Advocate, LORD. The Lord Advocate for Scotland, called also the King's or Queen's Advocate, is the public prosecutor of crimes, senior counsel for the crown in civil causes, and a political functionary of very great importance in the management of Scottish affairs. He may issue warrants for arrest and imprisonment in any part of Scotland, and possesses many other discretionary and indefinite powers. Previous to the Union, the King's Advocate had a seat in the parliament of Scotland ex officio; and since that event, he has been almost invariably a member of parliament. He is appointed by the crown, and his tenure of office ceases with that of the administration of which he is a member. As first law-officer of the crown for Scotland, the Lord Advocate, when in parliament, was, prior to the creation of a Secretary for Scotland in 1885, expected to answer all questions relating to the business of Scotland, and to take the superintendence of legislation for that portion of the United Kingdom, and he still largely performs these duties, especially when the Secretary for Scotland is in the House of Lords. Notwithstanding his multifarious official duties, the Lord Advocate accepts ordinary practice at the bar, and, indeed, is usually the most extensively employed practitioner connected with the party in power. He is assisted in the duties of public prosecutor by the Solicitor-general, and by four advocates, called advocates-depute, appointed by himself. His salary (since 1894) is £5000, and he is entitled to perquisites which raise his emoluments greatly above that sum. The Crown-agent, who is a Writer to the Signet (q.v.), performs in reference to crown causes pretty much the same duties that fall to a solicitor or agent in ordinary litigation. As to the relation in which the Lord Advocate stands to the public prosecutors of crimes in the inferior courts, see PROCURATOR-FISCAL.
The Lord Advocate and Solicitor-general are alone entitled to plead within the bar, and they have the distinction of silk gowns like other Queen's Counsel. When the Lord Advocate declines to prosecute, it is competent for a private party to do so; but in this case the concurrence or 'concourse' of the Lord Advocate must be obtained. Such a proceeding, however, is scarcely known in the practice in Scotland. In England, the sovereign pursues in his own name; and such was the practice in Scotland also till about 1480, when the King's Advocate was appointed by James III. For some time after the institution of the College of Justice in 1532, the advocate for the crown was always one of the judges of the Court of Session, and as in France the king's advocates were also at the same time judges. It is not certain that the King's Advocate was originally authorised to act as public prosecutor in crimes; but he certainly possessed that power in 1587, and it seems to be implied in an earlier statute of 1579. The King's Advocate is first mentioned as Lord Advocate in the record of the Court of Justiciary in 1598. He soon became one of the most powerful members of the Scots Privy Council, and after the Union, when Walpole suppressed the separate Secretary for Scotland, the Advocate was sometimes almost supreme in Scotland. In 1804 the Lord Advocate described himself as Coroner's Inquest, Grand Jury, and Lord Lieutenant for Scotland. Mr Canning, however, transferred Scottish affairs to the Home Office. The Lord Advocate, though not ex officio a privy-councillor, is, by courtesy, addressed as the Right Honourable during his tenure of office. The political importance of the office has always varied with the character and capacity of its occupant for the time. See G. W. T. Omond's The Lord Advocates of Scotland (2 vols. 1883).