1 INTRODUCTION. 



stances. It, however, requires more talent than the editorial 

 department at present commands to ensure success in so 

 delicate an acrobatic performance, and, probably, rather 

 than expose himself too glaringly he will make a further and 

 stronger effort to maintain his consistency in a career of 

 abuse and misrepresentation of the Highland people. 



The following extract from a letter published in the 

 Scotsman on May 2ist, 1881, when the Irish Land Bill was 

 before Parliament, in reply to some " leading " criticism in 

 connection with the Leckmelm Evictions, will be found as 

 truly descriptive of his position now as it was then : 



You have consistently opposed the principle of State interference 

 between landlord and tenant any restriction of the right to enter into 

 private contracts until the Liberal Government threw your principle 

 to the winds, in such as the Ground Game Act of last year, and now 

 the Irish Land Bill. You were then equally consistent with your past 

 history in support of the Government and inconsistent with yourself. 

 If a principle is sound in Ireland it is equally so in Scotland. If you 

 give up the principle in Ireland, I must ask you to do so here, if it can 

 be shown that the circumstances are similar, or in proportion to the 

 extent in which they are so. What, then, becomes of your proposition 

 "that land, like gold, ought to be left to the laws of supply and 

 demand," and that no one ever thought that the possessor of it "should 

 be compelled to part with it for less than the price which it would fetch 

 in a free and fair market ? " The present Government say exactly what 

 you state no one would think of saying or doing, and you ably support 

 them to get a Bill passed for Ireland by which the owners of land shall 

 be restricted in letting their land for what it would ' ' fetch in a free and 

 fair market ". This was clearly brought out by Mr. Gladstone in his 

 able speech on the Bill on Monday last. He boldly stated and clearly 

 proved that the market value of land was in many cases an unfair one, 

 and far higher than its real value. He is making provision accordingly 

 in his Irish Land Bill. What is good for Ireland in this respect cannot 

 be very bad for the Highlands of Scotland, and I expect to see the 

 powerful influence of the Scotsman one day wielded in favour of a 

 Government measure for this country, as it is now wielded in favour of 

 an Irish Bill founded on a principle which the Scotsman has always 

 consistently condemned. 



