40 THE HIGHLAND CLEARANCES. 



evident at the trial. On receiving intimation of the order, 

 Mr. Macdonald wrote to the Lord-Advocate for Scotland, 

 requesting that he should instruct the trial to proceed before 

 a jury. To that letter the following reply was received : 



WHITEHALL, April 29, 1882. 

 SIR, 



I am directed by the Lord-Advocate to acknowledge receipt of your 

 letter of 27th current, and to say in reply that he sees no reason for re- 

 calling the order for trial of the Skye crofters charged with assault and 

 deforcement before the Sheriff summarily, and that the order will there- 

 fore be carried out 



I am, 



Sir, 



Your obedient servant, 



D. CRAWFORD. 



KENNETH MACDONALD, Esq. 



Mr. Macdonald, immediately on receiving the reply, 

 addressed the following letter to the Lord-Advocate : 



INVERNESS, ist May, 1882. 



MY LORD, 



I have received from your Secretary a letter stating that you 

 "see no reason for recalling the order for trial of the Skye crofters 

 charged with assault and deforcement before the Sheriff summarily, and 

 that the order will therefore be carried out ". I thought when I first 

 wrote you that the request for a jury trial was so fair and reasonable 

 that I did not require to adduce any reason in support of it, and that it 

 lay with you, if you refused it, to give a reason for the refusal. Since, 

 however, you do not seem to take this view of the matter, you will 

 permit me to state some of the reasons which I think ought to induce 

 you to grant the request of the prisoners. 



The crime with which the men are charged is said to have been com- 

 mitted in the Skye district of this county. In that district there is a 

 Court which has hitherto, so far as I can ascertain, tried all summary 

 cases arising in the district. And yet without any reason assigned, the 

 present case has been ordered for trial at Inverness. Had the case been 

 sent for a jury trial it would have been the usual, and indeed, necessary, 



