must withdraw to a separate place of meeting, in order to separate themselves in an orderly manner from the Establishment, and that they were not responsible for the consequences of a separation forced upon them "through interference with conscience, the dishonour done to Christ's crown, and the rejection of His sole and supreme authority as King in His Church." Having read this document Dr Welsh laid it upon the table, and then turning to the Lord High Commissioner (who occupied the throne bench, surrounded by the great officers of the Crown, though he had not yet presented his commission), he bowed to him and then moved toward the door. He was instantly followed by Dr Chalmers, Dr Gordon, Dr M'Donald, Dr Candlish, Dr Cunningham, Mr Campbell, Mr Dunlop all the leaders of the party. It was a moment of intense anxiety; for up to this time it had been a matter of speculation how many would leave the Church. It was said the advisers of the Crown had expressed their belief that not more than sixty or seventy would go, and that the Church would be well rid of such restless spirits. They could not comprehend quiet country ministers giving up their pleasant manses and comfortable stipends, and plunging themselves and their families into poverty for points which it required a metaphysical lawyer to understand. But when almost the whole Non-intrusion party, which occupied the left side of the Moderator's chair, rose in a mass and began to move toward the door, there was profound astonishment, dismay, even alarm. Out they slowly moved, one after another-who will divine the thoughts of so many hearts ?—and when they emerged upon the street the crowd received them with a cheer. When they were all gone, one side of the house was nearly a blank, and those who remained sat for a time silent and half stupified at the lamentable Secession which had taken place.

CHAPTER XXX.

WHEN the last of the Seceders had disappeared from the church, and the commotion caused by their exodus had subsided, the roll of the members of Assembly was made up. Principal Macfarlane was chosen Moderator, and then the Marquis of Bute presented his commission together with a letter from the Queen, and so the Assembly was constituted.

The Queen's letter began in the old style-" Right Reverend and well beloved! we greet you well;" but its tone was different from any letter which had been received for more than a century. "In the present state of the Church," it said, 66 we desire to address you with more than usual earnestness and anxiety.. The faith of our Crown is pledged to uphold you in the full enjoyment of every privilege which you can justly claim, but you will bear in mind that the rights and property of an Established Church are conferred by law, and the ministers of religion claiming the sanction of law in defence of their privileges, are specially bound by their sacred calling to be examples of obedience. The act ratifying the Confession of Faith and settling Presbyterian Church government in Scotland, was adopted at the Union, and is now the Act of the British Parliament. The settlement thus fixed cannot be annulled by the will or declaration of any number of individuals those who are dissatisfied with the terms of this settlement may renounce it for themselves; but the union of the Church of Scotland with the State is indissoluble while the statutes remain unrepealed which recognise the Presbyterian Church as the Church established by law within the kingdom of Scotland. The Church of Scotland occupying its true position in friendly alliance with the State, is justly entitled to expect the aid of parliament in removing any doubts which may have arisen with respect to the right construction of the statutes relating to the admission of ministers. You may safely confide in the wisdom of parliament, and we shall readily give our assent to any measure which the legislature may pass for the purpose of securing to the people the full privilege of objection, and to the Church judicatories the exclusive right of judgment." And then it added, with reference to the appointment of the Marquis of Bute as Lord High Commissioner, and probably also to the possibility of his being required to dissolve the Assembly in certain eventualities "He possesses our full authority for the exercise of our royal prerogative in all matters relating to the present Assembly, in which, in obedience to our instructions to him, he may be called upon to act for us on our behalf." Before the letter was read, the Secession had taken place. The Government had been firm though conciliatory to the end; but the Non-intrusionists had been equally resolute-yielding, "no, not a hair's-breadth "—and now they were without the pale of the Establishment, but happily not beyond the reach of the law.

The Assembly must undo the work of the last nine years, in order to bring itself into harmony with the constitution. It instructed presbyteries to proceed in the admission of ministers as before the veto was passed, but, on the theory that the veto was void from the beginning, it did not expressly rescind it. It sustained the commission from the deposed ministers of Strathbogie, thereby acknowledging them as ministers of the Church, notwithstanding their deposition, on the ground that their deposition had never been valid. Some wished them to be formally reponed, but, according to the presbyterian theory of orders, it did not greatly matter. Ordination does not confer any apostolic grace-deposition does not deprive of itand if the Assembly of 1843 concurred with the courts of law that the seven brethren had never been legally ejected from their office, it was enough for them to declare that they were still in possession. It is only the believer in the apostolic succession who shudders at the thought of deposed ministers being ministers still. All the other clergymen who had been stripped of their licence or deposed simply for taking refuge in the courts of law were restored. The Acts of Assembly 1833 and 1834, admitting the ministers of parliamentary churches and chapels to the privileges of parish ministers, were declared to have been incompetently passed, and therefore of necessity repealed. Thus the handles of the clock were put back, and the Church was to start anew as if these nine years had never been.

On leaving St Andrew's Church the seceding clergy moved in procession to a large hall which had been provided for them in the northern suburbs of the city, called Tanfield. There Dr Chalmers was chosen Moderator of the first Free Assembly. It was agreed that all the ministers who signed the protest should be members of the Court. As they had left their brethren in St Andrew's Church for the purpose of considering in what way they could best separate from the Establishment, a committee was appointed to accomplish this end. They produced the Act of Separation and Deed of Demission, which was signed by all the clergy present-hundreds of parish ministers thus signing away their manses, stipends, and privileges as a parochial clergy. But undaunted at the thought of having so many ministers to support out of the bounty of the people, the Assembly undertook not only this, but to carry on all the missionary schemes of the Church it had abandoned. It had enthusiastic faith in the generosity of

the congregations of the new-born Church, and the result has shown that its faith was not misplaced.

On the 24th of May the Assembly entered upon the consideration of the protest which had been left by Seceders; and Dr Cook moved that those who had subscribed had ceased by their own act to be ministers or elders of the Church of Scotland. Before the matter was disposed of there was laid upon the table the Deed of Demission subscribed on the previous day in the Free Assembly, and this completed the Act of Secession. No one proposed the Seceders should be excommunicated or deposed, as had been done in other

cases.

A careful analysis of the members of Assembly shows that it contained 149 convocationists and 187 non-convocationists, so that had a vote been taken for "disruption" in a full house it would have been lost by thirty-eight votes.

When the Secession had taken place it was found to have swept into the ranks of dissent more than a third of the clergy of the Established Church. On the 18th of May 1842 the whole clergy of the Church, including quoad sacra ministers, was 1203. Of these 451 seceded, and 752 remained. When we look to the composition of the 451 Seceders, we find that 162 of them were quoad sacra, and only 289 were parish ministers, while 635 parish and only 117 quoad sacra ministers were left behind. Looked at in any light, it was a most lamentable Secession. The quoad sacra ministers in general lost nothing by the Secession; many of them gained prodigiously; they were borne out of the Church on the shoulders of the people. The city clergy, in like manner, gained more than they lost by the change. They were regarded with the tender and almost worshipful interest which belongs to the confessors and apostles of a new Church, and the offerings of the pious more than compensated for the scanty endowments of the State. But more than two hundred country ministers sacrificed almost everything for the opinions they had espoused. With their wives and little ones they were obliged to tear themselves away from their manses and manse gardens; from the snug study, the laboratory of spiritual thoughts; from the rose bush on the wall, which had been trained by their own hand; the shady walk, associated with so many memories of the past; the shrubs and trees which by every successive tier of branches chronicled only too faithfully the passing years of their life and ministry. The parish church

they must surrender to strangers-hirelings, as they thought, who would never care for the flock as they had done. Their stipends they could no longer levy upon the heritors, and though not rich, feel that with thrifty management and selfdenial they could defy poverty. All they had now to depend upon were the contributions of a people who had never hitherto given one thought as to the support of their ministers. It was easy perhaps to sign the Deed of Demission in the midst of an excited Assembly, but it was hard to go home and be compelled to explain to their families that they must leave house and hall, and cast themselves homeless and penniless on the world. But almost all who had pledged themselves to secede had seceded. There were a few recusants: some had themselves thought better of the matter; others were concussed into a change of mind by their wives, who were not disposed to see themselves and their families ruined for an idea. But these were the exceptions. In nearly every case the enthusiasm of the minister pervaded his household, and they left all sorrowing, yet rejoicing. Never perhaps in the history of any Church has so great a voluntary sacrifice been made for so slender a principle—but yet not too slender for the Scottish ecclesiastical conscience to apprehend and exalt into a question of life and death.

The secession among the laity was probably proportional with that among the clergy, and thus more than a third of the whole membership of the Church had left it. In the great majority of cases, the movements of the people were regulated by those of their ministers. Where the minister seceded the great bulk of his congregation generally seceded with him; where the minister remained faithful to the Establishment the flock remained quietly within the old fold. It was a splendid testimony at once to the power of pulpit teaching, and to the legitimate influence which the clergy had got over the hearts of their people by faithful services. There were some churches which on Sunday the 14th of May were crowded with worshippers, and on Sunday the 21st were almost tenantlessperhaps shut for want of a preacher to fill the pulpit. There were others where you could not have observed the difference. There was in this respect also marked differences between different provinces of the country. Curious enough, the Secession was strongest in the region of the highest refinement on the one hand, and in that of the deepest ignorance and superstition on the other. Among cities the Secession.