|
It appears from the State Trials held after the
suppression of the rebellion in 1715, that the earl of Winton, whose
estate in Lothian stood among the first in the list of forfeitures, had
joined the rebel army with fourteen men; Highland chieftains even of
middling rank had on the same occasion brought along with them three,
four, or five hundred. In like manner in the year 1745 the military force
of the rebels was entirely raised by the Highland proprietors, though of
the estates forfeited on that occasion those in the Lowlands were at least
one half of the value. Pennant mentions this, and at the same time
observes the small amount of the whole.—The power and interest, he says,
'of poor twelve thousand per annum terrified and nearly subverted the
constitution of these powerful kingdoms.'
Of the estates to which he
alludes, those in the Highlands may now be valued at about 80,000l. a
year, including two or three which escaped forfeiture from accidental
circumstances, though the proprietors were engaged in the rebellion. The
military force of the rebels appears never to have exceeded five thousand
men. There are various documents, partly traditional, which ascertain the
number of men which particular chiefs could bring out previous to that
era; and on comparing them with the present value of their estates, the
proportion appears to be in general between ten and fifteen pounds for
every man.
This sum is not far from
the yearly expense of a farm-servant in the North of Scotland. In the
Agricultural Survey of the Northern Counties drawn up in 1793, for the
Board of Agriculture, the total expense of wages and maintenance for an
able-bodied workman is computed at 9l. 10s. for the whole year. Since the
date of that publication some advance has taken place; to what exact
amount I am not informed, but probably about 25 or 30 per
cent. |
