The malcontents brought in a bill declaring the bench vacant, as it was at the restoration; asserting their own right to examine and approve those who should appointed to fill it; providing that if in time to come any such total vacancy should occur, the nomination should be in the king or queen, or regent for the time being, and the parliament retain the right of approbation; and that all the clauses in the several acts relating to the admission of the ordinary lords of session, and their qualifications for that office, should be ratified and confirmed for perpetual observation.

Such was the interest of this party, that the bill was carried by a great majority, notwithstanding the opposition of the ministers, who resolved to maintain the king's nomination even in defiance of a parliamentary resolution.

The majority, exasperated at this open violation of their privileges, forbade the judges whom the king had appointed to open their commissions, or hold a session until his majesty's further pleasure should be known: on the other hand they were compelled to act by the menaces of the privy-council.

The dispute was carried on with great acrimony on both sides, and produced such a ferment, that before the session opened, the ministry thought proper to draw a great number of forces into the neighbourhood of Edinburgh to support the judges in the exercise of their functions.
SCOTCH PARLIAMENT ADJOURNED.
The lord commissioner, alarmed at this scene of tumult and confusion, adjourned the house till the eighth day of October; a step which, added to the other unpopular measures of the court, incensed the opposition to a violent degree.

They drew up a remonstrance to the king, complaining of this adjournment while the nation was yet unsettled, recapitulating the several instances in which they had expressed their zeal and affection for his majesty; explaining their reasons for dissenting from the ministry in some articles; beseeching him to consider what they had represented, to give his royal assent to the acts of parliament which they had prepared, and take measures for redressing all the other grievances of the nation.