BENBECULA. HIGHLAND POPULATION. 115 



and the statement is always adorned with an eulogium on the 

 military character and the military propensities of the natives. 

 The character of those who are soldiers admits of no ques- 

 tion, but it must not be made use of to cover an unfounded 

 assertion respecting their military propensities. They are 

 every where notedly averse to the army, and I do not say 

 without abundant information that it probably would be 

 impossible to raise a single recruit by beat of drum, or 

 a single volunteer for the navy, throughout the islands ; 

 more particularly in those where the population is the most 

 crowded and most needy ; in other words where the ancient 

 habits are most prevalent. It is doubtful if the whole of 

 the islands possess at this moment an hundred men in 

 both services. Sky with a population of at least 16,000 

 has not a man in the army. The same is true of Arran, less 

 remote yet equally under the influence of the ancient 

 system.* It is not here meant that the effectual demand 

 for labour in the islands is such as to prevent any part of 

 the population from being removed for military service 

 without detriment to the agriculture. Far from it, but the 

 practical result is the same, and it arises from the divided 

 and universal possession of land. Recruits are never easily 

 obtained from agricultural labourers, for reasons well 

 know T n, and still less can they be procured among those 

 who are the possessors or the occupiers of land, be those 

 occupancies ever so small. If recruits should be raised in 

 the islands they would be found in Isla, not in Sky, nor in 

 the Long Island. This is a condition of society in which 

 military conscription becomes, in cases of need, imperious, 

 since no other mode of forming an army remains ; and the 

 example of France, in which so large a portion of the land 

 became occupied in a similar manner in consequence of the 

 revolution and its events, while it illustrates the present 

 case, justifies the necessity of the measures there adopted. 



* Since this was written the agricultural system of Arran lias been 

 changed. 1818. 



