The morning call., 1890-11-23
The CIansmen's Love for Home, En-
vironment, Kindred and Chief-A
Disruption of the Clan System.
Tyranny Over the Craftsmen.
Benefits Under The Crofters' Act.
Reduction in Rent.


over half a century been the g Irish ques-
tion OF Scotland, and has mucb to do in
efeeting certain important land reforms in
the kingdom, the woes of poor Donald.
though as sad and hopeless as those oil the
Irish peasant, have agitated Scotland ex-
clusiyeLy rather than America largely, as in
the latter case. Their remotenesS have kept
them from our universal ken, and TO that
degree that, while people of Scotch descent
in the United States and Canada have been
keenly alive to measures for the crofters'
relief, there are many ordinarily wel-in-
formed Americans quite unable to tell you
the real difference between a croft and a
loft, or Il crufter ana claymore.
Jameson Ill his Scottish Dictionary" de-
fines crOft-land as, land of superior quality,
which was s.ill cropped" Chambers Ency-
clopedia, remarkable ike most encycop ediaS.
for deepening ignorance and intensifyIng
longing for exact information, says croft
is piece Of land connected with humble
kind of DWELLING. whose inhabitant, the
renter of the land, is called a 'cr0fter.'
Lord Colin Campo II asserts that the term
'.eroiter' was unknown In the seventeenth
century, although in old taeks and leases of
that period the word croft is of common
occurrence lie further states that in the
lack, or temporary holding given by Sir
John Campbell of Glenurchy to well be-
louit' servant in 1880, besides The four mark
Polgreyich and the croft that Ewin Melvin
was won't to have" In the twelfth century
English characters in Latin, the word IS
often used. In fact it is
AN ANGLO-SAXON WORD
Meaning simply "a field" At the end OF
the eighteenth century the tenants of the
Smallest Scotch divisions of land, il distinc-
ton from tenants holding from five to 300
acres and upward, were first cal ed croft
ers-that Is, dcremen or cr0f.ers. In those
days the cr0fters had the same relation to
Highland tenants of the important class,
who cultivated something like farms, as the
cotters OF the present day do to Irish and
English small farmers, and the still smaller
farmer or crofter of the Highlands; and the
) ottlSh crofter OF to-day IS simply that sur
Viying relic of the ancient Highlander who,
despite all efforts Of the owner of great
northern and western Highland estates 20
extirpaie him, absolutely starves along
where the bones Of his ancestors lie, on one
hundredth as much land as, on the average,
ls-deyoted TO the rearing and killing Of one
red deer.
The evolution of the woebegone crofter of
to-day from the olden matchlessy brave
Highland warrior Of the north and west is,
briefly, as follows: He was long ago an in
tegral portion Of the clan system. Clan is a
Gaelic word meaning Child" The clans-
man was in the highest sense the child of his
chief The clan system is the family sys-
TEN on larger scale. All clansmen were
brethren il Il common family and insttu-
tional preference for the purpose of recOg-
nized heads and authority could not abolish
equality in every other respect and particu-
lar. The absolute loyalty to the chief to
the limit OF freely giving life in defense OF
aggression was tribute of fealty TO family
ana tribal relations father than to the abso-
lutlSm OF individual authority. Each
chnSnan had absolute and undeniable
share i'll the territory occupied by the
entire elan. If he paid tribute to the head
OF the clan it could never have been in
tn form of rent to an individual owner,
tor temporary occupancy. 1t was practi-
cally seli-imposed and freely bestowed
taxation for public purposes, common Of
tense, or defense, common betterment, tie
common good. Under this system the
result was agricultural competency, pas
tOral simplicity and pleasure, and SurpaSS-
ing military yalor and virtues. The
clansmen wOve their own cloth, forged
their own tools and weapons, titled their
own soil, fed and grazed their own sheep and
cattle and possessed inaienable rights TO
their own homes ard the soil necessary
to sustain them. The clansman perfOrce
possessed habits OF hardihood; his healthy
Lie OF the m0untaineeT made him strong
and brave; the necessities of limitations
gave him shrewd craft in all eXgencies;
GGI6g everything with his own hands he be-
came perfected in expedients rather than
the dwarfed, one-sided man resultant from
lateI-day Infinite division of labor; and
thus, when his sad day OF expatriation came,
these Scottish Bighlanders gave
TO THE UNITED STATES,
TO Canada and to Australia the most
STandly self-Sustaiuing colontSts they ever
knew. Indeed. his isany splendid charac-
teristics proved his own ruin in Scotland.
No men living, barring erhaps his no
less unfortunate brethren, the Irish Cells.
ever displayed such c0nsummdte love Of
fIvlnt environment, kindred and chief. His
heus lOpbS Strath5 and pl1nS pr0y6e1 a
allconsuniing nature worship; his ancestry
and the traditions of his lineage became his
eXutantly sung eplcs; his chief and the
deedS OF his Clan were adOred, with aim Ost
the passion of dolatry. His devotion tU the
quarts, from CromwelPs time TO 9" Bonnie
/ since Charlie" was sublime in its desper-
ate loyalty, and furnished some of the most
thrilling pages iii history. But being too
lar from Edinburgh, London and Paris to
:. know the political tine of day. he always
fought for lost cause. Naturally little
mercy was shown him or his more dan
ger chiefs. You can toby still see
the tremendous walls Of Fort William. Fort
-. Augustus, Fort George and Kings House,
tile rans-Grampian furies established after
the first rebellion Of 17l5, to awe him into
submission, their English names breaking
:b'sspirit greater than the men and armament
they housed Then, after Culloden, when
all his hopes were blasted in the utter ruin
of the House OF Stuart, came the dlsarming
essential in bis eyes to manhood; and, iuI-
'mediately on the heels of this, followed that
most bemeaning OF all Highland humilia-
tons, the interdict against his beloved kilt
and tartan, which for years made him skuik
and hide in his mountain home, pitiful OBJ
ject Of contumey and disgrace.
The downfall Of the Stuarts caused COM
E!ete disruption of the clan system. Then
followed the abolition of heritable juris-
: qicLion.. The power of the chiefs, good or
hsel fran IN. lou
senti into the north from Glasgow or Edin-
.burgh. The Highanders began to loathe
their own country and the chiefs lost all in
'terest in the welfare of their people In
p6rtant emigration resulted, lessening
: products and revenues. Many great elan
territories changed hands. New landlords
or dispirted and BANKRUPT former chiefs be-
gan to look upon the Highland peasantry
simply as cDaltels to be bought and sold as
Eilt1e slaves. Then in the latter part of the
last aad the first part of the present century,
as The proprietors of estates, abandoning all
: mercy 10 people with inherent rights in the
soil from which they sprang. and taking
refuge under the absOlutsm vested In the
powers granted under the old Scottish feudal
laws, which, by successive entertainments,
lad transformed the original authority Of
suZerain into absolute private ownership,
came the barbarous ''clearances" or
-: FoRCIBLE EYICTIoNs
or Glen Dessary, Clanranald and Glengarry.
Following this, and continuing from 1897 to
1929, were perpetrated the atrocious Sutber-
land Clcarance5. The most of the entire
shire of Sutherland then belonged and stil
Belongs to the noble house Of Sutherland
and Stafford, related by intermarriage. The
tien, living representative Of these noble
families conceived the idea that sheep were
more profitable than Highlanders. hat was
before British sportsmen let the Highland
landlords know that deer AID grouse could
De Inaut hore pTohtable than either. But
in the period named practically the entire
Shire, one OF the largest in Scotland, and
comprising an area of nearly 200, coo acres.
was depopulsted The helpless niDunta in
: eels were driven from their own h mes.
and these leveled to the ground by
fire. Hundreds persisted .5om fright. ex
posure and brutal treatment. Those