men have accomplished, and in the full enjoyment of the confidence, fidelity, and gratitude of a happy and prosperous tenantry, are now supporting a manly and honourable independence, while others have descended from their enviable eminence for an immediate or prospective addition to their rent-rolls,-an addition which the short respite or delay, so necessary in all improvements, would have enabled their ancient adherents to have contributed. * In many

Most of the evils which press upon the present age, and which lately desolated Europe, have arisen from the very cause, which has produced such violent changes among the mountains of Scotland; namely, an impatience to obtain too soon, and without due preparation, the advantages that were contemplated, and, from an attempt to accomplish at once, what no human power can effect without the slow but certain aid of time. As an instance of the result of the modern method of management, in hurrying on improvements, regardless of the sacrifice of the happiness of others, contrasted with the effects of improving with moderation and as time and circumstances admitted, I shall state the results of the opposite lines of conduct followed by two Highland proprietors. One of these gentlemen obtained possession of his father's estate, and employed an agent to arrange the farm on a new plan. The first principle was to consider his lands as an article of commerce, to be disposed of to the highest bidder. The old tenants were accordingly removed. New ones offered, and rents, great beyond all precedent, were promised. Two rents were paid; the third was deficient nearly one-half, and the fourth failed entirely, and was paid by the sale of the tenant's stock. Fresh tenants were then to be procured. This was not so easy, as no abatement was to be given: consequently, a considerable proportion of the estate remained in the proprietor's hands. After the second year, however, the whole farms were again let, but another failure succeeded. The same process was again gone through, and with similar results, to the great discredit of the farms, as few would again attempt to settle, without great reduction of rent, where so many had failed. But, in all those difficulties, there was no diminution in the landlord's expenses. Indeed, they were greatly extended by fresh speculations and dreams of increased income. Without detailing the whole process, I shall only add, that his creditors have done with the estate what he did with the farms-offered it to the highest bidder. The other gentleman acted differently. When he succeeded his father, he raised his rents according to the increased value of produce. This continuing to rise, be showed his people, that, as a boll of grain, a cow or sheep, obtained one or two hundred per cent. higher price than formerly, it was but just that they should pay rent in proportion. In this they cheerfully acquiesced, while

instances, no more attention was shown to the feelings of the descendants of their father's clansmen, than if the connection between the families of the superiors and the tenantry had commenced but yesterday. In others, again, the people are preserved entire, losing nothing of their moral habits, retaining much of the honourable feelings of former times, and improving in industry and agricultural knowledge; their kind and considerate landlords, having commenced with the improvement of the people as the best and most permanent foundation for the improvement of their lands: while, in other cases, the population of a glen or district seems to have been considered in the same light as flocks that ranged the hills, to be kept in their habitations so long as they were thought profitable, and when it was believed that they had ceased to be so, to be ejected to make room for strangers. * But those whose families and predecessors had remained for ages, on a particular spot, considered themselves entitled to be preferred to strangers, when they offered equal terms for their lands. Men of supposed skill and capital were, however, invited to bid against them. These, by flattering representations of their own ability to improve the property, and by holding out the prejudices, indolence, and poverty of the old tenantry, as rendering them incapable of carrying on any improvement, or paying an adequate rent, frequently obtained the prefethey followed his directions and example in improving their land. He has not removed a tenant. In cases where he thought them too crowded, he, on the decease of a tenant, made a division of his land amongst the others. This was the only alteration as far as regarded the removal of the ancient inhabitants, who are contented and prosperous, paying such good and regular rents to their landlord, that he has now saved money sufficient to purchase a lot of his neighbour's estate; and he has also the happiness of believing, that no emissary sowing the seeds of sedition against the king and government, or of disaffection to the established church, will find countenance, or meet with hearers or converts among his tenantry, whose easy circumstances render them loyal and proof against all the arts of the turbulent and factious, whether directed against the king, the church, or their immediate superiors.

See Appendix, X.

rence. In many cases even secret offers have been called for, and received, the highest constituting the best claim ; * notwithstanding the examples exhibited by those true patriots, who, by giving time and encouragement, showed at once the capability of their lands and of their tenants: yet, to one of these strangers, or to one of their own richer or more speculating countrymen, were surrendered the lands of a whole valley, peopled, perhaps, by a hundred families. An indifference, if not an aversion, to the families of the landlords who acted in this manner, has too frequently been the natural result; and, in many places, the Highland proprietors, from being the objects of greater veneration with the people than those of any other part of the kingdom, perhaps of Europe, have lost their affections and fidelity. While many have thus forfeited that honourable influence, (and what influence can be more honourable than that which springs from gratitude and a voluntary affectionate obedience?) which their predecessors enjoyed in such per

Nothing, in the policy pursued in the management of Highland estates, has been more productive of evil than this custom, introduced along with the new improvements, of letting farms by secret offers. It has generated jealousy, hatred, and distrust, setting brother against brother, friend against friend; and, wherever it has prevailed on large estates, has raised such a ferment in the country as will require years to allay. Sir George Mackenzie, in his Report of the County of Ross, with reference to this manner of letting farms, thus feelingly expresses himself: "No exaggerated picture of distress can be drawn to convey to the feeling mind the horrible consequences of such conduct as has been mentioned, towards a numerous tenantry. Whatever difference of opinion may exist respecting the necessity of reducing the numbers of occupiers of land in the Highlands, there can exist but one on conduct such as has been described, that it is cruelly unjust and dishonourable, especially if, as too often happens, the old tenants are falsely informed of offers having been made. Such a deception is so mean, that its having been ever practised, is enough to bring indelible disgrace on us all." Certainly such proceedings must be repugnant to every honourable and enlightened mind. But the disgrace attaches only to those who practise such infamous deceptions. There are many honourable men in the Highlands, who wish nothing but for a fair and honest value for their lands, and would as soon take the money out of their tenants' pockets as act in this manner.

fection, that to this day the most affectionate blessings are poured out on their memory, as often as their names are mentioned; the system which has so materially contributed to this change has not been followed by advantages in any way proportionate to the loss. On the contrary, the result has, in too many cases, been bankruptcy among tenants, diminution of honourable principles, and irregularity in the payment of rents, which, instead of improving, have embarrassed the condition of the landlord.

In some cases, these proceedings have been met by resistance on the part of the tenants, and occasioned serious tumults. In most instances, however, the latter have sub

• The leading circumstances of one of these tumults will be seen in the account of the military services of the 42d regiment. In the year 1792, a numerous body of tenantry, in the county of Ross, were removed on account of an improved plan, in the advantages of which they were to have no share. Their welfare, as in too many cases in the Highlands, formed no part of this plan. They were all ejected from their farms. It was some years before the result could be fully estimated, so far as regarded the welfare of the landlords. The ruin of the old occupiers was immediate. To the proprietors the same result, though more slowly produced, seems equally certain. In one district, improved in this merciless manner, the estates of five ancient families, who, for several centuries, had supported an honourable and respected name, are all in possession of one individual, who, early in the late war, amassed a large fortune in a public department abroad. The original tenants were first dispossessed, and the lairds soon followed. May I not hazard a supposition, that, if these gentlemen had permitted their people to remain, and if they had followed the example of their ancestors, who preserved their estates for two, three, and four hundred years, they, too, might have kept possession, and bequeathed them to their posterity? The new proprietor has made great and extensive improvements. It is said, that he has laid out thirty thousand pounds on two of these estates. Some very judicious men think, that if the numerous old hardy and vigorous occupiers had been retained, and encouraged by the application of one-third of this sum, such effectual assistance, with their abstemious habits and personal labour, would have enabled them to execute the same improvements, and to pay equally good rents with the present occupiers. To be sure their houses would have been small, and their establishments mean in comparison of those of the present tenants; but, to balance the mean appearance of their houses, they would have cost the landlord little beyond a small supply of wood. We

mitted with patient resignation to their lot; and, by their manner of bearing this treatment, showed how little they deserved it. But their character has changed with their situations. The evil is extending, and the tenants of kind and patriotic landlords seem to be, in no small degree, affected by the gloom and despondency of those who complain of harsh treatment, and who, neglected and repulsed by their natural protectors, while their feelings and attachment were still strong, have, in too many instances, sought consolation in the doctrines of ignorant and fanatical spiritual guides, capable of producing no solid or beneficial impression on the ardent minds of those, to whom their exhortations and harangues are generally addressed. The natural enthusiasm of the Highland character has, in many instances, been converted into a gloomy and morose fanaticism. Traditional history and native poetry, which reminded them of other times, are neglected. Theological disputes, of interminable duration, now occupy much of the time formerly devoted to poetical recitals, and social meetings. These circumstances have blunted their romantic feelings, and lessened their taste for the works of imagination. "Among the causes," says Dr Smith, "which make our ancient poems vanish so rapidly, poverty and the iron rod should in most places have a large share. From the baneful shades of these murderers of the muse, the light of the song must fast retire. No other reason need be asked why the present Highlanders neglect so much the songs of their fathers. Once the humble but

should then have seen these districts peopled by a high-spirited independent peasantry, instead of the few day-labourers and cottars, who are now dependent on the great farmer for their employment and daily bread, and who, sensible of their dependence, must cringe to those by offending whom they would deprive themselves of the means of subsistence. When no tie of mutual attachment exists, as in former days, the modern one is easily broken. A look that may be construed into insolence is a sufficient cause of dismissal. Can we expect high-spirited chivalrous soldiers, preferring death to defeat and disgrace, from such a population, and such ha bits as these?