Series 4 > Papers on Sutherland Estate Management 1802-1816 > Volume 9

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I am told that the Barons of Exchequer at Edinburgh have it in
contemplation to appoint two Surveyors1 which may account for the
delay of that Commission but I have written Mr Innes2 to know.
William Mackenzie to Marchioness of Stafford
Edinburgh, 13 July 1813
In reference to my letter of last night I have to mention to Your
Ladyship that I have been with Mr Cranstoun this Afternoon but
neither he or I have had any further information from Sutherland.
He desires me to Mention to Your Ladyship that the Moment he
receives from Mackid the precognitions he will bestow on them his
Most deliberate Attention and will then lay them before the Lord
Advocate and Solicitor General and be by them directed as to the
Course of proceeding for bringing the rioters to Summary punish¬
ment, and with their Concurrence he will procure from the Court
of Justiciary the proper Criminal Warrants for their Committal. He
seems to go into the idea of proceeding by Sea to Assint in a Kings
Ship with troops and bringing away the delinquents with him here
which Certainly will be much easier than sending them to Dornoch
or Tain. He declared however he could not make up his Mind further
until he saw the Character and Complexion of the precognition, but
it is evident to me by the whole tenor and strain of his Conversation
that he will go to Sutherland and superintend the suppression of this
riot and this at any loss and inconvenience to himself if the Military
are to be called, and therefore we are at present to view his opinion
of the former night as expressed before the deliberate Consideration
which he has now bestowed on the subject, and from a Conversation
I had today with one of the Judges to whom Mr Cranstoun had been
talking on this distressing business it is quite clear that he will not for
any Sacrifice Yield a point of what he conceives to be his public duty.
I have written Mr Young that he will get the Contract of the whole
road North and South3 as he wishes and I am satisfied it will then be
executed in a Masterly and sufficient Manner which with the ordinary
run of road Contractors is much otherwise.
1 Young was pressing for a customs officer to be placed at Brora to deal with coal exports.
2 Hugh Innes of Lochalsh, m.p.
8 The approach roads to the Fleet Mound.