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Show THE DIMINISHING POPULATION OF SCOTLAND Early returns of tho recent Scotch census, taken In conjunction with tho statistics of emigration from Scotland to the United States and to the British Brit-ish colonies, have revealed not only the marked progress of a process of depopulation In the rural districts, but tho stagnation of tho urban centers as well. In no case has the actual population of tho cities of Scotland roached the figures In the estimates of the registrar general, and the Increases In-creases In number of the urban population popu-lation have been bo small as to amount to a practical decline. This situation has aroused serious alarm in ' tho United Kingdom, and. as usual, tho politicians aro seeking to place the responsibility upon their opponents for a stato of affairs that Is universally recognized to be serious Naturally the decline of tho population popula-tion of Scotland Is most generally attributed at-tributed to the faults of the land system sys-tem and to tho appropriation of the land In greater and greater units for sport and pleasure. Especial emphasis empha-sis Is given tho latter point bv the allegation al-legation that 9,000,000 of Scotch acres an area equal to the entire cultivated culti-vated area of Denmark are owned by seventy persons, and the rejection by the house of lords of Liberal measures for the increase of small holdings and the restriction of the power of land lords Is regarded as at the root of the present evil. At least, it Is the opinion of ahrnwd observers that the Scotchmen Scotch-men would prefer to sL-iy at homo if the hope of owning a bit of the soil were held out to them. But the land question does not tell the whole story. The British colonies arc making extraordinary bids for Immigrants Im-migrants from north Britain, and the offer of passagp money and the gift of 1G0 acres of land in Australia and liberal lib-eral land allotments In Canada account ac-count In a large part for tho Increasing oxodus from the country In February of the present year more than 6,700 Scotch emigrants left their land for Canada alone, and the annual loss la Increasing Instead of diminishing. Whether radical changes in tho land laws would meet tho difficulties and reverse tho present alarming outward flow is problematical, but tho conviction convic-tion is gaining ground In Great Britain that groat as may bo the need of tho outlying portions of the empire, the recolonlzation of the old country Is rapidly becoming" a far more urgont problom. Philadelphia Public- Ledger. |