The EUROPEAN LEGISLATURES. 151 



which is flill extant in the Advocates Library, proves, that, not- 

 withftanding the feudal fubordination which was then taking 

 deep root in Scotland, the loweft military tenants in the king- 

 dom aflembled in the national diet, and ftill retained fo much 

 of their original independence, as to exercife a right of fuffrage 

 there, in common with their feudal fuperiors *. I exprefs my- 

 felf in this manner, becaufe, I imagine, every perfon acquaint- 

 ed with the hiftory of the progrefs of fociety, or with the ge- 

 nius of the feudal fyftem, muft perceive, that the admimon of 

 vaffals to the exercife of any of the functions of fovereignty, 

 in common with their lords, under the predominancy of that 

 fyftem, could never have been the refult of it, but muft have 

 been the remaining effect of a fituation of things anterior to 

 that inequality which the feudal arrangements of landed pro- 

 perty had introduced or confirmed. 



THIS principle, likewife, leads me to obferve, that the hiftory 

 of the reprefentation in parliament of the counties, whether in. 

 Scotland or England, does, in fac~l, contain evidence, that the 

 freeholders in both were originally members of that legiflature, 

 from attendance on which they were excufed, only on condition, 

 of conveying their powers to delegates officiating in their {lead- 

 In 



(ays, " Ei (w'. WILLIAM) vix dum 12 annorum eflet, otnnes liberi homines Anglise 

 " et Normanniae, cujufcunque ordinis et dignitatis, cujufcunque. domini Jideles, manibus 

 " et facramento fe dederc coadYi funt." See HODY, />. 198. 



* THE iter jufticiarii proves, that fubvaflals were anciently feftatores of the king's 

 court : " Primo vocentur (edtatores, et eorum domini ; quia tametfi fedlatores compa- 

 " rent, tamen eorum domini obligantur ad comparendum, coram jufticiario in fuo iti- 

 " nere." Again j " Seftatores curise iterum vocari debent finguli bis, cum ipforum 

 : ' dominis." It appears, too, from cap. 15. Quon. Alt. That a vaflal of a baron was 

 probably, at the period of the regulation there mentioned, flill a fe&ator curiae viceco- 

 mitis. Poffibly, cap. 67. ejufd. may have been the origin of their being excluded the 

 county courts of freeholders. It is there provided, that a baron cannot be judged by a. 

 vavafor, nor a vavafor by a burgefs ; but that a lower perfon might be judged by a . 

 higher. In the decline of the feus again, -viz. in 1593, all landed men were found by 

 the court of feflion to be pares curiae, and competent to fit as jurymen, even in the trial, 

 of peers before the jufticiar, MACK. Crim. part. 2, tit. 8, 



