Let no consideration deter us from pleading our own cause temperately but firmly, and we shall certainly receive a favourable audience.  Even our acquisition of a little wealth, which might abate our courage on other occasions, should invigorate us to unanimous perseverance at the present crisis, when the very source of our national prosperity is directly, though unwittingly, struck at.  Our plaids are, I trust, not yet sunk into Jewish gaberdines, to be wantonly spit upon; nor are we yet bound to ‘receive the insult with a patient shrug.’  But exertion is now demanded on other accounts than those of mere honourable punctilio.  Misers themselves will struggle in defence of their property, though tolerant of all aggressions by which that is not threatened.  Avarice herself, however mean-spirited, will rouse to defend the wealth she possesses, and preserve the means of gaining more.  Scotland is now called upon to rally in defence of the sources of her national improvement, and the means of increasing it; upon which, as none are so much concerned in the subject, none can be such competent judges as Scotsmen themselves.

I cannot believe so generous a people as the English, so wise an administration as the present, will disregard our humble remonstrances, merely because they are made in the form of peaceful entreaty, and not secundum perfervidum ingenium Scotorum, with ‘durk and pistol at our belt.’  It would be a dangerous lesson to teach the empire at large, that threats can extort what is not yielded to reasonable and respectful remonstrance.

But this is not all.  The principle of ‘uniformity of laws,’ if not manfully withstood, may have other blessings in store for us.  Suppose, that when finished with blistering Scotland when in perfect health, England should find time and courage to withdraw the veil from the deep cancer which is gnawing her own bowels, and make an attempt to stop the fatal progress of her poor-rates.  Some system or other must be proposed in its place—­a grinding one it must be, for it is not an evil to be cured by palliatives.  Suppose the English, for uniformity’s sake, insist that Scotland, which is at present free from this foul and shameful disorder, should nevertheless be included in the severe treatment which the disease demands, how would the landholders of Scotland like to undergo the scalpel and cautery, merely because England requires to be scarified?

Or again;—­Supposing England should take a fancy to impart to us her sanguinary criminal code, which, too cruel to be carried into effect, gives every wretch that is condemned a chance of one to twelve that he shall not be executed, and so turns the law into a lottery—­would this be an agreeable boon to North Britain?