Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 8.djvu/186

134 cases that succeeded. And first came that of Lethendy, and afterwards of Marnoch, in which the civil authority was invoked by vetoed presentees; while in the last of these conflicts the Presbytery of Strathbogie, to which Marnoch belonged, complicated the difficulties of the question by adopting the cause of the rejected licentiate, and setting the authority of the church at defiance. The rebellious ministers were suspended from office; and they, in turn, relying upon the protection of the civil power, served an interdict upon those clergymen who, at the appointment of the General Assembly, should attempt to officiate in their pulpits, or even in their parishes. The Court of Session complied so far as to exclude the Assembly's ministers from preaching in the churches, church-yards, and school-rooms of the suspended, so that they were obliged to preach in barns or in the open air; but at last, when even this liberty was complained of by the silenced recusants, the civil court agreed to the whole amount of their petition. It was such a sentence, issuing from mere jurisconsults and Edinburgh lawyers, as was sometimes hazarded in the most tyrannical seasons of the dark ages, when a ghostly conclave of pope, cardinals, and prince-prelates, laid a whole district under the ban of an interdict for the offence of its ruler, and deprived its people of the rites of the church until full atonement had been paid. Such was the state of matters when the Assembly's commission met on the 4th of March, and resolved to resist this monstrous usurpation. On this occasion, Dr. Chalmers spoke with his wonted energy; and after representing the enormity of the offence, and the necessity of resisting it, he thus concluded:—"Be it known, then, unto all men, that we shall not retract one single footstep—we shall make no submission to the Court of Session—and that, not because of the disgrace, but because of the gross and grievous dereliction of principle that we should thereby incur. They may force the ejection of us from our places: they shall never, never force us to the surrender of our principles; and if that honourable court shall again so far mistake their functions as to repeat or renew the inroads they have already made, we trust they will ever meet with the same reception they have already gotten—to whom we shall give place by subjection, no, not for an hour; no, not by an hair-breadth."

The only earthly hope of the Church of Scotland was now invested in the Parliament. The former had distinctly announced the terms on which it would maintain its connection with the State, while the leading men of the latter had held out such expectations of redress as filled the hearts of Dr. Chalmers and his friends with confidence. It was now full time to make the trial. A deputation was accordingly sent to London; but, after mountains of promises and months of delay, by which expectation was alternately elevated and crushed, nothing better was produced than Lord Aberdeen's bill. By this, a reclaiming parish were not only to state their objections, but the grounds and reasons on which they were founded; while the Presbytery, in taking cognizance of these objections, were to admit them only when personal to the presentee, established on sufficient grounds, and adequate for his rejection. Thus, a country parish—a rustic congregation—were to analyze their religious impressions, embody them in distinct form, and table them before a learned and formidable tribunal in rejecting the minister imposed upon them; while, in weighing these nice objections, and ascertaining their specific gravity, every country minister was to be a Duns Scotus or Thomas Aquinas, if not a very Daniel come to judgment. We suspect that the members of the learned House of Lords, and even of the Commons to boot, would have been sorely puzzled had such a case been their