EWAN, appearing from the smithy with a grimy
face which he forthwith begins to wash in the
burn, says: —"And what may the men of age be at
now?"
Calum, laughing—"For sure it seems to
me we are just banning the Marquis."
Ewan,
knowing well how to touch the sore—"The papers
of news much praise the Ouke Catach and the
Marquis. They are both Liberal Reformers. And
the Marquis is also an elder and a Non-Intrusionist."
Duncan Ran—"Air m' anam it must be the black
mockery that a man should, in the Parliament
house and public places, call himself a Liberal
Reformer and what not, and that, pretending to
speak up for the rights of the people, he should
be to the people committed to his own charge
what the wolf is to the fold !"
Calum—"It
seems to me that those who speak so often about
the rights of the 'people' mean by 'people' the
cantankerous Dissenters, and what is worse, the
blackguards of towns."
Duncan Ban—"Was
there a voice raised by the Whig letters of news
or by his own ministers of the Kirk excepting
the one Black Moderate, to expose this false
Liberal and unworthy elder, who loves to grind
the faces of the poor, and to banish hundreds
upon hundreds of better people than himself from
their native hills, and what had been the homes
of their forefathers from the youth of the world?"
Diarmad—"The base falsehood of the
letters of news, and the betraying spirit of
ministers under the rule of these noisy Non-Intrusionists
form indeed the black cloud which is rising and
spreading fast over the whole land. I think the
Marquis has the patronage of ten or twelve
churches, and to these churches Non-Intrusionists
are on every vacancy exclusively appointed by
the Liberal patron, contrary to his father's
better custom. Now, when at the beginning of his
evictions he put out twenty-six reeks in one
barony and ten in another all in one day, how
many of the twelve stood up and rebuked the
manifest oppressor in the name of the Great Head
of the Church to whom he and they professed
fealty and obedience? They were, except the
Black Moderator and honest Donald Mackenzie,
dumb dogs without a bark or bite. And the
Liberal letters of news kept always flattering
and praising the wealthy go-ahead Reformer! This
was not the case outside Cataobh when the dead
Duke and Duchess Catach were doing their
clearing work. The Kirk then had a voice, and it
was sounded in deep indignation over all the
land. It stirred Highlands and Lowlands, and
forced the oppressors t;o make some atonement by
building fishing villages for those who did not
follow Lord Selkirk to the wilds of America, but
preferred at all cost to cling to the skirts of
their native land. In outward seeming the Kirk
is now much stronger than she ever was, and in
the belief of the majority she is so holy as to
be almost above humanity ; but she has in the
Highlands no uniting living soul, and no
protecting and rebuking voice. All that has been
sacrified to bitter strife and arrogant priestly
demands. Heavy is the
fear upon me that these noisy Non-Intrusionists
who have done great harm already, are now
driving the Kirk upon a rock of the raging sea.
And if the Kirk be driven on that rock and go to
pieces, Alba will then no longer possess a
proper national voice, and the last shadow of
independence must quickly disappear. So, what is
yet to come may be much worse than anything
which has already come to pass."
Ewan—"But
have my ears not heard thee say that there was
some excuse for the Marquis?"
Diarmad—"No
doubt. Thy ears being good long ones could not
mislead thee. There was this excuse for the
Marquis that on some parts of his large estates
the people had become too thickly placed, just
through the mistaken kindness of his noble
father, who made ' rooms' out of the old
well-planned farms for all men who had served in
his three Fencible Regiments. The want of coals
in the Highlands and the vapour mills of the
south were also, before he succeeded his father,
putting an end to the earnings of the women by
spinning wool and flax. And it was an uncertain
way of earning rent, year by year, to send the
young men forth to make or mend roads, and to
cut the ciops of the bodaich Ghallda."
Duncan
Ban—"It is the wig of tow thou hast put at last
on what should have been a sound discourse.
Don't try to find excuses for the Marquis. How
can it be said the crowded places were becoming
unmanageable when he had a big desert about his
castle, which, as we know, was once a populous
and fertile parish. But if he thought the people
too thick, and had no wish to restore to the use
of men the desert about his castle and the
deserts made for sheep, why did he not do like
the noble Douglas, Lord Selkirk, to whom the
Gael are the more everlastingly obliged because
they had no claim upon him at all, although
their fathers and his grand ancestor fought
shoulder to shoulder for Scotland's independence
long ago. Why, I ask, did not the Marquis like a
noble chief lead
forth the surplus people to new homes himself?
Would that not be more to his credit here and
hereafter, than to treat them just like vermin,
all entirely forgetting that every bit of
parchment title to his big estates which he now
uses for oppression, had been made good by the
swords of the oppressed people's ancestors, for
him and his ! He could have bought cheaply or
got for nothing any quantity of wood-lands in
Canada, or grass-lands in that other new
country—what is it called?"
Calum—"You mean
Australia."
Duncan Ban—"Yes, that is it. And
if he bought or got wild lands and settled a
swarm from his estates on them, he might well
hope for the blessing of God and the praise of
man ; and gratefully too would the swarm so
planted out by him pay him back the cost with
full interest. But choosing to be a little great
man among strangers who care nothing for him,
and to spend his time and money in London giving
himself the name of a Liberal, he oppresses his
own people at home, kith and clan included; and
so the tears of grey-bearded men, bidding
farewell to the beloved hills of their race, and
the low wails of broken hearts, will assuredly
fall heavy upon him here and hereafter as the
curse and doom of Almighty God."
Iain Og—"Nay, nay, hold, hold. Take a pinch out of my
Sunday horn and compose yourself."
Ewan—"The
Marquis did not look ashamed of himself or a
doomed man the other day when he walked among
the crowds on the green, or stood in front of
his armed men. He looked as proud as an eagle
with face to the sun. And although not very tall
he is a fine man too in the Highland garb and
arms. For sure he looks the great chief whatever
you may say."
Duncan Ban—"He looks the great
chief! That I know quite well. He is not a
stranger to my eyes. I feel all the more angry
with him because he has thrown away his
opportunities. He is, I know full well, a man of
whom the Gael would have been very proud had he
chosen to be a great
chief among them, instead of what he is. And
where can the shadow of an excuse be found for
him? His father —peace to his soul, and peace
his soul must surely enjoy— was a great chief,
and wished his only son to be the same. He did
not send the lad—and a finer lad could not be
seen —to the great school of Oxford to be turned
into a Saxon foreigner, but to the great school
of Glasgow, where he got the training of a
Scotchman. The old Marquis at his death not only
left him his large estates free from debt, but
much saved money besides. His income is more
than any man can justly spend on his own living
and pleasure. He is childless too, and therefore
has nobody to save money for. What then is there
to prevent him from being the noble and generous
chief, except perversity of nature and this
cursed Liberalism which has taught him to speak
for the people in public places, and to oppress
his own people at home?"
Calum—"Perhaps he
will repent and change even yet."Duncan Ban—"
Repent and change, quoth he ! It would be the
good news if he did. But the fear is on me that
an elder of the Kirk, and a Non-Intrusionist to
boot, is far beyond any chance of repentance,
more especially since he is praised abroad, and
lives in a desert when at home. No, no,
Reformers of his kind are people who never
reform themselves. And the children of the Gael
have no papers of news, and no 'Comhairle cinne.'
They make their lamentation in empty places
that have no echoes. The very Kirk, which used
to be a bield, is now beginning to betray them
most basely."
Diarmad—"Yes, for sure; but
although the Non-Intrusion uproar is far from
good, and is indeed likely to lead to great
evil, because it is rank rebellion against
existing law and kingdom-rule, yet it is much to
be wished that patronage should be done away
with by Act of Parliament, in proper manner, and
that congregations should be allowed to choose
their ministers."
Iain Og—"They would at
least have not the same reason to be dumb and to
fawn upon patrons."
Duncan Ban—"You and I, Calum, remember old Moderate ministers who,
without screaming always about the unction of
Grace and ridiculous godliness or pretending to
be too holy to see the ground on which they
trod, never feared to raise their voices on
behalf of the oppressed, and never failed to
rebuke the patron like any other man, when he
deserved the censure of the Kirk."
Calum—"For sure; and a good many of the nobles and
lairds who were Kirkmen at first went over to
the Eaglais Easbuigeach, because they would not
stand the discipline."
Duncan Ban—"Be that
as it may, the gospellers we have now torment
small sinners and flatter big ones like the
Liberal Non-Intrusion Marquis, who is deemed a
prince in their Israel. Can we believe the
troubling spirit in the Kirk to be from the Good
God when we see the worst oppressor in the land
placed high in seats of honour by those who
order the doings of General Assembly and London
Parliament?"
One of the Seanairean—"The
Whigs and the Marquis are now, at anyrate, out
of power in London ; and I am glad they are."
Duncan Ban—"So am I, and yet it is only a few
years since we all voted, against the will of
our own laird, to get the Marquis sent to
Parliament instead of the fine old Tory warrior
who was our member before. And why did we vote
for the heir of Inchadin?"
Iain Og—"Why, to
be sure, because he was a Gael and the son of
his father."
Duncan Ban—"Aye; it was not
reform here or reform there, but because we
hoped he would be a great chief of the Gael like
his father, whenever he succeeded to the noble
inheritance of his House."
Iain Og—"It is
the deceived men we were all entirely."
Calum—"And much good has reform done to the children of
the Gael."
Duncan
Ban—"Good, indeed! It has done us endless harm,
of which as yet we only see the beginning. These
praised-up Reformers are the very people who are
the first to make deserts; to place sheep on
ruined homes; to send barda to clansmen and
kith and kin ; to muzzle their ministers; to
cause their creatures to be appointed elders;
and to fill Kirk and State as full of
contentions and confusions as if Conan and the
Devil were together let loose upon mankind."
One of the Seanairean—"Will the Ridire Peel,
think you, set matters right?"
Duncan Han—"Pooh ! he will have neither the power nor the
will. He is a Saxon, and what does he know or
care for the Highlands or Scotland either!"
Iain Og—"But our members should make him know
and care."
Diarmad—"Most of them are of the
other party. Lord Brougham, who knows Scotland
well, but is given to mischief, has misled the
English Whigs, and the young man called
Gladstone has misled the English Tories. The Ridire Peel's Edinburgh advisers are, if
possible, worse advisers than even Lord Brougham
or the renegade Scotchman, Mr Gladstone, who
hopes the ruin of our Church will make the
Episcopal Church supreme—which is the vainest of
vain dreams."
Duncan Ban—"Our Reformers, who
are reforming the Gael off the face of their
fathers' land, have the law on their side, and
Lowland carles and Saxon sportsmen see no harm
in what provides big sheep runs for the one, and
game deserts for the other. So the evil example
set by the dead Duke and Duchess Catach and the
living Marquis will be imitated by others. It
will pass from land-master to land-master, as
the bird from bush to bush, or the yawn from
person to person."
Ian Og—"Oh! prophet of
evil, may your words never be fulfilled!"
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