such a system as that proposed by Dr Hook of Leeds; or if they were to establish those schools on the principle of excluding from them, during the ordinary school hours, the use of the Bible; and if they were to set up over the whole land a system of popular education, in which, during the ordinary teaching hours, religion is to be expelled, and simply say, you may employ the deficiency in the best way you can,I humbly think that a greater curse than such a plan could not be inflicted on this country. (Hear, hear.) I trust no party, in present circumstances, will be anxious to urge upon Government to become educationists. They are the most unfit body in the world. They cannot just now become educationists, unless, indeed, and I should hail it as a bright day for Scotland, and for all the land,-they can consent for once to take counsel from the Free Church of Scotland, and to undertake once more the setting up of a system of religious training in Scotland, such as all true-hearted Scotchmen can concur in. (Applause.) But, apart from this, my earnest desire is, that they may be moved to let the matter alone, and not to attempt themselves to become educationists. In point of fact, if the alternative were between the present Government plan and the plan according to which they would set up schools of their own, excluding religion from the ordinary business of the school, and leaving it to be supplied as the people themselves might choose,-if the alternative between these two were offered to me, I would five hundred times rather have the present Government plan, with all its deficiencies, than that most wretched substitute for it. (Hear, hear.) Rather than have Government flood the country with a set of schools in which, during ordinary school hours, religious instruction would be excluded, I would have the present plan, objectionable as it is. I have no fear whatever of the consequences to religion, if the Government pressed upon them the plan of coming into the market and buying the secular education. I have no fear of free trade in this commodity: not the least. I have no dread of this competition. I believe, at the present moment, the zeal in the cause of education is seated in the hearts of God's own people, and nowhere else. I believe, and am conscious, if we get fair play in Scotland, the Christian people will educate Scotland yet, before half a generation passes away. I believe, amidst all the enthusiasm which exists among the mere educationists of the land, the zeal, the thorough practical zeal in the cause is all with God's people, and all with God's Church; and, therefore, I have no fear of the consequences. Were the Government to come into the market and say, we cannot give secular education; we feel we cannot set up a system of our own, as that might be denounced as godless; we will therefore do nothing of the sort; but what we want is, that the people may be educated, and we cannot take upon ourselves the responsibility of religious education at all. With regard to religious education, we can have nothing to do with it, but we want no such secular learning, and we do not care where we get it; but we come into the market, and wherever we find it to our satisfaction we pay the price of it without asking any questions. If this were done, I should not dread the consequences as regards the religion of the poor and of the land. I believe in Scotland, under such a system, there would be a mighty impulse given to the only schools that ever will be popular in Scotland, the schools in which the Bible is regularly read, and in which the Catechism is regularly taught. But with the other system of the Government, entering the market themselves, not in the way of demand, but in the way of supply, I have no such confidence. We cannot compete with the national exchequer in a matter of this kind. I don't see that we can compete with Government in the matter of supply, with the national funds at their disposal; and if they come forward with a system such as I have contemplated, I tremble for the consequences. I would anticipate a falling away, and a speedy falling down, of a large number of the truly godly schools in the land. I have to apologise for the length of my observations, and will bring them to a close by briefly adverting to the fifth resolution. I think the principle already laid down carries this Church quite safely and consistently through this last resolution. I have no doubt whatever that it is possible some clamours may be raised in certain quarters upon the score of apparent inconsistency; I have no doubt many attempts will be made to run us up into a corner, and to get up an outcry, if, with a protest in the one hand against certain principles which we think involved in this Government proposal, we yet feel ourselves not only at liberty, but constrained, to accept the assistance of Government, in so far as they proposed to give the people secular education. I do not see to what extent this argument ad invidiam may be

appealed to (I shall leave it to other members, if they choose, to take up that subject); but, for my own part, the longer I think of it, the more I feel it to be of vital importance that we should not allow ourselves, as a Church of Christ, to be run into corners by mere vague charges of apparent inconsistency, or to get entangled in nice discussions of perplexing questions of casuistry. I dread, of all things, appealing to the school of mere casuistry; and we should be slow indeed to commit ourselves to the principle that it is inconsistent with the large principle of Christian expediency to accept the grant; for, Sir, I admit the principle on which the Apostle Paul found himself at liberty to act. He had a tender conscience, but not a narrow conscience. (Hear, bear.) He was a man who could "become all things to all men ;" but he was not a man who would abridge, at the call of others, the exercise of a high Christian liberty, and would not put his Christian liberty into the keeping of others. The question of one man's responsibility for another man's proceedings is a very nice question of Christian casuistry, if followed out. The question how far we can become partakers in the responsibility of others I regard as one of the hardest to solve in all the schools of the casuists. I trust we shall not be driven into any such discussion. The presumption lies all in favour of this, that every man in the sight of God is the keeper of his own conscience, and the keeper of his own conscience alone. "Be not partakers of other men's sin,"-"Come out and be separate,"-" Suffer not sin upon another," these, indeed, are important passages; but then, of course, they must be viewed in connection with other considerations urged by the Apostle Paul, which seems to indicate that too great sensitiveness in regard to the responsibilities of those with whom we may have dealings, would drive Christian men out of the world altogether, and make them unfit to be citizens at all. I cannot but hope that we will be guided aright in this matter, so as on the one hand to discharge our own duty, without regard to the consequences or the clamour which may be raised against us; and, on the other hand, not to be frightened from our propriety by the mere fear of consequences alleged; but to consider calmly our duty. When the national resources are offered to us for the purposes of education, without any illiberal conditions-without any undue compromise-and when we feel constrained to own generally that the Government are bound to give, and that we are bound to take, such aid in so far as we can do so consistently with the principles we conscientiously uphold, I consider the presumption to be all on the side of co-operation; and, having these views, I do not at present see any difficulty in principle in the way of the Church availing herself of the Government aid. (Hear, hear.) I would desire, before closing, to say, that I do trust the members of this Church, if they see it their duty, in present circumstances, to take advantage of the public grants, will never lean on that support,-that they will never greatly confide in it, and that they will never prospectively, or to any extent, reckon upon it. (Hear, hear.) It is a very precarious stay. In the present state of men's minds, and the present current and progress of public affairs, it is the most likely thing in the world, that ere many years pass over our heads, we may find ourselves in the position of again being compelled to shake the dust from off our feet, against the powers of this world, and, with our staff in our hand, and our trust in the living God, to go forth alone to prosecute the Lord's work by ourselves. (Hear, and applause.) Let us sit loose to any such paltry advantages as the statesmen of this world can give in the way of aiding the Church of Christ. (Hear, hear.) I will frankly say, that if I am now in the position of moving that the grant may be accepted, I have come to that conclusion with considerable reluctance; but I feel on this subject far more as a Christian patriot than as a Free Churchman. (Applause.) It is with considerable reluctance I have come to that conclusion. It is not, as it seems to me, indispensable for our educational operations in the land, that we should be aided by other parties-(hear, hear)—and I own to almost entertaining a grudge of losing the opportunity of falsifying the fears of many of our friends, and disappointing the hopes and expectations of many of our enemies, by showing that the Free Church, single-handed, is able to grapple with this great cause. I grudge that not the less that I have my apprehensions; that I fear, I dread,—I am not ashamed to say it, I dread our coming again into contact with the Powers of this world-(hear, and applause)—I dread our being again entangled in negociations, of which we have had too many, with the subtile politicians of the day. (Hear, hear.) I dread this, but I cannot help it. I do not see my way to keep clear of it. I do not see that this Church is in a position to shake herself clear of the

responsibility of co-operating with Government in the educational work. I trust I am aware of the danger, and I trust that the Church is aware of the danger, of listening to this proposal. It may be a snare into which we are falling,—it may be a temptation to which we are exposed,—it may be a wicked device of the enemy; but I trust in God we are single-minded in this matter,-I trust in God no greed for filthy lucre has blinded our eyes. But let us beware of the danger; let us be alive to the apprehension. Oh! if I could regard this educational scheme as a homage to right principles by the rulers of the land,-all the parties, I mean, who influence the national affairs, if I could regard it as a retracing of their steps as to first a movement in a right direction back again to Protestantism and to Presbyterianism in Scotland,-if I could regard it as a token of repentance, then I would rejoice from the bottom of my heart. But my great fear is that it is to be viewed in a light precisely the reverse. In reality, I dread that it will be the precursor of further concessions to the Man of Sin, and of further inroads on our Protestant constitution. I dread that this is a step taken in the right direction, but by parties who, as to any sound principles of religion in regard to their view as to grants of public money in religious matters are daily becoming worse and worse. All parties in the country seem to be progressing in the way of a love for indiscriminate religious endowments, and concur in the practical determination to keep up and maintain at all hazards the rotten establishments of the land, at the price of new gifts out of the public money to other bodies, that they may be pacified and quieted. The design seems to be clear, the design seems to be evident, that the Puseyite Establishment in England, and the Erastian Establishment in Íreland, are to be kept up unreformed and unvisited; and, in order to quiet any opposition, grants of public money have to be lavished on all who will receive them. (Hear, hear.) I see all this,-I dread it all; and on that account likewise I come with reluctance to the conclusion, that in present circumstances we are bound not to refuse the Government offer, but to take advantage of that grant. (Applause.) I do it with fear and trembling, and I trust the Church will do it with fear and trembling, yet with confidence in her great Head, that whatever men may say, her eye has been single in this matter, and that she has been simply animated by a regard for the public weal, and that her great Head will bring her through any entanglement in which she may be placed by the step which we take. (Applause. I adopt this proposal, as I said before, with a view to the interests of the land, rather than with a view to the interests of the Church; for I cannot say that I have confidence in being able to carry out our own educational scheme, in opposition to the large additional endowments the Government are prepared to give to others. I am not prepared to say we can stand against that competition, and I am not prepared to submit to being hindered in the advancement of our own educational scheme, by giving way to any scheme supported at the expense of the Government; for I regard this as the greatest evil that this country could sustain, and, consequently, we are bound to do everything in our power to prevent it. (Applause.)

Dr LAIRD begged leave to move that these resolutions should be adopted, and that care should be taken to give instruction to the Education Committee to guard, if possible, against any snare they might fall into in the subsequent measures to be adopted.

Mr SMITH of Greenock said that, considering the exceeding delicacy of the discussion, and his being unaccustomed to address such an assembly, he really trembled to stand up and declare that he could not go in with the resolutions, and should object to them. In respect to the first and second, there was but one opinion entertained by them all. But the duty of the Government to intermeddle with the education of the people, had been plainly denied in assemblies on the other side of the Tweed. In support of this, the most paltry arguments were conjured up, and religion was frowned upon at the expense of a scheme, the object of which was to bring the people out of the horrible pit and miry clay of ignorance and degradation in which so vast a proportion of the people was confessedly sunk. In regard to the third and fourth, he was prepared to say, that they contained elements on account of which the Assembly was called to pass a decided and immediate negative on their acceptance of them. Why, what was an ungodly and irreligious education, in the true and proper sense of the term? An ungodly and irreligious education was that education in which, from the outset, religion was frowned at, and into which that

element was not allowed by its propounders to enter. What was a religious system? Why, the members of the Free Church would say that a religious system of education, out and out, could be neither more nor less than such a system as they approved of, and which had the character of their standards, which they believed to be the most consonant with the religious oracles. Had the Government, in propounding this scheme to the country, taken up either of the positions to which he had adverted? Had it proclaimed an ungodly and irreligious system on the one hand, or had it taken up that system of religion, on the other, which they would be prepared at once to coincide with? He hoped it had done neither. It had gone to neither of these extremes. It had exactly done that which his excellent friend Dr Candlish, in his most eloquent address-and it required all his stoicism to keep him from being carried away by it—(laughter)—had it been at twelve o'clock at night it would have carried the Assembly by a coup de main;-his distinguished friend had said, that if the Government would come into the market, and bid the highest price for the best system of secular instruction, leaving the responsibility of the religious training of the people to the people themselves, that he would have no objections to accept of the scheme. The Government said, "We feel the religious responsibility to be most important, but, at the same time, we cannot take it entirely on ourselves. We provide secular instruction, and, far from frowning on religion, we are fostering it and cherishing it; but, in the mean time, the public being split into so many parties, we can do no more, in our difficult and embarrassed position, than provide you secular instruction, and we leave the responsibility of your religious education on yourselves." Dr Candlish declared that, since they could not get an elementary system of education based on true religion, he would take up a middle course. Now, the Government promised neither more nor less than that middle position. Was Dr Candlish, or any man in the Assembly, prepared to say that the Government could not do otherwise, consistent with the solemn obligations under which they had come, than extend a certain measure of favour and approbation to the existing religious establishments of the two countries? What measure of favour had they extended to these, inconsistent with any great religious principle? He could see no other way of cutting the knot, and getting clear of the difficulty, than by repealing the Union, and have a separate Government and Parliament. There was no possibility of getting out of that difficulty in any other way than by ceasing to have the same representatives. His distinguished friend had said, "Let the Church of England throw open her school doors to such parents as disapproved of the Liturgy or Catechism, in order that their children might receive the advantages of a superior secular education; but let them not be subjected to the religious principles of the school." He did not know a more invidious position in which children of a school could be placed. What sort of school would you soon have, if a certain number of children were subjected to a course of religious instruction, and a certain portion excluded from it? Now, as to expediency, why should they frown on anything that was to bring the people out of that depth of ignorance and crime in which they were sunk? (Hear, hear, hear.) He did rejoice in the prospect of this Church being called on to co-operate, not only as teachers-not only as men-but as Free Churchmen. It would be far better if the Roman Catholic population could read the Scriptures of truth, than that they should remain in the grossest ignorance and superstition. It was far better that the lower classes should receive an elementary education, than that they should remain in ignorance. He objected to some portions of the resolutions; but he entirely approved of that part which referred to co-operation. He would make a formal motion to this effect in the evening.

The Assembly then adjourned till seven o'clock in the evening.

EVENING SEDERUNT.

The Assembly met at seven o'clock, and being constituted, the debate on Dr Candlish's motion was resumed.

Mr MAKGILL CRICHTON. I confess I am prepared to give my concurrence to the resolutions of Dr Candlish; but at the same time I must say, that I would have liked them better had they been confined to the two elements, viz., first, as to what this

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Church would desire to be taken by the nation on the subject of education; and, second, the course of present duty, in regard to what Government has put forth, which the Church should pursue. If the third point had been withheld, namely, the minimum approval to which we are called on to give our sanction, I think our opposition would have been stronger than it is now. I listened with deep attention to the speech of Dr Laird, who, though he does not, now that age and infirmity press heavily on him, possess the eloquence of my friend Dr Candlish, yet, in his own person, has spent a long life in the actual and useful services of the ministry, and who appears here as one of our honoured fathers, to give his opinion on this great question of practical duty-I entirely concur in the opinion of our reverend father, as expressed in seconding the resolutions; and I think we are not only called on, but bound in duty, to accept the Government grant, giving to our Committee such instructions as will serve to preserve our liberties and secure the exercise of the grants, without any claim to or power of control over our institutions. I am naturally jealous of all political parties in power. I have learned by sad, but, I may say, useful experience, to be jealous of them, especially in matters that concern the Church; and I look with jealousy on all their proceedings; but I eannot enter into the fear of Dr Candlish, when, with deep solemnity, and, no doubt, earnest feeling, he expressed his hope that this Government grant was not a bribe to prop up the other party in the Establishment, by giving us a share of what may appear indispensable to their very life. I do not conceive that to be the idea of Government. I believe this scheme to be the fruit of a conviction that the mass of crime among the people, occasioned as it mainly is by ignorance, makes it the duty of any government to seek the instruction of the people; and I believe that Lord John Russell and Sir Robert Peel are alike prepared to enter on this duty, both these statesmen being animated by the conviction that the time has now come when it is indispensable for the safety and elevation of the masses of society that means should be taken to provide for their educatior. Although I do not think they have taken the best means that might have been devised to accomplish this end, I am glad that the subject has taken bulk in their view; and I am not without hope that much good will thus be done. (Applause.) The next practical remark that I would make is, that our duty now is not so much to discuss or consider the abstract principle implied in this scheme, as to determine what is our practical duty in relation to its present position and prospects. (Hear.) This being the precise state of the case in my estimation, I have no hesitation in telling you, not in pride, but in humility, that my views of duty and course of action have been chalked out by the brilliant and noble articles that have come from the pen the editor of one of our Free Church prints,-a man concerning whom, I would say, that in point of religious principle,-in point of sound Protestantism and of sound Presbyterianism,—and a man that, in point of breadth and massiveness of intellect, is second only to our great Chalmers himself (cheers)—I have no hesitation in saying, that in almost the whole of the views,—almost to the full extent-I adopt the views that are there set forth. I do not wish to sneak into a grant of which we do not heartily approve. I hold, that if it be permissible to accept the grant, it is an act of duty, both to the Church and to the Government, that this should be boldly and openly done, care being always taken to retain our property and institutions under our own control, so that if ever the time should come when that right and privilege were called in question, we may cut the cable and let the ship go free. (Applause.) I have no fear of this plan of education serving to keep up the Puseyite, or, in other words, the Popish-prelatic, Establishment of England, the Roman power in this country. (Hear.) Why, it is a scheme fitted to bring down that power,—a scheme which the leaders of the Popish prelatic Establishment would never have devised themselves. Education is not the weapon they would have formed to do their own work; the Book of Sports was rather the weapon the Man of Sin would have used, than the book of education. Education is a weapon of the Free Church of Scotland, -a weapon which she alone delights to use-( -(cheers);—and it is only because it is a matter of necessity, not of choice, that Puseyism and Popery will handle such weapons at all; and they, in the true spirit of Jesuitical feeling, knowing that the weapon must be handled, seek to poison the blade, and turn the edge as best suits themselves. But let them take care; they are handling a two-edged sword, and the effects will be such as shall make the instrument recoil on those who would use it

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