embraced; but notwithstanding the repeated losses, and severe chastisements which their temerity brought on them, they obstinately preferred a life of freedom, to an existence branded with the mark of subjection.

The continued efforts of the Welsh to preserve their independence, were worthy of a branch of the great Celtic race. Gir. Cambrensis says, that Henry II. informed the Emperor Emanuel, that they were so warlike, it was easier to tame wild beasts, than daunt their courage.

The determined opposition which the Scots ever made to the attempts of the English Kings, to reduce them to subjection, is a proof of the high value they set on national independence, and the steadiness with which they continued to protect it. Although the country was repeatedly overrun by the armies of England, the national archives and regalia carried off, they valiantly contended under the illustrious Wallace and Bruce, until they had finally achieved their complete emancipation.

"It is not glory," say the Scots nobility, in their letter to Pope John, in 1320, concerning their wrongs, "it is not riches, neither is it honour, but it is liberty alone that we fight and contend for, which no honest man will lose but with his life."

The long and persevering exertions of the Scots, in the cause of the Stewarts, is no less worthy of remark. The misfortunes of the gallant Montrose, and no less worthy Dundee, and the severe punishments which their frequent rebellions brought on them, did not detach them from the interest of the expatriated family. After the accession of the Prince of Orange, the Highlanders became more submissive; but one of Dundee's unfortunate officers says that "nothing but King James's special command" could have put a period to the war at that time. The clans, however, took the field in 1715, were in arms in 1719, and were still

ready to vindicate their supposed liberties in 1745, when the final struggle of the Celtic race for their independence took place.

On this last occasion, the privations they suffered did not impair their ardour. Their cheerfulness never forsook them, even when they were in want of almost every necessary, were surrounded with difficulties, and had to undergo extreme fatigue. On their retreat from England, although they had performed with astonishing celerity a long march in a bad season, as soon as they had forded the Eske, which reached as high as the neck, and were in Scotland, the pipers struck up their favorite strath-speys, and most of the army began to dance.

When the Highlanders rendezvoused at Ruthven after the battle at Culloden, instead of being depressed at their loss, they scarcely considered it a defeat, but were burning with impatience for revenge. "I was delighted," says the Chevalier Johnstone, "to see their gaiety."

Civilis, a celebrated German leader, attacked the Roman army four times in one day, and instances are found of the Gauls maintaining desperate battles for several successive days, such was the persevering obstinacy of these nations.

Dundee's troops in many of their marches, which were always made with wonderful expedition, had neither bread, salt, nor any sort of liquor except water, and that during several weeks, yet they never complained.

The Highlanders were well known to be "a people, that can endure all the hardships of war, being bred to all manner of cunning in relation thereto.""

Sir J. Dalrymple, in his Memoirs of Great Britain, ii. p. 53, thus speaks of them. "The lightness and looseness of their dress, the habit they had of going always on foot,

u Scotia Indiculum, 1682.

and never on horseback, their love of long journeys, but above all, that patience of hunger and every kind of hardship, which carried their bodies forward, even after their spirits were exhausted, made them exceed all other European nations in speed and perseverance of march. Montrose's marches were sometimes sixty miles a day, without food or halting, over mountains, along rocks, and through morasses, &c."

"It is not easy," says Home, "to conceive how they really did live, and how they endured the want of those things which other people call the conveniences and even the necessaries of life."

When the Highland companies were raised in the service of government, it was soon observed that they became less hardy than their countrymen who lived in their wonted state of rudeness and freedom.

WHEN the Celtæ had determined to engage in a war, the various states in confederation assembled in arms, to deliberate on the mode of conducting the campaign, and to arrange the plan of operation, and this meeting was reckoned the commencement of hostilities. No measures were necessary to compel the attendance, at this convention, of any who were able to carry arms, which was nearly the whole population, "every age being most meet for war." Both the old men and the youth took the field with the utmost promptitude and enthusiasm, the only anxiety being to arrive first at the place of meeting. When Caractacus went to battle, "none would stay at home; they followed him freely, and maintained themselves at their own ex

99 a

pense. No Gaul was ever known to cut off his thumb, as was done by others, to prevent his going to the wars, a practice for which the parties received the appellation Murcos. There is an instance of a Welsh prince going to war at the early age of ten years; and in the Scots' rebellions, mere boys are celebrated for a display of bravery that would have done honour to veteran soldiers.

The Germans seem to have been less punctual in their meetings; the second, and sometimes the third, day elapsed before all had assembled, an evil that apparently arose from the liberty they enjoyed, in not being compelled to attend otherwise than from inclination. Like the Gauls, they transacted nothing without being armed. They sat down where they chose, without any distinction of persons; and when all had assembled, the priests enjoined silence. The king was first heard, and all others according to precedence in age or nobility, in warlike renown or in eloquence. If a proposition displeased the assembly, it was rejected by a slight murmur;—if pleasing, it was received by the brandishing of javelines and by the rattling of their arms, which was the most honourable expression of assent. It was customary, when a chief had stated his determination to lead an expedition, that those who approved of it, rose up before the assembly, and pledged themselves to follow him; and to break such an engagement was to lose their honour, which they could never afterwards regain.

No affair of moment could be decided without this general assembly of the people. The Belge held a council to

a

Triad, 79. ap. Robert's early Hist. of the Cymri.

b Tac. de mor. Germ. He elsewhere says it was also customary with them to beat the ground with their feet.

c Bello Gall.