are willing to be guided by Bible principles alone, to do at least much good, more especially by interesting the well-disposed in the discontinuance of usages in a great measure peculiar to this country, and which go directly to foster Scottish intempe

rance.

"And, lastly, that some testimony on this subject, with corresponding efforts on the part of the Free Church, is desired and expected by very many of her own members all over the country, and by friends even in foreign countries.

"At present the duty of the Church does not seem to lie in legislation,—in prepounding regulations to be observed,—but rather in laying open existing abuses, and their leading sources, and in bringing together, and into a state of co-operation efforts which are at present inefficient, because insulated and desultory. future Assembly will in this way be in a better condition for saying what ought farther to be done.

Some

"And it is therefore recommended, if the Assembly shall approve, that your Committee be reappointed, with such additional names connected with different parts of the country, as will enable it to do something effective in this tentative process." Dr MACFARLAN concluded by proposing that an addition be made to the Committee having charge of this matter.

Mr CLARK seconded the motion, on the ground that it was the duty of this Church, as a conservator of public morals, to take action in this matter, with a view to the elevation and improvement of the people.

Mr OGILVIE rose to support the adoption of the Report. He remarked, that with one statement in the Report he entirely agreed, namely, that the evil of drunkenness was curable without departing from the principles of the Word of God or the gospel. He believed that the gospel was fitted for the cure of this as well as other sins. Though he meant by this not merely gospel preaching, as some would confine us to, but gospel practice, and especially the carrying out of the principle, which stood on the front of the gospel and the Word of God, "That whether we eat or drink, or whatsoever we do, we are to do all to the glory of God,"-that even in the matter of using particular meats or drinks, or abstaining wholly from them, we are to consult for the glory of God and the good of our fellow-men. I frankly own, Sir, that I am one of those who have a strong leaning to the total abstinence plan. I am not yet formally committed to this cause; but I have growing convictions that it is the only means by which we shall effectually check the evil of drunkenness, and I can by no means sympathise with the many objections which are urged by some against it. This, however, is not the fitting time, at so late an hour, to be entering into this subject at large; and I will just conclude with expressing my hope that this Church will see its way, ere long, to go yet further than the Report proposes, and throw its influence into the abstinence movement, as I feel deeply convinced, that if, ten years ago, the ministers and elders, and influential members of the Church had thrown their influence into this movement, drunkenness in this country might have been reckoned by this time amongst the things that were.

Mr WALLACE DUNCAN of Peebles supported the motion. He considered the carrying out of temperance principles eminently fitted to make men good members of society, and better members of the Free Church. He had had an opportunity upon a former occasion of addressing about 4000 children in this Assembly Hall, on the fubject, all of whom came under the distinct pledge not to touch intoxicating liquors, and he anticipated great good to result from such means.

Dr BUCHANAN deprecated very strongly the idea of giving the pledge to children. Mr CLARK and Mr DUNCAN assured the house that Dr Buchanan was quite mistaken in supposing that any pledge was exacted from the members of Juvenile Abstinence Societies.

The Report was then unanimously approved of.

REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON SITES.

Mr Hog of Newliston said,-As he had been requested by the Committee to act as their Convener, it was his duty to respond to the call. Having been detained in London on the business entrusted to the Committee till after the Assembly had commenced its sittings, he had not been able to submit any written Report to the

Committee, and he had in vain attempted to get a meeting during its sittings. In these circumstances, he trusted he should be permitted to report verbally. And here it was impossible not to feel very deeply the absence of one who was wont to guide us. The loss of Mr Speirs was one which could not fail to press itself at this moment on all, whether they regarded him as a dear Christian brother, a member of this Committee, a ruler in the Church, or in his judicial character. To us especially, it appeared as if the loss were almost irreparable. But he could not trust himself to refer farther to this subject, but would only beg leave to read the minute of this Committee (21st January 1848) referring to that loss.

"The Committee, while mourning with deep sorrow the bereavement which they and the Church at large have suffered in the death of their late Convener, Mr Speirs, desire, in humble resignation to the will of their Lord, to record with thankfulness to Him their deep sense of the blessings conferred on it in the manifold and great services of their dear brother, who has been called from the Church on earth to join the Church above.

"His weight of character, his soundness of judgment, his consistent walk, his noble-minded integrity, and his fervent yet sober piety, adorned and recommended that Christian profession which he so stedfastly and humbly maintained; while in every work of Christian philanthropy and benevolence his exertions were un tiring, and bore abundant fruit. In the work entrusted to this Committee, his eminently judicious conduct of the delicate and difficult negociations which it involved, his calm but fervid zeal, and his resolute firmness, called forth the admiration and gratitude of his colleagues and of the Church; and when the wise arrangements and measures which he originated shall have been crowned with success, as, by the blessing of God, the Committee confidently trust they will, the many congregations of our people who will thereby be rescued from a grievous persecution, and restored to the practical benefits of a violated toleration, will have cause to bless the memory of him to whose wise arrangements and noble efforts that great deliverance will, in a great measure, under God, be attributed. The Committee earnestly desire and pray that the great Head of the Church may be pleased, with a more abundant portion of his grace, to supply the loss of the instrument which He has taken from them, so as to enable them to guide to a successful' issue the works which, without its aid, they are left to fulfil."

It will be remembered, that at the last General Assembly, Mr Speirs laid on their table the first two Reports of the Select Committee of the House of Commons. He now begged to present the remaining two,-containing the evidence of their late father, Dr Chalmers. This body of evidence had also been abridged, and published in a cheap form, for general circulation, a copy of which he now also presented. Let us look for a moment at what is said by the Select Committee in their Report. After narrating that they found a number of the inhabitants, both of the Highlands and Lowlands of Scotland, forced to engage in the worship of God, without the shelter necessary to protect them from the severity of a northern climate, and after also narrating the places where this principally occurred, it proceeds," It has been proved to your Committee that the members of these congregations are in the habit of meeting for public worship, in places, and under circumstances, which are unfit for the administration of the sacred ordinances of the Christian religion, and which expose both the ministers and the people to weather injurious to their health, and to inconveniences which ought not to attend the free exercise of religious privileges." They then find, "that the sites refused, according to the evidence adduced before the Committee, do not exceed thirty-five in number," and conclude by observing, that "the compulsion to worship in the open air, without a Church, is a grievous hardship inflicted on innocent parties; and while your Committee abstain from judging the motives which led to the secession, or the refusal of sites, they hope that every just ground of complaint may be speedily removed by the voluntary act of those whose property gives them the means of redressing a grievance, and of thereby conciliating the good will of a large body of their countrymen." From the tone of this conciliatory Report, we might have expected the Select Committee, I believe, expected-that concessions would have been made by the landholders who had hitherto refused. These expectations have, however, not been realized; and at the end of nearly a year, we found ourselves

very much in the same position that we were when the Select Committee reported. At least thirty-one out of the thirty-five places mentioned in the Report are still, so far as we know, without sites; but others also that were kept back, from expectations of private adjustment, are still unsupplied; and when to this we add those additional stations which must inevitably be required, especially in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, where there has hitherto been experienced a great want of Gaelic-speaking ministers, and where the people are too poor to think even of applying for sites, thereon to build churches, I say, where these are added, I do not think we are going too far when we say, that sites will be required in places where the landlords have refused, not for thirty-one churches only, but those likely for double that number. I have said that four places out of the thirty-five have obtalned sites, but these are hardly to be called concessions. In the case of Harris, for instance, Lady Dunmore appeared not to have had the matter fully brought before her mind; for no sooner did she consider the matter, than she, in the bandsomest manner, expressed her willingness to do what was expected of her, and that during the sitting of the Select Committee. That, therefore, is not, properly speaking, a case of concession; it is rather to be regarded as not a case of refusal. In the case of Oyne, there was also, properly speaking, no concession. The proprietor,* from whom the most commodious site could have been obtained, made no concession, and the congregation have accepted a site from Captain Erskine, who had previously offered one. The parish of Culsalmond has also obtained a site; but here, too, there has been no concession, every one of the refusing heritors remaining firm. I applied to Mr Morrison of Bogrie, a large proprietor in the neighbouring parish of Forgue; he at once agreed to grant a long lease of half an acre of ground, which the people have gladly and gratefully accepted, although they will be obliged to go out of their parish to worship. In this state of matters, although some might have desired a longer period of waiting for concession,-I think the Church will agree with the Committee, that they could not, in justice to their suffering fellow-countrymen, who had passed five winters exposed to the severities of the climate, longer delay bringing the matter before the Legislature. Accordingly we applied to Mr Bouverie, who had formerly conducted the investigation of the Select Committee so ably and so well, to undertake a measure, aided, of course, by Mr Fox Maule. This he kindly undertook; and the bill which I now lay on the table was introduced into Parliament by those gentlemen, and read a second time the other day. This bill differs from that formerly introduced by Mr Maule, in so far as the provision is quite general in its application; and in as far also as parties who cannot obtain sites for churches, are, in the first instance, to apply to the Court of Session. Whenever 100 persons of twenty-one years of age, belonging to any religious congregation, are unable to obtain, by lease or purchase, a suitable site, they may present a petition to the Court of Session, narrating the facts of the case; an answer is called for, and the facts, if not admitted, remitted to be laid before the Sheriff of the county; and if the allegations are found true, a power is given to designate a site, and to fix the price or value, due regard being had to the amenity of the proprietor's residence, and to the proximity of the Established Church. I think the Church will agree that this is a safe enough measure for landlords. As to the general application of the measure, to which some may object, I shall only say for myself, that I do not see how I could apply for less than was willing to concede to others; but that if there are parties in Parliament, or elsewhere, who are willing to support the measure, if limited to the particular grievance on hand, we can have no interest to object. As to the hopes of ultimate success to this measure, I cannot of course speak; but this I would say, that I have never met any one almost, either in Parliament or out of it, who does not fully admit the grievance to be a very great one, and who does not see that the grievance should be remedied. Whether the present bill, in their estimation, be the best remedy or not, the public press has adverted to the subject, and given to it full notoriety. I think it will be the opinion of the Assembly that a petition should be presented to Parliament in favour of the bill now before it. I think also that the Assembly will concur in a vote of thanks to Mr Bouverie and Mr Maule, who have been really unwearied in this matter, as well as to our other Parliamentary friends. The thanks of the Church are also due to the Moderator

*Sir R. H. Elphinstone Dalrymple.

of the Irish Presbyterian Church, and to Mr Greer of Dublin, who have rendered us essential service, by promoting petitions to Parliament, and otherwise, as we had reason to experience, rendering efficient help. I will not detain the Assembly in regard to the inferior question of funds. Properly speaking, we never had any funds to dispose of. We received subscriptions on behalf of the Floating Church; but of that undertaking it was understood that the Building Committee should relieve us. As a portion of the expense, however, was defrayed by us, and as we are left with a debt of about £200, I think we may hand that over to Dr Begg and the Building Committee, rather than make a separate expense of so small a sum. Those places where sites have been obtained are cases of peculiar hardship. The prestige of their name will assist any effort to recruit the Building Fund. Culsalmond, for example, had a disruption for itself long before there was a Disruption in the Church; but, for want of a site, have never been in circumstances to apply for a grant. The Church, I am sure, will respond to the call made on behalf of such localities.

I

Dr CANDLISH said,-Moderator, I daresay some of our friends may think it our duty to illustrate this subject a little more in detail. I do not wish to do so. merely mean to propose," That the house approve of the Report; that they record the minute on the table as to the value of the services of our lamented friend Sheriff Speirs in this department, and express their thanks to the Committee and its interim Convener, Mr Hog, to the Right Hon. Fox Maule, the Hon. Mr Bouverie, Mr Cowan, and other friends in Parliament, who have taken an interest in this matter. Further, that the Assembly record an expression of their obligations to the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Ireland, and the other brethren connected with that Church, for the aid we have received at their hands." These thanks will be conveyed to the parties in the usual manner; and I have only farther to propose, that we petition Parliament on the subject, and remit to Committee to prepare a draft of said petition, and to bring it up at a future diet of the Assembly. In connection with this matter of sites, there is one point on which there may be a difference of opinion, I mean the extent to which the bill goes; but I do not feel constrained to urge that point, because I think the petition may be prepared so as to meet the views of all in this house. I take the liberty, however, of referring for a moment to parties not in this Church who have blamed us for this movement,— a movement involving the assertion of the principles of toleration; and I may express my surprise that there should have been found in the ranks of our non-established brethren,—that there should have been found among the friends of civil and religious liberty,-any who regard the passing of such a measure as we solicit, as an infringement upon any principle which the Church of Christ is called on to maintain; and, above all, I cannot but express my unfeigned astonishment that it should have been supposed by any party that the passing of a measure like this has anything whatever to do with the asserting of the principle of a National Establishment. It appears, however, with some now, that when we ask that the religious toleration which is given by the State, shall not be frustrated by individual landed proprietors, we are asking the State to bring the secular arm to bear upon the operations of religion. What are we demanding? Simply that when the State sees fit to tolerate any form of the worship of God it shall not be competent to the proprietors of the soil to make void the laws of toleration enacted by the State. Now, to contend that we by this measure are bringing the power of the State to bear upon the promotion of religion, seems to me to indicate a strange confusion of ideas, for I cannot help thinking that the same principle which would make a man regard it as a part of the Establishment doctrine to enforce the selling of sites for churches, would also lead a man to regard it as a part of the Establishment doctrine to ask the interference of the police to preserve order in public worship, or the interference of the State for the protection of religious service. Surely the protection by the State of any lawful form of worship does not imply the endowment by the State of that form of worship. I cannot think that the most extreme of our Voluntary friends will push their argument so far as to say that it is not the duty of the State to secure to all forms of worship which are not dangerous, both toleration and protection. I have already referred to our finding this view opposed in a quarter where I could least have expected it, and I cannot but express my surprise to find such a man as our distinguished townsman, Dr Alexander, lending the sanction of his name as in

opposition to all those principles of civil and religious liberty which it has been the boast of his life to maintain. At the same time, I must say it is a singular coincidence that we should have to trace to the same individual the raising of the cry of politics in this country against our Protestant brethren of the Canton de Vaud; to whom we must trace now the single and solitary opposition to the Bill for the Providing of Sites; for it is a fact that it was a hint thrown out by the individual in his work on Switzerland, that gave currency here to the imputation that has been a colour and pretence for the persecution of our brethren in the Canton de Vaud. We all know that the authorities of the Canton disclaimed with indignation that their persecution of our brethren was for religion, and asserted that their severities were rendered necessary because of the political bias of the ministers and their interference with political affairs; but I need scarcely remind the house that this has been made the pretext for persecution in all ages. It was not for religion, if we would believe their persecutors, but for politics, that our forefathers in the Church were persecuted; and so it was with our brethren of the Canton de Vaud. This is generally the language of persecutors, and the excuse of tyrants, whether they belong to kingly or democratical governments; but that it should receive any countenance from friends of civil and religious liberty in this free country, is just as astonishing as that this second instance should have occurred, that the mere securing of the right of toleration, by Parliament, should be called in question, from a quarter that has been signalised as having ever the highest tone in regard to all the rights and liberties that belong to men and to Christians. I think that such a cir

cumstance as this might go to open men's eyes as to pushing too far this Voluntary principle, that barely to exercise the arm of the law, to secure to every form of worship the protection of the law, and the full practical benefit of toleration, is establishing religion by Government, if this be the Voluntary principle, I think it only requires to be held up to the Christian community to be disowned and repudiated. (Hear, hear.)

Mr HOG explained, in reference to the granting of a site for a Free Church at Lerwick, that the ground was now obtained from Government within high-water mark at a rent of ten shillings.

Mr J. F. MACFARLAN, of Edinburgh, supported the motion for the adoption of the Report.

Dr BUCHANAN then moved the re-appointment of the Site Committee, and that Mr Hog be Convener, which was carried unanimously.

The CLERK then read the following minute in reference to the late Convener, Sheriff Speirs:

"The General Assembly consider themselves called upon to express their deep sense of the loss which this Church has sustained in the death of Mr Sheriff Spiers. While not forgetful of the commanding position which he occupied in society, the respect in which he was held by all classes of the community, his acknowledged eminence as a judge, and the prominent part which he took in every measure which had for its object the welfare of his fellow men, they desire, with humble gratitude, to own the goodness of the Lord, in the grace bestowed upon His servant, whereby he had been brought to a saving knowledge of the truth,—was enabled throughout his Christian life to make his light shine before men,—and in the end had the privilege of departing in peace, cheered by the blessed prospects which the gospel had unfolded to his view.

the

"As an enlightened, attached, and stedfast friend of the Free Church of Scotland, and as an office-bearer, faithful in the discharge of the duties of the eldership, congregation with which he was connected, as well as taking an active and influential part in the deliberations of our supreme ecclesiastical judicatory, the General Assembly entertain the warmest and most affectionate recollection of this departed servant of Christ, giving thanks to Him whose gift he was to the Church; and in an especial manner, they record the very high estimation in which they hold the valuable public services which he rendered to this Church during the late eventful years of her history; more particularly his services as Convener of the Site Committee, the peculiarly difficult and delicate duties of which office he discharged with a talent and judgment, a firmness and moderation, an undaunted yet patient perseMr Scott of Melby claimed the ground as his property. Another site has been got. December 1848.