argument thing, it proved that allegiance the oath of acknow ledged the royal su premacy in matters to stand by their oath of allegiance." Mr. Cunning- CHAP. XIII. ham had, by anticipation, so effectually destroyed the argument founded on the oath of allegiance, that nothing but the extreme difficulty of finding materials out of which to construct a defence could have tempted Mr. Robertson to reproduce it. His statement upon the subject, if it proved anything at all, proved this,that the oath of allegiance involved a recognition of If Mr. R.'s the ecclesiastical supremacy of the crown. Because proved anythe seven ministers had taken that oath, they were bound, both as individual ministers and in their collective capacity as a church court, to give effect to the decrees of the courts of law,-and that without any qualification or reservation whatever. Such was the sweeping conclusion to which the task of defending the Strathbogie ministers had compelled Mr. Robertson to come. It is true, indeed, that nothing short of this could serve his purpose. To have restricted the obligation to obey the civil courts within certain limits. would of necessity have been to raise the question,— Did the case under discussion fall within these limits? But because it was impossible to face that question, therefore were the defenders of the Strathbogie ministers driven to take up ground broad enough to carry the jurisdiction of the courts of law over the entire province of the church. Had the ecclesiastical supremacy of the crown in Scotland been confirmed, instead of being done away, by the revolution settlement and the treaty of union, Mr. Robertson's argument would have been both intelligible and valid. As matters actually stood, it served only to show what havoc the principles to which Mr. Robertson's party had committed them 11. 2 c CHAP. XIII. selves were making of the constitutional liberties of the church of Scotland. One other point in Mr. Cunningham's threefold charge against the Strathbogie ministers remained, Mes and the attempt to meet it which Mr. Robertson made seven minis- was, if possible, more unfortunate than any of his made their preceding efforts to vindicate their conduct. son assumes that the ters had appeal to Christ. In accusing them of having sinned against Christ, Mr. Cunningham admitted that it would have enabled them to offer a relevant answer to this solemn charge, if, when the sentence of suspension was pronounced upon them by the supreme court of the church, they had made their appeal to the great Head of the church Himself, instead of appealing, as they had done, to a civil tribunal to which Christ had given no authority to rule in His house. Mr. Robertson grasped somewhat too hastily at this admission, assumed that they had made such an appeal to the church's divine Head, and argued that therefore they were entitled to be held as having continued to exercise their ministry under the sanction of this spiritual appeal. Unhappily, however, the assumption was at variance with the facts of the case. Mr. Dunlop, in a brief reply to Mr. Robertson, referred to the terms of their Mr. Dunlop own defences, in which they expressly declared, and the assump took credit to themselves for it, that, "after being shows that tion is con tradicted by their appeal the terms of suspended, they discharged no duties till after the to the civil decision of the civil court, suspending the sentence" tribunals. of the church. Out of their own mouths, therefore, was the argument of Mr. Robertson refuted and the charge of Mr. Cunningham confirmed. Upon a division, the motion of Dr. Chalmers, finding them guilty as libelled, was carried by a majority of 97,—the CHAP. XIII. numbers being, for his motion 222, and for Dr. Cook's amendment 125. At this stage of the proceedings it was intimated that the accused ministers had prepared a statement which they wished to submit to the assembly. By the permission of the house it was read by one of their number, Mr. Allardyce of Rhynie. It was a long and not very able document, and went over much the same ground which their own supporters in the assembly had already traversed. There was nothing in it that threw additional light upon the case; and nothing of any kind that calls for notice, unless it were the cool complacency with which its authors took credit to themselves for having "done all in their power to avert the dangers which none can deny to exist, which all must allow to be now impending over the established church." Along with their counsel they quitted the bar, and left the house so soon as the reading of their paper was concluded. Dr. Chalmers had retired shortly after delivering his judgment, the state of his health not permitting him to remain in the house during so lengthened a sitting. It was not generally known that he had returned, and after a brief pause, the Rev. Dr. P. M'Farlan rose to undertake, in his supposed absence, the painful duty of moving the sentence of deposition; but Dr. Chalmers felt too keenly the solemn responsibility which these proceedings involved to think of anything but the duty which he owed to his brethren and to the church. Little given as he was to mingle in ecclesiastical discussions, and shrinking as Paper read and given in pended by the sus ministers. CHAP. XIII. he did with all the sensitiveness of his generous nature reappears in bly to move the deposi tion. from the ungrateful task before him, he had quietly resumed his place in an obscure corner of the church, and far on as it now was in the night he was waiting unnoticed amid the throng, to put himself in the very front of whatever dangers were to be incurred by vindicating, in this great crisis, the sacred principles and Dr. Chalmers the insulted authority of the church. "In the absence these of Dr. Chalmers," Dr. M'Farlan had begun to say, but hardly had the words escaped his lips when Dr. Chalmers rose,-and twenty voices exclaimed, “Dr. Chalmers is here." Advancing slowly to the table, he said, simply, but with great solemnity of manner, "that, after the judgment already come to by the house, he had no alternative but to move, that the seven ministers be deposed from the office of the holy ministry." The motion was seconded by the Rev. Dr. Brown of Langton. Mr. Clark of Inverness, and Mr. Brodie of Monimail, were in favour of the milder sentence of suspension, sine die; a sentence which, in the circumstances, could hardly have failed to make a laughing-stock of the assembly. The seven ministers had been suspended already, and had treated the suspension with contempt. Dr. Cook made no counterpro- motion to that of Dr. Chalmers, but read and laid upon the table a formal" protest against the resolution of the general assembly to depose the seven ministers of the presbytery of Strathbogie." This disrespectful document, after repeating the now familiar doctrine of the moderate party, that the established church was bound to be subject to the civil power in all matters declared by the supreme Dr. Cook tests. Eagerness of the moder ate party to this protest. subscribe civil authorities of the country to affect temporal CHAP. XIII. rights," proceeded to announce that the subscribers could not cease to regard the individuals who had been deposed as being still ministers, just as if the proceedings against them had never been instituted. When the paper containing this rebellious declaration was laid upon the table, a multitude of members rushed on the instant from the moderate side of the house, eager to subscribe it. Nothing could have been more unseemly than the disorder which, at a moment so solemn, this most unnecessary movement caused. Nor was it till these zealots in the cause of erastianism had been again and again reminded of a fact, perfectly well known, that they would have ample opportunities at the close of the meeting that night, or after the reading of the minutes on the following day, to attach their names to the protest,-that the temporary tumult was overcome. When silence had been at length obtained, the Rev. Dr. Brown, of Glasgow, was called upon to engage in prayer, as is always done in the courts of the church of Scotland, before pronouncing the awfully solemn sentence of deposition. This impressive service concluded, the moderator rose, and "in the name, and by the authority of the The sentence Lord Jesus Christ, the alone King and Head of the tion. church," deposed the seven ministers by name "from the office of the holy ministry," and "discharged them from exercising the same, or any part thereof, under pain of the highest censure of the church." Intimation of the sentence was at the same time appointed to be made in the usual form, from the pulpits of the seven ministers, and their churches were declared of deposi |