The Sun.
London, England, 1847-09-20 00:00:00

!HER MAJESTY'S TOUR TO THE

HIGHLANDS.
(From the North British Mail.)
LOCH LAGGAN, WEDNESDAY NOON.
Yesterday Prince Albert went to Corryarder, and
after enjoying excellent sport returned to the Lodge
with five brace of ptarmigan, eight hares, and a golden
plover. His Royal Highness wore a philabeg of
shepherd tartan. Her Majesty and the royal children
walked in the grounds during the day.
In the evening a servants' ball took place at the
Lodge. The people residing in the vicinity of the
Loch were invited generally to attend. The Queen
and the Prince graciously honoured the company
with their presence. Her Majesty wore a white
crape dress, and a plaid of the Macpherson tartan.
His Royal Highness wore a Highland dress of Royal
Stuart tartan. The royal couple were spectators of
the ball for a considerable time; and after they had
retired, the Marquis and Marchioness of Abercorn,
the Marchioness of Douro, the Duke of Norfolk, and
other members of the Court, returned to the ball-
room, and mingled with great affability in the dance.
The festivity continued to a late hour.
Prince Albert proceeds early to-morrow ',morning
to Loch Lochy, where the Fairy will be in waiting to
convey his Royal Highness up the Caledonian Canal.
The Northern Meeting holds its annual games this
week in Inverness; and as a great number of noble-
men and gentlemen connected with the Highlands
are present, it is said that a grand reception will be
given to the Prince on his arrival in the capital of the
north. Several messengers have travelled between
Inverness and Ardverikie during the last two days.
His Royal Highness will return down the canal on
Friday, and join her Majesty and the royal aquadron at
Fort William. Her Majesty will leave Ardverikie
about midday on Friday, and proceed direct to Fort
William through Glen Spean. The Black Eagle,
the Undine, and the Garland, will sail round the
Mull of Cantyre to Ardrishaig on Friday, in order to
be in readiness to take the Queen on board when her
Majesty passes through the Crinan Canal on Satur- '
day. The royal yacht, the Fairy, and the Scourge, '
after conveying the royal party to Loch Crinan on
Saturday, will move thence round the Mull to Camp-
belton,
where, as I stated yesterday, the whole
squadron will rendezvous on Saturday night.
FORT WILLIAM, WEDNESDAY NIGHT.

Preparations are going on here for the embarkation
of her Majesty on Friday. A large luggage van,
drawn by four horses, and several carts loaded with
trunks and boxes, arrived to-day from Ardverikie,
and their contents have been conveyed on board the
vessels composing the royal squadron. The towns-
people are also making arrangements for a demon-
stration on the occasion of her Majesty's de-
parture from the Highlands. The arches of
evergreens are in course of re-erection ; and no
practical efforts will be spared by the populace to
demonstrate their loyal attachment to the first So-
vereign of the Hanoverian line who has evinced a
warm admiration of the country and traditional cus-
toms of the Celts.

The Fairy has moved up to the mouth of the canal,
to be in readiness to receive Prince Albert at an early
hour to-morrow morning. The magistrates, council,
trades, and inhabitants generally of Inverness have
resolved to walk in procession when his Royal High-
ness enters the town; and the county has been sum-
moned by the convener to meet to-morrow at twelve,
for the purpose of framing an address to his Royal
Highness. lam sorry to say that the weather to-
night is wet and stormy, and threatens to destroy the
pleasure of the Prince's voyage along the Canal unless
a favourable change takes place ere the morning.

I mentioned in a previous letter that a steamer
would sail this week for the first time between Fort
William and Liverpool. The Finn MacCoul, which
has plied for some years between Galloway and Lan-
cashire, is the vessel which has the honour of opening
this new communication between the Highlands and
the manufacturing districts of England. She sailed
today with a cargo, the principal item of which is
70 scores of sheep, which have been purchased in Glen
Spean, by Mr. Rodger, an extensive farmer in Wig-
tonshire. This fine flock will be fed for some time on
turnips, on Mr. Rodgers's farm of Penkhill, near Gar-
liestown, and, when fattened, will be conveyed to Li-
verpool market. The Finn MacCoul has not succeeded
in getting a cargo direct to Liverpool on this, her
first trip; and any one who takes the trouble to travel
through the extensive tract of country between Fort
William and Loch Laggan, will have little difficulty
in finding the real secret of the failure. Thousands of
acres are lying in moss, or in a state of sheer waste,
or in almost equally unprofitable pasture, which, if
cultivated, would grow as luxuriant crops of turnips
as any other part of Scotland. Were these wastes
turned to proper account, a great proportion
of the sheep reared on the mountains might
be fattened in the valleys immediately adja-
cent, and as a necessary consequence the
Highland farmers would receive an addition to their
present returns equivalent to the difference between
the price of lean and that of fat sheep. The in-
crease of money which would thus be brought into
the Highlands, would be divided among labourers,
farmers, and proprietors ; and a nation of consumers
would also partake largely in the common benefit ; for
the supply of mutton and other farm produce offered
for their use would be greatly augmented. But the
Highland landlords prevent all this circula-
tion of money and interchange of advantages.
To please their fancies, the land must lie in a state of
waste—the sheep must grow lean on grass and
heather, ani at last be sold at lean prices to some
south country farmer, who pockets as much for two
or three months of turnip feeding as the Highland
farmer gets for the trouble of as many years I Is
there any wonder that under such a state of things
there should be no circulation of money in the High-
lands, and that the people should be poor and famine-
stricken ?

This ruinous system has a fatal infitience on the
prosperity of the Highland towns, and no place suffers
more acutely from it than Fort William. Situated
in the centre of a vast sheep and cattle country, and
commanding, by means of the Caledonian Canal
and the western ocean, direct and rapid commu-
nication with the most secluded valleys on the
one hand, and the most crowded seats of popula-
tion and manufactures on the other, this village
might soon become a vast depot for the ex-
change and transmission of the produce
peculiar to both. But as there is little stock
prepared for the market in the neighbourhood, there
is no demand for vessels to convey it, or for mer-
chants and agents to effect the exchange. The
flocks of lean sheep reared on the surrounding hills
are sent to the south in droves, and the most retired
routes are preferred. No labourers are employed in
reclaiming the adjoining tracts of waste land. There
is, consequently, no expenditure of wages, and no de •
mand for goods of local manufacture. Every channel
of prosperity is cut off, and, instead of increasing daily
in wealth and population, Fort William pines in the
middle of an artificial wilderness. It is not even al-
lowed room enough for the small trade which it pos-
sesses. The village is the property of Sir Duncan
Cameron, of Fassifern. This old gentleman went to
bed one night a Whig, and rose next morning a
Tory ; and because the feuars in the village could
not undergo an equally rapid metamorphosis, he
has subjected them to petty annoyance ever since.
No new feus can be obtained for love or money.
When a person wishes to build, he must expend as
much in purchasing old houses as would nearly
suffice to put up the new erection ; and, of course,
as old houses are thus demolished, the lower classes
of the population are crammed into murkier and
more crowded dens. From this suffocating pro-
cess there is no escape ; for while Sir Dun-
can pinches t 1 unfortunate villagers in the centre,
the Government and Lochiel enclose them
on each
flank. The former refuses to yield an inch of its
ground, though the necessity of a fort does not seem
in these days very urgent ; and the latter cannot give
' a foot of his, because it is fettered under. a law of en-
tail. Both have a certain excuse, but Sir Duncan has
none : and with an admirable consciousness. that
. he
will leave behind him no affectionate memorial in the
hearts of the people; this provident old. chieftain
. is em-
ployed, like Absalom of old, in erecting for himself a
monument of stone.
__

Let us hope that Parliament will afford a
.speedy
remedy for some, at least, of these manifold evils. In
the meantime, the opening of a steam communication
with Liverpool is an auspicious event; and if pursued
with adequate perseverance, it may arouse proprietors
and farmers to a more enlightened and energetic
development of their resources.

CALEDONIAN CANAL, THURSDAY, 0
His Royal Highness Prince Albert arrliveld Aftimihe
south-western end of Loch Lochy this morning about
nine o'clock, after a drive from Ardverikie of about
30 miles. The Fairy,
Robinson, was under command of Captain
waiting at the end of the Loch from
an early hour,
proceeded
immediately after the arrival of
the Prince,
up to this hour, has be
along
very unfavourable. Canal. Theb weather,
__eav
showers have fallen the wholeery
morning, accompanied
mlipanie3ci
with cold blasts of wind, and very rarely interspersed
with temporary gleams of sunshine. As the day
advances, however, there are some symptoms of im-
provement, and good hopes are entertained that as
soon as the Fairy, has escaped from the proverbially
rainy district of Lochaber a drier atmosphere and a
fairer sky will be experienced.
The sail up Loch Lochy is grand and imposing in spite
of the mists and the clouds with which the scenery is
enveloped. The dark-blue water and varying outline
of the Loch, enclosed on each side by an unbroken
range of green mountains, whose steep and tempest-
furrowed sides are washed by a thousand cascades,
are calculated to strike the imagination under all cir-
cumstances, and are even invested by the showers with
at tractions which in more genial weather could not
have been exhibited. The tiny streamlets which
oti a dry sunny day would have oozed down
unseen amid the stones and brackens, are swollen
• by the rains into white foaming torrents which

cast an air of bewitching beauty over the unvarying
surface of the hills. Few human habitations are ob-
servable on the sides of the Loch. Glenfintaig Cottage,
a very neat and elegant country residence, occupies a
fine site in the south-eastern edge of the Loch; and
on the opposite side, a fine view is obtained of the
glen, in which Achnacarry, the residence of Lochiel,
is situated. The small inn of Letterfinley, and a
few shepherds' huts, are the only other dwellings
which meet the eye. But the sides of the mountains
are covered with fine flocks of sheep, which find rich
pasture as well as good shelter in the numerous and
spacious corries.
I must not indulge, however, in further descrip-
tions, as the steamer from Inverness cannot now be
far distant, by which I expect to get these few lines
forwarded to Glasgow in time for publication on Sa-
turday morning. I will return to the subject in a
future letter.