predations. Their civilization was attempted, when, in confequence of the acceffion, they had ceafed to be formidable. To prevent their depredations, arms and the use of horfes were vainly interdicted. To reduce them under the coercion of the laws, the most defperate were conducted by Buccleugh to the Belgic wars; the most criminal or unfortunate were extirpated by the cruel policy of the Earl of Dunbar. The wafte, though fertile lands on the borders, began then to be cultivated; the debateable lands, an afylum hitherto for thieves and outlaws, were divided and appropriated to each kingdom; and a tribe of Grahams, from their crimes peculiarly obnoxious to juftice, were expelled from their habitations on the banks of the Efk, and tranfported to Ireland *. The feverity of those regulations was fufficient to reftrain depredations, hoftilities, and outrageous violence, but many years of progreffive improvement were neceffary to reduce the borders under a proper fubjection to the laws. The Highlands were lefs acceffible to improvement, and lefs fubmiffive to government. Separated by their mountains, and divided by a peculiar language from the reft of Scotland, the natives have continued a diftinct, and unmixed race, and preferved the genuine, unadulterated remains of the ancient Celts, to whofe drefs and manners there is nothing fimilar among the Gothic nations of Europe. The productions of the Celtic mufe would perfuade us to afcribe to their early manners, a civilization incon fiftent with an utter ignorance of the arts of life; an uniform heroifm unknown to barbarians; a gallantry which chivalry never infpired; a humanity which refinement has never equalled; and to believe, that before their advance to the fhepherd ftate, Ed. Mag. Feb. 1801. they poffeffed a correct taste, a polifhed diction, a cultivated and fublime poetry, enriched with the choiceft images of claffical antiquity, and intermixed with all the fentimental affectation of the prefent times. Their hiftory contains no marks of primeval refinement, unless we can perfuade ourselves, that their defcendants, as foon as they approached observation, degenerated on emerging from the favage ftate, and became more barbarous in proportion as they became more civilized. The virtues of a generous hofpitality, attachment to their leaders, fidelity to their associates, they fhared in common with other barbarians; but they inherited also the vices of barbarians; an incurable floth; an intemperance unrestrained except by their wants; a perfidy that difregarded the common obligations of oaths; a proverbial rapacity, and the most fanguinary revenge. The rights of property were contemned as on the borders; and as there, the principal fagacity was exerted in concealing or investigating the minute traces of their mutual depredations. Their revenge was more comprehenfive and horrible; and not unfrequently a family, a village, or a fmall tribe, befet by night in their habitations, or inclosed in church, have been confumed with flames †. Their valour was defultory; not inferior to that of the borderers. They delighted in irregular attacks, or a precipitate onfet; their defenfive arms were a buckler, and light corfelet of leather; their offenfive, a large dagger, a battle axe, or a broad and maffy fword, which they wielded with a vigorous and irresistible arm. Their drefs was fimple, parfimonious, and uniform; a fhort veft, and a loose and variegated plaid, whofe extremity was faftened around the loins; and if decency were confulted, however imperfectly, * Stow Chr. 819. Johnston, p. 374, 414, 39, 93. Grotii Hift. lib. xiv. + See Johnion's Journey to the Western Islands, vol. x. of his works, p. 367-- 3. perfectly, in their national dress, their limbs remained uncovered, and expofed to a rigorous climate *. It is impoffible to ascertain the period or the origin of their confederation into clans, whofe antiquity afcends beyond their historical, or even fabulous traditions. In every barbarous and diftracted country, the fame neceffities of defence and protection have created fmall and fubordinate confederacies; but in the highlands they acquired a folidity, the chieftain a patriarchal authority, the people a fubmiffive attachment to his perfon, which the feudal times had no tendency to infpire. The inequalities of birth and fortune operate irresistibly in the shepherd state†. The animofities that divided the clans, attached them to their chieftains, whofe authority was never eclipsed nor restrained by the prefence of a fuperior; and after the introduction of furnames, when the clans had adopted the name or patronymick affumed by their chieftain, they believed and propagated with credulous fatisfaction, their common defcent from the loins of his progenitors. Thence proceeded an inviolable at tachment to his perfon, cherished on his part by a rude hofpitality, maintained by them in his adverse fortune, notwithstanding every temptation to desert, or punishment if they refufed to betray their chieftain. Loyalty was always a fecondary paffion, fubordinate to the allegiance due to their chieftain, who protected or encouraged their private depredations, and whofe banners they followed implicitly, whether directed againft neighbouring tribes or the fovereign himself. Their coercion had been attempted ineffectually, by fuch regulatións as a nation impofes on the lavage hordes that infect its frontiers. Hoftages were exacted from each chieftain, whofe lives were refponfible for his peaceable demeanor; for the compenfation of loffes fuftained from the clan; and the furrender of public offenders to juftice. Wherever the clan protected or harboured robbers, the individuals were indifcriminately apprehended, and their effects confifcated or fecured till reftitution was made ‡. Regulations not fufceptible of a ftrict execution must have failed to intimidate, and the licentious spirit of those fierce mountaineers remained unsubdued. A memorable example, the fevere and almoft entire extirpation of the Macgregors, was more efficacious. The diftrict of Lennox had been repeatedly ravaged, and the Colquhouns, in different engagements, defeated and flaughtered by that mifchievous clan. On the approach of the Earls of Argyle and Huntly, the latter abandoned their habitations in defpair. The clan retired with their wives and children to caves and forefts, refumed the habits of favage life; and in wandering or committing depredations through the highlands, were purfued and confumed, by the fword in fummer, by farine in winter. Their chieftain furrendered, on affurance of being tranfported beyond the realm; but the condition was literally fulfilled, or rather perfidiously evaded by the privy-council; and he was first conducted *Major's Hift. 34. Lefly, 53, 5. Braccae, or trowfers of tartan, have been erroneously confidered as their more ancient drefs. But Gallia Braccata was peopled with Germans, or Beigic Gauls, from whofe Gothic drefs, contrafted with rhe Celtic in Aquitain and Gallia Celtica, it derived its name. Pinkerton on the Scythians and Goths, p. 84. 146. Lefly, who mistakes the plaid (chlamys ) for the braccae, acknowledges their femoralia fimpliciffima, pudori quam frigori aptiora. Major defcribes their drefs more concifely. A medio crure ad pedem caligas non habent; chlamyde pro veste superiore, et camifia, croco tincta, amiciuntur. + Smith's Wealth of Nations, vol. iii. p. 77. Parl. 1581, ch. 112. 1585, ch. 16. 1587, ch. 93. 1594, ch. 231. conducted to Berwick, then to Edinburgh, and executed with seven hoftages innocent of his crimes. Without habitations, and accompanied on every excurfion by a train of women, their numbers and their mifery increafed their audacity, till their retreats were discovered, and the fugitives were purfued by Argyle, thro' woods and mountains, with fuch deftructive flaughter, that the children, a race of future banditti, were almost alone preferved *. The Hebrides, or western iflands, though relinquished by Norway in the fourteenth century, had never been properly subjected to Scotland. If hiftorians are to be credited, the natives must have inherited and combined the vices of their double origin: the indolence, favage pride, and obdurate cruelty of their Irish progenitors; the riotous and profligate luxury of a race of ferocious pirates, their Norwegian conquerors. Deftitute not only of laws but of morals, deficient not lefs in religion than in humanity, they are uniformly reprefented as more barbarous and vicious than the inhabitants either of the Highlands or Borders; as a race incapable of fubmiffion, unfufceptible of culture, whom it was lefs difficult to exterminate than to reform †. DISCOURSE DELIVERED JULY 18. 1800, AT THE FUNERAL OF M. EULER, COUNSELLOR OF REGENCY TO HIS SERENE HIGHNESS THE PRINCE OF By the Count de Lowenbielm, Envoy-extraordinary from the King of Sweden to the Batavian Republick. GENTLEMEN, WE E have juft performed a painful duty, and returned to Earth the inanimate remains of our common friend. The tomb is going to close on its cold fpoil, and our tears flow, for the last time, over the coffin of a man whofe memory will ever be dear to us. Allow me, Gentlemen, to endeavour, by fprinkling fome flowers over it, to charm your grief and mine. The belt method of paying to our friend the only ho mage worthy of him is, to offer to your attention a flight but faithful sketch of those virtues which procur 66 ed him the attachment of which we are at this moment giving him a teftimony fo painful to our hearts; and what perfon ever had fo ftrong a claim to this as Euler, whofe name can never be pronounced but with refpect by all thofe who had it in their power to appreciate it? I had the happiness to know him from the firft of my refidence in this country. I foon felt the value of the friendship of fuch a man; I fought to merit it, and I was fortunate enough to obtain it. You, Gentlemen, have enjoyed this advantage as well as myself. Like me, you have found in him all the *Johnfton, 307. 486. Calderw. MS. vol. v. 599. Spottif. 516. Birrel's Diary, MS. Infulani occidentales, immanitate barbari, ferritate, ignavia, luxuria, fuper"bia, deterrimi.-Homines agreftes, fine legibus, fine moribus, fine urbium cultu, ac prope omnis humanitatis et religionis expertes." Johnft. 103. 231. 66 The "highlanders that dwell on the main land are barbarous for the most part, and yet mixed with fome thew of civility; they that dwell in our ifles are all utterly barbarous." King James's Works, p. 159. The Norwegians poffeffed the western islands from 850, or 910, to 1268. As the names of places, and of the principal families, are still Norwegian, which must have been then the predomi nating language, there is reafon to believe that the barbarity of the islands was augmented afterwards, by freth acceffions of Irifh colonies. Pinkerton, Itrod, to the Hift. of Scotland, vol i. 350. ii. 303. 46 the qualities of a virtuous and pure heart, united with thofe of an enlightened mind, and one of the best cultivated; qualities, the more interefting as they fo feldom are found united, and the most sublime geniufes afford but too frequently examples of the most dangerous errors. as Mild piety, inviolable attachment to that holy religion, which, in fhewing us our duties, compels us to fulfil them; tried loyalty, amiable candour, an inexhauftible fund of goodnefs, which the neceffity inceffantly recurring of doing good put continually into action; in fhort, a generofity never changed, and of which it would be eafy to give you proofs numerous as affecting. Thefe circumstances, Gentlemen, are a fuffi. cient juftification to ourselves for the tribute of admiration which we pay to his memory. Virtuous by principle, he never walked in the ways of Vice; we have always feen him calm, ferene, and bearing in his face the impreffions of that inward fatisfaction, fo fweet, fo confoling, which is at once the attendant and the reward of virtue. Of virtue did I fay? You know, Gentlemen, it was the object of his idolatry. He fought it, before, all things, in the perfons whom he fought to make his friends. The fteady example he gave of it frequently infpired others with the love of it. But who better than he knew how to unite the aufterity of principle and the extreme feverity with which he judged himself, this indulgence, which it is a duty indif penfably incumbent on us to fhew to thofe like ourselves? The fuffrages which cannot fail to be obtained by a man floating, if I may fo fay, on the corruption of his time, could not fail to flatter, in a moft fenfible manner, that felf-love which the moft rigid virtue never difavows, and which is its very fecurity when it does not overpafs the bounds of wifdom. Thefe fuffrages, however, were far from in toxicating him. He knew too well that, when men cease to be modest, they are no longer virtuous. In this character, which you will not think exaggerated, you will recollect the heart of our friend. Need I fpeak to you of his mind? Of that found judgement which the influence of the paffions never corrupts? Of that great penetration, that quick perception, which prefented to him every object under its true point of view? Of that erudition, the vast fruit of long ftudy and profound meditation? You, Gentlemen, have tafted the charms of his converfation. From him, as from an inexhaustible fource, we derived lights which extend the fphere of knowledge, and aggrandize the foul. But, far from making every one feel that he was his inferior, that humiliation which a decided fuperiority cannot always fpare those who pay him homage, feemed, on the contrary, to exalt him to his own level. We derived inftruction from him. We never left his company without the highest idea and most perfect felf-fatisfaction. And how, we each of us frequently faid, how could this man be always himfelf? You have found, Gentlemen, the reafon of this phænomenon (for it is one) in the philofophy of our friend, in that true philofophy, that mild and confoling philofophy, which leads a man to find his happiness in the bofom of his perfection, as well as in his endeavours to contribute to the happiness of his friends. How different, Gentlemen, this philofophy from that falfe wisdom which, in our time, has ufurped its name, and the horrible torch of which has nearly fet the world on fire! If it be true that new Titans, the Coryphæus's of this impious fect, have dared attack the Deity himself, and carry their attrocious phrenzy fo far as to make his very existence proble matical; if it be true that, debafing the foul to the condition of brutes, they they have dared to conteft its most a happy futurity, he was indebted glorious privilege, its immortality; for that heroic refignation of which if it be true that, under the vain pre- he gave us the edifying example, tence of enlightening mankind, they without defiring his diffolution, withhave only pulled down without fet- out fearing it. He beheld the moting up any thing; if it be true, in ment approach with that calmnefs, fhort, that their facrilegious hands that ferenity, which undoubtedly canhave attempted to overthrow the not be produced but by a recollection principles on which focial order refts; fo encouraging, particularly in his do they not authorize us to rank this laft moments, of a life devoted to the felf-called philofophy among thofe defs- uninterrupted practice of Chriftian lating fcourges which leave behind virtues. Happy recollection! which, them only ruin and mifery? But turn reanimating the confidence of the virwe our eyes from thefe melancholy tuous man, gives him, " fupported objects, and let us pity the lot of by faith, his right to the clemency, thofe whom this abyfs of doubt, of the goodness, the mercy, of that God chaos, of nothing, threatens to fwal- whom we adore!” low up; an abyfs whofe depth the boldest eye cannot meafure without fhuddering. The philofophy of our friend, Gentlemen, was that which refers us inceffantly to the Supreme Being, fhewing us, in the worship that is due to him, and, by a neceffary confequence, in the religion which his goodness has revealed to us, the only fource of moral virtues, the infallible means of acquiring them, the only curb capable of checking the impetuofity of our paffions, and the most effectual antidote against the seducing and always dangerous illufions which they ceafe not to place around us; mild and beneficent philofophy, which acquires new ftrength by the truths of religion! To these our friend was indebted for that courage which he difplayed in the reverfes from which he was not exempt. Deprived, for a long time, of the fruit of his labours, he fubmitted to privations which never fall on the poor, whom he ceafed not to relieve, and whofe bleffing, gratitude, and regret, he carried to his grave. Supported by this philofophy, he fuffered, without murmuring, the acute pains of a dif. order both long and fevere; and to it, as well as to the confidence wherewith it infpires the righteous man of Such, Gentlemen, was the lofsfuch the end of him to whom your piety has juft been paying the laft duties. Have I reprefented him to you in too advantageous a light? Can you charge me with having offered to his manes an incenfe which would have offended him when living? Will inflexible Truth reproach my feeble pencil for dwelling with complacency on his virtues, and having diffembled his failings? Failings our friend undoubtedly had. They are the afflictive lot of frail Humanity. But I appeal with confidence to yourfelves, Gentlemen, and even to his enemies (if any he could have,) whether thefe failings were not in him what fhades are in a fine picture? Would it be poffible, I would even venture to say laudable, to refuse him our indulgence? Inanimate remains of a man who was fo dear to us, receive the laft homage which afflicted Friendship, weeping over his tomb, offers you by my feeble voice. His foul has already received the reward of all his virtues; and I delight to reprefent her to my imagination united to that of the interefting hero* whose youth was committed to his care, and whose death (alas, in every refpect fo premature! perhaps haftened his. Enjoy *Prince Frederick of Orange. |