most favourable impulse to all concerned in the progress of the good cause, in connexion with the Presbyterian interest in this district, had been given.. The presbytery resolved that the Synod's reference regarding a representative assembly shall be discussed at next meeting, which was appointed to be held at Carlisle on the last Tuesday of November.

Glasgow. This presbytery met on the sccond Tuesday of last month; Mr Taylor, moderator, in the absence of Mr M Naughton. A report was given in respecting the moderation in Regent Place, Glasgow, bearing that Mr Edmond of Dennyloanhcad had been unanimously called. Read the call signed by 207, and the paper of adherence by 175 members, in all 382 members, and the paper of concurrence by 147 ordinary hearers, when the moderator's conduct in the call was approved of. Ccmmissioners from Regent Place having becu heard, the call was sustained and concurred in by the presbytery; and Mr Taylor was appointed to accompany the commissioners, and lay the call and relative papers on the table of the Falkirk presbytery at their first meeting. The call to the Rev. John Paterson from Blantyre congregation was set aside, and a moderation in a call granted to the same congregation; and Dr Beattie appointed to preside on the occasion. A moderation in a call was also granted to Old Kilpatrick East congregation; and Mr Lawrie appointed to preside. A committee was also appointed, consisting of Dr Beattie, Dr Struthers, Dr Taylor, Mr Jeffrey, with Messrs David Robertson and George Paterson, elders, to suggest a plan for carrying into effect the recommendation of Synod in reference to the presbyterial visitation of congregations. It was also agreed, inasmuch as the Synod's committee for uniting weak and struggling congregations in the same locality, had recommended £50 to the second congregation of Campbelton, that the presbytery, in terms of said recommendation, supply Campbelton at the said rate in the mean time, and instruct the treasurer accordingly; at next meeting it was agreed to take up the matters remitted by the Synod to presby teries, and the clerk was appointed to send a circular to sessions, requesting reports on matters remitted to them from the Synod at the meeting in December.

Kirkcaldy.-At a meeting of this presbytery at Edinburgh, 9th May, the clerk reported that the Home Commission Board had agreed to aid the congregation of Anstruther. Commissioners appeared from said congregation, and petitioned for a moderation in a call, promising on behalf of the congregation to give the pastor whom they might call L 100 per annum as stipend, and

L.3 as sacramental expenses. The presby tery agreed to express their high approba tion of the christian and liberal spirit of the congregation, and to grant the moderation, and appointed Mr Ogilvie to moderate on the 25th May. The presbytery agreed to petition the House of Commons against additional endowments, to the purish schools, and for the repeal of the law which gives a sectarian character to these institutions. A draught of petition was read and agreed to, and ordered to be sent to the member for the county for presentation. The presbytery having met at Kirkcaldy, June 26, received and read minutes of joint deputation of Kirkcaldy and Cupar presbyteries, which had visited the congregations of Colins burgh and Kileonquhar, with the view of promoting a union between them. After long deliberation, a committee was appointed to draw up a report on the subject, to be submitted to the Synod's junction committee. A deputation was appointed to visit and inquire into the circumstances of the congregation of Largo. It was stated, on behalf of the Rev. A. Muir, Largo, that his health was far from being re-established, and that he found it neces sary to apply to the presbytery for further aid. After deliberation, supply for two Sabbaths was appointed to the pulpit, on the condition that on the Sabbath intervening between the presbytery's appointments, the church be vacant or sermon be provided at the expense of the congregation. Mr Ogilvie gave an account of his procedure in the moderation at Anstruther, which was approved of. Commissioners from the congregation laid the call on the table, which, being read, was found to be addressed to Mr Wm. Meikle, probationer, and to be signed by fifty-one members of the congrégation, and twenty-seven ordinary hearers. The presbytery sustained the calf, allowed Mr Meikle till next meeting to give his decision respecting it, and appointed him subjects of trial. A conversation having taken place respecting the expediency of accommodating the few members who resided in the eastern bounds of the presbytery, by holding an occasional mecting to the castward of Kirkcaldy, it was agreed to hold the next meeting at Leven. At Leven, July 4, Mr P. Greig, student, delivered a lecture, and was examined in Hebrew and Greek, to the satisfaction of the presbytery. Mr Morris, after the usual examinations, was admitted to the study of divinity. A report on the union of Colinsburgh and Kilconquhar congregations, prepared by the committee formerly appointed, was read and transmitted to the Synod's committee on the junction of weak congregations, with a recommendation that said committee would give the subject their early atten

tion. Colinsburgh congregation appeared to be suffering from its present vacant and uncertain condition. Two petitions were presented from Colinsburgh congregation, one renewing the request for a moderation, and another to the Home Mission Committee for aid. These were, in the mean time, allowed to lie on the table. The committee appointed to meet with the congregation of Largo, reported that they had done so, and had minutely inquired into the affairs of that congregation, and addressed to the people suitable exhortations, and were of opinion that another deputation might, with advantage, be appointed to visit Largo. Resumed the consideration of the petition from Largo, and, after long deliberation, resolved to transmit it to the Home Mission Committee. Rev. A. Muir being still unwell, members of presbytery were appointed to supply his pulpit for two Sabbaths. Appointed Mr Kerr of Pittenween, moderator of session of Colinsburgh, and Mr Douglas of Kennoway, to dispense the Lord's Supper in Anstruther, on the fourth Sabbath in July. Read a letter from Mr Meikle, requesting another month to make up his mind respecting his call to Anstruther, to which request the presbytery acceded. A petition from the congregation of Leven for aid in removing their debt, was received, read, and transmitted to the Debt Liquidating Board. The clerk reported that the Home Mission Committee had granted the congregation of Inverleven L.25 per annum, on condition of the congregation raising L.55 per annum, and continuing to work the Congregational Missionary Society, with which arrangement the presbytery expressed their cordial approbation. Agreed to certify Mr Patrick Greig to the Divinity Hall. Next meeting was appointed to be held in Leven, Mr R. Brown dissenting. At Leven, August 1, on the reading of the -minutes of last meeting, Mr Johnston, whose excuse for absence from last meeting had been received, adhered to the dissent of Mr Brown, from the motion appointing the present meeting to be held in Leven, A long discussion was then entered into respecting the place of next ordinary meeting, when two motions were made and seconded; 1st, hold next ordinary meeting in Kirkcaldy; 2d, hold it in Leven-and the latter carried by a majority of one-five voting for the one and six for the other. Against this motion the Rev. Wm. Harper, Wm. Cowan, and Mr. J. Aitken, dissented; and Rev. J. Johnston protested and appealed to the Synod. Mr W. Meikle was called, and the call to Anstruther put into his hand, which he accepted. He then delivered his various trials formerly prescribed, which were sustained, and the ordination fixed for Wednesday, 27th September,

and the appointment of ministers to officiate delayed till next meeting of presbytery. The former deputation were then appointed to visit Largo, in conjunction with the de-putation from the Synod's Home Mission Committee. The presbytery met again at Leven, September 5. After long discus sion regarding the future presbytery seat, it was agreed to allow this matter to lie over for future consideration, and to appoint next meeting in Kirkcaldy; on which Mr Johnston withdrew his protest and appeal. The presbytery then appointed supply for the pulpit of Largo, Mr Muir being unable to preach from affliction. Mr Brown was appointed to preach, and Mr Ogilvie to ordain and give the charge, at the ordination at Anstruther. Answers by the congregation of Leven, to the queries of the Liquidation Board, were laid on the table, read, and transmitted. The case of the congregation of Colinsburgh was recommended to the Home Mission Committee, with a view of obtaining a little aid to mect present exigencies.

ORDINATION.

On the 28th June, Mr W. F. Swan was ordained pastor of the United Presbyterian Church, Comrie, Perthshire; Messrs A. Russel, Newburgh, Alexander Young, Logie Almond, James Smith, Dunning, and John Lamb, Errol, officiated.

OBITUARY.

REV. JAMES M'GEOCH.-We copy from the Dumfries Courier the following tribute to the memory of the late Mr M'Geoch, whose death we announced in last Number of the Magazine :-"Our obituary of last week contained the name of an honoured and useful member of society, whose exit from this scene justly warrants an honest tribute to his memory. We allude to the late Rev. James M'Geoch of the United Presbyterian Church, Moniave, who died here on Monday the 7th August, in the thirty-first year of his ministry. Possessing natural parts of a high order-quick in his perceptions, of a clear judgment, comprehensive in his views, and endowed with a memory at once retentive, capacious, and ready-he had by assiduous culture prepared himself for a life of unobtrusive but decided and long-continued usefulness. Keenly observant, given to meditation, and fond of reading, he had acquired a vast share of information, and was characterised by a measure of sagacity which is rare. His natural disposition and moral feelings were in fine harmony with his well-balanced intellect. Of a large heart, full of affection and benevolence, he delighted in seeing and in making others

happy. He was eminently a lover of peace and of good men, and at the same time distinguished for faithfulness to his peculiar religious profession. He was truly a good man and full of faith. Few characters have so strikingly displayed the wisdom of the serpent in union with the harmlessness of the dove. That he was a diligent student of the word of God, his discourses from the pulpit plainly declared. For nothing was he more distinguished as a preacher than for apposite citation of Scripture, whether for the sake of proof or illustration, whether for instruction or warning, for exhortation or encouragement. If not signalized by the frequent exhibition of striking remark, or expanded illustration, or impassioned eloquence, his own clear conceptions of divine truth were expressed in the most lucid order, and in a style at once clear, elegant, and classical. With much discrimination, he separated what

was merely circumstantial from what was essential to his subject, and by a few masterly strokes set before his hearers a vivid portraiture of his own mind. As a pastor, he cared with affectionate earnestness for the whole flock, but especially for the aged and infirm, for the poor and the dying. Nor did he restrict his pastoral care to his own congregation, but was ever ready to counsel, to comfort, and to pray with the afflicted of all denominations. And he did not withhold the hand of charity when he saw that pecuniary aid was needed. Considering his means, his benefactions were indeed large; but they were exercised so much in the spirit of christian beneficence, that it was not till after his decease they became generally known, and by means of those who were the recipients of his bounty. Such men are blessings to society while they live, and, in their excellent example, leave to survivors a precious inheritance.

THE PROPOSED NEW MARRIAGE LAW FOR SCOTLAND.

AMONG other measures crowded out at the close of the session of Parliament just concluded, is one of some importance to ministers in Scotland, as affecting their liabilities in the discharge of a particular function of their office, and to the people at large, as bearing on public convenience and public morality. We refer to two bills which have passed the House of Lords, and have been under discussion in the Commons, altering in some particulars the law of marriage in Scotland. The first, intituled “An act to amend the law of Scotland, affecting the constitution of marriage," would provide that marriage shall be contracted only in one of two ways; (1) By solemnization in presence of a clergyman, corresponding with the form pursued under the existing law in contracting a regular marriage; or (2) By registration in a public record, after due notice given and proclaimed. A clergyman, by which term is meant the minister or pastor of any religious society, shall not, if this law pass, be permitted to solemnize marriage, unless one at least of the contracting parties have resided for fourteen days in the parish in which the ceremony is performed; or shall have been for fourteen days a member of the church in which the minister performing it officiates; or, until such minister be duly certified that notice of the intended marriage has been given to the registrar seven clear days before hand. In a second

bill, intituled "An act for registering births, deaths, and marriages in Scotland," it is provided that the officiating clergyman shall be required, under a penalty of forty shillings, to send to the registrar by post, notice of every marriage he solemnizes, and that such notice shall be sent within ten days after the solemnization. The bills contain numerous minuter provisions, carrying out these principles.

That marriage by registration simply, after proclamation of banns, and under the other restrictions proposed, ought to be made valid in law without the interposition of a religious functionary, will not be disputed by any who hold that the subjects of the realm are not responsible to the magis trate for their religious opinions or observances. With the friends of a voluntary christianity, it will be a more questionable point, whether the civil law ought to recog nise any other form of contracting marriage than one, in which it is treated as a civil contract. To simplify the transaction as far as concerns the civil law, it seems to us to be clearly advisable that Parliament should adopt one uniform plan, like that of registration, altogether independent of the religious ceremony. The idea of making marriage a religious matter, calling for ecclesiastical interference in order to its validity, is a relic of the popish system. In the "Directory for the Public Worship of God," agreed upon by the Westminster assembly, it is set forth that "marriage is no sacrament, nor peculiar to the church of God, but common to mankind, and of public

interest in every commonwealth." In opposition to this doctrine of their confession of faith, there are presbyteries of the Established Church who treat marriage as strictly an ecclesiastical matter, and are opposing the new bill on the ground of its recognising the validity of marriage contracted by simple registration, and without the authority of a church. This opposition we hold to be of the very essence of popery, and clearly at war with the doctrine of the Westminster divines. Let the church make what rules it will in regard to its own members, yet it has no right to rule in reference to the members of the commonwealth at large. According to its own standard, if it insist on a religious ceremony as necessary to constitute legal marriage, it must hold that every man who proposes to marry, is, by that proposal, a member of the church; or else it must declare that no man shall propose, or be at liberty, to marry till he become a member of the church. The interference of the Established Church presbyteries with the proposed legislation in the matter, is one of the latest mutterings of a system which we had presumed the year 1843 had rebuked into silence; and yet we fear that, from their long intercourse with government men, their voice will be attended to with far more respect than their influence in the country deserves. Let the Parliament, say we, mind its own business; settling what should constitute marriage in the eye of the civil law, and as involving civil rights. If churches or religious communities need something more than the civil law needs in such a case (and we are far from saying that the church of Christ should not have a higher standard than the law of the land in forming so important a relation,) still, this is the church's own business, with which it has no right to trouble the civil legislature. Let the state have its own uniform plan (and this, unless we hold marriage to be unlawful when the contracting parties are not Christians and members of the Christian church, must be independent of a religious ceremony); but, if the church demand something more, let this be regarded by the legal judge as something extrajudicial, into which he has no right to inquire. In short, registration, as defined in the proposed acts of parliament, should be exclusively recognised as evidence of marriage.

We dislike the compulsory enactment in the contemplated measures, as far as regards Dissenting ministers. It seems a hardship that ministers of the gospel, irresponsible to the civil power in respect to other religious duties, should be compelled to report to a legal authority in regard to the religious exercises in which they may engage connected with the solemnization

of marriage. It is to be remembered, however, that in solemnizing marriage (in other words, in constituting a legal marriage by a religious solemnity), the minister acts so far as a civil officer, forming an important civil relation; and it is not unreasonable that he should be required to account to the constituted authority for the act he performs in this character. If he object to the reporting, as we can conceive a scrupulous conscience to do, he has the remedy at hand. Let him refrain from performing the ceremony which the law requires to be reported by him who performs it. He is not bound to marry parties who present themselves for this purpose; he is only bound to report all cases, whatsoever they be, in which it pleases him to exercise the function which the legislature has chosen to vest in ministers of the gospel.

While we have no doubt that time will suggest many improvements in the proposed measures should they pass into law, we regard them as forming so decided an advance on the present system, that we should hail their enactment with no common satisfaction.

POPERY AND THE PREMIER.

"Save me from my friends," may the advocates of religious liberty now truly say. We have learned to watch our known enemies. An indignant nation rises in its strength when the avowed adversaries of freedom are proposing evil against it ; but when the evil is proposed by those whom the people have been accustomed to regard as the hereditary friends of freedom, it is long before they can rouse themselves from their dream of security; and even if half convinced, they sit calmly by, as if they feared they were under some hallucination, till the sad truth is forced upon them by facts which no imagination can mitigate or resist. At this moment we have Lord John Russell, openly declaring his willingness, as first minister of the Crown, and as acting for the interest of the British monarch, to sell his power unto "the beast," -to give the nation's money in exchange for the influence which popish priestcraft can render him for quieting the disaffection of Ireland; and his movements have excited surprisingly little commotion. His Lordship has been employing a portion of the recess of parliament in paying a visit to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland; and, though it has not come out distinctly what was the nature of his errand (if it were an object discreditable to a prime minister, we could not expect him to divulge it), it is significant enough of the amount of confidence reposed in him by the public, that the cause of

his Irish visit is connected, in the public mind, with his grand remedial measure for Ireland, the imposition of a new and additional ecclesiastical establishment. While others are offering their conjectures as to what made the British Premier cross the Channel at such a crisis, we may venture ours, and it is this:-that the rumours of certain Romish bishops being criminally implicated in the late rebellion; of the Lord Lieutenant's desire to deal out justice with an even hand to high and low, laic and ecclesiastic; and of the Premier's wish to make an exception in favour of the right reverend rebels,—are probably true; and that the adjustment of the difference bctween Earl Clarendon and Lord John Russell, colleagues in office, and we fear in expediency, required a personal interview. Why is the country so little roused when such rumours are rife? Is it that men hardly yet be lieve that a Whig premier would aim such a stroke as the endowment of popery must inflict upon religious liberty? Let not their charity deceive them. Sydney Smith said of his lordship, that his courage was fit for any thing; and that he would have undertaken, had it been offered him, the command of the Channel Fleet during the mutiny of the Nore. Let nobody imagine, then, that with Lord John Russell it is mere gasconading to speak of the voice of the empire being "no bar" to his endowing the Romish priesthood in Ireland. For our part, we do really believe that he has courage enough to make the attempt, and that, unless an ex pression of opinion emphatic enough to impress the House of Commons at large be offered speedily, such an endowment will become a matter of law ere the next ses sion of parliament have far advanced.

We have more to hope on this question from the policy of the priests, than from the protestantism of the Premier. A Roman Catholic priest of Cloyne, in a letter to the Cork Examiner, has laid bare at once the deep scheming of the Government, and the perils to which Romanism is exposed in the projected endowment. Having said that the system would make "our holy religion the slave and handmaid of the Government,", he goes on to prove it,-

"Suppose that every Catholic curate re-, ceived £200, and every parish priest a pension of £500 from the English Government, and that this system continued in operation for twenty or thirty years, so that the idea of the Voluntary system would fall into complete desuetude, what would be the consequence? At the expiration of this term, suppose that the feeling-as it certainly would of diffidence and distrust of the people in the priests would have received strength and maturity, and that an important political crisis presented itself in which

the priests could take an active part favourable to the Government, but unfavourable. to the people, in what a painful and appale. ling dilemma would they not find themselves? The people, whose confidence they have forfeited, and from whose minds the idea of supporting them has fallen into. oblivion, are unwilling to resume the Volun tary system again; and the Government, upon the other hand, threatens them to withdraw their support from them, unless they become their instruments in carrying out their iniquitous designs, in enslaving the people. Cruel and painful position of a Catholic priest-an object of hatred to his flock upon the one hand, and a tool in the hands of an iniquitous Government upon the other!

"Again, I maintain that such a system would be placing religion and the Catholic hierarchy of the country at the mercy of the Government, and exposing them to the sarcasms of the bigoted and scorpion Stan ley, and the foolish and nonsensical taunts of the doting and unprincipled Brougham.

"In the first place, what guarantee has any one that this Government endowment will last always? Is it not now an axiom, that the English Government is never generous but when the interests of the nation are involved, and likely to be promoted? The present degraded and forlorn condition of the French ecclesiastics should never be absent from the mind of the good and virtuous part of this country. People may be assured that the sole and only intention of the Government in all this proceeding is to snap, the golden link that unites the priests to the affections of the people-to paralyse the influence by the exercise of which they are the masters and arbiters of the destinies of the land.

"But, I may be told that it is 'throwing a slur' upon the character of the party to say that English gold would induce them to abandon the interests of the people. There is no man in Ireland who entertains a higher opinion of the integrity and unswerving firmness of the clerical character in this country than I do. I am convinced that no country ever produced better and truer priests. But, while this is the fact, and too patent to be denied, it is yet, alas! but too true that we all carry about with us: the weakness and corruption of human nature, and that in the most sanctified and best organized societies there has been found a minion, a traitor, or a slave; and that a single act of a recreant hireling of this kind, united to the malice of a few wicked and designing men, would do an incalculable amount of injury to the best and holiest cause.

"It appears to me to be a matter placed beyond all dispate, that men's minds would