met by the counter-assertion {62} that the weapon Porteous had used
was not his own, but one seized from the hands of a soldier. A large
number of persons gave evidence that they heard Porteous give the order
to fire, that they saw him level and discharge the piece he had seized,
and that they had seen his victim fall. After a lengthy trial Porteous
was found guilty and sentenced to death.

[Sidenote: 1736--Attacking the Tolbooth]

The sentence was received with practically general approval in
Edinburgh, but with very different feelings in London. The Queen, who
was acting as regent in the absence of George II., felt especially
strongly upon the subject. Lamentable as the violence of Captain
Porteous had been, it was still urged that he had acted in obedience to
a sense of duty. It was feared, too, that the sufficiently lawless
attitude of the lower population of Edinburgh towards authority would
be gravely and dangerously intensified if so signal an example were to
be made of an officer whose offence was only committed under conditions
of grave provocation and in the face of an outbreak which might well
appear to resemble riot. The Government in London came to the
conclusion that it would not do to hang John Porteous, and a message
was sent by the Duke of Newcastle notifying her Majesty's pleasure that
Porteous should have a reprieve for a period of six weeks--a
preliminary step to the consequent commutation of the death sentence.

But, if the Government in London proposed to reprieve Porteous, the
wild democracy of Edinburgh were not willing to lose their vengeance so
lightly. The deaths caused by the discharge of the pieces of
Porteous's men had aroused the most passionate resentment in Edinburgh.
Men of all classes, those directly affected by the deaths of friends
and relatives, and those who looked upon the quarrel from an attitude
of unconcerned justice, alike agreed in regarding Porteous's sentence
as righteous and deserved; now, alike, they agreed in resenting the
interference of the Queen, and the apparently inevitable escape of
Porteous from the consequences of his crime.

{63}

What followed fills one of the most dramatic of all the many dramatic
pages in the history of Edinburgh town. John Porteous was imprisoned
in the Tolbooth, in the very thick of the city. Some of his friends,
stirred by fears which if vague were not imaginary, urged him to
petition to the authorities to be removed to the