I write, this cruel system has long been in full operation; three or four opulent sheep-owners possess the sweet straths which were formerly subdivided among small agriculturists, but which are now like a region laid waste by some hostile spoiler. I passed yesterday through a district ruled by a shepherd king, a roitelet renter of the Duke of Sutherland's bye-gone village lands, and the sight was truly sorrowful. Vestiges of dykes, obscure remains of houses, traces of pristine cultivation-but for aught else, I seemed to be "out of humanity's reach," within half-a-dozen miles of the proud towers of the gorgeous Dunrobin! I had the culpable curiosity to approach the mansion of this sheep monarch, and I found the premises and grounds presenting the appearance of an Irish house and demesne on an estate withering under a chancery receivership. There was not so much as a paling before the hall door, giving me to conceive that surplus sheep might be folded in the parlour. And why not? for do not this great man's sheep, like the Irishman's pig,"pay the rint plaze your honour." But that rent is, I am confident, poor in comparison with the aggregate rents which would be cheerfully paid by industrious tillers of the soil, if the Duke of Sutherland had moral boldness to forego the false principle which prompted the havoc and horror that more than thirty years ago stained the modern annals of Sutherlandshire. But I must reserve this theme for another class of communications, making thus much use of it to assure your Lordship, that what Strathbrora is now, Sollas will infallibly become, if your emigration scheme be not signally frustrated. Two or three sheep-farmers will line their purses while leasing your Lordship's pasturages, and will then make their bow and invest their capital in some other country.

Benjamin Franklin has laid down some sarcastic "rules for reducing a great empire to a small one," and it strikes me that the venerable Mr Loch, with the aid of your Lordship's juvenile commissioner, Mr Cooper, might concur in concocting an essay "on the art of pauperising great proprietors." The mysteries of management might be discreetly disclosed, so as to form a hand-book for rising evictors and emigrationists, and as pictorial embellishments are now on a par with letter-press, some dashing artist might help out the doctrine of depopulation with spirited sketches of the old Sutherland clearings, relieved by head and tail pieces of

the unroofings at Sollas.-I have the honour to be, your Lordship's obedient servant, THOMAS MULOCK.

P.S.-I had intended to put some questions to your Lordship, bearing upon the treaty negotiated by Captain Elliott with the head of the house of Macdonald, the paramount condition of which was—the granting of leases to small tenants on your Lordship's estates; but I postpone this subject until I come specially to an inquiry into the achievements of the gallant captain, as InspectorGeneral for the Highland Destitution Committee.

SIR, AS I have not scrupled, when I conceived the interests of truth and justice made it necessary, to censure the conduct of Lord Macdonald as a proprietor; I feel a still greater eagerness in giving publicity to the following facts, just made known to me by a friend on whose veracity I can confidently rely, and who, indeed, was a witness to the gratifying proceedings I now refer to.

Instead of pertinaciously pursuing an erroneous and oppressive system, which I, with others, ventured to expose and condemn; Lord Macdonald, influenced by the high and generous sentiments which befit his position, has, it appears, authorised his Commissioner, Mr Cooper, to announce to all his Lordship's tenants in Skye and North Uist the following liberal intentions:—

All parties who have paid rent regularly during the last five years of tenancy, are to be granted leases-it is stated of 21 years.

All tenants now in arrear shall, on the payment of the last Martinmas rent, receive an acquittance of all such arrears; and the expectation is held out, that if they continue to pay their rents punctually during the next ensuing three years, leases will be granted to them also.

I am further informed that other excellent arrangements are contemplated, which will have the effect of throwing a large additional quantity of land into cultivation, so as materially to improve the condition of the poorer peasantry.

I cannot resist the pleasure of imparting this good news, even at the risk of prematurely publishing what seems to require the sanction of official authority. But I am so anxious to render justice to Lord Macdonald, that I am willing to forego ceremony. -I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

Inverness, December 14. 1849.

THOMAS MULOCK.

THE MACDONALD ESTATES.

To the Editor of the Inverness Advertiser.

SIR, A letter bearing the above title, and addressed to the editor of the Inverness Courier by Mr Cooper, Lord Macdonald's commissioner, has just fallen under my observation; and as that official epistle is quite silent upon certain points to which I eagerly gave publicity, I must free myself from the reproach of having circulated "good tidings regarding Lord Macdonald," which his Lordship's agent refuses to ratify. Up to the period when I made the communication in question, I was impressed with the belief that Mr Cooper's mission to Skye and North Uist was likely to prove a penal visitation-as it had done before. But the welcome information I received was so specific and circumstantial, that I hastened to lay it before the public. However, as Mr Cooper impliedly intimates that Lord Macdonald's "arrangements" are "incorrectly reported," I lose no time in notifying the quality and opportunities of my informant. Mr Archibald Stewart of Ellanreach, Glenelg, is the respectable party from whom I derived my "good tidings of Lord Macdonald," and I neither had nor have any reason to distrust the authenticity of his statement. Mr Stewart enjoys Lord Macdonald's confidence, for his Lordship employed him as a valuator of his estates in North Uist; and that he enjoys Mr Cooper's confidence, may be inferred from the fact that he accompanied the promising Commissioner to a succession of audits in Skye, where Mr Cooper distinctly declared to batches of well-pleased tenants the precise benefits which I stated as being in course of fulfilment by direction of Lord Macdonald. Whatever incorrectness there may exist in my notification of intentions so eminently creditable to his Lordship; it is quite impossible that any mistake can rest upon me. Mr Stewart will testify that I

was extremely sceptical when he announced his good news-that in fact I deemed it too good to be true-and even when my incredulity was fairly vanquished, I wrote down Mr Stewart's ipsissima verba in his presence, and obtained his confirmation of my accuracy.

There is nothing remarkably good or bad in Mr Cooper's letter. It merely sets forth Lord Macdonald's anxiety to have good tenants; but of the liberal, just, and needful arrangements which the public have given his Lordship credit for, Mr Cooper refrains from saying a single word.—I am, Sir, your obedient servant, THOMAS MULOCK.

Inverness, January 3. 1850.

P.S.-In order to obviate all misapprehension or cavil, I subjoin a repetition of Mr Stewart's version of the declarations made by Mr Cooper on behalf of Lord Macdonald, viz.—

All parties who have paid rent regularly during the last five years of tenancy, are to be granted leases-it is stated of 21 years.

All tenants now in arrear shall, on the payment of the last Martinmas rent, receive an acquittance of all such arrears; and the expectation is held out, that if they continue to pay their rents punctually during the next ensuing three years, leases will be granted to them also.

LORD MACDONALD'S SOLLAS TENANTS.

We have received a communication signed on behalf of our humble friends as above, which we are anxious to acknowledge in such a way as shall not occasion them any hurt, if we should fail to render them any service. They complain, but in the most temperate manner, of the distressing dubiousness of their present position as tenants of Lord Macdonald; and as it appears to us not without sufficient reason. From documents before us we gather that these poor Sollas people applied on the 17th December, to Lord Macdonald's Commissioner, Mr Cooper, for leave to cart seaware in order to manure their lands for cropping. In answer to their respectful entreaty the following letter was received, of which we hold the original:

To the Tenants at Sollas, North Uist.

Portree House, Jan. 2. 1850. SIRS,-In answer to your letter of the 17th ult., I have only to say that I am in treaty with Dr Mackintosh Mackay, Denoon (sic), regarding your position, and when I have his determination, I will communicate the same to you. In the meantime be making every preparation within your power to go to America, or elsewhere, as you may determine, in conformity with the written bargain existing between you and Lord Macdonald.-Believe me, faithfully yours, PATRICK COOPER.

:

This letter, brief though it be, has puzzled us not a little. We were fully cognizant of the fact that Doctor Mackay of Dunoon (who is a man of ability and universally-admitted worth) holds the present position of Moderator of the Free Church; but we certainly are surprised to learn that he enjoys the sort of potency which Mr Cooper ascribes to him. Doctor Mackay can hardly be considered as minister plenipotentiary on the part of the Sollas sufferers, forasmuch as he appears to be unprovided with the necessary credentials; at least we infer as much from the following paragraph in their letter to ourselves :- "If we are not allowed to make crop anywhere this year, there is a sad prospect for us. Dr Mackay has been in correspondence with Mr Cooper, but Dr Mackay has never mentioned the matter of it to us." Giving the Rev. Doctor all credit for good intentions, we must candidly confess that we are much in the dark as to the benefits of his interposition; for under colour of his delayed determination, the Sollas tenants have been kept on the rack of suspense, and they are at this moment, unjustly withheld from cultivating their land, in consequence of Mr Cooper's shuffling negociation with Doctor Mackay. As the people of Sollas appeal to us for advice, we tender it to them confidently and unreservedly. We counsel them to do their utmost to crop the land of which they are presently in possession. The notices to quit, and the processes of ejectment formerly served, are wholly void by reason of the very "bargain" to which Mr Cooper adverts; and as for the written agreement, we boldly maintain that it is not worth a single straw. Every one knows, from the Lord Advocate down to the Inverness policemen, that the said agreement was improperly forced upon the defenceless parties, who reluctantly subscribed it; and that their constrained concurrence