At London, April 26, Lady Adelaide C. Campbell, daughter of Earl Cawdor. At Barcaldine, Henry Charles Alexander, youngest child of Sir Duncan Campbell, bart.-At Marchmont House, April 9, Sir William Purves Hume Campbell, bart. aged 67.-At Southsea, April 1, Jane, aged 20, and on the following day, Mary, aged 17, daughters of Capt. James Campbell, R.N.At Rothsay, May 15, Mrs. Mary Anne Colquhoun, widow of the late Right Hon. Archibald Colquhoun, of Killermont, lord clerk register.

At Annfield House, Fife, Dame Mary Falconer, relict of the late Sir James Colquhoun, of Luss, bart.-At Wester Pittendreich, Elgin, May 21, Capt. D. Falconer, aged 66 —At Keil House, Argyle, Jane Johnston, wife of Lieut.-Col. Fullarton, c. B. 96th regt.

At the Manse of Inveraven, Banff, April 12, the Rev. Wm. Grant, minister, aged 75, and in the 41st year of his ministry.-At Inverness, March 27, the widow of the late Lieut. G. Gordon, of the 92d regt.

Died at Glasgow, June 4, the Rev. Donald Mac Coll, of the Scottish episcopal church.-At Shalapoor, East Indies, Dec. 22, Lieut. Davidson Mac Kenzie, 1st Regiment native cavalry.-At Edinburgh, May 28, James Mac Farlane, esq. late collector of Excise.-May 13, Mrs. Flora Maclean, relict of Capt. John Macdonald, of 50th Regt.-At Rothsay, May 27, John Mac Lean, formerly of Torringbeg, Mull.-At the Gorbals, Glasgow, April 21, the Rev. Dr. James Mac Lean, minister of that parish, aged 72, in the 40th year of his ministry.-At Madras, Jan. 13, Ann, youngest daughter of the late Col. Donald Mac Leod, of Ellan Hirta, or the island of St. Kilda.At Paisley, June 14, aged 84, James Mac Millan, a genuine Highlander of the old school, who used to make, in the feeling of Old Mortality, annual visits to the various fields of battle.-On the 13th of April, Samuel, 2d son of the Rev. Samuel Mac Millan, Aberdeen.-On the 13th April, at his seat, Balvie, in Badenach, James Mac Pherson, esq. son of the celebrated translator of Ossian. On the 10th of May, at Edinburgh, Capt. Duncan Mac Pherson, late of the 92d Regt.-May 30, in Princes-street, Hanover-square, London, Major General Sir John Malcolm, G. C. B., K. L.S., &c.—On the 25th of May, at Madderty, Perthshire, David Malcolm, L.L.D. chaplain to his late majesty.-On the 2d of May, at Glasgow, suddenly, John, youngest son of the late Mathieson, of Atadale, Ross.-On the 30th of April, at West Newington, James Campbell Murdoch, late of the 91st or Argyle Highlanders.

We unfortunately have not space for a few other Deaths.

PRICES OF CANAL SHARES, AND FOREIGN AND
ENGLISH FUNDS.

CANALS IN WALES.

Brecknock and Abergavenny, 801.; Glamorganshire, 2901.; Monmouthshire, 198/.; Montgomery, 857.; Shrewsbury, 255l.; Swansea, 220/.

FOREIGN FUNDS.

Closing price, June 22.-Austrian Bonds, 96}; Belgian, 92; Brazilian, 68; Buenos Ayres, 26; Chilian, 26; Columbian, 21; ditto 1824, 24; Danish, 74; Greek, 40; Mexican 5 per cent. 30, ditto 6 per cent. 361; Peruvian, 20; Portuguese, 60; Prussian, 101; ditto 1822, 1034; Russian, 104; Spanish, 19§; ditto 1823, 17; Dutch, 494; French Rentes, 5 per cent. 104; ditto 3 per cent. 784.

ENGLISH FUNDS.

June 22.-Bank Stock, 2044; 3 per cent. Red. 89; 3 per cent. Consols, shut; New 34 per cent. shut; New 4 per cent. 103.

CHARLES EDMONDS, Broker, Change Alley, Cornhill.

THE

CAMBRIAN AND CALEDONIAN

QUARTERLY

MAGAZINE.

No. 20.-OCTOBER 1, 1833.-VOL. V.

ON THE HIGHLAND DRESS.

CONQUERORS have the privilege, as might confers the right, of imposing conditions on those they have subjected; and the stronger power will by no means neglect measures to prevent any molestation from the weaker.

It was the policy of the Romans rather to allay the indignant feelings of those nations they had overcome, by acts of lenity; to seduce them into cheerful submission by offering them the privileges of citizens, and by specious means to entice them to forego their ancient customs, and amalgamate with the empire, than arbitrarily to oppose the national prejudices of those over whom fortune had given them power, but whose alliance they pretended to covet.

The advantage of this policy was evinced by the facility with which they advanced their conquests, and retained the allegiance of the conquered. The apparent respect in which they were held by the renowned people, of whose vast dominions they were led to consider themselves an important part, prevented them from feeling the galling of the chains which were by this system the more securely riveted. Other nations adopted a different system; and the consequence has been, determined hostility between the illassimilated parts of a kingdom, the different provinces of which varied widely in their manners and customs.

Nothing more certainly conciliates a people than respect for their prejudices and long established usages, which are always the more tenaciously clung to, when measures are adopted in order forcibly to restrain and abolish them. Those attempts may be made in the spirit of a conqueror, who is determined to crush the energy of the unfortunate

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nation who has fallen under his sway, or they may be pur sued, from a policy which presumes that a people can never be truly reduced to subjection who retain, unmolested, their cherished nationalities. The language, the religion, the laws, the dress, the poetry and music, of the conquered, history shows us have been often proscribed by the dominant power, but, we believe, in no case with the expected result. In many instances such attempts have been productive of riots, insurrections, and even the dismemberment of states.

The massacre of the Cambrian bards, as related by some historians, and generally believed, is not, however, satisfactorily proved; but that Edward I. attempted to abolish that venerable and influential order can scarcely be doubted. He also endeavoured to abolish the laws of the Scots, and the Bretts, when he thought he had secured the dominion of Scotland, but the enactment was so obnoxious that he was speedily forced to repeal it.

The strong measures taken to eradicate the Wendish tongue, and that of the Bohemians, in 1765, were found quite ineffectual. In our own country, about sixty years ago, serious designs were entertained of the possibility and advantage of extinguishing the Welsh language!

Other instances might be adduced, to prove the impossibility of suppressing national predilections, and the impolicy of rashly attempting by coercive measures to do so. There have been, it must be confessed, means taken to restrain the continuance of national observances, which have so far succeeded, without however making better subjects of the people.

Laws against dress appear in some degree justifiable; peculiar costume operating as a badge of distinction, which may tend to diffuse and keep alive that esprit du corps, which, in opposition to the government, might endanger the constitution. In Britain and Ireland the Celtic portions of the empire have suffered from many severe enactments, to deter them from adherence to their wonted usages and personal decoration,* and compel them to conform to the manners of their Saxon or Anglo-Norman neighbours.

The Welsh have certain stripes in their cloth, which distinguish different districts, but no checquered stuff like tartan. Why is this not assumed as a national dress? By the 26th Hen. VIII. they were forbidden to carry weapons on any occasion, except upon hue and cry after felons.

The Irish dress, so different from that of England, drew the attention of her rulers, who thought it necessary to deprive the natives of the use of their ancient garb, a respected badge of former independence; and in the fifth parliament of Edward IV., c. 16. at the request of the Commons, "it was ordained and established that every Irishman that dwells betwixt or amongst Englishmen, in the counties of Dublin, Myeth, Uriel, and Kildare, shall go like to an Englishman in apparel, (and shaving of his beard above the mouth, &c.) and shall be within one year sworn leigeman to the king, and shall take to him an English surname."

Henry VIII. made this act more explicit and severe, and affected to believe that the Irish would be better Christians by adopting the costume of their invaders, "prepending and waying by his great wisdom, learning, and experience, how much it doeth conferre to the induction of rude and ignorant people to the knowledge of Almightie God, and of that good and vertuous obedience which by his most holy precepts they owe to their princes, than a good instruction in his most holy lawes, with a conformitie, concordance, and familiaritie in language, tongue, and in manners, order, and apparell, with them that be civil people, and doe profess and acknowledge civil and politique orders, lawes, and directions," &c. And considering "that there is nothing which doeth more conteyne and keepe many of his subjects in a certaine savage and wild kind and manner of living, than the diversity betwixt them in tongue, order, and habite;" whosoever at any time should suffer any "within his familie or rule to use the Irish habit, or not to use the English tongue," should forfeit the dress; and if any should attempt to retake it, or bribe the captor to restore it, a fine of 51. was exacted. Par. 28, c. 26.

So successful were those measures, that the dress was completely suppressed; and it is singular enough that the Irish themselves should not now be able to tell us precisely what it was.

It was not so with the Scottish Gaël. Their dress has survived all assaults; and no discountenance, no ridicule, no severity, has been able to divest the people of their veneration for their antique apparel, or of their pride in its use. To their inflexible attachment we owe the preservation of this manly and truly unique costume.

The garb of the Highlanders is one of the most striking

remains of those times which constituted the golden age of the Gaël. Peculiar to themselves, and so unlike the costume of any other nation, it has always excited admiration and curiosity; and the partiality of those remote tribes to their ancient weeds was so strong, that their use was believed to be a chief cause of the rebellions which had so frequently alarmed the government; and the British legislators in their wisdom thought the people were to be made loyal by a new fashion of clothing. Acts of Parliament were accordingly passed at different times to compel the "uncivilized" Highlanders to assume a dress foreign to their habits, and an object of aversion; of a manufacture also of which they could so little avail themselves, that the statute was, with some propriety, called the unclothing act.

Notwithstanding the strictness with which these acts were at first enforced, they failed to accomplish the intended object. The gentlemen of the country began to see their inutility, and relax in their efforts to suppress the beloved Breachdan; and the invaluable military services of the Highlanders, who were permitted to shed their blood for their country in a uniform proscribed in their native land, subdued the feelings which had first prompted the legislature to such an expedient, and, before the statutes were finally repealed, the feile-beag had been worn by many, especially discharged soldiers, without either "let or hindrance."

A summary of the measures taken utterly to abolish this manly and characteristic costume, and latterly, not only to render it again a lawful dress, but admissible to court, with the observations of some of those who took part in the discussion, it is thought, will not be uninteresting; many being ignorant of the attention which the Highland dress had the honour to draw towards it from successive British parliaments.

The rising of the clans, in the cause of the Stuarts, under the Earl of Mar, in 1715, greatly alarmed the illustrious family recently called to the throne of these realms. The insurrection expired rather than was suppressed. After engaging the royal troops under the Duke of Argyle, at Sherra-Moor, where the Highlanders had the best of it, vexed by the timidity of their commander, so unlike the chivalrous Marquis of Montrose and the Viscount Dundee, they retired to their sequestered vallies, hopeless of ultimate success.

The state of the Gaël, who could levy a formidable war