compelled to decamp from a school which he had carried on at Glenorchay. He professed

to have shaken off all national bigotry, and by some fulsome adulation he attracted the attention of Johnson. When a violent personal attack was made upon Shaw by one Clark, of Edinburgh, Johnson took Shaw under his protection and helped him to write a rejoinder, which appeared in 1782.1 The controversy thereupon began to wane, and in 1785 Boswell declared that public interest in it had come to an end.2

1 Boswell's Life (æt. 74).

2 Boswell's Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, Nov. 10.

CHAPTER XII.

MACPHERSON AS A PAMPHLETEER.-ASSISTS SIR
JOHN MACPHERSON IN ATTACKING THE
EAST INDIA COMPANY. REVIEWS THE
CONDUCT OF THE OPPOSITION.-LETTERS ON
THE THREATENED INVASION. IRISH AND
INDIAN AFFAIRS. BECOMES MEMBER FOR
CAMELFORD.-AGENT FOR THE NABOB OF
ARCOT. RISE
RISE IN HIS FORTUNES. THE
OSSIANIC CONTROVERSY AGAIN. THE INDIAN
SUBSCRIPTION.

As a writer in the service of Lord North's
Ministry, Macpherson found plenty of employ-
ment for his pen in the political questions of the
day, which were certainly of the most absorbing
character. At home there were constitutional
struggles, religious
religious entanglements, and Irish
difficulties beyond the common measure. The
position abroad was disastrous. The enmity of
France and of Spain had become a permanent
trouble; the American colonies, chafing for ten
years under desultory taxation, were on the
point of declaring their independence; and while
in India, as though to compensate for loss in the

ร

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WRITES AGAINST THE AMERICANS.

259

West, the supremacy had lately been won, those
who were laying the foundations of empire were
now reaping the fruits of conquest with a
rapacity that aroused the bitterest antagonism
of their own countrymen.

It was the American policy of the Govern-
ment which called for the most strenuous support,
and placed the heaviest burden on its adherents ;
not so much from the gravity of the issues at
stake, as from the uncompromising opposition of
the Whigs, who carried their disapproval so far
that for some time they refused to attend Par-
liament except for private business. When in
July, 1776, the thirteen colonies issued their
famous Declaration, Macpherson was employed
by the Ministry to write a popular reply.
The Rights of Great Britain asserted against
the Claims of America, he produced a pamphlet
which quickly gained the ear of the public. It
went through many editions; nor can his friends
have failed to be pleased that it met with a
much greater success than attended Johnson's
efforts in his rancorous philippic, Taxation No
Tyranny, issued in the previous year.
In sup-
porting the American policy of the Government,
Macpherson was acting in unison with most

In

of the Scotchmen prominent in London; for although the Government failed to obtain addresses in its favour from any of the chief cities in Scotland, the writers and politicians of that country were as a rule on its side."

1

But in 1777 a new, and, as it proved, a lucrative channel was opened to Macpherson's energy in the tortuous business of Indian politics. He was at first drawn to it by his interest in the affairs of his kinsman John Macpherson, son of the minister of Sleat. Early in life this remarkable man had gone out in the train of many other adventurers to seek his fortune in India; he had become the servant of Mohammed Ali, the nabob of Arcot; and he was employed by that potentate on the most confidential business. The nabob was in many difficulties. For a number of years he had been dependent on the favour and protection of the East India Company; but neither its favour nor its protection had availed to help him against the rapacity of some of the Company's servants, who were amassing great fortunes by private enterprise. It was at their instigation, or else with the sole object of plunder, that he had twice invaded the neigh1See Mr. Lecky's History, iii. 534.

bouring territory of Tanjore, where he imprisoned the rajah on the pretext of forcing him to pay his debts. The Company had interfered

in the dispute with a view to its own advantage; and by reckless promises to the Company's servants the nabob found himself and his country under an enormous burden of debt. It was hardly strange that of the nature and justice of this debt different views were taken by the nabob himself, the officials whom he employed, the Court of Directors at home, and the executive Government. In 1777, the nabob resolved to appeal to the English Ministry to help him in his difficulties; basing his hopes, as it appears, on North's Regulation Act, which four years previously had introduced some order into the dealings between the English and the natives. He entrusted the mission to his young Scotch friend, who had recently been dismissed by the Madras Council on suspicion of stirring up the Government against the Company.

On his return to England John Macpherson was kindly received by North, who formed a high opinion of his abilities, and tried to obtain his services at home. He had brought with him various papers and letters in sup