SANGUINE SIR WILLIAM RAE.
SIR WILLIAM RAE, who has just enjoyed the luxury of reelection for Bute in his old character of Lord-Advocate for Scotland, announced from the hustings at Rothesay, that the new Ministers are to in- troduce a bill which will prove, not a partial and incomplete mea- sure like the Duke of ARGYLL'S, but a satisfactory settlement of the whole dispute that has unsettled the Kirk of Scotland. Sir WILLIAM assured his constituents, that the bill in question would give satisfaction to "every reasonable mind." If nothing but this were required, there might be a possibility of the announcement being borne out : but, unluckily, unless the measure give satisfac- tion to unreasonable minds, the controversy in the Kirk must con- tinue as violent as ever. There are, however, strong grounds for believing, that Sir ROBERT PEEL, undeterred by the fate of Lord ABERDEEN, contemplates an attempt to settle the matter. If he do, he will in all probability settle the Kirk at the same time. If his bill concede all that the majority in the General As- sembly demand, the Kirk will soon make Scotland too hot to hold it. If the majority accept of any thing less, they reesta- blish the Kirk in the same position which it occupied during the ascendancy of the Moderate party, retreat from the advanced position they have of late years taken up in the regions of Dissent, and give up all the popularity (such as it is) which they have gained. That English statesmen, less acquainted with the peculiarities of Scotchmen and Presbyterian ecclesiastics should believe it possible to settle the Church question in Scotland by an act of Parliament, is pardonable ; but Sir WILLIAM Res ought to know better. About eleven years ago, Sir Witaxam pre- dicted that Scotchmen would be unable to hold a public meeting without coming to blows: finding himself to have been deceived in that anticipation, he now imagines that Scotch theological dispu- tants may be reconciled. The discovery that he has erred in one extreme has drawn him over to the other.
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