THE DUKE OF SUTHERLAND AS A MODEL LANDLORD.
NO county in Scotland has passed through more notable vicissitudes of fortune than Sutherlandshire since one moiety of it came into the ownership of the Gower family through the marriage of Lord Stafford with the heiress of the ancient Sutherland elan, and since they acquired the other by purchase from Lord Reay. It is beyond question that the new possessors, from the time of their advent, have been continuously animated by a desire to further the prosperity of their big domain, and to advance the welfare of its inhabitants. For these objects they have expended their vast wealth with an unstinted liberality. They have never fallen to the unworthy position of being mere receivers of rent. Their relations towards their tenantry have always been other than that of bare creditors, no matter how easy-going and generous. Still, the results have not corresponded either with their wishes or their exertions. A grave initial blunder vitiated their first scheme from its commencement. The ill-effects of that mishap not only marred a well-meant contrivance, but have hindered and baffled anxious efforts to straighten what had been twisted awry. Neither scientific knowledge nor empirical endeavour—. though both have been resolutely applied under conditions the most favourable—has availed to overcome the original mistake, far less to succeed in making the best that could be made of the shire. Yet it was needful that something should be done when the English proprietor came into possession. Not only did the lack of tidiness and comfort offend his eye, but, apart from the absence of those external charms which continue to be maintained, at all events in the immediate vicinage of a great nobleman's mansion, the peasantry were inured to dire privations. They were a manly, and, in their way, a pions race. Impoverished, helpless, with something of serf-like servility in conjunction with a curiously rigid independence, cut off by language from association with their nearest neighbours more than even in those days such neigh- bours were out off from correspondence with their kinsfolk in America, despite a scant livelihood, aggravated frequently by miserable harvests, they never dreamt of begging for a penny rather than working for a sixpence, and clung with a true Celtic tenacity to their homesteads and their birthplace. The Marquis thought he could better their condition, and immensely improve the property. His plan was large and bold. He saw that beyond their little patches of oats, which did not always ripen, the population were mainly dependent upon their herds of black cattle which pastured on the hills. He knew, or heard, that these grazings, if put under sheep, would produce three or four pounds of prime mutton for every pound of ill- fed beef that came from them. He was aware that on two of its sides, involving much the bigger half of its whole circum- ference, the shire is laved by a sea teeming with fish which no one tried to catch. Why, it struck him, should not these two be utilised by a beneficent change of dwelling and occupation? Let the present inhabitants of the interior be transported to the coast, and taught to ply the craft of the fisherman ; let the places they vacate be leased to pastoral farmers from the Lowlands, men of capital, shrewdness, and enterprise, who know how to use the land ; thus will a double benefit be done to both classes immediately concerned, while a handsome gain will accrue to me and mine. It seemed a wise and feasible plan. It was inspired by a motive which was good and just. It was carried through with all possible forbearance. Yet the process of removal became harsh and stern. It went sorely against the grain of the people, who could not be uprooted without giving vent to what Carlyle called a "mystic, man- dragora moan," that awoke far-off echoes of resentment and condemnation. And the thing has not succeeded. Neither those who went nor those who came have achieved all that was hoped. The first, though better provided for by far than those who elsewhere were subjected to a like experience, have not taken in an apt and kindly fashion to their new mode of life. The second, though they enjoyed a good time for a long season, though the introduction of Cheviot sheep in large flocks seemed equivalent to opening a new source of permanent wealth, have been sharply pulled up, not only by the general depression in trade, but by the fact that they cannot sustain their former productiveness. Their laud is becoming worn out. First, they had to send their young sheep to be wintered else- where,—a proceeding that raises their rent considerably. Next, they had to reduce the number of their flocks, their grazings being inadequate to carry the old amount of stock. Finally, the reduction in quantity has been mated with a reduction in the selling prices of both flesh and fleece. It is no marvel, therefore, that the Northern sheep-farmers are chary of renewing their tenancies, and that many Northern proprietors, the Duke of Sutherland among the rest, have numerous large farms on their hands, with valuable stocks which they have had to pay for.
Yet the Duke, an earnest and manly person, not endowed with brilliant or showy accomplishments, but rich in saving common-sense, instinctively preferring what is solid to what is glittering, was one of the first to foresee what was coming, and assiduously to prepare for it. He has been free to do as he liked with the property for a quarter of a century. His first endeavour, undertaken spontaneously, though he Bought and obtained excellent advice, was to redress the errors committed in connection with the evictions that took place ere he was born. There are still a large crofter and cotter popula- tion on the estate, who are more lightly rented than the vast majority of their compeers. Their number, and the cheapness of their holdings, were alike demonstrated during the recent assize held in Sutherlandshire by the Crofter Commission. A considerable number of applicants were ill-advised enough to come forward with a solicitation to have a fair rent judicially fixed. A patient and searching inquiry led to conclusions that must have grievously disconcerted them. As a general rule, the exceptions being few and their importance trivial, the methods of calculation adopted by the Commissioners, which brought out the need of large reductions of rent in most other instances, suggested that on the Sutherland estate fairness demanded an increase, which was accordingly decreed, though in all likelihood it will not be exacted. Not only is the Duke content to allow easy terms to his small tenants ; he voluntarily anticipated some of the recent recommendations for an enlargement of their holdings. Partly with that view, partly to save the heavy expense to which flockmasters are subjected in the provision of wintering for their young sheep, he entered upon a gigantic enterprise of land reclamation and tillage, striving to convert the bleak muirlands and mountain-sides into fields waving with grain or productive of roots. The experiment conducted by Mr. Smith, of Deanston, for Sir James Matheson in the Island of Lewis, was repeated in Sutherland upon a scale more exten- sive, more thorough, and vastly more promising. Yet it issued in a like nugatory and disappointing upshot. The rich, low-lying lands, though exposed to adverse climatic influences, might, were they abundantly supplied with nitrogen, the most valuable because the most permanent fertiliser, yield crops that would pay ; but the shallow soil of the mountain-sides, though ever so well cultivated, cannot overcome the long and ungenial spring, nor withstand the severe frosts that often prevail in the early summer, so as to grow seasonable crops that will prove remunerative at present prices. Well-nigh a quarter of a million sterling has been laid out upon this great undertaking. The success attained has been very partial. No one can say that the trial made was superficial, short-lived, or defective. Whatever scientific wisdom could recommend, artful ingenuity could suggest, or patient labour, in conjunction with bounteous outlay, could accomplish, was carried through with resolution and good hope. The result has been to demonstrate that, at all events under present conditions, such as are likely long to exist, Sutherlandshire can never become an arable county,. save in the hollows of its beautiful straths, which have at one time been overrun by water, where the soil is of greatest depth and finest quality, and has never been denuded of its elements of fertility, and where these elements can be quickened into activity by drainage, fellows, liming, and the use of mineral manures. That this should have been established is a great thing. It is, however, a small affair by comparison with what the Duke has done.
A small pamphlet has been put forth by Mr. Brereton, who has come in place of the Lochs, father and son, and of Sir Arnold lIemball, as his factotum, which presents a sort of balance- sheet, accompanied by notes and comments, compiled from the accounts of the estate since his accession. It is worth study and preservation. It shows that his Grace has dealt with the county whence he has his title in a large-minded and open- handed fashion. The carefully verified statements it contains are enough to raise him to a front place among those munifi- cent landlords who sustain the honours of "our old nobility" in a superior and more befitting style than that celebrated by Lord John Manners in his salad days, when he cherished a lingering veneration for the traditions of feudalism, and, even though "he had taken the oaths and his seat," was not wholly reconciled to the fact that a Hanoverian dynasty should have supplanted the Stuarts. Not Devonshire nor Bedford, not Northumberland nor Portland, can show a more honourable and self-sacrificing record than the Duke of Sutherland. He has spent upon his Highland property more than he derived from it. His strong mechanical tastes have guided him in the outlay. Whatever captious and irrelevant criticism may be passed upon the partially futile attempt at land-reclamation, no competent person will question the judiciousness of what has been done otherwise. Before his time, toll-free roads traversed the whole county, and convenient inns, kept by respectable folk, who were under the strongest guarantees for good behaviour, were planted at suitable places. But all this has been revised and extended. The county has been opened up by railway communication constructed at the proprietor's cost, which, though now amalgamated with the Highland Rail- way system, which runs from near Perth to within eight of Skye on the West, and to Thurso in the extreme North—a system which will almost vie in extent, therefore, with any in the Kingdom—left him with a loss of £80,000. Moreover, his early liking for the crofters, his desire to do them justice, and to work out the amelioration of their condition, have never abated. A large slice of his immense expenditure was devoted specially to their behoof. Mr. Brereton sums up his spontaneous outlay at £824,750, whereof £561,372 went on estate improvements, £230,702 on railways, and £32,676 on other public works,— more than one-half of the whole, or £446,199 in all, being spent upon labour. It is surely a rare instance of princely munificence, the more noteworthy that the sum of nearly £6,000 derived from the small tenantry does not meet the poor-rates and the school-rates, from which they alone derive benefit. Nevertheless, though he may have been a little irritated by recent proceedings, as even a very complacent man might excusably be, their benefactor has not grown wearied or niggardly. A very distinct intimation of his sagacious forecast is given unconsciously by Mr. Brereton, who lets fall a hint that if the Government would help the crofters, upon the lines of the Irish Purchase Act, to buy their holdings in fee simple, the Duke would not object. It will probably come to some- thing of this sort at last. Were all landlords like the Duke of Sutherland, as exemplary, as considerate, capable of being as generous, and disposed to be so, the need might be avoided,— certainly the difficulties of the performance would be smoothed.
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