Scotland > 1882-1915 - Slater's Royal National Commercial Directory of Scotland > 1886 - Slater's (late Pigot and Co's) Royal national commercial directory and topography of Scotland

EDINBURGHSHIRE
EDINBURGH
SLATER'S
afterwards, in consequence of a union, known as the Edinburgh
and Glasgow Bank.
The Union Bank has the greatest authorised note circulation of
any bank in Scotland, £454,346. Next to it is the British Linen
Company, £438,024. The authorised circulation of the Com-
mercial Bank is £374,880 ; that of the Bank of Scotland is £343,418 ;
of the Royal Bank, £216,451; the National Bank, £297,024; and
the Clydesdale Bank, £274,321. The average actual circulation,
based in part, under Sir Eobert Peel's Act of 1846, on the coin held
by the banks, is £5,164,160. The price of stock or shares of all the
banks gives proof of their prosperity. The banking business of
G-lasgow is in great part conducted by the banks having their
head offices in Edinburgh, as is also'that of all the provincial
towns of Scotland. The Scottish banking companies were at one
time far more numerous, but the tendency of late has been to-
wards the incorporation of the minor banks with the great banks
of Edinburgh and Glasgow .
In fire arid life assurances there are many establishments of
high standing, having branches in the principal towns of the
United Kingdom, and who have commodious and many of them
splendid buildings. Amongst these may be mentioned the
Scottish Widows' Fund, the Life Association of Scotland, the
Scottish Provident Association, the Standard, the Caledonian, the
Edinburgh, the Scottish Union and National, the North British
and the English and Scottish Law Life Insurance Companies. The
amount of business in life assurance and annuities done by the
Edinburgh companies is very great ; their aggregate income is
considerably over live millions sterling, and their funds over forty
millions sterling, and there is not one of them of which the
stability is not perfectly unquestionable.
From Edinburgh there are many means of to-ansit to all parts of
the united kingdom, by rail, road, sea, and inland navigation.
There are two railway stations in Edinburgh — that of the North
British Company, between Princes street and the Old Town, and
that of the Caledonian Company, at the west end of Princes
street. From the former of these stations lines radiate in all
directions, except to the south-west, to which those of the Cale-
donian Company chiefly extend. Extensive railway systems,
with many branch lines, belong to both companies. A valuable
means of water carriage is furnished by the Union Canal, between
Edinburgh and Glasgow, joining the Great Canal near Larbert,
but the traffic on it has much diminished since the opening of rail-
ways. The basin of the canal is situated about half a mile south-
west of the castle, and is called Port Hopetoan.
MUNICIPAL, LEGAL, AND NATIONAL INSTITUTIONS AND
COUET8 OF LAW.
The administration of the municipal and police affairs of the
city of Edinburgh is vested in the Town Council, consisting of
forty-one members. Of this number, one (the Dean of Guild) is
annually returned by the Guild brethren ; one (the Deacon
Convener) is annually returned by the Incorporated Trades, and
thirty-nine are appointed by popular election— three for each of
the thirteen wards into which the city is divided. The Council
appoints from the ward-elected members a Lord Provost, six
Bailies, and a City Treasurer. The Lord Provost is Lord-
Lieutenant of the County of the City, and his office, as respects
dignity and duties, resembles that of the Lord Mavor of London,
while the functions of the Bailies are analagous to those of the
Aldermen. Of the ward-elected members of Council one-third I
part must retire annually, but the Lord Provost and the City
Treasurer hold their offices for three years from the time of
appointment. The magistrates of Edinburgh hold criminal and
civil courts, and along with the Mid-Lothian Sheriffs are judges
in the police court. The Dean of Guild presides in the Dean of
Guild Court, which exercises jurisdiction in matters relating to the
erection, alteration, and sanitary arrangements of buildings, and
is possessed of considerable powers for ensuring the public safety
in regard to removal or reconstruction of insecure and dangerous
buildings within the city. The City Treasurer is chairman of the
Treasurer's or Finance Committee, and represents in the Town
Council the financial department of the Corporation business. Of
the principal officers of the Corporation there are— the Town
Clerk, who is the Council's secretary and the recorder of its
minutes ; the City Chamberlain, who has the accounting with
the Council's revenues (about £250,0 a year) ; and the City
Assessors, who are the legal advisers of the Judges in the several
city courts There were formerly fourteen Incorporated Trades
in the city, but now there are only thirteen, the Surgeons and
Barbers (who had a "seal of cause" from the Town Council in
1505) having ceased to exist as an incorporation connected with
the city trades. The following are the thirteen existing incor-
porations :— 1. The Goldsmiths, formerly attached to the Hammer-
men, were constituted in 1581, and have their hall in South Bridge
street. 2. The Skinners or Gloveru were incorporated in 1586. 3.
The Furriers were constituted by Act of Council, in 1593. 4. The
Hammermen were incorporated in 1483, and consisted at first of
blacksmiths, goldsmiths, lorimers, saddlers, cutlers, and
armourers, but the goldsmiths were separated from them in
1581; they meet in the Chapel of St. Mary Magdalen, in the
Cowgate. 5 and 6. The Wrights and Masons were constituted in
1475, but by a decree of the Court of Session in 1703 the bowmakers,
glaziers, plumbers, and upholsterers were added to the masons ;
and to the Wrights were attached the painters, slaters, sieve-
wrights, and coopers ; this incorporation is known also by the title
of the United Incorporation of St. Mary's Chapel. T. The Tailors
were incorporated in 1500. 8. The Bakers were in existence as a
corporate body before 1522. but the exact period of their constitu-
tion is unknown. 9. The Fleshers (or butchers) were incorporated
before 1488. 10. The Cordwainers((or shoemakers) in 1449. 11.
The Websters (or weavers) inJ1475. 12. The Waulkers (or cloth
workers) were incorporated in 1500, and the Hatters were united
with them in 1672. 13. The Bonnetmakers were incorporated in
1530, and in 1640 the trade of Lilster (or dver) was united with
them. The Candlemakers were chartered by the magistrates in
1517, although they are not one of the incorporated trades, and
8
have no vote in the election of the Deacon Convener. Scottish
trade incorporations formerly possessed exclusive rights of trading
within their respective burghs, but these privileges were
abolished by statute in 1 846. The incorporated trades or " crafts-
men " of Edinburgh possess considerable properties and funds,
and they maintain and manage an institution (the Maiden
Hospital) for the education and up-bringing of daughters of
freemen craftsmen.
Before the Scottish Burgh Reform Act, passed in 1833, the
Corporation of Edinburgh was of a close character, though not
altogether without an admixture of popular representation. The
city has since been divided into thirteen wards for municipal and
parliamentary elections. The city at present returns two
members to the House of Commons, and the county of Mid-
Lothian one member. The members for the city being T. R.
Buchanan, Esq., and S. D. Waddv,Esq. ; and for the county the
Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone.
Under the Redistribution of Seats Bill, following on the
Franchise Act of 1884, it is proposed to divide the eir.y for parlia-
mentary representation into four divisions, each to return one
member. The Police Establishment was remodelled in 1822, and
severa 1 important changes have been made in it since from time
to time. When the boundaries of the city were extended in 1882,
a considerable addition was made. The police force now numbers,
445 men. The chief police office is situated in High street, and
there are eight sub-offices in different parts of the city, two of
these being handsome buildings just completed, in West Port and
Causewayside. A Police Court is held daily, the judges being the
bailies and the sheriff's substitute, who preside in alternate
months. A Burgh Court is likewise held daily, presided over by
justices of the peace for the county of the city of Edinburgh.
The Lock-up House is at the back of the Parliament House, and is
for the reception of offenders under examination. The Canongate
Tolbooth might have been mentioned among the relics of
antiquity. It is a gloomy but picturesque building, of the end of
the 16th century, with corner turrets, a small spire, a clock fixed
in a wooden projection, and an outside stair. Her Majesty's
Prison is situated on the south side of the Calton Hill. It
originally consisted of the bridewell and the governor's house,
both of which were of the peculiar early English castellated style,
designed by the celebrated Mr. Adam upon Jeremy Bentham's
principle, and founded 30th November, 1791. About 1817 an
additional block of the same style and also a new house for the
governor were erected on the west side of the bridewell. About 1846
a block of the later Norman castellated style, from designs by
Brown, was erected on the east, side of the bridewell. In 1882 the
bridewell was demolished, and two new blocks of a style in
harmony with the erections of 1817 and 1846 have been built partly
on the site of the old bridewell ; and further alterations are
anticipated, which when completed will render the prison second
to no other such group of buildings in Scotland. When completed
there will be about 500 cells.
Courts of Law and Legal Institutions. — College of Justice.
—The legal profession is divided into the following classes :— 1,
Thirteen Judges of the Court of Session, styled Lords of Session ;
2, Advocates (barristers) who possess the privilege of pleading
before every court in Scotland, and also in Scotch appeals before
the House of Lords ; 3, Writers to the Signet (similar to solicitors
in England), Solicitors before the Supreme Courts, Advocates' First
Clerks, Solicitors-at-Law, and Chartered Accountants. These three
classes form the College of Justice.
The Court of Session and Teind Court.— The Court of Session,
the highest civil court in Scotland, originally consisted of 14
judges and a president, one half of the judges and the president
being churchmen, and the king having the privilege of appointing
i hree or four peers or lords of his great council to sit and vote
with the lords of session. Ecclesiastics were appointed judges,
even after the Reformation. Till 180S the judges all sat in one
court ; but it was then divided into two separate courts, known
as the First Division and the Second Division, which, however,
might be brought, together in cases of difficulty. In 1810 the
junior judges were appointed to sit separately as Lords Ordinary,
each trying cases in the first instance. In 1830 the number of
judges was reduced to 13, and so it continues. The Lords
Ordinary are five in number, forming what is called the Outer
House ; the First Division and Second Division, consisting of four
judges each, form the Inner House. The Lord President presides
over the First Division and over the united coiu't ; the Lord
Justice Clerk over the Second Division. The Lords Ordinary may
be called in to take part in the hearing of a case in the whole court.
Cases may be carried from the Lords Ordinary to the Inner House,
but only to that division of it to which the Lord Ordinary is
attached who tried the case in the first instance. The junior Lord
Ordinary acts as Lord Ordinary of Bills, disposing of summary
petitions and business requiring special despatch ; but during the
vacations of the court this office is taken by all the judges in
rotation, except the Lord President and the Lord Justice Clerk.
The Judges of the Court of Session are appointed for life, and are
always members of the Faculty of Advocates. They assume titles
like those of peers, prefixing Lord either to their surname or to the
name of an estate. The judgment of the Court of Session may be
appealed to the House of Lords. In 1815 trial by jury was
introduced in civil cases in Scotland, to the extent of deciding as
to matters of fact and fixing the amount of damages. Jury trials
are presided over by one or more of the judges of the Court of
Session. The jury in civil cases consists of 12 jurymen, and a
unanimous verdict is received at once ; but if they cannot all
agree, the verdict of a majority of nine is received after a certain
time. The Teind Court is held every alternate Wednesday during
term, and has the power of regulating and enforcing the payment
of tithes or teinds ; for the clergy cannot themselves exact their
tithes, which are obtained from the landowners, and not from
tenants ; it is through the medium of this court only they receive
them. It belongs to this court to determine the amount of
stipend which the clergyman of each parish shall receive out of
the teinds of that parish, granting augmentations from time to
time, when the teinds are not already exhausted. The judges of