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that they are neglecting their duties; we must therefore step into these districts and provide them with substitutes; and not to do so would be folly. This is what I rise to make a remark upon. We have a system which was the admiration of the world, and which we Scotsmen have lauded again and again, before this Scheme began, as the glory of the land. What was it which enabled the youth of Scotland, in the army, the navy, and the mercantile world, to take a very prominent place? It was because we had that noble institute called the parochial system; and now, when we are informed that it is not doing its duty or fulfilling its purpose, we make no effort to reform it,-we fold our hands, and say, we will set agoing another institute, we will call on our congregations to subscribe £2 a-month,- -we will go forth and possess the land-(laughter)-leaving this public nuisance to enjoy the endowments of the country. (Laughter and cheers.) I said this at the beginning of this Scheme, and I say so to-night, although it is rather delicate ground on which I am treading, because it may be thought I am opposing the Scheme. I do not oppose the Scheme; but I do think we should have attempted to reform the parochial system, before we set up an institute of our own, and called upon our congregations to support it by contributing £2 a-month. (Laughter.) What is the present state of the parochial system? It is rotten to the core. It only needs the slightest push to upset it. (Laughter.) Mr Campbell's rotten trees in the American forest are a mere joke to it. (Renewed laughter.) It is a cone resting upon its apex instead of its base, and all we have to do is to give it a gentle push, and down it goes. (Laughter and cheers.) The patronage is confined to the landed interest, and chiefly exercised by the small lairds possessing property of a hundred pounds, old valuation; for I am sorry to say that the great landed proprietors of Scotland are not very deeply interested in its education, and these great lairds are, besides, non-resident, and their estates are left to factors and law agents. The result is, that the mode of distributing patronage is by no means very creditable,-is, in fact, vicious in the extreme. What is the standard of the education of teachers? What are the means by which it is determined what shall be taught in these parish schools? The question may fall to be determined by one or two non-resident proprietors, ignorant of the state of the people, and uninterested in their welfare. They may exclude from the schools mathematical, or classical, or geographical instruction, but they are laid under a sort of restraint to see that the schoolmaster shall teach reading, writing, and arithmetic. (Laughter.) In illustration of this, I have heard of one of these great landlords having the educational interests of the country at his command, saying that all the mathematics a farmer's son required to know was the number of cubic contents of a dung heap, in order to know the number of cart-loads it contains. (Laughter.) These are things that have been winked at; and are we to go on with a great educational system, even although we have an agricultural seminary somewhere in the north (a laugh)—and allow incompetent individuals to occupy the whole field of our parochial education? The learned Professor then referred to the imperfect supervision of these schools by Presbyteries, instancing a parish school he had once visited, which had not for thirteen years seen the face of a member of Presbytery. As to the parochial teachers, is there one common standard by which they are to be tried? Must they attend College to be instructed? Must they attend a Normal School to acquire a facility in teaching? No such thing? (Hear.) I have known them taken from the plough and the loom, and pitchforked into a parish school. (Hear, and laughter.) I would not have made these remarks, but that I felt myself a little provoked, and my Scottish feelings a little warmed, by our neglect of the parochial system. (Hear, hear.)

Dr R. BUCHANAN said, it was necessary simply to recall the attention of the house to the fact, that all these considerations were before the General Assembly when they entered upon this great undertaking. Dr Fleming had stated, that he mentioned these things at the commencement of the movement, but he forgets that the house considered them, and that, if his mind was not changed, the house had determined the question otherwise. The Assembly was satisfied that whatever the character of the parochial schools might be, the supply of education which they afforded was a mere fraction of what was necessary to meet the wants of the community. (Hear, hear.) The entire attendance upon the parochial schools is very little more than the attendance on our own Free Church schools. The entire at

tendance on the parochial schools, at the very highest, did not exceed between 40,000 and 50,000 children, being not one-thirtieth of the population of the country; and every one knows, that in order to a right educational state of a country, it ought to have a sixth part of the population at school. It is clear, therefore, that, even on the question of quantity, altogether apart from quality, we have a sufficient and important reason for engaging in our great educational movement. (Hear, hear.) Then, as to the other question raised by the learned Professor, I do not wish to enter upon it; but I say, were we to sit still until the desideratum of Dr Fleming was to be realised? Were they, in the meanwhile, to leave the educational interests of the Free Church to the hazard of such an enterprise? (Hear, hear.) Not only was the success of such a movement very uncertain and doubtful, but had he succeeded, it would have led to the opening of the parochial schools, no doubt; but to what, and to whom ?--(hear, hear)-to the opening of the parochial schools to a system from which religion must have been excluded, or in which nothing in the name of religion would have been permitted. (Hear, hear.)

Professor FLEMING.-I did not make a single remark on the opening of the schools, but I spoke of rendering them efficient for public purposes. I did not go into the subject of the kind of education to be taught in them.

Dr BUCHANAN.-If Dr Fleming means that the schools are not to be opened, but left in the hands of the Establishment, then I presume it is not our duty to be busying ourselves in the internal management of the parochial system; but the learned Professor did not say that he meant that the schools should be improved and left in the hands of the Establishment. I suppose, therefore, he means that he would rescue the schools from the hands of the Establishment, for the purpose of having them opened to all and sundry,-not only to the Free Church, but to the adherents of any Church, or of no Church. (Hear, hear.) I remind the house of these things, which are quite sufficient to justify the Church in entering on its educational movement as a matter of paramount importance, and of first-rate necessity; but in point of educational deficiency we are called upon, as representing the Church of Scotland, which was always distinguished for its zeal in behalf of education, to come forward on general grounds with a scheme of education, and more especially with reference to the education of the children of members of the Free Church, that the next generation may be trained up in the principles for which the Church has been called to raise its testimony. (Hear, hear.)

Mr BRODIE of Monimail said, that the Church at large ought to be consulted as to the mode of collecting for the Schoolmasters Fund, and he suggested that some deliverance might be given by the Assembly, and sent down to Presbyteries for consideration, prescribing a uniform mode collecting.

Mr MONTEITH of Ascog askedhether, by agreeing to the report, he was to be held as approving of the Government grant? He could not acquiesce in such approbation, nor could he receive the Government grant, which he held to involve a dereliction of the leading principles for which the Church had borne a testimony. Dr CUNNINGHAM.-This is virtually raising an entirely new and distinct question, which was settled, in the mean time, by last Assembly; and I apprehend it is quite incompetent for Mr Monteith or any other member to review a judgment which stands settled for the present by the decision of last Assembly.

Mr A. DUNLOP said, that he certainly considered the question as settled for the present by the vote of last Assembly; and although he so far concurred in the opinion, not that they should receive no grant from Government, but that they should not receive this grant; yet, considering that question as already decided by the Assembly, there is no need for himself and the small handful of members who might hold a different opinion, raising the question anew on the present occasion. (Hear, hear.)

Mr MONTEITH.-Whether was it decided that we might or must receive the grant from Government.

Several voices-" Might."

Dr CANDLISH said, that the question concerning the grant from Government, if it was to be raised at all, could only be brought before the house anew by overture; and he decidedly objected to its being introduced at present in this desultory and irregular way. If the question was to be discussed, he was quite prepared to do so

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in a regular way, and he had no objection whatever to its being brought up by overture at the next Assembly; but he decidedly objected to its introduction just now, both because of its irregularity and because it was taking away the attention of the house from the subject in hand. (Hear, hear.)

Mr MELLIS of Tealing referred to an overture from the Synod of Angus and Mearns respecting the contributions for the salaries of teachers, and observed that he thought there was sufficient reason in the present defective method of collecting for this object to warrant their acting upon the proposal of Mr Brodie, and sending down the subject for the deliberate consideration of Presbyteries.

Dr BROWN.-Does Dr Candlish propose to renew the act as an interim act this year?

Dr CANDLISH replied, that he did not admit that any act of this kind required to pass the Barrier Act. All that was proposed was to repeat this year the deliver ance of last Assembly, with the various modifications respecting the terms of subscription.

The Report was then approved of. The thanks of the Assembly to Dr Candlish were recorded; and the Committee was re-appointed, reserving a further deliverance on the subject of the Roport for a future diet.

CONSTITUTION OF SCHOOLS.

Dr CANDLISH then gave in a draft of the amended overture on the constitution of schools. He said it was for the Assembly to decide whether it should be an interim act or not. The only point of difference betwixt this and the overture of last Assembly, was what concerned the means of testing the soundness of the faith of our teachers. While his own opinions on this subject remained unchanged, and he still thought, upon the whole, that the method of testing the soundness of the faith of the teachers, contained in the overture sent down by last Assembly, was the most suitable in the circumstances in which the teachers are placed, yet, inasmuch as a majority of the Presbyteries of the Church,-as forty Presbyteries in all have clearly and unequivocally expressed their minds in favour of subscription to the Standards of the Church,-he was persuaded that the Educational Scheme would be best served by acquiescing in this decision. He would just express, in a single word, the distinction between what the Church might do in setting agoing an educational scheme of her own, and having the entire control of it; and what she might do in reference to sharing in a scheme of education for which other parties might be responsible, in which they might be concurring. He adhered to the resolution of last Assembly as applicable to a National Scheme of Education for Scotland based on the Shorter Catechism, which is recognised by all sound religionists in the land; but as we are not even considering a plan in which other parties are to share and concur, but a plan of our own, without any others sharing or concurring in it, he felt at perfect liberty to acquiesce in the resolution adopted by a large majority of the Presbyteries; and accordingly moved that the General Assembly adopt the overture so amended, and transmit it to Presbyteries for their consideration.

Mr MONCREIFF of Kilbride moved in effect-That the overture in reference to the subject of tests should be the same as last year. He submitted that a large number of the members of the inferior courts of the Church did attach great importance to the maintenance of subscription to the Confession of Faith by the teachers of the Free Church; but, on the other hand, it was the opinion, he believed, of a considerable portion of the ministers and elders of the Free Church, that there was no longer any necessity for the multiplying of calls for subscription of the Confession of Faith. He proceeded to maintain that it was no protection in this case to the orthodoxy of the Church. They knew that, to protect the orthodoxy of the Church, they must have such subscriptions on the part of ministers and preachers; but it was an objection of growing force whether it was necessary for this purpose to call upon other parties for such subscription. In many cases, where persons had not received a full theological education, he believed that there was danger of undermining their faith by enforcing subscription.

Mr GIBSON of Glasgow seconded Dr Candlish's motion, but he did not profess to second it on the general principle he (Dr Candlish) had assigned to the house. If he did not misunderstand the reverend Doctor, he went upon the principle that,

there being a return from forty-one Presbyteries in favour of the overture in its present shape, that that of itself must settle the question. Dr Candlish was certainly right in that view, but he would take leave to enter a little more fully into the question. After complaining that no intimation had been given of this discussion, he said he was strongly of opinion that it was incompetent to send down this overture to the Presbyteries last year in the shape in which it was sent. If there were parties in the Church who wished to overset the laws of the Church by any particular measure,—if a party wished to get quit of their signing of the standards, -they ought to have commenced their movement in the Courts below, with overtures plainly announcing their intention, and not to have tried to bring in the matter by a sidewind in this way. It was in opposition to the constitution of the Church to raise a proposal of this kind in the manner in which it had been done. He then went on to show that, by an Act of Assembly passed in 1690, it was ordained that all schoolmasters, chaplains, governors, and pedagogues of youth, should be called upon to subscribe the Confession of Faith as the confession of their faith; he maintained that, seeing this was the law of the Church, it was not competent for them to repeal it in this way, but that they must proceed to do it in an open manner, and avow their intention before the world. He hoped they would proceed in this case with their eyes open. He shewed that it was a mere delusion to look upon the Confession of Faith as a very large book, for, in reality, it did not contain above forty pages of large print, and that the Shorter Catechism was more difficult of comprehension, in some respects, than the Confession of Faith. The proposal to make their teachers amenable to the standards of the Church was nothing more than that, if they taught anything contrary to the Confession of Faith, that they would take the consequences; but he would like to know if that would secure to the Church and to the parents of Scotland that the teachers believed a single iota of the Confession. He would a thousand times rather take the one question, "How many persons are there in the Godhead?" and have the declaration of a teacher's positive belief in the answer to that question, than that he would declare himself amenable to the whole of their standards, while he would not subscribe his belief to any one of them. They had no right, he maintained, to dispense for any purpose with any portion of the profession of the Church, after it had been once the profession of the Church; and if an alteration were made with regard to schoolmasters, why stop there? Why not go a step farther and include elders and deacons, and even probationers? He thought it was a poor compliment to the attainments of a teacher of this land to say that they might not have read and did not understand the Confession of Faith. (Hear, hear.) If it would limit their field, as had been asserted, the same principle, carried through, would limit their field for both elders, deacons, and ministers. In the same way Mr Moncreiff had talked of the subscription to the standards keeping out the parties substantially orthodox, but he doubted very much that those who would not receive the whole testimony of the Word of God, would really receive the great doctrine of the one living and true God. After replying to some more of Mr Moncreiff's arguments, he said, the uncertainty on this point was one of the main reasons why the fund of their School Scheme was so unproductive. (Hear, hear, and "No, no.") He concluded by supporting the motion of Dr Candlish.

Mr WOOD of Elie maintained, that Mr Moncreiff and himself were proceeding quite in accordance with the practice of the Church in taking their present course, and that it was not necessary to commence the matter by overtures in the Courts below, particularly seeing that the very same overture was sent down to Presbyteries last year, in the very form in which he wished it, with scarcely an objection. He maintained that the people cared very little about the matter, and said that, although they talked about securing a religious education for their children, did they find such an education in the parish schools, seeing that such beautiful results flowed from it? (Hear, hear.) He concluded by seconding Mr Moncreiff's motion, and by saying that he could not conceive of the teacher being called upon to make any profession calculated more fully to secure soundness in the faith, and the religious teaching of his pupils, than to be examined by the Presbytery, and to declare himself amenable to the standards of the Church.

Dr CUNNINGHAM said, it was manifestly impossible to discuss this subject at pre

sent as it ought to be discussed. The subject was one of vast importance, and one of much delicacy, as well as much difficulty, and one in regard to which there was likely to be important differences of opinion subsisting in that house; and as it was likely to call forth very strong and lively feelings, and as it was a subject on which men's statements were apt to be misunderstood and misconstrued, unless they had full and ample opportunities of bringing out their whole views in detail, he would not feel warranted or called upon to take the responsibility of entering into anything like a full discussion of it at present. At the same time, he thought it right to say that, in the main, he agreed with the views which had been put forth by Mr Moncreiff and Mr Wood. He did not hold all the various points which they had stated so decidedly and firmly as they did; but, in the main, he agreed in the substance of their views, and he would much rather that the overture was again transmitted to Presbyteries in the same shape and same form as the General Assembly unanimously transmitted it last year. That, of course, it was too much to expect in the actual circumstances in which they were placed, but he was very much inclined to think that if time was allowed to fully discuss this topic, the sentiments of many ministers in this Church might be considerably modified. It was to be regretted that this matter had not been fully discussed last year before the overture was sent down to Presbyteries, but as that omission could not be made up for at present, he was very much inclined to concur with those brethren who held the same views which he did in dissenting from the overture as it then stood; but he felt no urgency for dividing the house upon it, but rather was strongly of opinion that no division should be come to, seeing the subject had been so inadequately discussed, and might be again taken up in Presbyteries and in next Assembly. That was the way in which he felt disposed to act in existing circumstances, and he hoped the question would not be pressed to a division.

Mr MONCREIFF said, he was quite willing to agree to Dr Cunningham's suggestion, if it was minuted that his motion had been made, and that the previous motion had been agreed to without a vote.

Dr Candlish's

Dr CANDLISH said, he had no objection to that being done. motion was then agreed to, subject to the proviso stated by Mr Moncreiff.

The Assembly without a vote agreed to the second motion, Mr Moncreiff, Mr Walter Wood, Dr Brown, and Sir David Brewster, entering their dissent from the judgment.

AMERICAN CHURCHES.

Report of Committee on Correspondence with American churches was then given in. The Assembly approved of the Report; instructed the Moderator to write to Mr Elihu Tarr, attorney, Philadelphia, in reference to the legacy of Miss Ellen Noble; and authorised the General Treasurer of the Church to grant a discharge to Mr Tarr, and receipt for the money. The Assembly authorised the Moderator to write suitable answers to the Synod of Cincinnati, and the Reformed Synod of New York. The Assembly approved of the draft of an answer to the letter of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of America, and appointed it to be subscribed by the Moderator, and to transmit it.

COLONIAL COMMITTEE.

The Assembly having resumed consideration of the Colonial Committee's Report, approved thereof and adopted the same; re-appointed the Committee with their former powers, Mr Bonar, convener; and renewed the instructions by last Assembly.

ARRANGEMENTS OF THE SCHEMES.

The Report of the Committee anent the arrangements of the Schemes was given in. The General Assembly approved of the Report as to first and second branches, and appointed in terms thereof. Regarding the third, the Assembly approved generally of the proposal to consolidate the management of the business of the Schemes, so as to simplify the entire arrangements; and referred the details concerning that proposal, and generally all questions connected with salaries and other expenses chargeable against any of the Standing Committees of the Assembly, to a Select Committee, with instructions to Report to the Commission in August, it being un

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