Biggar and the House of Fleming

APPENDIX. 615
function without the consent of the congregation," are express and repeated
enactments of our ecclesiastical law ; they are ratified and approved by num-
berless Acts of Parliament ; the strict observance of them is solemnly sworn
to by every office-bearer in the Church of Scotland ; and every member of
Assembly, in particular, holds his commission with an express injunction as
he shall be answerable, to decide accordingly. All this notwithstanding, the
Assembly hath, in the present case, appointed a settlement, not only with-
out the consent of the congregation, but directly in the face of express oppo-
sition by every heritor, elder, and head of family in the parish. For, with
respect to the seven persons who, out of 1200 parishioners, had been pre-
vailed on to promise a concurrence, they are of such singular characters, and
in such singular circumstances, that the hon. counsel (Mr. Henry Erskine)
who supported the presentation candidly gave them up ; and with respect to
the letters from the non-residing heritors (who, by the by, are most of them
not of our communion, and all together do not much exceed a third part of
the heritors that pay the stipend), they cannot in the present view be of any
consideration, whatsoever — they can have no weight in a call which is the
foundation of a pastoral connection between a minister and his people.
However much some people may think proper to despise, and even wantonly
to provoke and insult the people, yet this is certain, that all the laws respect-
ing our ecclesiastical constitution are expressly founded on the inclinations,
and enacted with a view to promote the happiness and tranquillity of the
whole Christian people. We cannot, without the utmost regret, imagine the
idea of a church without a people, ministers without congregations ; we
cannot, in duty to God and our constituents, but protest in the strongest
terms against measures which have such a tendency ; and though we must
hang our harps upon the willows, yet we shall always pray that he who stills
the raging of the sea, and the tumults of the people, may preserve peace
within our Jerusalem's walls, and pour down prosperity upon the Church of
Scotland.
No. IV.
DECISIONS OF THE COURT OF SESSION IN THE CASE OF THE
EARL OF WIGTON AND HIS VASSALS.
"Jan. 23d, 1739.
"The Earl of Wigton contra his Vassals.
" In the process of Division in the Common Muir of Biggar, at the Earl of
Wigton's instance, against his vassals, some of whom were proprietors, others
had only servitudes, wherein the Earl claimed not only a proportion of the
Muir, according to the valuation of his adjacent property lands, but also a