THE LAND QUESTION IN SCOTLAND.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IX, Issue 428, 24 June 1881, Page 11

THE LAND QUESTION IN SCOTLAND.

While Irishmen are thus taking a friendly and active interest in the welfare of their Highland brethern, it is gratifying to know that Scotchmen themselves are not altogether indifferent. There are Highlanders of intelligence and social position in Glasgow and Inverness who have made up their minds that the heartless extermination of their countrymen must be no longer tolerated in quiet and uncomplaining submission as has been the case in the past. Amongst the number I may mention the names of Mr. Angus Sutherland, the writer of some excellent letters on the land question in the Glasgow papers ; Mr. White, the acting editor of the Highlander ; and Key. Mr. M'Millan, the patriot clergyman of Ullapool. These gentlemen, and several others, are already industrious in the work of educating their people and preparing the way for the practical business of organisation. I shall be much mistaken if the next eviction scene in (Scotland be not the signal for the commencement of a course of agitation from Inverary to John o' Groat's, which will result in reducing landlordism in this country to as shaky a condition as it is in at the present moment in Munstar or Connaught. In a brief speech at the Land League meeting here on Sunday Mr. A. Sutherland spoke in high terms of the devotion to the causa of country constantly manifested by the Catholic priests of Ireland, and contrasted their patriotism with the apathetic conduct of tho Scotch Protestant clergy, who, he said, with the noble exception of Mr. M'Millan, looked on with cold indifference while the people were being driven from the homes of their fathers. For some months past we have had a considerable amount et agitation — chiefly got up and carried on by Lord Archibald Campbell (son of the Duke of Argyll) and other would-be " chieftain* "" — about the important questions of the tartan and the Gaelic <^>"wiff, TUero was some talk, it appears, of altering or abolishing the distinctive national costumes of the Highland regiments, and straight away his lordship and the chieftains got into a dreadful state or excitement over the matter. A correspondent in the Mail suggested that there were more serious questions — such as the rackrenting and eviction of small farmers — to which Lord Archibald and his friends might devote a little attention ; but, of course, the noble gentleman gave no heed whatever to the hint. To-day a writer in the same paper returns to the subject, and makes some very pertinent observations, which exhibit the taitan patriots in their true colours. He says that if the tartan and the Gaelic, though dear to Highlanders, are to be of any use, "we must have the people to wear the one and to speak the other," and that if Lord Archibald and his colleagues of Stafford House " had shown the same zeal for the poor Highland crofters as in the tartan agitation the public would understand that there was some reality in their patriotic pretensions." The writer concludes by saying that the Highlanders are now learning "to take a leaf from the experience of their brethren in the Green Isle, and if Highland landlords find matters turning in a way they would not wish they will have themselves to blame." Taking a leaf from the Green Isle is unquestionably the true way of persuading Lord Archibald and the class to which he belongs to turn their attention from the tartans to the condition of those who wear them.— iVtaww.