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paint a more accurate canvas for ourselves. And now, is "the game worth the candle"? there were a reasonable chance of success, or indeed any chance at all, we ought not to scruple to incur the expense. What, then,

are the chances? It is unfortunate that we are obliged to answer the question mostly by inference; but still there are two recent examples of migration on a small scale, more or less in point, to which we can appeal for guidance.

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In the years 1884 and 1885in each case at the May termthere were transferred to crofters, from the occupation of single tenants, two farms, described "first-rate Cheviot-sheep ground," which we shall call A and B. Both were handed over at greatly reduced rents-viz., £197 and £70 respectively, and on both, as usual, the sheep-stock was taken at valuation by the proprietor, and afterwards by the new tenants.

Some information is on record as to the cost of the new departure, which seems to have been as follows:

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Total Cost. Cost to each Tenant. £2628

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In this case considerable reductions in the valuation of the stock have since been made by the proprietor, but it is understood that a large portion remains unpaid.

£7278

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£1455 12 0

There have also been repeated abatements of rent, but we regret to learn that the stock tends to

deteriorate and the indebtedness to increase.

1 As a matter of fact, one tenant took two shares, and there are thus four occupants; but the argument is not affected.

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In this case also considerable indebtedness exists, and, owing to the small size of the holdings, the occupants are not fully employed, but are compelled to resort to fishing and other forms of labour. It does not appear to us that the above examples encourage the hope that large numbers of people in the Highlands can be transferred to new holdings of adequate size, either at a reasonable cost, or, at whatever cost, with much chance of success. It may be objected that we have placed too high a value on the land, but we are assured that our error, if there be error, is rather in the opposite direction, as we have assumed somewhat less than twenty years' purchase; and even if our estimate be reduced by one-half, we cannot regard the enterprise as hopeful for either party to the bargain.

We presume we need not point out that nowadays no proprietor will voluntarily establish a single new croft or re-let an old one, and we are hardly yet ripe for a measure so advanced as the compulsory settlement of crofters against the wishes of the legal owner of the soil. There is thus no alternative but to acquire the necessary land, either by voluntary purchase or statutory expropriation. With

...

£2032

175

£254

regard to the former method, we may remind our readers that, in the case of all articles of limited supply, an increased demand means an enhanced price, and that the demand for such a huge area as we should require would certainly tend to an extravagant expenditure. Radical politicians would no doubt advocate compulsory sale, and the Legislature might be induced to consent, but hardly to unfair terms. It must be remembered that in many cases-probably in a majority-neither the present proprietors nor their progenitors had any hand in the depopulation of former crofting areas.

Highland properties have changed ownership by purchase over and over again since clearances took place, and he must indeed be an advanced politician who should venture to contend that because A is alleged, at some remote period, to have removed his crofters (for reasons which he is not here to explain), therefore B, C, or D, to whom the estate has subsequently passed by purchase, perhaps successively, shall be robbed of their investments in the interest of people who can rarely be shown to be the descendants of those originally evicted.

It follows then, if our argument be just, that even under a

1 The most recent information, brought down to Whitsunday 1890, shows some trifling variations, but does not improve the aspect of the picture.

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system of legal expropriation a fair price must be paid for our land, and it becomes of interest to ascertain whether the "twenty years' purchase at 7d. an acre,' which, for the sake of argument, we have above assumed, will go far towards attaining our object. Omitting deer-forests, which, whatever may be said to the contrary, are generally unsuitable for settlement, the greater part of the Highlands produces, as our readers are aware, two rentsthe pastoral and the sportingand on these the local rates are paid. They also form the basis on which the purchase price is adjusted in the case of sale. Their sum, in short, means the true annual value of the property. The sales of Highland estates which have lately changed hands in the market lend no countenance to the impression that we can hope for anything like so good a bargain as 11s. Ɛd. an acre, or even double that sum.1

From the above considerations it seems to us plain that, unless the Legislature can be induced to consent to downright robbery in the supposed interest of the crofters, which we decline to believe possible, the migration of a large body will be a greatly more costly undertaking in practice than the estimate indicates which we have framed. According even to that estimate

Each family costs
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£770

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And therefore the total sum which our estimate reaches would provide for the emigration of at least 11,000 families or 55,000 persons, while ensuring to them a future full of promise-a prospect which, in our judgment, migration does not afford.

The Lews is not the only part of the Highlands which would benefit by a reduction of population—on the contrary, there are parts of the Long Island, of Skye, of other islands, and even of the mainland coast, where an exodus would tend to the increased prosperity both of those who removed and of those who remained behind; but if our experiment in the Lews is so costly, shall we be able to afford equal liberality elsewhere ?

It is no wonder that the Highlander, however tattered may be his coat, commends himself to the inquirer from Lowland Scotland. In the first place, his manners, his courtesy, gentleness, and natural refinement, of which we could quote many an example, are not represented in the character of his Southern neighbour. Education, no doubt, does something for the Lowland Scot; contact with more refined races does something; and perhaps some day there may be appreciable result: meantime, one need not meet him often to become disagreeably sensible of his innate vulgarity ("rugged independence," he loves to call it);—

notice his demeanour towards those whom he thinks his in

1 The following are the acreages and prices of some West Highland properties recently sold ::

2,000 acres, 6,000 11 2,900 "I

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£2,500

14,000

9,500

30,000

16,000

None of the above contain any considerable area suitable for tillage.-I.

feriors, and contrast it with his ever-ready toadyism; observe him as a traveller resisting needful ventilation, whether in apartment or railway-carriage, filthily expectorating everywhere without the faintest regard to the comfort of his fellow-travellers, and generally conducting himself as if he had been reared in a kennel-not a high-class kennel either. But then, "is he not a man and a brother?" "A man?" Yesthough the manly instincts are often in abeyance ; a brother?"

No-not a remote cousin of nature's gentleman in the North, even when many degrees higher in the social scale. It is no wonder, then, as we have said, that the Lowland stranger attributes impossible virtues to his instructor in the rudiments of a gentleman-like bearing which, when it does not spring from regard for the feelings of others, is a mere perishable veneer. It was Our fortune for many months, in a remote colony, to share a hut with an entire family of West Highland cotters. We worked, fed, and lived absolutely in common, using none but the common language. It may surprise our Southern readers to learn that no ladies and gentlemen of our acquaintance possess more refined manners than

were exhibited by these simple worthy people, while many of our friends might with advantage imitate their perfect filial and fraternal courtesy. These are excellences which the "carpet-bagger" has rarely encountered, and only imperfectly understands. It is therefore perhaps natural that a race-in some respects only partially civilised-yet so far above his level in the qualities which he has often envied at a distance elsewhere, should seem to him to deserve his highest reverence.

But if the West Highlander is courteous, he is also wary, observant, and astute; he quickly notes the effect produced on his Southern interviewer by the natural bearing which costs him no effort, and hastens to extract from the situation any advantage that may be attainable. He has, at the bottom of his heart, a deep hereditary contempt for the Lowland stranger whom in bygone days it was his pride to plunder by force or stratagem, as it is now to cajole by wellchosen words; the main point is to "take somewhat of him," and his recent successes in that direction must be admitted to bear favourable comparison with those achieved by his perhaps more honest, if less polished, forefathers.

AN ISLESMAN.

AN IRISH LANDLORD.

To say of the subject of this memoir that he was one of the most extraordinary men of his own generation, is to say little. We should doubt if the history of the world has many such to show: many, that is, whose strength of will has achieved so complete a triumph over equally grave physical defects, and who have excelled in all bodily exercises requiring force, dexterity, and agility, without those members of the human frame in which these qualities principally reside. That ships should fly over the water without sails, or chariots over the land without horses, could hardly have seemed more incredible to Our ancestors than that a man should be an indefatigable sportsman who had neither arms nor legs, and should ride to hounds, pursue and kill game, and land a thirtypound salmon as well as those who had both. Yet such, and a great deal more besides, was Arthur MacMurrough Kavanagh, one of the best specimens of the old race of Irish landlords which survived down to our own time, with all their many virtues, and none of their numerous vices; who ruled his willing tenants with a mixture of feudal and patriarchal authority; and afterwards when evil times and evil tongues had come between them, showed himself one of the wisest counsellors, and most liberal and disinterested reformers to whom either his distracted countrymen or their equally distracted rulers could have had recourse for assistance and advice.

Kavanagh was born on the 25th March 1831, at Borris House, in

the county Carlow, of a family which, according to his present biographer, could trace their origin to a line of kings, and "if greyhaired eld is in aught to be believed," to Nimrod himself. However this may be, we are justified in believing that the direct ancestor of the Kavanaghs of Borris was Dermot MacMurrough, King of Leinster in the middle of the twelfth century. One of his intermediate progenitors was that Art MacMurrough who, on his famous black horse the "tree-leaper," defied the whole power of Richard II. The old crown and charter horn were preserved at Borris down to the year '98, when they were removed for safety to Dublin Castle. When the rebellion was over and the Kavanagh of the day claimed them, the horn, "a large fluted cornucopia of ivory, mounted in brass, and resting on a brass eagle, was restored, and is still an heirloom at Borris House." But the diadem was nowhere to be found. Had the Kavanaghs been Home Rulers, they would doubtless have declared that this relic of Irish

independence had been stolen by the myrmidons of Pitt. Some similar accident was vulgarly supposed to have befallen the Scottish regalia after the Act of Union, which, however, was ultimately discovered in its proper place in the year 1818. Rumours reached Ireland of the lost crown having been seen by somebody at Toulouse, but no more has since been heard of it. The head of the family, who took the king's side in the civil war, and successfully defended Borris House

The Right Hon. Arthur MacMurrough Kavanagh. A Biography. By his Cousin, Sarah L. Steele. Macmillan & Co., London: 1891.

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