in which divine worship may be celebrated. The size of a parochial church must be proportioned to the number of inhabitants, and the law has fixed that it shall be capable of accommodating two-thirds of the examinable popula

practices is entertained, provision is made that the sale of a patronage shall be null and void, if it be made during a vacancy; and probationers are warned, as we have already said, at the time of receiving their license, that the Church will scrutinize with the greatest jeal-tion, that is, two-thirds of the parishousy, every charge of a pecuniary ioners above twelve years of age. It compact. A patron, in order to present is for the permanent population, howto a vacant parish, must qualify to ever, that this provision requires to be government, and an extract of his made; for if a manufactory or a mining having done so must be laid on the establishment should suddenly spring up table of the presbytery, along with to occasion, by the influx of workmen, a the presentation. Persons of any great increase in the number of inhabevangelical denomination may be itants, the requisite church accommodapatrons, but a Papist cannot. In tion must be provided by the erection general, patronage is held as a of a chapel, through means of voluntary trust by a superior for the benefit of subscription or private munificence. The the parish in which he possesses a parish church is designed for the use of patrimonial interest; and the attach- the permanent residents, and the ment which resident proprietors natu- amount of accommodation must be ally feel towards the people amongst provided for the whole inhabitants, whom they dwell, together with the however much dissent may prevail, influence of public opinion, affords a and even although a part of the popu security for the judicious and careful lation consist of Highlanders, who exercise of the right. This observation require a Gaelic chapel for themselves. is especially applicable to the patronages vested in the crown, which has for many years shown a strong disposition to settle vacant parishes in accordance | with the wishes of the people, wherever there appears a general agreement, or unanimity in their choice.

The duty of building and repairing a parish church devolves upon the heritors or proprietors; and the rule usually followed in apportioning the amount of assessment on each, in a purely landward parish, is, according to the valued rent of his estate; but in a parish partly rural, partly burghal, according to the real or actual rent of the properties. The

The care of vacant churches devolves on the presbytery of the bounds, who send one of their number to officiate in rota-heritors, when convinced of the urgent tion every alternate Sabbath, leave being usually given to the people, when they apply for it, to provide, at their own expense, a preacher for the intermediate days. It is strongly recommended, that members of presbytery, who are appointed to supply vacant parishes, appear in propriâ personâ, as there are frequently baptisms or other duties that demand the services of an ordained minister; and especially on those occasions when presbyterial intimations have to be made, no cause but one of strong necessity is admitted to justify the employment of a substi

tute.

Every parish must have a church

necessity for repairing an old or building a new church, may assess themselves; but if they fail to discharge their legal obligation, it is the duty of the presbytery, on the report of competent tradesmen, to ordain the necessary repairs, or an entirely new building; and this decree of the presbytery, sitting in a civil capacity, and issued in due form, has the force of law. It is not the province of the ecclesiastical court to interfere with the proposed site of the church, with the style of its architecture, or with the amount of expenditure. They have to determine only whether it be sufficient for the wants of the population; and even

E

different persuasion, or even of the Established Church, can occupy the pulpit. But the church, being not considered in Scotland as a res sacra, as in other countries where such edifices are formally consecrated, is used sometimes during the week for other purposes than those of worship-for meetings of heritors, of kirk sessions, of law courts, or of freeholders for municipal or parliamentary elections.

The provision made for parish ministers by the law of Scotland consists of a stipend, arising from a tax on land. It is raised on the principle of commuting tithes or teinds into a modified charge, the fifth of the land produce, according to a method introduced in the reign of Charles I., ratified by William III., and unalterably established by the treaty of union.

To

should it be contemplated to remove the church from one part of the parish to another, to the inconvenience of the minister and some of the people, the right of deciding in such a case belongs not to the presbytery, but to the lords of session, who act as commissioners, and by whom a purpose of removal, if backed by three-fourths of the heritors, and the general voice of the inhabitants, may be sanctioned. The church sittings are distributed according to the same rules which determine the proportion of expense each heritor has to pay in the erection or repair of the building. The heritors first of all choose their family seats. After the patron, the chief heritor has the right of choice, and all the rest according to the relative amount of their valued rents. Then the area of the church is divided in conformity with the same rules; different parts are ap-make this intelligible, we may observe, propriated to different heritors, and as that at the Reformation the teinds were the sittings are intended for the accom- appropriated by the crown, with the modation of their respective tenantry, burden of providing for the minister. it is not competent for any proprietor They were in after times often beto lease them, or to bestow them on stowed as gifts on private individuals strangers. Should he sell his estate, totally unconnected with the parish, or portions of his estate, the sittings and who thus came so far in place of in the church are transferable along the crown. These persons received the with the property, either in whole name of titulars, from being entitled to or in part. This division of the area collect from the heritors the unapproof a church is sometimes made by the priated teinds; but they were also kirk-session or by the presbytery; but bound, on demand, to sell to any as disputes may arise, and a single heritor the titularship to his own teinds proprietor has it in his power to dispute at nine years' purchase. From the their arrangement, it is usual to invite collective land-produce of a parish, the the services of the Sheriff, whose judi- court of teinds determines how much is cial distribution carries the force of a to be allotted for the support of the legal enactment. In landward parishes minister. This general decree having the church accommodation is free, but fixed the amount, a common agent, in towns magistrates are entitled to let | appointed by the court, proceeds to the sittings in churches,-only, however, divide it proportionally among the for the purpose of levying rent sufficient landholders, and this division, when to keep the edifice in proper repair, as fully made, is sanctioned by the court. well as defray the necessary expense of It is called a decreet of modification, ordinances. and forms the authority or rule, acThe custody of the church is, for ordi-cording to which alone the minister nary purposes, committed to the minis- collects his stipend. According to ter, as without his consent or permis- this system, which has proved a sion,-subject of course to that of the very happy settlement of a quæstio presbytery, no worship can be cele-vexata, the burden falls not on the brated, and no minister, whether of a farmer or tenant, as in other countries

where tithing exactions are made, but | be made up to £150. This, though on the landholder or titular of the but a poor and inadequate provision teinds, to whom a privilege of relief for men of a liberal profession, was is opened by having them fixed. felt and gratefully received at the time He may value them, that is, to use the as a great boon. But such is the words of Principal Hill, "lead a proof mutability of human society, that these of their present value before the Court stipends which in 1810 formed the of Session, and the valuation, once made minimum, are now greatly superior to by authority of that court, ascertains many which at the same period were the quantity of victual, or the sum of considered, for Scotland, rich benefices; money in the name of teind, pay- but, which being wholly paid in grain, able out of his lands in all time coming." have, through the late agrarian law, The advantage of this system is, that fallen far below that standard.* The it enables proprietors to know exactly incomes of city ministers are paid the extent of the public burdens on wholly in money. Besides the stitheir estate, and the teind appropriated pend, every parish minister has a right to the maintenance of the minister, or to a manse or parsonage-house, garden, to educational and other pious uses, being and offices, the style as well as the sacred and inviolable, is always taken extent of accommodation being generinto account, and deducted in the pur-ally proportioned to the value of chase or sale of lands. But that would the benefice and the character of not be so advantageous to the minister the neighbourhood. According to by fixing his income at one invariable law, the glebe consists of four acres standard, were it not that provision is of arable land, although, in point made for an augmentation of stipend of fact, it generally exceeds that every twenty years in parishes where measure; and, besides, most ministers there are free teinds. This is done by have a grass glebe, sufficient for the the minister instituting a process before support of a horse and two cows. the judges of the Court of Session, who these, by a late decision of the Court act as commissioners for the plantation of Session, are exempt from poor rates of kirks, and valuation of teinds; and and similar public burdens. Ministers in this process the act 1808 requires in royal burghs are entitled to manses, that he shall summon not only the but those in other cities and towns heritors of the parish, but also the have none. moderator and clerk of presbytery as There are 963 parish churches, 42 parties. In the event of the minister parliamentary churches, in all 1005. being able to prove a great advance in In this enumeration, collegiate churches the social and agricultural state of the are reckoned one parish. There are, parish, the judges grant his application, besides, a great many Chapels of Ease allocating some additional chalders; and quoad sacra churches, fourteen of but where the arguments pleaded which have recently been appear to them unsatisfactory, they into new parishes, in terms of Sir give a small addition, or refuse alto- James Graham's Act, and seventeen gether. In many parishes, however, additional districts are in the course from the teinds being exhausted, minis- of erection. "In only five parishes is ters had no prospect of augmentation the minister chosen by the people; in in the ordinary way; but redress was 581 he is selected by individual nobleafforded through the liberality of Mr. Percival's government in 1810, which used their influence in procuring an act of parliament to be passed, according to which all stipends in the Establishment should, out of the exchequer,

All

erected

men or gentry, in 289 by the crown, in 52 by town councils, in 31 by the crown in conjunction with nobles or gentry, in 10 by universities," &c.

A sum of £8 6s. 8d. is generally allowed over and above for communion elements.

THE FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND.

BY REV. WILLIAM WILSON,

DUNDEE.

THE Free Church of Scotland was organized as a distinct religious community in May, 1843. The General Assembly of the National Church was appointed to be held in Edinburgh on the 18th day of May in that year. When its members had all assembled in the ordinary place of meeting, and her Majesty's Commissioner, accompanied by the principal officers of State in Scotland, had taken his place, the Moderator of Assembly, instead of constituting the meeting in the usual form, rose and read the following protest, which had been previously prepared :—

We, the undersigned ministers, and elders, chosen as commissioners to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, indicted to meet this day, but precluded from holding the said Assembly by reason of the circumstances hereinafter set forth, in consequence of which a Free Assembly of the Church of Scotland, in accordance with the laws and constitution of the said Church, cannot at this time be holden

Second, That the said Civil Courts have power to interfere with and interdict the preaching of the Gospel and administration of ordinances as anthorised and enjoined by the Church Courts of the Establishment.

"Third, That the said Civil Courts have power to suspend spiritual censures pronounced by the Church Courts of the Establishment against ministers and probationers of the Church, and to interdict their execution as to spiritual effects, functions, and privileges.

"Fourth, That the said Civil Courts have power to reduce and set aside the

Considering that the Legislature, by their rejection of the Claim of Right adopted by the last General Assembly of the said Church, and their refusal to give redress and protection against the jurisdiction assumed, and the coercion of late repeatedly attempted to be ex-sentences of the Church Courts of the ercised over the Courts of the Church in matters spiritual by the Civil Courts, have recognized and fixed the conditions of the Church Establishment, as henceforward to subsist in Scotland, to be such as these have been pronounced and declared by the said Civil Courts

Establishment deposing ministers from the office of the holy ministry, and depriving probationers of their license to preach the Gospel, with reference to the spiritual status, functions, and privileges, of such ministers and probationers-restoring them to the spiritual

office and status of which the Church with the laws and fundamental prinCourts had deprived them.