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

theory has quite the whip-hand of poor, ignoble practice. Instead of making a proper use of statistical knowledge, by utilizing its details (forgive us a bit of Frenchified foppery of phrase), our countless writers indulge in vague generalities about the want of this, and the abuse of that-errors in the social system-tendencies of the age-and such like abstractions, until authors and readers are plunged in a fog of no-meaning," in which all comprehension wanders lost." The alleged enlightenment of the times is one of the greatest difficulties which a plain inculcator of the truth has to deal with; for every body knows so much of every thing, and every branch of information is so dignified into science-from the stars down to the sanitary cess-pools-that a quiet suggestion about any ordinary improvement, to be effected without the aid of philosophical principles, stands a very small chance of being attended to.

Since our own perquisitions into the state of the Highlands have had the fortune to attract some share of public notice, we observe with pleasure that many minds have been exercised upon the subjects to which we were, and are, so zealously devoted. Edinburgh and Glasgow newspaper dissertationists-Skye correspondents-Times' "Highlanders"-and clouds of Caledonian travellers by the fireside-have started into indignant activity, and are full of original, authentic amazement at the neglected and oppressed state of the Highlands and Islands. As even penny trumpets, if sufficiently numerous, and vigorously sounded, would suffice to swell an instrumental chorus, we are well pleased with the present noise regarding Highland topics; but just as the bagpipe would prove more popular in this land of pibrochs, so do we think that our small strains touching upon practical improvements will be more acceptable than the loudest projects of philanthropic theorists, who mistake schemes for actual benefits. Our heart's desire is to promote the spread of contented civilization and diffusive comfort among the peasant population scattered throughout the Highlands, whose condition we examined with scrupulous solicitude-not afraid of developing the most distressing facts, and yet honestly anxious to avoid all exaggerated statement. It is a great injustice to assume that we have been actuated by any unfriendly feeling towards proprietors whose estates we impartially investigated. We had no more of prejudice or pique against Lord Macdonald or the Duke of Sutherland, than against the Pacha of

Egypt or the Autocrat of Russia; but we thought it right to set forth, fairly and boldly, the true condition of Highland territories, which could not be effected if the oppressions practised towards the peasantry had been obsequiously omitted. So far from drawing hostile distinctions between proprietors and their dependants, we, on the contrary, wish to blend their interests more beneficially; and to point out facilities to the rich for increasing their just influence over the poor. Every step taken in this direction will exceedingly strengthen the social system, now exposed to very rude and perilous assaults; and, if we do not greatly err, a storm is angrily lowering, to resist which all protective influences should be prudently accumulated.

In contemplating Highland life, the first thing that strikes us, is its isolation. Humble dwellings at severe distances from each other. Hamlets and miniature towns widely apart; main roads insufficient and in disrepair; bye roads almost impassable. This will, we think, be admitted as an accurate description of vast regions in the Highlands; though in the matter of roads, we must always make a reservation in favour of Sutherland, where the Duke prides himself upon having super-excellent roads, upon which poor travellers (like ourselves) are welcome to travel, toll free, through districts depopulated by his Grace's noble papa! But wherever scattered portions of population are to be found, would it not be advisable to connect them more closely-to afford them opportunities of interchanging, not only commodities, but sympathies, opinions, information, and improvement; and to muleach tiply the means by which men's interests act and react upon other? To help forward these benefits, we do not hesitate to point out to all classes the immense importance of establishing weekly markets. Nothing of the kind at present exists, except in two or three large towns; and of what consequence these stated markets are, might be instanced in the case of Inverness. During the prevalence of cholera, the country people were not able to confide in the non-contagious theory of the Board of Health, so they staid at home with their poultry, eggs, and butter, with such pertinacity, that pestilence was accompanied with something very like starvation! The Kessock ferryman told us at the time, that his paddling across was become quite a sinecure-the marketfolks being too much frightened to pass over the waters. Now this serves to show us how useful points of re-union are, to secure

regular supplies of the articles of ordinary consumption. What is good for a large town, is proportionally needful for a small one; industry is quickened to anticipate wants; new wants are created, which are speedily supplied; and every country cottage contributes to the comfort of every town habitation. At present the state of things is deplorable. Poor cotters must buy meal from the neighbouring farmer, who charges his monopoly price, not the true market rate. The shopkeepers (Scottice merchants), not being kept in check by the competition of stated markets, charge in fact what they choose by means of credit prices; and they are themselves an unthriving race from the want of markets, which always bring to shops a confluence of the best customers. Poor persons who have country produce to sell, lose whole days in hawking it about from house to house; and thus idle habits are engendered in search of chance sales. But above all, society stagnates where no statedly and quickly recurring markets are held. Many large districts are like terræ incognita to neighbouring parishes; and the salutary sway of public opinion, which rules in the most sequestered spots of England, is in the Highlands utterly unknown; and very much by its absence affords impunity to oppression. Now we venture to throw out for the consideration of Highland lairds, the advantages which would accrue to themselves and others, by endeavouring to establish weekly markets on their estates. Unlike other projects, this scheme demands no present outlay all that is required is to fix on a centrical position for holding a market, on the most suitable week day, and to invite buyers and sellers to come together to coax, chaffer, and nail bargains with the canny closeness which fitly signalizes Highland folk. If the roads leading to the preferred point should be out of order, we conceive the Highland Relief Board, who are such zealous constructors of never-finished roads, might find scope for improved expenditure on highways and byeways, and relieve destitution to boot-not, indeed, by weighing a pound of meal for a long day's work, but by paying just wages for honest labour.

It would give us great satisfaction to see Applecross, or Dundonnell, or Lochalsh, directing their attention to this subject, as their estates are quite fitted for the experiment in question. And if Lord Macdonald could be gently persuaded that setting up markets is more patriotic than pulling down houses, we should hail his Lordship's conversion very cordially. As to his Grace of