for 1811, from which it appears that up to then, every family was
obliged to pay a yearly impost of a few shillings in money, a few
fowls, and some days' work, at the highest.

"It was only after 1811 that the ultimate and real usurpation was
enacted, the forcible, transformation of _clan-property_ into the
_private property_, in the modern sense, _of the chief_. The person
who stood at the head of this economical revolution, was the Countess
of Sutherland and Marchioness of Stafford.

"Let us first state that the ancestors of the marchioness were the
'great men' of the most northern part of Scotland, of very near
three-quarters of Sutherlandshire. This county is more extensive than
many French departments or small German principalities. When the
Countess of Sutherland inherited these estates, which she afterward
brought to her husband, the Marquis of Stafford, afterward Duke of
Sutherland, the population of them was already reduced to 15,000. The
countess resolved upon a radical economical reform, and determined
upon transforming the whole tract of country into sheep-walks. From
1814 to 1820, these 15,000 inhabitants, about 3000 families, were
systematically expelled and exterminated. All their villages were
demolished and burned down, and all their fields converted into
pasturage. British soldiers were commanded for this execution, and
came to blows with the natives. An old woman refusing to quit her
hut, was burned in the flames of it. Thus the countess appropriated
to herself _seven hundred and ninety-four thousand acres of land_,
which from time immemorial had belonged to the clan. She allotted to
the expelled natives about six thousand acres--two acres per family.
These six thousand acres had been lying waste until then, and brought
no revenue to the proprietors. The countess was generous enough to