16 SEPTEMBER 1871, Page 3

Bishop Wilberforce and Archbishop Thomson have both been 'conducting Presbyterian

services at Glengarry, in the Established Kirk of Scotland, this autumn, and the performances of the latter, who preached and conducted the service there last Sunday, are 'celebrated in a letter to the Daily T'elegraph of Friday by a vigi- lant observer, who evidently held it to be obligatory on him to sub- ,ordinate his duties as a Christian to his duties as a correspondent. He records how Dr. Thomson began in the orthodox fashion, with "Let us begin the worship of God by singing to his praise the hundredth psalm ;" how he substituted for the 'unpremeditated' prayer of the Scotch clergy one compiled from the English Liturgy by the simple expedient of putting Deliver us' before instead of after the catalogue of sins and evils from which de- liverance is prayed ; but how even here, "his Grace vigorously tried to repeat the words without looking at the book, but was now and again forced to cast furtive glances at the printed page;" and how he concluded the service by uttering a prayer of his own composition, but "tried to conceal the feet that he was forced to aid his memory by occasional glances at the paper." The corre- spondent himself makes no effort to conceal the fact that he must have been closely watching the most reverend prelate through his fingers. The letter concludes with a friendly assurance to the Arch- bishop that if be would join the Kirk he would probably rise to the highest place in her ministry. We are not quite so sure of that. Is his Grace hard-headed enough for the Macdonells and

the Maedougalls, who would dissect his logic over their whisky. and-water? You can hardly transplant, even in imagination, the oil and wine of a Wilberforce, or the milk and honey of a Thom- son, to the stern and wild' soil of the Scotch Kirk. There is something repugnant in the very idea. No; they shall not leave us even for high promotion in the Kirk.