The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

98 THE HIGHLANDERS [part i
great, and to adopt the words of General Stewart, in his work on
the state of the Highlands, " It has reduced to a state of nature
lands that had long been subjected to the plough, and which
had afforded the means of support to a moral, happy, and
contented population ; it has converted whole glens and districts,
once the abode of a brave, vigorous, and independent race of
men, ;
into scenes of desolation it has torn up families which
seemed rooted, like Alpine plants
in the soil of their elevated
regions, and which from their habits and principles appeared
to be its original possessors, as well as its natural occupiers, and
forced them thence, penniless and unskilful, to seek a refuge
in manufacturing towns, or in a state of helpless despair, to
betake themselves to the wilds of a far distant land. The spirit
of speculation has invaded those mountains which no foreign
enemy could penetrate, and expelled a brave people whom
no intruder could subdue."
Experience has not justified the policy of this change ;
and the Highland proprietors now find themselves in a worse
had been
position than they would have been if the old system
suffered to continue ; while the country remains a most dis-
heartening spectacle of desolation and distress, exhibiting the
wreck of that singular and interesting people who have inhabited
the same rugged territory from the earliest dawn of history,
but whose peculiarity of manners and simplicity of character
are now rapidly disappearing.