ce a h
O
HIGHLAND
PATRIOTS.
By AJAX.
PREFACE.
T F this little book will be able to make its way in the
world it is my intention to send others of the same size
on subjects affecting the Highlands to be its
companions.
Having, along with eminent Land Leaguers and
Christian Democrats, taken part in the conflict for our
inheritance on the earth and heirship to heaven,
during the decade 1880-1890, I am able to put on
record many incidents which, I hope, will prove
interesting to my countrymen.
Go then, my little book, and in demolishing the
castles of despair and dungeons of torture, which the
would-be lords of the bodies and souls of men have
erected, lend thou thine aid.
INVERNESS:
THE HIGHLAND NEWS pWKm-0 AND PUBHSHKO WORKS,
HAMILTON STRRKT.
AJAX.
ì e o 9.
WHAT OF THE NIGHT?
(ISAIAH XXI., ll).
" What of the night ? 0 watchman say, From off
the ramparts high ; Dost thou discern a patch of
grey Upon the ebon sky ?"
" Arising o'er the hills afar,"
The watchman made reply, " I see
the long'd for ruby star
That tells of niorninp nigh."
" O, long and dark has been the night, And
mercilessly cold, But joy shall come when
morning light Shall tinge the clouds with gold."
O, dark and drear is still the night
Of hate and rivalry ; But through the gloom
we see the light
Of love and liberty.
And to their dens the monsters foul
Of ignorance and pride Are heard to rush
with dying howl,
There ever to abide.
And, hark! how joyful is the lay
With which the waking lark Of hope doth
welcome in the day
That breaketh through the dark.
HIGHLAND PATRIOTS.
[BY
AJAX.]
! ._ M R A N G US M AC K AY .
MR ANGUS MACKAT.
I
TT has long been my intention to_ write a
series of
articles on Highland Patriots, and I ™w Win with one
on a Sutherlandshire Land
Law Beformer who has played an important part in
bringing about a better state of matters than obtained.
Mr Angus Mackay was born at Armadale in 1860,
and is a great-grandson of that notable woman, the late
Jane Mackay, of Armadale (" Sine Armadail.") Mrs
Mackay is referred to by the author of the " Sutherland
Clearances " as large-hearted, tender and sympathetic,
with views far beyond her days and surroundings, yet
withal the " belle ideal" of a real Christian woman. The
late Dr Guthrie, in Free St John's Church, Edinburgh,
some fifty years ago, preaching on the subject of pure
religion, made mention of Jane of Armadale as an
example worthy of imitation.
Mr Mackay, when only twelve months old, was
removed to his uncle's house at Swordly, the late Mr
Hugh Mackay. Angus learned the alphabet from the
relation and associate of the family, Dr Hew Morrison,
F.S.A., &c, now of Edinburgh Free Library, and shortly
after went under the able training of Mr John
Macdougall, Farr Parish School, now for some time
retired, and perhaps the oldest parochial teacher in
Scotland.
When the land law reform and franchise agitation
became the question of the day in the Highlands it was
4
HIGHLAND PATRIOTS.
found that Mr Mackay was the distinguished writer
who had for years advocated reform in the columns
of the " Northern Ensign," under the nom-de-plume,
" Free Lance."
When the clergy and the people could not see
eye to eye upon the representation, of the county of
Sutherland, and the Strathmore
Crofters' f Association required a leader, Mr
Mackay was called upon to take the helm which he
held during the heat of two Parliamentary
elections. Acting as president of the Strathnaver
Association, delegate to various conferences, and
election agent for the Radical candidate, to
Sutherlandshire people Mr Mackay requires no
word of introduction, and I.am pleased to say that
he is still able to wield his facile pen in support of
the good cause, and his well-known connection with
the press in Sutherlandshire is always in favour of
his country. I am pleased to say that I now find Mr
Mackay living in the Capital of the Highlands, hale
and hearty. " Lang'may his lum reek."
HIGHLAND
PATRIOTS.
II. — MR JA M E S M UR R AY .
HIGHLAND PATRIOTS.
be to the Indian devotee than the source of this river is
to me.
Walking upwards along the banks of this mighty
river, I come to where it first was heard to gurgle
underground.
On a glorious day in June, 1882, Lord Archibald
Campbell, one of the best Highlanders that ever trod a
Scottish heath, convened a meeting in the hall of the
Scottish Corporation, Crane Court, Fleet Street,
London, to consider the disturbed conditions of the
Highlands, and in order to appoint a deputation to
proceed to Skye with the object of inducing the crofters
in revolt to resume law-abiding citizenship. There was
a goodly gathering of "loyal and patriotic" clansmen
and friends interested in northern affairs.
After a resolution was moved by Lord Archibald,
and duly seconded in language appreciative of
Highlanders as a God-fearing, peaceful and loyal race,
and appointing a deputation, Mr T. C. Hedderwick,
barrister-at-law, moved a rider to the resolution—" and
that Her Majesty's Government be asked to take
immediate steps for redressing the grievances of the
Highland crofters and cottars."
MR JAJIES Mun RA V.
The greatest glory of the world is its rivers, for
they are its arteries through which runs its life-blood.
Along their borders flourish beauty, joy, plenty. Stop
them in their courses and the whole world will become
the dominion of famine, despair and death.
The Land League is a social river, changing the
face of the land from that of a forest—-the hiding place
of man and beast from the lord^of the soil who goes
forth, strapped and buckled, with his retinue of hounds
and gillies, on their slaughter and eviction bent—to
that of a beautiful land, the home of a happy and
prosperous nation.
Not greater joy had Livingstone in tracing the
source of the Nile than I have in tracing the source of
this great social river which has given us " beauty for
ashes." Not more sacred can the source of the Ganges
In his speech Mr Hedderwick said that events in
Skye, Lewis and Tiree were portentous signs like the
mutterings of a volcano, and that it behoved all
concerned to read, mark, learn and act. His sentences
were not relished by several in the audience, and there
were cries of " Order !"
No sooner had Mr Hedderwick ceased than there
stood up in the midst of the hall a young man of
magnificent proportions, the glow of whose eyes, the
ring of whose voice bespoke the free mountaineer. As iu
a peal of thunder he seconded Mr Hedderwick's rider
the storm of his opponents was hushed to a dead calm.
This good youth was Mr James Murray, son of
Rev. Donald Murray, a native of Resolis, and minister
of Shieldaig, Lochcarron, hailing from Stornoway, to
the honour of whose memory I dedicate the article.
From that day to the end of his life Mr Murray
gave himself up to the service of his countrymen along
5
HIGHLAND
PATRIOTS.
HIGHLAND PATRIOTS.
6
with his brother, Mr Donald Murray, and great was the
work which he accomplished. He had all the
qualifications necessary to a reformer in a marked
degree. He had a strong constitution, a pure soul, a
loving heart and a vivid mind.
Well did the bard, T. D., sing of Mr Murray:—
" But though lost to our sight still thy memory lingers,
And engraved on our hearts aye thy name shall remain;
And, oh ! never the blight of long Time's despoiling
fingers
That name and that memory can e'er cause to " wane."
One of Mr Murray's family treasures is a Bible
with the inscription—" Presented to Mr Donald
Murray, student, with best wishes from his friend,
Donald Sage, Manse of Resolis."
On 17th July, 1886, Mr Murray passed to his rest.
Over his grave at Sandwick, Stornoway is placed a
beautiful stone, subscribed for by his admirers, bearing
the words-" His soul was generous and kind."
t
I I I . — M R D ON A LD M UR R AY .
i,iftAv.-y
Mu DONALD MURRAY.
In the last article I brought the reader to the spot
where the waters which were destined to become the
Land League river were first heard to gurgle
underground. Now let me show the Bpot where, in
their freshness, purity and abundance, they burst forth
to sparkle in the light of the sun, to rush down the
steep ravine, and to refresh our arid land. It was in
Crane Court, Fleet Street, London.
Mr Donald Murray, in whose honour I write this
article, asked those in favour of the rider— "And that;
Her Majesty's Government be asked to take immediate
steps for redressing the grievances of the Highland
crofters and cottars " —proposed by Mr Hedderwick,
but ruled out of order by the Chairman—be added to
the resolution proposed by Lord Archibald Campbell—
"That a deputation be appointed to proceed to Skye
with the object of inducing the crofters in revolt to
resume law-abiding citizenship," at the meeting held ia
the Hall of the Scottish Corporation, Crane Court,
Fleet Street, London, in June, 1882, to confer in Crane
Court at the close of the meeting and they did so.
Those who conferred were, in addition to the
brothers Donald and James Murray, sturdy sons of the
Manse of Shieldaig, Lochcarron, but hailing from
Stornoway, Macolm Macleod, the grandson of the
famous Bard of Harris; Ewen Cattanach, whose
forefathers were famous in Kingussie ; Alexander
HIGHLAND
PATRIOTS.
Watt, a Highland Aberdonian of good fettle; Malcolm
Ferguson, a Gael of the Gaels, from near Inverness ;
Bennett Burleigh, the famous war correspondent, who
is proud of the fact that his mother and grandsires
spoke Gaelic; Dan Gow, who, though born in Johnstone,
is Highland to the core on both sides; J. Morrison
Davidson, the eloquent speaker and powerful scribe on
behalf of all who are suffering from the effect of the
unjust laws; and Mr Hedderwick, who became later
M.P. for the Wick Burghs.
At that meeting the Highland Land Law Reform
Association was launched, with Mr Donald Muraay as
hon. secretary, Mr Angus Mackintosh ot Holme as
treasurer, and Mr
Donald H. Macfarlane—afterwards Sir, and M.P. for
Argyllshire—as president.
From that day till the early part of the year 1888,
when he retired from this position, it may be said that
the brunt of the work fell on Donald Murray, who had a
loyal and enthusiastic assistant in his brother James,
Sir Donald Macfarlane, in presenting the former with a
watch in recognition of his services as hon. secretary,
said—" Donald Murray's labours of love in connection
with the Highland Land Law Reform movement cannot
be fully estimated, but his hair and his cheeks bear
indelible testimony to years of strenuous and devoted
work on behalf of his kith and kin."
HIGHLAND PATRIOTS.
So much for the brothers Donald and James
Murray. Now allow me to make mention of their
sisters—Mrs Rose and Miss Christina Murray, who are
worthy of their fame.
• Mrs Rose has taken a prominent part as a
member of the Stornoway Gaelic Choir, and has on two
occasions led the waulking songs at the Gaelic Society's
concert in the Queen's Hall, London.
Miss Christina Murray has been identified with
the various philanthropic agencies, and is well known
at Egham, Surrey, as an active and energetic worker in
connection with the Congregational Church and the
Egham Liberal Association.
IV. — S I R D ON AL D H OR NE
M AC F AR LA N E.
SIR DONALD HORSE MACFARLANE.
7
8
HIGHLAND
PATRIOTS.
15
HIGHLAND PATEIOTS.
The reader would have seen the water of the
Land League river burst forth in the lofty mountain;
now behold how it flows down the steep ravine,
Shortly after the launching of the Highland Land
Law Reform Association a great meeting was
HIGHLAND PATRIOTS.
held at the Memorial Hall, Farringdon, London, with MrD.
H. Macfarlanein the chair and Professor Hlackie as the
principal speaker.
The London daily as well as the
provincial papers gave capital reports of the proceedings,
and commented on the state of affairs in the crofting
districts. Large and energetic meetings were afterwards
held in Shoreditch Town Hall, Exeter Hall, the Town Halls
of Finsbury, Northampton, Liverpool and other centres.
Deputations were received by the then Lord Advocate and
the Secretary for Scotland. Mr D. H. Macfarlane, M.P. for
Oarlow, and Mr Charles Fraser-Mackintosh, M.P. for the
Inverness Burghs, raised on various occasions questions in
the House of Commons as to the condition of the crofters
and cottars in the Highlands and Islands.
Sir Donald Horne Macfarlane was a great man. Not
more conspicuous for magnificence of frame, princely
bearing, benevolence of aspect was Saul, the son of Kish,
than he; while as a reasoner, lover of truth and orator, he
was a second Chrysistom.
Although almost lacking in the sense of humour, he was
the most humorous of men. His innocent replies to the
sectarian divines who tried to prove out of his own Hps
that, being a Boman Catholic, he was not a fit person to
represent a Highland constituency in Parliament, were
often ridiculously disconcerting to his enemies, and the
audience were convulsed with such roars of laughter that I
do not know of anything to compare to it
except the inextinguishable hilarity that was raised
by the Olympians on seeing Jove's cup-bearer
limping about after his fall to earth.
While one of the most devoted friends of the crofters,
he was too true not to tell them their faults, and thereby
he made himself many enemies among them. Being
accustomed by their ministers to be praised for their
holiness in refusing to hear the Gospel except at their
convenience, and by their leaders for, their faithfulness in
blindly doing what they told them, the crofters were
astonished and scandalised to hear from a Boman Catholic
that their souls were their own, and that their bodies were
not intended for stepping-stones on the tyrant's way to
HIGHLAND PATRIOTS.
17
glory —that, in short, they were supposed to be men
to be convinced, and not sheep to be driven.
Often when the Highland audience expected our
patriot to show them that the desolation that
overwhelmned the laud was to be accounted for by the
greed, rapacity aud pride of the landlord, they were
compelled to listen to a tirade on their own
sycophancy, sloth and abasement.
Sir Donald was one of the few who obtained a
seat in Parliament not on account of eagerness for
glory, but on account of zeal for justice. The story of
his political career reads like a national tragedy, and
his final exit from the battlefield is one of the most
pathetic incidents in the history of the Highlands.
To help to save the men of Argyllshire from the
thraldom of landlordism, he strove to be their
advocate a second time in Parliament, but they,
electing to be branded permanent slaves, rejected him.
After his defeat some one wrote to ask if he would
stand for any other constituency in the Highlands,
and his answer was:—" Supposing I were a man of
forty-six years of age, instead of being sixty-four,
which I am, I would not stand again for a Highland
constituency."
V—JOHN MACPHERSON
ring of his mellow voice, bespeak the nobleness, the
honesty and the joyousness of his nature.
In three things our hero has no rival, and these
are eloquence, earnestness and devotion. I have seen
him in his wrath denouncing the greed, cruelty and
pride of the lords of the soil, while their worshippers
gazed spellbound upon fais face. I have seen him in
his sorrow, describing the sufferings of his
countrymen, while the tears were running down the
cheeks of stalwart men. I have seen him in his joy
prophesying the day of restoration, while the
ME JOHN MACPHBBSON.
Mr John Macpherson, Glendale, Skye, is the moat
renowned crofter in the Highlands. He is not the greatest.
Were it not for the Land League wa ve on -whose crest he
was lifted up to the heavens he would never, beyond his
native ìsle, have been heard of, yet no man was ever raised
to eminence who, to a greater extent, justified those who
raised him than he.
Like Amos, called from the labour of the field to the
high calling of a prophet, his native grace directed him
how to speak and act with the utmost propriety and
gentleness. While never losing the simplicity of the
lowliest crofter, he carried the dignity of the noblest lord.
John is not a profound thinker. Indeed, it may be said
of him that, like the majority of his countrymen, he does
not think at all. His minister, for that purpose, he takes as
his proxy. In religion, knowledge, conduct, he is absolutely
satisfied with the inheritance left him by his forefathers,
but his soul being pure, his vision clear, his hands clean,
oppression roused his wrath, and he saw how the weak
were held in bondage by the strong, and their chains were
as the withes that bound Samson in his grasp.
A man of goodlier frame than John I have never seen.
He is not a giant. But for the weight of Puritanism which
has bowed his head, bent his shoulders, and slowed his
step he would have been magnificent. As it is the expanse
of his snowy brow, the fascination of his eager eyes, the
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HIGHLAND PATRIOTS.
faces of his hearers were glowing in the rising sun of
new-born hope.
Like his namesake, the Baptist, he was a voice
crying in the wilderness. With the multitudes who
flocked to hear him came the Pharisees and the
Sadducees, and he was not afraid to say to them—" 0,
ye generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee
from the wrath to come." Before him they were silent
for they knew he was in earnest.
If there lives a man who is able to say with
Paul—"For I could wish that myself were accursed
from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to
the flesh," that man is John Macpherson.
How different is he who knows not what
self-seeking is from the people's idol now, who, to hear
their prayers, must be daily appeased by chanted
peans and melted trinkets. Do you wonder my wail is "
Ichabod 1"
The crest of a wave is a very precarious situation
to raise a throne upon. John found it so, for close upon
the one—the Land League wave—on which he raised
his throne, there rolled another — the Ecclesiastical
Secession wave (I narrowly escaped writing the
Eeligious Secession wave, which would be a sad
misnomer, for there was no religion in it), and, in its
wilder course, overtaking his wave, he was hurled
from his lofty eminence to the ocean level.
It is all the same to him, for he is satisfied with
the love of those who wrought with him and are now
left behind in the race.
I rejoice to say that he is still hale and hearty;
neither elated by the glory that is past nor depressed
by the lowliness that is present.
During the ten years of conflict—1880-1890
—between the Highland crofters and landlords, the
latter, though comparatively few, being infinitely
better provisioned, equipped and marshalled, were
often able to send batches of the former as prisoners of
war to Cal ton Jail, Edinburgh; but let me have the
honour of recording that, owing to the ministrations of
a brother Joseph, in the person of Mr Dugald Cowan, a
native of Easdale, Argyll, Inspector of Poor,
Edinburgh, Secretary of the Edinburgh Branch of the
Highland Land Law Keform Association,
whom
God had sent before them, the House of Bondage
was transformed, to the astonished men and women
who were sent there, into the Delectable Mountains.
HIGHLAND PATEIOTS.
10
VI.—MR DUGALD COWAN.
Mr DUGAI.D COWAN.
To Mr Cowan, being himself a city official and a man
held in the utmost reverence by all who knew him,
his colleagues of the prison could not show more
deference if he were Lord Provost than they did.
Upon his approach at the outer gate, however often
he made his appearance there, all doors flew open
before him as of their own accord, and an attendant
was told off to wait upon him; and to the joy of these
prisoners of war he called upon them almost daily,
for was he not their ministering angel? One day he
took me to see them, and this is what I wrote in my
pocket-book after I went home, which as his
memorial I give, for he has now passed into his rest:
—
" I am glad I was alive to see this day and was
allowed to be a witness of the scene enacted in the
Calton Jail, for it has greatly enhanced my joy and
strengthened my faith in fallen humanity.
" With the softest of touches let me picture this
scene. I am standing in one of the cells to which a
jailor has called the prisoners of war to meet Mr
Cowan and myself. With the blessing of Boas he
20
HIGHLAND PATRIOTS.
blessed them and they answer in the words of the
reapers. At his request I offer a prayer. The jailor
hands him a Bible, and, opening it, he reads in the
language of the Gael *—' Let us read in the Gospel of
Freedom. My dear brethren, be of good cheer. This
friend of yours has just come from the north, and he
wishes me to tell you that your families are all in
health and that they are looking forward with joy to
welcome you on your victorious return home. Keep up
your hearts. It is no disgrace, but the highest honour,
to suffer imprisonment for the erase of truth and
justice. The Lord of Hosts be with you always. Amen.'"
Mr Cowan closed the book. We shook hands with
the prisoners of war, who returned to their several
cells, while we passed into the busy streets of the
metropolis.
VII.—REV. ALLAN MACDONALD.
HIGHLAND PATEIOTS.
11
On a lovely day in September, 1905, wa9
enacted in the little Island of Eriskay—ever made
famous as the landing place of Prince Charles
Edward Stuart on 23rd July, 1745—a pathetic scene.
It is a funeral gathering. Surrounded by al! the
inhabitants of the Island, four stalwart men are
lowering a coffin into the grave.
On the coffin lid
is the legend—" Allan Macdonald, aged •10 years."
Not with spades do the mourners fill in the earth to
shroud the body of their beloved, but with their
hands, and the highest honour they pay him, for
every handful with their tears they moisten. And
what is the most magnificent tombstone ever raised
to commemorate the departed compared to the tears
of loving friends caught in the shrouding earth ?
To show my regard for the memory of the Rev.
Allan Macdonald, of Eriskay, South Uist, Dean of the
Isles, and my sympathy with his [lock for their loss,
allow me to place a few stones upon his cairn.
This one to the poet and singer, the author of the
sweet song beginning :—
" Give to me my choice of places Should the
wand of Fairy, I would choose thee for thy
graces Isle of Virgin Mary.
" Of the barley gently waving, Though their
hollows bare be Thy steep head-lands
ocean-braving In mine eyes full rare be."
REV. ALLAN MACDONALD.
His mission to earth was that of the sunbeam
[ind the lark, to show us the infinite glory of the
Works of God and to make us evermore to rejoice in
them, and well in his joyful strains and thrilling
quavers did he fulfil his mission. Not only during his
encumbency did he enhance the joy inherent in the
island of Eriskay, but he has permanently magnified
it. This sunbeam being passed yet shinetb, this lark
being silent yet singeth.
This one to the antiquarian and folklorist, to the
collector of many a fascinating and heart-stirring
song. In his leisure moments Father Allan has built
up a treasure store of the ancient beliefs and customs
of our ancestors which is sufficiently imposing to be
the labour of years.
This one to the humble priest and his people's
joy who, when he might be promoted to one of the
most honourable places in the pale of the Roman
Catholic Church, elected to spend his days in this
20
HIGHLAND PATRIOTS.
remote corner of her world. What clergymen do the
Highlanders delight to honour, to whom do they flock
to hear, whose elegies do they sing when they are dead
? Are they not those whom the Lowlanders tell them
are great by calling them to English-speaking
congregations ? Let the colliers give a call to a
Highland clergyman and, however great a dunce he
may be, the crofters will on the spot raise him to the
status of a Highland idol. Here was a clergyman, who
not only by his words, but by his actions, taught them
to live in the country as more conducive to the
perfection of soul and body than to live in the city by
electing to do so himself.
This one to the man who was great but not proud,
good but not hard, who was religious but not
sanctimonious, charitable but not ostentatious, who
was learned but not pedantic, blameless but not
pretentious. Here was a man who, as a priest, did not
lose his manhood. In the midst of their daily struggles
he would have his people lighten their burdens with
the thrill of song and the charm of story. The piper and
the bard he cherished as God-given aids to the weary
traveller of life's journey. The first reel at the weddings
was always danced in his own house, for well he knew
how necessary it is in the hardship of life for the
people to be happy, and that we worship God in our
secular happiness more acceptably than in our own
sacred dolorousness.
VIII.—REV. MALCOLM
MACCALLUM.
HIGHLAND PATEIOTS.
12
REV. MALCOLM MACCALLUM.
Although there is a section of Highlanders who
admire the Rev. Malcolm MacCallum, minister of
Muckairn, Argyllshire, as a preacher, he is far from
being a sacred idol. No. Crowning his brow there is
not the caul of a cloud, but the diadem of the
sunshine; underlying his voice there is not the
thunder of Sinai, but the music of
Tabor; pervading his teaching there is not the blood
of the Nile, but the wine of Cana.
While Mr MacCallum rejoices in the glory of the
world to come, he does not affect to despise as
unworthy of the notice of a holy man the glory of the
present world; while he is anxious for the welfare of
the souls of men, he does not consider it beneath the
dignity of a clergyman to take thought for the welfare
of their bodies; while not ignoring " the smoke of
their torment" which " ascendeth for ever and ever,"
he does not pass by as unworthy of notice the
question—"Children, have ye any meat? " But it is
not as a preacher I canonize him.
20
HIGHLAND PATRIOTS.
Mr MacCallum has done herculean work as the
upholder of the banner bearing the legend— "It is the
duty of the Church to support its own poor." Full often
in Presbyterv, Synod and Assembly did he rouse the
sleeping echoes with such mighty strains as this—"
The problem of the idle rich, who are the great cause of
the poverty that prevails, and the chief source of moral
declension and corruption, is a greater problem than
that of the idle poor whom the Church would save, not
by cherishing them as their brethren with their
substance in time of need, but by purchasing the land
to convert it into' labour homes for the unemployed
and into gilded bureaus for the irreclaimable."
HIGHLAND PATEIOTS.
13
I X — MR JOHN MORRISON
DAVIDSON.
In passing, let me say, however, that I do not
consider my hero's scheme practicable. Why ì For this
reason : The churches without exception or demur
accept of the copper of the poor, who give not of their
own living but out of the living of those who kept them
alive, as well as the gold of the rich, who give of their
abundance, not to propagate the Gospel of peace and
goodwill, but to create anomalous and exasperating
situations to carry out their own fads, such as building
churches and planting ministers over the land to
kindle aad perpetuate spiritual animosity against each
other in the hearts of people who profess the same
religion. In my estimation this blemish places the
churches as organisations outside the category of
possible aids to humanity in any material form.
No wonder, to show forth the glory of the New
Jerusalem, where there shall be no more strife over
the old cities of this world, in their multiplicity of
sacred forts where we drill our " Salvation Armies " to
fight one against another, it is written—"And I saw no
temple there." But it is not as an ecclesiastic I canonize
my hero.
Having covered the foreground of my canvas to a
greater' extent than was originally intended, there is
but a small space left for the mountains which I
wished to pourtray in the distance, and these I can
only point out to you as the mountains which Mr
MacCallum's axe, spade and trowel have helped to
make beautiful, for it is as a Land Leaguer I canonize
him.
MR JOHN MORRISOK DAVIDKOX.
Not to be able to call Count Leo Tolstoy " my
dear friend " is a source of great grief to me, but I am
conso'ed in the fact that I can thus address a man to
whom his Lordship writes :—" It is the greatest joy of
my life to know persons such as you, and to see the
ideas which I live for are likewise the mainspring of
life unto other?, and are expressed in such beautiful
and vigorous style as I have occasion to notice in your
two books," and that man is Mr J. Morrison
Davidson, the Grand Old Man of Fleet Street, who, in
the glorious heights to which he soars above the diu
of this noisy world, in the strength and speed of his
pinions, making him independent of time and space;
in his scorning of the fury of the elements, resting in
the peaceful sunshine above the thunder storm, is
the most fearless of democrats—tho "Frigate Bird'' of
20
HIGHLAND PATRIOTS.
reformers, Mr Morrison Davidson was born in the
parish of Old Deer, Aberdeenshire, 66 years ago. In his
sixteenth year he went to the University of Aberdeen,
having obtained a scholarship by public competition.
Early in life he married Rose Fawlie, an old
schoolmate—the devoted mother of his eleven
children—and the very young couple betook
themselves to Glasgow, where Mr Davidson taught in
several schools.
Afterwards he resolved to qualify for the Scottish
Bar. He was a very distinguished law student, and
obtained a complete mastery ol legal principles under
such famous professors as Cosmo Innes, Lorimer and
Muirhead.
Even the names of the papers for which Mr
Davidson wrote, with the utmost distinction, would
over-burden my sketch. Over all the civilised world he
is known as the chief exponent of the people's rights in
Britain, and that is no small distinction for anyone in
these days of social upheaval, when even " semi-regal "
Harcourt says—" We are all Socialists now."
To make mention of the names even of the books
Mr Davidson has written is hopeless. Among his more
recent publications may be mentioned, " Let there be
HIGHLAND PATEIOTS.
14
Light," " Scotland for the Scots," "That Great Lying
Church of England," "The Son of Man," " Christ,
State and Commune."
With regard to " The Son of Man," Count Leo
Tolstoy paid the author this remarkable tribute on
10th July, 1906:—"Dear friend,—I have received your
very remarkable book " The Son of Man." I have read
it with the same feeling with which I read all your
books—the feeling that it is just what I would have
said on the same matter, but better and more
energetically said. Your opinion of our Duma is, I
regret to say, quite true. I hope that the fallacy of all
this thing will be seen clear to everybody, and we
Russians will go on another road. With best
wishes.—Yours truly, Leo Tolstoy."
Our patriot is a born journalist and publicist. At
fourteen years of age he was a confirmed Eepublican
and Democrat, and fairly astonished his elder
brother, Professor Thomas Davidson, of New York
(then Rector of Old Aberdeen Grammar School), by
the " ultra " character of his self-acquired views.
X.—MR GILLEAN MACLEAN.
"Macleod of Macleod," I heard Mr John
Macpherson say, in addressing a Lowland audience,
ME GILLEAN MACLEAN.
15
HIG-HLAND
PATRIOTS.
HIGHLAND PATRIOTS.
33
"in order to convert Bracadale into a wilderness,
thrust its inhabitants into Glendale, and in order to
get rid of the people for ever, he sold Glendale.
It
puts me in mind," be went on, " of the
way an old fox gets rid of his fleas. He takes a bunch of
dry wool in his mouth, and, going to a loch-side, lets
himself slip gradually into the water tail foremost; as
he sinks the fleas crowd tip into the dry wool, and when
at last he is in the water to the muzzle, and all his fleas
are in the wool, he lets it go and slips out of the water
rid of his fleas, which he grins to see drowning.",
In this humorous illustration with which the
Martyr of Glendale brightened the bitter earnestness of
his speech is to be found the reason why Glendale as a
star of the first magnitude shone on the dark feudal
sky, while Bracadale was seen as a black body.
On the first day of January, 1880, to name a day, the
sun rose on three kinds of estates in the Highlands—the
devastated, of which Nimrod, the master of hounds and
gillies, was hunter; the enslaved, of which Nero, the
lighter of the human torches, was idol ; the congested of
which Pharaoh, the builder of the royal sepulchre, was
tyrant; and in its dealing with these three kinds of estates
is seen the weakness of the Crofters' . Act, for being a
terror only to Pharaoh, it is Nimrod's protector, and a
dead letter to Nero.
Enslaved under Nero was the parish , of Morvern,
Argyllshire ; that is to say the remnant of its inhabitants,
spared by the evictor's broom, deprived of their
inheritance, were made the servants of the lord of the soil.
Yet so mightily did a power unseen inspire to valour the
souls of men in those days that even in benighted Morven
deliverers arose. One of these deliverers is Mr Gillean
Maclean, Kinlochaline, Morvern. Along , with his
comrades in arms, Messrs Malcolm
Maclachlan, who has passed into his rest, and Donald
Mackickan, who is still fighting with him in the battle of
freedom, he has done much service in breaking down the
chains of landlordism; in breaking down the Forts of
Spoliation, and in spoiling the Castles of Despair, and for
his-courage, strength and hopefulness I enrol him as one
of my patriots
XI.
—MR NORMAN MURRAY.
MB NORMAN MURRAY.
Iu the spirit I have taken the wings of a dove to
search in the New World for a patriot, and my •choice
has fallen, to begin with, on Mr Norman Murray,
bookseller and publisher, 246 St. James Street,
Montreal, who was born, in 1853, at South Dell, Ness,
Lewis, and migrated to Canada in 1881.
I have passed by many a good man for one striking
blemish such as credulity, greed and frivolousness.
Mr Murray is one of the most serious,
open-handed and studious of men. While allowing that
man was not " made to mourn," he holds he was not
made to be merry; while he admires thrift, he abhors
penureousness; while in all humility he seeks to know
the doctrines of the fathers, he scorns the dictum that
34
HIGHLAND
PATRIOTS.
true piety consists in holding to whatsoever they taught.
Shocking as it may appear to the majority of
Highlanders, I must say that our hero holds that two
statements which are destructive one of the other cannot
both be true, and that a single statement which involves
an impossibility must be false in theology as well as in
science. Here is a rara avis among Highlanders. Listen to
some of his opinions : He holds that God gives as great
souls, as high destinies, as divine a communion to His
chosen now as He gave to His chosen in olden times; that
He reveals Himself in material nature and human
conscience as well as in His Word : that the whole duty of
man consists not in fearing but in loving God.
It it as well for me to make a clean breast of it, and
to say at once that our patriot holds that our fathers
might have been wrong in some of their theological
dogmas, and that it is our duty to "prove all things" and to
"hold fast that which is good."
Our unseemly squabbles as sectarians have driven
Mr, Murray out of connection with any particular church
organisation, but he is willing to unite with all good men
HIGHLAND
PATRIOTS.
16-
in doing all the good he can for the spiritual
enlightenment as well as the material prosperity of all
men, especially the Highlanders, and to equip himself
for this work he has studied all the standard books on
theology, history and science, written in the English
language, and has listened to all the great preachers of
our time.
Norman's father, Neil Murray, was one of •those
who refused to be driven to America when ■Galson was
desolated, and his croft was reduced to one-third of its
size. Our hero is the only one living of the first
Unionists in Ness. Kev. Donald Macrae, Mr Kenneth
Murray, Mr Malcolm Macphail were with him—the
force all told. He has greatly grown in might of
knowledge, charity and wisdom since, for he informs
me that he does not care a brass farthing about the
matters the churches have been splitting hairs about in
Lewis for so many years.
XII.—MR JOHN GALLOWAY WEIR,
M.P.
Idolatry is the great curse of the Highlands, even
as it was that of Canaan. Thus sings the Highland
Bard—
An idle thing who claims the land,
Bedeck'd with stars of chivalry, The simple
MR JOHN GALLOWAY WEIR, M.P.
38
HIG-EDLANiD
PATRIOTS.
HIG-HLAND PATRIOTS.
17
peasant finds at hand,
And this his god shall be.
Thus sang the Hebrew Psalmist—
The man who has no money gets
A sturdy stump of tree ; A
gilded rag he o'er it sets,
And this his god shall be.
and both join in the chorus thus—
Oh ! sons of men, do ye not know
Who made yon mighty galaxy In endless space
around that glow Through all eternity ?
in Egypt hast thou taken us away to die in the
wilderness ?" yet he does not lose heart.
Besides being one of the most honest, staunchest
and uncompromising of Radicals, Mr Weir is one of the
kindest, most hospitable aud joy-inspiring of men, and so
long as he lives in London Town the wandering
Highlander will, in his house, have a " quiet resting
place " there.
The symptoms of this fell disease on the soul are as
palpable as those of the smallpox on the body. It
manifests itself in the idol, hero, lord, or by
whatevername he is named, who is worshipped in
carbuncles of pride, greed, arrogauce, while iu the slave,
serf, fool, or by whatever name lie is named, who
worships in carbuncles of sycophancy, sloth, woe. It is
the key to all the absurd scones which are seen enacted
in life. Why does yon creature strut about the streets in
the garb of ancient Gaul with the air of a universal
possessor ? He is an idol. Why do the men who meet him
bow down in the dust before him ? They are slaves. In
the great assembly why does yon starred and ribboned
person monopolise all the speaking? He is a lord. Why
do all the rest so uproariously applaud the nonsense he
gives utterance to 1 They are serfs.
High amongst those who have spent their lives in
stemming the tide of idolatry I place Mr J. G. Weir,
M.P. for Eoss-shire. Not by eloquence, diplomacy,
leadership, but by truth, simplicity, faith, does my
patriot hurl down the mountains of pride on which the
idols build their castles and fill up the gorges of
sycophancy from which ascend the smoke of the
sacrifice offered by the slaves.
I do not know of any harder or more thankless
work to which a man may set himself than that of the
Democrat—the foe of pride and sycophancy— for it is as
natural to the idol to devastate the home and to
dispossess the children of the slave as it is to the cuckoo
to appropriate the nest and oust the young of the lark,
and the lark can have no greater joy in serving the
cuckoo than the slave has in attending upon the idol.
May he long occupy, as the terror of the proud and
the joy of the humble, the throne of Ross-shire, "seeing
that his life is bound up" with its foundation.
From long experience Mr Weir knows the
arbitrary, unscrupulous and deadly sway of the lord of
the soil, but from the conflict he does not turn aside; he
knows how fully provisioned, thoroughly disciplined and
skilfully organised are the forces in possession of the
stronghold of tyranny, but he does not raise the siege;
he knows how ready the people, saved from the bondage
of Pharaoh, are to say—" Because there were no graves
In the process of its formation to the Island of Skye
were given three of the most wonderful features of the
world, and these are—Gob-na-feastrach (Bridle Beak),
Bodachan-stor (The Old Man of the Ridge) and
Cuife-Fhraing (Frances* Fold). And curiously enough,
with these three features I associate the three great
reformers of the island.
XIII.—MR ARCHIBALD
MACDONALD.
MR ARCHIBALD MACDONALD.
40
HIGHLAND
PATRIOTS.
Here you \vi}l allow me, owing to loftiness of my
point of view, the aid of the Muse :—
Of the men who stood most fearless
In the face of battle flame, Monuments in
splendour peerless
Shall their glory aye proclaim ; City yard can
not supply me,
Ne'er so polished be its stone, Nothing short
can satisfy me
Of the earthquake's work alone.
Giving to the feather'd toiler
Of the moor and mighty main Home above
the reach of spoiler,
World-admired Vaterstein. " 'Neath my
shadow," be thy story, " Lived the Martyr of
Glendale, Who demolished castles hoary,
Ciad in truth as coat of mail."
First to see the sun apeeping
•was to skye in the time of the crofter-landlord war.
Indeed he was a great deal more than that. He was the
Luther of the land law reformation in Skye.
Long before the conflict began, when the Lords
were satisfied that they had established a divine right
to devastate the land by demanding a •prohibitory
rent, and when the inhabitants were convinced that
their spiritual advisors were right in sayiug that it was
their duty to submit to expatriation or extermination
at the hands of the Lords as being the declared will of
God on account of original and personal sin ; even as
HIGHLAND
From his couch to give us Day, Last to see
him gently sleeping,
So that Night may have her sway ; Bodach
Stòr, be thou for ever
Monument to good "J. G.," Whose right hand
in twain did sever
Countless links of slavery.
Cuife-Fhraing, whose great upheaval
Shook the earth unto its core, In whose courts in
time primaeval Gathered Titians now no more ; "
'Gainst the lords to crush us daring,"
To thy store of legends add, " Here the banner war
declaring First was raised by Garafad."
Of the above trio this week I select as my patriot
the last named, that is Mr Archibald Macdonald,
innkeeper, Stenchol, Skye, familiarly called " Garafad."
What Von Moltke was to Germany in the time of
the Franco-Prussian war, Mr Macdonald
His will was declared by His servants of old against
the aboriginal inhabitants of Canaan, my patriot
preached the gospel of peace and goodwill, and with
great blessing from on high he was able to make the
people believe that it was the will of God neither to
expatriate or exterminate them, but that instead it
was His will that they should " multiply and
replenish the earth and subdue it."
It may be that in the turmoil of the present
dogma-reason war in which the people are engaged
that they have forgotten such an episode as this,
but it is my duty as a faithful historian to record it.
HIGHLAND
PATRIOTS.
XIV.—MR WILLIAM BLACK.
MR WILLIAM BLACK.
PATRIOTS.
18
45-
19
HIGHLAND
PATRIOTS.
satisfied to follow him into the battlefield on the
principle that the proper thing is to " send a thief to
catch a thief." My opinion is that a chosen leader, so
long as he can be bought with the gold of Baalack or
the silver of Sanhedrin, whatever place we give him in
our ranks or however great-be his ability, he will, on
the first opportunity he gets, either sell or betray us.
What else can you ■expect ? The stream can rise no
higher than its source. St Paul has well said—•' Take
heed to thyself and to thy doctrine."
Fired with holy wrath at the tale of devastation
wrought by the lords of the soil, as written in nature's
letters of the ruined homesteads that cover •the land,
and in the lamentations of the enslaved remnant of a
once prosperous nation—
In the uprearing of Christian Socialism, that is,
the mansion of grace and truth, upon the foundation of
Mosaic theocracy, that is, the rock of law and prophecy,
we are making but slow progress. The reason, I think, is
that though we know a man to be such that, being an
hungered he will be persuaded to turn the stone into
bread, contrary to the Word of God, we are perfectly
was held by his constituency in the loving God-speed
they gave him on leaving them.
When the Ardens' deforcement case was before
the Sutherland County Council, the Chief Constable
applied for bicycles for the police because of the wide
district they had to traverse. On this occasion Mr Black
made the remark that balloons would suit better as
they could pounce on the Ardens' crofters out of the
clouds. The application, 'mid roars of laughter, was
ordered to lie on the table.
XV.—MR JOHN CAMPBELL.
Fearful as an Alpine village
Falls the sounding avalanche, O'er the
ranch Come the blue-coats to the pillage ;
While the cheeks of heroes blanch Livid,
in the dancing flashes
Of the timber-feasting fire, That shall
soon reduce to ashes
Home of our desire. Frighten'd to the
lonely mountain
With our little ones we haste, But the waste,
Frozen over, lake and fountain,
In its winter toga cas'd, With the light of
early morning
To our homes we make our way ; But we
find its rays adorning
'Stead of white walls boulders grey—
Mr William Black, crofter, Gruids, Suther-landshire,
became one of the most renowned ■champions of the
people's cause who twenty years ago paved the way for
the Crofters Act by collecting, sifting and submitting
evidence before the Eoyal Commission.
It would make my sketch too elaborate to
expatiate on Mr Black's sterling qualities, but this let
me say—In his native valour he was proof against the
meanness of the boycott who says:—"I will ruin you;"
against the taunt of the scoffer who says, " You are a
fool;" against bribe of the tyrant who says, " I know
your price." And by this Satanic trio was our hero
sorely tried.
Some years ago Mr Black, who was County
Councillor for Eddrachillis, emigrated to Canada, and
the papers of the period show in what high respect he
Mr John Campbell, crofter's son and soldier,
Dervaig, Mull, 80 years of age, is one of the greatest
patriots known to me. I take this personal note out of
the report of the Royal Commission :—" I enlisted in
the 79th Regiment in 1852. In the time of the Crimean
War there •were seven of us of the village of Dervaig in
Her Majesty's Service, and four of us went up the
40
HIGHLAND
PATRIOTS.
heights of Alma, and I am the most insignificant of the
whole. We went through the whole of the
Crimean War. Three of us went through the Indian
Mutiny. In Afghanistan we were represented by one of
our number, Allan Macdonald, who was killed at
Candahar, the last battle. We have no less than
fourteen war medals, a star, and twenty-one clasps in
our village."
Anyone who wishes to know the iniquity
perpetrated by the ruling classes in the Highlands in
his day, I refer to Mr Campbell's statement before the
Royal Commission. " Our catalogue," he wrote, "
embraces the parish minister, police inspector, collector
of rates, registrar, sanitary inspector, poor inspector
and postmaster.
From the outset, the Greenock branch of the Land
League, of which John was the founder and lion,
secretary for seven years, set their compass for
assisting those in trouble in the north and their
families. This was their first object, and in every other
way possible they helped. He had for colleagues, I can
truly say, a band of Greenock Radicals ready and
willing at all time and hours to strike out in support of
our cause.
I know for a fact that, in proportion to its
population, Greenock contributed more dry cash than
any other town in Scotland. I will give one instance to
show the feeling in Greenock for our cause. When Ivory
with his angels was hunting for criminals in Skye the
people of that town set their hearts on a big
demonstration and made application to the Town
Council to give them the Town Hall free for it. The
application was granted unanimously. Provost
Shankland, who was in the chair that night, said—"
These poor people are badly treated; they have a strong
claim on our sympathy. I move that we grant the hall
free." ( £ 8 being the charge.)
HIGHLAND
PATRIOTS.
20
50
HIGHLAND' PATRIOTS.
They got Dr Cameron and Professor Lindsay,
Glasgow, to speak at the meeting. The hall was packed
and the turn-over in dry cash was over £30.
The following week the Clansman took £24 worth
of food and clothing to Skye, Lewis, Clashmore and
Tiree. Smaller troubles a'.sc received due allowance
from Greenock. Besides helping the funds in London
Greenock was the only town in Scotland which sent a
public petition to Parliament on behalf of our cause.
Taking now my beloved harp unto my bosom, let
my soul ascend far from the tumult of this world into
the realms of peace, and let Johnnie be the subject of
my lay :—
On the banks of Jordan sighing
Now is he whose praise I sing, For the wing
That shall waft him where no crying
Shall the gladsome echoes ring ; Where
the notice stamped " legal,"
Hated of his soul below, Shall not from his
mansion regal
Order him forthwith to go.
Not by force of grand oration
Did he melt our frozen will, Nor by quill,
Dipp'd in live imagination,
But by influence as still
And as mighty in adorning
Human souls with love of right As the sun
is in adorning
Mountain brows with ruby light.
HIGHLAND
PATRIOTS.
Not in tomes, which tell the story
Of the warlike hero bold, Shall be
told How resplendent was the
glory
Of the deeds he did of old. No,
his greatness is recorded
In the ruined castle wall, And
the liberty afforded
Us our souls our own to call.
But among the mighty heroes
Of the firmly-knitted band, Whose
right hand, Of its Nimrods,
Pharaohs, Neros,
Did for ever clear the land, Let
me in this artless measure
Of an idle summer day The
good name of Johnnie treasure,
Who my mate was in the fray.
Si
52
HIGHLAND
PATRIOTS.
XVI.—JOHN MACDONALD CAMPBELL.
HIGHLAND
PATRIOTS.
22
Anarchy in holy dress O'er the land we've
petrified.
" The commandment from above,
Given to the men of old— ' As thyself thy
neighbour love'—
We anuli beyond our fold."
The Lord's Supper was instituted to perfect in
holy communion our joy in those with whom we labour
in the vineyard.—
THE INSTITUTION. (From "The Linnet.") " The
Son of Man in heaven above,
Who sits upon the throne.
Did institute the feast of love
To comfort here His own.
" Bejected of the world so cold,
The upper room let us prepare, As did His
dearest friends of old,
That we may hold it there.
" Where screen'd a while from wordly show,
And pomp of vanity, The guests of Jesus we
shall know
How good it is to be.
" 'Tis the remembrance of the night
We supp'd with Him full sad, That shall in
realms of purest light
Our hearts for aye make glad?'
But have we not invented out of the Lord's
Supper what may be called " The Adoration of the
Stranger " ì —
THE INVENTION. (From "The
Blackbird.")
Ma JOHN* MACDONÀT.D CAMPBELL
" Lo, this only have I found, that God bath made
man upright, but they have sought out many
inventions."
HOW GOD MADE MAN. (From "Human
Hymns.")
♦•Upright God at first made man,
Crowning him with charity; But invented
they a plan
It to change for rivalry.
•* In his own beloved Son,
Whom He sent for us to die, Gloriously He
made us one,
Heirs with Him to thrones on high.
" But in churches numberless, Which our
ranks for aye divide,
" To show the world how holy We Scottish
Churchmen be,
Our ranks, the proud and lowly, Shall at
the Supper see.
" Then in the bright pavilion,
When comes the holy day, Surrounded
by the million,
We shall the table lay.
"To cause a great commotion
Throughout our sleepy isle, Across the
wide, wide ocean
We'll call our guest the while.
"And over hill and valley, When strikes
the holy sound,
The multitudes shall rally From all the
lands around."
As one who has done much to propagate
brotherly love, to inspire manliness, to raise up
52
HIGHLAND
PATRIOTS.
joyfulness and to conquer sorrow, I introduce to you Mr
John Macdonald Campbell, accountant, 30 St John
Street, Montreal; born Kiltearn, Ross-shire, in 1854,
son of che late Rev. Duncan Campbell, F.C. minister of
Kiltearn, grandson of the late Dr Macdonald, of
Ferintosh ; was educated at the Parish School and
Dingwall Academy, afterwards taking the Arts course
at Edinburgh University; from that was articled as
apprentice with the late Murdoch Paterson, CE.,
Inverness ; went to Montreal, Canada, in 1874, and
has been engaged in commercial pursuits there ever
since ; was a member of the old Thistle Society; is a
HIGHLAND
PATRIOTS.
23
past president of the Caledonian Society ; has for
several years been chairman of the Charitable
Committee of the St Andrew's Society, and is also a
member of the Highland Society.
To Mr Campbell, for all he Uas done in
upholding our dignity as a nation, in brightening the
lives of his brethren in a foreign land, and in setting
us free from the thraldom of landlordism, I have great
pleasure in giving a niche in my temple of fame; and
long may he be spared to carry on the great work to
which he has set his-hand.
MESSAGE TO MY FELLOW HIGHLANDERS.
My dearly beloved Highlanders, I am privileged by
the author of this most valuable collection to give you a
message on this page which he has so generously placed
at my disposal. Upon these Patriots we can ever look as
the architects who courageously planned the buildings
and the workmen who laid the foundation undeterred by
adverse winds or the howlings of the opposition forces.
All honour to the brave, the fearless, and undaunted
reformers of the past and present. It is with the future
we have to do battle, to finish the task so well begun, to
erect into a fair and flourishing edifice land reform, so
that you, your children's children and posterity
throughout all time may enjoy the blessings of "
Paradise Regained." Do this unselfishly, ungrudgingly,
with a single eye and a stont heart looking for no reward
other than what the brave and true get at the hands of
their fellows. I have long wished for such a record which
might tell the generations of the glorious deeds which
have been performed during those years of struggle in
striving to emancipate our dearly beloved Highlanders
from the thraldom of landlord oppression and tyranny.
As will be seen many of the patriotic souls who illumine
these pages have been called to their rest and reward,
yet the battle for freedom and liberty must continue
until justice shall prevail throughout those cherished
straths and glens, once the home of a happy and
prosperous peasantry, and where could be heard so
■often and so widely the swe et melody of praise to our
Father in Heaven.
JOSEPH MACLEOD.