WILLIAM AND MARY.

191

of this extraordinary silence seems to be that the public menwho were assembled in the capital of Scotland knew little andcared little about the fate of a thieving tribe of Celts. Theinjured clan, bowed down by fear of the allpowerful Campbells,and little accustomed to resort to the constituted authorities ofthe kingdom for protection or redress, presented no petition tothe Estates. The story of the butchery had been told at coffee-houses, but had been told in different ways. Very recently,one or two books, in which the facts were but too truly related,had come forth from the secret presses of London. But thosebooks were not publicly exposed to sale. They bore the nameof no responsible author. The Jacobite writers were, as a class,savagely malignant and utterly regardless of truth. Since theMacdonalds did not complain, a prudent man might naturallybe unwilling to incur the displeasure of the' King, of theministers, and of the most powerful family in Scotland, bybringing forward an accusation grounded on nothing butreports wandering from mouth to mouth, or pamphlets whichno licenser had approved, to which no author had put his name,and which no bookseller ventured to place in his shopwindow.But whether this be or be not the true solution, it is certainthat the Estates separated quietly after a session of two months,during which, as far as can now be discovered, the name ofGlencoe was not once uttered in the Parliament House.

therefore prefixed to some of Johnstone’s letters descriptions which maypossibly impose on careless leaders. For example, Johnstone wrote toCarstairs on the 18th of April, before it was known that the session wouldbe a quiet one, “All arts have been used and will be used to embroilmatters.” The editor’s account of the contents of this letter is as follows:“Arts used to embroil matters with reference to the affair of Glencoe.”Again, Johnstone, in a letter written some weeks later, complained that theliberality and obsequiousness of the Estates had not been duly appreciated.“Nothing,” he says, “is to be done to gratify the X'arliament, I mean thatthey would have reckoned a gratification." The editor’s account of thecontents of this letter is as follows: “ Complains that the Parliament is notto be gratified by an inquiry into the massacre of Glencoe.”

CHAP.

XIX.

161 ) 3 .