SCOTLAND CREVENUE). 



159 



officers ; the lord clerk register, the lord advocate, 

 the treasurer depute, and the justice clerk; all 

 which officers, in virtue of their offices, had seats in 

 the Scottish parliaments. Since the Union none of 

 those officers are retained except the lord privy 

 seal, lord clerk register, lord advocate, and justice 

 clerk. The great officers of the crown were, the 

 lord high chamberlain, lord high constable, lord high 

 admiral, and lord marshal, the royal standard 

 bearer, the lord justice general, and the lord chief 

 baron of the exchequer. There were besides many 

 other officers, both of the crown and state, now ex- 

 tinct. The office of lyon king at arms, or grand 

 herald of Scotland, is still retained. This officer, 

 formerly vested with great splendour and import- 

 ance, used to be crowned in parliament with a 

 golden circle, and he was armed with the authority 

 of the civil law. Previously to the era of the revo- 

 lution, the privy council of Scotland assumed in- 

 quisitorial powers, and even torture was adminis- 

 tered under the sanction of its authority ;- but it is 

 now entirely merged in the privy council of Great 

 Britain. The number of peers in the Scottish par- 

 liament was latterly 160, and of Commons 155. 

 The latter were divided into members or com- 

 missioners (as they were called) tor shires and 

 burghs, and all sat in one house, and voted promis- 

 cuously. 



At the union of the kingdoms, the political system 

 of Scotland was almost entirely incorporated with 

 that of England. The representation allowed to 

 Scotland was extremely small. It consisted, for the 

 house of commons, of forty-five members, fifteen 

 from the burghs and thirty from the counties. The 

 burghs, however, amounting by the ancient consti- 

 tution to sixty-six, were divided into classes of four 

 or five, one member being returned by the majority 

 of each class. Edinburgh alone returned one mem- 

 ber. The members were elected not by the inha- 

 bitants as burgesses, but by the magistrates, who 

 themselves were appointed chiefly by their prede- 

 cessors in office ; thus constituting close burghs, 

 in which a party once obtaining a majority, might 

 retain it for any length of time, with little regard 

 to the wishes of their fellow-citizens. In county 

 elections, the right of voting was attached to the 

 possession of lands held immediately of the crown, 

 and of the valued rent of 400 Scots. But the 

 feudal superiority which entitled to vote was sepa- 

 rable from the actual possession of the property. 

 The original proprietor, who, perhaps, had a num- 

 ber of these votes on his estate, might either sell or 

 distribute them among his friends, so as to multiply 

 his own elective influence. The freeholders of 

 Scotland amounted to not quite 3000, of whom a 

 certain' number, for the reason stated, had no real 

 property in land. The peers of Scotland are repre- 

 sented by sixteen of their number, elected at the 

 commencement of each parliament. There are be- 

 sides about thirty-five who are British peers, and 

 who sit in their own personal right. 



By the reform bill of 1832, the representatives 

 of Scotland were increased to only fifty-three, not- 

 withstanding the immense strides the country had 

 made in wealth and political importance since the 

 Union. The representatives are thirty for coun- 

 ties, and twenty-three for cities and burghs. (See 

 a table in the article Britain for a list of the 

 returning counties and burghs, and their constitu- 

 encies.) The representatives for burghs are re- 

 turned, not as formerly, by the town councils, but 

 by every inhabitant paying rent to the value of 10 



and upwards, and by proprietors co the same amount. 

 The power of voting in counties, too, is attached, 

 not to feudal superiorities, that were often ficti- 

 tious,but to the possession of actual property yielding 

 10 yearly rent, or to the occupying of lands or 

 tenements at a rent of not less than 50 per annum. 

 Revenue The revenue drawn from Scotland, 

 taking its population and the expense of its govern- 

 ment into account, exceeds that of England or Ire- 

 land. (See the articles Britain and England.} For- 

 merly the revenue of Scotland was collected sepa- 

 rately from that of England ; but, under recent 

 regulations, the whole has been placed under the 

 direction of boards resident in London, and the 

 systems have been in a great measure incorporated 

 together. In the year ending 5th Jan. 1831, 



The Scottish Excise was, . 

 Customs, . . 

 Stamps, . . 

 Assessed Taxes, 

 Post Office, . 



2,395,490 

 1,357.000 

 . 526,000 

 . 2.'/2,000 

 . 201,000 



4,771,490 



Nothing demonstrates the peaceful and prosperous 

 state of Scotland, in comparison with the unhappy 

 state of Ireland, more forcibly than a glance at their 

 several revenues and expences. The revenue of Ire- 

 land in 1828 was 4,685,642, collected at an 

 expense of 13, 16s. 3d. per cent.; that of Scot- 

 land, containing not one-third of the inhabitants, 

 was 4,627,340, collected at an expense of 6,7s.3d. 

 per cent. In 1830 the cost of judicial establish 

 ments alone in Ireland was 600,000. In Scotland 

 in the same year, the total expense was only 

 150,251. In ten years, 1823 to 1833, Ireland re- 

 ceived of public money, no less than 3,179,130; 

 Scotland only 256,922, or the fifteenth part o 

 the money. The sneers, which we so often hear 

 about the poverty and rapacity of Scotland, can 

 scarcely be repeated before such facts as these. 



Jurisprudence. The laws of Scotland are founded 

 on a very ancient book, entitled the Regiam Ma- 

 jestatem, which again is founded on the Roman law. 

 Regarding the authorship and age of this book, 

 there has been much dispute. Some assert it to 

 have been compiled by order of David I. of Scot- 

 land, and others by order of Edward I. of England, 

 with the view of assimilating the Scotch with the 

 English law. The Regiam Majestatem was the only 

 written law of the kingdom, until James I. at- 

 tempted to superadd the enactments of parliament. 

 These enactments, though ultimately the cause of 

 superseding the Regiam, were formed on the model 

 of that work, and thus the principles of the Roman 

 law formed the bases on which almost all Scottish 

 municipal law is built. Upon the distinctive cha- 

 racter of the Scottish system of jurisprudence, it is 

 impossible to enter in a limited section like this. 

 We can only refer to the works of Mackenzie, Ers- 

 kine, Stair, Hume, Bell, and other Scottish lawyers, 

 who have all written luminously on the subject, 

 and by their works simplified an otherwise com- 

 plex judicial code. 



The supreme civil court of Scotland, is the court 

 of session or college of justice, established by 

 James V. in 1532, to supply the place of an ambu- 

 latory committee of parliament, called the lords of 

 council and session. It consisted of fourteen judges 

 and a president; but in 1807, for the despatch of 

 business, the court was divided into two chambers, 

 the one consisting of eight, and the other of seven 

 judges. These have been recently reduced to six 

 and seven> making the whole in number thirteen. 



