of the go upon this question most crimi. nal. taught him that they had at least a full share of his CHAP. XL. own characteristic tenacity of purpose and strength of will, the same facts not less unequivocally condemn the inaction of her majesty's ministers. The "dolce far niente" of Lord Melbourne, was to the full as indefensible as the ill-advised activity of his political opponent. Independent of the obligation which lay The inaction upon the government of the country to make the vernment attempt at least to rescue a great national institution from the ruin which was so evidently impending over it, it might well have been thought that a liberal and reforming government would have shown greater deference to the national will, and greater sympathy with a movement for the vindication of popular privileges, than were evinced by the apathy and unconcern with which they treated the whole affair. Those, indeed, who looked beneath the surface of things were not surprised. Mere political liberalism is no whit more tolerant than toryism itself of a really independent evangelical church. An institution that will not bow to the minister of the day, that claims to walk by a divine rule and to have a Master in heaven, -is, in the estimation of secular politicians, an inconvenience at the best. So long, indeed, as the principle Tories. of non-intrusion was the only question in dispute, it seemed reasonable to think that some adjustment would be found for it. It was, at any rate, a hard thing to believe that in the nineteenth century the church of Scotland would be disestablished, because she had determined never again to be guilty of intruding unacceptable ministers. As the course of events proceeded, however, and the controversy began to An evangelical Church, that will not politicians, with either do the bidding of no favourite Liberals or CHAP. XI. take a wider range,—including within it not merely The form the the subordinate question connected with the rights of question was now conflict for spiritual taking, of a patronage, but the fundamental question of the spiriindependent tual rights of the church,-it became every day more diminished and more manifest to thoughtful men that a satisfacsettlement. tory and peaceful settlement was hardly to be looked. jurisdiction, the hope of a English par knows no for in the present state of the political world. That exclusive and independent jurisdiction in matters spiritual which it cost the church of Scotland the struggles and sufferings of a century to wring from the tenacious grasp of the civil power,-if once her legal right to it came to be deliberately challenged,— was not likely to be conceded anew without putting the church again to the test of some sharp and searching trial. The whole subject was new and strange to the mass of British senators and statesmen. Accustomed to contemplate the relation of church and state through the medium of the English establishliament ment, where the supremacy in all matters and causes thing of a ecclesiastical is vested in the crown, and where the queen in council, or the parliament, regulates almost everything, and the church herself regulates nothing, -it was easy to foresee how little prepared or predisposed they were likely to be to appreciate or acknowledge claims to which they had nothing similar among themselves. If, indeed, they could have been induced calmly and dispassionately to study the striking peculiarities which distinguished the Scottish from the English church establishment, in what belonged to their relations respectively with the temporal power, it would not have been too much to expect that what is written so broadly on the face of history, as well as spiritually independent Church. The Duke of Wellington's views on the course that should be adopted. of statute law, should have secured for the case of the CHAP. XI. church of Scotland at least a patient and respectful hearing. Nor is it unworthy of notice that one illustrious individual seems by this very process to have arrived at views of the question such as, if followed out, might have procured for the church a happy issue out of all her troubles. That individual was the Duke of Wellington. In one of his letters to Dr. Chalmers in the spring of 1840, Lord Aberdeen mentions the fact that he "had sent the duke a copy of Mr. Hamilton's pamphlet," which he requested his grace to read "in order to remove some erroneous impressions." The pamphlet in question was one, well known and greatly valued in the controversy, entitled, "The Present Position of the Church of Scotland explained and vindicated." Combining the professional learning and accuracy of the lawyer with the calmness of a philosopher and the earnestness of a truly christian mind, its estimable and accomplished author had placed the whole question in a light admirably fitted to convey to Englishmen a just view of its real character and merits. The Earl of Aberdeen did the question no ordinary service when he placed this exposition of it in the hands of the Duke of ton's Wellington. Having read the pamphlet, that " clearsighted, wise, and upright statesman, as Lord Aberdeen so justly designated him, addressed a communication to his lordship, in which the following remarkable statements occurred: Guided to these views by reading Mr. Hamil pamphlet. letter to Lord "If these were the times in which moderate counsel The Duke's would be attended to, I should say that it would not be difficult to settle this question. But what I would Aberdeen. CHAP. XI. recommend to the kirk to consider is, that their utility as an establishment depends in a great measure upon their intimate connection with the state. They cannot be an establishment without such a unionevery care being taken to preserve their exclusive spiritual power and to secure it to them. should state the rule she wished to proceed up on,-and "But in the exercise of this exclusive power, particularly of those branches thereof which have relation with the municipal power of the state, it is very desirable, and not inconsistent with former practice, The Church that the kirk should state clearly the rule which it is proposed to adopt, that that rule should be made the Parliament subject of an act of parliament, and should regulate should give all such questions in future. I am aware that it may not be easy to frame a rule which shall be applicable to all cases. The difficulty may exist, but it would not be insurmountable in better times than these; in which good men with good intentions might have some weight and influence.”* it the sanc tion of law. ideal of It is plain from these few sentences that the duke, with that almost intuitive sagacity for which he is so remarkable, had mastered the true theory of the church and state system of Scotland. His proposal is the This the very very ideal of the way in which, according to that system, legislation, in regard to matters ecclesiastical, legislate in ought to proceed. Let the church set forth the rule which it wishes to enforce, and let the parliament, when satisfied of its soundness, append to it that ratification, by virtue of which, as to all civil effects, it shall have the force of statute law. The singular and way in which the State should Church affairs * Earl of Aberdeen's Correspondence, &c., p. 26. a Lord Aberdeen took a course cisely the opposite of the Duke re unhappy circumstance, however, connected with the CHAP. XI. incident, is this,-that Lord Aberdeen himself took course the very opposite of that which the duke recommended. Disregarding the "rule" proposed by that which the church, his lordship framed, without consulting commended. the church at all, a rule of his own; and then endeavoured to force it down the church's throat. No wonder that the effect was to widen instead of closing the breach, and that the whole attempt ended in producing, among both parties, increased irritation and disgust. Narrative re- turns to the the Strathbogie minis ters. But to return to the general assembly. The other great question of that assembly, in so far as the controversy was concerned, was that of the Strathbogie ministers. This grave case was taken up on Tuesday the 26th of May. The first step taken in behalf of these ecclesiastical mutineers was a motion made by the Rev. Dr. Anderson of Newburgh, that the members of commission, by whom the sentence of suspension had been pronounced, should be sisted at the bar as parties in the cause. This extravagance was, however, after a brief discussion abandoned,—and the cause being put in shape for a hearing, Mr. Patrick (now lord) Robertson, appeared as counsel for the accused. These gentlemen had been suspended from the exercise of the functions of their office by a sentence of the commission of the preceding assembly. Complaints had been taken against that sentence, and to these complaints Mr. Robertson now addressed himself. The learned counsel took high ground. Not son. only did he deny the competency of the commission to pronounce the sentence of which his clients com Speech of their coun sel, Mr. Pa trick Robert |