TRIAL OF THE BRAES CROFTERS. 37 



word he utters during this time is taken down for the 

 purpose of being used against him at his trial. 



After the prisoners were committed for trial, they were 

 visited by their agent, with the editor of the Celtic Magazine 

 as interpreter, and in course of conversation, and in reply 

 to questions, the prisoners expressed a desire to get home 

 to proceed with the spring work on their crofts. By this 

 time the sympathy with the prisoners among the outside 

 public, not merely in the Highlands but in the large cities 

 of the south, had extended through all classes of society. 

 Many who were in entire sympathy with them in their per- 

 sonal grievances thought that they saw in the proceedings 

 taken against them, and in the outrages perpetrated in Skye 

 in the name of law, a means of creating a public opinion 

 which would compel the Legislature to take up the question 

 of land tenure in the Highlands. It was the desire of this 

 party that the accused should be allowed to remain in prison 

 until their trial came on, in order that the public sympathy 

 which their apprehension and imprisonment evoked should 

 have time to take definite form. If the calculations of these 

 sympathisers should turn out accurate, the infliction of a 

 slight hardship upon these men would result in permanent 

 good to themselves and the whole class to which they 

 belonged. The desires of the men themselves, however, 

 of their friends in Inverness, and the interest of their fami- 

 lies, naturally guided Mr. Macdonald's proceedings, and he 

 presented a petition to the Sheriff to fix bail. The bail was 

 fixed by Sheriff Blair at 20 sterling for each prisoner 

 ^100 in all and immediately it became known that 

 persons were wanted, to sign the bond, gentlemen offered 

 themselves, the required subscriptions were obtained, and 

 the five prisoners were liberated that night. The gentlemen 

 who signed the bond were : Mr. John Macdonald, mer- 



