i8oO. Mifreprefe?ttatlon of New/papers^ 419 



tainly have laws to reprefs them : and the obfervations upon 

 the fubje£t, in almoft every newfpaper, can be confidered in 

 no other light than a libel upon thefe laws. They have in- 

 tluftrioufly founded the alarm from one end of the ifland to 

 the other ; they have rode in the whirlivindy and direcied the 

 storm of all the tumults and outrages that have attended the 

 prefent calamity. Let them recollecl, that, upon another oc- 

 cafion, an occafion that will occupy a confplcuous place in the 

 annals of our hiftory, a poifon, that threatened the very exift- 

 ence of the country, was alfo propagated through the fame 

 medium ; I mean, the levelling or feditious principles with 

 which the country lately teemed. From the beginning of that- 

 phrenzy, up to the time that the deputies were arretted at 

 Edinburgh, their fentiments were propagated in the form of 

 advertifements, and encouragement held out to the ignorant 

 and turbulent, in all parts of the country, to unite in what was 

 termed the common caufe. The frequency of thefe advertife- 

 ments, and the apparent impunity with which they were in- 

 ferted, gave life to fcdition, and rendered the principal atlors 

 bold : and it was not till the imprifonment of thefe men, and 

 the whole kingdom had been fet in a flame by their means, 

 that the nev/fpapers began to perceive they had done any thing 

 that was either morally ox politically wrong. You will pardon 

 this digreflion. Gentlemen ; but it appeared to me a cafe in 

 point, and I could not omit taking notice of it. Indeed, I 

 am the more induced to do fo, as, fhould the prefent unfor- 

 tunate circumflances continue, and another bad year or two 

 be added to the pad, the tempers of the lower ranks of fociety 

 may be rendered fo irritable, by a continual feries of mifre- 

 prefentation, as to produce fcenes of anarchy and diftrefs, 

 beyond what any perfon can calculate upon. 



It is not unworthy of notice, how far, in the heat of decla- 

 mation, thefe warm friends of humanity forget a proper de- 

 finition of terms, including, under the opprobrious names of 

 foreftaller, regrater, &c. every perfon who has any dealings 

 in grain or provifions, without confidering that many of the 

 moft extenfive and populous dillri^ts in Scotlafid, and, indeed, 

 in many other parts of the ifland, would have been abfolute- 

 ly famiUied, but for the exertions of corn-merchants. What 

 would have been the fituation of Edinburgh, Glafgow, near- 

 ly the whole of the weft, and many parts of the north of 

 Scotland, without their aflifl;ance. It is notorious that they 

 would have been without bread for many months, had they 

 depended folely upon the produce of their immediate neigh- 

 bourhood. 



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