EDINBURGH. 



335 



Edinburgh- are fifteen incorporated trades, fourteen of which have 

 an interest in sending a member to the town council, and 

 the council return a representative to parliament. The 

 principal magistrates wear robes on public occasions ; 

 also gold chains always while in office, and the provost 

 has a sword and mace borne before him. At present his 

 office is more of a ministerial than a judicial nature; but 

 by strict law, the jurisdiction of the magistrates extends 

 to all crimes, except treason, committed within the city 

 and liberties. In the year 1 60 1 , an offender was tried be- 

 fore one of the bailies, at Leith, for stealing a quantity of 

 grain by means of false keys, and sentenced to have his 

 hands tied behind hia back, and to be immediately car- 

 ried out the harbour and drowned. Similar exam- 

 ples are of more recent date, and not long ago, the 

 magistrates were accustomed to banish a culprit without 

 trial by jury, which is a greater exercise of power than 

 belongs to the supreme criminal court of Scotland. 

 Within the city, the provost takes precedence of the 

 officers of state, and all nobility ; lie is, c x nffiiio, lord 

 lieutenant of the city, and colonel of the town guard. 

 His salary is L. 500 per annum, and L. 300 more to 

 defray the expence of entertainments. 



The bailies preside by rotation during a month, in 

 n court called the bailie court, for trying inconsiderable 

 causes, at which time they are assisted by an assessor, 

 who is a lawyer by profession, and has a small salary 

 annexed to the office. The dean of guild has an ex- 

 tensive jurisdiction. He inspects the weights and mea- 

 sures used in the city : he restrains the citizens from 

 erecting buildings, or making alterations on their pro- 

 perty to the detriment of the public, without being de- 

 liberately considered ; and those that are ruinous, lie 

 orders to be examined by a jury of fifteen tradesmen, 

 and pulled down. 



The revenues of the city are managed by a chamber- 

 lain or factor, whose regular salary amounts to L. 600 

 per annum. 



Part of the Royal Exchange has been lately fitted up 

 to accommodate the various offices and departments ne- 

 cessary for the town council. This building was de- 

 vised fur the resort of merchants, and founded in the 

 year 1753, on the northern bank of the ridge whereon 

 the principal street of the Old Town is situated. From 

 the great declivity, the back wall of the edifice is at 

 DO feet high, while the front is only O'O. The 

 main body of the building is 1 1 1 feet long by 5 1 in 

 breadth, the south front of a piazza projects, w ith tour 

 Corinthian pilasters supporting a pediment, with the 

 arms of the city sculptured in stone above. Within 

 there is a spacious staircase, and the entrance is through 

 a porch into a paved wnirt. 



There are many inferior judicatories in this city, of 

 which very few are accommodated in public build- 

 ings specially appropriated for that purpose ; such as 

 the commissary court, a remnant of ecclesiastical juris- 

 diction, lor trial of marriages and divorce, as also ac- 

 tions of scandal or defamation ; an admiralty court for 

 trial of cases purely maritime; and a sheriff-court, where 

 almost every question occurring within the county may 

 be brought under dicu*Moa One ,,f the most lauila- 

 gmall debt ble institutions is the smull debt court, wherein the 

 justices of peace preside, and whose jurisdiction is li- 

 DUted to cases not involving a greater interest than 

 L. 5, and the expence is also limited to the merest triHe, 

 not exceeding a crown. This court sits weekly, legal 

 practitioners are excluded, and the parties state their 

 cau*e tiia vocc, unembarrassed by the subtleties of law. 



An immediate decision takes place, from which there' Knt- 

 is no appeal, or at least an appeal is attended with such ^"Y 

 difficulty, that it is never resorted to. This court has 

 subsisted fourteen years en its present establishment; 

 during which it has decided 58,510 causes, involving 

 an interest of L. 106,820: 17: 8i; therefore its decisions 

 are no less than 4179 annually, or about four times the 

 number of those given by. the supreme civil court, and 

 the pecuniary interest of the parties is at an average 

 only about L. 1 : 1 6 : 6. The benefit -which it affords i* 

 therefore very great, especially on considering that it 

 is no charge whatever to the nation ; that the services 

 of the magistrates presiding are gratuitous, and the ex- 

 pences of their clerk and officers defraj ed by the liti- 

 gants. 



In 1 805, a system of police was devised ; but on trial polio,, 

 was found to be in many respects a system of ineffici- 

 ency and oppression. The obnoxious statute into which 

 it had been embodied was repealed, and, in 1812, a 

 new act, containing a variety of judicious clauses, 

 substituted in its place. The sheriff of the county, 

 and magistrates of the city, are constituted judges 

 of the offences committed within their respective 

 bounds ; and they appoint a superintendant of police, 

 who is fiscal or prosecutor on behalf of the public. A 

 number of commissioners are named, under whose 

 charge the streets are cleaned and lighted, and they also 

 take cognizance of other matters connected with the 

 safety and comfort of the citizens. It would be wrong 

 to pass a decided opinion on a system of such short en- 

 durance as the present establishment of police ; it is 

 undeniable, however, that the statute in general is pru- 

 dently and temperately framed ; though a most important 

 object, ceconomy, seems to have been totally forgotten. 

 The sum levied from the inhabitants the first year, at 

 the rate of 7^ per cent, on the house rents, which is it. 

 maximum, was L. 22,000; while the charge of the es- 

 tablishment, including some expences not subject to 

 renewal, was L. 25,930. 



There are two branches connected with the judicial 

 establishments of the country, which may be noticed 

 here, the Register Office, and the prisons of Edinburgh. 

 The former is probably the most elegant edifice of 

 which the city can boast; it is appropriated solely for 

 depositation of the records of the kingdom, including 

 writings on which the interests of the individual sub- 

 ject depends, and was erected after a design of the el- 

 der Adams. It stands also in the most favourable si- 

 tuation of all others, being north of the North Bridge, 

 and receding forty feet from the street. The building 

 is of an oblong figure, 200 feet long in front, and 120 

 feet broad ; but this is the extreme breadth, as part of a 

 large circular apartment, terminating in a dome above, 

 projects from behind. Here there is a marble statue of 

 King George III. executed by a female artist, the Hon. 

 Mrs Damer. The extremities of the front, and also 

 the middle, project somewhat from the body of the 

 building; where two outer staircases conduct to a 

 landing-place : but these, by a strange inconsistency, 

 are always shut up, and access is gained from behind, 

 by two entrances originally designed as private. There 

 in a small turret at each angle in front; and the royal 

 anus, executed in a composition, appear in the middle. 

 The interior is divided into two stories, and a sunk 

 ttorey, and two spacious staircases lead to the chambers 

 alwive. All these throughout the edifice are ardu;d for 

 security against fire, and paved ; they are of various 

 dimensions, but equal in height. The foundation of 



Register 

 office. 



