would show how very little was really to be found from personal contact with persons suffering from the plague. There was a constant stream of travellers through Egypt, to Arabia, yet he never heard of an instance of the plague having been conveyed across the Red Sea. While the plague of 1834-5 desolated Egypt, ten thousand pilgrims passed through that country to the Holy Cities, but no one conveyed, or was ever stated to have conveyed the disease. There were whole districts in Egypt, with which constant, uninterrupted communication was kept up, yet they had never been visited by the plague. That was the case in the Fayoum, though close to the Egyptian capital; and it was remarkable, that though thousands and thousands of boats navigated the Nile the plague had never reached as far as Assuan. When the plague appeared among the armies of Egypt, it always ceased as soon as the troops were removed from the cities into the wilderness. He would beg leave to read to the House a letter which he had received from a medical gentleman at Alexandria, and which he thought would show pretty clearly some of the prevalent errors upon this subject, and at the same time communicate some interesting particulars of late observation. The hon. Member read as fol -they checked or facilitated commerce | because the poor fellow was unable to prove according to the passing interests of the that the fish had been caught within the line moment they were among her ablest But he believed that a close examination public servants-and in the name of the public health, they introduced a system of universal police and espionage. To serve political objects, the quarantine regulations were made more stringent or more plastic, they were relaxed one day-and tightened another-always having some paramount object in view. The groundwork of all was ignorance-ignorance which is the parent of fear and the ready instrument of cunning. Connected with diseases the superstitions of many nations exceeded all belief. In many countries of the South, it was thought that phthisis was a contagious disease and all the clothes of those who died of consumption were burnt that cholera was contagious; yet in this part of the world no one supposed that consumption was communicated by contagion, and certainly the predominant opinion was, that cholera ought not to be considered a contagious malady. It was satisfactory to think, that many of the errors which prevailed on these subjects had, in the more civilized districts of the world, given way to enlightened and rational views, but in other portions of the globe, he regretted to say, that opinions, as ridiculous as they were mischievous, too generally prevailed -opinions as childish as the doctrines of the older physicians, who held that the plague was connected with earthquakes, with celestial menaces, and with circum-lows:stances equally remote in their nature from "Within the walls of Alexandria, in 1841, any human malady. The dread of the the total of deaths was 7,017; there were 1,570 plague was in proportion to the ignorance cases of plague, ofhich 405 recovered, and and credulity of the people. In the coun- 1,165 died. Of the 1 cases of plague tries where the plague was endemic, it males, and 490 females. f these there rewhich occurred during tear, 1,080 were frequently broke out without any com- covered-males, 375; ferales, 30; 778 cases munication with infected places. The were bodies found dead in their dwellings, strangest ideas then prevailed as to the and consequently had no sort of treatment manner in which the infection had been whatever; and of the 792 remaining, who had communicated. A child's kite had been some sort of care and attendance bestowed supposed, on one occasion, to have been the upon them, no less than 407 recovered. There medium, when a house had been effectually is no return of the proportion of deaths to and completely insulated, and it had been be depended on, but the average rate of morcases during the different months which can observed, that a youth was flying a kite tality may be fairly calculated as two-thirds of from the roof. Cats and flies were very those attacked; so that the real mortality of often charged with the offence. On the the city, during the month of May, when the Danube, at Orsova, he had heard of pigs plague was at its height, may be calculated that had been supposed to have been thus:-Ordinary deaths, 433; deaths by inoculated with the plague, for the pur- plague, 353-total, 786. Cases of plague, pose of communicating the disease to Aus- 515. The inferences to be drawn from these trian subjects. One man had been sub-exists is not necessarily either the most undata are, that the season when the plague jeeted to imprisonment for ten days, as a punishment for having bought a fish from a Turk, within the line of quarantine; healthy, or the most fatal season; it will be seen by the table, that the months of October, November, and December, are productive of as many deaths nearly as the most fatal plague month, and that their average mortality far exceeds that of the other months, when the plague raged with a more limited intenseness, while during the last three months of the year only six cases of plague could be detected." He could not pass from this part of the subject without observing, that Dr. Laidlaw, an extract from whose letter he had read, was a man who had conferred a great benefit upon society by his steady resistance to the injurious and ignorant prejudices which prevailed on this subject, and whose services would be very valuable in pursuing further investigations. And here he would ask, would it be possible for us and other countries to escape from its perils, considering the manner in which the quarantine system was managed? When people died of the plague in Egypt, their clothes were sold in the public bazaars, without losing anything of their value in consequence of their having belonged to infected persons, nor had he ever heard of a well authenticated case where any evil had arisen from the practice. No one could have been in the east without being convinced of the absurdity of the apprehensions entertained respecting the plague. What security; what real security have we in this country? In a letter from Dr. Laidlaw, he found these words : "I will show the public that, to my knowledge, a certain number of bales of cotton have been shipped for England, which have been taken from stores when the plague was raging: that the plague was on board the ships when it was packed, and that these (some thousands) bales were sent to England; and will then demand if any one of the expurgators of these bales was attacked. I will give the names of the ships, and their captains, and the dates when they left for England, and if after all this, any person is credulous enough to believe in imported infection, he must be quite out of his senses." So that though such care was taken to guard against the conveyance of infection in a letter, bales of cotton, it would appear, were comparatively harmless. He (Dr. Bowring) had had a communication from a well-known traveller on the northern coast of Africa, who said,— This Gentleman, to his (Dr. Bowring's) knowledge, by the payment of a small fee, was always able to avoid the inconvenience of a quarantine, and that without the least prejudicial consequence either to himself or to the country he belonged to. The hon. Member then quoted the opinion of Dr. Brown, who, 120 years ago, had reprehended the system then in operation, and, as a proof that the plague infection could not be imported, read to the House a case in which a number of bales of cotton were shipped to England from a place where the plague was raging, and no infection had been carried. He then stated, that there was also much evidence to show that the persons employed in the lazarettos had not caught the plague, and quoted the opinion of Dr. Gregson, as confirmatory of that fact. The hon. Member said, he would not trouble the House with further details, believing he had said enough to show that the subject required to be re-opened and re-examined. If it was found, that all the vexation, annoyance, and expense of quarantine could be got rid of without injury to the public health, he hoped the Government would consent to open a communication and set on foot inquiries into a subject which had been too long neglected. The hon. Member concluded by moving his resolution as already given. Sir R. Peel had no objection to offer to the motion. He was prepared to lay the papers desired by him on the Table of the House. He suggested the proper form in which to shape the motion would be an address to her Majesty. Mr. Forster said, that the public, and the commercial world in particular, were Friend for the ability and research he had greatly indebted to his hon. and learned brought to the discussion of this question. As a commercial man, he had long witnessed with regret the inconvenience and sacrifice entailed on the public and on commerce by this absurd system, which he believed to be founded entirely on prejudice and delusion. He trusted, that the time had now arrived when public opinion, aided by science and inquiry, would put an end to the absurdity. The suggestion of the right hon. Baronet was adopted, and motion agreed to in the form of an address to her Majesty. "There is a perpetual violation of the quarantine on the southern coast of Spain; of the persons who visit the Barbary Coast, great numbers never think of entering the Spanish lazaretto. Would I be such a fool as to subject myself to imprisonment for weeks, because IL. Hay considered it his duty to call the have been in Africa for a few days? I never did enter a lazaretto-I never will." THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND.] Sir A. attention of the House to the present unfortunate position of the Church of Scot cessary, absolutely necessary, that there should be some legislation on the subject, and that without the least delay. Hon. Gentlemen generally might be aware, that the Church in Scotland was established under the 10th of Queen Anne in 1711. That act regulated the manner in which ministers were to be inducted to their parochial charges. That act was carried into execution for many years without question; indeed, until the right of patronage was called in question, and an antipatronage society was formed in Scotland in 1824. The members belonging to that society increased greatly within the next ten years, and in 1834 the General Assembly of the Church passed what was called the Veto Act, for the purpose of giving the people a voice in the choice of their ministers. That act was wholly inconsistent to, and could not co-exist with the law of Anne, and ever since that year there had been no peace in Scotland. Was it possible that the Government and the Legislature would allow Scotland to remain year after year under circumstances which were tending to shake the very foundations of society, under a state of things in which the people became lawbreakers under the sanction, and in the company of their ministers? He was not pressing the question on the attention of the House without being backed by high authority. The Earl of Aberdeen, on March 31st, 1840, said,— land, and he begged to assure the House, | Government or the Legislature ought to that he did so in no spirit of partisanship, adopt; but he would say, that it was neor from any spirit of party-he did it from a sincere feeling that the circumstances which had now existed for some years in that country with which he was so intimately connected were most detrimental to the Established Church, to the people, and, unless they were put an end to, they would tend most eminently to break down the best interests of society. He felt compelled to call the attention of the House to the subject, in consequence of the very unsatisfactory answer given by the right hon. Baronet (Sir R. Peel) in the first week in the Session to the right hon. Gentleman, the Member for Perth (Mr. F. Maule). The right hon. Baronet then said, that it was not his intention to legislate on the subject, or, if he did, he would give ample notice of that intention; nor was he prepared to pledge himself to support any effort at legislation on the part of any hon. Member. Living as he did in the very centre of the heats, the animosities, and the confusion caused by the present state of the law, he could conceive nothing so derogatory to the station to which he had been elevated by his constituents, as to sit down silently when he had an opportunity of bringing the state of that unfortunate Church under the consideration of the House. He was not going to enter into an historical detail of the circumstances which had placed the Established Church in Scotland in her present predicament; but he was prepared with documents to show, that there were persons of great weight in the country, who had expressed themselves with admiration of that establishment-persons who thought it was an establishment worthy of the utmost protection of the law. In the report of a committee of which the right hon. Baronet was a Member, it was stated, that they had in the course of their long and laborious duties, "Become impressed with no feeling so strong as that of veneration and respect for the Established Church of Scotland." "It appeared to be so clearly the duty of her Majesty's Ministers to undertake to propose measures to Parliament upon such a question-it was one so immediately affecting the peace and good order of the community, that he took for granted, that the responsible advisers of the Crown would not abandon a duty so imperative." And again, on the 19th of June, in the same year, he said, in speaking of the case of the Strathbogie ministers, "This is a state of things which he thought justified their Lordships and the country in looking to her Majesty's Government for some interference or redress." And in the progress of the debate which followed the right hon. Baronet said, he considered that establishment as a most import- These were strong expressions, and they ant and useful instrument for propagating had fallen from one who was now her Matrue religion, and securing the peace and jesty's Secretary for Foreign Affairs. But welfare of society. Now, was that an estab- he had another authority, and it was one lishment which ought to be allowed to exist whom he could never name without a feelin circumstances that must destroy hering of deep respect-he alluded to the usefulness? It was not for him to point Duke of Wellington. In the same debate out any particular line of duty which the the noble Duke said, "That such a state of things ought not to his ecclesiastical superiors or to the law of be allowed to exist, and the whole weight and the land; he chose to obey the directions influence of the Government ought to be ex-of his ecclesiastical superiors, and in conse ercised to put an end to it." He was fortified then by strong testimony, and he did not think after citing such opinions any blame attached to him for calling the attention of the House to the subject. Many hon. Members present would recollect, that it was in the cause of a presentation to the parish of Auchterarder, that the ecclesiastical and the civil courts first came in collision. That case was long litigated in the civil courts, and upon the question of the temporalities an appeal was had to the House of Lords, where the judgment of the civil court was affirmed. The next case which arose was, that of Marnoch. In that case there was the settlement of a minister against nearly the unanimous wish of the parishioners, without any reference to the act or the orders of the General Assembly. Then followed the deposition of the seven clergymen by the General Assembly for disobedience to the orders of that, the highest ecclesiastical court. The consequence was, that that court conceiving that they had a bounden duty to perform, and according to the ecclesiastical law, appointed ministers to preach the gospel in the seven parishes. Those ministers did not preach in the churches, because the civil courts prevented that, but they preached in other places, to the great scandal of the people. This collision between the civil and ecclesiastical authorities had a tendency to produce upon the minds of the people an effect which they could not but lament. It led to a disregard of the law of the country; men were undecided whether or not they ought to obey the law; and were such a state of things allowed to exist, the worst consequences would ensue. He might be permitted to allude to one circumstance respecting this dispute, which had reference to Dr. Candlish, a minister of Edinburgh, one of the most learned and eminent men in the church of Scotland. That gentleman was on the eve of being appointed to the chair of Biblical Criticism in the University of Edinburgh, when it was discovered that, in conformity with the orders of his ecclesiastical superiors, he had gone into the parish of Huntly, and had there performed divine service in opposition to the interdict of the Court of Session. Dr. Candlish was, compelled to make his election whether he would act in opposition to quence of adopting that line of conduct he did not receive his appointment to the chair of Biblical Criticism. Dr. Candlish was, he believed, with the exception of the deposed clergymen, the only person who had suffered punishment-if he might use that term-for his opposition to the civil law in this contest. He thought that this question ought long since to have received the serious attention of Government, with a view to its final decision. He regretted that her Majesty's late advisers had not taken measures for the early settlement of these unfortunate disputes, and he thought they had acted injudiciously in neglecting to do so. He was also of opinion, that it would have been well had the right hon. Baronet now at the head of her Majesty's Government brought this subject under the consideration of the House at an early period of the Session. The next case to which he would call the attention of the House, was one which had recently occurred in the parish of Culsalmond, in the presbytery of Strathbogie. There being a vacancy, Mr. Middleton, a gentleman who had acted as assistant-minister in the parish, was appointed by the patron. The presentation was opposed by the people; but the majority of the presbytery obtained the assistance of the civil power, the sheriff, ma gistrates, and police officers, and proceeded to the settlement of the presentee. This proceeding took place on the 11th of November last; and a riot was the consequence, of which the church was the principal scene. Information of the occurrence was forwarded to the Home-office, by whom an investigation was directed, which took place on the 21st of December; and the result was, that four persons, including a minister, were committed on the charge of riot, and were now, he believed, on bail to appear before the Court of Justiciary for trial. He thought both parties might be chargeable with acting inconsistently; but he mentioned these facts to show the working of the system which now existed. In the parish of Glass, in the presbytery of Strathbogie, the clergyman had lately died, and the Duke of Richmond, who was the patron, had appointed a Mr. Dubois as his successor. This appointment had been regarded with dissatisfaction by the people, and there was reason to suppose that the settlement of the minister would occasion some commotion. In consequence of this {COMMONS} of Scotland. 624 apprehension a number of her Majesty's met by this answer: "We have received troops had been removed from Huntly to your memorial; but there is no vacancy." Glass, a distance of thirty or forty miles, This was in August last, when the late in order to repress any disturbance to which ministry were on the point of leaving office. the settlement of the minister might give The moment that he received this reply he rise. He was aware that it was necessary sent to the Tiend's Court in Scotland to that the civil power shonld be protected; ascertain whether the vacancy had taken but he would ask if such a state of affairs place or not. It so happened that the as this ought to be permitted to continue? clergyman who was to make the vacancy The settlement might in this case be ac- in Elgin had been removed to another complished without any popular commotion parish; and the presbytery, whether by which might require the interference of the design or otherwise, put off declaring the military; but there was no doubt that if vacancy until the present Government Mr. Dubois was inducted he would be de- came into office. The majority of the posed by the general assembly, and it was proprietors of Elgin, and the majority absolutely necessary that it should be de- of the town council also, petitioned the cided how far the power of the patron Minister of the Crown for the appointcould be controlled by the assembly, or ment of the same person in whose fawhether he could exercise that power in-vour he had previously transmitted the dependently of its interference. He him- memorial. self was the lay patron of two parishes, and cancy had been declared, he wrote to asA short time after the vacertainly, if he should have the opportunity certain what determination her Majesty's of doing so, he would exercise his right of Ministers had come to. presentation, and if the General Assembly an answer, stating that they were not He received deemed it their duty to suspend the parties prepared to say what step they intended he might present, he would take measures to take. to vindicate his privileges. There were, to them upon the subject, believing it He never subsequently wrote he believed, at this time seventy parochial would be useless. He heard reports that ministers in Scotland under the ban of the another person was appointed, and at General Assembly, in consequence of their length it appeared that a person really was having opposed the claims advanced by the appointed-a person wholly unknown to Assembly in reference to this question. the inhabitants of the parish-a person The feelings of the people of Scotland, he whom none of them had ever previously could assure the House, were strongly excited on this subject, and they were most tion on the part of the Government not to seen. This showed a strong determinaanxious to learn what course it was the in- comply with the wishes of the people. In tention of Government to pursue. He other parishes appointments had been made might observe, that the general impression in the same manner in direct opposition to in Scotland was, that when the right hon. the feelings of the inhabitants. In one Baronet opposite (Sir R. Peel) occupied case the patron of the parish having recomthe post of Secretary of State for the Home mended a person to the right hon. Ba. Department, he exercised the right of pa-ronet, he (Sir James Graham) for a long tronage to which he was entitled by virtue time returned no answer to the letter of of that office in a most judicious and satis- the patron, but desired the Presbytery to factory manner. As related to the parish examine into the character of the indiviof Elgin, which more particularly formed dual recommended, and give him informathe subject of his motion, he must say that tion as to his feelings and principles. And the people, in the appointment of the mi- what did the right hon. Baronet then do? nister, had not been treated with the con- Before the report of the Presbytery could sideration that was due to them. When reach him, the presentation was sent down, the vacancy was declared as about to take but not to the person for whom the patron, place, four-fifths of the communicants sent or for whom the majority of the parishhim (Sir A. Leith Hay) a memorial, re-ioners, wished. He found no fault with questing that a particular clergyman might be appointed as their minister. He transmitted the memorial to the Secretary for the Home Department for the time being. Coming to London soon afterwards, he went to the Home-office to ascertain what effect the appeal had produced. He was this step. He did not say that it was |