BILL FOR THE RESTORATION OF FORFEITED ESTATES IN SCOTLAND.
The last measure which came before parliament during the present session was a bill introduced by Mr. Dundas, for the restoration of estates in Scotland to the heirs of those who had forfeited them in the rebellions of 1715 and 1745. In making this proposition, Mr. Dundas declared that it was, in his opinion, worthy of the justice and generosity of the house. There was not one of the families comprehended in the scope of it, he said, in which some person had not atoned for the crimes and errors of his ancestors, by sacrificing his blood in the cause of his country; and he declared that the sovereign had not, for a long series of years past, a more loyal set of subjects than the Highlanders and their chieftains. He did not, however, propose that the estates should be freed from the claims existing against them at the time of their forfeiture, as this, he argued, would be establishing a premium for rebellion. Such sums, amounting to about £80,000, he suggested, should be appropriated to public purposes; £50,000 of which he recommended should be employed in the completion of the grand canal reaching from the Frith of Forth to that of Clyde. This liberal measure was received in a manner that did honour to the feelings of the house; the leaders of both parties joining in eulogising it. The bill passed the commons without any opposition; but when sent to the lords it met with a most determined resistance from the restored chancellor Thurlow, who expatiated on the ancient maxim that treason was of so deep a dye that nothing but the total eradication of the person, name, and family out of the community was adequate to its punishment. On a division, however, Thurlow was left in a great minority, and the bill passed, much to the satisfaction of the public.