SCOTLAND.
t the meeting of the General Asliembly of the (lburch of Scotland on Thurs- 'day week, a report was presentedpn the election of Elders, It proposed, that the power of electing be taken out of the hands of the people, and put Into the hands. of Kirk Sessions; the people having it, in their power to object, should they see cause; which objections should be lodged in the hands of the Session-clerk within ten days after the names of those to be elected as Elders were read from the pulpit by the minister. After a discussion, the report, though not without opposition,. was adopted.
On Konday night, or rather at an early hour on Tuesday morning, the Assem- bly was dissolved, to be holden again in May 1846.
In the General Assembly of the Free Protesting Church, on Monday, Dr.. Candlish read the Report of the Committee on Slavery; which they strongly de- nounced, without considering that they were under any responsibility to excom- municate slaveholding churches; but, at the same time, they recommend such churches to exercise strict discipline in the matter. The report was affirmed. On the same day, it was resolved to petition against the Lord-Advocate's pending Poor-law Bill; described by Mr. Carment as a measure to promote and perpetuate- starvation in the Highlands. It was also resolved, " that the present Assembly, at the close of its sittings, should adjourn to meet at Inverness on Thursday the 21st of August first; in order to take up the business in reference to the state of the Highlands and Islands, which could not be satisfactorily done in Edinburgh?
The Assembly broke up on Tuesday; to meet at the appointed time at In- verness.
At a meeting in Edinburgh, on Saturday, Sir James Forrest presiding, an as sodation was formed "for protecting the interests of the poor, and for preventing. or lessening, chiefly by moral influence, the ejectment of numbers of small tenants, especially in-the Highlands, and for mitigating the distress consequent on such ejectinents "; to be called " the Scottish Association for the Protection of the Poor." Several cases of grievous if not fatal distress were mentioned, arising from eject- ments or inadequate parochial relief; and the "commission" sent down by the- Times to inquire into the clearances of Sutherland and Ross was alluded to, and loudly applauded.
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