also of our King and country. If your Lordship deny us this reasonable demand, for my own part, I declare that neither I, nor any that I am concerned in, shall draw a sword on this important occasion, whatever construction may be put upon my conduct." In this appeal Lochiel was supported by the whole Council, but Dundee asked to be heard in reply, addressing them thus:"Gentlemen, as I am absolutely convinced, and have had repeated proofs of your zeal for the King's service, and of your affection to me, as his General and your friend, so I am fully sensible that my engaging personally this day may be of some loss if I shall chance to be killed; but I beg leave of you, however, to allow me to give one harvest-day to the King, my master, that I may have an opportunity of convincing the brave Clans that I can hazard my life in that service as freely as the meanest of them. Ye know their temper, gentlemen, and if they do not think that I have personal courage enough, they will not esteem me hereafter, nor obey my commands with cheerfulness. Allow me this single favour, and I promise, upon my honour, never again to risk my person while I have the honour of commanding you." Finding him so determined, the Council gave way, and at once broke up to prepare for immediate action.

(To be continued.)

THE ORIGIN OF THREE GAELIC PROVERBS.

THE origin of the many proverbs, of which the Gaelic language furnishes such a store, is often a most interesting and instructive study, affording, as it does, so many glimpses into the character and customs of the ancient Highlander. We venture to present the reader with three little stories which have been the foundations of the same number of Gaelic proverbs.

There lived in Islay a certain farmer, who, at one time, decided to remove to another dwelling. On the day before he intended to flit, he invited some of his neighbours to a farewell gathering. His house was small, and while the feast was proceeding, the guests suffered some inconvenience from overcrowding. Seeing this, their host told his son, a boy about ten years old, to take his meat away to a corner, so as to give the rest more In rather reluctantly obeying this order, the boy, acci

room.

dentally or intentionally, spilt a portion of his victuals upon the floor, and, being rebuked for his carelessness, he replied-“ Is iomadh ni a chailleas fear na h-imrich" (Many things are lost by him that removes.) The force of this observation, in his own circumstances, so struck the father that he resolved not to remove after all, and the boy's words have passed into a proverb, which is often applied to those about to make a flitting.

Another common saying is-" Thugadh gach fear eoin a cragaibh dha fein" (Let every man take birds from rocks for himself), and it is said to have originated as follows:-Two men went out one day to catch sea-birds. One of them passed a rope round his body, and the other dropped him down over the edge of the rocks where the birds nested. The man at the top held the rope, and the other crept along the ledges and caught the birds. When he had secured as many as he could carry, he shouted to his companion to pull him up. The other cried out, and asked what was to be his share of the birds. The reply came up in the words of the proverb. "Well, well," said he who held the rope, "let every one hold a rope for himself," and letting go his hold, his companion, with the birds, fell to the foot of the rocks, where he was instantaneously killed.

The well-known Alastair MacCholla Chiotaich, who fought under Montrose, is credited with being the first to utter the proverb-"'S truagh nach bu cheaird gu leir sibh an diúgh" (I wish you were all tinkers to-day.) At the battle of Auldearn, Macdonald was cut off from the rest of his men, and surrounded by a number of the enemy in a small sheep fold. It would have gone hard with him but for a poor tinker from Athole, named Stewart, who, seeing Macdonald's plight, rushed gallantly to his rescue, and used his broadsword to such effect that the enemy fled. Alastair thanked his preserver, asked him who he was, and where he came from. The poor man, ashamed to avow his occupation, replied that he was not worth asking about, nor, indeed, worthy of being called a man at all. Macdonald assured him that what he had done that day would make up for anything else, and after much pressing, Stewart told him his name and occupation; upon which Macdonald made the observation, which has been handed down to posterity in the words quoted.

H. R. M.

THE DISARMING ACT AND THE PROSCRIPTION OF THE HIGHLAND DRESS.

BY J. G. MACKAY.

I.

WE often hear the question asked, Why have the Highlanders discontinued to wear their own national dress? There are many Cockneys who even yet imagine that in Scotland the people still wear nothing but tartan, speak but a barbarous language which no one can understand, and eat only Scotch haggis, and drink whisky. When, therefore, they invest their brawny limbs in the costume of the clans, and start out to "do the Highlands," imagining themselves the prototype of Roderick Mhic Alpein Duibh, or some such Highland chief, and find themselves the only representatives of the typical Highlander, while every one around them has his limbs encased in the ordinary habiliments of the rest of the world, they think they have made a discovery that the whole thing is a delusion, the mendacious fabrication of some modern London Celt, anxious to get up the name of his country by palming his own fanciful invention on a credulous public as the garb of his race. The dress is, therefore, pronounced a fancy dress, and of modern invention. There are now even many Highlanders who know so little about it that they cannot name the various articles constituting the dress, while there are very few who know the tartan of their own clan, or the cause of the dress being discontinued.

To give an account of the Disarming Act and the proscription of the dress, it is necessary to go back to the time of the rebellion of 1715. The Highlanders played such a prominent part both in that and the previous struggle, and proved such powerful antagonists, that the Government found it necessary to devise some means of reducing them to order.

In 1718 an Act was passed "declaring it unlawful for any person or persons (except such as were therein described) to carry arms within the shires of Dumbarton, Stirling, Perth, Kincardine, Aberdeen, Inverness, Nairn, Cromarty, Argyll, Forfar, Banff, Sutherland, Caithness, Elgin, and Ross;" but that Act not being sufficient to accomplish the ends desired, it was further

enforced by an enactment made in the year 1726, "for the more effectual disarming of the Highlands, in that part of Great Britain called Scotland." This Act of 1726 was only intended to remain in force for seven years, "but the purpose being still unattained,” the Government came to the conclusion that more stringent means must be adopted. This impression turned out too true, when, on the landing of Prince Charlie, in 1745, many of the Highlanders again joined the Standard, and the country that was supposed to be completely stripped of its armour, was found bristling with steel, "frae Maiden Kirk tae John o' Groat's." The Highlanders did not see the force of giving up their muchloved weapons, which they expected to be of use to them again. All the serviceable arms were carefully secreted, and the old and useless given up, so that the second rebellion found them as well prepared as the first.

Most readers will be familiar with the history of that unfortunate but brilliant attempt made to reinstate Prince Charlie on the throne of his fathers. Several of the clans took up arms on his behalf, and after a short career of the most extraordinary successes, having penetrated to the very heart of England, they may be said to have shaken the British throne to its very foundations. When by some ill-advised policy they retreated to Scotland, then began their troubles; the good fortune which formerly smiled upon them now forscok them altogether, till on the disastrous field of Culloden their last ray of hope was extinguished for ever. It was now that the poor Highlanders began to realise the penalty they were to undergo for doing what they considered their duty. They were always supporters of the Stuart family, whom they considered to be of their own race, and their chivalrous spirit could not brook the idea of their being defrauded of their just rights. When, on the field of Culloden, the followers of Cumberland found victory on their side for the first time, their Commander gave them unlimited license to murder and pillage. Their feelings having been wrought up to the greatest fury, they determined to have revenge; having suffered defeat so often at the hands of the "half-naked savages," as they termed the Highlanders, now that fortune had turned in their favour, they were determined to appease their blood-thirsty appetites to the uttermost. "This fiendish conduct of the English soldiers," remarks Sir Walter Scott, formed such a contrast to the gentle

conduct of the Highlanders, as to remind him of the Latin proverb, "That the most cruel enemy was a coward who had obtained success." The Duke of Cumberland and his subordinates showed little discrimination in the choice of their victims, bringing their ruthless vengeance to bear on Chief and people alike. Guilty or not, it mattered little, if the unfortunate wretches bore sufficient evidence of Highland origin, or could not plead their own cause in English. But terrible as were these trials, and severe as were the persecutions they had to undergo, these alone would never have broken the independent spirit of the Gael. They were accustomed to war and all its consequences, its successes and reverses, so that Cumberland, with all his bloodhounds at his back, could not have succeeded in bringing them into entire subjection.

Parliament, however, set itself to design means by which to assimilate the Highlands with the rest of the country, and deprive the Highlanders of the power to combine against the Government. It was felt that such a measure must be resorted to as would make it impossible for a repetition of these offences ever to occur again, and certainly they could not have hit upon a more successful course than the one adopted. Under the system of clanship existing in the Highlands in these days, every man was trained to the use of warlike weapons; each clan lived a separate community by itself, bound together by the ties of clanship whose rights they were bound to support, "come weal, come woe." Chief and people being clad alike in their own distinctive tartan, they were able at a glance to know friend from foe, and act with all the advantages of military discipline. "It affords," says Dr Johnson, "a generous and manly pleasure to conceive a little nation gathering its fruits and tending its flocks with fearless confidence, though it is open on every side to invasion; where, in contempt of walls or trenches, every man sleeps securely, with his sword beside him; and where all, on the first approach of hostility, come together at the call to battle, as the summons to a festival show, committing their cattle to the care of those whom age or nature has disabled to engage the enemy with that competition for hazard and glory which operate in men that fight under the eye of those whose dislike or kindness they have always considered as the greatest evil or the greatest good."

The previous Act for disarming the Highlanders not having