278 SCOTLAND. 



college of justice still retain. This court consists of a president and 

 fourteen ordinary members, besides extraordinary ones named by the 

 king, w.ho may sit and vote, but have no salaries and are not bound to 

 attendance. This court may be called a standing jury in all matters of 

 property that lie before them. The civil law is their directory in all 

 matters that come not within the municipal laws of the kingdom. It 

 has been often matter of surprise, that the Scots were so tenacious of 

 the forms of their court, and the essence of their laws, as to reserve 

 them by the articles of the union. This however, may be easily ac- 

 counted for, because those laws and forms were essential to the posses- 

 sion of estates and lands, which in Scotland are often held by modes 

 incompatible with the laws of England. The lords of council and of 

 session act likewise as a court of equity ; but their decress are (fortu- 

 nately perhaps for the subject) reversible by the British house of 

 lords, to which an appeal lies. The supreme criminal judge was 

 named the Justiciar, and the court of justiciary succeeded to his 

 power. 



The justice-court is the highest criminal tribunal in Scotland ; but 

 in its present form it was instituted so late as the year 1672, when a 

 lord-justice-general, removable at the king's pleasure, was appointed. 

 This lucrative office still exists in the person of one of the chief nobili- 

 ty ; but the ordinary members of the court are the justice-clerk and 

 five other judges, who are always nominated from the lords of session. 

 In this court the verdict of a jury condemns or acquits ; but, as has 

 been already hinted, without the necessity of their being unanimous. 



Besides these two great courts of law, the Scots, by the articles of 

 the Union, have a court of exchequer. This court has the same 

 power, authority, privilege, and jurisdiction, over the revenue of Scot- 

 land, as the court of exchequer in England has over the revenue there ; 

 and all matters and things competent to the court of exchequer in 

 England relating thereto, are likewise competent to the exchequer of 

 Scotland. The judges of the exchequer in Scotland exercise certain 

 powers which formerly belonged to the treasury, and are still vested in 

 that of England 



? The court of admiralty in Scotland was, in the reign of Charles II, 

 by act of parliament, declared to be a supreme court, in all causes com- 

 petent to its own jurisdiction : and the lord high admiral is declared 

 to be the king's lieutenant and justice-general upon the seas, and in 

 all ports, harbours, and creeks of the same ; and upon fresh waters 

 and navigable rivers, below the first bridge, or within flood-mark ; so 

 that nothing competent to its jurisdiction can be meddled with, in the 

 first instance, but by the lord high admiral and judges of his court. 

 Sentences passed in all inferior courts of admiralty may be brought 

 again before this court : but no appeal lies from it to the lords of the 

 session, or any other judicatory, unless in cases not maritime. Causes 

 are tried in this court by the civil law, which in some cases is likewise 

 the common law of Scotland, as well as by the laws of Oleron, Wisby, 

 and the Hanse-Towns, and other maritime practices and decisions 

 common upon the continent. The place of lord-admiral of Scotland 

 is little more than nominal : but the salary annexed to it is reckoned 

 worth 1000/. a year; and the judge of the admiralty is commonly a 

 lawyer of distinction, with considerable perquisites pertaining to his 

 oifi.ce. 



