Historical memoirs of Rob Roy and the Clan Macgregor

14 INTRODUCTORY SKETCH.
The principle which then regulated the usages
of war, as well as the political economy peculiar
to the mountains, was founded on this system
of clanship, every tribe forming a distinct
and separate community, subject to its own
local rules, each chief being in effect an inde-
pendent prince, who acknowledged no law but
such as he himself had constructed, or as had
been in use among his ancestors. Regardless of
statutes promulgated by the government of the
kingdom, a chief protected his vassals against
them, though guilty of their infringement, so
that they disdained any other control than that
which he imposed. He, of consequence, directed
their conduct, and they willingly opposed the
regal power, on any emergency of danger, as he
judged proper. To the solidity of this alliance
is to be attributed the difficulty with which the
daring spirit of clanship was ultimately subdued.
Habituated to violent bodily exertion from
their unsettled mode of life, which led them to
constant exposure in a changeable atmosphere,
they were a muscular and hardy people, living
in the enjoyment of health to advanced age ;
and though constitutionally disposed to indol-
ence, they went forward to battle with a fearless
heart and a destructive arm.