Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 9.djvu/258

522 were obliged to kill their cattle, and eat the flesh without bread; many who had no such resource, lived on soup made of nettles, and snails, which were salted for winter sustenance; while the poor along the coasts, were reduced to the insufficient diet of whelks, limpets, and other such shell-fish. This calamity, which bore hardest upon the north of Scotland, extended over several counties, and included a population of 110,000 souls. It was here that Mr. Sinclair bestirred himself; and not content with appeals to private philanthropy, he brought the subject before the House of Commons, by whom it was referred to a committee. No precedent as yet existed in the annals of the House for a parliamentary grant made upon such an occasion, but the emergency was unprecedented also. Accordingly, forms were waived, and a grant of money decreed in favour of the sufferers, by which their -present wants were supplied, and the pestilential diseases attendant upon famine arrested. The obtaining of such relief for his suffering countrymen, constituted a happy era in the public life of Mr. Sinclair; and he was often afterwards heard to declare, that no part of his parliamentary career had ever afforded him such intense satisfaction.

Having distinguished himself as an author upon miscellaneous questions of public interest, Mr. Sinclair was now to obtain reputation as a writer on the difficult subject of finance. The close of our war with America had been followed in Britain, as is usual at the close of all our wars, with a fit of economical calculation. The nation sat down to count the cost, and found itself, of course, on the brink of bankruptcy; and the murmur that rose was all the louder, as neither glory nor success was an offset to the expenditure. It was now demonstrated for the one hundred and fiftieth time, that Britain was ruined beyond recovery, and not a few of these gloomy reasoners were something better than mere political grumblers. While the public despondency was at the height, Mr. Sinclair's "Hints on the State of our Finances," appeared in 1783. The accurate calculations and masterly reasoning of this production, convinced the reflective and cheered the despondent at home; while abroad, it disabused both friend and enemy of the conclusions they had formed upon the coming national insolvency. But it did more than this; it established his character so completely as a sound financier, that his advice was taken upon those measures by which the real evils of the present crisis were to be effectually averted. Such was especially the case, when the extension of the banking system in England was the subject of consideration. On this occasion he was consulted by Sir James Eisdale, the eminent London banker, to whom he recommended the system of the Scottish country banks, the nature and principles of which he fully and clearly explained. Sir James, on finding these so completely accordant with his own views, adopted them into his plan, and the result was, the establishment of twenty branch banks in the country in connection with his own house. The example was speedily multiplied, and banks were established in every part of England. But still, one important part of the Scottish system was omitted; this was the security which country banks are obliged to give for the paper money they issue a wholesome check, by which dishonest speculation is cut short, and the risk of bankruptcy avoided. This part, so essential to public confidence in banking, was strangely dispensed with in the English system, notwithstanding Sinclair's earnest remonstrances with Mr. Pitt upon the subject; and hence the difference in the stability and efficacy of these English banks as contrasted with those of Scotland. An application which he soon after made on his own account to Mr. Pitt was better attended to; this was for