I^p2. eulogium on the minister, i^f 



Such is exactly the situation of those numerous swarms 

 of industrious poor, who are obliged to seek refuge in fo- 

 reign countries from the idlenefs and want which it pro- 

 duces on the western coasts of Scotland. There are ma- 

 ny instances of men on these coasts, who, impelled by a 

 spirit of enterprise, have unadvisedly ventured their little 

 stock in the filheries, and have been ruined by it. How 

 were they ruined you afk ? The final catastrophe is va- 

 rious, arising from circumstances, but in all cases of this 

 sort, it is almost inevitable. A man who lives, we Ihall 

 suppose, at fifty miles from a custom-house, (and many 

 places are more than an hundred miles from one,) finds 

 himself in an excellent filhing station. He must go to 

 that custom-house with his two sureties, to bond his salt. 

 "WTiere is a poor man to find such sureties ? This bar ties 

 up the hands of many. Where is he to find money to 

 pay for his salt ? This bar ties up the hands of a much 

 greater number. These difficulties ^overcome, he must 

 carry home a custom-house officer, at his own expence, to 

 see the salt lodged in his ware-house. Before he can take 

 it from thence, he must go or send to the custom-house 

 for an order to take it out, and must bring again that cus- 

 tom-house officer to see the quantity taken out *. If he 



• If he even does send to the custom-house, he is not certain thit his 

 Ttquisitton will be complied with, as the following case fully ftiows. MrRofsj 

 a respectable man at Inver, in Rofslhire, had a quantity of bonded salt, ihus 

 jocged in his ware-houses in the year lySz. He lives from 40 to 50 miles 

 dibtant from the nearest custom-house. A great quantity of herrings came 

 unexpectedly upon that coast, while he himself was absent. Exptel's, ui-" 

 on expre.'s, was sent 10 the custum-housc officer at Lochbroom, to give out 

 the salt; but this gentleman having conceived some pique at Mr. Rofs> 

 refuied to come or send to give out the salt ; many days elapsed in send- 

 ing these repeated exprefscs in vain; in the mean while many millions of 

 herrings werecatched, and obliged thus to lie rotting in great heaps on tlie 

 'fliore. When Mr Rofs returned, and found thines in this situation, 

 be, in a rage, broke ofcn :hedoor of his warc-l.ouse, and totk out tlie salt 



