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No one was evicted from the
Island of Lewis, in the strict sense of the term, but 2231 souls had to
leave it between 1851 and 1863. To pay their passage money, their inland
railway fares on arrival, and to provide them with clothing and other
furnishings, the late Sir James Matheson paid a sum of £11,855.
Notwithstanding all this expenditure, many of these poor people would
have died from starvation on their arrival without the good offices of
friends in Canada.
In 1841, before Mr.
Matheson bought it, a cargo of emigrants from the Lews arrived at Quebec
late in the autumn, accompanied by a Rev. Mr. Maclean, sent out to
minister to their spiritual wants, but it appears that no provision had
been made for the more pressing demands of a severe Canadian winter ;
and were it not for the Saint Andrew's Society of Montreal, every soul
of them would have been starved to death that winter in a strange land.
The necessities of the case, and how this patriotic Society saved their
countrymen from a horrid death will be seen on perusal of the following
minutes, extracted from the books of the Society, during the writer's
recent tour in Canada:—"A special meeting of the office-bearers was
summoned on the loth September, 1841, to take into consideration an
application made by Mr. Morris, President of the Emigration Association
of the district of St. Francis, for some pecuniary aid to a body of 229
destitute emigrants who had recently arrived from the Island of Lewis
(Scotland), and who were then supported chiefly by the contributions of
the charitable inhabitants of the town of Sherbrooke and its
neighbourhood. Mr. Morris' letter intimated that unless other assistance
was received, it would be impossible for these emigrants to outlive the
winter, as they were in a state of utter destitution, and the
inhabitants of the township could not support so large a number of
persons from their own unaided resources. The meeting decided that the
Constitution of the Society prohibited them from applying its funds to
an object like the one presented—it did not appear to authorise the
granting of relief from its funds except to cases of destitution in the
city; but as this case appeared of an urgent nature, and one
particularly calling for assistance, Messrs. Hew Ramsay and Neil
M`Intosh were appointed to collect subscriptions on behalf of the
emigrants. This committee acquitted itself with great diligence and
success, having collected the handsome sum of £234 14s. 6d., the whole
of which was, at different times, remitted to Mr. Morris, and expended
by him in this charity. Letters were received from Mr. Morris,
expressing the gratitude of the emigrants for this large and timely aid,
which was principally the means of keeping them from starvation." The
whole of these emigrants are now in easy circumstances.
Commenting on the conduct
of those in power, who sent out their poor tenantry totally unprovided
for, is unnecessary. The idea of sending out a minister and nothing
else, in such circumstances, makes one shudder to think of the uses
which are sometimes made of the clergy, and how, in such cases, the
Gospel they are supposed not only to preach but to practise, is only in
many instances caricatured. The provisions sent by the Society had to be
forwarded to where these starving emigrants were, a distance of 80 miles
from Sherbrooke, on sledges, through a trackless and dense forest. The
descendants of these people now form a happy and prosperous community at
Lingwick and Winslow. |
