SCOTLAND.
There is some prospect that the Nonintrusionists will be in a mino- rity at the next meeting of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. A recent decision of the Court of Session against the com- petency of ministers of quoad saera parishes, (parishes separated by the Church, from larger parishes—a sort of district to chapels-of-ease,) to act in the affairs of the Church, has had a considerable effect. Many Presbyteries have obeyed the decision, and excluded the quoad sacra ministers from the election of their representatives in the Assembly ; and in others defections from the Nonintrusionist ranks have been numerous. The Edinburgh Observer says- " Scarcely had the tidings of the rebuke given them in the House of Lords reached the different provinces of Scotland, when they received mortal blows in the house of their friends.' Of these, the most disheartening, perhaps, was that inflicted at Auchterarder on Tuesday last ; when 'our majority,' that had stood out for years against the authority of the law, dwindled into a helpless minority, and deserted their post and their colours in a state of utter impo- tency. Every arrival of the post during the past week brought tidings either of defeat or of defection in the different Presbyteries of the Church, in the elections of Commissioners to the ensuing General Assembly; and it is now quite evident, that when that Assembly shall meet, the Incendiaries and Destructives of the Church will be in a most decided minority."
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