Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/561

Rh STATISTICS.] SCOTLAND 535 promotion of secondary education, and also for a scheme of systematic inspection. These educational endowments the result of private bequest yield an annual income of 175,000, and, on account of the changed conditions of society, the primary objects of the donors were in a great degree frustrated by the manner in which they were being administered. Some of the best secondary schools in Scotland are under the management of trustees. For the four universities of Scotland (St Andrews, Aberdeen, Glasgow, and Edinburgh) see the articles on these cities, also UNIVERSITIES. University College in Dundee and Anderson's College in Glasgow have similar courses of instruction to the universities, but possess no power to grant degrees and receive no Government aid. A notice of the various medical schools and scientific colleges will be found in the articles on the towns in which they are situated. Presby- Eeligion. For an historical account of the more important terian religious denominations of Scotland the reader is referred to the churches, articles SCOTLAND, CHURCH OF, FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND, UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, and PRESBYTERIANISM. The bulk of the population is Presbyterian, and the following table (XXIV.) gives particulars reported in 1885 regarding the Church of Scotland and other churches originated by secessions from it at various times, the " contributions " indicating the amounts raised by the churches for all purposes, and of course excluding the endowments of the Established Church : Church of Scotland. Free Church. U.P. Church. Evang. Union. Original Seceders. Reformed Presby. Congregations. . Members Contributions. . 1,479 565,261 366,431 1,067 329,541 626,028 543 177,517 387,355 87 13,210 -21,760 27 3249 5606 12 1037 2592 Other The Roman Catholic Church has 327 "churches, chapels, and deno- stations," the estimated population connected with it being over mina- 340,000. The Episcopal Church in Scotland has about 250 churches tions. with 80,000 members (of all ages) and nearly 30,000 communi- cants. The churches in connexion with the Congregational Union number 101, 73 of which report a membership of 10,869, the money raised for all purposes in 1884-85 being 23,027. The Baptist Union has 88 churches with 9688 members ; and the Wesleyan Methodists have 26 "circuits" with 4653. There are a few other religious denominations, such as the Primitive Methodists, the Catholic Apostolic Church, and the Glassites, but the member- ship of each is comparatively small. Parlia- Government, Law, and Local Administration. By the Act of meutary Union in 1707 Scotland ceased to have a separate parliament and repre- its government was assimilated to that of England. In the senta- parliament of Great Britain its representation was fixed at sixteen tion. peers (the same number as at present) elected 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 sove- reign to create new Scottish peerages lapsed at the Union, and their number has already diminished by nearly one-half. 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 (1868) increased the number to sixty, the universities obtaining representation by two members, while three additional members were assigned to the counties and two to the burghs ; by the Redistribution of Seats Act of 1885 an addition of six members was made to the representation of the counties and six 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. Law. At the Union Scotland retained its old system of law and legal administration, a system modelled on that of France ; but since the Union the laws of England and Scotland have been on many points assimilated, the criminal law of the two countries being now practically identical, although the methods of procedure are in many respects different. The Court of Session, as the supreme court in civil causes is called, dates from 1532, and was formed on the model of the parlement of Paris ; it is held at Edinburgh, the capital. Since the Union it has undergone certain modifica- tions. It consists of thirteen judges, acting in an Inner and an Outer House. The Inner House has two divisions, with four judges each, the first being presided over by the lord president of the whole court, and the second by the lord justice clerk. In the Outer House five judges, called lords ordinary, sit in separate courts. Appeals may be made from the lords ordinary to either of the divisions of the Inner House, and, if the occasion demands, the opinion of all the judges of the Court of Session may be called for ; but whether this be done or not the decision is re- garded as a decision of the Court of Session. Appeals may be made from the Court of Session to the House of Lords. The lord justice general (lord president), the lord justice clerk, and five other judges form the High Court of Justiciary, instituted in 1672, for criminal cases, which sits at Edinburgh for the trial of cases from the three Lothians and of cases referred from the circuit courts. The latter meet for the south at Jedburgh, Dumfries, and Ayr ; for the west at Glasgow, Inveraray, and Stirling ; and for the north at Perth, Aberdeen, Dundee, and Inverness. The law agents who undertake cases to be decided before the supreme courts are either solicitors before the supreme courts or writers to the signet, the latter of whom possess certain special privileges. The lawyer authorized to plead before the supreme courts is termed an ad- vocate. The principal law officer of the crown is the lord advocate, who is assisted by the solicitor-general and by advocates-depute. The lord advocate has since 1885 ceased to have the charge of Scottish business in the House of Commons. See ADVOCATE, vol. i. 178. The subordinate legal courts and officials are described under the next heading. The largest administrative area is that of the county, but for Local purposes of registration Scotland is partitioned into eight divisions, adminis- to each of which an examiner for inspection of registers is appointed tration. by the registrar-general ; and for the carrying out of the provisions of the Lunacy Acts it is divided into twenty-two districts. Regis- tration counties date from the Act of 1854 providing that for pur- poses of registration the areas of the counties may be altered. For the purposes of the General Police Act of 1862 part of the area of one county may also be brought into the area of another. Certain counties have been united for parliamentary or other purposes, and certain others have been divided for parliamentary purposes, while others again for certain administrative purposes retain their old subdivisions, Lanark for assessment purposes being still divided into wards. The civil counties were originally synonymous either with sheriffdonis or stewartries. Stewartries ceased with the abolition of hereditary jurisdictions in 1748, but Kirkcudbright still retains the designation. The office of sheriff, which formerly implied a much less limited authority than at present, was in existence in the reign of David I., when the greater part of the kingdom was divided into twenty-five sheriffdonis. In the latter part of the 13th century they numbered thirty-four. The counties now number thirty-three, of which Ross and Cromarty constitute one, while Edinburgh is a "county of a city." The highest county dignitary is the lord- lieutenant, the office being instituted in 1782. He is nominated by the crown, holds office for life, except in cases of misconduct, represents the crown in military matters, recommends for com- missions of the peace, holds the position of high sheriff, and is a member of the police committee. Practically, however, the office is little more than honorary, and the real administration of county affairs is in the hands of commissioners of supply, who were originally appointed to apportion and collect the national revenue, but who now regulate the land-tax, control the county police, raise the militia, and levy rates to meet the county expenditure. In 1878 an Act was passed for the creation of road trustees, who have the power to levy rates for the maintenance throughout the county of roads and bridges (see p. 530 above). The practical administration of the law in the county is under the control of the sheriff. See SHERIFF. A large proportion of his duties are, however, delegated to the sheriff-substitute. At one time the functions of the sheriff- principal were confined to one county, but by an Act passed in 1855 it was arranged that as sheriffdonis fell vacant certain counties should be grouped into districts, each under the control of one sheriff-princi- pal, and in 1870 this arrangement was further modified and ex- tended. The sheriff-clerk, appointed by the crown, has, under the Ballot Act of 1872, the charge of ballot papers in connection with the parliamentary elections, and is custos rotulorum. The public prosecutor for counties is the procurator -fiscal, who takes the initiative in regard to suspected cases of sudden death, although in this respect the law of Scotland is less strict than that of England. Justices of the peace, who are unpaid and require no special qualifi- cation, but who, as they are recommended by the lord-lieutenant, are generally persons of position in the county, exercise a certain subordinate jurisdiction. Their office expires on the demise of the crown. In every commission of the peace certain public officials are included. The justices of the peace hold quarter sessions, take affidavits and declarations (such .as declarations of marriage), sign warrants, try petty criminal cases (such especially as poaching and assault), and regulate public-house licences. Under BOROUGH (vol. iv. pp. 63-64) will be found an account of the history and constitu- tion of the three classes of ancient burghs in Scotland, royal burghs, burghs of regality, and burghs of barony. Police burghs, which may include any of the other classes of burghs, are formed of those places which have adopted the General Police and Improve- ment Acts (13 and 14 Viet. c. 33 and 25 and 26 Viet. c. 101). They are governed by police commissioners, who have power to regulate all sanitary matters. They may include more than one of the other burghs and may extend into another county. Under the Improvement Act (25 and 26 Viet. c. 101) most of the burghs with over 7000 inhabitants maintain their own police. The parliament- ary burghs do not now include all the royal burghs and include various other towns in addition to them. The number of royal