rous connexions, and
gradually supersede that military genius which had been so productive
of danger and alarm to the southern part of Great Britain. The king,
by this act, was empowered to appoint commissioners for managing the
forfeited estates, who were enabled to grant leases of small farms, not
above twenty pounds a-year, to individuals, who should take an oath to
government to reside upon and cultivate the lands thus let. It was
also provided, that no lease should be granted for a longer term than
twenty-one years; and that the leases should not pay above three-fourths
of the annual value. Although these forfeited estates were generally
encumbered with claims beyond their real value, and the act directed
that they should be disposed of by public sale; yet, as they lay in the
most disaffected parts of the highlands, it was thought necessary that
they should remain in the possession of the crown, because, in case
of their being publicly sold, they might be purchased in trust for the
families of the persons by whom they were forfeited, and thus the spirit
of disaffection would still survive. A valuation, therefore, was made by
the court of session in Scotland, at the joint suit of the crown and the
creditors; and the value being ascertained, the just claimants were
paid out of the next aids granted by parliament. The bill met with
considerable opposition in the house of peers from the duke of Bedford
and the earl of Bath, who probably foresaw that the good effects of this
scheme, so laudable in itself, would be frustrated in the execution;
and that the act, instead of answering the purposes for which it was
intended, would serve only as a job to gratify the rapacious retainers
to the government, and their emissaries in that country. After a warm
debate, however, it was adopted by a great majority, and obtained the
royal assent.

NEW CONSOLIDATION OF FUNDS.

A third law related to certain articles of the national debt, which was
now converted into several joint-stocks of annuities, transferable at
the bank of England, to be charged on the sinking fund. A great number
of different funds for annuities, established at different times and by
different acts, subsisted at this period, SO that it I was necessary
to keep many different accounts, which could not be regulated without
considerable trouble and expense, for the removal of which the bill was
calculated.

TWO PORTS OPENED FOR THE IMPORTATION OF IRISH