197 letting land; and there is little doubt, that, if the laws were account and tradition go to prove that ale was the principal drink among the country people, and French wines and brandy among the gentry. In confirmation of the general traditions, I may state that Mr Stewart of Crossmount, whom I have already mentioned, and who lived till his 104th year, informed me, that, in his youth, strong frothing ale from the cask was the common beverage. It was drank from a circular shallow cup with two handles. Those of the gentry were of silver, (which are still to be seen in ancient families,) and those used by the common people were of variegated woods. Small cups were used for spirits. Whisky-house is a term unknown in the Gaelic. Public-houses are called Tai-Leanne, that is, ale-houses. Had whisky been the favourite beverage of the Highlanders, as many people believe, would not their songs, their tales, and names of houses allotted for convivial meetings, bear some allusion to this propensity, which has no reality in fact, and is one of those numerous instances of the remarkable ignorance of the true character of the Highlanders by their Lowland friends and neighbours? In addition to the authority of Mr Stewart, (who was a man of sound judgment and accurate memory to his last hour,) I have that of men of perfect veracity and great intelligence regarding every thing connected with their native country. In the early part of their recollection, and in the time of their fathers, the whisky drank in the Highlands of Perthshire was brought principally from the Lowlands. The men to whom I allude died within the last thirty -years, at a great age, and consequently the time they allude to was the end of the seventeenth century, and up to the years 1730 and 1740. A ballad full of humour and satire, composed on an ancestor of mine, in the reign of Charles I., and which is sung to the tune of Logie o' Buchan, or rather, as the Highland traditions have it, the words of Logie o' Buchan were set to the air of this more ancient ballad, describes the Laird's jovial and hospitable manner, and along with other feats, his drinking a brewing of ale at one sitting, or convivial meeting. In this song whisky is never mentioned; nor is it in any case except in the modern ballads and songs. cion of informers,-men not being sure of, nor confident in their next neighbours, a state which results from smuggling, and the habits which it engenders,―are subjects highly important, and regarded with the most serious consideration, and the deepest regret, by all who value the permanent welfare of their country, which depends so materially upon the preservation of the virtuous habits of the people. No people can be more sensible than the Highlanders themselves are of this melancholy change from their former habits of mutual confidence and good neighbourhood, when no man dreaded an informer, or suspected that his neighbour would betray him, or secretly offer for his farm. And they still recollect that the time has been when the man who had betrayed or undermined the character or interests of his friend and neighbour, would have been viewed as an outcast from the society to which he belonged. But, while they bitterly lament this change, they ascribe much of it to the seeming determination of Government to prevent distillation on a small scale, by enforcing laws and regulations unsuitable to their country or its means, and equally difficult to be comprehended or obeyed; and when landlords cannot draw the full value of their lands, nor tenants pay their rents without a vent for their produce, the complaints of the Highlanders, both proprietors and tenants, seem to be well founded. There is another circumstance which I cannot avoid noticing, that is, a practice lately introduced of ordering parties of cavalry to the Highlands as a terror to smugglers. Dragoons are necessary to oppose an enemy; but they are weapons that ought not to be used at the instigation, or under the direction, of an ignorant, and perhaps irritated, exciseman. Parading cavalry through glens and rocks, where they can be of no use, is an ignorant display of power, and would be matter of derision, were it not for the feeling which the exhibition occasions among the people, who ought not to be suspected of resisting the laws without good grounds; nor should they be permitted to believe that they are so formidable as to require military force. So different is it in the Highlands that, with a tolerable knowledge of circumstances, I have not heard of one case where it was necessary to call in the military. On the contrary, the excise officers are so far from meeting with resistance, that when they make a seizure, they are often assisted by the people to destroy their own utensils with their contents; and when the duty is finished, the officers are offered refreshment, and invited into the houses of those whose property had been destroyed. Are these a people requiring dragoons to keep them down? Government and the Board of Excise ought to look into this matter. Military force is not yet required in the Highlands, except in the northern ejectments by fire and military execution; but unnecessary harshness, and accustoming men to believe that they are turbulent, may make cavalry and infantry necessary. The deforcements and resistance to excise-officers, so frequent in the neighbourhood of Glasgow, Stirling and Perth, are by bands of men of desperate characters, many of them Irish, and from the western counties, who are the purchasers and carriers of smug gled spirits, but not the manufacturers. The recent change of disposition and character forms an additional argument with those who urge the propriety of removing the ancient inhabitants, on pleas derived from their supposed incapacity and indolence, or from the climate and soil. This character has been depicted in strong colours. Pinkerton describes the Celts as "mere radical savages, not advanced even to a state of barbarism; and if any foreigner," adds he, "doubts this, he has only to step into the Celtic part of Wales, Ireland, or Scotland, and look at them, for they are just as they were, incapable of industry or cultivation, even after half their blood is Gothic, and remain, as marked by the ancients, fond of lies, and enemies to truth." Without being influenced by the opinions of this author, the well-known fact should be recollected, that much of the land in the Highlands is barren, rugged, and from the numerous heights and declivities difficult to cultivate; that the climate is cold, wet, and boisterous; and that the winter is long and severe, and the country fitted only for the maintenance of a hardy abstemious population. No doubt, the population is numerous in many districts, in proportion to the extent of fertile land, but nevertheless the people have supported themselves, with an independence, and a freedom from parochial aid, which a richer, more favoured, and more fertile country, might envy. The indolence of the Highlander is a common topic of remark at the same time it is admitted, that, out of their own country, they shew no want of exertion, and that, in executing any work by the piece, and in all situations where they clearly see their interest concerned, they are persevering, active, and trust-worthy. But still it is maintained, that, if placed on small farms in their native country, they are worse than useless. If this opinion be well-founded, it might furnish a subject of inquiry, why men should be per • The integrity and capability of the numerous bands of Highlanders which supplied Edinburgh with Caddies is proverbial. These Caddies were, during the last century, a species of porters and messengers plying in the open street, always ready to execute any commission, and to act as messengers to the most distant corners of the kingdom, and were often employed in business requiring secrecy and dispatch, and frequently had many sums of money entrusted to their care. Instances of a breach of trust were most rare, indeed almost unknown. These men carried to the South the same fidelity and trust-worthiness which formed a marked trait in the character of the Highlanders of that period, and formed themselves into a society, under regulations of their own. Dr Smollet, in his Humphry Clinker, gives an account of an anniversary dinner of this fraternity, of which nine-tenths were Highlanders, though little now remains of the original order of Caddies. These employments are thrown into other channels, the number of stage-coaches rendering communication so cheap and safe, that special messengers are unnecessary. There are, however, many Highlanders in Edinburgh employed as chairmen, and in other occupations; and it might furnish no uninteresting inquiry, whether the Highlanders formerly employed in Edinburgh were more trust-worthy, and more remarkable for their zeal, activity, and regard to their word, than those of the present day? If such an inquiry should prove that they have not greatly degenerated from the virtues of their predecessors, perhaps there is little foundation for the reports of the deplorable want of religion and morality in the North. It would, on the contrary, show that severing as labourers in one situation, and in another useless, and in that other, too, when labouring for their own immediate comfort, and for the support of their families? It might also furnish a surmise, that, as they seldom show any deficiency of intellect in comprehending their own interests, so there is something wrong in the system under which they are frequently managed; otherwise what could occasion an inconsistency so difficult to reconcile with any known principle, as that a man should be indolent and careless about his own fields, and yet active and vigilant about those of others? * Another circumstance has prejudiced the character of the their moral feelings, and the sense of shame which they attached to a breach of trust, were the best safeguard of that integrity which made them valuable servants to the public. On the other hand, were such an inquiry to show a change of character, it would afford a melancholy contradiction to the reports of the improved religious knowledge of the Highlanders, and show that the blessings resulting from religious and moral education were not so defective in the last age as many have been made to believe. • The small tenantry often complain of the want of encouragement to improve. But the want of encouragement to themselves they would not perhaps feel so much, did they not see great encouragement given to the large farmers, while they themselves are abandoned to their own exertions. Thus, when glens and districts in the Highlands are depopulated, and the lands given to a man of capital, estimates are called for to build a proper establishment, large sums are expended on inclosures, and stipulations are made to recompence the tenant at the end of the lease for improvements carried on by him. When such are the very commendable encouragements given to farmers on a large scale, why are the small tenants so often refused any kind of support? Before large houses are built for tenants, it might, however, be a matter of consideration to apportion the rent and taxes in such a manner as to leave a clear income suitable to the accommodation provided for them; otherwise it must appear absurd to place a man in a house proper for an income of six or seven hundred a-year, as is often seen, when perhaps the clear profits of the farm are not fifty. There are farms of two and three hundred pounds rent, where the interest of money sunk in building houses is from fifty to sixty, and in some cases more than one hundred pounds. Had these men the feesimple of their farms, it might be a question how far it would be prudent to pay such rents for a dwelling-house and its appendages. |