Volume 3 - Electric Scotland

HISTORY OF THE WESTERN ISLANDS. 77
ant, yet kindred offices, of thief and thief-taker, like a
well-educated pupil of Jonathan Wild. The conduct of
Lovat, with different objects, was equally notorious. For
the purpose of supporting the military spirit of his Clan
and his own consequence at the same time, as conducive
to the political designs he had in view, and with the de-
sign, then universal among the Highland Chiefs, of re-
pressing innovation and preventing the settlement of
strangers, he became the tyrant of his district; destroy-
ing the lands and the cattle of his neighbours, and not
even sparing their persons ;
while he contrived, by means
of his emissaries, to rescue from the fangs of the law,
such of his people as had fallen within its power.
The Chiefs, generally, were encouraged in that spirit
during this interval, by France as well as by Rome,
from whom they received supplies both of arms and
money. This state of things gave rise, on the part of
government, to the levy of the independent Highland
companies ; called the black watch, to distinguish them
from the red-coated troops of the standing army. These
were formed out of the idle persons of several Clans
the men being officered by their own tacksmen and the
sons or brothers of their chieftains, and commanded by the
latter. That this system was productive of some good
effects, is certain; although it was often asserted that, with
the true fellow-feeling of their origin and connexions,
they sometimes shared the plunder with the banditti
whom they were created to quell. Whatever advantages
might have been derived from them, was probably also
amply compensated by the effect which this establish-
ment had in renewing or maintaining that very spirit of
war and independence which former laws had been in-
vented to quell.
It is quite unnecessary to pursue this sketch further.
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