There is every reason to fear that unless the Acts intended to preserve In 1883 the deer forest area in Scotland amounted to 1,975,209 acres, and in 1920 this had increased to 3,432,385 acres. Large agricultural tracts have been purchased for the express purpose of forming deer-forests, and the people who dwelt in them induced to emigrate, chiefly for the reason that they interfered with deer-stalking. It is not necessary to labour the facts concerning the havoc done in connection with the destruction of immense areas of agricultural land in Scotland. These can be perused in the report of the Departmental Committee on DeerForests, published in 1919, and in the recently published handbook of the Liberal party, "The Scottish Countryside." It is quite true that both sides have exaggerated the picture; but, surely, no individual of British birth can be proud of the fact that three and a-half million acres of land, a very considerable proportion of which, a million and three-quarter acres at least, is capable of agricultural employment, should be devoted to desert conditions, and that to subserve the amusement of a single section of society it has been found necessary to banish the finest peasantry in Europe. It is by no means an exaggeration to say that Scotland as a country is gradually returning to a condition of natural wilderness. Huge tracts of land are becoming sour and sodden for lack of drainage; no country in Europe is so wretchedly equipped with roads, and if matters proceed as they are doing, rural Scotland at least will shortly return to much the same "Caledonian" conditions as are depicted in the vivid pages of Tacitus. Indeed, so far as the Highlands are concerned, it has already done so. Nor has the long-promised settlement on the land been administered in any satisfactory manner. The Land Act (Scotland) of 1919 provided for the settlement upon small-holdings, purchased by government, of those demobilised ex-service men and others who were fitted to become small-holders, and large areas were purchased by the Scottish Office to enable this to be effected. But out of the total of 22,124 applications which have been received by the Board since 1912, only 4,436 have been satisfactorily settled, while 7,000 have been withdrawn because of death, emigration or a sense of hope deferred. In 1926, 10,288 applicants were still unsettled on the land. The present number is 8,226. The delay has naturally aroused the deepest chagrin and unrest. That the dilatory administration of the Act is deliberately conceived in view of inability on the part of the Board of Agriculture to obtain the necessary means from the Treasury there can be no question. The operations of the Board of Agriculture in Edinburgh well exemplify the evils of government from a distance. The system of control from the Scottish Office and the Treasury in London, and the futile routine engaged in, have been characterised as "almost incredible in their capacity for wasting time and money." The final decision as regards land settlement, lying as it does with officials in London who have no first-hand knowledge of the scheme, leads to constant explanation and re-explanation with a corresponding loss of time and energy which in itself is a terrible indictment of" government by telephone." It is, of course, impossible in an article of this scope to provide illustrations of the waste and damage caused by the government of Scotland from a centre nearly four hundred miles from its border; but these must be apparent to anyone with even a limited knowledge of administrative processes. Only the other day, when the government proposed the renewal of the contract for mails in the Highlands with a firm of steamship agents, it was shown that not only was the service given of the most problematical character, but that the vessels employed were in some cases more than eighty years old. The government were forced to withdraw the proposal temporarily in view of general opposition to it by members of all parties. Mr. Macquisten, the Conservative member for Argyll, has written: "There are at least 50,000 inhabitants on the islands and sea lochs of the west and north-west of Scotland, and these people will soon be unable to subsist unless sea-transport on reasonable terms is provided. There is danger of these regions becoming depopulated." "A Daily Mail reporter was informed by the American Consulate authorities in Glasgow (April 10) "-says a writer in that paper" that in the Glasgow area, which includes the south-west of Scotland, there is a waiting list of 50,000 people who wish to emigrate to America. The waiting list for Dundee and Edinburgh is 12,000." More than 60,000 people are thus awaiting an opportunity to flee from their native country, in addition to the many thousands who are streaming away to Canada and Australia. Recent amalgamations in the sphere of Scottish commerce and industry have not only given rise to the most serious alarm in business circles in Scotland, but have already demonstrably resulted in the withdrawal of both capital and business on a large scale. The amalgamation of the North British and Caledonian Railways with English lines has resulted in the closing of many branch stations, the raising of fares all round and a general feeling of dissatisfaction and resentment. Rates of transport in general have greatly increased. Indeed, the railway tariff for most classes of Scottish agricultural products transported for any appreciable distance is usually considerably higher than their market-prices! It is the general opinion that there has been a serious slowingdown in live-stock traffic. No well-directed inquiry has been made since the war into the question of transport in Scotland, and while the Lowlands are still suffering from the disability of an antiquated system, transport in the Highlands is absolutely neglected. But the industrial decline, owing to the loss of Scotland's control of those of her banks which have amalgamated with similar English concerns, has already proved itself even more disastrous. Whatever may be said to the contrary, it has been found impossible to secure speedy credits as heretofore. Since 1900 the share of Scotland's sea-ports in the overseas trade of Great Britain has decreased by 15 per cent. and this is entirely due to increased Scottish trade through English ports. The root cause of decline is that the centre of financial gravity is now concentrated in London, with the result that Scottish industry of all kinds is being subjected to a process of slow but certain strangulation. Clyde shipbuilding, though it achieved an apparent recovery during 1927, has once more sunk into a condition of apathy. Little or no Admiralty work is now sent northward, and owing to the policy of amalgamation pursued by English firms and financial groups operating from London with certain commercial elements on the Clyde, a number of Clyde yards have been shut down altogether in order that they might not compete with English concerns. Recently, Professor H. J. W. Hetherington contributed a series of articles on Contemporary Scotland" to The Outlook in which he made it clear that the amalgamation of Scottish businesses with English industrial concerns could not be other than destructive to Scottish commerce as a whole. The tendency is to render such amalgamated Scottish businesses merely of the nature of "branch offices," without any individual initiative or activities of their own. Professor Hetherington pointed out that during periods of industrial depression the districts most distant from the administrative centre are bound to suffer. In a series of articles on Glasgow's position in industry and trade, which appeared recently in The Glasgow Herald, Mr. James Martin, President of the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, wrote: "I do not like that we should, so much as we do, follow decisions taken in London-that head offices should be taken there, and that we should administer our affairs according to instructions received from London. It is not for the good of our district, and I should like to see it discouraged as much as possible." In The Glasgow Chamber of Commerce Journal an article, entitled "Scotland not for Sale," discussed the drift of industry from Scotland, urged Scottish industry to rely upon its own resources, and pointed out that numerous businesses were being purchased in Scotland by large English interests for the sole purpose of shutting them down and destroying their competition, thus throwing thousands of Scottish people into unemployment. The volume of Clyde engineering is now at such a low ebb that it has been found unnecessary to make a separate list of it when compiling the annual review in The Glasgow Herald as heretofore. Messrs. Barclay, Curle & Co.'s three large establishments in Glasgow are now closed and display boards, "works for sale." Messrs. Dunsmuir & Jackson and Messrs. Ross & Duncan, two of the largest engineering firms, have also closed their doors. No more cogent argument can be advanced for the necessity of Scottish self-government than the manner in which Scottish affairs are now neglected in the House of Commons and wrongly administered by the Scottish Office. On an average the Scottish estimates in the House receive only a few hours consideration annually, and very few Scottish measures of any relative importance arrive at the stage of debate. The system of lobbying and deputation, in vogue to secure their passage, results in the expenditure of many thousands of pounds of ratepayers' money annually, usually to no purpose. The existence of a Scottish Standing Committee is in itself a tacit admission that Scottish business requires separate treatment. But experience has proved that in the enormous pressure of Imperial business few Scottish measures of importance ever reach the stage of debate. In reality, Scotland is starving for the species of legislature necessitated by her separate legal system and peculiar industrial and local needs, and this is so notoriously the case that practically the entire corps of local authority officials with experience of the present system are convinced exponents of self-government. The lack of sympathetic treatment of Scottish business displayed in the House of Commons, and the manner in which it is too often treated as a matter pour rire, are wounding and distressing to Scottish susceptibilities and do not make for a cordial understanding between the countries. Moreover a permanent and overwhelming English majority (nearly 500 to 74) renders it impossible for the separate political voice of Scotland to receive adequate expression. Pages could be written regarding the manner in which Scottish sentiment in matters fiscal, educational and departmental has times without number been flouted in the House of Commons, but bare reference to this must here suffice. Congestion of business and the delay of measures essential to Scottish national and local wellbeing lie unquestionably at the very root of Scotland's waning prosperity to-day. From 1889 to the present time no less than twenty-one Bills and motions in favour of Scottish Home Rule have been introduced in the House of Commons. The modern movement for Scottish Home Rule began in the 'eighties of last century, before Mr. Gladstone introduced the Irish Home Rule Bill in 1886, so that the movement in Scotland had actually the sanction of priority over the Irish movement. Each of those Bills and motions, with the exception of the first, has been supported by a majority of the Scottish members in the House. In April 1894, a motion for |