early occasion of dilating with some degree of minuteness, upon the important subject which it involves. Mr Fraser, under the guidance of lucid good sense, without any of the clap-trap refinements so rife in these times, has, if we mistake not, hit upon the true mode of benefiting himself while conducing to the comfort and prosperity of his humble tenantry.

The croft portion of the estate of Guisachan is composed of four farms, consisting of mixed arable, wood and pasture land.

Each farm is divided into so many lots, upon the following principle:-Say that a farm is worth a rental of £48, and considered a desirable farm for four tenants, the arable and improvable portion of it is forthwith surveyed and cut up into four lots; a tenant takes each lot, whilst the hill range is common to the four tenants. Each tenant thus pays £12 a-year-keeps a horse, cultivates and improves his own ground, while the four, in common, pay a lad to herd their united sheep-stock on the hill, each farmer, however, owning his own sheep individually.

Some of the farms bring more, and some less than £12 (each lot) per annum; such, however forms the average.

It is now upwards of four years since these lots were made out. Strict impartiality was observed in equally dividing them. Nineteen years' leases, with proper conditions, were made out, and granted to the tenants on all these lots. Large improvements, such as making embankments to keep off floods of the river, &c., have been made by the landlord, whilst all the smaller improvements and the reclaiming of new land have been undertaken and carried on by the tenants. Previous to 1845, when these leases were granted, the crofters were a little more numerous, the old fashioned runrig system was all that was known, and such a thing as a lease did not exist, and hardly an improvement had been carried on for forty years back; and even the continued liberality of the late proprietor had hardly kept the people from the lowest state of poverty and dependence. Since then new life and energy have actuated the newly created tenants, and improvement has been the order of the day; some of the lots are now worth fully a third more than they were four years ago, and the tenants continue to progress. By their leases they are bound to erect new and comfortable houses; most of the tenants hitherto have been so occupied in taking in new land, that they have hardly had time to attend to aught else, but are now generally beginning to build their

houses. In the course of another year or two, when less occupied with their improvements in lands and houses, wood being furnished them, they will take a look at the nicety of their fences, &c.; in five or six years from the commencement of their leases, it is the expectation of their landlord to see their farms all in a state of perfect order-a very different state of things from what would exist without leases!

Hitherto there has been only one failure amongst them all, and in this case the subject is an old man upwards of 70 years of age, who, from his poverty and frailty, could not have been expected to succeed in his new independent position, and was only given a lot to avoid turning him adrift. There are numbers of applications to fill his place.

The rents of the farms are well paid. When a tenant wishes to improve a portion of land, situated on the pasture ground, common to the whole farm, the understanding is, that the landlord can divide the common run of pasture into equal portions, when the said tenant encloses his own share, and does what he chooses with it.

The other farms on the estate are let on the same principle, but being much larger, are not included in the foregoing statement. Owing to the mode in which the farms and lots on the property are made out and let, poverty can scarcely be said to exist on it: whilst the poor rates of the parish (of which Guisachan forms a part) amount to 1s. 6d. in the pound, there are only two paupers on the estate of Guisachan. Though these lots are few in number, that fact cannot be considered as against the system, either in theory or practice: were there 500 lots, the system throughout might be carried on as easily, and as much to the advantage of the country and reduction of pauperism. The system of small farms and long leases requires but to be looked into with impartiality and candour to be followed by the annihilation of the runrig system.

Satisfied as I am of the good results of small farms with leases, yet I am clearly of opinion, that it would be doing an injustice to men of the class, to give such farms to men without any capital whatever; they should certainly possess enough property to enable them to take possession of, and stock their farms, without borrowing from their neighbours; if a tenant has some trade to depend on beside, why, so much the better.

I have written out below, the rents payable by, and the stock possessed by three of the tenants, average specimens of the whole number. It is difficult to mention exactly the quantity of arable land in each lot, as it is not yet ascertained what amount of land of the tenants have already taken in, since their lot was surveyed :

many

R. G- -, rent £16; has 2 horses, 4 cows, 4 young cattle, upwards of 50 sheep. Has about 8 acres of arable land, with his share of hill pasture.

W. F, rent £11, 10s.; has 1 horse, 4 cows, 4 young cattle, upwards of 40 sheep. Has about 7 acres arable, with share of hill pasturage.

M

J. M—, rent £15, out of which, £7 is payable as landlord of the Inn; has 1 horse, 2 cows, 2 young cattle, about 30 sheep. Has about 7 acres arable, with share of hill pasture.

MORE PONDERINGS OF A PERTHSHIRE FARMER-IMPROVEMENT OF THE COTTIER SYSTEM.

Our active minded friend in Perthshire still favours us with cheering cogitations on subjects connected with the welfare and elevation of the peasantry. From an excellent letter which he has recently addressed to us, we make the following extract, which deserves, we think, deliberate consideration. Our correspondent does not, like some projectors, aim to deprive the peasantry of all freedom of action: his object, on the contrary, is to afford industrious cottiers some just scope for useful exertion, that they may be profitable members of society, not thriftless serfs, always tending towards pauperism :

"And here I would humbly throw out a hint which you will, perhaps, make some use of in future schemes. Most of the cotteries are in a ruinous state, the principal features being a hovel, not rectilinear, and which, by every rule of natural philosophy, should fall; an oppressive load of accumulated thatch, surmounted by no visible chimney; a dirty entrance, and a midden nearer than is consistent with health or cleanly civilisation; and pools of green, stagnant water to vary the rustic scene, an old turf or feal dyke, of no use but to shew twaddling moralists the effects of time. Now, on most Highland moors stone is near at hand, and

all the men are good dry builders. Let the landlord employ a good superintending mason, who could overlook and direct the building of a dozen cottages with lime, supply wood for rafters, &c., and thatch or slate, as most convenient. If the line of cottages were together, let there be built round the whole ground proposed to be enclosed a substantial three-foot wall, surmounted, at the owner's cost, by a wire or iron rail. The building to be done by all the cottiers in company; the partitions between each by all also, or by the two neighbours; the cottiers to be guaranteed a lease of nineteen years, to encourage them to commence and build for their own comfort; and no rent to be charged as long as they are working on the building, draining, and enclosing-say for the first two years-as they are generally poor; but if they are of good character, their labour is good security; and although money were advanced to assist them to stock, they would soon repay it. It is an advantage to have them near each other, as one plough, &c. might serve two or three. If they build their own houses according to the rule laid down of their being substantial and modern, let them be entitled to a sum of compensation at the end of the lease, as well as a lower rent, proportionable to the interest of money saved to the landlord. To render them independent of other wages of labour, each croft should be suitably large, according to the quality of the soil. A well written, concise, practical pamphlet, laying down the most economical and remunerative system of croft culture, would teach them more than an expensive and unworkable college, which they would ridicule. Last of all, let every cottier have the privilege of grazing a cow or more, according as he pays for it, on the moor land, outside of the enclosed. My principle is, to do as they did long ago, when crofts were first established. Don't employ a host of masons at 15s. a week to build an humble cottage; but, as in the colonies, let them employ their own hands and ingenuity, thus saving an outlay which would at the first discourage the owner of the land. Let them make a perfect, well-finished, well-enclosed job of each holding at the first, and thereafter all is the work which they know well, that of farming their croft, and improving it. Many of the peasantry at present have only a garden so small, that it only holds two bee-hives and a few rows of cabbage and greens, with which, and a cow's keep, they manage to live and pay a £7 rent. How much more respectable and comfortable, then, would they be,

if they could be established as small farmers? and I maintain that it would pay; and for such idle fellows as would not exert themselves to better their condition, I would have no pity for them. Let them join the emigration tide.

"P.S. If the cows grazed outside, as proposed, there would be no occasion for dividing dykes between cottiers.

"I have written this very hastily, and quite immatured, as I have never taken the trouble to follow out all the contingencies which might prevent the plan going on; but, if you choose, I will farther consider, and in time write a prospectus, which you can look at."

SHOULD NOT THE HIGHLANDERS BE SCHOLASTICALLY TAUGHT THEIR OWN NATIVE LANGUAGE?

A letter, copied from the Witness, in another column, touches upon a topic to which we attach great importance. The writer notices propositions to have a professor of Celtic in the new Free Church College, and in other collegiate institutions, which we entirely approve of. Each of the Queen's Colleges in Ireland has a Celtic professor, and why should Scotland fall behind the sister island in this class of instruction? But we are disposed to go much farther and deeper, and to promote an early cultivation of Celtic in the Highland schools. Celtic children should be taught to read and write in the language which they lisp from infancy, and this course of instruction would fit their faculties for a readier reception of the English language. An eminently useful Irishman, Thaddeus Connellan, has been the means of diffusing a sound knowledge of the Celtic in Ireland; and the result has been to stimulate students to acquire a more thorough acquaintance with the English tongue. In Wales, the same system has had the same happy effect.

PROPOSED WEEKLY MARKETS IN THE HIGHLANDS.

We are not disposed to undervalue the cleverness of the present day; but it sometimes occurs to us that the diffusion of education, and the influence of scribbling, printing, and publication have a proneness to produce a very speculative state of things, in which