SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT.

11

burgh elections, the members, though apparently returned by the free-holders and magistracy, were often nominated in reality by the privy council; at least, in no instance was there a free parliament of the people called together; the burgh magistracy being then, as they still continue to be, always ready to humour the inclinations of the party in power, of whatsoever principles that party might be. Before the reign of Charles the First, the duration of the estates was placed on no regular footing. Sometimes the parliament was called annually, and at other times it sat for years, as it suited the designs of the government. In 1641, when Charles the First was under the necessity of abandoning most of his prerogatives in Scotland, for the sake of strengthening his hands in England against the encroachments of the long parliament, he conceded that the estates should be chosen triennially, a measure which was hailed with enthusiasm by the puritans, and which was the first attempt in British history to institute regularly recurring parliaments. The first of the triennial parliaments took place in 1644; but the covenanters had, in the preceding year, called an illegal convention, at the suggestion of their leader, Sir Thomas Hope, to manage the business of the solemn league and covenant. The parliament of 1644 met without the king's sanction or call, but in pretended accordance with the general agreement to that effect, granted in 1641. From this time, and during the whole of the troubles until Cromwell put it down, the Scottish parliament was the supreme authority of the nation, though it almost divided the glory with the general assembly of the kirk, without which nothing could be done. The parliaments in the time of Charles the Second, were of the most unworthy description; and if possible, they were still worse in the reign of James the Seventh.

So unsettled at one time was the principle on which parliaments could be called, that there were occasionally, in times of trouble, two different parliaments in Edinburgh, which sat at opposite corners of the

12

PARLIAMENT-HOUSE.

town, mutually denouncing each other. * It was not until after the revolution, when the estates, as they continued to be called, were turned into "a parliament," by order of king William, that even free discussion was permitted in the house.

Unlike the system now pursued by the British houses of lords and commons, the Scottish estates sat in one apartment, in one undivided body, ranged according to their different degrees of rank, on benches parallel with the walls of the house, and rising gradually like an amphitheatre, from the floor. At the southern end, near the entrance to the curtained chambers now occupied by the Lords Ordinary in the Court of Session, and immediately beneath the large painted window, stood the throne, an erection of considerable altitude. Opposite to the throne, and beyond the seats of the members, was the bar, at which criminals or others were placed.+ Immediately behind the bar, and without the enclosed area, at that part of the floor opposite the door-way of the "outer-house," there was placed a low pulpit, for the use of the clergymen, who lectured to the members daily during sessions. At the north end of the apartment, which still maintains its ancient outlines, there was an area partitioned off, for the use of strangers who attended to hear the sermons, or witness the deliberations of the estates. In the centre of the house, and almost reaching from the throne to the outward ends of the benches, was a long table, at which sat the Lord Clerk Register and his assistants, taking minutes, and reading the decisions as delivered

"There was a parliament sat in William Cookie's house, in the Chanongait, neire St John's crosse, under the regent, or king's authority, and another for the queen, [then in confinement at Lochleven,] in the tolbooth; and each forfaulted the other." Bal. Ann. 1571, This was paralleled in England in the reign of Charles the First.

We are not aware that there was any absolute bar, as in the present House of Commons. Criminals and others seem to have been brought to the foot of the table, a place which may have obtained the name of the bar. During the reading of a sentence by the house, the accused had to kneel. It was in this debased posture that the gallant Marquis of Montrose received his condemnation from the puritanic convention.

MEETING OF PARLIAMENT.

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to them by the chancellor or president. At the upper end of the table lay the crown, sceptre, and sword, or "the honours," as they are collectively entitled by the old authors. These emblems of royalty lay, whether the estates were called by the king, or sat of their own accord; and on the passing of every resolution in either case, it was the custom to touch the record with the sceptre, as expressive of the consent of the sovereign. The various places occupied by the different estates are not mentioned; but we are informed that at the head of the area, at the foot of the throne, there were placed cross benches for the use of the Lords of the Privy Council, and other officers of state. On a stool by himself, at one corner of the throne, sat the Lord Lyon, whose duty consisted in administering the oaths to the king, and to the nobility, (the swearing in of the inferior estates being left to one of the clerks), in reading important communications to the house, and in calling silence.

In the seventeenth century, to which our observations mostly refer, the estates, when pressed by business, met at a very early hour in the morning. The hour at which they proceeded to business, was nine, and sometimes ten o'clock; but at whichsoever hour they took their seats, they invariably met an hour sooner in separate chambers, in order to collect and devise schemes of procedure. Having thus spent an hour in arranging themselves, on the tolling of the great bell of St Giles,* the different doors of communication were thrown open, and each of the estates in procession walked with solemn gravity towards its respective benches. This was unquestionably a matter of strict observance; for we find that members, on entering the house in an irregular manner, after the estates

*About the middle of the seventeenth century, when preaching was as necessary every morning to the citizens of Edinburgh as breakfast is in modern times, the estates ordered the ministers of Edinburgh to have their daily morning sermons finished by 9 o'clock, when the bell of the cathedral was tolled for the meeting of the parliament.

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OPENING OF PARLIAMENT.

had met, were often subjected to an admonition and a fine, which, if not promptly settled, by placing the money on the table, an order was given to take the refractory member into custody, and an increased exaction made. On one occasion, the Earl of Tweeddale was fined, for this cause, eighteen shillings Scots, that is, eighteen pence Sterling, which being contumaciously resisted, it was increased to twenty merks, under the penalty of having "to enter his person in ward to the governor of Edinburgh castle." The circumstance of a nobleman refusing to pay such a miserable sum as eighteen pence, agreeable to rules possibly framed by himself, presents us with an amusing idea of the Scottish peerage two hundred years since.

At the opening of the regularly constituted parliaments, there was practised a public ceremonial of a very imposing character, which was the delight of the lower and middling ranks of society; and the want of which after the union, was a matter of serious regret to many of the trades in the city. This ceremony was called the Riding of the Parliament," a pageant which still forms the subject of legendary reminiscence. It was enacted, in a style of extraordinary splendour, in the reign of Charles the First, when that unfortunate monarch was on a visit to the Scottish metropolis; the procession took place in this manner:- -The whole of the members belonging to each of the estates, according to prescribed usage, met at the palace of Holyroodhouse, in order to wait on the king, and afterwards convey him in honourable procession to the parliament house. Each was dressed in his appropriate official robes, and mounted on horseback, with a serving man on foot, leading the richly caparisoned animal by the bridle-reins. After being drawn up in the palace yard, according to the etiquette of the period, by the Lord Lyon, King at Arms, and his subalterns, or marischal's men, they proceeded, in a slow and solemn cavalcade, accompanied with the clanging music of kettle-drums and trumpets along the

RIDING OF THE PARLIAMENT.

15

ascending narrow line of street, towards the place of meeting. A distinguished military officer, and a party of soldiers, led the van, who were succeeded by the commissioners of burghs* and shires, two and two. Next came the barons, after whom the peerage in the same manner, according to priority of rank and title. The Lord Lyon, with his pursuivants, heralds, and trumpeters, preceded the crown, sceptre, and sword of state, carried by the proper officers.

"On prancing steeds they forward press'd,
With scarlet mantle, azure vest;

Each at his trump a banner wore,
Which Scotland's royal scutcheon bore:
Heralds and pursuivants, by name,
Bute, Islay, Marchmont, Rothesay, came,
In painted tabards, proudly showing,
Gules, argent, or, and azure glowing,
Attendant on a king at arms;

Whose hand the armorial truncheon held,
That feudal strife had often quelled,
When wildest its alarms."

After these came the king, supported by several young pages of noble family, and his guards. The procession closed with the chamberlain, master of the horse, and other officers of state. On arriving at the parliament square, or close, as it was called up to a recent period, the party dismounted, and, in a particular order, entered the house. After the king was duly placed in the throne, prayer was said, and the roll called by the lord clerk register, after which the estates proceeded to some preliminary business. A speech from the chancellor closed the proceedings that took place; and after a sermon was delivered by some favourite preacher, the house rose, and the members again remounting their steeds, which were carefully

It is the tradition of the burgh of Inverkeithing in Fife, that the provost of that town had the honour of riding side by side with the provost of Edinburgh, in the last and most honourable rank. This was probably on account of the jurisdiction of Inverkeithing, which was formerly very extensive, marching with that of Edinburgh in the middle of the Frith of Forth.