SCOTLAND.
An important ecclesiastical movement has just been effected at Glasgow. The Synods of the United Secession and of the Relief Church have been slitting in that town, and deliberating on the long-agitated proposal for an union of the two churches,—old offshoots, the English reader may be told, of the Church of Scotland, and differing from it not in doctrine or form of worship, but solely in discipline. A committee of the Secession Church reported that the two bodies were "substantively one in devotion, worship, and order"; and advised that they should be united. Frequent communi- Cations took place, by deputy, between the two Synods. At the last sit- ting of either, on Wednesday, it was announced that the terms of "the basis of union" had been mutually affirmed, and that the two churches were now one. The two Synods, still sitting separately, adjourned, to meet severally in Edinburgh, on the 10th May next; the union to be consum- mated on the 12th May.
The markets in Scotland for lean cattle and sheep are now drawing to a close for the season. At all of them prices have ruled unusually high. The recent market for lambs at Lockerby was the highest ever known by Is. to 28. per head. The prices of provisions are increasing everywhere. By an announcement from the Incorporation of Bakers, we observe that the four-pound fine loaf has now been raised in Glasgow to 10d., and the four-pound household loaf to 9d. Bread has been raised in price during these last ten days at London, and all the principal towns in the kingdom; but our own terms are now as high as any of them. Limited as is the ,trade in potatoes, they are also rising in price; and during the last two days of the past week, the terms were from 10d. to 16d. per stone, accord- ing to quality. From the failure in the potato crop, and the consequently increased demand for meal and flour, the grain-mills have of late been working night and day, and the terms for grinding have advanced nearly fifty per cent. A considerable quantity of oatmeal has been shipped from the Clyde during the last fortnight, for the West of Ireland. It is satis- factory to state that work is still easy to be had, and wages are good.— Scottish Guardian.
We rejoice to state that, in all directions in the Northern counties, there at present a very great demand for agricultural labourers. Draining and other improvements are going vigorously forward; but many farmers are entirely at a stand-still for want of hands.—John-o'-Groats Journal. The Times Commissioner continues his inspection of Scotland, and his letters. He has been among the Islands, and sends an instructive account of Skye; writing from Dungevan, at the Northern end of the island. "During my short stay in it, in the gardens of those gentlemen to whom I have had the honour to be introduced, I have seen the greatest luxuriance of vegetable growth. Such is the mildness of the climate, combined with great humidity, that vegetables, grasses, and flowers here as in Ireland, grow with rank ilium- ance. In several gardens I have seen fuchsias and dahlias growing in the open air, with every other description of flower common to England; and strawberry plants, vegetable-marrow, and other kitchen vegetables, spreading with pro- faseness. But here labour and skill were applied, and nature kindly aided man's industry. It is not the soil, then, that is barren; it is not the climate that for- bids vegetation. What a far different scene awaits you out of these gardens of the rich ! This fine island, which is sixty miles long, is at no part of it more than three miles from the sea. Deep lochs stretch into it in every direction from the sea, and the land is thus divided almost like the rays of a star-fish. Every loch yields sea-weed and shell-sand for manure in abundance, as well as fish for food. Yet from one end to the other of this island, with all these facilities and capa- bilities, the eye rests on scarcely anything but bleak hills, and vast uncultivated tracts of land covered with moss and heather, here and there dotted over by the wretched black huts of the inhabitants, who exist wretchedly in the midst of thousands of uncultivated acres, which only want their labour, directed by skill,. to yield them comfort and plenty." f he Commissioner describes this state of things as the artificial prodisat of existing laws. The law of entails renders vast tracts unsaleable gives the owner no more than a life-interest in the property, pliers no available security for the borrowing of money, makes the owner careless of improve- ment, and helplessly poor; whilst the Scotch Poor-law tends to drive. away the youth and vigour of the population, and desolates the land bi- emigration—
" But if such be the habitual condition of the population of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, (and I do not think that the truth of this description will be gainsaid,) what must be their condition now, when even that scanty food on which they contrive to exist in ordinary years in many parts has entirely failed? Even at the tables of those who could purchase potatoes if they were to Be h4 and at the hotels, I have not seen potatoes at dinner above once or twice during the last fortnight; boiled rice and other vegetables have taken their place. "I am assured by a large proprietor here, intimately acquainted with the cone dition of the people of the island, that out of a population of about 26,000, fully 20,000 persons depend for existence on the potato crop; and that there is not above a month's consumption of oatmeal grown in the island remaining. Neither is there any employment whatever for the people, to enable them to purchase food out of the profits of their labour. The rental of the island is about 26,0001. a year, or about 11. for each person. If the support of 20,000 of these poor people is to be derived from the land, it is quite clear that the rental cannot support them. This, then, is a great and peculiar emergency; and however much it ts to be lamented that the island is in such a state of uncultivistion as to afford no em, ployment to the people, and that the proprietors cannot give that employment however willing so to do, still it is incumbent on the Government to see that the people do not starve. •
" The chief proprietor of this part of the island is Mr. /Mead of M‘Leod. in the parish of Diminish, in which this village stands, there is a population of 3,000 souls entirely &pending upon him, the food on which they relied having failed them. It is hardly to be expected that any one proprietor can Undertake either to support or to give employment to so many persons out of his own means. Mr. M‘1.-.d- has, however, commenced marking out allotments for the people, and
i giving them employment n draining and trenching, relying on the aid of the Go.. vernment. The efforts, however, of any one individual are feeble, and insufficient to meet such an emergency."
The Commissioner recommends the extension of the Drainage Act (the - 9th and 10th Vict. c. 101) to the Highlands of Scotland-
" Several proprietors with whom I have had the opportunity of conversing, ex-
press their readiness to charge their estates in a similar manner to that author- ized by the statute 9th and 10th Victoria, c. 101, for these objects, if they can only get the money, satisfied that such improvements will immensely benefit themselves, as well as the people and the country generally. They urge the ne- cessity of an immediate advance of money for these objects, in order to give em-- ployment and the means of obtaining food to the people: such advance to be- sanctioned by a retrospective act of Parliament. The proprietors, and the people too, with seeming justice complain, now that Government grants are the order of the day in Ireland for public works, Why should not we be also relieved ? We have suffered as much by this calamity as the Irish.' * • • Such observa- tions are quite general here, and are natural enough.
"The people themselves are extremely well conducted and peaceable. But,
appalled by the prospect before t hem, they are beginning to discuss questions which excite unpleasant apprehensions. They are beginning to question the un- lawfulness and sinfulness of helping themselves to food from the sheep of the farm- ers on the hills, rather than that they should starve. Such feelings can only be allayed by prompt measures of relief. For the sake of the people themselves, such relief ought not to be eleemosynary, but in the shape of employment which will enable them to purchase food. There is here the greatest facility for em- ployment calculated to be productive of permanent profit and advantage: but there is no capital—no means of setting. it agoing; and without that employment being given to the people the prospect is frightful They are absolutely without food, or the possibility oegetting it."
In a subsequent letter, the Commissioner describes the wretched au?: culture (if such it can be called) prevalent in the Isle of Mull; and explains the state of the poor-law before and after the recent "amend- ment." Much of this latter subject retraces well-beaten ground; but two- points may be usefully noted at this time-
" The law does not authorize relief to able-bodied paupers. An old man cr an old woman who can occasionally earn 6d. by a job, or do a little at harvest, on applying for relief to the parochial board, is frequently reported by the Inspector to be able to work,' and all relief is immediately shut out by law. This,. however, like most acts of meanness, has overreached itself; for the poor people, finding this out, though able to work a little but not enough to support them- selves, absolutely refuse to work at all, last the Inspector should report them
able to work,' and they should be debarred all relief. This is a loud subject of complaint with the rate-payers." "I have not space to notice as it ought to be done, the inhumanity of denying all relief bylaw—especially at such a time as this, when the want of adaptability of the law is seen—to able-bodied men and women out of work, in a country where little work is to be had."
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