nexion with the State. In vain was the claim of independence construed into a disguised exhibition of spiritual pride, and Papal grasping at irresponsible power. Wholly without effect was public and private history ransacked to charge inconsistency on the abettors of Christ's headship. Equally fruitless were nominal concessions, and subtle negotiations, and tearful entreaties, and wrathful intimidations. There might be much, or there might be little, in these showings, but the position remained clear and irrefragible, that the Church of Christ must be free, and that its freedom, at whatever cost, must be maintained; and that, be the consequences what they might, these consequences were in God's hand, and should be left irreservedly to the determination of His providence. The eventful day came,-negotiations were at an end, and could not be prolonged; to submit or secede were the only alternatives. It was an important hour to the character of public men, to the credit of Christian stedfastness, to the honour of religion itself. Had the advocates of ecclesiastical independence all, or almost all, succumbed, the results would have been more disastrous to the interests of godliness than can now be realised. But they did not. Many had gone back, but a goodly number were inflexible; and where again shall we find as many calmly and deliberately surrendering as much to religious conviction?quitting the favour of rulers, a legalised preference to others, goodly emoluments, commodious homes, endeared friendships, many members of loving and beloved flocks, a Church hitherto idolized by them, and too much dividing their regards with a heavenly Jerusalem, and all to be cast on apparent uncertainties and contingencies, of which none verified more painfully, or had depicted more powerfully than they the probable hardships. This is a noble beginning to a denomination; and a society so commenced has only to act with a measure of equality to itself, in order to secure the wide and lasting esteem of the religious world. Thus far Dr King of Shuttle Street, now Greyfriars, Glasgow. Mr D. Brown regretted, that when Mr Scott referred to Dr Gordon's discourse, as bearing him out in his views, it was not taken notice of by the newspapers in their reports of the proceedings. This neglect should have been remedied on Wednesday 11th June 1845, when the remark was made in the Presbytery. Dr Paterson, at same meeting, said but one feeling had existed in the minds of the members of committee, that it would be an act of injustice to the cause of the Free Church, as well as to the interes of immortal souls, to abandon Shettleston, within which district, in a very limited distance, there was a population of 5000 souls, before having afforded the people a regular supply for six months.

The Doctor and the Committee now seem to be of opinion, that the interests of immortal souls depend upon the ministers of the Free Church. Can he be seriously of that opinion? If he is not, how shall we characterise his language, and what shall we think of his heart or his head, if he is? He may remember his ascending Erickstane, and descending the Tweed with his wife and two sons, and crossing the Tweed with Dr Burns of Tweedsmuir and others, a small distance from the Rachan Mill. Are there not some in other bodies, and even in the lifeless Church of Scotland, who would reckon in her some who care for immortal souls, as much as Dr Paterson? Dr Buchannan produced a petition from 95 grown up people connected with Shettleston, (for only so many had John Thomson carried with him.) How unlike Andrew his paternal brother! Is he got into Paisley to succeed Dr Burns? It is wonderful how easily and quietly changes take place in the Free. Is there no partiality, no hypocrisy? Would they act the same part they did, if they were back in the Establishment? Dr Henderson said, Dr Gordon denied that he held the sentiments imputed to him, and that if he did, he ought to be at the bar of the Assembly. No doubt Mr Scott is radically wrong, but are they not wrong in libelling him, and summoning him, and all after he has left them, and can make no legal claim upon them. We much fear the old nature is not out of them. We fear they would torture Davidson of Leith, and Monro of Campsie, and others as formerly. We think the following excerpt shows directly the reverse of either taste or piety. At the Commission in March 1845, when agreeing to petition the Lords and Commons, Dr Duncan wished to draw the attention of the Commission to a subject in connection with the resolutions, and in doing so, he was aware, that perhaps he would meet with little sympathy. He wished to know in what terms the House of Lords was to be approached, (laughter.) He certainly had no objections to the House of Lords, being petitioned, but he did object to a part of the formula on such occasions. Dr Candlish,-Why, doctor, you should ask no questions for conscience' sake, (loud laughter.) Dr Duncan,—No, I cannot, I must exonerate my conscience, and therefore I move that the words and spiritual-be omitted in the petition to the House of Lords. As lords, they are not spiritual, and as spiritual, they are not lords, (loud applause.) After some farther remarks, it was ultimately agreed, that the learned Doctor's dissent to the term should be entered in the minutes. The gambols of some animals are very uncouth. Candlish might be a dancing master, but Duncan or Guthrie would be very unwieldy. To hear Candlish quote Scripture in such a case, and on such an occasion, would,

as Captain Deuchar says, cause one to doubt of his religion. To hear Duncan in such a case refer to his conscience, would cause serious doubts if any of them who did not dissent have any conscience. Would Boston, or Dr Erskine have thus laughed, and perverted, and abused Scripture! Had such language been used in the Church they have left, how justly would they have commented upon it, in terms of the strongest severity. A few specimens like this would show that the hive is worse than the old cap. Why blazon it in their newspapers? We do not think that James Marshall of the Outer High, Glasgow, and the Tolbooth, Edinburgh, and now vicar of Maryport, Bristol, though he did not act candidly when he relinquished Presbytery for Prelacy, would have so unreasonably have mingled serious things with unseemly and inconvenient jesting. It would have been reckoned too bad for Mr Brewster of the Abbey Church, Paisley, whose daughter, (while he has been associating with, and preaching to Chartists, while these men were in the Church, and yet he was not cashiered,) has become a Roman Catholic. There must be something exceedingly wrong in Mr Brewster's instruction or example, that, while he is consorting with the scum of society, his daughter has connected herself with the great whore of Babylon. It is not since the Disruption, as it is termed, that Mr Brewster has been associating with men, and women too, of the basest sort, and yet he was spared. Dr Simpson of Kirknewton, one of the trio, with Macleod of Morven, and Macleod of Dalkeith, has been blethering at Halifax about the trials the Church had undergone, the fiery ordeal she had passed through, and the shock she had sustained; while, if we may believe Mr Robertson of the New Greyfriars, who likened her to a gallant bark, and a goodly ship, not a plank of her has been started, a sail rent, or an anchor lost; which the editor of the first number of the Christian Instructor, 27 South Hanover Street, Edinburgh, thus corroborates: Under Divine providence, the Church of Scotland, from recent events, has been more especially committed in keeping into the hands of the present generation. Most nobly are they vindicating their trust. Never before were there a greater number of able young men, and devoted ministers, scattered throughout the parishes of Scotland, or a more zealous or devoted people. Look on this picture, and on that, both painted in July 1845. It has been a sad collision. Both the Free and the Residuary Church are sadly damaged, if we may believe DrSimpson, or the Frees; but this editor of the Christian Instructor, higher than Andrew Thomson's Instructor, affirms the Church of Scotland is better than at any former period. Mr Runciman, when all was dark and unlovely around him, thought

she would be filled with all manner of creeping things and fourfooted beasts, but those bright men from England, and the colonies, and schools, and newspaper editors, and writer's clerks, have infused pure blood into her. The lassies and laddies who get married, think all those who are destined to die old maids, very ordinary, if not ugly and silly creatures; and Dr M'Lean, and most of those who could tame the monster Patronage, called those who fell in fortune's strife, returned goods; but they have all been mistaken, the dunces were all preferred, and those who kept at the top of the form, rejected. Davidson, North Leith, Monro, Campsie, Smith of the Tolbooth, Young of Auchterarder, and the pious men of Strathbogie, as Dr Cook called them, had they been all finally cut off, need not have complained. They had suffered nothing, compared with those who had such a struggle to get them and keep them out, and as for Wright of Borthwick, and all they by fair or foul means got turned adrift, they need not mutter, though there be no eye to pity or hand to help them. There are some things can never be described till they are felt; let time tell whether the Nons or Ins have suffered most, for they are the only sufferers. Mr Robertson of Greyfriars described in melting mood, without shedding or exciting a tear, the wonderful trial he and his beloved congregation had endured, by the burning of their beautiful house, on Sunday, January 19th, 1845, and the great loss they had sustained. We thought he might have lost a gown and cassock, and they might have lost some cushions and bibles. Excepting the bibles, one might dance round a bonfire that burnt all the gowns and cassocks, and even the pew cushions in the world. Paul and his hearers knew nothing of such decorations and luxuries. The gown and band may be tolerated, and he who has immortalized the sofa, would not, for the fair, have refused the cushion; but the cassock may safely be left in the hands of Fielding. As for the bible, the dust is not more sacred, Of this heaven laboured form, erect, divine, This heaven assumed majestic robe of earth, which He deigned to wear, who hung the vast expanse With azure bright, and clothed the sun in gold. The burning of even a leaf of the bible, should thrill through our frame with a pain as exquisite as Morse, in his American geography says one American savage tries to inflict on another. It is not the cost, but the something inexpressible, such as we feel when we stand on the grave of father or mother, or most dear and valued relatives, &c. Wickliffe's testament, translated in 1360, in 1429 cost 4 marks, and 40 pence, £2, 16s, 8d. sterling. Bede, about 701, and Alfred, about 800, are said to have translated the gospels; but they could not be printed before 1440, when the art was first invented in

Strasburg, although the first book was only printed at Mentz in 1450. Paper and printing were said to be known long before in China, and the mariner's compass is said to have been discovered by the Chinese 1120 years B.C., and said to be used at Venice, 1260 after his birth. The Chinese had gunpowder also, long before 1418, when it was first made in England, although it was made in Germany in 1330. Even hydrogen gas was used in China long before it was turned to any account here, and they may have preceded us in the steam-engine, railroads, and all our inventions, so that there may be nothing new under the sun. Man walks in a vain show, Psal. xxxix. 6. The world must go on till the last elect individual be baptized, Rev. x. 6. Mr Robertson and his beloved people, will get another church, although not the one in which the Covenants were sworn and signed with blood,built in 1612. Mr Robertson has his love increased a thousand fold to the Church since he was at the Convocation. The beloved and honoured Church of our fathers, like a gallant and stately ship, has braved the storm. She has undergone no change of principle, character, or conduct, but obloquy, misrepresentation, and contempt and reproach, have been poured upon her, but she is no holiday barge, but a gallant and stately bark. Her ministers hold their vows and their oaths, Mr Robertson says, which they took at licence and ordination. Mr Robertson seems to be doing more than all the rest beside, taking them as placed in the Almanac, George's, R. H. Stevenson; Greenside, William Glover; Greyfriars, New, William Robertson; Old, Robert Lee; High, David Arnot, James M'Letchie; John's, Robert W. Fraser; Lady Yester's, Archibald Bennie; Mary's, James Grant; Auld Kirk, John Clark ; Stephen's, W. Muir; Tolbooth, George Smith; Trinity College, William Steven; Tron, Alexander Brunton, John Hunter; West St Giles, Robert Nisbet. You'll see the sixteen in the street, and in the pulpit occasionally; but what they are doing in gathering the dispersed of Gentiles or Jews, or bringing home God's elect, gives some of them, some think, little concern. The residuum will accumulate rather than be lessened in all their parishes. Robertson is trying to purify the Grassmarket, not himself; but by one of those officials, unknown till about 20 years ago.. —a home missionary. We give him credit for attempting it in any way. Does his wife aid him much in his studies? Is she a help meet for him? Is it true that a Free Church dame said he could not have ministered under the law. We do really think the people of the Free Church should let the ministers of the Established Church alone. They may feel sore, but they can no more hurt them, than deserved punish

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