enough, and it was met on the part of the government by a measure equally absurd, and at least equally illegal. The court of session had often exercised the power of regulating the prices of provisions, liquors, &c. though always in favour of the buyer; but now they reversed the matter, and, to gratify and soothe the brewers, passed an act of sederunt, requiring all brewers and retailers of ale in Edinburgh and its suburbs to sell the same at a certain higher price than formerly, allowing the brewers an abundant profit to pay the duty, without either hurting or diminishing their business. Full of the vulgar idea, however, that the malt tax was to ruin their trade, and, as the Jacobites told them, along with it their country, the makers and the sellers of ale refused obedience to this act, and, when called together by the lord advocate, the brewers declared that they would brew while the stock of malt lasted, but if they were sued for the duty, they would shut up their breweries, and go to prison rather than comply with the new regulations.

Highly irritated with this obstinacy on the part of the brewers, the lord advocate, in conjunction with the magistrates, brought a complaint against them before the court of session, for combining to put a stop to brewing for the future, and their lordships passed another act of sederunt, declaring that it was inconsistent with the public welfare, and therefore illegal for the brewers to quit the exercise of their occupations, and requiring them to continue and carry on their trade for three months to come, in the same manner, and to the same extent they had done for the previous month; nor, when the three months were expired, was any of them to give up business until fifteen days after he had intimated his design to the magistrates by a notary public. The principal men among them were also by the said act cited to appear next day, and give bond to the above effect, under the penalty of one hundred pounds sterling. Next day the brewers presented a petition, wherein they stated, that to require and compel private persons to enter into bonds under penalties, had already been by the claim of right declared to be a public grievance, and to oblige a man to follow any employment to the ruin of his family, they maintained, was authorized by no law, and justified by no

act.

precedent; for which, with other reasons set forth in the petition, they requested to be excused from compliance with the Far from listening to the prayer of this petition, their lordships ordered it to be burnt by the hands of the hangman, and the brewers to be cited before them. On their appearing before the court, the brewers, with the exception of one, remained firm, and were certified, that if they did not comply with the act of sederunt aforesaid, between and the tenth day of August, they would be committed to prison, and there remain till the first of November.

While matters were thus in suspense, Carpenter's dragoons were brought into the city and suburbs, and the brewers were, at the instance of the commissioners of excise, cited before the justices for the duties upon the stock of malt on hand, when, according to agreement, they all left off brewing, and, by virtue of the act of sederunt, four of the principal of them, viz. Messrs. Cave, Lindsay, Scot, and Cleghorn, were thrown into prison. The justices in the meantime proceeded against the brewers, and, on the twenty-fifth of August, decerned them in double duties, and, finding that it would be impossible to avoid being compelled to pay the duty at last, the greater part of them complied with the act of sederunt, and gave bills for the duty upon the stock in hand, lord Ilay engaging that payment should not be demanded before the meeting of parliament. Those who were in prison finding themselves thus deserted, thought it vain to expose themselves to further suffering, and complied also.*

This amicable issue of the business in Edinburgh, was probably occasioned by the complete failure of a more serious contest in the west on the same subject, which was attended

* Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. pp. 165-168. Lockhart says, nothing was omitted to persuade them to comply, and " amongst other devices, Mr. Wightman, one of the city magistrates, commonly called nosie Wightman, convened some few of them together, and proposing to call upon God in prayer for direction in so mighty an affair, he fell to work, and launched out in raptures, as if inspired to denounce judgments on those that contributed or were accessary in disturbing this miid and gracious government, which, with the powerful influence of a purse of gold, as was confidently affirmed and credited, had such irresistible effects, that they agreed to enact themselves as required by the lords of session.”

not only with the loss of much property, but with a considerable number of lives. As the twenty-third of June, the day for imposing the malt duty, approached, the officers of excise found it necessary, from the spirit generally manifested towards them, to take their departure from all the towns of the west; and in Glasgow especially, which had hitherto been famed for its loyalty, from many concurring causes, there was reason to fear serious disturbances.* Unhappily, however, nothing was done in order to preserve the public tranquillity, till the very moment it was evidently to be interrupted, when two companies of foot, consisting only of one hundred and ten men, under the command of captain Bushel, were brought from Edinburgh, and did not arrive in Glasgow till the afternoon of the twenty-fourth. On the twenty-third, the mob had taken possession of the town, at least of the streets, and had forcibly obstructed the excisemen in the exercise of their duty. On the twenty-fourth, the mob had increased in numbers, though they had not proceeded

"At this time, the inhabitants of Edinburgh, and other towns in the low country, were loudly exclaiming against the malt tax, which was to take place in a few days. Seditious pamphlets were printed and dispersed through the country, comparing their slavery to that of the Israelites under the Egyptian bondage. That England had loaded them with burdens too heavy for them to bear, and that they were betrayed by the treacherous actings of their own representatives. The magistrates of Edinburgh were exclaimed against, and insulted, for the zeal they had shown in suppressing and discouraging tumultuous proceedings, and requiring a due obedience to the law.

"The inhabitants of Glasgow were still more outrageous, declaring publicly in the streets that they would not submit to a malt tax, insulting the officers of excise, and threatening to stone them if they attempted to enter their malt-houses; for which purpose, they had heaps of stones piled up at the doors, to show them what they might expect if they proceeded to the execution of that law. Messages and letters were sent from Glasgow to most of the considerable towns in the low country, exciting them not to submit to this new imposition, but to follow the example of Glasgow, who were determined to suffer all extremities, rather than comply with the payment of this insupportable tax, as they were pleased to term it: and it was reported publicly at that time in Stirling, Perth, and Edinburgh, that the house of Daniel Campbell, Esq. member of parliament for Glasgow, who was represented to have been one of the chief promoters of this law, was to be plundered on the day the malt tax was to take place."

Report to his majesty, George I., concerning the

Highlands of Scotland, &c. by General Wade.

to any remarkable acts of violence. On the arrival, however, of the soldiers about seven o'clock in the evening, they took possession of the guard-house, beat off the town officers who were sent to put the soldiers in possession of it, locked the doors, and carried off the keys. The soldiers, previously drawn up on parade, for the purpose of being marched into the guardhouse, and surrounded by an unruly mob, which insulted them in the grossest manner, were thus placed in a most painful situation. The officer who commanded them, proposed breaking open the door and taking possession of the guard-house, which was obviously all that was left for him to do, and could not have been a matter of much difficulty, but the lord provost, the honourable Charles Miller, covering his treachery with affected humanity or real pusillanimity, pretended to be afraid that such violence would irritate the mob, and provoke them to deeds of greater atrocity; he therefore advised the officer to order his men into their quarters, as the only expedient that could be adopted for their safety. With this advice, the officer was, simply enough, induced to comply, his men being very much fatigued by a long march, in a very rainy day. Fortunately the mob did not depart from their previous plan of operation. Had their resentment been by any accidental circumstance turned against this handful of soldiers, scattered in private houses through all quarters of the city, it was impossible they could have escaped instant extermination. They appear, however, to have taken up their quarters, without any sense of danger, the lord provost, in the meantime, retiring to a tavern with his friends. Here, however, his enjoyment was soon interrupted, by tidings that the mob was now assembled in greater number, and becoming more violent in action than ever. Nor was this at all to be wondered at, seeing any little show of authority that had been made to preserve the public peace, tended only to excite, and to point the fury of the mob upon its object with more deadly effect.

Mr. Campbell of Shawfield, member of parliament for the city and its associated boroughs, and the unhappy object of all this tumultuous preparation, had incurred the public displeasure, having been some years before artfully represented by the Jacobites as the mean of bringing several heavy

restrictions upon the tobacco trade, which, in Glasgow, was carried on more extensively than in any town in the kingdom, and now as having been accessory to the extension of the malt tax. The soldiers too, who had been so tardily brought forward, were, at the same time, represented as having been brought into the town at his request, for the purpose of enslaving it, and the rioters proceeded without ceremony to demolish his house, at that time the most elegant in the city. About eleven o'clock at night, while the mob were busy with their work of robbery and destruction, captain Bushel, who was certainly an officer of some merit, sent to the lord provost, offering his services, and that of the troops which he commanded; but his lordship was afraid the troops might be injured before they could be collected together, and gave it as his advice, that they should keep their quarters. He himself, in the meantime, attempted to persuade the rabble to disperse, but in vain : Mr. Campbell's house was completely gutted, the whole of the furniture either destroyed or carried off, all the statues, of which he had a number, in his garden defaced, and his wife's jewels, his money, books, accounts, &c. became an indiscriminate spoil to the triumphant rabble.

Next day, about ten o'clock in the forenoon, the provost ventured to break up the doors of the guard-house, and to seize, probably for the purpose of saving appearances, one or two of the rioters, on which a man, in the dress of an old woman, beat an alarm through the town upon a drum, and, in addition to the rioters of last night, who were reeling drunk with the contents of Mr. Campbell's cellars, brought a vast number more from all quarters of the town, who instantly attacked the troops with every sort of missile, by which they were so much irritated, that they fired upon the crowd, and killed nine persons outright, wounding many more. The enraged multitude immediately rang the alarm bell, broke up the town magazine, and possessing themselves of fire-arms wherever they could find them, threatened to attack this handful of troops, and instantly to destroy them. The lord provost hastened to communicate this determination to captain Bushel, advising him, at the same time, for his own safety, and for the peace of the city, to withdraw the troops. The captain, whose directions