he ancient clan system, and the
reduction of the chiefs to the condition of landlords. For awhile the
people failed to realize this new order of affairs, for the gentlemen
and common people still continued to regard their chief in the same
light as formerly, not questioning but their obedience to the head of
their clan was independent of legislative enactment. They were still
ready to make any sacrifice for his sake, and felt it to be their duty
to do what they could for his support. They still believed that the
chief's duty to his people remained unaltered, and he was bound to see
that they did not want, and to succor them in distress.

The first effects in the change in tribal relations were felt on those
estates that had been forfeited on account of the chiefs and gentlemen
having been compelled to leave the country in order to save their lives.
These estates were entrusted to the management of commissioners who
rudely applied their powers under the new arrangement of affairs. When
the chiefs, now reduced to the position of lairds, began to realize
their condition, and the advantage of making their lands yield them as
large an income as possible, followed the example of demanding a rent. A
rental value had never been exacted before, for it was the universal
belief that the land belonged to the clan in common. Some of the older
chiefs, then living, held to the same opinion, and among such, a change
was not perceptible until a new landlord came into possession. The
gentlemen of the clan and the tacksmen, or large farmers, firmly
believed that they had as much right to a share of the lands as the
chief himself. In the beginning the rent was not high nor more than the
lands would bear; but it was resented by the tacksmen, deeming it a
wanton injury inflicted in the house of their dearest friend. They were
hurt at the idea that the chief,--the father of his people--should be
controlled by such a mercenary idea, and to exercise that power which
gave him the authority to lease the lands to the highest bidder. This
policy, which they deemed selfish and unjust, naturally cut them to the
quick. They and their ancestors had occupied their farms for many
generations; their birth was as good and their genealogy as old as that
of the chief himself, to whom they were all blood relations, and whose
loyalty was unshaken. True, they had no written document, no "paltry
sheep-skin," as they called it, to prove the right to their farms, b