The Sun.
London, England, 1834-06-11 00:00:00

CHURCH OF SCOTLAND IN BRITISH

INDIA.

If the General Assembly has in our opinion been
legislating to bring down the Church at home, it has
made some amends at the close of its labours, by pass-
ing a measure well calculated to build up the infant
church of Scotland in British India. This subject
was pressed upon the attention of the assembly by
the unwearied diligence and activity of the Rev.
Doctor Bryce, of Calcutta, and, we believe, in
opposition to the views taken by several influential
men in the church. The Reverend Doctor laid
before the committee on India Churches a draft
of a constitution, erecting the churches in India
into a presbytery, with power to secure native converts
as religious instructors of their countrymen. This
draft was unanimously approved of by the committee ;
but on the subject coming under the consideration of
the house, an objection was started by Lord Moncrieff
that the act of Parliament having placed the chaplains
in India under the spiritual and ecclesiastical jurisdic-
tion of the Presbytery of Edinburgh, it was incompetent
in the Assembly to erect them into a separate Presby-
tery. Dr. Bryce, who had procured the clause in the
act of Parliament, and according to whose suggestions it
was worded, was heard by the Assembly upon this ob-
jection, and on the expediency of granting the constitu-
tion which he craved. The clause, he observed, was
confined entirely to chaplains " to be appointed," and
was at least intended to limit the jurisdiction of the
Presbytery of Edinburgh to their ordination and in-
duction—a process which, of course, could not take
place before any Presbytery erected in India, as
it was not to be expected that the presentees
would travel 15,000 miles on a chance of being
rejected. Lord Moncrieff said his doubts were not
removed by what had fallen from Dr. Bryce ; and
the erection of a Presbytery in India, as proposed
by the Doctor, was modified into constituting the
ministers of Calcutta, along with the ordained cler-
gymen of the mission, and two lay elders, to be
chosen by the kirk-session of Calcutta, into a body,
having power to grant license to native converts, as re-
ligious instructors of their countrymen, under the au-
thority of the Church of Scotland—this same body
having power summarily to withdraw these licenses
when abused. This is a great point gained; for the
body without the name had the powers which, as a
Presbytery, were sought by Doctor Bryce. It must be
highly gratifying to this gentleman to see this union
between the Church and mission in India at length ef-
fected. The attention of the Church of Scotland was
first drawn to the establishment of a mission at
Calcutta by Doctor Bryce ; the account which he gave
on Monday of its success and prospects was highly
pleasing ; and we trust the high expectations of the
Christian world as to its ultimate prosperity will not
be disappointed. It was unfortunate that so im-
portant and interesting a measure should have been
taken up at the very close of proceedings, and among
the greatest hurry and bustle of coming to an end.
On this account it has met with less attention from
the house than it deserved.—Edinburgh Evening Post,
June 7.