English: The scene of the Disruption in 1843 which led to the creation of the Free Church of Scotland. "The Commissioner then proceeded to St. Andrew's Church, where the Assembly was to be held. The streets, especially those near the place of the meeting, were filled, not so much with the boys who usually gaze at the annual show, as by grave and well-dressed grown people of the middle rank. According to custom, Welsh [the previous year's Moderator] took the chair of the Assembly. Their very first act ought to have been to constitute the Assembly of this year by electing a new Moderator, but before this was done, Welsh rose and announced that he and others who had been returned as members held this not to be a free Assembly - that, therefore, they declined to acknowledge it as a Court of the Church - that they meant to leave the very place, and, as a consequence of this, to abandon the Establishment. In explanation of the grounds of this step he then read a full and clear protest. (...) As soon as it was read, Dr. Welsh handed the paper to the clerk, quitted the chair, and walked away. Instantly, what appeared to be the whole left side of the house rose to follow. Some applause broke from the spectators, but it checked itself in a moment. 193 members moved off, of whom about 123 were ministers, and about 70 elders. (...) They all withdrew slowly and regularly amidst perfect silence, till that side of the house was left nearly empty. They were joined outside by a large body of adherents, among whom were about 300 clergymen. As soon as Welsh, who wore his Moderator's dress, appeared on the street, and people saw that principle had really triumphed over interest, he and his followers were received with the loudest acclamations. They walked in procession down Hanover Street to Canonmills, where they had secured an excellent hall, through an unbroken mass of cheering people, and beneath innumerable handkerchiefs waving from the windows. But amidst this exultation there was much sadness and many a tear, many a grave face and fearful thought; for no one could doubt that it was with sore hearts that these ministers left the Church, and no thinking man could look on the unexampled scene and behold that the temple was rent, without pain and sad forebodings. No spectacle since the Revolution [of 1688] reminded one so forcibly of the Covenanters." -- Henry, Lord Cockburn, Journal 1843