vance. There was tenderness or partiality on one : fide, and obftinacy on the other. But the law, which followed the victory of Culloden, found the whole nation dejected and intimidated; informa tions were given without danger, and without fear,, and the arms were collected with fuch rigour, that every house was defpoiled of its defence.

To difarm part of the Highlands, could give ne reasonable occafion of complaint. Every govern- ment must be allowed the power of taking away: the weapon that is lifted against it.. But the loyal clans murmured, with fome appearance of juftice,. that after having defended the King, they were forbidden for the future to defend themfelves; and that the fword fhould be forfeited, which had been legally employed. Their cafe is undoubtedly hard,, but in political regulations, good cannot be .complete, it can only be predominant.

Whether by difarming a people thus broken in-.. to feveral tribes, and thus remote from the feat of power, more good than evil has been produced, . may deferve inquiry. The fupreme power in every community has the right of debarring every individual, and every fubordinate fociety from felfdefence, only becaufe the fupreme power is able to defend them; and therefore where the governor cannot act, he must trust the subject to act for himfelf. These iflands might be wafted with fire and fword before their fovereign would know their diftrefs. A gang of robbers, fuch as has been lately found confederating themfelves in the Highlands,

might

might lay a wide region under contribution. The crew of a petty privateer might land on the largest and most wealthy of the iflands, and riot without controul in cruelty and wafte. It was observed by one of the chiefs of Sky, that fifty armed men might, without refiftance, ravage the country. Laws that place the subjects in such a state, cons travene the first principles of the compact of authority: they exact obedience, and yield no protection.

It affords a generous and manly pleasure to conceive a little nation gathering its fruits and tending its herds with fearlefs confidence, though it lies open on every fide to invafion, where, in contempt of walls and trenches, every man fleeps fecurely with his fword befide him; where all, on the firft approach of hoftility, come together at the call to battle, as at a fummons to a festal show; and com. mitting their cattle to the care of those whom age or nature has difabled, engage the enemy with that competition for hazard and for glory, which operate in men that fight under the eye of thofe, whose diflike or kindness they have always conídered as the greatest evil or the greatest good.

This was, in the beginning of the prefent century, the state of the Highlands. Every man was a foldier, who partook of national confidence, and interested himself in national honour. To-lofe this fpirit, is to lofe what no small advantage will compensate..

It may likewise deferve to be inquired, whether a great nation ought to be totally commercial ? whether amidst the uncertainty of human affairs, too much attention to one mode of happinefs may not endanger others? whether the pride of riches. muit not fometimes have recourfe to the protec tion of courage? and whether, if it be neceffary to preferve in. fome part of the empire the military fpirit, it can fubfift more commodiously in any place, than in remote and unprofitable provinces, where it can commonly do little harm, and whence it may be called forth at any fudden exigence?

It must however be confeffed, that a man, who places honour only in fuccefsful violence, is a very troublesome and pernicious animal in time of peace;, and that the martial character cannot prevail in a. whole people, but by the diminution of all other virtues. He that is accustomed to refolve all right. into conqueft, will have very little tenderness or equity. All the friendship in fuch a life can be only, a confederacy of invafion, or alliance of defence. The strong must. flourish by force, and the weak. fubfift by ftratagem..

Till the Highlanders loft their ferocity, with. their arms, they, fuffered from each other all that malignity could dictate, or precipitance could act. Every provocation was revenged with blood, and no man that ventured into a numerous company, by whatever occafion brought together, was fure

of

of returning without a wound. If they are now expofed to foreign hostilities, they may talk of the danger, but can seldom feel it. If they are no longer martial, they are no longer quarrelfome. Mifery is caused for the most part, not by a heavy crush of disaster, but by the corrofion of lefs vifible evils, which canker enjoyment, and undermine fecurity. The vifit of an invader is neceffarily rare, but domestick animofities allow no ceflation.

The abolition of the local jurifdictions, which had for fo many ages been exercifed by the chiefs, has likewise its evil and its good. The feudal conftitution naturally diffufed itself into long ramifications of fubordinate authority. To this general temper of the government was added the peculiar form of the country, broken by mountains into many fubdivifions fcarcely acceffible but to the natives, and guarded by paffes, or perplexed with intricacies, through which national juftice could not find its way.

The power of deciding controverfies, and of punifhing offences, as fome fuch power there muft always be, was entrusted to the lairds of the country, to those whom the people confidered as their natural judges. It cannot be fuppofed that a rugged proprietor of the rocks, unprincipled and unenlightened, was a nice refolver of entangled claims,. or very exact in proportioning punishment to offences. But the more he indulged his own will, the more he held his vaffals in dependance. Prudence

dence and innocence, without the favour of the chief, conferred no fecurity; and crimes involved no danger, when the judge was refolute to acquit.

When the chiefs were men of knowledge and virtue, the convenience of a domestick judicature was great. No long journies were neceffary, nor artificial delays could be practifed; the character, the alliances, and interests of the litigants were known to the court, and all falfe pretences were eafily detected. The fentence, when it was paft, could not be evaded; the power of the Laird fuperfeded formalities, and juftice could not be defeated by intereft or stratagem.

I doubt not but that fince the regular judges have made their circuits through the whole country, right has been every where more wifely, and more equally diftributed; the complaint is, that litigation is grown troublesome, and that the magi ftrates are too few, and therefore often too remote for general convenience.

Many of the fmaller islands have no legal officer within them. I once afked, If a crime fhould be committed, by what authority the offender could be feized? and was told, that the Laird would exert his right; a right which he muft now ufurp, but which furely neceffity muft vindicate, and which is therefore yet exercised in lower degrees, by fome of the proprietors, when legal proceffes cannot be obtained.