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family on such a pittance. Yet, from the discipline of their pious homes, the sons of the clergy of the Scotch kirk have gone forth to hold with honour the first places in the country. The manse has given the Scottish bar and bench their most distinguished members, the army its most gallant generals, the East India Company its chairman, Britain her most eloquent historian, the woolsack its most brilliant occupant, England her Lord Chief Justice, and Turkey (we lament to write it) her grand vizier.

The Assembly being met, the Moderator rises in his place, and begins its proceedings with prayer. He then addresses the Assembly, thanks its members for their kindness during his term of office, and proposes some one for his successor in the chair. The ex-Moderators, at a meeting for the purpose, have selected the individual thus proposed, and the Assembly almost invariably agrees unanimously in their recommendation. The Moderator must be a Doctor of Divinity; and the main things looked to in his selection are, that he should be a clergyman of many years' standing, of very high character, of great good sense and good temper, of some acquaintance with the business of church courts, of polished manners and dignified appearance. Occasionally a person is jobbed into the office who is quite deficient in many or all of these respects; but this very rarely happens. We were extremely pleased by the entire demeanour of Dr. Crombie, minister of historic Scone, who was Moderator of the recent Assembly. Indeed, he appeared to us the ideal of what the president of such a court should be calm, dignified, selfpossessed, kindly, and gentlemanlike. Having been elected, the new Moderator is introduced by the officials of the court, arrayed in full court-dress and canonicals. It is perhaps an indication of the prelatic tendency of many of the most influential members of the Scotch Church, that even the Moderator of the General Assembly hardly ever appears in the hideous old Geneva cloak, but almost invariably in the English doctor's gown. The new Moderator takes the chair, and

offers a short prayer for Divine guidance in the deliberations upon which the house is to enter. Then, having first asked the permission of the Assembly, he turns to the Commissioner, and expresses the satisfaction of the court at his presence, the affection of the church to the Throne, and the hope entertained by the court that all its proceedings may be conducted with such propriety as may warrant his Grace in reporting favourably of them to his royal mistress. The Commissioner then briefly addresses the Assembly. We should mention that the style employed both by Moderator and Commissioner in addressing the Assembly is Right Reverend and Right Honourable.' The Commissioner in his speech expresses the attachment of the monarch to the Church of Scotland, and the resolution of the monarch, under all circumstances, to maintain the rights and privileges of the church. He also expresses his personal sense of the honour done him in being appointed to his high office, and his desire to do all he can for the comfort of the Assembly during its sittings. All the members of the Assembly stand during the Commissioner's address, and likewise while a letter from the sovereign is read, expressive of confidence in the Assembly's wisdom, and dismissing it to its business with a prayer for the Divine blessing.

The ceremonial of opening being thus ended, the Assembly proceeds to the work before it. There is always a great deal to do, and not much time to do it in, the period for which the court is allowed to sit being fixed by law. The Assembly always begins on a Thursday, and must end upon the Monday week after. The sittings usually commence every day at eleven a.m., and continue till five or six p.m.; they are resumed in the evening at eight, and last till one, three, five, and six in the morning. The evening sittings (or sederunts, as they are called) are generally the judicial ones, as counsel can attend more conveniently then, the courts of law not being open. The evidence in all cases of charges against clerical delinquents has been taken by the

presbytery, and is printed, a copy being given to each member of Assembly. By this and other requirements we understand the General Assembly is rendered a fearfully expensive court of justice for the luckless suitors. Two barristers are heard for each party; and, in addressing a court consisting of nearly four hundred judges, it may be supposed that counsel venture on flights and appeals to the feelings which would never do before the cool-headed and unexcitable old gentlemen who sit on the bench of the Court of Session a few hundred yards off. Jeffrey, Cockburn, and Peter Robertson in past days made their most brilliant appearances at the bar of the General Assembly. On an occasion when Jeffrey was defending a clergyman who had been proved to have been once intoxicated, and whom it was proposed for that offence to deprive of his benefice, the consummate tact of the advocate for once failed him. He could not grapple with the evidence against his client, so he took the other tack, and maintained that having been drunk on a single occasion was no such unpardonable crime. Is there one member of Assembly,' he said, who will dare to say that he himself has never been so ?' A tremendous burst of disapprobation from all parts of the house pulled Jeffrey up: we do not know what became of his delinquent client. Of late years, Mr. Cook and Mr. Logan, two advocates of high standing in their profession, have been the leaders of the Assembly bar. Counsel having been heard, the parties are removed, and the Assembly proceeds to consider its verdict and sentence. Nothing can be conceived worse in theory than four hundred jurymen and a like number of judges, considerably excited by the speeches they have heard, not accustomed to weigh evidence, and constituting a court from which there is no appeal. In practice, however, the thing is found to work well enough. Among the

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lay members of Assembly are many lawyers of great experience-sometimes several of the judges; and a few of the older legal and clerical members virtually decide the questions both of guilty or not guilty, and of what the sentence shall be. Of late years, the tendency of the Assembly has been to extreme severity. One or two instances of drunkenness will ensure deposition from the ministry, which implies deprivation of the benefice and total ruin. Impropriety (impurity) of language and conduct on a single occasion, lately led to deposition. A minister was deposed four years since for poaching: all that was proved was the snaring of a single hare. A minister once came to an evening sederunt in a state of intoxication: he was placed at the bar, and deposed on the instant. The feeling of the Assembly has for some time been, that the purity of the church must be maintained, no matter by what severity; and during the sittings of 1853, we understand that no fewer than seven ministers were deposed, for offences none of which would have led to more than temporary censure and suspension in this country. Whatever clerical offender is brought before the Assembly in its present temper, may indeed get justice, but will find no mercy. We feel, indeed, that the facility with which the severest penalties may be imposed by the courts of the Scotch kirk may be abused to cruelty and mob-law; but we cannot but wish that the Church of England were at least invested with an equal power of cutting off her scandalous sons, though she might perhaps be more gentle in the use of it. It is most distressing to find it laid down in a recent case, that no wickedness short of felony can lead to permanent deprivation; while habitual drunkenness, profanity, and obscenity are deemed sufficiently punished by the suspension of a year or two.

When the sentence of deposition

has been agreed to, the Moderator calls on some venerable member of Assembly to offer a prayer. This is done with great solemnity; and then, all present standing, the Moderator reads the sentence, which is always in the same words:

In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Great Head of the Church; and by authority of this General Assembly; I depose M from the office of the holy ministry within this church: prohibiting and discharging him from performing the duties of the same, or any part thereof.

Although these words are unhappily too familiar to the members of the General Assembly, they are never heard but with a feeling of great awe. And it is pleasing to think that the ultra severity of the last ten years has operated as a salutary warning. Delinquents among the Scotch clergy are hardly ever to be met with, and the late Assembly was a maiden one, there being no charge against any minister.

Another matter besides clerical offences which comes before the Assembly as a court of justice, is the case of Disputed Settlements. When a man is presented by the patron to a living in Scotland, the presentation by no means amounts (as in this country) to his virtual appointment to the cure. On being presented, the presentee (as he is called) has to preach on two days before his future congregation; and all the parishioners are then invited to say whether they have any objection to receive him as their minister. Should objections be made which the church courts think sufficient, the presentee is excluded from the living. And the Assembly has at various times decided that objections of a very fanciful kind will suffice. Being an uninteresting and unimpressive preacher, not having a powerful or pleasing voice,-not exhibiting that earnestness calculated to win the souls of his hearers,' using language which was flowery, oratorical, and redundant,'-not being likely, from the prejudice of the people or otherwise, to be a useful minister in that particular parish, have been held as sufficient reasons for excluding the nominee of the patron from the benefice. In brief, if the people of

any parish do not wish to have any particular person inducted as their minister, they have only to say that they dislike him so much that it is impossible his preaching can benefit them; and if this objection appear to be made bonâ fide it will be quite enough. The people of Scotland have, in all conscience, amply sufficient to say in the choice of their clergymen. There was just one case of an opposed settlement at the late Assembly: we give a few specimens of the objections offered.

,

That when the presentee preached to the people in obedience to the appointment of the presbytery, his discourses were not such as they could well understand. His style of preaching was not fitted for such a congregation as that which worshipped at F- nor was his language adapted to the capacity of its members. Such phrases as the moral activities of our nature;' 'our spirit nature;' 'repentance was a constant work of our moral activities;' were not suited to the circumstances and conditions of the people, nor fitted to advance their spiritual welfare. ideas were so overlaid with fine words, as to render his meaning obscure and uncertain. That he appeared more anxious to display his powers of oratory, than to impress on his audience such solemn truths as it was his duty to enforce.

His

That the objectors not only did not receive any spiritual advantage from his prayers and discourses, but also firmly and conscientiously believe that his prayers and discourses are not such as to benefit this parish and congregation. He appeared to pray as if from memory, and in prayer made repeated stops as from failure of memory; and on the Sunday he altogether forgot to pray for the congregation and people.

That while the presentee resided in a neighbouring parish, from May, 1854, to April, 1855, he showed no zeal for the private exercises of religion, nor did he hold family worship while there; he frequently indulged in light and frivolous conversations, and in occupations unbecoming a minister of the gospel; in making somersaults, and tumbling about like a clown. He often appeared excited, was irregular and late in his hours, often coming home when the rest of the people were in bed. That he permitted in his presence, without rebuke, the use of unbecoming language, and entered into unbecoming familiarities with those beneath him in his position as a minister. That in the month of March, 1855, he indulged in the use of

unbecoming language, in the presence of one minister, in reference to another, and in the course of the morning so acted as to make the minister first referred to ashamed of him. That at a presbytery meeting in April, 1856, his conduct was so strange and unbecoming a minister, that it became the subject of unfavour

able remark, and it was even hinted that it arose from drink. That his preaching was so unacceptable to the people of F, that when preaching there to about a hundred of the people, they dispersed while he was preaching, leaving about twenty hearers, who only remained because they were ashamed to go away. That the feeling of the parish is so strong against the presentee, that his settlement will not only be hurtful to the spiritual welfare and edification of the people, but certain to cause a disruption of the congregation.

The General Assembly found these objections relevant; that is, that if sustained by evidence they are enough to exclude the presentee;

and the case was sent down to the presbytery to go to proof. What the result may be we know not. We have no difficulty in picturing to ourselves the kind of people from whom such objections must have proceeded: lank, lanthorn-jawed, high cheek-boned fellows, dense in stupidity, impregnable in self-conceit, dogged in obstinacy, inveterate in enmity, with all the venom of the wasp and all the impracticability of the donkey. We know nothing of the case, save what may be learned from the printed papers respecting it; but judging from them, we should suppose that the fact is, that the patron had presented his man without consulting the village grocer or apothecary, and so these dignitaries have stirred up their fellows against the luckless presentec. We take it from the objection as to turning somersets and rolling on the grass, that he must be a genial goodnatured fellow; and we heartily wish him a speedy settlement elsewhere than among the self-sufficient, pragmatical, pig-headed folks of that highland parish. One thing is plain, their bluid is up' against him, and he had better, for the sake of all parties, say good-bye to them.

We heard a story told on the benches of the Assembly which is worth repeating. The people of a certain parish objected to the

minister presented to them, on the ground that his sermons were so dry that there was no listening to them. Mr. C, his able counsel, somewhat injudiciously took up the ground that the word dry as applied to a sermon is unintelligible. I know the meaning,' he said, 'of a dry stick or a dry stone, but a dry sermon-I really have not the least idea what it means.' It sometimes happens that when a decision of a presbytery is appealed from, the presbytery, instead of employing counsel, instruct some of their own number to appear at the Assembly bar in support of their decision; and on this occasion Mr. G―, a popular preacher, and a man of real though eccentric genius, rose to reply to Mr. C. He at once fixed on the weak point in Mr. C's argument, and by various quotations from standard authors, showed that the word dry, as applied to a discourse, was perfectly intelligible and abundantly suggestive. But who,' said Mr. G, with great emphasis,-'who is this gentleman who tells us he does not know what is meant by a dry sermon ? I understand his name is C-; that he was born at St Andrew's, and spent the greater part of his early life there. Brought up at St. Andrew's, and not know the meaning of a dry sermon! Hoohh!!'

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No types can express the howl of contempt with which Mr. Gconcluded his speech, or the shouts of laughter which followed. Every one knew that St. Andrew's had long been the head-quarters of the Moderate party, and of the very dullest and heaviest preachers of that rather heavy party; and Mr. C's own nearest relatives, who were eminent among the Moderate leaders, were proverbially unacceptable in the pulpit. Whether the result was owing to Mr. G's eloquence or not, we cannot tell, but certain it is that the dry preacher was kept out of the benefice to which he had been presented.

The legislative business of the General Assembly usually occupies the forenoon sittings throughout the period of its meeting. A great deal of time is frittered away in discussions about uninteresting details and technicalities, and in squabbles

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raised by impracticable members, of whom there must always be three or four in a company of near four hundred men. We cannot say that the sight of the practical working of the Assembly tended to increase our desire for the revival of the active powers of our own Convocation. Such a court furnishes every meddlesome, turbulent clergyman with an opportunity of pushing forward his own peculiar crotchets, while in the Church of England many a man is prevented from making a fool of himself by the want of a theatre on which he may do so. To be sure there is Exeter Hall, but any exhibitions there have at least not the imprimatur of the church. We believe it is mainly owing to the facilities afforded by the Synods and General Assemblies of the Kirk to every wrong-headed and ambitious mischief-maker for getting his voice heard, that so many schismatic movements have taken place in Scotland. The passive resistance of Episcopacy would have kept such men down. But the result of Presbyterian churchgovernment in Scotland has been, that at five or six different times, little bands of unmanageable and mulish individuals have seceded from the kirk, declaring that they constituted the true church of Scotland; and at this moment the Scotch Church, with perhaps as little to complain of as any established church in the world, numbers among her adherents certainly less than two-thirds of the population of Scotland, and is occasionally attacked with a rabid ferocity that somewhat astonishes the Saxon.*

There was a rather interesting debate in the Assembly on the question of addressing Parliament in opposition to the Lord Advocate's Bill for removing the parish schools from under the control of the church. As may be supposed, the

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Assembly was all but unanimous on the subject, though Dr. Robert Lee, minister of the Greyfriars' parish at Edinburgh, and Professor of Biblical Criticism in the University, stood forward, and maintained that the clergy of the church did not so entirely engross all the virtue and wisdom of the country as to render it essential that none but them should have any voice in the management of the schools.' On another day there was a discussion which interested us more, on a motion introduced by Colonel Dundas, an excellent elder,-that hereafter it might be lawful to administer the communion in private to the sick and aged, according to the usage of the Church of England. Colonel Dundas brought in his motion in a very temperate and judicious speech. A few old members of the true-blue Presbyterian party opposed the change, not because there is anything in Scripture or in reason opposed to it, but on the true old covenanting ground, that the Church of England allows private communion, and therefore, of course, the Church of Scotland ought to prohibit it. Dr. Lee, Principal of the University of Edinburgh, and Dr. Hill, Professor of Divinity at Glasgow, warned the house, in the most solemn way, against the deviation from the principles of the founders of the kirk. But it was evident that such arguments find no favour now with the Assembly; several clergymen and elders of high standing spoke strongly in favour of the measure; and although, on the vote being taken, it was thrown out by a small majority, probably two-thirds of the members who voted against it did so on the ground that, while highly approving the alteration of the law, it did not seem to them expedient to shock the prejudices of the lower classes by too suddenly bringing in