422 HISTORY OF THE OUTER HEBRIDES. 



second Earl, were not in legal possession of a foot of 

 territory. The re-establishment of the Stuart dynasty 

 would, doubtless, have enabled them to free the estates 

 from the creditors, and extricate themselves from a hope- 

 lessly involved financial situation ; while the addition of 

 further honours were not impossible. But it is hard to 

 believe, and we do not believe, that they acted contrary 

 to their convictions. They were loyalists to the core, and 

 their attachment to the unfortunate Stuarts cannot be 

 measured by the hopes of material advantages. At all 

 events, their political sympathies brought them, in the 

 result, nothing but suffering and an accumulation of trouble. 

 Earl William, the last of the Jacobite Seaforths, was in 

 some respects, the most unfortunate. He succeeded to the 

 Earldom at a period when it required an older and a more 

 level head than his, to manage his affairs judiciously. He 

 was the prey of flatterers, and the tool of those who used 

 him for ulterior purposes. Had there been only himself to 

 consider, the results of his rashness would have been less 

 serious. But his people were involved in the disastrous 

 outcome of his Jacobitism ; and it says much for the spirit 

 of Highland clanship, that they stood by him faithfully, 

 although he was responsible for their troubles. It is diffi- 

 cult to discover in the clan feuds, or the various Stuart 

 risings, the operation of the patriarchism which, we must 

 believe, originally formed the basis of the clan system. It 

 was present in theory, no doubt ; but the spirit of genuine 

 patriarchism, the desire to act in the best interests of the 

 clan, as the animating motive of its head, was conspicuous 

 by its absence. Personal advantage or personal quarrels 

 swayed the least worthy of the Highland chiefs ; altruistic 

 loyalty to a dynasty governed the noblest of them. But a 

 conception of duty, which implied the subordination equally 

 of personal ambition for themselves, and unselfish loyalty 

 to the Stuarts, to the happiness and prosperity of the clans 

 whose welfare was a sacred trust committed to their charge, 

 does not appear to have presented itself even to the best of 

 them. Yet, in at least one instance that of the gallant 



