The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-05-30 00:00:00

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

The matter of most general interest which the• assembly
has been called on to determine came before the'house on
Wednesday, when the protest of the ministers and elders
who seceded from the assembly, on the first day of meeting,
was taken up. That document expressed a decided intention
on the part of its subscribers, to separate from the church,
and this intention was followed out by the parties actually
leaving the assembly in the face of the court. In this view
Dr. Cook proposed to declare that the protesters had ceased
to be members of the church, and that the seceding ministers
had, by their own act, vacated their parishes. It was fully
admitted that this resolution was not only constitutional and
just in itself, but in perfect accordance with the objects and
desires of the seceders themselves. The duty of the church
to those who adhere to it, and also to those who have left it,
pointed to this direct and decided course. Several members,
however, urged that, as the seceders had not, in point of fact,
sent in their resignations, it would be proper to wait till they
had taken that final step. This feeling seemed to prevail in
the assembly ; when Dr. Lee stated that a document had just
been put into his bands, which, as he thought it bore upon
the question under consideration, he would read to the as-
sembly. The document proved to be a deed, in which the
subscribers declared their separation from the Established
Church, and their demission of the status and privileges of
ministers and elders of the church abandoning the rights and
the emoluments belonging to them in that capacity, but re-
serving their claim to the Widows' Fund, and also any legal
rights a certain portion•of them may be found to possess to
those chapels which have been built by voluntary contribution.
This document is an unconditional abandonment of the
churches, manses, and other endowments, which these mi-
nisters have held, and, though guarded by certain legal
phraseology, it must be held as the irrevocable act of seces-
sion and separation from the church, by the subscribers. On
that point, there is no doubt. and, with such declarations
before them, the assembly bad no room for hesitation. The
house unanimously resolved that the ministers who had sub-
scribed the protest, and also the deed, are no longer mem-
bers of the Church of Scotland, and disqualified for any spi-
ritual charge or appointment in the church, unless reponed
by the competent ecclesiastical judicatories. Presbyteries
are instructed to intimate the vacancies to the various parties
entitled to present. The same direct course was not taken
with the parties subscribing the deed only ; they are to be
conferred with by Presbyteries, and if they persist in their
resolution, they are to be placed in the same position as the
protesters. It will be observed that the deed_ particularly
sets forth the claim of the subscribers to retain their spiri-
tual character, which, be it remembered, they received in the
bosom of the Established Church. The privilege is left un-
touched by the deliverance of the General Assembly.

On Thdrsday, after the appointment of several committees,
the assembly proceeded to deliberate on various bppeals. We
need only state the results. Mr. Duguid. who had been or.
dained by the quasi-deposed Strathbogie Presbytery, and de-
prived of his license by the last assembly, was reponed. Mr.
Edwards, placed in similar circumstances, was also reponed.
Mr. Clark, who bad been deposed because he had appealed
to the Civil Courts, was in like manner reponed.. The case
of Mr. Middleton was not settled, as no. papers had been
given in. Mr. Monro, the presentee to Fala, was declared
to be entitled to that charge, and the two years badgeting
which that reverend gentleman has undergone, because he
did not express himself guardedly in a private letter, was
wound up by an order to the Presbytery of Dalkeith to pro-
ceed with his settlement. The only other case of marked in-
terest was that of North Leith Church—which was deter-
mined by the assembly instructing the Presbytery of Edin-
burgh to proceed with the settlement of Mr. Davidson, who
has been so long kept out of his charge by the vexatious sys-
tem pursued by the late dominant party. •
On Friday the assembly agreed to address her Majesty,
with a view to a legislative settlement of the status of quoad
sacra clergymen, and also made particular reference to the
measures contemplated by government.