Blair Collection > Celtic monthly > Volume 5, 1897

236
THE CELTIC MONTHLY.
he presently is in the Highland district. He is
as "the serf bound to the soil," "the soldier to
be shot at for a shilling a day for his country's
fame and glory ! " The poor Highlander has
had to flee from his country for the sheer
preservation of physical life — not because the
land could not maintain him, but because it is
not allowed to do it. The miserable condition
of the Highlanders, in many parts of the High-
lands, in all the social relations of life, is a
disgrace to any civilized country. (The cattle
in many cases are better housed and taken care
of than the Highlander.) In his mountain
fastness he is excluded from seeing the world he
lives in, and thus, the Highlanders, comparing
themselves with themselves cultivate a spirit of
self-satisfaction, till they feel no induceuient to
protitable and honourable e.xertion. They even
get into a state of mental and bodily torpor
which is incompatible with all progress or
improvement. Want of education is one of the
greatest hindrances in the way of their thorough
elevation. And their being able to communi-
cate only in the Gaelic language shuts them out
entirely from the larger world with which they
should be rubbing shoulders. Thus they are
excluded from the influences of the teeming
populations outside themselves, from all the
imi)ulses, the pulpit, the platform, the press,
in English communicate. Their birth-right is
thus taken away, and is it any wonder therefore
that they are in the state that has been
described 1
I am not going into the attractive subject of
Celtic literature, valuable as it is, but I want to
ask your attention to another subject — " What
is to elevate the poor Highlander from his
present deplorable condition 1 " This question,
it is humbly thought, should take precedence
of all others. The Highlanders as a people,
mentally and physically depressed, are not in a
position to make much progress in life. I look
upon the people as I And them, and do not, for
the present, raise the question what has brought
them into this condition. DiSerences of opinion
may arise as to that, but there is no diflerence
of opinion as to the fact that the peo])lc should
be extricated from their present deplorable
state. What mean all those social public
annual gatherings of Highlanders over the two
hemispheres ! They are the men and women
who had the courage and power, or on whom
necessity was laid, to leave their native glen or
mountain home, the quiet lochside or humble
hamlet, to honestly earn the merest jihysical
necessities of life which they could not get in
the country of their birth. The dwellers in
these mountain ranges have a physique denied
the denizen of the city. They import into our
large cities not only elements for the perpetua-
ting or building up of a strong healthN- race,
but they also give them a people who are
earnest, diligent, and of the very highest moral
qualities. It is also well known that High-
landers take their position in society — whether
as merchants, or in the learned professions, or
as statesmen. They have been found in the
very highest stations, taking the foremost places
in the best and most cultivated society. But
while you are thus enriching the cities, you
are depopulating the Highlands. Why not ?
The Highlander cannot get the merest physical
existence amid his native mountains. In the
cities he rises to respect and distinction, gets
an honourable living for himself and his family,
and becomes a blessing to society. An exodus
from the Highlands will enrich the people, and
the countries they go to. What u.se is it to
the Highlander to live in those mountain glens,
however beautiful, extolled in prose and poetry —
if he cannot live? He cannot live on the air]
I now come to the great climax of my
argument. I would encoui'agc the depopulation
of the Highlands, not as a service to the Innd-
owners who may wish to get clear of a too
numerous tenantry, but as a service to the
Highlandei'S themselves — to benefit their
condition. Depopulate the Highlands ! it is
said. Why not get the laws respecting the
land altered so that the people could live
contented and happy, as one of our national poets
has expressed it : —
" A virtuous populace may rise the while.
And stand a wall of fire around their much-lov'd
isle."
Why not get the laws altered to realise such a
picture as that where you could grow your own
wool, and spin it by the ever-recurring water-
falls that abound so abundantly in the High-
lands, develop its mineral resources, its fishings,
and agriculture. In reply to all this it is
sufticient to say that the landowners and the
legislature have all been trying for generations
to get the grievances put right, but without the
least efTeot ; and at the present moment the
evils are intensified by English sportsmen
getting the whole Highland districts at a high
rental, or buying the estates at a great price for
the purpose of sport. If anyone thinks he is
to get matters put right after the experience of
so many years, he must be a very sanguine
person —must hope against hope — and liy the
time the grass grows the animal may be dead.
It is said city life is artificial and soon runs
itself out, therefore you must not depopulate
the Highlands, but keep it up to su])ply new
blood for our cities. To keep up the Highlands
for such a purpose is as bad as to keep up the
Highlander to be shot at, as formerly _stated.