Blair Collection > Celtic monthly > Volume 7, 1899

THE CRLTIO MONTHLY.
•211
THE CLANS: PAST AND PRESENT.
By R. S. T. MaoEwe.v, of Lincoln's Inn,
Barrister-at-Law.
(Continued from page 193).
Character of the Clans.
llOR three and a half centuries up to
Cullodeii the clans had been in constant
opposition to alien governments. They
were certainly a wild and turbulent race, but a
free, proud, and independent people. The
times, however, were wild and turbulent, and
there was not mucli to choose between them
and their lowland and southern neighbours.
In those days might was right ; the sword was
the only arbiter. Civilization, as we know it,
was then in its infancy. It
is only necessary to refer to
the oath of " good afl'ection "
(savethe term !) required by the
Christian government of that
Christian monarch, George
II., and to the conduct of the
Duke of t!umberland and his
Christian soldiers at Culloden,
to guage its standard in war,
even so late as the middle of
last century. In the account
given by Johnston in the book
already referred to we read :
"Of the barbarities committed
after the battle this is not the
place to speak, but we cannot
help contrasting the behaviour
of the 'cousins' in the hour of
victory. Cumberland superin-
tending, with evident satisfac-
tion, the murder in cold blood
of the unfortunate prisoners
and wounded that had fallen
into his hands (many of them
gentlemen of high standing
and undoubted courage), nay,
even ' insulting the slain '
On the other hand Prince
Charles remaining on the
fields he and his gallant
followers had won, to protect
the prisoners and wounded,
and to soothe, as much as
possible, the distress of the
vanquished. Tlie Prince never
forgot that his enemies were
still his countrymen ; the
Duke forgot that they were
human beings." *
Our partial historians have, however, not
refused their niede of praise. They allow
Highlanders some sterling virtues : strength,
valour, love of kindred and home, fidelity to
chiefs and clansmen, hospitality, splendid dis-
regard of hardships, and indomitable courage
and will in the most desperate circumstances.
Macaulay, himself one of the race, depicts the
Highlander of the seventeenth century in highly
rhetorical but impartial language. He describes
his local surroundings, passions, weaknesses,
and follies, but recognises his virtues and makes
due allowance for his environment and the
habits of the age. It is not an "attractive
picture," as he truly says, and " yet an
enlightened and dispassionate observer would
have found in the character and manners of
this rude people something which might well
* Geograpliy of the Claiiii
TUE CL&a MUKRAV.