By following out this plain, equitable principle, the pressure of famine would have been relieved by a generous application of the public bounty-honest industry would have been sufficiently recompensed-and, by giving an agricultural direction to the labour thus employed, the increased production of food would, so far as depended upon human effort, have been satisfactorily secured. In fact the board would, by thus acting, have fulfilled the conditions of their own resolutions.

But in an evil hour the Highland Relief Board, distrusting their own competency to administer a philanthropic exchequer, applied to the Treasury for counsel to direct their steps; and counsel of an ominous aspect came, in the shape of a letter from Sir Charles Trevelyan. Sir Charles had been expending his own official energies in devising a series of plans for the abortive relief of the starving Irish-plans which I tracked in the course of their jobbing execution and which, for folly in their conception, and wastefulness in their practical details, proved to be master-pieces of enormous failure. Thus qualified by his signal imbecility in Ireland's destitution case, Sir Charles was invited to try his hand in starving the poor Highlanders according to the most approved doctrines of political economy. In a letter addressed to Mr Skene (who appears to appreciate cordiality of communication with her Majesty's Treasury), Sir Charles rushes at once into the national advantages of systematised starvation, wherever funds are to be allocated for the relief of the poor. "I hold in the strongest manner the opinion," writes this benignant functionary, just preparing, perhaps, for a sumptuous Downing Street dinner, “that the relief-ration should be confined to a bare subsistence, and that the necessity the applicant is under of having recourse to it should be tested by the exaction of a full day's work!" Sir Charles then indulges in some of those fine ethical remarks which invariably proceed from the philosophers who make a merit of famishing the people; and after a little rhapsody about the felicities of famine, mounts his Hibernian high horse. "In Ireland," says Sir Charles, 66 we found by the result of an experience which comprehended the feeding of upwards of three millions of persons for several months, that one pound of good meal, properly cooked, was amply sufficient for an able-bodied person, and that the population who were generally in an emaciated state, rapidly recovered their good looks on this diet. The pound of meal (adds the culinary great

F

man) swells by the absorption of water to three or four pounds, as you will find on trial." Whether Mr Skene, who, as a good Scotchman, may be presumed to know something of the mystery of parritch, thought it necessary to accept this Saxon suggestion, is not mentioned in the published reports; but there is abundant proof of the application of the Trevelyan theory to the famishing multitudes of the North of Scotland. That the Highlanders were upon grounds of Celtic affinity, to be starved after the Irish fashion, was soon established as a pitiless certainty. The only difficulty was to find implacable enforcers of the starvation system; and, as the treasury supplied the doctrine, it also undertook to provide the apostles, of the bare subsistence creed. Accordingly, a choice detachment of half-pay naval officers was foisted upon the funds of the Highland Relief Board, in order to carry out the dietary of the destitute, as laid down by the inflexible Trevelyan. To men of ordinary judgment it would seem somewhat desirable that wellpaid agents, meant to operate in the Highlands, should at least know a little of the language, habits, feelings, and distinctive peculiarities of the Highland race; but the sage Trevelyan thought differently; and in the exercise of his discreet patronage, he sent heroes of the quarter-deck, accustomed to rule by means of a boatswain's whistle, to effect at land what they had never tried at sea, viz., to exact the maximum of work for the minimum of food. Of these naval worthies the chief was Captain Eliott; who, by his total departure from the resolutions of the board, and his inexorable adhesion to the destitution dogma of Trevelyan, speedily earned for himself the post of inspector-general, which, until of a very recent period, he unmercifully filled. Let me not be misunderstood, as wishing to single out Captain Eliott for any darker reprehension than belongs to the obsequious instruments of an incurably-evil system. Being, as all good seamen are, a rigid disciplinarianhis professional strictness served to give a keener edge to his sword of sharpness; and to give entire effect to his economical energies, Captain Eliott was empowered to organize an equally severe staff of paid officials, who should exclusively distribute "supplies of meal calculated to suffice for subsistence on its lowest scale." As the members of local committees, if enlightened with a ray of Christianity, could not be expected to aid in administering a charitable fund upon such a principle as this; it was resolved by the board to supersede all the existing relief machinery, and to

devolve the duty of the new distribution upon their own stipendiaries. I am not the wholesale extoller of the committees, who, no doubt, fell into many errors, and perhaps perpetrated not a few jobs; but this much may be fairly assumed for them-they considered that the intent of the subscribers to the Relief Fund was to feed destitute Highlanders, not to ascertain the infinitessimal ration whereby life could be barely sustained. It has often occurred to me that the poor contained, within their own humble ranks, the true elements of useful committees. Associations of the clergy and bettermost order of persons in any given district could never know the really necessitous with such positive correctness as a committee composed of the poor themselves; and the check held over them by their co-equals would be a strong guarantee against partial and corrupt distributions. I never explored a village in the Highlands, where I failed to find men of intelligence for their lowly sphere; and of as much integrity as you could meet with in loftier gradations of society. It is a great mistake to suppose that the rich are the best managers of bounty intended for the poor; on the contrary, they frequently prove the most indiscreet almoners. But no committee, however composed, could have contained a majority callous enough to carry out such a scheme as Captain Eliott describes the working of, in his extravagantly written, and self-applauding reports. Just think of the following monstrosity daringly avowed by a man who had been appointed to administer a fund gathered from the compassionate beneficence of the English, Scotch, and Irish public. "By becoming the hardest task-masters and the worst paymasters in the district, the board apply an effectual test to the destitution, which the people cannot evade, and to which some instances of its application have shown they will not submit unless driven to it by absolute necessity!" And was it for this that an empire's bounty was invoked, and munificently responded to? That a numerous fry of petty Pharaohs should be lavishly salaried in order to grind the faces of the destitute Highlanders! "Much outery," scribbles Captain Eliott," has been raised against the ration. I believe it sufficient, and I emphatically assure the board that this is a vital question, and any departure from the scale would be fatal to the people's real interests, and the dawn of better things that I fancy I perceive opening on them!!!"

Nay, so confident was our stern Inspector-General of the value

of his starvation system, that he occasionally frightens the Board with the possible loss of his services if his rigorous rule should be infringed upon by any looser dietarians. "I beg the Board," quoth the Captain, " to be assured, that neither obloquy nor opposition, were it greater than it is, (and which it cannot easily be) shall induce the yielding one fractionable (sic) part of the system that I hold to be alone safe, sufficient, and humane, to noisy clamour or greedy laziness." In a nice little billet from Caithness the Captain gets very sentimental, and alleges that "in furtherance of the benevolent intentions of the public, it has been my painful lot to feel myself opposed in opinion (no wonder) to the general sense of philanthropic residents in some districts, and that in following out my views of stern, uncompromising propriety, I may have brought upon the Board an unmerited, not I fear unmitigated expression of disapprobation and unpopularity." But it seems the Board could not help themselves in this matter-for the virtuous Eliott awfully adds—" I emphatically warn the Board, that any material departure from their now recognised principles, will involve them in an amount of moral responsibility, that I must respectfully but firmly decline to share as their executive agent." This threat was terrific! Time was when it might have been said or sung.

We trust we have within our realm

Five hundred good as he!

But even in this new era of enlightened economists, it was not easy to meet with a man so conscientiously resolved to starve his fellow-mortals-therefore, the Captain's stern sway and ample salary were compliantly continued, so as to ensure the permanent existence of public hunger! As all Captain Eliott's acts were ratified by his nominal superiors, (though in truth the Captain, backed by Treasury Trevelyan, was more potent than his masters), I shall take occasion in another letter to examine the Board's proceedings-premising, however, that the Glasgow Section disclaim Captain Eliott-who must be deemed the "child and champion" of the Edinburgh Committee.—I am, Sir, your obedient servant, THOMAS MULOCK.

Inverness, 4th January 1850.

THE HIGHLAND DESTITUTION RELIEF BOARD.

In a former communication on this subject, which was necessarily thrown into an epistolatory shape, we find we did more towards exhausting the theme than we were conscious of at the time; for we pointed out the false principles which had pervaded all the Board's operations. None of their acts could possibly be right, if their system was wrong; and we sturdily maintain this latter proposition, in despite of all the self-gratulation with which their voluminous reports constantly teem. Therefore we feel utterly disinclined to enter into an examination of the details furnished by the Board for the information of the public; and we are quite sure that the loudest outcry against their lavish and misapplied expenditure will not recover one farthing from the parties who have had the mismanagement of some two hundred thousand pounds. The money is irrevocably passed away; and where presides the power that can bring home responsibility to the members of a charitable confederation? As we have referred to reports published by the Edinburgh section, we cannot avoid remarking that these exceedingly verbose productions are written in the worst possible taste, and are barren of any valuable information; whereas the short reports of the Glasgow section are really important and instructive, particularly with reference to the state of Mull, Ulva, Iona, &c. It is true that the Rev. Dr Mackay of Dunoon impeaches the accuracy of some representations made by a deputation of the section, but we are strongly disposed to credit their statement. The question hotly mooted by Dr Mackay and others, as to the evil influence of certain grants of money in promoting compulsory emigration, is, we think, mixed up with considerable misapprehension. In our own peregrinations, we instituted the most anxious inquiries upon this point, and the result was a clear conviction that no emigration movement had been originated by collusive compact between proprietors and the Highland Destitution Board. We must, however, admit, that in most instances the conditions which accompanied the advances have been scandalously violated. Let Mr Baird proceed incog. to Glenelg or Lochalsh, and ascertain how far the stipulations respecting the enlargement of crofts by the distribution of land formerly held by emigrants have been observed; and we pledge ourselves that he will come