§ SIR A. L. HAYwished to put a question to the learned Lord the Lord Advocate of Scotland. It had transpired through the medium of the public press, that a riot had taken place in the town of Wick, in the north of Scotland; and that in consequence of that riot the military had dispersed the populace by means of their bayonets, and had subsequently fired upon them, by which several people were seriously wounded. Now, he wished to know from the learned Lord, whether he had received official information of the facts, and whether the facts stated in the public press were or were not correct?
§ The LORD ADVOCATE, in answer to the question of the hon. Gentleman, was sorry to be obliged to state that, in consequence of a determined riot in the town of Wick, the military were under the necessity of firing, and that the result was, that a woman had been wounded slightly in the arm; and that another individual, a man, was wounded more severely in the hand. He might take occasion to state, that the conduct of the military had, during the present distress, been on all occasions truly exemplary, and that they had been distinguished by the greatest possible sympathy with the inhabitants, towards whom they had always exhibited the utmost mo- 833 deration, patience, and humanity. With respect to the civil authorities, he thought it proper to state, that, in calling the military into this county, it was done before this occurrence took place, at the instance of the sheriff, who acted in accordance, not only with the provost of Wick, but with all the local magistrates and gentlemen, and every person, without exception, connected with the shipping of the town, who had represented to him that the shipment of corn could not take place without a strong military force. On the morning of the day on which the disturbance took place, a number of special constables were sworn in, to give the necessary protection in conveying corn to a ship that had come into the port; but the sheriff received information in the course of the evening that the vessel would certainly be attacked during the night by determined men; that the corn which had been shipped would be removed from the vessel; that the vessel itself would be scuttled and sunk in the harbour; and that, if any resistance were offered by the crew, they would be thrown overboard. In consequence of that information, the sheriff, with the full concurrence of the provost of Wick and all the magistrates he consulted, was under the necessity of placing a guard of soldiers for the protection of the vessel. But even the presence of these soldiers did not prevent the attempt being made. The people assembled in very great numbers, and obstructed all access to the quay. They assaulted one of the officers in command of the party and many of the soldiers, and this rendered it necessary to send down the whole military force to the assistance and protection of their comrades. In the passage of the force through the town, they were most violently assaulted by the mob, and several prisoners were with great difficulty seized. While a detachment of the military were moving under a piece of high ground, or eminence, the mob, armed with large stones, assailed them from above. The report from the military officers stated, that the party were attacked with a tremendous volley of stones, by which many of them were struck and severely injured. It was in these circumstances that orders were given to fire; and a few shots were discharged, more, he believed, for the purpose of frightening the mob, than inflicting any injury, though, unfortunately, injury had, he was sorry to say, been received. Looking at all the reports he had officially re- 834 ceived, he had no occasion to reflect on the conduct of the civil officers generally; in particular, he had no occasion to reflect upon that of the sheriff, who was a man not only of humanity, but of great firmness of character. There was only one thing to which he felt it necessary specially to advert, and it was this, he could not understand the conduct of the provost of Wick, who appeared to have presided at a public meeting, in which imputations that he must have known to be most unfounded were cast on the conduct of the sheriff of the county, with reference to proceedings in which the sheriff had acted, not only with the concurrence of the provost, but with that of the other magistrates of the burgh, on grounds that the provost must have known to be untrue.