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L I E) RA RY

OF THE

U N IVERSITY

or ILLI NOIS

/5

Crofts and Farms

IN THE

Hebrides

BEING AN

ACCOUNT OF THE MANAGEMENT OF AN ISLAND
ESTATE FOR 130 YEARS

BY

THE DUKE OF ARGYLL,

EDINBURGH

DAVID DOUGLAS, CASTLE STREET

1883

\^All ris^hts i'eserved'\

JjALI.ANTYNE, HANSON AND CO.
EUIN BURGH ANU LONDON

TO THE EIGHT HONOUEABLE

LORD NAPIER AND ETTRICK,

CHAIRMAN OF THE ROYAL COMMISSION
(HIGHLANDS AND ISLANDS).

My Lord, — I deem it my duty to communicate to
your Lordship, as chairman of the Eoyal Commission,
some authentic information in respect to my Estates of Statement relates
Tyree and the Eoss of Mull, which have been lately \^y''^ ""''^ ^^^^^
visited by your Lordship and your colleagues.

From documents connected with the management
of the estate, we have a tolerably complete account of
the population, value, and. condition of Tyree, from Tyree.
about the middle of the last century to the present
date. It may be of interest to the Commission to
know the leading facts.

Leases of all the principal farms on the Island for the Leases of principal
usual term of nineteen years, or occasionally of twenty- t'ween^TJ\-i762
two years, were granted at various dates between
1753 and 1762. These Leases of course expired, at
various corresponding dates between 1772 and 1784.
It is towards the end of these Leases, and not at the
commencement of them, that we first have really de-
tailed information. They were granted by Archibald,
third Duke of Argyll, who succeeded in 1 743, but whose
busy political life probably prevented him from paying
close attention to agricultural affairs. But towards the
close of these Leases the Argyll estates weie in the hands

{ 4 )

of my grandfather, Field-Marshal John, fifth Duke of
Argyll, who succeeded in 1770, was the first Pre-
sident of the Highland and Agricultural Society, and.
who spent the latter part of his life almost entirely in
agricultural pursuits, and especially in the improve-
ment of the breeds of cattle, which had always been,
and still are, one of the principal articles of Highland
Condition of Tyree produce. So early, however, as the years 1 767-68-69,
about 1770. -^ three separate papers, we have very full informa-

tion, evidently collected with great care, on the statis-
tics of the Island. The total population was then only
1676, of whom only 69 were employed in handicrafts
other than agricultural. It is remarkable that there
is only one column for " tenants and hinds," showing
that many families were on the dividing-line between
re2:ular ao;ricultural tenants and labourers, or cottars
with small plots of land. The total number of both
classes is only 236, and a separate class of cottagers is
numbered at only 104 on the whole island. The agri-
cultural tenants properly so called seem to have been
1 70. It is still more worthy of remark that in this
return, although there is a careful estimate of all
kinds of agricultural produce, there is no mention of
the potato ; — cattle, sheep, and horses, — rye, barley,
and oats are the only products noted.

The Leases to which I have referred as granted

between 1753 ^^^ 1762, tlie rental of 1767, and the

]^[any farms after- reports of 1 768-69, make two facts quite certain. The

were^theii letV ^^^^ ^^ ^^^^ many of the farms, which at a later period

single tenants. became most lamentably subdivided into very small

crofts, w^ere then let to single tenants, several of

W'hom were Highland gentlemen non-resident on the

Island. The second fact proved by these documents is

( 5 )

that even the farms which were then let to *' sundry-
tenants" were so let to a comparatively small number,
who had of course proportionately larger shares, and
these shares, if reckoned at the present value, would
represent small farms quite above the definition of System of crofts
crofts, as that definition has been adopted by the ^^^ ^^^* *^^^ ^''^^*^-
Commission. That is to say, these farms, or shares in
one farm, would now represent a rent above the ;^30
line. Thus, for example, the two farms of Gott and
Hianish, now representing a rental of ^163, are
specially mentioned in the report of 1769 as having
only four persons in possession. These two farms, if
now similarly divided, would therefore represent a
much more substantial class of farms than the crofts
now existing, although these have been much raised
and improved within the last thirty years, by the
operations which I shall subsequently explain to the
Commission. The same observation applies to almost
all the farms which were then let under lease, or from
year to year, to small tenants.

This shows the delusion which is commonly enter-
tained, that the system of very small crofts is an old
one. The truth is that in Tyree at least, and in many
other places, it is not nearly one century old. The same
conclusion is even more apparent when we see in this
rental of 1 767 that almost all the farms which at a long
subsequent date became overrun and cut up into miser-
.ably small possessions, were then not occupied by small
tenants at all, but by individual lessees, or " tacks-
men," as they were called in the Highlands. Among
the farms then held in this way I may specify Balle-
phuil, Balemartine, and Barrapol — all of them farms
which, thirty years ago, had become excessively over-

( 6 )

peopled and subdivided, and which even to this day
contain some of the smallest crofts upon the island.

The opinion of the reporters of 1 769 on the mini-
mum size of farm which it would be wise to assign to
one tenant or family is farther indicated by the re-
commendations they make that certain farms should
be more properly divided. Thus they recommend
that the three farms of Kenovar, Barrapol, and Balle-
menoch, which had then seventeen tenants, should not
in futnre be held by more than ten. It is curious
that these farms are now again held by the same
number of crofters which held them in 1769. But this
condition of things is the result of the gradual process
of re-consolidation which has been pursued during ths
last thirty years, the same farms having become at
one time so subdivided that there were no less than
twenty-nine tenants, instead of only ten as recom-
mended by the reporters of 1769.
Small tenants were The report of 1 769 is farther interesting as contain-
then destroying ^ conclusive evidence on the waste and misuse of

their possessions ^

by cropping the land which the small tenants were then making.

for pasture ^ ^" ^ Much of the soil of Tyree is almost pure shell sand,
which yields a rich and beautiful pasture, full of
clovers of several species ; but it is unfit for cropping,
and when broken up is very apt to become blowing
sand — not only sterile in itself, but liable to overrun
and render barren large areas of the surrounding land.
By this process two considerable farms have actually
been destroyed and lost — the whole area being now
as sterile as a snow-drift. The report of 1 769 shows
that the very poor and very ignorant tenants and sub-
tenants who were then in possession were cropping
this light sandy land to an injurious and dangerous

( 7 )

degree, and recommended the erection of strong divid-
ing dykes, with conditions prohibiting the practice.

Another signal example of the contrast between Two farms then

crofts or small farms as recommended by the skilled held by one tenant,

*^ and fit only for ten

and intelligent reporters of 1 769 and the miserable subdivisions, after-
possessions which subsequently arose from the impro- Y^^^^ !!^^"P^^^, ^^

^ ^ ^ . 7 . . . -"^ 69 crofters, and

vident habits of subdivision, is furnished by the ex- still by 30.

ample of the two farms of Balephuil and Balemartine.
These two farms are mentioned as having been " for-
merly " held by one tenant, who was at that time the
factor or chamberlain : and the reporters recommend
that if they are to be divided the total number of divi-
sions should not exceed ten. Yet on these two farms
the reckless process of subdivision went on subsequently
to such an extent that there were no less than
sixty-nine crofters — all of the poorest class. At thisi
moment there are still thirty, which is exactly three j
times the number which the reporters of 1765 could
recommend as enough to live comfortably and pro-
fitably on the land.

The next document of importance is dated seven Conditions of
years later — in 1 776 ; and it is very instructive. It is ^^^^^^ ^^ ^77^.
a draft of *' Articles, Conditions, and Eegulations to
be observed by the Tacksmen who have obtained
leases of Farms on the Island of Tyree." It appears
from this paper that in Tyree, as elsewhere in the
Hiofhlands, the small tenants were still holdino; and
cultivating in what was called "runrig," and is still
called in Ireland " rundale," that is to say, under a
system of management which is absolutely incompat-
ible with the very first germs of agricultural improve-
ment. The possession of each tenant was divided into
innumerable separate little plots of land — none of which

{ 8 )•

remained in liis possession for more than a year or a
couple of years, the various plots and patches being
re-divided each year by lot. It was of course the
interest and duty of proprietors to put an end to this
system, and by no other agency than proprietary power
and right could it have been abolished. Like all ancient
and barbarous customs it was clung to most tena-
ciously, although after a little experience of separate
possessions the tenants generally soon acknowledged
Runrig system of the superiority of the new system. Accordingly, it

nbl^ilhtd." *^''" ^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^'^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ foremost of the new

conditions that '* runrig " possession of " corn farms '*

(arable land) were to be entirely abolished, and

every tenant was to occupy (by himself or servants,

without subletting) a distinct separate possession,

Crofts not to be more or less extensive, according to his ability, not

"" in.'^ d "^"^ Z>e/oiy the extent of a four mail land,

extent. '\l\\i^ last condition is especially interesting, as

showing again, in a definite form, the opinion then

entertained by the proprietor and his advisers as to

the minimum size of farm which would constitute a

j Meaning of ''mail comfortable living for a tenant. A '' mail land" was

• a division which included four of the smaller divisions

called a " soum," and each " soum" represented the

grass of one cow, or of two two-year-old cattle, or of

five sheep, so that each tenant was to have at least a

farm capable of holding i6 cows, or 32 young cattle,

I or 80 sheep. This is, indeed, a very comfortable little

farm, and would generally be rented now at more

than ;^30. In other words, they would not be crofts

at all, but would belong to the class of small farms.

Selection of tenants Another important fact we learn from this paper is

made by public ^:^^^ ^1^^ Selection of persons to fill the new farms or

( 9 )

crofts was not made arbitrarily by any favouritism, roup, and no custo-
but was settled by public roup. No right of possession ^ssm"d aimed ^o^r

either by custom or otherwise was claimed or thought thought of by

^ ^ , , 1 • 1 T rri, tenants.

01 by any tenant or sub-tenant on the island. Ihey

had generally held by Lease for definite periods, or as
sub-tenants at will under the individual Tacksmen.
The new arrangement was made when the Leases
came to an end, and when the proprietor by virtue of
the expiry of these Leases came again into full posses-
sion of the land. The small tenants were taken Conditions of Lease
bound to build the houses and the march fences ^^jj^pj^g^^^^^g^'^^!^*
between each other at their own expense ; and as com-
munity of possession could not be abolished upon the
common pasture land, as it was now abolished on the
arable land, the tenants were taken bound to submit
to and observe any regulations laid down by the
factor for the " souming," or amount of stock to which
each tenant should be limited. The prohibition of
ploughing up the sandy land, or links, completed the
principal regulations which were laid down, and which
sufficiently indicate both the wretched husbandry of
the preceding times, and the real source from which all
improvement came in the times which were to follow.

Two years later, in 1778, a farther report, going in Eeport on Island
detail into each farm, emphasises the same principles"^ ^''^
of improvement, — remarks on the poor and scanty
kinds of grain which were raised in the Island, —
points out that the ignorance of the people was due
principally to their total isolation and want of com-
munication with the mainland, and recommends the
establishment of regular sailing packet-boats. Notes
upon this report, in the Duke's handwriting, make it
^evident that he had gone minutely into it ; and that,

(

)

Habits of the
fishermen then
ancl now.

Improving Leases
granted in- 1776
and later.

from this date to the end of the century, that is, dur-
ing the following two-and-twenty years, a great deal
had been done in dividing several farms into good-
sized separate possessions, and in clearing them of a
scattered surplus population, which was transplanted
where their labour would be available for a2"ricul-
ture and for fishing. The Duke had then also tried
to encourage the fisheries, by keeping men in his own
employment ; but this was a failure, as the men, being
independent of success, were idle and drunken. The
reporter, wishing to go out in a boat to try the fish-
ing, had found the Duke's fishermen so drunk that
they could not take him. I mention this circum-
stance, which occurred now more than a century ago,
because it enables me to record the fact of a signal
change for the better in the habits of the people. The
fishermen of Tyree are now as sober as they are in-
dustrious. Indeed, I question whether there is any
part of the Highlands where drunkenness is less
common — a result to which I hope and believe that
I have contributed something in never having granted
a site for any public-house to be established on the
Island.

In the Leases given by the Duke, from 1776 on-
wards, I find that the erection of houses, and of march
fences in the form of dikes, was made, an obligation
on the tenants themselves, and that this kind of im-
provement was therefore done under specific agree-
ment that it w^as to be held as done for valuable con-
sideration received in the Lease, and in the moderate
rent off*ered and accepted. These Leases are farther
remarkable for the proof they afford, if, indeed, any
proof were needed, that it was solely by the influence

( " )

and authority of the proprietor that various old bar-
barous habits of cultivation, or rather of waste, were
abolished and abandoned, such as burning of the sur-
face, and others, the very names of which are now
obsolete and forgotten.

This appears to be the proper place to notice the
rise of the trade in kelp, manufactured by the burning Kelp trade,
of drift and cut seaweed — a product which began to be
valuable about the middle of the last century. It is
not, however, till we come to the report of 1778 that
any specific mention is made of the kelp trade. But
in that report the quantity of kelp which could be
produced on the shores of several farms, on an average, Amount produced
is mentioned in the report on these farms. ^'^^ siderable"^^^^^'
amount, however, mentioned is very inconsiderable,
and it is evident that the returns from kelp had not
at that time become any large part of the value of the
Island. But towards the close of the century, an^ on But towards close
to 1810-12, the produce of the Island in kelp very «^ c^J^^"^^ ^"/ «'^

^ ^ -^ "^ to 181 2, produce

often exceeded the whole agricultural rental ; and the often exceeded

system which seems to have been adopted as regards agricultural rental.

the price paid to the tenants of the farms on the shores

of which the kelp was produced, is perhaps the most

important fact which helps to explain the subsequent

economic condition of the people. So large a share in

the price of the kelp seems to have been allowed to

the tenants, and to have been accepted from them to Tenants often paid

account of their rents, that very often they had 110 from produce^ of

rent at all to pay for their purely agricultural posses- kelp.

sions. In the years from 1 800 to 1 808, for example,

the island seems to have produced somewhere from

200 to 300 tons of kelp, which in the later part

of this period became worth from ;^io t0;^i2 per

( 12 )

ton. After deducting all expenses, tliis quantity,
yielded a sum nearly equal, or sometimes exceed-
infr, the whole amcultural rental; and in the estate
accounts the factor is found discharging himself of
that rental altogether by setting off against it the
return of kelp. I have letters and papers written by my
grandfather, in which he points out that under these
conditions the tenants had their land practically rent
free, and concludes from this circumstance, and from
his knowledge of the stock and crop raised in the

Rental below true Island, that the rental must have been, even then, far
below the real value of the land. The indisputable
facts upon which he founded this conclusion were
mainly these — that whereas the whole rental of the
Island was then about ^looo, there were not less
than 13,000 acres of fertile land out of which that
rental could be met, without taking into account at
all the very large sum made by the tenants out of
their share of the kelp. The Island was even then
known to produce 1000 bolls of barley. This, to-
gether with the kelp, would produce far more than
the whole rent. "I allow," said the Duke, in ex-
plaining his calculation, "all the oats, all the potatoes,
all the lint, all the sheep, all the milk, butter, cheese,
poultry, eggs, fish, &c., which in other countries are
sold to contribute rent — I allow all these to go for
the support of the tenants, because I wish them to
live plentifully and happily."

Result in increase It is quite needless to point out the natural and

recUeT sibdi^" inevitable consequence of such a condition of things.

vision of crofts. If it were possible by the artificial cheapening of com-
modities to establish among any people a higher
standard of living than that to which they were ac-

( '3 )

customed, this benevolence might have been successful.
But it is not possible. The establishment of higher
standards of living must come by exertion, and by
thrift, — not by gratuitous benefits which dispense
■with both. Accordingly this unnatural lowering
of rent, by allowing a wholly extraneous produce to
stand in lieu of it, — and all this consequent temporary
abundance had the reverse effect. It did not produce
wealth or comfort, but, on the contrary, only poverty
and indigence. It removed every check upon the law
under which population tends to press upon the limits
of subsistence. It supplied an insuperable temptation
and encouragement to an improvident multiplication
of the people, to wasteful habits, and to a systematic
breach of the conditions against the reckless subdi-
vision of farms or crofts. When it is remembered
further that the period I have now reviewed was con-
temporary with the introduction and spread of the
potato, and of inoculation, which put an end to the
old ravages of smallpox, w^e can readily understand the
results which followed.

Accordingly, we find that the population of the
Island, which so late as 1 769 had only amounted to
1676 persons, had in 1802 multiplied to a total of
2776. And the same rate of multiplication was then
going on, and w^as even rising. The parish registers
have been lost up to 1784. But from that year (in-
clusive) to the end of the century, we have a list; of the
yearly births and of the yearly marriages. The births
in the year 1800 were 116, and the marriages were
41. The last is a far higher rate of marriages to
population than now prevails in the most thrivino-
cities of the country.

( 14 )

Report Oil Island It is in a paper of a little later date— 1802 — tliat
in 1802 by Mr. Yiq^yq by far the most able and detailed account of

Maxwell of Aros. •/

the agriculture of Tyree, and the most vivid picture
of the condition to which by over-population and
subdivision the inhabitants were then reduced. This
Eeport was drawn up by Mr. Maxwell of Aros — a
gentleman whose name was widely known in the first
quarter of the present century as my grandfather's
chamberlain on his estates in Mull and Morvern. It
was in his house at Aros that the many distinguished
men in literature and in science who came to visit
StafFa and lona were hospitably received, and were
forwarded on the journey by which alone at that time
those Islands could be approached. His name is
linked with a distinguished man and a distinguished
family of our own time — for Mr. Maxwell became the
grandfather of the late Dr. Norman Macleod, through
a dauo-liter whose most . beautiful and venerable old
aoe of nearly one hundred years came to its close but
a very short time ago. Mr. Maxwell's Eeport to my
grandfather in 1802 is a model of what may be called
the scientific treatment of such a subject. He shows
Number of that there were then 319 tenants of crofts so small

crofters. ^I^.^^ ^^^^ under better management they were

inadequate to support a family, whilst under the
wretched husbandry which actually prevailed, they
were, of course, still more incapable of doing so.
Crofts inadequate Many of these crofts barely fed two cows, and an
to supporD family, extravagant number of horses reduced the grazing of
these cows almost to the starvation point. One con-
sequence was that the cows did not produce a calf
above once in two or three years, so that they afi'orded
little profit to the tenants '-'either in the way of milk

( IS )

or rearing." Bat this was not all. Preying upon the
tenants of these small possessions there was besides a
whole host of cottars who had no land of their own, Large number of
— but who, nevertheless, kept cattle and horses for^^^^^^^*
the collection and transport of sea-weed, and these
cattle and horses being wholly unrestrained by
adequate fences, impoverished still more the common
pasture, and must have trespassed continually even on
the crofts themselves. Very naturally, Mr. Maxwell
denounced this condition of thino;s as a ''shameful
abuse and oppression upon the tenants, hampered
as they themselves were for want of room." Every-
thing else was of a piece. The barley raised upon the
Island is described as "of the meanest quality:"
and it appears from many passages of the corres-
23ondence of this time, that it had been largely
used for illicit distillation. From a careful calcu-
lation of the maximum produce of the crofts, con-
sisting of '' one mail land," it is shown that,
allowing only about one-sixth part for rent, the
remaining five-sixths could not support the tenants
*' except in penury." Mr. Maxwell pointed out the
great difficulties in the way of remedying a state of Difficulty of

thino;s so desperate, — difficulties increased tenfold by ^^"^e^y^ng

. . "^ desperate state

the mental condition of the people. *^ It is proper," of affairs.
he says, "to remark to your Grace that the general
poverty of the tenants, in consequence of the practice
of breaking down their possessions into inconsiderable
shares — their stubborn attachment to old customs —
the idleness of their habits — and their total ignorance
of any better system of management, oppose very
arduous obstacles to the improvement of the Island."
Not that Mr. Maxwell had any doubt of its great

( i6 )

Suggestion of in- natural fertility, for lie suggests among other things
farmer^to Isknd.^ ^^^^^ ^^^^ regularly bred and practical farmer should
be introduced into the Island to show the people that
the soil on which they were only saved from starving
by the extraneous resources of the kelp trade was
** capable of producing returns of which they had no
conception." He pointed out, however, that even
this measure would be necessarily slow in its opera-
tion, since " the general poverty of their circumstances
conspired with the general idleness of their habits and
the backwardness of their knowledge," to render hope-
less the possibility of such examples being followed.
jSrece?sity of no Mr. Maxwell had no doubt of the necessity of at least

less than looo ^^^ remedy. He declared his opinion that not less
people emigrating. '' i i i t i - -,

than one thousand people should be assisted to emi-
grate to America or Canada. The people themselves
had come to wish it. My grandfather, though averse,
had also come to entertain the proposal. But just at
that time one of these panics had arisen about the
evils of emigration and depopulation which seem to be
of periodical recurrence. A committee of the High-
land and Agricultural Society, of which my grand-
father was president, had sat upon the subject. They
had treated emigration as a national calamity. They
had recommended every conceivable expedient — each
one more absurd than another — for preventing the
people from seeking a land of greater abundance.
They had advised the making of roads by Govern-
ment— the making' of canals by Government— the
establishment of Government bounties upon fishing
— bounties upon building villages — bounties upon
crofting — bounties upon building boats — bounties
upon anything and everything that could be thought

to

( 17 )

of as bribes and baits to induce the swarminor
multitudes not to swarm, and not to establish new
hives. Under the pressure of this panic, Parliament Parliament inter-
had been induced to interpose obstacles on emio-ration ^^^.^^ obstacles

^ ^ o emigration.

by artificial regulations and restraints. My grand-
father also was under pressure from difierent directions.
In order to constitute proper crofts it was absolutely
necessary to dispossess many families who had squatted
on minute subdivisions. He desired also to give land
to many fishermen. And last, perhaps not least, the
military instincts of the old Field-Marshal made him
desirous of accommodatinsj some discharejed soldiers of
the " Fencible Eegiments " which had been raised under
him. For all these three classes of men, therefore, he
desired to constitute crofts on the plan which he had
long contemplated — crofts, if possible, of not less than
**four mail lands."

It seems to have been to meet this condition of
things that my grandfather John, the fifth Duke,
agreed to divide some farms, hitherto let to, single Farms divided into
tenants; and in 1803 Balemartine was let to thirty- consequence of ^'^
eiorht crofters, whilst no less than fifty-six applicants increase in popu-

. \ , r ^ ' -^ .^ , lation.

are mentioned m one or his notes as anxious to be
provided for out of other farms in a similar manner.
These crofts, however, seem to have been of a tolerable
size, from eight to ten acres.

It does not appear that my grandfather had present Danger of the
to his mind the danger of the course he w^as pursuing.
He had indeed some misgivings. But nobody at that
time could foresee the scientific discoveries, and the
changes in tariffs, &c., which within a few years were to
put an end to the large profits derived by the tenantry,
as well as by proprietors, from the manufacture of kelp ;

course not fore-

( 18 )

nor did he, perhaps, sufficiently consider that even if
that manufacture had continued on the same scale,
the increase of population, if not somehow checked,
would soon overtake its supplies : and that unless his
successors enforced strictly the prohibitions against
subdivision, the inevitable result would be a vast
semi-pauper population.

These dates are, however, interesting and impor-
Erroneous impres- fr^^^^^ c^^ showing how unfounded are the impressions

sioii as to antiquity , , , , . . „

of small crofts. ^^w common among the people as to the antiquity ot

their occupation of the small crofts which many of
them still possess. In Tyree the great majority of
these crofts were not more than about forty years old
when the crash of the potato famine came in 1846.
And so far from the possessions held by the tenants
havintj^ lono; belonged to themselves or their *' ances-
tors," these possessions were either given to them by
the special favour of the proprietor at a very recent
period, or were still later acquired by irregular sub-
divisions ao^ainst the rules and reo;ulations of the
estate.

All these causes of impoverishment were doubtless
After 1806, and aggravated by the death of my grandfather in 1806,
Duke° subdivision ^^'^ ^^^^ successiou of George, the sixth Duke of

allowed to go on Argyll, during whose life of thirty-three years the
uncliccked

. restraining and regulating power of a landlord was

comparatively in abeyance. Nothing but this power,
steadily exercised, could have checked the ruinous ten-
dency towards subdivision, or supplied the knowledge
and the foresight which are invariably wanting to a
population living under such conditions.

The result was what might have been expected.
Mr. Maxwell of Aros lived to see that result in

( 19 )

melancholy operation. Nineteen years after his re-
port to my grandfather, he was again called upon to
report to his successor on the condition of Tyree. In
1822 he was obliged to report that, as a "natural con-
sequence " of the system adopted, " the families have
now multiplied to such an unmanageable degree that
the whole produce of the Island is hardly sufficient
for their maintenance, and the crowded population on
its surface exhibit in many instances cases of indivi-
dual wretchedness and misery that perhaps are nob
to be found in any part of Scotland." The farms
which had long been possessed by small tenants were
now found to contain 2869 souls, whilst the five
farms which had been broken up into small lots now
contained no less than 1080. The potato disease
was as yet unknown, but the ordinary vicissitudes of
the seasons are always at hand to punish glaring de-
partures from sound economic laws. 1821 wtis a
year of extraordinary drought, and on the light sandy
soils of Tyree the crops were almost a total failure.
The cattle were almost starved, and were so lean as
to be unsaleable. Kelp was again the only resource.
There was an extraordinary supply of it in 1821.
By this means and by wholesale remissions of rent, the
crisis was tided over ; but no permanent remedy was
applied, and so matters went on again in the old rut.
In the course of forty-three years from my grand- Population had

father's subdivision of the farms,— with little or no ""^^'^^ ^^^^'^ '"

' course 01 43 years

increase of agricultural production, and an immense de- at time of potato
ficit in a manufacturing resource, — the population had ^^ ^^^ in i 4 .
nearly doubled, so that when the crash of the potato
failure came in 1846 it exceeded 5000 souls, whilst
the small crofts had been so much farther subdivided'

( 20 )

as to number 380, of whom all but a mere fraction

were below ^10 rent, and the great majority (218)

were even below ^5. Of these last, again, .a very

large number were as low as 30s. and ^3. There

were, besides, a largo population of cottars who were

without any land, employed, in so fiir as they worked

at all, in fishing and very casual labour.

Great destitution When the potato famine came in 1846, the destitu-
of people in 1846. , . « ., , i i. •

tion 01 the people was as severe as under such circum-
stances it could not fail to be. Not only was there
great distress, but there was danger of actual starva-
tion. My father, John, seventh Duke of Argyll, was
then in possession of the estate ; but as he was in
feeble health, I was obliged to take a principal share in
Present Duke re- devising measures of relief, and as he died in the spring

sponsible for man- r-irn- o t -i ir

augment since ^* ^^^^ lollowing year, 1 847, 1 consider myself practi-

^^4<5. cally responsible for the management of the estate from

the date of the potato failure in 1846. A large sum
was spent in providing meal for the people, and another
large sum in assisting as many as were willing to
emigrate to Canada. I have not beside me at this
moment any note of the exact number who went to
Canada, but in the course of four years it exceeded a
thousand souls. The whole of this was a purely
voluntary emigration, for a great portion of which I
paid the whole cost myself, whilst assisting in the ex-
penses of the remainder. In 1851 the people were still
eager to go, and I print in an Appendix to this paper
the remarkable petition which they sent to me and
to the Government seekino; further aid towards emio;ra-
tion. I saw, however, that emigration was not the
only remedy which the condition of the Island re-
quired. Active steps were taken to give employment

( 21 )

to the people in draining, in the making of roads, and Measures taken to

.-, • 1. 1 • i_ A .1 aid emigration and

in various other agriculturai improvements. As the ^^ ^^^^ ^^y^^^ ^^^^

rents of the crofters could not be generally collected, employment to
these outlays had to be provided for out of other
resources ; in fact, I was myself compelled to borrow
a large sum ; and it is needless to point out that this
outlay could not have been provided for at all had
the Island belonged to a proprietor depending wholly
on its own rental, and still less had it been divided
into smaller estates.

Nor did this condition of affairs pass off immediately,
or even soon. During the four years from 1846 to
1 850 the sum spent on improvements in Tyree and the Expenditure of
Ross of Mull was ;^79i9, or, including incidental ex- provrme''nts,"iir"
jDenses, upwards of ^8000, of which the greater part addition to sums

1 . rx- • 1 • 1 mi • • spent to aid emi-

■ — about £62,73 — was in drainage alone. Ihis was in o-,ation &c.
addition to the sums spent in emigration and in the
distribution of meal, which could not be repaid either Sir John M'Neill's
in money or money's worth. In the report of Sir John '^^""'^ ^" ^^'"^^'^ ^^

J J i bupervision m

M'Neill to the Board of Supervision on the Condition 185 1.
of the Highlands and Islands in 185 1, he states, from
documents then before him, that during the previous
four years there had been expended on wages and
gratuities to the inhabitants a sum exceeding the
whole revenue derived from the property by ;^468o,
which amount, as well as the cost of management,
must have been derived from other sources. This is
quite true, and is, indeed, a good deal understated.
During those years no part of the income derivable
from the Island was spent out of it, and the outlays
it needed constituted a heavy drain on other re-
sources.

in the year 1851 the reduction of the population

( 22 )

Misconception of
people as to out-
lays on emigra-
tion.

In 1851 condition to 3706, and the return of some favourable seasons,
buro'IfttyT^^^^ brought about the beginning of a better condition of
provements con- things. But my outlays on improvements, for the
sake of employing the people, and for the sake of
increasing the produce of the Island, continued to be
heavy. In the seven years from the famine to 1851
these outlays exceeded ;zf [0, 160, of which the greater
part was in drainage.

I had by this time begun to find that the outlays on
emigration had produced one bad effect — namely this,
that the people conceived it to be a boon not to them-
selves, but only to the proprietor, and were disposed
to rely upon him entirely in regard to it. I therefore
ceased altogether to offer it to them, leaving it entirely
to their own suggestion, although I was always will-
ing to help when occasion required. Sir John M'Neill,
in his Report of 185 1, mentions that in that year
there were 900 persons then anxious to go to join
their friends in Canada, from Avhom good accounts
had been received. This number would very nearly
have reduced the population to the figure at which it
stands at present, that figure being, according to
the census of 1881, 2700. It may be roughly
assumed, therefore, that the 900 persons who were
anxious to go in 185 1 represent those who have
actually gone from one time to another during the
last thirty years.

I may now at once explain to the Commission the
principle on which I determined to proceed in the
improvement of the Island from the moment when
the first extreme pressure of the years of actual desti-
tution had passed away. I was satisfied that the
population was excessive, arising from the causes to

Principle of
management
adopted by pre-
sent Duke after
first years of
potato famine.

( 23 )

which I have referred, and from the ruinous habits
of subdivision which had been inseparable from the
improvidence which is at once the cause and conse-
quence of increasing poverty and of a low standard
of living. Sir John M'Neill points out that the whole
rental of the Island, if divided among its population
even at the reduced figure at which it stood in 1851,
would not have afforded crofts of a hio-her value than
;^4, which is much too small for the subsistence of a
family.

But although I was convinced of the necessity of a
further reduction in the numbers of the people, and
especially of a consolidation of the crofts so that they
should be of a comfortable size, I had an insuperable
objection to taking any sudden step in that direction
such as might be harsh towards the people. I thought
it my duty to remember that the improvidence of
their fathers had been at least seconded, or left un-
checked, by any active measures, or by the enforce-
ment of any rules by my own predecessors who had
been in possession of the estate. I regarded myself,
therefore, as representing those who had some share
in the responsibility, although that responsibility was
one of omission and not of commission.

On the other hand, it seemed to me that if, for
the future, rules against subdivision were steadily
enforced, and if every opportunity were as steadily
taken to m.ake good use of the vacancies in crofts
which might arise by death, by migration, and by
emigration, some progress would be made by a slow
but sure process towards a better condition of things.

Accordingly, I determined not only to avoid any- As a rule, no
thing like what has been called a " clearance," but, ^^^^ ^^"^

( 24 )

except for insol-
vency or noii-
paynieiit of rent.

Vacant crofts
added to others
adjacent.

Farms held by
individual tenants
kept undivided.

as a rule, not even to allow any individual evictions
or dispossession of the existing crofters, except for
tlie one cause of insolvency or non-paynient of rent.
During the thirty years which have elapseS beiwe^H
1853 and 1883, there has been only one solitary case
of the eviction of a crofter by Warrant of the Sheriff,
in the whole Island of Tyree ; and this was an eviction
made, not in the interest of the Proprietor, but in the
interest of the neighbouring tenants.*

Further, I determined that in all cases when a croft
became vacant by any of the causes just mentioned,
it should, if possible, not be reoccupied by itself, even
when a higher rent could be got by doing so, but
should be added to some adjacent croft, if any one of
the neighbours was capable of managing and stocking
the consolidated possessions.

On the other hand, I never contemplated, and
could never have approved of cutting up and divid-
ing amono; crofters the few farms on the island which
in 1846 were still held by individual tenants, and
all of which had been so held for a long period
of time. Most of them had never been possessed
by the class of crofters. None of the crofters had
capital or knowledge fitting them at that time for
the profitable occupation of farms of even a mode-
rate size. The farms held by single tenants were the
only farms wdiich afforded any immediate prospect of
a great increase of production — they were good cus-

* Certain statements to the contrary on this subject recently
made in the press are as false as those made in the same quarter in
respect to the occupation of Widows. It is possible, however, that
these statements may be due to the ignorance which confounds
between forcible evictions and the ordinary "Summonses of Kemoval," '
which are issued as a matter of course on all changes of tenancy.

( 25 )

tomers for tlie cattle of the crofters — and tliey were the
only field upon which the benefits of good farming could
be held up to the example and imitation of the poorer

people. Tyree is almost singular among the He- No waste lands

1 . T . , 1 . , 1 , , 1 i. 1 1 1 and no moors on

brides m tins — that there are no waste lands, properly jgi-^j^j

so called, upon it. There are no moors — no mosses to

be reclaimed. The old mosses have been Ions: ex-

hausted and cut away to the very bones of rock and

gravel.

I wish the Commission, therefore, distinctly to Large farms not

understand, that with one sino-le exception which I S'^^"^^/^^ expense

° ^ of crofters.

shall refer to presently, what may be called the large
farms in Tyree have not been gained at the expense
of the crofters. On the contrary, in Tyree the pro-
cess so much complained of elsewhere has been re-
versed. The crofters now possess farms which up to
a late date w^ere held by single *' Tacksmen; " whilst
in one case only have individual tenants, now oc(fiipy-
ing the larger farms, replaced the regular crofting
population as it stood in 1846. A few families who
belonged to what may be called the class of squatters,
and who had settled upon one or two of these farms,
occupying upon part of them very small bits of land,
were amono; the number of those who emio:rated, or
were subsequently moved. But with the one excep-
tion above-mentioned, the only other example of any
considerable removal of crofters is a case in which
both the cause and the consequences were entirely
different. It arose from insolvency and non-payment
of rent. And in this case the farm was not let to
a new tenant, but was divided between four of the
existing crofting tenants, in respect to whom there
was good hope that with larger and more comfortable

( 26 )

Case of consolifla- possessions they would be able to prosper. This hope

tion of crofts— ^^^^ ^^^^ -^^^^^ disappointed. The farm I refer to is the

farm of Maiinal. ^ ^

farm of Mannal — formerly subdivided into twenty-
three crofts, or rather fragments of crofts, rented at
from ^5 to 30s. each. This farm is now held by three
tenants who have risen from among the rest, of whom
two pay rents which place them above the crofting line
{£o^)y ^^'liilst the other (a widow) has a croft not
much below it (^24, 14s. 6d.).

Explanation as to The one exceptional case of a farm now held by a
farm of Hillipol . . ^^ ^^^j^. ^^ .^ ^g ^^^^^ j^^j^ . crofters, is

now held by oue o ^^ J '^

tenant. no less remarkable as an illustration of the varie-

ties of circumstance which must determine such
results. It is the farm of Hillipol, which had come
to be subdivided into twenty crofts so small that one
quarter of the whole number were under £2 value,
six others were under £'^ value, and none exceeded
;^5 value. In 1847, however, three of them had
become vacant and were in my own hands. This was
one of the farms on which I determined to expend a
large sum in drainage. It was good strong land, but
in miserable condition from wet and from the most
wretched cultivation. During four years nearly
;^iooo had been spent in draining and fencing. The
tenants had been generally in arrear even at the old
rents, and none of them could pay the interest on the
outlay, which the land under better management
could more than well afford. They naturally fell
further into arrear, and were obviously incapable of
managing and stocking the farm in its improved con-
dition. The result was unavoidable that during the
years of emigration and of insolvency affecting this
very poor class of crofts, the tenants of Hillipol were

( 27 )

amoDgst tlie number of those who disappeared. In
1853 the greater part of the larm was in my own
hands. It has since been let as one farm, and it is a
signal evidence of the immense increase of production
which arises on land well managed, and held by men
having sufficient capital, that the rental of this farm
has risen from ^62 in 1847 to £1"]^ in 1883, — this
increase, however, having arisen not without large and
renewed outlay on draining and fencing.

The case of Manual is, I think, a typical case of the The case of Mannal
process to which we can alone look for the improvement *^P^^^^ ?^ *^? ?^t^

^ ^ ^ process by which

and successful establishment of a class of small farmers, real improvement
Those who eked out a living between bad farming and ^^^^ ^ ^ ^^^^ *
bad fishing, — and occasional labour not much higher in
quality than the farming or the fishing, — will generally
thrive best by pursuing one or other of these occupa-
tions by itself, whilst those who are devoted to agri-
culture can only thrive upon possessions of a certain
minimum size. In Tyree generally this result could
only be attained upon the principles before explained
by a very slow and gradual process. But by that
process steadily pursued it has been attained at least
to a very considerable extent ; and I shall now give to
the Commission the figures which indicate that result.

In 1 846 there were no less than 2 1 8 crofts, or Present number
bits of crofts, below ^5 value. In 1880-81 there ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
were only 34 left of this very poor class. Between those of 1846.
;^5 and £\o value there were in the same year 102,
whereas there are now only 68. On the other hand,
the next class, between £\o and ;^20 value, has been
increased and recruited from 38 to 72, whilst the
still more comfortable class, between ;^20 and £^0,
has been raised in number from 5 to 26, and of these

( =8 )

110 inconsideraLlc proportion lias Leen lifted altogether
above the crofter limit of ^30, and the tenants are
now ranked among the farmers.
Explanation as to Although I am aware that the special subject of the

consolidation of ^ . . , . , t t i • - t • .^

])oor crofts with Commission over wliicli your Lordship presides is the
small farms now let crofter class, it is impossible to consider fully the

to i)eoi)le of crofter . , • t 1 , i /^ ^ /- \ •

class, and as to the position occupied by that class (below /30) m any

other details of i^articular locality such as Tyree without takino; into
management. ^ ^ j o ^

account the number of small farms above that line

Avhicli have been created out of the consolidation of
crofts, and are now held by precisely the same class
of men, but who have risen by the opportunities
^vhich I have thus afforded to them. In connection
with this most important part of the objects at which
I have aimed I may mention a particular case. A good
many years ago advantage was taken of various vacan-
cies to constitute one little farm above the croftino*
line on the old single farm of Cornaigbeg. In order to.
complete this possession, and to square off its little fields,
it became desirable to get rid of one small croft which,
stood in the way. It was held by a widow. I
desired my factor to offer to her another croft which
was vacant, which was quite as good, and was not a
hundred yards off. But he had to report to me that
nothing could induce the worthy old w^oman to move,
and asked whether I wished him to apply for a sum-
mons of removal. I replied that I was most unwilling
to take any forcible steps in the matter ; but I enclosed
a personal letter to the widow explaining the reasons
which made me wish that she should exchange crofts.
Cases of two crofter and assuring her that I did not wish her to be in any
ing ki^girpo^sit ^^^^^ injured by the change. This letter was at once
si^"s. successful, and the widow removed to the croft offered

( 29 )

her in exchange. A very few years later a mucli larger
farm than that from which she moved became vacant,
and it was advertised to be let. When the offers came in,
I was much surprised to find that my old friend the
widow, who had been so reluctant to move from a small
croft, was much the most eligible offerer for the vacant
farm, and she is now, I hope, comfortably installed in
a possession which is not only far above the crofting line,
but is relatively even a large farm. I do not know any
circumstance which has ever arisen in my management
of Tyree which gave me more pleasure. Last year I
called upon her in her new home, in which I hope she
may be as successful as I wish her to be.

Another case I may mention is one which has
occurred on the farm of Hianish. This farm, when
I succeeded to the estate, was subdivided into six-
teen very poor crofts, most of them below ^3 rent,
and only one as high as £6, But this last was held
by a crofter, Niel M'Kinnon, who had given an admir-
able education to a fine family of sons, most of whom
had entered the commercial marine, and one of whom
became highly distinguished as captain of one of the
fastest " Clipper " ships trading to China. The father
died leaving a widow who was justly proud of her
sons, and the late Duchess and I were almost as proud
of her satisfaction in them. In the course of years she
lost them all ; but I have had the great pleasure of en-
larging her croft steadily as vacancies occurred around
her, and of associating with her in the possession her
daughter and her son-in-law, who were alone left
to carry on the succession of a most meritorious
family. I am happy to say that my old friend Widow
M'Kinnon is still alive, and in possession of a little

( 30 )

farm of ^50 rental, where I often visit her, and where
I trust she and her descendants may continue to be
found for many and many a long day.
Case of Farm of Another excellent example is the case of the farm
Scamisb. ^^ Scarnish. In 1847 it had come to be subdivided

between fifteen tenants — most of them with posses-
sions of the very smallest class — ranging from 20s. to
£2) rent. But one of the tenants afforded a nucleus
for consolidation, as he already possessed four of the
subdivisions, and paid £6, i6s. of rent. But even
this small advantage, with a corresponding share of
intelligence and of industry, gave to this crofter a
start, of which he has known how to take advantage,
whilst it has been a pleasure and a satisfaction to me
to reward his exertions. As others fell back in the
race, he has pressed forward. It has been a regular
case — not of the substitution of a stranger but of the
promotion of a native. It has been an illustration of
the " survival of the fittest." I have lately had the
satisfaction of seeino; this fine old man — Allan Mac-
fadyen — hale and vigorous at the age of eighty-six —
the tenant of the largest part of the whole farm, and
sharing it with one other only of the original crofters,
who has risen like himself out of that class, and now
holds a little farm above the ;^30 line.
(Jtber cases of im- There are several other farms on the Island which

proved condition of i^^gl^^^ to the same class, ranging above £$0 and
tenants. o ? o o

below ;^200 a year, and these are all occupied by

natives of the Island, who once had much less com-
fortable possessions. With regard to the old farms
of still larger size, which had long been held by
individual tenants of the "Tacksmen" class, and had
never been subdivided, none of the crofters have had

( 31 )

capital enougli to start them, or knowledge to manage

tliem to the best advantage. Nor has this been Advantage to

otherwise than a great benefit. The iealousy of P^^P^^^^^^^^S"^"

^ ^ . proved manage-

" strangers " coming into such farms is perhaps the ment in agriculture,
most ignorant, if it be the most natural, of all the
Protean forms which the desire of " Protection to
Native Industry" assumes. Nothing tends more
directly to the stagnation of agriculture in such a
distant Island as Tyree than that its people should I

never see the example and results of a liiglier agri-
culture than that which has been represented by
their own old habits and traditions. The introduction
of new blood is the greatest of all stimulants in such
districts, and without it there would be no advance.

I can specify one signal illustration. The pasturage
of Tyree is particularly rich in clovers, and in grasses
of the most nutritious kind. Consequently it is
admirably and almost specially adapted to dairy-
farming. But dairy-farming was wholly unknown
in the Island until I took pains to introduce it.
The breeding of Highland, cattle and of sheep,
together with the growth of potatoes, barley, and
oats, constituted the whole agriculture of the
Island. But when the large farm of Balephetrisli
became vacant some twenty-two years ago, I instructed
my factor to look out for a tenant from the low coun-
try who should be a dairy-farmer. The disadvantages Introduction of
of residence in a remote Island, the character of ^^^^ arming,
which was little known in the low country, made
this a matter of some difficulty, and involved a very
considerable outlay in buildings adapted for the pur-
pose. But a tenant was found. The experiment has
answered perfectly. The pasturage of Tyree has

(

)

Progress amoiiGj
crofters since dis
tress ceased.

proved itself to be admirably and specially adapted to
the production of cheese of a high quality, and to the
healthy condition of a fine herd of first-class Ayr-
shire cows. 1 have had the pleasure lately of renewing
the Lease to the son of the tenant who beo-an the
enterprise, Mr. Barr of Balephetrish, and who, I have
every reason to believe, found it profitable. But this
kind of farming, for which the rich and abundant
pastures of Tyree are more suited than for any other,
is one which cannot be adopted by very small crofters.
1 am not without hopes that it may be prosecuted,
by crofters of the more substantial class, at some future
day, when the great care and great cleanliness which
are necessary for the production of really good cheese
and butter have been established among the people.

I am happy to say that 1 have seen great progress
among the crofters during the thirty years and up-
wards which have elapsed since actual distress ceased.
For a good many years it required stringent rules
and regulations to establish anything like a regular
rotation of cropping. Nor is this to be wondered at,
considering the very short time which had elapsed since
their fathers knew nothing better than the old bar-
barous " runrig " system. The cultivation of the crofts
still leaves much to be desired. The little corn-fields are
often yellow with weeds. But some turnips are now
cultivated, and there are crofts in which a marked
improvement has been made on the old traditionary
system. I have been lately offering some prizes for
the best cultivated crofts, and the judges have in-
formed me that the number of tenants who have done
well in this matter has made selection difficult.

These are only special cases, which illustrate the

( 33 )

system I have pursued, and the nature of a process

which has produced a marked and steady improve- Distinct improve-
1' ' n ^ ^^ t meiit resulting in

ment m the condition oi the smaller tenants, in condition of smaller
direct proportion as the most capable among them *^^''^"^S'
have been selected for the enlargement of their pos-
sessions, and as progress has been made towards the ,,
establishment of a variety of large crofts and of small 1 1
farms, the general level of the whole population has
been distinctly raised. Some special circumstances Special circum-
affecting Tyree make it more favourable than other ^o Tyree. ij
districts in the Hio;hlands for small farmers. In the
first place, although it is much exposed to gales of
wind, and there is comparatively little shelter, yet the
climate in other respects is far better than that of the
mainland. There is much less rain, the rainfall
scarcely exceeding the average of from 35 to 40
inches.* There is also a great deal more sunshine
than on the mainland. Snow hardly ever lies. ^The
pastures are naturally very rich. Moreover, the island
is admirably suited to poultry, and there is annually
a very large export of eggs, amounting, I have reason
to believe, to not less than 50,000 dozen. This ex-
port represents a revenue to the small tenants from this
source alone of at least ^i 500. The lighter soils pro-
duce good barley and excellent oats — crops which are

* I fully expect that " far on in summers wliicli I shall not see "
the Island of Tyree will be a great resort for health. Its strong
yet soft sea-air — its comparative dryness — its fragrant turf, full 01
wild thyme and white clover — its miles of pure white sandy bays,
equally pleasant for riding, driving, or walking, or for sea bathing —
and last, not least, its unrivalled expanses for the game of golf — all
combine to render it most attractive and wholesome in the summer
months. My own tastes would lead me to add as a special recom-
mendation its wealth of sky ringing with the song of skylarks,
which are extraordinarily abundant.

( 34 )

early ripe — and if the sowing were a little earlier
than the traditions of the people have made it, the
harvests, I believe, would more often avoid the severe
gales which not un frequently do considerable damage.
Then, potatoes have often escaped the disease in
Tyree during seasons when it was destructive on the
mainland, and a few years ago high prices were ob-
tained by the tenants for the seed potatoes which
they raised. Lastly, the quality of the cattle, which
is one of the staple products of the island, partakes of
the superior quality of the pasture on which they
feed, and I have endeavoured, by arrangements for
the occasional purchase of good bulls, to prevent the
decline in that quality, which is very apt to arise
among crofters who have not capital to buy in
good new stock with sufficient frequency.
General prosperity From all these causes combined, I rejoice to say,
that during the last thirty years I have had every
reason to be satisfied with the small tenants of Tyree.
Until quite lately there has been very little arrear,
and they have met their engagements honestly. They
have been a quiet, sober, industrious, and generally
a contented people. I have been accustomed to
regard them with some pride and satisfaction, as
decidedly superior to others of the same class in
most other portions of the West Highlands. Dur-
ing the last two seasons there have been some
disastrous gales, an unusually heavy rainfall, and
some renewal of the potato disease. But the
general prosperity of the tenants has been apparent
in everything, and in nothing more apparent than
in the comfort of their houses, which are pecu-
liar, and indeed unique in warmth and in solidity

( 35 )

amono- the cottao-es of the West Hio-hlands. It will
be observed that all the articles which Tyree pro-
duces, and on which the small tenants depend, are
articles in which there has been no depression of
prices, but on the contrary a great increase. Wheat
is not grown on the island, and wool is an article upon
which the crofting tenants do not largely depend in
Tyree. Barley, oats, and potatoes have maintained
fair average prices for many years, and there has been
an immense increase in the price of the class of cattle
on which the crofters principally depend. At no time
has the price been so high as during the last few seasons.
Tyree, therefore, cannot be said to have been exposed
to any one of the causes which have produced agri-
cultural depression in other parts of the kingdom.
The only special cause injuriously affecting the
crofters has been the occurrence of one or two wet
seasons, and the occurrence also of some great gales
of exceptional violence before the harvest had been
secured.

This general conclusion as to the exemption of Exemption from
Tyree from the causes which have elsewhere produced ^f^^^ "^^ ^^'^^^"
agricultural depression, is a conclusion established by
the most conclusive of all proofs, and that is the
steady rise in the letting value of land. And this
rise has been tested by the simplest and fairest of '
all tests — which is the price voluntarily and eagerly
offered for the hire of land by farmers of the capitalist
class biddino- for the larger farms which have been Consequent in-
open to competition. It is to be remembered that as ^^i^^^ ^f larger^
regards this class of tenant, the doctrine lately laid far^s.
down by Sir James Caird'"' is absolutely and liter-
* In a recent letter to the Times.

( 36 )

ally true, that the rent of land is not determined
by landlords but by tenants. As regards the small
crofters, this doctrine is modified to some extent by
the local attachment of a population, which may
sometimes be induced to bid above value by the
desire or determination to remain where they are
even at a sacrifice. But there is no such elem.ent in
the value set upon land by the capitalist class of
tenants, whose action is entirely determined by an
intelligent calculation of outlays and returns.

Taking this test, and applying it to seven of the larger
farms in Tyree, I find that on these farms the rental of
1847 ^^s been increased by about 220 per cent.
The figures are — rental of 1847, £700. Eental of
1883-84, £2260. I need not point out to your Lord-
ship (although it does seem necessary to point out to
many other people) what this more than tripling — in
some cases the quintupling — of rental means. It means
an enormous increase of production. As rent is seldom
more than one-third, and is oftener not more than one-
fifth of the total produce, the above figures mean that
the seven farms in question now turn out at least
;^678o woith of human food, instead of food to the
value of only ;^2ioo.
Great rise of rent This great rise of rent is not to be considered as an
quite exceptional, example of any ordinary increase in the value of
agricultural land. I have elsewhere said that the first
application of sheep to the mountains of the Highlands
was like the recovery of an immense area of country
from the sea. It is as stupid to object to it as it
would be stupid to object to the drainage of the
*' Bedford Level." The increase of value which has
arisen on some farms in Tyree, consequent on my

( 37 )

change of management, is an increase of a similar
kind. It did not indeed arise as elsewiiere on mountain
land, but on land arable and naturally fertile. But it
did arise out of a series of operations which have been
equivalent to absolute reclamation from utter waste.
It is an increase of value measured not only by the
height of a new knowledge, but by the depths of a
former io;norance. And this is the OTeat lesson to be
learned from corresponding increments of value which
have arisen all over the Highlands. The squalid
wretchedness of the older modes of living and of
husbandry, from the want of capital, and of know-
ledge, and of industry, is the great fact to which it
testifies. Such " leaps and bounds" in productive
value are not possible in any country where the culture
of each generation keeps abreast of the general line of
progress in its own day. They are only possible where
there have been utter stagnation and positive as* well
as relative decline. And this was the actual condition of
the Hio-hlands durino; the times I have traced, from
an extravagant rate of increase in population, coupled
with no increase at all in knowledge, or in capital, or
in industry. Hence, when all these conditions began
to be reversed, a contrast arose with the former
wretchedness which seems incredible. So it has been
with the productive power of land in Tyree, where —
but only where — the farms could be rendered ac-
cessible to modern methods. This is the explana-
tion of the increase of rent upon such farms.
It is quite exceptional. It is more like the in-
crease of value which arises on the discovery of
a new country. It may almost be said to represent
the first advent of civilization in the settlement

(
.iicreuse.

( 38 )

of a new land. The truth is that under the for-
mer system it can hardly be said that the land
was cultivated at all. It was simply wasted. The
new value is a value both discovered and created,
•auses of great It has arisen from the finding out of adaptabilities
unknown before, and from management which has
turned these adaptabilities to good account. By that
management I have been enabled to realise the pro-
phecy made by Mr. Maxwell of Aros eighty years ago,
that the Island of Tyree was capable of producing
returns of which the people then ^^ had no con-
ception." The realisation of this estimate has
been the combined result of several causes — some of
which may be specified : — first, there has been very
large outlay by the proprietor in draining, fencing,
and building ; secondly, there has been the intro-
duction of a new class of tenant brinoinor into the

o o

Island a new industry, that of dairy farming ; thirdly,
there has been the increased facilities of steam com-
munication with the Island — almost comparable with
the approach of a new line of railway on the mainland ;
fourthly^ there has been the great rise in the value of
sheep and cattle, and the newly-discovered adaptation
of the Island to the production of superior stock and of
early lambs; and last, not least, there has been the
substitution of men who prosecute farming as a business
for men who simply looked upon a farm as a dignified
means of living without the necessity of much skill or
the exercise of much activity. Perhaps there has seldom
been a case in which we have a more signal illustration
of the fundamental value of that old doctrine of the
law of Scotland which makes the "Delectus Personse" —
the choice of persons, or the right of choice in the

( 39 )

selection of tenants — the most essential of the duties
and of the rights of ownership. Without this right,
and that intelligent exercise of it which is guided by
the most natural and legitimate motives, I am satis-
fied that there would have been no increase in the
agricultural produce of Tyree comparable to that which
has actually arisen, and the Island would have remained
in a comparatively stagnant, if even it had not fallen
into a declining state.

I have brought these facts and considerations under
the notice of the Commission because they afford one
very good criterion of the justice of any complaints made
by the smaller tenants as to the rents they pay. I know
of no class of men who deal in the hire or purchase
of any article, who would not eagerly testify to any
Koyal Commission that they would like to get that
article cheaper. In respect to no article would such
evidence be more eager than in respect to the price
of cattle in which these small tenants deal, not as
purchasers, but as sellers. The larger farmers, who
deal in fat stock, have every cause to feel the
stress of the very high prices which they are now
compelled to pay to the producers of lean stock.
They say that these prices leave them no margin
for profit on feeding. The small tenants, however,
would hardly admit such an argument as calling for
any abatement of the price which the markets afford to
them. Yet their own complaints are not more reason-
able. Their possessions are really worth double or treble
of what they were worth thirty-five years ago. Many
of the causes which have led to the rise in the value of
land which has been so signally proved in the case of
the large farms, have been evenmore applicable to them.

( 40 )

In particular, the great rise in the value of cattle, and
very often of potatoes, they have had the full advan-
tage of. The increased facilities afforded by steam com-
munication have been of equal or even greater value
to them in proportion as they have told on the prices
of pigs, eggs, poultry, and fish. The breeding and sale
of horses have also been a great source of profit — very
little considered in the rent. Yet it will be found on
Kise of rental of comparing the present rental of farms which are still
small crofts com- divided into small crofts, with the rental of the same

2>aratively small.

farms as it stood thirty years ago, that the rise

of rental has been comparatively small — in some cases
quite trifling, and has borne no proportion whatever
to the rise in the real lettinor value of the land as
tested by the rent readily obtained for larger fiirms
in the open market, — that is to say, when esti-
mated according to the capabilities of the soil by men
with adequate capital who know how to turn these
capabilities to full account. The truth is that, if we
go back to a still earlier date, such as the years at the
beginning of the present century, there has been on
some of the farms divided into crofts not an increase
but a positive decrease of rent. This has no doubt
arisen from the fact that at that time there was some
mingling of kelp-rental with agricultural rental, and
that when the kelp failed there was some readjustment
of rents which were not purely agricultural. The
only considerable rise in crofter-rental since 1847 has
been on the laro;er consolidated crofts, and on the small
farms erected out of them. It is needless to say that
consolidated crofts are always worth a great deal more
than the mere sum of their rents when separate.
They can be more economically worked, and there is

( 41 )

a mucli larger proportionate surplus over the cost
of working. This alone accounts for all the rise
of rent which has accrued on the more comfortable
possessions, whilst on many of the smaller crofts the
increase of rent has been almost nominal as compared
with the real increase of value.

Another test of rental may be taken from the careful Test of rental
survey and valuation made in 177 1, at which time the
Island was calculated to hold 2488 " soums" of cattle.
This represents the same number of cows, and double
the number of young cattle. Now, as the average
rental of a good Highland cow with its *' followers"
upon such pastures is at present about ;^3, it follows
that the stock fed by the Island of Tyree, without
allowing anything for the improved pastures gained by
drainage, and the improved facilities of management
gained by fences, would represent a rental of ^7464
— which is a great deal more than the whole rental
of the Island as it stands at the present moment.
Moreover, it is to be observed that this calculation
excludes all the other produce of the Island — the
sheep, horses, and pigs, the barley, oats, potatoes, and
eggs, which it produces in abundance. Farther still,
it is to be noted that Ayrshire cows have been largely
substituted for Highland cattle, and that one A3^rshire
cow is worth about double the rental which is taken
above as that for a Hio-hland cow. I have reason to
believe that there are in the Island not less than 247
Ayrshire cows, 2155 Highland cattle, 6500 sheep, 651
pigs, and 588 horses. It is curious that this amount
of stock, calculated at rates somewhat below the
market value, and allowing nothing at all for either
horses or pigs, represents a rental almost exactly the

{ 4-^ )

same as the rental calculated ou the old " Souming,"
namely, about ^^7400.

Perhaps I cannot use a better illustration of the
scale of rents in Tyree, than by taking an individual
case. It happens to be one of those many widows of
whom the agitators have asserted that they are as a
rule evicted on my estate. The figures have been
supplied to me, not from my own agents, but from a
less suspected source. It is the case of a croft rented
at a little more than £2^, It is now reported to me
as holding 7 milk cows, 2 heifers, 8 " stirks," and 40
sheep. This amount of stock at the usual rates would
represent a rental of about ^31 ; and would unques-
tionably fetch that rent, and more, if let at the market
value.
Result that crofts Taking all these data together, it seems quite clear
vidue^ ^ "^ ^ ^^^^ ^^^^ crofters' lands in Tyree are held generally at
rents far below the full value, and such as readily to
account for the comparatively comfortable and thriving
aspect of the Island and of the people, as contrasted
with most other parts of the Highlands which are
occupied by a similar class.
Cottars. Passing now from the crofting and farming popula-

tion, I wish to bring to the notice of the Commission
that in Tyree there is a very large population of mere
cottars, some of whom live by fishing, others by labour
obtained in the Island, and others again by going to
service for some part of the year to the low country.
This population may be said, in the language of geo-
logy, to be the detritus of the old subdivided crofters
and sub-tenants. I believe there are no less than
about 300 families who live on the Island without
paying any rent either to the proprietor or to the

( 43 )

tenants. Some of them are brave, hardy, and success- Some of these are
ful fishermen, who in some seasons earn a very fair ^^^^^^^"•
living, and furnish a very considerable export of salt
fish. The annual average export of salt fish does
not fall short, I believe, of loo tons — a quantity
which, however considerable (representing not less
than ^2000), might be, and I hope will be, much in-
creased. Among the natives of the Hebrides who were
helped to come up to see the late Fishery Exhibition
in London, there were no finer-looking men than some
fishermen from Tyree, and I felt no small pride and
pleasure in their appearance when they called upon
me in London. The harvests of the sea are more Fishings,
precarious than the harvests of the land. But the
season of 1882 was one of the best on record; and
the price of good salted ling rose to the high figure
of £^0 per ton. The fishermen of Tyree labour under Want of safe har-
a great disadvantage in the want of any really safe*and ^^^'
commodious harbour. The only natural harbour is
not only a tidal one, but the entrance is very narrow.
On the west side of the Island, which is nearest
some of the best fishinoj-banks, there is nothinoj in
the nature of a harbour except some rocky bays, the
entrance to which involves considerable risk in dark
and stormy weather. Yet for many years fishermen
from the East of Scotland have come regularly to
Tyree, and have carried off" valuable cargoes of the
finest salt ling. A good many years ago I bought
and fitted out one of the large powerful boats which
are used by these East Country fishermen, and some
good work was done in her by the natives of Tyree
to whom she was lent. Of late, too, I have again
offered to two of my tenants who are enterprising

( 44 )

fishermen ti loan to enable them to provide a new

boat of the same class ; and I hope this may soon be

Construction of eflfected. I regret to add that the advice of the most

safe har our i - gj^-jj^^j^^ cnmneers does not encourao;e me to believe

cult, if not iinpos- o ^

Bible. that on the open and stormy shores of Tyree — exposed

everywhere to a tremendous surf — it would be possible
to construct an)' really safe harbour at any moderate,
or indeed almost at any cost.
Cottars are remains I have said that the cottar population of Tyree is
cro^lfn^p^oS ^^^ detritus of the old subdivided crofting population ;
and principally of but I ought to have added that it is also in great
and kd^p4)^uridng^ measure the remains of the old kelp-burning or kelp-
population, gathering population, which had once been so lucra-
tively employed. And in connection with this subject,
I have to relate to the Commission some circumstances
Facts as to rise of which exhibit in a very striking light the fact —
class. ° too often forgotten — that the wages of the labouring
classes generally depend on influences to which they
themselves contribute nothing. There are, perhaps,
no sources of income so entirely due to the general
progress of society, or very often to the brains and
inventiveness of other men, as the opportunities of
labour. The circumstances to which I refer are these.
The kelp trade had entirely ceased long before the
potato failure of 1846. A few tons were occasionally
bought at a trifling price by some manufacturer in
Glasgow, but as any important resource to the popu-
lation in the earning of wages it had entirely failed.
Origin of the Sea- It Avas under these circumstances that, tw^enty-one
xveed Company. ^^^^^^ ^^^^ ^ ^^p^, ^£ ^1^^ ,. Pharmaceutical Journal of

London " came under my notice, which contained an
interesting paper on the products of seaweed. In
this paper it was shown, as it seemed to me to de-

( 45 )

monstration, that there were very valuable elements
in seaweed, which were entirely dissipated and lost
by the old native mode of manufacturing kelp. That
mode was the burning of the seaweed in open kilns
along the sea-shores ; and the author of the paper
showed that this burning was most wasteful, and that,
in particular, almost all the iodine — at that time
a most valuable product — was evaporated in the
fire. I was so interested in this paper, both in a
scientific and in a practical point of view, that I put
myself in communication with the author, Mr. C. C.
Stanford. I laid before liim all the doubts which
occurred to me whether the result of experiments on
a small scale in the laboratory would be borne out
when like chemical operations were required on a
large scale, and in respect to so bulky a material as
raw seaweed. On his replying to the effect that he
was satisfied of the . soundness of his calculatioas, I
informed him that I could give him an ample field to
work on, the shores of an Island AA'hich had once sup-
plied annually from 200 to 300 tons of the old kelp; —
that if his calculations were even an approach to the
actual results, the profits would be large to him, and
would afibrd once again an important industry to the
people. He answered that he was unable to supply
the considerable amount of capital which would be
requisite, and on this ground alone declined my pro-
posal. A few days later, however, he informed me
that he had reconsidered the matter, and thought he
could get together a small company which should
undertake the experiment. This was the origin of
the Seaweed Company, which has since for twenty
years efi'ected an important revival of the trade in

( 46 )

seaweed and its products. Continued changes in the
market price of some of these products, arising out
of new mineral sources of supply, have since greatly
deransfed the orio^inal calculations of Mr. Stanford.
The rent he originally agreed to pay has never been
fully realised, and has now been reduced to an incon-
siderable sum. But his processes have not ceased to
Employment given fumish employment to a large number of persons,

by the Company ij^cludiuiv women and children, who could not other-
in the Island. *^ '

wise have had any employment at all. I have been

informed that in the season 1880-1881 the people of
Tyree made no less than 376 tons of kelp, and gathered
no less than 417 tons of ** dry tangle," which, at the
lowest calculation, must have dispensed among the
poorest classes not less than between ;^2ooo and
;^3000. Whatever may have been the amount of
wages expended by this Company among the work-
ing classes in Tyree, — and that amount must in the
aggregate have been very large during the last twenty
years, — the whole of it has been brought to them from
causes to which they contributed nothing. It has
been due, in the first place, to Mr. Stanford's scientific
knowledge and skill. It has been due, in the second
place, to the proprietors notice and appreciation
of the prospects which Mr. Stanford's experiments
afforded ; and it has been due in the third place to
the proprietary right under which alone Mr. Stanford
could obtain, for his capital and for his riskful enter-
prise, the requisite security of a Lease. I am glad to
be informed by Mr. Stanford that though the value of
iodine and of potash has been so greatly reduced as
now to afi'ord little profit, there is a prospect that

( 47 )

chemical science may discover some products entirely-
new which may become valuable.

I regret to observe that some of the people employed Truck system of
complain of the Company resorting to the Truck *^^ ^''"'P^"^'
system, and paying wages in kind. I disapprove
much of that system, but I know the extreme
difficulty of abolishing it, especially in remote districts,
where there are no local banks, and where very often
it is for the convenience of both parties that money's
worth should pass as money. I am informed, more-
over, that the payments to the people are often made
long in advance of the delivery of the produce, and
partakes largely of the nature of a payment to credit.
In this case there not only is no competition, but there
can be none with the Company, because there are no
other traders in kelp, and no other chemists who de-
vote themselves to the methods of treatment devised
by Mr. Stanford. But it would be much better that
the nominal rate of wages should be reduced and
regularly paid in money.

Before leaving the subject of the cottar or labour- Island unsuited for
ing population of Tyree, I must point out to the Com- "^eo ""k Texcefs of
mission that in one important matter the Island is number profitably
specially unfitted for the comfortable maintenance of ^^^ ^^^ *
any excess over the number which can be regularly
and profitably employed. I refer to the total ex-
haustion of the old peat mosses which once existed on
the Island, and which all over the Highlands generally
afi'ord abundant fuel. This resource is wholly want-
ing in Tyree. There are no peats, and the want of fuel
compels all the people to buy coal, or to resort to such
expedients as the burning of the stalks of weeds, and
even to the destruction of manure by the burning of

( 4S )

dried cow-dung. In some respects this is perhaps
hardly to be regretted. The time spent in the High-
lands in cutting, drying, stacking, and finally carry-
ing peats, is so great, and the uncertainty of the pro-
duce arising from wet seasons is also so great, that
peats are often in reality the dearest of all possible
fuels, except to people whose time cannot be more
profitably employed ; and it may therefore be ulti-
mately an advantage that the people should feel the
true cost of living on the Island, as compared with
the resources which it affords in the employment of
labour.
Management of the Having now explained the general principles on
^u^ebe^^aein ^]^i(>}^ J J^^ave proceeded in the management of
Tyree, I may farther inform the Commission that I
have acted on precisely the same principles in
respect to that part of Mull, including lona, on
which my property had any crofter tenants. I may
add, however, that as regards the Eoss of Mull espe-
cially, the change for the better has been even more
marked than in Tyree. But this difference is due to
the fact that in the Eoss of Mull I started from a still
worse condition. The soil and the climate are both
inferior to those of Tyree. They are much less adapted
to small crofts. Consequently the pauperising results
of subdivision were far more conspicuous. In 1846
and the few following years, the aspect of the popu-
lation, and of the numerous wretched hovels erected
by squatting cottars along the roadsides, was most
painful. It resembled nothing so much as the de-
scriptions given of the poorest parts of the West of
Ireland. The condition of most of the crofters was
almost indigent. No less than 102 of them had sub-

( 49 )

divisions rented below jC^, and of these a very large
number were under £3 and £2. By the same steady
system of consolidation in favour of the most indus-
trious crofters as that followed in Tyree, all this has
been completely changed. There are still many
crofts which I should like to see consolidated and en-
larged. But I have been most unwilling to hasten
the process by dispossessing any crofter who could
pay his way at all. Progress has consequently been
slow. There are, however, now only twenty crofts
under £^ value, whilst there are nineteen between
£$ and ;^io. Between ;^io and ;^2o there are
twenty-seven crofts, whilst the number of crofts and
small farms of the more comfortable class between ;^20
and ;^5o has been raised from three to eight. Sums
even much larger than those spent on Tyree were spent
by me for many years in agricultural improvements on
the Eoss of Mull, all of which afforded employment to
the people — to such of them at least as were dis-
posed to work. The combined ejffect of all these Visible improve-
,. IT .i**ii' J. ment in aspect of

operations has been a great and visible improvement ^^^^i^ ^s well as '

in the whole aspect of the people as well as of the country,
country. There is no better test than the test of
pauperism, or the relation of the poors rate to
the wealth of the community on which it is
assessed. The poor's rate, which at one time was the Test of this im-
heaviest in the Highlands — about 7s. in the pound — decrea^rof^po^or^
has been reduced to proportions less oppressive to the rate,
industry of the ratepayers. It is now only 2S. Well-
drained fields, substantially enclosed by some of the
finest " Galloway dikes " in Scotland, have replaced
spongy mosses and neglected pastures. Wire-fencing
on an extensive scale has been erected, and substantial

( 50 )

steadings have been built ; so that I question whether
in any part of the Highlands agricultural improve-
ment has made more rapid progress.
Expenditure by the To suni up this part of the subject, I may here

Duke on improve- - r i.\ ri - • j.\ j. j-j.

ments in Mull and i^^^i'i^ ^"^ Commission that my expenditure on im-
Tyree since 1846, provements, during the period under review, upon
the two estates of Tyree and Mull, including lona,
has been no less than ;^53,6io.

And here I may again point out to the Commission
Explanation as to that the increased rental which has been obtained on
ygj^|.^j ^ my estate in Mull during the last thirty-five years has

been obtained in the same way, and has been due to
the same causes as those which I have indicated in the
case of Tyree. As regards all the larger farms, the
rents have been determined by the market value
offered by tenants who made their own estimate of
value, and have had sufficient knowledge and capital to
work it out. As regards the crofter class, competition
alone has not generally determined rent, but it has
been determined by a sort of tarifi* founded on the
value of cattle, and applied to the stock of each croft.
Whenever there has been any change of rent, my in-
structions were to take the stock as rendered by the
tenants themselves, to apply to that stock the current
rates, and then to deduct at least 10 per cent, from
the rent which would be applicable to the larger
farms. As the price of store or lean cattle has been
steadily rising for many years, and has never been
higher than of late, I have every reason to know that
the tariff rates applied to that stock are moderate.
For example, the rate charged for each milk cow
(with *' followers" or calves) has been ^3, for each
two-year-old beast £1, los., and for each " stirk," or

( 51 )

one-year-old beast, los. For these same classes of
cattle, the prices realised b}^ the tenants last year
have varied from ^lo to ^14 for the higher class,
from /^8 to ;^I3 for the second, and from ^3, los.
to ^7, I OS. for the third.

It is not very easy to compare with perfect fairness
the rise of rent upon crofts and the rise of rent upon
farms. If a farm held thirty-five years ago by one
tenant, and now also held by one tenant, has realised
a large increase of rent, we know that this increase is
due wholly to better management. But in the case
of a farm divided into crofts, a similar rise in rent
would not necessarily mean the same thing. If it
were coincident with a large reduction in the number
of families living on the land, and a consequent con-
solidation of the holdings, the rise in rent may be
largely due to this circumstance alone. The same
amount of produce, or a comparatively small increase
of it, will afford a larger surplus over the labour spent
upon it, and over the subsistence of the cultivators.
A rent which would be excessive on a farm with a
dozen families living upon it may be far below the
value when these families have been reduced to three
or four — even if there were little or no improvement
in the management. But the consolidation of miser-
able holdings always does coincide with some degree
of better management, and with some increased pro-
duction. By itself, therefore, the consolidation of such
crofts is an element in value which is not represented
at all in the case of farms which have always been
held by single tenants. Consequently, when we com-
pare the rise of rent during any given period upon the
two classes of farms, we should allow for this differ-

( 52 )

ence. A given rise of rent without consolidation is
equal to a great deal more than the same rise where
consolidation is included. The tenant of the single farm
pays his increase, whatever it may be, upon the same
article. But the tenant of consolidated crofts pays
his increase upon a very different, and a much better,
article. And yet, in spite of this great difference, it
is very remarkable that the class of tenants who, during
the last thirty-five years, have got a better article, pay
generally a smaller rate of increase than the class of
tenants who have got the same article. In other
words, the rate of increase in rent upon consolidated
crofts during the last thirty-five years has been less —
in many cases immensely less — than the rate of increase
in rent upon the larger farms. There could not be
a better example of this than a comparison between
the increase of rent which has arisen upon the Island
of lona and upon a single farm opposite to it upon the
shores of the Koss of Mull. There has been consider-
able consolidation upon lona, and the tenants on it
have had, besides, all the advantages which thirty-five
years have brought in the higher prices of produce and
in the readier access to markets. Yet the increase of
rent on lona during more than a whole generation has
been only 48 per cent., whereas on the single farm of
Fidden, on the Ross of Mull, which may be said to be
adjacent, the increase of rent has been no less than
158 per cent. Allowing for some special and acci-
dental circumstances in this case, the general result is
unquestionably true, that even with the inherent
advantages of consolidation, added to all other causes
,of increased value which affect equally both classes of
possession, the rise on the crofter rental has been

{ 53 )

generally very far below the rise on the rental of the
more substantial farms. There has been great outlay
of late in lona upon fencing, which is the most im-
portant of all improvements on land chiefly pastoral.
The value of land in lona has been lately tested in
the most satisfactory of all methods — that of the
market. A small farm rented at £72 was given up
by the tenant, and was open to any other tenant
choosing to offer for it. No difiiculty was found in
re -letting the farm at the same rent to one of the
smaller crofters, who is now in possession of it — one
of those cases of promotion which always give me the
greatest satisfaction.

I now come to the grievances which have been com- Remarks on evi-
plained of before the Commission in Tyree. And if I CommfssTone^stn'
approach this part of the subject with some pain, that Tyree.
pain is much lessened by the strong internal evidence
by which I recognise the exotic character of those Exotic character of
complaints. For the most part they do not belong to complaints made,
the circumstances of Tyree at all, and are the mere echo
of complaints which have been stereotyped elsewhere.
One curious illustration of this struck me at once. In
Ireland there has been no more fertile source of quar-
rellins: and discontent than what is there called the
right of " Turbary.*' Nowhere in the Highlands, so far
as I know, has the privilege of cutting peats been
similarly disputed. But the anonymous " factors " Complaint of de-
who have suggested complaints for the crofters, seem {^^g ^f cutting
to have included this in their list. In no other way peats.
can I account for the fact that one of the crofters
of Balemartine, in Tyree, complained before the
Commission that he had been prevented from cut-
ting peats. Now it so happens, as I have already

( 54 )

No peats in Tyree. explained, that there are no peats in Tyree — the
mosses have long been exhausted, and if there is any
soil of a peaty nature, it has long been reclaimed, and
must now belong to the arable or to the meadow-
land. If the crofter who made this complaint really
meant that he should be allowed to cut up for burning
any of the turf on arable, or on meadow, or on pasture
land, — whether on his own or on his neighbours* crofts,
— he must be unreasonable indeed. The true explana-
tion I take to be that this poor man had learnt his
lesson imperfectly, and in repeating what he had
heard or read of the right sort of thing to say, he had
stumbled on this most inappropriate " grievance."

The complaint, however, may have had another
ori£:in, and if it had, we have an excellent illustra-
tion of the desire to revert to old habits, however
barbarous, which inspires many of these complaints.
Some thirty years ago it used to be the custom of the
people of Tyree to spend many weeks of the year in
cutting, stacking, and drying peats in the Ross of
Mull — these peats being then boated across to Tyree
at another season. This custom has been abandoned
for many years, and for many reasons. In the first
place, it involved an enormous expenditure of time
and labour. In the second place, it damaged greatly
the common pasture of the crofters, who then, as now,
occupied the farm on the Ross of Mull on which the
mosses lay. In the third place, there was great
danorer, and not seldom a serious loss of life, in takinor
boats heavily laden with peats across twenty miles of
an open and stormy sea. For all these reasons, and
for others, this wasteful habit has been long abandoned
by general consent, whilst the improved agriculture

( 55 )

and industry of the people have led them to under-
stand that coal is really cheaper. Yet I think it very
probable that the delegate who made the complaint
had it in his head to revert to this old ruinous
and abandoned mode of procuring fuel. In this,
as in all other matters, the instinct and desire is
to go back from every step of advance in civilisation
and economy which has been taken for the last fifty
years.

But another case is even more remarkable. The Complaint of
delegate who appeared on behalf of three farms, or crofters,
townships, called respectively Caolis, Solum, and
Ruaig, is reported to have dwelt on the still more
stereotyped grievance of *' eviction" — of crofters sacri-
ficed to " large sheep-farmers," and, of course, also, of
excessive rents. Now, it so happens that these three "^^^ ^^\^^ i^^vm^

^ ^ , referred to still

farms are at this moment as exclusively and wholly exclusively

occupied by crofters as they have ever been — thafr not ^^^J^P^®^ ^y
^ •' •' crofters.

one single acre has ever been taken from them to
aggrandise any ]arge farm — that not one single evic-
tion unless for insolvency has ever taken place upon
them, and that upon the most assured data of valua-
tion their rents are very far below the rate at which
other parts of the Island, not superior in quality,
have been let, and have been eagerly taken.

This case of a regular formula of grievances " got
up" outside the Island, and put into the hands and
mouths of a simple-minded people, is really so curious
that I must lay it, in some detail, before the Com-
mission.

The three farms of Caolis, Salum, and Euaig
occupy the whole north and north-eastern end of the
Island of Tyree. They are entirely surrounded by the

{ 56 )

The adjoining
farms also still
occupied by
crofters.

sea on three sides, and along their landward bounda-
ries they touch two other farms — Kirkapol and Vaull, —
which are wholly occupied by crofters like themselves.
E-uaig was one of the farms which, having a shore much
exposed to southerly and south-easterly gales, furnished
in former days a very large supply of the finest drift or
deep-sea seaweed, which made the best kelp. As this
kelp was largely credited to the tenants who collected
and burnt it, the rent was increased so as to include
some portion of the value, and the rental of the farm
in 1808 was as high as ;^320. But this rental had
long been reduced to less than one-half, and in 1847
it stood at ^150. Up to the end of the last century
it was not held by crofters at all, but by a single
tenant of the ''tacksman" class. It has some excel-
lent strong land, a still larger portion of light sandy soil,
some very fine meadow pasture, a good deal of natural
shelter among rocky knolls, and a very favourable
exposure. In 1808 it had been divided between 16
tenants. In 1847 there were still 15, and at present
the number of tenants is reduced to 1 2. This reduc-
tion has been effected upon the plan already detailed
— by taking advantage of vacancies as they arose, and
consolidating the possessions. One of these crofts is
close upon the border-line of /^30, and the others
range from /^S to /^ig. I should have selected
them as representing a very comfortable class of the
Tyree crofters. I was among them last year. I saw
some crofts cultivated with neatness and cleanliness
decidedly above the average, and not one word of
complaint of any kind was addressed to me. If these
crofters now complain that their crofts are too small,
they have only to select from among themselves those

( 57 )

who should make way for the remaining number, and
I shall be most happy to consolidate farther the pos-
sessions, which I admit are still smaller than I should
like them to be. But if they desire to annex any of
the crofts belonging to their neighbours on the two
adjacent farms of KirkapoU, and Yaull, I must con-
sult the wishes of those who are to be dispossessed.

The same observations apply to the smaller farm of
Salum. The number of crofters has been reduced by
the same process from six to four, and of the four who
now occupy the farm, one has a croft worth £24. rent,
another has a croft worth ;^ 1 9, a third has one of ^i 5,
whilst only one has a croft of the ^8 class. The third
farm, that of Caolis, had twelve crofters in 1847, and
has still as many as ten. But of these divisions, one
is a little farm of ;^46 rent, and another is a croft
just at the upper limit of the class, namely ;^30 : the
other eight vary from ;^i6 to £g. Caolis is in many
respects one of the best farms in Tyree. In the report
of 1778 I find it described as ''a very fine farm
already enclosed ; the arable of the best quality, and
the grass fine pasturing."

The general result as regards these three farms is
this: In 1847 ^^^ aggregate rental of them all was Comparison of
jf.^S^y whilst at the present moment the same rental ^^"^''^^ ^^ ^^^^®

. , . . , . ^ ^ farms in 1847

1S;^4I5, showing an increase in thirty-five years of and now.
only 17 per cent., whilst similar lands let to
larger tenants have advanced, as I have shown,
during the same period, by about 220 per cent.
The lowness of the rent may be estimated in
another way. I find from the detailed report and
survey of the farms in 1777, that these three farms

( 58 )■

have no less than 764 arable acres, besides 256 acres
of meadow, whilst the **souming" of cattle amounts
to no less than 804. It is obvious that after making
every allowance for some land of a light and sandy-
character, this great extent of arable acreage and of
meadow pasture — upwards of 1000 acres — capable of
sustaining so large an amount of stock, must be very
moderately rented at ^415. This rental is beyond
doubt very much below the rental which these lands
would realise if they were let in farms — still small
— but of a more substantial size ; and it exhibits in
a strong light the truth and justice of the complaint
made against my factors that they had " used every
means to exact more rent from them."
Erroneous state- Another indication of the exotic and stereotyped

nients as to half of gQ^^,^,gg ^f ^j^jg complaint from the three farms I speak
Island being sheep ^ ^

farms. of is to be noted in the phrases used about the larger

farms. " The half of the island was under sheep tacks,"
&c., &c., &c. Now it so happens that the only large
farm within several miles of these crofters is not a sheep
farm at all, but the farm on which I have taken so much
pains, and laid out so much money, to constitute a first-
class dairy farm. I refer to the farm of Balephetrish.
But "sheep farms" are the current bugbear of the
agitating agents, and the poor tenants have simply
repeated the stock phrases without the smallest refer-
ence to the local facts. These phrases are all the
more absurd in the present case, since I have good
reason to believe that the very men who use them are
themselves sheep-farmers on no inconsiderable scale —
that is to say, they profit largely by subletting their
land to the larger farmers for the ** wintering" of sheep,

( 59 )

a source of profit out of which alone they can meet a
good percentage of their whole rent. I am informed
that they are able to demand, and do actually re-
ceive, for the grazing of a few months in winter, a
rent per head of sheep quite as high as that which
the proprietor would receive for the whole year."^^' It
is obvious, therefore, that the talk about sheep farms
as a grievance is talk quite irrelevant to the circum-
stances of Tyree. There is indeed one large farm on
the Island, the famous " Keef of Tyree," which is
chiefly — though by no means exclusively — pastured
by sheep. It is a great plain containing about looo
acres, which has been once covered by the sea, and
is still very slightly raised above its level. It is
absolutely imfit for tillage, being almost pure sand.
Nature fits it for the pasture of sheep and cattle,
and for nothing else. It is true, also, that on
almost all the rich pastures of Tyree held by the
larger farmers, sheep are more or less extensively
pastured, — ^just as they are pastured on arable farms
in the Lowlands, and in England, — and are fed and
bred for the production of early lambs. But cattle,
rather than sheep, are the main produce of the
Island ; and as there are no mountains, and only
three low elevations on the Island worthy of even

* It is indeed a curious illustration of the utter ignorance which
inspires the present outcry against sheep-farming, that, as one of the
ramifications of this branch of rural economy, it is now a most
important aid to the arable farming of the low country. I was
very much surprised to find, quite lately, from one of my own
tenants in an arable farm, that he was able to get as much as 93.
per head for the "wintering" of sheep on his fields. This is
between two and three times the rent which the proprietor of
mountain grazings can get for the same sheep during the whole
year.

( 60 )

the name of hills, it is obvious that there is no room
for the class of sheep farm to which this phraseology-
is usually understood as applying. But if the crofters
of these three farms refer to the thriving dairy farm of
Balephetrish, which is the only large farm within many
miles of them, I can only say that they refer to a farm
which has never at any time been in the hands of
the crofter class, and which they have no more claim
to possess than to possess, any farm in Lanarkshire
or the Lothians.
Complaints sug- I lay, however, very little blame to the tenants into
ge^ e 0 e < n . ^^.j^^gg moutlis thcse irrelevant complaints have been
put. When men of that class are exposed to hearing
and reading every day one continually repeated and
reiterated set of stories, and when belief in these
stories is instilled into them by an active propaganda,
it is very difficult for them to resist the influence.
The result reminds me of what are called in mesme-
rism " the Phenomena of Suggestion." This result I
have myself seen. By very simple means the mind can
be thrown into such a state of passive credulity that
it will receive and accept everything and anything
that it is told, provided only that the tale is repeated
with sufficient frequency and with sufficient emphasis.
The very senses, though apparently awake, are made
to minister to the delusion, and the unfortunate " sub-
ject" speaks and acts in a world absolutely different
from that by which he is actually surrounded. I have
seen a man so influenced, in a room in Princes Street,
Edinburgh, made to believe that he was at market,
and that a piano in the room was a horse for sale.
Groundlessness of Possibly Something of this nature may account for the
complaints. dream of the tenants on the three farms in the north end

( 61 )

of Tyree, that they are suffering from "evictions," when

not one has ever taken place ; that their pasture has

been taken from them, when not a single acre has ever

been subtracted from the possessions ; that they are

surrounded by "sheep runs," when they are really

surrounded by crofters like themselves ; and that the

very existence on the Island of a successful dairy farm

is the cause of all evil and of all poverty in the Island.

I have already indicated my opinion on the complaint

against '* strangers'' being allowed to hold any land.

But the absurdity of this complaint, in the present

instance, may be estimated by the fact that out of

some 220 tenants on the Island there are only two who

are Lowlanders. All the other tenants, including

those who hold the larger farms, are, without excep- "('

tion, Highlanders speaking Gaelic, whilst the vast

majority of possessions, including all the enlarged or

consolidated crofts, are held, moreover, not only by

Highlanders, but by natives of the Island.

I observe that certain of the crofters complained of Allegations by
some paper or document which they allege they were FlctoTreq^uirino-
required to sign by a former factor some thirty years them to sign docu-
aojo. Of tbis document I know as little as the ^1" ^^^ ^ ^'^'^^^
witnesses themselves. I can hardly say more,
because not one of the witnesses could say that he
had read it, or knew accurately its contents. But the
vague assertions of its nature made by these witnesses H

are evidently erroneous, because they convey the
impression that the tenants were to engage to obey
the factor in anything he might desire. This is
absurd and impossible. But I think it is quite
possible that this trumped-up story is simply an im-
perfect and exaggerated recollection of an engage-

< 62 )

ment in respect to cropping, and other conditions
of aorricultural mana^-ement, which at one time was
most properly imposed upon the tenants, and was in
the hio-hest degree needed by their condition and
habits. In all modern leases there are certain stipula-
tions binding the tenant to observe the rules of ''good
husbandry," and very often these rules are specified
with great minuteness. Their one and only object is
to prevent waste and the deterioration of the soil. A t
a time when small tenants were only just rising out
of the wretched ''run-rig" system, and when the
very elements of good husbandry in the rotation of
crops were unknown to them, it was an absolute
necessity that the tenants should be bound to culti-
vate according to the rules laid down for them by
those who managed the estate. -Neither thirty years
ao-o, nor at the present moment, can some rules in
regard to cropping be dispensed with, — especially in
Tyree, where, in addition to all the usual evils of bad
management, there is the special and additional
danger arising from "sand-blowing." I have very
little doubt that the paper referred to by the crofters
and of which they have given so apocryphal an
account, was a paper of conditions relative to this
subject — if, indeed, it ever existed at all.
Groundlessness of I am almost ashamed to notice one of the com-
complaint about ^i^[^^^ brought before the Commission in Tyree, it is

drying seaweed ou ^ ° • • i • n

crofts. so unreasonable ; but I do notice it chieliy on account

of a remark which it elicited from one of your Lord-
ship's colleagues. I refer to the complaint of a
crofter that the Seaweed Company used his croft
for the purpose of drying seaweed upon it. The
' slightest cross-examination on the subject of this

( 63 )

complaint would have elicited facts proving its
absurdity. But instead of any such cross-examina-
tion, one of the Koyal Commissioners, Professor
Mackinnon, is reported to have put the following
question to the manager of the Seaweed Company : —
" That is to say, the Duke takes two rents for the
same piece of land — one from you and one from the
crofters ? '' This implied censure, put in the form of
a question, is an excellent example of the sort of
claptrap that is now prevalent on all questions
connected with the management of land. Upon no
other subject — in respect to no other kind of business
— would any ear be open to such departures from
reason and from common sense. If it were possible
for an owner of land to devise a dozen different uses
for any part of it, he could only be serving better the
public interest in so doing. He could only be meet-
ing the wants of a larger portion of the whole Gom-
munity. Yet Professor Mackinnon seems to think
that it must necessarily be an unjust or an injurious
thing for a proprietor of land to let it for two oi
three separate uses to two or three separate persons,
each of them paying separately for the particular
use which is of value to him. A moment's considera-
tion, or the most elementary knowledge, would have
enabled him to recognise the fact that this is a trans-
action of the commonest kind and of the most perfect
equity. It is as just, for example, as that a Professor
should charge two separate fees for two separate courses
of instruction. If Professor Mackinnon were to give
two distinct courses of lectures, one on the Celtic lan-
guage, and another on the Sanscrit language, and if he
were to charo;e, as he would have the best right to do.

( 64 )

two separate fees for these, then two separate rents
would be raised from the one piece of brain belonging
tb Professor Mackinnon. In like manner, it is very
common, and quite as just, that proprietors get one
rent for the minerals underneath the surface of a piece
of land, and another rent for that surface itself. Nor
is this all : it is quite common also that the surface,
should be let for two or more distinct purposes, each
kind of use bearing its own value. Tenants also very
often get two or more sub-rents for the same piece of
land. It may bring one rent for hay at one season of
the year, and another rent for the " wintering of sheep"
at another season of the year ; and so on through in-
numerable varieties of circumstances of which Professor
Mackinnon seems to be almost as ignorant as I am of
Celtic etymology. But in reality, the particular case of
*' double rent " which troubled the Professor in Tyree is
no case at all. The Seaweed Company does not itself
dry the seaweed. It contracts with the poorer crofters
and cottars of the Island, according to ancient usage,
for collection and drying of the seaweed, and those
who take the contract spread out the seaweed, not
on the arable land or enclosed fields of the crofters,
but on the extensive " links " of common pasture which .
girdle the shore almost all round the Island. With ,
this usage, which is as old as the trade in kelp — about
1 50 years — individual crofters who may not happen
to have any interest in kelp have no more right to
interfere, than with any other condition of custom, —
or of use and wont, — under which they have always
held their lands. No separate rent is paid to me
in respect of this usage ; and besides, it is well
known that the spreading of seaware upon pasture,

1

( 65 )

instead of being any injury, is of decided manurial
value. Instead of being patted on the back, and
encouraged by erroneous comments, the witnesses
who made this complaint, ought to have been cros^-
examined upon it, and when the truth was ascertained
it would have been apparent that they deserved rebuke
for their selfishness and injustice. For it is quite
obvious that if they could prevent this temporary use
of the sandy links of Tyree, the real injury would fall
mainly upon their poorest neighbours — upon the
cottars and upon the smallest crofters of the Island,
who are generally the contractors for the collection,
drying, and burning of the weed. The Seaweed
Company is bound by its lease to compensate for
any agricultural damage it may occasion, and if
the tenants neither get nor ask for any compensa-
tion it is for the very good reason that they could
not prove any damage at all. But if this com-
plaint were listened to, very great damage indeed
would arise to the most needy of their neighbours.
A better example could hardly be given of the manu-
facture of grievances, and of the use to which the
manufacture is put.

I am very sorry that, before passing from tlie sittings Questions put hy
of the Royal Commission on my estate, I should find y|jtosh tTir^"
myself under the necessity of referring to a matter Wyllie, the Duke'd
which, though primarily affecting individuals only, is ^ "^"^ ^* ^^"*
nevertheless a matter of real public interest. I deem
it to be my duty to complain of certain questions
which were addressed to my chamberlain, Mr. Wyllie,
by one of your Lordship's colleagues, Mr. Fraser
Mackintosh. " Is it, or is it not, the chief duty of a
chamberlain to raise rents 1 " is one of those questions.

( 66 )

as given in the reports. The intelligence of this ques-
tion is on a level with its courtesy. Factors are very
often the suggesters and almost always the surveyors of
agricultural improvements. In this respect I know of no
one class, equally limited in number, which has contri-
buted so largely to the wealth of the community.
But except in this way, the rise in value of all the
larger farms on my property — as elsewhere in Scot-
land generally — has been due to causes as indepen-
dent of factors as it could have been independent of
Doctors or of Attorneys. Even as regards the crofts,
their rents have been determined on a tariff whose
ultimate basis is the price of cattle and of other
produce, as well as the offers of the people them-
selves for vacant possessions. There is no temper of
mind so illiberal as that which dictates such sneers
against a whole profession. Mr. Fraser Mackintosh's
insinuation against Mr. Wyllie is as unfounded as it
was offensive. I can say with absolute truth that in
his advice to me, as well in the matter of the valuation
of land as in all others respecting the management of
my estate, I have always found that spirit of justice
and moderation which are so conspicuously absent in
the treatment he himself received.

But Mr. Wyllie was not the only object of in-
-v-idious insinuation. For I have further to observe
that this same member of the Eoyal Commission, not
content with making unjust accusations against a
gentleman who is alive, thought proper to suggest
accusations still more ijross aorainst another oentle-
man who cannot now answ^er for himself. In ques-
tioning another witness, — a crofter who could not
possibly know anything of the matter, — Mr. Fraser

, ( 67 )

Mackintosh made suggestions in. respect to my late
factor, Mr. Campbell of Ardfinaig, which admit of no
other interpretation than this — that he may have
produced to me false vouchers for an expenditure on
improvements which was never really laid out/"* I
will not stop to refute such an accusation by explain-
ing my own habits of business, or my own personal
inspection during many years of the improvements
which were made. I understand that the Commission
landed from a steamer at the village of Bunessan, and
re-embarked without having time to see anything
whatever of the estate. And, indeed, even if the pre-
sent condition of the country had been examined no
judgment could have been arrived at on the subject of
improvements without a recollection of its previous con-
dition thirty-five years ago, and a comparison between
the two. It is impossible, therefore, that any member
of the Commission could be possessed of any of the
data on which alone an expression of incredulity
could be justified as to the facts of my outlay, stated
by Sir John M'Neill in his Eeport of 1 851, or as to
the integrity of the gentleman under whom that out-
lay, and still greater subsequent outlays, were ex-
pended. I need not farther indicate what every just
mind must think and feel of the moral character at-
taching to such insinuations — when it is not even
pretended that they are based on a particle of evi-
dence. It is true that there is no law of libel open

* The question I refer to is thus reported : " May not this large
sum of money that has been mentioned have gone out of the Duke'«
pocket, and yet never been expended on the estate 1 Is it quite
possible that documents, stamped papers, things of that sort, may
have been presented to the Duke, showing that the money had been
all spent on the property 1 "

( 68 )

to the dead, — nor even, I am afraid, to their kindred
who are alive. Possibly also the position of a Koyal
Commissioner might be privileged. But, if so, the
privilege carries an obligation which is all the more
binding. I wonder whether it ever occurred to
Mr. Fraser Mackintosh to ask himself whether Mr.
Campbell has no relatives who may be wounded,
but who may have no redress. Mr. Fraser Mackin-
tosh seemed eager to take under his protection the
widows on my estate whom it had been falsely re-
ported that I have been in the habit of dispossess-
ing. Did it ever occur to him to ask whether Mr.
Campbell had left a widow, to whom bis imputa-
tions of fraud against her husband Avould have been
a bitter trial ? Such a widow there was, — one of the
best women I have ever known, — a woman of the
highest Christian character — under whose roof I have
spent many happy hours when examining improve-
ments on the estate, and through whom the late
Duchess was long accustomed to dispense her charities
for the poor of the Ross — feeling and knowing that
they would be distributed with sympathy and with
personal knowledge. Within the last few weeks I
have heard her name — and her husband's name too —
mentioned with grateful remembrance among the
really poor on the Ross of Mull. She is now dead ;
but she died only a few short months ago ; and much
as I felt the death of an old friend so closely asso-
ciated with former days, I am now thankful that she
was removed in time to escape the great pain which
would undoubtedly have been inflicted upon her by
the shameful insinuations against her husband which
were conveyed in the words of Mr. Fraser Mackintosh.

( 69 )

I hope no one will think that I look upon your
Lordship as needing any words of mine to impress
upon you the true character of such questions as that
to which I have referred, and as others to which you
have, only too often, been compelled to listen. The
dignified courtesy with which your Lordship has
treated all who came before you makes any such inter-
pretation impossible. But reckless charges — and
sometimes the dissemination of disproved accusations
against both the dead and the livins; — have been so
much a regular part of the recent agitation, that I
hold it a public duty to auimadverfc upon any con-
spicuous exhibition of the same tendency/" In the
case of the questions to which I have referred, even
your Lordship's great patience was broken down ; and
I rejoiced to observe the severe censure which was
implied in your interruption of your colleague, and in
your public announcement to him that you '* cannot
allow questions of that character."

Looking back at the principle on which I have con- Soundness of priu-
ducted the manao-ement of my estates in the Islands JJPj^ f^ whicli

^^ *^ ^ , Duke s estates nave

during the last thirty-five years, I am satisfied of its been managed.

soundness. I am glad to see that one of the wit-

nesseSjt himself a crofter, testified to the greater

comfort of those who hold consolidated possessions.

I am not less glad to see that another witness J

testified to the favourable accounts received of those

* An excellent pamphlet lately published by Mr. Sellar refuting
certain calumnies against his father in respect to the Sutherland
removals exposes, as they deserve to be exposed, the authors of
some recent books which have revived against the dead accusations
refuted at the time before a judge and jury.

t Lachlan M'Phail, Kilraoluaig (rent payable jointly with
another ^£49).

t Dr. Buchanan.

( 70 )

who have emigrated to Canada. It is something in
this inquiry to have even the most palpable truths
admitted and not denied. Chancres which benefit
both those who go and those who remain cannot be
changes for the worse. But there is something more
to be said than this. It is literally true that if there is
now any comfort or substance among the crofters of
Tyree it is entirely due to the system I have pursued.
If, on the other hand, there is any poverty remaining
among them, it is due to the restraints upon the
execution of that system which sentiment and feeling
have imposed upon me. I have avoided to the utmost
all gratuitous evictions, or even removals, and yet
there is hardly a single crofter in Tyree who has not
had the size of his possession doubled or trebled dur-
ing the last thirty-five years. Every one of them
has profited more or less largely by the departure of
his neighbours, and generally by the system against
which a few of them have now been incited to
grumble or object. Hardly a single croft remains
of what may be called the old pauperising class,
although many are still much smaller than I should
wish them to be. A new proprietor, as all observa-
tion proves,''' would have applied the principle

* On no part of the subject has greater nonsense been written
and spoken than on the connection of the old law of entail with
what is called the " Crofter question." The law of entail may be,
and was, open to many objections. But it was eminently favour-
able to crofters. It is almost invariably on the estates of the old
families that the crofters have been retained. It is almost as
universally from the estates of new purchasers that they have dis-
appeared. This fact could not be better illustrated than by
comparing the lands in Mull and Morvern which were sold by the
Argyll family at the beginning of the present century with the
lands which still belonoj to me.

( 71 )

of consolidation much more rapidly, and would per-
haps have attained even greater results, as regards
increase of produce, in a much shorter period of time.
But I have been content to allow natural causes
to operate, and to let time and experience prove the
unavoidable conditions of insolvency which attach
to the improvident subdivisions of land. Setting
aside the case of allotments for men living mainly on
the wages of labour or on handicrafts — which belong
to a wholly different category — I am opposed to the
system of very small crofts, as I am equally opposed
to the system of farms enormously large. My aim

has been to consolidate the small crofts gradually, Gradual consolida-
,1 • 1 1 ii 1-1 , tiou of small crofts,

as the vacancies by death and insolvency arose, not

into farms of great size, but into farms of a variety

of sizes. And the general result of my operations is

at least as near an approximation towards this end as

has been compatible with my desire to avoid har^ or

hasty proceedings of any kind.

The proper size of farms is essentially a local Proper size of
,. T T 1 ,1 T,. f. farms a local ques-»

question, dependiDg very much on the conditions or ^^^^^
physical geography. A very large part of the High-
lands consists of high mountains, many of them
having no arable land at all even upon their flanks.
The only agricultural value of these is as grazings for
sheep. The capital required for adequately stocking
them is always comparatively large. Flocks of two
and three thousand sheep represent large sums of
money. This capital is entirely beyond the reach of
men who have never held anything but crofts or small
farms. I have no belief in the success of the co-
operative management of such grazings. Common Common grazuigs

,1 ^ • . r 4. 1 IT unsuitable.

grazings are the subject oi perpetual quarrelling, even

( r- )

when tried on the small scale common to old town-
ships in the Highlands ; and even when peace is kept
and quarrelling avoided, it is done only by the sacri-
fice of that spirit of individuality in enterprise and
improvement which is the life and soul of all in-
dustrial pursuits. The quality of the stock on such
joint possessions is generally and notoriously in-
Higlier mount.iiiis ferior. The higher mountains, therefore, of the
nuist be lield iii jjio-hlands must always continue to be held in

large farms, but o -^

lower liills and comparatively large farms. But there is another

arable land ^ £ ^|^^ Hio'hlands which consists of hills

adapted lor small -'**^'-o'^ o

farms. of smaller elevation, with a mixture of slopes and

hollows of arable land, and sometimes with very con-
siderable stretches of level ground between them, which
has been reclaimed or is reclaimable. This is the area
most favourable for small farms, and the great bulk of
the whole area of the county of Argyll is actually so
held. On my own estates even the great mountain
pastures are all held in farms, the value of which is
small compared with the really large farms of the Low^-
iuustrations in lands of Scotland. In illustration of this fact let me

farming divisions ^^^^^^ ^1^^ attention of the Commission to the farm-

upon Duke s estate

in Mull. ino- divisions upon my own estate in the Island of

MulL That estate includes Ben More, one of the

hio-her mountains of Scotland, and which, with all its

spurs and outliers, is pure grazing land, with no more

than mere fragments of arable soil at a few points

around its base. Yet this great extent of mountain

grazing is held in divisions, the very largest of which

would represent a comparatively small farm in the

Lothians and in many other parts of the Low Country.

There is one farm of i^/OO ; another of ^600 ; a third

of ;^394 ; a fourth oi £2\(^ \ a fifth of /"i 15. Pass-

( 73 )

ing to the Eoss of Mull, which belongs to the less
mountainous and more varied area of the Highlands,
the farming divisions exhibit a still more remarkable
example of a great variety in the size of posses-
sions. The maximum rent of any one is only ;^50O.
Between that rent and ;^300 there are three farms.
Between ^f 300 and ^100 there are no less than eight
farms, of which one-half are less than ^200. Between
the line of ^100 and the crofting line of /^^o there are Number of
seven farms ; whilst as regards the crofting class itself,
I have already shown that its status and condition has
been immensely raised and improved. In 1847 the
estate was crowded with possessions below the ^5
line, on which it was impossible to maintain a family
in comfort, even if the land had been rent free. The
crofts have now been all doubled, and many have been
trebled and quadrupled in size, some of them having
been thus lifted altoo-ether out of the croftino; class "into
the class of small farms. As regards the cottars, I see Cottars,
that some of the crofters complained to the Commis-
sion that the cottars had cottages upon their land.
But this has always been so, and the continuance of
the fact has arisen from the extreme reluctance I
have always had to evict even cottars if they could
possibly maintain themselves by labour. When,
however, it was asserted by some witnesses that
poverty has increased, I observe with some surprise
that not a single question was put to the witnesses for
the purpose of biinging this assertion to some definite
test. One well-known test is to be found in the
poor's rate ; and when I mention that in the parish
which contains the Ross of Mull this rate has fallen
from seven shillings, which was the rate at one time,

( 74 )

to two shillings in the pound, which is the rate now,
I have said enough to show how unfounded is the
statement as to increasing poverty.
With two excep. Irejoicetobe able to add that althoiiojh I object strondy

tions all the farms i.. . ., /-i ^

held by High- to the exclusion 01 '' strangers irom the possession

landers. q£ farms, especially when they bring new knowledge

and new skill into remote and backward districts,

yet, as a matter of fact, all my farms in Mull and lona,

with only two exceptions, are held by Highlanders.

Every step to- Before concluding this paper I think it not unim-

ment duriiif' last portaiit to point out a fact which has struck me much

130 years has been [^^ readino* the old documents to which I have referred,

taken by Pro- . ^ r • ^ ■ 1 • -i n

prietor and not by and that fact IS this, — that every single step towards
V^^^^^' improvement which has been taken during the last

1 30 years, has been taken by the proprietor and not
by the people. And not onl}'- so, but every one of
these steps, without exception, has been taken against
the prevailing opinions and feelings of the people at
the time. " All in this farm very poor and against any
change" — such is the description repeated over and
over again in a detailed report on each farm sent to
my grandfather in 1803,. when he was contemplating
those changes which were then absolutely necessary.
Great poverty and great ignorance are always '* against
any change." They are invariably associated with
a languor of mind which is incompatible with the
possibility of improvement. The very desire of
better things is absent — and even if the desire ex-
isted the means would still be wan tin of. Under such
conditions every reform must begin outside the
people and absolutely requires to be pressed upon
them. I am not speaking merely of the outlays of
money which come from capital. I am speaking of

( 75 )

those exercises of authority which come from ownership
and cannot be enforced without the possession of the
rights of property. The abolition of the run-rig system
was always most unpopular in the Highlands. In
Tyree, as elsewhere, it was abolished, and could only be
abolished by the authority of ownership. Every sub-
sequent measure of improvement — the regular division
of individual possessions, — -the fencing of them,^ — the
selection of the best candidates for the holding of them,
— the building of a better class of houses, — the intro-
duction of ploughs in substitution for the old barbarous
'* crooked spade," — the introduction of carts, — of grain
of a better kind, — of superior stock, — of dairy farming ;
—in short, every item of progress in agriculture has been
the work, and often the arduous and expensive work, of
the proprietor. Moreover, even all these would have
been useless without the arrest laid upon subdivision,
and the steady progress made towards the establish-
ment by consolidation of more adequate and comfort-
able possessions. If a higher standard of comfort has
now been attained, and if a higher standard of intelli-
gence has followed it, this happy result has been due
entirely to the causes I have indicated. The tendency
to subdivide is now, indeed, checked amongst the
larger crofters, but it has not been eradicated in the
class w^hich still represents, in a mitigated degree, the
former condition of things. It is curious under what
shifts and disguises — sometimes under what accidents
of mere laziness — the old tendency is liable to re-
appear. Some cow is said to want a byre. The byre
is built, and in a short time the cow is expelled, and
a new family is installed instead. I need not point out
that nowhere in the Low Country, or indeed in any

( 7<5 )

civilised part of Europe, would this process of squat-
ting and subdivision be allowed by the proprietors of
land. It is not easy to see why estates in the High-
lands of Scotland should be subject to a practice so
ruinous to agriculture and so inevitably productive of
a pauper population.
Explanation as to 1 have yet to mention one other portion of my
piemen enanc} o ^^^j^^^g -j^ ^^^ Islands which has been visited by the

Commission, I mean a property which belongs to me
iu the Island of Lismore. I am all the more glad to
do so as it affords me an opportunity of pointing to a
practical illustration of the views which I entertain
as to the varieties of local circumstance which ought
to determine the size of possessions. I have no
hesitation in saying that my property in Lismore
is one of the few cases I know in which con-
solidation has been carried much too far. But I am
not responsible. I purchased the property only a few
years ago, and found almost the whole of it under
lease to one sheep-farmer, whose ordinary residence
and whose largest farms are in the Low Country.
Lismore is essentially an island adapted to small
farms of mixed arable and pasture. Being wholly
composed of limestone, its grazing is magnificent, and
there are sheets and patches of arable land interspersed
amonor the hills and rocks, consistino; of a soil so rich
that Dr. Voelker, the eminent chemist of the Royal
Agricultural Society of England, reports to me that it
resembles nothino; so much as some of the finest soils
of the American continent. I can only say that if I
live to see the expiry of the present Lease under which
the greater part of that property is held, it is my hope
and intention to break up the large single sheep-farm,

( 77 )

and to divide it into smaller but still comfortable
possessions. I believe it to be admirably adapted for
dairy-farming, and for the growth of the finest oats
and turnips. It has abundant shelter although it has
little or no wood. This arises from the steep faces
and sudden knolls into which the limestone strata
have been thrown, amidst the intricacies of which
cattle ai]d sheep can always find spots sheltered from
all winds. The island is close to a growing market
in the town and port of Oban ; and from the splendid
panorama of sea and mountains by which it is sur-
rounded, as well as the excellent trout-fishino; which
it affords, I am not without hope that in summer and
autumn, at least, it may have some market from
health-seekers within its own attractive shores. In
vision at least, if not in fact, I already see it botli
better peopled and better cultivated. Economic
causes of the same kind will operate in the same
direction in some other parts of the Highlands where
the difficulty of letting to advantage the very large
class of sheep farms is already telling in favour of
smaller possessions.

I am,

Your Lordship's obedient Servant,

ARGYLL.

Inveraray, Oct. i, 188,3.

i

I

APPENDIX

PETITION from Poor Persons in Tyree for Aid to
Emigrate.

Unto Sir John M'Neill.

The Petition of the nndersigned Cottars and
small Crofters on the Island of Tyree,

Humhly sheiueth.
That since the making of kelp ceased, and par-
ticularly since the failure of the potato crop, .the
inhabitants of this island have been in a state of
great destitution ; and, were it not for the benevo-
lence of the proprietor, and the aid afforded by the
relief board, they would inevitably have starved.
That hitherto they have been employed by the pro-
prietor at drainage and other works, during the
winter and spring months, before the land was
cropped, and during the summer they were supported
by the funds of the relief board. That this latter
resource being now at an end, your petitioners' pros-
pects, on looking forward to the ensuing summer,
are in the extreme dismal, and the more so, as the
only prospect of ultimate relief to which they so
fondly cling is denied them^that of emigration —
which your petitioners neglected to take advantage

{ 8o )

of while in their power, probably supposing that the
relief funds were to last, or that the potato would
be restored. That, to add to their further grievance,
your petitioners are led to understand that those
adverse to emigration from the West Highlands are
using every possible means to prevent it, and that
statements are made publicly that the poor can be
supported by employing them in the improvement of
waste land. Those who advocate such are certainly
actuated by other motives save that of philanthropy,
and display the grossest ignorance as to the resources
of the country, particularly as regards this isolated
island, where there is no fuel, and not an inch of
waste land which the inhabitants could not drain
and trench in a few months. That your petitioners
would now most early request, that if possessed of
the bowels of compassion, such as were your fore-
fathers, or value the lives of your countrymen, you
will not credit the statement of those inimical to
our best interest, but examine individually into
our circumstances, and the condition of the island,
when they have no doubt you will have sufficient
proof afforded of the fallacy of such statements, and
the injury and cruelty done us by such misrepre-
sentations, which may perhaps be the means of the
Duke's withholding his bounty, and depriving us of
the "power of participating in the enjoyments and
comforts, they are from day to day informed, their
friends in Canada enjoy to such an extent.

May it therefore please your honour to take the
miserable condition of your petitioners into con-
sideration, and use your influence with Her

( 81 )

Majesty's Government, or His Grace the Duke
of Argyll, to provide for them the means of
emigrating ; and your petitioners shall ever
pray.

Crofter

Number

Residence.

Name.

or
Cottar.

Rent.

of
Family.

£ s. d.

Balinoe . .

Donald M'Donald .

Crofter

3 12 0

8

Burapoll . .

A. M'Innes . . .

do.

12 0 0

14

Balephuil . .

C. M'Millan

Cottar

9

Balemartin .

H. M'Donald .

do.

8

Balephuil . .

J. Campbell .

.

do.

13

Balemartin .

A. M'Lean .

do.

6

Moss . , .

Hugh Laniont

do.

7

do. ...

A. M'Donald .

do.

8

Burapoll . .

J. Carmichael

do.

3

do. . .

P. Carmichael

do.

7

do. . .

N. M'Innes

do.

4

Moss . . .

J. M'Donald

do.

8

Burapoll . .

D. Burrer .

do.

9

Boliiiieanach .

Mary Brown

do.

3

do.

J. M'Lean .

Crofter

5 1*6 0

6

Bolipliuil . .

A. M'Kinnon

do.

1 12 6

9

do. . .

A. Campbell

Cottar

10

Burapoll . .

A. Lamont .

do.

«

Hilipoll . .

A. M'Arthur

Crofter

2 10 0

11

Comoifj-besj- .

L. M'Kinnon

do.

5 2 0

9

do^ .

L. M'Lean .

Cottar

2

Kennorv . .

A. M'Donald

do.

1

do. . .

John M'Donal

i

do.

7

1 Moss . . .

C. M'Lean .

do.

8

'do. ...

J. M'Donald

do.

4

do. ...

J. Ferguson

do.

8

Hilipoll . .

H. M'Lean

Crofter

1 l"i 0

3

Comoig-l)e- .

H. M'Lean

Cottar

2

Moonnal . .

A. M'lNeill.

do.

...

6

do. . .

D. Brown .

do.

2

Bolipliuil . .

D. M'Lean .

Crofter

7 18 0

10

i do. . .

J. M'Donald

do.

6 0 0

2

do. . .

M. M'Donald

do.

2 0 0

6

Moss . . .

Mary M'Lean

Cjttar

2*

Baliphuil . .

A. M'Kinnon

Crofter

4 i'e 0

13

do. . .

D. M -Mil Ian

Cottar

4

do. . .

M. M'MiUan

Crofter

2 io 6

11

do. . .

M. Black .

Cottar

...

4

do. . .

Cne. Black .

do.

3

do. . .

D. M'Lean .

Crofter

3 'o 0

8

do. . .

J. M'Lean .

Cottar

...

3

do. . .

J. M'Lean .

Crofter

1 0 0

2

* Pauper.

( 82 )

Crofter

Number

Residence.

Name.

or

Rent.

of

Cottar.

£ 8. d.

Family.

Bolimorton .

N. M'Millan . . .

Cottar

7

do.

,1. M'Donald .

do.

...

7 1

Comoig-niore

D. M'Farlane .

do.

...

4

Hilipoll . .

A. M'Donald .

do.

...

1

do. . . .

N. M'Intyre .

do.

...

2

Ruaig . . .

J. M'Lean . .

do.

8 !

Comoig-more

II. Lamont

do.

...

4 1

Moss . . .

D. Cameron .

do.

8

Kilmoluaig .

L. Cameron .

do.

...

6

do.

J. M'Lcan . .

do.

5

Bolirullin . .

A. Kennedy .

do.

...

^

do.

L. Black . .

do.

...

3 !

do.

Christ"- M'Lean

do.

2 i

Boliphuil .

D. Brown . .

Crofter

3 "6 0

4 1

Salem .

F. M'Kinnon .

Cottar

9 1

Vaul .

S. M'Phaden .

Crofter

3 15 0

6

Boliphuil .

A. Kay . . .

Cottar

...

10

Golt . .

D. M'Kinnon .

do.

...

6

do. .

H. M'Lean .

do.

12

do. .

A. Brotton

do.

5

Mannol .

N. M'Lean .

Crofter

1 "7 6

7

Comoig-more

N. M'Phael .

do.

6 0 0

6

do.

J. iMThail .

do.

4 14 0

9 1

Comoig-more.

A. M'Phail .

Crofter

6 0 0

4 !

Bolimorton .

J. M'Arthur .

Cottar

8 t

do.

A. M'Donald .

do.

z

3 1

Kilmoluaig .

M. M'Donald .

Crofter

4 0 0

9 !

do.

C. M'Intyre .

Cottar

8* ;

do.

C. Cameron .

do.

5 '

do.

N. M'Lean. .

do.

6

do.

D. Cameron .

Crofter

4 0 0

8 1

Golt . . .

N. M'Lean . .

Cottar

8 i

Bolipliuil

H. M'Phaden .

do.

11

Vaul .

D. M'Kinnon .

Crofter

9 0 0

6 i

Lolt. .

H. M'Kinnon .

do.

2 0 0

9 ;

Kirkapoll

A. M'Lean . .

Cottar

7

do.

Christian M'Leai

do.

3

Coales .

N. Clark . .

Crofter

13 0 0

9

Ruaig .

D. Clark . .

do.

12 0 0

8

Coales .

D. M'Phaden .

Cottar

...

8

Bolirullin

M. M'Kinnon .

do.

6

Coales .

H. M'Arthur .

do.

5

do. .

L. M'Donald .

do.

3

Vaul .

N. M'Donald .

do.

4

Coales .

J. M'Donald .

do.

6

do. .

N. M'Phaden .

do.

...

3

do. .

A. M'Donald .

Crofter

12 13 0

8

do. .

I). Brown . .

Cottar

...

7

do. .

H. M'Donald .

do.

...

5

do. .

N. M'Dougall .

Crofter

10 "0 0

8

Golt.

H. M'Millan .

do.

4 4 0

11

* Pauper.

( 83 )

Crofter

Number

Residence

Name.

or
Cottar.

Rent.

of
Family.

£ s. d.

Bough .

. Christian M'Kinnon

Cottar

6

Vaul .

. . J. M'Donald . . .

do.

...

4

Ruaig .

. . J. M'Lean . .

Crofter

10 6 0

4

do. .

. . H. M'Lean . .

Cottar

3

Vaul .

J. M'Kinnon .

do.

2

Heanish

. . D. Sinclair . .

do.

5

Salem .

. . D. McPhaden .

do.

4

Heanisli

. C. M'Donald .

do.

9

Coales .

. J. M'Lean . .

Crofter

6 6 0

9

Heanisli

. M. M'Donald .

Cottar

...

7

Scourish

. A. M'Lean . .

do.

5

Comoig-ni

3re D. Campbell .

do.

...

1

Kilkennet

1 . M. M'Kinnon .

Crofter

3 18 0

9 i

Boliphuil

. N. M'Donald . .

Cottar

...

8 i

BolimortQ]

1 . H. M'Lean .

do.

7

Coales .

. R. M'Armoil . .

Crofter

9 6 0

11

Comoig-m

jre Marion Campbell

Cottar

4

Moss .

. Effy M'Lean .

do.

...

2 i

Balnioluai

g . D. M'Phail .

do.

5 1

Bolimortoi

1 . Flora M'Phail

do.

3*

Coales .

. D. M'Phaden .

do.

...

4

do. .

. D. M'Larty .

do.

...

6

do. .

. A. M'Donald .

do.

5

do. .

. . Mary M'Larty .

do.

...

4

Greenhill

. M. M'Cail . .

do.

5

Boliphuil

. C. M'Donald .

Crofter

3 "6 0

8

do.

. M. M'Phaden !

do.

3 0 0

'6

Moss .

J. Cameron

Cottar

5

Bough .

. C. M'Phail .

do.

8

do.

. D. Durach . . .

do.

6

Hilipoll

. N. M'Kinnon

Crofter

1 10 0

8

Heanish

. N. M'Donald .

Pauper

...

1*

Conioig-m

Dre A. M'Phael .

Cottar

3

Kilmoluai

g . C. M'Lean . .

do.

5

Comoig-be

g . H. Brown . .

do.

1

Hilipoll

. . D. Cameron .

do.

• 1

do.

. M. Brown . .

do.

2

Kilkennet

h . Mary Cameron

Crofter

0 18 0

8

Balimorto]

1 . N. M'Phaden .

Cottar

7

Heanish

. N. Sinclair

do.

...

8

do.

. . D. M'lntyre .

do.

...

6

do.

. N. M'Donald .

do.

...

7

Buaig .

1

. . N. M'Innes .

do.

11

825

Pauper,

(Signed) JAMES MACFARLANE,

Witness to the above signatures and marks.

w