d have rejoiced if he could likewise
have carried a grant of public money for these purposes with general
good-will; but he did not think that a public grant without such
good-will would have effectually accomplished the benefits which he
anticipated from the application of ecclesiastical revenues. Several
members spoke in terms of approbation of the measure, and the motion was
unanimously voted.

The great secession in the church of Scotland gave occasion to the
introduction of a bill proposed by Lord Aberdeen, on the part of the
government to remove doubts respecting the admission of ministers to
benefices. This bill provided that the presbytery, or church court,
to which objections should be referred to be cognosced, should be
authorized to inquire into the whole circumstances of the parish, and
the character and number of persons by whom the objections and reasons
should be preferred; and if the presentee should be found not qualified
or suitable for that particular parish, the presbytery should pronounce
to that effect, and should set forth the special grounds upon which
their judgment was founded. The bill further abolished the veto, to
guard against any doubt or difficulty on that point; providing that it
shall not be lawful for any presbytery, or other ecclesiastical court,
to reject any presentee upon the ground of any mere dissent or dislike,
expressed in any part of the congregation of the parish in which he
was presented, and which dissent or dislike should not be founded upon
objections or reasons to be fully cognosced, judged of, and determined
in the manner aforesaid, by the presbytery, or other ecclesiastical
court. Lord Aberdeen declared his belief that the adoption of this
measure would retain in the establishment a numerous body of ministers
then in a state of suspense. Those parish ministers who had seceded
were about two hundred and forty, or one-fourth of the whole number; the
unendowed ministers, about two hundred, or about one-third of the entire
clergy of Scotland. He-did not apprehend, he said, any fatal consequence
from the secession; but the bill would tend to tranquillise those who
remained within the pale. The measure encountered the most strenuous
opposition of Lords Brougham, Cottingham, and Campbell in all its
stages; but it passed the upper house, and was introduced in the commons
by Sir James Graham on the 31st of July. After explaining the nature of
the bill, and supporting it by all