Litchfield enquirer., 1853-04-28
Duchess of Sutherland.


 ' nous in tLis country as heading pro test against Negro Slavery in the Unite' States. Slavery is curse enough 10 th
 country as we'll as to the enslaved, with
 out oul being twitted of it by sach no torious character es the English Count 2 ess or Duchess of Sutherland. Reac the following history of her spoliation cn her own kinsmen and kinswomen. F It was only after 1911 that the ulti mate and 'eal usurpation was enacted ] the forciblo transformation of clap- prop erty irto the private property. in the mod 3 ern sense, o: the Chief The person whi 5 stood atsthe head of this economical rev . olution, was female Mellemet Ali, who | 'had we'll digested her Malthus--the f Countess of Satherland. alias Marchion> ess of Ste6ord.
 Let us first state that the ancestors Of The Marcbioness of Stafford were the great mea''a0f the most. northern part l of Scotland, of very near three tquarters of Su.herlandshire. This Coun.. " is more extensive than many French l Departments or small German Principal tiles. When the Countess of Sutherland inherited these estates, which she after ward brought to her husband the Mar quis of Stafford, afterward Duke of Sutherland, the population of them was already reduced to l5.000. My lady Countess resolved upon radical econom ical reform, and determined upon trans- fo' ming the whole tract of country into sheep walks. From 1914 to 1920, these l5,OOO inhabitants, about 5000 families. were systematically expelled and exter- minated. All their villages were demol~ ished and burned down, and all their fields converted into pasturage. British sold< iers were commanded for this execution, and came 10 blows with the natives An old woman refusing to quit her hut, was burned in the flames of it. Thus my lady Countess appropriated 10 herself seven hundred and ninety four thousand acres of land, which from time immemo. | rial had belongd to the clan. In the ex- ! tolerance of her generosity she allotted 1 to the expelled natives about 5000 acres -o acres per family. These 5000 acres had been laying waste until then, and brought no revenue te the proprietors. The Countess was generous enough 10 sell the acre at 2s. Cd. on an average, to the clan men who for centuries 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 farni-la bore:s and in 1921 the l5,000 Gaels had already been superseded by lsl. .ooo sheep.
 A portion of the aborigines had been thrown upon the ashore, and attempt cd to live by fishing. They became ans phibious, and, as an English aathor says, lived half on land and half on water. and after all did not half live upon both.
 Sismondi, in his "Eludes Socisles, !" observes with regard to this repatriation of the Gales from Suthe,landshire--an example "!.iels, by tine by. was initiated by the other "g,eat men" of Scotland {:
 "The large extent of seignorial dos nains is not circumstance peculiar to Britain. In the whole Empire of Char lemngne, in the whole accident, entire provinces were usurped by the watlikt chiefs, who had them cultivated for theiI own account by the vanquished, and sometimes by their own companions in arms. During the 9tE and 10th centu- ties the Counties of Maine. Anjou. Poi> tou were for the Counts of these proyin. ces rather three large estates than prln> cipalilies. Switzerland. which, in so many respects resembles Scotland, was was at that time divided among small number of Seigneurs. If ths Counts of | Kybu,g, of Lanlzburg. of Hatsburg. of Gruyeres had been protected by British laws. they would have been in the same position as the Ea,ls of Sutherland 1; some of them would perhaps have had the same taste for improvement as the Marchioness of StaGnrd. and more than one republic might have disappeared from the Alps in order to make room foI focks of sheep. Not the most despotIc monar:hs in Germany would be allowed to attempt any thing of the so,t."
 Mir. Lock, in his defense of the Coun' tess of Sutherland. (ls2o.) replies to the above as follows aa,, w~
 .Why should there be made an ex' cep,ion to the rule adopted in every oth' CT case. just for this particnlat case v Why should she absolute authority Q , the landlord over his land he sacrificed 10 the public interest and to motives
 which concern the public only 7" :, And why. then. should the slayehold CTS in the Southern States of North A mefica sacriGce their private interest t'
 the pbilanthsopie grimaces ol her Grace the Duchess of Sutherland dg
 The British aristocracy, who have eve . rywhere superseded man by buIlocss ant t sheen. will. in . future not very distant