STATE OF THE KIRK QUESTION IN SCOTLAND.
(7ourt of Session has granted the interdict craved by the Strathbee;ic ministers against any attempt to enforce the decision of the General Assembly. While the deputies from the Com- mission of the General Assembly have been petitioning the House of Lords to allow them to be heard at its bar by counsel against
Lord ABERDEEN'S Bill, their erators have been proclaiming in Scotland, that if the bill do pass into a law they will not obey it. Meanwhile, the minority in last _Assembly ere not idle. The Edin- burgh Obscrrer of the 10th in:,tant contains a declaration in litvour of Lord ABER oi.e3i's Bill, signed ':)y 20 ministers and 806 elders-- in all 'OGG offiee-bearers of the Kirk. A document has been pub- lished by The Witness, (the organ of the " Wild men" in Edin- burgh,) which had been drawn up for subscription by the party represented by the minevity, and to which the names of' Dr. CooK and other leaders of the party had already been attached. This document purports to be a declaration, that it is necessary for members of the Establishment to unite for mutual support and defence against the consequences which may result front the pro- ceedings of the General Assembly ; that the association thus formed shall be "for the defenre of the constitution of the Church, and its ministers am! elders ;" that a correspondence shall be im- mediately opened with all the dissentients in last Assembly, invit- ing their coiiperation; that a meeting for maturing the plan of the Association shall be held in Edinburgh on the 1-2th of August next, (about the time svhsn the Commission will meet to deal svith the contumacious ministers of Strathhogie, and when emancipated legislators will be dealing in a like merciall manner with the grouse) ; and that previously to the meeting, each subscriber shall contribute one pound at least. The majority sneeringly call this Association Mc Tepu1y-s0linf: Cherub (!f. Scotlend.
Some rather nnreasenable surprise lets been expressed that the Scottish 1)1 enters do not take part i ith the majority of the General Assembly : to us it appears quite natural that they should think this quarrel among the members of' the Establishment a " very pretty quarrel" with which they have no call to interfm.* The present aspect of the all:!irs of the Kirk reminds us irresistibly of GrAmon COLMAN'S story of the theatrical elephant. The gen- tleman who enacted the hind-legs was indignant at being always obliged to walk behind the gentleman who enacted the fore-legs : many tricks of scorn and spite were played oil' between the stage heroes, each more embittering the quarrel: one night as the won- derful elephant was stepping ponderously across the stage, the
* Not long after the Perthshire election, the Morning Cheonicie sought to conciliate the Scees.4ion Kirk by acting indignation at the refusal of the Kirk of Scotland to allow the Sece:ision a share of the Canada Reserves. The reply of the Seceders to this caterwauling was pithy enough : they petitioned Parliament to apply the Reserves to the purpose of $ecular education. As Voluntaries, they could have nothing to do with them. audience were astonished by hearing a voice which seemed to issue from its breast cry out, "Damn it, don't bite ! " and the exclama. tion was succeeded by a boxing-match between the fore-legs nod the hind-legs, in the course of which the pasteboard framework of the elephant was knocked to pieces. Not for the world would we attribute irreverent language to reverend men ; but the formation of an Association on the part of' the minority in the Assembly looks very like proceeding to extremities ; and the tone in which the orators of the majority announce the fact, sounds extremely like " Damn it, don't bite !" It would nowise surprise us to see the framework of the Kirk knocked to pieces in the fray.
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