n the verdict of
councils, and failed to acquiesce in the judgment of even the Pope.

We have been reminded oftener than once of this singular controversy,
by the late discussions which have arisen in our church courts
regarding the meaning embodied by Chalmers in that posthumous document
on the Educational question, which is destined, we hold, to settle the
whole controversy. At first we regarded it as matter of wonder that
such discussions should have arisen; for we had held that there was
really little room for difference respecting the meaning of
Chalmers,--a man whose nature it was to deal with broad truths, not
with little distinctions; and who had always the will, and certainly
did not lack the ability, of making himself thoroughly understood. We
have since thought, however, that as there is nothing which has once
occurred that may not occur again, what happened to the writings of
Jansenius might well happen to one of the writings of Chalmers; and
further, that from certain conversations which we had held with the
illustrious deceased a few months before his death, on the subject of
his paper, and from certain facts in our possession regarding his
views, we had spectacles through which to look at the document in
question, and a key to his meaning, which most of the disputants
wanted. The time has at length come when these helps to the right
understanding of so great an authority should be no longer withheld
from the public. We shall betray no confidence; and should we be
compelled to speak somewhat more in the first person, and of
ourselves, than may seem quite accordant with good taste, our readers
will, we trust, suffer us to remind them that we do not commit the
fault very often, or very offensively, and that the present employment
of the personal pronoun, just a little modified by the editorial _we_,
seems inevitably incident to the special line of statement on which we
propose to enter.

During the greater part of the years 1845 and 1846, the Editor of
the _Witness_ was set aside from his professional labours by a
protracted illness, in part at least an effect of the perhaps too
assiduous prosecution of these labours at a previous period. He had
to cease per force even from taking a very fixed view of what the
Church was doing or purposing; and when, early in January 1847, he
returned, after a long and dreary period of rustication, in improved
health to Edinburgh, he at least possessed the advantage--much