1833. office, as ordained ministers of the church of Scotland. Moreover, although chapels of ease, properly so called, did not begin to come into existence till after the middle of last century, there were then, and there had always been, chapelries or private foundations which had no proper benefices attached to them, and with which the court of teinds and plantation of kirks had never had anything whatever to do. One of these was a chapel at Foot of Dee, which was not erected into a parish church till so recently as the year 1828; and yet the ministers of that chapel, from 1720 till 1782, had a seat in the general assembly. In defiance, however, of all these considerations, both of fact and law, dominant moderatism denied to the ministers of chapels of ease the ruling powers of their office, both in their own congregations and in the superior courts of the church. Crippled and degraded by these offensive and injurious restrictions, chapels of ease had neither multiplied as otherwise they might have done, nor had they been in circumstances to confer, upon the localities to which they belonged, that amount of benefit which a more enlightened and a more constitutional policy would have enabled them to impart. In the course of the hundred years which preceded 1833, the population of Scotland had been doubled; and to meet the religious wants of this additional million of inhabitants, the whole amount of provision which had been made in connection with the established church was limited to forty churches, erccted under a special act of parliament, and sixty-two chapels of ease. It is a striking evidence of the urgent need which existed for a more ample provision, that during the century in question, about five hundred places of worship had been erected outside the pale of the national church. Nothing but the oppressive and mischievous policy which had been pursued under the ascendency of moderatism, in regard to chapels of ease, had hindered CHAP. V. The ministers at Foot of of the chapel Dee, sat in the Assem bly from 1720 to 1782 During the ceding 1833, the popula tion of Scot century pre land had doubled, while only sixty-two chapels and forty had been Establish churches added to the ment. in danger of losing its title to the name of National: sequent removing ties of chapel ministers. CHAP. V. private liberality from doing within the establishment what 1883. it had been doing among the seceders. The time was now more than come for having that hinderance withdrawn. In the vigorous efforts that were making to overthrow the church establishment, it was impossible for the blindest not to see the danger of having allowed the population to run so far a-head of that limited provision for their religious The Church instruction, which the national church supplied. With its high-handed patronage in the parish churches, on the one haud, and its unconstitutional and degrading treatment of and the con- the chapels of ease, on the other, it had been fast losing its necessity of title to the name of a national church. To repair these the disabili evils, it was not more necessary to revive the principle of non-intrusion than it was to put an end to those pernicious restrictions which had operated so powerfully in keeping down the number, and impairing the usefulness of chapels of ease. If the one measure was demanded by the necessity that lay upon the church, of strengthening her stakes, the other was not less demanded by the equal necessity of lengthening her cords. Thus rooted once more in the esteem and attachment of the people, and bringing the longneglected outfield of her more unwieldy parishes within the range of her ministrations, she would have nothing to fear. Pursuing such a course of constitutional reformation and practical efficiency, it was no presumption to hope that her ways might please God, and that He would make even her enemies to be at peace with her. Under the influence of views like these, many synods and presbyteries of the church had sent up overtures to the assembly of 1833, praying that chapels of ease might be placed on a more favourable footing, and that their ministers might be relieved from their existing disabilities. Tho chapel ministers themselves, not being represented in the house, craved to be heard by counsel, at the bar of the CHAP. V. ministers heard by sel, Mr. Dunlop, at the bar of their coun 1833. assembly, in support of their claims. The motion made by Dr. Cook, to refuse this most reasonable request, was negatived by a majority of twenty-a significant hint that the wand of the moderate leader's power was all but broken. The counsel, whose mouth this decision opened, was Mr. Alexander Dunlop, a gentleman whose name will often occur in the sequel of this history. It has been one of the marked The chapel distinctions of the church of Scotland, to have enjoyed, in most of her great struggles, the services of eminent lawyers: men who had studied her constitution and history with all the accuracy, and yet with none of the prejudices of their profession. Among these, there are, perhaps, few or none to whom posterity will assign a higher or more honourable place than to the individual now named. None, however, save those who were themselves called to take an active share in guiding the church through all the perils and perplexities of the ten years' conflict, can fully understand how much of the dignity and consistency of the church's course was due to him. the Assem bly. Motion in favour of Brown, and the amend ment of Dr. Mr. Dunlop's able and luminous address from the bar 66 CHAP. V. whether without the intervention of a civil court the church 1833. could allow her ministers to exercise the spiritual functions of their office, it was well asked by a subsequent speaker, Speech of the "what it was the state gave a right to? Not," said he, Rev. Dr. Daniel Dr. Cook alters his and with difficulty carries it. "to the pastoral office-that was from the Lord Jesus As the debate proceeded, Dr. Cook found it expedient to amendment bring his motion a point closer to the wind still, by dropping out altogether the clause expressive of doubt as to the power of the church, and agreeing "to approve of the overtures, and appoint a committee to consider by what means their objects may be most effectually and extensively carried into execution." By this contrivance he saved, and no more than saved, himself from a second defeat; for when the division came, it assigned him a majority of four. In this manner did the coming events of 1834 cast their shadows before them in 1833. Our next chapter introduces us to the first assembly of the ten years' war. Speech of Rev. Dr. Dewar, Christian Instructor for June, 1833. Dr. Dewar adheres to the establishment, and is principal of one of the colleges at Aberdeen. CHAP. VI. THE ASSEMBLY OF 1834.-THE VETO LAW AND THE CHAPEL ACT. 1834. THE assembly of 1834 will long be memorable in the annals of the church of Scotland. Those who disapprove of the measures by the adoption of which that assembly was signalized may, perhaps, think of it only as the commencement of that disastrous decade of anxiety and agitation which terminated in the disruption. While those on the other hand, who recognize in these measures, the breaking forth again into life of the old reformation principles, which the founders of the church had laid deep in its constitution, and with which all that is best and noblest in its history is inseparably associated, will ever regard the assembly in which these principles reappeared as being worthy of all honour, not only for its own sake, but still more for having led the way in one of the most illustrious conflicts for the spirituality and the liberty of the church of Christ, of which any record can be found either in modern or in ancient times. The issues, indeed, that were destined to arise out of the movements then begun, were, perhaps, as little foreseen by the party that opposed as by that which promoted them. Had it been otherwise, it is hard to say whether the course of both might not have been different. If to have known beforehand the trials and difficulties, the losses and privations to which the steps they were about to take in vindicating great scriptural and constitutional principles of their church, would ultimately lead-if this knowledge might have thinned the ranks of the majority-it is surely a supposition, at least as charitable and not more extravagant that, had the minority foreseen how, through their agency, the power of CHAP. VI. The Assemwill be a bly of 1834 memorable epoch in the history of the Scottish Church. |