fequence, they had neither manors nor jurifdiction. It was of fuch tenants in capite that Dr. Stuart was treating; and it argues the groffeft ignorance of feudality to conceive that fuch proprietors had any title to make their appearance in parliament. To these distinctions of the knight's-fee Dr. Robertfon and Mr. Wight were entire ftrangers. Upon this fubject they wrote merely at random: And they never conceived that from the irregular tenants in capite an important revolution was to take place with refpect to property and refinement. As the irregular tenants in capite were bound to no fervice, and poffeffed their grants in perpetuity, they had in fact, escaped out of the circle of feudality. They foftered accordingly, in no common degree, the idea of the alienation and fale of feudal property; and by extending riches and land, gave encouragement to improvements, civilization, and com

merce.

manor,

The application of the doctrine of the regular and irregular tenants in capite to the opinions of Mr. Wight will immediately explain their frivolity. To every tenant in capite without diftinction he gives the honour of appearing in the great council of the Scottish nation. Now no poffeffor of an irregular fragment of a knight's fee could appear there. For befides being poor, he had no and no jurifdiction of any kind ; and of confequence by the feudal law he was incapable of any diftinction. Mr. Wight's admiration of Dr. Robertfon probably induced him to adopt the strange opinion of that hiftorian. That hiftorian however, has not advanced any argument to fupport it: And while Dr. Stuart contradicts him, he employs not the flighteft acrimony, although Mr. Wight has ventured to fay fo. But it is to be allowed that his contradiction, though it is by no means angry or paffionate is profoundly contemptuous.

The Scottish act cited by Mr. Wight has not the most diftant reference to the proprietors of irregular fractions of the fee, and is of no fort of importance to his argument. Nor does his pofitiye affertion avail him, that the custom of knight's fecs was uncommon in Scotland. For the fame neceffity of fituation which produced knight-fervice in England, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, operated powerfully in Scotland. And, in fact, without the law of knight fervice no army, in certain periods of the hiftory of thefe nations, could have been marched and put in motion. The examples of the knight's fee in Scotland are many. Several very curious examples of it are afforded in the conftitutional enquiries of Dr. Stuart: And a great variety of them are yet to be found in the Scottish records which at this hour are in prefervation in the Mufeum and the Tower.

The reader who attends to thefe obfervations will readily

perceive that Mr. Wight has no talents for controverfy. But while we cannot commend him either in this refpect as an hiftorian or as an antiquarian, it is a pleafure to us to obferve that he has merit as a man of bufinefs. His materials concerning the elections of the reprefentatives from Scotland are ample; and in general they are fatisfactory. The Author is here upon profeffional ground, and he holds out to his reader the full amount of his experience.

As a fpecimen of his performance we shall lay before our readers his account of the manner of electing the fixteen peers of Scotland.

We have already feen, that when a parliament is to be held, the peers of Scotland are called by proclamation, to meet for the purpofe of electing their reprefentatives; and that fuch proclamation must be made at Edinburgh, and the other county towns of Scotland, ar leaft twenty-five days before the time appointed for the election.

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The fame ftatute orders the peers to come to fuch meetings with their ordinary attendants only, under the feveral penalties inflicted by the laws and ftatutes of Scotland, prefcribing and directing with what numbers and attendants the subjects of that part of the kingdom might repair to the public courts of justice.

It likewife declares, that it fhall not be lawful for the peers fo met together to act, propose, debate, or treat, of any matter or thing whatfoever, except the election of their reprefentatives; and that any person who fhall at fuch meeting prefume to act, propose, debate, or treat of any other matter, fhall incur the penalty of premunire, as expreffed in the ftatute of the 16th of King Richard II.

The day named for the election being come, the peers affemble at the place fixed by the proclamation, and are attended by the Lord Clerk Regifter, or two of the principal clerks of feffion, appointed by him to officiate in his name.. After prayers by one of the King's chaplains, two of whom attend for that purpofe, the proclamation, and the execution at the market crofs of Edinburgh, are read.s but no evidence of the execution at the other county towns is re quired or produced. The roll is then called, and the peers prefent are marked in the minutes, as are likewife the proxies, and the figned lifts of those who are abfent. This being done, the oaths and declaration are adminiftered to the peers who are prefent, and the oaths taken by thofe who have fent proxies or lifts are examined ;' after which, the votes are carefully collected, and the lifts inveftigated, and a certificate of the names of the fixteen peers who have the majority of voices in their favour is made out upon parchment, figned and read in prefence of the meeting by the Lord Clerk Re gifter, or the clerks of the feffion appointed to officiate for him, and returned to the court of chancery before the time fixed for the meeting of the parliament, in a packet addreffed to the clerk of the

crown.

The peers have no power to decide upon difputed titles at their meetings for election. When, therefore, two appear to claim the fame peerage, both must be allowed to vote ;; but protests may be

antered

entered by the other peers against the votes of both or either of them; and, in like manner, they may themselves object to, and protest against each other's right. No notice is however, taken in the certificate returned to the crown office of any objections that may have been made in the meeting; but thofe peers who defire it are entitled to get a copy of fuch objections, or an extract (ex emplification) of the minutes from the returning officer, and may difpute the election of the peer, or peers objected to, by preferring a petition to the House of Lords complaining of the return. Of this there are two inftances, the one in 1708-9, the other 734-5. Upon the firit of thefe occafions, the clerks of feffion who made the return were ordered to carry up the proceedings, and to vindicate their conduct.

The law has established no decifive, or cafting vote, in the event of, an equality of voices for two or more of the candidates: All, therefore, the returning officers can do, is to certify the fact, leaving it to the House of Lords to act as they fhall think fit.

Hitherto I have only spoken of a general election upon the calling of a new parliament. The fame rules are however obferved when a vacancy happens by the death, or legal difability, of any of the fixteen peers during the courfe of a parliament. A proclamation iffues for fummoning all the peers to meet and elect a new reprefentative to fupply the vacancy; and the fame form of procedure. takes place at that meeting as at a general election,

All elections ought to be free; and to remove even the appearance of restraint, it was ordered by an act of the 8th of George II. cap. 30. that all foldiers who are quartered in any city, borough, town, or place where an election either of peer or commoner is to be made, shall be removed to the distance of two miles, one day at leaft before the day appointed for the election, and fhall not approach nearer till the day after it is ended. Orders to this purpose must be given by the fecretary at war, or other perfon who officiates in his place; and if he neglect to iffue fuch orders, and be convicted thereof within fix months, he is to be discharged from his, office, and becomes difabled to hold any office or employment in his Majesty's fervice. This act does not, however, extend to the city of Weftminster, or borough of Southwark, in respect to his Majefty's guards; nor to any place where the King or Royal family refide at the time, in refpect to fuch troops as attend as guards: nor to any castle or fortified place where a garrifon is ufually kept, in refpect to fuch garrifon. The act likewife declares, that the fecretary at war fhall not incur the forfeiture on account of his not fending orders for the removal of the troops at an election for filling up a vacancy, unless notice of the new writ be given him by the clerk of the crown, who is ordered to do fo with all convenient fpeed. No writ iffues for fupplying a vacancy in the fixteen peers. Probably the royal proclamation would be held a fufficient notification to the fecretary at war. Indeed, the exception of the ftatute does not literally apply to that cafe.

• Ever fince the union, the ministry has had great influence in the election of the fixteen peers of Scotland: and the court lift has almost univerfally prevailed. For a long time, the matter was mana

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ged, with at least an appearance of delicacy, by fome of the peers themselves; but at last it became ufual for the minister to fend official circular letters to all the peers. At the general election in 1768, Lord Irvine, though not poffeffed of an inch of property in Scotland, was elected one of the fixteen peers. And on the death of the late Duke of Argyle in 1771, the Earl of Dyfart, a peer of Scot land, but precifely in the fame fituation with Lord Irvine, was propofed by a recommendatory letter from Lord North, then at the head of the treasury. This gave offence to many of the peers, whe fet up the Earl of Breadalbain in oppofition, upon which the ministry wifely dropped the Earl of Dyfart, and, in his room, declared for the Earl of Stair, who was accordingly elected by a majority of nine votes. At this election the official letters were complained of in fevere terms, and feveral protefts were taken against them. The fame thing happened at the general election in 1774, when there was a warm contest between the Earl of Caffillis, fet up by the court, and the Earl of Eglintoun ftarted against him by oppofition. On that occafion, another official letter was circulated, and the Earl of Caffillis prevailed. This difgraceful practice of fending thefe letters has, however, ever fince been difcontinued, and good húmour and harmony among the peers have been restored.

"In the end of the year 1718, and the beginning of 1719, there was much talk of a peerage bill. The fcheme was this: Inftead of fixteen elective peers from Scotland, there were to be twenty-five hereditary, by the junction of nine, out of the body of the Scottish nobility, to the fixteen then fitting in the House of Lords. Six were also to be added to the then English peers; and from thence the peerage to be fixed. The King gave his confent to this fcheme; but the bill went off for that feffion, and was no more heard of.

In the year 1733, it was moved in the House of Lords that the election of the fixteen peers for Scotland fhould be by ballot; but the motion was rejected.'

As a literary publication, the volume before us has no claim to praife. It exhibits no proofs either of genius or learning; and the author has evidently no tafte for compofition. His language is rude and anomalous it affumes no elevation of tone; aims at no elegance; and is difgraced by perpetual Scotticifms. It is merely as a practical lawyer that our Author has any title to attention. In this refpect his diligence has been great; and if the projected reform of parliament fhould mifcarry, his performance may be uncommonly useful.

ART. II. Letters to Edward Gibbon, Efq; Author of the Hiftory of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire; in Defence of the Authenticity of the Seventh Verfe, of the Fifth Chapter, of the First Epistle of St. John; by George Travis, A. M. (Formerly of St. John's College, Cambridge) Prebendary of the Cathedral Church

of

of Chefter, Vicar of Eastham in the County of Chefter, and Chaplain to the Right Honourable the Lady Viscountefs Dowager Townshend. 4to. s. Rivington. 1784.

HE of a new HE controverfy of a fingle verfe of the new teftament, may at first fight feem but a flender fubject upon which to fpend a five fhilling pamphlet. There are not however many controverfies that have had a greater eclat. The text has been thought of fome confequence in fupporting or detecting the great queftion of the Trinity. This application indeed is in fome measure given up by Mr. Travis. He feems to think that the words, and these three are one," may be at least fairly interpreted to refer only to unity of teltimony. The genuinenefs of the text has been fucceffively queftioned, among others, by Eraimus, Emlyn, Benfon, Bowyer, and Sir Ifaac Newton. It has been afferted by many able divines, though not perhaps of equal celebrity; and laft, not leaft in the catalogue, by Mr. Travis.

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Few of our readers are probably fo little verfed in theological controverfy, as not already to have had before them fome part of the merits of the queftion. But as all may not recollect the arguments of either fide, and as our author has perhaps thrown fome new light upon the fubject, we cannot better introduce what we have to fay to his pamphlet, than by a brief, clear and impartial ftate of the whole evidence, as it is now before the public.

The verfe as it ftands in our tranflation, is as follows: "For there are three that bear record in heaven; the Fa"ther, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and thefe three are "" one."

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Four objections have been started to the authenticity of this paffage. 1. That it is found in only two manuscripts of the Greek Teftament now exifting. 2. That it is found in only one of the ancient verfions, and not in all the copies of that version. 3. That it is not quoted in thofe works, or parts of works of the more ancient fathers, which have defcended to the prefent age. 4. That the drift of the Apostle's reafoning is injured and interrupted by its infertion.

The evidence on the other fide, as it appears on the face of Mr. Travis's pamphlet, is, 1. That it was found in one ancient manufcript by Erafmus and pere Amelotte, in feven by Laurentius Valla, in fixteen by Robert Stephens and Theodofe Beza, in a confiderable number by Jerome and the Complutenfian editors. 2. That it is read in the a or collection of the apoftolical epiftles to be read in churches, which may be traced up to the fourth or fifth centuries; in Jerome's or the vulgate tranflation, and in the Armenian

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verfion.