curia quatuor burgorum. This court was composed of certain burgesses from the towns of Edinburgh, Stirling, Berwick, and Roxburgh,* who were appointed to meet annually at Haddington, to deliberate and determine in all matters respecting the common welfare of the royal boroughs. Upon the suppression of the office of chamberlain, the power which he possessed, and that of the turia quatuor burgorum, was transferred to the convention of royal boroughs. This court was constituted in the reign of James III. and was appointed to be held at Inverkeithing; but it does not appear that it met earlier than 1552. Since that period, its constitution has been considerably altered, not only by sundry acts of parliament, but also by its own decrees. At present, the convention meets annually at Edinburgh, and consists of two deputies from each borough. The lord provost of Edinburgh is perpetual preses, and the city clerks of Edinburgh are clerks to the convention. It commonly sits four days. From the institution of the court of four boroughs, the powers of the convention may in part be collected. They chiefly respect the establishment of regulations respecting trade and manufactures; and to this effect the convention has established, and from time to time renewed articles of stable contract with the town of Campveret. As the royal boroughs pay a sixth part of the sum imposed as a land tax upon the counties of Scotland, the convention is empowered to consider the state of trade and revenues in the individual boroughs, and to

assess their respective proportions according to their abilities. This court also has been in use to examine the conduct of magistrates in the administration of the borough revenues, although this property falls under the jurisdiction of the court of exchequer; and to give sanction, upon particular occasions, to the town council of boroughs, to alienate a part of the borough estate. The convention likewise considers and arranges the political setts or constitutions of the different boroughs, and regulates matters concerning elections brought before them."

From this explanation of the state of representation in Scotland, it is evident that in no part of it are the members returned to the house of commons by the people at large, or even by those classes of the people which in most of the boroughs of England enjoy the right of election.

It is rather surprising that the efforts of the Scotch to obtain a more extended and pure right of choosing their representatives should not have been more frequent and urgent. About thirty years ago, indeed, this subject attracted considerable attention and created deep and general interest in Scotland; but the efforts at reform were then of no avail.

About the beginning of the French revolution,-when the whole of Britain was agitated and almost convulsed with the violent doctrines respecting the origin and nature of government,-mere borough reform seems to have been regarded in Scotland as an object so limited in its nature, and so to

gow were substituted in their place. † Maitland's History of Edinburgh.

S4

tally

tally inadequate to answer the expectations of the most active and zealous reformers, as well as so far short of what they deerd their right, and necessary to the welfare of the state, that they did not condescend to pay it any attention. After this period the question seems to have sunk into forgetfulness: nor is it probable it would have ever been revived, had it not been for some accidental circumstances. The town council, as they are called, of the boroughs in Scotland are to be elected according to certain forms, which are expressly determined and pointed out by the particular sett or constitution of the borough: if any of these forms are violated or neglected, the borough becomes disfranchised. In consequence of some neglect or violation committed by the borough of Montrose, it lost its franchise and constitution: this circumstance gave great spirits and hopes to those who cherished the idea of a borough reform in Scotland; and the advocates and friends of this cause in Montrose used every effort and endeavour to obtain for that town a new sett or constitution, on more enlarged, liberal, and pure principles, than the one which it had lost by forfeiture. The granting of a new sett depended upon the privy council, as well as the nature of that sett; but the privy council would not act without the advice of the lord advocate of Scotland. It was hardly expected that this law officer would give the privy council advice consonant to the wishes of the friends of borough reform. However, he did so: and in consequence a new sett was granted to the borough of Montrose, which extended the right of election considerably, and also gave to those who paid towards the town taxes, the right of investigating the necessity

of raising them, and the mode in which they were applied.

This circumstance naturally elevated the hopes and roused the exertions of the friends of borough reform in all parts of Scotland; and, before the end of the year 1817, most of the royal boroughs themselves had passed resolutions expressive of their wish to participate in this reform. In all the proceedings upon this subject, there was a spirit of prudence, moderation, and calmness, which formed a strong and pleasing contrast to the violence that distinguished the reformers in Scotland at the beginning of the French revolution. The advocates for borough reform contented themselves with pointing out, in a clear and forcible manner, the injustice as well as the impolicy of the borough representation in Scotland, and with stating explicitly that they merely wished to alter that which allowed, admitted, and required alteration.

But, from the account which has been given of the mode of electing the town council in the royal boroughs of Scotland, and of the powers which the town council possess, it will be evident that the internal state of the boroughs, and especially their financial concerns, must be exposed to great mal-administration; and that therefore a reform must be requisite, as well as on this account as with respect to representation in parliament. Those who paid taxes in the boroughs had long complained that they were not permitted either to controul the expenditure of the money so raised, or to examine the accounts of those who did expend it.

Great abuses were strongly su spected to exist in several of the boroughs on this subject, and also with regard to the management of

landed

landed property, where the boroughs happened to possess any. It was justly argued, that it was against all principle of right, and totally at variance not merely with the spirit but also with the practice of the British constitution, to withhold from those who paid the taxes all information respecting the necessity of levying them, and the manner in which they were laid out; and that strong suspicions of mismanagement must attach to those who refused to submit their accounts to a fair, open, and equitable examination. Indeed,-when it is considered that the ministers of the country, before laying on any tax, submit to parliament, and through it to the nation at large, the grounds on which they think them to be requisite; and that every year the mode in which the taxes are expended is given in very full and minute detail,-it seems very presuming and unjust that those who had the management and disposal of the revenues of the royal boroughs should, in the smallest degree or in the most indirect manner, raise objections to the auditing of their accounts.

About the time when the proceedings relative to the borough of Montrose agitated the public mind in Scotland, the affairs of the borough of Aberdeen became involved in great difficulties. It had long been suspected, if not actually known, by the inhabitants of this town, that its revenue was laid out in a most imprudent and uncalled for manner, and that it was

not equal to its expenditure:-at last, Aberdeen actually became a bankrupt; and thus there was a practical exposure of the evils resulting from the constitution of this and the other boroughs in Scotland, and a practical proof given that reform was needed, at least so far as the management and controul of the revenue was concerned. As, while the affairs of Aberdeen were in this embarrassed state, the magistrates for the time being were undoubtedly liable for its debts, no one was willing to become a magistrate; and thus, the election not taking place on the day fixed by the constitution of the borough, the charter is supposed to be rendered null and void. On the question, whether the burgesses in general were liable to make good any deficiency, if the property of the borough should be found not to be adequate to the full discharge of its debts, the opinion of Scotch counsel was taken; and they gave it as their opinion that the burgesses were liable.

Whatever may be the issue of the efforts of the boroughs in Scotland to obtain for themselves a more extended and pure system of repre sentation, there seems little doubt that the result of all the events and proceedings which we have just detailed, will be a better management of their revenue, and the participation by the burgesses at large of the right to select their magistrates, and to superintend the concerns of the boroughs.

CHAPTER

A

T the close of the year 1816, the metropolis was thrown into great alarm and apprehension by the Spa-field riots; the particu. lars of which were given in our last volume. At the same time it was known that many parts of the country, especially the manufacturing districts,-Lancashire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, and Leicestershire-were in a very disturbed state in the two last named counties, the system of Luddism (for a system it may well be called, when its wonderful organization and the secrecy, perfection, and effects with which that organization worked towards its most wicked and mischievous ends are considered) had assumed much more of a political aspect and tendency than it ever had before. The associations which had been formed at first for the sole purpose of destroying machinery, and injuring those who employed it, turned their thoughts and plans, at least as far as a reform in the government of the country; and as no one but the members of these associations knew the ties by which they were bound, the numbers of which they were composed, the secret spring by which they could all be brought into action at once, or the real object which they had in view, they could not but be regarded as of a very alarming and formidable nature.

There can be no doubt that many enrolled themselves under this sy

stem of Luddism, when it had thus assumed a political character and aimed at a political object, who felt no interest in it, so long as it was confined to its original plan and purpose. In short, early in the year 1817, a sullen and gloomy discontent and disaffection spread over a large portion of the labouring classes in the central and northern manufacturing districts; secret meetings were held, and at last a large body openly assembled between Derby and Nottingham, with the desperate purpose in view of redressing their real or supposed grievances by force of arms. At and near Manchester, too, a large body of most miserable and deluded people collected, provided each with a blanket, with the intention of walking up to London, and there seeking or demanding relief for their wants.

Various causes have been assigned for the agitation and disaffection which thus prevailed in this part of England; but, in our opinion, no single cause will adequately and satisfactorily account for it. As on all other points of political dispute, the disputants have gone into extremes; each party has overlooked every thing in the least unfavourable to his own views, and fixed exclusively on what would support them. Thus the ministers and their adherents traced the disaffection of the populace, and their violent and unlawful pro

ceedings,

ceedings, entirely to the bad spirit which was instilled into them by the writings of Cobbett, and by the harangues and machinations of the moe zealous and violent reformers. Even the ardent and indefatigable zeal of major Cart wright (for no person can accuse him of violence, or suspect him of being a friend to anarchy) was pointed out as one cause of the extension of the disaffection, and of the formidable shape which it assumed; because this gentleman in his missionary tour, in the cause of a reform in parliament, had established associations nearly over all the kingdom, mutually connected and corresponding with one another. Ministers did not, indeed, accuse major Cartwright of forming these societies for any other purpose than his own favourite one; but they maintained that he had thus rendered the populace aware of their own numbers and strength, and given an individuality of spirit and a bond of union to what previously had been a weak and disjointed mass. The charges which they brought against Cobbett and the other violent reformers were more direct and serious: they accused them of having taken advantage of the distresses of the people to goad them on to treason and rebellion, by not only preaching up the most iniquitous doctrines, but also inflaming their passions by false and unjust charges against the government, as the cause of their distres; and against all men of property and respectability, as cold and unfeeling witnesses of that distress, and as having also contributed to it by the support which they gave to the measures of government.

The picture drawn by the opponents of ministers was quite of an opposite nature. According to them,

the populace in the disturbed districts, and generally throughout the kingdom, were indeed suffering under such extreme poverty and wretchedness, as gave to their feelings and views an exasperated and gloomy cast. They even admitted that in the disturbed districts the populace were dissatisfied and disaffected; but not with the constitution and laws of the country in which they lived,—their disaffection was turned entirely against the corruptions which had crept into that constitution, and the manner in which those laws had been administered:-they wished for, they aimed at no radical change of the constitution:-they did not desire to set aside the operation of the laws; they only were anxious to restore the constitution to its pristine purity, and to give to the laws that salutary character, and that impartial administration, which might secure them equal rights and subsistence with the higher classes of the community.

While the populace were in this gloomy and exasperated state of feelings and views, and of course open to the machinations and influence of all who could work upon their passions and take advantage of their ignorance,―rendered more open to be led astray by these exasperated and gloomy feelings and views,-the opponents of ministers contended that spies were sent amongst them; that these spies, having gained their confidence, taught them to look entirely to themselves for redress; epresented government as blind and callous to their misery; and boldly preached up sedition, rebellion, and treason. The organi zation, which all admitted existed in the disturbed districts, and which by ministers was traced to the asscciations formed during the period

of