Daily American organ. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1856, 1855-09-07
NUMBER 252.
shocking Brutality ON the Duke OF suth-
erIand's Estates.

] erIand's Estates.
The Northern Ensign Scotch paper) has the fol-
lowing
In small house in Tubeg Skerray, in the par.
ish OF Tongue, lived Highlander and his wife,
within less than quarter Of mile Of the house
| in which they were both born and brought up,
| and which their fathers still occupied as tenants
under the Duke of Sutherland Mr.. Robert Hors-
borough being factor Shortly before the occur
renee, which our contemporary relates, William
MKay's wife was confined of her fourth child, and
was still in bed, and unfit to be removed from H.
But on the 26th of June, neighbor informed
M'Kay that party Of law officers we're coming TO
turn himself and family out. The husband has
tened to the house TO inform his wife, and Of
course console her. In an instant the messenger.
alarms, with his party were at the door; their
speaking was heard by the poor woman and she
began to tremble; cold perspiration covered her
body all over; the officers came in and soon cleared
the house of every article Of furniture and, last
ly, the wife and her newly-born babe must be
| turned out too. The midwife demonstrated, but
in vain The law officers said they would be re.
| quired to execute their commission The poor
woman was, in spite of every remonstrance,
| doomed to be removed.
| These executioners Of justice had, they said,
their instructions but, may 1t not be said wanted
the tenderness which would suggest to them the
delicacy and danger of interfering with woman
in such state. They surrounded her in the cor
ner in which she lay, laid hold Of the sheet or GOV.
ering which was under her. carried her out of the
house, and placed her on the ground at distance,
and sped back to the work of demolition. Divots
and cabers were thrown in all directions The
hatchct cut down the couple-tree, and in d velv
short time, the roof of the hut disappeared and So
| did its destroyers
They had more work OF d kindred nature to per.
form that day. In an agony Of feeling, tho hus-
band ran on distance OF five miles to procure
medical aid, while the wife, with her newborn in
FAINT, lay upon little straw upon the ground ard
it not until night that by the Kindness OF her
poor neighbor, she and her child were deposited
in an empty barn. We cannot, except to some Of
our English poor-law cruelties, recall such eli
cumstance which has occasioned us deeper indir-
nation than the incidents of this painful narrative,
nor one which demands stricter investigation. In
the former, we have indeed had cruelty in its worst
possible form, as far as the acts themselves arc
concerned.
We can understand the workhouse official
snatched perhaps from starvation by the salary
he receives, and eager to recommend himself 10
his employers by an econonizing use Of his flnc-
tions, committing acts Of inhumanity at which one
feels horrifed But that such things can take
place under the eyes of the Duke of Sutherland
hills us with as much astonishment rs pain II il
not many months since the ladies' of England an.
pealed to their sisters in America on behalf OF the
poor blacks, imploring them to exert their inau.
ence to put an end to the deplorable and shocking
system of slavery; and the first name which the
signature to that appeal bore was the name of the
Duchess Of Sutherland. Will that woman look at
home aud think of poor William M'Kay's wife, car
ried in sheet out of her hut and laid trembling
on the ground, with her newborn infant Ia her
arms? Will she speak one eloquent word of re.
monstrance in favor of the poor whites who have
the misfortune, at this moment, to have their
holdings on her husbands estate?