§ Viscount Melbournepresented a petition from the ministers and elders in the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, complaining that the rights and privileges and the constitution of the Church had been infringed by the decision of the Court of Session, and praying for relief.
§ The Earl of Aberdeensaid, that the noble Viscount had expressed his readiness to come to a speedy decision on the matter upon this especial ground, that if her Majesty's Government resolved not to propose to Parliament any measure relating to it, time and opportunity might be afforded to other Peers to supply the deficiency and take the matter up. Until now it never entered into his mind that he ought to undertake any measure upon this subject. It appeared to be so clearly the duty of her Majesty's Ministers to propose measures to Parliament upon such a question, it was one so immediately affecting the peace and good order of the community, that he took for granted that the responsible advisers of the Crown would not abandon a duty so imperative. The noble Viscount opposite, however, had taken that course which he conceived to be consistent with the duty which he owed to his sovereign and to the country; and under present circumstances he felt it incumbent upon him to bring forward some measure calculated to give peace to the Church of Scotland and to the country generally. With this view he should immediately after Easter present to their Lordships a bill calculated, as he hoped, to produce that effect.