Page:Account of the trial of Captain John Porteous.pdf/7

(7) empt to Rescue; and had that happened, the reading the Proclamation would have made it justifiable; that it is not even denied by the Pannel, that the Execution was over before the Firing; that the Trust reposed in him, and the Duty expected from him was ceased; he was no longer an Officer employed to that End for which the Fire Arms were loaded; and his Actions came then to be estimated of, by the same Rules that would have made them lawful or unlawful upon every ordinary Occasion; that tho' the flinging of Dirt and Stones at the Executioner, might perhaps justify a cholerick Person for drubbing any of the Actors for their Wantonness, yet it could not justify the slaughtering of them, far less could the Impertinence of a few Boys, or other idle People, excuse the firing sharp Shot upon an innocent Multitude; that it is far from being the Interest of the Crown or the Publick, that an innocent Man should suffer; but it is greatly the Interest of both, that fair and strict Enquiry be made where the Guilt was, when a Massacre so cruel and dangerous happens that the Guilty may be made an Example, to restrain others to commit the like in time , &c. That therefore the Pannel must stand fall, upon his being or not being Guilty of the Acts charged upon him in the Indictment.

The LORDS Interlocutor.

, That the Pannel having, at any of the Times and Places libelled, fired a Gun among People assembled at the Execution libelled, or  having given Orders to the Soldiers under his command to fire, and thereupon they the thethe [sic] Soldiers, or any of them, having accordingly fired,