grace of God sanctifying their hearts and minds, they might be drawn together by the cords of a man and by the bands of brotherly affection; and he hoped that the time was not far distant when the circumstances which had so long separated them would in the Lord's time be taken out of the way, and that they would all be joined together and striving only in their obedience to their Divine Master. At that late hour he would not enlarge on a subject which would afford ample room for remark, but he would confidently say, in the name of every member of the Assembly, that they gave the most sincere, honest, and spiritual response to the kind and Christian sentiments which the reverend gentlemen had expressed, and their earnest desire that in every way they should be able to meet, and act, and exercise Christian kindness with their reverend friends, without compromising their principles; but if there shall be striving between them, that it should only be as to who should show most zeal and energy in the cause of Christ. He hoped he might be allowed to say as to one gentleman in the deputation from the United Secession Synod, who had once been a friend of his, and he hoped would still be his friend, that he rejoiced to see him in such a company, and he hoped they would hereafter be enabled to act as brethren. (This allusion to Dr Brown was loudly cheered) He thanked God they were now brought into a position so very different from that in which they formerly were, and it was his fervent prayer that He might bring them nearer and nearer to that position which would be most beneficial to Christianity in general, and would most tend to promote the glory of God. The reverend Doctor then moved the following resolution:

"The General Assembly acknowledge, with cordial satisfaction, the congratulations of the Reformed Presbyterian Synod, and of the United Associate Synod, communicated by their deputations, and the assurance of their brotherly sympathy and regard, and resolve to appoint deputations to attend the next meetings of these Synods respectively, in order to express to them the kind and cordial regard which this Assembly entertains towards them, and their earnest desire to co-operate with them and other evangelical communions in advancing the kingdom of their common Lord; and they instruct their Moderator to communicate to the deputations, by whose presence they have been favoured, the high gratification derived by this Assembly, from the intercourse which, on the part of the Reformed Presbyterian Synod, and the United Associate Synod, has now been opened with them-an intercourse which it will be the earnest desire of the Assembly to cultivate in a spirit of Christian charity and brotherhood."

Hon. Fox MAULE said-It was my intention to have seconded, in a few remarks, the motion just now made by our reverend father, but at such a late period of the evening, and after the meeting has been so long detained, I could not do justice to the subject without doing a wrong to the Assembly. I will not, therefore, Moderator, stand between you and your duty farther than to express the deep gratitude I feel at the presence of these different deputations, and at the expressions of sympathy and Christian feeling to which they have given utterance. It was my intention not only to have called the attention of the Assembly to the debt of gratitude due to the deputations, but also to the great body of evangelical Christians throughout Scotland and England. (Applause.) When our people were left houseless, they were the first to take them in-(applause)—and there was no act of kindness which they saw they could do us, but they were ready to extend that kindness to us on the very earliest opportunity. As an elder of the church, and in the name of the elders of the church, I cannnot refrain from paying a compliment to these deputations for their conduct towards us. Although our sacrifices as elders are nothing to those of our ministers, yet many of them have done much on behalf of the Free Church of Scotland; and in their name I must state that we feel deeply indebted to those bodies from which these deputations have come, for the very deep interest they have taken in the prosperity of our cause, and for their attention to our comforts as a church; most especially do we return them our best and most grateful thanks for their expression of feeling towards our ministers-expressions of feeling which we shall never forget while life and memory hold their seats. (Applause.)

The MODERATOR then conveyed the thanks of the Assembly to the deputations.

The Assembly adjourned at ten minutes past twelve, to meet privately to-morrow at eleven o'clock, and publicly in the evening at seven.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19.

The Assembly met in the early part of the day in private deliberation on the financial affairs of the Church.

EVENING SEDERUNT.

The Assembly met at six o'clock this evening, the devotions being commenced by singing a portion of the second version of the 102d Psalm.

IRISH DEPUTATION.

The Assembly then called for the report of the commissioners to the Irish Presbyterian Church, as also the deputation from that Church.

ours.

Mr MAKGILL CRICHTON said-Moderator, I am well aware of the deeply important business which is to come before the Assembly to-night; and I will, therefore, not detain you by anything more than a mere account of my stewardship, in so far as I was a constituent part of your commission to the Presbyterian Church of Ireland. I can assure this Assembly, in my own name, and in that of my fathers and brethren who were sent to Ireland in July last, that we received the most cordial welcome that it is possible to conceive. We were delighted with all the procedure which we witnessed in that noble Christian Assembly; and I have to report, Sir, that their reception of the deputation of the Free Church of Scotland was in all respects corresponding to the momentous circumstances in which, as a Church, we are now placed. In every respect and particular they seemed to identify their interests with They were not content with offering their Christian prayers and their Christian sympathies; but they set an example to the Christian world by their Christian co-operation and aid. We were invited to go over the whole of Ulster, and to call upon our Presbyterian friends to show by their deeds, not by words, that they were alive to the exigencies of the case. They not only recommended to their several congregations to aid the Church of their fathers in erecting humble sanctuaries for the poorest of this land; but the example of liberality was set in the General Assembly itself. They did not issue an order and call upon the people to obey it; but they themselves struck the first blow, and they set the example in Presbyterian Belfast-in the heart of Presbyterian Ulster-and in one night they raised nearly L.3000 in the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Ireland. (Great cheering.) The consequence was, that when my friend Mr Gray and I went to the other towns and cities of Ulster, every town became to us a little Belfast: they took their tone and their cue from the tone which had been sounded forth from head quarters, and in a few days the subscriptions from Presbyterian Ulster amounted to about L.7000 sterling, and I believe that the sum has since accumulated very nearly to the sum of L. 10,000. (Loud cheers.) I say that England has done well so far as she has been appealed to; America, also, has given us the first fruits of her liberality; but Presbyterian Ulster, that limited province, where great wealth does not prevail-the L.10,000 from Presbyterian Ulster is manifold more than what has been received from any Church or any other part of the kingdom. (Loud applause.) I add no more-time will not permit me to enter upon the subject as it deserves; and I prefer saying no more than to introduce to this Assembly the deputation from the sister Church, which is now ready to address you. (Cheers.)

Mr GOUDY of Strabane then addressed the house in an eloquent speech, for which we regret we cannot find room.

Mr MOLYNEIUX of Larne spoke as follows:-Moderator, I have been commissioned, in conjunction with my brethren who now appear before you, to wait upon this General Assembly, and to communicate the feelings and purposes of the Irish

Presbyterian Church in reference to this the Free Proresting Church of Scotland; and whilst I feel this to be a big monour, and that I enjoy an exalted privilege, stil Iaso feel that I was guilty of great tementy a accepting this commission, inasmuch as I am conscious of my water inadequacy to communicate the feelings of intense interest with which you are regarded in your present noble struggle by the Irish Presbyteriana. They sympathise with you, not alone because you are a section of the true Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, not alone because you are Presbyterians boiding the same standards and the same system of ecclesiastical polity with themselves, but they sympathise with you clefy because this is their parent Church, and because from it, in bygone days, the spirital aght, and liberty, and freedom came, which have spread their me.orating infuences over the north of Ireland for the last 200 years, during every period of social discord or political commotion. It is not, then, a matter of astonishment that Irish Presbyterians should sympathise with you, nay, it would be a subject of wonder if, forget of all these things, they could jook with apathy or indiference upon this Church in its trials, in its difculties, and in its righteous contendings. We saw from a most the commencement of the struggle that the contest was one which could not be accommodated-that some one of the parties must recede; and so fully convinced were we of the righteousness of your cause, and the integrity of the men by whom it was upheld, and of the splendid talents which were wielded in its support, that ultimate defeat was to you impossible on the ground of argument, and that, therefore, you would never barter for any earthly consideration the rights guaranteed to your Church by the charter of Heaven. Deep, therefore, was the interest with which we regarded your struggles, even when these were confined to the debates of your Assembly-debates in which the righteousness of your cause was demonstrated with a power of reasoning which swept all opposition before it, and which established alike the disinterested purity of your purposes, and the accordance of your principles with the ecclesiastical polity of the Word of God. We saw that year by year, so far from retrograding, you advanced. We could not but sympathise with you in your contendings for the same liberty which we enjoy, and for the casting aside of that yoke of bondage which we never bore, but the character of whose galling despotism we can very well appreciate and comprehend. But when in endeavouring to maintain unimpeached the allegiance which you owed to Christ, the sole King and Head of the Church, we saw your venerable ministers dragged before the civil courts-when we saw them fined and threatened, and the whole torrent of official insolence poured out against them— we would have been undeserving of the name of Presbyterian-we must have riven *every emotion of gratitude from our bosoms-we must have quenched within us the fire of the chivalry of our native land—had we not sympathised with you in your sufferings-had we not cherished feelings of the most intense interest with respect to your trials-and had we not made use of every effort within our power in order to avert the calamity and disruption by which your Church was impeded. Each new element, as the current of circumstances and the leadings of divine providence evolved it, heightened this interest; and we felt convinced that a crisis was at hand, the consequences of which no man could calculate-consequences which might run parallel, not merely with the destinies of this mighty empire, but with the destinies of the Church of Christ, to a period when the glories of the empires that now are shall only be known in the records of the historian, and which might contribute essentially to bring into activity that series of moral revolutions by which the despotism of the Man of Sin shall be overthrown, and the principles established by which the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ. You felt that you could not submit to the statute law of the realm, as it was interpreted in relation to the rights of the Church; you felt that a direct attempt was made to set aside the law of Christ, and introduce the law of man in its stead; you felt that the demands of the civil court were extended not alone to those things situated on the boundary-line which divides the realms of earthly monarchs from the kingdom of Christ, but to things situated in the very centre of Christ's kingdom, and holding the most influential relations to the other great scriptural principles by which its affairs are governed;

and rather than submit to such desecrating usurpation, you left the law Church of Scotland, over which are now stretched the line of confusion and the stones of emptiness. By this act you have flung back the calumnies of gainsayers, and covered their authors with confusion. Your self-devotion, your sacrifice of personal interests and worldly emoluments—the rending asunder of the thousand associations by which the noblest and tenderest sympathies of your nature were entwined around the Church which you left, the temples which you have forsaken, and the houses which you have abandoned, all declare the paramount influence which your principles must have exercised over your understandings, your hearts, and your affections. In being sent then to communicate the feelings of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, in reference to the Free Protesting Church of Scotland-our parent Church-we declare that there are feelings of intense admiration in regard of the triumphant defence which you have made of your principles-the noble moral elevation which you have exhibited in maintaining them-and the courage and heroism which you have displayed in defending the doctrines of the fathers of the covenant, showing that you are not unworthy sons of such illustrious sires. There is another circumstance connected with the controversy in which you have been engaged, which has forcibly impressed itself upon our minds—and that is, that you have been seeking for no advancement of the interest of your order-that you have been attempting to rivet no chains of ghostly despotism around the freedom of the people-nay, that you have rejected ecclesiastical power, when it was offered to you upon the ruins of the peo. ple's rights; and that you have sacrificed what must have been dear to yourselves, and to your families, for the purpose of securing to the Christian people those privileges which should be free as the air they breathe. These rights, the Church, from which we came, has ever exercised and enjoyed, with what beneficial consequences those amongst you who are acquainted with her can tell, and with what influence upon her advancement and prosperity, the fact, that this day 200 years past, she could only number five congregations, and now she can number 500, will abundantly declare. That the full enjoyment, and the free exercise of the right of the Christian people to elect their own ministers will not lead to anarchy, has been demonstrated by an experience of 200 years—and that it does not induce the ministers to forget their high vocation, and flatter the prejudices, and yield to the caprices of the people, will be admitted in our case, even by our bitterest enemies. Ours is a case directly in point, and the working of our elective system furnishes the most satisfactory refutation of the various objections urged against the enjoyment of the same privilege by the adherents of the Free Protesting Church of Scotland. There may be, occasionally, an abuse of this as well as of any other privilege conferred by God upon man; but the above is not an argument against the use of any right which can be proved to belong to any section of the community. Is not the elective franchise frequently abused; but will our legislators say that, therefore, the people should be deprived of their rights as electors, and that certain patrons should be appointed who would determine who should enjoy seats in the House of Commons? If good for the church would it not be equally good for the state? But that the State would not endure it, even in a modified form, has been proved by the recent history of the nation in its energetic demands for reform. I argue not whether this be right or wrong; but the statesmen who advocated the one must necessarily belie their principles if they do not advocate the other. But those who are hostile to popular election, now appear to suppose that the patron cannot go wrong in the exercise of his prerogative-that to the extent of presenting an individual to a parish, he is infallible. In such logic as this, we Irish Presbyterians have either too much good, or too much bad sense to acquiesce. When, therefore, I stand here commissioned to declare the feelings of Irish Presbyterians with respect to the Free Protesting Church of Scotland, I have to announce that not only their convictions, but their hearts and affections are with you. Your refusal to accede to the principle, that you are bound to ordain whosoever may be presented to a congregation, no matter how the people may resist his intrusion, has been called rebellion; but it is no rebellion against the powers that be to maintain an allegiance to the King of heaven; and at this hour, in all the wide extent of her dominions, there are no men more loyal to our

beloved Queen-no men more determined to uphold her throne-no men more devoted to her person-no men who would peril life itself with more heroism in her cause, than the people of the Free Protesting Church of Scotland, and the Irish Presbyterians, who are identified with them in principles, and feelings, and devoted loyalty. It is the glory of a monarch to reign over a free people; it is a ruler's shame to be the mere tyrant of obsequious slaves. The latter Presbyterians never can be the former they are determined to be; and with our most cherished aspirations after civil and religious liberty are bound up the principles of unflinching devoted loyalty to our beloved Queen. The time may perhaps come sooner than we anticipate when the threatened upturning of the social fabric shall reveal the loyalty of true Presbyterians. We wish to draw the bonds of amity closer between this country and our native land, because we feel assured that when the hour of danger does come, England has sufficient elements of disorganization within her own bosom to prevent her from putting forth any efficient effort for our protection and deliverance. Such was the case at a former eventful period of the history of our country, but from Scotland came the stalwart arm that crushed our persecutors and freed our fathers from the indiscriminate butchery by which it was intended they should be exterminated from the land. The social elements now at work are strikingly analogous to those which produced that terrific convulsion; and if similar moral combinations should be productive of similar results, we feel that to you we could look with confidence; and we are assured that the heroism which has borne in triumph the Scottish banner amidst the thunder of battle and the tide of its fury, will not desert us when we may be flung into the deadly conflict to struggle for our freedom, our kindred, our religion, and our lives. I have but little to say respecting the purposes of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland in reference to the Free Protesting Church of Scotland. As far as our abilities will enable us, we will endeavour to assist you. Our means are not great, but we are willing to share them with you-and I confidently hope that not one of our congregations will be found to have kept back from rendering to you such assistance as God may have placed within their power. Active measures have been adopted at our late meetings of Presbytery, for the purpose of having this accomplished, so that although the sums may be but small, they will be given by a willing hand, and accompanied by our warmest blessings. You have assisted in the erection of our houses of worship-you have contributed liberally to our mission funds; and now, in the hour of your need, cold and indifferent would we be if we would contribute nothing as an expression of the deep gratitude which we feel for the numerous acts of generous kindness which you have conferred upon us. The Presbyterianism which your fathers planted in Ulster has taken deep root there; and in proportion as it has spread, in like proportion have peace and enlightenment and social order followed in its train. We live in a land many portions of which are still in the wild vortex of maddened excitement; and every political empiric has his panacea for the cure of all our disorders, and his specific for all our real or imagined sufferings. But they know nothing about us; the man who is unable to appreciate the influences of pure religious affections upon the social condition of a community, is utterly incompetent either to understand the cause of our errors, or the only cure which will effectually meliorate their inveteracy. Why is it that Irish Presbyterians, amounting to nearly one million of people, are amongst the most moral, industrious, and peaceable classes of the empire? I answer, because of the character of their religion. Why is it, again, that the population in many other portions of Ireland are almost continually in a state of smothered rebellion, giving themselves up to the savage fury of unbridled passions, and the wild justice of revenge? Because of the character of their religion. Legislative enactments will never cure our disorders, or furnish a lasting remedy for our errors. Religion-the religion of the Bible, and not that of superstition-will alone cure all the evils under which we groan, and furnish an efficient cause for the removal of the pernicious influences which shake our social system to its foundation. In the north we enjoy to a great extent the quietude, the peace, and the social order which spring from the healthy tone of moral feeling pervading its various members; and as the foundation of this was laid by the Scottish Presbyterians in the plantations of Ulster, so to you, their