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his Report for the County of Inverness, says, "Some of the chieftains themselves have given the death-blow to chieftain-ship: they have cut the cords of affection which tied their followers and their tribes, and yet they complain of the defection of their tribes, which, with their eyes open, they have driven from them." Those who respect the feelings of a whole people may mourn over the breaking of those cords which bound together in affectionate duty and esteem the different orders of Highland society; and, while

change of management and improved cultivation were not only necessary, but indispensable, may regret that, to attain them, it has been found necessary to occasion such a revolution as has, in many cases, taken place, by the abrupt and unanticipated adoption of such measures as, without time or opportunity afforded for guarding against the convulsive shock, have been productive of the most violent changes, and proved subversive of all former habits and modes of living.

"For thee, insatiate chief, whose ruthless hand
For ever drives me from my native land;
For thee I leave no greater curse behind,
Than the fell bodings of a guilty mind;
Or what were harder to a soul like thine,
To find from avarice thy wealth decline.

"Feed on, my flocks,-my harmless people, feed, The worst that ye can suffer is to bleed.

O! that the murderer's steel were all my fear,

How fondly would I stay to perish here:
But hark, my sons loud call me from the vale,
And, lo! the vessel spreads her swelling sail.
Farewell, farewell-

Then casting many a lingering look behind,
Down the steep mountain's brow began to wind."

• See Report to the Board of Agriculture.

SECTION IV.

Smuggling-Consequences of reducing the Highlanders from the condition of small tenantry-Policy of retaining an agricultural population.

I MUST now advert to a cause which contributes to demoralize the Highlanders in a manner equally rapid and lamentable. Smuggling has grown to an alarming extent, and, if not checked, will undermine the best principles of the people; for let them be habituated to falsehood, fraud and perjury in one line of life, and they will soon learn to extend these vices to all their actions. This traffic operates like a secret poison on all their moral feelings. They are the more readily betrayed into it, as, though acute and ingenious in regard to all that comes within the scope of their observation, they do not comprehend the nature or purpose of imposts levied on the produce of the soil, nor have they any distinct idea that the practice of smuggling is attended with disgrace or turpitude. Their excuse for engaging in such a traffic, is, that its aid is necessary to enable them to pay their rents and taxes;-an allegation which supposes that these demands require the open violation of the law, by practices at once destructive of health and good morals, and affords a lamentable instance of the state to which they find themselves reduced. As a contrast to the discontents against Government which prevail in the South on political subjects, and on Reform, it deserves to be mentioned, that in the North, annual parliaments, universal suffrage, and the whole catalogue of political grievances, are never thought of. There the severity and intricacy of the Excise laws, which render them equally difficult to be understood or obeyed, conjoined with the conduct of individual proprietors, form the theme of their complaints. The delicate situation in which

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landlords are placed, when sitting as magistrates on Excise courts, and inflicting penalties for smuggling, has a strong influence on the minds of their tenants, who complain that they cannot dispose of their produce, or pay their rents, without the aid of this forbidden traffic; and it is difficult to persuade them that gentlemen are sincere in their attempts to suppress a practice without which, as it is asserted, their incomes could not be paid, in a country where legal distillation is in a manner prohibited. How powerfully this appearance of inconsistency contributes to affect the esteem and respect of tenants for their landlords, must be sufficiently evident.

By act of Parliament, the Highland district was marked out by a definite line, extending along the southern base of the Grampians, within which all distillation of spirits was prohibited from stills of less than 500 gallons. It is evident that this law was a complete interdict, as a still of this magnitude would consume more than the disposable grain in the most extensive county within this newly drawn and imaginary boundary; nor could fuel be obtained for such an establishment, without an expence which the commodity could not possibly bear. The sale, too, of the spirits produced was circumscribed within the same line, and thus the market which alone could have supported the manufacture was entirely cut off. The quantity of grain raised in many districts, in consequence of recent agricultural improvements, greatly exceeds the consumption; but the inferior quality of this grain, and the great expence of carrying it to the Lowland distillers, who, by a ready market, and the command of fuel, can more easily accommodate themselves to this law, renders it impracticable for the farmers to dispose of their grain in any manner adequate to pay rents equal to the real value of their farms, subject as they are to the many drawbacks of uncertain climate, uneven surface, distance from market, and scarcity of fuel. Thus no alternative remained but that of having recourse to illicit distillation, or absolute ruin, by the breach of their engagements

with their landlords. These are difficulties of which the Highlanders complain heavily, asserting that nature and the distillery-laws present insurmountable obstacles to the carrying on a legal traffic. The surplus produce of their agricultural labour will, therefore, remain on their hands, unless they incur an expence beyond what the article will bear, in conveying to the Lowland market so bulky a commodity as the raw material, and by the drawback of price on their inferior grain. In this manner, their produce must be disposed of at a great loss, as it cannot be legally manufactured in the country. Hence they resort to smuggling as their only resource, a state to which it might have been expected that neither an enlightened government nor liberal landlords would have reduced a well-behaved race, and thereby compelled them to have recourse to practices subversive of the feelings of honour and rectitude, and made them regardless of their character in this world, and their happiness in the next. And if it indeed be true, that this illegal traffic has made such deplorable breaches in the honesty and right feeling of the people, the revenue drawn from the large distilleries, to which the Highlanders have been made the sacrifice, has been procured at too high a price to the country.

By the late alterations in the distillery-laws, the size of the still has been reduced, with the view of meeting the scarcity of fuel, and the limited means of the Highlanders.

• Since the formation of roads to the hill-mosses, and the introduction of carts, the consumption of peat for fuel has greatly increased, and is quickly diminishing the supply. Peat has now become an expensive fuel; the raising and carrying home the quantity necessary for even family purposes consume much valuable time, in the season best calculated for agricultural labour and improvements. Coals are brought from thirty to fifty miles by land carriage, in preference to the expence and loss of time in preparing a species of fuel which is not well calculated for strong fires. The nature and expence of this fuel afford additional arguments against the propriety or justice of equalizing the Highland duties with those of the Lowland distilleries, independently of the great difference in the quality of the grain and of the distance from market.

Government had, unfortunately, shut their eyes to the representations of the evil consequences resulting from those prohibitory measures, and had turned a ready ear to the offers of revenue by the large distillers. This conflict between temporary revenue and lasting injury to the morals of a virtuous people, was so long continued, that the evil has become too general, but not beyond remedy. If the Excise-laws were so framed as to enable the Highland distiller to overcome the difficulties which nature has thrown in his way, and with his light and inferior grain, to pay the duties which are calculated for the more productive grain of the southern counties, it might safely be predicted that smuggling to any extent would speedily disappear. It is well known that smuggling was little practised, and produced no deterioration in the morals of the people, (who, in the last age, were not, in any manner, addicted to strong liquors +,) till the change in the Excise-laws ‡, and in the manner of

• When the duty on malt was lowered a few years ago, all grain malted in the Highlands of Perthshire was entered for the Excise-duty, and a great increase of revenue drawn; but when it was again augmented, smuggling of malt recommenced, and the revenue produced has not been worth the expence of collection.

The salaries of Excise-officers are so small, as to be inadequate to the support of their families, and the expence to which the exercise of their duty lays them open, viz. being daily on horseback, and living much in taverns. The deficiency is supplied by their being allowed a share of all fines and seizures; but it is evident that, if there were no smuggling, there could be neither fines nor seizures, and, while the suppression of the traffic would destroy a source of great emolument to those whose duty it is to suppress it, they must live on their small and inadequate salaries,—an alternative to which it were prudent not to expose them. Without attributing any improper conduct, or neglect of duty, to men placed in this delicate situation, it is well known, that fines and seizures have failed in suppressing smuggling. On the contrary, smugglers proceed with more eagerness than usual, immediately after a seizure or conviction, as, otherwise, how could the consequent fine be paid?

Till within the last thirty years, whisky was less used in the Highlands than rum and brandy, which were landed on the west coast, and thence conveyed all over the country. Indeed, it was not till the beginning, or rather towards the middle of the last century, that spirits of any kind were so much drank as ale, which was tormerly the universal beverage. Every

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