than
the unorganized turbulence of Oxford under-graduates, or the ephemeral
fury of a London populace.

In Scotland a very different state of public feeling prevailed. In
England men of commerce were swayed in their political opinions by the
good of trade, which nothing was so likely to injure as a disputed
succession. The country gentlemen were, more or less, under the
influence of party pamphlets, and were liable to have their political
prejudices smoothed down by collision with their neighbours. Excepting
in the northern counties, the dread of Popery prevailed also
universally. The remembrance of the bigotry and tyranny of James the
Second had not faded away from the remembrance of those whose fathers or
grandfathers could remember its details. In the Highlands of Scotland
the memory of that Monarch was, on the other hand, worshipped as a
friend of that noble country, as the Stuart peculiarly their own, as the
royal exile, whose health and return, under various disguises, they had
pledged annually at their hunting-matches, and to whose youthful son
they transferred an allegiance which they held sacred as their religion.

Nor had James the Second earned the devotion of the Highland chieftains
without some degree of merit on his own part. The most incapable and
unworthy of rulers, he had yet some fine and popular qualities as a man;
he was not devoid of a considerable share of ability although it was
misapplied. His letters to his son, his account of his own life, show
that one who could act most erroneously and criminally, did,
nevertheless, often think and feel rightly. His obstinate adherence to
his own faith may be lamented by politicians; it may be sneered at by
the worldly; but it must be approved by all who are themselves staunch
supporters of that mode of faith which they conscientiously adopt. In
private society James had the power of attaching his dependents; and
perhaps from a deeper source than that which gave attraction to the
conversation of his good-natured, dissolute brother. His melancholy and
touching reply to Sir Charles Littleton, who expressed to him his shame
that his son was with the Prince of Orange:--"Alas! Sir Charles! why
ashamed? Are not my daughters with him?" was an instance of that
readiness and delicacy which are qualities peculiarly appropriate to
royalty. His exclamation at the battle of La Hogue, when he beheld the
English sailors scrambling up the sides of the French ships from thei