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Part II
Present State, and
Change of Character and Manners
SECTION III.
Beneficial Results of
Judicious Arrangements, and of allowing Time to acquire a Knowledge of
Agricultural Improvements— Emigration—Agricultural Pursuits promote
Independence, and prevent Pauperism.
Happily for the prosperity
of the Highlands, for the welfare of the state, and for the preservation
of the original inhabitants of the mountains, there are many populous
districts, in which the inhabitants have been permitted to remain, and are
contented and independent, and in which the beneficial effects of
judgment, combined with a proper appreciation of the best interests of
Highland landlords, are successfully displayed, and the character and
capability of Highland tenants practically proved. The former, availing
themselves of the natural benefit of a hardy athletic race of men, easily
induced by kindness to make a full exertion of their powers, have realized
the most beneficial effects on their general character, and, by a gradual
and gentle diffusion of agricultural knowledge, have both improved their
own incomes, and increased the wealth and comfort of their tenants. The
aversion of the latter to any change of ancient habits, has been, in a
great measure, overcome; and they are found to enter very keenly into the
improved system, when encouraged by example, and once fairly convinced of
its advantages.
[This is no new trait of
character. Dr Walker, an eminent Professor of Natural History in the
University of Edinburgh, commenced, in the year 1760, an extensive and
enlarged system of inquiry relative to the Highlands. From that year till
1780, he was employed by the General Assembly to examine and report on the
religious and moral condition of the inhabitants, to which he added their
economical history. Of the people he says, "It is only from a
superficial view that they are represented as unconquerably a-verse to
industry and every kind of innovation. Besides other good qualities, their
laborious assiduity in various occupations is well known, wherever they
happen to settle in the low country." He adds, "The unrestrained progress
of inoculation abundantly shows, that the Highlanders are as candid in
their judgment, are as ready to embrace, and can as vigorously pursue, any
innovation that is advantageous or salutary, as any other people
whatever."— Economical History of the Highlands of Scotland.]
The gentlemen to whom I
allude commenced with the improvement of the condition of their tenants,
as the best foundation for the improvement of their estates, the
permanency of their incomes, and the pleasure of seeing themselves
surrounded by a prosperous, grateful, and contented tenantry.
[A very worthy Baronet in
the Highlands (Sir George Stewart of Grand-tully), who has made the
necessary allowances for the prejudices and frailties of men, has allowed
his tenants the time necessary to learn the improved mode of culture, and
to increase the value and size of their breed of cattle and sheep. This
has been done without separating the arable land from the pasture, or
diminishing the farms of any, but rather enlarging them, if too small,
when it could be done without prejudice to others. At the same time the
rents have been gradually rising. The consequence is, that he receives the
undiminished rental of his estate; and while considerable distress has
been experienced in his neighbourhood, his people are in so different
circumstances, that, when lately, he had occasion for a supply of money to
assist him in the purchase of some adjoining lands, they came forward with
a spontaneous offer to advance 18,000 l., with a declaration that they
were ready with 60001. more if required. This is a pleasing instance of
the attachment of the olden times. The manner in which these people pay
their rents, and support their families, will appear the more remarkable
to the advocates for large farms, as this estate, with a rental of less
than 9000l. supports a population of 2835 souls, all maintained on the
produce; while only 17 disabled paupers, and some poor old women, require
parochial relief; and the tenants are so independent, and so grateful to
their humane and generous landlord, that they enable him to purchase the
estates for sale in his neighbourhood.]
"On every estate," says Dr Robertson, speaking
of the new system, "this complete change has not taken place: the ancient
connection between the heads of tribes and their clan is not in every
instance dissolved. In these cases, the affability and kindness of the
landlord is the frequent subject of their conversation, and the prosperity
of his family is the object of their warmest wishes and devout prayers.
At their little parties and convivial
meetings, his health is always the first toast. They feel an interest in
the fortunes and destiny of his children. Upon his return home, after a
long absence, or his promotion to a place of honour or profit, or the
birth of an heir, the glad tidings spread with the velocity of lightning,
and bonfires illuminate the whole estate. In the county of Inverness there
are such landlords: as the almoners of heaven, they take the divine
pleasure of making their dependants happy. There are also, in the same
county, landlords, who are left to the execration of their people, to the
contempt of every benevolent man, and to the reproach of their own
condemning consciences." [Dr Robertson's General View of the Agriculture
of the County of Inverness, drawn up by order of the Board of
Agriculture.] The
policy of the innovations may be considered in three points of view; 1st,
As affecting the interests of the proprietors; 2dly, The welfare of the
people; and, 3dly, That of the state.
1st, The interest of the proprietors. Whether
these innovations be conducive to the advantage of the proprietor is a
point which, in the conflict of adverse opinions, is not easily decided;
yet it would seem to be very clear, that a system, which has so great a
tendency to break the spirit and lower the natural and moral condition of
the bulk of the people engaged in the agriculture of the Highlands,
cannot, in any just sense of the word, be very advantageous to the
landlords, since, by throwing the produce of the country into the hands of
a few men of capital, it gives them a monopoly of the farms, and often the
option of fixing whatever rents they choose to pay; for few men can enter
into competition on the enlarged scale of the new system,—an evil which
seems to have been overlooked when it was adopted. But, admitting that
landlords are not bound to wait for the instruction and improvement of
their tenants in agricultural knowledge; admitting, to its fullest extent,
their legal right of managing their lands in the manner apparently most
profitable; and allowing the most unqualified power to exercise the right
of removing the ancient occupiers, [In answer to the question of the
propriety of dismissing the ancient occupiers of land, the conduct of
manufacturers and tradesmen is quoted as an example of the exercise of
such a right, and of the practice of turning away the people without
regard to their future comfort. While it is admitted that this is
certainly the practice in the instance alluded to, it may still be a
question whether, if more kindness were shown, if the legal right of
dismissal were less rigorously exerted, and if working tradesmen and
artisans were encouraged, by ties of kindness and association, to believe
their situations and employments permanent, we would see so many
combinations against master tradesmen and manufacturers, and their houses
and property so often in danger of conflagration. But, whatever may be the
cause, there is no doubt of the appearance of a spirit of revenge and
despair on the part of the working classes, and of a want of confidence
and a distrust on the part of their employers; and certainly such a state
of society, in which the employed are kept down by the bayonet and the
strong arm of the law, and the lives and properties of the employers
protected by military force, and a strict police, does not form a very
desirable example for the imitation of Highland proprietors, in the case
of the once chivalrous, and still valuable occupiers of their land.] it
may still be doubted whether plans so hastily adopted, so productive of
immediate distress, and which occasion such permanent discontent, are
likely to be ultimately successful.
But, at the same time that this legal and
admitted right of removing the original tenantry from their farms has been
very freely exercised, it must appear somewhat extraordinary, nor is it
easy to account for it in a satisfactory manner, that so many attempts
have been made to restrain emigration, the best and only remaining relief
for those who had been deprived of their farms. This course must
undoubtedly have been pursued under the persuasion that some benefit would
have been lost to the community by the consequent depopulation. But, the
truth is, the value of the people was well known; and to constrain them to
remain in the country, after they have been deprived of their usual
resources, is equally inconsistent with every principle of sound policy
and of justice. Nor is it a weak objection to the expediency of these
measures, that an interference to prevent government from giving
encouragement to emigrants was found necessary; [Government having
listened to representations made a few years ago in name and behalf of
those Highlanders who had already been ejected from their possessions; and
in behalf of others who dreaded the same fate, it was resolved to
encourage emigration to Canada, under certain stipulations. Several
landholders became alarmed, and made counter representations, on the plea
that their country would be depopulated. In consequence of this, the
execution of the plan was suspended, and it was at length entirely
withdrawn, to the great distress of numbers who were anxious to avail
themselves of this opportunity of removal to a country more favourable to
their views, but who were destitute of the means of attaining their
object, as much of their small capital had been expended in waiting the
final decision of the proposed offers. This line of conduct must appear
very inconsistent.] for this furnishes a practical refutation of the
principles on which many have acted, and of the assertion made, that the
Highlands were only calculated for pasture and a thin population. If the
position was correct, why, in opposition to this maxim, attempt to retain
the people, and place them on such paltry lots of land as have been
mentioned, perhaps not one-tenth of the extent of the farms from which
they were removed, on the ground that they were too small, and this in a
country without regular employment, or, indeed, any means of subsistence
except such as are drawn from the soil? Hence, it would appear, that the
value of the old tenantry was well understood; otherwise why encourage or
compel them to remain? Many considerations might be expected to operate to
prevent the adoption of a system which called for such indefensible
expedients, and which could only be supported by arguments so
inconsistent. When
the proprietor is anxious to obtain the utmost rent for his land, it is,
in general, his interest not to divide his farms upon too minute a scale,
such subdivision of land, among those of the ancient tenantry, who, after
their removal from their original farms, are permitted to remain, being
found to be fruitful in misery and discontent: but, however proper and
applicable extensive establishments may be to fertile districts, easily
cultivated, situated in a favourable climate, and possessing the
advantages of being near market, water carriage, and manure; and also of
being within reach of towns and villages, where a supply of labourers, in
the busy period of autumn, may be readily procured; yet, in peculiar
situations, great advantage may be derived from a division of the soil
into moderately small farms; and, with regard to the Highlands, many, who
have had opportunities of judging accurately, have been inclined to
believe that, at a distance from market, with much rugged but improvable
land, an active abstemious population, and a comparatively barren soil,
improvements, which could not be executed by capital alone, unassisted by
the manual labour of the occupiers, [See Appendix, BB.] may be carried on
to the mutual advantage both of landlord and tenant. To this we may add
what has occurred in many instances in times of difficulty, that the
economical habits of the small tenantry will enable them to fulfil their
engagements to their landlords, when the large farmers, embarrassed by
extensive speculations and expensive establishments, must often fail in
the fulfilment of theirs. That this is not merely a fanciful hypothesis,
unsupported by facts, may be seen by reference to those countries in which
the lands are more generally distributed, as in France, where the labours
of the agricultural population are at once productive of a great public
revenue, and of comfort and independence to the body of the people.
England, in the days of the Edwards and Henries, although her foreign
commerce was then extremely circumscribed, was prosperous and powerful
from the produce of the soil alone, as was France during the late war, in
which, though general communication and commerce were almost entirely
interrupted, great revenues were derived from internal resources. In the
same manner, in Flanders, Holland, &c. the profits of agricultural produce
are more generally diffused, and few countries display a finer
agricultural prospect; especially Austrian Flanders, where the farms do
not, in many instances, exceed 10, 20, and SO acres each, and only, in a
few cases, extend to 100 or 200; and yet it has been maintained that, in
Britain, where, in many counties, the farms average from 300 to 3000
acres, the country could not pay the taxes and other public burdens, [The
great increase in the value of animal produce has been ascribed to an
extensive commerce, and particularly to the great consumption in
manufacturing towns. Yet, in no period in the history of this country,
were the manufacturers in greater distress, and less able to purchase
animal food, than in 1816 and the four succeeding years, while at no time
were sheep and cattle higher-priced, or in greater demand. In 1822, when
manufacturers were in full employment, the price of beef and mutton fell
fifty per cent. below former prices in the butcher-market. In 1824, again,
cattle have risen forty per cent. in price above that of 1822, while there
is no change in the condition of the manufacturers. The high price of
Highland produce must, therefore, depend on other causes than the demands
of manufacturing districts.] unless formed into such extensive
establishments, and unless the rural population were dispersed. It is a
striking fact, however, that poor-rates are as high, and in some cases
higher, and that, consequently, greater poverty prevails in the
thinly-peopled agricultural districts, than in the more populous counties.
In Norfolk, Sussex, and other counties, where the largest capitals are
invested [It was stated by Mr Burrell, in the House of Commons, that, in
the parish of West Grinstead, in Sussex, 5000 acres pay poor-rates to the
amount of L.4000.] in agriculture, and where public meetings are held to
celebrate the prosperity and successful enterprise of the men of capital
and skill, landlords must pay back 20, 30, and 40 per cent. of the produce
of their land to support the paupers, who are so numerous in the midst of
this prosperity. No part of the crowded manufacturing districts of
Lancashire is more heavily taxed with poor-rates than several of these
great agricultural districts. In like manner, we find, that parochial
rates are, by no means, so heavy in the populous manufacturing counties of
Lanark and Renfrew, as in the large farming counties in the south of
Scotland, particularly in Roxburgh and Berwickshire, where the English
system of pauperism has begun to find its way,—not, as I heard stated by
some reverend members of the General Assembly in the year 1818, on account
of the vicinity of these counties to England, but, partly at least, from
the similarity of system adopted and pursued. Pauperism is not
geographically contagious, and poverty and poor-rates have not increased
in Roxburgh and Berwickshires, because they happen to be contiguous to
England, but because the same evil will spread in Scotland as well as in
other countries, by the action of the same cause. But it is evident, as
has been already stated, that it is advantageous to have a considerable
portion of a country laid out in large farms, that men of capital and
education may be encouraged to engage in agricultural pursuits; and this
has always been the case in the Highlands, where large tracts have been
held in lease by men of education and respectability,—as, for instance,
the estates of Macdonald and Macleod, on which there were sixty gentlemen
farmers: it is the too general adoption of such a system which is to be
dreaded; nor, indeed, can it be generally established, even in one
district, without causing great distress, in the first instance, and
ultimately expelling a valuable and industrious race of people.
[The evils resulting from
the non-residence of proprietors are generally acknowledged. In no country
is the absence of country gentlemen more felt than in the Highlands, where
many proprietors seldom see their estates or tenants; and when they do, it
is too often either for the sake of a few weeks' pastime, or perhaps to
collect arrears of rent, or to make arrangements for an increase : and
hence their visits are more a subject of dread than of satisfaction to
their tenants. Now, if the absence of proprietors be an evil, would it not
be subversive of the best interests of the Highlands to suppress or remove
the whole class of country gentlemen and proprietors of small estates from
L. 100 to L.3000 a-year, and concentrate their lands in possession of a
few individuals, leaving no intermediate class between the great
landholder and the occupiers of his farms? By the same analogy, would it
not be destructive of the independence of the lower classes in the North,
if entire districts were given to one great farmer, leaving the whole
population to support themselves on accidental la-hour, or on such
employment as the man of capital chose to give them? As country gentlemen,
of small or moderate properties, resident on their estates, have ever been
an honourable, independent, and useful class in the chain of society, and
as they have eminently contributed to the support of the country, does not
the same thing apply to a lower link in society in the Highlands, where
the gradation in the division of land among the tacksmen, smaller tenantry,
and cottagers, has preserved their race moral and independent, without the
degradation of poor-rates or pauperism? And should not these facts and
considerations operate in preserving a share of the profits of the soil
for a more general distribution of its benefits in producing independence
and comfort to the bulk of the people?]
Nor does the adoption of such a system appear
so conducive to the interest of the proprietor as it might, on a first
view, seem. Late experience has, in many cases, shown, that improvements
may be effected, and good rents obtained, by judicious changes and
modifications of the old system, without the expatriation of inhabitants
or great expense to the landlords. In illustration of this point, I could
produce many instances, but shall content myself with the following brief
account of a great Highland estate.
Previous to 1797, this estate was occupied by
a numerous small tenantry, interspersed with large farms, rented by men of
education and respectable rank in society. The latter began to improve
their lands and stock, after the examples they saw in the Lowlands. The
small tenants also evinced symptoms of increasing industry, but they held
their lands in common, and by what is known in Scotland by the name of "Runrig"
that is, each man having a ridge of the arable land alternately with his
neighbour, the higher pastures being held in common. While this
interlacing system continued, it was not easy to carry on any improvement;
but, soon after the period just mentioned, the arable lands were measured,
and each man received a portion equal to what he formerly held, but
contiguous, and, in general, enclosed, so that the benefit of his
improvements was entirely his own. The people were so numerous, that from
eight to thirty arable acres, with a portion of pasture, were all that
could be allotted to each tenant; but none were removed. The pastures
remained in common, as, from their nature and extent, they must always be,
the expense of enclosures and subdivisions being more than such
unproductive lands can sustain. But the number of horses, cattle, and
sheep, to be kept on the pastures, was limited in proportion to the
quantity and quality of the arable land occupied by each tenant, at the
same time allowing a small portion for each cottager. By taking advantage
of the great inequality of soil and climate, and diversifying the stock
and produce accordingly, the tenants were frequently able to pay their
rents in cases in which they must have failed, had they had only one
article for sale. When these changes took place, the farms of the tacksmen
on a larger scale remained without any alteration as to extent: but they
forthwith commenced considerable improvements, and gave an example to the
common people, who readily followed it, and who, at the same time,
received considerable encouragement from their landlord.
The consequence of this wise and equitable
plan was a progressive and regular improvement of the soil, and an
advancement of the wealth and comfort of the tenants, while rents at once
adequate and well paid were secured to the proprietor. But in an evil
hour, and unfortunately for both landlord and tenant, the management of
this estate was transferred to an agent of the new school, who immediately
commenced operations according to the most approved modern system. He
divided and subdivided farms that were already sufficiently small, while
he made others again by far too large. Secret and rival offers were called
for, and while he raised a spirit of rivalry, revenge, and irritation,
which has not yet been subdued, he quickly succeeded in increasing the
rent-roll to an unprecedented nominal amount; but the actual returns have
fallen much below the original rent, much of the stock and capital of the
tenants having been expended;—a deficiency of payment hitherto unknown
among a people remarkable for their punctuality, and respect to their
pecuniary engagements with their landlords.
Others, by separating the high pasture lands
from the low arable grounds, and letting them apart, have lost the
advantages which joint possessions of arable and pasture grounds afforded
for counteracting the evils of precarious seasons, and the difficulty of
disposing of produce when distant from market; and have also lost the
benefit to the arable ground of the winter manure of the cattle fed upon
the pastures in summer. It frequently happens, that, when corn is at a low
price, the produce of the pastures is high; and, again, when sheep, wool,
and cattle, are low, there is sometimes a great demand for grain.
Judicious distributions of these natural advantages of the country have
long secured an equality to, if not, in some cases, a superiority over
situations more favoured in point of climate and soil. Of this
superiority, however, many have deprived themselves by the separation of
the arable from the pasture lands, in expectation, that, by this
separation, better rents would be received,—an expectation which
experience has proved to have been ill founded. To deprive people of their
pasture lands, in a country naturally pastoral, appears a very
questionable measure, when it is considered that in the Highlands manure
cannot be purchased, and that the scarcity of fuel renders lime expensive.
[By the loss of their sheep, the small tenants
suffered exceedingly. All the clothes in common use were formerly
manufactured at home from their own wool, and they were thus able to
clothe their families with comfort and at small expense. Now, much money
goes out of the country for clothing, which formerly went to pay the
rents, or to portion their children. This also accounts for the almost
total disappearance of tartan, which was formerly made in every family;
for so many want wool that they cannot manufacture any, and the flimsy
thin dry tartan made in the Lowlands is too expensive, and quite different
from what was in use in the Highlands, and is unfit for the common
purposes of life. Thus almost every new measure tends to change the habits
as well as the character of the people. How much dress affects the manners
is well known; and certainly the clumsy, vulgar, ill-made clothes, now so
much worn by the young men of the Highlands, give them a clownish
appearance, altogether different from, and forming a marked contrast to
the light airy garb, gay with many colours, and the erect martial air and
elastic step of the former race of Highlanders. I have already noticed the
manner in which particular patterns or sets of tartan were preserved in
families, as also Mr West's opinion of the beauty of the colours, and the
taste with which they were arranged. Indeed, the beauty and clearness of
the dye were quite remarkable. There are plaids preserved in families,
manufactured in the Highlands in the seventeenth century, with as
brilliant a tint as can well be given to worsted. These were the
manufactures of the tenants in their families.]
Another inconvenience arising from this
separation is, that their hay cannot be consumed unless the farmers become
dealers in cattle, which often renders them losers by the uncertainty and
sudden variations of this precarious traffic; whereas, if they had cattle
of their own, reared and fed on the produce of their lands, they could
only occasionally suffer by the falling of markets, and not be subject to
the heavier loss of purchasing high and selling low.
These reflections will receive farther
confirmation, if we look to the state of the inhabitants in the two most
populous and extensive districts of the Highlands of Perthshire, namely,
Athole and Breadalbane. These districts are divided into eleven parishes,
there being nine in the former, and two in the latter, and contain a
population of 26,480 persons, of which number not more than 364 (taking
the average of five years previous to 1817) require relief from the public
funds. The extent of this relief cannot be great, as the funds for the
support of the poor are supplied by voluntary donations, and the interest
of a few trifling legacies. Accordingly, the annual sum allotted for the
above number is, on the same average of five years, L.522, 0s.10½d. or
L.1, 8s. 8d. to each individual. [See Appendix, CC.]
[This is a very different condition from what
we find in a large parish in Sussex, stated by Mr Burrell in the House of
Commons to contain a population of 18,000 souls, and to pay L. 16,000 of
poor-rates; so that the proportion paid for the maintenance of the poor by
the Highland population of these two districts is to the proportion paid
by an equal number of the English population in the same condition with
the parish in Sussex, referred to by Mr Burrell, as 1 to 51.5 nearly. And
yet the Highlanders, among whom there is only one pauper for every
fifty-one, in one of the most fertile counties in England, are called a
slothful, beggarly, poor people. They are poor; but as they manifest so
proper a spirit of independence, such appellations might sometimes be
spared. When the Highlanders are so often branded as poor and ignorant,
might not some observations be made on the line of conduct pursued by
those who are the cause of their poverty and ignorance? If the people had
the power, they would soon remove the stain of poverty, and having the
means would provide teachers to enlighten their ignorance. Gentlemen would
be more honourably employed, in individually removing the cause of the
distress of their people,—which they have themselves the power to do,—than
in calling public meetings in Edinburgh and other towns, to proclaim to
the world the destitute and deplorable state of their dependants and
tenants; and begging for charity from the benevolent to relieve them.
There are many gentlemen in the Highlands who would hesitate to
acknowledge that their tenants are poor and depressed, and would blush if
forced to ask for charitable aid.]
When the poor in these districts are so few,
and when these few are so easily supported, how does it happen that such
frightful misery and poverty have existed in the more northern counties,
and that, in other parts of the country, such heavy demands are made on
the benevolence of landlords? This difference between the poverty of some
districts and the comparative comfort of others, may be ascribed to local
situation, and to different modes of management. In those parts of the
North where the greatest distress prevails, the people have been removed
from their lands; and in the Southern counties, where poor-rates are
establishing, the people have no support but from accidental daily labour:
but in Athole and in Breadalbane the removal of the ancient tenantry, and
the increase of unemployed labourers, has not, by any means, been adopted
to the same extent, and, consequently, the continuance of small farms
allows to a very great proportion of the people a share in the produce of
the earth. Hence, they feel no want of food, no abject poverty, although
subjected, of course, like other parts of the kingdom, to the difficulties
arising from bad crops, depreciated produce, and other causes. So great a
proportion of the people having a permanent support, they are able to
assist the destitute without the smallest call upon landlords. But, while
the people are in a great measure independent of charitable aid, it must
nevertheless be admitted, that, in some recent instances, lamentable
symptoms of a relaxation of principle are visible, especially in the want
of punctuality in the payment of rents. This is not now, as formerly, a
heavy reproach; for the frequency of defalcation has obliterated the shame
which attached to it, and thus the best security of punctual payment and
correct general conduct is destroyed. [This evil is extending to more
transactions than payment of rents. When so much of the sense of shame is
lost, when a breach of engagement with a landlord, which was considered as
a heavy misfortune, begins to be contemplated with indifference, other
claims will soon come to be viewed in the same light. Such answers as the
following are already becoming frequent, "Don't speak of your debt; why
should I pay you, when I have not paid my rent?"]
The great influx of money occasioned by the
late war, a circumstance which, in general, has had an effect directly
contrary, introduced into the Highlands the same speculative spirit which
was, more or less, in operation over the whole kingdom. Agriculturists and
graziers received unprecedented prices for their grain and for their
cattle. Intoxicated with this gleam of prosperity, tenants, forsaking
their wonted integrity and union of interests, were induced to overbid
each other, and succeeded in misleading such landlords as were inclined to
be moderate in their calculations, till thus tempted, as it were, by such
extravagant offers ; for who, it was said, could know the value of land so
well as the cultivators? and how could landlords be expected to refuse
rents, however high, that were thus urged upon them? [See Appendix, DD.]
If the moderate and well-meaning were thus misled, the speculations of the
sanguine or thoughtless may be supposed to have exceeded the bounds of
moderation. This progress of late events and of new opinions may, in some
manner, account for the more painful process now in operation, which has a
marked tendency to deprive proprietors of the genuine comfort that attends
living honoured and beloved in a safe and happy home, surrounded by an
attached and contented people.
The point of view in which the system of
agriculture, now pursued in many parts of the Highlands, may be considered
as affecting the general interests of the State, is the loss of a valuable
body of men by too general emigration, or the much greater evil that may
be produced by forcing the inhabitants to remain without affording them
any certain means of subsistence, and by breaking down their native
spirit, and extinguishing the shame, which, happily for themselves and
their country, has hitherto attached to mendicity.
An attempt has been made to account for the
peculiar character of the Highlanders on the principle of feudal
subordination and hereditary attachment to their leaders; and those who
impute the character attained by Highland troops solely to such causes,
affect to ascribe the change which, they say, they discover in the conduct
of latter corps, to the absence of this excitement. Whether these corps
have actually degenerated from the example shown by their predecessors,
will be best decided by those who, either as friends or enemies, have
witnessed their conduct; and, on the testimony of such persons, though
strangers to their country and their language, the proof may safely be
allowed to rest. Still, however, it may with truth be said, that, in those
regiments which, as national corps, have been preserved more unmixed than
any other, their moral and military character stands pre-eminent to this
day. Of this the Seaforth and Sutherland Highlanders afford incontestable
proof. To those who
object to the policy of the late changes in the Highlands, on account of
their effect in expelling or in lowering the condition of so many able
defenders of their country, it has been replied, that, with the abolition
of the patriarchal system, the military spirit of the Highlanders has been
extinguished; that the recruits, who have been obtained from the Highlands
of late years, did not come forward, as their fathers were wont to do, at
the call of their chief, but were procured by a species of crimping, or
offered as the premium of a renewed lease, or some other petty gain. But
those who urge this argument ought to remember, that the great drafts from
the Highlands were made at a time long subsequent to the dissolution of
the patriarchal brotherhood and feudal government, and were completed with
as much expedition, and to as great an extent, as in times when the
authority of the chieftain was most absolute; and that numerous bands of
recruits followed Highland gentlemen, and young men, who had neither land
nor leases to grant, nor money with which to tempt or reward the young
soldiers. To those who know the facts, it will appear absurd to state what
must be so familiar to their knowledge, that the great numbers of
independent men who have, from time to time, inlisted from the Highlands,
could not have been influenced by the trifling temptations which most of
the individuals to whose fortunes they attached themselves were able to
offer.
[It is well known that the
bounty-money had no influence in the Highlands, when men were raised for
the 42d and other Highland corps in the Seven Years' War, as well as in
that which ended in 1783. In 1776, upwards of 800 men were recruited for
the 42d in a few weeks, on a bounty of one guinea, while officers who
offered ten and twelve guineas for recruits, which they were raising for
their commissions, could not get a man till the national corps were
completed. I have also had frequent experience of this in my own person
while serving in the 42d and 78th regiments. On many occasions, as I shall
have to notice afterwards, numbers of young Highlanders inlisted for
foreign service, (and this sometimes in bands together), on receiving less
than one-half of the bounty-money given at the same time by officers for
their commissions in the regular and fencible regiments for home-service,
as likewise by others for militia substitutes. When I was recruiting for
the 78th, the regiment was in the East Indies, and the prospect held out
to the men of embarking for that country in a few months; yet they engaged
with me, and other officers, for ten guineas, to embark immediately on a
dangerous but honourable duty, when they could have got twenty guineas as
militia substitutes, and to remain in their native country. This is very
different from what some late authors have pretended to discover, that the
youth of the Highlands have a notorious aversion to a military life.]
It is the value of such
recruits, and the danger of their being lost to this country by too
extensive an emigration, and more especially by the disaffection of those
who remain at home, that constitute the great consideration of public
importance. If the proprietors of many estates, once full of men able and
willing to serve in defence of their country, were now to muster their
military strength, it is to be feared, that, even in cases where the
ancient race is still retained, neither the influence of the name, nor the
wealth of their superiors, would be able to counteract the effects of the
disregard which has been shown to the feelings of their ancient retainers,
nor recall that power over the mind and heart which their forefathers so
fully possessed. Many seem to apprehend that the military spirit of the
Highlanders is not only connected with the existence of the feudal system,
but that it is, in some measure, dependent upon their continuing to lead a
pastoral or agricultural life, and that a sedentary or mechanical
employment must of necessity assimilate them to other artisans. Although
there may be some reason for this conclusion, perhaps it assumes too much.
"Nature," says Mrs Grant, "never meant Donald for a manufacturer. Fixing a
mountaineer to a loom too much resembles yoking a deer to a plough, and
will not in the end succeed better." And it is presumed that, even
supposing he should become a manufacturer, there is still something left
to distinguish him from either the Glasgow or the Perth weaver.
It is not, however, so much the actual removal
of the inhabitants to another country, which the State has reason to
deprecate, as the manner in which it has, in so many instances, been
effected, and the impression which it has made upon the character and
spirit of those who remain in their native country. Under proper
limitations, emigration is desirable, and ought to be encouraged, in as
much as, it affords vent for a redundant population which might otherwise
prove injurious to a country without commerce, and without extensive
tracts of new and uncultivated land. [It was sending forth colonies from a
redundant population, which originally peopled the different regions of
the earth. This was the policy of Greece and Rome, and, in later ages, of
the northern nations, who, in their migrations southward, overcame and
ultimately subdued the Roman empire.]
Surplus population, where it exists in the
Highlands, must be disposed of as in all other countries. But admitting
that moderate emigration would provide for a useful people, if too
numerous for their native country, this cannot apply to measures which do
not aim at lessening the number of pea-pie, but either at the complete
expatriation of the whole, or such a depression of the condition of those
who are permitted to remain, as will endanger their independence by
creating both the necessity and inclination for receiving charitable aid,
and by increasing in a tenfold ratio the evil of a redundant
population,—an evil which is by no means general in the Highlands,
[While the evil of a
crowded population is so much dreaded in the Highlands, it must be
irreconcileable with every principle of sound policy or humanity, to
attempt to check emigration, its best antidote. Yet, notwithstanding the
many complaints of a superabundant population, grain, in all average
seasons, is so plentiful, even in the most populous glens, in which the
people have been retained in their original possessions, that the greater
part is unsaleable. Now, as provisions are unsaleable from their
abundance, can there be any serious danger of over-population ? Or, if the
number of consumers was lessened, would it not increase the evil of
superabundant produce, (if it can be called an evil); and can there be a
surplus population, when the value of land is diminished) by the cheapness
of the produce?]
and which exists only in
those places where small lots of an acre, or more, have recently been
assigned to each of those families whose former farms had been dismantled.
Emigration is, in every view, preferable to this system of retaining the
peasantry after they have lost their lands, and of confining them within
bounds too narrow to afford them subsistence. Voluntary emigration would
benefit the state by strengthening the colonies, and transfusing into
their general mass able and intrepid defenders; but it is much to be
feared that the provocations and oppressions which have already induced
many to fight in the ranks of an enemy, may, at some future day, set those
who have sought an asylum in another region in open array against the
mother country, whence they have, in effect, been banished,—the highest
punishment, next to death, which the law inflicts.
[Although the sentences of
judges condemning criminals to temporary banishment have been questioned
as being too severe, and the miseries of the convicts on their passage to
New South Wales have been brought under the view of Parliament, little
notice has been taken of the banishment for life of thousands driven from
the Highlands; of whom so many must sell the reversion of a portion of
their lives for the expence of the passage, the miseries of which, and of
the after slavery, will be seen in Parkinson's Tour in America, and other
works. Emigrants paying, in this manner, for their passage, are said to be
bought and sold, and transferred like cattle from hand to hand. When
felons, who, with all their crimes, are certainly objects of compassion,
meet with such commendable attention, why do not the virtuous and
innocent, who are sent to perpetual exile, meet with equal commiseration ?
While Government is arraigned for supposed inattention to the comforts of
those whose crimes are disgraceful to the country for whose safety they
are transported, the misery of the unoffending Highlanders does not seem
to attract the same attention as the supposed harsh usage of felons, who,
in reality are rendered so comfortable on the passage, that in a voyage of
ten months, vessels have not lost an individual by sickness. How different
is the condition of unfortunate emigrants in their wretched and crowded
vessels! In fact, the subject is too melancholy to contemplate without the
deepest commiseration ; and yet the usual professors of philanthropy and
religion are silent.]
The intercourse between Highland landlords and
their people resembled that of a family, and, when a breach of confidence
occurs, their quarrels and animosities, like those of long-tried friends,
are the more bitter and painful;
[Perhaps it may be thought
that I give too many instances of the attachment and fidelity of the
Highlanders to their superiors. I shall only give one more from a number
of facts of the same description. While the estates forfeited after the
rebellion of 1745 were vested in the Crown, the rents were moderate, and
the leases long, the latter being generally forty-one or fifty-nine years.
In the year 1783, these estates were restored to those who had been
attainted, or to their heirs. This event caused general joy in the
Highlands, and, among many other acts of kindness of his late Majesty
towards the Highlanders, has so operated on their ardent minds, long
affectionately attached to their kings and superiors, that he is often
called the "King of the People." The heir of one of the persons attainted
succeeded to an estate of considerable extent. Government, with a kindness
that might have been imitated to advantage, removed few of the tacksmen,
"kindly tenants," and followers of the old families. When the tenants of
this gentleman found the descendant of their venerated chiefs in
possession of the inheritance of his ancestors, they immediately
surrendered their leases, doubled the rents upon themselves, and took new
ones for a term shorter by ten years than that which was yet to run of the
King's leases; in order, as they said, that the man whose presence among
them had diffused so much happiness, might sooner be enabled to avail
himself of the price of produce, which they saw annually increasing, and
raise his rents accordingly. This was in 1783, nearly forty years after
the whole power of the chiefs, except over the minds and affections of the
people, had ceased. This is one of the many instances that show how long
those honourable traits of character continued, and the importance of such
disinterested and generous attachment.]
and, consequently, those who emigrate from
compulsion, carry with them a lasting remembrance of the cause. I have
been told by intelligent officers, who served in Canada during the last
war, that they found the Highland emigrants more fierce in their animosity
against the mother country than even the native Americans. By weakening
the principle of loyalty and love of country among a people hitherto
distinguished for both, but who now impute part of their grievances to the
Government which does not (perhaps cannot) protect them, the interests of
the State are affected, and a fund of hostility created, if I may so
express myself, against the occurrence of some season of difficulty and
trial, when Government will in vain look for aid from those men whose
minds are rankling with the remembrance of recent injuries, and whose
spirits are broken by an accumulation of actual and irritating evils.
[How different the feelings
of those are who emigrate voluntarily, may be seen by the following
instance. My father had long been an indulgent landlord to a numerous
tenantry. By his kind treatment several became rich, at least they
believed themselves rich, and wished to get their farms enlarged. Their
landlord explained to them that he could not do this without injustice to
others, by removing them without cause from their farms. They saw the
force of this reasoning; but, still anxious to enlarge their possessions,
resolved to emigrate to a country where they could, without injustice or
injury to their neighbours, accomplish their wishes; and they accordingly
gave up their farms and embarked for America. Having the command of money,
one detachment purchased a tract of land on the banks of the Hudson river,
equal in fertility to any in the United States; others purchased in
different parts of the Union. By their labour they cleared a considerable
portion of land. It is now upwards of thirty years since the first
detachment emigrated; but, so far are they from entertaining a spirit of
hostility towards this country, that they cherish the kindest feelings
towards their ancient homes, and the families of their ancient laird;
their new possessions are named after their former farms, and their
children and grand-children are named after the sons and daughters of
their laird; and so loyal were they to the King and Government of this
country, that, to avoid serving against them in the late war, several
emigrated from the States to Canada, where the young men entered the Royal
Militia and Fencibles. Such are the consequences of considerate treatment,
and of voluntary emigration.]
These emigrants, with all their endearing
recollections of the past, have excited the sympathy of the Muse, and
poetry has been called in to interest us in their fate; but, in this case,
truth is better than fiction.
[In the Emigrant, by the late Honourable Henry
Erskine, he describes the feelings of an old Highlander on quitting his
native country for America.
"Farewell, farewell, dear Caledonia's strand,
Rough though thou be, yet still my native land,
Exiled from thee, I seek a foreign shore,
Friends, kindred, country, to behold no more:
By hard oppression driven
* * * * *
Thou dear companion of my happier life,
Now to the grave gone down, my virtuous wife,
'Twas here you rear'd, with fond maternal pride,
Five comely sons; three for their country died,
Two still remain, sad remnant of the wars,
Without one mark of honour but their scars:
They live to see their sire denied a grave
In lands his much-loved children died to save.
My two remaining boys, with sturdy hands,
Rear'd the scant produce of our niggard lands;
Scant as it was, no more our hearts desired,
No more from us our generous lord required.
"But, ah! sad change! those blessed days are o'er,
And peace, content, and safety charm no more:
Another lord now rules those wide domains,
The avaricious tyrant of the plains.
" For thee, insatiate chief! whose ruthless hand
For ever drives me from my native land;
For thee I leave no greater curse behind,
Than the fell bodings of a guilty mind;
Or what were harder to a soul like thine,
To find from avarice thy wealth decline.
* * * * *
"Feed on, my flocks,—my harmless people, feed,
The worst that ye can suffer is to bleed.
O! that the murderer's steel were all my fear,
How fondly would I stay to perish here:
But hark, my sons loud call me from the vale,]
Dr Robertson, in his Report for the county of
Inverness, says, "Some of the chieftains themselves have given the
death-blow to chieftain-ship: they have cut the cords of affection which
tied their followers and their tribes, and yet they complain of the
defection of their tribes, which, with their eyes open, they have driven
from them." [See Report to the Board of Agriculture.] Those who respect
the feelings of a whole people, may mourn over the breaking of those cords
which bound together in affectionate duty and esteem the different orders
of Highland society; and, while a change of management and improved
cultivation were not only necessary, but indispensable, may regret that,
to attain them, it has been found necessary to occasion such a revolution
as has, in many cases, taken place, by the abrupt and unanticipated
adoption of such measures as, without time or opportunity afforded for
guarding against the convulsive shock, have been productive of the most
violent changes, and proved subversive of all former habits and modes of
living. And, lo! the
vessel spreads her swelling sail.
Farewell, farewell ------
Then casting many a lingering look behind,
Down the steep mountain's brow began to wind." |
