there is no shadow of excuse or palliation. It is useless to urge, that he wished to inspire terror by the severity of punishment; for he must have known that the Gael would do the bidding of his chief, even in the face of death; or if he did not know this, he was partly an idiot, instead of an entire brute. If he had selected some of the principal conspirators as examples, few would have blamed him; but since even they were gallant gentlemen, acting from the most honourable though mistaken motives, how great a name he might have gained, by interceding with the sovereign even for these. Victory never wins so much honour and homage from the hearts of men, as when Mercy follows in her train. I can forgive Napoleon for his indifference respecting human life; for he never tossed it to the winds, but to advance some scheme of ambition. man, on the contrary, seems to have made himself a butcher without a motive. But I a more agreeable subject. This pass to About a mile to the south-east of Culloden, on the bank of the River Nairn, lies the plain of Clava. It is a perfect flat, surrounded on all sides by moderate hills, rising rather abruptly from its level. Part of it is cultivated, but the greater portion is heath; the whole strewn with cairns, Scandinavian circles, and stones of memorial. Its appearance from the heights above the Nairn, is singularly striking, and obliged me to exclaim at once "Lo! Thebes, or Memphis, and the sacred Nile!" Among all these curious remains, the attention is soon arrested by three great cairns surrounded by circles of stones. They very much resemble each other, but I shall describe the most perfect. The great conical heap of small stones is hemmed in at its base, by a circle of larger ones fixed in the ground. There is another circle, exterior and concentric to this, the stones of which are enormous; some vertical, and some procumbent. These are arranged at considerable intervals from each other, whereas the stones of the smaller circle touch each other. In the midst of the cairn there is a hollow chamber, the walls being formed of layers of loose stones, or slabs; and I believe, this was domed over originally, though the vaulted portion is now destroyed. To the chamber there is an access by a straight passage towards the south, or south-west. "Eighteen inches below the floor of the chamber, which I have described, were discovered two small earthen vessels, or urns, of the coarsest workman ship; but containing calcined bones." There can be no doubt, therefore, that these cairns were cemeteries, erected to contain the mortal remains, and preserve the memory, of kings or warriors. How singular that the notions of the barbarous Scandinavian should coincide so nearly with those of the polished Egyptian! Other cairns, however, exhibit no traces whatever of funeral rites; and were, perhaps, erected to commemorate some event, or to celebrate some games. Many of the edifices, once reared on this remarkable plain, must have been connected with the popular religion; and often, perhaps, has the blood of a human victim been poured out among them, to propitiate their great divinity, Thor. Towards the west, in the midst of these pagan structures, there is a mound of an oblong square form, called the Clachan, and supposed to be the remains of an early Christian church. What an interesting object! Here, then, the standard of the Cross was first unfurled, in the very midst of its enemies: the dark and cruel rites of heathen superstition were replaced by the pure and gentle doctrines of a holier religion, and the ministers of Christ succeeded to the priests of Thor. Before I dismiss this subject, let me mention a |