them. On the other hand, if a number of people, who are under no absolute necessity, should emigrate, those who remain behind will find it so much easier to procure employment and subsistence, that marriages will more readily take place, and the natural increase of population will proceed with more rapidity, till every blank is filled up.

On this subject it will be sufficient to refer to the valuable work of Mr. Malthus on the Principle of Population, in which these arguments are traced to such uncontrovertible general principles, and with such force of illustration, as to put scepticism at defiance. I may be allowed, however, to state one or two facts, which, while they add to the mass of concurring proofs which Mr. Malthus has quoted, may serve to show how immediately his principles are applicable to the particular case of the Highlands.

By the returns made to Dr. Webster, in the year 1755, the seven parishes of the Isle of Sky contained 11,252 inhabitants. By those to Sir John Sinclair, between 1791

and 1794, 14,470*. Some time after Dr. Webster's enumeration, the emigrations commenced, and, since the year 1770, have been frequent and of great amount. A gentleman of ability and observation, whose employment in the island gave him the best opportunities of information, estimates the total number who emigrated, between 1772 and 1791, at 4000. The number who, during the same period, went to the Low Country of Scotland, going in a more gradual manner, and exciting less notice, could not bc so well ascertained; but from concurring circumstances he considers 8000 as the least at which they can possibly be reckoned.

Notwithstanding this drain, it appears that the natural tendency of population to multiply has more than filled up the blank; and if, to the numbers which have left the island, we add the natural increase which has probably taken place among them also, in their new situation, we cannot doubt that there are now living a number of peo

* See Statistical Account of Scotland. General Table of Population, Vol. xx.

ple descended from those who inhabited the island at the period of Dr. Webster's enumeration, at least double of its actual population. Now, let it be supposed, for the sake of argument, that the whole of these could again be collected within the island will the wildest declaimer against emigration pretend to say, that it could afford support or employment to them all? When its actual numbers are an oppressive burthen, what would be the case if such an addition were made? Can it possibly be believed, that, if the emigrations had not taken place, the same natural increase would have gone on? And does not this instance demonstrate, that to restrain emigration would only be to restrain the principle of increasing population?

Another instance of a similar fact is quoted by Mr. Irvine*. It was communicated, he says, by a gentleman of unquestionable veracity, who relates, from his personal knowledge, that in 1790, a place on the west coast ⚫ contained 1900 inhabitants, of whom 500

* See Irvine's Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of Emigration, &c. p. 9.

emigrated the same year to America. In 1801, a census was taken, and the same spot contained 1967, though it had furnished 87 men for the army and navy, ' and not a single stranger settled in it.'

There is, perhaps, no part of the Highlands where the people have so strong a spirit of emigration, and where the gentry are so much in dread of its effects, as in that part of the Hebrides called the Long Island, particularly in North and South Uist, and Barra. From these islands there have been very considerable emigrations at different times; some of which, though by no means all, are enumerated in the statistical accounts. Of the total number of the people who have left these islands, I cannot speak with precision; but from various circumstances they appear to have been as great in proportion to the whole population, as in other parts of the Highlands. Nevertheless these parishes, which, in 1755, contained 5268 people, were found to have 8308 at the date of Sir John Sinclair's statistical survey. The particulars that may be collected from

that publication, as to the crowded state of population, and the poverty of the people in consequence of it, make it apparent that the multiplication of the inhabitants has gone to an inconvenient and excessive degree.

These facts might be corroborated by many other examples; but these are perhaps sufficient to leave no doubt of the principle, that emigration does not imply the necessity of a permanent diminution of population, and is not even inconsistent with an increase, wherever there are adequate resources for its employment and support.

This principle, important in itself, leads to a conclusion of still more importancethe emigrations from the Highlands, without ultimately affecting the numbers of the people, operate a very desirable change in their character and composition.

A few of the small tenants, who, with some amount of capital, combine industry and good management, gradually extend 2