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perience; but let it be an honest, a bona fide trial. There is a mine there which we have not yet explored-which we have scarcely even entered upon-but which will assuredly yield a fund adequate, if we work it aright, to all the necessities of the Free Church, and capable of fulfilling all the high objects for which we seemed destined to provide. One matter more. I am sure you will give me credit for resting my cause on public grounds and objects, and not on personal considerations. (Hear.) At the same time, if I can get a good wholesome auxiliary influenceeven though it should be a personal consideration-to the sacred object of the sus. tentation of the ministers of Scotland I shall be glad to avail myself of it; and I call upon you, in the name of the sympathies which one and all of you owe to the poor and oppressed-I call upon you, in the name of our suffering friends and adherents in all the parishes of Scotland-I call upon you to come forward and help them, because their sufferings must be provided for out of the general fund. I am aware that a collection has been ordered for our adherents in Sutherland; and my friend Mr Carment, I believe, is prepared to move that it be extended to two other counties. So far good and well; but if this persecution is to be inflicted by the landlords of Scotland, I call upon you, the towns of Scotland, that are beyond the reach of their influence, to come forward. (Loud cheers.) I call upon you, the towns of Scotland, to do what the towns of Europe did when the general liberties of Europe were threatened, at the termination of the middle ages. I call upon you to do what was done by the Hanseatic League, in their desires to overthrow the feudal tyranny which had reigned for a dark and truly oppressive millennium over the fairest portions of Europe. (Cheers) I call upon the towns to assist us in our struggle for the achievement of the religious liberties of Scotland. (Great cheering.) We have been challenged by the ablest and most intelligent newspaper of the country-we have been challenged by the Times for facts. We have a great dislike to come to facts; we are unwilling to give names; but I say that I know hundreds of facts: but if they will have facts, I shall only give one, but I will shoot at high game; and I will give a fact which I will authenticate in such a way that the public may be put fully in possession of the gross and outrageous conduct of the Duke of Sutherland. (Loud cheers.) I think it is better to publish it through the medium of this Assembly; let it be reported in the Scottish Guardian, and let this be the answer to the challenge of the Times, accompanied with this statement, that I know tens and hundreds of cases that have occurred of people turned out of their employment-governesses, servants, and factors, who have lost their situations for adhering to the Free Church. I know that the Times considers that the landed proprietors have a right to refuse sites; and they turn us to ridicule for first making a request for a site as so many mendicants, and that then we turn round in generous indignation because they have refused our supplicatory application. But we did not apply for gratuitous sites; we were willing to give full value for them all we require is, that in virtue of his property, he should not have the right of trampling upon our consciences. He stretches his proprietary rights too far, when he does so; and if the present state of the law will not bear us out in saying so, then there ought to he a general petitioning over all the land to modify these proprietary rights. (Loud and long continued cheers.) There is nothing singular in this. The proprietary rights of landlords have been forced to make way for the claims of a railroad, and many other public works; and all we ask is, that these proprietary rights should also be forced to make way-for a full and reasonable compensation that they should make way for the enjoyment of equal toleration for all classes of her Majesty's subjects. (Cheers.) The first fact I shall give relates to the refusal of sites-that, I suppose, will not satisfy the Times. The second is such an instance of oppression as he demands. I give this one instance, and I could give 100, if I were reduced to the invidious necessity. If I am driven to the use of names, I shall go to the summit of society, and shall blason it forth to the whole world. The reverend Doctor then read the following letter:

"DURNESS by Golspie, 20th July, 1843. "MY DEAR SIR,-From several causes, which I need not state particularly, I could not possibly leave the manse till a fortnight ago-waiting an opportunity of

conveying my furniture and part of my family by sea, from near the shores of Cape Wrath to Thurso, and my wife and the younger branches of the family by land-being a distance of at least 70 miles; not a house or hut could be got nearer for their accommodation. I have taken a room in the only inn in the district where I at present sojourn, in the midst of a poor and afflicted, but sympathising people-some of whom, I trust, have been taught to put their trust in the Lord. Hitherto, we have met together to worship in the field, and we have no prospect, at present, of a site for church or manse from our noble proprietor. My feelings, and that of my family, on leaving the manse, after a happy residence of thirty-one years, I cannot easily describe. Though painful in some respects, yet I trust it was a willing sacrifice. The cause is good; Jehovah-jireh is a strong tower. While we have had cause to sow in tears, may we reap in joy. My wife was born in the same manse she lately left empty; left two of our children's dust behind, and accompanied by six, all hitherto unprovided for, to sojourn among strangers, has displayed a moral heroism which is soothing to my feelings. My dear and honoured Sir, yours very truly, "Rev. Dr Chalmers, Edinburgh. WM. FINDLATER."

The next is a letter from my respected friend, Mr M'Gillivray of Dairsie. I stated to him that there was a hearsay report respecting a refusal to allow his sister, Mrs Henderson, to shelter her aged father; but I always affirmed that this could not be the work of the noble Duke, but of his factors and middlemen. I understand now that it is the direct work of the Duke himself. (Loud cries of Shame.) Yet I do not resign my opinion, that the Duke is an amiable, mild, and patriotic nobleman; but all the more do I lament that such a barrier of misconception has been raised up between the higher and the lower classes of society; and especially do I lament that the minds of the landed proprietors generally-certainly there are some illustrious exceptions should be so closed up against the real merits and bearings of our Church question. I ascribe it to that, and to nothing else. Radically and essentially I believe that this nobleman is personally of a pure and mild character; but such is the influence of the esprit de corps-such are the mists that blind and distort the perceptions of his mind, as to make him act in this case altogether inconsistently with his general habits and feelings. However, the Times has demanded authentic facts, and this fact I shall give, with such authentications as, I trust, will satisfy that newspaper:"DAIRSIE, October 13, 1843.

"MY DEAR SIR, The following are the particulars of the case referred to in your letter:

"About three years ago my sister, Mrs Henderson, being left a widow, with three children, retired to a cottage at Lairg, given her by the Duke of Sutherland, which cottage had for some time before been unoccupied. When the disruption of the Church took place, she asked my father to reside with her on leaving the manse, and as there was no other place in the parish where he could be accommodated, he availed himself of his daughter's offer. The week before he left the manse, Mr Gunn, factor for the Duke of Sutherland, called for him, and after strongly dissuading him from going to live with his daughter, read to him part of a letter from the Duke, to the effect, that if Mrs Henderson wished to retain the cottage solely for her own use, she might continue to occupy it, but that otherwise he would find use for it himself, as he did not wish it to be a lodging place for Dissenters.'

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"After leaving my father, Mr Gunn called for my sister, and gave her significant hints as to the inexpediency of my father's going to the cottage. At last my sister put the question, "Do you mean, Mr Gunn, that I am not to admit my own father into my own house, when he has no other place to go to ?' His answer was, 6 Just that, Mrs Henderson;' on which he read to her the passage in the Duke's letter, which he had previously read to my father. My sister then told him that the Duke might no doubt turn her out of the cottage if he were so pleased, but that so long as she was there, her father should share it with her.

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"Soon after my father had removed to the cottage, Mr Taylor, the Duke's law agent, called for him, and said to him twice, and very significantly, Mr M'Gillivray, I wish you to know that Mr Gunn has acquainted me that you have come to reside

here without his permission.' Convinced by these facts that the Duke's agents had resolved to get rid of them, and dreading the idea of being ejected in winter, when it might be difficult to obtain a house elsewhere, my father has come to Dairsie, to spend the winter with me, and in course of a fortnight my sister comes to St Andrew's.

"These facts I had from my father and sister, and my father, to whom I have read this letter, confirms them in every particular. I remain, my dear Sir, yours with much esteem,

"To the Rev. Dr Chalmers.

AN. M. M'GILLIVRAY."

The reading of this letter was received with loud cries of Shame. Dr Chalmers continued-The Moderator urges upon me the propriety of saying something with regard to our devotional meetings. There is nothing I am more anxious about than to Christianize our collections, and nothing will conduce more readily to that than the holding of monthly meetings for devotional exercises, for diffusing information regarding the progress of missions, and regarding the state and prospects of the Free Church. I hope that ministers will avail themselves of these meetings, as an important instrument, both for keeping up the interest in existing associations, and for extending the organization to other districts. I trust you now see that if the first produce of the associations had been rigidly appropriated to the sustentation fund, that would have completely cleared our way. There is no doubt a great temptation to lay hold upon the sustentation, and apply it to the building fund. Now, the only way to clear ourselves from these embarrassments, is by a good liberal subscription to the building fund, and there is a plan which I have taken the liberty of recommending in other places, and which I am anxious to introduce into Glasgow. The Rev. Doctor then detailed his plan for parties to subscribe half-a-crown or more to each of a given number of churches. After describing it, he said, nothing can more effectually convince-I won't say satisfy our adversaries, of the hopelessness of their attempts to exterminate the Free Church, than the knowledge that subscriptions have been afforded sufficient to guarantee the erection of all the churches we require; for the disposition of the people to leave the Church is quite indefinite. We can assign no bounds to that; and all that is necessary for us to do, is to follow it pari passu by a supply of the means of grace; and if we can show that we have an ample supply of means, nothing will more effectually convince them of the necessity of altering their policy. I intend, by the, plan I propose, nothing more than a little gradual pressure-a supplementary tickling, after the violent wrench formerly experienced; but there is one gentleman in Glasgow, who appears to have no taste for gradual pressure. He has made a leap to a conclusion, at a single instant; and instead of waiting for the slow, gradual process of half-a-crown at one time, and half-a-crown at another, he has conceived a taste for violent wrenching; for, by a self inflicted process he has so accustomed himself to wrenches which would have agonised most other men, that he has determined to inflict on himself another on this occasion, and he has come down at once with the magnificent donation of L. 1250. (Cheers.) I need not name him. I am sure you all anticipate my respected friend, William Campbell, Esq. (Continued cheers.) He concluded by intimating that subscription papers would go round the audience to

morrow.

At the close of this address, the whole of the Assembly rose from their seats -testified their enthusiasm by a burst of cheering, waving of hats, handkerchiefs, &c., and it was a considerable time before the Assembly resumed its wonted calm

ness.

Mr CAMPBELL of Monzie rose, and was received with loud applause. He said, Moderator, I feel it would be most unbecoming in me, after the noble-minded and splendid address which we have just heard, were I to trespass for any length upon your time. But I beg, before I address myself to the object I have in view, that you will permit me selfishly to explain why I stand in this position. It may appear somewhat abrupt and ill-judged that I should make such an explanation; but I hope you will excuse my feeling, and allow me to state what I feel bound to say, in justice to myself and to the cause which I advocate. I wish to tell you why I stand

before you as a Dissenter-it is because I conceive the Establishment to be now intolerable, and because I hold its principles to be directly subversive of Scripture; and for this reason I have left it. I have no sympathy with that mawkish coquetting with the Residuary of those who know what it has become, and yet follow the miserable course of adhering to it. (Hear.) I may be told, that because I openly avow my determined opposition to the Established Church of Scotland, I shall only, by doing so, draw down farther persecution on those who have seceded from it. But I tell them that the man whose heart is so steeled with bigotry, as to treat a Christian minister in the manner in which some of them have been treated-in the manner in which they have treated that aged minister of God, Mr M'Gillivray, the heart of that man, I say, is so steeled that no giving way on our part will cause him to give way; and should we give way to the man who refuses a site, it would only enable him to say, "Your conscience can allow you to tolerate the Establishment, and why not return to it ?" But feeling as we do, it is our duty to say that the Establishment has now become intolerable; and there is no hope, and never will be any hope, of our recognising it as any thing else but an anti-christian Church. (Hear, hear.) I tell you, therefore, why I am a Dissenter. When the controversy arose, or rather towards its conclusion, I found that there was no course open but to leave the Establishment-this course I was compelled to take by the dictates of my con-science, and I will follow it out. (Applause.) In my capacity as a layman, therefore, I will give it my most active opposition, and look upon it as the duty of every Christian man to sweep it from the face of the earth. (Hear, hear, and tremendous applause.) I have felt it my duty to state this a layman; but, at the same time, I maintain, in opposition to the misconstructions which have been put upon our proceedings, that, as a Church, we have no conspiracy to destroy the Establishment. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) No such conspiracy, I say, exists amongst our ministers, whose peculiar duty it is to preach the truth as it is in Jesus. But still, as an individual layman, I consider it my duty to take my stand in opposition to the Establishment. Much has been said about the persecution to which the Free Church has been subjected, and so much has been stated regarding the state of the county of Sutherland, that it will be unnecessary for me to allude to the subject. But Dr Chalmers has alluded to other cases of persecution, and I am glad he has done so, for one might otherwise have been afraid that in the magnitude of the Sutherland persecutions, minor evils might have been forgotten. Now, I say plainly, that these persecutions cannot last. (Hear, hear, and applause.) I rejoiced to hear your proposition of sending petitions to the Legislature; and I implore you to follow up these petitions, for I am satisfied that they will meet with a most hearty response from the British parliament. (Renewed applause.) During the last session, when I had a seat in the House of Commons, I meditated bringing the subject before parliament, and introducing a bill which would compel proprietors to give sites for our churches for a consideration; but I was advised by older and wiser heads not to do so, and I took their advice much against my will. When I went to parliament, I alluded fully to the subject, as some of you are aware, and when I detailed the wrongs of Sutherland, it was met by a cheer from both sides of the House, that at once bespoke their sympathy and indignation. ( (Applause.) I entreat of you, therefore, to prosecute the proposition which has been made to you by the Rev. Doctor. I entreat you to petition for the removal of this great and intolerable grievance. (Hear, hear.) I will now read the resolution which I hold in my band, which is as follows::-

"The General Assembly, having heard the reports of the Building and Financial Committees, given in by their respective Conveners, resolved as follows:

"That the Assembly approve of these reports; highly commend the wisdom, zeal, and fidelity, which have distinguished the Building and Financial Committees in prosecuting the great work intrusted to their care.

"That they regard with humble and heartfelt gratitude to Almighty God the very encouraging progress already made towards the providing of places of public worship for the numerous adherents of the Free Church of Scotland, and of funds for the sustentation of the ministry.

"That the thanks of this House be given to these Committees, and especially to their respective Conveners, the Rev. Dr Chalmers, and John Hamilton, Esq.

"That the Assembly approve of the regulations and resolutions agreed to in the Committee of the whole house, and now reported, in regard to the administration of the funds for supplying ordinances, and enact in terms thereof; and the Assembly return their thanks to the Committee on Regulations, and to Alexander Dunlop, Esq., their Convener."

Mr CAMPBELL Continued—One word on a most important subject before I have done. I rejoiced to hear Dr Chalmers repeat more than once that he believed, under God, that much of the success of our cause depends on the manner in which the collectors go to work. I trust that every collector will treasure these words.

I trust that every one will feel that on himself a great responsibility rests. Let every man and every lady take these words home to themselves, and realise it to be his and her duty to act in this matter as they shall answer to God for the manner in which the duty is performed. (Hear, hear.) I was much struck by the remarks which were made by Mr Begg, near the commencement of the Assembly's proceedings. He said we should impress upon the minds of the people the magnitude of the sum to be realised. Now I wish he had gone somewhat farther than this; for I would not so much impress upon them the magnitude of the sum to be raised as the magnitude of the object we have at heart. Let a man's heart only feel what that object islet him realise whose cause it is, and from that day forward a money sacrifice will be as nothing to him. I would ask every layman just to compare for one moment the sacrifices which he has made with those which have been made by our clergymen. It has often been alluded to, and I think that it can never be sufficiently brought before the country. I would ask what has been the proportion of these sacrifices, or what ought to be the proportion, if we are consis. tent servants of God? Should there be any difference between us? None in the least; for I hold it the sacred duty of every one here to make common cause with the persecuted servants of God. Should there happen to be in this Assembly a single adherent of the Free Church, whom God has blessed in his means, yet whose heart has been so hardened by the sordid love of money that he has not given as he ought to have given, I could wish that that man had stood in my place in the Free church at Monzie only yesterday. (Hear, hear.) I wish that he could have seen that for each hundred pounds which God enabled me to lay out there, there were a hundred immortal souls permitted to listen to the preaching of the word of truth. I am sure that no man will conceive that, under the circumstances, I thought for one moment of the sum which this erection cost me. The only thing which I thought of was God's goodness and mercy both towards me and that congregation. I thought of His goodness in putting it into my heart so to expend my money, and in leading the people to be benefited by it. If, then, there be a sordid lover of mammon here, I would ask him in what manner can he lay out his gold that would yield such a return? Let him consider that when all his gains, however honourably acquired, are crumbling in the dust, immortal souls are living, whom he might be the means of leading within the influence and the glad sound of the gospel. (Hear, hear.) My friends, then, bear this in mind. Pardon the words of a young man; but I felt called on to say what I have done, and I am sure no man will misconstrue my feeling. My sentiments come from the heart, and I hope they may meet a response in yours. I return you my sincere thanks for lis. tening to me so patiently. (The honourable gentleman, after moving the resolutions, sat down amid the loudest applause.)

Mr HOG of Newliston was received with cordial applause. He said, Moderator, I rise for the purpose of saying a single sentence in seconding the motion which has now been made. But, perhaps you will permit me to express the sincere satisfaction which I believe I feel in common with every member of this vast Assembly, with the splendid results of the two Committees, whose reports are now on our ta ble. For myself, I will say that the most sanguine adherent of the Free Church could hardly have ventured to expect in May last, such a splendid result-a result,

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