I certainly did. But who but must admire the "Grand old ballad of Sir Patrick Spens"

The King sits in Dunfermline toune,
Drinkin' the bluid red weine,

"Oh, whaur will I get a guid sailor
To sail this schip o' mine."

Up and spak an eldern knicht,
Sat at the King's right knee,
"Sir Patrick Spens is the best sailor
That sails upon the sea.

The King has written a braid letter,
And signed it wi' his hand,
And sent it to Sir Patrick Spens,
Was walking on the sand.

The first line that Sir Patrick red

A loud lauch lauched he,

The next line that Sir Patrick red
The tear blinded his e'e.

"Oh, wha is this that dae this deid,
This ill deid done to me,

To send me oot this time of the year

To sail upon the sea.

"Mak' haste, mak' haste, my merry men all.

Our guid schip sails the morne.'

"Oh, say na sae, my master dear,

For I fear a deadly storm.

"Late, late yestreen I saw the new mune
Wi' the auld ane in her arms,

And I fear, I fear, my master dear,
That we will come to harme."

Oh laith, laith, were our Scots Nobles
To weit their cork-heiled shoon,
But long ere a' the play was played,
Their hats they swam aboone.

Oh, lang, lang may their ladies sit,
With their fans into their hand,
Or ere they see Sir Patrick Spens
Cam' sailing to the land.

Oh, lang, lang may the ladies stand
Wi' their gold kames in their hair,
Waiting for their ain dear lords,

For they'll see them never mair.

Have owre, have owre to Aberdour,

It's fifty fadom deep,

And their lies the gude Sir Patrick Spens,

Wi' the Scots lords at his feet.

"

Besides "Percy's Reliques," you should read Sir Walter Scott's "Minstrelsy of the Border," to get a complete conception of the beauty, pathos, and power of the old ballad, with the "Flowers of the Forest at its head, one of the most mournful and exquisitely beautiful of all ditties, which shall be sung and felt so long as Flodden Field has a niche in the memories of Scotland, when

The flowers of the forest were a' wede away.

Ere we leave ballad

poetry, we must be permitted another glance at the minstrel himself. He might be considered a cross between the bard or Seald of the ancient Scandinavian world and the actors and public singers

of modern times. To something of the high, and, as it was then held," the Divine inspiration of the Scald, he added something of the mimetic power of the actor, and something of the musical power of the singer. How delightful to follow the minstrel through the land like a breeze or river, at his own sweet will, with a harp (which is his passion, pride, and passport) in his hand, now entering a cottage at eventide, and drawing the simple as in a net around him, while he sings

Of old, unhappy, far off things,
And battles long ago,

and now admitted, like Scott's famous hero, into some lordly hall, and there surrounded by bright-eyed maidens of high birth, and stimulated by the twofold flattery of sugared lips and generous wine, pouring out his high wrought, enthusiastic, yet measured and well-modulated strains; now meeting some brother bard by the lonely mountain wayside, or in some rude hostelrie, and exchanging their experience and their songs; now soothing some dying Roderick Dhu, or singing his dirge after death

Sad was thy lot in mortal stage,

The captive thrush may brook the cage,
The prisoned eagle dies for rage;

Oh, woe for Alpine's honoured pire!

and now himself expiring, with the whole fire of the minstrel spirit mounting up to his eye, and with the Harp and the Cross meeting over his dying pillow as emblems of his joy on earth and of his hope in heaven.

Passing the large and lovely subject of the ballad, we find ourselves launched on a wide ocean of lyrical poetry-the poetry of the present, the past, and of the present age.

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Britain there were comparatively few first-rate lyrics, and yet there was some as good, or better, as any that have ever been produced since. Need I name Milton's "Hymn on the Nativity ?" And yet methinks Apollo might have desired to stay, have lingered to the last moment to hear execrations so sublime. Like a belated member of the sages who came from the East to the manger at Bethlehem, does he spread out his treasures, and they are richer than frankincense, sweeter than myrrh, and more precious than gold. From that holy ground he repulses the Pagan Deities,-

The oracles are dumb. No voice or hideous hum
Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving
Apollo from his shrine; can no man divine,
With hollow shriek, the steep of Delphos leaving.

No nightly trance or breathed spell

Inspires the pale-eyed priest from the prophetic cell;
He feels from Judah's land the dreadful Infant's hand;
The rays of Bethlehem blind his dusky eyne.

Inferior certainly to this, but in its own kind matchless, we have "Alexander's Feast," by Dryden, who declared after writing it that it was the best ode that had been written or ever would be written; and so far as amazing spirit, and rapid changes of mood are concerned, he is quite right. But it has not the stamp of the highest imagination on it. It rises like the clang of a multitude of barbaric horns and drums proclaiming the praises of some idol god-not like a flute sounding on a summer

evening over a lake with spirit-like note of melodious pathos, nor like the outrolling of a grand solemn piece of organ music. I find the true spirit of the Ode more fully in another piece of Dryden's, entitled "Ode to the Memory of Mrs Anne Kelligrew," the first stanza of which Dr Johnston has so warmly and justly praised :

Thou youngest virgin daughter of the skies,
Made in the last promotion of the blest,
Whose palms were plucked from Paradise,
Inspreading branches more sublimely rise
Rich with immortal green above the rest,
Whether adopted to some neighbouring star,
Thou rollest above as in thy wandering race,
On in procession, fixed and regular.
Movest with the heavens' majestic pace,
Whichever happy region is thy place,

Thou wilt have time enough for hymns divine,
Since Heaven's eternal year is thine;

Hear, then a mortal muse thy praise rehearse
In no ignoble verse.

But such as thine own voice did practice here,
When thy first fruits were given,

To make thyself a welcome inmate there,
While yet a young probationer,

And candidate for heaven.

(To be Continued.)

Correspondence.

THE HIGHLAND CROFT SYSTEM.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE CELTIC MAGAZINE.

SIR, I am much obliged to you for sending to me your article on the position and prospects of small crofters in the Highlands.

I have always opposed the delusion that an extension of the system of small crofts would be any remedy for the poverty and frequent distress which once prevailed over the greater part of the Highlands, and which still affects those portions of the country where that system has survived.

I understand your observations to apply not to crofts of a substantial size-say worth £20 of rent, and upwards-but to the very small possessions of four or five acres and less of arable land.

The question about the minimum amount of land which can support a family in comfort after payment of a moderate rent is, of course, a question not to be determined by any universal rule. All that I understand you to argue is that under the actual conditions of soil, of produce, and of markets which prevail in the West Highlands, small crofts can afford nothing but a miserable subsistence.

In this conclusion I entirely concur, and you will find it amply confirmed by the careful investigation and report made upon the causes and

extent of Highland destitution made by Sir John Macneill in the year 1851, when the effects of the potato failure called for that enquiry.

There is, in my opinion, no remedy for the poverty of a population increasing under this system, and accustomed to a very low standard of living, except the remedy of migration or emigration.

The State can never undertake the reclamation of "waste lands" where private enterprise will not do so. And when land is reclaimed it ought to be devoted, as it is now always devoted, to the establishment of more substantial farms, which the crofting population generally have not the means to stock and to cultivate.

I do not believe in any schemes for anticipating by short cuts results which can only be reached by time. The old crofting population will emigrate, or migrate when education and other influences make them see and feel the advantages of employing their labour elsewhere.

The reclamation of land is advancing rapidly under the operation of natural causes, wherever it will pay; and tenancies of various kinds and sizes are being, and will continue to be established. But there are large areas of the Highlands which nature indicates as pasture land and as fit for nothing else.

The gradual consolidation of very small crofts into possessions of a better size is a process which may be carried into effect with time and care, without the hardship involved in the removal of families who cling tenaciously to their traditional habits. I have pursued this method on my own estate with advantage, and I have many crofting tenants, who, I rejoice to believe, are comfortable and prosperous. By this method the most thrifty and industrious of the crofting population may and will become tenants of farms which, though small, are fit to take a permanent place in the agricultural system of the country.

I need not say that I look upon this as the most desirable of all consummations; for the crofting population of the Highlands, and the stock from which they came have personal qualities which must endear them to all who know them.-I am, Sir, your obedient Servant,

INVERARAY, October 4, 1877.

ARGYLL.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE CELTIC MAGAZINE.

DEAR SIR,-I have read your paper with interest and regret. I do not, however, find established in it that connection with the laws of the country and the practice of many of the owners of land which contributed important features in the case of Irish Land Tenures.-Your faithful Servant,

September 26, 1877.

W. E. GLADSTONE.

[It would be quite easy to establish this "connection," but the object of the paper on the "Poetry and Prose of a Highland Croft" was to show "the actual present state and position of the Highland crofter," and not its cause.-ED. C. M.]

C

TO THE EDITOR OF THE CELTIC MAGAZINE.

DEAR SIR,-I have perused your article on the state of the Highland crofter with great interest. You cannot expect that it will be received with unanimity, but every one will admit that the article places in a very marked way the question before the public. Merely to exist is hardly what the greatest enthusiast points to. The peasant population ought to be able to do more than earn a bare subsistence, and it seems clear they .cannot do so on small crofts solely. An extent of twenty acres seems a reasonable one, and below this size it may be a question whether a cottage, with garden and potato ground, is not the best position-the occupant in this case earning wages elsewhere.

The great mischief at present seems to have been, crowding poor people into townships near the sea, without giving them adequate land. To an able-bodied, enterprising man, who combines fishing and farming, there should be hardships and toil, but certainly no poverty. It is deplorable to hear of one man having great ranges of ground in the Western Isles and West Coast, and hundreds having next to nothing. Security of tenure-say thirty-one years for improving leases-is also indispensable. Positively, when we see huts wretched and dirty beyond description, and at once find fault with and condemn the unhappy occupants as alone to blame, it is forgotten that these occupants have no security or object in improving. At the same time, it must be admitted that the poor people themselves are undoubtedly very backward.

I must not enlarge, however, as the subject is a wide one, but content myself with thanking you for opening the question in so clear and practical a manner.-Yours faithfully,

THE BUGHT, 13th October 1877.

C. FRASER-MACKINTOSH.

Ar a meeting of electors in Inverness, on the 17th ult., the following question was put by A. Mackenzie of the Celtic Magazine to Mr FraserMackintosh, M.P. :-"Keeping in view that the Government graciously considered the reputed scarcity of crabs and lobsters, and of herrings and garvies, on our Highland coasts, of sufficient importance to justify them in granting two separate Royal Commissions of Inquiry-will you, in your place in Parliament next session, move that a similar Commission be granted to inquire into the present impoverished and wretched condition, and, in some places, the scarcity of men and women in the Highlands; the cause of this state of things; and the most effectual remedy for ameliorating the condition of the Highland crofters generally?"

Mr Fraser-Mackintosh, in reply, said that a Member of Parliament had a certain power, and only a certain power. Now, the question which was here raised was a very large one, and he did not think that he would have slightest chance of getting such a Commission as was referred to, unless the Government were prepared for the demand beforehand, and unless the request was strengthened by a general expression of feeling in its favour throughout the country. If Mr Mackenzie, who had written an able article on the subject which had attracted great attention, and others with him, could by petition, or by deputation to the Prime Minister, pave the way for a motion, he would be very glad to make it. His moving in the matter without adequate support would hamper and hurt the laudable object Mr Mackenzie had at heart.