SCOTLAND.
The General Assembly did not flinch from their bold course during the progress of the session. On Thursday last week, the Reverend Mr. Robertson of Ellon, the Reverend Charles Hope of Lamington, Dr. James Bryce, the Reverend John Wilson of Walston, Members of the Assembly, and seven other ministers not members of the Assembly, appeared at the bar, in answer to a citation for having held communion with the deposed ministers of Stratbbogie. Dr. Cook recorded a pro- test against the competency of the Assembly to found upon the charge an ecclesiastical censure. Dr. Bryce stated, in the name of himself and his brethren, that they appeared to the citation from respect to the Assembly, without intending thereby to acknowledge the competency of the Court to inflict censure. Captain Elphinstone Dalrymple called upon the Assembly to place the whole minority at the bar ; avowing that he himself had shared in the act for which the others were about to be censured. After a debate, in which bitter terms were employed, the Assembly affirmed the motion of Dr. Candlish, censoring the parties at the bar, and appointing a Committee to " deal" with them, and report to the Assembly on Monday. On that day, Dr. Makellar, the Convener of the Committee, reported that the conference had been carried on in an affectionate Christian spirit, but that the ministers still adhered to their former views ; and he moved that they be suspended from their judicial functions as members of Presbyteries and superior judicatories, until the first Wednesday in March next. After a sharp debate, that sentence was pronounced.
The report of the Nonintrusion Committee was presented on Satur- day. It recapitulated the past negotiations between the Government and different parties; condemning Sir George Sinclair's embarrassing intervention, "the liberum arbitrium project," and a recent movement by members of the Church towards a new negotiation with Govern- ment. Dr. Candlish proposed a general approval of the report. The different position which had now been taken up, he said, would need a simpler machinery for the management of affairs than the two several Commissions of last year—the Special Commission and the Nonintru- sion Commission; and he proposed the appointment of one Commission, to keep in view these points—" The declaration that patronage is an evil and ought to be abolished, the assertion of the Church's spiritual independence, and the approval of the principles laid down in the report of the Nonintrusion Committee." Dr. Leishman vindicated the move- ment which was condemned in the report, and said that many members of the Committee approved of it. It was a mistake to suppose that its promoters took up a lower ground than the Nonintrusion Committee— They had declared that a minister was disqualified from being presented to a parish, and that the Presbytery should refuse to induct him, if his ministra- tions were not likely to be useful to the people, and if he were not generally acceptable to them. If the Assembly could say that such an amount of power in the hands of the Presbytery would enable the Church to carry out, in all cases, the great principle of Nonintrusion, he conceived it to be their duty to accept of such a power, rather than let the Church go down. Be quite agreed with Dr. Candlish, that Mr. Campbell of Monzie's Bill was much preferable to the libertan arbitrium ; but where was the man who could say that be had the slightest hopes of the passing of such a bill? Mr. Earle Monteith declared that Sir Robert Peel's difficulties in settling the question arose from the divisions which Dr. Leishman and his friends had fostered. Dr. Cook thought it would be more advisable to instruct the Committee generally to take all proper and constitutional means for the furtherance of their object—the settlement of the question. Dr. Candlish would not accept such a compromise— They did not profess that their primary object in the appointment of a Com- mittee was to restore peace: their primary object was to secure, if possible, to the Church, that she be allowed to maintain her principle in connexion with the Establishment. And they certainly believed that, if this could be done, the peace of the Church would be restored ; for this very obvious reason—and they had the best of all grounds for believing it—that when once their princi- ples were made consistent with the law of the land, that when once they were given effect to, their brethren on the other side would no more object to them : but this was the way, and the way alone, in which they contemplated the re- storation of peace. No man, he presumed, would wish for the restoration of peace at the expense of principle; and the only difference between him and the opposite side of the house was, that if the principles of those on the other side were essential to the existence of the Establishment, his friends must go out, and schism would be inevitable; whereas if their principles were recognized as those of the Establishment, there was no possible reason for his friends on the other side going out ; they could stay in, and peace would be restored. It was unworthy of statesmen to deal with a great national institute, like the Church of Scotland, as with the higgling demands of a huckster, bringing her down to the lowest terms— They had honestly declared that patronage was the source of the grievances tinder which they had well nigh sunk. They were not going to break their word of promise, hnt they would abide by their resolution, come what might. They had taken their stand, under God's blessing, against the encroachments of the Civil jurisdiction ; and were they to be brought down from this noble at- titude, to deal with the statesmen of this earth on such a great question, as if settling the amount of a twopenny tax, or laying on some trifling impost ?
Dr. Candlish's motion was carried.
Many of the special cases in which the Assembly is at issue with the Civil authorities were disposed of in accordance with the spirit evinced in the larger questions. The decision of the Presbytery of Irvine, who had refused the settlement of the Duke of Portland's presentee, the Reverend William Grierson Smith, because be had officiated for one of the deposed ministers of Strathbogie, was affirmed. The Presbytery of Edinburgh were instructed to withhold the Presby- terial certificate from Mr. Monro, who had been presented by the Town- Council of Edinburgh to the parish of Pala, on the ground of certain rumours respecting a correspondence between the presentee and the patrons. A Commission was appointed to inquire into the state of Daviot, where Mr. Clark has been vetoed ; a "lamentable defection from ordinances " existing among the people of the parish. The Reverend Mr. Corkindale, presented by the Crown to the parish of Ladykirk, had been refused by the Glasgow Presbytery the usual Pres- byterial certificate, on the ground of a private letter which he had re- ceived from Sir James Graham, and which was construed to imply the expectation that he would conform to the sentiments of the minority in the Church : the Assembly intimated to the Presbytery that there were no sufficient grounds for the refusal of the certificate. The Reve- rend David Wilson of Stranraer, against whom the Presbytery had pre- pared a libel charging him with gross immorality, had obtained an interdict from the Court of Session, on the plea that the proceedings were vitiated by the participation of quoad sacra ministers : the ob- jection was repelled ; Mr. Wilson was cited to appear at the bar ; and be was deposed. The case of Mr. Thomas Clark, the presentee to Letbendy, was somewhat similar ; and he was deprived of his licence. Mr. Livingstone of Cambusnethan, charged by the Presbytery of Hamilton with theft, opposed a similar objection, and was also deposed. The settlement of Mr. Duguid, who had been ordained to the parish of Glass, was declared null and void ; and the settlement of Sir. Middle- ton in the parish of Culsamond, who was admitted by the Presbytery in spite of a veto, was rescinded.
On the overture of the Presbytery of Glasgow, Mr. Dunlop moved a resolution declaring that the Assembly adhered to the declaratory act of 1834 respecting quoad sacra parishes.
Mr. Cunningham moved, and carried,: a resolution that Presbyteries be instructed to be careful in examining candidates for the ministry ; his object being to prevent that "ignorance" which has been displayed in the discussions on the Church question ; and he also moved that a Committee be appointed to consider what measures ought to be adopted to secure the obedience of all the licentiates of the Church.
The Special Commission was reappointed. The Assembly was dis- solved on Monday night, by the Moderator in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the High Commissioner in the name of the Crown ; the next Assembly to be holden on the 18th of May 1843.
The novel case, at the instance of the Earl of Buchan against Lady Cardross, for restitution of the infant children of her Ladyship and the late Lord Cardross, regarding which so many marvellous stories have lately appeared, was brought before the Court of Session on the 26th, on a reclaiming petition from her Ladyship ; who appealed against an order pronounced on Lord Buchan's petition, presented to the Lord Ordinary during vacation, whereby the Lord Ordinary ordained the custody of the children to be given to the Earl of Buchan as their natural guardian. The Lord President, the other Judges concurring, pronounced the opinion of the Court, that the application to the Court in vacation was competent, that the Lord Ordinary had power to enter- tain it ; that his order was, in the circumstances stated in the papers, and to the effect it was meant to have, quite correct ; and that in the mean time the children must, in terms of it, be delivered to the interim custody of the petitioner, the Earl of Buchan.—Edinburgh Observer.
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