The Sun.
London, England, 1862-06-02 00:00:00

SCOTCH ECCLESIASTICAL ASSEMBLIES.

The mode of election and settlement of ministers
has for many years been the great qucestio vexata of
the Church of Scotland, and in the Assembly now
sitting in Edinburgh the subject has been agitated
under circumstances which exhibit an increasing
amount of dissatisfaction with the present state of
the law. In 1843, after the Free Church secession,
a bill was carried through Parliament by Lord
Aberdeen which modified the old law of church
patronage to the limited extent of enabling con-
gregations to state objections to the nominee of
the patron, and requiring the Church courts to ad-
judicate upon these objections. The act has from
year to year given rise to lengthened and costly
processes, and, ultimate appeal being to the assem-
bly in May, almost every year cases have come,
before the supreme court of the church for judg-
ment. The result of these oases has generally de-
pended on the circumstance whether the popular
party or the patronage party had the majority in
the representative Assembly of the year, the act
itself being so constructed as to allow great latitude
of interpretation as between the force and genuine-
ness of the objections on the one hand, and the
number of objectors on the other. The ambiguity
of the act, and the differences of opinion in the
church, have necessarily led to decisions somewhat
difficult to reconcile, so that it is almost impossible
to predict in any case the result of an appeal to
such a fluctuating and divided body of judges. In
some of the cases presentees have lost £5OO to £BOO
in attempts to carry through their presentations,
and congregations have lost an equal sum in endea-
vouring to keep out unacceptable presentees. The
act requires that the objections shall be personal to
the presentee, and affect his suitability for the
parish; but cases have occurred in which objec-
tions were offered by congregations who, disap-
pointed in not having got the man of their choice,
resisted the settlement of the presentee in the hope
of securing his rejection, and ultimately getting the
patron to accept the popular choice. There was no
case, under the sot before this Assembly, but a
case in the Presbytery of Edinburgh had been pro-
secuted up to the last stage, and had attracted
great attention in the country. The Rev. Mr. Phin,
minister of Galashiels, was in February last pre-
sented by the Crown, as patron, to the first charge
in the parish of South Leith ; but the majority of
the congregation, anxious to secure the promotion
of the minister of the second charge, stoutly opposed
the settlement of Mr. Phin. Evidence was led at
great length upon the objections, but, from reluc-
tance to " intrude" himself, the presentee withdrew
after he had the opportunity of clearing his own
reputati... The case,
however, strongly helped to illustrate the working
of the Act, and to increase the dissatisfaction. In
the Assembly, the Rev. Dr. Lee renewed a motion
he had made last year to the effect that it was highly
desirable that the Act should be repealed, and that
a new law should be passed, by which the incon-
veniences and mischiefs complained of should be
obviated, and the rights and privileges of all parties
interested more clearly determined and better se-
cured. In an able speech he condemned the Act as
injurious to the patron, who did not know the ex-
tent of his power; to the presentees, who were ex-
posed to expensive suits to meet in many cases
frivolous objections ; to the Church courts, whose
time it wasted; and to the people, whomit distressed
by the uncertainty and costliness of its operation.
The motion was lost by 145 to 91, but the division
showed a great access of strength, a similar motion
last year having been lost by 147 to 51, the majority
against Dr. Lee being thus reduced from 96 to 54.
Both sides in the discussion acknowledged the un-
satisfactory operation of the Act, but the majority
either thought the evils might be to some extent
cured by amendment of the regulations for working
the Act, or thought the danger of an appeal to Par-
liament too great to be incurred, looking to the un-
certainty of the result, The majority were also
dividel in their views as to the principle of apply-
ing the Act, whether as a measure for securing
"suitable" or " acceptable" ministers.
The only case coming before the Assembly by
process on this occasion was that of the minister of
the parish of Dunlop, the Rev. W. Gebbie, who was
libelled by certain parishioners for heresy and irre-
verent conduct. There were 19 counts in the
libel, of which 18 referred to expressions used by
Mr. Gebbie which were in their form heretical,
such as, that assurance is essential to salva-
tion, that the unconverted cannot pray, &c. ; and
one charge related to a succession of scenes in the
church of Dunlop during the revival excitement of
1860, in which the minister was accused of stimu-
lating the frenzied ebullitions of the people, and
taking part in the indecorous and irreverent mani-
festations that took place. The Assembly appointed
a committee to confer with Mr. Gebbie, who after-
wards reported that they had received most satis-
factory assurances of his repudiation of the alleged
doctrinal errors implied in the words ascribed to
him, and of his regret at having taken part in the
scenes of excitement referred to. The Assembly
unanimously resolved that the rev. gentleman be
admonished to avoid all such occasions of " unsea-
sonable and unscriptural excitement ;" and several
members expressed their strong opinion of the per-
nicious influence which the scenes that had occurred
in Dunlop Church were likely to produce on sound
religion. One of the speakers (Sir J. H. Maxwell)
said that at Annan and Dumfries scenes had oc-
curred still worse than at Dunlop, and that auricu-
lar confession had been encouraged to an extent
from which the Church of Rome would shrink.
The Free Church Assembly, which sits simultane-
ously with the parent body, on Tuesday last filled
up the vacancy in the New College caused by the
death of Principal Cunningham. The office ofPrin-
cipal was, by a majority of 288 to 126, conferred
upon the Rev. Dr. Candlish, without a chair, and
the Rev. Robert Rainy, of Free High Church, Edin-
burgh, was appointed to the chair of
ADtitvhineistyittainnad
Church History by 230 to 202 ves•
place
Majesty'so on a
Lb
oi lrl d iHn rgoh-
on Friday a long debate tookker
duced by Lord Belhaven (
Commissioner to the Church Scotland)oftendthepowers
intothoef
House of Lords, to settle and ex
the Courts of the Church of Scotland. The clause
c!tation of witnesses was
giving power of comp ulso7
that which formed the principal subject of discus-
sion, and on the motion of the Earl of Dalhousie, the
Assembly unanimously resolved to petition both
Houses of Parliament not to pass this bill on the fol-
lowing
grounds :—First, because it proposes to Par-
liament to legislate on a subject which they, as a
Chnrch, hold to belong to the Church solely of
itself ; and, secondly, because it proposed to confer
upon the Courts of the Established Church civil
powers wlf.ch had always been withheld from it
from the Reformation down to the present hour.

The report of the sustentation fund given to the
Assembly showed that £112,616 had been collected
during the year, showing an increase of £523 on
the previous year, and giving to each minister on
the equal dividend the sum of £137, this being in
addition to congregational supplement to stipend.
The ministers of the Free Church were appointed
to preach on the first Sunday of November next in
commemoration of the bicentary expulsion of the
2,000 Nonconformist ministers in England in 1662.