CHAPTER XII.

THE CANARY, OR THE BIRD CASE, AND THE SINGULAR REVOLUTION IT EFFECTED IN THE SHERIFFS' CHAMBERS IN GLASGOW, AND IN THE DECISIONS OF THE LAW OF SCOTLAND.

SMALL events sometimes lead to great and important consequences. This may be illustrated by the following

case.

There flew away out of its cage, in one of the handsome mansion-houses in St. Andrew's Square, Glasgow-which Square was the only grand, complete square in the city fifty years ago-a pretty little Canary Bird, the favourite of the inmates, who were a proud, rich family, of the name of Shanks, recently arrived from the West Indies.

This Canary bird alighted, in the first instance, on the steps of St. Andrew's Church, in which church the celebrated Organ, lately spoken about so much in this city, played, at least, on one memorable Sunday, with the most prodigious effect. We have the history of that wonderful organ, and all about it, in our possession, and perhaps we may present our readers with a correct and interesting chapter about it at another time, which may

dispel some of the absurd theories recently propagated about it. But we have to deal at present with the real Canary Bird, which tickled the fancy of many of the citizens at the time, more than the pealing notes of the organ itself.

This pretty, fluttering, innocent Canary bird, was soon seen and chased and caught on the steps of St. Andrew's Church, by a poor little beggar boy, soliciting alms in the neighbourhood, who treated it most kindly; he pressed it into the bosom of his tattered shirt, and he was seen doing so by a gentleman of the name of George Pinkerton, one of the most eminent wine and spirit merchants then in the city; and who, we think, was also a leading member of the old English Episcopal Church, under the Rev. Wm. Rutledge, near St. Andrew's Square-and he loved music exceedingly well. Mr. Pinkerton had his own comfortable house on the opposite side of the Square. Being struck with the appearance of the pretty little bird, and more with the obvious kind-hearted conduct of the beggar boy, Mr. Pinkerton stepped forward and offered to purchase it from him, and to give him one shilling and sixpence if he brought the Canary safely with him to his house in the Square. The boy readily enough assented to this, and, doubtless, considered himself that day to be a lucky little fellow, while Mr. Pinkerton conceived that he had thus become the purchaser and owner of the pretty Canary. His family were delighted with the bird. He had a nice cage, with all the et ceteras, soon provided for it; and Dicky-the pretty yellow Canary-in that cage in Mr. Pinkerton's house, poured forth some of its delicious notes.

On the other hand, the real owners of the Canary, viz., the Shanks family, were much grieved and distressed at

the absence, or flight, of their beloved Canary. They wondered much what became of it, they offered a reward by hand-bill, published in the square, of Five shillings, for its safe recovery.

Mr. Pinkerton, seeing this, went and told the Shanks family how he had found the Canary, in the artless way above described, and he offered to restore it to them if they paid him back his one shilling and sixpence, given to the beggar boy. Nothing, certainly, could be fairer than his offer, at this point of the case; but the West Indian blood-which could bring negroes into subjection by the lash, at that time-was aroused, and instead of paying him the one shilling and sixpence, which would have brought the favourite Canary once more into their own possession, they threatened him, "that if he did not beg their pardon, and immediately restore the bird to them, they would punish him with the action of the Law."

Now, Mr. Pinkerton did not like this treatment very well,-it rather provoked, or irritated him; and when the best of people lose their temper, it sometimes leads to serious results. Mr. Pinkerton snapped his fingers at the haughty Messrs. Shanks, and defied them to prove their property ere they would get the bird. This only enraged them the more. They slapped the door in his face, and he left them, resolved to stand on the defensive with the Canary, which every day, by its charming notes, was creating fresh interest to his family. And here a thumping law plea began, which ultimately cost some hundreds of pounds-but which might have been settled at the outset for one shilling and sixpence on the head of the poor Canary; and yet that Canary deserves to be immortalised, for the wonderful results it produced in all

the Courts of this kingdom of Scotland, as we shall soon show, to the gratification and amazement, perhaps, of our numerous and increasing readers.

The proud head of the Shanks family soon went and employed the famous Mr. Michael Gilfillan, writer in St. Andrew's Lane (already noticed in these pages), to take vengeance-by every means and operation of the lawagainst Mr. Pinkerton, who had stolen, or fraudulently obtained possession of their bird. This was their specific accusation against him. Mr. Michael Gilfillan snatched at the employment, for the Shanks people were pretty rich people-very excellent clients indeed, no matter what should be the fate of the bird itself, on such employment

-so a rattling, ill-natured process, as we have said, commenced, in the first instance, in the shape of a petition and complaint to the Sheriff-Depute, and his Substitute in Glasgow, prepared by Mr. Michael Gilfillan, extending to some ten or twelve folio pages-the longer the better for the scribe-inter alia, giving a history of the bird, and its flight, or abstraction, from the complainer's house, and landing on the steps of St. Andrew's Church, and its seizure by the defender himself, or by others, for whom he was answerable, and so forth, and "craving the Sheriff to decern and ordain the said George Pinkerton instantly to restore and produce the said male Canary to the petitioner, under pain of imprisonment in the Tolbooth of Glasgow, for such time and space as your Lordship may direct; and also to find him liable in exemplary damages, besides expenses of process, and dues of extract, as accords of law," &c., &c.

Now, this petition or complaint, instead of pacifying Mr. Pinkerton, or getting him to succumb to it, only increased his irritation at the proud Shanks family,

1

because the very circumstance of three beagles, viz., an officer and two witnesses, coming to his house in broad day-light, and serving him with such a complaint, was an indignity which neither he nor his family could very well brook; and, therefore, he went and employed Mr. Alex. Ure, writer in King Street, to defend him with vigour and resolution in the action. Mr. Ure, we may remark, was the father of Mr. Ure, C.E., who was, not very long ago, the Chief Engineer under the River Trustees of the Clyde.

Mr. Ure, we may remark, had a great deal of process business, and was a match in every way for Mr. Michael Gilfillan, the legal lion on the opposite side. They had, from one cause or another, a most tremendous antipathy to each other; in fact, they nearly ruined each other, by personal lawsuits, in the Court of Session, ending, with enormous costs, in the House of Lords; and, strange to say, this innocent bird case, which never should have been a case of the kind at all, only exasperated the one agent against the other; but their clients, of course, dearly paid the piper for so doing. "He's no case on the merits,” said an eminent lawyer at one time in England; "only blackguard his attorney," was the response. "He's no case on the merits either," said the opposite attorney, only blackguard his attorney as much as ever you can ;" and so Messrs. Gilfillan and Ure fell foul of each other ere the Canary process had advanced many steps before the Sheriff. If the petition and complaint prepared by Mr. Michael Gilfillan was long, the defence, or answer to it, prepared by Mr. Ure, was not much, if anything, shorter in size and averments. Replies and duplies of much greater dimensions followed. The petitioners described the very wings and plumage of the bird; and that it was

te