repealed or varied by the justices at their said quarter sessions, or by the Lords of Session or Justiciary at Edinburgh, or by the circuit courts of justiciary, on the application of any two or more justices of the peace. XXIV. And be it enacted, That no person liable to be summoned by virtue of this act shall be exempt from the jurisdiction of the said justices on account of privilege, as being a member of any other court of justice. XXV. Provided always, and be it enacted, That this act, or any thing herein contained, shall not extend to any debt or demand where the title of any lands, tenements, or hereditaments, or where any heritable right whatsoever, is brought in question, nor to any other debt, matter, or thing that shall or may arise upon or concerning the validity of any will, testament, or contract of marriage, although the same shall not amount to the sum of five pounds Sterling; nor to any debt for any money or thing won at or by means of any horse-race, cock-match, or any kind of gaming or play, or any debt or demand for or on account of any spirituous liquors, any thing herein contained to the contrary in anywise notwithstanding. XXVI. And be it enacted, That no constable or other officer of the peace, to whom execution of the decrees and warrants of the justices in cases falling under the present act may be committed, shall be liable to any penalty, fine, or punishment for selling goods or effects under authority of the said decrees and warrants, by public sale or auction, although such constable or peace officer may not be licensed as an auctioneer; any thing in the act of nineteenth of George the Third, Chapter Fifty-Six, or in any other act or acts for regulating sales by public auction, or imposing du ties thereon, to the contrary in anywise notwithstanding. XXVII. And be it further enacted, That no solicitor or procurator in any inferior court in Scotland, or the partner of any such person, shall from and after the passing of this act be capable to continue or be a justice of the peace, or act as such, in any county in Scotland, during such time as such solicitor, procurator or partner of any such person shall continue in the business or practice of solicitor or procurator in any inferior court. With regard to complaints against justices and constables for things done in the performance of their duty, there are two statutes:-The act 24. of Geo. II. cap. 44, which does not extend to Scotland: see case of Duke of Douglas v. Lockhart, 18. Dec. 1753, reversed on appeal, and note to the fourth edition of Tait's Justice of Peace, p. 273: The other is the statute 43. of Geo. III. cap. 141, which does apply to Scotland: see. case of Gibsons v. Murdoch & Eaton, 18. June 1817. It is in the following terms: "I. Whereas it is expedient that justices of the peace in "Great Britain and Ireland respectively, who, by virtue of "divers acts of Parliament in force in the united kingdom, "are authorised and required to convict persons of sundry "offences in a summary way, should be rendered more safe " in the execution of such their duty;" Be it therefore enacted, That in all actions whatsoever which shall, at any time after the passing of this act, be brought against any justice or justices of the peace in the united kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, for or on account of any conviction by him or them had or made, under or by virtue of any act or acts of Parliament in force in the said united kingdom, or for or by reason of any act, matter or thing whatsoever, done or commanded to be done by such justice or justices, for the levying of any penalty, apprehending any party, or for or about the carrying of any such conviction into effect, in case such conviction shall have been quashed, the plaintiff or plaintiffs in such action or actions, besides the value and amount of the penalty or penalties which may have been levied upon the said plaintiff or plaintiffs, in case any levy thereof shall have been made, shall not be entitled to recover any more or greater damages than the sum of twopence, nor any costs of suit whatsoever, unless it shall be expressly alleged in the declaration in the action wherein the recovery shall be had, and which shall be in an action upon the case only, that such acts were done maliciously, and without any reasonable and probable cause. II. And be it further enacted, That such plaintiff shall not be entitled to recover against such justice any penalty which shall have been levied, nor any damages or costs whatsoever, in case such justice shall prove at the trial that such plaintiff was guilty of the offence whereof he had been convicted, or on account of which he had been apprehended, or had otherwise suffered, and that he had undergone no greater punishment than was assigned by law to such offence. Stair, II. 3. 62. and III. 5. 29.-Ersk. ut supra.— Hume, II. 33. DECISIONS. Sharp v. Maxwell, 11. July 1811, Dict. II. 508. - Bell v. Dundas, 4. Feb. 1752.-Watson v. Ramsay & Meek, 27. Jan. 1813, Justiciary.-Fisher v. Robertson & Smith, 14. Jan. 1815.-Hairgrieve & Donaldson v. Minister & KirkSession of Linton & Eckford, 13. July 1749.—Murray v. Turnbull, 19. Jan. 1797. MAGISTRATES. See BURGH ROYAL. MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT. See PARLIA MENT. MINOR. See CURATORS. MUIRBURN. See GAME. OATH OF CALUMNY. The purpose of an action in general is, either to enforce payment of a debt, or to vindicate some right that is unjustly withheld. But there may be other motives for legal proceedings. They may originate in a wish to injure the character, or to disturb the peace of the defender, under the pretext of following out some frivolous or pretended claim. To repress calumnious actions, the statute 1429, cap. 125, ordains, That advocates and forespeakers in temporal courtes, and alswa the parties that they pleade for, gif they be present, in all causes that they pleade, in the beginning or he be heard in the cause, he sall sweare, that the cause he trowis is gud and leill, that he sall pleade: And gif the principal partie be absent, the advocate sall sweare in the saule of him, after as is conteined in their meters: Illud juretur, quod lis sibi justa videtur. As applied to advocates, this act has long been in desuetude; but, in regard to pursuers of actions, it is still in force. ACTS OF SEDERUNT. With regard to the terms of the oath, it is declared, by act of sederunt, 13. January 1692, "That in case any party require an oath of calumny upon an alledgeance propon"ed and found relevant for him, that he may require the "party against whom the same is to be proven, to depone "whether he does not know the same to be true; so that "he should not put the proposer to the necessity to prove "the same: And if the party against whom any point or al"ledgeance is to be proven require the oath of calumny of "the party proposing the same, the terms shall be, that he "may inquire whether he knows the thing that he propo"ses is not true? so that it were calumnious for him to in"sist therein: And the Lords declare, that a party is not "holden to give an oath of calumny in facto proprio et re"centi, seeing upon the matter the same resolves into an oath " of verity." Act of sederunt, 25. Dec. 1708, as to obligation of peers respecting oaths of calumny. By act of sederunt, 1. Feb. 1715, § 6, " any party against "whom a matter of fact shall be pleaded, may be compelled, "without making oath, to confess or deny it: And, if it "shall appear that he has denied it falsely, he is subjected |