the localities in which this
remedy should be applied, in consequence of "profitable
investments of industry" not existing at home; and, 2. That
application be made to the Legislature for a measure, which should
place the remaining portion of the Highlanders under the
circumstances which are known _by experience_ to be most
favourable to the development of the resources of a country, and
at the same time to the action of the preventive check on
excessive population, _i. e._, under the operation of an effective
and judicious Legal Provision for the Poor."

The following sentences form an impressive conclusion to this
valuable, dissertation.

"I have only to add, that being firmly convinced that a
well-regulated Poor Law is really, as stated by Sir Robert Peel, a
wholesome stimulus to enterprise and industry, and a check upon
extravagance and improvidence, I have written this paper to
prove,--by evidence on so large a scale, that it excludes all
fallacies attending individual cases, and ought to command
conviction,--that it is only in those parts of this country where
this salutary precaution has been neglected, that such periodical
returns of destitution and famine, as he describes, have been
suffered or are to be apprehended. But, as it is obviously
essential to this beneficial effect of a Poor Law, that it should
secure relief to _destitution from want of work_, the practical
result of all that has been stated is, to confirm the arguments
which I formerly adduced in favour of the extension of a legal
right to relief to the able-bodied in Scotland, when destitute
from that cause;--guarded of course by the exaction of work in
return for it when there are no means of applying, or when such
exaction is thought better than applying, the workhouse test. And
notwithstanding the strong feeling of distrust (or prejudice, as I
believe it) which still exists among many respectable persons on
this point, I confidently expect that this right--_now granted to
the inhabitants of every other part of her Majesty's European
dominions_, and soon to be accompanied, as I hope, in all parts,
by an improved law of settlement _i. e._, by combinations or
unions instead of parishes,--cannot be much longer withheld from
the inhabitants of Scotland."

Nor can I doubt that the intelligent people of th