The Sun. — 1842-06-21 (London, England)

THE KIRK. (From the London Correspondent of the Scotsman.) Two of the great apostles of the agitation—Doctors Candlish and Buchanan—were deputed to London, to proselytise Members of Parliament. 'I hey arrived in the metropolis, per steamer from Leith, with a cargo of the pamphlets and publications of the General Assembly. These active arid zealous missionaries, to do them justice, disseminated far and wide their paper and print. "'I he Claim, Declaration, and Protest of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland," in a goodly quarto type, and " the Church of Scotland's Claim_of Right; to which are prefixed the speeches of Dr. Chalmers, Dr. Gordon, and Mr. Dunlop, in the General Assembly, in support of the same, May 24, 1842," were duly on the breakfast-table of every Member of the House of Commons this morning—whether Tory, Whig, or Radical. Nor did they confine their lahours to this dissemination of tracts. They got Mr. Fox Maule to sign a circular to two hundred Members of Parliament, inviting the Representatives of the people to hear their " sweet voices" this afternoon on the grievances of the Kirk, at the British Coffeehouse, Cockspur-street, Westminster. But, uith the usual fatality attending the agitators, the hour named was unfortunately two o'clock—affording only two hours for the "explanations," as the House of Commons meets at four o'clock. Clergymen are apt to be long in their discourses; and the two hours, as might have been imagined, did not suffice for a patient hearing of Drs. Candlish and Buchanan I '1 he meeting, thus ill-advisedly convened, was an utter failure. Not more than two dozen Members of the House of Commons attended this funeral service of the Kirk. The paucity of attendance evidently much abashed and discomfited the agitators. Their select vestry was composed of equal parts of Tory, Whig, and Radical, English, Scotch, and Irish M.P.'s ; of Scotch Non-Intrusionists, English Saints, and Irish Presbyterian Protestants—a motley jury to hold an inquest on the suicide of the Kirk ! I must, however, do lir. Candlish the justice to say, that after he had recovered his breath from the panic of this miserably thin audience, he earnestly and eloquently descanted on the text of his mission for an hour and a quarter. The reverend improvisatore ably and fervently handled the NonIntrusion history, from its commencement in 1834 to the present hour. Dr. Candlish was to have been followed and backed up by his fellow-apostle Buchanan ; but Mr. T. 11. G. Escourt (the Member for Oxford University, and a Doctor of Civil Law), putting some hard questions on the sentiments of the Kirkites in regard to civil and ecclesiastical law, an interlocutory discussion followed Dr. Candlish's long sermon, which occupied so much of the only remaining half-hour, that the meeting broke up on an intimation from Hon. Members that in all probability, there would be no house" unless all the M. P.'s present imma diately departed to attend in their places in the House of Commons ! This notable assembly, therefore, was prematurely dissolved, and adjourned sine die to St. Stephens. The scene then resembled the drawing up of the curtain for a new opera, where the manager comes on the stage and announces —" Ladies and gentlemen, 1 regret to say that the prima donna is so seriously indisposed, that she cannot possibly appear before you this evening but at the risk of her life." A more ludicrous juggle never took place. The actors in this mummery had been cautioned that the trick would le played, but, like the sceptics, could not be induced to believe. Thus are the Non-lntrusionists fairly floored by the wily Premier and I by false friends, and thus is all legislation cushioned !