3lulp 



XXVI 



Not so vehement nor so persistent as of yore has been of 



late the declamation of philanthropists, political 



tide in a economists, and demagogues against the crjang 



Highland crime of deer-forests. The crofters would in- 

 Foreat ■ . 



deed be hard to please if they had derived no 



measure of content from the redress, by successive Com- 

 missions, of their grievances, and the settlement whereby 

 each of them has been created the dominant partner in his 

 holding. At no time were the informed and thoughtful 

 classes in Scotland — the lawyers, traders, and farmers — 

 induced to join the agitation against the exercise of a 

 privilege supposed, or at least alleged, to be implied in 

 clearing ground for deer. So far as they gave any ear to 

 the denunciations which, a few years ago, were hurled 

 from hundreds of platforms, they were perfectly well aware 

 that no 'clearances' whatever had taken place in the 

 interests of mere sport: whatever had been done took 

 place many, many years ago in the sacred cause of money- 

 getting, when it was found that sheep would pay better 

 than grazing let to crofters for their black cattle. Many 

 pathetic scenes might have been witnessed during the 

 first half of the last century: the memory of wholesale 

 eviction and deportation lingers still among the descen- 



150 



