TRIAL OF THE BRAES CROFTERS. 41 



course to try the case here, but it is a thing hitherto unheard of that a 

 summary trial from one of the outlying districts of the county should be 

 taken here. With a complete machinery for conducting summary 

 trials in the District Court, the prisoners are entitled to some explana- 

 tion of the reason why they are put to the expense of bringing their 

 witnesses and themselves from Skye to Inverness, when, in the ordinary 

 course of things, they ought to go no further from home than Portree. 

 It may be answered that as the resident Sheriff at Portree was engaged 

 in the apprehension of the prisoners, he ought not to try the case. 

 That is perfectly true. The prisoners quite agree that it would be im- 

 proper to have the case tried by Mr. Spiers, but they are not responsible 

 for what he has done, and ought not to suffer for it. If Sheriff Spiers 

 has disqualified himself from trying the case, that affords no reason for 

 punishing the persons to be tried. All that would be required to be 

 done would be to have the trial conducted in Portree by Sheriff Blair, 

 who would, according to your order, conduct it in Inverness. 



What I have said is sufficient to show that your order is an excep- 

 tional one, and the prisoners, and, I believe, the public also, will 

 expect you to justify it. Had these prisoners stood alone, their poverty 

 would have prevented them bringing a single witness from Skye to es- 

 tablish their innocence, and your order would have meant a simple 

 denial of justice. 



But, further, the crime with which these men are charged is that of 

 deforcement of an officer of the Sheriff of Inverness, and your order is 

 that the Sheriff, whose servant is said to have been deforced, shall be 

 the sole judge of whether the crime was committed or not. It is not 

 my wish to draw historical parallels, but the circumstances will, no 

 doubt, suggest to your lordship a series of trials which took place in 

 Scotland nearly ninety years ago, when Muir and his fellow-reformers 

 were convicted of sedition. It is not for me to suggest, and I do not 

 suggest, that any of our local judges would deal unfairly with the 

 prisoners, but I ask what is your reason for refusing them a trial by jury. 

 It is to you they look in the first instance, and it is your reasons for 

 pursuing an exceptional course with men who have already been 

 harshly dealt with that the public will canvass. 



I presume the object of the proceedings which have already been 

 adopted with regard to these men, and of the trial which is to follow, 

 is to inspire them and their fellows with a proper respect for the law. 

 If this is so, let them have no excuse for saying they have not got fair 

 play. If their crime was so important as to call for the exceptional 

 measures taken for their apprehension, it is surely too important to be 



