ss between
Argyll and the English Government (1736-1737).

THE PORTEOUS RIOT.

The affair of Porteous is so admirably well described in 'The Heart of
Mid-Lothian,' and recent research {265} has thrown so little light on the
mystery (if mystery there were), that a brief summary of the tale may
suffice.

In the spring of 1736 two noted smugglers, Wilson and Robertson, were
condemned to death. They had, while in prison, managed to widen the
space between the window-bars of their cell, and would have escaped; but
Wilson, a very stoutly built man, went first and stuck in the aperture,
so that Robertson had no chance. The pair determined to attack their
guards in church, where, as usual, they were to be paraded and preached
at on the Sunday preceding their execution. Robertson leaped up and
fled, with the full sympathy of a large and interested congregation,
while Wilson grasped a guard with each hand and a third with his teeth.
Thus Robertson got clean away--to Holland, it was said,--while Wilson was
to be hanged on April 14. The acting lieutenant of the Town Guard--an
unpopular body, mainly Highlanders--was John Porteous, famous as a
golfer, but, by the account of his enemies, notorious as a brutal and
callous ruffian. The crowd in the Grassmarket was great, but there was
no attempt at a rescue. The mob, however, threw large stones at the
Guard, who fired, killing or wounding, as usual, harmless spectators. The
case for Porteous, as reported in 'The State Trials,' was that the attack
was dangerous; that the plan was to cut down and resuscitate Wilson; that
Porteous did not order, but tried to prevent, the firing; and that
neither at first nor in a later skirmish at the West Bow did he fire
himself. There was much "cross swearing" at the trial of Porteous (July
20); the jury found him guilty, and he was sentenced to be hanged on
September 8. A petition from him to Queen Caroline (George II. was
abroad) drew attention to palpable discrepancies in the hostile evidence.
Both parties in Parliament backed his application, and on August 28 a
delay of justice for six weeks was granted.

Indignation was intense. An intended attack on the Tolbooth, where
Porteous lay, had been matter of rumour three days earlier: the prisoner
should have been placed in the Castle. At 10 P.M. on the night of
September 7 the magistrates heard that boys were beating a drum, and
ordered the Town Guard under arms; but the mob, who had