extremely different from the Highland regiments we have hitherto seen;-they will no longer be composed of the flower of the peasantry, collected under their natural superiors.

Where men are occupied with industrious pursuits, those of steady habits will be successful in their business, and become attached to it; none will be easily tempted to quit their home, but those who from idleness and dissipation have not succeeded in their ordinary occupations. Men of this description inlisting singly and unconnected, in any regiment they may happen to meet, under officers who are unknown to them, can be depended on no further than their obedience is enforced by the rigour of military discipline. A regiment thus composed, whether from the Highlands or any other part of the kingdom, will be in no respect different from the ordinary regiments in the service.

This change in the character and composition of the Highland regiments, is not a mere speculative probability, but has been

actually going on in a progressive manner, ever since the advance of rents began to be considerable. We must go back to the seven-years war to find these regiments in their original purity, formed entirely on the feudal principle, and raised in the manner that has been described. Even as early as the American war, some tendency towards different system was to be observed; and during the late war, it went so far, that many regiments were Highland scarcely more than in name. Some corps were indeed composed nearly in the antient manner; but there were others in which few of the men had any connexion whatever with the estates of their officers, being recruited, in the ordinary manner, in Glasgow and other manufacturing places, and consisting of any description of people, Lowlanders and Irish, as well as Highlanders.

Those gentlemen whose estates had long, been occupied in large grazings, could not, in fact, raise men in any other manner. The influence of a popular character in his * See Appendix [F.]

immediate neighbourhood, will every where have some little effect in bringing forward recruits; and the care with which the commissions in some regiments were distributed among gentlemen resident in the same neighbourhood, gave these corps a certain degree of local connexion, which is not found in the service in general. Still, however, there was a great difference between these, and the regiments which were raised in the remoter parts of the Highlands, where the change on the state of the country was only partially accomplished, and where recruiting proceeded on the old system.

It is to be observed, that the great demand for men during the late war, and the uncommon advantages that accrued to those gentlemen who had still the means of influencing their tenantry, suspended for at time the extension of sheep-farming, and the progress of the advance of rents. Many estates which were ripe for the changes that have since been made, and which, if peace had not been interrupted, would have been let to graziers seven or eight years earlier,

remained, for a time, in the hands of the small tenants, who were not dismissed till the conclusion of the war rendered their personal services of little further use. This circumstance goes a great way in accounting, both for the suspension of emigration during the late war, and for that sudden burst which appeared immediately after peace was concluded.

The same may again take place in a certain degree, but cannot again have much effect. The tract in which the old system remains, is reduced within narrow limits; and even there, the tenantry will not be so easily influenced as formerly. They have learnt, by the experience of their neighbours, that a compliance with the desire of their landlords may protract the period of their dismissal, but cannot procure them that permanent possession they formerly expected to preserve. A few years more must, in all probability, complete the change in the agricultural system of the Highlands, and bury in oblivion every circumstance that distinguishes the Highlands, as a nursery of soldiers, from the rest of the kingdom.

The change in the composition of the Highland regiments, whatever may be its consequences hereafter, has not yet entirely altered their peculiar spirit and character. Military men are well acquainted with the effect which the established character of any regiment has in moulding the mind of the recruit; and how long a peculiarity may thereby be preserved, though perhaps originating from mere accident. The reputation acquired by the old Highland regiments, has probably had no small effect on their successors, and perhaps also on the opinion of the public.

The importance which has been ascribed to the population of the Highlands, does not, I apprehend, arise from the mere number of the recruits which they supply, but from their peculiar excellence, and the ideas entertained of their high military character. If this character can be preserved, it must be on different principles from those that have hitherto operated; and while the change in the system of the country goes on without interruption, no remedy can be expected