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not established by proof,-and if the candidate pass his second trials to the satisfaction of the Presbytery, the Presbytery are required, and bound by the Acts of Parliament above alluded to, to ordain and institute him as the Minister of the Parish; in consequence of which he becomes ipso facto invested with all the temporal and ecclesiastical rights, properties, and privileges of his office. In this view of the law, both the civil and ecclesiastical courts of judicature in Scotland fully concurred, until very recently. But some years since, the General Assembly passed an "Act concerning Calls," by which Presbyteries were forbidden to ordain or institute any minister, however qualified, to whom a majority of male heads of families, being communicants, in the parish, objected, even although no grounds of objection should be stated: and although the individual nominated by the patron, should be perfectly free from all canonical reasons of objection. This was giving the male communicants an absolute veto, upon every appointment: hence it has been called the Veto Act. In effect it takes away all the rights and privileges of the patron, and transfers them to the communicants. It was early foreseen by all prudent men, that this ill-advised Act of the Assembly must lead to a collision between the Church and the Courts of law: and it was easy to surmize which would eventually prevail. The Assembly was urged and entreated to rescind its illegal enactment, and to apply to Parliament for an amendment of the law, and for the redress of any grievances, under which members of the Church of Scotland might suppose themselves to labour on the score of patronage: but its leaders held it to be beneath the dignity of the Church to appeal to Parliament, or in any way to recognize the authority of the civil powers in such a case. The Assembly was taught to consider itself in such matters as not merely co-ordinate with, but paramount to the legislature of the land; and accordingly it proceeded in its career, heedless of warning and remonstrance.

Then occurred the Auchterarder Case, in which a person nominated by the patron, was rejected by the heads of families, in the exercise of the arbitrary veto vested in them by the Act of Assembly concerning Calls: and the Presbytery, yielding obedience to the same authority, refused to ordain or install the nominee. The gentleman nominated, and the patron of the living brought their action against the members of the Presbytery for withholding from them their civil rights, and obstructing them in the exercise of their legal privileges. The Court of Session, the highest legal tribunal in Scotland, decided in favour of the patron and the nominee; and the case being brought by appeal to the House of Lords, and ably argued at the bar, was finally determined in the same manner, without a dissenting voice. This seemed to all men of unbiassed understanding, a plain proof that the General Assembly had surpassed its powers, and must speedily retrace its steps. Next came the affair of Strathbogie. Here the majority of the Presbytery, instructed by the issue of the Auchterarder Case, refused to sustain the absolute veto tendered by a majority of heads of families, and proceeded to ordain the nominee of the patron, in

opposition to the Act of Assembly. For so doing, they were prosecuted, or libelled before the Commission, or Fixed Committee of the General Assembly: and on their persisting in their obedience to the law of the land, they were one and all suspended from their' pastoral office, by sentence of the Commission, until the Meeting of the next General Assembly; and persons were appointed by the Commission, to supply their pulpits during their suspension. Under these circumstances, they applied to the Court of Session: which, as in duty bound, upheld them for acting in obedience to the law of the land, and issued an interdict, or injunction commanding the persons who were appointed to supply their pulpits, to abstain from obstructing them in the exercise of their ministry, or, in any way, intruding upon their churches or chapels. The supplies in consequence were obliged to content themselves with preaching in barns, public-houses, or the open air: and the refractory ministers continued, and still continue to exercise all their parochial functions; treating the censure of the ecclesiastical Commission as illegal, null, and of no effect.

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Matters were now come to such a crisis, that Lord Aberdeen deemed the case worthy of the interference of Parliament: and accordingly introduced a Bill into the House of Lords, with a -view to smooth away all difficulties. This measure seemed well calculated to meet the wishes of the clergy; for it went on the principle of vesting all the power and patronage of the church, effectively, in the Church Courts, The Session in each parish, was to make out annually, a list of heads of families entitled to take part in the appointment of a minister:-this list was to be revised and approved by the Presbytery; and no person except those whose names were there inscribed, should be allowed to interfere: when the patron had made his nomination, the candidate was to preach a certain number of days on trial, at the end of which time, any individual upon the list of qualified persons, might lodge an objection with the Presbytery, in writing, stating his grounds of objection: these grounds of objection need not be confined to the canonical causes now recognized, but might relate to any circumstances whatsoever, which the individual might happen to dislike; such as the candidate's name, if it happened to be unpopular in the district; or his accent, if it displeased him. Of these objections, the Presbytery was to be the absolute judge: -and if it should appear to the members of that court, that they were sufficient in their nature, and sufficiently substantiated, the Presbytery was authorized to set aside the nominee, and require the patron to nominate another candidate: and thus on in succession, until some individual might be found to whom no objection could be urged, which the Presbytery considered valid. It is evident that by this proceeding, the Presbytery would have a threefold veto: the antecedent veto upon license; a virtual veto upon the parochial list; and an absolute veto in deciding upon the validity of whatever arbitrary objections any individual in a parish might take it upon himself to urge.

Strange as it may appear, the General Assembly, by a large majority, determined to oppose this Bill: the greater number, it would

seem from the debates, on account of its recognizing the right of the Legislature to interfere in any manner with the asserted prerogatives of the Church Courts: but some, we would also hope, out of a sincere regard to the Christian privileges of the parochial Congregations in the choice of their ministers, which the proposed Bill would have left precisely in their present state of abeyance.

This was the most important business brought forward at the late meeting of the General Assembly. There was, however, a very interesting debate on the case of the refractory members of the Presbytery of Strathbogie. They had set themselves openly in array against the Act concerning Calls, and treated the authority of the Commission, and the Assembly itself, with defiance. They expressed no regret; they promised no amendment: on the contrary they maintained that they were right, and declared their intention to persevere. It was fully expected that they would be degraded and cut off as disorderly and contumacious members: but from this step the Assembly drew back: and only continued till next year the sentence of suspension, which the suspended ministers have declared their intention to disregard, and the Court of Session has interdicted the officers and members of the General Assembly from intimating or attempting in any way to carry it into effect. The matter cannot end here.

SUMMARY OF PUBLIC OCCURRENCES.

THE QUEEN. On Wednesday the 10th of June, a most daring attempt was made to assassinate Her Majesty, while driving in a carriage with her Illustrious Consort, in Constitution Hill, near Buckingham Palace, in London. The author of this savage and brutal outrage was a servant out of place, named Edward Oxford; who, having taken his station on the walk, deliberately presented and fired a pistol loaded with ball, at Her Majesty while passing close to where he stood, but happily without effect: on which he discharged a second in the same manner, which also missed its aim. Her Majesty displayed, on this occasion, all the courage and selfpossession which are characteristic of her Illustrious Lineage; and most fortunately appears to have sustained no injury from the shock which she must have experienced. The wretched man Oxford was immediately apprehended by the by-standers, and has been committed to Newgate on a charge of high treason. mediately after this dreadful occurrence, Her Majesty drove to the residence of the Duchess of Kent, to apprize her honoured parent of her safety ere she could have heard of her danger: and returned to the palace again by the same route, in the same open carriage, unattended by any guards, except the crowd of her faithful and devoted subjects, who thronged around to testify their loyal feelings of joy and thankfulness for her Majesty's providential preservation. Both Houses of Parliament, and almost every town and hamlet in the Empire, have sent forth addresses to the throne on this occasion: in almost every place of worship have fervent thanksgivings been poured out to the King of kings, and fervent suppli

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cations for His Almighty protection:-and there has been more than this. The event has been taken into the domestic circle; it has been matter of individual rejoicing; and has affected the minds of the people like an event in their own families. Never have we seen the marks of sympathy so widely spread, so deep, since the death of the Princess Charlotte of Wales in the year 1817. May God preserve our Queen!

PARLIAMENTARY.- Legislation is making but little progress, although Parliament has sat the usual number of hours, and members have delivered the usual number of speeches since our last month's publication. A Bill has been introduced to unite the two provinces of Upper and Lower Canada into one, under a united Legislature; and another for the appropriation of the lands in the Upper Province called the Clergy Reserves. It is proposed to divide the proceeds of the sale of these lands into four equal portions: of which one is to be applied to the support of clergymen of the Church of England; one for clergy of the Church of Scotland; one for clergy of other sects tolerated by law, in proportion to the population belonging to each; and the remainder for the purposes of general education, without sectarian bias.- Government have introduced a Bill for the amendment of the Register of Parliamentary Electors in England; and one having the same object with reference to Ireland, in opposition to that brought forward by Lord Stanley. The last has however been taken into Committee in the House of Commons, after two divisions, in which ministers were defeated by majorities of 5 and 11 respectively.-In the House of Lords, a motion on the Corn Laws has been thrown out: as also a Bill for amending the Laws relating to Grand Jury Cess in Ireland: and the Irish Corporation Bill has been again postponed.

HOME-The Scottish Church have wisely decided to accept and approve of the Plan of National Education proposed by Government in the course of last year.-Great efforts are making by the friends of what is called Church Extension; their object being to obtain a grant of £8,000,000 from the National Funds to build additional places of worship for the already overgrown Establishment of the Church of England!-In Ireland, the Repeal Agita tion continues; but languidly, as it seems. A new Liberal Asso

ciation has been founded in the North.

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DELIVERED TO THE CHILDREN ATTENDING THE SUNDAY SCHOOL OF THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CONGREGATION, HOLYWOOD.

DEAR CHILDREN,

(Concluded from page 189.)

may I yet say something to you more particularly on behalf of your teachers? Your love and confidence are what none of them can be indifferent to. Some of you, they hope, are growing up to share his cares and pleasures in the charge of this school-to give freely as you have freely received. You do not see the pain, the self-reproach, which a Teacher feels, when his class have been inattentive and uninterested in the words of life-you do not hear the prayers that are sent up for you in secret, the thoughts that are engaged in seeking how best to fix your attention,—the hopes with which he goes forth for the morning, and the disappointment of returning, when the day is spent, doubtful if one heart has been interested; one useful lesson fixed in the memory; one devout affection turned to your Maker and Redeemer. -The office of a Teacher must be, in great part, a wo k of faith and hope, rather thau of immediate recompense. But you can do much to make the work easy, and the hope delightful. And what you are asked to give, while it is so desirable to him, will make you not the poorer.

We want you to give regular and punctual attendance, -because, without this, any thing like method in your studies will be impracticable. You will be continually obliging us to go back over the ground already laboured,

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