96 Transactions. 
the forces by sea and land may be by which the First Consul of 
France now intends to invade our island, that nevertheless his 
forces by sea are neither so numerous nor so formidable as those 
which on so many occasions during the late war were beaten and 
destroyed by the fleets of Britain ; that his land forces are no 
other than such as, although superior in number, our countrymen 
so recently encountered and subdued on the plains of Egypt ; 
and that this same First Consul of France is no other than that 
General Bonaparte who at the head of a numerous army so long 
besieged in vain a handful of British troops shut up within the 
mud walls of Acre, from before which weak and unfinished post 
he at length retired defeated, disgraced, and covered with infamy. 
That the people be desired constantly to keep in mind that 
history affords no example where the inhabitants of a country 
united and faithful to each other were ever conquered by a 
foreign enemy.” One response to this was the following letter 
from Mr Gibson, of the King’s Arms Hotel, Dumfries, which 
gives a glimpse of the resources of that posting establishment in 
July, 1803 :— 
I think it incumbent on me at this momentous period to contribute my 
sum for my King and country. I beg leave to offer for conveying stock and 
property of any kind 17 horses, 5 chaises, 3 carts, and drivers for the 
same. 
The parish of Ruthwell promised to furnish ninety volunteers, 
seventy carts and horses, and fifty drivers. The manager of the 
mines at Wanlockhead wrote to the Lord-Lieutenant as follows— 
Wanlockhead, Ist August, 1803. 
My Lord,—I have the honour to enclose a signed list of 110 miners, 
their two overseers, and myself, as manager of the Wanlockhead mines, 
who offer their services a8 a corps of Volunteer Pioneers, providing our- 
selves with pioneering and entrenching tools, and be ready to march, in case 
of invasion, with ten days’ provisions. I have also to enclose a return of 
pioneering tools fit for service. The Mining Company of Wanlockhead 
authorises me to offer for the general service of the country whatever gun- 
powder they may have in store for blasting the mines, which on an average 
will be about 800 lbs. weight, and a proportionable quantity of musket 
balls, on being provided with Government patent moulds for casting them. 
The miners are ready to be trained to whatever exercise is thought 
necessary—the only difficulty is to find a tolerably flat piece of ground 
within six miles of the mines proper to exercise even a company of fifty 
men. But that a company of pioneers (which as miners we are well 
adapted to), should be able to march without confusion, this may be 
