rom
being abused and perverted to the detriment of their country; and to
introduce among them arts, agriculture, commerce, tranquillity, with all
the improvements of social and polished life.

_Douglas_.--By what you now tell me you give me the highest idea of the
great prince, your master, who, after having been provoked by such a
wicked rebellion, instead of enslaving the people of the Highlands, or
laying the hand of power more heavily upon them (which is the usual
consequence of unsuccessful revolts), has conferred on them the
inestimable blessings of liberty, justice, and good order. To act thus
is indeed to perfect the union and make all the inhabitants of Great
Britain acknowledge, with gratitude and with joy, that they are subjects
of the same well-regulated kingdom, and governed with the same impartial
affection by the sovereign and father of the whole commonwealth.

_Argyle_.--The laws I have mentioned and the humane benevolent policy of
His Majesty's Government have already produced very salutary effects in
that part of the kingdom, and, if steadily pursued, will produce many
more. But no words can recount to you the infinite benefits which have
attended the union in the northern counties of England and the southern
of Scotland.

_Douglas_.--The fruits of it must be, doubtless, most sensible there,
where the perpetual enmity between the two nations had occasioned the
greatest disorder and desolation.

_Argyle_.--Oh, Douglas, could you revive and return into Scotland what a
delightful alteration would you see in that country. All those great
tracts of land, which in your time lay untilled on account of the inroads
of the bordering English, or the feuds and discords that raged with
perpetual violence within our own distracted kingdom, you would now
behold cultivated and smiling with plenty. Instead of the castles, which
every baron was compelled to erect for the defence of his family, and
where he lived in the barbarism of Gothic pride, among miserable vassals
oppressed by the abuse of his feudal powers, your eyes would be charmed
with elegant country houses, adorned with fine plantations and beautiful
gardens, while happy villages or gay towns are rising about them and
enlivening the prospect with every image of rural wealth. On our coasts
trading cities, full of new manufactures, and continually increasing the
extent of their commerce. In our ports and harbours innumerable merchant
ships, richly loa