■WILLIAM AMD MABY.

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considered himself as a thief than the Raleighs and Drakes cnAp.considered themselves as thieves when they divided the cargoes — Ii; ~of Spanish galleons. He was a warrior seizing lawful prize ofwar, of war never once intermitted during the thirty five gene-rations which had passed away since the Teutonic invaders haddriven the children of the soil to the mountains. That, if hewas caught robbing on such principles, he should, for theprotection of peaceful industry, be punished with the utmostrigour of the law was perfectly just. But it was not just to classhim morally with the pickpockets who infested Drury LaneTheatre, or the highwaymen who stopped coaches on Black-heath. IBs inordinate pride of birth and his contempt forlabour and trade were indeed great weaknesses, and had donefar more than the inclemency of the air and the sterility of the •soil to keep his country poor and rude. Yet even here therewas some compensation. It must in fairness be acknowledgedthat the patrician virtues were not less widely diffused amongthe population of the Highlands than the patrician vices. Asthere was no other part of the island where men, sordidlyclothed, lodged, and fed, indulged themselves to such a degreein the idle sauntering habits of an aristocracy, so there wasno other part of the island where such men had in such a degreethe better qualities of an aristocracy, grace and dignity ofmanner, selfrespect, and that noble sensibility which makesdishonour more terrible than death. A gentleman of this sort,whose clothes were begrimed with the accumulated filth ofyears, and whose hovel smelt worse than an English liogstye,would often do the honours of that hovel with a lofty courtesyworthy of the splendid circle of Versailles. Though he had aslittle booklearning as the most stupid ploughboys of England,it would have been a great error to put him in the same intellec-tual rank with such ploughboys. It is indeed only by readingthat men can become profoundly acquainted with any science.

Macaulay, History. IV. 20

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