25 MAY 1844, Page 9

SCOTLAND.

The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland began its annual session on Thursday the 16th. Before the opening, her Majesty's Com- missioner, the Marquis of Bute, held a levee in Holyrood Palace ; which was numerously attended ; the Earl of Selkirk, the Eirl of Strathmore, Lord Ruthven, Baron Charles Dembrowski, the Lord Provost, &c., be- ing among the company. He then proceeded to the High Church, and heard a sermon preached by Principal Macfarlan ; and thence to the Hall. The Assembly met in the new Assembly Hall on Castle Hill ; a spacious building of an oblong shape, elegantly fitted up. The Com- missioner's throne stood in a central gallery, at the West end ; the same end being also occupied by a spacious gallery divided in two halves, one for probationers and one for strangers ; the strangers on this occa- sion being principally composed of ladies. The late Moderator, Prin- cipal Macfarlan, proposed as his successor the Reverend Dr. John Lee, Principal of Edinburgh University ; who, as Clerk of the Church, had -.acquired a singularly extensive acquaintance with the antiquities, con- stitution, and procedure of the Church. Principal Lee was duly installed ; then the commission and the Queen's letter were read, and other pre- . liminary business was transacted. The proceedings of the subsequent days for the most part related to the arrangements rendered needful on account of the recent change in the Church, matters of discipline, and the like, of little interest to particularize. Some appeals against the decisions of Presbyteries on objections to presentations were heard.

• The most remarkable was the case of Mr. Smith, presented to the Tol- booth Church by the Edinburgh Town-Council, and objected to by a few persons, on the score that his sermons were not calculated to " edify ": the Presbytery had affirmed that objection, rejecting the pre- sentee, but without recording reasons for its opinion : on Tuesday, the Assembly reversed the decision of the Presbytery, directing the infe- rior Court to proceed with the induction of Mr. Smith.

The General Assembly of the " Free Church" also assembled on the 16th. Mr. Grey. of St. Mary's Free Church in Edinburgh, was elected Moderator. The proceedings of this body were similar to those in the Established Assembly, only rather directed to agitation and the .spread of Free Church principles than to reorganizing, as in the other case. On Monday, Mr. Cunningham reported the result of his mission to America ; which he said was productive of moral rather than pecu- niary advantages, but 9,000/. had been sent home.

Several candidates besides Mr. Bouverie are in the field for Kilmar- nock,—Mr. John Robertson, formerly editor of the Westminster Review and an adherent of the Free Church ; Mr. John Parker, of Assloss ; and Mr. Henry Vincent, the Complete Suffragist. Mr. Bouverie and Mr. Robertson are regarded as the only real candidates ; and the Whigs gray that the intrusion of a second Liberal may not be the means of "letting in a Tory." The nomination is fixed for this day.