The delegates descended to the street in silence,--Arthur's Seat and
Salisbury Crags glooming in the distance and night,--an immense and
agitated multitude waiting around, over which tossed the flaring
flambeaux of the sheriff's train. Gerrald, who was already under arrest,
as he descended, spoke aloud, "Behold the funeral torches of Liberty!"
Skirving and several others were immediately arrested. They were tried
in the first month, 1794, and sentenced, as Muir and Palmer had
previously been, to transportation. Their conduct throughout was worthy
of their great and holy cause. Gerrald's defence was that of freedom
rather than his own. Forgetting himself, he spoke out manfully and
earnestly for the poor, the oppressed, the overtaxed, and starving
millions of his countrymen. That some idea may be formed of this noble
plea for liberty, I give an extract from the concluding paragraphs:--
"True religion, like all free governments, appeals to the understanding
for its support, and not to the sword. All systems, whether civil or
moral, can only be durable in proportion as they are founded on truth and
calculated to promote the good of mankind.
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