Thus By
Less Than The Tillage Of Two Acres They Pay The Rent Of One.
There are tenants below the rank of Tacksmen, that have got smaller
tenants under them; for in every place, where money is not the
general equivalent, there must be some whose labour is immediately
paid by daily food.
A country that has no money, is by no means convenient for beggars,
both because such countries are commonly poor, and because charity
requires some trouble and some thought. A penny is easily given
upon the first impulse of compassion, or impatience of importunity;
but few will deliberately search their cupboards or their granaries
to find out something to give. A penny is likewise easily spent,
but victuals, if they are unprepared, require houseroom, and fire,
and utensils, which the beggar knows not where to find.
Yet beggars there sometimes are, who wander from Island to Island.
We had, in our passage to Mull, the company of a woman and her
child, who had exhausted the charity of Col. The arrival of a
beggar on an Island is accounted a sinistrous event. Every body
considers that he shall have the less for what he gives away.
Their alms, I believe, is generally oatmeal.
Near to Col is another Island called Tireye, eminent for its
fertility. Though it has but half the extent of Rum, it is so well
peopled, that there have appeared, not long ago, nine hundred and
fourteen at a funeral. The plenty of this Island enticed beggars
to it, who seemed so burdensome to the inhabitants, that a formal
compact was drawn up, by which they obliged themselves to grant no
more relief to casual wanderers, because they had among them an
indigent woman of high birth, whom they considered as entitled to
all that they could spare. I have read the stipulation, which was
indited with juridical formality, but was never made valid by
regular subscription.
If the inhabitants of Col have nothing to give, it is not that they
are oppressed by their landlord: their leases seem to be very
profitable. One farmer, who pays only seven pounds a year, has
maintained seven daughters and three sons, of whom the eldest is
educated at Aberdeen for the ministry; and now, at every vacation,
opens a school in Col.
Life is here, in some respects, improved beyond the condition of
some other Islands. In Sky what is wanted can only be bought, as
the arrival of some wandering pedlar may afford an opportunity; but
in Col there is a standing shop, and in Mull there are two. A shop
in the Islands, as in other places of little frequentation, is a
repository of every thing requisite for common use. Mr. Boswell's
journal was filled, and he bought some paper in Col. To a man that
ranges the streets of London, where he is tempted to contrive
wants, for the pleasure of supplying them, a shop affords no image
worthy of attention; but in an Island, it turns the balance of
existence between good and evil.
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