sures, inflicted by the Church judicatories in the exercise of discipline (which, by special statute, all "judges and officers of justice" are ordered "to give due assis tance" for making "to be obeyed or otherwise effectual"), and so reponing ministers suspended from their office, to the power of preaching and administering ordinances; thus assuming to themselves the "power of the keys."

By interdicting the execution of a sentence of deposition from the office of the holy ministry, pronounced by the General Assembly of the Church; thereby also usurping the "power of the keys," and supporting deposed ministers in the exercise of minis terial functions, which is declared by special statute to be a "high contempt of the authority of the Church and of the laws of the kingdom establishing the same."

By assuming to judge of the right of individuals elected members of the General Assembly to sit therein, and interdicting them from taking their seats; thus interfering with the constitution of the Supreme Court of the Church, and violating her freedom in the holding of General Assemblies secured to her by statute.

By, in the greater number of the instances above referred to, requiring the inferior judicatories of the Church to disobey the sentences, in matters spiritual and ecclesiastical, of the superior judicatories, to which, by the constitution in Church and State, they are subordinate and subject, and which, in compliance with the provisions of the statutes of the realm, their members have solemnly sworn to obey; thus sub verting "the government of the

teries, provincial synods, and general assemblies," settled by statute and the Treaty of Union as "the only Government of the Church within the kingdom of Scotland."

By all which acts, the said Court of Session, apparently not adverting to the oath taken by the Sovereign from whom they hold their commissions, have exercised powers not conferred upon them by the Constitution, but by it excluded from the province of any secular tribunal, have invaded the jurisdiction of the Courts of the Church, have subverted its government, have illegally attempted to coerce Church Courts in the exercise of their purely spiritual functions, have usurped the "power of the keys," have wrongfully ac claimed, as the subjects of their civil jurisdiction, to be regulated by their decrees, ordination of layman to the office of the holy ministry, admission to the cure of souls, Church censures, the preaching of the Word, and the administration of the sacraments; and have employed the means intrusted to them for enforcing submission to their lawful authority, in compelling submission to that which they have usurped,-in opposition to the doctrines of God's Word set forth in the Confession of Faith, as ratified by statute, in violation of the Constitution, in breach of the Treaty of Union, and in disregard of divers express enactments of the Legislature:

And whereas farther encroachments are threatened on the government and discipline of the Church, as by law established, in actions now depending before the said Court, in which it is sought to have sentences of deposition

try reduced and set aside, and minorities of inferior judicatories authorised to take on trial and admit to the office of the holy ministry, in disregard of, and in opposition to, the authority of the judicatories of which they are members, and of the superior judicatories to which they are subordinate and subject:

And whereas the government and discipline of Christ's Church cannot be carried on according to His laws and the constitution of His Church, subject to the exercise, by any secular tribunal, of such powers as have been assumed by the said Court of Session:

And whereas this Church, highly valuing, as she has ever done, her connexion, on the terms contained in the statutes herein before recited, with the State, and her possesion of the temporal benefits thereby secured to her for the advantage of the people, must, nevertheless, even at the risk and hazard of the loss of that connexion and of these public benefits, deeply as she would deplore and deprecate such a result for herself and the nation, persevere in maintaining her liberties as a Church of Christ, and in carrying on the government thereof on her own constitutional principles, and must refuse to intrude ministers on her congregations, to obey the unlawful coercion attempted to be enforced against her in the exercise of her spiritual functions and jurisdic tions, or to consent that her people be deprived of their rightful liberties:

Therefore the General Assembly, while, as above set forth, they fully recognised the absolute jurisdiction of the Civil Courts in relation to all matters whatsoever

in relation to all the temporalities conferred by the State upon the Church, and the civil consequences attached by law to the decisions, in matters spiritual, of the Church Courts-Do, in name and on behalf of this Church, and of the nation and people of Scotland, and under the sanction of the several statutes, and the Treaty of Union hereinbefore recited, claim, as of right, that she shall freely possess and enjoy her liberties, government, discipline, rights, and privileges, according to law, especially for the defence of the spiritual liberties of her people, and that she shall be protected therein from the aforesaid unconstitutional and illegal encroachments of the said Court of Session, and her people secured in their Christian and constitutional rights and liberties.

And they declare that they cannot, in accordance with the Word of God, the authorized and ratified standards of this Church, and the dictates of their consciences, intrude ministers on reclaiming congregations, or carrying on the government of Christ's Church, subject to the coercion attempted by the Court of Session as above set forth; and that, at the risk and hazard of suffering the loss of the secular benefits conferred by the State, and the public advantages of an Establishment, they must, as by God's Grace they will, refuse so to do; for, highly as they estimate these, they cannot put them in competition with the inalienable liberties of a Church of Christ, which, alike by their duty and allegiance to their Head and King, and by their ordination vows, they are bound to maintain, "notwithstanding of whatsoever trouble or persecution may

And they protest, that all and whatsoever Acts of the Parliament of Great Britain, passed without the consent of this Church and nation, in alteration of, or derogation to the aforesaid government, discipline, right, and privileges of this Church, (which were not allowed to be treated of by the Commissioners for settling the terms of the Union between the two kingdoms, but were secured by antecedent stipulation, provided to be inserted, and inserted in the Treaty of Union, as an unalterable and fundamental condition thereof, and so reserved from the cognizance and power of the federal legislature created by the said Treaty,)-as also all and whatsoever sentences of Courts in contravention of the same government, discipline, right, and privileges, are and shall be, in themselves, void and null, and of no legal force or effect; and that, while they will accord full submission to all such acts and sentences, in so far, though in so far only, as these may regard civil rights and privileges, whatever may be their opinion of the justice or legality of the same, their said submission shall not be deemed an acquiescence therein, but that it shall be free to the members of this Church, or their successors, at any time hereafter when there shall be a prospect of obtaining justice, to claim the restitution of all such civil rights and privileges, and temporal benefits and endowments, as for the present they may be compelled to yield up, in order to preserve to their officebearers the free exercise of their spiritual government and discipline, and to their people the liberties, of which respectively it

to law and justice, to deprive them.

And, finally, the General Assembly call the Christian people of this kingdom, and all the Churches of the Reformation throughout the world, who hold the great doctrine of the sole headship of the Lord Jesus over his Church, to witness, that it is for their adherence to that doctrine, as set forth in their Confession of Faith, and ratified by the laws of this kingdom, and for the maintenance by them of the jurisdiction of the office-bearers, and the freedom and privileges of the members of the Church from that doctrine flowing, that this Church is subjected to hardship, and that the rights so sacredly pledged and secured to her are put in peril; and they especially invite all the office-bearers and members of this Church, who are willing to suffer for their allegiance to their adorable King and Head, to stand by the Church, and by each other, in defence of the doctrine aforesaid, and of the liberties and privileges, whether of office-bearers or people, which rest upon it; and to unite in supplication to Almighty God, that He would be pleased to turn the hearts of the rulers of this kingdom, to keep unbroken the faith pledged to this Church, in former days, by statutes and solemn treaty, and the obligations, come under to God himself, to preserve and maintain the government and discipline of this Church in accordance with His word; or otherwise, that He would give strength to this Church, officebearers and people, to endure resignedly the loss of the temporal benefits of an establishment, and the personal sufferings and sacri

Whitehall, 4th January, 1843. Reverend Sir,-At the close of the last General Assembly I had the honour of receiving from the Lord High Commissioner two Addresses, which his Grace under. took to transmit to me, that they might be laid before Her Majesty; and I have lately received a Me. morial of the Commission of the General Assembly, addressed to Sir Robert Peel, and to the other members of Her Majesty's Go

vernment.

The first Address is described in the Memorial of the Commissioners of the Assembly as "An Address bringing under the notice of Her Majesty the Claim, Declaration, and Protest anent the en. croachments of the Court of Session on the Spiritual Jurisdiction of the Church." The second is set forth as "An Address praying that Her Majesty would be graciously pleased to direct measures to be taken towards effecting the abolition of Church Patronage in Scotland."

When I received these two Addresses from the General Assembly to Her Majesty, I informed the High Commissioner that, if the presentation of these documents to the Queen could be held to imply an adoption of their contents, I did not hesitate to declare that a sense of duty would restrain me from laying them before Her Majesty; but as they purported to be a statement of grievances from the Supreme Ecclesiastical Authority in Scotland, I was unwilling to intercept their transmission to the Throne.

I should, therefore, lay both

I formally declared to the Lord High Commissioner, on the part of Her Majesty's advisers, that this act was not to be regarded as any admission whatever either of the Claim of Right or of the grievance set forth in these two documents,

Having made this declaration, I presented the Addresses to the Queen: I received no commands from Her Majesty; but Her Majesty's servants, although it did not appear to them to be their duty to tender at that time any advice to Her Majesty, carefully and anxiously deliberated on the contents of these Addresses, the importance of which was neither undervalued nor disregarded.

You state in the Memorial of the Commission of the Assembly, that "if redress be not afforded, the inevitable result must be a disruption of the present established Church of Scotland;" and "that the prospect of such a result demanded the immediate and serious consideration of the claims submitted by the Church."

Moreover, you intimate an opi nion that the silence of Her Majesty's Government is inconsistent with the respect due to the authority of the General Assembly.

If Her Majesty's servants could have entertained the propositions for which you contend, and could thereby have arrested the calamity which you foreshow, a day would not have passed before they would have seized the opportunity of giving contentment to the Church and of staying the progress of a schism, from which unhappy consequences may be apprehended. But when we consider the nature