ABSTRACT
The war against the residuary Establishment which the Banner advocated as the only possible course in May 1843 had effectively commenced before that date. It was the policy of the seceding clergymen to use the pulpit as a means of convincing, the uncommitted members to rally to the support of the emergent Free Church. The fact that all fifteen ministers in the city were committed to nonintrusion, albeit to varying degrees, and that all were in the event to secede, must have considerably hampered the development of a counter-agitation on the part of the Establishment. Even after the Disruption when the supposed illegality of the prior actions of the seceders was scarcely a live issue the Establishment continued to make this a central theme in their attacks on the new Church. The chapter focuses on fairly accurate observation of developments taking place within the new Church and which were to be important in determining its economic organisation and social relationships.
