ers are, and their ancestors for many
generations have been, "truly laborers, living chiefly by the wages of
labor, and holding crofts and lots for which they pay rents, not from
the produce of the land, but from wages." If they cannot find employment
within convenient distance of their present homes, the best and kindest
thing for them is to help them to go where there is a good demand for
labor and better opportunities for earning a decent livelihood. To
encourage them to stay on their little crofts, where they are frequently
on the verge of want, is unkind and very bad policy. One who has seen
the wretched hovels in which some of these crofter families live, the
small patches of unproductive land on which they try to subsist, the
hardships which they sometimes suffer, and the lack of opportunities for
bettering their condition in their native Highlands or islands, and who
knows how much has been accomplished by the enterprise and energy of
Highlanders in other parts of the world, can hardly help wishing that
they might all be helped to emigrate to countries where their industry
and economy would more certainly be rewarded, and where they would have
a fairer prospect for success in the struggle for life and advancement.
Many of them would undoubtedly be far better off if they could emigrate
under favorable conditions. The descendants of many of those who were
forced to leave their homes by "cruel and heartless Highland lairds,"
and who suffered terrible hardships in getting to this country and
founding new homes, have now attained such wealth and influence as they
could not possibly have acquired among their ancestral hills. The Royal
Commissioners recommended that the state should aid those who may be
willing to emigrate from certain islands and districts where the
population is apparently too great for the means of subsistence.

The crofters are, however, strongly attached to their native hills and
glens, and they claim that such laws can and ought to be enacted as will
enable them to live in comfort where they are. The present, it is urged,
is a particularly favorable time to establish prosperous small farmers
in many parts of the Highlands where sheep-farming has proved a failure.
The inhabitants of the coasts and islands are largely a seafaring
people. There is quite as much Norse as Celtic blood in the veins of
many of them, and the Norseman's love of the sea leads them naturally to
fishing or navigation. The her