TRIAL OF THE BRAES CROFTERS. 85 



law in the person of its officers, it was not even their land- 

 lord, these men resisted, it was the factor the man who was 

 in their eyes the impersonation of all the injustice and hard- 

 ship to which they had been subjected, and I ask was there 

 not some justification for their resistance ? This being the 

 position taken up by the accused and their neighbours, was 

 it probable that they would degrade themselves and their 

 cause by assaulting a person in Martin's position ? I think 

 not. Further, was Martin's own story consistent with the 

 theory of an assault ? Would a man who had just been 

 assaulted, and who was in mortal terror, as Martin says he 

 was, find himself so sound in wind as Martin admits he was. 

 When a lighted peat was procured to burn the summonses, 

 some of the men in the crowd tried to blow it into a flame 

 but failed. Martin, however, notwithstanding his terror 

 found himself, as he admits, " in better breath " than his 

 alleged assailants, and succeeded in blowing the peat into a 

 flame when they had failed to do so. (Laughter.) Though 

 terror-stricken and in mortal fear he managed somehow to 

 enjoy a smoke quietly. When he wanted a drink of water 

 he was not afraid to go off the road to a well, and to go on 

 his knees and dip his head into it. It never occurred to him 

 that this dangerous crowd finding his head in the water might 

 keep it there. He gauged the crowd correctly enough as his 

 conduct showed. He stood among them, chatted with them, 

 drunk out of their pails, borrowed and smoked one of their 

 pipes, and on parting made them a speech. That was the 

 evidence of the prosecution, as well as of the defence. The 

 Prosecutor did not make an attempt, after hearing the 

 evidence, to argue that Martin had been assaulted. To do 

 so in the face of such evidence would be an outrage on 

 common sense. Mr. Macdonald concluded by asking for a 

 verdict of not guilty. (Applause.) 



