Religion and Education.— We have seen that during the 16th and 17th centuries public affairs in Scotland were dominated by ecclesiastical considerations, and• that at the Revolution of 1689 this domination came to an end, and material interests came more and more to occupy the public mind. Nevertheless, though religion thus ceased to be the determining fac tor in the national policy, it still remained a subject of absorbingpublic interest to the com munity at large, and throughout the 18th and 19th centuries religious controversy fills a large place in the national history. As a result of the Revolution, Episcopalianism, which had been made the national church by Charles II at his restoration in 1660, and which clung to the House of Stuart as its founder and patron, was disestablished in 1689, and Presbyterianism put in its place (1690), was bound by its own interests to support the Revolution regime, The National Church thus established remains till the present day, but in the course of the last two centuries there have been frequent seces sions, resulting ih the formation of various religious bodies of more or less importance. By the restoration of lay patronage in 1712 a division of opinion was created which led to the first Secession under Ebenezer Erskine, whose members are known as the "Associate Presbytery," or popularly as "Seceders." Among the Seceders themselves there soon arose a division regarding the oath of allegiance enacted from the Scottish burghs, from which sprang the two bodies, respectively denominated Burgh ers and Anti-burghers. In 1761 came another Secession from the Established Church, also occasioned by difficulties connected with pat ronage — the new Secession taking the name of the "Presbytery of Relief." In 1820 the Burgh ers and Anti-burghers united under the desig nation of the "Associate Synod of the Seces sion Church," and in 1847 this body joined that of the Relief, to form the "United Pres byterian Church." In 1843, one of the memor able years in Scottish Ecclesiastical history, the national church suffered its greatest dis aster since the Revolution. Once more on the question of patronage, as involving the question of spiritual independence—the right of a church to independence of the state in all matters touching purity of doctrine — a numerous body of its ministers, led by Dr. Chalmers, effected the "Disruption" and set up what was known as the "Free Church of Scot land." Finally, In 1900, the Free Church and the United Presbyterian Church united under the name of the "United Free Church of Scot land." In this union, however, a minority of the Free Church refused to concur, and a judg ment of the House of Lords (1904) decided that the property of the church belonged to the minority —a decision which occasioned an Act of Parliament appointing a commission to allo cate the property between the two sections.
Thus at the present time in Scotland there are two main bodies of the Presbyterian Church: the Established Church and the United Free Church. The Scottish Episcopal Church and the Roman Catholic Church, the latter mainly consisting of persons of Irish extraction, are the two other chief religious denominations. In the recent history of Scottish elementary education the most memorable event is the Education Act of 1872, by which Board Schools were substituted for the old Parish Schools and education was made compulsory from the age of 5 to 14. In 1889 elementary education was
made free. While Scotland has always com pared favorably with other countries in ele mentary education, her provision for secondary education remains defective, though govern ment grants for that purpose have wrought much improvement in recent years. Within the last half century the universities of Scot land have undergone reforms which have changed their original character and were in tended to adapt them to modern needs. By the University (Scotland) Act of 1858 they re ceived a common constitution, and by the Uni versities Act of 1889 this common constitution was further reformed. The supreme body in each case is a University Court; there is also a Senatus, consisting of principal and pro fessors, who regulate internal administration. There are four universities—Edinburgh, Glas gow, Aberdeen and Saint Andrew's, to which last the University College, of Dundee is affiliated.
Law and The law of Scotland was originally based on Roman law, but there has been a gradual assimilation between the law of Scotland and that of England. This has been specially the case with mercantile law, which is now mainly identical in both countries. The system of real property law, however, is fun damentally different from that of England. In England the fee simple can be split up into estates for life, while fee simple in Scotland cannot be split up; and what is called a life rent is merely a burden on the fee. Estates in remainder arc unknown; the fee is destined to institutes and substitutes, and the word entail means in Scotland only a destination that can not he broken except under defined conditions. In Scotland, in the law of contracts no consid eration is necessary to make a contract action able. In Scotland, law and equity have never been separated, but have always formed a single system. The law of personal and domestic re lations, being largely founded on Roman law, differs in its broad principles from that of Eng land. The tendency, however, has been to as similate the two in the course of modern legis lative changes. Marriage, for example, need not in Scotland be celebrated in facie ecclesiae, but can be constituted by mere informal con tract of the parties. Marriages can also be more readily dissolved— desertion being suffi cient ground of itself. The administration of the civil law is vested in the Court of Session subject to appeal to the House of Lords. This tribunal consists of an Inner or Appellate House, which sits in two Divisions, one of which is presided over by the Lord President and the other by the Lord Justice Clerk. There is also an Outer House, consisting of five Judges of First Instance who sit singly under the title of Lords Ordinary. There are also. in each county local courts with restricted jurisdiction, presided over by sheriffs or sheriff-substitutes, which in many respects correspond to the County Courts in England, but have a some what wider jurisdiction. The criminal law is administered by the same body of judges sit ting on the criminal side and with a somewhat different organization. In his capacity as Head of the High Court of Justiciary, the Lord President is Lord Justice-General of Scotland. There are also Magistrates' Courts, burgh and county, which exercise police jurisdiction. These magistrates are for the most part unpaid laymen.
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