PRESBYTERIANS. 



653 



to the inferior judicatories and congregations 

 for ratification. A favorable report was pre- 

 sented of the juvenile mission and Sunday- 

 school enterprise. It was sustaining the mis- 

 sion in India, the only foreign mission in con- 

 nection with the Church. In the Manitoba 

 mission, forty-nine congregations had contrib- 

 uted to the support of the work among them. 



Synod of the Lower Provincet. The two sy- 

 nods of the Lower Provinces of British North 

 America met in June. The basis of union as 

 adopted by the joint committees of the four 

 churches in their meetings at Montreal and St. 

 John, and approved by the General Assembly 

 and the Synod of the churches in Canada, was 

 also approved by both these bodies. 



VIII. CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. Reports of 

 the voluntary contributions in the Church of 

 Scotland for all objects during the year end- 

 ing in May, 1873, were published from 1,012 

 parishes. The total amount raised was 255,- 

 850 10. Sd. Nearly three hundred churches, 

 many of them wealthy ones, had failed to re- 

 port. Of this sum, 41,561 were raised by 

 church-door collections, 35,225 by seat-rents, 

 16,671 were given for parish and" social mis- 

 sions ; 10,549 for week-day and Sunday- 

 schools; 31,851 for church extension, and 

 kindred objects; 40,342 for the six mis- 

 sionary and educational schemes; 3,275 for 

 other objects recommended by the General As- 

 sembly ; the collections in Sunday-schools for 

 missionary purposes amounted to 1,027; the 

 gifts for the endowment of chapels were 15,- 

 715; local subscriptions, 22,710; contribu- 

 tions to the associations for augmenting small 

 livings, 6,900 ; to the associations for female 

 education in India and for the education of 

 female Jews, 2,293; to other Christian and 

 charitable objects, 27,224. The total income 

 of the foreign mission fund was 36.477, of 

 which 18,485 were received from home 

 sources, and 3,081 were received by the La- 

 dies' Society for Female Education ; the re- 

 mainder consisted of contributions from abroad. 

 Thirty-seven thousand pounds had been sub- 

 scribed toward the fund of 50,000 started sev- 

 eral years before to provide homes for mission- 

 aries, and many grants had been made for this 

 object. The sum of 8,117 had been received 

 for the Indian mission scheme. The income 

 of the homo mission funds was 9,509. Sev- 

 enty-seven mission stations were supplied, at 

 which there was an average attendance of 

 9,500 persons. Fifteen thousand pounds had 

 been raised during the year for the fund of 

 100 for the endowment of 100 more par- 

 ishes, and fifteen parishes had been endowed. 

 The General Assembly of the Established 

 Church of Scotland met at Edinburgh, May 

 22d. Her majesty was represented by the 

 Earl of Airlie. The Rev. Dr. Gillan was 

 elected moderator. The Earl of Airlie pre- 

 sented the customary gift of 2,000 from the 

 Queen for the spread of religion and education 

 in the Highlands and islands of Scotland. The 



Queen had also subscribed to the fund for the 

 endowment of one hundred additional parishes. 

 Deputies from Canada and the Eastern Prov- 

 inces of North America spoke of the progress 

 of the negotiations for the union of the Presby- 

 terian Churches of the Provinces. The rev- 

 enue of the colonial committee had risen to 

 5,214, while their expenses were only 2,954. 

 A committee was appointed to address the 

 Presbyterians of America in reference to their 

 cooperating with this Church and the Free 

 Church in the mission work in Rome. By 

 the latest reports, the number of Sunday- 

 schools connected with this Church was 1,810; 

 number of teachers, 15,534; number of scholars, 

 173,281. These returns show a decrease of 

 435 schools, 90 teachers, and 2,200 Scholars. 



IX. FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. The Gen- 

 eral Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland 

 met at Edinburgh, May 22d. The Rev. Dr. Duff 

 was elected moderator. Since the previous 

 meeting of the General Assembly a very strong 

 opposition to the scheme for union with the 

 United Presbyterian and Reformed Presbyte- 

 rian Churches had been provoked in the High- 

 lands through the agency of the opponents of 

 union in the General Assembly, the chief of 

 whom was the Rev. Dr. Begg. It had be- 

 come evident that an attempt to push the 

 scheme of union in the face of this opposition, 

 would almost certainly lead to a disruption 

 of the Church. The supporters of the union 

 movement had therefore decided to suspend 

 their efforts to promote that measure, and de- 

 vote their energies to carrying the scheme for 

 the " mutual eligibility " of the ministers of 

 the three negotiating Churches to each other's 

 pulpits. As applied to the Free Church, this 

 scheme provided that ministers of the United 

 Presbyterian and Reformed Presbyterian 

 Churches may be inducted into pulpits of the 

 Free Church on signing its formulas. The 

 question of approval of the scheme had been 

 submitted to the presbyteries by the previous 

 General Assembly. The report of the votes 

 showed that it had been approved by fifty-six 

 presbyteries, and disapproved by fifteen pres- 

 byteries, while five presbyteries had made no 

 response. The General Assembly was thus 

 empowered to pass the scheme into a law. 

 Such a step was, however, bitterly opposed by 

 the party who had contended against the 

 union movement. They had obtained 123,000 

 signatures to a petition against the measure, 

 and threatened to secede. if it were pressed. 

 The scheme was formally submitted to the 

 Assembly on the 28th of May. An excited 

 debate took place upon it. Its friends finally 

 consented to a modification in its terms, so 

 that a minister called from one of the other 

 bodies by a congregation of the Free Church 

 should be required, before accepting the call, 

 to declare his willingness to subscribe to the 

 formulas which are subscribed by all Free 

 Church ministers at the time of their ordina- 

 tion. This concession having been made, the 



