THE WEALTH OF NATIONS.

7(51

perating the animosity of all their other factions, threatenedto leave behind it both a new schism in the church, and anew faction in the state. In those small republics, therefore,the magistrate very soon found it necessary, for the sake ofpreserving the public peace, to assume to himself the right ofpresenting to all vacant benefices. In Scotland , the most ex-tensive country in which this presbyterian form of church go-vernment has ever been established, the rights of patronagewere in effect abolished by the act which established presby-tery in the beginning of the reign of William III . That actat least put it in the power of certain classes of people in eachparish, to purchase, for a very small price, the right of elect-ing their own pastor. The constitution which this act esta-blished was allowed to subsist for about two-and-twentyyears, but was abolished by the 10th of queen Anne, ch. 12.on account of the confusions and disorders which this morepopular mode of election had almost everywhere occasioned.In so extensive a country as Scotland , however, a tumult in aremote parish was not so likely to give disturbance to govern-ment as in a smaller state. The 10th of queen Anne restoredthe rights of patronage. But though in Scotland the lawgives the benefice without any exception to the person pre-sented by the patron; yet the church requires sometimes (forshe has not in this respect been very uniform in her deci-sions) a certain concurrence of the people, before she willconfer upon the presentee what is called the cure of souls, orthe ecclesiastical jurisdiction in the parish. She sometimes atleast, from an aii'ected concern for the peace of the parish,delays the settlement till this concurrence can be procured.The private tampering of some of the neighbouring clergy,sometimes to procure, but more frequently to prevent thisconcurrence, and the popular arts which they cultivate inorder to enable them upon such occasions to tamper moreeffectually, are perhaps the causes which principally keep upwhatever remains of the old fanatical spirit, either in theclergy or in the people of Scotland .

The equality which the presbyterian form of church go-vernment establishes among the clergy, consists, first, in theequality of authority or ecclesiastical jurisdiction; and, se-condly, in the equality of benefice. In all presbyterianchurches the equality of authority is perfect: that of beneficeis not so. The difference, however, between one benefice andanother, is seldom so considerable as commonly to tempt the