In reflecting upon the life of Mr. Canning, it is impossible not to be struck with the signal proof which it affords of the power which personal talents and character possess, in our representative constitution. By their influence, chiefly, he succeeded in raising himself from the rank of an "adventurer," as he was once basely called at Liverpool, to that of Premier, against perpetual opposition from almost every quarter of the political compass. The people, the press, the whigs, the tories, men in office and out of office, in the court and the camp, and even the king himself, by turns assailed, or thwarted his progress in the career of ambition. It was his maxim, "never to yield to misfortune, but, on the contrary, to work with more courage against it by all the means in his power.' "Tu ne cede malis: sed contra audentior ito,

Qua tua te Fortuna sinet."

Actuated by this principle, which deserves to be kept in view by every man who has his own course to chalk out, he succeeded in winning, successively, the good-will of every class of his political enemies the whigs, the press, the people, even the king, all except the tories, who are an unforgiving race.

Another remark forces itself upon the mind, after reading these volumes, composed as they are, for the most part, of extracts from Mr. Canning's state papers. These documents are all models of nervous, clear, elegant, yet unaffected, writing. The expositions of international law growing out of new circumstances, which they contain, will be always referred to as authoritative, and as the foundation of the modern system of British policy. The terms in which Sir James Mackintosh eulogized the papers upon the Spanish American question, are not less eloquent than just. "I can only describe them," said he, and no man could be a more competent judge on such a subject, as containing a body of liberal maxims of policy, and just principles of public law, expressed with a precision, a circumspection, and a dignity, which will always render them models and masterpieces of diplomatic composition. From them seems to me to flow every consequence respecting the future, which I think most desirable." We rather believe that before they were submitted to Parliament, Sir James was consulted with respect to them; but there is no doubt that they are all the production of Mr. Canning. The labour which he bestowed upon these, and his dispatches and papers in general, was immense. But anxious as he was in the inculcation of his principles of policy, both in writing and in speaking, and happy as he uniformly was in expounding them, how limited after all has been their immediate effect upon the destinies of the world! That he has sown good seeds, which will eventually yield an affluent harvest, we hope and believe. But how vexed must his great spirit be, if it has been permitted since his departure from our orb, to witness the events which have since taken place, upon observing the little progress which the Spanish American states

have made in the career of freedom and prosperity; how abortive have been the negotiations for the settlement of Greece; how unblushingly that mountebank, Don Miguel, continues to play his fantastic tricks; how soon, when his guiding hand had failed, the dogs of war, in France and Belgium and Poland, whom he held in the leash, have been let loose upon the world! Whether we look at home or abroad, never was there a period when the helm of the state required more of the vigilance of a master-mind. Lord Grey possesses assuredly that most valuable of all endowments, and assisted by such a colleague as the Lord Chancellor, one of the most extraordinary men of any age, we entertain every hope that the confusion which reigns around us will be gradually conquered, and that out of this chaos of principles and interests, of prejudices, passions and follies, order will eventually arise, and establish upon a durable basis the liberty and happiness of Europe.

ART. II.-The Scottish Gael; or, Celtic Manners as preserved among the Highlanders: being an Historical and Descriptive Account of the Inhabitants, Antiquities, and National Peculiarities of Scotland ; more particularly of the Northern, or Gaelic parts of the Country, where the singular habits of the Aboriginal Celts are most tenaciously retained. By James Logan, F.S.A.S. In two volumes. 8vo. London Smith, Elder, and Co. 1831.

WARTON rightly says, that "the most interesting and important of all history is the history of manners." We read with attention indeed, and sometimes with breathless earnestness, of the march and conflict of mighty armies; but their personal demeanour in the battle, in the camp, under privations, or in the lap of enjoyment, if described by a "Subaltern" or some gay reminiscent, have charms for us beyond all the results of their musketry and artillery. So of eminent public men, we peruse in the Times or Herald their admirably reported speeches in either House of Parliament, at popular meetings, or upon the hustings, anxious to know their opinions upon questions of national concern. But with infinitely more pleasure do we follow them, by the aid of memoirs and anecdotes, into the retirement of their private circles; to see them as it were in dishabille, freed from the restraint of etiquette, and following without reserve the natural tenour of their lives. The classic dignity of history requires that its pages shall be principally devoted to the councils of kings and their ministers, to the actions of great men, and to their consequences with respect to the welfare of the community. Such pages we study for instruction, and instruction has undoubtedly its delights for intelligent minds. But how gladly do we not turn from them to those less pompous volumes, which tell of the manners of our ancestors, which inform us when and upon what they made their breakfast or dinner, what

they drank, at what hours they rose, how they were clothed, how they spent the day and the witching time of night! for then we feel that we are of them, that they were such as we are, and we find an inexhaustible pleasure in ascertaining how much they were like or unlike to us in their individual tastes and customs.

It is a work of this latter description that Mr. Logan has given us-by far the most amusing that has yet been written upon the primitive institutions, poetry, music, language, manners, and the varied and brilliant costume of the most interesting portion of the Scottish nation, the native inhabitants of the Highlands. The unmixed descendants of the Celts, who are generally believed to have been the aboriginal occupants of the northern tracts of Europe, they continued to a very recent period to preserve inviolate their Celtic principles and habits. They are now scarcely to be distinguished from the Lowland Scots, such has been the rapid advance of civilization amongst them since the union with England. Before the amalgamation shall become complete, and while yet a few of their national features linger upon the precincts of refinement, Mr. Logan has gone over their mountainous and picturesque country, has explored with indefatigable zeal their early history, their traditions, and all the archives of their chivalry and manners, and has left nothing untouched which tended in any way to gratify their pride, or to illustrate their character.

There is no doubt that the Highlanders were the Caledonians, who gave the Romans so much trouble under Agricola. We shall not remind Mr. Logan of that General's opinion of them-"ii ceterorum Britannorum fugacissimi, ideoque tam diu superstites." Protected by natural bulwarks, fed by the fish which they found in the neighbouring sea and in their lakes, and by the birds and venison with which their woods and mountains abounded, they lived for ages under a patriarchal government. They had little or no cattle to bring them into contact, by the sale of them, with strangers; their fertile vallies supplied them with a sufficiency of corn, and when the chace or the harvest failed, they had recourse to those forays, celebrated in Scottish story, which served occasionally to remind their neighbours of their existence. Thus secluded, their traditions and songs celebrated the exploits of their own nation, and the locality of description fostered the spirit of independence, the lofty notions of their own unconquered race, and jealous pride of ancestry, so remarkable in the Highlands. Their history has furnished many a theme to the novelist, and abundant matter for controversy to pamphleteers. Dr. Mac Pherson's well known "Dissertations" have an object in view, in the main, similar to that which has employed the pen of Mr. Logan. The former, however, confined his labours within a narrower compass, and occupied himself chiefly in comparing the Gaelic customs with those of the Germans; while the latter attempts to illustrate the manners of the Celtic race, to trace the language, the religion,

form of government, and peculiar usages of the Scots to their origin; to shew their identity with those of the aborigines of Britain, and their resemblance to those of the remaining branches of the Celtic race, and thence to prove their own descent, and the derivation of the singular manners which so long distinguished them, and to which they yet fondly cling.'

Mr. Logan enters with the most laborious minuteness into each branch of his subject. He treats of the various nations which formerly inhabited Europe, deduces historically their origin, describes the aboriginal appearance of this island, the extent and productions of its forests, and has collected from a great variety of sources, some curious details concerning its Celtic population, their persons and dispositions, their education and institutions. Having traced the identity of this people with the Caledonians, he becomes profuse upon their military tactics, the beauty and valour of their women, and the genius of their bards. Not the least interesting part of his work is that which is devoted to the rise and progress of the system of clanship in Scotland, which he has discussed with great candour and clearness. The origin of the Tartan is also critically handled, and shown to have been derived from the Celts, although Pinkerton and other writers have supposed it to have been a comparatively recent invention. Every body knows that the number of colours among the Caledonians, indicated the rank of the wearer, a king or chief having seven, a Druid six, and other nobles four in their robes.' In modern times the appropriation of the colours has been neglected, those who could do so, introducing into their robes as many colours as they chose. Though not Caledonian, we share in the indignation with which Mr. Logan decries this usurpation of dyes. The word itself is derived from the Gaelic tarstin, or tarsuin, across, or plaided. The best manufacture of it is said to be at Stirling. The author's defence of its gracefulnes and antiquity, must be quoted.

'The Highland garb, worn by one who knows how to dress properly in it, is, undoubtedly, one of the most picturesque in the world. Other nations may have an original garment resembling the fiele-beag, or kilt; but the belted plaid is indisputably the invention of the Gaël, and bears no resemblance, either in its materials or arrangement, to the habit of any other people.

The ample folds of the tartan, that are always arranged to show the characteristic or predominant stripe, and adjusted with great care, gracefully depending from the shoulder, is a pleasing and elegant drapery, which being of itself, as it were, the entire vestment, presents an ensemble equally remote from the extremes of Asiatic and European dresses. It partakes of the easy flow of oriental costume, suited to the indolence and effeminacy of the inhabitants of the East; and, avoiding the angular formality and stiffness of European attire, combines a great degree both of lightness and elegance.

It is well known that the antiquity of the national garb has been questioned, and the right of the Scots to claim it as original has been denied.

In this respect it has met no more favour than most of the peculiarities which distinguish this interesting portion of the British empire.

John Pinkerton, an author notorious for his anti-Gaëlic spirit, and whose learning is sullied by a rancour of feeling and heat of temper which he, nevertheless, reprobates in others with intemperate severity, asserts the antiquity of the feile-beag among the Highlanders to be very questionable; that it is not ancient but singular, and adapted to their savage life-was always unknown among the Welsh and Irish, and that it was a dress of the Saxons, who could not afford breeches, &c." He had before observed, that "breeches were unknown to the Celts, from the beginning to this day!"

Many papers have also appeared at different times, in various publications, discussing the question of its antiquity, and generally with a view to prove its late adoption among the Scots Highlanders. These communications have, in many cases, been answered, sometimes very ably, but in many instances without effect. Appeals to tradition are not very convincing arguments to set against the apparent authority of historical record, but the passages which have been selected to show that the Highlanders did not, until lately, wear the dress to which, from time immemorial, we find them so much attached, do not, certainly, bear the constructions that have been put on them. The point, however, is so undeniably settled, that it is unnecessary to enter into a lengthened refutation of those writers, many of whom are anonymous.'-vol. i. pp. 246, 247.

In the Appendix to the second volume, Mr. Logan has given a curious list of the colours which belong, by divine right, to different families. That of Abercrombie, for instance, claims three-and-a-half inches of green, then half an inch of white, then three-and-a-half of green, and next four separate inches of black and blue, alternately fringed by three-and-a-half of the latter. The Camerons boast of twenty stripes, the Campbells of forty-two, and the Ogilvies of near a hundred!

We do not perceive that Mr. Logan, in his chapter upon the architecture of the Celts, throws any new light upon the round towers, found in such numbers in Ireland, the uses of which have puzzled so many of our antiquaries. Two of these buildings exist in Scotland, in the territories of the ancient Picts, but they are involved in the same mystery, with respect to their origin and application, as the Irish edifices of a similar character.

Among the virtues which the Caledonians have inherited from their Celtic ancestors, pre-eminent stands their hospitality. The age is not long past when they were accustomed to leave their doors open by night, as well as by day, for the admission of the traveller. In more modern times, it seems to have been the practice in Scotland, before closing their doors, to look out for strangers or wayfaring men, and it is still remembered in the traditions of the peasantry in many parts of the North, that the Laird had his latter meat table," daily spread for all who chose to partake of his liberality.' The following anecdote is laughably characteristic.