Dundas Riots

[5] On the evening of 4 June members of the City Guard and Cavalry were getting drunk at Old Parliament Hall near St Giles Cathedral.

On the following evening (5 June) a small mob (not necessarily the same group) gathered outside the house of Robert Dundas of Arniston, Lord Justice Clerk at the time.

[6] The servant persuaded the commander of the castle to send around a dozen troops from the 53rd Cavalry Regiment, armed with sabres and pistols, to the Dundas house.

[6] That evening (6 June) a new mob assembled outside the house of Sir James Stirling, 1st Baronet (the then Lord Provost of Edinburgh) on the south-east corner of St Andrew Square in the New Town.

The pre-arranged signal allowed HMS Hind, moored in Leith Docks, to dispatch a company of marines into the city.

The local doctor Alexander Wood, was mistaken by the angry mob for Stirling and narrowly avoided being thrown off North Bridge due to the misunderstanding.

Muir was prosecuted the following year for his part in the convention and for being the Edinburgh publisher of Thomas Paine's then controversial book "The Rights of Man".

When Muir became trapped in Paris due to the outbreak of war he could not attend court as required, and was automatically outlawed by Dundas... ultimately being sent to Australia in punishment.