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In spite of all the emigration that has
taken place from this country, no one has, we daresay, any real dread of
depopulation; the population is increasing over all the land every year,
not excepting the Highlands. As for soldiers, no doubt plenty will be
forthcoming when wanted; if not so, it is not for want of men well enough
fitted for the occupation. As every one knows, there is seldom a want of
willing workers in this country, but far more frequently a great want of
work to do.
That by far the larger part
of the surface of the Highland districts is suited only for the pasturage
of sheep, is the testimony of every one who knows anything about the
subject. Those who speak otherwise must either ignore facts or speak of
what they do not know, urged merely by impulse and sentimentalism. True,
there are many spots consisting of excellent soil suited for arable
purposes, but generally where such do occur the climate is so unfavourable
to successful agriculture that no expenditure will ever produce an
adequate return. Other patches again, not, however, of frequent
occurrence, have everything in their favour, and are as capable of
producing luxuriant crops as the most fertile district of the lowlands.
But nearly all these arable spots, say those who advocate the laying of
the whole country under sheep, it is absolutely necessary to retain as
winter pasturage, if sheep-farming is to be carried on successfully. The
mountainous districts, comprising nearly the whole of the Highlands, are
admirably suited for sheep pasturage when the weather is mild; but in
winter are so bleak and cold, and exposed to destructive storms, that
unless the sheep during winter can be brought down to the low and
sheltered grounds, the loss of a great part of the flocks would inevitably
be the consequence. Hence, it is maintained, unless nearly the whole of
the country is allowed to lie waste, or unless a sheep farmer makes up his
mind to carry on an unprofitable business, the arable spots in the valleys
and elsewhere must, as a rule, be retained as pasture. And this seems to
be the case in most districts. It must not be imagined, however, that the
surface of the highlands is one universal expanse of green and brown
fragrant heather; every tourist knows that in almost every glen, by the
side of many lochs, streams, and bogs, patches of cultivated land are to
be met with, hearing good crops of oats, barley, potatoes, and turnips.
These productions chiefly belong to the large sheep farmers, and are
intended for the use of themselves, their servants, and cattle, and but
seldom have they any to dispose of. Others of these arable spots belong to
small farmers, the race of whom is happily not yet extinct. But, on the
whole, it would seem that so far as agricultural products are concerned,
the Highlands seldom, if ever, produce sufficient to supply the wants of
the inhabitants, importation being thus necessary.
A curious and interesting point connected
with the introduction of sheep into the Highlands may be mentioned here :—By
means of this innovation, the whole aspect of the country seems to have
been changed. Previous to that, the whole country seems to have borne a
universal aspect of blackness, rarely relieved by a spot of green, arising
from the fact that almost the only product of the mountains was dark-brown
heath. Captain Burt and others who visited the Highlands previous to the
extensive introduction of sheep, indulge in none of the raptures over
Highland scenery, that the most common-place and prosy tourist thinks it
his duty to get into at the present day. They speak of the country almost
with horror, as a black howling wilderness, full of bogs and big boulders,
and almost unfit for human habitation. They could see no beauty in the
country that it should be desired ; it was a place to get out of as soon
as possible. How far these sentiments may have been justified by facts it
is impossible now to say; but it is the almost universal assertion by the
writers in the Old Statistical Account, that the appearance of the
Highland hills was rapidly changing, and that instead of the universal
dark-brown heath which previously covered them, there was springing up the
light-brown heath and short green bent or strong grass so well known to
all modern tourists. If the Highland hills formerly bore anything like the
aspect presented at the present day by the dreary black wet hills of
Shetland, the remarks of Burt and others need not cause astonishment. But
as the great outlines and peculiar features of the country must have been
the same then as now, we suspect that these early English adventurers into
the Highlands wanted training in scenery or were determined to see nothing
to admire. But, indeed, admiration of and hunting for fine scenery seem to
be quite a modern fashion, and were quite unknown to our ancestors in the
beginning of last century, or were confined to a few crazy poets. Men
require to be trained to use their eyes in this as in many other respects.
There can be no doubt that the first impulse to the admiration of the
Highlands and Highlanders was given by the poems and novels of Sir Walter
Scott; it was he who set the sheepish stream of tourists agoing, and
indirectly to him many a Highland hotel-keeper owes a handsome fortune.
The fact at all events seems unquestionable, that the extensive
introduction of sheep has to a large extent changed the external aspect of
the Highlands.
It must not be imagined
that, previous to the changes we are speaking of, there were no sheep in
the Highlands; there were always a few of a very small native breed, but
the staple stock of the Highland farmer was, as we previously mentioned,
black cattle. The sheep, however, have also to a very large extent
superseded them, a fact which is deplored by those who lament the many
innovations which which have been introduced since 1745. But by all
accounts much of the country is unsuited to the pasturage of black cattle,
and as cattle and sheep do not thrive well together, the only alternative
seems to be the introduction of sheep alone into those districts unsuited
for cattle. "More than one-third of the country consists of mountains
and declivities too steep and abrupt for black cattle, and the grass they
produce too short and fine to afford them a tolerable pasture except in
the height of summer. The greater part of the pasture is therefore lost,
though it might all be beneficially consumed with sheep. A flock of sheep
will thrive where cows and oxen would starve, and will go at all seasons
of the year to such heights as are inaccessible to black cattle... In a
situation of this kind the very wool of a flock would amount to more than
the whole profit to be obtained by black cattle." The only conclusion
to be drawn from these statements is, that the wisest thing that could be
done was to introduce sheep into those districts which were being wasted
on black cattle.
Along with the introduction of sheep,
indeed, to a great extent caused by that, was the enlargement of farms,
which with the raising of rents led to the depopulation of many districts.
The old system of letting farms in the Highlands has already been
sufficiently explained, and the introduction of sheep seems to have
rendered it necessary that this old system should be abolished, and that a
large extent of country should be taken by one man. The question between
large and small farms does not appear to us to be the same as between the
old and new system of letting land. Under the old system, a farm of no
great extent was often let to a large number of tenants, who frequently
sub divided it still more, by either sub-letting part, or by sharing their
respective portions with their newly-married sons and daughters. The
testimony as to the perniciousness of this old system is universal; it
was, and until recently continued to be, the chief source of all the
misfortunes that have afflicted the Highlands. As to whether, however,
this old system should have been entirely abolished, or whether some
modification of it might not have been retained, has been a matter of
dispute. Some maintain that the Highlands can be profitably managed only
on the large farm system, and only thus can sheep be made to pay, while
others assert that, though many districts are suitable for large farms,
still there are others that might with great profit be divided into small
holdings. By this latter method, it is said, a fair proportion of all
clases would be maintained in the Highlands, noblemen, gentlemen, farmers
large and small, cottars, labourers, and that only when there is such a
mixture can a country be said to be prosperous. Moreover, it is held a
proprietor, who in this country should be considered as a steward rather
than the absolute owner of his estate, has no right to exclude the small
farmer from having a chance of making a respectable living by the
occupation for which he is suited; that he stands in the way of his own
and his country’s interests when he discourages the small farmer, for
only by a mixture of the two systems can the land be made the most of and
that, to say the least of it, it is selfish and wrong in proprietors not
to consider the case of the poor as well as the rich.
On the question as to the
expediency of large or small farms we cannot pretend to be able to judge ;
we know too little of its real merits. However, it appears to us that
there is no reason why both systems cannot be very well combined in many
parts of the highlands, although there are many districts, we believe,
totally unsuited for anything else but sheep-farms of the largest
dimensions. Were the small farms made large enough to sufficiently support
the farmer and his family, and remunerate him for his outlay and labour,
were precautions taken against the subdivision of these moderate-sized
holdings, and were leases of sufficient duration granted to all, it seems
to us that there is nothing in the nature of things why there should not
be farms of a small size in the Highlands as well as farms covering many
miles in extent. We certainly do think it too bad to cut out the small
respectable class of farmers entirely, and put the land of the country in
the hands of a sort of farmer aristocracy; it is unfair and prejudicial to
the best interests of the country. But the small farmers must first show
that they deserve to be considered; certainly the small farmers under the
old Highland system, which we believe is not yet quite extinct in some
remote districts, deserved only to have the land they so mismanaged taken
from them and given to others who could make a better use of it. Some
consideration, we think, ought to be had towards the natives of the
country, those whose ancestors have occupied the land for centuries, and
if they are able to pay as good a rent as others, and show themselves
willing to manage the land as well, in all humanity they ought to have the
preference. But these are matters which we think ought to be left to
adjust themselves according to the inevitable laws which regulate all
human affairs. Interference in any way between landlord and tenant by way
of denunciation, vituperation, or legislation, seems to us only to make
matters worse. It seems to us that the simplest commercial maxims—the
laws of profit and loss, if they have fair play—will ultimately lead to
the best system of managing the land of the Highlands and of every other
district, both in the interests of the proprietors and those of the
tenants. If proprietors find it most profitable to let their lands in
large lots, either for agriculture, for cattle, for sheep, or for deer,
there is no reason why they should not do so, and there is no doubt that
in the end what is most advantageous to the proprietor is so to the
tenant, and vice versa, as also to the country at large. If, on the
other hand, it be found that letting land in small lots is more profitable
than the other practice, few proprietors, we daresay, would hesitate to
cut up their land into suitable lots. But all this, we think, must be left
to experiment, and it cannot be said that the Highlands as a whole have as
yet got beyond the stage of probation; changes from small to large and
from large to small farms—mostly the former—and changes from sheep to
deer and deer to sheep are still going on; but, no doubt, ere long both
proprietors and tenants of land will find out what their real common
interest is, and adjust themselves in their proper relations to each
other. It is best to leave them alone and allow them to fight the battle
out between themselves. Interference was attempted at the end of last
century to stop emigration and to settle the ousted tenants on small lots
by the sea-shore, where both fishing and farming could be carried on, but
the interference did no good. Emigration was not diminished, although
curiously it was the proprietors themselves, who subsequently did their
best to promote emigration, that at this time attempted to stop it. The
people seem generally until lately to have been quite willing and even
anxious to emigrate at least those of most intelligence; not that they
cared not for their country, but that, however much they loved it, there
was no good in staying at home when nothing but misery and starvation
stared them in the face. We say that the landlords and others, including
the Highland Society, interfered, and endeavoured to get government to
interfere, to prevent the great emigrations which were going on, and which
they feared would ere long leave the country utterly peopleless. But the
interference was of no use, and was quite uncalled for. Emigration still
went on, and will go on so long as there is a necessity for it; and the
country will always have plenty of inhabitants so long as it can afford a
decent subsistence. When men know better the laws of sociology—the laws
which govern human affairs—interference of this kind will be simply
laughed at.
The scheme of the landlords—who,
while they raised the rents and extended their farms, were still loath to
lose their numerous tenants and retainers—of settling those on the coast
where they could combine farming and fishing, failed also, for the simple
reason that, as it has been fairly proved, one man cannot unite
successfully the two occupations in his own person. In this sense "no
man can serve two masters." "No two occupations can be more
incompatible than farming and fishing, as the seasons which require
undivided exertion in fishing are precisely those in which the greatest
attention should be devoted to agriculture. Grazing, which is less
incompatible with fishing than agriculture, is even found to distract the
attention and prevent success in either occupation. This is demonstrated
by the very different success of those who unite both occupations from
those who devote themselves exclusively to fishing. Indeed, the
industrious fisher finds the whole season barely sufficient for the
labours of his proper occupation." It seems clear, then, that the
Highland proprietors should be left alone and allowed to dispose of their
land as they think fit, just as the owner of any other commercial
commodity takes it to whatever market he chooses, and no harm accrues from
it. If the Highland peasantry and farmers see it to be to their advantage
to leave their native land and settle in a far-off soil where they will
have some good return for hard work, we do not see that there is any call
for interference or lamentation. Give all help and counsel to those who
require and deserve them by all means either to stay at home or go abroad;
but to those who are able to think and free to act for themselves nothing
is necessary but to be left alone.
As we have already said,
another cause of emigration besides sheep-farming, though to some extent
associated with it, was the raising of rents. Naturally enough, when the
number of tenants upon a laird’s estate ceased to make him of importance
and give him power, he sought by raising his rents to give himself the
importance derived from a large income. There can be no doubt that,
previous to this, farms were let far below their real value, and often at
a merely nominal rent; and thus one of the greatest incitements to
industry was wanting in the case of the Highland tenants, for when a man
knows that his landlord will not trouble him about his rent, but would
rather let him go scot-free than lose him, it is too much to expect of
human nature in general that it will bestir itself to do what it feels
there is no absolute necessity for. Thus habits of idleness were
engendered in the Highlanders, and the land, for want of industrious
cultivation, was allowed to run comparatively waste. That the thinning of
the population gave those who remained a better chance of improving their
condition, is testified to by many writers in the Old ,Statistical
Account, and by other contemporary authorities, including even Dr
Walker, who was no friend to emigration. He says, "these measures in
the management of property, and this emigration, were by no means
unfriendly to the population of the country. The sub-tenants, who form the
bulk of the people, were not only retained but raised in their situation,
and rendered more useful and independent." It is amusing now to read
Dr Walker’s remarks on the consequences of emigration from the
Highlands; had his fears been substantiated,—and had they been well
grounded, they ought to have been by this time, for sheep-farming,
rent-raising, depopulation, and emigration have been going on rapidly ever
since his time—the Highlands must now have been "a waste howling
wilderness." " If the [Highlanders]," he says, "are
expelled, the Highlands never can be reclaimed or improved by any other
set of men, but must remain a mere grazing-field for England and the South
of Scotland. By this alteration, indeed, the present rents may, no doubt,
be augmented, but they must become immediately stationary, without any
prospect of farther advancement, and will in time from obvious causes be
liable to great diminution. All improvement of the country must cease when
the people to improve it are gone. The soil must remain unsubdued for
ever, and the progress of the Highlands must be finally stopt, while all
the cultivated wastes of the kingdom are advancing in population and
wealth.." How these predictions have been belied by facts, all who
know anything of the progress of the Highlands during the present century
must perceive. All these changes and even grievances have taken place, and
yet the Highlands are far enough from anything approximating to
depopulation or unproductiveness, and rents, we believe, have not yet
ceased to rise.
Notwithstanding the large
emigration which has been going on, the population of the Highlands at the
census of 1861 was at least 70,000 greater than it was in the time of Dr
Walker. The emigration, especially from the west, does not seem to have
been large enough, for periodically, up even to the present day, a rueful
call for help to save from famine comes from that quarter. "This very
year (1863) the cry of destitution in Skye has been loud as ever, and yet
from no part of the Highlands has there been a more extensive emigration.
From the very earliest period in the history of emigration down to this
date, Skye has been largely drawn upon, and yet the body of the people in
Skye were never more wretched that at this moment." Walker himself
states that, in spite of an emigration of about 6000 between the years
1771 and 1794 from the Hebrides and Western Highlands, the population had
increased by about 40,000 during the forty years subsequent to 1750. Yet
though he knew of the wretched condition of the country from an
over-crowded population, practical man as he was, he gives way to the
vague and unjustifiable fears expressed above. It is no doubt sad to see
the people of a country, and these possessing many high qualities,
compelled to leave it in order to get room to breathe; but to tirade
against emigration as Dr Walker and others do in the face of such woeful
facts as are known concerning the condition of the Highlands is mere
selfish and wicked sentimentalism.
Another fact, stated by the
same author, and which might have taught him better doctrines in
connection with some of the border parishes, is worth introducing here.
The population of seventeen parishes in Dumbartonshire, Perthshire, and
Argyllshire, bordering on the low country, decreased in population between
1755 and 1795, from 30,525 to 26,748, i.e., by 3,787; these
parishes having been during that time to a great extent laid out in cattle
and sheep. Now, according to the Old Statistical Account (about
1795), these very parishes were on the whole among the most prosperous in
the Highlands, those in which improvements were taking place most rapidly,
and in which the condition of the people was growing more and more
comfortable. It appears to us clear that the population of the Highlands
did require a very considerable thinning; that depopulation to a certain
extent was, and in some places still is, a necessary condition to
improvement.
The main question is, we
think, how to get these districts which are in a state of wretchedness and
retrogression from over-population rid of the surplus. Unless some sudden
check be put upon the rate of increase of the general population, there
never will be a lack of hands to bring in the waste places when wanted,
and to supply all other demands for men. No doubt, it is a pity, if it be
the case, that any extensive districts which could be brought to a high
style of cultivation, and would then be better employed than in pasture
should be allowed to lie waste, when there is every necessity for the land
being made to yield as much as possible. And if the Highlanders are
willing, it certainly does seem to be better to keep them at home and
employ them for such purposes rather than let them go abroad and give
their services to strangers. We should fancy the larger a population there
is in a country where there is room enough for them, and which can give
them enough to eat and drink, the better for that country. All we maintain
is, that it being proved that the population in many parts of the
Highlands having been redundant, so much so as to lead to misery and
degradation, it was far better that the surplus should emigrate than that
they should be kept at home to increase the misery and be an obstruction
to the progress of the country. Keep them at home if possible; if not,
permit them without any weak sentimental lamentation to go abroad. It has
been said that if the Highlander is compelled to leave his native glen, he
would as soon remove to a distance of 4000 as to a distance of 40 miles;
and that indeed many of them, since they must move, prefer to leave the
country altogether rather than settle in any part of it out of sight of
their native hills. There is no doubt much truth in this, so that the
outcry about keeping the Highlanders at home is to a great extent uncalled
for; they don’t wish to stay at home. Still many of them have been
willing to settle in the lowlands or in other parts of the Highlands. We
have already referred to the great services rendered by the ousted tenants
on the borders of the Perthshire and Dunbartonshire Highlands who settled
in the neighbourhood of Stirling and reclaimed many thousand acres of
Kincardine moss, now a fertile strath. Similar services have been rendered
to other barren parts of the country by many Highlanders, who formerly
spent their time in lolling idleness, but who, when thus given the
opportunity, showed themselves to be as capable of active and profitable
exertion as any lowland peasant or farmer. Many Highlanders also, when
deprived of their farms, removed to some of our large towns, and by their
exertions raised themselves and their families to an honourable and
comfortable position, such as they could never have hoped to reach had
they never left their native hills. By all means keep the Highlanders at
home if they are willing to stay and there is work for them to do; but
what purpose can be served in urging them to stay at home if the
consequence be to increase the already enormous sort of pauperism?
That the landlords, the
representatives of the old chiefs, were not accountable for much of the
evil that flowed from the changes of which we have been speaking, no one
who knows the history of the Highlands dining the last century will
venture to assert. Had they all uniformly acted towards their old tenants
with humanity, judiciousness, and unselfishness, much misery,
misunderstanding, and bitter ill-will might have been avoided. It is, we
venture to believe, quite against the spirit of the British constitution
as it now exists, and quite out of accordance with enlightened reason and
justice, not to say humanity, that these or any other landed proprietors
should be allowed to dispose of their land as they choose without any
consideration for the people whose fathers have been on it for centuries,
or without regard to the interests of the country to which the land
belongs. Many of the Highland proprietors, in their haste to get rich, or
at least to get money to spend in the fashionable world, either
mercilessly, and without warning, cleared their estates of the tenants, or
most unreasonably oppressed them in the matter of rent. The great fault of
many of the landlords—for they were not all alike—was in bringing
about too suddenly changes, in themselves, perhaps, desirable enough.
Rents seem to have been too suddenly raised to such a rate as tended to
inspire the tenant with despair of being able to meet it. Some also, in
their desire to introduce the large farm system, swept the tenants off the
ground without warning, and left them to provide for themselves; while
others made a show of providing for them by settling them in hamlets by
the seaside, where, in general, they were worse off than ever. It was in
their utter want of consideration for these old tenants that many of the
Highland landlords were to blame. Had they raised the rents gradually,
extended the size of their farms slowly, giving the old tenants a chance
under the new system, and doing their best to put these necessarily
ejected in a way of making a living for themselves, tried to educate their
people up to the age in the matter of agriculture, social habits, and
other matters; lived among them, and shown them a good example ;—in
short, as proprietors, rigidly done their duty to their tenants, as
descendants of the old chiefs treated with some tender consideration the
sons of those who worshipped and bled for the fathers of their clan, and
as men, shown some charity and kindness to their poorer brethren, the
improvement of the Highlands might have been brought about at a much less
expense of misery and rancour. That these old Highlanders were open to
improvement, enlightenment, and education, when judiciously managed, is
proved by what took place in some of the border and other districts, where
many improvements were effected without great personal inconvenience by
any one, and without any great or sudden diminution of the population.
Especially in the Western and Northern Highlands and the Islands, the
landlords went to extremes in both directions. Some of them acted as we
have just indicated, while others again, moved by a laudable consideration
for, and tenderness towards the old tenants, retained the old system of
small holdings, which they allowed to be now and then still more
subdivided, endeavouring, often unsuccessfully, to obtain a rise of rent.
In most cases the latter course was as fatal and as productive of misery
and ruin as the former. Indeed, in some cases it was more so; for not only
was the lot of the tenant not improved, but the laird had ultimately to
sell his estate for behoof of his creditors, and himself emigrate to the
lowlands or to a foreign country. This arose from the fact that, as the
number of tenants increased, the farms were diminished in size more and
more, until they could neither support the tenant nor yield the landlord a
rent adequate to his support. In this way have many of the old hospitable
chiefs with small estates dropped out of sight; and their places filled by
some rich lowland merchants, .who would show little tenderness to the
helpless tenantry.
But it is an easy matter
now to look calmly back on these commotions and changes among the
Highlanders, and allot praise or blame to chiefs and people for the parts
they played, forgetting all the time how difficult these parts were.
Something decisive had to be done to prevent the Highlands from sinking
into inconceivable misery and barbarism; and had the lairds sat still and
done nothing but allowed their estates to be managed on the old footing,
ruin to themselves and their tenants would have been the consequence, as
indeed was the case with most of those who did so. It was very natural,
then, that they should deem it better to save themselves at the expense of
their tenants, than that both land and tenants should be involved in a
common ruin. They were not the persons to find out the best mode of
managing their estates, so that they themselves might be saved, and the
welfare of their tenants only considered. In some cases, no doubt, the
lairds were animated by utter indifference as to the fate of their
tenants; but we are inclined to think these were few, and that most of
them would willingly have done much for the welfare of their people, and
many of them did what they could; but their first and most natural
instinct was that of self-preservation, and in order to save themselves,
they were frequently compelled to resort to measures which brought
considerable suffering upon their poor tenants. We have no doubt most did
their best, according to their knowledge and light, to act well their
parts, and deal fairly with their people; but the parts were so difficult,
and the actors were so unaccustomed to their new situation, that they are
not to be too severely blamed if they sometimes blundered. No matter how
gently changes might have been brought about, suffering and bitterness
would necessarily to a certain extent have followed; and however much we
may deplore the great amount of unnecessary suffering that actually
occurred, still we think the lasting benefits which have accrued to the
Highlands from the changes which were made, far more than counterbalance
this temporary evil.
What we have been saying,
while it applies to many recent changes in the Highlands, refers chiefly
to the period between 1750 and 1800, during which the Highlands were in a
state of universal fermentation, and chiefs and people were only beginning
to realise their position and perceive what were their true interests. We
shall very briefly notice one or two other matters of interest connected
with that period.
The only manufacture of any
consequence that has ever been introduced into the Highlands is that of
kelp, which is the ashes of various kinds of sea-weed containing some of
the salts, potash, and chiefly soda, used in some of the manufactures, as
soap, alum, glass, &c. It is used as a substitute for barilla,
imported from Spain, America, and other places during the latter part of
last century, or account of the American and continental wars, as well as
of the high duties imposed on the importation of salt and similar
commodities. The weeds are cut from the rocks with a hook or collected on
the shore, and dried to a certain degree on the beach. They are afterwards
burnt in a kiln, in which they are constantly stirred with an iron rake
until they reach a fluid state; and when they cool, the ashes become
condensed into a dark blue or whitish-coloured mass, nearly of the
hardness and solidity of rock. The manufacture is carried on during June,
July, and August; and even at the present day, in some parts of the
Islands and Highlands, affords occupation to considerable numbers of both
sexes. This manufacture seems to have been introduced into some of the
lowland parts of the Scottish coast early in the eighteenth century, but
was not thoroughly established in the Highlands till about the year 1750.
At first it was of little importance, but gradually the manufacture spread
until it became universal over all the western islands and coasts, and the
value of the article, from the causes above-mentioned, rose rapidly from
about £1 per ton, when first introduced, to from £12 to £20 per ton
about the beginning of the present century. While the great value of the
article lasted, rents rose enormously, and the income of proprietors of
kelp-shore rose in proportion. As an example, it may be stated that the
rent of the estate of Clanranald in South Uist previous to 1790 was
£2200, which, as kelp increased in value, rapidly rose to £15,000. While
the kelp season lasted, the whole time of the people was occupied in its
manufacture, and the wages they received, while it added somewhat to their
scanty income, and increased their comfort, were small in
proportion to the time and labour they gave, and to the prices received by
those to whom the kelp belonged. Moreover, while the kelp-fever lasted,
the cultivation of the ground and other agricultural matters seem to have
been to a great extent neglected, extravagant habits were contracted by
the proprietors, whose incomes were thus so considerably increased, and
the permanent improvement of their estates were neglected in their
eagerness to make the most of an article whose value, they did not
perceive, was entirely factitious, and could not be lasting. Instead of
either laying past their surplus income or expending it on the permanent
improvement of their estates, they very foolishly lived up to it, or
borrowed heavily in the belief that kelp would never decrease in value.
The consequence was that when the duties were taken off the articles for
which kelp was used as a substitute in the earlier part of the 19th
century, the price of that article gradually diminished till it could
fetch, about 1830-40, only from £2 to £4 a ton. With this the incomes of
the proprietors of kelp-shores also rapidly decreased, landing not a few
of them in ruin and bankruptcy, and leading in some instances to the sale
of the estates. The income above mentioned, after the value of kelp
decreased, fell rapidly from £15,000 to £5000. The manufacture of this
article is still carried on in the West Highlands and Islands, and to a
greater extent in Orkney, but although it occupies a considerable number
of hands, it is now of comparatively little importance, much more of the
sea-weed being employed as manure. While it was at its best, however, the
manufacture of this article undoubtedly increased to a very large extent
the revenue of the West Highlands, and gave employment to and kept at home
a considerable number of people who otherwise might have emigrated.
Indeed, it was partly on account of the need of many hands for kelp-making
that proprietors did all they could to prevent the emigration of those
removed from the smaller farms, and tried to induce them to settle on the
coast. On the whole, it would seem that this sudden source of large income
ultimately did more harm than good to the people and to the land. While
this manufacture flourished, the land was to a certain extent neglected,
and the people somewhat unfitted for agricultural labour; instead of
looking upon this as a temporary source of income, and living accordingly,
both they and the proprietors lived as if it should never fail, so that
when the value of kelp rapidly decreased, ruin and absolute poverty stared
both proprietors and people in the face. Moreover, by preventing the small
tenants from leaving the country, and accumulating them on the coasts, the
country became enormously over-peopled, so that when the importance of
this source of employment waned, multitudes were left with little or no
means of livelihood, and the temporary benefits which accrued to the
Highlanders from the adventitious value of kelp, indirectly entailed upon
them ultimately hardships and misfortunes greater than ever they
experienced before, and retarded considerably their progress towards
permanent improvement.
By all accounts the potato,
introduced from Chili into Spain about the middle of the sixteenth
century, was first introduced into Ireland by or through the
instrumentality of Sir Walter Raleigh about the end of that century. From
Ireland it seems shortly after to have been introduced into England,
although its cultivation did not become anything like common till more
than a century afterwards, and its use seems to have been restricted to
the upper classes. Its value as a staple article of food for the poorer
classes remained for long unappreciated. According to the Old Statistical
Account of Scotland, potatoes were first cultivated in the fields there in
the county of Stirling, in the year I 739, although for long after that,
in many parts of the country, they were planted only as a garden
vegetable. According to Dr Walker, potatoes were first introduced into the
Hebrides from Ireland in the year 1743, the island of South Uist being the
first to welcome the strange root, although the welcome from the
inhabitants seems to have been anything but hearty. The story of its
introduction, as told by Dr Walker, is amusing, though somewhat ominous
when read in the light of subsequent melancholy facts. "In the spring
of that year, old Clanranald was in Ireland, upon a visit to his relation,
Macdonnel of Antrim; he saw, with surprise and approbation the practice of
the country, and having a vessel of his own along with him, brought home a
large cargo of potatoes. On his arrival, the tenants in the island were
convened, and directed how to plant them, but they all refused. On this
they were all committed to prison. After a little confinement, they
agreed, at last, to plant these unknown roots, of which they had a very
unfavourable opinion. When they were raised in autumn, they were laid down
at the chieftain’s gate, by some of the tenants, who said, the Laird
indeed might order them to plant these foolish roots, but they would not
be forced to eat them. In a very little time, however, the inhabitants of
South Uist came to know better, when every man of them would have gone to
prison rather than not plant potatoes."
By the year 1760 potatoes
appear to have become a common crop all over the country; and by 1770 they
seem to have attained to that importance as a staple article of food for
the common people which they have ever since maintained. The importance of
the introduction of this valuable article of food, in respect both of the
weal and the woe of the Highlands, cannot be over-estimated. As an
addition to the former scanty means of existence it was invaluable; had it
been used only as an addition the Highlanders might have been spared much
suffering, instead of this, however, it ere long came to be regarded as so
all-important, to be cultivated to such a large extent, and to the
exclusion of other valuable productions, and to be depended upon by the
great majority of the Highlanders as almost their sole food, that one
failure in the crop by disease or otherwise must inevitably have entailed
famine and misery. For so large a share of their food did the common
Highlanders look to potatoes, that, according to the Old Statistical
Account, in many places they fed on little else for nine months in the
year.
The first remarkable
scarcity subsequent to 1745 appears to have been in the year 1770-1
arising apparently from the unusual severity of the weather, causing the
destruction of most of the crops, and many of the cattle. That, however,
of 1782—83 seems to have been still more terrible, and universal over
all the Highlands, according to the Old Statistical Account. It was
only the interference of government and the charity of private individuals
that prevented multitudes from dying of starvation. Neither of these
famines, however, seem to have been caused by any failure in the potato
crop from disease, but simply by the inclemency of seasons. But when to
this latter danger there came subsequently to be added the liability of
the staple article of food to fail from disease, the chances of frequently
recurring famines came to be enormously increased. About 1838 potatoes
constituted four-fifths of the food of the common Highlanders. However, we
are anticipating. It is sufficient to note here as a matter of great
importance in connection with the later social history of the Highlands,
the universal cultivation of the potato sometime after the middle of the
eighteenth century. Even during the latter part of last century,
potato-disease was by no means unknown, though it appears to have been
neither so destructive nor so widespread as some of the forms of disease
developed at a later period. New forms of disease attacked the root during
the early part of the present century, working at times considerable
havoc, but never apparently inducing anything approaching a famine. But
about 1840, the potato disease par excellence seems to have made
its first appearance, and after visiting various parts of the world,
including the Highlands, it broke out generally in 1845, and in 1846
entailed upon the Highlands indescribable suffering and hardship. Of this,
however, more shortly. One effect attributed frequently in the Old
Statistical Account to the introduction and immoderate use of the
potato is the appearance of diseases before unknown or very rare. One of
the principal of these was dropsy, which, whether owing to the potato or
not, became certainly more prevalent after it came into common use, if we
may trust the testimony of the writers of the Statistical
Account.
In looking hack, then, by
the aid of the authority just mentioned, along with others, on the
progress made by the Highlands during the latter half of the eighteenth
century, while there is much to sadden, still there is much that is
cheering. The people generally appear in a state of ferment and discontent
with themselves, and doing their best blindly to grope their way to a
better position. While still there remain many traces of the old thraldom,
there are many indications that freedom and a desire after true progress
were slowly spreading among the people. Many of the old grievous services
were still retained; still were there many districts thirled to particular
mills; still were leases rare and tenures uncertain, and rents frequently
paid in kind; in many districts the houses were still unsightly and
uncomfortable huts, the clothing scanty, and the food wretched and
insufficient. In most Highland districts, we fear, the old Scotch plough,
with its four or five men, and its six or ten cattle, was still the
principal instrument of tillage; drainage was all but unknown; the land
was overstocked in many places with people and cattle; the ground was
scourged with incessant cropping, and much of the produce wasted in the
gathering and in the preparing it for food. Education in many places was
entirely neglected, schools few and far between, and teachers paid worse
than ploughmen! The picture has certainly a black enough background, but
it is not unrelieved by a few bright and hopeful streaks.
On many parts of the
border-Highlands improvements had been introduced which placed them in
every respect on a level with the lowlands. Many of the old services had
been abolished, leases introduced, the old and inefficient agricultural
instrument replaced by others made on the most approved system. Houses,
food, and clothing were all improved; indeed, in the case of the last
article, there is frequent complaint made that too much attention and
money were expended on mere ornamentation. The old method of constant
cropping had in not a few districts been abolished, and a proper system of
rotation established; more attention was paid to proper manuring and
ingathering, and instead of restricting the crops, as of old, to oats and
barley, many other new cereals, and a variety of green crops and grasses
had been introduced. Not only in the districts bordering on the Lowlands,
but in many other parts of the Highlands, the breed of sheep, and cattle,
and horses had been improved, and a much more profitable system of
management introduced. By means of merciful emigration, the by far too
redundant population of the Highlands had been considerably reduced, the
position of those who left the country vastly improved,
and more room and more means of living afforded to those who remained. A
more rational system of dividing the land prevailed in many places, and
sheep-farming—for which alone, according to all unprejudiced testimony,
the greater part of the surface of the Highlands is fitted — had been
extensively introduced. The want of education was beginning to be felt,
and in many districts means were being taken to spread its advantages,
while the moral and religious character of the people, as a whole, stood
considerably above the average of most other districts of Scotland. In
short, the Highlanders, left to themselves, were advancing gradually
towards that stage of improvement which the rest of the country had
reached, and the natural laws which govern society had only not to be
thwarted and impertinently interfered with, to enable the Highlanders ere
long to be as far forward as the rest of their countrymen. From the
beginning of this century down to the present time they have had much to
struggle with, many trials to undergo, and much unnecessary interference
to put up with, but their progress has been sure and steady, and even
comparatively rapid. We must glance very briefly at the state of the
Highlands during the present century; great detail is uncalled for, as
much that has been said concerning the previous period applies with equal
force to the present. |
