uncommon to the Celtic race, had addicted themselves to expenses and luxuries to which their incomes were not equal, and which began already to undermine their patriarchal power and authority over their clans.

But the operation of such causes, naturally slow, was rendered almost imperceptible, if not altogether neutralized, by the strong and counteracting stimulus afforded by the feelings of jacobitism common to the western chiefs. These persons and their relations had many of them been educated or served as soldiers abroad, and were in close intercourse with the exiled family, who omitted no means by which they could ensure the attachment of men so able to serve them. The communication of the Stewart family with the Highlands was constant and unceasing, and was, no doubt, most effectual in maintaining the patriarchal system in its integrity. Each chief looked upon himself as destined to be raised to greatness by the share he might be able to take in the eventful and impending struggle which was one day to restore the House of Stewart to the throne, and that share must be greater or less according to the number of men at whose head he might take the field. This prospect, which to

["About the year 1740, some Lowland gentlemen made a party to visit the Highlands, where they were entertained at the house of one of the chiefs with great hospitality, and a profusion of game, fish, and French wine. One of the guests asked their landlord somewhat bluntly, what was the rent of his estate; he answered, he could raise 500 men. This story is told of M'Don

their sanguine eyes appeared a near one, was a motive which influenced the lives, and regulated the conduct, of the Highland chiefs, and which had : its natural effect in directing their emulous attention to cement the bonds of clanship, that might otherwise have been gradually relaxed.

But though almost all the chiefs were endeavouring to preserve their people in a state to take the field, and to assist the cause of the heir of the Stewart family when the moment of enterprise should arrive, yet the individual character of each modified the manner in which he endeavoured to provide for this common object; and I cannot propose to you a stronger contrast than the manner in which the patriarchal power was exercised by Donald Cameron of Lochiel, and the notorious Fraser of Lovat.

The former was one of the most honourable and i well-intentioned persons in whom the patriarchal power was ever lodged. He was grandson of that Sir Evan Dhu, or Black Sir Evan, who made so great a figure in Cromwell's time, and of whom I have already told you many stories in a former volume of this little work. Far from encourag

ald of Keppoch, who was killed at the battle of Culloden.". HOME'S History of the Rebellion, 1745. Works, vol. ii. p. 405.]

I there said that Sir Evan Dhu lived to extreme old age, and that he sunk at length into a sort of second childhood, and was rocked to sleep like an infant; but I have since had reason to think that the last part of the tradition was an exaggeration.

ing the rapine which had been, for a long time, objected to the men of Lochaber, he made the most anxious exertions to put a stop to it by severe punishment; and while he protected his own people and his allies, would not permit them to inflict any injury upon others. He encouraged among them such kinds of industry as they could be made to apply themselves to; and in general united the high spirit of a Highland chief with the sense and intelligence of a well-educated English gentleman of fortune. Although possessed of an estate, of which the income hardly amounted to seven hundred a-year, this celebrated chief brought fourteen hundred men into the Rebellion, and he was honourably distinguished by his endeavours on all occasions to mitigate the severities of war,

The ancient chieftain used a contrivance, such as is sometimes applied to sick-beds in the present day, for enabling the patient to turn himself in bed; and it was undoubtedly some misconception of the purpose of this machine which produced the report of his being rocked in a cradle. He was in perfect possession of his faculties during the year 1715, and expressed great regret that his clan, the Camerons, being in the Earl of Mar's left wing, had been compelled to fly on that occasion. "The Camerons," he said, "were more numerous than they were in his day, but they were become much less warlike." This was a reproach which the clan speedily wiped away. From the evidence preserved in the family, it appears Sir Evan had preserved to the extremity of human life the daring expression of command which dignified his features, the tenacious power of his gripe, and his acute resentment of injuries. An English officer, who came from Fort-William on a visit, having made use of some words which the old chief took amiss, he looked on him sternly, and said, "Had you used that expression but a few months since, you had never lived to repeat it."

and deter the insurgents from acts of vindictive violence.

A different picture must be presented of Lord Lovat, whose irregular ambition induced him to play the Highland chief to the very utmost, while he cared for nothing save the means of applying the power implied in the character to the advancement of his own interest. His hospitality was exuberant, yet was regulated by means which savoured much of a paltry economy. His table was filled with Frasers, all of whom he called his cousins, but took care that the fare with which they were regaled was adapted, not to the supposed equality, but to the actual importance of his guests. Thus the claret did not pass below a particular mark on the table; those who sat beneath that limit had some cheaper liquor, which had also its bounds of circulation; and the clansmen at the extremity of the board were served with single ale. Still it was drunk at the table of their chief, and that made amends for all. Lovat had a Lowland estate, where he fleeced his tenants without mercy, for the sake of maintaining his Highland military retainers. He was a master of the Highland character, and knew how to avail himself of its peculiarities. He knew every one whom it was convenient for him to caress; had been acquainted with his father; remembered the feats of his ancestors, and was profuse in his complimentary expressions of praise and fondness. If a man of substance offended Lovat, or, which was the same thing, if he possessed a troublesome claim against him, and was

determined to enforce it, one would have thought that all the plagues of Egypt had been denounced against the obnoxious individual. His house was burnt, his flocks driven off, his cattle houghed; and if the perpetrators of such outrages were secured, the jail of Inverness was never strong enough to detain them till punishment. They always broke prison. With persons of low rank, less ceremony was used; and it was not uncommon for witnesses to appear against them for some imaginary crime, for which Lord Lovat's victims suffered the punishment of transportation.

We cannot wonder that a man of Lovat's disposition should also play the domestic tyrant; but it would be difficult to conceive the excess to which he carried enormities in this character. After his return to Scotland in 1715, he was twice married; first, in 1717, to a daughter of the Laird of Grant, by whom he had two sons and two daughters; his second, or rather his third wife, was a Campbell, a relation of the Argyle family. It is supposed he married her with a view to secure the friendship of that great family. Finding himself disappointed in this expectation, he vented his resentment on the poor lady, whom he shut up in a turret of his castle, neither affording her food, clothes, or other necessaries, in a manner suitable to her education, nor permitting her to go abroad, or to receive any friend within doors. Dark rumours went forth of the treatment of the wife of this daring chief, who had thus vanished from society. She had a friend, whose fearless interest in her fate induced her to VOL. XXVI.

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