The Macleods.

“IV. DESCENDANTS OF FERgus Leith Dearg.

I The Campbells.

"V. DESCENDANTS OF KRYCUL.

The Macnicols.

"In the following notices of the Highland clans we shall take the various great tribes into which the Highlanders were originally divided, and which are identic with the old earldoms, in their order; and after giving a sketch of the history and fall of their ancient chiefs or earls, we shall proceed, under the head of each tribe, to the different clans which formed a part of that tribe, and then for the first time appeared in iudependence."

These extracts furnish, we fear, what will be considered dry studies for the generality of readers, though the historical importance of the field, and the ability with which Mr. Skene has conducted his researches into it, cannot be questioned. Having, however, said as much of his system, and cited as many passages from his details as will enable every one to form an opinion concerning the work, sufficiently definite for the purposes which either antiquarian or ordinary students of history have in contemplation, when turning to a review for information respecting the current literature of the day, we shall hasten to a close.

Mr. Skene all along argues that the Highlanders generally, and the Highland Clans in particular, have descended from one Gaelic nation, who have inhabited the same country from time immemorial; and that the only exceptions consist of certain families to whom a long residence in the country has conferred them the name of Highlanders, but who are not of Gaelic origin. These, however, he says are not numerous; and since the sketch given of them in an Appendix to the Second Volume is but short, whereas the history previously entered into of the several ancient clans is long, without affording convenient extracts, we shall confine our concluding quotation to the exceptions to the regular and ancient clanship.

"There are perhaps few countries into which the introduction of strangers is received with less favour than in the Highlands of Scotland. So strongly were the Highlanders themselves imbued with an hereditary repugnance to the settlement of foreigners among them, that assisted as that prejudice was by the almost impenetrable nature of their country, such an occurrence must originally have been nearly impossible, and at all times exceedingly difficult. In this respect, however, the extinction of the ancient earls or maormors produced some change. Norman and Saxon barons, by the operation of the principles of feudal succession, acquired a nominal possession of the great Highland districts, and were prepared to seize every favourable opportunity to convert that nominal possession to an actual occupation of the country; and although their influence was not great enough to enable them materially to affect the population of the interior of their respective districts, yet, under their protection, many of the foreign

families might obtain a footing in those parts which more immediately bordered on the Lowlands, It is accordingly the eastern and southern boundary of the Highlands which would naturally become exposed to the encroachment of the Lowlanders and their barons, and in which we might expect to find clans which are not of pure Gaelic origin. The first of these clans is that of the

STEWARTS.

"In the present state of our information regarding the Stewarts, the question of their origin seems to have been at length set at rest, and until the discovery of new documents shall unsettle this decision, their seems no reason to doubt that they are a branch of the Norman family of Fitzallan. The proofs which have been brought forward in support of this conclusion are too demonstrative to be overcome by the authority of tradition alone, however ancient that tradition may be, and until some important additional information be discovered, we must look upon the fabled descent of the Stewarts from the thanes of Lochaber, and consequently their native origin, as altogether visionary.

"The whole of the Scottish Stewarts can be traced to Renfrewshire as their first seat, but still, in consequence of the great extent of territory acquired by this family all over Scotland, a considerable number of them penetrated into the Highlands, and the amount of the Highland families of the name became in time considerable. Those families of the name who are found established in the Highlands in later times are derived from three sources, the Stewarts of Lorn, Athol, and Balquidder.

The Stewarts of Lorn, are descended from a natural son of John Stewart, the last lord of Lorn, who, by the assistance of the Maclarins, a clan to whom his mother belonged, retained forcible possession of a part of his father's estates; and of this family are the Stewarts of Appen, Invernahayle, Fasnacloich, &c. Besides the descendants of the natural son of the last lord of Lorn, the family of the Stewart of Grandtully in Atholl is also descended from this family, deriving their origin from Alexander Stewart, fourth son of John, lord of Lorn.

"The Stewarts of Atholl consist almost entirely of the descendants of the natural children of Alexander Stewart, commonly called the Wolfe of Badenoch:' of these the principal family was that of Stewart of Garth, descended from James Stewart, one of the Wolfe of Badenoch's natural sons, who obtained a footing in Atholl by marrying the daughter and heiress of Menzies of Fothergill, or Fortingall, and from this family almost all the other Atholl Stewarts proceed.

The Balquidder Stewarts are entirely composed of the illegitimate branches of the Albany family. The principal families were those of Ardvorlich, Glenbucky, and others."

The family of Menzies, of Fraser, and of Chisholm, complete the number of clans which our author can establish with any degree of certainty to have a foreign origin, If his distribution and division be correct, the Highlands assuredly furnish a theme of an extraordinary character, since they must thus be held to exhibit an almost Chinese exclusiveness and hatred of strangers. But however much antiquarianism and clanship may lament that modern innovation

has now completely broken through these prejudices and ancient bounds, the reflecting and enlightened reader will hold the encroachment as the sure forerunner of civilization.

ART. VI.-Letters to The Right Honourable Lord Brougham and Vaur: presenting Rambling Details of a Tour through France, Switzerland, and Italy; with some Remarks on Home Politics. By SIR ARTHUR BROOKE FAULKNER. Author of "A Visit to Germany and the Low Countries," 99 66 Rambling Notes on Paris," &c. &c. London: Macrone. 1837.

SIR A. B. Faulkner is just the sort of man to go over ground that has been trodden by thousands of tourists and scribblers before him; for even his Rambles through France, Switzerland, and Italy will be read with interest; because, while he communicates much that is old and known to everybody, with a degree of liveliness and pungency that amuses or startles, so as to avoid fatiguing the reader, he is so excursive, well-informed, and original, as to instruct and convey some things that are new. The chief objection that will be found with these Letters will arise from the politics that are so often introduced, and the spirit with which the author's opinions are tinged. He is a decided Liberal-a radical on various subjects, and whenever, in the course of his Rambling Details concerning the Continental Powers, he finds occasion to notice the despotism of princes, the craft of the priesthood, the ignorance or degradation of the people, he is apt to come home, and point his finger significantly to some kindred abuse which he supposes to exist in our own favoured land-the satire and the indignant reflections in which he deals, sometimes betraying more of an ardent temperament than a courteous discretion. These opinions and this manner will mar the delight which his admirable notices concerning literature and the arts would otherwise afford; and still more excite a degree of suspicion as regards the fidelity of the pictures which he draws of foreign society; for many may be disposed to think that he has sacrificed truth sometimes for the sake of an effect that may buttress his general creed. It will be difficult, however, to deny him even here the praise of uniformly presenting animated and striking sketches, and still more to withhold from him the honour which is due to a sound moralist, and an able as well as zealous teacher of public virtue, founded on the most enlightened religious views. The opinions he entertains, and the information he details connected with one great theme for individual and national consideration, cannot but be acceptable to every well-regulated mind-we mean that of education; and were it for no other agreement of principles advocated in these pages, this single instance would be sufficient to authorize and

point out the propriety of addressing the whole of his Letters to the noble and learned Lord whose name graces the title-page.

The author is a great admirer of Lord Brougham, and in his first Letter thus gives some of his reasons for selecting his Lordship as the particular recipient of his notices and views :

"But you will already have asked yourself, why I single out your lordship for the present infliction? You will naturally suppose it is to give eclat to my book; for assuredly your name is worth a score of Bentley's best puffs: but if a man ought ever to be believed in his own case, such an idea never entered my head. Do I look for your favour, or the reversion or promise of some snug pension or sinecure? It is rather late in the day to ogle men in high stations for such matters, But, thank God, there is no favour which you or any man could bestow on me that I would waste this drop of ink to solicit; and your friendship, I flatter myself I have no need to require. But still the question recurs, why do I pitch upon you? My answer is simply, Because you are just my man; the very fittest of all men in the country to whom a writer who would express his horror of bad government, could possibly address himself; for where is the statesman who has given, for so long a series of uninterrupted years such consistent and substantial proof of his detestation of the oppressor as you have done-no matter in what sphere the villain may have moved -with what authority or highsounding titles the illustrious scoundrel has been clothed. The nature of several of my topics, such as popular education, the abuses of public institutions, law, &c., has also suggested, the propriety of dedicating my labours to you. And to whom are we more indebted for popular education than to yourself; the reform of the law, the purification of public establishments; to whom more beholden for the relief of the poor, the protection of industry, ay, or the Reform Bill itself?"

The cast of his politics, and some of the services which he expects at the hands of the late Whig Chancellor, may be seen from the following rancorous counsel-Lord Lyndhurst being the contemplated victim :

"My good lord, I have never, you know, asked you a great many favours; but I have one now to implore. Spare not this lawyer-you know he deserves no quarter. Let loose upon him the torrent of your withering sarcasm concentrate the whole force of your electric argument to tear to shreds the web of his insulting sophistries-lay the whole knots of your cat into his quivering flesh, as unsparingly as Castlereagh laid it on the poor Irish; in with it to the quick, you never had such game. But beware-bruise not his head; he is doing, as you know, incalculably more good than his extinction could possibly effect. Above all things reccollect what an invaluable agitator he is to the Catholic Association. All I want you to do is simply to make raw his flesh, so as to rouse some crowning act that will hasten on the lingering consummation of the good cause. The world expects it of you. In the foul stable of our oligarchy he is by far the most offensive thing that needs your broom."

Having now indicated what constitutes the staple and the style

of the present volume, and quoted passages which sufficiently exhibit the author's political bias, we proceed to accompany him to various parts in those lands which he visited in the course of his Rambles, and to note soine of the particulars which he has detailed.

It has been already said that Sir A. B. Faulkner is just the sort of man who should travel into countries which have been wearifully threaded and described by other tourists, most of whom have been men of smaller calibre; and this not merely because of his previous accomplishments and his original capacity, but of a taste for prying into matters, and making the most of them, which, to many witnesses, offer no attractions. We know of no country, of no province in our own, of no family, even though most familiarly acquainted with it, which some travellers and pencillers could not fail of rendering the theme of rich, lively, and novel, yet truthful, colouring. Without, however, attempting to specify how much the present writer is able to perform of this exquisite and rarely executed work, we are prepared to repeat that he is not of that class who take everything on hearsay, or as seen at a glimpse of the outside; otherwise he might, like many travellers, have been hoaxed by the ignorance of the interlocutor who is alluded to in the Prefatory Letter, and who is thus noticed :-" Passing through the village of Genlis, I inquired of an inhabitant for the chateau of the authoress of that name, which I heard was in the neighbourhood, and he pointed to a house at my elbow. 'What!' I said, and is that the chateau of the lady si renommée par ses écrits ?'-' Oui, oui, monsieur.'Are you quite sure?'-Oui, oui; sans doute. Ella a écrit beaucoup; ella est la maîtresse de la poste et elle écrit toujours ;"Genlis being actually the name of the post-mistress, whose house by a less pertinacious inquisitor might have been immortalized as having belonged to one of the world's great lights.

Our author's reminiscences on his road to Paris are few; for the reader is to remark, that his Ramblings occupy but one very moderately-sized volume, although, he says, that he had nearly let off at Lord Brougham's head two loaded octavo tomes. Had he fulfilled his first intention, we are sure he would not have cumbered our table; for, besides his peculiar capacity for the office he has here undertaken, his opportunities for observation have been superior and far more abundant than usually fall to the lot of travellers who skim it at a steamer's rate. At Paris, for instance, we find him describing a Polish prince to whom he had been introduced, whose history, we have no doubt, would surpass in point of interest any fairy fiction of the day, and which affords some arguments regarding the clemency of Nicholas that darken sadly the roseate colours with which we have sometimes seen the despot decked of late. The Prince