A LETTER ΤΟ THE LORD CHANCELLOR, ON THE CLAIMS OF THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND IN REGARD TO ITS JURISDICTION AND ON THE PROPOSED CHANGES IN ITS POLITY. BY JOHN HOPE, Esq. DEAN OF FACULTY. EDINBURGH: WILLIAM WHYTE AND CO., 13, GEORGE STREET; BOOKSELLERS TO THE QUEEN DOWAGER. LONDON: JOHN MURRAY. 1839. 799. 'It does therefore appear to me, that this plan of leaving it to the • General Assembly to determine what ought to be done, leaves the matter in this state of almost inextricable difficulty, that while you escape for the time from those insuperable perplexities through which • Parliament itself cannot see its way to any clear result, you are asked to do away the existing law, and to put the whole power of making a new constitution in the hands of the ecclesiastical assembly; a • numerous body of individuals, under whose judgment it is impossible for this House of Commons or the legislature in general to know what it is probable that they may get in place of the existing law of patronage. And then is it nothing that the state, the legislature, ⚫ which in enacting laws constitutes the state, is to destroy that con⚫stitution of the Church and State which does exist, and to commit to other bodies the power of originating (not of electing ministers, that is not the thing, but originating) the law of the state upon these • important matters of the institution of ministers for every parish in • Scotland? I imagine that it is altogether without precedent in the House of Commons to do this, and that that is a conclusion to which this Committee will not easily come.' Lord Moncreiff. -Evidence before Patronage Committee, OUTLINE OF CONTENTS. Judgment of House of Lords on the illegality of the Veto. Admissions by Dr. Chalmers that the passing the Veto was " a Blunder" on the part of the Church. —that the measure ought to be materially altered. Points in the Auchterarder Case only a small part of the alarm- Objects of this Letter. Importance of changes proposed by the Church. -not applicable only to Scotland. -must on same grounds be extended to England, if -might be as easily introduced in England. |