( 63 ) 



complaint would have elicited facts proving its 

 absurdity. But instead of any such cross-examina- 

 tion, one of the Koyal Commissioners, Professor 

 Mackinnon, is reported to have put the following 

 question to the manager of the Seaweed Company : — 

 " That is to say, the Duke takes two rents for the 

 same piece of land — one from you and one from the 

 crofters ? '' This implied censure, put in the form of 

 a question, is an excellent example of the sort of 

 claptrap that is now prevalent on all questions 

 connected with the management of land. Upon no 

 other subject — in respect to no other kind of business 

 — would any ear be open to such departures from 

 reason and from common sense. If it were possible 

 for an owner of land to devise a dozen different uses 

 for any part of it, he could only be serving better the 

 public interest in so doing. He could only be meet- 

 ing the wants of a larger portion of the whole Gom- 

 munity. Yet Professor Mackinnon seems to think 

 that it must necessarily be an unjust or an injurious 

 thing for a proprietor of land to let it for two oi 

 three separate uses to two or three separate persons, 

 each of them paying separately for the particular 

 use which is of value to him. A moment's considera- 

 tion, or the most elementary knowledge, would have 

 enabled him to recognise the fact that this is a trans- 

 action of the commonest kind and of the most perfect 

 equity. It is as just, for example, as that a Professor 

 should charge two separate fees for two separate courses 

 of instruction. If Professor Mackinnon were to give 

 two distinct courses of lectures, one on the Celtic lan- 

 guage, and another on the Sanscrit language, and if he 

 were to charo;e, as he would have the best right to do. 



