P. G. WILSON, JEWELLER TO THE QUEEN, INVERNESS, Has a large and beautiful Stock of JEWELLERY, in the Fashionable and most desired Patterns; and which have been patronised by many distinguished persons of taste. SILVER AND ELECTRO-PLATE in a great variety of patterns, suitable for Presentation, and including all the Articles required for Table use. P. G. WILSON'S WATCHES are of the best and most improved construction, carefully finished, and guaranteed first-class Time-Keepers. CLOCKS AND TIME-PIECES in great variety, suitable for the Drawing-room, also for Dining-room, Hall, Office, Lobby, &c. The Largest Stock in the North of Scotland to choose from, The Repairing of Watches, Clocks, and Jewellery receives careful and prompt attention, while the charges are as moderate as any in the trade. Orders by Post receive most careful attention. MACDOUGALL'S ན་་ Our deliveries of New and Special Fabrics for the present Season are now to hand. Our Large Stock, and Improved Facilities, enable us to submit greater Choice and better Value than Minor Establishments, or Large Associations, and we have great confidence in respectfully soliciting the honour of a visit. MACDOUGALL & CO., Manufacturers of Tartans and Tweeds to Her Majesty and the Royal Family, THE ROYAL CLAN TARTAN WAREHOUSE, INVERNESS AND LONDON. ALEXANDER SIMPSON (LATE INNES & CO.), Tea Dealer, Family Grocer, & Italian "THE GROCERY," 13 HIGH STREET, INVERNESS. Business Established in 1767. Agent for the Edinburgh Life Assurance Co. and the Phoenix Fire Assurance Co. MACDONALD BROTHERS, FLESHERS, 12 UNION STREET, Beg to inform their Customers and the Public generally that they have made extensive purchases of CATTLE and SHEEP for the Summer and Autumn Trade, and they are in a position to execute any orders entrusted to them on very short notice. SHOOTING LODGES and Country rders punctually attended to. The Best Meat only kept. manufactured into GOODS for own use by sending it to ROBERT HOUSTON & SONS, 28 WEST BLACKHALL STREET AND ROCKBANK MILLS, GREENOCK, EACH CUSTOMER'S LOT IS KEPT SEPARATE, Un less he instructs otherwise. Fixed lengths not guaranteed; but average yield from 24 lbs, clean scoured Cheviot Woul exceeds 21 yards Strong Tweed, or 28 yaris "Homespun or Summer Tweed. REDUCED CHARGES on Tweed Pieces, 35 yards and upwards, 28 inches wide and Broad Blankets 18 yards and upwards. Write for Patterns and Prices. New Season's Designs. Carriage of Wool per Goods Conveyance payable by R. H. & S. FOR SALE. Scotch Cheviot Tweeds, Blankets, etc., our own manufacture; any length cut. Author of "The History of Civilisation in Scotland." RECENTLY we had occasion to notice in the Celtic Magazine, the third volume of the History of Civilisation in Scotland, by Mr John Mackintosh, Aberdeen, when we accorded "the highest praise to its excellence as a work of industry, great research, and unmistakeable genius." Reviewing the preceding volume of the same work, the British Quarterly Review declares that the author "has the fitness for the task which comes from a readiness to appreciate the profounder, intellectual, and moral influences. We accept his work with satisfaction, as a careful and praiseworthy attempt to elucidate a deeply interesting historical problem." The Inverness Courier truly declares that "the work throughout bears the impress of an acute and discriminating mind;" while the People's Journal states that "the style in which the second volume is written is clear and concise, with occasionally a force and intensity almost poetic, as if the author had warmed to his work in proportion as the human interest in it augmented." These are but a few specimens from a great many other favourable opinions of the invaluable work which John Mackintosh has now nearly finished; for his fourth and last volume is already far advanced towards completion. A few particulars of the life and antecedents of such a man must prove interesting to the reader, especially so, when his humble origin and heroic struggles to improve his mind under almost insuperable difficulties and adverse circumstances, become known. Of these early difficulties we are given a slight glance in the Preface to the third volume of the work. We are there told that the subject of it had occupied the mind of the author for a period of twenty-three years, during the whole of which he was employed at various other employments to enable him to earn a livelihood. The final form which the work assumed did not at first present itself to his mind, and only afterwards arose out of other inquiries in which he became engaged and deeply interested. Notwithstanding the great diffi- ! culty he had at first in procuring books and the necessary original material and documents for such a work, he soon succeeded in laying a good foundation, preparing himself, "by a course of philosophic study, embracing metaphysics, psychology, logic, ethics, and politics, carefully reading hundreds of books on these matters, both ancient and modern." His aim thoughout has been, he informs us, to ascertain the essentials of everything that had contributed to the development and to the progress of the nation, and with this object, he says "I have considered nothing to be irrelevant which seems to have had any influence upon the civilisation of the people. Merely to generalise or state results without inquiring into facts and circumstances is altogether alien to my conception and method, as I believe that in the present state of historical knowledge, such a method would be comparatively worthless." The result is an invaluable work, so far, on a subject which has hitherto received scarcely any attention, but which is of intense interest to the student of Scottish History. It is, therefore, but natural that the reader would like to know a little more about the author-this splendid specimen of Scottish pluck and perseverance in the pursuit of knowledge, and, better still, one who, when he had mastered the great subject for himself, has had the courage to place the result of his researches and studies at the disposal of his countrymen in the handsome volumes already in the hands of the public. It is gratifying to state that this courage, and faith in his countrymen, have been so far very fairly rewarded, and that however little he may benefit as yet financially by his researches and labours, the patronage already bestowed upon him has more than covered the cost of printing and publication. H 1 No better or more interesting subject than the Life of John Mackintosh could be taken up by Mr Smiles, the fascinating biographer of other self-made men, like our present subject. And here we may be permitted to state, for the first time, that it was the perusal of his splendid book, Self Help, that first roused, in the present writer, the desire and ambition, even the hope and possibility, of ever being able to write anything. Until that great master of biographies takes the subject of these remarks in hand, the following particulars may prove interesting to his Highland countrymen. The author of the History of Civilisation in Scotland was born in November 1833, in the Parish of Botriphnie, in Banffshire. His father, William Mackintosh, served his country for fourteen years in the British army, during the greater part of which he was on active service. He was present at the battles of Vimiera, Corunna, Salamanca, and Vittoria, and was three times woundedonce in the shoulder; on the second occasion he had his leg broken below the knee, and on the third he had one of his thumbs carried away. Shortly after the battle of Vittoria he retired from the army with a pension, and for the remainder of his life he occupied a croft on the estate of Drummuir, in which he was succeeded on his death, in 1856, by his son, John's eldest brother. Mackintosh, having received a fairly good English education, as things went in those days, for one of his age, was sent out to farm work when only ten years old, and he remained in this occupation for the next seven years, with the exception of three winters, during which he attended school. He was then, at the age of seventeen, apprenticed to the shoemaking trade, at which he continued to work for the next fourteen years, in various places, throughout the Counties of Banff, Aberdeen, and Kincardine. During this latter period he read much, speaking on and discussing many subjects, not only at meetings of Literary and other Societies, but with his companions in the various work-shops in which he worked from week to week; and by this means first acquired a pretty wide and ready command of good and forcible language. The leading part which he at this time took in Mutual Improvement and Debating Societies, first directed his thoughts into literary channels; and even thus early, he introduced and read papers at meetings of these Societies, on such subjects as |