resident in Glasgow, Greenock, or Paisley. Mr. Stewart describes the commercial prospects of Glasgow at the close of the American War in 1782 as of the most gloomy kind. The great Virginia trade, he writes, which for a long series of years employed the largest share of the city capital, was then lost. Cotton-spinning, with its accompanying industries, was yet unknown; in fact, except a growing traffic with the West Indies and the manufacture of a few domestic fabrics, the trade of the town was extremely limited. It therefore became apparent that a means of combined action for opening up new sources of trade and commerce, and of organising a method whereby direct and efficient communication between the trade of the West and the Government and Legislature could be established, was a pressing necessity. The result of much eager discussion was the formation of the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, the first institution of its kind in the kingdom, the Edinburgh Chamber, not being established till nearly three years later (December, 1785).

Guided by strictly official records, Mr. Stewart is no doubt correct in mentioning that the first formal meeting of the Chamber was held early in January (most likely Thursday the 2nd), 1783; but, as appears from the newspapers of the day, the scheme had been wrought into practical shape a month or two earlier. In November, 1782, intimation was made that a plan for establishing a Chamber of Commerce and Manufactures in Glasgow, comprehending the towns of Paisley, Greenock, Port-Glasgow, and places adjacent, had been submitted by the Lord Provost to the consideration of the merchants, traders, and manufacturers in these towns. In November, 1782, many merchants had concurred in what came to be the real, practical objects of the Chamber as more minutely defined at a later date-viz., to promote such branches of trade as are more peculiar to this country; to establish local rules for the convenience and assistance of foreign and inland traders and manufacturers; to discuss all memorials and representations from members of the Chamber in matters regarding trade; to afford them assistance and relief in negotiating public business; to assist in procuring redress of any grievance, hardship, cr

oppression affecting any particular branch of trade or manufacture; to consider all matters affecting the Corn Laws in this part of the United Kingdom, for the purpose of supporting the industrious poor; and, in general, to take cognisance. of every matter and thing in the least degree connected with the interests of commerce or manufactures. It was agreed at this preliminary meeting in November, 1782, that the care of the Chamber should be committed to the thirty Directors, chosen from the most intelligent class of merchants and manufacturers. The names of those selected at the first formal meeting in January following may recall some of the then important Glasgow houses to our older readers:-Patrick Colquhoun, Lord Provost (afterwards the wellknown London Magistrate), chairman; James M'Gregor, deputy-chairman; John Glassford, James Dennistoun, sen., Wm. Cunningham, J. Campbell (Clathick), Wm. French, James Somervill, Henry Riddell, Robert Dunmore, John Robertson, Wm. Coates, John Lawrie, George Bogle, Robert Cowan, Gilbert Hamilton, Archibald Graham, James Gemmell, Hugh Moody, John Stirling, John Brown, jun., Walter Stirling, James Finlay, William Lang, David Dale, Dugald Bannatyne, Alex. M'Alpine-nearly all of Glasgow; Robert Fulton, John Wilson (father of "Christopher North "), and William Carlile, Paisley. At an adjourned meeting held on the 8th January in the Assembly Room, Gilbert Hamilton, merchant, was appointed secretary, and John Maxwell of Dargavel, writer, clerk of submissions to the Chamber. Early in August members held their first meeting under the Royal Charter obtained 31st July, when a vote of thanks and presentation of plate was resolved on to Lord Provost Colquhoun, LL.D., "for the uncommon attention and pains bestowed by him upon the business of the society." Dr. Colquhoun, engaged from youth in the Virginia trade, purchased part of the estate of Woodcroft, now Kelvingrove, but removed in 1792 to London, where, as police magistrate, he wrought out a variety of important reforms in the police system of the Metropolis. At present (1881) the oldest living members of the Chamber are Mr. Walter Buchanan, ex-M.P. (chairman in 1836), with W. F. Burnley and W. H. Dobbie-the latter now of Edinburgh.

The Chamber was not long in setting to the serious work before it in connection with the shipping, manufacturing, and general commercial enterprise of the time. In 1668, with the view of overcoming the difficulties of the river, then in a state of nature, the Magistrates of the City purchased sixty acres of ground at Newark for the purpose of building New, or, as it afterwards came to be called, Port, Glasgow. As certain traders sought systematically to evade the dues levied at that port by landing their goods at other places on the Clyde, the Merchants' House in 1705 went as far as it could in passing a resolution ordaining, under severe penalties, that all vessels bound for that river should land. the cargo at Port-Glasgow, except in cases of necessity. At the second annual meeting of the Chamber of Commerce held in the Town Hall, January, 1784, it was resolved to apply to the Commissioners of Customs and Exchequer for an establishment in Glasgow for "proving" merchandise, as in London, whereby the necessity of opening debenture and bounty goods at the ports of exportation might be rendered unnecessary in future. The Chamber naturally contended that if their desire was carried out many existing abuses would be prevented, while it would tend at the same time to remove the prejudices against local manufactures, "which, by being opened, exposed to the weather, and improperly repacked, often occasioned them to be found in bad order when landed at a foreign market." Another serious matter engaged the attention of the same meeting, representations being then made that certain traders between Greenock and America, had been in the habit of plundering the revenue and defrauding the underwriters, by first landing their goods surreptitiously and then wilfully destroying their vessels. The Chamber therefore resolved to use every effort for the purpose of bringing such persons to justice, and in addition pressed upon shipowners the necessity of exercising increased precaution in the engagement of seamen. That the action of the Chamber in this grave question was not premature, may be inferred with certainty from criminal proceedings which took place at Edinburgh on the 23rd April following. On that day, and at the instance of Robert Hunter and others, underwriters in London, James

Herdman, John M'Iver, and Archibald Macallum, merchants in Greenock, and jointly concerned in the ownership of the brigantines "Endeavour" and "New York," were committed to the Tolbooth, charged with feloniously sinking ships at sea with intent to defraud the underwriters. Application for their imprisonment on the capital charge was made before the Judge of the High Court of Admiralty, but an additional reason for the prisoners being then in Edinburgh arose from an apprehended attempt at escape, through the bad condition of the prison. in Paisley, and the overcrowded state of that of Glasgow, in which jails they had been confined for some time past. The trial came on before Judge Pringle, 19th May following, when, after an argument on the statutes dealing with capital and arbitrary punishments for the offences charged, the Crown restricted the indictment, and the jury found the panels guilty. The sentence was-"That they shall stand at the pillory in Glasgow, July 28 (Wednesday), for the space of one hour with a rope about each of their necks, and bare-headed," with the following label affixed to their breasts:-"Here stands John M'Iver and Archibald Macallum, infamous persons, who did wickedly procure holes to be bored in the ship 'Endeavour,' in order to sink the same and thereby defraud the underwriters." They were also banished Scotland for life, and, in case of their return, were to be imprisoned for one year, and to be publicly whipped on the first Wednesday of every month during such imprisonment. A Bill of Suspension was presented to the Court of Justiciary, but the Judges repelled the reasons, and, finding no just cause for mitigation of punishment, the panels were duly pilloried, agreeable to their sentence. The prisoner Herdman was tried 28th July, and being found guilty was sentenced, like his companions in guilt, to stand in the Glasgow pillory, and be thereafter banished the kingdom.

Although the "Wealth of Nations" was not published till 1776, twelve years after Adam Smith resigned his professorial chair in Glasgow University, yet his teaching had begun to exercise a strong influence in his lifetime among members of the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, as may be gathered from the proceedings at a meeting of cotton and muslin manufacturers called in August,

1784, for the purpose of protesting against the new scale of duties then imposed upon their goods. The minutes set forth that when the first class of cottons and muslins peculiar to the West Country trade were taken at a fair average, the new tax would be about 5 per cent. of the value, but as the second class would chiefly include the kind of goods known as 6-4ths muslins, the tax of 2d. 6-20ths per yard would amount on an average to 7 or 8 per cent. of value. Expressing a hearty willingness to share in the general burdens of the country, the Glasgow manufacturers yet considered themselves unfairly matched against the East India Company, in so far as their home produce was selected for taxation at a time when the Company was supported at the public expense with little short of one million of money, free of interest, which would nearly equal the whole produce of the tax on cottons. The manufacturers therefore concluded by protesting against the competition as unfair, partial, and unwise, at least so long as the Company enjoyed its English monopoly and pecuniary aid from the State. Many readers still engaged in business will recollect that one of Kirkman Finlay's great services was the assistance he gave to break up this monopoly, and the example he set in opening up the extensive Indian trade. The first ship direct from the Clyde to India-the van of a vast fleet, Mr. Stewart justly remarks-was freighted by Kirkman Finlay, the "Buckinghamshire," of 600 tons, being sent out for Calcutta direct.

Organised mainly for the purpose of serving commerce, the Chamber has occasionally unbended from its high duties and gracefully acknowledged services rendered indirectly to merchants, forgetting even for a moment that her symbols are those of peace and not of war. In the course of the great struggle for independence by the American Colonies, aided by France, a number of the more important West India Islands-Tobago and St. Christopher among the restwas seized on behalf of his Most Christian Majesty by General the Marquis Bouillé, famous in many lands before that for magnanimity no less than bravery, and destined to high command afterwards in the unhappy contest carried on by his brother nobles against the Republic. Having done all that was possible