第42章 OSTIG IN SKY(7)

The Chiefs,divested of their prerogatives,necessarily turned their thoughts to the improvement of their revenues,and expect more rent,as they have less homage.The tenant,who is far from perceiving that his condition is made better in the same proportion,as that of his landlord is made worse,does not immediately see why his industry is to be taxed more heavily than before.He refuses to pay the demand,and is ejected;the ground is then let to a stranger,who perhaps brings a larger stock,but who,taking the land at its full price,treats with the Laird upon equal terms,and considers him not as a Chief,but as a trafficker in land.Thus the estate perhaps is improved,but the clan is broken.

It seems to be the general opinion,that the rents have been raised with too much eagerness.Some regard must be paid to prejudice.

Those who have hitherto paid but little,will not suddenly be persuaded to pay much,though they can afford it.As ground is gradually improved,and the value of money decreases,the rent may be raised without any diminution of the farmer's profits:yet it is necessary in these countries,where the ejection of a tenant is a greater evil,than in more populous places,to consider not merely what the land will produce,but with what ability the inhabitant can cultivate it.A certain stock can allow but a certain payment;for if the land be doubled,and the stock remains the same,the tenant becomes no richer.The proprietors of the Highlands might perhaps often increase their income,by subdividing the farms,and allotting to every occupier only so many acres as he can profitably employ,but that they want people.

There seems now,whatever be the cause,to be through a great part of the Highlands a general discontent.That adherence,which was lately professed by every man to the chief of his name,has now little prevalence;and he that cannot live as he desires at home,listens to the tale of fortunate islands,and happy regions,where every man may have land of his own,and eat the product of his labour without a superior.

Those who have obtained grants of American lands,have,as is well known,invited settlers from all quarters of the globe;and among other places,where oppression might produce a wish for new habitations,their emissaries would not fail to try their persuasions in the Isles of Scotland,where at the time when the clans were newly disunited from their Chiefs,and exasperated by unprecedented exactions,it is no wonder that they prevailed.

Whether the mischiefs of emigration were immediately perceived,may be justly questioned.They who went first,were probably such as could best be spared;but the accounts sent by the earliest adventurers,whether true or false,inclined many to follow them;and whole neighbourhoods formed parties for removal;so that departure from their native country is no longer exile.He that goes thus accompanied,carries with him all that makes life pleasant.He sits down in a better climate,surrounded by his kindred and his friends:they carry with them their language,their opinions,their popular songs,and hereditary merriment:

they change nothing but the place of their abode;and of that change they perceive the benefit.

This is the real effect of emigration,if those that go away together settle on the same spot,and preserve their ancient union.

But some relate that these adventurous visitants of unknown regions,after a voyage passed in dreams of plenty and felicity,are dispersed at last upon a Sylvan wilderness,where their first years must be spent in toil,to clear the ground which is afterwards to be tilled,and that the whole effect of their undertakings is only more fatigue and equal scarcity.

Both accounts may be suspected.Those who are gone will endeavour by every art to draw others after them;for as their numbers are greater,they will provide better for themselves.When Nova Scotia was first peopled,I remember a letter,published under the character of a New Planter,who related how much the climate put him in mind of Italy.Such intelligence the Hebridians probably receive from their transmarine correspondents.But with equal temptations of interest,and perhaps with no greater niceness of veracity,the owners of the Islands spread stories of American hardships to keep their people content at home.

Some method to stop this epidemick desire of wandering,which spreads its contagion from valley to valley,deserves to be sought with great diligence.In more fruitful countries,the removal of one only makes room for the succession of another:but in the Hebrides,the loss of an inhabitant leaves a lasting vacuity;for nobody born in any other parts of the world will choose this country for his residence,and an Island once depopulated will remain a desert,as long as the present facility of travel gives every one,who is discontented and unsettled,the choice of his abode.

Let it be inquired,whether the first intention of those who are fluttering on the wing,and collecting a flock that they may take their flight,be to attain good,or to avoid evil.If they are dissatisfied with that part of the globe,which their birth has allotted them,and resolve not to live without the pleasures of happier climates;if they long for bright suns,and calm skies,and flowery fields,and fragrant gardens,I know not by what eloquence they can be persuaded,or by what offers they can be hired to stay.

But if they are driven from their native country by positive evils,and disgusted by ill-treatment,real or imaginary,it were fit to remove their grievances,and quiet their resentment;since,if they have been hitherto undutiful subjects,they will not much mend their principles by American conversation.