Page:Letter from a gentleman in Glasgow to his friend in the country.pdf/2



to your desire, I now send you a true and particular account of the disorders which happened in this place in the month of June last, by which you will perceive that the accounts thereof published in the Edinburgh and London news-paper, are for the most part false. No doubt you have observed in these accounts, that the conduct of the magistrates was condemned, and on the other hand, that the conduct of capt. Bushel who commanded the detatchment of foot then in town, was justified: But by the following narrative, you will see that the magistrates did upon that occasion, all that could have been expected from men in their circumstances; and that on the other hand captain Bushel, in destroying so many of the inhabitants, acted with the utmost precipitation.

On the twenty third of June, when the malt tax, as regulated in the last session of parliament, was to take place in Scotland, there appeared pretty early in the streets and about the skirts of the city where the malt barns are situated, a number of idle women and boys, whose design was to hinder the excise officers to enter into these barns: Tho' the magistrates caused these idle people to be dispersed when and wheresoever they appeared, yet the officers did not attempt to enter the barns, fearing that from these small beginnings upon such an occasion as this of levying the malt tax, a more formidable mob might grow up, against which the magistrates might not be able to protect them, besides they were every day in expectation that a party of the king's forces would be sent to Glasgow, to protect them in that service. On the day following being the 24th, the same set of idle people appeared now and then in the streets and corners of the city, but as soon as they appeared they were dispersed by the magistrates. About six o'clock at night