fets the ground at eightpence, he will increafe his revenue by a fourth part, and the tenant's burden will be diminished by a fifth.

Those who pursue this train of reasoning, feem not fufficiently to inquire whither it will lead them, nor to know that it will equally fhow the propriety of fuppreffing all wholesale trade, of shutting up the fhops of every man who fells what he does not make, and of extruding all whofe agency and profit intervene between the manufacturer and the confumer. They may, by ftretching their understandings a little wider, comprehend, that all thofe whe by undertaking large quantities of manufacture, and affording employment to many labourers, make themfelves confidered as benefactors to the public, have only been robbing their workmen with one hand, and their customers with the other. If Crowly had fold only what he could make, and all his fmiths had wrought their own iron with their own hammers, he would have lived on lefs, and they would have fold their work for more. The falaries of fuperintendants and clerks would have been partly faved, and partly fhared, and nails been fometimes cheaper by a farthing in a hundred. But then if the fmith could not have found an immediate purchafer, he muft have deserted his anvil; if there had by accident been at any time more fellers than buyers, the workmen must have reduced their profit to nothing, by underfelling one another; and as no

great

great stock could have been in any hand, no fudden demand of large quantities could have been anfwered, and the builder must have ftood still till the nailer could fupply him.

According to these schemes, univerfal plenty is to begin and end in univerfal mifery. Hope and emulation will be utterly extinguished; and as all muft obey the call of immediate neceffity, nothing that requires extenfive views, or provides for diftant confequences, will ever be performed.

To the fouthern inhabitants of Scotland, the ftate of the mountains and the islands is equally unknown with that of Borneo or Sumatra : Of both they have only heard a little, and guess thereft. They are ftrangers to the language and the manners, to the advantages and wants of the people, whofe life they would model, and whofe evils they would remedy.

- arms.

Nothing is lefs difficult than to procure one con- . venience by the forfeiture of another. A foldier may expedite his march by throwing away his To banish the Tackfman is eafy, to make a country plentiful by diminishing the people, is an expeditious mode of hufbandry; but that abundance, which there is nobody to enjoy, contributes little to human' happiness.

As the mind muft govern the hands, fo in every fociety the man of intelligence muft direct the man of labour. If the Tackfinen be taken away, the Hebrides muft in their prefent ftate be given

up to grofthefs. and ignorance; the tenant, for want of inftruction, will be unskilful; and for want of admonition, will be negligent. The Laird, in thefe wide eftates, which often confift of iflands remote from one another, cannot extend his perfonal influence to all his tenants; and the fteward having no dignity, annexed to his character, can have little authority among men taught to pay reverence only to birth, and who regard the Tacksman as their hereditary fuperior; nor can the fteward have equal zeal for the, profperity of an eftate profitable only to the Laird, with the Tackfman, who has the Laird's income involved in his

own.

The only gentlemen in the islands are the Lairds, the Tacksmen, and the Minifters, who frequently improve their livings by becoming farmers. If the Tackfmen be banished, who will be left to impart knowledge, or imprefs civility? The Laird must always be at a distance from the greater part of his lands; and if he resides at all upon them, muft-drag his days in folitude, having no longer either a friend or a companion; he will therefore depart to fome more comfortable refidence, and leave the tenants to the wisdom and mercy of a factor.

Of tenants there are different orders, as they have greater or lefs ftock. Land is fometimes leafed to a fmall fellowship, who live in a cluster of huts, called a Tenants Town, and are bound jointly

and:

and Teparately for the payment of their rent. Thefe, I believe, employ in the care of their cattle, and the labour of tillage, a kind of tenants yet lower; who having a hut, with grafs for a certain number of cows and theep, pay their rent by a stipulated quantity of labour.

The condition of domeftic fervants, or the price of occafional labour, I do not know with certainty. I was told that the maids have fheep, and are allowed to fpin for their own clothing; perhaps they have no pecuniary wages, or none but in very wealthy families. The state of life, which has hitherto been purely paftoral, begins now to be a litle variegated with commerce; but novelties enter by degrees, and till one mode has fully prevailed: over the other, no fettled notion can be formed.

Such is the fyftem of infular fubordination, which, having little variety, cannot afford much delight in the view, nor long detain the mind in contemplation. The inhabitants were for a long time perhaps not unhappy; but their content was a muddy mixture of pride and ignorance, an indifference for pleasures which they did not know, a blind veneration for their chiefs, and a flrong conviction of their own importance.

Their pride has been crushed by the heavy hand of a vindictive conqueror, whofe feverities have been followed by laws, which, though they cannot be called cruel, have produced much difcontent, because they operate upon the furface of life, and make

L3

make every eye bear witness to subjection. To be compelled to a new. drefs has always been found painful.

Their chiefs being now deprived of their juris diction, have already loft much of their influence; and as they gradually degenerate from patriarchal rulers to rapacious landlords, they will diveft themfelves of the little that remains.

That dignity which they derived from an opinion of their military importance, the law, which difarmed them, has abated. An old gentleman, delighting himfelf with the recollection of better days, related, that forty years ago, a Chief tain walked out attended by ten or twelve followers, with their arms rattling. That animating rabble has now ceafed... The Chief has loft his formi dable retinue; and the Highlander walks his heath unarmed and defenceless, with the peaceable fubmiffion of a French peasant or English cottager.

Their ignorance grows every day lefs, but their knowledge is yet of little other ufe than to fhew them their wants. They are now in the period of education, and feel the uneafinefs of discipline, with out yet perceiving the benefit of inftruction..

The laft law, by which the Highlanders are dé-prived of their arms, has operated with efficacy be yond expectation. Of former ftatutes made with the fame defign, the execution had been feeble, and the effect inconfiderable. Concealment was undoubtedly practifed, and perhaps often with conni