Napier Commission - The Commission

The Commission

Appointments to the Commission were made by the Home Secretary, Sir William Harcourt. In Napier himself the Commission had an amateur historian and anthropologist. In Nicolson and Mackinnon it had two members with good knowledge of Gaelic. Cameron and MacKenzie were obviously landlords, and Frazer-Mackintosh was an antiquarian who, as an MP, had made himself known as someone who was sympathetic to the crofters' cause.

The terms crofter, cottar and Highlands 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 include Caithness, 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 the Highlands and Islands area. Evidence from crofters exhibited remarkably consistent rhetoric, and there were accusations of coaching from the Highland Land League. Equally there were accusations that any crofter daring to give evidence risked being singled out for reprisals from landlords.