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The unexpected demand for churches absorbed the attention of the friends of the Church, and it was judged prudent, therefore, to delay the claim, receiving only the donations of individuals whose liberality and benevolence spontaneously prompted the gift. "As there is only for the present one College in Scotland connected with the Free Church, a question of very considerable difficulty has arisen in regard to enforcing regular attendance on the part of those students who had it in view to conduct their studies at other of the university seats. After full consideration, it was agreed to recommend to the Assembly to appoint a Committee for the present year, before whom all students having a claim of non-attendance should bring their case to be decided on; and that where the case seems sufficiently strong, they shall put them in communication with their respective Presbytery, in the university seat, who shall appoint a committee of their number to direct them in the course of their studies, to prescribe books, to examine them upon what they have read, and to give occasional prelections. In Aberdeen, students will enjoy the unspeakable advantage of attending also the prelections of Dr Black.

"A considerable step has been made towards forming a Library,-between L.800 and L.900 have been collected, and about 3000 volumes.

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'Perhaps it may be in the recollection of some, that it was mentioned that L.2000 in money would be necessary to lay the foundation of. a good library, and there is reason to believe that this sum will be procured before the opening of next Assembly. This hint, given in the city of Glasgow will not, it is hoped, be without its effect. In last report it was mentioned that ministers should not contribute to the fund; but, perhaps, as many clergymen demonstrated on the subject, we may come to a compromise, and receive one work from every clergyman. And in this idea of just giving one work, we will not confine ourselves to ministers of the church. We will also extend it to elders of the church, and all the members of the church. A great number of booksellers have already given donations to the Library, but it is not necessary to read their names. The Rev. Mr Murray of Elizabeth Town, New Jer sey, has been written to on the subject of the Library, soliciting contributions of books, and in due course a most friendly answer was received. There is but one opinion,' Mr Murray wrote, in this country as to the action of the Free Church, and that is one of the most unqualified and unbounded admiration.' He added, that he would lose no time in endeavouring to procure donations of books, and hoped to despatch several boxes in a short time.

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"ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS.

"The Secretary, Mr Lewis, will read the Report, and we have only to advert to a scheme for founding schools, by Mr M'Donald of Blairgowrie: he will explain it to you at length. It cannot be doubted that it will prove successful. Mr M Donald is well known as a most indefatigable parish minister; but such portion of his time as he is able to spare from his labours among his people, he intends to employ in carrying his scheme into effect throughout the country; and I am sure all of you will be glad to facilitate his work.

66 SABBATH SCHOOLS.

"Very important work is in progress, and at next Assembly we shall be able to give in a full report.

"MUSICAL EDUCATION.

"The services of Mr Mainzer for two months, for promoting this important branch of instruction, have been secured.

Mr LEWIS read the following report on

"PRIMARY INSTRUCTION AND NORMAL SCHOOLS.

"In the department of elementary instruction, the attention of your Committee was directed, first of all to ascertain the number of teachers throughout Scotland adhering to the principles of the Free Church, that they might know the materials at their command,-the men to whom they might look as the future teachers of this

Church. With this view, the Committee addressed a circular of queries to all adhering ministers, accompanied with an urgent enforcement of the importance of accurate returns, with regard to all classes of teachers,-parochial, Assembly, privately endowed, and adventure. The returns, however, in many instances, have not yet been received, the outstanding arrears still amounting to more than one-half of the whole circulars issued.

"Such as they are, the facts which the returns bring to light are of the most satisfactory description, and assure both the Church and the country, that whatever may be awanting for conducting an efficient scheme of education in connection with the Free Church, we are from the very outset of our enterprise, in possession of the services of a body of men who have sustained, in time past, the educational character of our country, and are ready, for the future, to sacrifice all that is dear to them, that they may continue to prosecute their labours in connection with the Free Church. Partial as are the returns, they present us with the fact, that 360 teachers adhere to our principles. Of these, 80 are parochial schoolmasters, 57 Assembly, 27 Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge, 196 privately endowed and adventure teachers; and if we take the moderate average of 60 children in attendance on each teacher, we bave, as the gratifying result, and from these limited returns, that upwards of 20,000 children are already receiving daily instruction under masters adhering to our Church.

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Respecting the parochial and Assembly teachers, the Church and country are aware that the inevitable result of their avowal of their principles is the forfeiture of their charges. Already not a few of the parochial schoolmasters have been deposed from their offices, and Assembly teachers dismissed.

"It is, therefore, with very great satisfaction that the Committee now find themselves, from the state of their finances, in a condition to hold out, in more distinct terms than heretofore, the prospect of a salary to all teachers ejected, either from parochial or Assembly schools. They think they are warranted in submitting the following as an arrangement which, through the continued liberality of the country, they confidently reckon on being able to carry into execution:

"Ist, That all teachers ejected from the full enjoyment of the emoluments of a parish school shall, when enrolled on the Committee's list of teachers, and during the period they remain connected with its schools, receive the annual salary of L.20. 2d, That all teachers ejected from the Assembly's schools, shall, in the same circumstances, receive a salary of L. 15 annually, except where the allowance from the Assembly was less, in which cases the teachers shall receive the same as that formerly enjoyed.

"We are well aware how utterly inadequate are such allowances as a remuneration for the services of educated men. We deeply feel that they are neither sufficient to provide for their personal and family comforts, nor for maintaining their professional respectability. But we are passing through a transition season; and if your Committee can only help their teachers through their present difficulties, they confidently anticipate a period when the country, awakening to the importance of our great educational enterprise, and to the sense of what it owes to the teachers of youth, shall, in return for their services, provide a remuneration more befitting their responsible station.

"Before passing from this branch of our Report, we would embrace the opportunity of bringing broadly before the attention of the Church the fact, that from the stringency of the law subjecting parochial teachers in their office to the control of Presbyteries, we, as a Free Church, are for ever separated from the endowed schools of the land, as well as all teachers maintaining our principles. Let the fact only be universally proclaimed, that we are now barred from all superintendence of the parochial schools, nay, that one indispensable qualification for admission as teachers or superintendents, is the maintenance of principles which, as a Church, we abjure, and it will be the most persuasive reason that can be addressed to our people to spare no pains in the establishment of schools delivered from the disqualifications under which the parochial labour, and which shall be fitting channels for the education of the youth of our Free Church.

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"The second part of our Report refers to the Normal seminary. We have already to congratulate the Church and country on the possession of a Normal seminary, having not only equal, but greatly superior capabilities for the training of teachers, to those afforded by the Assembly's institution at any former period. present the seminary musters a roll of four hundred children and twenty students training for teachers, the whole institution being under the experienced superintendence of Mr Oliphant, whose eminent qualifications and vigour as a teacher are already so well known to the Church, from his successful labours in the Normal Seminary of the Establishment.

"One thing only we have left behind in the old Normal Seminary, at which we cast a lingering look. The teachers we have carried along with us,-the children spontaneously followed,-and their number has increased already a third beyond our former highest attendance; the students are daily flowing in from all parts of the country; and for accommodation, we have sustained no loss in being ejected from the old Market Street Seminary, to land in our present spacious range of apartments. One thing only have we to regret in the transition, we have lost the library for our Normal students. How shall this loss be repaired?

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"The books we need for our Normal Library are books of history, civil and ecclesiastical, that our students may qualify themselves more fully for teaching in the historical department; books of natural history, and science in its several branches, more especially such treatises as are simple and elementary; books illustrative of the natural history of the Bible--the customs, manners, institutions of eastern nations, such as Paxton's Illustrations of Scripture, Burder's Oriental Manners and Customs; a few of our best volumes of practical theology; above all, books on the different systems of education, and treating of its theory and practice, together with the biographies of such men as have devoted themselves to the work of instruction, and the perusal of whose lives might stimulate to professional excellence and to higher attainments. Such a collection would be an invaluable auxiliary to the studies of our young men attending the seminary, and would serve to create, and stimulate where already existing, that taste for self-improvement which is a main element in the character of a successful teacher, and essential for preserving a teacher in intellectual life, whose lot may afterwards be cast in some remote district of the country, and far from the influences that quicken into activity the faculties of other men.

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But how, in the overtaxed state of our Educational Fund, is the library to be obtained? A contribution of L.5, sent for the library to our rector, Mr Oliphant, has suggested the way in which our object may be accomplished. If only half the success which has crowned the efforts of our learned Convener for the Theological Library attend this new, and humbler, and more easily realized effort for our Normal Seminary, the students will soon be put in possession of a library ample for all the purposes of their studies.

"It is also in contemplation to form a Museum of objects consisting of the products of nature and art. Specimens of the raw products and manufactured articles, the materials of commerce in this great mercantile city, would form no inconsiderable contribution to such a museum. We could afford space for a Glasgow cabinet, and it would not be the least valuable in our collection. Gifts apparently the most trivial viewed singly, yet if flowing from all quarters, and consisting of every variety of objects, would speedily complete such a museum as is required for the practical pusposes of a Normal Seminary. A penny a-week from every household in Scotland, as we are often reminded, makes a hundred thousand a-year, and would alone be adequate to the sustentation of the Free Church. An insect, a bird, a shell, a fossil remain, a mineral, an ancient coin, nay, the smallest contribution from every private cabinet and collection, would complete the museum of the Normal Seminary. All such contributions will be gratefully acknowledged, if forwarded to Mr Oliphant, at the Seminary.

"Other subjects of the most vital importance to the interests of education have during the last five months, occupied the deliberations of your Committee, to which we can only most cursorily refer. Amongst these was the subject of Sabbath schools, now more than at any former period demanding the careful

oversight of the ministers of this Church, as the only remaining link which, in our present separation from the schools of Scotland, connects us with the children of our charge. A sub-committee has been appointed to consider both the methods of instruction which ought to be pursued in Sabbath schools, and the means of more widely extending their blessings. Your Committee have also been engaged in consulting with the evangelical brethren of various denominations who celebrated the recent Westminster Bicentenary, how most effectually they could establish and maintain a system of elementary schools so catholic in character as to be open to teachers of every evangelical denomination, and which should command the confidence and support of all agreeing in the great fundamental doctrines of our common faith.

"We are not prepared to report more than the fact of such consultations, though we look forward to the issue of them in the establishment of a system of education thoroughly Christian in its character, and having for its basis of religious instruction our Shorter Catechism,—yet, delivered from religious exclusiveness and the narrowness of sectarianism.

"In a few sentences we shall put the Assembly in possession of the facts of our financial condition. The collection made during the month of August last, of which remittances have already been received from 434 congregations and preaching stations, has amounted to L.2253. If to this sum be added the thirds of Sabbath collections, appropriated to the same fund, and of which remittance has been made to the amount of L.387, 17s, and also L.21, 1s., contributed specially for the support of the Normal Seminary, our total fund will at present amount to L.2661, 2s. 7d. Deducting at least L.300 for the annual expenses of the Normal Seminary, and dividing the remainder into salaries at an average of L.20, the resources of the Committee are thus shown to be limited to the support of 118 teachers.

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If, however, not fewer than 800 churches are, or speedily will be, in progress of erection, the Assembly will perceive how far short our resources are for maintaining what has constituted the glory of our land in past times, the inseparable union of religion and education-of church and school. To salary 800 teachers at the small average of L.25 each, would require an increase of our income to L.20,000 annually. Nor do we despair, in the progress of the Christian liberality of our people, of finding ourselves in possession of this large annual revenue. We despair of no enterprise upon which the Free Church shall set its heart, to which it shall apply its energy, and for which it can ask the blessing of its Divine Head. Even from the present state of our revenue, inadequate as it appears for the work before us, we are encouraged in these brighter prospects. Such as it is, it is the spontaneous offering of the members of our Church to the cause of education,—not only their free-will, but we should say, their unasked contribution to our scheme. No efforts since last Assembly have been made to awaken the country to the peculiar claims of education in connection with the Free Church,-no deputations sent forth pleading our cause. The public mind, and that of the Church have been absorbed by the one idea of church erection, to the exclusion of every other. Our Committee, therefore, gave way to the present tide that is bearing onward to a prosperous issue the church erection efforts of the country; it left the field open that these might be conducted without obstruction, and without a rival. Yet, in these circumstances, we have been presented with the offering of L.2661, 2s. 7d.

"It will have appeared to the Assembly, from the preceding part of the Report. that nothing has been done by the Committee with the view of aiding in the erection of schools that we have been limited, from the state of our finances, to the single channel of distribution-the salarying of teachers. The question, however, must be taken up by this or an early Assembly, How shall schools be erected in localities unable to provide them for themselves, and where no suitable accommodation can be obtained, even for hire? Our education scheme will be ill adapted to the necessities of the country, until it has its building fund to assist and stimulate school erection, as well as its fund for salarying teachers. In some instances, school erection has already gone hand in hand with the building of our Free churches.

The

tide of feeling and liberality that has borne prosperously forward the Church, has been wisely taken advantage of to float the school by its side, and an institution, complete in all its parts, founded by one effort. Such has been the case at Burntisland, Torphichen, Dunblane, Forfar, and other places which might be mentioned. It was co-temporaneous with the great Reformation struggle to plant a Protestant Church in our land-and not amidst peaceful times, and the plenty of an endowed estate, that our forefathers planned their comprehensive scheme of education. They started with church and school extension together, and struggled hard for both, ere they had succeeded in extorting from a grasping nobility a wretched pittance of maintenance for themselves. They postponed, they despaired of no enterprise they judged essential for the good of the land they loved, or the cause of Christ, which they loved still more. As the Government of Prussia, when engaged in those plans which have since made their country so famous amongst the educated nations of the continent, continued to prosecute them in the midst of the invasion of their territory by Buonaparte, and the conflict of arms, so our Reformers planned and laboured in the cause of education, while fighting the great battle of Protestantism, and contending for the possession of the land. We must go and do likewise, waiting till the struggle for church building is over, and the land possessed. Besides, the Assembly will bear in mind that we have men waiting to be employed, and soon will have more,-schoolmasters without schools, and therefore useless in the service till provided with new ones.

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Having repeatedly adverted to the state of our ejected teachers, we cannot close this report without rendering our tribute of admiration to the men who have so nobly witnessed to the truth, in the certain prospect of being thrown on the wide world for a provision for themselves and families. We speak not to depreciate the testimony borne by our fathers and brethren of this Assembly, or that which has so recently given new occasion for thanksgiving and many prayers, -the testimony from the banks of the Ganges; but, faithful as these have been, we can discover an element that gives even a purer character to that lifted up by the teachers of Scotland in their comparatively more obscure and humble walk of life. There was no visible necessity laid upon them, as upon us, to take up a self-denied testimony. They were not publicly committed. Their refusal of the testimony would not have been dishonour and apostacy. They had few or none of those advantages of mutual conference by which one man strengthens the heart of another, and which we so largely enjoyed. It was a question resolved between God and their own consciences, decided by each man apart in the communings of his heart with the word of truth, and in the prospect of his final accountability to the God that gave it. Theirs has been a testimony proceeding from faith unfeigned, and from a pure heart fervently."

Mr LEWIS concluded by requesting that Mr M'Donald might be asked to explain his scheme for raising a fund for the erection of schools.

Mr M DONALD said it was not necessary for him to occupy more than a few minutes in explaining his scheme, the success of which, during the last two days, had been such as to give him every confidence that, by the blessing of God, the proposed object would be accomplished.

Mr M. then read the following

Scheme for raising £50,000 to aid in the erection of 500 Schools for the Free Church of Scotland, each School to be aided to the extent of £100.

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