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It is no uncommon thing to hear
and read the Highlanders spoken of us if, in recent times, they had been
delivered from the feudal system the idea being conveyed that the feudal
system was that of the clans. I need hardly tell a company of
intelligent Highlanders that this is it mistake; and it is only for the
sake of argument that it is necessary for me to say that the feudal
system could only be set up on the ruins of the clan system.
It is rather curious that the
above blunder is most frequently committed at the very time that the
blunderers are trying to make us believe that they are instructing its
in politics; and yet, that the simple truth comes out very frequently
when the blunderers put forth no such pretensions. How often do we hear,
for instance, of a feud between enemies; but of persons who stick
closely together and help one another being clannish. Here you see the
distinction, and even the difference, between the two systems lingering
in common speech, after so-called philosophers and designing
politicians, had done their utmost to establish a fiction in the public
mind. "There was a great feud between such and such
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