half later, the feudal system was beginning to give way to civil equality and the laws. It is strange that this barbarous government should have subsisted in Scotland so much later than anywhere else; and no less so, that, so little a while after its emancipation (scarcely more than half a century), this country should have made such rapid progress, as to approach so near as it does to the state of high prosperity of England.

I have remarked before, that Scotland is the most loyal part of Great Britain. This spirit is, I believe, not less general in the Highlands; and it does not seem easy to account for it, considering how much they were attached to the dynasty of the Stuarts, their own countrymen, and that they submitted with difficulty to the princes who succeeded. The Highlanders resisted King William, and were punished by à la mode de la Vendée. They were afterwards the first to espouse the cause of the Pretender, and were again severely punished. But this time the vengeance

of

government conferred a benefit upon them; it fell on their chiefs,-broke the bonds of clanship-and was the dawn of civilization among them. There was, however, a species of hardship they were unable to bear; this was, the obligation imposed on them by act of Parliament of wearing breeches. Evading this paternal law, they were seen to exhibit the hated garment, not

where the spirit of the act meant it to be, but at the end of a stick. This repugnance could not be subdued; and the power of government, after carrying every thing else, was obliged to yield this delicate point, and, by another act of Parliament, in 1784, formally to abandon the breeches. Now, however, that the point is given up, more than half the nation have come round of their own accord. The Highland regiments, in deed, are still sans culottes, and no less remarkable for their bravery and good conduct, than for their dress. Its immodesty is such, that I cannot see a Highland officer appear in women's company, without feeling some sort of confusion.

The object of Lord Selkirk in writing his observations on the state of the Highlands was, to shew the impolicy, as well as inhumanity, of preventing that part of the population which is driven out from the mountains, from emigrating to America. Those who cannot overcome their dislike to the new ways of life, necessary for them to embrace if they remain, would not be very useful members of society; and the void left by their emigration will be very soon filled by a new generation, born and educated in the new order of things. Another object of this writer was, to shew, by a practical experiment, how this spirit of emigration of the Highlanders might be made useful to their country, if guided, instead of op

posed. A colony of them, transplanted to an island at the entrance of the St Lawrence, seems to have had all the success the humanity and public spirit of the founder deserved.

The Duke of Atholl keeps in pay his old decayed labourers; and I am told it is the same with several other great proprietors, and probably, in some degree, with wealthy farmers. This is better than the poor's-rates in England, which seem to equalize the burden, but, in fact, increase it. What the proprietors pay here to assist the poor is nothing compared to the poor's-rates in England. Wages, however, exceed but little the wages in England, and yet there are few beggars; and the people, although less neat in their appearance, do not seem in want. We heard here of peasants eighty and ninety years old, still capable of some labour.

The last ten or twelve miles before we reached Crieff, were through some wild passes among mountains, upon which we observed vast flocks of sheep and herds of cattle grazing. It was fine weather and sunshine, but the wind was north and cool, and so elastic and bracing, that walking up and down the hills seemed no exertion. From the last hill we saw, in a sheltered valley, a castle-like mansion, flanked with towers, fine old trees round it, extensive plantations all over the mountains, and the vale in high cultivation.

Soon after this we came to two genteel cottages, the first of the kind we had seen in the Highlands, where all is castle or hovel. The excellent military road, along which we have travelled so many miles gratis, ended just before we entered Crieff.

Sept. 5.-Loch Earn Head. Twenty-two miles to-day. About seven miles from Crieff, we stopped to look at Lord Melville's house. This exminister, the scape-goat of his party, was made to suffer for the sins which they had in common with him; an example which shews that public opinion is not entirely subdued, and must be obeyed now and then. The house is an immense quadrangle, so full of windows as to look like a manufactory or barracks, and in the plainest style. It is situated in a hollow, surrounded by hills, where there are some good views, and a very pretty waterfall. Four or five miles farther, we came to Loch Earn, and travelled along the north side of it nine miles. It is about three miles wide, the water clear, a clean sandy shore, and high hills all around; but covered in part with coppice-wood, which does not look half so well as bare turf and rocks. The lake is pretty, and nothing more.

Sept. 6.-Callender, 14 miles. Our road lay to-day along the east side of Loch Lubnaig, narrow, and crooked, and wilder than Loch Earn.

A solitary house is shewn, where Abyssinian Bruce wrote his travels; and he could not have chosen a better place to have been safe from interruption. Opposite to this house, on the other side of the lake, are two huge promontories of frittering rocks, of no great beauty; they are part of the base of Ben-Ledi, (God's Hill,) 3000 feet high, on the top of which there are some druidical remains. The sun set this evening with unusual splendour behind this mountain, which is seen to much advantage from Callender. Near this village we saw a very singular piece of antiquity, called here the Roman camp;

-a semicircular rampart of earth, with the river in front. It is about fifteen feet high, and consisting of a line somewhat irregular and waving, forming, here and there, something like bastions. This is not at all the usual shape of a Roman camp.

We also walked to a singular waterfall in the neighbourhood, the rocks breaking in huge square masses. The prices of every thing in this remote spot, are astonishing. Labour 2s. a-day, and provisions found, or 3s. not found. Twenty years ago it was 6d. and found. At that time the rent of land was 15s. an acre, (1 acre English,) and was bought at fifteen or twenty years purchase; now L. 3, and bought at thirty-five and forty years purchase. Beef