Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

juftify fuch an account. Extreme age, and the preffure of the ground, had crumbled into atoms of ruft all the metallic substances. The urn, or vafe, M. Fauval, an ingenious artift now refiding at Athens, received from M. Choifeul in its decayed itate, and made a model from it, which has been exhibited to several connoiffeurs, as much to their furprife as fatisfaction; and 'the goddefs with her chariot and four

horfes' feem to prove that the Troad continues to be the land of invention. If Pococke's opinion be juft, that Befhic tepee, on the Sigean ridge, on account of being more confpicuous at fea, was the true fepulchre of Achilles and Patroclus, and the two on the fhore thofe of Antilochus and another hero,Chevalier's account is defcription instead of truth."

STATE of the PEOPLE and of CIVILIZATION in SCOTLAND, at the latter End of the 14th, and at the Beginning of the 15th CENTURY. [From the First Volume of PINKERTON'S HISTORY of SCOTLAND, under the HOUSE of STUART.]

WHE

HETHER education, climate, or government, produce most effect on national cha

racter, is an important problem, difcuffed by many able writers, but hitherto not fufficiently refolved. It

long, and in the middle, being the thickest part, about the circumference of a quart bottle, and weighing feven or eight pounds. It was, at firft, called the hilt of a fword, but afterward Mr. Choiseul declared it to be the ftatue of a man with a lion under each foot.

7. A fmall piece of a transparent fubftance, belonging, as he said, to a kind of tube worked and closed at one end. It may not be eafy to conjecture for what use this was ⚫ intended. From his defeription of it, I collect, that it was about a foot long and two inches in diameter, ornamented with branches in chased or embossed work, and of fo transparent a nature, that objects might be clearly feen through it. It had receiv⚫ed but flight injury, having only a fmall fracture at the upper end.

He then acquainted us with the different ftrata of earth he had dug through in opening the tomb. On the outfide was a kind of fea fand, the fame as that near it; then yellowish foil, folid but light; coloured earths, black and yellow, each Stratum ⚫ being two feet deep, with large ftones. On the foundation of the barrow apparently was a large flab, extending, as he fuppofed, over the whole, as wherever he dug be ftill found it. In the middle was a hole twelve feet fquare, around which was raifed a • wall three feet high, which was the fepulchre containing the reliques. By the weight of the earth all was preffed together, which accounts for the confused and broken state in which the things were difcovered. On the outfide of this ftone was ftrewed a quantity of lime, and then of charcoal, supposed to be the ashes of the funeral pile.

When the barrows were clofed up, count Choifeul placed a fheet of lead on the bot* tom infcribed "Ouvrage fait par le Compte de Choifeul Gouffier l'an 1787" !!! Mr. • Chevalier's ignorance of modern Greek led him into a curious miftake. The two con⚫tiguous barrows are called 'dthèo tepe,' the two tombs. Mr. Chevalier hearing this name from the villagers, immediately conjectures away with his 'Amos temi,” and * puzzles himself with mythology.

October, 1795.'

muf

must however be granted by all, that each has its fhare in exciting or depreffing mental energy, in establishing general induftry or indolence, in promoting public happinefs or mifery. But of thefe grand caufes education feems defervedly to claim the pre-eminence. To deny the power of climate, would be to forget that man is fubject to the fkyey influences;' yet his industry, or care, may generally overcome or elude its effects: and foil is almoft equally fubfervient to labour. Government exerts a more pervading influence; even the peasant in his cottage is oppreffed by the burning heat of defpotifm, or the blafting storms of anarchy. The rewards of his labour ceafe amid the general diftrefs: the caprice of fome little tyrant, for flaves are ever tyrants where they can, or the revenge of a foe, may affail his hovel; and while his family perishes in penury, the labourer joins the mountain robbers, and falls the victim of thofe laws which afforded him no protection. Even moderate governments affect domestic life, and individuals, more than is commonly conceived; a war, a tax, an unwife law becomes an univerfal misfortune; while the benignity and fkill of the rulers enlarge the happiness of all. The influence, like that of the electric element, is rarely unveiled to the popular eye, though the fubtile fluid operate most widely on the public health.

"In the oriental legislations the connexion between laws and manners is often indiffoluble: and the laws become perpetual, by being grafted on the habits of that creature of habit, man. In Europe, on the contrary, the laws and manners are proverbially diftinct. Jurifdiction punishes crimes, but rewards not virtues: far lefs can it improve

domeftic morals, or diffuse the light of inftruction over a benighted nation. Thefe are the facred provinces of education, a cause of na tional character more prevalent than either of the former, as it ftrikes the very root of offence, and fows lafting feeds of intelligence and worth.

"But education, on the extenfive fcale here implied, remains an experiment even to the most civilized nations; and its effects must neither be regarded as speedy, nor in. finite. Even infants difplay, fome a perverfe, others a placid difpofition: and it is doubtful whether any care or art can eradicate, or fubdue, the inborn temper. If the bad habits of an individual prove often unconquerable by reafon or virtue, how deeply muft fuch habits be rooted in a whole people, where example operates like a sontagion?

Hence it is that the spirit, and manners, of the people ought to prefent the main object of political difcuffion on any particular state, and the more efpecially where government and education have little force. In whatever form of adminiftration, only a part can shine upon the public theatre, and thus attract the notice of history. The mafs of the nation remains in ob fcurity, even in enlightened ages; and philofophy can only estimate its history by that of its manners, for which the best materials are to be found not in the pages of the annalift, but in poems, novels, and romances. Barren however as are the annals of the poor, their ftate may always be justly estimated by that of the actors, who vaunt and vanish in the historic scene; and from the progrefs of nations, as favage, barbarous, or civilized. The monkih page prefents but a

fmall

fmall pulfe, yet from it the health, or fickness, of the whole body may be gathered with confiderable certainty.

"In Scotland, at the period now under review, the people were Bowly advancing from barbarism towards civilization. A peace of fome duration had taken place be fore the acceffion of the houfe of Stuart; and the confequent inter courfe with England, a country then rapidly progreffive in the arts of life, must have increased the national energy. Yet the feudal fetters continued to be firmly rivetted: every man was the foldier, or the menial attendant of his chief; and flocks,herds, agriculture afforded only fubfervient occupations. While the fingle fcience of the great was war, their fole amufe ment hunting, their chief magnificence a numerous train, it is no wonder that the poor were ferocious and idle, fecure during health of a maintenance from their lords, and in ficknefs of monaftic charity. Courage, honesty, franknefs, attachment to their chiefs, conftituted the chief virtues of the peafantry; temperance, and fobriety, were the virtues of the foil: fpirituous liquors, that bane of the poor, were as yet unknown in Europe, except among the ftores of the phyfician. Nor had religious fanaticifm, that unintermitting intoxication, yet poifoned the popular mind with habitual gloom: the poor chiefly knew the chriftian religion from its charity, from the public exhortations of the preaching friars, and from the gay exhibitions of the Roman catholic *fystem.

By more polifhed foreigners Scotland continued to be regarded as a country completely barbarous. The author of the Dittamundi allows that it is rich in fish, flesh, and milk, but,

[ocr errors]

Molto è el paese alpeftro e peregrino,
E ha la gente ruvida e felvatica.

• Mountainous and ftrange is the coun-
try,

And the people rough and favage.”

"The long and severe ordinan ces of Robert II. against murderers, and their receivers and fupporters, afford a proof that this charge was not unfounded. And the orders to the army, not to pillage their own countrymen, present another inftance of barbaric manners. The Ketherani, Kernes, or marauding highlanders, by continual inroads into the low countries greatly ob ftructed the progrefs of industry and civilization; and this inteftine evil, more pernicious than foreign inva fion, continued to a late period. Strangers to that industry which excites the Swifs peafant to cultivate the precipice, and the Norwegian to derive that fupport from the feawhich the land refuses, the highlanders fupplied their wants by rapine: and the civil animofity was increased by the difference of origin, language and manners, fo that the difficulties with which the government had to struggle, and the obftacles against order, were perhaps greater in Scotland than in any other European kingdom. The example of Henry II. of England, who planted a Flemish colony in Wales, efcaped the obfervation, or exceeded the power, of our monarchs: and the complete tranfpofition of the population of a province, though an expedient far from unknown to the Perfians, Greeks, and Romans, appears to furpass the wisdom, or the enterprize, of any later government.

"Though the peasantry were in fact the flaves of their lords, by menial or by feudal bondage, yet few inftances occur of abfolute villanage; and it is believed no exam

ple

ple appears in our records, of an eftate fold with the farmers, labour ers, and families attached to the foil. The appellation bufband, given to the Scotifh farmers, feems indeed to imply that they were confidered as bond flaves of their lord's houfe, or as fixed to their own particular farm-houses; yet what little evidence remains teaches us to confider them rather as flaves in cuf tom, than in law. The bufband lands, or farms, were divided into tillage and pafturage, were always fmall, and the farmers of courfe poor. The cotter who rears his hovel of turf and straw, under an old thorn, and cultivates three or four acres of the common, would in thefe ages have been styled a farmer. Large farms undoubtedly advance agriculture; and perhaps the numerous labourers employed are as ufeful and valuable members of fociety, as if each farmed a fmall portion of land.

"With the acceffion of the house of Stuart, a stronger light begins to arife on the internal ftate of Scotland. Barber wrote his celebrated poem in 1375; and in narrating the actions of Robert I. he prefents many pictures of the times and manners, the lapfe of half a century being imperceptible in the flow progrefs of civilization. But the curiofity of Froiffart a stranger has preferved the ftrongeft features; and bis vifit to Scotland forms an epoch in the history of national manners. From his account it appears that the French, themselves regarded by the Italians as barbarians, fhuddered at the penury and barbarity of Scotland. Even in the Doulce Efcoche or low lands, (for the highlanders of la Sauvage Efcoche were confidered as we now do American favages,) a remarkable ignorance prevailed of the commoneft arts of life. The 4

*

meaneft articles of manufacture, horfe-fhoes, harness, faddles, bri dles, were all imported ready made from Flanders. The houses of the common people were composed of four or five pofts to fupport the turf walls, and a roof of boughs; three days fuced to erect the humble manfion. A contemporary histo rian adds, that the country wa 'rather defert than inhabited, was almost wholly mountainous, and more abundant in savages than in cattle.'

"The English education of James I. contributed to the civilization of his kingdom. Yet even in his reign the picture by Enea Silvio, afterwards pope Pius II. is far from flattering. Concerning Scotland he found these things worthy of repetition. It is an island joined to England, ftretching two hundred miles to the north, and about fifty broad; a cold country, fertile of few forts of grain, and generally void of trees, but there is a fulphureous ftone dug up which is ufed for firing. The towns are unwalled, the houses commonly built without lime, and in villages roofed with turf, while a cow's hide fup, plies the place of a door. The commonalty are poor and uneducated, have abundance of flesh and fish, but eat bread as a dainty. The men are small in ftature, but bold; the women fair and comely, and prone to the pleasures of love; kiffes being there esteemed of lefs confequence than preffing the hand is in Italy. The wine is all imported; the horses are mostly small ambling nags, only a few being preferved entire for propagation, and neither curry-combs nor reins are used. The oysters are larger than in England. From Scotland are imported into Flanders hides, wool, falt fifl and pearls. Nothing gives the

Scots

Scots more pleasure than to hear the English difpraifed. The country is divided into two parts, the cultivated low-lands, and the region where agriculture is not used. The wild Scots have a different language, and fometimes eat the bark of trees. There are no wolves. Crows are new inhabitants, and therefore the tree in which they build becomes royal property. At the winter folftice, when the author was there, the day did not exceed four hours.' In another place, Silvio obferves that the fabulous tale of the barnacles, the invention of dreaming monks, had paffed from Scotland to the Orkneys: and that coals were given to the poor at the church doors by way of alms, the country being denuded of wood.

"The vigorous administration of James I. imparted tranquillity and happiness to the people; and was often regretted by them during the diftractions of the fubfequent reigns. Till this period the ftatutes were concealed from the nation in the darknefs of the Latin language; the good fenfe of this monarch ordered them to be iffued in the Scotifh tongue, while in England the laws were to be dictated in Latin and French till the reign of Richard III. Thus religion, and law, the fole rules of popular conduct, were veiled from the people; but there is no abfurdity which man has not reduced to practice. The ftatutes of James are wifely ordained to advance civilization, and the fanguine theorift may exult in their effects; but they rather proclaim the intelligence of the monarch, and of his ecclefiaftic minifters, than the national advancement. Ordinances prepared in the cabinet by wife and good men, were paffed by the lords of the articles; while the peers and landholders, with

whom the jurisdiction lay, either did not attend, or voted with a fmile. And the frequent repetition of the fame laws, even fo late as the reigns of James IV. and V. confpires with the records of hiftory to convince us, that the ftatutes rather indicate the evils that did exist, than the remedy of thefe evils. The roots of national habits are too deep to be affected by the thunder of laws, the flow devulfion of educa tion can alone explode them.

"Among the ftatutes of the first James, the following are the moft pertinent to the prefent difcuffion. That no private wars be allowed; that none travel with more attendants than they maintain; that no fornars fhall force their refidence upon the clergy or farmers; that in burghs, and on high ways, inns be erected; and that no beggars be permitted, except diftinguished by a badge importing the leave of the magiftrates: and the hofpitals for the poor and fick are ordered to be reformed. A remarkable law ordains, that all idle perfons, without means of livelihood, fhall be imprifoned, till they give fecurity, and fhall within forty days betake themfelves to fome fervice or craft. The trial of the causes of the poor is declared to be gratuitous.

"The inflitution of inns, repeatedly enforced, was perhaps calculated to fave the monafteries from the frequent intrufion of numerous guefts; but the neceffity of fuch laws indicates a radical defect in civilization. The first object of the Romans, after the conqueft of a barbaric country, was to open high ways through it; for on mutual and eafy intercourse all civilization depends. Yet this firft and indifpenfable ftep is unknown in our statutes. Some regulations appear concerning ferries; but till within these

« ZurückWeiter »