RECORDS OF THE BuRGH OF LOCHMABEN. 1A 
with Spain, which Walpole, very unwillingly, was driven into in 
1739 by the clamours of the nation. The war was carried on by 
him in a half-hearted way, and disaster succeeded disaster. He 
was bitterly attacked in Parliament, and early in 1742 he was 
defeated in the House of Commons and forced to resign. George 
II. was King at this period. The address is as follows:—“ To 
the honourable Lord John Johnstone, Member of Parliament for 
the District of Burghs of Dumfries, Kirkcudbright, Annan, Loch- 
maben, and Sanquhar.—This court as one of the five burghs of 
the districts you represent in Parliament, take this public occasion 
to acknowledge a grateful sense of and return you our hearty 
thanks for your wise and prudent conduct so agreeable to the 
inclinations of your constituents at this critical juncture ; and as 
we are firmly persuaded that the honour and dignity of His 
Majesty and Royal Family and the true interest and welfare of 
the nation are what you always have in view, we with great 
cheerfulness and unanimity take this occasion to recommend to 
you at this juncture that you will contribute as much as in your 
power to a strict inquiry into the sources of all the complications 
that for some time past the nation has laboured under, and that 
you will thoroughly promote all Bills for such salutary laws that 
shall be proposed in the House of Commons in order to these 
ends, and the restoring and preserving the constitutions and 
happiness of the nations from all attempts of open or secret 
corruption of any kind whatsoever.’ 
It is disappointing to find that there is no record of the affairs 
of the burgh from June, 1743, to March, 1750, the leaves of the 
Minute Book embracing that period having been presumably torn 
out. This loss is to be regretted the more because the period 
in question included the Jacobite rebellion and the stirring events 
which ensued upon the crossing of the Border by the Jacobite 
army. It is very probable that reference would be made to such 
an important incident in the records of the burgh. 
23rd August, 1761.—The Magistrates and Town Council, 
considering the low state of the burgh and the small trade carried 
on in it, and also considering the spirit of improving of common 
grounds now universal in the country, resolved to feu out a 
portion of the burgh’s community in accordance with a plan 
_ ordered to be prepared, and appointed the town clerk to advertise 
the public roup of same in the “Edinburgh Courant ’’ and the 
