of capital. The very success which followed his earliest enterprises would lead him on to the adoption of others, some of which, as has been shown, proved total failures, causing great loss. Whether from this or from other causes is not now known, but at various periods of his business life he was much reduced in circumstances. He used to tell his friends that three times in his life he was thrown back on the world, and on each occasion could scarcely call himself worth anything. This surely was trading on too narrow a margin, too near the verge of bankruptcy, which, had it taken place, would have involved others in injury and suffering, and brought discredit on his Christian character. But with all his shortcomings, David Dale was a great and a good man. He did essential service to the commerce of his country, at a period when it required the impetus of such a mind. He was the friend of the working-classes, whom he provided with remunerative occupation, whilst he took delight in educating their children, and training them at his own expense, to habits of intelligence and industry. His unbounded benevolence endeared him to all classes of the people and his Christian character to the church of which he was an ornament. The following tribute to the memory of David Dale, from the pen of Dr. Wardlaw, appeared as an obituary notice in the "Glasgow Herald," of March 1806:—"The character of this good man comprehends in it so many points of distinguished excellence, that nothing more than an imperfect outline can here be inserted. He had not in the outset of life enjoyed the advantage of a polished or liberal education, but the want of it was greatly compensated by a large share of natural sagacity and good sense, and extensive and discriminating knowledge of human character, and by a modest, gentle, dignified simplicity of manner, peculiar to himself, and which secured to him the respect and attention of every company, and of men of every rank of life. A zealous promoter of the general industry and manufactures of his country, his schemes of business were extensive and liberal, conducted with singular prudence and perseverance, and, by the blessing of God, were crowned with such abundant success as served to advance his rank in society, and to furnish him with the means of that diffusive benevolence which rendered his life a public blessing, and shed a lustre on his character, rarely exemplified in any age of the world. Impelled by the all-powerful influence of that truth which he firmly believed and publicly taught, constrained by the love and animated by the example of his beloved Master, his ear was never shut to the cry of distress; his private charities were boundless; and every public institution which had for its object the alleviation or prevention of human misery in this world, or in the world to come, received from him the most liberal support and encouragement. For while the leading object of his heaven-born soul was the diffusion of the light of truth in the earth, he gladly embraced every opportunity of becoming, like the patriarch of old, 'eyes to the blind,' 'feet to the lame,' and to 'cause the widow's heart to sing for joy.' In private life his conduct, actuated by the same principles, was equally exemplary, for he was a kind parent, a generous friend, a wise and faithful counsellor, 'a lover of hospitality,' 'a lover of good men,' 'sober, just, holy, temperate;' and now, having 'thus occupied with his talents,' 'he hath entered into the joy of his Lord.'"
In "The Evening Star," a London paper, of March 22, 1806, appeared a similar eulogium, written by the editor, Dr. Alexander Tilloch, a native of Glasgow, and author of various publications—literary, scientific, and religious. "His life (said this writer) was a life of benevolence and extensive charity, without
