self
against a third scheme, essentially one in principle with that which
the sagacious Chalmers could regard, after long and profound
reflection, as the only one truly eligible in the circumstances of the
country, and which she herself, some two or three years hence, may be
compelled to regard in a similar light. The educational agitation is
not to be settled in the course of a few brief months; nor yet by the
votes of Presbyteries, Synods, or General Assemblies, whether they
belong to the Free or to the Established Churches. It rises direct out
of the great social question of the time. Scotland as such forms one
of its battle-fields, and Scotchmen as such are the parties who are to
be engaged in the fight; and the issue, though ultimately secure, will
long seem doubtful. And so the Free Church may have quite time enough
to fight her own battle, or rather her own _two_ battles in
succession, and, when both are over, find that the great general
contest still remains undecided.

For what we must deem by much the better and more important battle of
the _two_--that for a statutory demand on the part of the State that
the Bible and Shorter Catechism should be taught in the national
schools--we are afraid the time is past; but most happy would we be
to find ourselves mistaken. The Church of Scotland, as represented by
that majority which is now the Free Church, might have succeeded in
carrying some such measure ten years ago, when the parish schools were
yet in her custody; just as she might have succeeded seven years
earlier in obviating the dire necessity which led to the Disruption, by
acting upon the advice of the wise and far-seeing M'Crie.{10} But she
was not less prepared at the one date to agitate for the total
abolition of patronage, than at the other to throw open the parish
schools on the basis of a statutory security for the teaching of
religion. In both cases, the golden opportunity was suffered to pass
by; and Old Time presents to her now but the bald retreating occiput,
which her eager hand may in vain attempt to grasp. Where, we ask, are
we to look for the forces that are to assist us in fighting this
battle of statutory security? Has the Establishment become more
liberal, or more disposed to open the parish schools, than we ourselves
were when we composed the majority of that very Establishment? Alas!
in order to satisfy ourselves on that head, we have but to look at the
decisions of her various ecclesiasti