Trmisactions. 93 



of the town of Selkirk by a mob from Galashiels aud Melrose, auJ some 

 country people, with some of the people of the place. You will have 

 heard what has been going on in other places better than I can inform you. 

 I have been too much taken up with what has passed in this neighbourhood 

 to attend to the reports from other quarters. Are such people to be trusted 

 with arms after what has passed ? That is for Government to determine. 

 Examples, however, must be made of those who have so openly and out- 

 rageously broken the law of the country, insulted aud ill-used magistrates 

 in the discharge of their duty, and set at defiance all authority. I leave 

 the Duchess of Buccleuch and daughters in the hands of my tenants. 

 Where can they be better ; certainly not further north ; perhaps further 

 south would be better at this moment. They can from this place soon 

 pass over the Borders. 



In a letter written five days later the Duke says — 



I have left the Duchess and family at Langholm in the safe custody of 

 my tenants, who swear they will spill the last drop of their blood rather 

 than that she or the family should receive insult or injury during their 

 residence among them. This was communicated to the Duchess upon my 

 leaving Langholm. 



On the 25th August there was a riot in Dumfries, and the 

 windows of the School-house broken. On the 1st September Mr 

 David Staig, D. L., then Provost of Dumfries, wrote a letter from 

 Dumfries to the Duke of Queensberry, the Lieutenant of Dum- 

 friesshire, which was forwarded by him to the Home Secretary : — 



The opposition to the Militia Bill seems general throughout !Scothuul, 

 and nowhere more than in this part of the country. There is not a 

 Deputy-Lieutenant that has not been threatened with instant destruction. 

 Sir VVm. Maxwell, Colonel Dirom, and Mr Graham of Mossknowe 

 (Deputies) had a meeting the other day in their districts, and were most 

 grossly insulted by an enraged mob, and before they were allowed to 

 depart were forced to sign an obligation on stamped paper that they would 

 proceed no further with their business. Sir Robert Grierson and Mr 

 Dalziell of Glente, Deputies, were forced to write similar obligations to 

 save their lives and property. Mr Greig, a Deputy-Lieutenant at Moffat, 

 was deforced, and his papers taken from him ; but being supported by a 

 party of dragoons in another parish yesterday, an attack was made upon 

 them by a riotous mob, and a good deal of blood was shed, but I have not 

 heard that any lives were lost. 



These disturbances caused delay in carrying out the provisions of 

 the Militia Act, and a new Act had to be passed extending the 

 time when the ballot was to take place. On the 4th May, 1798, 

 at a meeting of the Court of Lieutenancy, presided over by the 

 Earl of Dalkeith, and attended by 14 Deputy-Lieutenants, of 



