63 



would induce strangers to forsake a new settlement, than 

 would be sufficient to compel old residents to quit their 

 native homes. 



The inhabitants of the Scotch Highlands, at least those 

 who have emigrated, were all pastoral tribes; they culti- 

 vated very little of their soil ; their flocks and herds 

 supplied some oi' their food, and the profits of their cattle 

 were the source from which their rent, their necessaries, 

 their coniibrts, and any of the few redundancies they may 

 have had, were supplied. 



As the population and the wealth of the nation increased, 

 the prices of every thing gradually rising, these profits be- 

 came greater and greater. The landlords observed this, and 

 soon saw that they themselves might enjoy these profits ; 

 that the cattle grazing on their mountains required very 

 little attendance, and that by throwing many of these 

 small grazing i'arms into one, a far higher rent might be 

 obtained tor it ; or the landlord himself might stock it, 

 (as was often done) and thus carry on the grazing business 

 at his own suit to great advantage. 



The inhabitants thus reduced to their diminutive culti" 

 vahle farms, scarcely able in an ungrateful soil to produce 

 sufficient food, and totally deprived of all means of pro- 

 curing other necessaries, or of making their rent, were 

 soon reduced to the greatest distress. The alternative 

 before them was, that they must either strike out new 

 modes of raising the means of supplying themselves with 

 necessaries, or they must emigrate from a country where 

 they could no longer exist. 



Here then those who form plans of colonization receive 



