1792. on the Highlands. S3 



If then depopulation be the necefsarjr consequence of 

 injudicious laws ; and if national debility, and fiscal po- 

 verty, be the unavoidable consequences of depopulation, 

 even in the most fertile countries : if, on the other hand, 

 a strict attention to guard the interests of the people, 

 will, alone, be sufficient to clothe with hamlets the most 

 inhospitable desert, and to diffuse wealth and happinefs 

 among a numerous people, — irresistible national strength, 

 and an abundant fiscal revenue, must be the natural and 

 onavoidable consequences ; as the examples I have pro- 

 duced clearly fhow. 



Is it pofsible for administration to turn their minds to 

 any subject that is more deserving their maturest consi- 

 deration, than that which I now so strenuously recom- 

 mend to their notice ? Now is the time to do it with ef- 

 fect. What proposition can be more plain, than that re- 

 venue is the offspring of population and wealth ? and that 

 of course every law which tends to dimlnilh the number 

 of the people, or to retard their acquisition of wealth, 

 necefsarily dries up the sources of fiscal revenue ? Nothing 

 sure can be more plain ; yet from the inattention that is 

 bestowed upon this subject, by men in the executive de- 

 partments of government, and by those who are not in it, 



eight millions, though poorly f'ed, are obliged to have recourse to foie'ga 

 countries, to which heaven, as they would say, had been pleased to grant 

 a more fertile soil, for a supply of food. Such is the influence ot man in 

 this universe, that when free to exercise his natural faculties, and protec- 

 ted from the depredations of oihers, he can even create, as it were, r a new 

 earth for himself, make the most barren soil abundantly to supply his wants,, 

 and the most unhospi tabic climate become subservient lo liis will. It is not soil 

 or climate, but liberty and protection alone, which can ever prod uce abundance.. 

 tet not, therefore, a country be abandoned, because it is now considered 

 as barren. Let us not fear that ever provisions will fail, where the hands 

 of man. are free, and where his industry is not checked by injudicious 

 laws. 



VOL. xi. E f 



