he hands of the
clergy the power of administering justice in civil cases, which
had, from the ignorance of the laity, been enjoyed by them almost
exclusively. During the whole reign of James VI., as is well
known to the Reverend Court, such a jealousy subsisted betwixt
the Church and the State, that those who were at the head of the
latter endeavored, by every means in their power, to diminish the
influence of the former. At present, when these dissensions
happily no longer subsist, the law, as far as regards the office
of justice of the peace, appears to have fallen into disuse, and
the respondent conceives that any minister is capable of acting
in that, or any other judicial capacity, provided it is of such a
nature as not to withdraw much of his time from what the statute
calls the comfort and edification of the flock committed to him.
Further, the Act 1584 is virtually repealed by the statute 6th
Anne, _c._ 6, sect. 2, which makes the Scots Law on the subject
of justices of the peace the same with that of England, where the
office is publicly exercised by the clergy of all descriptions.

... Another branch of the accusation against the defender as a
justice of peace, is the ratification of irregular marriages. The
defender must here also call the attention of his reverend
brethren and judges to the expediency of his conduct. The girls
were usually with child at the time the application was made to
the defender. In this situation, the children born out of
matrimony, though begot under promise of marriage, must have been
thrown upon the parish, or perhaps murdered in infancy, had not
the men been persuaded to consent to a solemn declaration of
betrothment, or private marriage, emitted before the defender as
a justice of peace. The defender himself, commiserating the
situation of such women, often endeavored to persuade their
seducers to do them justice; and men frequently acquiesced
{p.189} in this sort of marriage, when they could by no means
have been prevailed upon to go through the ceremonies of
proclamation of banns, or the expense and trouble of a public
wedding. The declaration of a previous marriage was sometimes
literally true; sometimes a fiction voluntarily emitted by the
parties themselves, under the belief that it was the most s