spected the redemption of lay impropriations, but it was proposed, that in such cases the payer of the tithe should lodge his redemption money in the court of Exchequer, to be drawn thence by the person who should prove himself entitled thereto. It was further stated in answer to a question, whether the income of the clergy was to be liable to poor-rates, that as the rent was a payment minus the poor-rates, and the commuted payment for tithe would be calculated on the rent, to reduce it still further by the amount of the poor-rates would be unjust, as it would be burthening the tithe with that payment twice over. When the redemption money, however, was converted into land, that land would be liable to the poor-rates.

In the discussion, or rather conversation which followed, several members expressed approbation of the general features of the plan; some complained that it did not provide for a different appropriation of church funds, or make the tithe-owner liable to parochial rates and taxes; the greater number reserved their opinion till a bill should be brought in, and stated various points in which the measure seemed to be objectionable.- Sir Robert Peel did not wish to be pledged to all the propositions contained in the resolution, which was besides so vague, that it effected nothing. It was proposed that the proportionate value of tithe to land should be ascertained in the different counties of England and Wales: this principle was carried still further, for each county was made a distinct territory within itself with

Yet

respect to tithes ; and, the average proportionate value of tithe to rent in each county being ascertained, that average was to be applied to every parish and every estate within the county. this principle was in no way affirmed by the resolution. Why, then, enter into details at all in the resolution, unless it was meant to be contended that resolutions passed by the house of Commons were mere waste paper. After six months' consideration, the bill introduced last session for the purpose of facilitating the commutation of tithes, had been abandoned, and the house could not be called on to assent to it. What right, then, had the noble lord to call upon him (Sir R. Peel) to assent, on the instant, to the principles contained in the resolution, if that resolution was intended to be of any force? There were several points which required. much consideration and explanation. What connexion, he should like to know, was there between the payment of tithes and the territorial division of the kingdom into counties? Let the house consider what the consequences of this arrangement must be. The practice with respect to the payment of tithes would be found to be different in different counties, and in different parishes of the same county. In some the proportion, which the tithe bore to the rent, was very much larger than in others. For instance, the proportion, which the tithe bore to the value of land, was considerably higher in Devonshire and Kent than in some other counties; yet the effect of the noble lord's bill would be to fix in those counties the proportion for

ever. The distinction, likewise, between great tithes and small tithes had been overlooked. Was it intended that land subject to small tithes within a county should hereafter pay a contribution on the average of the land subject to great tithes? What was to be done with respect to the case where the title to tithes was contested. Supposing the question should arise whether milk was subject to tithes in what way was the dispute to be settled? These, and many other points, were things which every man had a right to have cleared up to his satisfaction, before being called on to affirm the principles contained in the resolution. He was ready to give his assent to a general resolution, declaring it expedient that leave be given to bring in a bill for the purpose of effecting a commutation of tithes in England and Wales, and he would move such a resolution as an Amendment. Every question would thus stand open upon the bill.-Lord Althorp admitted that the resolution which he had proposed was extremely vague; but he would not have moved a resolution at all, if the forms of the house had not required it. As its terms, however, had been objected to, and as it had been moved merely as the necessary means to the introducing of a bill, he would propose it in the following shape: "That it is expedient to effect the commutation of tithes, and to abolish the payment of tithes in kind, throughout England and Wales, and in lieu thereof to substitute another payment to be made to the parties entitled to tithes; and that the power of redemption should be granted to

the payers of tithes at a certain number of years' purchase." In this amended form the resolution was agreed to; but the principles or the details of the proposed method of commutation, were found to be so little palatable either to the clergy or to the landholder, that the measure was dropped altogether. Lord Althorp assigned as a reason for not going on with it, that he saw, from the state of the public business, and the time which would require to be devoted to the more urgent business of the amendment of the poor laws, that there was no probability of its being brought to a successful issue before the session terminated.

Even the church of Scotland, notwithstanding its apostolical poverty, and the uniformity of its Presbyterian purity, did escape from the prevailing spirit of innovation. In Scotland, as in England, many of the Dissenters now laboured openly after the abolition of the establishment, preaching the great doctrine that the state should no more pay men for attending to the souls of its subjects than physicians for taking care of their bodies. Instead of seeking any concealment, they formed themselves into societies, called "Voluntary-church Associations," and held public meetings for the furtherance of their object; while other sects of Dissenters came forward as publicly to fight the battle of the church, whose triumph did not appear to be doubtful. The friendship of these latter had been the more strongly conciliated by an alteration which

was effected in the system of lay patronage.

existence of this right, or the use of it in settling presentees not agreeable to the parishioners, although not liable to any objection to which the laws of the church could give effect, had been to a great extent, the original cause of secession from that church. From the date of that secession the church itself had contained a strong party, which held that the power of patrons should be, not abolished, but so regulated and curtailed, as to prevent the possibility of a presentee, however qualified according to the laws of the church, being imposed upon a congregation, the majority of whose members were unwilling to receive him. The late political changes had given a great accession of strength to this party, not only by fostering everything connected with the extension of popular rights or demands, but likewise by its practical effect on the constitution of the general assembly. The Scotch borough reform bill had placed the election of the magistrates and town councils of Royal Burghs in the hands of the 101. householders. Those bodies were now filled with men, all of them the rash and subservient worshippers of what were called liberal principles, many of them rabid Dissenters, and members of voluntary associations. The town council of every burgh sends a member to the General Assembly; all these representatives were now ranked on the side of innovation, which their predecessors had been accustomed to oppose. The consequence was, that the general assembly of this year passed an act which did effectually regulate and restrain the power of the patron,

but did so by transferring the power substantially to the people, and transferring it in the worst possible way, preparing in every parish the seeds of dissension among the parishioners themselves. This act set out with declaring it to be a fundamental principle of the church of Scotland that no minister should be forced upon a parish contrary to the wishes of the parishioners. It then made provisions for forming and keeping up in every parish a correct roll of the persons in communion with the established church; and enacted that when a clergyman was presented to a charge, if the majority of the persons on that roll should state to the presbytery simply that they disapproved of him, without assigning for their disapprobation any reason whatever, then he should be declared to be disqualified for that parish, and the presbytery was prohibited from proceeding to his induction. By the law of Scotland, if the patron does not present within six months after the vacancy has been intimated to him, the right of presentation falls to the presbytery within which the parish is situated jure devoluto. The new act provided that its regulations should not extend to such presentations by presbyteries. In that case disapproving parishioners were still to be bound to state their grounds of opposition, and the presbytery was to judge of the sufficiency and the evidence of these grounds of objection to their own presentee. The act could not become permanently law till a majority of presbyteries should have reported in its favour to the next assembly, but it was passed in the mean time as an interim

act. It was passed, however, only under a strong protest; and many persons of high authority, clerical as well as laymen, were of opinion that not only was the measure injurious to the rights of patrons, degrading to the church, and pregnant with bitter consequences to the people for

The reasons of dissent, signed by 106 members of the assembly, were the following:

1st. Because, in the opinion of the undersigned Dissentients, it is unwise to disturb, by a measure conferring great additional power on one of the parties, the well-established balance of the three several rights possessed by the church judicatories, by the crown and qualified subject patrons, and by congregations, composing the system under the operation of which the ministers of the church of Scotland are appointed; the practical result of which system confessedly is, that a body of clergy is thereby composed, which, in point of respectability and usefulness, cannot suffer by comparison with that of any other church now or formerly existing.

2nd. Because the measure referred to must, in the opinion of the Dissentients, not only disturb and introduce confusion into the system under which the appointment of ministers is conducted, thereby creating animosities, litigation, and injurious delays in the settlement of parishes; but does further confer on congregations such a paramount power in the appointment of ministers, as in practice, ultimately to render nugatory the rights belonging both to the church courts and to patrons.

whom that church existed, but that the assembly, in enacting it, had exceeded its powers as an ecclesiastical court, and had attempted to do that which, from its encroachments on the rights of others as they at present existed, could be effected only by the legislature.*

3rd. Because the ancient and undoubted right of the church, in particular, seems directly invaded by this measure, whereby her judicatories are no longer the sole and ultimate judges in all questions regarding the qualifications of nominees to spiritual charges; but congregations are empowered to judge of their qualifications, and to determine the same without assigning reasons, without record, and without review.

4th. Because the measure referred to assumes the character merely of an act, declaratory of the existing law of the church; while, in the opinion of the Dissentients, its provisions are subversive of laws and usages existing in conformity with the statutes 1567, 1592, 1690, through all periods of the history of the church, and are therefore in violation of the character of a declaratory act, and of the rights of presbyteries established by the Barrier Act.

5th. Because a measure of this character appears to the Dissentients by no means calculated to prove a final measure, or to give satisfaction to the discontented; but, on the contrary, to be peculiarly dangerous in the present season of public excitement, by opening up the way to irregularities and innovations, wholly destructive of our venerable church.