, of
gentleness, of kindness, and intrepidity, that we doubt if there be any
one public man in this part of the empire, or of the age that is gone,
whose qualities ought to be so strongly recommended to the contemplation
of all those who wish to serve their country."

It was in such society as this that Lord Lovat, by a rare fortune, was
brought, after his long and disgraceful exile. It was to such a home of
virtue, of intelligence, of the purest and best affections, that he was
introduced after a long course of contamination in the lowest scenes of
French corruption, which had succeeded an equally demoralising
initiation into the less graceful vices of the Court of George the
First. The inestimable privilege came too late in one sense. Lord Lovat
had gained nothing but wariness by the lapse of years; but the benefit
to his worldly condition was considerable.

From this time until a few years before the insurrection of 1745, Lord
Lovat may be regarded as a jealous partisan of the house of Hanover. No
doubt, a general survey of the state of society in Scotland would,
independent of his own personal views, have satisfied him that in such a
course was the only chance of permanent safety. The wretchedness of the
state of things at that period, can scarcely be adequately comprehended
by those who live in times when liberty of opinion is universally an
understood condition of civilized intercourse.

It is difficult for any person who lives now to carry himself back, by
reading or conversation, into the prospects or feelings of the people of
Scotland about a hundred years ago. The religious persecutions of the
Stuarts had given a darker hue to the old austerity of their Calvinism.
The expectation of change constantly held out by that family divided the
nation into two parties, differing on a point which necessarily made
each of them rebels in the eyes of the other; and thus the whole kingdom
was racked by jealousies, heart-burnings, and suspicions. The removal,
by the Union, of all the patronage and show of royalty, spread a gloom
and discontent, not only over the lower, but over the higher ranks. The
commencement of a strict system of general taxation was new, while the
miserable poverty of the country rendered it unproductive and unpopular.
The great families still lorded it over their dependants, and exercised
legal jurisdiction within their own domains; by which the general police
of the kingdom was crippled, and the gro