d ending with prayer. Resolutions were passed deprecating
violence whether in language or action; and the presence either of Lord
Daer or Colonel Dalrymple in the chair showed that some, at least, of
the gentry were for Reform. This was exceptional. A little later the
gentlemen of several towns and counties asserted their loyalty in
flamboyant petitions; and the farmers of Dalkeith district at their
meeting added to their loyal toasts the following: "May we have no fox
in our fold or greys (wild oats) in our corn."[286] Sir Kenneth
Mackenzie on 3rd January 1793 informed William Pulteney that in the
North the towns were thoroughly loyal, with the exception of Perth and
Dundee, where certain ministers and writers led the people astray.[287]

Nevertheless, the authorities, notably the Lord Advocate, Robert Dundas,
took alarm; and on 2nd January 1793 Thomas Muir was brought before the
deputy-sheriff of Midlothian. Muir was a man of highly interesting
personality. The son of a Glasgow tradesman, he had shown marked
abilities at school and at the University, whence, owing to his advanced
opinions, he was forced to migrate to Edinburgh. There, in his
twenty-seventh year, he soon became a leader of the Scottish Reformers,
his sincerity, eloquence, and enthusiasm everywhere arousing keen
interest. Had his good sense been equal to his abilities, he might have
gone far; but events soon showed him to be tactless and headstrong. He
went far beyond the rest of the delegates assembled at Edinburgh,
namely, in bringing forward, despite the reluctance of the Convention,
an Address from the Society of United Irishmen in Dublin. Their conduct
much alarmed the authorities at Dublin Castle, who adopted stringent
precautions. Muir should therefore have seen, what his colleagues did
see, that any plan of co-operation was certain to irritate Government.
Nevertheless he persisted in bringing before the Convention the Irish
Address, which strongly pointed out the need of common action in the
struggle for Reform and urged both peoples to persevere "until we have
planted the flag of freedom on the summit, and are at once victorious
and secure." Further, the authorities accused Muir of circulating
Paine's writings and other pamphlets, including "A Dialogue between the
Governors and the Governed," which contained such sentences as these:
"The law is the general will--a new order." "Nations cannot revolt;
tyrants are the only rebels." "We will live wi