ancient language, by barely a mile
of ferry. I first saw light on the southern shore of the Frith of
Cromarty, where the strait is narrowest, among an old established
Lowland community, marked by all the characteristics, physical and
mental, of the Lowlanders of the southern districts; whereas, had I been
born on the northern shore, I would have been brought up among a Celtic
tribe, and Gaelic would have been my earliest language. Thus distinct
was the line between the two races preserved, even after the
commencement of the present century.

In returning to the Betsey during the mid-day interval in the service,
we passed the ruinous two-gabled house beside the boat-harbor. During
the incumbency of my friend's predecessor, it had been the public-house
of the island, and the parish minister was by far its best customer. He
was in the practice of sitting in one of its dingy little rooms, day
after day, imbibing whisky and peat-reek; and his favorite boon
companion on these occasions was a Roman Catholic tenant who lived on
the opposite side of the island, and who, when drinking with the
minister, used regularly to fasten his horse beside the door, till at
length all the parish came to know that when the horse was standing
outside the minister was drinking within. In course of time, through the
natural gravitation operative in such cases, the poor incumbent became
utterly scandalous, and was libelled for drunkenness before the General
Assembly; but, as the island of Eigg lies remote from observation,
evidence was difficult to procure; and had not the infatuated man got
senselessly drunk one evening, when in Edinburgh on his trial, and
staggered, of all places in the world, into the General Assembly, he
would probably have died minister of Eigg. As the event happened,
however, the testimony thus unwittingly furnished in the face of the
Court that tried him was deemed conclusive;--he was summarily deposed
from his office, and my friend succeeded him. Presbyterianism without
the animating life is a poor shrunken thing: it never lies in state when
it is dead; for it has no body of fine forms, or trapping of imposing
ceremonies, to give it bulk or adornment: without the vitality of
evangelism it is nothing; and in this low and abject state my friend
found the Presbyterianism of Eigg. His predecessor had done it only
mischief; nor had it been by any means vigorous before. Rum is one of
the four islands of the parish; and all my r