Lady Victoria Campbell

164 "AND THEY WAKEN'D THE MEN
number, being a strong man and of independent
character, resisted intimidation, and got the prize.
But the poor widow was deprived of her freedom,
and of her right to the possible reward of her own
labour and intelligence.
Another widow, whose industry and thrift have
enabled her to educate her son successfully for the
ministry of the Church, in which he is now a highly
respected pastor, has had her little croft invaded
by the son of one of your number, who, not being
allowed, I suppose, by his father to erect a new
house on his croft, has seized upon a portion of the
little possession of a defenceless woman, and has
erected a house upon it, in defiance of her will,
and to her serious damage and inconvenience.
In a third case, another crofter, also a poor
widow, has lately had a number of cattle turned
into her croft, and she dare not drive them off.
Her pasture is consumed by others who have no
right to it, and her enjoyment of her possession
is destroyed.
These outrages are condemned, I have no doubt,
by the great majority of you. But you don't
rebuke them, or resist them openly. They have
been followed in consequence by other outrages,
which imply the sympathy and complicity of a
larger number of persons, and prove the lawless
and growing tyranny which you have allowed to
be established among you. The farm, or township,
of Sandaig is held by crofters, who are among the
most respectable and industrious of all my tenants