A MESSAGE FROM ST. KILDA TO LORD J. MANNERS:.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.") SIR,—I hope that the justice of your charitable appeal on behalf of the people of St. Kilda will be promptly acknowledged, an& something done without delay to lessen their isolation and the monotony of their lives. Having lived for many years in a small Hebridean isle which had no regular postal communication with the mainland, only twelve miles distant, I can say, from a much less severe experience than the St. Kildans', how great are the- hardships and disadvantages of being thus cut off from a con- nected acquaintance with the activities and interests of the rest of mankind. No one who has not had practical trial of such a life can have any adequate idea what a grievance it is to be so- apart, year after year, with the exception of fitful and infrequent tidings, when the case might be entirely altered by the expendi- ture of a sum of money which many a Londoner gives three times. over in the course of a few months in charities.
Sir, if Mr. Cameron, of Lochiel, is deserving of reproach for the state of St. Kilda, is Mr. Macleod, of Dunvegan, as its pro- prietor, blameless in leaving the inhabitants of a portion of his. estate so long without any means of contact with civilisation ?—