66 SOME BOOKS ARE LIES FRAE END TO END. BURNS. EDINBURGH: PRINTED FOR DANIEL LIZAR S, 61 PRINCES STREET. MDCCCXXV. THENEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY 91133 ASTOR, LENOX ND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS. 1897. EDINBURGH: Printed by John Brewster, 11 Society. SPIRIT OF THE BOOK. So late as the middle of the last century, the Feudal System, which had fairly died out in all the other countries of Europe, leaving the traces of its existence only in the uncouth jargon of the law, or the barbarous technicalities of title-deeds, continued in full force and vigour in the Highlands and Western Isles of Scotland. At this comparatively recent period, the civil and military power of the Chieftains was as absolute, the obedience and attachment of the Clans as implicit and unbroken, as in the middle of the fourteenth century. Inhabiting a remote and alpine region,— generally regarded as barbarians by their neighbours of the plains, with whom they frequently carried on a petty predatory warfare,-and utter strangers to commerce, luxury, and refinement, the Highlanders were placed beyond A |