greedy of change, and full of the spirit of enterprise, may recklessly transfer themselves to other lands; but to suppose that numerous families would, as a matter of choice, sever themselves from their loved native soil, abolish all the associations of local and patriotic sentiment, fling to the winds every endearing recollection connected with the sojourning spot of vanished generations, and blot themselves, as it were, out of the book of "home-born happiness," is an hypothesis too unnatural to be encouraged by any sober, wellregulated mind. To satisfy myself upon this subject, I went practically to work. At Glenelg, I assembled some forty or fifty heads of families who had signed an agreement to emigrate, and who had sold off every little article of property, in order to prepare themselves for embarkation in a vessel which Mr Baillie's factor failed to provide for them, and who, in consequence of this breach of promise, are now suffering the pangs of starvation. I asked these poor, perfidiously-treated creatures, if, notwithstanding all their hardships, they were willing emigrants from their native land? With one voice, they assured me, that nothing short of the absolute impossibility of obtaining land or employment at home could drive them to seek the doubtful benefits of a foreign shore. I enquired if a sufficiency of land for the support of a family, held at a reasonably reduced rent, would not quench all thoughts of emigration; and the hearty response I received almost led me to wish that I were for half a day Mr Baillie's commissioner, authorised to do permanent good to proprietor and people. So far from emigration being at Glenelg, or Lochalsh, or South Uist, a spontaneous movement, springing out of the wishes of the peasantry, I aver it to be, on the contrary, the product of desperation—the calamitous light of hopeless oppression visiting their sad hearts. Let us look with compassionate eyes into the actual condition of our fellow-men, holding small patches of land on the estates of Mr Lillingston, Mr Baillie, and Colonel Gordon, and we shall quickly discern an aggregate of wretchedness clearly traceable to the amazing impolicy, yea, suicidal wrong-doing of these respective proprietors. I do not pretend to say that the miserable peasantry are without fault-they have, one and all of them, enough of sin to ensure suffering-but the sinnership of the poor does not extenuate the sinful oppression of the rich; and instead of bringing black indictments against their dependants, it would be well if landlords

examined their own ways, so as to exonerate themselves from the imputation of sordidness and tyranny.

It should be always borne in mind that power and property in land are synonymous terms. No monarch rigorously ruling on an absolutist throne has a tithe of the potency to persecute that is presently possessed by a Highland proprietor. The Russian or Austrian autocrat may visit political offences with an iron hand; but, apart from politics, or it may be superstition, the social relations of life are uninvaded by the diademed despot! But go to Lochalsh, cross over to Glenelg, penetrate into South Uist (known localities for transforming tenants into emigrants), and you will find a despotism at work which forces its way into every hovel where human beings are imperfectly sheltered. If a peasant has not land, he is void of all means of obtaining a livelihood suitable to his agricultural position. The territorial sovereign (tyrant some would call him) sternly refuses a sufficiency of land, and to this churlish edict the wretched serf must sorrowfully submit. The patch of land is probably to be reclaimed, at all events to be improved, a high rent is imposed, and as for certainty of occupation by means of a lease, the bare supposition is utterly scouted, aye, even by men who babble about improving the crofter-system. Then follow innumerable restrictions and regulations, such as Mr Lillingston has compiled into a code, or such as Mr Baillie or Colonel Gordon continue to inflict without the formality of print or publication. The poor peasants are relentlessly pursued into all the recesses of humble life. To displease a pompous, arrogant, ignorant factor, is to be a lost man. Some unjust pretext is seized, and a whole family is marked for destruction-the landlord knowing little, and caring less about the penal changes inflicted by his agents. An industrious man, by unceasing efforts, causes a piece of rocky, or mossy, or marshy land to wear the aspect of cultivation; some favourite of the factor is substituted for the hard-working tenant, who is driven to some distant hill or bog, to commence a fresh career of exertion, and to be again defrauded of its fruits! The oppressions connected with grazing land are almost beyond belief, and the rents exacted at Lochalsh and elsewhere, by noticing the need of milk for eking out family food, are quite unjustifiable. Wherever there is any facility for fishing, it is plain that landlords consider it as an element of the rent of land, instead

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 possi bility 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 stewardship 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.