106 EEV. GEORGE PATTERSON ON 



secret augiports and dark postern-doors which were so narrow that few of them could get 

 in till they had left all their gallantry behind them. . . . After this manner, my Lord 

 Stirling for a while was very noble ; and according to the rate of sterling money, was as 

 twelve other lords in the matter of that frankness of disposition, which not permitting 

 him to dodge it upon inches and ells, better and worse, made him not stand to give to 

 each of his champions territories of the best and the most ; and although there should 

 have happened a thousand acres more to be put in the charter or writing of disposition 

 than was agreed upon at first, he cared not ; half a piece to the clerk was able to make him 

 dispense with that." 



These are to be regarded as the words of a satirical cotemporary, after the scheme 

 had failed, and its author was, therefore, fair game for the witlings of his day. That 

 his intentions were pure we deem unquestionable. We may even give him credit 

 for that desire to promote the interests of religion, which he professes in advocating his 

 project. " The greatest encouragement of all," he says, " for any true Christian is this: 

 That here is a large way for advancing the glory of Jesus Christ, to whom churches 

 may be builded where his name was never known, and if the saints in heaven rejoice at 

 the conversion of a sinner, what exceeding joy would it be to them to see many 

 thousands of savage people who do now live like brute beasts, converted unto God ? 

 And I wish (leaving those dreams of Honour and Profit which do intoxicate the brain 

 and empoison the mind with transitory pleasure) that this might be our chief end, to 

 begin a new life, serving Grod more sincerely than before, to whom we may draw more 

 nere by retiring ourselves further from thence." To say that in his measures personal 

 ambition mingled with other motives is only to say that he was not above the infirmities 

 of humanity. 



It is easy now to point out want of wisdom in his measures. We can see that before 

 sending out colonists means should have been adopted to obtain fuller information 

 regarding the country to which they were going, its soil and adaptation to agriculture 

 or other industries, and the character of its aborigines, and, besides that, proper preparations 

 should have been made for their reception on arrival. We who live in the nineteenth 

 century see so much farther than those who lived in the seventeenth, that we can readily 

 point out such mistakes ; but they were the mistakes of all who engaged in such attempts 

 in that age ; and when we find it noticed that the settlers on landing were supplied 

 with provisions to last twelve months, we are inclined to believe that the managers 

 showed a foresight such as was not manifested in similar undertakings, even at a later 

 period. The plan of founding baronies may in the present day excite our contempt, or 

 even appear laughable, but we must remember that it was quite in accordance with the 

 sentiments of the times, and when we consider his financial position, pressed for money 

 and without government aid, we can understand how such a plan of enlisting the 

 interest of one hundred and fifty families of the landed gentry of Scotland in the project 

 should appear a stroke of wise policy. 



One thing, we think, must be conceded, and that is the extraordinary energy and 

 perseverance with which he prosecuted his undertaking in defiance of every obstacle. 

 To us there appears something of the morally sublime in the manner in which he held to 

 his purpose in spite of straitened circumstances, the jealousy of rivals, the indifference of 

 the public, the hostility of the French and the faithlessness of his king. We must say, 



