xxxli PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE. 



parliament, who had Voted for the bill, and about 

 20 perfons were killed or wounded by the military. 



The feverity Ihewn to the people of Glafgow, 

 where the ftrength of the government intereft chiefly 

 lay, gave a check to the diforders which the malt 

 tax had excited in other parts of the kingdom. It 

 was fo fenfibly felt in Scotland, that the royal 

 boroughs prefented a remonftrance againft it, as a 

 grievous burden which their country could not 

 bear ; and petitions to the fame effect, were deli- 

 vered to the reprefentatives in the houfe of com- 

 mons, from different (hires of that kingdom ; but 

 neither the petitions, nor the remonftrances, of an 

 impoverifhed country, could procure the fmalleft de- 

 viation from the rigorous conditions of the union, 

 however expedient, juft, or humane. It was in 

 vain for the people to urge the general decay of 

 trade, the want of manufactures, the univerfal po- 

 verty and wretched nefs of their once happy country. 

 The miniftry, refting on their influence over the 

 Scottifh peers and commoners, heard with indiffer- 

 ence, the complaints of indigence, and the calls of 

 hunger. Not one generous or liberal fentiment had 

 ever been extended to the great body of the people. 

 Such was the condition of the northern part of this 

 ifland, at a period when the commerce, manufac- 

 tures, and wealth of the fouthern part had increafed, 

 and were increafmg with aflonifhing rapidity. 



The revenue of England had increafed in a 

 proportionable degree. In Queen Elizabeth's 

 reign, it amounted to .188,197 ; in the reign 

 of George II. it rofe to ^.10,000,000, while the 

 taxes which -were impofed on Scotland, at the 

 latter period, with fuch rigour, and raifed with 

 fuch difficulty, fcarcely defrayed the falaries of the 

 cornmiffioners, clerks, and' fubordinate officers, 

 on the revenue eftablifhment. Since, therefore, 

 the public derived no benefit from a pitiful re- 

 venue, thus fqueezed from the vitals of a people 



who 



