In a speech delivered at Inverness, on 18th September, 1885, Mr. Joseph
Chamberlain said:--
“The history of the Highland clearances is a black page in the account
with private ownership in land, and if it were to form a precedent,
if there could be any precedent for wrong-doing, if the sins of
the fathers ought to be visited upon the children, we should have
an excuse for more drastic legislation than any which the wildest
reformer has ever proposed. Thousands of industrious, hard-working,
God-fearing people were driven from the lands which had belonged to
their ancestors, and which for generations they had cultivated; their
houses were unroofed and destroyed, they were turned out homeless and
forlorn, exposed to the inclemency of the winter season, left to perish
on the hillsides or to swell the full flood of misery and destitution
in the cities to which they were driven for refuge. In some cases the
cruel kindness of their landlords provided the means of emigration--in
some cases they were actually driven abroad. They suffered greatly
in foreign countries, being unprovided with the means of sustaining
themselves until they could earn a livelihood, but the descendants
of those who survived have contributed in no mean degree to the
prosperity of the countries in which they finally settled. Those who
remained behind had, I am afraid, little cause to be grateful for the
consideration which was shown to them. In the course of years they were
deprived of all the advantages which they had previously enjoyed. They
had never had legal security of tenure, and they were transferred from
their original holdings in the glens and straths, which at one time
resounded with their industry, and they were placed out upon barren
patches on the sea-shore where it was impossible for the most exacting
toil and industry to obtain a subsistence. The picture that I have
drawn was no doubt relieved in some cases by the exceptional generosity
and kindness of particular proprietors, but, speaking generally, I
think it is the fact that the Highland country was to a considerable
extent depopulated by those clearances. The general condition of the
people suffered, and it has gone on deteriorating until it has become
at last a matter of national concern. If I am correct in the statement
in which I have endeavoured to summarise what I have read, and learned
upon this subject, I ask you whether it is not time that we should
submit to careful examination and review a system which places such
vast powers for evil in the hands of irresponsible individuals, and
which makes the possession of land not a trust but a means of extortion
and exaction?”