Wade entered upon his investigation in 1724, and his report shows he was competent to undertake such a task. He computed that of the 22,000 Highlandmen able to bear arms, 10,000 were “vassals to superiors,” well affected to government, and the remainder had been engaged in rebellions, and were ready, when called upon by their chiefs, “to create new troubles.” One of the greatest grievances was the robberies referred to by Lovat, accompanied with the levying of black mail. According to the general, “the clans, in the Highlands, the most addicted to rapine and plunder, are the Camerons, on the west of the shire of Inverness; the Mackenzies and others, in the shire of Ross, who were vassals to the late Earl of Seaforth; the M’Donalds of Keppoch; the Broadalbin men and the M’Gregors, on the borders of Argileshire. They go out in parties from ten to thirty men, traverse large tracks of mountains, till they arrive at the low lands, where they design to commit their depredations, which they choose to do in places distant from the glens which they inhabit. They drive the stolen cattle in the night time, and in the day remain on the tops of the mountains or in the woods, (with which the Highlands abound), and take the first occasion to sell them at the fairs or markets that are annually held in many parts of the country.
“Those who are robbed of their cattle (or persons employed by them), follow them by the tract, and often recover them from the robbers, by compounding for a certain sum of money agreed on; but if the pursuers are in numbers superiour to the thieves, and happen to seize any of them, they are seldom or never prosecuted, the poorer sort being unable to support the charges of a prosecution. They are likewise under the apprehension of becoming the object of their revenge, by having their houses and stacks burnt, their cattle stolen, or hocked, and their lives at the mercy of the tribe or clan to whom the banditti belongs. The richer sort, to keep, as they call it, good neighbourhood, generally compound with the chieftain of the tribe or clan for double restitution, which he willingly pays to save one of his clan from prosecution; and this is repaid him by a contribution from the thieves of his clan, who never refuse the payment of their proportion to save one of their own fraternity. This composition is seldom paid in money, but in cattle stolen from the opposite side of the country, to make reparation to the person injured.”[755]
To remedy these evils, an act for the disarming of the Highlanders was passed in the year 1716, but it was so badly put into force that the most disaffected clans remained better armed than ever. By the act, the collectors of taxes were empowered to pay for the arms delivered up; but none were given in except such as were broken and unfit for use, which were valued at a price far beyond what they were worth. Not only so, but a brisk trade appears to have been carried on with Holland and other countries in broken and useless arms, which were imported and delivered up to the commissioners at exorbitant prices. Wade also found in the possession of the Highlanders a great number of arms which they had obtained from the Spaniards engaged in the affair at Glen Shiel. Altogether he computed that the Highlanders hostile to his majesty were in possession of about five or six thousand arms of various kinds. Wade further reports that to keep the Highlanders in awe, “four barracks had been built in different parts of the Highlands, and parties of regular troops, under the command of Highland officers, with a company of 30, established to conduct them through the mountains, was thought an effectual scheme, as well to prevent the rising of the Highlanders disaffected to your majesty’s government, as to hinder depredations on your faithful subjects. It is to be wished that, during the reign of your majesty and your successors, no insurrection may ever happen to experience whether the barracks will effectually answer the end proposed; yet I am humbly of opinion, that if the number of troops they are built to contain were constantly quartered in them (whereas there is now in some but 30 men, and proper provisions laid in for their support during the winter season), they might be of some use to prevent the insurrections of the Highlanders, though, as I humbly conceive (having seen them all), that two of the four are not built in as proper situations as they might have been. As to the Highland parties, I have already presumed to represent to your majesty the little use they were of in hindering depredations, and the great sufferings of the soldiers employed in that service, upon which your majesty was graciously pleased to countermand them.
“I must farther beg leave to report to your majesty, that another great cause of disorders in the Highlands is the want of proper persons to execute the several offices of civil magistrates, especially in the shires of Inverness, Ross, and some other parts of the Highlands.
“The party quarrels and violent animosities among the gentlemen equally well affected to your majesty’s government, I humbly conceive to be one great cause of this defect. Those here in arms for your majesty, who raised a spirit in the shire of Inverness, and recovered the town of that name from the rebels (their main body being then at Perth), complain that the persons employed as magistrates over them have little interest in the country, and that three of the deputy sheriffs in those parts were persons actually in arms against your majesty at the time of the rebellion, which (as I am credibly informed) is true. They likewise complain that many are left out of the commissions of lord lieutenants, deputy lieutenants, sheriffs, &c., and I take the liberty to observe, that the want of acting justices of the peace is a great encouragement to the disorders so frequently committed in that part of the country, there being but one now residing as an acting justice for the space of above an hundred miles in compass.”[756]
He also complained that the regular troops laboured under great disadvantages in endeavouring to penetrate in the Highland fastnesses from the want of roads and bridges.
Fort Augustus.
As a remedy for these evils he proposed “that companies of such Highlanders as are well affected to his majesty’s government be established under proper regulations, and commanded by officers speaking the language of the country, subject to martial law, and under the inspection and orders of the governors of Fort-William, Inverness, and the officer commanding his majesty’s forces in those parts;”[757] that a redoubt or barrack be erected at Inverness, and an addition be made to the one already established at Killyhuimen (Fort Augustus), at the south end of Loch Ness, and that a small vessel, with oars and sails, be built on the loch, capable of holding from sixty to eighty soldiers, which would be a means of keeping up communication between Inverness and Fort Augustus, and of sending parties to the county bordering on the lake. Further, that the different garrisons and castles in North Britain, especially the castle of Edinburgh, be put in such condition as to guard against surprise, and that a regiment of dragoons be quartered in the district between Perth and Inverness. As to the civil government of the country, Wade recommended that proper persons be nominated for sheriffs and deputy sheriffs in the Highland counties, and that justices of the peace and constables, with small salaries, be established in proper places, and that quarter sessions be regularly held at Killyhuimen, Ruthven in Badenoch, Fort William, and if necessary, at Bernera, near the coast of the Isle of Skye.