one Daer depart, then another, until at last he held the title, becoming
in 1799 Earl of Selkirk and was confirmed as the master of the beautiful
St. Mary's Isle, near the mouth of the Dee, on Solway Frith. On his
visits to the Highlands, it was not alone the Highland straths and
mountains, nor the Highland Chieftain's absolute mastership of his clan,
nor was it the picturesque dress--the "Garb of old Gaul"--which
attracted him. The Earl of Selkirk has been charged by those who knew
little of him with being a man of feudal instincts. His temper was the
exact opposite of this. When he saw his Scottish fellow-countrymen being
driven out of their homes in Sutherlandshire, and sent elsewhere to give
way for sheep farmers, and forest runs, and deer stalking, it touched
his heart, and his three Emigration Movements, the last culminating in
the Kildonan Colonists, showed not only what title and means could do,
but showed a kindly and compassionate heart beating under the starry
badge of Earldom.

Rather it was the case that the fur trading oligarchy ensconced in the
plains of the West, could not understand the heart of a
philanthropist--of a man who could work for mere humanity. Up till a few
years ago it was the fashion for even historians, being unable to
understand his motive and disposition, to speak of him as a "kind
hearted, but eccentric Scottish nobleman."

Lord Selkirk's active mind led him into various different spheres of
human life. He visited France and studied the problem of the French
Revolution, and while sympathizing with the struggle for liberty, was
alienated as were Wordsworth and hundreds of other British writers and
philanthropists, by the excesses of Robespierre and his French
compatriots. When the Napoleonic wars were at their height, like a true
patriot, Lord Selkirk wrote a small work on the "System of National