xlviii INTRODUCTION. 



occasions misreported my remarks, and then honoured me 

 by criticism, in his leading articles, on what I never did 

 say. He cannot, in point of fact, afford to allow the 

 truth to appear in his columns, as to what the crofters' 

 friends say and do, and at the same time, make an outward 

 appearance of decency and apparent truthfulness in his 

 abuse of them for what they neither say nor do. Here is 

 my reply to Macleod which the Scotsman, for these and other 

 reasons of his own, would not insert : 



HIGHLAND LAND RIGHTS. 



TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SCOTSMAN". 



"CELTIC MAGAZINE" OFFICE, 2nd Aug., 1883. 

 SIR, Having been from home for the last fortnight, I have hitherto 

 been unable to notice Macleod of Macleod's letter on the above subject, 

 which appeared in your issue of 2oth July last. I expect that you will, 

 on the simple grounds of fairplay, permit me to do so now, though my 

 doing so may seem somewhat late. 



Having given a quotation from the speech delivered by Dr. Cameron, 

 M. P., at Liverpool, on the 2nd of January last, as to the respective 

 rights of landlords and tenants to the soil in the Highlands, Macleod 

 proceeds : "I should not have quoted this remarkable statement, for 

 which there was no foundation whatever, were it not that similar lan- 

 guage has been used lately by Dean of Guild Mackenzie, who has gone 

 through Skye in advance of the Commission, assuring the people that 

 the land belonged to them, and that, with a view to its recovery, they 

 should represent their condition to the Commissioners as one of extreme 

 hardship and suffering, and their proprietors as heartless oppressors." 

 This whole statement by Macleod regarding me, my doings and sayings, 

 is simply and absolutely untrue. For this, however, I do not hold him 

 responsible, except in so far as he has unwittingly accepted the state- 

 ments of some underling flatterer, who must have drawn upon his 

 imagination as to what I was saying and doing in the Isle of Skye. I 

 know that Macleod was not in the island when I was there, and, there- 

 fore, he could not have had any personal knowledge of the subject upon 

 which he wrote. 



I cannot but feel nattered that Macleod should consider my sayings 

 of more importance than Dr. Cameron's, M.P. ; and as others, as well 

 as he, may possibly care to know how the facts really stand, permit me 



