HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



91 



no indisposition in ministers to adopt 

 it, if it should be the opinion of the 

 ihrst military characters, that, in the 

 [peculiar circumstances of this coun- 

 try, the measure M'as adviseable. — 

 He denied that there was any seve- 

 rity of compulsion in the plan he 

 [had proposed : and after replying 

 to severaT objections of different 

 gentlemen on the other side, he ob- 

 served that they diiTered so much 

 from one another, that, instead of 

 mnoying him, they only hurt each 

 other, by their cross-fuing. 



Leave was then given, and the 

 bill was brought in and read a lirst 

 time. 



On the 6th of June, Mr. Whit- 

 brcad, according to iioticc, made a 

 motion for papers, in order to give 

 the house information respecting the 

 conduct of the lord advocate of 

 Scotland towards a Mr. JNIorrison, 

 1 farmer in Bamfishire. The lord 

 advocate had, from his official si- 

 tuation, a very great power in 

 Scotland, and that power he had 

 exercised violently, if not tyranni- 

 cally, Jt was the bounden duty of 

 parliament to take care that public 

 luthority should not be abused, and 

 to petition his majesty to remove 

 those who exercised it an arbitrary 

 and tyrannical manner. The trans- 

 action which he had to state was 

 this : — Morrison had a servant 

 who, contrary to his desire, joined 

 the volunteers, for which he dis- 

 charged him. The servaut laid a 

 case before the lord advocate, who 

 in his legal opinion stated, " how- 

 ever oppressive and unjirincipled 

 the rontiii'l of Morrison may ha\e 

 been.'' The lord advocate then 

 wrote a letter to the sheriff depute 

 of IJumff, stating " the condurt of 

 Morrison to be most atrocious ;" 

 iic eihort«d iyaiy one around btm 



to treat him with contempt and 

 scorn, and to have no dealings witli 

 him. lie went on to direct the . 

 sheriff, in case of an invasion, to ar- 

 rest and imprison Morrison : and 

 he desired that he (the sheriff) 

 should do all in his power to pre- 

 sent Morrison obtaining any com- 

 pensation, in case his property was 

 pillaged by the enemy, or taken by 

 the king's troops." After dwell- 

 ing forcibly on the tyrannical con- 

 duel of the lord advocate, in this 

 respect, he concluded, by moving 

 for a copy of the public records of 

 the county of Bamff", containing 

 that letter. 



The Chancellor of the Exchequer 

 did not oppose the motion, l)ut 

 hoped the house would come entire- 

 ly unprejudiced to the consideration 

 of the question, which he allowed to 

 be of great importance. He thought, 

 that if the motives of the lord ad- 

 vocate were considered, and that if 

 it appeared, that his conduct pro- 

 ceeded from pure zeal, a(5ting upon 

 an ardent mind, in a critical period : 

 if his motives of action entirely pro- 

 ceeded from that ardour of mind, 

 this particular case ought not to be 

 too much dwelt on, nor should the. 

 house be too eager to condemn him. 

 He had proved himself an ornament 

 to the public office he held, to his 

 country, and to his frifnds. 



Mr. Fox sincerely hoped, thaf:> 

 when the day of discussion should 

 arrive, the lord advocate would bo 

 able to make a much better defence 

 for himself, than the right honour- 

 able gentleman had made for him. 

 He hoped he would have a better 

 defence than merely to sa}-, that his 

 conduct proceeded from the impulse 

 of a zealous and ardent mind, acting, 

 in critical times, contrary to the 

 law. It was stranjej that this new 



. doctrine 



