SCOTLA N D.
At present the public impulse seems entirely turned to emigration. Two splendid vessels have just left Leith harbour for Van Diemen's Land, and a vessel is about to sail with passengers for New York. From Greenock vessels sail for some one of the ports of America every week, and there is scarcely a sea-port of any consequence throughout the kingdom where emigrants are not constantly embarking. There can belittle doubt but that this em:gration will benefit those who go away and those that remain. This country, like every long civilized and industrious one, has at last become over-peopled to an immense degree. The demand for labour, and consequently its remuneration, has lessened to a degree that prevents the industrious man from either procuring work, which he has every inclination to employ his industry in, or if he obtains a precarious engagement, his wages are not sufficient to maintain a bare existence. In America, again, matters are quite the reverse : there the supply of labour is not nearly equal to the demand, and the necessaries of life are procured in abundance. But it is not among the lower classes of labourers alone that great competition takes place in this country. There is perhaps a greater superabundance of an unemployed middle class,—a superabundance of well-educated, irtdustrious and persevering individuals, for whom the field of exertion and enterprise is completely blocked up by thousands struggling on in the same professions and the same callings. For these, emigration holds out the only chance of future success ; and, accordingly, we find that at the present moment a great proportion of emigrants consist of this class.—Edinburgh Observer.
Mrs. Burns, the widow of the poet, has had a severe paralytic attack, from which it is feared that she will not recover.
The Caledonian Mercury contains a catalogue of atrocities committed in one of the Scotch counties, which it would hare tasked Mr. Stanley's genius to depict, if the scene had been laid in Ireland.
"The atrocities from time to time committed in Ross-shire—and in every case with impunity—exceed all belief, and, if paralleled, are certainly not surpassed by the worst deeds done in the worst -parts of Ireland. In 1826, a gang of ruffians and incendiaries made repeated attempts to assassinate a gentleman in Ross-shire ; and when they failed in their diabolical purpose they killed his horses, hamstrung his cattle, set fire to some of his houses, and menaced with vengeance all who dared continue in his employ. The year 1827 was distinguished for the houghing of cattle, the destruction of oronnental planting, and the burning of houses; and in the succeeding years similar outrages were at intervals committed, and, in every case, with absolute impunity. The cow of one poor man was strangled when near calving ; the horse of another stabbed and maimed ; pinfolds maliciously opened and cattle let loose to destroy the growing corn ; and, in some instances, cows were driven into bogs or morasses, where their tails were cut off and their ears cropped. One gentleman had his horses backed over a precipice, his house fired into by night, and his own life and that of his family put in such jeopardy that be was obliged to leave the country. In September 1832, a yair, the property of Sir G. Mackenzie, of Cool, and another belonging to the Reverend Dr. Ross, of Lochbroom, were demolished in broad day by a mob of about a hundred lawless ruffians, armed with hatchets, who went about their work with perfect deliberation ; and when one of Dr. Ross's sons attempted to interpose for the protection of his father's property, they threatened to hew him in pieces with their axes if he dared to offer the least resistance ; yet, as usual in Rossshire, not one of these miscreants has hitherto been called to any account for his conduct. But perhaps the most revolting if not horrible atrocity yet remains to be told. Only a few nights ago, two horses on the farm of Mr. Lewis Mackenzie, of Lochbroom, one of them a mare in foal, were actually flayed alive, and left in that state by the fiends who -perpetrated the unparalleled deed ! They very thoughtof such monstrous and unheard-of cruelty makes one's blood run cold." Who is the Sheriff of Ross-shire ? and does he ever visit his county ?
A man named William Hall, a native of Yorkshire, and a tanner by trade, who had been committed to Linlithgow gaol on the charge of murdering a shepherd boy, and robbing him, hung himself in gaol on Tuesday week. The cord was fastened to an iron bar on the door, only five feet from the ground ; and in order to strangle himself, he was obliged to hold up his feet as if in a sitting posture.
Previous page
