[The  witness  read  several  motions,  made
by  the  panel,  in  the  Britbh  convention,
from  the  minntes.]

Lord  Advocate. — Were  you  there  the  night
on  which  Skirving  and  others  were  taken  up?
— Yes,  I  was  there,  when  the  lord  provost
paid  us  a  visit.
Do  you  recollect  any  resolution  that  was
come  to  by  the  convention,  that  if  you  should
be  dispersed,  that  should  be  one  of  the  ciLses
in  which  the  convention  of  emergency  were
to  meet? — ^I  heard  such  a  resolution.
Were  you  present  in  the  convention,  when
j'ou  heard  it? — ^I  cannot  say;  I  rather  think
not,  but  I  think  I  heard  it.
Do  you  know  of  any  other  cases  in  which
they  were  to  meet? — I  have  heard  that  one

*  See  his  case  in  this  volume,  in/rd.
3  M


5S1]         84  OEOKGE  IIL  Proceedings  agaimi  WUIiam  Sdrving

was,  in  cue  the  island  should  be  invaded  by
a  foreign  enemy ;  another  was  in  the  case  of


a  convention  bill.
Did  you  ever  hear  that  the  suspension  of
the  habcsis  corpus  act  was  one  of  the  cases  ? —
No.
Was  the  convention  ever,  to  your  know*
ledge,  divided  into  sections  or  dasses } — We
were  divided  into  divisions  first,  and  then
clMses,  and  after  that  a  section  was  thought
to  be  a  better  name  than  either  of  the  others,
and,  for  the  last  fourteen  days,  the  word  sec-
tion was  used.
Was  it  common  in  the  convention,  to  give
in  motions  in  writing?— Yes,  that  was  an
early  rule  adopted,  that  all  motions  should  be
given  in  writing,  and  siened.
Look  at  that  paper?  (showing  the  witness.
Mr.  Callender's  motion  respectine  universal
aufiragel— The  indorsement,  at  the  back  is
written  Dy  myself.
