some trouble and some thought. A penny is easily given upon the first
impulse of compassion, or impatience of importunity; but few will
deliberately search their cupboards or their granaries to find out
something to give. A penny is likewise easily spent, but victuals, if
they are unprepared, require houseroom, and fire, and utensils, which the
beggar knows not where to find.

Yet beggars there sometimes are, who wander from Island to Island. We
had, in our passage to Mull, the company of a woman and her child, who
had exhausted the charity of Col. The arrival of a beggar on an Island
is accounted a sinistrous event. Every body considers that he shall have
the less for what he gives away. Their alms, I believe, is generally
oatmeal.

Near to Col is another Island called Tireye, eminent for its fertility.
Though it has but half the extent of Rum, it is so well peopled, that
there have appeared, not long ago, nine hundred and fourteen at a
funeral. The plenty of this Island enticed beggars to it, who seemed so
burdensome to the inhabitants, that a formal compact was drawn up, by
which they obliged themselves to grant no more relief to casual
wanderers, because they had among them an indigent woman of high birth,
whom they considered as entitled to all that they could spare. I have
read the stipulation, which was indited with juridical formality, but was
never made valid by regular subscription.

If the inhabitants of Col have nothing to give, it is not that they are
oppressed by their landlord: their leases seem to be very profitable. One
farmer, who pays only seven pounds a year, has maintained seven daughters
and three sons, of whom the eldest is educated at Aberdeen for the
ministry; and now, at every vacation, opens a school in Col.

Life is here, in some respects, improved beyond the condition of some
other Islands. In Sky what is wanted can only be bought, as the arrival
of some wandering pedlar may afford an opportunity; but in Col there is a
standing shop, and in Mull there are two. A shop in the Islands, as in
other places of little frequentation, is a repository of every thing
requisite for common use. Mr. Boswell's journal was filled, and he
bought some paper in Col. To a man that ranges the streets of London,
where he is tempted to contrive wants, for the pleasure of supplying
them, a shop affords no image worthy of attention; but in an Island, it
turns the balance of existence between good a