they had for holding Kerr was a letter from a clerk at Greenock, stating
one Robert Kerr, accused of sedition, had fled before the papers could
be made out for his arrest, and that, if he was found trying to take
ship at Troon, to hold him. 'I warn you,' said the stranger, shaking his
fist, 'that you have made yourselves liable to heavy penalties in
arresting Robert Kerr on the strength of a mere letter. There is no
deposition whatever, no warrant, and yet a peaceable man, going about in
his lawful business, has been seized by your thief-takers and made
prisoner. If you do not release him at once I go forthwith to Edinburgh
and you will know what will happen you by Monday.' He went on with much
more I do not recall, but it was all threats and warnings of what would
befall all concerned if Kerr was not released. The Sheriff at last got
in a word. 'The charge is sedition and ordinary processes of procedure
do not apply.'

'You might have said that 30 years ago when you infernal Tories sent
Thomas Muir of Huntershill to his death, and William Skirving and others
to banishment for seeking reform in representation and upholding the
right of petition, but you are not able now to make the law to suit your
ends. You are holding this man without shadow of law or justice, and I
demand his being set at liberty.'

'Quite an authority in law!' sneered the Sheriff.

'Yes, I have been three times before the court of session and won each
time. I knew your father, who was a decent shoemaker in Cupar, and when
he sent you to learn to be a lawyer he little thought he was making a
tool for those he despised. Pick a man from the plow, clap on his back a
black coat, send him to college, and in five years he is a Conservative,
and puckers his mouth at anything so vulgar as a Reformer, booing and