543. Is the statement you wish to make very much the same as his?-Very much the same. We want to know, as British subjects, whether, if we pay our rent annually, we are entitled to our freedom.
544. You mean, whether you are to be allowed to fish to any person you choose?-Yes; to fish to any person, or to work at any kind of work for which we have a mind.
545. Have you been told by young Mr. Bruce, or any one else on his behalf, that you are not to have your freedom?-No. We only got a hint of it from the fish-merchant.
546. And your alarm has been excited by what you have heard from the people at Dunrossness?-Yes.
547. Do you know what Mr. Bruce's system is with the tenants under him there?-I cannot say exactly, except that they are not well satisfied with it. At least I know that some of them are not satisfied.
<Adjourned>.
[Page 11] Lerwick: Tuesday, January 2, 1872.
LAURENCE MAIL, examined.
548. You are a fisherman at Scatness, in Dunrossness?-I am.
549. Are you a tenant of land?-Yes.