ABSTRACT
The administrative system of Scotland was not reserved under the Treaty of Union, and the Scottish Privy Council was speedily abolished; but for a brief period the Scottish Secretary of State continued to function under the new dispensation. The proposal that Scotland should have a Secretary of State was regarded in 1853 as a romantic extravagance and was dismissed contemptuously on the usual grounds. The Secretary of State for Scotland has under him four separate departments – Agriculture, Development, Education, Health and Home – which constitute the Scottish Office and have their headquarters in St. Andrew’s House in Edinburgh. A Council of State of this type, though eminently desirable, is possible only under a Coalition Government, such as existed during the Second World War. Pioneer reforms in accordance with Scottish traditions are no more likely to receive an impulse from conscientious civil servants than from an over-burdened Secretary of State.
