296 HISTORY OF THE OUTER HEBRIDES. 



country, too, would be ruined, for foreign bottoms would 

 alone be employed in the carrying trade.* They knew by 

 experience what these Dutchmen were capable of doing, 

 when once they obtained a footing in the country. Thus 

 the Commissioners of Royal burghs moaned their com- 

 plaints.f 



An impartial examination of the objections urged by the 

 Convention, cannot fail to show that they had a weak case. 

 The legal objection was clearly invalid, for some of the 

 existing Royal burghs did not hold from the Crown. 

 While it may be conceded that some of the fears expressed 

 may have been not altogether baseless, it is clear that the 

 Convention's arguments were, on the whole, somewhat 

 fanciful, if not frivolous. Morbidly jealous of their privi- 

 leges, the burghs felt, not unnaturally, uneasy at the prospect 

 of their monopolies being invaded by a town which they 

 regarded with contempt. No suggestion appears to have 

 been made for providing such safeguards in the charter, as 

 would prevent the foreign invasion which the Commissioners 

 professed to dread. The attitude of the Convention was 

 that of uncompromising hostility to the proposed erection ; 

 and any objection, however unreasonable or far-fetched, 

 was considered good enough to bolster their case. The 

 interests of Tain, Inverness, and the Southern burghs were 

 considered before those of Stornoway ; and so Stornoway 

 had to suffer. 



A week after the Convention met, the King addressed a 

 letter to the Privy Council, desiring the erection of Stornoway 

 into a Royal burgh, provided no material objections were 

 offered by the free burghs of Scotland. He states that his 

 " right trustie and weil-belovit cousine, the Earl of Seafort," 

 had petitioned him in the matter, and having in view the 

 promotion of civilisation in these " remote islands/' which 



* The burghs themselves were not above chartering Dutch vessels for export- 

 ing their herring, when it suited their interests to do so. The Dutch merchant- 

 men being worked more economically than the Scotch vessels, and carrying 

 outward cargoes of timber, could afford to accept one-third of the freight 

 demanded for native tonnage. The latter, too, sometimes got ice-bound, and 

 had to cover that risk in the freight. 



f Records of Convention of Royal Burghs* Vol. III., pp. 257-62. 



