Assuming that you're talking about the Highland Clearances...

The Hanoverians felt threatened by the 'brutish' and unassimilated nature of the Highlanders. Scotland was being ruled from England and this was an area which they were finding it hard to exert control over.

Land tax had been raised in their efforts to bring the land into line with the rest of Scotland and was a major cause of poverty in an area which could still be described as feudal.

Sir Walter Scott wrote that the rest of Britain were "Surprised to find that they were living next door to people that had more in common with Afghan tribes than the people of the plains of England."

The mysterious 'otherness' of the Highlanders way of living compounded by their use of gaelic allowed the English (and Southern Scots) to view them as lesser; as backward and corrupt.

Early debaters for the Clearances felt that they were doing the Highlanders a favour by bringing industry and capitalism to their doorstep; there's not even an inkling of insight that their actions would force the Highlanders out.

The Clearances were not viewed as progressive by all, particularly by those overseas. The Swiss-French political economist Simonde de Sismondi condemned the behaviours of those who were appropriating land from mere peasants (whom Karl Marx plagiarised from widely.)

The reason that the Clearances only happened in Scotland can be explained by a few factors; -Physical proximity. As the two countries shared an island. -The aftermath of the Jacobite rising. -The difficulty of ruling over a population who are not centralised.

• Contemporary debates over the future of the land given it's feudalistic tendencies.
• Government sanctioned exploitation of the poor by the rich.

These circumstances allowed for the opportunism of the Highland Clearances yet lack of support compounded with heavy criticism from overseas meant that this was not a venture that could be easily repeated.