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.'

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

monopoly of office which it took many long years of struggle on the part of the incorporations of craftsmen to break down.

Be that as it may, the code known as the Guild Laws seems to have partaken largely of the spirit of brotherhood which characterised the old guilds of England, whether these were territorial, or religious, or social, or for purposes of trade. It proclaimed the duty of all the members to live in peace and concord; it recognised the rights of its own members to mutual consideration at all times, to sympathy and assistance in trouble, to relief in sickness and poverty, to the offices of religion and the last marks of respect after death, and to kindly help to the orphan. It enforced fair and honest trading according to the notions of the times, and it insisted upon a loyal promotion, by each member, of the general interests, with the corresponding obligation to preserve the counsel of the guild.

The privileges of a member of the guild, as these are set forth in the Guild Statutes, so closely resemble those which have been found to appertain to a burgess, as to support the conclusion that guild brotherhood rested on burgess-ship, and was but a higher grade of burghal organization.

Nothing is said in the Statutes of the Guild as to the election of the office-bearers of the guild as distinct from the magistrates of the burgh, who seem to have exercised jurisdiction in regard even to guild offences, but in conjunction occasionally with the dean of guild. The aldermen and the ferthing men-the latter a term which probably means the bailies in relation to the charge which each had of a quarter of the burgh, by virtue of a very ancient arrangement, under which burghs were divided into quarters are alone recognised as the persons by whom meetings of the guild should be called, and the bailies are referred to as presiding in the courts of the guild. The brethren of the guild were all bound to take part in the deliberations on the common affairs, and were required, under penalty of twelve pence, to assemble at the ringing of the bell, whenever the alderman, ferthingman, and other good men appointed. What passed at these deliberative assemblies was regarded as secret,

or showed the secrets of the guild, was liable to punishment, involving for a third offence the loss of the liberty of the burgh for life, and the stigma of infamy which prevented his enjoying the freedom of any other burgh in the realm.

It is noticeable that the heavier fines imposed by the guild statutes in respect of contraventions of the regulations in regard to trade, etc., consisted in a cask of wine to the guild. The frequency with which this penalty is prescribed, suggests the suspicion that, howsoever the early Scottish guilds may have · differed from the still earlier guilds of England and the Continent, the love and practice of conviviality were common to all.

Whilst the burghs monopolised the export and import and inland trade of the country, they were also the great centres of manufacturing industry, as that was then known, and a large portion of the inhabitants of many of the towns were handicraftsmen-the masters, or those who carried on business for their own behoof, being free and burgesses, while their servants were unfree, and many of them probably bondsmen. These masters seem in early times to have imported the raw material with which they worked. As traders and merchants, therefore, many craftsmen must necessarily have been members of the merchant guild; but it is impossible now to ascertain what burgesses were admitted into the early merchant guilds, and what were excluded. That all guild brethren were burgesses seems evident, but it is also certain that some classes of craftsmen were inadmissible into the fraternity. The charter of Alexander II. to Aberdeen expressly excluded fullers and weavers from the merchant guild, though in the manufacturing towns of England and the Continent these crafts were two of the most skilled and important. Whatever may have been the reason for such exclusions, it is certain that in process of time the lines of separation between the merchant guild and the crafts became broader and more marked. The mercantile classes became wealthier and more important; the handicraftsmen became more and more confined to the poor and the unfree. Then the merchant guild made the practice of certain trades a ground of exclusion from the fraternity. Da: ish,

German, and Belgian guild statutes ordain that no one with dirty hands,' or with blue nails,' or who 'hawked his wares on the streets,' should be a guild brother, and that no craftsman should be admitted till he had forsworn his trade for a year and a day. The Laws of the Four Burghs excluded dyers, fleshers, and shoemakers from the merchant guild, if they worked with their own hands, and the Statutes of the Guild prohibited any butcher from dealing in wool and hides so long as he carried on his trade. But the merchant guild not only excluded craftsmen; it assumed the right to regulate them. Thus the Statutes of the Guild contain ordinances for shoemakers, glovers, skinners and butchers.

This condition of matters could not long continue without some effort being made by the craftsmen to improve their condition, and that object could only be effected by organization. The merchant-guild presented itself as a model of the required organization, and so suggested the formation of subordinate fraternities and combinations. Societies of craftsmen were accordingly formed, which afterwards obtained recognition from the governing body of the burgh, and sometimes from the Crown. But even these societies were exclusive in their constitution and aims. They were so many leagues of master craftsmen against the encroachments of the merchant class; but they dominated in turn over the unfree workman, and waged a constant war against the invasion of their own trade monopolies from without. It was, in truth, as has been observed by Mr. E. W. Robertson, a hard age for the dependant classes wherever they were, and the 'bondman in burgh' may at times have cast many a wistful glance towards the blue hills in the distance. Monopoly and exclusive dealing were only in accordance with the spirit and policy of the age; and must inevitably have arisen in every quarter, when it was enacted that every sale and purchase should be made in port,' and in the presence of witnesses chosen in burgh,' an enactment which must, of course, have concentrated all the traffic of the district connected with the burgh in the hands of the resident population.'