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WESTERN WORTHIES.

THE DUKE OF ARGYLL.

For its size and population Scotland has been remarkably prolific in the rearing of eminent statesmen, soldiers, and litterateurs. Viewed with respect to its relative importance as an item in the map of Europe, it has likewise a most chequered and eventful history—a history to which, in various essentials, no counterpart can be found elsewhere. Chiefly, however, has "the land of mountain and of flood" bulked largely in the records of the world, from the stern and heroic character and statesmenlike tendencies of its titled nobility, the lights and shadows of whose characters, as they are developed in the historic page, go a long way towards conferring upon Scotland the distinguishing qualities that have made her famous. As this is not intended to be even a bird's-eye view of Scottish history, we may have said enough by way of introducing the reader to one of the most noble and illustrious of the hereditary peerage of Scotland. Every schoolboy is more or less familiar with the annals of a race which has been identified through many ages with the interests—political, social, and commercial—of the West of Scotland. The Clan Campbell have been stigmatised as haughty, aggressive, and ambitious. The soft impeachment may be justly merited. Throughout the most exciting and eventful crises of their country's history, the Campbells have always borne a distinguished and conspicuous part, both in the field of battle and in the Councils of State. Unlike not a few families and clans who can boast of a lineage almost if not quite as ancient and noble as their own, their name and fame are not "to hastening ills a prey." The lapse of years has not dimmed the lustre of their achievements, or caused them to lie upon their oars inactive and inglorious. The present head of their clan—the Duke of Argyll—has in his day and