shade of gloom over the bright side of the picture. Last year a remarkable instance of the uncertainties and hardships attending emigration came under our notice here. I understand that the facts are still under investigation, and may yet attract some attention. Shortly after the troubles that made the "Braes famous, a body of Skye people (including some of those who were conspicuous in that trial) were induced to emigrate to North Carolina. According to the apparently-truthful story of two of the men who came back to collect as much as would bring home their families, their fares to the port of shipping, as well as their passage to North Carolina, were paid, they knew not by whom. The prospect of plenty work and good wages was held out to them on arrival, with other brighter prospects for the future. On their arrival, however, they discovered to their bitter disappointment that both promises and prospects were a delusion. Where work was obtained, the only wages given was the bare food, and the houses provided were the small one-roomed huts (as one of the men remarked) once occupied by slaves. The 70 emigrants, scattered over the country at long distances from each other, struggled on in the hope of better treatment so long as the means they brought with them lasted. Their condition, however, getting worse instead of better, and the food and the climate telling injuriously on their health, those who could do so left the place. The poor men who told this story in Inverness and other places had no means left to bring back their families. By the kind assistance of some friends and countrymen they have, I trust, by this time been enabled to rescue the remaining members of their families from the desperate condition into which they consider themselves to have been misled. The melancholy tale of the hardships and disappointment experienced by this small band of Skye emigrants is, I suspect, if all were known, not unfrequent in the history of emigration from the Highlands. The sufferings experienced by the earlier emigrants to the North American colonies are matters of history, and when one ponders over such records as these, one is forced to ask the question, is emigration really the only alternative? Can no other means be found to relieve the congestion of population in certain districts in the Highlands by presenting opportunities for migration to other districts where the presence of an industrious people would be a mutual benefit to themselves and the proprietor. What has already been done in this direction gives ample encouragement to do more. Let me give you one instance. Between 30 and 40 years ago a large number of the inhabitants of a Highland glen I know of had to leave owing to the new estate arrangements of large farms char acteristic of those times. I suppose that the large majority of those people shared the common fate usually attending such changes, either emigrating or finding shelter in the Lowlands. By what seems to have been a chance more than anything else, however, some 18 or 20 families got a settlement on a piece of not very promising land on the southern side of Knockfarrel, in the neighbourhood of Strathpeffer. Here those families and their descendants formed what I consider a model Highland township. Generously treated as they have been by their noble proprietrix, even in the absence of much early agricultural training, they have, by sheer hard work and industry, converted that patch of comparative moorland into one of the best cultivated and attractive clusters of small holdings to be found in the Highlands. The area of land under cultivation does not, I think, much exceed 150 acres ; yet on this limited area has existed for so long almost as large a population as is to be found (holding land at least) in the extensive glen from which they migrated. Perhaps you will allow me to quote the complimentary reference made to this community by their factor, Mr Gunn, Strathpeffer, in his evidence before the Royal Commission:-"It happened that a colony of crofters who were removed from another estate, to the number of eighteen families, applied for this new land, and the Duchess of Sutherland, then Marchioness of Stafford, yielded to their importunities and gave them possession, granting them leases and materials with which to build houses. It is due to these people to say that, with scarcely one exception, they have proved to be excellent tenants in every respect. They are industrious, and farm systematically and well, and of this we have the best evidence in the fact that they pay their rents regularly, and that within the last few years most of them have substantially improved their houses, four of which have lately been slated." To this testimony it may be added, without fear of contradiction, that in their characters, social arrangements, and the discharge of all outside obligations, this little township is a credit to themselves and to the Highlands. Living compactly together, and having common experiences, they have retained among them many of those kindly feelings and mutual interest in each other so characteristic of the Highland people of the past. The old people among them, now almost passed away, were with few exceptions carried back to their native glen, wishing with true Highland instinct to mix their dust with those of their kindred. I have just referred to this case to show that if such comparative success has attended migration of an almost accidental character, what could, and may still, be done under systematic efforts and greater encouragements. This continual cry about the glories of emigration, with its glowing prospects of wealth and fortunes, and entirely ignoring the possibilities of industrious welldoing at home, has a demoralising effect on the minds of the rising youth of the Highlands. Between the squalid misery so often pictured to us on the estates of Skye, and the ideal wealth of the emigrant, there is a wide field still unoccupied at home, however much that field may be despised by the false teachings of modern political economy. The maximum of happiness is not always found in the effort to amass a fortune any more than in extricating oneself from the toils and privations of poverty; possibly it is more to be found in the medium condition of constant industry reasonably rewarded. A complete reversal of the present agricultural system in the Highlands would bring the people nearer this condition than anything else I can think of. In agricultural and rural occupations perhaps, oftener than in any other, is realised the ideal life of the poet "Toiling, rejoicing, sorrowing, Onward through life he goes, Each morning sees some task begun, Something attempted, something done, Has earned a night's repose." And as another of our own poets has beautifully expressed it, there may be more real pleasure and profit in constant industry than in the accumulation of wealth— ""Tis the battle, not the prize, That fills the hero's heart with joy, And industry that bliss supplies Which mere possession might destroy." When legislation will give the Highland people a firmer footing on the land, and place more of it at their disposal; when the present agitation ceases, because its objects shall have been gained ; then will arrive a testing time in the history of the Highlands as trying as any through which they have yet passed. If the people are to preserve not only their own reputations, but that of their ancestors, they will face the new and improved condition in a manner that will command respect. When present grievances are remedied there should be no desire to create new or imaginary ones, and there should be an earnest effort made to revive those feelings of goodwill and confidence-feelings between proprietors and people so happily expressed in the good old motto:-"Clann nan Gaidheal an guaillibh a cheile." Then shall our western isles, our straths and glens, romantic in scenery as well as in history, become once again the home of a people who, while they brook no injustice, will readily acknowledge with gratitude such improvements in their social condition as wise legislation and the prudence of the proprietors may bring about. 4TH MARCH 1885. At the meeting on this date, Duncan Mactavish, of D. Mactavish & Co., High Street, Inverness, was elected an ordinary member. The Secretary then read a paper by Mr Alexander Ross, Alness, on "Sir Robert Munro, VI. Baronet, and XXIV. Baron of Fowlis, who fell at Falkirk." Mr Ross's paper was as follows: SIR ROBERT MUNRO. Sir Robert Munro was the eldest son of Sir Robert Munro, known as the "Blind Baron" of Fowlis. Sir Robert was born on the 24th of August 1684. His military and other achievements, as recorded by the sober pen of Dr Dodderidge, seem fitted to associate rather with the ideas derived from the high conceptions of poetry and romance, than with those which we usually acquire from our experience of real life. He was a gentleman of calm wisdom, determined courage, and unassuming piety. His life resembles a well-wrought drama, the scenes of which become doubly interesting as it hastens to a close. One of Dr Dodderidge's correspondents states that Sir Robert "was noted for the countenance he gave to Divine worship, both in public and in his family, and for the regard which he always expressed for the Word of God and its ministers ;" and then adds, "that he was sincere in his friendship, and full of compassion even to the meanest of those around him; remarkable, above most, for his activity in the discharge of any office of friendship, where he had professed it; and for his great exactness in the performances of his promises." Sir Robert was at an early age sent to Edinburgh University, where he highly distinguished himself. On leaving college, he entered the army as a captain in the Earl of Orkney's Regiment. In 1705, when only 21 years of age, he went to Flanders, where he served for several years under the famous Duke of Marlborough. It was while serving there that he became acquainted with the celebrated Colonel James Gardiner, then a cornet of Dragoons, and formed with him that strict friendship which death alone terminated. On the peace of 1712, he returned to Scotland, and was elected M.P. for Ross-shire. In Parliament he gave an inflexible opposition to the measures which the Ministry were then taking to subvert the succession to the Crown, and with it, no doubt, the Protestant religion, of which the Royal Family was the strongest barrier. On the outbreak of the Rebellion in 1715, Sir Robert readily gave his services to the House of Hanover. He immediately raised his clan, and was joined by a body of the Rosses, his company amounting in all to about 600 men. With these in November 1715, he encamped at Alness, and on the 6th of October following he was joined by Lord Reay, with an additional force of 600. He, in conjunction with the Earl of Sutherland and Reay, so harassed a body of 300 Highlanders, who, under the Earl of Seaforth, were on the march to join the insurgents at Perth, that the junction was retarded for nearly two months—a delay which is said to have decided the fate of the Stuart's in Scotland, as it prevented the Earl of Mar from crossing the Forth till the Duke of Argyll had gathered sufficient strength to oppose him. In consequence of his stand for the Government, Sir Robert exposed himself and his estate to the fiercest resentment of the Jacobites, by whom his lands were plundered and destroyed; while others, who pretended to be friends of the Government, saved themselves and their lands by capitulating to the enemy. Being appointed governor of Inverness Castle, Sir Robert, at his own charge, maintained 400 of his clan there till the Rebellion was quelled. And these, together with some other clans, well-affected to George I., kept possession of that important pass, so that the Stuart followers were prevented from making a stand there, after Argyll had dislodged them at Perth. In 1716 Sir Robert was appointed one of the Commissioners of Inquiry into the forfeited estates of the attainted. In this office he strenuously exerted himself to have erected, in the remote parts of the Highlands, parishes which would have their stipends derived from the confiscated estates. "In this manner," says Dr Dodderidge, "the Gospel was preached in places it had not been preached before, and new Presbyteries were formed in counties where discipline and worship of Protestant Churches had before no footing." It is stated that such was the compassion and hu |