Books and other items printed in Gaelic from 1871 to 1900 > Feamaim Earraghaidhiell = Argyllshire seaweed

EVENTS OF THE PAST YEAR. 53
character who, in other regions than the field of battle,
have sacrificed themselves for their country.
Now, we have many eminent lawyers promoted—■
bankers, brewers, merchants—of whom it would be as
impossible to say that their Uves were not of great use,
as it would be impossible to say that they had sacri¬
ficed themselves for their country. But some I know
who have done so, who have obtained (and they did
not expect any) no national recognition, but who have
done so much for their country in the way of sacrifice
as to deserve recognition; such men I should, from
time to time, elevate to the House of Peers—for
noble, truly, they are. Such men as these, for
example:—During the cotton famine, when most
of the mills were stopped, because it was ruin to their
proprietors to go on, some still were kept open. I
said to one of the proprietors, " Are you not working
at a great loss ?" "I have lost," said he, " in one year
all I made in five; but," he added, " I will lose every
farthing I possess before these workmen be turned
adrift with their wives and families." Now, should
not such men be made peers ? We cannot truly
ennoble them, and they do not need it, they are noble
already; but we may mark our sense of our estimation
of them, by placing them among the notables of the
nation. Would that it were possible to disenfran¬
chise those who are only noble by title, but who are
not so in any other way, and to put such as these in
their place. But we must proceed.
Whatever changes are made in the details of our
Government, it is very desirable that no fundamental