ken shape in his mind,
and in at least some of its leading features had been put in writing by
his pen in the summer of 1841. It is true that in the autumn of the same
year, and without any notion of the views or plans of Dr. Chalmers, the
principle of a common fund, to be distributed in equal shares, was given
out by Dr. Candlish at a great public meeting held at Edinburgh, in
anticipation of the event which, even then, had begun to loom out, not
indistinctly, through the storm and tempest of the time. It was not,
however, till the month of November, 1842, that it took the form of a
fully-planned scheme for the future support of the church, drawn out in
detail and supported by elaborate argument. This form it assumed in a
speech of great power and eloquence, which is still preserved, and which
was delivered by Dr. Chalmers at a very memorable meeting. The meeting
to which I refer was called 'the convocation,'--a name familiar enough
in England, though descriptive there of a quite different assembly. The
Scotch convocation was not a court, but simply a private, unofficial
conference of ministers interested in the common cause of the then
impending disruption. They met alone, because they desired to look their
position, prospects, and responsibilities calmly and prayerfully in the
face, without being liable, under the influence of public feeling, to
be either turned back or to be carried further or faster forward in the
direction in which events were moving, otherwise than as their own
deliberate judgment and sense of duty might seem to them to sanction and
require."

It is for his labours in connection with the formation of the
Sustentation Fund, of which he has for many years been convener, that
Dr. Buchanan is most prominently known. Indeed, we are not sure but the
idea of a Sustentation Fund was entirely his own--at least he had a
great deal to do with its development. The great object of the
Sustentation Fund is the support of the ministry to the extent and
effect of at least securing for each minister a certain minimum stipend.
From the first it was the aim of the Church to bring up the minimum to
L150, although that was not reached until the year 1863. The
Sustentation Fund Committee, of which Dr. Buchanan has been convener and
chairman ever since the death of Dr. Chalmers in 1847, is appointed
annually by the General Assembly, and consists of about a hundred
ministers and elders, in nearly equal proportion, nomin