The Chancellor, therefore, in a very long and elaborate speech, said, that if what had been advanced against the Bill was true, it was one of the worst Bills on the best plan that ever was formed. That indeed the Bill was only a part of the plan formerly concerted of buying the jurisdictions of the great Lords into the hands of the Crown; and that it fell in naturally enough to that plan, as these estates must necessarily be sold. That the only blame he should have expected was that this Bill had not been brought in sooner. Formerly the complaint had been that forfeited estates were restored and given back from the Crown. That indeed he did believe many of the claims upon these estates were fictitious: however, they must be determined in Scotland; here is the last place where they must be examined. That this Bill alone can enable you to have fair purchasers; and that if the claims are fraudulent, it is an additional reason for passing such a Bill; otherwise, the original proprietors might re-acquire their estates for nothing. That the great view of the Government was to destroy clanships; his own great wish, to see the King a great Highland landlord: that one of the chief benefits to arise from this scheme, secondarily to the extension of loyalty, is the improvement of the linen manufactures, an establishment at once so useful to our trade, and so inconsistent with arbitrary principles, that there had been but three single men of those manufacturers engaged in the last Rebellion. That with regard to the difficulty of finding colonists, he did not doubt but some English might be prevailed on to settle there, probably some Lowlanders too, nay, some Irish, if they can be spared. He believed, indeed, that the greater part of the old inhabitants must remain at first; but that some of the well-affected clans might be induced to transmigrate to those settlements; and that he did not despair of reclaiming even the present tenants, at least in the next generation of them, if they were once emancipated from dependence on their chiefs. That the danger from distributing money among the disaffected, formerly so impolitic a measure of King William, must not be considered here in that light; this is not money to bribe traitors, but to pay lawful creditors; and that he had rather even fraudulent creditors should enjoy this money than have the estates revert to their old proprietors. That even the position laid down of encouragement given to Rebellions by largesses to that country, was not true; it was the restitution of forfeited estates which had hardened them to attempt new commotions; but that if we were still to see repeated insurrections, every Rebellion cuts off so much strength from the faction. That indeed, as to the article of the Commissioners, he wished those words, _without fee or reward_, were not in the Bill; that he must own he saw many just grounds of complaint, but could not approve national reflections. That to the honour