CRIMINAL PROCEDURE. 543 



and the County of Ross usually followed the whipping; 

 perpetual, or for a term of years, according to the circum- 

 stances of the offence. In 1818, a prisoner convicted of 

 theft applied for, and received, in exchange for his liberty, 

 the office of common executioner for Stornoway, then 

 vacant, with the fees, perquisites, and emoluments, per- 

 taining to the office. In 1820, a woman convicted of theft 

 was condemned to be taken from prison with a rope round 

 her neck, and a label on her breast, with the words " habit 

 and repute a thief," inscribed thereon in large characters. 

 She was then to be put in the pillory for two hours, and 

 afterwards banished from the Counties of Ross and 

 Cromarty for a term of seven years.* 



It might be inferred from instances like the above, that 

 Stornoway must have been considerably behind the times 

 in the early years of the nineteenth century. Yet we find 

 Dr. McCulloch, a very superior person indeed, paying his 

 tribute to its modernity. It had its fashions, its tea-parties, 

 its politics, its scandal, and its gossip ; and the critical 

 doctor was able to have his rubber of whist. There is a 

 remarkable consensus of opinion among all the travellers 

 who visited Stornoway, as to its go-aheadness and its 

 pleasing appearance, forming then, as now, such a strong 

 contrast to the rest of the Long Island. This opinion is, 

 however, qualified by the allusions to the old part of the 

 town, occupied by sailors and fishermen, which, at the end 

 of the eighteenth century, consisted of thatched huts.f As 

 far back as 1796, Stornoway had a Town House and an 

 Assembly-room. It had also an attorney and a Roman 

 Catholic priest, the latter of whom, the reverend compiler 

 of the Old Statistical Account somewhat maliciously adds, 

 was " without an individual of a flock." 



We must now survey, necessarily in a brief summary, 

 the general conditions, social and economic, which prevailed 

 in the Long Island after its incorporation with the Kingdom 



* Juridical Review, June 1900, pp. 176-183. 



t Captain Barlow states that in 1753, the town consisted of "about 100 

 thatched huts." 



O O 2 



