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Schaw Is removal from Bothwe ll was recommended to the Government .
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As far as Cockerill was concerned the affair was finished , but
for other members of the Literary Society it was not so ;
the prob lem of
Schaw still 'remained' , the Arnott incident still smouldered, and , although
few people in Bothwell realized it, a firebrand , its true character well
concealed till now , was in their midst in the person of Wigmore .
This
gentleman , of whom little is known before his appointment to Bothwell as
Chaplain to the Church of England, possessed a highly excitable temperament
which was unable to let matters lie.
Elected Secretary to the Society
'
a short time before in lieu of Garrett , who had retired after many years '
faithful service , Wigmore so irritat ed Hall by his inefficiency that the
latter often felt compelled to assume many secretarial duties himself, as
he had done on Septemb er 8 when he laid the business of the meeting before
the Chairman .
It was on this occasion, too, that Wigmore began to reveal
a little of the intense antagonism , previously masked in friendship , which
he felt for Garrett and Hal l.
erupted.
On September 16 this hostility finally
Asked by the Treasurer , A. McDowall, to give him a voucher for
the repayment of five guineas to Hall for the purchase of library books ,
he became violent ly insul ti_ng , and , speaking in language incomprehensib le
to others , refused to do so .
When requisitioned by a quorum of the
committee to call a general meeting for October 5 to consider the contents
of a note received by the Treasurer from the Secretary , he ignored the
request , whereupon copies of the same requisition, the date transferred
to October 7, were put up in all the usual places including the church
door . These he tore down ; finally written circulars were sent to al l
memb ers to announce the meeting .
Although previously moderate in his
statements , he now began to make such violent denunciations from the
pulpit of St . Luke's that F.S. Horne of Ratho complained to the Government
and withdrew all connection with the church . 2 5
In addition he wrote
extraordinary letters to the Colonial Times published on September 28 and
October 5, 1n which he inveighed against Horne and Hall and advocated the
extinction of the Literary Society.
To what extent Schaw incited Wigmore
to such behaviour it is impossible to say, but there is no doubt that the
latter strongly defended Schaw against his attackers .
Schaw , of course,
did not expect his ally to do all the fighting but engaged in his own
particular line of attack .
On Septemb er 21, 1841, he wrote a letter to
Wigmore requesting that he put down in writing a statement al leged to have
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Colonial Times , Sept . 28, Oct . 5, 1841.
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