Note 418 — Chapter VII · ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, AND IRELAND.

Wealth of Nations, III. iv. 184, 1 (written 1774), a passage which shows that the clearances and the consequent cry of Depopulation are to be looked for as early as the middle of the century. We are sometimes told that from the ’45 to the end of the century was the golden age of highland farmers. But the willingness of the clansmen to enter Chatham’s highland regiments would hardly imply great contentment.