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TheNapier Commission, officially theRoyal Commission of Inquiry into the Condition of Crofters and Cottars in the Highlands and Islands was aroyal commission andpublic inquiry into the condition ofcrofters andcottars in theHighlands and Islands ofScotland.
The commission was appointed in 1883, withFrancis Napier, 10th Lord Napier, as its chairman, underWilliam Gladstone'sLiberalgovernment of the United Kingdom. TheRoyal Commission had five other members and published its report, theReport of Her Majesty's Commissioners of Inquiry Into the Condition of the Crofters and Cottars in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, in 1884. The other members were:
The commission was a response to crofter and cottar agitation in theHighlands ofScotland. The agitation was about excessively highrents, lack of security oftenure and deprivation ofde facto rights of access to land. It took the form ofrent strikes (withholding rent payments) and what came to be known as land raids (crofter occupation of land whichlandlords had given over tosheep farming and to huntingparks calleddeer forests).Crofters' War has been used since as a name for this agitation.
In the 1870s there had been sporadic short-lived agitations inWester Ross andLewis (then both in thecounty of Ross). In the early 1880s agitation began inSkye (then in thecounty of Inverness) and there it became persistent and threatened to spread throughout theHebrides and the Highlands.Police forces attempted to enforce what landlords believed to be their rights, but the police were severely overstretched, especially in Inverness-shire, whereWilliam Ivory wasSheriff Principal. Agitation became therefore an issue needing the attention of centralgovernment and, eventually, Gladstone's government appointed the Napier Commission.
About three years after the commission's appointment theCrofters' Holdings (Scotland) Act 1886 (49 & 50 Vict. c. 29) would be on the statute book. The act was not based on the recommendations of the commission, but the process by which the commission collected evidence, and the commission's report, did foster and inform the public,parliamentary andCabinet debate which led, eventually to the legislation. The legislation was based on principles accepted in theLandlord and Tenant (Ireland) Act 1870 andLand Law (Ireland) Act 1881, principles which Napier had implicitly rejected in 1884.
According toScottish nationalist, biographer, and historianJohn Lorne Campbell, the Crofters' Holdings (Scotland) Act 1886 was nothing less than "theMagna Carta of theHighlands and Islands, which conferred on the small tenants there something which the peasantry ofScandinavian countries had known for generations, security of tenure and the right to the principle of compensation for their own improvements at the termination of tenancies. Nothing was suggested in the report, or contained in the Act, to restrictabsentee landlordism or limit the amount of land any one individual might own in Scotland, but for the moment a great advantage has been secured.".[1]
Appointments to the Commission were made by theHome Secretary,Sir William Harcourt. In Napier himself the Commission had anamateurhistorian andanthropologist. In Nicolson and Mackinnon it had two members with good knowledge ofGaelic. Cameron and MacKenzie were obviously landlords,[2] and Fraser-Mackintosh was anantiquarian who, as an MP, had made himself known as someone who was sympathetic to the crofters' cause.
The termscrofter,cottar andHighlands and Islands all lacked clear definition, and the Commission was left to use its own judgement as when, where and from whom to take evidence. Napier was reluctant to includeCaithness, which he regarded as '"not inhabited by the Celtic race". The Commission was aware however that the government wanted a fairly early report, rather than an exhaustive inquiry, in the hope that this itself would help to quell crofter agitation.
The Commission began its work in the Hebrides, where rent strikes and land raids were most prevalent. It took evidence from crofters, landlords and others, and it moved on to tour much of what is now regarded as theHighlands and Islands area. Evidence from crofters exhibited remarkably consistent rhetoric, and there were accusations of coaching from theHighland Land League. Equally there were accusations that any crofter daring to give evidence risked being singled out for reprisals from landlords.
The Commission was far from unanimous in its report. Many of the recommendations were those of Napier alone. For tenants whose holdings had rental values of more than£6 a year he proposed security of tenure in 30-yearimproving leases andtownship organisation. For tenants whose holdings fell below the £6-a-year threshold he recommended voluntary assistedemigration.Improving lease means a lease which includes a programme of improvement for the holding.Townships were conceived as re-establishing communal management of grazing land.
Publication of the report did bring some calm to the situation in the Highlands, but this was very short lived.
Crofters Holdings (Scotland) Act 1886
