lonies.

Sir Kenneth S. Mackenzie, Bart. of Gairloch, makes the following remarks
on "The Church in the Highlands." He said that if they wished to improve
the Highlands:--

There was no way in which it could be done better than by
raising the class from which ministers were drawn. He
remembered saying at the opening meeting of this Society, that
one of its objects should be to excite the interest of the
upper classes in the language of their forefathers, inducing
them to retain that language, or acquire it if lost. Because,
when the cultivated classes lost their interest in it, the
leaven which leavens society ceased to influence the mass of
the people; and it was one of the most unfortunate things in
regard to a dying language, when the upper classes lost the use
of it, and the uneducated classes came to be in a worse
condition than in an earlier state of civilisation, when there
was an element of refinement among them. It was an understood
fact, that the clergy at this moment had a great influence in
the Highlands; and although there were persons present of
different persuasions, he thought they would all admit that the
Free Church was the Church that influenced the great mass of
Highlanders. There were Catholics in Mar, Lochaber, the Long
Island, and Strathglass, and Episcopalians in Appin; but the
people generally belonged to the Free Church, and if they
wanted to influence the mass, it was through the clergy of the
Free Church they could do it. Now, it was an unfortunate thing,
and generally admitted, that the clergy of the Free Church--he
believed it was the same in the Established Church--were not
rising in intellect and social rank--that there was rather a
falling off in that--that the clergy were drawn not so much
from the manse as from the cottar's house; and though he knew a
number of clergy, very excellent, godly men, and very superior,
considering the station from which they had risen, he thought
it was not advantageous, as a rule, to draw the clergy from the
lower, uneducated classes. They did not start with that
advantage in life which their sons would start with. There had
been a talk of instituting bursaries for the advancement of
Gaelic-speaking students. He did not see why they should not
start a bursary or have a special subscription--he would
himself con