OVERTURES FOR Correcting and Amending the LAWS. Humbly Presented to his Grace the Duke of Queensberry, His Majesty's high Commissioner, And the Honourable Court of PARLIAMENT.  
By a Wellwisher to his Country.  
Printed in the Year 1700.   

Dedication.  
May it please your Grace, etc.  
ALbeit our neighbouring Nations be surfeited, yet it is the Misfortune of this to be starved, through want of Municipal Laws, for securing the Subjects in their Rights, by known and fixed Statutes, and not leaving and exposing the same to the arbitrary Sentiments of Judges. And though for several Centuries ago, and even to this time, there have been reiterated Commissions appointed for revising of the Laws, which are made, and Correcting thereof, or enacting what new Laws were  and expedient for the Good of the lieges, yet the same have never hitherto taken effect, being neglected by these who were appointed, having no suitable Encouragement for their Pains upon that account: Likeas, Parliaments being only called for Emergencies, requiring speedy dispatch, through the Weight of these Affairs, had not the conveniency to call for an Account of what was done by these commissionat, as said is. And it being the Custom, Interest and Prudence of Princes, to gra●●fie their Subjects with such Laws at the opening of Parliaments, as may ease them of severe and penal Rigidities, imposed more by exorbitant Custom than by clear and positive Law, or material Justice and Equity, such as Escheats, Recognitions, Wards and Marriages, and the like, which belong to His Majesty, which little or nothing augment the Thesaury, and yet great Hardship upon the Subjects, by gifting to Donatars, who have screwed the same far beyond their due Limits, which are so 〈◊〉, that there is no need of Instances, and which have much prejudged and vexed these who suffered thereby, and irritat them not only to Clamour against the same, but also the Government itself: For remeed whereof (in part) these following Overtures are offered to your Grace, and the Honourable Court of Parliament, which Natively centre at you, not only in respect of your present Character, but also of your Interest and Quality, the first being equal to what ye can desire, and the last to what is here attainable, so that nothing remains for your Grace and the Honourable House, but to secure yourselves by just and inviolable Laws, which is now the proper Season, the Nation being in full and tranquil Peace; And in this you have for your Pattern, the great Emperor Justinian, who compiled the whole Roman Laws now extant, after he had made an end of Fight, and subjugated the World to his Sceptre, and by doing whereof, ye w●ll cure (at the least,) ease the Nation of some of its present Maladies under which it labours. I doubt not but others may address your Grace with Overtures, which may be both more  and material; And therefore I leave these to such as are more fit than I,  none omnibus unum est.  
Quod placet hic spinas colligit ille rosas.   

OVERTURS Anent LAWS to be made.  

And first, Anent Husbands and Wives Interests and Rights to the Estates of each others.  
seeing by Our Law, where the Husband's Estate consists only of Bonds bearing Annualrent; The Wife when Relict hath neither Third of the same, nor Terce of the Annualrents. That therefore it be Statute she have one of them.  
2. That the Husbands Jus Mariti extend not ways to the Wife's Heretable Estate, but only the Annualrents thereof accreving before, and during the Marriage: And that he nor his Creditors nor Successors have no farther Interest in her Movable Debts or Goods, except there be express Provision made by her thereof; And if the Husband hath not exerced his Jus Mariti in his own time, as to the uplifting of these Annualrents, The Right thereof shall cease and remain with her and her Representatives, but with the burden of what Debts he hath paid for her.  
3. That the Husband shall not be liable for the Wife's heretable Debt, nor yet for her Movable due before the Marriage, nor contracted during the same, except where it is ▪ and for the behoof of the Husband, and that the Quantity and Contracting shall be probable by the Wife's Oath, and he liable, unless he can give his Oath of Calumny that he has reason to believe she will depone to his prejudice, of design to burden him with an unjust Debt.  
4. The Marriage being Solemnised and the parties once Beded, all the Obligations thereanent to be valid and effectual as to all effects, tho' it last not Year and Day.  
5. That Wives personal Obligments during the Marriage be null, as also Renounciations of their Jointures or any part thereof, without consent of their Parents (if Living,) or two of their nearest Relations (if their Parents be Dead) except it be Remunerated by giving the equivalent both as to Security and Quantity.   

Anent Parents and Children.  
1. That it shall be leisum for Parents on Deathbed to provide their Daughters and younger Children by Bond or Legacies, and which shall affect their Executers and Heirs, The samen not to exceed _____ years Rent of their Estate, And that the said Estate be free, and if it be not, that the Provisions shall only be sustained in so far as they and the Debt shall extend to six years' purchase thereof.  
2. That the Parents be obliged to Aliment and Educat their Children, except they can give a reasonable Cause to the contrair; And Children to maintain their poor Parents, according to the Quality of the Parents, and the condition of the children's Estate.  
3. That for the public good it shall be leisum for Children to leave their Parents, and go to any Trade or Employment after they have attained to 14 years of Age, if the Parents cannot Educat therein, Or some other that may be as much to their Credit and Profit.  
4. That it shall be leisum to take the poor Children within ten years, and to retain them as Servants until they be 30 years old.   

Anent Tutors, Curators and their Pupils.  
1. That Tutors of Law be cognosced to be not only of the Age and Relation requisite, but also that they are reputed fit to manage, and of good Fame and Reputation.  
2. Where Tutors are named, whether with or without a Quorum, or sine quibus non, if any one of these named accept, he shall seclude the Tutor of Law, unless he also have been named one of the Tutors by the Defunct; and that these who act and behave as Tutors and are not legally entered and admitted to the Office, shall not only be liable as Tutors or Curators, but shall have no allowance of their Charges and Expenses that they have laid out either upon the Pupil or his Affairs.  
3. That Tutors and Curators shall be obliged to lend out for Interest their Pupils Money, whether principal Sums, Annualrents or Rents of Lands, and pay interest therefore, from the next Term at which it came in their hands, except they have emitted public Edicts that the same is in their hands, and was ready to be lent upon Security.  
4. That Tutors Testamentars' are not to be liable for Omissions, and that it shall be leisum for Tutors and Curators to accept with that Quality, and that the Judge admit the same, unless the nearest of Kin or some other person interested offer themselves or others to undertake the office simply without any such Qualification.  
5. That where there are more Tutors and Curators than one, and if any one of them act or intromet, he is first to be convened and discussed before the rest be liable, but so as if he be not sound solvent, The Pupil shall have recourse against the rest for the Expenses he has been at in pursuing and discussing the said insolvent person.  
6. That all Curators named, Depon, that they have not used any means, or made any desire or motion to the Pupil or any other for their being elected, and if they refuse to Depone, That they be rejected.  
7. That Minors be not allowed to make Testaments without consent of their Curators, But that Legacies left by them (expressing the Cause) be allowed according as the same shall be found just by the Judge Ordinar.  
8. That there be no Action sustained whither Petitory or Possessory against a Minor as to Lands or Heretable Rights, wherein his Father was by virtue of legal Titles in possession uninterrupted Year and Day.  
9 That no Interdictions be sustained, but such as are after Cognition of the Cause thereof taken by the Judge Ordinar, and that it shall be leisum for any near Relation or persons interested in the Preservation of any persons Estate, To apply to the Lords of Session for cognoscing the Defender to be Prodigus, and to be interdicted accordingly, and that the same shall not be taken off, but by the sentence of a Judge & causâ cognitâ.   

Anent Obligations and Contracts.  
10. That where by Contracts betwixt two parties, there is sometimes Clauses conceived in favours of third parties, That it shall be in the power of the parties Contracters, to nullify or discharge these Clauses without consent of that third party, unless the Contract be in his hand.  
2. That no Verbal Conditions, Promises or Pactions shall be Probable by Witnesses, being liable to Mistake, and uncertain as to the design and meaning of the Promiser.  
3. That the Depositation of Writs, or the Conditions of granting thereof, shall not be Probable by Witnesses, or the Oath of the Depositar or Haver, but only by Writ or Oath of the Granter, because that is in effect to evacuat Writs by Witnesses, or to make up the same thereby, which is to make Witnesses as valid and effectual a mean of Probation as Writ.  
4. That albeit by our Law, Interest be not due for Money, without Paction, until the Debtor be charged and denunced, which is needless Trouble, and very Expensive, and may tend to the Prejudice of Creditors, if he should happen to be denunced; that therefore after simple requisition of the Money due by a liquid Bond, Ticket, Subscribed Account, or the like, Annualrent shall be due even as if there were an express Paction for Payment thereof, seeing by the Requisition the Debtor is in mora.   

Anent Infeftments and Real Rights of Lands.  
1. That where any Person stands Infeft in Lands, as having purchased the same himself, or as Heir to some of his Predecessors, there shall be no more requisite for establishing the Right thereof in the person of his Heir who is to succeed him in the saids Lands, but only a general Service before the Sheriff of the Shire where the Lands lie, cognoscing the Pursuer of the Brieve to be General Heir, and of Line▪ or such an Heir as is mentioned in the Brieve; and this being Registrat and Retoured, shall be a sufficient Right to the person served, without any further Progress or Solemnity in Law, conform to the Law of France, and many other Nations.  
2. That where there is Infeftment taken in name of the persons first institute, and to these nominatim substitute, that these substitute shall not be put to further trouble for stating the Rights in their persons, failing these who are institute or substitute before them but only cognosced by an Inquest, that these persons are failied, and that he is next substitute, and that the same being cognosced, shall be a valid Right without any farther.   

Anent Superiorities and the Casualties thereof.  
1. That the King receive all singular Successors gratis, seeing the ground of Law for paying Compositions, is, that the Superior receives a Stranger in place of his Vassal and that there is no Subject can be repute a Stranger to the King, and so there ought nothing to be exacted for his Entry, and the exacting thereof is a Novelty, not being so from the beginning.  
2. Seeing the Superior gets all his Duties and Casualties from the Vassal, or his Fee, as well when not Entered as when he is; that therefore there be no Nonentry esteemed in Law, unless the Vassal be contumacious and convicted of Contempt against his Superior, and that from and after a Decreet of Nonentry to be recovered against him, he always being Major.  
3. That the Value of Vassals Marriages be only estimat and proportional to the Value of the Fee held by them in Ward, and wherein no regard is to be had to their other Estate Personal or Real.  
4. Or rather that the Wards be turned into Feu, and an estimat put on the Marriage, by which the captious way of catching Vassals, by making offers of Matches to them, will be remeeded; and this Estimat put upon their Marriages, to be either according to their Charter extant, or according to the present Valuation of their Land, which may be either done by Taxing the Marriage, or making the Feu-duty more, in lieu of all.  
5. That no Escheats (Liferent or Movable) fall, or be gifted, to the prejudice of lawful Creditors, and that they have no place until all the Rebels Debts be paid seeing by the Law of all other Nations it is a received Maxim, that Ita bona debent transire ad fiscum qualia fuerunt apud delinquentem & cum omnibus oneribus & debitis.   

Anent Fiars and Liferenters of Lands and Sum, and the Courtesy due to Husbands.  
1. That the last Termination being of the Heirs of any who are institute, infer that person to be the Fire.  
2. That the Terce extend to Lands and Teinds, and all that is Heretable, and Bonds bearing Annualrent, seeing the Relics have no Third thereof, and therefore aught to have a Liferent-Terce, where there is no Contract of Marriage.  
3. That Superiors receive Liferenters gratis, without any Composition, seeing there is no change of Vassals, and that they ought not to be put to the Trouble and Expense of Adjudging upon the Obligment in the Contract of Marriage.  
4. That Tochers and Jointures be both due, tho' the Marriage subsists not Year and Day, if it be Consummate by going to Bed; and that the Husband have the Courtesy of all Lands wherein the Wife either was or might have been Infeft, if the Marriage be Consummate as said is.   

Of Teinds.  
Teinds being Jewish, and a part of the Levitical Law, and of no Divine Right now under the Gospel, that therefore they be Consolidat with the Stock, and the Proprietar or Tacks-man put to pursue for the Price that shall be appointed to be paid therefore, and that the Price of the Teinds be first applied for buying a Maintenance for the Minister, whether of Land or Annualrent, out of the Property, which in all possible Events may be a Competency; and if in after times it shall be  to augment the same, that it be done by a personal Pole of all within the Paroch, to be casten upon them yearly.   

Of Tacks.  
1. That Tacks set at the usual and ordinary Avail of Lands in that place, or at which these were formerly set, shall be valid against Wards, Escheats, Nonentries, Forfaultures, and all other Casualties of Superiority.  
2. That Tacks set be inviolably observed, that Tenants may be thereby encouraged to Plant and Inclose, Meliorat and Cultivat the Land, and that they Enjoy the same peaceably during all the years thereof; providing always, that if the Master (for his own necessary use and utility) shall think fit, either to Labour or Inclose the same himself, either in whole or in part, that it shall be leisum for him to do the same, notwithstanding of the said Tack, he always refounding to the said Tennent, what Grassum or other Gratification he has got for making the said Tack, proportionally and effeiring to the Grassum and number of Years he was to enjoy the same; or if there was not Grassum, the Master paying the Damnages that shall be found the Tennent has sustained thorough his being removed from his Possession as said is.   

Of Transmission of Rights, and also of the Extinction thereof.  
1. That Superiors be bound to accept of Resignations in favorem, and that an Instrument of Refusal, shall be as to all intents equivalent to an Charter and Season by the said Superior, unless at the taking of the said Instrument he give the Reason of his Resusal, and instruct the same before the Judge Ordinar within Year and Day, to whom it is remitted to judge both the Relevancy and Verity thereof.  
2. That Recognitions be abrogat, at least as to the King's Vassals, seeing all Subjects are alike as to him, and it imports not which of his Majesty's Subjects be his Vassals in any particular Fee.  
3. That there be no Recognition in Taxt-Ward, providing the Feu-duty payable out thereof, be effeir●nd to the Taxt-duty and Marriage, if the whole be feved, and proportionally if a part; In which ca●e the Superior can pretend no Damnage or Loss.   

Anent Prescription and Interruption.  
1. That there be a difference made as to the Prescription of Movable and Heretable Rights and that the same be shortened in both.  
2. Seeing the first registrat Season is repute a public Infeftment, that therefore there be no longer any defence sustained upon the benefit of a Possessory Judgement, the first registrat Season being equal to a public Infeftment since the Date of that Act.  
3. ●eing in Prescriptions both Titulus, and bona fides, are requisite, that therefore one of the Parties private knowledge of the Right of another, albeit not complete, is, that he had a Disposition, but no Infeftment put him in mala fide.  
4. That all legal Interruptions should be against the persons themselves, and not Co-debitors; And that Diligence against one Co-obligant, should not preclude the other of the defence of Prescription.  
5. That albeit Inhibitions be only negative Rights, yet the extent of them is become so exorbitant, that they are of far more Force and Effect nor an positive Right by Disposition; And also in respect it is yet dubious from what time Inhibitions take effect, whether from the Date of the Execution against the Party, or at the Mercat Cross of the Jurisdictions where the persons dwell, or the Lands lie, or that it shall only take effect from the Date of the Registration, which seems to be more just, seeing the lieges are there only certiorat, the executing at Crosses being now a mere Formality, passing without the nottice of any, so that the only mean of knowing who is Inhibit, is by searching the Registers:) Therefore, that it be enacted, ●hat in all time coming Inhibitions being raised and execute against the Party personally, and registrat either in the general Register, or Books of the Jurisdiction wherein he dwells, within 48 Hours thereafter, shall be valid from the Date of the said Registration, without any further Solemnity.  
The reason why the Registration may be within such short time, is, because the Execution is only to be against the Party personally, without any further Execution at Mercat-Crosses where the Debtors Lands might lie, so that it took a considerable time before it could be done, but here where there is nothing requisite but a personal Execution, it may be within 24 Hours carried to the Register, or Jurisdiction where the person inhibite dwells, and insert in his Register or Minut-Book thereof.  
6. Item, That Inhibitions run from the Date of the Registration thereof, and not from the date of the Deed that is done contrair thereto.  
7. That Libels for House-Mails, Merchants-Accompts, Servants-Fees, and the like, shall not be relevant, unless they also bear that they are resting, owing, and that the same be only probable scripto, if the Debtor be dead and scripto vel juramento if living, and that therefore Merchants take Writ for what they furnish bearing the Quantity and Price thereof.   

Of Voluntar Assignations and Legal Arrestments.  
1. That where an Assignation is purchased for Money, or other good Deed from a person, that is not of Relation, or such a person as would be thought not to have gifted the same, in such a case (according to the common Law) the Assigney shall recover no more from the Debtor than he truly paid, or his Fact or Deed done by him can be estimat worth by the Judge Ordinar, and this to preveen & discourage the taking and buying unnecessarly the Debts resting by others.  
2. That where the principal Writ assigned is delivered at the time, it shall be preferred to any other Assignation, tho' first intimat, the said Writ being probable, and Possession completing the Right.  
3. That neither Inhibitions nor Arrestments pass of course, but by a special Deliverance of the Lords in presence, or upon a Report, and upon instructing sufficiently, grounds for founding thereof, and that the Inhibition being only a personal Inhibition, that the Debtor put not his Estate in a worse condition than it is at the time of the serving thereof: That therefore it subsist and stand good only for such a Number of years as the User may have time to constitute his Debt, and when constitute, or if it be liquid before, that he may have a competent time within which he may do legal Diligence by Adjudication, and that no Inhibition upon a dependence last longer than three years, unless real Diligence follow upon the Debt, which was the ground thereof, and that the Inhibiter consent to the Sale, upon payment or Consignation of the Price, or lending the same, so as it may bear Interest, which is more for the Inhibiters advantage.  
4. That all Arrestments within year and day come in parip ssu, or within a competent time, seeing Adjudications and apprisings which are the parallel Diligence as to heretable Rights, come in so; And the same Parity of Reason is in the arresting of Movables, that is, in the adjudging of Heretables, which is, that the Creditors may be absent, and not know of the Debtors Estate and Condition, nor of his Movables and Money, nor that he is vergens ad pauperi●m, & ubi paratio eadem debet esse Lex.   

Of voluntar Dispositions and legal Conveyances by apprising and Adjudication.  
1. That the first person who purchasses Lands, being infeft therein, and his Season registrat, there shall be nothing requisite for establishing the Right thereof in the person of his Heir, to whom by the Infeftment the same is provided, whether Heirs of Line, or Male, but only an Service cognoscing the Pursuer of the Brieve to be the person to whom by the Conception of the Infeftments the Fee doth belong, and this being retoured, shall be a sufficient Right to all succeeding Heirs, who are in like manner to be served Heirs to the last retoured, which shall also be to them a complete Right to the said's Lands, and a valid Title for all effects.  
2. That where Lands are not affected with Rights or Encumbrances, it shall not be leisume to apprise or Adjudge the same, but that the old Brieve of Distress shall be revived, direct to the Sheriff, who shall Adjudge as much Land to the Pursuer, to be valued by an Inquest, as will satisfy the Debts; and if the Lands be indivisible, and worth more, that the Creditor pay it in, otherways the same to be null.   

Of Confiscations, Escheats, Forfaultures, and the like.  
1. That Denunciations for not payment of Debts, the effect thereof shall only be for obtaining Caption and Payment of the Debt before others who have done no Diligence, and that the Escheat extend only to the Debt in the Horning.  
2. That no Escheat shall fall upon any Denunciation, except the Charge was given Personally, or that Access was refused; seeing by our Law Contumacy cannot be inferred without a Personal Citation, so far less ought it in this case, where the Certification is of so great an Import.  
3. That Charging Personally, and Denuncing at the Mercat Cross of Edinburgh be sufficient, and Registration also there, which is sufficient to certiorat all the Liedges thereof.  
4. That Denunciations shall not prejudge any Party who bona fide get Obligations for onerous Causes from the Rebel, or receives Payment of Debts resting to him by the Rebel, at what ever time the same be contracted, seeing if it were otherways, it would extremely mar the freedom of Traffic and Commerce.   

Anent Succession.  
1. That where an Heretor of Lands and Baronies, or Country-Tennents dies leaving only Daughters, that the eldest should Succeed pro indiviso, and that Women shall Succeed as if they were Males after the same manner, but with this Provision, that it shall be leisum for the Father etiam in articulo mortis, to grant Bonds of Provision to other Daughters, not exceeding _____ Years Rent of his Land, and which shall affect the same, in so far as there is not sufficient Movables for doing thereof.  
2. That in regard many die without making timely Provisions for their Children, it shall be leisum for any man who is not a Baron, having his Lands erected in a Barony, to Dispose of these Lands in favours of his Children etiam in articulo mortis.   

Anent Heirs of all kinds.  
1. That where an Estate is devolved upon an Heir by the death of his Predecessor, so that it is either his neglect and fault, or fraud that he does not Enter, especially since (in the mean time) he acts as Heretor, or Intromets with the Rents, at least might do the same; that therefore all Debts contracted, or De●eds done by him, shall affect the said Estate, as if he were actually Infeft therein.  
2. That Liferenters shall only be liable for Alimenting these Heirs who have no Competency left them, and descended of themselves or their Husbands; but no ways to be extended to Collateral Heirs, or these of Tailzie, not being descended as said is, who are to be repute tanquam extranei  
3. That the immediate younger Brother Succeed to the elder, whether in Conquest or heritage, and tho' of different Marriages, unless the said elder Brother have full Brethren and Sisters, in which case they are to be preferred to the Succession as before.  
4. That where an Estate is devolved by the Death of a Predecessor upon the Apparent Heir, that he shall be personally liable for the Predecessors Debt, unless he give an ample Renunciation to be Heir, and Record it either in the General Register, or of the Shire where he dwells; and that there be no more libelled against him, but that he has not recorded the Renunciation within the Year, to infer the Passive Titles against him: And by this the great and unnecessar Trouble given to all the Defuncts Creditors of raising and executing Charges to enter Heir, is cut off.  
5. That it shall be leisum to any Creditor of a Defunct, to use summarily Adjudication of his Estate and that instantly for payment of the Defunct his own Debt, without any further, but calling the Appearand Heir as Defender: And this will only be equivalent to the Confirming Executor-Creditor to him in his Movables.   

Of Behaving as Heir and Lucrative Successor.  
1. That in regard by the 24 Act, Sess. 5. of this current Parliament, Heirs are allowed to Enter cum beneficio inventarii, to be made up within the Year and Day of Deliberating; and in regard the said Act does not take under Consideration the cases of Apparent Heirs, who neither entered nor behaved as Heirs, prior to the date of the said Act: For remeed whereof, that it be yet Statute and Ordained, that where Heirs are unentered to the Estates devolved upon them, and to which they are Apparent Heirs, prior to the date of the said Act, that it shall be leisum for them yet to enter Heirs to their Predecessors cum beneficio inventarii, in the Terms of the said Act, and that within Year and Day after the Promulgation of the Act to be made hereanent.  
2. That an Apparent Heirs receiving a Disposition from his Father or Predecessor to whom he is to Succeed, shall not infer an universal Passive Title, but make him only liable pro valour; and if it be granted for an onerous Cause, such as in an Contract of Marriage or the like, it shall only be reduceable upon the head of Fraud, and being granted to the Prejudice of his lawful Creditors, to an conjunct person.   

Of Testaments, Confirmations thereof, and others relating thereto.  
1. That seeing the ground and reason of Law for confirming of Testaments, is,  bona sint salva pupillis & creditoribus, that therefore, where the nearest of Kin are Majors, there shall be no necessity for them to confirm, nor any Dative made in that case; and that Creditors may Confirm, and Pursue to give up Inventar, or to make Payment, as vicious Intrometters, at their pleasure.  
2. That the Husband shall not be obliged to Confirm the Wife's Testament, nor give up Inventar thereof, seeing he was and is Dominus, and may alienat and dispose of his Movables during his life, and the Wifes-Right is only by virtue of the Division that falls between the Husband's nearest of Kin and the Wife, in case that she survive him.  
3. That the eldest Son or Daughter shall have a double Portion of the Movables where there is not an Heir, so that she or he Succeed not as such.  
4. That Daughters married in the Father's Life shall have no right of Succession or Interest in his Estate, but what is expressly provided in case there be more Children, and if there be none, she is to succeed as accords.   

Anent the Forum of Processes and payment of Advocats and Clerks, etc.  
1. That the Act of Sederunt be ratified, appointing two Lords to come each Forenoon to a place erected for that end, and there per Vices to call ●nd finally discuss and determine what Causes lie before them undiscust, whereby the intolerable trouble and pains both Lords, Advocats, Clerks and Clients are put to in attending the whole Afternoon for getting such Causes called will be prevented.  
2. That the Act of Regulations made in anno 1672, anent the modifying Salaries to Advocats, Clerks and others be totally rescinded, and all Renovations, Ratifications thereof and others preceding the date hereof relative thereto, as being burdensome and impracticable both to them and Clients, and that they be paid as before that Act at the Discretion of the Clients.  
3. That where Interloquitor or Sentence is pronounced, and Bills one or more given in reclaiming against the s●me, and which is refused by the Lords, that neither the same nor no other Bill be insert in the Act or Decreet, but such as he in whose favours the same is, shall desire and think fit to have insert therein, and that the said's Regulations and all subsequent stand in their full force as to all the other Articles thereof, except what is hereby altered as said is.   

Anent the Sale of Bankrupts Lands.  
1. That in regard by the Act of Parliament the _____ day of September 1681, Anent the Sale of Bankrupts Lands, There is no warrant or appointment for citeing the Creditors to hear Probation led of the Rental and Value of the Bankrupts Estate, which being in absence as to the Creditors, may tend to their loss and prejudice. Therefore it be Statute, that the real Creditors who are in actual possession of such Estates by Labouring the same or setting Tacks thereof, be cited to the leading of the Probation of the Rental and Value of the Lands to be Rouped, and that there shall be no other Citation or intimation requisite to be made to the said's Creditors or Bankrupt in any subsequent st●p of the Process, but that it shall be sufficient that they be cited thereto apud acta, and in special as to the time and place of the Roup; And farther to declare, that in all time coming there shall be no necessity on the Pursuer of the Roup of using intimations at the Paroch Churches and Mercat Crosses mentioned in the said Act, but that it shall be a sufficient Intimation to the Creditors that they be cited thereto apud acta only as said is, and if the Creditors or Bankrupt think fit, that it shall be leisum for them to raise Letters in the Pursuers name to intimate the said Roup, the time and place thereof, at whatever Mercat-Crosses, Kirk-Doors or other places whatsomever they shall think fit, and wherever they conceive or apprehend Merchants or Buyers of the said's Lands may be found, but that the Pursuer shall not be obliged to do the same, notwithstanding of that Clause in the said Act of parliament, which is in so far hereby dispensed with. Lakeas that it be further declared, That where Decreets of Sale are pronounced and extracted, That they shall not be quarrellable upon any ground or nullity by any of the said's Creditors, cited as said is, but that the same shed be as valid and sufficient a Security to the Buyer, as if the said's Creditors had disponed or consented thereto under their hands, and that the samen shall also be unquarrellable at the instance of any other person, whether Creditor or Author to the Bankrupt or any way may pretend to have Right or Interest to the said's Lands, whether by Rights following from the Bankrupt or any other his predecessors or Authors whatsomever: And farther, that it be declared, that in regard great Obstructions are made in the buying of Lands at Roups throw the purchasers not getting the price taken off his hand, occasioned by the Jangling and Competitions that falls out amongst the Creditors anent the same. For Remeid whereof, That it be Statute, that it shall be leisum for the Buyer after the elapsing of year and day to consign the said price either in specie or Assignations to sufficient Bonds or Debts in the Clerks of the Process hands, and that due Intimation be made to the Creditors cited as said is, that the Buyer is to do the same by a Nottar and Instrument, and that the said price being so consigned or Assignations to Debts as said is, That the said Clerk shall intimat the same to the Lords, and thereupon they are to ordain an Act to be made, declaring that he has consigned the price or Assignations as said is; And therefore discharging the Buyer of the Price of the said's Lands, and that the same shall be als valid and effectual for freeing and acquitting him therefraes at the hands of all persons whatsomever in all time coming, as if the samen had been granted by the whole Creditors themselves; As also, that in regard when Debtors break, they abstract or carry away with them the Rights and Securities of their Lands, so that it is not possible to get or make up a sufficient Progress to the said's Lands, That therefore it be Statute and ordained, that if the Debtor was infeft in the saids Lands or had a Real Right there to, either by expired Apprising or voluntar Disposition, and by virtue thereof has been in Possession for the space of— year; That then and in that case the Production of the s●id Season, or Real Rights foresaid, whereupon no Infeftment has followed, shall be held and repute a sufficient and valid Right in the person of the Debtor, without any farther necessity for the Creditors to give or the Buyers of the said's Lands to crave any other Title or Progress to the said's Lands for stateing the Right thereof in the Debtors person, but only as said is, and that the said Season or Real Right foresaid, whereupon no Infeftment has followed shall be held and repute in Law a sufficient Right to the said's Lands to the Buyer thereof, at the Roup without any farther Progress.