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Owen readily assented to a proposition so much in his own way, and our orator proceeded.

"These Hielands of ours, as we ca' them, gentlemen, are but a wild kind of warld by themsells, full of heights and howes, woods, caverns, lochs, rivers, and mountains, that it wad tire the very deevil's wings to flee to the tap o' them. And in this country, and in the isles, whilk are little better, or, to speak the truth, rather waur than the mainland, there are about twa hunder and thirty parochines, including the Orkneys, where, whether they speak Gaelic or no, I wotna, but they are an uncivilized people. Now, sirs, I sall haud ilk parochine at the mod erate estimate of eight hunder examinable persons, deducting children under nine years of age, and then adding one-fifth to stand for bairns of nine years auld and under, the whole population will reach to the sum of-let us add one-fifth to 800 to be the multiplier, and 230 being the multiplicand"

"The product," said Mr. Owen, who entered delightedly into these statistics of Mr. Jarvie, "will be 230,000."

. men.

"Right, sir-perfectly right; and the military array of this Hieland country, were a' the men-folk between aughteen and fifty-six brought out that could bear arms, couldna come weel short of fifty-seven thousand five hundred Now, sir, it's a sad and awfu' truth, that there is neither wark, nor the very fashion nor appearance of wark, for the tae half of thae puir creatures; that is to say, that the agriculture, the pasturage, the fisheries, and every species of honest industry about the country, cannot employ the one moiety of the population, let them work as lazily as they like, and they do work as if a pleugh or a spade burnt their fingers. Aweel, sir, this moiety of unemployed bodies, amounting to❞—

"To one hundred and fifteen thousand souls," said Owen, "being the half of the above product."

"Ye hae't, Maister Owen- ye hae't-whereof there may be twenty-eight thousand seven hundred able-bodied gillies fit to bear arms, and that do bear arms, and wil!

touch or look at nae honest means of livelihood even if they could get it—which, lack-a-day, they cannot."

"But is it possible," said 1, " Mr. Jarvie, that this can be a just picture of so large a portion of the island of Britain ?"

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Sir, I'll make it as plain as Peter Pasley's pike-staff --I will allow that ilk parochine, on an average, employs fifty pleughs, whilk is a great proportion in sic miserable soil as thae creatures hae to labour, and that there may be pasture eneugh for pleugh-horses, and owsen, and forty or fifty cows; now, to take care o' the pleughs and cattle, we'se allow seventy-five families of six lives in ilk family, and we'se add fifty mair to make even numbers, and ye hae five hundred souls, the tae half o' the population, employed and maintained in a sort o' fashion, wi' some chance of sour-milk and crowdie; but I wad be glad to ken what the other five hunder are to do ?"

"In the name of God!" said I, "what do they do, Mr. Jarvie ? It makes me shudder to think of their situation."

"Sir," replied the Baillie, "ye wad maybe shudder mair if ye were living near-hand them. For, admitting that the tae half of them may make some little thing for themsells honestly in the Lowlands by shearing in harst, droving, hay-making, and the like; ye hae still mony hundreds and thousands o' lang-legged Hieland gillies that will neither work nor want, and maun gang thigging and sorning about on their acquaintance, or live by doing the laird's bidding, be't right or be't wrang. And mair especially, mony hundreds o' them come down to the borders of the low country, where there's gear to grip, and live by stealing, reiving, lifting cows, and the like depredations! A thing deplorable in ony Christian country--the mair especially, that they take pride in it, and reckon driving a spreagh (whilk is, in plain Scotch, stealing a herd of nowte,) a gallant, manly action, and mai befitting of pretty6 men (as sic reivers will ca' themsells,) than to win a day's wage by ony honest thrift. And the 5* VOL. II.

lairds are as bad as the loons; for if they dinna bid them gae reive and harry, the deil a bit they forbid them; and they shelter them, or let them shelter themsells, in their woods, and mountains, and strong-holds, whenever the thing's dune. And every ane o' them will mainteen as mony o' his ain name, or his clan, as we say, as he can rap and rend means for; or, whilk's the same thing, as mony as can in ony fashion, fair or foul, mainteen themsells and there they are wi' gun and pistol, dirk and dourlach, ready to disturb the peace o' the country whenever the laird likes; and that's the grievance of the Hielands, whilk are, and hae been for this thousand years by-past, a bike o' the maist lawless unchristian limmers that ever disturbed a douce, quiet, Godfearing neighbourhood, like this o' ours in the west here."

"And this kinsman of yours, and friend of mine, is he one of those great proprietors who maintain the household troops you speak of?" I inquired.

"Na, na," said Baillie Jarvie ; "he's nane o' your great grandees o' chiefs, as they ca' them, neither. Though he is weel born, and lineally descended frae auld Glenstrae-I ken his lineage-indeed he is a near kinsman, and, as I said, of gude gentle Highland blude, though ye may think weel that I care little about that nonsense -it's a' moonshine in water-waste threads and thrums, as we say but I could show ye letters frae his father, that was the third aff Glenstrae, to my father Deacon Jarvie, (peace be wi' his memory!) beginning, Dear Deacon, and ending, your loving kinsman to command,— they are amaist a' about borrowed siller, sae the gude deacon that's dead and gane, keepit them as documents and evidents-He was a carefu' man."

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"But if he is not," I resumed, "one of their chiefs or patriarchal leaders, whom I have heard my father talk of, this kinsman of your's has, at least, much to say in the Highlands, I presume?"

"Ye may say that-nae name better kend between the Lennox and Breadalbane. Robin was anes a weeldoing, pains-taking drover as ye wad see amang ten

thousand-It was a pleasure to see him in his belted plaid and brogues, wi' his target at his back, and claymore and dirk at his belt, following a hundred Highland stots, and a dozen o' the gillies, as rough and ragged as the beasts they drave. And he was baith civil and just in his dealings, and if he thought his chapman had made a hard bargain, he wad gie him a luck-penny to the mends. 1 hae kend him gie back five shillings out o' the pund terling."

66

Twenty-five per cent," said Owen-" a heavy dis

count."

venturesome.

"He wad gie it though, sir, as I tell ye; mair especially if he thought the buyer was a puir man and couldna stand by a loss. But the times cam hard, and Rob was It wasna my faut-it wasna my faut; he canna wyte me. I aye told him o't—And the creditors, mair especially some grit neighbours o' his, grippit to his living and land; and they say his wife was turned out o' the house to the hill-side, and sair misguided to the boot. Shamefu' shamefu' !—I am a peacefu' man and a magistrate, but if ony ane had guided sae muckle as my servant quean, Mattie, as it's like they guided Rob's wife I think it suld hae set the shabble that my father the dea con had at Bothwell brigg a-walking again. Weel, Rob cam hame, and fand desolation, God pity us! where he left plenty; he looked east, west, south, north, and saw neither hauld nor hope-neither beild nor sheltersae he e'en pu'd the bonnet ower his brow, belted the broad-sword to his side, took to the brae-side, and became a broken-man."8

The voice of the good citizen was broken by his contending feelings. He obviously, while he professed to condemn the pedigree of his Highland kinsman, attached a secret feeling of consequence to the connection, and he spoke of his friend in his prosperity with an overflow of affection, which deepened his sympathy for his misfortunes, and his regret for their consequences.

"Thus tempted, and urged by despair," said I, see ing Mr. Jarvie did not proceed in his narrative," I sup

pose your kinsman became one of those depredators you have described to us ?"

No sae bad as that," said the Glaswegian,-" no a'thegither and outright sae bad as that; but he became a levyer of black-mail, wider and farther than ever it was raised in our day, a' through the Lennox and Menteith, and up to the gates o' Stirling Castle."

"Black-mail ?—I do not understand the phrase," I remarked.

"Ou, ye see, Rob soon gathered an unco band o' blue-bonnets at his back, for he comes o' a rough name when he's kent by his ain, and a name that's held its ain for mony a lang year, baith again king and parliament, and kirk too, for aught I ken--an auld and honourable name, for as sair as it has been worried and hadden down and oppressed. My mother was a MacGregor—I carena wha kens it—and the Rob had soon a gallant band; and as it grieved him (he said) to see sic hership, and waste, and depredation to the south of the Hieland line, why, if ony heritor or farmer wad pay him four punds Scots out of each hundred punds. of valued rent, whilk was doubtless a moderate consideration, Rob engaged to keep them scaithless-let them send to him if they lost sae muckle as a single clout by thieving, and Rob engaged to get them again, or pay the value-and he aye keepit his word-I cannot deny but he keepit his worda' men allow Rob keeps his word."

"This is a very singular contract of assurance," said Mr. Owen.

"It's clean again our statute law, that must be owned," said Jarvie, "clean again law; the levying and the paying black-mail are baith punishable but if the law canna protect my barn and byre, whatfor suld I no engage wi a Hieland gentleman that can ?-answer me that."

"But," said I, "Mr. Jarvie, is this contract of blackmail, as you call it, completely voluntary on the part of the landlord or farmer who pays the insurance? or what usually happens, in case any one refuses payment of this tribute ?"

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