Blair Collection > Celtic monthly > Volume 5, 1897

THE CELTIC MONTHLY.
235
Highlands and Islands of Scotland I Anyone
who has travelled over the country cannot fail
to have observed the state of dependence and
poverty, which pervades a large proportion of
the Highland population. The effect of this is
manifest when a sudden calamity occurs, such
as a bad harvest, an unfortunate tishing season,
etc., subjecting the natives to the direst poverty
and destitution, and necessitating appeals to the
whole country for its alleviation. We have
heard much from the learned disquisitions of
Professors and others of the " noble Gaelic
language," "the mother tongue," "the language
spoken by our first parents," etc. It would be
well were we treated to such practical experi-
ments, however, as the Highland and Agricul-
tural Society and their friends some time ago
witnessed on the Duke of Sutherland's estates,
or to the proper development of local manu-
factures, the fisheries, and enterprises of a wise
and safe kind. Even the best natural endow-
ments run to waste for lack of cultivation or
the encouragement needed to make them s[iring
into active life, and if we are asked on whom
the blame for this discreditable state of matters
rests, we fear we must say that it is due, on
the one hand to an inadequate sense of duty
entertained liy the owners of the soil, and on
the other hand to the demoralization which
long years of dependence and poverty have
engendered. If all this is to be changed, we
must in the first instance look to the proprietors
of the soil for improvement, and we have no
fear that, should the encouragement be forth-
coming, the Highlander will be ready to do his
part with credit to himself and advantage to his
landlord. I do not willingly blame; but I know
instances where perhaps, with fair intentions,
all feelings of enterprise, manly independence,
and progress have been eftectually beaten out of
the population as if these qualities were foreign
to the race. It may well be asked in astonish-
ment how progress, which has made such rapid
strides in other parts of the United Kingdom,
has been altogether unknown in many parts of
the Highlands — how it comes that in " this fair
part of creation," the peasant and his cattle
still, in some parts, dwell together under the
same roof, sometimes without even a slender
partition to divide them — burrowing in cabins,
innocent of windows and chimneys, the
inhabitants often half clothed and half fed. I
was on a visit to the Highlands and while
leaving I met a clergyman, and spoke to him of
the desperate state of matters in these places.
Much to my surjirise he laughed at my
complaint, and stated that the people were
healthy and well, and that the construction of
such primitive dwellings, as I have mentioned,
was an anti-septic for disease — was, in fact, a
cure for consumption. I told him that if he
believed in such a doctrine he could put it in
force on himself, and declare it from the house-
tops for the good of the country. In Shetland
there is an island containing a fishing population
in very wretched condition. It is often difficult
to get at, and the minister who officiates there
is obliged to sleep all night on the island. One
of his requisites in visiting the place is "vermin-
killer," which he sprinkles in his bed before
lying down. He often does not go to bed at
all. The whole place is said to be overrun with
vermin. I said to him, " You are to blame for
letting such a state of things exist. Why not
arouse the people to a sense of their duty to
themselves and to society — ' Cleanliness is
next to Godliness ? " In many parts it is
necessary that this should be rung in the ears
of teacher and taught. During the past quarter
of a century the country generally has made
great progress, in which all classes have shared.
But the Highlander has not made the same
progress. In many parts he has suffered much
from getting aid, a system which has taken
away his manhood, and dwarfed and sapped his
independence. Natural circumstances, no doubt,
have contributed to this state of matters — the
long tracts of moorland, sparsely populated —
the many islands removed from the advantages
of larger populated districts — and the " mother
tongue," has still further locked them up within
themselves, and tended to keep them removed
from the influences which have elsewhere
contributed to the material prosjierity of the
country. It is to be hoped that the better system
of education which is in course of being carried
everywhere into effect will do something to go
to the root of the evil. No doubt it will give a
better acquaintance witK the English tongue in
the remote Highlands, and make the pathway
to the temple of knowledge more easy. Other
circumstances being equally favourable, it is to
be hoped that a few years may see an improve-
ment which will make itself felt generally in
the improved social life and j)rosperity of the
people.
Highland E-migration — the only solution
of present difficulties.
The Highlanders are bestirring themselves
all over the country and abroad. Intelligence
is paving the way for inquiry into their history —
their intellectual, social, and political condition
in their native country. If the Highlander
had opportunity — if his education had been
commensurate with his intellectual and moral
qualities, he would not stand to disadvantage
with the Saxon community, as he unquestionably
does in the meantime — he would not be " the
hewer of wood and the drawer of water " that