-- Mr Cameron of Lochiel, the chief of that clan,
whose father was attainted for having been concerned in the last
rebellion, returning from France in obedience to a proclamation
and act of parliament, passed at the beginning of the late war,
payed a visit to his own country, and hired a farm in the
neighbourhood of his father's house, which had been burnt to the
ground. The clan, though ruined and scattered, no sooner heard of
his arrival than they flocked to him from all quarters, to
welcome his return, and in a few days stocked his farm with seven
hundred black cattle, which they had saved in the general wreck
of their affairs: but their beloved chief, who was a promising
youth, did not live to enjoy the fruits of their fidelity and
attachment.
The most effectual method I know to weaken, and at length destroy
this influence, is to employ the commonalty in such a manner as
to give them a taste of property and independence. In vain the
government grants them advantageous leases on the forfeited
estates, if they have no property to prosecute the means of
improvement -- The sea is an inexhaustible fund of riches; but the
fishery cannot be carried on without vessels, casks, salt, lines,
nets, and other tackle.
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