tantism, the probable fortunes of Rome, and the cha-,, are found spots of verdure, of a very peculiar form and racter of public opinion throughout Christendom. The beauty. Imagine two towering rocky mountains, bar. habit of being all things to all men enters so strongly ren as death, and strikingly savage in their aspect, into the policy of the order, that I can lay little stress divided in front from each other by a bed of soft green on his political professions. He appeared to sympathise || turf, dotted with tufted trees, single or in groups, and with the democratic spirit of the age, and said that || rising from the road with a gentle slope until it touches through convulsions and anarchy we must inevitably terminate with the adoption of the Republic. One difficulty he could not overcome-the inaptitude of Catholicism for harmonising with Republican principles. He supposed, however, that the external forms of religion would be modified by civilization, and that which we term the Church must, in order to be useful, be organised in conformity with the ruling principle of society, whatever it may be. the curtain of naked rocks which unite the two mountains behind. But I know of no expression which can paint the loveliness of one of those scenes which we passed a little before sunset on Wednesday evening. The greensward rising gradually, as I have said, from the level of the great valley, appeared to swell into every form of beauty which an undulating surface, infinitely varied in aspect, could assume. Here were small glades, through which the delighted eye wandered A professor of rhetoric from Anjou, who gloried in into the dim distance, there thick groves of umbrathe philosophy of Louis Philippe's dynasty, having geous trees; here a patch of smooth-shaven lawn; by listened for some time with patience to our discussions, the side of this a dusky hollow, terminating in a shelvat length broke in upon us with an attack on Christi-ing semicircle of green turf. In short, I know of no anity itself, which he conducted after the most approved voluptuous feature in a landscape, excepting sparkling tactics of Voltaire. If the Jesuit expressed any sur-streams, which this valley did not exhibit. prise, it was at our having been interrupted no sooner, for, aware of the odious influence of Philippism, he scarcely expected to find a spark of religion in any person promoted or patronised by the Government. He did not choose, however, to combat the antiquated sophisms of Voltaire, and, observing that monsieur had a right to enjoy his own opinion, sat meekly listening to the objections urged against the very foundations of our faith. I was not quite so patient, but carrying the war into the enemy's quarter, accused Voltaire of ignorance, levity, and presumption; and while admitting his wit, and the grace and beauty of his style, laughed at the grossness of his blunders, both in history and philosophy. Fortunately for our tempers, the argument was interrupted by an invitation to dinner, which we all very cheerfully obeyed, disputation and sight-seeing being both great promoters of appetite. Instead of dinner, I should rather, perhaps, have called the meal we were about to eat a second breakfast, as we took it considerably before noon. At a much earlier hour we had stopped, and descended from the diligence to gaze at one of those grand natural objects which constitute the charm of Switzerland. The fall of the Sallemche,vulgarly called the Pissevache, which disappoints at first sight, is magnificent when approached. It was rather too early in the morning, for the sunshine, which already gilded the summits of the rocks above, had not yet touched the trembling and foaming waters, or called into existence those innumerable rainbows which other travellers have seen spanning the infernal surge which precipitates itself down in prodigious masses, seeming as if it would cleave the very rocks upon which it eternally dashes. On the right hand, at the very summit of the cataract, a part of the rock forming the channel of the stream appears to project beyond the other parts of the river's bed, and round this the water curves, and foams, and looks exactly like the mane of a snow-white colossal horse, tossing and waving in the tempest. Though wet by the fine spray which fell about us like rain, we regretted leaving this extraordinary spot. The fertile portion of the canton consists of a narrow valley, flanked on both sides by lofty mountains, many of which were now blanched by a weight of virgin snow of the most dazzling whiteness. At the feet of these, often, in small semicircular sweeps, CHAPTER V. THE JESUIT. Let me describe my friend of the Society of Jesus. He was a man of about thirty-five, slightly exceeding the middle height, with a serene, placid countenance, rendered so entirely by discipline, for in the depths of his dark grey eyes you could read the evidence of fiery and tempestuous passions within. There is something cruel and ferocious in a grey eye, which yet is sometimes so tempered and softened by passion, that it becomes the most fascinating in nature. Mythology attributes grey eyes to Achilles, to indicate the union of intellect with the most destructive propensities. Tiberius, the worst of the Roman emperors, had grey eyes, which from that day to this have obtained little favour with poets or romance writers. We hear of dark, humid, lustrous eyes, of bright or soft blue eyes; but of the grey eye no epithet is suitable but that of fierce or fiery. To talk of a soft grey eye would be a contradiction which would instinctively produce laughter, yet it has often happened that men and women with grey eyes have fascinated all around them. The reason may be this, that the imperious energy of the character suggests the necessity of exercising an antidote, and the mixture of softness and fierceness, of all-absorbing love and violent antipathies, operates like a spell. The Jesuit, of whom I have been speaking, was at least an example of this. His short and slightly curled upper lip indicated a large amount of scorn, which he sought to disguise by a winning voice and gentle manners; but from the height of his intellect he evidently looked down upon his opponents, and now and then put forth a degree of strength which startled them. His face was pale, with a few streaks of red in the cheeks, such as you sometimes see in farmers, who have been a good deal exposed to the weather. He wore a long black cassock, reaching from his neck to the feet, a common hat, and a little white band of linen about the neck. We understood each other thoroughly, and between his Catholicism and my Protestantism there was so little difference that it required the name to distinguish one from the other. We rose above sectarianism, and met on the common level of Christianity. Such a man, however, would be a dangerous proselyte-maker, for he would first show all the points in which the two the river, extended a broad irregular chasm some fifteen beliefs agree, and then gradually attack as errors, con- or twenty feet deep. Ou its edge stood the ruins of demued by both, the points on which they differ, in several cottages, and above, in the face of the mounfavour, of course, of his own church. As we went tain, was a tremendous gap like the mouth of an inalong, I inquired into the mental and physical condi- mense sluice, large trees torn up by the roots, rocks of tion of the Valaisans, on which he exhibited extensive enormous size rolled down and jammed together among information, though himself a native of Alsace. Our the ruins of the forest, appeared to indicate the passage of conversation then turned upon the summit of the Alps, some resistless flood, but all was now dry; and from the where he had often wandered, and which he described nature of the ground, it was clear that no river or even admirably. The name of Pervenche, used accidentally brook or streamlet could ever have flowed in that chauin our conversation, led to the mention of Jean Jacquesnel. The Jesuit viewed the scene with a look expresRousseau, and that again to Madame de Warrens, sive of sorrow and painful recollections, which suggestand that to love. I felt not a little anxious to learned to me the idea that he had witnessed some tragedy the opinion of a Jesuit on this passion, but observing that Madame Carli and the rest of our companions were listening too attentively to our conversation, he said he would speak of it another time when I did him the honour to visit his college. That visit was never paid, neither did the promised discussion ever take place; but instead, he related to me a story which did honour to his frankness, for it represented a Jesuit in love. What will be the opinion of the reader when he hears the anecdotes, it is, of course, beyond my power to conjecture, neither shall I at present state my own; but when I have related faithfully all the incidents of the narrative, the event will speak for itself. It was towards the close of the day, and not many leagues from Brigg, when observing an extraordinary appearance in the valley and mountain on our right, I inquired of the Jesuit the cause of the phenomenon. Across the small plain from the foot of the rocks to on that spot. "I will tell you," said he, "as we go along, SKETCHES FROM HIGHLAND TRADITION. BY DONALD CAMPBELL. (Continued from puge 376.) On the day following the fearful visit of the Glastic || party consisted of the old men, and the more masculine to the Glencoe men, a detachment of about five hun- widows and youths of the clan, whose duty it was, dred men, from the garrison at Fort-William, were seen upon an agreed-on signal, to set in motion a chain of descending the hill to Altnafay, by the bridle-path gigantic cairns, which had been piled by the warriors which then occupied the course of the picturesque in a line, extending from the deep ravine above the old road whose serpentine windings bear evidence of house of Achtriden to that which runs northward from General Wade's sympathy in the toilsome marches of the Juain rock. Behind these cairns (which, from the his breeks-gyved soldiers into the glens and valleys of almost perpendicular declivity of the mountain, might the mountaincers. A person standing at Beal-an-Inian be easily set in motion, so as to rush, thundering and might, at the same time, have seen two bands of High-smoking, on the heads of the soldiers, in avalanches of landers advancing-the one through the pass of Lauggart-an, and the other up Glencoe-with flashing eyes, brandished swords, and advanced targets, their broad blue bonnets and heather crests shading their knit brows, and their picturesque tartans waving around their light and manly forms, while their countenances and bearing indicated stern joy, energy, and excitement at the news of the approaching foemen. There was also a motley band, of an unwarlike ap. pearance and formation, winding through the ravines of the frowning Boduch or Carle of Glencoe, towards the ridge of the hill immediately above him, diminished, to his eye, by the giddy height, to the size of a flock of hoodie-crows. Nor was this movement the least dangerous of the two to the approaching red-coats. This thousands of tons at a time) this party now stationed themselves. While the Glencoe men took up their position, with charged hearts and carbines, in the ravine, the Glenetive men, concealed themselves effectually near the rock of Juain, among the rocks and heather, ready to bound over the stream and take possession of that important pass the moment the last file of soldiers should descend the gorge between it and their ambushed clansmen in the ravine. Such were the skilful and deadly arrange ments made by the Glencoe men to receive the enemy, who advanced, with reckless daring, into the toils, without even taking the precaution of throwing out an advanced guard to feel their way and cover their front, or || forming a reserve, to sustain or protect them in the rear. The soldiers had now descended the Juain rock, and their front was within a nundred paces of the ravine, || gentleman, that nothing morc is meant by this expediwhere the Glencoemen lay in wait for them, under the tion than to exact submission, and a week of free quar command of their chieftains, Glencoe and Achitriaden-ters in Glencoe. Your tardy and reluctant submission the former a tall, powerful, brave, but benevolent and to the King has suggested this measure, and prompt peacefully-inclined gentleman; and the latter a bold, fiery, compliance will lead to a perfect reconciliation." impetuous chieftain, whom no danger could intimidate, or no expediency divert from the path of loyalty and duty. Having seen the Glenetive men bounding over the river, and forming behind the pass, in rear of the redcoats, and having also noticed the preconcerted signal, intimating that the party behind the avalanches (formed on the face of the hill) were ready to set them in motion the moment the report of fire-arms should be heard, he repeatedly attempted to catch Glencoe's eye, and to urge him to give the word to fire, when a stately and warlike officer, advancing from the rear of the column of red-coats, stepped aside with the officer in command, and, on the instant, the party was halted and formed into line, while the light company, thrown out in extended order, covered its front, and advanced cautiously towards the dangerous-looking ravine. Achitriaden, observing this movement, cast a glance of fiery indignation at the good-natured Glencoe, and was on the point of ordering the party to fire, without waiting any longer on so slow and undecided a leader, when the latter, always kind and soft-hearted, unwilling to fall upon an enemy so completely in his power, raised his huge form over the verge of the cliff, and demanded, in a voice of thunder, their business in the country of the Clanian. While the above conversation was passing, they were joined by Achitriaden, who distrusted Glenlyon, and had little confidence in his superior chieftain's firmness and penetration-he having, by his many acts of indiscriminate generosity and benevolence, earned for himself the enviable cognomen of Fear mor coir, i.e., the big worthy man. So soon as Glencoe had descended from the ravine, the party stationed there, as well as those in possession of the pass in the rear of the soldiers, considered it no longer necessary to conceal themselves, or to disguise their impatience at the unwelcome party, and leaned forward over the rocks, eagerly watching the result of the negotiation, which threatened to defeat their anticipated victory. Glenlyon's face became blanched when the formidable position of the Glencoemen was thus unmasked to his view; nor did even the dauntles heart of his second in command, the gallant Captain Byng, feel perfectly unmoved at the sight. He cast a glance of fire around, and instantly projected a dash, with the light company, across the river, to possess himself of the pass to Glenetive, the men of that glen having, incautiously, left it unoccupied when they bounded over the river to take possession of that of the Juain rock. He sounded the call, which hung by a gold chain across his breast, and the light comGlenlyon, who commanded the party, at once ad pany, with inconceivable quickness, was instantly on vanced towards him, and requested an interview half- the left flank of the line, ready to spring over the way between both parties. This, after a consultation river. But Glenlyon was incapable of seeing or antiwith Achitriaden, was agreed to by Glencoe, who de- cipating the movement contemplated by Captain Byng, scended to meet Glenlyon, and, saluting him with stern and which, if successful, would have rescued the party but studious politeness, demanded the object of the ex- from present destruction at least, and might even evenpedition. "Come, come, Glencoe," replied Glenlyon, tually lead to their escape. He gazed around him in with a bland and conciliating smile, "let the remem- undisguised alarm, and saw no hope of safety either in brance of old friendships, and of my fair cousin, the advancing or retreating. On either side of him he saw mother of your children, banish the memory of recent an impassable chain of towering mountains, rearing political divisions, at least in so far as you and I are their frowning masses, rock above rock, and cliff above concerned. A soldier must stand by his colours, and cliff, until their bare, shattered, and riven heads were do his duty; but be assured that, if anything more se- lost in the now descending darkness; while any at rious than a week at free quarters, as a slight punish-tempt to force either pass, in the face of such oppo ment for your apparent contumacy, were meant by King William, he would have found it necessary to send some other officer than Campbell of Glenlyon at the head of the party." "Our marts," replied the chieftain, "have been more numerous, and our girnals better supplied, owing to the unhappy state of the times; but if free quarters for a week, or even a fortnight, be the extent of the exaction, you and your party shall be made most heartily welcome. But here comes the diomede of the Glencoemen, who must be satisfied of your good faith, or, by my soul, you will find that you have put yourself and your party in a pretty position. Speak|| him fair," said the good-natured chieftain, whispering in his ear, with a feeling of anxiety, which caused a slight tremour in his manly voice, "and pledge him your honour as a Campbell, without a moment's hesitation, for, though he hates your clan, he values and|| respects their sense of honour; and if he doubts, God have mercy on you and your miserable party." A sensation of terror passed through the heart of Glenlyon at these ominous words, and he exclaimed, hurriedly, "I pledge you my honour, Glencoe, as a soldier and a VOL. XVI.-NO. CLXXXVIII. nents, was more than his heart dared to think of Deeply did he curse his own unofficer-like rashness, in leading his party into so desperate a position, wher Achtriaden, who watched him for a moment with eye. that made his soul tremble within him, observed, with a sneer, "The gallant captain has declined to pledge the honour of the Campbells to his truth. Perchance he conceives that we place a higher value on that of the hirelings of the Dutchman? You had better undeceive him, Mac-vic-Ian." Pardon me, Achitriaden," hastily stammered out Glenlyon, "you do great injustice to my meaning. The commission I bear was never pledged to dishonour; ▾ but, if you prefer the pledge proposed by Glencoe, be assured that I have no wish to evade it. Glencoe, I pledge you the honour of a soldier and a-a- -Camell, that-the-the object of my party is none other than to exact submission, and a week's free quarters, in token thereof, in Glencoe." Achitriaden was not satisfied with Campbell's looks, and hesitation in pronouncing the required pledge; and Glencoe hastened to anticipate his reply, by exclaiming, "I will not doubt 2 S Scotland and Ireland, of old, were patriarchal countries-that is, countries occupied by clans, or tribes, who were governed by a system called cleachda―ie., use and wont. The government of each clan consisted of a chief, tanister, brehon, and chieftains. The chief was their executive as well as military commander; the tanister represented them in their civil rights, and suc the honour of my wife's relative, and I am satisfied with your guarantee, Glenlyon. Come, let us join your officers and party, and lead them down the glen, where you shall all meet a hearty welcome. Do, then, Achitriaden, explain the amicable determination of King William to the men of Glencoe and Glenetive; and, hark ye, cousin," he whispered aside, "speak them fair on behalf of their guests. They are chafed, like your-cecded the chief on his death (when a new tanister was self, my fierce friend, at the disappointed conflict; but peace is wisest and best. Think of our wives and children. Why should we make widows and orphans, when the cause we have at heart could not thereby be achieved? Better times may come. Let us reserve our strength; and let not the courtesy and hospitality of our high-minded clan be called in question. Speak them fair on behalf of their guests, cousin." elected); the brehon was their judge, and the chieftains their jury, as well as their military officers. Their laws were unwritten, founded in equity, few, simple, and well adapted to their situation and circumstances. They were taught to the people periodically at the mod, or mote, where their courts were held. The poet Spenser published a small work, in 1596, on his return from an official appointment in Ireland, which is valuable, and throws much light on the laws, rights, and privileges, of the clans in Ireland. It clearly shows that English statesmen did not understand the difference between the patriarchal and the feudal systems; and my own opinion is, that to this ignorance is to be ascribed, in some measure, the fraudulent and pernicious system on which Ireland was originally subjected to England, and has hitherto been governed. The principles of the clans were moulded by tradition. Their ideas of justice were founded on the Brehon laws, and in accordance with their ancient rights and privileges, to which they So saying, the cheftain joined Glenlyon, and, passing his arm cordially through his, advanced to his party, and received the officers, as they were presented to him, with the utmost degree of kindly courtesy; while Achitriaden sullenly flung aside, muttering something, the real purport of which could not be caught, about Clan-duine, ever fair and false." Immediately after the introduction of the officers to Glencoe, the party of soldiers were led by him down the glen, followed, at some distance, by Achitriaden and the men of Glencoe, in a mingled mood of dissatisfaction and doubt; while the men of Glenetive retraced their steps down Larigar-adhere with inflexible tenacity. Hence their sense of ten, to their own sweet and romantic country, wondering at the forbearance of the chieftain, and the facility with which friendship was made with the red-coats, whom he had completely in his power. honesty and equity has ever been in antagonism with the feudal system of Government; and our modern laws, especially as regards landed tenures, are not less inconsistent with these principles. I wrote, some time ago, a paper on the Tanistry and Brehon Laws of Ireland, in the Scottish Journal, for the purpose of enlightening the general reader on this subject; but, as that journal never attained any great circulation, and is now out of print, it is probable that few, if any, of the readers of Tait have seen that paper. I take the liberty, therefore, of quoting part of it here, as illus. trative of my present subject. The clans passed the night on which the Glastic visited Allan in the Shealing of Benaler, in their mountain bivouac, and the next morning repaired, by different glens and passes, to their respective countries, with the exception of the Glencoemen, who crossed over the southern range of hills, to join Stewart of Fortingall, with whom they had agreed to make a descent on the lands and barony of Wymes, that district having been wrested, as they conceived, by injustice and usur- Spenser informs us that, "In a parliament holden pation from the rightful owners of the soil. Much ig- in the time of Anthony Saint Leger, Lord Deputy, all norance prevails, even among the best educated classes, the Irish lords and principal men came in; and, being as to the origin of the ancient forays of the Scottish by fair means moved thereunto, acknowledged the clans, and the agrarian disorders of Ireland; and as King (Henry VIII.) for their sovereign lord, reserving the character of the people, as well as the cause of (as some say) unto themselves their own former priviequity and justice, in both countries have suffered, and||leges and seigniories inviolate." Both parties seem to is suffering, from that ignorance, the following brief explanation, although a digression, may not appear unimportant, nor prove uninteresting to the reader.* have misunderstood one another as to the effect and extent of this submission. The English seem to have conceived that the chiefs and chieftains of Ireland were proprietors of the soil, and that the people were their serfs and vassals; and they accordingly con another. This difference, until within these few hundred had more closely adhered to the enlightened theology, and the simple and equitable laws and principles of early ages, Why, Turner, the historian of the Anglo-Saxons, although a beaten-track writer, like the rest of their eulogists, confesses that, "When they first landed in this island, they were bands of * I have, in a former paper, shown that the Lowlanders were the descendants of the Scots, and the Highlanders the descendants of the Caledonians, or Picts; and these names, by which they are uniformly distinguished, the one from the other, by Eng-years, was decidedly in favour of the Celts, because they lish writers, is a strong confirmation of my statement. Indeed, nothing but the facility with which the most able men run into a beaten track, instead of beating about to discover a new road to the truth, can account for the tame and silly assertions whereby the Lowlanders have attained to themselves the unenvied name of Saxous-unenvied at least in so far as every true and well-fierce, ignorant, idolatrous, and superstitious pirates; enthusias educated Celt is concerned. I adhere to what I have more than once repeated, that the Celts and Saxons are lineally descended from Japhet, and spoke dialects of the same language long after they arrived and formed separate nations in Europe, and that any difference that could be discovered between them, either in form or character, was to be ascribed to "climate and circumstances," to which the learned and philosophic historian of Europe traces the difference between one race of people and tically courageous, but habitually cruel." Another eulogist con fesses that they were greatly refined and elevated by their inter course with the Britons and "the Roman progeny." In short, until the descendants of the few bands of Saxon pirates, who landed in Britain, became the sons of Celtic mothers, and were humanised by their dispersion among a Celtic people, they never were distinguished for anything but courage, rapacity, idolatry, and cruelty. cluded that, when they obtained their consent to the the chiefship; but the preference was given to him sovereignty of the King of England, the whole nation who was nearest of kin to the founder of the clanwas at once reduced to subjection. The chiefs and that is, if "the eldest and the worthiest in that kin or chieftains, on the other hand, knowing the limited sept." Hence, the next brother of the deceased chief power they possessed, meant that this sovereignty was always preferred to his son, because he was a step should be exercised only in the Celtic sense of the nearer in descent to the founder of the clan. This word, that is, within the bounds prescribed by the appears to have also been the principle of succession cleachda. This is to be inferred from the reservation of the Caledonian or Pictish kings, and explains the of "their own former privileges and seigniories in controversy between the different claimants to the violate." Indeed, the chiefs and chieftains (as shown Scottish crown, on the death of Alexander III., some in the May number of this magazine) had no power of whom founded on the feudal, and some on the patribeyond that conferred on them by the people. Had || archal laws of succession. English statesmen, at the above period, understood the character and the institutions of the Irish, they would| probably have advised the king to be contented with the limited sovereignty tendered to him by the chiefs and chieftains of the people, who, in that case, would have got him elected and inaugurated, according to use and wont, by a convocation of the nation-for it could not have been done, according to their laws, by the chiefs and chieftains. That English statesmen were entirely ignorant of the institutions and laws of Ireland, and the resolute adhesion of the people to them, is evidenced by the works of Spenser, from which I quote the following dialogue between Eudor and Iren: Eador, in reference to the above submission, or treaty, observes—"By acceptance of the above sovereignty, they also accepted of his laws. Why, then, should any other laws be now used amongst them?" To this Iren very complacently replies-"True it is that thereby they bound themselves to his laws and obedience.' It will be seen by the above that the Irish, like the Highland clans, kept the offices of chief and tanister separate and distinct the one from the other-the former being the military commander, and the latter the trustee of the civil rights or tenures of the clan. Hence, in the Highlands, the chief, at the inauguration, received a sword, and the tanister a wand, as the symbols of their office. Spenser, in a subsequent quotation, says the chief in Ireland receives a wand; but I suspect that this must be a mistake, as the patriarchal laws of all nations were derived from the same source, and, in all probability, were everywhere the same. The tanister, as above observed, held the land in trust for the clan and their posterity, to whom they belonged in common. We find that the tanister accordingly continued to be elected in the Highlands, even among those of them who had accepted feudal charters, such as the Stewarts of Appin, &c., down to the year 1745, which clearly shows that these charters were merely looked upon as a matter of form. They were never allowed to interfere with the rights and privileges of the clans until after the restora. Eudor-"Do they not still acknowledge the sub-tion of the forfeited estates. Thus, the chief repre Iren-"No, they do not; for now, the heirs and posterity of them, which yielded the same, are, as they say, either ignorant thereof, or do wilfully deny or steadfastly disavow it. They say their ancestor had no estate in any of their lands, seigniories, or hereditaments, longer than during their lives, for all the Irish held their lands by tanistry." Eudor is, of course, greatly astonished at this answer, and exclaims-"What is that which you call tanisht, or tanistry? They be names and terms never before heard of or known to us." Irea-"It is a custom among the Irish, that, immediately after the death of any of their chief lords or captains, they do assemble themselves unto a place generally appointed and known unto them, to choose another in his stead, where they do nominate and elect, for the most part, not the eldest son, nor any of the children of the deceased, but the next to him of blood, that is, the eldest, and the worthiest, as commonly the next brother unto him, if he have any, or the next cousin, or so forth, as any is elder in that kin or sept. And then, next to him, do they choose the tanist, who shall next succeed him in the captaincy, if he live thereunto." It will be seen from the above that the chiefships did not proceed in a direct line of succession. The preference was given, not to the nearest of kin to the last, but the first chief or founder of the clan. Hence every clansman, being eqally descended from the founder of the clan, was on a footing of equality with the best of his race, and equally entitled to be elected to sented the clan in a military, and the tanister in a civil capacity-as is indicated in the previous quotation, where it is stated that the ancestry of the Irish claus referred to by Spenser, "had no estate in any of their lands, seigniories, or hereditaments," which they held "by tanistry;"that is, the tanister held the lands by virtue of his office, in trust for the whole clan and their posterity. Spenser gives the following description of the forms attended to in the election of a chief or tauister : "They used to place him that shall be their captain upon a stone always reserved for that purpose, and placed commonly on a hill; in some of which I have seen formed and engraven a foot, whereon he, standing, received an oath to preserve all the ancient former customs of the country inviolable, and to deliver up the succession peacefully to his tanist (when he should succeed to the chiefship); and then hath he delivered unto him a wand, by some one whose office that is; after which he turneth him self round, and boweth himself thrice forward and thrice back ward. I have heard that the beginning and cause of this ordin their posterity, and for excluding all innovation or alienation nance was specially for the defence and maintenance of the lands thereof to strangers. Hence they say, as erst I told you, that they reserve their titles, tenures, and scigniories, whole and sound to themselves." There is here sufficient evidence that in every submission made by the people of Ireland to the King of England, there was a special reservation of the lands, rights, and privileges. The violation of this condition is, and always has been, at the root of all the agrarian disturbances and other evils of Ireland. "The Brehon laws," continues Spenser, "is a rule of right, unwritten, but delivered by tradition from one generation to another, in which oftentimes there ap |