7714# 
tong marked the fubfequent jintercourfe 
between the Colgubouns and Mac Gregors, 
of whom many are refpegted and favoured 
by the family of Lufs. Whether indeed 
the Scottifh parliament, which profcribed 
the Mac. Gregors was, in the words of 
your correfpondent, ‘* a Pack of Kuawes,” 
ov not; I think a parliament, which not 
long afterwards could countenance or even 
connive at the acceptance of a bribe by its 
army, for delivering into the hands of his 
enemies their fovereion, who had taken 
refuge among? thert, highly merits that 
appellation. Be that as it may, the 
aflertion of your SA, relative to 
the fubfequent profcription of that people, 
on account, as he fays, of freth depreda- 
tions in the beginning of the reign of 
William IIT. is a fiction. —This act of 
king William was made to preferve to two 
or three great families their hereditable 
jurifditions, which were afterwards wifely 
abolifhed for the comfort and eafe of the 
fubjects, as well as the fafety of the ftate. 
—There had been a previous law to compel 
all chieftains to give fecurity againft the 
depredations of their followers. This act 
of William III. extended that obligation, 
on them, to the °* confervation oe the 
peace,” without the imputation of any 
new fault, which would have been blazoned, 
with exaggerations, inthe act, if there hid 
‘been ground for it; and without even the 
tifle of the aét mentioning any clan what- 
ever, a claufe was flipped into it reviving 
the act of :the parliament of Charles I. 
againft the Mac Gregors ‘* notwithfand-. 
ins the fame had been refeinded by 
Charles II.” There was not, perhaps, 
a member in the parltament of king Wil- 
liam, who had been in that of 1641-—not 
a fyltabl € was mentioned jin the reviving” 
aé&, of the fevere nature of the aé re- 
vived :—-hence it is probable that the la- 
titude of that obfolete a&, which had 
pafled fixty years before, was unknown to 
a generality of the members; and that 
he-operation it might have, was only un- 
ced flood by the individ uals through whole 
interefted influence it was introduced. 
Phi is 18, at leaft, the moft refpectful and 
liberal mode of thinking, regarding that 
parliament. -I am aware, however, it 
may be faid, with plaufibil ity, that a par- 
Hea oe allowed the perpetrators of 
the maflacre of the Mac Donald to efcape 
punifhment, would feel little compunc- 
tion in conniving at\the renewal’ of the 
unmerited futferings of the Mac Gregors— 
Oi unmerited they certainly were, unle{s 
weed it was their crime that Charles TI. 
iad dene that loyal people the juftice to 
a 
~ 
Defence of the Clan Mac Gregor. 
f November, 
record his teftimony of their ‘* affe€tion”? 
for the royal caufe—and_unlefs it was fill 
a greater crime that they had not been.fo 
verfatile and interefted in their attachments, 
as to prefer a Dutch prince to their natural 
fovereign. 
Profeffor Rofs’s account of the battle 
of Glenfroon is in perfect accord with the 
traditions full current im- the Highlands, 
and will: remain to every unprejudiced 
mind a complete and Jatistatiory vindica- 
tion of the Mac Gregors, and a monumien-_ 
tal proof of the injuftice dene to them. 
It was brought forward through the re- 
fearches a one of feveral of the beft anti- 
quaries of the time, who gave generous 
and {pontaneous aid in collecting docu- 
ments of the hiftory of that people, whofe 
‘defcent, as wellas that of the Grants, and 
feveral other tribes, from the Alpinian 
dynafty, is as well known and believed as 
that the royal Stuarts have left anumerous 
and flourifhing progeny.—But, fays your 
correfpondent with an attempt at irony, 
and an iteational error in chronology, 
‘© What was king William to prefefior 
Rofs?’ as. if he hoped that his wlng the 
name of a-king would controvert faéts and 
annihilate truth.—-The {pirit of bis query, 
no doubt, is, that king William hed Co 
gifted with a fight more penetrating th 
any the Highlanders pretend to, for es 
only forefee events that are to come; but 
your friend implies (and who can therefore 
difbelieve ?) that king William knew what 
had happened in Glenfreom halfa century 
before he was born, and near a whole cen-., 
tury before he tock the trouble to come 
from Holland to eafe his father-in-law of 
the cares of government, much better than, 
did profeffor Rofs, although the tranfac~ 
tion happened almoft before his eyes. 
The mal-treatment of the Mac Gregors 
is fully and gener ay imprefled t hrough out 
the Hichlands— but as they were certainly 
THOre hat dy and brave than politic, F fhall 
fuppofe that they had been extremely te 
blame—yet FE cannot reconcile to common 
fenfe any end of juftice that could refult 
from the abolition of the name of any 
people. Onthe contrary, to a perfon of my ~ 
limited difcernment, it is obvious that ir- 
regularities, and breaches of the peace, 
would be more eafily detected whilft they 
preferved their real, than after they fhould 
be concealed under various borrowed 
names. If therefore it is evident that 
this tended to impede inftead of promoting: 
public juftice,.and the difcevery of erimes$ 
to what other caufe is the meafure to be 
aferibed ? To a plain and true ene—that 
by this mode of promifcuous profcription, 
infteag 
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