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his rights. Anne Ayliffe then parted from him for ever-and in a few days their cot was burnt, and themselves dragged to dungeons. And now that in her blindness she has discovered the Trappist, she demands if he had betrayed the secrets of her faith. But he is bound to everlasting silenceand "Jesu," "Memento mori," is his only answer. There are some striking

things here, and some perhaps rather extravagant-nor can we think this mode of acquainting us with what it was time we should be beginning to know, a very happy one. Anne Ayliffe talks herself into a passion-but not a vulgar one-with her mute auditor and herself-and surely there is prodigious energy in the declamation of the Heretic.

"Oh, for some faith, some prophet-saviour-guide!
Oh! could I die in hope-as mother died!
Or pray, as when I join'd her latest prayer!
Why leave us, God! to ignorance and despair?
Nay, childhood's lessons, and a nursery tale,
Had lured me right, where lore and reason fail.
I sink, with no one but myself to blame.

Haste! Mother, help! She will!-she comes to claim!
Lo! there! beneath yon crescent moon she stands,

And o'er Al-Sirat waves to heaven her hands,
Where, with God's laws, his messengers are set,-
Noah, Abram, Moses, Jesus, Mahomet,-

To weigh my life by mercy's scale sublime,

Where one good deed shall balance ten of crime.
Come, faith shall wing the soul to heaven, and prayer
Unfolds its gates, and alms admit me there,

And sufferings grace with crowns of martyrdom.

I will! Yes, Allah Kierim! I come.

God is my God! Mohammed is his seer!
And Islamism the faith I die for here!

"Defame its precepts, and their progress hate,
But own-his spirit was profound and great;
His, who when words usurp'd the place of sense,
Penance of virtue, faith of evidence,

And men, in arts and arms degenerate grown,
Adored a woman some, and some a stone;

In solitude, the school of genius, bred,

To find by thought the wisdom others read,

Came from the mountain, where he mused sublime
O'er deserts, seas, eternal space and time,
Unnumber'd stars, and each to worlds a sun,

And preach'd,-Ho! Earth and Mortals,-God is one!

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"Like that vast wave, which, raised above the main,
By power no sages and no seers explain,

Rolis o'er the deep, and breaks with fearful sounds,
Where rocks oppose, and God appoints the bounds;
So from the East on earth roll'd far and wide
The Moslem's creed, a deep and bloody tide.
Lo! Akbar, when on Afric's utmost sands
The boundless waters met his conquering bands,
Spurr'd down his horse, and leaping in the flood,
Look'd up to heaven, and raised his arm of blood,

For God to see, and Mahomet attest,-
'Twas ocean stopp'd and turn'd him from the west;
Else had our crescent horns, throughout the world,
From crowns of kings and domes of temples hurl'd
The Roman gibbet, spared its victims, thrust
Its priests to toil, and pagods ground to dust.
And ye, instructed by a Moslem nurse,

Had swell'd the cry ye kill me for, and curse,--
Allah il Allah! God is ever one!

God has no father, mother, bride, or son,
Or'"

Not to the Trappist's ear alone had this been addressed-but to the Primate and all the Conclave. With great power of argument and eloquence the Primate refutes the ravings of the unhappy girl-and declares that her hour is come.

"Come then, from them, and theirs, and their abyss,
Come, separate we ourselves, and her dismiss!
The dread and dismal duty must be done.
Then-In the name of God, the Father, Son,
And Holy Spirit.'-Speaking thus, he stood.
All others rose, and sign'd the blessed rood.
And all, save her whom death was throttling then,
And him who swoon'd to earth, replied-Amen!
With firmer tone, by secret prayer endued,
The Primate raised his hand, and thus pursued:-

"Sinful, apostate, desperate, infidel!
Scoffer, blasphemer, sorceress, child of hell!
Thou, whom no grace, no penitence, can stir,
Hence, to the fate you merit, and prefer!

Go, laden with thy sin, of sins the worst,

God's Church condemus thee, and thou art accurst!-
Outcast of nature!-scandal of offence!-

Anathema Maranatha ! Go hence!

By power from Heaven, vouchsafed to our control,
We here give up thy body and thy soul,
That, to the secular arm, therewith to deal,
This, to the God to whom you made appeal.
Depart!-Resistance, doomed wretch, is vain.-
Lay hands on her! Is all without in train?'

"Off! Mercy! Stay! I will recant,-I do.
Save, save me, Jesu! Mary! Save, Fitz-Hugh!
Let me confess-let me confess, at least:
Let me confer one moment with a priest.
Treasures there are, in covert, to reclaim:
Secrets to show-accomplices to name.

Ha! have I touch'd the chord, whose nerves unclasp
Your iron'd hearts, and hands' devouring grasp?

Then, for confession, let the rest stand clear,

And, Phillip of La Trappe! come thou, and hear!

By him, him only, will I be confest.

Thanks! Must I kneel! Stand further off, the rest!
See none o'erhear thy penitent's discourse.
One duty yet remains-and one resource.

"Bend thee! Last festival of father's birth,

I gave thee that,-whose omen made our mirth,
That, which thou vowedst still for me to store,-
Which now I need, and thou canst prize no more:
Abide occasion while I mimic shrift,

And give me back my ivory-hafted gift.

These torturers have prepared, and will effect,
More than I can support, or dare expect.

If e'er we served you, if you wrong'd us e'er,
Do this, and all shall be-forgotten here.
Beware! I hear feet creeping o'er the stone :-
And our accomplices must next be shown.

Our cot's two inmates,-Maude, and Chaplain Hyde,
Who ruin'd her,-alas! and me beside ;
Seduced my faith, her innocency stole,
Depraved her reason, and destroy'd my soul.
Ordain'd a clerk, a falconer's son by birth,

He read beneath the elms of Isleworth,--
Where, far o'er meads, from battlements of stone,
His patron gazed, and vaunted all his own.
One of whose motherless and haughty daughters,
The bright-haired Maude, oft stroll'd along the waters,
When southern winds the whispering arbour shook,
Where the pale clerk sat musing with his book.
They met alone, and young, in summer's bower:

Heaven frown'd; the clouds for weeping pall'd a shower;
Waves murmur'd hoarse, and wailing swell'd the breeze :-
But woe! for love-unheeded, save by these!

Ah, vainly thence she smiled to others' sight,
And dew'd with tears her pillow night by night,
Sought sainted shrines, vowed penance for the shame,
And gathered herbs-less noxious than her aim;
Till time surprised her with the snares of hell.
Pale in their grasp she trembled, shrieked, and fell;
"E'en while her father charged, what she forswore.
His curse peal'd sharper than a tiger's roar,- .

Out with her! out my gates! beyond my grounds!
Cart to the Thames! no-cast them to the hounds :-
The Thames!-lest beagles loath the vermin's blood :—
There let her crime take counsel of the flood;
There learn what ocean can her shame immerse,

And spare her sisters' scorn, and wreak her father's curse.
She gain'd a barn, and bore an infant dead.

Hyde disappear'd: the world believed-he fled.

We saw him borne the refluent stream along,
With marks of none but voluntary wrong.

His foe was mighty: kin, if any, poor:

And for him none enquired,-not e'en his paramour.

"Yet she went forth: through hamlets up and down,
With naked feet, bare head, and tatter'd gown;
For broken food to dance, with high-born grace,
And sing for lodging where a barn had place;
Read palms for village children,-scream aghast,
Lest dogs, that bay'd, should rend her as she past;
Oft, with low murmur, plaiting rushes dank,
Oft gathering herbs, by elms along the bank;
Yet, for the steward caned her, shunn'd the spot
Where frown'd the castle,-whose-she had forgot;
So far, that when they shipp'd her sisters three,
With Richard's queen, to nunneries o'er the sea,
And Henry Fourth sent down the scroll of fate,
To hang her father's quarters o'er his gate,
With crowds she met him on a hurdle train'd,

And danced, and caroll'd, round the block he stain'd.

Of late, attach'd by charities we show'd,

Prejudged a witch, with us she made abode,

Was with us taken, bound with us, I know

And think, lies chanting to her chains below."

What can we do? 'Tis impossible to get another page-and you must imagine for yourselves Anne Ayliffe at the stake.

Edinburgh: Printed by Ballantyne and Hughes, Paul's Work.

BLACKWOOD'S

EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.

No. CCLXXXIX. NOVEMBER, 1839.

VOL. XLVI.

ON THE PRESENT POSITION OF THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND.

PART I

THE lively but painful interest excited among the friends of the Church of Scotland by recent judicial proceedings, which, in the opinion of many of her most zealous lay and clerical members, threatened her independence, or even her existence, imposes on us the duty of reviewing the past history of the question involved in the Auchterarder Case, and of endeavouring to present, in a short and intelligible form, the result of what we believe to have been a patient and dispassionate consideration of the subject. Some months have elapsed since the decision of the House of Lords in the Auchterarder Case, the judgment of the Court of Session in the Lethendy Case, and the discussions in the General Assembly respecting the course to be pursued by the Church, with a view to the removal of the difficulties with which she is beset. All undue excitement, therefore, may be supposed to have so far subsided as to render the present occasion well fitted for our purpose; and we entreat the attention and the favourable construction of our readers, while we endeavour, in the first place, to remove certain erroneous impressions, as they appear to us, tend. ing materially to increase the difficulties inseparable from the discussion of this subject, and to expose certain fallacies respecting the true position and functions of the Church, as a compo

NO. CCLXXXIX, VOL. XLVI.

nent part of the British Constitutionfallacies which have obtained the more ready currency, because presented in a captivating form, couched in loose and popular language, and addressed, principally at least, to that portion of the community, of whom we shall be pardoned for saying, that neither their education nor their mental habits have fitted them to sit in judgment on a question of constitutional law.

The most directly important and interesting enquiry, no doubt, relates to the practical expediency of that legislative measure to which the Church has resolved to ask the sanction of Parliament. But it is impossible duly to appreciate the merits of the proposed law, unless we first understand the proceedings which have placed the Church in her present position, and thus ascertain the motives of this application to the Legislature, and the true intent and object of those who advocate a change. Our observations, however, on this part of the case, shall be as concise as possible.

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the means of interposing, or the right if it had the means-and that an alteration of the existing law, or, it may be, of the existing constitution, is the only possible remedy-the only possible mode of preventing what, in colloquial language, is called a dead lock. But we doubt very much whether this be a true or correct statement of the question. We more than doubt that a collision, in the proper meaning of the term, can take place between the Civil and Ecclesiastical Courts of this country. To render a collision possible between two separate branches of the same constitution, it is not necessary, we admit, that both should be conversant exclusively with the same subjectmatter, or that the territory, or the nature of the two jurisdictions, should be altogether the same. Civil, criminal, fiscal, or ecclesiastical matter, may equally furnish the materials of a col lision.

But both courts must be armed with equal powers, or powers the same in kind, if not equal in extent, constitutionally if not actually equal, for enforcing its orders and maintaining its authority, otherwise that which is constitutionally weaker must yield, just because the constitution has given it no adequate means of resistance, and because the theory of the constitution must therefore be presumed to be, that the one shall be subordinate to the other. This is a most grave and serious subject; and we should be sorry to be supposed to have broached so important a doctrine unnecessarily, or with out due consideration. Let us be judged, therefore, by the sequel.

The majesty of the Law is supported and vindicated by the exercise of certain powers which the Constitution has intrusted to the civil courts. To give redress for wrong done, and to punish the wrongdoer in the exercise of preventive justice, to prohibit the perpetration of meditated or threatened injury is the peculiar province of such courts, and the free and unrestrained use of these powers is essential to the maintenance of law and order in the state. But it would have been in vain to vest such powers and such discretion in any body of men, by virtue of statute or otherwise, if the means of enforcing their own decrees, and compelling obedience to their own orders, had been at the same time withheld. Therefore it is, that the Constitution has conferred on the

judge the power of execution, or, in other words, has permitted to him the use of physical force, to secure the infliction of the punishment which he has awarded, the payment or performance of the recompense which he has decreed, and the execution of all orders whatsoever, which he in his discretion has seen fit to pronounce. Between any two Courts, armed with such powers as these, a collision (however improbable the occurrence) may take place, as, for example, between any two of the three Courts of Session, Justiciary, and Exchequer. If contradictory orders be issued by two such courts, the unfortunate indivi dual, to whom they are both addressed, has only the alternative of obeying one or the other; he cannot obey both; and his imprisonment will be the appropriate punishment of his inevitable disobedience of the one or the other. The court whose order he has obeyed, may then direct his liberation; and thus, and thus only, a proper collision arises. Let us not be supposed to maintain that both of these two courts must necessarily be right or justifiable, in a moral point of view, in the means adopted to maintain their own dignity, or the authority of the law. On the contrary, either one or both may have erred in judgment, and abused the discretion committed to it. But because a Court has done iniquity, it has not therefore exceeded its constitutional powers; nor does it therefore follow that its commands are brutum fulmen, and may be safely disregarded or despised. Every human institution is necessarily imperfect: and it is in consequence of the impossibility of finding a better tribunal, that judgment has been committed to fallible men, who, like their brethren, may from error in judgment, or even from other and less excusable causes, do grievous and irreparable wrong. But the power being once conferred, by reason of the overwhelming necessity of the case, it follows as an inevitable consequence, that for the wrong done in the exercise of that power there is no remedy, but only a preventive safeguard against its commission in the moral and constitutional responsibility of the judge, which always bears exact proportion to the extent of his power.

The Court of Session, then, as the supreme civil tribunal of this country, being invested with powers such as

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