obtained at the time of the Reformation, into any other keeping than its own—it abdicates—it is no longer the state. But the British state has not abdicated: it still exists; therefore it has not surrendered the supreme power in ecclesiastical affairs to anybody different from itself. But if it has not done this, the General Assembly has not, and cannot have, derived its supreme spiritual dominion from the state—supposing that it possesses any such dominion.
III.—Conclusion that the General Assembly may hold and does hold its exclusive spiritual supremacy (in Scotland) as the State.
But although the General Assembly cannot by any possibility derive its supreme spiritual authority from the state, it may nevertheless possess it as the state. Indeed, it is impossible for it to possess this authority upon any other footing. Every other basis for the authority in question gives way. There is a general impression that the Assembly's claim to this authority is not without foundation. Lawyers, we believe, admit that the claim is legitimate in some sense or another. But Protestant principles forbid that it should have accrued by Divine right to the Assembly as a clerical community. The philosophy of the constitution forbids that it should have been conferred on the Assembly by the state. In what other conceivable capacity, then, can the Assembly possess this spiritual supremacy except as being itself the state? But the whole of our argument, founded both on the theory and the history of its constitution, has been designed to prove that this actually is the capacity in which our General Assembly holds its supreme ecclesiastical dominion. However much it may have altered its character and complexion—however much the force of time and of circumstances may have perverted its original constitution—however much its pedigree may be defaced and obscured—this Assembly is the eidolon at least, if not the veritable body of our old Scottish Parliament, deliberating on the affairs of the church. That is our opinion. We have given our reasons for taking such a view of this important subject; and so we leave it, commending the Duke of Argyll's Essay to all who are interested in profound constitutional inquiries.
