We observe with profound regret that Dr. Robert Lee, the
eminent Presbyterian divine, and Professor of Biblical Criticism in the University of Edinburgh, was attacked by paralysis on Wed- nesday, while riding home from a visit to Lord Dunfermline. He fell from his horse, but without any injury from the fall, and recovered consciousness in the course of the evening, but there is not much hope that he will be able to appear to defend himself before the General Assembly of the Church for his liturgical inno- vations in his chapel of Greyfriars, as the Assembly was to com- mence its sittings on Thursday. Dr. Lee had just brought out a pamphlet of very able argument, denying that his liturgy had been legally condemned by the Assembly of 1859, and maintaining that the law of the Scotch Established Church has always per- mitted, and at one time even enjoined, the use of a liturgy. He holds, therefore, that the Act of Assembly of 1859, which con- demned his Greyfriars usage expressly on the ground that it was "contrary to the laws of the Church," was of no effect, as being founded on false data. As, according to the confession of faith, "all assemblies may err, and some have grievously erred," Dr. Lee has a right to test any Act of Assembly by the law to which it professes to appeal.
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