INTEMPERANCE. The Assembly having called for a report from the Committee appointed to prepare petition to Parliament on the subject of Intemperance, the following draft was read, which was adopted, and after being subscribed by the Moderator, was ordered to be transmitted to the Right Honourable Fox Maule for presentation in the House of Commons: "Unto the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in Parliament assembled, the Petition of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland ;- "Humbly sheweth, That the vice of intemperance is fearfully prevalent in Scotland, and exercises a most injurious influence on the people in all their relations, social, civil, and religious. That it presents a great barrier to the success of gospel ministrations, and to all philanthropic efforts for elevating the condition of the working classes. That the temptations to this vice are very numerous, particularly from the excessive number of public houses, the practice of dram-selling in grocery and provision shops, and the legalised sale of ardent spirits on the Lord's-day. "Your petitioners rejoice to learn, that a bill has recently been introduced into Parliament by Lord Kinnaird, for the purpose of diminishing these temptations, and regulating public houses in Scotland. They earnestly pray that, when that bill is brought down to your Honourable House, it may receive your early and serious consideration, and that it may be passed into a law with this amendment, that no houses shall be licensed to sell spirits on any part of the Lord's-day, except hotels, and these only for the accommodation of persons residing in them, and bona fide travellers, and such other amendments as to your wisdom may seem meet. May it therefore please your Honourable House to take the subject of intem. perance in Scotland into your serious consideration, and to pass Lord Kinnaird's bill for regulating public houses, with such amendments as have now been referred to. "And your petitioners will ever pray. "Signed in name and by appointment of the General Assembly of the Free DELIVERANCE ON REPORT ON SABBATH SCHOOLS. With reference to the subject of Sabbath Schools, and the religious instruction of the young, the following deliverance was pronounced: "The Assembly, deeply impressed with the importance aud necessity of a right training of the young, and of the peculiar claims which they have upon the Church, particularly in the present day, surrounded as they are by so many and various temptations, recommend to all ministers to give special attention to this interesting department of their labours, and by Sabbath or week-day classes for the more advanced, as well as through Sabbath Schools, by frequent addresses from the pulpit, by private dealings, and by such other methods as circumstances may render desirable, to do what in them lies to instruct the youth in the knowledge and fear of the Lord, urging upon them an immediate acceptance of Christ, and a dedication of themselves to the Redeemer's service. The Assembly also recommend to Synods and Presbyteries, and brethren, when they meet together, to make the state of the young of their congregations the subject of occasional conference. And farther, the Assembly record their thanks to the Sabbath School Teachers, for their important services, and they invite the elders, officebearers, and members of the Church to give all possible assistance and encouragement to their ministers, in their labours to advance the spiritual interests of the young. DELIVERANCE ON REPORT OF CHURCH-BUILDING COMMITTEE. The Assembly having resumed consideration of matters connected with the Report of the Church-Building Committee,— "The General Assembly authorise the Building Committee to adopt such prudent preliminary measures by application to Government, or otherwise, as they may find necessary, towards maturing the scheme of a contingent fund for providing for the rebuilding of churches, when destroyed by accidents or natural decay; and with a view to this, they authorise them, by the employinent of whatever agency is required to collect such statistics throughout the Church, in regard to the number of ecclesiastical buildings insured, the amount paid on each, and the views and wishes of Deacons' Courts anent the whole matter, as may form the basis of a permanent arrangement. And farther, the Assembly authorise the Building Committee to bring up a more detailed proposal on the subject to any of the meetings of Commission during the current year, which Commission shall have power to decide in the matter as they see cause. “The Assembly authorise the Building Committee to provide a fire-proof apartment in the New College, Edinburgh, for the safe custody of the titles of ecclesiastical property belonging to this Church; and they earnestly recommend the Deacons' Courts to have the titles of their various properties completed at the earliest possible period, with the view of having them deposited in a place of safety, as soon as it is provided. They further authorise the Committee to receive said deeds, and also to furnish receipts and copies to the parties interested. And the Assembly enjoin the Presbyteries to give their immediate attention to this matter, to prevent the loss and damage that is likely to accrue to congregations and to the whole Church from continued neglect of it." POPERY. The Assembly added the following names to the Committee on Popery :The Moderator, Dr Hetherington, Mr Thomas Bell, Mr F. Macrae, Mr P. Fairbairn, Dr Bannerman, Dr Barclay, Mr Gibson, Dr Miller, Mr M'Corkle, Professor Miller, Mr F. B. Douglas, Mr Hawkins. And the Committee was instructed diligently to watch over the important matters intrusted to them, and to take such steps from time to time as particular circumstances might seem to demand, reporting, if they should see cause, to the Commission, who were thereby authorised to give to the Committee such advice and direction as might appear to be required. The Assembly appointed the 3d Sabbath of July for the purposes mentioned in the minute of the preceding diet. And further, the Assembly recommended all the ministers of the Church, in such way as might seem to them best, to instruct their people in a knowledge of the errors of Popery, and of those great truths of God's Word by which alone these errors can be successfully overturned, and by which alone, with a blessing from on high, the present efforts of the Man of Sin to regain his ascendancy can be effectually overcome. PUBLIC ACCOUNTS. The Public Accounts of the Church having been laid on the table, the Assembly authorised the same to be circulated; and farther, the Assembly ordered a statement of church-door collections and of supplements to ministers to be prepared and circulated as usual, the expenses of the same to be allocated in the manner formerly appointed. The Assembly adjourned till the evening. EVENING SEDERUNT. The Assembly convened, at seven o'clock and having been constituted, the minutes of last diet were read. EDUCATION SCHEME. Dr CANDLISH craved the indulgence of the Assembly while, as Convener of the Education Scheme, he proposed a special Act for the purpose of enabling the Education Committee to meet the exigency that had befallen them that forenoon by the resolution for the withdrawal of their annual collection. He did not mean to revive the discussion that then took place in reference to the matter. Suffice it to say, that under the pressure of circumstances, he, on the part of the Education Committee, consented to the relinquishment of the annual church-door collection in behalf of this Scheme, and he did so on the pledge on the part of the Assembly that he should be allowed to take measures for doing the utmost he possibly could for preventing the evil that might otherwise arise. He stated in the forenoon, that if the acts passed in former years, especially in 1848 and 1849, as to Deacons' Courts being peremptorily bound to give to their congregations an opportunity of contributing monthly subscriptions to this fund, were enforced, he attached no importance to this collection, and thought they might even be better without it. Hitherto, however, these acts had not been enforced, and an annual collection, therefore, was indispensable; but in consequence of the pressure of the arguments urged in the forenoon in favour of limiting the number of annual collections, he had consented, with the advice of the best friends of the Education Scheme, to give up the collection for this year. He did so on the spur of the moment, and without having had an opportunity of consulting the Education Committee. He felt, therefore, that he had undertaken a very heavy responsibility, and that step, he believed, would change to a large extent the whole course of his occupation as Convener of this Committee for the ensuing summer, and would entail on him an amount of labour which few in this Assembly might be able to appreciate. (Hear, hear.) But he had no hesitation in saying, that he did not now regret the consent he had then given. (Applause) At the same time, he might be allowed to enter his protest against the extreme sensitiveness, as it seemed to him, that was creeping into the Church in regard to the opportunities afforded to the people for contributing to philanthropic and Christian objects. He had the utmost possible aversion to any thing like coercing the people to contribute; but he must take the liberty of saying, that he had no sympathy whatever with a certain feeling of sensitiveness which seemed to him to be creeping in among them, as if they were giving their people too many opportunities for contributing towards the cause of Christ. (Applause.) In the forenoon he distinctly stated, when the collection for the Education Scheme was discharged, that, as Convener of the Education Committee, he would hold himself entitled to claim the strongest possible exercise of the power and authority of the Church in the way of enforcing her own enactments. If he could secure the carrying out of the acts of the Assembly, in regard to their giving their people once a month an opportunity of contributing to this Fund, he would ask no more; but the miserable thing was, they were trammelled with a set of people in their Deacons' Courts who, in this matter, assumed to themselves the position of being the guardians of the people's consciences and purses in regard to what they ought to give (applause)—and thus came between the - 3 General Assembly that passed these acts, and the congregations to which they (the Committee) made their appeal. They imagined that, forsooth, they were invested with the character and authority of office-bearers of the Church, they were set up for the defence of the people's purses and pockets against such appeals as might be made to them in behalf of the cause of Christ. (Applause.) Take away this obstacle,-let them have free access to the minds, hearts, and consciences of the people,and he had no fear of the result; but if they were to put in certain officials who, mistaking altogether their position, and imagining that they were not appointed to forward, but to frustrate, such appeals, then it would be impossible to forward this or any other Scheme. And, considering the large concession that had been made by the Education Committee, he hoped the Assembly would arm him with adequate powers to constrain,-not the people,-not our congregations, he asked no force to be applied to them, but to constrain these office-bearers that they should not interpose between them and what they had resolved on as a legitimate mode of appealing to their congregations, to secure that their efforts should not be frustrated in the lowest of their Church Courts, and that there should be an opportunity afforded to all their people to give as God had prospered them to this scheme. He would state two reasons why he considered they were entitled to the support of the General Assembly. 1st, The surrender he had made this forenoon did not touch him personally,-did not put in risk a single farthing of his own income; but he begged them to bear in mind, that by the resolution they had adopted, they had put in peril the income of some 600 or 700 of the most laborious and faithful of the Church's servants. (Applause.) They had given up no less than £3000, and thus deprived the scheme of one-fourth part of its income, putting in peril the income, not of the Education Committee,-no member of it would suffer by the resolution come to, and certainly not the convener (laughter and applause)—but of all their faithful teachers throughout Scotland. This was a heavy responsibility the Assembly had taken on itself in consequence of that resolution. The 2d consideration he pressed on them was this, he had no fear of making up the deficit if the Assembly armed him with right powers and time given; but he begged the Assembly to consider the prospect, they had of making up this £3000; and not only so, for they were bound to do a great deal more than make up that sum, for the scheme was still largely deficient. But in order even to make up that amount, it was necessary they should have the advantage of every month of the ensuing year, for pressing for an increase to the Schoolmasters' Sustentation Fund. If they lost one month or two months, the loss would be irretrievable; and their only chance of meeting the difficulty was in their having a full year for raising this fund. If they only began at the end of the year to show an increase in the contributions of their associations, in order to make up for the loss of the collection, that would not serve the purpose, and they would still be bankrupts to a very large extent as regards the payment of the teachers. He besought the Assembly, and the Church at large, to consider these matters; and it would be the effort of the Committee to meet the exigency; and it would not be his fault, if God spared him, if he did not turn this emergency to the benefit of the Education Fund. (Applause.) But in order to do this, they must have fair play, and it would require no ordinary efforts to meet the emergency. The reverend Doctor then proposed an act anent the Education Scheme, to the following effect :-The General Assembly, taking into consideration that an annual collection for the Education Scheme would not be required if the acts of Assembly 1848 and 1849 relative to the monthly contributions in every congregation for the Schoolmasters' Sustentation Fund were universally complied with, and considering also that it is not expedient that the number of collections appointed by the Assembly should be greater than necessary, resolve that the annual church-door collection heretofore appointed on behalf of the Education Scheme be dispensed with; and, with the view of providing against the risk thereby incurred, the Assembly enjoin all Presbyteries of this Church to take steps at their first ordinary meeting, for having the acts of 1848 and 1849 carried into effect within their bounds; instructing them to report to the Education Committee as to the arrangements that have been made, or are in progress in each congregation, to obtain contributions for the Schoolmasters' Sustentation Fund, and instruct them to do this in sufficient time to enable the Committee to report generally in the whole matter, and particularly as to the probable effect of the loss of the annual collection, to the Commission in August. Mr LUMSDEN of Barry seconded the adoption of the act. He trusted the Education Committee would be careful to remind Presbyteries of the duty thus devolved on them by the Assembly, and he had no doubt that the result would be all that the best friends of the Education Scheme could anticipate or desire. It was not only the Kirk-Sessions and Deacons' Courts that were to blame, for they, the ministers, might also take much blame to themselves for the want of faithfulness and zeal in the matter, and it would be well to stir them up also to their duty in this matter. Mr DUNLOP heartily concurred in the act proposed by Dr Candlish, and be trusted that the scheme under the care of his excellent friend would not suffer from the change. The collection was not originally part of the scheme at all, and when it was first made, a prospect was held out that in a year or two it would be discontinued. He felt strongly that the supineness and disinclination of Deacons' Courts to move in the matter was due in a great measure to the circumstance of the collection being made; but if there was no opportunity given for contributing excepting the monthly subscriptions, he did not believe it possible that these Courts would continue to neglect their duty, and come between the liberality of the people and the wants of this most deserving class of men, who were most inadequately remunerated, and one-fourth of whose stipends were thus put in peril. He rejoiced at the buoyancy of spirit displayed by the Convener of the Committee, who seemed to rise higher in the midst of difficulties (applause);—and he hoped the Church would not allow him to be crushed under these difficulties, but would rally round him, and that the result would be a considerable augmentation to the funds of this great scheme. (Applause.) Mr Wood of Elie trusted that there would be a greater manifestation of the liberality of the Church even without the church-door collection, which had been so relinquished; and he felt so much the generous spirit of the Convener of the Committee in this matter, that he and, he was sure, all who concurred with him in the forenoon in recommending this step-would be most happy if they could do anything to forward this great scheme. The act proposed by Dr Candlish was then unanimously agreed so. COLONIAL COMMITTEE. The Assembly called for the Report of the Colonial Committee, which was given in by Mr BONAR, the Convener, as follows: -- “I. During the year which has closed, the Colonial Committee have, notwithstanding their straitened circumstances, by the careful management of the fund intrusted to them, the help of local associations, and the timely aid of kind friends, been enabled not only to continue their operations, and to diminish their debt, but also to make |