eleven votes; and with his election the fierce, protracted conflict between the Pyets and the Corbies was brought to a close.

The judicial issue of the strife still requires to be told. A solemn, tragical one it is; being, unlike the affair itself, unrelieved by any features of revelry or frolic. The scene is the High Court of Justiciary in Edinburgh, where, on the first of December, 1759, twelve men are placed at the bar, "indicted by the King's Advocate for the crimes of riot and tumult at Dumfries, with a view to obstruct the election of Magistrates and Councillors last Michaelmas day, and to quash the authority of the magistrates then chosen." The prisoners are not of the sort usually seen in such a humiliating position: they are for the most part decent, respectable-looking tradesmen, who will bear a fair physiognomical comparison with the fifteen jurymen on whose judgment their fate will depend, after the witnesses for and against them have been examined, the pleadings on both sides have been finished, and the Lord Justice-Clerk has summed up the evidence and laid down the law bearing upon the case. At the bar stand John Smith, deacon of the weavers; Thomas Gibson, deacon of the tailors; John Paton, deacon of the weavers; eight other craftsmen, and one merchant, William Kirkpatrick, the latter one of the four Pyet burgesses who on the eventful twenty-second of September were proposed to fill up the vacancies in the Council, and were rejected by Mr. Corbet's party. Three more Dumfriesians figure on the indictmentJoseph Dyet and James Hodge, tailors, and James Johnston, smith; but, failing to appear when called upon, they are fugitated that is to say, outlawed. Before the tedious preliminaries are over, and the case is fairly entered upon, daylight fades: candles are introduced; and all through the night, whose gloom they only half dispel, the fierce municipal contest is fought over again verbally; and the clock of St. Giles' sounds the hour of five in the morning, before the judges pause, and the jury retire to consider their verdict,

At two o'clock in the afternoon they gave it in, finding all the panels guilty except Deacon Paton, whom they unanimously acquit. Counsel are heard on the import of the verdict, the relevancy of which is so ingeniously questioned that the judges

* Scots Magazine, vol. xxii., pp. 667-8.

adjourn the proceedings, and give no decision till the Court resumes on the 15th, when all the cobwebs of casuistry spun by the learned advocates for the defence are ruthlessly blown aside; and the verdict being held good, sentence is pronounced. Poor Deacon Smith is adjudged to banishment for life; John Gordon, tailor, is transported for fourteen years, and William Ewart, shoemaker, for seven: all to be kept in the tolbooth of Edinburgh till an opportunity offer for sending them to his Majesty's plantations in America; "with certification, that if after being delivered over for transportation they return to or be found in Scotland-Smith during life, or Gordon or Ewart within the respective periods specified in their sentence each of them, as often as he shall so return, shall be whipped and retransported; and Gordon shall remain abroad fourteen years, and Ewart seven years, from the time of their being respectively last delivered over for trial." Seven are sentenced to be carried back to the Edinburgh tolbooth, there to remain-William Macnish, tailor, three months; Thomas Gibson, flesher, two months, and till he pay a fine of five hundred merks; William Wood, gardener, George Bell, nailer, and John Rae, tailor, six weeks; James Thomson, smith, and Charles Sturgeon, shoemaker, one month. A fine of nine hundred merks is imposed on William Kirkpatrick, merchant; and all except the three persons to be banished are required to find bail for their good behaviour for two years-Kirkpatrick and Gibson in nine hundred merks each, and the rest in three hundred merks each. Kirkpatrick, finding bail in Court, is set at liberty; the others being carried away by the officers, we see them no more: and the curtain drops on the last sad scene of this extraordinary municipal contest.

CHAPTER XLVII.

BREAD RIOTS IN THE BURGH A RAIDING PARTY FOILED THE MILITARY CALLED OUT WITH FATAL RESULTS-MORE TOWN IMPROVEMENTS: A NEW SLAUGHTER-HOUSE AND BUTCHER MARKET CONSTRUCTED- QUEENSBERRY SQUARE FORMED THE MILLS REBUILT — ERECTION OF THE INFIRMARY, AND STATISTICAL INFORMATION RESPECTING IT-DISASTROUS EFFECTS OF THE FAILURE OF THE AYR BANK IN THE TOWN-RETROSPECT OF THE PRECEDING EIGHTY YEARS.

MORE rioting! Has the quarrel between the Pyets and the Corbies broken out afresh, that bands of angry men are gathering in the High Street, and frantic-looking women are moving to and fro, instead of minding their household affairs? The groups merge into one great turbulent throng, and, actuated by a common impulse, and swelled by contributions from Bridgend, move at twilight towards the mills on the Galloway side of the Nith, as if they had serious work to do in that direction. It is no municipal question, no party conflict, that is generating such a commotion. A terrible dearth of food is experienced in the Burgh; meal has been at a famine price for weeks; the patience with which hunger was borne for a long time has given way; and the prevailing maxim with the populace is now that of the freebooter-that

Not that indiscriminate pillage is the main design of the mad rabble: to prevent the exportation of grain and meal is what they chiefly wish. This is why they surround the mills, and what is expressed in hundreds of hoarse voices; the plundering which ensues being but the natural sequel to long suffering, and the tempting opportunity for removing it that is now enjoyed. The rioters are so powerful and fierce, that the legal authorities scarcely attempt to cope with them; and by the midnight of

this dreadful day, the mills, granaries, and many private stores, have fallen into the undisputed possession of the mob.

At this grave juncture, Provost Dickson, after consulting with his brother magistrates, resolved on applying for aid to the chief of the law establishment in the metropolis. A communication to that effect was sent off, addressed to the Burgh's agent, "John Davidson, Esq., at his house in Castlehill, Edinburgh," with a note to that gentleman as follows:*—“ Sir, the enclosed Letter to the Lord Justice-Clerk contains an information. of a mobb that has happened here to prevent the exportation of meal from this part of the country to the west parts of Scotland, which the peace officers of the law have not been able to quell; and application is made to his Lordship for a military aid, and his authority and counsel on this unhappy occasion—and as dispatch and much secresy and prudence are necessary, we have thought it best to give you the trouble of managing the matter; and I beg you will immediately make the application to his Lordship, for which we shall gratefully acknowledge.— We are, Sir, your most obedt. servt.,-JNO. DICKSON, Provost. Drumfries, 23 Febry., 1771, Saturday night."

It is obvious from this application, and the legal proceedings which arose out of the riot, that it must have been of a very alarming character indeed. The indictment served upon its captured leaders, charged them with holding "unlawful and tumultuous assemblies," with committing "masterful invasions, depredations, assaults, riots, batteries, and other criminal acts;" but as they were not accused of having withstood the military when sent from Edinburgh at the request of the magistrates, it may be safely inferred that peace was restored, and the law rendered paramount without much difficulty. One William Johnston, and several others, were tried at the circuit court of the Burgh in the following August, for the above crimes, perpetrated with others their associates, "during the night between the 22nd and 23rd days of February that year, in or about Dumfries and the village of Bridgend." A somewhat indefinite verdict was returned by the jury, they finding the libel not proved as to several of the panels; but as to the rest, finding it proved " that there were mobs at the time and places libelled, and that * The original is in the hands of Mr. David Laing.

certain of the panels (whose names they specified) were guilty art and part of the crimes libelled." The High Court of Justiciary, on being appealed to, were of opinion, though the verdict was not so distinct and accurate as it should have been, that execution should pass upon it; and therefore they sentenced two of the prisoners to be transported, and the rest to be imprisoned, some for a longer, some for a shorter term."*

A few years after this riotous outbreak, some of its leading features were reproduced, with the addition of others still more tragical. Another dearth, with its train of suffering and repining, visits the Burgh; and it is again caused or intensified by the grain dealers and farmers exporting their stuff rather than sell it to the townspeople at a lower price. The "masterful invasions and depredations" of 1771 are repeated, only they are this time directed against vessels in the river, and the yellow corn growing upon its banks. A party of the marauders, hurrying down the Dock, lay violent hands on some farmers who are sending their produce out of port. Not a single sack can be got on board; and the ships have to sail away minus their expected cargo, whilst the frightened ruralists beat a rapid retreat, leaving their precious stuff in the possession of the crowd. Another party of them openly resolve upon a plundering expedition to Laghall, a farm on the Galloway side of the Nith. Fortunately the announcement reaches the ears of one Janet Watson, "a servitrix" at the very farm that is threatened with such an unwelcome visit. Off at once she sets down the Dumfries bank, crosses the river, which was very shallow at the time opposite Mavis Grove, hurries to Laghall, near by, and raises the hue and cry with such effect, that before the predaceous rioters arrive such a guard is mustered at the farm that the former, resolute though they are, never venture within fighting range, and, fairly out-generaled by the faithful Janet, beat a retreat back to the Burgh-only, however, to become more unruly there.

Days elapse, and the mob becomes increasingly mischievous and threatening, till the military have to be called out; and in a moment of indiscretion, the chief magistrate bids them fire.

*For a report of this appeal case, see Maclaurin's Arguments and Decisions in Remarkable Cases before the High Court of Justiciary, pp. 541-551.