282 SCOTLAND. 



popery, the obliging fornicators of both sexes to sit upon what they 

 call a repenting stool, in the church, and in full view of the congre- 

 gation, begins to wear out, it having been found that the Scotch wo- 

 men, on account of that penance, were the greatest infanticides in the 

 world. In short, the power of the Scotch clergy is at present very 

 moderate, or at least very moderately exercised ; nor are they account- 

 able for the extravagancy of their predecessors. They have been, 

 ever since the revolution, firm adherents to civil liberty, and the house 

 of Hanover, and acted with remarkable intrepidity during the rebel- 

 lion in 1745 They dress without clerical robes: but some of them 

 appear in the pulpit in gowns, after the Geneva form, and bands They 

 make no use of set forms in worship. The rents of the bishops, since 

 the abolition of episcopacy, are paid to the king, who commonly appro- 

 priates them to pious purposes. A thousand pounds a year is always 

 sent by his majesty for the use of protestant schools erected by act of 

 parliament in North Britain, and the western isles ; and the Scotch 

 clergy, of late, have instituted funds for the support of their widows 

 and orphans. The number of parishes in Scotland is 941, of which 31 

 are collegiate churches, that is, where the cure is served by more 

 than one minister. 



The highest ecclesiastical authority.in Scotland is the general assem- 

 bly, which we may call the ecclesiastical parliament of Scotland. It 

 consists of commissioners, some of whom are laymen, under the title of 

 ruling elders, from presbyteries, royal burghs, and universities. A 

 presbytery, consisting of less than twelve ministers, sends two ministers 

 and one ruling elder ; if it contain between twelve and eighteen minis- 

 ters, it sends three, and one ruling elder; if it contain between eigh- 

 teen and twenty-four ministers, it sends four ministers and two ruling 

 elders; but if the presbytery have twenty-four ministers, it sends five 

 ministers and two ruling elders. Every royal burgh sends one ruling 

 elder, and Edinburgh two ; whose election must be attested by 

 the respective kirk sessions of their own burghs. Every university 

 sends one commissioner, usually a minister of their own body. 

 These commissioners are chosen yearly, six weeks before the 

 meeting of the assembly. The ruling ciders are often persons of the 

 first quality of the country The king presides by his commissioner 

 (who is always a nobleman) in this assembly, which meets annually in 

 May ; but he has no voice in their deliberations This assembly- 

 chooses a clergyman for its moderator, or speaker. Appeals are- 

 brought from all the other ecclesiastical courts in Scotland to the gen- 

 eral assembly ; and no appeal lies from its determination in religious- 

 matters. 



Provincial synods are next in authority to the general assembly. 

 They are composed of a number of the adjacent presbyteries, over 

 whom they have a power; and there are fifteen of them in Scotland ; 

 but their acts are reversible by the general asssembiy 



Subordinate to the synods, are presbyteries, of which there are sixty- 

 nine in Scotland, each consisting of a number of contiguous parishes.! 

 The ministers of these parishes, with one ruling elder chosen half 

 yearly out of every session, compose a presbytery. These presby- 

 teries meet in the head town oi that division, but have no jurisdiction 

 beyond their own bounds, though within these they have cognizance of 

 all ecclesiastical causes and matters. A chief part of their business is 

 the ordination of candidates for livings, in which they are regular and 



