Appendix A. XCVIII.

REPLY of LORD NAPIER and ETTRICK, K.T., to Statement of GENERAL BURROUGHS. THIRLESTANE CASTLE, SELKIRK, 8th September 1883. SiR,—I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 22nd August, transmitted to me by Mr M'Neill, enclosing copy of a threatening letter which has been addressed to you by some party as yet unknown in the Island of Rousay. The threatening letter in question will be submitted to the attention of the Commissioners at their next meeting, in connection with your request that it should be printed along with the evidence concerning Rousay. I need not assure you that I greatly lament that such a communication should have been transmitted to you, and that you should have been the recipient of other anonymous letters indicating the existence of a spirit of lawlessness or resentment in the island. I am, however, bound to add, in reference to a suggestion made by you, that the existence of such letters, however much we may regret and condemn the fact, does not, to my mind, necessarily prove that the "witnesses" who appeared before Her Majesty's Commissioners or "their friends" are, as a body, endeavouring to establish a reign of lawlessness and terror in Rousay such as recently existed in Ireland. I earnestly hope that the efforts being made by the Procurator-Fiscal to identify the author of the threatening letter may be successful. I have, & c , NAPIER and ETTRICK. General Burroughs, &c.