he was convinced he had misunderstood Mr Manson's sentiments in his article on the "Power of Godliness"; that he saw that Mr Manson and he were at one in regard to our public principles, and that he was prepared to express his regret that he had published the statements regarding Mr Manson's sentiments, which he had done in his "Plea for a Seceder Free Press." Proceeded to read, 1st, The "Plea for a Seceder Free Press," by the Rev. Archibald Brown, Edinburgh; 2d, "The Complaint, with Representation, of Thomas Manson, Minister of the Congregation of United Original Seceders, Perth, unto the Moderator and remanent Members of the Synod of United Original Seceders, to meet in Main Street Church, Glasgow, on Tuesday, the 30th October 1855"; and 3d, Copy Letter of the Rev. Thomas Manson, Perth, to the Rev. Archibald Brown, Edinburgh, anent said Complaint and Representation. The hour of adjournment being now come, it was agreed to resume consideration of this case in the evening. Adjourned to meet again this evening, at half-past six o'clock. Closed with prayer. Same place and day, half past 6 o'clock P.M. The Synod met according to adjournment, and after praise and reading a portion of the Word of God, was constituted with prayer by the Moderator. The Minutes of former sederunt were read. Resumed consideration of the "Plea for a Seceder Free Press," by the Rev. A. Brown, and the Complaint, with Representation, of the Rev. Thomas Manson, left unfinished at the forenoon's sederunt. Mr Brown having stated to the Court, "that after reading Mr Manson's Complaint and Representation, he was convinced he had misunderstood Mr Manson's sentiments in his article on the "Power of Godliness; " that he saw that Mr Manson and he were at one in regard to our public principles; and that he was prepared to express his regret that he had published the statements regarding Mr Manson's sentiments which he had done in his "Plea for a Seceder Free Press "; It was moved, seconded, and agreed to, that Mr Brown subscribe the following retractation, which, on being intimated by the Moderator to Mr Brown, he came forward, and in presence of the Synod, subscribed as under : "I hereby retract the whole of the charges against Rev. Thomas Manson, contained in my late pamphlet, entitled, 'Plea for a Seceder Free Press,' as unfounded and injurious to his personal and ministerial character, being fully satisfied that Mr Manson's sentiments are, and have been in harmony with the Testimony; and express my deep regret for the wrong I have thus done to one of the oldest and most respected Ministers of the body. I also pledge myself to take immediate steps for preventing the further circulation of said pamphlet; and in suppressing the pamphlet, I am to be understood as retracting all charges contained in it against the Synod, as such, and the individual members thereof. Mr Brown also stated, that with the leave of the Synod, he withdraws the letters referred to in the Moderator's Circular calling the meeting, having reference to the Rev. John Robertson, Ayr, and Mr George Jack, Dundee, and the matter relating to the Rev. Mr Ritchie's speech, delivered at the Missionary Meeting in Ayr, which the Synod agreed to. The following "notice of motion" was agreed to be recorded in the Minutes:"That in the case of infirmity, through age or afflicton, on the part of any minister, the Presbytery of the bounds shall see to it, that interim supply shall be given or procured between the occurrence of such case, and the ensuing meeting of Synod, when the whole case shall be referred simpliciter by the minister and the congre gation conjointly, or by the Presbytery to the Synod, which shall travail in the whole case, and make all arrangements, both regarding the pecuniary and spiritual interests of all parties; and that no minister and congregation shall be at liberty to enter into any private pecuniary engagement, with the prospect of settling an assistant, without the counsel and concurrence of the Synod.' Proceeded to consider the state of Edinburgh Presbytery, and the Rev. John Blakely's connection with it. It was agreed that Mr Blakely be henceforth disjoined from the Edinburgh Presbytery, and resume his connection with Glasgow Presbytery; and that while there seems to have been some misunderstanding and informality connected with the matter, the Synod nevertheless agree to recognise as valid the whole of the transactions of the Presbytery of Glasgow. Appointed the Presbytery of Edinburgh to meet in the adjoining Session-House at the close of the present sederunt. Agreed to defray the expense of printing Mr Manson's Complaint and Representation from the Synod Fund. Agreed, also, that Mr Graham's expenses in going to Dublin on business connected with the Toberdony Case be paid from the Synod Fund; it being understood that the amount, if recovered, be re-paid to that Fund. The Clerk was instructed to certify to the Synod Treasurer the Accounts for Ministers' travelling expenses, which may be charged against the Synod Fund. Took up the report on the state of the Divinity Hall. The Professor gave in the Report. Agreed to instruct the Presbytery of Glasgow to take Mr John Forrest, student, on trial for licence, so that he may be ready to be licenced immediately after next meeting of Synod. The Clerk made a statement in reference to the supplies; and as it appeared that several disappointments had been sustained by vacancies in consequence of ministers not complying with the appointments sent them by the Committee; it was earnestly recommended that ministers do their utmost to fulfil the appointments assigned them. Took into consideration the propriety of appointing a day of thanksgiving for the late abundant harvest, and of humiliation for the tokens of God's displeasure, particularly the scourge of war, with which the land is now visited. It was agreed that the Wednesday after the second Sabbath of November, or such other day as may be more suitable, be set apart by all the congregations and vacancies under the inspection of the Synod for these purposes. Glasgow Presbytery obtained leave to meet at the close of the present sederunt. After prayer and praise, the Synod was closed by the Moderator pronouncing the benediction. Extracted from the Minutes of Synod. JOHN GRAHAM, Moderator. DUNDEE. The Association of Young Men for Mutual Improvement connected with this congregation, held their third anniversary meeting on the 27th November. The meeting was held in their usual place of worship, and almost the entire congregation, old and young, were present, besides a goodly number of friends from other places. The chair was occupied by Mr Robertson, minister of the congregation, who opened the meeting with praise and prayer. From the Annual Report of the Association, we learned that it consists of eleven members, that they had met fifty times, and that fifteen essays, on religious and ecclesiastical subjects, had been read during the year. Besides the essays, a considerable portion of the Westminster Standards had been read and discussed at their meeting. The following Essays were then read to the meeting-One by Mr James Sands, on "What is Truth ?"-one by Mr James M'Kay, on "The Evidences of the Deity from the Works of Nature,"-and one by Mr James Parker, on the "Grave,"-all of which were highly creditable to the essayists, and were warmly approved by the meeting. The Rev. Mr Barr, who had been specially invited, then addressed the meeting in a very interesting and appropriate manner, both to the young men and the meeting generally, and contributed largely to the enjoyment of the evening. Several addresses were afterwards delivered by the Chairman and members of the congregation; and after again uniting in devotional exercises, the company broke up, apparently much pleased with the whole proceedings of the evening. We should not omit to add, that the weekly contributions of the young men are devoted to the building fund of the Church now in the course of erection by the congregation. THE ORIGINAL SECESSION MAGAZINE, FEBRUARY, 1856. REVIEW OF DR CANDLISH'S MANSE-FUND SPEECH, Delivered at Glasgow, on the 13th November last,—as reported in the THE part of the speech the accuracy of the statements in which we controvert, is as follows: "We must never forget the position we occupy as a Church in this country-the position, I mean, which we profess to occupy. Of course, I do not mean to say that all other bodies of Christians in the land can be brought to acknowledge that the position we claim is our real one, but we ourselves believe it to be the real one, and should never, in the closest and most friendly association with others, shut our eyes to the position we claim as in the sight of God our true position. We ought as a Church to cultivate the closest and most intimate relations of Christian brotherhood with the non-established Churches in this land, and especially with our Presbyterian brethren adhering to other bodies who have left the Establishment; but with all our friendly feelings towards them, and our anxiety to co-operate in every good work, we can never forget that, as regards them, the position we claim to occupy is this, that we are the Church of Scotland from which they seceded, and to which, according to the principles of their seceding fathers, they might fairly be expected to return. I do not, of course, expect our friends of the United Presbyterian body, or other bodies not established, to acknowledge and admit that claim to the full extent to which we make it; but, nevertheless, I hold it to be of vast importance to the interests of Presbyterianism in Scotland in the long-run-and these, I think, are identified with the interests of the Church of Christ-that we should maintain our position as the Church of Scotland, from which the Erskines and Fishers seceded, and to which their descendants may be expected to return. As regards our brethren and friends in the Establishment, with many of whom we may co-operate in the work of the Lord, we must never forget, nor allow the world to forget, that we hold that Establishment to be a thing of yesterday, a creation of Lord Aberdeen's-a thing which has existed only since 1843, and which, if not a creation of Lord Aberdeen's, is at least the creation of the Court of Session and the House of Lords-that we hold the present Establishment to be a pure novelty, not the old Church of our fathers, but a Church got up when we were driven forth from own connection with the State. We did not leave behind us the Church of Scotland; we did not leave any Church at all, except a Church constituted anew in terms of a decision of the Court of Session and House of Lords. However much we may esteem, and be willing to co-operate with, many in the Establishment, we cannot be parties to any proceeding that shall acknowledge the Established Church as dating from any period before 1843. The date of the existence of the No. X., VOL. II. NEW SERIES. 2 Y present Established Church of Scotland is 1843; THE DATE OF OUR EXISTENCE Is 1560. We can trace our unbroken pedigree through many vicissitudes, trials, and persecutions, from that eventful year when first the General Assembly met in Scotland; by all the historical signs and marks which can possibly identify a National Church, we can certainly trace our descent far more clearly than any bishop can a trace back his to the apostles. That being our position, we are not, in the exercise of any false or spurious charity, to be found for a moment admitting that the Established Church, as it now exists, is a Church of older date than the last thirteen years. I am prepared to maintain that these views are entirelá consistent with the purest and widest exercise of Christian charity; but, be that as it may, they are the views which, in consistency, the Free Church must hold, maintain, and avow in the face of all the world. They may be branded as fanatical, called sectarian, abused as uncharitable. I cannot help that; it is the truth as I hold it, and as the Free Church holds it. We maintain on the one hand, as regards other non-established Presbyterian bodies, that we are the Church from which their fathers seceded; and on the other hand, we maintain, as regards the present Establishment, that we are the old, hereditary Church of Scotland-the present Establishment being only thirteen years of age. But, important as our positions is, especially as viewed historically, and in a national or Scottish point of view, the principles which our Church is called to maintain and for which she is called to testify are tenfold more important still. Our constitutional position is important, the position which belongs to us in terms of the settlement of the Presbyterian Church, not only from the beginning, but after all the sufferings of persecution times, and at the era of the Revolution. And if we shall ever be tempted, in the exercise of any spurious charity, or to gain any temporary end, to do anything that implies the relinquishment of that principle, we shall be false to ourselves, stultifying all we said and did in Disruption times, false to the great and sainted men who led us on at the Disruption and are now passed into glory, and false to that venerable body of the most eminent Judges in this country,-the minority in point of number, but containing the vast preponderance of legal talent,-Lords Moncreiff, Jeffrey, Cockburn, and others, who distinctly gave their solemn conviction that the position we now claim to occupy is correct, that we are the Church of the time of the Revolution." It can scarcely be doubted that the language employed by Dr Candlish in this passage has been well weighed. He uttered it with an inward consciousness that it would give offence to the public bodies referred to by him, and most probably draw forth animadversions; but he had ends which he sought to accomplish by the assertions made, that overbalanced such considerations. His more immediate end was doubtless to reach the pockets of Free Churchmen, and procure a large subscription to the Manse Debt-Extinction Fund. Previous to the Disruption, during the heat of the Non-Intrusion controversy, when strenuous efforts were made to arouse the minds of the people of Scotland to a sense of the importance of the cause in which the leaders of the Evangelical party in the Established Church of Scotland had embarked in their contest with the civil authorities of the land, appeals were made from time to time to the sympathies of the Scottish Christian heart with the noble contendings and the heroical ly endured sufferings of the Covenanters, by references to "Christ's Crown and Covenant," and to the battles for civil and religious liberty which our Fathers fought under a banner inscribed with this motto. Now, however, when the work expected from the parties addressed is not of the same stirring kind, and, perhaps, also from a consciousness that the Free Church has sadly disappointed the expectations which we formerly entertained regarding her, that she would indeed take up the cause of the Covenants-all mention of these Solemn National Deeds, and the noble contendings and heroic sufferings of the Covenanters is eschewed, except in very general terms; and the Free Church leader rests in claiming for her the honour of being the representative of the Church of Scotland throughout all the periods of her history, both the honoured and dishonoured, subsequent to as well as preceding the Revolution. But though the immediate object of the Doctor's speech is to obtain a large subscription to the Manse Fund, it is plain that there are also collateral ends, of no small value in his esteem, which he seeks to gain by what he here affirms. One of these ends is to inflict what he thinks a very telling stroke on the Established Church; a second is to exalt the Free Church by connecting her, so far as his word can, with all that is great and glorious in the past history of the Church of Scotland; a third end, which, though it has two aspects, we may include in one, is to re-echo the flatteries lavished on the Free Church by those Original Seceders who joined her fellowship in 1852, and do what he can to remove the obloquy to which he knows these Seceders have exposed themselves by acceding to the Free Church, while she continued to stand on the Revolution Settlement and the Treaty of Union with England, abode by her half-and-half position of Non-Intrusion, and refused to ascend from this ground, long so justly and pointedly condemned by Seceders, to the platform of Reformation attainment occupied by the Covenanted Church of Scotland. In fact, it is the theory of those Seceders who abandoned this high position after some of them had said as much as ever any had done in commending it, and had also sworn to abide by it, which Dr Candlish has adopted, and by the aid of which he is trying to give the Free Church a heave upwards in the esteem of the people of Scotland. He has, however, left the school in which he has been learning his lesson ere he has fully mastered it, and given it forth to the world without duly considering its bearings. The conclusion pleased, and he embraced it without examining the premises, as it was meet that a man of his character and standing should have done ere he gave forth his dictum. Whatever Dr Candlish may try to persuade Free Churchmen, regarding the conduct of those Original Seceders who have joined the Free Church, it bears a very close resemblance to that of the forty high Non-Intrusionists who, when matters came to the crisis, stood by the "loaves and fishes," whom no Established Churchman has yet been so foolish as to try to whitewash. None knows better than Dr Candlish that Original Seceders had a slice of the Sustentation Fund of the Free Church, to the extent at least of their being no losers in a temporal respect, guaranteed to them as an inducement to join her fellowship-guaranteed so far as the assurances of a leader, or leaders, whose word is all but law in her Assemblies, could give such security, we have positive proof that, without this guarantee, the proposal of accession to the Free Church had not been advocated as it was, by one whose writings had no small influence in leading to that |