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In a speech delivered at
Inverness, on 28th 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 considh ration 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?" |
