vigour to the narratives, and was, in fact, the spirit by which these narratives were at once animated and preserved.

By this manner of passing their leisure time, and by habitual intercourse with their superiors, they acquired a great degree of natural good breeding, together with a fluency of nervous, elegant, and grammatical expression, not easily to be conceived or understood by persons whose dialect has been contaminated by an intermixture of Greek, Latin, and French idioms. Their conversations were carried on with a degree of ease, vivacity, and freedom from restraint, not usually to be met with in the lower orders of society. The Gaelic language is singularly adapted to this colloquial ease, frankness, and courtesy. It contains expressions bet ter calculated to mark the various degrees of respect and deference due to age, rank, or character, than are to be found in almost any other language. These expressions are, indeed, peculiar and untranslatable. A Highlander was accustomed to stand before his superior with his bonnet in his hand, if so permitted, (which was rarely the case, as few superiors chose to be outdone in politeness by the people,) and his plaid thrown over his left shoulder, with his right. arm in full action, adding strength to his expressions, while he preserved a perfect command of his mind, his words, and manners. He was accustomed, without showing the least bashful timidity, to argue and pass his joke (for which the language is also well adapted) with the greatest freedom, naming the person whom he addressed by his most familiar appellation. Feeling thus unembarrassed before his superior,

Martin, speaking of the Highlanders of his time, says, “Several of both sexes have a quick vein of poesy; and in their language (which is very emphatic) they compose rhymes and verse, both of which powerfully affect the fancy, and, in my judgment, (which is not singular in this matter,) with as great force as that of any ancient or modern poet I ever yet read. They have generally very retentive memories."

† If the individual was a man of landed property, or a tacksman of an old family, he was addressed by the name of his estate or farm; if otherwise, by his Christian name or patronymic. From these patronymics many of our most ancient families, such as the Macdonalds, Macdou

he never lost the air of conscious independence and confidence in himself, which were acquired by his habitual use of arms," a fashion," as is observed by a celebrated writer, "which, by accustoming them to the instruments of death, remove the fear of death itself; and which, from the danger of provocation, made the common people as polite and as guarded in their behaviour as the gentry of other countries."

gals, Macgregors, and others of the western and southern clans, assumed their names, as well as the more modern clans of the southern Highlanders, as the Robertsons and Farquharsons, the latter changing the Celtic mac to the Scottish son, as the Fergusons have done, although this last is supposed to be one of the most ancient names of any, as pronounced in Gaelic, in which language the modern name Ferguson is totally unknown. The last instance I knew of a person assuming the patronymic as a surname, was the late General Reid, who died Colonel of the 88th regiment in 1806, and whom I shall have occasion to mention as an officer of the 42d regiment, and as one of the most scientific amateur musicians of his time. He was son of Alexander Robertson of Straloch, whose forefathers, for more than three centuries, were always called Barons Rua, or Roy. The designation was originally assumed by the first of the family having red hair, and having got a royal grant of a barony. Although the representative of the family was in all companies addressed as Baron Rua, and, as I have said, was known by no other name, yet his signature was always Robertson, all the younger part of the children bearing that name. General Reid never observed this rule; and, being the heir of the family, not only was called Reid, but kept the name and signature of Reid. The celebra◄ ted Cearnach, Robert Rua Macgregor, sometimes signed Rob Roy. †

SECTION IX.

Attachment to the exiled family-Political differences between the Lowlanders and the Highlanders-Disinterested but mistaken feeling of loyalty-Military conduct.

UNDER the House of Stewart, the Highlanders enjoyed a degree of freedom suited to the ideas of a high spirited people, proud of having, for a series of ages, maintained their independence. Excepting the attempts made by James I. and James V. to check their endless feuds, there are few instances of the Sovereign interposing his authority betwixt the chieftains and their clans. Whether this conduct resulted from want of power or from kindness, it produced a favourable impression on the minds of the Highlanders; nor was it till after the reign of Charles I., and during the Commonwealth, when Oliver Cromwell planted garrisons in the heart of their country, to punish them for their loyalty during the civil wars, that the Highlanders began to find their freedom restrained. This restraint, however, continued only during the period of the Usurpation; for soon after the Restoration, the garrisons were withdrawn by Charles II. in consideration of the eminent services rendered to his father and himself in their adversity. The subsequent measures adopted by King William helped greatly to awaken and confirm the attachment of the Highlanders to their ancient kings, while it increased their aversion to the new monarch.

To these causes may in part be ascribed the eagerness with which the Highlanders strove for the restoration of their ancient line of sovereigns. Another source of this attachment may be traced to the feudal system itself. When

See Appendix, R.

we take into account the implicit devotion of the clans to the interests and the honour of their chiefs, we may cease to wonder at their respect for a person, between whom and many of their chiefs a connection by birth, marriage, and hereditary descent, was known to subsist. This connection was nearly similar to that between the chief and many members of his clan. The doctrine of hereditary succession, and indefeasible right, never, in its abstract sense, formed any part of their system. Acute and intelligent in regard to all objects within their view, they had but vague and indefinite ideas of the limits of royal power and prerogative. Their loyalty, like their religion, was a strong habitual attachment; the object of which was beyond the reach of their observation, but not beyond that of their affections. The Stewarts were the only kings their fathers had obeyed and served. Of the errors of their government in regard to the English, and Saxons of the Lowlands, they were either ignorant or unqualified to judge. Poetry was here a powerful auxiliary to prejudice: Burns has said, that "the muses are all Jacobites." Be that as it may, there are few Scotchmen, even of the present day, whose hearts are not warmed by the songs which celebrate their independence, under their ancient race of kings. The sympathy which we naturally cherish, when the mighty are laid low, the generous indignation excited by the abuse of power, or by insulted feeling, and the tender anguish with which the vic tims of mistaken principle looked back from a foreign shore, where they wandered in hopeless exile, to the land of their forefathers; these and similar themes were more susceptible of poetical embellishment than the support of a new and ill-understood authority; a subject not of feeling, but of that cool and abstract reasoning which was the more unpoetical for being sound and conclusive. Accordingly, we find, that the whole power of national song, during that period, inclined towards the ancient dynasty; and the whole force of the ludicrous, the popular, and the pathetic, volunteered in the Jacobite service. It is beyond question, that the merit

of these Jacobite songs eclipsed, and still eclipses, every attempt at poetry on the other side, which has produced little beyond a few scraps of verses, in ridicule of the bare knees, the kilts, and bad English of the Highlanders.

The last great cause which I shall mention of the attachment of the Highlanders to the House of Stewart, was the difference of religious feelings and prejudices that distinguished them from their brethren of the South. This dif ference became striking at the Reformation, and continued during the whole of the subsequent century. While many Lowlanders were engaged in angry theological controversies, or adopted a more sour and forbidding demeanour, the Highlanders retained much of their ancient superstitions, and, from their cheerful and poetical spirit, were averse to long faces and wordy disputes. They were, therefore, more inclined to join the Cavaliers than the Round Heads, and were, on one occasion, employed by the ministry of Charles II. to keep down the republican spirits in the West of Scotland. The same cause, among others, had previously induced them to join the standard of Montrose.

It has been said by a celebrated author, † that the Highlands of Scotland is the only country in Europe that has never been distracted by religious controversy, or suffered from religious persecution. ‡ This is easily accounted for.

Now, as the House of Hanover has not more loyal or devoted subjects than the descendants of the honourable old Jacobites, we may be permitted to notice a few of those popular songs which so powerfully affected many of the last generation, and which continue to afford occasional amusement and pastime to the present:-" Hey Johnnie Cope, are ye wauken yet;"" Hame, hame, it's hame I would be, For I'm wearied of my life in this foreign countrie;" "A health to them that I lo'e dear;" "Kenmure's on and awa;" "The King shall enjoy his ain; "—all spoke to the heart in the strong and simple language best suited to awaken its most powerful emotions. When it is considered how many feel, and how few reason, the power of popular poetry will be easily understood.

+ Dalrymple's Memoirs.

Although they never suffered from religious persecutions, they sometimes resisted a change in the mode of worship. The last Episcopal clergy