6
"I cannot close this last Report, or conclude my official connexion with the Highlands, without expressing my humble belief, based on three years' experience and consideration, that there is no sufficient ground for the despair too often manifested and expressed, of being able to improve the condition of the Highlands without haying recourse to a general and sweeping emigration.
"I hold opinions entirely different; and I confidently point to the raw material, to the staple elements of waste land in abundance fit to grow food, and of available labour to be had at a cheap rate capable of cultivating it; and I ask for the encouragement, in intelligence, exertions, and perseverance, that will effect the happy union, and produce results that will gradually equalize the condition of the Highlander with his brethren in other parts of Scotland.
"I am bold enough to inquire further, would any farmers, any men, anywhere, with similar treatment, be expected to behave better?
"But what is the treatment I allude to? It is not a tyrannical harshness or abuse of power that agitators complain of, for that I have been spared being the witness of in the districts under my charge. On the contrary, in spite of what may be said to the reverse, I fearlessly declare that, generally speaking, with an extensive knowledge of mankind, I know no greater instance of kindly feeling between rich and poor, than subsists reciprocally amongst Highland proprietors and their tenantry. But I do find fault with the Highland proprietors generally (there are honourable exceptions) for their conservatism of bad habits at least, for their apathy, for their Highland lack of energy to establish a new and better state of things.
"They cling with mistaken tenacity to the shadow of a feudal power, and paralyse all efforts in the refusal of a security of tenure to the cultivator.
"It is, therefore, both the interest and the duty of the proprietors of the soil to arouse themselves, if they would continue such, to the duties that are imposed on them. There is a scope for energy and exertion, and some will ever be in advance of others; but there is one keystone to every exertion on the part of the crofter open to all, and that is, granting security of tenure by leases.
"I affirm that the wish for leases is general and strong, and I venture my deliberate opinion, that of all the plans and projects that have been thought of for the improvement of the Highlands, and for the benefit of the Highland population, there is none calculated to draw out the energies of the people, and promote their independence so much as affording a security of tenure in the land, after a sensible adjustment of it by the granting well-considered improving croft leases."
He then concludes his Report with this most important passage:—
