SCOTLAND.
Tuesday's Gazette announced that the Queen has appointed the Mar- quis of Bute to be High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
The Marquis of Breadalbane, who has for some years past lent his countenance to the Nonintrusion party in the Church, has at length seen fit to retreat from his alliance, in so far, at least, as regards an im- mediate secession. It appears from a correspondence betwixt his Lord- ship and Mr. Dunlop, that the commoner had requested him to become one of the provisional trustees, in whom the property of the new kirks was to be vested. The Marquis declined the intended honour, and de- murred to the propriety of a precipitate separation, at least before the Legislature had definitively refused to provide a remedy for the exist- ing difficulties. It is to be inferred from Mr. Dunlop's letter, that the secession will certainly take place in May ; and that there will be two General Assemblies, one of the Established and another of the Seceding Church.
The Standard publishes a long letter on the secession, from Sir George Sinclair to the Earl of Aberdeen, dated Brighton, 25th April. Sir George writes under the fear of the impending disruption of the Church ; which extorts a mass of observations that must have taken him some time to write. He expresses a belief that the seceders will be numerous, and urges Government to make a last effort to avert the calamity- " Permit me to suggest one more expedient. Let the Cabinet summon Drs. Chalmers, Welch, and Gordon' to London, and have an amicable conference with these distinguished Men ; let each party act with perfect frankness ; let all the bearings and branches of the question be fully and dispassionately gone into ; and I should entertain a most sanguine hope, that when the Church has explained her minimum and the State it maximum, all difficulties might be re- moved, and peace through God's blessing be restored—scarcely indeed at the eleventh hour, but when twelve was just about to strike."
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