Historical and genealogical account of the Clan Maclean

104 HISTORICAL NOTICES.
conditions it may be supposed must have been
very galling to them. The measures were never-
theless as wise as they were just, and had not
future circumstances interfered with the happy
fruits they promised, it cannot be questioned but
results the most beneficial might have sprung
from them.
The commissioners having finally accomplished
the object of their visit to the western isles,
deputed their authority, with the approbation of
the government, into the hands of Bishop Knox,
whose mild and judicious execution of the trust
thus delegated to him had greatly reconciled
the chiefs to the measures adopted. The destruc-
tion of the biorlinns and galleys was delayed at
the intercession of the bishop, and ultimately
altogether relinquished, as a measure of unneces-
sary severity. But probably the most weighty
reason against insisting upon the fulfilment of
this condition existed in the necessity the go-
vernment saw of giving facility to the trans-
mission of the marketable produce of the isles
to the mainland, so as to enable the chiefs to
realise the amounts necessary to pay the king's
dues, which could not be done without the aid
of the vessels which it was in contemplation to
destroy. But be this as it may, the unjust con-
dition respecting the galleys was abandoned,
and the bishop next summoned the island barons
to meet him at Iona, to make known to them