86 THE HIGHLAND CLEARANCES. 



THE PRISONERS FOUND GUILTY THE SENTENCE. 



The Sheriff said The charge now is one of assault against 

 these men combinedly or against one or other of them, 

 "actor or art and part," so that if the prosecution has proved 

 that one of them assaulted one or other of the men said to 

 be assaulted, and that the other prisoners aided and abetted 

 them in that assault, that, I take it, would be sufficient to 

 enable me to find the whole of them guilty as libelled. 

 Throwing aside all that is really unnecessary, the simple 

 question for me to determine is this Did these men "or 

 one or other of them " do something to one or other of the 

 three men, Martin, Beaton, and Robertson, which in the eye 

 of the law is assault ? Now, it is quite true that there are 

 certain discrepancies in the evidence which has been adduced. 

 There is no doubt whatever that the witnesses for the defence 

 do not support the evidence for the prosecution ; but the 

 evidence for the defence confirms to a very great extent the 

 statements that are made by the principal witnesses for the 

 prosecution. And part of the evidence of the defence is 

 really of a mere negative character. Certain of the witnesses 

 the first three say that they were not present at the 

 beginning of this disturbance. They came to the ground 

 after the papers were taken out of Martin's pocket. Now, 

 Martin says that when he came to the place he had the 

 papers in his pocket, and they were only taken out of it 

 when he was asked for them. I may mention, before pro- 

 ceeding further, that I see no reason whatever to doubt 

 Martin's statement. Martin gave his evidence fairly, and in 

 a way which convinced me at least that he really was telling 

 the truth, and I do not think there was anything in his 

 cross-examination which tended to render Martin's evidence 

 untrustworthy. Now Martin says that Donald Nicolson 



