CLEARANCES***


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THE HISTORY OF THE HIGHLAND CLEARANCES

by

ALEXANDER MACKENZIE, F.S.A., Scot.

With a New Introduction by Ian Macpherson, M.P.


   “Truth is stranger than fiction.”







P. J. O’Callaghan,
132-134 West Nile Street, Glasgow.

First Edition                             1883.

Second Edition, altered and revised       1914.




CONTENTS.


  EDITOR’S PREFACE,                                                    7

  INTRODUCTION,                                                        9

  SUTHERLAND--

  Alexander Mackenzie on the Clearances,                              19
  The Rev. Donald Sage on the Sutherland Clearances,                  32
  General Stewart of Garth on the Sutherland Clearances,              41
  Hugh Miller on the Sutherland Clearances,                           52
  Mr. James Loch on Sutherland Improvements,                          69
  Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe on the Sutherland Clearances,            78
  Reply to Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe by Donald Macleod,              88

  TRIAL OF PATRICK SELLAR,                                           115

  ROSS-SHIRE--

  Glencalvie,                                                        128
  The Eviction of the Rosses,                                        134
  Kintail,                                                           143
  Coigeach,                                                          144
  Strathconon,                                                       144
  The Black Isle,                                                    146
  The Island of Lewis,                                               147
  Mr. Alexander Mackenzie on the Leckmelm Evictions,                 149
  Lochcarron,                                                        161
  The 78th Highlanders,                                              167
  The Rev. Dr. John Kennedy on the Ross-shire Clearances,            169

  INVERNESS-SHIRE--

  Glengarry,                                                         170
  Strathglass,                                                       187
  Guisachan,                                                         193
  Glenelg,                                                           194
  Glendesseray and Locharkaig,                                       196

  THE HEBRIDES--

  North Uist,                                                        198
  Boreraig and Suisinish, Isle of Skye,                              202
  A Contrast,                                                        212
  South Uist and Barra,                                              213
  The Island of Rum,                                                 222

  ARGYLLSHIRE--

  The Island of Mull,                                                228
  Ardnamurchan,                                                      232
  Morven,                                                            235
  Glenorchy,                                                         237

  BUTESHIRE--

  Arran,                                                             240

  PERTHSHIRE--

  Rannoch,                                                           242
  Breadalbane,                                                       245

  NOTABLE DICTA--

  The Rev. Dr. Maclachlan,                                           247
  A Highland Sheriff,                                                253
  The Wizard of the North,                                           254
  A Continental Historian,                                           254
  Mr. Alfred Russel Wallace,                                         255
  A French Economist,                                                259
  Mr. Joseph Chamberlain,                                            263
  Hardships Endured by First Emigrants,                              264
  An Evicting Agent,                                                 271
  An Octogenarian Gael,                                              274

  STATISTICAL STATEMENT--

  Showing the Population in 1831, 1841, 1851, 1881, and
  1911, of all Parishes in whole or in part in the Counties
  of Perth, Argyll, Inverness, Ross and
  Cromarty, Caithness, and Sutherland,                           278-282

  APPENDICES,                                                        283




EDITOR’S PREFACE

TO SECOND EDITION.


Mackenzie’s _History of the Highland Clearances_, with its thrilling
and almost incredible narratives of oppression and eviction, has
been for a long time out of print. In view of the current movement,
described by Mr. Asquith as an “organised campaign against the present
system of land tenure,” it has occurred to the holder of the copyright,
Mr. Eneas Mackay, publisher, Stirling, that, at the present juncture,
a re-issue might be expediently prepared. He recognised that the story
of the great upheaval which, early in the nineteenth century, took
place among the Highland crofters would be of undoubted interest and
utility to those who follow the efforts now put forth to settle the
land question in Scotland. At his request I readily undertook the task
of re-editing.

The circumstances, or points of view, having changed in no slight
measure since the first appearance of the work, I decided to subject
it to a pretty thorough revision--to excise a large mass of irrelevant
matter and to introduce several fresh articles. Donald Macleod’s
“Gloomy Memories” are omitted out of considerations for space,
and because it is proposed to reprint them shortly in a separate
form. There is included, for the first time, a vindication of the
Sutherland Clearances by Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of “Uncle
Tom’s Cabin,” and another by Mr. James Loch, principal factor on the
Sutherland Estates during the time the removals were carried out.
There are also given graphic and realistic word pictures of these
evictions by the Rev. Donald Sage. The general arrangement of the
book has been altered to the extent of grouping together the accounts
relating to each particular county, and descriptions are added of a
number of Clearances which were not dealt with in the first edition.

I have pleasure in acknowledging my indebtedness to Mr. Ian Macpherson,
M.P., and Dr. J. H. Fullarton, London, for kindly looking over the
proofs.

Special and very sincere thanks are due to Mr. John Henderson,
secretary of the National Library Club, London, who manifested the
kindest and liveliest interest in the undertaking. Not only did he read
the proofs with scrupulous care, but he was ever ready to give advice
and offer suggestions when cases of doubt arose. To me, one of the most
pleasant memories connected with the labour of editing is the valuable
assistance always so promptly and cheerfully given by Mr. Henderson.

I greatly appreciate the courtesy shown by Messrs. Daniel Ross & Co.,
Ltd., publishers, Wick, in permitting extracts to be taken from Mr.
Sage’s _Memorabilia Domestica_.

Regarding the Publisher, I may be permitted to mention that he rendered
my task very easy by providing, sometimes at considerable trouble and
expense, all works of reference which I considered would be of service
in endeavouring to make this History thoroughly accurate and reliable.




_INTRODUCTION._


It is with great pleasure that I accede to the request that I should
write a short introduction to welcome this reprint of so interesting
and valuable a book as Mackenzie’s _Highland Clearances_. It has long
been out of print, which anyone who recalls its first appearance will
easily understand. It was written by a Highlander who commanded in
a great measure the esteem of Highlanders, and it collected for the
first time the sane and authenticated accounts of the experience of the
Highlanders in the great agrarian crisis of their history. It appealed
to the race as no book within recent years has done. The Highlander
loves his past and his native land with a passionate attachment, and
the story of the great wrongs of the days of the clearances is still
deeply embedded in his mind. Within the last year or two many accounts,
more or less imaginary, have appeared purporting to be true stories
of those terrible days in the north, and it is peculiarly appropriate
that, when once again men’s minds are centred on the great problem of
the land in this country as a whole, and specific attention has been
directed towards the Highlands, this reprint should now appear. We
are all, therefore, under deep obligations to the public spirit and
enterprize of the publishers and others who have been good enough to
secure in an accessible form a reliable account of the conditions and
events which at once intensified the acuteness of the land-hunger in
the Highlands and constituted the blackest page in Highland history.

Many evil deeds have been associated with the abuse of the monopoly
power of land ownership in this and other countries, but it is safe
to say that nowhere within the limits of those islands, or, indeed,
anywhere else at any time have blacker or more foul deeds been
committed in the sacred name of property than in the Highlands of
Scotland in those days. It has always been a matter of astonishment
that a brave race should ever have submitted to them. This becomes all
the more remarkable, too, when one remembers that during those very
years regiments raised in these very districts of the finest soldiers
who ever marched to the stirring strains of the bagpipes, were gaining
for the empire and for British arms the most noted achievements ever
won in the Napoleonic wars and in the colonies. It is true, of course,
and it is an eternal discredit, that many of these brave fellows came
back wounded and war-scarred to find, not that a grateful country had
taken care that the homes and the helpless ones they had left behind
were kept sacred and immune from the greed and ruthless savagery of
the landlord or his hirelings, but that their hearths and homes were
desecrated and destroyed, and every moral law of patriotism and honour
had been violated. “Their humble dwellings,” says Hugh Miller, “were
of their own rearing; it was they themselves who had broken in their
little fields from the waste; from time immemorial, far beyond the
reach of history, they had possessed their mountain holdings, they had
defended them so well of old that the soil was still virgin ground,
in which the invader had found only a grave; and their young men were
now in foreign lands fighting at the command of their chieftainess the
battles of their country, not in the character of hired soldiers, but
of men who regarded these very holdings as their stake in the quarrel.”
Well has my friend Mackenzie MacBride expressed it:--

  “Ye remnant of the brave!
  Who charge when the pipes are heard;
  Don’t think, my lads, that you fight for your own,
  ’Tis but for the good of the land.

  And when the fight is done
  And you come back over the foam,
  ‘Well done,’ they say, ‘you are good and true,
  But we cannot give you a home.

  ‘For the hill we want for the deer,
  And the glen the birds enjoy,
  And bad for the game is the smoke of the cot,
  And the song of the crofter’s boy.’”

The silence with which men of that calibre met these hardships and
cruelty might well remain an enigma to one who does not know the
Highlands. They knew that for centuries their ancestors had tilled
those lands and lived free and untrammelled. By every moral law, if not
by the law of the land, they had a right to the soil which had been
defended with their own right arm and that of their ancestors. These
were the days when they were useful to the chief, who assumed some
indefinable right to the land. But the day came after the “Forty-Five”
when men were no longer assets to the chief. His territorial
jurisdiction was broken. He wanted money, not men, and the lonely
silences of the hills instead of merry laughter and prattle of children
singing graces by the wayside. And these men bore the change which
meant so much to them with patience. Why? The Highlands were permeated
then as now with a deep religious sense. They lent a willing ear to the
teachings of the ministers of the Gospel, who wielded the power of the
iron hand which left its deep impress on the social life and even the
literature of the Highlands. They regarded the minister as the stern
oracle of truth, and the strict interpreter of the meaning of the ways
of God to man. What happened was right. And a perusal of the pages that
are to follow will show what a mean use many of these ministers made
of the power which their faithful flock believed was vested in them.
These men were--with a noble exception or two--in reality the servile
tools of the “estate” whose powers they feared, and whose support they
received. In their own interests and in those of their earthly lord
and master, they assured the people that all their troubles were but
part of the punishment inflicted on them by Providence in the course
of working out their redemption! This attitude of the ministers had
another significance. In many parishes they were the only persons
who were educated enough to write, and so able to express the wrongs
which their people were called upon to endure. But their voices were
silent and their pens were idle, except, indeed, when they were used
to ennoble the character, the prestige, and the benevolence of the
evicting tyrant!

If they were thus comparatively passive in their “white-washing,” there
were others openly active. In Hugh Miller’s words. “Ever since the
planning of the fatal experience which ruined Sutherland, the noble
family through which it was originated and carried on, had betrayed
the utmost jealousy in having its real result made public. Volumes
of special pleading have been written on the subject. Pamphlets have
been published, laboured articles have been inserted in widely-spread
reviews--statistical accounts have been watched over with the utmost
surveillance. If the misrepresentations of the press could have altered
the matter of fact, famine would not now be gnawing the vitals of
Sutherland in a year a little less abundant than its predecessors, nor
would the dejected and oppressed people be feeding their discontent
amid present misery, with the recollections of a happier past. If a
singularly well-conditioned and wholesome district of country has
been converted into one wide ulcer of wretchedness and woe, it must
be confessed that the sore has been carefully bandaged up from the
public eye that if there has been little done for its cure, there has
at least been much done for its concealment.” And then he goes on to
say, “It has been said that the Gaelic language removed a district
more effectually from the influence of English opinion than an ocean
of three thousand miles, and that the British public know better what
is doing in New York than what is doing in Lewis or Skye.” And so the
House of Sutherland inveigles Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, fresh from
her literary triumphs in the American environment of “Uncle Tom’s
Cabin,” with no knowledge of the Gaelic language which “separated so
effectually the district in which it was spoken” from English public
opinion, but in which language alone grievances were likely to be
expressed, to write a grovelling apology. This she does, forsooth,
in “Sunny Memories,” when the hearts and the spirits of the people
outside the circle in which she was receiving well-merited, if short,
hospitality were broken! Readers of the “Clearances” will notice
how completely Donald M’Leod, whose name every lover of nobility of
character, courage, and justice will ever honour, demolishes her
insipid table-talk. An even worse type of white-washer was James Loch,
who is now put forward as an unbiassed and disinterested observer of
the gracious benevolence and marvellous generosity of the House of
Sutherland. It was not mentioned that he was the factor for the then
Duke!

The most notorious of all the evictions were the Sutherlandshire
ones, and though there are many accounts of them in this volume, the
gruesomeness of which has become a bye-word, they do not tell the
whole tale. Since this question was revived during these last few
months, I have had letters from descendants of the evicted from all
over the colonies with new and conclusive proofs of the recklessness
and severity which characterised them. A factor visited a township in
western Sutherland, and went towards the house of the great grandmother
of one correspondent. He met her as she was returning from milking the
cows carrying a wooden vessel of milk. Brutally he snatched it from
her, and to use his words, “drowned for ever the fire of her hearth
with it,” and then drove her and her children to search through great
privation for some foothold on rugged ground beside the western sea.
When this factor died, his body was carried through another township.
The sympathy of the people was but slight, for they remembered his
cruelty. An old woman expressed the general, but hitherto suppressed,
feeling of the community when she said, “Cha deach am maor rìamh troimh
na bhaile cho samhach sa chaidh e an duigh” (“The factor never went
through this township so peacefully as he went to-day”).

If, as Hugh Miller says, there has been no lack of professional
white-washers, there has equally been no lack of testimony, straight
and true, from the hearts of the people, in bitter lamentation over
the cruelty that befel the race at the hands of mercenary landlords.
This testimony does not come from one class nor from one county. I have
shown in another place how even Dr. Johnson, who loved neither the
Scots nor their traditions, found himself “full of the old Highland
spirit, and was dissatisfied at hearing of rack rents and emigration,”
and was compelled to remark, “A rapacious chief would make a wilderness
of his estate;” how unprejudiced writers like Mrs. Grant of Laggan
bemoaned the rapacity of those who drove away the descendants of men
whom their fathers led; and how bitterly a scholar like Professor
Blackie viewed the depopulated glens where once heroes lived and
fought. The bitterest note of all, as well as the truest, is sung by
the Gaelic bards. They were of the people, and lived among them. They
knew their feelings, none better, and it was their right to express
that feeling with truth and with fearlessness in the language of the
people. And I know of no bard in any county in the Highlands who has
not vigorously denounced in some way the cruelty to which his people
were arbitrarily subjected. It was a blow to them to find that chiefs
of the old school had departed, that a change--in Gaelic, change is
the best word for death--had taken place from the spirit of the chief
who said, “I would rather drink punch in the house of my people than
be enabled by their hardships to drink claret in my own.” Well might
a good Celt of a later day have written of the new type of so-called
chief:

  “See that you kindly use them, O man
    To whom God giveth
  Stewardship over them in thy short span,
    Not for thy pleasure;
  Woe be to them who choose for a clan
    Four-footed people.”

Take the Islay bard. He seeks to arouse our indignation because of
glens and hillsides reft of men to work and fight and of children who
might sing to Nature and her God. Clearly his patriotic soul is sorely
burdened: the cold iron that has entered into it has made his soul
terribly bitter. “Facit indignatio versus.” When he looks around and
thinks of the days that were, his spirit is that of blood and carnage.
He describes the hills that he loves with wonderful grace of diction;
he hears a song or two--shieling songs--of marvellous beauty, and
“shieling songs contain many soft, siren strains, which were believed
to have their source in fairyland,” for their airs came from the good
folk of the hills. But these things do not tempt him long; he is soon
back again to the point that was sorest of all to him--the desolate
glens and the hillsides “left to be garrisoned by the lonely shepherd.”
Some of the poets were sportsmen like Duncan M’Intyre. Their grievance
was always against the sheep, and the lowland shepherds, who desecrated
for filthy lucre the hills which were their birthright and who spoke an
alien tongue which frightened even the echoes!

Deer and sporting rights (after game laws were enacted) soon became
more profitable than sheep, and it is amusing to find controversialists
of to-day attempting to show that evictions never took place on account
of deer forests. It was not the fault of the landlords that they did
not. Evictions took place for the object that was at the moment most
profitable. The Napoleonic wars made sheep runs temporarily more
profitable; but the moment there was more profit to be obtained from
sport and deer forests, then deer forests were to a large extent
substituted for sheep runs. To-day there are over three million acres
in Northern Scotland alone devoted to these preserves; and in 1892
the Deer Forest Commission scheduled over one million seven hundred
thousand acres as being fit for small-holding purposes. The casual
reader must beware, and must notice that this vast number of acres
includes grazing lands also, otherwise critics who “avowedly represent
the landlord interests” may feel aggrieved. But it will also be
remembered that evictions primarily took place for grazing purposes;
and further, that a small holding in Scotland is not quite the same
as a small holding in England. In England it consists of a number
of acres which are under cultivation; in Scotland, I am referring,
of course, to the deer forest country, it consists of some acres of
cultivated land with very often a very large common outrun in moorland
and hills for the township. So that when the uninitiated see pictures
of deer forests that are said to be fit for small-holding purposes,
they will now understand and suppress a smile. If only men could
realise what can be produced out of what might appear to be the most
impossible places! It has been said that if you give a man the secure
possession of a rock, he will turn it into a garden, and one has only
got to visit the Highlands to see how a hard-working and industrious
peasantry have sought in this way with success to fight against the
ills with which they were confronted by an ungrateful landlordism.
One of the worst features of the “Clearances” was the method in which
they were perpetrated. Examples will be found in these pages of sick
people being carried out of their houses, and left on the wayside when
their houses were in flames, and the present locations of some of the
crofters are grim reminders of the extreme privations suffered by
the people who settled in them. Perched on the rocks and moorlands,
these people were driven from the inland valleys, and had to build
themselves shelters from the turf and stones of the hillside, and carve
out of barren land with enormous industry, and under the constant
menace of famine, the miserable patches of land which remain to-day
as evidence of their labours. The others were forced to emigrate, and
the sufferings of those who survived well-nigh baffle description.
The horrors of the small emigrant sailing ships of these days, and
particularly on these occasions when people were packed together
regardless of comfort and the decencies of life, and without sufficient
food, were equalled only by the terrible privations and struggle for
existence that awaited those who landed on the frozen lands of the
north of Canada, to be assailed by hostile Indians, the rigours of the
weather, and the desolation of an unfriendly country. It is altogether
a tale of barbarous action unequalled in the annals of agrarian crime.

And need I do more than add what one who will never be regarded
other than as a typical Tory, has written: “In too many instances
the Highlands have been drained, not of their superfluity of
population, but of the whole mass of the inhabitants, dispossessed
by an unrelenting avarice, which will one day be found to have been
as shortsighted as it is selfish and unjust. Meantime, the Highlands
may become the fairy ground for romance and poetry, or the subject
of experiment for the professors of speculation, historical and
economical. But, if the hour of need should come, the pibroch may sound
through the deserted region, but the summons will remain unanswered.”
These are the words of Sir Walter Scott.

  J. I. MACPHERSON.




_Highland Clearances._




_SUTHERLAND._


ALEXANDER MACKENZIE ON THE CLEARANCES.[1]

[1] Mackenzie’s Pamphlet, 1881.

To give a proper account of the Sutherland Clearances would take a
bulky volume. Indeed, a large tome of 354 pages has been written and
published in their defence by him who was mainly responsible for them,
called “An Account of the Sutherland Improvements,” by James Loch, at
that time Commissioner for the Marchioness of Stafford and heiress of
Sutherland. This was the first account I ever read of these so-called
improvements; and it was quite enough to convince me, and it will be
sufficient to convince anyone who knows anything of the country, that
the improvement of the people, by driving them in the most merciless
and cruel manner from the homes of their fathers, was carried out on a
huge scale and in the most inconsiderate and heartless manner by those
in charge of the Sutherland estates. But when one reads the other side,
Macleod’s “Gloomy Memories,” General Stewart of Garth’s “Sketches of
the Highlanders,” and other contemporary publications, one wonders
that such iniquities could ever have been permitted in any Christian
country, much more so in Great Britain, which has done so much for the
amelioration of subject races and the oppressed in every part of the
world, while her own brave sons have been persecuted, oppressed and
banished without compensation by greedy and cold-blooded proprietors,
who owed their position and their lands to the ancestors of the very
men they were now treating so cruelly.

The motives of the landlords, generally led by southern factors
worse than themselves, were, in most cases, pure self-interest,
and they pursued their policy of extermination with a recklessness
and remorselessness unparalleled anywhere else where the Gospel of
peace and charity was preached--except, perhaps, unhappy Ireland.
Generally, law and justice, religion and humanity, were either totally
disregarded, or, what was worse, in many cases converted into and
applied as instruments of oppression. Every conceivable means, short
of the musket and the sword, were used to drive the natives from
the land they loved, and to force them to exchange their crofts and
homes--brought originally into cultivation and built by themselves,
or by their forefathers--for wretched patches among the barren rocks
on the sea shore, and to depend, after losing their cattle and their
sheep, and after having their houses burnt about their ears or razed to
the ground, on the uncertain produce of the sea for subsistence, and
that in the case of a people, who, in many instances, and especially in
Sutherlandshire, were totally unacquainted with a seafaring life, and
quite unfitted to contend with its perils.

What was true generally of the Highlands, was in the county of
Sutherland carried to the greatest extreme. That unfortunate county,
according to an eye-witness, was made another Moscow. The inhabitants
were literally burnt out, and every contrivance and ingenious and
unrelenting cruelty was eagerly adopted for extirpating the race. Many
lives were sacrificed by famine and other hardships and privations;
hundreds, stripped of their all, emigrated to the Canadas and other
parts of America; great numbers, especially of the young and athletic,
sought employment in the Lowlands and in England, where, few of them
being skilled workmen, they were obliged--even farmers who had lived
in comparative affluence in their own country--to compete with common
labourers, in communities where their language and simple manners
rendered them objects of derision and ridicule. The aged and infirm,
the widows and orphans, with those of their families who could not
think of leaving them alone in their helplessness, and a number, whose
attachment to the soil which contained the ashes of their ancestors,
were induced to accept of the wretched allotments offered them on the
wild moors and barren rocks. The mild nature and religious training of
the Highlanders prevented a resort to that determined resistance and
revenge which has repeatedly set bounds to the rapacity of landlords
in Ireland. Their ignorance of the English language, and the want of
natural leaders, made it impossible for them to make their grievances
known to the outside world. They were, therefore, maltreated with
impunity. The ministers generally sided with the oppressing lairds, who
had the Church patronage at their disposal for themselves and for their
sons. The professed ministers of religion sanctioned the iniquity,
“the foulest deeds were glossed over, and all the evil which could
not be attributed to the natives themselves, such as severe seasons,
famines, and consequent disease, was by these pious gentlemen ascribed
to Providence, as a punishment for sin.”

The system of turning out the ancient inhabitants from their native
soil throughout the Highlands during the first half of the nineteenth
century has been carried into effect in the county of Sutherland
with greater severity and revolting cruelty than in any other part
of the Highlands, and that though the Countess-Marchioness and her
husband, the Marquis of Stafford, were by no means devoid of humanity,
however atrocious and devoid of human feeling were the acts carried
out in their name by heartless underlings, who represented the
ancient tenantry to their superiors as lazy and rebellious, though,
they maintained, everything was being done for their advantage and
improvement. How this was done will be seen in the sequel. South
countrymen were introduced and the land given to them for sheep farms
over the heads of the native tenantry. These strangers were made
justices of the peace and armed with all sorts of authority in the
county, and thus enabled to act in the most harsh and tyrannical
fashion, none making them afraid; while the oppressed natives were
placed completely at their mercy. They dare not even complain, for were
not their oppressors also the administrators of the law? The seventeen
parish ministers, with the single exception of the Rev. Mr. Sage, took
the side of the powers that were, exhorting the people to submit and to
stifle their cries of distress, telling them that all their sufferings
came from the hand of their Heavenly Father as a punishment for their
past transgressions. Most of these ministers have since rendered their
account, and let us hope they have been forgiven for such cruel and
blasphemous conduct. But one cannot help noting, to what horrid uses
these men in Sutherlandshire and elsewhere prostituted their sacred
office and high calling.

The Sutherland clearances were commenced in a comparatively mild way
in 1807, by the ejection of ninety families from Farr and Lairg.
These were provided for some fifteen or seventeen miles distant with
smaller lots, to which they were permitted to remove their cattle and
plenishing, leaving their crops unprotected, however, in the ground
from which they were evicted. They had to pull down their old houses,
remove the timber, and build new ones, during which period they had
in many cases to sleep under the open canopy of heaven. In the autumn
they carried away, with great difficulty, what remained of their crops,
but the fatigue incurred cost a few of them their lives, while others
contracted diseases which stuck to them during the remainder of their
lives, and shortened their days.

In 1809 several hundred were evicted from the parishes of Dornoch,
Rogart, Loth, Clyne, and Golspie, under circumstances of much greater
severity than those already described. Several were driven by various
means to leave the country altogether, and to those who could not be
induced to do so, patches of moor and bog were offered on Dornoch
Moor and Brora Links--quite unfit for cultivation. This process was
carried on annually until, in 1811, the land from which the people were
ejected was divided into large farms, and advertised as huge sheep
runs. The country was overrun with strangers who came to look at these
extensive tracts. Some of these gentlemen got up a cry that they were
afraid of their lives among the evicted tenantry. A trumped-up story
was manufactured that one of the interlopers was pursued by some of
the natives of Kildonan, and put in bodily fear. The military were
sent for from Fort George. The 21st Regiment was marched to Dunrobin
Castle, with artillery and cartloads of ammunition. A great farce was
performed; the people were sent for by the factors to the Castle at a
certain hour. They came peaceably, but the farce must be gone through,
the Riot Act was read; a few sheepish, innocent Highlanders were made
prisoners, but nothing could be laid to their charge, and they were
almost immediately set at liberty, while the soldiers were ordered back
to Fort George. The demonstration, however, had the desired effect in
cowing and frightening the people into the most absolute submission.
They became dismayed and broken-hearted, and quietly submitted to their
fate. The clergy all this time were assiduous in preaching that all the
misfortunes of the people were “fore-ordained of God, and denouncing
the vengeance of Heaven and eternal damnation on all those who would
presume to make the slightest resistance.” At the May term of 1812
large districts of these parishes were cleared in the most peaceable
manner, the poor creatures foolishly believing the false teaching
of their selfish and dishonest spiritual guides--save the mark! The
Earl of Selkirk, who went personally to the district, allured many
of the evicted people to emigrate to his estates on the Red River
in British North America, whither a whole ship-cargo of them went.
After a long and otherwise disastrous passage they found themselves
deceived and deserted by the Earl, left to their unhappy fate in an
inclement wilderness, without any protection from the hordes of Red
Indian savages by whom the district was infested, and who plundered
them of their all on their arrival and finally massacred them, save a
small remnant who managed to escape, and travelled, through immense
difficulties, across trackless forests to Upper Canada.

The notorious Mr. Sellar was at this time sub-factor, and in the
spring of 1814 he took a large portion of the parishes of Farr and
Kildonan into his own hands. In the month of March the old tenantry
received notices to quit at the ensuing May term, and a few days after
the summonses were served the greater portion of the heath pasture
was, by his orders, set on fire. By this cruel proceeding the cattle
belonging to the old tenantry were left without food during the spring,
and it was impossible to dispose of them at a fair price, the price
having fallen after the war; for Napoleon was now a prisoner in Elba,
and the demand for cattle became temporarily dull, and prices very
much reduced. To make matters worse, fodder was unusually scarce this
spring, and the poor people’s cattle depended for subsistence solely on
the spring grass which sprouts out among the heather, but which this
year had been burnt by the factor who would himself reap the benefit
when he came into possession later on.

In May the work of ejectment was again commenced, accompanied by
cruelties hitherto unknown even in the Highlands. Atrocities were
perpetrated which I cannot trust myself to describe in my own words. I
shall give what is much more valuable--a description by an eye-witness
in his own language. He says:--In former removals the tenants had been
allowed to carry away the timber of their old dwellings to erect houses
on their new allotments, but now a more summary mode was adopted by
setting fire to them. The able-bodied men were by this time away after
their cattle or otherwise engaged at a distance, so that the immediate
sufferers by the general house-burning that now commenced were the
aged and infirm, the women and children. As the lands were now in the
hands of the factor himself, and were to be occupied as sheep farms,
and as the people made no resistance, they expected, at least, some
indulgence in the way of permission to occupy their houses and other
buildings till they could gradually remove, and meanwhile look after
their growing crops. Their consternation was therefore greater, when
immediately after the May term-day, a commencement was made to pull
down and set fire to the houses over their heads. The old people, women
and others, then began to preserve the timber which was their own; but
the devastators proceeded with the greatest celerity, demolishing all
before them, and when they had overthrown all the houses in a large
tract of country they set fire to the wreck. Timber, furniture, and
every other article that could not be instantly removed was consumed
by fire or otherwise utterly destroyed. The proceedings were carried
on with the greatest rapidity and the most reckless cruelty. The cries
of the victims, the confusion, the despair and horror painted on the
countenances of the one party, and the exulting ferocity of the other,
beggar all description. At these scenes Mr. Sellar was present, and
apparently, as sworn by several witnesses at his subsequent trial,
ordering and directing the whole. Many deaths ensued from alarm,
from fatigue, and cold, the people having been instantly deprived of
shelter, and left to the mercies of the elements. Some old men took
to the woods and to the rocks, wandering about in a state approaching
to, or of absolute, insanity; and several of them in this situation
lived only a few days. Pregnant women were taken in premature labour,
and several children did not long survive their sufferings. “To these
scenes,” says Donald Macleod[2], “I was an eye-witness, and am ready to
substantiate the truth of my statements, not only by my own testimony,
but by that of many others who were present at the time. In such a
scene of general devastation, it is almost useless to particularise the
cases of individuals; the suffering was great and universal. I shall,
however, notice a very few of the extreme cases of which I was myself
an eye-witness. John Mackay’s wife, Ravigill, in attempting to pull
down her house, in the absence of her husband, to preserve the timber,
fell through the roof. She was in consequence taken in premature
labour, and in that state was exposed to the open air and to the view
of all the by-standers. Donald Munro, Garvott, lying in a fever, was
turned out of his house and exposed to the elements. Donald Macbeath,
an infirm and bed-ridden old man, had the house unroofed over him, and
was in that state exposed to the wind and rain until death put a period
to his sufferings. I was present at the pulling down and burning of the
house of William Chisholm, Badinloskin, in which was lying his wife’s
mother, an old bed-ridden woman of nearly 100 years of age, none of the
family being present. I informed the persons about to set fire to the
house of this circumstance, and prevailed on them to wait until Mr.
Sellar came. On his arrival, I told him of the poor old woman being
in a condition unfit for removal, when he replied, ‘Damn her, the old
witch, she has lived too long--let her burn.’ Fire was immediately set
to the house, and the blankets in which she was carried out were in
flames before she could be got out. She was placed in a little shed,
and it was with great difficulty they were prevented from firing it
also. The old woman’s daughter arrived while the house was on fire, and
assisted the neighbours in removing her mother out of the flames and
smoke, presenting a picture of horror which I shall never forget, but
cannot attempt to describe.” Within five days she was a corpse.

[2] Author of “Gloomy Memories,” etc.

In 1816 Sellar was charged at Inverness, before the Court of
Justiciary, with culpable homicide and fire-raising in connection
with these proceedings, and, considering all the circumstances, it
is not at all surprising that he was “honourably” acquitted of the
grave charges made against him. Almost immediately after, however, he
ceased to be factor on the Sutherland estates, and Mr. Loch came into
power. Evictions were carried out from 1814 down to 1819 and 1820,
pretty much of the same character as those already described, but the
removal of Mr. Young, the chief factor, and Mr. Sellar from power was
hailed with delight by the whole remaining population. Their very
names had become a terror. Their appearance in any part of the county
caused such alarm as to make women fall into fits. One woman became
so terrified that she became insane, and whenever she saw any one she
did not recognise, she invariably cried out in a state of absolute
terror--“_Oh! sin Sellar_”--“Oh! there’s Sellar.” The people, however,
soon discovered that the new factors were not much better. Several
leases which were current would not expire until 1819 and 1820, so that
the evictions were necessarily only partial from 1814 down to that
period. The people were reduced to such a state of poverty that even
Mr. Loch himself, in his “Sutherland Improvements,” page 76, admits
that--“Their wretchedness was so great that, after pawning everything
they possessed to the fishermen on the coast, such as had no cattle
were reduced to come down from the hills in hundreds for the purpose
of gathering cockles on the shore. Those who lived in the more remote
situations of the county were obliged to subsist upon broth made of
nettles, thickened with a little oatmeal. Those who had cattle had
recourse to the still more wretched expedient of bleeding them, and
mixing the blood with oatmeal, which they afterwards cut into slices
and fried. Those who had a little money came down and slept all night
upon the beach, in order to watch the boats returning from the fishing,
that they might be in time to obtain a part of what had been caught.”
He, however, omitted to mention the share he and his predecessors had
taken in reducing the people to such misery, and the fact that at this
very time he had constables stationed at the Little Ferry to prevent
the starved tenantry from collecting shellfish in the only place where
they could find them.

He prevailed upon the people to sign documents consenting to remove
at the next Whitsunday term, promising at the same time to make good
provision for them elsewhere. In about a month after, the work of
demolition and devastation again commenced, and parts of the parishes
of Golspie, Rogart, Farr, and the whole of Kildonan were in a blaze.
Strong parties with <DW19>s and other combustible material were set
to work; three hundred houses were given ruthlessly to the flames, and
their occupants pushed out in the open air without food or shelter.
Macleod, who was present, describes the horrible scene as follows:--

“The consternation and confusion were extreme; little or no time was
given for the removal of persons or property; the people striving to
remove the sick and the helpless before the fire should reach them;
next, struggling to save the most valuable of their effects. The cries
of the women and children, the roaring of the affrighted cattle,
hunted at the same time by the yelling dogs of the shepherds amid the
smoke and fire, altogether presented a scene that completely baffles
description--it required to be seen to be believed. A dense cloud
of smoke enveloped the whole country by day, and even extended far
out to sea; at night an awfully grand but terrific scene presented
itself--all the houses in an extensive district in flames at once.
I myself ascended a height about eleven o’clock in the evening, and
counted two hundred and fifty blazing houses, many of the owners of
which were my relations, and all of whom I personally knew, but whose
present condition--whether in or out of the flames--I could not tell.
The conflagration lasted six days, till the whole of the dwellings were
reduced to ashes or smoking ruins. During one of these days a boat
actually lost her way in the dense smoke as she approached the shore,
but at night was enabled to reach a landing-place by the lurid light of
the flames.”

The whole of the inhabitants of Kildonan, numbering nearly 2000 souls,
except three families, were utterly rooted and burnt out, and the whole
parish converted into a solitary wilderness. The suffering was intense.
Some lost their reason. Over a hundred souls took passage to Caithness
in a small sloop, the master humanely agreeing to take them in the
hold, from which he had just unloaded a cargo of quicklime. A head
storm came on, and they were nine days at sea in the most miserable
condition--men, women, and helpless children huddled up together, with
barely any provisions. Several died in consequence, and others became
invalids for the rest of their days. One man, Donald Mackay, whose
family was suffering from a severe fever, carried two of his children
a distance of twenty-five miles to this vessel. Another old man took
shelter in a meal mill, where he was kept from starvation by licking
the meal refuse scattered among the dust on the floor, and protected
from the rats and other vermin by his faithful collie. George Munro,
the miller at Farr, who had six of his family down with fever, had to
remove them in that state to a damp kiln, while his home was given to
the flames. And all this was done in the name of proprietors who could
not be considered tyrants in the ordinary sense of the term.

General Stewart of Garth, about a year after the cruelties perpetrated
in Sutherland, writes with regret of the unnatural proceedings as
“the delusions practised (by his subordinates) on a generous and
public-spirited proprietor, which have been so perseveringly applied,
that it would appear as if all feeling of former kindness towards the
native tenantry had ceased to exist. To them any uncultivated spot of
moorland, however small, was considered sufficient for the support of a
family; while the most lavish encouragement has been given to all the
new tenants, on whom, with the erection of buildings, the improvement
of lands, roads, bridges, &c., upwards of £210,000 had been expended
since 1808 (in fourteen years). With this proof of unprecedented
liberality, it cannot be sufficiently lamented that an estimate of the
character of these poor people was taken from the misrepresentation
of interested persons, instead of judging from the conduct of the
same men when brought into the world, where they obtained a name
and character which have secured the esteem and approbation of men
high in honour and rank, and, from their talents and experience,
perfectly capable of judging with correctness. With such proofs of
capability, and with such materials for carrying on the improvements
and maintaining the permanent prosperity of the county, when occupied
by a hardy, abstemious race, easily led on to a full exertion of their
faculties by a proper management, there cannot be a question but that
if, instead of placing them, as has been done, in situations bearing
too near a resemblance to the potato-gardens of Ireland, they had been
permitted to remain as cultivators of the soil, receiving a moderate
share of the vast sums lavished on their richer successors, such a
humane and considerate regard to the prosperity of a whole people
would undoubtedly have answered every good purpose.” He then goes
on to show that when the valleys and higher grounds were let to the
sheep-farmers, the whole native population was driven to the sea shore,
where they were crowded on small lots of land to earn subsistence
by labour and sea-fishing, the latter so little congenial to their
former habits and experience. “And these _one or two acre lots_ are
represented as _improvements!_” He then asks how in a country, without
regular employment or manufactories, a family is to be supported on one
or two acres? The thing was impossible, and the consequence is that
“over the whole of this district, where the sea-shore is accessible,
the coast is thickly studded with thatched cottages, crowded with
starving inhabitants,” while strangers, with capital, usurp the land
and dispossess the swain. Ancient respectable tenants, who passed the
greater part of their lives in the enjoyment of abundance, and in the
exercise of hospitality and charity, possessing stocks of ten, twenty,
and thirty breeding cows, with the usual proportion of other stock, are
now pining on one or two acres of bad land, with one or two starved
cows; and for this accommodation a calculation is made, that they must
support their families, and pay the rents of their lots, not from the
produce, but from the sea. When the herring fishery succeeds, they
generally satisfy the landlords, whatever privations they may suffer;
but when the fishing fails, they fall in arrears and are sequestrated
and their stocks sold to pay the rents, their lots given to others, and
they and their families turned adrift on the world; but in these trying
circumstances, he concludes, “we cannot sufficiently admire their meek
and patient spirit, supported by the powerful influence of moral and
religious principle.”

The beautiful Strathnaver, containing a population equal to Kildonan,
had been cleared in the same heartless manner.

In 1828, Donald Macleod, after a considerable absence, returned to his
native Kildonan, where he attended divine service in the parish church,
which he found attended by a congregation consisting of eight shepherds
and their dogs--numbering between twenty and thirty--the minister, and
three members of his family. Macleod came in too late for the first
psalm, but at the conclusion of the service the fine old tune Bangor
was given out, “when the four-footed hearers became excited, got up on
the seats, and raised a most infernal chorus of howling. Their masters
attacked them with their crooks, which only made matters worse; the
yelping and howling continued to the end of the service.” And Donald
Macleod retired to contemplate the painful and shameful scene, and
contrast it with what he had previously experienced as a member, for
many years, of the large and devout congregation that worshipped
formerly in the parish church of his native valley.

The Parish Church of Farr was no longer in existence; the fine
population of Strathnaver was rooted and burnt out during the general
conflagration, and presented a similar aspect to his own native parish.
The church, no longer found necessary, was razed to the ground, and its
timbers conveyed to construct one of the Sutherland “improvements”--the
Inn at Altnaharra, while the minister’s house was converted into
a dwelling for a fox-hunter. A woman, well-known in the parish,
travelling through the desolated Strath next year after the evictions,
was asked on her return home for her news, when she replied--“O, chan
eil ach sgiala bronach! sgiala bronach!” “Oh, only sad news, sad news!
I have seen the timber of our well attended kirk covering the inn at
Altnaharra; I have seen the kirk-yard where our friends are mouldering
filled with tarry sheep, and Mr. Sage’s study turned into a kennel for
Robert Gunn’s dogs, and I have seen a crow’s nest in James Gordon’s
chimney head;” after which she fell into a paroxysm of grief.


THE REV. DONALD SAGE ON THE SUTHERLAND CLEARANCES.

I remained for about a year in the capacity of tutor in the family
of Mr. Robert MacKid, Sheriff-Substitute of Sutherland, who lived
at Kirkton, in the parish of Golspie. I shall briefly sum up what I
remember of this period.

It was a very short time previous to my residence in Mr. MacKid’s
family that the first “Sutherland Clearance” took place. This consisted
in the ejection from their minutely-divided farms of several hundreds
of the Sutherlandshire aborigines, who had from time immemorial been
in possession of their mountain tenements. This sweeping desolation
extended over many parishes, but it fell most heavily on the parish
of Kildonan. It was the device of one William Young, a successful
corn-dealer and land-improver. He rose from indigence, but was
naturally a man of taste, of an ingenious turn of mind, and a shrewd
calculator. After realising some hundreds of pounds by corn-dealing,
he purchased from Sir Archibald Dunbar of Thundertown a small and
valueless property in Morayshire called Inverugie. It lay upon the
sea-shore, and, like many properties of more ancient date, it had been
completely covered with sea-sand which had drifted upon its surface.
For this small and worthless spot he paid a correspondingly small
price--about £700--but, tasking his native and vigorous genius for
improvement, he set himself at once to better his bargain. Making use
of a plough of peculiar construction, he turned the sand down and
the rich old soil up, and thus made it one of the most productive
properties in the county. This, with other necessary improvements,
however, involved him in debt; but, just as it became a question with
him how to pay it, his praise in the north as a scientific improver
of land reached the ears of the Stafford family, who, in connection
with their immense wealth, were racked with the anxiety to improve
their Highland estate. As William Young had been so successful on the
estate of Inverugie they thought he could not but be equally so on
the Sutherland estate. Young introduced the depopulating system into
Sutherland.[3] This system, during his tenure of office as commissioner
on the Sutherland property, was just at its commencement. It was
first brought to bear on the parish of Kildonan. The whole north and
south sides of the Strath, from Kildonan to Caen on the left bank of
the river, and from Dalcharn to Marrel on the right bank, were, at
one fell sweep, cleared of their inhabitants. The measures for their
ejectment had been taken with such promptness, and were so suddenly and
brutally carried out, as to excite a tumult among the people. Young
had as his associate in the factorship a man of the name of Sellar,
who acted in the subordinate capacity of legal agent and accountant on
the estate, and who, by his unprincipled recklessness in conducting
the process of ejectment, added fuel to the flame. It was said that
the people rose almost _en masse_, that the constables and officials
were resisted and their lives threatened, and the combination among
the peasantry was represented as assuming at last so alarming an
aspect that the Sheriff-Depute of the county was under the necessity
of calling in the military to quell the riot. A detachment of soldiers
was accordingly sent from Fort-George, a powder magazine was erected
at Dornoch, and every preparation made as for the commencement of a
civil war. But the chief magistrate of the county, shrewdly suspecting
the origin of these reports, ordered back the military, came himself
alone among the people, and instituted a cool and impartial enquiry
into their proceedings. The result was that the formidable riot, which
was reported to have for its objects the murder of Young and Sellar,
the expulsion of the store-farmers, and the burning of Dunrobin
Castle, amounted after all only to this, that a certain number of the
people had congregated in different places and had given vent to their
outraged feelings and sense of oppression in rash and unguarded terms.
It could not be proved that a single act of violence was committed.
Sellar laboured hard to involve my father and mother in the criminality
of these proceedings, but he utterly failed. The peasantry, as fine
as any in the world, were treated by the owners of the soil as “good
for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under feet of men,” while
the tract of country thus depopulated was divided into two large sheep
farms, one of which was given in lease to William Cluness of Cracaig,
and the other to a Mr. Reid from Northumberland.

[3] “Clearances” had, however, been effected in some parts of
Sutherland previous to this period, although to a smaller extent. From
along the banks of the river Oykell, for instance, many families were
evicted, in the year 1780. (Statement by the Rev. Dr. Aird, of Creich).

The reckless lordly proprietors had resolved upon the expulsion
of their long-standing and much-attached tenantry from their
widely-extended estates, and the Sutherland Clearance of 1819 was
not only the climax of their system of oppression for many years
before, but the extinction of the last remnant of the ancient Highland
peasantry in the north. As violent tempests send out before them many
a deep and sullen roar, so did the advancing storm give notice of
its approach by various single acts of oppression. I can yet recall
to memory the deep and thrilling sensation which I experienced, as
I sat at the fireside in my rude, little parlour at Achness, when
the tidings of the meditated removal of my poor flock first reached
me from headquarters. It might be about the beginning of October,
1818. A tenant from the middle of the Strath had been to Rhives, the
residence of Mr. Young, the commissioner, paying his rent. He was
informed, and authorised to tell his neighbours, that the rent for
the half-year, ending in May, 1819, would not be demanded, as it was
determined to lay the districts of Strathnaver and Upper Kildonan
under sheep. This intelligence when first announced was indignantly
discredited by the people. Notwithstanding their knowledge of former
clearances they clung to the hope that the “Ban-mhorair Chataibh” (the
Duchess of Sutherland) would not give her consent to the warning as
issued by her subordinates, and thus deprive herself of her people,
as truly a part of her noble inheritance as were her broad acres. But
the course of a few weeks soon undeceived them. Summonses of ejectment
were issued and despatched all over the district. These must have
amounted to upwards of a thousand, as the population of the Mission
alone was 1600 souls, and many more than those of the Mission were
ejected. The summonses were distributed with the utmost preciseness.
They were handed in at every house and hovel alike, be the occupiers
of them who or what they might--minister, catechist, or elder, tenant,
or sub-tenant, out-servant, or cottar--all were made to feel the
irresponsible power of the proprietor. The enormous amount of citations
might also be accounted for by the fact that Mr. Peter Sellar had a
threefold personal interest in the whole matter. He was, in the first
place, factor on the Sutherland estate at the time; then, he was law
agent for the proprietors; and, lastly, the lessee or tacksman of more
than a third of the county to be cleared of its inhabitants. It may
easily be conceived how such a three-plied cord of worldly interest
would bind him over to greater rigour, and even atrocity, in executing
the orders of his superiors on the wretched people among whom he was
thus let loose like a beast of prey. But the effects produced by these
decided measures I now distinctly remember. Having myself, in common
with the rest of my people, received one of these notices, I resolved
that, at the ensuing term of Martinmas, I would remove from Achness,
and go once more permanently to reside under my father’s roof, although
I would at the same time continue the punctual discharge of my pastoral
duties among the people till they also should be removed. I could not
but regard the summoning of the minister as tantamount to the putting
down of the ministration of the Word and ordinances of religion in that
part of the country. And, indeed, it is a fact, that, although this
desolate district is still occupied by shepherds, no provision has,
since that time, been made for their spiritual wants. I left Achness,
therefore, about the middle of November, 1818, sold my cow at the
Ardgay market, and got my furniture conveyed to Kildonan by my father’s
horses and my own. The people received the legal warning to leave for
ever the homes of their fathers with a sort of stupor--that apparent
indifference which is often the external aspect of intense feeling.
As they began, however, to awaken from the stunning effects of this
first intimation, their feelings found vent, and I was much struck
with the different ways in which they expressed their sentiments.
The truly pious acknowledged the mighty hand of God in the matter.
In their prayers and religious conferences not a solitary expression
could be heard indicative of anger or vindictiveness, but in the sight
of God they humbled themselves, and received the chastisement at His
hand. Those, however, who were strangers to such exalted and ennobling
impressions of the Gospel breathed deep and muttered curses on the
heads of the persons who subjected them to such treatment. The more
reckless portion of them fully realised the character of the impenitent
in all ages, and indulged in the most culpable excesses, even while
this divine punishment was still suspended over them. These last,
however, were very few in number--not more than a dozen. To my poor and
defenceless flock the dark hour of trial came at last in right earnest.
It was in the month of April, and about the middle of it, that they
were all--man, woman, and child--from the heights of Farr to the mouth
of the Naver, on one day, to quit their tenements and go--many of them
knew not whither. For a few, some miserable patches of ground along
the shores were doled out as lots, without aught in the shape of the
poorest hut to shelter them. Upon these lots it was intended that they
should build houses at their own expense, and cultivate the ground, at
the same time occupying themselves as fishermen, although the great
majority of them had never set foot on a boat in their lives. Thither,
therefore, they were driven at a week’s warning. As for the rest most
of them knew not whither to go, unless their neighbours on the shore
provided them with a temporary shelter; for, on the day of their
removal, they would not be allowed to remain, even on the bleakest
moor, and in the open air, for a distance of twenty miles around.

On the Sabbath, a fortnight previous to the fated day, I preached
my valedictory sermon in Achness, and the Sabbath thereafter at
Ach-na-h-uaigh. Both occasions were felt by myself and by the people
from the oldest to the youngest, to be among the bitterest and most
overwhelming experiences of our lives. In Strathnaver we assembled,
for the last time, at the place of Langdale, where I had frequently
preached before, on a beautiful green sward overhung by Robert Gordon’s
antique, romantic little cottage on an eminence close beside us. The
still-flowing waters of the Naver swept past us a few yards to the
eastward. The Sabbath morning was unusually fine, and mountain, hill,
and dale, water and woodland, among which we had so long dwelt, and
with which all our associations of “home” and “native land” were so
fondly linked, appeared to unite their attractions to bid us farewell.
My preparations for the pulpit had always cost me much anxiety, but
in view of this sore scene of parting, they caused me pain almost
beyond endurance. I selected a text which had a pointed reference to
the peculiarity of our circumstances, but my difficulty was how to
restrain my feelings till I should illustrate and enforce the great
truths which it involved with reference to eternity. The service began.
The very aspect of the congregation was of itself a sermon, and a most
impressive one. Old Achoul sat right opposite to me. As my eye fell
upon his venerable countenance, bearing the impress of eighty-seven
winters, I was deeply affected, and could scarcely articulate the
psalm. I preached and the people listened, but every sentence uttered
and heard was in opposition to the tide of our natural feelings, which,
setting in against us, mounted at every step of our progress higher
and higher. At last all restraints were compelled to give way. The
preacher ceased to speak, the people to listen. All lifted up their
voices, and wept, mingling their tears together. It was indeed the
place of parting, and the hour. The greater number parted never again
to behold each other in the land of the living. My adieu to the people
of Ach-na-h-uaighe was scarcely less affecting, although somewhat
alleviated by the consideration that I had the prospect of ministering
still to those among them who had leases of their farms, and whom Mr.
Sellar, the factor and law agent, had no power to remove.

The middle of the week brought on the day of the Strathnaver Clearance
(1819). It was a Tuesday. At an early hour of that day Mr. Sellar,
accompanied by the Fiscal, and escorted by a strong body of constables,
sheriff-officers and others, commenced work at Grummore, the first
inhabited township to the west of the Achness district. Their plan of
operations was to clear the cottages of their inmates, giving them
about half-an-hour to pack up and carry off their furniture, and then
set the cottages on fire. To this plan they ruthlessly adhered, without
the slightest regard to any obstacle that might arise while carrying it
into execution.

At Grumbeg lived a soldier’s widow, Henny Munro. She had followed her
husband in all his campaigns, marches, and battles, in Sicily and in
Spain. Whether his death was on the field of battle, or the result of
fever or fatigue, I forget; but his faithful helpmeet attended him
to his last hour, and, when his spirit fled, closed his eyes, and
followed his remains to their last resting-place. After his death she
returned to Grumbeg, the place of her nativity, and, as she was utterly
destitute of any means of support, she was affectionately received by
her friends, who built her a small cottage and gave her a cow and grass
for it. The din of arms, orders, and counter-orders from headquarters,
marchings and counter-marchings and pitched battles, retreats and
advances, were the leading and nearly unceasing subjects of her winter
evening conversations. She was a joyous, cheery old creature; so
inoffensive, moreover, and so contented, and brimful of good-will that
all who got acquainted with old Henny Munro could only desire to do
her a good turn, were it merely for the warm and hearty expressions
of gratitude with which it was received. Surely the factor and his
followers did not personally know old Henny, or they could not have
treated her as they did. After the cottages at Grummore were emptied
of their inmates, and roofs and rafters had been lighted up into one
red blaze, Mr. Sellar and his iron-hearted attendants approached the
residence of the soldier’s widow. Henny stood up to plead for her
furniture--the coarsest and most valueless that well could be, but
still her earthly all. She first asked that, as her neighbours were
so occupied with their own furniture, hers might be allowed to remain
till they should be free to remove it for her. This request was curtly
refused. She then besought them to allow a shepherd who was present and
offered his services for that purpose, to remove the furniture to his
own residence on the opposite shore of the loch, to remain there till
she could carry it away. This also was refused, and she was told, with
an oath, that if she did not take her trumpery off within half-an-hour
it would be burned. The poor widow had only to task the remains of
her bodily strength, and address herself to the work of dragging her
chests, beds, presses, and stools out at the door, and placing them at
the gable of her cottage. No sooner was her task accomplished than the
torch was applied, the widow’s hut, built of very combustible material,
speedily ignited, and there rose up rapidly, first a dense cloud of
smoke, and soon thereafter a bright red flame. The wind unfortunately
blew in the direction of the furniture, and the flame, lighting upon
it, speedily reduced it to ashes.

In their progress down the Strath, Ceann-na-coille was the next
township reached by the fire-raising evictors. An aged widow lived
there who, by infirmity, had been reduced to such a state of bodily
weakness that she could neither walk nor lie in bed. She could only,
night and day, sit in her chair; and having been confined for many
years in that posture, her limbs had become so stiff that any attempt
to move her was attended with acute pain. She was the mother-in-law of
Samuel Matheson, and had, with her family, been removed by Mr. Sellar
from Rhimisdale some time before. His treatment of her and others on
that occasion had brought Mr. Sellar into trouble, but now, in the
Providence of God, she was once more in his power. “Bean Raomasdail,”
or “the good wife of Rhimisdale,” as she was called, was much revered.
In her house I have held diets of catechising and meetings for prayer,
and been signally refreshed by her Christian converse. When the
evicting party commenced their operations in her township, the aged
widow’s house was among the very first that was to be consigned to the
flames. Her family and neighbours represented the widow’s strong claims
on their compassion, and the imminent danger to her life of removing
her to such a distance as the lower end of the Strath, at least ten
miles off, without suitable means of conveyance. They implored that she
might be allowed to remain for only two days till a conveyance could be
provided for her. They were told that they should have thought on that
before, and that she must immediately be removed by her friends, or the
constables would be ordered to do it. The good wife of Rhimisdale was,
therefore, raised by her weeping family, from her chair and laid on a
blanket, the corners of which were held up by four of the strongest
youths in the place. All this she bore with meekness, and while the
eyes of her attendants were streaming with tears, her pale and gentle
countenance was suffused with a smile. The change of posture and the
rapid motion of the bearers, however, awakened the most intense pain,
and her cries never ceased till within a few miles of her destination,
when she fell asleep. A burning fever supervened, of which she died a
few months later.

During these proceedings, I was resident at my father’s house, but I
had occasion on the week immediately ensuing to visit the manse of
Tongue. On my way thither, I passed through the scene of the campaign
of burning. The spectacle presented was hideous and ghastly! The banks
of the lake and the river, formerly studded with cottages, now met
the eye as a scene of desolation. Of all the houses, the thatched
roofs were gone, but the walls, built of alternate layers of turf and
stone, remained. The flames of the preceding week still slumbered in
their ruins, and sent up into the air spiral columns of smoke; whilst
here a gable, and there a long side-wall, undermined by the fire
burning within them, might be seen tumbling to the ground, from which
a cloud of smoke, and then a dusky flame, slowly sprang up. The sooty
rafters of the cottages, as they were being consumed, filled the air
with a heavy and most offensive odour. In short, nothing could more
vividly represent the horrors of grinding oppression, and the extent
to which one man, dressed up in a “little brief authority,” will
exercise that power, without feeling or restraint, to the injury of his
fellow-creatures.


GENERAL STEWART OF GARTH ON THE SUTHERLAND CLEARANCES.[4]

[4] “Sketches of the Highlanders.” First edition.

On the part of those who instituted similar improvements, in which so
few of the people were to have a share, conciliatory measures, and a
degree of tenderness, beyond what would have been shown to strangers,
were to have been expected towards the hereditary supporters of their
families. It was, however, unfortunately the natural consequences of
the measures which were adopted, that few men of liberal feelings could
be induced to undertake their execution. The respectable gentlemen,
who, in so many cases, had formerly been entrusted with the management
of Highland property, resigned, and their places were supplied by
persons cast in a coarser mould, and, generally, strangers to the
country, who, detesting the people, and ignorant of their character,
capability, and language, quickly surmounted every obstacle, and
hurried on the change, without reflecting on the distress of which it
might be productive, or allowing the kindlier feelings of landlords to
operate in favour of their ancient tenantry. To attempt a new system,
and become acceptable tenants, required a little time and a little
indulgence, two things which it was resolved should not be conceded
them: they were immediately removed from the fertile and cultivated
farms; some left the country, and others were offered limited
portions of land on uncultivated moors, on which they were to form a
settlement; and thus, while particular districts have been desolated,
the gross numerical population has, in some manner, been preserved.
Many judicious men, however, doubt the policy of these measures, and
dread their consequences on the condition and habits of the people.
The following account of their situation is from the respectable and
intelligent clergyman of an extensive parish in the county:--

“When the valleys and higher grounds were let to the shepherds, the
whole population was drawn down to the sea-shore, where they were
crowded on small lots of land, to earn their subsistence by labour
(where all are labourers and few employers) and by sea-fishing, the
latter so little congenial to their former habits. This cutting down
farms into lots was found so profitable, that over the whole of this
district, the sea-coast, where the shore is accessible, is thickly
studded with wretched cottages, crowded with starving inhabitants.
Ancient respectable tenants, who passed the greater part of life in the
enjoyment of abundance, and in the exercise of hospitality and charity,
possessing stocks of ten, twenty, and thirty breeding cows, with the
usual proportion of other stock, are now pining on one or two acres of
bad land, with one or two starved cows, and, for this accommodation
a calculation is made, that they must support their families and pay
the rent of their lots, which the land cannot afford. When the herring
fishery (the only fishery prosecuted on this coast) succeeds, they
generally satisfy the landlords, whatever privations they may suffer,
but when the fishing fails, they fall in arrears, and are sequestrated,
and their stock sold to pay the rents, their lots given to others,
and they and their families turned adrift on the world. The herring
fishery, always precarious, has, for a succession of years, been very
defective, and this class of people are reduced to extreme misery.
At first, some of them possessed capital, from converting their farm
stock into cash, but this has been long exhausted. It is distressing
to view the general poverty of this class of people, aggravated by
their having once enjoyed abundance and independence; and we cannot
sufficiently admire their meek and patient spirit, supported by the
powerful influence of religious and moral principle. There are still a
few small tenants on the old system, occupying the same farm jointly,
but they are falling fast to decay, and sinking into the new class of
cottars.”

This mode of sub-dividing small portions of inferior land is bad enough
certainly, and to propose the establishment of villages, in a pastoral
country, for the benefit of men who can neither betake themselves to
the cultivation of the land nor to commerce for earning the means of
subsistence, is doubtless a refinement in policy solely to be ascribed
to the enlightened and enlarged views peculiar to the new system. But,
leaving out of view the consideration that, from the prevalence of
turning corn lands into pasture, the demand for labour is diminished,
while the number of labourers is increased, it can scarcely be expected
that a man who had once been in the condition of a farmer, possessed
of land, and of considerable property in cattle, horses, sheep, and
money, often employing servants himself, conscious of his independence,
and proud of his ability to assist others, should, without the most
poignant feelings, descend to the rank of a hired labourer, even where
labour and payment can be obtained, more especially if he must serve on
the farms or in the country where he formerly commanded as a master.

It is not easy for those who live in a country like England, where
so many of the lower orders have nothing but what they acquire by
the labour of the passing day, and possess no permanent property or
share in the agricultural produce of the soil, to appreciate the
nature of the spirit of independence which is generated in countries
where the free cultivators of the soil constitute the major part of
the population. It can scarcely be imagined how proudly a man feels,
however small his property may be, when he has a spot of arable
land and pasture, stocked with corn, horses, and cows, a species of
property which, more than any other, binds him, by ties of interest
and attachment, to the spot with which he is connected. He considers
himself an independent person, placed in a station in society far
above the day labourer, who has no stake in the permanency of
existing circumstances, beyond the prospect of daily employment; his
independence being founded on permanent property, he has an interest
in the welfare of the state, by supporting which he renders his own
property more secure, and, although the value of the property may not
be great, it is every day in his view; his cattle and horses feed
around him; his grass and corn he sees growing and ripening; his
property is visible to all observers, which is calculated to raise
the owner in general consideration; and when a passing friend or
neighbour praises his thriving crops and his cattle, his heart swells
with pleasure, and he exerts himself to support and to preserve that
government and those laws which render it secure. Such is the case in
many parts of the world; such was formerly the case in Scotland, and is
still in many parts of the Highlands. Those who wish to see only the
two castes of capitalists and day-labourers, may smile at this union
of independence and poverty. But, that the opposite system is daily
quenching the independent spirit of the Highlanders, is an undoubted
fact, and gives additional strength to the arguments of those who
object to the reduction of the agricultural population, and regret
their removal to the great towns, and to the villages in preparation in
some parts of the country.

It is painful to dwell on this subject, but as information communicated
by men of honour, judgment, and perfect veracity, descriptive of
what they daily witness, affords the best means of forming a correct
judgment, and as these gentlemen, from their situations in life, have
no immediate interest in the determination of the question, beyond what
is dictated by humanity and a love of truth, their authority may be
considered as undoubted.

The following extract of a letter from a friend, as well as the extract
already quoted, is of this description. Speaking of the settlers on the
new allotments, he says:--

“I scarcely need tell you that these wretched people exhibit every
symptom of the most abject poverty, and the most helpless distress.
Their miserable lots in the moors, notwithstanding their utmost labour
and strictest economy, have not yielded them a sufficient crop for
the support of their families for three months. The little money they
were able to derive from the sale of their stock has, therefore, been
expended in the purchase of necessaries, and is now wholly exhausted.
Though they have now, therefore, overcome all their scruples about
leaving their native land, and possess the most ardent desire to
emigrate, in order to avoid more intolerable evils of starvation, and
have been much encouraged by the favourable accounts they have received
from their countrymen already in America, they cannot possibly pay the
expense of transporting themselves and their families thither.”

It has been said that an old Highlander warned his countrymen “to
take care of themselves, for the law had reached Ross-shire.” When
his fears were excited by vague apprehensions of change, he could
not well anticipate that the introduction of civil order, and the
extension of legal authority, which in an enlightened age tend to
advance the prosperity as well as promote the security of a nation,
should have been to his countrymen either the signals of banishment
from their native country, or the means of lowering the condition of
those who were permitted to remain. With more reason it might have
been expected that the principles of an enlightened age would have
gradually introduced beneficial changes among the ancient race; that
they would have softened down the harsher features of their character,
and prepared them for habits better suited to the cultivation of the
soil, than the indolent freedom of a pastoral life. Instead of this,
the new system, whatever may be its intrinsic merits or defects, has,
in too many cases, been carried into execution in a manner which has
excited the strongest and most indignant sensations in the breasts of
those who do not overlook the present inconvenience and distress of
the many, in the eager pursuit of a prospective advantage to the few.
The consequences which have resulted, and the contrast between the
present and past condition of the people, and between their present and
past disposition and feelings towards their superiors, show, in the
most striking light, the impolicy of attempting, with such unnatural
rapidity, innovations which it would require an age, instead of a few
years, to accomplish in a salutary manner, and the impossibility of
effecting them without inflicting great misery, endangering morals, and
undermining loyalty to the king, and respect for constituted authority.

A love of change, proceeding from the actual possession of wealth,
or from the desire of acquiring it, disturbs, by an ill-directed
influence, the gradual and effectual progress of those improvements
which, instead of benefiting the man of capital alone, should equally
distribute their advantages to all. In the prosecution of recent
changes in the north, it would appear that the original inhabitants
were never thought of, nor included in the system which was to be
productive of such wealth to the landlord, the man of capital, and the
country at large,--and that no native could be intrusted with, or,
perhaps, none was found hardy enough to act a part in the execution of
plans which commenced with the ejectment of their unfortunate friends
and neighbours. Strangers were, therefore, called in, and whole glens
cleared of their inhabitants, who, in some instances, resisted these
mandates (although legally executed), in the hope of preserving to
their families their ancient homes, to which all were enthusiastically
attached. These people, blameless in every respect, save their poverty
and ignorance of modern agriculture, could not believe that such harsh
measures proceeded from their honoured superiors, who had hitherto been
kind, and to whom they themselves had ever been attached and faithful.
The whole was attributed to the acting agents, and to them, therefore,
their indignation was principally directed; and, in some instances,
their resistance was so obstinate, that it became necessary to enforce
the orders “vi et armis,” and to have recourse to a mode of ejectment,
happily long obsolete, by setting their houses on fire. This last
species of legal proceeding was so peculiarly conclusive and forcible
that even the stubborn Highlanders, with all their attachment to the
homes of their fathers, were compelled to yield.

In the first instances of this mode of removing refractory tenants, a
small compensation (six shillings), in two separate sums, was allowed
for the houses destroyed. Some of the ejected tenants were also allowed
small allotments of land, on which they were to build houses at their
own expense, no assistance being given for that purpose. Perhaps it
was owing to this that they were the more reluctant to remove till
they had built houses on their new stations. The compensations allowed
in the more recent removals are stated to have been more liberal; and
the improvements which have succeeded those summary ejectments of
the ancient inhabitants are highly eulogised both in pamphlets and
newspapers.

Some people may, however, be inclined to doubt the advantages of
improvements which called for such frequent apologies; for, if more
lenient measures had been pursued, vindication would have, perhaps,
been unnecessary, and the trial of one of the acting agents might have
been avoided.

This trial was brought forward at the instance of the Lord Advocate,
in consequence of the loud cry of indignation raised in the country
against proceedings characterised by the sheriff of the county as
“conduct which has seldom disgraced any country.” But the trial ended
(as was expected by every person who understood the circumstances) in
the acquittal of the acting agent, the verdict of the jury proceeding
on the principle that he acted under legal authority. This acquittal,
however, did by no means diminish the general feeling of culpability;
it only transferred the offence from the agent to a quarter too high
and too distant to be directly affected by public indignation, if,
indeed, there be any station so elevated, or so distant, that public
indignation, justly excited, will not, sooner or later, reach, so as to
touch the feelings, however obtuse, of the transgressor of that law of
humanity written on every upright mind, and deeply engraved on every
kind and generous heart.

It must, however, be a matter of deep regret, that such a line of
proceeding was pursued with regard to these brave, unfortunate, and
well-principled people, as excited a sensation of horror, and a
conviction of culpability, so powerful as only to be removed by an
appeal to a criminal court. It is no less to be deplored that any
conduct sanctioned by authority, even although productive of ultimate
advantage (and how it can produce any advantage beyond what might have
been obtained by pursuing a scheme of conciliation and encouragement
is a very questionable point), should have, in the first instance,
inflicted such general misery. More humane measures would undoubtedly
have answered every good purpose; and had such a course been pursued,
as an enlightened humanity would have suggested, instead of depopulated
glens and starving peasantry, alienated from their superiors, and,
in the exacerbation of their feelings, too ready to imbibe opinions
hostile to the best interests of their country, we should still have
seen a high-spirited and loyal people, ready, at the nod of their
respected chiefs, to embody themselves into regiments, with the same
zeal as in former times; and when enrolled among the defenders of
their country, to exhibit a conduct honourable to that country and
to their profession. Such is the acknowledged character of the men
of these districts as soldiers, when called forth in the service of
their country, although they be now described as irregular in their
habits, and a burthen on the lands which gave them birth, and on which
their forefathers maintained the honour, and promoted the wealth and
prosperity of the ancestors of those who now reject them.

But is it conceivable that the people at home should be so degraded,
while their brothers and sons who become soldiers maintain an
honourable character? The people ought not to be reproached with
incapacity or immorality without better evidence than that of their
prejudiced and unfeeling calumniators. If it be so, however, and if
this virtuous and honourable race, which has contributed to raise
and uphold the character of the British peasantry in the eyes of all
Europe, are thus fallen, and so suddenly fallen, how great and powerful
must be the cause, and how heavy the responsibility of its authors?
But if at home they are thus low in character, how unparalleled must
be the improvement which is produced by difference of profession, as
for example, when they become soldiers, and associate in barracks
with troops of all characters, or in quarters, or billets, with the
lowest of the people, instead of mingling with such society as they
left in their native homes? Why should these Highlanders be at home so
degenerate as they are represented, and as in recent instances they
would actually appear to be? And why, when they mount the cockade,
are they found to be so virtuous and regular, that one thousand men
of Sutherland have been embodied four and five years together, at
different and distant periods, from 1759 to 1763, from 1779 to 1783,
and from 1793 to 1798, without an instance of military punishment?
These men performed all the duties of soldiers to the perfect
satisfaction of their commanders, and continued so unexceptionable in
their conduct down to the latest period, when embodied into the 93rd
regiment, that, according to the words of a distinguished general
officer, “Although the youngest regiment in the service, they might
form an example to all:” and on general parades for punishment,
the Sutherland Highlanders have been ordered to their quarters, as
“examples of this kind were not necessary for such honourable soldiers.”

General Stewart adds the following in the third edition of his
_Sketches_, published in 1825:--

The great changes which have taken place in the above parishes of
Sutherland, and some others, have excited a warm and general interest.
While the liberal expenditure of capital was applauded by all, many
intelligent persons lamented that its application was so much in
one direction; that the ancient tenantry were to have no share in
this expenditure; and that so small a portion was allotted for the
future settlement of the numerous population who had been removed
from their farms, and were placed in situations so new, and in many
respects so unsuitable,--certain that, in the first instance, great
distress, disaffection, and hostility towards the landlords and
government, with a diminution of that spirit of independence, and
those proper principles which had hitherto distinguished them, would
be the inevitable result. So sudden and universal a change of station,
habits, and circumstances, and their being reduced from the state of
independent tenants to that of cottagers and day-labourers, could not
fail of arresting the notice of the public.

Anxious to obtain the best information on this interesting subject,
I early made the most minute enquiry, careful, at the same time, to
form no opinion on intelligence communicated by the people of the
district, or by persons connected with them, and who would naturally be
interested in, and prejudiced against, or in favour of those changes.
I was the more desirous for the best information as the statements
published with regard to the character, capability, and principles of
the people, exhibited a perfect contrast to my own personal experience
and knowledge of the admirable character and exemplary conduct of that
portion of them that had left their native country; and I believe it
improbable, nay impossible, that the sons of worthless parents, without
religious or moral principle--as they have been described--could
conduct themselves in such an honourable manner as to be held up as an
example to the British army. But, indeed, as to information, so much
publicity had been given by various statements explanatory of, and
in vindication of these proceedings, that little more was necessary,
beyond what these publications afforded, to show the nature of the
plans, and the manner in which they were carried into execution.

Forming my opinions, therefore, from those statements, and from
information communicated by persons not immediately connected with
that part of the country, I drew the conclusions which appeared in
the former editions of these _Sketches_. But, with a strong desire to
be correct and well informed in all I state, and with an intention
of correcting myself, in this edition, should I find that I had
been misinformed, or had taken up mistaken views of the subject, in
the different statements I had produced, I embraced the first spare
time I could command, and in autumn, 1823, I travelled over the
“improved” districts, and a large portion of those parts which had been
depopulated and laid out in extensive pastoral farms, as well as the
stations in which the people are placed. After as strict an examination
as circumstances permitted, and a careful inquiry among those who, from
their knowledge and judgment were enabled to form the best opinions,
I do not find that I have one statement to alter, or one opinion to
correct; though I am fully aware that many hold very different opinions.

But however much I may differ in some points, there is one in which
I warmly and cordially join; and that is, in expressing my high
satisfaction and admiration at the liberality displayed in the immense
sums expended on buildings, in enclosing, clearing, and draining land,
in forming roads and communications, and introducing the most improved
agricultural implements. In all these, the generous distribution of
such exemplary encouragement stands unparalleled and alone. Equally
remarkable is the great abatement of rents given to the tenants of
capital--abatements which it was not to be expected they would ask,
considering the preference and encouragement given them, and the
promises they had held out of great and unprecedented revenue, from
their skill and exertions. But these promises seem to have been early
forgotten; the tenants of capital were the first to call for relief;
and so great and generous has this relief been that the rents are
reduced so low as to be almost on a level with what they were when
the great changes commenced. Thus while upwards of £210,000 have been
expended on improvements, no return is to be looked for from this
vast expenditure; and in the failure of their promised rents, the
tenants have sufficiently proved the unstable and fallacious nature
of the system which they, with so much plausibility and perseverance,
got established by delusions, practised on a high-minded, honourable
individual, not aware of the evils produced by so universal a
movement of a whole people. Every friend to a brave and valuable
race must rejoice that these evils are in progress of alleviation
by a return of that kindness and protection which had formerly been
so conspicuous towards that race of tenantry, and which could never
have been interrupted had it not been for those delusions to which I
have more than once alluded, and which have been prosecuted, within
the last twenty years, in many parts of the Highlands, with a degree
of assiduity and antipathy to the unfortunate inhabitants altogether
remarkable.


HUGH MILLER ON THE SUTHERLAND CLEARANCES.[5]

[5] Leading articles on _Sutherland as it was and is_.

So much has been already said about these disastrous Sutherland
evictions that we greatly fear the reader is sickened with the horrid
narrative, but as it is intended to make the present record of these
atrocious proceedings, not only in Sutherland but throughout the whole
Highlands, as complete as it is now possible to make it, we shall
yet place before the reader at considerable length Hugh Miller’s
observations on this National Crime--especially as his remarks largely
embody the philosophical views and conclusions of the able and
far-seeing French writer Sismondi, who in his great work declares:--“It
is by a cruel use of legal power--it is by an unjust usurpation--that
the tacksman and the tenant of Sutherland are considered as having no
right to the land which they have occupied for so many ages.... A count
or earl has no more right to expel from their homes the inhabitants of
his county, than a king to expel from his country the inhabitants of
his kingdom.” Hugh Miller introduces his remarks on Sutherland by a
reference to the celebrated Frenchman’s work, and his opinion of the
Sutherland Clearances, thus:--

There appeared at Paris, about five years ago, a singularly ingenious
work on political economy, from the pen of the late M. de Sismondi, a
writer of European reputation. The greater part of the first volume is
taken up with discussions on territorial wealth, and the condition of
the cultivators of the soil; and in this portion of the work there is a
prominent place assigned to a subject which perhaps few Scotch readers
would expect to see introduced through the medium of a foreign tongue
to the people of a great continental state. We find this philosophic
writer, whose works are known far beyond the limits of his language,
devoting an entire essay to the case of the Duchess of Sutherland and
her tenants, and forming a judgment on it very unlike the decision of
political economists in our own country, who have not hesitated to
characterise her great and singularly harsh experiment, whose worst
effects we are but beginning to see, as at once justifiable in itself
and happy in its results. It is curious to observe how deeds done as if
in darkness and in a corner, are beginning, after the lapse of nearly
thirty years, to be proclaimed on the house-tops. The experiment of
the late Duchess was not intended to be made in the eye of Europe. Its
details would ill bear the exposure. When Cobbett simply referred to
it, only ten years ago, the noble proprietrix was startled, as if a
rather delicate family secret was on the eve of being divulged; and yet
nothing seems more evident now than that civilised man all over the
world is to be made aware of how the experiment was accomplished, and
what it is ultimately to produce.

In a time of quiet and good order, when law, whether in the right or
the wrong, is all-potent in enforcing its findings, the argument which
the philosophic Frenchman employs in behalf of the ejected tenantry of
Sutherland is an argument at which proprietors may afford to smile.
In a time of revolution, however, when lands change their owners,
and old families give place to new ones, it might be found somewhat
formidable,--sufficiently so, at least, to lead a wise proprietor in an
unsettled age rather to conciliate than oppress and irritate the class
who would be able in such circumstances to urge it with most effect.
It is not easy doing justice in a few sentences to the facts and
reasonings of an elaborate essay; but the line of argument runs thus:--

Under the old Celtic tenures--the only tenures, be it remembered
through which the Lords of Sutherland derive their rights to their
lands,--the _Klaan_, or children of the soil, were the proprietors of
the soil--“the whole of Sutherland,” says Sismondi, belonged to “the
men of Sutherland.” Their chief was their monarch, and a very absolute
monarch he was. “He gave the different _tacks_ of land to his officers,
or took them away from them, according as they showed themselves
more or less useful in war. But though he could thus, in a military
sense, reward or punish the clan, he could not diminish in the least
the property of the clan itself;”--he was a chief, not a proprietor,
and had “no more right to expel from their homes the inhabitants of
his county, than a king to expel from his country the inhabitants of
his kingdom.” “Now, the Gaelic tenant,” continues the Frenchman, “has
never been conquered; nor did he forfeit, on any after occasion, the
rights which he originally possessed;” in point of right, he is still a
co-proprietor with his captain. To a Scotchman acquainted with the law
of property as it has existed among us, in even the Highlands, for the
last century, and everywhere else for at least two centuries more, the
view may seem extreme; not so, however, to a native of the Continent,
in many parts of which prescription and custom are found ranged, not
on the side of the chief, but on that of the vassal. “Switzerland,”
says Sismondi, “which in so many respects resembles Scotland,--in its
lakes, its mountains, its climate, and the character, manners, and
habits of its children,--was likewise at the same period parcelled out
among a small number of lords. If the Counts of Kyburgh, of Lentzburg,
of Hapsburg, and of Gruyeres, had been protected by the English
laws, they would find themselves at the present day precisely in the
condition in which the Earls of Sutherland were twenty years ago. Some
of them would perhaps have had the same taste for _improvements_, and
several republics would have been expelled from the Alps, to make room
for flocks of sheep. But while the law has given to the Swiss peasant
a guarantee of perpetuity, it is to the Scottish laird that it has
extended this guarantee in the British empire, leaving the peasant in
a precarious situation. The clan,--recognised at first by the captain,
whom they followed in war, and obeyed for their common advantage, as
his friends and relations, then as his soldiers, then as his vassals,
then as his farmers,--he has come finally to regard as hired labourers,
whom he may perchance allow to remain on the soil of their common
country for his own advantage, but whom he has the power to expel so
soon as he no longer finds it for his interest to keep them.”

Arguments like those of Sismondi, however much their force may be
felt on the Continent, would be formidable at home, as we have said,
in only a time of revolution, when the very foundations of society
would be unfixed, and opinions set loose, to pull down or re-construct
at pleasure. But it is surely not uninteresting to mark how, in the
course of events, that very law of England which, in the view of the
Frenchman, has done the Highland peasant so much less, and the Highland
chief so much more than justice, is bidding fair, in the case of
Sutherland at least, to carry its rude equalising remedy along with it.
Between the years 1811 and 1820, fifteen thousand inhabitants of this
northern district were ejected from their snug inland farms, by means
for which we would in vain seek a precedent, except, perchance, in the
history of the Irish massacre.

But though the interior of the county was thus improved into a desert,
in which there are many thousands of sheep, but few human habitations,
let it not be supposed by the reader that its general population was
in any degree lessened. So far was this from being the case, that
the census of 1821 showed an increase over the census of 1811 of more
than two hundred; and the present population of Sutherland exceeds,
by a thousand, its population before the change. The county has not
been depopulated--its population has been merely arranged after a new
fashion. The late Duchess found it spread equally over the interior
and the sea-coast, and in very comfortable circumstances;--she left
it compressed into a wretched selvage of poverty and suffering that
fringes the county on its eastern and western shores, and the law which
enabled her to make such an arrangement, maugre the ancient rights
of the poor Highlander, is now on the eve of stepping in, in its own
clumsy way, to make her family pay the penalty. The southern kingdom
must and will give us a poor-law; and then shall the selvage of deep
poverty which fringes the sea-coasts of Sutherland avenge on the titled
proprietor of the county both his mother’s error and his own. If our
British laws, unlike those of Switzerland, failed miserably in her day
in protecting the vassal, they will more than fail, in those of her
successor, in protecting the lord. Our political economists shall have
an opportunity of reducing their arguments regarding the improvements
in Sutherland, into a few arithmetical terms, which the merest tyro
will be able to grapple with.

There is but poor comfort, however, to know, when one sees a country
ruined, that the perpetrators of the mischief have not ruined it to
their own advantage. We purpose showing how signal in the case of
Sutherland this ruin has been, and how very extreme the infatuation
which continues to possess its hereditary lord. We are old enough to
remember the county in its original state, when it was at once the
happiest and one of the most exemplary districts in Scotland, and
passed, at two several periods, a considerable time among its hills; we
are not unacquainted with it now, nor with its melancholy and dejected
people, that wear out life in their comfortless cottages on the
sea-shore. The problem solved in this remote district of the kingdom
is not at all unworthy the attention which it seems but beginning to
draw, but which is already not restricted to one kingdom, or even one
continent.

But what, asks the reader, was the economic condition--the condition
with regard to circumstances and means of living--of these Sutherland
Highlanders? How did they fare? The question has been variously
answered: much must depend on the class selected from among them as
specimens of the whole,--much, too, taking for granted the honesty
of the party who replies, on his own condition in life, and his
acquaintance with the circumstances of the poorer people of Scotland
generally. The county had its less genial localities, in which, for a
month or two in the summer season, when the stock of grain from the
previous year was fast running out, and the crops on the ground not
yet ripened for use, the people experienced a considerable degree of
scarcity--such scarcity as a mechanic in the South feels when he has
been a fortnight out of employment. But the Highlander had resources
in these seasons which the mechanic has not. He had his cattle and
his wild potherbs, such as the mug-wort and the nettle. It has been
adduced by the advocates of the change which has ruined Sutherland, as
a proof of the extreme hardship of the Highlander’s condition, that at
such times he could have eaten as food broth made of nettles, mixed
up with a little oatmeal, or have had recourse to the expedient of
bleeding his cattle, and making the blood into a sort of pudding. And
it is quite true that the Sutherlandshire Highlander was in the habit
at such times, of having recourse to such food. It is not less true,
however, that the statement is just as little conclusive regarding his
condition, as if it were alleged that there must always be famine in
France when the people eat the hind legs of frogs, or in Italy when
they make dishes of snails. With regard to the general comfort of the
people in their old condition, there are better tests than can be
drawn from the kind of food they occasionally ate. The country hears
often of dearth in Sutherland now. Every year in which the crop falls
a little below average in other districts, is a year of famine there,
but the country never heard of dearth in Sutherland then. There were
very few among the holders of its small inland farms who had not
saved a little money. Their circumstances were such, that their moral
nature found full room to develop itself, and in a way the world has
rarely witnessed. Never were there a happier or more contented people,
or a people more strongly attached to the soil; and not one of them
now lives in the altered circumstances on which they were so rudely
precipitated by the landlord, who does not look back on this period of
comfort and enjoyment with sad and hopeless regret.

But we have not yet said how this ruinous revolution was effected in
Sutherland,--how the aggravations of the _mode_, if we may so speak,
still fester in the recollections of the people,--or how thoroughly
that policy of the lord of the soil, through which he now seems
determined to complete the work of ruin which his predecessor began,
harmonizes with its worst details. We must first relate, however, a
disastrous change which took place, in the providence of God, in the
noble family of Sutherland, and which, though it dates fully eighty
years back, may be regarded as pregnant with the disasters which
afterwards befell the county.

The marriage of the young countess into a noble English family was
fraught with further disaster to the county. There are many Englishmen
quite intelligent enough to perceive the difference between a smoky
cottage of turf, and a whitewashed cottage of stone, whose judgments on
their respective inhabitants would be of but little value. Sutherland,
as a county of men, stood higher at this period than perhaps any other
district in the British Empire; but, as our descriptions have shown, it
by no means stood high as a county of farms and cottages. The marriage
of the countess brought a new set of eyes upon it,--eyes accustomed
to quite a different face of things. It seemed a wild, rude county,
where all was wrong, and all had to be set right,--a sort of Russia on
a small scale, that had just got another Peter the Great to civilize
it,--or a sort of barbarous Egypt, with an energetic Ali Pasha at its
head. Even the vast wealth and great liberality of the Stafford family
militated against this hapless county! It enabled them to treat it as a
mere subject of an interesting experiment, in which gain to themselves
was really no object,--nearly as little so, as if they had resolved
on dissecting a dog alive for the benefit of science. It was a still
farther disadvantage, that they had to carry on their experiment by
the hands, and to watch its first effects with the eyes, of others.
The agonies of the dog might have had their softening influence on
a dissecter who held the knife himself; but there could be no such
influence exerted over him, did he merely issue orders to his footman
that the dissection should be completed, remaining himself, meanwhile,
out of sight and out of hearing. The plan of improvement sketched out
by his English family was a plan exceedingly easy of conception. Here
is a vast tract of land, furnished with two distinct sources of wealth.
Its shores may be made the seats of extensive fisheries, and the whole
of its interior parcelled out into productive sheep farms. All is
waste in its present state; it has no fisheries, and two-thirds of its
internal produce is consumed by the inhabitants. It had contributed,
for the use of the community and the landlord, its large herds of black
cattle; but the English family saw, and, we believe, saw truly, that
for every one pound of beef which it produced, it could be made to
produce two pounds of mutton, and perhaps a pound of fish in addition.
And it was resolved, therefore, that the inhabitants of the central
districts, who, as they were mere Celts, could not be transformed, it
was held, into store farmers, should be marched down to the sea-side,
there to convert themselves into fishermen, on the shortest possible
notice, and that a few farmers of capital, of the industrious Lowland
race, should be invited to occupy the new sub-divisions of the interior.

And, pray, what objections can be urged against so liberal and
large-minded a scheme? The poor inhabitants of the interior had very
serious objections to urge against it. Their humble dwellings were
of their own rearing; it was they themselves who had broken in their
little fields from the waste; from time immemorial, far beyond the
reach of history, had they possessed their mountain holdings,--they had
defended them so well of old that the soil was still virgin ground,
in which the invader had found only a grave; and their young men were
now in foreign lands fighting at the command of their chieftainess
the battles of their country, not in the character of hired soldiers,
but of men who regarded these very holdings as their stake in the
quarrel. To them, then, the scheme seemed fraught with the most
flagrant, the most monstrous injustice. Were it to be suggested by
some Chartist convention in a time of revolution that Sutherland might
be still further improved--that it was really a piece of great waste
to suffer the revenues of so extensive a district to be squandered by
one individual--that it would be better to appropriate them to the
use of the community in general--that the community in general might
be still further benefited by the removal of the said individual from
Dunrobin to a roadside, where he might be profitably employed in
breaking stones--and that this new arrangement could not be entered
on too soon--the noble Duke would not be a whit more astonished, or
rendered a whit more indignant by the scheme than were the Highlanders
of Sutherland by the scheme of his predecessor.

The reader must keep in view, therefore, that if atrocities unexampled
in Britain for at least a century were perpetrated in the clearing
of Sutherland, there was a species of at least passive resistance
on the part of the people (for active resistance there was none),
which in some degree provoked them. Had the Highlanders, on receiving
orders, marched down to the sea-coast and become fishermen with the
readiness with which a regiment deploys on review day, the atrocities
would, we doubt not, have been much fewer. But though the orders
were very distinct, the Highlanders were very unwilling to obey; and
the severities formed merely a part of the means through which the
necessary obedience was ultimately secured. We shall instance a single
case as illustrative of the process.

In the month of March, 1814, a large proportion of the Highlanders
of Farr and Kildonan, two parishes in Sutherland, were summoned to
quit their farms in the following May. In a few days after, the
surrounding heath on which they pastured their cattle and from which,
at that season, the sole supply of herbage is derived (for in those
northern districts the grass springs late, and the cattle-feeder in
the spring months depends chiefly on the heather), were set on fire
and burnt up. There was that sort of policy in the stroke which men
deem allowable in a state of war. The starving cattle went roaming over
the burnt pastures, and found nothing to eat. Many of them perished,
and the greater part of what remained, though in miserable condition,
the Highlanders had to sell perforce. Most of the able-bodied men
were engaged in this latter business at a distance from home, when
the dreaded term-day came on. The pasturage had been destroyed before
the legal term, and while in even the eye of the law it was still the
property of the poor Highlanders; but ere disturbing them in their
dwellings, term-day was suffered to pass. The work of demolition then
began. A numerous party of men, with a factor at their head, entered
the district, and commenced pulling down the houses over the heads of
the inhabitants. In an extensive tract of country not a human dwelling
was left standing, and then, the more effectually to prevent their
temporary re-erection, the destroyers set fire to the wreck. In one day
were the people deprived of home and shelter, and left exposed to the
elements. Many deaths are said to have ensued from alarm, fatigue, and
cold.

Our author then corroborates in detail the atrocities, cruelties, and
personal hardships described by Donald MacLeod and proceeds:--But to
employ the language of Southey,

  “Things such as these, we know, must be
  At every famous victory.”

And in this instance the victory of the lord of the soil over the
children of the soil was signal and complete. In little more than
nine years a population of fifteen thousand individuals were removed
from the interior of Sutherland to its sea-coasts or had emigrated to
America. The inland districts were converted into deserts through which
the traveller may take a long day’s journey, amid ruins that still bear
the scathe of fire, and grassy patches betraying, when the evening
sun casts aslant its long deep shadows, the half-effaced lines of the
plough.

After pointing out how at the Disruption sites for churches were
refused, Hugh Miller proceeds:--We have exhibited to our readers,
in the _clearing_ of Sutherland a process of ruin so thoroughly
disastrous, that it might be deemed scarcely possible to render it
more complete. And yet with all its apparent completeness, it admitted
of a supplementary process. To employ one of the striking figures
of Scripture, it was possible to grind into powder what had been
previously broken into fragments,--to degrade the poor inhabitants
to a still lower level than that on which they had been so cruelly
precipitated,--though persons of a not very original cast of mind
might have found it difficult to say how the Duke of Sutherland has
been ingenious enough to fall on exactly the one proper expedient
for supplementing their ruin. All in mere circumstance and situation
that could lower and deteriorate had been present as ingredients in
the first process; but there still remained for the people, however
reduced to poverty or broken in spirit, all in religion that consoles
and ennobles. Sabbath-days came round with their humanising influences;
and, under the teachings of the gospel, the poor and the oppressed
looked longingly forward to a future scene of being, in which there
is no poverty or oppression. They still possessed, amid their misery,
something positively good, of which it was impossible to deprive
them; and hence the ability derived to the present lord of Sutherland
of deepening and rendering more signal the ruin accomplished by his
predecessor.

These harmonise but too well with the mode in which the interior of
Sutherland was cleared, and the improved cottages of its sea-coasts
erected. The plan has its two items. No sites are to be granted in
the district for Free Churches, and no dwelling-houses for Free
Church ministers. The climate is severe,--the winters prolonged and
stormy,--the roads which connect the chief seats of population with the
neighbouring counties, dreary and long. May not ministers and people
be eventually worn out in this way? Such is the portion of the plan
which his Grace and his Grace’s creatures can afford to present to the
light. But there are supplementary items of a somewhat darker kind.
The poor cotters are, in the great majority of cases, tenants-at-will;
and there has been much pains taken to inform them that, to the crime
of entertaining and sheltering a Protesting minister, the penalty
of ejection from their holdings must inevitably attach. The laws of
Charles have again returned in this unhappy district, and free and
tolerating Scotland has got, in the nineteenth century, as in the
seventeenth, its intercommuned ministers. We shall not say that the
intimation has emanated from the Duke. It is the misfortune of such
men that there creep around them creatures whose business it is to
anticipate their wishes; but who, at times, doubtless, instead of
anticipating misinterpret them; and who, even when not very much
mistaken, impart to whatever they do the impress of their own low and
menial natures, and thus exaggerate in the act the intention of their
masters. We do not say, therefore, that the intimation has emanated
from the Duke; but this we say, that an exemplary Sutherlandshire
minister of the Protesting Church, who resigned his worldly all for the
sake of his principles, had lately to travel, that he might preach to
his attached people, a long journey of forty-four miles outwards, and
as much in return, and all this without taking shelter under cover of a
roof, or without partaking of any other refreshment than that furnished
by the slender store of provisions which he had carried with him from
his new home. Willingly would the poor Highlanders have received him at
any risk; but knowing from experience what a Sutherlandshire removal
means he preferred enduring any amount of hardship rather than that the
hospitality of his people should be made the occasion of their ruin.
We have already adverted to the case of a lady of Sutherland threatened
with ejection from her home because she had extended the shelter of her
roof to one of the Protesting clergy,--an aged and venerable man, who
had quitted the neighbouring manse, his home for many years, because
he could no longer enjoy it in consistency with his principles; and we
have shown that that aged and venerable man was the lady’s own father.
What amount of oppression of a smaller and more petty character may not
be expected in the circumstances, when cases such as these are found to
stand but a very little over the ordinary level?

The meannesses to which ducal hostility can stoop in this hapless
district, impress with a feeling of surprise. In the parish of Dornoch
for instance, where his Grace is fortunately not the sole landowner,
there has been a site procured on the most generous terms from Sir
George Gunn Munro of Poyntzfield; and this gentleman, believing himself
possessed of a hereditary right to a quarry, which, though on the
Duke’s ground, had been long resorted to by the proprietors of the
district generally, instructed the builder to take from it the stones
which he needed. Never had the quarry been prohibited before, but on
this occasion a stringent interdict arrested its use. If his Grace
could not prevent a hated Free Church from arising in the district, he
could at least add to the expense of its erection. We have even heard
that the portion of the building previously erected had to be pulled
down and the stones returned.

How are we to account for a hostility so determined, and that can stoop
so low? In two different ways, we are of opinion, and in both have
the people of Scotland a direct interest. Did his Grace entertain a
very intense regard for Established Presbytery, it is probably that he
himself would be a Presbyterian of the Establishment. But such is not
the case. The church into which he would so fain force the people has
been long since deserted by himself. The secret of the course which
he pursues can have no connection therefore with religious motive or
belief. It can be no proselytising spirit that misleads his Grace. Let
us remark, in the first place, rather however in the way of embodying
a fact than imputing a motive, that with his present views, and in
his present circumstances, it may not seem particularly his Grace’s
interest to make the county of Sutherland a happy or desirable home
to the people of Scotland. It may not be his Grace’s interest that
the population of the district should increase. The clearing of the
sea-coast may seem as little prejudicial to his Grace’s welfare now
as the clearing of the interior seemed adverse to the interests of
his predecessor thirty years ago; nay, it is quite possible that his
Grace may be led to regard the clearing of the coast as the better
and more important clearing of the two. Let it not be forgotten that
a poor-law hangs over Scotland,--that the shores of Sutherland are
covered with what seems one vast straggling village, inhabited by an
impoverished and ruined people,--and that the coming assessment may
yet fall so weighty that the extra profits accruing to his Grace from
his large sheep-farms may go but a small way in supporting his extra
paupers. It is not in the least improbable that he may live to find the
revolution effected by his predecessor taking to itself the form, not
of a crime,--for that would be nothing,--but of a disastrous and very
terrible blunder.

There is another remark which may prove not unworthy the consideration
of the reader. Ever since the completion of the fatal experiment which
ruined Sutherland, the noble family through which it was originated
and carried on have betrayed the utmost jealousy of having its real
results made public. Volumes of special pleading have been written
on the subject,--pamphlets have been published, laboured articles
have been inserted in widely-spread reviews,--statistical accounts
have been watched over with the most careful surveillance. If the
misrepresentations of the press could have altered the matter of fact,
famine would not be gnawing the vitals of Sutherland in a year a
little less abundant than its predecessors, nor would the dejected and
oppressed people be feeding their discontent, amid present misery, with
the recollections of a happier past. If a singularly well-conditioned
and wholesome district of country has been converted into one wide
ulcer of wretchedness and woe, it must be confessed that the sore has
been carefully bandaged up from the public eye,--that if there has been
little done for its cure, there has at least been much done for its
concealment. Now, be it remembered that a Free Church threatened to
insert a _tent_ into this wound and so keep it open. It has been said
that the Gaelic language removes a district more effectually from the
influence of English opinion than an ocean of three thousand miles,
and that the British public know better what is doing in New York
than what is doing in Lewis or Skye. And hence one cause, at least,
of the thick obscurity that has so long enveloped the miseries which
the poor Highlander has had to endure, and the oppressions to which he
has been subjected. The Free Church threatens to translate her wrongs
into English, and to give them currency in the general mart of opinion.
She might possibly enough be no silent spectator of conflagrations
such as those which characterised the first general improvement of
Sutherland,--nor yet of such Egyptian schemes of house-building as
that which formed part of the improvements of a later plan. She might
be somewhat apt to betray the real state of the district and thus
render laborious misrepresentation of little avail. She might effect
a diversion in the cause of the people, and shake the foundations of
the hitherto despotic power which has so long weighed them down. She
might do for Sutherland what Cobbett promised to do, but what Cobbett
had not character enough to accomplish, and what did he not live even
to attempt. A combination of circumstances have conspired to vest in a
Scottish proprietor, in this northern district, a more despotic power
than even the most absolute monarchs of the Continent possess; and it
is, perhaps, no great wonder that that proprietor should be jealous of
the introduction of an element which threatens, it may seem, materially
to lessen it. And so he struggled hard to exclude the Free Church, and,
though no member of the Establishment himself, declares warmly in its
behalf. Certain it is that from the Establishment as now constituted
he can have nothing to fear and the people nothing to hope.

After what manner may his Grace the Duke of Sutherland be most
effectually met in this matter, so that the case of toleration and
freedom of conscience may be maintained in the extensive district which
God, in his providence, has consigned to his stewardship? We are not
unacquainted with the Celtic character as developed in the Highlands
of Scotland. Highlanders, up to a certain point, are the most docile,
patient, enduring of men; but that point once passed, endurance ceases,
and the all too gentle lamb starts up an angry lion. The spirit is
stirred and maddens at the sight of the naked weapon, and that in its
headlong rush upon the enemy, discipline can neither check nor control.
Let our oppressed Highlanders of Sutherland beware. They have suffered
much; but, so far as man is the agent, their battles can be fought only
on the arena of public opinion, and on that ground which the political
field may be soon found to furnish.

Let us follow, for a little, the poor Highlanders of Sutherland to the
sea-coast. It would be easy dwelling on the terrors of their expulsion,
and multiplying facts of horror; but had there been no permanent
deterioration effected in their condition, these, all harrowing and
repulsive as they were, would have mattered less. Sutherland would
have soon recovered the burning up of a few hundred hamlets, or the
loss of a few bed-ridden old people, who would have died as certainly
under cover, though perhaps a few months later, as when exposed to the
elements in the open air. Nay, had it lost a thousand of its best men
in the way in which it lost so many at the storming of New Orleans, the
blank ere now would have been completely filled up. The calamities of
fire or of decimation even, however distressing in themselves, never
yet ruined a country; no calamity ruins a country that leaves the
surviving inhabitants to develop, in their old circumstances, their old
character and resources.

In one of the eastern eclogues of Collins, where two shepherds are
described as flying for their lives before the troops of a ruthless
invader, we see with how much of the terrible the imagination of a poet
could invest the evils of war, when aggravated by pitiless barbarity.
Fertile as that imagination was, however, there might be found new
circumstances to heighten the horrors of the scene--circumstances
beyond the reach of invention--in the retreat of the Sutherland
Highlanders from the smoking ruins of their cottages to their
allotments on the coast. We have heard of one man, named Mackay,
whose family at the time of the greater conflagration referred to by
Macleod, were all lying ill of fever, who had to carry two of his
sick children on his back a distance of twenty-five miles. We have
heard of the famished people blackening the shores, like the crew of
some vessel wrecked on an inhospitable coast, that they might sustain
life by the shell-fish and sea-weed laid bare by the ebb. Many of
their allotments, especially on the western coast, were barren in the
extreme--unsheltered by bush or tree, and exposed to the sweeping
sea-winds, and in time of tempest, to the blighting spray; and it was
found a matter of the extremest difficulty to keep the few cattle which
they had retained, from wandering, especially in the night-time, into
the better sheltered and more fertile interior. The poor animals were
intelligent enough to read a practical comment on the nature of the
change effected; and, from the harshness of the shepherds to whom the
care of the interior had been entrusted, they served materially to add
to the distress of their unhappy masters. They were getting continually
impounded; and vexatious fines, in the form of trespass-money, came
thus to be wrung from the already impoverished Highlanders. Many who
had no money to give were obliged to relieve them by depositing some of
their few portable articles of value, such as bed or bodyclothes, or,
more distressing still, watches, and rings, and pins--the only relics,
in not a few instances, of brave men whose bones were mouldering under
the fatal rampart at New Orleans, or in the arid sands of Egypt--on
that spot of proud recollection, where the invincibles of Napoleon went
down before the Highland bayonet. Their first efforts as fishermen
were what might be expected from a rural people unaccustomed to the
sea. The shores of Sutherland, for immense tracts together, are
iron-bound, and much exposed--open on the Eastern coast to the waves
of the German Ocean, and on the North and West to the long roll of the
Atlantic. There could not be more perilous seas for the unpractised
boatman to take his first lessons on; but though the casualties were
numerous and the loss of life great, many of the younger Highlanders
became expert fishermen. The experiment was harsh in the extreme,
but so far, at least, it succeeded. It lies open, however, to other
objections than those which have been urged against it on the score of
its inhumanity.


MR JAMES LOCH ON SUTHERLAND IMPROVEMENTS.[6]

[6] An Account of the Improvements on the Estates of the Marquis of
Stafford, by James Kinloch, General Agent of the Sutherland Estates.
London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, 1820.

No country of Europe at any period of its history ever presented more
formidable obstacles to the improvement of a people arising out of the
prejudices and feelings of the people themselves. To the tacksman, it
is clear, from what has already been stated, such a change could not
be agreeable. Its effect being to alter his condition, and remove him
from a state of idle independence, in habits almost of equality with
his chief, to a situation, although fully, if not more respectable,
yet one in which his livelihood was to be obtained by his exertions
and industry, and in many instances by an application to pursuits,
which were by him considered as beneath the occupation of a gentleman,
although leading to real independence and wealth, to a degree he never
could arrive at in his original condition. Nor could it be agreeable to
him to lose that command and influence, which he had hitherto exercised
without control, over his sub-tenants and dependants; while it was at
variance with every feeling and prejudice in which he had been brought
up and educated. It required minds of no ordinary cast to rise superior
to these feelings: and men of no common understanding and vigour of
intellect were required, to shake off habits so opposed to active
industry and exertion. From a certain set of this class, therefore,
a real and determined opposition to any change was to be looked for.
This expectation has not been disappointed; and it is from individuals
of this class, and persons connected with them, that those false and
malignant representations have proceeded, which have been so loudly and
extensively circulated. Actuated by motives of a mere personal nature,
regardless of the happiness of the people, whose improvement it was
the great object of the landlord to effect, they attempted to make an
appeal in favour of a set of people who were never before the objects
of their commiseration, in order that they might, if possible, reduce
them, for their own selfish purposes, to that state of degradation
from which they had been just emancipated. This was, however, by no
means true of the whole, or of the greater part of this class of
gentlemen; for the bulk of the most active improvers of Sutherland are
natives, who, both as sheep farmers, and as skilful and enterprising
agriculturists, are equal to any to be met with in the kingdom. They
have, with an intelligence and liberality of feeling which reflects
upon them the highest honour, embraced with alacrity the new scene of
active exertion presented for their adoption; seconding the views of
the landlords with the utmost zeal, marked with much foresight and
prudence. Out of the twenty-nine principal tacksmen on the estate,
seventeen are natives of Sutherland, four are Northumbrians, two are
from the county of Moray, two from Roxburghshire, two from Caithness,
one from Midlothian, and one from the Merse.

So strong, however, were the prejudices of the people, that, even to
those who were subjected to the power and control of the tacksmen,
this mode of life had charms which attached them strongly to it. He
extended, in some degree, to the more respectable of those who were
placed under him, the same familiarity which he received from the
chief. The burden of the outdoor work was cast upon the females. The
men deemed such an occupation unworthy of them, continued labour of any
sort being most adverse to their habits. They were contented with the
most simple and the poorest fare. Like all mountaineers, accustomed
to a life of irregular exertion, with intervals of sloth, they were
attached with a degree of enthusiasm, only felt by the natives of a
poor country, to their own glen and mountainside, adhering in the
strongest manner to the habits and homes of their fathers. They deemed
no comfort worth the possessing, which was to be purchased at the price
of regular industry; no improvement worthy of adoption, if it was to
be obtained at the expense of sacrificing the customs, or leaving the
homes of their ancestors. So strongly did these feelings operate, that
it cost them nearly the same effort to remove from the spot in which
they were born and brought up, though the place of their new dwelling
was situated on the sea-shore at the mouth of their native strath, or
even in a neighbouring glen, as it cost them to make an exertion equal
to transporting themselves across the Atlantic.

The cattle which they reared on the mountains, and from the sale of
which they depended for the payment of their rents, were of the poorest
description. During summer they procured a scanty sustenance, with much
toil and labour, by roaming over the mountains; while in winter they
died in numbers for the want of support; notwithstanding a practice,
which they universally adopted, of killing every second calf, on
account of the want of winter keep. To such an extent did this calamity
at times amount, that, in the spring of 1807, there died in the parish
of Kildonan alone, two hundred cows, five hundred head of cattle, and
more than two hundred small horses.

As soon as the works, undertaken under the direction of the
Parliamentary Commissioners, opened a prospect of removing successfully
the obstacles which stood in the way of the improvements of the
people, steps were taken to new model and arrange these extensive
possessions. The utmost caution and deliberation was used in doing
so, and plans were never more maturely weighed, nor executed with
more anxiety and tenderness. To aid the further arrangement of these
matters, application was made to William Young, Esq., of Inverugie,
in the county of Elgin, whose active mind and indefatigable industry
had been exhibited in what he had done upon his own estate. This
gentleman superintended the commencement of those vast improvements
which were undertaken on the estate of Sutherland. The success of the
measures carried into effect under his direction, combined with the
difficulties he had to contend with, must always be the best proof
of the ability and indefatigable zeal with which he executed the
charge of which he had taken the direction, and which he performed so
much to his own credit and the advantage of the country. It is only
doing justice to his merits to say, that the rapidity of the earlier
improvements was owing in a principal degree to the impulse and action
inspired by his intelligent and enterprising mind. Mr. Young resigned
his superintendence in 1816, when the local management of the estate
of Sutherland was entrusted to the present factor, Mr. Francis Suther,
whose good temper and judicious conduct in the immediate management
at Trentham, recommended him to the situation he now holds. These
expectations have been fully justified by the manner he has executed
the details of the late arrangements, in which he received the most
cordial and able assistance from Captain John Mackay, late of the 26th
Foot, the factor of Strathnaver, and from Lieutenant George Gunn, of
the Royal Marines, Chief of the clan Gunn, factor of Assynt.

These gentlemen deserve equal credit for the manner in which they have
enforced and promoted the plans which were laid down for the extension
of the fisheries and the cultivation of the coast side, as for their
kind and careful conduct towards the people. Mr. Suther’s exertions in
promoting and carrying into effect every arrangement which was made for
the encouragement and the success of the fishing station and village
of Helmsdale, requires particular commendation.

It is well known that the borders of the two kingdoms were inhabited
by a numerous population, who, in their pursuits, manners, and general
structure of society, bore a considerable resemblance to that which
existed in the Highlands of Scotland. When the union of the crowns, and
those subsequent transactions which arose out of that event, rendered
the maintenance of that irregular population not only unnecessary, but
a burden to the proprietor to whom the land belonged, the people were
removed, and the mountains were covered with sheep. So that it had been
for a length of time proved by the experience of the stock farmers
of those mountain tracts, which comprise the northern districts of
England, and the southern parts of Scotland, that such situations were
peculiarly suited for the maintenance of this species of stock. Taking
this example as their guide, experience had still further proved,
that the central and western Highlands of Scotland were equally well
calculated for the same end.

Reasoning from this success, and observing that the climate of
Sutherland, owing to its vicinity to the ocean, and to its being
considerably intersected by arms of the sea, was much more moderate
than this latter district, it was fairly concluded that this county
was even better fitted for this system of management, than the heights
of Perthshire and Inverness-shire. The inferior elevation of its
mountains contributed still further to this effect, and held out every
encouragement to adopt the same course which had been pursued with such
success in both parts of the kingdom.

The succession of those Alpine plants, which are common to the Cheviot
Hills, when they are put under sheep, being also the natural herbage of
the mountains of Sutherland, renders them still more suitable to this
mode of occupation.

On the first melting of the snow, the cotton grass is found to have
been growing rapidly; it forms a healthy and an abundant food for
sheep, until about the beginning of May, at which time it is in seed;
when, after a short interval, the deer hair takes its place, starting
up almost instantaneously, and forming, in the course of one week (if
the ground has been recently burnt, and the weather be favourable), a
green cover to the mountains. This plant grows with several varieties
of bents, until the end of July, when the cotton grass again begins
to spring, and with the pry moss, comes a second time into flower, in
September, after which the heather and more heating plants continue
until the frosts of winter. Nor is there any part of these mountains,
over which the sheep cannot roam with ease, in search of food,
rendering the whole available and profitable.

As there was every reason therefore for concluding, that the
mountainous parts of the estate and indeed of the county of Sutherland,
were as much calculated for the maintenance of stock as they were unfit
for the habitation of man, there could be no doubt as to the propriety
of converting them into sheep walks, _provided_ the people could be
at the same time settled in situations, where, by the exercise of
their honest industry, they could obtain a decent livelihood, and add
to the general mass of national wealth, and where they should not be
exposed to the recurrence of those privations, which so frequently and
so terribly afflicted them, when situated among the mountains. It was
a matter of important consideration, to determine how this was to be
accomplished. The local peculiarities of the county presented none of
those advantages in disposing of, and absorbing the surplus population,
which the borders of the two kingdoms, and the southern and eastern
highlands had enjoyed. Besides it had made no approximation to the
state in which the rest of Scotland was placed, when those changes were
carried into effect. It had stood still in the midst of that career of
improvement which had so remarkably and so splendidly distinguished the
rest of the kingdom; and remained separated by its habits, prejudices,
and language, from all around.

It had long been known, that the coast of Sutherland abounded with
many different kinds of fish, not only sufficient for the consumption
of the country, but affording also a supply _to any extent_, for more
distant markets or for exportation, when cured and salted. Besides
the regular and continual supply of white fish, with which the shores
thus abound, the coast of Sutherland is annually visited by one of
those vast shoals of herrings, which frequent the coast of Scotland.
It seemed as if it had been pointed out by Nature, that the system
for this remote district, in order that it might bear its suitable
importance in contributing its share to the general stock of the
country, was, to convert the mountainous districts into sheep walks,
and to remove the inhabitants to the coast, or to the valleys near the
sea.

It will be seen, that the object to be obtained by this arrangement,
was two-fold: it was, in the first place, to render this mountainous
district contributory, as far as it was possible, to the general
wealth and industry of the country, and in the manner most suitable to
its situation and peculiar circumstances. This was to be effected by
making it produce a large supply of wool, for the staple manufactory
of England. While, at the same time, it should support as numerous,
and a far more laborious and useful population, than it hitherto had
done at home: and, in the second place, to convert the inhabitants of
those districts to the habits of regular and continued industry, and to
enable them to bring to market a very considerable surplus quantity of
provisions, for the supply of the large towns in the southern parts of
the island, or for the purpose of exportation.

A policy well calculated to raise the importance, and increase the
happiness of the individuals themselves, who were the objects of
the change, to benefit those to whom these extensive but hitherto
unproductive possessions belonged, and to promote the general
prosperity of the nation. Such was the system which was adopted. In
carrying it into effect, every care was taken to explain the object
proposed to be accomplished, to those who were to be removed, and to
point out to them, the ultimate advantages that would necessarily
accrue to them, from their completion.

These communications were made to the people by the factor personally,
or by written statements, communicated to them by the ground officers.
That nothing might be omitted in this respect, the different ministers,
and the principal tacksmen connected with the districts which were
to be newly arranged, were written to, explaining to them, fully and
explicitly, the intentions of the proprietors in adopting them. It was
particularly requested of these gentlemen, that they would impress
upon the minds of the people, the propriety of agreeing to them, and
of explaining, that the motives which dictated this step, arose out of
a real regard for their interests and prosperity, as well as for the
general improvement of the estate.

It was distinctly admitted, that it was not to be expected, that
the people should be immediately reconciled to them. Such was to
expect more than it was possible to hope for. But it was represented,
that if this was so fully felt, and so clearly admitted, that the
landlords must have been strongly and conscientiously impressed with
the necessity and propriety of the measures adopted, as tending
directly to the happiness of those placed under their protection.
These representations had the desired effect, and nothing can be more
praiseworthy, or deserve more to be applauded, than the conduct of the
people on quitting their original habitations; for although they left
them with much regret, they did so in the most quiet, orderly, and
peaceable manner.

If, upon one occasion, in the earlier years of these arrangements, a
momentary feeling of a contrary nature was exhibited, it arose entirely
from the misconduct of persons whose duty it was to have recommended
and enforced obedience to the laws, in place of infusing into the
minds of the people, feelings of a contrary description. As soon,
however, as the interference of these persons was withdrawn, the poor
people returned to their usual state of quietness and repose. All the
statements, giving a different account of their conduct, are absolutely
false, and a libel upon their good conduct and peaceable character.

These arrangements commenced in 1807, and have been carried on
from that period, as the different tacks expired, and afforded an
opportunity of doing so. Bad years, and the failure of crops continuing
to produce the same miserable effects they had constantly occasioned to
that portion of the population, which still continued to reside among
the mountains. This calamity fell with great severity upon them in the
seasons of 1812-13 and 1816-17.

During the latter period they suffered the extremes of want and of
human misery, notwithstanding every aid that could be given to them,
through the bounty of their landlords. Their wretchedness was so great,
that after pawning everything they were possessed of, to the fishermen
on the coast, such as had no cattle were reduced to come down from the
hills in hundreds, for the purpose of gathering cockles on the shore.
Those who lived in the more remote situations of the country were
obliged to subsist upon broth made of nettles, thickened with a little
oatmeal. Those who had cattle had recourse to the still more wretched
expedient of bleeding them, and mixing the blood with oatmeal, which
they afterwards cut into slices and fried. Those who had a little money
came down and slept all night upon the beach, in order to watch the
boat returning from the fishing, that they might be in time to obtain
a part of what had been caught.

In order to alleviate this misery, every exertion was made by Lord
Stafford. To those who had cattle he advanced money to the amount of
above three thousand pounds.

To supply those who had no cattle, he sent meal into the country to the
amount of nearly nine thousand pounds. Besides which, Lady Stafford
distributed money to each parish on the estate: in order that no
pains nor consideration might be wanting, it was arranged that the
gentleman who is at the head of his Lordship’s affairs, the writer
of this statement, should go to Dunrobin to settle with the local
management and the clergymen, what was the best and most effectual
way of distributing his Lordship’s relief. Similar means were taken
by Lord Reay, to alleviate the distresses of his people. While such
was the distress of those who still remained among the hills, _it was
hardly felt by those who had been settled upon the coast_. Their new
occupation, as fishermen, rendered them not only independent of that
which produced the misery of their neighbours, but enabled them at
the same time, in some degree, to become contributors towards their
support, both by the fish they were able to sell to them, and also by
the regular payment of their rents. While it need hardly be stated,
that these wretched sufferers not only required to be relieved, but
failed entirely in the payment of what they owed the landlord.


MRS. HARRIET BEECHER STOWE ON THE SUTHERLAND CLEARANCES.[7]

[7] “Sunny Memories,” Letter xvii.

As to those ridiculous stories about the Duchess of Sutherland, which
have found their way into many of the prints in America, one has only
to be here, moving in society, to see how excessively absurd they are.

All my way through Scotland, and through England, I was associating,
from day to day, with people of every religious denomination, and every
rank of life. I have been with dissenters and with churchmen; with the
national Presbyterian church and the free Presbyterian; with Quakers
and Baptists.

In all these circles I have heard the great and noble of the land
freely spoken of and canvassed, and if there had been the least shadow
of a foundation for any such accusations, I certainly should have
heard it recognized in some manner. If in no other, such warm friends
as I have heard speak would have alluded to the subject in the way of
defence; but I have actually never heard any allusion of any sort, as
if there was anything to be explained or accounted for.

As I have before intimated, the Howard family, to which the duchess
belongs, is one which has always been on the side of popular rights and
popular reform. Lord Carlisle, her brother, has been a leader of the
people, particularly during the time of the corn-law reformation, and
_she_ has been known to take a wide and generous interest in all these
subjects. Everywhere that I have moved through Scotland and England I
have heard her kindness of heart, her affability of manner, and her
attention to the feelings of others spoken of as marked characteristics.

Imagine, then, what people must think when they find in respectable
American prints the absurd story of her turning her tenants out into
the snow, and ordering the cottages to be set on fire over their heads
because they would not go out.

But, if you ask how such an absurd story could ever have been made up,
whether there is the least foundation to make it on, I answer that it
is the exaggerated report of a movement made by the present Duke of
Sutherland’s father, in the year 1811, and which was part of a great
movement that passed through the Highlands of Scotland, when the
advancing progress of civilisation began to make it necessary to change
the estates from military to agricultural establishments.

Soon after the union of the crowns of England and Scotland, the border
chiefs found it profitable to adopt upon their estates that system of
agriculture to which their hills were adapted, rather than to continue
the maintenence of military retainers. Instead of keeping garrisons,
with small armies, in a district, they decided to keep only so many as
could profitably cultivate the land. The effect of this, of course,
was like disbanding an army. It threw many people out of employ, and
forced them to seek for a home elsewhere. Like many other movements
which, in their final results, are beneficial to society, this was at
first vehemently resisted, and had to be carried into effect in some
cases by force. As I have said, it began first in the southern counties
of Scotland, soon after the union of the English and Scottish crowns,
and gradually crept northward--one county after another yielding to the
change. To a certain extent, as it progressed northward, the demand for
labour in the great towns absorbed the surplus population; but when it
came in to the extreme Highlands, this refuge was wanting. Emigration
to America now became the resource; and the surplus population
were induced to this by means such as the Colonization Society now
recommends and approves for promoting emigration to Liberia.

The first farm that was so formed on the Sutherland estate was in 1806.
The great change was made in 1811-12, and completed in 1819-20.

The Sutherland estates are in the most northern portion of Scotland.
The distance of this district from the more advanced parts of the
kingdom, the total want of roads, the unfrequent communication by sea,
and the want of towns, made it necessary to adopt a different course
in regard to the location of the Sutherland population from that which
circumstances had provided in other parts of Scotland, where they had
been removed from the bleak and uncultivable mountains. They had lots
given them near the sea, or in more fertile spots, where, by labour and
industry, they might maintain themselves. They had two years allowed
them for preparing for the change, without payment of rent. Timber for
their houses was given, and many other facilities for assisting their
change.

The general agent of the Sutherland estate is Mr. Loch. In a speech of
this gentleman in the House of Commons on the second reading of the
Scotch Poor-Law Bill, June 12, 1845, he states the following fact with
regard to the management of the Sutherland estate during this period,
from 1811 to 1833, which certainly can speak for itself: “I can state
as from fact that, from 1811 to 1833, not one sixpence of rent has been
received from that county, but, on the contrary, there has been sent
there, for the benefit and improvement of the people, a sum exceeding
sixty thousand pounds.”

Mr. Loch goes on in the same speech to say: “There is no set of people
more industrious than the people of Sutherland. Thirty years since they
were engaged in illegal distillation to a very great extent; at the
present moment there is not, I believe, an illegal still in the county.
Their morals have improved as those habits have been abandoned; and
they have added many hundreds, I believe thousands, of acres to the
land in cultivation since they were placed upon the shore.

“Previous to the change to which I have referred, they exported very
few cattle, and hardly anything else. They were also, every now and
then, exposed to all the difficulties of extreme famine. In the years
1812-13, and 1816-17, so great was the misery that it was necessary
to send down oatmeal for their supply to the amount of nine thousand
pounds, and that was given to the people. But, since, industrious
habits were introduced, and they were settled within reach of fishing,
no such calamity has overtaken them. Their condition was then so low
that they were obliged to bleed their cattle during the winter, and mix
the blood with the remnant of meal they had, in order to save from them
starvation.

“Since then the country has improved so much that the fish, in
particular, which they exported, in 1815, from one village alone,
Helmsdale (which, previous to 1811, did not exist), amounted to five
thousand three hundred and eighteen barrels of herring, and in 1844
thirty-seven thousand five hundred and ninety-four barrels, giving
employment to about three thousand nine hundred people. This extends
over the whole of the county, in which fifty-six thousand barrels were
cured.

“Do not let me be supposed to say that there are not cases requiring
attention: it must be so in a large population; but there can be no
means taken by a landlord, or by those under him, that are not bestowed
upon that tenantry.

“It has been said that the contribution by the heritor (the duke)
to one kirk session for the poor was but six pounds. Now, in the
eight parishes which are called Sutherland proper, the amount of
the contribution of the Duke of Sutherland to the kirk session is
forty-two pounds a-year. That is a very small sum, but that sum merely
is so given because the landlord thinks that he can distribute his
charity in a more beneficial manner to the people; and the amount of
charity which he gives--and which, I may say, is settled on them, for
it is given regularly--is above four hundred and fifty pounds a-year.

“Therefore the statements that have been made, so far from being
correct, are in every way an exaggeration of what is the fact. No
portion of the kingdom has advanced in prosperity so much; and if the
honourable member (Mr. S. Crawford) will go down there, I will give him
every facility for seeing the state of the people, and he shall judge
with his own eyes whether my representation be not correct. I could
go through a great many other particulars, but I will not trouble the
House now with them. The statements I have made are accurate, and I am
quite ready to prove them in any way that is necessary.”

The same Mr. Loch has published a pamphlet, in which he has traced out
the effects of the system pursued on the Sutherland estate, in many
very important particulars. It appears from this that previously to
1811 the people were generally sub-tenants to middlemen, who exacted
high rents, and also various perquisites, such as the delivery of
poultry and eggs, giving so many days’ labour in harvest time, cutting
and carrying peat and stones for building.

Since 1811 the people have become immediate tenants, at a greatly
diminished rate of rent, and released from all these exactions. For
instance, in two parishes, in 1812, the rents were one thousand five
hundred and ninety-three pounds, and in 1823 they were only nine
hundred and seventy-two pounds. In another parish the reduction of
rents has amounted, on an average, to thirty-six per cent. Previous
to 1811 the houses were turf huts of the poorest description, in many
instances the cattle being kept under the same roof with the family.
Since 1811 a large proportion of their houses have been rebuilt in a
superior manner--the landlord having paid them for their old timber
where it could not be moved, and having also contributed the new
timber, with lime.

Before 1811 all the rents of the estates were used for the personal
profit of the landlord; but since that time, both by the present duke
and his father, all the rents have been expended on improvements in the
county, besides sixty thousand pounds more which have been remitted
from England for the purpose. This money has been spent on churches,
school-houses, harbours, public inns, roads, and bridges.

In 1811 there was not a carriage-road in the county, and only two
bridges. Since that time four hundred and thirty miles of road have
been constructed on the estate, at the expense of the proprietor and
tenants. There is not a turnpike-gate in the county, and yet the roads
are kept perfect.

Before 1811 the mail was conveyed entirely by a foot runner, and there
was but one post-office in the county; and there was no direct post
across the county, but letters to the north and west were forwarded
once a month. A mail-coach has since been established, to which
the late Duke of Sutherland contributed more than two thousand six
hundred pounds; and since 1834 mail-gigs have been established to
convey letters to the north and west coast, towards which the Duke of
Sutherland contributes three hundred pounds a year. There are sixteen
post-offices and sub-offices in the county. Before 1811 there was no
inn in the county fit for the reception of strangers. Since that time
there have been fourteen inns either built or enlarged by the duke.

Before 1811 there was scarcely a cart on the estate; all the carriage
was done on the backs of ponies. The cultivation of the interior was
generally executed with a rude kind of spade, and there was not a gig
in the county. In 1845 there were one thousand one hundred and thirty
carts owned on the estate, and seven hundred and eight ploughs, also
forty-one gigs.

Before 1812 there was no baker, and only two shops. In 1845 there were
eight bakers and forty-six grocers’ shops, in nearly all of which
shoe-blacking was sold to some extent, an unmistakable evidence of
advancing civilization.

In 1808 the cultivation of the coast-side of Sutherland was so
defective that it was necessary often, in a fall of snow, to cut down
the young Scotch firs to feed the cattle on; and in 1808 hay had to
be imported. _Now_ the coast side of Sutherland exhibits an extensive
district of land cultivated according to the best principles of modern
agriculture; several thousand acres have been added to the arable land
by these improvements.

Before 1811 there were no woodlands of any extent on the estate,
and timber had to be obtained from a distance. Since that time many
thousand acres of woodland have been planted, the thinnings of which,
being sold to the people at a moderate rate, have greatly increased
their comfort and improved their domestic arrangements.

Before 1811 there were only two blacksmiths in the county. In 1845
there were forty-two blacksmiths and sixty-three carpenters. Before
1829 the exports of the county consisted of black cattle of an inferior
description, pickled salmon, and some ponies; but these were precarious
sources of profit, as many died in winter for want of food; for
example, in the spring of 1807, two hundred cows, five hundred cattle,
and more than two hundred ponies died in the parish of Kildonan alone.
Since that time the measures pursued by the Duke of Sutherland, in
introducing improved breeds of cattle, pigs, and modes of agriculture,
have produced results in exports which tell their own story. About
forty thousand sheep and one hundred and eighty thousand fleece of wool
are exported annually; also fifty thousand barrels of herring.

The whole fishing village of Helmsdale has been built since that
time. It now contains from thirteen to fifteen curing yards covered
with slate, and several streets with houses similarly built. The
herring fishery, which has been mentioned as so productive, has been
established since the change, and affords employment to three thousand
nine hundred people.

Since 1811, also, a savings-bank has been established in every parish,
of which the Duke of Sutherland is patron and treasurer, and the
savings have been very considerable.

The education of the children of the people has been a subject of deep
interest to the Duke of Sutherland. Besides the parochial schools
(which answer, I suppose, to our district schools), of which the
greater number have been rebuilt or repaired at an expense exceeding
what is legally required for such purposes, the Duke of Sutherland
contributes to the support of several schools for young females, at
which sewing and other branches of education are taught; and in 1844 he
agreed to establish twelve General Assembly schools, in such parts of
the county as were without the sphere of the parochial schools, and to
build schools and schoolmasters’ houses, which will, upon an average,
cost two hundred pounds each; and to contribute annually two hundred
pounds in aid of salaries to the teachers, besides a garden and cow’s
grass; and in 1845 he made an arrangement with the education committee
of the Free Church, whereby no child, of whatever persuasion, will be
beyond the reach of moral and religious education.

There are five medical gentlemen on the estate, three of whom receive
allowances from the Duke of Sutherland for attendance on the poor in
the districts in which they reside.

An agricultural association, or farmers’ club, has been formed under
the patronage of the Duke of Sutherland, of which the other proprietors
in the county, and the larger tenantry, are members, which is in a very
active and flourishing state. They have recently invited Professor
Johnston to visit Sutherland and give lectures on agricultural
chemistry.

The total population of the Sutherland estate is twenty-one thousand
seven hundred and eighty-four. To have the charge and care of so large
an estate, of course, must require very systematic arrangements; but a
talent for system seems to be rather the forte of the English.

The estate is first divided into three districts, and each district
is under the superintendence of a factor, who communicates with the
duke through a general agent. Besides this, when the duke is on the
estate, which is during a portion of every year, he receives on Monday
whoever of his tenants wishes to see him. Their complaints or wishes
are presented in writing; he takes them into consideration, and gives
written replies.

Besides the three factors there is a ground officer, or sub-factor, in
every parish, and an agriculturist in the Dunrobin district, who gives
particular attention to instructing the people in the best methods of
farming. The factors, the ground officers, and the agriculturists,
all work to one common end. They teach the advantages of draining;
of ploughing deep, and forming their ridges in straight lines; of
constructing tanks for saving liquid manure. The young farmers also
pick up a great deal of knowledge when working as ploughmen or
labourers on the more immediate grounds of the estate.

The head agent, Mr. Loch, has been kind enough to put into my hands a
general report of the condition of the estate, which he drew up for the
inspection of the duke, May 12, 1853, and in which he goes minutely
over the condition of every part of the estate.

One anecdote of the former Duke of Sutherland will show the spirit
which has influenced the family in their management of the estate. In
1817, when there was much suffering on account of bad seasons, the Duke
of Sutherland sent down his chief agent to look into the condition of
the people, who desired the ministers of the parishes to send in their
lists of poor. To his surprise it was found that there were located
on the estate a number of people who had settled there without leave.
They amounted to four hundred and eight families, or two thousand
persons; and though they had no legal title to remain where they were,
no hesitation was shown in supplying them with food in the same manner
with those who were tenants, on the sole condition that on the first
opportunity they should take cottages on the sea-shore, and become
industrious people. It was the constant object of the duke to keep the
rents of his poorer tenants at a nominal amount.

What led me more particularly to inquire into these facts was, that I
received by mail, while in London, an account containing some of these
stories, which had been industriously circulated in America. There were
dreadful accounts of cruelties practised in the process of inducing
the tenants to change their places of residence. The following is a
specimen of these stories:--

“I was present at the pulling down and burning of the house of William
Chisholm, Badinloskin, in which was lying his wife’s mother, an old,
bed-ridden woman of near one hundred years of age, none of the family
being present. I informed the persons about to set fire to the house of
this circumstance, and prevailed on them to wait till Mr. Sellar came.
On his arrival I told him of the poor old woman, being a condition
unfit for removal. He replied, ‘The old witch! she has lived too long;
let her burn.’ Fire was immediately set to the house, and the blankets
in which she was carried were in flames before she could be got out.
She was placed in a little shed, and it was with great difficulty they
were prevented from firing that also. The old woman’s daughter arrived
while the house was on fire, and assisted the neighbours in removing
her mother out of the flames and smoke, presenting a picture of horror
which I shall never forget but cannot attempt to describe. She died
within five days.”

With regard to this story, Mr. Loch, the agent, says: “I must notice
the only thing like a fact stated in the newspaper extract which
you sent to me, wherein Mr. Sellar is accused of acts of cruelty
towards some of the people. This Mr. Sellar tested, by bringing an
action against the then Sheriff-substitute of the county. He obtained
a verdict for heavy damages. The Sheriff, by whom the slander was
propagated, left the county. Both are since dead.”

Having, through Lord Shaftesbury’s kindness, received the benefit of
Mr. Loch’s corrections to this statement, I am permitted to make a
little further extract from his reply. He says:--

“In addition to what I was able to say in my former paper, I can
now state that the Duke of Sutherland has received from one of
the most determined opposers of the measures, who travelled to the
north of Scotland as editor of a newspaper, a letter regretting all
he had written on the subject, being convinced that he was entirely
misinformed. As you take so much interest in the subject, I will
conclude by saying that nothing could exceed the prosperity of the
county during the past year; their stock, sheep, and other things sold
at high prices; their crops of grain and turnips were never so good,
and the potatoes were free from all disease: rents have been paid
better than was ever known. * * * As an instance of the improved habits
of the farmers, no house is now built for them that they do not require
a hot bath and water-closets.”

From this long epitome you can gather the following results. First, if
the system were a bad one, the Duchess of Sutherland had nothing to do
with it, since it was first introduced in 1806, the same year her grace
was born; and the accusation against Mr. Sellar, dates in 1811, when
her grace was five or six years old. The Sutherland arrangements were
completed in 1819, and her grace was not married to the duke till 1823,
so that, had the arrangement been the worst in the world, it is nothing
to the purpose so far as she is concerned.

As to whether the arrangement _is_ a bad one, the facts which have
been stated speak for themselves. To my view it is an almost sublime
instance of the benevolent employment of superior wealth and power in
shortening the struggles of advancing civilization, and elevating in
a few years a whole community to a point of education and material
prosperity, which, unassisted, they might never have obtained.


REPLY TO MRS. BEECHER STOWE BY DONALD MACLEOD.[8]

[8] From enlarged edition of “Gloomy Memories,” published in Canada in
1857.

From the year 1812 to 1820, the whole interior of the county of
Sutherland--whose inhabitants were advancing rapidly in the science
of agriculture and education, who by nature and exemplary training
were the bravest, the most moral and patriotic people that ever
existed--even admitting a few of them did violate the excise laws, the
only sin which Mr. Loch and all the rest of their avowed enemies could
bring against them--where a body of men could be raised on the shortest
possible notice that kings and emperors might and would be proud of;
and where the whole fertile valleys and straths which gave them birth
were in due season waving with corn; their mountains and hill-sides
studded with sheep and cattle; where rejoicing, felicity, happiness,
and true piety prevailed; where the martial notes of the bagpipes
sounded and reverberated from mountain to glen, from glen to mountain.
I say, marvellous! in eight years converted to a solitary wilderness,
where the voice of man praising God is not to be heard, nor the image
of God upon man to be seen; where you can set a compass with twenty
miles of a radius upon it, and go round with it full stretched, and not
find one acre of land within the circumference which has come under the
plough for the last thirty years, except a few in the parishes of Lairg
and Tongue,--all under mute brute animals. This is the advancement of
civilization, is it not, madam?

Return now with me to the beginning of your elaborate eulogy on the
Duchess of Sutherland, and if you are open to conviction, I think
you should be convinced that I never published nor circulated in the
American, English, or Scotch public prints any ridiculous, absurd
stories about her Grace of Sutherland. An abridgment of my lucubrations
is now in the hands of the public, and you may peruse them. I stand
by them as facts (stubborn chiels). I can prove them to be so even
in this country (Canada), by a cloud of living witnesses, and my
readers will find that, instead of bringing absurd accusations against
her Grace, that I have endeavoured in some instances to screen her
and her predecessors from the public odium their own policy and the
doings of their servants merited. Moreover, there is thirty years
since I began to expostulate with the House of Sutherland for their
shortsighted policy in dealing with their people as they were doing,
and it is twenty years since I began to expose them publicly, with my
real name, Donald MacLeod, attached to each letter, sending a copy of
the public paper where it appeared, directed by post, to the Duke of
Sutherland. These exposing and remonstrating letters were published
in the Edinburgh papers, where the Duke and his predecessors had
their principal Scotch law agent, and you may easily believe that I
was closely watched, with the view to find one false accusation in my
letters, but they were baffled. I am well aware that each letter I have
written on the subject would, if untrue, constitute a libel, and I knew
the editors, printers, and publishers of these papers were as liable
or responsible for libel as I was. But the House of Sutherland could
never venture to raise an action of damages against either of us. In
1841, when I published my first pamphlet, I paid $4 50c., for binding
one of them, in a splendid style, which I sent by mail to his Grace
the present Duke of Sutherland, with a complimentary note requesting
him to peruse it, and let me know if it contained anything offensive
or untrue. I never received a reply, nor did I expect it; yet I am
satisfied that his Grace did peruse it. I posted a copy of it to Mr.
Loch, his chief commissioner; to Mr. W. Mackenzie, his chief lawyer
in Edinburgh; to every one of their underlings, to sheep farmers, and
ministers in the county of Sutherland, who abetted the depopulators,
and I challenged the whole of them, and other literary scourges who
aid and justified their unhallowed doings, to gainsay one statement I
have made. Can you or any other believe that a poor sinner like Donald
MacLeod would be allowed for so many years to escape with impunity,
had he been circulating and publishing calumnious, absurd falsehoods
against such personages as the House of Sutherland? No, I tell you, if
money could secure my punishment, without establishing their own shame
and guilt, that it would be considered well-spent long ere now,--they
would eat me in penny pies if they could get me cooked for them.

I agree with you that the Duchess of Sutherland is a beautiful,
accomplished lady, who would shudder at the idea of taking a <DW19> or
a burning torch in her hand to set fire to the cottages of her tenants,
and so would her predecessor, the first Duchess of Sutherland, her
good mother; likewise would the late and present Dukes of Sutherland,
at least I am willing to believe that they would. Yet it was done
in their name, under their authority, to their knowledge, and with
their sanction. The dukes and duchesses of Sutherland, and those of
their depopulating order, had not, nor have they any call to defile
their pure hands in milder work than to burn people’s houses; no,
no, they had, and have plenty of willing tools at their beck to
perform their dirty work. Whatever amount of humanity and purity of
heart the late or the present Duke and Duchess may possess or be
ascribed to them, we know the class of men from whom they selected
their commissioners, factors, and underlings. I knew every one of the
unrighteous servants who ruled the Sutherland estate for the last fifty
years, and I am justified in saying that the most skilful phrenologist
and physiognomist that ever existed could not discern one spark of
humanity in the whole of them, from Mr. Loch down to Donald Sgrios,
or Damnable Donald, the name by which the latter was known. The most
of those cruel executors of the atrocities I have been describing are
now dead, and to be feared but not lamented. But it seems their chief
was left to give you all the information you required about British
slavery and oppression. I have read from speeches delivered by Mr.
Loch at public dinners among his own party, “that he would never be
satisfied until the Gaelic language and the Gaelic people would be
extirpated root and branch from the Sutherland estate; yes, from the
Highlands of Scotland.” He published a book, where he stated as a
positive fact, “that when he got the management of the Sutherland
estate he found 408 families on the estate who never heard the name of
Jesus,”--whereas I could make oath that there were not at that time,
and for ages prior to it, above two families within the limits of the
county who did not worship that Name and holy Being every morning and
evening. I know there are hundreds in the Canadas who will bear me out
in this assertion. I was at the pulling down and burning of the house
of William Chisholm. I got my hands burnt taking out the poor old woman
from amidst the flames of her once-comfortable though humble dwelling,
and a more horrifying and lamentable scene could scarcely be witnessed.
I may say the skeleton of a once tall, robust, high-cheek-boned,
respectable woman, who had seen better days; who could neither hear,
see, nor speak; without a tooth in her mouth, her cheek skin meeting
in the centre, her eyes sunk out of sight in their sockets, her mouth
wide open, her nose standing upright among smoke and flames, uttering
piercing moans of distress and agony, in articulations from which
could be only understood, “_Oh, Dhia, Dhia, teine, teine_--Oh God,
God, fire, fire.” When she came to the pure air, her bosom heaved to
a most extraordinary degree, accompanied by a deep hollow sound from
her lungs, comparable to the sound of thunder at a distance. When laid
down upon the bare, soft, moss floor of the roofless shed, I will
never forget the foam of perspiration which emitted and covered the
pallid death-looking countenance. This was a scene, madam, worthy of an
artist’s pencil, and of a conspicuous place on the stages of tragedy.
Yet you call this a specimen of the ridiculous stories which found
their way into respectable prints, because Mr. Loch, the chief actor,
told you that Sellar, the head executive, brought an action against the
sheriff and obtained a verdict for heavy damages. What a subterfuge;
but it will not answer the purpose, “_the bed is too short to stretch
yourself, and the covering too narrow and short to cover you_.” If you
took the information and evidence upon which you founded your _Uncle
Tom’s Cabin_ from such unreliable sources (as I said before), who can
believe the one-tenth of your novel? I cannot. I have at my hand here
the grandchild of the slaughtered old woman, who recollects well of
the circumstance. I have not far from me a respectable man, an elder
in the Free Church, who was examined as a witness at Sellar’s trial,
at the Spring Assizes of Inverness, in 1816, which you will find
narrated in letters four and five of my work. Had you the opportunity,
madam, of seeing the scenes which I, and hundreds more, have seen--the
wild ferocious appearance of the infamous _gang_ who constituted the
burning party, covered over face and hands with soot and ashes of the
burning houses, cemented by torch-grease and their own sweat, kept
continually drunk or half-drunk while at work; and to observe the
hellish amusements some of them would get up for themselves and for
an additional pleasure to their leaders! The people’s houses were
generally built upon declivities, and in many cases not far from pretty
steep precipices. They preserved their meal in tight-made boxes, or
chests, as they were called, and when this fiendish party found any
quantity of meal, they would carry it between them to the brink,
and dispatch it down the precipice amidst shrieks and yells. It was
considered grand sport to see the box breaking to atoms and the meal
mixed with the air. When they would set fire to a house, they would
watch any of the domestic animals making their escape from the flames,
such as dogs, cats, hens, or any poultry; these were caught and thrown
back to the flames--grand sport for demons in human form!

As to the vaunted letter which his “Grace received from one of the most
determined opposers of the measures, who travelled in the north of
Scotland as editor of a newspaper, regretting all that he had written
on the subject, being convinced that he was misinformed,” I may tell
you, madam, that this man did not travel to the north or in the north
of Scotland, as editor; his name was Thomas Mulock; he came to Scotland
a fanatic speculator in literature in search of money, or a lucrative
situation, vainly thinking that he would be a dictator to every
editor in Scotland. He first attacked the immortal Hugh Miller of the
_Witness_, Edinburgh, but in him he met more than his match. He then
went to the north, got hold of my first pamphlet, and by setting it up
in a literary style, and in better English than I, he made a splendid
and promising appearance in the northern papers for some time; but
he found out that the money expected was not coming in, and that the
hotels, head inns, and taverns would not keep him up any longer without
the prospect of being paid for the past or for the future. I found out
that he was hard up, and a few of the Highlanders in Edinburgh and
myself sent him from twenty to thirty pounds sterling. When he saw
that that was all he was to get, he at once turned tail upon us, and
instead of expressing his gratitude, he abused us unsparingly, and
regretted that ever he wrote in behalf of such a hungry, moneyless
class. He smelled (like others we suspect) where the gold was hoarded
up for hypocrites and flatterers, and that one apologising letter to
his Grace would be worth ten times as much as he could expect from the
Highlanders all his lifetime; and I doubt not it was, for his apology
for the sin of misinformation got wide circulation.

He then went to France and started an English paper in Paris, and for
the service he rendered Napoleon in crushing republicanism during the
besieging of Rome, etc., the Emperor presented him with a _gold pin_,
and in a few days afterwards sent a _gendarme_ to him with a brief
notice that his service was not any longer required, and a warning to
quit France in a few days, which he had to do. What became of him after
I know not, but very likely he is dictating to young Loch, or some
other Metternich.

No feelings of hostile vindictiveness, no desire to inflict
chastisement, no desire to make riches, influenced my mind, pourtraying
the scenes of havoc and misery which in those past days darkened the
annals of Sutherland. I write in my own humble style, with higher
aims, wishing to prepare the way for demonstrating to the Dukes of
Sutherland, and all other Highland proprietors, great and small, that
the path of selfish aggrandisement and oppression leads by sure and
inevitable results, yea to the ruin and destruction of the blind and
misguided oppressors themselves. I consider the Duke himself victimised
on a large scale by an incurably wrong system, and by being enthralled
by wicked counsellors and servants. I have no hesitation in saying, had
his Grace and his predecessors bestowed one-half of the encouragement
they had bestowed upon strangers on the aborigines--a hardy, healthy,
abstemious people, who lived peaceably in their primitive habitations,
unaffected with the vices of a subtle civilization, possessing little,
but enjoying much; a race devoted to their hereditary chief, ready to
abide by his counsels; a race profitable in peace, and loyal, available
in war; I say, his Grace, the present Duke of Sutherland, and his
beautiful Duchess, would be without compeers in the British dominions,
their rents, at least doubled; would be as secure from invasion and
annoyance in Dunrobin Castle as Queen Victoria could, or can be, in
her Highland residence, at Balmoral, and far safer than she is in
her English home, Buckingham Palace; every man and son of Sutherland
would be ready, as in the days of yore, to shed the last drop of
their blood in defence of their chief, if required. Congratulations,
rejoicings, dancing to the martial notes of the pipes, would meet
them at the entrance to every glen and strath in Sutherlandshire,
accompanied, surrounded, and greeted, as they proceeded, by the most
grateful, devotedly attached, happy, and bravest peasantry that ever
existed; yes, but alas! where there is nothing now, but desolation and
the cries of famine and want, to meet the noble pair--the ruins of
once comfortable dwellings--will be seen the landmarks of the furrows
and ridges which yielded food to thousands, the footprints of the
arch-enemy of human happiness, and ravager--before, after, and on each
side, solitude, stillness, and the quiet of the grave, disturbed only
at intervals by the yells of a shepherd, or fox-hunter, and the bark
of a collie dog. Surely we must admit that the Marquises and Dukes
of Sutherland have been duped and victimised to a most extraordinary
and incredible extent; and we have Mr. Loch’s own words for it in his
speech in the House of Commons, June 21st, 1845: “I can state, as
from facts, that from 1811 to 1833, not one sixpence of rent has been
received from that county; but, on the contrary, there has been sent
there for the benefit and improvement of the people a sum exceeding
sixty thousand pounds sterling.” Now think you of this immense wealth
which has been expended. I am not certain, but I think the rental of
the county would exceed £60,000 a year; you have then from 1811 to
1833, twenty-two years, leaving them at the above figures, and the
sum total will amount to £1,320,000 expended upon the self-styled
Sutherland improvements; add to this £60,000 sent down to preserve the
lives of the victims of those improvements from death by famine, and
the sum total will turn out in the shape of £1,380,000. It surely cost
the heads of the house of Sutherland an immense sum of money to convert
the county into the state I have described it in a former part of this
work (and I challenge contradiction).

You should be surprised to hear and learn, madam, for what purposes
most of the money drained from the Duke’s coffers yearly are expended
since he became the Duke and proprietor of Sutherland, upholding the
Loch policy. There are no fewer than seventeen who are known by the
name of water bailiffs in the county, who receive yearly salaries,
what doing, think you? Protecting the operations of the Loch policy,
watching day and night the freshwater lakes, rivers, and creeks,
teeming with the finest salmon and trout fish in the world, guarding
from the famishing people, even during the years of famine and
dire distress, when many had to subsist upon weeds, sea-ware, and
shell-fish, yet guarded and preserved for the amusement of English
anglers; and what is still more heartrending, to prevent the dying by
hunger to pick up any of the dead fish left by the sporting anglers
rotting on the lake, creek, and river sides, when the smallest of them,
or a morsel, would be considered by hundreds, I may say thousands,
of the needy natives, a treat; but they durst not touch them, or if
they did and were found out to jail they were conducted, or removed
summarily from his Grace’s domains; (let me be understood, these
gentlemen had no use for the fish, killing them for amusement, only
what they required for their own use, and complimented to the factors;
they were not permitted to cure them).

You will find, madam, that about three miles from Dunrobin Castle
there is a branch of the sea which extends up the county about six
miles, where shell-fish, called mussels, abound. Here you will find
two sturdy men, called mussel bailiffs, supplied with rifles and
ammunition, and as many Newfoundland dogs as assistants, watching
the mussel scalps, or beds, to preserve them from the people in the
surrounding parishes of Dornoch, Rogart, and Golspie, and keep them,
to supply the fishermen, on the opposite side of the Moray Firth,
with bait, who come there every year and take away thousands of tons
of this nutritive shell-fish, when many hundreds of the people would
be thankful for a diet per day of them, to pacify the cravings of
nature. You will find that the unfortunate native fishermen, who
pay a yearly rent to his Grace for bait, are only permitted theirs
from the refuse left by the strangers of the other side of the Moray
Firth, and if they violate the _iron_ rule laid down to them, they are
entirely at the mercy of the underlings. There has been an instance
of two of the fishermen’s wives going on a cold, snowy, frosty day to
gather bait, but on account of the boisterous sea, could not reach the
place appointed by the factors; one took what they required from the
forbidden ground, and was observed by some of the bailiffs, in ambush,
who pursued them like tigers. One came up to her unobserved, took out
his knife, and cut the straps by which the basket or creel on her back
was suspended; the weight on her back fell to the ground, and she, poor
woman, big in the family way, fell her whole length forward in the snow
and frost. Her companion turned round to see what had happened, when
she was pushed back with such force that she fell; he then trampled
their baskets and mussels to atoms, took them both prisoners, ordered
one of them to call his superior bailiff to assist him, and kept the
other for two hours standing, wet as she was, among frost and snow,
until the superior came a distance of three miles. After a short
consultation upon the enormity of the crime, the two poor women were
led, like convicted criminals, to Golspie, to appear before Lycurgus
Gunn, and in that deplorable condition were left standing before their
own doors in the snow, until Marshall Gunn found it convenient to
appear and pronounce judgment,--verdict: You are allowed to go into
your houses this night; this day week you must leave this village
for ever, and the whole of the fishermen of the village are strictly
prohibited from taking bait from the Little Ferry until you leave; my
bailiffs are requested to see this my decree strictly attended to.
Being the middle of winter and heavy snow, they delayed a week longer:
ultimately the villagers had to expel the two families from among
them, so that they would get bait, having nothing to depend upon for
subsistence but the fishing, and fish they could not without bait.
This is a specimen of the injustice to and subjugation of the Golspie
fishermen, and of the people at large; likewise of the purposes for
which the Duke’s money is expended in that quarter. If you go, then, to
the other side of the domain, you will find another Kyle, or a branch
of the sea, which abounds in cockles and other shell-fish, fortunately
for the poor people, not forbidden by a Loch ukase. But in the years
of distress, when the people were principally living upon vegetables,
sea-weeds, and shell-fish, various diseases made their appearance
amongst them hitherto unknown. The absence of meal of any kind being
considered the primary cause, some of the people thought they would be
permitted to exchange shell-fish for meal with their more fortunate
neighbours in Caithness, to whom such shell-fish were a rarity, and
so far the understanding went between them, that the Caithness boats
came up loaded with meal, but the Loch embargo, through his underling
in Tongue, who was watching their movements, was at once placed upon
it; the Caithness boats had to return home with the meal, and the
Duke’s people might live or die, as they best could. Now, madam, you
have steeped your brains, and ransacked the English language to find
refined terms for your panegyric on the Duke, Duchess, and family of
Sutherland. (I find no fault with you, knowing you have been well paid
for it.) But I would briefly ask you (and others who devoted much of
their time and talents in the same strain), would it not be more like
a noble pair--if they did merit such noble praise as you have bestowed
upon them--if they had, especially during years of famine and distress,
freely opened up all these bountiful resources which God in His eternal
wisdom and goodness prepared for His people, and which should never be
intercepted nor restricted by man or men. You and others have composed
hymns of praise, which it is questionable if there is a tune in heaven
to sing them to.

  So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under
  the sun: and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had
  no comforter: and on the side of their oppressors there was power;
  but they had no comforter.--Ecclesiastes iv. 1.

  The wretch that works and weeps without relief
  Has one that notices his silent grief.
  He, from whose hands all pow’r proceeds
  Ranks its abuse among the foulest deeds,
  Considers _all_ injustice with a frown,
  But _marks_ the man that treads his fellow down.
  Remember Heav’n has an avenging rod--
  To smite the poor is treason against God.--_Cowper._

But you shall find the Duke’s money is expended for most astonishing
purposes; not a little of it goes to hire hypocrites, and renowned
literary flatterers, to vindicate the mal-administration of those to
whom he entrusted the management of his affairs, and make his Grace
(who is by nature a simple-minded man) believe his servants are
innocent of all the charges brought against them, and doing justice to
himself and to his people, when they are doing the greatest injustice
to both; so that instead of calling his servants to account at any
time, and enquiring into the broad charges brought against them--as
every wise landlord should do--it seems the greater the enormities of
foul deeds they commit, and the louder their accusations may sound
through the land, the farther they are received into his favour. The
fact is, that James Loch was Duke of Sutherland, and not the “tall,
slender man with rather a thin face, light brown hair, and mild blue
eyes,” who armed you up the extraordinary elegant staircase in Stafford
House.

The Duchess of Sutherland pays a visit every year to Dunrobin Castle,
and has seen and heard so many supplicating appeals presented to her
husband by the poor fishermen of Golspie, soliciting liberty to take
mussels from the Little Ferry Sands to bait their nets--a liberty of
which they were deprived by his factors, though paying yearly rent for
it; yet returned by his Grace with the brief deliverance, that he could
do nothing for them. Can I believe that this is the same personage
who can set out from Dunrobin Castle, her own Highland seat, and
after travelling from it, then can ride in one direction over thirty
miles, in another direction forty-four miles, in another, by taking
the necessary circuitous route, sixty miles, and that over fertile
glens, valleys, and straths, bursting with fatness, which gave birth
to, and where were reared for ages, thousands of the bravest, the most
moral, virtuous, and religious men that Europe could boast of; ready
to a man, at a moment’s warning from their chiefs, to rise in defence
of their king, queen, and country; animated with patriotism and love
to their chief, and irresistible in the battle contest for victory?
But these valiant men had then a _country_, a _home_, and a _chief_
worth the fighting for. But I can tell her that she can now ride over
these extensive tracts in the interior of the county without seeing the
image of God upon a man travelling these roads, with the exception of
a wandering Highland shepherd, wrapped up in a grey plaid to the eyes,
with a collie dog behind him as a drill sergeant to train his ewes and
to marshal his tups. There may happen to travel over the dreary tract a
geologist, a tourist, or a lonely carrier, but these are as rare as a
pelican in the wilderness, or a camel’s convoy caravan in the deserts
of Arabia. Add to this a few English sportsmen, with their stag hounds,
pointer dogs, and servants, and put themselves and their bravery
together, and one company of French soldiers would put ten thousand of
them to a disorderly flight, to save their own carcases, leaving their
ewes and tups to feed the invaders!

The question may arise, where those people, who inhabited this
country at one period, have gone? In America and Australia the most
of them will be found. The Sutherland family and the nation had no
need of their services; hence they did not regard their patriotism
or loyalty, and disregarded their past services. Sheep, bullocks,
deer, and game, became more valuable than men. Yet a remnant, or in
other words a _skeleton_, of them is to be found along the sea shore,
huddled together in motley groups upon barren moors, among cliffs and
precipices, in the most impoverished, degraded, subjugated, slavish,
spiritless, condition that human beings could exist in. If this is
really the lady who has “Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth,
and good will to men,” in view, and who is so religiously denouncing
the American statute which “denies the slave the sanctity of marriage,
with all its joys, rights, and obligations--which separates, at the
will of the master, the wife from the husband, the children from the
parents,” I would advise her in God’s name to take a tour round the
sea-skirts of Sutherland, her own estate, beginning at Brora, then to
Helmsdale, Portskerra, Strathy, Farr, Tongue, Durness, Eddrachillis,
and Assynt, and learn the subjugated, degraded, impoverished,
uneducated condition of the spiritless people of that sea-beaten coast,
about two hundred miles in length, and let her with similar zeal
remonstrate with her husband, that their condition is bettered; for the
cure for all their misery and want is lying unmolested in the fertile
valleys above, and all under his control; and to advise his Grace, her
husband, to be no longer guided by his Ahitophel, Mr. Loch, but to
discontinue his depopulating schemes, which have separated many a wife
from her husband, never to meet--which caused many a premature death,
and that separated many sons and daughters, never to see each other;
and by all means to withdraw that mandate of Mr. Loch, which forbids
marriage on the Sutherland estate, under pains and penalties of being
banished from the county; for it has already augmented illegitimate
connections and issues fifty per cent above what such were a few years
ago--before this unnatural, ungodly law was put in force.

Let us see what the character of these ill-used people was! General
Stewart of Garth, in his “Sketches of the Highlands” says: In the
words of a general officer by whom the 93rd Sutherlanders were once
reviewed, “They exhibit a perfect pattern of military discipline and
moral rectitude. In the case of such men disgraceful punishment would
be as unnecessary as it would be pernicious.” “Indeed,” says the
General, “so remote was the idea of such a measure in regard to them,
that when punishments were to be inflicted on others, and the troops
in garrison assembled to witness their execution, the presence of
the Sutherland Highlanders was dispensed with, the effects of terror
as a check to crime being in their case uncalled for, as examples of
that nature were not necessary for such honourable soldiers. When
the Sutherland Highlanders were stationed at the Cape of Good Hope
anxious to enjoy the advantages of religious instruction agreeably
to the tenets of their national church, and there being no religious
service in the garrison except the customary one of reading prayers to
the soldiers on parade, the Sutherland men formed themselves into a
congregation, appointed elders of their own number, engaged and paid a
stipend (collected among themselves) to a clergyman of the Church of
Scotland, and had divine service performed agreeably to the ritual of
the Established Church every Sabbath, and prayer meetings through the
week.” This reverend gentleman, Mr. Thom, in a letter which appeared
in the _Christian Herald_ of October, 1814, writes thus: “When the
93rd Highlanders left Cape Town last month, there were among them 156
members of the church, including three elders and three deacons, all of
whom, so far as men can know the heart from the life, were pious men.
The regiment was certainly a pattern of morality, and good behaviour
to all other corps. They read their Bibles and observed the Sabbath.
They saved their money to do good. 7000 rix dollars, a sum equal to
£1200, the non-commissioned officers and privates saved for books,
societies, and for the spread of the Gospel, a sum unparalleled in
any other corps in the world, given in the short space of eighteen
months. Their example had a general good effect on both the colonists
and the heathen. If ever apostolic days were revived in modern times
on earth, I certainly believe some of those to have been granted
to us in Africa.” Another letter of a similar kind, addressed to
the Committee of the Edinburgh Gaelic School Society (fourth annual
report), says: “The 93rd Highlanders arrived in England, when they
immediately received orders to proceed to North America; but before
they re-embarked the sum collected for your society was made up
and remitted to your treasurer, amounting to seventy-eight pounds,
sterling.” “In addition to this,” says the noble-minded, immortal
General, “such of them as had parents and friends in Sutherland did
not forget their destitute condition, occasioned by the operation of
the _fire and faggot_, _mis_-improved state of the county.” During
the short period the regiment was quartered at Plymouth, upwards of
£500 was lodged in one banking-house, to be remitted to Sutherland,
exclusive of many sums sent through the Post Office and by officers;
some of the sums exceeding £20 from an individual soldier. Men like
these do credit to the peasantry of a country. “It must appear strange,
and somewhat inconsistent,” continues the General, “when the same men
who are so loud in their profession of an eager desire to promote
and preserve the religious and moral virtues of the people, should
so frequently take the lead in removing them from where they imbibed
principles which have attracted the notice of Europe and of measures
which lead to a deterioration, placing families on patches of potato
ground as in Ireland, a system pregnant with degradation, poverty, and
disaffection.” It is only when parents and heads of families in the
Highlands are moral, happy, and contented, that they can instil sound
principles into their children, who in their intercourse with the world
may become what the men of Sutherland have already been, “an honourable
example, worthy the imitation of all.”

I cannot help being grieved at my unavoidable abbreviation of these
heart-stirring and heart-warming extracts, which should ornament every
mantel-piece and library in the Highlands of Scotland; but I could
refer to other authors of similar weight; among the last (though not
the least), Mr. Hugh Millar of the _Witness_, in his “Sutherland as
it was and is: or, How a country can be ruined;” a work which should
silence and put to shame every vile, malignant calumniator of Highland
religion and moral virtue in bygone years, who in their sophistical
profession of a desire to promote the temporal and spiritual welfare of
the people, had their own sordid cupidity and aggrandisement in view in
all their unworthy lucubrations.

At the commencement of the Russian war a correspondent wrote as
follows: “Your predictions are making their appearance at last, great
demands are here for men to go to Russia, but they are not to be
found. It seems that the Secretary of War has corresponded with all
our Highland proprietors, to raise as many men as they could for the
Crimean war, and ordered so many officers of rank to the Highlands to
assist the proprietors in doing so--but it has been a complete failure
as yet. The nobles advertised, by placards, meetings of the people;
these proclamations were attended to, but when they came to understand
what they were about, in most cases the recruiting proprietors and
staff were saluted with the ominous cry of ‘Maa! maa! boo! boo!’
imitating sheep and bullocks, and, ‘Send your deer, your roes, your
rams, dogs, shepherds, and gamekeepers to fight the Russians, they
have never done us any harm.’ The success of his Grace the Duke of
Sutherland was deplorable; I believe you would have pitied the poor old
man had you seen him.

“In my last letter I told you that his head commissioner, Mr. Loch,
and military officer, was in Sutherland for the last six weeks, and
failed in getting one man to enlist; on getting these doleful tidings,
the Duke himself left London for Sutherland, arriving at Dunrobin
about ten days ago, and after presenting himself upon the streets of
Golspie and Brora, he called a meeting of the male inhabitants of the
parishes of Clyne, Rogart, and Golspie; the meeting was well attended;
upwards of 400 were punctual at the hour; his Grace in his carriage,
with his military staff and factors appeared shortly after; the people
gave them a hearty cheer; his Grace took the chair. Three or four
clerks took their seats at the table, and loosened down bulky packages
of bank notes, and spread out platefuls of glittering gold. The Duke
addressed the people very seriously, and entered upon the necessity of
going to war with Russia, and the danger of allowing the Czar to have
more power than what he holds already; of his cruel, despotic reign in
Russia, etc.; likewise praising the Queen and her government, rulers
and nobles of Great Britain, who stood so much in need of men to put
and keep down the tyrant of Russia, and foil him in his wicked schemes
to take possession of Turkey. In concluding his address, which was
often cheered, the Duke told the young able-bodied men that his clerks
were ready to take down the names of all those willing to enlist, and
everyone who would enlist in the 93rd Highlanders, that the clerk
would give him, there and then, £6 sterling; those who would rather
enter any other corps, would get £3, all from his own private purse,
independently of the government bounty. After advancing many silly
flattering decoyments, he sat down to see the result, but there was no
movement among the people; after sitting for a long time looking at
the clerks, and they at him, at last his anxious looks at the people
assumed a somewhat indignant appearance, when he suddenly rose up and
asked what was the cause of their non-attention to the proposals he
made, but no reply; it was the silence of the grave. Still standing,
his Grace suddenly asked the cause; but no reply; at last an old man,
leaning upon his staff, was observed moving towards the Duke, and when
he approached near enough, he addressed his Grace something as follows:
‘I am sorry for the response your Grace’s proposals are meeting here
to-day, so near the spot where your maternal grandmother, by giving
forty-eight hours’ notice, marshalled fifteen hundred men to pick out
of them the nine hundred she required, but there is a cause for it, and
a grievous cause, and as your Grace demands to know it, I must tell
you, as I see no one else are inclined in this assembly to do it. Your
Grace’s mother and predecessors applied to our fathers for men upon
former occasions, and our fathers responded to their call; they have
made liberal promises, which neither them nor you performed; we are, we
think, a little wiser than our fathers, and we estimate your promises
of to-day at the value of theirs, besides you should bear in mind
that your predecessors and yourself expelled us in a most cruel and
unjust manner from the land which our fathers held in lien from your
family, for their sons, brothers, cousins, and relations, which were
handed over to your parents to keep up their dignity, and to kill the
Americans, Turks, French, and the Irish; and these lands are devoted
now to rear dumb brute animals, which you and your parents consider
of far more value than men. I do assure your Grace that it is the
prevailing opinion in this county, that should the Czar of Russia take
possession of Dunrobin Castle and of Stafford House next term, that we
could not expect worse treatment at his hands, than we have experienced
at the hands of your family for the last fifty years. Your parents,
yourself, and your commissioners, have desolated the glens and straths
of Sutherland, where you should find hundreds, yea, thousands of men
to meet you, and respond cheerfully to your call, had your parents and
yourself kept faith with them. How could your Grace expect to find men
where they are not, and the few of them which are to be found among
the rubbish or ruins of the county, has more sense than to be decoyed
by chaff to the field of slaughter; but one comfort you have, though
you cannot find men to fight, you can supply those who will fight with
plenty of mutton, beef, and venison.’ The Duke rose up, put on his hat,
and left the field.”

Whether my correspondent added to the old man’s reply to his Grace or
not, I cannot say, but one thing is evident, it was the very reply his
Grace deserved.

I know for a certainty this to be the prevailing feeling throughout
the whole Highlands of Scotland, and who should wonder at it? How
many thousands of them who served out their 21, 22, 25, and 26 years,
fighting for the British aristocracy, and on their return--wounded,
maimed, or worn out--to their own country, promising themselves to
spend the remainder of their days in peace, and enjoying the blessings
and comfort their fathers enjoyed among their Highland, healthy,
delightful hills, but found to their grief, that their parents were
expelled from the country to make room for sheep, deer, and game, the
glens where they were born, desolate, and the abodes which sheltered
them at birth, and where they were reared to manhood, burnt to the
ground; and instead of meeting the cheers, shaking-hands, hospitality,
and affections of fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, and relations,
met with desolated glens, bleating of sheep, barking of dogs; and if
they should happen to rest their worn-out frame upon the green sod
which has grown upon their father’s hearth, and a gamekeeper, factor,
or water bailiff, to come round, he would very unceremoniously tell
them to absent themselves as smart as they could, and not to annoy the
deer. No race on record has suffered so much at the hands of those who
should be their patrons, and proved to be so tenacious of patriotism as
the Celtic race, but I assure you it has found its level now, and will
disappear soon altogether; and as soon as patriotism shall disappear
in any nation, so sure that nation’s glory is tarnished, victories
uncertain, her greatness diminished, and decaying consumptive death
will be the result. If ever the old adage, which says, “Those whom the
gods determine to destroy, they first deprive them of reason,” was
verified, it was, and is, in the case of the British aristocracy, and
Highland proprietors in particular. I am not so void of feeling as
to blame the Duke of Sutherland, his parents, or any other Highland
absentee proprietor for all the evil done in the land, but the evil
was done in their name, and under the authority they have invested in
wicked, cruel servants. For instance, the only silly man who enlisted
from among the great assembly which his Grace addressed, was a married
man, with three of a family and his wife; it was generally believed
that his bread was baked for life, but no sooner was he away to Fort
George to join his regiment, than his place of abode was pulled
down, his wife and family turned out, and only permitted to live in
a hut, from which an old female pauper was carried a few days before
to the churchyard; there the young family were sheltered, and their
names registered upon the poor roll for support; his Grace could not
be guilty of such low rascality as this, yet he was told of it, but
took no cognisance of those who did it in his name. It is likewise
said that this man got a furlough of two weeks to see his wife and
family before going abroad, and that when the factor heard he was
coming, he ordered the ground officer of the parish of Rogart, named
MacLeod, to watch the soldier, and not allow him to see nor speak to
his wife, but in his (the officer’s) presence. We had at the same
time, in the parish, an old bachelor of the name of John Macdonald,
who had three idiot sisters, whom he upheld, independent of any source
of relief; but a favourite of George, the notorious factor, envied
this poor bachelor’s farm, and he was summoned to remove at next term.
The poor fellow petitioned his Grace and Loch, but to no purpose; he
was doomed to walk away on the term day, as the factor told him, “to
America, Glasgow, or to the devil if he choosed.” Seeing he had no
other alternative, two days before the day of his removal he yoked his
cart, and got neighbours to help him to haul the three idiots into it,
and drove away with them to Dunrobin Castle. When he came up to factor
Gunn’s door, he capsized them out upon the green, and wheeled about
and went away home. The three idiots finding themselves upon the top
of one another so sudden, they raised an inhuman-like yell, fixed into
one another to fight, and scratched, yelled, and screeched so terrific
that Mr. Gunn, his lady, his daughters, and all the clerks and servants
were soon about them; but they hearkened to no reason, for they had
none themselves, but continued their fighting and inharmonious music.
Messenger after messenger was sent after John, but of no use; at last
the great Gunn himself followed and overtook him, asked him how did he
come to leave his sisters in such a state? He replied, “I kept them
while I had a piece of land to support them; you have taken that land
from me, then take them along with the land, and make of them what you
can; I must look out for myself, but I cannot carry them to the labour
market.” Gunn was in a fix, and had to give John assurance that he
would not be removed if he would take his sisters, so John took them
home, and has not been molested as yet.

I have here beside me (in Canada) a respectable girl of the name of
Ann Murray, whose father was removed during the time of the wholesale
_faggot_ removals, but got a lot of a barren moor to cultivate.
However barren-like it was, he was raising a family of industrious
young sons, and by dint of hard labour and perseverance, they made it
a comfortable home; but the young sons one by one left the country
(and four of them are within two miles of where I sit); the result
was, that Ann was the only one who remained with the parents. The
mother, who had an attack of palsy, was left entirely under Ann’s
care after the family left; and she took it so much to heart that her
daughter’s attention was required day and night, until death put an
end to her afflictions, after twelve years’ suffering. Shortly after
the mother’s death, the father took ill, and was confined to bed for
nine months; and Ann’s labour re-commenced until his decease. Though
Ann Murray could be numbered among the most dutiful of daughters,
yet her incessant labour, for a period of more than thirteen years,
made visible inroads upon her tender constitution; yet by the liberal
assistance of her brothers, who did not loose sight of her and their
parent (though upon a foreign strand), Ann Murray kept the farm in the
best of order, no doubt expecting that she would be allowed to keep
it after her parent’s decease, but this was not in store for her; the
very day after her father’s funeral, the officer came to her and told
her that she was to be removed in a few weeks, that the farm was let to
another, and that Factor Gunn wished to see her. She was at that time
afflicted with jaundice, and told the officer she could not undertake
the journey, which was only ten miles. Next day the officer was at her
again, more urgent than before, and made use of extraordinary threats;
so she had to go. When she appeared before this Bashaw, he swore like
a trooper, and damned her soul, why she disobeyed his first summons;
she excused herself, trembling, that she was unwell; another volley
of oaths and threats met her response, and told her to remove herself
from the estate next week, for her conduct; and with a threat, which
well becomes a Highland tyrant, not to take away, nor sell a single
article of furniture, implements of husbandry, cattle, or crop; nothing
was allowed but her own body clothes; everything was to be handed over
to her brother, who was to have the farm. Seeing there was neither
mercy nor justice for her, she told him the crop, house, and every
other thing belonging to the farm, belonged to her and her brothers
in America, and that the brother to whom he (the factor) intended to
hand over the farm and effects never helped her father or mother while
in trouble; and that she was determined that he should not enjoy what
she laboured for, and what her other brothers paid for. She went and
got the advice of a man of business, advertised a sale, and sold off,
in the face of threats of interdict, and came to Canada, where she was
warmly received by brothers, sisters, and friends, now in Woodstock,
and can tell her tale better than I can. No one could think nor believe
that his Grace would ever countenance such doings as these; but it was
done in his name.

I have here within ten miles of me, Mr. William Ross, once taxman of
Achtomleeny, Sutherlandshire, who occupied the most convenient farm
to the principal deer-stalking hills in the county. Often have the
English and Irish lords, connected in marriage with the Sutherlands,
dined and took their lunch at William Ross’s table, and at his expense;
and more than once passed the night under his roof. Mr. Ross being
so well acquainted among the mountains and haunts of the deer, was
often engaged as a guide and instructor to these noblemen on their
deer-stalking and fishing excursions, and became a real favourite with
the Sutherland family, which enabled him to erect superior buildings
to the common rule, and improve his farm in a superior style; so that
his mountain-side farm was nothing short of a Highland paradise. But
unfortunately for William, his nearest neighbour, one Major Gilchrist,
a sheep farmer, coveted Mr. Ross’s vineyard, and tried many underhand
schemes to secure the place for himself, but in vain. Ross would
hearken to none of his proposals. But Ahab was a chief friend of Factor
Gunn; and William Ross got notice of removal. Ross prepared a memorial
to the first and late Duchess of Sutherland, and placed it in her own
hand. Her Grace read it, instantly went into the factor’s office, and
told him that William Ross was not to be removed from Achtomleeny while
he lived; and wrote the same on the petition, and handed it back to
Ross, with a graceful smile, saying, “You are now out of the reach of
factors; now, William, go home in peace.” William bowed, and departed
cheerfully; but the factor and ground-officer followed close behind
him, and while Ross was reading her Grace’s deliverance, the officer,
David Ross, came and snapped the paper out of his hand, and ran to
Factor Gunn with it. Ross followed, but Gunn put it in his pocket,
saying, “William, you would need to give it to me afterwards, at any
rate, and I will keep it till I read it, and then return it to you,”
and with a tiger-like smile on his face, said, “I believe you came
good speed to-day, and I am glad of it;” but William never got it in
his hand again. However, he was not molested during her Grace’s life.
Next year she paid a visit to Dunrobin Castle, when Factor William
Gunn advised Ross to apply to her for a reduction of rent, under the
mask of favouring him. He did so, and it was granted cheerfully. Her
Grace left Dunrobin that year never to return; in the beginning of the
next spring she was carried back to Dunrobin a corpse, and a few days
after was interred in Dornoch. William Ross was served with a summons
of removal from Achtomleeny, and he had nothing to show. He petitioned
the present Duke, and his commissioner, Mr. Loch, and related the whole
circumstances to them, but to no avail, only he was told that Factor
Gunn was ordered to give him some other lot of land, which he did: and
having no other resource, William accepted of it to his loss; for
between loss of cattle, building and repairing houses, he was minus one
hundred and fifty pounds sterling, of his means, and substance, from
the time he was removed from Achtomleeny till he removed himself to
Canada. Besides, he had a written agreement or promise for melioration
or valuation for all the farm improvements and house building at
Achtomleeny, which was valued by the family surveyor at £250. William
was always promised to get it, until they came to learn that he was
leaving for America, then they would not give him a cent. William Ross
left them with it to join his family in Canada; but he can in his old
age sit at as comfortable a table, and sleep on as comfortable a bed,
with greater ease of mind and a clearer conscience, among his own
dutiful and affectionate children, than the tyrant factor ever did, or
ever will among his. I know as well as any one can tell me, that this
is but one or two cases out of the thousand I could enumerate, where
the liberality and benevolence of his Grace, and of his parents, were
abused, and that to their patron’s loss. You see in the above case
that William was advised to plead for a reduction of rent, so that the
factor’s favourite, Ahab Gilchrist, would have the benefit of Naboth
Ross’s improvement, and the reduction he got on his rent, which would
not be obtained otherwise.

The unhallowed crew of factors and officials, from the highest to the
lowest grade, employed by the family of Sutherland, got the corrupt
portion of the public press on their side, to applaud their wicked
doings and schemes, as the only mode of improvement and civilisation
in the Highlands of Scotland. They have got what is still more to
be lamented, all the Established ministers, with few exceptions, on
their side; and in them they found faithful auxiliaries in crushing
the people. Any of them could hold a whole congregation by the hair
of their heads over hell-fire, if they offered to resist the powers
that be, until they submitted. If a single individual resisted, he was
denounced from the pulpit, and considered afterwards a dangerous man
in the community; and he might depart as quick as he could. Any man,
or men, may violate the laws of God, and violate the laws of heaven,
as often as he chooses; he is never heeded, and has nothing to fear;
but if he offends the Duke’s factor, the lowest of his minions, or
violates the least of their laws and regulations, it is an unpardonable
sin. The present Duke’s mother was no doubt a liberal lady of many good
parts, and seemed to be much attached to the natives, but unfortunately
for them, she employed for her factors a vile, unprincipled crew, who
were their avowed enemies; she would hearken to the complaints of the
people, and would write to the ministers of the Gospel to ascertain
the correctness of complaints, and the factor was justified, however
gross the outrage was that he committed--the minister dined with the
factor, and could not refuse to favour him. The present Duke[9] is a
simple, narrow-minded gentleman, who concerns himself very little even
about his own pecuniary affairs; he entrusts his whole affairs to his
factors, and the people are enslaved so much, that it is now considered
the most foolish thing a man can do to petition his Grace, whatever is
done to him, for it will go hard with the factor, or he will punish and
make an example of him to deter others.

[9] Macleod wrote this in 1854.--ED.

To detail what I knew myself personally, and what I have learned from
others of their conduct, would, as I said before, fill a volume. For
instance:--When a marriage in the family of Sutherland takes place, or
the birth of an heir, a feast is ordered for the Sutherland people,
consisting of whisky, porter, ale, and plenty of eatables. The day
of feasting and rejoicing is appointed, and heralded throughout
the country, and the people are enjoined in marshal terms to
assemble--barrels of raw and adulterated whisky are forwarded to each
parish, some raw adulterated sugar, and that is all. Bonfires are to
be prepared on the tops of the highest mountains. The poorest of the
poor are warned by family officers to carry the materials, consisting
of peats and tar barrels, upon their backs; the scene is lamentable
to see groups of these wretched, half-clad and ill-shod, climbing up
these mountains with their loads; however, the work must be done,
there is no denial, the evening of rejoicing is arrived, and the people
are assembled at their different clachans. The barrels of whisky are
taken out to the open field, poured into large tubs, a good amount of
abominable-looking sugar is mixed with it, and a sturdy favourite is
employed to stir it about with a flail handle, or some long cudgel--all
sorts of drinking implements are produced, tumblers, bowls, ladles, and
tin jugs. Bagpipers are set up with great glee. In the absence of the
factor, the animal called the ground officer, and in some instances
the parish minister, will open the jollification, and show an example
to the people how to deal with this coarse beverage. After the first
round, the respectable portion of the people will depart, or retire
to an inn, where they can enjoy themselves; but the _drouthies_, and
ignorant youthful, will keep the field of revelling until tearing of
clothes and faces comes to be the rule; fists and cudgels supplant jugs
and ladles, and this will continue until king Bacchus enters the field
and hushes the most heroic brawlers and the most ferocious combatants
to sound snoring on the field of rejoicing, where many of them enter
into contracts with death, from which they could never extricate
themselves. With the co-operation and assistance of factors, ministers,
and editors, a most flourishing account is sent to the world, and
to the absentee family in London, who knows nothing about how the
affair was conducted. The world will say how happy must the people be
who live under such good and noble, liberal-minded patrons; and the
patrons themselves are so highly-pleased with the report that, however
extraordinary the bill that comes to them on the rent day, in place of
money, for roast beef and mutton, bread and cheese, London porter and
Edinburgh ale, which was never bought, nor tasted by the people, they
will consider their commissioners used great economy; no cognizance is
taken, the bill is accepted, and discharged, the people are deceived,
and the proprietors injured.




_TRIAL OF PATRICK SELLAR._[10]

[10] See Note A in Appendices.


For his action in connection with the Sutherland Clearances, Patrick
Sellar was placed on trial at a sitting of the Circuit Court at
Inverness in 1816. The bench was occupied by Lord Pitmilly. We give the
indictment, defences, judge’s summing up, and other particulars, but
omit the evidence, as no authentic record thereof is available.


THE INDICTMENT.

PATRICK SELLAR, now or lately residing at Culmaily, in the parish of
Golspie, and shire of Sutherland, and under factor for the Most Noble
the Marquis and Marchioness of Stafford. You are indicted and accused,
at the instance of Archibald Colquhoun of Killermont, his Majesty’s
Advocate for his Majesty’s interest: That albeit, by the laws of
this and of every other well-governed realm, culpable homicide, as
also oppression and real injury, more particularly the wickedly and
maliciously setting on fire and burning, or causing and procuring
to be set on fire and burnt, a great extent of heath and pasture,
on which a number of small tenants and other poor persons maintain
their cattle, to the great injury and distress of the said persons;
the violently turning, or causing and procuring to be turned out of
their habitations, a number of the said tenants and other poor people,
especially aged, infirm, and impotent persons and pregnant women,
and cruelly depriving them of all cover or shelter, to their great
distress, and the imminent danger of their lives; the wickedly and
maliciously setting on fire, burning, pulling down, and demolishing,
or causing and procuring to be set on fire, burnt, pulled down, and
demolishing, the dwelling-houses, barns, kilns, mills, and other
buildings, lawfully occupied by the said persons, whereby they
themselves are turned out, without cover or shelter, as aforesaid,
and the greater part of their different crops is lost and destroyed,
from the want of the usual and necessary accommodation for securing
and manufacturing the same; and the wantonly setting on fire, burning,
and otherwise destroying, or causing and procuring to be set on fire,
burnt, and otherwise destroyed, growing corn, timber, furniture,
money, and other effects, the property, or in the lawful possession
of the said tenants and other poor persons, are crimes of a heinous
nature, and severely punishable. Yet true it is, and of verity,
that you the said Patrick Sellar are guilty of the said crimes, or
of one or more of them, actor, or art in part; in so far as you the
said Patrick Sellar did, on the 15th day of March, 1814, or on one
or other of the days of that month, or of April and May immediately
following, and on many occasions during the said months of March,
April and May, wickedly and maliciously set on fire and burn, or cause
and procure John Dryden and John M’Kay, both at that time shepherds
in your service, to set on fire and burn a great extent of heath and
pasture, many miles in length and breadth, situate in the heights of
the parishes of Farr and Kildonan, in the county of Sutherland, and
in particular in the lands of Ravigill, Rhiphail, Rhiloisk, Rossal,
Rhimsdale, Garvault, Truderskaig, and Dalcharrel, whereby many of the
tenants and others in the lands aforesaid were deprived of pasturage
for their cattle, and in consequence thereof reduced to great distress
and poverty; and many of them were obliged to feed their cattle with
the potatoes intended for the use of their families, and with their
seed corn; particularly William Gordon, James M’Kay, Hugh Grant, and
Donald M’Kay, all then tenants in Rhiloisk aforesaid; John Gordon and
Hugh M’Beath, then tenants in Rhimsdale aforesaid; Donald M’Beath,
then tenant in Rhiphail aforesaid; Murdo M’Kay and John M’Kay, then
tenants in Truderskaig aforesaid. And further, you the said Patrick
Sellar did, upon the 13th day of June, 1814, or on one or other of
the days of that month, or of May immediately preceding, or of July
immediately following, together with four or more persons, your
assistants, proceed to the district of country above-mentioned, and
did, then and there, violently turn, or cause or procure to be turned
out of their habitations, a number of the tenants and poor people
dwelling there; and particularly Donald M’Kay, a feeble old man of
the age of four-score years or thereby, then residing in Rhiloisk
aforesaid; who, upon being so turned out, not being able to travel to
the nearest inhabited place, lay for several days and nights thereafter
in the woods in the vicinity, without cover or shelter, to his great
distress, and to the danger of his life. As also, Barbara M’Kay, wife
of John M’Kay, then tenant in Ravigill aforesaid, who was at the time
pregnant, and was moreover confined to her bed in consequence of being
severely hurt and bruised by a fall; and you the said Patrick Sellar
did, then and there, notwithstanding the entreaties of the said John
M’Kay, give orders that the said Barbara M’Kay should be instantly
turned out, whatever the consequences might be, saying, That you would
have the house pulled about her ears; and the said John M’Kay was
accordingly compelled, with the assistance of some women and neighbours
to lift his said wife from her bed, and carry her nearly a mile across
the country to the imminent danger of her life: As also, time last
above-mentioned, you the said Patrick Sellar did forcibly turn out, or
cause and procure your assistants aforesaid, to turn out, of his bed
and dwelling, in Garvault aforesaid, Donald Munro, a young lad, who
lay sick in bed at the time. And further, you the said Patrick Sellar,
did time aforesaid, wickedly and maliciously set on fire, burn, pull
down, and demolish, or cause and procure your assistants aforesaid
to set on fire, burn, pull down, and demolish a great number of the
dwelling-houses, barns, kilns, mills, and other buildings, lawfully
occupied by the tenants and other inhabitants in the said district of
country; and in particular, the houses, barns, kilns, mills, lawfully
occupied by the above-mentioned William Gordon, James M’Kay, Hugh
Grant, in Rhiloisk aforesaid; and John Gordon in Rhimsdale aforesaid;
As also, the barns and kilns in Rhiphail aforesaid, lawfully
occupied by Alexander Manson, John M’Kay, and others, then tenants or
residenters there; the barns and kilns in Ravigill aforesaid, lawfully
occupied by John M’Kay, Murdo M’Kay, and others, then tenants there;
and the barns and kilns in Garvault aforesaid, lawfully occupied by
William Nicol and John Monro, then tenants there; As also, the house
and barn in Ravigill aforesaid, lawfully occupied by Barbara M’Kay,
an infirm old widow, nearly fourscore years of age, and who was
obliged to sell three of her five cattle at an under value, in order
to support herself, her crop being destroyed from the want of her
barn: As also, the greater part of the houses, barns, kilns, mills,
and other buildings in the whole district of country above mentioned,
was, time aforesaid, maliciously set on fire, burnt, pulled down, and
demolished, by you, the said Patrick Sellar, or by your assistance or
by your orders, whereby the inhabitants and lawful occupiers thereof
were turned out, without cover or shelter; and the greater part of
their different crops was lost and destroyed from want of the usual and
necessary accommodation for securing and manufacturing the same; and
especially the lawful occupiers of the barns, kilns, mills, and other
buildings particularly above mentioned, to have been set on fire and
destroyed as aforesaid, did sustain great loss in their crops, from
being thus deprived of the means of securing and manufacturing the
same. And further, you, the said Patrick Sellar, did, time aforesaid,
culpably kill Donald M’Beath, father to Hugh M’Beath, then tenant in
Rhimsdale aforesaid, by unroofing and pulling down, or causing to be
unroofed and pulled down, the whole house in Rhimsdale aforesaid, where
the said Donald M’Beath was then lying on his sick bed, saving only a
small space of roof, to the extent of five or six yards, whereby the
said Donald M’Beath was exposed, in a cold and comfortless situation,
without cover or shelter, to the weather; and he, the said Donald
M’Beath, in consequence of being so exposed, never spoke a word more,
but languished and died about eight days thereafter, and was thereby
culpably killed by you, the said Patrick Sellar: Or otherwise, you,
the said Patrick Sellar, did, time and place aforesaid, cruelly expose
the said Donald M’Beath to the weather, without cover or shelter, by
pulling down and unroofing, or caused to be pulled down and unroofed,
the greater part of the house where he then lay sick in bed, to his
great distress, and the imminent danger of his life; and this you,
the said Patrick Sellar, did, notwithstanding the entreaties of the
said Hugh M’Beath, and others, you saying, in a rage, when it was
proposed that the said Donald M’Beath should remain, “The devil a
man of them, sick or well, shall be permitted to remain,” or words
to that effect. And further, you, the said Patrick Sellar, did, time
aforesaid, wickedly and maliciously set on fire, burn, and demolish, or
cause and procure your assistants to set on fire, burn, and demolish,
the dwelling-house, barn, kiln, sheep-cot, and other building then
lawfully occupied by William Chisholm in Badinloskin, in the parish
of Farr aforesaid, although you knew that Margaret M’Kay, a very old
woman of the age of 90 years, less or more, and who had been bed-ridden
for years, was at that time within the said house; and this you did,
notwithstanding you were told that the said old woman could not be
removed without imminent danger to her life; and the flames having
approached the bed whereon the said Margaret M’Kay lay, she shrieked
aloud in Gaelic, “O’n teine,” that is to say, “O the fire,” or words
to that effect; and was forthwith carried out by her daughter, Janet
M’Kay, and placed in a small bothy, and the blanket in which she was
wrapped was burnt in several places, and the said Margaret M’Kay
never spoke a word thereafter, but remained insensible from that
hour, and died in about five days thereafter, in consequence of the
fright and alarm; and, in particular, in consequence of her removal,
as aforesaid, from her bed into a cold and uncomfortable place, unfit
for the habitation of any human being; and the said Margaret M’Kay was
thereby culpably killed by you, the said Patrick Sellar; or otherwise,
you, the said Patrick Sellar, did, time and place aforesaid, cruelly
turn, or cause to be turned, out of her bed and dwelling-place, the
said Margaret Mackay, by setting on fire, burning, and demolishing, or
causing and procuring to be set on fire, burnt, and demolished, the
said house and other buildings, in manner above mentioned, to her great
distress, and the imminent danger of her life. And farther, all the
persons whose houses, barns, kilns, mills, and other buildings, were
burnt and destroyed, or caused and procured to be burnt and destroyed
by you, the said Patrick Sellar, all as above described, did sustain
great loss in their moss wood, and other timber, which was broken and
demolished, and destroyed by fire and otherwise, at the same time,
and in the same manner, with the buildings as aforesaid; and also in
their furniture and other effects, all their lawful property, or in
their lawful possession at the time: And, in particular, the said
Barbara M’Kay in Ravigill, aforesaid, lost her door and door-posts, and
timber of her house and barn, her meal-chest, and several articles of
furniture, all her property, or in her lawful possession, which were
then and there destroyed, or caused to be destroyed, by you, the said
Patrick Sellar, as aforesaid; and the greatest part of the furniture,
and timber belonging to the said William Chisholm, together with three
pounds in bank notes, and a ridge of growing corn, all the property, or
in the lawful possession of the said William Chisholm, in Badinloskin,
aforesaid, were then and there destroyed by fire, and otherwise, by
you, the said Patrick Sellar. And you, the said Patrick Sellar, having
been apprehended and taken before Mr. Robert Mackid, Sheriff-Substitute
of Sutherland, did, in his presence, at Dornoch, on the 31st day
of May, 1815, emit and subscribe a declaration; which declaration,
together with a paper entitled “Notice given to the Strathnaver
tenants, 15 Dec., 1813,” being to be used in evidence against you, at
your trial, will be lodged in due time in the hands of the Clerk of the
Circuit Court of Justiciary, before which you are to be tried, that
you may have an opportunity of seeing the same: at least, time and
places above-mentioned, the said heath and pasture, was wickedly and
maliciously set on fire and burnt, or caused and procured to be set on
fire and burnt, to the great injury and distress of the said tenants
and others; and the said persons were violently turned, or caused and
procured to be turned, out of their habitations, and deprived of all
cover and shelter, to their great distress, and the imminent danger
of their lives; and the said Donald M’Beath and Margaret M’Kay were
culpably killed in manner above mentioned, or were cruelly turned out
of their habitations as aforesaid; and the said dwelling-houses, barns,
kilns, mills, and other buildings, lawfully inhabited and occupied
by the said persons, were maliciously set on fire, burnt, pulled
down, and demolished, or were caused and procured to be set on fire,
burnt, pulled down, and demolished, and the inhabitants and lawful
occupiers thereof turned out as aforesaid; and the greater part of
their different crops was lost or destroyed, from want of the usual
and necessary accommodation for securing and manufacturing the same;
and the growing corn, timber, furniture, money, and other effects,
the property, or in the lawful possession, of the said persons, were
wantonly set on fire, burnt, and otherwise destroyed or caused and
procured to be set on fire, burnt, and otherwise destroyed: And you,
the said Patrick Sellar, are guilty of the said crimes, or of one or
more of them, actor, or art and part. All which, or part thereof,
being found proven by the verdict of an assize, before the Lord
Justice-General, the Lord Justice-Clerk, and Lords Commissioners of
Justiciary, in a Circuit Court of Justiciary to be holden by them, or
by any one or more of their number, within the burgh of Inverness, in
the month of April, in this present year, 1816, you, the said Patrick
Sellar, ought to be punished with the pains of law, to deter others
from committing the like crimes in all time coming.

  H. HOME DRUMMOND, _A.D._

Mr Sellar, having pleaded NOT GUILTY, the following defences were
read:--“_First_, The panel objects to the relevancy of various parts
of the libel. _Second_, In so far as the libel is relevant, the panel
denies its truth; the whole of the charges are utterly false, in so
much so, that the Prosecutor is not only unable to bring any sufficient
evidence in support of his own accusations, but the panel will
bring positive proof _against_ them. The panel will prove, that the
ejectments which have given rise to this trial, were done in due order
of law, and, under the warrants of the proper Judge, issued on regular
process. Farther, he will prove that great indulgence was shown to the
tenants, even after they had resisted the regular decrees of the Judge;
that nothing was done on his part, or with his knowledge or approval,
either cruel, oppressive or illegal. That he committed no acts of
homicide; and, on the whole, he will prove, that throughout every
part of this affair, he (the panel) has been the victim, not only of
the most unfounded local prejudices, but of long continued and active
defamation, on the part of certain persons, who have made it their
business to traduce the whole system of improvements introduced into
the Sutherland estate, and to vilify the panel, by whom, they have been
pleased to suppose, that these improvements have been partly conducted.
He rejoices, however, in the first opportunity, which has now been
afforded to him, of meeting these calumnies and prepossessions in a
Court of Justice, and relying, as he does, with implicit confidence on
the candour and dispassionate attention of a British jury, he has no
doubt whatever of being able to establish his complete innocence of all
the charges now brought against him.

  “_Under protestation to add and eik._

      “J. GORDON.
      “H. COCKBURN.
      “PAT. ROBERTSON.”

Mr. Robertson opened the case on the part of the panel. The object of
addressing the court at this time was to state such observations as
occurred on the relevancy of the indictment, and to give a general
view of the line of defence. On the former, he remarked, that various
objections did occur to the relevancy of the charges, particularly to
the second and fourth branches of the indictment. With these, however,
he did not mean to trouble the Court, as Mr. Sellar was so conscious
of his innocence, that he courted investigation, being unwilling that
any part of his conduct should be left uninvestigated. No objection
was, therefore, made to the relevancy of any part of the indictment,
so far as it charged any specific crime against which the panel might
be prepared to defend himself. But, certainly, he did object to those
parts of it which contained general charges, of destroying “a number
of houses,” injuring “a number of tenants,” &c., unless these were
understood merely as introductory to the specific crimes mentioned. He
also objected to the last charge, if meant as anything more than matter
of mere aggravation.

On the merits, he gave a short sketch of the causes which gave rise to
the present trial,--alluded to the clamour which had been raised in the
country--the prejudices of the people,--the disgraceful publications
in a newspaper called the _Military Register_, and the pains which had
been taken to circulate these false and mischievous papers through
Sutherland and the adjacent counties. The general line of defence he
stated to be, That, as to the first charge, of heath-burning, this was
done with the express consent of the tenantry, and, as could be proved,
to their positive advantage. As to the removings, the defence was quite
clear. The lands mentioned in the indictment were advertised to be set
on the 5th of December, 1813, at the Inn of Golspie, and Mr. Sellar was
preferred as the highest offerer. Before Whitsunday, 1814, he brought
regular actions of removing, and it was not until after he had obtained
decrees in these actions, charged the whole of the tenants to remove,
and taken out precepts of ejection against them, that they were, in
the month of June, actually removed from their lawless and violent
possession. These facts were established by the decrees and precepts in
the hands of the Clerk of Court. As to the demolition of the houses, no
houses were pulled down till after the ejections had been completed,
and the property had become Mr. Sellar’s. No furniture was destroyed
by him, or by his orders,--no unnecessary violence was used, nor any
cruelty exercised, but everything was done in due order of law, and
without oppression of any kind. The charges of culpable homicide were
quite out of the question, and Mr. Sellar defied the Public Prosecutor
to prove them. Upon the whole, it was not doubted, that if truth and
justice were to prevail over malice and conspiracy, Mr. Sellar would
obtain an honourable and triumphant acquittal.

       *       *       *       *       *

The Advocate-Depute having here stated that he did not mean to insist
on any charges, excepting those which were specially and articulately
mentioned in the indictment, Lord Pitmilly said:--

  “It would be improper for me to enter at present into the origin
  of the prosecution, or the nature of the defences. Neither shall I
  say anything of the publications which have been alluded to, except
  that they appear to be of the most contemptible nature, and the only
  prejudice which I can entertain is the other way; that is, against
  the cause requiring such aid. I have no doubt as to the relevancy of
  the libel.”

The jury was composed of the following gentlemen:--

  James Fraser, of Belladrum.
  William Fraser, of Culbockie.
  William Mackintosh, of Balnaspeck.
  Duncan Fraser, of Fingask.
  Alexander Smith, merchant in Inverness.
  John Gillanders, of Highfield.
  William Reid, of Muirtown.
  William Mackenzie, of Strathgarve.
  George Falconer Mackenzie, of Allangrange.
  Robert Denham, tacksman of Dunglass.
  George Kay, residing at Tannachy.
  Bailie Robert Joss, merchant in Elgin.
  John Barclay, writer, Elgin.
  John Collie, farmer at Alvas.
  John Smith, tacksman of Greens.

Evidence for the prosecution and for the defence having been led at
considerable length,

Mr. Drummond addressed the jury on the part of the Crown. He stated
that he gave up all the charges except the one which regarded the
ejections from the barns, and that of real injury in the case of the
old woman at Badinloskin. He certainly did not think the evidence in
this case last was sufficient to establish culpable homicide; but he
argued, that the circumstances proved were sufficient to authorise the
jury in finding a verdict of guilty to the extent of an injury, as
she had been removed at the risk of her life, which he maintained to
be contrary to law. As to the barns, he contended that the conduct of
Mr. Sellar was irregular and illegal, and consequently oppressive, the
outgoing tenants being entitled, by the custom of Sutherland, to retain
them as long as the arable land.

Mr. Gordon addressed the jury on the part of the panel, and replied
to the arguments used on behalf of the prosecution. He entered at
great length into the history and objects of the prosecution; the
preconcerted plan on which certain persons had instigated the people
of Strathnaver to complain at first, and to persist afterwards; the
views they entertained of successfully opposing the improvements
of Sutherland, by affecting the noble persons to whom the property
belonged, through the sides of Mr. Sellar, as a convenient medium
of succeeding; the disgraceful measures to which these persons
had resorted, with a view to affect the channels of justice, the
impartiality of jurymen, and the purity of evidence. He attacked the
measures and conduct of Mr. Mackid in the most pointed terms; exposed
the characters of the evidence of Chisholm and others, and dwelt in the
clear evidence of the total innocence of Mr. Sellar, and on the points
of law which applied to the particular charges as criminal charges, at
considerable length, and with reference to various law authorities;
and finally, concluded by maintaining to the jury, that this was not
merely the trial of Mr. Sellar, but, in truth, a conflict between the
law of the land and a resistance to that law: That the question at
issue involved the future fate and progress of agricultural, and even
moral improvements, in the county of Sutherland; that (though certainly
not so intended by the Public Prosecutor, whose conduct throughout has
been candid, correct, and liberal), it was nevertheless, in substance,
and in fact, a trial of strength between the abettors of anarchy and
misrule, and the magistracy, as well as the laws of this country.

Lord Pitmilly, after having stated the law as applicable to this case,
summed up the evidence in a very clear and able manner. His lordship
stated, that it was unnecessary for the jury to consider any of the
charges, excepting the one in regard to the old woman at Badinloskin.
As to the first, there could be no doubt of the practice in the
country, of retaining these barns till the crops would be threshed out;
neither could it be doubted, that Mr. Sellar had not left the whole of
the barns for the use of the outgoing tenants, and in consequence of
this, the tenants suffered damage. But _in point of law_, as the Court
of Session had decided in a similar question, Mr. Sellar was not bound
by any such practice, but was entitled to proceed in the ejections.
In regard to the injury charged to have been done to Margaret M’Kay,
his Lordship directed the attention of the jury to the evidence of
Chisholm. This witness, although contradicted in some particulars by
his wife, was confirmed by John M’Kay, whose testimony his Lordship
also laid before them. On the other hand, he brought under their view,
the evidence of Sutherland, Fraser, and Burns, and stated that it was
the duty of the Jury to balance betwixt these two sets of witnesses.
His Lordship also said, that if the jury were at all at a loss on this
part of the case, they ought to take into view the character of the
accused; for this was always of importance in balancing contradictory
testimony. Now here there was, in the _first_ place, real evidence,
from the conduct of Mr. Sellar, in regard to the sick, for this, in
several instances, had been proved to be most humane. And _secondly_,
there were the letters of Sir George Abercromby, Mr. Brodie, and Mr.
Fenton, which, _although not evidence_,[11] must have some weight
with the jury; and there were the testimonies of Mr. Gilzean and Sir
Archibald Dunbar--all establishing Mr. Sellar’s humanity of disposition.

[11] The italics are mine.--ED.

The jury having retired for a quarter of an hour, returned a _viva
voce_ verdict, unanimously finding Mr. Sellar NOT GUILTY.

Lord Pitmilly observed that his opinion completely concurred with that
of the jury, and in dismissing them after so long a trial, he was happy
to say they had paid the most patient attention to the case, and had
returned a verdict satisfactory to the Court.

The verdict having been recorded,

The Advocate-Depute declared that he thought it fair to the panel, and
that it would be satisfactory to the jury, to state his conviction,
that if those witnesses who were rejected on account of errors in their
designations, had been examined, the result of the trial would have
been the same.

Lord Pitmilly then addressed Mr. Sellar.

His Lordship said, “Mr. Sellar, it is now my duty to dismiss you from
the bar; and you have the satisfaction of thinking, that you are
discharged by the unanimous opinion of the jury and the Court. I am
sure that, although your feelings must have been agitated, you cannot
regret that this trial took place, and I am hopeful it will have due
effect on the minds of the country, which have been so much, and so
improperly agitated.”

The Court then pronounced an interlocutor, in respect of the verdict of
the assize, assoilzieing the panel _simpliciter_, and dismissing him
from the bar.

The trial lasted from ten o’clock on Tuesday till one o’clock on
Wednesday morning, and the Court-room was crowded to excess.




_ROSS-SHIRE._


GLENCALVIE.

Great cruelties were perpetrated at Glencalvie, Ross-shire, where
the evicted had to retire into the parish churchyard. There for more
than a week they found the only shelter obtainable in their native
land. No one dared to succour them, under a threat of receiving
similar treatment to those whose hard fate had driven them thus among
the tombs. Many of them, indeed, wished that their lot had landed
them under the sod with their ancestors and friends, rather than be
treated and driven out of house and home in such a ruthless manner.
A special commissioner sent down by the London _Times_ describes the
circumstances as follows:--

  ARDGAY, NEAR TAIN, ROSS-SHIRE,
      _15th May, 1845_.

  Those who remember the misery and destitution to which large masses
  of the population were thrown by the systematic “Clearances” (as
  they are here called) carried on in Sutherlandshire some 20 years
  ago, under the direction and on the estate of the late Marchioness
  of Stafford--those who have not forgotten to what an extent the
  ancient ties which bound clansmen to their chiefs were then torn
  asunder--will regret to learn the heartless scourge with all its
  sequences of misery, of destitution, and of crime, is again being
  resorted to in Ross-shire. Amongst an imaginative people like the
  Highlanders, who, poetic from dwelling amongst wild and romantic
  scenery, shut out from the world and clinging to the traditions of
  the past, it requires little, with fair treatment, to make them
  almost idolise their heritor. They would spend the last drop of their
  blood in his service. But this feeling of respectful attachment
  to the landowners, which money cannot buy, is fast passing away.
  This change is not without cause; and perhaps if the dark deeds of
  calculating “feelosophy” transacted through the instrumentality of
  factors in some of these lonely glens; if the almost inconceivable
  misery and hopeless destitution in which, for the expected
  acquisition of a few pounds, hundreds of peaceable and generally
  industrious and contented peasants are driven out from the means of
  self-support, to become wanderers and starving beggars, and in which
  a brave and valuable population is destroyed--are exposed to the gaze
  of the world, general indignation and disgust may effect what moral
  obligations and humanity cannot. One of these clearances is about to
  take place in the parish of Kincardine, from which I now write; and
  throughout the whole district it has created the strongest feeling of
  indignation.

  This parish is divided into two districts each of great extent; one
  is called the parliamentary district of Croick. The length of this
  district is about 20 miles, with a breadth of from 10 to 15 miles.
  It extends amongst the most remote and unfrequented parts of the
  country, consisting chiefly of hills of heather and rock, peopled
  only in a few straths and glens. This district was formerly thickly
  peopled; but one of those clearances many years ago nearly swept away
  the population, and now the whole number of its inhabitants amounts,
  I am told, to only 370 souls. These are divided into three straths or
  glens, and live in a strath called Amatnatua, another strath called
  Greenyard, and in Glencalvie. It is the inhabitants of Glencalvie,
  in number 90 people, whose turn it is now to be turned out of their
  homes, all at once, the aged and the helpless as well as the young
  and strong; nearly the whole of them without hope or prospect for
  the future. The proprietor of this glen is Major Charles Robertson
  of Kindeace, who is at present out with his regiment in Australia;
  and his factor or steward who acts for him in his absence is Mr.
  James Gillanders of Highfield Cottage, near Dingwall. Glencalvie is
  situated about 25 miles from Tain, eastward. Bleak rough hills, whose
  surface are almost all rock and heather, closed in on all sides,
  leaving in the valley a gentle declivity of arable land of a very
  poor description, dotted over by cairns of stone and rock, not, at
  the utmost computation, of more than 15 to 20 acres in extent. For
  this piece of indifferent land with a right of pasturage on the hills
  impinging upon it--and on which, if it were not a fact that sheep do
  live, you would not credit that they could live, so entirely does it
  seem void of vegetation, beyond the brown heather, whilst its rocky
  nature makes it dangerous and impossible even for a sheep walk--the
  almost increditable rent of £55 10s. has been paid. I am convinced
  that for the same land no farmer in England would give £15 at the
  utmost.

  Even respectable farmers here say they do not know how the people
  raise the rent for it. Potatoes and barley were grown in the valley,
  and some sheep and a few black cattle find provender amongst the
  heather. Eighteen families have each a cottage in the valley; they
  have always paid their rent punctually, and they have contrived to
  support themselves in all ordinary seasons. They have no poor on the
  poor roll, and they help one another over the winter. I am told that
  not an inhabitant of this valley has been charged with any offence
  for years back. During the war it furnished many soldiers; and an old
  pensioner, 82 years of age, who has served in India, is now dying in
  one of these cottages, where he was born. For the convenience of the
  proprietor, some ten years ago, four of the principal tenants became
  bound for the rest, to collect all the rents and pay the whole in one
  sum.

  The clearance of this valley, having attracted much notice, has been
  thoroughly enquired into, and a kind of defence has been entered
  upon respecting it, which I am told has been forwarded to the Lord
  Advocate. Through the politeness of Mr. Mackenzie, writer, Tain, I
  have been favoured with a copy of it. The only explanation or defence
  of the clearance, that I can find in it, is that shortly after Mr.
  Gillanders assumed the management of Major Robertson’s estate, he
  found that it became absolutely necessary to adopt a different
  system, in regard to the lands of Glencalvie, “from that hitherto
  pursued.”

  The “different system” as it appears was to turn the barley and
  potato grounds into a sheep walk, and the “absolute necessity” for it
  is an alleged increase of rent.

  It was accordingly, in 1843, attempted to serve summonses of
  removal upon the tenants. They were in no arrears of rent, they
  had no burdens in poor; for 500 years their fathers had peaceably
  occupied the glen, and the people were naturally indignant. Who
  can be surprised that, on the constables going amongst them with
  the summonses, they acted in a manner which, while it showed their
  excitement, not the less evinced their wish to avoid breaking the
  law? The women met the constables beyond the boundaries, over
  the river, and seized the hand of the one who held the notices;
  whilst some held it out by the wrist, others held a live coal to
  the papers and set fire to them. They were afraid of being charged
  with destroying the notices, and they sought thus to evade the
  consequences. This act of resistance on their part has been made the
  most of. One of the men told me, hearing they were to be turned out
  because they did not pay rent enough, that they offered to pay £15
  a year more, and afterwards to pay as much rent as any other man
  would give for the place. The following year (1844), however, the
  four chief tenants were decoyed to Tain, under the assurance that
  Mr. Gillanders was going to settle with them, they believing that
  their holdings were to be continued to them. The notices were then,
  as they say, in a treacherous and tricky manner, served upon them,
  however. Having been served, “a decreet of removal” was obtained
  against them, under which, of course, if they refused to turn out
  they would be put out by force. Finding themselves in this position,
  they entered into an arrangement with Mr. Gillanders, in which after
  several propositions on either side, it was agreed that they should
  remain until the 12th of May, to give them time to provide themselves
  with holdings elsewhere, Mr. Gillanders agreeing to pay them £100 on
  quitting, and to take their stock on at a valuation. They were also
  to have liberty to carry away the timber of their houses, which was
  really worthless, except for firewood. On their part they agreed to
  leave peaceably, and not to lay down any crop. Beyond the excessive
  harshness of removing the people at all, it is but right to say that
  the mode of proceeding in the removal hitherto has been temperate and
  considerate.

  Two respectable farmers became bound for the people that they would
  carry out their part of the agreement, and the time of removal has
  since been extended to the 25th of this month. In the defence got
  up for this proceeding it is stated that all have been provided
  for; this is not only not the case, but seems to be intentionally
  deceptive. In speaking of all, the four principal tenants only are
  meant; for, according to the factor, these were all he had to do
  with; but this is not the case even in regard to the four principal
  tenants. Two only, a father and son, have got a piece of black moor,
  near Tain, 25 miles off, without any house or shed on it, out of
  which they hope to obtain subsistence. For this they are to pay £1
  rent for 7 acres the first year; £2 for the second year; and £3 for
  a continuation. Another old man with a family has got a house and a
  small lot of land in Edderton, about 20 miles off. These three, the
  whole who have obtained places where they may hope to make a living.
  The old pensioner, if removing does not kill him, has obtained for
  himself and family, and for his son’s family, a house at a rent of £3
  or £4, some ten miles off, without any land or means of subsistence
  attached to it. This old soldier has been offered 2s. a week by
  the factor to support him while he lived. He was one of the four
  principal tenants bound for the rent; and he indignantly refused to
  be kept as a pauper.

  A widow with four children, two imbecile, has obtained two small
  apartments in a bothy or turf hut near Bonar Bridge, for which she is
  to pay £2 rent, without any land or means of subsistence. Another,
  a man with a wife and four children, has got an apartment at Bonar
  Bridge, at £1 rent. He goes there quite destitute, without means of
  living. Six only of eighteen households, therefore, have been able
  to obtain places in which to put their heads; and of these, three
  only have any means of subsistence before them. The rest are hopeless
  and helpless. Two or three of the men told me they have been round
  to every factor and proprietor in the neighbourhood, and they could
  obtain no place, and nothing to do, and they did not know where to go
  to, or what to do to live.

  And for what are all these people to be reduced from comfort to
  beggary? For what is this virtuous and contented community to be
  scattered? I confess I can find no answer. It is said that the factor
  would rather have one tenant than many, as it saves him trouble!
  But so long as the rent is punctually paid as this has been, it is
  contrary to all experience to suppose that one large tenant will pay
  more rent than many small ones, or that a sheep walk can pay more
  rent than cultivated land.

  Let me add that so far from the clearance at Glencalvie being a
  solitary instance in this neighbourhood, it is one of many. The
  tenants of Newmore, near Tain, who I am told, amount to 16 families,
  are to be weeded out (as they express it here) on the 25th, by the
  same Mr. Gillanders. The same factor manages the Strathconon estate,
  about 30 miles from Newmore, from which during the last four years,
  some hundreds of families have been weeded. The Government Church
  of that district, built eighteen years ago, to meet the necessities
  of the population, is now almost unnecessary from the want of
  population. At Black Isle, near Dingwall, the same agent is pursuing
  the same course, and so strong is the feeling of the poor Highlanders
  at these outrageous proceedings, so far as they are concerned wholly
  unwarranted from any cause whatever, that I am informed on the best
  authority, and by those who go amongst them and hear what they say,
  that it is owing to the influence of religion alone that they refrain
  from breaking out into open and turbulent resistance of the law. I
  enclose you the defence of this proceeding, with a list of the names
  and numbers of each family in Glencalvie--in all 92 persons.[12]

[12] London _Times_ of Tuesday, 20th May, 1845.


THE EVICTION OF THE ROSSES.

In a “Sermon for the Times,” the Rev. Richard Hibbs of the Episcopal
Church, Edinburgh, referring to these evictions, says:--“Take first,
the awful proof how far in oppression men can go--men highly educated
and largely gifted in every way--property, talents, all; for the most
part indeed, they are so-called noblemen. What, then, are they doing
in the Highland districts, according to the testimony of a learned
professor in this city? Why, depopulating those districts in order
to make room for red deer. And how? By buying off the cottars, and
giving them money to emigrate? Not at all, but by starving them out;
by rendering them absolutely incapable of procuring subsistence for
themselves and families; for they first take away from them their
apportionments of poor lands, although they may have paid their rents;
and if that don’t suffice to eradicate from their hearts that love
of the soil on which they have been born and bred--a love which the
great Proprietor of all has manifestly implanted in our nature--why,
then, these inhuman landlords, who are far more merciful to their very
beasts, take away from these poor cottars the very roofs above their
defenceless heads, and expose them, worn down with age and destitute of
everything, to the inclemencies of a northern sky; and this, forsooth,
because they must have plenty room for their dogs and deer. For
plentiful instances of the most wanton barbarities under this head we
need only point to the Knoydart evictions. Here were perpetrated such
enormities as might well have caused the very sun to hide his face at
noon-day.” Macleod, referring to this sermon, says:--

“It has been intimated to me by an individual who heard this discourse
on the first occasion that the statements referring to the Highland
landlords have been controverted. I was well aware, long before the
receipt of this intimation, that some defence had appeared; and here I
can truly say, that none would have rejoiced more than myself to find
that a complete vindication had been made. But, unhappily, the case is
far otherwise. In order to be fully acquainted with all that had passed
on the subject, I have put myself during the week in communication
with the learned professor to whose letter, which appeared some months
ago in the _Times_, I referred. From him I learn that none of his
statements were invalidated--nay, not even impugned; and he adds, that
to do this was simply impossible, as he had been at great pains to
verify the facts. All that could be called in question was the theory
that he had based upon those facts--namely, that evictions were made
for the purpose of making room for more deer. This, of course, was open
to contradiction on the part of those landlords who had not openly
avowed their object in evicting the poor Highland families. As to
the evictions themselves--and this was the main point--no attempt at
contradiction was made.”

In addition to all that the benevolent Professor [Black] has made known
to the world under this head, who has not heard of “The Massacre of
the Rosses,” and the clearing of the glens? “I hold in my hand,” Mr.
Hibbs continued, “a little work thus entitled, which has passed into
the second edition. The author, Mr. Donald Ross--a gentleman whom
all who feel sympathy for the downtrodden and oppressed must highly
esteem. What a humiliating picture of the barbarity and cruelty of
fallen humanity does this little book present! The reader, utterly
appalled by its horrifying statements, finds it difficult to retain
the recollection that he is perusing the history of his own times, and
country too. He would fain yield himself to the tempting illusion that
the ruthless atrocities which are depicted were enacted in a fabulous
period, in ages long past; or at all events, if it be contemporaneous
history, that the scene of such heart-rending cruelties, the
perpetrators of which were regardless alike of the innocency of infancy
and the helplessness of old age, is some far distant, and as yet not
merely unchristianized, but wholly savage and uncivilized region of our
globe. But alas! it is Scotland, in the latter half of the nineteenth
century, of which he treats. One feature of the heart-harrowing case
is the shocking and barbarous cruelty that was practised on this
occasion upon the female portion of the evicted clan. Mr. D. Ross, in a
letter addressed to the Right Hon. the Lord Advocate, Edinburgh, dated
April 19, 1854, thus writes in reference to one of those clearances
and evictions which had just then taken place, under the authority of
a certain Sheriff of the district, and by means of a body of policemen
as executioners:--‘The feeling on this subject, not only in the
district, but in Sutherlandshire and Ross-shire, is, among the great
majority of the people, one of universal condemnation of the Sheriff’s
reckless conduct, and of indignation and disgust at the brutality of
the policemen. Such, indeed, was the sad havoc made on the females on
the banks of the Carron, on the memorable 31st March last, that pools
of blood were on the ground--that the grass and earth were dyed red
with it--that the dogs of the district came and licked up the blood;
and at last, such was the state of feeling of parties who went from a
distance to see the field, that a party (it is understood by order or
instructions from headquarters) actually harrowed the ground during the
night to hide the blood!

“‘The affair at Greenyard, on the morning of the 31st March last, is
not calculated to inspire much love of country, or rouse the martial
spirit of the already ill-used Highlanders. The savage treatment of
innocent females on that morning, by an enraged body of police, throws
the Sinope butchery into the shade; for the Ross-shire Haynaus have
shown themselves more cruel and more blood-thirsty than the Austrian
women-floggers. What could these poor men and women--with their wounds
and scars, and broken bones, and disjointed arms, stretched on beds of
sickness, or moving on crutches, the result of the brutal treatment of
them by the police at Greenyard--have to dread from the invasion of
Scotland by Russia?’”

Commenting on this incredible atrocity, committed in the middle of
the nineteenth century, Donald Macleod says truly that:--“It was
so horrifying and so brutal that they did not wonder at the rev.
gentleman’s delicacy in speaking of it, and directing his hearers to
peruse Mr. Ross’s pamphlet for full information. Mr. Ross went from
Glasgow to Greenyard, all the way to investigate the case upon the
spot, and found that Mr. Taylor, a native of Sutherland, well educated
in the evicting schemes and murderous cruelty of that county, and
Sheriff-substitute of Ross-shire, marched from Tain upon the morning of
the 31st March, at the head of a strong party of armed constables, with
heavy bludgeons and fire-arms, conveyed in carts and other vehicles,
allowing them as much ardent drink as they chose to take before leaving
and on their march, so as to qualify them for the bloody work which
they had to perform; fit for any outrage, fully equipped, and told by
the Sheriff to show no mercy to any one who would oppose them, and not
allow themselves to be called cowards, by allowing these mountaineers
victory over them. In this excited, half-drunken state, they came in
contact with the unfortunate women of Greenyard, who were determined to
prevent the officers from serving the summonses of removal upon them,
and keep their holding of small farms where they and their forefathers
lived and died for generations. But no time was allowed for parley;
the Sheriff gave the order to clear the way, and, be it said to his
everlasting disgrace, he struck the first blow at a woman, the mother
of a large family, and large in the family way at the time, who tried
to keep him back; then a general slaughter commenced; the women made
noble resistance, until the bravest of them got their arms broken; then
they gave way. This did not allay the rage of the murderous brutes,
they continued clubbing at the protectless creatures until every one
of them was stretched on the field, weltering in their blood, or with
broken arms, ribs, and bruised limbs. In this woeful condition many of
them were hand-cuffed together, others tied with coarse ropes, huddled
into carts, and carried prisoners to Tain. I have seen myself in the
possession of Mr. Ross, Glasgow, patches or scalps of the skin with
the long hair adhering to them, which was found upon the field a few
days after this inhuman affray. I did not see the women, but I was told
that gashes were found on the heads of two young female prisoners in
Tain jail, which exactly corresponded with the slices of scalps which
I have seen, so that Sutherland and Ross-shire may boast of having had
the Nana Sahib and his chiefs some few years before India, and that in
the persons of some whose education, training, and parental example
should prepare their minds to perform and act differently. Mr. Donald
Ross placed the whole affair before the Lord Advocate for Scotland, but
no notice was taken of it by that functionary, further than that the
majesty of the law would need to be observed and attended to.

“In this unfortunate country, the law of God and humanity may be
violated and trampled under foot, but the law of wicked men which
sanctions murder, rapine, and robbery must be observed. From the same
estate (the estate of Robertson of Kindeace, if I am not mistaken in
the date) in the year 1843 the whole inhabitants of Glencalvie were
evicted in a similar manner, and so unprovided and unprepared were they
for removal at such an inclement season of the year, that they had
to shelter themselves in a Church and a burying-ground. I have seen
myself nineteen families within this gloomy and solitary resting abode
of the dead, they were there for months. The London _Times_ sent a
commissioner direct from London to investigate into this case, and he
did his duty; but like the Sutherland cases, it was hushed up in order
to maintain the majesty of the law, and in order to keep the right, the
majesty of the people, and the laws of God in the dark.

“In the year 1819 or ’20, about the time when the depopulation of
Sutherlandshire was completed, and the annual conflagration of burning
the houses ceased, and when there was not a glen or strath in the
county to let to a sheep farmer, one of these insatiable monsters of
Sutherlandshire sheep farmers fixed his eyes upon a glen in Ross-shire,
inhabited by a brave, hardy race for time immemorial. Summonses of
removal were served upon them at once. The people resisted--a military
force was brought against them--the military and the women of the
glen met at the entrance to the glen, and a bloody conflict took
place; without reading the riot act or taking any other precaution,
the military fired (by the order of Sheriff MacLeod) ball cartridge
upon the women; one young girl of the name of Mathieson was shot dead
on the spot; many were wounded. When this murder was observed by the
survivors, and some young men concealed in the background, they made
a heroic sudden rush upon the military, when a hand-to-hand melee or
fight took place. In a few minutes the military were put to disorder
by flight; in their retreat they were unmercifully dealt with, only
two of them escaping with whole heads. The Sheriff’s coach was smashed
to atoms, and he made a narrow escape himself with a whole head. But
no legal cognizance was taken of this affair, as the Sheriff and the
military were the violators. However, for fear of prosecution, the
Sheriff settled a pension of £6 sterling yearly upon the murdered
girl’s father, and the case was hushed up likewise. The result was that
the people kept possession of the glen, and that the proprietor and the
oldest and most insatiable of Sutherlandshire scourges went to law,
which ended in the ruination of the latter, who died a pauper.”

Hugh Miller, describing a “Highland Clearing,” in one of his able
leading articles in the _Witness_, since published in volume form,
quotes freely from an article by John Robertson, which appeared in the
_Glasgow National_ in August, 1844, on the evictions of the Rosses of
Glencalvie. When the article from which Hugh Miller quotes was written,
the inhabitants of the glen had just received notices of removal,
but the evictions had not yet been carried out. Commenting on the
proceedings Hugh Miller says:--

“In an adjacent glen (to Strathcarron), through which the Calvie
works its headlong way to the Carron, that terror of the Highlanders,
a summons of removal, has been served within the last few months on
a whole community; and the graphic sketch of Mr. Robertson relates
both the peculiar circumstances in which it has been issued, and the
feelings which it has excited. We find from his testimony that the old
state of things which is so immediately on the eve of being broken up
in this locality, lacked not a few of those sources of terror to the
proprietary of the county, that are becoming so very formidable to them
in the newer states.”

The constitution of society in the Glens, says Mr. Robertson, is
remarkably simple. Four heads of families are bound for the whole
rental. The number of souls was about ninety, sixteen cottages paid
rent; they supported a teacher for the education of their own children;
they supported their own poor. “The laird has never lost a farthing of
rent in bad years, such as 1836 and 1837, the people may have required
the favour of a few weeks’ delay, but they are not now a single
farthing in arrears;” that is, when they are in receipt of summonses
of removal. “For a century,” Mr. Robertson continues, speaking of the
Highlanders, “their privileges have been lessening; they dare not now
hunt the deer, or shoot the grouse or the blackcock; they have no
longer the range of the hills for their cattle and their sheep; they
must not catch a salmon in the stream: in earth, air, and water, the
rights of the laird are greater, and the rights of the people are
smaller, than they were in the days of their forefathers.” The same
writer eloquently concludes:--

“The father of the laird of Kindeace bought Glencalvie. It was sold by
a Ross two short centuries ago. The swords of the Rosses of Glencalvie
did their part in protecting this little glen, as well as the broad
lands of Pitcalvie, from the ravages and the clutches of hostile septs.
These clansmen bled and died in the belief that every principle of
honour and morals secured their descendants a right to subsisting on
the soil. The chiefs and their children had the same charter of the
sword. Some Legislatures have made the right of the people superior
to the right of the chief; British law-makers made the rights of the
chief everything, and those of their followers nothing. The ideas
of the morality of property are in most men the creatures of their
interests and sympathies. Of this there cannot be a doubt, however, the
chiefs would not have had the land at all, could the clansmen have
foreseen the present state of the Highlands--their children in mournful
groups going into exile--the <DW19> of legal myrmidons in the thatch
of the feal cabin--the hearths of their homes and their lives the
green sheep-walks of the stranger. Sad it is, that it is seemingly the
will of our constituencies that our laws shall prefer the few to the
many. Most mournful will it be, should the clansmen of the Highlands
have been cleared away, ejected, exiled, in deference to a political,
a moral, a social, and an economical mistake,--a suggestion not of
philosophy, but of mammon,--a system in which the demon of sordidness
assumed the shape of the angel of civilization and of light.”

That the Eviction of the Rosses was of a harsh character is amply
corroborated by the following account, extracted from the _Inverness
Courier_:--“We mentioned last week that considerable obstruction was
anticipated in the execution of the summonses of removal upon the
tenants of Major Robertson of Kindeace, on his property of Greenyards,
near Bonar Bridge. The office turned out to be of a very formidable
character. At six o’clock on the morning of Friday last, Sheriff Taylor
proceeded from Tain, accompanied by several Sheriff’s officers, and a
police force of about thirty more, partly belonging to the constabulary
force of Ross-shire, and partly to that of Inverness-shire,--the latter
under the charge of Mr. Mackay, inspector, Fort William. On arriving at
Greenyards, which is nearly four miles from Bonar Bridge, it was found
that about three hundred persons, fully two-thirds of whom were women,
had assembled from the county round about, all apparently prepared
to resist the execution of the law. The women stood in front, armed
with stones, and the men occupied the background, all, or nearly all,
furnished with sticks.

“The Sheriff attempted to reason with the crowd, and to show them the
necessity of yielding to the law: but his efforts were fruitless; some
of the women tried to lay hold of him and to strike him, and after a
painful effort to effect the object in view by peaceable means--which
was renewed in vain by Mr. Cumming, the superintendent of the
Ross-shire police--the Sheriff was reluctantly obliged to employ force.
The force was led by Mr. Cumming into the crowd, and, after a sharp
resistance, which happily lasted only a few minutes, the people were
dispersed, and the Sheriff was enabled to execute the summonses upon
the four tenants. The women, as they bore the brunt of the battle, were
the principal sufferers. A large number of them--fifteen or sixteen, we
believe, were seriously hurt, and of these several are under medical
treatment; one woman, we believe, still lies in a precarious condition.
The policemen appear to have used their batons with great force, but
they escaped themselves almost unhurt. Several correspondents from the
district, who do not appear, however, to make sufficient allowance
for the critical position of affairs, and the necessity of at once
impressing so large a multitude with the serious nature of the case,
complain that the policemen used their batons with wanton cruelty.
Others state that they not only did their duty, but that less firmness
might have proved fatal to themselves. The instances of violence are
certainly, though very naturally, on the part of the attacking force;
several batons were smashed in the melee; a great number of men and
women were seriously hurt, especially about the head and face, while
not one of the policemen, so far as we can learn, suffered any injury
in consequence. As soon as the mob was fairly dispersed, the police
made active pursuit, in the hope of catching some of the ringleaders.
The men had, however, fled, and the only persons apprehended were
some women, who had been active in the opposition, and who had been
wounded. They were conveyed to the prison at Tain, but liberated on
bail next day, through the intercession of a gallant friend, who became
responsible for their appearance.”

“A correspondent writes,” continues the _Courier_, “ten young women
were wounded in the back of the skull and other parts of their
bodies.... The wounds on these women show plainly the severe manner in
which they were dealt with by the police when they were retreating. It
was currently reported last night that one of them was dead; and the
feeling of indignation is so strong against the manner in which the
constables have acted, that I fully believe the life of any stranger,
if he were supposed to be an officer of the law, would not be worth
twopence in the district.”

The _Northern Ensign_, referring to the same case, says:--“One
day lately a preventive officer with two cutter men made their
appearance on the boundaries of the estate and were taken for Tain
Sheriff-officers. The signals were at once given, and in course of
half-an-hour the poor gauger and his men were surrounded by 300 men and
women, who would not be remonstrated with either in English or Gaelic;
the poor fellows were taken and denuded of their clothing, all papers
and documents were extracted and burnt, amongst which was a purse with
a considerable quantity of money. In this state they were carried
shoulder-high off the estate, and left at the braes of Downie, where
the great Culrain riot took place thirty years ago.”


KINTAIL.

During the first years of the century a great many were cleared
from Kintail by Seaforth at the instigation of his Kintail factor,
Duncan Mor Macrae, and his father, who themselves added the land
taken from the ancient tenantry to their own sheep farms, already
far too extensive. In Glengarry, Canada, a few years ago, we met one
man, 93 years of age, who was among the evicted. He was in excellent
circumstances, his three sons having three valuable farms of their
own, and considered wealthy in the district. In the same county there
is a large colony of Kintail men, the descendants of those cleared
from that district, all comfortable, many of them very well off, one
of them being then member for his county in the dominion Parliament.
While this has been the case with many of the evicted from Kintail
and their descendants in Canada, the grasping sheep farmer who was
the original cause of their eviction from their native land, died
ruined and penniless; and the Seaforths, not long after, had to sell
the last inch of their ancient inheritance in Lochalsh and Kintail.
Shortly after these Glenelchaig evictions, about fifty families were
banished in the same way and by the same people from the district of
Letterfearn. This property has also changed hands since, and is now
in possession of Sir Alexander Matheson, Baronet of Lochalsh. Letter
of Lochalsh was cleared by Sir Hugh Innes, almost as soon as he came
into possession by purchase of that portion of the ancient heritage of
Seaforth and Kintail. The property has since passed into the hands of
the Lillingstones.


COIGEACH.

The attempt to evict the Coigeach crofters must also be mentioned.
Here the people made a stout resistance, the women disarming about
twenty policemen and sheriff-officers, burning the summonses in a heap,
throwing their batons into the sea, and ducking the representatives
of the law in a neighbouring pool. The men formed the second line of
defence, in case the women should receive any ill-treatment. They,
however, never put a finger on the officers of law, all of whom
returned home without serving a single summons or evicting a single
crofter. The proceedings of her subordinates fortunately came to the
ears of the noble proprietrix, with the result that the Coigeach
tenants are still where they were, and are to-day among the most
comfortable crofters in the north of Scotland.


STRATHCONON.[13]

[13] By Alexander Mackenzie.

From 1840 to 1848 Strathconon was almost entirely cleared of its
ancient inhabitants to make room for sheep and deer, as in other
places; and also for the purposes of extensive forest plantations. The
property was under trustees when the harsh proceedings were commenced
by the factor, Mr. Rose, a notorious Dingwall solicitor. He began by
taking away, first, the extensive hill-pasture, for generations held as
club-farms by the townships, thus reducing the people from a position
of comfort and independence; and secondly, as we saw done elsewhere,
finally evicting them from the arable portion of the strath, though
they were not a single penny in arrear of rent. Coirre-Bhuic and
Scard-Roy were first cleared, and given, respectively, as sheep-farms
to Mr. Brown, from Morayshire, and Colin Munro, from Dingwall. Mr.
Balfour, when he came of age, cleared Coire-Feola and Achadh-an-eas;
Carnach was similarly treated, while no fewer than twenty-seven
families were evicted from Glen-Meine alone. Baile-a-Mhuilinn and
Baile-na-Creige were cleared in 1844, no fewer than twenty-four
families from these townships removing to the neighbourhood of
Knock-farrel and Loch Ussie, above Dingwall, where they were provided
with holdings by the late John Hay Mackenzie of Cromartie, father of
the present Duchess of Sutherland, and where a few of themselves and
many of their descendants are now in fairly comfortable circumstances.
A great many more found shelter on various properties in the Black
Isle--some at Drynie Park, Maol-Bui; others at Kilcoy, Allangrange,
Cromarty, and the Aird.

It is computed that from four to five hundred souls were thus driven
from Strathconon, and cast adrift on the world, including a large
number of persons quite helpless, from old age, blindness, and other
infirmities. The scenes were much the same as we have described
in connection with other places. There is, however, one aspect of
the harshness and cruelty practised on the Strathconon people, not
applicable in many other cases, namely, that in most instances where
they settled down and reclaimed land, they were afterwards re-evicted,
and the lands brought into cultivation by themselves, taken from them,
without any compensation whatever, and given at enhanced rents to large
farmers. This is specially true of those who settled down in the Black
Isle, where they reclaimed a great deal of waste now making some of
the best farms in that district. Next after Mr. Rose of Dingwall,
the principal instrument in clearing Strathconon, was the late James
Gillanders of Highfield, already so well and unfavourably known to the
reader in connection with the evictions at Glencalvie and elsewhere.

It may be remarked that the Strathconon evictions are worthy of note
for the forcible illustration they furnish of how, by these arbitrary
and unexpected removals, hardships and ruin have frequently been
brought on families and communities who were at the time in contented
and comfortable circumstances. At one time, and previous to the earlier
evictions, perhaps no glen of its size in the Highlands had a larger
population than Strathconon. The club farm system, once so common
in the North, seems to have been peculiarly successful here. Hence
a large proportion of the people were well to do, but when suddenly
called upon to give up their hill pasture, and afterwards their arable
land, and in the absence of other suitable places to settle in, the
means they had very soon disappeared, and the trials and difficulties
of new conditions had to be encountered. As a rule, in most of these
Highland evictions, the evicted were lost sight of, they having either
emigrated to foreign lands or become absorbed in the ever-increasing
unemployed population of the large towns. In the case of Strathconon
it was different, as has been already stated; many of the families
evicted were allowed to settle on some of the wildest unreclaimed land
in the Black Isle. Their subsequent history there, and the excellent
agricultural condition into which they in after years brought their
small holdings, is a standing refutation of the charge so often made
against the Highland people, that they are lazy and incapable of
properly cultivating the land.


THE BLACK ISLE.

Respecting the estates of Drynie and Kilcoy, a correspondent, who says,
“I well remember my excessive grief when my father had to leave the
farm which his forefathers had farmed for five generations,” writes:--

“All the tenants to the east of Drynie, as far as Craigiehow, were
turned out, one by one, to make room for one large tenant, Mr.
Robertson, who had no less than four centres for stackyards. A most
prosperous tenantry were turned out to make room for him, and what is
the end of it all! Mr. Robertson has come to grief as a farmer, and now
holds a very humble position in the town of Inverness. Drumderfit used
to be occupied by fifteen or sixteen tenants who were gradually, and
from time to time, evicted, during the last fifty years. Balnakyle was
tenanted by five very comfortable and respectable farmers, four of whom
were turned out within the last thirty years; Balnaguie was occupied by
three; Torr by six; and Croft-cruive by five; the once famous names of
Drum-na-marg and Moreton are now extinct, as well as the old tenantry
whose forefathers farmed these places for generations. The present farm
of Kilcoy includes a number of holdings whose tenants were evicted
to make room for one large farmer;” and this is equally true of many
others in the district. Nothing can better illustrate the cruel manner
in which the ancient tenantry of the country have been treated than
these facts; and special comment on the evictions from Strathconon and
the Black Isle, after what has been said about others of a similar
character, would be superfluous.


THE ISLAND OF LEWIS.

No one was evicted from the Island of Lewis, in the strict sense of
the term, but 2231 souls had to leave it between 1851 and 1863. To pay
their passage money, their inland railway fares on arrival, and to
provide them with clothing and other furnishings, the late Sir James
Matheson paid a sum of £11,855. Notwithstanding all this expenditure,
many of these poor people would have died from starvation on their
arrival without the good offices of friends in Canada.

In 1841, before Mr. Matheson bought it, a cargo of emigrants from
the Lews arrived at Quebec late in the autumn, accompanied by a Rev.
Mr. Maclean, sent out to minister to their spiritual wants, but it
appears that no provision had been made for the more pressing demands
of a severe Canadian winter; and were it not for the Saint Andrew’s
Society of Montreal, every soul of them would have been starved to
death that winter in a strange land. The necessities of the case, and
how this patriotic Society saved their countrymen from a horrid death
will be seen on perusal of the following minutes, extracted from the
books of the Society, during the writer’s recent tour in Canada:--“A
special meeting of the office-bearers was summoned on the 20th
September, 1841, to take into consideration an application made by Mr.
Morris, President of the Emigration Association of the district of St.
Francis, for some pecuniary aid to a body of 229 destitute emigrants
who had recently arrived from the Island of Lewis (Scotland), and who
were then supported chiefly by the contributions of the charitable
inhabitants of the town of Sherbrooke and its neighbourhood. Mr.
Morris’ letter intimated that unless other assistance was received,
it would be impossible for these emigrants to outlive the winter, as
they were in a state of utter destitution, and the inhabitants of the
township could not support so large a number of persons from their own
unaided resources. The meeting decided that the Constitution of the
Society prohibited them from applying its funds to an object like the
one presented--it did not appear to authorise the granting of relief
from its funds except to cases of destitution in the city; but as
this case appeared of an urgent nature, and one particularly calling
for assistance, Messrs. Hew Ramsay and Neil M’Intosh were appointed
to collect subscriptions on behalf of the emigrants. This committee
acquitted itself with great diligence and success, having collected the
handsome sum of £234 14s. 6d., the whole of which was, at different
times, remitted to Mr. Morris, and expended by him in this charity.
Letters were received from Mr. Morris, expressing the gratitude of the
emigrants for this large and timely aid, which was principally the
means of keeping them from starvation.” The whole of these emigrants
are now in easy circumstances.

Commenting on the conduct of those in power, who sent out their poor
tenantry totally unprovided for, is unnecessary. The idea of sending
out a minister and nothing else, in such circumstances, makes one
shudder to think of the uses which are sometimes made of the clergy,
and how, in such cases, the Gospel they are supposed not only to preach
but to practise, is only in many instances caricatured. The provisions
sent by the Society had to be forwarded to where these starving
emigrants were, a distance of 80 miles from Sherbrooke, on sledges,
through a trackless and dense forest. The descendants of these people
now form a happy and prosperous community at Lingwick and Winslow.


LECKMELM.

MR. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE ON THE LECKMELM EVICTIONS.

This small property, in the Parish of Lochbroom, changed hands in 1879,
Mr. A. C. Pirie, paper manufacturer, Aberdeen, having purchased it for
£19,000 from Colonel Davidson, now of Tulloch. No sooner did it come
into Mr. Pirie’s possession than a notice, dated 2nd November, 1879, in
the following terms, was issued to all the tenants:--

“I am instructed by Mr. Pirie, proprietor of Leckmelm, to give you
notice that the present arrangements by which you hold the cottage,
byre, and other buildings, together with lands on that estate, will
cease from and after the term of Martinmas, 1880; and further, I am
instructed to intimate to you that at the said term of Martinmas, 1880,
Mr. Pirie purposes taking the whole arable and pasture lands, but that
he is desirous of making arrangements whereby you may continue tenant
of the cottage upon terms and conditions yet to be settled upon. I
have further to inform you that unless you and the other tenants at
once prevent your sheep and other stock from grazing or trespassing
upon the enclosures and hill, and other lands now in the occupation or
possession of the said Mr. Pirie, he will not, upon any conditions,
permit you to remain in the cottage you now occupy, after the said term
of Martinmas, 1880, but will clear all off the estate, and take down
the cottages.”

This notice affected twenty-three families, numbering above one hundred
souls. Sixteen tenants paid between them a rent of £96 10s.--ranging
from £3 to £12 each per annum. The stock allowed them was 72 head of
cattle, 8 horses, and 320 sheep. The arable portion of Leckmelm was
about the best tilled and the most productive land in possession of
any crofters in the parish. It could all be worked with the plough,
now a very uncommon thing in the Highlands; for almost invariably land
of that class is in the hands of the proprietors themselves, when not
let to sheep farmers or sportsmen. The intention of the new proprietor
was strictly carried out. At Martinmas, 1880, he took every inch of
land--arable and pastoral--into his own hands, and thus by one cruel
stroke, reduced a comfortable tenantry from comparative affluence
and independence to the position of mere cottars and day labourers,
absolutely dependent for subsistence on his own will and the likes or
dislikes of his subordinates, who may perhaps, for a short time, be in
a position to supply the remnant that will remain, in their altered
circumstances, with such common labour as trenching, draining, fencing,
carrying stones, lime and mortar, for the laird’s mansion-house and
outhouses. With the exception of one, all the tenants who remained
are still permitted to live in their old cottages, but they are not
permitted to keep a living thing about them--not even a hen. They are
existing in a state of abject dependence on Mr. Pirie’s will and that
of his servants; and in a constant state of terror that next they
will even be turned out of their cottages. As regards work and the
necessaries of life, they have been reduced to that of common navvies.
In place of milk, butter, and cheese in fair abundance, they have now
to be satisfied with sugar, treacle, or whatever else they can buy, to
their porridge and potatoes, and their supply of meat, grown and fed
hitherto by themselves, is gone for ever. Two, a man and his wife, if
not more, have since been provided for by the Parochial authorities,
and, no doubt, that will ultimately be the fate of many more of this
once thriving and contented people.

An agitation against Mr. Pirie’s conduct was raised at the time, and
the advantage which he had taken of his position was universally
condemned by the press (excepting the _Scotsman_, of course), and by
the general public voice of the country; but conscious of his strength,
and that the law, made by the landlords in their own interest, was
on his side, he relentlessly and persistently carried out his cruel
purpose to the bitter end, and evicted from their lands and hill
grazings every soul upon his property; but in the meantime allowed
them to remain in their cottages, with the exception of Donald Munro,
to whose case reference will be made hereafter, and two other persons
whose houses were pulled down and themselves evicted.

When the notices of removal were received, the Rev. John MacMillan,
Free Church minister of the parish, called public attention to Mr.
Pirie’s proceedings in the Northern newspapers, and soon the eye of
the whole country was directed to this modern evictor--a man, in
other respects, reputed considerate and even kind to those under him
in his business of paper manufacturing in Aberdeen. People, in their
simplicity, for years back, thought that evictions on such a large
scale, in the face of a more enlightened public opinion, had become
mere unpleasant recollections of a barbarous past; forgetting that
the same laws which permitted the clearances of Sutherland and other
portions of the Scottish Highlands during the first half of the present
century were still in force, ready to be applied by any tyrant who had
the courage, for personal ends, to outrage the more advanced and humane
public opinion of the present generation.

The noble conduct of the Rev. Mr. MacMillan, in connection with those
evictions, deserves commemoration in a work in which the name of his
prototype in Sutherland, the Rev. Mr. Sage, shows to such advantage
during the infamous clearances in that county, already described
at length. At the urgent request of many friends of the Highland
crofters, resident in Inverness, Mr. MacMillan agreed to lay the case
of his evicted parishioners before the public. Early in December,
1880, he delivered an address in Inverness to one of the largest and
most enthusiastic meetings which has ever been held in that town, and
we cannot do better here than quote at considerable length from his
instructive, eloquent, and rousing appeal on that occasion. Though
his remarks do not seem to have influenced Mr. Pirie’s conduct, or to
have benefited his unfortunate subjects, the Inverness meeting was the
real beginning in earnest of the subsequent movement throughout the
Highlands in favour of Land Reform, and the curtailment of landlord
power over their unfortunate tenants. Mr. Pirie can thus claim to have
done our poorer countrymen no small amount of good, though probably,
quite contrary to his intentions, by his cruel and high-handed conduct
in dealing with the ancient tenants of Leckmelm. He has set the heather
on fire, and it is likely to continue burning until such proceedings
as those for which he is responsible at Leckmelm will be finally made
impossible in Scotland. Mr. MacMillan after informing his audience that
Mr. Pirie “is now in a fair way of reaching a notoriety which he little
dreamt of when he became owner of the Leckmelm estate,” proceeds to
tell how the harsh proceedings were gone about, and says:--

“As the public are aware, Mr. Pirie’s first step after becoming owner
of the estate, was to inform the tenantry, by the hands of Mr. Manners,
C.E., Inverness, that at Martinmas following they were to deliver
their arable land and stock, consisting of sheep and cattle, into
his hands, but that some of them, on conditions yet to be revealed,
and on showing entire submission to the new _régime_ of things, and,
withal, a good certificate of character from his factotum, William
Gould, might remain in their cottages to act as serfs or slaves on
his farm. On this conditional promise they were to live in the best
of hope, for the future and all at the mercy of the absolute master
of the situation, with a _summum jus_ at his back to enable him to
effect all the purposes of his heart. As a prologue to the drama which
was to follow, and to give a sample of what they might expect in the
sequel, two acts were presented, or properly speaking, one act in two
parts. These were to prepare them for what was to come, reminding us of
what we read somewhere in our youth, of a husband who on marrying his
fair spouse wished to teach her prompt obedience to all his commands,
whatever their character. His first lesson in this direction was one
assuredly calculated to strike terror into her tender breast. It was
the shooting on the spot of the horse which drew his carriage or
conveyance, on showing some slight restiveness. The second lesson was
of a similar nature; we can easily imagine that his object was gained.
Then, after coming home, he commanded his spouse to untie his boots and
shoes, and take them off, and to engage in the most servile acts. Of
course prompt obedience was given to all these commands and his end was
gained. His wife was obedient to him to the last degree. Of the wisdom
and propriety of such a procedure in a husband towards his lawful wife,
I shall not here and now wait to enquire, but one thing is plain to us
all; there was a species of earthly and carnal wisdom in it which was
entirely overshadowed by its cruelty.

“Now this illustrates exactly how Mr. Pirie acted towards the people
of Leckmelm. To strike terror into their hearts, first of all, two
houses were pulled down, I might say about the ears of their respective
occupants, without any warning whatever, except a verbal one of the
shortest kind. The first was a deaf pauper woman, about middle life,
living alone for years in a bothy of her own, altogether apart from the
other houses, beside a purling stream, where she had at all seasons
pure water to drink if her bread was at times somewhat scanty. After
this most cruel eviction no provision was made for the helpless woman,
but she was allowed to get shelter elsewhere or anywhere, as best
she could. If any of you ever go the way of Leckmelm you can see
a gamekeeper’s house, the gentry of our land, close to the side of
Iseabal Bheag’s bothy, and a dog kennel quite in its neighbourhood, or
as I said in one of my letters, adorning it. This then is act the first
of this drama. Act second comes next. Mrs. Campbell was a widow with
two children; after the decease of her husband she tried to support
herself and them by serving in gentlemen’s families as a servant.
Whether she was all the time in Tulloch’s family I cannot say, but,
at all events, it was from that family she returned to Leckmelm, in
failing health, and on getting rather heavy for active service. Of
course her father had died since she had left, and the house in which
he lived and died, and in which in all likelihood he had reared his
family, and in which he was born and bred, was now tenantless. It was
empty, the land attached to it being in the hands of another person.
Here Widow Campbell turned aside for a while until something else
would in kind Providence turn up. But, behold, during her sojourn from
her native township, another king arose, who knew not Joseph, and the
inexorable edict had gone forth to raze her habitation to the ground.
Her house also was pulled down about her ears. This woman has since
gone to America, the asylum of many an evicted family from hearth
and home. Such tragedies as I have mentioned roused some of us to
remonstrate with the actors engaged in them, and to the best of our
ability to expose their conduct, and, furthermore, we have brought
them to the bar of public judgment to pass their verdict, which I hope
before all is over, will be one of condemnation and condign punishment.”

Having referred at some length to the worst classes of evictions
throughout the Highlands in the past, and already described in this
work, the reverend lecturer proceeded:--

“But there is another way, a more gentle, politic, and insinuating
way at work which depopulates our country quite as effectually as the
wholesale clearances of which we have been speaking and against which
we protest, and to which we must draw your attention for a little.
There are many proprietors who get the name of being good and kind
to their tenants, and who cannot be charged with evicting any of
them save for misbehaviour--a deserving cause at all times--who are
nevertheless inch by inch secretly and stealthily laying waste the
country and undermining the well-being of our people. I have some
of these gentlemen before my mind at this moment. When they took
possession of their estates all promised fair and well, but by-and-bye
the fatal blow was struck, to dispossess the people of their sheep.
Mark that _first move_ and resist it to the utmost. As long as tenants
have a hold of the hill pasture by sheep, and especially if it be what
we term a commonage or club farm, it is impossible to lay it waste in
part. But once you snap this tie asunder, you are henceforth at the
mercy of the owner to do with you as he pleases. This then is how the
business is transacted, and in the most business-like fashion too. To
be sure none are to be forcibly evicted from their holdings: that would
be highly impolitic, because it would bring public condemnation on
the sacred heads of the evictors, which some of them could in no way
confront, for they have a character and a name to sustain, and also
because they are more susceptible to the failings common to humanity.
They are moving, too, in the choicest circles of society. It would not
do that their names should be figuring in every newspaper in the land,
as cruel and oppressive landlords, or that the Rev. this and the Rev.
that should excommunicate them from society and stigmatise them as
tyrants and despots. But all are not so sensitive as this of name and
character, as we see abundantly demonstrated, because they have none
to lose. You might expose them upon a gibbet before the gaze of an
assembled universe and they would hardly blush, “they are harder than
the nether mill-stone.” But the more sensitive do their work, all the
same, after all, and it is done in this fashion. When a tenant dies,
or removes otherwise, the order goes forth that his croft or lot is
to be laid waste. It is not given to a neighbouring tenant, except in
some instances, nor to a stranger, to occupy it. In this inch-by-inch
clearance, the work of depopulation is effected in a few years, or
in a generation at most, quite as effectually as by the more glaring
and reprehensible method. This more secret and insinuating way of
depopulating our native land should be as stoutly resisted as the more
open and defiant one, the result it produces being the same.”

Describing the character of the Highlanders, as shown by their conduct
in our Highland regiments, and the impossibility of recruiting from
them in future, if harsh evictions are not stopped, the reverend
gentlemen continued:--

“Let me give you words more eloquent than mine on this point, which
will show the infatuation of our Government in allowing her bravest
soldiers to be driven to foreign lands and to be crushed and oppressed
by the tyrant’s rod. After having asked, What have these people done
against the State, when they were so remorselessly driven from their
native shores, year by year in batches of thousands? What class
have they wronged that they should suffer a penalty so dreadful?
this writer[14] gives the answer:--‘They have done no wrong. Yearly
they have sent forth their thousands from their glens to follow the
battle flag of Britain wherever it flew. It was a Highland _rearlorn_
hope that followed the broken wreck of Cumberland’s army after the
disastrous day at Fontenoy, when more British soldiers lay dead upon
the field than fell at Waterloo itself. It was another Highland
regiment that scaled the rock-face over the St. Lawrence, and first
formed a line in the September dawn on the level sward of Abraham. It
was a Highland line that broke the power of the Maharatta hordes and
gave Wellington his maiden victory at Assaye. Thirty-four battalions
marched from these glens to fight in America, Germany, and India ere
the 18th century had run its course; and yet, while abroad over the
earth, Highlanders were the first in assault and the last in retreat,
their lowly homes in far away glens were being dragged down, and the
wail of women and the cry of children went out on the same breeze that
bore too upon its wings the scent of heather, the freshness of gorse
blossom, and the myriad sweets that made the lowly life of Scotland’s
peasantry blest with health and happiness. These are crimes done in
the dark hours of strife, and amid the blaze of man’s passions, that
sometimes make the blood run cold as we read them; but they are not
so terrible in their red-handed vengeance as the cold malignity of a
civilized law, which permits a brave and noble race to disappear by the
operation of its legalised injustice. To convert the Highland glens
into vast wastes untenanted by human beings; to drive forth to distant
and inhospitable shores men whose forefathers had held their own among
these hills, despite Roman legion, Saxon archer, or Norman chivalry,
men whose sons died freely for England’s honour through those wide
dominions their bravery had won for her. Such was the work of laws
formed in a cruel mockery of name by the Commons of England. Thus it
was, that about the year 1808 the stream of Highland soldiery, which
had been gradually ebbing, gave symptoms of running completely dry.
Recruits for Highland regiments could not be obtained for the simple
reason that the Highlands had been depopulated. Six regiments which
from the date of their foundation had worn the kilt and bonnet were
ordered to lay aside their distinctive uniform and henceforth became
merged into the ordinary line corps. From the mainland the work of
destruction passed rapidly to the isles. These remote resting-places
of the Celt were quickly cleared, during the first ten years of the
great war, Skye had given 4000 of its sons to the army. It has been
computed that 1600 Skyemen stood in the ranks at Waterloo. To-day in
Skye, far as the eye can reach, nothing but a bare brown waste is to be
seen, where still the mounds and ruined gables rise over the melancholy
landscapes, sole vestiges of a soldier race for ever passed away.’”

[14] Major W. S. Butler in _MacMillan’s Magazine_ for May, 1878.

In January, 1882, news had reached Inverness that Murdo Munro, one
of the most comfortable tenants on the Leckmelm property, had been
turned out, with his wife and young family, in the snow; whereupon
the writer started to enquire into the facts, and spent a whole day
among the people. What he had seen proved to be as bad as any of the
evictions of the past, except that it applied in this instance only to
one family. Murdo Munro was too independent for the local managers,
and to some extent led the people in their opposition to Mr. Pirie’s
proceedings: he was first persecuted and afterwards evicted in the most
cruel fashion. Other reasons were afterwards given for the manner in
which this poor man and his family were treated, but it has been shown
conclusively, in a report published at the time, that these reasons
were an after-thought.[15] From this report we shall quote a few
extracts:--

[15] See pamphlet published at the time entitled _Report on the
Leckmelm Evictions, by Alexander Mackenzie, F.S.A., Scot., Editor of
the “Celtic Magazine,” and Dean of Guild of Inverness_.

“So long as the laws of the land permit men like Mr. Pirie to drive
from the soil, without compensation, the men who, by their labour and
money, made their properties what they are, it must be admitted that
he is acting within his legal rights, however much we may deplore the
manner in which he has chosen to exercise them. We have to deal more
with the system which allows him to act thus, than with the special
reasons which he considers sufficient to justify his proceedings; and
if his conduct in Leckmelm will, as I trust it may, hasten on a change
in our land legislation, the hardships endured by the luckless people
who had the misfortune to come under his unfeeling yoke and his ideas
of moral right and wrong, will be more than counterbalanced by the
benefits which will ultimately accrue to the people at large. This is
why I, and I believe the public, take such an interest in this question
of the evictions at Leckmelm.

“I have made the most careful and complete inquiry possible among Mr.
Pirie’s servants, the tenants, and the people of Ullapool. Mr. Pirie’s
local manager, after I had informed him of my object, and put him on
his guard as to the use which I might make of his answers, informed
me that he never had any fault to find with Munro, that he always
found him quite civil, and that he had nothing to say against him.
The tenants, without exception, spoke of him as a good neighbour. The
people of Ullapool, without exception, so far as I could discover,
after enquiries from the leading men in every section of the community,
speak well of him, and condemn Mr. Pirie. Munro is universally spoken
of as one of the best and most industrious workmen in the whole parish,
and, by his industry and sobriety, he has been able to save a little
money in Leckmelm, where he was able to keep a fairly good stock on
his small farm, and worked steadily with a horse and cart. The stock
handed over by him to Mr. Pirie consisted of 1 bull, 2 cows, 1 stirk,
1 Highland pony, and about 40 sheep, which represented a considerable
saving. Several of the other tenants had a similar stock, and some of
them had even more, all of which they had to dispense with under the
new arrangements, and consequently lost the annual income in money and
produce available therefrom. We all know that the sum received for
this stock cannot last long, and cannot be advantageously invested in
anything else. The people must now live on their small capital, instead
of what it produced, so long as it lasts, after which they are sure to
be helpless, and many of them become chargeable to the parish.

“The system of petty tyranny which prevails at Leckmelm is scarcely
credible. Contractors have been told not to employ Munro. For this
I have the authority of some of the contractors themselves. Local
employers of labour were requested not to employ any longer people
who had gone to look on among the crowd, while Munro’s family, goods,
and furniture, were being turned out. Letters were received by others
complaining of the same thing from higher quarters, and threatening
ulterior consequences. Of all this I have the most complete evidence,
but in the interests of those involved, I shall mention no names,
except in Court, where I challenge Mr. Pirie and his subordinates to
the proof if they deny it.

       *       *       *       *       *

“The extract in the action of removal was signed only on the 24th of
January last in Dingwall. On the following day the charge is dated,
and two days after, on the 27th of January, the eviction is complete.
When I visited the scene on Friday morning, I found a substantially
built cottage, and a stable at the end of it, unroofed to within three
feet of the top on either side, and the whole surroundings a perfect
scene of desolation; the thatch, and part of the furniture, including
portions of broken bedsteads, tubs, basins, teapots, and various other
articles, strewn outside. The cross-beams, couples, and cabars were
still there, a portion of the latter brought from Mr. Pirie’s manager,
and paid for within the last three years. The Sheriff officers had
placed a padlock on the door, but I made my way to the inside of the
house through one of the windows from which the frame and glass had
been removed. I found that the house, before the partitions had been
removed, consisted of two good-sized rooms and a closet, with fireplace
and chimney in each gable, the crook still hanging in one of them, the
officer having apparently been unable to remove it after a considerable
amount of wrenching. The kitchen window, containing eight panes of
glass, was still whole, but the closet window, with four panes, had
been smashed; while the one in the “ben” end of the house had been
removed. The cottage, as crofters’ houses go, must have been fairly
comfortable. Indeed, the cottages in Leckmelm are altogether superior
to the usual run of crofters’ houses on the West Coast, and the tenants
are allowed to have been the most comfortable in all respects in the
parish, before the land was taken from them. They are certainly not
the poor, miserable creatures, badly housed, which Mr. Pirie and his
friends led the public to believe within the last two years.

“The barn in which the wife and infant had to remain all night had the
upper part of both gables blown out by the recent storm, and the door
was scarcely any protection from the weather. The potatoes, which had
been thrown out in showers of snow, were still there, gathered and a
little earth put over them by the friendly neighbours.

“The mother and children wept piteously during the eviction, and many
of the neighbours, afraid to succour or shelter them, were visibly
affected to tears; and the whole scene was such that, if Mr. Pirie
could have seen it, I feel sure that he would never consent to be held
responsible for another. His humanity would soon drive his stern ideas
of legal right out of his head, and we would hear no more of evictions
at Leckmelm.”

Those of the tenants who are still at Leckmelm are permitted to remain
in their cottages as half-yearly tenants on payment of 12s. per annum,
but liable to be removed at any moment that their absolute lord may
take it into his head to evict them; or, what is much more precarious,
when they may give the slightest offence to any of his meanest
subordinates.


LOCHCARRON.

BY ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.

The following account was written in April, 1882, after a most
careful enquiry on the spot:--So much whitewash has been distributed
in our Northern newspapers of late by “Local Correspondents,” in the
interest of personal friends who are responsible for the Lochcarron
evictions--the worst and most indefensible that have ever been
attempted even in the Highlands--that we consider it a duty to state
the actual facts. We are really sorry for those more immediately
concerned, but our friendly feeling for them otherwise cannot be
allowed to come between us and our plain duty. A few days before
the famous “Battle of the Braes,” in the Isle of Skye, we received
information that summonses of ejectment were served on Mackenzie and
Maclean, Lochcarron. The writer at once communicated with Mr. Dugald
Stuart, the proprietor, intimating to him the statements received, and
asking him if they were accurate, and if Mr. Stuart had anything to say
in explanation of them. Mr. Stuart immediately replied, admitting the
accuracy of the statements generally, but maintaining that he had good
and valid reasons for carrying out the evictions, which he expressed
himself anxious to explain to us on the following day, while passing
through Inverness on his way South. Unfortunately, his letter reached
us too late, and we were unable to see him. The only reason which he
vouchsafed to give in his letter was to the following effect:--“Was
it at all likely that he, a Highlander, born and brought up in the
Highlands, the son of a Highlander, and married to a Highland lady,
would be guilty of evicting any of his tenants without good cause?” We
replied that, unfortunately, all these reasons could be urged by most
of those who had in the past depopulated the country, but expressing a
hope that, in his case, the facts stated by him would prove sufficient
to restrain him from carrying out his determination to evict parents
admittedly innocent of their sons’ proceedings, even if those
proceedings were unjustifiable. Early in April, 1882, we proceeded to
Lochcarron to make enquiry on the spot, and the writer on his return
from Skye a few days later reported as follows to the Highland Land Law
Reform Association:--

“Of all the cases of eviction which have hitherto come under my notice
I never heard of any so utterly unjustifiable as those now in course
of being carried out by Mr. D. Stuart in Lochcarron. The circumstances
which led up to these evictions are as follows:--In March, 1881, two
young men, George Mackenzie and Donald Maclean, masons, entered into
a contract with Mr. Stuart’s ground officer for the erection of a
sheep fank, and a dispute afterwards arose as to the payment for the
work. When the factor, Mr. Donald Macdonald, Tormore, was some time
afterwards collecting the rents in the district, the contractors
approached him and related their grievance against the ground officer,
who, while the men were in the room, came in and addressed them in
libellous and defamatory language, for which they have since obtained
substantial damages and expenses, in all amounting to £22 13s. 8d., in
the Sheriff Court of the County. I have a certified copy of the whole
proceedings in Court in my possession, and, without going into the
merits, what I have just stated is the result, and Mr. Stuart and his
ground officer became furious.

“The contractors are two single men who live with their parents,
the latter being crofters on Mr. Stuart’s property, and as the
real offenders--if such can be called men who have stood up for
and succeeded in establishing their rights and their characters in
Court--could not be got at, Mr. Stuart issued summonses of ejection
against their parents--parents who, in one of the cases at least,
strongly urged his son not to proceed against the ground officer,
pointing out to him that an eviction might possibly ensue, and that it
was better even to suffer in character and purse than run the risk of
eviction from his holding at the age of eighty. We have all heard of
the doctrine of visiting the sins of the parents upon the children, but
it has been left for Mr. Dugald Stuart of Lochcarron and his ground
officer, in the present generation--the highly-favoured nineteenth
century--to reverse all this, and to punish the unoffending parents,
for proceedings on the part of their children which the Sheriff of the
County and all unprejudiced people who know the facts consider fully
justifiable.

“Now, so far as I can discover, after careful enquiry among the men’s
neighbours and in the village of Lochcarron, nothing can be said
against either of them. Their characters are in every respect above
suspicion. The ground officer, whom I have seen, admits all this,
and makes no pretence that the eviction is for any other reason than
the conduct of the young men in prosecuting and succeeding against
himself in the Sheriff Court for defamation of character. Maclean
paid rent for his present holding for the last sixty years, and never
failed to pay it on the appointed day. His father, grandfather, and
great-grandfather occupied the same place, and so did their ancestors
before them. Indeed, his grandfather held one-half of the township,
now occupied by more than a hundred people. The old man is in his 81st
year, and bed-ridden--on his death-bed in fact--since the middle of
January last, he having then had a paralytic stroke from which it is
quite impossible he can ever recover. It was most pitiable to see the
aged and frail human wreck as I saw him that day, and to have heard him
talking of the cruelty and hard-heartedness of those who took advantage
of the existing law to push him out of the home which he has occupied
so long, while he is already on the brink of eternity. I quite agreed
with him, and I have no hesitation in saying that if Mr. Stuart and
his ground officer only called to see the miserable old man, as I did,
their hearts, however adamantine, would melt, and they would at once
declare to him that he would be allowed to end his days, and die in
peace, under the roof which for generations had sheltered himself and
his ancestors. The wife is over 70 years of age, and the frail old
couple have no one to succour them but the son who has been the cause,
by defending his own character, of their present misfortunes. Whatever
Mr. Stuart and his ground officer may do, or attempt to do, the old man
will not, and cannot be evicted until he is carried to the churchyard;
and it would be far more gracious on their part to relent and allow the
old man to die in peace.

“Mackenzie has paid rent for over 40 years, and his ancestors have done
so for several generations before him. He is nearly sixty years of age,
and is highly popular among his neighbours, all of whom are intensely
grieved at Mr. Stuart’s cruel and hard-hearted conduct towards him and
Maclean, and they still hope that he will not proceed to extremities.

“The whole case is a lamentable abuse of the existing law, and such as
will do more to secure its abolition, when the facts are fully known,
than all the other cases of eviction which have taken place in the
Highlands during the present generation. There is no pretence that
the case is anything else than a gross and cruel piece of retaliation
against the innocent parents for conduct on the part of their sons
which must have been very aggravating to this proprietor and his ground
officer, who appear to think themselves fully justified in perpetuating
such acts of grossest cruelty and injustice.”

This report was slightly noticed at the time in the local and
Glasgow newspapers, and attention was thus directed to Mr. Stuart’s
proceedings. His whole conduct appeared so cruelly tyrannical that
most people expected him to relent before the day of eviction arrived.
But not so; a sheriff officer and his assistants from Dingwall duly
arrived, and proceeded to turn Mackenzie’s furniture out of his house.
People congregated from all parts of the district, some of them coming
more than twenty miles. The sheriff officer sent for the Lochcarron
policemen to aid him, but, notwithstanding, the law which admitted
of such unmitigated cruelty and oppression was set at defiance;
the sheriff officers were deforced, and the furniture returned to
the house by the sympathising crowd. What was to be done next? The
Procurator-Fiscal for the county was Mr. Stuart’s law agent in carrying
out the evictions. How could he criminally prosecute for deforcement
in these circumstances? The Crown authorities found themselves in a
dilemma, and through the tyranny of the proprietor on the one hand,
and the interference of the Procurator-Fiscal in civil business which
has ended in public disturbance and deforcement of the Sheriff’s
officers, on the other, the Crown authorities found themselves helpless
to vindicate the law. This is a pity; for all right-thinking people
have almost as little sympathy for law breakers, even when that law is
unjust and cruel, as they have for those cruel landlords who, like Mr.
Stuart of Lochcarron, bring the law and his own order into disrepute by
the oppressive application of it against innocent people. The proper
remedy is to have the law abolished, not to break it; and to bring this
about such conduct as that of Mr. Stuart and his ground officer is more
potent than all the Land Leagues and Reform Associations in the United
Kingdom.[16]

[16] _Celtic Magazine_ for July, 1882.

Mr. William Mackenzie of the _Aberdeen Free Press_, who was on the
ground, writes, next morning, after the deforcement of the sheriff
officers:--

“During the encounter the local police constable drew his baton, but he
was peremptorily ordered to lay it down, and he did so. The officers
then gave up the contest and left the place about three in the morning.
Yesterday, before they left, and in course of the evening, they were
offered refreshments, but these they declined. The people are this
evening in possession as before.

“When every article was restored to its place, the song and the dance
were resumed, the native drink was freely quaffed--for ‘freedom an’
whisky gang thegither’--the steam was kept up throughout the greater
part of yesterday, and Mackenzie’s mantelpiece to-day is adorned with a
long tier of empty bottles, standing there as monuments of the eventful
night of the 29th-30th May, 1882.

  A chuirm sgaoilte chualas an ceòl
  Ard-shòlas an talla nan treun!

“While these things were going on in the quiet township of Slumbay,
the Fiery Cross appears to have been despatched over the neighbouring
parishes; and from Kintail, Lochalsh, Applecross, and even Gairloch,
the Highlanders began to gather yesterday with the view of helping the
Slumbay men, if occasion should arise. Few of these reached Slumbay,
but they were in small detachments in the neighbourhood ready at any
moment to come to the rescue on the appearance of any hostile force.
After all the trains had come and gone for the day, and as neither
policemen nor Sheriff’s officers had appeared on the scene, these
different groups retired to their respective places of abode. The
Slumbay men, too, resolved to suspend their festivities. A procession
was formed, and, being headed by the piper, they marched triumphantly
through Slumbay and Jeantown, and escorted some of the strangers on
their way to their homes, returning to Slumbay in course of the night.”

As a contrast to Mr. Stuart’s conduct we are glad to record the noble
action of Mr. C. J. Murray, M.P. for Hastings, who has, fortunately for
the oppressed tenants on the Lochcarron property, just purchased the
estate. He has made it a condition that Maclean and Mackenzie shall be
allowed to remain; and a further public scandal has thus been avoided.
This is a good beginning for the new proprietor, and we trust to
see his action as widely circulated and commended as the tyrannical
proceedings of his predecessor have been condemned.

It is also fair to state what we know on the very best authority,
namely, that the factor on the estate, Mr. Donald Macdonald, Tormore,
strongly urged upon Mr. Stuart not to evict these people, and that his
own wife also implored and begged of him not to carry out his cruel
and vindictive purpose. Where these agencies failed, it is gratifying
to find that Mr. Murray has succeeded; and all parties--landlords and
tenants--throughout the Highlands are to be congratulated on the result.


THE 78TH HIGHLANDERS.

In connection with the evictions from the County of Ross, the following
will appropriately come in at this stage. Referring to the glorious
deeds of the 78th Highlanders in India, under General Havelock, the
editor of the _Northern Ensign_ writes:--All modern history, from the
rebellion in 1715, to the Cawnpore massacre of 1857, teems with the
record of Highland bravery and prowess. What say our Highland evicting
lairds to these facts, and to the treatment of the Highlanders? What
reward have these men received for saving their country, fighting its
battles, conquering its enemies, turning the tide of revolt, rescuing
women and children from the hands of Indian fiends, and establishing
order, when disorder and bloody cruelty have held their murderous
carnival? And we ask, in the name of men who have, ere now, we fondly
hope, saved our gallant countrymen and heroic countrywomen at Lucknow;
in the name of those who fought in the trenches of Sebastopol, and
proudly planted the British standard on the heights of the Alma,
how are they, their fathers, brothers, and little ones treated? Is
the mere shuttle-cocking of an irrepressible cry of admiration from
mouth to mouth, and the setting to music of a song in their praise,
all the return the race is to get for such noble acts? We can fancy
the expression of admiration of Highland bravery at the Dunrobin
dinner table, recently, when the dukes, earls, lairds, and other
aristocratic notables enjoyed the princely hospitality of the Duke.
We can imagine the mutual congratulations of the Highland lairds as
they prided themselves on being proprietors of the soil which gave
birth to the race of “Highland heroes.” Alas, for the blush that
would cover their faces if they would allow themselves to reflect
that, in their names, and by their authority, and at their expense,
the fathers, mothers, brothers, wives, of the invincible “78th” have
been remorselessly driven from their native soil; and that, at the
very hour when Cawnpore was gallantly retaken, and the ruffian, Nana
Sahib, was obliged to leave the bloody scene of his fiendish massacre,
there were Highlanders, within a few miles of the princely Dunrobin,
driven from their homes and left to starve and to die in the open
field. Alas, for the blush that would reprint its scarlet dye on their
proud faces as they thought in one county alone, since Waterloo was
fought, more than 14,000 of this same “race of heroes” of whom Canning
so proudly boasted, have been hunted out of their native homes; and
that where the pibroch and the bugle once evoked the martial spirit of
thousands of brave hearts, razed and burning cottages have formed the
tragic scenes of eviction and desolation; and the abodes of a loyal
and a liberty-loving people are made sacred to the rearing of sheep,
and sanctified to the preservation of game! Yes; we echo back the
cry, “Well done, brave Highlanders!” But to what purpose would it be
carried on the wings of the wind to the once happy straths and glens of
Sutherland? Who, what, would echo back our acclaims of praise? Perhaps
a shepherd’s or a gillie’s child, playing amid the unbroken wilds, and
innocent of seeing a human face but that of its own parents, would
hear it; or the cry might startle a herd of timid deer, or frighten
a covey of partridges, or call forth a bleat from a herd of sheep;
but men would not, could not, hear it. We must go to the backwoods of
Canada, to Detroit, to Hamilton, to Woodstock, to Toronto, to Montreal;
we must stand by the waters of Lake Huron or Lake Ontario, where the
cry--“Well done, brave Highlanders!” would call up a thousand brawny
fellows, and draw down a tear on a thousand manly cheeks. Or we must
go to the bare rocks that skirt the sea-coast of Sutherland, where
the residuary population were generously treated to barren steeps and
inhospitable shores, on which to keep up the breed of heroes, and
fight for the men who dared--_dared_--to drive them from houses for
which they fought, and from land which was purchased with the blood
of their fathers. But the cry, “Well done, brave Highlanders,” would
evoke no effective response from the race. Need the reader wonder?
Wherefore should they fight? To what purpose did their fathers climb
the Peninsular heights and gloriously write in blood the superiority of
Britain, when their sons were rewarded by extirpation, or toleration to
starve, in sight of fertile straths and glens devoted to beasts? These
are words of truth and soberness. They are but repetitions in other
forms of arguments, employed by us for years; and we shall continue to
ring changes on them so long as our brave Highland people are subjected
to treatment to which no other race would have submitted. We are no
alarmists. But we tell Highland proprietors that were Britain some
twenty years hence to have the misfortune to be plunged into such a
crisis as the present, there will be few such men as the Highlanders of
the 78th to fight her battles, and that the country will find when too
late, if another policy towards the Highlanders is not adopted, that
sheep and deer, ptarmigan and grouse, can do but little to save it in
such a calamity.


THE REV. DR. JOHN KENNEDY ON THE ROSS-SHIRE CLEARANCES.[17]

[17] _The Days of the Fathers in Ross-shire_, 1861, pp. 15, 16.

Dr. John Kennedy, the highly, deservedly respected, and eminent
minister of Dingwall so long resident among the scenes which he
describes, and so intimately acquainted with all classes of the people
in his native county of Ross, informs us that it was at a time when
the Highlanders became most distinguished as the most peaceable and
virtuous peasantry in the world--“at the climax of their spiritual
prosperity,” in Ross-shire--“that the cruel work of eviction began to
lay waste the hill-sides and the plains of the North. Swayed by the
example of the godly among them, and away from the influences by which
less sequestered localities were corrupted, the body of the people in
the Highlands became distinguished as the most peaceable and virtuous
peasantry in Britain. It was just then that they began to be driven off
by ungodly oppressors, to clear their native soil for strangers, red
deer, and sheep. With few exceptions, the owners of the soil began to
act as if they were also owners of the people, and, disposed to regard
them as the vilest part of their estate, they treated them without
respect to the requirements of righteousness or to the dictates of
mercy. Without the inducement of gain, in the recklessness of cruelty,
families by hundreds were driven across the sea, or gathered, as the
sweepings of the hill-sides, into wretched hamlets on the shore. By
wholesale evictions, wastes were formed for the red deer, that the
gentry of the nineteenth century might indulge in the sports of the
savages of three centuries before. Of many happy households sheep
walks were cleared for strangers, who, fattening amidst the ruined
homes of the banished, corrupted by their example the few natives who
remained. Meanwhile their rulers, while deaf to the Highlanders’ cry of
oppression, were wasting their sinews and their blood on battle-fields,
that, but for their prowess and their bravery, would have been the
scene of their country’s defeat.”




_INVERNESS-SHIRE._


GLENGARRY.

BY ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.

Glengarry was peopled down to the end of last century with a fine
race of men. In 1745, six hundred stalwart vassals followed the
chief of Glengarry to the battle of Culloden. Some few years later
they became so disgusted with the return made by their chief that
many of them emigrated to the United States, though they were
almost all in comfortable, some indeed, in affluent circumstances.
Notwithstanding this semi-voluntary exodus, Major John Macdonell of
Lochgarry, was able in 1777, to raise a fine regiment--the 76th or
Macdonald Highlanders--numbering 1086 men, 750 of whom were Highlanders
mainly from the Glengarry property. In 1794, Alexander Macdonnell
of Glengarry, raised a Fencible regiment, described as “a handsome
body of men,” of whom one-half were enlisted on the same estate. On
being disbanded in 1802, these men were again so shabbily treated,
that they followed the example of the men of the “Forty-five,”
and emigrated in a body, with their families, to Canada, taking
two Gaelic-speaking ministers along with them to their new home.
They afterwards distinguished themselves as part of the “Glengarry
Fencibles” of Canada, in defence of their adopted country, and called
their settlement there after their native glen in Scotland. The chiefs
of Glengarry drove away their people, only, as in most other cases in
the Highlands, to be themselves ousted soon after them.

The Glengarry property at one time covered an area of nearly 200 square
miles, and to-day, while many of their expatriated vassals are landed
proprietors and in affluent circumstances in Canada, not an inch of the
old possessions of the ancient and powerful family of Glengarry remains
to the descendants of those who caused the banishment of a people who,
on many a well-fought field, shed their blood for their chief and
country. In 1853, every inch of the ancient heritage was possessed by
the stranger, except Knoydart in the west, and this has long ago become
the property of one of the Bairds. In the year named, young Glengarry
was a minor, his mother, the widow of the late chief, being one of his
trustees. She does not appear to have learned any lesson of wisdom from
the past misfortunes of her house. Indeed, considering her limited
power and possessions, she was comparatively the worst of them all.

The tenants of Knoydart, like all other Highlanders, had suffered
severely during and after the potato famine in 1846 and 1847, and some
of them got into arrear with a year and some with two years’ rent,
but they were fast clearing it off. Mrs. Macdonell and her factor
determined to evict every crofter on her property, to make room for
sheep. In the spring of 1853, they were all served with summonses of
removal, accompanied by a message that Sir John Macneil, chairman of
the Board of Supervision, had agreed to convey them to Australia. Their
feelings were not considered worthy of the slightest consideration.
They were not even asked whether they would prefer to follow their
countrymen to America and Canada. They were to be treated as if they
were nothing better than Africans, and the laws of their country on a
level with those which regulated South American slavery. The people,
however, had no alternative but to accept any offer made to them. They
could not get an inch of land on any of the neighbouring estates, and
any one who would give them a night’s shelter was threatened with
eviction.

It was afterwards found not convenient to transport them to Australia,
and it was then intimated to the poor creatures, as if they were
nothing but common slaves to be disposed of at will, that they would
be taken to North America, and that a ship would be at Isle Ornsay,
in the Isle of Skye, in a few days, to receive them, and that they
_must_ go on board. The _Sillery_ soon arrived. Mrs. Macdonell and
her factor came all the way from Edinburgh to see the people hounded
across in boats, and put on board this ship whether they would or not.
An eye-witness who described the proceeding at the time, in a now rare
pamphlet, and whom we met a few years ago in Nova Scotia, characterises
the scene as heart-rending. “The wail of the poor women and children
as they were torn away from their homes would have melted a heart of
stone.” Some few families, principally cottars, refused to go, in spite
of every influence brought to bear upon them; and the treatment they
afterwards received was cruel beyond belief. The houses, not only of
those who went, but of those who remained, were burnt and levelled to
the ground. The Strath was dotted all over with black spots, showing
where yesterday stood the habitations of men. The scarred half-burned
wood--couples, rafters, cabars--were strewn about in every direction.
Stooks of corn and plots of unlifted potatoes could be seen on all
sides, but man was gone. No voice could be heard. Those who refused to
go aboard the _Sillery_ were in hiding among the rocks and the caves,
while their friends were packed off like so many African slaves to the
Cuban market.

No mercy was shown to those who refused to emigrate; their few articles
of furniture were thrown out of their houses after them--beds, chairs,
tables, pots, stoneware, clothing, in many cases, rolling down the
hill. What took years to erect and collect were destroyed and scattered
in a few minutes. “From house to house, from hut to hut, and from barn
to barn, the factor and his menials proceeded, carrying on the work of
demolition, until there was scarcely a human habitation left standing
in the district. Able-bodied men who, if the matter would rest with
a mere trial of physical force, would have bound the factor and his
party hand and foot, and sent them out of the district, stood aside
as dumb spectators. Women wrung their hands and cried aloud, children
ran to and fro dreadfully frightened; and while all this work of
demolition and destruction was going on no opposition was offered by
the inhabitants, no hand was lifted, no stone cast, no angry word was
spoken.” The few huts left undemolished were occupied by the paupers,
but before the factor left for the south even they were warned not
to give any shelter to the evicted, or their huts would assuredly
meet with the same fate. Eleven families, numbering in all over sixty
persons, mostly old and decrepit men and women, and helpless children,
were exposed that night, and many of them long afterwards, to the cold
air, without shelter of any description beyond what little they were
able to save out of the wreck of their burnt dwellings.

We feel unwilling to inflict pain on the reader by the recitation of
the untold cruelties perpetrated on the poor Highlanders of Knoydart,
but doing so may, perhaps, serve a good purpose. It may convince the
evil-doer that his work shall not be forgotten, and any who may be
disposed to follow the example of past evictors may hesitate before
they proceed to immortalise themselves in such a hateful manner. We
shall, therefore, quote a few cases from the pamphlet already referred
to:--

John Macdugald, aged about 50, with a wife and family, was a cottar,
and earned his subsistence chiefly by fishing. He was in bad health,
and had two of his sons in the hospital, at Elgin, ill of smallpox,
when the _Sillery_ was sent to convey the Knoydart people to Canada.
He refused to go on that occasion owing to the state of his health,
and his boys being at a distance under medical treatment. The factor
and the officers, however, arrived, turned Macdugald and his family
adrift, put their bits of furniture out on the field, and in a few
minutes levelled their house to the ground. The whole family had now
no shelter but the broad canopy of heaven. The mother and the youngest
of the children could not sleep owing to the cold, and the father, on
account of his sickness, kept wandering about all night near where his
helpless family lay down to repose. After the factor and the officers
left the district Macdugald and his wife went back to the ruins of
their house, collected some of the stones and turf into something like
walls, threw a few cabars across, covered them over with blankets,
old sails, and turf, and then, with their children, crept underneath,
trusting that they would be allowed, at least for a time, to take
shelter under this temporary covering. But, alas! they were doomed to
bitter disappointment. A week had not elapsed when the local manager,
accompanied by a _posse_ of officers and menials, traversed the country
and levelled to the ground every hut or shelter erected by the evicted
peasantry. Macdugald was at this time away from Knoydart; his wife
was at Inverie, distant about six miles, seeing a sick relative; the
oldest children were working at the shore; and in the hut, when the
manager came with the “levellers,” he found none of the family except
Lucy and Jane, the two youngest. The moment they saw the officers they
screamed and fled for their lives. The demolition of the shelter was
easily accomplished--it was but the work of two or three minutes; and,
this over, the officers and menials of the manager amused themselves
by seizing hold of chairs, stools, tables, spinning-wheels, or any
other light articles, by throwing them a considerable distance from the
hut. The mother, as I said, was at Inverie, distant about six or seven
miles, and Lucy and Jane proceeded in that direction hoping to meet
her. They had not gone far, however, when they missed the footpath and
wandered far out of the way. In the interval the mother returned from
Inverie and found the hut razed to the ground, her furniture scattered
far and near, her bedclothes lying under turf, clay, and _debris_, and
her children gone! Just imagine the feelings of this poor Highland
mother on the occasion! But, to proceed, the other children returned
from the shore, and they too stood aside, amazed and grieved at the
sudden destruction of their humble refuge, and at the absence of their
two little sisters. At first they thought they were under the ruins,
and creeping down on their knees they carefully removed every turf and
stone, but found nothing except a few broken dishes. A consultation
was now held and a search resolved upon. The mother, brother and
sisters set off in opposite directions, among the rocks, over hills,
through moor and moss, searching every place, and calling aloud for
them by name, but they could discover no trace of them. Night was now
approaching and with it all hopes of finding them, till next day, were
fast dying away. The mother was now returning “home” (alas! to what a
_home_), the shades of night closed in, and still she had about three
miles to travel. She made for the footpath, scrutinized every bush, and
looked round every rock and hillock, hoping to find them. Sometimes she
imagined that she saw her two lasses walking before her at some short
distance, but it was an illusion caused by bushes just about their
size. The moon now emerged from behind a cloud and spread its light on
the path and surrounding district. A sharp frost set in, and ice began
to form on the little pools. Passing near a rock and some bushes, where
the children of the tenants used to meet when herding the cattle, she
felt as if something beckoned her to search there; this she did, and
found her two little children fast asleep, beside a favourite bush, the
youngest with her head resting on the breast of the eldest! Their own
version of their mishap is this: that when they saw the officers they
crept out and ran in the direction of Inverie to tell their mother;
that they missed the footpath, then wandered about crying, and finally
returned, they knew not how, to their favourite herding ground, and
being completely exhausted, fell asleep. The mother took the young one
on her back, sent the other on before her, and soon joined her other
children near the ruins of their old dwelling. They put a few sticks up
to an old fence, placed a blanket over it, and slept on the bare ground
that night. Macdugald soon returned from his distant journey, found his
family shelterless, and again set about erecting some refuge for them
from the wreck of the old buildings. Again, however, the local manager
appeared with levellers, turned them all adrift, and in a few moments
pulled down and destroyed all that he had built up. Matters continued
in this way for a week or two until Macdugald’s health became serious,
and then a neighbouring farmer gave him and his family temporary
shelter in an out-house; and for this act of disinterested humanity
he has already received some most improper and threatening letters
from the managers on the estate of Knoydart. It is very likely that
in consequence of this interference Macdugald is again taking shelter
among the rocks or amid the wreck of his former residence.

John Mackinnon, a cottar, aged 44, with a wife and six children,
had his house pulled down, and had no place to put his head in,
consequently he and his family, for the first night or two, had to
burrow among the rocks near the shore! When he thought that the factor
and his party had left the district, he emerged from the rocks,
surveyed the ruins of his former dwelling, saw his furniture and other
effects exposed to the elements, and now scarcely worth the lifting.
The demolition was so complete that he considered it utterly impossible
to make any use of the ruins of the old house. The ruins of an old
chapel, however, were near at hand, and parts of the walls were still
standing; thither Mackinnon proceeded with his family, and having swept
away some rubbish and removed some grass and nettles, they placed a few
cabars up to one of the walls, spread some sails and blankets across,
brought in some meadow hay, and laid it in a corner for a bed, stuck a
piece of iron into the wall in another corner, on which they placed a
crook, then kindled a fire, washed some potatoes, and put a pot on the
fire, and boiled them, and when these and a few fish roasted on the
embers were ready, Mackinnon and his family had _one_ good diet, being
the first regular meal they tasted since the destruction of their house!

Mackinnon is a tall man, but poor and unhealthy-looking. His wife is
a poor weak women, evidently struggling with a diseased constitution
and dreadful trials. The boys, Ronald and Archibald, were lying in
“bed”--(may I call a “pickle” hay on the bare ground a bed?)--suffering
from rheumatism and cholic. The other children are apparently healthy
enough as yet, but very ragged. There is no door to their wretched
abode, consequently every breeze and gust that blow have free ingress
to the inmates. A savage from Terra-del-Fuego, or a Red Indian from
beyond the Rocky Mountains, would not exchange huts with these victims,
nor humanity with their persecutors. Mackinnon’s wife was pregnant
when she was turned out of her house among the rocks. In about four
days after she had a premature birth; and this and her exposure to
the elements, and the want of proper shelter and nutritious diet, has
brought on consumption from which there is no chance whatever of her
recovery.

There was something very solemn indeed in this scene. Here, amid the
ruins of the old sanctuary, where the swallows fluttered, where the
ivy tried to screen the grey moss-covered stones, where nettles and
grass grew up luxuriously, where the floor was damp, the walls sombre
and uninviting, where there were no doors nor windows, nor roof, and
where the owl, the bat, and the fox used to take refuge, a Christian
family was obliged to take shelter! One would think that as Mackinnon
took refuge amid the ruins of this most singular place, that he would
be let alone, that he would not any longer be molested by man. But,
alas! that was not to be. The manager of Knoydart and his minions
appeared, and invaded this helpless family, even within the walls of
the sanctuary. They pulled down the sticks and sails he set up within
its ruins--put his wife and children out on the cold shore--threw his
tables, stools, chairs, etc., over the walls--burnt up the hay on
which they slept--put out the fire, and then left the district. Four
times have these officers broken in upon poor Mackinnon in this way,
destroying his place of shelter, and sent him and his family adrift on
the cold coast of Knoydart. When I looked in upon these creatures last
week I found them in utter consternation, having just learned that the
officers would appear next day, and would again destroy the huts. The
children looked at me as if I had been a wolf; they crept behind their
father, and stared wildly, dreading I was a law officer. The sight was
most painful. The very idea that, in Christian Scotland, and in the
nineteenth century, these tender infants should be subjected to such
gross treatment reflects strongly upon our humanity and civilization.
Had they been suffering from the ravages of famine, or pestilence,
or war, I could understand it and account for it, but suffering to
gratify the ambition of some unfeeling spectator in brute beasts, I
think it most unwarranted, and deserving the emphatic condemnation of
every Christian man. Had Mackinnon been in arrears of rent, which he
was not, even this would not justify the harsh, cruel, and inhuman
conduct pursued towards himself and his family. No language of mine can
describe the condition of this poor family, exaggeration is impossible.
The ruins of an old chapel is the last place in the world to which a
poor Highlander would resort with his wife and children, unless he was
driven to it by dire necessity. Take another case, that of

Elizabeth Gillies, a widow, aged 60 years. This is a most lamentable
case. Neither age, sex, nor circumstance saved this poor creature from
the most wanton and cruel aggression. Her house was on the brow of a
hill, near a stream that formed the boundary between a large sheep farm
and the lands of the tenants of Knoydart. Widow Gillies was warned to
quit like the rest of the tenants, and was offered a passage first to
Australia and then to Canada, but she refused to go, saying she could
do nothing in Canada. The widow, however, made no promises, and the
factor went away. She had then a nice young daughter staying with her,
but ere the vessel that was to convey the Knoydart people away arrived
at Isle Ornsay, this young girl died, and poor Widow Gillies was left
alone. When the time for pulling down the houses arrived, it was hoped
that some mercy would have been shown to this poor, bereaved widow, but
there was none. Widow Gillies was sitting inside her house when the
factor and officers arrived. They ordered her to remove herself and
effects instantly, as they were, they said, to pull down the house!
She asked them where she would remove to; the factor would give no
answer, but continued insisting on her leaving the house. This she at
last positively refused. Two men then took hold of her, and tried to
pull her out by force, but she sat down beside the fire, and would
not move an inch. One of the assistants threw water on the fire and
extinguished it, and then joined the other two in forcibly removing
the poor widow from the house. At first she struggled hard, seized
hold of every post or stone within her reach, taking a death grasp of
each to keep possession. But the officers were too many and too cruel
for her. They struck her over the fingers, and compelled her to let go
her hold, and then all she could do was to greet and cry out murder!
She was ultimately thrust out at the door, from where she crept on her
hands and feet to a <DW18> side, being quite exhausted and panting for
breath, owing to her hard struggle with three powerful men. Whenever
they got her outside, the work of destruction immediately commenced.
Stools, chairs, tables, cupboard, spinning-wheel, bed, blankets, straw,
dishes, pots, and chest, were thrown out in the gutter. They broke
down the partitions, took down the crook from over the fire-place,
destroyed the hen roosts, and then beat the hens out through the broad
vent in the roof of the house. This done, they set to work on the walls
outside with picks and iron levers. They pulled down the thatch, cut
the couples, and in a few minutes the walls fell out, while the roof
fell in with a dismal crash!

When the factor and his party were done with this house, they proceeded
to another district, pulling down and destroying dwelling-places as
they went along. The shades of night at last closed in, and here was
the poor helpless widow sitting like a pelican, alone and cheerless.
Allan Macdonald, a cottar, whose house was also pulled down, ran across
the hill to see how the poor widow had been treated, and found her
moaning beside the <DW18>. He led her to where his own children had taken
shelter, treated her kindly, and did all he could to comfort her under
the circumstances.

When I visited Knoydart I found the poor widow at work, repairing
her shed, and such a shed, and such a dwelling, I never before
witnessed. The poor creature spoke remarkably well, and appeared to
me to be a very sensible woman. I expressed my sympathy for her,
and my disapprobation of the conduct of those who so unmercifully
treated her. She said it was indeed most ungrateful on the part of
the representatives of Glengarry to have treated her so cruelly--that
her predecessors were, from time immemorial, on the Glengarry
estates--that many of them died in defence of, or fighting for, the old
chieftains--and that they had always been true and faithful subjects.
I asked why she refused to go to Canada?

“For a very good reason,” she said, “I am now old, and not able to
clear a way in the forests of Canada; and, besides, I am unfit for
service; and, further, I am averse to leave my native country, and
rather than leave it, I would much prefer that my grave was opened
beside my dear daughter, although I should be buried alive!”

I do think she was sincere in what she said. Despair and anguish were
marked in her countenance, and her attachment to her old habitation and
its associations were so strong that I believe they can only be cut
asunder by death! I left her in this miserable shed which she occupied,
and I question much if there is another human residence like it in
Europe. The wig-wam of the wild Indian, or the cave of the Greenlander,
are palaces in comparison with it; and even the meanest dog-kennel
in England would be a thousand times more preferable as a place of
residence. If this poor Highland woman will stand it out all winter in
this abode it will be indeed a great wonder. The factor has issued an
_ukase_, which aggravates all these cases of eviction with peculiar
hardship; he has warned all and sundry on the Knoydart estates from
receiving or entertaining the evicted peasantry into their houses under
pain of removal.

Allan Macdonald, aged 54, a widower, with four children, was similarly
treated. Our informant says of him:--“When his late Majesty George IV.
visited Scotland in 1823, and when Highland lairds sent up to
Edinburgh specimens of the bone and sinew--human produce--of their
properties, old Glengarry took care to give Allan Macdonald a polite
invitation to this ‘Royal exhibition.’ Alas! how matters have so sadly
changed. Within the last 30 years _man_ has fallen off dreadfully in
the estimation of Highland proprietors. Commercially speaking, Allan
Macdonald has now no value at all. Had he been a roe, a deer, a sheep,
or a bullock, a Highland laird in speculating could estimate his
‘real’ worth to within a few shillings, but Allan is _only_ a man.
Then his children; they are of no value, nor taken into account in
the calculations of the sportsman. They cannot be shot at like hares,
blackcocks, or grouse, nor yet can they be sent south as game to feed
the London market.”

Another case is that of Archibald Macisaac, crofter, aged 66; wife 54,
with a family of ten children. Archibald’s house, byre, barn, and
stable were levelled to the ground. The furniture of the house was
thrown down the hill, and a general destruction then commenced. The
roof, fixtures, and woodwork were smashed to pieces, the walls razed to
the very foundation, and all that was left for poor Archibald to look
upon was a black dismal wreck. Twelve human beings were thus deprived
of their home in less than half-an-hour. It was grossly illegal to have
destroyed the barn, for, according even to the law of Scotland, the
outgoing or removing tenant is entitled to the use of the barn until
his crops are disposed of. But, of course, in a remote district, and
among simple and primitive people like the inhabitants of Knoydart, the
laws that concern them and define their rights are unknown to them.

Archibald had now to make the best shift he could. No mercy or favour
could be expected from the factor. Having convened his children beside
an old fence where he sat looking on when the destruction of his home
was accomplished, he addressed them on the peculiar nature of the
position in which they were placed, and the necessity of asking for
wisdom from above to guide them in any future action. His wife and
children wept, but the old man said, “Neither weeping nor reflection
will now avail; we must prepare some shelter.” The children collected
some cabars and turf, and in the hollow between two ditches, the old
man constructed a rude shelter for the night, and having kindled a fire
and gathered in his family, they all engaged in family worship and
sung psalms as usual. Next morning they examined the ruins, picked up
some broken pieces of furniture, dishes, etc., and then made another
addition to their shelter in the ditch. Matters went on this way for
about a week, when the local manager and his men came down upon them,
and after much abuse for daring to take shelters on the lands of
Knoydart, they destroyed the shelter and put old Archy and his people
again out on the hill.

I found Archibald and his numerous family still at Knoydart and in a
shelter beside the old ditch. Any residence more wretched or more
truly melancholy, I have never witnessed. A feal, or turf erection,
about 3 feet high, 4 feet broad, and about 5 feet long, was at the end
of the shelter, and this formed the sleeping place of the mother and
her five daughters! They creep in and out on their knees, and their bed
is just a layer of hay on the cold earth of the ditch! There is surely
monstrous cruelty in this treatment of British females, and the laws
that sanction or tolerate such flagrant and gross abuses are a disgrace
to the Statute book and to the country that permits it. Macisaac and
his family are, so far as I could learn, very decent, respectable, and
well-behaved people, and can we not perceive a monstrous injustice
in treating them worse than slaves because they refuse to allow
themselves to be packed off to the Colonies just like so many bales of
manufactured goods?

Again:--

Donald Maceachan, a cottar at Arar, married, with a wife, and five
children. This poor man, his wife, and children were fully twenty-three
nights without any shelter but the broad and blue heavens. They kindled
a fire, and prepared their food beside a rock, and then slept in the
open air. Just imagine the condition of this poor mother, Donald’s
wife, nursing a delicate child, and subjected to merciless storms of
wind and rain during a long October night. One of these melancholy
nights the blankets that covered them were frozen and white with frost.

The next case is as follows;--

Charles Macdonald, aged 70 years, a widower, having no family. This
poor man was also “keeled” for the Colonies, and, as he refused to go,
his house or cabin was levelled to the ground. What on earth could old
Charles do in America? Was there any mercy or humanity in offering
_him_ a free passage across the Atlantic? In England, Charles would
have been considered a proper object of parochial protection and
relief, but in Scotland no such relief is afforded except to “sick
folks” and tender infants. There can be no question, however, that
the factor looked forward to the period when Charles would become
chargeable as a pauper, and, acting as a “prudent man,” he resolved
to get quit of him at once. Three or four pounds would send the old
man across the Atlantic, but if he remained in Knoydart, it would
likely take four or five pounds to keep him each year that he lived.
When the factor and his party arrived at Charles’s door, they knocked
and demanded admission; the factor intimated his object, and ordered
the old man to quit. “As soon as I can,” said Charles, and, taking
up his plaid and staff and adjusting his blue bonnet, he walked out,
merely remarking to the factor that the man who could turn out an old,
inoffensive Highlander of seventy, from such a place, and at such a
season, could do a great deal more if the laws of the country permitted
him. Charles took to the rocks, and from that day to this he has never
gone near his old habitation. He has neither house nor home, but
receives occasional supplies of food from his evicted neighbours, _and
he sleeps on the hill!_ Poor old man, who would not pity him--who would
not share with him a crust or a covering--who?

Alexander Macdonald, aged 40 years, with a wife and family of four
children, had his house pulled down. His wife was pregnant; still the
levellers thrust her out, and then put the children out after her. The
husband argued, remonstrated, and protested, but it was all in vain;
for in a few minutes all he had for his (to him once comfortable) home
was a lot of rubbish, blackened rafters, and heaps of stones. The
levellers laughed at him and at his protests, and when their work was
over, moved away, leaving him to find refuge the best way he could.
Alexander had, like the rest of his evicted brethren, to burrow among
the rocks and in caves until he put up a temporary shelter amid the
wreck of his old habitation, but from which he was repeatedly driven
away. For three days Alexander Macdonald’s wife lay sick beside a bush,
where, owing to terror and exposure to cold, she had a miscarriage. She
was then removed to the shelter of the walls of her former house, and
for three days she lay so ill that her life was despaired of. These are
facts as to which I challenge contradiction. I have not inserted them
without the most satisfactory evidence of their accuracy.

Catherine Mackinnon, aged about 50 years, unmarried; Peggy Mackinnon,
aged about 48 years, unmarried; and Catherine Macphee (a half-sister
of the two Mackinnons), also unmarried; occupied one house. Catherine
Mackinnon was for a long time sick, and she was confined to bed when
the factor and his party came to beat down the house. At first they
requested her to get up and walk out, but her sisters said she could
not, as she was so unwell. They answered, “Oh, she is scheming;” the
sisters said she was not, that she had been ill for a considerable
time, and the sick woman herself, who then feebly spoke, said she was
quite unfit to be removed, but if God spared her and bestowed upon her
better health that she would remove of her own accord. This would not
suffice; _they forced her out of bed, sick as she was, and left her
beside a ditch from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m._, when, afraid that she would
die, as she was seriously unwell, they removed her to a house and
provided her with cordials and warm clothing. Let the reader imagine
the sufferings of this poor female, so ruthlessly torn from a bed of
sickness and laid down beside a cold ditch and there left exposed for
seven long hours, and then say if such conduct does not loudly call
for the condemnation of every lover of human liberty and humanity.
Peggy and her half-sister Macphee are still burrowing among the ruins
of their old home. When I left Knoydart last week there were no hope
whatever of Catherine Mackinnon’s recovery.

I challenge the factor to contradict one sentence in this short
narrative of the poor females. The melancholy truth of it is too
palpable, too well-known in the district to admit of even a tenable
explanation. Nothing can palliate or excuse such gross inhumanity,
and it is but right and proper that British Christians should be made
aware of such unchristian conduct--such cruelty towards helpless
fellow-creatures in sickness and distress.

The last case, at present, is that of

Duncan Robertson, aged 35 years, with wife aged 32 years, and a family
of three children. Very poor; the oldest boy is deformed and weak
in mind and body, requiring almost the constant care of one of his
parents. Robertson was warned out like the rest of the tenants, and
decree of removal was obtained against him. At the levelling time the
factor came up with his men before Robertson’s door, and ordered the
inmates out. Robertson pleaded for mercy on account of his sick and
imbecile boy, but the factor appeared at first inexorable; at last he
sent in one of the officers to see the boy, who, on his return, said
that the boy was really and truly an object of pity. The factor said
he could not help it, that he must pull down. Some pieces of furniture
were then thrown out, and the picks were fixed in the walls, when
Robertson’s wife ran out and implored delay, asking the factor, for
heaven’s sake, to come in and see her sick child. He replied, “I am
sure I am no doctor.” “I know that,” she said, “but God might have
given you Christian feelings and bowels of compassion notwithstanding.”
“Bring him out here,” said the factor; and the poor mother ran to the
bed and brought out her sick boy in her arms. When the factor saw him,
he admitted that he was an object of pity, but warned Robertson that
he must quit Knoydart as soon as possible, so that his house would be
pulled down about his ears. The levellers peep in once a week to see if
the boy is getting better, so that the house may be razed.

We could give additional particulars of the cruelties which had to be
endured by the poor wretches who remained--cruelties which would never
be tolerated in any other civilized country than Britain, and which in
Britain would secure instant and severe punishment if inflicted on a
dog or a pig, but the record would only inflict further pain, and we
have said enough.

Retribution has overtaken the evictors, and is it a wonder that the
chiefs of Glengarry are now as little known, and own as little of their
ancient domains in the Highlands as their devoted clansmen? There
is now scarcely one of the name of Macdonald in the wide district
once inhabited by thousands. It is a huge wilderness in which barely
anything is met but wild animals and sheep, and the few keepers and
shepherds necessary to take care of them.


STRATHGLASS.

BY ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.

It has been shown, under “Glengarry,” that a chief’s widow, during her
son’s minority, was responsible for the Knoydart evictions in 1853.
Another chief’s widow, _Marsali Bhinneach_--Marjory, daughter of Sir
Ludovick Grant of Dalvey, widow of Duncan Macdonnell of Glengarry, who
died in 1788--gave the whole of Glencruaich as a sheep farm to one
south country shepherd, and to make room for him she evicted over 500
people from their ancient homes. The late Edward Ellice stated before
a Committee of the House of Commons, in 1873, that about the time of
the rebellion in 1745, the population of Glengarry amounted to between
5000 and 6000. At the same time the glen turned out an able-bodied
warrior in support of Prince Charles for every pound of rental paid
to the proprietor. To-day it is questionable if the same district
could turn out twenty men--certainly not that number of Macdonalds.
The bad example of this heartless woman was unfortunately imitated
afterwards by her daughter Elizabeth, who, in 1795, married William
Chisholm of Chisholm, and to whose evil influence may be traced the
great eviction which, in 1801, cleared Strathglass almost to a man of
its ancient inhabitants. The Chisholm was delicate, and often in bad
health, so that the management of the estate fell into the hands of
his strong-minded and hard-hearted wife. In 1801, no less than 799
took ship at Fort William and Isle Martin from Strathglass, the Aird,
Glen Urquhart, and the neighbouring districts, all for Pictou, Nova
Scotia; while in the following year, 473 from the same district left
Fort William, for Upper Canada, and 128 for Pictou. Five hundred and
fifty went aboard another ship at Knoydart, many of whom were from
Strathglass. In 1803, four different batches of 120 souls each, by
four different ships, left Strathglass, also for Pictou; while not a
few went away with emigrants from other parts of the Highlands. During
these three years we find that no less than 5390 were driven out of
these Highland glens, and it will be seen that a very large portion of
them were evicted from Strathglass by the daughter of the notorious
_Marsali Bhinneach_. From among the living cargo of one of the vessels
which sailed from Fort William no less than fifty-three souls died,
on the way out, of an epidemic; and, on the arrival of the living
portion of the cargo at Pictou, they were shut in on a narrow point
of land, from whence they were not allowed to communicate with any of
their friends who had gone before them, for fear of communicating the
contagion. Here they suffered indescribable hardships.

By a peculiar arrangement between the Chisholm who died in 1793, and
his wife, a considerable portion of the people were saved for a time
from the ruthless conduct of _Marsali Bhinneach’s_ daughter and her
co-adjutors. Alexander Chisholm married Elizabeth, daughter of a Dr.
Wilson, in Edinburgh. He made provision for his wife in case of her
outliving him, by which it was left optional with her to take a stated
sum annually, or the rental of certain townships, or club farms. Her
husband died in 1793, when the estate reverted to his half-brother,
William, and the widow, on the advice of her only child, Mary, who,
afterwards became Mrs. James Gooden of London, made choice of the joint
farms, instead of the sum of money named in her marriage settlement;
and though great efforts were made by _Marsali Bhinneach’s_ daughter
and her friends, the widow, Mrs. Alexander Chisholm, kept the farms in
her own hands, and took great pleasure in seeing a prosperous tenantry
in these townships, while all their neighbours were heartlessly driven
away. Not one of her tenants were disturbed or interfered with in any
way from the death of her husband, in February 1793, until her own
death in January, 1826, when, unfortunately for them, their farms all
came into the hands of the young heir (whose sickly father died in
1817), and his cruel mother. For a few years the tenants were left
in possession, but only waiting an opportunity to make a complete
clearance of the whole Strath. Some had a few years of their leases to
run on other parts of the property, and could not just then be expelled.

In 1830 every man who held land on the property was requested to meet
his chief at the local inn of Cannich. They all obeyed, and were there
at the appointed time, but no chief came to meet them. The factor soon
turned up, however, and informed them that the laird had determined to
enter into no negotiation or any new arrangements with them that day.
They were all in good circumstances, without any arrears of rent, but
were practically banished from their homes in the most inconsiderate
and cruel manner, and it afterwards became known that their farms
had been secretly let to sheep farmers from the south, without the
knowledge of the native population in possession.

Mr. Colin Chisholm, who was present at the meeting at Cannich,
writes:--“I leave you to imagine the bitter grief and disappointment
of men who attended with glowing hopes in the morning, but had to
tell their families and dependents in the evening that they could see
no alternative before them but the emigrant ship, and choose between
the scorching prairies of Australia and the icy regions of North
America.” It did not, however, come to that. The late Lord Lovat,
hearing of the harsh proceedings, proposed to one of the large sheep
farmers on his neighbouring property to give up his farm, his lordship
offering to give full value for his stock, so that he might divide
it among those evicted from the Chisholm estate. This arrangement
was amicably carried through, and at the next Whitsunday--1831--the
evicted tenants from Strathglass came into possession of the large
sheep farm of Glenstrathfarrar, and paid over to the late tenant of
the farm every farthing of the value set upon the stock by two of the
leading valuators in the country; a fact which conclusively proved
that the Strathglass tenants were quite capable of holding their own,
and perfectly able to meet all claims that could be made upon them by
their old proprietor and unnatural chief. They became very comfortable
in their new homes; but about fifteen years after their eviction from
Strathglass they were again removed to make room for deer. On this
occasion the late Lord Lovat gave them similar holdings on other
portions of his property, and the sons and grandsons of the evicted
tenants of Strathglass are now, on the Lovat property, among the most
respectable and comfortable middle-class farmers in the county.

The result of the Strathglass evictions was that only two of the
ancient native stock remained in possession of an inch of land on the
estate of Chisholm. When the present Chisholm came into possession he
found, on his return from Canada, only that small remnant of his own
name and clan to receive him. He brought back a few Chisholms from the
Lovat property, and re-established on his old farm a tenant who had
been evicted nineteen years before from the holding in which his father
and grandfather died. The great-grandfather was killed at Culloden,
having been shot while carrying his commander, young Chisholm,
mortally wounded, from the field. The gratitude of that chief’s
successors had been shown by his ruthless eviction from the ancient
home of his ancestors; but it is gratifying to find the present chief
making some reparation by bringing back and liberally supporting the
representatives of such a devoted follower of his forbears. The present
Chisholm, who has the character of being a good landlord, is descended
from a distant collateral branch of the family. The evicting Chisholms,
and their offspring have, however, every one of them, disappeared,
and Mr. Colin Chisholm informs us that there is not a human being
now in Strathglass of the descendants of the chief, or of the south
country farmers, who were the chief instruments in evicting the native
population.

To give the reader an idea of the class of men who occupied this
district, it may be stated that of the descendants of those who lived
in Glen Canaich, one of several smaller glens, at one time thickly
populated in the Strath, but now a perfect wilderness--there lived in
the present generation, no less than three colonels, one major, three
captains, three lieutenants, seven ensigns, one bishop, and fifteen
priests.

Earlier in the history of Strathglass and towards the end of last
century, an attempt was made by south country sheep farmers to persuade
Alexander Chisholm to follow the example of Glengarry, by clearing out
the whole native population. Four southerners, among them Gillespie,
who took the farm of Glencruaich, cleared by Glengarry, called upon
the Chisholm, at Comar, and tried hard to convince him of the many
advantages which would accrue to him by the eviction of his tenantry,
and turning the largest and best portions of his estate into great
sheep walks, for which they offered to pay him large rents. His
daughter, Mary, already referred to as Mrs. James Gooden, was then in
her teens. She heard the arguments used, and having mildly expressed
her objection to the heartless proposal of the greedy southerners, she
was ordered out of the room, crying bitterly. She, however, found her
way to the kitchen, called all the servants together, and explained
the cause of her trouble. The object of the guests at Comar was soon
circulated through the Strath, and early the following morning over
a thousand men met together in front of Comar House, and demanded an
interview with their chief. This was at once granted, and the whole
body of the people remonstrated with him for entertaining, even for a
moment, the cruel proceedings suggested by the strangers, whose conduct
the frightened natives characterised as infinitely worse than that of
the freebooting Lochaber men who, centuries before, came with their
swords and other instruments of death to rob his ancestors of their
patrimony, but who were defeated and driven out of the district by
the ancestors of those whom it was now proposed to evict out of their
native Strath, to make room for the greedy freebooters of modern times
and their sheep. The chief counselled quietness, and suggested that the
action they had taken might be construed as an act of inhospitality to
his guests, not characteristic, in any circumstances, of a Highland
chief.

The sheep farmers who stood inside the open drawing-room window,
heard all that had passed, and, seeing the unexpected turn events were
taking, and the desperate resolve shown by the objects of their cruel
purpose, they adopted the better part of valour, slipped quietly out
by the back door, mounted their horses, galloped away as fast as their
steeds could carry them, and crossed the river Glass among the hooting
and derision of the assembled tenantry, heard until they crossed the
hill which separates Strathglass from Corriemony. The result of the
interview with their laird was a complete understanding between him and
his tenants; and the flying horsemen, looking behind them for the first
time when they reached the top of the Maol Bhuidhe, saw the assembled
tenantry forming a procession in front of Comar House, with pipers at
their head, and the Chisholm being carried, mounted shoulder-high,
by his stalwart vassals, on their way to Invercannich. The pleasant
outcome of the whole was that chief and clan expressed renewed
confidence in each other, a determination to continue in future in the
same happy relationship, and to maintain, each on his part, all modern
and ancient bonds of fealty ever entered into by their respective
ancestors.

This, in fact, turned out to be one of the happiest days that ever
dawned on the glen. The people were left unmolested so long as
this Chisholm survived--a fact which shows the wisdom of chief and
people meeting face to face, and refusing to permit others whether
greedy outsiders or selfish factors--to come and foment mischief and
misunderstanding between parties whose interests are so closely bound
together, and who, if they met and discussed their differences, would
seldom or ever have any disagreements of a serious character. Worse
counsel prevailed after Alexander’s death, and the result under the
cruel daughter of the notorious _Marsali Bhinneach_, has been already
described.

Reference has been made to the clearance of Glenstrathfarrar by the
late Lord Lovat, but for the people removed from there and other
portions of the Lovat property, he allotted lands in various other
places on his own estates, so that, although these changes were most
injurious to his tenants, his lordship’s proceedings can hardly be
called evictions in the ordinary sense of the term. His predecessor,
Archibald Fraser of Lovat, however, evicted, like the Chisholms,
hundreds from the Lovat estates.


GUISACHAN.

BY ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.

The modern clearances which took place within the last quarter of
a century in Guisachan, Strathglass, by Sir Dudley Marjoribanks,
have been described in all their phases before a Committee of the
House of Commons in 1872. The Inspector of Poor for the parish of
Kiltarlity wrote a letter which was brought before the Committee, with
a statement from another source that, “in 1855, there were 16 farmers
on the estate; the number of cows they had was 62, and horses, 24; the
principal farmer had 2000 sheep, the next 1000, and the rest between
them 1200, giving a total of 4200. Now (1873) there is but one farmer,
and he leaves at Whitsunday; all these farmers lost the holdings on
which they ever lived in competency; indeed, it is well known that some
of them were able to lay by some money. They have been sent to the four
quarters of the globe, or to vegetate in Sir Dudley’s dandy cottages at
Tomich, made more for show than convenience, where they have to depend
on his employment or charity. To prove that all this is true, take at
random, the smith, the shoemaker, or the tailor, and say whether the
poverty and starvation were then or now? For instance, under the old
_régime_, the smith farmed a piece of land which supplied the wants
of his family with meal and potatoes; he had two cows, a horse, and a
score or two of sheep on the hill; he paid £7 of yearly rent; he now
has nothing but the bare walls of his cottage and smithy, for which
he pays £10. Of course he had his trade then as he has now. Will he
live more comfortably now than he did then?” It was stated, at the
same time, that, when Sir Dudley Marjoribanks bought the property,
there was a population of 255 souls upon it, and Sir Dudley, in his
examination, though he threw some doubt upon that statement, was quite
unable to refute it. The proprietor, on being asked, said that he did
not evict any of the people. But Mr. Macombie having said, “Then the
tenants went away of their own free will,” Sir Dudley replied, “I must
not say so quite. I told them that when they had found other places to
go to, I wished to have their farms.”

They were, in point of fact, evicted as much as any others of the
ancient tenantry in the Highlands, though it is but fair to say that
the same harsh cruelty was not applied in their case as in many of the
others recorded in these pages. Those who had been allowed to remain in
the new cottages, are without cow or sheep, or an inch of land, while
those alive of those sent off are spread over the wide world, like
those sent, as already described, from other places.


GLENELG.

BY ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.

In 1849 more than 500 souls left Glenelg. These petitioned the
proprietor, Mr. Baillie of Dochfour, to provide means of existence for
them at home by means of reclamation and improvements in the district,
or, failing this, to help them to emigrate. Mr. Baillie, after repeated
communications, made choice of the latter alternative, and suggested
that a local committee should be appointed to procure and supply him
with information as to the number of families willing to emigrate,
their circumstances, and the amount of aid necessary to enable them to
do so. This was done, and it was intimated to the proprietor that a sum
of £3000 would be required to land those willing to emigrate at Quebec.
This sum included passage money, free rations, a month’s sustenance
after the arrival of the party in Canada, and some clothing for the
more destitute. Ultimately, the proprietor offered the sum of £2000,
while the Highland Destitution Committee promised £500. A great deal
of misunderstanding occurred before the _Liscard_ finally sailed, in
consequence of misrepresentations made as to the food to be supplied on
board, while there were loud protests against sending the people away
without any medical man in charge. Through the activity and generous
sympathy of the late Mr. Stewart of Ensay, then tenant of Ellanreach,
on the Glenelg property, who took the side of the people, matters were
soon rectified. A doctor was secured, and the people satisfied as to
the rations to be served out to them during the passage, though these
did not come up to one-half what was originally promised. On the whole,
Mr. Baillie behaved liberally, but, considering the suitability of the
beautiful valley of Glenelg for arable and food-producing purposes, it
is to be regretted that he did not decide upon utilizing the labour
of the natives in bringing the district into a state of cultivation,
rather than have paid so much to banish them to a foreign land. That
they would themselves have preferred this is beyond question.

Mr. Mulock, father of the author of “John Halifax, Gentleman,” an
Englishman who could not be charged with any preconceived prejudices
or partiality for the Highlanders, travelled at this period through
the whole North, and ultimately published an account of what he had
seen. Regarding the Glenelg business, he says, as to their willingness
to emigrate:--“To suppose that numerous families would as a matter
of choice sever themselves from their loved soil, abolish all the
associations of local and patriotic sentiment, fling to the winds every
endearing recollection connected with the sojourneying spot of vanished
generations, and blot themselves, as it were, out of the book of
‘home-born happiness,’ is an hypothesis too unnatural to be encouraged
by any sober, well-regulated mind.” To satisfy himself, he called forty
to fifty heads of families together at Glenelg, who had signed an
agreement to emigrate, but who did not find room in the _Liscard_, and
were left behind, after selling off everything they possessed, and were
consequently reduced to a state of starvation. “I asked,” he says,
“these poor perfidiously treated creatures if, notwithstanding all
their hardships, they were willing emigrants from their native land.
With one voice they assured me that nothing short of the impossibility
of obtaining land or employment at home could drive them to seek the
doubtful benefits of a foreign shore. So far from the emigration
being, at Glenelg, or Lochalsh, or South Uist, a spontaneous movement
springing out of the wishes of the tenantry, I aver it to be, on the
contrary, the product of desperation, the calamitous light of hopeless
oppression visiting their sad hearts.” We have no hesitation in saying
that this is not only true of those to whom Mr. Mulock specially
refers, but to almost every soul who have left the Highlands for the
last sixty years. Only those who know the people intimately, and the
means adopted by factors, clergy, and others to produce an appearance
of spontaneity on the part of the helpless tenantry, can understand the
extent to which this statement is true. If a judicious system had been
applied of cultivating excellent land, capable of producing food in
abundance, in Glenelg, there was not another property in the Highlands
on which it was less necessary to send the people away than in that
beautiful and fertile valley.


GLENDESSERAY AND LOCHARKAIG

Great numbers were evicted from the Cameron country of Lochaber,
especially from Glendesseray and Locharkaig side. Indeed it is said
that there were so few Camerons left in the district, that not a
single tenant of the name attended the banquet given by the tenantry
when the late Lochiel came into possession. The details of Cameron
evictions would be found pretty much the same as those in other places,
except that an attempt has been made in this case to hold the factor
entirely and solely responsible for the removal of this noble people,
so renowned in the martial history of the country. That is a question,
however, which it is no part of our present purpose to discuss. What
we wish to expose is the unrighteous system which allowed such cruel
proceedings to take place here and elsewhere, by landlord or factor.




THE HEBRIDES.


BY ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.

The people of Skye and the Uist, where the Macdonalds for centuries
ruled in the manner of princes over a loyal and devoted people, were
treated not a whit better than those on the mainland, when their
services were no longer required to fight the battles of the Lords of
the Isles, or to secure to them their possessions, their dignity, and
power. _Bha latha eile ann!_ There was another day! When possessions
were held by the sword, those who wielded them were highly valued, and
well cared for. Now that sheep skins are found sufficient, what could
be more appropriate in the opinion of some of the sheepish chiefs of
modern times than to displace the people who anciently secured and held
the lands for real chiefs worthy of the name, and replace them by the
animals that produced the modern sheep skins by which they hold their
lands; especially when these were found to be better titles than the
old ones--the blood and sinew of their ancient vassals.

Prior to 1849, the manufacture of kelp in the Outer Hebrides had been
for many years a large source of income to the proprietors of those
islands, and a considerable revenue to the inhabitants; the lairds, in
consequence, for many years encouraged the people to remain, and it is
alleged that they multiplied to a degree quite out of proportion to
the means of subsistence within reach when kelp manufacture failed.
To make matters worse for the poor tenants, the rents were meanwhile
raised by the proprietors to more than double--not because the land
was considered worth more by itself, but because the possession of it
enabled the poor tenants to earn a certain sum a year from kelp made
out of the sea-ware to which their holdings entitled them, and out of
which the proprietor pocketed a profit of from £3 to £4 per ton, in
addition to the enhanced rent obtained from the crofter for the land.
In these circumstances one would have thought that some consideration
would have been shown to the people, who, it may perhaps be admitted,
were found in the altered circumstances too numerous to obtain a
livelihood in those islands; but such consideration does not appear to
have been given--indeed the very reverse.


NORTH UIST.

In 1849 Lord Macdonald determined to evict between 600 and 700
persons from Sollas, in North Uist, of which he was then proprietor.
They were at the time in a state of great misery from the failure of
the potato crop for several years previously in succession, many of
them having had to work for ninety-six hours a week for a pittance
of two stones of Indian meal once a fortnight. Sometimes even that
miserable dole was not forthcoming, and families had to live for weeks
solely on shell-fish picked up on the sea-shore. Some of the men were
employed on drainage works, for which public money was advanced to
the proprietors; but here, as in most other places throughout the
Highlands, the money earned was applied by the factors to wipe off
old arrears, while the people were permitted generally to starve.
His lordship having decided that they must go, notices of ejectment
were served upon them, to take effect on the 15th of May, 1849. They
asked for delay, to enable them to dispose of their cattle and other
effects to the best advantage at the summer markets, and offered to
work meanwhile making kelp, on terms which would prove remunerative
to the proprietors, if only, in the altered circumstances, they might
get their crofts on equitable terms--for their value, as such--apart
from the kelp manufacture, on account of which the rents had previously
been raised. Their petitions were ignored. No answers were received,
while at the same time they were directed to sow as much corn and
potatoes as they could during that spring, and for which, they were
told, they would be fully compensated, whatever happened. They sold
much of their effects to procure seed, and continued to work and
sow up to and even after the 15th of May. They then began to cut
their peats as usual, thinking they were after all to be allowed to
get the benefit. They were, however, soon disappointed--their goods
were hypothecated. Many of them were turned out of their houses,
the doors locked, and everything they possessed--cattle, crops, and
peats--seized. Even their bits of furniture were thrown out of doors in
the manner which had long become the fashion in such cases. The season
was too far advanced--towards the end of July--to start for Canada.
Before they could arrive there the cold winter would be upon them,
without means or money to provide against it. They naturally rebelled,
and the principal Sheriff-Substitute, Colquhoun, with his officers and
a strong body of police left Inverness for North Uist, to eject them
from their homes. Naturally unwilling to proceed to extremes, on the
arrival of the steamer at Armadale, they sent a messenger ashore to ask
for instructions to guide them in case of resistance, or if possible
to obtain a modification of his lordship’s views. Lord Macdonald had
no instructions to give, but referred the Sheriff to Mr. Cooper, his
factor, whose answer was that the whole population of Sollas would
be subject to eviction if they did not at once agree to emigrate.
A few men were arrested who obstructed the evictors on a previous
occasion. They were marched off to Lochmaddy by the police. The work of
destruction soon commenced. At first no opposition was made by the poor
people. An eye-witness, whose sympathies were believed to be favourable
to the proprietor, describes some of the proceedings as follows:--

“In evicting Macpherson, the first case taken up, no opposition to the
law officers was made. In two or three minutes the few articles of
furniture he possessed--a bench, a chair, a broken chair, a barrel, a
bag of wool, and two or three small articles, which comprised his whole
household of goods and gear--were turned out to the door, and his bothy
left roofless. The wife of the prisoner Macphail (one of those taken
to Lochmaddy on the previous day) was the next evicted. Her domestic
plenishing was of the simplest character--its greatest, and by far its
most valuable part, being three small children, dressed in nothing more
than a single coat of coarse blanketing, who played about her knee,
while the poor woman, herself half-clothed, with her face bathed in
tears, and holding an infant in her arms, assured the Sheriff that she
and her children were totally destitute and without food of any kind.
The Sheriff at once sent for the Inspector of Poor, and ordered him to
place the woman and her family on the poor’s roll.”

The next house was occupied by very old and infirm people, whom the
Sheriff positively refused to evict. He also refused to eject eight
other families where an irregularity was discovered by him in the
notices served upon them. The next family ejected led to the almost
solitary instance hitherto in the history of Highland evictions where
the people made anything like real resistance. This man was a crofter
and weaver, having a wife and nine children to provide for. At this
stage a crowd of men and women gathered on an eminence a little
distance from the house, and gave the first indications of a hostile
intention by raising shouts, as the police advanced to help in the
work of demolition, accompanied by about a dozen men who came to their
assistance in unroofing the houses from the other end of the island.
The crowd, exasperated at the conduct of their own neighbours, threw
some stones at the latter. The police were then drawn up in two lines.
The furniture was thrown outside, the web was cut of the loom, and
the terrified woman rushed to the door with a infant in her arms,
exclaiming in a passionate and wailing voice--“Tha mo chlann air a
bhi’ air a muirt” (My children are to be murdered). The crowd became
excited, stones were thrown at the officers, their assistants were
driven from the roof of the house, and they had to retire behind the
police for shelter. Volleys of stones and other missiles followed. The
police charged in two divisions. There were some cuts and bruises on
both sides. The work of demolition was then allowed to go on without
further opposition from the crowd.

Several heart-rending scenes followed, but we shall only give a
description of the last which took place on that occasion, and which
brought about a little delay in the cruel work. In one case it was
found necessary to remove the women out of the house by force. “One of
them threw herself upon the ground and fell into hysterics, uttering
the most doleful sounds, and barking and yelling like a dog for about
ten minutes. Another, with many tears, sobs, and groans put up a
petition to the Sheriff that they would leave the roof over part of her
house, where she had a loom with cloth in it, which she was weaving;
and a third woman, the eldest of the family, made an attack with a
stick on an officer, and, missing him, she sprang upon him, and knocked
off his hat. So violently did this old woman conduct herself that two
stout policemen had great difficulty in carrying her outside the door.
The excitement was again getting so strong that the factor, seeing
the determination of the people, and finding that if he continued and
took their crops away from those who would not leave, even when their
houses were pulled down about their ears, they would have to be fed and
maintained at the expense of the parish during the forthcoming winter,
relaxed and agreed to allow them to occupy their houses until next
spring, if the heads of families undertook and signed an agreement to
emigrate any time next year, from the 1st of February to the end of
June. Some agreed to these conditions, but the majority declined; and,
in the circumstances, the people were permitted to go back to their
unroofed and ruined homes for a few months longer. Their cattle were,
however, mostly taken possession of, and applied to the reduction of
old arrears.”

Four of the men were afterwards charged with deforcing the officers,
and sentenced at Inverness Court of Justiciary each to four months’
imprisonment. The following year the district was completely and
mercilessly cleared of all its remaining inhabitants, numbering 603
souls.[18]

[18] A very full account of these proceedings, written on the spot,
appeared at the time in the _Inverness Courier_, to which we are
indebted for the above facts.

The Sollas evictions did not satisfy the evicting craze which his
lordship afterwards so bitterly regretted. In 1851-53, he, or rather
his trustee, determined to evict the people from the villages of


BORERAIG AND SUISINISH, ISLE OF SKYE.

His lordship’s position in regard to the proceedings was most
unfortunate. Donald Ross, writing as an eye-witness of these evictions,
says--

“Some years ago Lord Macdonald incurred debts on his property to
the extent of £200,000 sterling, and his lands being entailed, his
creditors could not dispose of them, but they placed a trustee over
them in order to intercept certain portions of the rent in payment of
the debt. Lord Macdonald, of course, continues to have an interest
and a surveillance over the property in the matter of removals, the
letting of the fishings and shootings, and the general improvement
of his estates. The trustee and the local factor under him have no
particular interest in the property, nor in the people thereon, beyond
collecting their quota of the rents for the creditors; consequently
the property is mismanaged, and the crofter and cottar population are
greatly neglected. The tenants of Suisinish and Boreraig were the
descendants of a long line of peasantry on the Macdonald estates, and
were remarkable for their patience, loyalty, and general good conduct.”

The only plea made at the time for evicting them was that of
over-population. Ten families received the usual summonses, and
passages were secured for them in the _Hercules_, an unfortunate ship
which sailed with a cargo of passengers under the auspices of a body
calling itself “The Highland and Island Emigration Society.” A deadly
fever broke out among the passengers, the ship was detained at Cork in
consequence, and a large number of the passengers died of the epidemic.
After the sad fate of so many of those previously cleared out, in
the ill-fated ship, it was generally thought that some compassion
would be shown for those who had been still permitted to remain. Not
so, however. On the 4th of April, 1853, they were all warned out of
their holdings. They petitioned and pleaded with his lordship to no
purpose. They were ordered to remove their cattle from the pasture,
and themselves from their houses and lands. They again petitioned
his lordship for his merciful consideration. For a time no reply was
forthcoming. Subsequently, however, they were informed that they would
get land on another part of the estate--portions of a barren moor,
quite unfit for cultivation.

In the middle of September following, Lord Macdonald’s ground officer,
with a body of constables, arrived, and at once proceeded to eject in
the most heartless manner the whole population, numbering thirty-two
families, and that at a period when the able-bodied male members of
the families were away from home trying to earn something by which to
pay their rents, and help to carry their families through the coming
winter. In spite of the wailing of the helpless women and children,
the cruel work was proceeded with as rapidly as possible, and without
the slightest apparent compunction. The furniture was thrown out in
what had now become the orthodox fashion. The aged and infirm, some
of them so frail that they could not move, were pushed or carried
out. “The scene was truly heart-rending. The women and children went
about tearing their hair, and rending the heavens with their cries.
Mothers with tender infants at the breast looked helplessly on, while
their effects and their aged and infirm relatives, were cast out, and
the doors of their houses locked in their faces.” The young children,
poor, helpless, little creatures, gathered in groups, gave vent to
their feelings in loud and bitter wailings. “No mercy was shown to
age or sex, all were indiscriminately thrust out and left to perish
on the hills.” Untold cruelties were perpetrated on this occasion on
the helpless creatures during the absence of their husbands and other
principal bread-winners.

Donald Ross in his pamphlet, “Real Scottish Grievances,” published in
1854, and who not only was an eye-witness, but generously supplied the
people with a great quantity of food and clothing, describes several
of the cases. I can only find room here, however, for his first.

Flora Robertson or Matheson, a widow, aged ninety-six years, then
residing with her son, Alexander Matheson, who had a small lot of
land in Suisinish. Her son was a widower, with four children; and
shortly before the time for evicting the people arrived, he went away
to labour at harvest in the south, taking his oldest boy with him.
The grandmother and the other three children were left in the house.
“When the evicting officers and factor arrived, the poor old woman
was sitting on a couch outside the house. The day being fine, her
grandchildren lifted her out of her bed and brought her to the door.
She was very frail; and it would have gladdened any heart to have seen
how the two youngest of her grandchildren helped her along; how they
seated her where there was most shelter; and then, how they brought her
some clothing and clad her, and endeavoured to make her comfortable.
The gratitude of the old woman was unbounded at these little acts of
kindness and compassion; and the poor children, on the other hand,
felt highly pleased at finding their services so well appreciated. The
sun was shining beautifully, the air was refreshing, the gentle breeze
wafted across the hills, and, mollified by passing over the waters of
Loch Slapin, brought great relief and vigour to poor old Flora. Often
with eyes directed towards heaven, and with uplifted hands, did she
invoke the blessings of the God of Jacob on the young children who were
ministering so faithfully to her bodily wants.

Nothing could exceed the beauty of the scene. The sea was glittering
with millions of little waves and globules, and looked like a lake of
silver, gently agitated. The hills, with the heather in full bloom,
and with the wild flowers in their beauty, had assumed all the colours
of the rainbow, and were most pleasant to the eye to look upon. The
crops of corn in the neighbourhood were beginning to get yellow for the
harvest; the small patches of potatoes were under flower, and promised
well; the sheep and cattle, as if tired of feeding, had lain down to
rest on the face of the hills; and the dogs, as if satisfied their
services were not required for a time, chose for themselves pleasant,
well-sheltered spots and lay basking at full length in the sun. Even
the little boats on the loch, though their sails were spread, made no
progress, but lay at rest, reflecting their own tiny shadows on the
bosom of the deep and still waters. The scene was most enchanting; and,
although old Flora’s eyes were getting dim with age, she looked on the
objects before her with great delight. Her grandchildren brought her
a cup of warm milk and some bread from a neighbour’s house, and tried
to feed her as if she had been a pet bird; but the old woman could
not take much, although she was greatly invigorated by the change of
air. Nature seemed to take repose. A white fleecy cloud now and then
ascended, but the sun soon dispelled it; thin wreaths of cottage smoke
went up and along, but there was no wind to move them, and they floated
on the air; and, indeed, with the exception of a stream which passed
near the house, and made a continuous noise in its progress over rocks
and stones, there was nothing above or around to disturb the eye or the
ear for one moment. While the old woman was thus enjoying the benefit
of the fresh air, admiring the beauty of the landscape, and just when
the poor children had entered the house to prepare a frugal meal for
themselves, and their aged charge, a sudden barking of dogs gave signal
intimation of the approach of strangers. The native inquisitiveness of
the young ones was immediately set on edge, and off they set across the
fields, and over fences, after the dogs. They soon returned, however,
with horror depicted in their countenances; they had a fearful tale to
unfold. The furniture and other effects of their nearest neighbours,
just across the hill, they saw thrown out; they heard the children
screaming, and they saw the factor’s men putting bars and locks on the
doors. This was enough. The heart of the old woman, so recently revived
and invigorated, was now like to break within her. What was she to
do? What could she do? Absolutely nothing! The poor children, in the
plenitude of their knowledge of the humanity of lords and factors,
thought that if they could only get their aged grannie inside before
the evicting officers arrived, that would be safe,--as no one, they
thought, would interfere with an old creature of ninety-six, especially
when her son was not there to take charge of her; and, acting upon this
supposition, they began to remove their grandmother into the house. The
officers, however, arrived before they could get this accomplished; and
in place of letting the old woman in, they threw out before the door
every article that was inside the house, and then they placed large
bars and padlocks on the door! The grandchildren were horror-struck at
this procedure--and no wonder. Here they were, shut out of house and
home, their father and elder brother several hundred miles away from
them, their mother dead, and their grandmother, now aged, frail, and
unable to move, sitting before them, quite unfit to help herself,--and
with no other shelter than the broad canopy of heaven. Here, then, was
a crisis, a predicament, that would have twisted the strongest nerve
and tried the stoutest heart and healthiest frame,--with nothing but
helpless infancy and old age and infirmities to meet it. We cannot
comprehend the feelings of the poor children on this occasion; and
cannot find language sufficiently strong to express condemnation of
those who rendered them houseless. Shall we call them savages? That
would be paying them too high a compliment, for among savages conduct
such as theirs is unknown. But let us proceed. After the grandchildren
had cried until they were hoarse, and after their little eyes had
emptied themselves of the tears which anguish, sorrow, and terror had
accumulated within them, and when they had exhausted their strength in
the general wail, along with the other children of the district, as
house after house was swept of its furniture, the inmates evicted, and
the doors locked,--they returned to their poor old grandmother, and
began to exchange sorrows and consolations with her. But what could the
poor children do? The shades of evening were closing in, and the air,
which at mid-day was fresh and balmy, was now cold and freezing. The
neighbours were all locked out, and could give no shelter, and the
old woman was unable to travel to where lodgings for the night could
be got. What were they to do? We may rest satisfied that their minds
were fully occupied with their unfortunate condition, and that they had
serious consultations as to future action. The first consideration,
however, was shelter for the first night, and a sheep-cot being near,
the children prepared to remove the old woman to it. True, it was small
and damp, and it had no door, no fire-place, no window, no bed,--but
then, it was better than exposure to the night air; and this they
represented to their grandmother, backing it with all the other little
bits of arguments they could advance, and with professions of sincere
attachment which, coming from such a quarter, and at such a period,
gladdened her old heart. There was a difficulty, however, which they
at first overlooked. The grandmother could not walk, and the distance
was some hundreds of yards, and they could get no assistance, for all
the neighbours were similarly situated, and were weeping and wailing
for the distress which had come upon them. Here was a dilemma; but the
children helped the poor woman to creep along, sometimes she walked a
few yards, at other times she crawled on her hands and knees, and in
this way, and most materially aided by her grandchildren, she at last
reached the cot.

The sheep-cot was a most wretched habitation, quite unfit for human
beings, yet here the widow was compelled to remain until the month of
December following. When her son came home from the harvest in the
south, he was amazed at the treatment his aged mother and his children
had received. He was then in good health; but in a few weeks the cold
and damp of the sheep-cot had a most deadly effect upon his health, for
he was seized with violent cramps, then with cough; at last his limbs
and body swelled, and then he died! When dead, his corpse lay across
the floor, his feet at the opposite wall, and his head being at the
door, the wind waved his long black hair to and fro until he was placed
in his coffin.

The inspector of poor, who, be it remembered, was ground officer to
Lord Macdonald, and also acted as the chief officer in the evictions,
at last appeared, and removed the old woman to another house; not,
however, until he was threatened with a prosecution for neglect of
duty. The grandchildren were also removed from the sheep-cot, for they
were ill; Peggy and William were seriously so, but Sandy, although ill,
could walk a little. The inspector for the poor gave the children,
during their illness, only 14 lbs. of meal and 3 lbs. of rice, as
aliment for three weeks, and nothing else. To the grandmother he
allowed two shillings and sixpence per month, but made no provision for
fuel, lodgings, nutritious diet, or cordials--all of which this old
woman much required.

When I visited the house where old Flora Matheson and her grandchildren
reside, I found her lying on a miserable pallet of straw, which, with
a few rags of clothing, are on the bare floor. She is reduced to a
skeleton, and from her own statement to me, in presence of witnesses,
coupled with other inquiries and examinations, I have no hesitation in
declaring that she was then actually starving. She had no nourishment,
no cordials, nothing whatever in the way of food but a few wet potatoes
and two or three shell-fish. The picture she presented, as she lay on
her wretched pallet of black rags and brown straw, with her mutch as
black as soot, and her long arms thrown across, with nothing on them
but the skin, was a most lamentable one--and one that reflects the
deepest discredit on the parochial authorities of Strath. There was
no one to attend to the wants or infirmities of this aged pauper but
her grandchild, a young girl, ten years of age. Surely in a country
boasting of its humanity, liberty, and Christianity, such conduct
should not be any longer tolerated in dealing with the infirm and
helpless poor. The pittance of 2s. 6d. a month is but a mockery of
the claims of this old woman; it is insulting to the commonsense and
every-day experience of people of feeling, and it is a shameful evasion
of the law. But for accidental charity, and that from a distance, Widow
Matheson would long ere this have perished of starvation.

Three men were afterwards charged with deforcing the officers of the
law before the Court of Justiciary at Inverness. They were first
imprisoned at Portree, and afterwards marched on foot to Inverness, a
distance of over a hundred miles, where they arrived two days before
the date of their trial. The factor and sheriff-officers came in their
conveyances, at the public expense, and lived right royally, never
dreaming but they would obtain a victory, and get the three men sent
to the Penitentiary, to wear hoddy, break stones, or pick oakum for at
least twelve months. The accused, through the influence of charitable
friends, secured the services of Mr. Rennie, solicitor, Inverness, who
was able to show to the jury the unfounded and farcical nature of the
charges made against them. His eloquent and able address to the jury in
their behalf was irresistible, and we cannot better explain the nature
of the proceedings than by quoting it in part from the report given of
it, at the time, in the _Inverness Advertiser_:--

“Before proceeding to comment on the evidence in this case, he would
call attention to its general features. It was one of a fearful series
of ejectments now being carried through in the Highlands; and it really
became a matter of serious reflection, how far the pound of flesh
allowed by law was to be permitted to be extracted from the bodies of
the Highlanders. Here were thirty-two families, averaging four members
each, or from 130 to 150 in all, driven out from their houses and
happy homes, and for what? For a tenant who, he believed, was not yet
found. But it was the will of Lord Macdonald and of Messrs. Brown and
Ballingal, that they should be ejected; and the civil law having failed
them, the criminal law with all its terrors, is called in to overwhelm
these unhappy people. But, thank God, it has come before a jury--before
you, who are sworn to return, and will return, an impartial verdict;
and which verdict will, I trust, be one that will stamp out with
ignominy the cruel actors in it. The Duke of Newcastle had querulously
asked, ‘Could he not do as he liked with his own?’ but a greater man
had answered, that ‘property had its duties as well as its rights,’
and the concurrent opinion of an admiring age testified to this truth.
Had the factor here done his duty? No! He had driven the miserable
inhabitants out to the barren heaths and wet mosses. He had come with
the force of the civil power to dispossess them, and make way for
sheep and cattle. But had he provided adequate refuge? The evictions
in Knoydart, which had lately occupied the attention of the press and
all thinking men, were cruel enough; but there a refuge was provided
for a portion of the evicted, and ships for their conveyance to a
distant land. Would such a state of matters be tolerated in a country
where a single spark of Highland spirit existed? No! Their verdict
that day would proclaim, over the length and breadth of the land, an
indignant denial. Approaching the present case more minutely, he would
observe that the prosecutor, by deleting from this libel the charge
of obstruction, which was passive, had cut away the ground from under
his feet. The remaining charge of deforcement being active, pushing,
shoving, or striking, was essential. But he would ask, What was the
character of the village, and the household of Macinnes? There were
mutual remonstrances; but was force used? The only things the officer,
Macdonald, seized were carried out. A spade and creel were talked of
as being taken from him, but in this he was unsupported. The charge
against the panel, Macinnes, only applied to what took place inside
his house. As to the other panels, John Macrae was merely present. He
had a right to be there; but he touched neither man nor thing, and he
at any rate must be acquitted. Even with regard to Duncan Macrae, the
evidence _quoad_ him was contemptible. According to Allison, in order
to constitute the crime of deforcement, there must be such violence
as to intimidate a person of ordinary firmness of character. Now,
there was no violence here, they did not even speak aloud, they merely
stood in the door; that might be obstruction, it was certainly not
deforcement. Had Macdonald, who it appeared combined in his single
person the triple offices of sheriff-officer, ground-officer, and
inspector of poor, known anything of his business, and gone about it
in a proper and regular manner, the present case would never have been
heard of. As an instance of his irregularity, whilst his execution of
deforcement bore that he read his warrants, he by his own mouth, stated
that he only read part of them. Something was attempted to be made of
the fact of Duncan Macrae seizing one of the constables and pulling him
away; but this was done in a good-natured manner, and the constable
admitted he feared no violence. In short, it would be a farce to call
this a case of deforcement. As to the general character of the panels,
it was unreproached and irreproachable, and their behaviour on that day
was their best certificate.”

The jury immediately returned a verdict of “Not guilty,” and the poor
Skyemen were dismissed from the bar, amid the cheers of an Inverness
crowd. The families of these men were at the next Christmas evicted in
the most spiteful and cruel manner, delicate mothers, half-dressed,
and recently-born infants, having been pushed out into the drifting
snow. Their few bits of furniture, blankets and other clothing lay
for days under the snow, while they found shelter themselves as best
they could in broken-down, dilapidated out-houses and barns. These
latter proceedings were afterwards found to have been illegal, the
original summonses, on which the second proceedings were taken,
having been exhausted in the previous evictions, when the Macinneses
and the Macraes were unsuccessfully charged with deforcing the
sheriff-officers. The proceedings were universally condemned by every
right-thinking person who knew the district, as quite uncalled for,
most unjustifiable and improper, as well as for “the reckless cruelty
and inhumanity with which they were carried through.” Yet, the factor
issued a circular in defence of such horrid work in which he coolly
informed the public that these evictions were “prompted by motives of
benevolence, piety, and humanity,” and that the cause for them all
was “because they (the people) were too far from Church.” Oh God!
what crimes have been committed in Thy name, and in that of religion!
Preserve us from such piety and humanity as were exhibited by Lord
Macdonald and his factor on this and other occasions.


A CONTRAST.

Before leaving Skye, it will be interesting to see the difference of
opinion which existed among the chiefs regarding the eviction of the
people at this period and a century earlier. We have just seen what
a Lord Macdonald has done in the present century, little more than
thirty years ago. Let us compare his proceedings and feelings to those
of his ancestor, in 1739, a century earlier. In that year a certain
Norman Macleod managed to get some islanders to emigrate, and it was
feared that Government would hold Sir Alexander Macdonald of Sleat
responsible, as he was reported to have encouraged Macleod.

The baronet being from home, his wife, Lady Margaret, wrote to Lord
Justice-Clerk Milton on the 1st of January, 1740, pleading with him
to use all his influence against a prosecution of her husband, which,
“tho’ it cannot be dangerouse to him, yett it cannot faill of being
both troublesome and expensive.” She begins her letter by stating
that she was informed “by different hands from Edinburgh that there
is a currant report of a ship’s haveing gone from thiss country with
a greate many people designed for America, and that Sir Alexander is
thought to have concurred in forceing these people away.” She then
declares the charge against her husband to be “a falsehood,” but she
“is quite acquainted with the danger of a report” of that nature.
Instead of Sir Alexander being a party to the proceedings of this
“Norman Macleod, with a number of fellows that he had picked up execute
his intentions,” he “was both angry and concern’d to hear that some of
his oune people were taken in thiss affair.”

What a contrast between the sentiments here expressed and those which
carried out the modern evictions! And yet it is well-known that, in
other respects no more humane man ever lived than he who was nominally
responsible for the cruelties in Skye and at Sollas. He allowed
himself to be imposed upon by others, and completely abdicated his
high functions as landlord and chief of his people. We have the most
conclusive testimony and assurance from one who knew his lordship
intimately, that, to his dying day, he never ceased to regret what had
been done in his name, and at the time, with his tacit approval, in
Skye and in North Uist.


SOUTH UIST AND BARRA.

Napoleon Bonaparte, at one time, took 500 prisoners and was unable to
provide food for them. Let them go he would not, though he saw that
they would perish by famine. His ideas of mercy suggested to him to
have them all shot. They were by his orders formed into a square, and
2000 French muskets with ball cartridge was simultaneously levelled at
them, which soon put the disarmed mass of human beings out of pain.
Donald Macleod refers to this painful act as follows:--

“All the Christian nations of Europe were horrified, every breast was
full of indignation at the perpetrator of this horrible tragedy, and
France wept bitterly for the manner in which the tender mercies of
their wicked Emperor were exhibited. Ah! but guilty Christians, you
Protestant law-making Britain, tremble when you look towards the great
day of retribution. Under the protection of your law, Colonel Gordon
has consigned 1500 men, women, and children, to a death a hundred-fold
more agonising and horrifying. With the sanction of your law he
(Colonel Gordon) and his predecessors, in imitation of his Grace the
Duke of Sutherland and his predecessors, removed the people from the
land created by God, suitable for cultivation, and for the use of man,
and put it under brute animals; and threw the people upon bye-corners,
precipices, and barren moors, there exacting exorbitant rack-rents,
until the people were made penniless, so that they could neither
leave the place nor better their condition in it. The potato-blight
blasted their last hopes of retaining life upon the unproductive
patches--hence they became clamourous for food. Their distress was made
known through the public press; public meetings were held, and it was
managed by some known knaves to saddle the God of providence with the
whole misery--a job in which many of God’s professing and well-paid
servants took a very active part. The generous public responded;
immense sums of money were placed in the hands of Government agents and
other individuals, to save the people from death by famine on British
soil.

“Colonel Gordon and his worthy allies were silent contributors, though
terrified. The gallant gentleman solicited Government, through the
Home Secretary, to purchase the Island of Barra for a penal colony,
but it would not suit. Yet our humane Government sympathised with the
Colonel and his coadjutors, and consulted the honourable and brave
MacNeil, the chief pauper gauger of Scotland, upon the most effective
and speediest scheme to relieve the gallant Colonel and colleagues
from this clamour and eye-sore, as well as to save their pockets
from able-bodied paupers. The result was, that a liberal grant from
the public money, which had been granted a twelve-month before for
the purpose of improving and cultivating the Highlands, was made to
Highland proprietors to assist them to drain the nation of its best
blood, and to banish the Highlanders across the Atlantic, there to
die by famine among strangers in the frozen regions of Canada, far
from British sympathy, and far from the resting-place of their brave
ancestors, though the idea of mingling with kindred dust, to the
Highlanders, is a consolation at death, more than any other race of
people I have known or read of under heaven.

“Oh! Christian people, Christian people, Christian fathers and mothers,
who are living at ease, and never experienced such treatment and
concomitant sufferings; you Christian rulers, Christian electors, and
representatives, permit not Christianity to blush and hide her face
with shame before heathenism and idolatry any longer. I speak with
reverence when I say, permit not Mahomet Ali to deride our Saviour
with the conduct of His followers--allow not demons to exclaim in the
face of heaven, ‘What can you expect of us, when Christians, thy chosen
people, are guilty of such deeds of inhumanity to their own species?’

“Come, then, for the sake of neglected humanity and prostrated
Christianity, and look at this helpless, unfortunate people; place
yourselves for a moment in their hopeless condition at their
embarkation, decoyed, in the name of the British Government, by false
promises of assistance, to procure homes and comforts in Canada,
which were denied to them at home--decoyed, I say, to an unwilling
and partial consent--and those who resisted or recoiled from this
conditional consent, and who fled to the caves and mountains to
hide themselves from the brigands, look at them, chased and caught
by policemen, constables, and other underlings of Colonel Gordon,
handcuffed, it is said, and huddled together with the rest on an
emigrant vessel. Hear the sobbing, sighing, and throbbings of
their guileless, warm Highland hearts, taking their last look, and
bidding a final adieu to their romantic mountains and valleys, the
fertile straths, dales, and glens, which their forefathers from time
immemorial inhabited, and where they are now lying in undisturbed and
everlasting repose, in spots endeared and sacred to the memory of
their unfortunate offspring, who must now bid a mournful farewell to
their early associations, which were as dear and as sacred to them
as their very existence, and which had hitherto made them patient in
suffering. But follow them on their six weeks’ dreary passage, rolling
upon the mountainous billows of the Atlantic, ill-fed, ill-clad,
among sickness, disease, and excrements. Then come ashore with them
where death is in store for them--hear the captain giving orders to
discharge the cargo of live stock--see the confusion, hear the noise,
the bitter weeping and bustle; hear mothers and children asking fathers
and husbands, where are we going? hear the reply, ‘chan eil fios
againn’--we know not; see them in groups in search of the Government
Agent, who, they were told, was to give them money; look at their
despairing countenances when they come to learn that no agent in Canada
is authorised to give them a penny; hear them praying the captain to
bring them back that they might die among their native hills, that
their ashes might mingle with those of their forefathers; hear this
request refused, and the poor helpless wanderers bidding adieu to the
captain and crew, who showed them all the kindness they could, and to
the vessel to which they formed something like an attachment during
the voyage; look at them scantily clothed, destitute of food, without
implements of husbandry, consigned to their fate, carrying their
children on their backs, begging as they crawl along in a strange land,
unqualified to beg or buy their food for want of English, until the
slow moving and mournful company reach Toronto and Hamilton, in Upper
Canada, where, according to all accounts, they spread themselves over
their respective burying-places, where famine and frost-bitten deaths
were awaiting them.

“This is a painful picture, the English language fails to supply me
with words to describe it. I wish the spectrum would depart from me to
those who could describe it and tell the result. But how can Colonel
Gordon, the Duke of Sutherland, James Loch, Lord Macdonald, and others
of the unhallowed league and abettors, after looking at this sight,
remain in Christian communion, ruling elders in Christian Churches,
and partake of the emblems of Christ’s body broken and shed blood?
But the great question is, Can we as a nation be guiltless and allow
so many of our fellow creatures to be treated in such a manner, and
not exert ourselves to put a stop to it and punish the perpetrators?
Is ambition, which attempted to dethrone God, become omnipotent, or
so powerful, when incarnated in the shape of Highland dukes, lords,
esquires, colonels, and knights, that we must needs submit to its
revolting deeds? Are parchment rights of property so sacred that
thousands of human beings must be sacrificed year after year, till
there is no end of such, to preserve them inviolate? Are sheep walks,
deer forests, hunting parks, and game preserves, so beneficial to the
nation that the Highlands must be converted into a hunting desert, and
the aborigines banished and murdered? I know that thousands will answer
in the negative; yet they will fold their arms in criminal apathy until
the extirpation and destruction of my race shall be completed. Fearful
is the catalogue of those who have already become the victims of the
cursed clearing system in the Highlands, by famine, fire, drowning,
banishment, vice, and crime.”

He then publishes the following communication from an eye-witness, on
the enormities perpetrated in South Uist and in the Island of Barra in
the summer of 1851:--

“The unfeeling and deceitful conduct of those acting for Colonel Gordon
cannot be too strongly censured. The duplicity and art which was used
by them in order to entrap the unwary natives, is worthy of the craft
and cunning of an old slave-trader. Many of the poor people were told
in my hearing that Sir John M’Neil would be in Canada before them,
where he would have every necessary prepared for them. Some of the
officials signed a document binding themselves to emigrate, in order
to induce the poor people to give their names; but in spite of all
these stratagems, many of the people saw through them and refused out
and out to go. When the transports anchored in Loch Boisdale these
tyrants threw off their masks, and the work of devastation and cruelty
commenced. The poor people were commanded to attend a public meeting
at Loch Boisdale, where the transports lay, and, according to the
intimation, any one absenting himself from the meeting was to be fined
in the sum of two pounds sterling. At this meeting some of the natives
were seized and, in spite of their entreaties, sent on board the
transports. One stout Highlander, named Angus Johnston, resisted with
such pith that they had to handcuff him before he could be mastered;
but in consequence of the priest’s interference his manacles were
removed, and he was marched between four officers on board the emigrant
vessel. One morning, during the transporting season, we were suddenly
awakened by the screams of a young female who had been re-captured
in an adjoining house, she having escaped after her first capture.
We all rushed to the door, and saw the broken-hearted creature, with
dishevelled hair and swollen face, dragged away by two constables and
a ground officer. Were you to see the racing and chasing of policemen,
constables, and ground officers, pursuing the outlawed natives, you
would think, only for their colour, that you had been, by some miracle,
transported to the banks of the Gambia, on the slave coast of Africa.

“The conduct of the Rev. H. Beatson on that occasion is deserving of
the censure of every feeling heart. This ‘wolf in sheeps’ clothing’
made himself very officious, as he always does, when he has an
opportunity of oppressing the poor Barra men, and of gaining the favour
of Colonel Gordon. In fact, he is the most vigilant and assiduous
officer Colonel Gordon has. He may be seen in Castle Bay, the principal
anchorage in Barra, whenever a sail is hoisted, directing his men,
like a gamekeeper with his hounds, in case any of the doomed Barra men
should escape. He offered one day to board an Arran boat, that had a
poor man concealed, but the master, John Crawford, lifted a hand-spike
and threatened to split the skull of the first man who would attempt to
board his boat, and thus the poor Barra man escaped their clutches.

“I may state in conclusion that, two girls, daughters of John
Macdougall, brother of Barr Macdougall, whose name is mentioned in Sir
John M’Neil’s report, have fled to the mountains to elude the grasp
of the expatriators, where they still are, if in life. Their father,
a frail, old man, along with the rest of the family, has been sent to
Canada. The respective ages of these girls are 12 and 14 years. Others
have fled in the same way, but I cannot give their names just now.”[19]

[19] See Note B in Appendices.

We shall now take the reader after these people to Canada, and witness
their deplorable and helpless condition and privations in a strange
land. The following is extracted from a Quebec newspaper:--

“We noticed in our last the deplorable condition of the 600 paupers
who were sent to this country from the Kilrush Unions. We have to-day
a still more dismal picture to draw. Many of our readers may not be
aware that there lives such a personage as Colonel Gordon, proprietor
of large estates in South Uist and Barra, in the Highlands of Scotland.
We are sorry to be obliged to introduce him to their notice under
circumstances which will not give them a very favourable opinion of his
character and heart.

“It appears that his tenants on the above-mentioned estates were on
the verge of starvation, and had probably become an eye-sore to the
gallant Colonel! He decided on shipping them to America. What they were
to do there was a question he never put to his conscience. Once landed
in Canada, he had no further concern about them. Up to last week, some
1100 souls from his estates had landed at Quebec, and begged their way
to Upper Canada; when in the summer season, having only a daily morsel
of food to procure, they probably escaped the extreme misery which
seems to be the lot of those who followed them.

“On their arrival here, they voluntarily made and signed the following
statement:--‘We, the undersigned passengers per _Admiral_, from
Stornoway, in the Highlands of Scotland, do solemnly depose to the
following facts:--That Colonel Gordon is proprietor of estates in South
Uist and Barra; that among many hundreds of tenants and cottars whom
he has sent this season from his estates to Canada, he gave directions
to his factor, Mr. Fleming of Cluny Castle, Aberdeenshire, to ship on
board of the above-named vessel a number of nearly 450 of said tenants
and cottars, from the estate in Barra; that, accordingly, a great
majority of these people, among whom were the undersigned, proceeded
voluntarily to embark on board the _Admiral_, at Loch Boisdale, on
or about the 11th August, 1851; but that several of the people who
were intended to be shipped for this port, Quebec, refused to proceed
on board, and, in fact, absconded from their homes to avoid the
embarkation. Whereupon Mr. Fleming gave orders to a policeman, who
was accompanied by the ground officer of the estate in Barra, and
some constables, to pursue the people, who had run away, among the
mountains; which they did, and succeeded in capturing about twenty from
the mountains and islands in the neighbourhood; but only came with the
officers on an attempt being made to handcuff them; and that some who
ran away were not brought back, in consequence of which four families
at least have been divided, some having come in the ships to Quebec,
while the other members of the same families are left in the Highlands.

“‘The undersigned further declare that those who voluntarily embarked
did so under promises to the effect that Colonel Gordon would defray
their passage to Quebec; that the Government Emigration Agent there
would send the whole party free to Upper Canada, where, on arrival, the
Government agents would give them work, and furthermore, grant them
land on certain conditions.

“‘The undersigned finally declare, that they are now landed in Quebec
so destitute, that if immediate relief be not afforded them, and
continued until they are settled in employment, the whole will be
liable to perish with want.’

  (Signed) “HECTOR LAMONT,
            and 70 others.

“This is a beautiful picture! Had the scene been laid in Russia or
Turkey, the barbarity of the proceeding would have shocked the nerves
of the reader; but when it happens in Britain, emphatically the land
of liberty, where every man’s house, even the hut of the poorest, is
said to be his castle, the expulsion of these unfortunate creatures
from their homes--the man-hunt with policemen and bailiffs--the violent
separation of families--the parent torn from the child, the mother
from her daughter, the infamous trickery practised on those who did
embark--the abandonment of the aged, the infirm, women, and tender
children, in a foreign land--forms a tableau which cannot be dwelt on
for an instant without horror. Words cannot depict the atrocity of the
deed. For cruelty less savage, the slave-dealers of the South have been
held up to the execration of the world.

“And if, as men, the sufferings of these our fellow-creatures find
sympathy in our hearts, as Canadians their wrongs concern us more
dearly. The fifteen hundred souls whom Colonel Gordon has sent to
Quebec this season have all been supported for the past week, at least,
and conveyed to Upper Canada at the expense of the colony; and on their
arrival in Toronto and Hamilton the greater number have been dependent
on the charity of the benevolent for a morsel of bread. Four hundred
are in the river at present, and will arrive in a day or two, making a
total of nearly 2000 of Colonel Gordon’s tenants and cottars whom the
province will have to support. The winter is at hand, work is becoming
scarce in Upper Canada. Where are these people to find food?”[20]

[20] _Quebec Times._

We take the following from an Upper Canadian paper describing the
position of the same people after finding their way to Ontario:--

“We have been pained beyond measure for some time past to witness
in our streets so many unfortunate Highland emigrants, apparently
destitute of any means of subsistence, and many of them sick from
want and other attendant causes. It was pitiful the other day to view
a funeral of one of these wretched people. It was, indeed, a sad
procession. The coffin was constructed of the rudest material; a few
rough boards nailed together was all that could be afforded to convey
to its last resting-place the body of the homeless emigrant. Children
followed in the mournful train; perchance they followed a brother’s
bier, one with whom they had sported and played for many a healthful
day among their native glens. Theirs were looks of indescribable
sorrow. They were in rags; their mourning weeds were the shapeless
fragments of what had once been clothes. There was a mother, too, among
the mourners, one who had tended the departed with anxious care in
infancy, and had doubtless looked forward to a happier future in this
land of plenty. The anguish of her countenance told too plainly these
hopes were blasted, and she was about to bury them in the grave of her
child.

“There will be many to sound the fulsome noise of flattery in the
ear of the generous landlord, who had spent so much to assist the
emigration of his poor tenants. They will give him the misnomer of
a _benefactor_, and for what? Because he has rid his estates of the
encumbrance of a pauper population.

“Emigrants of the poorer class who arrive here from the Western
Highlands of Scotland are often so situated that their emigration is
more cruel than banishment. Their last shilling is spent probably
before they reach the upper province--they are reduced to the necessity
of begging. But, again, the case of those emigrants of whom we speak is
rendered more deplorable from their ignorance of the English tongue. Of
the hundreds of Highlanders in and around Dundas at present, perhaps
not half-a-dozen understand anything but Gaelic.

“In looking at these matters, we are impressed with the conviction
that, so far from emigration being a panacea for Highland destitution,
it is fraught with disasters of no ordinary magnitude to the emigrant
whose previous habits, under the most favourable circumstances, render
him unable to take advantage of the industry of Canada, even when
brought hither free of expense. We may assist these poor creatures for
a time, but charity will scarcely bide the hungry cravings of so many
for a very long period. Winter is approaching, and then--but we leave
this painful subject for the present.[21]”

[21] _Dundas Warder_, 2nd October, 1851.


THE ISLAND OF RUM.

This island, at one time, had a large population, all of whom were
weeded out in the usual way. The Rev. Donald Maclean, Minister of the
Parish of Small Isles, informs us in _The New Statistical Account_,
that “in 1826 all the inhabitants of the Island of Rum, amounting at
least to 400 souls, found it necessary to leave their native land,
and to seek for new abodes in the distant wilds of our colonies in
America. Of all the old residenters, only one family remained upon
the Island. The old and the young, the feeble and the strong, were
all united in this general emigration--the former to find tombs in a
foreign land--the latter to encounter toils, privations, and dangers,
to become familiar with customs, and to acquire that to which they had
been entire strangers. A similar emigration took place in 1828, from
the Island of Muck, so that the parish has now become much depopulated.”

In 1831 the population of the whole parish was 1015, while before that
date it was much larger. In 1851 it was 916. In 1881 it was reduced to
550. The total population of Rum in 1881 was 89 souls.

Hugh Miller, who visited the Island, describes it and the evictions
thus:--

“The evening was clear, calm, golden-tinted; even wild heaths and rude
rocks had assumed a flush of transient beauty; and the emerald-green
patches on the hill-sides, barred by the plough lengthwise, diagonally,
and transverse, had borrowed an aspect of soft and velvety richness,
from the mellowed light and the broadening shadows. All was solitary.
We could see among the deserted fields the grass-grown foundations
of cottages razed to the ground; but the valley, more desolate than
that which we had left, had not even its single inhabited dwelling;
it seemed as if man had done with it for ever. The island, eighteen
years before, had been divested of its inhabitants, amounting at the
time to rather more than four hundred souls, to make way for one sheep
farmer and eight thousand sheep. All the aborigines of Rum crossed the
Atlantic; and, at the close of 1828, the entire population consisted
of but the sheep farmer, and a few shepherds, his servants: the Island
of Rum reckoned up scarce a single family at this period for every
five square miles of area which it contained. But depopulation on so
extreme a scale was found inconvenient; the place had been rendered
too thoroughly a desert for the comfort of the occupant; and on the
occasion of a clearing which took place shortly after in Skye, he
accommodated some ten or twelve of the ejected families with sites
for cottages, and pasturage for a few cows, on the bit of morass
beside Loch Scresort, on which I had seen their humble dwellings. But
the whole of the once-peopled interior remains a wilderness, without
inhabitants,--all the more lonely in its aspect from the circumstance
that the solitary valleys, with their plough-furrowed patches, and
their ruined heaps of stone, open upon shores every whit as solitary as
themselves, and that the wide untrodden sea stretches drearily around.

“The armies of the insect world were sporting in the light this evening
by the million; a brown stream that runs through the valley yielded
an incessant poppling sound, from the myriads of fish that were
ceaselessly leaping in the pools, beguiled by the quick glancing wings
of green and gold that fluttered over them; along a distant hillside
there ran what seemed the ruins of a grey-stone fence, erected, says
tradition, in a remote age to facilitate the hunting of the deer; there
were fields on which the heath and moss of the surrounding moorlands
were fast encroaching, that had borne many a successive harvest; and
prostrate cottages, that had been the scenes of christenings, and
bridals, and blythe new-year’s days;--all seemed to bespeak the place
of fitting habitation for man, in which not only the necessaries, but
also a few of the luxuries of life, might be procured; but in the
entire prospect not a man nor a man’s dwelling could the eye command.
The landscape was one without figures.

“I do not much like extermination carried out so thoroughly and on
system;--it seems bad policy; and I have not succeeded in thinking any
the better of it though assured by the economists that there are more
than enough people in Scotland still. There are, I believe, more than
enough in our workhouses--more than enough on our pauper rolls--more
than enough muddled up, disreputable, useless, and unhappy, in their
miasmatic valleys and typhoid courts of our large towns; but I have
yet to learn how arguments for local depopulation are to be drawn
from facts such as these. A brave and hardy people, favourably placed
for the development of all that is excellent in human nature, form
the glory and strength of a country;--a people sunk into an abyss
of degradation and misery, and in which it is the whole tendency of
external circumstances to sink them yet deeper, constitute its weakness
and its shame; and I cannot quite see on what principle the ominous
increase which is taking place among us in the worse class, is to form
our solace or apology for the wholesale expatriation of the better.

“It did not seem as if the depopulation of Rum had tended much to
anyone’s advantage. The single sheep farmer who had occupied the
holdings of so many had been unfortunate in his speculations, and had
left the island; the proprietor, his landlord, seemed to have been
as little fortunate as the tenant, for the island itself was in the
market, and a report went current at the time that it was on the eve of
being purchased by some wealthy Englishman, who purposed converting it
into a deer forest.

“How strange a cycle! Uninhabited originally, save by wild animals,
it became at an early period a home of men, who, as the gray wall on
the hillside testified, derived in part at least, their sustenance
from the chase. They broke in from the waste the furrowed patches on
the <DW72>s of the valleys,--they reared herds of cattle and flocks of
sheep,--their number increased to nearly five hundred souls,--they
enjoyed the average happiness of human creatures in the present
imperfect state of being,--they contributed their portion of hardy and
vigorous manhood to the armies of the country, and a few of their more
adventurous spirits, impatient of the narrow bounds which confined
them, and a course of life little varied by incident, emigrated to
America. Then came the change of system so general in the Highlands;
and the island lost all its original inhabitants, on a wool and mutton
speculation,--inhabitants, the descendants of men who had chased the
deer on its hills five hundred years before, and who, though they
recognized some wild island lord as their superior, and did him
service, had regarded the place as indisputably their own. And now yet
another change was on the eve of ensuing, and the island was to return
to its original state, as a home of wild animals, where a few hunters
from the mainland might enjoy the chase for a month or two every
twelve-month, but which could form no permanent place of human abode.
Once more a strange, and surely most melancholy cycle!”[22]

[22] Leading articles from the _Witness_.

In another place the same writer asks,

“Where was the one tenant of the island, for whose sake so many others
had been removed?” and he answers, “We found his house occupied by a
humble shepherd, who had in charge the wreck of his property,--property
no longer his, but held for the benefit of his creditors. The great
sheep farmer had gone down under circumstances of very general bearing,
and on whose after development, when in their latent state, improving
landlords had failed to calculate.”

HARRIS and the other Western Islands suffered in a similar manner.
Mull, Tiree, and others in Argyllshire are noticed in dealing with that
county.




_ARGYLLSHIRE._


BY ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.

In many parts of Argyllshire the people have been weeded out none the
less effectively, that the process generally was of a milder nature
than that adopted in some of the places already described. By some
means or other, however, the ancient tenantry have largely disappeared
to make room for the sheep farmer and the sportsman. Mr. Somerville,
Lochgilphead, writing on this subject, says, “The watchword of all
is exterminate, exterminate the native race. Through this monomania
of landlords the cottier population is all but extinct; and the
substantial yeoman is undergoing the same process of dissolution.” He
then proceeds:--

“About nine miles of country on the west side of Loch Awe, in
Argyllshire, that formerly maintained 45 families, are now rented by
one person as a sheep farm; and in the island of Luing, same county,
which formerly contained about 50 substantial farmers, besides
cottiers, this number is now reduced to about six. The work of eviction
commenced by giving, in many cases, to the ejected population,
facilities and pecuniary aid for emigration; but now the people
are turned adrift, penniless and shelterless, to seek a precarious
subsistence on the sea-board, in the nearest hamlet or village,
and in the cities, many of whom sink down helpless paupers on our
poor-roll; and others, festering in our villages, form a formidable
Arab population, who drink our money contributed as parochial relief.
This wholesale depopulation is perpetrated, too, in a spirit of
invidiousness, harshness, cruelty, and injustice, and must eventuate
in permanent injury to the moral, political, and social interests
of the kingdom.... The immediate effects of this new system are the
dissociation of the people from the land, who are virtually denied
the right to labour on God’s creation. In L----, for instance, garden
ground and small allotments of land are in great demand by families,
and especially by the aged, whose labouring days are done, for the
purpose of keeping cows, and by which they might be able to earn an
honest, independent maintenence for their families, and whereby their
children might be brought up to labour instead of growing up vagabonds
and thieves. But such, even in our centres of population, cannot be
got; the whole is let in large farms and turned into grazing. The few
patches of bare pasture, formed by the delta of rivers, the detritus
of rocks, and tidal deposits, are let for grazing at the exorbitant
rent of £3 10s. each for a small Highland cow; and the small space to
be had for garden ground is equally extravagant. The consequence of
these exorbitant rents and the want of agricultural facilities is a
depressed, degraded, and pauperised population.”

These remarks are only too true, and applicable not only in
Argyllshire, but throughout the Highlands generally.

A deputation from the Glasgow Highland Relief Board, consisting of Dr.
Robert Macgregor, and Mr. Charles R. Baird, their Secretary, visited
Mull, Ulva, Iona, Tiree, Coll, and part of Morvern, in 1849, and they
immediately afterwards issued a printed report on the state of these
places, from which a few extracts will prove instructive. They inform
us that the population of


THE ISLAND OF MULL.

according to the Government Census of 1821, was 10,612; in 1841,
10,064. In 1871, we find it reduced to 6441, and by the Census of 1881,
now before us, it is stated at 5624, or a fraction more than half the
number that inhabited the Island in 1821.

TOBERMORY, we are told, “has been for some time the resort of the
greater part of the small crofters and cottars, _ejected_ from their
holdings and houses on the surrounding estates, and thus there has been
a great accumulation of distress.” Then we are told that “severe as
the destitution has been in the rural districts, we think it has been
still more so in Tobermory and other villages”--a telling comment on,
and reply to, those who would now have us believe that the evictors of
those days and of our own were acting the character of wise benefactors
when they ejected the people from the inland and rural districts of
the various counties to wretched villages, and rocky hamlets on the
sea-shore.

ULVA.--The population of the Island of Ulva in 1849 was 360 souls. The
reporters state that a “large portion” of it “has lately been converted
into a sheep farm, and consequently a number of small crofters and
cottars have been warned away” by Mr. Clark. “Some of these will find
great difficulty in settling themselves anywhere, and all of them have
little prospect of employment.... Whatever may be the ultimate effect
to the landowners of the conversion of a number of small crofts into
large farms, we need scarcely say that this process is causing much
poverty and misery among the crofters.” How Mr. Clark carried out his
intention of evicting the tenantry of Ulva may be seen from the fact
that the population of 360 souls, in 1849, was reduced to 51 in 1881.

KILFINICHEN.--In this district we are told that “The crofters and
cottars having been warned off, 26 individuals emigrated to America,
at their own expense and one at that of the Parochial Board; a good
many removed to Kinloch, where they are now in great poverty, and those
who remained were not allowed to cultivate any ground for crop or even
garden stuffs. The stock and other effects of a number of crofters
on Kinloch last year (1848), whose rents averaged from £5 to £15 per
annum, having been sequestrated and sold, these parties are now reduced
to a state of pauperism, having no employment or means of subsistence
whatever.” As to the cottars, it is said that “the great mass of them
are now in a very deplorable state.” On the estate of

GRIBUN, Colonel Macdonald of Inchkenneth, the proprietor, gave the
people plenty of work, by which they were quite independent of relief
from any quarter, and the character which he gives to the deputation
of the people generally is most refreshing, when we compare it with
the baseless charges usually made against them by the majority of
his class. The reporters state that “Colonel Macdonald spoke in high
terms of the honesty of the people and of their great patience and
forbearance under their severe privations.” It is gratifying to be able
to record this simple act of justice, not only as the people’s due, but
specially to the credit of Colonel Macdonald’s memory and goodness of
heart.

BUNESSAN.--Respecting this district, belonging to the Duke of Argyll,
our authority says:--“It will be recollected that the [Relief]
Committee, some time ago, advanced £128 to assist in procuring
provisions for a number of emigrants from the Duke of Argyll’s estate,
in the Ross of Mull and Iona, in all 243 persons--125 adults and 118
children. When there, we made inquiry into the matter, and were
informed [by those, as it proved, quite ignorant of the facts] that
the emigration had been productive of much good, as the parties who
emigrated could not find the means of subsistence in this country,
and had every _prospect_ of doing so in Canada, where all of them
had relations; and also because the land occupied by some of these
emigrants had been given to increase the crofts of others. Since
our return home, however, we have received the very melancholy and
distressing intelligence, that many of these emigrants had been seized
with cholera on their arrival in Canada; that not a few of them had
fallen victims to it; and that the survivors had suffered great
privations.” Compare the “prospect,” of much good, predicted for these
poor creatures, with the sad reality of having been forced away to die
a terrible death immediately on their arrival on a foreign shore!

IONA, at this time, contained a population of 500, reduced in 1881 to
243. It also is the property of the Duke of Argyll, as well as

THE ISLAND OF TIREE, the population of which is given in the report
as follows:--In 1755, it was 1509, increasing in 1777, to 1681;
in 1801, to 2416; in 1821, to 4181; and in 1841 to 4687. In 1849,
“after considerable emigrations,” it was 3903; while in 1881, it was
reduced to 2733. The deputation recommended emigration from Tiree
as imperatively necessary, but they “call especial attention to the
necessity of emigration being conducted on proper principles, or, ‘on
a system calculated to promote the permanent benefit of those who
emigrate, and of those who remain,’ because we have reason to fear that
not a few parties in these districts are anxious to get rid of the
small crofters and cottars at all hazard, and without making sufficient
provision for their future comfort and settlement elsewhere; and
because we have seen the very distressing account of the privations and
sufferings of the poor people who emigrated from Tiree and the Ross of
Mull to Canada this year (1849), and would spare no pains to prevent
a recurrence of such deplorable circumstances. As we were informed
that the Duke of Argyll had expended nearly £1200 on account of the
emigrants (in all 247 souls) from Tiree; as the Committee advanced
£131 15s. to purchase provisions for them; and as funds were remitted
to Montreal to carry them up the country, we sincerely trust that
the account we have seen of their sufferings in Canada is somewhat
over-charged, and that it is not at all events to be ascribed to want
of due provision being made for them, ere they left this country, to
carry them to their destination. Be this as it may, however, we trust
that no emigration will in future be promoted by proprietors or others,
which will not secure, as far as human effort can, _the benefit of
those who emigrate_, as well as of those who are left at home.... Being
aware of the poverty of the great majority of the inhabitants of this
island, and of the many difficulties with which they have to contend,
we were agreeably surprised to find their dwellings remarkably neat and
clean--very superior indeed, both externally and internally, to those
of the other islands; nay, more, such as would bear comparison with
cottages in any part of the kingdom. The inhabitants, too, we believe,
are active and enterprising, and, if once put in a fair way of doing
so, would soon raise themselves to comfort and independence.” Very
good, indeed, Tiree!

THE ISLAND OF COLL, which is separated from Tiree by a channel only two
miles in width, had a population, in 1755, of 1193; in 1771, of 1200;
in 1801, of 1162; in 1821, of 1264. In 1841 it reached 1409. At the
time of the visit of the deputation, from whose report we quote, the
population of the Island was down to 1235; while in 1881 it had fallen
to 643. The deputation report that during the destitution the work
done by the Coll people “approximates, if it does exceed, the supplies
given;” they are “hard working and industrious.... We saw considerable
tracts of ground which we were assured might be reclaimed and
cultivated with profit, and are satisfied that fishing is a resource
capable of great improvement, and at which, therefore, many of the
people might be employed to advantage; we are disposed to think that,
by a little attention and prudent outlay of capital, the condition
of the people here might ere long be greatly improved. The grand
difficulty in the way, however, is the want of capital. Mr. Maclean,
the principal proprietor, always acted most liberally when he had it in
his power to do so, but, unfortunately, he has no longer the ability,
and the other two proprietors are also under trust.” Notwithstanding
these possibilities the population is undergoing a constant process of
diminution.

We shall now return to the mainland portion of the County, and take a
glance at the parish of


ARDNAMURCHAN.[23]

[23] Compiled partly from evidence submitted to Deer Forest Commission
of 1892 (see Minute of Evidence, vol. ii., pp. 884-5 and pp. 912-3),
and partly from notes of conversations which the Editor has had with
actual witnesses of the incidents described.

“Uaine gu’m mullach” (green to their tops!). So Dr. Norman Macleod
described the bens of Ardnamurchan in his inimitable sketch, the
“Emigrant Ship,” and so they appear even to this day. Their beautiful
<DW72>s show scarcely a vestige of heather, but an abundance of rich,
sweet grass of a quality eminently suitable for pasturage.

As the steamboat passenger sails northward through the Sound of Mull,
he sees straight ahead, and stretching at right angles across his
course, a long range of low hills culminating in a finely-shaped mass
which seems to rise abruptly from the edge of the sea. The hills are
those of Ardnamurchan, and the dominating pile is Ben Hiant, 1729 feet
in height, and “green to its top.” Around the base of the mountain
and for miles in every direction the land is fair, fertile, and well
adapted either for arable or grazing purposes. It comprises the farm of
Mingary, and, to-day, is wholly under deer.

Down to the second decade of last century it supported about twenty-six
families, which were distributed over the component townships of
Coire-mhuilinn, Skinid, Buarblaig, and Tornamona. At one sweep, the
whole place was cleared, and the grounds added to the adjacent sheep
farm of Mingary. The evictions were carried out in 1828, the process
being attended with many acts of heartless cruelty on the part of
the laird’s representatives. In one case a half-witted woman who
flatly refused to flit, was locked up in her cottage, the door being
barricaded on the outside by mason-work. She was visited every morning
to see if she had arrived at a tractable frame of mind, but for days
she held out. It was not until her slender store of food was exhausted
that she ceased to argue with the inevitable and decided to capitulate.
It is to cases of this character that Dr. John MacLachlan, the Sweet
Singer of Rahoy, referred in the lines--

  “An dall, an seann duine san oinid
  Toirt am mallachd air do bhuaireas.”

(The blind, the aged, and the imbecile calling curses on thy greed.)
The proprietor at whose instance these “removals” were carried out was
Sir James Milles Riddell, Bart. Of the dislodged families a few were
given small patches of waste land, some were given holdings in various
townships on the estate--the crofts of which were sub-divided for
their accommodation--and some were forced to seek sanctuary beyond the
Atlantic.

Additional clearances were effected on the Ardnamurchan estate in
1853, when Swordle-chaol, Swordle-mhor, and Swordle-chorrach, with an
aggregate area of about 3000 acres, were divested of their crofting
population, and thrown into a single sheep farm. Swordle-chaol was
occupied by four tenants, Swordle-mhor by six, and Swordle-chorrach by
six. Five years previous to the evictions, all the crofters came under
a written obligation to the proprietor to build new dwelling-houses.
The walls were to be of stone and lime, 40 ft. long, 17-1/2 ft. wide,
and 7-1/2 ft. high. The houses, two-gabled, were to have each two
rooms and a kitchen, with wooden ceiling and floors, the kitchen
alone to be floored with flags. By the end of 1851 all the tenants
had faithfully implemented their promise, and the work of building
was quite completed. Tradesmen had been employed in every case, and
the cost averaged from £45 to £50. When the people were ejected, two
years later, they received no compensation whatever for their labours
and outlays. They were not even permitted to remove a door, a window,
or a fixed cupboard. Some of the houses are still intact in this year
of grace, 1914, one being occupied by a shepherd on Swordle farm,
and another used as a byre. They compare favourably as regards size,
design, and workmanship with the best and most modern crofter houses
in the Ardnamurchan district. The Swordle tenants were among the
best-to-do on the estate, and not one of them owed the proprietor a
shilling in the way of arrears of rent. When cast adrift, the majority
of them were assigned “holdings” of one acre or so in the rough lands
of Sanna and Portuairk, where they had to start to reclaim peatbogs and
to build for themselves houses and steadings. Sir James Milles Riddell
was the proprietor responsible for clearing the Swordles as well as the
Ben Hiant townships.[24]

[24] See Note C in Appendices.

Other places which he divested of people and placed under sheep were
Laga, held by eight tenants, and Tarbert, which was in the hands of
four.

About sixteen years ago Ben Hiant, or Mingary, as well as the Swordles,
Laga, Tarbert, and other farms, was swept clean of sheep and converted
into a deer forest, the preserve having a total area of 22,000 acres.
The woolly ruminants met with a retribution, direful and complete, and
the native people viewed the change with mild amusement. Sheep had been
the means of ruining their forefathers, whereas deer had never done
them or their kinsfolk the smallest injury.

The highest hill on the estate of Ardnamurchan is Ben Hiant, the
altitude of which is 1729 feet. It may be described as an isolated
peak. It forms no part of any definite mountain range, although, when
viewed from the sea, it seems to blend with Ben an Leathaid and other
local eminences. For the most part, the elevation of the area embraced
in the Ardnamurchan deer forest varies from 600 feet or 700 feet to
sea-level.


MORVEN.

The population of this extensive parish in 1755 was 1223; in 1795 it
increased to 1764; in 1801 to 2000; in 1821, it was 1995; in 1831, it
rose to 2137; and in 1841 it came down to 1781; in 1871, it was only
973; while in the Census Returns for 1881 we find it stated at 714, or
less than one-third of what it was fifty years before.

The late Dr. Norman Macleod, after describing the happy state of things
which existed in this parish before the clearances, says:--

“But all this was changed when those tacksmen were swept away to make
room for the large sheep farms, and when the remnants of the people
flocked from their empty glens to occupy houses in wretched villages
near the sea-shore, by way of becoming fishers--often where no fish
could be caught. The result has been that ‘the Parish,’ for example,
which once had a population of 2200 souls, and received only £11
per annum from public (Church) funds for the support of the poor,
expends now [1863] under the poor law upwards of £600 annually, with a
population diminished by one-half [since diminished to one-third] and
with poverty increased in a greater ratio.... Below these gentlemen
tacksmen were those who paid a much lower rent, and who lived very
comfortably, and shared hospitality with others, the gifts which God
gave them. I remember a group of men, tenants in a large glen, which
now has not a smoke in it, as the Highlanders say, throughout its
length of twenty miles. They had the custom of entertaining in rotation
every traveller who cast himself on their hospitality. The host on the
occasion was bound to summon his neighbours to the homely feast. It was
my good fortune to be a guest when they received the present minister
of ‘the Parish,’ while _en route_ to visit some of his flock. We had a
most sumptuous feast--oat-cakes, crisp and fresh from the fire; cream,
rich and thick, and more beautiful than nectar,--whatever that may be;
blue Highland cheese, finer than Stilton; fat hens, slowly cooked on
the fire in a pot of potatoes, without their skins, and with fresh
butter--‘stoved hens,’ as the superb dish was called; and though last,
not least, tender kid, roasted as nicely as Charles Lamb’s cracklin’
pig. All was served up with the utmost propriety, on a table covered
with a fine white cloth, and with all the requisites for a comfortable
dinner, including the champagne of elastic, buoyant, and exciting
mountain air. The manners and conversations of those men would have
pleased the best-bred gentleman. Everything was so simple, modest,
unassuming, unaffected, yet so frank and cordial. The conversation
was such as might be heard at the table of any intelligent man. Alas!
there is not a vestige remaining of their homes. I know not whither
they are gone, but they have left no representatives behind. The land
in the glen is divided between sheep, shepherds, and the shadows of the
clouds.”[25]

[25] _Reminiscences of a Highland Parish._

The Rev. Donald Macleod, editor of _Good Words_--describing the death
of the late Dr. John Macleod, the “minister of the Parish” referred to
by Dr. Norman in the above quotation, and for fifty years minister of
Morven--says of the noble patriarch:--

“His later years were spent in pathetic loneliness. He had seen his
parish almost emptied of its people. Glen after glen had been turned
into sheep-walks, and the cottages in which generations of gallant
Highlanders had lived and died were unroofed, their torn walls and
gables left standing like mourners beside the grave, and the little
plots of garden or of cultivated enclosure allowed to merge into the
moorland pasture. He had seen every property in the parish change
hands, and though, on the whole, kindly and pleasant proprietors came
in place of the old families, yet they were strangers to the people,
neither understanding their language nor their ways. The consequence
was that they perhaps scarcely realised the havoc produced by the
changes they inaugurated. ‘At one stroke of the pen,’ he said to me,
with a look of sadness and indignation, ‘two hundred of the people
were ordered off. There was not one of these whom I did not know, and
their fathers before them; and finer men and women never left the
Highlands.’ He thus found himself the sole remaining link between
the past and present--the one man above the rank of a peasant who
remembered the old days and the traditions of the people. The sense
of change was intensely saddened as he went through his parish and
passed ruined houses here, there, and everywhere. ‘There is not a
smoke there now,’ he used to say with pathos, of the glens which he
had known tenanted by a manly and loyal peasantry, among whom lived
song and story and the elevating influences of brave traditions. All
are gone, and the place that once knew them, knows them no more! The
hill-side, which had once borne a happy people and echoed the voices of
joyous children is now a silent sheep walk. The supposed necessities of
Political Economy have effected the exchange, but the day may come when
the country may feel the loss of the loyal and brave race which has
been driven away, and find a new meaning perhaps in the old question,
‘Is not a man better than a sheep?’ They who ‘would have shed their
blood like water’ for Queen and country, are in other lands, Highland
still, but expatriated for ever.

  From the dim shieling on the misty island,
      Mountains divide us and a world of seas,
    But still our hearts are true, our hearts are Highland,
      And in our dreams we behold the Hebrides.
    Tall are these mountains, and these woods are grand,
      But we are exiled from our father’s land.”[26]

[26] _Farewell to Fiunary_, by Donald Macleod, D.D., in _Good Words_
for August, 1882.


GLENORCHY.

Glenorchy, of which the Marquis of Breadalbane is sole proprietor,
was, like many other places, ruthlessly cleared of its whole native
population. The writer of the New Statistical Account of the Parish,
in 1843, the Rev. Duncan Maclean, “Fior Ghael” of the _Teachdaire_,
informs us that the census taken by Dr. Webster in 1755, and by Dr.
MacIntyre forty years later, in 1795, “differ exceedingly little,” only
to the number of sixty. The Marquis of the day, it is well known, was a
good friend of his reverence; the feeling was naturally reciprocated,
and one of the apparent results is that the reverend author abstained
from giving, in his Account of the Parish, the population statistics
of the Glenorchy district. It was, however, impossible to pass over
that important portion of his duty altogether, and, apparently with
reluctance, he makes the following sad admission:--“A great and rapid
decrease has, however, taken place since [referring to the population
in 1795]. This decrease is mainly attributable to the introduction of
sheep, and the absorption of small into large tenements. The aboriginal
population of the parish of Glenorchy (not of Inishail) has been
nearly supplanted by adventurers from the neighbouring district of
Breadalbane, who now occupy the far largest share of the parish. There
are a few, and only a few, shoots from the stems that supplied the
ancient population. Some clans, who were rather numerous and powerful,
have disappeared altogether; others, viz., the Downies, Macnabs,
Macnicols, and Fletchers, have nearly ceased to exist. The Macgregors,
at one time lords of the soil, have totally disappeared; not one of the
name is to be found among the population. The Macintyres, at once time
extremely numerous, are likewise greatly reduced.”

By this nobleman’s mania for evictions, the population of Glenorchy was
reduced from 1806 in 1831 to 831 in 1841, or by nearly a thousand souls
in the short space of ten years! It is, however, gratifying to find
that it has since, under wiser management, very largely increased.

In spite of all this we have been seriously told that there has been no

  DEPOPULATION OF THE COUNTY

in the rural districts. In this connection some very extraordinary
public utterances were recently made by two gentlemen closely connected
with the county of Argyll, questioning or attempting to explain away
statements, made in the House of Commons by Mr. D. H. Macfarlane, M.P.,
to the effect that the rural population was, from various causes, fast
disappearing from the Highlands. These utterances were--one by a no
less distinguished person that the Duke of Argyll, who published his
remarkable propositions in the _Times_; the other by Mr. John Ramsay,
M.P., the Islay distiller, who imposed his baseless statement on his
brother members in the House of Commons. These oracles should have
known better. They must clearly have taken no trouble whatever to
ascertain the facts for themselves, or, having ascertained them, kept
them back that the public might be misled on a question with which, it
is obvious to all, the personal interests of both are largely mixed up.

Let us see how the assertions of these authorities agreed with
the actual facts. In 1831 the population of the county of Argyll
was 100,973; in 1841 it was 97,371; in 1851 it was reduced to
88,567; and in 1881 it was down to 76,468. Of the latter number the
Registrar-General classifies 30,387 as urban, or the population of
“towns and villages,” leaving us only 46,081 as the total rural
population of the county of Argyll at the date of the last Census, in
1881. In 1911 the total population for the county had dropped to 70,902.

It will be necessary to keep in mind that in 1831 the county could not
be said to have had many “town and village” inhabitants--not more than
from 12,000 to 15,000 at most. These resided chiefly in Campbeltown,
Inveraray, and Oban; and if we deduct from the total population for
that year, numbering 100,973, even the larger estimate, 15,000 of an
urban or town population, we have still left, in 1831, an actual rural
population of 85,973, or within a fraction of double the whole rural
population of the county in 1881. In other words, the rural population
of Argyllshire was reduced in fifty years from 85,973 to 46,081, or
nearly by one-half.

The increase of the urban or town population is going on at a fairly
rapid rate; Campbeltown, Dunoon, Oban, Ballachulish, Blairmore, and
Strone, Innellan, Lochgilphead, Tarbet, and Tighnabruaich, combined,
having added no less than some 5500 to the population of the county in
the ten years from 1871 to 1881. These populous places will be found
respectively in the parishes of Campbeltown, Lismore, and Appin, Dunoon
and Kilmun, Glassary, Kilcalmonell and Kilbery, and in Kilfinan; and
this will at once account for the comparatively good figure which
these parishes make in the tabulated statement in the Appendix.
That table will show exactly in which parishes and at what rate
depopulation progressed during the last fifty years. In many instances
the population was larger prior to 1831 than at that date, but the
years given will generally give the best idea of how the matter stood
throughout that whole period. The state of the population given in 1831
was before the famine which occurred in 1836; while that in 1841 comes
in between that of 1836 and 1846-47, during which period large numbers
were sent away, or left for the Colonies. There was no famine between
1851 and 1881, a time during which the population was reduced from
88,567 to 76,468, notwithstanding the great increase which took place
simultaneously in the “town and village” section of the people in the
county, as well as throughout the country generally.




_BUTESHIRE._


ARRAN.

DUGALD MACKENZIE MACKILLOP ON THE ARRAN CLEARANCES.[27]

[27] Megantic, by Dugald Mackenzie Mackillop.

Once upon a time--and the time was 1828--Alexander, tenth Duke of
Hamilton, decided that he would make large farms on his estate, and,
of course, the will and wish of a duke in his own domains must
be respected, even though--as in one instance--the land rented by
twenty-seven families was converted into one farm.

For various reasons, the islanders had for many years been
discontented, and there seemed no hope of a change for the better. If a
man worked his place in a progressive way and made improvements on the
farm, the benefit accrued solely to the landed proprietor, who thanked
the good tenant by promptly raising his rent. If the farmer objected
to paying more rent, his only alternative was to submit to be turned
off his holding at the expiration of his lease; then the landlord would
collect the increased rent from the new tenant.

So when the duke made overtures to a large number of his tenants to the
effect that if they would make room for him by getting away from their
ancestral moorings in Arran, he would see that they were well provided
for in the new world, it is not to be wondered at that they accepted
his proposition. It is so nice when you are cast out to be told where
you can go, and be directed what to do. The Duke promised to secure for
each family a grant of 100 acres of land in Canada, and the same amount
of land for each son in each family who at that time had reached the
age of 21.

Arrived at their destination at Johnston Ford, province of Quebec, each
family constructed a tent by stretching blankets, quilts, etc., over
poles suitably disposed and tied together at the top with withes and
ropes. Fortunately the season was favourable and fires were needed only
for cooking. As just stated, the Duke of Hamilton had promised that
each family and each young man who had attained his majority should
receive a grant of 100 acres of land; but, when the colony was actually
on the scene, the Government officials refused to give a grant except
to the heads of the families.

The matter of grants has been so variously stated that it is difficult
to determine what the conditions were, but it appears that the actual
agreement of the Duke of Hamilton was that grants should be given for
two years only. Those who came out in 1829 and 1830 secured certain
grants after a delay. Those, however, who did not arrive till 1831 were
told by the agents that grants were no longer to be had.




_PERTHSHIRE._


RANNOCH.

BY ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.

Regarding the state of matters in this district a correspondent writes
us as follows:--I am very glad to learn that you are soon to publish
a new edition of your “Highland Clearances.” You have done good work
already in rousing the conscience of the public against the conduct
of certain landlords in the Highlands, who long ere now should have
been held up to public scorn and execration, as the best means of
deterring others from pursuing a policy which has been so fatal to the
best interests of our beloved land.... And now, if I am not too late,
I should like to direct your attention to a few authenticated facts
connected with two districts in the Highlands, that I am familiar with,
and which facts you may utilise, though I shall merely give notes.

In 1851 the population of the district known as the quoad sacra parish
of Rannoch numbered altogether 1800; at the census of 1881 it was below
900. Even in 1851 it was not nearly what it was earlier. Why this
constant decrease? Several no doubt left the district voluntarily; but
the great bulk of those who left were evicted.

Take, first, the Slios Min, north side of Loch Rannoch. Fifty years
ago the farm of Ardlarich, near the west end, was tenanted by three
farmers, who were in good circumstances. These were turned out to make
room for one large farmer, who was rouped out last year, penniless;
and the farm is now tenantless. The next place, further east, is the
township of Killichoan, containing about thirty to forty houses, with
small crofts attached to each. The crofters here are very comfortable
and happy, and their houses and crofts are models of what industry,
thrift and good taste can effect. Further east is the farm of Liaran,
now tenantless. Fifty years ago it was farmed by seven tenants who were
turned out to make room for one man, and that at a lower rent than
was paid by the former tenants. Further, in the same direction, there
are Aulich, Craganour, and Annat, every one of them tenantless. These
three farms, lately in the occupation of one tenant, and for which he
paid a rental of £900, at one time maintained fifty to sixty families
in comfort, all of whom have vanished, or were virtually banished from
their native land.

It is only right to say that the present proprietor is not responsible
for the eviction of any of the smaller tenants; the deed was done
before he came into possession. On the contrary, he is very kind to his
crofter tenantry, but unfortunately for him he inherits the fruits of
a bad policy which has been the ruin of the Rannoch estates.

Then take the Slios Garbh, south-side of Loch Rannoch. Beginning in the
west-end, we have Georgetown, which, about fifty years ago, contained
twenty-five or twenty-six houses, every one of which were knocked down
by the late laird of Struan, and the people evicted. The crofters
of Finnart were ejected in the same way. Next comes the township
of Camghouran, a place pretty similar to Killichoan, but smaller.
The people are very industrious, cleanly, and fairly comfortable,
reflecting much credit upon themselves and the present proprietor. Next
comes Dall, where there used to be a number of tenants, but now in
the hands of the proprietor, an Englishman. The estate of Innerhaden
comes next. It used to be divided into ten lots--two held by the laird,
and eight by as many tenants. The whole is now in the hands of one
family. The rest of Bun-Rannoch includes the estates of Dalchosnie,
Lassintullich, and Crossmount, where there used to be a large number of
small tenants--most of them well-to-do--but now held by five.

Lastly, take the north side of the river Dubhag, which flows out
from Loch Rannoch, and is erroneously called the Tummel. Kinloch,
Druimchurn, and Druimchaisteil, always in the hands of three tenants,
are now held by one. Drumaglass contains a number of small holdings,
with good houses on many of them. Balmore, which always had six tenants
in it, has now only one, the remaining portion of it being laid out
in grass parks. Ballintuim, with a good house upon it, is tenantless.
Auchitarsin, where there used to be twenty houses, is now reduced to
four. The whole district from, and including, Kinloch to Auchitarsin
belongs to General Sir Alastair Macdonald of Dalchosnie, Commander of
Her Majesty’s Forces in Scotland. His father, Sir John, during his
life, took a great delight in having a numerous, thriving, and sturdy
tenantry on the estates of Dalchosnie, Kinloch, Lochgarry, Dunalastair,
and Morlaggan. On one occasion his tenant of Dalchosnie offered to take
from Sir John on lease all the land on the north side of the river.
“Ay, man,” said he, “you would take all that land, would you, and turn
out all my people! Who would I get, if my house took fire, to put it
out?”

The present proprietor has virtually turned out the great bulk of those
that Sir John had loved so well. Though, it is said, he did not evict
any man directly, he is alleged to have made their positions so hot for
them that they had to leave. Sir John could have raised hundreds of
Volunteers on his estates--men who would have died for the gallant old
soldier. But how many could be now raised by his son? Not a dozen men;
though he goes about inspecting Volunteers and praising the movement
officially throughout the length and breadth of Scotland.

The author of the _New Statistical Account_, writing of the Parish of
Fortingall, of which the district referred to by our correspondent
forms a part, says:--“At present [1838] no part of the parish is
more populous than it was in 1790; whereas in several districts, the
population has since decreased one-half; and the same will be found to
have taken place, though not perhaps in so great a proportion, in most
or all of the pastoral districts of the county.”

According to the census of 1801 the population was 3875; in 1811,
3236; in 1821, 3189; in 1831, 3067; and in 1881 it was reduced to 1690.

Upwards of 120 families, the same writer says, “crossed the Atlantic
from this parish, since the previous Account was drawn up [in 1791],
besides many individuals of both sexes; while many others have sought
a livelihood in the Low Country, especially in the great towns of
Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, Perth, Crieff, and others. The system of
uniting several farms together, and letting them to one individual, has
more than any other circumstance” produced this result.


BREADALBANE.

Mr. R. Alister, author of _Barriers to the National Prosperity of
Scotland_, had a controversy with the Marquis of Breadalbane in 1853,
about the eviction of his tenantry. In a letter, dated July of that
year, Mr. Alister made a charge against his lordship which, for obvious
reasons, he never attempted to answer, as follows:--

“Your lordship states that in reality there has been no depopulation
of the district. This, and other parts of your lordship’s letter,
would certainly lead any who know nothing of the facts to suppose that
there had been no clearings on the Breadalbane estates; whereas it is
generally believed that your lordship removed, since 1834, no less than
500 families! Some may think this is a small matter; but I do not. I
think it is a great calamity for a family to be thrown out, destitute
of the means of life, without a roof over their heads, and cast upon
the wide sea of an unfeeling world. In Glenqueich, near Amulree, some
sixty families formerly lived, where there are now only four or five;
and in America, there is a glen inhabited by its ousted tenants, and
called Glenqueich still. Yet, forsooth, it is maintained there has been
no depopulation here! The desolations here look like the ruins of Irish
cabins, although the population of Glenqueich were always characterised
as being remarkably thrifty, economical, and wealthy. On the Braes of
Taymouth, at the back of Drummond Hill, and at Tullochyoule, some
forty or fifty families formerly resided, where there is not one
now! Glenorchy, by the returns of 1831, showed a population of 1806;
in 1841, 831;--is there no depopulation there? Is it true that in
Glenetive there were sixteen tenants a year or two ago, where there
is not a single one now? Is it true, my lord, that you purchased an
island on the west coast, called Luing, where some twenty-five families
lived at the beginning _of this year_, but who are now cleared off to
make room for one tenant, for whom an extensive steading is now being
erected? If my information be correct, I shall allow the public to
draw their own conclusions; but, from every thing that I have heard, I
believe that your lordship has done more to exterminate the Scottish
peasantry than any man now living; and perhaps you ought to be ranked
next to the Marquis of Stafford in the unenviable clearing celebrities.
If I have over-estimated the clearances at 500 families, please to
correct me.” As we have already said, his lordship thought it prudent,
and by far the best policy, not to make the attempt.

In another letter the same writer says:--

“You must be aware that your late father raised 2300 men during the
last war, and that 1600 of that number were from the Breadalbane
estates. My statement is, that 150 could not _now_ be raised. Your
lordship has most carefully evaded all allusion to this,--perhaps the
worst charge of the whole. From your lordship’s silence I am surely
justified in concluding that you may endeavour to evade the question,
but you dare not attempt an open contradiction. I have often made
inquiries of Highlanders on this point, and the number above stated
was the _highest_ estimate. Many who should know, state to me that
your lordship would not get _fifty_ followers from the whole estates;
and another says:--‘Why, he would not get half-a-dozen, and not one of
them unless they could not possibly do otherwise.’ This, then, is the
position of the question: in 1793-4, there was such a numerous, hardy,
and industrious population on the Breadalbane estates, that there
could be spared of valorous defenders of their country in her hour of
danger, 1600; highest estimate now, 150; highest banished, 1450. _Per
contra_--Game of all sorts increased a hundred-fold.”

In 1831, Glenorchy, of which his lordship of Breadalbane was
proprietor, was 1806; in 1841 it was reduced to 831. Those best
acquainted with the Breadalbane estates assert that on the whole
property no less than 500 families, or about 2500 souls, were driven
into exile by the hard-hearted Marquis of that day.

It is, however, gratifying to know that the present Lord Breadalbane,
who is descended from a different and remote branch of the family, is
an excellent landlord, and takes an entirely different view of his
duties and relationship to the tenants on his vast property.




_NOTABLE DICTA._


THE REV. DR. MACLACHLAN.

The late Rev. Dr. Maclachlan, Edinburgh, wrote a series of articles
in the _Witness_, during its palmy days under the editorship of Hugh
Miller. These were afterwards published in 1849, under the title of
“The Depopulation System of the Highlands,” in pamphlet form, by
Johnston and Hunter. The rev. author visited all the places to which he
refers. He says:--

“A complete history of Highland clearances would, we doubt not, both
interest and surprise the British public. Men talk of the Sutherland
clearings as if they stood alone amidst the atrocities of the system;
but those who know fully the facts of the case can speak with as much
truth of the Ross-shire clearings, the Inverness-shire clearings, the
Perthshire clearings, and, to some extent, the Argyllshire clearings.
The earliest of these was the great clearing on the Glengarry estate,
towards, we believe, the latter end of the last century. The tradition
among the Highlanders is (and some Gaelic poems composed at the time
would go to confirm it), that the chief’s lady had taken umbrage at
the clan. Whatever the cause might have been, the offence was deep,
and could only be expiated by the extirpation of the race. Summonses
of ejection were served over the whole property, even on families
the most closely connected with the chief; and if we now seek for
the Highlanders of Glengarry, we must search on the banks of the St.
Lawrence.

“To the westward of Glengarry lies the estate of Lochiel--a name to
which the imperishable poetry of Campbell has attached much interest.
It is the country of the brave clan Cameron, to whom, were there
nothing to speak of but their conduct at Waterloo, Britain owes a debt.
Many of our readers have passed along Loch Lochy, and they have likely
had the mansion of Auchnacarry pointed out to them, and they have
been told of the Dark Mile, surpassing, as some say, the Trossachs in
romantic beauty; but perhaps they were not aware that beyond lies the
wide expanse of Loch Arkaig, whose banks have been the scene of a most
extensive clearing. There was a day when three hundred able, active
men could have been collected from the shores of this extensive inland
loch; but eviction has long ago rooted them out, and nothing is now
to be seen but the ruins of their huts, with the occasional bothy of
a shepherd, while their lands are held by one or two farmers from the
borders.

“Crossing to the south of the great glen, we may begin with Glencoe.
How much of its romantic interest does this glen owe to its desolation?
Let us remember, however, that the desolation, in a large part of it,
is the result of the extrusion of the inhabitants. Travel eastward, and
the footprints of the destroyer cannot be lost sight of. Large tracks
along the Spean and its tributaries are a wide waste. The southern bank
of Loch Lochy is almost without inhabitants, though the symptoms of
former occupancy are frequent.

“When we enter the country of the Frasers, the same spectacle presents
itself--a desolate land. With the exception of the miserable village
of Fort-Augustus the native population is almost extinguished, while
those who do remain are left as if, by their squalid misery, to
make darkness the more visible. Across the hills, in Stratherrick,
the property of Lord Lovat, with the exception of a few large sheep
farmers, and a very few tenants, is one wide waste. To the north of
Loch Ness, the territory of the Grants, both Glenmoriston and the Earl
of Seafield, presents a pleasing feature amidst the sea of desolation.
But beyond this, again, let us trace the large rivers of the east coast
to their sources.

“Trace the Beauly through all its upper reaches, and how many thousands
upon thousands of acres, once peopled, are, as respects human beings,
a wide wilderness! The lands of the Chisholm have been stripped of
their population down to a mere fragment; the possessors of those
of Lovat have not been behind with their share of the same sad
doings. Let us cross to the Conon and its branches, and we will find
that the chieftains of the Mackenzies have not been less active in
extermination. Breadalbane and Rannoch, in Perthshire, have a similar
tale to tell, vast masses of the population having been forcibly
expelled. The upper portions of Athole have also suffered, while many
of the valleys along the Spey and its tributaries are without an
inhabitant, if we except a few shepherds. Sutherland, with all its
atrocities, affords but a fraction of the atrocities that have been
perpetrated in following out the ejectment system of the Highlands.
In truth, of the habitable portion of the whole country but a small
part is now really inhabited. We are unwilling to weary our readers by
carrying them along the west coast from the Linnhe Loch, northwards;
but if they inquire, they will find that the same system has been, in
the case of most of the estates, relentlessly pursued.

“These are facts of which, we believe, the British public know little,
but they are facts on which the changes should be rung until they have
listened to them and seriously considered them. May it not be that part
of the guilt is theirs, who might, yet did not, step forward to stop
such cruel and unwise proceedings?

“Let us leave the past, however” he continues, “and consider the
present. And it is a melancholy reflection that the year 1849 has
added its long list to the roll of Highland ejectments. While the
law is banishing its tens for terms of seven or fourteen years, as
the penalty of deep-dyed crimes, irresponsible and infatuated power
is banishing its thousands for life for no crime whatever. This year
brings forward, as leader in the work of expatriation, the Duke of
Argyll. Is it possible that his vast possessions are over-densely
peopled? “_Credat Judæus appelles._” And the Highland Destitution
Committee co-operate. We had understood that the large sums of money
at their disposal had been given them for the purpose of relieving,
and not of banishing, the destitute. Next we have Mr. Baillie of
Glenelg, professedly at their own request, sending five hundred souls
off to America. Their native glen must have been made not a little
uncomfortable for these poor people, ere they could have petitioned
for so sore a favour. Then we have Colonel Gordon expelling upwards of
eighteen hundred souls from South Uist; Lord Macdonald follows with a
sentence of banishment against six or seven hundred of the people of
North Uist, with a threat, as we learn, that three thousand are to be
driven from Skye next season; and Mr. Lillingston of Lochalsh, Maclean
of Ardgour, and Lochiel, bring up the rear of the black catalogue,
a large body of people having left the estates of the two latter,
who, after a heart-rending scene of parting with their native land,
are now on the wide sea on their way to Australia. Thus, within the
last three or four months, considerably upwards of three thousand of
the most moral and loyal of our people--people who, even in the most
trying circumstances, never required a soldier, seldom a policeman,
among them, to maintain the peace--are driven forcibly away to seek
subsistence on a foreign soil.”

Writing in 1850, on more “Recent Highland Evictions,” the same author
says:--

“The moral responsibility for these transactions lies in a measure
with the nation, and not merely with the individuals immediately
concerned in them. Some years ago the fearful scenes that attended the
slave trade were depicted in colours that finally roused the national
conscience, and the nation gave its loud, indignant, and effective
testimony against them. The tearing of human beings, with hearts as
warm, and affections as strong as dwell in the bosom of the white
man, from their beloved homes and families--the packing them into the
holds of over-crowded vessels, in the burning heat of the tropics--the
stifling atmosphere, the clanking chain, the pestilence, the bodies of
the dead corrupting in the midst of the living--presented a picture
which deeply moved the national mind; and there was felt to be guilt,
deep-dyed guilt, and the nation relieved itself by abolishing the
traffic. And is the nation free of guilt in this kind of white-slave
traffic that is now going on--this tearing of men whether they will or
not, from their country and kindred--this crowding them into often foul
and unwholesome vessels with the accompanying deaths of hundreds whose
eyes never rest on the land to which they are driven. Men may say that
they have rights in the one case that they have not in the other. Then
we say that they are rights into whose nature and fruits we would do
well to enquire, lest it be found that the rude and lawless barbarism
of Africa, and the high and boasted civilisation of Britain, land us in
the same final results.... It is to British legislation that the people
of the Highlands owe the relative position in which they stand to their
chiefs. There was a time when they were strangers to the feudal system
which prevailed in the rest of the kingdom. Every man among them sat as
free as his chief. But by degrees the power of the latter, assisted by
Saxon legislation, encroached upon the liberty of the former. Highland
chiefs became feudal lords--the people were robbed to increase their
power--and now we are reaping the fruits of this in recent evictions.”

At a meeting of the Inverness, Ross, and Nairn Club, in Edinburgh,
in 1877, the venerable Doctor referred to the same sad subject amid
applause and expressions of regret. We extract the following from a
report of the meeting which appeared at the time in the _Inverness
Courier_:--

“The current that ran against their language seemed to be rising
against the people themselves. The cry seemed to be, Do away with the
people: this is the shorthand way of doing away with the language. He
reminded them of the saying of a queen, that she would turn Scotland
into a hunting field, and of the reply of a Duke of Argyll it is time
for me to make my hounds ready, and said he did not know whether
there was now an Argyll who would make the same reply. But there were
other folks--less folks than queens--who had gone pretty deep in
the direction indicated by this queen. He would not say it was not
a desirable thing to see Highlanders scattered over the earth--they
were greatly indebted to them in their cities and the colonies; but he
wished to preserve their Highland homes, from which the colonies and
large cities derived their very best blood. Drive off the Highlander
and destroy his home, and you destroy that which had produced some of
the best and noblest men who filled important positions throughout the
empire. In the interests of great cities, as a citizen of Edinburgh,
he desired to keep the Highlanders in their own country, and to make
them as comfortable as possible. He only wished that some of the
Highland proprietors could see their way to offer sections of the land
for improvement by the people, who were quite as able to improve the
land in their own country as to improve the great forests of Canada.
He himself would rather to-morrow begin to cultivate an acre in any
habitable part of the Highlands of Scotland than to begin to cultivate
land such as that on which he had seen thousands of them working in
the forests of Canada. What had all this to do with Celtic Literature?
Dr. Maclachlan replied that the whole interest which Celtic Literature
had to him was connected with the Celtic people, and if they destroyed
the Celtic people, his entire interest in their literature perished.
They had been told the other day that this was sentiment, and that
there were cases in which sentiment was not desirable. He agreed with
this so far; but he believed that when sentiment was driven out of
a Highlander the best part of him was driven out, for it ever had a
strong place among mountain people. He himself had a warm patriotic
feeling, and he grieved whenever he saw a ruined house in any of their
mountain glens. And ruined homes and ruined villages he, alas! had
seen--villages on fire--the hills red with burning homes. He never
wished to see this sorry sight again. It was a sad, a lamentable sight,
for he was convinced the country had not a nobler class of people than
the Highland people, or a set of people better worth preserving.”


A HIGHLAND SHERIFF.

Mr. Robert Brown, Sheriff-Substitute of the Western District of
Inverness-shire, in 1806, wrote a pamphlet of 120 pages, now very
scarce, entitled, “Strictures and Remarks on the Earl of Selkirk’s
‘Observations on the Present State of the Highlands of Scotland,’”
Sheriff Brown was a man of keen observation, and his work is a powerful
argument against the forced depopulation of the country. Summing up the
number who left from 1801 to 1803, he says:--

“In the year 1801, a Mr. George Dennon, from Pictou, carried out
two cargoes of emigrants from Fort William to Pictou, consisting of
about seven hundred souls. A vessel sailed the same season from Isle
Martin with about one hundred passengers, it is believed, for the same
place. No more vessels sailed that year; but in 1802, eleven large
ships sailed with emigrants to America. Of these, four were from Fort
William, one from Knoydart, one from Isle Martin, one from Uist, one
from Greenock. Five of these were bound for Canada, four for Pictou,
and one for Cape Breton. The only remaining vessel, which took a cargo
of people in Skye, sailed for Wilmington, in the United States. In
the year 1803, exclusive of Lord Selkirk’s transport, eleven cargoes
of emigrants went from the North Highlands. Of these, four were from
the Moray Firth, two from Ullapool, three from Stornoway, and two from
Fort William. The whole of these cargoes were bound for the British
settlements, and most of them were discharged at Pictou.”

Soon after, several other vessels sailed from the North West Highlands
with emigrants, the whole of whom were for the British Colonies. In
addition to these, Lord Selkirk took out 250 from South Uist in 1802,
and in 1803 he sent out to Prince Edward Island about 800 souls, in
three different vessels, most of whom were from the Island of Skye, and
the remainder from Ross-shire, North Argyll, the interior of the County
of Inverness, and the Island of Uist. In 1804, 1805, and 1806, several
cargoes of Highlanders left Mull, Skye, and other Western Islands, for
Prince Edward Island and other North American Colonies. Altogether, not
less than 10,000 souls left the West Highlands and Isles during the
first six years of the present century, a fact which will now appear
incredible.


THE WIZARD OF THE NORTH.

Sir Walter Scott writes:--“In too many instances the Highlands have
been drained, not of their superfluity of population, but of the whole
mass of the inhabitants, dispossessed by an unrelenting avarice, which
will be one day found to have been as shortsighted as it is unjust
and selfish. Meantime, the Highlands may become the fairy ground for
romance and poetry, or the subject of experiment for the professors of
speculation, political and economical. But if the hour of need should
come--and it may not, perhaps, be far distant--the pibroch may sound
through the deserted region, but the summons will remain unanswered.”


A CONTINENTAL HISTORIAN.

M. Michelet, the great Continental historian, writes:--“The Scottish
Highlanders will ere long disappear from the face of the earth; the
mountains are daily depopulating; the great estates have ruined the
land of the Gael, as they did ancient Italy. The Highlander will ere
long exist only in the romances of Walter Scott. The tartan and the
claymore excite surprise in the streets of Edinburgh; the Highlanders
disappear--they emigrate--their national airs will ere long be lost, as
the music of the Eolian harp when the winds are hushed.”


MR. ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE.

In his work on the Nationalisation of Land, Mr. Alfred Russel Wallace,
in the chapter on “Landlordism in Scotland,” says to the English
people:--

“The facts stated in this chapter will possess, I feel sure, for many
Englishmen, an almost startling novelty; the tale of oppression and
cruelty they reveal reads like one of those hideous stories peculiar
to the dark ages, rather than a simple record of events happening upon
our own land and within the memory of the present generation. For a
parallel to this monstrous power of the landowner, under which life
and property are entirely at his mercy, we must go back to mediæval,
or to the days when serfdom not having been abolished, the Russian
noble was armed with despotic authority; while the more pitiful results
of this landlord tyranny, the wide devastation of cultivated lands,
the heartless burning of houses, the reckless creation of pauperism
and misery, out of well-being and contentment, could only be expected
under the rule of Turkish Sultans or greedy and cruel Pashas. Yet these
cruel deeds have been perpetrated in one of the most beautiful portions
of our native land. They are not the work of uncultured barbarians
or of fanatic Moslems, but of so-called civilised and Christian men;
and--worst feature of all--they are not due to any high-handed exercise
of power beyond the law, but are strictly legal, are in many cases the
acts of members of the Legislature itself, and, notwithstanding that
they have been repeatedly made known for at least sixty years past,
no steps have been taken, or are even proposed to be taken, by the
Legislature to prevent them for the future! Surely it is time that
the people of England should declare that such things shall no longer
exist--that the rich shall no longer have such legal power to oppress
the poor--that the land shall be free for all who are willing to pay a
fair value for its use--and, as this is not possible under landlordism,
that landlordism shall be abolished....

“The general results of the system of modern landlordism in Scotland
are not less painful than the hardship and misery brought upon
individual sufferers. The earlier improvers, who drove the peasants
from their sheltered valleys to the exposed sea-coast, in order to
make room for sheep and sheep farmers, pleaded erroneously the public
benefit as the justification of their conduct. They maintained that
more food and clothing would be produced by the new system, and that
the people themselves would have the advantage of the produce of
the sea as well as that of the land for their support. The result,
however, proved them to be mistaken, for henceforth the cry of Highland
destitution began to be heard, culminating at intervals into actual
famines, like that of 1836-37, when £70,000 were distributed to keep
the Highlanders from death by starvation. ... just as in Ireland, there
was abundance of land capable of cultivation, but the people were
driven to the coast and to the towns to make way for sheep, and cattle,
and lowland farmers; and when the barren and inhospitable tracts
allotted to them became overcrowded, they were told to emigrate. As the
Rev. J. Macleod says:--“By the clearances one part is depopulation and
the other overpopulated; the people are gathered into villages where
there is no steady employment for them, where idleness has its baneful
influence and lands them in penury and want.

“The actual effect of this system of eviction and emigration--of
banishing the native of the soil and giving it to the stranger--is
shown in the steady increase of poverty indicated by the amount spent
for the relief of the poor having increased from less than £300,000 in
1846 to more than £900,000 now; while in the same period the population
has only increased from 2,770,000 to 3,627,000, so that pauperism has
grown about nine times faster than population!... The fact that a whole
population could be driven from their homes like cattle at the will
of a landlord, and that the Government which taxed them, and for whom
they freely shed their blood on the battle-field, neither would nor
could protect them from cruel interference with their personal liberty,
is surely the most convincing and most absolute demonstration of the
incompatibility of landlordism with the elementary rights of a free
people.

“As if, however, to prove this still more clearly, and to show how
absolutely incompatible with the well-being of the community is modern
landlordism, the great lords of the soil in Scotland have for the
last twenty years or more been systematically laying waste enormous
areas of land for purposes of sport, just as the Norman Conqueror laid
waste the area of the New Forest for similar purposes. At the present
time, more than two million acres of Scottish soil are devoted to the
preservation of deer alone--an area larger than the entire Counties
of Kent and Surrey combined. Glen Tilt Forest includes 100,000 acres;
the Black Mount is sixty miles in circumference; and Ben Alder Forest
is fifteen miles long by seven broad. On many of these forests there
is the finest pasture in Scotland, while the valleys would support a
considerable population of small farmers, yet all this land is devoted
to the sport of the wealthy, farms being destroyed, houses pulled
down, and men, sheep, and cattle all banished to create a wilderness
for the deer-stalkers! At the same time the whole people of England
are shut out from many of the grandest and most interesting scenes of
their native land, gamekeepers and watchers forbidding the tourist or
naturalist to trespass on some of the wildest Scotch mountains.

“Now, when we remember that the right to a property in these unenclosed
mountains was most unjustly given to the representatives of the
Highland chiefs little more than a century ago, and that they and their
successors have grossly abused their power ever since, it is surely
time to assert those fundamental maxims of jurisprudence which state
that--“No man can have a vested right in the misfortunes and woes
of his country,” and that “the Sovereign ought not to allow either
communities or private individuals to acquire large tracts of land
in order to leave it uncultivated.” If the oft-repeated maxim that
“property has its duties as well as its rights” is not altogether a
mockery, then we maintain that in this case the _total_ neglect of
all the duties devolving on the owners of these vast tracts of land
affords ample reason why the State should take possession of them for
the public benefit. A landlord government will, of course, never do
this till the people declare unmistakably that it must be done. To
such a government the rights of property are _sacred_, while those of
their fellow-citizens are of comparatively little moment; but we feel
sure that when the people fully know and understand the doings of the
landlords of Scotland, the reckless destruction of homesteads, and the
silent sufferings of the brave Highlanders, they will make their will
known, and, when they do so, that _will_ must soon be embodied into
law.”

After quoting the opinion of the Rev. Dr. John Kennedy of Dingwall,
given at length on other pages, Mr. Wallace next quotes from an
article in the _Westminster Review_, in 1868. “The Gaels,” this writer
says, “rooted from the dawn of history on the <DW72>s of the northern
mountains, have been thinned out and thrown away like young turnips
too thickly planted. Noble gentlemen and noble ladies have shown a
flintiness of heart and a meanness of detail in carrying out their
clearings, upon which it is revolting to dwell; and after all, are
the evils of over-population cured? Does not the disease still spring
up under the very torture of the knife? Are not the crofts slowly and
silently taken at every opportunity out of the hands of the peasantry?
When a Highlander has to leave his hut there is now no resting-place
for him save the cellars or attics of the closes of Glasgow, or some
other large centre of employment; it has been noticed that the poor
Gael is even more liable than the Irishman to sink under the debasement
in which he is then immersed.” The same writer holds:--“No error could
be grosser than that of reviewing the chiefs as unlimited proprietors
not only of the land, but of the whole territory of the mountain, lake,
river, and sea-shore, held and won during hundreds of years by the
broad swords of the clansmen. Could any Maclean admit, even in a dream,
that his chief could clear Mull of all the Macleans and replace them
with Campbells; or the Mackintosh people his lands with Macdonalds, and
drive away his own race, any more than Louis Napoleon could evict all
the population of France and supply their place with English and German
colonists?” Yet this very power and right the English Government, in
its aristocratic selfishness, bestowed upon the chiefs, when, after
the great rebellion of 1745, it took away their privileges of war and
criminal jurisdiction, and endeavoured to assimilate them to the nobles
and great landowners of England. The rights of the clansmen were left
entirely out of consideration.[28]

[28] _Land Nationalisation, its Necessities and Aims; being a
Comparison of the System of Landlord and Tenant with that of Occupying
Ownership, in their influence on the well-being of the People_, by
Alfred Russel Wallace, author of “The Malay Archipelago,” “Island
Life,” &c. London: Trübner & Co., 1882.


A FRENCH ECONOMIST.

The following remarks by the celebrated French economist, M. de
Lavaleye, will prove interesting. There is no greater living authority
on land tenure than this writer, and being a foreigner, his opinions
are not open--as the opinions of our own countrymen may be--to the
suspicion of political bias or partisanship on a question which is of
universal interest all over the world. Referring to land tenure in this
country, he says:--

“The dispossession of the old proprietors, transformed by time into new
tenants, was effected on a larger scale by the “clearing of estates.”
When a lord of the manor, for his own profit, wanted to turn the small
holdings into large farms, or into pasturage, the small cultivators
were of no use. The proprietors adopted a simple means of getting rid
of them; and, by destroying their dwellings, forced them into exile.
The classical land of this system is Ireland, or more particularly the
Highlands of Scotland.

“It is now clearly established that in Scotland, just as in Ireland,
the soil was once the property of the clan or sept. The chiefs of
the clan had certain rights over the communal domain; but they were
even further from being proprietors than was Louis XIV. from being
proprietor of the territory of France. By successive encroachments,
however, they transformed their authority of suzerain into a right of
private ownership, without even recognising in their old co-proprietors
a right of hereditary possession. In a similar way the Zemindars
and Talugdars in India were, by the Act of the British Government,
transformed into absolute proprietors. Until modern days the chiefs of
the clan were interested in retaining a large number of vassals, as
their power, and often their security, were only guaranteed by their
arms. But when the order was established, and the chiefs--or lords,
as they now were--began to reside in the towns, and required large
revenues rather than numerous retainers, they endeavoured to introduce
large farms and pasturage.

“We may follow the first phases of this revolution, which commences
after the last rising under the Pretender, in the works of James
Anderson, and James Stuart. The latter tells us that in his time--in
the last third of the 18th century--the Highlands of Scotland still
presented a miniature picture of the Europe of four hundred years ago.
The rent (so he misnames the tribute paid to the chief of the clan) of
these lands is very little in comparison with their extent, but if it
is regarded relatively to the number of mouths which the farm supports,
it will be seen that land in the Scotch Highlands supports perhaps
twice as many persons as land of the same value in a fertile province.
When, in the last thirty years of the 18th century, they began to expel
the Gaels, they at the same time forbade them to emigrate to a foreign
country, so as to compel them by these means to congregate in Glasgow
and other manufacturing towns.

“In his observations on Smith’s _Wealth of Nations_, published in 1814,
David Buchanan gives us an idea of the progress made by the clearing of
estates. ‘In the Highlands,’ he says, ‘the landed proprietor, without
regard to the hereditary tenants’ (he wrongly applies this term to
the clansmen who were joint proprietors of the soil), ‘offers the land
to the highest bidder, who, if he wishes to improve the cultivation,
is anxious for nothing but the introduction of a new system. The soil,
dotted with small peasant proprietors, was formerly well populated
in proportion to its natural fertility. The new system of improved
agriculture and increased rents demands the greatest net profit with
the least possible outlay, and with this object the cultivators are got
rid of as being of no further use. Thus cast from their native soil,
they go to seek their living in the manufacturing towns.’

“George Ensor, in a work published in 1818, says:--They (the landed
proprietors of Scotland) dispossessed families as they would grub
up coppice-wood, and they treated the villages and their people as
Indians harassed with wild beasts do in their vengeance a jungle with
tigers.... Is it credible, that in the 18th century, in this missionary
age, in this Christian era, man shall be bartered for a fleece or a
carcase of mutton--nay, held cheaper?... Why, how much worse is it
than the intention of the Moguls, who, when they had broken into the
northern provinces of China, proposed in Council to exterminate the
inhabitants, and convert the land into pasture? This proposal many
Highland proprietors have effected in their own country against their
own countrymen.

“M. de Sismondi has rendered celebrated on the Continent the famous
clearing executed between 1814 and 1820 by the Duchess of Sutherland.
More than three thousand families were driven out; and 800,000 acres
of land, which formerly belonged to the clan, were transformed into
seignorial domain. Men were driven out to make room for sheep. The
sheep are now replaced by deer, and the pastures converted into deer
forests, which are treeless solitudes. The _Economist_ of June 2, 1866,
said on this subject:--Feudal instincts have as full career now as in
the time when the Conqueror destroyed thirty-six villages to make the
New Forest. Two millions of acres, comprising most fertile land, have
been changed into desert. The natural herbage in Glen Tilt was known
as the most succulent in Perth; the deer forest of Ben Alder was the
best natural meadow of Badenoch; the forest of Black Mount was the best
pasturage in Scotland for black-woolled sheep. The soil thus sacrificed
for the pleasures of the chase extends over an area larger than the
county of Perth. The land in the new Ben Alder forest supported 15,000
sheep; and this is but the thirtieth part of the territory sacrificed,
and thus rendered as unproductive as if it were buried in the depths of
the sea.

“The destruction of small property is still going on, no longer,
however, by encroachment, but by purchase. Whenever land comes into
the market it is bought by some rich capitalist, because the expenses
of legal inquiry are too great for a small investment. Thus, large
properties are consolidated, and fall, so to speak, into mortmain,
in consequence of the law of primogeniture and entails. In the 15th
century, according to Chancellor Fortescue, England was quoted
throughout Europe for its number of proprietors and the comfort of its
inhabitants. In 1688, Gregory King estimates that there were 180,000
proprietors, exclusive of 16,560 proprietors of noble rank. In 1786
there were 250,000 proprietors of England. According to the “Domesday
Book” of 1876, there were 170,000 rural proprietors in England owning
above an acre; 21,000 in Ireland, and 8000 in Scotland. A fifth of the
entire country is in the hands of 523 persons. Are you aware, said Mr.
Bright, in a speech delivered at Birmingham, August 27, 1866, that
one-half of the soil of Scotland belongs to ten or twelve persons?
Are you aware of the fact that the monopoly of landed property is
continually increasing and becoming more and more exclusive?

“In England, then, as at Rome, large property has swallowed up small
property, in consequence of a continuous evolution unchecked from the
beginning to the end of the nation’s history; and the social order
seems to be threatened just as in the Roman Empire.

“An ardent desire for a more equal division of the produce of labour
inflames the labouring classes, and passes from land to land. In
England, it arouses agitation among the industrial classes, and is
beginning to invade the rural districts. It obviously menaces landed
property as constituted in this country. The labourers who till the
soil will claim their share in it; and, if they fail to obtain it here,
will cross the sea in search of it. To retain a hold on them they must
be given a vote; and there is fresh danger in increasing the number
of electors while that of proprietors diminishes, and maintaining
laws which renders inequality greater and more striking, while ideas
of equality are assuming more formidable sway. To make the possession
of the soil a closed monopoly and to augment the political powers of
the class who are rigidly excluded, is at once to provoke levelling
measures and to facilitate them. Accordingly we find that England is
the country where the scheme of the nationalisation of the land finds
most adherents, and is most widely proclaimed. The country which is
furthest from the primitive organisations of property is likewise the
one where the social order seems most menaced.”


MR. JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN.

In a speech delivered at Inverness, on 18th September, 1885, Mr. Joseph
Chamberlain said:--

“The history of the Highland clearances is a black page in the account
with private ownership in land, and if it were to form a precedent,
if there could be any precedent for wrong-doing, if the sins of
the fathers ought to be visited upon the children, we should have
an excuse for more drastic legislation than any which the wildest
reformer has ever proposed. Thousands of industrious, hard-working,
God-fearing people were driven from the lands which had belonged to
their ancestors, and which for generations they had cultivated; their
houses were unroofed and destroyed, they were turned out homeless and
forlorn, exposed to the inclemency of the winter season, left to perish
on the hillsides or to swell the full flood of misery and destitution
in the cities to which they were driven for refuge. In some cases the
cruel kindness of their landlords provided the means of emigration--in
some cases they were actually driven abroad. They suffered greatly
in foreign countries, being unprovided with the means of sustaining
themselves until they could earn a livelihood, but the descendants
of those who survived have contributed in no mean degree to the
prosperity of the countries in which they finally settled. Those who
remained behind had, I am afraid, little cause to be grateful for the
consideration which was shown to them. In the course of years they were
deprived of all the advantages which they had previously enjoyed. They
had never had legal security of tenure, and they were transferred from
their original holdings in the glens and straths, which at one time
resounded with their industry, and they were placed out upon barren
patches on the sea-shore where it was impossible for the most exacting
toil and industry to obtain a subsistence. The picture that I have
drawn was no doubt relieved in some cases by the exceptional generosity
and kindness of particular proprietors, but, speaking generally, I
think it is the fact that the Highland country was to a considerable
extent depopulated by those clearances. The general condition of the
people suffered, and it has gone on deteriorating until it has become
at last a matter of national concern. If I am correct in the statement
in which I have endeavoured to summarise what I have read, and learned
upon this subject, I ask you whether it is not time that we should
submit to careful examination and review a system which places such
vast powers for evil in the hands of irresponsible individuals, and
which makes the possession of land not a trust but a means of extortion
and exaction?”


HARDSHIPS ENDURED BY FIRST EMIGRANTS.

BY Alexander MACKENZIE.

The reader is already acquainted with the misery endured by those
evicted from Barra and South Uist by Colonel Gordon, after their
arrival in Canada. This was no isolated case. We shall here give a
few instances of the unspeakable suffering of those pioneers who left
so early as 1773, in the ship _Hector_, for Pictou, Nova Scotia,
gathered from trustworthy sources during the writer’s late visit to
that country. The _Hector_ was owned by two men, Pagan and Witherspoon,
who bought three shares of land in Pictou, and they engaged a Mr.
John Ross as their agent, to accompany the vessel to Scotland, to
bring out as many colonists as could be induced, by misrepresentation
and falsehoods, to leave their homes. They offered a free passage, a
farm, and a year’s free provisions to their dupes. On his arrival in
Scotland, Ross drew a glowing picture of the land and other manifold
advantages of the country to which he was enticing the people.

The Highlanders knew nothing of the difficulties awaiting them in a
land covered over with a dense unbroken forest; and, tempted by the
prospect of owning splendid farms of their own, they were imposed upon
by his promise, and many of them agreed to accompany him across the
Atlantic and embraced his proposals. Calling first at Greenock, three
families and five single young men joined the vessel at that port.
She then sailed to Lochbroom, in Ross-shire, where she received 33
families and 25 single men, the whole of her passengers numbering about
200 souls. This band, in the beginning of July, 1773, bade a final
farewell to their native land, not a soul on board having ever crossed
the Atlantic except a single sailor and John Ross, the agent. As they
were leaving, a piper came on board who had not paid his passage; the
captain ordered him ashore, but the strains of the national instrument
affected those on board so much that they pleaded to have him allowed
to accompany them, and offered to share their own rations with him in
exchange for his music during the passage. Their request was granted,
and his performances aided in no small degree to cheer the noble band
of pioneers in their long voyage of eleven weeks, in a miserable hulk,
across the Atlantic.

The pilgrim band kept up their spirits as best they could by song,
pipe-music, dancing, wrestling, and other amusements, through the long
and painful voyage. The ship was so rotten that the passengers could
pick the wood out of her sides with their fingers. They met with a
severe gale off the Newfoundland coast, and were driven back by it so
far that it took them about fourteen days to get back to the point at
which the storm met them. The accommodation was wretched, smallpox and
dysentry broke out among the passengers. Eighteen of the children died,
and were committed to the deep amidst such anguish and heart-rending
agony as only a Highlander can understand. Their stock of provisions
became almost exhausted, the water became scarce and bad; the remnant
of provisions left consisted mainly of salt meat, which, from the
scarcity of water, added greatly to their sufferings. The oatcake
carried by them became mouldy, so that much of it had been thrown away
before they dreamt of having such a long passage. Fortunately for them,
one of the passengers, Hugh Macleod, more prudent than the others,
gathered up the despised scraps into a bag, and during the last few
days of the voyage his fellows were too glad to join him in devouring
this refuse to keep souls and bodies together.

At last the _Hector_ dropped anchor in the harbour, opposite where
the town of Pictou now stands. Though the Highland dress was then
proscribed at home, this emigrant band carried theirs along with them,
and, in celebration of their arrival, many of the younger men donned
their national dress--to which a few of them were able to add the
_sgian dubh_ and the claymore--while the piper blew up his pipes with
might and main, its thrilling tones, for the first time, startling the
denizens of the endless forest, and its echoes resounding through the
wild solitude. Scottish emigrants are admitted upon all hands to have
given its backbone of moral and religious strength to the Province,
and to those brought over from the Highlands in this vessel is due the
honour of being in the forefront--the pioneers and vanguard.

But how different was the reality to the expectations of these poor
creatures, led by the plausibility of the emigration agent, to expect
free estates on their arrival.

The whole scene, as far as the eye could see, was a dense forest. They
crowded on the deck to take stock of their future home, and their
hearts sank within them. They were landed without the provisions
promised, without shelter of any kind, and were only able by the aid of
those few before them, to erect camps of the rudest and most primitive
description, to shelter their wives and their children from the
elements. Their feelings of disappointment were most bitter, when they
compared the actual facts with the free farms and the comfort promised
them by the lying emigration agent. Many of them sat down in the forest
and wept bitterly; hardly any provisions were possessed by the few who
were before them, and what there was among them was soon devoured;
making all--old and new comers--almost destitute. It was now too late
to raise any crops that year. To make matters worse they were sent some
three miles into the forest, so that they could not even take advantage
with the same ease of any fish that might be caught in the harbour. The
whole thing appeared an utter mockery. To unskilled men the work of
clearing seemed hopeless; they were naturally afraid of the Red Indian
and of the wild beasts of the forest; without roads or paths, they were
frightened to move for fear of getting lost.

Can we wonder that, in such circumstances, they refused to settle on
the company’s lands? though, in consequence, when provisions arrived,
the agents refused to give them any. Ross and the company quarrelled,
and he ultimately left the newcomers to their fate. The few of them who
had a little money bought what provisions they could from the agents,
while others, less fortunate, exchanged their clothes for food; but
the greater number had neither money nor clothes to spend or exchange,
and they were all soon left quite destitute. Thus driven to extremity,
they determined to have the provisions retained by the agents, right
or wrong, and two of them went to claim them. They were positively
refused, but they determined to take what they could by force. They
seized the agents, tied them, took their guns from them, which they
hid at a distance; told them that they must have the food for their
families, but that they were quite willing and determined to pay for
them if ever they were able to do so. They then carefully weighed or
measured the various articles, took account of what each man received
and left, except one, the latter, a powerful and determined fellow, who
was left behind to release the two agents. This he did, after allowing
sufficient time for his friends to get to a safe distance, when he
informed the prisoners where they could find their guns. Intelligence
was sent to Halifax that the Highlanders were in rebellion, from whence
orders were sent to a Captain Archibald in Truro, to march his company
of militia to suppress and pacify them; but to his honour be it said,
he, point blank, refused, and sent word that he would do no such thing.
“I know the Highlanders,” he said, “and if they are fairly treated
there will be no trouble with them.” Finally, orders were given to
supply them with provisions, and Mr. Paterson, one of the agents, used
afterwards to say that the Highlanders who arrived in poverty, and who
had been so badly treated, had paid him every farthing with which he
had trusted them.

It would be tedious to describe the sufferings which they afterwards
endured. Many of them left. Others, fathers, mothers, and children,
bound themselves away, as virtual slaves, in other settlements, for
mere subsistence. Those who remained lived in small huts, covered only
with the bark of branches of trees to shelter them from the bitter
winter cold, of the severity of which they had no previous conception.
They had to walk some eighty miles, through a trackless forest, in
deep snow to Truro, to obtain a few bushels of potatoes, or a little
flour in exchange for their labour, dragging these back all the way
again on their backs, and endless cases of great suffering from actual
want occurred. The remembrance of these terrible days sank deep into
the minds of that generation, and long after, even to this day, the
narration of the scenes and cruel hardships through which they had to
pass beguiled, and now beguiles many a winter’s night as they sit by
their now comfortable firesides.

In the following spring they set to work. They cleared some of the
forest, and planted a larger crop. They learned to hunt the moose,
a kind of large deer. They began to cut timber, and sent a cargo of
it from Pictou--the first of a trade very profitably and extensively
carried on ever since. The population had, however, grown less than
it was before their arrival; for in this year it amounted only to 78
persons. One of the modes of laying up a supply of food for the winter
was to dig up a large quantity of clams or large oysters, pile them
in large heaps on the sea-shore, and then cover them over with sand,
though they were often, in winter, obliged to cut through ice more
than a foot thick to get at them. This will give a fair idea of the
hardships experienced by the earlier emigrants to these Colonies.

In Prince Edward Island, however, a colony from Lockerbie, in
Dumfriesshire, who came out in 1774, seemed to have fared even worse.
They commenced operations on the Island with fair prospects of success,
when a plague of locusts, or field mice, broke out, and consumed
everything, even the potatoes in the ground; and for eighteen months
the settlers experienced all the miseries of a famine, having for
several months only what lobsters or shell-fish they could gather from
the sea-shore. The winter brought them to such a state of weakness that
they were unable to convey food a reasonable distance even when they
had means to buy it.

In this pitiful position they heard that the Pictou people were making
progress that year, and that they had even some provisions to spare.
They sent one of their number to make enquiry. An American settler,
when he came to Pictou, brought a few slaves with him, and at this time
he had just been to Truro to sell one of them, and brought home some
provisions with the proceeds of the sale of his <DW64>. The messenger
from Prince Edward Island was putting up at this man’s house. He was a
bit of a humorist, and continued cheerful in spite of all his troubles.
On his return to the Island, the people congregated to hear the news.
“What kind of place is Pictou?” enquired one. “Oh, an awful place. Why,
I was staying with a man who was just eating the last of his <DW65>s;”
and the poor creatures were reduced to such a point themselves that
they actually believed the people of Pictou to be in such a condition
as to oblige them to live on the flesh of their <DW52> servants. They
were told, however, that matters were not quite so bad as that, and
fifteen families left for the earlier settlement, where, for a time,
they fared but very little better, but afterwards became prosperous and
happy. A few of their children and thousands of their grandchildren are
now living in comfort and plenty.

But who can think of these early hardships and cruel existences without
condemning--even hating--the memories of the harsh and heartless
Highland and Scottish lairds, who made existence at home even almost as
miserable for those noble fellows, and who then drove them in thousands
out of their native land, not caring one iota whether they sank in
the Atlantic, or were starved to death on a strange and uncongenial
soil? Retributive justice demands that posterity should execrate the
memories of the authors of such misery and horrid cruelty. It may
seem uncharitable to write thus of the dead; but it is impossible to
forget their inhuman conduct, though, no thanks to them--cruel tigers
in human form--it has turned out for the better, for the descendants
of those who were banished to what was then infinitely worse than
transportation for the worst crimes. Such criminals were looked after
and cared for; but those poor fellows, driven out of their homes by the
Highland lairds, and sent across there, were left to starve, helpless,
and uncared for. Their descendants are now a prosperous and thriving
people, and retribution is at hand. The descendants of the evicted
from Sutherland, Ross, Inverness-shires, and elsewhere, to Canada,
are producing enormous quantities of food, and millions of cattle, to
pour them into this country. What will be the consequence? The sheep
farmer--the primary and original cause of the evictions--will be the
first to suffer. The price of stock in Scotland must inevitably fall.
Rents must follow, and the joint authors of the original iniquity will,
as a class, then suffer the natural and just penalty of their past
misconduct.


AN EVICTING AGENT.

Giving evidence before the Deer Forest Commission of 1892, the late
Mr. Æneas R. Macdonell of Camusdarroch, Arisaig, made an interesting
statement. After mentioning that he was a member of the Scottish Bar,
and had previously been proprietor of Morar, he proceeded:--

I am able to speak generally as to the population there used to be in
Arisaig in my young days,--in fact, the whole tract of country seemed
to be populated and to have numerous houses on all parts of it; but
I want to confine my evidence almost entirely to that portion of the
district which is now under deer forest. It is now called Rhu-Arisaig,
but 100 years ago it was called Dubh-chamus.

Although I am only seventy-two years of age, I am able to speak of
thirty years beyond that, from 1794. My grandfather occupied the
various places or townships in Dubh-chamus or Rudha. These were
Dubh-chamus, Rhu, Tirnadrish, Torbae, Rhubrec, Tormor, Rhuemoch,
Claggan, Portavullid, Bal-ur, Ardgaserie, and Achagarrailt. I am able
to speak concerning that period from an old account-book belonging
to my grandfather, to which I had access a good many years ago, and
it was in connection with a very melancholy occasion in which I was
unfortunately implicated, viz., an emigration from the estate of
Loch Sheil in Moidart. In that account-book I found thirty-seven
names of individuals in the various families who were paying rent, as
sub-tenants to my grandfather, Archibald Macdonald, Rudha, Arisaig, who
died, I think, in 1828 or 1829. I don’t know where that account-book
now is. At that time it was in the possession of my uncle, Macdonald of
Loch Sheil; and I may as well mention that it was in connection with
Rudha that I came to examine the book.

First I should mention that these people occupied Rhu as cottars, and
they had land for which apparently they paid no rent, but worked the
land, of which Mr. Macdonald of Rudha cropped a portion. They paid rent
for grazing,--a small nominal sum, and he himself paid a very small
rent also to the then proprietor, Macdonald of Clanranald. In fact
he, as well as Macdonald of Borrodale and Macdonald of Glen Alladale,
came into possession of the various lands as being sons of the then
Macdonald of Clanranald. They took these lands with the population on
them, and occupied them.

The rents were paid to the tenants, to these Macdonalds, at a very
small rate, because they themselves were not highly charged.

It so came to pass that in Lord Cranston’s time my uncle, Gregor
Macdonald, who then occupied Rudha, had to give a large increase of
rent, or be quit of it. Well, he could not under the old system on
which he held it afford to give more rent. The consequence was that the
farm was taken over him; and the cruel thing was, that he was obliged
to remove all the sub-tenants upon it who had been there generations
before him or his ancestors. The only thing that he could do was to get
his brother Macdonald of Loch Sheil to take the people over to Loch
Sheil in Moidart. Times grew black, and the potato famine occurred, and
the consequence was that there was a redundant population, for Moidart
had previously been well inhabitated, and the addition of so many
families from Rudha, Arisaig, quite overwhelmed them when the potato
famine occurred.

I was then puzzled to know how many came from Rhu, Arisaig, and I got
access in that way to the old books from which I took an extract, and I
have here a list of the names of the various people and the portions of
Rudha that they occupied. In _Ardgaserich_ there were 12, viz., Lachlan
Mackinnon, Donald Roy Macinnes, John Macintyre, John Mackinnon, Patrick
Maccormack, Neil Mackinnon, Ronald Macdonald, Mrs. Macdonald, Donald
Macvarish, Duncan Macinnes, John Macdonald, and Allan Mackinnon. In
_Torbae_ there were 4, viz., Angus Smith, L. Mackinnon, J. Macdonald,
John Maciasaac. In _Dubh-chamus_, ten, viz., John Kinnaird, John
Macisaac, Finlay Mackellaig, Archibald Macfarlane, James Macdonald,
Widow Maceachan, Patrick Grant, Allan Mackinnon, Dugald Macpherson,
and Widow Maclean. In _Rudha_, 11, viz., Mrs. Donald Macdonald, Donald
Macinnes, Roderick Mackinnon, John Maccormack, Rory Smith, Angus Bain
Macdonald, Ewan Mackinnon, Peter Macfarlane, Dugald Gillies, Alexander
Macleod, Angus Roy Maceachan. These are in all 37, and they are
evidently of different families. The rents were given, and the payments
made, and everything in connection with their holdings. The date of
this is 1794.

I was going on to explain that these people, or rather the descendants
of some of them, had to be removed to Moidart, and in the congested
state of the estate it had to be considered what was best to be done.
I was then a young man. I had just passed at the Bar, and I and the
late respected James Macgregor of Fort William were appointed trustees
to do what was best. We could see nothing for it,--it was impossible
for the people to subsist,--but to assist them to emigrate, and we
were assisted very materially in carrying out the emigration by the
resident Catholic clergyman of that time, Rev. Ronald Rankine, who
indeed followed them. So many of them went to Australia and a few of
them to America. But never shall I forget until my dying day,--it is a
source of grief to me that I had anything whatsoever to do with that
emigration, although, at the same time, God knows I cannot understand
how it could have been averted. Many of the people have succeeded well
and are well-to-do, but if they had remained, they would have been
impoverished themselves, and they would have impoverished the few that
are still on the estate.


AN OCTOGENARIAN GAEL.

In his interesting volume entitled _Reminiscences and Reflections of
an Octogenarian Gael_, Mr. Duncan Campbell, for over twenty-six years
editor of the _Northern Chronicle_, writes as follows with regard to
the Breadalbane Evictions:--

As second Marquis, “the son of his father,” contrary to all
prognostications, became, as soon as expiring leases permitted it, an
evicting landlord on a large scale, and he continued to pursue the
policy of joining farm to farm, and turning out native people, to
the end of his twenty-eight years’ reign. But like the first spout
of the haggis, his first spout of evicting energy was the hottest.
I saw with childish sorrow, impotent wrath, and awful wonder at
man’s inhumanity to man, the harsh and sweeping Roro and Morenish
clearances, and heard much talk about others which were said to be as
bad if not worse. A comparison of the census returns for 1831 with
those of 1861 will show how the second Marquis reduced the rural
population on his large estates, while the inhabitants of certain
villages were allowed, or, as at Aberfeldy, encouraged to increase.
When such a loud and long-continued outcry took place about the
Sutherland clearances, it seems at first sight strange that such small
notice was taken by the Press, authors, and contemporary politicians,
of the Breadalbane evictions, and that the only set attack on the
Marquis should have been left to the vainglorious, blundering, Dunkeld
coal merchant, who added the chief-like word “Dunalastair” to his
designation. One reason--perchance the chief one--for the Marquis’s
immunity was the prominent manner in which he associated himself
with the Nonintrusionists, and his subsequently becoming an elder
and a liberal benefactor of the Free Church. He had a Presbyterian
upbringing, and lived in accordance with that upbringing. His Free
Church zeal may, therefore, have been as genuine as he wished it to be
believed; but whether simply real or partly simulated, it covered as
with a saintly cloak his evictions proceedings in the eyes of those
who would have been his loud denouncers and scourging critics had he
been an Episcopalian or remained in the Church of Scotland. The people
he evicted, and all of us, young and old, who were witnesses of the
clearances, could not give him much credit for any good in what seemed
to us the purely hard and commercial spirit of the policy which he
carried out as the owner of a princely Highland property. Such of the
witnesses of the clearances as have lived to see the present desolation
of rural baronies on the Breadalbane estates can now charitably assume
that, had he foreseen what his land-management policy was to lead up
to, he would, at least, have gone about his thinning-out business in a
more cautious, kindly, and considerate manner, and not rudely cut, as
he did, the precious ties of hereditary mutual sympathy and reliance
which had long existed between the lords and the native Highland people
of Breadalbane.

It is quite true that in 1834 the population on the Breadalbane
estate needed thinning. The old Marquis had made a great mistake
in dividing holdings which were too small before, in order to make
room for Fencible soldiers who were not, as eldest sons, heirs to
existing holdings. In twenty years, congestion to an alarming extent
was the natural result of the old man’s mistaken kindness. There was
indeed a good deal of congestion before that mistake was committed,
although migration and emigration helped to keep it within some limits.
Emigration would have proceeded briskly from 1760 onwards had it
not been discouraged by landlords who found the fighting manhood on
their estates a valuable asset; and when not positively prohibited,
emigration was impeded in various ways by the Government, now alive
to the value of Highlands and Isles as a nursery of soldiers and
sailors. Although discouraged and impeded, emigration was never wholly
stopped, and after Waterloo Glenlyon, Fortingall, and Breadalbane,
Rannoch, Strathearn and Balquhidder, sent off swarms to Canada, the
United States, and the West Indies. A large swarm from Breadalbane,
Lochearnhead, and Balquhidder went off to Nova Scotia about 1828,
and got Gaelic-speaking ministers to follow them. In 1829 a great
number of Skyemen from Lord Macdonald’s estate went to Cape Breton,
where Gaelic is the language of the people and pulpit to this day.
The second Marquis of Breadalbane would have won for himself lasting
glory and honour, and done his race and country valuable service, if
he had chosen to place himself at the head of an emigration scheme
for his surplus people, instead of merely driving them away, and
further trampling on their feelings by letting the big farms he made
by clearing out the native population to strangers in race, language,
and sympathies. He was rich, childless, and gifted, and he utterly
missed his vocation, or grand chance for gaining lasting fame among the
children of the Gael.

At a later period of my life than this of which I am now writing,
I looked into many kirk session books, and found that those of the
parishes of Kenmore and Killin indicated a worse state of matters in
Breadalbane than existed in any of the neighbouring parishes. Pauperism
was increasing at a rapid rate, although it was a notorious fact that
rents there were lower than on other Highland estates. The old Marquis
was never a rack-renter. Other proprietors, when leases terminated,
took more advantage than he did of a chance to raise rents, and when
once raised they strove ever afterwards to keep them up. But I do not
wonder that his son thought that if things were allowed to go on as he
found them on succeeding to titles and estates, a general bankruptcy
would soon be the result. Without ceasing to regret and detest his
methods, I learned to see the reasonableness of the second Marquis’s
view of the alarming situation. The population had simply outgrown
the means of decent subsistence from the carefully cultivated small
holdings which were the general rule. Had it not been for the frugality
and self-helpfulness of the people, the crisis of general poverty would
have come when the inflated war prices ceased, or at least in the
short-crop year of 1826, when the corn raised in Breadalbane, although
the hillsides were cultivated as far up as any cereal crop could
be expected to ripen in the most favourable season, did not supply
meal enough for two-thirds of the people. But the “calanas” of the
women, especially as long as flax-spinning continued in a flourishing
condition, brought in a good deal of money; and for many years “Calum
a Mhuilin” (Calum of the Mill), otherwise Malcolm Campbell, road
contractor, Killin, led out a host of young men to make roads in
various parts of the country, and these returned with their earnings to
spend the winter at home. These sources of profit were beginning to dry
up when the old Marquis died.

What came of the dispersed? The least adventurous or poorest of them
slipped away into the nearest manufacturing town, or mining districts
where there was a demand for unskilled labourers. There some of them
flourished, but not a few of them foundered. The larger portion of
them emigrated to Canada, mainly to the London district of Ontario,
where they cleared forest farms, cherished their Gaelic language and
traditions, prospered, and hated the Marquis more, perhaps, than
he rightly deserved when things were looked at from his own hard
political-economy point of view.




_STATISTICAL STATEMENT._


POPULATION IN 1831, 1841, 1851, 1881, AND 1911, OF ALL THE PARISHES IN
WHOLE OR IN PART IN THE COUNTY OF PERTHSHIRE.

                                    1831  1841  1851  1881  1911

  Aberdalgie                         434   360   343   297   278
  Aberfoyle                          660   543   514   465  1102
  Abernethy                         1915  1920  2026  1714  1297
  Abernyte                           254   280   275   275   209
  Arngask                            712   750   685   547   652
  Auchterarder                      3182  3434  4160  3648  3175
  Auchtergaven                      3417  3366  3232  2195  1250
  Balquhidder                       1049   871   874   627   734
  Bendochy                           780   783   773   715   502
  Blackford                         1897  1782  2012  1595  1374
  Blair-Athol                       2495  2231  2084  1742  1342
  Blairgowrie                       2644  3471  2497  5162   ...
  Callander                         1909  1665  1716  2167  1977
  Caputh                            2303  2317  2037  2096  1565
  Cargill                           1628  1642  1629  1348  1329
  Clunie                             944   763   723   582   474
  Collace                            730   702   581   409   324
  Culross                           1484  1444  1487  1130  1499
  Comrie                            2622  2471  2463  1858  1447
  Dron                               464   441   394   335   256
  Dull                              4590  3811  3342  2565   ...
  Dunbarney                         1162  1104  1066   756   862
  Dunkeld                           2032  1752  1662   791   628
  Dunning                           2045  2128  2206  1639  1145
  Errol                             2992  2832  2796  2421  2083
  Findo-Gask                         428   436   405   364   357
  Forgandenny                        913   796   828   617   565
  Forteviot                          624   638   638   618   524
  Fortingall                        3067  2740  2486  1690   ...
  Fossoway and Tulliebole           1576  1724  1621  1267   805
  Foulis-Wester                     1681  1609  1483   412   704
  Glendevon                          620   157   128   147   111
  Inchture                           878   769   745   650   545
  Kenmore                           3126  2539  2257  1508   686
  Killin                            2002  1702  1608  1277   913
  Kilmadock                         3752  4055  3659  3012  2272
  Kilspindie                         760   709   684   693   498
  Kincardine                        2455  2232  1993  1351   ...
  Kinclaven                          890   880   881   588   468
  Kinfauns                           732   720   650   583   558
  Kinnaird                           461   458   370   260   172
  Kinnoull                          2957  2879  3134  3461  4076
  Kirkmichael                       1568  1412  1280   849   421
  Lethendy and Kinloch               708   662   556   404   327
  Little Dunkeld                    2867  2718  2155  2175  1945
  Logierait                         3138  2959  2875  2323  1371
  Longforgan                        1638  1660  1787  1854  1997
  Madderty                           713   634   593   527   438
  Meigle                             873   728   686   696   856
  Methven                           2714  2446  2454  1910  1843
  Moneydie                           300   315   321   233   232
  Monzie                            1195  1261  1199   753   428
  Monievaird and Strowan             926   853   790   700   438
  Moulin                            2022  2019  2022  2066  2518
  Muckhart                           617   706   685   601   528
  Muthill                           3297  3067  2972  1702  1431
  Redgorton                         1866  1929  2047  1452  1086
  Rhynd                              400   402   338   297   205
  St. Madoes                         327   327   288   316   258
  St. Martins                       1135  1071   983   741   630
  Scone                             2268  2422  2381  2402  2389
  Tibbermore                        1223  1661  1495  1883  2443
  Trinity-Gask                       620   620   597   396   360
  Tulliallan                        3550  3196  3043  2207  2091
  Weem                              1209   890   740   474   391


POPULATION IN 1831, 1841, 1851, 1881, AND 1911, OF ALL THE PARISHES IN
WHOLE OR IN PART IN THE COUNTY OF ARGYLL.

  Ardchattan and Muckairn           2420  2264  2313  2005  2047
  Ardnamurchan                      5669  5581  5446  4105  3172
  Campbeltown                       9472  9539  9381  9755  9497
  Craignish                          892   970   873   451   325
  Dunoon and Kilmun                 2416  2853  4518  8002  6107
  Gigha and Cara                     534   550   547   382   326
  Glassary                          4054  5369  4711  4348   ...
  Glenorchy and Inishail            1806   831  1450  1705   931
  Inveraray                         2233  2277  2229   946   919
  Inverchaolain                      596   699   474   407   371
  Jura and Colonsay                 2205  2291  1901  1343   843
  Kilbrandon and Kilchattan         2833  2602  2375  1767  1370
  Kilcalmonell and Kilberry         3488  2460  2859  2304   815
  Kilchoman                         4822  4505  4142  2547  1459
  Kilchrenan and Dalavich           1096   894   776   504   357
  Kildalton                         3065  3315  3310  2271  1471
  Kilfinan                          2004  1816  1695  2153   928
  Kilfinichen and Kilviceuen        3819  4102  3054  1982  1403
  Killarrow and Kilmeny             7105  7341  4882  2756  2552
  Killean and Kilchenzie            2866  2401  2219  1386  1019
  Kilmartin                         1475  1213  1144   811   582
  Kilmodan                           648   578   500   323   264
  Kilmore and Kilbride              2836  4327  3131  5142  7154
  Kilninian and Kilmore             4830  4322  3954  2540  1811
  Kilniver and Kilmelford           1072   970   714   405   392
  Knapdale, North                   2583  2170  1666   927   656
  Knapdale, South                   2137  1537  2178  2536  2100
  Lismore and Appin                 4365  4193  4097  3433  3279
  Lochgoilhead and Kilmorich        1196  1100   834   870  1023
  Morvern                           2036  1781  1547   828   635
  Saddell and Skipness              2152  1798  1504  1163   964
  Small Isles                       1015   993   916   550   396
  Southend                          2120  1598  1406   955   767
  Strachur and Stralachan           1083  1086   915   932   700
  Tiree and Coll                    5769  6096  4818  3376  2214
  Torosay                           1889  1616  1361  1102   959


POPULATION IN 1831, 1841, 1851, 1881, AND 1911, OF ALL THE PARISHES IN
WHOLE OR IN PART IN THE COUNTY OF INVERNESS.

  Abernethy                    2092   1920   1871      1530   1228
  Alvie                        1092    972    914       707    564
  Ardersier                    1268   1475   1241[29]  2086   1913
  Ardnamurchan                 5669   5581   5446      4105   3172
  Boleskin and Abertarff       1829   1876   2006      1448   1791
  Cawdor                       1187   1150   1202      1070    859
  Cromdale                     3234   3561   3990      3642   1920
  Croy                         1664   1684   1770      1709   1384
  Daviot and Dunlichity        1641   1681   1857      1252    907
  Dores                        1736   1745   1650      1148    794
  Duthil                       1920   1759   1788      1664   1345
  Glenelg                      2874   2729   2470      1601   1638
  Inverness                   14324  15418  16496     21725  25669
  Kilmallie                    4210   5397   5235      4157   3704
  Kilmonivaig                  2869   2791   2583      1928   1234
  Kilmorach (including Beauly) 2709   2694   3007      2618   1811
  Kiltarlity                   2715   2896   2965      2134   1523
  Kingussie and Insh           2080   2047   2201      1987   2199
  Kirkhill                     1715   1829   1730      1480   1237
  Laggan                       1196   1201   1223       917    754
  Moy and Dalarossie           1098    967   1018       822    696
  Petty                        1836   1749   1784      1531   1263
  Urquhart and Glenmoriston    2942   3104   3280      2438   1675
  Urray                        2768   2716   2621      2478   1848
    _Insular_--
  Barra                        2097   2363   1873      2161   2620
  Bracadale                    1769   1824   1597       929    805
  Duirinish                    4765   4983   5330      4391   3093
  Harris                       3900   4429   4250      4814   4944
  Kilmuir                      3415   3629   3177      2562   1964
  North Uist                   4603   4428   3918      4264   4096
  Portree                      3441   3574   3557      3191   2431
  Sleat                        2756   2706   2531      2060   1385
  Small Isles                  1015    993    916       550    396
  Snizort                      3487   3220   3101      2120   1694
  South Uist                   6890   7333   6173      6078   5469
  Strath                       2962   3150   3243      2616   1947

[29] Including 948 military and militia in Fort-George in 1881.


POPULATION IN 1831, 1841, 1851, 1881, AND 1911, OF ALL THE PARISHES IN
WHOLE OR IN PART IN THE COUNTIES OF ROSS AND CROMARTY.

  Alness                       1437   1269   1240   1033    898
  Applecross                   2892   2861   2709   2239   2498
  Avoch                        1956   1931   2029   1691   1782
  Contin                       2023   1770   1562   1422    957
  Cromarty                     2900   2662   2727   2009   5637
  Dingwall                     1159   2100   2364   2220   2942
  Edderton                     1023    975    890    431    545
  Fearn                        1695   1914   2122   2135   1785
  Fodderty                     2232   2437   2342   2047   1648
  Gairloch                     4445   4880   5186   4594   3328
  Glenshiel                     715    745    573    424    339
  Killearnan                   1479   1643   1794   1059    741
  Kilmuir-Easter               1556   1486   1437   1146    887
  Kiltearn                     1605   1436   1538   1182   1138
  Kincardine                   1887   2108   1896   1472   1025
  Kintail                      1240   1186   1009    688    ...
  Knockbain                    2139   2565   3005   1866   1397
  Lochalsh                     2433   2597   2299   2050   1761
  Lochbroom                    4615   4799   4813   4191   2794
  Lochcarron                   2136   1960   1612   1456    982
  Logie-Easter                  934   1015    965    827    700
  Nigg                         1404   1426   1457   1000    827
  Resolis or Kirkmichael       1470   1549   1551   1424    954
  Rosemarkie                   1799   1719   1776   1357    726
  Rosskeen                     2916   3222   3699   3773   3362
  Tain                         3078   3128   3574   3009   2507
  Tarbat                       1809   1826   2151   1878   1224
  Urquhart and Logie-Wester    2864   2997   3153   2525   2006
  Urray                        2768   2716   2621   2474   1848
    _Insular_--
  Barvas                       3011   3850   4189   5325   6040
  Lochs                        3067   3653   4256   6248   6689
  Stornoway                    5491   6218   8057  10389  13438
  Uig                          3041   3316   3209   3489   3436


POPULATION IN 1831, 1841, 1851, 1881, AND 1911, OF ALL THE PARISHES IN
WHOLE OR IN PART IN THE COUNTY OF CAITHNESS.

                               1831   1841   1851   1881   1911
  Bower                        1615   1689   1658   1608   1393
  Canisbay                     2364   2306   2437   2626   1866
  Dunnet                       1906   1880   1868   1607   1147
  Halkirk                      2847   2963   2918   2705   2041
  Latheron                     7030   7637   8224   6675   4512
  Olrig                        1146   1584   1873   2002   1450
  [31]Reay                     2881   2811   2506   2191   1811
  Thurso                       4679   4881   5096   6217   4732
  Watten                       1234   1966   1351   1406   1079
  Wick                         9850  10393  11851  12822  12772


POPULATION IN 1801, 1811, 1821, 1831, 1841, 1851, 1871, 1881, AND 1911,
OF ALL THE PARISHES IN WHOLE OR IN PART IN THE COUNTY OF SUTHERLAND.

                1801  1811  1821  1831  1841     1851  1871  1881  1911
  Assynt        2419  2479  2803  3161  3178     2989  3006  2781  2111
  Clyne         1643  1639  1874  1711  1765     1933  1733  1812  1749
  Creich        1974  1969  2354  2562  2852     2714  2524  2223  1713
  Dornoch       2362  2681  3100  3380  2714     2981  2764  2525  2724
  Durness       1208  1155  1004  1153  1109     1152  1049   987   830
  Eddrachillis  1253  1147  1229  1965  1699     1576  1530  1525  1259
  Farr          2408  2408  1994  2073  2217     2403  2019  1930  1673
  Golspie       1616  1391  1049  1149  1214     1529  1804  1556  1685
  Kildonan      1440  1574   565   257   256 [30]2288  1916  1942  1786
  Lairg         1209  1354  1094  1045   913     1162   978  1335   995
  Loth          1374  1330  2008  2234  2526  [30]640   583   584   367
  [31]Reay      2406  2317  2758  2881  2811     2506  2331  2191  1581
  Rogart        2022  2148  1986  1805  1501     1535  1341  1227   892
  Tongue        1348  1493  1736  2030  2041     2018  2051  1929  1609

[30] The lands of Helmsdale and others previously in the parish of Loth
were, about this time, added to Kildonan, which accounts for this large
increase. It also accounts for the decrease in Loth.

[31] Note that Reay is given both in Caithness and Sutherland records
same figures. The parish lies one half in each county.




_APPENDICES._


NOTE A. (See Page 115.)

The following pertinent observations appeared in the _Dundee
Advertiser_, of 10th January, 1914. They are from the pen of a notable
Dundee lawyer, Mr. John Walker, who has made a special study of the
legal aspects of the Highland Clearances:--

At the time of Patrick Sellar’s trial the ruthless evictions carried
out by the Stafford family had been so long in process of execution
that no one had the slightest doubt of the facts of these taking
place. The question tried was not whether they took place, but whether
they were carried out, in one particular instance, in such a way as
to directly cause the death of Donald M’Beath and Janet M’Kay, two
helpless, old, bedridden people. The trial took place at Inverness.
Of the 15 jurors 8 were landed proprietors, and the rest were mostly
either factors or those interested in factors. The most of the
witnesses for the prosecution were evidently terrified to say one word
against the accused. When Sellar was arrested, he emitted a declaration
which was put in evidence at the trial, and, to be strictly fair,
I shall confine myself to that. The gist of it is as follows:--In
December, 1813, the crofting lands were advertised to let, and at the
set, where apparently the lands were disposed of to sheep farmers,
a paper was read that the removed tenants would get allotments “in
the lower part of the county.” “That Lord and Lady Stafford directed
the declarant (Sellar) to offer at the set for any farm he chose a
few pounds beyond the highest offerer; and they directed Mr. Young
on his so offering to prefer him.” That thus Sellar got possession
of the farms of Rhiloisk and Rossal. That in April, 1814, decrees of
removing were got against all the tenants on these farms. That the
ejections were carried out in June, 1814, and “that his directions to
the officers were that they should lawfully eject the tenants, and
that after ejecting ... they should remove the roof of every house
in Rhimsdale excepting those occupied by families, wherein sickness
was mentioned to have been.” That he was present at the first part
of the ejections (of the towns of Garvault, Ravigill, Rhiphail, and
Rhiloisk), but after they had ejected from a few houses and had
unroofed these the tenants of the others “in the neighbourhood yielded
obedience to the warrant, and removed themselves.” “Interrogated. If
the declarant’s orders to the officer and party were not to throw down
the couples and timber of the different dwelling-houses, barns, kilns,
and sheep cots? Declares that the declarant directed the officers ...
to remove the tenants’ property and effects from the premises; and
thereafter to unroof the huts to prevent them from retaking possession
after the declarant should leave that part of the county.” Sellar
himself admitted burning only in one case. The proceedings from a
judicial aspect were largely a farce, as can be judged from the fact
that the first evidence adduced for the defence consisted of written
certificates from three landed proprietors, who did not appear, as to
“Mr. Sellar’s character for humanity,” and that these certificates,
although not evidence, were founded on in Lord Pitmilly’s charge to the
jury. But the important thing is that Sellar’s declaration implicates
Lord and Lady Stafford as being by their own instructions the direct
instruments of putting this tyrannical under-factor in the position of
rendering homeless some hundreds of their helpless tenants. The little
crofts were made into large sheep farms, which were advertised to let
to the highest offerer, and the exposure was a farce, because the
Sutherland family had personally arranged that Sellar was to be allowed
to cap the highest offer. One would require a double-power microscope
to see the noble philanthropy of that transaction! I have extracted
the above summary from the report of the trial, which was prepared and
circulated by Sellar’s own junior counsel.

On the other hand, the stories yet told in Sutherland represent a much
harsher state of matters. I personally have talked with men whose
fathers were as young children turned out on the hillside to see their
little cottages burned to the ground, and I have had pointed out to me
the sites of these same cottages and crofts, where now there is nothing
but miles and miles of dreary waste; and this did not happen in one or
two instances, but in the whole of Strathnaver, Strathbrora, and many
other places in all parts of the county.


NOTE B. (See Page 218.)

The following interesting letter has been handed to the Editor by Mr.
J. Stewart Bannatyne, solicitor, Glasgow:

      “CASTLEBAY, BARRA.

      “_September 21st, 1912._

  “Dear Sir,

  “In reply to your letter of the 6th inst., and after consulting the
  older inhabitants, I beg to inform you that it was John Bannatyne
  who rescued Mrs. J. M’Kinnon, her sister and another woman, from
  compulsory emigration, but it was John Crawford who rescued John
  M’Lean. I know the women and M’Lean as well as I know my two fingers,
  and heard the whole story from their own lips different times.

  “Both my father and mother were eye-witnesses of people being chased
  like wild cattle over the hills, not in Barra, but in North and South
  Uists. People can hardly believe now what took place then, and what
  my mother, who died in my arms at the fall of last year, told me it
  would be enough to make the devil himself desperate, if I am not
  using too strong an expression.

  “There is a man still living at Mallaig, Inverness-shire, named Ewen
  M’Dugald, who sailed with John Bannatyne.

  “People nowadays are trying to deny that such brutalities were
  carried out by landlords, but they need not attempt such nonsense. I
  have no doubt but the descendants of the perpetrators of those acts
  are ashamed of the deeds--and no wonder.

          “Yours faithfully,
              “DON. M’AULAY.

  “JOHN STEWART BANNATYNE, Esq.,
      “Solicitor, Glasgow.”


NOTE C. (See page 234.)

In the _Inverness Courier_ for 11th October, 1837, appears the
following:--

A large body of emigrants sailed from Tobermory, on the 27th September,
for New South Wales. The vessel was the “Brilliant,” and its size and
splendid fittings were greatly admired. “The people to be conveyed
by this vessel are decidedly the most valuable that have ever left
the shores of Great Britain. They are of excellent moral character,
and, from their knowledge of agriculture, and management of sheep
and cattle, must prove a most valuable acquisition to a colony like
New South Wales.” The Rev. Mr. Macpherson, of Tobermory, preached a
farewell sermon before the party sailed. The total number of emigrants
was 322, made up as follows:--From Ardnamurchan and Strontian, 105;
from Coll and Tiree, 104; from Mull and Iona, 56; from Morven, 25;
and from Dunoon, 28. There were two teachers and two surgeons. A
visitor from New South Wales presented as many of the party as he met
with letters of introduction, and expressed himself highly gratified
with the prospect of having so valuable an addition to the colony. A
Government agent superintended the embarkation.


_Jamieson & Munro, Ltd., Printers, Stirling._




      *      *      *      *      *      *




Transcriber's note:

The following apparent errors have been corrected:

p. 50 "d minution" changed to "diminution"

p. 63 "ineviably" changed to "inevitably"

p. 64 "Pontyzfield" changed to "Poyntzfield"

p. 69 (note) "1820)" changed to "1820"

p. 86 "hour" changed to "four"

p. 87 the line beginning "paper, I can" was originally printed at the
end of another paragraph on the same page

p. 105 "“I am" changed to "‘I am"

p. 106 "thanmen" changed to "than men"

p. 106 "n this county" changed to "in this county"

p. 106 "y2ur" changed to "your"

p. 119 "assitants" changed to "assistants"

p. 126 "he character" changed to "the character"

p. 128 "and and of" changed to "and of"

p. 134 "Hibbs’" changed to "Hibbs"

p. 136 "“The affair" changed to "“‘The affair"

p. 136 "tha the" changed to "that they"

p. 145 "apect" changed to "aspect"

p. 152 "instructive" changed to "instructive,"

p. 152 "regimé" changed to "régime"

p. 153 "Now this" changed to "“"Now this"

p. 166 "frmo" changed to "from"

p. 166 "Makenzie" changed to "Mackenzie"

p. 169 (note) "pp" changed to "pp."

p. 171 "number bering" changed to "numbering"

p. 172 "disposed" changed to "be disposed"

p. 179 "sad" changed to "said"

p. 182 "desstroyed" changed to "destroyed"

p. 185 "unmarried; aand" changed to "unmarried; and"

p. 188 "marraige" changed to "marriage"

p. 190 "offpsring" changed to "offspring"

p. 193 "trade than" changed to "trade then"

p. 197 "MACKENKIE" changed to "MACKENZIE"

p. 197 "enchanced" changed to "enhanced"

p. 199 "desscribes" changed to "describes"

p. 209 "right loyally" changed to "right royally"

p. 215 "species?”" changed to "species?’"

p. 218 "opprsseing" changed to "oppressing"

p. 228 "souls" changed to "souls."

p. 236 "stored" changed to "stoved"

p. 242 "pennilness" changed to "penniless"

p. 246 "uneviable" changed to "unenviable"

p. 250 "months’" changed to "months,"

p. 260 "In his" changed to "“In his"

p. 261 "It is credible, that in the 19th" changed to "Is it credible,
that in the 18th"

p. 261 "fretile" changed to "fertile"

p. 266 "wood cut" changed to "wood out"

p. 267 "refused, bu" changed to "refused, but"

p. 278 "the in" changed to "the parishes in"

p. 280 "Ardersier," changed to "Ardersier"


The following are used inconsistently in the text:

bedridden and bed-ridden

coadjutors and co-adjutors

fireplace and fire-place

fourscore and four-score

handcuffed and hand-cuffed

heartrending and heart-rending

hillside and hill-side

mantelpiece and mantel-piece

mountainside and mountain-side

outhouses and out-houses

overcrowded and overcrowded

sheepwalk and sheep-walk

shellfish and shell-fish


p. 204 "“When the evicting" has no corresponding closing quotation mark

p. 256 "“By the" has no corresponding closing quotation mark



***