[391] Gibson, who was a Glasgow merchant, says, in his History of Glasgow, p. 236, ‘that the commerce to America first suggested the idea of introducing manufactures into Glasgow, is to me very evident; and that they were only attempted to be introduced about the year 1725 is apparent.’ Denholm (History of Glasgow, p. 412) says: ‘The linen manufacture, which began here in the year 1725, was, for a long time, the staple, not only of this city, but of the west of Scotland.’ Compare Heron's Journey through the Western Counties of Scotland, Perth, 1799, vol. ii. p. 412.
[392] ‘Consisting only of one principal street about half a mile in length.’ Sinclair's Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. vii. p. 62. But the local historian mentions, with evident pride, that this one street contained ‘handsome houses.’ Crawfurd's History of the Shire of Renfrew, part iii. p. 305, edit. Paisley, 1782, 4to.
[393] Denholm's History of Glasgow, pp. 546, 547; and Sinclair's Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. vii. pp. 62–64. See also, on the rise of Paisley, Heron's Journey through the Western Counties of Scotland, vol. ii. pp. 399, 400; Pennant's Tour in Scotland, vol. ii. p. 144; and Crawfurd's History of the Shire of Renfrew, part iii. p. 321. At an earlier period, Paisley was famous in a different way. In the middle ages it swarmed with monks. Keith (Catalogue of Scotch Bishops, p. 252, Edinburgh, 1755, 4to) tells us that, ‘it formerly was a Priory, and afterwards changed into an Abbey of Black Monks.’
[394] The author of The Interest of Scotland Considered, Edinburgh, 1733, says (p. xvi.) that since 1727, ‘we have happily turned our eyes upon the improvement of our manufactures, which is now a common subject in discourse, and this contributes not a little to its success.’
[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.
[399] Crawfurd's History of the Shire of Renfrew, part ii. p. 114.
[400] Sinclair's Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. vii. p. 341, compared with vol. xii. pp. 176, 177.