7 DECEMBER 1850, Page 4

SCOTLAND.

The annual meeting of the Edinburgh Bible Society, on Tuesday, was illustrated by a speech from the argumentative Duke of Argyll on the agitation which pervades the country. The Duke drew distinctions be- tween the political and religious questions, which seem to be mingled in general discussion ; and on the latter ground took a position above that of the general body of lay and clerical leaders. " Let us never forget," he said, " that no act of Parliament—no law we can pass—can pos- sibly affect the real dangers of the present situation of affairs." Re- viewing some of the grounds on which our defence is rested, he confessed that not a few of them inspire him with far more misgiving and alarm than the attack itself. He thought the tone of the Bishop of London's late charge calculated to spread consternation—when he advises his clergy to avoid all contact with the Oratprians, lest they should weaken their own convictions in argument. Aka for th,e Church of England, if her prelates in the nineteenth century advise not to. fight but to flight ! The Protest- ants of Scotland will stand to the weapons of their forefathers, and, with the pure Word of God in their hands, will fight over again the fight in which the Protestant victory was won.

A sum of 2031. 4s., chiefly raised in Glasgow, has just been distributed among the Portpatrick boatmen who saved the lives of the passengers at the wreck of the Onon. Dr. Robertson was presented at the same time with a silver snuffbox and 101.—Glasgow Constitutional.