An account of the present state of the Hebrides and western coasts of Scotland ; being the substance of a report to the Lords of Treasury together ... given before the Committee of Fisheries - Tapa blanda

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1786 Excerpt: ... particularly attended to: And if he can produce arguments which shall convince the R cader of its great importance, he will not despair of seeing this nation not only recover from her present abasement, but be able at some future period to make a figure among the nations, far more respectable and glorious than she ever did ia former times. DETACHED HAMLETS. Consequences of People living in them. In the Hebrides, and along the western coasts of Scotland, which are occupied by many hundred thousand inhabitants, unless it be at Stornoway in Lewis, and Bowmore in Iflay, there is not perhaps a place without the Mull of Cantire, where there arc a dozen of houses together:--very few, indeed, are found but in scattered hamlets only. A necessary consequence is, that no trade can there be carried on. Hence, no person can obtain from others the manufactures he stands in need of, or the tools that are necessary for carrying on any operation he finds might otherways be naturally within his reach. It follows also, from the same cause, that no man can dispose of any article of produce that his industry might enabU him to obtain. His views, therefore, must: be confined merely to the obtaining such necesr saries.as come within his reach, for the subsistence of himself, and those who have an immediate dependence on him. Whatever he could get more, would be to him, mere superfluous lumber not worth the trouble of procuring. But as those who thus labour for their own subsistence merely from day to day, can never be induced to provide superfluous stores, they never can be prepared against those vicissitudes of seasons that frequently occur, and must therefore be, in all such emergencies, exposed to the most poignant distress. It thus happens, that poverty and indolence to the p...