Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1897-12-16
PASSINGOF THE HIGuLANDERS.
New YORK EvenIng Post.

Inc nlhnlhuu regiments falsbu IN inc |
British service after l7io were probably, |
except Cromwells Ironsidr the best
troop it has ever had. They we're msn
trained to fighting from THAR youth,
ami had devotion TO leaders which
know no bounds. Their valor under
Wolfe, at Quebec, in the Peninsula,
and at Now Orleans amt, though |
last, not least. Walter SCott's novels, |
mude their once hated costume both
piut uresque and romantic. They be.
csme the pets of tho British army. and
inc public admiration undoubtedly did |
much 10 keep up their morale, Low.
land Scotchmen got TO be proud Of
wearing tina kilt, and, in fact the whole
Scotch people became Highlauders, to
whom it was natural to go with bare
lega ana carry their money in a "spor-
rsn." But the real Highlanders began
TO disappear slowly from the ranks as
soon as, in tho thirties, they began to
disappear from the Highlands. The
great clearances made 10y the landlords
in order to introduce sheep farms sent
10 America thousands of the hardy
men of the ''black houses 10 the
gcns. who used to enlist, as the Irish
enlisted, aa an escape from hardship
When the sheep farms gave way to
''deer forests" and grouse. moors, the
same process continued. but latierly
thu people emigrated more willingly
Ii iB almost literally true that there are
no ilighlanders in tine Highlands TO-
day. One meeis game Keepers in the
deserted glens who remonstrate with
you for frightening the deer and gil
lies" who load and clean tho guna for
Manchester men and Americans. who
| hire the mours. One sees tailors and
| butchers and the like who go round the
country in the summer IN the various
gatherings Of the clans which take
| place for the am uBempnt Of the English
| visitors, ana dance the sword dance
anC throw tho hamme: and tho store to
| mako little money, but there are NO
more llghlanders.
OF course this has hid its effect on
recruiting. There are now, for this
! reason, no Highlanders in the British
army, and there are cOmnaratively few
| Lowand ScotchmeD. The recruiting
sergeant picks up few boys about
Edinburgh and Stirling Castle. but the
stalwart hRttaliuns who fought at New
Orleans and in the Crimea. and fol-
lowed IlRyelock anil Colin Campbell in
India, aie seen no more. In fact, the
Scotch have ceased to enlist, for the
simple reason that they can do better.
Scotchmen generally are too prosperous
and industrious and canny, and emf
grats too easily. to take the Queen g
shilling" The famous Highland regi-
ments are now made up mainly OF Eng,
lshmen and Irishmen. and conse-
quently are really a kind of picturesque
and harmless imposture. Some years
ago it came out, through debate in
Parliament, that one of the most
famous, the Cameronians, = which
wac originally raised on the estates Of
Cameron of Lochiei, and whose gather
ing ross wild anu high, +" as Byron
said, at Waterloo, had hardly any
Scotchmen in it. Its ranks we're filed
with East Londoners, and the Secre,
tary Of War condoled with the colonel
over having TO lead a regiment Of cock
neys disguised as mOuntaineers.
But the continued seizure by Scot
land of the glory won by these regi-
ments in the field to-day was sure to
make trouble hetween the nationaltiea
before long. and there Seems just now to
be an outbreak of it. 1t wac hard for
the Irish and Englishmen who fought
in kills, to have Scotcbmen getting
drunk over their fame, SO there has
been revolt. Lord William Beresford,
fighting lrshman of the navy, has
gone down armed with susniGions to the
War Office, and discovered that the
"Gordon Hignlandprs, who stormed
the heights of Dargal and set tho Scotch
bugles blowing, we're mainly Irishmen,
and that even the famous piper. who
! pined the Cock Of the North" attei
being shot through both legs, was az
Irishman named Findlater and said
"Arrah. be aisy." instead of "Hoot
mon. :"
The wonder is the Irish have no
complained sooner, for 10 ltary as il
other matters they have not been useC
by the English with fairness or wis
! dom. Had they have been allowed
:, after the Union. as the Scotch were
' to enlist in some uniform that seemed
national and was green, and to have
!" harp on the reginental colors the.
: would doubiloss have been tickler Il
' death, for they are not serious people
But. down to last year, soldiers wer
punished for putting shamrock il
their hats on Patrick's Day. So 10
nearly hundred years they have gon
on fighting all oyor the world for Eng
= lish and Scotch credit They hav
heen two or three distinctively Iris
!, regiments in the service, the Roya
H. Irish Fusiliers aud the 1nniakile
Dragons and the Connaught Rangers
4 but they weto in no way different fror
English regiments In dress or Htantl
:. ards, and yet Wellington acknowledge
:, in the House Of Lords, that had Eng
/, land not had Ireland for reuruitin
ground, she could not bave carried o
), the Peninsular war. Forty thOu6an
> lriahmen are said to have served in il
4 and few years after the Union tn
IA ConnauGht Rangers overthrow tn
!, French Guard in the streets of Fuente
= de Onoro.
- Probably everybody in the Births
i empire knows that Marlborough wa
70 an Englishman and Lord Clyde
ii Scotcbman, nut how many know thf
wellington was an Irishman, and thu
IN LORD Roberta and Lord Wolseley al
10 also Irishmen? Tho achievements I
,d these men and Of others like them 4
10 to English or Scotch account, while
!" the Irish ia left the glory of KILN
10 landlords and cutting off cows tail
NJ IL is largely in these small things thl
n lrish misgnvernment consists. 1t hi
4 been made crime and disgrace for Il
as Irish TO be national, while in the Scott
IL has been encouraged, and the reau
a. is Irish hatred and alienation. I'll
notion that 1t can oil BIO cured by
visit FROM the Duke of York and NJ
in Baltour is part of the same huge mi
an take which has male Irish history SUI
br a chapter Of woe. or course, the diffe
mi ences between the two peoples ha
49, hpan uraat Than u,ara the hi tferenn