528 



LAND LAWS. 



times, however, a disposition on the part of 

 landlords to insist upon their full legal rights. 

 Early in this century sheep-farming on a large 

 scale was found to be profitable, and large areas 

 of glen and mountain were cleared of their 

 population and converted into sheep -farms. 

 The crofters, compelled to give up large tracts 

 of mountain common pasture, and their small 

 holdings in the straths and glens lower on 

 the mountains, were in some cases given new 

 crofts, commonly nearer the sea, where oppor- 

 tunities for fishing and kelp-gathering were in 

 a measure a compensation for the diminution 

 of the right to common pastures ; in other cases, 

 left to themselves, they were allowed to share 

 the already too small holdings of their more 

 fortunate brethren, or they joined the army of 

 cotters and squatters, or sought new homes in 

 the cities and lowlands of the south or abroad. 

 These "clearances" produced great indigna- 

 tion among the crofters, who clung tenacious- 

 ly to the cottages that they or their ances- 

 tors had huilt, and to the holdings that their 

 families had cultivated often for generations. 

 Lately, sheep-farming has become much less 

 profitable, but the interest in deer-hunting has 

 increased, and large tracts, amounting alto- 

 gether to nearly 2,000,000 acres, have been 

 turned into deer-forests. Much of this land is 

 unfit for agricultural purposes, although por- 

 tions of it could be cultivated with advantage, 

 and most of it would produce valuable pasture 

 for the crofters' stock. For the past few years 

 evictions have been much less common than 

 formerly, but all along there has been a dispo- 

 sition on the part of proprietors to inclose in 

 their sheep-farms or deer-forests lands that 

 were formerly tilled or pastured by crofters 

 and cotters. The poverty of some of the 

 crofters makes their condition deplorable. 

 The landlord has curtailed their holdings and 

 rights of common, or they have subdivided 

 them among their kinsmen and others, until it 

 would not be possible for the land in some 

 places properly to sustain the population, even 

 if no rent were charged. The condition of the 

 cotters and squatters is still worse. Whenever 

 the crops are poor, suffering and hardship must 

 result. Emigration has frequently been recom- 

 mended as a remedy for this state of things, and 

 many Highlanders have gone to other countries 

 and proved excellent citizens everywhere. The 

 Crofters' Commission, which reported in 1884, 

 recommended emigration from a few over- 

 crowded districts, and that aid be given the 

 fishing industry for the employment of some 

 of the surplus population. It also proposed to 

 place restrictions on the further extension of 

 deer-forests, and to require landlords in certain 

 cases to grant leases at rents fixed by arbitra- 

 tion, and to restore lands formerly used by 

 crofters for tillage or pasturage, and recom- 

 mended the reorganization and legal recogni- 

 tion of the crofter township, suggesting that 

 the occupants of existing townships have the 

 power to acquire more land by compulsory 



process and at rents fixed by arbitration, and 

 that the state advance money to improve new 

 townships formed with the consent of the pro- 

 prietors. In this way. it is urged, the crofters' 

 claims may be secured to them, and the land, 

 instead of being given up to sheep and deer, 

 will be used to support men. It is argued, on 

 the other hand, that these proposals interfere 

 far too much with the rights of property, and 

 that, since the crofters belong to a bygone age, 

 even if aided in this way. they will not in their 

 poverty, and with an unfriendly soil and cli- 

 mate, be able to compete with large farmers, 

 who are in much more favorable circumstances. 

 The landlords themselves have offered in cer- 

 tain cases to grant leases, to give crofters the 

 use of more land, and to reduce rents, but these 

 offers are unsatisfactory to the crofters, be- 

 cause they do not go far enough, and do not 

 have the binding force of law. The Crofters' 

 Bill, which was introduced into Parliament at 

 its last session by the Liberals, and which pro- 

 posed to give some of the crofters security of 

 tenure, fixed rents, and compensation for im- 

 provements, and that the Government should 

 advance money for stocking and improving en- 

 larged or new holdings, was likewise unsatis- 

 factory, because its provisions were greatly 

 limited and restricted, and it did not provide 

 for the compulsory enlargement of holdings 

 and pastures. The crofters declare that no 

 measure will be satisfactory unless it gives se- 

 curity of tenure and complete tenant right to 

 all occupiers, and establishes a land-court to 

 fix rents for all Highlanders, to enlarge the 

 present holdings, and to form new crofting 

 townships or separate farms wherever they 

 are wanted, and on any suitable land. 



India. The Bengal Tenancy Act of 1883 es- 

 tablished in Bengal a dual ownership of land, 

 similar to that which the Irish Land Acts 

 established in Ireland. The tenants formerly 

 had permanent interests, amounting almost to 

 absolute ownership, but were deprived of many 

 of their rights, when, under the administra- 

 tion of Lord Cornwallis, the land was divided 

 among the zemindars, and an effort was made 

 to assimilate the land system to that of Eng- 

 land. Distress and suffering resulted. In 1879 

 the Rent Commission proposed to restore the 

 rights which the tenants originally had. By 

 the Tenancy Act of 1883 the tenants were 

 given inheritable and assignable interests ; they 

 have security of tenure, fixed rents, and free- 

 dom of sale. 



United States. The public lands of the United 

 States are under the control and power of the 

 General Government to grant and dispose ot 

 as it sees fit. In recent years considerable 

 alarm has been caused by the granting of large 

 tracts of land, amounting altogether to more 

 than 200,000,000 acres, to railroads, and by tt 

 acquisition of large tracts by corporations and 

 by capitalists, who are in some cases not even 

 citizens of the country. It is estimated that 

 more than 100,000,000 acres of the lands grant- 



