ities, both the wishes
and the interests of their Lowland neighbours, concur in desiring that
a new supply should be obtained from that quarter, in aid of what the
south itself affords. Not only railways now forming, but also the
great amount of draining operations contemplated, or already in
progress under recent enactments, must tend in an eminent degree to
alleviate the sufferings of the distressed districts, if a free
current of labour can be established, so as to redress the
inequalities prevailing in different places. The labour market may not
be so favourable this year as it was last, but it will still, we hope,
be sufficiently so for this purpose.

We have a strong impression that a change of this kind, if prudently
brought about without deranging local agriculture, will of itself do a
great deal for the permanent relief of those localities where distress
now prevails. Labourers thus obtained may in some respects be
inferior, from want of skill, and even from want of strength. But our
Highland countrymen have recommendations in their sober and orderly
habits, which are not to be found in some of their competitors in the
labour-market. Even railway contractors, though not likely to be
swayed, except by economical views, are beginning to tire of the
scenes of disorder and disturbance too frequently exhibited by workmen
from other quarters. If the natives of the Scottish Highlands can be
fairly roused to exertion, at a distance from home, their characters
will be improved, and their views enlarged. They will begin to taste
the benefits of better subsistence, and of some command of money; and
their frugal habits, as well as their kindly affections, will
communicate the advantage and spread the example among their suffering
countrymen whom they have left behind.

This resource, then, must be pressed by the Board with the whole force
of their influence, upon all the able-bodied in the distressed
districts who can with propriety be required to leave their
localities; and we should not quarrel with a very strict
administration of wholesome compulsion to effect so essential an
object.

5. The most difficult and delicate duty which the Relief Board will
have to discharge, regards the selection of works to be undertaken or
sanctioned by them, as affording employment for those destitute
persons whom they must relieve on the spot. It must here be kept in
view, on the one hand, that the permanent improvement of the Highla