"The Trustees respectfully request the instructions of the Assembly as to the course to be adopted by them in reference to these bequests when they shall be realised.

"3. The next matter to which the Trustees desire to call the attention of the Assembly is a suggestion made to them by a deputation from the Sustentation, and Select Finance Committees, that, instead of investing several sums mortified for different objects in one security, as they have been in use to do, the Trustees should seek out a separate security for each sum separately appropriated. In laying this suggestion before the Assembly, the Trustees beg to state, that having given to it the most respectful attention, they cannot recommend its adoption to the House.

“As such sums are all mortified, the interest alone, and not the capital, being applicable to the objects, to which they may severally be appropriated, so that occasion will not arise for calling up the capital separately, no inconvenience can possibly arise from the joint investment, while great convenience and advantage result from the course now followed by the Trustees, inasmuch as the best securities are always to be obtained for a considerable sum, and the greatest difficulty would often be experienced if the mode suggested were adopted, in finding securities for the exact amount of the various specific sums, frequently of small amount, which the Trustees would thus require separately to invest.

"4. Another suggestion made by this deputation was, that in making such investments of moneys bequeathed or otherwise entrusted to them, the Trustees should not accept a security without the concurrence of the several Committees, to whose use the interest of the money to be invested may be appropriated. The Trustees will, of course, be quite willing, if thought desirable by the Assembly, to act on this suggestion, though they cannot but fear that the disadvantage in the loss of eligible securities, created by the delay necessarily occasioned in consulting the several Committees interested in any particular loan, would more than counterbalance the benefits to be derived from their aid, in judging of the fitness and safety of the investment.

"5. It was further suggested by the deputation that, where moneys to be permanently mortified, were left not to the Trustees, but directly to the Committee to whose use the interest was appropriated, such moneys should be invested not in the name of the Committee, but in the names of the General Trustees, and that the same course should be followed as to all heritable property held by particular Committees for objects of a general character. As this suggestion has reference to the procedure, not of the Trustees themselves, but of the Committees of the Church, they content themselves with transmitting it to the Assembly without presuming to offer any remarks upon it. "6. Finally, the deputation in question suggested the expediency of always appointing the Moderator and the two Clerks of Assembly, for the time being, to be Trustees during their tenure of office. The reason stated for this suggestion was, that it would obviate the risk of the whole Trustees being allowed to die out, while through neglect no successors were appointed to them. It does not appear to the Trustees that such neglect is at all likely to occur, and if it did, the provisions of the recent Titles' Act, afford an immediate remedy, as new Trustees thereafter elected would stand ipso facto vested with the whole funds and property which had been held by their predecessors. "7. The Trustees have only further to call the attention of the House to the circumstance that no quorum has been specially prescribed for their meetings, and that although this is not in use to be done in reference to the proper Committees of the Church, it seems necessary in the case of a body of Trustees appointed for the merely secular purpose of holding trust property belonging to the Church,

"These several points the Trustees now respectfully submit to the consideration of the Assembly.

cr

"On behalf of, and by authority of, the Trustees,

EDINBURGH, May 29, 1852.

"A. MURRAY Dunlop."

The Assembly approve of the report, and (1.) They sanction the granting of an annuity to the heir-at-law of Mrs Dinwiddie, as recommended by the Trustees. (2.) They instruct the Trustees to take the opinion of counsel as to how far the bequests by Mrs Dinwiddie and Miss Sutton are specially appropriated to specific objects, and are at the disposal of the Church to such of her objects as she may prefer, and to act accordingly. (3.) They direct the several Committees to whom money may be left or doted, for the purpose of being mortified and the interest applied to the object of the particular Committees, to invest the same, not in their own names, but in the names of the General Trustees; and they also direct all Committees holding any heritable property appropriated to general purposes, to transfer the same, as soon as circumstances will admit, to the General Trustees; and they instruct the Trustees to lay before the Assembly each year a statement similar to that presented to the General Assembly, which shall set forth not only the funds which may have been invested in them in the course of the past year, but also the whole funds and property at the time standing in their names. (4.) The Assembly appoint and declare that five shall constitute the quorum of the General Trustees. (5.) The Assembly instruct the Trustees, until the subsisting debt on the New College Buildings shall have been paid off, to apply to the liquidation thereof, all such moneys as have been, or may be, vested in them without specific appropriation by the donor or testator, reserving always such amount as might be necessary to meet charges for which they are liable. (6.) The Assembly nominate and appoint Sir William Johnston of Kirkhill, John Abraham Francis Hawkins, Esq., late of the Hon. E.I.C.S., John Parker. Esq. Principal Extractor of the Court of Session, John Maitland, Esq. Accountant of the Court of Session, John Hunter, Esq. Auditor of the Court of Session, John Cadell of Tranent, Esq., and Frederick Lewis Maitland Heriot of Ramornie, Esq., to be General Trustees of the Church with those formerly appointed, and with like powers.

Mr Dunlop submitted to the House a statement regarding a transaction of some disputed claims connected with the estate of the late Provost M'Douall of Stranraer, of which the residue had been bequeathed to the Free Church. The Assembly sanction the transaction.

MINUTES OF COMMITTEES.

With reference to the resolution of last night relative to the examining of the minutes of Committees by the Clerks of Assembly, the Assembly direct that the minute-books of the Trustees, and of the Select Committee on the Management of the College this day named, be included in this appointment, as well as the records of all Boards or Committees which may be from time to time appointed.

FORM OF PROCESS.

The Assembly having called for the report of the Committee appointed to reconsider the overtures anent the form of process of libel against a minister, Sir Henry W. Moncreiff submitted the draft of an overture "anent complaints and appeals not sisting procedure in cases of libel against a minister," which having been read, was approved of, and ordered to be transmitted to Presbyteries for their opinion in terms of the Barrier Act.

The Committee also submitted the draft of an overture "anent judging as to the relevancy of a libel against a minister where the Presbytery are libellers," which was read, approved of, and ordered to be transmitted to Presbyteries for their opinion, in terms of the Barrier Act.

The Assembly appoint a Committee to consider maturely all the other matters involved in the question of the overture transmitted by last General Assembly on the subject of libel against a minister, and to bring up a report thereon to next General Assembly.

X X

TEMPERANCE.

The Assembly then called for the report of the Committee on Temperance, when the following was given in by Mr Lumsden on the part of Mr Wilson, the Convener.

"Your Committee have to make a report of purposes rather than of performances. In truth, amid many conflicting claims, which, if not more important, seemed at least more directly urgent, they have given but little attention, during the past year, to the subject remitted to their charge.

"In some of its aspects and bearings, the subject of Temperance is rather a social than an ecclesiastical matter; and, in dealing with it, the Free Church and its Committee act, perhaps, the best part when they seek to unite themselves with all those philanthropists and patriots who are becoming sensible to the enormous evils which the sin of drunkenness is inflicting upon the community, and are seeking, through various methods, to interpose a check upon its further development. Your Committee would hail and help forward every such movement, whether in the way of legislation, as directed to the system of licensing public-houses, or putting them under some wholesome and effective restrictions. They rejoice in the success which has attended the movement made in various quarters to effect the closing of these houses during the whole Sabbath. They trust that this movement will become universal, and that in every town and district over the country the Justices will be assailed with argument and remon strance, till the hideous disgrace of an open traffic in ardent spirits on the Lord's-day, and the intolerable nuisance of Sabbath drunkenness is everywhere put an end to.

"As tending in the direction of promoting the sobriety of the community, your Committee also rejoice in the measures which have been projected and partially carried out of opening coffee-houses and reading-rooms for the working classes, in providing for them more comfortable dwellings, and in the opening of model lodging-houses for females and for males. These indirect agencies, your Committee have reason to know, have in not a few instances, been attended with the happiest effects in reforming the habits of those who were rapidly becoming the victims of the most enslaving and degrading of all vices.

"It would be inexcusable not to notice, also, as one of those efforts at social reform in this respect, the labours of Abstinence Societies. These, there is the best reason to believe, have been attended with the most gratifying effects; and the country is largely indebted to such societies, not only in so far as they have arrested the progress of intemperance, but more especially for the energy with which they have exhibited the statistics of this view, and awakened a general public feeling against it. Your Committee are not to be understood, in making this statement, as lending their sanction to all the representations and principles which these Societies have put forth; and, while looking with no unfriendly eye upon their movements, it is surely right, as it is desirable, that they should exercise all tolerance and forbearance towards those who may be seeking, by other methods, to promote the same object.

Strictly as a matter with which the Church has to do, there are three methods of promoting temperance, all of them mutually helpful. 1. The instrumentality of preaching. Drunkenness is one of those sins most frequently denounced in the Scriptures; and in rightly dividing that word of truth, frequent opportunities will and ought to be taken by every minister to expose and denounce it as a sin, and especially as a sin, to the commission of which the present condition of society peculiarly exposes us. Your Committee would suggest, however, the propriety of the General Assembly issuing an injunction upon all her ministers to preach on this subject on some particular Sabbath. 2. Discipline. It is desirable that the General Assembly should direct kirk-sessions to a rigorous exercise of the discipline of the Church against all who may be guilty of this vice. There is no room to doubt that it is a vice not peculiar to those who have abandoned all Church fellowship, and a regard to the purity of our Church demands that those who are guilty of it should be dealt with in the way of discipline. It is impossible to give minute directions as to the manner and the extent to which this discipline should be exercised, but this much at least may be said,-that not only those who are drunken should be dealt with, but those also who open their shops for selling intoxicating drinks on the Lord's-day, and who encourage or tolerate excessive drinking in their premises. 3. The Church has still another duty to discharge in reference to this subject, a duty belonging not only to her office-bearers, but to her members also,—and that is, the promotion of temperance by their own personal example. There can be no

doubt that very much of the drunkenness which prevails in the land has its origin in those social habits which have rendered drinking almost an invariable accompaniment of all kinds of transactions and events. It accompanies the commencement of a work and its completion,-the making of bargains,-the entrance upon an apprenticeship, and the emancipation from it,—our births, baptisms, and funerals, the meeting of friends, —the courteous ceremonial even of a passing call. Drinking, if not drunkenness, has thus enwoven itself into the whole framework of society, and when the deplorable results to which it has led are considered, it is surely not too much to expect of the office-bearers and members of the Free Church that they will have the courage and consistency to set their faces against these habits in many of their forms, and, by an example of strict sobriety, as well as by refraining from setting snares and temptations, or what may prove such, in the way of others, seek earnestly and perseveringly to bring about a better order of things.

"Besides such direct influence and agencies as these, however, the Church may, because she has the greatest facilities for accomplishing it, engage in another department of service in this cause. It would, for example, be a good achievement to ascertain, by means of inquiries directed to all her ministers, to what extent they were called upon to deal with drunkenness in the way of discipline,-in what causes and social arrangements the sin seemed to originate and find encouragement, among what classes, and in what employments, it was most prevalent.

"If it be the will of the Assembly to re-appoint the Committee, they might direct themselves, during the coming year, to such a work as this; as well as watch over and help forward any movement which might be made tending to promote the object of their appointment."

The Assembly approve of the report, and order it to be kept in retentis. They reappoint the Committee, Mr Wilson, Convener; and the Assembly give power to the Committee to institute inquiries of the ministers of the Church regarding the extent they are called upon to deal with drunkenness in the way of discipline, in what causes and social arrangements the sin seems to originate and find encouragement, and among what classes, and in what employments, it is most prevalent. And further, the Assembly direct the Committee to watch over and help forward any movement which may be made tending to promote the object of their appointment."

PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS.

The Assembly called for the report of the Committee appointed to prepare petition to Parliament anent Parochial Schools, when the following draft was submitted by Dr Candlish, Convener, which having been read was approved of, and the Moderator authorised to subscribe the same in the name of the Assembly. The Assembly direct the petition to be transmitted to Mr James Moncreiff, M.P., for presentation to the House of Commons:

"Unto the Honourable the Commons of Great Britain and Ireland, in Parliament assembled, The Petition of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland;

Humbly Sheweth,-That, inasmuch as the time for a revision of the salaries of the Parochial Teachers in Scotland, by Act of Parliament 43d Geo. III., cap. 54, 11th June 1803,-will occur during the ensuing year, and the said revision, under the said Act, must proceed upon the striking of an average according to the average of fiars for all Scotland for the twenty-five years preceding; and whereas it may be proposed to adopt some new legislative measure for ensuring a larger amount of salary for each Parochial Teacher than may be obtained under the existing law:

"It appears to your Petitioners indispensable to the justice and reasonableness of any such measure, that it be preceded or accompanied by such a reform of the existing system of Parochial Schools in Scotland, as shall provide a better management of the Schools generally, and in particular shall admit of the appointment of masters bona fide willing to own the Word of God and the Shorter Catechism, and to give religious instruction accordingly;

"That your Petitioners earnestly desire to have much more liberal support secured to Parochial Teachers than is at present afforded to them.

"That they are convinced also of the necessity of adopting much more effective means for the promotion of popular education, than can be supplied by any plan now in ope

ration.

"That they, however, deprecate the appropriation of any greater amount of the