THE AUTUMN CAMPAIGN. 109 



The meeting of Commissioners of Supply was duly held 

 on the following Monday, when the subjoined interesting 

 Report, dated Edinburgh, i8th November, was submitted by 

 Sheriff Ivory : 



1. The second deforcement at the Braes took place on 2nd September, 

 1882. A full account of that and the previous deforcement is given 

 in my report to the Home Secretary, and appending which is sent 

 herewith. 



2. On 6th September an order was issued by Crown Counsel, after 

 consultation with the Lord Advocate, to serve on upwards of fifty crofters 

 at Braes notes of suspension and interdict prohibiting them from tres- 

 passing on Benlee, which was then, and had been for seventeen years 

 previous, occupied by another tenant, at a rent of .130. 



3. That order was given to the Procurator-Fiscal of the Skye district, 

 who was directed to judge of the amount of the police force that would 

 be required, and to ask the police authorities to furnish it, the particular 

 mode in which the writs were to be served being distinctly specified in 

 Crown Counsel's order. 



4. The above order was on the 7th September communicated by the 

 Procurator-Fiscal (Skye District) to the Clerk of the Police Committee, 

 the former intimating at the same time that he and Sheriff Spiers con- 

 sidered 100 police necessary, and that they should be supported by 

 troops. The order was thereafter communicated to me as Chairman of 

 the Police Committee, whereupon I at once put myself in communica- 

 tion with the Lord Advocate, and asked for instructions. 



5. The Lord Advocate thereafter requested the Procurator-Fiscal of 

 Inverness-shire and myself to go to Edinburgh, and consult with him 

 there. We went, and on the i6th September, after a long and anxious 

 consultation (in the course of which I strongly advocated an expedition 

 with a Government steamer and marines), it was finally resolved that, 

 as the calling in of strange police had caused a serious riot on a pre- 

 vious occasion, and would be likely on the next occasion to cause much 

 more disturbance and bloodshed than a military force, it was the best 

 course to prevent a serious riot and perhaps loss of life, to call in the 

 aid of the military, and I was requested by the Lord Advocate to make 

 the necessary requisition to the military authorities. 



6. On 2ist September I intimated to the Home Secretary that, after 

 consultation with the Lord Advocate, I intended to make a requisition 

 for troops, and sent him at the same time, through the Lord Advocate, 



