Star.
London, England, 1813-04-05 00:00:00

COVE, MARCH si.

Lime FLEET.—Yesterday sailed his Majesty's
ships LEONIDAS, Capt. SEYSIOVIL. and HELENA. Capt.
MoNressioa, having under convey several transports,
with a large detachment of the Royal Artillery-drivers
corps, for the army under Marquis Watts Norm. A
number of merchant vessels sailed with them for
Oporto, Cadiz, and Gibraltar. Several Officers took
passage is the above fleet, to join their respective re.
giments in the Peninsula.—The HELENA sees the
ships on to Gibralta- ; the LEONIDAS these bound to
Lisbon.

WIEST INDIA, BRAZIL, AND HALTFA X FLEETS..
The whole of these Beets are expected to get under.'
meigh about noon.
The Two Brothers, from Baltimore to Cadiz, ha•
been takes by an American privateer, and retaken
by the Bootie of Liverpool, and sent for that port.

Lord MOIRA does not instantly set off for India, an
imftediment hav;ng occurred, which will delay his Lord.
ship's departure.
The Pownit:, Captain Prime CARTIIRET, Rill sail
f: om Portsmouth for Lisbon, with the detachments
of Guards and others, which have lately embArked
under convoy, the moment the wins is fair. Gene.
rats Sir THOMAS GRAnAss,. CLINTON, PATRIC, Os.
WALD, and PACK, and Aides-dc-Camp, go out in
the convoy. General OSWALD and family take
their passage in the Prince Regent tranrort ; the
other Generals, with eleven Aides•de.C.mp, will
proceed as passengers in the PONIONE. Tne POMONS
also takes out •Cloo,oou in guineas (a pew kiliJage),
for the we of the am).

IiZIMINIIIMer""'N.wwOO-..m..0..-,••-•—••
I:ISTORBANCES IN THE .HIGHLANDS.

-,-
TO THE EDITOR OP THE STAR.

SlR—The letter which appeared in your Paper of
16e '24th ult. purporting to scuirfuctorily account for
the proposed changes in the Sutherland Estate, and
isirtich have originated the unfortunate commotions
Q a part of that County, under the signature of " A
iFriend to Iniprovement," is so eminently calculated
Imiclead the public mind, with respect to that County
sd its loyal and brave inhabitants—that although it
(!be
not my intention to have written a syllable on
'the subject more than was contained in my letter of
!Ilse 15th ult. I feel myself called upon to offer some
stna.trks on that communication.

I am not at all surprised, Mr. Editor, that you,
who are an entire stranger to that County, should
have announced the receipt of that letter with the
preliminary observations that accompanied the pub-
lication of a letter from laverness, on that subject, in
your Paper of the 22d ult.
• But there is no dispkssionate person, having a 10-1
cal acquaintance with Sutherlandshire, and possessing
but a moderate portion of understanding, but must
feel that the system therein developed, however plau-
sible on paper, is in the highest degree illusory ; and
is fraught, (besides very much of misrepresentation)
with local evils, of great magnitude, immediate and
prospective. It affords a striking proof of the versa-
tility of the human mind and character ; how much
we are apt to be warped in our opinions by the
changes of times and circumstances, in viewing the
same objects.
But a few years have passed away since the Toast
in Dunrobin Castle, and at our County Meetings,
was, drank and with acclamatiom" The Highlan-
ders—and may they never thrive, that prefer a sheep
to a Highlander !1" But now, that the event to
which this expression of our Patriotism had applica-
tion has been accomplished—Sheep become the order
of the day—and the Highlanders but objects of se-
tondarf consideration. 7impora mutantur I And if,
with a pliancy rarely im' ted to the human mind,
iand least of all to the minds of Britons ; they do not
acquiesce in visionary measures that involve the
im-
mediate relinquishment of their dearest interests and
piedelictitins—they in4y migrate to the wilds of Ca-
nada. When our inveterate foe shall attempt to in-

vade us, let our flocks be dressed in Kilts and. Bonnet:
—and marched to our most commanding positions in
Prong columns : The enemy, though tired of the
cadaverous carcases of their own cavali y, and envious

of our heath.flavoured mutton, in distantly viewing
then) through their glasses, will conclude them the
Ley ea 'muse of those brave fellows they had some
practical knowledge of in Egypt and on the plains of
Maida, and retire in dismay !
But though I have charged the writer in question
with mist epresentation—l by no means consider it
. wilful—it is founded in an absence of accurate local
knowledge—in widely mistaken and illusory views of
the subject ; to which may be added, intelligible con-
siderations of personal interest.
I am strongly krepared to believe that your Cor-
respondent, at the period of his writing, had not, him.
self, seen my letter of the 15th, which appeared in

your Paper of the 18th ult. but had ratherformed his
judgment of it from a report of it at second hand ;
and, probably, not a correct one. Under this belief,
it is enough for me to recommend to him to read the
letter alluded to. I merely imparted to these unfor-
tunate men a sincere expression of my sympathy for
. the situation they are brought into ; and so tar the)
have furnished me with ample motives by many kinii
demonstrations of their humble attachment. I could
not, and did not mean, to justify the overt acts of
violence to which, in an irritable moment, they had
resorted—for whatever real ground they may have
to feel discontented—Such a feeling can by na means
justify their attempts to take the law into their own
• hands. Had they exercised that reflection, in whirl.
they are by no means deficient in the common occ.
Rims of life, they could not but feel that such procee-
dings must be mortally injurious to the attainment (.4
their wishes ; which was best to be accomplished b 3
`conciliatory and respectful representation.
I am unable to discover, on what part of my letter,
I can be charged with having directly or indirectly.
44 censured" my Lord STAFFORD. Any one acquain-
ted with Sutherlandshire must know, that that Noble
personage has uniformly been regarded in that county
by all ranks, with the highest respect, and is so to tbt
prestrit hour ; notwithstanding that his Lordship,
since he became the head of the ancient house of Su-1
thei land, has tripled the rents of the estate. For
when his Lordship married the Countess of SuTrita.
LAID, the gross rents of the estate were but 45000 a-
year ; and by a local agent's own account, in his
letter to Mr. Sheriff CRANSTON, he admits it to be I
now 815,000 a year. The fact is, and I state it onl
the authority of one of the local agents, that his Lord-
ship has always considered himself merely a Trustee
for his Noble Lady--;-concerning himself but very
little with the internal arrangements of the estate and
county, which are usually concerted Ly her Ladyship
with herlaw agent at Idinburgh,and the local Factors
for the time being.
The martial ardour of the Highlanders certainly
cannot 46 be impaired, at least should not be so, by
ameliorativg their condition." To a plain man, this
is a truism ; and in as far as 1 am competent to judge
of a propositioo so profound, I acquiesce in it. The
martial ardour of the Highlanders of Sutherland has,
in all times, been highly useful to the King's ser-
vice, and honourable to themselves. It is possible,
however, to vitally impair that spirit, by placing
them under circumstances that may-justly lead them
to feel their zeal, public and local, badly rewarded—

and, perhaps, the present is a case in point.
As to the " devoted attarhment" of the Sutherland

is ----- ---
tnen.to the H ouce of Sutherland, it on record :
they are a remarkably shrewd intelligent body; and,
I have reason to kisow, that looking to passing event
there tor the last twenty-five years, through the me-
dium of plain reason and common sense, they have
learnt to feel, that all the relations of lite are mutual.
If, under all increases of rents, they have honourably
paid without murmur their engagements, and on a!:
emergencies have given reasonable proof of their local
attachment and respect, they, in their turn, expect a
reasonable protection. How far such an expectation
is reasonable and legitimate, I will leave the reader
to decide on.
Since my last letter to you, I am enabled to state,
that the Highlanders in question, who are stated to

be about 2000 innembeldid very recently send an in-
telligent Serjeant of their number to Cleveland-house,
with a petition in their names, imploring that Noble
Family not to remove them ; and that on that con-
dition, they most solemnly engaged to make up,
among themselves, an annual encreast of rents excee-
ding, by £5OO, the highest offer made for their loca-
lities by sheep-farmers. Their petition was rejected
in toto. In consequence the Serjeant in question
returned onSunday last, to report the bad success of
his mission ; and no doubt can now remain but they
must migrate
I come now to notice the reasons given .by Mr.
YOUNG, the local Factor of Sutherland, in his letter to
Mr. Sheriff CRANSTON, for removing the Clyne and
Kildonan men front,their localities, quoted in your
Correspondent's letter. Mr. YOUNG there states, that
the present lands of these men are subject to occa-
sional early frosts, and land-floods, which affect'
their crops.—Admitted. But they are not more sub-
ject to these visitations than all theother districts of that
county, at an equal distanceand elevation from the sea.
Any one who knows any thing of that county
must know, that were the farms of the Highlanders
more susceptible of growing extensive crops of corn,
they do not wish to grow more than supplies them- !
selves with meal, and their cattle,. horses, &c. with
winter fodder. Live stock, not corn, is their staple;
for the rearing of which they possess very extensive
heath pastures : so much so, that a farmer there, who
pays a rent of 10 or stls only, possesses more live
stock, than farmers who is the South occupy farms of
from 200 to £4OO a year. Such farmers, and they
are common, possess from six to ten mulch cows, with
their progressive progeny of all ages—horses, sheep,
and goats ; and, besides the. consumption of his own
family, he will sell as much butter and cheese, to
stated customers, as enables him to pay his rent from
these articles; and if a bad season renders his corn
crop defective, he possesses ample means, by the an-
nual sale of his stock, to purchase meal and seed grain
from the coast, or from the contiguous county of
Caithness, which is one of the most productive corn
counties in Scotland. When fodder fails him at home,
from the same resource he is enabled to purchase hay
and straw on the coast. In short, bleak as his station
may be viewed, for his rank in life, and for that coun-
try, his means of comfort are very respectable.
Now, Sir, 1 will put it to the candour of any rea-
sonable person, if a man, possessing such means of
comfort in his native locality, can be reasonably ex-
pected to feel his condition d, improved" by being.
transferred to a situation where, by your Correspon-
dent's own admission, he is limited to two acres of
corn land, and grass for two cows and their calves ?
To say nothing of the sacrifice of feeling which he
must be supposed to make, in relinquishing a place
where his people have from time immemorial been
personages of no mean rustic consideration ! Can a
man, thus situated, feel his condition ameliorated ?
The immediate consequences of such a change are so
obvious, and his prospective fate so inevitable, that
they need not be enumerated ; nor can be contem-
plated, without the most painful feelings. Yet are
we plausibly told, that these changes " are improve.
ments for the benefit of the tenantry."—" But the
young men can
.fish—and 150 acres of the tarliest
land, near the Church of Kildonan, are assigned to
the elder and infant classes." I can heartily give
my Lord STAFFORD ciedit for a humane feeling to-
wards his tt nantry ; but, admitting that of the 2000
Highlanders in question (some reckon their number
:it greatly tnore—as much as '2700) 700 are young
men, anal that they do fish successfully, what portion
of an existence can the remaining 1300 be expected
to derive from a partition of 1.50 acres among them,
supposing the land very good ? 11, indeed, there was
some kind of manniacture establishes there, in which
this aggregated body could be employed, on aven
moderate terms, the plan might du; but if they de-
pend on the produce of 150 acres only, bow weer-y li-
mited indeed must their means of life be! But we
know that there are neither trades nor manufactures
in which they can be engaged ; and thus situated,
who can doubt the fate that awaits them?

The estates of Strathey and. Armadale, to which
these people are wished to be removed, have always
been considered, in Sutherland, relatively small
estates—and such as they are, we are to infer that
they have in themselves a certain population—are
they capable' of supporting such an accession of te-
nantry ? They are not : and hence, the tenantry on
these estates, report states, have been already re•
moved—and a most heart rending scene their removal
is stated tq be ! But all these circumstances are kt.pt
out of view.

But again we are told, if their lands in their new.,
stations be limited, ,* they are on the coast, and can
live by fishing." Now, Mr. Editor, it you .had a
given extent of maritime coast, which you thought
susceptible of being made a profitable fishing station,
in looking round you for the most appropriate crews
of boatmen, would it ever enter into your thoughts to
fetch these crews from the higher cantons of Switzer-
land, or from the Tyrol? And yet, as well might
you do so, as Mr. YOUNG attempt-to make fishers of
the men of the interior of Clyne and Kildonan ! In
framing establishments for any people, surely some '
consideration is due to their common modes of life :
if the coast of Far is an eligible one for fishing, why
remove the native inhabitants, who must be supposed
to be most familiar with it ? But the fact is, that this
same coast is on the margin of the Pentland Firth,
the most tempestuous sea, with the most rocky coast,
of the North Highlands 1 I much doubt, that any
prospect of gain would induce a Deal Pilot to settle
there, it is, in general, so very perilous a navigation.
No part of your Correspondent's letter more ex-
cited my surprise, than the side-blow he gives to the
unfortunate men of Clyne and Kildonan, on their so-
b: iety, industry, and morals, compared with the men
of Asqnt, the western boundary of the county of
Sutherland.

I know the Assynt men well : they are, physically,
the finest body of men in the county ; and they han-
dle equally well the musket and the oar. That is a
maritime parish, and the natives drive a brisk trade
in fishing and in smuggling : they have, for ages,
supplied the coast-side of Ross and Sutherland with
rum, gin, and brandy; and, provided you don't drive
them from the ocean into Kildonan, they very little
care what the system of husbandry is. They probably
drink more ardent spirits in the year, than the other
nine parishes of which Sutherland is composed do,
collectively. It is no unusual thing with them to
discuss a bottle of giu before woo. They deteuti

themselves on the plea of necenity, from the MORITA
humidity"of their situation : they live in almost eter-
nal rain, because they are is mediately on the Western
Ocean.

The Clyne and Kildonan men, on the contrary,
are equally industrious as the Assynt men ; but their
pursuits in life are totally different : as to the use of
spirits, they do not, perhaps, drink four drams in as
many months, unless in their occasional visits to the
coast. to fairs, on necessary business.
It is very true that they are at times engaged in
illicit distillation, to which their remote and isolated
situation is favourable ; but they are not so engaged
OD their own account, but in distilling for the coast
side, whence they are supplied with the grain : they
receive one-eighth of the spirit for their trouble, which
they sell to the publicans on the coast, for meal or
money.
Travellers have egregiously mistaken the real cha-
racter of the Highlanders, by representing them as
idle, lounging fellows. In spring, they put down
their crops with most persevering industry. In sum-1
mer, they are employed in cutting and fetching home
their turf or peats ; in repairing their buildings and
dykes, or in•the sale of their annual portion of stock
to itinerant drovers ; in cutting their hay. In harvest,
they cut and gather their crops, with equal industry :
in these three seasons working very hard, and living
very frugally. Winter is Carnival time all over the
Highlands.
I beg leave to illustrate the temperate habits of
these brave fellows by a well-known fact ; namely, in
1779 the Sutherland Fencibles of that war were em-
bodied ; and, although the pay of a soldier was then
but sixpence a day, the regiment, from their savings,
paid the entire rents of the Sutherland estate, for k,ur
years, by the sums they remitted to the county ; and
when, in 1783, they were disbanded, they were sup-
posed to have brought five thousand pounds, in cash,
into the county with them ; which, most probably,
found its way into the same strong box. I had this
fact from a highly respectable Officer, who was then
Factor on the Sutherland estate, and Lieut.-Colonel
of the regiment ; so that no person could sp.ak to it
on better means of information. Thus, while I prove
that the Sutherland Highlanders are, habitually, a
frugal, temperate body, I am entitled also to assume,
that•their martial spirit, besides being honourable to
themselves, bad essential " skill in cookery," as to
the Sutherland estate. As to their orderly conduct,
as sAdicrs, I can only say, that it was so exemplary,
that in many stations where they were brigaded with
other regiments, and a p.:nis:lmort was to take place,
the Sutherlanes were, in Brigade ()Hers, excused
from attelittng it—,, they had no occasion to witness
such scenes to bind them to order; they had the ininto:
principle of it in themselves." I can call upon many
Officers to prove all thiti ; and will not any feeling
person exclaim, *hat a monstrous pity, that such
a brave and vii tuous people should not meet with the
most festering kindne,,F, instead of being removed to
make way for sheep ! !"

A HIGHLANDER OP SUTHERLAND.

P. S. Sheep Farming, like other systems, to he be-
neficial, has its limits—it may be too much extended,
and, like cur tiade to Buenos Ayres, produce only
disappointment. It lam correctly informed, there
is of this description a farmer in Sutherland who,
very recently, had the wool of three years on hand na-
sal ; many who embark in it possess but a very li-
mited capital, these, with good intentions, may spe-
culate too much in encreasing their flocks ; hence, if
a bad season intervenes—or a market fails—or a ban.
ker withdraws his confidence in discounting their bills
(often accommodation ones),tbe consequences may be
extensively injurious. The Gentleman I have alluded
to being a man of considerable property, and real
estate, can stand the shock. Not so he who vitally
calculates on a steady market. In such a case•he
fails—the population is gone—the land is waste—
Would we recal our brave peasantry ?—the moment
is past l " We can call on spirits from the vasty
deep ; but will they come ?"

`• A bold Peasantry , thdr country's pride ;
" If once. destroyed, can never be supplied !"I

A SUBJECT FOR CHRONOLOGY.
From SII7 ERN HUNDRLD NiurT[-,oVR,
When English Lotteries first began,
BLANKS ! Four to One, until this hour,
O'er PRIZES marled each Scheme and Plaa.
But row, however strange to say,
PIUS LS O'RE BLANKS in number 1-118;
Nay, on the ensuing Stara of Mier,
&tea Nusaila drawn will prove a Palls!

Mrs. DicKoss' Song in the Second Part of the
Oratorio at Drury-lane, and in which she is so ably
accompanied by Mr. P. MEYER, has never been at-
tempted oti the harp since the time of HANDEL. In
this song the great Composer shows his ideas of the
harp style ; and the lovers of his music must be
highly gratified that it is again brought forward,
with an effect which no other instrument can give it.
FlREL—Yesterday morning, about five o'clock, a
fire was discovered to have broken out in the fourth
storey of that large building in Skinner-street, which
was the capital prize in the City Lottery, valued at
twenty-five thousand pounds, and which has since been
called the Commercial Hall. The upper part was held
as chambers by professional men, and some few men.
chants ; and it is stated to have had at least 20 dif.
ferent inhabitants. From what muse the fire ori-
ginated we have not learnt ; but it spread with such
rapidity, that by half.past six the whole building
(siz stoties high) was completely down, the back
walls falling into the body of the building, and the
front wall into the street, by which, we arc sorry to
hear, two firemen were severely bruised. A curious
circumstance took place during the fire. A cat, that
had escaped from some of the apartments, was seen
by the hy-standers on a part of the building that would
inevitably soon be in flame.; and all retreat being cut
off, the only way to etcape was to take a leap, but
this the poor animal durst not attempt. As the
flames approached her, a Gentleman offered one of
the firemen five guineas, if he would save the cat :
the fireman was induced to make the attempt, . and
with reat difficulty succeeded, by getting behind,
and with the weight of water ft orn the pipe in his
hand, forcing her to take the leap, when she fell into
the midst of the spectators from the top of the Lth
storey. The fireman immediately received his pro-
mised reward.

Another fire happened yesterday morning at an
extensive Blacking Manufactory, in Garden.row,
Imndon.road, which in a short time was entirely
consumed.

1
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6
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111
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attachment and respect, they, in their turn, expect a themfrom the oceai
reasonable protection. How far such an expectation care what the system
11 is reasonable and legitimate, I will leave the reader drink more ardent si
111 to decide on. nine parishes of wh.
Since my last letter to you, lam enabled to state, t collectively. It is t
that the Highlanders in question, who are stated to( discuss a bottle of ,
- "imiligalailidakagssi
-....