44 
ORDINARY MEETING, January 16, 1871. 
Thu Rev. Robinson Thornton, D.D., Vice-President, 
in the Chair. 
The Minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed. 
Mr. J Reddie.*— Before the Chairman calls upon Mr. Row to read his 
paper, I have to state that the Council has arranged for a series of inter- 
mediate,” in addition to the nsual “ordinary,” meetings. The first of the 
intermediate meetings will be held on the 30th of January when the Re^ 
J H Titcomb will deliver a lecture on “Archeology, with some of its 
Parallels and Contrasts,” illustrated with diagrams ; and the subject^ 11 
be so treated as to show its bearing upon various historical points which are 
interesting to ns. As a rule, the papers read at these meetings are . not 
to be printed in our Transactions, and therefore the discussions will not 
reported. 
The Chaiuman.- B efore calling on Mr. Row to read his paper “On 
Dr Newman’s Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent,” I will trouble you wi 
a word or two of my own. The campaign of the sceptics against Scriptural 
truth seems to have had a sort of lull. Those who have Wd the mty of 
theology seem now to have signed a short truce. I believe I am right m 
Lying That they have not discovered any new objection to the truth the 
Scriptures and that they seem to be working in their old groove. However, 
if they are not varying their mode of attack they are at all events varying 
their places. Take, for instance, the country from which I came not twenty 
four^ hours ago. I ound the well-known Mr. Holyoake, who has lifted up 
his voice in this room on one or two occasions, and who I think though W 
that should not, has been to a certain extent silenced here-I Tound Ahat M 
Holyoake had been lecturing at Perth and endeavouring to enlist a number 
of disciples, but I do not think he has succeeded m that view. I p _ 
on one occasion to point out that the logic of sceptics was very poor indeed, 
but the Scotch are so very logical a people that I do not believe the scepto, 
unless they greatly improve, will ever make much progress with them. 
(Hear, hear") Bu/though there has been a lull among the sceptics, tfiey 
varying their place rather than their matter, there is no reason why there 
* The late. 
