rejoice to find, from intercourse amongst the members of this House, that there is a growing feeling and desire that we should put forth the energies of our Church in the direction of helping forward and strengthening the Presbyterian cause in England; and I would, before sitting down, just like to say a word as to the character of the Church that we are asked to aid in this direction. This English Presbyterian Church, not only in its missionary efforts abroad, but in its home efforts, is doing a work altogether out of proportion with that which we are doing as a Free Church. (Hear, hear.) If we put the figures alongside of each other, and the numerical strength of our respective bodies, we shall find that the Presbyterian Church of England is not a Church coming to us seeking to be relieved from the responsibility of diffusing the gospel in England; but that it asks us to do something in enabling her to look after the spiritual interests of our own sons and daughters, and in putting forth our efforts, it is surely worth well to consider that we are helping one that is a really working Church, and that besides what she is doing at home, she has one of the most successful missions on the face of the earth. (Cheers.) There is in fact no mission that is at all equal in point of success, at this moment, to that which is carried on in China by our English Presbyterian friends. In helping her, therefore, we are helping a really working Church-one which, besides this great effort on behalf of the heathen abroad, is endeavouring to spread the knowledge of the Lord in London, Liverpool, and Manchester, and those other great centres of population in the South. (Loud applause.)

Mr JAMES BALFOUR, W.S., concurred with Mr Maclagan, and strongly supported his views. He stated that he did not know any Church which had such strong claims upon the Free Church, and he hoped that the proposal for the biennial collections alternately with the Irish Church would be agreed to-thus putting the two Churches upon the same footing. He also mentioned that he had been one of a deputation from the Free Church to the last meeting of the English Presbyterian Synod at Manchester, and that he was quite delighted with the spirit which was manifested there, and with the energy which seemed to be infused into their proceedings.

Mr MILLER, of Leithen, also concurred with the remarks that had fallen from the two preceding speakers, adding that he also had been upon the deputation to the synod, and while he was there he had an opportunity of seeing the extent of the great work in which that Church was engaged, and of the services which it was rendering to Presbyterianism.

Mr DAVID DICKSON stated that he had received a letter from a friend in England, to the effect that if the Free Church and the English Presbyterian Church were to form stations in the leading towns, with ministers placed over them, many parties would leave the English Church and join them, as they were so dissatisfied with the present state of their own Church.

After some further remarks, it was agreed that when the committee on Assembly arrangements presented their report a deliverance should be brought up to the effect that the names of those ministers who were to be sent to England should be submitted for the sanction of the Assembly, and that the English brethren should be invited to send a deputation every second year to occupy the pulpits of the Free Church

in the different parts of the country-presenting the claims of their Church before the congregations, and giving them the opportunity of making collections.

Dr CANDLISH thought that the proposal about army chaplains should be withdrawn; and to this suggestion Mr Wright agreed.

Mr SWANSON, missionary from China, then addressed the House on the subject of the Chinese mission of the English Presbyterian Church. He stated that the mission was founded twenty years ago, and that their first missionary was the Rev. William Burns, whose name only required to be mentioned in that House to be received with the utmost respect. (Applause.) Mr Burns had infused his own spirit into every part of the work; all who had followed him, and been associated with him, had imbibed the same spirit, and to this he ascribed the remarkable success which had been vouchsafed. The head quarters of the mission were in the island of Amoy. When he (Mr Swanson) went there, eight years ago, there were three missionary societies engaged-the English Presbyterian, and the missions of the London Missionary Society, and of the Dutch Reformed Church of the United States of America. There were 400 persons then in full communion, but now the number was more than 1000; and of these, 800 were under the supervision of the English Presbyterian and Reformed Dutch Churches. The missionaries of all these different bodies worked together with a remarkable spirit of Christian unity. All around the region of Amoy, and on the opposite mainland, they had planted stations, until now there were thirteen mission churches on that mainland, extending over a line of 120 miles. Mr Swanson then referred to the self-sacrificing spirit the Chinese converts displayed, and said that, instead of their gaining any temporal advantage by becoming Christians, as was sometimes insinuated, they attested the sincerity of their convictions in every case by suffering persecution, for no native Chinese could become a Christian without suffering persecution at the first, and without sacrificing all his patrimonial rights. They had twenty-seven native evangelists in connexion with the mission, and it was in a great measure owing to the services of these evangelists that they had achieved their success. He believed that almost every member of their Church was a missionary, and when they left they carried the gospel away to other parts of China. In fact, the European missionaries had to follow in the footsteps of these men in planting their new stations. The converts were men of whom any Church might be proud. They had now formed a native Presbytery, and all the documents were written and the proceedings carried on in the Chinese language. After referring to the great extent of the country, and describing the Chinese as the Saxons of the East, he said that they were a highly civilised people, and had solved the problem of what civilisation could do for a nation without the gospel. Some people said, first introduce commerce and civilisation, and then the gospel; but those who spoke in this way had only to come out to China to find out their mistake. Their work there was a most interesting one: and he spent a most happy time amongst these people. There was a wrong idea in the minds of many as to the character and position of a missionary. Missionaries were supposed by some to be a sort of banished men, requiring a very special degree of sympathy, and when they came home, they were even exhibited as live specimens of what missionaries were. (Laughter.) This was an

entire mistake; if any one would come out and see their work, and the pleasure with which they engaged in it, they would find that their sympathies were required, not for the missionaries, but for the work itself. Referring to the character of the Chinese, he remarked that there was a great deal of most absurd statements sent forth upon the subject by literary men. He knew something of the manner in which this was gone about. Some of these writing men came out to China, and settled in a coast town for five or six weeks, and then on coming home, wrote a full and flowing description of all the social and political history of 420 millions of people; and he did not know which most to admire, the ability or the ingenuity of the writers. (Laughter and applause.) After stating that they had a mission in the island of Formosa, and another at Swatow, and commending the mission to the Free Church as one worthy of support, Mr Swanson concluded amid loud applause.

Dr CANDLISH proposed that the Moderator convey the thanks of the Assembly to the deputies for their interesting statements.

(Applause.) The MODERATOR, addressing the deputation, said-To perform the duty now laid upon me is with me no matter of form, but one of heartfelt interest. I am a constant reader of the Weekly Review, and I am therefore in a position to know of your proceedings. I think it impossible for any man regularly to peruse that publication without being deeply impressed with a sense of your religious earnestness, your evangelistic activity, and Christian liberality. And I do feel that all these entitle you to the warmest sympathy of this Church, and to all the support and encouragement which the cordial expression of that sympathy can afford; yea, I think it puts you in the position of a Church provoking others to similar works of faith and labours of love. I have been particularly interested, first of all, in the efforts of your Church, more especially of your enlightened and liberal office-bearers, to make a more liberal provision for the support of your ministers. This object has been referred to to-day. In prosecuting that movement you are acting in harmony with our own Church and with all the disestablished Churches of the land-I may say with the Established also. At the same time, you are prosecuting an object the success of which has a bearing on the highest interests of religion, for it has long since passed into the currency of a proverb, that "an insufficient maintenance makes a scandalous ministry." Then, in respect to the particular object which has brought us together in conference this day I refer to your home mission and Church extension work-I say that in helping you we are helping ourselves, for we are using the most effectual means of retaining in the faith of their fathers our children who, in the providence of God, may be settled in England. As a parent I have a particular interest in this view, and I trust you will never relax your efforts in this direction until every important centre of population in England is supplied with a Presbyterian ministry. I cannot allow this opportunity to pass without expressing my most cordial concurrence in the sentiments which fell from a gentleman on the left hand of the chair-Mr Maclagan. It is a circumstance most creditable to your spirit of missionary enterprise -that at this moment, with a Church consisting of not more than seven Presbyteries and not many more than 100 congregations, you are able even with the assistance you derive from Scotland-to support on the mission field in China no fewer than nine missionaries; and let me say that

among them are some of the most distinguished and devoted labourers that ever entered the mission field. (Hear, hear, and applause.) And, although the subject has not been adverted to this day, I think this a proper opportunity for me to express the sympathy of myself and of this Church with your Church under the mysterious and solemn providence whereby you were in November last deprived of the services of the Rev. David Masson, just when about to enter on the field to which you had devoted him only a few months before. I hope the appeal which has been issued from your Foreign Mission committee will be answered by some probationer or young minister of your own or of this Church, and that a man animated with the same spirit, and possessed of the same gifts, may be found to occupy the field still left vacant by the death of Mr Masson. On all these accounts, you are entitled to our warmest sympathy and cordial help. But there is one further argument, and I do not think I would be doing my duty if I did not advert to it. I cannot conceive it possible that the Protestant and Christian principle, or even the common sense and patriotism of the English people, will continue to tolerate the existing state of things in their national Church-a Church torn by questions respecting ritual ceremonies and observances, and by rationalistic and sceptical speculations, which, it appears, there is no Church authority to settle and determine. What will be the issue of this state of things it is impossible for us to foresee -a second Reformation possibly-an entire dissolution of the connexion between Church and State; or possibly the Church of England shall become out and out rationalistic, and the friends of pure religion shall have to seek in a disruption the only safe future for evangelical truth in England. In any event, it is of unspeakable importance that the people of England should have presented to them an ecclesiastical system which exhibits the advantages of comely order-the scriptural rights and privileges of the Christian people regulated and protected by Church authority, exercised without secular interference-a sound scriptural theology—and those simple and primitive forms of worship which, if not identical with spirituality, are greatly conducive to it. On all these grounds, I doubt not, we will most cordially aid you in carrying on the great and important work in which you are engaged; and thus we shall occupy the position of a Church holding out a helping hand to the Presbyterian Church of Ireland on the one hand, and to the Presbyterian Church of England or the other. (Applause.)

THE UNION DIVISION.

On the minutes being read,

Mr R. C. SMITH said he thought an alteration was made in the first clause of Dr Candlish's motion. As read by the Clerk, it was in the form in which notice had been given.

I asked to be

Sir H. W. MONCREIFF There was no alteration made. Dr Candlish made an explanation as to the meaning of the clause, and indicated his readiness to alter the motion if people wished it; but it was not asked. Dr CANDLISH-That is precisely the state of the case. allowed to make an alteration if wished; but gentlemen did not want to make the alteration. I stated what was the meaning of my motion, and would have been quite willing to have had it altered to express that meaning more clearly if wished.

Dr MURRAY MITCHELL-That was precisely the reason why I allowed the motion to stand as it is. Dr Candlish's explanation was so clear that there seemed no reason to change it.

Mr M'GREGOR-I have to apologise to Mr Smith for interrupting him last night in his remarks on this point. I thought he was debating a question not before the House. I had precisely the same feeling as has been expressed; and just because I saw that the motion was perfectly to the point, I voted for Dr Candlish.

Mr BALFOUR-Having supported Dr Begg's motion, as the most likely in my view to promote union, I wish to know whether it is competent for me to sign both the reasons of dissent by Mr Nixon and those by Dr Gibson, because Dr Gibson's reasons bear rather upon the constitutional question, and Mr Nixon's upon the matter of union.

Sir H. W. MONCREIFF-I wish the minutes affirmed before we consider any question of that kind.

The minutes were affirmed.

The names of Mr Nisbet and Mr John Bean, elder, were given in as adhering to Dr Begg's protest.

Mr NISBET-I also adhere to Mr Nixon's reasons of dissent.

A few other adherences were intimated.

Mr THORBURN-I suppose there can be no objection to Mr Balfour subscribing both reasons of dissent put in.

parties voting for both. (Hear, hear.)

Mr BALFOUR-Very well.

There was no objection to

Sir H. W. MONCREIFF-I find that in the protest given in, we have recorded, so far as I can see, one name at least of a member who did not vote. I do not know how far it is regular or legal to put either to a dissent or protest the name of a person who took no part in the vote. It seems to me that we must exclude the name of any person who took no part in the vote. (Hear.)

Mr STARK-You are entitled to do so; but I humbly submit whether it would be expedient or wise to do it.

Sir H. W. MONCREIFF-It is contrary to all precedent, and it would be very dangerous as a rule to allow the signature of any person who was not present at the vote.

Mr STARK-I think it would be better you should allow it.

Sir H. W. MONCREIFF-A person might not be present at the end; and might not know how the thing stood when the vote was taken.

Mr NISBET-I think it would be very awkward or even wrong. The discussion might have changed at the end.

Dr CANDLISH-Clerks of Presbyteries and of all other Church Courts are very tenacious on the point of order; but it has been the practice of this Assembly, before and since the Disruption, to be very considerate in allowing persons to exonerate their consciences. I think it has been the practice to give all facilities to members of this Court to exonerate their consciences by way of dissent and protest.

Mr DUNLOP It would certainly be an awkward thing to allow a person to dissent who did not vote; but I think a person in such circumstances might be allowed to protest.

Sir H. MONCREIFF-I am quite willing to recognise Mr Dunlop's distinction. The only question that could arise there would be whether you would allow a protest at all.