
chief is the Earl of Breadalbine. The Macdonalds are as numerous, and remarkably
warlike: the Camerons, M'Leods, Frasers, Grants, M'Kenzies, M'Kays, M'Phersons,
M'Intoshes, are powerful clans; so that if all the Highlanders, including the
inhabitants of the Isles, were united, they could bring into the field an army
of forty thousand fighting men, capable of undertaking the most dangerous
enterprize. We have lived to see four thousand of them, without discipline,
throw the whole kingdom of Great Britain into confusion. They attacked and
defeated two armies of regular troops, accustomed to service. They penetrated
into the centre of England; and afterwards marched back with deliberation, in
the face of two other armies, through an enemy's country, where every precaution
was taken to cut off their retreat. I know not any other people in Europe, who,
without the use or knowledge of arms, will attack regular forces sword in hand,
if their chief will head them in battle. When disciplined, they cannot fail of
being excellent soldiers. They do not walk like the generality of mankind, but
trot and bounce like deer, as if they moved upon springs. They greatly excel the
Lowlanders in all the exercises that require agility; they are incredibly
abstemious, and patient of hunger and fatigue: so steeled against the weather,
that in travelling, even when the ground is covered with snow, they never look
for a house, or any other shelter but their plaid, in which they wrap themselves
up, and go to sleep under the cope of heaven. Such people, in quality of
soldiers, must be invincible, when the business is to perform quick marches in a
difficult country, to strike sudden strokes, beat up the enemy's quarters,
harrass their cavalry, and perform expeditions without the formality of
magazines, baggage, forage, and artillery. The chieftainship of the Highlanders
is a very dangerous influence operating at the extremity of the island, where
the eyes and hands of government cannot be supposed to see and act with
precision and vigour. In order to break the force of clanship, administration
has always practised the political maxim, Divide et impera. The legislature hath
not only disarmed these mountaineers, but also deprived them of their ancient
garb, which contributed in a great measure to keep up their military spirit; and
their slavish tenures are all dissolved by act of parliament; so that they are
at present as free and independent of their chiefs, as the law can make them:
but the original attachment still remains, and
