the growth of them in a country destitute alike of capital and skill, and exposed to so many discouragements from an oppressive government, a potent aristocracy, hereditary jurisdictions, and the evil dispensation of justice in even the supreme courts *, to which few could obtain access; the great body of the people were without almost every kind of subsistence. A part, indeed, found a resource in emigration, which is reported to have been great; yet the general misery was indescribable. In the accounts transmitted by Cromwell's army, in 1650, then in the richest district of Scotland, we meet a loathsome picture of wretchedness: "That the countrymen were so enslaved to their lords, that they could not get any thing considerable of their own before-hand; and many of their women were so sluttish, that they did not wash their linen above once a-month, nor their hands and faces above once ayear t." This account, though probably exaggerated, must have been deeply founded in truth; and if it be only considered that filth, in a people, is the most infallible test of penury and misery, * The extreme corruption of justice may be concluded from a letter from Alexander Fraser, Bishop of Aberdeen, to King James, after his accession to England, requesting his majesty to write to the presi dent of the Court of Session" to be his friend in all his lawful acts"suits of law. See Letters, &c. published by Lord Hailes, p. 80, in a note. Whoever will take the trouble to look into Hailes's publication of Letters, p. 1, et seq. will see the most revolting picture of public justice. Judges were influenced by promises and threats—a jury packed, &c. all to convict Welsh, a Presbyterian minister. James himself was most keen in the business. + Whitelocke's Memorials, p. 468. There were, however, even then, some large lease-holders. The effect of religion. since they who are bereft of other comforts generally want the spirit to embrace that of cleanliness, which is within their reach-their condition may be conceived *. A gloomy austerity has been imputed to the early Scotch presbyterians, and it has been ascribed to their religious tenets, which inculcated that all mankind are naturally in a state of reprobation, and a few only selected for grace through the merits and benign intercession of the Saviour †. But were this conclusion just, we should still witness the same effects, not in Scotland only, but throughout the reformed church, where similar principles, somewhat modified, prevail at this day. Nothing, however, is more fallacious than a sweeping deduction from a people's faith. So dark a veil envelopes futurity, so vague is the picture of it formed by the most vivid fancy, so insensibly is one's creed modelled by the temper of his mind, and the ordinary affairs of life-that the votary's natural alacrity of spirit surmounts his faith, and either disposes him to forget it, or buoys him up with the assurance of being numbered with the * See Fletcher's Works. To remove the misery of the people, he proposes to introduce domestic slavery. In Moryson's Travels, Part III. p. 155, published in 1617, the reader will find some account of Scotch manners. + Laing's Hist. B. I. p. 24. I suspect that this gentleman has drawn his opinion from the austerity of the covenanters afterwards; forgetting that persecution had almost driven them to madness. "The coldest bodies warm with opposition, the hardest sparkle in collision.” Junius' Letter to the King. elect. Every unprejudiced eye must perceive that general imputations of gloominess ascribed by the established church to dissenters, and even by one part of the established church to the other, are destitute of foundation; and it is evident that any inference from the exterior of a very limited sect would be distant from the truth. For the few who expose themselves to the charge of singularity by particular tenets, are either men of melancholy habits, or of ardent minds, whose feelings, unsympathized with by the rest of mankind, prey on themselves; or such as are ambitious of distinction, or of credit, by the shew of superior sanctity. Not to religion, therefore, unless to persecution for it, but to the wretchedness in which the bulk of the people were immersed, is any particular austerity to be imputed. Their religious persuasion, by ever keeping present to their minds that, however despised and trampled on in this world, they were no less, but rather more, the favourites of heaven, than their overbearing masters, must have preserved the inborn dignity of man, and by affording a subject for exalted reflection, prevented them from becoming absolutely embruted by their miserable condition*. *See Spottiswoode as to the early anxiety of the reformers for schools, p. 150. In the First Book of Discipline, it was determined that there should be a school in every parish, Spottiswoode, p. 160. All the chief representations of the clergy about the church livings contain a demand for schools. Very soon after the accession to the English throne, it was resolved that schools should only be taught by such as the bishops approved of. Calderwood, p. 477. State of the Hitherto our attention has been occupied chiefly with the most civilized part of Scotland; we shall now direct it to the Highlands, the Isles, and the Borders. The Highlands were inhabited by a race little removed from barbarism, who, though they acknowledged a nominal subjection to the throne, despised its laws. Their language bore no analogy to that elsewhere in use, and their manners and dress were equally peculiar. The whole were divided into clans, each of which, under the dominion of a chief, or chieftain, formed a species of principality that maintained with its neighbours the relations of war and peace. The members of a clan were distinguished by one common patronymic, and boasted of an original descent from the same family of which their chief or chieftain was the representative. Nor, from the nature of things, could the boast be destitute of foundation. For as the chief or chieftain's right of property in the land possessed by the clan was universally acknowledged, it was natural for him to provide in a particular manner, in proportion to the degree, for those who stood within the generally acknowledged degrees of propinquity to himself; and it was his interest to encourage them to marry-to which, indeed, a comparative liberal provision would of itself sufficiently dispose * Leslie de Moribus Scotorum. The Highland garb seems to have been the same, or nearly so, as the Irish, which is afterwards described by us. them that he might be furnished with a trusty family band, ready to check any defection in his other followers. But the territory being fully peopled, he could only provide for his immediate connections at the expense of other vassals, whose removal to an inferior station must again have supplanted those who had occupied it. Hence there would always be an overflow, from the higher ranks pressing upon and wasting away the lower, till, in process of time, they might all with safety boast of a common descent. From the state of property, the power of the chief or chieftain was absolute. His numerous family connections, who were interested in supporting his authority, secured him against a general revolt; and as every clan was necessarily encumbered with surplus population, and chiefs had neither the means, nor would be inclined to harbour refugees, lest they should encourage mutiny in their own followers by an example of success, individuals had no alternative but submission or death, which might be inflicted at the discretion of the chief or chieftain. But as his rank and power were liable to no dispute, and the boasted origin of his followers in arms reflected glory on himself, by a numerous and gallant kindred at his beck-he permitted a certain species of familiarity, which, while it was incapable of misconstruction, sweetened their bondage, and increased their attachment. Like all savages, though averse to labour, they delighted in the fatigues and dangers of war, or of predatory excursions; and as they shared the booty, or were |