• tended to my grave with the full Coranich o f my lamenting/
*■ people.
1 ‘ My progeny for a time fupported the great and wild magni-
6 ficence of the feudal reign. Their diftance from court unfor-.
*• tunately prevented them from knowing that they had a fupe-
‘ rior; and their ideas of loyalty were regulated only by the
‘ refpedt or attention paid to their fancied independency. Their
s- vaffals were happy or miferable, according to the difpofltion of
‘ the little monarch of the time. Two centuries, from my days,,
had elapfed, before their greatnefs knew its final period. The
‘ ihackles o f the feudal government were at length ftruck o ff;
‘ and poffibly happinefs was announced to the meaneft vafial.
The target, the dirk, and the clymore, too long abufed, were
* wrefted from our hands, and we were bid to learn the arts of
‘ peace; to fpread the net, to Ihoot the lhuttle, or to cultivate
‘ the ground.
‘ The mighty C h i e f t a i n s , the brave and difinterefted heroes of
‘ old times, by a moil violent and furprizing transformation, at
‘ once funk into the rapacious landlords; determined to cornpen-
‘ fate the lofs of power, with the encreafe o f revenue; to ex-
‘ change the warm affedtions of their people for fordid traih.
‘ Their vifits, to thofe of their fore-fathers, are like the furveys
‘- o f a cruel land-jobber, attended by a fet of quick-fighted vul-
‘ tures, ikilled in pointing out the moft exquifite methods o f op-
‘ preffion, or to inftrudt them in the art of exhaufting their purfes.
‘ of fums to be wafted in diftant lands. Like the taflc-mafters of
1 Egypt, they require them to make brick without ftraw. They
^ leave them in their primeval poverty,, uninftrudted'in any art for
3 ‘ their.
n
* their future fupport ; deprived o f the wonted refources of the
‘ hofpitality of their Lord, or the plentiful boards of his nume-
| rous friends. They experience an inftantaneous defertion;
1 áre flung at once into a new flat# o f life, and demand the
‘ foftering hand as much as the moft infant colony. When
‘ Í hover over our vales, I fee the fame nakednefs exift, the fame
‘ mifery in habitation, the fame idle difpofltion. Would I could
‘ have feen the fame fpirit and vigor as in days o f yore! But the
‘ powers of their fouls are funk with oppreflion, and thofe of their
* bodies loft with want. They look up in defpair at our deferted
‘ caftles; and, worn out with famine and difeafe, drop into an
* unnoticed grave.
‘ The ties of affediion amongft relations are now no more: no
I diftindtion is at prefent made between proximity of blood, and
f the moft diftant ftranger. Intereft alone creates the preference
I of man to man. The thoufands that with joy expedted the re-
‘ turn of their chieftain, now retire with fullen grief into their
I cottages, or, in little groupes, exprefs their rage in curfes both
I loud and deep. No vafial now fprings to receive the weapon
‘ levelled at the breaft o f the Lord, but rather wiihes to plant
f his own in the bofom of the oppreiTor.
‘ The antient N a t i v e , full of the idea o f the manly look of
‘ the warriors and friends of his youth, is loft in admiration at the
‘ degenerate progeny: feature and habit are changed; the one
‘ effeminated, the other become ridiculous by adopting the idle
‘ faihions of foreign climes: loft to the love o f their country !
‘ loft to all the fweet affedlions o f patriarchal life ! What then,
* may I fay, are the fruits of your travels ? What arts have you
I i i, ‘ brought