[W]hen Baird and Hardie, the Chartist leaders, were put on trial for sedition, my father was beside them most of the time. Their prosecution was one of the great sensations of the day, and when the couple were condemned to death, after a trial replete in emotional outbursts and dramatic incidents, deep feeling was aroused all over the country. Their execution was arranged to take place at Stirling. On the fateful last day my father journeyed through to take his farewell of them, and was with them right up to the moment before they went to the scaffold. I remember well my father telling me about them. Baird was a man of deep religious instincts, and his last act before he took the short journey betwixt the ante-room and the gallows was to thank the prison jailers for their kindness during his long confinement. “I am going from this place to another world," he added calmly. “In a moment or two I shall have passed from this life to the life beyond. But I am well content—I know that this dark night shall see the dawn of freedom for all men.” Then, simply and devoutly, in the presence of my father and his few friends, who were, of course, profoundly moved, he turned and asked all to sing the fifth hymn at the end of the Paraphrases: “The Hour of My Departure’s Come.” The hour of my departure’s come; I hear the voice that calls me home: At last, O Lord! let trouble cease, And let thy servant die in peace. The race appointed I have run; The combat’s o’er, the prize is won; And now my witness is on high, And now my record’s in the sky. I come, I come, at thy command, I give my spirit to thy hand; Stretch forth thine everlasting arms, And shield me in the last alarms. The hour of my departure’s come; I hear the voice that calls me home: Now, O my God! let trouble cease; Now let thy servant die in peace. My father was timmer tinned. Struggling with his feelings, he started the parting hymn, and it was sung steadily by all whilst Baird and Hardie, who had been taken out of the ante-room meanwhile, passed stolidly to their death. << less