nation oath, never can take place. It is greatly to the honour of the legi flature, that it has restored their family eftates to men whofe ancestors had forfeited them by rebellion; and hence, I fhould think it very unhandfome, upon a proper application, to refufe to their very belt and firmeft friends that part of their patrimony, from which they are excluded on account of no rebellion or forfeiture whatever. Suppose this reftored who would fuffer any lofs? As to the lofs to the Exchequer, what a trifle is it to an empire which has fuch revenues as ours? As to the lofs to the collectors, it would be a very ferious one, and a mighty hardship indeed, to extinguish no less than about a dozen of finecure places. With regard to the tacksmen, whofe tacks are good for their term of years, would it make it any difference to them, to pay the tack-duty to the church, in place' of paying it to the exchequer? in divinity? Though a Dionyfius, might make it worth the while of a Pythagoras, to come ftom Greece to Syracufe, to inftruct himself and his courtiers, I fufpect, that when Scottih lairds muft fend to Oxford and Cambridge for tutors to their children, few will be fent for, and fewer come to a country, where they can look for no farther preferment. England, I think, will continue to be the feat of learning; till fuch time as the livings of the dignified clergy of the church there, fhall be reduced to as low an at ebb, as prefent are the livings of the dignified clergy in France. I have ever been of opinion, that the downfall of the church will bury learning in its ruins; and this feems to be warranted by the history of all nations. That body of men, who are now fneerlingly called Priests, their office Priesthood, and their, employment, Prieftcraft, and which I fhall call, the Clerical order established by law, have been in all ages and nations of the world, the repofitories of learning. In our own country, at the first appointment of the Court of Seffion, there was fuch a penury of the learned laity, that they were obliged to the church for one half of the judges. Wherever the clerical order has been creditable and refpectable, light and learning have fhone forth. Whence proceeded the first birth of learning, but from the priests of Egypt? Whether did the Grecian fages travel but into Egypt and to the Eaft? Were not the Brahmins, the Gentoo clergy, who were, and still are, of high esteem, those whom Pythagoras wished, and travelled to learn from? Were there not at Rome a Caius Julius Cæfar Pontifex Maximus, and a Marcus Tullius Cicero at the head of the college of Augurs? Was ever virtue, and piety, and learning more nobly fupported than in the writings of the divines of the church of England? I have not heard, inZ z I fhall mention but one confequence, if the incomes of the clergy be not ameliorated, the decline of learning will follow. This muft in fallibly be the cafe in any ftate, where there is not a rank which requires a confiderable degree of learning, where there is not room for a confiderable number of the learned to be employed in it, and where that employment does not entitle them to a decent degree both of profit and of refpect. Suppose the flipends of Scotland to fall as much in their value for half a century to come, as for half a century paft, how few clergymen, who are enabled to give their fons fuch an expenfive education, as a minifter fhould have, would breed them to a profeffion where they cannot gain fo comfortable a fubfiftence as many mechanics can earn? With what kind of young men would gentlemen be fupplied as tutors in their families, and who are now fo well fupplied, by preachers and ftudents deed, deed, "whether the Hottentots, the Cherokees, the Chictaws, the Efquimaux, &c. ever had any clergy; and as little have I heard of the learned productions of thofe ornaments of human nature. Upon the whole, I cannot help thinking, it would be bad policy in any state to fuffer a body of men, who, first and last, have been of no fmall ufe to the interests of learning and of virtue, to languish in poverty, and dwindle into contempt. No doubt, the art of Printing, and the establishment of universities, have contributed, as well as the clergy, to the increase, and to the diffufion of knowledge; but the clergy diffufe knowledge, and the best kind of knowledge, to all men, high and low, the cobler as well as to the king. While the schools of the philofophers of old, thought it a profanation to enlighten the vulgar, the fishermen of Galilee, and their fucceffors, have initiated the vulgar in the most fublime doctrines, and the pureft morality; have fuggefted to them the most noble confolations, and have drawn them forth to action, by the most exalted hopes. And who are the men, who provide fociety (I do not fay with the neceffaries and comforts of life only,) but with all its elegancies, with all its fuperfluities, with all its luxuries? Who but the vulgar? They bear all its burdens, and I am forry to fay, fuffer all its hardships. And can juftice or gratitude, can humanity and compassion, leave them to drudge in this world like beafts of burden, cut them off from all confolation here, and leave them deftitute of all rational hopes of enjoying a better condition hereafter? That, however, must be the cafe, if they are deprived altogether of the inftructions of their best friends, and thrown into the hands of perfons who may be as ignorant as themselves. Many plans for the fupport of the poor have been projected: this only feems certain, that wherever poors " who now give next to nothing, if they once came to be taxed by law for the maintenance of the poor, will find their rate operate pretty much in the fame way as an heritable bond of the fame extent, upon their lands. If every heritor, refident, and nonrefident, were to give in as much to the kirk-feffion, as it may reafonably be fuppofed his tenants, and their families in that parish give, which may be 2d. or 3d. each Sunday, even that fmall help would keep the poor from begging or ftarving. Suppofe the heritor has fix tenants, it certainly would not be an excefs of generofity to give at the rate of a Shilling each Sunday for the fupport of the poor. The expence of maintaining the poor in England is well known. In London, in the parish of St Martins in the Fields, the poor's rates, at is. the pound upon the house rents, amounts to L. 10,000 per ann. and many parishes in London pay more than I s. the pound. Many particular inftances might be mentioned. At Alnwick, it is faid the poor's rates amount to L. 600 per ann. while the parish of Alnwick is not more populous than fome parishes in this neigh hourhood, which have not L.50 to of the gentry of Scotland will contri- EXTRACTS FROM THE STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF SCOTLAND, VOL. IV. tivity of Queen Mary Stewart. The fill of the loch have been fo well defcribed by Pennant and others, that it feems unneceffary to fay much about them here. The following obfervations, however, may not be unworthy the attention of the curious: The high flavour and bright red colour of the trout, feem evidently to arife from the food which nature has provided for them in the loch. A confiderable part of the bottom is oozy and fpongy, from which aquatic herbs fpring up in abundance; and, *These measurements were taken with a perambulator on the ice. fo fo vigorous are they in many parts, as towards the beginning of autumn to cover the surface with their flowers. The trout, especially of fize, lie much in that fort of bottom. Gentlemen, accustomed to make obfervations when angling, know well, that even in clear running rivers, where their courfe takes a direction through a long tract of meadow, or of oozy ground, the trout that lie or feed in that ground, if of size, are generally lefs or more of a pink colour in the flesh; while those that feed in the ftony or gravelly foil, above or below the fwampy meadows, are all white, excepting the mixture that is fometimes made by floods. But what appears to contribute moft to the rednefs and rich taste of the Lochleven trout, is the vast quantity of a small fhell-fish, red in its colour, which a bounds all over the bottom of the loch, especially among the aquatic weeds. It is of shape quite globular, precifely of the appearance and fize of a lintfeed bell at a little distance, and the trouts when caught have of ten their ftomachs full of them. Thefe obfervations may account for a phenomenon of another kind. In Lochleven are all the different fpecies of bill, or burn, or muir trout, that are to be met with in Scotland, evidently appearing from the diverfity of manner in which they are fpotted. Yet all the different kinds, after being two years in the loch, and arriving at 4 or 1 lb. weight, are red in the flesh, as all the trout of every kind in the loch are, except perhaps those newly brought down by floods, or fuch as are fickly. The filver-grey trout, with about 4 or 5 fpots on the middle of each fide, is apparently the original native of the loch, and, in many refpects, the finest fish of the whole. The fry of all kinds are white in the flesh till they come to the fize of a herring, about the bes ginning of their third year. The gallytrough, or char, abounds in the loch. The defcription of this fish is generally well known. What is remarkable of them is the fize to which they often grow, fome of them weighing near 2 lb. and they are never known to rife to a fly, or to be caught with a hook, baited in any way whatever. Befides thefe, are vast numbers of eels, pikes, and perch, in the loch.-The fish of Lochleven, only a few years ago, fold here at 1d. each, great and small, for the trout; and the perch at id. the dozen; and about 25 years ago, at half that price: the fishing was then let at 200 merks Scotch. The trout * are now raifed to 4d. per lb. the perch to 2d. per dozen; and the piket to 2d. per lb. The prefent rent of the filing is L. 80 fterling, and for next year it is fixed at L. 100.-The Lirds that breed on the ifles are, herons, gulls, pewit gulls, and great terns, called here Pictarnes. Antiquities. The most remarkable piece of antiquity is the Calle of Lochleven, faid to have been the ancient feat of Congal, fon of Dongart, King of the Picts, who is faid to have founded it. It ftands towards the N. W. part of the lake, on an island about an acre and three-quarters in extent, and is encompaffed with a rampart of ftone, nearly of a quadrangular form. The principal to me, a kind of fquare building, ftands up. on the N. wall, very near the N. W. corner, and there is a leffer round one at the S. E. The other apartments were arranged along the the N. wall, between the great tower and N. E. corner. A kitchen, supposed to have been built later than the reft of the caftle, ftood on the W. wall, near the S. W. *Thofe called Bill trout are believed to be old ones. In fpring 1791, a large one was caught that weighed 10 lb.---many of them weighed 8 lb. In spring 1799, one was caught that weighed 31 lb, and I-half, PARISH OF NORTH KNAPDALE, ARGYLESHIRE, former the S. W. corner; and another building, of Lochleven.- -The Earl of Norfuppofed to have been the chapel, thumberland was imprisoned in Lochbetween that and the great tower leven Caftle, from 1569 to about the fronting the S. In the lower part of end of 1572. the fquare tower is a dungeon with a well in it. Above the dungeon is a vaulted room, which, from the appearance of the effects of fmoke on the jambs of the chimney, feems to have been used as a kitchen. Over this had been three ftories. No date er infcription appears on any part of the buildings, excepting only the letters, R. D. and M. E. (probably the initials of Sir Robert Douglafs and Margaret Erskine, his lady,) on the face of an ornamented ftone, that a few years ago, when the walls were ftanding, projected a little at the N. E. corner of the kitchen. The whole circuit of the rampart is 585 feet. It is generally understood that the roof was taken off the castle about a century ago. Some part of it, particularly the roof of the round tower, is faid to have been repaired by Sir William Bruce. Some perfons remember to have heard an old man fay, that, in his time, there were 52 beds, or perhaps only bed-fteads, in the castle. The island is ornamented with a number of trees, and affords pafture for 2 cows. In autumn 1775 or 1776, the area or court within the caftle, was stored with well cultivated beds of onions, and the ground without with turnips. Alexander III. is faid to have lived fome time at Kinrofs, undoubtedly in the caftle of Lochleven, after returning from an interview with his father-in-law, Henry III. of England, at Werk Caftle.In this caftle Queen Mary Stuart was imprisoned, on the 16th June 1567; refigned the Crown with reluctance in favours of her fon James VI. on the 24th July fame year, and escaped from her confinement there on the 2d of May 1568, by means of George Douglafs, youngest fon of Sir Robert Douglafs Antiquities, IN ages, courfe |