In this engagement Highlanders, scarce a man of whom had ever been engaged, excepting at Prestonpans and Clifton, proved successful over the finest and most experienced troops in the service of Great Britain. It is true, the success was not so complete as it might have been had the Highland leaders been aware of the full extent of the advantages they had gained (owing to the great tactical powers of their soldiers), and of the opportunities they had to follow them up. When one part of the Government forces were flying in complete rout and disorder, an officer in the Highland army, named John Roy Stewart, who had served abroad, stopped the pursuit of his men, remarking that his adversaries had behaved admirably at Fontenoy, and that he was confident the Government forces meant to draw them into an ambuscade. It would indeed have been well for the cause of Prince Charles if he had had no such scientific and experienced officer in his service.

It must also be acknowledged that a portion of both armies being stationed on the opposite sides of a ravine, the fire of the regular forces proved superior and forced the Highlanders to retreat-there being no attempt made on either side to try the conclusions of cold steel.

At Falkirk, however, a charge of the Government cavalry was attempted by order of General Hawley, who had been major of Evan's dragoons at the Battle of Sheriffmuir, and, judging from his experience on that occasion, said that the Highlanders were good militia, but that they would not stand the attack of horse.

He forgot, however, that at Sheriffmuir the morass by which the left wing of the Highlanders was protected was rendered passable for horse owing to the frost of the previous night; but at Falkirk the ground was so deep as completely to prevent cavalry from acting with proper velocity, and in these circumstances the Highlanders met them upon equal terms; indeed their broadswords, targets, and dirks gave them great advantages, and one Highland soldier afterwards described the slaughter of the Government cavalry as being as easy as slicing bacon, or baacon, as he grimly emphasized it.

There is, however, no similar instance in modern warfare of bayoneteers having so dealt with cavalry as the Highlanders did at Falkirk-all that has ever been effected by the bayonet having been the simple repulse of horse.

It is here impossible to avoid mentioning the melancholy fate which befel an officer of the Macdonald clan, in connection with the fearful power of the claymore, and also to hand down to posterity an account of the brutal conduct of the English General, Huske.

The unfortunate gentleman having got separated from his men, advanced in the dark to a small party of soldiers whom he mistook for Jacobites, and called upon them to advance with him and follow up the success already gained; on perceiving, however, that they were Government forces, he endeavoured to elude observation by passing himself off as a Campbell, and as his cockade was much soiled with smoke and dirt he had nearly succeeded, but his claymore, which was covered with blood and hair, betrayed him, and General Huske gave orders "to shoot the dog instantly,

and a party of musketeers immediately presented their pieces at Macdonald's breast, but Lord Robert Ker generously interposed, and beating down the arms, saved his life.

General Huske refused to receive Macdonald's arms, and they were accepted by Lord Robert. When pulling his pistol from his belt, previously to surrendering his arms, Huske became alarmed, and exclaimed with an oath that the dog was going to shoot him, but Macdonald indignantly observed that he was more of a gentleman than to do any such thing, and that he was only pulling out his pistol to deliver it up.

More brutal and ungentlemanlike conduct by a general officer to a prisoner has scarcely ever been described in history, The unfortunate gentleman was ultimately executed as a rebel, but for this, however, no one can blame the Government, as he fell to take his chance with all others seized in open insurrection.

Looking to the results of the engagement, there can, however, be no doubt but that the victory of the Highlanders might have been more decided had they succeeded in defeating the Government forces stationed on the east side of the ravine-indeed, the destruction of the Government army would in that case have been almost complete.

As it was, however, the consternation produced by the victory of the Highlanders was excessive; the excuse that the royalists who fought at Prestonpans were raw troops (however unfounded in itself) could now no longer be urged, for at Falkirk, the men who were defeated were the veterans who had served in the foreign campaigns and fought the battles of Dettingen and Fontenoy.

Indeed it is narrated that when the news reached London, which it did when one evening his Majesty was receiving company, dismay was depicted in the faces of every one present excepting two-the first was his Majesty, who, whatever may be alleged of him in other respects, was a man of iron nerves and undaunted resolution, and the second, Sir John Cope, who was naturally not sorry to see that his successor was served with the same sauce as himself.

It is, however, stated with great plausibility by many writers that had Prince Charles advanced from Falkirk to London, his chances of success would have been much greater than had he advanced from Derby to the same place.

The Highland army was, after the Battle of Falkirk, moie numerous than it had been at Derby; the adherents of the Government, as well as the Government forces, were dismayed by the defeat which the elite of their troops had sustained, and the English Jacobites would have had as much reason to confide in the prowess of the Highlanders as if they had previously reached London, and so would probably have supported them in great force.

As Charles and his advisers did not, however, attempt the second advance to London, it is needless to speculate further upon the subject, and nothing now remains but the discussion of the facts relating to the final catastrophe of Culloden.

In commenting on these facts it is, however, necessary to advert to

two very remarkable manifestoes which were enunciated first by General Hawley, and second by the Duke of Cumberland, as to the tactical powers of the Highland soldiers, and, thirdly, to an observation made by Lord George Murray in his Memoirs upon the same subject.

After the Battle of Falkirk, General Hawley, having requested an interview with the civil officers of the Crown, is said to have upbraided them with not having given the Government in England proper information as to the military qualities of the Highlanders, having represented them as an undisciplined rabble, and that had the Government been aware of their true military character, they would have sent down such a numerous force as would have crushed the insurrection in the bud, and he stated in contradiction to the idea of the undisciplined character of the Highlanders, that he had never seen troops form more rapidly and precisely than they did at the Battle of Falkirk; and this reasoning of the General's seems to have met with the approbation of some historians.

It is, however, totally absurd to imagine that the civil officers of the Crown should have been expected to have been better acquainted with the military efficiency of the Highlanders than the officers in command of the forces in Scotland; all that the civil functionaries could be expected to do was to repeat the lesson they learned from the military, viz., that the Highlanders were an undisciplined rabble, and without bayonets.

General Hawley had seen the Highlanders fight at Sheriffmuir, and, as already mentioned, said they were good militia, but that they could not withstand cavalry, so that his harangue against the civil officials is quite a self-contradiction, and as he saw the Highlanders form at Sheriffmuir, he could not be ignorant of the manner in which they did so; and General Wightman, his brother officer, described this formation as having been executed in a manner which he never saw executed by any regular troops.

The General's harangue can therefore be regarded as nothing else than an unmeaning and ungenerous explosion of rage and mortification, and the only fault of the Government officials was that apparently they did not tell him so, plainly, to his face.

J. M. W. S.

A HISTORY OF THE CLAN MACKENZIE.-A history of this Clan, from the earliest times down to the present, by the Editor, founded mainly on old MSS. in the possession of the writer, will be commenced in the November number-the first of Vol. III.-of the Celtic Magazine, and continued throughout the whole year. The early history of the Clan will be examined, and the Irish-Fitzgerald-origin discarded in favour of an ancient native Gaelic descent from the Old Earls of Ross. The various Chiefs of Kintail and Seaforth, from Kenneth, the ancestor and founder of the family, down to "the last of the Seaforths," will be treated in the order of their succession, after which the various branches, beginning with the oldest Cadet -Mackenzie of Gairloch-will be taken in their order of seniority.

To any right-minded Highlander nothing is more deplorable, in rambling over the country, than the constant recurrence of remains of houses, townships, and once tilled lands long run to waste.

We have had some experience of Inverness-shire in this respect, and had heard of the like in Perthshire.

Having last year, for the first time, seen Loch Katrine and the Trossachs, the pleasure of seeing this world-renowned scenery was quite marred by observing, from the steamer's deck, the frequent appearance of old cultivations. Now, there is hardly a house on either side of the lake, and having in view some objectionable proceedings in Badenoch, we resolved to write this paper.

If the question is now asked, Why did these depopulations take place the probabilities are that the answer would be, To make room for deer and game. There is, however, in this reply but a grain of truth, for the real, main, and paramount object was to make room for sheep.

There is upwards of a century since the introduction of sheep into the Highlands, and before rapacious Lowland sheep farmers the people disappeared as surely as the Red Indians from the advance of the Whites. The sheep farmer could not help himself-the greater his bounds the greater his profits, for, save rents, costs do not rise in proportion. Many proprietors were needy and embarrassed. Their rents, numerous and small, were irregularly paid, and temptation came in the form of an increased rent and certain payment. The change was chiefly brought about by Lowlanders, but many Highland tacksmen, whose names are known to us, in the districts of Lochaber and Badenoch, also took up the nefarious business, meeting their certain reward according to the Gaelic saying, that the "Highlander who expatriated his fellow man and possessed his holding would, in his own person, or that of his immediate descendants, become bankrupt or, if prosperous, insane." The law further took the sheep farmer under its special protection, and the stealing of sheep was punished by death. The great advance in agriculture in the Highlands, and increase in the area of cultivation, owe nothing to sheep farming, unless it be that more green crop is raised on low lying lands.

Forty years ago deer forests were commenced, and, while in some cases they have been the cause of a certain shifting of population, yet it may be safely said there are more people employed about forests, and better paid, than on hill farms.

There is a deal of old cultivated land within the present Glenmore forest in Abernethy, but the removal of the considerable population—a primitive race, around whom floated many interesting traditions-was effected when the place became a sheep walk, and long before it became

a forest. Well authenticated cases of depopulation should be published, as it is only in this way true conclusions are arrived at; and it is very much because the Aberarder case is authentic, and created a sensation in its day, that it is now made public. Although this paper chiefly concerns Aberarder in Badenoch a century ago, it would be improper not to refer to an event that occurred also in Badenoch in the year 1876. What, it may be asked, caused the clearance of Glen Banchor, in the parish of Kingussie? It is, indeed, difficult to conceive what prompted so cruel, so mean, so unpaying a step.

In former times Glen Banchor, Glen Balloch, Tullichiero, and Dalnashalg, all forming one great strath whose waters run into the Calder, contained a considerable population. The two former glens now belong to the heir of entail of James Macpherson, translator of Ossian. Many good, honest Highlanders were born and lived there who spent their days in a simple manner. Mirth and song had here a home, and the marvellous stories told of Murdoch Macpherson, wadsetter of the Davoch of Clune, known as Murchadh a' Chluain, who flourished in the early half of last century, would of themselves fill a volume.

The depopulation since the death of James Macpherson has been carried on steadily. In 1875 the Kennedys were removed, and in 1876 the four remaining tenants, with their haill followers and dependents, were removed, in order to make room for the summering of one farmer on the banks of Spey. No increase of rent has, it is understood, been given. It is to the credit of the Inverness correspondent of the Aberdeen Free Press newspaper that he drew attention to these nimious proceedings. His communication, which appeared on the 6th of April 1876, is well worthy of perusal.

We must now leave this painful story, which appears to have only one redeeming feature, viz., that the new tenant, when he came to consider his position, was most desirous, as is commonly reported, to renounce his offer, and leave the old tenants in peace. That tongue which had but to speak the word, and this would have been agreed to, was then silent, though it has since found mystic utterance in an impossible religious book.

The lands of Aberarder are pleasantly situated on the west bank of Loch Laggan, and were at a very early period granted to the Bishopric of Moray. About the time of the Reformation they were alienated to Grant of Freuchie. The Grants, in 1696, feued the lands to Archibald Macdonald, in Achnacoichen of Brae Lochaber, and from time immemorial the people were Roman Catholics, as the Crathy people in Laggan, and the Glen-Roy and Glen-Spean men in Brae-Lochaber, continue to this day. The lands belonging to the Bishop of Moray were called the Davoch of Laggan-Kenneth, the church of Laggan being dedicated to St Kenneth, and were divided into four ploughs, whereof the three wester ploughs were sold by Archibald Macdonald's representatives to the family of Mackintosh. Lachlan Mackintosh of Mackintosh agreed, in 1726, to dispose of these in form of wadset, under certain conditions and burdens, to Macpherson of Cluny; but the old wadsetters and possessors seem not to have been in anywise disturbed. After the forfeiture of the estate of Cluny,