1 62 On the ORIGIN and STRUCTURE of 



It is worthy of remark, that the record mentions the fines 

 awarded to have been fuch as had not been adjudged at the 

 army, where the attendance mould have been given. This muft 

 be acknowledged to look as if a placitum exercitale was not 

 unknown in Scotland. 



I HAVE been able to difcover no veflige in Scotland of any 

 particular quantity of land-eftate being anciently required to 

 qualify a perfon to be a member of the national diet. Dr 

 STUART, indeed, has laid it down in his work on the public 

 law of Scotland, that the pofTeffion of a knight's fee was necei- 

 fary for this purpofe * ; and he has thought proper to treat Dr 

 ROBERTSON with much afperity for holding, that the lefler te- 

 nants, in capite, were members of it. It does not, however, ap- 

 pear, that even the national force was ever called forth, accord- 

 ing to any diftribution of the country into knights fees. The 

 ftatute of WILLIAM the Lion, c. 23. proves the contrary, as far 

 back as his reign. There is, therefore, as little probability as evi- 

 dence, that this fpecies of eft ate was employed .to form the qua- 

 lification of a feat in the national diet. 



EVEN in England, where knights fees were of fuch impor- 

 tant ufe, the pofleflion of an entire knight's fee does not appear 

 to have ever been considered as, in the leaft, connected with a vote 

 in the legiflature. By Magna Charta, all tenants in capite j~ 

 were, without diftinclion, to be fummoned to parliament J ; and, 

 if we look to foreign countries, we fhall find, that it was al- 

 ways noble blood alone, or a fee held by a noble tenure, con- 

 joined 



. * Page 290* 



f- WHETHER holding by one fpecies of tenure, or another ; and whether holding large 

 tftates, or only fralions of knights fees. See allb L L. GOL. I. and L L. HEN. I. ap. 

 Lombard. 



\ " ET praeterea faciemus fummoneri in generali, per vicecomites et ballivos noflros, 

 " omnes illos qui de nobis tenent in capite." Mag. Chart. 14. I muft here remark, 

 that this expreffion is not adverfe to my opinion,, that freeholders, not holding in chief, 



were 



