SCOTLAND. 277 



Great uncertainty occurs in the Scottish history, by confounding par- 

 liaments with conventions ; the difference was, that a parliament could 

 enact laws as well as impose taxes; a convention, or meeting of the 

 states, only met for the purpose of taxation. Before the Union, the 

 kings of Scotland had four great and four lesser officers of state ; the 

 great were, the lord high chancellor, high treasurer, privy seal, and 

 secretary ; the four lesser were, the lords register, advocate, treasurer- 

 depute, and justice-clerk. Since the Union, none of these continue, 

 excepting the lords privy-seal, register, advocate, and justice-clei'k. 

 A third secretary of state has occasionally been nominated by the king 

 for Scottish affairs, but under the same denomination as the other two 

 secretaries. The above officers of state sat in the Scotch parliament 

 by virtue of their officers. 



The officers of the crown were, the high-chamberlain, constable, 

 admiral, and marshal. The offices of constable and marshal were 

 hereditary. A nobleman has still a pension as admiral ; and the office 

 of marshal is exercised by a knight-marshal. 



The office of chancellor of Scotland differed little from the same in 

 England. The same may be said of the lords treasurer, privy-seal, 

 and secretary. The lord-register was head-clerk. to the parliament, 

 convention, treasury, exchequer, and session, and keeper of all public 

 records. Though this office was only during the king's pleasure, yet it 

 was very lucrative by the disposal of the deputation, which lasted du- 

 ring life. He acted as teller to the parliament; and it was dangerous for 

 any member to dispute his report of the numbers upon division. The 

 lord advocate's office resembles that of the attorney-general in Eng- 

 land, only his powers are far more extensive ; because, by the Scot- 

 tish laws, he is the prosecutor of all capital crimes before the justicia- 

 ary, and likewise concurs in all pursuits before sovereign courts, for 

 breaches of the peace, and also in all matters civil, wherein the 

 king or his donator hath interest. Two solicitors are named by his 

 majesty, by way of assistants to the lord advocate. The office of jus- 

 tice-clerk entitles the possessor to preside in the criminal court of jus- 

 tice, while the justice-general, an office which will hereafter be 

 mentioned, is absent. 



The ancient constitution of Scotland admitted of many other officers 

 both o£ the crown and state ; but they are either now extinct, or too in- 

 considerable to be described here. That of lyon king at arms, or the 

 rex faecialium, or grand herald of Scotland, is still in being; and it was 

 formerly an office of great splendour and importance, insomuch that 

 the science of heraldry was preserved there in greater purity than in 

 any other country in Europe. This officer was even crowned solemnly 

 in parliament with a golden circle ; and his authority (which is not 

 the case in England) in all armorial affairs, might be carried into 

 execution by the civil law. 



The privy council of Scotland, before the revolution, had, or assum- 

 ed, inquisitorial powers, even that of torture ; but it is now sunk in 

 the parliament and privy-council of Great Britain ; and the civil and 

 criminal causes in Scotland are chiefly cognizable by two courts of 

 judicature. 



The first is that of the college of justice, which was instituted by 

 James V, after the model of the French parliament, to supply an am- 

 bulatory committee of parliament, who took to themselves the names of 

 rhe lords of council and session, which the present members of the? 



