[395] Morer, who was in Scotland in 1688 and 1689, says: 'But that which employs great part of their land is hemp, of which they have mighty burdens, and on which they bestow much care and pains to dress and prepare it for making their linen, the most noted and beneficial manufacture of the kingdom.' _Morer's Short Account of Scotland_, London, 1702, pp. 3, 4.
[396] 'The duties upon linen from Scotland being taken off in England, made so great a demand for Scots linen more than usual, that it seemed the poor could want no employment.' _De Foe's History of the Union between England and Scotland_, p. 604. Compare _Macpherson's Annals of Commerce_, vol. ii. p. 736: 'a prodigious vent, not only in England, but for the American plantations.' This concerns a later period.
[397] 'The surplus of linen made above the consumption, was, in 1728, 2,183,978 yards; in 1738, 4,666,011.' _Chalmers' Caledonia_, vol. i. p. 873. On the increase between 1728 and 1732, see the Table in _The Interest of Scotland Considered_, Edinburgh, 1733, p. 97. In a work published in 1732, it is stated that 'they make a great deal of linnen all over the kingdom, not only for their own use, but export it to England, and to the Plantations. In short, the women are all kept employ'd, from the highest to the lowest of them.' _Macky's Journey through Scotland_, London, 1732, p. 271. This refers merely to the women of Scotland, whom Macky represents as much more industrious than the men.
[398] In 1745, Craik writes to Lord Nithisdale, 'The present family have now reigned over us these thirty years, and though during so long a time they may have fallen into errors, or may have committed faults, (as what Government is without?) yett I will defy the most sanguine zealot to find in history a period equal to this in which Scotland possessed so uninterrupted a felicity, in which liberty, civil and religious, was so universally enjoyed by all people of whatever denomination--nay, by the open and avowed ennemys of the family and constitution, or a period in which all ranks of men have been so effectually secured in their property. Have not trade, manufactures, agriculture, and the spirit of industry in our country extended themselves further during this period and under this family than for ages before?' _Thomson's Memoirs of the Jacobites_, London, 1845, vol. ii. pp. 60, 61.