130 A Survey and Report of the Coasts 



pasturage, increased incomes, and all the blessings which 

 are derived from a facility of intercourse : is it not therefore 

 the interest of the land-owners to unite with government 

 in executing these plans ? and should not the memorials and 

 propositions to this purpose originate with the land-owners, 

 and be transmitted by them to the lords of the treasury, 

 who will, by comparing the memorials with the informa- 

 tion contained in the surveys made by their directions, judge 

 how far the public aid can be with propriety extended ? 



6th, If the opening the Caledonian canal upon the scale 

 I have proposed would prove the means of facilitating the 

 intercourse from the west of England and Scotland, and the 

 whole of Ireland, with the northern parts of Europe, and 

 likewise from the east side of Great Britain to America and 

 the West Indies 5 is it not just and reasonable that the 

 commercial interests should be united with the efforts of 

 government in carrying the same into effect ? 



7th, In my last I neglected to state, in order to en* 

 able the Highland proprietors to contribute, without incon- 

 venience to themselves, a moiety of the expense of making 

 the roads and bridges necessary for the improvement of that 

 part of the country, that they might be empowered by an 

 act of parliament to sell land to that amount. This is rea- 

 sonable, because the price would be applied to improve the 

 remainder of the entailed estates, v/hich would by this meanS 

 be much improved in value, though somewhat diminished 

 in extent. 



Report of a Sub-Committee of the Directors of the High*" 

 land Society of Scotland, on Consideration of a Letter 

 from Mr. Telford, Engineer, to Henry Mackenzie, Esq. 

 one of the Directors of the Society ; made to, and ap- 

 proved of bv, the General Committee of Directors of the 

 said Society, 10th December 1802: the Right Honoura- 

 ble Lord ^iacdonald, one of the Vice-Presidents in Office, 

 in the Chair. 



The committee have fully considered Mr. Telford's ques- 

 tions, addressed to Air. Mackenzie, one of the society's di- 

 rectors. 



In answer to the first, they are persuaded that even the 

 lines of communication by means of military roads in some 

 parts of the Highlands, have boen productive of benefit to 

 the country, though, tlie motives which gave rise to their 

 formation having no relation to objects of commerce and 

 iudustiy, the advantages derived from them are very im- 

 perfect. 



