46 THE HIGHLAND CLEARANCES. 



ourselves, we may at once state our perfect belief in the sincerity of the 

 Lord Advocate in his profession of a desire, while vindicating the law, 

 to provide for the accused that form of trial which will protect them 

 from an unnecessarily heavy punishment. But punishment pre-supposes 

 guilt, while what the accused contend is that they are not guilty. 

 What they claim is that they shall first have their guilt established in 

 the ordinary way, and if found guilty they are willing to take their 

 chance of that punishment their conduct may seem to deserve. 



Now, persons accuse'd of crimes committed in Skye have 'hitherto 

 been invariably tried in one of two ways. If the cases are considered 

 so trivial as to be dealt with summarily, they are tried by a sheriff- 

 substitute sitting at Portree. This course secures to the accused the 

 important advantage that evidence for his defence is procurable at a 

 minimum of expense and inconvenience. If the case is of a grave 

 character, it is tried by a jury at Inverness. This, of course, involves 

 much more inconvenience and expense to the defence, but it secures the 

 services of a jury, a tribunal which, for the purpose of deciding on 

 matters of fact, is admittedly superior to a Judge, however impartial, 

 sitting alone. But in the case of the Skye crofters the trial is to be at 

 Inverness, without a jury. The defence thus incurs all the incon- 

 venience and expense usually attendant on a jury trial, and obtains none 

 of the advantages in the way of a tribunal the best qualified to pro- 

 nounce on the question of the guilt or innocence of the accused. It is 

 stated that Portree is in such an excited state that it is unadvisable that 

 ihe trial should take place there, and that, therefore, it has to be 

 removed to Inverness. There is not the smallest reason, however, 

 why, being held at Inverness, it should not be held in the usual 

 manner. The accused dispute the facts alleged by the prosecution. 

 Their agent has asked for a jury to decide on the question of fact. A 

 jury trial is the invariable mode of disposing of Skye cases tried at 

 Inverness ; but a jury trial, though in this case specially demanded, has 

 been refused. The reason given for its refusal is that the Crown 

 authorities having originally intended that the trial should be a summary 

 one at Portree, though it has now been deemed advisable to remove it 

 to Inverness, they see no reason to change the form of trial on that 

 account. The reply is that at Portree there would have been nothing 

 unusual in a summary trial, and trial at Portree would have secured 

 material advantages to the accused. At Inverness the summary trial of 

 a Skye case is unprecedented, and the expense to the accused as heavy 

 as would be that of a jury trial. 



But the Lord Advocate has explained that if the cases had been tried 



