Gur e mis' tha gu cianail, ន ean 'S mi cho fad bhuat am bliadhna, Tha liunn-dubh air mo shiarradh, 'S mi ri iargain do ghaoil. Beir mo shoraidh, &c. Cha 'n fheud mi bhi subhach, Chaidh mo shiubhal an laoid. Chaidh m' astar a maillead, Beir mo shoraidh, &c. Anns a' choill' am bi smudan 'S tric a bhi mi 's tu mireadh, Beir mo shoraidh, &c. f: m r Ghlinn Braon, Sinn air faireadh na tulaich, Tha mise 'ga raite, 'S cha 'n urra mi aicheadh,- Thig air airidh nach saol. Gur mis' tha sa' champar, Beir mo shoraidh, &c. Mo thoirt dhachaigh gu saor. 'S a direadh nan ard-bheann, A' siubhal nan stuc-bheann, NOTE.-The above song was composed by William Ross, the Gairloch Bard, and it is printed in Mackenzie's Collection of Ross' Songs; in the "Beauties of Gaelic Poetry ;" and several others. From what we know of the Poet's history, it is clear that the last five verses are spurious, or that Ross was giving expression to the sentiments and experience of another. It is in every respect one of our most popular Gaelic songs, and may be heard sung as heartily at the Broomielaw as among the Highland hills-whose echo resounded in the Poet's ear when he composed and sung it for the first time. I am not aware that the air has hitherto appeared in print.—W. M‘K. THE CELTIC MAGAZINE. No. XVII. MARCH 1877. VOL. II. DESTITUTION IN THE HIGHLANDS AND ISLANDS BY THE REV. ALEX. MACGREGOR, M.A. THE causes already mentioned as having led in a remote manner to the late destitution, are chiefly of an external nature, or such as over which the sufferers had no direct control. The poor Highlander could not help those legislative enactments, or alterations in the commercial policy of the nation, which led to the reduction of duty on salt and barilla, thereby depreciating the value of kelp. He had no power over the migration of the herring, or over the causes which led that capricious fish to desert these lochs and bays, where it was once so profitably caught and cured. He had no sway whatever over those impulses by which the price of black cattle rose and fell, and ruined his prospects. But there are remote causes yet to be considered, which led to the late destitution, over which the Highlander, and those who take an interest in his welfare have some degree of control, and cannot, like those already alluded to, be termed of an external nature. These causes now come to be briefly mentioned, and discussed in the following order :-I. An excess of population; II. Early and improvident marriages; III. The lotting system, and the continued subdivision of lands; and IV. Bad husbandry, or the mismanagement of domestic economy. Though these causes are thus classed for greater facility in treating of them, yet, in reality, they mutually take their origin from each other, and act, as it were, in concert, to render the condition of the poor Highlander more and more miserable. Be it therefore observed that an Excess of population is an undoubted cause which led to the late destitution. From what has already been stated in reference to the parish of Kilmuir, it will be seen how enormously the population has increased for the last century. At the present day the lands are so overburdened with people, that, in favourable seasons they yield, under th system of husbandry pursued, but a very scanty livelihood for the popu lation; so that when failure in the crop ensues, from whatever cause that may arise, destitution in a more or less degree is the inevitable consequ ence. No class of people can perhaps be found who are more patient, content, or enduring, than the Highlanders. Various were the hardships. N which they have put up with in silence. Many and severe were the privations under which they have lived without uttering a sentence of complaint, even to their neighbours or intimate friends. Their very food at times has been such, that perhaps no other people could have subsisted upon it, and none would have done so with that forbearance and resignation which they so silently displayed. Their principal means of support in every season are potatoes. Few can afford to supply themselves with animal food, and even in maritime districts, there are many poor families who can procure no fish. Several causes have led to the increase of the population. Since the termination of local feuds-and latterly, since a general peace has shed its blessings over the country, the Highlanders were permitted to enjoy a degree of quietude and repose previously unknown. Their young men, in place of being called out to take a share in the defence of their king and country, were left at home to branch out by degrees into separate families, and to increase a population already sufficiently numerous. If that most useful and prolific root, the potato, had not been raised in such quantities, it would have been impossible for the lands to afford any other crop which could possibly support the present population. About sixty-five years ago, there were no more potatoes planted than what was sufficient to serve the family at their Christmas dinner, after leaving a little for seed, which they bundled up in a mat of bulrushes, which, for security, was suspended to the roof-tree of their dwellings, as a safe keeping place, until the season of planting ensued. But the principal cause which led to the great increase of population, and consequently to the late destitution is, Early and improvident marriages. While the young Highlanders are a peaceable, orderly, and even industrious class of people, they are notwithstanding highly improvident as to the future. Possessed of an easy disposition, and blind to future consequences, they are too apt to be satisfied with such little earnings as they may get possession of, after months of hard labour in some distant part of the kingdom, and suppose that thereby, they are in circumstances which entitle them to enter upon the marriage state, and set up separate families for themselves. They live under the impression that a good wife is certainly worthy of her maintenance; and while so far they judge aright, they fail in taking into the account, how that maintenance is to be procured, or how provision is to be made for the number of little ones, who will, as a matter of consequence, group in a few years about their solitary hearths. No doubt, seasons of repentance will overtake them when too late, but on this subject they keep silent. They labour and toil, late and early, far and near, to keep their destitute families alive, and in despite of all their exertions, their children must live in poverty and rags. Yet the fate of one gives no warning to others. Each successive year adds to the number of these improvident youths; and nothing can be more evident, than when their desultory and precarious means of subsistence receive any check, either by the failure of public works, by sickness or by death, their poor families totally unprovided for otherwise, become a burden to their friends or to the public at large. And the very evil thus complained of leads to The lotting system, and the continued subdivision of lands, which very materially unfitted the Highlanders to meet the late destitution. When the population of the Highlands had by degrees increased considerably beyond its usual number, several proprietors deemed it necessary to divide farms which were originally somewhat extensive, into lesser lots and crofts, with the intention of supplying each family with less or more possessions. Though this was done with humane and charitable views, to the great personal inconvenience of the proprietors themselves, yet the system, from the facility and temptation it afforded to single men for taking up families, had, in a short time, of course, a very sensible effect upon the population. And pernicious as were the results of this first subdivision, the evil has always gone on increasing from continued subdivirion and sub-letting, generally unknown to the proprietors. The common custom is, that when the son or daughter of a lotter or crofter marries, the newly-married couple are received by the parents of either party, with whom they live for some time as one family; but, eventually, the parents cut off a portion from their own little possessions for the young people, on which they build a house, and become liable to pay the original occupier a share of the rent in proportion to what was thus allowed them in sub-set. The old people who originally occupied the lot or croft, generally portion off their lands in as many shares, as they have sons and daughters unmarried. In some time after, one member of the family marries, another does the same, who immediately gets his share of the croft, and builds his house; then another and another, until the original occupier is ultimately left with a share no larger than any of those given away to his children. He stands as federal head over the whole, and is alone accountable for the rents to the proprietor. All this takes place on a tenure of land too small for the comfortable support of the original occupier. On many farms, by means of this baneful system, the population has doubled within the last sixteen years. These sub-tenants can never raise the rents from the produce of their possessions. At times they cannot keep a single cow upon them to furnish their children with milk. They trust to chance employment for means to pay for their contracted possessions, which tend in general to no purpose, but to bind them in poverty to one locality. It must also be considered, that notwithstanding this continued subdivision, there are more families who have no lands than there are who have. An example of this may be given from Kilmuir, exclusive of the Government District attached to it. In the parish just mentioned, there were in February last, 521 families, and the number of lots and crofts, together with four farms occupied by large tacksmen, was only 190. From this, it is seen, that 231 families have no lands whatever from the proprietor. Of these 231 families, 101 hold shares of lots and crofts, as above described, and the remaining 130 families occupy no lands in any shape, but subsist upon the half-foot system, which will be immediately described. The vast number who occupy no land wish, of course, to have them, and rather than want some sort of profession in this respect, they would be content with anything; and thus they tend, if possible, to increase the evil, which is already too extensive and prevalent. Should the number of families be reduced to an equality with the number of lots and crofts, the population after all would be sufficiently numerous. The occupiers of lots can keep in general no more than two cows and no horse, while the crofters whose shares are larger keep, of course, more cows, but are seldom able to keep any horse, with the exception perhaps of small ponies, which a few of them manage to have for assisting in the carrying home of fuel and other little necessaries. Some are too apt to lay a great share of the existing poverty to the charge of the Highland proprietors; but it should be taken into consideration, that though the proprietors were in many cases to give a free grant of their lots and crofts to their present occupiers, poverty would not cease after all, owing to an excess of population living under a rude system of husbandry. From the example given in reference to Kilmuir, it will be observed that over more than one half the population of the parish, the proprietor has no control whatever. Out of 421 families, there are 231 who neither pay rent to the proprietor, nor do they consider themselves in any respect under his jurisdiction, while they live peaceably upon their own scanty earnings. Under such a state of things injury is done to all parties. The poor landless cottars are directly or indirectly a burden to the occupiers of land, whose circumstances they eventually injure, and when once injured, the proprietors suffer accordingly. The "half-foot" system under which such a vast multitude of cottars contrive to eke out their scanty means of support comes now to be described. These people are undoubtedly the poorest and most dependent of all the Highland population. They generally rear their dwellings about the outskirts of large tackmen's farms, as well as in every locality where they can find a footing. They meet with kindness and indulgence to a degree which those to whom they are a burden can, in general, but ill afford. Such of them as raise small quantities of oats, do so in the following manner: The tacksman allots a portion of ground for them, which they till with the "cas-chrom," and when ready for sowing, the tacksman furnishes one-half of the seed, and the cottar the other half. The cottar then sows and harrows the ground, which he watches and protects until harvest, when he reaps it, securing one half of the sheaves for the tacksman as remuneration for the ground, and the other half for himself. In the same manner also the cottar raises potatoes for his family. As potatoes require manure, the tacksman allows him to cut sea-ware, which he carries in creels to the ground; and after receiving half the seed from the tacksman, and furnishing the other half himself, he plants the same, and watches over its growth, until he lifts the potatoes in harvest, when he gives onehalf of the produce for the use of the ground, and has the other half for himself. Sometimes the ccttar is permitted to have a cow which is allowed to range with the other cattle of the farm. In this case, besides the oats and potatoes which he raises on the "half-foot" system just described, the land-occupier generally gives him a piece of ground wherein to plant potatoes with the manure of his cow, the produce of which he keeps entirely for himself. For the cow and ground he pays the land-occupier partly, perhaps, in money, but for the most part, in labour, either as grass-keeper, or by cutting peats, mowing grass, reaping corn, or such other employments as are required about the farm. After this manner, therefore, that class of the population just spoken of, endeavour to earn |