The Sun.
London, England, 1841-05-08 00:00:00

THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND

THE BILL INTRODUCED ON THURSDAY EVENING BY THE
DUKE OF ARGYLL TO REGULATE THE EXERCISE OF

CHURCH PATRONAGE IN SCOTLAND.

Whereas by an Act passed in the tenth year of the reign of
her late Majesty Queen Anne, intituled " An Act to restore
the patrons to their ancient rights of preserving Ministers to
the churches vacant in that part of Great Britain called Scot-
land," the rights of patrons to present to vacant parishes in
Scotland, which by an Act of the Scottish Parliament passed
in the first year of their late Majesties William and Mary, had
been discharged, annulled, and made void, were restored to the
said patrons.

Arid whereas the exercise of the said rights of patrons, in
the manner and to the extent in which the same were restored
under the said Act of her late Majesty Queen Anne, has at
various periods occasioned great dissensions in the Church and
among the people of Scotland, and has given rise to sundry
evils and inconveniences whit h it is expedient for the future
to obviate by certain modifications of the said rights of patrons
as hereinafter provided.
May it therefore please your Majesty, that it may be enact-
ed ; and be it enacted by the Queen's most excellent Majesty,
and by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual
and Temporal and Commons in this present Parliament assem-
bled, and by the authority of the same, that if, at the meeting
held for moderating in a call in favour of a Presentee to any
Church or parish in Scotland, the major part of the male pa-
rishioners s.r members of the congregation to which the minis-
ter is to be appointed (being of the age of twenty-one years
complete), who, at the date when the then existing vacancy
in the said Church or parish occurred, were in full communi-
cation with the Church of Scotland, shall not concur in the
staid call either by subscribing the same, or by not expressly
dissenting therefrom (all who do not so dissent being holden
as concurring), but shall appear before the Presbytery, and
state in its presence their dissent from the call ; and if, after
the Presbytery shall have endeavoured, in the manner here-
inafter provided, to remove :any misapprehensions that may
appear to them to exist in the minds of the parties so dis.
senting, their number shall not, by withdrawal of their
dissents, be reduced to less than a majority of the whole male
communicants as aforesaid, and the Presbytery or superior
Church Judicatory reviewing its judgment, do not find that the
said dissent proceeds from factious or malicious motives, or
otherwise than from a conscientious regard to the religious in-
terests of the congregation—all right competent to the Pre-
sentee under his presentation shall therefere cease and deter-
mine ; and upon a final deliverance by the Presbytery or supe-
rior Church judicatory to that effect being pronounced, the
patron shall have power to issue another presentation to a dif-
ferent Presentee, provided the same be done within the period
of six months allowed by law to patrons for pre-enting, it being
declared always that, in computing the said period of six
months the interval which elapses between the lodging of any
presentation with the Presbytery and the final deliverance pro-
nounced thereupon by the Presbytery or other Church judi-
catory, shall in no case be reckoned or included ; and failing of
the patron issuing another presentation within the said period,
so computed, the jus derolutum shall take effect in manner
hereinafter provided. _

Provided always, and be it further enacted, that the indivi-
duals composing, in each parish or congregation, the body of
male communicants hereinbefore mentioned as entitled to dis-
sent from the call shall be ascertained, and the mode of stating
their dissent before the Presbytery, shall be fixed and regu-
lated in such manner as the Church may direct ; and it shall in
all cases be incumbent on the Presbytery, before pronouncing
any final deliverance on the said call, to take such means as to
them shall seem most expedient to ascertain that the dissent
of the major part of the male communicants as aforesaid, does
not proceed from factious cr malicious motives, and further, if
they see cause to take such means as they may judge suitable
for removing misapprehensions from the minds of the people,
and obviating their objections to the presentee; and it shall
in all cases be competent to the patron or the presentee, who
may allege that the said dissent proceeds from factious or ma-
licious motives, to establish the same before the Presbytery o-
superior Church Judicatory by evidence, competent accord-
ing to the law of the Church in the judgment of the said Ju-
dicatcries.

And be it turner enacted, that in no case in which, in
virtue of the provisions of this Act, the right of any presentee
under a presentation in his favour shall have ceased, as afore-
said, shall it be competent for the Presbytery of the bound-t, in
any event, to claim sr exercise any right tanquam jure deco-
into to present to the said Church or parish for that vacancy,
any law or practice to the contrary Lotwithstanding ; and if
thereafter the patron shall fcil within the time by law pro-
vided, and computed as aforesaid, to issue a presentation which
sha'l prove effectual to fill the vacancy, the right to pretext to
the sJitl church or parish for that vacancy, shAl thereupon de-
yell? upon and be exercised by her 3lajesty and her heirs and
successors, as fully and frcely in all respects the right to pre-
rent tauquanzjure devoluto is at present used and exercised by
Presbyteries of the Church ; the presentations or successive
presentations so issued by her Majesty and her heirs and suc-
cessors, being always subject to the provisions of this present
Act.

COWES, ISLE OF WIGHT.
FROM OUR OWN COILRr.SPONDENT.)
ROYAL YACHT SQUADRON INTELLIGENCE.
MAY o.—Arrived the Menai, 175 tons, Lord F. Egerton,
M.P., from Portsmouth ; Louisa, 121 tons it Hyde P.rker,
Bart., from Li9ton ; 168 tons, E. N. Hervey, EN.,
from Gibraltar; Dream, G. Bentinek, Esq., from Dartmcuth.