This unfortunate man could not be recovered, although every means were used to preserve his life; he expired within 24 hours after his release from a cavity three yards in length, two in width, and about two feet thick, in which he was confined by the falling in of the pit. The confideration of the fymptoms, and the fenfations he felt during his confinement, lead Dr. Percival to make fome judicious medical remarks on famine, and on unwholefome air. At the conclufion of this article, we have an account of the putrid fever in the cotton works in the neighbourhood of Manchester, which spread so general an alarm in that country, in the autumn of the year 1784; with the regulations that were made for the more fpeedily and effectually preventing its ravages.

The Refult of fome Obfervations made by Benjamin Rush, M.D. Profeffer of Chemistry in the University of Philadelphia, during his Attendance as Phyfician General of the Military Hofpitals of the United States, in the late War.

Thefe obfervations confirm the opinion that putrid fevers are produced by want of fufficient room and of cleanliness; and cured by tartar emetic, wine, bark, and the remedies ufually recommended in thefe cafes by former writers on the fubject.

R-m ART. III. An Account of the prefent State of the Hebrides and Weftern Coats of Scotland: in which an Attempt is made to explain the Circumstances that have hitherto repreffed the Industry of the Natives; and fome Hints are fuggefted for encouraging the Fifheries, and promoting other Improvements in thofe Countries: being the Subftance of a Report to the Lords of Treasury, of Facts collected in a Tour to the Hebrides, with large Additions; together with the Evidence given before the Committee of Fisheries. By James Anderfon, LL. D. F. R. S. F. S. A. Scot. Author of

The Intereft of Great Britain with regard to her American Colonies confidered:" "Obfervations on the Means of exciting a Spirit of national Industry +." Illuftrated with a new Map of Scotland, in which the Hebrides, and Western Coafts in particular, are laid down from the best Authorities and latest Obfervations. 8vo. 75. 6d. Robinfon. 1785.

N the natural order of things it might be thought that foreign poffeffions and diftant colonies would not engage the attention of a people, until they had improved their domeftic circumftances to the utmoft, and that active geniufes were driven to look abroad for the employment of their faculties: that the interior waftes of our own ifland would be all cultivated and fettled, before a vaft ocean would be croffed in fearch of defolate coafts, and hoftile intrufions among remote nations: and that, until the fisheries round our own coafts were fully occu

Vid. Rev. vol. LXVI. p. 422.
8

+ Rev. vol. LVIII. p. 177.

pied,

pied, the great bank at Newfoundland would not be reforted to. But how widely different has been the fact! An extenfive continent has been peopled, a diftant empire has been formed, and detached from us, before our own country is duly improved! We are embarraffed by dominions in the oriental ocean, while there is ample (neglected) room for colonizing among ourselves! We traverse diftant feas from the North to the South Poles, in fearch of fish, while our wifer neighbours grow rich by catching the fish round our own fhores, with a dexterity that excites our envy, instead of ftimulating our induftry! Yet, let us not load our countrymen with undeferved reproaches. Dr. Anderfon, who was employed by Government to examine into the fate of the western coaft and islands of Scotland, ftrongly confirms the relations already given by others, of the melancholy poverty and depreffion of the inhabitants. They are indeed in fuch detitute circumftances, from the nature of their country, from the hereditary claims of their immediate landlords, and from the ftern indifcriminating regulations of our revenue laws; that they must be materially aflifted by, and rife more to a level with, their fouthern neighbours, before their minds can be roufed to exertion. The following is a general view of their forlorn fitua

tion:

Thefe islands contain a numerous race of hardy and robuft people, whofe labour, if properly directed, might prove of great utility to the State. From the information the Reporter received, on the truth of which he has reafon entirely to rely, there cannot be at prefent, in the islands of the Hebrides alone, lefs than eighty thoufand fouls: and thefe, notwithstanding the drains from thence for recruits to the navy and army, as well as by emigration, are encreafing in a rapid progreffion. On the fhores of the main land oppofite to thefe iflands, there may be about three times that number, who are in fituation and circumftances nearly fimilar to those in the islands. All this numerous people, which (if the Orkney and Shetland islands were included, and the other parts of Scotland where the inhabitants are in fimilar circumstances) cannot be fewer than five hundred thoufand fouls, being totally unacquainted with the benefits that refult from that compacted state of civil fociety, in which individuals can with eafe mutually give and receive reciprocal aid, live at present in detached folitary hamlets, in want of moft of thofe enjoyments which men who have lived in fociety would think abfolutely neceffary to exiftence. In their fituation, every man is not only obliged to dig and reap with his own hand, the little field that is to furnish bread to himself and family, but in many cafes alfo to carry home its produce on his own fhoulders to the barn, and to carry out the manures to his field in the fame manner: he muft

* He could not help taking notice of one reafon that was affigned for the late very rapid encrease of the people, viz. the practice of inoculation for the fmall-pox, which has within a few years become very general among all ranks of perfons in the iflands.

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alfo officiate as mafon, fmith, carpenter, cooper, and miller to himfelf: he must act as tanner, fhoemaker, clothier, fuller, and taylor. In short, almost every neceffary he wants, must be made by himself, with tools of his own forming; for he neither can find these articles to purchase near himself, nor can he fell any fuperfluous produce he might be able to fpare, to yield him money to procure them. Thus are thefe people continually employed in an uninterrupted and fruit-. lefs induftry, which is neither capable of freeing themselves from want, nor of benefiting the State +. Thofe capital branches of employment, which, in other circumftances, might, if persevered in, furnish the means of a comfortable fubfiftence, must be so frequently interrupted by thofe other unprofitable, though unavoidable avocations, that it turns out to be of very little benefit to them and men who obferve very little more of the mode of life of these perfons, fave that they frequently defert thofe employments that fuch obfervers think would turn out profitable to them, rafhly conclude, that this proceeds from an unfteady difpofition, a difinclination to labour, and an infuperable indolence of temperament. Contumely is thus added to oppreffion, and the poor people are cruelly infulted and abused, instead of being tenderly fympathifed with, and kindly fupported and cherished: yet, though fuffering, they complain not, but fubmit to their hard fate with a patient refignation; which ftrongly indicates that their hearts are uncorrupted, and that they may be easily led to undertake any useful employment that might be put within their reach.

From these causes, were none other to co-operate with them, the fishery never could be carried on by men fo circumftanced, with advantage; and being unable to purchase boats and other apparatus for the fishery, they are obliged to rely upon the foil, as the furest means of finding fubfiftence. Little poffeffions (for farms they cannot be called) are fought after by them, with an avidity that is fcarcely conceivable; and they cling to thefe with a degree of eagerness, which the wretchedness of their enjoyments would not feem to authorife. The tenure by which thofe poor people hold thefe, is short and precarious, ufually from year to year only; but fometimes it is extended to seven years, which is the longest term of a lease they ever obtain. Being thus continually in danger of being turned out by their fuperior, who for the most part is himself only a greater tenant,

Such perfons only as have attended to the divifion of labour in manufactures, can have an adequate idea of the difficulties that these people labour under, and the lofs to which they are thus fubjected. (See Smith's Wealth of Nations.) By an accurate calculation, now in the Reporter's poffeffion, of the different operations in pinmaking, it appears, that, by being divided among eighteen different claffes of operators, thefe eighteen perfons are thus enabled to make, on an average, 18,000 pins in a day, or at the rate of one thousand a-day for each perfon. It is doubted, if any man who was to perform all the parts with his own hand, could make five pins in a day; and even that small number would be much more clumfy and imperfect, than the thousand he might otherwife have made in the fame time.

they are obliged to submit to almoft any conditions he pleases to impofe upon them, which tends to render their lot ftill more uncomfortable than otherways it would have been.'

This reprefentation is farther illuftrated in the following paffage :

The inhabitants of the Hebrides may at prefent be divided into three claffes: 1ft, Proprietors of land:-2d, Principal tenants, or tack fmen of large diftricts:-3d, The lower clafs of people.

With regard to the proprietors, their number is very small in proportion to that of the other claffes, as the property of almost the whole diftrict is fwallowed up by ten or twelve men of overgrown fortunes, most of whom know little about the fituation of their eftates, and fcarcely ever fet foot upon them. In their ftead, a fet of men called factors are fubftituted, with very extenfive powers, which fometimes are exerted in favour of the rights of humanity, and the intereft of the proprietor; but are more frequently employed to bafer purposes, as muft neceffarily happen in the common run of human affairs.

The clafs of tackfmen occupy nearly the fame rank in the Hebrides, as belongs to that of men of landed property in other parts of Britain. They are called Gentlemen, and appear as fuch; and obtain a title from the farm they hold, nearly in the fame manner as gentlemen in other parts of the country obtain from their eftates, Moft of these tacksmen are in fact defcended from a line of ancestors as ancient and honourable as the proprietors themselves, and therefore reckon themselves equally entitled with them to the appellation of gentlemen. These tacksmen were, for the most part, originally younger fons of the proprietor himself, and obtained from their fa ther leafes of confiderable tracts of ground at a moderate rent, which was bestowed upon them in lieu of a patrimony: the defcendents of these have therefore, in general, been accounted as relations of the family of the proprietor, and were treated with a mildness that made them confider their leafes rather as a fort of property, fubjected to a moderate quit-rent to their fuperior, than as a fair and full rent for land in Scotland. In the abfence of the proprietor, these persons acquired a weight and influence in the country, which was very great; fo that the proprietor, if he had been fo difpofed, would have found it a very difficult matter to crush them; and as they found always means to bring the factor to favour their interefts, they have been able to continue their fway till the prefent moment, after moft other veftiges of the feudal power have fallen into disrepute.-Thefe are the men who in general, together with the factors, keep the lower claffes of the people in the subjection above taken notice of.

Upon enquiry, I found that most of the principal tacksmen in those districts, have come into the practice of keeping a kind of store or warehouse of necessaries for the ufe of his immediate dependants; and that the usual and avowed rate of profit, which they think reflects no difcredit upon them to exact, is about fifty per cent. and on grain and other articles confiderably higher. Laft feafon, oatmeal fold at Greenock for about fixteen fhillings per boll; in many places of the Hebrides it was about twenty-four, in fome places I was told twenty-eight fhillings; and this, I was informed, is not beyond the ufual proportion. Some men, as muft be expected in all cafes where

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the people are entirely under the power of an individual, exa& much more than others. An abatement in the price of what articles the people have to difpofe of, at least equal to that, must be in general made; fo that the fituation of the poor people is truly deplorable.

Nor are thefe ftore-keepers fo much to be blamed, as men would in general be difpofed to do, on first viewing the matter. The expence they must be at in procuring the articles for fale, must be uncommonly great; their fales are languid, credits long, and payments precarious. In thefe circumftances, very great apparent profits must be obtained, before a reasonable profit per annum on the ftock thus employed can be got. A man who turns his money three times ayear, and receives no more than five per cent. profit on each fale, really gains more than another who turns his money only once in three years, though he gains forty-five per cent. profit on each fale. Thefe ftore keepers, therefore, are under a neceffity of obtaining very great profits on the fale, or be lofers by their trade: it is therefore the circumstances of the country that occafions this mifery, rather than the avarice of individuals; and all parties would be gainers, were these circumftances properly altered: nor can the evil here complained of, be in any other way effectually removed.'

Such being the people, let us now fee how they are affected by the laws relating to falt:

It was doubtless the intention of the Legiflature, when the feve ral bounties were granted to adventurers in the fisheries, that the money paid by Government for bounties fhould go to the immediate profit of thefe adventurers, and nowhere elfe; yet it has fo happened, that, from the numerous and intricate regulations adopted in confequence of thefe bounties, the difficulty of complying with them in all cafes, the extraordinary expence that these regulations occafion, the restraints they impofe, and the loffes they neceffarily occafion from mistakes, omiflions, and accidents, that bring on ruinous lawfuits, that perhaps not one penny of thefe bounties, fince they have been granted, has gone into the pockets of the fishermen. The inconveniences arising from thefe laws, may be divided into the following claffes:

1, The great and unneceffary expence they occafion :

ad, The restraints they impofe on the adventurers with regard to the fishing, fo as to prevent them from pursuing their own interest as they otherwife might have done :

3d, The checks that they give to the trade in this article, so as to exclude the adventurers from the proper markets:

And lastly, The ruin and mifery they produce by multiplied lawfuits, which are, in their circumstances, altogether unavoidable.

As to the first head, viz. the immediate expence thefe laws occafion-fome specimens of that have been already adduced. These expences, however, that have been mentioned, affect those only, who living in the neighbourhood of a cuftomhouse, are induced to fit out buffes: for, as to the inhabitants of the Hebrides, who, from their natural fituation, can alone carry on the fishings with economy, they must be here out of the question; for, the expence to them is fo enormous, as neceflarily to preclude all idea of attempting to derive any benefit

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