Peel's after conduct proved that Mr. Dunlop was right. ceeded to give his own recollections of the interview, CHAP. XIII. which he summed up in the following terms:-" A "A good deal of conversation ensued on these points, the whole tenor of which tended to impress the deputation with the conviction, that it was your opionion that no measure could pass, or ought to pass, which did not, on the one hand, settle the Strathbogie case, by the restoration of the deposed ministers, and did not provide against the recurrence of similar cases or new conflicts in future, by securing the submission of the church to the civil courts." The subsequent conduct Sir Robert of Sir Robert Peel sufficiently proved that his sentiments had neither been misinterpreted nor misunderstood,-in so far at least as Mr. Dunlop was concerned. It is no more, indeed, than is due to Sir Robert Peel to state, that he never at any time, appears to have said or done anything that could possibly mislead the church, or its friends, as to his views. With the caution which belongs to his character, and which became his responsible position, he avoided for the most part any ultroneous or premature disclosure of his sentiments,-but in so far as these were at any time indicated, whether in personal interviews or in public communications, they were always hostile to the recognition both of the non-intru- Sir Robert sion principle and of the spiritual freedom of the church. There is one expression that occurs in his letter to the Duke of Argyll, which is of itself enough to show how firmly rooted in his mind was the idea of the absolute supremacy over the church of the courts of law. He speaks of the fact that the appeal to the house of lords, in the Auchterarder case, had Peel was always against the claims of the Church. CHAP. XIII. been "preferred at the instance of the church of ScotThe gloss put land," as if it implied something like bad faith on by Sir R. Peel on the Church had fact that the the part of the church in her subsequent proceedings appealed the towards the Strathbogie ministers. They had done Auchterar der case. nothing but what they were bound to do, by virtue of a decision pronounced on the church's own appeal,— and the church, instead of punishing them for obeying that decision, ought in honesty, as the appellant against whom it was given, to have obeyed it herself.' All this is not said in so many words by Sir Robert Peel, in his letter to the Duke of Argyll, but all this is very dextrously insinuated. It of course implies an entire misconception both of what the church did appeal, and of what the decision in question did in point of fact determine. It implies that the church appealed something more than the single point-Did the rejection of Mr. Young, in terms of the veto-law, carry the usual civil consequences of voiding his claim to the benefice, and of requiring the patron to present another man? and it further implies, that the judgment pronounced in the court of session, and affirmed by the house of lords, settled something more than The true view that single point. Had Sir Robert Peel's view of the matter been correct, there would have been no need for the second Auchterarder case. The decision in that second case was not pronounced for twelve months after the date of his letter; and not till then was it found, by the civil courts, that the courts of the church could be compelled to take a presentee on trials, and to perform other spiritual acts, under the usual compulsitors of law. Even that second decision did not prove that the church courts were bound to have done of that fact. did,- CHAP. XIII. settle- The Church aside was not bound, even under the second the civil courts: it was only peal against bound to ap them to the State. what the recusant ministers of Strathbogie namely, to have proceeded with the trials and ment of a presentee who had been formally set by a sentence of the supreme court of the church. Auchterar What it did bind the church to do was something different. It bound her to appeal from what she regarded as the unconstitutional encroachment of the courts of law to the state itself. If the state, as represented by the legislature, should refuse upon such an appeal being made to it to alter what the civil courts had declared to be the law,-the church must then either bend her neck to the yoke of the civil supremacy, in matters spiritual, or surrender the immunities of her establishment, and break off altogether from her union with the civil power. Sir Robert Peel arrived at his conclusion, as to the church's duty, by a much shorter and more summary process, but he did so, only by not adverting to the facts of the case. It is almost superfluous to add, that the assumption on which his insinuation was founded, proceeded on the additional mistake, the Strathbogie ministers were deposed simply for obeying the judgment of the courts of law. It might have been quite justifiable to depose them for obeying, in matters spiritual, the decree of a civil tribunal, in defiance of the contrary decree of their ecclesiastical superiors: but that was not the ground on which they were in point of fact deposed. The libel against them did not contain one single reference to their having taken Mr. Edwards on trials. The offence charged against them was that of exercising, in defiance of the church, a ministry from which they had been sus that Sir Robert sumption founded on to the real a mistake as facts of the case. the Church's from only view. CHAP. XIII. pended by the general assembly, and for applying to the civil power to stop the discipline of the church, and to hinder the church from performing her spiritual functions. All this must be sufficiently obvious to every one who has been at pains to acquaint himself with the real state of the question: and the circumstance that Sir Robert Peel proceeded so confidently on an He looked at entirely opposite supposition, serves only to show that position he had never contemplated the church's position from one point of any point of view but one. The absolute supremacy of the courts of law was evidently, in his mind, a first principle. We have seen that it was by assuming this to be the fact, and not by the construction of statutes, that the civil courts themselves reached their conclusion and both his English church ideas, and his notions of political expediency, made that conclusion of very easy adoption to his mind. One thing seemed plain, that whatever his views of the Scottish church question might be, he was evidently destined to have, as an instrument, the disposal of it in his own The new par hands. The elections sealed the fate of the whig ministry. The new parliament assembled on the 24th of August. An amendment upon the address in answer to the queen's speech, was moved in both houses, an amendment, expressive of want of confidence in the existing government. That amendment was carried in the house of lords by a majority of 71: and in the house of commons by a majority of 92. On the 30th, the ministry resigned, and Sir Robert Sir R. Peel Peel was immediately intrusted with the formation of 3th August, the new government,-that government, under whose auspices the blow was destined to be struck which liament seals the fate of the whig minis try. takes office 1841. terminated the ten years' conflict, and brought on the CHAP. XIIL disruption. Dr Cook's implied pro mise of a truce. While these important movements were taking place in the political world, the state of things was every day assuming a more alarming aspect within. the church itself. It will be remembered, that when the protest against the deposition of the Strathbogie ministers was discussed in the general assembly, Dr. Cook spoke of it simply as a declaration of the views held by those who had subscribed it,—adding that they did not intend to act upon it at present, and expressing the hope that "nothing would occur to injure the good feeling at present existing, or to hasten that which all of them would deplore.' It will not be wondered at, that this statement should have been understood to mean, that there was to be, on the side of Dr. Cook and his friends, at least a cessation of hostilities: that nothing would be done on their part to provoke or encourage a fresh outbreak against the authority of the assembly, or to hinder an amicable adjustment of those questions which now divided, and threatened to dismember the church. For nearly two months after the rising of the assembly, this seemingly friendly attitude of the moderate party was believed to have been faithfully observed. At length, however, a A document document came to light, which painfully proved, that in resting upon this pleasing supposition, the assembly were leaning upon a broken reed that was already first. prepared to pierce their side. The document in question was a printed "statement for the presbytery of Strathbogie, and for the minority of the general assembly." It was dated, "London, June, 1841," comes to light which shows that the truce was hollow from the |