prove striking even to a royal beholder. I was informed that the internal embellishments are also in the first style of splendourbefitting the rank and riches of the owner. Much expeditionary effort must be employed to complete the castle for the reception of royalty; but I have no doubt that the gorgeous feat will be accomplished. Would that the same successful speed might attend the Duke's exertions to ameliorate the condition of his tenantry! There is much to be done in order to clear Sutherland of the reproach of being a vast sheep walk; and the arrangements in progress for accommodating Prince Albert with a provisional preserve for shooting deer, are not likely to extend the sphere of agricultural improvement. The sheep and deer of Sutherland can of course be seen by the royal visitors; but the difficulty will be to find out a Sutherland yeomanry, living comfortably and thankfully in the interior, as in days of yore. The Prince De Ligne, in his amusing Memoirs, gives an entertaining account of an imperial visit of Catherine II. to her ultra-Russian dominions in the Crimea. The Tartarian tracts of desolation were as dispeopled as Kildonan or Strathnaver; but in timely advance of the august cortege, workmen were employed to construct nice extempore cottages, in which picturesque peasants greeted their sovereign Lady as she glided past; and when the monarch was fairly out of sight, the theatrical tenants were ejected, and the make-shift little mansions tumbled to the ground! Prince Potemkin was the author of this stupendous deception, and Prince De Ligne (who was in the secret, and travelling in the imperial carriage) could hardly forbear chuckling as they passed through successions of sham villages. Whether the Sutherland Potemkin-whosoever he may be-could manage to get up something in this way to exhilarate her Britannic Majesty, it is not for me to determine; but sure I am that the poor creatures miserably populating the sterile coasts of Sutherland, cannot be passed off upon our good Queen as the thriving tenantry of Sutherland. Well, if, in anticipation of the restituting reality, the Duke shall be prepared to submit to royal eyes the lands and leases about to be granted to her suffering Scottish subjects, I, for one, shall deem it to be the noblest homage that has as yet been offered to her Majesty.

I cannot conclude these honestly-meant observations without expressing my cordial concurrence in the good wishes unfeignedly demonstrated in behalf of the Marquis and Marchioness of Staf

ford. Every kind of eulogistic eloquence seems to have its kindred orator at one or other of the complimentary dinners; but at the entertainment at Golspie Inn (which by the way is an excellent hostelry) a burst of imagination found its way into language, which is of itself sufficient to signalize the Sutherland rejoicings. The Rev. Mr Rose of Tain was on his road to Golspie for the purpose of mastication, deglutition, and declamatory achievement, when he was so lucky as to see (without second sight) two rainbows, one lovingly enclosing another and a brighter one! The rev. gentlemen treasured up these optical wonders in his "mind's eye," until a tenth toast enabled him to turn his rainbows to admirable account, by insisting that the larger, and (he somewhat ungallantly added) the faded one meant Mrs Hay Mackenzie, while the lesser and brighter rainbow radiently imaged the youthful Marchioness of Stafford! This bodes well for the congratulatory addresses to the Queen when received right royally at Dunrobin. If Mr Gunn fires off another loyal harangue, and the Rev. Mr Rose has the good fortune to pop upon another pair of rainbows (to suit the Queen and Prince Albert), the next Sutherland rejoicings will constitute a memorable affair.-I am, sir, your obedient servant, THOMAS MULOCK.

Inverness, Dec. 27. 1849.

P.S. Since writing the above I have seen a quotation from the John O'Groat Journal, predicting on behalf of the Duke and Mr Loch some of the very improvements which I have ventured to suggest. I anxiously hope that the rumour-loving editor is an authorised soothsayer. I wish some other revealer of ducal good intentions may be empowered to declare that His Grace will not give effect to certain meditated clearances of the poor people from Elphin in Assynt. My information on this subject is so specific, that I trust the Duke's officials will spare me the pain of giving it to the public, together with some reminiscences of Lochbroom emigrations! T. M.

THE NEGLECTED STATE OF THE HIGHLAND PAROCHIAL POOR.

Pondering on our personally acquired information as to the general condition of the population of the Highlands, we are sometimes tempted to question whether some epidemic blindness and hardness of heart has not seized hold of the ruling and influential

classes of society. The interests of the rich seem to be the exclusive care of conservatism, while, in fact, the neglect of the poor is destroying the entire foundations of the social system. The wealthy have their assigned position: they are stewards, administrators, responsible trustees of property, with a bounteous proportion for their own superior support and gratification; but if they selfishly appropriate all, they risk the loss of all. There is nothing new in selfishness. "All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, has been in all ages," says shrewd Adam Smith, “the vile maxim of the masters of mankind." And our times are rife with this wickedness. In every city, town, village, hamlet, or isolated abode of poverty, we can trace the operation of that insatiable covetousness, which prostrates the poor beneath the feet of opulent oppressors. The indigent have their share of sin and guilt—they are partakers of the same evil nature that incurably taints the more fortunate classes; but, still, it is to be remembered, that the productive labour of society is supplied by those who, if we may so speak, are nearest the earth, who till and sow, or toil and spin. Remove the slothful, sleepy sons of aristocracy, summa papavera carpens, and the damage can be readily repaired, for the artificial orders of society can re-constitute themselves; but, if the great body of the people be crushed into the degradation of absolute pauperism, we may be assured that, whatever be the seeming splendour of a great country, the real springs of national prosperity are fatally dried up.

With the view of setting this important theme more clearly and emphatically before our readers, we propose, in an early article, entering upon the subject of the treatment of the parochial poor throughout the Highlands. We think we shall be able to shew that the poor relief act is almost a dead letter, and that the paupers on some rolls neither get what the law allows them, nor receive their unjust pittance with any thing like regularity. On looking into the statistics of pauperism in the northern counties, we meet with some startling facts, which demand inquiry. The average annual allowance to each pauper in this shire (Inverness) is nine shillings, being only one shilling more than in 1741! Caithness and Ross are still lower than Inverness; but Sutherland, the "happy valley" of some sycophants and dreamers, is lowest of all! We will endeavour to clear up these contrarieties, even at the risk of being denounced as grievance-hunters by his Grace of Sutherland.

PART III.

GLENELG AND LOCHALSH.

ROADS IN GLENELG-THE COMMISSIONERS OF SUPPLY.

"A petition was read from a number of farmers in Glenelg, praying that ten miles of road between Kirkton and Arnisdale (alleged to have been in a bad state for years), in Glenelg, might be kept in proper repair. A letter from Mr Mulock accompanied the petition, which was not read, and the subject was postponed." -Inverness Courier, Oct. 4.

As matters affecting public interests and convenience are always benefited by publicity, we think it right to subjoin a copy of the above-mentioned petition from Glenelg, and also of Mr Mulock's unread letter. We trust that, during the interval of postponement, the Commissioners of Supply will satisfy themselves as to the facts of the case, and that no private interests will be allowed to frustrate a public object. No district can possibly prosper where the roads are neglected; and as to the funds, the law sufficiently empowers the Commissioners to lay an adequate assessment, which, indeed, they are bound to do.

To the Honourable the Commissioners of Supply for the County of Inverness,

The Memorial of the undersigned Tacksmen and other holders of land, and other residents in Glenelg,

SHEWETH,

That the public road leading from Kirkton to Arnisdale, a space of at least ten miles, is now, and has been for years past, in a very neglected, and, in some places, dangerous and impassable state, and no measures have been taken for its due reparation.

Memorialists, therefore, earnestly solicit the effectual interference of your Honourable Board to have the said road placed in proper order, so as to secure the safe passage of travellers, and to promote the industrial intercourse of the whole neighbourhood. And memorialists will pray.

(Here follow the signatures.)

To the Committee of the Commissioners of Supply appointed for Glenelg.

GENTLEMEN,-Mr Stewart of Ellanreach, Glenelg, has transmitted me the accompanying memorial, with a request that I would forward it, and also state, from my own recent observation and inquiry, the just grounds of the application.

Being recently in Glenelg, and having occasion to proceed from Kirkton to Arnisdale, I found it was impossible to pass the road in any wheel-carriage; and I further found that, even on horseback, the transit was dangerous. All the proper purposes of intercommunication are, in the Glenelg district, frustrated by the wretched state of this public road; and, wheresoever the responsibility may rest, it is to be hoped that some effectual remedy will speedily be applied.-I am, Gentlemen, your obedient servant, THOMAS MULOCK.

Inverness, Sept. 16. 1849.

NOTICES OF LOCHALSH AND GLENELG.

To the Editor of the Inverness Advertiser.

SIR, The distressed dwellers in such parts of the Highlands and Islands as I have visited, must not hastily conclude, from the attention I have thought it needful to devote to Sutherland, that I am unmindful of other districts which I examined during the past autumn. The state of Skye, the Uists, and Barra, is perfectly present to my recollection; and if health and strength be restored to me (both seriously impaired by over-exertion) I shall avail myself of every fitting occasion to set before the public the true condition of the oppressed people in those remoter regions. In performing this duty, I am quite as much the friend of the misled proprietors as of their cast-down dependants. I hold it to be impossible that the welfare of the owners of the soil can ever be separated from the prosperity of the humbler classes who till the land; and therefore it is that the whole strain of my strictures goes to establish the fact, that where the poor are oppressed, the rich never thrive. But the rich hath many friends, insomuch that it is a service of danger to indicate the errors of faulty possessors of property. After close enquiry, and impartial consideration, I am settled in the conclusion that more blame is imputable to the