SELLAR'S TRIAL. 159 



This is no doubt, accurately stated, but what does it amount 

 to ? Only this, that Mr. Sellar. in ordering, superintending, 

 and carrying out these cruelties " in due order of law" was 

 found not guilty of any legal crime. 



Fourth The witnesses for the defence were almost to a 

 man, Mr. Sellar's servants on the Sutherland estates, and 

 most of them were actually engaged in the evicting pro- 

 ceedings, setting fire, by their own hands, to the people's 

 houses. 



Fifth Mr. Sellar's Counsel in his address to the Jury laid 

 down, " That the question at issue involved the future fate 

 and progress of agricultural and even moral improvements, 

 in the county of Sutherland ; that (though certainly not so 

 intended by the Public Prosecutor, whose conduct through- 

 out had been candid, correct, and liberal), it was, neverthe- 

 less in substance, and in fact, a trial of strength between the 

 abetters of anarchy and misrule and the Magistracy, as well 

 as the laws of this country." And this high-sounding and 

 alarming statement was made to a Jury composed of eight 

 landed proprietors, three or four large tacksmen or farmers, 

 two merchants and a lawyer, nearly all of whom were 

 Magistrates and Justices of the Peace, responsible for the 

 maintenance of Law and order among such a people as Mr. 

 Gordon had so eloquently maligned. 



A. M. 



"CELTIC MAGAZINE" OFFICE, INVERNESS, 

 April, 1883. 



