MARCH 43 



solemnly repealing upwards of two thousand Acts of 

 the Scottish Parliament dating from the year 1420 

 down to the legislative Union with England in 1707. 

 Whether it was worth the expense of drafting and 

 printing such a bill may seem doubtful. One inclines 

 to think that it was undertaken to gratify the passion 

 for tidying up which distinguishes some intellects not 

 of the first order. For instance, the urgency is not 

 apparent for revoking the Order of Parliament which 

 in the year 1567 instructed ' the Laird of Lochlevin 

 anent the keiping of the Kingis mother [Mary, Queen 

 of Scots] in the house and fortalice of Lochlevin.' 

 There could not be much risk, one should think, of 

 confusion or offence arising, even in the reign of 

 Edward vn., out of the Act of 1481, which made 

 provision for hostilities against ' the revare [robber] 

 Edward calland l himself King of Ingland.' 



Yet let me speak with the diffidence becoming in one 

 unlearned in the law. Our rulers may have been 

 haunted by apprehension lest some of this venerable 

 artillery might one day go off, whereby the equanimity 

 of certain of the lieges might be grievously disturbed. 



1 'Calland,' the present participle of the verb, which we should 

 write 'calling,' but in old Scots that form was reserved for the 

 gerund, or noun of action. This distinction survived in Scottish 

 literature till the sixteenth century, but was soon lost in speaking by 

 the suppression of the final consonant in both forms. ' In the southern 

 English,' says Dr. Murray, 'the two inflections were confounded 

 before 1300 ; but in the northern tongue they are quite distinct from 

 the earliest period to the sixteenth century, the participle being in 

 -and, ant, the gerund in -yng, -yne, -een, -ene.' He quotes this 

 couplet from Richard of Hampole : 



' The movand world withouten doute 

 Sal than ceese o lurnyng aboute. 1 



