Volume 3 - Electric Scotland

KELP. 157
that it is doubtful if any other system could extract from
them that exertion which is no less necessary for their
own interest than for that of the proprietors of these
estates.
I hope you are only half tired, because I have only
half done with this dry business. It would be quite in
vain for you to expect to understand the policy of the
maritime Highlands, without being acquainted with that
which forms a large portion of its rural economy, and
nearly the whole of its manufactures. Besides, I want to
prove to you, that, instead of being acerb, I am the very
best friend the Highlanders ever had ; labouring to re-
concile them to each other, and to systems, which, if not
the best of all possible, are the best that are attainable.
The proprietors have been so long accustomed to hear
themselves censured and abused, that they almost begin
to imagine they deserve it ; and the people, of course,
never think they have so warm a friend as he who assures
them that they ought to be unhappy.
It is asserted that the proprietors attempt to crowd
the population on these estates, for the purpose of low-
ering the wages of labour, and thus, of keeping both a
cheap and a ready supply of it at hand for this manufac-
ture, from which they alone derive all the profits. This
exquisite remark comes from the same politicians who,
in some other place, accuse the same proprietors of de-
populating their estates by sheep-farming, and of thus
causing a ruinous emigration. So difficult is it to ride
and drive the ass at the same time. If the population
consisted of free labourers, or if the property of the mari-
time farm were distinct from that of the land, this wish
might be a very natural one ; but it would not be in the
power of the kelp proprietor to influence the population,
whatever interest he might have in low wages or cheap