Tri-weekly journal. (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1847-188?, 1847-11-13
THE SOCIAL CONDITION OF ENGLAND.

of the North Amerlcan REVIEW, IN WHICH lhe
influence of British institutions in reducing
immense masses of people to hopeless poverty
is traced with masters hand:
Since the beginning Of the present century,
the nation of the Highlanders or Gauls, the
descendants of the ancient Cells, now reduced
to $4,000 souls, has been almost entirely ex-
PEELED from its home by the very persons
whom it regarded as its chieftains and to whom
it had shown for so many centuries an enthu- |
siastic devotion. The territory which they had
cultivated from generation to generation, under
affixed rent, has been taken from them and devo-
ted to the pasturage of focks, guarded by herds
men who were strangers; their houses and
villages have been razed to the ground, or de-
stroyed by fire, while the unhappy people have
forced either 10 build cabins on the sea-shore
and endeavor to maintain their miserable exist
ence by fishing; or to cross the ocean to seek
their fortune in the back settlements of Amer
lea. As this revolution took place In distant
and almost barbarious region, OF which the
very language was unknown In other parts OF
the empire, 1t attracted at first but little atten-
ton. But when it became known in England
that some of these people had waited till a mil
itary force arrived to expel them from their
villages, and sometimes had driven away the
soldiers by shower of stones; that they had
been heard to entreat that they might be mas
sacred with their wives and children on the
graves Of their fathers, rather than be sent
away to perish in misery and abandonment,
to a world which wished not TO receive them,
and where no place was reserved for them, uni
versal sympathy was excited. 1t was reported
that the agent had been compelled to set fire
to their houses, and even that an old man, or,
according to other accounts, and old woman,
L.. tar mis- larry
and exile, her presence did not stop the incen-
diary, and the victim had persisted in the
flames. Then the public indignat ion showed
itself in manner which could be neither mis-
taken nor brayed. The Duchess of Suther-
land thought she did not merit the severe
judgement which was passed upon her con-
duct, and it was to justify her at the bar OF
public opinion that the book Of her agent was
published He has tried 10 prove, and he has
done it successfully, that the Duchess has exer-
cised only her acknowledged legal rights, aud
in so doing has had regard 10 the preservation
of the existence of her vassals, for which she
felt that she was responsible.
The ancestors of this lady were proprietors
of about three -fourths of the county of Suther-
land, in the most northern part of Scotland
Their possessions measured about one million
of English acres. When the Countess Of Suth-
brought as a dowry to the Marques of Stat
ford, Since created Duke of Sutherland, their
population did not exceed $4,000. The rev
enue obtained by the proprietor from her vas.
sails, was so small that it might be considered
rather as an acknowledgment OF sovereignty,
than as a rent. II appears that as late as 1911,
each family was bound to an annual payment
oEOSJ ~-eSssse, stfp ol irw-oass nj S5f.ns ar
the other hand, every man born upon these do
mains was required to spare neither his blood
nor ms life In defending the sovereignty and
honor OF the family Of which he considered
hlmselfas member. Mhoi-F heor Chattaibh,
as ne was called in Gaelic, or The great Man
OF Sutherland, had always found his compan-
ions IN arms ready to defend him, at the peril
OF their lives, against every enemy, whether
foreign or domestic.
The population was pretty equally distribu-
ted over the whole district. Every valley had
Its hamlet; the arabic land was devoted TO the
cultivation of barley and oats, and the hills
were given to the pastunge of the cattle. The
people Were poor, as labor and pastunge were
their Chief resources; the climate was severe,
the winters long, and they had neither manu-
iacturers, commerce, nor money. But they
had generally enough to supply their wants:
and even when the wrath of Heaven sometimes
destroyed their harvest, and decimated them
and their herds by famine, they knew how to
submit with resignation, because the hand of
man had no part In their sufferings. dta
Between the years 1911 and 1920, these u.s.
UOO inhabitants, forming about 5000 families,
Were driven away, or, to use Mr.. Loch's soften
ed expression, removed, from the whole interi-
or OF the country. ALI their villages were de-
molished or burnt, and all their fields converted
into pasture. Asimilar clearing was made, al
most simultaneously, by the owners of the rest
OF the country, and their examples were soon
followed by the great proprietors in Ross and
Cromarty counties, and generally throughout
the north OF Scotland. Mr.. Loeb assures us
that the Duchess of Sutherland has shown far
more humanity than any of her neighbors; she
has interested herself in the fate Of the exiles
has offered them retreat on her own terrific
~, and, on taking away from them 1874, 900
acrrs, ofwhich they had been in possession from
time immemorial, she has generously left them
about 5000, or two acres to a family. The
land thus granted to them, however, had never
been cultivated, and had yielded no income TO |
the proprietor. Still, it was not conceded TO
them cautiously; they are subject to a moder-
ate rent OF two and half shillings an acre,
and no leases are granted to them for more
than seven years; but they are assured that the |
leases shall be renewed for another term of sew
en- years, if the land should be well cultivated. |
Mr.. Loeb informs us that the fate of these ex-
lies has not been SO deplorable as they forebo-
der. Some, it is true, were unwilling to re-
ceive any thing from her who had driven them