There is but poor comfort, however, to know, when one sees a country
ruined, that the perpetrators of the mischief have not ruined it to
their own advantage. We purpose showing how signal in the case of
Sutherland this ruin has been, and how very extreme the infatuation
which continues to possess its hereditary lord. We are old enough to
remember the county in its original state, when it was at once the
happiest and one of the most exemplary districts in Scotland, and
passed, at two several periods, a considerable time among its hills;
we are not unacquainted with it now, nor with its melancholy and
dejected people, that wear out life in their comfortless cottages on
the sea-shore. The problem solved in this remote district of the
kingdom is not at all unworthy the attention which it seems but
beginning to draw, but which is already not restricted to one kingdom,
or even one continent.
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{1} 'I will go and inquire upon the spot whether the natives of
the county of SUTHERLAND were driven from the land of their birth
by the Countess of that name, and by her husband the Marquis of
Stafford.... I wish to possess authentic information relative to
that "CLEARING" affair; for though it took place twenty years
ago, it may be just as necessary to inquire into it now. It may
be quite proper to inquire into the means that were used to
effect the CLEARING.'--COBBETT.
'It is painful to dwell on this subject' [the present state of
Sutherland]; 'but as information communicated by men of honour,
judgment, and perfect veracity, descriptive of what they daily
witness, affords the best means of forming a correct judgment,
and as these gentlemen, from their situations in life, have no
immediate interest in the determination of the question, beyond
what is dictated by humanity and a love of truth, their authority
may be considered as undoubted.'--GENERAL STEWART of Garth.
'It is by a cruel abuse of legal forms--it is by an unjust
usurpation--that the _tacksman_ and the tenant of Sutherland are
considered as having no right to the land which they have
occupied for so many ages.... A count or earl has no more
right to expel from their homes the inhabitants of his county,
than a king to expel from his country the inhabitants of his
kingdom.'--SISMONDI.
CHAPTER II.