Cameron a Captain in his regiment although he brought not a single recruit.

Fassiefern resolved to exert himself to requite such generosity. He applied to his Chief, Lochiel, now happily restored to the estates forfeited by his ancestor, who at once sanctioned the undertaking. M'Neill of Barra, whom we have already mentioned as brother-in-law to John Cameron, sent twelve very active, soldierly men from his insular property. With such aid the full complement was speedily gathered, and Cameron joined the regiment with a hundred men as brave and true as any who ever fought under the British banner.

It was at Aberdeen that they mustered; and here the Lochaber men showed at once the influence of that Clan feeling under which they had consented to go to war. When it was proposed to draft them into the separate divisions of grenadiers and light troops, they at once declared that they would neither be separated from each other, nor serve under any Captain except Cameron, that they had followed him as their leader, and him only they would serve. It required all his persuasion to induce them to submit to the rules of the service; but, assisted by his relative, Major Campbell of Auch-a man of weight and experience --and promising that he himself would always watch over their interests in whatever division they were ranked, he prevailed on them to submit; and, as we shall subsequently see, none of them ever had cause to reproach him with forgetting his pledge.

It is evident that these men joined the army solely from attachment to, and confidence in their leader; and so it was throughout the Highlands when that thinly-inhabited country furnished, in the course of less than fifty years, more than 70,000 soldiers.* During that time the prejudice against enlisting, which still prevails so strongly throughout the kingdom, was stronger in the Highlands than anywhere else, much stronger than it is to-day; for, added to this, there was then a deep dislike * Appendix, Note G.

or, more properly speaking, a bitter hatred of the "red army," of the King's troops, as associated with all the sad and savage scenes that followed Culloden; yet the Highlands in those days poured forth warriors in an abundant, never-failing stream. In the present day, again, whole districts may be traversed without calling one soldier from the hillside; and during the Crimean war, the Highlanders, as is well known, did not furnish probably a tithe of their just proportion of the defenders of the empire.

The cause of this marked change is very obvious, though not always noticed. Through change of time and circumstances, the old relation of Chief, and Clansman, has been merged in the modern commercial one of land-owner, and rent-payer, which does not imply any obligation on the latter to "host, or hunt, or watch, or ward." Then the commercial inducement-the pay of the soldier-is not such as to induce a man, who can support himself with any degree of comfort at home, to abandon home and kindred for military service; and until matters are greatly improved in this respect, until the character and position of the soldier are considerably raised, the Highlands will yield few recruits.

We are convinced that, in the period we refer to, 1794, a mere “recruiting sergeant" would meet with, if possible, less success than he finds in 1857: that he would not, by his "beat of drum," raise half a regiment between Inverness and Kintyre, or between Arran and St Kilda; but at that time men of character and influence, like the subject of our Memoir -still more, heads of Clans, like Lochiel and others, personally addressing men who personally knew them, and respected, and trusted them, looking to them as their natural guardians and friends-readily got men to follow them whithersoever they chose to lead; and if influence did not always produce its desired effect, the pressure of authority was sometimes brought to supplement it.

The raising of the Gordon Highlanders themselves, illustrates strikingly the difference between the past and the present mode of recruiting. Every

gentleman connected with that powerful family exerted himself to draw out all the "fencible men" in his neighbourhood; and it is said that the celebrated Duchess herself was more active and far more successful than any of her vassals or friends; that, equipped in semi-military costume, she rode from farm to farm, from hamlet to hamlet of her extensive estates, by an eloquent tongue rousing the martial ardour of her tenantry, and in rare cases, where this failed, offering the bribe of a kiss from her own lips. Such a bribe always proved irresistible; but the measure, though sanctioned by another very high example-that of "the beautiful Duchess of Devonshire," who is said, in those stirring times, to have purchased the political vote of a London butcher by giving him a kiss-is not likely to be generally followed in the present age.

Beyond all question, it was personal and family influence, exerted by means of personal solicitation among the people, that then filled the ranks of the Highland regiments; and that this was so, is shown by the manner in which still surviving veterans describe the service in which they have been engaged. An old Highland soldier does not speak of his having been in the "red army," or even in the King's army, still less does he speak of the number by which his corps is known at the Horse Guards; but he speaks of his having been in the "Gordon," or the "Sutherland," or the "Lochnell," or the "Fraser" Regiment; these names having been alike his banner and his shield.

CHAPTER III.

REGIMENT GOES TO HOLLAND-TO THE MEDITERRANEAN

TO EGYPT-BATTLES OF

SANDHILLS AND ALEXANDRIA-RETURNS TO BRITAIN-GOES TO IRELAND-TO

WALCHEREN-RETURNS TO BRITAIN.

We do not intend to record all the movements of the 92d (or 100th as it was still numbered) from station to station, but we observe, that, about the end of the year 1794, they were ordered to Gibraltar. While stationed here, some dispute, the nature of which we know not, arose between Cameron, and then Lieutenant, afterwards Sir John Maclean, likewise of the 92d, which, according to the barbarous fashion of the times-now happily acknowledged to be barbarous-led to a duel. Fortunately the combatants parted without serious injury, and this was the only instance in which Cameron had a hostile encounter with a brother officer.

In July of the following year the regiment was sent to Corsica to assist the well-known Paoli; and with the bravery which ever afterwards characterised all their actions, they completely carried out the object entrusted to them. The island-of which Gibbon, writing in 1783, says, "It is easier to deplore its fate than to describe its actual condition," and now of such world-wide fame as the birth-place of Napoleon-was taken possession of by British arms, and for a time annexed to the British dominions.

The regiment returned to Gibraltar, was brought to England, and in the autumn of 1798, was sent to Ireland, to guard against a French invasion, and to quell the Irish, who entirely sympathised with the French Revolutionists.

Cameron's letters to his father, at the outset of his career, have been unfortunately lost, but several belonging to this period are preserved, and from them we will give extracts which exhibit his true character far better than any description from another pen can do.

The first we meet with is dated Camp, Glen of Imale, 28th August, 1798.-After speaking of the report that the French had actually landed in Sligo Bay, and that the regiment had been ordered thither with all speed, he says, “I am terribly alarmed that they will be destroyed before we get up to them. Would to Heaven that it might be our chance to come to action with them!" and he adds, "I will venture to say this much, that if I can in any way judge of myself, whatever may happen in this expedition, you will hear that your son has acted in a manner not to disgrace you, nor the blood from which he has sprung." The whole of his subsequent career fully shows that he was at all times animated by the resolution here so characteristically expressed.

His wish to come to action with the French was not for the present gratified. The regiment, countermanded in the march to Sligo Bay, was, for a time, quartered in the neighbourhood of Kilkenny, and while there he formed a very deep attachment to a young lady-a Miss H. of that town, who fully returned his affection. Being now senior Captain, he thought himself entitled to marry, but on consulting his father, was absolutely forbidden, on pain of his sternest displeasure, to marry Miss H. With a deference to parental authority which could scarcely be expected, in such circumstances, from a man who generally showed an unyielding will, he consented to abandon a prospect from which he had hoped for the highest happiness; at the same time telling his father that the sacrifice which he made was at the expense of his future peace. He wrote a letter to the lady's father, frankly stating the barrier that had been opposed to his wishes, releasing her from her promise to him, but at the same time declaring that he would, while living, consider himself bound to her, and feelingly deploring the loss to which he was doomed.

E