SCOTLAND. 





urt. 



Siierift' 



by suspension and reduction. This power alone it 



suflicient to conititute this judic*tory supreme, al- 

 though its decrees are subject to review in the ( uuit 

 o. 



Tiu- Commissary Court is entitled to the next place, 

 and is also in one view supreme and in another interior. 

 This was an ecclesiastical court before tli.- Ketormatioii; 

 but in 15(>0, a commissary was appointed by Queen 

 M.-.ry to act under the royal authority in every diocese; 

 ml soon afterwards a supreme court oi four judges 

 (ilu'ir present number) was instituted at lulinbur^h, 

 with power of reviewing the sentences of the dio< 

 commissaries. The Supreme Court had likewise a dio- 

 cesan jurisdiction in the county of Edinburgh and 

 several contiguous shires. Sinev our notice of the 

 ( ommis&ary Court in the article LAW, this jurisdiction 

 has been materially changed by the abolition of the 

 inferior or diocesan commissaries, and the transfer- 

 ence of their jurisdiction to the sheriffs, subject to 

 the review not of the Supreme Commissary Court, 

 but of the Court of Session, (4> Geo. IV. c. <)7-) 

 The jurisdiction of the Commissary Court is priva- 

 tive, in the first instance, in all conaistorial cause--, as 

 questions of marriage, divorce, separation, legitimacy, 

 confirmation of testaments, and cumulative with that 

 of the sheriffs and other civil courts, in actions of slan- 

 der, aliment of wives, sealing the repositories of de- 

 ceased persons, &c. The jurisdiction formerly exer- 

 cised by the Commissary Court in questions of debt, 

 is taken away by the statute last above quoted. 



Anciently the shires or counties, or comitalus, were 

 governed by the cotnites or earls, in place of whom 

 Sir Thomas Craig thinks the sheriffs or vice-comites 

 were subsequently appointed by the king. lie de- 

 rives the word sheriff from U.e Saxon gr<zte, a term 

 still subsisting in the Scotch word greeve or over- 

 seer. Spelman with greater probability compounds 

 the word of sheer, to cut or divide, and rcuve, magis- 

 trate, the reeve of a division of the kingdom. In 

 England, several places, as Manchester, have their Bo- 

 rough-reeve to this day. Still tiie Vice-comes or Sheriff 

 retained the title of High Sheriff, and had almost unli- 

 mited power within his territory. The jurisdiction act 

 ( i>0 Geo. II. c. 43.) put the office on its present footing. 

 The High Sheriff still exists nominally in each coun- 

 ty, but without judicial authority, and his executive 

 powers arc exercised by him as Lord Lieutenant. The 

 Judge Ordinary of the county is the Sheriff Depute, 

 who is appointed by the Crown, anu is altogether inde- 

 pendent of the High Sheriff.* Some counties had the de- 

 nomination of Slcwartries, of which Kirkcudbright is 

 the only existing instance; of this county the Judge 

 Ordinary is called the Stewart Depute ; but his ciikv 

 differs only in name from that of his brethren the 

 Sheriffs. The Sheriffs power is both judicial and mini- 

 sterial. His judicial power, as a civil judge, is exercised 

 in "all personal actions upon contract, bond, or obliga- 

 tion, to the greatest extent, whether the suit be brought 

 against the debtor himself or his representatives; in ac- 

 tions of rent and of forthcoming ; in poindings of the 

 ground ; and even in adjudication of lands when it 

 proceeds upon the renunciation of the apparent heir ; 

 iu all possessory actions, as removing*, ejections, and 



MM 



spulzies, &c. ; in all brieve* issuing from Chancery, M UtadtdcK 

 of inquest, terce, division, tutory, Sic. ; and in general 

 in all civil matter* which are not by special law or 

 cuitom appropriated to other courts." (Lrtkinr, 1, 4, 

 3.) The Sheriff judge* in questions of ctraighting 

 boundaries, dividing runrig lands, mutual ineiuMlTM, 

 &c. Hy the statute, 4 Oeo. IV. c. 97, the Sheriff i* 

 constituted the Commitittry of the <. .unty, mpoa the 

 abolition of the inferior or diocesan commt**ariots. 

 Of the Sheriff's criminal jurisdiction, we shall treat 

 in the sequel under iu proper head. Ministerially the 

 Sheriff is the police magistrate of bis territory ; the 

 officer through whom all proclamations and act* of go- 

 vernment reach the county ; he preside* at county 

 courts of freeholders, in the absence ot the member 

 for the county ; receives and returns the writ* for 

 election of the representative* in Parliament, re- 

 turns juries, strikes fiar* or price* of com, &c. 

 The Sheriff appoints hi* own lubttitute or under 

 sheriff; of which there are two and even three in 

 some of the larger counties. He reviews their judg- 

 ments, while his own are subject to the review of the 

 supreme court. He can hold courts any where within 

 his territory, on previous notice at the church doort. 

 The form of procedure in the sheriff courts, by the 

 late statute, or rather by an act of sederunt of the 

 Court of Session under authority of that statute, i, a* 

 nearly as possible, assimilated to that of the supreme 

 and all other civil courts in Scotland. 



The courts of the boroughs-royal are two, the Bailtt Bailie 

 court, and Dean of Guild court. Some borough* have (<* 

 no dean of guild ; in which case the duties of that pe- 

 culiar jurisdiction belong to the bailie court. The 

 bailie court is just a sheriff court within the borough, 

 exercising civil jurisdiction cumulatively with the 

 sheriff in the same classes of questions in M> far a* ap- 

 plicable to a borough, and having a summary power 

 in alimenting prisoners and liberating them on sick 

 bill, &c. All possessory questions, not involving title 

 in heritable property, are likewise competent before 

 this court. 



The Dean of Guild, as the name imports, was ancient- Dean of 

 ly the judge in mercantile matters within the borough, tuild 

 and likewise of questions between merchant and mari- ^ tm - 

 ner. The statute 1 6*8 1 , c. 1 6. took away the maritime 

 part of his jurisdiction, and vested it in the Court of 

 Admiralty. For a long period the dean of guild ha* 

 abandoned the mercantile department likewise; his 

 chief and now only province being to take care that 

 buildings within burgh are agreeable to law, neither 

 encroaching on private property, nor on the public 

 streets or passages, and that houses in danger of falling 

 be thrown down. (Erskine, 1, 4, 24.) In this dt- 

 partment the jurisdiction of the dean of guild is exclu- 

 sive, but subject, as is that of the bailie court, to re- 

 view by the Court of Session, and circuit Court of 

 Justiciary. 



The magistrates are assisted in their judgment* by 

 assessors ; in the more important boroughs these are 

 advocates, in others they are the townclerks, who are 

 always professional lawyers. In some boroughs all the 

 magistrates are justices of the peace, ex 'jficio, and 

 since the Union the senior magistrate of every royal 



A* the sheriff-depute is not the deputy of tlic \\\^\\ sheriff, M u erroncomly believed, but of the king, the title of depute is improper. 

 .;>I)lied to no other officer of the crown, and it is Relieved to be in agitation to give this officer hit proper til 



