+Source.+--_The History of the Union of Great Britain_, part iv., p.
27, by Daniel De Foe. (Edinburgh: 1709).
The common people now screw'd up to a pitch, and ripe for the mischief
designed, and prompted by the particular agents of a wicked party, began
to be very insolent: It had been whispered about several days, that the
rabble would rise, and come up to the Parliament House; and cry No
Union; that they would take away the Honours, as they call them, viz.
the Crown etc., and carry them to the Castle, and a long variety of
foolish reports of this kind. But the first appearance of anything
mobish was, that every day, when the Duke[27] went up, but principally
as he came down in his chair from the House, the mob follow'd him,
shouting and crying out, GOD bless his Grace, for standing up against
the Union, and appearing for his country, and the like.... On the 22nd
of October, they follow'd the Duke's chair quite thro the city down to
the Abbey Gate; the guards prevented their going further; but all the
way as they came back, they were heard to threaten what they would do
the next day; that then they would be a thousand times as many; that
they would pull the traitors, so they called the treaters of the Union
at London, out of their houses, and they would soon put an end to the
Union.
On the 23rd they made part of their words good indeed; for, as the
Parliament sat something late, the people gather'd in the streets, and
about the doors of the Parliament House, and particularly the Parliament
Close was almost full, that the members could not go in or out without
difficulty; when Duke Hamilton was coming out of the House, the mob
huzza'd as formerly, and follow'd his chair in a very great number; the
Duke, instead of going down to the Abbey as usual, went up the High
Street to the Land-Market,[28] as they call it, and so to the lodgings
of the Duke of Athole; some said, he went to avoid the mob; others
maliciously said, he went to point them to their work.
While he went in to the Duke of Athole's lodgings, the rabble attended
at the door; and, by shouting and noise, having increased their numbers
to several thousands, they began with Sir Patrick Johnston, who was one
of the treaters, and the year before had been Lord Provost; first they
assaulted his lodgings with stones and sticks, and curses not a few; but
his windows being too high, they came up the stairs to his door, and
fell to work at it with sledges, or great hammers; and, had they broke
it open in their first fury, he had, without doubt, been torn in pieces
without mercy; and thus only, because he was a treater in the commission
to England; for, before that, no man was so well belov'd, as he, over
the whole city.
His lady, in the utmost despair with this fright, comes to the window,
with two candles in her hand, that she might be known; and cried out,
for GOD'S sake, to call the guards; an honest apothecary in the town,
who knew her voice, and saw the distress she was in, and to whom the
family, under GOD, is obliged, for their deliverance, ran immediately
down to the town guard; but they would not stir, without the Lord
Provost's order; but that being soon obtain'd, one Captain Richardson,
who commanded, taking about thirty men with him, march'd bravely up to
them; and making his way with great resolution thro the crowd, they
flying, but throwing stones, and hallowing at him, and his men, he
seized the foot of the stair case; and then boldly went up, clear'd the
stair, and took six of the rabble in the very act; and so delivered the
gentleman and his family....
The city was now in a terrible fright, and every body was under concern
for their friends; the rabble went raving about the streets till
midnight, frequently beating drums, and raising more people; when my
Lord Commissioner being informed, there were a thousand of the seamen
and rabble come up from Leith; and apprehending, if it were suffered to
go on, it might come to a dangerous head, and be out of his power to
suppress, he sent for the Lord Provost, and demanded, that the Guards
should march into the city.
The Lord Provost, after some difficulty, yielded; tho it was alleged,
that it was what was never known in Edinburgh before. About one o clock
in the morning, a battalion of the Guards entered the town, marched up
to the Parliament Close, and took post in all the avenues of the city,
which prevented the resolutions taken to insult the houses of the rest
of the treaters.
The rabble were intirely reduc'd by this, and gradually dispers'd, and
so the tumult ended....
The author of this[29] had his share in the danger of this tumult, and
tho unknown to him, was watch'd and set by the mob, in order to know
where to find him, had his chamber windows insulted, and the windows
below him broken by mistake. But, by the prudence of his friends, the
shortness of its continuance, and GOD'S providence, he escaped.