CLEARANCES***


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Note: Images of the original pages are available through
      Internet Archive/American Libraries. See
      https://archive.org/details/historyofhighlan00mackrich





THE HISTORY OF THE HIGHLAND CLEARANCES

by

ALEXANDER MACKENZIE, F.S.A., Scot.

With a New Introduction by Ian Macpherson, M.P.


   “Truth is stranger than fiction.”







P. J. O’Callaghan,
132-134 West Nile Street, Glasgow.

First Edition                             1883.

Second Edition, altered and revised       1914.




CONTENTS.


  EDITOR’S PREFACE,                                                    7

  INTRODUCTION,                                                        9

  SUTHERLAND--

  Alexander Mackenzie on the Clearances,                              19
  The Rev. Donald Sage on the Sutherland Clearances,                  32
  General Stewart of Garth on the Sutherland Clearances,              41
  Hugh Miller on the Sutherland Clearances,                           52
  Mr. James Loch on Sutherland Improvements,                          69
  Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe on the Sutherland Clearances,            78
  Reply to Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe by Donald Macleod,              88

  TRIAL OF PATRICK SELLAR,                                           115

  ROSS-SHIRE--

  Glencalvie,                                                        128
  The Eviction of the Rosses,                                        134
  Kintail,                                                           143
  Coigeach,                                                          144
  Strathconon,                                                       144
  The Black Isle,                                                    146
  The Island of Lewis,                                               147
  Mr. Alexander Mackenzie on the Leckmelm Evictions,                 149
  Lochcarron,                                                        161
  The 78th Highlanders,                                              167
  The Rev. Dr. John Kennedy on the Ross-shire Clearances,            169

  INVERNESS-SHIRE--

  Glengarry,                                                         170
  Strathglass,                                                       187
  Guisachan,                                                         193
  Glenelg,                                                           194
  Glendesseray and Locharkaig,                                       196

  THE HEBRIDES--

  North Uist,                                                        198
  Boreraig and Suisinish, Isle of Skye,                              202
  A Contrast,                                                        212
  South Uist and Barra,                                              213
  The Island of Rum,                                                 222

  ARGYLLSHIRE--

  The Island of Mull,                                                228
  Ardnamurchan,                                                      232
  Morven,                                                            235
  Glenorchy,                                                         237

  BUTESHIRE--

  Arran,                                                             240

  PERTHSHIRE--

  Rannoch,                                                           242
  Breadalbane,                                                       245

  NOTABLE DICTA--

  The Rev. Dr. Maclachlan,                                           247
  A Highland Sheriff,                                                253
  The Wizard of the North,                                           254
  A Continental Historian,                                           254
  Mr. Alfred Russel Wallace,                                         255
  A French Economist,                                                259
  Mr. Joseph Chamberlain,                                            263
  Hardships Endured by First Emigrants,                              264
  An Evicting Agent,                                                 271
  An Octogenarian Gael,                                              274

  STATISTICAL STATEMENT--

  Showing the Population in 1831, 1841, 1851, 1881, and
  1911, of all Parishes in whole or in part in the Counties
  of Perth, Argyll, Inverness, Ross and
  Cromarty, Caithness, and Sutherland,                           278-282

  APPENDICES,                                                        283




EDITOR’S PREFACE

TO SECOND EDITION.


Mackenzie’s _History of the Highland Clearances_, with its thrilling
and almost incredible narratives of oppression and eviction, has
been for a long time out of print. In view of the current movement,
described by Mr. Asquith as an “organised campaign against the present
system of land tenure,” it has occurred to the holder of the copyright,
Mr. Eneas Mackay, publisher, Stirling, that, at the present juncture,
a re-issue might be expediently prepared. He recognised that the story
of the great upheaval which, early in the nineteenth century, took
place among the Highland crofters would be of undoubted interest and
utility to those who follow the efforts now put forth to settle the
land question in Scotland. At his request I readily undertook the task
of re-editing.

The circumstances, or points of view, having changed in no slight
measure since the first appearance of the work, I decided to subject
it to a pretty thorough revision--to excise a large mass of irrelevant
matter and to introduce several fresh