Subject_1 DECISIONS of the LORDS OF COUNCIL AND SESSION, reported by SIR JOHN LAUDER OF FOUNTAINHALL.
Chirurgeon-Apothecaries of Glasgow v. The Magistrates
Date: 17 July 1694
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Porterfield, Houston, &c. chirurgeon-apothecaries of Glasgow, against the Magistrates thereof, in a suspension on a declarator of exemption and immunity from paying cess, in regard King James VI, in his letter of privileges, exemed them, in 1599, from all watching, warding, stents, and taxations, both for skill, and because they had the inspection of the apothecaries' drugs for the five neighbouring shires, and so it was onerous; and the same was ratified in the Parliament 1672. The Magistrates answered,—That the public Act of Parliament derogated from all these private exemptions; which might operate quoad stents imposed by the Town's own authority, but not as to the King's, imposed by Parliament. And it was remembered that, on the 13th November 1689, Doctor Irvine craved the like privilege on his patent as historiographer, and it was refused; though, in 1687, the King's Tradesmen claiming, the Lords found it put them in bona fide to exeme them for bygones, but not pro futuro. There is a difference, also, whether the cess is imposed on them for their houses or for their trade and employment; and their ratification did not express stents, but run in general terms.
The Lords found thir chirurgeons could plead no exemption from the present cesses; and therefore repelled their declarator, and decerned.
