SIR JOHN HAYsaid, he wished to ask the Lord Advocate, Why the persons accused of the abduction of J. Wallace at the last election for Wigtonshire have not been tried; what were the reasons for postponing the trial at Ayr in the autumn of last year; what were the reasons for again postponing it at Dumfries in the winter; when and where the trial will take 236 place, and if they will be tried on the original indictment; and, if he will lay upon the table of the House a copy of the evidence on which the indictment was framed, and the other papers connected with the subject?
THE LORD ADVOCATEsaid, the case in question was an accusation against certain persons of having abducted a voter. The facts were reported to him on the 11th of August, and the papers were sent a short time afterwards. He was not satisfied with the information which he had first obtained, and he sent the matter back for further facts. When, in September, he received the further information he required, it was too late for the parties to be indicted that year. Accordingly he intended the case to be tried at the spring circuit at Dumfries. There was no winter circuit there, and as the parties were out on bail no injury could accrue from the delay. On the contrary, he thought it not undesirable that the excitement should pass by. They were indicted in April last at the spring circuit at Dumfries. A change had taken place by Order in Council of 1865, by which the county of Wigton was transferred from the Ayr to the Dumfries circuit, and an objection was taken to the trial taking place at Dumfries, inasmuch as the crime was in taking a voter from Wigtonshire to Ayr, and it was alleged that the Circuit Court at Dumfries had no authority to try the case. He did not think the objection a good one: but it was raised at the trial, and it was overruled, and the indictment sustained. It appeared, however, to the Advocate Depute that there was some risk in the matter, and at his own discretion, but with the full concurrence of the presiding Judge, he abandoned the indictment, and arranged to have the case tried at Edinburgh. Therefore an indictment would be preferred against the prisoners on the 2nd of July, at Edinburgh, and the trial would then be proceeded with.