GREAT BRITAIN. 191 GREAT BRITAIN. who acts as chief Unv officer of the Crown for ScotUind. and is the lejral adviser of the Crown •in Scottish affairs. As such, he serves as Attor- ney-General and public prosecutor for Scotland and has control of the whole criminal business of that country. He also has cliarge of the jirep- aration for the consideration of Parliament of all l>ills affecting Scottish alVairs. The Lord Advo- cate is assisted by a Solicitor-(icneral for Scot- land, whose duties resemble those of the similar ollicer for l-.ngland. The local government of Scotland is regulated chiefly by the recent Scot- tish Local (JoVernment Acts of 188S) and 1894. By the former act an elective county council was create<l in each county, following the English Local Government Act of the previous year. These councils are in all respects similar to those provided for English counties. They took over most of the duties of the old county boards, the chief of which was the Commission of Supply. The Local (iovernment Act (Scotland) of 1S94, following the similar act passed the same year for the local government of England, provided for an elective parish council in each parish to take the place of the old parochial boards and to e.xercise substantially the same powers as the English parish councils. By the same act a local goveriuuent lioard for Scotland was cre- ated. It consists of the Secretary for Scotland as president, the Solicitor-General, the Under- ScQj-etary for Scotland, and three other members appointed by the Crown. Municipal administra- tion in .Scotland does not differ greatly from that of England. There are several kinds of burghs, some of which have a little more local autonomy th.an others. Tlic municipal officer correspond- ing to the English alderman is known in Scot- land as the baillie, while the one corresponding to the English mayor goes by the name of provost. For the administration of justice in Scotland there is a Court of Sessions, corresponding to the .'supreme Court of .Judicature in England. It is the highest civil tribunal in Scotland, consists of thirteen judges, and is divided into chambers and subdivided into divisions for the dispatch of busi- ness. The Supreme Criminal Court for Scotland is the High Court of .Justiciary, consisting of all the judges of the Court of Sessions. It sits part of the time in Edinburgh and part of the time goes on circuit. Circuits are held twice a year, for which purpose Scotland is divided into three districts. For the trial of criminal cases, usually one judge with a jury of fifteen men constitutes the court. The High Court has exclusive juris- diction in cases of treason, murder, robbery, rape, and in general all the more serious offenses. The more important inferior courts of Scotland are those held by the county sheriffs, who are appointees of the Crown, for a good-behavior tenure. They have a civil and criminal jurisdic- tion somewhat similar to that exercised by the County Courts and Courts of Quarter Sessions in England, and cases tried by them with a jury cannot be reviewed by the higher courts. For the government of Ireland, see Ibelaxd. HISTORY. De-eloi"men-t of C.bixet Government. 1688- 1760. The legislative union of England and Scotland was formally consummated on ilay 1. 1707. There had been much opposition to the union in Scotland on account of the .unwillingness of the English Parliament to grant a trade union with equality of commercial privileges; but the threatening measures of the Scotch Parliament looking toward an absolute separation overcame this unwillingness, and Scotland was received as an equal in all respects, with a proportional repre- sentation in both Houses of the new British Par- liament. Ireland was less fortunate. The Prot- ectant Parliament there, in direct violation of the Treaty of Limerick, made the position of the Catholic population, which was the great major- ity, almost intolerable. The English Parliament, by forbidding the import of Irish meat and cattle into England, and the export of Irish woolen goods to any country other than England in 1099, effectually destroyed Irish trade, louring the lat- ter part of the reign of Anne the Tories, under the leadership of Harlcy (Earl of Oxford) and Saint .John (Earl of Bolingl)roke I , ruled the coun- try, their ascendency being due in some measure to ilrs. ifashani, who had superseded the Duchess of Marlborough as the Queen's favorite. The Tories did all they could to preclude their op- ponents from the possibility of future success. The Occasional Conformity Act and the Schism Act further disqualified Dissenters from voting or holding office. The creation of twelve new peers in 1711 gave the Tories a majority in the Lords, and was a most important constitutional measure, since it demonstrated that in case of disagreement between the two Houses the Com- mons could always prevail by the creation of the requisite number of peers to constitute a ma- jority. Harley and Saint .John even contem- plated the restoration of the House of Stuart in order to prevent the Whigs from ever returning to power: but their plans were thwarted by the sudden death of the Queen in 1714. The Treaty of Utrecht, which terminated the War of the Spanish Succession, gave Gibraltar and Acadia to England, together with Minorca, which was finally restored to Spain in 1783. With the accession of the House of Hanover (or of Brunswick), in the person of George I., came a long supremacy of the Whig Party, which was a combination of the great landed aristoc- racy with the industrial classes of the towns, while the strength of the Tories consisted in the support of the eotuitry gentry. The Whigs derived their strength from the boroughs, the more impor- tant of which numbered Dissenters among their industrial population, while the 'pocket boroughs,' often inconsiderable hamlets, were either directly imder the control of the neighboring magnates, usually Whigs, or else purchasable by them. These magnates were wealthier and more enlight- ened, and so better qualified to govern Great Britain at this time than the Tory sqtiircs. whose chief doctrine was aversion to Dissenters and the rising English industries. As the Tories favored the House of Stuart, the first Georges were com- ])elled to choose their Ministers from the Whigs. They were more interested in their German than in their English possessions, and as long as they were supported by England in their Continental designs they were quite willing to allow the Eng- lish Ministrj- to do as it pleased in regard to home affairs. The Cabinet ceased to hold ses- sions in the King's presence, and by degrees his place as head of the council came to be filled by one of its jnembers. This member was usually the guiding spirit of the Cabinet. He chose the Ministry and distrilmted the' royal patronage.
