264 LISMORE. GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 



lation from native grain is here of considerable importance ; 

 since the destination of a great portion of the barley grown 

 in the Highlands is to this object. It is unnecessary to 

 enter on the question so often examined, relative to the 

 general policy of distillation from grain ; it is perhaps too 

 popular a subject to admit of being always discussed with 

 that freedom from prejudices which all economical questions 

 require.*' It is certain that the present scale of Highland 

 rents, in many places, could not subsist without it ; since the 

 price of grain would in such districts fall to a rate which 

 would render its production impossible, and a great portion 

 of the land now in cultivation would be eventually thrown 

 into pasture. It is obvious that it is thus the interest of the 

 proprietors to permit at least, if not to countenance distilla- 

 tion; and unless where a profligate conduct in the distiller, 

 leading to a neglect of his particular farm, produces occa- 

 sional loss to the land owner, he is a gainer by the illicit 

 trade in consequence of the increased produce of his 

 land and the superior price of that produce. A stronger 

 instance of this can scarcely be given than that which 

 occurred in Isla in 1815, when barley was at double the 

 price which it bore in the Lothians, although the crop was- 

 abundant. The new regulations recently adopted respect- 

 ing the licensing of small stills in the Highlands, will now, 

 it is probable, remove all causes of complaint ; by giving 

 the Highland proprietor, like his neighbour of the low 

 country, a fair price for his grain, or that price at least to 



* That it offers an important resource in cases of deficient crops, has 

 been effectually argued. A decided practical proof of this occurred here 

 in the year 1813, well remembered for its scarcity, and for the restric- 

 tions on distillation by which that was accompanied. In that year 

 scarcely any whiskey was to be procured in the islands; many were 

 entirely destitute. On asking the reason of a native in Jura, he stated 

 the scarcity of oatmeal as the cause ; " We must now make all our bear 

 into bannocks/' was the answer: no stronger illustration of the practical 

 convertibility of spirits into food could have been offered. 



