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shares in every canal, or similar work, which should be begun in the course of a short period to be specified, to an amount not exceeding three-fourths of the whole expense; and also, to advance money to a similar extent, at the rate of 3 per cent. for the building of bridges, making of new roads, &c.—a proportional part of their revenue being set apart to pay the interest and liquidate the debt. The benefits that would result from a measure of this kind would be unspeakably great. If proper enactments were made to hasten the beginning of the works, I will venture to assert, that in six months from the passing of the law, little short of one hundred thousand persons would be employed in objects of public utility. ******** The really helpless poor could not perhaps be better maintained than by moderate pecuniary allowances in the parishes in which they live. I shall not, however, extend my remarks, by entering on a subject which would merit and require a more minute analysis than I could now bestow upon it.

To the plan I have ventured to submit to your consideration, many objections of great force may doubtless be urged. But from these, it is not in the least probable that any measure which can be proposed or adopted will be free. Perhaps we shall do well in seeking to change a system to which the policy of the state has given all the sanction of time, to limit our hopes to the obtaining of a great good by the enduring of considerable evil. ********

I. "This year (says Hume; Hist. Eng. 1680) is remarkable for being the epoch of the well-known epithets of Whig and Tory, by which, and sometimes without any material difference, this island has been so long divided. The court party reproached their antagonists with their affinity to the fanatical conventiclers in Scotland, who were known by the name of Whigs: The country party found a resemblance between the courtiers and popish banditti in Ireland, to whom the appellation of Tory was affixed. And after this manner, these foolish terms of reproach came into public and general use; and even at present, seem not nearer their end than when they were first invented."

II. Mr Laing takes no notice of the term Tory,—but of Whig, he gives the following as the origin:—

"Argyle and Lothian had begun an insurrection in the Highlands," and so forth. "The expedition was termed the Whigamores' inroad, from a word employed by these western peasants in driving horses; and the name, transferred in the succeeding reign to the opponents of the court, is still preserved and cherished by the Whigs, as the genuine descendants of the covenanting Scots."^[1]

III. Bailey, in his dictionary, gives the following:—

"Whig (Sax.) whey, butter-milk, or very small beer,"—again,

"A Whig—first applied to those in Scotland who kept their meetings in the fields, their common food being sour-milk,^[2]—a nickname given to those who were against the court interest in the times of King Charles and James II., and to such as were for it in succeeding reigns."

With regard to Tory, he says,

"A word first used by the protestants in Ireland, to signify those Irish common robbers and murderers, who stood outlawed for robbery and murder; now a nickname to such as call themselves high church men, or to the partizans of the Chevalier de St George."

IV. Johnson, again, has "Whig (Sax.) 1. Whey.—2. the name of a faction,"—and as to Tory, he supposes it to be derived from an Irish word, signifying a savage.—"One who