Clarke's Survey of the Lakes, 1787

---

	title page
	previous page next page
	Page vii:- well subsist but amongst those who reside in territories contiguous to the boundaries of two hostile or rival states. Its requisite is Expedition, and its object Plunder. The disturbance of wars, like the boiling of a cauldron, hath a sort of scum. Troublesome tempers, incapable of rest, and fond of rapine through native avarice or inveterate habits; these tempers, when jealousy makes nations under the masque of peace ill at ease with each other, or when civil administration is held with a lax hand, or again when the governors of the outlying provinces, from private interests or pique, connive at their practices, will too often receive tacit encouragement. But add to these, even in better times, the advantages of night, secrecy, and by-ways; the obstacles to regular judicial inquiry, from difference of laws under different governments, the patronage and protection of their immediate lords, of relations and neighbours; together with the force of example handed down from father to son for many generations; and we need not wonder, if such a disease acquired no small degree of virulence. There may, however, be still more reasons assigned; for when such a people are uncertain to which government they belong, or are continually changing their masters, they are willing enough to think they belong to neither, may make incursions on both, or fight out their own quarrels amongst themselves, without imagining that they are accountable to any one. Besides, individuals of this cast are too apt, when their fortunes are desperate, to forget that they have any native country at all, and to consider every thing as lawful game; or even, from a custom so long nourished in the lap of barbarity, may never dream that such actions are criminal, and perhaps consider them as requisites of life. Moreover, when wrenched by force from one party, or surrendered with a grudge, their practices may be abetted by that party as the hopes of a war, and the means of recovery. There might, without doubt, were we more intimately acquainted with circumstances, be many more causes adduced to confirm the likeliness of a durable and extensive effect attached to such a life; but these which are already mentioned, and for which there is undoubted authority with respect to their application in the present purpose, are sufficient to persuade any one that they were enough to produce certain effects, which would add new horror and cruelty to themselves; namely, old wrongs to avenge, and hereditary antipathies to gratify. But it ought not to be forgot, that such men, by their continual acquaintance with danger,and their knowledge of the country; but their hardiness, subtlety, and swiftness, would be excellent attendants on more regular armies; they would be well qualified for partisans, foragers, and spies; and from thence might receive additional encouragement; nay, we know that the bulk of many armies has consisted of them: they will be, without doubt, extremely fierce and cruel; for with war a certain degree of barbarity will creep into mankind; but habitual war, and incessant violence must ensavage them strangely: History uniformly ascribes principles like these to a wild people, and generally finds them wild in a situation like this of which we are speaking.
invasion   defence
	VI. When a country is exposed to continual invasions from a neighbouring enemy, its means of defence will be proportionally numerous. A regular government generally establishes a chain of forts, or of military stations, for its defence; or, as the Chinese have down, and as the Romans did in more places than one, builds a barrier still more continuous to exclude the invaders. but in the half-anarchy of the feudal system, every petty lord had his castle to defend his domain and his own hoard, independent of those that were maintained at the public charge. One mode had in view the security of a whole province; the other, whilst it weakened the first, more immediately regarded the property of individuals. One expects, in the first case, numerous encampments, fortresses, and military stations; in the latter, that when the defence of the inhabitants in a great measure to themselves, every house will be as strong as the owner can afford to make it, or will be built on an eminence for the sake of a good look-out; but, if neither of these can be accomplished, will be in the vicinity of some strong place, to which its inhabitants may withdraw for shelter. Again: When a detached kingdom retains its independence long after those contiguous to it; its manners and religious rites, when those of the others are abolished, or changed by the intrusion of strangers, we expect it should retain proportionally fresher marks of its former condi-
	tion.
	next page

Lakes Guides menu.

---