The Sun.
London, England, 1835-06-08 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SIR,--1 quite concur with you in the remarks you have
made, in your paper of this day, on the proceedings of the
General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. Fanaticism
and bigotry are, I am sorry to say, on the increase in the
northern part of the kingdom, and the Acts which you refer
to as evidences of their existence will have a powerful effect
in extending their influence. By the new Constitution of
the Church, it will become the interest of the candidate for a
living not to store his mind with the treasures of ancient
and modern learning, so necessary to qualify a clergyman
for the proper discharge of his high and responsible office ;
but to perfect himself in the arts of acquiring popularity by
flattering the prejudices of the vulgar. He that can rant
loudest, or whine with the most melodious twang, will hence-
foftb stand the best chance of receiving a call. The opera-
tion of the new laws will therefore, in my opinion, produce
an unfavourable effect upon the clerical character in Scot-
land. The great interests of morality will be considered as
of secondary importaixe, and a blind fanaticism, one of the
greatest curses that can afflict a country, will overspread the
land.
The gross fraud practised by a member of the Assembly,
which you justly censure in strong terms, shows what even a
Minister of the Gospel will do, to serve what he chooses to
consider a pious purpose. Such principles, though they may
not be avowed, are, I fear, held, and sometimes acted upon,
by other members of the cloth.
Mr. Trail, I have good reason to believe, attributes the loss
of his election in a great measure to the interference of one
of the Shetland Ministers—an interference so discreditable to
the individual who practised it, that he has been cut by many
of his most intimate friends. I know, too, that by far the
most active and malevolent partizan against the liberal inte-
rest, in the late election for Inverness, was one of the Mini-
sters of that town. This reverend gentleman not only can-
vassed personally, and !threatened with perdition his county
parishioners, if they dared to vote for the liberal candidate
( Mr. Grant, of Glenmorriston), but positively alluded to the
election and the persons of the candidates in all his sermons
during the period of the election. This, naturally, among $
people easily led on religious subjects, had a considerable
effect, and to it is chiefly to be attributed the defeat of the
liberal candidate.
The same clergyman, in the late Borough election, when
Mr. Edward Ellice was one of the candidates, behaved Pre-
cisely in the same manner—accompanied the Tory candidate
to the hustings--and subsequently made a violent speech at a
public dinner in the town.
I may perhaps mention another circumstance connected
with the Borough Election, from which our readers will draw
their own conclusions. It is this :—Mr. C. announced his
" visitations" a week before that election. He especially v!ent
to those voters who were in Mr. Ellice's interest, and it as a
positive fact that many so visited, who had personally pledge.d
themselves to Mr. Ellice, did, after the visitation, break their
promises and vote against him
I am, Sir, your's, &c.,
GAIDHEAI.