Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 8.djvu/190

138 each labouring by himself in whatever sphere of usefulness he could find, and trusting to the precarious good-will of Christian society for his support. They could be an organized and united Church no longer; for had not such a consequence followed the Bartholomew Act in England, and the Black Act in Scotland, of whose victims they were about to become the willing followers and successors. It was at this trying moment that Dr. Chalmers stepped forward with an announcement that electrified the whole Assembly. He had long contemplated, in common with his brethren, the probability of an exodus such as was now resolved. But that which formed their ultimatum was only his starting-point. In that very ejectment there was the beginning of a new ecclesiastical history of Scotland; and out of these fragments a Church was to be constituted with a more complete and perfect organization than before. Such had been his hopes; and for their realization he had been employed during twelve months in drawing out a plan, by which this disestablished Church was to be supported as systematically and effectually by a willing public, as it had been in its highest ascendancy, when the State was its nursing mother. Here, then, was the remote mysterious end of all those laborious studies of former years in legislation, political economy, and finance, at which the wisest of his brethren had marvelled, and with which the more rigid had been offended! He now unfolded the schedule of his carefully constructed and admirable scheme; and the hearers were astonished to find that General Assemblies, Synods, and Presbyteries,—that their institutions of missionary and benevolent enterprise, with settled homes and a fitting provision for all in their ministerial capacity, were still at hand, and ready for their occupation, as before. In this way the dreaded disruption was to be nothing more than a momentary shock. And now the ministers might return to their manses, and gladden with these tidings their anxious families who were preparing for a mournful departure. Even yet, however, they trembled it was a plan so new, so vast, so utterly beyond their sphere! But they were still unshaken in their resolution, which they subscribed with unfaltering hands; and when Dr. Chalmers heard that more than 300 names had been signed, he exclaimed, "Then we are more than Gideon's army a most hopeful omen!" Their proposals were duly transmitted to Sir Robert Peel, now at the head of Government, and the members, after six days of solemn conference, retired to their homes.

The terms of the Church, and the reasons on which these were founded, had thus been stated to Government in the most unequivocal sentences, words, and syllables, so that there could be no perversion of their construction, or mistake of their meaning. The answer of the State was equally express, as embodied in the words of Sir Robert Peel. And thus he uttered it in his place in the House of Commons:—"If a church chooses to participate in the advantages appertaining to an Establishment, that church, whether it be the Church of England, the Church of Rome, or the Church of Scotland—that church must conform itself to the law. It would be an anomaly, it would be an absurdity, that a church should possess the privilege, and enjoy the advantages of connection with the State, and, nevertheless, claim exemption from the obligations which, wherever there is an authority, must of necessity exist; and this House and the country never could lay it down, that if a dispute should arise in respect of the statute law of the land, such dispute should be referred to a tribunal not subject to an appeal to the House of Lords." These were the conditions, and therefore the Church of Scotland must succumb. Such treatment of land tenures and