But in the
Hebrides, the loss of an inhabitant leaves a lasting vacuity; for
nobody born in any other parts of the world will choose this
country for his residence, and an Island once depopulated will
remain a desert, as long as the present facility of travel gives
every one, who is discontented and unsettled, the choice of his
abode.
Let it be inquired, whether the first intention of those who are
fluttering on the wing, and collecting a flock that they may take
their flight, be to attain good, or to avoid evil. If they are
dissatisfied with that part of the globe, which their birth has
allotted them, and resolve not to live without the pleasures of
happier climates; if they long for bright suns, and calm skies, and
flowery fields, and fragrant gardens, I know not by what eloquence
they can be persuaded, or by what offers they can be hired to stay.
But if they are driven from their native country by positive evils,
and disgusted by ill-treatment, real or imaginary, it were fit to
remove their grievances, and quiet their resentment; since, if they
have been hitherto undutiful subjects, they will not much mend
their principles by American conversation.
To allure them into the army, it was thought proper to indulge them
in the continuance of their national dress. If this concession
could have any effect, it might easily be made. That dissimilitude
of appearance, which was supposed to keep them distinct from the
rest of the nation, might disincline them from coalescing with the
Pensylvanians, or people of Connecticut. If the restitution of
their arms will reconcile them to their country, let them have
again those weapons, which will not be more mischievous at home
than in the Colonies. That they may not fly from the increase of
rent, I know not whether the general good does not require that the
landlords be, for a time, restrained in their demands, and kept
quiet by pensions proportionate to their loss.
To hinder insurrection, by driving away the people, and to govern
peaceably, by having no subjects, is an expedient that argues no
great profundity of politicks. To soften the obdurate, to convince
the mistaken, to mollify the resentful, are worthy of a statesman;
but it affords a legislator little self-applause to consider, that
where there was formerly an insurrection, there is now a
wilderness.
It has been a question often agitated without solution, why those
northern regions are now so thinly peopled, which formerly
overwhelmed with their armies the Roman empire. The question
supposes what I believe is not true, that they had once more
inhabitants than they could maintain, and overflowed only because
they were full.
This is to estimate the manners of all countries and ages by our
own.
