sounder footing. If, in addition to this, the encouragements to fisheries and the facilities for emigration, recommended in our Report, should be afforded, provision would, to some extent, have been made for the superfluous population, and the progress of improvement would proceed with even greater rapidity."

That is, progress in the present system for the spread of education, of the present facilities of communication, with the proposed encouragement for fisheries, and the facilities for emigration, recommended in the Report-in addition to his proposed plan of "small farms," at from £15 to £50 rental, "for the gradual replacement of the crofting system”—would, in Sir Kenneth's opinion, be sufficient to bring about peace, contentment, and comfort, to the Highland people. We do not believe it would, and we sincerely trust that such mere patching proposals will not be for a moment listened to. Sir Kenneth, in short, emphatically condemns the whole crofting system. The districts where the system prevails, he says, are "those districts in the Highlands and Islands where the frequent recurrence of destitution has given evidence of the prevailing poverty, and of the narrow margin, which, in ordinary seasons, separates the people from want. These are the districts," he says in conclusion, "where the crofting system is in its fullest operation—a system which, however, valuable as affording a home, with pleasant surroundings, to the labourer in those parts of the country where wage-paid labour is required [in the south and cast], is elsewhere a general cause of poverty"; that is, in the whole of the north-west Highlands and Islands! Many people will hold that the present Land Laws are mainly responsible for those undoubted evils for all the poverty existing.

It is but right that we should allow Sir Kenneth to state the reasons, in his own words, for the position he has, we think unfortunately, taken up on this question; and of his admitted personal desire for the people's welfare. The latter will never be questioned by any one who has the slightest knowledge of his personal character and sympathies, though his political-economy views have now landed him, we fear, for ever, as a public man, in a position decidedly antagonistic to the crofting community, as a class. That he takes up that position conscientiously, but with regret, is sufficiently clear. He says

"If I appear to concur somewhat reluctantly in the recommendations of land legislation for the Highlands, which may prove inapplicable to the rest of the country, it is not because I am less earnest than my colleagues in my desire for the people's welfare, but that I fear the evils that are likely to attend such legislation."

As a matter of fact, he does not concur reluctantly," or otherwise, in the more important land legislation proposed, such as the township unit and the privileges to be attached to it; so that it can only be the proposed improving lease that he is referring to as receiving his concurrence reluctantly. And this, after all, is only the natural outcome and complement of the famous Glasgow speech, wherein Sir Kenneth declared that

"Under our present system it seems evident that small farms are as doomed as handlooms were when power was first introduced, and that farming must fall more and more into the hands of capitalists able to conduct operations on a great scale, with a maximum of machinery and a minimum of labour. Those who, at the present juncture, fancy they see signs that this process is being reversed, are not reading facts aright."

The criticism of the Duke of Argyll, Lord Lovat, and others at the time placed the impression naturally conveyed by the Glasgow speech beyond question, and Sir Kenneth's reply to the Duke rather intensified than removed that impression. In his letter, he said that

"Unless, then, it can be shown that the small tenant will not only offer, but will also in the long run be able to make payment of a higher rent than the large tenant, the landlord's pecuniary interest will stand opposed to any philanthropic schemes for increasing the number of agricultural occupiers; and while human nature remains what it is, I fear philanthropy will be the weaker of these two motives."

Sir Kenneth then expresses regret for the diminution of the rural population. The manner in which he proposes to avert what he thus regrets, is sufficiently clear from his dissent to the Report of the Commissioners; but to his old admirers his position is simply inexplicable, except on the assumption that he has looked at the question too much from the economic, and too little from the social point of view; while, in the same sentence, in which he condemns that attitude on the part of others, he declares for himself" that no reform can be considered worthy of the name which

does not take both into consideration." We quite agree with him in this; but matters in the Highlands have been allowed to drift so far that the social point of view must be by far the most prominent in any reform attempted now; while it is clear that Sir Kenneth Mackenzie, perhaps unconsciously, gives the first place to so-called political-economy ideas, and that to an extent which must largely damage, if it does not completely neutralise, his efforts for usefulness in the future, in connection with the necessary reform of the Land Laws in the Highlands.

Now through the Dream's dark gorges deep
Methinks I see thee going,

Half hid 'mid woods that love to keep

Fond watch upon thy flowing

From rock to rock,

With flash and shock,

And fury ever growing;

A giant fettered, it is true,

Yet bound all barriers to subdue.

O for a home on Agais fair

Nigh which, anon, thou wendest
Thy way, proud-rushing on to where
In thy great might thou rendest
The one more chain

That strives in vain

To fetter thee, and lendest

Unto the Dream thy grandest gift of all,
The gleaming glory of Kilmorack's Fall!

O scene most magically wrought!
What minstrel pen can paint thee?
Thy charms, fantastic beyond thought,
Art never could have lent thee:
Enchanting spot,

I wonder not

The muses love to haunt thee;

And long, loved Dream! may they delight to stray
Through thee with tuneful King-descended Hay.*

Majestic stream! methinks I see

Thee now, past all commotion,

Like virtue to eternity,

Glide calmly to the ocean.

Soon in thy grave,

The German wave.

Shall ever cease thy motion

Cease? deathless flood! till time shall cease to run,

Thy race is finished, and yet but begun.

DR MACKENZIE CHISHOLM.-In the Medical Journal of 10th May, in the list of registered medical practitioners, on whom the degree of M.D. of the Univerersity of St Andrews was conferred, is the name of Kenneth Mackenzie Chisholm, L.R.C.P., Edinr., L.R.C.S., Edinr., now of Rockhouse, Radcliffe, Manchester, late of Flowerdale and Munlochy. Dr Chisholm is the son of our good friend, Mr Simon Chisholm, Flowerdale Gardens, Gairloch.

John Sobieski Stuart Hay, author of "The Bridal of Kilchurn," and other poems of great merit, and who for some years resided in the vicinity of the scene here alluded to.

CELTIC AND LITERARY NOTES.

A

GAELIC seems to be asserting itself to good purpose on the American Continent. Celtic Society has been recently established in the City of Montreal. At its inaugural meeting there were representatives present from the Celts of Wales, Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the Highlands of Scotland, and some excellent speeches were delivered on the occasion. When we mention that among those who took part were Professors MacVicar and Campbell, and the Rev. Dr MacNish, it will be felt that the auspices, under which the Society has been set up, are such as will ensure it permanence and effectiveness. As the Society's ranks are to made up of members from the various countries using the Celtic tongue, men of all shades of opinion and creed, it has been wisely decided to exclude from its proceedings all controverted matters likely to lead to unpleasant collision among the members. Literary and antiquarian subjects will have the principal share of attention.

A Gaelic congregation has been set up in the City of Chicago.` The Rev. Dr Campbell, of Collingwood, Ontario, has accepted the pastorate, and the scheme under his experienced and able ministry, is likely to prove a very great success.

FOUR PAGES EXTRA are given this month, notwithstanding which, it has been found impossible to give the usual chapter of "Celtic Mythology," and several other items.

ROYAL RECOGNITION OF A GAELIC BARD.-Mrs Mary Mackellar (the Gaelic poetess) forwarded to the Queen a copy of the Celtic Magazine for May, in which her lament (in Gaelic) for the Duke of Albany appeared, and her Majesty has been graciously pleased to send a letter of thanks to the poetess, through LieutenantGeneral Sir Henry Ponsonby, dated Windsor Castle, May 12th, 1884.

"NETHER-LOCHABER.”—The Rev. Alex. Stewart, F.S.A. Scot., NetherLochaber, is preparing another volume for the press, made up of selections from the Letters which he, at various times, contributed to the Inverness Courier during the last quarter of a century. We have no doubt that this volume will meet with the same success as the first. The work will contain some of the brightest and most racy of Mr Stewart's Letters. The author has the rare power not only of seeing, but of telling what he sees in graceful and pictorial language. By all classes, but especially by Highlanders at home and abroad, the new volume will be looked forward to with interest.

"AN ANALYSIS OF THE REPORT OF CROFTER COMMISSION.”— A pamphlet, under this title, extending to about 80 pages, by the Editor of the Celtic Magazine, is now ready. Price, in Paper Covers, 6d.; by Post, 8d. In Limp Cloth Covers, Is.; by Post, Is. 2d.; from A. & W. Mackenzie, Publishers, Inverness.