Lady Victoria Campbell

162 "AND THEY WAKENT) THE MEN
Yesterday we had a delightful clothing club
social tea. Quite sixty, I think, sat down to it,
and the spirit so hearty. I feel very happy about
it.
The year 1885 saw no improvement in the agita-
tion, and the Duke addressed a letter to his people.
It contains his reasons for seeking the forces of law
and order, and the letter never received any answer
or denial of the facts which he put before the
crofters. In all the evidence given before the various
Commissions (" Land," and others), and in subse-
quent inquiries, not a tittle of evidence could be found
to prove one act of injustice or mismanagement on
the estate over an extended period of years.
Crofters of Tyree,
With great sorrow and extreme reluctance I
have been at last compelled to take legal steps to
enforce law, justice, and common honesty against
a few of your number.
For more than forty years my relations with you
have been not only most peaceful and friendly,
but, more than this, they have been marked by
special cordiality. On all my visits, at intervals,
to the island, and to your cottages, I have felt the
evidence of an old affection, and I have returned
it in helping and rejoicing over the steady and
manifest improvement in your condition.
Only within the last three or four years has
there been any change on the part of any of you,