202 Notes and Sketches. 



trative one, and such cases were by no means of excep- 

 tional occurrence. 



In some instances the boundary line between the 

 ecclesiastical and civil jurisdictions was curiously tra- 

 versed. When a case of infanticide had occurred, and 

 the deed had been discovered by the dead body of the 

 murdered bairn being got, the Kirk-Session would 

 occasionally set itself to find out who the unnatural 

 mother was. The mode adopted was to order all the 

 " free" or unmarried women to " compear" at the kirk; 

 and there, for the honour of the parish, individually to 

 satisfy a jury of midwives that none of them had given 

 birth to the defunct infant, with certification that any 

 " free woman " who chose to disobey the order would 

 be held as taking guilt to herself. Reversing the 

 maxim of law which says that every person shall be 

 held innocent till proved guilty, the Session boldly 

 announced the principle of holding those guilty who 

 did not adopt the prescribed means to prove their 

 innocence. And then in return for the Session thus, 

 in its own way, taking up what was clearly the duty 

 of the Civil Court, the Civil Court reciprocated at 

 times by recognising the function of the Session in 

 what would seem a rather odd fashion. At the Aber- 

 deen Quarter Sessions in May, 1750, Adam Lind, in 

 Tarves, pleads guilty to giving insulting and abusive 

 language to a county Justice of the Peace at a private 

 Session. He is sent to jail for fourteen days, and fined 

 5 ; and also " to appear first Sunday after his libera- 

 tion within the Kirk of Tarves immediately after divine 

 service, and in presence of the congregation convened 

 for the time, make acknowledgment of his insulting 

 the said Justice, and to procure a report and certifi- 

 cate under the hand of the Session-clerk and two 

 elders, of his having made such acknowledgment." 

 Expenses were given against him too, and .10 de- 

 manded in security of performance. 



The Session interested itself in such matters as the 



