SCOTLAND.'
The Lord Advocate of Scotland is to offer himself for the county of Argyll, in the room of Mr. Campbell of Monzie, who has retired. The Lard Advocate will be elected without opposition.—Times.
The pastoral letter of the General Assembly on the present state of the Church of Scotland was read in the pulpits of the Established churches on Sunday. It is a long document : and it comments at some length on the posture of affairs, and the difficulty of properly fill- ing so many vacancies ; asserting the intention of the Assembly "to maintain that in all questions purely spiritual the judicatories of the Church have sole right of judging." Of the Seceders it speaks in such terms as these-
" Towards our brethren who have gone out from us, it is our earnest desire to let brotherly love continue. We cannot admit that the course which they have followed is one to which they have been impelled by an irresistible neces- sity; but such appears to be their deliberate conviction, and we give them credit for their sincerity. • * • Earnestly as we desire that you may be established in the present truth, we trust that you will be on your guard against all animosity and unbecoming vehemence in the discussion of questions which are apt to engender angry strife. We do not apprehend that you will fail to observe the courtesies of life in all your intercourse with those who have renounced our communion. We trust that you will cherish towards them the most cordial kindness. 'Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice.' If you should ever be assailed with reviling, revile not again."
The Seceders appear to be animated by a different spirit-
" In contrast with the foregoing," says the Edinburgh Weekly Journal," we append the directions of the Wdness of Saturday, respecting the way in which the clergy of the Establishment are to be regarded. The Established clergyman is to be the man with whom no one is to join in prayer—whose church is to be avoided as an impure and unholy place—whose addresses are not to be listened to—whose visits are not to be received—who is everywhere to be put under the ban of the community,' &c."
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