to Great Britain and Ireland, the finest island belonging to his Majesty in Europe.

દર

"Nothing is herein said," adds the patriotic director, as to the roads of communication between the eastern and the western coasts of the Highlands; yet upon these the success of our undertaking in a great measure depends. The efforts of individuals are inadequate to the expence of such a work. Mountainous countries have been made pervious by government, in all mountainous regions. The Alps and Pyrenees owe their roads to the Kings of France, Spain, and Sardinia. It is by the government of Great Britain that the roads through half the Highlands have been already made. Most people indeed, in this country, imagine that roads have been made through every part of the Highlands. It is not to be doubted, when once it is known, that the western parts of Inverness-shire, Ross-shire, Sutherland, and Caithness, are still utterly inaccessible to carriages, and almost to horsemen, that the government will adopt some system for the gradual making of roads through those countries. This object would soon be accomplished by the addition of a very small sum to the money yearly expended in maintaining the roads already

made.

“The nation must never forget, that to the writings and journies of Mr. Pennant, Dr. Anderson, and Mr. Knox, it is indebted for much information respecting our northern seas. They also enlarged upon the bold and original idea of improving our fisheries and sea-coasts, by founding new towns near to the seas where fish are most abundant, which idea was first started by Mr. Gray, in "Reflections on the Domestic Policy proper to be observed on the Conclusion of a Peace, published in 1761."

This is a mere outline of the project of putting a stop to emigration, by building towns, by erecting quays and wharfs, and by establishing cod and herring fisheries.

We find by an account annexed, that between the 1st of January, 1787, and the 25th of March, 1789, the sum of 4,5941. was issued; that in the

province of Bengal almost five thousand pounds had been subscribed to the capital of the company under the auspices of Lord Cornwallis, while another large sum was obtained at Madras through the active patronage of Sir Archibald Campbell. In fine, the total expected to be raised by the voluntary subscription of publie spirited individuals, was estimated at one hundred and fifty thousand pounds, and so feasible was the speculation, that the Court of Denmark adopted the very same plan for the improvement of Iceland!

It is painful, after this to be obliged to confess, that a scheme so fraught with good and noble purposes should fail, and come to nothing. It is with no small mortification, therefore, we are obliged to add, that what with the intervention of a new and eminently disastrous war, added to the disadvantage necessarily arising out of a joint stock company, the zeal of individuals began to cool with their hopes, and a general disappointment ensued, which cast a gloom over the prospects of the north, which has not been equalled since the failure of the Darien expedition.

But this was not the only mortification he was doomed to experience, for he had embarked in a scheme with his brother, Captain John Dempster, who had realised a considerable fortune as the commander of a ship in the service of the English East India Company, which we believe, in consequence of the war, and the pressure of the times, has not been attended with that success which it justly me

rited. Acting on the principle, that where the price of labour was cheap, manufactures could be carried on to the greatest advantage, they purchased an estate in the county of Caithness, at a place called Skibo, and began the necessary erections. Had they been warranted by prudence in completing their undertaking, the consequences would have been of the most beneficial kind, for the emigration of the inhabitants would have been prevented by the certainty of employment, and such is the unaccountable, and perhaps ridiculous attachment to the country, that the sturdy inhabitant of those almost Hyperborean regions would have been better contented with a scanty subsistence in one of the most northern counties of Scotland, than have become an independent freeholder amidst the woods of the Trans-Atlantic Continent !

While an occasional resident in London, as well as in Edinburgh, Mr. Dempster had always a predilection for literary society. He is mentioned by Boswell, both in "the Voyage to the Hebrides," and in his Life of his

"Guide, philosopher, and friend.”*

* Mr. Dempster entertained a very extraordinary degree of respect for Dr. Johnson. This is recorded in the following manner by Mr. B.

"Next morning (this occurred in 1763) Mr. Dempster happened to call on me, and was so much struck even with the imperfect account which I gave him of Dr. Johnson's conversation, that to his honour be it recorded, when I complained that drinking port and sitting up late with him affected my nerves for some time

Nor is this all, for he himself may be justly considered as a man of letters, having devoted much of his time to composition.

Since his retirement, and even so recently as the year 1803, he has corresponded with the editor of a periodical publication,* relative to the means of

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after, he said, one had better be palsied at eighteen, than not keep company with such a man."

We have fairly transcribed the passage, but consider it as a mere jeu d'esprit, being certain that however high his admiration for a man of talents, Mr. D. would never have endangered a paralytic affection for any one.

* We shall here give an extract of a letter to the Conductor of the Farmer's Magazine, dated February 9, 1803.

"How much depends upon mankind thinking soundly and wisely on agricultural topics, which, in point of extent, surpass all others, and which may be said to embrace the whole surface of the globe we inhabit! I would still be more lavish in my commendation of your design, were it not that I should thereby indi rectly make a panegyric on myself. For these last forty years of my life, I have acted in the management of my little rural con cerns on the principles you so strenuously inculcate. I found my few tenants without leases, subject to the blacksmith of the barony; thirled to its mills; wedded to the wretched system of outfield and in; bound to pay kain, and perform personal services; clothed in hodden, and lodged in hovels. You have enriched the Magazine with results of your farming excursions. Pray direct one of them to the county I write from; peep in upon Dunichen: and if you find one of the evils I have enumerated existing; if you can trace a question, at my instance, in a court of law, with any tenant as to how he labours his farm; or find one of them not secured by a lease of nineteen years at least and his life, the barony shall be yours. You will find me engaged in a controversy of the most amicable kind with Lord Carrington, defending the freedom of the English tenants from the foolish restrictions with which

meliorating the situation of his native country, by agricultural improvements, and indeed one of the

their industry is shackled, prohibitions to break up meadow land, to sow flax, to plant tobacco, &c. &c., all imposed by foolish fears, or by ignorance, and confirmed by the selfish views of land stew-` ards, who naturally wish the dependence of farmers on their will and pleasure. God knows, Scotland is physically barren enough, situated in a high latitude, composed of ridges of high mountains; yet, in my opinion, moral causes contribute still more to its sterility. I urge the zealous prosecution of your labours, as a general change of system and sentiment is only to be affected slowly: your maxims are destined first to revolt mankind, and, long after, to reform them. There never was a less successful apostle than I have been. In a mission of forty years, I cannot boast of one convert. I still find the tenants of my nearest neighbours and my best friends, cutting down the laird's corn, while their own crops are imperiously calling for their sickles. I am much pleased with the rotations you suggest; and as those topics are very favourite ones with me, they occupy no small portion of my leisure moments.

"The Highland Society being silent on the subject of the emigration of the Highlanders who are gone, going, and preparing to go in whole clans, can only be accounted for by those who are more intimately acquainted with the state of the Highlands than I pretend to be. One would think the society were disciples of Pinkerton, who says, the best thing we could do would be to get rid entirely of the whole Celtic tribe, and people their country with inhabitants from the low country. How little does he know the valour, the frugality, the industry of those inestimable people! or of their attachment to their friends and country! I would not give a little Highland child for ten of the highest Highland mountains in all Lochaber. With proper encouragement to its present inhabitants, the next century might see the Highlands of Scotland cultivated to its summits, like Wales or Switzerland, its vallies teeming with soldiers for our land army, its bays, lakes and friths with seamen for our navy. But this is a long chapter. A Roman orator says, arms must give way to the gown-A modern orator