RIGHTS OF PROPERTY AND MANAGEMENT OF THE POOR TO THE

EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR. 20th June 1845.

Sat—The introduction into Parliament of the Scottish Poor-law Amendment Bill appears to have stirred up afresh the whole gall of the Times upon the Poor- law question; and as the brunt of its bitterness fell for long upon the Poor- law authorities in England, those of the sister kingdom arenow, it seems, to have their turn. The measure which that print has taken, of sending into the far North a special "Commissioner" to spy out the nakedness of the land, and not only to bnng to light every case of real or apparent oppression, but to represent them in the most aggravated colours as the everyday acts of the landed pro- prietors in that country, is alike characteristic of its vigour and its inveteracy. And not only are passing events brought thus in an aggravated form before the public eye, but alleged atrocities, refuted long since and often, and exposed as un- mitigated falsehoods, are gravely referred to as recorded facts; to the grievous in- jury of persons who, far from being capable of committing or instigating them, are every day of their lives giving the lie to the calumny by acts of benevolence and charity. Mr. Loch, as was well his part, rose in his seat to repudiate the ignorant and injurious attack of Mr. Sharman Crawford, and to defend the benefactors of Sutherlandshire from his foul aspersions: but no one, so far as I am aware, has lifted up his voice to defend a humbler perhaps, but yet a very distinguished and estimable individual, Mr. Seller, from the renewed and utterly groundless impu- tations of the Times,—imputations which he was most honourably relieved from, not only by the unanimous verdict of a jury of his country, but by the unqualified gild most humiliating testimony of his pnncipal accuser, who had only adduced tamas is fully proved) from motives of private malice. Is it not infamous thus to subject persons whose private character for benevolence and honour give the lie at once to such calumnies, to a constant repetition of them ? Is it not sad to hear the holy names of charity and ,justice desecrated by so flagrant a misappli- cation of them to purposes of party , With regard to the management of the poor in the Highlands, there is no doubt there, as everywhere, much to be amended, although this else has been the object of great exaggeration: but it is with reference to the still more grossly misrepre- sented subject of Highland " clearances that I would at present offer a few re- marks. And, in the first place, it does appear to me that those who have now taken the matter up labour under a wilful or unconscious ignorance, that renders them quite unfit to give an opinion about it. They lose sight entirely of the nature of the country, the habits and character of the people, the system—or want of sys- tem—which has so long prevailed as to the tenure of land in these remote regions, and, above all, of the facts from whence their inferences are drawn. The whole affair, indeed, might be reduced to the form and compass of a simple question—Is it desirable that the moral and physical condition of a people should be improved, and that the productive capabilities of the country they inhabit should be brought into operation and increased ? or are they, in this age of general improvement, both to be left in the semi-savage state they have existed m for ages? If the former, how can it best be done?

Now, what was the condition of the small Highland tenants or cotters in Sutherland, Ross-shire, and other Northern counties, that have suffered re- moval? Located on a bleak moor, among peat-bogs and heather-hags, or, at best, on the side of some ravine, in which runs a small stream—but allunshel- tered from the storms which in a mountainous country sweep alike over muir and through hollow—their black bothy, built of round stones intermingled with heather-turfs, was scarcely distinguishable from the waste on which it stood; and chiefly so by the smoke, which, after filling every part of the interior, found its way at last through holes left or worn in the roof of divots. All inside was dark as the pests which caused the smoke and covered everything with a black pitchy crust. There the blear-eyed inmates and half-naked children cowered over the embers and ate their scanty pittance of potatoes, or, occasionally, of the little meal afforded by the few roods of wet and foul croft that lay around the habitation. Wretched in bodily circumstances, their minds were no better off. Remote and distant as these clusters of huts were, few could avail themselves of the parish-school, such as it was; and the children, therefore, grew up idle, indo- lent, and ignorant as their parents, to lead the same useless and comfortless lives. Utterly ignorant of all but the rudest operations of agriculture, the wet undrained patches of land were covered with weeds, among which grew up the scanty crop, often destroyed by mildew and frost. No attempt was ever made at improvement, for they knew not how to begin: a mere subsistence was all they looked to from their holding: as for rent, the pittance demandable by their landlord, when paid, was derived from the sale of the " beast," or the few sheep that obtained pasture from the waste around them; but oftener, far oftener, was that landlord obliged to provide meat or potatoes to sustain them, or to give them corn for seed. I would 'appeal to nearly all Highlandproprietors, whether this is an exaggerated descrip- tion of the condition of these Highland cotters, as they existed at the time of the Sutherland " clearances," and as many do still, where the new system has not been called into operation? And if this be the case, could such a state of things be too soon brought to a close? Could the condition of such people be otherwise than improved by a change? Yet, when a proprietor does make the attempt to do tine-7to transport the human subject to a more genial region, within reach of

• aid and-intelligence and superintendence—to place him in a position where he ,Stay raise himself in the social scale and improve the land which feeds him, he is branded as an unjust and heartless tyrant.

The people who declaim against such measures utterly overlook the fact, that Providence has obviously drawn a line between the regions suited for the abode of man, and those which it has destined for the sustenance of the animals that are to clothe and feed him. In the former, man cannot only subsist, but can live sin comfort and enjoyment. In the latter, be labours (when he does labour) -against nature, and consequently obtains what he wants in far less abundance and at greater cost. In like manner, animals are found to thrive best when roaming at large over the tracts that are ill suited to man; but deteriorating '(axcept ceder especial management) when confined or withdrawn from their, natural state. Irow, as it is generally received that both land and labour should

always be applied to the uses for which they are respectively best adapted, and as that management is the best which produces the greatest amount of suste-

nance and necessaries for man, how is it possible reasonably to condemn the aye_

tern which of late has been gradually spreading in the Highlands, of dividing the cultivable from the pastoral tracts, and placing on the one men, on the others

sheep and cattle? Yet such is the system, such are the measures, which the Times and its party condemnin the Sutherland case, as well as in those more recently referred to; which is represented as a tissue of oppression and injustice, that has been and is depopulating the country, the sufferers being swept off by misery, death, and emigration.

Now, as to this allegeddepopuhition, what is the fact? Mr. Sharman Crawford, were he to visit Sutherland, which we hope he will do under Mr. Loch's auspices, might travel indeed on excellent roads through the interior, and never see a human

save a solitary shepherd—and of little use would they be there: but he wo d see a fine sprinkling of fat well-conditioned sheep, to furnish wool to the

Yorkshire looms and mutton to the manufactarersof Manchester, &c.; and, going

to the coast, he would see thriving villages—yes, in spite of the Times and its "Commissioner "—thriving villages, and a well-employed, well-fed, and clothed

population; which, in1841, exceeded by more than 1,150 the number the country contained before the clearances, and which now is still more increased; a popu- lation too, which is as superior in intelligence and industry, in the art and prac- tice of improving the resources of the country, to the inhabitants under the old regime, as to the savages of Otaheite. Not that this improved population is by any means a new rue; for where any family was found disposed. towards improvement, and willing to obey the rules for carrying it on, the proprietor was glad to afford them opportunity to put in prac- tice their good intentions in a locality better suited to reward thew efforts. And so successful have these efforts, directed by benevolent intelligence, been, that we find, instead of the few hundreds of barrels of fish, and the few droves of lean

kyloes which formed the amount of exportable produce before "'the clearancee," that now there is an export of some 30,000 to 40,000 barrels of herrings, some

70,000 to 80,000 fleeces of the best Cheviot wool, some,20 000 Cheviot sheep,

many thousand bolls of barley in the shape of Highland whisky, and an amount of cattle greatly increased in number and improved in quality- besides which,

there is a consumption of nearly 20,000 barrels of herrings, and a full supply of meat for all the inhabitants. To the charge of depopulation the extent of the fishery alone gives the lie; for that extent could never have been carried on with out the people alleged to have been driven off; while to their condition, the quan- tity of home-raised provisions consumed, the absence of all need for imparting any, and the expenditure by the landlord of between two and three hundred

thousand pounds in labour and improvements, may serve as sufficient witness. I think that the contrast here shown, and capable of irrefragable proof, will serve better than the most ingenious arguments to convince the philanthropist and the political economist alike of the value of that system which hasoduced such results. It is one which, modified by circumstances, has been folloprwed on more

than one estate that I could name besides that of the Duke of Sutherland; and which I humbly apprehend to be the truer and more effectual mode of improving a people and a country than yielding to the insensate though perhaps natural

desire, suggested by ignorance and indolence, of clinging. to the barren moor or bleak morass, where they can scarcely live, but never can improve or be useful in their generatisas

As to the clearance at Glencabie, of which so much has been said, though personally unacquainted_ with the facts of the case, I have heard much to convince me that they have been both exaggerated and-over-coloured,. to meet the objects of the Timm And hi fact, any unprejudiced person perusing the lettere of it" "Commissioner," will, I think, discover that, on his own admission,the tenants, however their pain at leaving may be sympathized with, have no just cause to complain of their removal. They were duly warned to quit; a year granted to prepare in; and, when that was gone, they were found -to have made no pre- parations, calculating on remaining as before. Now, it is not fair to dispose of this case by affirming that they paid their rent regularly, and were net in arrears. The rent, high or low, of a particular locality may not iu all cases be so much an object with a proprietor, as getting into his own hands a piece of ground which may otherwise impede some great improvement; and as in public works, the interest of an individual must give way to the larger and more useful measure. But what, after all, is the principle which those who reprobate this system mean to assert? No one will advocate wanton severity in such removals.; nor removing at all, without liberal warning, and compensation where due: but do they mean to impugn or interfere with the right of a proprietor to change his tenants when occasion offers, as he may deem most conducive to his interest, or conformable to his lawful views? In the present state of the law and acknowledged

rights of landholders, how can the management of their property be justly in- terfered with, even were they to choose to turn it into sheep-walks or deer-forests? Would not such a doctrine, in fact, tend ultimately against the tenants themselves, by leading to more stringent stipulations in leases as to the power of removal?

But is there not something exceedingly absurd in this outcry against sheep- walks. What are sheep raised for but to supply anon with food and clothing? Could he with his present habits do without them ? And are there too many raised to supply the wants of the country? If not, they must be raised some- where; and where so well and economically as on ground ill fitted for human beings but well suited to sheep? It cannot support a full crop of both; and surely, then, it is best to leave it to what it is most fit for.

It would appear, Sir, that this reasoning might be regarded as unanswerable: but there are none so blind as those who wont see, or who have another object than the truth in view; and the melancholy part of the business is, that this

object is sought without reference to the tendency. of the misrepresentations made use of—and that is, to cause a disunion between the upper and lower orders; to set the poor against the rich, as their tyrants and oppressors, instead of those who mainly support and maintain them. "What could the poor do without the rich?" It may be a trite question, but it is one which those who urge these De- mocratic doctrines by such and such like means should frequently ponder. Were the event which they seem to call for, by their often repeated predictions, to arrive—were the masses to rise and seize upon all tangible property, would it do

them any good ? Would it feed the hungry and clothe the nailed? Would not

the bubble burst in their grasp, leaving them far worse than they were; because employment would also cease—because no means of making avail-

able the only true wealth, ',man labour and skill, would then exist? Yet such, assuredly, is the tendency of much which is held forth by one portion of the public prints, especially the Tunes, and by several of the most talented writers of the day. Were the gifted advocates of good order and rational subordination, of the obvious natural necessity of a distinction of ranks and duties, to maintain their side of the 5uestion, and apply facts with the same ability as those of licenee and democracy, it would be a blessed thing for the country. Property has duties, no doubt, as it hat its privileges: they are most grave and imperative ones, and wo be to him who neglects them, nor can those who violate them be too much held up to public reprobation: but, if you would upluild the social system at all, the rtglds of property must be held sacred; and it is not by raising doubts about these, or encouraging a spirit of discontent against the richer classes, that you can enforce the discharge of the duties. There is far more to be lost than gained by such a course; for what could compensate for the overthrow of a sys- tem which, whatever may be its imperfections, has created so vast a fabric of prosperity and comfort as this country displays, chequered though it be, and as all human institutions must be, with shades of poverty and suffering? Yet such is the consummation to which the continual advocacy of the doctrines I have al-