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156 Henry
W. Meikle
most oppressive of the taxes ; for in the first place every creature
of Government is obliged to subscribe largely and they are
indefatigable in forcing others to subscribe, threatening them
with ruining their business, their trade, and interest, if they
do not, and many who have persevered in refusing to subscribe
have actually been ruined by the malice of Pitt's vermin. They
have influenced all the public and private banks, so that thousands
of traders who cannot pay their bills are forced by their bankers
to put down their names to this gift, and threatened not to get
a single bill discounted if they do not. The soldiers and sailors
are likewise compelled to put down their names to this famous
gift, and thousands of names appear in the newspapers as
Patriotic contributors to this gift who curse the ministry (the
authors of it), curse the purposes to which it is applied, and
would give twice the amount of their subscriptions to bring
the heads of the ministers to the block. But this is no news
to you. Citizens John M'Kenzie, John Pattison, John Monteith,
and a hundred more in Glasgow would give all the cloaths on
them to be as clear of the country as you and I are.
' The manufactures are much in the decline, and if the French
Republic could stop them from Hamburgh, and the American
and West India markets, they might soon make what sort of
a peace they pleased. The whole nation would be in arms, and
indeed nothing prevents this just now but unabated efforts of
the ministers
bribing
the landed Gentlemen to act
against
their
own interest. I need not tell you that if the War Establishment
continue two in
years longer England, the Bank of England
paper will be of as little value as the lowest price of American
or French paper ever was, and it is in the power of the French to
hurry on this event by a method which I could clearly point out.'
In the other letter dated Embden, 3ist August, 1798,
15 Fructidor, an 6, to Thomas Muir, he gives a full account
of his sufferings, and reveals more regarding his visit to Nantes
than he had communicated to the Sheriff-Depute of Edinburgh.
*
I have endured a part of the persecution you so unjustly
suffered. I have occupied the same apartments in Edinburgh
Jail which you have done before me and have been put to great
inconveniences with my family and to great expenses. But I
thank God all the malice of my persecutors have not been able
to prevent me from securing as much of my property as to
enable me to carry on my plan of my muslin manufactory upon
a moderate scale, or even to live with oeconomy upon the remains