ascends to the pulpit, conveys the impression of conscious power. He enters upon the services of the sanctuary with an evident sense of their solemnity and importance. No glimpse of humour, no _outre_ illustration, no divergence from the beaten track is attempted; the heavy and portentous gravity of his manner and matter is unrelieved by a single touch of light--all is sombre, deep, profound. One can fancy that Dr. Buchanan is inclined to think, with Dr. Johnson, that a punster is as bad as a pickpocket. But it would be unfair to estimate Dr. Buchanan from his pulpit appearances only. Listening to his discourses from the pew, one can form but a faint conception of the greatest merits--the strongest points--of the minister of the Free College Church. It is in the ecclesiastical Forum that Dr. Buchanan is found most in his element; there, like Mark Tapley, he comes out the stronger, the greater the pressure and opposition brought to bear upon him. No man in the Free Church is more completely "posted up" in all the questions that come before the Assembly--no man is more entitled to rank in that body as the Rupert of debate. In the Glasgow Presbytery he takes a leading part in the discussion of all prominent questions; and no member is listened to with greater attention. It is not too much to say that, although he may meet with a foeman worthy of his steel in the General Assembly, he has not in the more circumscribed sphere of the local Presbytery, a single rival who is in any sense his match. The late Dr. Gibson was frequently accustomed to tackle him, and perhaps he sometimes did so successfully; but while the latter was undoubtedly an able debater, he lost ground from his impetuosity of temper--an infirmity to which Dr. Buchanan never gives way. In all circumstances he is cool, calculating, unruffled; he measures the full meaning and effect of every sentence; he can be fierce and withering, and still maintain a calm and composed demeanour. The gladiatorial conflicts in which these two combatants took part were often a source of rare amusement even outside the pale of the Presbytery, and, inasmuch as they were both well fortified with weighty and telling arguments, the spectacle was not always unedifying. On the question of Union, as is well known, they took diametrically opposite views. Many a passage of arms passed between them on this _questio vexata_, while the younger and less athletic backers surrounded the arena, waiting the shock with eager anticipation; for "When Greek meets Greek, then comes the tug of war." But the one has been taken and the other left; and no man, we believe will be more ready to do justice to the memory of his deceased fellow-_confrere_ than Dr. Buchanan himself.