116 RECORDS OF THE BuRGH OF LocHMABEN. 
the chaise wished to speak with him. Becoming alarmed, Walls 
and those who were with him ran off, with a view to escaping, 
but were pursued by a party of men armed with pistols, swords, 
bludgeons, etc., who seized Walls and carried him by force to the 
chaise, and Steedman, Dobie, and Thorburn having also got in, it 
immediately drove off. At some distance on the road a coat 
was put into the chaise for Walls, who had thrown off his own 
in endeavouring to escape. They proceeded to Ecclefechan, 
where an additional pair of horses were procured; from thence 
they went to Gretnahall; and so on to Carlisle, where Thorburn 
left them, and Walls went on to London with Steedman and 
Dobie. | He was detained in London for some days, and after- 
wards conveyed to Leatherhead, in Surrey, where he was 
ultimately released upon the arrival of Mr George Williamson, 
and immediately proceeded to Scotland, his captors for the time 
being making good their escape. The defence was that Walls 
was carried off with his own consent, and a large number of 
witnesses were examined on behalf of the accused. One of these 
witnesses, described as a waiter at the inn at Lochmaben, having 
stated that he had left Walls at a late hour in his own house on 
the night before his capture, was committed to prison for perjury, 
as it was clearly proved that Walls had slept in the house of 
his son-in-law. The reporter of the case, with righteous indig- 
nation, remarks: “ The whole of the evidence presented a picture 
of burgh politics degrading to human nature, and we are afraid 
not peculiar to the Burgh of Lochmaben.’’ The Lord Justice 
Clerk, in summing up, said that the case was one of the most 
important trials that had come before the Court in his time. 
Having gone over the principal evidence, he concluded with an 
eulogium on the flourishing state of the country, which he 
attributed in great measure to our right of electing our repre- 
sentatives, the exercise of which should be kept as pure and 
undefiled as possible. The jury returned a verdict of guilty 
against Lindsay, Lockerbie, Forrest, and Thorburn. The Court 
in passing sentence observed that the crime of which they were 
convicted was of an enormous nature, and deserved exemplary 
punishment. Lord Eskgrove, however, was inclined to mitigate 
that punishment in the present case, as it was one of those crimes 
which the common people did not think would be attended with 
such fatal consequences. The Lord Justice Clerk said that the 
