S*Ct. I. . THE COUNTY OF FIFE. 87 



the miserable portion of the lower, and by far 

 the most numerous class. And if there were 

 any intermediate gradations, the numbers who 

 occupied them were few ; and the insecure and 

 uncertain tenure, by which they held their pro- 

 perty, must have rendered their exertions feeble, 

 even though they had been disposed to take 

 part with their government. No wonder then, 

 that men thus circumstanced, men who had no- 

 thing to lose, and no hopes of bettering their 

 condition in the present state of things, should 

 have been so easily deceived by the seeming 

 patriotism of unprincipled demagogues, and so 

 universally have fallen in with a scheme which 

 promised them emancipation from poverty, de- 

 pendence, and degradation, and a more equal 

 distribution of property and power. And if we 

 consider that turbulent and seditious temper 

 which, for some years past, has discovered itself 

 in this country, and which has required all the 

 vigilance and activity of Government to keep in 

 check, it appears highly probable that, had it 

 not been for the weight thrown into the scale of 

 constitutional authority and power, by the nu- 

 merous, wealthy, and respectable classes which 

 occupy the- intermediate ranks between the great 

 landholders, and those who have little or no 

 property, revolutionary and anarchial principles 

 might have prevailed, and this kingdom have 

 experienced similar convulsions, attended with 

 consequences equally disasterous and fatal. 



