for money or not, and sums borrowed on the security of tolls. In the highlands, therefore, the progress of improvement must have been considerably checked, if the executive government, with the consent, and by the authority of the legislature, had not thought it right to apply some of the public money to the construction of roads and bridges in that division of the country. Since 1803, a sum of 20,000l. has been annually granted, or was granted till lately, for that purpose. The money was vested in the hands of commissioners, who had authority to advance half of the estimated expense of such roads and bridges as should be deemed of general advantage, on condition that the proprietors of that part of the country more immediately interested, should advance the other half, and become bound to see the work properly executed. Private interest was in this manner wisely combined with the public fund; and it has been said that by means of this regulation, and the ability and diligence of the commissioners in ascertaining the most proper situations for the roads, and ensuring the due execution of the work, few instances have occurred in which the public money has been so efficiently applied to the purpose, for which it was granted. The result is, that now there is no

part of the island more easy of access than many of the principal straths and glens among these once impervious mountains and wide wastes, which still from the nature of such situations necessarily afford the means of concealment required for the purpose of the smuggler. The carriage of grain and wool is thus facilitated, and even the driving of sheep and cattle.

In support of this grant of public money, it probably was argued, as it has been in favour of the much larger sums given for the purposes of the Caledonian Canal, that the construction of roads and bridges in the highlands would check the practice of emigration. But the real and direct tendency of these improvements, however valuable in other respects, is to promote the progress of depopulation and emigration. The facility of communication and distinct conveyance, opening a more extensive, constant, and better market for the produce, is one of the chief circumstances which attracts to the highlands the great capitalist to the expulsion of the ancient race of small farmers, by hundreds and thousands. A considerable portion of the lower districts of the highlands is already rented as summer pasture for the herds and flocks of the farmer, grazier, and cattle-dealer of the adjacent lowlands, who manages, by means of a

single shepherd, a tract of ground which for merly contained twenty or thirty families of little farmers. This system is rapidly spreading, especially in those districts where the proprietor of the land never resides upon it. The landlord, by this arrangement, has his rent paid in one sum, without trouble in the collection, and is relieved from the expense of buildings and repairs; and the plan is no less convenient for the farmer, who in winter brings down to the low country a part of the cattle to fatten on turnip and potatoes, and to convert the green crop and straw into manure for the arable farm ; and then, as he thinks proper, sells them, or returns them to the summer pasture. The highland grazing place enables him in this way to clean and manure in perfection, and turn to its utmost account the farm below; and both together, by affording a constant supply of food for his live stock, enable him to wait for and choose the most proper times for selling and purchasing to the best advantage; the two farms thus reciprocally enhancing the value of each other. It must be admitted, however, that these roads are favourable to the retention of the population, so far as they facilitate the commerce in smuggled whiskey.

A stone in the middle of the upper wall or

parapet of a bridge across a stream, which forms one of the heads of the Tay, a few yards to the north-west of the inn, marks the limits of Braidalbane, and the county of Perth, in this quarter; and the traveller, after passing that stone, is in the district of Glenurchay and Glenetie, the most north-easterly division of Argyleshire. This county, stretching along the western seacoast, from the Mull of Kintyre, in the latitude of Ayrshire on the south, to Loch-Eil and Lochaber on the north, in this quarter occupies the whole of the breadth between the ridge and the Atlantic. The general aspect is mountainous and barren, the heath-covered rocks descending to the edge of the sea. Among the mountains, there are many fine pastoral valleys, in which, and even in the spaces between the mountain rocks, nearest the sea, bere and oats are produced; but at the southern point, and there only, wheat, barley, and beans, are raised. The corn is often cut down in the midst of rain, and in some places immediately hung on pegs in drying houses, of which the Duke of Argyle's barns at Inverary afford the best specimen. The climate being mild and humid, there is always good pasture; snow remaining but a very short time in the valleys, during the severest winters. Potatoes are cultivated with

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success; and, together with milk and fish, chiefly herrings, are the principal food of the people. The Earl of Braidalbane has an extensive property in the county, but the Duke of Argyle is the only resident nobleman. The most general name is Campbell, and after it the most common are, Cameron, Lamont, Macdonald, Macdougal, M'Laughlan, Maclean, and Stewart. Part of the county, for about 500 years subsequent to the eighth or ninth century, was subject, together with the isles, to the Danes and Norwegians, and afterwards to the lords of the isles, with a dependance, often merely nominal, on the Scottish monarch. These lords, aiming at complete independence, were overpowered by the King; and the Campbells, possibly a tribe of the Macdonalds, distinguished by that appellation, rose on the ruined fortunes of their brethren, as well as of the Macgregors.

At the Argyle end of the bridge, the road divides into two branches; one being what is called a parliamentary road, stretching by a steep and rapid descent, in a direction about due west, through the deep and narrow glen of Lochy to Dalmally and Inverary; the other, called the military road, stretching north-west, through Glenurchay to Tyanree (the King's House) and Inverlochy. The former road passes