Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 17.djvu/767

* SCOTCH LAW. 695 SCOTCH MUSIC. tice in Scotland, and feigned to liave been com- piled by order of David 1.," appears to have been received by the Scotch Parliament and judges as a correct statement of their written law down to the opening of the sixteenth century. After the establishment of the College of .Tustice, the unwritten law of Scotland developed ra])idly. altluuigli along lines quite different from those followed in England. The tribunal itself had been modeled not after any English court, but after the constitution of the Parliament of Paris. Its judges consisted of seven churchmen, seven laymen, and a president. After the Keformation clergymen were received as judges, until 1040; but since then only duly qualified advocates are appointed to this court, and their selection is a jirerogalive of the sovereign. The system of legal rules administered by this tribunal was not so much that of England as that of Pome. Scotch lawyers were educated in France or Italy or Hol- land, where the Roman civil law prevailed. Scotch judges had no such antipatliy to that law. either in its original form or in the modified form in the canon law, as characterized the judges of England. As a result, modern Scotch law has a very large infusion of the principles of the Roman law. Even at present admission to the Faculty of Advocates is conditioned upon a successful examination in the Rouian law. and no one not an advocate is qualified for a judge- ship in the Court of Session unless he has passed such an examination. Since the union of Scotland and England the tendency of legislation has been toward the as- similation of the legal systems of the two coun- tries. Lord Cockburn declared in I84G that "the improvements introduced or recommended in England by law reformers amount, in a really surprising number of instances, to little else than an approximation to the law of Scotland." While this is true, it is also to be said that the most recent legislation has modified many of the Scotch rules and brought them into acconl with those of English common law. Xotwithstand- ing the process of assimilation which has been going on for two centuries, nevertheless the two legal sj'stems present many striking difl'erences still. Some of the most important are the fol- lowing: The nomenclature is so different that a learned writer upon the topic has declared that an in- terpreter is generally required in case of consulta- tions between English and Scotch lawyers. In matter of substance, the two legal systems are quite as much at variance as in terminology. English law divides property into real estate and personalty. Scotch law classifies it as heritable or movaI)le. Heritable property includes not only lands and all rights of or affecting lands, but various forms of personal property such as cer- tain bonds: also chattels which the owner directs shall vest in his heirs. Movables are all kinds of property which go not to the heir, but to the executor. Ag.ain. English law requires that every contract not under seal must have a considera- tion, while "in Scotland it is not essential to the validity of an obligation that it should be granted for a valuable consideration, or. indeed, for any consideration, an obligation undertaken deliberately, though gratuitously, being bind- ing." In English law. obligations are divided into those of contract (q.v.) and those in tort (q.v.). Scotch law classifies them as contracts (subdivid- ing these in accordance with the Roman law into real and consensual ) . quasi-contracts, ileiictrj, and quasi-delicts. Umler the head of quasi-contracts it places certain obligations not so classed by the Ronum law. Delict includes those torts of the English law which are also criminal offenses; while quasi-delict includes torts of negligence or inqnudence. Consult: Paterson, .1 Cuiiiinmiium of r.iuilish and Scotch Law ( Edinl)urgh, IStio) ; Lorimer, .1 Handbook of the Law of Scotland (Edinburgh, IS'.l-l) ; Erskine, /'ciiici/i/is of the Law of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1895) : MacKcnzic, Studies of lioman Law, with Comparaliie Views of the Laws of France, England, and Scotland (Edinburgh and London, 1898). SCOTCH MUSIC. The music of Scotland is of the same general cliaracter as that of Ireland and Wales. (See Celtic Jlisic.) The national melodies are generally considered to be of great antiquity. No musical manuscript of Scotch airs is now known to exist of an older date than 127 ; and we have no knowledge when and by «hom the early Scotch melodies were composed. Their dis- appearance seems to have been due first to the strong measures resorted to. about 1530, by l)oth civil and ecclesiastical authorities, to put down all ballads reflecting on the Roman Catholic hierarchy, and afterwards to the ill-will shown by the dominant Presbyterians toward worldly amusements. The most valual)le existing early collection of Scotch melodies is the Skene manu- script, in the Advocates' Library, noted down l)y Sir John Skene of Hallyards about the year Ki.SO. It contains a number of native airs, mixed with some foreign dance-tunes — upward of a hun- dred in all. Many of the Scotch melodies exhibit beauties which the changes these airs have under- gone have only tended to destroy. Among the peculiarities which give character to the music of Scotland, the most prominent is the prevalent omission of the fourth and seventh of the scale, and consequent absence of semitones. Another characteristic is the sul)stitution of the descending for the ascending sixth and seventh in the minor scale, as at the beginning of the air called Adew. Dundee, in the Skene manu- script. A very prevalent course of modulation is an alternation between the major key and its rela- tive minor, the melody thus ever keeping true to the diatonic scale of the principal key. without the introduction of accidentals. The closing note is by no means necessarily the keynote, a pe- culiarity especially remarkable in the Highland airs, wiiich, if in a major key, most frequently terminate in the second: if in a minor, on the seventh. Closes are also to be found on the third, fifth, and sixth. Among the printed collections of Scotch melodies with words, the most impor- tant is George Thomson's collection, with sym- phonies and accompaniments by Pleyel. Kozeluch, Haydn, Beethoven. Bishop, Hunuuel. and Weber (vols, i.-iv., 179,3-1805: vol. v.. 1S2G: and vol. vi., 1841), one distinguishing feature of which was the appearance of Biirns's words conjoined with the old melodies of the country. Consult: Ballantine. 'Historical Epitome of Scottish Songs," in Eulcher's Latis and Li/ries of Scotland (Glasgow, 1870) : Stenhouse. Illustrations of the Liiric Poetry and Music of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1853). See B.iiPiPE; Pibroch: Rkel.