Commiffions figned by his Majefty for the army in Lt-Gen. George Warde to be Commander in Chief. George Hewitt, Lieutenant-Colonel of 43d foot, to be Adjutant-General. 51ft foot: Capt. William Fitch, from 58th foot, to be Major, vice Knollis, refigned. Dated Nov. 30. 55th foot: Maj.-Gen. Loftus Anthony Tottenham to be Colonel, vice Grant, removed to 11th foot. Dated Nov. 9. From other Papers. The Duke of Buccleugh has prefented Mr James Arkle to the church of Castleton, Langholm prefbytery. Jan. 4. 1792 The Magiftrates of Edinburgh, on the refignation of Mr Thomas Young, who for many years taught one of the established English fchools. appointed John Leechman teacher to be his fucceffor. John Shaw Stewart, Efq; has prefented Mr Robert Steele, preacher, to be minister of the Old Church of Greenock. Hugh Montgomery, Efq; of Coilsfield, has prefented Mr Stephen Rowland, preacher at Irvine, to the church of Largs, in the prefbytery of Irvine. The Duke of Hamilton has presented Mr John Morton, preacher, to the church of Borrowftounnefs, in the prefbytery of Linlithgow, vacant by the death of the Rev. Mr Baillie. Prices of Grain at Haddington, Jan. 27. Wheat, 208. 9 d. Barley, 19s. 6 d. Oats, 13 s. 6 d. Peafe, 12 s. 6 d. Beans, 12s. 6d. Edinburgh, Jan. 31. Oat-meal, Is. Bearmeal, 10 d. Peafe-meal, 9 d. Stillborn Increased 13 31 8 19 I 3 44 5 2 13 PRICES OF STOCKS, January 14. : Bank Stock, 2024. 3 per cent. red. 904 a 90. 3 per cent. conf. fhut, 894 a ex. div. 5 per cent fhut, 115 a 116. Short Ann. 123 a 15-16ths. Bank Stock, 2071. English Tickets, 17 l. 8 s. 6d. a 125. J THE SCOTS MAGAZINE. FEBRUARY, I792. CONTENT S. Mr Kemp's Tour to the HIGHLANDS, &c. 53. On the most efficacious method of preventing PARLIAMENT. Address, &c. on the mar- 73. POETRY. Prologue and Epilogue to the Road to Ruin 74. Ode on the neceffity of folitary confinement in gaols 75. Sonnet, to Charity 76. HISTORICAL AFFAIRS. Turky. Preliminaries of peace with Ruffia 76. - Sweden. Diet meets at Gefle 76 Account of the Rev. Mr KEMP's Tour to the Highlands and Hcbrides in Summer 1791. Chriftian Knowledge. T Published by the Society for Propagating HE remote weftern High lands and islands, of all the countries of Scotland, were the leaft known to the Society, and of all thofe to which their attention is called by their patents, had leaft experienced the benefit of their inftitution. It was refolved that Mr Kemp, the secretary, should vifit these diftant and widely extended diftrias; enquire into the ftate of religion, literature, and induftry, among their inhabitants, and report to the Society such plans as should appear most likely to promote their improvement. A general outline of a tour VOL. LIV. February 1792. for this purpose was agreed upon by the directors in concert with the fecretary; and he was inftructed to begin his journey as foon after the anniversary meeting in June as poffible. On account of the extent, variety, and difficulty of the navigation which this tour involved, it was judged abfolutely neceffary that a veffel fhould be provided or obtained to attend him during the course of it. To have hired one of a competent fize would have been attend. ed with great expence; besides that fcarcely any one could have been got for hire fo well adapted to the purpose as H one 54 Mr Kemp's Tour to the Highlands. one of the revenue-cutters in the fervice From the well known liberality of the board of customs, in promoting all ob jects of public utility, and from the private information of one of its respectable members, the fociety were led to hope, that an application to them for one of the yachts under their immediate direction, would not fail of fuccefs. The prefident having accordingly applied in the name of the Society to the Board, a moft polite answer was received; and the Prince of Wales brig, commanded by Cap tain John Campbell, was ordered to be in readinefs at Oban by the 15th of June, to take on board the fecretary, and proceed with him during the whole of his tour. And here the directors think it nothing more than juftice to mention, that in this veffel the fecretary foand moft excellent accommodation; a careful obging commander, fober, attentive, and diligent officers and feamen: of all of whom, every one was more ready than another to oblige him, and to forward the objects of his miffion. The fecretary having fet out from Edinburgh in the middle of June, proceeded by the way of Glasgow, Dumbarton, and Inverary, to Oban; vifiting fuch of the Society's fchools as lay immediately on his road, but not diverted by any that lay remote from it, from the great objects of this fummer's tour, viz. the diftant weftern coafts and remoter iflands of the Hebrides. Having gone aboard the yacht at Oban, he proceeded through the found of Mull to Tobermory, one of the newlyeftablished villages of the British Society, where their operations are going on with fpirit, and already make a refpectable appearance; vifited the weltern parts of the island of Mull, where he had not been during the courfe of his former tour; failed up Loch Sunart, an arm of the fea, ftretching 35 miles into the main land on the oppofite coaft, to Strontian, a station where the Society have long had a school established; went round the point of Ardnamurchan, a promontory ftretching far into the western ocean, beat by an almoft continually turbulent fea; and failed along the coafts of Moydart, Arifaig, and Morer, inhabited chiefly by Ro. man Catholics, though now, in confequence of the progrefs of theep-farming, their numbers are greatly diminified by emigration, Vol. 54. On this extenfive coaft the Society have only one school eftablished, and even that is in a languishing ftate. He proceeded fmall ifles, of which the parish of that to the island of Egg, the chief of four minifter, failed to a harbour in Slate, the name confifts; and, accompanied by the fouthermoft parill of the vast island of Sky; having traversed a confiderable part of that parish, he croffed over to the coaft of Knoidart, and visited a school of the Society there: Proceeded to Glenelg, fynod of the bounds, though, on account where he had the pleasure to meet the of the fingular violence and long conti comparatively, of the clergy had been nuance of a storm at the time, few, able to affemble. From them who did individually, be experienced much attenmeet in the fynod, both collectively and tion, and received much information. From Glenelg, accompanied by fome of fometimes by water, and fometimes on the minifters, the Secretary travelled, horfeback or on foot, through the parishes of Kintail, Lochalib, Lochcarron, and Applecrofs. From thence to the iSky; traversed Diurnish, Braccadale, Sniflands of Scalpa and Raafa ;-back to parishes in that great ifland;-a part of zort, Kilmuir, and Portree, extenfive greater part of the roads, and the almost his tour which, from the badness of the inceffant rain of that watery climate, was attended with no fmall fatigue. From Sky he failed to Lochbroom; vifited feveral schools of the Society in eftablished at Ullapool, the first and most that country; and among the reft, one favoured fettlement of the British Society; and where, in confequence of the eftablished a fchool-mafter, who is at request of that Society, the directors have the fame time an ordained minister, and officiates every Sunday to a numerous congregation, by whom his usefulness is felt and acknowledged. Stornoway, a populous and thriving vilFrom Ullapool the Secretary failed to lage in the Inland of Lewis, the property Efq. There, in concert with the proof Humberston M'Kenzie of Seaforth, prietor, (who difcovered a most laudable zeal for the object), the minifters of this great ifland is divided, together with the four extenfive parishes into which fome intelligent and refpectable people of Stornoway, fome plans were devised for promoting the much-needed improvement of the inhabitants, in religion, lite rature, rature, and induftry, and put into a fair train for being carried into execution. From Stornoway he failed by the coaft of Harris, to North Uift, and Barra, travelled on horfeback through North Uift, and over the ftrands at low water, to Benbecula and South Uift; croffed over to Barra; failed to the islands of Cana, Rum, Coll, Tiree; and returning by the Sound of Mull, and paffing the islands adjoining to the coaft of Argylefhire, which he had vifited on a former tour, went to thofe of Jura and Ina; in the last-mentioned of which the exertions and fuccefs of that indefatigable and fagacious improver, Mr Campbell of Shawfield, af. fected his mind with equal pleasure and furprife. From 10a he failed round the Mall of Kintyre to Campbelltown, and returned by Arran and Bute to Greenock and Glasgow, after an absence of three months and fome days. During the course of this various and extenfive tour, the Secretary experienced every where, from the gentlemen and clergy, the greateft perfonal attention, and that hofpitality for which they have been always and juftly celebrated. A mong those whom, on this account, be mentioned with refpect and gratitude in his journal, are Sir James Riddell of Ardnamurchan and Sunart, Bart. Mr M Kenzie of Applecrofs, Colonel M'Leod of M'Leod, Mr Mackenzie of Seaforth, Mr M'Donald of Boifdale, Mr M Lean of Coll, and Mr Campbell of Shawfield; Mr Maxwell, factor for the Duke of Argyll in Mull, Mr Campbell, his Grace's chamberlain in the island of Tiree, and Mr M'Donald of Liondale in Sky. To all bis brethren of the clergy without exception, with whom he had access to meet, he acknowledged his obligations for their attention and civilities: The perfonal attendance and fatigue to which they fubmitted in the forwarding his progrefs, and the objects of his miffion, render a particular tribute of thanks due to Mr Milver of Glenelg, Mr M Qucen of Applecrofs, Mr M'Leod of Harris, and Mr Edmund M Queen of North Viit. Nor was he unmindful of what he owed to fome of the clergy of the Roman Catholic perfuafion for their personal civilities, and what he still more highly valued, the liberality of fpirit and zeal with which they entered into, and forwarded the objects of his miffion, parti cularly by exhorting and ufing their influence with their people to fend their children to the schools of the Society, to be inftructed in literature, and in thofe great principles of religion in which all fects among Chriftians are united. It was a fight, he is perfuaded, not common -a Proteftant minifter, commiffioned by the Society for promoting Chriftian knowledge, attended in his progrefs by Roman Catholic priests, and they zealously joining with him in common efforts, to promote the reading of the fcriptures among the youth of their own community. For his introduction to them, and their fa vourable impreffions of his views, he ac knowledged his obligations to the candid and fair reprefentations of a worthy and refpectable person among the fuperior order of the clergy of that persuasion in Scotland.-Names in this part of the detail, prudence fuggefts, it may be proper to omit. To feveral of the above-named great proprietors, the Secretary was indebted, not merely for hofpitality and perfonal attentions, but for the zeal with which they entered into the views, and the li berality which they exercifed in promoting the object of his miffion, on their extensive eftates. Among thefe, Seaforth, Macleod, and Shawfield, are to be num bered with particular respect. The Duke of Argyll, though his want of health at the time deprived the Secretary of the honour of waiting upon him in perfon; yet, with the wonted and well-known benevolence of his character, furnished his men of bufinefs with the ampleft inftructions to promote the objects of the Secretary's commiffion, in different parts of his immense estate ;-instructions with which, in the spirit that dictated them, they are ftudying to comply. The Secretary's journal concludes with fome general obfervations, and the following propofitions towards the forma tion of a plan for the difpofal of the new ly-acquired, and great acceffion to the Society's stock. The fift is, That "the falaries of the fchoolmalters upon their establishment be augmented." The fall of the value of money, fince many of thefe falaries were firft granted, the confquent rife in the price of all the ncceffaries of life, renders this a measure of indispenfable neceffity. The fecond is, "The printing of a new edition of the Gaelic Bible," in a more convenient and cheaper form than the prefent, which confiits of four octavo H 2 volumes, Mr Kemp's Tour to the Highlands. 56 The third is," the establishment of a The fourth," The giving encouragement to various branches of useful induf try and manufacture, which may be in troduced into the Highlands and Inlands." To this object the attention of the Society is naturally directed by the terms and fpirit of their fecond patent, and to this they are fpecially bound by the exprefs conditions of Lord Vanvryhouven's legacy of 20,000 1. 46 The fifth, The establishment of miffionary minifters in parts of the country where they are peculiarly wanted, but to which the funds of the committee on the royal bounty," efpecially in their prefent fituation, do not permit them to fend miffionaries. The fixth, and the only other propofition for the employment of their additional funds which the fecretary takes the liberty to mention, is "a provifion to be made for training up fome young men, having the Gaelic language, for the miniftry in the Highlands and Islands." In illuftration of the firft propofition, the following remarks are fubjoined in a note: The neceffity of this measure is parti cularly urgent in many of the western coafts and islands, where the extreme poverty of the inhabitants renders them unable, and their own ignorance averfe, to bestow even a trifle for the education of their children. In many inftances during his last tour, the fecretary, in order to induce parents to fend their children to school, was obliged to promise them a total exemption from fees of every fort, befides furnishing them with books. In these countries the price of meal is always higher than upon the east coast, aud in the low countries of Scotland. This laft fummer it was, on an average, at least 18 s. per boll. The difficulty of tranfpurting it to the interior parts of countries where there are no roads, great ly enhances the price to fchoolmasters, who have no fervants or horfes of their own. The fecretary found fome who had paid no less than 25 s. per boll for it, when hid down at their houfes. In not a few cafes during the courie of lalt fummer, they could not, for weeks together, ob Vol. 54% tain it at any price. It may appear incredible, but it is nevertheless an undoubt July laft, there was not an ounce of meal ed fact, that in the months of June and to be obtained for money by the people of fome extenfive diftricts and iflands-their reduced to the neceffity of living wholly potatoes were exhaufted, and they were thell-fish were often their chief support. upon fish and milk. Cockles and other How much, in fuch circumftances, is a himself and a family upon a falary of 10l. man to be pitied, who has to maintain or 12l.! on the fourth propofition: to produce that rage for emigration to Rate |