been led by the famous Flora Macdonald, the guide and deliverer of Charles Edward. This colony was planted in North Carolina, and in the memory of men still living there were seven or eight congregations in which the Gaelic language was preached in the neighbourhood of Fayetteville, in that State. The writer has heard a story of a newly imported Highlander being struck with horror on hearing a negro speak Gaelic fluently, as it was the belief of the Highlanders that the great Enemy of mankind could never speak that language.

This early emigration might have been even more extensive, were it not checked by the rise of the kelp manufacture. This great branch of industry sprang very rapidly into importance towards the close of the last century. The commerce of the nation was at the time advancing at a rate of extraordinary rapidity, and with this progress the manufacture of kelp from seaweed, with a view to obtaining certain salts important in manufactures, kept pace for a considerable series of years. A change in the amount of duty on salt and sulphur, and some other imported articles, reduced the value of kelp to a point at which it was hardly worth manufacturing. In the new statistical account of the island of S. Uist, it is stated that during the heat of the kelp trade in the beginning of this century, the yearly rental of the estate of Clanranald, in that island, was £15,000, and that the change in the value of this article by the alteration referred to in the duties upon other commodities, reduced the sum to £5,000. Previous to 1796 it was £2,200. It would thus appear that the manufacture of kelp tripled the value of land. It had also the effect of encouraging the population. Out of a population of 7,329 in 1841, there were 1,872 persons in S. Uist engaged in kelp making. Thirty years previously, the number must have been much larger. The writer has heard an old man, a native of North Uist, say that about forty years ago there was no part of Her Majesty's dominions where it was so easy for a poor man to live as that island. The cry of destitution from the Long Island since that period has been such as to ring in the ears of the whole empire.

Other influences, besides the one stated, were at the same time operative in inducing the Highlanders to emigrate. Sheriff Brown refers to three in the cases of as many properties largely thinned as to population about the end of last century, viz., Lord Macdonald's, Clanranald's, and Glengarry's. The statement of these shows the necessity of exercising caution in coming to a conclusion as to the causes of emigration in any one case. He states that the emigration on Lord Macdonald's property arose from a combination among the tacksmen to obstruct certain measures which his lordship considered advantageous for himself and the body of the people. What these were he does not mention. But it would appear that the contemplated changes were unpopular. In the case of Clanranald, Mr. Brown attributes the removal of the people to religious differences, a large number of the tenants being Roman Catholics, and unpleasant

dissensions having arisen between them and the Protestants on religious topics. In the case of Glengarry, from which almost the whole population emigrated, he states that the cause of their removal was an attempt by several cadets of the family to outwit each other in securing beneficial leases of the best parts of that property.

The Earl of Selkirk traces a large proportion of the emigration . from the Highlands to the introduction of the system of sheep-farms. Sheriff Brown meets his lordship's statement on this subject by saying that emigration commenced before sheep-farming was known, adding that sheep-farming does not necessarily restrict the extent of the soil adapted for the support of the population, inasmuch as the hills devoted to the pasture of sheep had never been used for pastoral purposes by the older tenantry, and were therefore altogether lost. There may be some truth in this last statement, but it is well known that practically sheep-farming has led to an immense amount of emigration. In evidence of this it is only necessary to quote the case of the county of Sutherland, where the introduction of the system of sheep-farms has led almost to the peopling of Cape Breton, and a large portion of Prince Edward's Island. Nor could it well be otherwise, seeing that during the inclement portion of the year sheep require the shelter of the low grounds with their more nutritious pasture, and that in order to furnish them with this, the land must be cleared. Whole parishes in Sutherland have in this way been cleared of their population, who will now be found in large numbers cultivating the forests of America. Portions of Sutherland have become desert, while America is stocked in several parts with its people.

Poverty has driven many of the inhabitants of the Highlands to emigrate. Since the failure of the potato crop in 1846 this cause has operated with increased effect. The means of subsistence are diminished at home, and must be found elsewhere. Some of the emigrants from this cause find their way to the colonies, while a large number crowd into the towns, and add much to the existing mass of pauperism and distress there. The influence of this emigration upon the social state of the large cities of Scotland is very marked. It does not tell to the same extent as that from Ireland, but if proper statistics were obtained, the writer is convinced from his own observation in this city, that it tells much more extensively than is generally supposed.

A large amount of emigration arises from the spirit of enterprise existing among the Highland people. This most creditable cause has produced a very large portion of it in every part of the country. It has been a very common idea that there was less enterprise among the Celtic population of Britain than among the Anglo-Saxon. That may seem true, judging of the progress they have made at home. But all the modifying circumstances must here be taken into account. A large proportion of the inhabitants of the Hebrides are Teutons, although speaking the Gaelic language. Recent circumstances have

depressed them equally with their Celtic neighbours. A comparison. between the Teutonic population of Shetland and the industrious prosperous Celts of Perthshire will show how circumstances are more powerful in their operation than the influence of race. The Celt is naturally as enterprising as the Saxon: he was originally a wanderer seeking to better his circumstances like him, and the spirit clings to his descendants of modern times. The writer usually signs certificates for about a dozen young men and women, natives of the Highlands, who emigrate annually from his own congregation in this city. If each of the four hundred Gaelic-speaking ministers in the Highlands do on an average the same, it will show about five thousand young persons who annually leave the Highlands in the hope of bettering their social state. The expense of these emigrants is usually borne partly by themselves and partly by Colonial Govern

ments.

All these causes together have contributed to furnish a large annual stream of emigration from the Scottish Highlands for the last hundred years-a fact amply evidenced by the mass of Gaelicspeaking settlers found scattered over the British colonies and the United States. Cape Breton, Prince Edward's Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and both the Canadas contain a large Gaelic population. Australia and New Zealand have recently attracted even a larger number than America, while, besides the older settlements in North Carolina, the mass of the population in Caledonia County, state of New York, are of Highland extraction; and there are large settlements in the state of Ohio, besides numerous families and individual settlers in other parts of the United States. Highland names are numerous among the generals of the United States armies on both sides in the present civil war.

The effects of this extensive emigration on the social condition of the Highland population is a question of deep interest. On the emigrants themselves there is little doubt that, generally, the effect has been to improve their circumstances. The writer of this paper has visited most of the Highland settlements in both the Canadas, and from personal observation he can testify that there is a large amount of physical comfort among the people, although one will hear the common remark among the settlers, that they have escaped the landlord to fall into the hands of the storekeeper, to whom they are very usually in debt, and who is by no means the less exacting of the two, or the less ready to have recourse to a process of eviction. At the same time, in judging of the happiness of a people, allowance must be made for moral as well as physical considerations. The Highlander is deeply attached to his native land, and it is doubtful whether he ever comes to cherish a real home feeling in that of his adoption. The writer has met in America with hundreds of cases, where the mind reverted with inexpressible longing towards the old country, with all its hardships, even amidst the physical abundance of a Canadian settlement, and where the circumstances that constrained the separation were deeply mourned. As has been well said, the twig

torn from its place still continued to drop drops of blood. At the same time the physical comfort is a decided gain, although there are numerous cases where even this gain has not been made. There is much poverty in many of the Canadian settlements.

The influence of emigration on the social condition of the home population cannot be judged of from a mere cursory view. There are districts where it has relieved the population who remain, by leaving room for judicious management on the part of the landowners improving the condition of their tenantry, by furnishing them with suitable holdings. In the valleys of the Spey, the Findhorn, and the Nairn, the effect of this is very manifest. A declining population has led to a marked amelioration in the appearance of the country and in the condition of the people. In these extensive districts the lands are chiefly held by the native tenantry, but these have received at the hands of judicious and considerate landlords such treatment, as that they have risen rapidly with the general improvement of the country, and all parties have been gainers. In other portions of the country it has been the reverse. The home population has been sinking in spite of emigration, and are likely to sink, until it may be necessary for the Legislature to interfere to prevent the starvation of whole families. The effects of the removal of a large body of the people upon the remanent population, would thus seem to depend entirely upon the purpose to which their removal is turned by the owners of the soil. Where taken advantage of, so as to give the full benefit to the people left behind, the removal from certain districts of a portion of the people has served to promote the social welfare of the rest.

It may, however, be interesting before proceeding further in this direction, to look at the influence of this movement, as indicated by the state of the population in the Highland counties. According to the old statistical account, the population of the counties of Argyll, Inverness, Caithness, Perth, Ross, and Sunderland was, in 1755, 332,332; in 1790-98 it was 392,263; the increase during that period being 49,931. In 1821 the population of the same counties was, according to the Government census, 447,307, being a further increase of 65,044. In 1861 the census presents to us a total of 449,875, indicating a further increase of 2,568. So that in the 40 most prosperous years of the British empire the population of the Highlands, including the Lowland parts of Perthshire and Caithness, increased only to the extent of 2,568 souls. But a glance at the population of individual counties presents us with a still more remarkable state of things. The number of inhabitants in the county of Argyll in 1821 was 97,371; in 1861 it was 79,724, being a decrease of 17,647 souls. In 1821 the population of the county of Inverness was 89,961; in 1861 it was 88,888, being a decrease of 1,073 souls. In 1821 the population of Perthshire was 138,247; in 1861 it was 133,500, showing a decrease of 4,747 souls. During the same period, Ross-shire rose from 68,762 to 81,406; Sutherland from 23,840 to 25,246; and Caithness from 29,181 to

41,111. So that while the three southern Highland counties decreased in population to the extent of 23,467, the three northern increased to the extent of 25,980. Taking these facts in connexion with the general rate of increase in the population of Scotland, which in the face of a large emigration, amounting in the decennial period from 1851 to 1861 to 183,627 souls, has increased from 2,091,521 to 3,062,294, it will appear that the Highland counties have contributed more than their proportion to the general emigration of the country by one-third, and that with them as a whole the population has been stationary, while Scotland has over all added one-third to the number of its inhabitants. The Highland county, as we call it, which has increased most steadily in the number of its people, is the mixed agricultural and fishing county of Caithness. Since 1790-98 its population has nearly doubled, being as 24,802 to 41,111. along side of this it is of interest to place the valued rental. The old valuation of Caithness gave £2,970; that of 1862-3 gave £100,535. It is instructive further to place alongside of this the pastoral county of Sutherland. The old valued rental of this county, made at the same time, was £2,266; or £704 less than that of Caithness. In 1862-3 it was £56,231, or £49,304 per annum less. This discrepancy seems to present a state of things not a little suggestive to owners of lands in the Highlands as indicative of the system of management likely to bring them the largest returns from their property. If Sutherland had kept pace with Caithness in its progress, its rental should at this moment have been £70,664, or £14,343 per annum more than it is.

But

In large sections of the Highlands emigration has been accompanied with extensive changes, in the relative position of the inhabitants. Almost all the interior valleys of the country are becoming denuded of population. These are possessed generally by sheep farmers, who rear wool and mutton to a large value. More recently deer have begun to supplant these, and bring a large revenue from the sport they afford. At this moment, from the line of the Caledonian Canal, near Fort William, to Cape Wrath, a distance of 200 miles, is one continuous deer forest. It is impossible for a popula

tion of any extent to exist in such circumstances. Sheep require the low lands; and whether they require them or not, deer will have them, being to the agriculturist the most destructive of all fourfooted animals. Hence the tendency of the population in the Highlands is in a markedly increasing degree towards the seacoasts, accompanied in most cases with a decided deterioration in their circumstances. These interior valleys reared by far the finest body of men to be found in the Highlands. Hence there will be found, where such a change has taken place, a population stationary, or perhaps increasing in point of numbers, but declining in point of material comfort and prosperity.

It has already been stated that in certain sections of the eastern Highlands emigration seems to have been instrumental in promoting the material interests of the general population; in the west

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