judging from this criterion, might be considered as ranking high in happiness and virtue, in very remote ages. To appreciate her situation by the same criterion in our own times, would be a delicate and a difficult undertaking. After considering the probable influence of her popular songs, and her national music, and examining how far the effects to be expected from these are supported by facts, the inquirer would also have to examine the influence of other causes, and particularly of her civil and ecclesiastical institutions, by which the character, and even the manners of a people, though silently and slowly, are often powerfully controuled. In the point of view in which we are considering the subject, the ecclesiastical establishments of Scotland may be supposed peculiarly favourable to purity of conduct. The dissoluteness of manners among the catholic clergy, which preeeded, and in some measure produced the refor mation, led to an extraordinary strictness on the part of the reformers, and especially in that par ticular in which the licentiousness of the clergy had been carried to its greatest height-the intercourse between the sexes. On this point, as on all others connected with austerity of manners, the disciples of Calvin assumed a greater severity than those of the protestant episcopal church. The punishment of illicit connexion between the sexes, was, throughout all Europe, a provinee which the clergy assumed to themselves, and the church of Scotland, which at the reformation renounced so many powers and privileges, at that period took this crime under her more especial jurisdiction. Where pregnancy takes place with out marriage, the condition of the female causes the discovery, and it is on her, therefore, in the first instance, that the clergy and elders of the church exercise their zeal. After examination be fore the kirk-session, touching the circumstances of her guilt, she must endure a public penance, * See Appendia, No. I. Note C. and sustain a public rebuke from the pulpit, for three sabbaths successively, in the face of the congregation to which she belongs, and thus hav her weakness exposed, and her shame blazoned The sentence is the same with respect to the male but how much lighter the punishment! It is wel known that this dreadful law, worthy of the iron minds of Calvin and of Knox, has often led to consequences, at the very mention of which hu man nature recoils! While the punishment of incontinence preseribed by the institutions of Scotland is severe, the culprits have an obvious method of avoiding it, afforded them by the law respecting marriage, the validity of which requires neither the cere monies of the church, nor any other ceremonies, but simply the deliberate acknowledgment of each other as husband and wife, made by the parties before witnesses, or in any other way that gives legal evidence of such an acknowledgment having taken place. And as the parties themselves fix the date of their marriage, an opportunity is thus given to avoid the punishment, and repair the consequences of illicit gratification. Such a de gree of laxity respecting so serious a contract. might produce much confusion in the descent of property, without a still farther indulgence; but the law of Scotland legitimating all children bor before wedlock, on the subsequent marriage of their parents, renders the actual date of the mar riage itself, of little consequence". Marriage contracted in Scotland without the ceremonies of the church, are considered as irregular, and the parties usually submit to a rebuke for their con duct in the face of their respective congregations, which is not, however, necessary to render the marriage valid. Burns, whose marriage, it will appear, was irregular, does not seem to have un dergone this part of the discipline of the church See Appendix, No. I. Note D. Thus, though the institutions of Scotland are in many particulars favourable to a conduct among the peasantry founded on foresight and reflection, on the subject of marriage the reverse of this is true. Irregular marriages, it may be na turally supposed, are often improvident ones, in whatever rank of society they occur. The chil dren of such marriages, poorly endowed by their parents, find a certain degree of instruction of easy acquisition; but the comforts of life, and the gratifications of ambition, they find of more difficult attainment in their native soil; and thus the marriage laws of Scotland conspire with other circumstances, to produce that habit of emigration, and spirit of adventure, for which the people are so remarkable. The saners and appearance of the Scottish peasantry do not bespeak, to a stranger, the degree of their cultivation. In their own country, their industry is inferior to that of the same description of men in the southern division of the island. Industry and the useful arts reached Scotland later than England; and though their advance has been rapid there, the effects produced are as yet far inferior, both in reality and in appearance. The Scottish farmers have in general neither the opulence nor the comforts of those of England, nei ther vest the same capital in the soil, nor receive from it the same return. Their clothing, their food, and their habitations, are almost every where inferior. Their appearance in these respects corresponds with the appearance of their country; and under the operation of patient industry, both are improving. Industry and the useful arts came later into Scotland than into England, be These remarks are confined to the class of farmers; the same corresponding inferiority will not be found in the condition of the cottagers and labourers, at least in the article of food, as those who examine this subject impartially will soon discover. cause the security of property came later. With eauses of internal agitation and warfare, similar to those which occurred to the more southern nation, the people of Scotland were exposed to more imminent hazards, and more extensive and destructive spoliation, from external war. Occupied in the maintenance of their independence against their more powerful neighbours, to this were necessarily sacrificed the arts of peace, and at certain periods the flower of their population. And when the union of the crowns produced a security from national wars with England, for the century succeeding, the eivil wars common to both divisions of the island, and the dependence, perhaps the necessary dependence, of the Scottish councils on those of the more powerful kingdom, counteracted this advantage. Even the union of the British nations was not, from obvious causes, immediately followed by all the benefits which it was ultimately destined to produce. At length, however, these benefits are distinctly felt, and generally acknowledged. Property is secure; manufactures and commerce increasing; and agriculture is rapidly improving in Scotland. As yet indeed the farmers are not in general enabled to make improvements out of their own capitals, as in England; but the land-holders, who have seen and felt the advantages resulting from them, contribute towards them with a liberal hand. property as well as population is accumulating rapidly on the Scottish soil; and the nation, enjoying a great part of the blessings of Englishmen, and retaining several of their own happy institutions, might be considered, if confidence could be placed in human foresight, to be as yet only in an early stage of their progress. Yet there are obstructions in their way. To the cultivation of the soil, are opposed the extent and the strictness of the entails; to the improvement of the people, the rapidly increasing use of spirituous liquors, a detestable practice, which includes in its conse Hence quences almost every evil, physical and moral. The peculiarly social disposition of the Seottish peasantry exposes them to this practice. This disposition, which is fostered by their national songs and music, is perhaps characteristic of the nation at large. Though the source of many ple sures, it counteracts by its consequences the effects of their patience, industry, and frugality, both at home and abroad, of which those especially who have witnessed the progress of Scotsmen in other countries, must have known many strik ing instances. Since the Union, the manners and language of the people of Scotland have no longer a standard among themselves, but are tried by the standard of the nation to which they are united.-Though their habits are far from being flexible, yet it is evident that their manners and dialect are undergoing a rapid change. Even the farmers of the present day, appear to have less of the peculiarities of their country in their speech, than the men of letters of the last generation. Burns, who ne ver left the island, nor penetrated farther into England than Carlisle on the one hand, or Newcastle on the other, had less of the Seottish dialect than Hume, who lived for many years in the best society of England and France; or perhaps than Robertson, who wrote the English language in a style of such purity; and if he had been in other respects fitted to take a lead in the British House of Commons, his pronunciation would neither have fettered his eloquence, nor deprived it of its due effect. A striking particular in the character of the *The amount of the duty on spirits distilled in Scotland, is now upwards of 250,000l. annually. In 1777, it did not reach 8000l. The rate of the duty has indeed been raised, but, making every allowance, the increase of consumption must be This is independent of the duty on alt, &e., malt-liquor, imported spirits, and wine enormous. |