xvii LAND NATIONALIZATION WHY ? AND HOW ? 315 



whole body of crofters were removed because they had 

 good land which the factor wanted : and this is the more 

 credible because many other cases are recorded in which the 

 factors take farms from which the former holders have been 

 evicted. Under the rule of the factors the people may 

 be oppressed and pauperized, even with the most benevo- 

 lent of landlords. Take the case of the late Sir James 

 Matheson, who, in the year 1844, bought the extensive 

 island of Lewis (as large as an average English county) 

 and who is universally admitted to have been personally 

 most benevolent and liberal. Yet under his paternal 

 government tenants were ejected at the will of the factor, 

 and extensive tracts turned into sheep farms and deer 

 forests, and such cruel injustice was perpetrated for years 

 that the people at length rebelled, and then only did 

 their landlord know they had anything to complain of. 

 The Quarterly Review declared that Sir James Matheson 

 made wonderful improvements in Lewis, " pouring out 

 money like water," and spending over 100,000 there, 

 besides giving largely in charity ; and the result was that 

 soon after his death there was famine in Lewis, and the 

 representatives of this wealthy and benevolent landlord 

 were obliged to beg for subscriptions in the city of London 

 to save the people from starvation ! Nothing is said about 

 the sheep and deer of the island ; no doubt they were fat 

 and flourishing and gave handsome returns, whereas men 

 and women were encumbrances and had to be kept alive 

 by charity ! What a cruel satire is this. An enormously 

 rich country, which taxes its people heavily under the 

 pretence that it dispenses justice and gives protection to 

 all ; which is highly civilised and highly religious ; and 

 which yet upholds a system under which large masses of 

 its subjects have no right to live but by the permission of 

 landlords and their irresponsible agents ! 



I cannot here go further into this distressing subject, 

 but must again refer my readers to the easily accessible 

 sources of information I have quoted. I will only give 

 one passage from a writer of full knowledge and authority, 

 Dr. D. G. F. Macdonald, to show that my conclusions are 

 not the result of prejudice or imperfect knowledge : 



