The Jacobite Rebellions (1689-1746) Part 8

FOOTNOTES:

[77] About.

[78] The Lyon King-at-Arms.

THE MALT TAX (1725).

+Source.+--_The Lockhart Papers: containing Memoirs and Commentaries upon the Affairs of Scotland from 1702 to 1715, by George Lockhart, Esq., of Carnwath. His Secret Correspondence with the Son of King James the Second from 1718 to 1728, and his other Political Writings_, vol. ii., p. 134. (London: 1817.)

About the latter end of the year 1724 a resolution pa.s.sed the House of Commons whereby, instead of the malt tax, six pence per barrel of ale was laid of additional duty on Scotland (and not extended to England) and the premiums on grain exported from thence was taken off. As this was a plain breach of the Union, in so far as it expressly stipulated that there shall be an equality of taxes and premiums on trade, every Scots man was highly enraged at it, for as it was evident that the want of the premiums would effectively stop the exportation of grain, which would thereby become a mere drug, no body could foresee to what height this precedent of taxing Scotland separately from England might afterwards be extended. Tis impossible to express the resentment of the nation at this measure, all parties seemed reconciled and to unite in opposing what was so pernicious to the country in general, and at the same time touched every particular man's copyhold. The King's friends laid hold upon this occasion, and privately, underhand, fomented the bad humour, it not being fit, as indeed there was no need of their distinguis.h.i.+ng their zeal at this time. A meeting of the heritors of the s.h.i.+re of Edinburgh was called, where I presented an address to the House of Commons, which being heartily approved of, was signed and next day sent up by an express to London....

These warm addresses and instructions did not a little startle the Scots members of Parliament, and even the Ministry; and there were likewise many private letters written to them by their friends, a.s.suring them of the highest resentment if they did not perform what was desired and expected of them. Had these members been endued with a public spirit and resolution, such applications would have been needless; but as they consisted of a parcel of people of low fortunes that could not subsist without their board-wages (which at ten guineas a week during each session was duly paid them) or mere tools and dependents, it was not to be expected they would act the part which became them for their country's service, and therefore these representations were judged necessary to spur them up to their duty and withal show the Ministry that the people would not behave so tamely as did their mean spirited mercenary representatives, who, perceiving they would lose all their interest and scarce dare venture to return home if they did not follow the instructions given them, made most humble applications to the Ministry, who on the other hand being apprehensive the resentment might be carried to some height, and unwilling, as matters stood in Europe, to embroil themselves, thought it expedient to drop the resolutions above mentioned, (which they at first preferred, because they judged it would be no easy matter to levy the malt tax in Scotland) and agreed with the Scots members to impose threepence per bushel on malt; being but the half of what was laid in England; and a bill was accordingly pa.s.sed as fast as the forms could possibly allow of, least their const.i.tuents should have time to remonstrate against it....

Some little time before the 23rd of June (on which day the malt tax commenced) delegates were sent from most of the considerable touns, to meet and confer with the brewers at Edinburgh, where many proposals were made for eluding the law, to be, as occasions offered, put in practice: the first thing to be guarded against was the dutys of malt stock in hand; and to avoid the heavy penalty of not entering the same, it was resolved to obey the law in that respect, but at the same time not to make payment of the duty thereon, and if the Commissioners of excise sued them, to give over brewing and consequently sink the revenue of excise, which was indeed chiefly aimed at by those who bestirred themselves at this time in behalf of the country, that the Government might perceive they'd lose more of the excise than they could gain by the malt tax: but what alarmed people most was the unreasonable article of surcharge, to be levied proportionately off such as entered and paid the duty of what was malted after 23rd of June, in so far as the clear produce (after deducing the charges of collecting) fell short of 20,000_l._ sterling, whereby those who submitted to the Government and paid the malt tax ran the hazard of making up the deficiencie arising from those who did otherwise, which so startled all the considerable brewers, who generally speaking are also maltsters, that they found it absolutely necessary to malt none after the commencement of this duty.

On the 23rd of June, when the duty took place, the excise officers were obliged to fly out of most of the towns in the western s.h.i.+res, but in Glasgow the resentment ran higher. Daniell Campbell of Shawfeild, who represented that burgh in Parliament, having incurred the hatred of the inhabitants thereof, because he was believed, on too good grounds, to have had the chief hand in giving the Government such informations of the way and manner of trading there, as occasioned a few years ago an act of Parliament, that lay heavily on their tobacco trade, was likewise said and believed to have encouraged to hope there was no difficulty in raising the malt tax; and these joined together rendered him detestable over all the Kingdom, especially at Glasgow, where they threatened to pull down his new built house, whereof he sent notice to Wade at Edinburgh on 21st of June, who thereupon ordered a detachment of foot to march forthwith thither, where they arrived on the 24th at night, but the guard room being unprepared, they put off taking possession of it till next day, the soldiers being dismist to their several private quarters. During the night time a report went about that Daniell Campbell had brought these soldiers to enslave them, whereupon the mob got up and destroyed his house, and had he himself been in town, they had certainly dewitted him. Whilst this was in hand the commanding officer got his men together, took possession of the guard room and drew up before it, and tho he met with no insult but from some boys and women, who threw a few stones at his men, without having previously read the proclamation, as directed by the law on such occasions, he fired allongst the streets, which being full of innocent people that came out of curiosity to know what the matter was, and the windows at the same time crowded with spectators, about 20 men and women were killd dead and many more wounded, some whereof in the streets and others in their houses: the citizens being thereby enraged did ring the fire bell and brake up the magazine, from whence they armed about 400 men. In the mean time the magistrates advised the officer to march off his party, for they could not be protected within the city; on which he made the best of his way to Dumbarton, but not thinking himself safe in that town he retired into the castle. The Glasgow mob pursued him a few miles but could not overtake him.

GENERAL WADE'S ROADS (1726).

+Source.+--_Letters from a Gentleman in the North of Scotland to his Friend in London_, vol. ii., p. 183, by Captain Burt. Fifth edition.

(London: 1822.)

LETTER XXVI. CONCERNING THE NEW ROADS, ETC., 173-.

These new roads were begun in the year 1726, and have continued about eleven years in the prosecution; yet, long as it may be thought, if you were to pa.s.s over the whole work (for the borders of it would show you what it was), I make no doubt but that number of years would diminish in your imagination to a much shorter tract of time, by comparison with the difficulties that attended the execution.

But, before I proceed to any particular descriptions of them, I shall inform you how they lie, to the end that you may trace them out upon a map of Scotland; and first I shall take them as they are made, to enter the mountains, viz.--

One of them begins from Crief, which is about fourteen miles from Stirling: here the Romans left off their works, of which some parts are visible to this day, particularly the camp at Ardoch, where the vestiges of the fortifications are on a moor so barren, that its whole form has been safe from culture, or other alteration besides weather and time.

The other road enters the hills at Dimheld,[79] in Athol, which is about ten miles from Perth.

The first of them, according to my account, though the last in execution, proceeds through Glenalmond (which, for its narrowness, and the height of the mountains, I remember to have mentioned formerly), and thence it goes to Aberfaldy; there it crosses the river Tay by a bridge of free-stone, consisting of five s.p.a.cious arches (by the way, this military bridge is the only pa.s.sage over that wild and dangerous river), and from thence the road goes on to Dalnachardoch.

The other road from Dunkeld proceeds by the Blair of Athol to the said Dalnachardoch.

Here the two roads join in one, and, as a single road, it leads on to Dalwhinny, where it branches out again into two; of which one proceeds towards the north-west, through Garva Moor, and over the Coriarach mountain to Fort Augustus, at Killichumen, and the other branch goes due-north to the barrack of Ruthven, in Badenoch, and thence, by Delmagary, to Inverness. From thence it proceeds something to the southward of the west, across the island, to the aforesaid Fort-Augustus and so on to Fort-William, in Lochaber.

The length of all these roads put together is about two hundred and fifty miles....

In the summer seasons, five hundred of the soldiers from the barracks, and other quarters about the Highlands, were employed in those works in different stations, by detachments from the regiments and Highland companies.

The private men were allowed sixpence a day, over and above their pay as soldiers: a corporal had eight-pence, and a sergeant a s.h.i.+lling; but this extra pay was only for working-days, which were often interrupted by violent storms of wind and rain, from the heights and hollows of the mountains.

These parties of men were under the command and direction of proper officers, who were all subalterns, and received two s.h.i.+llings and sixpence _per diem_, to defray their extraordinary expence in building huts; making necessary provision for their tables from distant parts; unavoidable though unwelcome visits, and other incidents arising from their wild situation....

The standard breadth of these roads, as laid down at the first projection, is sixteen feet; but in some parts, where there were no very expensive difficulties, they are wider....

The old ways (for roads I shall not call them) consisted chiefly of stony moors, bogs, rugged, rapid fords, declivities of hills, entangling woods, and giddy precipices. You will say this is a dreadful catalogue to be read to him that is about to take a Highland journey. I have not mentioned the valleys, for they are few in number, far divided asunder, and generally the roads through them were easily made.

My purpose now is to give you some account of the nature of the particular parts above-mentioned, and the manner how this extraordinary work has been executed; and this I shall do in the order I have ranged them as above.

And first, the stony moors. These are mostly tracts of ground of several miles in length, and often very high, with frequent lesser risings and descents, and having for surface a mixture of stones and heath. The stones are fixed in the earth, being very large and unequal, and generally are as deep in the ground as they appear above it; and where there are any s.p.a.ces between the stones, there is a loose spongy sward, perhaps not above five or six inches deep, and incapable to produce any thing but heath, and all beneath it is hard gravel or rock....

Here the workmen first made room to fix their instruments, and then, by strength, and the help of those two mechanic powers, the screw and the lever, they raised out of their ancient beds those ma.s.sive bodies, and then filling up the cavities with gravel, set them up, mostly end-ways, along the sides of the road, as directions in time of deep snows, being some of them, as they now stand, eight or nine feet high. They serve, likewise, as memorials of the skill and labour requisite to the performance of so difficult a work....

Now that I have no further occasion for any distinction, I shall call every soft place a bog, except there be occasion sometimes to vary the phrase.

When one of these bogs has crossed the way on a stony moor, there the loose ground has been dug out down to the gravel, or rock, and the hollow filled up in the manner following, viz.--

First with a layer of large stones, then a smaller size, to fill up the gaps and raise the causeway higher; and, lastly, two, three, or more feet of gravel, to fill up the interstices of the small stones, and form a smooth and binding surface. This part of the road has a bank on each side, to separate it from a ditch, which is made without-side to receive the water from the bog, and, if the ground will allow it, to convey it by a trench to a slope, and thereby in some measure drain it....

The objections made to these new roads and bridges, by some in the several degrees of _condition_ among the Highlanders, are in part as follow: viz.--

I. These chiefs and other gentlemen complain, that thereby an easy pa.s.sage is opened into their country for strangers, who, in time, by their suggestions of liberty, will weaken that attachment of their va.s.sals which it is so necessary for them to support and preserve. That their fastnesses being laid open, they are deprived of that security from invasion which they formerly enjoyed. That the bridges, in particular, will render the ordinary people effeminate, and less fit to pa.s.s the waters in other places where there are none. And there is a pecuniary reason concealed, relating to some foreign courts, which to you I need not explain.

II. The middling order say to them the roads are an inconvenience, instead of being useful, as they have turned them out of their old ways; for their horses being never shod, the gravel would soon whet away their hoofs, so as to render them unserviceable; whereas the rocks and moor-stones, though together they make a rough way, yet, considered separately, they are generally pretty smooth on the surface where they tread, and the heath is always easy to their feet....

III. The lowest cla.s.s, who, many of them, at some times cannot compa.s.s a pair of shoes for themselves, they alledge, that the gravel is intolerable to their naked feet; and the complaint has extended to their thin brogues. It is true they do sometimes, for these reasons, go without the road, and ride or walk in very incommodious ways.

FOOTNOTES:

[79] Dunkeld.

SCOTTISH GARDENING (1735).

+Source.+--_Letters of John c.o.c.kburn of Ormistoun to his Gardener, 1727-1744_, p. 22. Edited by James Colville, M.A., D.Sc. (Edinburgh: Scottish Historical Society, 1904.)

_3 June, 1735._

CHARLES.[80]--I have had none from you since my last. We have this day a great deal of soft rain, which if with you will do great service to forward both Gra.s.s and Corn and may secure many of the weak rooted trees planted last Winter and also make your lay'd trees strike root if well earthed.

This I design chiefly for some thoughts about improving of your father's Garden and land of which if you go right you'l turn a good deal off into Kitchen and Orchard Garden. In doing of which I still think you might have made more progress last Winter and by so doing you might have made a beginning in drawing the people towards a better taste in Garden stuff, which tho' you had made no other profit directly, yet that, if you had saved yourself only, as to the expence, would have been getting [profit], as it would have encreased the demand next year.... Your father's Garden is well sheltered by the houses and rising Ground from the one hand and by the high hedge of the other, and he has water at hand. So he may raise any thing in it the climate will allow of. He has crowded it with fruit trees, too thick even for them to bear as they would, espicially when a little older, as in that warm place they advance very fast. By this he loses the undergrowth also, by which he might make double what he makes by the fruit from the trees, espicially they being of the most common fruit, which would answer as well in the most exposed part of his field. So warm a lying spot should either have been employed entirely in doubled crops for a Kitchen, or, if for fruit, it should have been in kinds every spot won't produce, and for that reason yielded more. I incline to think mulberys would have done of either side the walk at the lower end, as being warm and covered from all severe weather. If so, one tree of them would have yielded as much money as half a dozen of the common apples now in it, and would have taken no more room than one of the present. I am convinced that if Mulberys will do any where in Scotld. they will there, it being entirely covered from Weather and yet open to the Sun, except in so far as shaded by apple trees.... What I aim at is to turn your ground to the best and most proper uses, the warmest and best to what requires it, and the common coa.r.s.e fruits or herbs to places where they will do and the nicer won't....

Depend upon it there are people in Eden.[81] who have taste, and if you can once get into the custom of some who have it, will put others upon enquiring where they had good things, and this will hold in your herbs etc. as well as in your Fruit. Do you think it possible that there are not Families and Taverns in Eden. that would give reasonably for young pease and Beans in July and Aug^t if they could get them. Suppose now you sent a dish of young pease or Beans to any of your Customers when only old are to be had, and desire them to let their acquaintances know you can furnish the like, don't you think they would go off, or if you got into the custom of such as Mrs. Thom, who keeps a Tavern, do you believe she would not find people who would be glad of them, and so would take from you. Possibly they may not give such a price as just when first coming in, but if you get a price you can afford them at, it does your business.... People would presently come to distinguish as they came in to buy when Garden stuff was first introduced. But our people are lazie, and saying no body will buy and no body will distinguish, is chiefly owing to the want of activity, Industry and care in providing at all or good of their kinds, and bustling a little to introduce and get Customers at first. We are glad of all excuses for our sleeping on in poverty and our old jog trott. How shall things be carried to Eden. and no body will buy in the country are often very good difficulties and convenient enough excuses, wherein excuse is wanted. I don't know if you have a Carrier at Orm:[82] but I am convinced one who understood his business, would get Employment for a Cart such as the Higlers[83] to the Gardiners who come to Covent Garden use. They would carry things cool and clean, and one man with two horses in such a Cart, would carry in as much as four Carriers with 4 horses carry in our common way and if you put your things up in Baskets carefully as Gardiners do here, by which they'l not be wet, Bruised or Broiled in the Sun, the Cart being covered as the Garden Stuff commonly is, in carrying to Eden. Even care in this will make them fresher and better than what is now to be had there.