so much as a chair of Church history, but rather of historical and polemical theology, the prelections consisting of a survey of the most important theological controversies that have divided the Church, while provision was made by examination upon a text-book, that the students attending the class should acquire a knowledge of general Church history. The Report recommended that this class should be attended by the students during the last two years of their curriculum-the professor, of course, having separate classes for third and fourth year's students. The Committee are now rather disposed to recommend that this class should be attended during the second and third years of the curriculum, partly because it would harmonize fully as well with the other studies of these years, and partly because it is rather desirable to lighten, if possible, the prescribed work of the last session, in order that the students, before quitting the Hall,' may have some time at their disposal for repairing omissions or supplying deficiencies in their previous studies.

"There is one other topic to which the Committee would advert, in connexion with the theological curriculum, and that is the chair of natural science. The recommendation upon this point in the Report was, that the Church should exact, as part of the curriculum, one year of attendance upon this class, but without specifying what year, or whether it should be previous to their entrance into the Hall, or during the course of their theological studies. Of the returns received from presbyteries, three disapprove of this class altogether, three more of its being made imperative, and two more disapprove of its being imperative, except as a class of natural theology; while a larger number than all these put together, viz., ten, by approving of the whole curriculum, give their sanction to one year's attendance upon this class being exacted as a part of the curriculum. The Committee would recommend to the Assembly, not only that a year's attendance upon this class should be made imperative, as was proposed in the former Report, but that the particular year should be specified. And they are disposed, upon the whole, to recommend that the students should be required to attend it during the first year of their theological studies. The grounds of this recommendation are chiefly these-That there is no class similar to this, er serving the same purpose, at any of the existing universities; that the Assembly, at the institution of this chair, enjoined that the arrangements connected with it "should be such as to make it as useful as possible to theological students;" and that its instructions are intimately connected with the study of natural theology, and with some branches of the evidences of revelation.

"In connexion with this class, several presbyteries recommend, that while attendance upon it for one session should be required, no additional fee should in consequence be exacted from the students; and this leads the Committee to advert to the subject of fees in general. The fee at present paid for attendance upon each of the theological classes is £2, 5s., and the Committee are of opinion, from all they know of the circumstances of many of the students, that the fees should not be increased, but rather diminished. They would recommend as an arrangement upon this point decidedly preferable in many respects to that which at present obtains, that instead of the students paying a separate fee to each professor whom they may choose to attend in any particular session-this being at present, to some extent optional-the Church should first prescribe what particular classes the students must attend in each session of their theological course, and then exact a general fee for the session, which would go at once to the College funds, instead of being paid to each professor. This, besides many other advantages, would afford an opportunity of lowering the amount of fees, if the Assembly should think this a desirable object.

"According to the scheme now proposed, the following will be the amount of College attendance by theological students during each year of their curriculum:

"1st Year.1. Systematic Theology; 2. Class of Exegetical Theology, for the Greek Testament; 3. Natural Science, and Hebrew under tutors.

"2d Year.-1. Systematic Theology; 2. Class of Exegetical Theology, and for the Hebrew Bible; 3. Historical and Polemical Theology.

"3d Year.-1. Systematic Theology; 2. Class of Exegetical do., partly Hebrew and partly Greek; and 3. Historical and Polemical Theology.

“4th Year.-1. Systematic Theology; and, 2. Class of Exegetical do.

"The Report recommends the entire abolition of partial sessions; and suggests that the particular cases to which the Church might think proper to extend indulgence, should be provided for otherwise than by countenancing or sanctioning any longer the fiction of a partial attendance. The returns from presbyteries generally sanction this recommendation, though two or three express a doubt whether partial sessions should be entirely abolished. A suggestion has been made upon this subject by the Presbytery of Edinburgh, of which the Committee on the whole approve, and which they would recommend to the favourable consideration of the Assembly. But they would strongly urge upon the Assembly rather to abolish partial attendance altogether, than to sanction it unaccompanied with these indispensable conditions. 1st, That permission be obtained from a general board, before whom all applications for exemption shall come. 2d, That subjects and books for study be presented to those who are exempted, and that they be regularly examined upon them. And 3d, That two years be required for each one of regular attendance omitted.

"The General Assembly will see that these proposals are in substantial accordance with the recommendations of the Report which has been already approved of in general; that they do not involve the appointment of a larger staff of professors than was then contemplated and provided for; and that the adoption of them will impose no additional expense upon the Church, except the salaries of Hebrew tutors-an expense to be incurred by providing for an object which is manifestly indispensable, and which, when obtained, will render it practicable to give to the study of the whole Word of God in the original the place which its paramount importance demands. They cannot venture, indeed, in the present state of the funds, to recommend any increase of expenses whatever for College purposes, and they think a good deal may be done in Edinburgh to promote an earlier and fuller acquisition of a knowledge of Hebrew by the existing agency. The Committee do not think it needful to say anything in the way of urging upon the Church the importance of a fully equipped theological institute; and they do not see that a theological institute, adapted to the necessities and demands of the age, can be maintained without some such arrangements as those which have been described.

"The Report given in to the Assembly of 1846, recommended that the students in the Faculty of Arts attending the University of Edinburgh should be required to attend the class of moral philosophy which had been established in the New College. A majority of the presbyteries which have sent in returns upon the curriculum have approved of this recommendation, though a number nearly equal disapprove of attendance upon this class being made imperative. The Report of 1846 merely intimated the appointment of a professor of logic, but did not contain any formal recommendation as to attendance upon the class. The same principles, however, manifestly apply to both these classes, and the Committee would now recommend that attendance on both of these classes should be required of all students for the ministry of the Free Church whose curriculum of literature and philosophy is prosecuted in Edinburgh, it being reserved to the Senatus Academicus to admit into the Hall students who have not attended these classes, when they see cause. It is intended that two hours a-day should be devoted to each of these classes as well as the theological ones, so soon as there is accommodation that admits of it. The Committee think it right to state their growing conviction of the importance of these essential departments of study being conducted by men in whose Christian character and soundness of principle the Church has had the fullest confidence; and they consider themselves abundantly warranted in saying, that there are already satisfactory evidences that the students of the Free Church have derived most important advantages from the establishment of these two chairs.

"There are several other important subjects connected with theological education, some of them suggested by the returns sent up by presbyteries, which the Committee regard as deserving and demanding the serious attention of the Church, but on which they cannot now enlarge, and with respect to which they are not at present prepared to make a specific proposal. They are such subjects as these: The length of the session; the visitation of the Divinity Hall, and the inspection of its business by the authority of

the Church; the extent to which, and the mode in which, the Church can and should afford assistance to young men in the prosecution of their studies for the ministry, viewed especially in connexion with the object of securing to them necessary time and leisure for the study of theology in its leading departments; and lastly, the all-important subject of the provision which the Church ought to make for satisfying herself that those whom she ordains to the ministry of the gospel are indeed faithful or believing men, who have experienced the enlightening and regenerating grace of the Holy Spirit. Some of these are subjects of at once great importance and great difficulty, which the Church ought seriously and deliberately to consider; and in the consideration of which she will greatly need that wisdom which is profitable to direct, and which God is ever ready to give, and to give without upbraiding."

It was agreed that the Report should be fully considered on Wednesday.

CONTINENTAL COMMITTEE.

Mr Gray of Perth (in the absence of Mr Lorimer of Glasgow) gave in the Report of this Committee. He stated numerous particulars of great interest. The Committee employed, or at all events paid for, the services of several colporteurs, of whom one was now in Belgium, and several in France, who made reports to the Committee from time to time. These are under the superintendence, not of the Committee, but of societies on the Continent. It was impossible for the Committee to exercise such a superintendence; but they regularly received reports of what was done. The Committee had also assisted the Toulouse Book Society, a very valuable institution, and one of great importance to the Evangelical cause on the Continent, with a donation of £100. The Belgian Evangelical Society was also an institution with which the Committee had corresponded and co-operated. They had also assisted this Society in their operations for the spread of the gospel in Belgium; and they had done what they could to assist the Evangelical Society of Paris. The Committee had it not in their power to do much last year in Italy in the way of assisting in the publication of Evangelical works in that country. A letter from Mr Stewart of Leghorn, received that day, contained the latest intelligence from Tuscany, and would be listened to, Mr Gray had no doubt, with great interest by the Assembly:

"Here we have had an opportunity lately of testing our Tuscan constitution. Dr Desanctis, a converted priest of Rome, now residing with Dr Achilli at Malta, came here on a mission about the beginning of April, ready and willing to preach the gospel wherever an opportunity might offer. I knew him well by character, and resolved that the opportunity should not be wanting. I asked him to preach to my own congregation in Italian (he can't speak English) on the Sabbath evening of our sacrament; and he did so, to our great delight. He is a most eloquent, able, and faithful minister; and we had the joy of feeling that the Lord had made use of the mission station of the Free Church of Scotland, that in its church the gospel might be proclaimed by an Italian priest, in his own language, to many of his own countrymen, for the first time for upwards of two centuries, since the light of the Reformation was extinguished by fire and sword. This is surely an answer to our prayers, and I trust it will excite in the Church at home a deeper interest both in this station and in this country panting for regeneration!

"A deputation of the young men of the congregation were delighted; they begged him to preach again, which he did on a week evening, as faithfully, but a little less guardedly than before. On the first occasion about twenty, on the second about eighty Italians were present. Some were much pleased, others were very angry, as his subject condemned their innumerable mediators, with the Madonna at their head. The priests got greatly excited about it, and actually proposed publishing a handbill, exhorting the people to drive him out of the city. They summoned our beadle (an Italian) before them, to give them a full account of all that had gone on; but we have not been troubled about it. Indeed, I took special care to ask him to preach to my own congregation, that I might be able to declare this to the authorities, if called in question; and I am not bound to turn Italians out of our church if they choose to come there. Another Sabbath he spent in Lucca, and preached twice there to about twenty people; after which

he went to Florence, and preached in the Swiss church, and administered the sacrament. He left this, on his way to Malta, last week; and his visit, while it has done good in the way of confirming inquirers, and stirring up others to think, has been of especial benefit, as showing that personal liberty at least is secured under the new constitution."

The Committee, also, during the last year, saw it to be their duty to make a grant of £500 in aid of the Free Church of the Canton de Vaud. The Assembly will recollect that at the time when the Disruption in that Canton took place, about two and a-half years ago, this Church was prepared, had it been thought desirable, to make an effort to assist our friends with the means of maintaining divine ordinances in their new position; but our friends were desirous, in the first instance, to try what they could do without extrinsic aid, and to do all that was possible in the way of drawing forth the liberalities of those who adhered to them. Therefore our brethren, in the same spirit of devotion, in the same disinterested and magnanimous spirit which they displayed at the Disruption itself, thought it best that we should delay, in the meantime, any proceedings of that nature. But the time has now come when it is found to be desirable that we should stretch out our hand, as a sister Church, to our brethren under their increasing afflictions. The persecution there, as is well known to this Church, has waxed hotter and hotter. The enemies of the gospel have become more and more exasperated against the truth, and against its noble champions. They have not been mollified by the cheerful sacrifice made of their emoluments by their brethren of the Free Church in the Canton de Vaud; and perhaps our own experience enables us to regard that fact without astonishment. The persecution, I say, has grown hotter in this case; and to bring an example before your eyes of the extremity to which that persecution has gone, I beg at once to inform the Assembly, that on the platform beside me there is a banished minister of the Free Church of the Canton de Vaud. I have directed attention to this case, not only because the Committee, in the discharge of their duty, have to report their proceedings, but because the Committee have further to state to the Assembly, that they have now ascertained that the time is come when the long-promised and intended effort on behalf of the Free Church of the Canton de Vaud will require to be made by the Free Church of Scotland. The time, I say, has now come for the collection which we expressed ourselves willing to make about two and a-half years ago; and I believe it will be found that time has neither cooled the interest of the parties or people of this Church -that time has not abated our interest in any respect whatever in our little sister Church in Switzerland, and that we are prepared to make common cause with her, to do what we can for her relief.

Messrs Anet of Brussels, Audebez of Paris, Scholl of Lausanne, and La Harpe of Geneva, then addressed the Assembly. We can afford room only for a portion of the address of Mr Scholl:

Though I have been kindly invited by the Continental Committee of the Free Church to attend this meeting, and though I have been accredited by the Synodal Commission of the Free Church of Vaud, I do feel very unworthy to appear before this great Assembly, and very unequal to the task that is before me. But I am supported under this sense of my inability, by the feeling that the cause of Free Churches is so good, so great, so sacred a cause, that it has no need of a powerful advocate. The cause itself supports the advocate. I am also supported by the persuasion that I am addressing those who are quite convinced of its deep importance and real excellence; indeed, who are its best friends. The cause of Free Churches has an echo in every heart and conscience here. The more I think of it, the more I see that our cause-I mean the cause of our two Churches-is one. Not that I would for a moment compare our weak infant Church of Vaud with your own great Free Church. I look upon the Free Church of Scotland as upon a fine well-built and well-manned ship, riding majestically over the blue waters of the ocean; while our young and feeble Church is like a small boat following at a great distance, and tossed to and fro by incessant storms and threatening waves. But notwithstanding this great difference, I believe that both the great ship and the small boat are under the same good and great Pilot; they have both, one after another, emerged out of the same waters of

conscience-enslaving Rationalism; they are both sailing under the same heavenly breeze, and tending to the same blessed haven. They are both fighting, as if it were for their very existence, in the same good and great cause-that of the complete independence of the Church in matters spiritual. It is true that enormities were asked of us, in point of concessions to the State and abdication of our spiritual freedom; while you will allow that comparatively small encroachments upon your spiritual independence were attempted against you, free men of Scotland. But this is not a question of degrees; it is altogether a question of principle. The plain question is this-Is the Church of Christ to submit, in matters purely spiritual, to the interference of any power, stranger to the Church, and which can be, and is very often, not only indifferent, but hostile, to its best interests, and to its great mission upon earth? Scripture, conscience, and good sense, tell us at once the Church is not to submit to any such interference. It ought not, it cannot, it must not. The charter of all Free Churches to which they must be entirely faithful-is, Render unto Cæsar that which is Cæsar's, and unto God that which is God's. Nothing that is God's must be given to Cæsar. If it were a question of expediency, we might reason and argue upon the greatness or smallness of the encroachments attempted upon the spiritual freedom of the Church. But when a great principle, like that of the spiritual independence of the Church, is involved, threatened, compromised, there is no reasoning and arguing against it; we must, submit to the authority of a clear, decided, and positive principle; we must how to it, and reject all improper interference, from whatever quarter it may come. Whatever you grant to the State which does not belong to it, is so much taken from the crown and authority of the great Head of the Church. It is a case where we can, I think, apply justly the saying of our Saviour, 'He that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.' Can anything be called small which deprives the great Head of the Church, in any direction, of his absolute sovereignty and government of his own Church? I think not."

Mr Scholl then gave a lengthened and interesting account of the history and present condition and trials of the Free Church of Vaud. He intimated that already four pastors had been banished from their flocks:

in

"I am one of them. On the 22d of May, the day before Easter, I was worshipping, with about thirty people in the house of Madame Vinet, the wife of the celebrated professor. The meeting was found out, denounced, and dissolved by the police. Eight days after I received my sentence of relegation to the place to which I belong an Alpine country. I hold the said sentence my hand; besides which, both Madame Vinet and myself were handed over to the tribunal of police of Lausanne, as having contravened the interdict-myself by offeiating, and she by lending the house of prayer. A little more than a fortnight ago we appeared, and were fined each three pounds for our offence. This was the first time that Government instituted proceedings before a tribunal under the interdicts; and there was a most providential coincidence during that week, with events full of the most painfal recollections for Madame Vinet. The day the meeting was dissolved in her house was the day when her dear and venerated husband left his town dwelling for the country, never to return to it; the day she received the warrant to appear before our judges was the day of her husband's death; and the day of judgment the day of her husband's funeral; so that that dear friend of mine has been the first female in our Canton called to suffer for that cause of religious liberty to which Professor Vinet devoted his invaluable life. Such, Moderater, are some of the outward difficulties and dangers by which our faithfulness is tried." He concluded thus:-

"Small, unworthy, as we are, we have received, from all parts of the world, testimonies of love, approbation, sympathy, which have at times greatly comforted and supported From Calcutta, from Bengal, from England (where 480 ministers of the Establishment wrote to us an encouraging letter), from all parts of Germany and Switzerland, from many Churches of France, from the National Church of Scotland, who sent us many letters and a generous pecuniary aid for the demissionary pastors, we Lave received favours, for which we are deeply thankful. But it is you members of the Free Church that we count

We

for our best, our dearest friends and supporters, chiefly because you have been to us most persevering and indefatigable friends. At every time of need, at every new storm, you have been ready to extend to us the hand of fellowship, in a variety of ways, too numerous to be mentioned here. Your sympathy has not been that of a moment. You have never forgotten, never deserted us. It has done us more good than it would be in my power to mention here. bless you, and we pray God to bless you for it. Indeed, though we are deeply thankful for all the testimonies of your sympathy, we do not wonder at them. You are so richly favoured with religious privileges, and with the fullest religious liberty, that you can and must feel much for those who, like us, are more or less deprived of those precious boons of heaven which you enjoy so plentifully. It is therefore with full confidence in the bonds of Christian love that exist between us, that, thanking you for all the past, I commend our poor afflicted Church to your persevering brotherly affection, and, above all, to your persevering prayers. We never needed them more than at the present critical time. Now, Moderator, one word about our prospects, and I have done. As far as we'look to man, and to passing events, and to present circumstances, our prospects are, if not very dark, at least very obscure, very uncertain, and, to some extent, very threatening. Hostility, instead of relaxing, seems to increase; so that, in our country, we have little to hope from men. But it is one of the benefits of our situation, that it has long ago taken away from us all human props, and constrained us to look up simply, entirely, continually, for help, support, and deliverance, to God alone. I trust to his mighty grace, that He will make us to continue to look up to Him, who alone can and will deliver us, when it seemeth good unto Him, and will till then give us to cast all our care upon Him, to overcome both our outward and our inward difficulties. Among these let me just mention, in conclusion, that our finances are very low. But it is not to be wondered at; the general state of our country is not favourable at present to money collections; and, besides, our Free Church, which is composed of thirty-seven churches, which has forty-two pastors to provide for, numbers, comparatively to other churches, a very small number of members. In order, therefore, to provide for the wants of such a Church, they should make extraordinary efforts, of which they are hardly capable now. But the smallness of our Church does not diminish the importance of keeping it up. It is a witnessing Church. It is a leavening Church. I thank you for patient hearing; and pray the Lord to bless more and more the Free Church of Scotland."

We

Dr Candlish then addressed the Assembly in eloquent and stirring terms:-" We are very emphatically reminded to-night of the two-fold position of our Church, as part of the Church catholic, and as a testifying Church in particular. We have here representatives from many of the soundest portions of the Protestant Church abroad; and we have been addressed, in broken terms it may be, but yet terms which all the more come home to our hearts. have been addressed by brethren from Belgium, from Switzerland, and France, from Geneva, Paris, and the Canton de Vaud. We have been reminded of the vast responsibility lying upon us as a Church, especially in these times. It has often struck me as remarkable, since these movements began on the Continent, and more particularly since the effects of these movements on the Protestant Church on the Continent began to be manifested, that surely there was something providential in the position which the Free Church is now called to occupy in reference to the Protestant Churches of Europe. These Churches on the Continent-the daughters of the Reformation-may be said almost to be in a state of fusion. In France-I suppose I am right in saying so-in Prussia, and elsewhere, we see the Churches of the Continent thrown upon their original principles, and called to deliberate, not on matters of mere routine or administration, but virtually on the re-organization of the Protestant Church on the Continent. We cannot but be struck with the fact, that we have been addressed to-night by a brother from the Canton de Vaud, who tells us that the last time he was in Edinburgh he was present in the General Assembly to witness the deposition of the seven Strathbogie ministers. And going beyond the range of the brethren who have addressed us to-night, we cannot forget

that one brother has been called, as we have been recently informed, to take an influential part in the councils of Prussia in reference to the Church of that country, who was with us several years before the Disruption-I mean Mr Sydow, who so ably vindicated, in a work on the subject, the principles of the Free Church. Taking a view of these things, I am sometimes inclined to think, that our Church at this moment is called upon to lift up a standard in the sight of all European Christendom-of all the daughters of the Reformation-of all the Churches of Protestantism. It has pleased God to signalize the Free Church of Scotland and I say not this in a spirit of boasting, but rather under a deep feeling of responsibility-by making that Church the depository of a larger measure of scriptural principles than any other Protestant Church in the world; and we cannot but be struck with the fact, that God led us into the position we now occupy, immediately before these convulsions and changes began, which appear to be resolving the Protestant Churches of Europe into their elements. We have been brought into a position in which we were led to adopt the title of the Free Church of Scotland, rejoicing in our freedom, yet without, in one single particular, or by a hair's-breadth, deviating from our alliance to our sovereign Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and our attachment to the old Standards of the Church of our fathers. We cannot shut our eyes to the risk and danger, it may be, on the Continent of Europe, to Churches unaccustomed to liberty-not familiar, as we have been for a long time, with freedom of internal administration, and familiar with the benefits of creeds and confessions such as ours-Churches which have lost the exercise and power of discipline, having been under Erastian fetters and restrictions. When such Churches suddenly regain their freedom, I cannot shut my eyes to the risk they incur of departing from the old rallying ground of the Reformation. And it would be a noble thing in this General Assembly, meeting now for the first time after these convulsions began, and privileged with the presence of so many representatives of foreign Churches as we are to-night, if we were not only to express our cordial sympathy with our brethren, as I trust we shall do, but to give forth some emphatic, distinct, and clear sound-lift up some standard which might tend to rally the fragments of the Reformation in the Continental Churches. The Reformation Church on the Continent is more nearly one in all its branches than perhaps the Church ever was at any period of its history since Christianity came into the world; and it would be a noble thing if we could be instrumental in giving forth some battle-cry which would encourage our brethren on the Continent to make use of their freedom for the purpose of seeking out and taking their stand upon the old paths on which the Reformers took their stand. Now, I am not disposed to think we can possibly discharge our duty to the Continent at large-I do not speak of the nations, but the Protestant Churches of the Continent-by any thing we can do to-night; but I do not despair of the Assembly being led, before it rises, to the adoption of some solemn act to the placing upon its record some declaration expressive of its sentiments in regard to the position of the Protestant Churches on the Continent-setting forth somewhat of the historical connexion between the Churches of the Continent and the Free Church of Scotland, bringing out emphatically the entire consistency of freedom from Erastian domination, and subjection to the Protestant standards of the Reformation, and lifting up a testimony in favour of those glorious old confessions which once so nearly united the Churches in former times-the harmony of the Protestant confessions having been thus more than once vindicated from the false allegations of the Papacy. It would indeed be a melancholy result of the present movements should we now lose the benefit of the harmony of the Protestant confessions. We would rejoice if we were enabled-and I would not wonder if God had brought us to this hour for such an end-to give some testimony from our elevated position in the eyes of Christendom, in favour of the great Protestant principle of the harmony of confessions, and the importance of combining the most entire freedom with the humblest subjection, in every particular, to the mind and will of God revealed in his holy Word. I allude to this, perhaps, a little out of order, to suggest whether the General Assembly, before it dissolves, might not do something in the way of discharging the duty it owes in

·

present circumstances to the Continent. I cannot but advert to the close connexion which exists between us and one of the brethren who has addressed us. We have been solemnly reminded to-night as a branch of the Church catholic. We have been also reminded of our peculiar position as the Free Church of Scotland, emancipated, by the blessing of God, from Erastian thraldom, and free to serve the Lord Jesus Christ, and at liberty to follow out fully all the dictates of God's Word. I feel confident that many of us cannot but have been humbled by what we have heard from our brother, Mr Scholl. We have been apt to speak a great deal of ourselves--to speak of our sufferings-and we have suffered-by our separation from the Establishment; and it is an interesting thing to trace the exact correspondence between the sufferings we have endured, and those of our brethren in the Canton de Vaud. If they have been charged with seeking political ends, so have we. If they have been debarred from the free worship of God, so have we. If they have been calumniated in their characters, so have we. But there is no comparison, in point of degree, between our sufferings and those of our brethren. God has blessed us with the fullest and freest toleration. The denial of our rights and privileges is with us the exception, not the rule; but when we hear of the sufferings of the brethren in the Canton de Vaud, and hear them spoken of, as to-night we have heard without exaggeration-without even emphasis-with so much calmness, so much meekness, so much moderation-I think we may learn a lesson, if the Lord give us grace to profit by such an example. Our brother, Mr Scholl, was introduced to us-he introduced himself as a banished man-as a man now lying under sentence of banishment to his native parish; and he has most affectingly detailed the recent incident of his being called, along with the widow of Vinet, before the commission of police. I will read to you the sentence of banishment. The sentence in reference to the fine is longer, and I will not read it, more particularly as Mr Scholl has permitted me to retain it for the use of the Church. But the other sentence I may translate as follows: The Prefect of the district of Lausanne, to M. Scholl, demissionary minister. I have the honour to inform you-[the civility is great, the courtesy extreme]-I have the honour to inform you, that the Council of State has decided upon your immediate return to your birth-place, according to the seventh article of the decree of the 28th of March, in reference to religious assemblies beyond the pale of the National Church. This measure has been resolved upon, because on the 23d of April you officiated in a religious meeting of the kind prohibited by the decree above mentioned. You are in consequence informed or warned, that a period of six days is allowed to you to betake yourself to your commune. If you do not comply with this invitation [invitation is the word] it will be necessary to adopt ulterior measures to constrain you.—I have the honour to be,' &c. It is thus, with all possible civility, that the sentence is communicated to our brother, Mr Scholl. When I call to mind the scene which he has so touchingly brought before us, and remember who the lady was who stood beside him in that police-office-for it was just a policeoffice when I call to mind who was his fellow-sufferer then, and is his fellow-sufferer now as being subject to the fine-the widow of the man who was called, and deservedly called, the Chalmers of Switzerland-when I think of such indignities as these-of the wrong and contumely inflicted on the widow of a man of whom all Switzerland might be proud, and to whose family all Switzerland might rejoice to do honour-I say I cannot but mourn over the degradation of religion in that unhappy land. Perhaps the deliverance of the General Assembly may be to express our satisfaction with the statements which have been addressed to us by the brethren from the Continental Churches, and our earnest sympathy with the objects and plans of usefulness brought before us; and, perhaps, that you, sir, be requested to acknowledge, in the ordinary way, the kindness of the brethren in visiting and addressing the Assembly; and I would further propose, that we should this night, before we separate, if it be the mind of the Assembly, resume the purpose, the solemn purpose formed long ago by this Church, in reference to giving a substantial token of our sympathy with the persecuted Church in the Canton de Vaud. At the period of their Disruption, when they were driven from their charges by their persecutors, it was the earnest purpose of the Free Church to manifest its sympathy by a substantial token; but we were then informed by our brethren themselves, that the most friendly act we could do was to abstain from making

any collection for them till a more necessitous time should arrive. That time has now arrived. Two years and a-half have now elapsed, during which they have made marvellous exertions for themselves in their small community. But they are now brought into circumstances in which we are loudly called upon to make good our pledge. I cannot doubt that our people will heartily rejoice in having the opportunity of manifesting their sympathy for their suffering brethren by a substantial token. The Continental Committee, as you have heard from the Report, has advanced £500 in anticipation of a general collection being made. But this is a mere trifle compared to the urgency of the case. I do not wish to interfere with any arrangements as to the collections for the year, which will be brought before you in the Report of the Committee on the collections for the Schemes. But I do think we are in circumstances to-night for fulfilling the pledge which we formerly gave; and I cannot believe that our doing so will be misinterpreted by any one as interfering with the general collections for the year."

Mr A. Dunlop, advocate, said he thought they were called on with a loud voice to take advantage of the open door which the shaking of the nations was presenting to them to exert themselves in the evangelization of the Continent, and more particularly to respond with heart and hand to the call now made on them from the Canton de Vaud. To that Church they stood in a peculiar relation. They were sailing on the same voyage, and under the same pilotage; and the only difference between them was, that our brethren in the Canton de Vaud were exposed to storms from which we were entirely free. He felt, with Dr Candlish, that it impressed one with a sense of humiliation to think of what we had said about our sufferings in this country as compared with the example of humble and patient resignation which they had witnessed this evening. Even if we could not sympathize with their sufferings, these statements touch a chord in our old associations; for every one of the evils they are now suffering, even to the minutest particulars, was experienced by our forefathers, only the latter were not so smooth and polite, but more manly, rough, and like the thing. They were inflicted by a despotic monarch in a despotic way-roughly trampling on the liberties of his people, while here the persecution is inflicted under the name of "Liberté et Patrie!" These things being now done under the name of liberty which the tyrants of former days did in the name of determined despotism.

The following is the deliverance of the Assembly:"The General Assembly having heard their brethren from the Continent, express the satisfaction which they have experienced by their presence, and in hearing from them the interesting statements which they have made of the condition of the Continental countries, in reference, more particularly, to the events which have recently occurred, and their probable bearing on the advancement of the cause of Christ. And the Assembly express their earnest desire for the continued success of the Evangelical Societies of Belgium, France, and Geneva, through whose efforts so much has already, by the divine blessing, been accomplished for the spread of gospel truth, and their anxiety to help forward their brethren in the good work of the Lord by every means in their power.

"The General Assembly desire especially to renew their expressions of affection for their brethren of the Free Church of the Canton de Vaud, and to sympathize with them under the heavy trials to which they are still subjected, driven, as M. Scholl and many of his brethren in the ministry have been, from their beloved and attached flocks by a persecuting law, which permits not the worship of Giod, excepting in connexion with the Church of the State. "The General Assembly request their Moderator to return the thanks of the house to their respected brethren who have now addressed them.

The Assembly approves of the Report of the Continental Committee, which is hereby re-appointed with its former powers; and farther, the Assembly, feeling the obligations resting on this Church, to give a substantial expression of their sympathy with the Church of the Canton de Vaud, resolve that a collection on behalf of their brethren be made by the congregations of this Church, and appoint a committee to prepare an act thereanent; and the said committee are requested to consider as to a suitable time for making the collection."

The Moderator (who was imperfectly heard) then ad

dressed the deputies, expressing the satisfaction of the Assembly at their presence, and the gratification derived from their addresses. "We are keenly alive," he said, "to the interesting condition of the Continent of Europe at this time, and to the loud call addressed to us to exert ourselves amidst the shaking of the nations, to do what we can, by the blessing of God, for the advancement of the Redeemer's kingdom; and I trust that these exertions will not be awanting. You cannot, dear brethren, be ignorant of the comparative infancy of this Church, and of its limited resources, seeing that it has so recently renounced its connexion with the State. We cannot, therefore, do all that we could wish to undertake; yet I may say that our desire is to be honoured to be fellow-workers with you on the Continent. I am especially gratified, my dear friend, Mr Scholl, at seeing you in our Assembly. I have myself been an eye-witness of some of the dark scenes to which you have alluded. You have said that there are tokens for good in the midst of all your trials. God wisely afflicts his own children that he may sanctify them. It was said to me in the Canton de Vaud that we had historical recollections in this country to encourage us which they did not possess. I said to them, if you have not the history which we have, you are making a history for yourselves; and I do trust what you are now doing and suffering may lay the foundation of lasting benefits to future times.

TUESDAY-MAY 23.

Dr Begg gave in the Report of the Building Committee.. The lamented death of Mr Hamilton, the previous Convener, was first adverted to. He intimated that the whole revenue for the year amounted to little more than £1100; whereas demands were made upon them to the extent of £10,000, and urged the imperative necessity of making the Building Fund one of their most liberally supported schemes, so that their poorer congregations might be furnished with comfortable places of worship. He also adverted at considerable length to the necessity of some arrangement being. made for placing the title-deeds of the various churches on a safe and satisfactory footing.

After a conversation, in which Mr Dunlop, Mr Gibson, and Dr Candlish took part, the following deliverance was come to:

"The Assembly approve of the Report, express their deep and solemn sense of the dispensation of Divine Providence, which has removed from the Church on earth the late respected Convener of the Committee, whose valuable services in the great work of the erection of places of worship for the congregations of this Church, they hereby record with thankfulness to Him whose servant he was, and whose cause he delighted to promote. The Assembly instruct the Committee to communicate with such other nonestablished bodies as may be interested in obtaining an alteration of the law, to do away with the necessity of the renewal of the investiture of places of worship on the death or failure of the trustees originally named, and to co-operate with such bodies in obtaining the passing of an Act of Parliament for that purpose. The Assembly commend the important object of the Building Committee to the liberality of the congregations of the Church; and further, the Assembly re-appoint the Committee, with Dr Begg as their Convener.

DEPUTATION FROM THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF IRELAND.

Mr William Macfie stated, that, along with Mr Moody Stuart and Mr Campbell of Melrose, he had attended the late meeting of the General Assembly of the Irish Presbyterian Church as a deputation from that Assembly, and had been been received with Christian kindness.

The Clerk then read an extract from the minutes of the proceedings of the Irish Assembly on occasion of receiving the deputation from the Free Church of Scotland; and the Assembly's commission to the Rev. William Maclure (their Moderator), Professor Gibson, and the Rev. A. Henry, ministers; with John Boyd, Esq. M.P., Benjamin Digby, Esq., and Thomas Drury, Esq., elders, to appear as their deputies at this meeting of the General Assembly, was then read.

Various members of the deputation addressed the Assembly, expressed the warm affectionate interest taken by their Church in the welfare of the Free Church of Scotland, and their gratitude for the aid hitherto afforded to their home mission among the Irish Romanists.