Star.
London, England, 1815-06-16 00:00:00

'

SUTXRALANDSIIIRR•

By recent accounts from this ill•fated county, which
Can be relied upon, it appears that the emigrations
from it to North America are very considerable in-
deed. Three hundred families and upwards go this
same season from the districts of Far and Edraehiles
to Pictou, under the agency of a county man named
Logan. A great many selected fine young men
from the Southern parishes have gone to the same
destination, under the protection of Lieutenant-Co-
lonel Simon Fraser, a gallant and most worthy man.
And on the 28th May a great many from the parish
of Keldonan embarked from Thurso, in the county
of Caithness, under the auspices of Lord Selkirk, for
Red River, to join their relations and friends there,
who emigrated in 1813 ; and who, by letters which
appeared in the &ran in December last, are repre=
seated as being in a very flourishing condition, though
very remote in the locations. Thousands more are
to migrate next year, for which they are already
making their arrangements. There will then be plenty
of room for sheep ; already the live stock is so great,
that a sale cannot be procured for it—yet these peo-
ple are to be bomished to make room for morel
We have always raised our feeble voice against this
desolating system. Its evils are dreadful, not merely
as it immediately affects the immediate objects of lo-1
cal tyranny, and directly tends to destroy that healthy
population which has hitherto constituted an essential
part of the physical strength of the empire and t pro-
lific nursery for our army, which in the present state
of the world deserves peculiar consideration, but in its
(*inure consequences; for, in the nature of things, their
posterity, in their new country, must eventually be
found ranked among the enemies of their mother-

country.
Our Readers wig recollect that in December last
we inserted a letter from a correspondent, giving a
detail of cruelties exercised by one of the local agents
in dispnsessing the tenantry in that miserable county
by pulling down their houses about their ears, and in
some cases setting them on fire ! The friends of hu-
manity will rejoice to learn, that the scene, though
distant, has been found within the reach of enquiry.
The ing's Advocate, who attended die last Inver-
ness circuit, gave a 'peremptory order that this matter
should be investigated. On the 23d ult. a precogni-
don commenced, which terminated on the 25th, before
the Sheriff Substitute, to inquire into the circumstances
of one of these ejectments. Not having yet been cor-
rectly informed of the result, we forbear any farther
notice of the proceedings for the present, or of the
cruelties stated to have been perpetrated. A regular
trial will probably be the result, and the facts will
then come before the public.
But what has led to all this ? We have been told
that the changes introduced were not intended to in-
crease the rent-roll, but to improve the county and to
ameliorate the condition of the tenantry : nor are we
inclined to douLt that the Noble Proprietor was, some-
how or other, induced to believe chat these effects
were so follow. But what has actually happened
Hundreds of families first beggaied, and next emi-
grating, in hoary age and lisping infancy, 'to a new
world and a new existence, are already the fruits of
this amelioration.
If one takes a reasonable and calm view of the
whole of this system • or if, the local agents of that
ovate, had taken such a just vie* of their situation ;
In as far as it concerned theirnoble employers. them-
selves, and a numerous body of tenantry, they must
at once have seen, that the necetsary- opeiation of the
system, affecting many thousand individuals, must,
' at the very hest have imposed on the tenantry a strong
laceration of feeling as to long cherished localities,
and also a very serious injury to their immediate pro-
perty and general interests. In such a case, sensible
men would have engrafted on the system, every poss
sible mildness, and spirit of conciliation, that would
have gone, as far as might be, to reconcile the people
to the consequences to them of that important change.
They should have humanely soothed the tenantry in-
to a change decided on ; they should have given ,
them every support and assistance possible in the pre-
servation and disposal of their property—and in all
these purposes, they had much in their power to have
mitigated the hardships of the poor people. But, in-
stead of viewing matters in this way, and acting hu-
manely on these views, for which the people would
have been highly grateful, even in misfortune, they
se shaped their general conduct, as to exclude from it
every vestige of teeling and humanity, that they adop-
ted a procedure calculated to goad the poor people
to the last stages of despair.
Although the Ncble Proprietors appear from the
flit to have definitively made up their minds on the
new system, they certainly appear throughout to have
wished that no injustice should be shewa to their
tenantry. One fact we are happy to state, which
strongly corroborates this : When the tenants peti-
tioned them, finding that a certain agent. thongh ap-
plied to, would give neither reply nor redress, they
gave orders that their pOtion, according to its
prayer, should be put into the hands of the High
Sheriff; but, by an artful local expedient, that
object for a long time was defeated.
They also remitted the payment of half the rents ;
and, in order that the law should have its due course
free from local impediments, they directed the tenants
to address all complaints, not to the factor:, but to
themselves direct, by post.
We shall conclude for the present; but we have
some remarks to offer on the impolicy and injustice of
this system in a national point of view, which we
think merit the serious consideration of the Legisk-
tore. We deny, strange as the assertion may appear
to some men—we deny that there are any laws in this
country which, when fairly interpreted, give' to any
proprietor of land a right to depopulate the country.
Such a right, if admitted on any pretext, or under
any circumstances, would involve the most cheadiul
consequencei.

DIED. •
At Glasgow, Charles Hamilton, Esq. merchant there.
At Ediaburgh, the asth nit. In her 89th year, Mrs. Colonel
Macdonald, relict of the late Lieut.-Colonel Donald Macdonald.
June a at Dundee, after a short Mess, Mr. It. T. Miller,
bookseller there. He attended church on the preceding sunday
its his ordinary health, and nett day had a violent attack of palsey,
which terminated fatally on the Thursday about two o'clock.
June 2, at Woodment, tounty Clare, Jane, the wife of J. Ly-
saght, Esq.
Juncla at Wyke Rectory-home. Sam; the wife of the le%
George Chamberlains, Rector of Wyke and Weymouth.
Jame 7, at Clifton, Anthony Meertens, Esq. aged tis yeah.
late Dutch Governor of the colony Demerara.
has 7s b kb oath year, Mr. Key, sal Asseerdokvabu