Population, 15B 



to blows, even at their luncrals or other merry-makings. They 

 are rather Uvely than grave, and express their feeUngs and emo- 

 tions, whether of joy or of grief, in a more obvious manner than 

 would seem becoming in other parts of the land. Although kind 

 to passing strangers, they dislike those who settle among them. 



Secluded, as it were, from the world, and ignorant alike of 

 the aiFairs of other nations and of their own interests and rela- 

 tions, they have no participation in the political feelings which 

 agitate the other parts of the empire. This seclusion and igno- 

 rance may also account in some degree for their extreme attach- 

 ment to their country. I have yet one concluding trait in their 

 character to mention. Old age has been treated with sympathy 

 and respect by nations even the most savage ; here it is rather 

 an object of ridicule and contempt. It is melancholy to think 

 of the last years of the poor peasant of the Hebrides, banished 

 to a miserable hovel, excluded from the society even of his own 

 children, — subjected to privation when nature can least bear it, 

 — without the vigour of body or of mind, the buoyancy of spirit 

 and the elevation of hope that supported him in the days of 

 his youth, — without the complacency which respect and defer- 

 ence are so adapted to excite, — and I am afraid, too often, with- 

 out the friendly advice and benevolent care of him who ought 

 to prepare his mind for the change which he is soon to make. 



Formerly the population consisted of two distinct classes, the 

 tacksmen or great farmers, and the common people. The rela- 

 tions of these classes to each other being generally known, it 

 is unnecessary to say any thing on the subject. At present the 

 class of tacksmen is much reduced, and the system of subsetting 

 land has been done away with. The present race of upper far- 

 mers, compared with the former, is degenerate, and there are 

 few among them who can boast of those accomplishments which 

 distinguished their ancestors. " It will perhaps,"''' says Dr Mac- 

 leod in his rejx>rt (Stat. Rep. vol. x. p. 367), " excite the won- 

 der of posterity to know, that the whole landed possession of 

 Harris, was, down to the year 179 v, excepting four small-tenant 

 farms holding immediately of the proprietor, in the hands of 

 eight gentlemen farmers, on whom all the other inhabitants de- 

 pend ; and that this distribution is so unequally proportioned, 



that two great farms comprehend more than one half of the es< 



1 



