is speaking of the swarms of beggars with which the country was at that time overrun. "Nor, indeed, can there be a thorough refor"mation in this affair so long as the one half "of our country in extent of ground is pos"sessed by a people who are all gentlemen, only "because they will not work, and who in every

thing are more contemptible than the vilest "slaves, except that they always carry arms, "because for the most part they live upon "robbery. This part of the country, being an "inexhaustible source of beggars, has always "broke all our measures relating to them and "it were to be wished that the government "would think fit to transplant that handful of "people and their masters, who have always "disturbed our peace, into the low country, "and people the highlands from hence, rather "than they should continue to be a perpetual "occasion of mischief to us. It is in vain to

say that, whatever people are planted in these "mountains, they will quickly turn as savage "and as great beggars as the present inhabi"tants; for the mountains of the Alps are

greater, more desert, and more condemned to snows than those of the highlands of Scot"land, which are every where cut by friths and lakes, the richest in fishing of any in the "world, affording great convenience for the

"transportation of timber and other goods. "And yet the Alps, which have no such advan"tages, are inhabited every where by a civi"lized, industrious, honest, and peaceable "people; but they had no lords to hinder them "from being civilized-to discourage industry "-encourage thieving-and to keep them beg

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gars that they might be the more dependant; or, when they had any that oppressed them, "as in that part of the mountains that belongs "to the Swiss, they knocked them on the "head."

The mountaineers were unquestionably in a great proportion idle, because the only labour of which their circumstances and situation admitted, except that of military service, was the cultivation of the ground, which was easily performed by a few. From the crowded state of the population they were frequently exposed to scarcity and famine, which was an additional inducement to supply themselves from the abundance of those whom it was held lawful or

meritorious to plunder. They fancied themselves gentlemen, not merely because they carried arms, but because of their family connexion with the chief and celebrated members of the clan, and in point of fact united with the most perfect respect for their superiors, an easy, agreeable, and polite familiarity of manner,

which distinguished them from the lower orders of any other people in the world. Their obedience to the chief, though certainly unbounded, was not the obedience of force, but that of opinion;-obedience flowing from the feeling and pride of family connexion, and from the firmest conviction that his conduct and measures were regulated by his views of the best interests of the clan in which each individual felt himself directly concerned.

The military energy of the clanish institution was found so formidable to the government, during the rebellion of 1745, that from that period the most anxious and constant attention has been paid to the object of opening a free communication with the highlands, and of dissolving the clanish union. Laws were made against the peculiar dress of the highlands, which had little effect either as to the dress or manners and habits of the people. But the opening a free passage for troops, and the execution of legal process, produced a decisive, though gradual result. The defence of the inheritance of the chief no longer depended on the clan, and the bond of mutual interest was broken. The chiefs and superior gentry did not find it necessary to reside on their estates, and to secure the attachment of their inferiors. They began to imbibe the notions and to adopt

the manners of the south, and then the question came to be, not how many men their land could support, but how much rent it could be made to yield. When the communication became perfectly open and the controul of the general government thoroughly established, the whole kingdom naturally arranged itself, unless where particular circumstances produced particular exceptions, in the manner of one large farm; the lower grounds, as best adapted for the purposes of raising grain, forming the arable part, and the higher regions, as less calculated for the production of corn, forming the pasture ground for the black cattle and sheep. This arrangement, being the most profitable for the proprietors, began in the usual course of affairs. to be generally adopted; and the necessary consequence was, that a considerable portion of the population was expelled from their possessions.

The mass of the population, naturally less capable of estimating the alteration of circumstances, had their attention first aroused to it by its consequences; and they began to perceive, with indignant astonishment, the decay of the family feeling, and the indifference with which they were regarded, and turned out of their possessions. Looking only to a state of things which had passed away, and still possessed with the notions which belonged to another period,

they conceived that their title to the possessions, of which the occupation had been transmitted from father to son for, perhaps, many generations, and in the defence of which the blood of their fathers and relations had been shed, was little less valid than that of the proprietor to his estate, and their expulsion appeared to them to be monstrous injustice and ingratitude. Unacquainted with manufactures, or any other mode of living than such as was connected with the occupation of land, emigration to that country, where, as they were informed, land was easily procured, seemed the only alternative. But it was a hard alternative for the highlander to quit for ever the patrimonial inheritance of his clan, the scenes of his strong local attachments, and most cherished associations; and their minds still recurring to old times, they anticipated with indignant exultation the speedy attack of some hostile band to deprive the proprietor of his estate when its natural defenders should be far distant. Among the Western Isles, where the fisheries still detain a considerable portion of the population, and where the generally easy employment of sailing about for various purposes from island to island affords leisure for the song and the tale, these feelings are warmly expressed in their ordinary conversation and common songs.