SECTION XIII.

Abolition of hereditary jurisdiction--Suppression of the Highland garb.

THE alarm occasioned by this insurrection, determined government to dissolve the patriarchal system in the Highlands, the nature, as well as the danger of which, had the power of the clans been properly directed, was now exhibited to the country. It would appear that it was considered impracticable to effect this dissolution of clanship, fidelity, and mutual attachment, between the Highlanders and their chiefs, by a different and improved modification of the system and state of society, and unfortunately, no course was pursued short of a complete revolution. For this purpose, an act was passed in 1747, depriving all proprietors of their jurisdictions and judicial powers; and in August of the same year, it was also enacted, that any person in the Highlands, possessing or concealing any kind of arms, should be liable, in the first instance, to a severe fine, and be committed to prison without bail till payment. If the delinquent was a man, and unable to pay the fine, he was to be sent to serve as a soldier in America, or, if unfit for service, to be imprisoned for six months; if a woman, she was, besides the fine and imprisonment till payment, to be detained six months in prison. Seven years transportation was the punishment for a second offence.

The Highland garb was proscribed by still severer penalties. It was enacted, that any person within Scotland, whether man or boy, (excepting officers and soldiers in his Majesty's service,) who should wear the plaid, philibeg, trews, shoulder belts, or any part of the Highland garb; or should use for great coats, tartans, or party-coloured plaid, or stuffs; should, without the alternative of a fine, be imprisoned, on the first conviction, for six months with

out bail, and on the second conviction, be transported for seven years.

The necessity of these measures is the best apology for their severity, but, however proper it may have been to dissolve a power which led to such results, and to deprive men of authority and their followers of arms, which they so illegally used, the same necessity does not appear to extend to the garb. "Even the loyal clans," says Dr Johnson, "murmured with an appearance of justice, that, after having defended the king, they were forbidden to defend themselves, and that the swords should be forfeited which had been legally employed. It affords a generous and manly pleasure, to conceive a little nation gathering its fruits and tending its herds, with fearless confidence, though it is open on every side to invasion; where, in contempt of walls and trenches, every man sleeps securely with his sword beside him, and where all, on the first approach of hostility, come together at the call to battle, as the summons to a festival show, committing their cattle to the care of those, whom age or nature had disabled to engage the enemy; with that competition for hazard and glory, which operate in men that fight under the eye of those whose dislike or kindness they have always considered as the greatest evil, or the greatest good. This was in the beginning of the present century: in the state of the Highlanders every man was a soldier, who partook of the national confidence, and interested himself in national honour. To lose this spirit, is to lose what no small advantage will compensate, when their pride has been crushed by the heavy hand of a vin

Considering the severity of the law against this garb, nothing but the strong partiality of the people could have prevented its going entirely into disuse. The prohibitory laws were so long in force, that more than two-thirds of the generation who saw it enacted passed away before the repeal. The youth of the latter period knew it only as an illegal garb, to be worn by stealth under the fear of imprisonment and transportation. Breeches, by force of habit, had become so common, that it is remarkable how the plaid and philibeg were resumed at all.

To

dictive conqueror, whose severities have been followed by laws, which, though they cannot be called cruel, have produced much discontent, because they operate on the surface of life, and make every eye bear witness to subjection. If the policy of the disarming act appears somewhat problematical, what must we think of the subsequent measure of 1747, to compel the Highlanders to lay aside their national dress? It is impossible to read this latter act, without considering it rather as an ignorant wantonness of power, than the proceeding of a wise and a beneficent legislature. be compelled to wear a new dress has always been found painful." So the Highlanders found, and it certainly was not consistent with the boasted freedom of our country, to inflict on a whole people the severest punishment, short of death, for wearing a particular dress. Had the whole race been decimated, more violent grief, indignation, and shame, could not have been excited among them, than by being deprived of this long inherited costume. This was an encroachment on the feelings of a people, whose ancient and manly garb had been worn from a period remote beyond all history or even tradition.

*

The obstinacy with which the law was resisted, proceeded no less from their attachment to their proscribed garb, than from the irksomeness of the dress forced upon them. Habituated to the free use of their limbs, the Highlanders could ill brook the confinement and restraint of the Lowland dress, and many were the little devices which they adopted to retain their ancient garb, without incurring the penalties of the act, devices which were calculated rather to excite a smile, than to rouse the vengeance of persecution. Instead of the prohibited tartan kilt, some wore pieces of a blue, green, or red thin cloth, or coarse camblet, wrapped round the waist, and hanging down to the knees like the fealdag. +

Dr Johnson's Journey to the Highlands.

+ The fealdag was the same as the philibeg, only not plaited. The mode of sewing the kilt into plaits or folds, in the same manner as the

After being debarred the use of swords, they seldom went without a stick, and, as a substitute for the dirk, they carried a short knife stuck in a side pocket of the breeches, or inserted between the garter and the leg, by those who ventured to wear the hose. The tight breeches were particularly obnoxious. Some who were fearful of offending, or wished to render obedience to the law, which had not specified on what part of the body the breeches were to be worn, satisfied themselves with having in their possession this article of legal and loyal dress, which, either as the signal of their submission, or more probably to suit their own convenience when on journeys, they often suspended over their shoulders upon their sticks; others, who were either more wary, or less submissive, sewed up the centre of the kilt, with a few stitches between the thighs, which gave it something of the form of the trowsers worn by Dutch skippers. At first these evasions of the act were visited with considerable severity, but at length the officers of the law seem to have acquiesced in the interpretation put by the Highlanders upon the prohibition of the act. This appears from the trial of a man of the name of M'Alpin, or Drummond Macgregor, from Breadalbane, who was acquitted, on plaid, is said to have been introduced by an Englishman of the name of Parkinson, early in the last century, which has given rise to an opinion entertained by many, that the kilt is modern, and was never known till that period. This opinion is founded on a memorandum left by a gentleman whose name is not mentioned, and published in the Edinburgh Magazine. Without knowing the correctness of this statement, it may, with as much reason, be supposed, that breeches were never worn till the present cut and manner of wearing them came into fashion. As the Highlanders had sufficient ingenuity to think of plaiting the plaid, it is likely they would be equally ingenious in forming the kilt; and as it is improbable that an active light-footed people would go about on all occasions, whether in the house or in the field, encumbered with twelve yards of plaid, (not forgetting the expence of such a quantity,) I am less willing to coincide in the modern opinion, founded on such a slight unauthenticated notice, than in the universal belief of the people, that the philebeg has been part of their garb, as far back as tradition reaches.

his proving that the kilt had been stitched up in the middle. * This trial took place in 1757, and was the first instance of relaxation in enforcing the law of 1747.†

any

The change produced in the Highlands, by the disarming and proscribing acts, was accelerated by the measures of government for the abolition of hereditary jurisdictions, and the consequent overthrow of the authority of the chiefs. This was the last act of government, which had influence upon the Highland character. Subsequent changes are to be traced to causes, which owe their existence chiefly to the views and speculations of private individuals. Into the order of these causes, and their practical operations and effects, I shall now proceed to inquire.

This very strong attachment to a habit which they thought graceful and convenient, is not singular among an ancient race, proud of their independence, long unbroken descent, manners, and customs. It is in every one's memory, that a dangerous mutiny was produced at Vellore, in the East Indies, by insisting on an alteration in the dress of the native troops, in the adjustment of their turbans, and in the cut of their whiskers. There was, perhaps, a religious feeling mixed with this opposition, yet whiskers and turbans seem of less importance than a whole garb, such as that the use of which the Highlanders were prohibited.

† Although the severity of this " "ignorant wantonness of power" began to be relaxed in 1757, it was not till the year 1772 that this act, so ungenerous in itself, so unnecessary, and 'so galling, was repealed. In the session of that year, the present Duke of Montrose, then a member of the House of Commons, brought in a bill to repeal all penalties and restrictions on the Celtic garb. It passed without a dissenting voice.