MY LIFE 



Both he and J suffered some inconvenience from having 

 mentioned the name of the agent who carried out the terrible 

 Sutherland evictions in the first two decades of the nineteenth 

 century, as it is given in all the early narratives, as well as in 

 the report of the trial of the agent for arson and murder, 

 when, of course, he was acquitted. I lis sons were at that time 

 alive, and protested against the puhlication. Both our pub- 

 lishers were frightened. Professor Blackie withdrew his book, 

 and published a second edition much cut down. I placed 

 mine in the hands of a new publisher, and I promised that in 

 a new edition I would omit the name of the agent, but refused 

 to make any alterations in the statements of facts. 



Three years later (in December, 1885), when I was lectur- 

 ing- in Edinburgh, I had the great pleasure of meeting Pro- 

 fessor Blackie. I was staying with the late Mr. Robert Cox, 

 at whose house the Professor was an intimate. He called 

 soon after I arrived, and on hearing my name, he cordially 

 embraced me (in the continental fashion) as one with whom 

 he was in complete sympathy, and then threw himself upon 

 the rug to talk to Mrs. Cox. Afterwards I had a long con- 

 versation with him on all the subjects that interested us most, 

 and was delighted with his geniality no less than with his 

 intense human sympathy, especially in the case of the cruelly 

 disinherited Highlanders. 



Although I had for many years been a great admirer of 

 Charles Mackay's Songs and Poems, and that I was quite 

 near him while we lived at Dorking, from August, 1876, to 

 March, 1878, I did not make his acquaintance till some years 

 afterwards, as, owing to my constitutional shyness, I do not 

 think I ever made the first overtures to any man, or even 

 called upon any one without some previous correspondence 

 or introduction. But several years later I sent him a copy 

 of my "Land Nationalization" (I think probably on the 

 suggestion of some one who knew him), with a letter begging 

 his acceptance of it. This brought me three letters in rapid 

 succession — one acknowledging it, saying he had been very 

 ill for six months, but adding that he had been an adherent 



