160 SCOTLAND ILLUSTRATED. 



employment had not yet been introduced. Thus some of the evils of a crowded 

 population, without employment, began to be felt. But, independently of this 

 natural course of events, the circumstances of the people were powerfully 

 influenced in consequence of the improvements of the more southern counties 

 having driven into the mountains of Sutherland those who could not, or who 

 would not, apply themselves to the more regular and industrious habits of 

 society, which such alterations rendered necessary. Many also, who, by the 

 commission of less grave offences, had rendered themselves obnoxious to the 

 laws especially those of the revenue found a safe refuge in the remote and 

 less accessible portions of the Sutherland and Reay estates, where they induced 

 the tacksmen to receive them as sub-tenants, by undertaking to pay rents which 

 never could be realized out of the funds of honest industry. The evils of such 

 a system were enormous. The introduction of such men, brought up in lawless 

 pursuits, among the old, well-doing, and moral cottagers of the estate, deprived 

 the latter of many of the comforts they had hitherto enjoyed, and diminished 

 the means for the payment of their rent, while the amount exacted by the 

 tacksmen remained the same, so that their condition was reduced, and they were 

 in many instances forced to adopt the same means of realizing it as the fugitive 

 settlers. The Duke of Sutherland's great object was to put an effectual end to 

 this system, and to make all who lived upon these estates immediate tenants of 

 the landlord, so that the managers should become acquainted with the wants of 

 all, and that the poorest tenant on the property might have a direct appeal to 

 himself and to the Duchess. His next object was to stimulate their industry, and 

 rouse their dormant energies, expecting thereby to raise their character, and 

 give them a desire of independence. In this he succeeded in a degree far beyond 

 his own expectations, or the anticipation of those who were most active in 

 carrying his benevolent intentions into effect. This, however, was attended with 

 many difficulties ; for there were too many interests to be interfered with, too 

 many prejudices to be overcome, not to produce considerable complaints, and 

 some opposition. Such was sure to be the case, and such actually happened. 

 The Duke of Sutherland, however, was not to be shaken in his purpose. He 

 had considered the subject in every aspect ; he had prepared the people for the 

 change by a timely notice of two years ; he had abandoned his rents during the 

 period of such change, and he had furnished the timber required for their new 

 houses. Having satisfied himself, therefore, that he had provided not only 

 sufficiently, but liberally, for every one whose possession he disturbed substi- 

 tuting a lot better suited as a lasting provision for the poor man's family, and 

 under the peculiar circumstances of the country much better calculated to reward 



