EDUCATION. 531 



the inhabitants of Barra were all Protestants ; they were 

 proselytised during the reign of Charles II. 



About 1796, according to the Old Statistical Account, 

 there were two schools in the parish of Stornoway the 

 parochial and the Society's besides a spinning school. 

 In the parish of Barvas, there had been no parochial school 

 " for many years back," but the proprietor was about to 

 supply the deficiency, and there was a Society's school at 

 Ness. There were two spinning schools in the parish. In 

 Lochs, there were a parochial and a Society's school (both 

 newly erected), and two spinning schools. In Uig, there 

 were two schools "lately erected," and three spinning 

 schools. In Harris, there was a parish school (at Rodil), 

 and another school was about to be built by the Society, 

 which had already established a seminary for girls at 

 Rodil. North Uist and Barra each had a school, the one 

 in Barra having been erected by the Society. 



The people did not take kindly to education, being 

 suspicious of its results. Some of the teachers had little 

 to do, but they formed useful substitutes for the ministers, 

 when the latter were absent from their parishes. Lord Sea- 

 forth exerted himself in this, as in other directions, for the 

 improvement of his tenantry, but he found it difficult to 

 overcome their prejudices. Their argument was, that their 

 children would leave them as the result of education. It 

 is curious to find an argument, which was used a hundred 

 years ago against education, being employed at the present 

 day in its favour, as forming the chief factor in the future 

 solution of the problem of congestion. 



In the first quarter of the nineteenth century, the Gaelic 

 School Society of Inverness turned its attention to the 

 Long Island. The parent Society was founded in Edin- 

 burgh in 1811, and in 1818, the Inverness Society was 

 instituted, having as its object, the promotion of education 

 among the poor of the Highlands and Isles. As an indica- 

 tion of the vigorous efforts put forth by this Society, it may 

 be stated that when, in 1825, it published its Moral 

 Statistics, there were in Lewis nineteen schools, of which 



