shall be heard on the merits of the question which he wishes to bring before the Assembly."

Mr STARK said that he and Mr Miller would be quite agreeable to the motion, which he considered substantially to sustain their complaint and appeal.

Professor GIBSON said, that if the motion of Sheriff Cleghorn was agreed to by the House, he would at once waive his right to speak; but if not, he was not to be deprived of his right. If they were to refuse to hear any man, or body of men, who said they did not want to be separated from the Free Church, they would place themselves in a most extraordinary position in regard to the whole Christian world. (Hear, hear.) The position in which this House now stood in relation to this question was totally different from what it was in 1858; for they had not now two parties claiming to belong to the Free Church, and the basis of union which had taken place had been fundamentally altered in regard to the duty of the civil magistrate, in order to cover the views of certain parties to the union who denied the right and duty of the civil magistrate to do certain things in connexion with religion. (Applause.) He held that they had no right to concuss any man or body of men, whether it be small or numerous, into any union of which they could not conscientiously approve, or, failing their entering this union, they would disown them. (Applause.) The Assembly of 1858 decided that Mr Miller and his friends were wrongfully excluded by the majority, and yet this wrong had never been repaired by the majority. There was extreme danger in the course which the Assembly was asked to pursue here; for, as they had heard, there was a majority in another Synod in Australia, who refused to enter into any such union as they had here; and was this Assembly virtually to quarrel with that majority if they did not enter into it? (No, no.) Mr Miller and his friends might have erred in some small technicality; but were they on that ground to say that they would not be heard? Union was an important principle, but he for one would not consent even for that end to sacrifice any one principle of their standards, which he had vowed to maintain all the days of his life. (Applause.) He was not one of those who are in favour of Mr Miller coming here upon the technical point of being the representative of the Free Church; but neither would he occupy the ground of saying that he should not come here to let his views and those of his brethren be made known. He seconded the motion.

Dr JULIUS WOOD moved "That the Assembly sustain the judgment of the Committee on Bills, and refuse to receive these papers in hoc statu, without foreclosing the right of Mr Miller to be heard in some competent form." The question before the House was not whether Mr Miller be heard or not, but whether Mr Miller should be heard as the deputy of the Free Presbyterian Church of Victoria in connexion with the Free Church of Scotland. (Applause.) When Mr Miller appeared before the Colonial Committee, he refused to open his mouth unless he was heard in that capacity; and he came before the Assembly this evening claiming to be heard in that capacity, and it was for the Assembly to decide if they would hear him as a deputy of the Free Presbyterian Church of Victoria. Now, when he read the deliverance of the Assembly of 1858, it appeared to him to be perfectly plain, that till the Assembly set aside that deliverance, they could not possibly hear Mr Miller as the deputy

of the Free Presbyterian Church of Victoria; for it was expressly declared there that he and his brethren were not invested with that character or standing at all. (Hear, hear.) That deliverance declared, "that whatever grievances the dissentient brethren may allege as regards the manner of the separation, and whatever claim they may have to the sympathy of this Church, as brethren actuated by conscientious motives, who regard themselves as suffering wrongfully; they cannot be regarded by this Church as occupying the position which has hitherto been occupied, and which is still, in the judgment of this Assembly, occupied by the Free Synod of Victoria,—the position, namely, of the Church in that colony which this Church recognises as her sister Church, maintaining her principles, and in close communion with her." It was clear to him that till the Assembly had set aside that finding, they could not possibly hear Mr Miller as a deputy of a Church which they declared did not exist. Assembly, by agreeing to his motion, would not cast off Mr Miller and his brethren from the Free Church. (Hear, hear, and applause.) They regarded them as brethren beloved; and if Mr Miller would come before them as a minister of the Free Church, as he was, they could then consider his case. There was nothing incompetent in his coming in that capacity. It was somewhat remarkable that the deliverance which he had just read, and which was laid on the table in 1858 by Dr Candlish, was seconded by his friend Mr Stark, who expressed his concurrence in it. (Applause.) He (Dr Wood) would not now enter into the merits of the case, or follow Professor Gibson, many of whose remarks, to his mind, had no connexion with the case, but would simply make the motion which he had done.

Mr JAMES BALFOUR, W.S., seconded the motion.

The

Mr THOMSON of Paisley said, that if Dr Wood would add to his motion words to the effect that the Assembly were willing to hear Mr Miller, not as a representative, but simply as an individual, he would be perfectly satisfied. (Applause.) If they received Mr Miller as a representative, the Assembly gave up the whole case, and decided in his favour.

After a few remarks from Mr Macgregor of Urquhart, Dr Duncan, Dr Gardner, and Mr Trail,

Dr WooD rose and said his motion would read as follows:- "That the Assembly sustain the judgment of the Committee on Bills, and refuse to receive these papers in hoc statu, without foreclosing the right of Mr Miller to be heard in some competent form."

Mr THOMSON Said he was satisfied with the motion of Dr Wood as it now stood.

He

Dr CUNNINGHAM said he was not going to discuss this question. was tired of it-(a laugh)—and was very sorry it had been forced upon them at all. He was prepared to go along with Dr Wood's motion; but he wanted to wash his hands of any responsibility beyond that, and was not to be held committed to anything beyond it. He felt they were acting rashly in taking so much apparent responsibility in this transaction. They ought to be very careful of admitting or conceding that they were possessed of anything like authority over parties there, or of anything like jurisdiction in this matter at all. (Applause.) They ought to lean decidedly to the side of keeping as much clear of matters on the other side of the world as they possibly could. He thought they had gone rather far already in taking up matters there and dealing with them;

B

and that they ought to do as little as possible in this direction. Parties at the other side of the world were not under their jurisdiction; they were not the superior court to them; and they ought not to decide these questions between parties there. There might be certain respects in which the Assembly could scarcely avoid deciding something, with the view of regulating their own conduct, and the side to which they might on the whole feel it right to give their moral influence, and any assistance they could give in the way of sending men. So far they might be obliged to form some judgment; and to that extent this Church had formed its judgment, and expressed it in 1858; and that substantially was to the effect that the party represented by Mr Miller was not on the whole right in this matter that on the whole the path of sound, practical duty appeared to be with the other party, and that this Church was rather called upon to give its influence on the other side. (Hear, hear.) He believed that decision was a right one, and that nothing had since occurred to interfere with or affect that decision; and he believed that they ought now to avoid, if possible, being forced again into a discussion of this question, or of examining these matters over again. They ought to avoid getting themselves more and more entangled in this question. It was rather hard that all their contentions should first be carried across to the other side of the world, and then that parties should come back to them from the other side, and involve them again in their quarrels and contentions. (Laughter and cheers.)

Mr JOHNSTON of Larchhill moved that the subject be delayed until the Report of the Colonial Committee be taken up. He characterised the motion adopted by the larger body in Australia to the minority as a tyrannical act, and asked if the Assembly was going to throw out their petition on a technical point. Were they going to stigmatise these men, who called themselves Free Churchmen; and this, too, when they had been put down? The whole world had been talking of Sayers and Heenan. ("Oh, oh," and cries of "Order.") He did not approve of these men; they had disgraced themselves by their work-(renewed cries of "Order, order")-but he referred to their case for a special reason. Although these men were engaged in a brutal occupation, they did not strike men when they were down; but here were poor men down-(renewed cries of "Oh, oh," and "Order, order")—and now you are going to strike them while down by denying them their name. (Expressions of dissent.) If my motion be agreed to, then the technical objection which is caused by the Act of Assembly of 1858 could be removed by that Act being then repealed, and Mr Miller might then be heard under the designation he claims.

Dr DUNCAN seconded this motion.

After some conversation, in which Sheriff Cleghorn, Mr Dalmahoy, W.S., Mr Nixon, Mr Macaulay of Inverteil, Mr Ferguson of Bridge of Allan, Professor Lumsden, Mr Fergusson of Doune, Mr Purves of Jedburgh, and Mr Welsh, took part, Mr Johnston withdrew his motion in favour of Sheriff Cleghorn's, upon whose motion and Dr Wood's amendment the vote was taken, when there appeared

For Sheriff Cleghorn's motion,

For Dr Wood's,

Majority for Dr Wood's,

91

148

57

SATURDAY, MAY 19.

The Assembly met at eleven o'clock.

ADDRESS TO THE QUEEN.

Dr CUNNINGHAM then moved that, as usual on the return of the royal birthday, they should present an address to the Queen, expressing their loyal attachment to her person and government. The members of this Assembly were as loyal as ever, because their loyalty was founded on the requirements of the Word of God, and they should take every opportunity of expressing this feeling in a competent way. He would therefore move that a Committee be appointed to draw up an address to the Queen.-Agreed to.

PRINCIPAL CUNNINGHAM'S SERMON.

Dr BEITH then said that he had been requested to move that Dr Cunningham be requested to publish the very able sermon which he preached at the opening of the Assembly,-a request in which he was sure every member of the Assembly heartily concurred. (Applause.) Dr CUNNINGHAM said that he highly valued and appreciated the honour done him by his fathers and brethren in making this request. He could not, therefore, but signify a general acquiescence with their wishes, on the understanding that it was to be left somewhat indefinite, and that the time and mode of publication should be left to himself. He did not think that the publication of the sermon in its present state would be of much benefit to any one. When he composed the sermon, it was not altogether without the view of making it the nucleus of a larger work. (Applause.)

WIDOWS' FUND REPORT.

Professor M'DOUGALL gave in the Report of the Widows' Fund, which, he remarked, was the most satisfactory that he had ever been able to present to the Church. The fund had now been in operation for fifteen years, having been commenced in 1845, with a capital of little more than £1500. At the 21st March 1860, the capital of the fund amounted to £80,000-(cheers)-and it has been considerably augmented since, the amount at this date being about £87,000. The statements and tables appended to the Report shew how this sum is invested; and the investments have all along proved eminently secure and satisfactory. It could not be expected that the charges against the fund would not attain their maximum for a number of years; but at the time appointed when the Report was fully made out-Whitsunday 1859 -there were on the fund twenty-seven widows, entitled each to an annuity of £29, and thirty children under eighteen years of age; bringing the statistics down to Whitsunday 1860, which he was enabled to do, there were twenty-seven widows and forty-five children, the widows being entitled collectively to a provision of £729, and the children among them to £570. The annuities allowed are much less than every well-wisher of the Church would desire. Still, while widows alone are entitled to only £27 each, there are widows who, in consequence of their families, are entitled to much larger sums. There are widows with four children, who, by each child receiving £10, instead of £27, receive £67; some others receive £77; and there is one widow, with

six children, who is entitled to the sum of £87; also, a family of four orphans, without father or mother, who receive £15 each, £60 in all. By Act of Parliament they were bound to have periodical investigations of the state of the fund at intervals of not less than seven nor more than ten years. The first of these investigations took place at Whitsunday 1852, and the results were communicated by the trustees in their Report to the General Assembly of 1853. Such investigations are now held indispensable to the security of any fund; and accordingly provision was made, not only in the Act of Parliament, but the same principle was embodied in the original constitution of the fund; and the trustees directed the second periodic investigation to be made at the very earliest date-viz., after seven years. It was undertaken at Whitsunday 1859, and had just been concluded by their actuary, Mr Wood, who had reported the result to the trustees. Estimating the liabilities, present and prospective, of the Widows' Fund by itself, the accumulated fund, as at 15th May 1859, shews a surplus of the latter above the liabilities of no less than £31,000-(applause)—and on the Orphan Fund by itself at the same date there was a balance of the accumulated fund over liabilities of £6087. (Applause.) This amount at the credit of both schemes the trustees had no hesitation in believing must be highly gratifying to the Church generally. (Applause.) Professor M'Dougall went on to quote the restrictive clauses in the Act of Parliament, by which the trustees are not allowed to increase the annuities at an earlier date than 1866, observing that, when the period prescribed by the Act should have expired, there was the prospect of their being able to make important additions to the annuities.

On the motion of Mr WILSON, Dundee, the Assembly agreed to record its satisfaction with the Report, and its thanks to the trustees.

OPEN-AIR PREACHING.

An overture was read from several members, suggesting that the Assembly should make arrangements for having a number of open-air services in different parts of Edinburgh, during the Sabbaths of the sitting of the Assembly.

Dr WOOD said, that a class who had long neglected the means of religious instruction were now willing and anxious to hear the word of God. He believed that there was an open door for the preaching of the gospel everywhere, and that much good had been done by open-air preaching; and he felt assured, that if that method of preaching the gospel was more fully followed out, much good would be accomplished. And whilst the people were more willing to hear the gospel, he believed also that ministers had been more able and willing to preach it. would be a great pity that there should be so many of them here at this time, able and willing to preach a word to their perishing fellow-creatures of the things that pertain to their everlasting welfare, and should not have an opportunity of doing so; and it would be a good thing to flood Edinburgh with open-air preaching for the next two Sabbaths. He had much pleasure in moving the adoption of the overture.

It

JAMES BALFOUR, Esq., W.S., seconded the motion. It would look something like a lost opportunity if they did not take advantage of the presence of so many ministers to preach the gospel. The present was peculiarly a time for such an effort as was suggested in the Report, and