310 ANEC. OF THE LATE EARL OF ERROL. NoV. p, 



him, he exerted himfelf in promoting the welfare of 

 his tenants, and other dependants in the lower walks 

 of life. He obfcrved, with regret, that an envious fpirit of 

 litigation prevailed among them, wliich had been ex- 

 cited, and ftill was fomented by the influence of fome 

 pcttyfcgging lawyers in Aberdeen, with a view to pro- 

 fit by thel'e iittie difputes, and he fet himfelf to correft 

 it. The honefl; and mild influence of Lord Errol's 

 cliarafter efre^ted what nothing clfe could perhaps 

 have done. He paid fo much attention to thofs dif- 

 putes among them that were brought before himfelf as 

 a juflice of the peace, that the parties were much bet- 

 ter fatisfied with his decifions than any other. But 

 this was only a partial cure. He wiflied it might be 

 general. 



Tnfling difputes among country people, he readily 

 perceived, ought naturaiiy to be determined, in a fum- 

 mary manner, by the jujTtces of the peace. On enquiry, 

 he found that few or no caufes of that fort were 

 brought before the juftices in Abetdeenfhire. On 

 farther enquiry, with a view to dilcovcr the caufe of 

 this plienomenon, he found that the jtijlices, in that 

 country, as in many ether parts of Scotland^ had been 

 fo negligent in the difcharge of their duty as to fufFer 

 abufes to prevail that loudly called for redrefs. The 

 juiiice of peace courts feemed to meet for no other pur- 

 pofc titan to levy fines agaiiiil tranfgreflbrs of the reve- 

 nue laws. The few j uftices who took an aftive hand 

 in this bufmefs, were indeed nothing better than a fet 

 of hum.ble tools, fubfervient to the will of revenue of- 

 ficers alone, who apparently influenced them in all 

 their proceedings. Ttiefe fervile judges were not even 

 afhamed to become the gucfts of the colledlor of excife, 

 •who treated them on thefe occafions, and alTumed al- 

 moft a fovereign and diclatorial fway over thefe his 

 humble coadjutors. In confequence of this, the very 

 name cijufticc of peace had become a term ol reproach. 



