xt to the judges of
England; but after a long debate this claim was rejected, and the judges
of Scotland appeared at the bar in their robes. A bill was brought in
to disable Alexander Wilson, esquire, lord-provost of Edinburgh, from
enjoying any office or place of magistracy in the city of Edinburgh, or
elsewhere in Great Britain; for imprisoning the said Alexander Wilson;
for abolishing the guard of that city; and for taking away the gates of
the Netherbow-port, so as to open a communication between the city
and the suburbs, in which the king's troops are quartered. The duke
of Argyle, in arguing against this bill, said he could not think of a
proceeding more harsh or unprecedented than the present, as he believed
there was no instance of the whole weight of parliamentary indignation,
for such he called a proceeding by a bill _ex post facto_, falling upon
any single person, far less upon any community, for crimes that were
within the reach of the inferior courts of justice; for this reason
he observed, that if the lord-provost and citizens of Edinburgh should
suffer in the terms of the present bill, they would suffer by a cruel,
unjust, and fantastical proceeding; a proceeding of which the worst use
might be made, if ever the nation should have the misfortune to fall
under a partial self-interested administration. He told them he sat
in the parliament of Scotland when that part of the treaty of Union
relating to the privileges of the royal burghs, was settled on the
same footing as religion; that is, they were made unalterable by any
subsequent parliament of Great Britain. Notwithstanding the eloquence
and warmth of his remonstrance, the bill was sent down to the house of
commons, where it produced a violent contest. The commons set on foot
a severe scrutiny into the particular circumstances that preceded and
attended the murder of Porteous; from the examination of the witnesses,
it appeared that no freeman or citizen of Edinburgh was concerned in
the riot, which was chiefly composed of country people, excited by
the relations of some unhappy persons whom Porteous and his men had
slain at the execution of the smuggler; and these were assisted by
'prentice-boys and the lowest class of vagabonds that happened to be
at Edinburgh; that the lord-provost had taken all the precautions to
prevent mischief that his reflection suggested; that he even exposed his
person to the rage of the multitude, in his endeavour to disperse the