=26. Summary.=--The separate History of Scotland, which may be said to have ceased with the Union, is chiefly remarkable from its unconnected and fragmentary character. Each of the periods into which it is naturally divided breaks off abruptly, and exercises little or no influence on the period which comes after it. The Celtic system comes to an end with the last of the Gaelic kings. During the English period English laws and English customs are introduced, but this English influence is suddenly checked by the War of Independence, and the period which begins with the independent kingdom is no more the natural result of the second than the second is of the first. During the third period the Roman Law is introduced, and France takes the place of England as the model for imitation. The Scottish system of representation, which became fixed during this period, had much more in common with the French National Assembly than with the English Parliament. The Three Estates, which met in one chamber, were the Church, the barons, that is the tenants holding direct from the Crown, and the burghers. The Commons as a class were not represented at all. It is the Reformation which first brings the Commons into notice. The feudal character of the legislature and of the national representation drove the energies of the people into the only channel that was left open to them--that of religious thought. Hence it came that in Scotland the great struggle for political freedom was fought out under the cloak of a contest for liberty of conscience. From the Reformation to the Union the history of the country is little but the record of a series of religious wars. The history of Scotland also gives us a picture of pure and unmixed feudalism. The feudal system which was introduced under the sons of Malcolm and Margaret took much firmer root in Scotland than it ever did in England; and, as it was here untouched by the Common Law and the growth of the constitution which acted as checks upon it in England, it grew to such an excess of power that it quite overshadowed the power of the Crown. The practice of making hereditary jurisdictions, and of granting powers of regality, still further increased the influence of the feudal nobles. Feudalism existed in Scotland long after it had been overthrown in England. Its power was first broken by the Act which was passed in 1748 for abolishing heritable jurisdictions, and even after that Act it continued to influence the representation. Feudalism in Scotland was not finally overthrown till the passing of the first Reform Bill in 1832. Nor was it till after that reform that the Commons of Scotland were represented at all in Parliament The rebellions in favour of the Stewarts in 1715 and 1745, though they were the cause of much useless bloodshed, led to very happy results as far as the social prosperity of the country was concerned. The abolition of the heritable jurisdictions did much good,