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Prejudices of the
Highland proprietors against Emigration: mistakes from which they arise
IF the preceding arguments are satisfactory it must
appear very unaccountable, that the gentlemen of the Highlands should
express such extreme aversion against emigration. Since the removal of the
superfluous population is necessary for the advance of their rents, why
(it may be asked) do they quarrel with that which is so beneficial to
them? But those who reflect how very common it is for men to mistake their
own interest, will not consider this as a paradox. The change that has
taken place in the Highlands, is so extensive, its effects are so
complicated, and so many circumstances have concurred to disguise their
operation, that it ought not to excite surprise if they are not generally
understood.
The prejudices which many
persons entertain on this subject arise from the most patriotic, though
mistaken motives. Ascribing the spirit
of emigration to mere capricious restlessness, they deprecate in it the
loss of the nursery of soldiers that has hitherto been found in the
Highlands, not adverting to the decay of those causes from which
that advantage was derived. They see the possibility of employing great
numbers in works of productive industry, and overlook the distinctions
which render these unsuitable to a great proportion of the actual
inhabitants.
To these have in some
instances been superadded mistaken views of private interest. Some
proprietors, accustomed to the advantageous facility of recruiting, would
wish to preserve this power, at the same time that they profit by
the advance of their rents. A few
individuals have perceived the incompatibility of these objects, and,
unwilling to relinquish the antient splendour of a numerous train
of dependants, have frankly resolved to
make an adequate pecuniary sacrifice; but in a much greater number of
instances this incompatibility has been overlooked, or seen indistinctly;
and the consequence has been a train of inconsistent rnanagement,
vibrating between contradictory motives.
The ideas of the Highland
gentry have also perhaps been influenced by the very unjust cry that has
been prevalent against themselves, and the unfavourable impressions, as to
the tendency of their conduct, which the public have been led to
entertain. The long continued indulgence of the land:-lords, the sacrifice
of rent to which they submitted for so many years to preserve their
people,. are little known beyond their immediate neighbourhood. It would
be difficult to find a proprietor in other parts of the kingdom, who to
please his. tenants; would accept a rent not half the value of his land.
This has been done by many in the Highlands, and yet these gentlemen have
been generally reputed severe landlords.
The old system of the
Highlands, so long established and deeply rooted, could not be broken up
without a great degree of popular odium. When any proprietor grew tired of
the loss of :rent he sustained, and resolved to enjoy the full value of
his estate, the clamours of the tenantry were loud against his unjust and
oppressive conduct (as they deemed it), and were re-echoed from distant
parts of the kingdom. When a populous valley was converted into
sheep-walks, the author of the change was held up as an enemy of the
public, who, for a sordid interest, promoted the desolation of his
country; and the remote consequences through which these "partial evils"
terminate in "universal good," were not to be seen by superficial
observers.
The gentlemen of the
Highlands might have repelled these aspersions, by appealing to the
undeniable general right of landed proprietors to manage their property
for their own advantage: but this argument was too much at variation with
the established prejudices of their neighbourhood to be well received.
Conscious, therefore, of the unpopularity of their conduct and sore under
these impressions, they acted as if diffident of the justice of their own
cause and, instead of meeting the question on fair and manly grounds,
recriminated with accusations of capricious discontent on the part of the
people, excited only by the artifices of men who had an interest to delude
them.
Such motives of pique, and
a remnant of the feudal pride which a numerous clan was
calculated to inspire, have perhaps more
influence than any view of pecuniary interest, in exciting a jealous
antipathy against emigration in the minds of the more considerable
proprietors of the Highlands; and this may account, for a singular
contradiction that has been frequently observed. Many of these gentlemen
have, in: their cooler rnoments, acknowledged, that
the over-population of their estates was a
loss to them, and, expressed a wish that a
great proportion could be removed; and have nevertheless been warmed, even
to indignation, when any of their own tenantry showed, a disposition to
emigration. When their feelings have been foused, the phantorn of antient
prejudices has put to flight every sober consideration of interest.
These impressions among the
greater proprietors are sometimes perhaps strengthened by the clamour of
certain persons among their dependants, or their neighbours of an.
inferior order; some of whom have an aversion against emigration, founded
on motives not altogether so
honourable, though more active, as arising more immediately from
views of pecuniary interest.
Among
the few branches of’ business which furnish
more or less employment for labouring people in the Highlands, is the
manufacture of kelp, which, in some instances, constitutes a great part of
the value of property. The sea—weed from which this article is made is cut
on rocks along- the shore, which are sometimes annexed to the adjoining
farms. In most cases, however, these rocks are reserved by the landlords,
who let them from year to year, or rather employ labourers to make the
kelp at a stipulated allowance
per ton. Many gentlemen. feel on this account an immediate interest in
keeping down the wages of labour, and therefore imagine the crowded state
of population to be an advantage. Some go so far as to assert that if they
had fewer hands, the making of kelp must be given up altogether, or at
least that the increased expense of the work would reduce its nett value
to a trifle. This may be; but the difference of expenses not all clear
gain to the landlord: the season of kelp-making is but a few weeks. in the
year; and in so far as any
gentleman retains a greater number of people on his estate than full
employment can be found for, he must do it by letting land to them
below its value. In all the great kelp stations, the land is, in fact,
made an object totally subordinate, and let at rents more inadequate to
its real value than in any other parts of the Highlands.
Were an accurate
comparison to be made,. it is probable that the proprietor would find it
more for his advantage, on the whole, to pay the fullest price for the
manufacture of his kelp, and to
let his land at an adequate rent. But it is not in this light that the
subject will appear to some other persons who are engaged in the business.
They feel all the benefit of the low price of labour, while the sacrifice
that is made to maintain that low price comes out of the pocket of
another. We may add, that a great proprietor, of a liberal mind, would not
allow his judgment to he warped by a difference of 10 or 15s. per
ton on his kelp; but to the taksmen and other inferior people that
difference forms a great proportion of their profit. Among them,
therefore, we find a zeal approaching to fury, when any thing threatens to
interfere with this interest.
To men of this class the
depression of the price of labour appears an object of importance in other
respects. If they have not kelp to make, they feel the same interest in
keeping down the wages of their agricultural servants, or of those they
employ to execute fences and various works of that kind. From these causes
a considerable body of men feel a
direct interest in repressing emigration; and it is
not to be wondered at that their clamours should impose on the greater
proprietors.
These gentlemen are only
occasionally resident on their estates; and, feeling that their own.
personal acquaintance with the internal state of the country is imperfect,
are disposed to place too great a reliance on the opinions of others,
whose practical information they believe to be complete, and whom they do
not suspect to have interests so directly at variance with their own. This
evil is much increased, by the practice (unfortunately too common with the
proprietors of great Highland estates) of letting farms to their factors
or land-stewards, and allowing them to engage in various petty branches of
business, by which their interest is identified with that of the very
people on whom they ought to be a check, and is set in op position to that
of their employers |
