The Calendar of Scottish Crime. ' Twixt Wigtoun and the towne of Aire, And laigh down by the Cruves o' Cree, Ye shall not get a lodging there, Except ye ride wi' Kennedy.
Cassilis was acquitted, and forthwith was accepted as surety for the rest of the accused, whose names fill a very lengthy catalogue. Had the earl been called upon to pay the full sum pledged by him for each of his followers, even his great wealth might have proved in adequate to liquidate his liability. But he was too formidable a subject to be driven into a corner. King James V. permitted him to compound on easy terms, and there re mains extant his Majesty's letter to the Jus tice Clerk, advising him that his "weil belouit cousing and counsalour, Gilbert, Erie of Cassilis, had settled with him for the nonentry of his brother and followers "to have vndyrlyin our lawis for Slaughtiris and crimis quhairof thai wer delatit," and directing that the " unlaws" be discharged. Cassilis did not survive his pardon long. He was slain in 1527 at the Pow of Prestvick by Sir Hugh Campbell of London, Sheriff of Ayr, in some affray of which the particulars have not been preserved. This important dignitary, Campbell, had himself received respite only a few months before (July i, 1526), to last for nineteen years, for all his "tresonis, slauchteris, etc., in ony tyme bigane," and does not seem to have found much difficulty in purchasing im munity for this fresh crime, for on July i, 1528, a new remission is granted to him for the slaughter of Gilbert, Earl of Cassilis. The fact is that the Monarch's purse and the public revenue (which were one and in divisible) were dependent for a great part of their supply on these " compoundings " by wealthy misdemeanants. The resources of the country had been drained to the utmost by two centuries of almost incessant war with England; the coinage had been debased till the pound Scots was worth little more than a shilling English or sterling; it would almost seem as if national bankruptcy would have
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been the first result had all the barons and country gentlemen suddenly become virtuous and law-abiding. Campbell of Loudon was not the only sher iff who derived advantage from his high office in dealing with his neighbors and evading justice. A scandalous instance of this is afforded by the proceedings before Lord Gray, Justiciary General, on November 4, 1509. Patrick Agnew, Sheriff of Wigtown, was convicted of having, under color of jus tice, submitted Thomas Portor to the judg ment of an assize for the slaughter of John M'Myane, and then, as judge in the trial, to have taken " feyis " — bribes — to acquit him. Agnew was sentenced to a fine of five merks (about ios. sterling)! In horrible contrast to this mockery appears the doom of Patrick M'Clellan, laird of Gelstoun, who oh the very same day was convicted by the same court of stealing a score of oxen from Sheriff Agnew, and was bclicaded. On the other hand, when, four years later, the sheriff was convict of cattle-lifting from Thomas Cuninghame, in Carrick, he was allowed to compound; convicted again, on the same clay, of oppressing certain lieges during five consecutive years and plundering them of horses, swine, and barley, he was allowed to find surety "to satisfy the par ties;" convicted a third time, on the same day, of attacking Sir David Kennedy with a party armed with "jakkis and splentis," and hindering him from holding his court, he was fined i o merks (about £i). Dugall and Pat rick Macclenochan, convicted on the same day of stealing one cow and a few miscellaneous articles which would not have been worth the Sheriff's while to annex, did not get off so cheap. They were hanged. Again, before the same court and on the same day, notwithstanding that this invinci ble sheriff had been three times convicted of theft and violence, when a relative of his own, Nevin Agnew, was convicted of similar crimes —horse-stealing, cattle-lifting, assault, and "common oppression of the lieges" — the
