BARRA. FISHERIES. 73 



towards the government ; an attachment to which is one 

 of the most striking traits of the Highlander's character, 

 to him who has been accustomed to the political ill-humour 

 of the lower orders in England. These grievances are 

 generally however the consequence of circumstances so 

 essentially interwoven in the system of the country, as 

 to be irremediable ; often proceeding more or less directly 

 from a crowded population, from poverty, and from the 

 remoteness of the situation. In a few instances, they 

 appear rather to be traditional than real; the gradual 

 influence of a number of concurring circumstances, having 

 long since removed most causes of complaint. If we 

 consider the general poverty of the people, the distance 

 of the seats of justice, the great competition for land, 

 and the dependance on the landlord thence generated, 

 together with the accumulated influence which the situa- 

 tion of proprietor and magistrate combined, gives to 

 the great landholders or their agents, it is gratifying 

 to reflect that so little just cause of complaint exists. 

 The instances of oppression which are occasionally related 

 to strangers, will be found to belong to a period now 

 for some time past; nor^ndeed are the people willing 

 to submit to an improper use of power, even if their 

 superiors were inclined to exert it. If the southern tra- 

 veller imagines that be sees the spirit of feudal government 

 still hovering over the dead body, he will also see that 

 it has long lost its hold over the minds of the people. 



A suggestion has recently been made, which would re- 

 move one inconvenience frequently represented to strangers 

 in their visits to this country. It relates to the collec- 

 tion of taxes. The produce of these being so small, no 

 collector is appointed to receive them on the spot, and 

 they must therefore be paid at the county town, which 

 in the case of the island now under review, is Inverness. 

 The inconvenience that may hence arise, in the case of 

 errors, is obvious. It has been proposed to place the 

 collection in the hands of the officers of excise, whose 

 leisure, arid residence on the spot, would enable them 



