In Conclusion. 211 



tenants shall be held to have forfeited their tacks, such 

 as their becoming bankrupt or the like, it is inter alia 

 specified " or, eighthly shall knowingly or wilfully 

 take into their service, or harbour, or set ground to 

 any Seceders or thieves, vagabonds or beggars, or any 

 other person who has not sufficient testimonials of their 

 former good and honest behaviour, to the satisfaction 

 of the said Alexander Eraser, or his foresaids, or to 

 such as are suspected to harbour any of the above-men- 

 tioned." We may possibly look upon the laird of 

 Strichen, himself a Roman Catholic, as somewhat ex- 

 treme in his intolerance, yet putting it in a mildly 

 negative form, one cannot, at anyrate, regard such 

 facts as that Seceders were very limited in number, 

 and that they were held in general contempt, as furnish- 

 ing evidence of any deep or wide-spread interest in 

 religious questions. Thus far, at least, we may safely go. 

 The question of the comparative'morality of the people 

 may be handled with all requisite freedom, even should 

 it be at the risk of challenge on some points. The idea 

 that degeneracy, in point of morals, has crept in amongst 

 our rural population within the past half century or so, 

 and that if a greatly higher standard was not uniformly 

 maintained in the time immediately preceding, a sort 

 of Arcadian innocence and simplicity prevailed very 

 generally at least, finds acceptance with some who pro- 

 fess to have knowledge of the subject. Unhappily the 

 records of the time do not seem to bear out such ideas 

 in the very least. In their everyday life rude royster- 

 ing, drinking, quarrelling, and fighting were the too 

 frequent recreations of the common people a hundred 

 years ago. Even then there were complaints that the 

 people were not what they had been in the previous 

 times of fancied guilelessness and primitive virtue. Only 

 they did not gather up and tabulate the details of crime 

 as is now done, and in so far as mere personal outbreaks 

 went, if the offenders escaped the notice of the Kirk 

 Session, the Civil Court would hardly interfere unless 



