New Wicks to Old Lamps.

Southern Cross, Volume 5, Issue 45, 12 February 1898, Page 10

New Wicks to Old Lamps.

RESTITUTION. (From the Clarion.) The Duchess of Sutherland opened, in the Waterloo Rooms, Edinburgh, a sale, under the auspices of the Scottish Horae Industries Association,' a society which exists for the patriotic purpose of assisting the crofters and poor people in the highlands and lowlands of Scotland. It is under the patronage of the Princess Louise and the Marquis of Lome, and the Duke and Duchess of Fife, and it has for its president the Duchess of Sutherland. Though registered under the Limited Liability Act, the articles of association specifically declare that the shareholders of the association cannot receive more than three per cent on their capital, all the rest of the profit going to the workers. The stallholders included the Countess of Moray, Lady Eeay, Lady Campbell of Succoth, and Lady Gibson-Craig. The Duchess of Sutherland, who was attired in a brown costume of Sutherlandshire homespun, made an excellent speech in commending the association to public support. The Sutherland Evictions. * It was determined to convert the country into sheep farms, and to attain that object the population were to be driven to the sea coast to subsist by fishing. These poor peasant farmers, or their fathers, had built their own houses, and broken up their fields from the waste. They were a peaceable, loyal, industrious, and religious people, and this was how they were treated : The marchioness took them from their little farms, and left them 6000 acres of barren land, for which they had to pay an annual rent of 2s 6d per acre. The 794,000 acres were divided into 29 great sheep farms, each inhabited by only one family. In March, 1814, the people of two large parishes were summoned to quit in May. Before the day of eviction came the heather was set on fire ; many of the cattle were thus starved, and the rest had to be sold at a great loss. While the men were away selling the cattle, the houses were pulled down over the people’s heads, and then set on lire. Many died from fatigue and cold ; children were born in the open air on the bare ground; one bedridden man had his house unroofed and died from exposure to the wind and rain ; a woman sick in bed had her house fired over her head, and was only rescued when her bed had caught light; one man had to carry two of his sick children 25 miles for shelter. . . . Between 1811 and 1820 no less than 15,000 people were ejected from their homes. . . . Some time after the distress was so great that a national subscription was raised, and in order to hide the misery of these people the Sutherland Leveson-Gowers issued a decree that along the northern coast road, for 30 miles, the inhabitants must either build new houses of stone and mortar or remove. Driven by this order the men who spent their nights on the sea fishing had to spend their days in collecting and carrying stones for the masons; and so poor were these people that they often had to give the last morsel of food to the masons and go themselves collecting shell-fish on the shore to allay the pangs of hunger. When the cottages were built, they belonged not co them but to the duke.’ ‘ Our Old Nobility.’