A TOUR THROUGH THE HIGHLANDS OF SCOTLAND, AND THE HEBRIDE ISLES, IN MDCCLXXXVI. BY JOHN KNOX, LONDON: PRINTED FOR J. WALTER, CHARING-CROSS; R. FAULDER, NEW MDCCLXXXVII. William Winter Gen lib 2-9-36 TO THE NOBLEMEN AND GENTLEMEN, MEMBERS OF THE BRITISH SOCIETY FOR EXTENDING I MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN, EMBRACE this early opportunity of congratulating the Public upon an event, which, while it reflects immortal honour on your humanity and patriotic fpirit, will contribute, in a moft eminent degree, to the fecurity and profperity of these kingdoms, A very confiderable part of this island was lying almost in a state of nature; the riches of its fhores, tho' more im a 2 portant 41-8 portant to great national purposes than the mines of Mexico and Peru, were fcarcely fought after. A great body of people, having no means of employment, were rendered torpid by idleness: they were frequently expofed to famine; and many of them forced, through neceffity, to abandon their barren, but beloved wilds. Their grievances had been flightly represented in the writings of fome eminent men of the prefent age. But thefe pictures of distress, though they might occafion a figh in the breaft of the humane reader, were forgotten amidst the croud of occurrences which glide away with time into the gulph of oblivion. Something farther was neceffary, to imprefs the mind more deeply, to awaken the fenfes as from a lethargy, and to erect erect an establishment upon the folid bafis of virtues, which in all ages have been justly confidered as the glory of humanity. When the paffing tale was new-mo- · delled, collected, and compreffed within a narrow point, aided, in the recital, by language which came from the heart, it then proved fufficiently in unifon with the feelings of the times: its effects were instantaneous, and are likely to become permanently and completely efficacious. To you, my Lords and Gentlemen, Britain owes the great national acquifition that is before us. To you, the naked, the hungry, and the helpless; the defponding parent, the husband, and the widow, will look up in transports of gratitude. When neceffity and defpair had thinned a 3 |