in five years, 10,000 feamen had failed from Liverpool, on whom there was a lofs of 500 of the number, or at the rate of 22 per cent. Was this any proof of its being a proper nursery for feamen? The lofs in the West India trade did not exceed one and a half per cent.

He farther contended, that the African trade, was not that gainful trade it had been represented; and that if gains had been made by it, thefe could only be accounted lucky adventures in a very hazardous employment, where much more was rifked, to the endangering the lives of the flaves, than it was proper for that Houfe to authorise. When a veffel was crowded like that of Captain Knox, a lucky paffage may make it a gainful voyage; but what would be the confequence in fuch a cafe of a tedious paffage? Humanity fhudders at the bare idea of it! One flave trader only, had fairly produced his books, Mr Anderfon, of the city of London. His lofs upon the whole did not exceed three per cent.; but he did not crowd his ships like the merchants of Liverpool.

Mr Smyth then took an extenfive view of the arguments that had been adduced, refuting them as he went along; and producing many examples of fhocking treatment that had been given to flaves on their paffage, and in the West Indies, too fhocking to be here repeated; concluding upon the whole, that the traffic in flaves was contrary to all principles of religion, juftice, and humanity: That if it were abolished, the treatment of flaves in Africa, would be meliorated, and flavery itself, be annihilated in time, as it was in Europe, after the trade in flaves was prohibited. The continuance of the trade, he contended, was not neceffary for the Weft India islands. Thefe," he faid, were in a state of gradual increase with refpect to population: if it were not fo, there was a great fault fome where; for the hiftory of the world never furnished an example, where men and women were fettled in countries congenial to their conftitution, but where they did increase; and it was acknowledged by the gentlemen on the oppofite fide, that one reafon of their being imported from Africa to the West Indies, was, because the climate was the fame with their own."

[This debate to be concluded in another number.]

OR

LITERARY WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER,

FOR

WEDNESDAY, December 14. 1791.

SHEEP-FARMING IN THE HIGHLANDS, NOT INCOMPATIBLE WITH POPULATION.

Written in the year 1788.

A difpute is at prefent carried on in this country, with fome warmth, between too fets of men, equally diftinguished for their patriotic difpofitions; the one party recommending the introduction of sheep into the Highlands of Scotland, while the other reprobates that measure as the greatest evil that can befal their country. An attempt to show that sheep-farming needs not neceffarily produce the depopulation dreaded, but that, under proper management, it may befriend it, ought to be received with indulgence. This will be found in the following effay. The effay was not written at prefent; it was compofed feven years ago, at the defire of the agents of a noble proprietor, a lady of great fortune in the Highlands, who defired to have the writer's opinion of the most effectual mode of augmenting the profperity of that estate. It is now given entire, as it perfectly applies to the prefent circumftances of the country. Some farther particulars of great importance, that require to be Vol. VI.

B b

particularly adverted to, respecting the Highlands, will be taken notice of in a fubfequent paper.

DR ANDERSON, with great pleasure, proceeds to give a general outline of the measures that he thinks promife moft effectually to promote the improvement of Lady S------d's estate.

In the first place, he deems it altogether impoffible, either by premiums, or compulfive ftipulations, to introduce any effential improvements in agriculture, where the people, in general, depend upon the produce of their own fields for fubfiftence. Nothing but a ready and certain market, for all the productions of a farm, can ever induce any man of common fenfe to bestow vigorous exertions in agriculture. But in a country, where the whole of the people are cultivators of the foil, no market for any of its produce can ever be found. Each person, therefore, finding that he can fell none of that produce, can as little afford to purchase any thing else. In that state of society, therefore, a general poverty of the people must prevail; and a liftlefs indolence be very general among them.

In a corn country, where people were in these circumstances, the first step to encourage agriculture would be, to take away a great proportion of the people from practifing the bufinefs of agriculture, and to make them follow fome other employment, that would enable them to earn money fufficient to pay for their fubfiftence. In that cafe, these very people would become cuftomers to the farmer. He would be enabled by that means to adopt fuch modes of cultivation, as he found were calculated to produce large crops at a fmall expence. In this manner a very few men, employed in cultivating the foil, could furnish food to a great number of persons. The fields would thus be made to yield much greater crops, though occupied by a few hands; only the proportion of spare

produce would thus be augmented, and the rent that could be afforded for it, be increased; it would also become more and more productive, as the number of perfons employed in other occupations increased.

Hence it follows, that in these cireumftances, with a view to encourage agriculture, the great object to be aimed at, will be to find other means of employment for a great proportion of the people, fo as to withdraw their attention wholly from that bufinefs, and to give those who still continued to follow it, an opportunity of doing it with energy and spirit.

The great difficulty is, to find out other employments that are fuited to the fituation and circumftances of the people, and to induce them, gradually, to abandon thofe habits and modes of thinking, to which they have been long accustomed, and to adopt others in their ftead, without any of thofe violent ftruggles, that are always fo productive of diftrefs to numberlefs individuals who experience it.

To find out employment for the people on those coafts, is not a matter of great difficulty; but to mitigate the inconveniencies that always refult from any kind of great change, in the fituation and circumftances of a people, requires great caution, fteadiness, and attention. Small errors, may in this case, be attended by the most fatal confequences; inattention to circumstances, feemingly of a trifling nature, may involve whole families in ruin, while, at the fame time, a fmall deviation from a well digested plan may render the whole undertaking abortive. It is neceffary, therefore, that when a change of this kind is to be attempted, fuch meafures fhould be previously adopted, as that in cafe of any unforeseen difficulty arifing, that evil may be quickly perceived, and effectually redreffed, before it has bad time to produce the baneful effects it naturally would have engendered.

The fishery upon the weft coaft, if put under proper regulations, might, alone, furnish abundant employment to a much greater number of perfons, than all that could be fpared fom Lady S--d's eftate; but the natives of thofe diftricts, are, in general, fo little acquainted with the benefits of the fishery, or the mode of carrying it on, that it will be fome time before they can be induced to engage fo heartily in that bufinefs, as to afford all the relief it is naturally capable of. To induce them to engage in it, they must be gradually allured to it, by the profpect of much greater gain than they can obain in any other way; nor is there any method, fo effectual to overcome the fears of those who feel they have not, power to fupport themfelves, in cafe of the fmalleft failure, as a Ready and humane fyftem of administration, which fhall prove by facts, and not by words, that no advantage will, in any cafe, be taken of their weakness; but that the unfortunate may at all times with certainty rely on finding protection and fupport in every calamitous difafter.

The firft and the moft effential protection thefe poor people require, is a certainty that they cannot, at the pleasure of any perfon whatever, be made to abandon the house that their own labour has reared, or the fmall fpot of ground which their own hands have cultivated, for the little accommodation of their fami ly. This protection Lady S-------d can effectually give, by granting to thofe who fhall fettle, in fuch a place as experience fhall point out as the most proper for a fishing town, what is called in Scotland, feus ; that is, a right to hold in perpetuity, under a moderate referved quiet rent, under proper limitations fufficient, merely, to afford room for a house and fmall garden to each family, and no more.

This fecurity granted, it will next be neceffary to fee that they be put into fuch a fituation, as, by their own industry, they may be enabled to make a provi