A Christmas Story – The Barra Peasantry.

[Currie]

A Christmas Story – The Barra Peasantry.

From The Aberdeen Journal, Wednesday, December 25, 1850

THE BARRA PEASANTRY.

Glasgow, and even Edinburgh, have been startled by the painful sight of Highland destitution, presented to their ocular inspection, in a very aggravated shape. Irish indigence is a proverb. It appears to be regarded as irremediable; and the ejections of' the pauper peasantry from localities where they have no means of sustenance, and are a daily increasing burden on the exhausted rates, have been unhapily of so frequent occurrence of late years, as to force even the most sensitively compassionate to consider whether there may not be some valid reasons of necessity and justice which have induced landlords to adopt a course apparently so repugnant to every feeling of humanity.

It is the same with the poor wanderers from Barra. It is said, Colonel Gordon's factors, in the island, have seen fit to deprive of their crofts a large number of the poor peasantry, who either could not find, or would not betake themselves to any industrious occupation. The ruin of the kelp manufacture left them no resources, except the scanty produce of their barren soil and their not over fortunate fishing gear. How plentiful the fish may be on their shores, we cannot say; but whatever obstacles stand in the way of fishing, that craft does not seem to be much practised; for since the people were thrown into an unwonted state of distress, by the successive failures of the potatoe crop, they appear to have subsisted chiefly on "dulse," and shell–fish. These poor people have benefited much by the disbursements of the Highland Destitution Board, which, scanty as their allowance was, was the chief means of their subsistence for two years before their leaving the island. About three weeks ago, the first shoal of the unfortunate peasantry from Barra arrived at Glasgow; and from the statements made by them, which appeared in the public prints, it seemed that Colonel Gordon had resolved on the improvement of the island, and to effect that purpose, the small crofters had been dispossessed of their holdings, which had been thrown into farms for the occupancy of wealthier and more enterprising tenants. One of these individuals, of the name of McNiel, gives the following picture of his condition, and his story was repeated by every one of his party:—

"It is five years since my croft was taken from me. After I lost my croft, I got permission to erect a mud-hut on the edge of a peat-moss, where I lived till compelled to leave the island. There was no sort of work, except what was obtained from the Relief Committee, and a little fishing now and then. What I obtained from these sources was so inadequate for the support of my family, that on the Sundays we had to go to the sea-shore, for the purpose of gathering shell-fish to eke out our scanty allowance of meal. We also gathered ‘slocken' (a kind of dulse), and boiled it for food. In the spring of the year, I sowed half a stone of potato seed, which I received from the Relief Committee, but they completely failed. When this occurred, I was forced to leave the island. To raise the means of doing so, I sold the mud-hut for 2s. 6d., a chest for 1s. 6d., and my peats for 2s., which was all the money I had in the world. With this I left the island about three weeks ago for Dunoon, where we arrived, and endeavoured to find employment; but the wages were so miserable, being only 5d. a day, that we could not support ourselves, nor pay for a place of shelter."

—This gives a melancholy picture of the state of the poor Highlanders from Barra; and late circumstances have shown that it is neither an exaggerated nor a solitary instance of suffering. The streets of Glasgow presented first the melancholy spectacle of a body of these homeless strangers, wandering without prospect of employment or of means of subsistence; and, on Tuesday, a body of twenty-three of them, including men, women, and children, presented themselves in Edinburgh, at the residence of Colonel Gordon, the owner of the island. Their object was to lay their case before him—looking upon him, according to their Celtic notions, as their natural protector—in the hope that he might interest himself in their behalf. Colonel Gordon, however, is at present at Cluny Castle, in this county; and the poor wanderers, cold, hungry, and homeless, appealed to the magistrates for assistance. "These," says an Edinburgh cotemporary—

"Along with a few humane individuals, commenced a subscription to relieve their immediate necessities. But as the situation of those twenty-three individuals promises to be that of many hundreds, according to the accounts of the destitution prevailing in the more remote Highlands and Islands, it becomes a serious question, how the community are to deal with the sufferings of so large a class of their fellow-subjects."

In the meantime, we observe that Mr Baird, Secretary of the Highland Relief Committee, having written Colonel Gordon on the subject, has received an answer, in which the Colonel writes:—

"The only notice I think it worth my while to take of what is said of me in the newspapers is to disabuse the public from the false assumption that the Barra people now in Glasgow were mercilessly turned out of their dwellings by me, or by my orders, at this inclement season of the year. So far from that being the case, I had no intimation of man, woman, or child, having left Barra at this time. Nor do the letters which I had from Ulst, dated 6th instant, make any allusion to such an occurrence.
“They must have left Barra of their own free will, and I am not sorry they did so; for it may be expected that they will tell their story as favourably as they can for themselves, which must lead to investigation, and then, I hope, the truth will appear.
" It should be borne in mind that the majority of the present inhabitants were not originally natives of Barra, but brought there by the late proprietor from the surrounding islands, without regard to the characters they brought with them, the disadvantages of which I have dearly experienced; for they have uniformly thwarted all my efforts to put them in the way of maintaining themselves and their families by their own industry, and have rendered that property of no value, but rather a heavy incumbrance."

Colonel Gordon then alludes to his ineffectual application to Government, and states that his agent has gone to London, if possible, "to get something done to save the West Highland proprietors from utter destruction;" and after calling attention to a statement which he sends, showing the receipts from Barra for the three years ending Martinmas last to be £1273 16s. 5d., and the expenditure for that period £3117 2s. 8d.—the excess of expenditure over receipts being £1863 6s. 3d. —he mentions that he lately sent a cargo of Indian corn meal for behoof of the poor people, and that, as his "feelings for them are still rather compassionate than otherwise," he will "forward a sum of money, if Mr Baird recommends it," At the same time, he adds, he—

"Will do no more than what the law may compel him; and should the Barra people unfortunately suffer, and casualties occur, he will be sorry for it; while he has the consolation of knowing that, if his efforts to reclaim and better the people had been met as was expected, they would now have been beyond dependence on the bounty of others."

These are statements which the public should bear in mind, in justice to Colonel Gordon, before forming an ultimate decision on this subject. With every feeling of compassion for the unfortunate sufferers, we cannot help thinking that their destitution must have arisen from other causes than unkindness or tyranny on the part of their landlord.

The case of the poor inhabitants of the more remote districts of the Highlands, and of the Orkneys and Hebrides, is one that seems to defy both ingenuity and benevolence. It is no doubt a painful course for a landlord to adopt, to dispossess these children of the soil of the ground on which their fathers have lived and died, generation after generation. Indeed, their claim to their small croft seems to be regarded as equal to that of their superior; and the ancient Celtic institutions tended to foster that belief. They have but little energy— little knowledge of modern improvements in agriculture —little providence—little self-reliance—little of anything calculated to improve their position; and there is no doubt their condition and habits must be a grievous eye-sore to an enterprising proprietor. Of course the latter may exercise the right of ejecting them in a body, but it is a process attended with so much misery, (in the meantime at any rate) to the poor people, that it would be well if those who adopted it would at least afford their outcast tenantry, as has frequently been done, the means of emigration, or of trying their fortunes elsewhere.

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When he died eight years later, Colonel John Gordon, who had sent his agent to London "to get something done to save the West Highland proprietors from utter destruction", was described as the wealthiest commoner in Scotland. His land and funds were estimated to be worth between ₤2,000,000 and ₤3,000,000. That’s up to about 10 million times more than what Mr Crofter McNiel received from the forced sale of all his worldly goods in 1850.

Alan

[SarahND]

What a story, Alan... Christmas indeed. I'll bump this one up to the top just in time to put the current day Christmas in perspective. It's amazing what these people with "but little energy... little providence... little self-reliance..." managed to do when they emigrated to other lands.

Regards,
Saraj