if^l. - observations on the salt laws. T95. 



probability is that the threat would be put in execution y 

 and that a severe injunction from the treasury board to in- 

 force the revenue law^s strictly, implying a censure on them 

 for negligence, might be the consequence. If, to avoid 

 that disagreeable interference, they Ihoiild rafhly ifsue the 

 illegal order demanded, the consequences weuld be ruin- 

 ous to many persons, who now make a fhift to subsist j and 

 this practice, if once establifhed, might contifcue to deprefs 

 the people, and depopulate the country for ages, without 

 being known to people high in office, or to the country at 

 large. I call such an order illegal^ Ihould it ever be ifsued j 

 for among all the severe restraints that have been devised 

 to prevent evading the payment of the duties on salt, there 

 is no law by which a person is required to bring proof that 

 -the salt he consumes in his family, or that with which he cures 

 either butter or cheese, for home consumption, has paid the 

 duty. Yet fhould the custom-house officers require, that 

 every poor person in the Western Highlands, who cured a 

 few stone* of butter or cheese, to be sent by sea to Glasgow 



for the subject ; for, by a strange kind of logic adopted in revenue matters, it 

 is always understood, that to hurt the subject, and to benefit the revcnuf , 

 are synonymous terir.s. Such, then, being the true situation of these revenue- 

 ■flicers, what can they do ? Prudence, and a regard for the interests of their 

 families require thatthey (liould give no appariKt cause of offence to thrfr 

 superiors. I could scarcely conceive an idea of a situation that would be 

 more pitiable than that of a man of sense and principle in that office, wl'.o 

 fiiuuld think it incumbent upon him, to discharge his duty with a consci- 

 entious firmnefs'. I could compare him to nothing, but to that of a man 

 who fhoulJ attempt by main force todrive out a nest of wasps and hornets.. 

 He would be harjfsed to death by infmite attacks from all quarters j nor 

 could he, after all, sccomplifh th? good he intended. 



Let it not, therefore, be supposed, that 1 envy, or bear a malevolent 

 grudge at men in these circumstances. I only regret that such things. 

 ftiouM be j and that there is noway of protecting them from tl.e iniqujt 

 of their own proceedings, but by exposing the guilt of these proceedings to.^ 

 ^bllc view, and -thus obtaining for them a firm b:ind of tleftndfi. whawilL' 

 •.and by th;m on dl eraer^n-.c'cs. 



