But the chief peculiarity, and the most glaring defect in the constitution of the Scottish Parliament, before the Revolution, was the institution known as the Lords of the Articles. This was a committee chosen, at the beginning of each session, to prepare measures for the consideration of the Estates. It usually consisted of forty members, eight bishops, eight peers, eight county members, eight borough members, and eight officers of state. The manner in which they were chosen was as anomalous as their powers. First the bishops chose eight peers. Then those peers chose eight bishops; and those sixteen chose the county and borough members. Eight officers of state, nominated by the King or his Commissioner, were added, and the Committee on Articles was complete. ‘Not only,’ Lauderdale once said, ‘hath the King in Scotland his negative vote, but, God be thanked, by this constitution of the Articles, he hath the affirmative vote also, for nothing can come to the Parliament but through the Articles, and nothing can pass in Articles but what is warranted by his Majesty; so that the King is absolute master in Parliament, both of the negative and affirmative.’ All the business was, in most Scottish Parliaments, transacted by the Lords of the Articles. The usual course of procedure was this. As soon as the Estates met, the Committee on Articles was chosen, and directed to prepare the measures which were intended to become law during the session. The House then adjourned for a few days. When it met again, these measures were read, and passed at once into law. There was seldom any debating, and sometimes more than one hundred Acts of Parliament were passed, and received the royal assent, in one day. There was thus a constant danger of hasty legislation, and for this there was no remedy. In England the Lords could reject any measure passed by the Commons, and the Commons could reject any measure passed by the Lords. But in Scotland, where there was only one chamber, there was nothing to prevent the Estates making any law, however rash or ill-considered, in the space of a single day. At the Revolution, however, the Committee of Articles, which the Estates had declared to be a grievance, was abolished. Henceforth the Acts of the Scottish Parliament were no longer compiled in secret, brought, cut and dry, into the House, read over by the clerks, and carried to the Throne to receive the royal assent, in batches of a dozen at a time, within the space of a few hours. Power was given to the Estates to choose freely such committees as they might think necessary, subject only to the condition that some of the officers of state should sit on these committees, but without the right of voting.