A proposal for the gradual transference of the ministers in the first of these classes has been submitted by Mr Handyside, Secretary to the Committee, and will be found detailed in the Appendix. Its general features are:-That the minimum stipend from the Central Fund of every ordained minister shall be fixed at £150; that no change shall take place on the present arrangements till the annual income of ministers on the equal dividend shall have reached that sum, and exceeded it by £1000, which, it is proposed, should remain in the treasury as a guarantee fund, on the strength of which twenty-one ministers at the head of the list of those on the oneand-half system may be transferred to the equal dividend. Let a similar and larger guarantee fund be provided in the year following, and so on, till the whole number of ministers on the one-and-half scheme, or that may in the mean time be placed on that scheme, be put on the equal dividend-it being the understanding of the Committee, that all new charges already sanctioned, or that may be sanctioned before the complete extinction of the one-and-half scheme, be put under that rule.

This proposal has met with very general approbation, not only from the members of the Committee, but from highly competent judges, not of their body. It has this great recommendation, that it avoids what is always to be deprecated, a sudden and violent change in our financial system. It presents a powerful motive to the whole Church to aim at the desired increase on its annual revenue, and would relieve the General Committee from the difficulty which would attach, perhaps to every other Scheme, of adjusting the claims, or supposed claims, of ministers receiving larger and smaller stipends under the one-and-half rule. It is confidently hoped that the period is not far distant when the present state of mercantile and monetary depression having passed away, the Church may be prepared for carrying this or some similar plan into execution; and when the distribution of the Central Fund being conducted on one simple and intelligible principle-namely, that of an equal dividend -the contributions to the fund will be constant and

* The total number put on that list in 1844, the year in which the rule came into operation.

progressive, or subject only to those oscillations which are inseparable from the changeful character of all human affairs.

The General Assembly have enjoined the Select Committee to report, "what appears to them the best and wisest system for regulating the payment of supplements to ministers." This is the second topic to which the Committee has directed its attention.

II. Before proceeding to state the result of our deliberations on this head, we think it necessary, not without reference to the subject discussed in the preceding chapter, to lay down one or two general principles so incontrovertible, and at the same time so obvious, that it is matter of astonishment that they have escaped the notice of some of the intelligent friends of the Church, in the plans and suggestions which they have offered for the regulation of its pecuniary affairs.

The first of these is, that the Church has no control over the funds of Congregations beyond what is willingly conceded to her. The rules and regulations of the General Assembly with reference to matters secular, have not the force of Acts of Parliament. The Church has no power of enforcing them; and nothing can be more unwise than to pretend to exercise a power which she does not really possess. If this consideration had been attended to, not a few of the plans which have been suggested to the Committee, or laid before the public, would have been withheld. Their authors seem to imagine that the Church has nothing more to do, than to stretch forth her hand, and lay hold of the funds of all the Deacons' Courts, and apply them at her pleasure. This is a delusion. The power does not exist, and we venture to say, never will be conceded.

But the Church has the power indirectly of controlling to a certain extent the administration of the funds of Congregations. This is the second principle to which the Committee crave the attention of the Assembly. Leaving supplements out of view, the sanctioned Congregations of the Free Church may be regarded as constituting a great Scottish Association, having for its object the maintenance of a gospel ministry in every corner

of the land. To the funds of this Association each Congregation is expected to contribute according to its ability the deficiencies of the poorer Congregations being supplemented by the abundance of the rich; and, on that supposition-the stronger term condition may be employed it was agreed at the first General Assembly after the Disruption, that the dividend should be equal.

The management of the funds thus obtained and thus regulated, is, as it ought to be, in the hands of the Church, as represented by her General Assemblies, or their Committees. As the administrators of the Central Fund, they have a right to inquire into the receipts and disbursements of each and every Congregation; and, if it shall appear in any instance that the funds have been misappropriated either by their being applied to purposes foreign to the objects for which they have been collected, or by supplementing the minister's stipend to an amount disproportioned to the sum contributed to the Central Fund, it is obviously due to the other Congregations against which no such charge can be laid, that such misappropriation should be restrained, by expostulation in the first instance, and, if that shall fail, by withholding the dividend or diminishing its amount. On no principle but that of an equitable contribution can the rule of an equal dividend be defended or long continue to subsist. If there be Congregations which do not fulfil their part of the contract, it is unreasonable to expect that it should be fulfilled on the part of the Church. The Central Fund Scheme partakes at once of the character of a religious benevolent institution, and a Mutual Assurance Society; and in order to its right and successful working, the feelings of the one, and the principles of the other must be brought into exercise.

Entertaining these views of the relation in which the General Assembly and its Committee, and the Congregations of the Free Church, stand to one another, the Committee are not prepared to recommend any precise rule for the payment of supplements. They have carefully considered the suggestions which have been offered on this subject by their correspondents, some of them peculiarly worthy of their attention; but to all there are, in the opinion of the Committee, insuperable objections.

It seems to them indispensable to the right and harmonious working of the whole Scheme, that Congregations should not be tied down to any rigid and precise rules in the supplementing of their ministers' stipends. To interfere with their liberty in this particular, by any positive regulations applicable to all cases, would give rise to well-founded murmuring and discontent.

On the other hand, there are loud complaints that, in a considerable number of cases, the sums paid to ministers in the shape of supplement, are altogether disproportioned to the sums contributed by the same congregations to the Central Fund. For example: in the year 1845-6, there were sixteen charges, in each of which the supplement exceeded the whole amount contributed to the Fund, and fifty-seven in which it exceeded two-thirds of that amount; and this, be it observed, in congregations previously self-supporting, and not materially affected in point of numbers by the Disruption.

These proceedings it is impossible to justify. They conflict directly with the fundamental principle of the Central Fund Scheme; and if the evil shall spread and become general, nothing but ruin to the Fund, and to the Free Church as the Church of the nation, can ensue. If, therefore, from the habit of collecting largely at the church-door, or from any other cause, the contributions of the people flow more freely into that fund than into the coffers of the Association, it is obviously their duty to transfer a part of the first of these to the latter; or, which would be far better, to bring up the receipts of the Association to their proper level, that their remittances to the Central Fund may be in proportion to the wealth or ability of the congregation, as indicated by the receipts from these two sources united. The Central Fund Scheme was devised with the view of insuring a certain stipend to all our ministers, and of aiding weak congregations, not of increasing the wealth of the strong. Each congregation must contribute according to its ability. It is unreasonable, nay, it is contrary to Scripture, that one should be eased and another burdened. There ought to be an equality; that the abundance of the one may be a supply for the wants of the other:

B

"As it is written, he that gathered much had nothing over; and he that gathered little had no lack."

It may in the end be necessary to apply some stringent rule for the correction of the evil complained of. The Committee do not, in present circumstances, recommend this. They are convinced that it has arisen more from oversight than from deliberate intention. Already it has yielded in some measure to the force of public opinion. It is confidently expected that, when the principles of the Central Fund Scheme are better understood, and the necessity of acting up to them is more deeply and generally felt, the evil will cease, and every ground of complaint on this head be removed. All, therefore, that we would now recommend with a view to the accomplishment of this end is,

That the General Sustentation Committee be enjoined to take notice of every such case as is here referred to, and to bring it under the eye of the Presbytery where it exists, whose duty it shall be to inquire into the circumstances as early as possible, and to report the result of their investigation to the Committee, who shall have the power of calling the attention of the Assembly or its Commission to such cases, if they shall see cause.

This Committee beg leave to give a similar recommendation with reference to cases in which it shall appear, from the annual returns, that supplements have been unduly withheld. And, in order to enable Presbyteries and the General Committee to come to a right judgment in such cases, it ought to be declared, that the main and primary object of church-door collections is the supplementing of the minister's stipend; the deductions to be made from these ought to be specified; the congregation ought to receive authoritative information on this subject, and all Extraordinary Collections ought to be intimated on the Sabbath previously to that on which said collections are made.

In connection with the important subjects which have now been treated, and the no less important subject of Church extension, the Committee have taken under their consideration the present mode of sanctioning new charges. This appears to the Committee to admit of