The Session is legally convened, when summoned by the minister from the pulpit, or by personal citation to the members. But it cannot exercise any judicial authority, unless the minister of the parish, or some other minister, acting either in his name, or by appointment of the Presbytery, constitute the meeting by prayer, and preside during its deliberations. It has a clerk of its own nomination, and an officer to execute its orders.

2. Presbyteries. The number of parishes which may compose a Presbytery is indefinite. In some of the populous districts of Scotland, there are thirty ministers in a Presbytery: in some remote situations, where a few parishes cover a great district, not more than four. As the General Assembly has the power of disjoining and erecting Presbyteries at its pleasure, their bounds can easily be altered, or their number increased, according to the change of circumstances. At present there are seventy-eight Presbyteries in the Church of Scotland.

A Presbytery consists of the ministers of all the parishes within the bounds of that district, of the Professors of Divinity, if they be ministers, in any University that is situate within these bounds, and of representatives from the Kirk-Sessions in the district. Every Kirk-Session has the right of sending one elder; so that unless there be a collegiate charge, or an University within the bounds of the district, the number of ministers and of elders in any meeting of Presbytery may be equal. Independently of the local business of the district, which generally requires frequent meetings in the course of the year, two meetings are necessary for the annual choice of its representatives in the General Assembly; one, at which a day, not less than ten days distant, is appointed for the election: another, at which the election is made. A moderator, who must be a minister, is chosen twice a

year. The Presbytery has a clerk of its own nomi. nation, and an officer to execute its orders.

5. Provincial Synods. Three or more Presbyteries, as the matter happens to be regulated, compose a Provincial Synod. There are at present fifteen Provincial Synods in the Church; most of which meet twice in the year. Every minister of all the Presbyteries, within the bounds of the Synod, is a member of that Court, and the same elder who had last represented the Kirk-Session in the Presbytery, is its representative in the Synod; so that the number of ministers and of elders may be equal. Neighbouring Synods correspond with one another, by sending one minister and one elder, who are entitled to sit, to deliberate, and to vote with the original members of the Synod to which they are sent. At every meeting of Synod, a Moderator, who must be a minister, is chosen, A Synod has its own clerk and officers.

4. General Assembly. The highest Ecclesiastical Court is the General Assembly. The extent of Scotland requires that, in this Supreme Court, ministers as well as elders should sit by representation;; and the proportion which the representation of the several Presbyteries of this National Church, in its General Assemblies, bears to the number of parishes within each Presbytery, was settled not long after the Revolution, in the following manner*: That all Presbyteries consisting of twelve parishes, or under that number, shall send in, two ministers and one ruling elder; that all Presbyteries consisting of eighteen parishes, or under that number, but above twelve, shall send in, three ministers and one ruling elder; that all Presbyteries consisting of twenty-four parishes, or under that number, shall send in, four ministers and two ruling elders; and that Presbyte

* Act 5th. Assembly, 1694.

ries consisting of above twenty-four parishes, shall send five ministers and two ruling elders: that collegiate kirks, where there used to be two or more ministers, are, so far as concerns the design of this act, understood to be as many distinct parishes; and that no persons are to be admitted members of Assemblies, but such as are either ministers or ruling elders." And as the number of the ministers of Edinburgh continued to increase after the Revolution, it was provided by a subsequent Act*, "That each Presbytery whose number doth exceed thirty ministerial charges, shall send to the General Assembly six ministers, and three ruling elders." The sixty-six Royal Burghs of Scotland are represented in the General Assembly by ruling elders; Edinburgh sending two, and every other Burgh one: and each of the five Universities in Scotland is represented by one of its members†.

According to this proportion of representation, the General Assembly, in the present state of the Church, consists of the following members;

200 Ministers representing Presbyteries. 89 Elders representing Presbyteries. 67 Elders representing Royal Burghs.

5 Minsters or Elders representing Universities.

361

This Assembly, so respectable from the number and the description of the persons of whom it is composed, is honoured with a representation of the Sovereign by the Lord High Commissioner, whose presence is the pledge of protection and countenance to the Established Church, and the sym

Act 6th. Assembly, 1712.

By Acts of Assembly, 1641 and 1704, the Scots Kirk of Campvere was empowered to send Commissioners to the General Assembly: but that establishment was abolished, a few years ago, by the Batavian Republic.

bol of that sanction which the civil authority is ready to give to its legal acts.

The Church of Scotland claims the right of meeting in a General Assembly, as well as in inferior courts, by its own appointment. But it also recognizes the right of the Supreme Magistrate to call Synods, and to be present at them. As, by the Constitution of the Church of Scotland, the ecclesiastical business of this country cannot be conducted without the frequent meeting of General Assemblies, the Act 1592, which established Presbyterian Government, declares, that "it shall be lawful to the kirk and ministers, every year at the least, and oftener pro re nata, as occasion and necessity shall require, to hold and keep General Assemblies :" and the Act 1690, which restored Presbyterian Government at the Revolution, allows the General Meeting, and representatives of the ministers and elders, in whose hands the exercise of the Church Government is estab. lished, according to the custom and practice of Pres. byterian Government throughout the whole kingdom. In pursuance of these Acts, the General Assembly meets annually in the month of May, and continues to sit for ten days, at the end of which time it is dissolved, first by the Moderator, who appoints another Assembly to be held upon a certain day of the month of May in the following year, and then by the Lord High Commissioner, who, in his Majesty's name, appoints another Assembly to be held upon the day which had been mentioned by the Moderator.

At every meeting of the General Assembly, a Mo. derator, who must be a minister*, is chosen; and there is a respectable establishment of clerks and officers.

In order to understand the Constitution of the

* In 1567, George Buchanan was chosen Moderator of the General Assembly which met in Edinburgh on the 25th of June, in that year.-Irving's Life of Buchanan, p. 155.-ED.

Church of Scotland, it is necessary to consider the four courts which have been described, as they are bound together by that subordination which is characteristical of Presbyterian government.

In all governments conducted by men, wrong may be done from bad intention, from the imperceptible influence of local prejudices, or from some other species of human infirmity. To prevent the continued existence of wrong, it is provided, in every good government, that sentences which are complained of may be reviewed; and although there must be a last resort where the review stops, the security against permanent wrong will be as effectual as the nature of the case admits, if there is a gradation of authority, by which those who had no concern in the origin of the proceedings, have a right to annul or confirm them, as they see cause. This is the great principle of the constitution of the Church of Scotland, which does not invest any individual with a control over his brethren, but employs the wisdom and impartiality of a greater number of counsellors to sanction the judgments, or to correct the errors of a smaller.

Every ecclesiastical business that is transacted in any Church-judicatory, is subject to the review only of its ecclesiastical superiors, and may come before the court immediately above it in four different ways. 1. The Superior Court may take up the business by an exercise of its inherent right of superintendance and control. For in testimony of that subordination of judicatories which pervades the Church of Scotland, it is a standing order, that the books containing the minutes of the inferior court shall be laid before the court immediately above it. In the ordinary course of ecclesiastical transactions, this is often neglected. But a superior court may, at any time, issue a peremptory mandate for the production of the books of its subordinate judicatories; and having the whole train of their proceedings thus re