With rcspt ct to the isles, they already possess two considerable sources of employment,—the fisheries and the manufacture of kelp ; but these isles are generally naked, without fences, and, of course, almost in the state of mere wastes, excepting only the lands in tillage; and these are incapable of improved cultivation while they are open every winter. The making of kelp, and attention requisite to the fishing business, being com monly in the hands or those who labour the soil, correct and regular cultivation is obstructed, and scarcely prac ticable. There appears to be no remedy for this, until a regular system of inelosures be introduced ; and then it is no exaggerated supposition, that the sheep stocks may become triply valuable, and the cultivated soils greatly more productive. After this plan has been adopt ed, the regular tillage of the arable soils will naturally become easier ; and, as proper rotations will accompany inclosures, the labour will divide itself into the proper seasons, and fewer hands, regularly employed, will per form it. What encroachments may men be made on the waste lands cannot be computed ; but they will natural ly Ile of considerable importance and extent. Islands possessing a great extent of low situated lands, numer ous herds of black cattle, and calcareous manures in miff pacts of the land or the shores, together with sea weed, ate subjects adapted by nature for improvement ; and the climate is not very unfriendly to early corn, while it suits admirably for turnips, potatoes, and grass with seeds. On the larger islands, and on some of the smaller, stone may be obtained for exterior fences, and sometimes also for subdivisions ; and on these isles where stone cannot be got, ditches well designed, and properly exe cuted and preserved in repair, with such hedges as may best answer according to circumstances, may operate at once as fence, drain, and shelter.
This general and improved system is no speculation. It is already introduced with great advantage by sonic of the most intelligent and public spirited proprietors of estates in these isles ; and it proves an increasing source of employment and subsistence for the people. Judicious planting of suitable parts naturally accompa nies a system of this kind ; and, by selecting proper situ ations, planting the skirts with suitable trees, and then putting in seedling trees in large bodies, there is much less risk of their failing by the breeze. No person ac quainted with the country can hesitate in believing that profitable employment, and growing means of support, would thus be furnished, for all the present inhabitants of the isles ; although they should not be occupied with kelp at all, or with fishing. The great object is to get them trained to labour so as to pet form it well, and with dispatch ; and after this, it will be in the power of land holders to arrange the leases of their lands, with Niews of regular and progressive improvements.
A growing population, in the mean time, can furnish hands for the kelp making and the hshings ; and these -are, perhaps, the people that ought to be accommodated for the present with croft lands. In time It may become expedient to separate these prolessmns, finding other occupation for the people employed in those depart ments, when they are not engaged in then,. Such a re source may be naturally obtained within the country in jobs or piece work,—if they are trained to make use of their spare time, in building dykes, cutting drains or ditches, planting trees, quarrying stone or slate, making roads, paring and burning waste lands, preparing com posts for meadows and other purposes. The opening of the country by roads and canals may farther intro duce the manufacture of wool, er flax, or hemp, and other useful branches of the arts ; and even in the low and smaller isles, ample occupation may be found for the inhabitants.
But, in order to chew that such an important object is in view and will be followed out, a steady and progres sively improving system ought to be generally intro duced ; and then it may be safely predicted, that the course of emigration will be impeded, and that it will soon entirely cease.
One of the first consequences of this drain of the in habitants, is the discouragement and alienation of those who remain; and who, in such circumstances, can hard ly be expected to pursue vigorously the improvement or labours of a country, where the inhabitants cannot permanently remain. Another consequence is the leav ing of a population so scanty as not to be adequate to any rational plan of active improvement, and of course the protracting of nakedness and desolation. The comforts of those inhabitants who remain, and the interests of the landholders, are jointly and equally hurt by these effects. Continued emigration from the Highlands and isles has also an immediate and pernicious effect, in draining away a vigorous and hardy people, by whom the army and the navy might be considerably recruited ; and it has the prospective effect of counteracting the liberal designs and the beneficial purposes of the great works by which the country is now opening up. It may farther be asked, how the fishings can be expected to prosper, if there be not people in the country to prose cute them, nor wood nor materials for the boats and vessels ? In short, if the course of emigration had long gone on, at the rate of its proceeding about ten or twelve years ago, the consequences would have been, that for ages to come, improvement would not have been prac ticable in that country, and it must have been left in the nakedness and desolation of a sheep waste. Even tim ber for dwelling-houses, and mortar to build them, could hardly be expected in a remote and rugged country, drained of most of its people.
With opposite views, the subject of emigration has been treated with considerable ability by various writers; but the real history of emigration, its causes and effects, and above all, its prevention, have scarcely been under stood. Interested or partial views of a subject are well known to mislead authors of eminent talents ; and a per son of narrow conceptions, who could view only the pre sent state of the Highlands, might be surprised into the opinion, that the country cannot support a growing population. But if mu' views be extended to what the state of this country may and ought to be, we must re sist and at once dismiss that idea. Views of improve ment may be cherished, even by a landholder, which are not sufficiently liberal towards the people at large ; but the true plan of occupation and improvement in that country must embrace inclosures ; and then it may be come the basis of a system, equally judicious and pro fitable to all concerned.
Even the prospect of such a system, as would steadily and progressively add to the resources of that remote but interesting part of the British territory, is pleasing to the mind. It would certainly increase very highly the value of the lauds, and add materially to the com forts of the inhabitants. Opened by means of the great canal and the numerous roads intersecting the country, together with its various and extensive seas, and their indenting arms ; enjoying the benefit of well planned and executed fences, at once inclosing, draining, and sheltering the numerous fields capable of being gained from extensive wastes ; adorned with rising plantations of forest trees, and accommodated with the timber and the shelter they would afford ; possessing well cultivat ed fields, enriched by the manures which abound in the country, and productive in early grain and green crops; having improved stocks of' the valuable breed of High land cattle, together with sheep of superior quality, to the maintenance of which an improved system would be adequate ; and possessing a population growing at once in point of numbers, industry, and comfort, equal not only to the labours of husbandry, but also to the fishings and various useful branches of manufacture ; while com merce opened the way, and gradually furnished the means, to acquire wealth ; with all these growing ad vantages in their favour, the Highlands and isles of Scotland would possess many attractions; and the last and melancholy resort of a people driven to desponden cy, emigration, would cease. (x. K.)