( 74 ) 



to two shillings in the pound, which is the rate now, 

 I have said enough to show how unfounded is the 

 statement as to increasing poverty. 

 With two excep. Irejoicetobe able to add that althoiiojh I object strondy 



tions all the farms i.. . ., /-i ^ 



held by High- to the exclusion 01 '' strangers irom the possession 



landers. q£ farms, especially when they bring new knowledge 



and new skill into remote and backward districts, 



yet, as a matter of fact, all my farms in Mull and lona, 



with only two exceptions, are held by Highlanders. 



Every step to- Before concluding this paper I think it not unim- 



ment duriiif' last portaiit to point out a fact which has struck me much 



130 years has been [^^ readino* the old documents to which I have referred, 



taken by Pro- . ^ r • ^ ■ 1 • -i n 



prietor and not by and that fact IS this, — that every single step towards 

 V^^^^^' improvement which has been taken during the last 



1 30 years, has been taken by the proprietor and not 

 by the people. And not onl}'- so, but every one of 

 these steps, without exception, has been taken against 

 the prevailing opinions and feelings of the people at 

 the time. " All in this farm very poor and against any 

 change" — such is the description repeated over and 

 over again in a detailed report on each farm sent to 

 my grandfather in 1803,. when he was contemplating 

 those changes which were then absolutely necessary. 

 Great poverty and great ignorance are always '* against 

 any change." They are invariably associated with 

 a languor of mind which is incompatible with the 

 possibility of improvement. The very desire of 

 better things is absent — and even if the desire ex- 

 isted the means would still be wan tin of. Under such 

 conditions every reform must begin outside the 

 people and absolutely requires to be pressed upon 

 them. I am not speaking merely of the outlays of 

 money which come from capital. I am speaking of 



