n the other. But the law, which followed the victory of
Culloden, found the whole nation dejected and intimidated; informations
were given without danger, and without fear, and the arms were collected
with such rigour, that every house was despoiled of its defence.

To disarm part of the Highlands, could give no reasonable occasion of
complaint. Every government must be allowed the power of taking away the
weapon that is lifted against it. But the loyal clans murmured, with
some appearance of justice, that after having defended the King, they
were forbidden for the future to defend themselves; and that the sword
should be forfeited, which had been legally employed. Their case is
undoubtedly hard, but in political regulations, good cannot be complete,
it can only be predominant.

Whether by disarming a people thus broken into several tribes, and thus
remote from the seat of power, more good than evil has been produced, may
deserve inquiry. The supreme power in every community has the right of
debarring every individual, and every subordinate society from
self-defence, only because the supreme power is able to defend them; and
therefore where the governor cannot act, he must trust the subject to act
for himself. These Islands might be wasted with fire and sword before
their sovereign would know their distress. A gang of robbers, such as
has been lately found confederating themselves in the Highlands, might
lay a wide region under contribution. The crew of a petty privateer
might land on the largest and most wealthy of the Islands, and riot
without control in cruelty and waste. It was observed by one of the
Chiefs of Sky, that fifty armed men might, without resistance ravage the
country. Laws that place the subjects in such a state, contravene the
first principles of the compact of authority: they exact obedience, and
yield no protection.

It affords a generous and manly pleasure to conceive a little nation
gathering its fruits and tending its herds with fearless confidence,
though it lies open on every side to invasion, where, in contempt of
walls and trenches, every man sleeps securely with his sword beside him;
where all on the first approach of hostility came together at the call to
battle, as at a summons to a festal show; and committing their cattle to
the care of those whom age or nature has disabled, engage the enemy with
that competition for hazard and for glory, which operate in men that
fight under t