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from the structure of our system making so many transactions artificially costly and expensive, it comes to pass that there is practically one law for the rich and another for the poor. And there are no changes in our laws which would contribute more to our prosperity, and to the stability of our institutions, than those which, by cheapening the cost of the various legal transactions connected with the assertion of rights and the use of property, would extend to the poorest subject the practical enjoyment of the security and freedom of action which our law has long afforded to the wealthier classes throughout the empire.
As long, however, as the various causes I have pointed out are allowed to remain in operation; as long as the law of Scotland practically prohibits the creation of peasant properties, however necessary they be in particular districts; as long as that law prevents the adoption of tenant-right, or improvement contracts; and as long as it makes the expense of granting or enforcing the obligations arising from leases so great that crofter leases are almost unknown; so long will the absence of all security for the investment of capital prevent the improvement of agriculture in the Highlands; and so long will the wretched state of agriculture, the chief employment of the people, produce periodical famine and permanent distress. The defects in the Scotch law are the real causes of Highland distress. In other words, they are the causes which the ruling classes in the community are responsible for, and which they, and they alone, can remove. Whilst these causes are allowed to remain in full operation, it is in vain to avoid the responsibility attached to their existence, by ascribing the effects really produced by them to any of the exploded theories of overpopulation, Celtic character, or want of capital.
This investigation into the causes of Highland distress teaches precisely the same lesson as the inquiry into the causes of the prosperous agriculture in the Lothians. It teaches that there are certain economic conditions necessary to successful agriculture. These conditions are satisfied in the Lothians, and are not fulfilled in the Highlands. These conditions are all comprised in one of the simplest of economic truths, namely, that capital will not be employed in any occupation, unless the profit arising from its employment be secured to the capitalist.
We learn, too, that the system of laws, which works so satisfactorily in the Lothians, is not of universal application; at least, whilst the present expensive system of leasing and enforcing contracts continues; and that its success seems to be certain in those districts only, which are adapted for the improvements to be made by the landlords, and the holdings to be of a large size. Of such a character, however, is a considerable part of Ireland.
But the last lesson to be learned from this investigation is not the least important. We learn the folly of any conclusive infe-
