THE SCOTTISH CHURCH QUESTION AND THE ELECTIONS. T HE eighty years
of the century have seen nothing more characteristic of Scotland than the way in which it has dealt with its Church question at this Election. A casual reader, or a confiding stranger, might think that there has been no Church question there. But the Scottish Conserva- tive Press, and the Scottish Conservative candidates (of whom there has been an extraordinary crop), are unanimous in put- ting the Kirk question as the chief point in the whole contest. Take the formal addresses to constituencies alone. Lord Dal- keith, in his manifesto to the county of Edinburgh, believes that its Established Church "is in imminent danger," if his great opponent be elected. The Solicitor-General for Scotland, in his corresponding address to the city, pledges himself to nothing but "'a conscientious and firm resolution to oppose any attempt at Disestablishment." The gentleman who aspired to succeed him in that office says that even to make the question an open one, as had been done three years ago for Scotland by the Liberal leaders, is to claim that the most sacred institutions of the country shall be left to the chapter of accidents, or the exigencies of ambition. Mr. Orr Ewing, who has retained his seat for Dumbartonshire, claimed it on the ground that every nation should endow "a Church," and that, therefore, the present state of matters should remain untouched. Another successful Conservative pledges himself to meet the coming proposal with "the most determined and uncompromising resistance." But these are the few on the top- most bough. Some, not so fortunate, say they are "not pre- pared to sit down quietly and see the Church swept away ;" that the proposal would be "fraught with disaster," or even in itself "a national calamity." Others, more rashly, commit themselves to reasoning, as when Mr. Malcolm claims the support of the men of Argyll, and claims it in vain,—" if you think, with me that an Established Church is a pro- test in the face of the world that Scotland is for religion and morality." Everywhere, and in the speeches at least as much as in the addresses, the members of the Establish- ment were appealed to from that side on the ground of the Church in Danger. On the Liberal side, all this clamour was met with the most curious mixture of soothing and firmness. A few men, wooing half-Conservative counties, gave their per- sonal opinion as in favour of retaining the Establishment, or expressed their distaste for the whole question. But the line taken by nearly all the Liberal candidates—and there was one for every county and every burgh in Scotland—was that the question was not to be decided at the present Election. This ground was largely determined for them by Mr. Gladstone's eloquence, under the influence of which the whole of Scotland very early adopted the idea of a "crisis," whose one duty was to turn out the Ministry. That idea was seized with avidity by the people, who at once saw its capacities for home as well as foreign matters. In almost every district of Scotland the back-bone of the party consists of Disestablishment men. But many of the lay members of the Established Church worked heartily and successfully to swell the enthusiastic results. Its clerical members had more difficulty. A representative of science so distinguished as Dr. Lyon Playfair was opposed by Dr. Story in his candidature for the Edinburgh and St. Andrew's Universities, solely on the ground of his conspicuous Church neutrality. But he was supported by Principal Tulloch, who was equally keen in the Church interest, and who thereafter threw himself into a burgh contest between two members of the English Presbyterian Church, both Disestablishment men in principle, but one of whom was supposed to be less obnoxious than his neighbour. On the other hand, the Scottish Disesta- blishment Association tried in vain to get the people to raise the general question on the platform. Those who suffered most in the "heckling," as "the question" when applied to candidates is called in Scotland, were those who attempted to trim a little on the Church matter. The men who escaped most easily were those who took a clear position on it at once, and passed on to the crisis of the hour.
So it was in the chief cities of Scotland. In Edinburgh, the only Member whose views were doubtful had narrowly es- caped repeated rejection at the hands of his own Committee ; but on his publishing an expression of strong though mild personal conviction in favour of Disestablishment, he was at once accepted by the city, and returned with his colleague by a majority eight thousand larger than he had ever en- joyed before. In Glasgow, Aberdeen, and Dundee, three gentlemen, all directors of the Liberation Society, have been sent into the new Parliament for the first time. But in each of these cases the question was thrown into the background, and the foreign and general policy of the Government was loyally urged as the hinge of the contest of the day.
This firm but gloved handling of the thistle received prompt sanction from the leaders of the party. The very first question put to Mr. Gladstone was whether the result of the General Election in Scotland would be accepted by him as an indication of the feeling of the country on Disestablish- ment. He answered at once, and amid loud cheers, in the negative, on the ground that "the people of Scotland are thinking at the present time of other subjects," adding that the determination of their domestic question in the future, whether ay or no, would be respected by "the rest of the Empire." Everywhere there was a falling-back upon the absolute reference to Scotland which had been originally put by Lord Hartington, combined with a refusal to precipitate the decision. And this raises the interesting
question of the immediate future. When the inquiry was directly put to Mr. Gladstone whether the Liberal leaders would pledge themselves not to raise the question in the Parliament about to be elected, he refused to give any pledge. But he was profuse in his protestation that there must be a fair trial of the matter "by the people of Scotland, to whom it has been referred,' and that there must be no attempt to filch or snatch a decision. Then we must take in connection with each other his declarations, that the present Election has not turned upon that question, and that the Parliament so elected will be called, in the first instance, to far other and Imperial topics. It follows that the Liberal chief was almost shut up to the conclusion which he has distinctly indi- cated,—that the final decision of the question must be reserved for the election to succeed that of 1880. The Member for Midlothian did not add—what many of the more cautious Liberals in Scotland did—that however the Church question may be ripened in Scotland, its ultimate and formal determination must be by a vote after the adjustment of the county franchise. Both questions are coming up. And they are coming up together.
It is no wonder that a movement with so deliberate and cautious an advance should carry away the nearer onlookers. What is probably the ablest Conservative journal in Scotland —certainly the strongest supporter of the Establishment there —has recently been reviewing the Elections. In view of them, it holds that "the Disestablishment movement is making pro- gress within the Church itself pretty rapidly." Not only so, but "the fact is that the Church is already abandoned by a very large section of its members, who are only too glad that a transition of not too violent a character has been thought- fully provided for them. If the question were put to the vote to-morrow—by ballot—we question whether the Church would poll half her nominal supporters, being Liberals." Some allowance must be made for the accent of recent disappoint- ment, but the same sort of conviction is beginning to express itself in complete outsiders. Professor Blackie has been sup- posed to be rather a partisan of Establishment north of the Tweed. We find from a report sent us that on Saturday he urged a great audience in Glasgow to "keep your eyes fixed upon two things,—upon your National Church and your national songs. But by your National Church, I don't mean what is called the Establishment. It is a matter of no consequence whether the Church is established or disestablished. That is a matter of mere secondary consequence. It is a mere matter of finance." Here, again, the transition is too rapid and too rash. The Scottish Free Church and Voluntaries, to do them justice, have never made their question with the Establishment a matter of finance ; and if the members of the latter body were willing to take that lower view of it, their brethren outside would scarcely permit it. This, indeed, is the peculiarity of the whole question, as it is now gathering up for final discussion in Scotland. The proposals which were made a few years ago for the return of the outside Scottish Presbyterians into the Church, seem with one consent to have been abandoned. But the question how far the Church now Established can imitate the admirable administration of the others, perhaps with a higher wisdom than they have attained, remains to be tried. That question, looked at from our English stand-point, is peculiar, and even remote. But it is far from uninteresting. Whether a body with the democratic constitution and vigorous self-government of the Scottish Presbyterian Church may be safely left to develope itself by its own legislation, is a matter of the highest speculative interest. How far such a Church can remain a really national Church—a Scottish Church— without establishment or endowment from the Parliament of the United Kingdom, is another aspect of the same problem, and one of nearly equal importance. Much has been done to underbuild the whole experiment, and the chief plausibility of Disestablishment in Scotland is that it is presented as a crown- ing of the edifice. There are points of view from which the edifice itself does not command our admiration. But if Scot- land wishes to complete the work—a point which, again, we by no means prejudge—she will be entitled to a fair field, and at least as much favour as she is likely to ask.
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