746 F R E F R E acquitted by the presbytery ; and this attempt was success ful in the General Assembly. That ultimate court of review did not confine itself to the points appealed, but went into the merits of the whole case as it had originally come before the presbytery. The result was a sentence of sus pension. Mr Macmillan, believing that the Assembly had acted with some irregularity, applied to the Court of Session for an interdict against the execution of that sentence ; and for this act he was summoned to the bar of the Assembly to say whether or not it was the case that he had thus appealed. Having answered in the affirmative, he was deposed on the spot. Forthwith he raised a new action (his previous application for an interdict had been refused) con cluding for reduction of the spiritual sentence of deposition, and for substantial damages. The defences lodged by the Free Church were to the effect that the civil courts had no right to review and reduce spiritual sentences, or to decide whether the General Assembly of the Free Church had acted irregularly or not. Judgments adverse to the defenders were delivered on these points ; and appeals were taken to the House of Lords. But before the case could be heard there, the lord president took an opportunity in the Court of Session to point out to the pursuer that, inasmuch as the particular General Assembly against which the action was brought had ceased to exist, it could not therefore be made in any circumstances to pay damages, and that the action of reduction of the spiritual sentence, being only auxiliary to the claim of damages, ought therefore to be dismissed. He further pointed out that Mr Macmillan might obtain redress in another way, should he be able to prove malice against individuals. Very soon after this deliverance of the lord president, the case as it had stood against the Free Church was withdrawn, and Mr Macmillan gave notice of an action of a wholly different kind. But this last was not persevered in. The appeals which had been taken to the House of Lords were, in these circumstances, also departed from by the Free Church. It is perhaps to be regretted, from the legal point of view, that the case did not advance sufficiently to show how far the courts of law would be prepared to go in the direction of recognizing voluntary tribunals and a kind of secondary exclusive jurisdiction founded on con tract. 1 But, whether recognized or not, the church for her part continued to believe that she had an inherent spiritual jurisdiction, and remained unmoved in her determination to act in accordance with that resolution " notwithstanding of whatsoever trouble or persecution may arise." 2 In 1863 a motion was made and unanimously carried in the Free Church Assembly for the appointment of a com mittee to confer with a corresponding committee of the United Presbyterian Synod, and with the representatives of such other disestablished churches as might be willing to meet and deliberate with a view to an incorporating union. Formal negotiations between the representatives of these two churches were begun shortly afterwards, which resulted in a report laid before the following Assembly. From this document it appeared that the committees of the two churches were not at one on the question as to the relation of the civil magistrate to the church. While on the part of the Free Church it was maintained that he " may law fully acknowledge, as being in accordance with the Word of God, the creed and jurisdiction of the church," and that "it is his duty, when necessary and expedient, to employ the national resources in aid of the church, provided always that in doing so, while reserving to himself full control over the temporalities which are his own gift, he abstain from all authoritative interference in the internal government of 1 See Taylor Innes, Law of Creeds in Scotland, p. 258 seq. 2 The language of Dr Buchanan, for example, in 1860 was (mutatis mutandis) the same as that which he had employed in 1838 in moving the Independence resolution already referred to. the church," it was declared by the committee of the United Presbyterian Church that, " inasmuch as the civil magis trate has no authority in spiritual things, and as the employ ment of force in such matters is opposed to the spirit and precepts of Christianity, it is not within his province to legislate as to what is true in religion, to prescribe a creed or form of worship to his subjects, or to endow the church from national resources." In other words, while the Free Church maintained that in certain circumstances it was lawful and even incumbent on the magistrate to endow the church and on the church to accept his endowment, the United Presbyterians maintained that in no case was this lawful either for the one party or for the other. Thus in a very short time it had been made perfectly evident that a union between the two bodies, if accomplished at all, could only be brought about on the understanding that the question as to the lawfulness of state endowments should be an open one. The Free Church Assembly, by increasing majorities, manifested a readiness for union, even although unanimity had not been attained on that theoretical point. But there was a minority which did not sympathize in this readiness, and after ten years of fruitless effort it was in 1873 found to be expedient that the idea of union with the United Presbyterians should for the time be abandoned. Other negotiations, however, which had been entered upon with the Reformed Presbyterian Church at a somewhat later date proved more successful ; and a majority of the ministers of that church with their congregations were united with the Free Church in 1876. The total income of the Free Church for the year 1877- 78 was 575,718. This included (1) sustentation fund, 177,659 ; (2) local building fund, 99,480 ; (3) mission ary and educational, 91,895 ; (4) congregational and miscellaneous, 190,775. Since 1843 an aggregate amount of nearly 13,000,000 has been raised. In 1878 the num ber of congregations was 997, with a total membership of 270,000. 1075 ministers participated in the equal divi dend. There were also 59 missionaries employed at 21 prin cipal mission-stations in India, Africa, Syria, and Polynesia. Literature. An authorized edition of the Subordinate Standards of the Free Church, including the Claim of Right and Protest, was published in 1851 in an easily accessible form, along with the Act and Declaration of that year. Of these "standards " (the Holy Scrip tures being held supreme as the " rule of faith and manners ") the most important is the Confession of Faith, which alone is imposed by subscription. The Catechisms (Larger and Shorter} are "sanctioned as directories for catechizing ;" and the Directory for Public Worship, the Form of Church Government, and the Directory for Family Worship are " of the nature of regulations rather than of tests. " A practical application of the doctrine of the Confession, called the Sum of Saving Knowledge, is also included among the "standards." The general subject of Scottish church history is handled in a consider able number of well-known works, which need not be enumerated here. Among books professedly dealing with the Free Church question, the most valuable are Sydow s Die Schottische Kirchcn- fraqe (Potsdam, 1845), and The Scottish Church Question (London, 1845); Buchanan s Ten Years Conflict (1849); Hanna s Life of Chalmers (1852); and Taylor Innes on The Law of Creeds in Scot land (1867). See also Cockburn, Memorials of His Time (Continua tion, 1874); Walker, Dr Robert Buchanan: an Ecclesiastical Bio graphy (1877); Annals of the Disruption (published by authority of a committee of the Free Church, 1876-77). (J. S. BL.) FREEHOLD, in the English law of real property, is an estate in land, not being less than an estate for life. An estate for a term of years, no matter how long, was con sidered inferior in dignity to an estate for life, and unworthy of a freeman (see ESTATE). " Some time before the reign of Henry II., but apparently not so early as Domesday, the expression liberum tenementum was introduced to designate land held by a freeman by a free tenure. Thus freehold tenure is the sum of the rights and duties which constitute the relation of a free tenant to his lord." 3 In this sense freehold is distinguished from copyhold, which is a tenure
- Digby s History of the Law of Real Property.
