The Waverley novels, by Sir Walter Scott, complete in 12 vol., printed from the latest English ed., embracing the author's last corrections, prefaces & notes.

THE HEART OF MID-LOTHIAN. 317
court,) he had been described by his counsel as the person on-whom the
magistrates chiefly relied in all emergencies of uncommon difficulty. It
was argued, too, that his conduct, on the unhappy occasion of Wilson's execution, was capable of being attributed to an imprudent excess of zeal in
the execution of his duty, a motive for which those under whose authority
he acted might be supposed to have great sympathy. And as these considerations might move the magistrates to make a favourable representation of
Porteous's case, there were not wanting others in the higher departments
of government, which would make such suggestions favourably listened to.
The mob of Edinburgh, when thoroughly excited, had been at all times
one of the fiercest which could be found in Europe; and of late years they
had risen repeatedly against the government, and sometimes not without
temporary success. They were conscious, therefore, that they were no favourites with the rulers of the period, and that, if Captain Porteous's violence was not altogether regarded as good service, it might certainly be
thought, that to visit it with a capital punishment would render it both delicate and dangerous for future officers, in the same circumstances, to act with
effect in repressing tumults. There is also a natural feeling, on the part of
all members of government, for the general maintenance of authority; and
it seemed not unlikely, that what to the relatives of the sufferers appeared
a wanton and unprovoked massacre, should be otherwise viewed in the
cabinet of St. James's. It might be there supposed, that, upon the whole
matter, Captain Porteous was in the exercise of a trust delegated to him by
the lawful civil authority; that he had been assaulted by the populace, and
several of his men hurt; and that, in finally repelling force by force, his
conduct could be fairly imputed to no other motive than self-defence in the
discharge of his duty.
These considerations, of themselves very powerful, induced the spectators to apprehend the possibility of a reprieve; and to the various causes
which might interest the rulers in his favour, the lower part of the rabble
added one which was peculiarly well adapted to their comprehension. It
was averred, in order to increase the odium against Porteous, that while he
repressed with the utmost severity the slightest excesses of the poor, he not
only overlooked the licence of the young nobles and gentry, but was very
willing to lend them the countenance of his official authority, in execution
of such loose pranks as it was chiefly his duty to have restrained. This
suspicion, which was perhaps much exaggerated, made a deep impression
on the minds of the populace; and when several of the higher rank joined
in a petition, recommending Porteous to the mercy of the crown, it was
generally supposed he owed their favour not to'any conviction of the hardship of his case, but to the fear of losing a convenient accomplice in their
debaucheries. It is scarcely necessary to say how much this suspicion augmented the people's detestation of this obnoxious criminal, as well as their
fear of his escaping the sentence pronounced against him..While these arguments were stated and replied to, and canvassed and
supported, the hitherto silent expectation of the people became changed into
that deep and agitating murmur, which is sent forth by the ocean before
the tempest begins to howl. The crowded populace, as if their motions had
corresponded with the unsettled state of their minds, fluctuated to and fro
without any visible cause of impulse, like the agitation of the waters, called
by sailors the ground-swell. The. news, which the magistrates had almost
hesitated to communicate to them, were at length announced, and spread
among the spectators with a rapidity like lightning. A reprieve from the
Secretary of State's office, under the hand of his Grace the Duke of Newcastle, had arrived, intimating the pleasure of Queen Caroline, (regent of
the kingdom during the absence of George II. on the continent,) that the
execution of the sentence of death pronounced against John Porteous, late
Captain-Lieutenant of the City-Guard of Edinburgh, present prisoner in
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