brought home, that will ferve to bring fubfiilence to your people
? T o recompence them for your drafted revenues S What to
cloath the naked ? T o feed the hungry ? T o furniih them with
more comfortable protection from the inclemency of the weather
? They require no great matters: a fmall portion o f ray-
ment; a little meal. With fad companion they learn, that chieftains
ftill exift, who make their people their care: and with envy
they hear of the improving ftate of the vaffals o f an Argyle, an
Athol, a Breadalbane, and a Bute.
‘ R e t u r n to your country: inform them with your prefence;
reftore to them the laudable part of the antient manners; eradicate
the bad. Bring them inftruCtors, and they would learn.
Teach them arts adapted to their climate; they would brave the
fury of bur feas in filhing. Send them materials for the coarler
manufactures; they would with patience fit down to the loom;
they would weave the fails to waft your navies to victory; and
part of them rejoice to lhare the glory in the moll diftant combats.
SeleCt a portion of them for the toils o f the ocean : make
your levies, enroll them ; difcipline them under able veterans,
and fend annually to our ports the fmaller vefiels o f your tremendous
navy. Truft them with fwords, and a fmall retaining
pay. I f you have doubts, eftablilh a place d’armes, in vacant
times, the depofite of their weapons, under proper garrifon.
They would fubmit to any reftritfions; and think no reftraints,
founded on the fafety o f the whole, an infringement o f liberty,
or an invafion o f property. Legislature' has given them their
manumiflion ; and they no longer confider themfelves as part
of the live ftock of their chieftain. Draft them to diftant climes,
‘ and
■■■■
H E B R I D E S .
and they will facrifice their lives in the juft cauie of government
‘ with as much zeal as their fore-fathers did under the' lawlef*
‘ direction of my valiant anceftors. Limit only the time of their
warfare; fweeten it only with the hopes o f a return to their na-
- tive country, and they will become willing fubftitutes for their
Southern brethren. Occupied in the. foft arts o f peace, th o s e
ihould extend your manufactures ; and th e s e would defend your
commerce. Perfuade their governors to experience their zeal;
| and let courtly favor rife and fall with their aCtions. Have not
thoufands in the late war proved their fincerity ? Have not
‘ thoufands expiated with their blood the folly o f rebellion, and
the crimes o f their parents ?
I f you will totally negleCt them; if you will not refide among
them; i f you will not, by your example, inftruft them in the
- fcience of rural ceconomy, nor caufe them to be taught the ufe-
ful arts: i f you cannot obtain leave for them to devote themfelves
to the fervice of their country, by deeds o f arms ; do not
at left drive-them to defpair, by opprefiion: dp not force them
into a diftant land, and necefiitate them to feek tranquility by
a meafure which was once deemed the punifhment o f the moft
atrocious criminals. Do not be guilty o f treafon againft your
country, by depriving it of multitudes of ufeful members,
whofe defence it may too foon want, againft our natural enemies.
Do not create a new fpecies of difaffeCtion ; and let it not receive
a more exalted venom, in a continent replete with the
moft dangerous kind. Extremes o f change are always the worft.
How dreadful will be the once-exiftent folly o f Jacobitifm,
transformed into the accurfed fpirit of political libertinifm 1
I * i 2 .* L e a v e