which had been either overlooked or incorrectly published by others his readers therefore are referred to the Hexaplar collections published by Drusius, Montfaucon and Bardht. This is a defect in the present edition, which the biblical critic will ever have reason to deplore.

We have already observed, that Dr. Holmes took his plan from Dr. Kennicott; but his success in procuring subscriptions was not equal to that of the latter, though the work was abundantly more laborious. Dr. Kennicott continued his collation of Hebrew MSS. from 1760 to 1769 inclusive; and published each year an account of the progress made in collating MSS. both at home and abroad, and the sums subscribed to defray the expences of the work; but he never published any detailed account of the cash expended. Want of attention to this point, exposed him to many suspicions and detractive whispers; although, his disinterestedness and integrity were fully acknowledged by those who were best acquainted with him, and with the nature of his work. In this respect Dr. H. has used the most prudent and laudable caution; and has given, as our readers have already observed, a detailed account of each year's expenditure, balanced with the annual subscriptions. In his case therefore, the whisper of calumny can never be heard.

The amount of fourteen years subscriptions in favour of Dr. H's. undertaking, if the arrears were paid up, has been already stated, from the annual accounts, at 72261. 5s. 4d. The amount of ten years' contributions to Dr. Kennicott's work was as follows:

At the conclusion of this statement, in p. 171 of his tenth annual account, Dr. Kennicott thus piously exults: "Reader, what a sum is here! Let foreign nations read with astonishment this story of Britons and their King, joined by one foreign prince (the Prince of ORANGE) and one foreign academy, (the Theodore Palatine Academy at Manheim) voluntarily contributing

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for ten years, their several bounties, with a degree of public spirit beyond all example, for the accomplishment of a work purely subservient to the honour of Revelation; a work sacred to the glory of God, and the good of mankind."

Dr. H. cannot now speak for himself; but we feel no hesitation in asserting, that the collation of MSS., versions, and futhers, for a new and correct edition of the most ancient and most valuable version of the sacred writings of the Old Testament, is at least equally well calculated to promote these glorious ends, as the collation of MSS. for a correct edition of the Hebrew original. We should have rejoiced if this great and good design had met with equal encouragement, that it might have been sooner completed; and we lament that the life of the original promoter has not been spared to accomplish the whole undertaking. But, while we submit with pious resignation to the will of the Most High, in the removal of Dr. Holmes, we are thankful for what is done, and hope that the mantle of this Elijah has ere now fallen over some Elisha, who will immediately succeed to the work, and bring it to a happy termination.-Indeed our information leads us to believe that Dr. H. had himself the satisfaction of delivering the collations made for this work, in a state of maturity, to the Delegates of the Clarendon Press, and that the completion of this undertaking may be expected with confidence by the Subscribers and the public at large. So learned a body as the University of Oxford, can be at no loss in fixing upon a competent Editor.

We shall defer the conclusion of this article to our next Number, which will comprise some interesting remarks on the variations of the Septuagint from the Hebrew text.

(To be concluded in our next Number.)

Art. V. Observations on the present State of the Highlands of Scotland, with a View of the causes and probable Consequences of Emigration. By the Earl of Selkirk. 8vo. pp. 221. Price 6s. Longman & Co. London. Constable and Co. Edinburgh; 1805.

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IN the study of our species, so interesting to every enquiring mind, we meet with varieties which invite peculiar attention. And who that has ever been acquainted with them, could refrain from bestowing some studious thoughts on the Highlanders of Scotland? Secluded in their native isles and mountains from the fickle reign of fashion, their dress presents a striking and solitary specimen of remote antiquity; and removed, by their pastoral habits, from commercial influence, they have alone preserved the use of the Gaelic language in its purest dialect. Till within half a century, the highlanders have, without deserving the reproach

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of peculiar ignorance or barbarism, maintained the antient feudal customs in all their force. The victory of Culloden broke the spell, which bound these hardy mountaineers to the customs of their ancestors; and while the policy of the government is wearing away the distinction which separated them from their fellow subjects, it is the duty of philosophy to seize their peculiar character, and fix it on the page of history, before it shall for ever vanish from our grasp. The Earl of Selkirk, animated with a noble patriotism, has improved his acquaintance with this singular people to the public good. Observing that, since the rebellion of 1745, the power of the Highland chiefs was broken, and the stimulus to retain a number of idle dependents removed; witnessing the numerous emigrations to Ainerica, which had followed in consequence of the new system adopted in the Highlands, he was desirous of attracting the emigrants to our own colonies, that the empire might still profit, by this peculiar and valuable portion of its population. In the progress of his patriotic efforts he met with the usual rewards-jealousy and detraction. To remove the unfavourable impression which government had received concerning his Lordship's scheme, he addressed to the Secretary for the coloniał department, a letter developing his plan, which, with some additions, and the history of its execution, forms the present volume.

The noble author closes his account of the original condition of the highlanders, with these amiable remarks.

"The authority of the chief, however great, was not of that absolute kind which has sometimes been imagined, and could not be maintained without an unremitted attention to all the arts of popularity. Condesscending manners were necessary in every individual, of whatever rank; the meanest expected to be treated as a gentleman, and almost as an equal. Nor was this all. The intimate connexion of the chief with his people, their daily intercourse, the daily dependance they had on each other for immediate safety, the dangers which they shared, were all naturally calculated to produce a great degree of mutual sympathy and affection. If there were any of the higher ranks who did not really feel such sentiments, prudence prevented them from allowing this to appear; and the devoted attachment of their followers is described in terms of astonishment by contemporary writers.

Yet this attachment was an effect easily deducible from the general principles of human nature. Among the poor in civilized countries, there is, perhaps, no circumstance more severely felt, than the neglect they meet with from persons of superior rank, and which appears to stigmatize them, as of an inferior species; when any one attends to their distresses, they are often more soothed by the concern which they perceive they excite, than by any direct advantage that may result. When a person of rank treats his inferiors with cordiality, and shews an interest in their welfare, it is seldom that, in any country, this behaviour is not repaid by gratitude and affection. This was particularly to be expected

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among the Highlanders, a people naturally of acute feelings, habituated to sentiments of a romantic and poetical cast: in them the condescending manners and kindness of their chiefs, excited an attachment bordering on enthusiasm. pp. 19-20.

The Highland chiefs, having lost their feudal, military rank, are reduced to the situation of other men of landed property; and now begin to seek their consequence from the incomes of their estates. This has led to the introduction of sheep farming, which is found to afford the highest rent, while it requires, only a very small proportion of the former population. The diminution of cottagers, says Dr. Adam Smith. and other small occupiers of land,has in every part of Europe been the immediate forerunner of improvement and better cultivation.'

We are informed, page 45, that frequently thirty or forty families of the small tenants have been dispossessed, all at once, to make way for a great sheep farm.

"Of these alternatives, every one who is acquainted with the country must admit that Emigration is by far the most likely to suit the inclination and habits of the Highlanders. It requires a great momentary. effort; but holds out a speedy prospect of a situation and mode of life similar to that in which they have been educated. Accustomed to possess land, to derive from it all the comforts they enjoy, they naturally consider it as indispensable, and can form no idea of happiness without such a possession. No prospect of an accommodation of this kind can enter into the views of any one who seeks for employment as a day labourer, still less of those who resort to a manufacturing town.

The manners of a town, the practice of sedentary labour under the roof of a manufactory, present to the Highlander a most irksome contrast to his former life. The independance and irregularity to which he is accustomed, approach to that of the savage: his activity is occasionally called forth to the utmost stretch, in conducting his boat through boisterous waves, or in traversing the wildest mountains amidst the storms of winter. But these efforts are succeeded by intervals of indolence equally extreme. He is accustomed to occasional exertions of agricultural labour, but without any habits of regular and steady industry; and he has not the least experience of sedentary employments, for which, most frequently, the prejudices of his infancy have taught him to entertain a contempt.

To a person of such habits, the business of a manufactory can have no attraction except in a case of necessity; it can never be his choice, when any resource can be found more congenial to his native habits and dispositon. The occupations of an agricultural labourer, though very different, would not be so great a contrast to his former life; but the limited demand for labour leaves him little prospect of employment in this line. Both in this, and in manufacturing establishments, every desirable situation is pre-occupied by men of much greater skill than the untutored Highlander. He has therefore little chance of finding employment but in works of the lowest drudgery.

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To this it is to be added, that the situation of a mere day-labourer, is one which must appear degrading to a person who has been accustomed to consider himself as in the rank of a farmer, and has been the possessor even of a small portion of land. In America, on the contrary, he has a prospect of superior rank; of holding his land on a permanent tenure, instead of a temporary, precarious, and dependent possession. It is not to be forgotten, that every motive of this nature has a peculiar degree of force on the minds of the Highland peasantry. The pride, which formerly pervaded even the lowest classes, has always been a prominent feature of their national character: and this feeling is deeply wounded by the distant behaviour they now experience from their chieftains-a mortifying contrast to the cordiality that subsisted in the feudal times." pp. 48-50.

In the true spirit of a liberal and enlightened policy, Lord S. contends against opposing emigration by restrictive laws; that class only, says he, will emigrate, which is become necessarily unproductive, and which, if forcibly detained at home, must be useless, and might be dangerous; finally he maintains, that no act of parliament, but one to empower them to live without eating, can remedy the evil. Himself a genuine disciple of his countryman, the author of the Wealth of Nations, he has freely animadverted on the narrow spirit and conduct of the Highland Society, in the bill which they procured for the regulation of the emigrants from the Highlands to America.

The volume closes with the details of a considerable emigration, which Lord S. himself conducted to the Island of Prince Edward, in the gulph of St. Lawrence. For the sake of experiment, and to prove that the Highlanders might, by proper attention, be attracted to our own colonies, eight hundred were collected from a part of the Highlands, where the general inclination ran strongly in favour of a very different part of America. After having devoted to their settlement his own personal attention for some time, his Lordship made a tour on the Continent, and thus relates the situation of things on his return.

"I found the settlers engaged in securing the harvest which their industry had produced. They had a small proportion of grain of various kinds, but potatoes were the principal crop; these were of excellent quality, and would have been alone sufficient for the entire support of the settlement. The prospect of abundance had diffused universal satisfaction, and every doubt as to the eligibility of the situation seemed 'to be removed. In the whole settlement I met but two men who shewed the least appearance of despondency. There were three or four families who had not gathered a crop adequate to their own supply: but many others had a considerable superabundance. The extent of land in cultivation at the different hamlets, I found to be in general in a proportion of two acres or thereabouts to each able working hand: in many cases from three to four. Several boats had also been built, by means of which, a considerable supply of fish had been obtained, and formed VOL. II.

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