MEMOIR OF JOHN MACDOUGALL, P. PROV. G. M. AND C. S.

P. PROV. G. M. JOHN MACDOUGALL was born in the village of Kilbarchan, Renfrewshire, in the year 1806. After going through the ordinary routine of a village school education, he was apprenticed to the weaving business; but his strong dislike to this avocation induced him soon to forsake it, and join the copper-plate printing business, in a print work near the village. Here he continued for seven years, when his taste for knowledge lured him to the more agreeable, though less lucrative, profession of teaching, for which he had qualified himself by assiduity after the labours of the day were finished

About this time he became connected with a debating society which existed in the village, and his association with those kindred spirits who met for improving the mind, conduced in no ordinary degree to expand and elevate his literary views. The fruits reaped by him from this obscure institution have enabled him on many occasions, both in public and in private, to deliver essays on various subjects, namely, Education, Political Economy, Improvement of the Mind, &c. Tired with the laborious and irksome duties of a village schoolmaster,-"teaching the young idea how to shoot,"-he returned to his former employment of copper-plate printer, till the year 1832, when he married in Johnstone, Renfrewshire, and remained in that place till 1836. It was while in Johnstone that his active and talented mind found ample space for vigorous exercise. His alacrity, disinterestedness, and consistency in the many public duties he was frequently required to perform, in obedience to the pressing requests of the public, won him the lasting friendship of all ranks and classes of the community.

In the exercise of his zeal in the public service, he appropriated much of his time to the organization of scientific and useful societies, exertions which were properly appreciated by the intelligent portion of the inhabitants, who, anxious to testify their gratitude invited him to a public supper, and presented him with a valuable silver patent lever watch and gold appendages, previous to his leaving the town to enter upon the important duties of an officer in His Majesty's Customs, Greenock, to which he had been appointed. Scarcely was he domiciled in that town before his intellectual acquirements were discovered and called into requisition, and he was induced to deliver lectures, and speak at soirées and other meetings. In this way time rolled on until Odd Fellowship made its advent into Scotland; but the fact of a friendly society assuming such a queer name, made the "canny Scot" pause ere he embraced its principles. The merits of the Order were keenly scrutinized, its principles in a short time were under review, and many, who at the first laughed and jeered at the benevolent Institution, were at last convinced of the erroneousness of their opinions, and joined the society. The subject of this memoir was one of those individuals, and after a careful VOL. 8-No. 1-A.

analysis of the principles of Odd Fellowship, he applied for admission, and was initiated in the Highland Mary Lodge, Greenock, on the 2nd of March, 1840. He rapidly and successively passed through the various chairs; and in December, 1841, he was unanimously elected Prov. G. M. of the District.

His conduct while passing through the various offices was characterized by mildness of temper and urbanity of manners, which endeared him to every officer and brother. We cannot do better than give the following extract from a speech, delivered by P. V. G. King, of the Highland Mary Lodge, at the anniversary of the Loyal Bute Lodge, held in Rothesay, August, 1843. As a proof of the respect in which the subject of this memoir is held, P. V. G. King, in proposing the health of C. S. John Macdougall, who was unavoidably absent, commented at some length on the services of that gentleman in the cause of Odd Fellowship, and in enumerating the various offices that he had filled, remarked, "that when in the arduous discharge of his duties of fosterfather, either to his mother Lodge, or the District, while endeavouring to bring up all, and sundry, in the fear, nurture, and admonition of the rules and regulations by which the Order is governed, he did not exactly guide himself by the laws, but in combination with them, acted on the maxim of Solomon,- Train up child in the way he should walk, and when he his old he will not depart from it.' When the rod of correction had to be applied to refractory members, he did not adhere to the maxim, 'spare not the rod,* but applied it sparingly, though, at the same time, judiciously, and gained thereby, as the saying is, 'golden opinions.'

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In February, 1842, he was appointed, at a general meeting of the District, to attend the special meeting held in Manchester, regarding the travelling system; and was subsequently elected to represent the District at the Wigan A. M. C., where he was elected a member of the Appeal Committee, and deemed worthy by that assembly to have his portrait taken for the Magazine, an honour, we believe, the first, and only one, that has been conferred on a deputy from Scotland. He was elected C. S. of the District

in June, 1843.

In the course of his professional duties he was called to repair to Bowmore, the capital of the island of Islay, one of the western Hebrides, in the beginning of 1843. Deeply imbued with a knowledge of the benefits arsing from the Order, he immediately commenced to form plans for planting the banner of Friendship, Love, and Truth on the heath-covered mountains of the western isles, and that too among a people who knew nothing of Masonry, Odd Fellowship, or indeed of any friendly society whatever. His efforts were successful. Thanks to the worthy P. Prov. G. M. and C. S. for the formation of the first Lodge of the M. U., in fact of the first friendly society in that part of Scotland. We are happy to say that the John Francis Campbell Lodge, Bowmore, Islay, is prospering. To show the gratitude of the members of that Lodge, they have presented their fosterfather with an elegant gold guard.

As a speaker, P. Prov. G. M. Macdougall manifests a considerable vivacity of conception, with a corresponding chasteness and beauty of style, imparting as it does an interest to his speeches, which yields much enjoyment to the hearer, the effect being much enhanced by a pleasing delivery. Frank and unostentatious in his manner, with a character that has neither been tarnished by political tergiversation, nor blotted by moral obliquity, he is what we would term a bona fide specimen of a true Odd Fellow; and from what has been here stated it will be seen that he is an individual who justly stands in the proud position which he now occupies, that the confidence and esteem of the Order are not misplaced, and that the honours he now wears have been deservedly conferred on him.

At the time that this memoir is written, the subject of it is absent, superintending Her Majesty's Customs, at the seat of our ancient Caledonian kings, namely, the farfamed Inverlochy of Sir Walter Scott's "Lord of the Isles," now better known by the modern name of Fort William, situated in the no less famed in song district of Lochaber. When he returns, either for a temporary or permanent residence in Greenock, a splendid gold watch will be presented to him, which is already in the hands of a committee of subscribers belonging to the Lodges in Greenock. This mark of respect says much for the high estimation in which P. P. G. M. and C. S. Macdougall is held by his brethren in Greenock.

THE STABILITY OF THE ORDER.

THE Order of Odd Fellowship is yet but an experiment, and the magnitude of the scale on which it is conducted only renders that experiment the more arduous. It, therefore, becomes an imperative duty in every member to consider the stability of the Order. Much has been written in the pages of the Magazine on the subject, and although no general rules can be laid down where individual circumstances differ so much, still it is absolutely necessary that our members should take the matter into their most serious consideration. These remarks have been called forth by a document which has lately come under our notice, and which is subjoined below. It appears that His Grace the Duke of Northumberland has been induced to take an interest in the affair, and has caused a case to be laid before an Actuary of great experience in such matters. It must be a source of encouragement to our members that parties of station and influence are thus exerting themselves in behalf of the Institution, and though they may be said to be, in some measure, consulting their own interest in so doing, we should hail with gladness any assistance in the cause we have at heart. Their can be no doubt that, if the principles of our Order were carried out to the extent of which they are capable, there would be but little need of a legal provision for the poor. We are now solving the problem which has hitherto puzzled our greatest political economists, and teaching the working-classes of this country to rely upon their own resources, inviting them to claim as a right that which they have hitherto received from the cold and reluctant hand of charity. It is, consequently, incumbent upon those who have gained influence by wealth and station to encourage by every means in their power such societies as ours. It is but too true that there are very many of those in an elevated position of life who feel as little interest in the welfare of their fellow-men as if they occupied a lower scale in creation, and such being the case, we ought to make honourable mention of those who lend their aid in promoting the laudable objects of their countrymen who have been less bounteously dealt with than themselves. Uninfluenced as our society is by the exciting commotions which are engendered by religious and political discussions, we are willing to receive good from whatever quarter it may offer itself. We do not look so much to the instrument as to the purpose, and thus it is that whilst other bodies have been shattered and destroyed by the rude shocks attendant upon such as are swayed by the opinions of the day, our own, being based upon the adamantine rock of philanthropy, has stood proudly secure and impregnable to the assaults of its invaders. The man of rank who looks beyond his own circle to sympathise with and assist his brethren ought to receive our warm acknowledgments, and his exertions merit our most favourable regards. Believing that the Duke of Northumberland has been actuated solely by a desire to increase the stability of our Institution, we consider him entitled to the thanks of our members, and that the document which has emanated through his means is worthy of deliberate and attentive perusal. We therefore, now lay before our readers a copy which has been kindly forwarded to us by P. V. G. Robert D. Ferguson, of the Percy Lodge, Alnwick :--Alnwick Castle, August 28th, 1843.

SIR, I HAVE lately had some correspondence with the Rothbury Lodges of Odd Fellows, and feeling convinced that it would be impossible to carry their rules into effect, from the smallness of the weekly sums paid to the Lodge, and the extent of the