7
"I cannot expect those with less experience of Highland destitution, its causes and effects, or less consideration of the subject, to be equally impressed as myself with the importance of this question. But when I consider the abuses of the old system, the balance of advantage exclusively on the side of the new one, the imperious necessity that exists for a change (if the existence of the Highlander is to be continued), I anxiously call on the kind-hearted proprietors of the North to remove every obstacle; to divest themselves of the responsibility of those who refuse to do anything; and, in a sensible, liberal spirit, to cede this act of justice to their dependants; as well for their own and their posterity's advantage, as to prevent the miserable and fatal consequences of an adhesion to present plans for the growth of food in the Highlands. I am satisfied there is nothing in either soil, climate, or inhabitants, to prevent a comfortable self-sustenance to the people, and improvement of the property by the appliance of the proper means; but this I venture to predict, whether they listen to me or not as to the all-important question of tenure, from the attention the subject is now claiming, with justice on its side, humanity for a motive, and expediency for a reason, that in ten years at farthest Highland croft leases will be inevitable and perhaps general."
The causes of distress in the Highlands being thus clearly traced back to the want of tenure, two questions arise which have no doubt ere this suggested themselves to your minds. When the wise system of laws to which I directed your attention in my last paper[1] are in full operation in the Highlands, enabling the proprietors to charge the inheritance for permanent improvements, and to grant leases, how does it happen that they have not erected the crofter buildings, and how does it happen that they have not granted crofter leases? These questions carry the investigation much further than Captain Elliot has done. In his remarks he assumes that there are no natural or legal impediments to the proprietors adopting the course he recommends. As he did not look for such causes of their conduct, it is very natural that he did not find them. But, until an investigation has been made, to ascertain whether any such causes exist, to acquiesce in the statement that it arises from the Highland character of the proprietors, is in fact to fall back on the fallacy of accounting for every social phenomenon by the theory of race.
On investigating into the causes of the permanent improvements not being made by the proprietors in the Highlands, the following at once appear to be in operation. In the first place, the small value of each holding, and the great number of holdings,
- ↑ What are the Causes of the Prosperous Agriculture in the Lothians of Scotland? Greer, Belfast. 1852.
