Richmond daily times. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1853, 1853-02-11
DutcheSs of Sutherland and american Slavery.

Dutchess Of Sutherland and american Slavery.
1t was in the Palace of the Duchess of Suth-
erland, otherwise Marchiouess .of Stafford, that
the high born danes and damses Of England re-
Gently met together to bewail the wrongs of the
African race in this country, and to enlighten
their transatlantic sisters, respecting the sin aud
shame of slavery. The. name of this noble
Duchess headed the late Appeal of the Women
of England to the Women of America, and to her
belongs the credit of having put on foot this no
table scheme of female fbustering--.. dur
femina facti." 1t is the fate of every mule poll
tician who assumes conspicuous position on
the stage of public affairs, to have his record
thoroughly ransacked, and if any of his antece.
dents can be quoted to his disadvantage, they are
to be keenly Investigated and mercilessly ex-
posed by his political adversares. The sex of the
great lady of Stafford House has afforded her no
exemption from this established rule of lnascu.
line warfare, as will be seen from the subioined
extract from the London correspondence of the
New York Tribune.
We invite the readers particular attention to
this narrative. The writer is an abolitionist-a
had therefore the strongest motives to excuse
and paate her conduct, bot the inconsistency
between her practices and professions was too
gross aud fragrant to allow him to do this. 1t
appears from his statement that this iustrious
and refined dame, this great female phianthro-
pst, whose sympathies are too large for the re-
stricted limits of one hemisphere, and whose
sensibilites are so deeply moved in behalf of the
we'll fed aud we'll clad slaves of America, actu~
ally robbed $4,000 peasants of their property
forcbly expelled them without distinction Of
age, sex or condition, from the soil which they
had held from time immemorial and concerted the
country into sheep-eoalks. This done some
twenty years ago, and her Sutherland Ladyship
has been deaf eyersince to all appeals and re-
monstrances in behalf of the suffering peasantry
of the highlands. She weeps piteous tears
over the imaginary sorrows of "Uncle Tom,'
but has none to shed for the victims of her
tyranny and seifshness. The singing satire
that was pronounced on Sterne might we'll be
applied to these maudn sentimentasts of the
British arstocracy, who grind their white slaves
to the dust at home and pour the wasted shower
of their sympathies on distant objects that need
it not
HE could unmoved a starving mother pass,
And peurhis sorrows Ger dying ass
After remarking that the history of the Suth-
erland family is the history of the ruin and
spoiaton of the Scotch Gaelic population, and
explaining at considerable length the nature of
the tenure by which the clans held the soil, the
correspondent of the Tribune goes on to say:
+lo +be
patton enacted the forcibe transformation of clan
property into the private property in the modern sense,
ode Chief The person who stood at the head Of this
had well digested her Mahus-the Countess Of Sutter
land alias 1ia7chioness Of Stafford.
Let first that the ancestors of the Marchioness
of Stafford the great men, of the most northern
part of Scotland, of very hreequarters of Suther
landshre. This county is more extensive than many
French Departments small German Principalities.-
When the Countess of Sutherland inherited these es
tates which she aerward brought to her husband the
Marquis of Stafford afterward Duke of Sutherland, the
population of them already reduced to $4,000 My
lady Countess resolved upon radical economical REFORM
and determined upon Transforming the whole tract of
country into sheepwalks. From 1914 to 1920, these
1900 inhabitants, about 5000 families systemat
caly expelled and extermnated. All their villages
were demolished and burned down, and all their fields
converted into pasturage British soldiers were
nanded for h execution, and came to blows with the
natives. An old woman refusing to quit her hut, was
burned in the flames of it. Thus my lady Countess ap
propriated to herself hundred and ninety.four
thousand of land which from time mmemoal had
belonged the clan. In the eXuberance OF her gener
osity she allotted the expelled natives about 5000
acres-2 per family. These 5000 acres had been
LAYING waste until them and brought the
propretors The Countess was generous enough to sell
the acre at average, to the canmen who for
centuries past had shed their blood for her family. The
whole of the nrghtfuly appropriated clanand she d.
vided into large sheep FARMS each of them inhabited
by one single family, mostly English farmlaborers and
in 1921 the $4,000 Gaes had already been superseded
by l3l 900 sheep. :,
portion of the aborigines had been thrown upon the
sea shore and attempted to live by fishing They be,
came amphibious. and an English author says, hved
half on land and half water and after all did not halt
Sismondi in his "Etudes Sociazes, observes with
gard to this appropriation of the Gaes from Sutherland
shire-an example, which bythe-bye was initiated by
the other great men OF Scotland;
The large extent of seignoria domains is not cir
cumstance peculiar to Britain. In the whole Empire of
Charlemagne, ia the whole accident entire provinces
were usurped by the warke chiefs. who had them cul
tivated their account by the vanqulshed, and
sometimes by their own companions IN arms during
the 9th and 10th centuries the counties of Maine Anou
Potion 3r the Counts OF these provinces rather
thres large estates than municipalities switzerland
which in 80 many respects resembles Scotland. at
that time divided among small number OF Seigneurs.-
If the Counts OF Kyburg, OF Lantzburg OF Hatsourg,
oil Gruyeres had been protected by British laws they
would have been in the position as the Earls OF
Sutherland; some of them would perhaps have had the
for improv the March oness OF Stat
ford and than republic mi ht have disappeared
from the Alps in order make for ocks OF sheep
Not the despotic monarch IN Germany would be al
lowed to attempt anything Of the sort"
Mr. Lock, ia his defence Of the Countess OF Suther-
land Il a2o replies to the above as follows
'Why should there be made an exception to the rule
adopted every other just for this particular easel
Why should the absolute authority OF the landlord
his land be sacrificed the public and to motives
which concern the public only2''
And Why then should the Shareholders in the South.
rn states Of North America sacrifice their priv ate inter
est to the phanhropc graees other Grace the Duchess
cf5utherandf
coded man by buIocks and sheep, viii, in future no
very distant be superceded in by these useful ami
mails So. - -,
The process of clearing which, in Scotland W
have inst now described carried out IN England IN tn
10Th nth and 18th centuries. Thomas Morus alread
onans Of it in the beginning Of the 18th century 1t wa
rerorued in Scotland in the beginning the 18th and
Ireland Is now in fall progress The noble Nlscouh
psIston too some years ago cleared OF men his prop