of Scotland, that with all her zeal for the truth, she has never been able to support an organ in this great city, whose argus eyes might watch over her interests, and defend her privileges in the midst of her foes. We can assure our countrymen in the north, that the principles of non-intrusion are utterly unknown in this most important section of the empire, and, being continually stigmatized as agitators and mischief-makers, their principles are abhorred, and condemned in every quarter. Now, we ask, ought this to be? Is there not sufficient strength in the church to enable her to fight her battles on her enemies' ground? or does her lethargy interfere, and prevent her extending far and wide the truth as it is in Jesus?

The intrusionists are supported by the great bulk of the metropolitan and provincial English press, who are anxious to sow disunion amongst us, hugging themselves with the idea that the dissolution of the Scottish establishment will be the signal for the resuscitation of episcopacy. Poor deluded fools, do they suppose, that were the Scottish church disestablished to-morrow, that they would have one convert more? one inch of ground as an endowment? Pshaw! the idea is too ridiculous. Prebyterians are too fond of their own church; too enlightened to be drawn away by the abominable fooleries, and stupid absurdities of pretended apostolical catholicity. It is the ignorance of episcopacy that causes her to have such notions of the adherents of the kirk. She apparently, though before she has been taught, requires an additional lesson; it may be, that she soon shall have it. Hitherto, every scheme for the establishment of a London newspaper has been coldly received, and discouraged; and unless such is taken up with vigour in Scotland, by the heads of the non-intrusionist party, every attempt made to serve them must either be a dead loss to the individual attempting it, or fall to the ground. If the people of Scotland would only be as zealous in the support of their friends as they are of their enemies, or if they would but transfer their patronage from their foes to their friends, we have no doubt but they would soon have such a powerful press in Scotland, and this great metropolis, as would most effectually keep in subjection the petty curs who bark, and who would bite us if they dare. One word more. Encourage by every means your nonintrusion organs in Scotland; and whether you think fit to have a London representative or not, we call still upon you to withdraw all support from the intrusion press, which prey upon you at the present moment. We have pointed out the advantages of a London organ, it rests with the church as to its establishment.

Ignorance is the mother of vice; she also is decidedly the parent of Erastianism. The professors of that heartless theory are, generally, men ignorant of the vital principles of Christianity; and if we examine the characters of those who support that system, our assertion will be found to be strictly correct.

We may be denounced as agitators, but our cry is, "Justice to Scotland, or repeal of the union." Let this be the cry of every Scotsman. Let us no longer be the obedient servants of every English ruler. If our treaties are set at nought, then they no longer bind us in union with England. We fear not the cry; it has been raised with powerful effect in Ireland, and we can make it as effective in Scotland. We may be told that we would be losers by a repeal of the union; but allow us to ask, Will England be the gainer? will her strength be increased? will her commercial navy be as powerful? will her merchants have as much influence throughout the world, when her right hand has been cut off? Oh no, we need not be told about the loss it would be to Scotland; for we dare to answer for it, that England would have to rue the day, as much as Scotland, if not more so. If this was a proper place, we should prove it; but we have done: we have stated our convictions as to the present state of the church, and the means which ought to be adopted in her defence, and we conclude by again exclaiming, "Justice or repeal." One or other we must have, we shall have. If we do not have one or other, we shall sink into degradation in the scale of nations; we have hitherto maintained our independence throughout centuries, and against overwhelming hosts, and we are not now to be terrified by the scouting face or threatening language of man or devil.

We know our rights, and what our privileges are we need not now be told of; we have long enough been deprived of both, and if now they withhold justice and increase oppression, they will find, to their cost, that the men who fought with the Bible in their left hand, and the claymore in the right, have left descendants both able and willing to maintain these same privileges as boldly as their forefathers.

We deprecate violence, and, above all, civil contention, and do most fervently hope that such will never again turn our beloved land into a wilderness, an earthly hell. But if force be resorted to by our opponents, the fault will not be ours if we repel force by force, in defence of those sacred rights which the word of God, reason, justice, and our inviolable treaty of union, secured to us. We shall not be crushed without a struggle, but shall, in conjunction with Ireland, raise the cry of justice or repeal, and

obtain by force, if necessary, what has been denied to justice.

In all probability, before we address you again, important results will have taken place; we therefore, in parting this month, again urge you to spare no expense, and use all vigilance in the adopting of such means as will be most effectual in the attainment

of the great object in view. Your honour, in the preservation of your national establishment, is in your own hands; and as you now use it, whether to weal or woe, will be a matter of infinite and eternal importance to you and your children in succeeding generations.

FAITHFUL to God, 'mid persecutions dire, The lion-hearts of old still firmly stood, Unawed by terrors of the block or fire,

For truth and freedom freely gave their blood;

The path of duty lay before them plain,
And boldly they advanced, nor turn'd again.

A throne cast down established was once

more,

An exiled king a nation welcomed back; Planted in blood it was, and tears, and gore

Its only props, the scaffold and the rack; And there the brave and good did nobly fall, That Christ, the Saviour, might be all in all.

Calmly the martyr Guthrie met his fate,

A victim to oppression's cruel laws, Nor would, for proudest prelate's form and state,

A traitor turn to his dear Master's cause; With him no joy on earth so great could be, As thus to die for Christ's supremacy.*

* Mr. James Guthrie, minister of Stirling, was executed at Edinburgh on the 1st of June, 1661, for

On the lone mountains of their native land, Where blooms the heather fragrantly and fair,

In the green valleys waved by breezes bland, Struck mercilessly down while met in prayer,

Lie Scotland's martyrs in their nameless moulds,

Sustain'd by Him who the great world upholds.

And if we stand as they did, firm and true, And, having done all, trustingly still stand, Despite false threatenings, nought shall make

us rue

We strive for pure religion in our land: Casting our care on God we'll freely take Whate'er befalls for blessed Jesus' sake.

his adherence to the covenant. In his dying speech he solemnly declared, "I take God to record, upon my soul, I would not exchange this scaffold with the palace or the mitre of the greatest prelate in Britain." "He was properly the first," says John Howie, "that suffered unto death at that period, for asserting the kingly prerogative of Jesus Christ, in opposition to Erastian supremacy."

WE have for some time been observers of the fantastic freaks exhibited by several members of this reverend body, among whom there stands first in absurdity and Erastian cant, Mr. Treasurer Drysdale, a most grave, and in his own opinion, important personage. He appears to take a decided interest in church matters, and advocates with stupid and laughable monotonousness, those Eras

tian principles which seem to have become to him a second nature. He has in the controversy concerning Mr. Tweedie, the highly respected minister of the Tolbooth church, made what an Irishman would denominate a most splendid fool of himself; and from the word "law" forming nearly every third word he uttered in his drawling speeches, we suppose he has been taking lessons in law from

some attorney's clerk after office hours, which he is anxious to exhibit to terrify, if possible, his non-intrusion brethren in the council. We would advise this law councilman and his friends, Hunter and Robertson, to have a little common sense and evangelical principle, in preference to the rubbish of law which they pretend to know so much about, while at the same time we would engage to set the knowledge of an attorney's donkey against all they know or appear. capable of knowing,-poor upstart blockheads!

On the 19th of December, Mr. Simson, of the chapel of Garioch, preached at Culsamond, to an audience exceeding 1000, whilst his intrusion opponent, Mr. Middleton, had the enormous audience of sixty, half of whom were strangers. So much for the people's fondness for Erastianism. What will treasurer Drysdale say to this?

THE REFORMED CATHOLIC CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.-Such is the name which a set of heretics called Newmaniacs, after Mr. Newman, of Oxford, have thought fit to denominate the episcopalian church in Scotland, and these madmen intend to establish a college in that country, as the nursery of Puseyism in that land. They take the notorious Laud, the founder of the present Scottish episcopal church, as their apostle; and indeed are carrying out in word and deed the doctrines and precepts of Rome. Till now the spirit of Scottish episcopacy has been dead, its members giving no signs of life, or any desire for things eternal. This church is wealthy, the wealthy and noble of the land are its members, yet until now, when it has received the popish spirit of Pusey, it has been like a dead dog, without signs of any life. It has now lifted up its head, and with such reaction has revived the old persecuting notions of its infamous founder. It now acknowledges the catholicity of the papacy, and as a matter of course, lifts up its heel against the church established in the land. But the serpent must be kept low, its head must not be allowed to be uplifted, for it has stung to death heretofore many of the best and noblest of the land. These Puseyites have likewise shown themselves very active in opposition to the non-intrusionists of the Scottish church, and have most heroically stood up for the honour of the law; but in their own case, these worthies have not hesitated to set the law aside, in assuming the titles of bishop of Edinburgh, and bishop of Aberdeen, which the law courts have declared to be equally an unwarranted assumption with that of Dr. M'Hale, the pretended archbishop of Tuam. The worthy concoctors of the synodal letter, lament with bitter anguish, the loss of the temporal endowments which that fool of a journal, the John Bull, declares to have been lost amidst the

storms of revolution. That journal also rejoices in the accession to the episcopal communion of a Mr. Patrick Robertson, and one of the dumb peers of Britain, his lordship of Hopetown. We wish episcopacy joy of both, and trust she will, now these worthies are within her pale, endow them with a little more Christianity, and, particularly the latter, with a little more common sense.

SCOTTISH PSALMODY.-We are glad to find the Witness take up this important point, as we conceive the singing of God's praise with melody, to be a most desirable object in any congregation.

UNITED ASSOCIATE SYNOD.-This very reverend body have, in full council, decided that Presbyterianism is not the only form of church government in accordance with the word of God, and at the same time have denounced the papal, episcopalian, and independent forms of government, so that what decision these reverend senators will come to at last, is rather difficult to imagine, but we suppose they will hatch a form for themselves. It will, do doubt, be one without a flaw; a voluntary production.

SCOTCH CHURCH IN BOMBAY.-It seems to be the policy of our Indian government, why we know not, to keep up a spirit of deadly hostility to Christianity, and to embrace with fervour any thing that savours of heathenism and idolatry. It appears that the Supreme Court at Bombay have been horribly annoyed by the slight tinkling of the bell of the Scottish church in that city, and have given orders that it should not ring whilst they sat in judgment. At the same time, to show their gross inconsistency, they allow the infernal tomtoms of the infidel, with their cymbals, and screaming wind instruments to make such a din, that for some time afterwards one's ears ring with the fearful sounds. We exposed the pagan inclinations of our Indian government in our last, and this is a strong proof of the correctness of our arguments.

AN INTERDICT REFUSED.-A most remarkable circumstance in Scottish affairs has lately occurred, namely, the refusal of an interdict to the dolt-headed heritors of Kinfauns, by the sheriff substitute, Mr. Barclay, who appended a most admirable note to his refusal, defining in true and correct legal terms his cause for such refusal. The two suitors who applied, a Mr. Neil Fergusson Blair, of Balthyock, and a Mr. Charles Hunter, of Glencarn, were nearly struck dumb by the singularity of the circumstance; they were so surprised to find an honest, religious, upright, and just unbiassed sheriff, that we wonder the two worthy Erastians survived the memorable defeat. How like they must have looked to the jackdaw, when plucked of its borrowed plumes. Poor fel

lows, we can condescend to pity them, they must have looked so like their own sheep, so very sheepish. We give the whole affair as stated in the Dundee Warder; which, by the by, with the Witness in Edinburgh, are excellent journals, and eminently entitled to the support of every non-intrusionist and every evangelical christian in the three kingdoms.

We are, however, sorry in having to intimate that Mr. Wightman, a violent Erastian, the sheriff of Perthshire, has, in his ignorance of what is law, reversed the righteous decree of his substitute, Mr. Barclay, and issued his interdict against the church. This not over-learned lawyer-sheriff was, previously to his appointment to the office he now holds, a violent Erastian advocate, and though many of our party would hesitate to impute any thing but love of justice to this interdicter, we have not the slightest hesitation in declaring, that had he but laid aside the gross bigotry of party spirit, and looked at the law as it really is, he would not, conscience clear, have decided as he has done. These instances of cringing to the landed proprietary on the part of sheriff's in these days, are becoming too frequent, and we can tell this domineering lawgiver, that whatever he may gorge at a laird's feed, will be but poor compensation for the hatred and detestation which his despicable petty tyranny will imbibe in the hearts of thousands, ay, millions, throughout the empire. But we suppose he has been taking a lesson from secretary James Graham, in regard to the proper treatment of the church; the two, we prophecy, will work well in the same harness, their ignorance of law and church government, and the political constitution of Scotland, being parallel.

OBSERVANCE OF THE SABBATH.-We are glad to see the people of Scotland standing up so determinedly for the observance of the Sabbath. It is a good sign; it gives us hope of the revival of better times, and reminds us that though the flame is at present obscured, still there exists within the Scottish heart, the remains of that stern old spirit, which yielded to no power, when the honour and glory of God were to be maintained. Be firm, be resolute, and the Erastian money-loving directors of the Edinburgh and Glasgow railway will be forced, if not by principle, at least by fear of loss of custom, to concede what the people so unanimously require.

MR. D. M. M. CRICHTON, of RANKEILOUR. This hero of the church has addressed a long letter to his countrymen, concerning the prospects of the church; those drawn by him are of a dark and gloomy nature, and we fear there is too much truth in such a sketch. We agree with every sentiment in the letter, and read it with the

greatest pleasure, as coinciding so completely with our own views on the subject. In our last number we stated our utter want of confidence in the present administration, as to the probability of a favourable settlement of the question by them. And since then, so many cases have occurred in which the government has given verdicts against the church, that only those with eyes as moles and bats, and ears as adders, will announce their continued confidence and reliance in a government which has given so many evidences of its violent hostility to the church. We have nothing, then, to expect from that quarter; therefore let every Scotchman take the sound advice given him by this able champion of our truly protestant church, and prepare, with every means in his power, to resist the illegal and insulting tyranny which may be practised upon them. Have nothing to do with such an absurd measure as the liberum arbitrium, it is a mere quirk, which before many years, nay, months be passed over, may be instrumental in the exercise of as gross tyranny as any which now oppresses you. How can you depend on the non-intrusionists for any length of time maintaining the ascendency in the assembly?

If any one had a few years ago talked of the formation of such a powerful Conservative administration as we at present have, (that is, as regards numbers in the House of Commons merely,) he would have been laughed at as a fool, whose brain was touched with the madness inherent in tory Erastians. Such being the case, what assurance have we of the present evangelical party of the assembly maintaining the government of the church? We have no such assurance in the liberum arbitrium, but we have in the carrying out, in the fullest extent, the total abolition of patronage, an assurance positive, certain, not admitting of a doubt. Are we then to take such a flimsy thing as this absurd liberum arbitrium, which secures us nothing, but actually leaves us in the same position; in fact, a worse position, even the continued strife in the assembly between the two parties, as to who should have the ascendency, so that, instead of a council of religion, it would be made a council of worldly wranglers for power, and the great and mighty, the everlasting interests of the church would be laid aside and totally neglected. But the total abolition of patronage would at once prevent such an unseemly occurrence, and secure to the church the undivided energies of an able, efficient, and godly ministry. Such being the case, we again have to beg of our friends, to reject, as one man, the liberum arbitrium, and every lawful means must be adopted to secure the blessings of such a glorious privilege.

The thanks of our church are due to the unwearied and persevering zeal with which Mr. Crichton has, at all times and seasons, advocated her cause.

DISSENTERS.-It is a curious circumstance, and exhibits the inconsistency which exists in our frail natures, to find the dissenters from a church establishment, on the plea that the state prevents them having sufficient spiritual liberty, and more particularly, at the time of their dissent, prevented them choosing their own clergy, that these very men, dissenters on this point from the church, are striving with the whole might of their little insignificance, to thwart the views of the reforming party in the church of Scotland. In pointing to the Edinburgh Scotsman, a hot-headed, voluntary, dissenting, lying, radical print, we find in its colums the venom which dissenters exhibit to our glorious protestant reforming church. Every shaft which malice can invent, or the tongue of slander and infamy conceive, has been put in circulation by this organ of Scottish dissenters. And we are likewise sorry to observe that the London Patriot is following fast in the footsteps of its infamous contemporary. But it is more wily; the proprietors of that paper are wise in their generation, and merely put in such paragraphs, in opposition to the church, as are taken from contemporary journals and correspondents, which though equally injurious, on account of the circulation of such false reports, prevents odium being cast on the paper itself by such a wretched system of contradiction.

The Watchman, the organ of the Methodists, on the contrary, with true consistency and judgment, hails with delight the onward progress of reform in our beloved church, and, by the aid of its columns, tends, in no small degree, to make the cause of the church known and respected wherever its circulation reaches. The evangelical Record likewise advocates evangelism in the Scottish church, and is a determined advocate of non-intrusion principles.

Let us assure the Scotsman, Patriot, and other dissenting organs, which, either directly or indirectly, level their pointless, puny shafts at our church, that whilst she suffers nothing from such malevolence and ill-will from such quarters, they put themselves in the very equivocal position of being dissenters, whilst fulminating high church principles, and stemming the current of reform when it exhibits itself. Even the notorious infidel, Publicola, of the Weekly Dispatch, glories in the idea of our reforming church, and congratulates the people on the result, wishing them every success; this, though from an infidel, is consistent; he wishes abuses, even in religion, to be cut down.

COOKSTOWN.-At a special meeting of the Tyrone Presbytery, held in Cookstown upon December 20th, and convened by the Moderator for the purpose of considering what is their duty in relation to the Church of Scotland, in her present perilous position, it was unanimously resolved,-1. That this Presbytery deeply sympathize with the Church of Scotland in her present trying and embarrassed circumstances, which they greatly regret to learn are rather increased than diminished. 2. That they are increasingly convinced that all her present difficulties are to be traced to the operation of patronage, and that she never can attain to permanent peace and prosperity until she be completely relieved from that grievous yoke. 3. That holding it our solemn duty to employ our efforts and influence to effect the abolition of patronage, we do hereby form ourselves into a Church of Scotland Defence Association. 4. That, in order to direct our efforts to this object with the more efficiency, a correspondence shall be opened with members of the Church of Scotland who concur in our views. 5. That meanwhile the presbytery shall take measures to circulate information on the state of the Church of Scotland-remember her interests in the public prayers of the sanctuary-and urge their people to plead with God on their behalf, in the devotions of the family and the closet.

DALKEITH.-CASE OF MR. MONRO.This Presbytery met on Tuesday the 21st of December. At a former meeting an agent appeared for Mr. Monro, presented to Fala, and laid on the table of the Presbytery a presentation in his favour to the parish of Fala. It having been objected that the presentation, and some other papers relative thereto, bore that Mr. Monro was presented merely to the parish of Fala, and not to the united parishes of Fala and Soutra, the agent made his appearance again at the meeting, which was held as above, with a supplementary presentation, and also a letter of acceptance from Mr. Monro. The agent, when asked, admitted that he had not with him a presbyterial certificate; and he stated that he would not ask the presbytery to sustain the presentation with relative papers at that meeting. But he intimated that he intended to appear at the next meeting, which is appointed to be held on the 22d of February, and he expected to be able to show that the presbytery should then sustain the presentation and relative documents.

LINLITHGOW.-Met at Linlithgow on Tuesday the 21st of December present,— eighteen ministers and one elder. The presbytery resolved, without a vote, to form themselves into a Church Defence Association for the Church. It was reported that provision was made for employing a mission