546 HISTORY OF THE OUTER HEBRIDES. 



tions. To the gentlemen of their clan the duinewassels 

 they gave leases ; and the latter, in turn, sub-let on such 

 terms as enabled them to sit rent-free. The era of the 

 tacksmen set in, and in some respects the peasantry were 

 worse off than ever. The sub-tenants were entirely at the 

 mercy of the tacksmen, who occasionally exercised their 

 power in a more oppressive manner than the chiefs had 

 ever done. Unprejudiced observers in the latter half of the 

 eighteenth century, give clear testimony of the hardships 

 entailed by tenure from the tacksmen. These leasehold 

 lairdlings were undoubtedly under strong temptation to 

 overstep the bounds of fairness and justice. They were 

 men of education and experience, while the lower classes 

 were steeped in ignorance and poverty, and thoroughly op- 

 posed to change. The conservatism of their character, and 

 the unparalleled cheapness of labour, facilitated the imposi- 

 tion of the monstrous " services " which were exacted from 

 them by right of ancient usage. By these " services," the 

 people were bled from their birth to their dying day ; and 

 by these "services," the leaseholders fattened on their 

 inferiors. The tacksmen who rose superior to the obvious 

 opportunities of tyranny, afforded by so iniquitous a system, 

 were worthy of respect ; just as the chiefs who, in spite of 

 Celtic feudalism, retained the patriarchal regard for their 

 clansmen which was the basis of the tribal polity, are 

 also deserving of praise. In each case, it was the system 

 that was at fault, and it was the system that transformed 

 otherwise honourable men into the instruments of cruel 

 injustice and gross despotism. When the tacksmen, as 

 a class, disappeared from the Long Island the surplus 

 produce being found insufficient to support the two sets 

 of landlords the evils were greatly mitigated, but not 

 altogether eradicated. Factors, clothed in a little brief 

 authority by absentee landlordism, endeavoured in some 

 instances to revive some of the ancient exactions. Even 

 as recently as the second half of the nineteenth century, 

 the autocratic sway of certain factors in the Long Island 

 particularly in Lewis was exercised in a manner which 



