CARLSE, JAMES (1798–1855), engraver, was born in Shoreditch in 1798, and was apprenticed to Mr. Tyrrel, an architectural engraver. At the expiration of his term he practised landscape and figure engraving without further instruction, so that he may almost be said to have been untaught. In 1840 he commenced a work on Windsor Castle, which he discontinued from want of support. He engraved a good deal for the annuals and afterwards for the 'Art Journal,' and some architectural plates for Mr. Weale's publications, Stuart's 'Antiquities of Athens,' Chambers's 'Civil Architecture,' &c. Among his other engravings are Benjamin West's ' First Essay in Art,' after E. M. Ward, and 'Oliver Cromwell in Conference with Milton,' after a drawing by himself. He died in August 1855.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists, 1878; Ottley's Supplement to Bryan's Dictionary.]
CARLYLE, ALEXANDER, D.D. (1722–1805), Scotch divine, was born on 26 Jan. 1722 at Prestonpans, Midlothian, of which parish his father, William Carlyle, was minister. The father lived on terms of intimacy with the gentry of the district, by whom much notice was taken of the son. Among their neighbours was the famous Colonel Gardiner. Carlyle matriculated at the university of Edinburgh on 1 Nov. 1735, and in the following year he was an eye-witness of the escape of Robertson and the Porteous riots described in the 'Heart of Midlothian.' In obedience to his father's wishes he studied for the church, and received his A.M. degree from the university of Edinburgh 14 April 1743. A small bursary obtained for him by his father from the Duke of Hamilton aided in enabling him to spend two winters at the university of Glasgow and a third at that of Leyden, where he entered 17 Nov. 1746 (Leyden Students, Index Soc. p. 18). He was one of the volunteers embodied in 1745 for the defence of Edinburgh from the rebel force under Prince Charles Edward, and he witnessed the flight of the king's force after the battle of Prestonpans. He was licensed for the ministry 8 July 1746, but declined an offer of presentation to Cockbumspath in February 1747. On 2 Aug. 1748 he was ordained minister of Inveresk, near Edinburgh, a charge which he retained until his death. He co-operated with his friends, John Home the author and Robertson the historian, in supporting and leading in the church of Scotland and its general assembly the moderate party, which opposed the abolition of patronage and favoured a somewhat latitudinarian theoloey. He was intimate with David Hume, Adam Smith, and the other Scottish literary celebrities of his time, including Smollett and Armstrong, who lived in London, and he has given in the 'Autobiography' accounts and anecdotes of most of them. He is said (Kay, Edinburgh Portraits, ed. 1877, i. 67 n.) to have written the prologue to Charles Hart's 'Herminius and Aspasia,' acted in 1754, and he had made for John Home several transcripts of 'Douglas' before its performance in Edinburgh in 1756. He not only attended the rehearsals of 'Douglas,' but, though with some reluctance, was present in the Edinburgh theatre on the third night of its performance (14 Dec. 1756), and attracted additional attention by expelling some young men from the boxes where he sat for rudeness to ladies whom he accompanied. The public performance of a play written by a minister of the kirk raised an ecclesiastical storm in Scotland [see Home, John], and to the controversy thus provoked Carlyle contributed the anonymous pamphlet, 'An Argument to prove that the Tragedy of " Douglas " ought to be publicly burnt by the hands of the Hangman,' the irony of which was mistaken by some of its readers for a serious condemnation of the play. When the attendance of the upper classes began to flag, Carlyle brought a humbler class to the theatre by his broadside, hawked about the streets, with the sensational heading, 'A Full and True History of the bloody Tragedy of "Douglas" as it is now to be seen acting in the Theatre of the Canongate.' Carlyle was conspicuous among the ministers of the kirk who were summoned before their respective presbyteries to answer the charge of having entered a theatre to witness the performance of a stage-play. While professing regret for having unwittingly given offence, and promising not to offend again, Carlyle maintained before the presbytery of Dalkeith that the matter was one not for public but for private investigation and admonition. The presbytery nevertheless relegated him to be rebuked by the synod of Lothian and Tweeddale. Carlyle's friends made a strong muster at the meeting of the synod, which by a small majority accepted his contention before the presbytery that the matter demanded 'privy censure or brotherly conference,' while censuring him severely for his play-going and enjoining him to abstain from it in future (11 May 1757). On appeal by the presbytery to the general assembly the decision of the synod was affirmed by a majority of 117 to 39 (24 May). This
