The Sun.
London, England, 1847-01-11 00:00:00

lltartattff 2411114

LONDON, MONDAY, JANUARY 11, 1847.

Earnestly is it to be hoped that the extraordinary
destitution, at present existing in Ireland, may not
so completely engross the attention of the Legislature
and the benevolent sympathies of the people, as to
create an impression that the destitution of the
Scottish population is a grievance of secondary im
portance. There has been less clamour front the
sufferers in the Northern provinces of the United
Kingdoms, but there has not been less wretchediness
than in the Western provinces. So little parade has
been made of the desolation of the Highlands, and of
the utter want of provisions in the Hebrides, and in
the majority of the islands of Zetland, that unless
an association of philanthropic individuals had, on
their own responsibility, accumulated facts illustra-
tive of the extent to which that desolation had been
experienced, and published the particulars of that
dismal intelligence, we should have been disinclined
to credit the rumours which werepreviously very pre-
valent. No doubt now exists as to the necessitous
condition of many thousands in Caledonia ; a mvoral
conviction of the exigencies of that portion of our
fellow-countrymen is inevitable from a considera-
tion of these statements. The accuracy of
the data proving the existence of these exigencies
cannot be for a moment questioned : the character of
the association which has been mainly instrumental
in the collection of those data is a convincing gua-
rantee of their authenticity.
As in the starvation among the Irish peasantry,
the proximate cause of the present vs ant
is discernable only in the murrain of the
potatoes. However lamentable may have been
the devastation caused by that mysterious blight in
other quarters of Great Britain and in the diffeunt
countries of continental Europe, the devastation in
Scotland has been scarcely less general, and
certainly not one jot less calamitous. It is
estimated that not less than 400,000 souls are
the victims of inanition in consequence of that ter-
rible visitation, or in more comprehensible langus ge,
that very nearly one-sixth of the entire populatio& of
Scotland is threatened with actual starvation. Can
anything more be wanting to stimulate Parliament in
effecting some suitable measures of alleviation, or to
enkindle the generosity of the more fortunate me m-
hers of this populous and (on the average) most
flourishing community ? There is assuredly in the
foregoing assertion an irresistible incitement to com-
passion, but, above all, there are in the terrible truths
of that calculation additional testimonies of the ne-
cessity of a legislative examination of the
deficiencies of the system of landlord and tenant.
While the agricultural labourers in various directions
throughout the British islands are liable to such fre-
quent impoverishment, it is folly, it is madness, it is
cruelty, to maintain the perfection of a system by the
operation of which their lives are so continually
endangered, and their comforts rendered so per-
petually insignificant. Presuming that no permanent
amelioration could be afforded to this class of society
by the modification of the Agrarian Code, savage
life would be infinitely preferable to, because infinitely
safer than, existence under the shadow of such an
afflictive civilisation. It would be preferable, espe-
cially because of the resources afforded by primitive
society in every moment of hazard or emergency;
because with the barbarian the barrenness of the soil,
and the unproductiveness of the chase, and the
scarcity of fruits and berries, are always remediable
by the simplest of all imaginable resources—migra-
tion. With the field-labourers, under the existing state
of' society, there is no available means of restoration
to abundance. When the crops of potatoes in
Ireland and Scotland, and the crops of chesnuts in
France, and the crops of melons in the Peninsula are
partially, and even sometimes entirely destroyed, the
peasantry are at once involved in difficulties, from
which extrication by themselves is absolutely impos-
sible. The very ground is poisoned with decayed
tubers, or the trees are shorn of their ordinary pro-
duce by a fluctuation in the atmosphere, from which
there is no protection. The peasantry are out of em-
ployment, because for the time being there is com-
paratively no labour whatever to do ; they are with-
out money for the purchase of provisions cultivated
in some less afflicted country ; they are
unable to remove en masse to a more pros-
perous province, they are unable even to
remove singly by reason of their necessitous con-
dition. The result is, they are entirely dependent
upon their respective landlords and employers, upon
the nation at large, upon the Legislature, upon the
law. They are incapable of emerging of themselves
from the quagmire of destitution, they want stronger
hands to lift them out, they want a more capacious

intelligence to prevent the repetition of similar mi

series, they want a stauncher sympathy than has been

hitherto evinced towards them in the regulations and

enactments relating to alriculture and its labourers.

On glancing through the Statement recently pub-
lished by the acting committee of the Free Church

- -
we are irresistibly persuaded of the soundness of the
foregoing opinions. When such fearful woes are
Possible in an empire as remarkable for its opulence
as for its industry, it is quite certain that there must
be a necessity for some extraordinary alteration in the
relations existing between the proprietors of the soil
and the workers of the soil.
hi In the shires of Suther-
entire lend, RHebrides and in the oss, Inverness, and Argyle, throughout theoup of Zetland
gi
there is a frightful want of
provisions, a general
cessation of employment, and a complete
deprivation of the most ordinary means of obtaining
sustenance. Both the cottars and the crofters are in-
volved in the most serious difficulties. Many have
been compelled to dispose of their scanty live stock,