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Shipbuilding.—Many of the most important improvements in the construction of ships, especially steam vessels, are due to the enterprise and skill of the Clyde shipbuilders, who, from the time of Robert Napier of Shandon (1791-1876), who built and engined the first steamers for the Cunard Company, formed in 1840, have enjoyed an unrivalled reputation for the construction of leviathan liners, both as regards mechanical appliances and the beauty and convenience of the internal arrangements. The principal Clyde yards are situated in the Glasgow district (Govan, Partick, Fairfield, Clydebank, Renfrew), Dumbarton, Port Glasgow and Greenock. At several of the ports on the lower firth, as at Ardrossan and Fairlie, famous for its yachts, the industry is also carried on. On the east coast the leading yards are at Leith, Kirkcaldy, Grangemouth, Dundee, Peterhead and Aberdeen, which, in the days of sailing ships, was renowned for its clippers built for the tea trade. There are yards also at Inverness.

Postal Service.—Towards the end of the 16th century the practice arose of regular communication by letter between the magistrates of the larger towns and the seat of government in Edinburgh. After the accession of James VI. to the throne of England, the necessity for an ordered method of intercourse between the Scottish capital and London became urgent, but the plans adopted involved extraordinary delay, for it not infrequently happened that there was an interval of two months between the despatch of a letter and the receipt of a reply. Such a leisurely fashion of transacting business soon grew intolerable, and in 1635 a system of relays was instituted which enabled the journey between the two cities to be accomplished in three days, the charge for a letter being 8d. The service was reorganized in 1662, and in 1711 the postal establishments of the United Kingdom, hitherto conducted independently in each country, were consolidated into one. When this reform was effected the cost of a letter to London was reduced to 6d. Three years before this date a local penny post had been provided in Edinburgh by private enterprise, carried on by a staff of seven persons, and after the success of this effort had been demonstrated the concern was taken over by the post office. Subsequently postal business stagnated, mainly owing to the greatly increased charges (the postage of a letter from London to Edinburgh is stated to have cost 1s. 4½d.), until the system of uniform penny postage came into operation. The telephones are mainly conducted by the post office and the National Telephone Company, but the corporation of Glasgow has a municipal service.

Religion.—The bulk of the population is Presbyterian, this form of Church government having generally obtained, in spite of persecution and other vicissitudes, since the Reformation. It is accepted equally by the Established Church, the United Free, the Free and other smaller Presbyterian bodies, the principal point distinguishing the first-named from the rest being that it accepts the headship of the sovereign. The Episcopal Church of Scotland, which is in communion with the Church of England, claims to represent the ancient Catholic Church of the country.

Parliamentary Government.—By the Act of Union in 1707 Scotland ceased to have a separate parliament, and its government was assimilated to that of England. In the parliament of Great Britain its representation was fixed at sixteen peers elected in Holyrood Palace by the peers of Scotland at each new parliament in the House of Lords, and at forty-five members in the House of Commons, the counties returning thirty and the burghs fifteen. The power of the sovereign to create new Scottish peerages lapsed at the Union, and consequently their number is a diminishing quantity. By the Reform Act of 1832 the number of Scottish representatives in the Commons was raised to fifty-three, the counties under a slightly altered arrangement returning thirty members as before, and the burghs, reinforced by the erection of various towns into parliamentary burghs, twenty-three; the second Reform Act (1867) increased the number to sixty, the universities obtaining representation by two members, while two additional members were assigned to the counties and three to the burghs; by the Redistribution of Seats Act in 1885 an addition of seven members was made to the representation of the counties and five to that of the burghs, the total representation being raised to seventy-two. The management of Scottish business in parliament has since 1885 been under the charge of the secretary for Scotland.