ion of the established militia in England,
and their ardent wish to see the benefit of that wise and salutary
measure extended to North Britain. This was an indulgence they had the
greater reason to hope for, as by the articles of the union they were
undoubtedly entitled to be on the same footing with their brethren of
England; and as the legislature must now be convinced of the necessity
of some such measures, by the consternation lately produced in their
defenceless country, from the threatened invasion of a handful of French
freebooters. These remonstrances had no weight with the majority in
the house of commons, who, either unable or unwilling to make proper
distinctions between the ill and well affected subjects of North
Britain, rejected the bill, as a very dangerous experiment in favour of
a people among whom so many rebellions had been generated and produced.
When the motion was made for the bill's being committed, a warm debate
ensued, in the course of which many Scottish members spoke in behalf of
their country with great force of argument, and a very laudable spirit
of freedom. Mr. Elliot, in particular, one of the commissioners of the
board of admiralty, distinguished himself by a noble flow of eloquence,
adorned with all the graces of oratory, and warmed with the true spirit
of patriotism. Mr. Oswald, of the treasury, acquitted himself with great
honour on the occasion; ever nervous, steady, and sagacious, independent
though in office, and invariable in pursuing the interest of his
country. It must be owned, for the honour of North Britain, that all her
representatives, except two, warmly contended for this national measure,
which was carried in the negative by a majority of one hundred and six,
though the bill was exactly modelled by the late act of parliament for
the establishment of the militia in England.

Even this institution, though certainly laudable and necessary, was
attended with so many unforeseen difficulties, that every session of
parliament since it was first established has produced new acts for
its better regulation. In April, leave was given to prepare a bill for
limiting, confining, and better regulating the payment of the weekly
allowances made by act of parliament, for the maintenance of families
unable to support themselves during the absence of militia-men embodied,
and ordered out into actual service; as well as for amending and
improving the establishment of the militia, and lessenin