ceeded in 1788, and discharged the duties thereof with great zeal and integrity during twenty-eight years. He presided over the Church at a period of great importance, when the time arrived for releasing her from the odious and tyrannical penal statutes, to which she had so long and so iniquitously been subjected. Bishop Skinner's exertions for the accomplishment of this object will never be forgotten; and his theological works are held in high estimation. One of his last acts was the procuring of an ample Church, now called St Andrews, and capable of holding eleven hundred people, to be erected in Aberdeen. This he did not live to see completed; but as a proof of the love and admiration in which he was held, the congregation, assisted by other friends of the Church, have placed therein a fulllength statue of him, executed by Flaxman.

Bishop Skinner died on the 13th of July 1816. His life has been written by his eldest son, the Rev. John Skinner of Forfar. 7. William Skinner, D.D., 1816.

On the 11th of September, Dr William Skinner, youngest son of the late Primus, was unanimously elected by the Clergy of Aberdeen, and consecrated at Stirling, on the 27th of October following, by the Bishops of Brechin, Moray, Edinburgh, and Dunkeld. On the death of Bishop Walker of Edinburgh, in 1841, he was elected Primus, an office which he still continues to hold, with honour to himself, and advantage to the Church. Diu vivat.

The ancient Cathedral at Aberdeen, which has been occasionally before referred to, still remains in a perfect state of preservation, with the exception of the chancel, which has escaped desecration by having been levelled with the ground, though the original extent is still visible. The chancel arch has been built up, and forms the eastern extremity. Externally, the edifice retains its venerable form; but the interior, now used for presbyterian worship, with its lumbering pews, galleries, and other unsightly additions, as it presents a disgusting appearance to the eye, calls up also a host of melancholy reflections in the mind of a Churchman.

Arms of the See of Aberdeen: Azure, a temple, Argent: St Michael standing in the porch, mitred and vested, proper; his dexter hand elevated to heaven, praying over three children in a boiling cauldron of the first, in his sinister hand a crozier.

(To be continued.)

THE MADEIRA CHAPLAINCY.

THE case of the Chaplain at Madeira has become a matter of considerable interest to our brethren of the English Church, from the turn which the case has now taken. Nor is it without some degree of interest to ourselves. As Scottish churchmen we cannot but feel grateful that we are not subjected to the caprice or tyranny of a minister who,

'Dressed in a little brief authority,

Most ignorant of what he's most assured,
Plays such fantastic tricks.'-

If poor and despised, we yet can rejoice in the full enjoyment of that liberty wherewith the Gospel has made us free. We cannot, therefore, but deeply sympathise with a clergyman who is struggling for a like freedom from worldly bondage, and amid much calumny and opposition has firmly stood his ground.

With the facts of his case, probably, most of our readers are acquainted; as it has been much discussed in the public prints. We shall, however, to refresh their memories, give a brief outline of it, and hope that, though we are ourselves writing from memory, not having any detail of the facts in our possession, we shall be found to state the case with tolerable accuracy.

The Rev. Mr. Low has been for some years the Chaplain at Madeira, and ever since the publication of the Bishop of London's famous charge, has laboured, in obedience to his diocesan, to carry out the Rubrical observances therein enjoined. This he has done with great prudence, firmness, and success; and the result, as was to be expected, has been a manifest improvement in the devout hearing and character of a large portion of his flock, by whom he is greatly beloved. The Church was much better attended, and the communicants greatly increased, as the opportunities of public worship and communion were multiplied. The offerings made in behalf of the poor from Sunday to Sunday were increased to an almost incredible amount. Mr. Low laboured in every way assiduously, and was assisted by some of the better portion of his people; and in short the work of the Lord was prospering in his hand.

The evil enemy of man's salvation saw this, and resolved to scatter the seeds of dissension as the best means of staying the progress of truth and godliness. The English population at Madeira is made up of a heterogeneous mass of all creeds and persuasions, but each

being unable there to follow his own way, all place themselves more or less under the English chaplain. The more his inclination leads him to depart from the requirements of the Prayer-Book, and to follow sectarian practices, the more popular will he be with a considerable number of the invalids of Madeira, to whom sickness, generally speaking, has not taught the difficult lessons of humility and obedience. Among this 'mixed multitude' there was a Scotch Presbyterian-Dr Kalley-a man of undisciplined character, and restless disposition, who, besides embroiling himself with the Native Authorities, united with others in stirring up an opposition to the Chaplain, and sent home memorials against him both to the Government and to his Diocesan. A radical opposition to a Chaplain was sufficient to condemn him in the eyes of the former, and forthwith it was enlisted among his enemies, but the Bishop of London judged and acted in a very different manner.

In Madeira the real members of the Church of England, who understood her principles and were capable of appreciating Mr Low's unceasing labours among them, firmly supported him; and in a memorial to the Bishop not merely defended him, but gratefully acknowledged their obligation to him for his services, and entreated that he might not be withdrawn. The opposition was determined not to be thwarted. A few individuals took a large number of the seats, and locked them up, while whole families were excluded from the Church by this unprincipled conduct. The object was to represent the Church as emptied by Mr Low's misconduct. Nor was this all; these few individuals paid a guinea each for some parties on whom they could rely to give them a right to a vote. The consul too-Mr Stoddart, a Scotch Presbyterian, joined in the cabal against Mr Low. When they had things sufficiently ready, they contrived to get a packed meeting, at which there were not more than a dozen or fourteen qualified voters, and these succeeded almost unanimously in voting that no salary should be paid to the chaplain, without which he could not obtain the proportion for which the Government were liable. It was in vain that seventy of the communicants, with others, immediately came forward, and not only passed a vote of confidence in Mr Low, but actually subscribed a larger sum than it had been customary for the congregation to raise. The sectarian influence carried more weight with the Government than that of the Church and her friends. It continued to withhold his salary, and has done so from that day to this-now

several years. It was no doubt expected that Mr Low, finding the home Government against him, would be induced to resign. But, supported by his faithful and attached flock, having been found blameless by his Diocesan, and being strong in his own integrity, he resolved to suffer for the cause of the truth, rather than by weakly resigning his post, permit the enemy to triumph. The enemies of the Church at Madeira, and the Government at home, importuned the Bishop of London to withdraw his license, but he firmly refused to sacrifice a meritorious clergyman to any influence however powerful. The Government, therefore, continued to withhold his salary, which, as we believe it is not secured by any legal obligation, but rests on the obligation of a promise, in such a case as flimsy as the cobweb, he could not compel it to pay. Finding that he was maintained by the willing offerings of his loving flock, and that there was no longer any hope of his either being starved out, or induced to desert his post, the Foreign Secretary has at last consummated his oppression and tyranny, by cancelling Mr Low's appointment, in defiance of the decision of the Bishop of London. The latter still firmly refuses to withdraw his license, so that he will continue to represent the Church at Madeira, while the Rev. Kenworthy Browne, who is nominated as his successor by Lord Palmerston, will, if he should venture, in the present state of matters, to go out and officiate, convert the Consular Chapel into a meeting-house, and himself become a schismatic. We shall then have a new elucidation of the position of the Scotch schismatics. If Mr Browne should thus officiate apart from the communion of his own Bishop, and that an English Bishop, will he, being thus incapable of obtaining letters of commendation from his former Diocesan, be inducted to a living by any Anglican Bishop? If he should, alas for English discipline! This will show that schismatical priests in Scotland are only in the same position as a schismatical priest in England; that either, aided by the terrors of the law, can force the conscience of an Anglican Bishop, and compel him to do what the canon law of the universal Church prohibits him from doing.

But we have not quite finished our elucidation of Mr Low's sufferings, and the prudence with which, in his trying situation, he has conducted himself. When the excitement about rubrical observances was at its height, and confidence in the teaching of the Clergy was, for the time, greatly shaken, he, with great judgment, refrained from preaching his own sermons, and selecting those of a divine of

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a former age, very popular with all parties, and especially with the self-styled Evangelical School, namely, Bishop Beveridge, regularly preached them without a word of alteration. Yet, such is the fruit of party spirit, the good Bishop's evangelical sentiments became, in Mr Low's mouth, unsound, and indicated tractarian' leanings on his part! An English Clergyman, we regret to say, was among the number of those who perceived the heterodox sentiments of the hitherto unsuspected Beveridge, as they were uttered by the Chaplain of Madeira. Though thus firm, prudent, and sound in his principles, Mr Low suffers-suffers in his purse, suffers in anxiety, suffers through the interruptions of the peaceful discharge of official duty, which, if left alone, would have been blessed with the happy fruits of piety and righteousness. Most sincerely do we sympathise with him, and most heartily do we rejoice that the Bishop of London has stood so firmly by him, notwithstanding the powerful influence of the Government, and that he stedfastly refuses to be a partaker with Lord Palmerston in his sinful and oppressive proceedings.

When we turn our eyes to the Church of England it pities us to see her stones so laid in the dust. Here and there we perceive blots on the surface, which, till she has wiped away, she never can be free. She is beset with difficulties; she is surrounded with dangers, and must before long enter upon a terrible struggle to regain that degree of independence which is essential to her existence as a living branch of the Church Catholic. We do hope and believe that, amid her present trials, her great Head is guiding events that appear to mortal eyes events of unmitigated evil, towards the consummation of great and glorious purposes of good. We cannot doubt but He who makes 'the madness of the people' subservient to the purposes of His own Providence, will make the overbearing and unchristian conduct of statesmen productive of results the very reverse of that anticipated by worldly politicians. So long as the tyranny of the State was exercised with mildness and prudence, the Church quietly submitted, and her chains were day by day more firmly rivetted; but the recent outrages upon her patience and freedom have awakened a spirit within her, which, we trust, will work a mighty change in her condition and prospects. During the last few years she has done much, but the movement is but in its infancy, and we look for still greater results. It is not for nothing, then, that the First Lord of the Treasury has been permitted to nominate to a