THE ROYAL COMMISSION AND HIGHLAND CROFTERS. 151 



material curtailment of deer forests, from which they and 

 their class derive a great portion of their revenues ? If 

 they do so they will prove themselves more than human. 

 But no one would complain, if their position and interests 

 as proprietors were counterbalanced on the Commission by 

 the presence of such true representatives of the crofters as 

 Sir Kenneth and Lochiel are of the landlords and their 

 class interests. 



If any evidence were wanted to justify the general feeling 

 that the Commission was one-sided and antagonistic to the 

 interests and claims of the crofters, it would be found in 

 the fact that its composition has been generally commended 

 and approved by the Scotsman, the Northern Chronicle, and 

 the Inverness Courier, three newspapers, whose position in 

 the past has been one of strong and long-sustained antagon- 

 ism and misrepresentation of the Highland peasantry, and, 

 at the same time, of powerful and steady support of their 

 oppressors and their cruel conduct. 



As if the approval of these landlord organs, and the 

 general disapproval by actual condemnation in distinct 

 terms, or complete silence, of all the other newspapers in 

 the country were not sufficient, we find another distinguished 

 authority on the same side, Mr. Donald Macdonald, Tor- 

 more whose factorial reign in the Isle of Skye, and 

 especially in Glendale, had so much to do in finally secur- 

 ing for us the Commission of Inquiry declaring in a letter, 

 published in the Northern Chronicle, and in the Scotsman, 

 of the nth April, that its composition was, in all respects, 

 " unexceptionable " ; " for," he continues, " I am confident 

 the result [of the Inquiry] will not only prove beneficial to 

 my worthy, but misguided, fellow-islemen, but will also 

 vindicate many sorely-maligned proprietors and factors from 

 the charges made against them by untruthful outside agita- 

 tors, not to speak of others, who, while personally con- 



