upheld while there by two bakers, who put a Lochaber axe into his
hand. The jury, wisely judging this poor creature could be no proper subject of
punishment, found the panel Not Guilty. The same verdict was given in the case
of Thomas Linning, also mentioned in the Solicitor's memorial, who was tried in
1738. In short, neither then, nor for a long period afterwards, was anything
discovered relating to the organisation of the Porteous Plot.
The imagination of the people of Edinburgh was long irritated, and their
curiosity kept awake, by the mystery attending this extraordinary conspiracy. It
was generally reported of such natives of Edinburgh as, having left the city in
youth, returned with a fortune amassed in foreign countries, that they had
originally fled on account of their share in the Porteous Mob. But little credit
can be attached to these surmises, as in most of the cases they are contradicted
by dates, and in none supported by anything but vague rumours, grounded on the
ordinary wish of the vulgar, to impute the success of prosperous men to some
unpleasant source. The secret history of the Porteous Mob has been till this day
unravelled; and it has always been quoted as a close, daring, and calculated act
of violence, of a nature peculiarly characteristic of the Scottish people.
Nevertheless, the author, for a considerable time, nourished hopes to have found
himself enabled to throw some light on this mysterious story. An old man, who
died about twenty years ago, at the advanced age of ninety-three, was said to
have made a communication to the clergyman who attended upon his death bed,
respecting the origin of the Porteous Mob. This person followed the trade of a
carpenter, and had been employed as such on the estate of a family of opulence
and condition. His character in his line of life and amongst his neighbours, was
excellent, and never underwent the slightest suspicion. His confession was said
to have been to the following purpose: That he was one of twelve young men
belonging to the village of Pathhead, whose animosity against Porteous, on
account of the execution of Wilson, was so extreme, that they resolved to
execute vengeance on him with their own hands, rather than he should escape
punishment. With this resolution they crossed the Forth at different ferries,
and rendezvoused at the suburb called Portsburgh, where their appearance in a
body soon called numbers around them. The public mind was in such a state of
irritation, that it only wanted a single spark to create an explosion; and this
was afforded by the exertions of the small and