take little care, and get the less good out of it; but if, before bestowing it upon her, you were to rip off the ribbons, and, taking a brush, warm water and soap, give it a good scrubbing (you would not make it white, but you would take the dirt out), and then send it down to the kitchen fire to dry, you would find it come up to you with quite another aspect from what it wore before you touched it; and if you then took the further trouble of sponging the marks out of the ribbons, ironing them over with a pretty hot iron while damp, and placing them on the bonnet in a simpler fashion than that you wore yourself, I feel assured you would be quite delighted with your handiwork-you would certainly rejoice the heart of the child for whom the bonnet was intended; and she would be a very bad child indeed, if the knowledge of your having taken some trouble for her did not act as a motive for her to prove herself worthy of your kindness. To fling your rubbish to your poor neighbours with an air which seems to say, Here! you may take that; I can make no further use of it,' is to insult their poverty, and may sour, but will not benefit them-but to shew that you have considered them, goes directly to the heart, as a proof of that charity without which 'you may bestow all your goods to feed the poor,' and profit neither them nor yourself, but with which, stronger than faith itself, you may remove not mere mountains' of rock and clay, but mountains of vice, and misery, and irreligion.

"Retournons à nos moutons.' Ladies, will you be quite shocked if I take it for granted that many of you wear flannel, or woollen drawers? I wish for your own sakes I could be assured that all of you do, for there is no part of feminine attire more conductive either to health or comfort than this homely garment. To those of you who are sensible enough to be guilty of the vulgarity of defending yourselves from the hurtful variabilities of our changeful climate by these means, I would say, that when you find they have so shrunk (as shrink they will, in spite of the best washing) as to be uncomfortable for your own wear, you ought, at the proper season, to bestow them upon some humble sister your servant, perhaps-as it is your duty, first, to provide for the wants of your own household-and this being an expensive article of clothing, servants cannot afford to get it for themselves; but take care that the person who receives them be shorter and slenderer than yourself, else they will not wear any time with her; and should you have but two pairs to dispose of, let them both be given to one person, as you will do more harm than good by not letting the object of your bounty have what will keep her clean as well as comfortable; and for her to leave them off for a day to have them washed, is enough to make her rheumatic for life. The best thing to be done with flannel petticoats, which usually wear at the knees, and get thin all round the under part, is to rip them down, and, reserving the worn parts for washing cloths, make the rest into children's petticoats; or they would cut into chemises and drawers for grown persons, or make long robes for babies, and in any of these shapes would be more useful than as thin petticoats for women, for whom blue flannel would be more suitable at any rate; which puts me in mind to suggest that bathing gowns, for which you have no farther use, after being a few hours in the washing-house boiler, and dried, will make into admirable petticoats for working people. White slips (with all the trimmings taken off) should go invariably to the first class of your portegees, for whom also the white linings of your dresses, hemmed at the bottom, and stitched to a top-band, will make exceedingly good petticoats. The dark linings will be too thin for petticoats for working people, and part of them at least should go to your servants (to whom linings for dresses is always a serious consideration); the rest will add much to the warmth of any stuff petticoat you may have to give away, or make nice inside linings for short-gowns for old

women, for which your last dressing-gown or morning wrapper may furnish the outside. It is quite astonishing what you will find about a house that may be turned to account in the making of those articles, either for aged women, or the children of a rural district, or fishing village, where longgowns and frocks are scarcely known. The print that, though quite good, is too faded longer to serve as covering for the damask furniture of your drawing-room, the old curtains off the nursery bed, the night cover from the top of its blankets, in fact, anything and everything in the shape of coloured calico, may be put to use for this purpose, and the best lining you put in the larger ones would be a piece of an old sheet. Unbleached linen covers of chairs or sofas should be turned into the loose pinafores, with shoulder-pieces and sleeves, which, with a band round the waist, make a child look so clean and well cared for, that it is quite a treat to look at it."

could

We cordially recommend this excellent unpretending little treatise to the notice and attention of all who wish to enter upon the walk of home Chris tian benevolence.

ECCLESIASTICAL INTELLIGENCE.

Presentations.-The Duke of Buccleuch has intimated his intention of presenting the Rev. J. J, Monilaws, assistant minister at Kinross, to the Church and Parish of Middlebie, vacant by the death of the Rev. Richard Nivison.-William H. K. Erskine, Esq. of Drew, has presented the Rev. Charles Stuart M'Lean, of St Luke's, Glasgow, to the Church and Parish of Dun, vacant by the death of the Rev. John Eadie.-The Earl of Fife has presented the Rev. George Gordon Milne, Edinburgh, to the Church and Parish of Careston.

Presentation.The Earl of Fife has, on the petition of the parishioners of Tullynessle, directed a presentation to be issued in favour of the Rev. William Paull, as assistant and successor to his father, the Rev. Dr Paull of Tullynessle.

Appointment.-The Rev. Alexander Macfarlane Stewart, has been appointed by the Royal Bounty Committee of the Church of Scotland, to the Church of Strathlock, in the Presbytery of Dunkeld.

Election. The Rev. A. J. Ritchie, Minister of St David's, Dundee, has been elected to the charge of Parish of Fettercairn, by a large majority.

Induction. The Rev. Donald M'Leod, presentee to the Church of Lauder, vacated by the translation of the Rev. Mr Smith to Trinity College Church, Edinburgh, was inducted to the charge on Thursday the 18th instant.

The late Rev. James Leslie, D.D.-The death of Dr Leslie took place at Bath Lodge, Stonehaven, on the 20th current. In so far as regards priority of ordination, he was the father of the Church of Scotland. He had passed the age of ninety-four years, having been born 14th March 1764.

Died, at Dumfries, the Rev. Dr Duncan, Minister of the New Church, aged 82 years. Dr Duncan was one of the venerable fathers of the Church, having been nearly 54 years an ordained minister.

MACPHAIL'S

EDINBURGH ECCLESIASTICAL JOURNAL.

No. CXLVIII.

MAY 1858.

MR ADAM BLACK, M.P., AND HIS ANNUITY TAX

BILL.

"A mad world my masters !"

DEAR ADAM,-You have usually been conceived to be a sensible and a liberal man; nay, by a numerous class of citizens,-more especially of business men in the Lawnmarket, Bridges, and Princes Street,you have been, since the demise of Sir James Gibson Craig, almost regarded as a Nestor of Whiggism. Staunch was your devotion to Macaulay, when, from his inattention to city affairs, his addiction to other pursuits, and his ill-advised talk about the "bray of Exeter Hall," his seat for Edinburgh had become somewhat precarious, and he was ignominiously compelled to abdicate it in favour of worthy but unintellectual Mr Charles Cowan. We used to admire your consistency. Your displays at public meetings, in favour of the Reform Bill, were not forgotten; yet in spite of this, many even of conservative leanings, preferred you to Mr Duncan M'Laren. Your Provostship, on the whole, was creditable; and your upholding of the propriety of devoting the whole of the money obtained by the sale of Trinity College Church to the building of the new edifice, was looked upon as doing you infinite honour; while your intercourse with men of all parties as to politics, certainly made you rise in the estimation, even of those who were doubtful and hostile. You have, moreover, of late been taking the chair at some of the religious

VOL. XXV.

N

meetings in our city. You are tenderly concerned about the heathenism of Turkey. You are, I should imagine, not less interested in the City Mission; and you are well known to be a member of Dr Lindsay Alexander's Church, listening, when your parliamentary duties allow you, to the exhortations of that esteemed, excellent, and learned divine.

You are of course, by profession, an Independent; and allow me to add, as a private citizen, a man of worth and excellence; liberal in your dealings as a publisher, and if not having realised a handsome independence, (of which I know nothing,) deserving to have done so. No breath of calumny has ever stained the whiteness of your character, and many may have been the struggling scholars you have aided, the men of industry to whom your liberality has afforded means of procuring food and clothing. I believe that your good deeds have been numerous, but I want to say a few words to you about this "little bill" which you, with Mr Cowan, and Mr Baxter of Dundee, have introduced into the House of Commons, facetiously entitled, I believe, a Bill for the settlement of the Annuity Tax Question in Edinburgh,-the perusal of which, I grieve to say, would almost lead one who did not know better, to believe, that the wear and tear of Parlia mentary life, was encroaching on the prospect of your enjoying a green old age, and that the vaticinations, (during the time of canvassing the electors) of your calculating and disinterested friend Mr Duncan M'Laren, might not be so far wrong.

The last time I had the pleasure of seeing you, I am happy to say, your appearance contradicted so painful an idea. Such was the springiness of your step,—such the jauntiness of your attire,—such the suavity of your countenance, so marked the twinkle of the expressive eye, that I have come to a different conclusion from that entertained by some of our fellow citizens, and verily believe that Mr Adam Black is perpetrating-has-though the Merchant Company were fairly hood-winked-accomplished an excellent joke, has proposed a measure sufficiently plausible in many of its details to impose on the uninitiated, and in short is taking his quiet laugh at his voluntary friends,-wishes to give the Rev. Dr Muir and the rest of the eighteen city ministers, a little gentle excitement, and to make the joke more telling, actually ignores some particulars with which we should not be so uncharitable as to think that Mr Black was unacquainted.

Let me glance now at some of the features in this Bill as proposed, which so fully indicate its author's (heretofore unsuspected) sense of the ludicrous. The Bill, our veteran M.P. says, has been framed with

a view to conciliate prejudice, disarm objection, and convince all parties that a "golden era" in the history of ecclesiastical finance in Edinburgh is about to dawn. Mr Black's Bill is to be the “dove,”– a messenger of peace; and actually it was so hailed by a very considerable number of respectable citizens, all buttoning up their pockets at the very name of "Annuity Tax," duly convened in Queen Street Hall, Mr Adam Black in all his gravity being present, and watching, we doubt not, with inward, though unheard chuckling, how his joke told. Let me tell you, as an old friend, Mr B., that you succeeded well. The only jarring speech, was that of Councillor Wood, who suggested, I believe, that it would be well if the majority of churchmen in Edinburgh could be got to coincide in any proposed measure for the abolition of the Tax, or at least in his common-sense way, (he was the model churchman of that evening exhibition) doubted if there would be harmonious co-operation or likelihood of success, unless the laymen of the church were induced to concur. A Committee was appointed there and then, after certain resolutions had been moved, seconded, and passed. That Committee have doubtless had their repeated meetings, and behold the issue,

"Parturiunt montes, nascitur ridiculus mus."

First of all, as a somewhat dull but highly respectable member of the Town Council, in what Ward I say not, said to the writer of this friendly letter, still not bright enough to see the joke," the Bill of Mr Black can never pass. It is absurd. We want immediate alleviation of this burden," (the respected Councillor is a Free Churchman), but here one eighteenth item only is to be lifted up on the demise of each successive incumbent. That is certainly a somewhat staggering objection. But you would saddle also the town of Leith with the obligation to provide a nest-egg for the ecclesiastical paupers who are, on each supposed occasion, to succeed the present incumbents. Why, the question naturally arises, should Edinburgh be freed (in time, for most of the present ministers are hale and healthy, some young and vigorous) while the burden hangs on Leith? It will not do, Mr Black, the joke, in fact, is too broad to be easily swallowed, -to idealise a scheme of ecclesiastical support based on the arrangements of Dr Lindsay Alexander's, or of Albany Street Chapel Congregation, and yet leave this shred of an endowment left. Besides, you leave to the future incumbents of the large Parish of Canongate, absolutely not even this small shred to begin with. But laying this aside, your Bill proposes, that after the £2000 from Leith have been