Me E UR OPE AN LE GISLAfURES. 1 6 1 



and, of courfe, alone would attend the provincial and national 

 diets *. 



As to Scotland again, there feems to be every reafon to believe, 

 that its ancient diet was conftituted in a manner very fimilar to 

 that of the Anglo-Saxons. We find the country divided, like Eng- 

 land, into ihires and wapontacks. We know, that the Saxons and 

 Danes gave their language and cufloms to the fouth-eaftern 

 parts of Scotland j and what is tranfmitted to vis of the Iriih 

 and Welfh cuftoms feems to differ from the arrangements of the 

 Anglo-Saxons, only as having belonged to a more rude and un- 

 cultivated people. On thefe accounts, I think it reafonable to 

 fuppofe, that the great men, mentioned in the enumeration of 

 the members of the ancient Scottifh diets, were the magiftracy 

 of the nation. I know a learned author f , in a late work, feen: ^ 

 inclined to difpute that ever earls were official in Scotland. 

 But, fo late as the laws of DAVID II. J, earls are mentioned as 

 provincial judges ; and the ancient Scottifh flatutes cannot be 

 looked into without finding the term judices applied to earls, 

 and others, with the fame general impropriety as in the reft of 

 Europe, where it was conftantly employed to denote magiftrates 

 rather than judges. When, therefore, in an afTembly at Perth, 

 fines for non-performance of military fervice are faid to have 

 been afcertained, " Coram rege per omnes judices Scotise || ," we 

 ought to be at no lofs to difcover, that it was the fenators, or the 

 magiftracy of the nation, that formed the body here meant . 



x It 



* I SHALL afterwards, in confidering the innovations in the ftrufture of the ancient 

 legiflatures, have occafion to treat of this qualification in land. 



f- Mr WALLACE. 

 J Cap. 8. and 9. 

 J Stat. ALEX. cap. 15. Stat. WILLIEL. cap. 3. 



IT is curious to find GREGORY of Tours ufing a fimilar mode of expreffion, " Poft 

 '' hsec ediftum ajudicibus datum, ut qui in hac expeditione tardi fuerant damnarentur." 

 Lib. 7. c. 42. 



