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long the memory and the usefulness of a child of promise, by inscribing his name on a boon to education?

"The committee trust that the Synod will exert its own hallowed influence on behalf of its own measure. It is deeply to be lamented when schemes are set on foot, and then weakly upheld, or positively abandoned. We should be slow to set up an institution, making sure beforehand of its necessity and aptness; but when it is set up, we should be still more slow to destroy it by neglect.

"There may be difficulties in this measure; and what measure has not its difficulties ? The committee are persuaded, after trial, that they have no such importance as some imagine, and are not for a moment to be weighed against the advantages of the system. At all events there is no reluctance to adopt suggestions and amendments. But let these assume the form of encouraging, and not discountenancing a noble enterprise, and let us not suspend our attentions to academic and theological youth till the benefits of them appear in the rich endowments of our ministry, and the scheme pass into the hands of those whom gratitude will impel to do it justice, and who will see its history written in their facilities, acquisitions, reputation, and usefulness."

This report was received with high approbation. In regard to the scheme, various members expressed their doubt as to whether the two objects it seemed to contemplate the assisting of poor students, and the elevating of the standard of scholarship in the ministry-were not incompatible. If the object were to assist poverty, this would deter from the competition those who did not need such aid; and, if poverty were to form no element in the competition, the poorer students, having fewer advantages, and specially not having the same access to books, were less likely to attain success, and, though equal in talent and diligence, might be injured by the disadvantageous comparison. Mr A. Robertson, Mr Paterson of Kirkwall, Dr Baird, Mr A. Thomson, and Dr Bryce of Belfast, took part in this discussion. The committee expressed their sense of the difficulties connected with the working of the scheme, and their readiness to receive suggestions in order to their removal. The discussion ended by the Synod's unanimously adopting the committee's report, which was ordered to be printed. On the motion of Dr Harper, the clerk was instructed to convey the thanks of the Synod to the benevolent lady mentioned in the report as having founded the Wilkie scholarship.

SABBATH SCHOOLS.

Mr A. THOMSON, convener of the committee on Sabbath Schools, gave in a report, which the Synod approved, and reappointed the committee to prosecute their labours, leaving it to presbyteries to inquire into the state of Sabbath Schools in their bounds, if not convenient to receive the deputies of the committee. Presbyteries were required to give special attention to this subject. The following were appointed the committee for next year-Dr Robson, Jas. Robertson (Musselburgh), P. Davidson, H. M'Gill, P. M'Dowall, Wm. Thomson, A. Thomson, F. Muir, G. Deans, Daniel Kerr, J. L. Aikman, G. Jeffrey, W. Lindsay, Jos. Brown, S. Sinclair, ministers. Messrs. John Boyd, Jas. Young, John Cochran. Rev. A. Thomson, con

vener.

PSALMODY.

Mr BROWN of Dalkeith, convener of the committee on psalmody, laid on the table, as the result of the committee's labours, a volume of hymns, entitled "Hymn Book of the United Presbyterian Church." A thousand copies had been printed, which they proposed should be sold to the members at one shilling each; and they requested the Synod to take further means for the circulation of the hymn-book throughout the church.

Dr ROBSON moved, that the Synod receive the report and approve of the committee's diligence, reappoint the committee, with instructions to prepare an index, and to supply whatever they thought desirable for perfecting the volume, and instruct them to correspond with authors and others having the copyright of the hymns in the volume, respectfully requesting permission to make such use of their compositions and property as was proposed; and that the Synod further require, that suggestions regarding the hymn-book must be forwarded before January next, it being understood that the hymns at that time unchallenged shall be regarded as passed; and that the committee be empowered to receive and consider the suggestions that may be made, and prepare a digest for next meeting of Synod.

This motion was unanimously agreed to.

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it was argued, it might in some cases be advantageously followed. It was resolved, after considerable discussion, that the petition should lie over for consideration at next meeting.

DUNBLANE CASE.

A petition and complaint were read from the East Congregation of Dunblane, regarding the proceedings of the Debt Liquidating and Mission Boards: and also a petition from the Rev. Alexander Henderson, the minister of that church, connected with the same case. Parties having been heard, a long discussion took place, after which the Synod, by a majority, came to the following decision:-"That the complaint be dismissed, and the proceedings of the Debt Liquidating Board and Home Mission Committee, in reference to the East Congregation of Dunblane, and the Rev. Mr Henderson, be approved of."

TEMPLE LANE CASE, Dundee.

This was a case of reference from the presbytery of Dundee, as to the refusal of the congregation of Temple Lane to liquidate a bill drawn in 1840, in name of Mr Cross, their late minister, and of the preses and clerk of the congregation. The press bytery had ordered that the bill should be paid by the congregation, who, however, refused to do so; alleging that the money was not expended in congregational objects. The case having been referred by the Synod to a committee, they withdrew, and afterwards gave in their report, which was to the following effect :-"The committee having examined the treasurer's accounts, find that the Temple Lane congregation is responsible for a sum of L.15, being interest on a bond, and falling due some time between October 1840 and April 1841. No trace can be found in the treasurer's books of payment of said L.15, interest being made. The committee are therefore unanimously of opinion, that the money raised on the bill in question was applied to congregational purposes, and that consequently the claim presented against Temple Lane congregation is a just and valid claim. The committee find further, that the congregation was highly blameworthy in not submitting to the presbytery by implementing their decision on the bill in question, while yet no appeal was taken. The committee recommend that the Synod enjoin the congregation to make immediate payment of the bill referred to, with the interest thereon." The Synod unanimously adopted the report of the committee, substituting the words "within three months," for "immediately," in the last clause, and enjoined accordingly. Afterwards a document bearing on the

case, was sent in to the clerk of Synod by the managers of Temple Lane. The committee having been re-appointed, this document was remitted to them; and on examination of it they reported, that they unanimously found it to confirm their former decision.

MINISTER RECEIVED.

Mr JOHNSTON of Nicolson Street Church, stated that the Rev. Alex. Leitch, formerly missionary to Madras, in the service of the London Missionary Society, had applied to the presbytery of Edinburgh to be received as a minister of the United Presbyterian Church. Satisfactory testimonials as to his piety and learning had been produced, and he had declared his approval of the standards of the United Presbyterian Church. The presbytery now asked the sanction of the Synod to his reception.

After some discussion in regard to form, it was agreed that it should be remitted to the presbytery of Edinburgh to receive Mr Leitch in the usual way.

UNIVERSITY TESTS.

On this subject Dr HARPER proposed the following resolutions-That the existing University Tests are not only sectarian, unjust, and impolitic, but totally inefficient for their professed object, namely, to ascertain the religious principles of persons appointed to professorships; that the Synod regard the entire abrogation of these tests as desirable, and are of opinion that the appointment to professorships should be left unfettered in the hands of properly qualified parties, persuaded that the influence of public opinion would prove the most efficient check against the admission of unqualified persons into our national universities. The doctor observed that there were two points waived in these resolutions. The first was, what should be substituted in room of the present system. The nomination was at present vested either in the universities, the town-councils, the crown, or some other parties; but it would be observed that this resolution did not say whether it was right they should have the power of nomination or not. The other point waived was, whether they could consistently declare against the existing tests, and say any thing about the theological chairs in the universities.

Mr PATERSON seconded the adoption of the resolutions, and regretted that it did not include a declaration in favour of a thorough reform of the parochial schools of Scotland. The resolutions were unanimously adopted.

COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC QUESTIONS.

It was agreed that a committee should

be appointed to attend to public questions, bearing on the interests of the church: and the following were nominated as that committee - Dr Harper (convener), A. Thomson, F. Muir, G. Johnston, ministers: with Jas. Peddie, Jas. Young, and Wm. Duncan, elders.

CONCLUDING ADDRESS.

At the close of the proceedings on Wednesday evening, 17th May, the Moderator briefly addressed the members of Synod, congratulating them on the order and harmony which had prevailed throughout the proceedings. They had been reviewing and adjusting the machinery of their church. They were to depart to their several spheres of labour to set the machinery in motion. Unless the fire of divine grace, kindled by the Spirit of God, were burning within them, the mighty machine they had been constructing would serve no good purpose. The love and peace which had prevailed among them, showed how completely the two bodies had been fused together in the recent union.

CALLS MODERATED,

Spittal. The Rev. James Falconer, for merly of Gatehouse, called, Monday 15th May.

Lethendy.-Mr David Young, proba▾ tioner, called, Thursday April 27.

Huntly.--Mr James Inglis, probationer, called, 26th April.

West Linton-Mr Archibald Cross, probationer, called, 4th May.

ORDINATIONS.

Kennoway.-On the 26th April, Mr Daniel Douglas, probationer, was ordained pastor of the church at Kennoway, in the presbytery of Kirkcaldy, vacant by the death of the Rev. Alex. Stewart.

Thornliebank.-On the 2d May, Mr And. Wield, probationer, was ordained pastor of the church at Thornliebank, in the presbytery of Glasgow, vacant by the removal of the Rev. J. R. Dalrymple to Canada. Caffreland.-On Wednesday, 26th April,

They had now had three meetings of Synod as the United Church, and each of them had displayed an improved and increasing spirit of Christian unity and love. There was one sin against which they had need to be on their guard. They were about to take the inspection of their congregations, and to put into operation a scheme by which the numbers of the people, their constitution, and what they were doing for Christ, would be made known. They were in danger of being guilty of the sin with which David was chargeable in numbering the people, depending more on numbers and strength than on the blessing of God. If their members were very respectable, and their congregations seemed to be healthy, let them not look to this or to themselves, but to Christ, the great head of the church, who had been presiding over their assembly.

The Synod having sung the 20th paraphrase, the Moderator offered up a suitable and impressive prayer, after which he declared the Synod adjourned, to meet in the same place on the first Monday of May 1849.

the presbytery of Glasgow met in Cathedral Street Church, Glasgow, and ordained Mr George Brown, probationer, to the missionary work in Caffreland.

OBITUARY.

Died, at Whitby, Yorkshire, May 8, in the 43d year of his ministry, the Rev. George Young, D.D., of the United Presbyterian Church there.

Died, at Londonderry, Nova Scotia, 7th April, in the 83d year of his age and 53d of his ministry, the Rev. John Brown, of the United Presbyterian Church there, and father of the Presbyterian Church of Nova Scotia.

NOTANDUM FOR JUNE.

Ir will be observed that the Synod has appointed a general collection in aid of the Debt Liquidation Fund, to take place on 1st Sabbath of June, or on some other Sabbath of that month.

Monthly Retrospect.

VOLUNTARYISM IN PARLIAMENT.

AT length the House of Commons is getting a little truth told it on the question of church establishments. For all the light that has been spreading on this question throughout the country for the last fifteen years, one might read Hansard's Parlia

mentary Speeches for that period without once finding any thing from which he could conclude that there were people in this country who are deeply interested in the Christian religion, and yet desirous to see the connexion dissevered between the Church of England and the State. The plain announcement of this fact,

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by an honourable member the other day in the House of Commons, seems to have filled the assembly with surprise and horror; and to have so shocked the newspaper reporters, as to unfit most of them for taking down any account of the speaker's words. On Monday, 3d April, on occasion of the second reading of the Jewish Disabilities Bill, an amendment was moved, that so long, at least, as the House of Commons exercises the authority which at present it does exercise over the Established Church, no Jew ought to possess the franchise, much less be allowed to sit in that House" -a very consistent proposal certainly, but for two circumstances, namely, that the church insists on taking the Jew's money, as well as the money of other dissenters, and that it is natural and right that people should have some little to say in the disposal of their own property. The justice of this latter principle being indisputable, and the principle affirmed in the proposed amendment having a share of truth in it too, it follows that the only way of adjusting the opposing truths is, that Parliament should have no authority in the church-in other words, that there be no state church. The speakers in support of the amendment dilated in their usual strain on the dangers which the bill involved to the interests of the Christian religion. In the course of the debate, Mr Gardner, the honourable member for Leicester, spoke some home truths. In reference to the religious objection he observed, that, to suit the views of some honourable gentlemen opposite, it would really seem desirable to appoint a committee up-stairs of controverted doctrines, as well as a committee of controverted elections. He cordially supported the bill as a measure absolutely essential for the due accomplishment of civil and political liberty. He denounced the Church of England as having, for a mess of pottage, surrendered her birthright to the State. The danger that at the present moment threatened the church, as the church, was not the extension of religious liberty to other creeds, but the rottenness which existed in her own bosom. For the sake of the church herself, he earnestly called upon her to withdraw the pretension she had so long put forward, and so far carried into effect, of maintaining the Imperial Parliament, not as a Christian Parliament, but as a Church of England Parliament. The vindication of our common Christianity was not a peculium of the High-Church party, or of the Church of England; it was a matter in which the Methodists, the Baptists, the Unitarians, Roman Catholic Dissenters and Protestant Dissenters, were equally interested, and as

heartily. Where, then, were the petitions which these bodies had found it necessary to send forth against this measure? There were none such, or scarcely any; and the reason was, that these bodies had not the loaves and fishes to struggle for-the real rationale of the enthusiasm of the Church upon this and similar subjects. He himself was wholly opposed to all church establishments whatever; he regarded the connexion between church and state as wholly incompatible with the spirit of the age, and was thoroughly convinced that, sooner or later, it must be abandoned. The lamp of old Nonconformity was not yet burned

out.

In token of the acceptance which such views met with from the old political parties in the country, as well as of their confidence in the basis on which the Church of England rests, it is observable that Mr Gardner's speech is reported in about three lines of the Times (in which, however, it is misrepresented and falsified), and that the Morning Chronicle takes not the slightest notice of the speaker. The account given above is from the Daily News. We mention these things because it is right the dissenting community should know who of the conductors of the daily press are disposed to give them some degree of justice.

It is noticeable further, that Sir Robert Inglis, from the mere force of habit, we presume, and in utter obliviousness of the fact, that Mr Gardner's views are those of an enlightened, influential, and growing section of the British people, took it on him to administer rebuke to the speaker for having spoken in such terms of the religion of the country!

Undismayed, however, by the fear of such reproof, Mr Bright, one of the members for Manchester, came out the day after with views still more offensive. Mr Horsman had moved that "in the opinion of this House the distinction between the episcopal and common funds, restricting the application of the surplus revenues of the archbishops and bishops to episcopal purposes, and permitting no part of it in any circumstances to be applied to the relief of parochial destitution, is inexpedient, and ought not to be continued." The proposal on Mr Horsman's part, was obviously in the right direction, as might be inferred from its forced withdrawment after a short debate; but this perpetual obtrusion of church affairs on the attention of members whom we send up to manage the affairs of the nation, is one of the most annoying taxes paid for the support of the church establishment. Mr Bright was one of the speakers on this question. He had always observed, that when questions like the present were discussed in that House, certain

things were assumed which did not exist out of doors, and certain things which did exist were the last heard of. In respect to the increase of population, a very large portion of it had no particular sympathy with the Established Church, and any measures taken by that House for providing religious instruction, would have no effect, because the population would not avail itself of them. There was always extraordinary sympathy expressed for the manufacturing districts when the question for increasing the Church Establishment came under consideration. Now, the parish in which he lived, the parish of Rochdale, had a population of from 70,000 to 80,000 persons. About seven years ago he took the pains to ascertain what was the state of provision for public worship in that parish; and he found that, out of fifty-four places of worship there, forty-four had been built by the voluntary contributions of dissenters from the Established Church. They should bear in mind that all this was totally ignored in reports presented to that House. He believed that in the statements referred to by the right honourable baronet the member for Tamworth, not the slightest notion was conveyed to the country that such a person as a dissenter existed in the parish alluded to.

He would now turn

to Wales. Within the last twelve or eighteen months he had visited parts of that country, and amongst others Merthyr Tidvil. The population of that place might be 25,000 or 30,000 persons. He went into a bookseller'shop, and had a conversation with an intelligent person, from whom he learned that there was in that town one church belonging to the Establishment, which had been opened, perhaps, as long back as the town had existed; that there was another church in the process of finishing, but which was not then opened; and that there were twenty places of worship built by the voluntary contributions of dissenters from the Established Church resident in Merthyr Tidvil and its immediate neighbourhood. He had observed in Wales, that seven out of eight of the population were Dissenters; and yet these poor people-for they were poor compared with the population of England-had built out of their own funds places of worship and schools to an extent that did them infinite credit. These were things that ought not to be lost sight of in considering such questions as the present. With respect to Scotland, there also might be seen how the system of an Established Church and increased parochial clergy had failed; for it was now admitted that the majority of the population did not remain with the Established Church, but was attached to the

seceding party. With respect to Manchester, the noble lord at the head of the Government would, perhaps, admit that no party there wanted the new bishop. In that town, an income of L.5000 a-year was in the hands of the dean and chapter, who denied that they had the cure of souls at all, and who refused to do any thing except occasional preaching in the collegiate church. Then, in reference to the Bishop of Jerusalem, there could not have been a greater imposition on the people of this country than to ask them for funds for that bishop, who went out in the "Devastation steam-frigate, and landed under a salute of guns. He did not believe that there were more than half a dozen persons in Jerusalem belonging to the Church of England, and the greater part of those were Americans. Such proceedings were calculated to bring religion into contempt. If they looked back to the two last Archbishops of York, it might be shown that those two individuals, who lived a long time, received more than £1,500,000, or nearly £2,000,000. This was either State money, or money belonging to the Church, and in either case it was scandalous that

in any religious establishment whatever there should be such gross misappropriation of these enormous funds, whilst there was a vast mass of spiritual destitution in almost every part of the country. Under these circumstances, he was amused with the coolness with which the noble lord at the head of the government said the other night to the hon. member for Cockermouth, that it would be satisfactory to him to know that the new archbishop was to be limited to L.15,000 a-year. It was insinuated last year by the right hon. member for Ripon, that bishops, after all, were not so hard worked, and yet here was an instance of an archbishop receiving about three times as much as the prime minister. If there was any class of individuals easily situated with respect to temporals, with work slight and pay exceeding, it was those comfortable gentlemen who sat on the bench of bishops. He found that they had a strong disposition always to go with the Government of the day, and he believed it was a point of etiquette with them never to change their seats, but always to sit on the same side as the executive government. He considered-and the opinion was also very generally entertained in the country-that the existence of the bench of bishops had not only been unfavourable to the progress of public liberty-but also to the Christian religion itself.

This speech awakened the wrath of the House still more than that of Mr Gardner had done: at least it roused rebuke from the lips of weightier men. Mr Gladstone

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