Lairds of Glenlyon

62 THE LAIRDS OF GLENLYON.
because the M'lans were rebels — but because they were the
last to adhere to the unmodified principles of clanship, to
the idea of kingdoms within a kingdom, of the right of a
private man, or a section of private men, to exercise hatred,
rapine, and war, uncontrolled by the central government ; —
because, though a puny tribe as to numbers, the physical
character of their country made them able to keep thirty
thousand men, from the dread of their excursions, with
arms perpetually in their hands ; because this thwarted
the plans of progress represented by the Campbells, and
cherished bytheking,and subjected the revolutionary govern-
ment to the laughter of scorn amidst a warlike and dis-
affected race, by showing its threatenings could be braved
with impunity, and that it was not able to afford the safety
to property and life, the promise of which formed the
charter of its existence. If the odium caused by the
treacherous slaughter of beguiled men was so great as
for a time to endanger the safety of the throne, still it was
the means of making the Highlanders perceive the necessity
of yielding obedience to the law, and it put an effectual
stop to cattle-lifting on a grand scale. M'lan of Glencoe
was the last Katheran chief. The terrors of the law pre-
vailed over the love of plunder, and shortly the thing,
formerly considered a mark of bravery, sank into the cata-
logue of mean and disreputable sins. The talents of Rob
Roy, the last Katheran, failed to make the profession what
it was in the days of Keppoch ; and when Rob died there
was no one to take up his mantle, for cattle-lifting had
degenerated into common thieving. It cannot be said,
therefore, the massacre of Glencoe failed in the results
expected by Government. Dalrymple might plausibly