loyed as food, every season saw a greater breadth of
them laid down. In the North-western Highlands, in especial, the use of
these roots increased from the year 1801 to the year 1846 nearly a
hundredfold, and came at length to form, as in Ireland, not merely the
staple, but in some localities almost the only food of the people; and
when destroyed by disease in the latter year, famine immediately ensued
in both Ireland and the Highlands. A writer in the _Witness_, whose
letter had the effect of bringing that respectable paper under the eye
of Mr. Punch, represented the Irish famine as a direct judgment on the
Maynooth Endowment; while another writer, a member of the Peace
Association--whose letter did not find its way into the _Witness_,
though it reached the editor--challenged the decision on the ground that
the Scotch Highlanders, who were greatly opposed to Maynooth, suffered
from the infliction nearly as much as the Irish themselves, and that the
offence punished must have been surely some one of which both
Highlanders and Irish had been guilty in common. _He_, however, had
found out, he said, what the crime visited actually was. Both the Irish
and Highland famines were judgments upon the people for their great
homicidal efficiency as soldiers in the wars of the empire--an
efficiency which, as he truly remarked, was almost equally
characteristic of both nations. For my own part, I have been unable
hitherto to see the steps which conduct to such profound conclusions;
and am content simply to hold, that the superintending Providence who
communicated to man a calculating, foreseeing nature, does occasionally
get angry with him, and inflict judgments upon him, when, instead of
exercising his faculties, he sinks to a level lower than his own, and
becomes content, like some of the inferior animals, to live on a single
root.

There are two periods favourable to observation--an early and a late
one. A fresh eye detects external traits and peculiarities among a
people, seen for the first time, which disappear as they become
familiar; but it is not until after repeated opportunities of study, and
a prolonged acquaintanceship, that internal characteristics and
conditions begin to be rightly known. During the first fortnight of my
residence in this remote district, I was more impressed than at a later
stage by certain peculiarities of manner and appearance in the
inhabitants. Dr. Johnson remarked that he found fewer very tall or