THE ROYAL COMMISSION AND HIGHLAND CROFTERS. 149 



Mr. E. Noel (Dumfries Burghs) ; and Mr. Preston Bruce 

 (County of Fife). 



Lord Colin Campbell (County of Argyll) afterwards in- 

 timated that had he been asked he would have signed the 

 Memorial to Government. None of the others were seen, as 

 they were either out of London or absent from the House. 



It will be noticed, we believe, with very general regret 

 and surprise, that not a single Northern Member of Par- 

 liament, except Mr. Fraser-Mackintosh, had signed the 

 Memorial. If any proof were wanted that inquiry was 

 looked forward to by the northern landlords with disfavour, 

 and, in some instances, with dismay though they felt that 

 it had now become necessary it would be found in this 

 significant fact. It should also have convinced the Govern- 

 ment of the necessity of making the Royal Commission 

 really effective, by placing men upon it who would counter- 

 act the landlord opposition and aristocratic influence, which 

 will assuredly have to be met in the course of the inquiry, 

 on every point where. the facts are likely to tell against the 

 landlords and their agents. The other side should have 

 been strongly represented, so as to meet, on something like 

 equal terms, the power, wealth, and influence, of those whose 

 conduct throughout the country had made such an inquiry 

 necessary. As it is, it will, unless we are much mistaken, 

 only prove the commencement in earnest of an agitation on 

 on the Land Question, the end of which no one can predict. 



Considering the stage which the question has now 

 reached, we feel justified in reproducing what Mr. Fraser- 

 Mackintosh, M.P., wrote to the author on 5th March 1883. 

 Alluding to the question put to him by the writer in the 

 Inverness Music Hall, in 1877, already referred to, he says 

 " I see that you put the question very broadly in 1877, 

 and you are therefore alone entitled to the full credit of 



