ment might be expected. Seeing no probability of my views being effectually adopted by Government, and reluctant to abandon the object altogether, I was led to consider how far, under the encouragement held out, I could, as an individual, follow it up on a more limited scale, to the effect at least of establishing the practicability of my suggestion. Having, therefore, received the assurance of a grant of land on liberal terms, such as promised an adequate return for the unavoidable expenses of the undertaking, I resolved to try the experiment, and, at my own risk, to engage some of the emigrants, who were preparing to go to the United States, to change their destination, and embark for our own colonies.

It is unnecessary to detail the transactions to which this led, and the various obstructions I met with in the Highlands, from persons whose jealousy had been roused by my attempt. When the preparations for myexpedition were pretty far advanced, I learned that in consequence of some calumnious reports, Government were disposed to look less favourably than at first on my undertaking. To remove the grounds of these misapprehensions, in February 1803, I stated to the Secretary of State for the Colonial Department, (in the concise form to which the bounds of a Letter restricted me,) the principal outlines of the following arguments; and I had the satisfaction to learn that this representation had removed the doubts of the Noble Lord to whom it was addressed.

I was given to understand, however, that it would be more satisfactory to Government, if the people I had engaged were settled in a maritime situation, instead of that I had at first in contemplation. For reasons, which I may perhaps have occasion hereafter to lay before the public, I was by no means satisfied that this suggestion was founded in just views of national policy. Nevertheless I thought it my duty under all the circumstances of the case, to acquiesce, and determined on making my settlement in Prince Edward's Island, in the Gulph of St. Law

rence.

From various considerations I found that, to give the experiment a fair prospect of success, my own presence with the colonists was indispensable. It was indeed with some reluctance that I ultimately yielded to this; for, before I sailed, the unexpected renewal of hostilities had taken place. The business was then too far advanced to admit of any change of plan; and it was with the most anxious feelings that I found myself under the necessity of quitting the kingdom at so critical a moment. In other respects I have had no reason to regret my absence, as it has not only led me to sources of information, to which few have access; but I trust that my occupation in the mean time has not been wholly useless to my country.

I find, that my own views in this undertaking have been as much misrepresented, as the subject in general has been misunderstood, But I enter with confidence on the task of correcting the mistakes that have been disseminated; trusting that a simple statement of facts will be not less convincing to the public at large, than it has already been to an official character,

My first intention indeed was to have given to the world the very Letter, I have above alluded to, with a few additional illustrations; but I could not avoid expanding my observations more than was consistent with such a plan, in order to render them intelligible to those who are not well acquainted with the local circumstances of Scotland. I have therefore cast the whole anew into its present form; and, notwithstanding the bulk to which it has grown, I cannot flatter myself that the subject is exhausted. If time had permitted, some valuable additional documents might have been collected. Anxious, however, that the misrepresentations, which have been circulated under the sanction of respectable names, should no longer remain uncontradicted, I venture to submit these remarks, in their present imperfect state, to the judgment of the public, and solicit that indulgence, to which, perhaps, I have some claim from the importance of the subject, and the unavoidable haste of this publication.

OBSERVATIONS

ON THE PRESENT STATE

OF THE

HIGHLANDS OF SCOTLAND, &c.

I. Independence of the Highland Chieftains in former times. Internal state of the country resulting from that circumstance.

THE state of commercial refinement and regular government, to which we are accustomed in England, has been so long established, that it requires some effort of imagination, to form a distinct idea of the situation of things under the feudal system. We must look back to a distant period of time, the manners and customs of which have gradually disappeared, with the causes which gave rise to them, and have left few traces of their existence. This has also been the case, to a great degree, in the Low Coun