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  4. Faculty restores “Father of democracy” on QC's research

Faculty restores “Father of democracy” on QC's research

6th July 2020

An 18th century campaigner for democracy who was expelled from the Faculty of Advocates following his conviction for sedition, has been posthumously restored to Faculty's roll following research on his behalf by one of today's Queen's Counsel, Scotland on Sunday has reported.

Thomas Muir, regarded as the “father of Scottish democracy”, took on the Scottish establishment through his support for universal suffrage, and in January 1793 was arrested and charged with sedition for advocating political reform. While on bail he travelled to France, then in the grip of revolution, to try to prevent the execution of King Louis XVI, but was unable to return for his trial when France subsequently declared war on Great Britain. As a result he was declared a fugitive by Lord Braxfield in the High Court, and then struck off Faculty's roll as an outlaw.

When Muir eventually returned to Scotland he was convicted of sedition and sentenced to transportation, but escaped and made his way back to France, where he died in 1799 aged 33.

Faculty's decision to reinstate Muir follows research by Ross Macfarlane QC, who wrote a play in 2015 about Muir's trial. Digging into the circumstances of Muir's expulsion from Faculty, Macfarlane found in the national archives a Court of Session interlocutor recalling the sentence of fugitation on the basis of which Faculty had acted. Muir's name was restored to the roll by Dean of Faculty Gordon Jackson QC just before he stepped down at the end of June.

In his letter reinstating Muir to Faculty, Mr Jackson said: "On any view of it, the trial and conviction of Muir fell far short of any notions of fairness and the due processes of Scots law."

He described Mr Macfarlane’s work as being "in the proud traditions of the Faculty of Advocates in their quest for justice, their dogged and meticulous research methods and the persuasive quality of their argument".

Mr Macfarlane, who regards Muir's conviction for sedition as "one of the great miscarriages of justice of Scots law", said "It rankled with me for years that the Faculty of Advocates, an institution dedicated to promoting justice, couldn't seem to deliver justice to one of its own."

He added: "If this becomes the first step in some greater rehabilitation for Muir and the other Scottish Martyrs, then I’m proud to have played my part in that."

Mr Macfarlane's own account can be read here.

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