THE following statement of the grievances under which the Kirk of Scotland at present labours, and from which she is now, and has been for some time, seeking to obtain relief, is contained in the petition of the Commission of the General Assem bly to the House of Commons. The extracts are as much abridged as they can be to give a correct view of this most important question.

'Unto the Honourable the Commons of Great Britain, in Parliament assembled, 'The humble Petition of the Commission of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, 'Showeth-That by the Constitution of the kingdom of Scotland, as settled at the Revolution, the ultimate and exclusive jurisdiction of the Church and her courts, in matters both spiritual and ecclesiastical, was recognised and ratified.

'That this exclusive and ultimate jurisdiction had been claimed and asserted by the reformed Church of Scotland from the period of its institution; and that so early as 1567, when her jurisdiction was recognised by the Legislature, in the "preaching of the word,' 'correction of manners,' and administration of the sacraments,' it was declared by statute 1567, c. 12, 'that there be no other jurisdiction ecclesiastical acknowleged within this realm other than that which is and shall be within the same Kirk, or that which flows therefrom, concerning the premises.'

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'That a few years thereafter King James VI. obtained an Act to be passed (1584, c. 129) declaring that the Sovereigns of Scotland were, by themselves and their councils, 'judges competent' to their subjects in all matters; but that by the subsequent Act, establishing the Presbyterian government, and ratifying the General Assemblies, Synods, Presbyteries, and Kirk Sessions, appointed by the Kirk,' (1592, c. 116), it was declared that the said statute should

essential censures, grounded and having warrant of the word of God:' and by the same Act, all statutes and laws against the liberty,' jurisdiction,' and 'discipline' of the Kirk, as then exercised were rescinded, and power was sanctioned in the Church courts to put order to all matters and causes ecclesiastical, according to the discipline of the Kirk.'

"That for a century thereafter a constant struggle was maintained between the Kings of Scotland on the one hand, and the Church and nation on the other regarding the admission into the constitution of the principle that the Sovereign was 'supreme ruler in all causes, as well spiritual and ecclesiastical, as temporal and civil,' and that after having been alternately rejected and acknowledged, it was finally repudiated at the Revolution.

'That on one of the occasions on which this principle was re-introduced into the Constitution of Scotland, namely, the restoration of King Charles II., the Acts establishing the Presbyterian Church then repealed (and particularly the Act 1592, c. 116) were described in the statute whereby they were so repealed as Acts by which the sole and only power and jurisdiction within this Church doth stand in the Church, and in the General, Provincial, and Presbyterial Assemblies, and Kirk Sessions.'

'That the Acts of Parliament, so characterized by the Legislature of Scotland, were revived and ratified at the Revolution (by statute 1690, c. 5), and the statute recognising the principle, that the Sovereign was supreme ruler in causes spiritual and ecclesiastical, was repealed as being 'inconsistent with the establishment of Church government' then desired; which repeal was effected in compliance with the second article of the claim of right of the estates of Scotland, forming a condition of the offer of the crown to King William and Queen Mary.

'That, at the same time (by statute 1690, c. 5), the government of the Church by General Assemblies, Synods, Presbyteries, and Kirk Sessions, was declared to be the only government' of the Church within the kingdom; and the confession of faith was

ratified and approven, wherein it is set forth, as an article of religious doctrine and belief that the Divine Head of the Church hath therein appointed a government in the hands of Church officers distinct from the civil magistrate.'

That till within a few years the Court of Session in Scotland, and a court of statutory origin and limited jurisdiction, instituted exclusively for the decisions of 'actions civil,' did not attempt to interfere with or coerce the Church courts in the performance of their functions; but, on the contrary, disclaimed all right so to interfere, restricting the redress given by them, when they deemed the proceedings of the Church courts to be illegal, to the disposal of the temporalities attached by law to the spiritual cures of the Church, and determining whether and how far civil consequences followed according to law from the sentences of the Church courts-matters which the Church freely acknowledges to be within the exclusive and ultimate jurisdiction of the Court of Session.

"That of late that court, not confining itself to the disposal of civil rights, and the decision of causes appropriated to its exclusive jurisdiction, has, for the first time since its institution, interfered with and reviewed the sentences of the Church courts, in matters confessedly within the province of the Church.

That the occasion of the first interference on the part of the said courts was the rejection of the presentee to a parish, in respect of the dissent of the congregation, under the fundamental principle of the Church, 'that no pastor be intruded on any congregation contrary to the will of the people, a principle forming part of the discipline of the Church, when established in 1592, with its then subsisting discipline which was declared in 1638-re-declared in 1736, up to which time it had been, with a few exceptions, acted on from the date of the Act of Queen Anne, and which was again re-declared in 1834-and a principle which, although the Church has always been ready and willing to alter the form of it, she cannot abandon.

'That the interference of the said court has not, however, been confined to enforcing the admission of a patron's presentee, when rejected in

respect of the dissent of the people, but has been extended to almost all the various matters set forth in the statutes hereinbefore recited as belonging to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Church-such as the 'preaching of the word,' 'administration of the sacraments,' 'correction of manners,' collation and deprivation of ministers,' and other matters falling within the 'government of the Church,' and the 'putting order to all matters and causes ecclesiastical; ' suspending such sentences, and interdicting their execution-restoring suspended and deposed ministers to their functions prohibiting the preaching of the word and the administration of the sacraments throughout the whole districts-staying and paralyzing the discipline of the Church and subverting its govern

ment.

"That the General Assembly, which met in May last, agreed to and adopted a claim, declaration, and protest, wherein are set forth at length the several acts of encroachment, on the part of the said court, complained of, and the divers statutes which ratify and secure the jurisdiction of the Church, and exclude that of the civil court, in matters to which these acts refer.

That since the rising of the said Assembly, additional and further encroachments have been made on the spiritual jurisdiction and government of the Church; as, for instance,

In the Culsalmond case, the court suspended and interdicted a sentence of the General Assembly, which rescinded the settlement of a minister effected by a Presbytery on the ground exclusively of certain irregularities in the procedure, admitted by all parties in the Assembly to be in contravention of the laws of the Church.

'In the Arbroath case, they interdicted the inferior Church Courts from refusing Christian privileges, including, of course, admission to the Lord's table, to an excommunicated person.

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'And in the Stewarton case, suspended and interdicted the establishment of an additional pastoral charge in a parish-prohibited the reception of the minister of it into the Presbytery, the institution of a new Kirk Session, the allocation of a special district for the purposes of pastoral superintendence and spiritual discipline, or the making any altera

tion in the state of the parish as regards these matters.

That the establishment of additional charges, and the admission of the ministers into Church courts, had been invariably and in numerous instances, extending from the passing of the Act 1592 down to the present time, effected by authority of the Church courts alone, without challenge or question; and the validity of her acts as to this matter had, in accordance with a train of high legal authority, been recognised by a unanimous decision of the Court of Session so lately as 1836, while the power of the Church to erect districts or parishes quad spirituali was expressly acknowledged by an Act of his late Majesty King William (4 and 5 William IV., c. 41) and that the practical effect of the decision above-mentioned, if submitted to by the Church, would be to extinguish about 200 pastoral charges,

of eminent utility to the country, and maintained without expense to the State to annihilate as many Kirk Sessions, now in active and useful operation, to throw back the whole population of overgrown parishes (extending in one case to 110,000 souls) on the exclusive pastoral superintendence and spiritual discipline of a single minister and Kirk Session, and to subject all increase of the means of such superintendence and discipline though at the sole expense of the inhabitants themselves, to the absolute will and pleasure of any proprietors of a parish holding one-fourth of the land within it.

"That by these and former decisions of the said court nearly the whole province of the Church's jurisdiction has been invaded, and scarcely one function is left to be performed by her courts free from interference and coercion.'

Cape of Good Hope-Eastern Province. The following is an extract of a letter from Mr. Boon, the Society's Catechist and Schoolmaster at Cuglerville.

We still keep up the attendance in the school. At church we have been but one Sunday without a congregation. The absence on that occasion was caused by a swarm of locusts which were three days passing over this place. I have arranged a plan for teaching from house to house, catechising the children, and imparting religious instruction to all persons to whom I can gain access. The Society's school was opened Oct. 6, 1841. We have an evening and Sunday-school, and two afternoons in the week are devoted to females. I occupy five stations, two I visit once, and two twice a week. The number on the school-books is 60, and the average daily attendance is 50. There is no other channel in this part of the Bathurst District, through which religious instruction can be obtained by the rural population. A lending library of religious books is established. In prosecuting my labours, I

Prince Edward's Island. - Mr. Brookes states in his journal that on 6th of November, 1842, his Sundayschool underwent an examination : he says the children repeated the Church Catechism, a variety of psalms and hymns, and a number of verses and chapters in the New Testament very accurately. They also displayed much facility in answering questions relative to what they repeated. Many of these children, a year ago, were only learning the Alphabet. I trust

the seed sown in their hearts will, under the influence of Divine grace, spring up and yield an abundant harvest to the glory of God.