Appendix
A.
As to the representation in Parliament, the freeholders in the whole of the Counties of Scotland, who had the power of returning the County Members, were, in 1823, for example, just under three thousand in number. These were mostly gentlemen of position living on their estates, with a sprinkling of professional men; the former being, from their want of business training, ill suited, one would suppose, for conducting the business of a nation. The Town Councils were self-elective—hotbeds of corruption; and the members of these Town Councils were intrusted with the power of returning the Members for the boroughs. The people at large were not directly represented, if in strictness represented at all.