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DEMPSTER, GEORGE, of
Dunnichen, (an estate near Dundee, which his grandfather, a merchant in
that town, had acquired in trade), was born about the year 1735. He was
educated at the grammar school of Dundee, and the university of St
Andrews; after which he repaired to Edinburgh, where in 1755 he became a
member of the faculty of advocates. Possessed of an ample fortune, and
being of a social disposition, Mr Dempster entered eagerly into all the
gayeties of the metropolis; and at the same time he cultivated the
friendship of a group of young men conspicuous for their talents, and some
of whom afterwards attained to eminence. In the number were William
Robertson and David Hume, the future historians. Mr Dempster became a
member of the "Poker Club" instituted by the celebrated
Dr Adam Ferguson, which met in a house near the Nether-bow, and had for
its object harmless conviviality: but a society which included David Hume,
William Robertson, John Home (the author of ‘Douglas’), Alexander
Carlyle, and George Dempster, must necessarily have conduced to the
intellectual improvement of its members. It was succeeded, in the year
1756, by the "Select Society," a much more extensive
association, consisting of most of the men of talent, rank, and learning
in Scotland. The object of this society was the advancement of literature
and the promotion of the study and speaking of the English language in
Scotland, and Dempster was one of the ordinary directors. A list of the
members of this society will be found in the appendix to professor Dugald
Stewart’s life of Dr Robertson.
After travelling some time
on the continent, Mr Dempster returned to Scotland, and practised for a
short while at the bar. But, abandoning that profession early in life, he
turned his attention to politics, and stood candidate for the Fife and
Forfar district of burghs. His contest was a very arduous one, and cost
him upwards of £10,000; but it was successful, for he was returned member
to the twelfth parliament of Great Britain, which met on the 25th
November, 1762. He entered the house of commons as an independent member
unshackled by party. In the year 1765, he obtained the patent office of
secretary to the Scottish order of the Thistle, an office more honourable
than lucrative; and it was the only reward which he either sought or
procured for twenty-eight years of faithful service in parliament. Mr
Dempster was decidedly opposed to the contest with the American colonies,
which ended in their independence; and concurred with Mr Pitt and Mr Fox,
in maintaining, that taxes could not be constitutionally imposed without
representation. He did not, however, enter into any factious opposition to
the ministry during the continuance of the first American war; but on its
conclusion he was strenuous in his endeavours to obtain an immediate
reduction of the military establishment, and the abolition of sinecure
places and pensions. He joined Mr Pitt, when that great statesman came
into power, and supported him in his financial plans, particularly in the
establishment of the sinking fund. Mr Dempster had directed much of his
attention to the improvement of our national commerce and manufactures,
which he desired to see freed from all restraint. But the object to which
at this time and for many years afterwards he seems to have directed his
chief attention, was the encouragement of the Scottish fisheries. This had
been a favourite project with the people of Scotland, ever since the time
when the duke of York, afterwards James II. patronized and became a
subscriber to a company formed expressly for the purpose. At length Mr
Dempster succeeded in rousing the British parliament to a due appreciation
of the national benefits to be derived from the encouragement of the
fisheries on the northern shores, and was allowed to nominate the
committee for reporting to the house the best means of carrying his plans
into execution.
About this period, Mr
Dempster was elected one of the East India Company’s directors. It is
believed that his election took place in opposition to the prevailing
interest in the directory; and certainly his mistaken notions on the
subject of oriental politics must have rendered him an inefficient member
of that court. Misled by the commercial origin of the corporation, he
would have had the company, after it had arrived at great political
influence, and had acquired extensive territorial possessions in India, to
resign its sovereign power and to confine itself to its mercantile
speculations. The policy of relinquishing territorial dominion in India,
has long been a cry got up for party purposes; but it seems very
extraordinary that Dempster, controlled by no such influence, should have
so violently opposed himself to the true interest of the country. The
error into which he fell is now obvious; he wished to maintain an
individual monopoly, when the great wealth of the country rendered it no
longer necessary, while he proposed to destroy our sway over India, when
it might be made the means of defending and extending our commerce.
Finding himself unable to alter our Indian policy, he withdrew from the
directory and became a violent parliamentary opponent of the company. He
supported Mr Fox’s India bill, a measure designed chiefly for the
purpose of consolidating a whig administration; and on one occasion he
declared, that "all chartered rights should be held inviolable,—those
derived from one charter only excepted. That is the sole and single
charter which ought in my mind to be destroyed, for the sake of the
country, for the sake of India, and for the sake of humanity."—"I
for my part lament, that the navigation to India had ever been discovered,
and I now conjure ministers to abandon all ideas of sovereignty in that
quarter of the world: for it would be wiser to make some one of the native
princes king of the country, and leave India to itself."
In 1785, Mr Dempster gave
his support to the Grenville act, by which provision was made
for the decision of contested elections by committees chosen by ballot. On
the regency question of 1788-9, he was opposed to ministry; declaring that
an executive so constituted would "resemble nothing that ever was
conceived before; an un-whig, un-tory, odd, awkward, anomalous
monster."
In the year 1790, Mr
Dempster retired from parliamentary duties. Whether this was owing to his
own inclination, or forced upon him by the superior influence of the
Athole family, a branch of which succeeded him in the representation of
his district of burghs, seems doubtful. He now devoted his undivided
attention to the advancement of the interests of his native country. It
was chiefly through his means that an act of Parliament had been obtained,
affording protection and giving bounties to the fisheries in Scotland; and
that a joint stock company had been formed for their prosecution. In the
year 1788, he had been elected one of the directors of this association,
and on that occasion he delivered a powerful speech to the members, in
which he gave historical account of the proceedings for extending the
fisheries on the coasts of Great Britain. He then showed them that the
encouragement of the fisheries was intimately connected with the
improvement of the Highlands; and in this manner, by his zeal and activity
in the cause, Mr Dempster succeeded in engaging the people of Scotland to
the enthusiastic prosecution of this undertaking. The stock raised, or
expected to be raised, by voluntary contribution, was estimated at
£150,000. Even from India considerable aid was supplied by the Scotsmen
resident in that country. The company purchased large tracts of land at
Tobermory in Mull, on Loch-Broom in Ross-shire, and on Loch-Bay and Loch-Folliart
in the isle of Sky; at all of these stations they built harbours or quays
and erected storehouses. Every thing bore a promising aspect, when the war
of 1793 with France broke out, and involved the project in ruin. The price
of their stock fell rapidly, and many became severe sufferers by the
depreciation. Still, however, although the undertaking proved disastrous
to the shareholders, yet the country at large is deeply indebted to Mr
Dempster for the great national benefit which has since accrued from the
parliamentary encouragement given to our fisheries.
In farther prosecution of
his patriotic designs, Mr Dempster attempted to establish a manufacturing
village at Skibo, on the coast of Caithness; but the local disadvantages,
in spite of the cheapness of labour and provisions, were insuperable
obstacles to its prosperity; and the consequence was, that he not only
involved himself, but his brother also, in heavy pecuniary loss, without
conferring any lasting benefit on the district.
On the close of his
parliamentary career, Mr Dempster had discontinued his practice of passing
the winter in London, and spent his time partly at his seat of Dunnichen,
and partly in St Andrews. In that ancient city he enjoyed the society of
his old friend Dr Adam Ferguson, and of the learned professors of the
university; and we have a pleasing picture of the happy serenity in which
this excellent and truly patriotic statesman passed the evening of his
life, in the fact that he was in use to send round a vehicle, which he
facetiously denominated ""the route coach," in order
to convey some old ladies to his house, who, like himself, excelled in the
game of whist, an amusement in which he took singular pleasure. His time
while at Dunnichen was more usefully employed. When Mr Dempster first
directed his attention to the improvement of his estate, the tenantry in
the north of Scotland were still subject to many of the worst evils of the
feudal system. "I found," he says (speaking of the condition of
his own farmers), "my few tenants without leases, subject to the
blacksmith of the barony; thirled to its mills; wedded to the wretched
system of out-field and in; bound to pay kain and to perform personal
services; clothed in hodden, and lodged in hovels." The
Highland proprietors, instead of attempting to improve the condition of
their farmers and peasantry, were driving them into exile, converting the
cultivated lands on their estates into pasturage, and supplying the place
of their tenantry with black cattle. Mr Dempster, in order to find
employment for the population thus cruelly driven from their native
country, became more strenuous in his endeavours for the encouragement of
our fisheries; while, in the course he pursued on his own estate, he held
out a praise-worthy example to the neighbouring proprietors, of the mode
which they ought to pursue in the improvement of their estates. He granted
long leases to his tenants, and freed them from all personal services or
unnecessary restrictions in the cultivation of their grounds; he inclosed
and drained his lands; he built the neat village of Letham; he drained and
improved the loch or moss of Dunnichen, and the peat bog of Restennet, by
which he added greatly to the extent and value of his property, and
rendered the air more salubrious. And having ascertained by experiments
that his land abounded in marl, he immediately rendered the discovery
available; in so much, it is estimated, that he acquired a quantity of
that valuable manure of the value of 14,000 pounds. But nothing can prove
more encouraging to the patriotic endeavours of proprietors for the
promotion of agriculture and the improvement of their estates, than the
following letter, addressed by Mr Dempster to the editor of the Farmer’s
Magazine—a work which had been dedicated to himself:
"Sir,—How much
depends upon mankind thinking soundly and wisely on agricultural topics,
which, in point of extent, surpass all others, and which may be said to
embrace the whole surface of the globe we inhabit! I would still be more
lavish in my commendation of your design, were it not that I should
thereby indirectly make a panegyric on myself. For these last forty years
of my life, I have acted in the management of my little rural concerns on
the principles you so strenuously inculcate. I found my few tenants
without leases, subject to the blacksmith of the barony; thirled to its
mills; wedded to the wretched system of out-field and in: bound to pay
kain, and to perform personal services; clothed in hodden, and lodged in
hovels. You have enriched the magazine with the result of your farming
excursions. Pray, direct one of them to the county I write from; peep in
upon Dunnichen, and if you find one of the evils I have enumerated
existing; if you can trace a question, at my instance, in a court of law,
with any tenant as to how he labours his farm; or find one of them not
secured by a lease of nineteen years at least, and his life,— the barony
shall be yours You will find me engaged in a controversy of the most
amiable kind with lord Carrington, defending the freedom of the English
tenants from the foolish restrictions with which their industry is
shackled; prohibitions to break up meadow land, to sow flax, to plant
tobacco, &c., all imposed by foolish fears, or by ignorance; and
confirmed by the selfish views of land stewards, who naturally wish the
dependence of farmers on their will and pleasure. God knows, Scotland is
physically barren enough, situated in a high latitude, composed of ridges
of high mountains; yet, in my opinion, moral causes contribute still more
to its sterility.
"I urge the zealous
prosecution of your labours, as a general change of system and sentiment
is only to be effected slowly; your maxims are destined, first, to revolt
mankind, and, long after, to reform them. There never was a less
successful apostle than I have been. In a mission of forty years, I cannot
boast of one convert. I still find the tenants of my nearest neighbours
and best friends, cutting down the laird’s corn, while their own crops
are imperiously calling for their sickles. I am much pleased with the
rotations you suggest; and as those topics are very favourite ones with
me, they occupy no small portion of my leisure moments.
"The Highland Society’s
being silent on the subject of the emigration of the Highlanders, who are
gone, going, and preparing to go in whole clans, can only be accounted for
by those who are more intimately acquainted with the state of the
Highlands than I pretend to be. One would think the society were disciples
of Pinkerton, who says, the best thing we could do, would be to get rid
entirely of the Celtic tribe, and people their country with inhabitants
from the low country. How little does he know the valour, the frugality,
the industry of those inestimable people, or their attachment to their
friends and country! I would not give a little Highland child for ten of
the highest Highland mountains in all Lochaber. With proper encouragement
to its present inhabitants, the next century might see the highlands of
Scotland cultivated to its summits, like Wales or Switzerland; its valleys
teeming with soldiers for our army, its bays, lakes, and friths with
seamen for our navy.
"At the height of four
hundred feet above the level of the sea, and ten miles removed from it, I
dare not venture on spring wheat, but I have had one advantage from my
elevation; my autumn wheat has been covered with snow most of the winter,
through which its green shoots peep very prettily. I have sometimes
believed that this hardy grain is better calculated for our cold climate
than is generally thought, if sown on well cleaned and dunged land, very
early, perhaps by the end of September, so as to be in ear when we get our
short scorch of heat from 15th July to 15th August, and to profit by it.
"I was pleased with
your recommending married farm servants. I don’t value mine a rush till
they marry the lass they like. On my farm of 120 acres, I can show such a
crop of thriving human stock as delights me. From five to seven years of
age, they gather my potatoes at 1d, 2d, and 3d per day, and the sight of
such a joyous busy field of industrious happy creatures revives my old
age. Our dairy fattens them like pigs; our cupboard is their apothecary’s
shop; and the old casten clothes of the family, by the industry of their
mothers, look like birthday suits on them. Some of them attend the groom
to water his horses; some the carpenter’s shop, and all go to the parish
school in the winter time, whenever they can crawl the length."
There is something
extremely delightful in the complacency with which the good old man thus
views the improvements he had wrought on his estate, and the happiness he
had diffused among those around him.
After having enjoyed much
good health, and a cheerful old age, until his last illness, Mr Dempster
died on the 13th of February, 1818, in the 84th year of his age. We cannot
more appropriately finish our imperfect sketch of this good and able
patriot, than by subjoining an extract from one of his letters to his
friend Sir John Sinclair—"I was lately on my death-bed, and no
retrospect afforded me more satisfaction than that of having made some
scores—hundreds of poor Highlanders happy, and put them in the way of
being rich themselves, and of enriching the future lairds of Skibo and
Portrossie. —Dunnichen, 2nd Nov. 1807." |
