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more austere and dangerous parts of their original institutions-to liberate the mass of the population from the fetters of an immemorial despotism-and to assimilate the manners of the mountaineer to those of his fellow countrymen, without breaking his spirit, or insulting his prejudices. His countrymen, as if zealous to atone for their former neglect, have ever since occupied themselves with eager and curious inquiries into his habits and manners-his poetry, amusements, and superstitions-his traditions, and his history under all its manifest exaggerations; and such has been the change in the current of public opinion, produced by one vast impulse, that there still exists a decided propensity to exalt the Highland character even to the highest pitch of imaginative excellence--to give way without resistance to the most extravagant pretensions on the score of its valour, high-mindedness, and generosity, and to ascribe to it with a gratuitous profusion, all the qualities which can elevate or embellish the character of a people, or administer to the vanity of a race, jealous beyond all others of the glory of their name.

"This spirit has risen to its greatest height in our own day. The singular and interest ing qualities of the Highland character have never been so carefully displayed, nor so highly admired, as in the times in which we live. Poetry has cheerfully emigrated to refresh her withered laurels in the north, and romance has sought its appropriate obscurity and terrors in the gloomy caverns, the trackless deserts, and the obsolete fero city of the Scottish Highlands. The more humble tourist has feebly impressed upon every rock some memorandum of his transitory visit, and has impregnated his labouring quarto with many anecdotes and traditions long since told, and as long disbelieved. There is not a recess in this wild and interesting country, which has not been explored by some venturous traveller,-and so much have all the arts of the south been rendered subservient to the illustration of this region of mist, that there is hardly a romantic spot in it, or a frowning precipice, or a rushing cataract, or an antique castle, or a gloomy cave, which has not been commemorated in song, or delineated in some crude specimen of the graphic art, such as popular travels and other ephemeral works are competent to supply.

"It is easy to account for all this, even without referring to the sudden importance which the Highlands acquired when they became the special object of legislative attention, and the natural avidity with which those secluded regions were explored when they were first thrown open to the secure research of the wondering Lowlander. The habits and manners of the Highlanders were of a chivalrous and warlike cast; and the story of their feuds and adventures was yet fresh in the remembrance of their countrymen. Their character and history form

ed, therefore, the best domestic subject of that ambiguous species of poetry which takes its ungraceful station betwixt the heroic and the common ballad; and which, from its extreme facility and obtrusive glare, has acquired so great a portion of fugitive popularity. It is a singular fact in the history of taste, that in an age, boasting beyond all others its security and opulence, and unquestionably disposed to indolence and enjoyment, the story of wild and barbarian adventure, should have been found the fittest element of poetic excitement; and that the relation of exploits, in which the peaceful and effeminate reader would shudder to engage, should afford him the highest imaginary delight, even when imbodied in very humble diction, and sustained by the most slender poetic embellishment."

The Scottish Highlands are not divided from the plain country by those strongly marked lines which usually separate mountainous districts from the lowlands; and thus the inhabitants of the confines frequently mingle, and lose by their union the distinctive features of their character. The population of this portion of the Scottish territory is computed to be about one-eighth of the whole country. The physiognomy of the Highlands is generally grand, rough, and deterring to the native of more genial climes, but occasionally the traveller who explores them, descends into a glen or valley, to which only a southern atmosphere is wanting to impart the beauty of an attractive and lovely landscape.

"Here there is nothing tame or stagnant; the mountains tower above each other in frowning majesty, and the torrents rush with impetuosity along; and at every turn, the eye is arrested by some material emblem of resistless force and sublimity. Even the sterility which is stamped on the more prominent parts of the scene, and which to the timid and luxurious traveller appears its ruling and repulsive characteristic, is not without its influence in heightening the general effect-in stirring our sympathy for the hapless beings to whose enterprise and toil it seems for ever to deny their appropriate reward,-and who, disdainful of the temptations which luxury presents, and the dependence which it inevitably creates, cling with ardour to the untamed freedom and high and daring spirit which are written on the frowning aspect of their native land.

"In many parts of the Highlands the mountains are so bleak and utterly barren, that they derive their names from the colour

of the naked rock which rises in bald and sullen austerity. In other parts the hills are clothed with heath, which in the season of its flower gives them an appearance highly picturesque. The valleys which intervene are called glens, or straths, according to the magnitude of the stream by which they chance to be intersected. These streams, which abound in every quarter-with the inland lakes which occur in great beauty and variety-and the numerous arms of the sea which often stretch far into the country, impart to the Highlands every embellishment which scenery can derive from the element of water, in all its various and picturesque combinations."

Industry, agricultural or commercial, has, in no age, been numbered among the virtues of the Highlanders. Their towns can only aspire to the denomination of villages, and to manufacturing skill and energy they have, consequently, ever been strangers. Even the cultivation of the soil, opposed as it has been by the natural barrenness of the country, and the influence of ancient institutions, has proceeded but slowly, and the principal occupation of the Highlanders at the present day consists in the breeding of cattle, for which they find a ready market in the Lowlands. Turf and unhewn rock supply the materials of their simple dwellings; in these they reside during the winter months, but on the approach of warmer weather, repair to their summer huts, or shielings, in the mountains, where they tend their herds, and occupy themselves, during the season, in pastoral avocations. Milk and its coarser preparations constitute the basis of their diet; and the luxury of animal food is obtained only by the rough but inspiring labours of the chace-labours in which this hardy and indefatigable race have ever delighted, as affording the image of those sterner and more destructive pursuits which formed almost the sole occupation of their progenitors, and acquired for them a fame which would be more honourable were it less sanguinary.

The habits and occupations of the Highlanders are favourable to the virtues attached to the character of a half-civilized people. Fortitude is one, and not the least, of their distinguishing attri

butes; in the patient endurance of hardships they have never been excelled, and the pride of a rough, but unsophisticated race, was glowingly alive to its superiority in these respects over the inhabitants of the plains.

"The day is not long past since Highland Chieftains were known to value themselves not a little on their patience of fatigue, cold, and hunger. Their pretensions, indeed, have been sometimes answered with a sneer, and the merit which they boasted has been despised as the result, not of choice, but of necessity. It is impossible, however, not to perceive how narrow and illiberal is much all the qualities on which individuals the insulting sarcasm-or to forget how and nations justly value themselves, are dependent on accident and fortune. We must be satisfied in such cases with appreciating the virtue without curiously exploring its source. The grandeur of Rome might become equivocal, if we should insist on measuring it by the poverty and rapine in which it had its origin; and the freedom of England might lose much of its majestic and imposing aspect, if we should trace it minutely through the turbulence and tyranny by which it has been alternately vindicated and assailed in the lapse of many centuries.

clanship, which formed the most character"Every one has heard of the spirit of istic feature of Highland manners down to a very late period. The bond of union strong, that the duty of the members of the created by this singular institution was so clan towards their chief, superseded all other obligations. To defend him, whoever might be the assailant-to sacrifice life and fame for him, whatever might be the cause in which he had embarked-to despise ali authority which he resisted-to know no law of morals, nor perhaps of religion, which had not the sanction of his conduct and example-to submit both mind and body to his sacred and uncontrollable sway --were the cardinal principles in the narrow education of every mountaineer, which he durst not infringe but at the hazard of death and infamy-This singular and apparently terrific authority was in its origin strictly patriarchal. The Highlanders were divided into numerous tribes, effectually separated from each other, for all other purposes but those of hostility, by the natural boundaries of mountains, rivers, and lakes, which intersect the country in all directions. By the simple theory of their domestic government, each tribe or clan formed but one

family, and the chief was the father of that family. His power over his children was unlimited, both in peace and war;-their duty to him knew no bounds but their pow er of discharging it. As the fountain of their blood, and the father of their race, he was

encircled with a superstitious veneration; and to guard the sanctity of his person, to ensure the success of his projects, to sustain the course of his fortunes, the banded strength of his clan was ever ready at a signal. This comprehensive, but amiable despotism, had no memory of ancient conquest to inspire distrust, and few examples of present tyranny to embitter resentment. The obedience of the tribe was unlimited; but the reciprocal duties of the chief were marked with all the precision of inveterate usage. He held the allegiance of his clan, by the condition of that extended affection for every member of it, and zealous regard to their interests, which belonged to the very idea of the parental relation on which his authority was founded. He lived on habits of familiarity and friendship with all the individuals of his clar; he let his lands to them upon easy terms; he was constantly attended by a certain number of his family; and in all the simple relations of a society thus constituted, the friendly and social principle displayed itself in a prominent manner, and veiled the austerity of that power of which it was at once the origin

and the limit.

"The more numerous clans were subdivided into different branches, all acknowledg ing the authority of the common head; but each owning, at the same time, the intermediate or derivative power of a chieftain, who was generally a cadet of the family of the chief of the clan. To the chieftain, in time of war, was assigned the command of a company in the clan regiment, the supreme command being lodged in the chief. Little can, indeed, be said for the discipline of these rude levies-but their heroism and devotion have become proverbial. By a sagacious policy, the clans were in general kept in distinct bodies in the field, the chief had his proper place in the array, and the order observed was such, that every individual fought under the immediate observation of his nearest friends and relations, whose esteem he was most ambitious to secure. The courage and constancy of the clans have been commemorated by a series of exploits, which form a prominent part in the history of the island; but the desperate enthusiasm of the clansmen was ever roused to the highest pitch when danger approached the person of their chief:-And many instances have occurred, in which they have furiously rushed on certain death for his preservation. He who should have hesitated thus to act, would for ever have been treated by his kinsmen as an outcast, and branded by his tribe as the greatest of cowards and villains."

Such a system of government could obtain only among a people scarcely advanced beyond the confines of barbarisin, and it is only necessary to be acquainted with its outlines to perceive that in a

more refined state of society it would be utterly impracticable. It presents a picture of the most perfect despotism, exalted, it is true, by sentiment and feeling of no vulgar order, but still so completely at war with every civilized institution, that it is impossible to regard it with rational complacency, or to reflect without pleasure that it no longer exists. Yet we would not have our readers suppose us insensible to the generous enthusiasm which constituted its basis, or imagine us cold and deaf to those soul-stirring feelings that bound the Highlander to his paternal chieftain. The author has beautifully illustrated the nature of this connexion, and in his concluding observation anticipated us in the wish that a system so liberal and in such entire harmony with the finest attributes of our nature. could be rendered compatible with the interests of a great and civilized nation.

"In his chief he recognised the unwearied benefactor of the tribe; under his auspices he enjoyed whatever comforts his habits and condition required; and to the same consecrated head he looked up as the guarIdian of his kindred, and the avenger of his wrongs.

The entire relation betwixt the chief and the clan, betwixt the sovereign and the subject, was one of real and constant beneficence. Under this simple and benign system of government, intrigue and faction, and turbulence, must have been unknown; or if they did chance to rear their hideous shapes, must have been instantly chased away by the unsophisticated indignation of obedient and dutiful children. To resist the authority of the chief, implied an odious combination of treason and of parricide: And instead of involving the rebel in the doubtful imputations of misguided patriotism, fastened on him the stigma of a frightful revolt against the most sacred rights and feelings of kindred. How could a contention for the sovereignty, arise in a state where the title of the chief was not derived from election, nor dependant on accident, but fixed by the same immutable law which, by giving priority in birth to the parent, invests him with the natural government of his children? To dispute such a title, would have been to combat with destiny, to struggle against the eternal laws of nature. There was nothing to humiliate, in that inferiority which was stamped by nature itself; nothing to hope from an emulation, which transgressed her most sacred decrees; nothing to gain from an enterprise of ambition, the very naming of which would have filled every mind with

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instinctive horror. Hence the simplicity character, was cherished into a spirit of and energy of this singular system, which great ferocity by the circumstances of their struck the roots of authority deep in the af- condition, and the events in which they fections of the heart, and rested the whole were called upon almost daily to particischeme of government on the most power- pate. They levied war against each other ful passions of our nature. How precarious without waiting for, or regarding any other the state of the most gorgeous despot, sur- authority than that of their natural leaders: rounded by the fickle and jealous minions of And the general government, which on such his tyranny, compared with that of the occasions they do not appear to have reHighland chief, who counted among his at- cognised, was compelled to overlook the tendants only the willing sharers of his ex- enormity of a civil war, levied without its ploits, and had no subjects whom he did sanction, and which in any other state of not recognise as his kinsmen and friends! society would have been considered as an How energetic the scheme of clan govern- act of rebellion. The pretext for these outment, when compared even with the more rages was generally the right of reprisal, or liberal institutions of an enlightened policy, of revenge; but the love of plunder apwhere power, instead of trusting to the pas- pears in inany instances to have formed the sions, which can never betray, steers its true incitement. To the spirit of revenge discourse by a shifting balance of narrow and played by them on such occasions, of which sordid interests, and may be deceived and many examples are recorded, it would be undone by the slightest error in the various difficult to find a parallel in history." and perplexed combination! If a great nation possessing military discipline and science, could be governed on the patriarchal principle of the Highland clans, with its unity of purpose, enthusiasm of attachment, and entire devotion of spirit; the united power of the world, tainted as it is every where with selfishness and faction, could not long withstand its energy, or arrest its progress to universal dominion."

The paramount power of the chief was the principal source of the evils arising from the patriarchal government of the Highlanders. Sanguinary contentions between the clans, and lawless resistance to the general government, were the natural consequences of a system which invested the head of every petty tribe with uncontrollable and absolute power.

"It depended on the temper and character of the chiefs, whether the legislature of the kingdom should be obeyed,-except by the immediate application of force, within their isolated territories. The laws were of course disregarded, and the clans holding them selves but little responsible to them in the affairs either of war or peace, were often in a state of open disobedience and rebellion. Their isolated situation, and the principle of family attachment on which the clans were individually united, rendered them jealous of each other; and their rude and imperfect notions of justice, led to frequent encroachments-to constant broils, and almost unremitting hostilities. There is nothing accordingly for which they are more distinguished, than the frequency and violence of their feuds, which were conducted

in daring violation of the laws, if indeed the legislature, which was too feeble to protect from aggression, had any right to exact an abstinence from retaliation. The warlike

The Highlanders were a proud people, and even now, when civilization and refinement have in a considerable measure softened the prejudices on which it was built, they esteem themselves superior to their Lowland neighbours. This feeling was cherished from the highest to the lowest member of the clan,

"for he who valued himself on his ancestry, and who believed that he sprung from the fa milyof his chief, whom he considered as the first of men, could not brook an equality with the Lowlanders,who seldom put a high value on these imaginary distinctions. Necessity compelled some even of the more distinguished persons of the clans, to superintend personally the operations of the most humble industry; and when these lofty spirits had to submit to drive their cattle to the markets in the low country, they were often treated with a degree of familiarity, which must have been quite appalling to them. Their pretensions were estimated by the rudeness of the Lowlander, not according to the length of their genealogies, but the character of the immediate occupation in which they were engaged. The dignity of the Baron of Thundertentronkch himself, would be in some danger in a gin shop with graziers and butchers; and one cannot wonder, if, in similar circumstances, the delicacy of a Highland gentleman was often wounded, and his fiery spirit roused, by the unceremonious grossness of his strange companions."

The barrenness of their country, and their aversion to agricultural and manufacturing occupations, rendered it always difficult to provide for, or dispose of, the spirit of the clans was thus kept in perpetual superabundant population of the Highexercise; and their native resolution of lands. To migration the invincible at

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tachment they bore to their native mountains was an insurmountable barrier. When, therefore, the population of a district increased beyond its means of support, it was usual for the young men to place themselves under the command of a chief, selected from the family of the head of the clan, and either engage themselves in feuds at home, or issuing forth into the plains, acquire their subsistence by the plunder of their peaceful neighbours.

Their affection for the Stuarts, which proved so disastrous to them, is ascribed by the author to the military reputation they gained under the gallant and accomplished Montrose in the service of Charles I.

"With the exception of some districts in the west, the whole population of the Highlands was devoted to this hapless family. The Highlanders became favourites, of course, with Charles II. who had sense enough to feel the obligations of his House to their steadiness and fidelity; and he conferred on them the equivocal honour of chastising the covenanters, whom his frantic tyranny had driven to distraction and despair. It is a bad feature, indeed, of their annals, that they have too often tarnished their honour by a blind attachment to despotism; that their most brilliant exploits have been performed with perhaps an honest, but certainly a misguided zeal against the liberties of the nation: and that one of their greatest achievements, the victory at Killicrankie, enabled an accomplished minion of tyranny to die in the exultation of victory, after having been steeped to the lips in the blood of a persecuted people, and achieving every crime which could entitle him to the appellation of the destroyer of his country.

"The honours which the Highlanders had gained under Montrose were not, however, without a sad compensation in the disasters inflicted upon them by the genius of a still more able and sagacious captain. Oliver Cromwell was not a man to be trifled with, nor to permit their daring contempt of authority, or their undisguised devotion to the Stuart family; to escape without signal chastisement. He established garrisons at Inverness, and other places in the Highlands -made his disciplined troops penetrate the deepest recesses of the country-dismantled the castles of the chiefs-and compelled the clans to surrender their arms, and give pledges of fidelity to his government.— Those even who detest the crimes of this usurper, must respect his vigour and talents -and it is not the slenderest proof of his

genius for government, that he was able to reduce to the obedience of the laws the most daring and incorrigible portion of his dominions, which had hitherto defied both the policy and the power of the legitimate sovereigns. It is universally acknowledged, that under his vigorous sway the lowlands enjoyed greater security from Highland depredation, than at any period recorded in history, prior to the year 1745, when a new era was introduced, and the civilization of the highlands was accelerated by the miscarriage of an enterprise, which, if it had succeeded, would surely have prolonged their barbarism.-It must be owned, that usurpers, who owe their rise to violence, are more dexterous in the use of its instruments, and more efficient agents of a reform, which violence alone can accomplish, than peaceful and legitimate sovereigns; and this perhaps is the secret of all that is attractive and brilliant in their character.

"The Highlanders were of course determined enemies of the revolution settlement; and King William, it is said, fully occupied with his continental war, and with the affairs of Ireland, resolved to purchase from the clans, that fidelity which he could not conquer. If we are to believe the anonymous writer in the Quarterly Review," he intrusted the Earl of Breadalbane with 20,000l. sterling, to be distributed among the heads of the clans, to secure their acquiescence and neutrality. But this nobleman, it is said, managed his trust with singular perfidy; and while he appropriated the greater part of the petty douceur to himself, proceeded to silence the refractory chieftains, by the most cruel measures: and, in particular, by the terrific example of vengeance, which was exhibited in the tragedy of Glencoe, and which the writer in the Review does not hesitate to charge on Breadalbane.

"The Highlanders, in spite of every ef fort to subdue their spirit, still cherished their ancient prejudices, and their hostility to the protestant government established by the revolution. It is said, indeed, that on the accession of George the first, many of their chiefs would willingly have acquiesced in the new establishment, which there seemed no prospect of subverting; and that an address of loyalty to the sovereign, subscribed by a great number of the leading men, was intercepted by the Duke of Argyle, who saw a better prospect for his ambition in the disaffection, than in the loyalty of the Highland clans. This singular document has been recently published,* and in such circumstances as renders its authenticity highly suspicious. It is hardly credible, that in the temper and spirit of the Highlanders of those days, such an address should have been framed; and it is yet more incredible, that, if it bad existed, it

*"Vol. 14. p. 313.

"Quarterly Review, vol. 14. p. 313.

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