The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1803-04-25 00:00:00

YTRACT FROM A SURVEY AND REPOWF
Or 161 E
COASTS AND CENTRAL HIGHLANDS OF SCOTLAND;
Made by the Command of the Right Hon. the Loads Commis-
-bionets of his Majesty's Treasury, in the Autumn of 1802.
By 'NOMA, TLLIOR Di Civil Engineer, Edin. F.R.S.
THE vele' ATION't.
" That emigrations have already taken place from
various parts of the Highlands, is a fad upon which
there does not remain room to doubt ; from the best
information I have been able to procure, about three
thousand persons went away in the course of last
year ; and, if, I am rightly bit-twined, three times
. that number are preparing to leave the country in
the present year.
4, I shall not encroach upon your Lordship's time
by investigating all the remote or unimportant col-
lateral causes of emigration, but shall proceed to
that which I consider to be the most powerful in its
present operation ; and that is, converting large
distrifts of the country into extensive sheepwalks.
This not only requires much fewer people to manage
the same track of country, but in general an entirely
new peon' who have been accustomed to this
mode of life, are brought from the southern parts
of Scotland. •
44 The difference of rents to the landlords be-
tween sheep and black cattle is, I understand, at
least three to one, and yet on accoent of the extra-
ordinary rise in the prices of sheep and wool, the
sheep farmers have of late years been acquiring
wealth, As the introducing sheep farms over coun-
tries heretofore stocked with black cattle, creates an
extensive-demand for the young sheep from the esta-
blished farms, it is possible that the high prices may
continue until a considerable portion of the 'country
is fully stocked; after this takes place, the cinanti-
ties of sheep produced will bear a very great pro-
portion to the demand, and then it is possible the
prices may fall below the average value ; in this
case it is probable the farms will be subdivided, and
a proportion of black cattle and cultivation be in-
troduced in the lower grounds in the vallies, while
the upper parts of the -bills continue to be pastured
with sheep. This I consider as the most improved
state of Highland farming, and is consistent with a
very considerable population ; a beautiful instance of
this is to be seen along the north side of Loch. Tar.
But improved communications, by means of roads
and bridges, are necessary for this state of society,
and for this reason I. have said, that if thesetonve-
niences had been sooner introduced into the High-
lands, it is possible this emigration might not have
taken place, at least to the present extent.
" The very high price of black cattle has also faci-
Ifteted the means of emigration, as it has furnished
the old farmers with a portii.:3 of capital which
enables them to transport their families beyond the
Atlantic
" In some few cases a greater population than the
land can support in any shape, has been the cause of
'emigrations ; such was the island of Tiree.
~Some have, no doubt, been deluded by accounts
sent back from others gone before them ; and many
deceived by artful persons, who hesitate not-to sacri-
fice these poor ignorant people to selfish ends.
" A very principal reason must also be, that the
peeplee when turned out of their black-cattle farms
to make way for the sheep farmers, see no mode of
employment whereby they can earn a subsistence in
their own country, and sooner than seek it in the
low lands of Scotland, or in England, they will be-
lieve what is told them may be done in the farming
line in America.

" What I have here mentioned appear to me to
be the immediate causes ,of the present emigrations
from the north-western parts of Scotland. To
point out the means of preventing emigrations in fu-
tine, is a part of my duty, upon which I enter with
no small degree of hesitation. As the evil, at pre-'
-sent, seems to arise chiefly from the conduft of land
owners, in changing the economy of .their estates,
it may be questioned whether Government can with
justice intert.ere, or whether any essential benefits
are likely to arise from this interference. •
"In one point of view it may be stated, that,
the mountainous parts of Scotland as a dis-
mid of the British Empire, it is the interest of the
Empire that this distrin be made to produce as
much human food as it is capable of doing at the
least posiible expence ; that this may he done by
stocking it chiefly with sheep ; that it is the interest
of the Erapire-the food so produced, should not be, ,
consumed by persons residing amongst the moun-
tains totally unemployed, but, ra:her in some other
• parts of the country, where their labour can be
made prothAiVe either in the business of agricul-
ture, fisheries, or mannfaaures ; and that by suf-.
fering every person to pursue what appears to them
to be their own interest, that although some tempo-
rary inconveniences may arise, yet, qpbn the whole,
that matters will in the end adjust themselves into
the forms most suitable to the place.
" In another, point of view it may be stated, that
it is a great hardship, if not a great injustice, that
the inhabitants of an extensise distri& mould all at
' once be striven from their native country, to make
way for sheep farming, which is likelx to be carried
to au imprudent extent; that, in a tew years, this
excess will he evident ; that before it is discovered,
the country will he depopulated, and that race of
people which has of late years maintained so ho-
nourable a share in the operations of our armies and
navies will then be no more ; that in a case where
such a numerous body of the 'people are deeply in-
terested, it is the duty of Government to consider
it its anextrairdinary case, and one of those occa-
sions which justifies them in departing a-little from
'the maxims of genZ4ll policy ;: that fur this purpose,
. regulations should he made to prevent land owners
from lessening the population upon their estates be-
low a given proportion, and that' some regulation
of this sort would; In the cad, be in favour of the
land owners, as it would preserve the pOpulation
bekt suited to the most iMprovett mode of I fighland
farming, such as is pra&ised at Bteadalbane, and to
the establishment of fishing-villages, on the prin.
cipte laid, down and pratised so successfully by
Mr. Hugh Stevenson, of Chan, at Arnisdale on
Loch 1-lours.
" In whatever light the foregoing statements may
be viewed, there is another on which there can, I
think, -be ao difference of opinion. Ihis is, that if
there are any public works to be executed, which,
wheft completed, will prove generally beneficial to
the country, it it; advisable these Works should be un-
dertaken at the present tisane. This would-furnish
employment fat the industrious and valuable part
of the people in th:it own country, they would, by
this means. be' accustimeif to Labour, they would
acquire some wind, and the fothulatosii Would