ΧΙ. 1715. BOOK Their insurrection, happily for Scotland, was sup pressed with an inferior force, by Argyle their countryman, who, after a doubtful victory, spared and permitted the clans to disperse. But the new government was actuated by revenge propor tioned to its sense of danger; and after two reigns of unexampled lenity, the nobility suffered from unknown laws, on the scaffold, or in numerous attainders, which the humanity of the present age is unable to reverse. The Jacobites, however, were still soothed and consoled,' by the adaptation of their songs to the national melodies, to which few Scotsmen can yet listen without a tear of enthusiastic regret for their ancient independence and race of kings. The second rebellion was distinguished, as the last hostile expedition into England, by the gallant attempt of a few highlanders to restore their prince, and by their victories over disciplined and veteran troops; but it was suppressed with a wide and unnecessary profusion of blood, on the scaffold and in the field. the union, Benefits of Nor was the union productive, for many years, of those advantages which at first were expected. A feeble attempt to obtain a share in the colonial trade was defeated by new regulations, which the commercial jealousy of the English merchants procured. The migration of stock and trade to the north was a visionary expectation. No new ma concurring with the Jacobites in a national address to dissolve the union. Id. ix. XI. 1715. perceptible nufacturers were attracted to Scotland by the BOOK cheapness of labour; no improvement was introduced into agriculture; on the contrary, commerce was still languid, and the price and rents of estates inconsiderable. Every national exertion was discountenanced; and during the interval between the two rebellions, the country was alternately disregarded, or treated like a conquered province, prone to revolt 95. The nation, notwithstanding at first imthe gradual increase of its linen manufacture, appeared to be nearly stationary, and was certainly far ss progressive for half a century than if no union had ever been contracted. The factions of the preceding century were dissolved with the parliament that gave them birth; but it is observable, that factions are not less necessary in a free state, to preserve the spirit of freedom, than sects and controversial disputes in religion, without which the devout zeal and implicit faith of the votary would soon decay. The national spirit appeared to be sunk and extinguished with those factions which the union dissolved. Patriotism, that ardent and exclusive attachment to our native country which the national independence of the Scots had excited, could neither be preserved entire, nor transferred to another object, when Scotland merged into the British empire; and from the narrow basis of representation, the people at large, having lost their own 95 Gibson's Hist, of Glasgow. Lindsay's Interest of Scot Guthrie's Hist. x. 398, &c. land considered. POOK Constitution, acquired little interest or share in the XI. 1715. minense. government into which they were received. The views of Queensberry and his friends in the union, to perpetuate their authority at home, and to establish a numerous party in the English parliament, were realized afterwards by the dukes of Argyle, two brothers to whom the whole country was long devoted; and the English mistook for the servility of the nation, the dependence of the few members whom Scotland returned. afterwards But the national spirit thus apparently extinguished, burst forth in a new direction more beneficial to Scotland. When the contests of domestic faction had ceased, the turbulent fanaticism which distinguished the Scots during the former century, was lost in the pursuits of industry, of literature, and of the arts of peace. Some attempts had been made before the last rebellion to introduce a better cultivation into the Lothians, which has since extended through the west and the north, to the richest provinces beyond the Tay. The gentry, among other efforts to promote manufactures, had begun to breed their sons to mechanical arts, in order to retain them at home. By the abrogation and sale of hereditary jurisdictions, the poverty of the nobles was relieved, and the people were emancipated from their oppressive coercion. The country was gradually enriched by the troops retained to prevent insurrection; and from the advanced price and consumption of cattle in the XI. 1755. English market, the farmers accumulated their BOOK first stock for the improvement of the soil. The situation of Scotland attracted the peculiar attention of Pelham's administration; and ten years after the last rebellion, the benefits of the union began to be universally felt. The forfeited estates, instead of being sold as formerly, were appropriated to objects of national improvement; and industry was promoted by every encouragement which bounties can confer. The Jacobites, soothed by indulgence, and reclaimed by the gradual extinction of their hopes, began to transfer their allegiance from the ill-fated Stuarts to the reigning family; and under Chatham's administration, the Scots were employed in the army and navy in greater numbers than were ever known in any former war. Notwithstanding the commercial jealousy and opposition of the English, the merchants of Glasgow had acquired a large share in the tobacco trade; but their exports at first were supplied from England, till they adapted their own manufactures to the colonial market; and from that period the prosperity of Scotland has properly commenced. restored. When the nation was no longer agitated by do- Literature mestic faction, literature was again cultivated and restored with unexampled success. During the civil wars, the classical learning for which the Scots were early distinguished, was absorbed and lost in the controversial vortex of religion and XI. 1755. BOOK liberty; two names ever dear to mankind, with which the world has alternately been guided or deceived. From the restoration down to the union, the only author of eminence whom Scotland produced, was Burnet, the celebrated bishop of Sarum, who, when transplanted into England, was conspicuous as a political writer, an historian, and a divine. As an historian alone he descends to posterity; and his curious research into facts, the unaffected ease and simplicity of his dramatic narrative, his bold and glowing delineations of character, are far superior to every historical production of the period. After a long interval the poetical genius of the Scots was revived in the tender and luxuriant Thomson; but the spurious poems of Ossian, a recent forgery, still continue to pollute their history and to corrupt their taste 96. For a time the mathematical sciences were diligently cultivated; and the medical schools estab, lifhed at Edinburgh acquired an high reputation, which is still preserved. But the Scots, when deprived of their own, contemplated the English constitution, in which their passions were less in, terested, and the affairs of mankind in general, from which they were estranged, with a more discerning, calm, and unprejudiced eye; and in metaphysical, moral and political science, Hume and 96 See the annexed Dissertation on the supposed authenticity of Ossian's Poems. |