Untitled

THE CELTIC MAGAZINE. ll
social weal than the contour of mountains. Freedom forsook the Greeks
and straightway " all except their sun was set." Eoman policy disin-
tregated the political coherence of the East. What is destroying Highland
union? Who is Pontius Pilate here? What are the decrees of
Ccesar Augustus ? Let him who will look around hitn and see. English
law owes much to the Roman forum has the lesson of ;
provincial government
been learned so faithfully too ? When Pilate wants to do the Celts
a favour does his clemency extend only to Tonal MacTavish, and does the
favour consist in a slice of common which Pilate has no more right to
than Tonal himself] And if this act of kindness foments social strife, is
it not really a very cunning and effective piece of policy 1 If Tugal too is
ready to doff his jacket when Tonal comes, is he not equally ready to
doff his bonnet when Pilate appears 1 Here then is an important task to
perform to make Tugal keep on his jacket and his bonnet too. Independence
and co-operation are the ends. Freedom and reasoning are the
means. Here are planks for the platform of the Highland Sanhedrim.
But more important than Pilate is Csesar Augustus. The wattle
sword of the clown is comparatively harmless in the hands of a giant ;
but the gleaming brand of ^Damocles is dangerous in the grasp of an
infant. Thus he who makes laws has more influence over the destinies of
a people than he who enforces them. But there are times when Heiod
himself takes up the steel ; then indeed may Israel tremble. Has such a
time appeared in our history ? Our fathers may have been stubborn and
perhaps blind in their policy a hundred years ago. We are willing to
grant they were ; yet we are not ashamed of the part they acted. Hearts
so true, devotion so absolute merited kindness, not persecution, the
favour of kings, not their ban. If the policy of the Highlanders lacked
intelligence, the policy that crushed them lacked not only intelligence but
humanity. Well, what followed the '46 ? Proscription people dared
not use their own garb, confiscation the clans' right in the soil was lost,
treachery the chiefs turned their backs on the clans, tyranny action,
thought, and feeling were suppressed, extirpation the sword proceeded
to hold what it had conqured, misery every condition of reasonable com-
fort was reft away in a word political chaos, social discord, and material
ruin. Honour to whom hououi is due. These, 0,
Caesar ! are thine.
Some of the causes which then arose have since resulted in gigantic
issues. Their magnitude encompasses us on every side. They fetter and
chain us with institutions rendered awful by time, sacred by the name of law,
and terrible by the fasces of authority. What are we to do ? Our political
chains are so heavy that we cannot even shake them. Our friends from
home cannot hear their clang.
Some of us are asleep, drugged with the
slave's virtue, contentment. Bankruptcy, contumely, misery, staring us in
the face, the cruel goads of Herod at our backs, the jealousy and distrust
of our race on either side what is to be done ? Shall we fling away the
claymore, and fly every man as he is able? Never ! We have shown
our patience, now is the time to show our courage. There are no fetters
so hard but steel will cut them, and reason is sharper than steel, and more
cunning in overthrowing tyranny. Time was when the voice of reason was
lost among the clangour of arms. It was so at Culloden ; we suffer the
consequences now. Let it be so no more. For a century the Highlanders