14 History of the English Landed Interest. 



measures used by a conquering host to enforce its adoption 

 amid the alien people in England, and the peaceful processes 

 by which it became a large factor in the national economy of 

 Scotland. In the former case we should have expected to find 

 the results confused and discordant ; in the latter a less unsatis- 

 factory outcome might have been looked for, whereas in reality 

 events were just the reverse. 



When we read in the pages of Highland history of the inter- 

 necine struggles of the clans ; when we still traverse large 

 areas of rock and heather, the inhabitants of which bear one 

 common patronymic ; when we note the devotion of the High- 

 land tenantry to their respective chiefs ; — there is no need to 

 inquire further if a feudal system has either put an end to, or 

 even completely blended with, the old tribal polity of the Celt. 

 Macaulay in these words sums up the situation at this par- 

 ticular period of Scottish history, — the result of this unnatural 

 though peaceful fusion of two antagonistic economies : — 



" There was one inexhaustible source of discontents and 

 quarrels. The feudal system had some centuries before been 

 introduced into the hill country, but had neither destroyed the 

 patriarchal system nor amalgamated completely with it. In 

 general he who was lord in the Norman polity was also chief 

 in the Celtic polity ; and when this was the case, there was no" 

 conflict. But when the two characters were separated, all the 

 willing and loyal obedience was reserved for the chief. The 

 lord had only what he could get and hold by force. If he was 

 able, by the help of his own tribe, to keep in subjection tenants 

 who were not of his own tribe, there was a tyranny of clan 

 over clan, the most galling perhaps of all forms of tyranny." ^ 



There was no national feeling of reverence for the Scottish 

 sovereign ; and when some unpopular monarch, flying from the 

 rebellious interference of his Lowland subjects, took refuge 

 amongst his so-called faithful Highlanders, he did so, not be- 

 cause the plaid covered a heart loyal to himself, nor yet because 

 the clansman's feudal lord happened to be his adherent, but for 

 the reason that the chieftains had been won over to the royal 



* Macaulay's History of England, c. xiii. 



