"The Ballad Literature and Early Poetry of Scotland," "The Language and Dialects of the British Islands," "The Politicians of the Eighteenth Century," "The Laws of the Association of Ideas," "The Beautiful and the Sublime," and various other subjects of a like kind.

He now began to experience the want of the class of books which, with an extended craving for the treasures of literature, he desired most to peruse and examine, but these were not to be found in the libraries of such rural societies as he was connected with, nor in those of the Mechanics' Institutions of the period; though sometimes he managed to secure some of them for himself, out of his small carnings at his last; until, in time, he became the possessor of a very good selection of philosophical and other works. Many of the books which he now began to crave after were rare, and not in the market to buy, even if he had the means to pay for them. He discovered where many such works could be consulted long before he was in a position to secure access to them, and it was not until he removed to Aberdeen in 1864, that the sources of knowledge opened up to the humble country shoemaker, long determined to make up as much as possible, by industry, indomitable pluck and perseverance, for the defects of his early education. Here he still continued at his last, but always reading, cultivating his mind, and searching in every direction for original sources of information. 1869 he opened a small stationery and news-agency shop, in Broad Street, Aberdeen, where he has since remained, and on the counter of which, during the intervals of business, he has written the three volumes of the History of Civilisation in Scotland, which have already appeared, and a considerable portion of the fourth and concluding volume, on which he is at present engaged, and which, during a recent visit, we have seen in an advanced state of preparation.

In

About 1871 he secured access to the Library of the University of Aberdeen, in consequence of which he said, with expressions of gratitude of the authorities of that institution-"I have been enabled to prosecute my special historical inquiries with comparative ease and advantage," ever since; and in his work he says that "this Library has been of great and indispensable use to me." He praises the Senatus and the Librarians for their

"uniform kindness and attention" in everything which could facilitate his researches.

Besides a comprehensive course of philosophy, including many works on the history of mental science in all its branches, Mackintosh read and studied works on theology, the history of religion, and the development of religious ideas and doctrines. He carefully read various standard works on the growth of language and universal grammar, on anthropology, ethnology, and geology, especially in relation to the origin, age, and primitive state of man. He has minutely examined the standard works on archæology, and the pre-historic ages of the world, particularly the pre-historic ages in Britain. At a comparatively early period of his life he began to read and to study the best works obtainable on method, criticism, and the principles of testing, estimating, and appreciating evidence in general, and historical evidence in particular. To these ends he read works on the classification of the sciences, laws, and the modes and rules of interpretation and exposition, as well as many works on history and general literature, for the purpose of attaining clear and comprehensive ideas of method. Thus his critical faculty was improved and developed.

He made long and careful investigations, touching the causes of human progress and civilisation, the results of which are partly embodied in the three published volumes of his work. On this great subject he holds that there has been, and still is, much premature generalisation, founded on insufficient data. Regarding his special subject, the History of Civilisation in Scotland, he has spared no labour or research in examining the original sources of information. For the early periods reliable authorities and records are few in number, and he soon discovered that the influences of circumstantial evidence must be very carefully and properly estimated in forming his conclusions. He has used the lives of the saints, the records of the religious houses, early charters, burgh laws and records, Acts of Parliament, and other national records and proceedings, as well as the chronicles and contemporary literature of different periods, and various other cognate sources of information.

Besides his History of Civilisation, he has written various articles for newspapers and periodicals, on such subjects as moral culture, nationality, the study of English literature, national

education, trades unions and strikes, and militarism.

From his papers on the latter subject we may give a short quotation, which will at the same time serve as a specimen of his literary style, and of his thoughtful and robust treatment of the subject in hand. After pointing out that it is of little avail to expect a permanent peace, while the leading nations of Europe are armed to the teeth, and the people groaning under the oppressive burdens which militarism has entailed, he proceeds :—

"It has recently been argued that war is a concomitant of evolution, and an essential element of the grand conflictive process of the survival of the fittest. However much truth there may be in this theory when applied to the early stages of society, and to low degrees of social and political organisation, it constantly loses its force as civilisation advances, and as moral apprehension deepens, and human sympathy broadens. In the course of ages the higher feelings and sentiments in some degree supersede the lower, and the moral and intellectual power gradually modifies and subdues the brute instinct of cruelty, till at last the moral sense of the higher civilised nations revolts against cruelty. When, moreover, the industrial and commercial classes have greatly multiplied, and interests, aims, modes of energy, and enterprise have increased a hundred fold, then the theory which makes war still a requisite to further progress is strangely irrational and immoral, as it insists on continuing those predatory habits and wild passions which really characterise the early and barbarous communities, but which at the utmost are only incidental excrescences of the highest civilised nations. Upon an exhaustive examination it will be found that war is rather an effect of imperfect and defective social and political organisation in the constitution of the aggressive powers; and instead of being favourable to the higher aims of moral progress and civilisation, it frequently destroys both, and almost always retards them."

And again

"The theory that one race has a right, on the ground of their military prowess, to trample upon another, may be very gratifying to national vanity, although it is extremely gross and immoral. Even when it is placed on a claim of superior culture and intellect, it is fairly open to discussion whether the higher nation has any right to force her government and modes of life on another community at the point of the bayonet. But the

theory that one race has a right to extinguish another is very convenient for aggressive governments. It feeds a nation's vanity to imagine themselves the greatest people upon the face of the

earth, so they can never be in the wrong, as the universe, or, at least, this planet, has been specially created for them and their interests."

Mr Mackintosh has always taken a warm and consistent interest in all movements calculated to promote the welfare of the Empire, and the good and happiness of the people at home and abroad, and, in a quiet and unobtrusive way, firmly but judiciously advocated whatever cause he deemed right and just, independently of all other considerations.

In answer to enquiries as to his habits and manner of life, he courteously replied

"In my time I have done much hard work of various kinds. All my life I have been in the habit of rising every morning before five o'clock, summer and winter. And I have found, from long experience, that the early part of the day is the best time for literary work. I have often had to sacrifice many of the pleasures and small enjoyments which most men hold dear; but of this I do not complain. I have had a fair share of enjoyment throughout my life, notwithstanding all my toil. In searching after truth, and in investigating a subject, and especially in summing up results, the mind derives much pleasing feeling and satisfaction. At one time of my life I made politics, or political philosophy, a special study-theoretically and practically, and composed a treatise on the forms of Government, which, however, was never published."

He has been an industrious student of Continental history, and is well acquainted with the past and present history of Europe. A.M.

THE SEAFORTH HIGHLANDERS - FIRST OFFENCE IN THE RANKS. In the first battalion of the Ross-shire Highlanders there were nearly 300 men from Lord Seaforth's estates in the Lewis. Several years elapsed before any of these men were charged with a crime deserving severe punishment. In 1799 a man was tried and punished. This so shocked his comrades that he was put out of their society as a degraded man who brought shame on his kindred. The unfortunate outcast felt his own degradation so much that he became unhappy and desperate; and Colonel Mackenzie, to save him from destruction, applied and got him sent to England, where his disgrace would be unknown and unnoticed. It happened as Colonel Mackenzie had expected, for he quite recovered his character. By the humane consideration of his commander, a man was thus saved from that ruin which a repetition of severity would have rendered inevitable.—Stewart's Sketches of the Highlanders.

BRUCE AND THE BROOCH OF LORN.

THE brooch was formerly an essential article in the wardrobe of a Highland gentleman or lady, and was of all sizes and degrees of elegance, from the plain ring with a tongue in it, to the brooch of complicated mechanism, ornamented with precious stones of every kind and every hue. Brooches were also valuable heirlooms, transmitted for generations in the same family, and in some instances bearing the names of as many as five successive couples, who were united in the marriage tie-an accumulation of domestic associations which amounted in some instances to a sacredness, which conferred upon a brooch the powers of an amulet, supposed to charm away diseases. Pennant gives a drawing of a brooch belonging to Campbell of Glenlyon, with the names of three Kings of Cologne-Caspar, Melchior, and Baltazar, and the word "consummatim." In the middle ages the names of these royal personages, when written on slips of paper, were deemed a charm against epilepsy by the holders of the slips, and it is quite possible that similar virtues may have been ascribed to the Glenlyon brooch.

But without ascribing any such virtue to the brooch of Lorn, it has a peculiar value of its own. It and the Quigrich of St Fillan, are two of the oldest and best anthenticated relics of the past, that have been transmitted to us, and round which cluster associations, secular and ecclesiastical, that to Scotchmen possess an undying interest.

Robert Bruce was crowned King at Scone in March 1306. Edward I. of England, who judged Scottish resistance to his usurpations as at an end with the death of the heroic Sir William Wallace, on hearing of this new start in favour of Scottish claims, despatched the Earl of Pembroke-one of his most approved generals, to nip it in the bud. Pembroke marched as far north as Perth, where he learned that the newly crowned Scottish King and his followers were within a short distance of him-in the wood of Methven. Comyn, whom Bruce slew at Dumfries, was married to Pembroke's sister, and he sent Bruce a personal challenge; and on the 18th of June Bruce drew up his little army in a field not far from the fair city. But the crafty Earl, on the plea that the day was too far advanced, declined the combat-or rather