556 Professor J. Stuart BIa4:l'ie [April 29, 



ekxineiice of the pulpit wliicli few could appreciate and eTerybody 

 coiild spare. Among contemporary attempts to use Gaelic for the 

 currency of the hour, the Gaelic articles in that sturdy org;m of 

 Eadicalism the Inverness Hiijhlander, are deserving of special pnvise; 

 but the very small proportion of the columns of that jourmU in which 

 the native language appears, affords the most s;\tisfactory proof that 

 the great mass oi Highland readers prefer the English tongue, and 

 are in fact for the most part unable to read the works of their best 

 poets, by whose names they are yet proud to swear. The only other 

 production of Gaelic prose that seems to call for special mention is 

 their body of wise saws and popular apophthegms, originally collected 

 by an Episcopal clergyman of the niune of Macintosh, who lived in 

 the early part of the present centm*y, and now republished with large 

 additions and viUuable comments by that genial and accomplished 

 Celt. Sheriff Xicolson. of Kirkcudbright. 



Should I be expected to say, in conclusion, what is the present 

 state and future prospects of the Celtic population in the Highlands, 

 the answer may be short, but si\d. Personally I am one of those who 

 like to see Highhmders in the Highlands ; but where Nature, and 

 unnatural landlords, and partial land laws, and a one-eyed political 

 economy divorced from all monil coDsider:\tions and social ties, have 

 now for more than a century conspired to drain away the native popu- 

 lation of the glens, my wishes are a mere breath that will pass the 

 weighted scales innocuously, and leave the bahince where it was. Our 

 noble Highlanders, the best-conditioned peasantry morally and physi- 

 cally in Euroj>e. and the best constituent of our once famous armies, 

 that knew no defeat, have been lost to us, I fear, for ever, by land 

 laws which, while they strengthened by artificial enactments the 

 natural strength of the lords of the soil, left the mass of the people at 

 the mercy of pleasure-hunting lords — not seldom absentees — and omni- 

 potent factors intlate^l by economical crotchets or spurred by commercial 

 greed. Laws were made and maintained with jealous severity to pre- 

 serve the gi\me : but no one dreamt oi preserving the people. The 

 conse<.][uence has been that the people, receiving no encouragement 

 from their natun^l protectors, who rather seemed iinxious in not a few 

 cases to get rid of people, poachers, and poor laws at a stroke, retreated 

 year after year from their dear old homes, which were homes now only 

 for gamekeepers and givme. and Titanic dealers in Highland wool and 

 hill-mutton, and sought for higher wages, more kindly treatment, .and 

 fiir less healthy moral and physical suri\">undings in the hot-beds and 

 back slums of our great manufacturing towns. In these circumstances it 

 is in vain to expect that the Gaelic hmguage and the Gaelic literature 

 should l>e at present in a very vigorous condition. It is no doubt wonder- 

 ful to observe what fiashes of the genuine old spirit occasionally shoot 

 forth in fervid verse, and in sagacious prose : but tbey are only 

 FLASHES. Genuine Celtic sentiment, and loving appreciation of Celtic 

 culture, appear only in a few exceptional individuals ; the best pjirt of the 

 people have left the country in despair ; and those who remain behind, 



