twenty years ago, is an admirable likeness; and fortunately-for the colours are already much faded-all its spirit is preserved in an excellent mezzo-tinto. At the request of his collegues in the university, who were anxious to have some memorial of him placed in the public library, he sat again, a few months before his death, to Mr. Raeburn; at a time when his altered and sickly aspect rendered the task of the artist peculiarly difficult. The picture, however, is not only worthy, in every respect, of Mr. Raeburn's high and deserved reputation, but, to those who were accustomed to see Dr. Robertson at this interesting period, derives an additional value from an air of languor and feebleness, which strongly marked his appearance during his long decline.

I should feel myself happy, if, in concluding this memoir, I could indulge the hope, that it may be the means of completing and finishing that picture which his writings exhibit of his mind. In attempting to delineate its characteristic features, I have certainly possessed one advantage;-that I had long an opportunity of knowing and studying the original; and that my portrait, such as it is, is correctly copied from my own impressions. I am sensible, at the same time, that much more might have been accomplished by a writer whose pursuits were more congenial than mine to Dr. Robertson's; nor would any thing have induced me to depart, so far as I have now done, from the ordinary course of my own studies, but my respect for the last wish of a much lamented friend, expressed at a moment when nothing remained for me but silent acquiescence.'

P. 204.

At the end is an Appendix, containing some letters of Dr, Robertson and his friends, particularly Hume and Gibbon; and some further illustrations of Dr. Robertson's conduct as the leader of an ecclesiastical party.

ART, III.-The History of the Rebellion in the Year 1745. By John Home, Esq. 4to. 11. 1s. Boards, Cadell and Davies.

1802.

THIS work has been in preparation for a long course of years; and is mentioned by Boswell, in his anecdotes of Dr. Johnson, as an historical production on the Sallustian plan. Having no such work in English literature, we began the perusal with great expectation, and with no small reverence for the talents of the author of Douglas, though we remembered no ancient example of a poet who had shone in history. Our expectations were probably too high, for they were not satis fied-especially with regard to the language, which we fre quently found mean and colloquial, instead of exhibiting the elevated dignity and rapid force of Sallust: yet, upon the whole, the work is very respectable; and seems particularly en

titled to the praise of great veracity and exactness, which are, after all, the chief requisites of history, considered in its main view-that of instruction.

This work is very properly dedicated to the King. The preface commences as follows.

History assumes various forms, and attains different degrees of excellence, from the importance of the subject, from those opportunities the author has had to know the truth, and from the manner. in which he relates the most interesting events of that period he hath chosen.

It is universally acknowledged, that the most complete instruction and entertainment are to be found in histories, written by those illustrious persons, who have transmitted to posterity an account of the great actions which they themselves performed.

Small is the number of such historians; and at this day Xenophon and Cæsar seem to stand unrivalled and alone. Instructed by them and other ancient authors, men of learning, in modern times, are made acquainted with the military art and civil policy of Greece and Rome. But in the year 1745, when the Highlanders took arms against government, the condition and manners of the Highlanders at home, in time of peace, with their arms, array, and alacrity in making war, were unknown in England, and the Low-country of Scotland, to a degree almost incredible. One author, Wishart, bishop of Edinburgh, (who had been the marquis of Montrose s chaplain, and an eye-witness of all his battles,) published a history of the wars of Montrose, who gained so many victories, with a body of men consisting almost entirely of Highlanders: but very few people in the Low-country of Scotland had read the bishop's History of Montrose; and when the rebel army was marching from the North to Edinburgh, though every body talked of nothing but the Highlanders, no mortal ever mentioned Wishart's name.' P. V.

These remarks seem to us rather irrelevant and unconnected. Mr. Home did not perform any great actions in this rebellion; and the character of the Highlanders had been sufficiently studied after the rebellion of 1715, which is very slightly noticed by the author. The subsequent reflexions on modern politics are alike unfortunate; and such posterior allusions, which are quite unknown to classical writers, never fail to disgrace a work of any consequence. This strange preface thus concludes.

Besides this account, given by Mr. Hume, of the behaviour of James at his accession, and of the disposition of his people at that time, there is a manuscript in lord Lonsdale's possession, written by one of his ancestors, John lord Lonsdale, who says expressly, that when James succeeded his brother Charles II, the current of public favour ran so strong for the court, that if the king had desired only to make himself absolute, he would not have met with much opposi

tion but James took the bull by the horns, and without the least regard to the laws, endeavoured to introduce popery, which his subjects abhorred.' P. viii.

We need not notice the elegant phrase of taking a bull by the borns. We wish, indeed, the entire preface had been omitted, as a most pitiful piece of composition.

The work itself is divided into eleven chapters, independently of an appendix of original papers, of which very few are interesting.

Our author opens his history with the following passage.

In the year one thousand seven hundred and forty-five, Charles Edward Stuart, the Pretender's eldest son, calling himself the Prince of Wales, landed with seven persons in a remote part of the Highlands of Scotland. A few days after his arrival, some Highlanders (not a very considerable number) joined him, and, descending from their mountains, undisciplined, and ill armed, without cavalry, without artillery, without one place of strength in their possession, attempted to dethrone the king, and subvert the government of Britain. The conclusion of this enterprise was such as most people both at home and abroad expected; but the progress of the rebels was what nobody expected; for they defeated more than once the king's troops; they over-ran one of the united kingdoms, and marched so far into the other, that the capital trembled at their approach; and, during the tide of fortune, which had its ebbs and flows, there werę moments when nothing seemed impossible; and, to say the truth, it was not easy to forecast, or imagine, any thing more unlikely than what had already happened.' P. I.

We need not point out to our readers the defects of these sentences—always colloquial, sometimes mean, and occasionally tautological. Yet the author did well to explain the word forecast-an expression alike antiquated and impure. He proceeds in the same chit-chat manner to mention that he bore arms upon this occasion, and was taken prisoner at Falkirk. then gives some account of the Highlands and the Highlanders; a part of which we shall transcribe, as affording a more favourable specimen.

He

• Scotland is divided into Highlands and Lowlands: these countries, whose inhabitants speak a different language, and wear a different garb, are not separated by friths or rivers, nor distinguished by northern and southern latitude: the same shire, the same parish, at this day, contains parts of both; so that a Highlander and Lowlander (each of them standing at the door of the cottage where he was born) hear their neighbours speak a language which they do not understand.

That the extent and limits of the country called the Highlands, (at the time of which I write,) may be seen at one glance, a map of Scotland is prefixed to this volume, where a winding line from Dun

barton upon the river Clyde, to Duninstra, upon the frith of Dornoch, separates the Highlands from the Lowlands.

This line, beginning at Dunbarton, goes on by Crief and Dunkeld to Blairgowrie in Perthshire, from which it runs directly north to the forest of Morven, in the heights of Aberdeenshire: at Morven it proceeds still northwards to Carron in Banffshire; from Carron it takes its course due west, by Tarnoway, in the shire of Murray, to the town of Nairne (in the small shire of that name); from Nairne, the line is continued by Inverness to Conton, a few miles to the west of Dingwall in Ross-shire: at Conton, it turns again to the north-east, and goes on to Duninstra, upon the south side of the frith of Dornoch, where the line of separation ends, for the country to the north of the frith of Dornoch (that runs up between Rossshire and Sutherland) is altogether Highland, except a narrow stripe of land, between the hills and the German Ocean, which washes the east coast of Sutherland and Caithness. To the west of this line lie the Highlands and islands, which make nearly one half of Scotland, but do not contain one eighth part of the inhabitants of that kingdom. The face of the country is wild, rugged, and desolate, as is well expressed by the epithets given to the mountains, which are called the grey, the red, the black, and the yellow mountains, from the colour of the stones of which in some places they seem to be wholly composed, or from the colour of the moss, which, in other places, covers them like a mantle.

In almost every strath, valley, glen, or bottom, glitters a stream or a lake; and numberless friths, or arms of the sea, indent themselves into the land.

There are also many tracts of no small extent, (which cannot properly be called either mountains or valleys,) where the soil is extremely poor and barren, producing short heath, or coarse sour grass, which grows among the stones that abound every where in this rough country. Nor is the climate more benign than the soil: for the Highlands in general lying to the west, the humid atmosphere of that side of the island, and the height of the hills in such a northern latitude, occasion excessive rains, with fierce and frequent storms, which render the Highlands for a great part of the year a disagreeable abode to any man, unless it be his native country. In the Highlands there are no cities nor populous towns, no trade or commerce, no manufactures but for home consumption, and very little agriculture. The only commodity of the country that fetches money is cattle; and the chief employment of the inhabitants is to take care of the herds of their black cattle, and to wander after them among the mountains.' P. 3.

The remainder of the description evinces little of that sagacity and discrimination which distinguish a superior artist; and the language continues equally trivial. The reader may satisfy himself with the few following sentences.

His patronymick (which marked his descent) denominated the tribe of which he was chieftain, and his lands (for every chieftain had some estate in land) were let to his friends and relations in the

A

same manner that the lands of the chief were let to his friends: each chieftain had a rank in the clan regiment according to his birth; and his tribe was his company. The chief was colonel, the eldest cadet was lieutenant-colonel, and the next cadet was major. In this state of subordination, civil and military, every clan was settled upon their own territories, like a separate nation, subject to the authority of their chief alone. To his counsels, prowess, and fortune, (to his auspices,) they ascribed all their success in war. The most sacred oath to a Highlander, was to swear by the hand of his chief.'

P. 9.

The rebellion of 1715 is afterwards dispatched in two sen tences; and there is not a shadow of those political discussions and reasonings, from cause to effect, which may be said to form the essence of history.

The state of arms in every part of Britain was allowed to remain the same: the Highlanders lived under their chiefs in arms; the people of England, and the Lowlanders of Scotland, lived without arms under their sheriffs and magistrates; so that every rebellion was a war carried on by the Highlanders against the standing army; and a declaration of war with France or Spain, which required the service of the troops abroad, was a signal for a rebellion at home. Strange as it may seem, it was actually so.

6

Meanwhile, that is, in the interval between one rebellion and another, the arts of peace were successfully cultivated in Britain, and the national wealth was greatly augmented; but of that wealth, no part or portion accrued to the Highland chiefs, who still kept their people upon the old establishment; and, always expecting another rebellion, estimated their consideration by the number of men they could bring to the field. Of the danger that was likely to arise from the Highlanders, in case of a foreign war, government was warned by Duncan Forbes of Culloden, president of the court of session; who, at the same time, suggested a measure to prevent rebellion and insurrection in the Highlands, by engaging the Highlanders in the service of government. As there will be frequent occasion to mention this gentleman, who, in the course of the rebellion, contributed so much to frustrate the designs of Charles, it seems proper to mention some circumstances, which are now known only to the few people still alive, who remember him.'

P. 19.

The conversation between lord Milton and Duncan Forbes, ⚫ one morning before breakfast,' is again so foreign to the style of history, that it ought to have been thrown into the appendix.

In the second chapter, the Pretender's son lands in Scotland; and the style seems somewhat to improve. The facts begin also to acquire interest; whence another advantage is, that the defects are less observed,

• The course which the seamen proposed to steer for the High lands of Scotland, was by the Æbudæ, or Western Isles. They had not proceeded far in their voyage, when they met an English man of war of sixty guns, called the Lyon, commanded by captain