change value in labour, and made it the foundation of all created wealth, the phenomenon of rent ought to have appeared to him in a stronger light, and it must be admitted that the case is stated with too much indecision. The important scientific inquiry, in its practical bearing, is, manifestly, to estimate, or ascertain, whether in every civilised and industrial nation, land yields a sufficient revenue for all the ordinary pacific purposes of State, in excess of the wages of labour and profits of capital, originally bestowed upon the ameliorations. The valuation upon which the two millions were assessed was made in 1692, and it has been generally supposed (as we may readily believe), that it was much. below the real value at that period. In 1775, after the lapse of 83 years of great commercial activity, and a large increase of population, it is, perhaps, not too much to estimate the lands of the United Kingdom to have trebled that valuation. This would give a revenue of six millions. Now, the interest on the public debt in 1775 was nearly four and a-half millions, and we cannot suppose that a natural law would provide for a war fund. Deducting this from the total revenue there would be left only five and a-half millions as the ordinary expenses of Government, on a peace footing, which would be more than covered by a landtax, or rent, at the supposed increase in the value of land. If we deduct the interest of the public debt from our present heavy expenditure, the ordinary expenses of the State would probably be covered by ground-rents and the ordinary, or natural, rent of land. But as nations are armed to the teeth, we are hardly in a position, perhaps, to judge what the ordinary expenses on a peace footing would be. It may be fairly concluded, however, that in every civilised and industrial nation this "gift of Providence" is sufficient to meet the expenses of the State, for the civil and moral government of society. 5. In support of the views of Adam Smith, I quote another eminent economist of great weight and authority. Dr Chalmers wrote, just fifty years ago, as follows: "The commutation of taxes into a territorial impost, will be the work of a later age; though we should rejoice, even now, did we witness a commencement, however humble, an approximation however slow, to this great political and economical reform." In reference to a question of such deep import, where vast interests are involved, confiscation is not an appropriate word to be bandied about during a period of public excitement, and our notions on the subject are liable to be further confused by the expression: "The nationalisation of the land." We could hardly imagine the land to be denationalised except by conquest, or by the introduction of another race of inhabitants; and what those reformers really mean, as a practicable measure, is the nationalisation of rent, which is a much more intelligible expression, besides which, there is the great advantage of having a constitutional precedent to go upon, as well as the opinions of philosophers and economists, who were certainly not second to men of the present day in either of these departments of human knowledge, and who did not discuss politics minus a code of ethics, or a sense of right and wrong, of justice and injustice. Although the corrupt and servile Parliaments of last century practically voted themselves free of the land tax, and threw the taxation of the country upon the commercial and industrial classes, it is still an inalienable right of society to reimpose it. On the passing of the Commutation Act, Mr Pitt entered a caveat to the effect that the Act was not to preclude that or any other Parliament from reimposing it; and after so long enjoyment of an ever increasing increment it is evidently absurd to regard an equitable adjustment of taxation as confiscation. What may truly be regarded as unjust is to confiscate part of the hardwon earnings of the working classes. For instance, a crofter from Tiree goes to town to sell the produce of his labour, and, among other things, buys, say 1 lb. tea, 2s. 6d.; I lb. coffee, 1s. 6d.; I lb. tobacco, 4s.; and a bottle of whisky, 3s. 6d.; in all 11s. 6d. Out of this portion of his wages the Government confiscates no less than 5s. 9d., just the one-half; so that the Duke of Argyll may appropriate the sea-weed, and permit it to be worked on the "truck system.” Unjustly, however, as the burden of taxation falls on the working classes, it is, perhaps, not so much in that respect that the country suffers, as by the restraints that are imposed upon agricultural industry and individual freedom, resulting in the dislocation of society by driving the rural population into towns, to overstock the labour market, and swell the pauper roll Recent legislation, and the discussions which proceeded upon it, have clearly shown that all attempts to adjust equities between landlord and tenant can only result in a flood of litigation, and postpone a more radical reform. The natural position of the agriculturist and house-owner is to own the lands which they occupy, irrespective of the size of holdings. This is to be a freeman, which is an essential condition to every progressive and harmonious society. It is an essential of liberty that a man. should be as free to remain in his locality as to leave it. If under the necessity to place himself in the bondage of a lease to another man he is no longer a freeman. The nature of the land, as well as the principle of liberty, does not sanction the unnatural relationship. The private appropriation of the gift of Providence to society, and using this privilege as an instrument of power and oppression, is an evident transgression of a moral-physical law, which receives not the sanction of nature or of human nature. Guernsey. MALCOLM MACKENZIE. CELTIC AND LITERARY NOTES. -- We observe with sincere pleasure that, through the liberality of friends of the Celtic Chair, a considerable sum has been provided for distribution as prizes at the close of the first session. Professor Blackie has himself contributed £25, with promise of other £25; the Inverness, Ross, and Nairn Club, £10; and the Edinburgh Sutherland Association, £5. 5s. A fund has also been set on foot for the purpose of establishing travelling scholarships in connection with the Chair, to which the following sums have already been devoted, viz:-£12. 12s. from the Heather Club, Edinburgh; £10 from Mr Shepherd, Burntisland; 100 from a Highland landowner; and £25 from Mr Ralph Carr Ellison of Dunstanhill, Newcastle. Nothing could be better calculated to give a healthy stimulus to the work of the Celtic classes than such incitements as these rewards afford, and we earnestly hope that the better-to-do friends of the Gael, in all parts of the world, will follow the good example shown in this very encouraging beginning. An admirable medium through which such aid might be applied, would be the movement now a-foot under the guidance of the Council of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, for the collection of a fund in recognition of the unprecedented labours of Professor Blackie, in establishing the Chair. The proposed Testimonial will, in the main, in terms of the Professor's own desire, assume the form of rewards and incitements to the students of the Gaelic language and literature in connection with the Celtic Chair. An association with objects quite kindred with the bursary and scholarship scheme of the Celtic Chair, and one the importance of whose good work in this field cannot be over estimated, is the Ladies' Highland Bursary Association, which held its annual meeting in Edinburgh in the month of November, under the presidency of Principal Tulloch. The general object of the Association is to give tangible encouragement to Gaelic students prosecuting their studies with the view of entering the ministry of the Church of Scotland. The Rev. Mr Mackenzie, of Kingussie, the indefatigable Secretary of the Association, presented the Report, which testified to a very large amount of successful work. It gives us pleasure to note that the capital of the scheme seems quite appropriately to be centred in the Capital of the Highlands. Out of sixteen bursars to be provided for, no fewer than thirteen are attending Raining's School, Inverness. It were well that in other populous centres in the Highlands there should be similar auxiliaries in the work of preparing students for the more systematic studies of the Celtic Chair. Much as the gradual decay of the Gaelic language is to be observed on every hand, there is no agency to which even the present hopeful condition of things, and the great interest taken in the cause of that language and its literature, are more largely attributable than to the labours of the late venerated Dr Norman Macleod of St Columba's, Glasgow. It was, therefore, most appropriate that the centenary of his birth should not be allowed to pass without some demonstration. Accordingly there was held in the City Hall, Glasgow, on the 4th of December, a gathering of some 2000 of the friends and admirers of "Caraide nan Gaidheal,” presided over by the energetic and genial minister of St Columba, Mr Maclachlan. Among those who took part in the meeting were Dr Macleod's youngest son, the Editor of Good Words ; his nephews, Dr Norman Macleod, of Edinburgh, and Dr John Macleod, of Govan; Professor Blackie, Sheriff Nicolson, the Rev. Mr Blair, and others. In our day of cheap postage, easy communication, and literary activity, it is not easy to realise even the mechanical difficulties of conducting single-handed, as Dr Macleod did, such an enterprise as the "Teachdaire Gaidhealach," which made its visits regularly month after month among our hills and glens, carrying its budget of sweet and racy anecdote, ancient history and lore, and its eagerly-looked-for items of contemporary intelligence. No less pleasant are the reminiscences still fresh among us of the period, some dozen years later, when "Cuairtear nan Gleann," under more encouraging physical circumstances, but in greatly more troublous times, made its welcome visits. To these two agencies are particularly due any measure of romance attaching to Gaelic literature in Scotland, as well as the wonderful state of preservation in which we have the language still among us, notwithstanding the cold and repressive attitude of School Boards and teachers. To Dr Macleod also we credit the fact that, notwithstanding the paucity of the remains of ancient Gaelic in Scotland as compared with Ireland, the modern literature of the Scottish dialect is largely in excess in point of quantity, and we venture also to say much superior in literary and classical excellence, to the productions of the present day Celts of the sister island. All honour, then, to the memory of Dr Norman Macleod, of St Columba. The bright halo of the good man, and the healthy influence of his handiwork, have passed down from generation to generation of the sons of the Gael, and even yet in a foreign land how many a hearth is cheered with a rehearsal of what the fathers have told of the times and tales of the "The page may be lost, and the pen long forsaken, And weeds may grow wild o'er the brave heart and hand; But ye are still left when all else hath been taken, Like streams in the desert sweet tales of our land." WOODS, FORESTS, AND ESTATES OF PERTHSHIRE, WITH SKETCHES OF THE PRINCIPAL FAMILIES OF THE COUNTY. By THOMAS HUNTER. Perth: Henderson, Robertson, & Hunter. 1883. NEXT to Mr Hunter's "pleasure in the pathless woods" will be the delight of every reader of this charming book. It consists, as he tells us in his preface, of sketches which originally appeared in the Perthshire Constitutional, of which Mr Hunter is the accomplished editor and part proprietor. In an introductory chapter, the author discourses pleasantly on the impressive effects produced by the appearance of a woody landscape, and the important part which the trees of the forests play in the economy of Nature. After placing the poets, sacred and profane, under tribute in illustrating his essay, he sums all up as follows:-“All our ideas of beautiful scenery are associated with woods. The landscape that is destitute of trees presents a barren and uninteresting appearance, while a country that is rich in arboreal features is as refreshing to the eye as is a sheet of water in an arid land. The majestic oak with its grey rifted trunk and its dark indented foliage, and the equally majestic beech with its fine silvery bark and pale green leaves add dignity and grace to the well-kept ancestral park. The light graceful birch which overhangs the mountain stream, imparts to the landscape that fairy-like charm, which is so attractive to the lover of the picturesque ; while the pine with its straight tall stem and evergreen foliage clothes the landscape with a pleasing uniformity." The commercial importance of tree planting is strongly presented; and this is a feature of Mr Hunter's work which cannot be too much laid to heart by proprietors and administrators of Highland property. Even to those who devote their attention to the rearing of game, no condition of country is more profitable than that which affords the most cover, while it is well known that its grazing capacity and the shelter it supplies against the winter's storms is highly favourable to the raising of stock. It can thus be found that successful cultivation and abundant game are not at all so inimical to each other when properly regulated as might be supposed. A second chapter of a general character is devoted by Mr Hunter to a comparison of the past and present arboreal character of the county of Perth. We are also furnished with an interesting table, showing the acreage under trees in all the counties of Scotland. Taking the Highland counties we find that Inverness tops the list with 162,201 acres; Perthshire comes next with 94,563; Ross and Cromarty, 43,201; Argyle, 42,741; Sutherland, 12,260; Nairn, 13,241; Bute, 3,454; and Caithness, 210 acres, respectively. The woods of Perthshire Mr Hunter estimates at £35 per acre, showing a total value for the county of nearly three and a half millions sterling. Proceeding to details, he devotes his next chapter to a description of Athole, with its gigantic forests and its stately trees. He goes in a similar manner over all the important districts of the county, leaving scarce a tree unvisited. His pages teem with entertaining gossip, about not merely the trees and woods, but the people and |