THE SCOTCH GENERAL ASSEMBLY.
The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland have agreed to petition both Houses of Parliament, that in the Schools for Education in Ireland the ful- lest liberty should be secured to all Protestants to make Use of the entire Bible, and that there should be a daily Bible class for all who choose to attend it."--- /yewspopers of the Week.
THIS is but a milk-and-water prayer, compared with that which was originally contemplated, but it goes far enough to mark the spirit by which the highest Church Court of Scotland is at this moment actuated. We look upon this interference of the Scottish Clergy, in what concerns them so very remotely, as one of the most exceptionable acts which they have committed for a long time past. We, however, notice the Assembly's petition, not for the purpose of discussing the right or the policy of their stepping for ward to strengthen the hands of the Irish Anti-Reformers, but with a view to show to our English readers, by a brief description of the composition of the General Assembly, what weight is to be attached to its opinions. The phrases " an excellent Assembly," " a tolerable Assembly," " an indifferent Assembly," " a bad—a very bad Assembly," are- quite intelligible in Scotland ; but to John Bull's ear they carry with them no distinct ideas. He cannot easily understand how a Court whose members are elected annually, can express the senti- ments of its electors more accurately in one year than another— how this year the Assembly may contain a majority of liberals minded men, and the next a majority of bigots—how this year it may muster a large array of Reformers, and the next an equally formidable band of Tories, the electors all the while remaining un- changed in number and opinion. We shall explain this. The General Assembly consists partly of Clergymen, partly of Elders— laymen who are somewhat similar to our churchwardens. The Clergymen, who form the more numerous section of the Assembly, are elected by the several Presbyteries, each electing one or more, according to the number of members it may happen to contain. The Elders are elected by various bodies. Each Presbytery has the right of electing one ; the same right is vested in the Council of each of the sixty-six Royal Burghs ; and the four Universities also possess the right of sending a lay representative to the As- sembly. We need hardly observe, that, as far as the Elders of Burghs are concerned, Ministerial Town-Councils will return Li- beral Elders, and Anti-Ministerial Councils will return Tory Elders. The exact ratio of the Reforming to the Anti-Reforming Burghs, we have no present data for calculating. The majority of the mem- bers are Liberal ; but, from the forms of the Scotch elections, the majority of boroughs may, notwithstanding, be Tory. The Pres bytery Elders are, almost without an exception, gentlemen of landed property within the bounds of the Presbytery, the patrons of one or more of the kirks of which it is constituted, or young advocates [barristers], who make interest for the appointment with a view to speak themselves into notice. They are very seldom changed. The Clergymen of the Assembly, though formally elected, take the duties of representative by rotation. Occasionally, if a clergyman from a distant part of the country have special bu- siness in Edinburgh, he will exchange his turn; but in no case whatever, we believe, has there been a contest, or even a vote for the representation, in the memory of man.
Thus it will be seen, that the General Assembly, though by its constitution elective, and though in theory held to be the repre- sentative of the Scottish Church generally, is, in point of fact, with the exception of a small portion of its Elders, not elected ; and if it represent the general feelings of the Church, it can only do so by a rare combination of chances. This fact is so wellestablished, that, by an express law (called the Barrier Act), no regulation of the Assembly is binding upon the Church unless it be expressly ap- proved of by a majority of the Presbyteries.
When we speak of the Assembly as capable, by a rare accident, of expressing the sentiments of the Scottish Church, we must be understood to mean the clerical and lay functionaries—not the members of the Church. Of the members the Assembly is no more the representative, than are the " cannie five-and-forty" the representatives of the Scotch people. The Scottish ecclesiastical system is every whit as close as the Scotch political system. Nay, it is even closer. The lowest court of all, that out of which all the rest originate—we mean the Kirk Session—is self-elected. The Church, properly so called, have no more to do with their appointment than the people of Marylebone, before the late act, had with the appointment of their Select Vestry. The Presby- teries are direct emanations of the Kirk-Sessions; and the As- sembly, as we have shown, arises after a fashion out of the Presbyteries. The Scottish Clergy are a very respectable body of men ; and to their opinions, on any subject that comes within the legitimate scope of their studies, a proper deference is due. On political sub- jects they are hardly to be trusted : they are, for the most part, better acquainted with books than with men, and their circum- stances as well as education are indifferently calculated to gene- rate enlarged views. But, regard them in what light we may, one point is certain—and it was for the purpose of elucidating that point alone that we have indulged in these observations—they neither claim, nor have they the slightest right to claim, the at- tention of Parliament as the representatives of the Established Church of Scotland, and much less of the Presbyterians of Scot- land, a very large portion of which are Dissenters from the:- Eitablished Church.
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