reads through the whole of the Colonel's work may probably see cause enough to doubt whether, after all, any of the leading feelings with which it overflows are worthy of being called by the name of prejudice and whether it be not well entitled to a place in the English Library for the justice of its philosophy, as well as the richness of its historical details.

The first thing that will excite the astonishment of English readers-and perhaps it may tend to move the laughter of some of them, is the magnificent conception the Colonel seems to have formed concerning the state of the Highlands at a very remote period of time. Indeed we have little doubt that considerable cachination will be raised at the ideas he so boldly expresses concerning the ancient grandeur of his native region; and that many well-informed people enough will be inclined to rub their eyes, and try whether they are really awake, and not dreaming, when they find themselves in the midst of "the court of our Alpine Kings," "our royal palaces among the hills," and our "Hebridean University.' Smile, nay laugh, however, as they may, we would just advise them to compare the accounts of the territory of Palestine, and of its population, contained in the early historical books of the Bible, with those in the works of modern travellers and historians, and then they may perhaps pause before they think themselves quite entitled to consider Colonel Stewart's statements as the mere ravings of a Celtic Sennachie. The contrast between the coast of Barbary as it was when a Roman province, and as it is now, is another case quite in point. But the best of all arguments are perhaps those on which the Colonel himself insists, viz. the vestiges of cultivation, population, and splendour, quite beyond what the Highlands can now boast of, still visible in almost every part of them. The deterioration of the climate, (the consequence, probably, in a very great measure of the decay of the woods,) has been such, that no one can either doubt the fact, or calculate to what extent it may have operated. For example, the Colonel tells us, that on his own estate on the braes of Athole, his grandfather

produced barley, (to which Marshal Wade gave the prize at a competition with gentlemen possessed of estates much farther south,) from a hill side where, during the last fifty years, there has grown nothing but heather. Within the limits of the same estate the vestiges still survive of several mansions, all evidently of considerable extent and importance, and each of which was in the old time the separate castle of a separate landholder able to sustain the character of wealth and independence. To rise from Garth to the Gael in general, it appears to us that the following passages are eminently curious, and at the same time very sensible.

"When the succession to the throne of

the Picts induced the Kings of the Highlands to transfer the seat of royalty from the mountains to the more fertile regions of the Lowlands, and when the marble chair, the emblem of sovereignty, was removed from Dunstaffnage to Scone, the stores of learning and history, preserved in the College of Iona, were also carried to the south, and afterwards destroyed by the barbarous policy of Edward I. Deficient and mutilated as the records in consequence are, it is impossible to ascertain the degree of civilization which this kingdom of glens and mountains had attained; but, judging from the establishment of the College of Icolm-kill, at so early a period, when darkness prevailed in other parts of Europe, a considerable portion of learning must be admitted to have been diffused. The feelings of even Dr Johnson were powerfully awakened by the associations naturally arising from the sight of this celebrated spot.

"Such a seat of learning and piety could not fail to influence the manners of the

people. Inverlochay. their capital, mainand Spain. Yet, of the progress made in the arts by the Scots of that remote period, no specimens have descended to our times except the remains of their edifices. The Castle of Inverlochay, although it has been in ruins, and uninhabitable for nearly five hundred years, is still so entire as to have furnished a model for the present castles of Inverary and Taymouth; so far had our ancestors, at a very early period, advanced in the knowledge and practice of architecture. The underground foundations round that part of Inverlochay which is still standing, shew that it was originally of great extent. Dunstaffnage Castle, also in ruins for many centuries, has equal strength of walls, but not the same regu

tained a considerable intercourse with France

larity of plan. This may have been owing to its situation, as it is built on a rock, to the edges and incurvations of which the walls have been adapted. Urquhart Castle, which has likewise stood in ruins for many centuries, is one of the finest specimens of castle building in the country. But it must be confessed that Scotland in general, and particularly the Highlands, possesses no castles that can bear comparison with the baronial residences of the more wealthy nobility of England and Wales.

"In many parts of the Highlands, however, ruins and foundations of places of strength, and of castles, are so frequent, as to exhibit proofs of a population more numerous than in latter ages. The marks and traces of the plough also evidently demonstrate that cultivation was more extended than at present. Fields, on the mountains, now bleak and desolate, and covered only with heath and fern, exhibit as dictinct ridges of the plough as are to be seen on the plains of Morray. Woods and cultivation gave a genial warmth to the climate, which planting and other improvements would probably restore. As an instance of these marks of the ancient population, I shall confine my observations to one district. In a small peninsula of four miles in breadth, situated between the rivers Tummel and Garry, in Athole, extending from Strowan to the Port of Lochtummel, about ten miles in length, and ending at the point of Invergarry, below the Pass of Killiekrankie, there are so many foundations of ancient habitations, (and these of apparent note,) as to indicate a remarkably numerous population. They are nineteen in number. One circular building, near the house of Fincastle, is sixty-two feet in diameter; the walls are seven and a half feet thick, and a height of five feet is still remaining. In the district of Foss there are four. On the estate of Garth there are eight, some with walls nine feet thick; the stones in two of which are so weighty, that they could scarcely have been raised to the walls without the aid of machinery. In Glenlyon there are seven; and, in a word, they are scattered all over the country. Respecting these buildings, various opinions are entertained; but one thing is certain, that they must have been erected at a great expence of labour, and that a numerous people only would have required so many buildings, either for shelter or defence. Tradition assigns them to the age of Ossian, and they are accordingly denominated Caistail nam Fiann, the Castles of the Fingallians.' The adjacent smaller buildings are pointed out by names expressive of the purposes to which they were appropriated. In Glenlyon, for in

stance, is shewn the kennel for Fingal's dogs, and the house for the principal hunters. All this, to be sure, is tradition, and will be received as such; but the traces of a numerous population in former times are nevertheless clear and incontrovertible.

"But, whatever might have been the po pulation and state of civilization of ancient Albion, the country was destined to experience one of those revolutions which are fre quent in human affairs. The extension of their dominions occasioned the frequent absence of the kings from the ancient seats of their governments. At length, when, about the year 1066, the Court was removed by Malcolm Ceanmor, never to return to the mountains, the sepulchres, as well as the residence of the future kings of Scotland, were henceforth to be in the south; and Dunfermline became the royal cemetery instead of Icolm-kill, where so many kings, chiefs, bishops, eminent ecclesiastics, and men of learning, lie entombed. That university, which had for ages been the fountain whence religion and learning were diffused among the people, was now deserted. The removal of the seat of authority, was speedily followed by the usual results. The Highlanders were impoverished. Nor was this the only evil that resulted from the transference of the seat of government. The people, now beyond the reach of the laws, became turbulent and fierce, revenging in person those wrongs for which the administrators of the laws were too distant and too feeble to afford redress. Thence arose the institution of chiefs, who naturally became the judges and arbiters in the quarrels of their clansmen and followers, and who were surrounded by men devoted to the defence of their rights, their property, and their power; and, accordingly, the chiefs established within their own territories a jurisdiction almost wholly independent of their liege lord.

"The country traditions are filled with anecdotes of the hunting expeditions of the Alpine kings. From these traditional authorities, the names of many remarkable objects in the neighbourhood of their ancient residence, particularly in Glenroy and Glenspean, are derived. Ossian, and the heroes celebrated in song, seem in a manner overlooked in the recollection of the later warriors and Nimrods. Since strangers and men of science have traversed these long-deserted regions, an irreconcileable feud of opinions has arisen between the Geologists and the Highlanders, regarding an uncommon conformation in Glenroy, a glen in Lochaber, remarkable for the height and perpendicularity of its sides, particularly of one of them. On the north

side, at a considerable elevation above the stream, which flows along the bottom of the glen, there is a flat, or terrace, about seventy feet broad, having an appearance of a road formed on the side of the mountain, and running along, on a perfect level, to the extremity of the glen; five hundred feet above this, there is another of these terraces, and still higher a third, all parallel, and of a similar form. In English they are called Parallel Roads: the inha bitants know them by the name of the King's Hunting Roads. Geologists say that the glen was once full of water, up to the level of the highest parallel, which must have been formed by the action of the waters of this lake on the side of the hill. By some violence, however, an open. ing was made in the lower end of the glen, which confined the water, in consequence of which it immediately fell as low as the second parallel, and formed it in the same manner as the first. Another opening of the same kind brought down the surface of the water to the third parallel, when, at length, that which confined the water gi ving way entirely, it subsided to the bot tom of the glen, where it now runs, in a rapid stream, without obstruction. To this opinion the Highlanders object, that it is not probable that water, after the first declension, would remain so perfectly stationary as to form a second parallel of the same breadth and formation as the first, or that the second declension would be so regular in time, and the water so equal in its action, as to form a third terrace of form and breadth perfectly similar to the two others; that the glen is too narrow to allow the waves to act with sufficient force to form these broad levels; that, in the centre of the glen, which is narrow, the levels are the broadest and most perfect, whereas, on the upper end, which opens to a wide extent, allowing a large space for the wind to act with a superior force, the levels are contracted and less perfect; that on the other side of the glen these terraces are broad, and of perfectly regular formation, while, on the other, they are narrow, and not so well formed; and that, unless the wind blew always from the same quarter, waves would not roll with more force to one side of a piece of water than to another. In Glenspean, which is in the immediate neighbourhood, and in which similar appearances present themselves, the hills recede from each other, leaving a wide expanse, on the sides of which, if the hollow had been filled with water, the waves would have acted with considerable force, and yet these roads, or terraces, are by no means so well formed, continuous, and distinct, as in Glenroy. The Highlanders also urge the impossibility of water having ever been confined in Glenspean, without an improbable convulsion of nature, the lower end being of great width, and open

to the ocean. After stating these reasons, they triumphantly conclude by a query, Why other glens and straths in the Highlands do not exhibit natural appearances similar to those in the vicinity of the ancient residence of their kings? Their own account, which they believe as firmly as they do their creed, is, that these roads were made for the hunting of the kings when at Inverlochay; that they were palisadoed on each side; and that the game was driven through, affording the Royal Hunters time to destroy numbers before they could get to the end. As a confirmation of this account, they quote the names of the circumjacent places, which all bear an analogy to these huntings.

"To these opinions, so opposite and difficult to reconcile, it is probable that each party will adhere."

Another matter, the Colonel's feelings as to the which break out in every part of his volumes, is the he esteems it) produced by the intromore recent deterioration (for such duction of sheep-farming into the Highlands. This new system has been the instrument of lowering to a prodigious extent the population of these regions, and if persisted in, must ere long, in the Colonel's opinion, destroy altogether, what all the world must invaluable nursery of British soldiers. agree with him in considering as an His reflections are particularly severe as to the conduct of the Sutherland

family, and acquitting the Marquis and Marchioness of Stafford, as we most sincerely do, of any evil intention, we can have no hesitation in expressing our doubts whether the reduction that has taken place in the population of these vast estates may not hereafter be repented very bitterly by those at the head of them.

the history of the Highland clans, The Colonel goes very deep into and the result of his own inquiries seems to be, at the least, a most sincere conviction in his own mind, that the territory of the chief was in reality the common inheritance of the race who followed his banner. In many instances it is well known the clansmen used to exercise the privilege of deposing a chief when he had acted unworthily of his high station, and of electing another of his kindred to be his successor in the phylarchic dignity. The unbroken custom of many centuries had completely settled in what proportions the produce of the land was to be at the disposal of the chief of the race--and accustom

ed as the chief of those days was to live always among his clan, and to find his own comfort and consequence in their numbers and zeal, of course no system by which the clan could be banished from their ancestral soil could ever have been dreamed of.

In latter times, however, the tastes of Highland gentlemen and ladies have come very naturally to be almost entirely the same with those of people of the same sort of rank in other parts of the empire; and in order to supply themselves with the means of exhibiting the splendours of equipage and establishment before the eyes of strangers, they have in innumerable instances adopted arrangements which have had the effect of driving thousands of once devoted clansmen to seek subsistence for themselves and their children in the regions of the new world. On Lady Stafford's estates alone, we think, so many as three fine regiments were raised during the last reign-three regiments of temperate, worthy, honourable, and most gallant soldiers, any one of whom would have thought himself and his family disgraced to all eternity had he hesitated to march at the slightest expression of the Countess of Sutherland's will. The hundred smiling glens where the fathers of these brave men cultivated their little fields of oats and barley, are now thrown into the possession of some half dozen English or Lowland tenants, and when the drum beats the next time among the domains of Morar Chattu, the same answer will be given which we have heard of as being received some years back by another Highland chieftain not necessary to be named at present: "Ye must recruit with the colley-dog, for there is nothing but sheep upon your

hills."

The Colonel has the utmost delight in expatiating on the merits of Lord Breadalbane, and some others, who have uniformly expressed their scorn of purchasing some addition to their rent-rolls by the banishment of their clansmen-and we heartily concur in this well-earned applause. But candour compels us to say, that we think the Colonel writes on the whole of this subject with too little regard to the ordinary course of human nature and human conduct. Instead of pouring out the vials of his wrath upon the chiefs who have banished their

clans, it would have been well, we think, had he endeavoured, viewing people and measures by the usual lights, to suggest some plan, through which the more extensive expatriation of this loyal, hardy, and honourable race, may be prevented.

Taking the world as it is, nobody can expect that a great landholder is to sacrifice so much of his own income for the good, not of himself, but of the state. A few very liberal minded and reflective landholders in the Highlands may indeed be wise enough to prefer other things to the mere cal culations of pounds, shillings, and pence: but it is not perhaps fair to blame those who conduct themselves on the more common-place and prosaic principle quite so severely as Colonel Stewart has done. If the Highland proprietor is to be compelled to do so much more than the Yorkshire proprietor, for the benefit of the commonwealth-if he is to sacrifice so many hundreds, or thousands per annum, in order that whenever government wants a regiment he may be able to raise one on his estatewhy should not the Yorkshire gentleman pay his part of the cost? Make the Celtic lord or laird understand, that whenever he raises a regiment, or a company, he shall receive such and such substantial advantages, and then perhaps there will be less difficulty about persuading him that the race of men is a better thing than the race of sheep. We honour Colonel Stewart's personal and chivalrous devotion to the cause of his country, and we have no doubt that the Highland chieftain, whose conduct is regulated upon principles so noble as his, lives and dies a greater and a happier man than the wealthiest lord in England. But even we, who know something of the Highlands, must be permitted to say, that in this part of his work the Colonel is too enthusiastic and that his doctrines, however much they may, and must raise his own character in the eyes of his humbler countrymen, are not propounded in such a shape as to promise any very effectual improvement, either in their present circumstances, or in the future prospects of them and their children. On the contrary, we should rather be apprehensive that they may tend very strongly to nourish and exacerbate certain feelings of jealousy and mutual

distrust, which have already been, on more than one occasion, made manifest, in shapes which we are quite sure no one could regard with deeper concern than Colonel Stewart himself.

As to these and some other matters, there may be, and probably will be, many different ways of thinking; but in regard to the history of the Highland regiments, which forms the real subject of the Colonel's book, we apprehend everybody will completely go along with the author. Nothing can be more interesting than the picture which is given of the character of the Highland Soldier, more particularly as it existed some fifty or sixty years ago, when the Black Watch was first embodied, at the suggestion of the sagacious and patriotic Duncan Forbes of Culloden. For a long period of years, owing to the successive civil wars which spread desolation over Britain, the Highland race had been looked upon as a mere body of hardy rebels-disaffected to the government of the country-and averse to all regular government. The President Forbes had the great merit of destroying this prejudice. The 42d regiment was raised, and wherever they went, their conduct-peaceful, innocent, and honourable in quarters, and brave of the bravest in the field was regarded with equal admiration and delight by all who had any opportunity of contemplating it. At first it was composed, in a great measure, of the sons of gentlemen, proprietors or tacksmen; and these soldiers carried into their military service all the high notions of family as well as personal honour which their domestic education had instilled into their bosoms. For a long, a very long succession of years, there was no such thing ever dreamed of as corporeal punishment" that being," to use the words of a distinguished General, in his orders, " entirely uncalled for among such honourable soldiers." At a later period much of the same simple kindliness which united the first soldiers of the 42d, still prevailed among their successors-we have no doubt a vast deal of it remains among those who at this moment march to the sound of its bagpipe. Whenever Colonel Stewart mentions himself, it is with that modesty always so characteristic of great worth and real valour; and the

NOTE, which makes part of the following extract, will, we are sure, both illustrate our subject and delight our readers.

"This impetuosity of Highland soldiers, and the difficulty of controlling them, in the most important part of a soldier's duty, has been frequently noticed and reprobated. To forget necessary discretion, and break loose from command, is certainly an unmilitary characteristic; but, as it proceeds from a very honourable principle, it deserves serious consideration, how far any attempt to allay this ardour may be prudent, or advantageous to the service. An officer of judgment and feeling, acquainted with the character of his soldiers, and disposed to allow this chivalrous spirit full play, will never be at a loss for a sufficient check. It is easier to restrain than to animate. It has also been observed, that the modern Highland corps display less of that chivalrous spirit which marked the earlier corps from the mountains. If there be any good ground for this observation, it may probably be attributed to this, that these corps do not consist wholly of native Highlanders. If strangers are introduced among them, even admitting them to be the best of soldiers, still they are not Highlanders. The charm is broken,-the conduct of such a corps must be divided, and cannot be called purely national. The motive which made the Highlanders, when united, fight for the honour of their name, their clan, and district, is by this mixture lost. Officers, also, who are strangers to their lanthinking, cannot be expected to understand guage, their habits, and peculiar modes of their character, their feelings and their prejudices, which, under judicious management, have so frequently stimulated to honourable conduct, although they have sometimes served to excite the ridicule of those

who knew not the dispositions and cast of character on which they were founded. But if Highland soldiers are judiciously commanded in quarters, treated with kindness and confidence by their officers, and led into action with spirit, it cannot on any good grounds be alleged that there is any deficiency of that firmness and courage which formerly distinguished them, although it may be readily allowed that much of the romance of the character is lowered. The change of manners in their native country will sufficiently account for this. But, even if their former sentiments and ancient habits had still been cherished in their native glens, the young soldier could not easily retain them, if mixed with other soldiers, strangers to his language, his country, poetry, traditions of battles and of acts of prowess. These companions would be more disposed to jeer and deride, than to listen to what they did not understand.