The Sun.
London, England, 1856-10-28 00:00:00

DEER STALKING AND DEPOPULATION.

BRAEMAR.

The following letter has been addressed to the Editor
of the Times:—
Sir,—During the course of the summer season I ob-
served several letters in your columns relating to the
state of the Scottish Highlands, especially the district of
Braemar. Having resided three months in that quarter,
from which I have just returned, it has occurred to me
that my evidence on the social state of the district may
not be unimportant. With your permission, therefore,
I will proceed to state my observations and impressions
on a matter so vitally concerning the wellbeing of that
part of the United Kingdom.
One of your correspondents, if I recollect rightly,
stated that he had resided in some part of the Braemar
district for the last two years, and that no case of emi-
gration to America or ejection of the tenantry had taken
place during that period. This may be all quite true, but
has little to do with the question raised by another of
your correspondents, whether the general population in
Coat quarter is not suffering under the decline which has
affected so many other parts of the Highlands. Any person
knows that the course of policy of which the Sutherland
Clearings were a part commenced in this country pre-
vious to the commencement of the present century ; and
the mere fact of no ejectment having taken place in any
particular glen during the last 10 years, or even that
there may be an accidental increase from local causes,
will not affect the general question. Now, with regard
to this, there ia evidence of the most ample description
to show that the whole Braemar district, if not syste-
matically cleared in any part, according to the Suther-
land model, has been, from some cause or other, very
extensively depopulated. The statistical account of
1845, written by the parish minister, shows that the
population of the united parishes of Crathie and Braemar
was—

In the year 1755 2,671 souls.
1794 2,251 „
IP 1831 1,808 „
99 1841 1,712 ~
—a diminution of nearly 1,000 souls in a single century,
at a period when the counip generally was rapidly in-
creasing in prosperity and in population. The only set-
off against this appalling amount of local decline is the
fact that, according to the last population returns in
1851, a small increase is reported, the then population
being given as 1,788 souls. Whether this slight increase
is to be attributed to the proprietors of that extensive
district having been advised that they had gone far
enough in discouraging the local population, or to the
circumstance of her Majesty's annual residence in that
quarter having in various ways stimulated local pros-
perity, I can't say, but it certainly bears a very slight
proportion to the whole amount of decreases since the
middle of the last century which the tables show ; and the
observations made by me while in that district do not at
all encourage the idea that any different system has been
adopted which may have the effect of restoring that part
of Scotland to its former prosperity. By prosperity of
course I mean the amount of human happiness and
worth contained in any given district; for I am not pre-
pared to bow the knee before the modern idol of political
economy, as if the proportion of a given amount of wool
or other article possessing an exchangeable value were
the only matter to be considered by a good landlord or a
wise Government. Neither Plato, nor Aristotle, nor
the Bible teaches any such doctrines, whatever modern
" improvers" may imagine.
What strikes a stranger must in the Braemar district,
after he has recovered from his first stupendous admira-
tion of mountains and pine forests, is the great number
of ruined houses that is everywhere prominent in the
glens ; that, in fact, many glens which had lately con-
tained a considerable population of industrious peasants
present nothing now but a solitude and a gamekeeper's
house. To English sportsmen,-of course, this must be
a very agreeable spectacle ; but to a Seotchman who
loves his country, and who knows that the strength and
pride, of ecotland were in her cotters, there can be few
things more sorrowful. In no part of Europe, indeed,
except in Greece, have I seen anything that so af-
fected me with sadness as in these beautiful glens of
my native Highland hills ; and my enjoyment of the sub•
lime and beautiful in mountain scenery was grievously
marred by the constant contemplation of " deserted vil-
lages" and green spots of grass, where the'young soldiers
that fought in Spain and Waterloo had nursed their
heroism, now preserved only as a winter banquet for wild
deer. But what affected me with a yet deeper sorrow
wag the universal feeling of despondency and despair
that had taken possession of the remaining population.
Every poor man in that district had some sad reminis-
cences of an abandoned home and of banished friends,
and when you entered into conver,ation with him with
regard to his own future prospects you were sure to learn
that the man considered his tate as altogether dependent
on persons in whose estimation one 8..)yal stag was of
infinitely greater value than a hundred honest tenants.
Now, sir, tins is the point on which I should wish parti-
cularly to hear the opinions of men who love Britain,
and who understand political philosophy. Mr. Loch's
well-known work on the "improvement's" in the Suther.
land estates convinced many persons belonging to what
appears to [ilea very one-eyed economical school that there
Was nothing serene in the whole affair of the Suther-
land clearings, which drew forth the severe animadver-
sion of so profound a thinker as Sismondi. Let it be
granted for the moment to economical materialists of this
cast that it was right and politic to drive out the poor
titters of Sutherland from the glens which their fathers
had defended with their swords to make way for sheep ;
another question altogether, and a very serious one, now
presents itself—whether both sheep and men are to make
way in extensive districts of country for red deer ? I c
fess I caun )1 look upon this as a cmsurnination in any
wise devoutly to be wished. I canuct understand on arty
principle of religion, of humanity, or of sound political
philosophy, how laws should exist in any country for the
protection of wild beasts, and none for the protection of
the tillers of the soil. If lam mistaken ou this point, I
shall he glad to stand corrected, but, so far as my Braemar
observations go, the present game laws, in districts where
the population specially stands in need of every encou-
ragement which resident landlords and kindly laws could
afford, are act.ng, and will continue to act, as a depopu
dating engine on a large scale.
This, Sir, is a subject which undoubtedly deserves the
serious consideration of every Briton who loves his
country ; for, if I am rightly informed, the deer stalking
mania is not confined to Braemar, but has infected other
and yet more extensive districts of territory. When
riding up from Aboyne to Ballater, the driver of my
dogcart, pointing to the hills of Glentanner, on the south
side of the Dee, said with an accent of sad resignation,
" These hills once fed hundreds of fine sheep ; now there
is not one to be found there, for the glen has been
turned into a deer forest I" You are aware that deer
will never feed in sheep walks, so that any district of
country that the noble proprietor chooses to turn into 3
preserve for deer is necessarily robbed of even that smal-
lest amount of population, consisting of half-a dos in shep-
herds and their dogq, which givea feeble aspect of human
life to the immense solitudes of Sutherland. That many
persons will defend this state of thingsfrom various mo-
tives, sufficiently obvious, I can easily understand ; but
whatever may be said in favour of game laws in other
districts, when the question comes to a distinct issue
between aristocratic pastimes and the very existence of
the best part of the population (for such the peasantry
are in many views), the balance of denision in the mind
of a humane man and a good citizen is not likely to
waver long.—l have the honour to be, sir, your most
obedient servant,

JOHN S. BLACKIE.
Univeraity, Edinburgh, Oct. 15.

FEARFUL EXPLOSION OF A PRUSSIAN

SfilP.

CARDIFY, Monday, 3.30 p.m.—The West Bute Dock
was this morning the scene of a sad and fatal disaster.
At about half-past 5 o'clock the lower part of the town
was shaken by a concussion so violent as to lead to the
impression that a❑ earthquake had occurred, but on in-
quiry it was found to have been occasioned by the explo-
sion of carburetted hydrogen gas, escaping from coal, on
board a large Prussian barque, called the Frederic Betz-
laff, lying at No. 7. coal tip, on the east side of the dock,
which had resulted not only in the destruction of the
vessel, but also in the killing and wounding of nearly the
whole of the crew.

It appears that on a coal trimmer named Clode going
en board to commence his work, he found the batches
down, although the crew on Saturday night had been
desired to leave them open ' • he made three attempts to
strike a light with a match, without success. He then
called for a candle, which was brought by one of the
crew; when the gas took fire, and a terrific explosion
ensued. The bystanders describe the scene as awfully
grand, for being quite dark at the time the sheet of flame
was seen ascending to a great height, while the blazing
fragments of wreck shot through the air like rockets ; the
adjacent tip and the rigging of the ill-fitted vessel took
fire; but as it was the hour when the railway and dock
labourers were assembling for work, the flames were
speedily extinguished, and measures taken for the relief
of the wounded. It was found that one of the crew had
been killed on the spot. The mate of the British ship
Pandora, lying at No. 8 tip, had bees killed, while stand-
ing on the deal, by a beam falling on his head ; the
first mate of toe Prussian barque had been blown into
the water of the dock, from whence he was rescued by
the crew of a vessel lying near ; the second mate had
been blown through the side of the round-house on hie
bed, and was found lying on the Quay on his bed ; he
was taken to the Infirmary, where it was found that he
had sustained a fracture of the pelvis. The remainder of
the crew were suffering from the effects of burns and
fractures, and an engine was promptly brought on the
adjacent branch of the Taff Vale Railway, some car-
riages were attached, and 11 of the sufferers wsra con-
veyed to the Infirmary, where they were promplly at
tended, not only by the house surgeon, but by nearly the
ehele of the medical men in town, who volunteered their
aseistance. Ono of the unf ,rtunate men died soon after,
making the third death from this sad occurrence. Six of
the others are labour ink under fractures as well as barns,
and one is in such a state that his death is hourly ex-
pected. The coal trimmer, Clode, though in the hold,
escaped with some severe burns, and was removed to his
own home. Some idea of the fo:ce of the explosion may
be formed from the fact that one of the anchors, weigl-
- about 35 cat., was blown over the furestay, from 15
to 18 feet high ; it then fell into a barge alongside, whin
it sank. The c. al tip was blown nearly to pieces, and
t
k
otsbt the railway
nal
i es :leh l wyopaiw:wnc
shattered.eba Ois u; c°,
nn vao daewdsha vestigeeywhri sahwt neapdm ofe
in
nuelhssi etofeo, adsfi 'wetal
lewnnhsn;
ttfeel e
explosion
ihexaee,ktpin remains.hvßil;
about
usshBhstitsoieeelden tml2e,Dos laawwfw.aei
neaaenrne ttrst:,
d
in
trbwhoeaiaastdre
heard at
aaesti:eph herbe
places
cofie
windows.es
fntu,
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veSaehnr She
d reportl hasfhoou houses
sunkosmfe
as well as at sea. In fact, it is the most terrible thing
of the kind that has ever occurred at Cardiff.