ed, pointing so directly to the place where each subject seemed most properly introduced, that a search can neither be difficult nor unsuccessful. Besides inserting the procedure respecting church censures, under the various heads where they naturally occur, the Form of Process is also, from its high importance, given at large at the end of the Assembly's Acts. An Appendix is subjoined which chiefly constitutes the superiority of the present edition to that of 1801. The former Appendix consisted only of a collection of the acts of parliament relating to the church; but the present contains the existing state of the civil law applicable to the church, and embraces all the decisions of the supreme civil court, with the opinions of the ablest commentators, on every subject on which a minister may require information. The author has particularly enlarged upon the present situation of the law of augmentation, with the mode of conducting the actions respecting them; and those cases in which presbyteries act in a civil capacity respecting manses, glebes, churches, and schoolmasters. In this part of the work, much important information has been obtained from the excellent and learned treatises of Sir John Connel, the procurator for the church, and some valuable hints from Mr Tait's work, which the author begs leave gratefully to acknowledge. |