The Commissioners of supply arc appointed by Par liament, in their acts of supply, to levy the land tax in Scotland. They determine differences as to propor tions of land tax between the seller and purchaser of lands, and are competent to all disputes about assess ment, subject however to the review of the Court of Session.
The High Court of Justiciary is the supreme juris diction in Scotland for the trial of crimes. It consists of six judges, who are also Lords of Session, the Lord Justice Clerk presiding. It has a nominal head, called the Lord Justice General, who however never presides. Of the court sitting in Edinburgh, three are a quorum. On the circuits two judges travel to gether, but one can sit alone. Scotland is divided into three circuits, the north, west, and south; each cir cuit having three districts of several counties each, the circuit town of the district being the county town of one of the shires of the district. The north circuit towns are Perth, Inverness, and Aberdeen; the west are Glasgow, Stirling, and Inverary; and the south are Jedburgh, Dumfries, and Ayr. This court is com petent to the trial of all crimes, including high trea son; though this last is generally tried by a commis sion of over and terminer appointed by the Crown. As a court of review in criminal matters, the proceedings of all inferior criminal judicatories, including the Court of Admiralty, are subject to it. The circuit courts can review the sentences of all inferior courts, which in fer " neither death nor demembration." There is, however, no appeal from the Court of Justiciary to the House of Lords, or to any other tribunal.
The trials in this court are and have long been by jury. The jury's number is fifteen, and a majority de cide the verdict. By 6 Geo. IV. e. 22, power has been given to juries to pronounce viva voee verdicts, even when not unanimous, instead of the old method, of written verdicts sealed up; which last, however, the court may still direct. After much discussion in Parliament and in the country on the mode of return ing and choosing juries, the same statute has enacted that the sheriffs shall make lists of qualified persons in their counties, and keep a book for general, and another for special juries as qualified by 55 Geo. III. 42. From these books lists are to be made out by re gular rotation, one-third being special, from which lists the juries to try the causes are to be chosen by ballot in court. In criminal trials a right is given to each party to challenge five jurors, but only two of them special, without assigning any reason; and any others on cause shown.
It is not wonderful that a court of such undefined power as was once the Court of Session, should have exercised power to punish crimes; but the cognizance of certain crimes has been bestowed on it by statutes, viz. deforcement of its officers and breach of arrest ment, contravention of lawburrows, perjury and su bornation of perjury arising out of process in its own court, fraudulent bankruptcy, from the long dura tion of its evidence being unsuitable to the perempto ry diets of the Court of Justiciary, improbation and forgery, falsehood committed in the course of their own proceedings, &c. It proceeds without a jury.
By the act 1681, c. 16, the High Admiral is de clared " as the King's Lieutenant and Justice General on the seas, and in all harbours and creeks, and upon fresh water within the flood mark," to have the sole jurisdiction in all maritime and seafaring causes within this realm. He is competent exclusively to try piracy, mutiny on ship board, and all crimes strict ly maritime; but only cumulatively murder on ship board and other crimes not connected with navigation. The Court of Justiciary has frequently sustained its own jurisdiction to try such crimes, although com mitted within sea mark, as in the case of Mungo Campbell, who murdered the Earl of Eglinton within sea mark. Capital punishment may follow the sen tence of the judge admirals, an instance of which oc curred in 1822 of two men for a flagrant act of piracy and murder committed on the high seas. The trial in this court is by jury.
The sheriff is competent to the trial of all crimes except treason, and the four pleas of the crown, as robbery, rape, murder, and wilful fire-raising. It was the ancient law that the sheriff could try murder when the offender was immediately taken—redhand as it was called, in which case execution within one sun was to be done upon him. This, however, has long been relinquished, as unsuitable to the calmness and dignity of more modern criminal judicature. The sheriff, however, may try house-breaking, theft, and all lesser crimes down to gross immoralities, and breaches of the peace; and although he cannot trans port, he can try capitally. This power, however, is never exercised now-a-clays. The criminal jurisdic tion of the magistrates of boroughs, who exercise the power of sheriffs within borough, are much the same with that of the sheriffs. In important cases the sheriffs try by jury.