rates are now raised to £3. 3s. £4. 14s. 6d. £6. 6s. £7. 17s. 6d.; and ministers aud other contributors may either accede to the increased rates, or they may decline them, in which last case their widows and children receive no benefit from the new appointment. A minister must make his choice of the rate of contribution, or be deemed to have made his election of the increased rate of £4. 14s. 6d., which he must pay during life. Every minister upon his marriage, or being forty years of age before his admission, must pay twenty per cent. on the above sums; and as the greater part of the contributors have entered into a subscription to raise an additional sum for the fund, every person admitted to a benefice must pay ten per cent. by way of fine or contribution, as the average of the original subscriptions by contributors, by two instalments with the two first payments of his annual rate, bearing interest, and payable as the annual rate. These rates are privileged debts, or preferable to all other debts, not only on the benefices, but the personal estates of the contributors. The produce of vacant stipends, the unappropriated balance of the annual sum of £10,000. allowed for augmenting parochial stipends in particular cases, and a donation from the bishops" rents, are appropriated for the increase of the widows fund. These with the original subscriptions of contributors and the fines of ministers on their first admission, with the interest of each, are to form a fund to be lent out, and after six years accumulation an addition is to be fixed to the annuities of widows. Where there is no widow, the child or children under eighteen years, are entitled to the annuity of a widow, which is to be drawn till the youngest child is eighteen years complete. The excess from the fund being liable to variation in different years, the trustees fix the avarage of what is paid to the widows and children from time to time". n Act 54 Geo. III. c. 169. The oaths, which all persons in offices of public trust are required to take and subscribe are, the oaths of allegiance °, promising fidelity to the reigning family; abjuration", denying the right of the pretender or his descendents to the throne; and assurance, asserting the right of the reigning family to the throne. The oath of allegiance and assurance were early imposed, but the oath of abjuration was introduced in the reign of Queen Ann'. The oath of allegiance must be taken and the assurance, subscribed by all persons in offices of public trust, civil, ecclesiastical, and military: and among the variety of persons mentioned as falling under this general description are all ministers and preachers of the gospel whatsoever, and all clerks in church judicatories, and precentors, and all heritors voting in the calling of ministers, and all others whatsoever giving voice in the calling of ministers at their meeting for that purpose'. Every candidate for the church is appointed, before obtaining license, to take the oaths to government, and be furmished with a certificate thereof, under the penalty of incapacity to hold a benefice ". And all persons are prohibited from entering into the church, or continuing therein, except they Irave qualified to government. There is also a prohibition on principals, professors, regents, masters, or other office-bearers in universities, or teachers of public schools from being admitted or continued in their functions, without taking the above oaths. This is extended also to masters and teachers of private schools, chaplains, tutors, and governors of youth 2. All patrons must take the oaths to government; and they • Act 1 Geo. I. c. 13. § 3. q Ib. 6 Geo. III. c. 58. § 1. Act 6 Anne, c. 14. * Act 1693, c. 22. P Act 6 Geo. III. c. 58. § I. t Act 1693, c. 6. y Act 1690, c. 17. u Act 5 Geo. I. c. 20. * Act 19 Geo. II. c. 39. who have not taken the oaths appointed to be taken by persons in public trust, must take the same at signing the presentation to a church, otherwise the presentation is void, and the right for that vice devolves upon the erown1. All Episcopal clergymen are forbidden to officiate in any chapel or meeting house in Scotland without qualifying themselves according to law; and a person so officiating, for the first offence forfeits twenty pounds sterling, half to the informer, and half to the poor of the parish; for a subsequent offence, he is declared incapable of officiating for three years. All who resort to places of worship where these unqualified ministers officiate are declared liable to punishment ". PARISHES. The institution of parishes was originally ecclesiastical; and their union and division were exercised by the Bishops in Scotland. After the Reformation this power was not claimed by the ministers of the new religion, but was exercised by the legislature. Some cases, indeed, occur in which the church interfered; but in every instance an act of parliament was deemed necessary to give validity to the measure. In the reign of King James VI. a commission of parliament was appointed for new modelling parishes. This commission was renewed from time to time, with power to plant churches where they were wanted, to disjoin them when requisite, and to unite them when circumstances rendered it necessary. At the union, the powers of these commissions were transferred to the judges of the Court of Session, who were declared perpetual commissioners; with this express limitation, that no disjunction take place, no erection effected, nor any church removed from its ancient situation, without the consent of three fourths of the heritors, as ascertained, not by number of votes, a Act 10 Anne, c. 14. b Acts 19 Geo. II. c. 38.; 21 Geo. II. c. 34.; 32 Geo. III. c. 94. c Act 1617, c. 3. but by the extent of their annual rents within the parish *. In consequence of this the Court of Tiends have been in use to exercise the various branches of this statutory ordination. The disjunction of too large parishes, and the necessary consequence, erecting new ones, and building new churches, always proceed upon these grounds; that the extent and population of a parish is such, as to put it out of the power of any one man properly to discharge the parochial duties of it": that the tiends are sufficient to afford competent stipends to the ministers f; and that the proposed disjunction have the approbation of the church courts, especially the presbytery of the bounds, which indeed, with the procurator for the church, is often pursuers. If the disjunction be found expedient, a stipend is modified for the new parish, a church is appointed to be built at the sight of the presbytery, and a recommendation given to them to design a manse, glebe, &c. to the ministerh. The patronage of the new erection, falls to the patron of the old parish'. Church courts have sometimes exercised the power of disjoining large parishes: and an eminent lawyer states, that presbyteries may erect new churches in "burghs, and even in "country parishes, where the tiends are exhausted: but to "these the Court of Tiends cannot decree a stipend, however "expedient and necessary the erection may be " Upon the same principle is the case of second ministers, who have been appointed without the intervention of the court of teinds; and even where the court had interfered, and sanctioned them. There are indeed a few cases, where modifications have been granted out of teinds to second ministers d Act 1707, c. 9. k e Yell & Fetler, 9th Feb. 1709.; Polmont 22dJuly, 1724. f Island of Lewis, 19th Dec. 1722. h Polmont ut supra. Durness, 15th July 1724. i In the case of Whitburn, the patronage was vested in the parish of Livingston by the House of Peers, Whitburn, 1762. j Ersk. B. II. tit. 5. § 23. Old Machar (old Aberdeen), 12th Dec. 1716.; Culross, 24th Jan. 1722. established by church courts, and to those particularly appointed, or sanctioned by the court of teinds. But there is no instance of modifications of stipend to a second minister of a parish wholly landward, nor to one of a burgh where no part of the parish was landward; and in those second minis. ters of burghs, who had also landward parishes, the heritors either expressly consented, or did not oppose, or there was the intervention of some specialty'. Another part of the enactment is the "dismembering of "parishes;" which evidently alludes to the disjoining of lands from one parish and annexing them to another. In this branch few instances occur in which particular portions of land were annexed quoad omniam; which renders the lands annexed liable in future augmentations of stipend, and other burdens to the parish to which they are united. The general practice is making disjunctions of lands quoad sacra tantum. Church courts have sometimes exercised a power of this kind, without either the concurrence or authority of the court of teinds", Lands and inhabitants thus annexed, are connected with the new parish only in religious matters, and in upholding the fabric of the church to which they are annexed; but they are free from other parochial burdens; aş a new manse, augmentations of stipend P, and the maintenance of the poor in the new parish: but they continue liable to these burdens in the parish from which they were dismembered '. A third branch of the statute is the "transporting of Old Machar (old Aberdeen), 12th Dec. 1716.; Culross, 24th Jan. 1722. ut supra. m Aberlot & Carmylie, 5th July, 1797. Fac. Coll. Nov. 17. 1808. ; Thomson v. Pollock. • Fac. Coll. 2d Feb. 1773, Drummond v. Heritors of Monzie, Monedie, and Crieff. P Falconer, 13th July, 1748, Park v. Maxwell; Fac. Coll. 22d July, 1772, Knox v. Hunter and others. 4 Fac. Coll. 17, 1808, Thomson v. Pollock, ut supra. Drummond v. Heritors of Monzic, &c. ut supra. |