copalians good subjects? and do they hold religious principles, in the emphatic language of the noble and learned lord on the woolsack, "fit to be tolerated?"—that is to say, are they good subjects? and do they agree with us in the fundamentals of Christianity?-for these are the religious principles "fit to be tolerated." If they can satisfy us upon these points, the Legislature is not at all concerned in the question of the spiritual validity of their orders. My Lords, consider only how we deal with Protestant dissenters here in England; for all that I would wish for our Scottish brethren is, that they, as dissenters from the established church of Scotland, should be put upon the same footing with the Protestant dissenters from the church of England. My Lords, by the toleration-act of the 1st of William and Mary, a pastor of a congregation of Protestant dis

senters must enter the place and situation of his meeting-house; he must give in his own name and place of abode; he must take the oaths to Government; and he must show that he agrees with us in the fundamentals of the Christian religion; and by the terms of that statute, which is the narrowest of all the present schemes of toleration, he must also testify his agreement with us in the general principles of Protestantism. This he does by subscribing a great many of the Thirty-nine Articles. My Lords, when the dissenting minister has complied with these conditions, he is never asked, no one has authority to ask him,-Sir, how comes it that you call yourself a clergyman? what are your orders? by whom were you ordained? by what ritual? He has given the security which all good subjects give for his loyalty to Government,-he professes religious

principles "fit to be tolerated;" that's enough: He is admitted, without farther inquiry, to all the benefits of toleration. Now, my Lords, here are a set of dissenters from the established church of Scotland, good subjects, and holding religious principles very "fit to be tolerated;" for the cause of their dissent from the established church of Scotland is their very near agreement with the established church of England; and they approach your Lordships with this modest request, that they may not be more hardly dealt with than Protestants of various denominations differing more widely from both establishments. My Lords, one thing that fell from the noble and learned lord on the woolsack struck upon my mind very forcibly,-as deserving, I mean, a serious consideration. His lordship gave it as his opinion, that it would be for the credit of Episcopacy in

Scotland, that their congregations should be supplied with ministers (according to the intention of the 19th of the late King) ordained by bishops of the English or Irish church. The noble and learned lord, if I took his argument aright, supposed that the statuté passed in favour of the Scottish Episcopalians in the 10th of Queen Anne would bear him out in that opinion. That statute made it "free and lawful for all those of the Episcopal communion in that part of Great Britain called Scotland, to meet and assemble for the exercise of divine worship, to be performed after their own manner, by pastors ordained by a Protestant bishop." The noble and learned. lord conceives, that under the latitude of this expression, a "Protestant bishop," the statute meant indeed to tolerate the ejected bishops, and the clergy immediately ordained by them, but not to extend the to

leration to the succession.

My Lords, I

must take the liberty to differ from the noble and learned lord upon the construction of this statute of Queen Anne. I think it was the intention of the statute to extend its toleration beyond the ejected bishops themselves to the whole succession; for I find, my Lords, that of the thirteen bishops of Scotland ejected at the Revolution (the dioceses were in all fourteen, but it happened that one see was vacant when the Revolution took place; thirteen bishops therefore were ejected; now of these thirteen), seven certainly, probably eight, were dead before the 10th of Queen Anne; and a ninth was out of the kingdom, for he fled with the abdicated King. the time therefore when this act was passed, no more than four of the ejected bishops were alive, and within the kingdom; and four new consecrations had taken place,

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