Page images
PDF
EPUB

Were any of your men wound. believe his name is), he was there ; and

-The serjeant.

Were both pike wounds?

. Yes. How many ng finally?

did you succeed in

We brought to Stirling eightand left one on the field very h wounded; we thought there ht be a chance of a rescue, and I him there, thinking it was better ecure what we had.

2. Do you remember what number muskets there were?

4. I think there were sixteen pikes 1 one pike-handle, and a pitch-fork, 1 five muskets or guns of different ds, and two pistols. Q. Any swords?

A. No, I do not think there were ; ere was some ammunition.

Q. Did you see any of the men on Le field searched after the engageent?

A. I was collecting the prisoners, d when I came to the place where me of them had stopped at, I asked they had searched the prisoners; hey said, "Yes, and we have taken a ag of ammunition away from them." Q. You did not see the search? A. No.

Q. Who told you that?

A. I think the serjeant-major.
Q. Did he shew you the bag?
A. Yes.

Q. Did you look at the contents ? A. Yes; I saw some ball-cartridges. Q. But who put them in you cannot tell?

A. No, I cannot.

Q. Have the goodness to look at hose persons, and tell us which of them you can recollect to have seen in the engagement ?

A. That man that is standing upI know his name is Gray-Baird, Johnstone, Hardie; and there is a man standing on his farther side, (Hart, I

this man in the grey trowsers, (Moir) I think; that man, I am not positive, (Murchie stood up).-That is the

[blocks in formation]

Q. Did you accompany them from the field to Stirling?

A. No, I did not; I staid to write some letters at Bonny-bridge.

Q. Did you accompany them as far as that bridge?

A. Yes, I did; and after that I overtook them, and rode to Stirling with them.

Q. Are you quite sure that all the persons who were delivered over to the custody of the proper officer in this place were in the skirmish? A: I am quite certain of it. Cross-examined by Mr Jeffrey.

Q. Am I to understand that that is another copy of the same Address; or, for any thing you know, the same identical paper?

A. That is the same Address, I fancy, but it is the same words; it was out of my hands for a short time, so that I cannot swear to it.

Q. How long was it out of your hands?

A. I think one night.

[blocks in formation]

Q. What did you mean to do with times? them?

A. To secure them-to take them prisoners.

Q. And take their arms? A. To take the men, and to take their arms of course.

Q. Had your men their swords drawn when they came in sight of the party on the hill?

A. I do not think they had-No, not till we came in sight of the party -I am not positive-I should think

not.

Q. Had they their swords drawn before the men fired?

A. I think so; whether I had given the word or not, I do not know; but probably they would have their swords drawn.

Q. Did you go up the muir pretty smartly?

A. As quick as we could.
Q. And they fired first?
A. Yes, of course.

Q. And as soon as you got near enough to be heard, you called to them to lay down their arms?

A. As soon as I was close to them; I did not call at the distance of fifty or sixty yards.

Q. Was any person in attendance, taking charge of them, or were they in one line?

A. Baird appeared to me the leader.

A. I should think six or seven times. Q. State the language you used at that time?

A. Lay down your arms; I said nothing else.

Q. Are you quite sure you were near enough, at the time you repeated that expression, to enable every person in the body to hear you?

A. Decidedly so; for I spoke very loud, and they were all quite near enough to hear me.

Q. Was any alteration made in their movements at all?

A. They did not fire any more, but they did not lay down their arms.

Q. And the resistance took place that you spoke of, when you got through this gap in the fence?

A. They did not fire any more till we got into the middle of them, and then I do not know whether they fired any more or not.

Q. You do not know whether the firing then was by your party or them?

A. No, I do not.

Mr Jeffrey.-Did they say any thing at all after you called out to them to lay down their arms?

A. The word "Treat" was mentioned by one of them; I thought they said, "We will treat with you;" but any thing else I do not remember.

Q. Do you know who said that?

I do not know which of them. ard the word "Treat," and it k me that they wanted to make s with us.

eutenant John James Davidson along with Mr Hodgson when he with his party to Bonnymuir, corroborated his evidence in alevery particular; identified John d as one who appeared to be the er of the party; observed him ent a short gun at Lieutenant dgson. He found upon the party mber of pikes, guns, pistols, and uantity of ammunition in their kets.

The evidence being closed, the deation of the prisoner was sworn to e been fairly emitted in the prece of Mr Alexander Dow, one of · Sheriffs of Stirling, Adam Duff, eriff of Edinburghshire, Alexander er, and John Watkins. After it had en read, the Clerk of Arraigns was oceeding to lay before the Jury the ntents of the Address, which Mr ardie, the Sheriff-depute, deposed as being the same as the one he card read at the corner of Dukereet; when

Mr JEFFREY rose, and objected to is proceeding, on the ground that Ir Hardie had not given sufficient vidence of his being certain that this as an exact copy of the one in which Hardie was implicated. Mr Hardie anfessed himself that he did not hear he whole of the paper read, but only small part of it, and of this part he ad only a slight recollection; and it was not fair that any greater part of should now be read than that which Mr Hardie persuaded himself was a copy of the hand-bill he first saw. The learned Counsel also objected to the reading of the hand-bill which Serjeant Cook received from Colonel Taylor, and which was, to the best of his recollection, the one which he res

ceived from the party who stopped him between Kilsyth and Stirling, inasmuch as there was no proof that Hardie was at all accessory to its contents, and of course could not be responsible for them. Besides, there was no other evidence, except a faint trace left upon his memory, that the bill in Court was the identical bill which he received from that party, and gave to Lieutenant Hodgson. It had been proved to have been out of the witness's (Hodgson) hands, and had not been marked in any manner, so as to make it easily distinguishable. Both objections were repelled, and the Address was read, which was to the following tenor :

Address to the Inhabitants of Great Britain and Ireland.

Friends and Countrymen,-Roused from that torpid state in which we have been sunk for so many years, we are at length compelled, from the extremity of our sufferings, and the contempt heaped upon our petitions for redress, to assert our rights at the hazard of our lives, and proclaim to the world the real motives which (if not misrepresented by designing men, would have united all ranks) have induced us to take up arms for the redress of our common grievances. The numerous public meetings held throughout the country has demonstrated to you that the interests of all. classes are the same. That the protection of the life and property of the rich man, is the interest of the poor man; and, in return, it is the interest of the rich to protect the poor from the iron grasp of despotism; for, when its victims are exhausted in the lower circles, there is no assurance but that its ravages will be continued in the upper; for, once set in motion, it will continue to move till a succession of victims fall. Our principles are few, and founded on the basis of our constitution, which were purchased with

the dearest blood of our ancestors, and which we swear to transmit to posterity unsullied, or perish in the attempt. Equality of rights (not of property) is the object for which we contend, and which we consider as the only security for our liberties and lives. Let us shew to the world that we are not that lawless sanguinary rabble which our oppressors would persuade the higher circles we are; but a brave and generous people, determined to be free. Liberty or Death is our motto; and we have sworn to return home in triumph, or return no more. Soldiers! shall you, countrymen, bound by the sacred obligation of an oath to defend your country and your King from enemies, whether foreign or domestic, plunge your bayonets into the bosoms of fathers and brothers; and at once sacrifice, at the shrine of military despotism, to the unrelenting orders of a cruel faction, those feelings which you hold in common with the rest of mankind? Soldiers! turn your eyes to ward Spain, and there behold the happy effects resulting from the union of soldiers and citizens. Look to that quarter, and there behold the yoke of hated despotism broke by the unanimous wish of the people and the soldiery, happily accomplished without bloodshed; and shall you, who taught those soldiers so fight the battles of liberty, refuse to fight those of your own country?-Forbid it Heaven!-Come forward then at once, and free your country and your King from the power of those that have held them too too long in thraldom. Friends and countrymen, the eventful period is now arrived when the services of all will be required, for the forwarding an object so universally wished, and so absolutely necessary. Come forward, then, and assist those who have begun, in the completion of so arduous a task, and support the laudable efforts which we are about to make, to replace to Bri

tons those rights consecrated to them by Magna Charta, and the Bill of Rights, and sweep from our shores that corruption which has degraded us below the dignity of man. Owing to the misrepresentations which have gone abroad with regard to our intentions, we think it indispensably neces sary to declare inviolable all public and private property; and we hereby call upon all Justices of the Peace, and all others, to suppress pillage and plun der of every description, and to endezvour to secure those guilty of such of fences, that they may receive that pu nishment which such violation of jus tice demands. In the present state of affairs, and during the continuation of so momentous a struggle, we earnestly request of all to desist from their la bour, from and after this day, the 1st of April, and attend wholly to the recovery of their rights; and consider it as the duty of every man, not to re commence until he is in possession of those rights which distinguishes the freeman from the slave; viz. that of giving consent to the laws by which he is to be governed. We therefore recommend to the proprietors of pub. lic works, and all others, to stop the one, and shut up the other, until order is restored, as we will be accountable for no damages which may be sustain ed, and which, after this public intimation, they can have no claim to. And we hereby give notice to all those who shall be found carrying arms against those who intend to regenerate their country, and restore its inhabitants to their native dignity, we shall consider them as traitors to their coun try, and enemies to their King, and treat them as such.-By order of the Committee of Organization for form. ing a Provisional Government. Glasgow, 1st April, 1820-Britons! God, Justice, the wishes of all good men are with us-join together, and make it one cause, and the nations of the earth

hail the day when the standard erty shall be raised on its native

r JEFFREY, as counsel for the prir, began with stating the satisfacwith which he had escaped from Labyrinth of legal subtleties, and d address himself to the unsophised good sense of the Jury. He an with admitting fully that his at had been guilty of highly culle proceedings; that he had been nd actively engaged in a skirmish h the lawful forces of the king. then proceeded :

Gentlemen, it may be necessary, afhaving made this admission, to state, you, not on any subtlety of the law treason-not on any technical and vyer-like distinction, which will apar at all strange or difficult for you follow, but on principles which ust be convincing and satisfactory your minds, though they may not ive occurred to you before your prent duty required you to attend to ich considerations, in the way I see ou are now attending to them-that a attack may be made upon the forces f the King, by an armed band of his ther subjects, and the blood of both may be shed in a field of unnatural attle, and yet no treason may be comnitted; and the proof of that fact nay even be no material ingredient of the treason that is here charged, ind the treason which is alone sufficient to support the charge against the prisoner. The charge against the prisoner, and what was necessary to make a valid charge of treason against him, is, that he was engaged in actual hostility with the forces of his sovereign, for the purpose, and with the intention of compelling that sovereign, by force of arms, to change his laws and government, or for the purpose of subverting the government altogether; leaving, or not leaving, the royalty, for the purpose of some fantastical

and new usurpation, to be erected upon the bloody ruins of the former fabric. That, Gentlemen, and nothing else, is the charge; and that, and nothing else than that, must be proved, before we are in a condition to consider this person in danger of a verdict. from you, finding him guilty of the charge now exhibited against him.

Gentlemen, the subjects of this realm may commit a variety of offences, of a more aggravated, or a more venial nature, indicated or consummated, all of them, by hostility against the King's forces, and by shedding their blood; and none of those offences can, by possibility, be ranked in the class of Treasons at all. There may be in the mind of a man, or any number of men, or at least of any moderate number of men, a great hostility to a particular body of the King's troops, or perhaps to the whole array of the military, from opinions, from grudges, from real or imagined wrongs or injuries, sustained at their hands-They may be assaulted in revenge-persons may have been detected in crimes, and led to justice-arms may have been found in their houses, and confiscated, and themselves convicted and punished by military law, or military despotism; on that account they may attack those who wear the same uniform as those who detected them,-out of revenge, and be guilty of great crimes undoubtedly,-but not of the crime of Treason. Such instances occur every day; bands of men engaged in pretty extensive combinations, for the furtherance of unlawful objects that are pretty widely pursued, in a neighbouring country. In Ireland, and in this country formerly, and not long ago, there were encounters between the King's forces and persons engaged in smuggling; they have been familiar and common, and much blood has been vhed in these occurrences. Aggra sated crimes they are, when it comes

« PreviousContinue »