We may follow the first phases of this revolution, which commences after the last rising under the Pretender, in the works ofJames Anderson (20) and James Stuart. The latter tells us that in his time, in the last third of the eighteenth century, theHighlands of Scotland still presented a miniature picture of the Europe of four hundred years ago. "The rent" (so hemisnames the tribute paid to the chief of the clan) "of these lands is very little in comparison with their extent, but if it isregarded relatively to the number of mouths which the farm supports, it will be seen that land in the Scotch Highlandssupports perhaps twice as many persons as land of the same value in a fertile province. It is the same with certain lands aswith certain monasteries: `The more mouths there are to feed, the better they live."' When, in the last thirty years of theeighteenth century, they began to expel the Gaels, they at the same time forbade them to emigrate to a foreign country. so asto compel them by these means to congregate in Glasgow and other manufacturing towns. In his observations on Smith's Wealth of Nations , published in 1814, David Buchanan gives us an idea of the progress made by the "Clearing of Estates.""In the `Highlands," he says, "the landed proprietor, without regard to the hereditary tenants" (he wrongly applies this termto the clansmen, who were joint proprietors of the soil), "offers the land to the highest bidder, who, if he wishes to improvethe cultivation, is anxious for nothing but the introduction of a new system. The soil, dotted with small peasant-proprietors,was formerly well populated in proportion to its natural fertility. The new system of improved agriculture and increasedrents demands the greatest .net profit with the least possible outlay, and with this object the cultivators are got rid of, asbeing of no further use. Thus cast from their native soil, they go to seek their living in the manufacturing towns...."George Ensor, in a work published in 1818, says: "They (the landed proprietors of Scotland) dispossessed families as theywould grub up coppice-wood, and they treated villages `and their people as Indians harassed with wild beasts do, in theirvengeance, a jungle with tigers Is it credible that in the eighteenth century, in this missionary age, in this Christian aera manshall be bartered for a fleece or a carcase of mutton, nay, held cheaper?... Why, how much worse is it than the intention ofthe Moguls, who, when they had broken into the northern provinces of China, proposed in council to exterminate theinhabitants, and convert the land into pasture! This proposal many Highland proprietors have effected in their own countryagainst their own countrymen." (21)
M. de Sismondi has rendered celebrated on the Continent the famous Clearing executed between 1814 and 1820 by theDuchess of Sutherland. More than three thousand families were driven out; and 800,000 acres of land, which formerlybelonged to the Clan, were transformed into seignorial domain. Men were driven out to make room for sheep. The sheep arenow replaced by deer, and the pastures converted into deer- forests, which are treeless solitudes. The details of this newtransformation are to be found in Mr Robert Somers' book, Letters from the Highlands , London, 1848, which appeared firstin the form of letters in the Times . The Economist of June 2, 1866, said on this subject:"Feudal instincts have as full careernow as in the times when the Conqueror destroyed thirty-six villages to make the New Forest. Two millions of acres,comprising most fertile land, have been changed into desert. The natural herbage of Glen Tilt was known as the mostsucculent in Perth; the deer-forest of Ben Aulden was the best natural meadow of Badonock; the forest of Bleak Mount wasthe best pasturage in Scotland for black-woolled sheep. The soil thus sacrificed for the pleasures of the chase, extends overan area larger than the county of Perth. The land in the new Ben Aulden forest supported 15,000 sheep; and this is but thethirtieth part of the territory sacrificed, and thus rendered as unproductive as if it were buried in the depths of the sea."The destruction of small property is still going on, no longer however by encroachment, but by purchase. Whenever landcomes into the market, it is bought by some rich capitalist, because the expenses of legal enquiry are too great for a smallinvestment. Thus large properties are consolidated; and fall, so to speak, into mortmain, in consequence of the law ofprimogeniture and entails. In the fifteenth century, according to the Chancellor Fortescue, England was quoted throughoutEurope for the number of its proprietors, and the comfort of its inhabitants. (22) In 1688, Gregory King estimates that therewere 180,000 proprietors, exclusive of 16,560 proprietors of noble rank. In 1786, there were 250,000 proprietors inEngland. According to the "Domesday Book" of 1876, there were 170,000 rural proprietors in England, owning above anacre; 21,000 in Ireland, and 8,000 in Scotland. (23) A fifth part of the entire country is in the hands of 523 persons. "Are youaware," said Mr Bright in a speech delivered at Birmingham, August 27, 1866, "that one-half of the soil of Scotland belongsto ten or twelve persons? Are you aware of the fact that the monopoly of landed property is continually increasing, andbecoming more and more exclusive?" (24)
In England, then, as at Rome, large property has swallowed up small property, in consequence of a continuous evolutionunchecked from the beginning to the end of the nation's history; and the social order seems to be threatened just as in theRoman empire.
