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Carlisle Patriot - 18 May 1844
A FREETRADING PROVOST. - Our readers will recollect that the itinerant
anti-corn law lecturers, in the course of their rambles in the north,
visited the town of Cupar Fife. The provost of that burgh, in the height of
his liberality, granted them the use of the parish church, wherein those
peripatetic patriots might belch forth their thunders against the "odious
corn laws." The right of the provost to convert the church into an arena for
political gladiators was questioned by the kirk session, but their opinion
was disregarded by the gentleman endowed with the "brief authority." The
meeting consequently took place, and the result was, that the kirk session
raised an action against the "worthy" provost. The sheriff-substitute having
decided against him, with expenses, the "ill-used" civil functionary
appealed to the sheriff; but, alas, matters were rendered still worse, the
sheriff confirming the opinion of the substitute, and finding against the
unlucky appellant with all expenses. Here is a pretty predicament for a
provost to be in. We understand that at the next meeting of the "free"
assembly this case is to be adduced as another instance of the unrighteous
and Erastian tendencies of the civil court in interfering in ecclesiastical
matters. - Dundee paper.

MELANCHOLY ACCIDENT. - On Wednesday week, about ten o'clock a.m., George
BORTHWICKE, who was water bailiffe on the river Esk, left his house at
Roslin to proceed to Mr. Wardlaw RAMSAY, at Whitehall, with some fish which
he had found poisoned by the deleterious matter discharged into the river by
the paper mills, and which it was his duty to detect. As he did not again
return either on that day or the next, his wife became alarmed, and went to
seek for him. She went by a short cut towards Whitehall, which she
understood her husband intended to take; and at that portion of the road
which crosses the river, she found the basket in which he was carrying the
fish. She then gave the alarm, and her neighbours commenced a search, when
the body of BORTHWICK was found in a pool in the Esk, about fourteen feet
deep. It was supposed that he had attempted to descend the rocks, which are
very preciptious [sic] there; and that, in clambering down, he missed his
hold, and rolled into the river. His loss is much regretted. He was an
active officer, and was formerly in the city police, where his zeal and
diligence were frequently the subject of praise. - Glasgow Courier.
 
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