Volume 3 - Electric Scotland

ST. KII.DA. 185
lifeeral proprietor. It is now in the possession of a tacksman
; so that much modification must have taken place.
It cannot be for the better ; and had I to write this again
from fresh observations, I suspect that I should be com-
pelled to make material changes.
The rent of St. Kilda was then extremely low, com-
pared with the average of insular farms ;
being only £ 40,
or £2 per family ; a sum far inferior to the value of the
land, excluding all consideration of the birds. Indepen-
dently of the food which these afford, that value is consi-
derable : as the whole of the rent was paid in feathers,
not in money ;
while a surplus of these also remained for
sale. Thus the land was, in fact, held rent-free ; the
whole amount being also paid by a small portion of
that labour which was more than compensated by the
food it produced. It is evident that this rent might have
been augmented without any reproach ; independently
of an increase of value by a division of the common farm,
and by the addition of a fishery. Nor need this have di-
minished the happiness of the people, if moderately and
humanely done ; as insufficient employment is no great
or laudable source of felicity to an uneducated popu-
lation. If, however, St. Kilda chose to refuse payment
and rebel, it would not be very easy to execute a war-
rant of distress or ejectment without a fleet and an army.
All this may be very pretty speculation for an eco-
nomist ; but I shall be sorry to find that it has influenced
the conduct of the proprietor. When we have been sad-
dened at every step by the sight of irremediable poverty
and distress in all its forms, it is delightful to find one
green place in this dreary world of islands where want is
unknown. I trust that St. Kilda may long yet continue
the Eden of the Western Ocean. It is a state of real opu-
lence. Their arable land supplies the people with corn,
their birds with game, and their cattle with milk. The