I'792-- 0" t^}f comrHotiotti in Rofsjhire-. ^ot 



inquiry better deserve the attention of the legislature of an 

 enlightened country than to try to discover the means o£ 

 remedying this great political malady, and rendering the 

 people happy and useful members of the community *. 



ii. It is written by the reverend Mr J. Anderson, minister of KingufsiB 

 in Inverncfsftiire. 



" There is no vill?ge, either in the pariih, or in the vhole dictricf. 

 This inconvenience is severely felt. Not only thf luxuries, but even ma- 

 ny of the common necefsaries of life, must be sent for to the distance of 

 more than forty miles. Tradesmen have no fixed place of res'dence 

 ■where they can be resorted to. There is no center for the little traffic or 

 barter requisite to be carried on in an inland country. The wool that 

 could have been manufactured in that place, must be sent by a long land 

 carriage to buyers invited fiom another kingdom. The flax that miglif 

 have proved a source of wealth to both proprietor and tacksman, has been 

 neglected, because fkilful people arc not collected together into one close 

 neighbourhood, to cairy it through the whole procefs." 



The above is extracted from Sir John Sinclair's Statistical Account of- 

 Sco-.land, vol. iii. p. 38, a book that will do honour to the age in which it 

 Was written, and lay the foundition, it is hoped, of many efsential im- 

 provements in Scotland. To the above allow me to add, that even the 

 carcase of the fheep in these situations, is of little value. What could a 

 poor man make often or twelve fat flieep, if he had them ? All his neigh- 

 bours hav< mutton of their own, and no buying butcher is to be found 

 within perhaps an hundred miles of him. Unlefs a flock of several thou- 

 sands be kept together, these cannot afford carrying them to market. 

 How are rents in these circumstances to be paid ? How can taxes be paid, 

 OT collected ? 



* Too much praise cannot be bestowed upon Mr Dale of Glasgow, for 

 his great and patriotic exertion, in relieving a number of his unhappy 

 cour\trymen, from a severe calamity in which they foand themselves in- 

 volved at the time. Nothing but a generous philanthropic ardour, which 

 despises to rest on little inconveniences, could have suggested the great 

 •dea. — The same philanthropy also suggested the noble idea of formirgthe 

 Society for bringing persons from the Highlands, to settle in the manufac- 

 turing districts of this country. Yet, however much I may honour the 

 contriver of this beneficent plan, a regard for truth forbids me to say, 

 that any very extensive b«neAt can be expected to result from it. Be- 



