LAND NATIONALIZATION 277 



of our cause for forty years, and referring me to his poem, 

 " Lament of Cona for the Unpeopling of the Highlands." 

 Five days later he wrote again, saying: 



" I have read every line of your admirable volume on 

 1 Land Nationalization ' with the greatest interest and profit. 

 I agree with every one of your arguments, which are all 

 incontrovertible, and not only lucidly, but triumphantly placed 

 before the reader. They must convince and make converts 

 of every unprejudiced person who will attentively study them 

 with the sole view of arriving at the truth." He then refers 

 to his own writings in the same direction of forty years before, 

 naming " The Cry of the People " — and there are many others 

 — concluding, ' I am afraid that age and ill-health will not 

 allow me to labour much further in the cause ; but what I can 

 do, I will do. If my name is of any use to your society, you 

 are free to it. 



" Believe me, with the highest esteem and regard, 



Yours most cordially, 



Charles Mackay." 



iuurs 



The next day he wrote me again, and as this contains 

 matter of wide public interest, and points to a legal public 

 right which has been, and may still be enforced, I here 

 give it : 



" I omitted in my letter of yesterday to mention a fact, 

 which, if you are unaware of it, may possibly be of interest 

 to you. It is recalled to my mind by the remarks in your 

 book (pages 128, 129) on the closing of large tracts of 

 country by selfish and tyrannical Highland proprietors, for 

 the purpose of creating solitudes for the cultivation and pres- 

 ervation of deer. The practice is clearly illegal, in contra- 

 vention of an old, and unrepealed Scottish law, entitled ' Free 

 Foot in the Wilderness.' Many years ago, when I was editor 

 of the Glasgow Argus, I fought the Duke of Athol in its 

 columns, and appealed to the law, not without success, in the 

 famous Glen Tilt case. I wrote some stinging verses about 

 his grace on the occasion, entitled ' Baron Braemar,' which 

 had a considerable spurt of popularity — which the Queen read, 



