own should not, as a matter of course, fall upon the funds of this Committee, but should be matter of express appointment by the General Assembly. Such Committee may be so nearly related, as regards the nature of its business, to some one or more of the Assembly's Committees having funds, as to make it reasonable to propose that these Committees should bear its expenses.

(2.) That the expenses of the following Committees now borne by this fund should not be so in future, but should be a charge upon the other Committees undernoted :—

Committee on Gaelic Scriptures, charge upon Committee on the Highlands.

Committee for the Distribution of Probationers, charge upon the Sustentation and Home Mission Committees.

Visitation of Synods by Deputations, on Home Mission Committee.

And that as soon as the funds of the College Committee are in

a condition to admit of it, the expenses of the Board of Examiners should be borne by that Committee.

The Committee further recommend that the ordinary account of this Commitee should be annually cleared off by the transfer of whatever balance there may be in the manner following :- -that the balance in hand at the close of this year, and any surplus of funds that may arise in future years, be carried to an account to be called the Reserve Fund; that in the event of a deficiency of funds in any year, that deficiency shall be charged upon the Reserve Fund, and should the Reserve Fund be exhausted, the deficiency shall then be charged upon the funds and schemes of the Church in the same manner as the annual sum allocated for Assembly Expenses; and, finally, that the yearly rent hitherto paid for the Hall to the Assembly Hall Committee be discontinued, and that grants from the Reserve Fund may be made from time to time to that Committee, according as they may require, and as the state of the Reserve Fund may admit.

The Committee resolve to bring the subject of the expenses of Special Deputations under the view of the Assembly, and to propose that either some special method should be adopted for raising the needful funds in each case, or the expenditure should be added to the sums levied from the several Committees.

The Committee have to announce to the General Assembly the great loss which the Church has sustained by the death of Mr. Hately, Precentor to the General Assembly. After due deliberation, the Committee have resolved to recommend to the Assembly to appoint Mr. Walter Strang to be successor to Mr. Hately in the office of Precentor.

With reference to the instruction of last General Assembly to the Committee, that they should continue their procedure for the assistance of the English Presbyterian Synod in the supply of stations, they have now to report that they have, during the past year, rendered willing aid in the way of procuring supply for new stations in England. As formerly, a number of ministers of the Church have given each a month's service at these stations, and they bear ample testimony to the cordiality with which their visits have been welcomed, and to the importance and interesting character of the work. It has, however, become evident that if this Church is to continue its help, and if that help is to be at all commensurate with the necessities of the case, some more systematic plan should be organized than has existed hitherto, and that the Church should carefully consider the claims of this important field, and the best mode of meeting them.

Finally, the Committee remind the Assembly of the meeting of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Ireland, which is to commence on Monday 3d June. The Committee, in giving in this Report, will ask the permission of the Assembly to suggest names of ministers and elders to for the deputation from the Free Church to the Irish Assembly.

In name and by authority of the Committee,

H. WELLWOOD MONCREIFF,

Vice-Convener.

I. BALANCE SHEET, 31st MARCH 1867.

THE balance-sheet is of the usual character. The balance in bank under the head of Sustentation is £48,064, 3s. 6d., consisting chiefly of the sum available, with the additions received since March, for the half-year's dividend to Ministers, now payable. The Education Fund has £4229, 3s. 5d. at its credit, available in like manner for Schoolmasters' salaries; while all the remaining schemes and miscellaneous funds have balances more or less at their credit, which they carry forward to commence the business of another year, the aggregate amount of these being £12,108, 18s. 1d. The balance at debit of Edinburgh College building, being the only unfavourable balance, remains very much as before.

II. GENERAL CHARGES AND Expenses of Committees.

These do not appear to call for any remark. Although there are one or two extra charges, the total sum, £5432, 6s. 4d., does not greatly exceed the previous year, £5361, 12s. 7d, so that on the ordinary charges there is a slight diminution.

Seven collections this year, and the partial collection for Foreign Missions, have produced the total sum of £20,473, 1s. Last year the same number of collections produced £20,750, 15s. 8d.

IV. ABSTRACT OF THE WHOLE FUNDS RAISED DURING THE YEAR

The total sum this year falls short of the previous year by £14,467, 8s., but several extraordinary items concurred to swell the amount of that year very greatly beyond any former year. With the exception of the previous year, this is the largest since the Disruption; and if these extraordinary sums are left out of view, the ordinary stated annual revenue of the various funds and schemes show more or less of increase, with the exception of the Education Fund, in which there is a small diminution. In particular

1. The General Sustentation Fund, so far as raised by associations, shows an increase over the previous year of £2062, 8s. 4d.

2. The Congregational Fund continues year by year to grow. In the last ten years it has increased at the average rate of £3415 per annum, the amount of 1856-7 having been £87,870, 19s. 24d., and of 1866-7, £122,024, 13s. 81d. 3. The Foreign Mission Associations give a slight increase. The Committee have to repeat the expression of regret which they have made on former occasions that their Yearly Report of Finance is necessarily so meagre and incomplete. The necessity arises from the fact that the Schedules from Congregations are not fully returned, and the Treasurer's Accounts completed until the very eve of the meeting of the Assembly, so that time is not afforded for anything more than the brief Report now submitted.

Some years ago the Committee proposed that at regular intervals of years a more complete body of statistics should be obtained from Congregations than is contained in the usual Annual Schedules. They have now to propose that such a return should be called for this year, i.e., prior to next Assembly-that the returns thus obtained should be remitted to be thoroughly digested and arranged, with a view to being laid before the Assembly along with the Quinquennial Tables of Accounts which fall to be prepared for the Assembly of 1869.

G. MELDRUM,
Convener.