nds
is no proper or direct object of the subscriptions received. On the
other hand, it will clearly be necessary, after every attempt to
remove labourers to the south, that some work should be provided in
each locality, on which those persons may be employed who cannot be so
removed, and who yet stand in need of relief. It would be mischievous
and wasteful to relieve such persons without exacting labour from
them, and just as reprehensible to employ them in digging holes and
filling them up again, or in any other occupation equally useless and
unproductive. If their work is to be obtained, it should be directed
into some channel that will benefit themselves and the community.
Public roads, harbours, piers, breakwaters, and the like, appear an
obvious outlet for the labour thus placed at the command of the Board;
and we are not even averse, within certain limits, to admitting their
exertions in the improvement of their own crofts, provided, at least,
the benefit thence arising be secured to the occupant by some
reasonable tenure, and that no continuance is thus effected of an
improper system of occupation. It seems no objection to such
operations that proprietors will indirectly benefit by them. It is
impossible to devise any local work that is not open to the same
objection, which would indeed be insuperable, if it were proposed to
expend the money on local improvements as a direct and substantive
object. But where the relief must be given, and the work is only to be
taken to the extent of the relief, and as a return for it, we think
almost any employment better than none, as we know no evil that can
outweigh the moral mischief arising from gratuitous distribution. At
the same time, the Board must require the co-operation of proprietors
where-ever they can, and must insist for such terms as the
circumstances of each case may recommend.

Guarded by some such principles of action, we anticipate that the
relief operations in Scotland will, on the whole, be attended with no
small degree of moral as well as of physical benefit.

The subject of Emigration is too large and complicated to be now
discussed. That remedy is perhaps essential to the thorough cure of
the social disorders prevailing in the Highlands. But it must not be
rashly resorted to; nor can it ever be safe or effectual without the
cordial co-operation of the government.

The operation and effects of the calamity with which so large a
portion of Scotland has