Reflections of Lord Alexander Saltoun, Advocate. "I have been led into these reflections by frequently revolving in my mind the supposed disqualification (for it is not statutory) of the eldest sons of the peers of Scotland to elect or be elected from that country to parliament: a subject, which a late event in the House of Commons naturally recalls to the mind of all who are either particularly interested in the rights and privileges of that order, of men, or concerned, in general, in the preservation of that equal spirit of freedom and justice, which is the animating principle of the British government. On the occasion of such an event, it is not unnatural to take a general retrospect of the origin, progress, and present state of the parliamentary representation of Scotland; to trace the circumstances of the times by which the eldest sons of the great barons, or Peers of that country, came to be excluded from that privilege; to weigh the legality and the force of those decisions by which their exclusion has been effected; and to consider, whether their restoration to the privileges of their fellow citizens, would, at the present moment, be either inconsistent with the genius of our government, or with political expedience."
