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or the object of it to any one, and requested me to go with them to Strathaven, where they would treat me with a bowl of toddy. But I declined to go with them, and returned to my own shop. I afterwards stated these facts to some of my acquaintances, and now again here solemnly repeat them as true. ALEX. Ross.

(Signed)

16th May, 1832. There is pretty conduct for you on the part of a Sheriff! How humbling, how degrading must it be to his "Lordship," if he has any feeling at all, to see himself thus exposed in the year 1832? But does not this very conduct of Sheriff Aiton afford a key to the whole machinery of the Pikes, which were then found in such profusion in this county of Lanark, even in hay-stacks, and ditches, and at the bottom of canals? Does it not show how active "the local authorities" really were in getting at least implements for the "insurrection" made and ready, to put into the hands of the "infatuated Radicals," as they were called, "free, for nothing, gratis ?" And Aiton promising that Ross "would be well paid for his trouble!!!" By Jupiter, we must write immediately to Mr. Hume to see whether the Exchequer accounts for the year 1820 cannot yet be overhauled.

The only possible excuse which Aiton could make for this excursion at night to Ross is this: that he wished to ascertain how far the "treasonable" feeling was extending itself. But can any body doubt that if Ross, tempted by Aiton's offer, had consented to make the Pikes, and if Aiton and his companion had escaped that evening in their disguise, that he (Ross) would have been instantly a marked man, and his life probably would have answered for it? The duty of a Sheriff is, or ought to be, sacred. It is not to entice persons into the commission of a crime. It is rather to warn them of the consequences of so doing. And when we recollect that Aiton was the Judge before whom Wilson, after his apprehension, was first taken for examination: when we recollect that Aiton and M'Callum were the persons who prepared the precognition against Wilson, which led to the whole superstructure of the proceedings afterwards adopted against him by the Crown Lawyers :—when we recollect that on the very Trial, before the Special Commission in Glasgow, Wilson's Declarations, taken by Aiton, were actually rejected, and prevented from going to the Jury, in consequence of improper conduct on the part of Aiton, in reference to those Declarations,-conduct which the Supreme Judges held was contrary to the rules of law and justice ; when we recollect, we say, these circumstances, and many others which rush into our memory at this moment, we are compelled to blush for our country, and to sigh for the departed!

We hope the 7th No. will be ready next Saturday.

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY

MUIR, GOWANS, & CO. 42, ARGYLL-STREET,
(Opposite the Buck's Head);

SOLD BY J. STEWART, 11, ST. JAMES'S STREET, PAISLEY;
AND ALL THE BOOKSELLERS.

EXPLOITS OF RICHMOND;

EXPOSURE OF THE SPY SYSTEM, LETTERS OF ANDREW HARDIE, &c.

Behold another day break in the east:

But even this night,-whose black contagious breath
Already smokes about the burning crest

Of the old, feeble, and day wearied sun.

Even this ill night, your breathing shall expire ;

Paying the fine of rated treachery

Even with a treacherous fine of all your lives.-Shakespeare.

WE now proceed to call the attention of our readers to a few other transactions that took place in Glasgow on Tuesday, the 4th of Aprilthe day preceeding the bloody affair at Bonnymuir, to which these transactions form the prelude.

And, first, it is of some consequence to attend to the words employ. ed by the authorities in the second Proclamation put forth by them, dated the 4th of April, and which was quoted at length in our 5th No. P. 78. It may be premised, that we have some reason to believe that that second Proclamation was composed by Mr. James Reddie, and therefore persons of our poor ability might well be deterred from criticising any thing which came from his accomplished hands. But we confess, a strong sense of duty (ambition, or any other idle vaunt is out of the question,) compels us to try an experiment upon it, even, in the way of plain, honest, and impartial criticism.

Take, then, the very first paragraph of that second Proclamation as follows:-"We, the Lord Provost and Magistrates of the city of Glasgow, Sheriff of the county of Lanark, and Justices of the Peace for the Lower Ward of Lanarkshire, in the present state of the city and county, wish earnestly and solemnly to make this call on the misguided people who have been unwarily led into their present state of insubordination, to return to their duty, before the adoption of the final and decisive measures which that conduct will render immediately necessary."

MISGUIDED PEOPLE!!! WHO HAVE BEEN UNWARILY LED INTO THEIR PRESENT STATE OF INSUBORDINATION!!!

Good!-Nay, such language was excellent at the time it was written. But now, that we have dragged many facts to light, which were they No. VII.]

G

[Price 2d.

studiously concealed;-now, for instance, that we have exposed the secret closeting of Richmond with Reddie, both before and subsequent to these events, we ask, and ask, too, triumphantly, could we, at this moment, desire a declaration more explicit, even from the local authorities themselves, if that were possible, to prove many of the damning suspicions and accusations we have brought against them, than these very words employed in that very first paragraph of the second Proclamation? Misguided people!!! (let us again and again repeat the expression) who have been unwarily led into their present state of insubordination!!! Oh! how men are sometimes caught in the very trap they had laid for others!

But how kind was it for the "local authorities" to call "on the misguided people to RETURN to their duty before the adoption of the final and decisive measures which that conduct will render immediately necessary."

Return to their duty!!! In the name of justice, we ask, who was it that first led the misguided people FROM their duty? Who was it, we again ask, that directed, or at least encouraged the putting up of the Treasonable Address in Glasgow on the previous Saturday night or Sunday morning, which was the essence of the whole mischief? Oh! Richmond, villian as thou art, we owe thee thanks for thy ever memorable declaration, that "THE POLICY ADOPTED WAS TO ALLOW THEM (i. e. the misguided people) TO PROCEED, OR FULLY TO COMMIT THEMSELVES."

Now, attend to the substance of the second paragraph of this Proclamation as follows:-" An audacious Address has appeared, WHICH INVOLVES ITS AUTHORS IN The guilt of HIGH TREASON," &c.

Why, then, we ask, did the local authorities not take up the authors of the Address, whom they knew,-aye, we say, whom they knew? And why did Lord Sidmouth wink, through them, at John Anderson, jun. ?

But mark,-mark, reader, the third paragraph of this Proclamation: "We, the Lord Provost, Magistrates, Sheriff, and Justices, deeply regret, that this rebellious Address should have induced any of their fellow-subjects to listen to the interested plans of its authors."

Now, we shall not pretend to say, whether these expressions of "deep regret" were, on the part of the "local authorities," sincere or hypocritical, although we rather think that if any regret was felt by them at all, it is felt by them much more acutely now, when through an independent, and a fearless Press, we are pinching them with the weapons of truth, in a way we conscientiously believe they never expected!

But read that third paragraph of the Proclamation calmly over again. "We, the Lord Provost, &c., deeply regret that this rebellious Address should have induced any of their fellow-subjects to listen to the interested plans of its authors."

Interested PLANS of its authors!!! Good again! Faith, the author of this Proclamation, whether Mr. Reddie or not, and the local authorities who espoused it, are now working to our hands famously, and saving us a mighty deal of trouble. They are now, verily, ena

bling us to prove, simply, by a reference to, and an examination of their own words, that there WERE "INTERESTED PLANS" in view concerning the "Rebellious Address," and that, too, by "ITS auTHORS!!!" And pray, who were "its authors?" Was it any of the three unfortunate men who were subsequently beheaded? Was

it any of their unfortunate companions who were put with them upon their trial, and transported beyond seas? Who, we again ask, were 66 ITS AUTHORS?" The "local authorities" can best answer that question, if they please. We have probably relieved them of that trouble already, by enabling the Public to understand the true answer that could only be returned to the question.

The fifth paragraph of the Proclamation also deserves notice:"We (the Lord Provost, &c.) farther deem it right to inform the misguided, that all those who, knowing the projects and designs of the authors of this aforesaid Address, do conceal from the civil authorities of the country, what they know respecting these treasonable plans, are guilty of a heinous crime in the eye of the law, and are liable to severe punishment."

How absurd must it now appear to be, to see the authorities calling on "the misguided," to afford them information respecting "the projects and designs of the authors of this aforesaid Address," when the authorities were perfectly aware of the history of these things themselves. No doubt the authorities were extremely anxious to learn from as many sources as possible,-the guided as well as the "misguided," the innocent, as well as the guilty,-how the Address was operating out of doors. For perhaps they had heard (among other things) of a plan which was actually promulgated by Turner and some of his confederates, as we shall afterwards show, of stopping the London Mail within a few miles of Glasgow, and murdering the guard,a plan which, thank God, was not followed out, otherwise many, many men truly "misguided," would, in all probability, have been butchered in consequence.

The sixth paragraph of the Proclamation states (what was perfectly true), that "the disloyal and the seditious cannot carry their purposes or their threats of violence into effect. Every man who thinks must know, that if the great Military Force at our disposal is exerted as circumstances may immediately and indispensably require, the consequences must be ruinous and fatal to all who resist." But observe the concluding words of the same paragraph: "We wish earnestly to separate the innocent from the guilty; but longer continuance in the present state of insubordination makes all guilty, and we cannot, and will not longer delay the measures necessary for the punishment of the guilty.

Now, we pause here to ask, Who were the guilty parties when that Proclamation was penned? Had the Radicals, from whom the Treasonable or Rebellious Address, was said and believed by many to have emanated, drawn at that time a single trigger against any one human being in Glasgow ?—No !-No! we say. And with the exception, of the strike of work on the Monday, or rather, as we are now disposed

to call it, the cessation of work on that and a day or two following, which is not to be wondered at, considering the very nature of the Address itself, we confidently assert, that up to that date, no action of a treasonable nature was committed. We shall even speak plainer: we say, that up to the date of the second Proclamation, of Tuesday the 4th of April, 1820, if any treasonable action was committed at all, it was exclusively committed by the authors and abettors of the previous Treasonable Address, and that they, and they alone, were the guilty parties.

"We wish earnestly to separate the innocent from the guilty." Kind souls!-Did they do so?-Did they really act on their own professions?-Did they "earnestly" desire to separate the innocent from the guilty? Why, reader, Does their own Proclamation, now calmly reviewed by you, not demonstrate their own perfect consciousness, at the time, that the innocent and the guilty were mixing together, and when you come to weigh all their actions, we leave you to judge, whether they did not actually lay hold of the innocent, and allow the guilty to slip through their fingers?

This leads us now to the concluding words of that Proclamation, as follows:-"The whole Military power of the district will be employed in the most decisive manner, to prevent the laws of the land being insulted and violated, &c. The consequences must be on the heads of those who have seduced and misled the inhabitants; but these consequences will be fatal to all who venture to oppose and resist the overwhelming power at our disposal." And thus ends this Proclamation.

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We take our leave of it, in the meanwhile at least, by asking, whether any one of those heartless and cold-blooded villains who, to the words, nay, the admission in the Proclamation itself, "SEDUCED and MISLED the inhabitants," were ever brought to trial, though within the reach of the authorities? We say, (for it is in vain to expect that the local authorities will put the seal to their own condemnation and disgrace,) that not one of these seducers were ever touched. On the contrary, facilities were afforded to them for concealment and escape. And although we cannot, as in the case of Richmond, trace any of them to Stationers' shops purchasing ten shilling stamp receipts, to write discharges in full for their wages of iniquity, or rather their blood-money allowance, yet who can doubt that many of them received that allowance to some extent or other? For, if Richmond, by his Farce of 1817, which miscarried, was rewarded with upwards of £1000, surely the solemn Tragedy of 1820, which drew tears, and agonies, and cries from thousands, would be much more beneficial to some of the leading actors in it. At all events, we know that the subsequent Special Commission cost the country an expence of upwards of TEN THOUSAND POUNDS. Mr. Serjeant Hullock (an English Barrister) was sent down to Scotland on a special retainer from the Treasury, with a Fee of Two Thousand Guineas in his pocket. He was afterwards made, by Lord Sidmouth, a Baron of the Exchequer, with £4000 a year. And perhaps some of our readers

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