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During the progress of this unfortunate rebellion, the moral character of the great mass of the Highlanders engaged in it was placed in a most favourable point of view. The noblemen and gentlemen too, who took a lead in the cause, were generally actuated by pure, although mistaken motives of loyalty and principle. Some of them might be stung by the remembrance of real or supposed injuries, by disappointed ambition, or excited by delusive hopes; yet the greatest proportion even of these staked their lives and fortunes in the contest, from a disinterested attachment to an unfortunate prince, for whose family their fathers had suffered, and whose pretensions they themselves were taught to consider as just. Into these principles and feelings, the mass of the clansmen entered with a warmth and zeal unmixed with, or unsullied by, motives of self-interest or aggrandizement; for whatever their superiors might expect, they could look for nothing but that satisfaction and selfapprobation which accompany the consciousness of supporting the oppressed. They were therefore misguided, rather than criminal, and to their honour it ought to be remembered, that though engaged in a formidable civil war, which roused the strongest passions of human nature, and though unaccustomed to regular discipline, or military control, though they were in a manner let loose on their countrymen, and frequently flushed with victory, and elated with hopes of ultimate success, they committed comparatively very few acts of wanton plunder, or gratuitous violence. They withstood temptations, which, to men in their situation, might have appeared irresistible, and when they march

following morning the Lady Mackintosh informed her guest of the risk he had run. One of the ladies noticed by the President, finding she could not prevail upon her husband to join the rebels, though his men were ready, and perceiving, one morning, that he intended to set off for Cullo. den with the offer of his services as a loyal subject, contrived, while making tea for breakfast, to pour, as if by accident, a quantity of scalding hot water on his knees and legs, und thus effectually put an end to all active movements, on his part, for that season, while she dispatched his men to join the rebels under a commander more obedient to her wishes.

ed into the heart of England through fertile and rich districts, presenting numberless objects of desire, and also when in the northern parts of the kingdom, often pinched with hunger, and exposed through a whole winter to all the inclemencies of the weather, without tents, or any covering save what chance afforded; in such circumstances, acts of personal violence and robbery were unheard of, except among a few desperate followers, who joined more for the sake of booty, than from other and better motives. Private revenge, or unprovoked massacre,* wanton depredation, the burning of private houses, or destruction of property, were entirely unknown. When the cravings of hunger, or the want of regular supplies in the north of Scotland, compelled them to go in quest of food, they limited their demands by their necessities, and indulged in no licentious excess. The requisitions and contributions exacted and levied by the rebel commanders, were the unavoidable consequences of their situation, and did not in any manner affect the character of the rebel army, which conducted itself throughout with a moderation, forbearance, and humanity, almost unexampled in any civil commotion. In a military point of view, they proved themselves equally praiseworthy. Neither in the advance into England, to within 150 miles of London, nor in the retreat, when pursued by a superior army, while another attempted to intercept them, did they leave a man behind by desertion, and few or none by sickness. They carried their cannon along with them, and the retreat" was conducted with a degree of intrepidity, regularity, expedition, and address, unparalleled in the history of nations, by any body of men under circumstances equally adverse.” †

When such were the character and conduct of the rebel army, irreproachable in every respect, except in the act of rebellion,-it is to be lamented that their enlightened and disciplined conquerors did not condescend to take a lesson

VOL. I.

• See Appendix, V.

+ Letters from a Nobleman to his Son.

H

of moderation from these uncultivated savages, (as they called them,) and that they sullied their triumphs, by devastation and cruelty inflicted on a defenceless enemy. As to the burning of the castles of Lovat, Lochiel, Glengarry, Clunie, and others, some apology may be found in the necessity of punishing men, who, from the circle in which they moved, and their general intelligence and knowledge of the world, must have known the stake which they hazarded, and the consequences of a failure. Not so with their followers, who acted from a principle of fidelity and attachment, which had withstood the lapse of so many years of absence and exile, and which, by gentle treatment, might have been turned into the proper channel. Instead of this, a line of conduct was pursued infinitely more ferocious and barbarous, than the worst acts of those poor people, to whom these epithets were so liberally applied.

These cruelties compelled many of the followers of the rebel army, afraid of punishment, and unwilling to return to their homes, to form themselves into bands of freebooters, who frequented the mountains of Athole, Breadalbane, and Monteith, districts which form the border country, and often laid the Lowlands under contributions; defying the exertions of their Lowland neighbours, assisted by small garrisons, stationed in different parts of the country, to check their depredations. The harsh measures afterwards pursued were more calculated to exasperate, than to allay the discontents which they were intended to remove, and were perhaps less excusable as being more deliberate.

ABOLITION OF HEREDITARY JURISDICTIONS. 115

SECTION X.

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 gard 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 without

bail, and on the second conviction be transported for seven

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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 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

enemy;

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 had 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.

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