at Dover, or that in the year 1688 a Highland gentleman of Skye or Lochaber, whose clothes were begrimed with the accumulated filth of years, and whose hovel smelt worse than an English hog-stye, would often do the honours of that hovel with a lofty courtesy worthy of the splendid circle of Versailles.' That out of an enormous crowd there was not a single dry eye, and that a Highland chief's clothes were begrimed with the accumulated filth of years, are of course exaggerated statements. But who would be so dense as to take them as a literal statement of fact, or would conceive it to mean more than that there was great joy in England at the Restoration, and that Highlanders in 1688 combined hospitable and courteous manners with very dirty habits? To call this inaccuracy is as absurd as to accuse a man of telling a lie because he writes that he has pleasure in accepting an invitation which in reality he considers a bore. Indeed, if Macaulay's writings were to be reduced to the narration of dry fact, with no room for ornament or colouring, his chief attraction would be gone; for, great as are his merits in the diligent accuracy and impartial judgment necessary to the historian, it is in his style more than in anything that he stands pre-eminent. His power of arranging his narrative, what Mr. Morison calls the great art of mise-en-scène,' is simply perfect; while his language is always beautiful, and his meaning always distinct. Unlike Mr. Carlyle, he particularly wished to be clearly understood, and Mr. Trevelyan tells us that he was much obliged when a printer pointed out to him that one sentence in his history was not quite obvious in its meaning. His powers of word-painting, whether of natural scenery or of fields of battle, whether of the manners and customs of England in 1685, or of the origin of the national debt, and, most of all, his sketches of character and of thrilling incident, are without a rival-nay, without even a competitor. Take, for one example, his description of the Highlands in 1689, in the fourth volume of the History. An ordinary writer might possibly introduce his narration of the insurrection, which then occurred in that part of Scotland, by simply remarking that the from what one would imagine from their appearance now. How does Macaulay expand this thought? 'It is not easy for a modern Englishman who can pass in a day from his club in St. James's Street to his shooting-box among the Grampians to believe that in the time of his great-grandfathers St. James's Street had as little connection with the Grampians as with the Andes. Yet so it was. The crags and the glens, the woods and the waters, were indeed the same that now swarm every autumn with admiring gazers and sketchers. The Trossachs wound as now between gigantic walls of rock, tapestried with broom and wild roses; Foyers came headlong down through the birchwood with the same leap and the same roar with which he still rushes to Loch Ness; and, in defiance of the sun of June, the snowy scalp of Ben Cruachan rose as it still rises o'er the willowy islets of Loch Awe. Yet none of these sights had power till a recent period to attract a single poet or painter from more opulent and more tranquil regions. Indeed, law and police, trade and industry, have done far more than people of romantic disposition will readily admit to develope in our minds a sense of the wilder beauties of nature. A traveller must be freed from all apprehension of being murdered or starved before he can be charmed by the bold outlines and rich tints of the hills. He is not likely to be thrown into ecstacies by the abruptness of a precipice from which he is in imminent danger of falling two thousand feet perpendicular; by the boiling waves of a torrent which suddenly whirls away his baggage, and forces him to run for his life; by the gloomy grandeur of a pass where he finds a corpse which marauders have just stripped and mangled; or by the screams of those eagles whose next meal may probably be his own eyes.' In an entirely different style, is his touching and dramatic picture of the Wigton martyrs :— 'On the same day, two women, Margaret Maclachlan and Margaret Wilson, the former an aged widow, the latter a maiden of eighteen, suffered death for their religion in Wigtonshire. They were offered their lives if they would consent to abjure the Covenant, and to attend the Episcopal worship. They refused, and they were sentenced to be drowned. They were carried to a spot which the Solway overflows twice a day, and were fastened to stakes fixed in the sand between high and low water mark. The elder sufferer was placed near to the advancing flood, in the hope that her last agonies might terrify the younger into submission. The sight was dreadful. But the courage of the survivor was sustained by an enthusiasm as lofty as any that is recorded in martyrology. She saw the sea draw nearer and nearer, but gave no sign of alarm. She prayed and sang verses of psalms till the waves choked her voice. After she had tasted the bitterness of death, she was by a cruel mercy unbound, and re implored her to yield. "Dear Margaret, only say, God save the King." The poor girl, true to her stern theology, gasped out, "The Lord save him, if it be the Lord's will." Her friends crowded round the presiding officer. "She has said it; indeed, Sir, she has said it." "Will she take the abjuration ?" he demanded. "Never," she exclaimed, "I am Christ's; let me go." And the waters closed over her for the last time.' The facts are Wodrow's; the language is chiefly Macaulay's, and never was story told with more dramatic pathos. Dr. Hill Burton, it may be remarked, admits the truth of the deaths, but is doubtful of the reputed conversation. But really, if the martyrdom be a fact, the truth or otherwise of the conversation is of very little consequence, and there is no reason to doubt the current tradition when it seems extremely probable. Other equally fascinating examples of Macaulay's style we would have liked to give, and we had intended briefly to notice both his Essays and his illustrious political career, but space forbids. His honourable and distinguished life, however, is so recent and so fresh in our memory as to require little description, while his Essays are probably the most widely known and the most popular of all his writings. The story of his life reveals no incident which requires palliation or excuse. It was one continuous advance by the difficult path of earnest toil and lofty integrity almost to the highest point of earthly distinction and renown. As to his writings, both History, Essays, and Lays, they may safely be left to take care of themselves. Let critics do their worst. They will never destroy the influence which Lord Macaulay's writings will always exercise over a multitude of delighted readers. He may be sneered at as shallow by lofty philosophers, and carped at as inaccurate by literal pedants, but he will ever continue to delight and instruct an enormous majority of the English speaking race, showing them that information is not necessarily disagreeable, and that truth is not only stranger but more attractive than fiction. He will continue to afford them intellectual enjoyment not above their capacity, and they will ever hold in grateful remembrance one who has given them so much benefit and so much happiness, and who has not despised the wants and wishes of the many. the greatest good of the greatest number-would probably have been his dearest wish, and will ever constitute the noblest claim to the gratitude and affection of posterity. ART. III.-EARLY SCOTTISH BURGHS. 1. Ancient Laws and Customs of the Burghs of Scotland, A.D., 1124–1424. Edinburgh, 1868. 2. Charters and Other Documents Relating to the City of Edinburgh, A.D. 1143-1540. Edinburgh, 1871. 3. Charters and Documents Relating to the Burgh of Peebles, A.D. 1165-1621. Edinburgh, 1872. 4. Charters and Documents relating to the City of Glasgow, A.D. 1175-1648. Edinburgh, 1883. THESE HESE and other volumes of the Scottish Burgh Records Society, illustrative of the early history of burghs in Scotland, have a practical interest even in the present day. They help us to form an intelligent conception of what burghs were in this country in the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries, showing them to have been centres of freedom, as freedom was then understood. They exhibit burghs as important factors in the promotion of civilization-guarding popular liberty and developing national culture. In acknowledging the debt of gratitude we owe to them, we shall the more reverently appreciate and cherish those municipal institutions of our own times, which are the lineal descendants of these distant ancestors,-descendants who still retain much of the form and spirit of their old progenitors. In an acquaintance with the constitution. and customs of the old burghs, we shall find the best preparation for studying municipal institutions in later times, and even for understanding much that still remains. Using, then, mainly to offer in the present paper a rapid sketch of early Scottish burghs in some of their more important aspects. When burghs were first established in Scotland it is impossible to say. But that they did exist as compact, well-organised bodies in the first half of the twelfth century, is proved by the Laws of the Four Burghs, compiled in the reign of David I., and sanctioned by him. We can scarcely conceive, in fact, of a country possessing a home and foreign trade without having also industrial and commercial settlements. The old chronicler Wyntoun tells us as regards Macbeth, whom the genius of Shakspeare has invested with such lurid light, that All hys tyme wes gret plenté We may therefore assume that such settlements existed in Scotland in the early part of the eleventh century, as they certainly did exist in England at a much earlier period. The selection of the sites of these infant settlements was doubtless largely determined by considerations of natural adaptation. The bay or the bend of the navigable river or estuary, which afforded ready access from the sea as well as shelter to the small craft that sufficed for the trade of these early times, probably led to the first settlement of such burghs as Berwick, Dundee, Arbroath, Aberdeen, and Inverness. The protection offered by the proximity of a royal castle doubtless favoured the formation and growth of Edinburgh, Stirling, Roxburgh, Forfar, and Ayr. The material advantages derivable from connection with a cathedral or monastery and all the fostering influences of the Church, facilitated the establishment of St. Andrews, Glasgow, Brechin, Dunkeld, Dunblane, Jedburgh, Paisley, Kelso, Selkirk, Dunfermline, and Canongate. The encouragement which the great temporal lords were wise enough to give to early traders and merchants to settle in their territories, by affording protection and privilege in return for the wealth and influence which flowed from such centres of peaceful industry, led to the formation of many subordinate towns. These early burghs consisted of three |