their country, and to fly to distant regions, for a mere livelihood." The Island of Harris, with a number of small ones, including St. Kilda, was purchased eight years before our author's visit, from the Laird of Macleod, by his relative, Captain Macleod of the Mansfield East Indiaman. This gentleman was most enterprising. He constructed an excellent harbour at Rodel, and built a storehouse for salt, casks, and meal, and a manufactory for spinning woollen and linen thread, and twine for herring-nets. He also introduced some East-country fishermen, with Orkney yawls, with the view of teaching the inhabitants to fish. He re-built Rodel Cathedral, erected a school and an inn in the district, and did a good deal of plantation, which vastly improved the appearance of the place. He also introduced the model of a press, corn, and fulling-mill. In 1786 he proposed to try fishing on the coast of Harris, near his own house, but was ridiculed by his tenants, who maintained that no fish could be got there, but the proprietor persisted in his experiment, and got, between the 10th of March and the 15th of April, no less than 4400 large cod and ling; between 400 and 500 skate; and immense quantities of dog-fish, large eels, and boat-loads of cuddies. After describing the manner in which Mr. Macleod behaved to the people of Harris, how he encouraged the fisheries, placing men in every loch, bay, or creek, and providing them with boats, allowing them cottages and potato-ground rent-free, furnishing them with all necessaries at cost price, and taking their fish in payment at the full market price, Mr. Knox says that his conduct "ought to be a model for some proprietors in the Highlands, who, blinded by the representations of factors, and misled by their influence, have never permitted their tenantry to raise their heads, and are continually crushing them by new impositions upon their industry and upon every appearance of improvement; by which they are stripped of the fruits of their labour, to which the improver, and not the master, has, in common justice, the best right. The consequence of this squeezing system has invariably proved a fictitious, instead of a real rent-roll well paid; and thus each party impoverishes and distresses the other." This is the old, but ever new, story.

(To be continued.)

A. M.

PUBLICATIONS.

REMINISCENCES OF THE LIFE AND LABOURS OF DUGALD BUCHANAN, with his Spiritual Songs, and an English Version of them. By the Rev. A. SINCLAIR, A.M., Kenmore. Edinburgh: Maclachlan & Stewart.

1885.

THE fact that this is the twenty-second edition of the Poems, and the second edition of Mr. Sinclair's admirable little work, amply testifies to the fact that the good old sappy Poet of Rannoch has lost none of his charm for the pious and cultured. people of the Highlands. To speak of the Poems themselves in the face of the fact that we have already mentioned would be perfectly superfluous. Where is the Highland fireside at which the hallowed and spiritualising influence of Dugald Buchanan's poetry has not been felt? Nor is the appreciation of their high poetic aroma at all on the wane; indeed, the admiring sentiments. excited by their pious teaching and melifluous melody, has only been intensified the more they are subjected to the severer criticism of our own times. That Mr. Sinclair has done his work in a thorough manner, and with a sympathetic spirit, is evident from every page of the work. The biographical reminiscences are carefully selected; the Gaelic version of the Poems is most correctly edited; and the English translation, though necessarily far behind the original in point of moving power and lofty expression, is at the same time a very faithful representation of the sentiments of the author. The printer has done his part with taste, and no less so has the binder. The book is outwardly neat and handy, inwardly tasteful and correct, and it therefore follows as a matter of course that the work is one which Highlanders ought to possess and prize. Not only as a moral teacher, but as a poet, we regard Buchanan as by far the best of the Gaelic bards of modern times.

THE SACRED SONGS OF THE GAEL: A Collection of Gaelic Hymns, with Translations. By L. MACBEAN, Part I. Price Sixpence. Music in both Notations. Edinburgh: Maclachlan & Stewart. Glasgow: Porteous Brothers.

IT often baffles outsiders to understand the deep-rooted objection entertained by the great majority of the Highland people to the use of hymns in public worship, while much talent and genius have been exercised in the production of spiritual songs by some of their most accredited religious teachers. The explanation lies in the distinction the average Highlander observes between the form proper of the services of the sanctuary and that of the religious exercises of every-day life, and not in an aversion to hymns. The Gaelic hymnists, who generally were the respected and accepted exponents of divine truth, were in sympathy with this distinction, and did not design their hymns for use in churches, nor was such necessary in order to give them an effective and permanent place in the hearts of the people. The Highlander is essentially possessed of a musical and poetic, as well as of a religious temperament, and he naturally cherishes a deep atttachment to his native melodies and songs, whether secular or sacred. It may be true that one or two thin volumes of either kind of song, and the Gaelic Bible, form the sole library in many of the Island and Highland cottages; but then these books are better known and valued all the more that they are few in number, a fact not without its advantages. In compiling the "Sacred Songs of the Gael," Mr. MacBean has met this condition of things with a stimulus for the wider use of already well-known hymns, and has preserved melodies, all of considerable, and some of them of great, merit. The book, which is uniform with the "Songs of the Gael" and the "Celtic Lyre" series, is the first part of a selection from the works of the Rev. Peter Grant, Dugald Buchanan, the Rev. Dr. Macgregor, John Maclean, and Rob Donn. The verses are selected with care, and strung together so as to preserve a natural sequence and completeness in small compass; while the translations into English bring out the wonted

graces of Mr. MacBean's pen. Translations are generally of secondary importance, but to be readable they require aptitude and ability, and few who remember Mr. Mac Bean's translation of Dugald Buchanan's poems, will dispute his claim to both. The tunes, as a rule, are those to which the hymns were composed, or with which they have been long associated, and they are genuinely Highland. Where a selection had to be made, the choice, a very difficult matter, is good. The whole represents many phases of character and feeling. To a few, simple harmonies have been arranged by Mr. H. W. Murray, of the Andersonian College, Glasgow. The eye does not readily fall on errors in spelling, or on evidences of anything but the most careful editing. In a note the compiler says, "This is, so far as known, the first collection of Highland sacred melodies published, but the vein of such music has been found so rich and interesting, that if this publication is well received, a second part will shortly be added." Both on account of its being the first of its kind, and because of its merits otherwise, we extend to it more than a passing welcome, and hope the fulfilment of the condition laid down in the above note will encourage the speedy issue of a second part. The mutual dependence of words and music on each other has been so often illustrated that it is obvious, if our hymns are to be long preserved as a living, working power, they must be placed before the public, accompanied by music as in this book, and we have no doubt the labour so well expended here will receive appreciative recognition. The printer has left little to be desired, and though much pressure has been put on his space, the work is neatly and tastefully executed.