authority. To this general temper of the government was
added the peculiar form of the country, broken by mountains into many
subdivisions scarcely accessible but to the natives, and guarded by
passes, or perplexed with intricacies, through which national justice
could not find its way.

The power of deciding controversies, and of punishing offences, as some
such power there must always be, was intrusted to the Lairds of the
country, to those whom the people considered as their natural judges. It
cannot be supposed that a rugged proprietor of the rocks, unprincipled
and unenlightened, was a nice resolver of entangled claims, or very exact
in proportioning punishment to offences. But the more he indulged his
own will, the more he held his vassals in dependence. Prudence and
innocence, without the favour of the Chief, conferred no security; and
crimes involved no danger, when the judge was resolute to acquit.

When the chiefs were men of knowledge and virtue, the convenience of a
domestick judicature was great. No long journies were necessary, nor
artificial delays could be practised; the character, the alliances, and
interests of the litigants were known to the court, and all false
pretences were easily detected. The sentence, when it was past, could
not be evaded; the power of the Laird superseded formalities, and justice
could not be defeated by interest or stratagem.

I doubt not but that since the regular judges have made their circuits
through the whole country, right has been every where more wisely, and
more equally distributed; the complaint is, that litigation is grown
troublesome, and that the magistrates are too few, and therefore often
too remote for general convenience.

Many of the smaller Islands have no legal officer within them. I once
asked, If a crime should be committed, by what authority the offender
could be seized? and was told, that the Laird would exert his right; a
right which he must now usurp, but which surely necessity must vindicate,
and which is therefore yet exercised in lower degrees, by some of the
proprietors, when legal processes cannot be obtained.

In all greater questions, however, there is now happily an end to all
fear or hope from malice or from favour. The roads are secure in those
places through which, forty years ago, no traveller could pass without a
convoy. All trials of right by the sword are forgotten, and the mean are
in as little danger from the powerful as