TRIAL OF PATRICK SELLAR. 2OI 



the property belonged, through the sides of Mr. Sellar, as a 

 convenient medium of succeeding ; the disgraceful measures 

 to which these persons had resorted, with a view to affect 

 the channels of justice, the impartiality of Jurymen, and the 

 purity of evidence. He attacked the measures and conduct 

 of Mr. MacKid in the most pointed terms ; exposed the 

 characters of the evidence of Chisholm and others, and 

 dwelt on the clear evidence of the total innocence of Mr. 

 Sellar, and on the points of law which applied to the parti- 

 cular charges as criminal charges, at considerable length, 

 and with reference to various law authorities ; and finally, 

 concluded by maintaining to the Jury, that this was not 

 merely the trial of Mr. Sellar, but in truth, a conflict 

 between the law of the land and a resistance to that law : 

 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 has been candid, correct, and liberal), it was neverthe- 

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

 abettors of anarchy and misrule, and the magistracy, as well 

 as the laws of this country. 



LORD PITMILLY, after having stated the law as applicable 

 to this case, summed up the evidence in a very clear and 

 able manner. His Lordship stated, that it was unnecessary 

 for the Jury to consider any of the charges, excepting the 

 one in regard to the old woman at Badinloskin. As to the 

 first, there could be no doubt of the practice in the country, 

 of retaining these barns till the crop should be threshed 

 out; neither could it be doubted, that Mr. Sellar had not 

 left the whole of the barns for the use of the out-going 

 tenants, and in consequence of this, the tenants suffered 



