lishing the slave-trade throughout the island of Ceylon." The [] H. Hardlake, Bart., of Wingerworth Hall, county of Derby, by late Earl Grey, in the House of Lords, also observed that " no person had ever before had the honour of introducing three such measures into any country, and that his conduct in the island of Ceylon alone had immortalised his name." Latterly Sir Alexander had resided principally on his family estate in Dumfries-shire. THE KNIGHT OF KERRY. At his residence, on the Island of Valentia, on the 7th March, the Right Hon. MAURICE FITZGERALD, Knight of Kerry, in the 76th year of his age. He is succeeded in the ancient title of Knight of Kerry by his son, Mr. Peter Fitzgerald, High-Sheriff of Kerry for the current year. The late knight was a highly accomplished gentleman, a worthy representative of that class which was fashioned in the best days of Irish society. Through the influence of the late Earl of Glendore, he was returned, at the close of the last century, to the Irish Parliament for the borough of Ardfert, in Kerry, and voted for the union. For many years he represented his native county, Kerry, in the Imperial Parliament; but lost his seat on the passing of the: Reform Act, against which he voted. Since that event he had lived in retirement in the remote Island of Valentia; where he had contributed much, by his influence and zeal, to promote habits of improvement and industry among his tenantry. The slate quarries, which now supply some of the finest slates in the empire, were originally excavated by the knight; but were afterwards let to an English capitalist, by whom they were worked, although not so profitably as had been anticipated. The Knight was a page in Durham Castle, with the Duchess of Portland, in 1785, in company with another young Irishman, "Master Arthur Wellesley," now the Duke of Wellington. The deceased was the lineal representative of the ancient Knights of Kerryone of the three branches of the house of Fitzgerald. The others are, the present Knight of Glin, or Knight of the Valley, and the Earl of Kingston, who, by the maternal line, represents the renowned White Knights of old. DOWAGER QUEEN OF SARDINIA. At Savona, in Italy, on the 11th March, her Majesty, MARIE CHRISTINA, Dowager Queen of Sardinia, the sister of the consort of Louis Philippe, Ex-King of the French. She was the daughter of Ferdinand IV., King of the Two Sicilies, and married Charles Felix, late King of Sardinia, the 7th April, 1807, but did not leave any family by that monarch, who died in 1831. Her Majesty had completed her 70th year. MRS. CHARLES BULLER. At London, on the 13th March, Mrs. CHARLES BULLER, relict of Charles Buller, Esq., formerly in the East India Company's Civil Service, and afterwards M.P. for Looe, in Cornwall, and mother of the late Charles Buller, Esq., M.P. for Liskeard, whom she survived little more than three months. WILLIAM DUNN, ESQ., OF DUNTOCHER: At Mountblow, on the 13th March, WILLIAM DUNN, Esq., of Duntocher. He raised himself from an humble origin, and was the architect of his own fortune. He was born in the parish of Kilsyth, in 1770. From early life he evinced superior mechanical skill, inventive powers, and an acute mind. He went to Glasgow a journeyman blacksmith, and, in 1798, established machine-making works in High John Street there, which have long been on an extensive scale. About the year 1811, he entered into the busi ness of cotton-spinning. He was also an enterprising agriculturist, and acquired very considerable landed property in the county of Dumbarton. He is said to have left upwards of £500,000. SIR JOHN SHELLEY SIDNEY, BART. At Penshurst, Kent, on the 14th March, Sir JOHN SHELLEY SIDNEY, Bart., the father of Lord de Lisle and Dudley, in the 78th year of his age. He was born in 1771, being the son of Sir B. Shelley. He married, 1799, the daughter of the late Sir whom (who died in 1811) he has had, amongst other issue, a son, Philip, created Lord de Lisle and Dudley, who succeeds to the family property. The deceased, in 1793, assumed the surname and arms of Sidney, to mark his descent from the Sidneys, Earls of Leicester. The family is one of the oldest in the empire, and can trace an undisputed succession in a direct line from the Conqueror. WILLIAM II., KING OF HOLLAND. At the Hague, on the 17th March, of inflammation of the lungs, HIS MAJESTY WILLIAM II., KING OF THE NETHERLANDS. He had only completed his 57th year in October last. The late King was educated in England, and had been in every relation intimately connected with this country. Having been driven from Holland in 1795, with his father, on the foundation of the Batavian Republic, he was placed under the charge of the late Archbishop of Canterbury, and received his education from that prelate. At the age of 19 he was appointed, as Prince of Orange, a lieutenant-colonel of the British army, and served as extra aidede-camp with the Duke of Wellington in the Peninsula from 1811 to 1814. He was present at the sieges of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz, and the battles of Salamanca, Vittoria, Pyrenees, and Nivelle. He commanded the Dutch troops in the campaign of 1815, and the 1st Corps d'Armee at the battle of Waterloo, in which he was severely wounded, after having taken an active part in the preceding engagements. In June, 1846, his Majesty became one of the nine Field-Marshals of England. His conduct in reference to the Belgian revolution in 1830, and the protracted negotiations to which it gave rise, are well known. He succeeded to the throne in 1840, upon his father's abdication. He married, in 1816, the sister of the present Emperor of Russia. His eldest son William, who is married to a daughter of the King of Wurtemberg, succeeds him under the name of William III. SIR CHARLES D. FERGUSSON. At his sister's residence, Catharine Lodge, Inveresk, near Edinburgh, on the 18th March, Sir CHARLES DALRYMPLE FERGUSSON, of Kilkerran and New Hailes, Baronet. He passed advocate in 1822, and succeeded to the title and estates in 1838. He possessed abilities above the average standard, and for many years was returned as a ruling elder to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, in the affairs of which he always took great interest. He was in the prime of life. AMBROSE HUSSEY, LATE M.P. FOR SALISBURY. At his residence, near Salisbury, on the 21st March, AMBROSE HUSSEY, Esq., formerly M.P. for that city, at the early age of retirement of Mr. Brodie, and was returned by a large majority, forty-two. He was first elected for Salisbury in 1843, on the his opponent being the Hon. E. P. Bouverie, son of the Earl of Radnor, now M.P. for Kilmarnock. On general questions Mr. Hussey was a conservative. He was one of the most uncompromising champions of the agricultural interest. He voted against the corn-law repeal bill. At the last general election he retired from Parliament, owing to declining health. CAPTAIN JOHN LAWRENCE, R.N., C.B. At Stonehouse, near Devonport, on the 25th March, Captain JOHN LAWRENCE, R.N., C.B., in the 67th year of his age. The Companionship of the Bath was conferred upon him for his gallant and zealous services, while commanding the Fortune brig, under the orders of Rear-Admiral (now Sir George) Cockburn, whose flag was flying on board that vessel, in April, 1813. On the 5th of October, of the same year, Captain Lawrence captured an Ame rican privateer schooner, of 5 guns and 45 men. He obtained post rank, January 1, 1817; was appointed to the Eden, 26, fitting for the West Indian station, August 31, 1822, where he continued three years. He subsequently commanded the Hastings, 72, during all the operations on the coast of Syria. The good service pension was conferred on him in April, 1847. PRINTED BY GEORGE TROUP, 29, DUNLOP STREET, GLASGOW. TAIT'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. MAY, 1849. THE MUSIC, POETRY, AND TRADITIONS OF THE HIGHLANDS. BY DONALD CAMPBELL. WHEN the following melodies were selected, it was in some modern Highland songs is an unmeaning rant, my intention to translate the verses originally wedded little better than the "Derry down" of English songs to them, as specimens of Gaelic poetry; but I soon dis-of the same age. The audience also but too frequently covered that it requires nearly twice as many English lose sight of the bard's object in the repetition of the as Gaelic words to convey the same ideas, and hence verse or the introduction of the chorus, and seldom that I could not do justice to the Gaelic verses in simi-sing them in such a way as to correspond with the lar stanzas. I have, therefore, departed from my ori-emotion that might naturally be excited by the vocaginal intention, and contented myself by attempting list; but some of the ancient Gaelic songs, when the merely imitations. To render these imitations as much verse is repeated, or the chorus sung with taste and as possible like the originals, I have, in most of the feeling, are exceedingly pleasing and animated. specimens, adopted the same subjects, and have not When the subject of the song was elevating, such rejected any of the ideas or similes that naturally in- as successful love, loyalty, fidelity, or magnanimous fused themselves into the new verses. Although the heroism, the repetition of the verse, or the tone of the imitations, where the original verses have been assumed chorus, became thus an enthusiastic and joyous exas a model, are not therefore wholly original, neither || pression of approval from the audience; but when the can I honestly publish them as translations. subject was unhappy love, a clan or national disaster, or some affecting bereavement in private life, it became a subdued echo of the thoughts and feelings breathed by the vocalist. The Celtic bards were the second grade of the Druidal order, whose enlightened theology and beautiful morality, as well as great knowledge of the laws of nature and the sublime properties of matter, have been rendered, in a great measure, unavailing to posterity by the destruction of their manuscripts. The bards were employed by the Druids in moulding and training the character of the people; hence it was their object, by the exercise of all the charms of vocal and instrumental music, to make the audience identify themselves, in thought and feeling, with the singer or rehearser of their songs and poems. By their simple and sublime theology, and this system of rendering all the charms of poetry and music available in the cultivation of the hearts of the people, the Druids produced a state of society of which only those who are intimate with the poetry and traditions still floating in the Highlands can form any correct idea. The religion of the Druids was addressed to the common sense of the people; and the poetry of the bards was addressed to the cultivation of all the With the above view, the bards were in the habit better feelings and features of the human character. of making the audience take part in singing all songs This system of tuition, founded in nature and in reacomposed to their more simple melodies. This object son, produced the result that might be expected from they accomplished by making them repeat the verse, it. The Celtic race were magnanimous, brave, and or a suitable chorus, generally on a different key from patriotic in their public, and hospitable, true, and affecthat assumed by the vocalist, and with an expression tionate in their private life; and have been reduced corresponding to the emotion that would naturally be to their present condition by their inflexible adhesion excited in the hearts of the hearers by the subject of to a vital principle of the constitution of clanshipthe song. The chorus was formed of a combination "the principle of disunited independence”—and not of appropriate sounds and exclamations, with words or by the superior knowledge, capacity, or bravery of lines introduced at intervals, to give a meaning to their opponents. Their adhesion to this principlethese sounds, and preserve the connection of the sub- which rendered union or combination for warlike enterject. The repetition of the verse, or the chorus, was so prises illegal, excepting for national defence-enabled managed by the ancient bards as to have all the effect their feudal enemies to draw them into civil broils of a response to the thoughts and feelings of the vo- and raids, one after another, and thus to cut them to calist, and of a second part to the melody. But when pieces (or render them "broken men") in detail. the "order" of the bards became extinct, poetry sud-The reader who will not use tradition as a key to the denly declined in the Highlands; and hence the chorus perusal of history, little knows the fund of unnoticed VOL. XVI-NO. CLXXXV. Z evidence which may be discovered, capable of affording the most ample confirmation of the views which the following pages will open up for the elucidation of much that is involved in doubt and darkness as to the condition of the ancient inhabitants of Great Britain and Ireland. The original verses to the following air appear to be very ancient. I am disposed to ascribe them to the pastoral and hunting era that produced the "Aged Bard's Desire," which has not as yet been introduced to the English reader in so good a translation as I could wish to see; although the attempt has been made by myself, and by two or three other true-hearted Highlanders of far superior genius and attainments. The following air, and the verses sung to it, "'Sann tha mo rùn an Láudal," are well known and deservedly popular in the Highlands. These verses are written on a subject still more dear to my own associations; the scenery and imagery are, however, strictly in accordance with those of the original song. These have reference to the legend of a Highland officer, who had joined the army of the Peninsula with a party of his clansmen. Being on an outlying picquet in front of the British line, on the occasion of a forward movement of the enemy, he had considered it necessary, with characteristic devotion, to maintain his ground until his party was surrounded, and he himself mortally wounded, and only saved from being made prisoner by the zeal and fidelity of one of his clansmen, who, with superhuman strength, carried him forcibly out of the melée (before his men were overpowered), and across a stream, where he placed him, leaning against a rock, and stood over him like an enraged tiger, until succour arrived from the encampment. The officer who had charge of the depôt at which he died, and related to me the tale of his fate, was much affected by the grief and fidelity of his last follower, who hung over his couch, night and day, until he breathed his last; and who, as the wounded officer, in the delirium preceding his death, sung snatches of Gaelic songs, connected with his young love and adventures among his native hills, was affected even to tears, "strong and rugged as he appeared to be." I have inquired since, but could not ascertain who this officer was. Believing that this may appear proper, and gratify the curiosity of those who are unacquainted with the language, I have premised the imitations with a single verse, and the chorus of each of the originals which I have attempted to imitate : 'SANN THA MO RUN AN LAUDAL.* Aird mo chri an airdlia, A chial! nach ro mi'n Láudal. Ho hi rio, ho hi u; 'Sann tha mo rún an Láudal!" Leaning faintly on his side, I have slightly modernised the spelling (but without vio "Ho ro, ealana, ho gu, A cloud obscures thee, Láudal!" "Ho ro," &c. Where his deerhound, baying wild, He drew the sword of Láudal. Where, on Ardmore's heathy crest, The shy moorfowl makes her nest, And his Mary loved to rest, And fondly gaze at Láudal. "Ho ro," &c. Where the wavy woodlands ring While the thrush and cushet sing, And wild swans, on graceful wing, Soar o'er the hills of Láudal. "Ho ro," &c. Where the stag, at evening-close, And calls his hinds to Láudal. "Ah! why left I home," he cried, "Last of my brave band, draw near- "Ho ro," &c. "Bear me softly o'er the bay, A cloud obscures thee, Láudal." Mr. Logan, in his valuable work on the Scottish Gael, has published a somewhat different version of the following air, as a specimen of the melodies called "Iorram." Some of these iorrams are very beautiful, and the verses written to them are often tender and touching, from the softness and flexibility of the Gaelic language; but, so different is the character of the English, that I found the necessity of providing words, capable of expressing the double note, at the end of every line-required by the measure a great impediment to the easy flow of thoughts and feelings necessary to anything like a successful imitation of the original song; and those I use have far too hard a sound to do justice to the melody. This peculiarity of these Gaelic melodies seems to have escaped the notice of the gifted musicians who noted them down, and the poets who have written Scotch or English verses to them, in former times-not excepting even Burns himself. Hence, perhaps, the reason why several of the songs written by him to Gaelic airs are not so popular as many of his other songs. Ins lating the admirable rule for the preservation of the radix), for deed, these airs have been seldom improved by the the sake of the English reader. changes which they have undergone in modern times for they have rarely lost less of wildness and pathos || fore; and was merely the supreme chief of the people, than they have gained in sweetness and softness-by powerful in war, but powerless in peace. the Gows, Marshalls, and others, who have copied, The Brehon laws, which became familiar to the people altered, and given them new names. Ho ro, mo run a under the name of "cleachdadh," or use and wont, chailinn," "Banarach dhonn a' chruidh," "Ho ro, gur|were, like our common laws, founded in equity, and toil linn drama," &c. &c., may be mentioned in proof of the above remarks. Nor is it altogether consistent with propriety, that these musicians, or their friends, have neglected to mention the fact that the melodies were not their own composition. FHIR A' BHATA, NA HO RO EILE. Tha ma chri briste, bruite; 'S tric na deòr a rui o m' shùilean'N dig u 'n diu, na'm bi mo dhùil riut, Na'n dùin mi'n dorus le osnai chiùrtel "Ir a vata, na ho ro eile, Ir a vata, na ho ro eile; Ir a vata, na ho ro eile, A rúin a's lúai gur a trua a'd' dhéigh mi!" Her tearful eye o'er the far sound dwelling. Ir a vata, na ho ro eile; Ir a vata, na ho ro eile, 'Tis sair to luve whan by luve forsaken." The people's joy, through the clachan moving, A stately swan on a hill-lake swimming. But now our maids pass her by unheeding, Though clouds surround her, and night nor morrow Ir a vata, na ho ro eile; Ir a vata, na ho ro eile, 'Tis sair to luve when by luve forsaken!" There is no subject on which the general reader has more erroneous ideas than the state of society among the patriarchal clans. The same system of government unquestionably prevailed among all Celtic nations. Hence, the Greek and Roman statements as to the condition of the people of Great Britain, at a period when those of Gaul had attained a high state of civilization (at all times inconsistent with themselves), are gradually losing ground with the better-informed classes of society; but still the general opinion is, that the Highland chiefs were despotic, and the clans in a state of vassalage and villanage, still more degrading than prevailed in feudal states. But the fact is, that the soil, in all patriarchal states, belonged to the people in common. The King was not the fountain of honour or jurisdiction, nor had the legal fiction of his being sole proprietor of the soil ever been dreamed of in the Highlands. He could neither give lands, titles, nor jurisdictions, there every way well adapted to their circumstances; and they were, as all laws ought to be, understood and approved of by the whole people. They were administered by a judge and jury-the former called the Brehon (corrupted Vergobritus by the Romans), and the Cinn-tàighe (or heads of the houses composing the respective clans)-and executed by the chiefs. These officials were elected in lineal descent, and for life, by the people, on principles which reconciled the consideration due to high talents and a virtuous life, to an illustrious descent. For, although elected in lineal descent, and from the nearest of kin to the founder of the clan, the office was purely elective; and every member of the clan had not only a vote, but was personally eligible to be himself elected-the whole clan being on a perfect equality, one with another, for purity of blood and antiquity of family, the two great marks of aristocracy among the Celts. This system of government is briefly, but graphically, described by Richard, of Cirencester, when he states that the Britons were "governed by a democracy which resembled an aristocracy;" but the best description of it will be found in a small work published by the poet Spenser on his return from Ireland, in the days of Queen Elizabeth. This work is exceedingly illustrative of the ideas of clanships formed by feudal authors, the writer's facts and inferences being in antagonism in every sentence from the beginning to the end of the narrative-but it is not the less valuable and instructive on that account. The Brehon was selected from the Druidical orders, but had no criminal jurisdiction; all cases tried before him being settled by compensation. Cases which did not admit of being so settled were transferred to the criminal court, composed of the Druids, and which was presided over by the chief Druid. The sentence of this court (probably death by phlebotomy) was carried into effect, with great solemnity, within the Druidical circle; which, according to the learned and acute Dr. Smith, was the cause of the report that the Druids sacrificed human victims to the deity-a report equally inconsistent with the enlightened character of their theology and philosophy, as is well proved by many traditions and proverbs preserved and cherished in the Highlands to this day, and many of which are quoted by this eminent scholar in his Life of the Druids. The perfect equality of the whole clan in political privileges, their community of property in the soil, and the equal division of the moveables among the whole members of a family, in accordance with the Brehon laws (whereby any great accumulation of wealth in the hands of individuals was, in a great measure, prevented), created a feeling of equality, and a spirit of independence, among clansmen; which, being preserved from coarseness by the tone of honour and refinement belonging to their cherished aristocracy of birth and rank, had a most elevating effect on their principles and manners. Although the kings of Scotland, unhappily for themselves and for their country, became enamoured of the feudal system, and imported it from England (or perhaps the Scots carried it along with them to the || is an affecting illustration of the eternal principles of country), the people resisted feudal charters and juris-retributive justice, that it is now a race, neck and dictions, and even looked with contempt at all persons neck," whether the descendants of these chiefs, or whose rank was derived only from the king. They ad- their defrauded clansmen, will first lose hold, for ever, hered with inflexible tenacity to the laws and customs of the country of their common ancestors. of their ancestors, especially beyond the friths. For although the long-continued and persevering assiduity of our kings had gradually succeeded in spreading charters over the country, these charters were held to be a trust reposed in the chiefs; and no person ever presumed to use them as conferring on him a personal right, in the clan districts, until the esprit du corps of the clans was distracted by the religious and political differences fomented among them by the reformers and revolutionists, and their spirit was finally crushed by the expulsion of the Stuart family. And even when the clan estates were restored to the representatives of the last chiefs and chieftains, without the customary election and inauguration, and without any reservation of the rights of their people, such was their habitual confidence in the honour of their hereditary nobility, that the circumstance never created the least uneasiness or suspicion in the Highlands. On the contrary, many clansmen who had secured long and advantageous leases from the government commissioners, for themselves and their immediate clansmen, actually brought these leases to the feasts prepared to welcome the new chiefs and chieftains, and flung them in the bonfires kindled on the joyous occasion; never for a moment conceiving it possible that these persons would, within thirty years afterwards, claim to be the proprietors of the soil which had been inherited by their claus, in common, from a long line of warlike ancestors. It will scarcely be credited, but such is the fact, that the descendant of the only person whose lease had not been committed to the flames at the feast of the descendant of the crested is the only gentleman of his name who holds lands this day on that estate! I do not mention this as at all discreditable to the present proprietor, or leave his title blank on that account; for the dispossession of their clans, by the chiefs and chieftains, is not more discreditable than general throughout the whole length and breadth of the Highlands. The high-minded Glengarry men (to be afterwards referred to), rather than submit to being thus defrauded of their inheritance, or, by resistance, exhibit to the world the unseemly spectacle of rising in arms against their chief, and the now understood law of the case, abandoned their country in a body. At the same time, the defection of the chiefs and chieftains from their clans, on their being so unexpectedly converted into lairds, by the result of the rebellion, may be accounted for independently of mercenary motives. The feudal and Protestant proprietors may well have attached themselves to reform and revolution principles, from motives purely religious and patriotic; and the descendants of such of the patriarchal chiefs and chieftains as adhered to the house of Stuart, were chiefly the sons of exiles, born and educated in foreign countries. The former, from religious and political predilections, wished to see Scot land assimilated in all things to England; while the latter, deteriorated by privation and dependence, had ceased to have any community, in feelings or in principles, with their high-minded and single-hearted clansmenor, in short, had ceased to be Highlanders. It But, from whatever motives the chiefs and chieftains acted, they consummated the spoliation of their clansmen, very soon after the restoration of the forfeited estates, by bringing a number of Lowland peasants into the country, "to civilise the Highlanders." The reader who would form a correct idea of the species of civilisation likely to be taught by these persons, would require to read Chalmers' Caledonia, and also to be capable, not only of understanding, but of feeling the poignant satire of "Oran nan Ciobairean.” From the historical facts related by Chalmers, it ap pears that such of the peasantry of the Lowlands as may boast an Anglo-Saxon descent, are the offspring of unransomed prisoners of war, who had been reduced into villanage by the kings and feudal nobility of Scotland. These unhappy persons, during the high and palmy days of feudalism, were in the same cate gory with oxen and horses, with whom they were yoked in the ignoble labours of the field, or sold or bartered without compunction; and the gay and witty and spirited Celtic satirist, who knew those of them who had been brought to the Highlands well, represents them in colours every way befitting their pedigree and breeding. I do not, by any means, wish to be understood as applying these remarks to all the Lowlanders who took lands in the Highlands at the above and subsequent periods. Many of them were highly respectable, and of the better classes; but, generally speaking, they were merely ignorant peasantry, descendent from the feudal "villeyns." When the estate of Ardnamurchan fell into the hands of the Riddel family, one of these churls was "planted" in the neighbourhood of Malcolm Macdonald, a Glencoe gentleman, whose Highland heart and courtesy prompted him to lavish much kindness on the stranger before he became aware of the difference between a villeyn and a clansman-the former being altogether unknown beyond the firths. It so happened, that Malcolm and his new neighbour had each an only daughter; and the maidens, being thrown much together in their secluded locality, became great friends-at least, so thought and felt the kind-hearted daughter of the Highlander. The Lowlander, in the course of a short time, became a rich man--for he grasped at all, and parted with nothing-while the Highlander, accustomed to the community of feeling and profuse hospitality of the clan system, although by much the more energetic and talented man, was less keen in the pursuit of wealth, and infinitely less careful in keeping it together. upon The Lowlander (as is usual with persons of mean birth, when unimproved by society or education) be came purse-proud as he became rich; and the occasion of his daughter's marriage, above her degree, to a gentleman who valued tocher above pedigree, with its then accompanying superiority of heart and head, he did not think it at all incumbent on him to remember the kindness and courtesy lavished on her by her fair companion, when she arrived in the district, poor and rustic. One would require to be thoroughly |
