The Scottish Parliament Before the Union of the Crowns

The Scottish Parliament Before the Union of the Crowns

The History of Institutions scarcely requires to-day, the eloquent defence with which the Bishop of Oxford prefaced his great book, almost thirty years ago. His own work has proved more than sufficient defence for his field of labour, and universal assent would now be given to his claim that "nothing in the past is dead to the man who would learn how the present comes to be what it is." Within the last few years, Professor Maitland has shown us the importance of much in the past that was generally regarded as trivial and incidental. He has illumined, with the torch of history, the dungeons of learning which have been generally supposed to form the abode of the antiquary, and, apart from the brilliant results he has personally attained, the present generation of investigators owes to him a clearer conception of the relation that should exist between more purely antiquarian pursuits and wider historical studies. It is true that the institutions which have provided a theme for Bishop Stubbs and Professor Maitland, have in part survived from the seventh century to the twentieth, and that they still form the basis of the constitutional life of a great people. For a period of a thousand years,[viii] historical inquirers have been attempting to discover their origin, and, within the last two centuries, distinguished thinkers and writers have, from time to time, attempted to leave to posterity a worthy record of their history. They have served as models for continents the very existence of which was unknown for centuries after English institutions had assumed a definite shape, and they have proved capable of a development so important that they have become the centre of an empire more than one hundred times the size of the country in which they originated. Nothing of this description can be written of the history of Scottish institutions. They have, in large measure, disappeared, and it is not always easy to trace any influence in modern life which may fairly be attributed to the fact that they once existed. The constitutional history of Scotland is partially unrecorded and is, in any formal way, wholly unwritten. Of the constitution of the kingdom, as it was when the sixth James took his seat on the throne of Elizabeth, only one portion has survived to our own day. It is a large portion, for it comprises the legal and judicial system which furnishes so great a proof of the wisdom of our ancestors, and which still serves to differentiate a nationality that inventions and commerce have combined to destroy. All else has gone. There is still[ix] in Edinburgh "a ghost of speech" which reminds the curious that men once did more in the Scottish capital than merely administer the law; but the "Parliament House" is only a namevox et praeterea nihil. The system of administration, the methods of finance, the royal prerogative, the Privy Council, the hereditary jurisdictions, have vanished. Local jealousies, clan and family hatreds, the hopes and fears of noble and burgess and peasant have ceased to find a place in the national records. The relations between Church and State, after undergoing numerous transformations, have been decided in accordance with the Revolution Settlement, and have once and again been modified under Queen Anne and under Queen Victoria. The General Assembly still meets, but it is not, and could not be, the General Assembly of John Knox or of Andrew Melville. The Royal Burghs maintain their wonted Conventions, but only to take counsel, and never to act. It is no longer possible to recognize the fabric of the constitution of the kingdom which King James left in 1603. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 46106
Author: Rait, Robert S. (Robert Sangster)
Release Date: Jun 26, 2014
Format: eBook
Language: English