he character of Lord Lovat cannot be deduced from his actions, it
must be impossible to understand the motives of man from any course of
life; for never was a career more strongly marked by the manifestation
of the passions, than that of this unworthy descendant of a great line.
His selfishness was unbounded, his rapacity insatiable; his brutality
seems incredible. In the foregoing narrative, the mildest view has been
adopted of his remorseless cruelty: of his gross and revolting
indulgences, of his daily demeanour, which is said to have outraged
everything that is seemly, everything that is holy, in private life,
little has been written. Much that was alleged to Lovat, in this
particular, has been contradicted: much may be ascribed to the universal
hatred of his name, which tinted, perhaps too highly, his vices, in his
own day. Something may be ascribed to party prejudice, which gladly
seized upon every occasion of reproach to an adversary. Yet still, there
is too much that is probable, too much that is too true, to permit a
hope that the private and moral character of Lord Lovat can be
vindicated from the deepest stains.

By his public life, he has left an indelible stain upon the honour of
the Highland character, upon his party, upon his country. Of principle
he had none:--for prudence, he substituted a low description of
time-serving: he never would have promoted the interests of the
Hanoverians in the reign of George the First, if the Court of St.
Germains had tolerated his alliance: he never would have sided with
Charles Edward, if the Court of St. James's had not withdrawn its
confidence. His pride and his revengeful spirit went hand in hand
together. The former quality had nothing in it of that lofty character
which raises it almost to a virtue, in the stern Scottish character: it
was the narrow-minded love of power which is generated in a narrow
sphere.

In the different relations of his guilty life, only one redeeming
feature is apparent,--the reverence which Lord Lovat bore to his
father. With that parent, seems to have been buried every gentle
affection: he regarded his wives as slaves; he looked upon his sons with
no other regard and solicitude, than as being heirs of his estates. As a
chief and a master, his conduct has been variously represented; the
prevailing belief is, that it was marked by oppression, violence, and
treachery: yet, as no man in existence ever was so abandoned as not to
have his advoc