XVII. 1736. CHAP, firm and impassable, and their own halberts and Lochaber axes, now no longer in civic hands, were brandished against them; yet no further violence was used than seemed requisite to make them quietly return as they came. In like manner, the sedan chairs of ladies, hastening, even amidst this confusion, to their indispensable tea and cards, were stopped, turned back, and escorted home for their safety, with most remarkable civility and consideration for their feelings. All these are additional proofs that the riot was no sudden ebullition of rage, but a settled plan of leaders above the common rank, well concerted and implicitly obeyed. Perhaps the strongest proof of all yet remains to tell. Is there any other instance of a riot, either in England or Scotland, in which the rioters willingly refrained from drunkenness? * The battering of the Tolbooth door had at length exhausted the strength, not the animosity, of the assailants; when a voice among them exclaimed, 66 Try fire!" Tar barrels, and other such combustibles, were immediately applied; a Sir Walter Scott says, "A near relation of mine used to tell "of having been stopped by the rioters and escorted home in "this manner. On reaching her own home, one of her attend"ants, in appearance a baxter, or baker's lad, handed her out of "her chair, and took leave with a bow, which, in the lady's "opinion, argued breeding that could hardly be learned beside "the oven." Note to the Heart of Mid-Lothian, ch. vi. See also his excellent narrative, Tales of a Grandfather, Third Series, vol. ii. pp. 156-180. XVII. large bonfire speedily arose, and a hole was burnt CHAP. in the door, through which the terrified gaoler flung the keys. The mob now poured in, leaving 1736. the doors open for the advantage of the other prisoners, who, of course, did not neglect this opportunity to escape. But the ring-leaders steadily pursued their course to the apartment of Porteous, and broke through its locks and bars. What was their rage and disappointment to find it empty! The unhappy man, hearing the tumult and the shouts for his life, had endeavoured to save it by ascending the chimney, but his progress was arrested by an iron grating, which, as usual in prisons, was fixed across the vent. His place of concealment was too obvious for security; he was soon discovered, dragged down, and told to prepare for the death he had deserved; nor was the slightest attention shown either to his prayers for mercy, or to the offers of large sums of money with which he attempted to redeem his life. Yet, with all this sternness of the rioters, there was, as before, a strange mixture of forbearance: Porteous was allowed to intrust his money and papers to a friend (a prisoner confined for debt) in behalf of his family; and one of the conspirators, a man of grave and reverend aspect, undertook the part of clergyman, and offered such spiritual exhortations as are proper to a dying man. They then led their victim towards the Grass Market, the usual scene of public executions, and which, being the place of his offence, they determined should be CHAP. also the place of his punishment. He refused to XVII. walk; but they mounted him on the hands of two 1736. of the rioters clasped together, and forming what in Scotland is termed, I suppose from irony, "the King's cushion." Such was their coolness, that, when Porteous dropped one of his slippers, they halted until it was picked up and replaced on his foot.* Having reached the Grass Market, the rioters obtained a coil of ropes by breaking open a dealer's booth, and at the same time left a guinea in payment for it; another circumstance denoting that the ring-leaders were by no means of the lowest class. Their next search was for the gallows; but these being removed to a distance, they seized a dyer's pole, and proceeded to the execution of their victim. His dying struggles were long, but unavailing; the rioters calmly watched till life was wholly extinct, and then, quietly drawing in their outposts, dispersed without noise. The arms which they had taken from the City Guards they now flung away; the streets were left perfectly quiet; and at daybreak the scattered weapons and the suspended body formed the only tokens of the dreadful deed of that night. The news of this outrage, being sent by express to the government in London, was received with no small astonishment and indignation. A riot so *This slight but characteristic incident was told Sir Walter Scott by the daughter of a lady who saw it from her window. Note to the Heart of Mid-Lothian, ch. vii. XVII. 1736. deliberate, orderly, and well-conducted, as almost to CHAP. mock the formalities of a judicial sentence, seemed so high a pitch of insolence, that, as Fletcher of Saltoun declared, "there is an end of Government "if such practices are suffered to escape punish"ment."* Queen Caroline, above all, was greatly irritated, looking upon the murder of Porteous as a direct insult to her person and authority. There is still a tradition in Scotland, that her Majesty, in the first burst of her resentment, exclaimed to the Duke of Argyle, that, sooner than submit to such things, she would make Scotland a hunting field. "In that case, Madam," answered Argyle, with a profound bow, but with no courtly spirit, "I will "take leave of your Majesty, and go down to my "own country to get my hounds ready!" It was, however, Argyle's brother, the Earl of Isla, whom the government immediately despatched to Edinburgh, with strict orders and full powers to detect, convict, and punish the offenders. But neither the rewards offered, nor the threats denounced, produced any disclosure. All the exertions of Isla ended only in collecting some vague rumours, which he could never trace to any authority, nor lead to any result. The popular feeling was evidently not for the murdered but for the murderer. I find in Isla's report to Walpole, "The most shocking circumstance is, that it plainly appears the highflyers of our Scotch Church *To the Duke of Newcastle, September 16. 1736. XVII. 1737. 66 CHAP. "have made this infamous murder a point of con"science. One of the actors went straight away "to a country church, where the sacrament was given to a vast crowd of people, as the fashion is here, and there boasted what he had done. All "the lower rank of the people who have distinguished themselves by pretences to a superior sanctity, talk of this murder as the hand of God 66 66 doing justice; and my endeavours to punish mur"derers are called grievous persecutions. I have "conversed with several of the parsons......; “and, indeed, I could hardly have given credit "to the public reports of the temper of these “saints if I had not myself been witness to it.” * Thus was all search impeded, nor was any discovery made. Even at the present time, the origin of this singular conspiracy remains as much a mystery as ever. We can only conjecture that the ringleaders, whoever they might be, took care to leave Edinburgh, and even Scotland, as soon as their crime was perpetrated, and did not venture to return for some years; and we learn from Sir Walter Scott, that, in his younger days, the voice of common rumour pointed out certain individuals, though without any proof, who had returned from the East and West Indies in improved circumstances, as having fled abroad on account of the Porteous Mob. t * To Sir Robert Walpole, October 16. 1736. p. 177. |