e will endeavour by
every art to draw others after them; for as their numbers are greater,
they will provide better for themselves. When Nova Scotia was first
peopled, I remember a letter, published under the character of a New
Planter, who related how much the climate put him in mind of Italy. Such
intelligence the Hebridians probably receive from their transmarine
correspondents. But with equal temptations of interest, and perhaps with
no greater niceness of veracity, the owners of the Islands spread stories
of American hardships to keep their people content at home.

Some method to stop this epidemick desire of wandering, which spreads its
contagion from valley to valley, deserves to be sought with great
diligence. In more fruitful countries, the removal of one only makes
room for the succession of another: but in the Hebrides, the loss of an
inhabitant leaves a lasting vacuity; for nobody born in any other parts
of the world will choose this country for his residence, and an Island
once depopulated will remain a desert, as long as the present facility of
travel gives every one, who is discontented and unsettled, the choice of
his abode.

Let it be inquired, whether the first intention of those who are
fluttering on the wing, and collecting a flock that they may take their
flight, be to attain good, or to avoid evil. If they are dissatisfied
with that part of the globe, which their birth has allotted them, and
resolve not to live without the pleasures of happier climates; if they
long for bright suns, and calm skies, and flowery fields, and fragrant
gardens, I know not by what eloquence they can be persuaded, or by what
offers they can be hired to stay.

But if they are driven from their native country by positive evils, and
disgusted by ill-treatment, real or imaginary, it were fit to remove
their grievances, and quiet their resentment; since, if they have been
hitherto undutiful subjects, they will not much mend their principles by
American conversation.

To allure them into the army, it was thought proper to indulge them in
the continuance of their national dress. If this concession could have
any effect, it might easily be made. That dissimilitude of appearance,
which was supposed to keep them distinct from the rest of the nation,
might disincline them from coalescing with the Pensylvanians, or people
of Connecticut. If the restitution of their arms will reconcile them to
their country, let them have