Historical memoirs of Rob Roy and the Clan Macgregor

4 INTRODUCTORY SKETCH.
ungovernable, not considering themselves
amenable to any legal authority.
The pride of family distinction which latterly
infatuated the minds of many chieftains, and
inclined them to arrogance, was, in older times,
in a great measure overlooked, as a considera-
tion beneath the notice of men whose con-
sequence depended often upon more estimable,
though less pacific, qualifications, than the
frivolous and empty honours of a name, which
some of their more distant successors attached
to themselves, without the merit of obtaining
or deserving such marks of superiority.
Though the Highlanders were shut up
within the confines of their own country, and
for many years remained separate from the
other provinces of the island, they felt, like
all European kingdoms, the effects of the
allodial, and the feudal systems. The chiefs
were generally, indeed, desirous of exerting
undue powers over their followers, and some-
times did so with unjustifiable austerity ; but
though they were inclined to be arbitrary them-
selves, they could never be induced, either by
threats or by flattery, to apply for regal charters,
submission to any degree to the throne being
incompatible with their feelings, as they con-