530 
CLANS. 
or game debts, or tavern bills, and evaded payment of every other ; 
who swore immoderately, and before ladies, and talked of his word 
of honour; who ridiculed religion and morality as folly and hypocrisy, 
but without argument ; who was very jolly at the table of his friend, 
and would lose no opportuniy of seducing his wife, or daughter, if 
she was handsome ; but, on such a thing being attempted on his own 
connexions, would have cut the throat, or blown out the brains, of 
his dearest companion ; who was forward in all the fashionable follies 
of the times ; who disregarded the welfare of society, or the good 
of mankind, if they interfered with his own vicious pursuits and 
pleasures. 
Clans. 
This term in history, and particularly in that of Scotland, means 
a tribe of people of the same race, and often of the same name. The 
nations which overran Europe were originally divided into many 
iribes, and when they came to parcel out the lands which they had 
conquered, it was natural for every chieftain to bestow^ a portion in 
the first place upon those of his own race or family. These all held 
their land of him, and as the safety of each individual depended on 
the general union, these small societies clung together, and w'ere 
distinguished by some common appellation, either patronymical or 
local, long before the introduction of surnames or ensigns armorial : 
but when these became common, the descendants and relations of 
every chieftain assumed the same name and arms with him ; other 
vassals were proud to imitate their example, and by degrees they were 
communicated to all who held of the same superior. Thus clanships 
were formed, and, in a generation or two, that consanguinity which 
was at first in a great measure imaginary, was believed to be real. 
An artificial union was converted into a natural one ; men w'illingly 
followed a leader, whom they regarded as the superior of their lands 
and the chief of their blood, and served him not only with the fidelity 
of vassals, but the affection of friends. In the other feudal kingdoms 
we may observe such unions as we have described, imperfectly formed, 
but in Scotland, whether they w^ere the production of chance, or the 
effect of policy, or strengthened by their preserving their genealogies 
both genuine and fabulous, clanships w'ere universal. Such a confe- 
deracy might be overcome, it could not be broken ; and no change of 
^manners or government has been able, in some parts of the kingdom, 
completely to dissolve associations which are founded upon preju- 
dices so natural to the human mind. How formidable were nobles at 
the head of followers, who, counting that cause just and honourable 
which their chief approved, were ever ready to take the field at his 
command, and to sacrifice their lives in defence of his person or his 
fame. Against such men, a king contended with great disadvantage;, 
and that cold service, which money purchases or authority extorts, 
was not an equal match for ardour and zeal. The foregoing obser- 
vations will receive considerable confirmation from what Sir John 
Dalryrnple remarks of the Highland clans in his Memoirs of Great 
Britain. “ The castle of the chieftain was a kind of pajace, to which 
