The corresponding movement in the Established Presbyterian Church of Scotland, commonly referred to as the Ten Years' Conflict, arose out of a question of Church government rather than one of theology. Lay patronage had been imposed on the Church of Scotland by the Act of 1712. The revival of spiritual activity, which in England took the shape of the Tractarian movement, was equally perceptible in Scotland, and resulted in the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland passing the Veto Act in 1834, by which it was declared to be a fundamental law of the Church that no pastor could be appointed to a parish against the will of the majority of the congregation. It was not long before this led to appeals from the Ecclesiastical to the Civil Courts. In 1842 the General Assembly presented to the Queen a "claim, declaration, and protest," accompanied by an address praying for the abolition of patronage, to which the Home Secretary made reply that the Government could not interfere. In March 1843, the House of Commons decided by 211 votes to 76 against attempting to redress the grievance, and on May 18 following, the non-intrusion party withdrew from the General Assembly and constituted the first Assembly of the Free Church, under the leadership of Dr. Thomas Chalmers. The action was all the more significant because Chalmers, the most powerful and popular preacher in the Scottish Church of that day, and a distinguished leader of ecclesiastical thought, had hitherto been a powerful champion of the connection of Church and State. But he had thrown himself with great earnestness into the work of reclaiming the masses and bringing them into direct relations with the Church, and he felt convinced that this great work could not be carried to success unless the Church were free to choose her own instruments. Four hundred and seventy parish ministers resigned their livings and joined the Free Church. A sustentation fund was set up, based on a calculation made by Chalmers that a penny a week from each member of a congregation would produce a stipend of £150 a year for 500 ministers. It amounted to no less than £367,000 in the first year of disruption. [Illustration: _J. Doyle_ ("_H. B._").} {_Political Sketches._ AN OLD SO'GER IN MARCHING ORDER. General Sir Charles Napier, 1782-1853.] [Illustration: _H. Martens._} {_From a Coloured Engraving._ THE BATTLE OF SOBRAON, February 10, 1846. This illustration is reduced from a popular, but somewhat quaint, coloured print representing the 31st Regiment, with Major-General Sir Henry Smith's division, in action at Sobraon. It forms an instructive contrast with the military prints of the present day.] [Sidenote: Affairs of British India.] [Sidenote: The First Sikh War.] [Sidenote: Battles of Meeanee, Moodkee, Ferozeshah, Aliwal and Sobraon.]