ly prove, that if this plainnefs was not at all times followed, it was owing to the taste of the times, and not to any inherent defect of the stile of architecture, which, perhaps, more eafily admitted of this plain appearance, without degenerating into meanness, than any other; and the infide of the Temple church, and of a great many others, clearly fhow that this kind of elegance was fometimes prised, and attainable with the utmost facility +. In thefe hafty sketches, however, I never meant to enter into particulars. All I aimed at was to direct the attention of lovers of the fine arts towards these fabrics, in order to investigate fairly their beauties and defects. With this view, I cannot help thinking that plans, elevations, and sections of the principal ftructures of this kind in Europe, with well engraved geometrical drawings of the particular members of each part, and their ornaments, were carefully executed and publifhed, as has been done with the remains of Grecian structures, it would open a wide field for reflections in this line, and display beauties in architecture, which, when fully understood, would come to improve it as a science, and exalt it to a still higher degree than it has yet attained as an elegant art. But while I thus endeavour to vindicate that ftile of Gothic architecture which has been employed in the conftruction of churches, from the unmerited abuse with which it has too long been indifcriminately loaded, and to point out fome defects in particular structures in +I do not perhaps know a Gothic fabric that is loaded with a greater profufion of heavy and unmeaning ornaments than the inside of the dome of the famous Pantheon at Rome, or the fervile, though dimuni❤ tive copy of that part of the structure in the church of St. Stephen's, Walbrook. But though these ornaments are entirely useless, and appear to our taste at prefent heavy and incongruous, it does not follow that they might not have been executed quite plain, or with ornaments in a very different ftile, if the artists had fo inclined. The defeat then, if fuch it be, is to be attributed to the unskilfulness of the artists, not to the defect of the art itself. the Grecian ftile; let it not be imagined that I mean, in the fmalleft degree, to bring any imputation on the true principles of Grecian architecture confidered as an object of tafte. Nothing could be farther from my intention. The chafte remains of fome ancient ftructures of this kind, as far as I am able to judge, difplay an elegance, a fimplicity, a grandeur, a fublimity, even in their external appearance, that I am inclined to believe are unrivalled by any other ftructures that ever have been erected on this globe. It is not the principles of this ftile of architecture of which I complain, but the mifapplication of these principles, and the corruptions that time, and a change of circumftances, have introduced. With what aftonifhment and contempt would an artist of the days of Pericles, could he now look up from the grave, behold the puerile bizarreries of many boafted modern ftructures? It would be like Hercules looking down on the feeble attempts of children to adorn themselves in his armour, and weild his maffy club. S. A. Laws oppreffive to the Highlands of Scotland. SIR, It is to be THERE is not a more trite phrafe in the English language than "Our excellent Conftitution." hoped that its admirers do not wish us to judge of it by the adminiftration of the executive departments of government. A candid review of the conduct of our rulers must, at any period of our annals, have been sufficient to calm the fervour of panegyric: yet, whenever a perfon ventures to complain on this fubject, he is certain to be traduced as a personal enemy to the po pular minifter of the day. There was a time when it was a fort of petty treafon to question the virtues and abilities of Lord North; Mr Burke and the Man of the People were also for many years confidered by a numerous party as at once incorruptible and infallible. At this time Mr Pitt is an object of this fort of frivolous veneration, and when his term of popularity has expired, he will no doubt become, in his turn, the general topic of invective and reproach. In the clofe of my last letter I expreffed myself somewhat strongly with refpect to the fituation of the inhabitants in the Highlands and the western islands of Scotland. Instead of general declamation I shall now fend you a few extracts from the book I mentioned in the end of my laft letter; and to quiet the minds of the admirers of Mr Pitt, I fhall only premife, that the whole abuses complained of exifted long before the commencement of his ministry, and confequently can reflect no perfonal or peculiar cenfure upon him. We have ourfelves only to blame for the continuance of fuch abufes. And if the natives of North Britain poffeffed the ordinary spirit of men, it is impoffible that they could exift for a year longer. "In the western islands of Scotland, the expence of the customhouse officer to discharge a cargo of coals amounts, in many cafes, to more than four times the duty on the coals, and if the cargo be fmall, it will sometimes be more than double the prime cost of the coals +. "On the subject of collecting taxes with rigour in Scotland, the following fact will speak for itself. In July 1784, when I was at Greenock, a great ferment was excited in that place by the arrival of an excife officer, charged with strict orders to levy from each inhabitant, who had a kail yard, (I use the expreflion of the country,) one guinea a year, as gardener-tax, for An Account of the present state of the Hebrides and Western Coast of Scotland, Introduction p. 32. all the years that had elapfed fince the tax upon male fervants has been established. "This tax the people refused to pay; alledging, in the first place, that most of their yards were not worth half the annual fum charged for them, and, in the next place, that none of the perfons kept a gardener for working them, and that most of the owners did not even employ a day labourer for that purpofe; the poor people going out themselves to dig and clean their little spots of garden ground by way of recreation and amufement in the evenings, and hours of relaxation from labour. The excife officer could find no argument to plead in bar of thefe; but fhowed them that his order was peremptory to exact it: they as peremptorily refused to pay it.-How the affair ended I cannot tell; but afterwards, when I was at Campbleton, the fame officer arrived on the same errand, and met with the fame fuccefs *. "A man in Skye, who had got a load of bonded falt, used the whole in curing fish, except five buskels only; but before he could recover his bond, he found himself obliged to hire a boat and fend these five bufhels to Oban, which coft him upwards of five pounds expences +. "One would imagine that if a man paid the duty for his falt, he might afterwards do with it what he pleased; but this, I find, is not the cafe. Laft season, (1784,) a veffel was fitted out in haste at Aberdeen, to catch herrings that were then on the coaft: but as the owners of that veffel had no duty-free falt, they were obliged to purchase salt that had already paid the duty; but before they were allowed to carry one ounce of this falt to fea, they were further obliged to give bond for it in the fame form as if it had been duty-free falt 1. "Again, in the year 1783, Mr James M'Donald, in Portree in Skye, purchased from Leith a quantity of Ibid. p. 76. falt which had paid duty, and shipped it by permit on board a veffel for Portree. It was there regularly landed, and a custom-house certificate returned for the fame. With this falt he intended to cure fish, when he could catch them in those feas, but not having found an opportunity of ufing it in the year 1784, he fitted out, at his own expence, this feafon, (1785,) a fmall floop to profecute the fisheries. On board that floop he put fome part of this falt, and the permit along with it. A revenue cutter fell in with his veffel, and seized veffel and falt, provifions and all together +. "Among other particulars the following cafe will fhow to what an unneceffary expence the owners of buffes are fubjected :-Many of the hands that are employed in the buss fishery are natives of the west coast and ifles. Before they can enter on board a buss they must go to Greenock, Rothfay, or Campbleton, and there wait till they be engaged and mustered; if at Greenock or Rothfay, they must proceed to Campbleton to be rendezvoused ‡, where they may be detained on an average about a week or ten days before they can beat round the Mull of Cantyre; from thence to the fishing lochs may be on an average a voyage of a fortnight. Thus, after a month or fix weeks time idly spent, the fisherman comes to the very spot from whence he fet out. The fame wafte of time is made on his return, for which he must be indemnified by fuperior wages, not to mention provifions, fpent in idle voyages §." It appears, that in fpite of all this feverity, the faltduty is very imperfectly collected.-" The extent of the trade in fmuggled falt on these coafts may be gueffed at from the following fact:-A fingle perfon inone of the islands owned, that in one year, he himself † A trifling alteration in the law has taken place in regard to this particular fince the above was written. EDIT. Ibid. pages 44 and 45, Report. § Ibid. p. 41 and 41. |