xxxiv] LAND NATIONALIZATION 257 



farm close to the town of St Pierre, with the usual large 

 vinery under glass. While here, we thoroughly discussed the 

 land and other questions, and though I could not quite convert 

 him, we agreed generally in our political and social heresies. 



Among the most esteemed of the friends I owed to " Land 

 Nationalization," were two eminent Scotchmen, both poets, 

 and both ardent lovers of justice and humanity — Professor J. 

 Stuart Blackie and Charles Mackay. The former wrote to 

 me in July, 1882, saying that he had just finished the 

 " careful study " of my " Land Nationalization," and that he 

 was " happy to find it so much in accordance with my oldest 

 and most mature speculations, and — what is of more impor- 

 tance — observations on the subject." He sent me a copy of 

 his small volume, " Alteriora," with a chapter on the " Suther- 

 land Clearances," and he concluded, "As to your remedy for 

 the gigantic evils which our present system of land laws 

 entail, they recommend themselves strongly to every con- 

 sistent thinker." 



Both he and I 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. His sons were at that 

 time alive, and protested against the publication. Both our 

 publishers 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 



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