by a solemn deed of the Assembly, pronounced vacant.

Meanwhile the seceders were as actively engaged in renouncing the communion of the Establishment as the General Assembly in undoing their Acts, and decree ing the process of their depriva. tion. At a general meeting in Dr. Candlish's new church, on the 22nd, Dr. Macfarlane produced the Report of the Committee, on the separation from the State. He moved the following resolution incorporating the recommendations of the report: "That the Assembly approve of the report following out the Claim, Declaration, and Protest, adopted by the General Assembly, which met at Edinburgh in May, 1842, and the Protest made on Thursday last, at the meeting of the Commissioners chosen to the Assembly appointed to have been that day holden; and upon the ground therein set forth, do now for themselves, and all who adhere to them, separate from the Establishment: protesting that, in doctrine, polity, and discipline, they truly represent the Church of their fathers, whose testimony on behalf of the Crown rights of their Redeemer, as King of Zion and Prince of the kings of the earth, they firmly purpose at all hazards, and at whatever sacrifice, still to maintain and protesting that henceforward they are not and shall not be subject in any respect, to the Ecclesiastical Judicatories presently established by law in Scotland; but that they are and shall be free to perform their functions as pastors and elders towards their respective congregations, or such portion thereof as shall adhere to them, and to exercise government and discipline

rate from the Establishment, according to the Word of God, and agreeably to the true and original principles of the Church of Scotland, and to the standards thereof, as heretofore understood; and that the Committee be reappointed with instructions to prepare the draft of an act and deed to be adopted and subscribed at as early a period as possible during the subsequent sittings of this Assembly, renouncing and demitting the status, rights, and privileges held by virtue of the Establishment; the said draft to be reported to the Assembly at the forenoon sederunt to-morrow."

This resolution met with the cordial approbation of the meeting, and was carried by acclamation. The next day the Act of Separation was produced. It solemnly renounced for its subscribers the status, privileges, and emoluments derived from the Establishment, reserving to Ministers, however, the right to act as pastors of particular congregations or portions thereof adhering to them, with the rights and benefits accruing from the Ministers' Widows' Fund. It contained also the order that the Act of Separation should be transmitted to the Moderator of the "Ecclesiastical Judicatory by Law Established" (so denominating the General Assembly). The signing of the document occupied four hours, being preceded and followed by prayer. The Act of Separation was then transmitted to the General Assembly.

After this proceeding, deputations were received from the Londou Lay Union, and the English Presbyterian Synod. Deputations from the Original Secession Synod

admitted at subsequent meetings. The prospects and financial arrangements of the new Church were afterwards discussed, and various propositions made for raising the necessary funds. Some liberal benefactions were announced and sanguine anticipations were formed of the acquisition of the means required for building and endowing churches. Committees were appointed to whom the consideration of plans for the election of Ministers, and other details of ecclesiastical organization, were referred. An Address to the Queen was moved and adopted, expressing attachment to the Sovereign, and referring for reasons of secession to the previous documents. In this Address, the Seceders called themselves the "Free Protesting Church of Scotland." It was agreed that the Assembly should have another sitting at Glasgow on the 17th October, and with a long address Dr. Chalmers dissolved the Assembly in the name of Christ.

The General Assembly, after transacting a great deal of business, consequent on the secession, and rescinding a great many acts of the former Non-Intrusion Majority, was also dissolved by the Lord High Commissioner on the 29th, having first adopted a pastoral address on the State of the Establishment to be read from the pulpits of all the churches. Thus was consummated one of the most remarkable ecclesiastical revolu tions on record, the consequences of which must be extensively and permanently felt throughout Scotland. The Church to which the population of that country had for a long course of years appeared so steadfastly and unitedly attached,

principle of disruption was suddenly rent asunder, and its members split into adverse and irreconcilable sections. The schism was one of the most vital and dangerous kind. It was not the withdrawal of a few individuals on some punctilious scruple, or the loss of a small section of the Church whose uncomplying or restless spirit had contributed more uneasiness than strength to her system.

Such has been the character of other secessions, from which no dangerous shock has resulted to the relinquished Establishment. But the seceders in the present schism carried with them some of the best blood of the National Church; they left her not only shorn of a large portion of her numerical strength among all classes of the population, from the head of the house of Breadalbane down to the humble but zealous peasant, but also deprived her of a host of the most esteemed and valued names among her Ministers, including several of the highest reputation for learning, elo. quence and piety. The proportion of those who seceded, as compared with the numbers who remained, will appear from the following statement; but the ranks of the separatists were afterwards swelled by the addition of a considerable number of ministers and others, who, from time to time, gave in their adhesion to the Free Church. of those Ministers, however, who signed the protest, or were enrolled in the list of the Secession during the sitting of its first Assembly, the total number was 395, who were composed as follows:

144

1. Parish ministers. 214 2. Quoad sacra ditto

.

ciple; she had asked for the protection of Parliament, and her claim had been conclusively rejected.

"In these circumstances, the Special Commission deem it incumbent upon them to announce to the Church and country, as they now do with the utmost pain and sorrow, that the decisive rejection of the Church's claims by the Government and by Parlia ment appears to them conclusive of the present struggle, and that, in the judgment of the Commission, nothing remains but to make immediate preparation for the new state of things, which the Church must, as far as they can see, contemplate as inevitable. It is true that the Special Commission have no power to bring the momentous question to a final close, but must report their proceedings to the General Assembly. They feel it, however, to be their duty, in so unprecedented a crisis, and considering the urgent necessity of preparing for the event which must be anticipated as then likely to occur, to give forth now their deliberate judgment in regard to it, and to warn the Church and people of Scotland, that, so far as the Commission can see, no course will be left for the Assembly, or for those who hold sacred the principles now at issue, to adopt, but to relinquish the benefits of the Establishment."

A public meeting was held next day, over which Mr. Fox Maule presided. The Chairman declared that they had now the final answer of Parliament, the time for advocacy was passed, and he came there to associate himself with them in the great cause of civil and religious liberty. Dr. Candlish delivered an energetic speech,

them but to make vigorous and systematic preparations for the institution of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and said," whether with or without the Queen's Commission, they would have a Free Assembly in May. God grant, that immediately thereafter we may be able to show what the free Gospel is which a free Assembly are prepared to give forth. We shall, indeed, cultivate our own districts; we shall have stated congregations, with stated elders and ministers; but we shall have our tours of preaching too-our visits to all corners of the land; and I believe that yet, by God's blessing on our free and faithful preachings, in the highways and hedges, in barns and stables, in sawpits and tents, we shall yet regenerate Scotland, and have multitudes of those who are now perishing for lack of knowledge to listen to the glad tidings of salvation. Oh! this will be a blessed reward for all our agitation." Other animated speeches were delivered, breathing a similar spirit of enthusiasm."

The election of Commissioners to the General Assembly was now looked to with much interest. Several of the Presbyteries, obeying the decision of the Court of of Sessions in the Stewartou case, rejected the quoad sacra candidates, and an expectation gained ground that the "Moderates" as they were called, would be found in a majority. The Marquess of Bute was nominated by the Crown High Commissioner. The Marquess of Breadalbane, who had for some time lent his countenance to the Non-intrusion party, was ap plied to by a member of that body to allow himself to be named one

the property of the intended new kirks was to be vested. That nobleman, however, declined to accede to the proposal of a precipitate separation, stating his intention to wait at least till the Legislature had definitively declined to provide a remedy for the existing difficulties. When, however, the secession afterwards took place, Lord Breadalbane formally announced his determination to become a member of the free Church. The 18th May, a day which will always be memorable in the annals of the Scottish Church, was appointed for the opening of the General Assemby. After the usual ceremonial of the Commissioner's levee, procession, and sermon in the High Church, the members of the Assembly proceeded to St. Andrew's Church, where their sittings are held. The Non-intrusion members as they entered, were greeted with applause from the crowded gallery. Dr. Welsh, the Moderator of the former Assembly, took the chair. He commenced with prayer, and then instead of proceeding to make up the roll, he with a few words of introduction, read a protest signed by the ministers and elders composing the Non-intrusionist portion of the Assembly. The document is of considerable length, but as the basis of so memorable a secession it is too important to be either omitted or curtailed. It was in these terms:

"We, the undersigned ministers and elders chosen as commissioners to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, indicted to meet this day, but precluded from holding the said Assembly by reason of the circumstances hereinafter set forth, in consequence of

Church of Scotland, in accordance with the laws and constitution of the said Church, cannot at this time be holden-considering that the Legislature, by their rejection of the claims of right adopted by the last General Assembly of the said Church, and their refusal to give redress and protection against the jurisdiction assumed, and the coercion of late repeatedly attempted to be exercised over the Courts of the Church, in matters spiritual, by the Civil Courts, have recognised and fixed the conditions of the Church Establishment, as henceforward to subsist in Scotland, to be such as these have been pronounced and declared by the said Civil Courts in their several recent decisions, in regard to matters spiritual and ecclesiastical whereby it has been, inter alia, declared

"1. That the Courts of the Church as now established, and members thereof, are liable to be coerced by the Civil Courts in the exercise of their spiritual functions, and in particular in their admission to the office of the holy ministry, and the constitution of the pastoral relation, and that they are subject to be compelled to intrude ministers on reclaiming congregations in opposition to the fundamental principles of the Church and their views of the Word of God and to the liberties of Christ's people.

"2. That the said Civil Courts have power to interfere with and interdict the preaching of the Gospel and administration of ordinances as authorised and enjoined by the Church Courts of the Establishment.

"3. That the said Civil Courts have power to suspend spiritual censures pronounced by the Church

against ministers and probationers of the Church, and to interdict their execution as to spiritual effects, functions, and privileges. "4. That the said Civil Courts have power to reduce and set aside the sentences of the Church Courts of the Establishment, deposing ministers from the office of the holy ministry, and depriving probationers of their license to preach the Gospel, with reference to the spiritual status, functions, and privileges of such ministers and probationers, restoring them to the spiritual office and status of which the Church Courts have deprived them.

"5. That the said Civil Courts have power to determine on the right to sit as members of the supreme and other judicatories of the Church by law established, and to issue interdicts against sitting and voting therein, irrespective of the judgment and determination of the said judicatories.

"6. That the said Civil Courts have power to supersede the majority of a Church Court of the Establishment in regard to the exercise of its spiritual functions as a Church Court, and to authorise the minority to exercise the said functions, in opposition to the Court itself, and to the superior judicatories of the Establish

7. That the said Civil Courts have power to stay processes of discipline pending before Courts of the Church by law established, and to interdict such Courts from proceeding therein.

"8. That no pastor of a congregation can be admitted into the Church Courts of the Establishment, and allowed to rule, as well as to teach, agreeable to the insti

the Church, nor to sit in any of the judicatories of the Church inferior or supreme; and that no additional provision can be made for the exercise of spiritual discipline among members of the Church, though not affecting any patrimonial interests, and no alteration introduced in the state of pastoral superintendence and spiritual discipline in any parish, without the coercion of a Civil Court.

"All which jurisdiction and power on the part of the said Civil Courts severally above specified, whatever proceeding may have given occasion to its exercise, is, in our opinion, in itself inconsistent with Christian liberty, and with the authority which the Head of the Church hath conferred on the Church alone.

"And further, considering that a General Assembly, composed, in accordance with the laws and fundamental principles of the Church, in part of commissioners themselves admitted without the sanction of the Civil Court, or chosen by Presbyteries, composed in part of members not having that sanction, cannot be constituted as an assembly of the Establishment without disregarding the law and the legal conditions of the same as now fixed and declared:

"And further, considering that such commissioners as aforesaid would, as members of an assembly of the Establishment, be liable to be interdicted from exercising their functions, and to be subjected to civil coercion at the instance of any individual having interest who might apply to the Civil Courts for that purpose:

"And considering further, that civil coercion has already been in divers instances applied for and