THE HIGHLAND CLEARANCES. 



action of the aggrieved tenants within the law, and on the 

 other hand grant to the people, in a friendly and judicious 

 spirit, material concessions in response to grievances regard- 

 ing any hardships which can be proved to exist. 



It is quite true that, though innumerable grievances un- 

 questionably do exist, no single one by itself is of sufficient 

 magnitude to make a deep impression on the public mind, 

 or upon any mere superficial enquirer. It is the constant 

 accumulation of numberless petty annoyances, all in the 

 same direction, that exasperate the people. The whole 

 tendency, and, it is feared, the real object of the general 

 treatment of the crofter is to crush his spirit, and keep him 

 enslaved within the grasp of his landlord and factor. Indeed, 

 one of the latter freely admitted to us that his object in 

 sometimes* serving large numbers of notices of removal, 

 which he had not the slightest intention of carrying into 

 effect, was that he might " have the whip-hand over them ". 

 This practice can only be intended to keep the people in a 

 constant state of terror and insecurity, and it has hitherto 

 succeeded only too well. 



The most material grievance, however, as well as the 

 most exasperating, is the gradual but certain encroachment 

 made on the present holdings. The pasture is taken from 

 the crofters piecemeal ; their crofts are in many cases sub- 

 divided to make room for those gradually evicted from 

 other places in a way to avoid public attention to make 

 room for sheep or deer, or both. The people see that they 

 are being gradually but surely driven to the sea, and that if 

 they do not resist in time they will ultimately, and at no 

 distant date, be driven into it, or altogether expelled from 

 their native land. A little more pressure in this direction, 

 and no amount of argument or advice will keep the people 

 from taking the law into their own hands and resisting it by 



