VICTORIA R.

To the Right Reverend and wellbeloved the Moderator, Ministers, and Elders of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.

Right Reverend and Well-beloved, we greet you well!

Faithful to the solemn engagement which binds us to maintain inviolate the Presbyterian Church of Scotland in all its rights and privileges, we gladly renew the assurance that we desire to extend to you the countenance and support which the General Assembly has long received from our Royal

ancestors.

In other circumstances it might have sufficed to adhere to the forms which have been generally observed in our former communications to you, and to express our anxious hope that christian charity will, as heretofore, abound among you and restrain all animosities; but in the present state of the Church, and adverting to the discussions which of late have so unhappily disturbed its peace, we desire to address you with more than usual earnestness and anxiety.

It behooves you to remember that unity in the Church is the bond of peace; but that schism, and its pernicious effects, may tend seriously to endanger that religious Establishment from which Scotland has derived inestimable benefits.

The faith of our Crown is pledg

joyment of every privilege which you can justly claim: but you will bear in mind that the rights and property of an Established Church are conferred by law; it is by law that the Church of Scotland is united with the State, and that her endowments are secured; and the ministers of religion claiming the sanction of law in defence of their privileges, are specially bound by their sacred calling to be examples of obedience.

The Act ratifying the Confession of Faith and settling Presbyterian Church government in Scotland, was adopted at the Union, and is now the Act of the British Parliament. The settlement thus fixed cannot be annulled by the will or declaration of any number of individuals. Those who are dissatisfied with the terms of this settlement may renounce it for themselves; but the union of the Church of Scotland with the State is indissoluble while the statutes remain unrepealed which recognize the Presbyterian Church as the Church established by law within the kingdom of Scotland.

We cannot doubt that your anxious consideration will be given to various important matters connected with the welfare of your Church, which require immediate adjustment.

The Act of Assembly passed in the year 1834, on the subject of calls, has come under the review

ous proceedings, taken in pursuance of this Act, have been pronounced by solemn judgments to be illegal. It has not yet been rescinded by the Assembly; and a conflict of authority between the Law of the Land and an Act of the Church, in a matter where civil rights and civil jurisdiction are concerned, cannot be prolonged without injurious consequences.

The Church of Scotland, occupying its true position in friendly alliance with the State, is justly entitled to expect the aid of Parliament in removing any doubts which may have arisen with respect to the right construction of the statutes relating to the admission of ministers. You may safely confide in the wisdom of Parliament; and we shall readily give our assent to any measure which the Legislature may pass for the purpose of securing to the people the full privilege of objection, and to the Church judicatories the exclusive right of judgment.

There is another matter not less important, the present position of ministers in unendowed districts.

The law, as confirmed by a recent judgment, has declared that new parishes cannot be created by the authority of the Church alone, and that ministers, placed in such districts, are not entitled to act in Church courts.

If it shall appear that the efficiency of the Church is thereby impaired, and that the means of extending her usefulness are curtailed, the law to which such effects are ascribed may require consideration and amendment; but until it be so considered by the Legislature, and while it remains unaltered, we are persuaded

that it will be implicitly obeyed by the General Assembly.

You will deliberate on such of these matters as fall within your cognizance attentively and calmly; and we commend you to the guidance of Divine Providence, praying that you may be directed to the adoption of wise councils, which shall promote the permanent interests and honour of the Church, and the religious peace and moral welfare of our people.

We have again constituted and appointed our right trusty and entirely beloved cousin John Marquess of Bute, K.T., to be the representative of our Royal Person in this Assembly, and we are certain that his prudence and approved merits, and his tried attachment to the Church of Scotland, will render him acceptable to you in the execution of the duties of his high office.

He possesses our full authority for the exercise of our Royal Prerogative in all matters relating to the present Assembly, in which, in obedience to our instructions to him, he may be called upon to act for us, or on our behoof.

We implore the blessing of God on your deliberations, trusting that he will overrule all events for the good of his Church, and for the spiritual welfare of the people committed to your charge; and we feel assured that Divine Grace will not be withdrawn from the labours of the ministers of the Church established in this part of the United Kingdom. And so we bid you heartily farewell.

Given at our Court at St. James's, the 15th day of May 1843, in the Sixth Year of our reign.

By Her Majesty's command.

May it please your Majesty, We, your Majesty's dutiful and loyal subjects, the ministers and elders of the Church of Scotland met in General Assembly, have received with profound respect your Majesty's most gracious letter, conveying the renewed assurance of your Majesty's purpose to extend to us the countenance and support which former General Assemblies have received, in fulfilment of the solemn engagement which binds the Sovereign of the United Kingdom to maintain inviolate the Church of Scotland in all its rights and privileges.

As your Majesty has been pleased to advert to circumstances in the present eventful condition of this National Church, which have occasioned departure from the forms which have been generally observed in communications from the Throne to former General Assemblies, we beg leave to assure your Majesty that, entertaining an unfeigned desire to maintain unity and peace in the Church, in combination with purity of faith and worship, and the faithfu! administration of our ecclesiastical government as secured to us by law, we will give our most respectful, earnest, and serious attention to the momentous topics which your Majesty has recommended to our consideration, with a view to the early and satisfactory adjustment of various important matters connected with the welfare of this Church. On all these questions of most sacred interest, it becomes us to invoke the aid of Divine Grace, through which alone we

wisdom from above, that we may arrive at such conclusions as shall effectually promote the prosperity of our holy religion, with all its pure and peaceable fruits.

We are highly gratified by the re-appointment of the most honourable the Marquess of Bute, as the representative of your Royal Person in this Assembly, whose prudence, fidelity, and other excellences, as well as his proved attachment to this Church, have already recommended him to our peculiar respect and confidence.

We have received with the utmost gratitude the Royal donation of 2,000l., which we will use our best endeavours to apply so as to accomplish the pious purposes to which your Majesty has destined it.

That the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the supreme King and Head of the Church, may enrich your Majesty with all temporal and spiritual blessings; that he may encompass your Royal Consort and your Royal Offspring with his special favour, and that after a long and prosperous reign, He may bring you to eternal glory in heaven, is the earnest prayer of,

May it please your Majesty, your Majesty's most faithful, most loyal, and most obedient subjects, the ministers and elders of this National Assembly of the Church of Scotland.

Signed in our name, in our presence, and at our appointment, by DUNCAN MACFARLAN, Moderator. Edinburgh, 20 May, 1843.

The ministers and elders subscribing the protest made on Thursday, the 18th of this instant May, at the meeting of the Commissioners chosen to the General Assembly appointed to have been that day holden, against the freedom and lawfulness of any As. sembly which might then be constituted, and against the subversion recently effected in the constitution of the Church of Scotland, together with the ministers and elders adhering to the said protest in this their General Assembly convened, did in prosecution of the said protest, and of the claim of right adopted by the General Assembly which met at Edinburgh in May 1842 years, and on the grounds therein set forth, and hereby do for themselves, and all who adhere to them, separate from and abandon the present subsisting ecclesiastical Establishment in Scotland, and did, and hereby do, abdicate and renounce the status and privileges derived to them, or any of them, as parochial ministers or elders, from the said Establishment, through its connexion with the State, and all rights and emoluments pertaining to them, or any of them, by virtue thereof. De claring, that they hereby in no degree abandon or impair the rights belonging to them as ministers of Christ's Gospel, and pastors and elders of particular congregations, to perform freely and fully

wards their respective congregations, or such portions thereof as may adhere to them; and that they are and shall be free to exercise government and discipline in their several judicatories separate from the Establishment, according to God's Word, and the constitution and standards of the Church of Scotland, as heretofore understood; and that henceforth they are not, and shall not be, subject in any respect to the ecclesiastical judicatories established in Scotland by law: Reserving always the rights and benefits accruing to them, or any of them, under the provisions of the statutes respecting the Ministers' Widows' Fund. And further declaring, that this present Act shall noways be held as a renunciation on the part of such of the ministers foresaid as are ministers of churches built by private contribution, and not provided or endowed by the State, of any rights which may be found to belong to them, or their congregations, in regard to the same, by virtue of the intentions and destination of the contributors to the erection of the said churches, or otherwise, according to law; all which are fully reserved to the ministers foresaid and their congregations. And further, the said ministers and elders, in this their General Assembly convened, while they refuse to acknowledge the supreme ecclesiastical judicatory established by law in Scotland,

Edinburgh, to be a free Assembly of the Church of Scotland, or a lawful Assembly of the said Church, according to the true and original constitution thereof, and disclaim its authority as to matters spiritual; yet in respect of the recognition given to it by the State, and the powers in consequence of such recognition belonging to it, with reference to the temporalities of the Establishment, and the rights derived thereto from the State, hereby appoint a duplicate of this Act, to be subscribed by their Moderator, and also by the several ministers, members of this Assembly, now present in Edinburgh, for their individual interests, to be transmitted to the Clerk of the said ecclesiastical judicatory by law established, for the purpose of certiorating them that the benefices held by such of the said ministers, or others adhering to this Assembly, as were incumbents of benefices, are now vacant, and the said parties consent that the said benefices shall

be dealt with as such, and they authorise the Rev. Thomas Pitcairn and the Rev. Patrick Clason, conjunct clerks to this their General Assembly, to subscribe the joinings of the several sheets hereof. In testimony whereof these presents are subscribed, at Edinburgh, by the said whole parties in general meeting assembled, and the joinings of the several sheets by the said Rev. Thomas Pitcairn and the Rev. Patrick Clason, the conjunct clerks, as authorised as aforesaid, and along with the principal Act, duly executed and attested, which will be recorded in the books of Council and Session in due time, the 23rd day of May 1843 years, before these witnesses, Mr. John Hamilton, Advocate; William Fraser, Writer to the Signet; John Hunter, junior, Writer to the Signet ; and the Rev. John Jaffray, preacher of the gospel, and Secretary to the Provisional Committee, Edinburgh. T. CHALMERS, Moderator.

Kensington, 17th June, 1842. Sir, I have the honour to place in your hands in order to be submitted to the Queen, two Addresses to Her Majesty from the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. I was requested to present these Addresses to Her Majesty, by the Moderator, in the usual form, at the close of the perusal of the Minutes of Assembly on Monday night, 30th ult., but I did not receive them until this morning.

I enclose copies of the letters which I have received from the

dresses, and also a copy of a letter from Principal Lee, Senior Clerk of the Assembly, explanatory of the delay which I have described. The Moderator first requested me to present the Address, referring to a document entitled the Claim, Declaration, and Protest, which is now sent with the Address. He then, without sitting down, requested me to present the Address against Patronage, which, at the time, he described as a Petition against Patronage. This description I have since been officially informed, was a mere clerical mis