In many parts of Argyllshire the people have been weeded out none the
less effectively, that the process generally was of a milder nature
than that adopted in some of the places already described. By some
means or other, however, the ancient tenantry have largely disappeared
to make room for the sheep farmer and the sportsman. Mr. Somerville,
Lochgilphead, writing on this subject, says, “The watchword of all
is exterminate, exterminate the native race. Through this monomania
of landlords the cottier population is all but extinct; and the
substantial yeoman is undergoing the same process of dissolution.” He
then proceeds:--
“About nine miles of country on the west side of Loch Awe, in
Argyllshire, that formerly maintained 45 families, are now rented by
one person as a sheep farm; and in the island of Luing, same county,
which formerly contained about 50 substantial farmers, besides
cottiers, this number is now reduced to about six. The work of eviction
commenced by giving, in many cases, to the ejected population,
facilities and pecuniary aid for emigration; but now the people
are turned adrift, penniless and shelterless, to seek a precarious
subsistence on the sea-board, in the nearest hamlet or village,
and in the cities, many of whom sink down helpless paupers on our
poor-roll; and others, festering in our villages, form a formidable
Arab population, who drink our money contributed as parochial relief.
This wholesale depopulation is perpetrated, too, in a spirit of
invidiousness, harshness, cruelty, and injustice, and must eventuate
in permanent injury to the moral, political, and social interests
of the kingdom.... The immediate effects of this new system are the
dissociation of the people from the land, who are virtually denied
the right to labour on God’s creation. In L----, for instance, garden
ground and small allotments of land are in great demand by families,
and especially by the aged, whose labouring days are done, for the
purpose of keeping cows, and by which they might be able to earn an
honest, independent maintenence for their families, and whereby their
children might be brought up to labour instead of growing up vagabonds
and thieves. But such, even in our centres of population, cannot be
got; the whole is let in large farms and turned into grazing. The few
patches of bare pasture, formed by the delta of rivers, the detritus
of rocks, and tidal deposits, are let for grazing at the exorbitant
rent of £3 10s. each for a small Highland cow; and the small space to
be had for garden ground is equally extravagant. The consequence of
these exorbitant rents and the want of agricultural facilities is a
depressed, degraded, and pauperised population.”
These remarks are only too true, and applicable not only in
Argyllshire, but throughout the Highlands generally.
A deputation from the Glasgow Highland Relief Board, consisting of Dr.
Robert Macgregor, and Mr. Charles R. Baird, their Secretary, visited
Mull, Ulva, Iona, Tiree, Coll, and part of Morvern, in 1849, and they
immediately afterwards issued a printed report on the state of these
places, from which a few extracts will prove instructive. They inform
us that the population of