BURGHS, ROYAL. A. royal burgh is a corporate body deriving its existence, consti tution, and rights, from a royal charter—such charter being either actual and express, or presumed to have existed, and by the accident of war and time, to have perished. By a Scotch act passed in 1469, a constitution was given to royal burghs, by which the right of appointing their successors belonged to the old councils, the act also containing the singular provision, that when the new council was chosen, the members of it, along with those of the old council, should choose all the offi ce-bearers of the burgh, each craft or trade corporation being represented at the election by one of themselves. But this simple plan was not universally adopted, and the election gradually lost its former free and popu lar form—a close and exclusive proceeding being ultimately esth.blished in its place. This " close system," as it has been called, notwithstanding its repugnancy to the spirit of the times, and modern ideas of public administration, continued in forceuntil the year 1833, when an act of parliament was passed, the 3 and 4 Will. IV. c. 76, amended by the 4 and 5 Will. IV. c. 87, and the 16 Viet. c. 26, by which it was abolished, and an entirely new constitution given to royal burghs, with the exception of nine of them, which, on account. of the smallness of their population, were left unchanged till the passing of the munici pal elections amendment act (Scotland) in 1868. These nine burghs were: Dornoch, New Galloway, Culross, Lochmaben, Berrie, Wester Anstruther, Rilrenny, Kinghorn, and Ifintore. Of the other royal burghs, being those to which the reforming acts apply, the principal are—Enisuunca, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dundee, Perth, Dunfermline, Dum fries, and Inverness. The leading provisions of these acts are as follows: All persons within the burgh qualified under the parliamentary reform act, 2 and 3 Will. IV. c. 65, in respect of property or occupancy of premises, and who have resided for six months next previous to the last day of June, within the royalty, or within 7 m. of it, are entitled to vote in the election of councilors. In such burglis,as do not now send members to darliament, property of the same value is required for the qualification, and claims for this privilege must be lodged with the town-clerk on or before the 21st of July, in a particular form. The councilors are chosen from among the electors residing, or per sonally carrying on business, within the royalty; and where there is a body of burgesses in the burgh, each councilor, before his induction, must be entered a burgess—a requi• site clearly unnecessary for the purposes of the municipal administration contemplated by the act, and which, it is expected, will be done away. The number of councilors in each burgh is such as, by the sett or constitution existing at the passing of theact, formed the common council, or, where this was variable, the smallest number making a full council. The electors of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dundee, Perth, Dunferuiline, Dumfries, and Inverness, are divided into wards or districts. At the election imme
diately succeeding the passing of the act, each ward elected six councilors; but as every year the third part of the council goes out of office, in the order prescribed by the act, two councilors are now annually chosen by each ward, there being no bar, however, to the re-election of an outgoing councilor. The electors in other burghs choose the whole council exactly as these wards do their proportion of it, and consequently elect each year a third part in place of that which has retired. Upon the third lawful day after the election succeeding the passing of the act, the councilors meet and choose, by a plurality of voices, a provost, baffles, treasurer, and other office-bearers, as existing in the council by the sett or usage of the burgh; and vacancies occurring among such office•bearers, in consequence of the annual retirement of the third part of the council, are directed to be supplied from the councilors in like manner, as soon as the election of the new third has taken place, the first attending magistrate having a casting vote in cases of equality. Vacancies takixig place during the year by death or resignation are supplied, ad interim, by the remaining members of the council, and the persons so elected by the councilors retire at the succeeding election. The rights of the guildry, trades, etc., to elect their own dean or guild. etc., are still preserved; but they are now no longer recognized as official or constituent members of the council, their functions being performed by a mem ber of the council, elected by a majority of the councilors. In Aberdeen, Dundee, and Perth, however, the dean of guild, and in Edinburgh and Glasgow, the convener of trades and the dean of guild, are, ea, °lido, members of council; and the electors in all the above-named burghs choose such a number of councilors as, together with these officers, makes up the proper number. No magistrate or councilor can be town-clerk. The magistrates and council possess the same powers of administration and jurisdiction as were enjoyed by the magistrates and town-council before the passing of the act; and none of them is responsible for the debts of the burgh, or the acts of his predecessors, otherwise than as a citizen or burgess. The existing council in all burghs royal must every year make up, on or before the 15th of Oct., a state of their affairs, to be kept in the town-clerk's or treasurer's office.
The police of burghs and other populous places, and the paving, draining, 'cleansing, lighting, and improving the same, are regulated by the 25 and 26 Vict. c. 101, which repeals several previous acts. In this act " burgh " is defined to mean all burghs and populous places whose boundaries have been fixed; and it is provided that the sheriff may fix the boundaries and so constitute a burgh in this sense, for purposes of improve ment and police, at the instance of seven or more householders.