In the civil and military government of the country the Sovereign is now represented by a Lord-Lieutenant and Deputy-Lieutenants. By an Act of Parliament, in 1747, heritable jurisdictions were abolished, and the office of Sheriff vested in the Crown.

There are 13 burghs :-Cupar, St Andrews, East and West Anstruther, Pittenweem, Kilrenny, Crail, Kirkcaldy, Dysart, Kinghorn, Burntisland, Dunfermline, and Inverkeithing.

Before the Reform Bill passed, Fife had other five royal burghs, but because they had never exercised their privilege, it has not by the Act been restored to any of them. These burghs were:-Falkland, Auchtermuchty, Newburgh, Earlsferry, St Monance.

The bailies of the burghs-of-barony possess a very limited civil jurisdiction within the barony. They have the power of punishing assaults, batteries, and such-like crimes; while the power of magistrates of royal burghs is much the same as that of the judge-ordinary of the shire.*

Courts are held at Cupar, Auchtermuchty, St Andrews, Anstruther, Colinsburgh, Kirkcaldy, and Dunfermline. The sheriff-depute is judgeordinary of the county, and has two substitutes; one of these resides at Cupar, and the other at Dunfermline.

Before the Union, in 1707, Fife sent four Members to the Scottish Parliament. It is now represented by one member. The present constituency, since the Reform Bill, is 2856. The polling places are Cupar, St Andrews, Crail, Auchtermuchty, Kirkcaldy, and Dunfermline.

CONSTITUTION.

We shall find under the head of EARLY HISTORY that the aborigines of Scotland had no form of government. In the early part of the feudal age, the small barons were amenable to the higher barons, who, with the nobility and high clergy, formed themselves into a Parliament. This legislative body gave limits to the King's prerogative, by which he could not declare war, make peace, or conduct any important business of diplomacy or government, without its concurrence. Its members were hereditary. Their power was kept in check by the common barons, or landholders; and these checked in turn by their vassals.

*Fullerton.

The power of

the King rested in his influence with the common barons, the burgesses, and lower ranks, who sought his protection in consequence of the abuse of power by the lords and higher barons. While the King had sufficient address to retain the affections of the people, he was able to humble the dominant confederacy of the higher powers; though, when he did not, his life lay at the mercy of all parties. With such turbulent elements, few men were able to wield the sceptre with pleasure to themselves or profit to the nation. Malcolm and Bruce were, indeed, exceptions. With them the nobility were either overawed by their power or held in subjection by their valour, the clergy rendered favourable by grants of land and other gifts, while all other classes were attached by the equal distribution of justice. The kings, aided by the clergy, who were jealous of the power of the nobility, eventually succeeded in diminishing the aristocratical power of Parliament. A new legislative form was established, to which the burgesses were added, called "the Lords of the Articles." Yet these were far from being wholly subservient to the Crown, as the fate of Charles I. and the abdication of James VII, at subsequent periods sufficiently attest.

The government was frequently composed of such turbulent and opposite materials that, to borrow the language of Plutarch, they were "like a ship with too many sails, exposed to the gusts of folly, tumult, and disorder;" but which, in process of time, was provided with the two anchors of the Peers and Commons. Till then their government exhibited the most odious scenes of that caprice, cruelty, and corruption, which universally prevail under despotism. The defenceless were delivered over to rapacious and unprincipled governors, who plundered them without mercy. They seemed not to know that "wanting virtue, life is pain and woe; that wanting liberty, even virtue mourns, and looks around for happiness in vain." They forgot that the strongest bulwark of a nation is justice, moderation, and integrity.

CRIME AND LAW.

Fullerton, Tytler, and Blackstone, tell us that before the introduction of Christianity there was no action so criminal as not to be compensated

for by money, which by the Saxons was called Guilt; and thence the word guilty in criminal trials. Pardon was purchased even for murder, however atrocious the criminal, or noble the victim had been, by paying a mulct imposed upon the malefactor. Formerly every criminal could. shelter himself from the law on assuming a nobleman's livery and attending his person. Such barbarous usages ceased after the spread of Christianity; and cases of felony and murder were then tried by a jury.

I find a jury trial, however, till within a recent period, was frequently more nominal than real,-indeed, a mockery on society. The bribery, the corruption, or infamous intimidation made use of, was too appalling to be detailed. Witness the celebrated case of Sir Matthew Hale and the miller; the political trials of Watt, Palmer, Skirving, and others, during the time of "the friends of the people;" and those during the last French war. These disgraceful abuses were only first put a stop to by that friend of liberty and of justice, the late Lord Erskine, the pride and the boast of Clackmannanshire. Nay, the power of a petty justice of the peace, or of an ignorant magistrate, to imprison a gentleman for two years, and then have the assurance to set him at liberty, without a trial, or even a precognition of the case, as the late Mr Francis Horner, advocate, states in one of his letters to Lord Murray, too clearly proves that there was something very rotten in the state of Denmark."

How different was this state of society to that during the reign of Alfred of England, who was inexorable against his corrupt judges, whom he used to hang up in the public highways, as a terror to evil-doers.

In old times, all the freeholders met together in the presence of the king, or judge, on the top of a hillock, called the Moat-hill; where all national affairs were transacted, judgments given, and differences ended.

The laws were regulated by the Scotch Regium Majestatem, the oldest law-book; and from which the work of Glanville, who was a judge under Henry II. of England, was copied. *

Their laws were frequently like the code of Draco, "whose laws were written with blood, and not with ink." Death was the indiscriminate punishment of every offence. And down to a comparatively recent period, we find that the sanguinary enactments of Queen Elizabeth and of "Bloody Queen Mary" were a disgrace to the name of Christianity. Nay, till within the last 20 years, the laws were more befitting the at

*Fullerton.

mosphere of Morocco, than the boasted civilization of the British empire. They wanted the wisdom, the virtue, and the amiable manners of Solon or of Lycurgus, who lived 884 years before Christ. They had all the severity, without the wisdom, of the Spartans.

How different the law is now, to that before the Revolution, when the Privy Council of Scotland had inquisitorial powers, even that of torture. They were in the habit of burying alive the victims of their barbarity. In cases of sacrilege they flayed the culprit alive. This has more than once been disputed; but mark the following proof:-"There existed in this country certain traditions, that persons who had committed sacrilege were flayed alive, and their skins nailed to the doors of the churches they had robbed." Three portions of such skin, taken from different counties, were in 1848 submitted to the powers of the microscope, and clearly proved to be human, from the structure of the few remaining hairs; thus confirming a tradition of centuries past.*

Beheading was performed in Scotland by an instrument called the Maiden, which resembled the French guillotine; the model of which was brought from Halifax in England, to Scotland, by the Regent Morton; where it was first used for the execution of himself; and by which the Marquess of Argyle, Sir Robert Spottiswood, and many other great nobles, were beheaded. Guthrie says, "this curious implement of destruction is still to be found in a small armoury at Aberdeen;" and Black says it is now preserved in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries, in Edinburgh.

In former ages, innocence itself was frequently made the victim of tyranny. Thus were Sir David Lindsay of the Mount, and Henry Balnaves of Halhill, although innocent of the murder of Cardinal Beaton, forced to seek refuge in the castle of St Andrews.

I.,

The first sheriff of Fife was David de Wemyss, in the reign of William about the year 1195.

Mr Hill, the commissioner for inspecting prisons in Scotland, says :"There is but little crime at present in Fifeshire, and much less than formerly. The most common offences at this time are assaults, and other disturbances of the peace, and petty thefts." "It is observed, that there are but few regular farm-servants among the offenders."

* Lancet; and Monthly Journal of Medical Science for 1848.

EDUCATION.

So early as 1173, the clergy had schools in all the principal towns, in which grammar and logic were taught. These were under the direction of the monks of Dunfermline and St Andrews. In the First Book of Discipline, drawn up in 1561, we find parish schoolmasters mentioned. It says: "We judge, that in every parish there should be a schoolmaster; such an one as is able to teach the grammar and the Latin tongue, where the town is of any reputation." In principal towns, academies were to be found; and Universities were recognised, as St Andrews, Glasgow, and Aberdeen. We distinctly see in this scheme of education, the first system of parochial schools.

Education divides itself into the parochial and private school systems. No branch of knowledge has been more neglected in Great Britain than education; and if its society be better educated than that of other nations, it is due to private and personal exertion made in adult age; for every secret means have been used by those in power and influence to withhold the source of all learning. So long as the parochial system is open to corruption, to patronage, and to the arbitrary power of interested parties, we shall continue to have ignorant or indolent men; or talented teachers who are the servile tools of a party. Private schools are still more defective. Being under no control, the most illiterate person can arrogate the power of being a public instructor. In both cases, the cause lies in the teacher being paid less than a labouring man; and in the want of a Board of Supervision. That there are many honourable exceptions to the above remarks, is admitted; but as a general principle, they will be found to hold true.

As to having a National Education, we seem to think ourselves above taking a lesson from Prussia, Austria, or France; though the system of any of them is very far above our own. Let us see what Dr Guthrie says on education. In the United States one in every six attends the school. In Europe,-in Prussia there is one in six; Saxony, one in six; Switzerland, one in six; Baden, one in six; Denmark, one in six. This assures us that every child in the country is educated. In Holland, nearly the same prevails; in Austria, it is one in nine; in Belgium, one in ten; in France, one in ten. "When I go to Scotland-O! I am ashamed of my country." "There is only one in eleven of the population of Scot