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To those who are not familiar with
the ancient history of Scotland, these observations on the former state of
the Highlands will be illustrated by a reference to Buchanan’s History of
the Feuds and Conflicts of the Clans, to Martin’s History of the Western
Isles, and to Mr. Home’s History of the Rebellion in 1745,
particularly the introductory chapters: many anecdotes are also
interspersed through Pennant’s Tours. These books being in general
circulation, particular quotations are unnecessary; but the inquisitive
reader may be glad to see a few passages from some publications of the
period referred to, and which are not so generally known.
In a pamphlet published immediately
after the suppression of the rebellion in
1745, entitled "Superiorities displayed, or
Scotland’s Grievance by reason of the Slavish Dependence of the People
upon their Great Men," is the following. passage: -
With respect to this and other depredations committed
by the Highlanders, the first parliament after the Revolution sent up
their grievances to king William, desiring a redress of them; whereof this
was one:— "That an effectual course may be taken to repress the
depredations and robberies committed by the Highlanders." ‘See Act 18,
anno 1689. The king’s instruction to the duke of Hamilton; commissioner to
the parliament, was in these words, "You are to endeavour to procure an
act for an effectual course, to repress the depredations and robberies by
the Highland clans; and when this matter is digested, you are to transmit
the proposals to us, that you may get particular instructions thereanent."
A gentleman, in an Account of the Affairs in Scotland, printed about that
time, gives us his observation upon this: it is, "That the depredations by
the Highlanders are certainly a great inconvenience to the kingdom,
whereby the inhabitants of the Lowlands are notably obliged to keep
numbers of armed men to watch and guard the passages and descents from the
Highlands, but likewise to pay considerable compositions to these robbers,
to procure their protection and assurance, which the law discharges, and
this acknowledgement is called black mail, whereby these thieves
are sustained without industry or virtue, who are hard to be reduced or
brought to justice because of the inaccessibleness of the mountains,
and that forces are not able to find subsistence there, nor march as far
in two or three days in a body, as the Highlanders can do in one, and
therefore the grievance is just; but there is no method proposed for
accomplishing the redress: therefore the king did remit to the parliament
to consider and digest effectual courses for repressing the Highlanders,
which are to be transmitted to his majesty that he may give particular
instructions to his commissioner. Like as though in the mean time the
parliament did refuse to grant a supply, yet the king: hath maintained a
considerable army upon his own charge this summer, and hath planted some
considerable garrisons round the verge of the, mountains to secure
the Lowlands; and if his majesty should with draw or disband these forces,
which he hath not been enabled to pay, the Highland clans being now
combined in arms and open rebellion against the government, they would
quickly destroy that kingdom, and raise such a flame in England as might
have fatal effects before it could be detected. A method for repressing
the depredations in the Highlands, was agreed to in the third session of
the first parliament of king William and queen Mary, Act 4, September 10,
1690. But, so far as I can understand, it was not an effectual remedy.
A very curious description of the state of the
Highlands in the early part of last century is given in a book entitled,
"Letters from a Gentleman in the North
of Scotland to his Friend in London," printed in 1754. The date of the
letters however appears to have been about 1725 or 1730.
Though anonymous, the internal evidence of their
authenticity is so strong, as to leave no impression of doubt: and the
writer (who appears to have been an officer of engineers quartered at
Inverness) shows himself a man of observation and of candour. As the book
is now very rare, and the account of peculiar value from being a detail of
facts immediately under the eye of the writer, a large extract may not
perhaps be unacceptable.
‘The Highlanders are divided into tribes, or clans, un der
chiefs or chieftains, as they are called in the laws of Scotland, and each
clan again divided into branches from the main stock, who have chieftains
over them. These are subdivided into smaller branches of, fifty or sixty
men, who deduce their original from the principal chieftains; and
rely upon them as their more immediate protectors and
defenders.
But, for better distinction, I shall use the word chief
for the head of a whole clan; and the principal of a tribe, derived from
him, I shall call a chieftain.
The ordinary Highlanders esteem it the most sublime
degree of virtue to love their chief, and pay him a blind obedience,
although it be in opposition to the government, the laws of the kingdom,
or even to the law of God. He is their
idol; and as they profess to know no king but him, (I was going further)
so will they say they ought to do whatever he
commands, without in‘quiry.
Next to this love of their chief is that of the
particular branch from whence they sprung, and in a third degree, to those
of the whole clan or name, whom they will assist, right or wrong, against
those of any other tribe with which they are at variance; to whom their
enmity, like that of exasperated brothers, is most outrageous.
Vol.ii.,p.91.
The chief exercises an arbitrary authority over his
vassals, determines all differences and disputes that happen among them,
and levies taxes upon extraordinary occa sions;
such as the marriage of a daughter, building a house, or some
pretence for his support, and the honour of the name.
And if any one should refuse to contribute to the best of his ability, he
is sure of severe treatment; and if he persisted in his obstinacy, he
would be cast out ‘of the tribe by general consent. But instances of this
kind have very rarely happened.
This power of the chiefs is not supported by interest
as they are landlords, but as lineally
descended from the old patriarchs, or fathers of the families; for they
hold the same authority when they have lost their
estates, as may appear from several, and particularly one, who commands in
his clan, though at the same time they maintain him, having nothing left
of his own.
On the other hand, the chief, even against the laws, is
to protect his followers, as they are sometimes called, be they never so
criminal.
He is their leader in clan-quarrels, must free the
necessitous from their arrears of rent; and maintain such who by accidents
are fallen to total decay.
If by increase of the tribe
any small farms are wanting for support of such addition, he splits others
into lesser portions; because all must be somehow provided for. And as the
meanest among them pretend to be his relations by consanguinity, they
insist upon the privilege of taking him by the hand, wherever they meet
him.
Concerning this last, I once saw a number of very
discontented countenances, when a certain lord, one of the chiefs,
endeavoured to evade this ceremony.
It was in presence of an English gentleman in high
station, from whom he would willingly have concealed the knowledge of such
seeming familiarity with slaves of so wretched appearance; and thinking
it, I suppose, as a kind of contradiction to what he had often boasted at
other times, viz,
his despotic power in his clan.
The unlimited love and obedience of the Highlanders to
their chiefs, are not confined to the lower order of
their followers; but are the same with those
who are near them in rank’. p 94
Some of the chiefs have not only personal dislikes and
enmity to each other, but there are also hereditary feuds between clan and
clan; which have been handed down from one generation to another for
several ages.
These quarrels descend to the meanest vassal; and thus,
sometimes, an
innocent person suffers for crime committed by his tribe at a vast
distance of time before his being began.
When a quarrel begins in words between two Highlanders
of different clans, it is esteemed the very height of malice and rancour;
and the greatest of all provocations, to reproach one another with the
vices or personal
defects of their chief, which for the most part ends in wounds or death.’
p. 100.
By an old Scottish law, the chief was made accountable
for any depredations, or other violences committed by his clan upon the
borders of the Lowlands; and in extraordinary cases he was obliged
to give up his son
or some other nearest relation, as a hostage for the
peaceable behaviour of his followers in that respect.
By this law (for I never saw the act) he must surely
have had an entire command over them; at least, tacitly, for by inference
understood. For how unreasonable, not to say unjust, must such
a restriction have
been to him, if by sanction of the same law he had not had a coercive and
judicial authority over those in whose choice and power it always lay to
bring punishment upon him? If he had such an absolute command over them,
was it not to make of every chief a petty prince in his own
territory, and his followers a people distinct
and separate from all others?’
I have heard many instances of the faithfulness of
particular Highlanders to
their masters, but shall relate only one which is to me
very well known.
At the battle of Glenshiels, in the rebellion of the
year 1719, a
gentleman, (George Munro of Culcairne) for whom I have a great esteem,
commanded a company of Highlanders raised out of his father’s clan, and
entertained at his own expense. There he was dangerously wounded in the
thigh from a party of the rebel Highlanders, posted upon the declivity of
a mountain, who kept on firing at him after he was
down, according to ‘their want of discipline, in spending much fire
upon one single officer, which distributed among the body might thin the
ranks of their enemy.
When after he fell, and found by their behaviour they
were resolved to dispatch him outright, he bid his servant, who was
by, get out of the danger, for he might lose his life, but could be of no
manner of succour or service to him; and only desired him, that when he
returned home, he would let his father and his family know that he had not
misbehaved.
Hereupon the Highlander burst out into tears, and
asking him how he thought he could leave him in that condition, and what
they would think of him at home; set himself down on his hands and knees
over his master; and received several wounds to shield him from further
hurt; till one of the clan, who acted as a sergeant, with a small party
dislodged the enemy, after having taken an oath upon his dirk that he
would do it.
This man has often waited at table when his master and
I dined together, but otherwise is treated more like a friend than a
servant.
The gentlemen who are near relations of the chief hold
pretty large farms, if the estate will allow it, perhaps twenty
or thirty pounds a year, and they again, generally parcel them out to
under tenants in small portions. Hence it comes, that by such a division
of an old farm (part of an upper tenant’s holding) suppose, among eight
persons, each of them pays an eighth part of every thing.
You will, it is likely, think it strange, that many of
the Highland tenants are to maintain a family upon a farm of twelve merks,
Scots, per annum, which is thirteen shillings and fourpence sterling,
with, perhaps, a cow or two, or a very few sheep or goats; but often the
rent is less, and the cattle are wanting.
What follows is a specimen, taken out of a Highland
rent-roll, and I do assure you it is genuine, and; not the least by many.
The poverty of the tenants has rendered it customary
for the chief, or laird, to free some of the them every year from all
arrears of rent; this is supposed, upon an average, to be about one year
in five of the whole estate.
When a son is born to the chief of a family, there
generally arises a contention among the vassals, which of them shall have
the fostering of the child, when it is taken from the nurse; and by this
means such differences are sometimes fomented as are hardly ever after
thoroughly reconciled.
The happy man, who succeeds in his suit, is ever after
called the foster-father; and his children, the foster-brothers and
sisters of the young laird.
This they reckon not only endears them to their chief,
and greatly strengthens their interest with him, but gives them a great
deal of consideration among their feilow vassals and the foster-brother
having the same education as the young chief, may, besides that, in time
become his hanchman, or perhaps be promoted to that office under the old
patriarch himself, if a vacancy should happen or otherwise, by their
interest, obtain orders and a benefice.
This officer is a sort of secretary, and is to be ready
upon all occasions, to venture his life in defence of his masters and at
drinking-bouts he stands behind his seat, at his haunch, from whence his
title is derived, and watches the conversation, to see if any one offends
his patron.
An English officer being in company with a certain
chieftain, and several other Highland gentlemen, near Killichumen, had an
argument with the great man; and both being well warmed with usky, at last
the dispute grew very hot. A youth who was hanchman, not
understanding one word of English, imagined his chief was insulted, and
thereupon drew his pistol from his side, and snapped it at the officer’s
head; but the pistol missed fire, otherwise it is more than probable he
might have suffered death from the hand of that little vermin.
When a chief goes a journey in the hills, or makes a
formal visit to an equal, he is said to he attended by all or most part of
the officers following, viz.
The Hànchman - before described.
Bard - his poet.
Bladier -
— spokesman.
Gilli-more - carries his broad sword.
Gilli-casflue - carries him, when on foot, over the fords.
Gilli-comstraine - leads his horse in rough and dangerous ways.
Gilli-trushanarnish - the baggageman.
The Piper - who being a gentleman, I
should have named him sooner.
And lastly,
The Pipers Gilli - who carries the bag pipe.
There are likewise, some gentlemen, near of kin, who
bear him company; and besides a number of the com mon
sort, who have no particular employment, but follow him
only to partake of the cheer.
I must own that all these attendants, and the profound
respect they pay, must be flattering enough; though the equipage has none
of the best appearance.
But this state may appear to sooth the pride of the
chief to a vast degree, if the declaration of one of them was sincere; who
at dinner, before a good deal of com pany,
English as well as Scots, myself being one of the number, affirmed, that
if his estate was free from incumbrances, and was none of his own, and he
was then put to choose between that and the estate of the duke of
Newcastle, supposing it to be thirty thousand pounds a year (as somebody
said it was), he would make choice of the former, with the following
belonging to it, before the other without it. Now his estate might be
about five hundred pounds a year?
The tribes will not suffer strangers to settle within
their precinct, or even those of another clan to enjoy any possession
among them; but will soon constrain them to quit their
pretensions, by cruelty to their persons, or mischief to their cattle, or
other property. Of this there happened two flagrant instances, Within a
few years past.
The first was as follows: Gordon, laird of Glenbucket,
had been invested by the D. of G. in some lands in Badenoch, by virtue, I
think, of a wadset or mortgage. These lands lay among the Macphersons; but
the tenants of that name refused to pay the rent to the
new landlord, or to acknowledge him as such.
This refusal put him upon the means to eject them by
law; whereupon the tenants came to a resolution to put an end to his suit
and new settlement, in the manner following.
Five or six of them, young fellows, the sons of gentle men,
entered the door of his hut; and in fawning words told him, they
were sorry any dispute had happened. That they were then resolved to
acknowledge him as their immediate landlord, and would regularly pay him
their rent. At the same time they begged he would withdraw his process,
and they hoped they should be agreeable to him for the future. All this
while they were almost imperceptibly drawing nearer and nearer to his
bedside, on which he was sitting, in order to prevent his defending
himself (as they knew him to be a man of distinguished courage), and then
fell suddenly on him; some cutting him with their dirks, and others
plunging them into his body. This was perpetrated within sight of the
barrack of Ruthven.
The, other example is of a minister, who had a small
farm assigned him, and upon his entrance to it, some of
the clan, in the dead of the night, fired flve balls through his hut,
which all lodged in his bed; but he happening to be absent that night,
escaped their barbarity, but was forced to quit the country. Of this he
made to me an affecting complaint.
This kind of cruelty, I think, arises from their dread
of innovations, and the notion they entertain, that they
have a kind of hereditary right to their farms; and
that none of them are to be dispossessed unless for some great
transgression against their chief; in which case every individual
would consent to their expulsion.
The chiefs (like princes upon the continent, whose
dominions lie contiguous) do not invade each others boundaries, while they
are in peace and friendship with one another, but demand redress of
wrongs; and whoever should do otherwise, would commit an offence in which
every tribe is interested, besides the lasting feud it
might create between the two neighbouring clans.
This last remark
is confirmed
by many curious ancient papers, in which the chiefs of different clans
make treaties of various kinds exactly in the style of independent
princes.
On the state of the Highlands at the period alluded to
there are some valuable observations in a pamphlet published in
1748, entitled, ‘A Letter to a noble Lord, containing a Plan for
effectually uniting and sincerely attaching the Highlanders to the British
Constitution and Revolution Settlement.
'My lord, the Highlanders have been oppressed and
enslaved by their chiefs, yet oppressed and enslaved
after such a manner, that they have joyfully submitted to their tyrants,
and gloried, nay triumphed, in their base and ignominious servitude. The
large, extensive and universal property of
their chiefs, and the manner
in which they planted and tenanted that property,
was indeed the cause
of great influence and power on one hand, as it was of great poverty and
ignorance on the other; and by this method alone the people might have
been induced, through mere fear and dread, to a sub-mission and compliance
with the will and command of their
lords: but, my lord, the connections prevailing there have yet a deeper
and a stronger root, that of family, blood, relationship, kindred.
The chief, who is the eldest branch of the first stock,
is considered as the guardian, protector and father of his clan. The
relationship runs from him; and is counted, through innumerable degrees,
to the very remotest and lowest slave of the tribe The blood is honourable
to the last, and the meanest clown on the mountains will maintain his
title of alliance at the point of his sword. In this manner, my lord, the
various tribes and clans of the Highlands consider themselves as so many
separate and distinct families, each family having one common interest,
one great aim, one principal and ultimate end in view, which is, the
honour, the dignity, the interest of the chief: and a discipline suitable
to these notions and principles is observed; for, from the earliest
moments of their youth, they, are instructed what degree of blood and
relationship they bear to him; informed of the honour thereby accruing to
themselves; and taught, that all respect and veneration is due to him, as
being the representative, of that extensive family of which
themselves are but parts, and as being the head by which the energy,
dignity and power of the clan is exerted and displayed. They see but every
where an universal and constant obedience paid him, and obedience which
all think themselves honoured in paying, and it is paid to their own
blood, the head and fountain of their kindred.
Habit and example fix and
rivet these principles in the heart and what finally
cements and binds this union between the chief and his clan is a maxim
invariably pursued, that whoever insults or injures the most insignificant
member of the clan, wounds the honour and reputation of the family;
insomuch that the chief and his whole family or clan, look upon themselves
as most sacredly bound to revenge and wipe off every such injury and
insult, even at the hazard and expense of the last drop of their blood.
My lord, I hold this system
of relationship and the
manner of planting’the property of the
country, to be the principal and secret springs of all the power and
influence of the Highland chiefs, all the servitude and dependence of the
people composing the Highland clans; and however others may overlook or
despise the first of these, your lordship will easily perceive the
difference between the last exerting, itself alone, and exerting itself
in union with the first; for though the last might by itseIf have
reduced the people to a state of dependence, and servitude, yet
that servitude would have been such as would have
rendered the people entirely base, and spiritless; such are for
instance, the subjects of the Turk: and such hath been and always will be
the ease of every people who are ruled and governed only by the influence
and effect of property vested in the person of one man. For in this case
there is raised no generous sentiment, no natural leading, no friendly
ties to quicken and accelerate the native passions and courage of a
man. Nothing, my lord, prevails here, but the
cruel and stupefying hand of irresistible power, which crops and
distorts every thing naturally good and excellent.
But
join this to the first, as is the case of the
Highlanders, and though power and oppression take place, yet it shall
appear to be otherwise: for, by this combination of principles, the
Highlander considers the bread he eats under his master, not as the
starved fare of a tyranny, but the natural and
kind distribution and appointment of the great parent and head of his
family and clan. The service and obedience required is not viewed by him
as a cruel and compelled subjection to a princely stranger, whose interest
and views are as infinitely removed from his, as is his royal blood and
pedigree; but as the natural and necessary obedience of
a child of that family, whose honour and dignity is supposed to consist in
the honour and dignity of the chief, and whose own private excellence and
importance is thereby presumed to grow and increase with that of his head.
His spirit therefore is not broke, or rendered timid,
by a constant service and submission to his lord; but enlivened and
exalted through a love of glory and desire of fame. Nor would his
affection or obedience change along with the property,
to a new master; as is the case in Turkey. For his natural
affection would remain, when the power of the chief was gone; nay it would
grow with his misfortunes, for he would consider them as the disgrace and
misfortunes of the family and of himself. I say then, my lord, that
distinct from property, there is another cause of the extraordinary power
of the chiefs, I mean the bond of relationship and as this
cause is very strong, and can affect and influence when the other no more
exists, it ought to be considered in a particular manner, in settling the
future liberty of the Highlands.
in confirmation of these observations may be quoted; a
remarkable anecdote of the celebrated lord Lovat, who was attainted on
account of the part he took in the rebellion in
1745. It is mentioned in the Memoirs of his Life, published about that
time, that the estate which he claimed as heir male and chief of the clan
of Frasers, had fallen into the hands of a gentleman of another name,
whose claim resting upon a female title was of no validity according to
the established customs of clanship. From a concurrence of circumstances,
however, that gentleman (MacKenzie of Fraserdale) had been maintained in
possession for some years; till, on the breaking out of the rebellion in
the year 1715 he joined the Pretender’s army with five hundred men, but,
says the writer of the memoirs, at least half that clan refused to rise,
declared their true
chief was arrived in England, and they would wait for his coming; which
was treated with great ridicule and contempt by Seaforth and
Fraserdale, and the latter marched with a detachment of between six and
seven hundred men to force the men to the service, but it had a contrary
effect. For though they did rise under the lairds of Struy and Foyer, yet
they showed such a resolution to defend themselves,
that Fraserdale and his people did not think it to attack them.
Lord Lovat, having made his way into the country, put
himself at the head of the clan; and, from enmity against his rival,
joined some other chiefs who had risen in favour of government, and gained
some advantages over the adherents of the Pretender.
This success however, proceeds the author of the Memoirs, did not satisfy
lord Lovat; he was resolved to
show his interest and power as a Highland chief, and therefore sent a
trusty person to Perth, where the whole force of the rebels was assembled
under lord Mar, to summon the Frasers under the command of his competitor
to join their lawful chief; and though his friends looked upon this as a
very wild and strange attempt, yet it had all the success he could desire:
for his clan, taking a favourable opportunity, marched off in a body, and
actually came to Inverness and joined lord Lovat.
The arts of popularity which were used on the other
hand by the chiefs, in order to preserve and strengthen these sentiments
among their followers, have continued to affect the manners of the
Highlands even till a recent date. Pennant appears to have been much
struck with them.
On the side of the chieftain, he observes, no art of affability,
generosity or friendship, which could Inspire love and esteem, was left
untried, to secure a full and willing obedience, which strengthened the impressions
of education.
The manners arising from these principles have remained
in vigour long after the motives which first prompted them could have no
immediate influence. Those chieftains, in particular, who still cherished,
the ancient ideas of the country and were anxious to preserve the
affection of their followers, continued to behave towards them in the
accustomed style of cordiality. This did not escape the observant eye of
Dr. Johnson, who, in speaking of his residence at the house of Mr.
MacLean, of Col, says, Wherever we roved, we were pleased to see the
reverence with which his subjects regarded him. He did not endeavour to
dazzle them by any magnificence
of dress, his only distinction was a feather in his bonnet; as soon
as he appeared, they forsook their work and clustered about him: he took
them by the hand and they seemed mutually delighted.
Among the numerous characteristic anecdotes which are
related of the Highlanders of former times, and which show in how singular
a degree they combined the most refined sentiments of fidelity
and generosity, with a total disregard of what
in civilized society are deemed the common principles of honesty, we may
instance the well known fact related in the Statistical Account of
Scotland, vol. viii. p. 359. Mac Ian, alias Kennedy, after the defeat of
the unfortunate Charles Stewart, at Culloden, watched over him with
inviolable fidelity for weeks, and even robbed, at the risque of his life,
for his support at the very time that he himself and his family were in a
state of starvation, and that he knew be could gain 30,0001. by betraying
his guest. This poor man, was afterwards executed at Inverness for
stealing a cow. A little before his execution, he took off his bonnet, and
thanked God that he had never betrayed his trust, never
injured the poor, and never refused a share of what he had to the stranger
and the needy.
The contradiction which shows itself in this conduct is
not perhaps so great as it may at first sight appear. There is no want of
proof, that among the ancient Highlanders it was always reckoned
disgraceful to steal from one of the same clan, though they were not in
the least ashamed of theft or robbery committed against distant or
inimical tribes; and that every chieftain dispensed justice among his own
followers with strict impartiality, though he protected them against
others, however criminal in the eye of the law. In fact, the clans were
little separate nations and acted on a small scale, on the same
principles on which we see the great kingdoms of Europe conduct
themselves. Mac Ian, when he stole the cow for which he was hanged,
was no more ashamed of what he had done, than a captain in the British
navy would be of having taken a Spanish galleon loaded with dollars. This
circumstance of the clans being separate and distinct political
communities, and the chiefs in effect petty independent princes, is the
fundamental principle on which the whole of the ancient state of the
country essentially depended.
Here, indeed, I must observe, that in speaking of the
feudal system in the Highlands, I do not use the term in the strict and
technical sense in which it is understood by lawyers, but as some
historians have employed it, to signify the state of society, which arose
from the partial independence of the great barons, during the period when
the executive government of the different kingdoms of Europe had not
attained sufficient power to exercise a steady and effectual control.
The regular system of feudal tenures never was fully
established in the Highlands. lt was only in later times that the
chieftains were induced to apply for charters from the crown, in the legal
and feudal form, to corroborate the more effectual title they derived from
the right of
the strongest.
Some of them even disdained to accept of such titles, and declared they
would never hold their lands in a sheep’s shin. One of considerable
note (MacDonell of Kepoch) acted on this principle down to the year
1745;
and after the rebellion his lands fell into possession of another chief,
who had claimed them for many ages on the ground of a charter from the
crown, without ever having been able till then to make his title
effectual.
From this too it appears, that the system of Heritable
Jurisdiction had by no means so great an effect on the ancient state of
the highlands as many have, ascribed to it. In fact, there were some
chiefs who nominally held these jurisdictions over very extensive
territories, but never could enforce their authority beyond the limits of
their own immediate clannish power. On the other hand, the chiefs
who had no legal jurisdiction at all, exercised every power of the highest
courts of law. Dr. Adam Smith quotes an instance of this kind :—It
is not thirty years ago, since Mr. Cameron, of Locheil, a gentleman of
Lochaber, in Scotland, without any legal warrant whatever, not being what
was called a lord of regality, nor even a tenant in chief, but a vassal of
the duke of Argyle’s, and without being so much as a justice of peace,
used notwithstanding to exercise the highest criminal jurisdiction over
his own people. He is said to have done so with great equity, though
without any of the formalities of justice.’—Wealth of Nations, book
iii. chap.4. |
