The Government and the King’s Protestant Declaration.
The Earl of Crewe in answer to a question by the Duke of Norfolk in the House of Lords, announced that owing to the difficulties that stood in the way the Government could hold out no hope of dealing legislatively in the question this session. The Duke of Norfolk and the Earl of Denbigh expressed keen disappointment at the announcement made by the Leader of the House of Lords. The Earl of Crewe’s speech did not by any means reveal him to be an uncompromising Protestant. He concluded his speech as follows:—”Experience, I am sorry to say, has shown us how difficult it is to find a formula of that kind, because within that large class, representing, as I have said I believe it does, the great majority of the people of the country, there is a great diversity of opinion as to how far the formula ought to go in stating that the Sovereign repudiates and does not accept the Roman Catholic faith, and before there can be any real hope of arriving at that formula it is necessary to consult with men of very different shades of opinion. That we have done, so far as time has permitted, and I cannot pretend to the House that the result so far has been very encouraging. At the same time, speaking for myself, I do not despair that in process of time some such formula may be discovered, but I regret to be obliged to inform the noble Duke that in our opinion there is no prospect of our being able to propose any legislation on the subject this session.”
Protestant Petitions.
We observe from the English Churchman of 20th May that the number of signatures to these petitions has amounted to considerably over one million.
Deaths of Prominent Churchmen.
At the end of April several leading figures in some of the Churches passed away. Dr. Archibald Scott, of Edinburgh; Principal Marshall Lang, of Aberdeen University; and Dr. Theodore Marshall, Moderator of Assembly, in the Established Church; Dr. Marcus Dods, Principal of the New College, in the United Free Church; and Rev. Angus Galbraith, Lochalsh, in the Free Church. Whatever other lessons may be learnt from the demise of these men, the one great lesson is outstanding: “All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass; the grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away.”
Opening of Assemblies.
On Tuesday, the 18th May, the Assemblies of the Established, Free, and United Free Churches were opened with the usual services. Dr. Mitford Mitchell (in place of the late Moderator, Dr. Marshall) preached before the Established Assembly, while Rev. W. Mackinnon, Gairloch, and Dr. Laws, Livingstonia, as retiring Moderators, addressed the Free and United Free Assemblies respectively. The new Moderators of these courts, in the order given, are Dr. Robertson, of Whittinghame; Rev. James Henry, Burghead; and Dr. Henderson, of Crieff.