l three were to sit in each
office, with a salary of three hundred pounds per annum, and all
fees were to be applied to the disbursement of salaries and official
expenses. The bill provided that constables should possess authority
to apprehend persons who could not give a satisfactory account of
themselves, and that magistrates should have the power of committing
such persons as rogues and vagabonds. Strong objections were made
against the bill; opposition arguing that the vesting the appointment
of these new magistrates in the crown, would give an unconstitutional
increase of strength to government; and that the summary arrest and
commitment of any individual, was an infringement on the liberty of the
subject, and contrary to the spirit of the constitution. The arguments
of its opponents, however, were overruled, and it was passed by a
considerable majority. The bill met with a warm opposition in the upper
house, by lords Rawdon and Loughborough; but it passed there likewise,
and became law.

ACT TO RELIEVE THE SCOTCH EPISCOPALIANS, ETC.

During this session, a bill was introduced in the lords for the relief
of the Scottish Episcopalians, who had long been subject to
heavy penalties, on the ground of disaffection to the revolution
establishment. The bill was opposed by Lord Chancellor Thurlow, who
ventured to intimate doubts whether bishops could exist in any Christian
country not authorised by the state; but being assured by the bishop of
St. David's, that Christian bishops existed three hundred years before
the alliance between church and state took place under the Emperor
Constantine, his lordship expressed himself satisfied, and the bill
passed. Encouraged by this concession to the Scotch church, the
Unitarians applied for a repeal of the statutes affecting them; but
their recent advocacy of revolutionary principles made their cause more
hopeless than ever: their application was rejected.

SHERIDAN'S MOTION RESPECTING THE ROYAL BURGHS OF SCOTLAND.

Petitions had recently been presented to parliament, setting forth
the general mismanagement, misapplication of money, dilapidation of
property, and various grievances sustained in consequence of the usurped
authority of certain self-elected magistrates in the royal burgs of
Scotland. On the 18th of April Mr. Sheridan made a motion for an inquiry
into the grievances thus complained of and petitioned against. The main
grievance was considered to lie in the