| <Taits' Edinburgh Magazine 1840 ~~ Burton>
| <The Church of Scotland and the Veto Question> 
| <pb n="138">
| The conflict which has, for some time past, been raging within the 
| arena of the Church of Scotland, is one which, arising out of 
| discussions purely conventional, does not attract the attention of 
| strangers until the accumulated fervour of the combatants has 
| forced it upon general notice, in a form in which it is difficult to 
| distinguish the original elements of the strife. At the present 
| moment, our neighbours of England and Ireland, with, perhaps, a 
| few of the less interested or less observant among ourselves can 
| distinguish little in the general hubbub but a confused discharge of 
| outlandish missiles, going by the hard names of Vetoes, Calls, 
| Dissents, Declarators, Suspensions, Interdicts, Takings on Trial, 
| <reg orig="&c.;"> etcetera; </reg> while the 
| combatants appear under the disguises of 
| Probationers, Presentees, Lords Ordinary on the Bills, First and 
| Second Divisions, Outer and Inner Houses, Commissions, 
| Presbyteries, Moderators, and Messengers-at-Arms. Intending, ~~ 
| as a party not interested in the discussion, farther than as it is a 
| passage in history, ~~ to state our opinion, of the merits of the 
| struggle, and of the actuating motives of those engaged in it, we 
| think it right to give, in the first place, a brief narrative of the 
| whole transaction, for the benefit of the uninitiated.
| Patronage, or the right to present a qualified person to a benefice in 
| the Church of Scotland, has existed as an article of property, 
| generally, but not necessarily as a feudal right. With a very few 
| exceptions, chiefly in the case of public bodies, it has been at the 
| unlimited disposal of the proprietor. In general, it may be said that 
| the existing patrons are the representatives of the founders of the 
| respective benefices. The Crown holds many patronages, which, 
| before the Reformation, were in the hands of the Pope, the prelates, 
| and the monastic establishments. In the oscillations between 
| Presbytery and Episcopacy, which followed the Reformation, the 
| right of patronage underwent some temporary vicissitudes: but no 
| measure of importance in relation to the present subject took place 
| until the year 1649. An act was then passed, which describing 
| patronage as <quotation> 
| </quotation> abolished the system thenceforth, and enacted that 
| Presbyteries should proceed to ordain and collate, <quotation> </quotation> 
| leaving it to the General Assembly to give their own directions for 
| the enforcement of the provision. At the Restoration, this Act was 
| "rescinded," along with all the others that had been passed since 
| the commencement of the dispute with Charles I. Patronage was 
| again abolished by the Scottish act of 1690, <c. 23;> and as the nature 
| of this enactment has been much founded on in the course of the 
| present dispute, its provisions demand some attention. It vested the 
| presentation to the benefice in the heritors or landed proprietors of 
| the parish, being Protestants, acting along with the elders. The 
| congregation had the right of dissent, stating their reasons; on the 
| validity of which the Presbytery had the privilege of deciding. On 
| the other hand, the patrons were to receive compensation from the 
| heritors
| <pb n="139">
| amounting in each case, to 600 marks ~~ about 33 <pounds> 6s. sterling. 
| This was, in short, a compulsory sale, and so it was viewed by the 
| act of the 10th of Queen Anne, which restored patronage: the right 
| of presentation was reserved to those heritors and elders who had 
| paid for it; and in the cases in which this was done, the patronage 
| is still administered in terms of the much-talked-of act of King 
| William. Singularly enough, the privilege was so little coveted by 
| the heritors and elders, or the money was of so little moment to the 
| patrons, that the bargain was only fulfilled in three instances: in 
| most cases, we presume, the parties by a compromise allowed 
| matters to remain as they were.
| There is little doubt that the statue of Queen Anne was dealt out, 
| by her half Jacobite Ministry, as a blow to Presbyterianism; and it 
| probably had the effect of reviving the slumbering enthusiasm for 
| something like popular election. The fire so rekindled, smouldered 
| on till the year 1733, when Erskine and his followers attested their 
| disinterested zeal for the cause they had adopted, by seceding from 
| a Church which demanded, in return for the protection and support 
| of the State, an homage in which they could not concur. After the 
| Secession was completed, the Church of Scotland, freed of its 
| hotter spirits, was a respectable body for, an establishment, and 
| innocent in proportion to its want of fervour. With the exception of 
| a few by-strokes against Episcopalians, Catholics, and 
| philosophical innovators, it was as peaceful as it is possible for a 
| church, invested with exclusive privileges, to be. The enthusiasm 
| of those who possessed any, was directed to the utilitarian object of 
| augmentations of stipend. With a comprehensive foresight directed 
| towards war prices and the pressure of the Corn Laws, it became 
| the leading object of their ambition to get their salaries commuted 
| into "victual" or grain. <quotation> </quotation> 
| as Sir John Connell calls it, in 
| his eminently dry Treatise on Tithes, was, at the commencement of 
| the present century, crowned with well-earned success.
| The country clergy of the day troubled themselves not with State 
| affairs, or vexing questions about the pedigrees of churches. 
| Enough that they had the stipend, the manse, and the glebe. Next to 
| these things, their duties to their parishioners occupied their 
| thoughts; <hi rend="italic"> after </hi> which, it may charitably be 
| supposed that a discreet conviviality, such as country air and good 
| exercise would season them to accomplish with credit, came in for 
| its share of attention. The public business of the Church was 
| generally left in the hands of the more eminent and gifted men of 
| the profession; of whom several were the ornaments of the age. 
| These men had studied history and philosophy, and knew that 
| Church establishments are things which, if stretched too far, would 
| crack; and, acting on their knowledge, they obtained for 
| themselves and their followers the characteristic name of 
| Moderates. Before we tell how a different rule came to be adopted 
| in the Church, let us first explain briefly the nature of the Church 
| judicature, in which the contest has been proceeding.
| The lowest judicature of the Kirk is the session, consisting of the 
| parish clergyman and two or more elders. These latter are elected 
| by the session collectively, when a vacancy occurs, or it is 
| considered expedient to increase the number. The candidate is 
| announced to the congregation, that they may dissent: but, as the 
| merits of their objections are subject to the approval of the session, 
| the election is, of course, simply in the hands of the latter, or rather 
| of the clergyman. The next grade is the Presbytery; including all 
| the parochial clergy of a certain district, any Professor of Divinity 
| there may be within it, and a lay elder from each parish. Collegiate 
| charges have the effect of generally giving the clerical members a 
| majority in this court. The reader will keep in view that it is with 
| Presbyteries that the ordination and admission of Presentees lie; 
| and that they have thus had to bear the brunt of the Veto war. Next 
| come we to Synods, which are simply conglomerates of 
| Presbyteries, from which they are also courts of appeal. The 
| mighty General Assembly is the highest court. It consists of 
| clergymen and elders from the various Presbyteries; the respective 
| numbers being from time to time adjusted by Acts of Assembly. 
| There are likewise elders chosen by the royal burghs, and 
| representatives from universities, and from churches in India. The 
| number of members is about 400, of whom about 170 may be 
| laymen.
| It is well known that the General Assembly is attended by a 
| Commissioner as the representative of the Sovereign, who trails 
| the clergy in procession through Edinburgh, gives them dinners, 
| and sits over them <p> "like a star apart," </p> while they are wrangling
| and storming below. The relation of this dignitary to the Assembly is 
| one of the most nicely poised balances which the art of 
| compromise has hitherto accomplished; and, like all such 
| exquisitely adjusted instruments, it is for ornament, not use, being 
| likely to topple down on the first jerk of practical application. The 
| Commissioner opens the Assembly by reading his commission. 
| The Moderator politely expresses how rejoiced all the members are 
| to receive so distinguished a guest; and then adds a protest that the 
| Assembly meets, not convened by any earthly head, but under the 
| sanction of <quotation> </quotation> 
| This latter statement is a stage <p> "aside," </p> which 
| there is no necessity for the Commissioner hearing, and which it 
| would be quite imprudent in him to listen to. When the session is at 
| an end, the Commissioner adjourns the Assembly to a certain day, 
| in the name of the Sovereign; whereupon the Moderator, not 
| having heard one word of what he has said, adjourns it in the name 
| of the Lord Jesus Christ; by a wonderful train of coincidences, 
| invariably hitting on the very same day. There was one assembly 
| ~~ that of 1636, lately commemorated at public gatherings in 
| Edinburgh and Glasgow ~~ which remained sitting after a 
| dissolution under pain of treason.
| <pb n="140">
| At the commencement of the reign of William III., when the 
| Presbyterians, having gained the victory, chafed at any attempt to 
| check them in the career of reprisal, a similar scene was on the eve 
| of being attempted, but was checked by a timely concession, as to 
| the oaths to government. Both parties were naturally a little afraid 
| of each other: but if the wild Churchmen had not accepted the 
| compromise, there is little doubt that the firm hand of the 
| Dutchman would have put them down, as that of Oliver Cromwell 
| had done forty years earlier. The question of the Assembly's 
| Independence of the State, has been latterly lulled to sleep in the 
| prudent arms of those who led the Councils of the Church: but it is 
| a sort of babe easily wakened; and we are much inclined to think 
| that the wild work now going on will rouse it into fractious 
| activity. We cannot well see, indeed, how the hot spirits who have 
| headed the career of the independence party, can, consistently with 
| the principles thy avow, continue to assent to so eminently childish 
| a compromise; and we are not unlikely to see another church 
| assemblage put down by the law as easily as the convocation of 
| England was by George I.; but whether as noiselessly, may be a 
| matter of doubt.
| And now to the passing of the Veto Act. This was a law of the 
| Assembly, by way of instruction to Presbyteries, that when a 
| licentiate is presented to a vacancy by a patron, if a majority of the 
| male heads of families, <hi rend="italic"> communicants </hi> in 
| the parish, object to him as their pastor, he shall not be taken on 
| trial for ordination and induction. The act declaring this principle 
| was passed in 1834; its practical operation has been regulated by 
| an annual act. Before this alteration, Presbyteries, having the 
| power of admission to the benefice, might reject the presentee if 
| they found him disqualified; and it was competent for members of 
| the congregation to plead grounds of disqualification for their 
| consideration. The plea of the Church has therefore been, that as 
| they had the right of dictating the suitable qualifications for the 
| ministry, it was quite within their province to decide that 
| acceptability to the majority of the heads of families in communion 
| with the church should be an indispensable requisite. To let 
| strangers understand the full merits of the dispute, it may be 
| observed that, in Scotland, ordination as a clerk, and collation to 
| the benefice, are acts performed on the same occasion ~~ the 
| reception of the licentiate's presentation. In England, the priest is 
| ordained to the holy office, independently of any connexion with a 
| particular charge. The Church Government stamp is impressed on 
| him, and he is then freely set up for sale to 
| <reg orig="any one"> anyone </reg> who wants the 
| commodity. The inquisitorial spirit of Presbyterianism has 
| managed this matter better for its own interest: the authorities will 
| not fully certify the man till they know where he is going, and what 
| he is to do. Nay, it is a rule of the Church, that a clergyman cannot 
| be transferred from one benefice to another without the consent of 
| the Presbytery he is about to leave, who must discover that his 
| change of residence is <p> "for the glory of God." </p> The permission is 
| seldom requested, unless there be an increase of stipend, and that is 
| always sure to be found <p> "for the glory of God." </p> The regulation is, 
| like many others connected with the Church, likely to continue the 
| longer in theory that it is not attempted to be enforced in practice.
| The Veto Act worked to perfection so long as 
| <reg orig="no one"> no-one </reg> disputed its 
| operation. In the renowned case of the presentation to 
| Auchterarder, however, the presentee having been vetoed, and 
| rejected by the presbytery, brought an action of declarator in the 
| Court of Session, on the ground that, as his presentation was valid 
| and legal, the Presbytery were bound to take him on trails in the 
| usual manner, and, if they found him properly qualified, to admit 
| him to the charge. The Court took the simple view which our 
| Courts of Law, as guardians of civil rights, must take in all 
| questions regarding the proceedings of privileged bodies, be they 
| military, clerical, or corporate. They asked whether the Church, in 
| the exercise of its privileges, as given and limited by law, ad 
| attempted to interfere with private rights; and finding that it had 
| interfered with the right of patronage, (which, whether a good right 
| or a bad one, was constituted by act of Parliament,) they decided 
| that the proceeding of the Presbytery was illegal. Then came an 
| appeal to the House of Lords; where Lord Brougham, coming to 
| the same conclusion, gave forth his reasons with all that distinct 
| and cloudless logical accuracy which in him is so singularly 
| blended with a copious and rapid eloquence. <quotation> 
| </quotation> he remarked, <quotation> </quotation> 
| The Assembly met about two months after this decision, in 1839, 
| and the question was, whether they should submit, steer a middle 
| course, or resist. The last proposition was carried. It was argued, 
| that the Church, having taken the litigation to the House of Lords, 
| virtually acknowledged its jurisdiction in the matter. This was 
| sneered at most emphatically. The clergy maintained that they only 
| wanted a decision in their own favour: they did not by any means 
| promise to submit to an adverse judgement; and very consistently 
| was it so maintained on Church principles, which are to take all 
| that is given or can be got, but to concede nothing. While the 
| Church was thus discharging her blank blunderbusses, the Court of 
| Sessions commenced a scattered fire of <p> "interdicts," </p> not so 
| sonorous, but much more deadly in their effect. An interdict is 
| somewhat like an injunction in England ~~ an order by a Civil 
| Court, prohibiting individuals from doing some particular act, 
| under pain of punishment for contempt if they disobey. In the case 
| of the parish of Lethendy, the Presbytery
| <pb n="141">
| of Dunkeld were <p> "interdicted," </p> at the instance of a vetoed 
| presentee, from taking a second presentee on trials. They 
| disobeyed the interdict, and were brought before the bar of the 
| Court accordingly. There was much discussion as to what should 
| be done with the reverend gentlemen; for the Court felt some 
| compunction about committing them forthwith to prison ~~ the 
| usual practice on such occasions. It was settled that, as this was the 
| first offence of the kind, the Lord President should dismiss them 
| with a solemn reprimand, and a warning that whoever committed a 
| similar act should be punished.
| The next interdict, in the case of the parish of Daviot, in 
| Inverness-shire, was of a very sweeping nature. A majority of the   
| heads of families in communion (amounting to seven) were prohibited  
| from vetoing. Here the question naturally occurs, Would the Court 
| have prohibited the members of a Voluntary congregation from merely 
| meeting to express their dissent in similar circumstances? No, 
| indeed. The reason of the prohibition, in the instance in question, 
| was, that the dissent, if of a particular kind ~~ that is, if 
| accompanied with a valid reason ~~ had a certain legal effect, by 
| the law of the Church, as ratified by the law of the land; therefore 
| the Court prohibited the dissent from being vitiated by being 
| tendered in any other than the valid and legal manner. Thus is an 
| Established Church bound over, hand and foot, to the rules which 
| the State shall lay down for it.
| The case of the Presbytery of Strathbogie comes next. A 
| presentation had been given to the parish of Marnoch, and the 
| presentee was vetoed. This was just before the decision in the 
| Auchterarder Case. The Presbytery had already, as will be seen, 
| given a negative effect to the veto: but, after the decision of the 
| Court of Session, a majority of their number wished to obey the 
| law, as interpreted by it. On this point, the question came before 
| the Assembly of 1838; by which the Presbytery was imperatively 
| commanded to put the Veto Act in force. The patron, in the 
| meantime, on the understanding that his first presentee was 
| virtually rejected, presented another licentiate. This rendered it 
| necessary for the former to look after his interest; and he did so, by 
| getting the Court of Session to interdict the Presbytery from 
| inducting any other person. Having thus stopped the mouth of his 
| adversary, he proceeded to state his own case, by raising an action 
| of declarator in the Court of Session; and the Presbytery resolved 
| to suspend proceedings till the question should be decided. This 
| resolution was carried by appeal to the Synod and the Assembly. 
| The case was left over by the Assembly to its "Commission," of 
| which more; and the first deliverance of that body is before us, but, 
| as we do not understand it, we cannot give its substance.
| In June 1839, the vetoed presentee obtained a decree of the Court 
| of Session, finding the Presbytery bound to take him on trials, and, 
| if he were found qualified, to admit him as minister. After some 
| little demeaning ~~ for the Moderator, being a vetoist, threw 
| difficulties in the way of the proceedings ~~ the Presbytery at last 
| held a meeting, at which they resolved, by a majority, that they 
| should take the presentee on trials. This resolution was brought 
| before the Commission, in terms of a direction by the Assembly to 
| report any change of circumstances to that body.
| And now come we to the act which, if it cannot be in one way or 
| other backed out of by the Church, must inevitably lead to its 
| breaking up. The Commission met immediately after this act of 
| contumacy. The Independency clergy flocked in hot and fierce: 
| those on the opposite side, not having the interest of vengeance to 
| urge them, were not so eager. There was one of those 
| overwhelming majorities which drive such bodies out of their 
| senses. The temper of the meeting cannot be better illustrated than 
| it is in the commencement of the report of a speech delivered to it 
| by Dr. Bryce, who moved that the Commission should approve of 
| the conduct of the Presbytery of Strathbogie, in giving effect to the 
| decree of the Court of Session. The proposal was met with <p> "loud 
| laughter." </p> A recommendation to obey the law appeared in so 
| overwhelmingly ludicrous a point of view to the reverend 
| gentlemen, that they could not restrain their mirth. Of course, the 
| most violent resolutions that could be proposed were adopted. The 
| proceedings of the Presbytery were declared <quotation> 
| </quotation> and were finally annulled. The members of 
| Presbytery who had agreed to them were suspended from their 
| ministerial functions, and other clergy men were appointed to 
| perform their duties. The effect of all this was, to turn the popular 
| feeling in a very different direction to what was wished. The 
| congregations of the seven suspended clergymen held meetings, 
| and passed resolutions to stand by their pastors. The Church 
| demanded <p> "Clerical subordination." </p> The inhabitants of Strathbogie 
| called for relief from clerical despotism. This incident was truly 
| much against the cause of the Church, so far as appearances went. 
| She wished to assume the sackcloth of the oppressed, ~~ she 
| marched forth in the harness of the persecutor. But there were 
| more effectual means at hand than public meetings. The sentence 
| of the Commission had to be executed from the pulpits of the 
| suspended clergymen, by certain ministers appointed for the 
| purpose. The seven applied for and obtained, from the Court of 
| Sessions, an interdict, prohibiting all persons from intruding on 
| their churches for any such purpose. The High Churchman 
| appointed to perform the message of wrath, had thus to act a scene 
| on the voluntary system, by preaching in dissenting chapels, in 
| taverns, or on the wayside.
| On the 29th January last, occurred another scene, bringing us a step 
| nearer to the plot. The members of the Presbytery of Srathbogie 
| met to transact business; suspended and unsuspended, the former 
| constituting a majority of seven to
| <pb n="142">
| <hi rend="italic"> four. </hi> The first policy of the latter was, not 
| to acknowledge the existence of the former; they were suspended 
| clergymen, and, therefore, not clergymen at all. A majority can 
| generally carry on the farce of overlooking a minority: but it is 
| very difficult for a minority to do so by a majority, and so it was 
| found in this instance. The four had some advantage at the first 
| onset, by having the Moderator on their side, who refused to 
| acknowledge that the seven were anything. The majority, however, 
| soon settled that point, by deposing the Moderator and choosing a 
| new one. The two bodies then separated, each content to be <p> "the 
| Presbytery" </p> on its own principles. The Presbytery of seven, 
| proceeded to take the presentee on his trials. The four endeavoured 
| to accomplish a <hi rend="italic"> coup de main </hi> by electing 
| their representatives for the next General Assembly. They might 
| have spared themselves the trouble; for, according to the laws of 
| the Church, they were not entitled to do so for more than a month 
| later. Before separating, they issued handbills, warning the 
| parishioners of the seven not to receive the sacrament of the Lord's 
| Supper, the rites of marriage, nor baptism for their children, from 
| their pastors, as the ceremonies would be void and null; 
| <quotation> </quotation> says the Tory paper  
| (<hi rend="italic"> The Aberdeen Constitutional </hi>) in which we 
| find the report of the affair <quotation> </quotation>
| To zealous and conscientious supporters of the Church of Scotland, 
| who are not too much infatuated by partisanship, to see the obvious 
| tendency of these incidents, the prospects of their favourite 
| establishment must assume the most gloomy and disastrous hue. 
| To the friends of Voluntary Church principles, the whole tissue of 
| events is merely a phase of the natural workings of an Established 
| Church, leading to this satisfactory conclusion, that such 
| institutions, when their powers are unscrupulously stretched, are 
| found to contain the element s of self-destruction in their bosoms. 
| These are not times when vigorous experiments can be tried upon 
| such aged subjects; and we think we can perceive signs, that the 
| more majestic establishment of our neighbours is beginning to 
| exhibit internal symptoms prognosticating a similar result.
| As we have already said, we do not see how anything but some 
| accident, can prevent the Church of Scotland from being broken 
| up. The seven ministers of Strathbogie have stuck close by the 
| directions of the lawful courts; and if all who are of their side, 
| follow the same sure guidance, they must be brought victoriously 
| through. The Court have taken up the view, that the Veto Act is an 
| attempt to interfere with a civil right, and they have practically 
| intimated that they will protect from injury any body of men who 
| are acting in accordance with the law so declared. The General 
| Assembly may depose and excommunicate. The Commission 
| attempted to suspend, but the Court interfered. What is to prevent 
| it from likewise laying its prohibitory hand on the Assembly? But 
| it may be said that the Commission exceeded its authority; and in 
| the admission by the Church of such a supposition, we see the only 
| outlet she has. The act was indeed beyond the proper jurisdiction 
| of the Commission, which, being but a committee of the 
| Assembly, (though of the whole house,) is not entitled, and could 
| not consistently be empowered, to act in a new emergency; but is 
| merely authorized to try the points especially and individually 
| committed to it by the Assembly, and report its decisions for 
| approbation. 
| Do we then view a passive resistance to the law (if we can call it in 
| this instance passive) with great abhorrence? No, indeed; but it is a 
| sort of proceeding, the merit of which must be specially measured 
| by its objects. We approved of the resistance of John Thorogood, 
| because it was, in its nature, a public demonstration of the pressure 
| of an iniquitous impost. We condemn the resistance of the Scottish 
| clergy, because we see distinctly that they are fighting the old 
| battle of priestcraft, for the aggrandisement of their own 
| establishment. Believing their objects to be thus dangerous, 
| however, and such as it is the duty of the community at large to 
| resist, let not our appreciation of them be misunderstood, with 
| reference to the character of the men who are at the head of the 
| attack. A struggle for the aggrandizement of a peculiar order and 
| creed, we admit, may not only have for its companion, but 
| frequently calls into action, much personal disinterestedness and 
| purity of feeling. Deeply are these virtues impressed on the history 
| of the most illustrious campaign for the spread of priestly 
| influence, that ever was laid before the world ~~ the progress of 
| the Jesuits. Whether it was to brave a tyrant monarch, or to infuse, 
| through the medium of abject submission, their subtle reasoning 
| into the rough bosom of a savage populace ~~ whether it was to 
| bask in the noxious sunshine of a court, or to pursue the more 
| congenial task of patient study, through endless mazes of thought 
| and research in dingy libraries; wherever, in any form, by the 
| exercise of courage or humility, energy or patience, the interests of 
| the order were to be served ~~ the self-devoted bosom was 
| prepared for the sacrifices. It was not to invest their order, far less 
| themselves, with the vulgar power of physical dominion, or the 
| tinsel of rank, that all this was done; but to found an empire in the 
| hearts and consciences of a diversified multitude of human beings, 
| that, striking the roots of their influence with individual mankind 
| far and deep, they should cast a corresponding shadow over the 
| man. Modified by the age in which he lives, Dr. Chalmers is a 
| Jesuit of the less gross material. To the charge of pursuing either 
| profit or the aggrandizement of his personal dignity he is not 
| amenable. His whole energies are put forth in
| <pb n="143">
| the support of his order; and that order is a mixture of Toryism and 
| the Church of Scotland. At the time he is found struggling to 
| increase the Church interest in the universities, in the election of a 
| rector or the choice of a professor. Anon he is assisting a 
| parliamentary Tory candidate to take the field under the banners of 
| the Church. A police ward consisting chiefly of Tories, who do not 
| wish to be troubled about small matters, agree to give no 
| opposition to a Liberal candidate for the commissionership: but the 
| doctor cannot put with such backsliding, and he is up early, urging 
| all the pious women to their duty. Suddenly he starts in a more 
| majestic field, and exhorts <quotation>  
| </quotation> to support the Veto. 
| All this may be quite disinterested, but it is not the less 
| mischievous.
| Some of the friends of the Veto assume for it the quality of 
| liberality, and, we believe, a few of them are under a hallucination 
| that such is its characteristic. Were we addressing ourselves merely 
| to home readers, it would be unnecessary to expose this fallacy: the 
| next to unanimous voice of the Liberal press on the subject, is a 
| sufficient index to the public feeling and knowledge on the point. 
| For the benefit of more distant readers, however, who may be 
| unable to reconcile some peculiarities in this question with the 
| position we have taken up, it may be well to give a few 
| explanations. In the first place, then, many of the Tories are 
| opposed to the Veto. They have pretty substantial reasons. Some of 
| them are proprietors of patronages, the value of which they do not 
| feel any inclination to assist in reducing. Others do not like to see a 
| church not rich enough in general to open up a field of ambition to 
| members of the aristocracy, strengthening and enlarging itself into 
| a rival power to their own. In this they are simply acting the Henry 
| to Thomas-a-Becket; and it is the duty of sound Liberals to 
| endeavour to break down the power of both. But there is a 
| circumstance which has proved itself far more anomalous to 
| strangers, in the existence of a body, not numerous, but certainly 
| pretty influential, who unite the politics of the Whigs with the 
| principles of zealous Churchmen. It will have been noticed above, 
| that a large proportion of the constituent members of the Church 
| courts are Laymen. This not only gives an internal strength to the 
| Presbyterian system, which no other can well compete with, but 
| bestows on it an aspect of fearless liberality. Let not the reader, 
| however, hastily conclude that these Laymen are independent 
| parties, taken from the community at large; they all, by virtue of a 
| strict system of qualification, issue from the bosom of the Church. 
| In polemical assemblies there is, necessarily, much speaking, of a 
| very captivating and elevated cast; and so, ambitious young 
| gentlemen, members of the bar especially, are taught to look 
| forward to the Church Courts as arenas for their eloquence. It 
| happens thus, that, at their first entrance on life, they become 
| deeply embued with a clerical <hi rend="italic"> esprit de corps; 
| </hi> and in this manner are the Church Whigs of the Edinburgh 
| Parliament House to be accounted for.
| So much for an explanation of the reasons why there are Tories 
| against the Veto, and Whigs for it, among Laymen. Among the 
| Clergy, whatever the opponents of the Veto may be, its supporters 
| seem to be (if we may judge by their other proceedings) Tories to a 
| man. They say they are struggling for the People! How is it that, in 
| their multifarious agitation, they have found but one form in which 
| to do so? Do they support the Ballot? The Repeal of the Corn 
| Laws? The Extension of the Suffrage? ~~ Not they, indeed. We 
| might have had to furnish a list of measures, of a very different 
| tendency to which they have given assistance, had not, Dr. 
| Chalmers relieved us of the labour, in his address to the Clergy of 
| England, where he says ~~ <quotation> </quotation>
| Dr. Chalmers might have particularized their services at the last 
| general election; how clergymen, disabled from the performance of 
| their pastoral duties, crawled along to the polling places, to see 
| how their flocks conducted themselves; how Kilmarnock was 
| taken by storm. He should not have forgotten the national fast <p> "for 
| the sins of the land," </p> held, by order of the Assembly, in 1833, 
| when Sir Robert Peel was driven from office.
| At the commencement of this struggle, the cry of the independence 
| party was for <quotation> 
| </quotation> reminding one of Robespierre's favourite appeal to 
| the <quotation> <hi rend="italic"> <foreign lang="French"> 
| </foreign> </hi> </quotation> 
| Latterly, this has been superceded by more characteristic appeals to 
| <quotation> 
| </quotation> the term <p> "insolence," </p> especially in the mouth 
| of the meek clergyman, is often used to characterise those who are 
| opposed to the domination of the Church. 
| <pb n="144">
| In the following quotation from the speech of Dr. Chalmers, to the 
| Assembly of 1839, may be found the tone adopted by the Church 
| party in its mildest form.
| <quotation> </quotation>
| But a sentence in the manifesto of the committee appointed by the 
| Assembly to urge their cause, is perhaps still more clearly 
| emphatic.
| <quotation> </quotation> they say, <quotation> </quotation> In 
| short, the Church, setting up a rivalry with the courts of law, says 
| ~~ <quotation> </quotation> Now we may conclude this subject 
| with the simple remark, that for a body enjoying exclusive 
| privileges, and who consider it their interest and duty to support 
| and enlarge those privileges to be entitled to decide on their extent, 
| to the exclusion of the courts of law, which have the administration 
| of the interests of the community at large at their disposal, is a 
| proposition too preposterous to be entertained in any country 
| which is not prepared to subject itself to the despotism of a 
| priesthood.
| So much for the merits of the Veto, as proposed to be converted 
| into law by the sole authority of the Church Courts. A few words 
| now as to the question, whether those who are seeking this 
| privilege from the Legislature ought to be supported. And here let 
| us observe that this is comparatively a trifling question; and the 
| objections, if our readers will admit them to be objections, which 
| we may have to the project, are merely shades of difference, when 
| compared with our abhorrence of the privileges claimed by the 
| Church Courts. It is proposed that certain persons should have the 
| power of objecting to the appointment of a clergyman at a certain 
| stage. This stage is, however, their first acquaintance with him; 
| knowing that, if he get over the first difficulty, he is secure for life, 
| he may assume a false character, to gratify the arbiters of his fate. 
| If the Vetoists are sincere in their wish that a clergyman should not 
| be at the head of a congregation to which he is not acceptable, why 
| not give them the power of removal? Again, why limit the right of 
| dissent to the male head of families in communion with the 
| Church? These are generally but few in number: in the case of 
| Daviot, they amounted to only ten. Why should not the whole 
| congregation ~~ nay, why should not the whole parish join in the 
| choice? The Churchman will smile at this; for he has his reasons, 
| and they are very cogent. Church ordinances are not with us as 
| they are in England, privileges to which the people are entitled: 
| they are boons which the Church confers, and which she may 
| refuse when she thinks fit. Curiously applicable to the use that may 
| be made of this power is the following extract from a report of a 
| meeting of the Presbytery of Edinburgh, on 29th January: ~~
| <quotation> </quotation>
| It is easy to foresee what elements may be requisite to constitute a 
| <p> "good character," </p> in the eyes of a church which punished one 
| of its ministers for dining with Mr. O'Connell. A patron is a man
| taken from Protestants at large; he may be an Episcopalian or a 
| Dissenter. From such hands the Church wishes the power to be 
| taken, that it may be put into the hands of a body who, having the 
| appearance of popularity, owe their existence to the Church, and 
| may be expanded or contracted at her will. Over their
| <pb n="145">
| own presentees the clergy hold despotic sway; they naturally wish 
| to increase the value attached to the qualification, by enlarging the 
| privileges which it confers on the recipient.