New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1853-02-09


cot nd Of Population therefore, decreased.
But that il as yet was Kept up in a certain man
ner, and that man, in the 18th century, was not
yet openly sacrificed 70 net-revenue, we see
from q passage in Steuart, Scotch political
economist, whose work was published 10 years
before Adam Smiths, where says vol chap.
16): "The rent Of these lands is very trldlng
compared 10 their extent, bot compared 10 the
number Of mouths which farm maintains, II
viii perhaps be found that plot Of land in the
highlands Of Scotland feeds ten times more
people than q farm Of the same extent IN the
richest provinees" That even in the beginning
of the 10Th century the rental impOsts we're
very email. is shown By the work OF Mr.. Lock
HS2O), the steward Of the Countess OF Suther-
land. who directed the Improvements on her
estates. He gives for instance the rental OF the
KintradaweIl estate for ISL, from which il ap
pears that Up 10 then, every family was obliged
10 pay a yearly impost Of a lev shilhngs IN
money, q few fowls, and some days work, st the
highest.
II was only after 1911 that the ultimate end
real uurpatiOn was enacted the iOrclbIe transi0r-
NATION Of oIaH,properfy into the pirate property
In the modern sense, Of the Chi.f The person
who stood at the head OF this economical rey0-
lntion. was female Mehemet Ali, who had well
digested her Malthus-the Countess Of SHther-
land, alias MGrchioness of Stafford.
Let US first state that the ancestors OF the
Warehouses Of Stafford were the great men
Of the most northern part OF Scotland, OF very
near three-quarters OF Sutheriandshlre. ms
County is more extensive than many french
Deparements or small German Prlncipalltles.
When the Countess Of Sutherland inherited
these estates, which she afterWard brought to
her husband, the Marquis Of Stafford, aiterward
Duke of Sutherland, the population Of them was
already reduced to 1900. Ny lady Countess
resolved upon a radical economical reform, and
determined upon transforming the whole tract
Of country into sheepwalks. From l-ll to
1920. these II, 900 inhabitants, about 3OO0iami-
lies, we're systematically expelled and exter-
minated. All their villages were demolished
and burned down, and all their fields converted
into pasturage British soldiers we're con.
manded for this execution, and came to blows
with the natives An old woman refusing 10 quit
her hut. was burned 10 the flames OF it. thus
my lady Countess appropriated to herself seren
hundred and ninety four thousand acres 81 LaHd'
which from time immemOrial had belonged 70
the elan. In the exuberance OF her generosity
she allotted 20 the expelled natives about 5000
acres-2 acres per family. These 5000 acres
had been laying waste until then, and brought
no revenue to the proprietOrs. The Countess
was generous enough 10 sell the acre at IS I'd.
on an average, 10 the clan-men who Tor centu.
ries past had shed their blood for her family.
The whole of the unrightfully appropriated clan
land she divided into 20 large sheep farms, each
Of them inhabited by one single family, mostly
English farm-laborers; and in lS2l the 1900
Gaels had already been superseded by l3l 900
sheep.
A portion of the aborigines had been thrown
upon the sea-shore, and attempted 10 live by
fishing. They became amphibiOus, and, as an
English author says, lived half on land and half
on water, and after all did not half live upon
both.
Sismondi, in his EtudeS SOeiaies,' observes
with regard to this appropriation OF the Gaels
from Sutherlandshire-an example, which. by
the-bye, was initiated by the other great men
OF Scotland:
"The large extent Of segnOrsl domains IL not cir.
custance peculiar 10 Britain. In the whole Empire OF
ChGIlomGgne in the whole accident, entire provinces
were utuTped By the wsIlke chiefs who hsd thom cul
tyatod for their account by the vHnquished, snd
sometimes by their own companions IN srme. During
the nh and 10Th centuries the Counties OF Maine AnJOu
Potou were for the Counts of these provinces rather
three large estates than princiPsties Switzerland
which IN many respects resembles Scotland was al
that time divided among small number of SsigHszrs
II the Counts Of kyburg OF LsnizbuTg OF Hstsburg OF
Gruyeres bsd been protected by Bntish laws they
would have been in the position ~ the Ears OF
Sutherland some OF them would perhaps have had the
taste for improvement sc the hsrchioness OF stat
ford and more than one republic might have disaT-
peared from the Alps In order 20 make room for locks
OF sheep Not the most despotic monarch in Germany
would be allowed to attempt anything of the sort
Mr. Lock, in his defense of the Countess of
Sutherland, (lS2O,) replies TO the above as fol-
lows:
"why should there be made exception TO the rule
adoIt every other just for this particular case
WHY should the Absolute authority Of the landlord
his land be sacrificed 10 the public interest and 70 mo
tives which concern the public only
And why, then, should the shareholders in the
Southern States of North America sacrifice
their private interest TO the philanthropic GRIM
aces OF her Grace, the Duchess of Sutherland
The British aristocracy, who have every
where superseded man by bullocks and sheep,
will. in future not very distant be superseded,
in turn. by these useful animals.
The process of clearing estates which, IN Scot
land, We have Just now described was carried
out ia England in the 10th, 18th aud 18th CEN
turies. Thomas Morus already complains of il
in the beginning of the 10th century. IL was
performed N Scotland in the beginning of the
18th, and in IrelaRd it is now in full progress.
The noble Niscount Palmerston, too, some years
ago cleared of men his property IN ireland, ex.
aetly in the manner described above.
If of any property il ever was true that il
was robbery, il is literally true Of the prop
erty of the British aristocracy Robbery OF
Church property, robbery Of commons, fsaud-
ulous Transformation, accompanied by mur-
der, Of feudal and patriarchal property in
10 private property - these sre the uIcs
Of British arstOcrats 10 their possessions.
And what services in this latter process acre
performed by seryile class Of lawyers. you
NAV see from al English lawyer of the last cen
tsry, Dalpmple, who, in lis 4" History Of Ecu
dal Property" very nzively proves that every
Law or deed concerning property was interpret
cd by the lawyers. in England, when the middle
class rvse in wealth, Va favor of the Iiddk
elS.s-in Scotland. where the nobility enriched
themselves, in favor Of the n0Stiug-in either
case il was Interpreted il sense hostile 10 the