PROFESSOR BLACKIES OPINION. 137 



always in, favour of the men who had the power ; never in favour of 

 those whose natural weakness made them an easy prey to the ambition, 

 cupidity, or indifference of their superiors. The law could always be 

 used to enrich the few and to impoverish the many. Laws were made 

 with solemn show and executed with unsparing severity, to preserve 

 the game, but never to preserve the people. This is our view of the 

 matter. Instead, therefore, of hastily blaming these unfortunate people, 

 let us go to the root of the evil, and not, like quack doctors, treat a 

 skin disease with external lotions and superficial appliances, when the 

 only cure lies in reforming the whole habit of social life, and sending a 

 strong current of fresh blood through the veins. Let us unite heart and 

 hand for a radical reform of all landlord-made law ! This is my pro- 

 gramme ; and I am ready to stand by it, though it should rain laws 

 from the statute-book as thick as pike-staves upon the land. Land Law 

 Reform is the only banner under which the Liberal party can hope to 

 gain glorious victories at the present hour ; and if they should fail to see 

 their opportunity, and timidly take counsel from law cunningly confused 

 with right, and from a political economy which confounds well-being 

 with wealth, the Tories may act more wisely. They are not the worst 

 landlords in the Highlands, to my knowledge ; and if God in His Pro- 

 vidence should only send us a second Lord Beaconsfield there is no say- 

 ing what they might be educated to do. I subjoin a more succinct 

 expression of these sentiments in verse : 



THE SKYE CROFTERS. 



A loud voice blames the men who break the law ; 

 I rather blame who made the laws to break, 

 Who pressed the yoke so close upon the neck 

 Of the hard-driven beast, and rubbed the raw, 

 That in a fretful fit it kicked the board 

 And tossed the rider. Blame your want of skill, 

 Blind oligarchs, and your uneven will 

 To maim the peasant and to arm the lord. 

 Woe unto you, the grasping crew who join 

 Wide field to field, and house to house, that you 

 May live sole lords of earth, and rack and screw 

 The poor to trick forth Mammon's gilded shrine ! 

 God is not mocked, whose bolt their head shall smite 

 Who stamp His name on Might and call it Right. 



JOHN STUART BLACKIE. 



