minister, the elders met, and having informed themselves of the facts, and of the grounds on which Mr Thomson had acted, agreed unanimously in approving of his conduct. Though they could not all view the general question in the same light that he did, yet they were convinced that he had been influenced by no light motives, and could not but respect the integrity and firmness which he had displayed. Among them, it should be observed, were some of those very persons, high in rank and office, who had been publicly called on to desert Mr Thomson's ministry; and whose conduct on this occasion adds a higher respectability to their rank, and to those offices which they fill with equal honour to themselves and advantage to the public.

It is but justice to the Lord Provost to add, that the whole of his conduct towards Mr Thomson in this affair appears to have been marked with politeness and decorum. He was anxious that Mr Thomson should act in the same manner as his brethren, and expected even to the last, as we understand, that this would be the case; but he neither importuned his compliance, nor frowned upon his refusal.

We entertain the hope, that the late occurrence, if it have not the effect of making the people of this country acquaint themselves a little better with the principles of their Church, will at the least render them more cautious in rushing into religious services from the mere impulse of feeling and novelty. One thing is apparent from the facts which we have reviewed, that it is extremely difficult in such cases to keep from imposition. The late service, we were told, was to be perfectly voluntary; and it has been gloried in as the spontaneous effusion of the people's loyalty and affection. What has taken place in Edinburgh is a commentary on this text. Such hollow and deceitful professions remind us of the highwayman who demanded the traveller's money for the love of God, and on being refused, put his pistol to his breast. And they resemble the forced loans and voluntary benevolences formerly resorted to in England, the application for which was immediately followed by an order for distraining the goods of the refractory recusant.

Q ૧

The freedom used in the preceding pages may perhaps give offence to many in this charitable and tolerating age; and to those who leave bigots to fight about modes of faith or of worship, the zeal expressed by the Author will, he has no doubt, appear preposterous and immoderate. He has no desire to incur these censures, but he does not dread them. He does not despise public opinion, but neither does he idolize it; and he cannot consent to sacrifice to it his convictions and his sense of duty. He has used the liberty which belongs to every Briton, and particularly to every North British Presbyterian, to lay his sentiments before the public, on a question which, after mature deliberation, he regards as neither unimportant nor uninteresting. And he is willing that it be decided by the authority of Scripture, the law of the Church, and the law of the land.

It is impossible on some occasions to do justice to truth, or to advocate the cause of common rights, without animadverting freely on the conduct of persons who may have been active in opposing them. The Author will be sorry, if, in discharging a public duty, or in defending wronged innocence, he shall, in the expression of his feelings, have given unnecessary pain to a single good man, misrepresented his motives, or aggravated his offence. If any thing of this kind shall be found to have fallen from his pen, he will most cheerfully correct the error; and provided the great end which he has in view be gained in any good degree, he shall be content that these ephemeral pages be scattered to the winds and forgotten. He submits them to the judgment of the discerning and impartial public, who can distinguish between the honest, though warm, expressions of an ingenuous mind, and the intemperate effusions of a heated imagination or an inflamed breast-regardless, if he meet with their approbation or indulgence, of the opinion that may be entertained by the ignorant, the thoughtless, and the prejudiced.

WHAT OUGHT THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

TO DO AT THE PRESENT CRISIS? *

To speak of the present time as a crisis in our ecclesiastical affairs, will appear to superficial thinkers, and even to some who have claims to more than common sagacity, to be the language of exaggeration and unreasonable foreboding. Recent circumstances, it will be said, have directed the public attention to the mode of admitting ministers to parochial charges, and it is not wonderful that a number of the people, especially when excited by well-meaning but forward prompters, should feel a vague desire for some improvement in this matter; but no general interest is as yet taken in the subject, there is no such excitement as to threaten a popular ebullition, and no reason to think that the Assembly's table will be so loaded with overtures, or its doors so besieged with petitioners, as to shut it up to the necessity of taking any step in a point of so much delicacy and importance. This is the very reason why I consider the present time to be, in the highest sense of the term, a crisis. It is a remark, no less useful than trite, that the deepest stillness often precedes the storm; and "seers in Israel" are not always so quick in discerning the signs of change as the husbandman or the mariner, who, in a small cloud like a man's hand, or in the rippling of the wave, can perceive the approach of the tempest which, within a short time, will convulse the heavens, the earth, and the sea.

There is nothing about which we are more apt to form erroneous notions, than about what constitutes a crisis in the affairs of an individual or a society. The man of business never thinks that his affairs have come to a crisis till he has paid his last shilling, or till he is so dunned by his creditors that he can no longer evade their demands, and is forced to declare himself bankrupt. Rulers never dream of a crisis in a nation's affairs so long as the wheels of government, how much soever injured and embarrassed, can be kept in motion; and they go on protecting abuses and disregarding complaints, till matters have arrived at such a state, that no alternative is left between provoking open resistance, and granting all that an impatient people, galled by suffering and delay, are pleased to demand. This is to confound the crisis and the catastrophe; or, at least, to bring them as near to each other as the flash of the lightning and the crash of the thunder. It is to leave no room for rational choice, to cut off the opportunity of escaping the impending danger. It is to overlook the wise provision which nature has made for preparing our minds to meet inevitable calamities, and for enabling us to avert evils to which our imprudence or misconduct may have exposed us. All the miseries which confirmed despotism on the one hand, and unbridled licentiousness on the other, have brought on nations, may be traced to this capital error-to the neglect of the people to seize the favourable opportunity of asserting their injured and securing their endangered privileges,—and of rulers to embrace the propitious moment of redressing every real grievance, and thus establishing their authority on the firmest of all bases-justice, and the affections of a gratified and grateful people. There is a time when the requests of a community may be granted with safety, with honour, and with advantage, but beyond which the boon is received with cold indifference, and improved as an argument for increasing demands. Here is the crisis in a nation's affairs, and it is the part of true wisdom to discern it; but, alas! this is a gift conferred on few, and in which those intrusted with the management of public business have often shown themselves

lamentably deficient. The lesson has been read again and again in the miseries which have been entailed upon governors and the governed; and yet it is lost on their successors. Blind to the character of the age, prejudiced in favour of old forms, tenacious of power, jealous of popular influence, perplexed with the fear of change, deceived with the present calm, or confident of resources to meet the coming storm, rulers persevere in repeating the old error, by resisting needful and safe reforms, or by having recourse to temporary and partial expedients, which serve to expose rather than to abate the evil, and create the very agitation which they are solicitous to avert. If comprehensiveness of mind is required to fix upon the grand remedy which is suited to the times, disinterestedness, decision, and vigour are equally necessary to adopt and apply it,—a combination of qualities rarely to be found, and which a master-spirit alone can diffuse through a deliberative assembly.

It is in this point of view that the present moment forms a crisis in our ecclesiastical history; and on these principles, I scruple not to assert, that no meeting of the Supreme Court of the Church of Scotland has been held for many years under such high responsibilities as attach to the General Assembly which is to meet in the course of a few days.

I shall not indulge in general reflections on the character of the age, and the altered tone of public feeling and sentiment. It is sufficient to advert to the change which has lately taken place on the political state of the nation, by the extension of the elective franchise. There is not a reflecting person, moderately acquainted with human nature and the history of the world, who is not aware of the powerful influence which this must exert on the opinions of men in regard to the Church, and especially in regard to the collateral question as to the mode of appointing those who undertake the management of her affairs. The effect has already manifested itself. A society had existed for a number of years, whose object was to improve the system of Church patronage, by purchasing the right of presentation, and