of viewing it as a collateral source of comfort to their poor dependants; and where is the landlord that affords due encouragement to the fishing which he hopes to profit by? Certainly such encouragement is not manifested on the shores of Lochalsh, Glenelg, and South Uist.

Now when all these oppressions (although the tithe be not told) have been harassing and pauperising the small holders of land, the whole ruined face of things gloomily foreshews some great impending change. But no change of system on the part of the proprietor, so as to benefit his distressed dependants, is ever contemplated. Some adroit, subservient emissary (not seldom, I regret to say, a minister of the Established Church, piqued by the revolt of Disruptionists) is employed to sound a pauperised parish on the subject of emigration. Expectations are held out by agents, which principals subsequently repudiate, but still the pressure of an iron necessity urges the poor people to their doomed departure. They sign an agreement; sell their little moveables for next to nothing; their crop or stock, after a reservation for rent, is hypothecated for passage money; and the poor pilgrims of despair are shipped on board some vessel, where fever lies in wait for its victims! The survivors reach some shore of our colonies utterly unprepared to absorb any supplementary population, and a fresh form of woe and want, and wretchedness, is presented to the exiles. The rest of their painful history must be furnished by the sufferers themselves, whose trials and privations cannot even be conceived by any effort of imagination.

Well they are gone. Hundreds, nay, thousands, have for ever forsaken Lochalsh, Glenelg, and South Uist! Is the prosperity of those estates markedly increased? Has pauperism vanished from view? Are crofts enlarged by a wise distribution of the emigrant possessions, according to certain stipulations made with the Highland Destitution Committee? Are the three potentates-Mr Lillingston, Mr Baillie, and Colonel Gordon-full of satisfaction, and sovereigns or bank-notes, as the rich result of their emigration schemes? Alas, alas, no! Not one of these anticipated advantages has accrued; nor is it within the pale of possibility that they ever should accrue. The misery of those who were banished seems doubly entailed upon the sufferers who remain; and, to all appearance, the domain of desolation is widened. Mr Lillingston and Mr Baillie have silently endured their disap

pointment; but not so that publishing proprietor, Colonel Gordon. In a pathetic letter addressed to Sir George Grey, the disconsolate possessor of South Uist and Barra pictures the wrongs inflicted upon the opulent, and clearly demonstrates his own destruction, in consequence of having made an unlucky purchase! The innocent Colonel being, it should seem, quite a babe in pecuniary mattersa mere ignoramus in the mysteries of buying and selling-bought an estate, from which he expected what were styled kelp rents, whereas kelp itself the golden-egged goose-had ceased to exist before the worthy Colonel had dreamt of being a Lord of the Isles by indiscreet purchase! To remedy this bad bargain, the Colonel importunes the Queen's Government to take South Uist and Barra off his hands, and thus relieve him from an overwhelming load of sorrows. Sir George Grey does not hold out strong consolation to the poor Colonel, who writes very much in the strain of the old Scottish ballad

"I am the most unhappy man

That ever was in Christen land."

So very differently, however, do men view the calamities of others, that I could undertake to shew that the island of Barra alone might suffice to make a wise and beneficent proprietor wealthy, without emigration, and without pitiful appeals to Sir George Grey. The plain truth is, that Colonel Gordon, like many other rich men, is profoundly ignorant of the true uses of property. To hoard for themselves, or to spend on themselves, includes all their notions of the responsibility awfully attaching to great possessions. But the day is drawing nigh when these rank delusions will be frightfully dispelled. It is a Satanic imposture, that the solemn stew ardship of God's soil is freely convertible into a mischievous power of oppressing the poor. The use of property is to make property useful; and where this is not done, it were better for men to have been born beggars, than to live in luxury while causing the wretched to want and weep!

In concluding my present strictures on the subject of emigration, I would emphatically separate myself from all persons who are prone to invoke the interference of the Legislature to check this great evil. No law could reach any effectual remedy; for, although the law holds out protection to property, it cannot restrain or cure the abuse of property. Nothing but the influence of the gospel can lead men rightly in their conduct towards their fellow

men; and a proprietor void of Christianity would be sure to evade the most stringent devices of legislation.-I am, Sir, your obedient servant, THOMAS MULOCK.

Inverness, Dec. 20. 1849.

REPORTED LIBERALITY OF SOME HIGHLAND PROPRIETORS.

To the Editor of the Inverness Advertiser.

SIR,-The heartfelt eagerness with which I hastened to announce, through your responsive journal, the recent good deeds of Lord Macdonald in relation to his Lordship's Skye and North Uist tenantry, will have afforded some additional testimony to the truth of my oft-repeated declarations, that, according to my humble measure of mediatorial usefulness, I am equally the friend of proprietors and their people. In my Highland enquiries I have been filled with honest regret that the landlords in many, nay, most districts, were absolutely abandoning their own interests, in ceasing to consult the welfare of their distressed, neglected, and persecuted dependants; and while giving faithful expression to the severest censures, I still encouraged the expectation that wellmeant reproof would find its way even to the most adverse quarters. But how much sweeter is the privilege of according praise, than the task of affixing blame! How pleasant to be enabled to dwell delightedly on acts of beneficence, rather than to chronicle the calamitous workings of churlishness and oppression! I am happy to learn that Lord Macdonald is not alone in his compassionate efforts to retrieve the wretchedness, and aid the activity, of the poorer Highlanders. Mr Mackenzie of Applecross also signalizes himself by considerate generosity and self-denying forbearance, which will infallibly produce beneficial results. From my brief but cordial communications with Applecross, I augured most favourably of him as a landlord; and my investigations in his neighbourhood confirmed me in the justness of my friendly surmise. Without at all attempting to detract from the merit of some other kindly-intentioned proprietors, I may be allowed to intimate my persuasion that Dundonnell possesses many qualities which will render him eminently useful in his Highland region. I write according to my conscientious convictions, undeterred by fear, and unswayed by favour.

My main object in calling renewed attention to the themes now embraced, is to turn to the best advantage the examples of bounty and commendable sympathy which I am sure will be gratifyingly hailed throughout the Highlands. The suitableness of this sacred anniversary for urging topics of mercy and kindness must not be overlooked by the Christian mind. The unspeakable gift of God -the divine donative of a glorious Redeemer-was vouchsafed, as at this season, to fallen man; and all the righteousness ever manifested on earth, flowed, and flows, and will ever flow, from that incarnate Saviour, whose mission was mercy, and whose whole life is celestially characterised by the words of holy writ-he went about doing good. It cannot, therefore, be out of place at this time to advert to some cogent considerations bearing upon the possibility of bettering the condition of our afflicted brethren among the humbler classes. The field is large, and it is to be feared the labourers are few; but, with the blessing and help of the Most High, the greatest difficulties may be surmounted, as well as the richest benefits conferred.

to

In relieving presently known distress, no Highland proprietor can possibly go wrong. The minutest alleviations of the mass of misery are cheeringly felt and gratefully remembered; but the important business of a landlord is to exercise wisdom, blended with benevolence, in promoting the permanent welfare of his lowlier tenantry-for tenants of a more opulent order can manage take tolerably good care of themselves. The bountiful forgiveness of large arrears by Lord Macdonald, and of old arrears by Applecross, leads me to throw out some suggestions, which I trust will be properly appreciated. The existence of arrears not assignable to any special calamities, such as failure of crops, murrain, &c., &c., implies something radically blameable on the side of either landlord or tenant. If, in consequence of a competition for land, poor tenants have rashly agreed to pay higher rents than the fairly-considered circumstances of the soil would justify; and if, after a hopeless struggle, they sink into insolvency, and are constantly crushed with increasing arrears; then, I conceive the faulty person to be in reality the landlord, who, instead of fixing an equitable rent, has, in fact, auctioned his land, and extorted from a necessitous bidder a promised amount of rent which the land itself will not enable him to pay! Wherever I have turned my steps in the Highlands, I have found innumerable cases of

this description, which I should be glad to see rectified; for this false system is ruinous to both landlords and tenants. To exact an over-rent for land is to give a bonus to mere adventurers, who catch at a farm, small or large, without entering upon the proper calculations which would serve to settle the reasonable quantum of rent. Where tenants run continually in arrear, all improvement of the land is wholly out of the question-the land is scratched and exhausted, but never cultivated. Let me, therefore, respectfully recommend to Lord Macdonald and Applecross, not to satisfy themselves or others with simply forgiving arrears, but to adopt such measures as may prevent the returning accumulation of arrears. Let them clear up the fact, whether enough of land, at a moderate rent, has been assigned to poor but industrious tenants, and where such is not the case, the sooner a just alteration takes place, the better for all parties. Regarding incurably idle and improvident tenants, a wise, and at the same time humane, landlord, will know how to pursue the fitting course, when warning and exhortation have failed. The next point is the much mooted one of leases to small holders of land-about which I am only astonished that so much variance of opinion should prevail. Doctor Mackenzie, of Gairloch celebrity-my esteemed acquaintance, Mr Roberts of Torlundie, start no scruples as to the propriety of giving leases to the fortunate farmer of 100 or 500 acres, who risks an outlay the first two years, in the honest expectation of turning the remaining period to profitable account-and why should not a poor man be actuated by the same laudable motives, and be favoured with the same reasonable encouragements? Is it not common justice that a hard-working holder of a few acres, which he found a mere moss, should be cheered by the certainty of possessing his little improvement for a definite period? Moreover, the arbitrary clearances which have recently been enforced in the Highlands, make it absolutely necessary that confidence in the landlords should be restored and confirmed by means of leases to competent crofters. High-farming or low-farming may be argued for ever without a particle of benefit to the poor man, so long as he has no assurance of reaping the fruits of his anxious labours. In many districts along the coast, impediments are thrown in the way of tenants, so as to forbid them from obtaining a sufficiency of sea-ware for manure. All such restrictions should be removed. The apportionment of grazing land on really just