BLACK-MAIL is the name given to certain contributions formerly paid by landed proprietors and farmers in the neighbourhood of the Highlands of Scot land, of the English and Scottish border, and of other places subjected to the in roads of " Rievers," or persons who stole cattle on a large scale. It waspaid some times to a neighbouring chief' engaging to keep the property clear of depredation, and frequently to the depredators them selves as a compromise. Spelman attri butes the term black to the circumstance of the impost being paid in copper money, and he is followed by Ducange. Its origin has been sought in the German plagen to trouble, the root of which is represented by the English word plague. Dr. Jamieson, however, in his Eqtmo logical Dictionary,' thinks the word was intended simply to designate the moral hue of the transaction. Pennant ab surdly supposes that the word mail is a corruption of " meal," in which he pre sumes the tax to have been paid. ( Tour in Scotland, ii. 404.) The word mail, however, was used in Scotland to express every description of periodical payment, and it is still a technical term in the law of landlord and tenant. The expression has been used in English legislation in reference to the borders, as in the 43 Eliz. c. 13, § 2: "And whereas now of late time there have been many incur sions, roads, robberies, and burning and spoiling of towns, villages, and houses within the said counties, that divers of her majesty's loving subjects within the said counties, and the inhabitants of divers towns there, have been forced to pay a certain rate of money, corn, cattle, or other consideration, commonly there called by the name of unto divers and sundry inhabiting upon or near the borders, being men of name, and friended and allied with divers in those parts who are commonly known to be great robbers and spoil-takers." In 1567 an act of the Scottish parliament (e. 21) was passed for its suppression in the shires of Selkirk, Roxburgh, Lanark, Dumfries, and Edinburgh. In later times, and especially during the eigh teenth century, at about the middle of which it was extinguished, it prevailed solely in the parts of the northern coun ties which border on the Highlands. The fruitful shire of Murray, separated from the other cultivated counties of Scot land, and in a great measure bordered by Highland districts, was peculiarly subject to the ravages from which this tax af forded a protection, and was called "Mo ray land, where every gentleman may take his prey," as being a place where there was little chance of a plunderer stumbling on the property of a brother marauder, and infringing an old Scottish proverb, that "corbies dinna peik out corbies' eyne." In the old practice of the law black-mail seems to have been used to designate every description of illegal extortion. Thus in 1530 Adam Scott, of Tuschelau, is " convicted of art and part of theftuously taking black mail from the time of his entry within the castle of Edinburgh in ward, front John Browne, in Hoprow.." He was beheaded. (Pit cairn's Crim. Tr. i. l45.*) In 1550 James Gulane and John Gray, messen gers-at-arms, or officers of the law, are accused of apprehending a criminal, and taking black-mail from him for his-liberty (Ib. 356*). Subsequently, and in the vicinity of the Highlands, the practice seems to have been to a certain extent countenanced by the law, as providing to the inhabitants that security from plunder and outrage which the govern ment could not ensure to them. Thus in Sir John Sinclair's 'Statistical Account of Scotland' (Parish of Strathblane, xviii. 582), there is an order of the justices of peace of Stirlingshire to enforce payment of certain stipulated sums which the inha bitants were to pay to a neighbouring proprietor for the protection of " their hous goods and geir." Those only who chose to resign the protection afforded were exempted from the corresponding payment. In the same work (Parish ry
Killearn, xvi. 124) there is a contract, so late as the year 1741, executed with all the formalities of law, between James Graham, of Glengyle, on the one part, " and the gentlemen, heritors, and tenants within the shires of Perth, Stirling, and Dunbarton, who are hereto subscribing, on the other part," in which Graham en gages to protect them for a mail of 4 per cent. on their valued rents, which it ap pears he afterwards reduced to 3 per cent. He engages that he " shall keep the lands subscribed for, and annexed to the respective subscriptions, skaithless of any loss to be sustained by the heritors, tenants, or inhabitants thereof, through the stealing and away-taking of their cattle, horses, or sheep, and that for we space of seven years complete, from and after the term of Whit-Sunday next to come ; and for that effect, either to return the cattle so stolen from time to time, or otherwayes within six months after the theft committed, to make payment to the persons from whom they were stolen, of their true value, to be ascertained by the oaths of the owners, before any judge ordinary [sheriff]; providing always that intimation be made to the said James Gra ham, at his house in Correilet, or where he shall happen to reside for the time, of the number and marks of the cattle, sheep, or horses stolen, and that within forty-eight hours from the time that the proprietors thereof shall be able to prove by habile witnesses, or their own or their herd's oaths, that the cattle amissing were seen upon their usual pasture within the space of forty-eight hours previous .o the intimation." Within a very few years after the prac tice had been thus systematized, it was swept away by the proceedings following on the rebellion of 1745. Captain Burt, whose amusing Letters from a gentle man in the north of Scotland to his friend in London,' though bearing date in 1754, refer to a period immediately before the rebellion. Troops were stationed in the district to which he refers, the marauders were kept in check, and he describes the isolated acts of depredation then committed as requiring great caution and cunning, the cattle taken in the west being exchanged within the Highlands for those which might be captured towards the east, so that officers of the law, or others in search of them, might have to traverse a vast district of mountain-land before the stolen cattle they might be in search of could be identified (ii. p. 208, et seq.). In the Statistical Account already referred to there are many allusions to black-mail and the state of society co-existent with it, which seem to be founded on personal recollection. In the account of the parish of Fortin&al in Perthshire there occurs the followmg sketch :—" Before the year 1745 Ranoch was in an uncivilized, bar barous state, under no check or restraint of laws. As an evidence of this, one of the principal proprietors never could be compelled to pay his debts. Two mes sengers were sent from Perth to give him a charge of horning. He ordered a dozen of his retainers to bind them across two hand-barrows, and carry them in this state to the bridge of Cainachan, at nine miles distance. His property in parti cular was a nest of thieves. They laid the whole country, from Stirling to Con par of Angus, under contribution, obliging the inhabitants to pay them black-meal, as it is called, to save their property from being plundered. This was the centre of this kind of traffic. In the months of September and October they gathered to the number of about 300, built temporary huts, drank whiskey all the time, settled accounts for stolen cattle, and received balances. Every man then bore arms. It would have required a regiment to have brought a thief from that country."