to trust, to come, to yield, beware ! How 
 often has He come seeking fruit and finding none, in your 
 case? Remember, He says: 'I will not always strive.' 
 He is long suffering, but 'he that being often reproved, 
 hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed, and that 
 without remedy.' Do not take advantage of God's for- 
 bearance. The day of grace will pass. 'To-day, if you 
 will hear His voice. . . . The night cometh.' That, in 
 Greek, was engraved on McCheyne's seal, and should 
 be engraved on our hearts. 'The love of God is con- 
 straining us' now." 
 
 Two Sundays later the subject was the parable of the 
 great supper; and he concluded his address thus : "Have 
 you been called ? Have you come, or did you excuse 
 yourself? Think of the warning of these words, 'None 
 of these men that were bidden shall taste of my supper.' " 
 It was characteristic that he did not end with warning, 
 but with promise. He concluded with the words of the 
 hymn : 
 
 "Yet there is room, the Lamb's bright Hall of Song, 
 With its fair glory, beckons thee along. 
 Room, room ! still room ! 
 Oh, enter ! enter now !
 
 JAMES BALFOIR. 251 
 
 It tills, it tills, that Hall of Jubilee, 
 
 Make haste, make haste, 'tis not too full for thee ! 
 
 Room, room I 
 Yet there is room ! still open stands the gate, 
 The gate of love; it is not yet too late, 
 Louder and sweeter sounds the loving call. 
 Come, lingerer, come, enter that festal Hall." 
 
 . Receiving teaching so sane, so intelligent, so widely 
 based on experience, and driven home on fitting occasion 
 with such poignant urgency, it is no wonder that many 
 of the class made the great acceptance. Besides all his 
 other labour for them, he wrote to them often individually 
 when they had moved away to other suburbs and to 
 the country, sending them books, enquiring for their 
 welfare, and I have before me a number of the replies 
 he received. The first is like a number of others. It 
 is to this effect. "I received your letter of 29th inst., 
 and am writing to let you know that I have made up 
 my mind to confess Christ at the Communion of the 
 Lord's Supper. As I am working on Sunday from 10 
 a.m. to 5 p.m., I will be absent from the Class, so if you 
 could let me know when to see Mr. Cooper" (the minister 
 of West Hawthorn) "1 will do so, as I will be working 
 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in September." Another member 
 of the Class who had removed to another State says, 
 "I do miss the privilege of attending the Class. While 
 I am practically a stranger in a strange land, I am 
 realising all the good I have obtained from being a 
 member of your Class. It was not until I came here 
 that I fully realised how deep that teaching had set in 
 me; but I know now. I know that every day there is 
 some leading spirit guiding me on the right path, while 
 I am alone; and I have to thank you for putting me 
 in the way of receiving that guidance with a proper 
 spirit. I was a little afraid of myself when I first ar-
 
 252 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 rived here, but not now, because my prayers have been 
 answered, and I am being watched by One I have learned 
 to love through being a member of the Class. Trusting 
 that all the members of the class are, like myself, realis- 
 ing that there is One ready to take care of them if they 
 would yield themselves to Him, I am etc." Still another 
 writes, "I shall always remember the teachings received 
 from you, and the fact that to you I owe the great 
 decision of my life, and ask your prayer that I may 
 always be a good soldier of Jesus Christ." 
 
 This written testimony of good received was amplified 
 by spoken testimonies of the most various kinds. Mr. 
 F. H. L. Paton relates that somewhere in New South 
 Wales he met a young man who told him that he had 
 received his first impulse to the new life at Mr. Balfour's 
 Bible Class. Such testimonies may be heard in all 
 quarters of the world, for young men of Australia wander 
 much ; and, without irreverence, it may be said that 
 "many shall come from the East and the West and 
 shall sit down ... in the Kingdom of Heaven" who have 
 the same confession written on their hearts, for, when 
 Balfour died, hundreds of letters of sympathy, as well 
 as cables and telegrams were received from Scotland, 
 England, Ireland, all the States of Australia, Germany, 
 America, Korea, New Hebrides, South Africa and 
 China. But one is glad that the gratitude so many 
 felt found an expression before he who had called it 
 out departed. On the igth July, 1912, just 13 months 
 before his death, the past and present members of the 
 Class who were within reach from Melbourne, presented 
 Mr. and Mrs. Balfour with a handsome oak photograph 
 screen 6ft. high containing 158 photographs of members 
 past and present. In this he took the most unfeigned 
 pride. The love and gratitude it expressed were to 
 him an exceeding great reward, the only reward he 
 desired, and that it had taken the form of surrounding
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 253 
 
 him with the faces of those he had benefited and helped 
 filled him with delight. 
 
 At the meeting when the presentation was made, there 
 were seventy present who had been in the Class, and 
 many letters were read from those who were absent, 
 expressing their esteem and affection for him as their 
 teacher. In presenting it, the Rev. W. H. Cooper, 
 M.A., B.D., the minister of the West Hawthorn Church, 
 in connexion with which the Class has been held for 
 the past 15 years, spoke very feelingly of Mr. Balfour, 
 not only as a Christian man but also as a legislator, a 
 business man, and a philanthropist. But, he said, they 
 were more immediately dealing with Mr. Balfour's Chris- 
 tian activities. He was deeply concerned in all evan- 
 gelical movements for the spiritual good of the com- 
 munity. As teacher, inspirer and helper of young men, 
 his work was well known and appreciated. The motto 
 on the photograph screen was "Love never faileth." It 
 suggested the reason for Mr. Balfour's warm-hearted 
 and consistent devotion to the spiritual and moral welfare 
 of young men. Mr. Balfour loved his work because it 
 was that of the divine Father. He had the keenest 
 pleasure in handing the beautiful gift to Mr. and Mrs. 
 Balfour. The report of the meeting goes on to say that 
 Mr. Balfour was obviously affected by the spirit which 
 inspired the gift. It was a beautiful expression of grati- 
 tude and would be treasured by him as long as he lived. 
 It was good to think that his efforts were valued, and 
 he felt sincerely thankful to all who had helped him 
 in the work. The inscription on the screen is: — 
 
 To the Hon. Jas. Balfour, M.L.C., and Mrs. Bal- 
 four, from the Leaders, Bible Class Members, Superin- 
 tendents, and Friends of the West Hawthorn Church. 
 
 An expression of gratitude for many years' faithful 
 work in the Master's service.
 
 234 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 To all that crowd of witnessjss 1 would wish to add in 
 conclusion what I wrote regarding this work of Balfour 
 many years ago : "I should feel inclined to place among 
 his most remarkable achievements his qaiet personal 
 work among young men, whom he treated as his friends 
 and won over to goodness. For many years he always 
 has had about him a circle of those in whose sports he 
 joined, whose career he watched, and whom he helped at 
 every turn, where help was possible. Most of them 
 'owe their own selves' to him ; and, when any broke 
 down, it was one of the most pathetic things I have ever 
 seen to mark how he yearned after them. I have known 
 him to be almost sleeplessly praying and watching for 
 weeks when one of them was going wrong, and have 
 witnessed his joy when he succeeded in stopping a 
 downward career. In no man have I seen the Christ- 
 like Spirit so manifested as in him." There cannot be 
 a more fitting conclusion to these chapters on Balfour's 
 Political and Ecclesiastical Life than the memorial minute 
 of the Presbytery of Melbourne South, to which for 
 many years he had belonged. It sums up with sincerity 
 and dignity what these chapters have attempted to nar- 
 rate. It is as follows : — 
 
 The Presbytery places on record its deep sense of 
 sorrow at the loss it has sustained in the death of the 
 Honourable James Balfour, M.L.C., which occurred 
 on Sunday, August 24th, 1913. In his passing, the 
 Church loses a pure-minded, consistent and cour- 
 ageous follower of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 Steeped in the principles of Christianity from his early 
 years by being reared in a Scottish Christian home, 
 in the year 1852 he came to this Southern land, and 
 for the long period of over 60 years he adorned the 
 doctrine of God our Saviour in all things. Having 
 settled first at Geelong^ James Balfour for some years 
 showed his love of God and his deep interest in the
 
 JAMES BALFOUR, 255 
 
 welfare of his fellows by unsparing and continuous 
 effort to further the interests of religion in ail that 
 pertained to the Church of God and to the community 
 of which he was a member. 
 
 Coming to Melbourne in the year 1863, Mr. Balfour 
 entered political life, sitting first in the Legislative 
 Assembly, and upon his return from a visit to his 
 native land, he was elected a member of the Legisla- 
 tive Council and continuously for nearly 40 years re- 
 presented a large and important Province until his 
 death. In political and private life he exhibited and 
 was guided by the principles of Christ. As a citizen 
 his career was marked by integrity and noble ideals. 
 As a representative of the people every measure that 
 made for civic and political purity, for individual and 
 collective strength of character, had his whole-souled 
 support. Believing that righteousness alone exalteth 
 a nation, every philanthropic, evangelistic, and social 
 effort that made for the uplifting of the people found 
 him in the lead. With voice and pen and money, 
 with intellect, heart and all the fine activities, he 
 laboured for the glory of God and the good of his fel- 
 lows. 
 
 Mr. Balfour faithfully and ably discharged all the 
 duties which devolved upon him as an Elder of our 
 beloved Church ; as such he was a workman that 
 needed not to be ashamed. In High Church and St. 
 George's Church, Geelong ; in Chalmers Church, Mel- 
 bourne ; in Toorak and West Hawthorn Parishes his 
 influence was that of a man sent from God. 
 
 His interest in Home and Foreign Mission work, 
 his love for and support of the Melbourne City Mis- 
 sion, his manly and persevering efforts to secure the 
 introduction of Bible-teaching into our State Schools, 
 and his welcome to every true Evangelist need only
 
 236 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 be mentioned as evidence of his catholic sympathies. 
 But the outstanding feature of his long and useful life 
 was his work on behalf of young men. As teacher, 
 guide and friend of young lives, his influence is in 
 all the States and beyond our Southern seas. His 
 name is revered by scores who have grown old with 
 him and in whose lives he has been a spiritual force. 
 Many indeed will rise up and call him blessed.
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 RELIGIOUS LIFE. 
 
 The Presbytery of Melbourne South, in the above 
 discriminating estimate, mingle eulogy of Balfour's 
 activity in what is called the secular sphere with that 
 of his religious life, and in that it was thoroughly justi- 
 fied. It can never be easy in the case of any truly re- 
 ligious man to draw that particular line of distinction, 
 and in Balfour's case it was impossible, because he, more 
 than most, lived in the spirit of St. Paul's word (Col. 
 3 : 17), "And, whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all 
 in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the 
 Father through Him." He was one of the happy few 
 whose religion nowhere cramped him. It was, on the 
 contrary, the source and the directing power of all his 
 varied and vigorous energy.. It gave him "life" and 
 gave it "more abundantly," as Jesus meant faith in 
 Him to give to all His followers. By his religion all that 
 was best in him was set free; by it every power he had 
 was strengthened. To those who knew him well he 
 presented the inspiring spectacle of a man whose nature 
 had found in the Christian faith an environment which 
 gave perfect moral and spiritual health, an environment 
 in which the whole man came to flower and fruit. Carlyle, 
 following Goethe, has taught us that moral health 
 is begun, continued, and ended in renunciation ; and for 
 men like them and like most of us, that is incontrovertibly 
 and sadly true. But there are a happier few who have 
 been so endowed by nature, or have been so shaped by 
 their ideals that they move forward as if instinctively in 
 the path of righteousness. Their desires and hopes 
 
 J 257
 
 258 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 seem to turn always in the right direction, so that the 
 hard discipline of renunciation is rarely needed. Bal- 
 four always seemed to me to be one of these favoured 
 ones. He had, I think, "a soul naturally Christian" to 
 begin with ; and pure and undefiled religion came into his 
 life in boyhood in such a powerful flood, that the evil 
 that is in the world never got upon him the hold which 
 it has upon most men. All that evil he loathed so much 
 that "renunciation" in connexion with it would have 
 seemed entirely incongruous. Within the limits set by 
 the law of God and the example of Christ he walked at 
 perfect liberty, in that best kind of freedom which con- 
 sists in the power to bring to perfection every healthy 
 energy of one's nature. 
 
 Of course, he would not have so described his life, 
 for to him as to all of us, what goodness he possessed 
 had to be wrought for ; and the tragic gulf which yawns 
 between what we should be and what we are was as 
 wide for him as for any other sinful man. But to those 
 not so favoured both by grace and nature he seemed 
 happier than most in this, that, as citizen and politician, 
 as merchant or volunteer soldier, as parent or friend, 
 in fact in all the relations of life, his religion not only 
 left him free, it gave him freedom in the largest sense 
 and became the very well-spring of his power. If in 
 any respect his life could justly be reproached as narrow, 
 that was not due to his religion, but to the absence of 
 some enriching element in his natural endowment, or 
 to some intellectual error on his part. He was so con- 
 scious of the perfection of the liberty wherewith Christ 
 made him free, that he would have been eager to acknow- 
 ledge this. There was no sinless experience in life which 
 he would not have felt to be open to him. "All was 
 his" as St. Paul said, and even in regard to matters in 
 which his own conviction was never shaken, such as 
 the divine obligation of the Sabbath rest, he endeavoured
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 259 
 
 to keep his mind open that he might receive any new 
 light which might break out from the Scriptures, or 
 from reason, and the experiences of Hfe. "With free- 
 dom did Christ set him free" (Gal. 5:1), and to him, 
 
 therefore, the religion of Christ was never a bondage. 
 
 On ihe contrary, like St. Paul, he felt it to be a glorious 
 liberty, not a burden to be dolefully carried, as it is 
 with so many, but an influence which upbore and up- 
 lifted him. This is what the true religion has always 
 been to those who fully accepted it, and its great claim 
 upon mankind is just this, that, however wide the nature 
 of any man may be, everything but evil can find further- 
 ance in it. This is its claim, and all who knew Balfour 
 intimately saw a striking example of its power harmoni- 
 ously to energise a man's nature. He lived with all his 
 powers, and there can hardly have been anywhere a 
 happier man. 
 
 Because his piety was to the end almost without modifi- 
 cation the evangelical piety of 1843, being founded upon 
 a use of Scripture which took no account of divergences, 
 and dealt with it all as inerrant, some have wished to 
 attribute the happiness and consistency of his life to 
 this fact, and to claim that those who loved him would 
 find the same power as he possessed if in this respect 
 they followed him ; but that is surely a mistake. It was 
 not upon a basis of this kind that the edifice of his 
 gracious life was reared. Rather it stood upon the ex- 
 perience of communion with God in Christ, not on any 
 lesser thing, and wherever that existed Balfour found 
 fellowship and brotherhood, whether his way of conceiv- 
 ing the approach to God were received or not. That 
 this was so is shown by his attitude to the criticism of the 
 Scriptures and the gradual decay of the belief in its 
 absolute inerrancy which was going on all around him 
 during the latter half of his life. He neither feared nor 
 favoured it ; but he was wise enough never to denounce
 
 26o JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 it. For himself, he felt no need of it, for it had never 
 been the letter of Scripture, but the spirit which had 
 nourished his religious life, and that "found" him as 
 Coleridge said, on the old hypothesis with a complete- 
 ness which it will be the crowning achievement of the 
 new generation to attain on the new hypothesis. With 
 that he was content; but he knew that younger men 
 could not rest there, and that scholars whom he trusted 
 said there was truth in much which critics alleged, truth 
 which at all costs the Church must accept and assimilate, 
 if it was to "live by everything that proceedeth out of 
 the mouth of God." So he left the whole question in the 
 hands of these whose business it was to lead the Church 
 in such matters. He saw that there was a need in 
 others which had to be satisfied, when men like Quentin 
 Hogg, men whose faith in Christ and love for men was 
 beyond all possible question, welcomed the new teach- 
 ing; and, when scholars like A. B. Davidson and Driver 
 gave their calm and discriminating judgment in its 
 favour, and when Church leaders like Dr. Rainy were 
 ready to run all risks to secure that the new spirit should 
 not be violently or prematurely suppressed, he could not 
 doubt that there was a real need. So he stood aside in 
 benevolent neutrality, in unshaken confidence that in 
 this thing, as in all, God's guidance of His Church 
 would not fail. He could do this, because his religion 
 was not a theory but an experience. It was communion 
 with God, which the Scriptures opened up to him. 
 That was real beyond all question ; and, because of the 
 fullness of this experience of Him, he found and kept 
 the right and Christian attitude, which it would have 
 been well if all of his generation or of his sympathies 
 had taken up, in regard to the new truth which had 
 "broken from Scripture" in their time. 
 
 Further, it was owing to his religion being so pre- 
 dominatingly an experience that he loved God with
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 261 
 
 such intense sincerity. God was not to him a harmon- 
 ising conception of the intellect, nor a necessary pre- 
 supposition of the moral consciousness, but a Person, 
 with whom he had intercourse, from whom he received 
 direction, impulse, pardon, and power, a Person whom 
 he loved because God had first loved him. He talked 
 with God in his heart sincerely and constantly ; and, 
 wherever he caught a whisper of the Divine voice, his 
 impulse was at once to obey. It is a fashion of our 
 time to depreciate a religion of obedience to command- 
 ment ; and, of course, slavish obedience is absolutely in- 
 compatible with the liberty which God gives to his chil- 
 dren in Jesus Christ. But, when love has first been 
 given, and commandments are welcomed because they 
 are indications as to how^ the will of a loving and re- 
 deeming God may best be done, obedience is another 
 and quite a different thing. It becomes the fullest ex- 
 pression of liberty, and this it was to Balfour. He loved 
 God as few do ; and then he placed himself in God's 
 hand. He wished to be an instrument for His purposes; 
 and he was always a militant Christian in this sense 
 that he gladly felt that he was a man under authority, 
 who was bound, when he heard his Leader's voice say- 
 ing "Go!" to go, or "come!" to come, or "do this!" 
 to do it. He was emphatically a good soldier of Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 As necessarily followed from this, he had absolute 
 faith in the Providence of God. He believed that the 
 course of individual lives was ordered by God, and 
 that where men and women looked for and yielded to 
 guidance, all that befell them was intended by infinite 
 love and by omniscience to work altogether for good. 
 So regarded, all events had instruction in them. God 
 was speaking in them all ; and it was the Christian man's 
 business "to hear what God the Lord would speak" both 
 in joys and in sorrows. I call to mind two striking utter-
 
 262 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 ances in which this uncommon view of providence finds 
 explicit utterance. In April of the year 1909 he cele- 
 brated his golden wedding, by a quiet family party. 
 In a note received from Miss Balfour she says: "He 
 thanked God for all the blessings which He had bestowed 
 during those 50 years; 'but more especially,' he said, 
 'I thank Him for the sorrows and troubles, not one of 
 which would have been sent had it not been needed.' " 
 Again, a few weeks before he died, when talking to one 
 of his daughters about seeing God's hand throughout 
 our lives, Balfour said : — "One of my Bible Class asked 
 me the other day : 'Do you really see God's hand in 
 everything?' and I said: 'Yes, in everything'; and he 
 replied, 'It must be a great comfort and help to believe 
 that and always to believe that.* " He might have 
 added, "And it must be very difficult to believe it, and 
 few really do 'believe it always.' " I think Balfour came 
 nearer believing it always and immediately than most 
 Christian men, and I think he always, in the end, came 
 to believe it. From his earliest letters, written when he 
 was a mere youth setting out in life, till the last I have 
 been privileged to see, this note of faith in God's over- 
 ruling providence is found enriching his life with 
 strength, and consolation and hope and gratitude to a 
 most wonderful degree. 
 
 Notices like this from a letter written in 1856 are 
 common in all his correspondence: — After urging his 
 mother to tell him how he could help her, because he 
 had every comfort himself in Melbourne and would be 
 very sorry to think she had not, he continues: "I am 
 sure we have all reason to bless God for His goodness, 
 and to acknowledge, that they that truly seek the Lord 
 shall not lack any good. What a blessed thing it is 
 to be able to cast ourselves on His faithfulness, even 
 in temporal things." Reviews like this, too, written 
 in Melbourne in 1855, occur at the end of years or at
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 263 
 
 the end of any special period in his career: — "A fort- 
 night ago, three years past, I left Southampton for Aus- 
 tralia. . . I have much cause to bless God when I review 
 the past three years. They are marked by continued 
 and undeserved mercies. Each year has had its new 
 ones. ... in a strange land God raised me up friends : 
 kinder friends could scarcely be. He has given me His 
 Sabbaths, and His ordinances. He has preserved my 
 health. He has supplied all my temporal wants, and 
 He has opened up a prospect for me in worldly busi- 
 ness for which I ought to feel very thankful ; while He 
 has kept me from being too suddenly thrown into the 
 full blaze of prosperity." All that a young man of 
 25 conscious of his powers might have regarded as the 
 reward of his own energy and forethought he attributes 
 directly to God ; and it stirs up all that is in him to 
 gratitude. So again on the nth January, 1859, on 
 board ship when drawing near to Australia, he writes : 
 "We thought of you all on New Year's Day. Another 
 year we have entered on in peace. How good and graci- 
 ous our Heavenly Father has been in past time to us, 
 and how He calls on us to trust Him for the future ! 
 To me, how full of mercy have his ways been in per- 
 mitting me again to see my native land and all those I 
 love so much there, and to enjoy their fellowship and 
 counsel, allowing me to have such pleasant journeys in 
 such congenial society as my American and Swiss tours 
 included, and now in such safety and in so much com- 
 fort bringing me so near my journey's end !" 
 
 All life was thus for him shot through with the loving- 
 kindness and tender mercy of God. But it was not 
 only when he was young and strong and prosperous 
 that he thus acknowledged the hand of God in every- 
 thing. When he wrote the first two extracts I have 
 quoted, he was an aged man, who had had many griefs 
 and troubles. The common lot had been his, to see
 
 264 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 friend after friend depart. He had lost children he 
 tenderly loved; he had had to face monetary losses and 
 the bitterness of unmerited reproach ; and he had had to 
 bear many other grave anxieties; but through all the 
 joys and troubles of an exceptionally long and active 
 life he never ceased to call upon himself to bless God's 
 holy name. He said at the end of it : "I thank God for 
 the sorrows and troubles, not one of which would have 
 been sent had it not been needed." He saw the finger 
 of God in all the chances and changes of his life, and 
 in the darkest days the vision was never obscured ; for 
 he felt sure that at the darkest, God's "love was seek- 
 ing him through pain." 
 
 Many may have thought he went too far in thinking 
 of the providence of God as watching over him in all 
 his ways ; some may even find in it a species of spiritual 
 pride. They think no man can have any right to 
 believe that he and his small concerns are so precious 
 in the sight of God, the Almighty Maker and Upholder 
 of the Universe. But, popular as such objections are, 
 and conclusive as they appear to be to many minds, 
 they can easily be shown to be radically unsound if 
 God be personal and omnipotent. They are due in 
 great part to the common inability to see in God any- 
 thing but a greater and non-natural man, which in turn 
 results from lack of imaginative power. Matthew Arnold 
 mocks at the evangelical conception of God for having 
 that very defect ; but, however much truth there may be 
 in that reproach when directed against the cruder popular 
 theology, there is much more in it when it is turned 
 against Arnold himself and those who sympathise with 
 him in minimising or denying the supernatural in Chris- 
 tianity. Some of their difficulty at least arises from their 
 inability to think of God save as a more powerful man, 
 toiling as man does at the accomplishment of His pur- 
 poses, at one thing after another, and succeeding only
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 265 
 
 by limiting the number of the objects he deals with. 
 Thinking of God so, the imagination faints before the 
 task of conceiving how He can be ordering the lives of 
 all men ; so it appears to them reasonable to say that, 
 if divine providence is active in the world, it can be 
 taking account of and determining only the great things 
 in great lives. Hence, when any man declares that he 
 believes his life to be divinely guided, he seems to be 
 claiming a place and importance for himself and his 
 affairs which in most cases it would be absurd to concede 
 to them. But if, as all Theists believe, God is not only 
 over all, but is also in all and through all, and that all 
 power is summed up in Him, this anthropomorphic, 
 nay, almost childish conception of God must be rejected, 
 and the sublimely imaginative word of the Old Testa- 
 ment, "He spake and it was done," must be put in its 
 place. If the will of God act on all that He has created 
 in the same fashion as man's will acts upon his body, 
 which is what that great Old Testament phrase suggests, 
 then every life can be easily conceived as influenced by 
 Him, as conditioned by what He brings to pass. That 
 this is the Scriptural view there can be no question. As 
 a powerful modern Theologian has said, "Providence 
 makes absolutely everything a means to the realisation 
 of its highest aim and of the relative aims embraced 
 by that." The words used in the New Testament to 
 give expression to this faith are among the most touch- 
 ing it contains (Rom. 8: 28-39 and i Cor. 3: 21-23), 
 "And their meaning is, that 'there is nothing in heaven 
 or in earth, in the world of natural law or of freedom 
 which does not serve the will of God' ; nay, even, 'a 
 new creature, i.e., a new creation, an entire change of 
 all external circumstances cannot separate from the love 
 of God in Christ." Even a change so almost incon- 
 ceivable as that, would be dominated and penetrated by 
 the divine purpose.
 
 266 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 Such a view naturally commended itself to the revived 
 Evangelical faith of Scotland in Balfour's youth, and 
 he stood firm in it to the end, unshaken by the arrogant 
 and aggressive science of the seventies and eighties of 
 which Huxley and Tyndall were the prophets. Look- 
 ing back now, one wonders why it should have been so ; 
 but there can be no doubt that in those years religious 
 people were overborne and beaten down by the over- 
 weening claims of science, and held their belief in the 
 supernatural with a shamefacedness which was not whole- 
 some and was quite uncalled for. For this, religious 
 men have been rebuked by a scientist of our own day. 
 Sir Oliver Lodge, who has plainly told us that they 
 were and are far too timorous in their thoughts about 
 answers to prayer. Through all that timorous time 
 Balfour steered right onward unshaken ; and he lived to 
 find his wholehearted acceptance of the providence of 
 God vindicated by the best religious thought of his later 
 years. The surprise of the Darwinian doctrines has 
 passed away. It is seen now, as it was not then, that the 
 Darwinian theory of Evolution may be held by men of 
 any religious creed as well as by those who are in the 
 unhappy position of having none. The doctrines of 
 providence and design, instead of being disproved by 
 it, have been given only a grander sweep, and the true 
 issues involved in denying or curtailing the doctrine of 
 providence have been made clear. Professor Hogg of 
 Madras has recalled the men of our day to the mind of 
 Christ in regard to God's power over the natural world, 
 and Baring has shown that "faith in providence rightly 
 understood is piety itself, and that not only is this true 
 of Christian piety, but that denial of providence is denial 
 of religion. The only alternatives are Casuism (that 
 all is accident) or Fatalism (that all is fixed by destiny) ; 
 both of which are incompatible with any kind of belief 
 in God." Further he declares that it is only in the doc-
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 267 
 
 trine of providence that it is seen that God is Love. That 
 doctrine says, "These and these are the ways in which 
 God's love works in reference to the world ; for if we 
 cannot experience that love in this world of doubts and 
 cares, if this world is not as a whole and in its most 
 individual things the world determined by the love of 
 God, it is not God's world at all, and there is no God of 
 love, however grandly we may talk of divine omnipotence 
 and omnipresence and so on." Consequently he further 
 says, "Nowadays, through the influence of modern 
 natural science the public feeling has become so sceptical 
 that under altered conditions the state of things depicted 
 by Origen in the 3rd century has come again ; and his 
 judgment that the battle for Providence is the battle 
 for Christianity, is more true than ever." The 
 instinctive loyalty of men like Balfour who made their 
 religion thorough, is now, consequently, being justified 
 more and more, intellectually, and the reserves and 
 qualifications of those who were only half or quartei 
 Christian are being characterised as the infidelities they 
 really were. 
 
 On the other hand, belief in providence may be held 
 so selfishly and one-sidedly as to minister to superstition, 
 or to that other vvorldliness which is really selfishness, 
 postponing satisfaction now for a greater satisfaction in 
 the world to come. But by special gift of nature or of 
 grace Balfour kept the middle path of sane religion. 
 God never at any time was in danger of becoming to 
 him a mere purveyor of personal success and well-being. 
 Consequently, he never came within measurable distance 
 of the temptation when in pain or trouble, to "bid adieu 
 to God," as so many of the comfortable classes do 
 when they are called upon to share the common lot of 
 pain and bereavement. He trusted God utterly, and 
 never felt that he was being wronged if grief or mis- 
 fortune came to him. He understood that the ob-
 
 268 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 ject of divine providence was primarily to bring 
 in the Kingdom of God, and only secondarily 
 to give comfort and peace and protection to indi- 
 viduals who belong to it. These benefits could come 
 to those who loved God, only if the coming of the King- 
 dom would be furthered by that : and conversely, when 
 suffering on their part would further that coming, it 
 would fall to their lot; and then they were to count it 
 all joy. In a wider sense even than Job, he said, "Shall 
 we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not 
 receive evil?" for in both he knew that there was a 
 divine message for him if only he were able to read it. 
 The search for this message threw him back upon prayer 
 both "for himself and those who called him friend," 
 and in that he believed and lived unceasingly. 
 
 From one very near to him I have this note : "He al- 
 ways rose early, never later than, and often before, 7 
 a.m., and gave an hour to private prayer and reading 
 his Bible; and he never retired to bed, however tired or 
 late home he might be, without reading a short passage 
 in his New Testament and spending some time in private 
 prayer. On no pretext whatever did he allow anything 
 to interfere with daily family worship. However early 
 his town engagements he always allowed time for family 
 prayers, which consisted of praise, as well as reading 
 and prayer, and closed with the repetition of a text by 
 each member of the family. His prayers were most com- 
 prehensive though terse. While showing his broad 
 sympathy for those outside his own circle, he never for- 
 got any of his friends who were in sorrow or trouble." 
 There is no test of the atmosphere of a household so 
 searching as its congruity or incongruity with such 
 family observances, and it is enough to say that never 
 in Balfour's house did any guest feel that there was 
 anything incongruous or exotic in them. But as I have 
 said, he used private prayer as the means by which he
 
 JAMES BALFOVR. 269 
 
 might learn what God the Lord was desiring to teach 
 him by every day's experience of either good or ill. He 
 sought carefully in prayer to understand and receive 
 the message of the providences of his own life, but he 
 was never tempted to demand that he should be free 
 from pain or trial, nor conversely to argue from the 
 prosperous or unprosperous lot of others as he saw it 
 to special goodness or sin in them. On the other hand, 
 he firmly believed that his sincere receptivity of the deal- 
 ings of God with him made a difference in what these 
 were and could be. That means, fundamentally, that 
 he believed in and had experience of actual personal 
 communion with God. That communion, again, could 
 not fail to be a reality for God also. As has been well 
 said, "God's almighty love has opened and keeps open 
 the communion." Resting on that foundation it can be 
 a reality ; based on any other it would be mere magic 
 and self-deception. But man's willingness to enter upon 
 it is his own act, and God recognises that, and takes ac- 
 count of it as a real condition of His own working . . . 
 The same divine action in joy and sorrow affects different 
 human hearts ; their answer to God's question is various ; 
 and this answer is their deed. By their various answer 
 which is their deed God's action is in part "determin- 
 able" ; otherwise the communion between man and God 
 could be neither personal nor real. So, real faith in 
 divine providence issues finally in miracle; and, when 
 well-meaning men of the intellectual classes beseech us 
 to lay aside miracle if we wish Christianity to win the 
 world, they are simply asking the Church to commit 
 suicide ; for, if belief in the providence of God is neces- 
 sary to religion, and that belief in turn rests on the 
 reality of communion with God, which involves that 
 God's action is in part determinable by man's, then the 
 possibility of miracle is vital to Christianity, and the 
 idea that it is not is the result of superficiality of thought.
 
 270 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 in this faith Balfour Hved, and in it he died, and so 
 far from needing apology, as half-hearted Christians are 
 inclined to think, it more than justified itself. It worked 
 in his case. It made him the bold, energetic, kindly and 
 charitable Christian man he was; it made him unwearied 
 in well-doing, and it upheld him in the direst stresses of 
 his life so that he ended as a conqueror. And, if the 
 inmost religion of his heart was of this kind, the service 
 or ritual by which he expressed it was just what the 
 Apostle James declared it ought to be when he said : 
 "Pure and undefiled religious service before our God 
 and Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in 
 their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the 
 world." As for the last-mentioned service, I have already 
 said that from his youth he had been innocent beyond 
 most; and his whole life was an exhibition of the first- 
 mentioned, that charity which cares for the helpless and 
 the defenceless. In that kind of "charity" which too 
 often usurps the whole meaning of that great word, in 
 the giving of money, he was systematic and exemplary. 
 From his partner, who kept account of all his expendi- 
 ture, I have a note in regard to his giving which I am 
 permitted to use. During his life it would not have 
 been published ; but good may come of his example now, 
 and I take the responsibility. 
 
 "It was his rule for many years past to set aside ten 
 per cent, of his income for charitable purposes; but this 
 percentage was always exceeded. I have before me 
 figures which show that his giving in at least one year 
 exceeded thirty per cent, of his income. I don't suppose 
 you would wish me to mention figures, but I have known 
 his benefactions in one year to amount to close upon 
 ;^2000, and he was not what one would call a very 
 wealthy man. He was, of course, keenly interested in 
 all church work, and gave liberally, not only to the 
 church which he attended, but to church objects gener-
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 271 
 
 ally, in New South Wales as well as in Victoria. Home 
 and Foreign Missions, particularly the Korean Mission 
 of the Victorian Presbyteran Church, the Evangelisa- 
 tion Society, and special missions such as the Chapman- 
 Alexander, were all well supported by him. He had a 
 particular interest in Scripture instruction in State 
 Schools, and contributed liberally to the funds of the 
 Scripture Instruction Campaign Council. Ordinary 
 charities, such as the hospitals, were never neglected, 
 although one seldom saw his name upon a public sub- 
 scription-list. He had, of course, many demands for 
 assistance from folk who had fallen on bad times; and he 
 never turned a deaf ear to any deserving case. Still 
 his giving was not such as would tend to pauperize the 
 recipients, but was rather in the direction of helping 
 them to help themselves. Much of the good he did in 
 this way was done by stealth. Many needy persons have 
 been helped without knowing w^ho their benefactor was. 
 I should not forget to mention the interest he took in 
 young fellows struggling to get a start in life. I could 
 tell you of young students whose University fees right 
 through their course were paid by Mr. Balfour, their 
 board and lodging, books, and even pocket money being 
 provided ; and I could also tell you of business men as- 
 sisted through temporary financial difficulties, and need- 
 less to say of 'lame dogs helped over styles' by the 
 score." 
 
 That is a very remarkable record of "charity" in the 
 narrower sense, not only for the extent 6f it, but still 
 more for the wisdom of it. For a man so generous he 
 had an extraordinary fear of injuring the recipient of 
 his charity. He had learned in the school of Dr. 
 Chalmers, the greatest of modern philanthropists, that 
 a money gift, if not carefully guarded both as to its 
 amount and as to the circumstances under which it is 
 given, may cut the sinews of personal effort and so de-
 
 272 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 stroy a man's energy of character and slay his soul. 
 So he never gave money only. He enquired, he thought, 
 he planned, and then gave with all the fresh interest 
 of a friend. Consequently, though, as was said by a 
 leading politician in the Legislative Council, "there 
 would appear to have been no limit to his philanthropy, 
 and his purse must have been strained to the utmost 
 from January to December.'* He left no record of 
 paupers manufactured by his generosity. Moreover, he 
 often gave out of mere sympathy. In cases where his 
 friends were hard driven by the oppression of life, whether 
 caused by the folly of others, or by the inevitable sorrows 
 which come to every man, when he saw that nothing 
 could be done to lighten the burden, he turned for relief 
 to the giving of some gift, sometimes very costly, which 
 should always keep in memory the warmth of his affec- 
 tion. "That," he wished these dumb witnesses to say, 
 "will never fail, though all the rest grow dark." 
 
 Also he was "given to hospitality." It was a joy to 
 him and Mrs. Balfour to open their house to everyone, 
 whether with introductions or without, who came to Vic- 
 toria to further some worthy public end. Especially they 
 welcomed those who came to further the preaching of 
 the Gospel of peace. When men like Dr. Joseph Cook, 
 Professor Henry Drurnmond, Dr. Mott, Dr. Marshall 
 Lang, Dr. Cameron Lees, Dr. Somerville, Dr. Chapman, 
 and Dr. MacGregor (of St. Cuthbert's, Edinburgh) came, 
 he spared no pains to show them Australian life in 
 town and country, and took infinite trouble to secure 
 their happiness and comfort. With almost oriental pro- 
 fusion he placed his time, his house, and his resources 
 at their disposal, just as he placed them at the disposal 
 of Dr. Rainy, the great Scottish Church leader, who 
 was his cousin. All loyal Christian men were, he felt, 
 of kin to him, and his heart went out to them. The 
 words "household of faith" had a very real meaning
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 273 
 
 for him ; every sincere follower of Christ was to him a 
 brother. 
 
 As necessarily followed from all this, the home life of 
 the Balfour household Wcis in many respects ideal. Mr. 
 and Mrs. Balfour were entirely at one as to the true 
 aims of life, and they shared in the Christian faith and 
 hope with an equal and absolute confidence. There was, 
 consequently, only one voice heard by the children, and 
 the other members of the household from year to year; 
 and its main utterance was, "Seek ye first the Kingdom 
 of God and His righteousness : and all other things 
 shall be added unto you." Thus first things were al- 
 ways put before them as first, and the result was an al- 
 most unique success in the Christian nurture of their 
 eleven children. None of them found the faith of their 
 fathers too narrow for them. All live in active com- 
 munion with the Church of Christ, one being a minister, 
 and two elders of their ancestral Church. Another result 
 of this unity of view and aim which Balfour v\^as wont to 
 acknowledge with warm gratitude was that it set him free 
 for the great work he was called to among the young 
 outside his own family. "He knew that she (Mrs. Bal- 
 four) was watching over the members of the family, and 
 training them to love and serve God," as his daughters 
 have said, and he could leave their Christian nurture 
 in large part to her. But he always had his share in it. 
 In some notes kindly placed at my disposal by his 
 daughters, I find it said, "On Sundays, although he 
 had two church services and an afternoon Bible Class to 
 attend, he made time to read to us. Bunyan's 'Pilgrim's 
 Progress' was always in use. As soon as it was finished 
 it was begun over again. Sometimes again it was 
 Foxe's 'Book of Martyrs' ; but it never had quite the 
 place of the 'Pilgrim's Progress.' Our mother generally 
 gave us our Bible lesson, although sometimes we had it 
 from our father : but the Shorter Catechism was learned
 
 274 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 for him and explained by him. All this, with the sing- 
 ing of Hymns before tea, with our mother at the organ, 
 and our father leading in his clear tenor voice, made our 
 Sunday a delight." Such are the horrors of that dread- 
 ful thing, a Scottish Presbyterian Sabbath ! In this 
 household as in thousands similar, for both boys and 
 girls the Lord's Day was, what it was also to the High 
 Churchman, George Herbert : 
 
 A day most calm, most bright ; 
 
 The fruit of this, the next world's bud; 
 Th' indorsement of supreme delight. 
 
 Writ by a friend, and with his blood ; 
 The couch of time; care's balm and bay. 
 
 The week were dark, but for thy light : 
 Thy torch doth shew the way. 
 
 In every way religion was made winsome in that 
 home. Balfour's quick, bright ways, his ready smile, 
 his enjoyment of jest and song and humour, all those 
 qualities which put him en rapport with the young men 
 of his Bible class, so that one of them said with some 
 amazement that "for the first time in his life he made a 
 friend of an old man," were of capital importance in giv- 
 ing him influence with his children. His daughters say, 
 "We well remember how he helped us with our even- 
 ing lessons, how he played with us : for that he was 
 never too busy. One game which we thoroughly en- 
 joyed was our being chased round the dining table by 
 him, supposed to be a man with a cork leg which never 
 stopped working. What merriment and shouts of laughter 
 there were!" And, just as "there was a sense of com- 
 radeship between him and the members of his Bible 
 Class which it was wonderful to see between those separ- 
 ated by so many years . . ., so that they never resented 
 these private talks on religion which he entered upon on
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 275 
 
 such occasions," so his children's hearts were prepared, 
 when, as they came to years of discretion, he spoke to 
 them individually about joining the Church. Like his 
 own life, Balfour's family life was wholly of one piece 
 "woven from the top throughout," so that to be a spec- 
 tator and sometimes a sharer in it was an encouragement 
 to believe that, one day, all the families of the earth would 
 be blessed in the true Israel, the Christ of God.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 BALFOUR'S LATER YEARS. 
 
 In the preceding descriptions of Balfour's public action 
 in the mercantile, political, and Church life of his time, 
 the history of his later years has been in part summed 
 up and anticipated. From the time he entered the 
 Legislative Council in 1874 his life flowed on in a full 
 stream of constant activity. He was then in the prime 
 of his manhood, and had a large family, growing up 
 about him, and he lived the ordinary quiet, externally 
 uneventful life of the prosperous merchant and pas- 
 toralist. After his retirement from the firm of James 
 Henty & Co., in 1878, he again visited his native land 
 (this time in company with his eldest son) for the purpose 
 of seeing his now aged mother; and on his way he visited 
 America for the second time, and saw and enjoyed 
 the marvellous scenery of the Yosemite Valley. During 
 this absence the first breach in the family circle occurred : 
 his charming little daughter Mary Matheson Balfour 
 died of typhoid fever in her ninth year. The trial was all 
 the greater that it had come when Mrs. Balfour was alone 
 and she had to bear the whole stress of the bereavement 
 by herself. When the news reached Balfour, he deeply 
 felt his loss, and prepared immediately to return home, 
 shortening his intended stay in Europe; but a letter 
 written to his mother from Brindisi on the 19th January, 
 1879, shows in what a deeply religious spirit he bore his 
 grief. He said, "Even in that great sorrow that God 
 has sent to our little circle, and which has hurried me 
 away a month earlier, I do trust that already He has 
 made it produce fruit to His glory. I do hope it is in 
 
 276
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 277 
 
 some measure working the peaceable fruits of righteous- 
 ness, not only making us more submissive to His Holy 
 will, but drawing us closer to Himself and making us 
 long to be more thoroughly His in life and conversation 
 — in fact, more consecrated to Him who gave His only 
 begotten Son for us." Yet, characteristically, the same 
 letter was full of gratitude to God for all the good He 
 had made to pass before him, and concluded with the 
 words: "I trust also that both of us" (he and his son) 
 "got a good deal of quickening in spiritual things, 
 seeing, as we have seen, so much of the Lord's work 
 going on, and meeting with so many of His people." 
 
 On his return to Melbourne, Balfour removed from 
 Jolimont to Brighton, breaking most unwillingly his 
 long connection with Chalmers' Church. From 1876 the 
 Rev. J. Beattie had been the minister there, and Mr. 
 Balfour had found in him an entirely congenial and help- 
 ful pastor, and had begun with him a friendship which 
 endured to the end. What it was to Mr. Beattie may 
 be learned from the following note with which he has 
 kindly furnished me : — "Mr. Balfour was to me a noble 
 friend. I can never forget his thoughtful kindness to 
 me and my w'ife on our arrival in Melbourne nearly 40 
 years ago, with hearts still sore from parting with our 
 native land, to occupy a very important and arduous 
 sphere of labour. He entered into our circumstances 
 with rare sympathy ; and his advice and help were always 
 at our disposal. Most Presbyterians are very parsim- 
 onious of encouraging words to their minister. Many 
 a man has laboured faithfully for years in a congrega- 
 tion with hardly a word of encouragement from anyone. 
 Mr. Balfour was a notable exception. While utterly 
 incapable of flattery, he greatly encouraged and helped 
 his minister by generous appreciation of his labours. 
 At that time, as on to the close of his long life, his work 
 among young men was invaluable. I have no doubt that
 
 278 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 many a man in Melbourne, and far away from it, owes 
 his own self to him, and thanks God for his Bible Class 
 in Chalmers' Church. As a member of the Session and 
 the Board of Management, his wisdom in counsel, his 
 keen insight and thorough grasp of every problem de- 
 manding solution, his lively interest in everything affect- 
 ing the welfare of the congregation, his earnest advocacy 
 of every good cause, his brotherliness and high-toned 
 Christian spirit, were warmly appreciated by all. Al- 
 though all of us were his inferiors in almost every respect 
 he assumed no airs of siuperiority, but treated the 
 humblest member with unfailing courtesy and cordiality. 
 He was one of the glories of Chalmers' Church, as of the 
 whole Church, we were all proud of him and loved and 
 honoured him. He strongly disapproved of my resig- 
 nation of the pastorate. I thought he was too hard on 
 me about it, but that made no difference to his friend- 
 ship. In after years he was a generous supporter of my 
 congregation at Queenscliff. For many years during 
 the summer months his presence and devout attention 
 during both services on Sundays, and also, when he was 
 able, at weekly prayer meetings, were an inspiration. 
 His influence and example were of great value, and 
 strengthened the minister's hands. He was in the 
 highest sense of the word a gentleman, and a great 
 Christian. He was a great gift of God to the whole 
 Church and to the whole community. When shall we 
 see his like again ? I am very thankful to have known 
 him, and will always cherish his memory with grateful 
 and affectionate veneration." 
 
 On the other hand, Balfour says, in a letter of that 
 time, "We are very sorry to lose Mr. Beattie's preach- 
 ing, and he is very sorry to see us -going from Chalmers' 
 Church. But it cannot be helped. It is evident that 
 we are better away from Melbourne." The death of 
 Mary, from typhoid; Graham's serious illness immedi-
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 279 
 
 ately afterwards ; and a sharp illness of another of the 
 children after Balfour's return, had led him to this con- 
 clusion or confirmed him in it. For two years Brighton 
 was their home; but, in 1881, Mr. Balfour bought a large 
 and comfortable house at Toorak, and for the next 14 
 years threw all his enthusiasm and energy into the re- 
 ligious work for the Toorak Church in which he was an 
 Elder. He had there as his ministers, first Dr. Mac- 
 donald, then the Revd. John F. Ewing, and lastly the 
 Revd. J. F. Macrae, with all of whom his relations were 
 the most intimate and friendly ; but he was especially 
 moved, I think, by the too short ministry of Mr. Ewing, 
 who had been known in his student days as a man of 
 remarkable ability, but had not found an entirely con- 
 genial sphere in Scotland. With his call to Toorak in 
 1886 his opportunity came, and he used it most nobly; 
 but only four years were given to him. As if he had 
 some prevision that his time was to be short, he threw 
 himself into all his church and congregational work al- 
 most with vehemence and soon became a power both in 
 the parish and in the community. His preaching 
 gripped the young men : Mrs. Ewing, a daughter of Mr. 
 Henderson of Dundee, developed the most remarkable 
 power in influencing the young women, especially those 
 of the educated class ; and the manse at Toorak became 
 the centre of religious and spiritual power in a way 
 which speicially appealed to Balfour. When, most 
 tragically, their joint beneficent activity was brought to 
 an end by Mr. Ewing's death from typhoid fever in 1890, 
 while Mrs. Ewing was absent in Scotland, Balfour felt 
 that all the causes he was interested in had lost a power- 
 ful champion, and mourned the loss they, and he person- 
 ally, had sustained. 
 
 In 1 89 1 Balfour made one of those most restful and 
 instructive tours to Europe in which he delighted, and 
 had an opportunity of carrying out a long-cherished plan
 
 28o JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 of visiting Palestine. His son Graham was then a 
 student for the Presbyterian ministry at the New College, 
 Edinburgh. He and a fellow student, Mr. W. Brown- 
 Douglas, came to meet Mr. and Miss Balfour, and Wil- 
 liam, another son, at Port Said, as they were on their 
 way to Britain ; and from there they went to Jaffa, thence 
 up through Palestine to Damascus and Beirut, and on 
 to Constantinople, and so along the Danube to Great 
 Britain. It is hardly possible for any man to have 
 been better prepared for traversing "these holy fields" 
 than Balfour was ; and we may be sure that, though he 
 thought little of the monkish identifications of sites and 
 scenes, he saw many visions of the past in their true 
 setting, and traced with the eagerest interest the outlines 
 of that fifth Gospel which Renan found in the country of 
 jesus' birth and death. It would appear from some of 
 his letters written in Palestine, that he experienced in 
 some degree that disappointment with the country which 
 so many travellers have expressed ; but probably his 
 constant study for his Bible Class had given him so 
 accurate a knowledge of what to expect that he felt as if 
 he were coming home to the city of his dreams when he 
 entered Jerusalem. The undeniable holy places, Geth- 
 semane, the Mt. of Olives, the real place of the cruci- 
 fixion outside the walls, and all the mystery of human 
 suffering enacted there, suffering which yet was divine, 
 must have come home to him in an unsurpassed degree; 
 for he always bore about with him "the dying of the 
 Lord jesus" as a great solemnizing and uplifting 
 memory. They seem to have brought to him thoughts 
 which were so sacred that he "kept them, pondering in 
 his heart." But we may be sure that they enriched and 
 gave life and colour to his teaching in the 23 years that 
 remained to him. 
 
 At every point where the land was illuminated by the 
 Scripture, or the Gospel by the land, there is a curious
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 281 
 
 realism in his mention of the events which took place 
 there. It is as if he had been present when they occurred 
 and now was enjoying the pleasures of memory in re- 
 visiting them. 1 imagine Christ was very near to him in 
 those days. The only drawback to his intense satisfac- 
 tion in these holy scenes was the imposture, ritualism, 
 and superstition of the Christian Churches of the East : 
 all that hurt him, but did not defeat his charity. In the 
 letter mentioning the supposed miracle of the Holy Fire, 
 he says, "They imagine that fire from heaven issues 
 from the Holy Sepulchre, and all attend and light their 
 lamps and candles from this fire, while a great religious 
 ceremony is going on, and carry this light in haste to 
 their homes." Thereupon he reflects, "We may be 
 thankful for a simple faith and a quiet church service 
 when we see so much of ritualism and sacerdotalism and 
 mummery. At the same time, we may hope that many 
 have, through it all, hold of some saving truth." Next 
 to the places where the footsteps of our Lord Himself 
 were traceable the places connected with the history of 
 St. Paul interested him most ; and in these too the whole 
 history seems to have transacted itself before his eyes. 
 It is obvious that he felt himself immeasurably enriched 
 by these experiences. Wordsworth tells us in his ex- 
 quisite poem of "The Daffodils," how much the pure 
 beauty of nature enriched him, how it remained "a pos- 
 session for ever." After a vivid picture of thousands of 
 these graceful flowers "nodding their heads in sprightly 
 dance," he continues : — 
 
 But oft, when on my couch I lie, 
 
 In vacant or in pensive mood, 
 They flash upon that inward eye 
 
 Which is the bliss of solitude, 
 And all my heart with pleasure fills, 
 
 And dances with the daffodils.
 
 282 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 So these great scenes flashed upon Balfour's inward eye, 
 for all the remainder of his life, and all his heart was 
 filled with pleasure and with reverent awe when they were 
 reilluminated for him by memory, the greatest gift or the 
 greatest curse which God has bestowed upon mankind. 
 The rest of his journey from Beirut to the Dardanelles, 
 the Sea of Marmora, Constantinople, Buda-Pesth, and 
 Vienna, took the party through regions which in these 
 days have become the scenes of such unimaginable 
 tragedies for their inhabitants, and of such heroic stead- 
 fastness and courage on the part of Australian and other 
 British troops that they will live for ever in the annals 
 of our country. Then, there was only their natural 
 beauty to be noticed. But, wherever there was a mis- 
 sionary institution accessible, or any place like Scutari^ 
 which recalls the services to God and man of Florence 
 Nightingale, the first great trained nurse belonging to 
 our English race, he was always awakened to keenest 
 interest, and sought to add them to the treasure of his 
 "inward eye." From Vienna, their itinerary was to go 
 from Innsbruck through the Tyrol to Zurich in Switzer- 
 land; thence to Lucerne; later to Schaffhausen and the 
 Falls of the Rhine ; then through the Black Forest to 
 Heidelberg and Mayence and on to Cologne. Then they 
 turned off to Antwerp and Brussels, and so went on to 
 London, Loving the beauty of natural scenery as Balfour 
 did, this whole journey was a continual delight, which 
 culminated, I think, in what may justly be called the 
 noblest lake scenery in the world, at Lucerne. But, en- 
 raptured as he was with that, his interest is nowhere 
 more eager and quick than at Zurich, where Zwingli 
 preached, and at Worms, where Luther had made his 
 great stand for freedom of conscience. On his return 
 journey to Melbourne, he again passed through Europe 
 by Marseilles, the Riviera, and Italy, in which latter 
 country he visited Genoa, Milan, Verona, Venice,
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 283 
 
 Bologna, Florence, Pisa, Rome, Naples, Pompeii, and 
 Brindisi, taking care, as before, to visit all the Presby- 
 terian Missions. 
 
 Only once more did he visit Britain and America, viz. : 
 in 1900, when he travelled home with his son, William, 
 who was to be married that year in vScotland. Balfour, 
 however, did not go all the way with the ship. He 
 wrote before he left, inviting his brother, the Rev. Robert 
 Balfour, to meet him on the Riviera, which he did, and 
 he once more went over that lovely coast which he had 
 seen ten years before. He and his daughter Annie re- 
 turned by America along with his son Graham and the 
 latter's wife. This was his third visit to America; and 
 he visited Niagara (for the second time), then went to 
 Chicago to see relatives, and travelled from there over 
 the Rocky Mountains to San Francisco, where he visited 
 the widow of Robert Louis Stevenson and her daughter. 
 Stevenson was Balfour's second cousin, and his journey 
 across the Pacific was arranged so that he might be able 
 to call at Samoa and visit Vailima, Stevenson's Island 
 home. He was back in Melbourne in October, 1900. 
 
 In a variety of ways his visit home was important. He 
 was appointed the representative of the Melbourne 
 Chamber of Commerce at the Congress of the Chambers 
 of Commerce of the Empire which was held in London 
 in that year, and at which he delivered a fine address. 
 At that very time the Constitution Bill of the Common- 
 wealth, which had been finally agreed to in Australia 
 after 10 years' negotiation and effort, was before the 
 Imperial Parliament, and Jose says "The law advisers 
 of the Crown in England wanted to make several amend- 
 ments in the Bill in matters in which they thought 
 Imperial interests were affected, and at the invitation of 
 the Imperial Government each Colony sent a delegate to 
 London to discuss any question that might arise, and to 
 try to secure the passage of the Bill without amend-
 
 284 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 ment." In all this Balfour was naturally extremely in- 
 terested, and, in a letter from Edinburgh, to his friend 
 Mr. Grant in London (dated i8th May, 1900), apolo- 
 gising for not calling on him before leaving London, he 
 refers to it, saying, "I heard Chamberlain on Monday. 
 He made a capital speech, and I am glad he is deter- 
 mined to retain the Privy Council appeal." In his 
 congress speech he returns to the subject, and, as his 
 views are both interesting in themselves and exemplify 
 the moderation of his judgment and his anxiety to keep 
 intact every wholesome bond between Australia and the 
 Empire, it is worthy of quotation. 
 
 After returning thanks on behalf of the Chambers of 
 Commerce of Australia for their hospitality and recog- 
 nising the valuable work the Congress was doing not 
 only for Britain but for the whole Empire, he continues : 
 "I am glad that I am allowed to speak for Australia. 
 After years of aspiration, we are about to be federated 
 into one indissoluble commonwealth. This will put an 
 end to all petty jealousies. We shall have one fiscal 
 policy for the whole continent and for Tasmania. We 
 shall be able to speak with one voice, whether to the 
 Mother Country or to other nations. Our defences will 
 be under one head, our postal and telegraph arrange- 
 ments will be controlled as one. Doubtless, before long, 
 we shall put ourselves alongside the other parts of the 
 Empire and have a penny post with the Mother Country. 
 We shall have our share in the Pacific Cable, and we 
 shall take our place not as one of a number of possibly 
 discordant units but as part of one people, having one 
 aim, and animated by one spirit. And here let me give 
 the Right Hon. the Secretary for the Colonies (Mr, 
 Chamberlain) a well-deserved meed of praise. Speaking 
 generally, the people of Australia are well pleased with 
 his amendment of the Constitution Bill. We have no 
 desire to separate ourselves from the other parts of the
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 285 
 
 Empire in the matter of law, any more than in other 
 concerns. 1 had the honour of saying to Mr. Chamber- 
 lain, soon after my arrival, that if in any way our Consti- 
 tution Bill interfered with, or impinged upon Imperial 
 interests, we quite expected the Parliament of this coun- 
 try to see to it and to correct it. I had said the same to 
 my fellow colonists when I advocated the Bill throughout 
 my constituenc}', and in every case these remarks were 
 received with cheers. While we desire to see one Court 
 of Appeal constituted for all the Empire, we do not want 
 in the meantime to abolish the right of appeal, which as 
 citizens we possess, to the Privy Council. We recognise 
 the importance of uniformity of legal decisions through- 
 out the Empire. 
 
 "We sometimes talk of a new nation under the 
 Southern Cross. This is scarcely correct; we are not 
 a new nation; we don't want to be. No doubt we are 
 self-governing — in that sense we are a nation — but in 
 reality we are only part of a nation, a large and growing 
 part, it is true. We are now between 3 and 4 millions; 
 but still we are only a part, and desire nothing 
 better than to be a part, of the great people from whom 
 we have sprung. We are of the same religion ; we 
 speak the same language ; we enjoy the privileges 
 bought with the blood of our forefathers ; we are the 
 heirs of the heroic deeds that won the Empire ; we share 
 the same literature ; we are loyal to the same Queen ; we 
 glory in the same flag, 'the meteor flag of England,' 
 which has braved the battle and the breeze for 1000 
 years. We know our beloved mother land will not cast 
 us off, but will come to our help should that ever be 
 required ; and we are ready, too, to stand by the cause of 
 liberty and right in England's time of need. Events 
 which had recently happened and are still happening" 
 (this refers to the Boer war) "have done much to draw 
 closer the bonds that bind all parts of our Empire to-
 
 286 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 gether, and the quick response from every quarter of 
 the globe to the call to stand by our dear old land has 
 been an object-lesson to other nations." 
 
 Had Balfour known that, within 15 years, the Empire 
 was to be engaged in a struggle against the mightiest 
 force that has ever been arrayed against Christian civili- 
 sation, he could not have prepared for it better than by 
 cherishing and uttering such thoughts as these. They 
 tell us too what he would have said and done in these 
 days of sanguinary war; how warm his imperialism was; 
 how fiery would have been his zeal to inspire the people 
 of Australia to face the bitter sacrifices which are being 
 asked of them, that the world may not see all the finer 
 elements of national and personal life, those which men 
 have painfully acquired in their progress upward 
 through the centuries, torn from them to gratify the 
 conscienceless ambition of the madmen who rule to-day 
 in Germany. 
 
 Next year the Union of the Presbyterian Church 
 throughout Australia was consummated, and Balfour 
 was present in Sydney at the first Assembly of the United 
 Church, glad to have lived to see the eiTorts for Union 
 which began shortly after his arrival in Melbourne, and 
 with which he had always sympathised, brought to their 
 conclusion so far as the Presbyterian Church through- 
 out Australia was concerned. Though he was then near 
 the scriptural limit of threescore years and ten, he was one 
 of the youngest members of the Assembly in gait, in 
 speech, in outlook, and in hope. He invited a number 
 of his younger friends to a picnic at National Park in 
 one of the intervals of business, and no one present 
 excelled him in his light-hearted joy in the festivity. 
 The spirits of all were high, the day was beautiful, and 
 Sydney's lovely pleasure-ground never looked lovelier. 
 The younger people were full of delight which found 
 expression in jest and song and laughter. Most men of
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 287 
 
 his ag-e would have smiled benevolently on all the 
 gaiety, but have sat apart from it in the sober quietude 
 of age ; but Balfour could not : he was the very life of 
 the party, and he and the Revd. John Walker, now of 
 Ballarat, refused to let "still evening" when it "clad all 
 things in its sober livery" make an end of the quite 
 innocent gaiety. 
 
 So his busy, self-forgetting, devoted life went on as 
 1 have sketched it. He was absolutely tireless in doing 
 good, and his work and usefulness in Parliament grew 
 as he gradually came to be the "father" of the House. 
 The only definite sign of age was a slight deafness in 
 the right ear which made him always walk on the right 
 side of anyone who was speaking to him. Otherwise, 
 his natural strength was not abated, nor his eye dimmed. 
 In a measure, too, prosperity had returned to the country 
 and to him ; and his children who had survived (two who 
 had died in their gth and loth years respectively) were 
 now established in life. James, the eldest son, was in 
 partnership with his father in Round -Hill Station; 
 Graham, the second son, was Minister of West Haw- 
 thorn Presbyterian Church, which the Balfour household 
 had attended since 1896, but in 1901 accepted a call to 
 Brighton, and a few years later a call to East St. Kilda, 
 both of which were suburbs of Melbourne ; Lewis, who 
 had just returned from a long trip to Europe, where 
 he had carried on post-graduate studies in medicine, 
 was now settled in Melbourne; William, the fourth son, 
 was assisting his brother in managing the Round Hill 
 station (as partner) ; and Harry, the youngest son, was in 
 his father's office. Balfour's second daughter, Robina, 
 had been married in 1805 to Mr. Michael Elliot, C.E., 
 "a good Presbyterian," as Balfour told his friend Mr. 
 Grant when he announced the marriage ; and his remain- 
 ing three daughters were at home, sympathising, like 
 Mrs. Balfour, with all his varied religious activities, and
 
 288 JAMES BALFOVR. 
 
 helping to spread the influence of that Christian home 
 life which had shed its gracious light upon the path of 
 so many. 
 
 So the great storms of his life were past. He had all 
 that the old age of a good man should have — "honour, 
 love, obedience, troops of friends." No one who knew 
 him had ever believed the reproaches levelled against him 
 in the evil days of the Australian collapse; and these 
 had now died away and been forgotten. He had no 
 family anxieties; and a new generation, his grand- 
 children, were growing up about him. His daughters 
 say "He was fond of all children; but his grandchildren 
 had an especially warm place in his heart. There was al- 
 ways a bond of union between him and them, so that he 
 was never too busy to play with them or take notice of 
 them." They helped to keep the world young for him. 
 The last lo years of his life especially passed in that un- 
 ruffled energy which he most desired. Like another man 
 eminent in another field, he "longed not for rest, but for 
 quiet" in v/hich he could labour without interruption. 
 This he now had, and by means of it was able to add 
 to the number of his efforts for the Kingdom of God. 
 
 In his long conflict for religious education, Balfour 
 had felt that, while he was labouring for the re-introduc- 
 tion of Scripture reading into the State Schools, he 
 ought to give personal effort to take religion to the 
 children, so far as that was permitted. For many years, 
 therefore, he regularly availed himself of the regulations 
 which allowed him to impart non-sectarian Scriptural 
 instruction to the children before or after school hours. 
 This he continued to do till almost the end of his life, 
 and when the Birthday of Queen Victoria was, some 
 time after her death, proclaimed as Empire Day, and 
 efi'orts were made to lift the children above mere pro- 
 vincialism into pride in the great Empire of which 
 Australia was only a part, he willingly gave addresses,
 
 Snapshot photo, by Dr. Wilbur Chapman, 1912.
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 289 
 
 which were eagerly listened to. Some of these remain, 
 and it may not be out of place to give an outline of one 
 of them spoken on 24th May, 1907. In it he said, "It is 
 a great thing to belong to a great Empire. In size it is 
 great, containing nearly twelve million square miles. It 
 is an Empire on which the sun never sets, for it is so 
 large and so widely spread that there is no time in the 
 daily whirl of the earth on its axis when the sun is not 
 shining upon some portion of it. Moreover in it there 
 are 400 millions of men ! It surely is an inspiring 
 thought that we form part of this great Empire; but it 
 even is a greater thing to belong to an Empire loved 
 at home and respected abroad, an Empire whose subjects 
 are secure under its flag wherever their lot may be cast. 
 But it is a yet greater thing to belong to an Empire with 
 a history such as ours behind it. Our liberties were not 
 obtained without a struggle. Our forefathers were men 
 of courage and determination, and we are reaping the 
 fruits of their well fought battles. Here, in this Com- 
 monwealth, under the British Crown, we enjoy absolute 
 freedom. We are a free people, with a free Parliament 
 and a free press. The Mother Country does not tax us; 
 but we have her protection ; and, when a day of stress 
 comes to her, we are ready to fly to arms, and to lepd her 
 our willing aid. 
 
 "Further, we belong to an Empire that prides itself 
 on meting out equal justice to rich and poor alike, and 
 which gave this practical proof of its determination that 
 all should be free within its bounds that it paid down 
 ;^20, 000,000 sterling to secure the emancipation of all 
 its slaves. We have had, too, great vStatesmen in the 
 history of our Empire, men like Peel, Palmerston, and 
 Gladstone. Our warriors have included the names of 
 Wellington, Nelson, Gordon and Roberts. In literature 
 we have had giants such as Shakespeare, Milton, Scott, 
 Tennyson, to name but a few. Our philanthropists, i.e..
 
 290 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 our lovers of their fellow-men, have been many, our 
 greatest perhaps Howard, who reformed the dreadful 
 prisons of former times, Wilberforce, who set free the 
 slaves of Britain, and Shaftesbury, who was the founder, 
 and patron of Ragged schools and saved the poor waifs 
 of the streets. In our own day we have had a Queen 
 whose public and private life was an inspiration to her 
 subjects, and who is succeeded by a worthy son, our own 
 most gracious sovereign, Edward VII., the peacemaker of 
 Europe. 
 
 "And what other land than ours, would have treated 
 a people defeated in arms 5 years ago as we have treated 
 the Boers, would have granted them equality under a 
 free constitution ? It has been as much to their honour as 
 to ours, that the former General of their army who was 
 fighting fiercely against England so recently has been 
 received with honour as Premier of the new Colony, as 
 the guest of Great Britain, coming to render homage and 
 loyalty to his King. Our dominant note to-day should 
 be thankfulness to God, the Giver of all the good and 
 controller of all events, for our privileges and advan- 
 tages. A glance at other nations should only intensify 
 our gratitude. But we must not let our thanks de- 
 generate into boastfulness. Rather let us remember our 
 responsibilities to maintain the traditions of the Empire, 
 and even at personal sacrifice to hand down, unimpaired, 
 to posterity, what we enjoy. Let us promote reverence 
 for authority, love to God, loyalty to the throne, good- 
 will and brotherhood among men." By addresses like 
 these on each recurrent Empire Day, he crowned the 
 work of educating the children of the State, which was 
 ever one of his chief efforts. 
 
 Another new endeavour which he served most 
 strenuously was the Laymen's Missionary Movement. 
 This was an American Society, which was begun at the 
 end of 1906 at a laymen's prayer meeting. Its object
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 2c>i 
 
 was to rouse the laymen of the Church to fresh interest in 
 and prayer for missions, and so lead to a greater liberal- 
 ity on their part for missionary work. It was introduced 
 to Victoria by the Revd. F. H. L. Paton, and soon made 
 itself beneficially felt in all Church activities. Such a 
 union was sure to have Balfour's enthusiastic approval, 
 and he threw himself into it most warmly. By speeches, 
 by contributions, and by work in its organisation, he 
 showed how near it lay to his heart. During the last 
 five or six years of his life, I think it occupied the second 
 place in his thoughts, only his work among young men 
 called out his energies and sympathies more. In 1907 
 he delivered a speech on the subject full of appreciation 
 of the objects set before the new movement and of hope 
 for what it might accomplish. He began by outlining 
 the growth of missionary enterprise in America and 
 shewing how much had been accomplished by the 
 prayerful efforts of individuals. 
 
 "In 1806 at Williamstown in Massachusetts a few 
 students used to meet for prayer. One warm Saturday 
 evening only five attended, and they held their meetings 
 in the open air under a haystack. There they discussed 
 the moral darkness of Asia and proposed to send the 
 Gospel thither. One of them named Mills said, 'We 
 could do it if we would.' With this aim in view, the 
 prayer-meetings were continued. Eventually the churches 
 were roused and in 1810 the American Board of Missions 
 was founded. By them Judson and others were sent 
 out. A hundred years later, a laymen's prayer-meeting 
 was held in 5th Avenue Presbyterian Church, New 
 York. About 75 laymen attended. There was, first, 
 prayer for missions from 3 p.m. to 6, and in the evening 
 it was resolved that a new effort should be made, and 
 then, what form the new effort should take was dis- 
 cussed. This was the origin of the Laymen's Missionary 
 Union. Going back 20 years, to Northfield in 1886, we
 
 292 JAMES BALFOUR- 
 
 come to the birth of the Student Volunteer movement, 
 which was originated by D. L. Moody, the evangeHst. 
 These movements now are interlocking and giving 
 promise of renewed missionary victories. That they 
 were the result of the action of individuals or a few is 
 the remarkable thing. Mills, a student, lOO years ago 
 at the Haystack prayer meeting, is the originator of that 
 powerful Christian organisation, the American Board of 
 Foreign Missions. Moody, a salesman at a boot-and- 
 shoe store in Chicago, established the Northfield Con- 
 ference where the Student Volunteer movement was 
 begun, and that influenced men like Drummond, Mott, 
 Grenfell, and a thousand others. This movement has 
 been begun like these and may come to be as potent in 
 deciding the future of Christian Missions. But the 
 objects of the Laymen's Missionary Union must not be 
 misconceived. There is no intention to found a new 
 mission. There is not to be any fresh missionary or- 
 ganisation under them except a Committee - and an 
 Executive. There is not to be any special Laymen's 
 Union fund. The work of the Committee will be to 
 educate the laymen of the Church as to the great need 
 of the world, that it should be converted to Christianity ; 
 to induce prayer in much greater abundance for mis- 
 sions ; to lead to greater liberality for missions. That 
 the work of such a union has produced all these in 
 America and has resulted in a very large increase in the 
 missionary funds is shown by the following facts. In 
 the year 1905-6 (at the close of which the Laymen's 
 movement was formed) the Protestant Churches of 
 America were giving for Foreign Mission Work 
 ;^ 1, 796,000, while the Churches of the United Kingdom 
 were giving ;^i,795,ooo, practically the same amount. 
 In 1907 the American churches gave ^2,012,300, an 
 advance of ;^i 20,000 on the preceding year, while the 
 Cfiiurches of the United Kingdom gave only ;^ 1,853,000.
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 293 
 
 But it is not only in America that this success has been 
 obtained. In many churches in Scotland an effort to 
 double former contributions to the Foreign Mission 
 field has resulted. In Canada again, missionary leaders 
 consider that the Canadian Churches, with about 900,000 
 members, should undertake responsibility for forty 
 millions of people in the non-Christian world, and they 
 are moving towards that end. 
 
 "Hitherto the women and children of the Church have 
 banded themselves together for these objects. They 
 have organised the Presbyterian Women's Missionary 
 Union and the Sunday Schools have given collections; 
 but, except as contributors, men have not been specially 
 mterested or conspicuous. The effect of this is seen in 
 the fact that often the Missionaries write as if they were 
 addressing women chiefly. ... It is high time that this 
 was altered, for we are at the beginning of a new de- 
 parture in mission work. In many ways the younger 
 men are awakening, as we see in the yearly conferences 
 of the University Christian Union and the Student 
 Volunteer movement. They ought to be supported by 
 all Christian men : the state of the world demands it. 
 On all sides nations once closed against Christianity 
 are now open to its teachings. In Japan formerly it was 
 death to preach that faith; now it is open. From Korea 
 all foreigners were excluded, under the same penalty; 
 now American and English missionaries can go whither 
 they will. Missionaries in China are urging that there 
 are multitudes there 'weary of waiting.' Our own mis- 
 sionaries in the New Hebrides say that the work there 
 is most pressing. The call to this work was never so 
 loud : the door was never so open, even Thibet can now 
 be approached. Men are wanted : these the Student 
 Volunteer movement is supplying. Money is wanted : 
 that this Union ought to supply, and it will do so if it 
 keep up the 'storm of prayer,' as the founders of it
 
 294 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 desired. It is now 1900 years since the commission was 
 given, the marching orders of Christ's Church, 'Go ye 
 therefore and make disciples of all the nations.* In the 
 first century, the unity of the Roman Empire; the 
 Roman roads, carrying floods of traffic of every kind 
 from Rome, the centre, to the extremities of the civilised 
 world; the Greek language, understood and spoken 
 everywhere; gave the Christian Church unexampled 
 opportunity; and that period saw much of the triumph 
 of the Gospel. 
 
 "What will the 20th century see? The whole world is 
 now one. Railways and the 'paths of the sea' have 
 superseded roads, and the telegraph and the telephone 
 have largely removed the barriers of distance. 'Many 
 run to and fro in the earth, and knowledge has been 
 increased.' The extraordinary facilities for intercom- 
 munication have made human thought and knowledge 
 a common possession ; and the demand upon the Church 
 is correspondingly great and imperative. To meet that, 
 the Student Volunteer movement and this Union aim at 
 the 'evangelisation of the world in this generation.' 
 That does not mean the conversion of the world, observe. 
 It means the bringing of every nation and people within 
 the sound of the Gospel. That is no impossible dream. 
 As Mills said at the Haystack meeting 100 years ago, 
 speaking of sending the Gospel to Asia, 'we could do 
 It if we would.' The Laymen's Missionary Union is 
 one answer to the call of God, and I hope it will be a 
 most potent one." It certainly proved so in Victoria. 
 In answer to appeals like this, the union spread all over 
 that State, and thence into other States. Beyond Victoria 
 it has not been so strikingly successful ; but there the 
 interest in missions has been increased by it beyond 
 belief, and many congregations have doubled their con- 
 tributions to missions, as Balfour told his audience the 
 Scottish Churches were promising to do.
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 295 
 
 But during his last years his work among young men 
 became more a passion than ever. His methods and pre- 
 parations have been described, and the reasons for his 
 exceptional success have been already stated in the 
 chapter on his Bible-class work, but as the years he 
 could hope to continue it grew fewer his urgency in- 
 creased. His class had risen to 50 on the roll, and was 
 in a most interesting and prosperous state, when a new 
 interest was added to it by the formation of a Bible Class 
 Union. This established intercommunication between 
 the Bible classes of the Presbyterian Church and brought 
 about friendly competition in sports. The culmination 
 of the Union's effort was however the Easter Encamp- 
 ment, which resembled the Summer School of the 
 University Students' Christian Union, which had spread 
 from thence to many religious and educational associa- 
 tions. In this, Balfour took the most extraordinary 
 interest. Each year a different one of many beautiful 
 camping places near Melbourne was chosen. Once it 
 was the Launching Place on the Upper Yarra, in 191 1 it 
 was Warburton, in the same mountain region, in 191 2 
 it was Healesville, and in 1913, the last year of his life, 
 it was at Mount Macedon. 
 
 In a note his daughters say, "He entered most heartily 
 into all the arrangements, even to ordering stores for 
 his own class, and he camped out with them, until the 
 last four years, when he took a room at an hotel or 
 boarding-house near, but spent the days and took all his 
 meals in camp. He rose early in the morning, in order 
 to be there in time for prayers before breakfast. He 
 entered into all plans for their sports and entertainments, 
 and the boys considered him the life of the party. He 
 sometimes gave the address on Sunday ; and he and his 
 class were always in the forefront of the procession as 
 they marched to Church on Sunday evening." They 
 might have added that in places where he boarded his
 
 296 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 life and character sometimes made a most extraordinary 
 impression. After the camp at Macedon in 1913, the lady 
 in whose house Mr. Balfour lived wrote as follows to Miss 
 Balfour : "I was afraid he would be feeling very wearied 
 after the strenuous week-end at camp, for he does not 
 spare himself at all. He is indeed a splendid example 
 to those young men and boys, and I feel sure that he 
 is very precious to them ; for, as one of them said, they 
 would be lost without him. I do hope you will pardon 
 me for expressing my feelings, when I say that it was 
 indeed an honour conferred upon us to have such an 
 example of the Christ-life in our home. It will always 
 be a very happy memory to my cousin and myself. It 
 was only this morning that my cousin said to me, speak- 
 ing of your father, *I was just thinking hov/ lovely it 
 was to have Mr. Balfour cross our path, if only for a 
 few days.' I said, *Yes, it was: it seemed like a ray of 
 light which has left a beautiful shadow in passing'." 
 
 His papers bear witness to the minute accuracy of his 
 daughters' account of his activities in this connection. 
 In one I find a note in his own handwriting of some of 
 the things to be taken: "12 cornsacks, i axe, 2 wash- 
 basins, 2 tinopeners, 2 knives, 2 forks, 2 spoons (knives, 
 forks and spoons to be marked with white and black 
 thread), a cup and saucer, enamelled pannikin." Fur- 
 ther, "Harrison has 12 Sankey's Hymns. Mr. Balfour 
 has towel, soap, matches, serviette." Thus methodical 
 was he in small details. Then there are a number of 
 pages containing things to amuse the class with. 
 Riddles of the most boyish kind, and a translation of 
 "The House that Jack Built" into exaggeratedly high 
 English, beginning "This is the domiciliary edifice 
 erected by John." In 191 1, when he was camp-leader at 
 Warburton, I find also in his writing a list of Tents, 12 
 in number, in their order of position on the ground, 
 with the names of their occupants duly noted, beginning
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 297 
 
 with the captain, and the total number present (41). 
 No detail was too unimportant for his attention if it 
 would contribute anything to the success of the camp 
 and the health and brightness of its occupants. Conse- 
 quently, when he turned to religious matters, his word 
 was with power. When this old man of 80 and more, 
 ceased to be young with them, and turned to them with 
 all the weight of his experience after a life which had 
 had its great sorrows, but had yet been happy beyond 
 most, to tell them the secret of his perennial joy, they 
 listened like the wedding guests to the Ancient Mariner 
 in Coleridge's poem "They could not choose but hear." 
 And what they heard was the "old, old story of Jesus 
 and His Love," told with the accent of entire conviction, 
 founded upon personal experience. 
 
 I have before me the address he delivered in the camp 
 at Healesville on Easter Sunday, 1910. The hymns he 
 gave them to sing were some of the most triumphant 
 the Christian Church makes use of: "All hail the 
 power of Jesus' name" : "Oh for a thousand tongues to 
 sing my great Redeemer's praise" : and, "When I sur- 
 vey the wondrous Cross on which the Prince of Glory 
 died" (the hymn which Matthew Arnold on the Sunday 
 before his death declared to be the greatest of Christian 
 hymns); and his texts were in the same key. They were 
 Rev. I., 17 and 18, "I am the first and the last, and the 
 Living One ; and I was dead, and, behold ! I am alive 
 for ever more" and Philippians IL, 9, "God highly 
 exalted Him, and gave unto Him the name which is 
 above every name ; that in the name of Jesus every knee 
 should bow, of things in Heaven, and things on earth, 
 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ 
 is Lord, to the glory of the Father." 
 
 He began by reminding them that Easter Day was 
 the Day of the Resurrection of Christ. He then sketched 
 the proof of the Resurrection, quoting Denney, who
 
 298 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 points out that the strength of the case for the resurrec- 
 tion is the existence of the Christian Church, and the 
 existence of the New Testament. We must reject the 
 Gospels and the Epistles if we refuse to believe in the 
 resurrection of Jesus. He then went on to point out 
 that Christians adore and trust a living Christ. He was 
 dead; but He is alive for ever more. Such a Saviour 
 we need, no mere man who lived a beautiful life and 
 asked us to imitate him. Such a one is no real help to 
 the broken-hearted sinner. It is mockery to say to him, 
 *Be good : follow that example,' unless you give him the 
 power. But the Redeemer is exalted to give gifts to men, 
 'If I go away, I will send the Comforter.' 'He abideth 
 for ever,' 'Wherefore He is able to save to the utter- 
 most' (the uttermost of time, and the uttermost of need 
 and sin) 'all that come unto God by Him, seeing He 
 ever liveth to make intercession for them.' We crave for 
 a real living Person, not a mere memory, however beau- 
 tiful. One to whom we can appeal, one who can give 
 us strength to resist evil and power to do the right, a 
 brother man who has lived among us as oneof ourselves, 
 worked among us, had his trials and temptations, had 
 his sorrows and disappointments, has been misunder- 
 stood, sneered at and despised, but who found his joy 
 and comfort in communion with the Father, who loved 
 us among all His griefs, who gave Himself for us, and 
 now, at God's right hand, 'bends on earth a brother's 
 eye,' and is ready to help in every time of need. Yet He 
 is 'God manifest in the flesh'.'* 
 
 From this vivid picture of what Jesus Christ is to him, 
 he turns to his lads with direct personal appeal. "This 
 Christ is the Saviour. Is He yours? You have tried to 
 live as you should, and you are constantly failing, and 
 you will fail till you come to Him for power. Then you 
 will understand the Christian paradox : 'When I am 
 weak, then I am strong.' He can save and He can keep. It
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 299 
 
 is a real thing, a fact of daily experience. 'He will hold us 
 fast.' You will have your trials, your sorrows, your 
 anxieties, your days of blackness. Who can help you 
 then ? Only one. You will come at last to the Valley 
 of the Shadow of Death. You will have to say good- 
 bye to all here, friends, and home, and earthly things. 
 What of the future ? Who can tell ? Only one : He who 
 sitteth on the throne, He who says, *In My Father's 
 House are many mansions. If it were not so, I would 
 have told you'." 
 
 I have said they could not choose but hear; but not 
 all the seed fell on soil where there was deepness of 
 earth. In 1910, when he had had for several Sundays 51 
 in attendance, he says : — "I have still a large Bible-class, 
 and, with some disappointments, have many encourage- 
 ments" ; yet withal he wrote in 1913, the year of his 
 death : "This class is one of my most enjoyable employ- 
 ments." That was largely his secret. He enjoyed 
 serving God and these young men in this way; and in 
 return they came with gladness. 
 
 During the last ten or twelve years of his life, he kept 
 up a rare but regular correspondence with Mr. John M. 
 Grant, the only survivor of those friends of his youth 
 with whom he had worked in Regent Square. From 
 these annual letters we get a glimpse of how Balfour 
 slowly began to feel himself growing old, and see how 
 graciously he did so. As was natural, Mr. Grant had 
 much to tell of the death of old friends, as they one after 
 the other departed, and Balfour's mind was greatly 
 turned to the memories connected with his early days in 
 London. When he was 71 he writes: **Yes, we are 
 among the few left of our generation ; and our time must 
 come soon. Well for us if we can use up well the little 
 that remains of life. So much has gone, and so little 
 done." Again he writes: "How pleasant were our 
 young days with J. T. Maclagan, and J. R. Bullen
 
 300 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 Smith ; and how we enjoyed Regent Square and Somers 
 Town, Dr. Hamilton's loving ways, Mr. Nisbet's genial 
 hospitality, Mr. Matheson's wise counsel I What a 
 lesson that Regent Square was, and what a Young 
 Men's Society!" All these being gone, he turned his 
 face in quiet confidence to the inevitable day when he 
 too should depart. 
 
 In 191 1, he writes: "Like you, I feel that my old 
 friends are now very few. You are the oldest in the home- 
 land, and that means in any land, as my friends were 
 made here after you. Since I was home in 1900, my near 
 relations have gone, my brother and sister, my first 
 cousins, and, in London, R. T. Turnbull. Only 
 nephews and nieces who belong to another generation 
 are left to me in Scotland. Like you, I can look back 
 through varied years of gains and losses and again 
 gains, and say 'Hitherto hath the Lord helped me. . . . 
 Goodness and mercy have followed me all the days of 
 my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for 
 ever.' Like you, I feel wonderfully well, I still con- 
 tinue a Member of Parliament; but I am not as strong 
 as I was, nor am I fit for so much work as formerly . . . 
 I go to the office, but leave most business details to my 
 partner, Mr. Macfarlane, and my sons manage my pro- 
 perty in New South Wales (at Round Hill), which is 
 my principal source of income." 
 
 It is characteristic that, when he began to find himself 
 less fit for work, he did not reduce his activity on the 
 religious side, but in the direction of business. Indeed, as 
 was natural with him, he seemed to have an ever-growing 
 pleasure in work which seemed likely to forward the in- 
 terests of the Kingdom of God. He had always been 
 keenly interested in Evangelistic work. He was one of 
 the founders of the Evangelisation Society and now his 
 last decade was lighted up for him with several great 
 efforts of that kind, notably the two Chapman-Alexan-
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 301 
 
 der Missions. He had inextinguishable hope in such 
 efforts; and, in 1909, and again in 191 2, when Dr. 
 Chapman returned, he co-operated with him as en- 
 thusiastically and as laboriously as the youngest col- 
 laborator. He threw open his house to the Evangelist, 
 he gave money and collected money, he attended himself, 
 and urged others to attend, and he rejoiced over those 
 who were converted — he loved that old word — as the 
 woman of the parable rejoiced at finding the lost piece 
 of money, for which she had painfully swept her house. 
 In September, 1909, he says to Mr. Grant: "You refer 
 to the Chapman-Alexander Mission. It has been sig- 
 nally owned of God and has given us a wonderful 
 uplift in all the States where they laboured. We hope to 
 see them back in a few years. Your views would coin- 
 cide entirely with Dr. Chapman's. It is Christ he 
 preaches, Christ he ever exalts." 
 
 In 1910 and 191 1 he still refers to the mission of 1909. 
 In a letter of 9th August, 191 1, he says: "The visit of 
 Dr. Chapman and Mr. Alexander in 1909 was very 
 inspiring. Dr. Chapman exalts Christ, and in a most 
 interesting way proclaims the old gospel message. 
 Alexander is a born leader of song." In 1912, when 
 they returned, he welcomed them with all his heart. He 
 says, "We have just had a Mission here from. Dr. Chap- 
 man and Mr. Alexander and their party. It has been 
 a very fine mission and many have, I believe, come out 
 of darkness into the light. The Missioners are now in 
 South Australia. They go through the Commonwealth. 
 They were first at Dunedin, New Zealand, where they 
 had a great mission and much good was done." Again, 
 on the 6th March, 19 13, he writes of them : "They have 
 been the instruments in God's hands to lead many to 
 Christ, and they have stirred up the churches, and the 
 office-bearers especially, and I expect to see good results 
 for years to come. Of course, that means if I am spared.
 
 302 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 You say you do not feel old at 8i. I may say the same 
 at not far from 83 ; though, of course, you and I know, 
 as indeed you indicate, that, whether we feel it or not, 
 we are old as this world goes ; but we may be day by day 
 renewing our youth. Physically, I am wonderfully well, 
 though I cannot do what once I could. May we both be 
 living in readiness for the summons when it comes, 
 which is not death, but the entrance into the fuller life." 
 In speaking of Balfour's political life, it has been 
 pointed out how remarkably he combined absolute 
 loyalty to his convictions, and fighting power of a high 
 order, with a unifying and conciliatory influence. In 
 his religious life this was even more notable; for his 
 religious sympathy was so quick and keen that by whom- 
 soever Christ was exalted it went out to them. The 
 only Christian view which he never could understand 
 was the Sacramentarian. To him it was flatly incon- 
 ceivable that moral and spiritual character could be 
 bestowed by any external rite, or that the absence of any 
 external rite, or still less the improper administration of 
 it, could leave anyone unblessed in the world to come. 
 But with all whose Christianity was free from this 
 materialistic alloy he could live in harmony, without 
 being drawn aside from the strong doctrinal Presby- 
 terianism to which he was loyal throughout his long life. 
 Many of those who favoured and profited by evangelistic 
 missions lapsed from sympathy with the regular minis- 
 trations of the Church into some form of separation. 
 Balfour did more than they all for evangelistic effort, 
 but had no doubt at all that the Church was "the pillar 
 and stay of the truth." Again, many who rightly 
 valued the ordinary services of the Church, looked 
 askance at the evangelistic work as relying too much 
 upon excitement, and as leading to a craving for sen- 
 sational preaching and sensational services. Balfour 
 knew all that was true in that view ; yet, while, as we
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 303 
 
 have seen, he was with evangelistic work with his whole 
 heart, he kept himself in friendly touch with those who 
 held either of those views. In fact he lived so much at 
 the centre of the Christian faith, he was so constantly 
 in communion with God, that he had friendly sympathy 
 with everyone who shared that highest privilege ; whilst 
 the Church of his Fathers, with its noble record of faith- 
 fulness under persecution, of sacrifice for principle, of 
 self-denying missionary work, and of strong and just 
 administration, held him as few men are held by their 
 Church.
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 BALFOUR'S DEATH. 
 
 When the call he looked for came, it came suddenly. 
 He was summoned in the very midst of his manifold 
 labours, when all who loved him hoped that his gracious 
 life might still be prolonged. On Tuesday, 19th August, 
 1913, he was present and spoke with all his usual vigour 
 in the Legislative Council. As his custom was, he had 
 noted down his evening engagements for that week. 
 Every evening from Monday, the i8th August, to Tues- 
 day, 2nd September, had been allotted to work for the 
 Kingdom of God. But "man proposes and God dis- 
 poses." On Wednesday, 19th, he was present at the 
 funeral of a young man to whom he had given a place 
 on Round Hill Station in the hope that his life might 
 be saved. Some improvement in his health took place and 
 the youth returned to his home. Now that he was dead 
 Balfour thought that there would be few friends at the 
 funeral, and, notwithstanding his advanced age, he de- 
 cided to be present. It was a keen showery day, and, 
 forgetting himself, he held the umbrella he was provided 
 with over a poor man who stood near him without one. 
 He contracted a chill, and became seriously ill about 9 
 p.m. with acute pain in the side. His medical adviser 
 was summoned, and at once realised that his condition 
 was serious. He was in fact suffering from pneumonia. 
 One of his daughters watched with him during that 
 night, and next morning a nurse was procured. Not- 
 withstanding the serious character of his illness, he 
 was anxious to see his office clerk, to attend to business ; 
 but the doctor forbade anything of the kind. His next 
 
 304
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 305 
 
 thought was to arrange for his Bible Class on the follow- 
 ing Sunday. He asked one of his daughters to con- 
 duct it, and told her the subject, the lesson, and what 
 books to read for it. Absolute quiet was now ordered, 
 to ensure every chance of recovery ; but his thoughts were 
 eagerly concerned about his Class and the engagements 
 for the coming week. Although he was suffering, he 
 never mentioned his pain unless asked about it. 
 
 Characteristically, even in his fatal sickness he thought 
 only of others. On Saturday he mentioned several of 
 his Bible Class by name, and, as the Communion season 
 was at hand he was anxious that they should join the 
 Church. In response to a message from him, one of 
 them did so on the next communion Sunday. His three 
 sons, who had been telegraphed for, arrived from New 
 South Wales on Saturday, and with all his children 
 around him, save Graham, who being the minister ot 
 First Church, Dunedin, New Zealand, was beyond 
 reach, he asked to have the 103rd Psalm and the ii6th 
 read to him. So it was with the great words, "Like 
 as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them 
 that fear Him," and "I love the Lord because he hath 
 heard my voice and my supplications," that he prepared 
 himself, like Bunyan's Christian, to pass the river. His 
 last thoughts as his words showed, were of "the mighty 
 love of God in Christ Jesus, the Saviour from our Sins." 
 It does not need to be said that his end was peace. Like 
 Col. Hutchinson, the most gracious of the Cromwellian 
 Puritans, whom in other respects he resembles, "he had 
 made up his accounts with life and death, and fixed his 
 purpose to entertain both honourably." There was thus 
 no sadness of farewell. Shortly after the dearly-loved 
 partner of his life had recited to him the Mosaic bene- 
 diction,
 
 3o6 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 The Lord bless thee and keep thee ! 
 
 The Lord make His face to shine upon thee and be 
 
 gracious unto thee ! 
 The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee and give 
 
 thee peace. 
 
 And with the words from the 23rd Psalm, "Yea, though 
 I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will 
 fear no evil," upon his lips, he passed quietly away, 
 in the fullest assurance a follower of Christ could have 
 to that "Sabbath rest" which "remaineth for the people 
 of God." 
 
 His medical attendant wrote thus of his death : "I 
 have seen many death beds, but never one like this. 
 His whole illness was one long triumph over death ; in- 
 stead of being a weakness it seemed to be a summary 
 of his intense life, only multiplied many times. His one 
 purpose was that he should continue to do his duty. 
 There was no fear of death. It was merely a passing to 
 higher service there where Christ whom he loved so 
 well and knew so personally should no longer be his 
 unseen companion, but should be beheld face to face." 
 
 He was laid to rest, amid universal regrets, in the 
 beautiful Boroondara Cemetery on Tuesday, the 25th 
 August. There was a funeral service at the West Haw- 
 thorn Church, presided over by the Revd. Dr. Rentoul, 
 the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presby- 
 terian Church of Australia. The Moderator of the State 
 Assembly, the Revd. W. M. Alexander, was also pre- 
 sent, and, at the request of Mrs. Balfour, the address was 
 delivered by myself, one of Mr. Balfour's oldest friends. 
 There was a large and representative assembly, includ- 
 ing the President of the Legislative Council, several 
 members of the Ministry, many members of both Houses 
 of Parliament, and prominent representatives of the 
 Churches, the scholastic profession, and the business
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 307 
 
 community of Melbourne. As giving a reflex of the 
 feeling of the Church in its first freshness, it may be 
 permitted to quote the address : — 
 
 "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, 
 and he whom we mourn to-day was a good man. There- 
 fore, even in this swift coming of death, with its sudden 
 bodily decay and the wandering mind, we may see the 
 divine ordering. His end came without much pain, with 
 no lingering or fear, just as he would have wished it. 
 He was a good man; the best man, taking him all in 
 all, whom I have ever known in all my Australian 
 years. After a friendship of nearly 50 years I say this. 
 Men held to belief in Christ because of him ; and, if this 
 were the time to speak of personal things, I could tell 
 how, when I was young, he guided me; when my horizon 
 needed widening he helped me to that; nay, I owe even 
 my own self to him ; and, were it not for our Christian 
 faith, I could not speak to you at all, so shattering would 
 be the loss. But we sorrow not as those who have no 
 hope; and so we gather together to remember with 
 gratitude his sunny, cheerful nature, his direct, simple 
 outlook upon things, and his perennial youth. He was 
 a genial Puritan, who never ceased to fight against evil, 
 yet he neither caused nor cherished rancour. He was, 
 too, a valiant servant of God, who made the Scriptures a 
 lamp to his feet and a light to his path, the very 'man 
 of his counsel.' He was one of a generation born when 
 the flood-tides of spiritual life in Scotland were running 
 high and sweeping all before them, and he had the mark 
 of those mighty things upon his spirit. His religion 
 pervaded and penetrated his whole nature, so that he 
 really loved God. However God might come to him, 
 whether in sorrow or in joy, in prosperity or in evil for- 
 tune, he rejoiced in God. 'His coming,' however it 
 might be, was to him 'like the coming of morning,' and 
 'like morning songs His voice.' That great Presence
 
 3o8 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 was a constant source of uplift and of happiness to him, 
 for he loved God, the invisible God, as few of us are 
 able to do. And so to-day, not only here but in many 
 other lands, there are those who mourn him. They and 
 we alike are asking where shall we look upon another 
 like him. 
 
 "But sadness is not the note of such a day as this. 
 'Nothing is here to wail or beat the breast.' From boy- 
 hood our friend had given himself to Christ ; and in that 
 service which is perfect freedom he spent all his years. 
 From many talks about his early days, I gathered that 
 his spiritual life had never been marked by that break of 
 continuity which most of us have known ; and, because 
 he had been guided and helped by an elder cousin who 
 had a special gift in dealing with young men, he felt it 
 to be his duty to devote himself to the same work. For 
 more than 50 years he taught a Bible Class, which was 
 always full, always eager, and always certain that their 
 Leader was genuinely interested in all that concerned 
 them because of the personal charm none of them could 
 fail to feel. And his business and public life was part 
 of the same service. In these too he was unselfish, 
 strenuous, unsparing of himself, and to a remarkable 
 degree dominated by the desire to benefit men and to 
 serve Christ. Even in the wildest storms of political life 
 (and in his earlier days political passion raged as it 
 has hardly done since) he never let the storm enter the 
 deeper places of his spirit. Nor did he shrink from 
 ridicule and accusation when he saw it to be his duty to 
 oppose the popular will. In all deeper questions, too, 
 when men consulted him, they were aware that he was 
 not alone; there was Christ that lived in him. His 
 life, in its main element, was a coherent and consistent 
 whole ; and now, when it is finished, he has left to the 
 loved partner of his days, a grief which must endure, 
 'till God's love sets her at his side again' ; to his children.
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 309 
 
 the memory of an unstained life, though it was searched 
 by 'that fierce light which beats upon a public man 'and 
 blackens every blot' ; to the Church and to the world, 
 a memorable example of how to live a life which 'at- 
 taineth to eternity,' a life 'hid with Christ in God.' In 
 view of such a life there is nothing to be said but 'Laus 
 Deo, ' praise be to God ! 
 
 "But how much more should our sorrow give place 
 to praise, when we think of that rest which he has 
 entered upon, the Sabbath rest that remaineth for the 
 people of God. For that body which we are about to 
 carry to its last resting-place is not he. It is merely 
 the instrument by which that kindly and faithful spirit 
 manifested Itself to us. He is not here. It is a fair 
 day upon earth; but there, where he is, is a 'far serener 
 clime,' and he, more assuredly than most, will have 
 heard the great and astounding welcome, 'Well done, 
 good and faithful servant : enter into the joy of thy Lord.' 
 He who has heard these words spoken to him will never 
 want anything more. He will be satisfied ; he will find, 
 'at God's right hand, pleasure for ever more,' and, as 
 has been well said, 'the vacant places in his life will 
 disappear, the aches will die out, and desire and longing 
 shall be lost in 'more than heart can wish.' This is not 
 a mournful thing, it is victory. And so let us bear what 
 is mortal of him we mourn to the grave, with our 
 heads uplifted. 'He has fought a good fight ; he has 
 finished his course; he has kept the faith.' Let us carry 
 him to his grave like the conqueror he is — more than a 
 conqueror, through Christ that loved him." 
 
 As is usual when a Member of Parliament dies both 
 Houses were adjourned on the day of Balfour's funeral ; 
 but, though the usual thing was done, it was done with a 
 sincere depth of feeling which went beyond the usual. 
 When his death became known, Mr. Watt, the Premier 
 of Victoria, sent the following telegram to Mrs. Balfour :
 
 3IO JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 "Victorian Government deplores the death of Mr. Bal- 
 four, which is a loss to the whole State, and deeply 
 sympathises with yourself and family in the bereavement 
 you have sustained." Further, the President of the 
 Legislative Council, when the House met for the first 
 time after Mr. Balfour's death, read the following letter 
 from His Excellency the Governor, Sir John Fuller : — 
 
 State Government House, 
 
 Melbourne, 25th August, 1913. 
 Dear Mr. President, 
 
 It is with very sincere regret that I have learnt to- 
 day of the death of the Hon. Jas. Balfour, M.L.C. In 
 him the State of Victoria loses its oldest public servant, 
 and one whose long and well-spent life will always 
 remain a shining example to generations to come. 
 
 Mr. Balfour's record of nearly 40 years' continuous 
 service in the Legislative Council is, I think, unique in 
 the history of the State, and I would beg you to accept 
 for yourself and fellow members my expression of 
 warm sympathy in your distinguished colleague's 
 death, and of my sense of a great loss which it will be 
 difficult to repair. 
 
 Believe me, dear Mr. President, 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 JOHN FULLER (Governor). 
 
 Such a letter on such an occasion is without precedent 
 in the history of the Victorian Parliament. 
 
 In the Legislative Council itself the Attorney-General 
 moved the following resolution : "That this House 
 hereby records its sense of the great loss that has fallen 
 upon it through the death of the Hon. James Balfour. 
 His devoted labours in the Parliament of Victoria for 
 43 years, nearly 40 of which were spent in the Legisla- 
 tive Council, both as a Minister of the Crown, and also
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 311 
 
 as a private member, and the valuable services rendered 
 by him as a public man to the State of Victoria, caused 
 him to be regarded by all classes of this community with 
 respect, affection, and honour." In moving it, the At- 
 torney-General spoke appreciatively of his work, and 
 said, "Mr. Balfour was in many ways a remarkable 
 citizen and a remarkable man. . . So far as social and 
 political work is concerned, he was perhaps one of the 
 most active and earnest men in this community." 
 
 The Hon. W. S. Manifold, in supporting the motion, 
 said, "During the last two or three years I got into the 
 way of very often consulting him about the business 
 before the House, and the more intimate association that 
 I obtained in that way at once confirmed the respect and 
 esteem that I had for him from the very first time I 
 entered the House. Indeed as time went on, it seemed 
 to me that I was developing a real affection for him, so 
 much did I admire him. . . He served his adopted country 
 with great honour to himself and with great advantage 
 to the State. His life extended far beyond the allotted 
 span of threescore and ten years, and during the whole of 
 that time his courtesy and kindness to every one must 
 have struck all of us. Nothing that can be said can add 
 in the slightest to the respect and affection that all his 
 brother members, including myself, had for him. To 
 sum him up, I may say that he was a true-hearted Chris- 
 tian gentleman." 
 
 The Hon. D. Melville said, "Mr. Balfour gave his 
 life's work to the public from that" (the religious) "point 
 of view. His motto was : 'What can I do to make the 
 world better ?' Of the many great men that I have 
 met, both in Scotland and here, he was the man who 
 came closest to my conception of what an ideal man 
 should be. ... I am satisfied that our late colleague 
 ought to be classed among those men, if there be any 
 such, who attained perfection."
 
 312 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 The Hon. A. O. Sachse^ Chairman of Committees, 
 said, "Dedth has taken from us one of our most valuable 
 members, perhaps one of the most valuable members 
 that Parliament has ever had, for in the late Mr. Balfour 
 Parliament had a member who was not only experienced 
 but had the great gift of logical eloquence, which enabled 
 him to put his views before the Chamber in a way that 
 we must all admit was perfect. He had many attributes, 
 apart from that wonderfully kind disposition he possessed 
 — a disposition which appeared to dictate to him to be 
 kind to all and to help every one, no matter what their 
 circumstances in life might be. He had a wisdom which 
 used to surprise many of us when he spoke. His words 
 were always kindly, and during the 21 years that I 
 had the privilege of sitting alongside him in this 
 Chamber, there is not one occasion on which I can re- 
 member him saying a harsh personal word of any hon- 
 ourable member. There were hundreds of occasions 
 when he would even go out of his way to smooth over 
 or soften a dispute, in order to bring about a compromise 
 between contentious parties, providing that compromise 
 did not affect any of the principles he held. . . I know 
 what his work amongst the young men of Melbourne 
 was; but little is known of the great good that Mr. Bal- 
 four was doing. There are hundreds of young men in 
 this State who owe the whole of their prosperity in busi- 
 ness, not merely to the religious advice and moral assist- 
 ance given to them by the late Mr. Balfour, but also to 
 the financial help to enable them to make their first start 
 in life. The old man's keen, kindly eye would always 
 glisten whenever he was approached on any subject 
 having anything to do with the elevation of the young. 
 The Young Men's Christian Association stands to-day 
 as a living tribute to him. We could go on adding ad 
 infinitum to the list of good works done by that man. 
 There would appear to have been no limit to his philan-
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 3^3 
 
 thropy. 'Hansard' will tell us of the great work that the 
 late honourable member did as a private member of the 
 Council and as a Minister. It will tell us of his resolu- 
 tion in standing like a valiant soldier by any cause he 
 championed ; but, whilst championing any cause, he 
 never took any action but what was of the highest pos- 
 sible standard. We have lost not merely a valuable 
 member of the House, but a valued and valuable friend." 
 
 The Hon. J. Sternberg also testified to "the many ex- 
 cellent and great qualities Mr. Balfour possessed," and 
 said, "In times gone by, when politics were not running 
 smoothly, as they are to-day, our late honoured friend 
 was a leader of this House, a man amongst men, who 
 was prepared at all times to recognise his obligations to 
 his fellow citizens, and at the same time determined to 
 carry out his political views and the views of the party 
 to which he belonged, in such a way as would command 
 the respect and admiration of the citizens not only of 
 this State, but of other States." 
 
 The Hon. R. Beckett, his colleague in the represen- 
 tation of the East Yarra Province, said, "When I was 
 elected a few weeks ago, I counted it a privilege that 
 I should sit with him, and have the benefit of his wisdom 
 and guidance in connexion with the business of the 
 House. My own feeling towards him was always one 
 of very deep respect, almost reaching reverence; and I 
 know that throughout the whole of the Province that 
 he represented for so many years there was the strongest 
 feeling of affection for him." 
 
 Finally, the President, the Hon.. J. M. Davies, an- 
 nounced that he himself was one of the young men 
 whom Balfour had influenced. He said, "In Geelong, 
 about 1854, he somehow managed to know me, took an 
 interest in me, and helped to impress on me his person- 
 ality ; and from that time to this there always existed the 
 warmest friendship between us. This House has lost
 
 314 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 its most honoured member. When Mr. Balfour first 
 entered it in the old days, differences between the two 
 Houses were constantly arising, and Mr. Balfour was one 
 of the great men who were then members, Sir Charles 
 Sladen, and Mr. Fellowes, and, later on, Sir Frederick 
 Sargood, Mr. Service, and Mr. Fitzgerald — men, per- 
 haps, such as are not represented here at the present 
 moment. They were men who in the past achieved 
 greater things than, I think, we, as members to-day, 
 achieve. Mr. Balfour was the foremost debater in this 
 House. Apart from his splendid voice and his great 
 gift of eloquence, he had great faculty of logic. He 
 would sum up a debate after nearly every member had 
 spoken, and pick out all the fallacies of those who differed 
 from his views, and he would do it in a good-tempered 
 way, but do it effectually. I do not think we have had in 
 the Legislative Council such a debater as Mr. Balfour 
 was at the time he was in his glory and in his prime. . . 
 We had a melancholy duty to-day in attending his 
 funeral. In what took place in the church we saw the 
 affection in which he was held, and how his work was 
 recognised. I may say that there were many beautiful 
 wreaths placed upon the coffin. To one was attached 
 a card with these words : 'My beloved colleague.' These 
 few words conveyed the affection and esteem of our late 
 respected fellow-member, the Hon. Edward Miller, a 
 colleague of Mr. Balfour's of over 20 years' standing. 
 Not only members of this House but those who have 
 been its members, have continued their affection and 
 respect for our dear departed friend." 
 
 The Speaker and others in the Lower House, the 
 Premier and the Leader of the Opposition spoke with 
 similar warmth, and testified that, as the Premier said, 
 he had gone to his reward with the unqualified respect 
 of all who knew him. With such testimonies to Bal- 
 four's worth from political leaders, some of whom were
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 3^5 
 
 determined opponents of the religio-social and educa- 
 tional policy which he advocated, it cannot be wondered 
 at that the chorus of approval from those who were with 
 him in that policy was overwhelming. Every organisa- 
 tion which aimed at the moral and spiritual welfare of 
 the community felt that with his departure they were not 
 only immeasurably weakened both for defence and for 
 attack, but also that they had lost the quiet wisdom 
 with which he had guided their counsels. The fine 
 minute of the Presbytery of Melbourne South has already 
 been quoted, and may be taken as representative of the 
 minutes of all the Church Courts. 
 
 "The Messenger" of the Presbyterian Church said: 
 "In the death of the Hon. James Balfour, M.L.C., the 
 Commonwealth loses a conspicuous and worthy citizen, 
 and the Presbyterian Church an ideal Elder. Fearless 
 and uncompromising, firm in his convictions, yet most 
 tolerant to these who differed from him, evangelist to 
 the heart's core, yet with nothing narrow in his nature, 
 serving his country with honour in the Legislature and 
 ready to help forward every good cause, it may be said 
 of him as Lord Salisbury said of Gladstone, 'He was a 
 great Christian.' Without neglecting any of the weighty 
 duties of the Eldership, he was specially interested in 
 Foreign Missions, Bible in Schools, and Bible Class 
 work. Who that attended his funeral and saw the wonder- 
 ful array of his Bible Class men leading the procession 
 could fail to be moved at the sight, and see in it some 
 indication of his power. He was a man of prayer; and 
 his spiritual children are many. Now that he has en- 
 tered into his rest and reward, we give thanks for a 
 life so full, so strong, so noble, and pray that grace 
 may be given us to follow in his train. He was one of 
 the Knights of God. To the heavenly Father's com- 
 passion we commend Mrs. Balfour and her family. The 
 whole Church mourns with them."
 
 3i6 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 "The Chronicle" of the Presbyterian Women's 
 Missionary Union is also worth quoting: "The 
 Presbyterian Church is mourning the loss 
 of its foremost and best-beloved lay member. 
 The Hon. James Balfour served his Church in this State 
 for 60 years, and neither political duties nor private busi- 
 ness ever prevented him from giving time and attention 
 to its affairs. Nor did he confine himself to the work 
 of his own Church : he gave without stint of all that he 
 had — love and loyalty, energy, wisdom, eloquence, time, 
 money — to the cause of Christ's Kingdom, and to the 
 very last his wonderful voice, keeping its youthful re- 
 sonance, rang out like a trumpet-call to the defence of 
 the right and the overthrow of evil. Now he has been 
 gathered home, like a shock of corn fully ripe. God 
 send our State and our Church men like him and mothers 
 who will train and devote sons to service such as his." 
 
 The "Southern Cross" may be taken to represent 
 Christian feeling beyond the Presbyterian Church, and 
 its Editor's fine tribute, full of knowledge and sympathy, 
 cannot be omitted. It says: "The death of the Hon. 
 James Balfour will come to a multitude with a sense not 
 only of enduring public loss, but of keenest private grief. 
 Mr. Balfour filled a great place in the public affairs and 
 in the business life of the State. He was the foremost, 
 the most trusted, the best beloved, in every sense the most 
 influential layman in the Church life of Australia ; but to 
 multitudes he was more than this. He was a friend, 
 a comrade, a helper, an ideal, a strong man on whom 
 weaker ones leaned, a leader who never failed in vision 
 and never lost hope or courage. His death leaves both 
 Church and State poorer ; but it comes to hundreds with 
 a sense of personal loss, sharp and deep and enduring; 
 and the sense of loss will be felt in Scotland as well as 
 in Australia. The suddenness of Mr. Balfour's death 
 too deepens the general grief. On Tuesday night he
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 317 
 
 was in the House, and spoke with the physical and 
 mental vigour of a man in his prime : on Sunday night 
 he was dead. When the ties of a lifetime are broken 
 so suddenly, the grief of those who are left behind is 
 deep, not to say bewildered ; but for him who is gone, 
 this is just the manner of death he would have chosen. 
 He worked to the last, every bodily sense was strong, 
 every faculty of the mind was clear till the task of life 
 was ended, and, with only a few hours of pain and of 
 broken life, he passed to the fellowship of the eternal 
 world. ... 
 
 "A hundred fine qualities met in Mr. Balfour. Who 
 can recall the erect figure, the face with its lines of 
 strength and goodness, the friendly eyes, the clear 
 brain, the resonant voice, the wide knowledge of men 
 and things, the courage that never knew fear, the stead- 
 fastness of will that made him a force to be counted 
 on under all circumstances, without feeling that he 
 belonged to the very finest human type ? But the 
 strongest forces in his life were those that streamed from 
 the spiritual realm. For him religion was a verified 
 certainty. He knew in whom he believed as surely as 
 any saint of olden days. He was the example of a piety, 
 deep, intelligent, evangelical, practical. It did not lack 
 emotion, but it found its highest expression in service. 
 For Mr. Balfour it was literally 'more than his meat 
 and his drink' ; more than money or ease or comfort, to 
 do the will of his Father in Heaven. In the service of 
 every good cause, notably in the cause of the Sabbath, or 
 the Bible in Schools, or evangelical Christianity 
 generally, he could be counted on absolutely and for the 
 utmost service. He gave to such causes as these, and 
 without stint, his money, his time, his keen brain, his 
 eloquent tongue, his wide influence. God carries on His 
 work, though He buries His workman : and, in a sense, 
 no man is indispensable. Others will arise to take the
 
 3i8 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 place of those who have gone. Instead of the fathers, 
 shall be the children : that is the perennial promise of 
 Christ to His Church ; and history shows how that pro- 
 mise finds ever new fulfilment. Yet human eyes can 
 hardly as yet see who can take the place, still less who 
 can fill the place, of James Balfour. His death leaves 
 Australia poorer. What is admirable in Mr. Balfour's 
 story is the unbroken continuity of service to Christ's 
 cause which he rendered. He was 83 years of age when 
 he died; and from earliest manhood to his dying hour 
 the golden chain of service had not a single broken link. 
 How widespread its influence was is shown by facts 
 like this. Some two years ago the present writer was 
 staying in Toronto; a commercial traveller from the 
 United States came into his room and said : 'You are 
 from Australia : do you know a Mr. Balfour there ?' 
 'Yes, what Australian does not know Mr. Balfour?' 
 This commercial traveller had been a lad in Mr. Bal- 
 four's Bible class, in East Melbourne, and he sent a 
 message of loving thanks to his old teacher ; what he 
 had learned from him, he said, had 'kept him clean and 
 straight' for more than 30 years in a strange land and 
 under new conditions of life. The very Sunday before 
 he died Mr. Balfour sat in his class of young men, 
 neither he nor they dreaming that he was speaking his 
 last message. How many lives Mr. Balfour touched in 
 the course of his life and how profoundly he influenced 
 them for good can hardly be guessed. It needs the 
 arithmetic of Eternity to assess the fruits of such a life." 
 Of individual expressions of regret there was no end. 
 Of these the following from the "Church Notes of West 
 Hawthorn Presbyterian Church," written by the Rev. 
 W. H. Cooper, Balfour's Minister, is characteristic. He 
 says, "Since our last issue of these 'Notes' a great 
 sorrow has overtaken us : we have lost one who for his 
 personal qualities and his work's sake was beloved and
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 319 
 
 honoured by us all. On Sunday, August 24th, the Hon. 
 James Balfour was called Home. On the Lord's Day, 
 the day which he loved, he entered into that rest which 
 remains for the people of God. Not only our congre- 
 gation and Presbyterian ism have lost, but the whole 
 Christian life of the Commonwealth has lost, a good man 
 and a great leader. In Church and State Mr. Balfour 
 was a worker of stainless integrity. Energetic and full 
 of hope, he never despaired, but laboured in public and 
 private for the moral and spiritual welfare of the people. 
 He loved God and his Church and his work ; and that 
 work touched every sphere of human life. We shall 
 more and more discover what a large place he occupied 
 in our community." 
 
 It may be that some will say, "All those tributes are 
 from men of the same type as himself. Balfour was 
 undoubtedly a great source of strength to the causes they 
 stood for; and naturally they thought much of him. 
 We should like to know what the men who came in 
 contact with him in the ordinary way of business thought 
 of him ; that might tell another tale." So say the sceptics 
 who grow impatient when too many call a man "just." 
 Well we have given from "Hansard" the testimony 
 of Members of Parliament, men of all parties. Liberals, 
 Radicals, and Labour, men of various and widely 
 different faiths ; and they have said just the same as the 
 others. Again, the "Journal of Commerce" says "Vic- 
 toria mourns for one of the most estimable of her citizens. 
 The death from pneumonia, on vSunday, August 24th, of 
 the Hon. Jas. Balfour, M.L.C., was a great shock to the 
 community, for only 5 days previously he had been in his 
 place in the Legislative Council, taking part in a debate, 
 while next day, with characteristic sympathy with his 
 fellow men, he attended the funeral of one who had been 
 on the staff of his station in New South Wales, although 
 he was just recovering from a severe cold. ... A mem-
 
 320 • JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 ber of the Chamber of Commerce almost since its incep- 
 tion, he was president of that body in 1885-6. Mr. 
 Balfour was in his business relations a fine type of the 
 traditional British merchant whose word was his bond, 
 observing the Golden Rule in all his relations with his 
 fellow men. He was a splendid example to the young, 
 in whom he took a warm interest, and he was ever ready 
 10 help." 
 
 The following letter from Mr. Webster, who was for 
 12 years manager of Round Hill station, will show what 
 those working under him felt concerning him. It is 
 addressed to Mr. James Balfour, and is dated Forbes, 
 New South Wales : — "With deepest grief and sorrow, 1 
 heard only four days ago of the death of your father. 
 It came as a great shock to me, as in the beginning of 
 August I had a most kind letter from your father in 
 which he wrote of himself as having had a cold but 
 being 'quite well now.' . . . Fifty-four years ago your 
 father and I met in Geelong ; he was then managing 
 partner of James Henty and Company, and I a junior 
 clerk in the Bank of Australasia. We have been friends 
 ever since. He got me to join the Y.M.C. Association 
 and I persuaded him to join the Geelong Rifles, and used 
 to go up to his house in summer mornings before break- 
 fast to instruct him in tfie first parts of the drill, which 
 saved him from the 'awkward squad' on joining the 
 corps. I never knew a man, especially one in so fore^ 
 most a position socially and commercially as your father 
 was, who took such interest in young men. He was ever 
 doing good to, or helping some one, and his memory 
 will live in the hearts of many. Through your father, 
 I got my appointment on Round Hill in 1866 and those 
 twelve years from 1866 to 1878 Cten of which I was 
 Manager) were the happiest of my life. It was not only 
 an honour, but a constant joy in my life to have been an 
 employee of Henty and Balfour. Your father's name
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. mi 
 
 ever stood for what was noble, good, and true. As a 
 public man he had few equals; fearless in his denuncia- 
 tion of evil, he lived the life of a true follower of Christ. 
 A young country like Australia is blessed indeed when 
 men of your father's type spend their lives and die on 
 her soil." 
 
 Lastly I would quote, and that with special emphasis, 
 the tribute of a "rouseabout" (that is, a handy man about 
 a sheep-shearing shed), which appeared in the "Messen- 
 ger." It is as follows : — "In the life of a rouseabout — 
 and it's rough enough in some places — there are all 
 sorts of incidents. He meets with men who are positive 
 bounders, who, by reason of the social position that has 
 come to them through their material wealth, look upon 
 a rouseabout and men of like position as creatures much 
 beneath them in every way, and direct their conduct 
 toward them accordingly. This man the rouseabout 
 hates with a very real hatred. Then, while 'on the 
 wallaby,' he will meet the well-intentioned but some- 
 times narrow-minded parson, who, unacquainted with 
 the ups-and-downs of the nomadic life, does not com- 
 prehend his man, and thus makes the error of applying 
 the wrong word at the wrong time and in the wrong 
 manner. This good man — he gives the parson that much 
 credit — is mostly regarded as a 'wowser,' whatever that 
 term may mean. Then again he meets the man much 
 above hirn in social position, whose sympathies are big 
 and free and generous, whose heart is warm and respon- 
 sive, who, while carrying the dignity of his position, 
 is not above seeking the companionship of even a rouse- 
 about, in order that he may be of some little service in 
 whatever way circumstances may direct. This man the 
 rouseabout honours, for to him has been made manifest, 
 through big free sympathies, through a kind word of 
 encouragement, that, despite his failings, 
 
 *A man's a man for a' that.*
 
 322 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 As such a man, many of the rouseabouts — and shearers 
 too — regarded the late Mr. Jas. Balfour. Spare of 
 figure, straight as a rush, fresh-featured, made the 
 fresher by the whiteness that comes with age, with years 
 mellowed by the influence of countless 'unremembered 
 acts of kindness and of love,' a fine bearing, though 
 unaided by any big physical feature, there was embodied 
 in the character of James Balfour the perfect gentleman. 
 We admired the man for his thought of us, no matter 
 what the way ; for his personality impressed us with his 
 sincerity of purpose. This was the way : 
 
 "On Sunday, during the shearing season at Round 
 Hill, a message was sent to the quarters of the shearers 
 and the rouseabouts that Mr. Balfour would be pleased 
 to see us at a religious service he desired to hold that 
 afternoon in the shearers' hut. One would have thought 
 that a man of his years, and tired with the keen attention 
 he gave to the business of the State and his own affairs 
 in general would have desired a rest from all exertion 
 on that day. But the man's sympathies were big and 
 free and generous, and the companionship of the 
 shearers, and of the rouseabouts, and of the general 
 workmen, even for one brief hour, was to him a pleasure 
 he would not have missed. There was no derision over 
 his request ; for to the men James Balfour was a man of 
 earnest sincerity. The service opened with prayer. The 
 singing of some well-known hymns followed. Then 
 came the address. There is no need to elaborate it. 
 It is sufficient to say that the deliverance based upon the 
 words 'The Lord shall restore to you the years' was a 
 model of simplicity and wisdom, which even the worst 
 of us could not help but consider. As a matter of fact 
 one of the rouseabouts — a very decent sort of fellow, but 
 one who had met with much misfortune — said in the 
 writer's hearing just before entering the hut,
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 323 
 
 *In the fell clutch of circumstance, 
 I neither winced nor cried aloud : 
 
 Under the bludgeonings of chance, 
 My head was bloody, but unbowed.' 
 He unfortunately is one of the many men one meets 
 'on the wallaby.' But here's the point. The drawing 
 personality of Mr. Balfour, his direct message, delivered 
 logically and with manly sincerity, his quiet yet con- 
 vincing appeal, and, last but not least, his kind feelings 
 towards those beneath him in the social scale, helped 
 that same fellow to lose much that was wretched, and 
 get a peace of mind which brought no small measure of 
 comfort. 'A kiss from my mother,' said Benjamin 
 West, 'made me a painter.' A word from James Balfour 
 made you feel the nobility of manhood. 
 
 "If there be such a thing as grandeur of character, 
 then James Balfour possessed it. If nobility of soul 
 may be a positive part of a man's life, then it was very 
 evident in the life of James Balfour. If moral principle 
 and love can mould a man's life, and direct it according 
 to the conduct of a real, true gentleman (and the men in 
 our walk of life, rough as some may be, regard a man 
 as such when there is evident in his nature broad, 
 generous, benevolent feelings towards his fellow-men), 
 then the life of James Balfour was so moulded. Is there 
 any virtue in a good wise influence ? Read the thought 
 out of the mind of the man whose 'head was bloody, but 
 unbowed'." After the break of years, this fellow met 
 the writer and said to him : — 'Have you seen that splen- 
 did man we met at Round Hill some years ago ? To him 
 I am bound to give the credit of a well-directed moral 
 force, the power of which is still in existence.' Briefly, 
 the position in a nutshell : 
 
 'Nearer, my God, to Thee; 
 Nearer to Thee.' 
 Ay, and through James Balfour !"
 
 324 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 Such is the happy remembrance of a man whom a 
 rouseabout came to love. Such is the brief tribute; and, 
 if the heart beneath that rough exterior could adequately 
 express its feelings there would be no finer benediction 
 upon the life of James Balfour than his. 
 
 FINIS.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Letters of Sympathy. 
 To show how wide and varied Mr. Balfour's interests 
 were, letters and resolutions of sympathy were received 
 at his death from, amongst others, the following public 
 bodies, committees, etc. : — 
 
 Legislative Council of Victoria, 
 
 Legislative Assembly of Victoria, 
 
 Kew Town Council, 
 
 Hawthorn City Council, 
 
 Camberwell Town Council, 
 
 Fitzroy City Council, 
 
 Prahran City Council, 
 
 Caulfield Town Council, 
 
 Malvern Town Council, 
 
 Shire of Nunawading Council, 
 
 Queenscliff Town Council. 
 
 Melbourne Chamber of Commerce, 
 
 National Bank of Australasia, 
 
 Triton Insurance Co., 
 
 Westport Coal Co., 
 
 John Warrack & Co., Leith, Scotland. 
 
 Burns, Philp and Co. Ltd., 
 
 Matheson and Co. Ltd., London, 
 
 Guardian Assurance Co., 
 
 Parkinson and W. and B. Cowan Ltd., London, 
 
 Presbytery of Melbourne South, 
 
 Presbytery of Melbourne North,- 
 
 Presbytery of Geelong, 
 
 Presbytery of Wagga Wagga, N.S.W., 
 
 Session West Hawthorn Presbyterian Church, 
 
 Session and Board of Management Queenscliff 
 Presbyterian Church, 
 
 325
 
 326 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 Session St. Cuthbert's Church, Brighton, 
 
 Board of Management St. Andrew's Church, 
 
 Carlton, 
 Elders' Association of Presbyterian Church of 
 
 Victoria, 
 Foreign Missions Committee, Presbyterian Church 
 
 of Victoria, 
 Office-bearers of St. George's Church, St. Kilda, 
 Board and Session, St. George's Church, Geelong, 
 Board of Foreign Missions, Presbyterian Church of 
 
 Australia, 
 Board of Investment and Finance Presbyterian 
 
 Church of Victoria, 
 Ormond College Council, 
 Emmanuel College, Brisbane, 
 Council of Churches, Victoria, 
 Choir, West Hawthorn Presbyterian Church. 
 Sunday School, West Hawthorn, 
 Young Men's Bible Class Union, 
 Young Women's Bible Class Union, 
 West Hawthorn Young Men's Bible Class, 
 Hawthorn Young Men's Bible Class, 
 Footscray Young Men's Bible Class, 
 St. George's Church, Geelong, Young Men's Bible 
 
 Class, 
 Sunday School Union of Victoria, 
 Scripture Campaign Council, 
 Evangelisation Society of Australasia, 
 Australasian Student Christian Movement, 
 Melbourne City Mission, 
 
 Young Men's Christian Association, Melbourne, 
 Young Men's Christian Association, Broken Hill, 
 Young Women's Christian Association, Melbourne, 
 Sudan United Mission, 
 Ragged Boys' Home and Mission, 
 Vestry, St. Hilary's Church of England, Kew.
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 327 
 
 Baptist Church, Camberwell, 
 
 Melbourne Ladies' Flower Mission, 
 
 Australasian Chapman-Alexander Bible Institute, 
 
 Chinese Mission of the Epiphany, 
 
 Victorian Alliance, 
 
 Victorian Homes for Aged and Infirm, 
 
 Deaf and Dumb Institute, 
 
 Ulster and Loyal Irishmen's Association, 
 
 Elizabeth Fry Retreat, 
 
 Chinese Consul-General, 
 Oakleigh Horticultural Society, 
 Presbyterian Football Association, 
 Presbyterian Cricket Association, 
 Eastern Suburbs' Cricket Association, 
 St. George's Cricket Club, Malvern, 
 Hawthorn Harriers' Club, 
 Hawthorn Rifle Club, 
 Coldstream Ladies' Combined Cricket and Hockey 
 
 Club, 
 Malvern State School, Tooronga Road,
 
 PUBLIC TRIBUTES. 
 
 From the Chairman of the Ormond College Council. 
 
 "As a member of the Council, Mr. Balfour was 
 greatly esteemed for his exceptional abilities, ripe ex- 
 perience, high conscientiousness and whole-hearted de- 
 votion to the cause of the Church. His presence at the 
 meetings was valued for his earnestness and sound 
 judgment and welcomed for his fairness and urbanity. 
 The Council, along with the Church and the whole 
 Community, recognise that a great man, has, in God's 
 providence, been removed from our midst, after a long 
 life of noble service in Church and State." 
 
 From Dr. John R. Matt, General Secretary, World 
 Student Movement. 
 "I regret very much to learn of the Home-going of 
 the Hon. James Balfour. I feel this as a personal loss. 
 He helped to open many important doors for me during 
 my first and second tours in Australasia. Moreover it 
 was due to his indispensable co-operation that we suc- 
 ceeded so early in the history of the Australasian Student 
 Christian movement in placing it on a good financial 
 footing. His sympathy and counsel were a great source 
 of strength to me " 
 
 From the Convener of the Board of Investment and 
 Finance of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria. 
 "For nearly thirty years the was an active and 
 honoured member of our Board. His wide experience 
 and ripe judgment were of great value in the service of 
 the Church which he loved so well. 
 
 328
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 329 
 
 "We join with all our fellow citizens in mourning the 
 death of so good a man, and we deeply sympathise with 
 you and your family, but we rejoice in the splendid 
 example of a Christian life which he set us and the fine 
 influence he leaves behind him." 
 
 From the Secretary of the Evangelisation Society of 
 Australasia. 
 
 "The Committee of the Evangelisation Society of 
 Australasia desire to place on record the heartfelt appre- 
 ciation of its late President, the Hon. James Balfour, 
 M.L.C., who as one of the founders of the Society in the 
 year 1883, ever took the deepest interest in its work. 
 
 "All through the thirty years he gladly gave of 
 his time, his influence, his prayer, and his money, for 
 the furtherance of the work of evangelisation. His 
 counsel was always wise and helpful and he followed 
 with liveliest interest all the work of the Society, getting 
 into touch with its evangelists, ever endeavouring to 
 encourage them, and to strengthen their hands." 
 
 Extract from the Minutes of the Presbytery of VVagga 
 W^ggti, N.S.W., August 27, 1913. 
 
 "The Presbytery of Wagga Wagga have placed on 
 record in our Minutes our sense of the profound loss 
 sustained by the Church of God, and by the Common- 
 wealth, in the death of the Hon. James Balfour, ruling 
 elder and wise counsellor, and leader of our Church in 
 Australia, and an honoured member and leader of the 
 Legislative Council of Victoria. 
 
 "As a Churchman he has been, for over sixty years, 
 a loyal and devoted member of our Church, and during 
 all these years he has given her of his best. In all her 
 courts he has richly aided her by his wise counsel, and
 
 330 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 in all her work for the social and spiritual regeneration 
 of men, for the extension and consolidation of the King- 
 dom of God in Australia, and for the great missionary 
 activities of the Church, he has given his time, his 
 abounding energies, his great talents, and his means, 
 ungrudgingly. No service for the Master whom he loved 
 was too great, and no lowly ministry to the humblest of 
 his fellows too mean or small for him to undertake and 
 carry through with earnestness and zeal. 
 
 "Our own Presbytery of Wagga Wagga has ever 
 been conscious of the deep debt of gratitude we owe to 
 him for his unfailing interest in all our labours, and 
 for his generous assistance and wise counsel in all our 
 undertakings for providing the ordinances of our holy 
 religion over the whole of our wide district. 
 
 "His wide outlook over the whole range of human 
 life and activity led him early in his career to place his 
 energies, his experience, and his knowledge of affairs at 
 the service of the State, so that for forty-seven years he 
 helped to guide the destinies of the country, and to 
 frame wise laws for the betterment of the people." 
 
 From the Editor of the Journal of Commerce. 
 
 "The whole State should mourn for one who has 
 done so much for the community and his individual 
 fellow men, both by deeds and an example of a life spent 
 in righteousness and honour." 
 
 From the Manager of The National Bank of Australasia, 
 Melbourne. 
 "May I express to you and the members of your 
 family our deep regret at the sad loss you have suffered 
 by the death of the Hon. James Balfour ! The high 
 esteem in which he was held by us, both as a client and 
 a most valuable citizen, moves us to this expression of 
 our feelings, in which the Chief Manager desires to be 
 earnestly joined."
 
 JAMES BALFOUR. 33^ 
 
 From the Organising Secretary of the Church of 
 England Men's Society. 
 
 "His was indeed a noble life, spent in the interests 
 of all good work. We all felt that he belonged to the 
 whole Church and that we all were the better for his life 
 and work." 
 
 From the Secretary of the Foreign Missions Committee 
 of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria. 
 
 "The Foreign Missions Committee desires to place 
 on record its deep sense of the loss sustained by our 
 Church in its Missionary operations through the death of 
 the Honourable James Balfour, M.L.C. 
 
 "By the closeness of his walk with God, by his keen 
 business ability, by his rare mental, power, and by the 
 great position which he occupied in the Community, 
 he was peculiarly fitted to be a trusted counsellor and 
 helper. In every part of the Church's work at home and 
 abroad he took the deepest personal interest, and he was 
 one of the founders and chief supporters of the Laymen's 
 Missionary Movement. He loved Jesus Christ, and gave 
 himself with all his soul to the extension of His King- 
 dom. For his Christlike life and influence the Com- 
 mittee gives thanks to God, and prays that the Divine 
 Grace may be vouchsafed to his sorrowing widow and 
 family. Mr. Balfour was our greatest Elder, and we 
 shall miss him sorely in every department of the 
 Church's work." 
 
 Resolution of the Council of Emm,anuel College, 
 Brisbane. 
 
 "The Council of Emmanuel College, having learned 
 of the death of the Honourable James Balfour, M.L.C, 
 agree to put on record an appreciation of his Christian 
 character and of the valuable services he has rendered 
 throughout a long life to the Presbyterian Church in
 
 332 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 Australia. All that concerned the welfare of the Church 
 and the good of the community lay near his heart, and, 
 as a devout and devoted servant of Christ, he ungrudg- 
 ingly used his gifts in their service. His deep interest 
 in young men, and especially in students, combined with 
 his desire to maintain a high educational standard for the 
 Christian ministry, made him a warm and generous sup- 
 porter of the educational institutions of the Church." 
 
 Resolution adopted by Council of Churches, Victoria. 
 
 "That this Council hereby places on record its 
 profound sense of the great loss to the whole Church and 
 State occasioned by the decease of the Hon. James 
 Balfour; and expresses its admiration of his unique 
 character and service as a Christian patriot, politician 
 and philanthropist, and its appreciation of his consistent 
 support in every way of the work of the Council for 
 very many years, as one of its most honoured members, 
 and as its Vice-President at the time of his death. 
 
 "This Council humbly records its deep thankful- 
 ness to Almighty God for such a life, and reverently 
 commends the bereaved wife and family to His succour 
 and consolation." 
 
 The Acting Consul-General for China asked Mr. 
 H. R. Balfour to express to Mrs. Balfour his sincerest 
 sympathy not only on behalf of himself, but also on 
 behalf of the whole of the Chinese of Melbourne, for, 
 he said, "Mr. Balfour has been very good to us." 
 
 The Consul-General for China in the Commonwealth 
 of Australia wrote from China : "Our people in Australia 
 lost a best friend in the late Hon. J. Balfour."
 
 Memorials. 
 
 The following is an extract from an account published 
 in "The Messenger," February 19th, 191 5 : — 
 
 "In the new Presbyterian Assembly Hall, Melbourne, 
 the memorial of the Hon. James Balfour, M.L.C., has 
 taken a beautiful and enduring form, which will be ap- 
 preciated not only by Presbyterians who knew his many- 
 sided qualities, all devoted to the service of God, but 
 also by the general Christian public, who will recall 
 his generous support of every good cause and his won- 
 derful personal influence, which is passing down and 
 insensibly affecting the generations rising up : — 
 
 The Moderator's Chair and desk forms the central 
 feature of the Assembly Hall, and is designed on the 
 lines of a Bishop's Throne, without, of course, the 
 canopy and other features of episcopal architecture. 
 Three seats are provided, the centre one being for the 
 Moderator. The whole of the work is carried out in 
 best Tasmanian figured Blackwood. The back of the 
 seats is carried up 10 ft. above the platform with carved 
 tracery and central gable in the style of Gothic archi- 
 tecture harmonising with the Hall itself. The desk 
 in front of the triple seat is of similar character, stand- 
 ing nearly 5 feet above the platform. The central 
 panel bears an inscription in raised Gothic lettering 
 carved in solid panel as follows : — 
 
 'To the Glory of God and in loving memory of 
 the Hon. James Balfour, M.L.C., an Elder for 54 
 years of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria, who 
 died 24th August, 1913. Presented by his widow 
 and family'." 
 
 338
 
 334 JAMES BALFOUR. 
 
 Memorial Window. 
 
 The following is an extract from an account pub- 
 lished in "The Southern Cross" July 9th, 1915 : 
 
 "On Sunday morning last a stained-glass v/indow 
 was unveiled in the West Hawthorn Presbyterian 
 Church, of which Mr. Balfour had been an elder for the 
 last seventeen years of his life. The window represents the 
 Sower sowing the seed ; beneath the figure is the text : 
 'He that soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully,' 
 and the inscription : 'To the Glory bf God and in 
 memory of the Honourable James Balfour, M.L.C. 
 Died August 24th, 1913.' 
 
 "The Church was crowded, and the service, con- 
 ducted by the Right Revd. the Moderator of the Presby- 
 terian Church (the Revd. W. H. Cooper), was of a very 
 interesting character. By special request, Dr. Fitchett 
 gave the address, and took as his subject the 15th Psalm, 
 which, he said, Mr. Balfour had translated into terms of 
 daily secular life. . . . James Balfour was essentially 
 a good soldier of Jesus Christ. When any interest of 
 Christ's cause was threatened — say, the Sabbath or 
 the Bible — he felt exactly as a good soldier feels when 
 his flag is assailed. He would fight for it, give up his 
 ease and his money for it; if needs be, he would have 
 died for it. . . . Through his whole life there ran a 
 golden strain of care for the young which can hardly 
 find a parallel. ... A busy merchant, a leader in public 
 affairs, he yet kept sacredly in his life a space for the 
 service of young men . . . The genius of the sculptor 
 is great ; he can transform a block of white, dead marble 
 into an image of almost breathing energy and beauty, 
 as in the 'Moses' or the 'David' of Michael Angelo; but 
 it is a still greater work to take a boy's character and 
 shape it by spiritual forces to a life of purity and 
 strength and goodness."
 
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