ill be voting for the man that has the same name as
that_."

RURAL DEPOPULATION.

The mention of that eminent politician brings to my mind the frequent
references made at these meetings to the painful subject of rural
depopulation. Everyone regrets the exodus of young men from the country
to the town, a practice which depletes the rural villages and deprives
the land of the strong arms that should find employment in working it.
The ministers are not without hope that the rush city-wards may be
checked by improving the conditions of country life, rendering it more
attractive to the young, and enlisting the aid of Government in the
scheme of small-holdings. Motives of health, morality, and patriotism,
are all concerned in the fostering of a hardy peasantry. Everything that
makes country life attractive to young men must operate to make them
regret to quit it. I wish I could reproduce textually all the strong and
astounding speeches I have heard in the Highlands on this subject of
depopulation.

"We often hear," said a farmer, "that it's healthy men and women that
make up the true wealth of a country, and if that is true, Scotland, for
all its increase of riches, is every year growing poorer. How can the
people left in the glens continue to propagate a hardy race, if all the
young healthy bloods leave for the cities and settle there? I am afraid
that both brain and brawn will continue to get feebler among us, unless
the Government give some kind of inducement for the peopling of the land
with bien, self-respecting men _that have a bit land of their own_. It's
impossible to get farm-hands round Tayside nowadays, and it's not to be
wondered at. Suppose a young man stays here, what prospect has he, what
incentive has he to work? At the age of seventeen he has earned the
highest wage he will ever earn. Thereafter his life is a slow,
monotonous serfdom; he has no hope whatever of rising, he is doomed to
live from hand to mouth all the years of his existence. But put before
that young man the hope that he can _become the owner_ of a morsel of
land, however small, and you put life and pride into him. He will work
in that case with intelligent purpose, knowing that every penny he saves
is to be employed in making him a landed proprietor, and every detail of
experience he gains will tell in the future for his direct benefit. Our
young fellows don't really want to leave the land and go to die
prematurely (as a great many of the