I2 THE HIGHLAND CLEARANCES. 



versant with local conditions, have not scrupled to throw 

 out inferences which no view of the facts can justify ". 



With a testimonial like this, and from such a quarter, it 

 would be a pure waste of space to say another word on the 

 composition and character of the Royal Commission to 

 inquire into the grievances of the crofters in the Highlands 

 and Islands, composed, as it is r of four landed proprietors, 

 one lawyer (who is also a landed proprietor's son), and the 

 Professor of Celtic in the University of Edinburgh, who 

 never exhibited any special interest in, or so far as known, 

 paid, any special attention to the subject of the inquiry, and 

 whose time, in the opinion of many of the subscribers to 

 the Celtic Chair Fund, would have been far better and 

 more consistently employed in the necessary preparation for 

 the important duties of his chair. 



It is to be hoped, however, that the criticism so freely 

 heaped upon the Commissioners, from so many quarters, 

 may result in good, and that their conduct will show, in the 

 end, that they fully realise the responsibility imposed upon 

 them by their position in a great crisis in the history of the 

 Highlands. If so, that criticism will not have been alto- 

 gether in vain. 



This account of the Isle of Skye during the most im- 

 portant period of its history for several generations in its 

 bearing on the social state of its people and those of the 

 Highlands generally, may be appropriately concluded by a 

 quotation from " St. Michael and the Preacher, a Tale from 

 Skye, by the Rev. Donald MacSiller, Minister of the [New] 

 Gospel, Portree," a satirical poem of great power, published 

 in January last. The views expressed by the author are 

 undoubtedly advanced, but they are quite justified by the 

 state of affairs which we know to exist in the island, and 

 which most assuredly will be disclosed to a still greater 



