House of Argyll and the collateral branches of the clan Campbell, from the year 420 to the present time

VI PREFACE.
point to many bright examples amongst their clans-
men who have been foremost in social, political, edu-
cational, and religious movements. No race has more
freely offered up their lives in their country's service,
both by sea and land. In the various arts, manufac-
tures, and commerce, they have produced men equal
to any of their compeers. They have been eminent in
the pulpit and the press, the synod and the senate,
distinguished alike at the bar and on the bench, in the
camp and at the court. They have acquired fame as
architects, musicians, and sculptors. They have shone
alike as poets, philosophers, and philanthropists,
doctors, and divines. It is the consideration of these
facts that has caused the well informed portion of the
nation to rejoice at the decision of the Queen to break
through the antiquated state policy that prohibited the
marriage of a scion of the royal house with a subject
of the realm. To promote this feeling of satisfaction
on the part of the public, by diffusing more informa-
tion on this subject; to enable them to obtain at a
glance a comprehensive idea of the antiquity, power,
worth, and extensive ramifications of the great family
of which the Marquis of Lome will be the future head
and chief, is the main object of this history of the
House of Argyll and the Clan Campbell.
Glasgow, Feb., 1871.