172 EDITOR. 



Churcli should, in the spiritual province, be supreme. 

 But there was one thing which the f miners of the Treaty 

 of Union omitted to specify. They did not say who 

 would decide in the event of there being a difference of 

 opinion between the representatives of the civil power and 

 the representatives of the spiritual power, as to the limits 

 of their respective provinces. To leave this point unde- 

 termined was inevitably to give it on the side of the 

 stronger. A lady contracts marriage under favourable 

 conditions. These are inscribed in the marriage settle- 

 ments, and the swords of her kinsmen, casting their 

 gleam on the parchment, make it certain that, at the 

 moment, those settlements have a real value. But they 

 put their swords into the scabbard, there to rest and 

 rust, nevermore to be again drawn in the lady's quarrel. 

 They betake them to their farms and their merchan- 

 dise, become comparatively indifferent to her affairs, 

 and dream no longer of risking life or land for her sake. 

 Then a dispute between husband and wife arises. He de- 

 clares that he wishes to fulfil with loyalty the provisions 

 of the marriage settlements. She maintains that he 

 essentially misinterprets them, that the question affects 

 her honour in a vital point, that, if he persists, the mar- 

 riage will, ipso facto, be dissolved. He persists. She 

 calls on her kinsmen. They are languid and lukewarm ; 

 are inclined, on the whole, to agree with her ; but do not 

 recur even in thought to the idea of defending her claims 

 by force. The husband has the power in his hands ; he 

 decides in his own sense ; and the lady announces to him 

 and to all the world that the connection between them is 

 at an end. Voila, the history of the Disruption of 

 1843. The Church of Scotland, at the time of the 

 Union with England, was the lady of our allegory. The 

 Revolution settlement, the Treaty of Union, secured her 

 spiritual independence as well as pen, ink, and parch- 



