SCOTLAND.
It was mentioned in our second impression last week, that the Com- mission of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland had withdrawn their opposition to the Government Commission, and authorized the Ministers of the Church to give the information required by the Commissioners. This was done, however, with an exceedingly bad grace ; the resolution in which tbe decision was embodied being drawn up in the following terms-
" The Commission having maturely deliberated on the instructions of the Royal Commissioners for inquiring into the means of religious instruction and
pastoral superintendence afforded to the people of Scotland, express their deep regret that his Majesty's Ministera have not been pleased, in consequence of the judgment of the last meeting of the Commission of the General Assembly, to make any change in the composition of the said Royal Commissioti. And whereas that Commission, from its authorizing the Commissioners to inquire generally into the opportunities of religious worship, the means of religious instruction, and the pastoral superintendence afforded to the people of Scotland, may be, and has been, interpreted as at variance with the principles and polity of the Established Church, and as calculated to weaken or overthrow it, par- ticularly in so far as it seems to involve in it a principle subversive of this and all other ecclesiastical establishments—viz. that whenever religious instruction and pastoral superintendence are found to a certain extent afforded by any sect or denomination whatsoever, there the services of an Established Church are not required, and may be dispensed with,—the Commission of the General Assembly publicly and solemnly protest against whatever has such a tendency, and declare that they consider it to be the sacred duty of the Legislature to support and to protect the National Church, and to secure accommodation and religious instruction to the people of Scotland, so that they may attend regu- larly upon divine ordinances, anti may profit by the pastoral exertions and su- perintendence of its ministers. With a view to these most important objects, and under the protestation herein contained, they approve of such members of the Church as may be required to do so by the Commissioners nominated by his Majesty, furnishing accurate information as to all statistical matters; and also approve of all Church Courts allowing inspection of, or giving extracts from their records, of all entries relating to the same matters ; it being clearly understood, that the Commission of the Assembly hold that it is not competent to theCommissioners to put to individual members any questions relating to the doctrine, worship, government, or discipline of the Church."
As the doctrines, discipline, worship, and government of the Church,
are points which do not fall within the scope of the Commissioners' duties, this protest of the General Assembly was quite uncalled-for; the inquiry, every one knows, is purely statistical, and has reference to numbers and prr *Sty alone. Dr. Chalmers distinguished himself in the debate; Irv- .iided in the adoption of the above resolution, by a violent &rev oliewhat abusive harangue, of which we subjoin a sped- wasso-or two. He said that the present season of disappointment should -1 not be allowed to become a season of despair— It was not thus the ancient Fathers of the Church acted when she was spoiled of her endowments by the Crown and a rapacious nobility. It was true, the population of Scotland was only a million in those days; but whole tracts of the country were rifled by the hand of violence, and no means Were left to prevent the country from sinking again into barbarism, but for the efforts of those patriots—as courageous and enlightened as the world ever saw—time fathers and founders of the Kirk of Scotland. These meu went forward to plant their parishes over the whole country ; and, without any visible means of sustenance or support, they struggled on in their labours till God overthrew the councils of the ungodly, and forced the sacrilegious spoiler to resign" to those men shard-earned subsistence, whom now it was so much the fashion to stigmatise, but who proved themselves, as their descendants were now proving themselves, the only real friends of the labouring man and the poor. The very same task lay befoie them now which then lay before their forefather'. It was true they were not suffering from the plunder of the Church, though even of that they might read the premonitory sympt m: in Me threatened measure Which had been held out to the Protestant (low It of Ireland. The arms of their enterprise were the same as those which had been used two hundred years back, with a divided population on the one hand, and, he much feared, an un- willing Government on the other. ("Hear !") Let the Church follow in their footsteps dauntlessly and perseveringly, and he had no doubt that the position she assumed would; sconer or later, compel the Government to do justice to their cause. Nothing had told more effectually in their favour than a state- ment of the efforts and sam ifices which the people of Scotland had made in subscribing 65,0001. for new churches : it was the first blow of the catapulta, before which the hard and heartless politicians of this iron age, if they had not before been bound hand and foot, fettered more closely than the veriest slaves, must infallibly have given way. Their distinct object was to obtain losv seat rents for the people; and it was for that purpose they had sought endow- ments from Government : their object was to pour home missionaries over the land,—a measure which he rejoiced to say was in full operation already in Pais- ley, Glasgow, Aberdeen, and III a few months would be in Dundee and Edin- burgh, when the reclaiming of hundreds of outcasts would form an irresistible evidence of the goodness of their cause, which not all the miserable statistics of the Central Board would suffice to couutervail. Let them only persevere, and and they would get the better of ail the arts and appliances of trimming, shuf-
fling politicians Even on the worst supposition, and though there
was no confidence in the Commission or the GOVCI Lament on the part of the friends of the Church—though they believed that the Government would. cast her interests to the winds, if they could make a single ten-pounder by it—(A laugh)—though they felt ever so much annoyed by the hollow professions, the shifts and vacillations, the balancing and compromi.sing between the Church and the Voluntaries, which imparted to all the Government proceedings on the subject such a piebald and patchwork character—still he was anxious that no declaration should proceed from the Church which could bear the charac- ter of recklessness or heedlessness; that whatever they did should be wise and well weighed ; and that in all their proceedings they should not go beyond the limits of sound, temperate, and constitutional feeling." In reply to this tirade, Sir James Gibson Craig observed, that no doubt Dr. Chalmers had been very amusing, but he would ask, to what
end?
He. had talked of his respect for the Commissioners, and trusted he had given them no offence; while there was not one abusive epithet in the English lan- guage, with the exception perhaps of Thinibleriggers, which he had not ap- plied to the Got eminent and to the Commission. He said that the weapons which the Church ought to employ were the weapons of calm and temperate argument ; but these were not the weapons he used; for he had resorted to every term of reproach which the English language could furnish him against Ministers. Sir James would assert, that if there were any error in the instruc- tions to the Commission, that error lay with the Church. He would not enter into the clerical discussion, but would confine himself to protest against the hue and cry which had been raised against Ministers. Thus the opposition of the General Assembly's Commission has terminated in an angry resolution and much violent talk—sound and fury, signifying little.
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