bad qualities, possessed, in a singular degree, the art of securing the love and obedience of his clan. Though attainted and outlawed, and though his estate was forfeited, and given to the next heir of the female line, Mackenzie of Fraserdale, yet such was the fidelity of the clan to their real chief, that they flocked to his standard at the first summons, quitting his rich rival, who, possessed of the estate, had the power of rewarding his friends and supporters. The individuals might change, but the ties that bound together one, were drawn more closely, though by insensible degrees, around the succeeding generation; and thus each family, in all its various successions, retained something like the same sort of relation to the parent stem, which the renewed leaves of a tree in spring preserve, in point of relative position, to those which dropped off in the preceding autumn.*

• The attachment and friendship of kindred, families, and clans, were confirmed by many ties. It has been an uniform practice in the families of the Campbells of Melford, Duntroun, and Dunstaffnage, that, when the head of either family died, the chief mourners should be the two other lairds, one of whom supported the head to the grave, while the other walked before the corpse. In this manner friendship took place of the nearest consanguinity; for even the oldest sons of the deceased were not permitted to interfere with this arrangement. The first progenitors of these families were three sons of the family of Argyle, who took this method of preserving the friendship, and securing the support of their posterity to one another.

In a manner something similar, the family of Breadalbane had their bands of union and friendship, simple in themselves, but sufficient to secure the support of those whom they were intended to unite. The motto of the armorial bearings of the family is "Follow me." This significant call was assumed by Sir Colin Campbell, Laird of Glenorchy, who was a Knight Templar of Rhodes, and is still known in the Highlands by the designation of Caillain Du na Roidh," Black Colin of Rhodes." Several cadets of the family assumed mottos analogous to that of this chivalrous knight, and when the chief called "Follow me," he found a ready compliance from Campbell of Glenfalloch, a son of Glenorchy, who says, "Thus far," that is, to his heart's blood, the crest being a dagger piercing a heart;-from Achline, who says, « With heart and hand;”—from Achallader, who says, "With courage ;"-and from Barcaldine, who says, Paratus sum: Glenlyon, more cautious, says, Quæ recta sequor. A

Many important consequences, regarding the character of the Highlanders, resulted from this division of the people into small tribes, and from this establishment of patriarchal government. The authority of the king was rendered feeble and inefficient. His mandates could neither arrest the depredations of one clan against another, nor allay their mutual hostilities. Delinquents could not, with impunity, be pursued into the bosom of a clan which protected them, nor could his judges administer the laws, in opposition to their interests or their will. Sometimes he strengthened his arm, by fomenting animosities among them, and by entering occasionally into the interest of one, in order to weaken another. Many instances of this species of policy occur in Scottish history, which, for a long period, was unhappily a mere record of internal violence. The consequence of this absence of general laws was an almost perpetual system of aggression, warfare, depredation, and contention. These little sovereignties touched at so many points, yet were so independent of one another; they approached so nearly, in many respects, yet were, in others, so distant; there were so many opportunities of encroachment on the one hand, and so little of a disposition to submit to it, on the other; and the quarrel of one individual of the tribe so naturally involved the rest, that there was scarcely ever a profound peace, or perfect cordiality between them. Among their chiefs the most deadly feuds frequently arose from opposing interests, or from wounded pride. These feuds were warmly espoused by the whole clan, and were often transmitted, with aggravated animosity, from generation to generation.

It would be curious to trace all the negotiations, treaties, and bonds of amity, (or manrent, as they were called,)

neighbouring knight and baron, Menzies of Menzies, and Flemyng of Moness, in token of friendship, say," Will God I shall," and "The deed will show." An ancestor of mine, also a neighbour, says, " Beware."

tr

This was acting on the old maxim, “ Divide et impera.”

with which opposing clans strengthened themselves, and their coalitions with friendly neighbours, against the attacks and encroachments of their enemies or rivals, or to preserve the balance of power. By these bonds,+ they bound themselves to assist each other; but, however general their internal insurrections and disputes might be-however extended their cause of quarrel with rivals or neighbours, they always bound themselves to be loyal and true to the king. In these treaties of mutual support and protection, smaller clans, unable to defend themselves, were in

• It is rather a humiliating consideration for the votaries of ambition, who have made war and politics their sole study, to find, from the history of past ages, that no less art, sagacity, address, and courage, have been displayed in the petty contests of illiterate mountaineers, than in their most refined schemes of policy and their most brilliant feats of arms. That they should be able, by intrigue and dexterity, to attach new allies, and detach hostile tribes from their confederates, is a still more mortifying proof how nearly the unassisted powers of natural talent, approach to the practices of the most profound politicians.

† As a curious document of this nature, I may mention a bond of amity and mutual defence entered into by a number of gentlemen of the name of Stewart in Athole, Monteith, and Appin, to which each affixed his seal and signature, binding himself to support the others against all attacks and encroachments, especially from the Marquis of Argyle, who had sided with the Covenanters. This bond is dated at Burn of Keltney, 24th June 1654. The long continued feuds between the Argyle and Atholemen, which were latterly much embittered by political differences, were the cause of many skirmishes and battles. The last of these was a kind of drawn battle, in the reign of Charles II., each party retiring different ways. When the Atholemen heard that the Argylemen were on their march to attack them, they immediately flew to arms, and, moving forward, encountered their foes in Breadalbane, near the east end of Lochtay. The conflict was most desperate. The dead were carried off the field and buried in a small knoll, now included in the parks of Taymouth, where their bones were found in great numbers in 1816, when Lord Breadalbane cut down a corner of this knoll in the formation of a road.

These treaties ran thus:-"Always excepting my duty to our lord the king, and to our kindred and friends." When men who were not chiefs of clans, or of any subordinate tribes, thus bound themselves, their fidelity to the chiefs of their own blood and family formed a particular exception never to be forgotten or infringed.

cluded, and also such families or clans as had lost their chiefs. Those of the name of Stewart, for instance, whose estates lay in the district of Athole, and whose chief, by birth, was at a distance, ranged themselves under the family of Athole, though they were themselves sufficiently numerous to raise 1000 fighting men. When such unions took place, the smaller clans followed the fortunes, engaged in the quarrels, and fought under the chiefs of the greater, but their ranks were separately marshalled, and led by their own subordinate chieftains and lairds, who owned submission only when necessary, for the success of combined operations. From these, and other causes, the Highlands were, for ages, as constant a theatre of petty warfare, as Europe has been of important struggles. The smaller the society, and the more closely connected together, the more keenly did it feel an injury, or resent an insult offered by a rival tribe. A haughty or contemptuous expression uttered against a chief, was considered, by all his followers, in the light of a personal affront; † and the driving away the cattle of one clansman, was looked upon as an act of aggression against the whole. The rage for vengeance, and the desire of reprisals, spread throughout the little community, like the violence of an insult offered to an individual, heightened by the sympathy of numbers. Submission to insult would have been present disgrace, and would have invited future aggression. Immediate hostility

In this manner the M'Raes followed the Earl of Seaforth, the M'Colls the Stewarts of Appin, and the M'Gillivrays and M'Beans the Laird of Mackintosh, &c. &c.

"When a quarrel begins in words between two Highlanders of different clans, it is esteemed the very height of malice and rancour, and the greatest of all provocations, to reproach one another with the vices or personal defects of their chiefs, or that of the particular branch whence they sprung; and, in a third degree, to reproach the whole clan, or name whom they will assist, right or wrong, against those of any other tribe with which they are at variance, to whom their enmity, like that of exasperated brothers, is most outrageous."-Letters from a Gentleman in the North of Scotland.

was therefore the result, and the gathering word of the clan found an echo in every breast. *

If no immediate opportunity of obtaining complete satisfaction occurred; if the injured party was too weak to repel attack, and to vindicate their honour in the field, or to demand compensation for their property, still the hostile act was not forgotten, nor the resolution of avenging it abandoned. Every artifice by which cunning could compensate the want of strength was practised; alliances were courted, and favourable opportunities watched. Even an appearance of conciliation and friendship was assumed, to cover the darkest purposes of hatred; and as revenge is embittered in all countries where the laws are ill executed, and where the hand of the individual must vindicate those rights which public justice does not protect, so this feeling was cherished and honoured when directed against rival tribes. †

To such a pitch were those feelings carried, that there are instances, both in tradition and on record, in which these feuds led to the most sanguinary conflicts, and ended in the extermination of one of the adverse parties. +

The spirit of opposition and rivalry between the clans perpetuated a system of hostility, encouraged the cultivation of the military at the expence of the social virtues, and perverted their ideas both of law and morality. Revenge was accounted a duty, the destruction of a neighbour a me

See Appendix, D.

+ In the present enlightened times, were the laws unable to afford protection, and were individuals, or collective bodies, forced to arm in order to redress their own wrongs,—would murder, turbulence, and spoliation of property, be less prevalent than they were in the Highlands when unprotected by the general laws of the realm? Were the return of such scenes of licence and rapine a probable occurrence, I fear much the warmest advocate of modern civilization would hardly venture to anticipate, that they would be blended with those frequent and softening traits of honourable feeling which distinguished the inroads of the wild mountaineers.