L A W. 



689 



" "* 



Ij S5. After all the witnesses have been examined in 



' *>uti*nd. court, the assizers are shut up in a room by themselves, 

 """~' ~~' where they must continue excluded from all correspond- 

 ence till their verdict or judgment be subscribed by the 

 foreman (or chancellor) and clerk ; but if they are un- 

 -jiimous, they m*y, by 54 Geo. III. c. 67, deliver their 

 verdict at once by the mouth of their chancellor, with- 

 out retiring from the box. According to this verdict, 

 the court pronounces sentence, either absolving or con- 

 demning. It is not necessary, by the law of Scotland, 

 that a jury should be unanimous in finding a person 

 guilty ; the narrowest majority is as sufficient against 

 the pannel aa for him. Juries cannot be punished on 

 account of an erroneous verdict, either for or against 

 the pannel ; but they might, by our former law, for 

 absolving him against clear evidence. 



of* 46. Though the proper business of a jury be to in- 

 * quire into the truth of the facts found relevant by the 

 court, for which reason they are sometimes called the 

 inooeet ; yet, in many cases, they judge also in matters 

 of law or relevancy. Thus, though an objection against 

 a witneM should be repelled by the court, the assizers 

 are under no necessity to give more credit to his testi- 

 mony than they think just ; and in all trials of art and 

 part, where special facts are not libelled, the jury, if 

 they return a general verdict, are indeed judges, not 

 only of the truth, !>ut of the relevancy of the facts that 

 are (worn to by the witnesses. A general verdict is 

 that which finds, in general terms, that the pannel is 

 guilty or not guilty, or that the libel or defences are 

 proved or not proved. In a special verdict, the jury 

 finds certain (acts proved, the import of which is to be 

 afterwards considered by the court. 



57. By our old law, the sheriff was confined to a de- 

 finite time, in pronouncing and executing sentence on 

 "j"*" criminals. When a murderer was taken red 

 hand. ;. r. apprehended in the criminal act, it behoved 

 the sheriT not only to try him, but to execute the sen- 

 witliin three *uns ; whereas, if be was apprehend- 



ftct 



ed imitreaUo, forty days were allowed for that pur- 

 pose. It was afterwards provided, that in all cases 

 where the sheriff was tied down to do justice in three 

 , trntfiiyr might be executed at any time within 

 davs, provided it had been pronounced within 

 Hut, by our present laws, criminal judges not 

 only may, but must suspend for some time the execu- 

 tion of such sentences as affect life or limb, so that con- 

 criminals, whose cases deierve favour, might 

 sew to apply to the king for mercy. No sen- 

 tence of any court of judicature, south of the river 

 Forth, importing either capital or corporal punishment, 

 could be executed in less than thirty days ; and if 

 north of it in less than forty, after the date of the sen- 

 i by 1 1. Geo I. c. 26. 10. This act, in so far as it 

 i cut put al punishments, less than death or dis- 

 ing, e. i! whipping, pillory, &c. is altered ; so 

 that judges may now inflict these eight days after sen- 



tence on this side Forth, and twelve days after sentence Lw 

 beyond it, Geo. II. c. 32. o( Scotland. 



38. Crimes are extinguished, 1. By the death of the ^^~~ 

 criminal; both because a dead person can make no de oi'ann^ 

 fence, so that his trial is truly a judging upon the hear- lst by 

 ing of one side; and because, though his guilt should death of erf- 

 be ever so notorious, he is, after death, carried beyond minal ; 

 the reach of human penalties, and consequently conti- 

 nues no longer an object of correction, which is one of 

 the greatest purposes of punishment. Such trials, 

 therefore, can have no effect, but to punish the inno- 

 cent heir, contrary to that most equitable rule, Culpa 

 tenet suos auctores. 2. Crimes may be extinguished by g<l, by re- 

 a remission from the sovereign. But a remission, though mission; 

 it secures the delinquent from the public resentment, 

 the exercise of which belongs to the crown, cannot cut 

 off the party injured from his claim of damages, over 

 which the crown has no prerogative. Agreeably to 

 this distinction, no person was allowed to plead a re- 

 mission, till he had given security to satisfy the private 

 party ; and in the case of slaughter, it behoved the 

 wife, or the executors of the deceased, who were enti- 

 tled to that satisfaction, or as it is called in the style of 

 our statutes, aisythement, to sign letters of stains, ac- 

 knowledging that they had received satisfaction before 

 any remission could be granted to the slayer. Who- 

 ever, therefore, founds on a remission, is liable in da- 

 mages to the private prosecutor, in the same manner as 

 if he had been tried and found guilty. Crimes are also 

 extinguished by acts <f indemnity, and by prescription. 3d, by acts 

 By the custom of Scotland, following in this respect ' imltnlni * 

 the Roman law, the term of prescription is twenty ^j 4,1, 

 years; but in certain crimes it is limited, by statute, to by prescrip- 

 various shorter periods, according to the quality of the tion. 

 offence. 



The following are the principal institutional works 

 on the law of Scotland : Craig's Jus Feuaale, folio, 

 1 732 ; Stair's Institutions of the Law of Scotland, fo- 

 lio, 1759, (of this work, which is of the highest au- 

 thority among institutional treatises, a new edition, 

 with notes illustrative of the law since 1759, is in the 

 press.) Bankton's Institutes of' the Laws of Scn'land, 

 3 vols. folio, 1751-1753; Erskine's Principles of do. 

 with Notet, 8vo. 1816; and Erskine's Institutes of do. 

 nitlt Notes, folio, 1812. To which may be added, on 

 certain branches of the law, Ross's Lectures on the Prac- 

 tice r>f the Law of Scotland, 2 vols. 4to. 1792 ; Wight 

 on Parliament and Elections in Scotland, with Supple- 

 ment, 2 vols. 4to. 1806; Bell's Commentaries on the 

 IMW of Scotland, and on the Principles of Mercantile 

 Jurisprudence, vol. 1st. 4to. 1816; and Kames' Prin- 

 ciples of Equity, 8vo. 1800. For the Criminal Law of 

 Scotland, see Hume's Commentaries on the Law of 

 Scotland, respecting the Description, Punts/intent, and 

 trial rf Crimes, with Supplement, 5 vols. 4to. 1797-1800, 

 Sup. 1814. (J. B.) 



LAW 



*, w J -. I. \W. .U>nv. n.mptrii!UT-L,'<-ncr.-il of the finances of 

 France, was the ion of William Law, goldsmith and 

 r in Edinburgh, and proprietor of the lands of Lau- 

 i the parish of < 'ramond. He was bom at Edin- 

 m the Slst of April, 1671. During the period 

 of uttmly, and for dome cons!drable time after it, he 

 sj|iuud hjsneeh* with great vigour to the science- of 

 geography, ar thmetic, and algebra, in all of which he 



VOL. III. FART U. 



LAW 



made such astonishing progress, as to be able, with a LW, John, 

 single glance, to solve the most difficult problems. His ^^v""*'' 

 mind seems also to have been led to the comprehensive 

 and complicated questions connected with political eco- 

 nomy. He directed his attention to the state of trade, 

 manufactures, and commerce, in his native country ; to 

 the principles of public and private credit ; to the best 

 means of national improvement ; and, in a word, to the 

 4 s 



