Highlands and Islands of Scotland, with a view of devising means for its amelioration.' Mr Wm. Mackay moved, as an amendment, That in the meantime, and until further information is gathered as to the condition of the crofters, and until the Society is prepared to indicate what steps, if any, ought to be taken, the Society do not petition Parliament.' A vote having been taken, the Chairman, Mr Mackay of Benreay, declared Mr Mackenzie's motion carried by a large majority." This, the first petition on the subject, was duly presented to Parliament by Mr Fraser-Mackintosh, and from that day until the prayer of the petition was granted, he did everything in his power to obtain it. All this time petitions were being sent in from all parts of the Highlands in support of a Royal Commission to inquire into the state of the crofters. A large public meeting was held in Inverness, in December 1880, in favour of the movement, when Mr Fraser-Mackintosh occupied the chair, and made a telling speech in support of such an inquiry. Both in 1881 and 1882 he gave notices of motion on the subject in the House of Commons, but failed to secure a suitable opportunity of formally moving them. He, however, constantly persevered, publicly and privately, to gain the object he had laid out for himself. He tried, in the House of Commons, to obtain trial by jury. for the Braes crofters charged with deforcing the Sheriffofficers sent to remove them; and, failing in this, he, with Dr Cameron and five other Scottish members of Parliament, on the 9th of May 1882, addressed a powerful protest to the Times newspaper, against the conduct of the Crown authorities, in which it is declared that “many persons, who sympathise with the men, and desire that their case shall be fairly heard, openly accuse the Executive of resorting to unworthy means to obtain a conviction," and concluding by saying that the refusal of a trial by jury, "in this particular case, on grounds of public policy, seems particularly regretable, and we beg publicly to protest against it." In that act, it may be said, without the slightest fear of successful contradiction, that he had the full sympathy and approval of the whole people, outside landlord and official circles. On the 22nd of February 1883, Mr Fraser-Mackintosh got up a memorial to the Home Secretary, in which, referring to what had recently occurred in the Isle of Skye, it is urged "that, under existing circumstances, it is most important that a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the condition of the crofter and rural population of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland should be granted by the Government without delay." This memorial was signed by twenty-one Scottish Members, Mr Fraser-Mackintosh being the only Highland representative whose name was adhibited, though all the others had an opportunity to sign it. It was sent to the Home Office on the following day, accompanied by a long letter urging, for reasons stated, that a Commission should be granted at once. This expression of opinion had the desired effect, and intimation was given that a Royal Commission would be immediately granted. Mr Fraser-Mackintosh was, as a matter of course, a member of it; and the manner in which he justified that position by his subsequent action, in the interest of the Highland people, is so fresh in the memory of all, that anything like detailed reference here is quite unneccessary. No one knows better than the present writer the great anxiety and difficulty of Mr Fraser-Mackintosh's position, and the endless trouble and inconvenience to which he was put to enable him to get at the facts, from witnesses, most of whom were afraid to tell what they knew; but the time has not yet arrived for stating these difficulties in detail. This much, however, may and ought to be said, (1) that to him credit is largely due for securing that the stories of the Crofters themselves were so fully brought out, and presented in their simplicity to the Commission; (2) that the effect of hostile questions was generally neutralised by reexamination; and (3) that the carefully prepared rebutting statements of factors and other estate officials, who generally managed to secure the great advantage of having the last word, were, then and there, inquired into, and had their general one-sidedness and inaccuracy exposed. If no other immediate good should come of the Commission, and of Mr Fraser-Mackintosh's labours, than the mere placing of the evidence taken before the world, the author of it will have made for himself a name in the history of the country, and will, more than ever, deserve his well-carned titles of "The Member for the Highlands," and The Crofter's Friend. In July 1876 he married Eveline May, only child of Richard D. Holland, of Brooklands, Surrey, and of Kilvean, Inverness, by his late wife, Helen, daughter of John Macgregor, for many years resident in Charter House Square, London. A. M. CELTIC MYTHOLOGY. BY ALEXANDER MACBAIN, M.A., F.S.A. SCOT. XII. WELSH AND GAELIC ELYSIUM. It possessed kings, THE Welsh Hades was known as Annwn. chiefs, and commons, somewhat like those of this world, only vastly superior" the comeliest and best equipped people ever seen." Pwyll, Prince of Dyved (South-west Wales), while one day out hunting, lost his companions in his eager pursuit of a stag. Hearing a cry of hounds near him, he approached, and saw the stag brought down by other dogs than his own. "Then he looked at the colour of the dogs, staying not to look at the stag, and of all the hounds that he had seen in the world, he had never seen any that were like unto these. For their hair was of a brilliant shining white, and their ears were red; and as the whiteness of their bodies shone, so did the redness of their ears glisten." He drove them from the stag, and set on it his own dogs. Immediately there came upon him a man dressed all in grey and mounted on a grey horse, and he reviled Pwyll for his discourtesy in turning off his hounds. Pwyll offered to make reparation, and his offer was accepted. The stranger said that he was Arawn, King of one-half of Annwn, and he was at war with Havgan, the other King. Pwyll, if he liked, could overthrow Havgan, who was to come exactly a year thereafter against Arawn. Would Pwyll change places with him and meet Havgan? He would give him his own personal appearance, and assume Pwyll's, and they could govern each other's kingdoms for a year. This was agreed on. Pywll took the form of Arawn, and came to Annwn. He never saw anything like the beauty of Arawn's city and the appointments of his court, “which of all the courts on earth was the best supplied with food and drink, and vessels of gold and royal jewels." Suffice it to say that he ruled well during the year, and at the end of it slew Havgan, "at the ford," in single combat, and thus made Arawn undisputed master of Hades. Arawn had, meanwhile, conducted the kingdom of Dyved as it never had been before; his wisdom and justice were unsurpassable. And these two kings made an eternal bond of friendship with each other, and Pywll was called "Chief of Annwn" henceforward. The dogs of Annwn, mentioned in the above tale, are a common feature in mythology. Ossian, on his way to Tir-nan-og, saw a hornless fawn bounding nimbly along the wave-crests pursued by a white hound with red ears. The Wild Huntsman and his dogs of Teutonic myth belong to the same category; and these dogs of Annwn were similarly said to rush through the air, and evil was the omen. These are, undoubtedly, the wind-dogs of Hermes, the conductor of souls; the Wild Huntsman is none other than Odin, sweeping up the souls of the dead in his path. Annwn, or the Lower Regions, possess, in the myth, the same characteristics as this world; only things are on a grander scale there altogether. The other reference of importance to this Earthly Other-world is in the story of Arthur. Dying on the battle-field of Camlan, he is carried away to heal of his wounds to "the vale of Avilion," which Tennyson, catching the true idea of the Welsh mythic paradise, describes thus: Arthur, dying, speaks to Bedivere; "I am going a long way To the island-valley of Avilion ; Where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow, And bowery hollows crowned with summer sea." And here Arthur still lives on, destined one day to appear and set free his Cambrians from the hateful yoke of the Saxon. The myths in Ireland bearing on the existence of a happy western land are very numerous and important. The names given to this land vary, but they have a general reference to happiness, all save the name, Tir-fa-tonn, the "Under-wave Land." The names generally met with are Tir Tairngire, “Land of Promise"; Mag Mell, "Plains of Happiness"; Tir-nam-beo, "Land of the Living"; Tir-nan-og, "Land of the Young"; and O'Breasail," Breasal's Isle." Whether there is any distinction implied in these names cannot well be said. There would seem to be something of a difference between the Under-wave Land and the Plains of Happiness; the latter may have rather been the abode of the gods, where Manannan lived with Fann his wife, as the myths have it. Tir-fa-tonn looks rather like the Gaelic Hades, the abode of the dead. The Gaelic version of Diarmat's sojourn there gives strong colour to such a supposition, and the early Middle Age legends in regard to St Patrick's Purgatory below Lough Dearg the precursors of Dante and Milton's descriptions-lend great countenance to such a distinction between Tir-fa-tonn and Mag Mell. The myths may be grouped in three divisions. There are, first, the myths where a mortal is summoned, in an enchanting song, by a fairy being who has fallen in love with the mortal, to a land of beauty and happiness and ever-youthful life; second, there are myths which tell how a hero has, Ulysses-like, paid a business visit to the other world; and, thirdly, the accounts of many voyages of discovery in search of the Happy Isles, and the "Traveller's Tales" of the wonders seen. To the first class belong three very remarkable Irish myths: the Courtship of Etain, the Story of Condla Cam, and Ossian in Tir-nan-og The outline of the story is as follows:-There suddenly appears before a kingly company a fairy being who chants, for some particular person in the company loved by the fairy, a song descriptive of the glories and pleasures of the Land of the Everyoung. The person so addressed cannot choose but love the fairy, and go to the wonderful land. In Ossian's case alone have we got an account of the career of the enchanted one in Tir-nanog. Niam of the Golden Hair suddenly presents herself before the Feni, tells her love for Ossian, and says: "I place you under obligations which no true heroes break through-to come with me on my white steed to Tir-nan-og, the most delightful and renowned country under the sun. Jewels and gold there are in abundance, and honey and wine; the trees bear fruit and blossoms and green leaves all the year round. Feasting and music and harmless pastimes are there each day. You will get a hundred swords, and robes of richest loom; a hundred steeds, and hounds of keenest scent; numberless herds, and sheep with fleeces of gold; a hundred maidens merry and young, sweeter of mouth than the music of birds; a hundred suits of armour, and a sword, gold handled, that never missed a stroke. Decline shall not come on you, nor death, nor decay. These, and much more that passeth all mention, shall be yours, and myself as your wife!" Needless is it to recount how an went, the wonders he T |