814

IV. SOME UNPUBLISHED LETTERS OF HEINE, New Review,

V. NATURE STUDIES,

Title and Index to Volume CXCVI.

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From The Scottish Review.
SIMON FRASER- LORD LOVAT.

(Ob. 1747).

of his country.
Occult schemes of
statecraft-pursued with unwearied in-
dusty and practised with Machiavellian
art were the familiars of his life.
And ere the stage had darkened, and
the curtain finally fell, he had commu-
nicated not a little of their direction
and force to the fitfully recurring and
disquieting oscillations that disturbed
the political equilibrium of the time.

THE "rising of the forty-five" still throws a halo round its contemporary period of Scottish history. After the lapse of nearly a century and a half, the picturesque and stirring incidents which characterized that historic episode still exercise a fascinating spell, showing how deep a root they struck in the naThe original position of Simon Fraser tional imagination. Nor is the reason on the family genealogical tree was of this far to seek. The drama was somewhat remote from the main trunk. enacted almost exclusively on Scottish He was a second son, while his father soil. The panorama that filled the was a fourth son. But the death-rate stage depicted some of the most curious had been high amongst the interposing and unfamiliar aspects of Scottish life. branches. Some died peaceably in bed ; Its central figure was a youthful prince some were slain in feud; and others of an ancient Scottish line. To redeem fell on the field of battle. When Simon his ancestral misfortunes and vindicate was called upon to make his début the claims of his birth, he had thrown in the world, the intervening lives himself unreservedly on the affections between the family honors and himof a generous and impressionable peo- self, were but two, those of a female ple. Of seemly presence, courageous cousin once removed, and of his father, mood, urbane and chivalrous ways, he now infirm and stricken in years. Virinspired among his followers a devotion tually, this meant that he was barred as romantic as it was rare, and as he but by one life, as his father's succescarried himself with a bright and benig-sion was equivalent in due course to his nant courtesy when his star was in the own. ascendant, so also did he bear himself with a manly fortitude when its lustre had set.

The lady whose position was thus so inimical to Simon's worldly prospects, was the only surviving child of his first Prominent among the names asso- cousin, the existing lord. She was a ciated with this memorable political scion of the powerful Scottish family of interlude, occurs that of Simon Fraser, Athol, her mother being a daughter of Lord Lovat. The singular attributes of the marquess of that name. There was this striking character-the vulpine no existing deed of tailzie regulating activities of his mind, the opposing succession to the estates. But in virtue vicissitudes of his fortunes, and ultimately, his conspicuous and tragic fate have combined to furnish a page of human history which few biographical records can supply. Summoned while yet a youth from the seclusion of academic pursuits, to participate in family affairs, his energies were nursed amid feud and faction; and his career, from start to finish, ran through one successive development of antithetical and dramatic event. His personal concerns, with little intermission, constituted the urgent business of the statesmen of his day. The questions which affected his title and patrimony are still ranked as leading causes in the juridical statistics

of her parents' ante-nuptial contract, the lady in question was destined as the heiress. This instrument provided that the properties should vest in the heirs male of the marriage, in default of whom, in "the heirs of the marriage whomsoever." To nullify this inconvenient settlement, and transfer the rights of succession to his own immediate line, was the diplomatic nut which Simon set himself to crack on the very threshold of his career.

The intellectual faculties of the reigning lord were dull and contracted. His cousin's wits were uncommonly nimble and comprehensive. Simon became sedulously observant in his attentions to

his noble relative. His efforts to please | this altered position of affairs. They were directed with all the plausibility had so long been accustomed to regard and tact of which he was so rare a the acres of Lovat as much a portion master. His companionship became of the family appanage as the haughs of indispensable. In each conjuncture of Dunkeld, that the astonishment occacircumstance he exercised the functions sioned by the new situation was only of guide, philosopher, and friend; and equalled by the resentment it inspired. in all his lordship's deliberations his To find the proprietary rights over a counsels were oracular in their author- fine Highland estate, and the baronial ity. In the midst of their intimacy privileges attaching to it, so deftly Lord Lovat paid a visit to London and filched from their grasp, in the very his fidus Achates accompanied him. hour in which they had counted for The then prevailing habits of Highland possession, constituted a challenge to conviviality were not, perhaps, the most their interest and their pride, which effective safeguards of a facile disposi- they were not slow to accept. The tion against the allurements of London brother of the widow, and therefore life. During his stay in the metropolis uncle of the heiress, was the Earl of his lordship largely devoted himself to Tullibardine, who, for State services the bacchanalia of the tavern, and sim- had been called to the peerage in his. ilar enjoyments. And it may safely be own right. He was at this time lord conjectured that on whatever other high commissioner of Scotland, an office lines his cousin's influence was wont to which, as justice was then dispensed, exert itself, in this particular direction gave its occupant special advantages in it did not prove a restraining force. any personal warfare he might chance His lordship's health was completely to have on hand. Nor did Tullibardine sapped by his excesses; and he died at Perth, in Simon's arms, on his journey homeward.

On this occurrence a testamentary settlement by the deceased was produced, abrogating the provisions of his marriage contract, and bequeathing his possessions to Thomas Fraser of Beaufort, Simon's father.

fail to take full advantage of his position. Active legal measures, or at least as active as the circumstances of the time permitted, were at once instituted,. to upset the pretensions of the Beauforts. And, meantime, to anticipate the slow process of legal incubation, agents and factors were appointed to levy the revenues of the estate on behalf of the heiress. Simon, on his part, nominally representing his father, but really acting an independent part, was not less active in putting into execution such measures to make good his posi

This deed, which had only recently been drawn out by a skilled London attorney, was in faultless legal form, and set forth that the instrument annulled had been obtained by pressure, which, acting upon an easy and unsuspi- tion, as he thought it desirable to adopt. cious nature, had amounted practically to fraud. The testator consequently conceived it his duty to set aside its authority, to revert to the ancient family practice of conserving the succession in the male line, and, to this end, nominated as his heirs the Beaufort branch of the Frasers as being next in lineal descent. Simon had played his cards with unquestionable astuteness, and had won the first trick in the game. The result of his diplomacy remained

to be seen.

It was not to be expected that the Athol family would quietly acquiesce in

His emissaries were numerous and energetic; and backed by the general sentiment of the clan, they invariably beat those of his opponent out of the field. Worsted in his initial efforts, Tullibardine secured the aid of the Privy Council, whose powers, where they could be brought to operate, were then despotic. Edicts were freely issued in Tullibardine's interest, and would no doubt have proved potent factors in the situation, provided they

could have been enforced.

At this juncture, Simon, who was seldom at a loss for an expedient,

sought to resolve the difficulties of his | within the bounds of their residence, position in another direction. He trans- but elsewhere the authority of the formed his role from that of a usurper Beauforts was supreme.

into that of a lover, and laid siege, in The Athols were fully alive to this private, to the affections of the lady disadvantage, and they began to cast with whom he was so violently warring about for a remedy. After some indusin public. He succeeded so far in his trious seeking they fell upon a scheme purpose that the susceptible damsel which promised, they fancied, to meet agreed to elope with him. The details the exigencies of the case. A section of the scheme were confided to a clans- of the Frasers, at an early point of man, who undertook their execution. their history — probably in the course But the intermediary proved unreliable of their migratory movement to the at the critical moment. After convey- North (they were originally a southern ing the fair runaway a certain distance sept) had hived off from the main in the midst of storm and darkness, body and established themselves in the his courage, or some other essential north-eastern confines of Aberdeenquality, failed him, and he conducted shire. There they were still located, his fragile charge back to her mother peacefully tending their flocks or tilling instead of to the rendezvous of her lover.

the soil, though not at times altogether unmindful of the more stirring tradiIn their contest for the mails and tions of their race. Their head was dues the Athols found themselves se- Lord Saltoun, a true-blooded clansman, verely handicapped in the sex of their and, like his kinsman of Lovat, a peer representative. The customs of the of the realm. The project was, to unite clans did not necessarily restrict the the heiress in marriage with Saltoun's succession of the chiefship to the oper- son, and present the latter to the Fraation of a strict heredity. Their mode sers as their consanguineous chief. of life was largely predial. The func- The prejudices of clanship, it was surtions devolving on the head of the com-mised, would be ingeniously consulted munity were exacting and unceasing. by introducing to the Highlanders, in If from any cause they chanced to be even temporarily suspended, the general interests were felt to suffer. Hence, if any disability unfitted the natural successor of a deceased chieftain competently to discharge the responsibilities of the position, it was not uncommon for the vacant office to be filled by a popular selection from amongst the clan. The Frasers were not inclined to a gynarchical form of government. And heading the opposition to such a régime they had a youth in the field of unusual enterprise and parts who bade for their allegiance not only in virtue of the blood that ran in his veins, but still more because of tiations, he set out for Beaufort, otherthe services it was in his power to ren-wise called Castle Dounie, on a visit to der-services in which all must par- the dowager. ticipate, from the duihne wassel among Simon, at this time, was principally them of highest account to the humblest resident in Edinburgh. He held a servitor in the clan. In the result commission in the army, and his miliSimon's personality everywhere pre-tary duties necessitated his presence vailed. The influence of the dowager with his regiment, which was quartered and her daughter was probably of effect there. But in view of the development

this relationship, a scion of the common stock, who though born and nurtured outside of their own immediate circle, had nevertheless sprung from the same ancestry and bore the same patronymic as themselves. The proposition was favorably entertained by Lord Saltoun. It did not occur to him, in giving assent to the proposal, that serious objection might be taken in other interested quarters; and that such disapprobation, if provoked, might take a form for which his experience of the milder social conditions to which he was accustomed, would find him wholly unprepared. To complete the nego