the other, many a bad man has got a good house in these times!" "

One of the outgoing ministers, after speaking of the deep injury which would have been inflicted on the cause of religion and morality if the Church had drawn back, adds, “I think I can already see clearly a hardening effect produced upon many of those who remain in the Establishment, to be traced, I believe, to nothing but the feeling engendered by sitting under the ministry of men whom they cannot but regard as not actuated by high-toned feeling and right principle-placing their own interest above the call of duty."

XXXVII. DISRUPTION IN ENGLAND.

FEW events in modern Scottish history have awakened such interest in other countries, as the Disruption of 1843. Even Englishmen began to ask what could have induced nearly 500 Scottish ministers to resign their livings. There were clamorous demands for information from various quarters, and the Free Church gladly responding to such appeals, sought, by deputations and otherwise, to make known the great principles for which she had contended.

Among the Presbyterians belonging to the English Synod, the event led to scenes second in excitement only to those which had taken place in the North. At the first meeting of the Presbytery of London, the Disruption repeated itself in miniature, with this difference that it was the Moderates who went out. Writing under date 14th June, 1843, Dr. Hamilton has described the circumstances :-" Yesterday, the Presbytery met -Blair in the chair. After sundry matters of business had been harmoniously settled, the call from Commercial Road came on. The Moderator, who had evidently received his instructions, said-' Mr. Ferguson, in the name of the Presbytery of London, in connection with the Established Church of Scotland, I ask you if you accept of this call.' Mr. Ferguson said— 'I accept the call to be minister of that church.' Whereupon Mr. Burns, seconded by Dr. Brown, moved that the Presbytery proceed with the settlement. This was agreed to, and Mr. Lorimer was appointed to preside at the induction." Then the question arose as to whether it was to be in connection with the Scottish Establishment? The Moderator maintained that it must; Dr. Hamilton held that admission into this Presbytery did not imply the recognition of the Scottish Establishment,

for most of them were only waiting, in the altered circumstances, till their ecclesiastical superior, the Synod, should erase from its title any recognition of that Church. "However, as it was very plain that they meant to make a sinistrous use of the present designation of the Presbytery, it might simplify matters to alter it at once, which we were quite competent to do, the Presbytery having existed as a Presbytery before it entered into the Church of Scotland. It was accordingly moved that the words, in connection with the Established Church of Scotland,' be henceforth omitted in the designation of the Presbytery. The Moderator refused to put the motion, as being revolutionary and incompetent. Whereupon it was moved that the Moderator, having refused to discharge his duty, has lost the confidence of the Presbytery, and that Mr. Lorimer be appointed Moderator in his stead,-which motion was put by the Clerk, and carried; the Moderator not voting. This disconcerted the enemy a little, and in a sort of panic, Blair declared the Presbytery adjourned; and, amidst much outery of the audience against its profanity, pronounced the blessing, on which the four ministers, with Stewart and Nicolson, elders, marched out, and Kay and the Woolwich elder, Rutherford, retired from the table. Their departure elicited a burst of hissing and derisive cheers from the audience, which was considerable. When they were gone, and our own Moderator was in the chair, after prayer, the business again proceeded. The motion to erase the words, 'in connection,' &c., was harmoniously agreed to; and after some further business, the Presbytery adjourned. We had thirty-four at the Presbytery dinner, and far the happiest evening we have spent there. The Moderates, before adjourning, forgot to fix a day and place for their next meeting, so that they are presbyterially defunct. Though my own wish was to stave off this disruption for a time; now that it is over, every one feels relieved and lightened. Our way was fenced with thorns, so that we had no alternative.” *

It was unfortunate, certainly, for the Moderates, that they adjourned in such fashion as to render themselves presbyterially defunct; but there were other things which weakened their * Life of Dr. Hamilton, p. 220.

hands. In Northumberland, a faithful minister, who stood to his post, and prevented the Establishment from seizing his church, says: "I saw my neighbours running helter-skelter across to take parishes. These men are now (1874) all, or almost all, dead, some never having comfort in their charges, so far as I could hear. I walked out, on the 18th May, with the rest, and was on the platform with James Hamilton, James Nisbet, &c."*

When deputations were sent from Scotland, however, it was not so much with the English Presbyterians that they had to deal as with the general public. Dr. Guthrie, Dr. Cunningham, and Dr. H. Grey, made the first movement, giving addresses in London, Liverpool, and Manchester, where it is said they "found the highest enthusiasm prevailing in the cause of the Free Church." In the course of time, a whole series of deputations followed. All over England the leading towns were visited, and everywhere the ministers of the Free Church met with the most cordial welcome.

The most difficult class to deal with were the clergy and members of the Church of England. When Dr. Candlish went to Cambridge, he says:-"I got about 200 gownsmen to listen to both of my addresses with profound attention, and many of them with ardent earnestness." Objections were raised, but the ready tact of the great debater did not fail him. One of the University men said, since Dr. Candlish spoke so strongly of the rights of the Church, he would like to know what he understood by the Church? Dr. Candlish replied at once, "I accept, without qualification, the definition given in the Thirtynine Articles." Another then said that he could not understand how the Free Church claimed to be the Church of Scotland, when they were separate from the State, and another Church was established. "I would reply to that," said Dr. Candlish, "by asking my friend another question. Where was the Church of England during the Commonwealth?" After this there was no farther interruption. How his addresses impressed the audience may be gathered from the description given in a local newspaper. "His voice falls at first slowly and harshly * Disr. Mss. xliii. p. 4.

upon the ear; as he proceeds, however, it gathers force and volume. His slight figure seems to distend its proportions, his gesticulation becomes vehement, his utterance rapid, and his tones loud. His style of language rises as he proceeds, and the effect he produces upon his hearers is exhibited in the intense attention, broken only by loud and simultaneous bursts of applause, when the orator reaches the climax of his subject. His oratory is fascinating from its originality and wild fer

vour."*

In the meeting at Gravesend, two magistrates, members of the Church of England, were present, and, in consequence of subscribing to the fund, Dr. Begg tells how they were called to account, next Sabbath, by the rector of the parish, in a sermon in which he denounced them for encouraging schismatics in the North.t

And yet there were, even among zealous Churchmen, some warm supporters of Disruption principles. One of the most powerful speeches ever heard in defence of the Free Church, was that of the Hon. and Rev. Baptist Noel, then of St. John's, Bedford Row. Another of the London clergy also-the Rev. Thos. Mortimer, B.D.—was not less earnest in his advocacy. "I have watched the Church of Scotland," he said, "with intense interest. I have wept over her manifold afflictions, and I do feel, most conscientiously, that the cause our Scottish brethren have espoused is the cause of God."

There was another movement, however, of a more private nature, which deserves notice, as having given special pleasure to Dr. Chalmers. It originated with a warm-hearted member of the Evangelical party of the Church-the Rev. John Hunter of Bath. Educated at Merton College, Oxford, he had served for a time at Watton, Herts, the parish of the well-known Rev. Edward Bickersteth, till compelled by ill health to retire. His whole sympathies were with the Free Church; and soon after the Disruption, he drew up a paper-pronounced by Dr. Chalmers to be "complete and faultless"-in which he pled the cause and appealed for subscriptions. One brief extract, * Memorials of Dr. Candlish, p. 331

+ Blue Book, Glasgow, 1843, p. 88.