the rest, when she had ended, said, we were obliged to her. The daughters, who afterwards gave us a tune on the forte piano, and sang to it some beautiful Gaelic, as well as Scotch, songs, possessed many amiable qualities; and, excepting their heads being, perhaps, too much filled with an idea of their own importance, as the descendants of so powerful a clan as the clan Keron, which it seemswas theirs by the mother's side, I saw no fault in their deportment or appearance. Cromarty is situated on a narrow neck of land, which stretches out into the Murray Frith, at the mouth of Cromarty Bay. It has a considerable coasting trade in corn, thread, yarn, fish, and skins; and, as already mentioned, a most excellent harbour. Though nothing can be imagined more horrid than the general aspect of the small county of Cromarty, it is in many places not unfertile, and well cultivated. Near the town of Cromarty particularly are many neat enclosures and beautiful plantations. It seems, on the whole, to be a thriving place. Having rode along the south side of Cromarty Firth to Dingwall, where I fell in with nothing worthy of remark, except a beautiful and extensive view, and some well-cultivated fields, I went to Tain. At this place nothing disgusted me more than some fanatics, whom I met by accident. As the people at Cromarty seemed to pique themselves on a minute acquaintance with the history of their clan, so the people here would make you believe that they are indifferent to all the pleasures and the vanities of this world, and solely taken up with spiritual concerns; and, knowing well how much the pride of ancestry and clanship prevails in many places, they will frequently observe, "that it is of small importance how any person is born, in a carnal or physical sense: the great point to be ascertained being to know whether we be born again." This very expressive metaphor, in the Sacred Scriptures, is meant to denote that total change of sentiments, habits, views, and hopes, that is brought about gradually by the progressive influence of the doctrines, precepts, examples, and motives held out in the gospel. But the melancholy fanatics of Tain suppose that the new birth, or regeneration, is the work of a moment, as it were, and accordingly they are anxious to trace their conversion and election, or, as they say, their being both called and chosen to some particular occasion of time, place, or incident. They are wholly absorbed in metaphysical notions and doubts. With the love, charity, and joyful hopes inspired by the genuine doctrines of our Saviour they seem to be unacquainted. Being here on a Sunday, and not wishing them to think me an outcast, I went to her sermon along with them. It turned wholly on matters of controversy. Not only were Deists and Unitarians very roughly, I do not say very skillfully, handled, but Arminians also. The bishops of England, in their addresses to the clergy under them, have for some years exhorted them, with the utmost earnestness, not only to defend our religion against Deists, but to be at great pains to explain and maintain the peculiar and mysterious doctrines of christianity. The bishop of London, in a charge delivered to the . clergy of his diocese in 1795, exhorts them, above all things, to maintain and explain these in a course of sermons before unlettered christians. I very much doubt whether this be a zeal according to knowledge. Unlettered christians, very fortunately, do not entertain the least doubt concerning the truth of revealed religion, or of the doctrines of the church, however mysterious. To start game for the feeble efforts of their untutored intellect, and the vagaries of an ill-regulated imagination, prompted in their exertions by evil appetites and desires, is not good economy. Next to the open aggressors of christianity, and of our religious establishments, in effect, though not in design, are those officious controversialists, who think it worth while to follow infidels and heretics into all the cavities and corners, in which, by mingling a little light with much darkness, they endeavour, and sometimes with two much success, to throw all things into doubt and confusion. The divine precepts, and doctrines, as far as they can be comprehended by human understanding, shine by their own light, and communicate warmth and life by their own heat. Instead of endless disputation, nay, instead of too many moral discourses, it would be well to read very large portions of the Scripture, unmixed with human sentiment however pathetic, and all conceits however ingenious. It was formerly, and is, I believe still, usual for the ministers in Ross-shire, Caithness, and the Orkneys, to stop occasionally in the midst of their discourses, and call on their hearers, to let them know, if any thing in their discourse wanted explanation. Ross-shire, of which Tain is one of the principal towns may be called the Holy Land of Scotland, but a few days, was long enough to convince me that religion does not influence the hearts of the people here more than in other parts of the country, where their public devotions do not occupy above one half the time. Having crossed the Firth, at Tain, I arrived at Dornoch, in Sutherland, where I observed the country in many places to have a cold, dreary, and bleak appearance. Dornoch, the county town of Sutherland, has not more than about five hundred inhabitants. It has been observed, that there are too many tide-waiters and excisemen in the country, and that the revenue might be levied as effectually, as well as at less expense, if there were fewer. This may be the case on the river Thames and some other places, and there may be abuses in this as well as in other public offices in London, where the clerks generally sit more than one half of their time reading Roderick Random and other books of the kind; the offices often admitting and paying more clerks, &c. than they have occasion for. Yet I am certain there are not more revenue officers along this coast than are necessary, considering the number of smugglers. The truth is, that notwithstanding all the vigilance of government, the greater part of the northern coasts of Scotland are swarming with them, and foreign spirits of all kinds, of an excellent quality, are every where to be found, particularly near fishing towns; the fishers going out with their boats, and bringing ashore what the smugglers cannot conveniently land. I mention these circumstances because I know them to be true, and because, notwithstanding what is said in favour |