('KOKTKK 



575 



are scattered over the whole surface of the Western 

 Ili.u'hland- and l-l.-unU. and over the whole of 

 Sutherland. They iirc found in Caithness, Orkney, 

 Shetland, and in the interior of Ross -shire and 

 Inverness shire, l>ut less frequently on the eastern 

 ml. Tin- township crofters hold directly from 

 tii.' l.-uidlord, pay money rents, have had a prepon- 

 derant .-hare in tli nstruction and maintenance 



of tlio linildin-.;- on the holding, and have Iteen the 

 authors of the greater part of the simple improve- 

 ments on the holding and the township. They 

 have preserved some marks of a primitive com- 

 munity in < imon rights and common obligations, 



and in the election of township officers who, by the 

 cu-tom of the estate, exert some authority in regu- 

 lating the relations of the occupiers among them- 

 selves, and the relations between the occupiers and 

 the landlord. The crofting township of tne High- 

 lands is a partial survival of a system of land- 

 tenure once common to the whole of Scotland and 

 prevalent in other countries. It has in all times 

 existed in direct relations with the chief or land- 

 lord, yet the greater number of extant township 

 crofters are the descendants of sub-tenants to the 

 tacksman of a former period, and were brought into 

 immediate dependency from the proprietor in the 

 18th century. The township crofter has always 

 been in the eyes of the law a tenant at will, whether 

 holding under the landlord or the tacksman, except 

 in the case of a specific covenant to the contrary, 

 but it is probable that during the prevalence of the 

 clan system the mutual interests and affections 

 of chief, tacksmen, and people, procured for the 

 crofters the actual status of permanent tenure. 

 While the crofters derive a material share of their 

 livelihood and even of their food from the holding, 

 their existence would lie impossible without other 

 sources of support. Among these fishing holds the 

 first place and often affords the chief means of sub- 

 sistence; but other local employments, domestic 

 crafts, itinerant rural labour in the south, the 

 earnings of a seafaring life, and remittances from 

 relatives at home and abroad, all contribute to the 

 crofters' maintenance. 



The grievances from which the great mass of the 

 township crofters have suffered may be enumerated 

 as follows : The restricted area of holdings, and 

 especially the reduction of common pasture land ; 

 high rents in exceptional cases ; disturbance without 

 due compensation ; the molestation of deer and 

 other game ; the imposition of excessive local rates ; 

 the increasing burden of cottar dependents ; want 

 of harlxnirs and defective means of transport to the 

 centres of consumption. To these may now be 

 added an unexampled depression in the value of 

 agricultural produce, and a disastrous change in 

 the methods previously used in the management of 

 the fishing trade. The causes which have brought 

 about such unhappy results are not far to seek. 

 They exist in the covetous or mistaken policy of 

 proprietors in the beginning of the present century, 

 manifested by eviction and excessive consolidation 

 of land ; in the necessities of their successors ; in 

 the potato disease; in the too great subdivision 

 of crofts ; in the failure of the kelp manufacture ; 

 in the precipitate application of the Education 

 Act in districts to which it was unsuited ; in the 

 apathy and improvidence which prevail among 

 the crofters themselves ; and, finally, in foreign 

 competition in every department of industry. Such 

 are the errors and neglects of the past ; such the 

 misfortunes of the present, which conspire to de- 

 press the crofting people. These hostile influences 

 are intensified by the stormy climate, ungrateful 

 soil, dangerous sea, and rugged irregular configura- 

 tion of the Western Highlands. It remains to be 

 proved in what degree such obstacles can be sur- 

 mounted by legislative provisions conceived in the 



interests of a claw who with serious defect* of 

 character possess attractive and estimable qualities. 

 The independent crofters, who may be recognised 

 as a distinct order among the crofting jMnmlation, are 

 found in all the Highland counties. They ap|<-ar 

 in considerable numbers in Argyllshire, in Caith- 

 ness, in Orkney, in Shetland, and in the eastern 

 parts of Inverness-shire and Ross-shire. They are 

 more rare in Sutherland, on the western sealtoard, 

 and in the Hebrides. These laborious tenants have 

 been recruited from the working-classes in adjacent 

 districts, and from the members of broken town- 

 ships dispersed by the formation of sheep farms. 

 Established, for the most part, on waste lands under 

 improving leases or stringent estate regulations, 

 favoured in the eastern districts by a drier climate 

 and soil, surrounded by the examples of a superior 

 husbandry, and encouraged bv assistance from the 

 landlord, they have attained a higher condition 

 than the crofting communities, both in regard to 

 dwellings and tillage. The alleged grievances of 

 the independent crofters have reference mainly to 

 high rents, insecurity of tenure, and confiscation of 

 improvements. Against such abuses they are now 



Protected by the Act of 1886, from which they will 

 erive substantial benefit. 



In recording the diversities of crofting tenure it 

 is necessary to mention the exceptional examples of 

 freehold crofts with common pasture in the united 

 parishes of Harray and Birsay in Orkney. These 

 minute estates exhibit a marked superiority over 

 yearly tenancies elsewhere. Belonging to a vigorous 

 race of cultivators whose families prosecuted their 

 fortunes in the colonies and on the sea, the Orkney 

 freeholds have not suffered from excessive sub- 

 division, and illustrate the advantages attached to 

 stability and possession. It would be rash, how- 

 ever, to affirm that the institution of similar tenure* 

 would succeed equally well among the Celtic in- 

 habitants of the western coast. 



The comparative condition of the crofting 

 people in the present and the past has been the 

 subject of angry controversy. It seems not im- 

 probable that their state is now, in some re- 

 spects, inferior to what it was in the age immedi- 

 ately following the fall of the clan system in 1746, 

 while in others it is certain that the contemporary 

 crofter possesses immunities and advantages of 

 which his forefathers never dreamed. In favour of 

 the older time may be alleged a larger share of the 

 land, with a corresponding abundance of the neces- 

 saries of life in seasons of plenty, more unrestricted 

 access to the use of fish and game, freedom from 

 local taxation, the existence of a graduated social 

 order more harmonious and more congenial to the 

 greatest number, the enjoyment of recreation* 

 native to the race, and that spirit of contentment 

 or resignation which is associated with ignorance 

 and isolation. It may, on the other hand, be con- 

 tended, on In-half of tne present, that the crofter is 

 exonerated from personal services of an oppressive 

 nature, that he obtains relief in scarcity, reined it - 

 in sickness, public support in infirmity and old age, 

 elementary instruction, access to external lalnmr 

 markets, 'facilities for emigration, and that he 

 jn>s-e e* tho-e aspiration- and "| ] " >M unit i>- \\hi.-li 

 Belong to an expanded horizon of intelligence. 

 When to the humane innovations of modern civilisa- 

 tion are added reduced rents and enlarged holdings, 

 the crofting people will have little to envy in tne 

 precarious advantages claimed for their ancestors a 

 century ago. 



Moved alike by the recent sufferings, former 

 wrongs, and threatening agitation of the crofters, 

 the government of Mr (Gladstone in 1883 nominated 

 a Royal Commission to inquire into their condition. 

 The commission conducted its investigations in the 

 course of that year, and submitted its report in the 



