The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland has adhered
to the motto of " No surrender," and stands gallantly by its guns
while the Kirk is scuttled with interdicts from the Court of Session, without once raising a finger towards the flagstaff to lower the en- sign of defiance. The great controversy of the Strathbogie case has been pushed to the extreme : the seven ministers of the State Church who obeyed the law of the State, and proceeded with the induction of the presentee to the living of Marnoch, Mr. EDWARDS, have been deposed; Mr. EDWARDS has been deposed; and the Assembly have declared the further interdicts which they have drawn upon themselves a shocking intrusion. They seem not only
to have disregarded all common calculations of prudence, but, in the course of headlong battling, to have thrown aside even their own advantages of intelligence and education, as mere encumbrances in the fight : like a fine old wwrior, who, when he began to be dizzy, and blinded with the sweat and dust and blood running into his eyes, dashed away his shield, that he might grasp the sword
with both hands in a last random blow or two. For example, Dr. CHALMERS, perhaps the best-informed on general subjects,
as he is one of the honestest and most zealous of the enthusiasts, prefaced the motion for deposing the ministers in a long rambling speech on the independence of the Church, in which he used two very strange arguments. Why should a minister be intruded upon a Presbytery, he asked, when an English Bishop cannot be forced to ordain ? The argument has been used in Scotland before ; but
Dr. CHALMERS must know that if an English Bishop refuse to in-
duct a presentee, he is liable to an action at law for damages. He must state specific reasons in bar of the presentation : of some, as of the clerk's competency in respect of learning, he is himself sup-- posed to be a proper judge; others, such as an accusation of an immoral act, must be submitted to a jury; while from making ge- neral charges, such as of " dissoluteness," he is altogether prohi-
bited by law. Again, Dr. CHALMERS admits that there must be some tribunal to arbitrate between the independent jurisdiction of
the Church and the Courts of Law : of course, he says, it can- not be the Courts of Law ; nor, he admits, is it the General As- sembly; nor yet, he avers, is it the House of Lords ; but it is the Legislature. So, the law-making body is the fit tribunal for the
interpretation of the law ! Doubtless Dr. CHALMERS knows better than all this; but he is obliged to place his knowledge in abeyance,
and to reduce himself to the condition of an ignorant man, in order to be free from impediment in the rude career to which he and his friends stand committed.
The upshot of all the turmoil partakes of bathos : as a last despe- rate resort against the violated sanctity of the Assembly from the intrusion of the messenger of the Law Courts, the Lord Commis- sioner was requested—to tell the Queen of it ! What can the reve- rend fathers expect from that ?
