378 THE JOURNEYMAN. 



than our own merely because it was wicked in a differ- 

 ent way. There were ladies of Cromarty in the good 

 year 1680 " maist horrible cussers," who accused one 

 another of being " witches and witch-getts, with all their 

 folk afore them," for generations untold; gentlemen who 

 had to stand at the pillar for unlading the boats of a 

 smuggler at 10 o'clock on Sabbath night; "maist 

 scandalous reprobates " who got drunk on Sundays, and 

 "abused decent folk ganging till the kirk ;" and "ill-con- 

 ditioned raggit loons who raisit ane disturbance and 

 faught i' the scholars' loft " in the time of Divine service. 

 Were I not so engaged at present, I would draw up 

 from the Session records of the parish, a scheme of com- 

 parative morality of each succeeding generation for the 

 last hundred and fifty years. The scheme would be at 

 least a curious one, and might show, among other things, 

 how little conducive the iron despotism of the reign of 

 Charles was to the establishment of a high-toned morality 

 among the people. Husbands and their wives do pen- 

 ance in the church in this reign for their domestic 

 quarrels ; boys are whipped by the beadle for returning 

 from a journey on Sabbath ; men are set in the jougs 

 for charging elders of rather doubtful character with 

 being drunk ; boatmen are fined for crossing the ferry 

 with a passenger during church time ; and Presbyterian 

 farmers are fined still more heavily for absenting them- 

 selves from church. Under a tyranny so intolerable 

 the people seem to have been brutalized, and in conse- 

 quence greatly increased in crime/ 



' Cromarty, July 10, 1834. 



' I would have written you long ere now, but I have 

 been for the last fortnight in a rather unsettled mood 

 and unable to fix my attention very strongly on anything. 



