The years from 1880 to 1885 are significant for the Professor's public utterances and writings on the Crofter question. His studies in Italy had been made for the express purpose of accustoming his mind to the consideration of all problems involved in the subject of land-tenure, varying as these problems do in the varying customs and conditions of that country. He was thus better fitted to deal with what was becoming a matter of immediate moment.

He began 1880 by lecturing in Glasgow on the Crofters, and “preached a sermon to the lairds with more than usual applause and acceptance.” In February he issued a pamphlet on the subject, which treated of the passing of Highland estates into the hands of Southrons indifferent to the peasant population; of eviction and expatriation; of farm added to farm; of clearance for deer-forests and pasture-land. Letters to newspapers and a constant correspondence with proprietors, factors, farmers, crofters followed, and kept the matter well to the front, increasing his store of material for the book which wound up his public action in the cause.

But Greek pronunciation and the restoration of St Giles’ Cathedral gave him relief from his more insistent labours.