the jurisdiction, not of bishops, but of abbots, who were not necessarily, and, in point of fact, seldom were bishops, and while the Episcopal Order and the special functions of the Episcopate in the matter of ordination and the celebration of the mass with Pontifical rites, was recognised, the bishop was not a prelate, but a functionary and official of the Church, living as a monk in the monastery, and subject to the abbot. This peculiarity of the Church was for long a battle ground between Presbyterians and Episcopalians, and founding on a passage in Fordun, it was maintained by the advocates of Presbyterianism that the Church of St. Columba was a Presbyterian Church, in something of the sense in which that word is applied to the present Churches in Scotland—but this contention is now exploded. In the sense of equality among the clergy, either in the matter of power or of functions, the Church was entirely different from the Presbyterian Churches. The abbot, although he might be only a presbyter, ruled over the whole community with absolute power. On the other hand, while the bishops had no jurisdiction, they were recognised as a distinct and necessary order of clergy, with certain functions which the presbyter could not assume, and the Church had thus the three orders of clergy, and that regular succession of Bishops, which are looked on by some as essential requisites of a Church. The respect in which St. Columba himself held bishops is shown by an anecdote told by Adamnan as follows:

"Of Cronan the Bishop.-At another time, a stranger from the province of the Munstermen, who, in his humility, did all he could to disguise himself, so that nobody might know that he was a bishop, came to the saint; but his rank could not be hidden from the saint. For next Lord's day, being invited by the saint, as the custom was, to consecrate the Body of Christ, he asked the saint to join him, that, as two priests, they might break the bread of the Lord together. The saint went to the altar accordingly, and, suddenly looking into the stranger's face, thus addressed him:-'Christ bless thee, brother; do thou break the bread alone, according to the Episcopal rite, for I know now that thou art a bishop. Why hast thou disguised thyself so long, and prevented our giving thee the honour we owe to thee?' On hearing the saint's words, the humble stranger was greatly astonished, and adored Christ in His saint, and the bystanders in amazement gave glory to God."

We find too that when a mission was sent to a distance, the leader was ordained a bishop, so that he might be able to ordain local clergy, and in this case the office of abbot and bishop was generally combined. The three abbots who ruled at Lindesfarne, while the Church there was subject to Iona, were ordained bishops at Iona.

The tribal organization of the Church seems to have been a counterpart of the tribal organization of the people among whom it arose. There seems to have been no head of the Irish Church. Each saint bore rule over all the monasteries founded by him, and his disciples, and the abbot of the head monastery succeeded to this jurisdiction. Thus the Abbot of Iona, which had the primacy among the foundations of Columba, ruled over all the monasteries founded by him in Ireland and Scotland, and this continued till the community at Iona was broken up. The monks belonging to the foundations of one saint thus formed an ecclesiastical tribe, and in the same way the monks in each monastery formed a subtribe. There was, too, a regular law of succession to the headship of a monastery. We find mention of lay tribes and monastic tribes in the Brehon laws, and elaborate rules are laid down for the succession to an Abbacy. Thus the succession was first in the tribe of the patron saint, next in the tribe of the land, or to which the land had belonged, next to one of the finé manach, that is, the monastic tribe, or family living in the monastery, next to the anoit Church, next to a dalta Church, next to a compairche Church, next to a neighbouring cill Church, and lastly to a pilgrim. That is, if there was a person in the monastery of the tribe of the patron saint fit to be abbot, he succeeded; if not, then the succession went to one of the tribe from whom the land had been acquired, and if there was no such, then it went to all the others in succession, the Churches mentioned being connected in various degrees with the foundation, the headship of which was vacant. According to this rule, we find that for more than a hundred years the Abbots of Iona were all of the tribe and family from which Columba himself was descended.

The peculiarity which, however, appears to have attracted most attention from the Roman clergy, when the two Churches came in contact in the seventh century, was the time at which the

Scottish clergy celebrated the festival of Easter, and their form of tonsure, and these were for long subjects of contention. The difference in the mode of calculating Easter is easily accounted for, as the Scottish Church adhered to the method which was common to the whole Western Church, previous to 457, when all connection between Britain and Ireland and the Continent ceased; and during the time of isolation a new method of computation was adopted by the Roman Church; but the mode of tonsure is not so easily accounted for. The Columban Monks tonsured the front of the head from ear to ear, while in the Roman Church the crown of the head was tonsured. The former mode of tonsure was that adopted at one time by the Eastern Church, and it may point to some Eastern influence on the Irish Monastic Church at the time of its development.

Ledaig.

(To be continued.)

LINES ON GENERAL GORDON.

Tha bratach bhroin an diugh 'n'ar tir
'S tha'n riogh'chd a caoidh gu truagh;

Is gaisgeach tréum n' an cath 's na'm blar
Foidh ghlais a bhais na shuain.

Bho'n luchairt aird is àillidh dreach,

Gus'n tigh is isle th' ann;

Tha goimh a bhròin an cridh' gach neach

Is caraid caomh air chall.

'Bu ghrad a fhreagair thus' a ghairm
'Nuair dh'iarradh ort dol 'null;

Ach och mo leòn, bu bhochd do dhiol,

'S cha b'ann a' reir do dhuil.

Is smal air cliù ar riogh'chd gu bràth

Mar dh' fhag iad thu 'san uair,

Ri aghaidh mhiltean naimh leat fein,
Gun chuideachadh sa chruas.

Cha b'ann sa chath, 's cha b'ann sa bhlar,

A fhuair do namh ort buaidh;

Ach foill an ti a fhuair do bhàigh,

'S thug do bhàs mu'n cuairt.

Is iomadh dilleachdan gun treoir,

Is deoraidh bochd is truagh;

Tha caoidh an aon fhear-cuidichidh

An saoghal falamh fuar.

Is dorcha dhuinne rùn an Ti,

A ghairm da riogh'chd thu 'n dràsd;

Tha aobhar aige anns gach ni,

Is bith'mid striochda dha.

JOHN CAMPBell.

YACHTING AND ELECTIONEERING IN THE

HEBRIDES.

I.

HAVING lately had the opportunity of a month's tour in the Hebrides and on the West Coast in a steam yacht, I think that a recital of the journey, with notes of the various places visited, may prove interesting to every reader of this Magazine.

Strome-Ferry was our starting-place proper, and, before fairly launching out upon the account of our trip, I must not forget to mention the ruins of the old Castle upon the north side of Strome Ferry. From the south side they are hardly distinguishable from the grey rock upon which they are perched, so much do they resemble it in appearance. In Mackenzie's History of the Camerons we are told that in 1472 Allan Cameron, XIII. of Lochiel became a vassal of Celestine, Lord of Lochalsh, and Constable of his Castle of Strome. On 6th March, 1539, the Castle of Strome, with the lands attached, was granted by James V. to Alexander of Glengarry and Margaret of the Isles, his spouse, in liferent, and Angus, their son and heir-apparent, in fee. In the early part of the seventeenth century, Donald, VIII. of Glengarry, in a skirmish with the Mackenzies of Kintail, took prisoner one Duncan MacIan Mhic Ghillechallum, and incarcerated him in Strome Castle. About a year after this, Kenneth, first Lord Mackenzie of Kintail, gathered his forces and laid siege to the Castle, which at first defied all his efforts. An act of carelessness, however, upon the part of the women in the Castle destroyed the hopes of the defenders, and ultimately rendered the fortress an easy prey to the invaders. The women had been out at night for water, and, bringing it in in the dark, they inadvertently poured it into a vat containing the whole store of gunpowder, instead of into the proper water-vat, rendering the powder of course absolutely useless. Duncan Maclan Mhic Ghillechallum, who was still a prisoner in the Castle, heard of the state of

matters next morning, and, looking over the battlements, perceived, to his intense disgust, that the Mackenzies, despairing of being able to take the Castle, were preparing to raise the siege and depart. Seeing his hopes of release thus vanishing, Duncan formed a sudden and bold resolve. Flinging his plaid over the head of the man who stood next him, he jumped over the ramparts on to a large manure-heap just below. Before the Macdonalds had realised what had occurred, Duncan had picked himself up out of the mire, and was running with all his might towards Mackenzie's camp, which he reached in safety, and informed Kintail of the defenceless state to which the Castle had been reduced by the loss of the gunpowder. The chief, highly elated at the welcome news, at once recommenced the siege, and, seeing that the case was hopeless, the Macdonalds thought discretion the better part of valour, and gave up the Castle, on condition of their lives being spared and their being permitted to bring out their baggage. This being granted, the Castle was formally surrendered to Kintail, who blew up the building, of which nothing now remains but the moss-grown walls.

Our yacht was named the Carlotta, of 37 tons register. She carried a crew of eight, all told, including the steward, and was very comfortably fitted up, but, as we afterwards found, also very slow. The others on board were-Mr. FraserMackintosh, M.P., and the writer. We left Strome-Ferry about noon on Saturday, the 5th of September, 1885, and, steaming down Loch-Carron, entered Kyle Akin, "the Strait of Haco." At the entrance to this Strait, in the year 1263, the proud Norwegian King anchored his noble fleet of over a hundred war-galleys, to beard the Scottish Lion in his den, and establish the authority of the Norse Raven over the Western Isles and shores of Albyn. But a few short months and that gallant fleet was scattered and destroyed by the furious tempests that came as it were to protect our land from the invader, whilst Haco, leaving the flower of his golden-haired warriors dead upon the blood-stained field of Largs, sailed to Orkney, and there died. broken-hearted

"And they buried him in Orkney, and Norsemen never more
Set sail to harry Scotland, or plunder on her shore."