PRESBYTERIANS. 



633 



tendance of 6,425 persons and 1,850 commu- 

 nicants; and seventy-eight mission churches, 

 with 15,900 attendants and 10,023 commu- 

 nicants ; and to thirteen church-building enter- 

 prises. The Endowment Committee had en- 

 dowed and erected ten new parishes during the 

 year ending April 15, 1880. Since the insti- 

 tution of the scheme, 293 parishes, with 129,- 

 700 communicants, had been added to the 

 Church. The subscriptions received in aid of 

 the special fund of 100,000 to endow one 

 hundred additional churches now amounted to 

 43,349. Five hundred and sixty-live pupils 

 were enrolled in its schools, and one baptism 

 had taken place at Smyrna. The income of the 

 Foreign Mission Committee had been 11,014, 

 considerably less than in the previous year, 

 while the expenditure had been 16,062, or 

 3,000 more than in 1878. 



The General Assembly of the Church of Scot- 

 land met in Edinburgh, May 20th. The Rev. 

 Dr. Archibald Watson, of Dundee, was chosen 

 moderator. The most important action of the 

 Assembly was the adoption for submission to 

 the Presbyteries of a new formula for subscrip- 

 tion by elders, which is as follows: " I believe 

 that the true Protestant religion, as it hath of 

 long time been professed in this land, is found- 

 ed on and agreeable to the Holy Scriptures. I 

 own and promise to adhere to the said true 

 Protestant religion, and to the sum and sub- 

 stance of the doctrine of the Reformed Churches 

 as contained in the Confession of Faith ap- 

 pro ven by former General Assemblies of this 

 Church, and ratified by law in the year 1690. 

 I likewise own and promise to adhere to the 

 worship and Presbyterian government of this 

 Church ns now settled by law, and to submit 

 to and concur with the said government, and 

 never to endeavor, directly or indirectly, the 

 prejudice or subversion thereof." Attention 

 was called to the charges against the adminis- 

 tration of the Blantyre mission on the Shire 

 River, Central Africa, which had been made in a 

 published pamphlet, and which had been dis- 

 cussed in Parliament. The investigation by the 

 committee appointed to inquire into the subject 

 showed that a murder had been committed at 

 Blantyre by natives, for which the infliction of 

 punishment was demanded. The neighboring 

 chiefs were asked to try the murderers, but 

 they replied that by native law and custom 

 jurisdiction went with the territory, and as the 

 English were in possession at Blantyre, they, 

 and they alone, were responsible. The mur- 

 derers were tried before a native jury, presided 

 over by one of the missionaries, and sentenced 

 to death. The missionaries hesitated to inflict 

 the punishment; but one of the murderers 

 escaping, the other was shot by a volley from 

 native guns on the scene of the murder. The 

 Committee on Missions had at one meeting ex- 

 pressed the deep distress with which they 

 received this news, and at another one had 

 disavowed all responsibility for the act, reserv- 

 ing their final decision in the case until further 



information should have been received. After- 

 ward, letters were received from the ink-ion - 

 aries, pleading that the capital sentence was 

 undoubtedly in itself righteous, and they had 

 been little more than passive in the- matter 

 they had only not prevented the natives from 

 carrying out their own laws. The committee 

 expressed the belief that its Agents had done 

 wrong legally and otherwise in partially assum- 

 ing jurisdiction and sanctioning the execution, 

 but could regard the error only as one of judg- 

 ment. Forbidding the repetition of such an 

 act, they had entered into a careful considrra- 

 tion of the questions of government and pun- 

 ishments in their infant settlement, and had 

 also sought the advice of the Committee of tin; 

 Free Church. In September, 1879, a conflict 

 occurred with a neighboring chief who had 

 attacked the settlement for the purpose of plun- 

 der, and the village continued to suffer till the 

 end of the year from raids made with the object 

 of carrying off men and women. These event s 

 had been combined in the pamphlet publication 

 with the story of the execution, although they 

 had no connection with it, and were seven 

 months apart in time. Other charges were 

 made in the pamphlet of a habit of flogging 

 and inhuman imprisonment alleged to be prac- 

 ticed by the missionaries, to winch the com- 

 mittee of inquiry said : " These charges must be 

 thoroughly sifted. Meanwhile they are in- 

 credible. It is true there have been cases of 

 corporal punishment. The first was in 1877, 

 when Mr. James Stewart was in charge. The 

 committee believe the instances to have been 

 rare." The Assembly directed a commissioner 

 to be sent out to inquire into the condition of 

 the missions, and ordered that the Mission Com- 

 mittee should require from any commissioner 

 that might be sent put a precise report as to 

 the possibility of maintaining the mission with- 

 out having recourse to violence or the assump- 

 tion of any form of criminal jurisdiction. 



VII. FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. The re- 

 port of the Finance Committee, presented to 

 the General Assembly in May, showed that the 

 total income of the Church for the year had 

 been 591,478, or 40,000 more than the in- 

 come for the previous year. The contributions 

 for the sustentation fund had amounted to 

 171,719. The members and adherents of the 

 Church were stated in the report on this fund 

 to number 302,262. The income of the Edu- 

 cation Committee had been 1,499, and its 

 expenditure 2,837. Forty-nine teachers were 

 receiving retiring allowances. The income of 

 the Mission to the Jews had been 9,702, and 

 the ordinary expenditure in behalf of it 5,921. 

 Eleven baptisms had taken place during the 

 year, at Pesth, Constantinople, and Breslau, 

 and one hundred children, three fourths of 

 whom were of Jewish birth, were receiving in- 

 struction in the schools at those places. The 

 whole amount of the givings of the Church 

 during the year had been 56,000, the largest 

 amount ever reached in one year. 



