while the latter were all written down soon after composition, and most of them (except the very scandalous) written for the press, the Scottish were, in general, committed to memory, and long preserved by memory only. They owe their existence to tradition, in the strict sense of the word. Now Walter Scott has remarked, with very great truth, that Tradition, generally speaking, is a sort of perverted alchemy which converts gold into lead. All that is abstractedly poetical, all that is above the comprehension of the merest peasant, is apt to escape in frequent recitation; and the lacunæ thus created are filled up either by lines from other ditties, or from the mother wit of the reciter or singer. The injury, in either case, is obvious and irreparable.' The first stage of a popular ballad, preserved by memory, is therefore one of degeneracy. The second stage, which almost inevitably follows if the piece is worth preserving at all, is one of patching up, or rifaccimento,' when the clever restorer endeavours to reproduce what he may fancy its original beauties. And between the two processes, but little of the genuine is ultimately left. Mr. Robert Chambers, in one of his popular publications, lately endeavoured, with much ingenuity, to fix the authorship of several of the most classical among the reputed ancient ballads of Scotland-Sir Patrick Spens and Gil Morrice included-on Elizabeth, Lady Wardlaw of Pitcairn, who lived in the last century. We are not persuaded by the reasoning on which he grounds this particular conclusion: and still believe those poems to be substantially of very remote antiquity; but no cautious man will venture to affirm how far they may have been gradually tampered with, before they assumed their present shape. The Jacobite ballads, being much more modern, are not open to the same extent to this remark; but little real reliance can be placed on the absolute authenticity of each verse and expression. The text of such of these compositions as for want of a better phrase we must term authentic, must be taken, we suppose, to be that included in a fragmentary way in Johnson's Museum,' at the end of the last century. Add to these a few which appeared in earlier collections, and a very few subsequently edited and guaranteed by respectable authority, such as that of Walter Scott, and we have the whole corpus of these poetæ minores which can be relied on. The residue, and unfortunately it comprises many of the primest favourites,—is not only of unproved, but really very doubtful, authenticity. For the compilers to whose exertions we owe them, have been guilty in some instances not only of carelessness, but dishonesty. The foremost of these offenders was the Ettrick Shepherd, whose two volumes of Jacobite Relics' are to this day too commonly received for what they very falsely purport to be. They are, in truth, a jumble of ancient and modern, genuine and interpolated, or spurious, Whig and Tory, Scotch and English, put together not quite at random, but with an evident wilful pleasure in hoaxing the innocent reader. To a thorough appreciation of the qualities of the old ballads, Hogg joined a remarkable power of imitation, and real poetical genius of his own. And thus all was grist,' as Dr. Mackay observes, that came to the Shepherd's mill.' Sometimes he exulted (we are told) in his bold fabrications; as in the instance of Donald 'Macgillivray.' Dr. Mackay entitles this song by the Ettrick 'Shepherd: but dishonestly described by him as "a capital old 666 song, and very popular." Hogg afterwards avowed 'the fraud, and gloried in it.' Now, with this case as a test before us-and there are other cases which internal evidence shows to be quite equally gross-it is impossible not to suspect a vast deal of fraud, or at least of unauthorised piecing and restoration, which has remained undetected simply because no critic of the German type has hitherto dared to touch these hallowed relics too roughly. An instance or two will express our meaning. The only Jacobite ballad inserted by Mr. Wilkins in his volumes (as a specimen of the class) is that spirited rant entitled 'Queen Anne, or the Auld Gray Mare:' and most readers will agree that in point of raciness and humour, as well as metrical flow, it beats almost every English piece in the collection. But we know not (in the absence of all cited authority) from whence Mr. Wilkins has taken it. If from Hogg's Relics,' the authority is naught. Hogg simply styles it a song of the period,' without a syllable of farther authentication. Now we know such a certificate from him to be simply and absolutely worthless. And, capital as it is, it contains lines marked by that modern and Hoggish air which it is impossible for us to describe- we must ask our readers to judge for themselves. From internal evidence alone, our verdict would be against it. We suspect the Shepherd very grievously. To take an example of a different kind. Some of Hogg's relics are headed Translations from the Gaelic,'-a title suggestive in itself of mystification. Where these have not been marred by the ill taste of the translator,' says Dr. Mackay, 'in 'rendering them into the broken and imperfect jargon of a 'Highlander's first attempts to speak English, they are creditable to the passion of the Celtic muse.' We suspect the 'credit' is somewhat imaginary. We have no doubt that the particular instance the Doctor had in his mind, in this passage, was that exquisite piece of 'riddling rhyme,' of which the very words are music-Prince Charles and Flora Macdonald's Wel'come to Skye': 'Come along, come along, with your boatie and your song, And ye are bravely welcome to Skye again.' This the Shepherd in his Relics heads with said to be from 'the Gaelic.' And he then proceeds to print it in that conventional broken English which Highlanders are facetiously supposed to speak: a proceeding about as consequent as if some one were to translate, for the benefit of the French public, 'Rule Britannia' into that dialect of French which is put into the mouths of dramatic Englishmen on the minor Paris theatres. This is suspicious enough in itself. But, in addition, is it credible that a poem so entirely free from the stiffness of a translation, with such perfect simplicity of language, such a close similarity to the character of lowland song, is really a translation, or even an adaptation, from the rude and figurative Gaelic at all? And if not, can any one but Hogg have been the probable author? We are sorry for this result it is an illusion the less but we suspect the paternity to be pretty clearly deducible. We do not for a moment impute to Dr. Mackay any attempt or connivance at falsification. He is in general only over-scrupulous in his attempts to divaricate the true from the spurious. But in this and some other instances he has committed an oversight, or he has some reason, which we cannot perceive, for believing in the originality of these interesting compositions. We lay down Dr. Mackay's volume with the feeling of gratitude which is due to the author of a very pleasant as well as useful little compilation, bringing many of our old favourites before us in a more compact and manageable form, with less of unnecessary addition or omission than any former collection. But at the same time he has only strengthened our conviction that (if the subject be worth the trouble), the Jacobite poetry requires a good deal more of critical sifting before the genuine residuum is fairly obtained. ART. V.-1. Correspondence respecting the establishment of Telegraphic Communication in the Mediterranean and with India. Presented to the House of Commons by Command: 1858, 1859, 1860. 2. Report of Committee on Packet and Telegraphic Contracts: 1860. Ir may be asserted without exaggeration that the mechanical genius of this country has, within the last eighty years, brought about a series of discoveries and inventions, which have changed the whole face of society, altered the conditions of life, and powerfully affected the destiny of mankind. Other nations, our rivals in science, ingenuity and enterprise-profound as the Germans, skilful as the French, daring as the Americans-have in some degree shared in these discoveries, and have not been slow to adopt their results. But in almost every instance the first successful application may fairly be said to have been made in these islands. Let us briefly enumerate the familiar, but surprising, series of them. to man. To begin with Watt, it was his vigorous Scottish intellect which perfected the steam-engine, and gave a new motive force That power once discovered, and placed under regular control, its applications became innumerable. Every branch of textile manufactures felt the impulse the power loom and the spinning jenny began to clothe the world; colossal engines pumped out the deepest mines; even rural economy in Britain has since allied itself to steam; and a new era of locomotion commenced. The invention of the steam-boat is American, but one of its first successful applications was on the Clyde, and we may claim a large share in the most useful improvement yet made in marine engines by the introduction of the screwpropeller. Locomotion by land owes yet more to England. Macadam taught us, and through us all other civilised countries, the art of making a road, which simple as it now appears, is in truth a very modern invention: but before long the most perfect roads which had ever been constructed were superseded by iron tracks, along which the genius and perseverance of George Stephenson drove the first locomotive engine. Artificial light of the utmost brilliancy was conveyed in tubes through our cities and our dwellings, and there is now scarcely a capital in Europe which is not lit by the gasworks of an English company. To descend from these great works to minor contrivances, which, however, have enormously increased the aggregate VOL. CXIII. NO. CCXXIX. I of social convenience and human happiness, within a few years Macintosh has clothed our bodies in impermeable garments; Sir Rowland Hill has shown that an adhesive stamp and a uniform rate of postage incalculably augments the intercourse of mankind by letters; Dr. Simpson has accomplished the most blessed work of all, by the discovery and introduction of those anæsthetic agents which have the marvellous property of rendering man unconscious of pain; Mr. Fox Talbot must divide with M. Daguerre that pleasing art which perpetuates on paper the most delicate impressions of light; and Mr. Wheatstone has explained by an elegant application of the same device, the mystery of binocular vision. All these things are novelties of the most extraordinary kind. There is hardly an incident of our daily lives which would not have seemed altogether impossible or miraculous half a century back. Several of these discoveries may be ranked in importance with the three great inventions of the Middle Ages-the mariner's compass, gunpowder, and the printing press, which had hitherto stood almost alone in their momentous consequences to modern society. They have all suddenly sprung up to perfection amongst us-they are all in daily and familiar use. We could no longer exist without them. But the greatest and most incredible of these achievements we have designedly left to the last. It need hardly be added that we mean the Electric Telegraph, and more especially that portion of the science of telegraphy which is now employed to place in instantaneous transmarine communication the distant islands and continents of the globe. The history of this marvellous invention has more than once been published with great minuteness in other places, and we do not here propose to revert to it. But the truth is that although this instrument is the most extraordinary production of scientific ingenuity, it is by no means the most perfect. Much experiment is still required to ascertain the true physical conditions to which a coil of wire is subjected, when it is used to put a girdle round this planet; much contrivance is still required to provide against the strange and unknown phenomena which have been, or will be, discovered in these vast operations. The grand principle of communication by electricity is established; and as the discoverers, and first masters of that principle, the names of Wheatstone and of Morse will be transmitted to posterity among the names of the greatest benefactors of the human race. But beyond a certain point, which was speedily attained by the original inventors, the progress of the electric telegraph has been less rapid and satisfactory than is commonly supposed. Undertakings on a vast scale, in which large amounts of publie |