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70805

THE

AMERICAN MONTHLY MAGAZINE

AND

CRITICAL REVIEW.

VOL. IV......No. I.

NOVEMBER, 1818.

ART. 1. Memoir relative to the Highlands; with Anecdotes of Rob Roy, and his Family. 13mo. pp. 152. Philadelphia. M. Carey & Son. 1818.

IT

T is the purport of this amusing and elegantly written essay, (which may be considered as a sort of supplement to the celebrated novel of Roв Roy,) to place the character, manners, and political condition of the interesting people of whom it treats, in a more fair and impartial point of view than the prejudices either of their admirers or enemies have hitherto permitted. The author has, certainly, exercised considerable acumen in his historical investigation of the claims made by the Scottish Highlanders, or rather by their friends for them, to qualities and attainments unquestionably in compatible with the imperfect state of society to which, up to the period of 1745, they had arrived; and, though his language is evidently that of one disposed rather to condemn than applaud, the temperate manner in which he conducts his argument, and the candour with which he admits their pretensions in points where they do not clash with the main tenor of his observations, entitle him to the praise of a honourable as well as acute examiner, and induce us to consider at some length the rationale of a book which goes far toward destroying

the high and biassed consideration with which it has long been customary among us to regard the natives of the Scottish Highlands.

After remarking that till nearly the last eighty years the Highlanders were treated by the government rather as enemies against whose incessant incursions it was incumbent upon the state to be watchful, than as subjects whose obedience i was important to compel, the author proceeds, in impressive and animated terms, to comment upon the measures subsequently pursued with regard to them by the ruling powers, and the interest excited by their wild achievements and the romantic and secluded regions in which they dwell, in times apparently averse from the rude and daring exploits of a half-civilized people, whose rugged and mountainous country is but ill-adapted to the luxurious feelings of a modern tourist.

"Since that period, (the rebellion in 1745,) indeed, they cannot complain that they have been either neglected or despised. They instantly became the objects of legislative care and protection-their grievances were redressed, and their fidelity appre ciated-enactments were made to relax the

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