Ch. x. in Scotland and Ireland. 457 



had better have been changed for the love of 

 progeny. 



The island of Jura* appears to be absolutely- 

 overflowing with inhabitants in spite of constant 

 and numerous emigrations. There are sometimes 

 50 or 60 on a farm. The writer observes, that 

 such a swarm of inhabitants, where manufactures 

 and many other branches of industry are unknown, 

 are a very great load upon the proprietors, and 

 useless to the state. 



Another writer t is astonished at the rapid in- 

 crease of population, in spite of a considerable 

 emigration to America in 1770, and a large drain 

 of young men during the late war. He thinks it 

 difficult to assign adequate causes for it ; and ob- 

 serves, that, if the population continue to increase 

 in this manner, unless some employment be found 

 for the people, the country will soon be unable to 

 support them. And in the account of the parish 

 of Callander,;}: the writer says, that the villages of 

 this place, and other villages in similar situations, 

 are filled with naked and starving crowds of 

 people, who are pouring down for shelter or for 

 bread ; and then observes, that whenever the po- 

 pulation of a town or village exceeds the industry 

 of its inhabitants, from that moment the place 

 must decline. 



A very extraordinary instance of a tendency to 



* Vol. xii. p. 317. 



f Parish of Lochalsh, county of Ross, vol. xi. p. 422. 



J Vol. xi. p. 5/4. 



