Manson, 3018; H. Sinclair, 5312; W. Irvine, 3948.]

[Page 10 rpt.]

EVICTION AND LIBERTY MONEY.

In all the cases where tenants are bound to fish for the landlord,
there is a firm conviction that the penalty of disobedience is
eviction, or payment of 'liberty money.' 'We knew quite well,'
said James Flawes (4964), a tenant on Quendale, 'from the
statement which was made to us before, that, if any one
transgressed the rule, the penalty would just be our forty days'
warning.' And cases of threatened removal for this cause, and
payment of liberty money or fines, though not common, have yet
been sufficiently numerous to keep alive a wholesome
apprehension, and prevent widespread disobedience. Eviction to a
Shetlander is a serious matter, especially when it is for such a
cause as this. A new farm is always difficult to get. 'In the south,'
says one witness, 'a man can shift from town to town and get
employment; but here, if he leaves his house and farm, he has no
place to go to except Lerwick, and there is no room to be got there,
either for love or money.'

[W. Irvine, 3625, 3755; L. Smith, 4486; J. Flawes, 4956; C.
Eunson, 5069; J. Johnston, 9238; J. Hutchison, 12,693; Peter
Smith, 1012; M. Malcolmson, 2994; W. Manson, 3025; W.
Goudie, 4274, 4385, etc.; H. Sinclair, 5320; John Johnston, 9423;
T.M. Adie, 5770.]

There is an impression, not perhaps always correct in a region