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just customs of the burgh. This body of twelve was probably the body which originally received and afterwards retained the name of the duodene or dusane, long after the number of its members exceeded the limit of twelve. In the oldest records of many of the Scotch burghs the dozen' appears to have been used to express what is now meant by the term 'the town council.' A more distinct reference to a body which may correspond with the council, is contained in the Statutes of the Guild, enacted originally for Berwick, but subsequently accepted by the other burghs of Scotland. In that document the following provision occurs: We ordain, moreover, by common consent, that the community of Berwick shall be governed by twenty-four good men, of the better, more discreet, and more trustworthy of that burgh, thereto chosen, together with the mayor and four bailies. And whensoever the said twenty-four men are summoned to treat concerning the common business, he who comes not at the summons before night, shall give two shillings to the guild.' These twentyfour men had to be elected along with the mayor and four bailies, and it can scarcely be doubted by the same body of electors. In conformity with the principle of popular election thus recognised, the election of twenty persons as common councillors in Aberdeen in 1399, was made on the same day with that of the alderman and bailies, and apparently also with the consent and assent of the entire community.

There is thus every reason to believe that at a very early period, if not, indeed, at the earliest period of the municipal history of our oldest burghs, they were governed by magistrates or prepositi, consisting of a chief magistrate, known first as the mayor or alderman and afterwards as the provost, and the bailies, and by a selected body of burgesses called the duodene, dusane, or council. The magistrates, and probably also the dusane or council, were elected annually, at or about Michael

mas.

The Burgh Laws made express provision for the appointment of liners, who had to be chosen by the prepositus, alderman, or provost, at the sight and with the counsel of the

ber, and wise and discreet men, so that no complaint might come to the Chamberlain for defect of lining. On their election the liners had to swear that they would line faithfully, according to the right and old marches within burgh. These liners are the ancestors of the present Dean of Guild Court, which, however, is the creation of a much later age. Previous to the institution of that court, the magistrates of the burgh exercised the whole jurisdiction which has since been devolved upon it, and, in point of fact, the magistrates of burghs in which there is no Dean of Guild, can still exercise their original jurisdiction in this respect.

Elections of another class of officials are also recorded in the oldest burgh records, along with those of the magistrates and officers of the burgh, and of the liners. These were apprisers of flesh and ale tasters. The function of these persons is indicated by the name of their office, and is sufficiently explained by the terms of the oath which they were obliged to take. The apprisers of flesh had to swear faithfully to apprise flesh according to the price at which beasts were sold in the country. The ale tasters had to swear faithfully to taste the ale, and lawfully to apprise the same according to the price of malt. In some burghs apprisers of wine were elected, whose business it was to see that the quality and price of the wine sold in the burgh were according to the regulations in force at the time.

Burgesses also possessed a variety of other privileges. Under the feudal law, a vassal was liable to a number of casualties of superiority, such as merchet and herezeld, which were often most burdensome. From all these the burgess was exempted. He could not even be poinded for debt without the consent of his prepositus-provost or bailie. If he claimed a debt from one resident out of the burgh, by which was probably meant a non-resident burgess, and the non-resident burgess denied the claim, be had to answer in the court of the burgh. If a debtor disputed the claim of a burgess, the burgess might insist on the debtor's oath, just as in the present day. If an uplands' man accused a burgess of theft, the

twelve of his neighbours. And when a burgess was absent, with the leave of the Church and of his neighbours, on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, or to any other sacred place, his house and means were declared to be in the king's peace, and in the bailie's peace, till his return.

In order to foster the spirit of good neighbourhood by the interchange of friendly services, the Laws of the Four Burghs imposed on burgesses reciprocal duties. If a burgess was attached beyond the burgh for a debt or for any misdeed, his co-burgesses were bound to go and bail him, at their own expense if he was within the sheriffdom, or at his cost if beyond it. If accused of any misdeed, and unable to find bail, his co-burgesses were bound to keep him ' in fastening' in his own house for fifteen days. If, after the expiry of that time, he still had failed to find surety, the burgesses were required to commit him to prison, if there was a prison in the burgh. If there was no prison, then they were bound to deliver him to the king's bailie, by whom he was appointed to be placed in the custody of the king's sergeant. One of the provisions of the Fragmenta Collecta sets forth the duty of burgesses to be security or pledge for each other, once, twice, thrice, until loss resulted, after which the loser was relieved from the obligation to be security further for the person through whom he had suffered, unless of his own free will, and on being compensated for the loss he had sustained. This requirement was specially applied to brewers, bakers, and fleshers-all of them probably as dealing in what were regarded as the necessaries of lifewho were bound to accommodate their neighbours with bread, ale, and flesh as long as they had these articles for sale; but it was provided that, if the person so favoured failed to pay for the articles so supplied, he should be distrained, and would not be entitled to similar accommodation in future.

Possessing these privileges, it seems to have been intended that the respectability of the burgess class should be maintained, as far as this could be done by prohibiting burgesses from engaging in certain avocations which in early times were

in the Articles appointed to be inquired into at the Chamberlain Eyre, inquisition was directed to be made whether fleshers who were burgesses put to their hands to kill mairts,' and whether dyers who were burgesses put their hands in the wad.'

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Within the burghal community itself there were other organisations which, though subordinate, were of great influence. The most ancient as well as the most important of these was the guild of merchants, an association for purely trading purposes apart from mechanical pursuits, which frequently attained a position that enabled it to overshadow, and sometimes apparently even to absorb, the municipal organization.

How early merchant guilds were established in the Four Burghs, it is impossible to say. As associations for mutual help, guilds existed among the Anglo-Saxon communities of England as early as the eighth, probably in the seventh, century. But the existence of merchant guilds in Edinburgh, Berwick, Roxburgh, and Stirling is recognised in an enactment of the Laws of the Four Burghs, to the effect that dyers, fleshers, shoemakers, and fishers should not be in the merchant guild unless they abjured the practice of their trade with their own hands, and conducted it exclusively by servants. The Assise of King William, about the end of the twelfth century, provided that the merchants of the realm should have their merchant guild, with liberty to buy and sell in all places within the bounds of the liberties of burghs, and empowered the servants of the guild to apprehend all persons who invaded its rights and privileges. William's successor, Alexander II., also conferred on the burgesses of Aberdeen, by special charter in 1222, the right to have-which probably meant to continue and uphold their merchant guild; and many royal charters to other burghs, of subsequent date, conferred similar privileges. Twenty-seven years later than Alexander's charter to Aberdeen, the mayor of Berwick and other good men of that burgh framed what is known as the Laws of the Guild of Scotland.

ritative in Edinburgh and amongst the burghs of Scotland generally.

How a code enacted for the regulation of the merchant guild should have dealt, as this code did, with election of the magistrates and governing body of the entire community, it is not very easy to explain except on some such hypothesis as that the merchant guild comprehended so large a proportion of the burgesses as to be practically co-extensive with, and equivalent to, the burghal community. The relation of the merchant guild to the burgh in Scotland in these early times, is involved in much obscurity. Probably, however, here as in England, the comparative wealth and influence of the merchant class enabled them not unfrequently to engraft a commercial constitution upon the burgh, which then took the name of guild, as synonymous with burgh. In many cases the great bulk of the burgesses-certainly the most influential of them were traders and members of the guild. From the guild brethren, therefore, the magistrates and holders of burghal offices would naturally be selected, and as the same individuals would be appointed officers of the guild also, the destinction between the functions appropriate to the respective offices would be apt to disappear, and the bye-laws of the guild would come to trench upon matters of proper burghal administration. This theory explains the intermixture, in the Laws of the Guild, of matters of burghal as well as of guild administration, and it also affords an explanation of the fact that in the record of the earliest election of magistrates and officebearers in Edinburgh, now extant, the provost, dean of guild, bailie of Leith, treasurer, serjeants, apprisers of flesh and wine, and the duodene are all termed officers of the gild. This election bears to have been made at the first Head Gild held after the feast of St. Michael, in the Tolbooth of the burgh, the brethren being called and compearing, on 3rd October, 1403.* By some such process of assumption, the members of the guild appear to have gradually obtained a

The date 1403 is, probably an error of transcription, and the true date may