seven years of the fiar prices of two or more of the adjoining counties, or of such stewartry, county, or counties, as they shall deem most suitable in the circumstances of the case.

§ 11. And be it further enacted, That it shall not be competent for the Lords of Council and Session, as commissioners aforesaid, where a stipend shall, after the passing of this act, be modified in grain or victual, in whole or in part, to authorize the minister to receive the same, or any part thereof, in kind, but that it shall only be competent for them to decree the value thereof to be paid, or for him to receive the same in money, according to the fiar prices of the kind or description of grain or victual into which the same shall have been modified, as appearing from the annual fiars of the county or stewartry in which the parish, the stipend of which shall have been so modified, shall be situated, struck in virtue of authority from the sheriff or steward, for that crop or year for which stipend, modified in grain or victual, shall be payable.

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12. Provided always, and be it enacted, That where any such parish shall not be altogether situated in one and the same county or stewartry, or where no annual fiars plicable to the kind or description of grain or victual modified, shall be struck in the county or stewartry wherein such parish is situated, it shall be competent for the said Lords of Council and Session, as commissioners aforesaid, to fix upon and specify two or more of the adjoining counties, or such stewartry, county, or counties, as they shall deem most suitable in the circumstances of the case, according to the annual fiar prices of which stewartry, county, or counties, they shall decree the value thereof to be! paid in money.

§ 13. Provided always, and be it enacted, That where there shall have been or shall be different rates of annual fiar prices for any county or stewartry, district or place, struck in virtue of authority from the sheriff or steward, the said conversion from money into grain or victual, and from grain or victual into money, in all of the cases aforesaid, shall be made according to the highest annual fiar prices struck in virtue of authority from the sheriff or steward for the said county, stewartry, district, or place.

§ 14. Provided always, and be it enacted, That the right of any heritor to surrender his valued teind in place of subjecting his lands, to the amount of the stipend localled upon them, shall not be taken away by what is herein enacted.

§ 15. And be it further enacted, That from and after the passing of this act, the said Lords of Council and Session, as commissioners aforesaid, nine being a quorum, instead of meeting in the afternoon of each Wednesday as heretofore, shall meet at ten of the clock in the forenoon, upon the second Wednesday which shall happen after the Court of Session shall have met for the dispatch of business in the months of November and May in every year respectively; and at the same hour once a fortnight on Wednesday during the sitting of the Court of Session, and at such other times, and on such other days, in the months of December, January, and March, not being any of the days upon which the Court of Session meet for the dispatch of the business of the said court, as the said Lords of Council and Session, as commissioners aforesaid, shall find necessary or proper for executing the powers committed to them by this and the said in part recited act.

§ 16. And be it enacted, That it shall be lawful for the said Lords of Council and Session, as commissioners aforesaid, and they are hereby empowered and required to establish rules and regulations for abridging the forms and expense of citation of heritors and others, and for ascertaining the facts and circumstances of the case, and to establish regulations for executing the business committed to them by the said in part recited act of the parliament of Scotland, and by the present act, with as much expedition and as little expense as possible.

§ 17. And, in order to guard against collusion, and also in order that no processes of augmentation or for modification of stipends shall be raised on the ground of alleged collusion, be it further enacted, That every minister insisting in the process of augmentation shall, after the passing of this act, besides citing the heritors, also cite the moderator and clerk of the presbytery of the

bounds, and furnish them with a statement of the amount of his present stipend, and the addition to the stipend which he means to crave, in order that the presbytery, if they shall judge it proper, may appear as parties to the process; and, in the event of the presbytery entering no appearance, the minister shall forthwith transmit to the moderator or clerk of the presbytery a certified copy of the interlocutory pronounced by the court; and it shall be competent to the presbytery, within five months after such interlocutor is pronounced, to enter an appearance, and to show, if they shall see cause, that the decree of modification pronounced is collusive and prejudicial to the benefice Provided, that if the presbytery shall enter an appearance in such process, it shall be competent to the court to subject the minister insisting in such process in the whole or any part of the expenses of process incurred by the presbytery.

§ 18. And be it further enacted, That all the powers given and granted by the said in part recited act to the commissioners thereby appointed shall remain and continue in force, and receive such and the like effect as they do at present, excepting in so far as they are altered or repealed by this act.-48 Geo. III. c. 138, 30th June 1808.

Whereas by an act of the parliament of Scotland, made in the year 1633, intituled, Anent the Rate and Price of Teinds; and by another act of the parliament of Scotland, made in the same year, intituled, Commission for Valuation of Teinds not valued, rectifying the valuations of the same already made, and other particulars therein contained, it was statuted, ordained, and declared, That all heritors and liferenters of lands in Scotland should be entitled to have the teinds or tithes of their lands valued at certain fixed rates, to be paid for the same in all time to come: And whereas in many parishes in Scotland, where the stipends of the parochial ministers are payable out of the teinds or tithes, in consequence of the depreciation of the value of money, the stipends of such parochial ministers have become inadequate to their support and maintenance; and on account of the valuations of teinds which have taken

lace, no funds exist out of which future augmentations of such stipends can be granted: And whereas in several parishes, where the stipends of the parochial ministers are payable out of funds and revenues separate and distinct From the teinds, such stipends have also become inadequate to the support and maintenance of the ministers hereof, and no funds exist out of which such stipends can be augmented: And whereas it is expedient that means should be provided for augmenting the stipends of each of such ministers as aforesaid, to a yearly amount or value of L.150 sterling; and it appears that an annual sum, not exceeding L.10,000 sterling, will be sufficient to carry these purposes into effect: May it therefore please your majesty, that it may be enacted, and be it enacted, by the king's most excellent majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons, in this present parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, That from and after the passing of this act, there shall in every year be set apart and appropriated in the hands of his majesty's receiver-general and paymaster in Scotland, out of the public revenues and money received and collected by him, an annual sum, not exceeding in whole the sum of L.10,000 of lawful money of Great Britain, to answer the purposes of this act, to be applied in manner herein after mentioned.

§ 2. And be it further enacted, That as soon as conveniently may be after the passing of this act, the clerks to the different presbyteries within Scotland shall make up accounts of the different parishes within each presbytery, the stipends of which parishes do not extend in their yearly amount or value to the sum of one hundred and fifty pounds sterling, and which cannot be augmented to that extent under the laws at present in force, either by reason of the teinds of such parishes being already exhausted, or for other want of funds out of which such augmentations could be made, or where, from the small amount or value of the unexhausted teinds, it has been deemed inexpedient to bring actions of augmentation; which accounts shall specify the amount of each such sti

pend in money, grain, or other articles in which the same is payable, and the rate at which such grain or other arti cles, if not in use to be paid in kind, are convertible into money, and if in use to be paid in kind, the value thereof on an average of the last nine years preceding the passing of this act, and the period when such stipend was last augmented, and if any unexhausted teind remains, speci fying the amount or value thereof, as far as the same can be ascertained, and the said accounts shall be transmitted to the teind-clerk, or principal clerk to the Lords of Council and Session, as commissioners for plantation of kirks and valuation of teinds, appointed by an act of the parliament of Scotland in 1707.

§ 3. And be it enacted, That when and as soon as the accounts shall be received from the clerks to the different presbyteries in manner before mentioned, the same shall, upon the application of any of the ministers interested, or of the procurator for the church on behalf of the whole, be taken into consideration by the Lords of Council and Session, as commissioners aforesaid, and a list or schedule shall thereupon be made up under their direction and authority, of all such stipends which, from the causes aforesaid, cannot be augmented to the annual amount or value of one hundred and fifty pounds, under the laws at present in force, specifying the amount of each stipend in money, grain, or other articles in which the same is payable, and the rate at which such grain and other articles, if not in use to be paid in kind, are convertible into money, or if in use to be paid in kind, the value thereof, on an average of the last nine years preceding the passing of this act, and of the sums necessary to augment each such stipend, including its present annual amount or value, to the annual amount or value of L.150 sterling, provided that the said augmentations shall not exceed in the whole the annual sum of L10,000 sterling; and in such list or schedule it shall and may be lawful to the said Lords of Council and Session, as commissioners aforesaid, to specify those cases in which, in their opinion, the teinds should be fully exhausted before any relief or augmentation should be granted under the authority of this act.