THE TRIAL. 125 



Edinburgh, and Mr. Dugald Maclachlan, Writer, Glasgow, 

 who secured the services of Mr. Dugald Mackechnie and 

 Mr. Burnet, Advocates, for the defence. 



BEFORE THE COURT OF SESSION. 



On Tuesday, aoth of February, the three men appeared 

 before the Court of Session, when Mr. J. P. P. Robertson, 

 for the Trustees, moved for sentence for Contempt of Court 

 and Breach of Interdict. Mr. Mackechnie asked that they 

 should be allowed to lodge answers at that stage, offering to 

 find caution for their appearance for any amount the Court 

 might fix. The application was granted, bail being fixed at 

 ;ioo each. The cautioners were at once forthcoming. 

 Major Neil MacLeod, Eskbank, late of the Royal Artillery, 

 the Rev. J. Mackinnon, Edinburgh, and Mr. Samuel Mac- 

 laren, Merchant, Leith, entered into the necessary bonds. 

 The Answers were ordered to be lodged within forty-eight 

 hours. This was done on the 23rd, giving a general denial 

 to all the charges made against the men. The following 

 extract although no evidence was permitted to be led in 

 court regarding it will show how these poor people have 

 been driven to extremes : 



For many years previous to the year 1845 these lands were occupied 

 by eight tenants on each of the Milovaigs, and one tenant on Borodale. 

 They paid a rental of about 7 each per annum for their crofts, and 

 with the aid of fishing they were able to live. Each family then pos- 

 sessed five cows, twenty sheep, and a horse. In or about that year, 

 however, the then proprietor of the said lands subdivided the Milovaigs, 

 into sixteen crofts or lots each, in order to provide for a number of 

 tenants whom he had removed from the neighbouring farms of Bracadale 

 and Minginish. The position of the crofters was very much deteriorated 

 by this subdivision, and still more so when, some three or four years 

 ago, the number of crofters on each of the Milovaig farms was increased 

 to twenty on each, and to four in Borodale, in order to find room for 

 tenants removed from other holdings on petitioners' lands. No addi- 



