er against three, that they were ready to proceed with the
trial of the presentee, and to induct him (if found qualified) into the
benefice. Upon this, the General Assembly suspended the seven members of
presbytery. By that mode of proceeding, the Assembly fancied that they
should be able to elude the intentions of the presbytery: it being
supposed that, whilst suspended, the presbytery had no power to ordain;
and that, without ordination, there was no possibility of giving induction.
But here the Assembly had miscalculated. Suspension would indeed have had
the effects ascribed to it; but in the mean time, the suspension, as being
originally illegal, was found to be void: and the presentee, on that
ground, obtained a decree from the Court of Session, ordaining the
presbytery of Strathbogie to proceed with the settlement. Three of the ten
members composing this presbytery, resisted; and they were found liable in
expenses. The other seven completed the settlement in the usual form. Here
was plain rebellion; and rebellion triumphant. If this were allowed, all
was gone. What should the Assembly do for the vindication of their
authority? Upon deliberation, they deposed the contumacious presbytery
from their functions as clergymen, and declared their churches vacant. But
this sentence was found to be a _brutum fulmen_; the crime was no crime,
the punishment turned out no punishment: and a minority, even in this very
Assembly, declared publicly that they would not consent to regard this
sentence as any sentence at all, but would act in all respects as if no
such sentence had been carried by vote. _Within_ their own high Court of
Assembly, it is, however, difficult to see how this refusal to recognise a
sentence voted by a majority could be valid. Outside, the civil courts
came into play; but within the Assembly, surely its own laws and votes
prevailed. However, this distinction could bring little comfort to the
Assembly at present; for the illegality of the deposal was now past all
dispute; and the attempt to punish, or even ruin, a number of professional
brethren for not enforcing a by-law, when the by-law itself had been found
irreconcilable to the law of the land, greatly displease the public, as
vindictive, oppressive, and useless to the purposes of the Assembly.

Nothing was gained except the putting on record an implacability that was
_confessedly_ impotent. This was the very lunacy of malice. Mortifying it
might certainly