PROFESSOR BLACKIES OPINION. 141 



annoyance ; for the position of affairs had been discovered by the other 

 representatives of the Scottish and English press who visited Skye on 

 that occasion, and they, with many of the natives, naturally chuckled 

 and sneered at the supposed impartiality of the information obtained and 

 published by the Scotsman under such conditions. It may be stated 

 that the "Commissioner's" recall soon followed the arrival of the 

 " Special Correspondent " at head-quarters, and it may be fairly 

 surmised that there was some connection between the one event and the 

 other. A few of the natives are wicked enough to say that some fat 

 sheep had almost simultaneously disappeared from the district, but what 

 became of them has not been clearly ascertained. It is, however, quite 

 understood that no one but the owner is in any way responsible for their 

 disappearance. 



An exposure of the sources from which the Scotsman and a few other 

 newspapers receive their Skye local correspondence might prove inter- 

 esting, and it is possible we may yet feel called upon, in the interest of 

 the people of Skye, to enlighten the reader on that subject 



May we not meanwhile fairly ask, Is this a paper which the Scottish 

 people ought to accept as a safe guide on any question affecting the 

 Highlanders ? Its very name has become a misnomer in recent years, 

 edited, as it is, by an English Catholic, under whose guidance the once 

 renowned and brilliant Scotsman in spirit and objects, as well as in 

 name, has become the violent antagonist of institutions the most highly 

 cheriftied and revered by Scotsmen, and whose attacks upon these are 

 only equalled by its ridicule of the Catholic Church, religion, and creed. 

 It is impossible for any good Scotsman not to feel regret for the fall in 

 recent years of a paper in which we all felt a natural pride from a posi- 

 tion in which intellectual power and marked ability were its distinguish- 

 ing characteristics to one of mere common-place, in which it is princi- 

 pally distinguished by disingenuousness of argument and personal 

 scurrility. 



The support by the Scotsman of any one, under its present guidance, 

 is the surest proof that he who secures it is no real friend of the High- 

 landers. 



Since the above was written, the same paper, on the 22nd 

 of March, published in large type, a sensational telegram 

 from Portree, and another from Inverness, in the first of 

 which it was stated that the Glendale " Crofters assembled 

 in numbers from the different townships, proceeded to 



