position and the Missionary duties of the Church in Scotland; the one, in the "spirit of the responsibilities attaching to their Ordination Vows; the other as called upon to support and advance the Church as being the " Pillar and the ground of the Truth." The day has gone by when the "Witness of the Church," in this country, can be confined to a mere cold and formal Sunday service. This deadened mode of working the Church, will no longer satisfy the earnest portion of the Laity-onward progress, and real clerical work, must now be the motto-and the day also has gone by when those of our earnest and working Clergy, will continue, calmly, to be chilled and disheartened in their desire to gather together our poorer members, and many more who desire to come with them-by Laymen replying to such appeals, that they do not want the Poor!" Both Clergy and Laity have, therefore, duties laid upon them at the present day, such as they have not had for many generations. More, much more, is required and expected from our clergy, as a whole, in the present position of the Church in Scotland, and in the present general aspect of ecclesiastical feeling around us. Much more, therefore, is required of the laity, as a duty in these circumstances, to aid in the work laid upon the Church. The full support and sympathy of that class will be given them. "In unity and in strength" only can she ever make her influence felt. Then only, in the true spirit of the gospel of her Master, will she really meet those duties, those responsibilities which, in the providence of God-if there are "signs in the times"- -are evidently being cast upon her. Therefore, in the words of the royal Psalmist, I " pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee. Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces. For my brethren and companions' sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee. Because of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek thy good."-I &c., Wм. G. DON. am, St. Margaret's, Broughty-Ferry, 22d December, 1864. THE FINANCE OF THE SCOTTISH EPISCOPAL CHURCH. January 12, 1865. SIR,-I cannot help saying that I think our friends in the provinces are not a little unreasonable in passing such severe and indiscriminate censure upon their friends in Edinburgh in the recent decisions of the Committee upon Claims. Mr Jamieson and Mr James Stewart are the individuals selected in especial for attack and denunciation. Now, I think Mr Jamieson and Mr James Stewart are deserving of the highest praise from the church-men of business, whose time is money, who have raised themselves by their own talents to a high and honourable position in life, and have bestowed an amount of labour upon the work of the Church which would put many of the complainants to shame. Nor do I see that they are to blame. The Committee upon Claims were selected from each of the dioceses; and it appears to me that the real blame lies with the provinces themselves-that they did not give their representatives sufficiently definite instructions. It was the Committee upon Claims that decided all matters. But, then, it is said, "We were told we were a set of country boobies, and that we understood nothing of accounting-that it was an accountant's question, and had better leave to us to settle, and not take up our time with unnecessary discussions." Well, then, we say, if this be the case—which we by no means grant—if the Committee upon Claims submitted to such treatment, they deserved all they got. If a man will not stand up for his own as a man, he deserves to lose it. But the real truth is, that the provinces were to blame for it all. They delayed transmitting the money till within two days of the 15th November-the day of distribution; and things had to be settled as best they could. I am very far from saying that the decisions are all defensible, or from saying that many are not open to grave exception, more especially the division of the Bishops' incomes; but I think Mr Jamieson deserves great credit for having prepared such a settlement as he did, and made such few mistakes. But there is a constitutional remedy for all our grievances provided by our constitution. Our Church has a clear right to manage her own affairs in conformity with the will of the majority. The course is not to grumble, but to find out some means of putting matters right. We must have no more divisions of money by a kind of scramble. Our money matters, at any rate, must be managed upon the regular principles of business. The Standing Committee of the Society is empowered to assemble to transact business. The secretary has power to convene a meeting of general committee. At a month's notice, a general meeting of the Society can be held on the requisition of ten members. All these are the constitutional modes of dealing with grave emergencies, and it appears to us very expedient that some of these courses should be taken to deal with a grave crisis such as we have entered upon. The beginning of everything is always the hardest part of the struggle. The movement in 1864 has undoubtedly made a great stride. We have entered upon a new era in the history of our Church. The old machinery has become ill-adapted for the new state of things. What answered well in 1838 does not work well in 1865. By caution, patience, good temper, and perseverance, all the obstacles will be by degrees overcome. Then, it must be remembered that the new scheme is very much experimental. It appears to me of great importance that some alterations such as these should be made: That the Court of Appeal upon claims should not be held immediately after the session of the Committee upon Claims; that ample time should be allowed for the General Committee to have information upon each case; that each grievance should be heard and decided upon its own merits; and that representatives of the press should be prèsent. Then, it appears to me a matter of great importance that a permanent executive should be appointed. A Standing Committee, "being members of General Committee residing in or near Edinburgh," is too indefinite a body. The popular notion of our being a "hole and corner affair would be exploded by the publicity of our actings. What other religious bodies in this country take a fortnight to settle, we huddle over in a few hours by a kind of scramble; and often scant justice is done. The present movement has been a movement made by the press. Everything now must be open and above board. Our whole position as a religious community is at present provisional. We are only recovering by slow degrees from the penal laws. It is far better our progress should be gradual and under the eye of the public. There is no advantage in concealing our faults, or glossing over our errors, It is only by discussion in the press and by kindly co-operation that we can, animated as we are by the thought that we are doing a work of God, direct our onward course, following in the paths of the constitution and in obedience to the constituted authorities of the Church. If mistaken decisions have been lately passed, all we can say is, we have done our best. We are willing to be instructed for the future; but I do not think Mr James Stewart and Mr Jamieson should be censured for what all of us are responsible, always supposing we have erred at all.-I am, &c. HUGH SCOTT, of Gala. NOTICES OF BOOKS. "On Shakspeare's Knowledge and In our number for June, we reviewed Bishop Wordsworth's work then recently published. It has since, we are glad to see, reached a second edition. The labour of the Bishop has obviously been a labour of love, and it will be appreciated accordingly. In his preface he quotes a well-known saying of one of the best of English Prelates-Archbishop Sharp of York-regarding Shakspeare and the Bible. Few beyond the disciples of one narrow school will now be disposed to question the aptness of the Archbishop's dictum, or the propriety of the Bishop's devoting a portion of his time to a work like the present. Every judicious critic will admit the frequent occurrence of passages in Shakspeare's writings, which he would fain blot out, but the general scope and tendency of these writings are beneficial in their re ligious, moral, and political aspect. It is not necessary to contrast him in this respect with authors of an opposite character, such as a popular poet of the present century, who debased'great powers by systematically devoting them to the depreciation of every thing which Christians and Englishmen hold dear. Let him be compared with one who undoubtedly as a poet ranks next to him. No one who has been trained in the principles of the English Church, and who is attached to the principles on which the English monarchy is founded, will have any hesitation in coming to the conclusion that Shakspeare, not Milton, is the great religious poet of our country. Bishop Wordsworth has worthily discharged an agreeable duty by pointing out not only the similarities of thought and expression in Shakspeare and the English translation of the Bible, not only his intimate acquaintance with the facts and language of the Sacred Book, but also the influence of that Book in forming the whole mental character, and moulding the opinions of the poet. OUR readers, we are sure, will be interested to learn that the Bishop of St Andrews' Charge, which appeared in our number for October last, is being translated into Welsh by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, at the request of the Bishop of Llandaff, with a view to its circulation among Dissenters in the Principality. With this fact before us, we are tempted to inquire what is being done among ourselves to secure the publication, or even to assist the diffusion of the same and similar appeals in the country for which they were primarily designed, and in which they are certainly most needed. With stipends such as we are still content to offer to our Bishops and Clergy, it cannot be expected that they themselves should do more than furnish the suitable material for distribution, in order to remove misrepresentation, and to vindicate our Church's position in the eyes of our fellow-countrymen. And are the laity to suffer that material so provided shall be made available in Wales and not in Scotland? Let it be remembered that our own publication of the Bishop's Charge, though it secured for it a general circulation among our own people, is quite insufficient, and that it is to be found nowhere else in a complete and permanent shape. But we refer to that Charge simply as an example, and in order to enforce the suggestion which we desire to make. It is high time that a fund should be raised for the express purpose of securing the publication, and still more the circulation, of Tracts and Books, such as the Bishop of St Andrews and others have made ready to our hands. Nor need we now be afraid of giving offence by such a step. There is happily in many quarters at the present time a great desire to receive sound information upon Church matters-a much greater desire (be it said to our shame) than we have shown to give it. And there are other questions besides those of Church government which are pressing to be dealt with-for instance, the great question of Liturgical worship, the question of Confirmation, and questions of the history of the Church in this country, both before and since the Reformation. THE EDITOR OF THE "SCOTTISH GUARDIAN." THE SCOTTISH GUARDIAN. MARCH, 186 5. We are happy to have it in our power to state, that within the last few days the Primus, as President of the Church Society, has had an interview in Edinburgh with the members of the Committee on Funds, many of whom were also members of the late Committee on Claims. The Primus, we are informed, was induced to seek this interview in consequence of the dissatisfaction which had been felt and expressed in many quarters at the way in which the Funds placed at the disposal of the Society towards Endowment had been disposed of at the last meeting of the General Committee. We have reason to believe that it is the intention of the Primus to make known to the Society the result of his conference with the Committee on Funds, and he hopes the explanation which will be in his power to offer may prove satisfactory, and may tend to remove the misgivings which the late distribution may have created in the minds of any members of the Society. THE BUTESHIRE ELECTION. THE return of Mr. Boyle at the head of the poll for the county of Bute, will, we feel assured, give general satisfaction to all Churchmen. As the organ of the Church in Scotland, we profess to hold no political opinions; and we have only deviated from our usual course, in recording in our columns the various accounts of the political contest in Bute, to show our respect for a gentleman who has made more sacrifices for our Church than any other man within its pale. We say this guardedly, and with a full knowledge of facts. VOL. II.-NO. XIV. 6 The very "pronounced" and bold line he has throughout taken, augured ill for his success in the old head-quarters of the Covenant. In the Isle of Cumbrae, one would have expected not six votes would have been recorded, with the College before the public. With his characteristic boldness, he avowed his religious opinions upon the hustings and the public hall; and so far from this affecting his return, we had him returned by a larger majority than his Presbyterian predecessor. The most remarkable occurrence of all, was the poll at Cumbrae; we find it standing 73 in favour, and eight against! Such facts are worthy of record. They reflect great credit upon the Presbyterians of Bute, Cumbrae, and Arran. It was a cheering sign to see Presbyterian Ministers, both of the Established Church and Free Church, accompanied by their elders, escorting him to the hustings, and recording their votes for him along with good old Dean Hood. It is a moral lesson to other members, whether of the Liberal or Conservative parties, that the people honour a man for sticking up for his own Church; and the fact of no one having answered the letter of Mr. Cazenove proves very clearly the absurdity of the charges alledged against the College. congre NEVER before has party feeling run so high, or shown itself more bitterly in Rothesay, than in connection with the present election; arising, unquestionably, from the introduction of theological questions into the arena of politics. It is painfully apparent that the contest has been the means of creating the most serious heartburnings in some of the gations, and even of breaking up friendships-for the time at least. The odium theologicum, which the Free Church clergy were the first to stir, has produced the bitter fruits which were to be expected; and the members of the United Presbyterian Church, a body which, of all others, might have been expected to devise and carry out "liberal things," has in some instances shown the grossest spirit of illiberality. The shameful treatment of the Rev. Mr. M'Nab, the senior minister of the U.P. congregation in Rothesay, by the elders and managers, is a glaring instance of phrensied bigotry. The reverend gentleman was waited upon by a deputation from the kirk-session and managers of his church, asking him to vote for Mr. Lamont. The clergyman, who has just entered the |