TWO IMPORTANT HISTORIES OF SCOTLAND.* Is Mr. Lang in earnest,
or is he only giving us a speci- men of what Robert Louis Stevenson termed his "incom- municable humour," when in the preface to the first volume of a work which must have cost him more labour than any other of his literary enterprises he says "that in the hands of a competent writer with the space of Hill Burton or Tytler at his disposal, and with the mass of recently printed State papers and letters to work upon, a History of Scotland might be made extremely attractive"? Possibly enough "the founda- tion of historical chairs in Edinburgh and Glasgow Universi- ties, and the active historical schools of Oxford and Cam- bridge, may encourage some Scottish scholar still young and eager, to do justice to the romantic past." But let us hope that if Mr. Lang has any influence upon the "young and eager" fellow-countryman that may be tempted to treat further of Scottish history, he will use it with a view to the production of a multuan in parvo rather than of a colossal work rivalling the performances of Tytler and Hill Burton. The present output of Scottish historical literature is positively appalling. Apart from the valuable publications of the Scott:sh History Society, and minor half-historical, half-biographical books which appear in the "Famous Scots" and other series, there have within the past eighteen months appeared the first volumes of two comprehensive and serious histories of Scotland as a whole,—Mr. Lang's own, and Mr. Hume Brown's. Then Mr. Henry Grey Graham has published an exhaustive book dealing entirely with the social life of Scotland during the eighteenth century, and works on the same period are promised by Sir Henry Craik and others. And finally we have here a volume of seven hundred closely printed pages on the Scottish Highlands alone, by a writer whose humour must surely be graver even than Mr. Lang's, since he tells us :—" My principal aim in the preparation of these pages has been to provide a general history of the Highlands and Gaelic Scotland of moderate length and obtainable at a mode- rate price !" What the young Scottish historian of the future ought to do is to control his "eagerness," and perhaps even wait at the Jericho of reflection till his beard is grown. Let the mind of Scotland digest the historical literature that has recently been produced. Let the issue of "human docu- ments" of the State Paper and learned Club publication kind exhaust itself; Mr. Lang assures us that, "save for some lucky accident, we are unlikely to find much early MS. material beyond what is now edited or in editoral hands." Then the radis indigestaque moles known as Scottish history may be reduced to definitely ascertained knowledge,—or defi- nitely ascertained ignorance. In that case what Mr. Lang de scribes, and revels in, as "novel combinations of facts already extant in print," may be exhibited in their true value or value- lessness, and a genuinely compendious work exhibiting the actual and special contribution of Scotland to the history of the Kingdom and the Empire, of Europe and the world, may be produced.
Meanwhile there ought to be the most cordial recognition of both of these books as, like the not less valuable works of Mr. Hume Brown and others, preparations for the future. They are written from different standpoints and in different tempers ; and in subject, though not in bulk, Mr. Lang's stands to Dr. Mitchell's in the relation of the whole to the part. Mr. Lang is never content to follow slavishly the views of his predecessors; he sighs because he has "discovered fallacies in a few tempting new combinations." Dr. Mitchell is a very level-headed man who has a love for his subject, and having read what has been written upon it by "such authori- tative writers as Skene, Gregory, Browne, Tytler, Robertson, Rhys, Ewald, Joseph Anderson, and J. F. Campbell," presents a clear statement of what Arnold would have styled "the beet
• (1) A History of Scotland from the Roman Occupation. By Andrew Lang. In 2 vols. Vol. I. London : William Blackwood and Sons. [15s. net.]-42) A Popular History of the Highlands and Cattle Scotland from the Earliest Times till the Close of the "Forty-flu." By Dugald Mitchell, M.D. Paisley : Alexander Gardner. Vs.] that has been known and written." Mr. Lang's inability to take tradition as he finds it occasionally keeps him right where Dr. Mitchell, with the best intentions in the world, goes steadily wrong. Thus Mr. Lang has obviously been fascinated by the Celtic Lordship of the Isles which fit- fully dashes across Scottish Lowland history, flourishing a claymore. So he was attracted by the mysterious—perhaps impenetrably mysterious—story of Donald Dubh, who in the reign of Henry VIII. claimed that Lordship. But while Dr. Mitchell tells us that Donald was carried off by Athole when an infant, Mr. Lang is able to show from the claimant's correspondence with Henry that it was his mother that was carried off. Yet Dr. Mitchell has undoubtedly ful- filled his own ambition, and produced the best and handiest history of the Highlands that has ever seen the light. If he accepts too readily the statements of fallible authorities like
Skene—in spite of his industry—he is not given to wild theories. He represents the Highlands and the Highlanders as they actually seem to him, not as he would like them to be. And so we have such valuable and not overdrawn appeals on behalf of the Celt as this :—
" In the matter of government or of building up a civilisation under the inspiration of modern ideas, the Celtic race, as such. has had no opportunity of showing what it could evolve, but the vigour and cultivation of Scotland under her Celtic Kings, and the undoubted influence of the Celtic element (not only as individuals, but as a substratum of the general population) upon the well-being of our country, may well incline us to conclude that had the Celts been left free to mould the destinies of their several countries upon lines conform, in the main, to their genius, they would have produced a civilisation and adminis- tration which, while it might differ in many respects from the noble product of the combined races of these islands, would have been entirely fitted for its purpose, suited to the people, and of such a character as would have led to much prosperity. The fervid spirit of their race, their quick intuitions, their artistic sense, their energy, their adaptability, and their many other noble qualities, moral and physical, lead readily to the conclusion that under favourable conditions they are capable of filling a high place in the world's great economy. It is time that pre- judiced writers recognised this fact, and acknowledged that all the nobler capabilities are not restricted to the so-called Anglo- Saxon people."
The ablest though not the friendliest of Hill Burton's critics said long ago of his History that" with all its faults and short- comings it is now and probably will continue to be the best history of Scotland. So far as matters ecclesiastical are con- cerned, it has and need fear no rival. So far as regards the War of Independence, it holds the same position of superiority." Mr. Lang's new work—or rather the first volume of it, covering the period from the Roman occupation to the death of Cardinal Beaton—is a striking testimony to the want of finality alike in history and in historical criticism. For while this book does not compete with Hill Burton's in point of size, it brings a great deal of fresh light to bear upon both the War of Independence and "matters ecclesiastical." On the latter point Mr. Lang shows, as has never been shown before, that the Scottish clergy were from first to last—at all events to the death of Cardinal Beaton—patriotic (to the extent of dissimulation and even perjury) in the sense of being opposed to England and in favour of France. Mr. Lang's view of the struggle of the War of Independence is that of all reasonable Scotchmen. He sums it up, and also the claims of Edward I. to paramountcy, in this ingenious passage :— " When Alexander III. died, Edward, as the Pope later reminded him, did not venture to administer Scotland as a fief, during the minority of little Queen Margaret, as was his clear and undeniable right, if he believed in his own claim,—which he probably did. He preferred to try his marriage project, as it saved discussion and dispute. But, the Scottish Queen dying, he saw his chance and took it. He put forward his claim to be Lord Paramount, which must be accepted before he would save Scotland from civil war by deciding on a King. Edward was a strong, valiant man with a thread of the attorney 'in his nature. He was strictly upright in this sense,—he had the faculty, invaluable to a moral politician, of being able to believe in the justice of his own cause, the flawless integrity of his own character, and the excellence of his own aims. He sought extended opportunities of doing good' to • a race which needed his control' All this is very English. Thus was the Empire won. Had the Scottish race been content to accept Edward on his own terms, the Highlands would have been civilised, and the united isle would have been irre- sistible. Other peoples confused and distracted as Scotland then was, ought, no doubt, to be grateful to England for annexing them, and intro clueing them to the benefits of her sterling civili- sation. They will kick, however, against the salutary pricks, and Scotland, to the detriment of her progress,' but to her
eternal honour, kicked successfully. Scotland was, in fact, much too English to be subdued by England, as, later, America was too English for colonial independence."
Mr. Lang has no great love for Knox, in spite of his being Scotland's strongest man, or perhaps because the Reformer had more than his fair share of the brutality which goes with strength. But he will not listen to mere malicious gossip against such a man as the martyr Wishart, who has of late been accused of privity to the conspiracy against Beaton. Thus he reasons :—
" Whether Wished knew anything of the plots of Brunston and Cassilis can never be certainly discovered. We are baffled by the loss or destruction of the English papers. We can only conjecture as to whether Wishart was or was not the
murderous envoy of Brunston in 1544 Later, in 1545-46, he was in Brunstou's society, as in the summer of 1545 he had been in Cassilis's country about the time of Cassilis's plot. If we may say Noscihir e Bodin; the case for Wishart stands ill. But Knox was not averse to murder in a holy cause, and if Wishart was no less a man of his age than Knox (which we cannot prove) he was also a man of sincere conviction, of great charity, of dauntless courage, of high temper, and, according to Knox, gifted with premonitions of events in some supernatural manner."
The most important and emphatically original chapters of Mr. Lang's volume are those in which he retells the stories of the five Jameses, who have never before had justice done them. To one of these there is attached a long note dealing with the character of the third James which is a model of fair- minded historical investigation. If Mr. Lang does not hold, as Hill Burton in effect does, that the Scottish noblesse of the Stuart reigns were the worst in Europe, he certainly does not spare such of them as the Douglases, certain of whom, however, may have been greatly sinned against as well as great sinners.
Mr. Lang is, of course, in his element in dealing with the ethnology of early Scotland, and with the growth of social life. In this respect his work beyond all question surpasses its predecessors. There are hundreds of such delightful passages as this :—
"The mere neighbourhood of an abbey or a cathedral in the long process of erection and adornment was in itself a liberal education. We may remember how, in the first iconoclastic out- break of Reformation, the kirk of Mauchline was guarded against Wishart because it had a tabernacle beautiful to the eye. There was no beauty in the kirk of Mauchline (except among the lasses) when Burns sat under its worthy minister. The Reformers had reformed everything lovely out of the way. On the other hand, the ancient church provided an education in things beautiful— architecture, music, sculpture, painting, vestments, services, of a kind from which Scotland has long been divorced, and all this in addition to reading and writing. There were village, parish, or small burgh schools, and an amusing miracle of St. Cuthbert's was wrought when a bad, idle little boy locked up the parish church at Norham and threw away the key hoping that his private indolence would escape notice in the public hubbub. Churches in Scotland now are as a rule not open on lawful days,' except one at Tain, which is shut on Sundays. There were also
High Schools' in the larger burghs, and poor boys of merit were well instructed in the monasteries, the monks taking fees only from scholars of wealth and birth."
Mr. Lang has not written a better-balanced book, or one more likely to be widely popular, than this.
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