German, and Belgian guild statutes ordain that no one with dirty hands,' or with blue nails, or who hawked his wares on the streets,' should be a guild brother, and that no craftsman should be admitted till he had forsworn his trade for a year and a day. The Laws of the Four Burghs excluded dyers, fleshers, and shoemakers from the merchant guild, if they worked with their own hands, and the Statutes of the Guild prohibited any butcher from dealing in wool and hides so long as he carried on his trade. But the merchant guild not only excluded craftsmen; it assumed the right to regulate them. Thus the Statutes of the Guild contain ordinances for shoemakers, glovers, skinners and butchers. This condition of matters could not long continue without some effort being made by the craftsmen to improve their condition, and that object could only be effected by organization. The merchant-guild presented itself as a model of the required organization, and so suggested the formation of subordinate fraternities and combinations. Societies of craftsmen were accordingly formed, which afterwards obtained recognition from the governing body of the burgh, and sometimes from the Crown. But even these societies were exclusive in their constitution and aims. They were so many leagues of master craftsmen against the encroachments of the merchant class; but they dominated in turn over the unfree workman, and waged a constant war against the invasion of their own trade monopolies from without. It was, in truth, as has been observed by Mr. E. W. Robertson, a hard age for the dependant classes wherever they were, and the bondman in burgh' may at times have cast many a wistful glance towards the blue hills in the distance. Monopoly and exclusive dealing were only in accordance with the spirit and policy of the age; and must inevitably have arisen in every quarter, when it was enacted that every sale and purchase should be made in port,' and in the presence of witnesses chosen in burgh,' an enactment which must, of course, have concentrated all the traffic of the district connected with the burgh in the hands of the resident population." Of the crafts and occupations prosecuted in the burghs at The the time under consideration, the old laws and forms of procedure mention bakers, brewers, (male and female), fleshers, millers, fishers, tanners, skinners, shoemakers, dyers of cloth, maltsters, wine taverners, tailors, saddlers, and woolcombers. That there were many others cannot be doubted. memorials of London and London life in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, mention ropers or ropemakers, ironmongers, nailmakers, armourers, and a great variety of others, including many the names of which are now forgotten. In addition to these, however, evidence exists in the records of Scottish burghs, that Seals of Cause were granted by the magistrates and councils incorporating or regulating hat makers, wrights, masons, weavers, hammermen, (including blackmiths), goldsmiths, lorymers, cutlers, bucklemakers, armourers, fleshers, coopers, walkers and shearers, bonnetmakers, surgeons and barbers, candlemakers, bakers, tailors, skinners, and furriers. No more interesting chapter in the history of our old towns could be written than that which would describe the gradual development of those various crafts, notwithstanding the hostility they had to encounter from the mercantile classes, as that took form in the legislation of parliaments and town councils, their incorporation by means of seals of cause granted by the magistrates, the constitution of these subordinate incorporations, their struggles to participate in the management of the common affairs of the burgh, and the steps by which they laboriously gained their object. But these are matters which cannot be entered upon here. The limits of this article have already been so far exceeded, that it is impossible even to advert to much that is essentially connected with the subject. It appears to us, however, that an acquaintance with the leading features of the constitution of burghs, as we have attempted to refer to them, underlies everything like an intelligent survey of town life in mediaval times. A word in conclusion as to the beneficial influence which burghs have exercised on the development of the country, and as to the obligations of citizenship in the present day. At a time when law and order were not established, when the power of the sovereign was restrained and sometimes overawed by the power of the feudal nobility, when the land was frequently devastated by foreign invasion or torn by contending and selfish factions, there were but two institutions that could be looked to for protection and security to the arts of peace. These were the Church and the Burgh. Of the former it can only be said here that, with all its imperfections and shortcomings, it was in this, as in other countries, the greatest and most powerful instrument in the promotion of civilisation, asserting in a rude age of brute force and violence the eternal principles of justice and mercy, and appealing to laws higher and more sacred than those of earth. But next in importance to the Church may be placed the Burghs. They were associations for the prosecution of trade and commerce, to which security and protectionborn of law and order-were indispensable. They had strength, for all defensive purposes, in their combination. But they were strong also in the possession of rights, acquired it may be by prescription, but confirmed and fortified by royal charters and parliamentary legislation. Admission to burgess-ship, like admission to the Church, emancipated the slave, and gave him and his family rights of property and personal rights of the most substantial kind. It gave him at once the sense of security which self-government confers. Whatever might be the condition of the royal courts, or of the courts of regality and barony, the burgess could always claim to be tried by magistrates of his own election-responsible to the burgesses, and bound to administer justice, not according to any arbitrary rules, but in conformity with a well-defined system of jurisprudence. Trade and commerce were exclusively in the hands of the burgess class, and to the burgess of energy and talent the way was open to wealth and influence, and to a position among the landed class. Under such circumstances, the trade of the country grew, and relations were established with the great commercial cities of the continent. Thus the Scottish merchant became acquainted with the products, the people, and the institutions of other countries, and the knowledge and experience which he thus acquired were speedily communicated to his countrymen. The wealth derived from mercan tile enterprise gradually percolated through and enriched the kingdom. All these influences, conjoined with those derived from the settlement in the Scottish burghs of skilled merchants and craftsmen from abroad, served to elevate the standard of intelligence in the towns. Burghs became the homes of such education and culture as were then known, and it is to the honour of the descendants of the burgesses of the times to which reference has been made, that they founded and fostered schools and universities. That the old burgesses were intolerant and exclusive in the assertion of their commercial and trading monopolies, is true. But the principles of free trade were not understood in their days any more than the principles on which toleration of opinion now rests, and we must judge institutions as we judge men, according to the light and knowledge of the period in which they existed. The system of selfgovernment which obtained in burghs from the earliest times. was also a means of incalculable advantage in educating the burgesses, and eventually the people at large, for political action; and to the broadening, widening, elevating influence of such education we may attribute, in no inconsiderable degree, the popular reception of the principles of the Reformation, with all the material, intellectual, and religious advantages which have followed. Our greatest statesmen, therefore, are the first to recognise the obligations under which we lie to municipal institutions. The times have greatly changed since burghs were first settled and consolidated. But the municipal institutions of the present day are still safeguards of popular liberty, and whatever tends to lessen their influence, or weaken their hold on the allegiance of the people, cannot fail to be permanently injurious to the country. In the old times the merchant and the trader whose wealth and intelligence placed him in the foremost ranks of his fellows, deemed it an honour as well as a duty, to take his share in the management of the local affairs of his burgh. The same necessity exists still. The interests which our great municipal corporations in the present day represent and administer, are larger and more important than they ever were before, and it is to be hoped that, as in times past our merchant princes and men of acknowledged position and experience devoted themselves to civic affairs, so their successors in time to come will show that there is no decadence in public spirit, but that the sentiments of duty and of patriotism are sufficient to ensure that every one shall recognise the obligations of burghal life, and bear his fair share of its duties and responsibilities. ART. IV.—ARCHEOLOGY IN THE SOUTH-WEST OF SCOTLAND. 1. Archæological and Historical Collections Relating to the Counties of Ayr and Wigton. Vols. I., II., III., IV. Edinburgh, 1878-1881. 2. Ancient Scottish Lake-Dwellings, or Crannogs, with Supplementary Chapter on Remains of Lake-Dwellings in England. By ROBERT MUNRO, M.A., M.D., &c. Edinburgh, 1882. THE HE antiquaries of Ayr and Wigton have set an example which deserves to be followed in every other county in Scotland. Having, in the year 1877, formed themselves into a society for the purpose of preserving some records of the various pre-historic and medieval remains of antiquity,' in their two counties, they have since carried on their work with admirable spirit and success. One or two attempts have been made to publish Collections' relating to other of the Scottish shires, and invaluable services have been rendered to the study of antiquity by the publications, among others, of the Bannatyne and Maitland Clubs, and by those of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland; but so far as we are aware, no other society of a precisely similar nature exists in the country. A proposal to form one for the County of Renfrew has, we hear, been recently mooted, but any definite steps towards its formation have not, we believe, as yet been taken. We are glad to learn, however, that the antiquities of this important county are not in the meantime to be neglected, and that consider |