859 
SCOT 
aiovings, ejections, and spulzies, &c.; in all brieves issuing 
from Chancery, as of inquest, terce, division, tutory, &c.; 
and in general in all civil matters which are not by special 
law or custom appropriated to other courts.” (Erskine, 1, 
4, 3.) The Sheriff judges in questions of straighting boun¬ 
daries, dividing runrig lands, mutual inclosures, &c. By 
the statute 4 Geo. IV. c. 97, the Sheriff is constituted the 
Commissary of the county, upon the abolition of the infe¬ 
rior or diocesan commissariots. Ministerially the Sheriff is 
the police magistrate of his territory; the officer through 
whom all proclamations and acts of government reach the 
county ; he presides at county courts of freeholders, in the 
absence of the member for the county; receives and returns 
the writs for election of the representatives in Parliament, 
returns juries, appoints his own substitute or under Sheriff; 
and can hold courts any where within his territory, on pre¬ 
vious notice at the church doors. 
The courts of the boroughs-royal are two,'—the Bailie 
court, and Dean of Guild court. Some boroughs have 
no dean of guild; in which case the duties of that peculiar 
jurisdiction belong to the bailie court. The bailie court is 
just a sheriff court within the borough, exercising civil 
jurisdiction cumulatively with the sheriff in the same classes 
of questions in so far as applicable to a borough, and having 
a summary power in alimenting prisoners and liberating 
them on sick bill, &c. All possessory questions, not in¬ 
volving title in heritable property, are likewise competent 
before this court. 
The Dean of Guild, as the name imports, was anciently 
the judge in mercantile matters within the borough, and 
likewise of questions between merchant and mariner. The 
statute 1681, c. 16. took away the maritime part of his 
jurisdiction, and vested it in the Court of Admiralty. For 
a long period the dean of guild has abandoned the mercan¬ 
tile department likewise; his chief and now only provinqe 
being to take care that buildings within burgh are agreeable 
to law, neither encroaching on private property, nor on the 
public streets or passages, and that houses in danger of 
falling be thrown down. (Erskine, 1, 4,24.) In this de¬ 
partment the jurisdiction of the dean of guild is exclusive, 
but subject, as is that of the bailie court, to review by the 
Court of Session, and circuit court of Justiciary. 
The magistrates are assisted in their judgments by assessors; 
in the more important boroughs these are advocates; in 
others they are town-clerks, who are always professional 
lawyers. In some boroughs all the magistrates are justices 
of the peace, ex officio, and since the Union the senior ma¬ 
gistrate of every royal borough is named, of course, in the 
commission of the peace. 
Boroughs of Barony and Regality are towns under the 
feudal superiority of a baron or overlord, but erected by the 
king, sometimes, but not always, with power to choose 
their own magistrates, which power is hi others vested in the 
superiors. 
Some proprietors of landed estates erected into what is 
called liberam baroniam, keep up the formality—for it is 
little more and rarely used—of holding a court, by a deputy 
called the baron-bailie, for determining disputes among the 
tenants and neighbours not exceeding forty shillings in 
value. 
The Lyo?i king-at-arms is an inferior judge. His name 
is derived from the lion on the armorial bearing of the 
Scottish kings. His powers are “ to visit the arms and 
ensigns armorial of all persons; to give proper arms to 
deserving persons, and to fine all who use arms not matricu¬ 
lated, and confiscate to the king the articles on which these 
are painted or engraved.” Also he publishes, in state, with 
his attendants, the King’s proclamations. 
Justices of Peace judge in riots and breaches of the peace, 
oversee the repair of highways, and execute the laws 
against beggars, vagrants, swearers, drunkards and other 
disorderly persons. They are now, besides these powers, 
competent to questions of servants’ wages, aliment of natural 
children, meditatio fugce warrants, and imprisonment of 
LAND. 
debtors so apprehended till they find security de judicio 
sisti. All questions of highways, toll-bars, bridges and fer¬ 
ries, are appropriated to them. One large department of their 
jurisdiction is an executing the excise customs laws against 
smugglers, &c. 
Small Debt. Courts extend to the adjudication of debts of 
51. sterling. These courts are held weekly, once a fortnight, 
or once a month, as required. The statute is precise as to 
fees, which are very moderate; and all procurators and 
written pleadings are excluded, so that the parties, or a 
member of their family, must appear and conduct their own 
causes. The judgments are final, if not challenged within 
a year. 
The Commissioners of supply are appointed by Parlia¬ 
ment, in their acts of supply, to levy the land tax in Scot¬ 
land. They determine differences as to proportions of land 
tax between the seller and purchaser of lands, and are com¬ 
petent to all disputes about assessment, subject however to 
the review of the Court of Session. 
Of the Criminal Jurisdictions.— The High Court 
of Justiciary is the supreme jurisdiction in Scotland 
for the trial of crimes. It consists of six judges, who 
are also Lords of Session; the Lord Justice Clerk pre¬ 
siding. It has a nominal head, called the Lord Justice 
General, who however never presides. Of the court sitting 
in Edinburgh, three are a quorum. On the circuits two 
judges travel together, but one can sit alone. Scotland is 
divided into three circuits,—the north, west and south; 
each circuit having three districts of several counties each, 
the circuit town of the district being the county town of one 
of the shires of the district. The north circuit towns are 
Perth, Inverness and Aberdeen; the west are Glasgow, 
Stirling, and Inverary; and the south are Jedburgh, Dum¬ 
fries, and Ayr. This court is competent to the trial of all 
crimes, including high treason ; though this last is gene* 
rally tried by a commission of oyer and terminer ap¬ 
pointed by the Crown. As a court of review in criminal 
matters, the proceedings of all inferior criminal judicatories, 
including the Court of Admiralty, are subject to it. The 
circuit courts can review the sentences of all inferior courts, 
which infer “neither death nor demefnhration.” There is, 
however, no appeal from the Court of Justiciary to the 
House of Lords, or to any other tribunal. 
The trials in this court are and have long been by jury. 
The jury’s number is fifteen, and a majority decide the 
verdict. By 6 Geo. IV. c. 22, power has been given to 
juries to pronounce viva voce verdicts, even when not 
unanimous, instead of the old method of written verdicts 
sealed up; which last, however, the court may still direct. 
After much discussion in Parliament and in the country on 
the mode of returning and choosing juries, the same statute 
has enacted that the sheriffs shall make lists of qualified 
persons in their counties, and keep a book for general, and 
another for special juries as qualified by 55 Geo. III. c. 42. 
From these books lists are to be made out by regular rota¬ 
tion; one-third being special, from which lists the juries to 
try the causes are to be chosen by ballot in court. In cri¬ 
minal trials a right is given to each party to challenge five 
jurors, but only two of them special, without assigning any 
reason ; and any others on cause shown. 
It is to be noted that this Court exercises by statute a cer¬ 
tain civil jurisdiction. This is only on the circuits, and 
arose from the convenience of the presence in the circuit 
towns of judges who were Lords of Session. By 20 Geo. II. 
c. 43, and 54 Geo. III. c. 67, this jurisdiction is bestowed 
by way of appeal from the sentences of inferior courts, in ail 
cases not exceeding 25 1. in value, exclusive of the costs. This 
decision is final, unless the circuit judges certify the case, as 
they may do, to the Court of Session. 
The following crimes have been bestowed on the Court of 
Session, by statutes, viz., deforcement of its officers and 
breach of arrestment, contravention of lawburrows, perjury 
and subornation of perjury arising out of process in its own 
court, fraudulent bankruptcy, from the long duration of its 
evidence 
