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"landers." See Act 18, anno 1689. The king's instruction to the duke of Hamilton, commissioner to the parliament, was in these words, "You are to endeavour "to procure an act for an effectual course, to repress the depredations and robberies by the Highland clans; and "when this matter is digested, you are to transmit the "proposals to us, that you may get particular instruc❝tions thereanent." A gentleman, in an Account of the Affairs in Scotland, printed about that time, gives 'us his observation upon this: it is, "That the depre"dations by the Highlanders are certainly a great incon"venience to the kingdom, whereby the inhabitants of the "Lowlands are not only obliged to keep numbers of armed "men, to watch and guard the passages and descents "from the Highlands, but likewise to pay considerable "compositions to these robbers, to procure their protec❝tion and assurance, which the law discharges; and "this acknowledgement is called black mail, whereby "these thieves are sustained without industry or virtue, "who are hard to be reduced or brought to justice because "of the inaccessibleness of the mountains, and that "forces are not able to find subsistence there, nor march "as far in two or three days in a body, as the Highlanders ❝can do in one, and therefore the grievance is just ; but "there is no method proposed for accomplishing the "redress: therefore the king did remit to the parliament "to consider and digest effectual courses for repressing "the Highlanders, which are to be transmitted to his "majesty, that he may give particular instructions to "his commissioner. Like as, though in the mean time "the parliament did refuse to grant a supply, yet the "king hath maintained a considerable army upon his charge this summer, and hath planted some con"siderable garrisons round the verge of the mountains to "secure the Lowlands; and if his majesty should with

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"draw or disband these forces, which he hath not been "enabled to pay, the Highland clans being now com"bined in arms and open rebellion against the government, they would quickly destroy that kingdom, and "raise such a flame in England as might have fatal "effects, before it could be effected." A method for repressing the depredations in the Highlands, was agreed Ito in the third session of the first parliament of king William and queen Mary, Act 4, September 10, 1690. But, so far as I can understand, it was no effectual ' remedy.'

A very curious description of the state of the Highlands in the early part of last century is given in a book entitled," Letters from a Gentleman in the North of Scotland to his Friend in London," printed in 1754. The date of the letters however appears to have been about 1725 or 1730. Though anonymous, the internal evidence of their authenticity is so strong, as to leave no impression of doubt and the writer (who appears to have been an officer of engineers quartered at Inverness) shows himself a man of observation and of candour. As the book is now very rare, and the account of peculiar value from being a detail of facts immediately under the eye of the writer, a large extract may not perhaps be unacceptable.

:

"The Highlanders are divided into tribes, or clans, under chiefs or chieftains, as they are called in the laws of Scotland, and each clan again divided into branches, from the main stock, who have chieftains over them. These are subdivided into smaller branches of fifty or sixty men, who deduce their original from their particular chieftains; and rely upon them as their more immediate protectors and defenders.

But, for better distinction, I shall use the word chief ❝ for the head of a whole clan; and the principal of a tribe, ' derived from him, I shall call a chieftain.

'The ordinary Highlanders esteem it the most sublime degree of virtue to love their chief, and pay him a blind obedience, although it be in opposition to the government, the laws of the kingdom, or even to the law of God. He is their idol; and as they profess to know no 'king but him, (I was going further) so will they say they ought to do whatever he commands, without inquiry.

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"Next to this love of their chief is that of the particular 'branch from whence they sprung, and in a third degree, to those of 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.' Vol. ü. p. 91. & seq.

**

*****

'The chief exercises an arbitrary authority over his vassals, determines all differences and disputes that happen ' among them, and levies taxes upon extraordinary occasions; such as the marriage of a daughter, building a 'house, or some pretence for his support, and the honour ' of the name. And if any one should refuse to contribute to the best of his ability, he is sure of severe treatment; and if he persisted in his obstinacy, he would be cast out of the tribe by general consent. But instances of this • kind have very rarely happened.

This power of the chiefs is not supported by interest as they are landlords, but as lineally descended from the old patriarchs, or fathers of the families; for they hold the same authority when they have lost their estates, as may appear from several, and particularly one, who commands in his clan, though at the same time they maintain him, having nothing left of his own.

'On the other hand, the chief, even against the laws, is to protect his followers, as they are sometimes called, 'be they never so criminal.

"He is their leader in clan-quarrels, must free the necessitous from their arrears of rent; and maintain such who by accidents are fallen to total decay.

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If by increase of the tribe any small farms are wanting for support of such addition, he splits others into lesser 'portions; because all must be somehow provided for. And as the meanest among 'em pretend to be his relations by consanguinity, they insist upon the privilege of taking him by the hand, wherever they meet him.

"Concerning this last, I once saw a number of very discontented countenances, when a certain lord, one of the chiefs, endeavoured to evade this ceremony.

It was in presence of an English gentleman in high station, from whom he would willingly have concealed ❝ the knowledge of such seeming familiarity with slaves of so wretched appearance; and thinking it, I suppose, as " a kind of contradiction to what he had often boasted at other times, viz. his despotic power in his clan.

The unlimited love and obedience of the Highlanders to their chiefs, are not confined to the lower order of their followers; but are the same with those who are 6 near them in rank.' ******** p. 94. & seq.

Some of the chiefs have not only personal dislikes and enmity to each other, but there are also hereditary 'feuds between clan and clan; which have been handed ' down from one generation to another for several ages.

These quarrels descend to the meanest vassal; and thus, sometimes, an innocent person suffers for crimes com'mitted by his tribe at a vast distance of time before his being began.

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 provoca'tions, to reproach one another with the vices or personal defects of their chief, which for the most part ends in 6 wounds or death.'********

p. 100. & seq.

"By an old Scottish law, the chief was made accountable for any depredations, or other violences committed by his clan upon the borders of the Lowlands; and in extraordinary cases he was obliged to give up his son, or < some other nearest relation, as a hostage for the peaceable behaviour of his followers in that respect.

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By this law (for I never saw the act) he must surely have had an entire command over them; at least, tacitly, or by inference understood. For how unreasonable, not to say unjust, must such a restriction have been to him, if by sanction of the same law he had not had a coercive and judicial authority over those in whose choice and power it always lay to bring punishment upon him? "If he had such an absolute command over them, was it not to make of every chief a petty prince in his own territory, and his followers a people distinct and separate from all others?'********* p. 103. & seq.

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< I have heard many instances of the faithfulness of particular Highlanders to their masters, but shall relate only one; which is to me very well known.

'At the battle of Glenshiels, in the rebellion of the year 1719, a gentleman, (George Munro of Culcairne) for whom I have a great esteem, commanded a company of Highlandmen, raised out of his father's clan, and en❝tertained at his own expense. There he was dangerously ❝ wounded in the thigh from a party of the rebel Highlanders, posted upon the declivity of a mountain, who 'kept on firing at him after he was down, according to