MONTHLY RETROSPECT.

Contemplated Unions.-We understand that a conference lately took place between a committee of the Free Church and one of the United Synod of Original Seceders with a view to the incorporation of the two bodies. It had been agreed by the Synod that the following articles should be proposed as a basis,-1st, Adherence to the Westminster standards entire. 2d, A refusal to acknowledge the principle of voluntaryism. 3d, The exhibition of a testimony. 4th, The divine and scriptural authority of Presbytery. And 5th, The continued obligation of the public Covenants. The time of the conference, we believe, was chiefly occupied in hearing members of Synod on these points. A very kindly feeling is said to have prevailed throughout the meeting. Dr Candlish, in particular, seemed favourable to the views of the Original Seceders, and appeared to have been studying the subject. It was resolved that sub-conferences should, without delay, be held in several places throughout the country-that Dr M'Crie's appendix to his sermons on the Unity of the Church, and anything else deemed useful by the Seceders, should be published, the Free Churchmen engaging to do their utmost to favour the circulation, and that another conference should be held at the meeting of Synod in the end of April. Things look favourably towards the success of the measure, as we are well informed that the Free Church committee exhibited a degree of favour to the principles of the Seceders which surprised into hope even the most suspicious and least sanguine of their ministers." On the other hand, the spirit of union is manifesting itself with increased activity in a direction which more immediately concerns ourselves. At the time we write, at least six presbyteries of our church, including those of Edinburgh and Glasgow, have unanimously agreed to apply to the Synod for the immediate consummation of a union with the Relief synod. Several Relief presbyteries have done so likewise. On the probability of success it is needless to speculate, with the meeting of the synods so close at hand. It is obvious, however, that the principles of the two bodies are exceedingly similar, if not identical. They are not such, at least, as to warrant a schism in the body of Christ; and if a healing of the division could be harmoniously and scripturally effected, not only would it afford matter of rejoicing to all who enter into the spirit of our Saviour's prayer, but vigorous and much-needed measures might be adopted for increasing the purity and spiritual efficiency of both denominations.

The Residuary Establishment.-Ever since the disruption, the national church has been in a remarkably dejected and prostrate condition. The usual indications of might and mastery have been totally amissing. Of late, however, a few symptoms of rallying have begun to appear. All the religious newspapers which were wont to do battle in the cause of establishments having gone over to the Free Church, a new twice-a-week paper, The Scottish Record, has recently been started in Edinburgh, which sets forth in its prospectus that its "leading object will be to oppose the prevailing agitations both in church and state, and to plead the cause and defend the interests of our established institutions. In particular, it will be devoted to the strenuous support of the Established Church of Scotland." It seems intended to antagonise the Witness and its class.-A series of questions has lately been sent to every parochial minister by the convener of the General Assembly's education committee, with the view of ascertaining-1st, Whether any additional schools be needed in his parish; 2d, What amount of fees might probably be received at such additional

schools; 3d, How many scholars might be expected at the new erections, without interfering with existing schools; 4th, How far the stations are distant from the parochial school, and whether within three miles of any other parochial school; 5th, Whether the heritors or others would furnish school-room, dwelling-house, and garden; 6th, What schools there are in the parish which, including everything, do not yield to the teachers, per annum, L.35 each; and how much less each may probably receive. The declared object of the whole is, "to obtain from government a remedy in some form and degree for the existing deficiencies." In connexion with this, the following piece of intelligence is not insignificant :-About the beginning of this year an application was made to the education committee of the Privy Council for a grant of money to the Edinburgh Northern District Schools, which are chiefly in the hands of the Free Church, though other dissenters to some extent support them. The reply, dated 19th January, was,—“My Lords do not consider themselves authorised, under ordinary circumstances, to depart from the practice of this department, -to distribute grants only to schools connected with the National School Society, the British and Foreign School Society, and the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland." A second application was made, setting forth some peculiar circumstances, which were considered as giving the schools a claim. The reply, which is also before us, states, that these circumstances are not such as warrant my Lords to treat the case as special, "and, therefore, as the schools are neither in connexion with the Church of Scotland nor with the two societies referred to in the 9th regulation of the minute of the 24th September 1839, my Lords decline to make any grant in this case." Whatever the terms of the above resolution may be, it is certain that grants have been made (by the preceding government, we believe), to schools in Scotland connected with dissenting congregations. It appears, however, that the present administration have resolved that henceforth all grants, to this part of the empire, for educational purposes, shall go to recruit the strength of the tottering establishment. We have already informed our readers of the magnificent sums the Free Church is raising for her schools. Of the achievements of the voluntaries in this momentous cause, we have nothing to relate. It is not for us to lecture them on the subject, which certainly is compassed about with difficulties. But surely if there be any truth in the proverb about bending the twig, the circumstances of the times call loudly on them to consider what ought to be done, and to do it with their might.-A considerable number of Town Councils have, this year, resolved to send no elder to the General Assembly.

Presbyterian Marriages in Ireland.-A considerable time ago, it was decided by the competent court in Ireland, that a marriage between an Episcopalian and a Presbyterian, celebrated in that country by a Presbyterian minister, is illegal. An appeal was taken to the British House of Peers, and the result is, that the decision of the Irish court is confirmed. This follows from there having been no judgment pronounced in the House of Peers, two of the law lords having voted on each side, Lords Brougham and Campbell, in favour of the validity of such marriages. The latter, himself the son of a Presbyterian minister in Fife, has given in a strong and elaborate dissent. A great sensation has been produced in Ulster by the withdrawal of a privilege which has been long enjoyed. In the beginning of March, while the case was still pending, a special meeting of the Irish General Assembly was held in Belfast, at which it was resolved that the last Wednesday of March should be observed as a day of solemn religious service by all the congregations, and that sermons suitable to the occasion should be preached-that petitions should be forwarded to Parliament from the congregations, and from as many public meetings as possible, praying

that the privilege of marrying, as heretofore, should be secured to the Presbyterian ministers-that a committee be appointed to correspond with evangelical dissenters throughout the empire, especially the Free Church of Scotland, soliciting their sympathy and support-and that a deputation be sent to London to wait upon the government and the leading members of the legislature. A number of large, enthusiastic, and almost formidable meetings have been held, and in all probability the matter will yet be pretty prominently brought before the attention of the public.

American Slavery.-We cannot doubt that most of our readers have participated in the shock which has lately been given to the feelings of the British public, by the intelligence that, in one of the States of America, a young man had been sentenced to capital punishment for aiding in the escape of a female slave. We have great pleasure in reflecting on the distinet and emphatic expression which has been given to the apparently unanimous sentiment of this country on the subject. Lord Denman, in the House of Peers, on the 18th of March, spoke the mind of the whole educated and reflecting part of the nation when he said, in language worthy of the Chief Justice of England,-" By executing the slave-liberator, they would be throwing back the cause of civilization, humanity, and Christianity, for centuries." We fondly hope that the remonstrances, numerous and strong, transmitted from this country will contribute, with other causes, under Divine Providence, to prevent the Americans from perpetrating such an enormity against God and his creature man; and consummating their own national disgrace by carrying the sentence into execution. Our Synod, in 1836, passed a series of resolutions on the subject of American slavery, and addressed a memorial embodying them, to the Transatlantic churches; and, a year or two ago, it appointed a committee for urging the matter further on their attention. Recent occurrences may probably seem to demand some additional steps to be taken at the ensuing meeting. It is said, that in the United States there are 2,874,000 slaves, worth 1,000,000,000 dollars, or two hundred and twenty-five millions sterling. To say nothing of other obstacles in the way of emancipation, when will the worshippers of Mammon make such a sacrifice at the shrine of justice, humanity, andreligion? Vesting of Church Property.-We have much pleasure in learning that a series of able and valuable papers on this subject, which have just been reprinted from the Scotsman, have attracted a good deal of attention, and are likely to prove useful. Two things are plainly required. The first is to determine the principles on which titles of church property ought to be framed. This is for the consideration of churches themselves, either deliberating separately, or, if they choose, taking the benefit of united consultation. Some excellent remarks, on several of the points involved, will be found in a paper in the Eclectic Review for 1839. The second thing is, as we formerly said, an act of the legislature, extending to churches the privileges afforded to friendly societies, regarding the holding of real property. This, if reasonably applied for, we think would scarcely be refused. The subject, we believe, will be discussed at the ensuing meeting of the Free Church Assembly.

ERRATA IN NO. IV.

In our number for April, in the article "The Early Missions of the Secession," page 178, line 48, for "it can be exerted," read through which it can be exerted;" in page 179, line 9, for “ labours,” read“ labour;” and page 182, live 11, for "has been served by the secession," read "served by the secession, has been," &c.

Also, in a number of copies, page 207, line 22 from top, for civil read piritual.

MURRA. AND GIBB, PRINTERS, GEORGE STREET, FDINBURGH.

THE

UNITED SECESSION MAGAZINE,

FOR JUNE, 1844.

MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS.

LIFE OF GIROLAMO SAVONAROLA.

PART SECOND.

On the death of Lorenzo, and the succession of his effeminate and reckless son, Pietro de Medici, the people of Florence were loud in their demands for the restoration of their ancient rights. Immediately after Pietro's accession to power, an event occurred which revealed his imbecility and unfitness for rule, and proved the occasion of the Florentines throwing off the yoke of the house of Medici. Charles VIII. having made at this time a successful invasion on the Florentine dominions, Pietro, feeling his weakness for defence, threw himself into the camp of the conqueror and negotiated a treaty of peace on terms dishonourable to his state. The citizens, on hearing that the honours and interests of their country had been sacrificed, flew to arms and drove him from the palace of his fathers, to seek an asylum in Bologna. And where was Savonarola? He had before met the victorious Charles, and pleaded before him the cause of his country, in an address of stirring eloquence. But now he was in solitude pleading with God in secret prayer, that he would still the tumult of the people. As he was known to have been all along a strenuous advocate of the just rights of the citizens, in opposition to the usurpations of the Medici, his influence was now earnestly sought to restore order in the state. He yielded to the voice of his bleeding country, imploring him through the lovers of freedom and peace, to grant her his powerful aid. Hence, on this occasion, we find him, now in the name of Florence, demanding an audience of Charles, and boldly warning him against that ambition of conquest that is based on injustice; and now we see him convening the people, and earnestly dissuading them from that anarchy, which is traced in the ruin of the many, and the elevation of the designing few. At one time he is seen in his cell writing out a proposed constitution for the state, embodying the ancient rights of all citizens; and, at another, he is beheld in the senate house enforcing on the signory the adoption of a system of government in unison with what he regards the claims of justice and the laws of religion. In these days Savonarola was more engaged in affairs of state than we would desire to see one whose proper business is with souls and immortality. Yet allow

NO. VI. VOL. I.

2 K

ance is to be made for extraordinary circumstances, in which, to follow common rules of action, would often be to neglect the leadings of providence, and to lose opportunities of well doing which occur but seldom in the course of an age.

But whatever opinion may be formed of Savonarola's efforts for the redress of what he regarded political wrongs in Florence, he will be accused by none of neglecting the great object of his embassy,-reform in religion. For this he sighed and wept, and laboured with much prayer night and day. He was, it is true, still in the Roman church, which he saw filled with abominations, and he was too exclusively intent on severity of monastic discipline, as the indication of the true life of God. Yet in his heart he fervently mourned over the ways of Zion then so desolate, and, according to the measure of his imperfect light, he struggled after reform in the church of Christ. Hence, bowed down in spirit at the daily sight of corrupt practices in the brotherhood of the monastery of San Marco, which a long course of indulgence had rendered too inveterate to be successfully resisted, he sought and obtained leave to erect another cloister in the neighbourhood, where the more severe regulations of the order, in poverty and fasting, might be strictly observed. By this time he had won the hearts of the people of Florence, and in his ministrations from the pulpit, while he unsparingly denounced prevalent sins, he enforced on their souls the great reviving truths of the gospel. His sermons on these occasions are often deeply affecting, for the touching expressions they contain of his feelings, in thinking of the sins by which he was surrounded, and the perils with which he was threatened in opposing them,

of the duty to which he was called, and the violent death to which, from the first, he seems to have looked forward, as awaiting him in the end. "Do you ask me," he would say in moments of melting pathos, "in particular what shall be the end of this conflict? Then I answer death. But death is not extinction. Rather it serves to spread abroad the light which I tell you is already in many hearts. Rome cannot quench this fire, for though it may throw earth on the flame in one place, yet will it break out the more strongly in another."

Pope Alexander VI., the infamous pontiff, who then occupied the chair of St Peter, soon heard of the bold words of the reformer of Florence, and resolved to follow the advice of the crest-fallen Mariano de Genezano, Destroy, destroy, All holy father, this servant of the devil." Alexander despatched a papal brief to Florence, commanding Savonarola not to preach there, but at Lucca during the lent of 1495. But, though Savonarola, as he thought he might do more good elsewhere, intimated his willingness to obey the mandate, the people fondly clinging to their spiritual guide, through the signory remonstrated against his withdrawal, and the papal brief was recalled. Frequently, however, had he to complain at this season that his Florence, as he affectionately called it, heard his exhortation to repentance and obedience only as the very lovely song of one that plays well on an instrument, and yet received not the love of the truth that they might be saved. "Yes, Lord," he exclaimed, "I turn to thee, give me strength that I may patiently bear all insults, all disgraces, all calamities, that on thy account I may be called to suffer. We stand on the battle field, and